#lightning round reviews

[pedrocomicreviews]

Lightning Round Reviews #2

I read a lot of comics every week but don't have it in me to write a small dissertation about each one, so here's some thoughts about a few books! This time it's Amazing Spider-Man, Daredevil, The Incredible Hulk, Thunderbolts Doomstrike, Superman, Justice League Unlimited, and X-Manhunt Omega jesus lord that's a lot of comics. This is the big post for the week of March 26 2025.

The Amazing Spider-Man #70 

Overall, 8 Deaths had two jobs: being a fun Spider-Man story post-Paul, and being a One World Under Doom tie-in. It did both of those well enough, and I’ll probably read the new ongoing when Kelly takes over. I did think it’s a little off-brand that Doom made objectively the right choice by getting Peter to do this, since so much of One World Under Doom’s tie-ins are about showing the cracks in his armor. But as they end, you kinda start feeling like the stories only really work if he was at least kinda right, or if he had a reasonable enough plan to make the world a better place by doing bad things first.

Overall a good time, even if I don’t like the current cast in Spider-Man aside from Bailey. Kelly’s still got it, the art was decent most of the time, and although it was a magic and mystic arts story with Spider-Man in it, I’m kinda glad it was also just a solid Spider-Man book.

Daredevil #19

This was really silly and I can’t believe this story lasted 19 issues. I really don’t have much to say aside from no one acts right in it and it asks me to care about things that just don’t feel right. That “choice” Ahmed had Matt make just doesn’t register and I don’t think it’s just me being cynical. I don’t know what the point of this was but it didn’t really do it for me. 

Incredible Hulk #23

I feel like this book has meandered too much and it really needs that Imperial shake-up that has been announced. Maybe it was already supposed to have ended or maybe it’s stretching to get to the crossover, but it kinda… it’s kinda the same thing every issue, and this many issues in I’m kinda not interested anymore. It’s still well written and has great art, but nothing’s happening. It’s just kinda grotesque for the sake of aesthetics and then the characters do the same thing they’ve been doing for two years.

That shot of Hulk squeezing a demon out of Charlie’s skin like toothpaste was wild though. And you’re telling me Red Label books ever had a chance.

 

Thunderbolts Doomstrike #2

What’s even the point of liberating Austin, Texas from Doom. It’s not like Austin is isolated on a map, like… what about San Antonio? Can you just see the line where Austin ends now? Because the rest of the places have electricity? And schools? Hospitals even?

Like, look, I understand I’m supposed to be rooting for Bucky here, it’s just… yeah, no, he’s doing this for himself. Shelbyville was destroyed by Doom, yes, but he retaliated after Bucky lost a fight he started. The “stop hitting yourself” feel to this whole situation is impossible to wade through. Even the story says so, but it’s the villains saying it, so it’s supposed to be wrong. I don’t know, am I losing my fucking mind here? Is this just not that well pulled off?

It’s also just another book where the Hivemind adds a “Wild West” aesthetic to characters, and in my experience I just don’t like those. Guardians of the Galaxy did the same, if I recall. 

Anyway, the Thunderbolts are being destroyed one by one so they look like the movie version in a few months, this is what this tie-in is actually about. Oh well, I really liked the Revolution era.

Superman #24

Event Leviathan was months ago?! Be so for real right now, that was half a decade ago. I guess they mean Shadow War…? What the hell was Shadow War, even? Does anyone want to remember?

I’m sorry, the issue has some interesting points to it– Superman dealing with whether or not he should actually help the world with technology and advancing humanity or just keep punching people is always topical, but, god, holy shit, the timescale is so fucked.

But yeah, this is just the beginning of a reset to the status quo for these characters for when Slott takes over. The cool things I liked about the setting are being put back to where they were and characters have to regress or simply act out of line for it to happen. Rip Supercorp and Rip jacket era, you were too fun for this world, you rocked too hard, you swagged too different.

Justice League Unlimited #5

The mystery box opens revealing an okay twist aided by astounding art, maybe some of the best in Dan Mora and Bonvillain’s lives. Genuinely worth reading just for that.

The rest of the comic continues to not really have main characters, arcs or anything more than a plot that’s going into a crossover. I hope the second story we tell in Unlimited focuses on less characters, because these issues are really the same issue over and over again. Beautiful, though, for real.

X-Manhunt Omega

Let it never be said I’m not fair: the end of this has settled the differences the mutants have with each other, and despite the quality of the event itself, it has ended in a way that I believe will take this franchise to a better place than it is at now. It was also a fun little homage to the beginning of the Krakoa era, and ends more or less how I expected that era to end.Whether or not it’s worth a read will vary per person but hey, goofy ahh storytelling decisions aside, I am now once again looking forward to seeing some of these characters, which wasn’t the case last week.

[mandatory-blog-stop-asking]

April 2 2025 comic reviews

Here's my reviews for this week, April 02, available over at my other blog, @pedrocomicreviews.

Lots of good comics this week, enough that I had to give up on writing so I could focus on other things-- sorry Birds of Prey, I loved you but you're a Lightning Round this week. Alongside All-New Venom, Secret Six and Poison Ivy.

[hellishjoel]

tequila!

6k / pairing: linecook!frankie x waitress f!reader

Series Masterlist l Previous Chapter

summary: a night off and some well deserved drinks put you and frankie in the same spot on a friday night. 

warnings/information: MA 18+ (minors DNI), food and alcohol consumption, intro to triple frontier friends, reader is mentioned having hair and wearing perfume, swearing, pet names (princess), jealousy, angst, hot girls cry in the bathroom, smut, fingering (f! receiving), cum eating, discussions of men being douchebags. if I missed anything, please let me know!

A/N: it’s been since halloween! how are we doing?! here’s more frankie and princess figuring out their shit and actually communicating! can we get a round of applause? thank you to @undercoverpena for the emotional and plot support! thank you to @saradika-graphics for the dividers!

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The town was small, but you guys knew how to kick it. 

Pool balls clattered, people cheered, and butts of beer bottles clinked in celebration. 

This was exactly what you needed, a night off and a fucking drink. 

You tried to tell yourself that your spat with Frankie a month ago hadn’t taken its toll on you, but he was plaguing your thoughts. The fastest way to forget your inhibitions? To forget Frankie? 

Tequila.

Sideways was known for breaking health code violations and overserving its customers. Despite their negative Yelp reviews, they were the only bar in town packed on this Friday night. 

You were two and a half drinks in with your girlfriends, the ones you never get to see from working late shifts. They were sweet and funny as hell. They were the pick-me-up that you really needed after what happened with Frankie.

It was still sitting in the back of your mind, playing on a loop like Christmas songs do in the winter. 

“What do you want from me, huh?” 

“I don’t know.”

Heat scorches your throat, burning and scraping at the inside as you accept a shot from a stranger. Not your smartest decision, but you suppose you haven’t been making a lot of those as of late anyway. 

Just as you take a deep sigh, you see it. That stupid hat and nest of dark curls accompanied by broad shoulders. What was Frankie doing here? 

You try to drop your head, avert your gaze, but it's pointless. The moment your eyes meet, time warps into slow motion. His usual honey-brown eyes look oaky-brown in the low light ambiance Sideways provides. His face softens at the sight of you, taking you in. Even as he walks past your small table, his head cranes to keep you in sight. 

Then his friends slap his back and keep him moving, their large and loud group weaving through the sea of strangers. And it’s over. He’s gone, probably somewhere tucked in the back of the bar ordering drinks. Time returns to its normal pace, and the loud hum of drunk twenty-somethings returns. 

“Jeez, Fish, that’s like the second bullseye tonight.” Frankie’s friends playfully clap with mustaches tickled with white foam from their beers. 

Frankie shrugs a shoulder, glances at your table, sees your pretty smile and the way your hair swishes before his eyes return to the dart board. An angry huff leaves his lips before he raises his arm, eyes narrowed on the dart board a good seven feet away from him, before he releases the dart like a lightning fast whip and he sinks it right into the center. 

His friends howl, a little smile on his lips at their approval. 

“Make that three!” One chimes in. “He’s hot tonight, folks! Get’em while he’s hot!” 

Despite being with his friends and cheap alcohol, Frankie didn’t feel very happy. Not after what went down after the last time he saw you. And now, you were here, which was making the pistons in his brain fire a whole lot faster. He wonders what happened, why you threw up your hands that night and pushed him away. 

Work has been hell trying to avoid you. Nothing more than giving him orders and brushing past him with your pretty smelling perfume that has put him in a trance since the first day he started at the diner. Now you were here, huffs of people in between you two, and he could still pick out the sweet blossomy smell he considers to be your own.

“I need a fucking drink,” Frankie mutters, plucking the darts from the board as he slaps them in the hands of his buddy for his turn. 

Frankie pushes through people to the bar, gently rapping his knuckles against the dark wood of the bar for a beer. His head dips down to look for his wallet, pulling it from his back pocket. The last thing he expects when he looks up is… not you. 

“Do you know that girl or something?” Your friend nudges, eyes still locked on the glowing redhead who had approached Frankie at the bar. 

“No.” You mutter, sucking in at the side of your cheek as you watch her put the moves on an adorably awkward Frankie. 

“You sure seem to act like you know her, you won’t stop staring.” She teases before she’s distracted by one of your girlfriends spilling off her barstool. 

All you can see is the way she blocks your view of Frankie, doing all the typical flirtatious moves you can get away with when you’re hot. Twisting her hair around her finger, smiling at Frankie like he was the funniest guy in the world, leaning into his front. She had a gorgeous body, tight waist, glowing smile, and a huge fucking rack she purposely accentuated when she threw her head back in laughter. 

First off, you hate the way she looks at him like he’s already hers. Second, when did Frankie become so goddamn funny?

You huff out a sigh and throw back another tequila shot as soon as it’s delivered. 

Jealousy wasn’t your thing. Frankie just knew how to pinch your fucking nerve. It’s so fresh still, you know? Now here he was, talking to another girl. Part of you feels like you deserve it. You cut him loose, there were no more strings that tied you two together. So why did you feel like this? Angry, annoyed, sad. Jealous. 

Fuck that. 

“Another tequila?” The bartender perks up upon seeing you nudge your way to the front of the bar’s counter. 

You give him a tight nod and a blank mhm leaving your mouth, leaning over the counter as you wait. 

His cologne shatters your thoughts. “Hey.” 

You look up to see Frankie has turned away from his girl, eyeing you over. You couldn’t deny how good you looked tonight, taking advantage of your one night off to wear something that accentuated your figure. 

And it was catching more eyes than Frankie’s. The woman beside him glares at you as if you took her favorite toy on the playground, as if she had dibs. 

You hate to admit that your eyes drift as well, a certain sexually charged energy between you both. His classic khaki jacket and ballcap accompanied by a dark wash pair of jeans. His stupid hands are stuffed in his stupid pockets, and his stupid chocolate curls curve up toward the brim of his hat. 

Frankie’s eyes fell to your sweet neck, then to the curves of your body, your mouth going dry at the way he was drinking you up. 

“Hey,” you muster up, giving him a tight-lipped grin as you nod as a greeting. 

You want him. He looks so fucking good tonight. But he already had a date going, you didn’t need to interrupt. You nip at your lower lip and force yourself to stare elsewhere. 

“Rum and coke, please, Frankie,” The woman coos, an attempt to stray Frankie’s attention from you. She’s obviously seen the way he looks at you, both of you practically eye fucking each other right in front of her. You kind of got a kick out of getting under her skin, though. 

“Hi,” you say as you reach your hand past Frankie, offering the woman a handshake and your name. “I work with Frankie.” 

She gives you a snotty little hmph, nodding tightly instead of shaking your hand. 

“I’ll meet you at the table with my drink.” She insists to Frankie, leaving the two of you on your own, but not without a squeeze to his broad arm and a certain look in your direction. 

“Wow,” you fake applaud, “she’s a real keeper, Frankie. No, really, I mean it. Didn’t know you had a thing for girls with tits bigger than their face.” 

“I just met her ten minutes ago,” Frankie mutters as he’s served his beer and the girl’s rum and coke, as well as your tequila shot being delivered. 

You try not to roll your eyes too obviously. “Well, she’s certainly all over you.” 

“What do you care?” He counters, finally facing you again, his eyes still lingering on your body for longer than you know he should. “You came up here to us, princess. If there’s something you wanna say, say it.”

A larger group comes in through the front door and pushes through to the bar, a light gasp leaving you as you’re shoved into Frankie, your fronts aligning. You feel his toned torso and smell his fresh cologne as his hand instinctually clutches your waist to keep you upright. 

Both of you take one another in again, not being able to fight the tension between you both that could be cut with a knife. 

The last time you were this close was Halloween. The last time he touched you was Halloween. Now, he was touching you again, and god, all you wanted was for him to flip his hat around, duck down, and kiss you. Kiss you hard, make up for all the time you had lost. 

Have you ever missed someone so much you feel physically sick? You had no idea how much your little talks in the kitchen meant to you until you forced Frankie to let you go. You had the overwhelming urge to run away, like he was too close, he would learn everything about you, and he’d leave after finding out you’re just a broken plate that can’t be glued together. 

You were unfixable. And Frankie was a fixer, down to his bones, and in his heart, he would try to mend you back together, only to be disappointed after many failed attempts. You wouldn’t put him through that, and more importantly, you didn’t want anyone to try. It would just hurt you more.

But you looked at each other a little too long to be just friends. 

If there’s something you wanna say, say it. 

I can’t. 

Frankie’s eyes sink as you throw back the shot, feeling the liquid burn your throat and then your chest again. This is what you’d rather feel than hurt. 

“Well,” you say, a bit raspy from the fresh alcohol. You gently push your hand into Frankie’s abdomen in an attempt to squeeze out from between him and a random drunkard, nails sinking into his toned torso. “Have a good rest of your night. See you at Tommy’s.” 

Your shoulders swivel back and forth as you carve through the bar to the rest of your friends, toppling over people to get back to your seat as you sigh defeatedly. God, why are you torturing me?

It’s an hour later, followed by two tall water glasses. Your friends have ordered some appetizers off the menu to soak up the alcohol. And because you were all damn hungry. Your eyes stray to Frankie’s table every few minutes. 

You couldn’t help it, you were overthinking. Was he looking at you when you looked away? Was he not looking at all, too into Miss Red? The more you thought, the more your chest felt like it wanted to give way. But you weren’t prepared for what you saw the next moment you looked up. 

Big Red decided to make her move, her long fingernail catching Frankie’s chin and swiftly guiding him to face her as she leaned in and kissed him. 

She kissed him, your Frankie, she kissed him. Put her pink lipstick on his mouth and marked him as her own. 

Goosebumps flood over your skin, eyes sinking as you watched helplessly from across the room.  Suddenly, it was all too much. The loud talking, the buzzing of people, the alcohol, her and him, it was all too much. 

Your feet find the floor before you can stop yourself, you feel like you might shed a tear in your race to the bathroom. You tug on the handle, and it’s locked. 

“Occupied!” Some snotty girl whines. 

“Hurry the fuck up,” you shout amongst the crowd of people to ensure she can hear the urgency in your voice. Your throat feels thick with wetness. 

Finally, the door opens, and the woman looks you up and down in annoyance. You don’t care. You put a hand on her shoulder to guide her out of the doorway, trying to push yourself in and close the door. Not before a familiar pair of thunderous boot steps echo in your ears. 

You let out a grunt as you attempt to slam the door, but you see a hand curve around the frame. He speaks your name, it’s Frankie. Your stomach falls, and you quickly shake your head, feeling angry tears threaten to spill. 

“Fuck off,” you say behind gritted teeth, attempting to use your body to finish closing the door. But he’s a hell of a lot stronger than you. 

“Come on, princess, open up, just wanna talk.” He pushes himself in, tall figure looming over yours as you look away with annoyance. He flips the lock and presses his hand above the wall you’re leaning back on. “What’s wrong?” 

Anger surges through your voice, planting your hands on his chest as you attempt to shove him away again. You find yourself confused when your own hands curl in on his shirt and bring him closer. “I told you to fuck off, I’m fine.” 

“You don’t look fine.” He says as his hands attempt to cradle your face, but you shove them down. 

“Then stop looking,” You quickly shake your head, the heat of his hands making your stomach churn. 

Suddenly, you don’t want to cry, you want to shout. 

“I saw you kiss her!”

Frankie’s eyes met your glaring ones, your lips parting as you let out panted breaths.

“I didn’t kiss her,” he starts to say before you interject. 

“I saw you! Why are you lying to my face?” You accuse, feeling your body flush with warmth as your hands gently push at his pecs. “Get away from me.” You mutter, but Frankie always returns despite how many times you push him away. 

“I’m not goin’ anywhere until you listen to me, okay?” Frankie goes to cup your cheeks again, but the warning look on your face makes him groan in annoyance and drop his head before he comes back up to look at you. “She kissed me, I didn’t kiss her back, and-and I didn’t want her, okay? I want you, I want you, I want you, goddamit, I want you!” 

You quickly shake your head, feeling your hoop earrings gently hit your cheeks. “No.” You whisper, feeling small under his gaze. And he’s looking at you again like you put the sun in the sky. You absolutely hate it in some ways, but he looks at you with such clarity that it makes your heart flutter. Like he knows his place is with you. 

“No, what?” He challenges. You find yourself fisting at his shirt, both in comfort and also a way to keep him at a distance. 

“No, you don’t want me, Frankie,” Your face is pinched in anger, eyes searching for his intentions. You watch as his face sinks at your words, hurt by what you’ve said. 

“How can you fuckin’ say that? How can you say I don’t want you? You don’t get to decide that for me, alright?” His voice is stern, eyes narrowed in on yours as he fills the space between you two, no matter if you take a step back, he’s right there on your toes. “I like you.”

“You don’t know me, not really,” You say.

“I want to, though. I’m scared as hell to want you, but here I am, telling you I want you anyway because that’s how much I care. I want you more than I fear the rejection on Halloween happening all over again.” 

All you can do is shake your head, feeling the mixture of angry sad tears start to melt at your eyes again. You hurt him so badly on Halloween, yet he was still here trying to say how much you mean to him. 

“Frankie,” your lower lip wobbles, straying eye contact. 

“No, listen to me, I’ve got more to say,” he says as he cradles your face once more, and this time, you don’t push him away. His beautiful brown eyes pour into your own, and you feel so drunk that he’s kissing your soul with his eyes. 

“I haven’t even missed you,”

“Bullshit, I know you fuckin’ miss me because I miss you.” He sees through all your lies, you feel transparent as he holds you close, backing you up against the sink as he strokes a thumb along your cheekbone. 

“No,” you start to say, shaking your head as tears cloud your vision. 

“No, no, no,” he mocks, “Is that all you can say?”

You despise how much your throat feels swollen, and your words sound thick with wanting to cry. “I just wanted you to fuck me, but then I got greedy, and I wanted you to love me, too. But that would be a waste of your time, Frankie, you need to listen to me.”

The admission felt like a dam breaking inside of you, and Frankie only pulls you closer. Suddenly, the buzz of everyone else outside the bar died down, and all you could think or hear was Frankie. 

“Loving someone is never a waste,” Frankie whispers. 

You playfully scoff and wipe under your eyes around his hand. “You don’t love me.”

“No, not yet. But I could. I know I could. Because this past month has been hell without talking to you. I don’t wanna walk around the diner, pretending like you don’t exist or that you don’t do something to me. You do everything to me, you are everything.” 

Frankie starts swiping away the tears you didn’t even know were falling, taking them away with the pads of his thumbs. 

“I think of you at two in the morning when I can’t sleep, you’re always the first place my mind runs to. You stayed over once, once, and my body just fuckin’ craves the way I got to hold you. It was addictive, how it felt to finally be close to you, when you finally let me in.” 

You force yourself to close your eyes and try to breathe, his words feeling like the powers a hurricane carries. Your shaky fists are still clutching his shirt at his sides, not willing to let him go after his confession. 

After you gather a few breaths, you meet his eyes. “Frankie, once you care, you’re fucked.” It’s a warning.

Now, he’s the one shaking his head. “I don’t believe that for a minute. I’ve cared for you ever since I started working at Tommy’s, and even more when you kissed me at the Christmas party last year.”

You playfully scoff and break a smile. “We were both drunk.” 

Frankie shrugs. “Yeah, and I wished I was sober so I could remember every bit of how good it felt. Now we’re almost a year later. It took me from December to August to make another real move on you, and I don’t want to let you go. Not after having the real thing. This feeling doesn’t just go away. I miss you.” 

You nip at your lower lip, goosebumps flying across your skin away. 

“I just don’t want to get hurt,” you whimper, your forehead gently leaning into the support of his large palms. Your glassy eyes make him melt. 

He hushes you gently, your voices growing softer the closer he comes to you. Your noses gently brush, making your wet eyelashes flutter. Frankie sighs before he speaks. “If you promise to stay, I’ll promise not to leave.” 

Frankie’s care for you was evident. You knew pushing him away was wrong, trying to save yourself only wounded you both. But what a waste it would be not to try with someone who was as good-hearted as Frankie. 

The douchebag you once knew was long gone. In fact, it feels like he started to drift away after last December. Because he had made up his mind a year ago that he wanted to be with you, and he would change for the better to make it happen. He’s been showing you all this time what you mean to him, that he wouldn’t hurt you. 

You must have left him hanging for too long because he parts his lips to speak your name. 

“Stop talking,” you whisper as you lean up and crash your lips against his. No more words needed to be said. 

You can feel Frankie’s cheeks perk up from his smile, both of your mouths upturned, happy to be in one another’s arms again. Being apart felt like a drought, and he was finally touching you. And both of you were fucking starved.

Frankie’s once soft movements turn greedy. As do yours. Hands are gliding over waists, teeth are tugging lips, and your core physically buzzes as Frankie flips his hat to face backward without breaking your kiss. Jesus Christ. His tongue glides against your bottom lip and you easily part your lips to grant the access he so desperately craves. 

“Lemme make it up to you,” Frankie mutters against your mouth, tasting remnants of his ale and he, your citrussy-lime tongue. 

“Please,” you beg. 

He doesn’t waste another moment, nipping at your bottom lip and making you mewl while his large palms find the back of your thighs. His strength makes lifting you look easy, gasping into his mouth as he sets you on top of the sink while his hands fasten on your waist once more. 

You push his hand towards the button of your jeans and he pops it open with one hand. 

“Fuck,” you moan out, jaw dropped as his hand pushes past the band of your panties, large fingers gliding down through your slick, then back up your valley. A breath catches in your throat, your back archiving off the mirror as Frankie takes the opportunity to bury his head into your chest, planting kisses along your breasts over your shirt. He eventually moves his lips up your body, across your sweet neck, to where he nibbles on your jawline. 

Your jaw drops against his cheek, your faces smooshed together as you feel his familiar stubble scrape against your soft skin. It’s like there’s a non-stopping rollercoaster in your mind, with his fingers moving up and down your soaking pussy, you can’t fucking think. 

A weak cry leaves your lips against the shell of his ear as he plunges two fingers into your entrance. You brace an arm around his shoulder and pull him into you, ensuring he keeps his damn fingers stay buried in your cunt. 

“Please,” you whimper, grinding your hips with vigor against his hand, his wrist rolling with you. 

“That’s it baby,” his silken voice purrs with praise, “let go for me.” 

You become completely pliant under his touch, under the lead of his fingers. He was already filling you up, you couldn’t imagine being filled up by the girth of his cock after a month without it. 

With two fingers inside of you and his thumb working sweet circles around your clit, you feel as if you might explode. He walks a line between kissing and sucking on your neck, the surface of your skin becoming clammy and raw. 

There’s a sense of safety in his arms, his tense bicep that’s hardened from the one that’s working up into you.

You barely acknowledge the knock on the door, forcing yourself to bite down onto Frankie’s shoulder and his jacket flap to keep yourself from spilling out loose moans. Loud music and even louder chanter is muffled by the door. 

“Fuck, fuck, Frankie-” you moan, mouth stuffed and jumbling your words. 

Frankie clamps his free hand over your mouth, guiding your head to rest back against the mirror once more, your hot pants fanning against his palm. 

“So fuckin’ loud, don’t remember you bein’ this loud for me.” He says with a wide cocky smirk. You will yourself to roll your eyes, but they end up staying at the back of your head as you continue to fuck yourself against his fingers. 

He curls them inside of you, your back arching as you feel your stomach swirl with excitement. Your small hands clench at his jacket, gasping shakily as your high nears closer. 

Your muffled moans stay concealed by Frankie’s hand clamped over you, letting your weak moans and cries land into his palm. It felt so good, the way your clit twitches under his control and his fingers work effortlessly to plunge deeper and deeper into your depths. 

There’s another incessant knock at the door. Fuck, there was no way to be quiet. 

Frankie smirks wider as your walls clench around his fingers, one long moan of his name landing muffled against his fingers as his eyes fixate on your own, spilling your orgasm across his fingers. 

“Good girl, just needed to get off, didn’t you?” He belittles.

You sigh weakly against his hand, hearing still fuzzy from feeling so over the moon. A slow, tired smirk grazes your lips as you playfully push his face away. 

“Such a douchebag.” You mutter, nipping at your lower lip while Frankie gently removes his fingers from your entrance. You feel empty, you hate it. 

Frankie raises his two fingers to your lips, your eyes studying the pretty cream he’s gathered amongst the mix of your slick. 

“Taste yourself, baby.” Such a fucking charmer. You can’t help the heat that gathers at the back of your neck, shyly leaning in and wrapping your lips around the tips of his fingers. You lock your eyes with his own as you flatten your tongue and hollow your cheeks, sinking your mouth lower and taking him to the knuckle. 

Your heart pounds thinking about his cock angrily twitching against his thigh, desperate for his own release. But he’s always put you first. And you always make his loyalty to you worth his while. 

Frankie’s cocky face slowly melts as you swallow around his fingers, lips parting as he looks over you in a sense of pride. 

Another damn knock on the door. More like an incessant pounding.

He forces himself to release his fingers from your mouth.

“What?” Frankie protectively barked, voice laced with annoyance. 

“Fish?” A voice called from the other side. One of his friends. 

He looks at you apologetically, grabbing you by your hips and lowering you off the sink.  His hands are already on the hem of your jeans,  and securing the button while you zip the fly and hurry to make yourselves presentable. 

Frankie puts his hand on the knob, ready to flip the lock. He feels compelled to kiss you one more time. He spins on the spot and cups your cheeks, meshing your lips together and pulling your chin up to face him. He savors it, lets his tongue tangle with yours to get that last taste of come on your tastebuds. 

He forces himself to let you go, finally opening the door. 

“Santi? What, man?” He asks in annoyance, seeing his friend on the other side. 

“Sorry, sorry,” he pauses to look past Frankie, to you, a sly little smirk on his lips after he’s put two and two together. “Listen, uh, Benny’s been arrested.”

Frankie shares a look of confusion with you. Frankie and Santi both stand there a little dumbfounded, unsure of what to do. 

“Well, come on, he can’t stay there all night. Let’s go.” You urge. It’s enough to snap the two out of their surprised trance. Frankie takes your hand and leads you towards the bar’s exit, pushing people aside with his arms and broad shoulders so no drunk asshole knocks you around in the crowd. 

You’re surprised to see his friend, who you’ve gathered is Santi, doing the same. It felt like you had two incredibly handsome escorts. Or maybe a better term would be guard dogs, pretty and sleek Dobermans. 

After saying goodnight to your friends and grabbing your purse, Santi catches up you both while Frankie drives his truck. 

“This drunk guy came up and started hitting on this girl he knows from.. somewhere.. I don’t know, but then he started getting all belligerent when she rejected him, and Benny stepped in. They started knocking each other around, it was so fuckin’ crowded in there, and I didn’t know where you went. Surprised you guys didn’t hear all the commotion.” 

You weren’t surprised you missed the whole fiasco. Frankie had you coming so hard that you saw Jesus Christ himself. 

“So, what?” Frankie prodded, annoyance laced in his voice as he drove over the bumpy road, glancing in his rearview mirror every few moments to see you. “The police got called and they both got arrested?”

Santi makes an affirmative humming noise, looking out the window as they pull up to the town’s police department. 

“Fuck,” Santi swears as he hops out the back of the truck. “I haven’t done this in a few years. Don’t remember how it goes.” 

You jump in before you can stop yourself. “We need to go in, ask for his name, and figure out what he’s being charged with. We pay his bail, he completes his release paperwork, and as long as he didn’t bad mouth any cops in there, we should be in and out, bada-bing-bada-boom.” You say as you clap-wipe your hands in demonstration of how painless this process should be. But Frankie and Santi still look starstruck. 

“Don’t ask. Let’s go.” You say as you hop out of the truck, the two men following suit. 

You imagined their friend Benny to be this mean, big, bad guy. But you guys didn’t see the way this man smiled upon seeing his friends come to pick him up. He was the definition of a Golden Retriever if we’re still speaking in dog lingo. 

Tussled dark blonde hair, big blue eyes, and a smile that would make any person melt. He just wasn’t what you were expecting when you heard that one of Frankie’s drunk asshole friends was arrested. Maybe you expected another stoner-type who didn’t give a fuck. You were wrong. 

“Arrested for defending a woman’s honor,” Benny scoffs as he digs his possessions out of a large envelope. You eye the way he delicately places his watch back on his wrist before bumming a cigarette from Frankie. The glow of the lighter illuminates his face a mute orange before the end of his cigarette caught blaze. Then you were all surrounded by the blue of a midnight sky again.

“What, like you wouldn’t do it again?” Santi teases, stuffing his hands in his pockets as the cigarette slowly made its way down the line to Frankie. 

“Fuck that, I’d do it again tomorrow if I had to.” He chirps with a laugh. “Fish, you should have heard the way this guy was badmouthing this woman, I mean, the most vulgar shit that came out of his mouth just because she wouldn’t let him buy her a drink.”

“M’glad I wasn’t there. There would have been two guys arrested tonight.” Frankie mutters, the cigarette passing from him to you. 

“Wouldn’t believe how often that shit happens.” You mutter before you take a drag. Benny leans forward to take a look at you, maybe just now realizing you were even here. 

“Yeah?” He probes for more as you slowly nod, tipping the ash off the end of the cigarette. 

“My friend was called a cunt last week after saying no to a guy wanting to sit next to her at the bar. He knew the seat was taken, our other friend just went to the bathroom. He purposely waited until she was alone to make a move.”

“No shit.” Santi hummed curiously. 

“Seriously. Called her a fat bitch, said he’d hope somethin’ really bad would happen to her. If I was there, I would have knocked his teeth in.” 

Benny slowly smiles, nodding proudly. “I have no doubt. Just wish you didn’t have to do that stuff in the first place.”

You sigh as you glance at Frankie, who’s looking at you with sympathetic eyes. But he knows you don’t really like it when he looks at you like that, so he quickly glances at his shoes. 

“Wait,” Benny whispers with a goofy grin. “Fish, is this the girl from the diner you always talk about?” 

Even in the dark of night, Frankie’s sweet glowy blush tints his face. Or maybe it was the alcohol, but he wouldn’t have driven if he was that out of it.

“Yeah, yeah, Benny, this is her.” 

“Oh shit, hi,” Bennys says as he stands in front of you and offers you his hand to shake. “I know this is kind of a bad start, gettin’ me out of jail and all, but I’m Benny Miller, nice to meet you in person. My guy here,” Benny pauses to playfully yank around Frankie’s shoulder, “he’s always tellin’ us stories about the diner. Can’t think of one you’re not mentioned or the star of the show.” 

The smile on your face can’t help but grow as you playfully eye Frankie who is being all too quiet. You hand Frankie the cigarette as a distraction, shaking Benny’s hand. 

“It’s nice to meet you, Benny. And trust me, I’ve met guys under worse circumstances. Like working with them at a diner.” 

“Oh, fuck off,” Frankie mutters playfully around the cigarette in his mouth. 

The whole group erupts into laughter, Benny and Santi both taking the opportunity to say their proper greetings and apologies for busting up your night with their friend. 

“I should probably get back to my brother.” Benny hums, motioning his head back to the bar’s general direction. “If he thinks I had to do another overnighter, I owe him twenty bucks.” He teases as you all start piling back into the truck. 

Frankie drops Santi and Benny back off at the bar, the entirety of the building shaking with applause and whistles to see that their noble heroes have returned. A very specific pretty blonde rushes up to Benny and thanks him with a kiss. 

“And he still gets the girl.” You hum, watching from the passenger side window. 

“He always does, that one.” Frankie teases, his hand coming over to rest on your upper thigh, thumb making gentle circles over your jeans. “Lemme take you home.” 

You swallow down a lump in your throat, gently resting your hand over Frankie’s. “Is home your apartment?” You ask, slowly raising a hopeful eyebrow as he nods. 

“Can be.” 

A nod to that, Frankie starts his truck down the road again. 

You need to tell him the truth, that this didn’t make you official. That you were still wary, trying to learn how to ride a bike again, sort of thing. 

“What?” He asks, knowing you’re thinking too loud in your head. 

You part your lips to speak but realize you shouldn’t feel bad about what you have to say. “I’m not ready for a full commitment. You’re not my boyfriend, Frankie, not yet. I just wanna take things slow. See if this is what we both really want.” 

The right side of Frankie’s mouth twitches up into a smile. “We’ll figure it out. If no label is what you want right now, I’ll wait.” 

You can feel your heart swell at his understanding. The last thing you wanted was for Frankie to start announcing to the world that you were dating. Not when you didn’t feel fully ready. You had bad relationship habits, ones you were ready to finally outgrow. But you didn’t want him to be subjected to your learning process. So you both could wait. 

Frankie’s hand rotates palm side up, fingers apart. You slip your hand over his, your fingers interlocking as he starts the familiar route back to his apartment. This would be a lot of work, and you both had to be patient. 

“Take things slow...” Frankie slowly murmurs. “Does this mean we can’t have sex?”

“No, fuck that.” You both laugh, squeezing his hand in your hold. 

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[slutforwoo]

☆5. for fucks sakes☆

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☆ written part below!! ☆

Walking into the library, you scan around looking for the most empty space. Just wanting to be alone after what happened in class. people around you took in the way you slam ur bag onto the round and slouch in the comfortable beanbag in the corner. Pulling out your laptop and chemistry book. Taking your headphones from around your neck and turning them on. Scrolling through your playlist you ended up playing ‘The Summoning by Sleep Token’

You feel the way the tears prick at your eyes. this wasn’t the first time this had happened but this time professor jin just took it too far. god you didn’t wanna cry. it’s such a stupid reason to but with the way everything has been you just couldn’t help it as u start to sob silently into your arms. you recalled what happened in ur head.

“Y/n do you want to not have a future or what?” professor jin stated as he stopped mid lecture to stare at your tattoo on ur arm that was showing due to your sweater riding up.

“I’m sorry sir what?”you stated in confusion as you were just taking notes on the lecture.

“That ridiculous thing on your arm. Your parents must be so disappointed to have a child that would throw away their future like that” he snarled at you eyeing you up and down

“My parents know about my tattoos. They paid for my first one” you said calmly trying to not get upset.

“Well then they’re failures at parenting. Just look at you. I’d disown you if you were my child” he said

and that’s when you lost it. you knew better than to say what u wanted to. which was to tell him he was an egoistic prick who clearly needs to be laid to get the stick out his ass. so you packed your things and simply walked out hearing him snicker as u did.

you shake ur head as you force yourself to read the book, memorizing every word through your blurry gaze. humming along to the song, focusing on what u were reading. reminding yourself to review what you read every couple paragraphs and writing summaries in ur notebook. it was a study trick yunho had taught you that actually worked. getting lost in ur studying, you didn’t hear yunho when he sat next to you

he let his gaze wonder you, seeing how puffy and swollen your eyes were. you were crying? why did the thought of it upset him so much. finally after just a couple more seconds of admiring you, he tapped your shoulder. the sudden touch made you jump and hit his shoulder as a reflex. and when you look up to see it’s him your eyes go huge.

“Oh my god Yunho i’m sorry you just scared the shit out of me”you pant lightning taking your headphones off and turned to face him completely.

“I didn’t realize you were that lost in the book Y/n” he chuckled lightly

“Well I was believe it or not, I could definitely take a pop quiz on thermodynamics believe it or not”you smiled at him

“Have you been using my study tips?” he asked raising an eyebrow at you.

“I actually have, see” you say rolling your eyes, handing him your notebook. he smiles as he sees the color coded paragraphs and titles, along with page cited examples.

“You know maybe you don’t need me. You're definitely smarter then you lead on y/n” he says handing you back your notes

“No I need you or I will not be surviving the rest of this year after exams. I will actually hunt you down if you stop.” You said whisper-yelling at the brunette across from you. “I’ll pay you extra if I need to, you just actually are really good at explaining things to me without getting frustrated. and you don't make me feel stupid when I don't understand.” you state looking him dead in the eye offering a small smile

yunho was a bit stunned by the appreciation you have for him. he feels a heat rise to his cheeks, laughing it off he shakes his head.

“You don’t need to pay me extra y/n, truly you don’t need to pay me at all, i’m just helping a friend”He said before continuing “Now lets study stoichiometry, I over heard prof talking about a quiz on it tomorrow”

you take him in, yea you guys were definitely friends. I mean your friend groups all know each other, so it's obvious right?

“okay okay, lets get this over with”

p☆rnst☆r tag list:

@roxhanah @sunnysidesins @spenceatiny18  @kookieswithjung   @kcharlyy  @bloomyroses  @jiminssluttyminx  @fairy-jojo  @oceanside-view97 @domfikeluva @mountquokka  @frecklypotato

[spacedace]

Here be the first little bit of the new DP x DC AU I warned about earlier where Tim, due to his constant repeated attempts at cloning Bart & Kon, accidentally summons slightly eldritch Elle who is very interested in what he’s up to.

As always feel free to run with this as a prompt if yall find anything here interesting :D

*

Tim didn’t mean to summon her.

He’d been in the lab, staring at the data on the latest failed attempts at cloning Kon and Bart and feeling like he was cracking in two. Eyes burning, chest tight, world spinning out into shifting impossible shadows around him as his mind and body struggled to push him forward into another day without sleep. The hush of water in the tanks, his unsteady steps on the cement floor, the chill seeping into his bones.

He stumbled and swayed through the maze of the lab, numbers dripping like blood down the screen as he tried to stare at the figures. He needed to try again, needed to bring them back, in whatever capacity he could. This time would work. This time he’d get it right.

When he saw her, feet clumsy as he rounded a corner, he thought she was just another hallucination.

How could she be anything else?

Skin like a polished mirror, hair like the white-hot flash of lightning, eyes as green as the depths of the Lazarus Pits. She floated before a tank, spectral and strange with a long wisping tail that drifted off into nothingness in place of legs, body shifting and changing before his eyes in ways that bodies should not be able to. Outside of the eyes the face was…not there. An impression of the shapes that you’d expect to see in a human face, like the Question’s. Sometimes though the features defined, sharpened. Mirror bright skin crackling as faces took shape in the glass.

In the low light of the lab, he almost imaged one of those faces was Kon’s. Dimples and freckles and high cheek bones and the slant of a silhouette that haunted Tim’s dreams at night. A flicker of her lightining hair and it was gone. Smoothed back into soft blankness once more.

He watched from the of the aisle as she lifted too-long mirror shard fingers and rest them gently on the glass as she seemed to peer in at the lifeless body inside.

Attempt 76.

One of his tries with Bart. The organs hadn’t grown right during the age-up process. Tim had cried for that one as he had for all the others. As he had for Bart and Kon when they had died. As he still did as the fact that it was more maddened grief than hope that kept him pushing forward anyway.

He closed his eyes to the hallucination at the end of the aisle. Breathed deep and steady. It might be gone when he opened his eyes again. It might not be. It might be something - someone - else when he dares look next. He’d been through this time and time again over the days and weeks he’d been throwing himself at this agonizing wall. The only difference this time was the intricate strangeness, the total lack of recognition he had for the figure, baring the moment he almost saw Kon in its face.

Coffee. Maybe some harder stimulants, if he had any left. New data to review, new attempts to be made. He didn’t have time for the effects of sleep deprivation.

Tim opened his eyes.

He jerked back as he came face to face with himself, warped and strange and green in the reflective face of the being where it now hovered so close that if it breathed he would feel it upon his face.

She tilted her head at him, curious. Hands rose to cup his face, rest on his shoulders, wrap around his arms, cradle his hands. More hands than he’d seen before. More hands than he was able to truly comprehend, stomach souring as his eyes stung and strained in the attempt to look at the impossible warping of her body. Despite the glint of shattered glass that made up her fractured palms and splintered silver fingers, her hands were soft and warm where they curled around him. Almost human in the way they held him in place, the hold pleasantly firm.

He’d never had a doting elder aunt to pinch his cheeks and demand to get a look at him, but he imagined this might be what that felt like. The way the being shifted her head from side to side, his reflection warping in the curved reflection of the planes of her featureless face, added to the strange idea. His hallucinations didn’t normally touch him, though. And never so…kindly.

Tim felt his blood go cold as he realized it might not be a figment of his fracturing mind floating before him.

Swallowing nervously, he tried to shift backwards, to slip out of the many grasping hands before the softness turned sharp and began to cut into him. He felt something cool against the back of his legs, hair standing on end as static electricity built up on his skin where he brushed the trailing tail he hadn’t noticed her curl around him. The entity leaned in close, the depthless green of her glowing eyes consuming Tim’s entire field of vision, and he was flooded by the sudden, horrible awareness of being Known.

The world fell away from him, his stomach lurching with the sick-sweet feel of free fall that used to exhilarate him when he’d first become Robin and had flown from rooftops dangling by his grapple and his belief in the magic being Robin instilled in him. The lab, the equipment, the piles of data and desperate scribbles, the failed clones, Tim himself. All swept away in the flood of green and the roar of lightning and the cool press of glass.

He came to would could have been minutes or centuries later. Gasping and sick on the cold cement floor, shivering as he dry heaved. His mouth full of salt and copper and the burning crackle of ozone at the back of his throat.

For a moment, disoriented and dizzy, he thought it had all been a hallucination after all. Or some fractious dream visited upon him by his torn and tattered mind after he’d finally collapsed from exhaustion on the lab floor. That the entity truly had been just in his mind, a consequence of his refusal to rest until his work was done.

Then he felt the glass-cool fingers running through his hair, the warm hand rubbing at his back, heard the low murmurs of reassurance in a voice that was almost, almost human.

He spasmed as he tried to jerk away, hissing with the sharp sting of pins and needles dancing over every nerve. His limbs were heavy and clumsy, and he was crashing back to the cold floor under his own weight before he could even try and drag himself away. His breathing came in short, aching gasps as he tried to twist away, only managing to roll to his back to see the entity where it sat calmly looking down at him.

She had a face now. A solid, steady one that fit her in a way that made him think it must be her real one, though what that meant exactly he didn’t know. The glowing eyes had dimmed and shifted, more human looking with black pupils and white sclera. Button nose marked with silver-tarnish freckles that spread over her cheeks too. A mouth, with lips curled into an apologetic smile. Her hair, still shifting as if caught in a wind that wasn’t there, was still the bright white it’d been before, but the lighting of the locks had settled into faint crackles between the curls. Whatever she was, whatever she’d done to him, he could look at her without feeling like his mind might just crack in two.

“Wha-“ His voice cracked, painful and hoarse like he’d been screaming. Maybe he had been. Swallowing around the burn in his throat, he choked out a hissed, “What are you?”

Her head tilted in that curious slant again, more human features giving her a bright, youthful look as she peered down at him questioningly. “You summoned me, Little Gaffer, shouldn’t you know?”

*

Gaffer is a term used for a glass crafter, as well as light technicians for stage/movie productions. I’m using it as the term for the person who creates a Clone, with the clone themselves being a Mirrorborn, and the person they are cloned from being called the clone’s Reflected. Gaffer is probably a bit of a stretch for this, technically I think someone who makes mirrors would be called a Glazier (Glaziers are glassmakers) but I wasn’t vibing that as much. Besides I like the vibe of glass + light = mirror in a way.

Anyway, opening volley of a new AU where Tim ends up becoming like a warlock to Elle to get his loved ones back, while Elle is just having the time of her sorta eldritch little life watching this absolute mess of a human wreck shit and cause so much chaos even without the powers she starts giving him.

(Elle in this is both the God Queen of Clones/Mirrorborn as well as the Ancient of the Speedforce (which I’ve decided is called the Ever Onward in the Infinite Realms, because I literally can’t be stopped from trying to make normal DC things sound mystical because spooky Infinite Realms aesthetics haha)

Have a tiny bit more written for this, but don’t know how much I’ll end up writing for it with all the other projects I have currently lol, so if anyone is interested feel free to run with it as you so desire haha

[thealogie]

Ok here are just like top 6 things from Macbeth. There are so many more but just lightning round:

Right off the bat, Ross (Macbeth’s friend) lifts him off the ground in a hug when they greet each other and bounces him up and down a bit. Excellent. Even better that Ross is played by a woman. Good stuff.

David Tennant chemistry with his costars strikes again. I feel like this hasn’t been talked about enough in reviews I’ve read but the macbeths were like. In LOVE in love in this one. A lot of people have observed that in this production, it’s less “lady Macbeth pushes him to do murder and become king” and more “she’s enabling something that starts with him.” That’s very true but also (and this is just my reading) he does it because he loves her. He has this thought of killing Duncan and then he’s like “ok this is a bad idea” and then her “convincing him” speech is delivered in a way where she’s like “but you promised me and now I really want it I really want this and I can’t get over our dead child” and he’s just like does it because he loves her and hears her in that moment (soon it becomes for evil reasons but the “screw your courage to the sticking place” scene has so much tenderness to it here)

Along the same lines, when he’s having his breakdown and seeing Duncan’s figure in the room, he just clings to her and buries his face in pain into her shoulder. And Cush Jumbo in that scene just equally aghast/worried their plan is unraveling and also genuinely connected to and comforting him. They just so felt like a real toxic/tragic love story in a play that’s not usually interpreted that way

There’s this very cool cinematic technique that I love in theatre and it was employed very well here. It’s when the scene is in a big boisterous crowd and everyone starts acting in slow motion so the main character can give us an internal monologue and then the lighting goes back to normal and the acting goes back to normal speech to signify that the internal monologue only took a second in the real world. Good stuff

That was the single best “tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow” soliloquy I’ve ever seen. Like holy shit. I can’t even describe it except to say. The moment he learns that she’s dead his strings are just cut and he really delivers that soliloquy like there’s a black hole swallowing him.

This has been said by everyone by now but Cush Jumbo really slays this new angle on lady Macbeth where ambition is not really her motivating factor and she’s morally conflicted and feels like a real person

[jenn2d2]

Summary: Emmrich finds out about Rook's history before the Lords of Fortune as a galley slave in Tevinter. Later on, they spend a quiet evening picking apart one of Emmrich's favorite books, and Rook tells him about Rivaini naming traditions.

[Set before the romance lock-in.]

General Audiences

Small fic for my Lord of Fortune Rook, Anna Laidir. (below the cut or at the link above)

The evening had begun in a pattern Emmrich had started to consider normal. He'd spent the day on the Rivain coast with Rook and Taash, quelling some Antaam and equally unruly undead. They'd located missing supplies for the Crows, managed to save at least one of them in the process, and returned back to the lighthouse in time to wash up for dinner.

Rook and Taash had some additional business on the coast, so he'd had plenty of time to work with Manfred to organize his notes. Taash had raised some interesting possibilities about some uncatalogued form of 'blue' undead, and he wanted to ensure that he passed the information on to several of his colleagues. Myrna, he was certain, would be particularly interested in the lightning they could wield from Taash's own experience.

Dinner with colleagues, spending time in their company afterwards, then retiring to read in the Library with Rook or in his room with Manfred if she was too busy. Emmrich had only been with the Veilguard for a little over a month, but this was a routine he found more than pleasant to fall into.

Lucanis had his turn to make dinner tonight, and everyone had gathered around to enjoy a vision of slow cooked meat, sauce and pasta. Emmrich's portion included roasted root vegetables and mushrooms in place of the meat, and was as noteworthy as meals he'd had in more elevated circumstances. Lucanis and Rook had visited the markets in Treviso this week, so there were a even number of pickled vegetables, salads, and sliced fruit to round out the meal. It felt like everyone's mood improved as they savored dinner and talked about their day or swapped old tales of adventure.

"Hey! Emmrich!" Taash shouted, waving over towards him. They were seated at the end of the long table next to Rook and the fireplace. Bellara and Harding did the dishes behind them, while Emmrich and Neve had moved to the back corner table with books and Neve's case notes. "Did you get everything you needed for your undead thing? I can describe 'em again, better. It's easier here without all of the fire and Antaam."

"Oh, that would be lovely, Taash," Emmrich looked up from his book on Aetheric Convergence. "I've just organized my notes this afternoon, so I would be happy to meet with you tomorrow morning. Would you be amenable to reviewing them over an early breakfast?"

"Okay." Taash gave him the briefest half-smile, and turned back to Rook, who flashed him one far more brilliant, then also turned away. The two resumed chatting animatedly to Harding, who was struggling to keep up with the drying as she got pulled into the tales the Lords of Fortune spun of their day's adventures.

Maker's breath, that smile. It never failed to make his heart skip a beat.

"I'm pretty sure that grin is registered as an offense to the peace in at least three jurisdictions," Neve muttered wryly beside him, looking down at her notebook. "Thank goodness it's only directed at you, Professor."

Emmrich made a noncommittal "Hmm," as he went back to reading, letting the flow of conversation in the room wind around him. Rook seemed to genuinely enjoy his company, but that interest still felt delicate enough that he hesitated to treat it too casually. If Neve noticed his reticence or the barest smile of his own, she was kind enough to not comment further.

Assan and Manfred were engaged in some complex game with a stick the next time he looked up. Lucanis brought fresh coffee for himself and the detective, as well as a pot of an herbal tea from Treviso for Emmrich to try that was most exquisite. Mint, thyme, lemon, and a bit of verbena lurking around the edges. They exchanged some pleasantries, and he went back to his book as Neve and Lucanis enjoyed their coffee and company quietly.

"… that's when Rook said that if I'm Rivaini, like her, I can be lots of things," Taash gestured expansively, their voice excited. Their arm narrowly missed Davrin as he sat down at the table.

"Lots of things?" Davrin asked, "Like what? Tall, loud, and fiery?"

"No. I mean, yeah, that, but like… Qunari. And fiery. And also.. other stuff, like fighting dragons. I get to keep the best bits. UGH. Rook said it so much better."

Rook laughed, slapping Taash on the back. "I just said that being Rivaini means you get to choose what bits of your past are yours now. I'm a Lord of Fortune, but I've been a galley slave in Tevinter, and other stuff in between. I keep what makes me.. who I am."

Emmrich looked up from his book, a cold feeling spreading in the pit of his stomach. How could she be smiling and laughing as she shared such an explosive revelation about her past? Beside him, Neve swore almost inaudibly, and while he remained silent, he shared the sentiment.

"Shit, Rook, really?" Davrin leaned forward, his face jovial, but his tone a lot more serious. "Galley slave in Tevinter? You can't just casually throw that into conversation."

"It was a really long time ago," Rook leaned back in her chair. "Honestly, I didn't even remember that some folks didn't know. I know Isabella told Varric when he recruited me, so I assumed Lace knew. I've been out of it for ages, and no, before anyone gets excited," she shot a warm look at Lucanis who had started to inspect one of his daggers, "there's no need to track down the bastard Magister that owned that ship. He got his fifteen years ago, I promise."

"Wait, that long?" Taash looked confused. "How old were you? Are you? You know what I mean."

"I think I'm thirty six?" Rook shrugged and looked into her tankard with an amused expression as she thought before taking a drink. "I celebrate my name day near Wintersend, since that's when I said goodbye to the Wave Maker and hopped onto the worst fishing boat I've ever seen. No idea how old I was when I got on board. I don't really remember much before being on the ship."

"That's how you got your name, though, right?" Taash asked. "I thought you were just related to Marcus somehow. You both have red hair. This makes way more sense."

"Yeah, does Marcus even have fam—?" Rook shrugged as Bellara cut in.

"But you were a kid sometime," Bellara said, eyes wide as she tumbled into the next sentences and trailing off. "What day before Wintersend? We could do a party! Would you want a party? You don't have to talk about that if. You know. If you don't want to."

Emmrich wanted very badly to ask what Taash had meant about Rook's name. He knew from Neve that Rook's mentor, Varric Tethras, had given her the name 'Rook' when they started working together. She wasn't entirely clear on whether it was referring to the chess piece, cheating at cards, or quite possibly both.

Rook laughed at the flurry of questions from Bellara, waving her free hand. "I don't mind at all," she smiled, leaning forward to put her tankard down. She rested her elbows on the table and er long, red hair framed her face in the firelight. "There's just not a lot. I remember some kind of school? I learned how to read Trade and Tevene at some point."

Emmrich wondered if Rook was as relaxed as she looked, all easy smiles and comfortable answers as Davrin, Taash, Harding and Bellara peppered her with questions. He searched her face, trying to puzzle out the answer to a question he didn't quite have the words for yet. The cold feeling still sat like a stone in his middle, pressing him down into the chair as the rest of the evening's talk fell away from him. Emmrich couldn't help but wish there was some way he could have known, some way he could have done something. Time magic was a fool's errand, but he could understand the appeal at times like this.

Lost in the maze of his thoughts, he didn't realize the conversation at the table was over until Rook stood up to leave. She met his gaze with a questioning one of her own and he realized he must have been staring at her for some time. It felt like a cowardly retreat, but he flinched and looked back down to the unread book in his hands. There was no gesture he could think to make, or words to say, so he hid in the ones on the page before him.

______

Emmrich knew the hour was late as he took his leave of Neve and Lucanis, but finishing his reading had been both informative and calming. The discipline of years of work and study could be such a balm for disquieting thoughts, but it was well past when he would usually head back to the library or his own quarters. Crossing the courtyard, he couldn't help but smile to himself as Manfred ran ahead with a book and the stick he and Assan had been playing with earlier.

"Manfred!" Rook stood just inside the second door, as Manfred waved both book and stick excitedly. "That is a pretty great stick."

Manfred hissed excitedly in return, and ambled up the stairs towards Emmrich's room.

"I was just going to look for you," Rook said, turning towards him as he stepped into the Library, her expression unreadable. "You had some old Rivaini stuff you asked me to look at. Well, a Nevarran book with old Rivaini stuff."

"Oh. I am most apologetic, Rook," his thoughts in disarray once more. "I had forgotten that I asked for your assistance. If it is too late…"

"No!" Rook responded quickly, turning to walk back to the table at the center of the room. "No, sorry. It's not late for me. If you still want to."

Emmrich followed her lead, and settled into the couch as they had lately on so many nights. He could see she'd already brought the notes, books and scrolls he'd asked for her assistance on and had taken the time to set them up neatly. He found himself touched by the detail and passed a hand across his face, thinking fondly on the absolute chaos of Rook's own notes and belongings in her room.

"Emmrich, are you okay?" Rook asked, placing her hand gently on his and giving a light squeeze. "Shit, is this about earlier? After dinner?"

"Not entirely," he squeezed her hand back, then let go to pick up one of the larger books on the table and opened it onto their laps. "Perhaps a bit, but you shouldn't need to feel like you need to manage my overwrought feelings. I was simply surprised, and a bit mortified that I hadn't thought to ask about your life before you joined the Lords of Fortune. I fear I missed most of the conversation."

"Okay," Rook nodded, and moved closer to hold her half of the book, deftly flipping it open to the first bookmark with her free hand. "Let's move onto the exciting world of bad translations."

Emmrich placed his right arm gently around her back and rested his hand on her hip as they leaned closely together. His heart raced as he breathed in the smell of cedar and red fruits in the soap she preferred mixed with the smell of old books and parchment. It reminded him of a particularly heady spiced wine you could get heated at the winter markets in Nevarra.

Rook began to talk through the 'warrior prince' segment illustrated in the travelogue of Cadius Drakon. He was purported to be a long-dead Nevarran explorer with a clear nom de guerre, but his memoir held some of the best translated examples of of ancient Rivaini tomb engravings. It had been one of his favorite books as a child. Unfortunately, as Emmrich had been learning, the stories of the exploits were mostly invented from whole cloth.

"You are positive about the battle section? Caspar Friel has some persuasive writings on that portion alone," Emmrich asked, as they got to a particularly complex set of glyphs, depicting the brave death of the warrior prince. He'd always liked this part of the book, and was chagrined to find the adventures weren't remotely true.

"Oh, don't look so disappointed," Rook pulled a scroll off of the table and smiled at his crestfallen expression. Emmrich been thrilled to find that her experience with the Lords had included a more than passing familiarity with several ancient languages. It had, however, poked several holes in some of his more romantic fancies about long lost tombs and grand heroes of forgotten ages.

"I promise the real story is a lot cooler. She's a Warrior Queen, for starters," Rook handed him the scroll, open to a spot with the same illustration and notes in her cramped handwriting. "I can take you to see the ruin some time if you want? My friend Marcus lives nearby, and he keeps an eye out to make sure folks don't just stumble into all of the death traps."

"Marcus? Was that the man Taash mentioned earlier?" Emmrich asked, diverted by curiosity from the very alluring notion of exploring ancient tombs with Rook as his guide.

"I thought you weren't listening," Rook teased.

"Oh, I heard pieces," Emmrich admitted, feeling more at ease now that he'd had time to organize his thoughts. "I was lost imagining some self-indulgent fantasy where I could bend time itself and somehow have helped sweep in to break your chains. Foolishness."

Rook looked surprised, and a blush began to creep across her cheeks.

"I.." she paused, starting again, her voice rich. "Emmrich, how much do you know about Rivaini naming customs?"

"Not much, I'm afraid. Other than the normal Andrastrian traditions for marriage, births, and adoption."

"Rivain has those, like you'd expect, with some extra stuff because of the matriarchs," Rook looked away towards the bookcases and leaned forward slightly, but her gaze seemed focused further out. "But if you wash up on shore, get taken out of a sinking ship, or otherwise get your ass pulled out of the ocean, you're now ocean-found. You get a chance to pick something new."

"I already had a first name," she paused, "I knew I was Anna. But I didn't remember anything else useful, so the Lords gave me the choices. Keeping one I had was out, so I could take the name of the captain of the ship I got on, the name of the ship I'd left, or the name of the person who took off my chains ."

Anna. Possibly the only piece of her that she kept all this time. Emmrich had heard Lace mention her name once, and filed this new information away in the other catalog of details about Rook that had begun to fill the edges of his life.

"I counted as ocean-found , but the fishing boat captain's name was Grognar, and that was about as appealing as the ship I'd been stuck on all those yearrs. When we got to shore, and Marcus Laidir struck off the manacles I'd worn for years, he was happy to let me take his family name."

"I imagine he finds that work rewarding in many ways," Emmrich said, "Especially if you share his family name with many others."

"Yes," Rook looked back to him, her cheeks still flushed and eyes bright. "At least as proud of that as he is his metalwork. I've got brooches of his on my lighter armor. Some of those would give your grave gold a run for its money."

"Oh?" Emmrich raised an eyebrow in amusement, his imagination failing entirely to provide any image that reconciled ornate brooches and armor. "I'd very much like to see that, my dear."

Rook only laughed, and leaned back into the circle of his arm, reaching to point at the scroll. "That will have to wait at least until after I tell you the thrilling tale of Queen A'Tanni and her bloody rise to power in ancient Rivain."

Emmrich found himself enchanted, as he always did, as Rook wove an epic story of ambition, violence, power, and at least three beheaded husbands. All while patiently, if crassly, explaining the glyphs and what they meant. He reflected, not for the first time, that if his language or history classes had been like this in the Necropolis, fewer students would have skipped the lectures.

______

In far too short a time, Rook caught Emmrich stifling a yawn, and began clearing up the table before he could think to object. Manfred was only too happy to assist with carrying the books and scrolls upstairs, with more enthusiasm than caution. Emrrich took his own copy of Drakon's work in hand, Rook's notes tucked with care into the appropriate chapters.

Rook paused as they reached the hallway that led to his rooms. "Dinner the day after tomorrow? I'm really looking forward to it. Is there anything I should bring?"

"The gift of your company is more than enough, I assure you," Emrrich replied warmly.

"Well then, sleep well, Emmrich," Rook flashed him a small smile, and turned to continue towards her own room, waving her hand above her head as she walked. "Taash works out right before breakfast, so don't be surprised if she's a little aggro before she eats."

Aggro? Emmrich supposed he'd find out in the morning, but it reminded him of something else he had wanted to ask earlier in the evening. "Rook?"

"Yeah?" She turned back to face him, her face dancing in light and shadow as the astrolabe spun above.

"Thank you for indulging my curiosity earlier, but why did you ask if i was familiar with Rivaini naming customs?"

"Oh, I was just thinking that if your time-bending plans ever worked out, I'd be Anna Volkarin," Rook winked at him, then turned quickly down her own hallway, leaving Emmrich thoroughly speechless.

[adobe-outdesign]

Wait, you haven’t done a review of regular pikachu? Will you?

Have you reviewed raichu?

(Ironically I have literally reviewed every part of the Pikachu line except for Pikachu itself. Review links: Pichu, Raichu, Alolan Raichu, Pichu and Pikachu forms)

Pikachu is such an iconic design that it's actually hard to approach it from a normal standpoint, given how heavily ingrained it is in both Pokemon as a brand and modern culture. I'm more of a Raichu person myself, but Pikachu is obviously a pretty great 'mon on its own.

Originally, the creators actually intended Clefairy to be the mascot, but I think they made the right choice in going with Pikachu instead. What makes Pikachu work is that it has simple but very clear visuals—those red cheeks and black-tipped ears pop instantly, to the point where only its head can be used as an icon and it will be recognizable. Clefairy doesn't really have a single visual element like that. Pikachu also manages to be cute but not to the point wherein you can't see this thing battling, which is an important balance that i don't think Clefairy achieves as much.

In terms of said visuals, the lightning-bolt tail helps communicate the typing immediately and is a fun twist on a squirrel's tail (and yes, Pikachu is partially based off a squirrel, as confirmed by its designer Atsuko Nishida.) Likewise, the red cheek pouches pop instantly and play off of the idea of rodents storing food in their cheeks by having it store electricity instead. The brown stripes on its back help to fill the space in the backsprite and keep it from being too plain, and the little :3 face is always a winner as well.

Obviously I wouldn't actually change anything about the design, but if I were to be hyper nitpicky the way I usually am, the brown gradient at the base of the tail might've made more sense as a black tip, to match the ears. (Ironically, apparently a lot of people actually do misremember it being like this, though I'm not one of them). You could even make the brown back stripes black for contrast. But yeah, overall, very effective design even if it wasn't the face of the franchise.

And no Pikachu review would be complete without talking about the OG fat Pikachu design. Originally Pikachu was supposed to be more of a mochi pastry than a rodent, and some of that roundness was retained in Pikachu's early designs. Over the years, it was slimmed down to make it easier to animate. (It also had a white underbelly, though I actually like dropping this, as it gives more of a sense of progression to Raichu.)

While I do love the original design, I do think slimming it down a bit doesn't hurt anything, and making the tail shorter and wider makes it stand out more. I think sometimes it can get too slim in modern media, but the official art shown above feels like a good weight.

Thankfully, we get to have our cake and eat it too, as Pikachu's g-max design is a throwback to the original sprite. This is both a clever concept and feels appropriate for the g-max theme of "thing, but really big". There are a few obvious changes—most notably the tail, which has been lengthened far beyond what it originally was and is now all-white with a yellow outline, to look more lightning-y. It also has an extra stripe and bigger cheeks to better balance the space.

I'm not sure making the tail white adds all that much, but making it longer makes it so the g-max clouds can swirl around it like a storm, and I think that's pretty neat.

So overall, iconic Pokemon that deserves its status as series mascot. Don't think I need to say any more.

[pedrocomicreviews]

Lightning Round Reviews #4

I read a lot of comics every week but don't have it in me to write a small dissertation about each one, so here's some thoughts about a few books! This time it's The Incredible Hulk and Fire and Ice - When Hell Freezes Over. This is the post for the week of April 09 2025.

The Incredible Hulk #24

Oh nice, this book is good again. It had been a while. We're probably about to get on the Imperial train this book is slated to participate in, so I'm guessing this is one of the last issues of the regular, "horror slasher" Hulk storyline? At least, they're about to get very busy.

This issue where they go to Doctor Strange's to get help goes the way you expect it to, although I hope this isn't the last time we see Clea for a while. The grotesque art is still grotesque and the dialogue is still true to form and interesting, even if the story has already done its duty and should probably end already. This one had a ending, but still.

Fire and Ice - When Hell Freezes Over #1

I really adored the original Fire and Ice book, I thought it was great fun and Fire finally clicked for me as a character in it. I'm glad the whole team is back for the sequel and I hope it's as consistently funny and genuine as the first one was.

First issue is a lot of introducing the cast and what we'll be doing with the characters, and it's fine. The bit about the social media guy coming in and being performatively woke had me cringing on the floor, so, great shit, keep it up.

[mandatory-blog-stop-asking]

March 26 2025 comic reviews

Here's my reviews for this week, March 26, available over at my other blog, @pedrocomicreviews.

Lots of books came out this week and I read a bunch of them. Lightning Round this week was: Amazing Spider-Man, Daredevil, The Incredible Hulk, Thunderbolts Doomstrike, Superman, Justice League Unlimited, and X-Manhunt Omega.

[flowerparrish]

FIC WRITING REVIEW 2024

Thank you to @42donotpanic for tagging me in this!! I am so pleased with how much fic I actually ended up writing this year, and I was only recently compiling my stats, so I've been really excited to share since you tagged me!

Rules: Feel free to show whatever stats you have. Only want to show Ao3 stats? Rock on. Want to include some qualitative info instead of stats? Please do this. Want to change how yours is presented? Absolutely do that. Would rather eat glass than do this? Please don’t eat glass but don’t feel like you have to do this either.Artists and gif makers, please also join in with any quantitative or qualitative stats or facts you want to share about your year.

Words & Fics

56,756 words posted across 51 works!

Average length written per posted fic: 1112 words!

Drabbles written: 5 drabbles, 4 double drabbles, 1 triple drabble, 1 quadruple drabble

Months I posted the most fics: October (12), Dec (10), and August (10)

Months I posted the most words: August (14,248), Dec (11,882), and Feb (9,441)

Months I didn't post any writing: June & July

Top Fandoms

Star Wars (13 works, 17,035 words)

Danny Phantom x DC (11 works, 15,258 words)

Marvel/DC (10 works, 8,858 words)

Marvel (4 works, 7,134 words)

DC (8 works, 2,968 words)

Top Ships

Danny Fenton/Jason Todd (4 works, 3365 words)

Tim Drake/Danny Fenton (3 works, 7110 words)

Bucky Barnes/Clint Barton (3 works, 6158 words)

Bucky Barnes/Clint Barton/Jason Todd (3 works, 2156 words)

Clint Barton/Roy Harper (2 works, 3675 words)

Top 3 By Comments

So I Choke On Sun (DPxDC, gen, 2.5k words) - 51 comment threads

How to Put Your ADHD Gremlin to Sleep: A Guide by Jason Todd (DC, gen, 810 words) - 25 comment threads

Can I have your autograph? (DPxDC, Tim/Danny, 5k words) - 21 comment threads

Top 5 By Kudos

So I Choke On Sun (DPxDC, gen, 2.5k words) - 1,201 kudos

Something Magical (DPxDC, Danny/Jason, 925 words) - 858 kudos

Green String of Fate (DPxDC, Danny/Jason, 1.4k words) - 773 kudos

Can I have your autograph? (DPxDC, Danny/Tim, 5k words) - 726 kudos

How to Put Your ADHD Gremlin to Sleep: A Guide By Jason Todd (Batfam gen, 810 words) - 668 kudos

Fandom Events I Wrote For in 2024:

I wrote for many Who Wrote That? games for @haunting-heroes-creative-games! Those included:

WWT - Olympics: 4 fics, 8567 words

WWT - Demon Twins: 1 fic, 2576 words

WWT - Soulmates: 3 fics, 2445 words

WWT - Lightning Round: 3 drabbles (300 words)

WWT - Ancients: 1 fic, 250 words

Likewise, for @marvel-dc-crossover-event s, I did:

WWT - Poly Pool Noodles: 1 fic, 391 words

Title Roulette: 1 fic, 2001 words

Marvel/DC 48 Hr Exchange: 5 fics, 4939 words

Holiday Elfing: 1 fic, 2868 words

Other Events Included:

@pod-together, for which I wrote 1 fic of 2,494 words

@clonebang (2023), for which I co-wrote a 10k fic, 4122 words of which were mine

@marveltrumpshate, for which I wrote 1 fic of 3,090 words

@voiceteam Mystery Box (2023) & VT 2024, for which I wrote 1 fic each, of 825 words & 466 words respectively

Yuletide, for which I wrote 3 works totaling 4075 words!

& lastly, Cozytober 2024, for which I wrote 4 fics & exactly 800 words total!

Writing Reflections:

This year, majority of the writing I finished & posted fit one of two categories: "event" or "I had this fun little idea and wrote it out real quick". I think what I can draw from that is twofold. First, I really do thrive when writing is a community activity. I like to write when it's part of a greater effort at engaging with people and building friendships and spreading joy. Second, I got way happier about writing when it began shifting from something I felt like I had to do / should be doing, to something I could just do for fun with quick little things and then toss out into the world. Majority of my fics this year were only cursorily checked over for SPAG issues or not beta'd at all, and a significant number of the short ones were written directly into the ao3 text box and posted without further thought, including "A Guide to Putting Your ADHD Gremlin to Sleep," which ended up being one of my most popular works of the year & honestly all time. This is not to say I put no thought into anything I wrote, because my other most popular work ("So I Choke on Sun") is one I spent weeks working on, despite how short it is, because I knew what I wanted to try to convey in it, and I ended up intensely proud of how it turned out. But I think I wrote so much this year because I really fell back in love with writing for fun first and foremost, and writing as an act of community involvement as a close second, and I really hope to carry that into the new year!

-

Thank you again to 42dnp for tagging me, this was so good to reflect on and such a positive way to spend my morning! <3

[coconox]

the end of the gacha arc

ignore the fact that this is the first post in a while in which i actually ramble about something, but i thought it’d be fitting to go out with a bang to the end of playing a certain genre of gaming that altered my brain chemistry for better and for worse.

this post will contain a mass list of reviews/thoughts/reflections for every gacha game i’ve played, or at least, every gacha game that i remember playing. i will be going in chronological order from the first gacha that i played to the last, but the quit times for all of them will definitely be out of order, but i’ll list that ordering at the very end.

the formatting of these reviews will be as follows:

my ★ rating out of 5

status (e.g. f2p, casual, spender, competitive)

thoughts on the game and fandom experience overall*

why i left

* with story and fandom experience there was usually a 50/50 chance i would look into it, a lot of the times i was just there for the gameplay so i may not comment much on some stories/fandoms

there will be a lot of lightning rounds/chapters since my memory is either pretty foggy or pretty neutral lmao— should be expected but heed my warning as there will be spoilers, and now without further ado, here is my history on playing gacha games

chapter 1: honkai impact 3rd

★★★☆☆ status: f2p, casual

you’d think i’d have more memorable experiences with honkai considering it was my first gacha game, but honestly the only thing i vividly remember was wanting to collect every character in-game and failed miserably cause my luck was awful. needing to hit pity almost every time all while being f2p sucked, and since i rarely pulled for gear it just made my experience not that great since i would barely get the bare minimum rewards for memorial arena and abyss.

apho was a nice break from everything, i really liked the vibes of the first one which is definitely foreshadowing another game i’ll be talking about later. 

i don’t really have much really any fandom experiences. most interaction i would have is with my armada which i left a long time ago. there were very nice people there so at least i left the ‘fandom’ experience on a high note :]

overall, my experience based on my memory was kinda meh. i got tired of trying to keep up with every patch and just left since there were just other games that i found more rewarding at the time.

chapter 1.5, honorable mention: guns girl z

★★★⯪☆ status: f2p, casual

while in my honkai phase, i also wanted to check out hoyo’s previous game, which honestly was very fun while it lasted. the semi-side scroller/pick-up-and-play was what i was (and probably still am) into at the time, and i really liked the art style. there were a few hiccups here and there with localization (especially when the text would go off screen 💀), but it didn’t really bother my experience all that much since i was more gameplay focused than story focused. honestly, only reason i left was cause glb servers shut down. if they didn’t shut down (or if i was persistent enough to continue with a cn acc) i would’ve definitely played it for a lot longer.

chapter 2: genshin impact

★★☆☆☆ status: spent on bp once or twice i forgor, casual

i was originally gonna skip this game entirely when i first heard of its announcement, but one of my irls kept bugging me to play only to quit as soon as i fully caught up 💀

while i did read the main story, like i said, i was originally gonna skip this game entirely since honestly, it just didn’t pass the vibe check for me, and that vibe check was correct LOL. story to me just didn’t feel that interesting. while there were some fun tidbits here and there, i kinda clocked out after inazuma’s story.

around the time i joined was when childe was first debuting, and i really wanted him as his playstyle was vastly different compared to the other characters at the time and i just like him as a character when i encountered him in story. aaaand then that’s when i discovered that genshin had a 50/50 pity system and got spooked by mona. honestly i could’ve just left right then and there considering the reason i got into the game in the first place pretty much left as soon as i joined, but i liked the world exploration enough to where i stuck around for way longer than i should have :p 

if honkai didn’t already give the hint that i can’t get every character, genshin DEFINITELY sealed the deal for me. from the 4 years i’ve played this game i’ve won 50/50 maybe like 5 or 6 times? i never really kept a tracker but the main point is my luck was awful LOL. getting like 60 primos per day for pulls that are 160 each and have a hard pity of 90 just didn’t really sit right with me. i know there’s soft pity and all that but i hate that that even exists in the first place. idk i’ve grown to expect the worst case scenario and i hate trying to calculate how many primos i need to get a character that may or may not appear earlier than hard pity.

spiral abyss was meh for me, i didn’t really participate in it much unless i was either extremely bored or was desperate for primos.

fandom experience i avoided it as much as possible. i don’t even need to explain why given what has happened over the past years 💀

overall, i mainly just liked the exploration part of the game. it kinda became that one game i would play if i was extremely bored and had nothing else to do and just wanted to keep myself busy. max exploring sumeru was awful tho. i never want to experience something like that again.

chapter 3: punishing: gray raven

★★⯪☆☆ status: spender, semi-competitive

i assume this is the chapter most of my moots will scroll to to find my thoughts on this game LOL (luv u all 🫶).

i was originally interested in this game cause i saw lee in the promo art LOL, and also cause my honkai armada was gonna try it out and i wanted to join the hype. thankfully, because i had prior “experience” through honkai, pgr’s gameplay wasn’t that big of a learning curve as the main difference was the orb system.

story within the first 8 chapters is relatively slow, but it introduces you to the main squads you’ll be seeing throughout the story and it starts to pick up pretty quickly after that. the darker atmosphere definitely appealed to me more than i realized, and it kinda clicked that this is what i wanted honkai to be: lower pity, very f2p friendly, it’s not required to follow a meta to get max rewards, etc. 

during my lee simping era my experiences with the fandom were a bit, mixed,,, on one hand i’d have a group who are fully supportive and even add fuel to the flame of simping over lee together, and the other i’d get slandered for liking him, even jumping to conclusions as to who i am as a person (e.g. my only personality was that i liked male characters).

as much as i wanted to avoid the latter, those groups of people were in the same guild server as those of the former, and for essentially 2 or so years i felt a strong sense of not belonging yet persisted in pushing that feeling aside in hopes that it would change. spoiler alert: it did not, in fact, it got even worse.

posting on pgrtwt or in the guild server felt like i was stepping on glass, and i hated that feeling. being an admin in the guild server never felt like i existed, despite putting in a fair amount of contribution to the server. it felt like i was working overtime for a project that very little to no one cared about. if you wanna try looking for me there, head’s up, you won’t lol, i left the guild server a long time ago and i’m in a better place than if i were to be stubborn and stay. i’ve become a folklore at this point with my sudden disappearance which i find really funny.

but in general, as a former artist of the fandom and a former casual player, the environment now just doesn’t feel safe, at least everywhere except tumblr lol

the game itself wasn’t as bad as it is now, i’m only saying it’s bad now cause of the recent synchronization plan of having 3 patches happen all within a month and that just feels very overwhelming considering it’s all happening so suddenly and we just have to deal with it. based on what was shown in cn, future patches also just don’t interest me anymore. i kinda lost motivation to log in after noctis patch, but stuck around till qu’s patch just cause i wanted the matching cerberus skins lol. 

i’ve made quite a handful of friends whom i still talk to and appreciate to this day, but the nail in the coffin for me was the fandom experience, especially during pyroath's announcement. again, it doesn’t feel safe for artists or casual players. it feels like the meta is forced down your throat and if you don’t follow it you’re wrong. when alpha was first debuted after launch the amount of backlash i got for rather building a physical team with lee was absurd. i felt awful trying to make friends in the community, which bled into my feelings about the game. because i had majority negative experiences in the fandom, those feelings ended up transferring over to the game.

story kinda lost me after they started introducing the multiple timelines. it also lost me when there’s so much lore compared to gameplay in each chapter and to me that felt very heavy in a bad way. like i couldn’t really get a breather till i’m done with the chapter overall (i prefer to read story in one sitting since if i space it out i easily forget what happened prior and would need to start from the beginning). i also don't really like how skk is dragged everywhere. i'd prefer for skk to only appear when gray ravens as a whole appear, and have different squads shine with how they manage themselves without any of skk's involvement.

small side note the character designs confuse me from time to time. i kinda wish they looked more robotic to yk, emphasize that they're constructs, rather than appear more human-like just so their m.i.n.d stays stable or whatever.

overall it was fun while it lasted. i definitely have fun memorable moments like staying up all night in vc malding through phalanx just to get all the collectibles offered, or co-oping cause we needed to mald for a co-op gabriel collectible. the fun memories will always be cherished, but it doesn’t excuse the unhealthy environment provided by the loud incels of the community.

chapter 4: alchemy stars

★★★★☆ status: f2p, only bought skins, casual

love, love, LOVE the artstyle. the game also being strategy-focused was honestly so much fun, tho i’m a sucker for puzzle/strategy games. i pretty much only pulled for characters that i liked, so i rarely ran out of lumambers unless if i wanted to get characters that had back to back banners. story i didn’t really pay that much attention to, but from what i’ve heard it was also amazing. i rarely felt bored when logging on, and i just had a very fun time. i didn’t really expect leaving as soon as i did, but life got pretty busy and i just slowly decreased my playtime till i stopped altogether. if it wasn’t getting an eos, this game would definitely be up there for one of the games i would’ve played long-term if i didn’t have such a hectic schedule.

chapter 5: project neural cloud

★★★★☆ status: f2p, only bought skins, casual

joined cause of aki, stayed cause of story. each sector had a nice ratio of gameplay to story. it didn’t give you so much lore dump all in one go and battles are timed at the right locations to get sort of a breather from everything. it having auto-play and eventually auto-clear features made dailies SO much more easier to manage, it felt like one of those games where it was story first, gacha later. tho in my experience, really the only teams that i had to keep changing were my sniper teams, adding in clukay, clotho, and eos and managing how their synergy works. my warrior team was basically hatsuchiri, magnhilda, aki, and some other healer/support, and that team held up pretty well. to be fair i also played very casually, so the gacha part was the least of my worries since i was more interested in story. i think out of all the gacha games listed here neural cloud is gonna be the one i miss the most. i loved the story, the strategy gameplay, the characters, it just hit every check box for my kind of game i would play long term, except for the part where it’s a gacha game at the end of the day. i may just end up reading story elsewhere since there has to be some sort of archive of all the chapters so far.

chapter 6: tower of fantasy

★★⯪☆☆ status: f2p, casual

from the little i’ve played it seemed fun, my gacha experience wasn’t all that bad but i was mostly there for exploration and playing with friends. i left solely cause tof could barely run on my ipad, it crashed every like 5-10 mins and i got pretty tired of it :’]

chapter 7: obey me & obey me: nightbringer

★⯪☆☆☆ 0.75 of a star per game /hj status: f2p, casual

i’m merging the 2 into one chapter since my thoughts on them are very similar.

for the original obey me, i honestly still don’t get why the story continues past lesson 20. they could’ve fleshed out mc’s relationship between everyone while they were still there for the exchange program. a LOT can happen in one year, yet for example belphie hating humans kinda just goes away once he finds out mc is lilith’s descendant??? also beel, which was one of my favs, doesn’t really get much more out of his character aside from ‘he eats a lot’ which is so ????? like i get he’s supposed to be the sin of gluttony but surely you can characterize him more than just him wanting to eat a lot and feeling guilty about lilith. of course, i could be missing a few key details given i quit not too long after i started playing, but it just didn’t sit right with me and my brain just never came to terms with it, so i left LOL

nightbringer i honestly just got tired of playing the same songs over and over, i rarely stuck around for story and idk why they needed a separate game altogether.

the events and gacha in both games don’t feel that rewarding. as someone who has been f2p in both, trying to get characters that i want *cough, mammon* is like challenge impossible given how unforgiving the rewards are.

idk this game just wasn’t for me. given they’re supposed to represent the 7 deadly sins, you’d think there’d be more heavier themes brought up, but it just feels like i went to a school about how to be a wizard and the 7 people i met just so happen to have the names of the 7 sins.

chapter 8: what in hell is bad?

⯪☆☆☆☆ status: f2p minus juno, casual

oh boy, where do i begin,,,,

honestly mammon was a love at first sight moment for me so that’s really why i joined the game LOL 

the concept seemed interesting enough, especially when each of the kings actually dive into the good and bad of their respective sin. what threw me off the most was how much i hated the mc more than any of the devils or angels HGJFDHGK. idk it’s like their only personality is being addicted to corn, which i personally hc it as a coping mechanism for a mental health issue that we’re unaware of just yet. however as much as i wanna talk about story, there really isn’t much story that’s given in the first place since main story updates are insanely slow and majority card stories are borderline or straight up paywalled given the in-game income received. f2ps have been struggling since launch, spenders are probably getting tired of spending nearly every patch, and we’re constantly given empty promises cause the company underestimates the production time to execute said promises. we essentially wait for like almost half a year for at most 5 mins of main story excluding the tedious gameplay in between each story segment.

if you want a gacha tower defense game, just play arknights. whb doesn’t even know how game balancing even works. i even made a whole spreadsheet to show how rough this game is in terms of building their characters. they build the character’s kits as if no one levels them up, skill levels are way too expensive given our daily/weekly/monthly income, and not everyone can afford getting a character’s sig. 

this game is clearly meant to be more story focused, but again, there’s very little story and all past event stories are paywalled too, which limits f2p experiences.

there’s a clear meta of using only light characters, or more specifically, light L-rank characters, which sucks cause then that means all other elements are essentially deemed useless with how powerful light element is against all other elements except itself. there is also a noticeable pattern of there being very little to no supports, as if the devs intentionally planned on making the gameplay essentially ‘just krill everything before they krill you’ which is insanely dumb. mammon and lucifer being the only good tank and healer respectively (hell, even mammon can be a better healer than an actual healer) is just very disappointing. we have more than enough snipers and close-rangers— GIVE US MORE SUPPORTS.

for it to be more story focused, it is also very, VERY roughly translated. the constant misgendering just made me wish they kept mc as gender neutral so that the devil’s tango scenes can easily apply to everyone.

afaik they’re also currently in the works of creating a pg-13 version of this game, most likely so that they could release whb in their own country. which on one hand is understandable, but on the other, there’s already so many flaws and bugs with the *current* version of whb, and they’re just gonna amplify that with the other version. i just wish they could focus on debugging the game rather than borderline ignore it unless if it stops the user from logging on.

overall this game is very, VERY p2w. while the concept of the kings’ portrayals was interesting, the execution has been pretty lackluster. the gacha rates are awful and will worsen as more characters are added to the pool. no pity on either standard banners, pity on limited banners is way too high given the f2p income, currency income for limited and standard banners is very, very low. lots of bugs, mistranslations, even the bare minimum of game balancing isn’t even there. it feels like we’re the beta test players for a game that has yet to give its full release and not actual players playing a fully released game. quite honestly this is probably the worst gacha game i’ve played, you can probably even see my descent to heavily disliking this game through previous whb rants lol. only upside is that the fandom (on tumblr at least) is very chill, i love reading people’s interpretations about the blorbos.

chapter 9: wuthering waves

★★⯪☆☆ status: f2p, casual

i honestly just played for the exploration aspect LOL

given it was released during my summer break, wuwa just became that one game i’d play out of boredom. the playstyle’s fun since it gave pgr vibes, but the story was kinda meh for me. the lore dump at the very start followed by some of the dialogue not showing up kinda threw me off and i just stopped paying attention altogether. at least there’s a skip button so that’s a plus.

every time i lost 50/50 i kept getting lingyang which kinda sucked. don’t get me wrong i love the littol meow meow, i even picked him right after i got verina, but i did NOT need more copies of him LOL. aside from that my pulls were actually better than i expected. got early for yinlin and changli and early on their sigs respectively too.

fandom is just as rough as pgr’s but on a larger scale imho. tried to steer away from it as much as possible and that’s honestly for the better.

i really just stayed around for yinlin, mostly cause she’s wuwa’s vera and i love vera a “normal” amount. ended up leaving after max exploring everything cause i was just bored. school was starting back up again and wuwa just didn’t pass the vibe check.

conclusion

order of which i left these games from first to last:

guns girl z

honkai impact 3rd

tower of fantasy

obey me

obey me: nightbringer

alchemy stars

what in hell is bad

wuthering waves

genshin impact

project neural cloud

punishing gray raven

i think the biggest lesson i’ve learned in this era is that i’m very stubborn 💀

you may or may not be wondering why i’m quitting gachas altogether despite saying in a few reviews that i would continue playing some of them if they weren’t a gacha game, but the answer to that is just the gacha cycle needed to end and 2/3 of those games have been/are getting eos��ed 💀. there’s definitely better places where i could be spending my time and money, like investing in my oc universe and saving up for when robo ky is in strive.

will i ever go back to gachas in the distant future? i doubt it. i think i'm finally burnt out from it to where if i see it again in the future, i'd just have bad flashbacks appear and not want to play it.

i felt like a broken record throughout some of these reflections, but anyways, that’s all i wanted to ramble about honestly. i’ve been working on revamping my oc universe and my toyhouse by extension since i really wanna go back and actually finish what i started

that’s all folks! ty for reading 🤏🍪

[ourshadowstallerthanoursoul]

Thunder and lightning

"But certainly it is guitarist Jimmy Page that is the howitzer shot that made Led Zeppelin heard 'round the world. Playing both the six string and twelve string guitars, Page filled the Capital Centre with three hours of guitar thunder and lightning. Firing his axe from his crotch, Page sent out scorching solos and frenzied blitzes via a variety of phase shifters, echoplexes, wahwhas and other gadgets, proving why Mr. Page is one of the most important rock guitarists of the past thirteen years."

- From the Feb. 10, 1975 Landover concert review by J. Ramsey

[ordinaryschmuck]

Good things that happened today:

Finished Season 14 of South Park. Probably their most offensive season (They REALLY had an episode where disabled kids looked and acted like Looney Tunes? For fuck's sake...). It at least had The Coon trilogy, which cemented Kenny as my favorite character in the group, but still a rough season to go through for the most part, at least to me.

I was told it was going to rain heavily today, and it barely drizzled. And I'm not complaining.

Got to pet two dogs today, one being a big, FLOOFY one that was delighted by my pets.

Ate a banana on the way home from work instead of candy. And that is MUCH better for me and my heart.

Practically finished talking about an Owl House theme today. Granted, it's because there's not much to talk about. Or, at least, not much that NEEDS to be talked about because I discussed enough of it throughout previous reviews and parts of this big "Why I Love The Owl House" series. Might as well lightning round the talking points in that case so I don't repeat myself too much.

Good things about me:

I have good standards.

I'm aware that my opinions aren't law and people are allowed to think differently...if they have media literacy, that is.

I enjoy the things I write and the characters I create/play with.

I have lots of potential to grow my writing talent.

I am improving myself everyday.

[speedyartist30]

First Mission

Jasmine: "This is a terrible idea."

On the cargo plane, Jasmine waits for her captain's orders as they approach enemy lines. Jasmine has been on missions before, but what makes her nervous today is the presence of Jay on the plane. It’s Jay's first mission, and to test his progress and ability to follow orders, his handlers decided to add him to Captain Burns’s squad for an infiltration mission. The only problem is that no one on the squad knows why he is there except for the captain.

Jasmine: “Jay, why are you—”

Alex: “Why are you here? No one said anything about you coming with us.”

Jay didn’t respond; he kept his head down, waiting to be dropped off to start the infiltration. Earlier, Jay was instructed to create a diversion to help the group infiltrate the base and set up cameras and microphones. The most important thing was not to reveal his role to anyone.

As the plane descends closer to the ground, the doors open, letting the cold wind rush inside.

Captain Burns: "You're up, kid!"

Standing from his seat, Jay walks towards the door but feels someone grabbing his arm. Turning to see who it is, Jay finds Jasmine.

Jasmine: “Be careful.”

Nodding, Jay pulls his arm free and adjusts his hood. Taking a deep breath, he runs and jumps out the door, plunging into the thick snow. The plane ascends back into the air and vanishes into the clouds. As Jay walks towards the base, he notices the heavy snowfall around him and can't help but kick at it, sending snowflakes into the air that land on his head. He doesn’t mind.

Finally reaching the gate to the base, Jay jumps over it and heads towards the military garage. Sneaking past a few guards, he crawls under a truck and removes his gloves, placing his hands on the engine. Closing his eyes to focus, Jay channels his power into the engine, causing it to overheat. As a spark of fire appears, Jay crawls out from under the truck, knowing he has only a few seconds. He summons his power and rushes out of the garage, making sure to draw the guards' attention.

Behind him, he hears an explosion and the sounds of people yelling. Rounding a corner, Jay encounters more guards, all aiming their guns at him. A siren blares, and the guards start firing. Jay summons more power and charges at them, blazing with lightning.

On the plane

As the captain reviews the plan, Jasmine can't help but worry about Jay, constantly glancing at the door he jumped out of. Noticing her distraction, Alex elbows her to get her attention.

Alex: “Jazz, pay attention. This is important.”

Jasmine: “I know. I’m just worried about him. Jay shouldn’t be out there.”

Alex: “I know, but they wouldn’t send him if he couldn’t handle it, right?”

Suddenly, a loud bang echoes through the plane, causing everyone to jump to their feet.

Alex: “What was that?”

Captain Burns: “That’s our signal. Grab your gear. I want this mission completed without any casualties. Go!”

Grabbing their gear and weapons, the team rushes out of the plane to carry out their orders.

Alex and Jasmine’s POV

Running through the surprisingly empty base, Alex and Jasmine place cameras and microphones throughout the area to gather intel later. They enter a surveillance room where Alex sets up her last microphone.

Alex: “Okay, Jazz, let’s go. Jazz?”

Jasmine’s eyes are fixed on the screen as she watches Jay take down guards all by himself. Her heart sinks when she sees him stumble after kicking one of the guards in the face. On the screen, Jay glances behind him and then runs off-screen. Moments later, motorcycles rush past the screen in the same direction Jay went.

Jay’s POV

Running through the woods with furious guards hot on his trail, Jay tries to shake them off as they begin to close in on their motorcycles. Zigzagging through the forest causes some of them to crash, but the cold weather is starting to take its toll on him. Leaping into the air, Jay lands on a branch and launches himself at one of the guards, knocking her off her motorcycle. As his hood slips off, Jay changes direction, with the remaining guards in pursuit.

Pushing himself to run faster despite the cold air burning his throat, Jay finds himself in an open area with little cover. Losing his footing on the slick snow, he slows down, allowing one of the guards to grab him. As the guard touches him, Jay sends a burst of electricity towards him, causing the guard to swerve and crash into a tree. The impact splits the motorcycle in half, sending the back of the bike crashing into the ground and causing the earth to crack and split.

Realizing he is standing on a lake as the ground beneath him breaks, Jay quickly runs for the edge. Despite his best efforts, the ice gives way under his feet, and he plunges into the freezing water. The icy water shocks him, making him gasp and swallow some of it. Panicking, Jay forces himself to swim to the surface. When he finally reaches the hole he fell through, he grabs an outgrown root and pulls himself out of the water. Crawling to the base of the tree where the root came from, Jay curls up beside it as icy water drips from his clothes and hair.

He is freezing and trying to take deep breaths, but the shivering makes it nearly impossible. Knowing he can’t stay there, Jay summons the last of his power and heads towards the plane he was instructed to go to after the mission.

Jasmine’s POV

On the plane, Jasmine waits by the exit while her teammates celebrate a successful mission.

Jasmine: "Where is he?"

Alex: "He's not back yet?"

Jasmine: "No, I’m starting to get worried."

Alex: "You're always worried."

Jasmine: "Well... more than I was earlier, okay!"

She glances back towards the woods and spots a small, dark figure approaching the plane. Realizing it’s Jay, Jasmine feels a surge of relief until she sees him stumbling and falling.

Rushing down the ramp, Jasmine hurries towards him as he collapses. Crouching beside him, she notices how badly he's shivering and that his hair is wet. Jay won’t look at her; he just hugs himself tighter.

Reaching out, Jasmine touches his shoulder and realizes he's soaked. Without wasting any time, she picks him up and runs back to the plane.

Jasmine: "Alex!!! I need you to get some towels and blankets!"

Jasmine grabs Jay's bag and takes him to the bathroom to dry his hair and give him some dry clothes. When she emerges, she places Jay on a seat and searches for Alex to help warm him up.

Jasmine: I hope he doesn’t get sick from this.

As she walks past some of her squad members, Jasmine spots Alex carrying two thick blankets, her face partially covered.

Alex: “The captain gave them to me.”

Taking one from her friend so Alex can see, Jasmine and Alex hurry back to Jay.

They find him still shivering and hugging himself, with his knees pulled to his chest. His hands, face, and ears are pink. Jasmine sits beside him, unfolds her blanket, and wraps it around him, while Alex does the same, covering his head as well.

Standing up to assess what they had done, the only part of Jay visible from the blankets was his face. Jasmine have him a gentle smile while Alex snorted

Jasmine: “Aww, he looks so cute.”

Alex: “Haha, he looks like a little burrito.”

Sitting beside him again to keep him warm, Alex and Jasmine start asking what happened, but they receive only silence in response. However, Jay does answer one question.

Jasmine: “Jay, why were your clothes soaked?”

Jay: “I f-fell.”

Alex: “You fell?”

(He nods)

Jasmine: “Where?”

Jay: “Lake broke.”

Alex: “It bro—wait, you fell in a frozen lake?!”

Waiting for him to reply, they are met with only a small sneeze. Jay pulls the blankets closer around himself and begins to drift off to sleep until Jasmine nudges him.

Jasmine: “Don’t fall asleep yet. We still need to warm you up.”

Jay frowns but stays awake.

Samual pov

Samual, the captain of this squad enters with three cups of hot chocolate to help warm up the team. He spots Jay swaddled in blanktes, but clearly anxious. The boy only been around them for a few weeks, Samual can count on one hand the amount of times the kid spoke.

Samual : “You three look like you could use a warm drink.”

He hands Jasmine and Alex their drinks.

Alex: “Yes! Thanks, Captain.”

Jasmine: “Thank you, Captain.”

He gives a nod to the women and glances at Jay, he didn’t realizes how small the boy was. Samual had a difficult time comprehending that Jay is dangerous. Yes, Samual as seen his skills firsthand, but right now, he just looks like a normal little kid, which shouldn’t be here with them risking their lives for the country.

Crouching down to Jays level Samual offers him the drink with a friendly smile.

Samual:” Would you like one Jay?”

Jay doesn’t take the cup but instead scoots closer to Jasmine. She takes the cup from the him and reassures Jay that it was ok.

Jasmine: “It’s okay. He just wants to warm you up so you’re not cold anymore.”

Alex: “Besides, hot chocolate is super good!”

Pulling the blanket off his head, Jay looks at Samual for a moment before taking the cup from Jasmine. He appreciates how the cup warms his cold hands, so he pulls it close to his body. Noticing Jay’s reaction, Alex laughs and asks:

Alex: “Aren’t you going to drink it?”

Watching Alex drink her hot chocolate, Jay looks down at his own cup and takes a small sip. His eyes turn gold, and little sparks appear around him but fade with each small sip. Samaul shook his head slowly and comments

Samual:”No matter how many times I see him do that I still can’t believe it’s real.”

Alex: “Well, at least we know he likes it.”

The blonde leaves to give them space and distribute more drinks. Jasmine and Alex start talking about random things to pass the time until they reach the base, while Jay quietly enjoys his hot chocolate.

[secret-diary-of-an-fa]

Doctor Who: Rogue Review (Doctor Hoot. I Swear That'll be Funny the End of this Review)

You know, I never thought I’d be this grateful to see a murderous owl-person kill someone with lightning and then steal their face, but here we fucking are! Six episodes into an eight-episode run and I’ve never been happier to see Regency ponces get fried with space-electrics. Y’see, Rogue is yer basic bread-and-butter Who episode: a confined environment with a colourful cast of characters who serve as cannon-fodder for a quirky monster-of-the-week with a batshit crazy motive. The Doctor and Insert-Companion-Here show up for a good time then realise there’s a monster-of-the-week at work (because the Doctor is a man who can’t go five minutes without running into something that wants to eat human bones or enslave a planet or whatever) and then they Do A Thing that solves the problem. Along the way, there’s some romance, some cheap shots about how shit and unequal the past was (yeah, ‘cause the 21st Century’s a fucking rose garden- people in glass houses should probably learn to jack off in the basement, etc.) It’s all very funny and energetic and entertaining but at the end the status-quometer has moved maybe one quarter of a degree. In any series of Doctor Who from 2005 to 2015, Rogue would have come and gone largely unnoticed: an enjoyable bit of filler rounding out a twelve-to-thirteen episode run because it can’t all be Daleks and Weeping Angels and meditations on man’s inhumanity to man. Here, in the year 2024, it arrives like a cool, refreshing glass of water in a desert, brought to you, the viewer, by a sexy little butler in very formal hot-pants.

See, aside from Boom! (which had a very good point to make and made it very well), this series of Who has been… well, it hasn’t been bad. Russel T. Davies can write a diverting 45 minutes of television and nobody can take that away from him. But it hasn’t reached the stellar heights of certain the original Who come-back either. Between the Space Babies being creepier than that episode’s monster-that-wasn’t-really-a-monster (NEWS! NEWS! NEWS! unsurprising twist is unsurprising!), Jinkx Monsoon not getting the acting direction she needed to make Maestro properly terrifying, the giant slugs that literally didn’t move the entire time they were on screen and a woman in black whose power was making people run off in a surprisingly camp way, this series has felt very short on effective antagonists. I mean, I get that the vibe we’re going for is ‘the real monster was mankind all along’ chic, but that’s The Twilight Zone and Black Mirror, not Doctor Who. It’d be like if Red Dwarf suddenly came back as a serious drama (aside to whoever’s making the upcoming three eps of Red Dwarf: PLEASE DON’T DO THAT, THERE ARE SO FEW THINGS LEFT THAT I LOVE THAT HAVEN’T BEEN RUINED). So, when, within the first few minutes of Rogue, one Regency Ponce grabbed another by the lapels and fried him with lightning before assuming his form (and then we got a shot of something with a beak), I was like “Oh thank fuck for that! I thought the death-ambulances from Boom! were going to be the only interesting villains this season!”

So, you probably already know (because why would you be reading about Doctor Who if you’re not also watching Doctor Who? It’s not like its a monolith of cultural relevance any more), there are two plots going on in Rogue. The A-plot is that shapeshifting Murder-Owls (the episode calls them ‘Childer’, but they’re fucking Murder-Owls and I will fight anyone who says otherwise) are killing people to assume their form and ‘cosplay’ as human beings. They’re bored: it’s how they pass the time. The B-Plot, meanwhile, involves the Doctor having a whirlwind romance with the titular Rogue, who is a bounty-hunter from the future sent to capture or kill the Murder-Owls. Ultimately, the two plots tie together in a way that gives the episode its emotional heart. Without spoiling anything, the Doctor must sacrifice his budding relationship with Rogue in order to save the day from the monsters-of-the-week, while Rogue, whose been playing the heartless vagabond all episode, must knowingly sacrifice the same in order to save the Doctor’s companion, Ruby, knowing that that friendship and her wellbeing is more important than his own, thereby proving that he was worthy of the Doctor after all, even though proving it means they can’t be together. On paper, it makes perfect sense. In practice… it has some flaws. See, there’s a lot going on in Rogue and the generally fast pacing of Fifteen’s adventures is much in evidence here, but a compelling romance- even a compelling flirtation- takes time to execute properly. It kinda feels like the two don’t really have enough breathing room: they fall for each other in record time because the plot demands it and then get irrevocably separated at the end, also because the plot demands. There’s no sense of slowly building attraction and mutual chemistry, which is a shame, because Rogue himself is an interesting character who, in an ideal universe (one where, for example, season lengths didn’t keep shrinking and squeezing out grace notes) he might have come back and developed properly. Now, even if he does come back, they rushed through so much of his relationship with the Doctor, I’m not sure how they’d salvage it.

I suppose I should mention the fact that it’s the Doctor’s first gay fling. Oh, would you look at that, I just did and now we can move on. Joking aside, I do have some thoughts on the Doctor’s signwaving sexuality, but since none of them are dementedly homophobic or, conversely, overtly Pride-y, they’re not really relevant to this specific episode: they’re more general notes on characterisation and how to do it well from the perspective of a budding professional writer WHO IS GOING TO BE READING AT A PROPER LITERARY FESTIVAL LATER THIS YEAR LIKE A FUCKING BOSS, BY THE WAY! Really, I think the pacing issues here would kill the flair regardless of the gender of the other person involved and that’s kinda all I can add for now. I feel, however, that I can’t really blame writers Kate Herron and Briony Redman. They’re working within the constraints of a shortened season part-funded by an American corporation that doesn’t understand it and produced under the aegis of a showrunner who, while perfectly competent, seems to have lost the magic he had when he brought the series back in 2005.

If all this sounds a bit negative… well, it is and it isn’t. Yes, my opinion of this season of Doctor Who isn’t high compared the show’s heyday, but I am enjoying it enough that I want to see it improve. I don’t critique out of hate, but out of love; out of a desire to see something I cherish learn and improve. We know Doctor Who can be better, so why isn’t it?

But this episode, specifically? Yes, it’s good. The problem is that in most previous seasons it would have been below-average good, whereas in this season it’s above-average good. On the one hand, that’s a bit sad. On the other hand, it’s proof that there are still people around the BBC who know how to write an episode of Doctor Who in the classic mould, and that seems like a good foundation to build on.