#like damn i'm mean about rachel and her work on here but you don't see me going full on “idk are you REALLY from new zealand???”

[genericpuff]

Sorry for the racist anon

I dunno how it works for Native Americans, but In Australia, those with Indigenous bloodlines are considered First Nations, no matter their skin tone of ethnic features.

This is largely due to ethnic genocide and colonisation, which I’m guessing Native Americans also experienced(of course), so to see a Indigenous person cry that someone’s “too white” to be First Nations is sickeningly ignorant.

aha I appreciate that <3

And I actually can totally relate to that because my bloodline falls under First Nations labelling! Except instead of being Australian, I'm Canadian haha I don't know if it was the same in Australia but it was practiced for a long time here (I think up until the 80's?) that if you were a First Nations woman who married a non-First Nations man, you'd lose your status as a First Nations woman. So my grandmother, who was raised in a residential school from a very young age, lost her legal status after marrying a French man and that passed on to her children and even her grandchildren. So I actually wasn't legally considered First Nations until around my preteens/teenage years when we were able to contest our status and bloodline with the government and get it back. Colonization unfortunately runs very deep in my family across the generations going back to my grandmother, much of my father's side of the family are strictly Christian (like, I'm talking "women aren't allowed to wear pants" type Christian) and I was raised as someone who was visibly different in a community of predominantly French/Irish people, but no one had the tools or resources to tell me why I was different without giving me an extremely whitewashed version of events. It makes me really upset for past me because being different really alienated me from a culture I didn't understand and didn't want to bother understanding at the time - I didn't want to be First Nations, because being First Nations was "weird" and "different" and I wanted to fit in.

Thankfully now I'm an adult and I've learned that my culture isn't something to be ashamed of, but proud of. Sometimes it makes me a little sad to feel like a foreigner to my own peers, where I'm learning about traditions and norms that many already had from childhood, but it's been a fun learning experience and it brings me so much joy to reconnect to a history and culture that was almost wiped out with my grandmother. I'm glad I learned about my culture and what was almost taken from me before it was too late.

It's frankly why it really shocked me in that previous ask, hearing "eh, you're not brown enough to be Indigenous and you should stfu" because I was literally picked on and singled out - even by my own white-passing family members - for being brown and "the odd one out" growing up. Being called a "cracker" was definitely a new one for me, I've been called every other manner of name for being darker-skinned and having visibly native features but never a name for not being dark-skinned enough ?? Like man, that's wild. Unlocking some whole new side content right here LMAO

[prettypinkporkchop]

Two Weeks

Seth x fem reader

Description: you're Kim's cousin. You come stay with her and Jared as she has a baby. Seth imprints but you live far away.

Warnings: language, sexual ish

A month ago, you decided to stay with your cousin Kim, who is now married to Jared Cameron. They have a baby on the way, and of course, this happens while you are alone with her, and Jared is off at work.

You're driving fast in your car but not too fast, trying to keep her and the baby safe. Kim is squeezing your free hand and breathing hard, screaming at random times.

"You're doing so good, Kim." You say softly. You're dealing with the pain in your fingers.

"Damn it! Call Rachel!" She screams, taking her phone out and putting it in your lap.

"Love, I can't look away from-"

"Fine!" She cries out and calls Rachel.

You've never met any of her friends, but you've heard of them from the stories she has told you. Her and Jared are good people, so if they like them, you know you will.

"Rachel, please, I'm in the car on the way to the hospital. Get Paul. My cousin is driving." She yells.

---

You sit outside the door on a chair to wait for whoever is about to show. You can hear Kim screaming. Two women and men run up to you. They catch your attention.

"I just got a hold of Jared." One guy says.

"Is she in there?" A woman with scars on her face asks.

On que, Kim screams in pain.

"Does that answer your question?" You cringe at her screams, feeling awful for her. "She said she only wants Jared in there." You say.

"I'm here!" A panicked Jared runs in.

You notice three other guys with him and a girl. A nurse comes over.

"Sorry guys, but there's too many of you right here. Can some of you sit in the main room?" She says.

You look around and catch eyes with one of the guys. He pauses and stares at you. You stare back because you're surprised by how beautiful a man could be.

One of the guys leans over and whispers in his ear. He nods and walks into the waiting room. A few others follow him. Jared talks to a doctor and goes into the room. A doctor tells you that she's almost ready to push. You sit outside the door with the couple you learn to be Emily and Sam.

-----

You got to see the baby. So far, she just looks like a goblin but with Kim's nose. But they're staying the night, so everyone is leaving. You ended up meeting everyone else including Seth. Yup, the one you locked eyes on. But his sister, Leah, keeps watching you like a hawk as if you're already dating him, but you literally don't even know them.

You walk to the car, fumbling with your keys. It's dark, so you pull out your phone and shine the light on your keys to unlock the car.

"Hey," you turn and see Seth. "It was nice meeting you. You should come to the beach with us when we go." He smiles.

You smile and softly laugh. "Yeah, I can. But I won't be here much longer. I have to go home in like two weeks."

His face loses the happy smile. "Oh. Where do you live?" He asks.

"(Your state)."

He looks down and then begins to smile again. "Two weeks is all I need."

"What does that mean?" You awkwardly laugh. No, for real. He's cute, so you'll have to let the weirdness slide.

"It means that these next two weeks, you'll have a good time."

----

(DAY 2)!!!! DAY 1 WAS JUST TALKING AT A COFFEE SHOP

"So, the boy is back!" You cross your arms and lean on the doorframe. Behind you inside the house is Kim and Jared. They're loving on the baby and taking care of her.

Seth smirks and then grabs your wrist, pulling you out of the doorway.

You close the door behind you and look at the tall man.

"I told you, two weeks is all I need." He smiles showing his perfect teeth.

"Yesterday was more like interviews." You walk down the steps toward his truck.

He follows behind you. "Now that we know a lot about each other, I was thinking we go on an adventure."

You get inside his truck, and he gets in the drivers seat. He starts the truck, and you watch him. The way his arms look. His cheeks, his hair. Shut up, y/n.

"Do you enjoy car rides?" He asks.

"Yes." You smile at him.

"I want to hear your music."

You guys ended up staying on the road for two hours, screaming lyrics. You've learned that the guy can lowkey sing well. He also has the same music taste as you. You guys have been having a really fun evening, and you're already so addicted to his company.

He turns off the music and looks at you. "Want to park somewhere and chill? I think we've almost hit every good scenic road." He chuckles.

"Sure!"

He ends up pulling into a trail in the trees. He gets out of the car and walks around to open your door.

"What are we doing?" You slowly get out of your seat.

"Trust me! You'll like it." He softly nudges you with his shoulder.

You only trust him because of Kim. Plus, he's hot, so...

Midway through walking, your shoe starts to hurt the back of your feet. "Oh, shit." You stop and lean against a tree. Your shoe is broken.

"What is it?" He asks, concerned.

"My shoe is hurting me." You giggle and take off your shoe, showing your sock. Your sock is SpongeBob.

Seth can't help but burst into laughter.

"Hey! Leave SpongeBob alone." You roll your eyes.

"It's cute." He says and looks over you.

You look at him and then look down, leaving out a breathy laugh. "Thanks." You take off the other shoe.

"Here." He steps closer and then turns around, slightly bending. "Jump."

"Uh, no, no, no. I think I'm a bit too heavy for you to walk with." You laugh.

"Jump." He repeats.

You hesitate, but put your hands on his shoulders and jump. He lifts up, hooking his arms under your knees. You wrap your arms around his neck, and you realize he's holding you effortlessly. Yeah, he do be built.

You lay your head on his shoulder and look over the side of his face. The sun that's lowering shines through the trees which makes his brown eyes golden.

"You're beautiful." You whisper to him.

----

Every day has been full of Seth. You've completely fallen for him. You have two days now. Two days until you go back home.

Seth lives on his own in a small camper. He has kept it all fancy and cute. You've decided to go see him tonight, surprise him. Even though you guys spent all of today together, it's night and you dont want to be away from him. You're thinking about just kissing him, but at the same time, you don't want to because you'll just have to leave after. You can't do long distance. You're honestly depressed that you're leaving behind Forks.

You knock on the camper door, and Seth answers the door. He smiles when he sees you. As usual, he's shirtless. His hair is stringy showing that he has gotten out of the shower.

"Couldn't get enough of me, huh?" He giggles.

You grab the back of his neck and pull him closer. His breath catches, and he looks down at you. His hands rest on your sides.

"I want to kiss you so bad." You whisper.

"There's a lot you need to know before we do that." You whispers.

"What do you mean?" You ask. You two remain in this position.

"If I tell you everything, will you stay here?"

"Where will I stay? I doubt Kim would-",

"Trust me. She would. She knows." He backs up and looks at you.

You are confused as hell. Curious and nervous, too. "I'd have to go back home and pack everything." You reply.

He smiles widely. "Does this mean you'll stay?"

"I'll ask Kim." You smirk and step forward.

His hands grab your hands and he smiles down at you. "I hope I don't scare you off."

"You couldn't." You look into his eyes.

"Let's go inside."

----- (he tells you everything)----

Your fingers touch his tattoo. He watches your fingers trace the lines. You're sitting in front of him on his bed. The bed feels like a cloud underneath you. He has his LED lights on. You can still see every perfect line in his face.

"Am I crazy for moving here to be with you?"

"Yes. But what's even crazier is shifting and imprinting." He chuckles.

"You're right." You giggle. You stop and look at his face.

His eyes roam around, eventually landing on your lips. You may or may not have gone a bit crazy. You quickly push him back and crawl on his lap, pressing your lips on his. He kisses you back and holds on to your waist. He leans up, holding onto your back and kissing you harder. His lips feel so good against yours. You part lips, playing with your tongues and kissing over and over, having a heated Makeout session. Your hands roam on his abs. His hands stay on your back, remaining respectful. You quickly notice and use one hand to guide his lower to your ass. He squeezes roughly before switching you two around and pinning you down. His lips attack your neck, leaving bites but no marks. You moan in his ear. He breathes out when you get loud letting you know that your moans are turning him on.

---- (you guys didn't go far. He was quick to stop.)

You both go into his kitchen area. He scratches his head and looks around. "Want something to eat?"

"I should head back to Kim's. It's late and I want to ask her before she goes to bed." You reply.

"Gotcha. When you leave to pack, let me come with." He steps forward and kisses your cheek.

----

Kim shushes you as you close the front door. She has on a robe and looks miserable, poor lady.

"Sorry." You whisper. "I have a question."

She smiles and mixes some milk in a bottle. "I think I already know. Do you know about the big secret?" She looks at you.

You nod your head in response.

She smirks. "Hmm. I do like having you here. Jared will be proud and happy for Seth." She closes the lid to the bottle. "What about your old house? Your old job? Are you for sure wanting to start over?"

"Are you saying this is a bad idea?" You ask.

"It's reckless and stupid if we were regular people. Thing is, we aren't. I'd do it for Jared." Her eyes shift to behind you and she giggles.

You quickly turn around and see Seth standing at the door.

"Like I told you, all I needed is two weeks." He tells Kim.

"Oh, you're right, you wolfie stud." She jokes.

"Cringe." You laugh.

[allwormdiet]

Insinuation 2.6

Onward and upward, right?

Good faith gestures aside, this is a good call with the mentality Taylor has. She doesn't want to put herself at risk any more than she has to with a couple of unknown villains, and her face would definitely be a risk.

Again, a really fucking cool description of Taylor's power and how it works for her. The sensory overload is a motherfucker but hey, she managed to crack that one eventually.

Enchanted by her eyes, ehh Taylor?

Little funny that Regent gets the most words in his description and most of it is about how Taylor doesn't really go for his type, sandwiched on both sides of the narration with what I assume are, in fact, her types.

Yeah, see, exactly. In order she looks at the Undersides like "hellooooo" "hey" "helloooooooo"

I know there are reads of Taylor as a lesbian but I'm gonna be real this immediately scans as bi, no I'm not automatically choosing that bc I'm also bi, leave me alone

Literally who bets against a Thinker, like c'mon now

Also interesting that Grue is described as sounding like an adult. Wonder if that just means that it's deep, or if he's trying to talk in a way that makes him sound older than he is

Fansites aside I'm somehow not shocked that Rachel would be against meeting new people

Also, interesting that she keeps thinking of the Undersiders as their cape names rather than the names provided, although it makes sense if she expects them to be somehow bogus

Oh hey the change in reference is actually diegetic, I totally missed that the first time through

Taylor you fuckin nerd ilu

I don't know why they decided to hide two thousand dollars in an Alexandria lunchbox, but I kind of love it. I'd offer all my friends thousands of dollars inside of lunch boxes if I had that kinda money, it'd be my thing

Here's the pitch, and it almost goes sailing right past Taylor bc after eighteen months of hell she doesn't believe that anyone would invite her to join their group.

I wonder how intentional this is. I don't know enough about what Lisa knows with her power to be like "she knows Taylor is desperately lonely and would probably bite down hard on any hook that came with a promise of camaraderie," but I'll admit the thought's occurred to me.

There we go, the man behind the curtain made explicit

And here we get a little bit more from everybody. Brian seems to really like putting his cards on the table with these conversations, which means he's not shy about explaining why they want Taylor on the team.

Taylor, meanwhile, still doesn't get why anyone would want her, as a person or as a cape. It has to be laid out for her.

Speaking of laying out why she's strong and terrifying,

Aww, she called Taylor honey

But also god fucking damn, good job on the overkill Taylor, you fucking rotted Lung's dick off with spider venom on your first night as a hero. This is why I'm so charmed by her, she's got this constant vacillation between "huge dork" and "idealistic hero" and "biting you biting you biting you biting you biting you" that feels like a nightmare to balance properly.

Brian trying so hard to both be the Mature One and also trying to get the other two to stop helping, poor kid

In the grand tableau of world events, I believe this is this is what's called "a historically significant occasion"

Current Thoughts

I can't wait for her to grow close to these people and then break all of their hearts for the sake of the greater good, all while I read along and also get my heart broken watching these kids hurt each other

I need to take a bit of a break, I've been reading kinda nonstop, but I might get some more in after dinner tonight. Really wanna see where this goes

[moony-2001]

Lore Olympus ch. 257-262 critique pt. 2

Aaaand we're back

Ch. 260

Hermes, Hebe, and trauma dumping

Jumping right into it, Hermes pissed me right the fuck off. I don't know why Demeter didn't want to accept the aid from the underworld, but I'm sure pride must be some of it. But for Hermes to call it an "in-law tiffy-tiff" was beyond wrong. I don't know or remember what, if any, beef he has with Demeter but read the fucking room, man.

I'm so glad Demeter took Hebe in though, like the absolute Queen that she is. One thing that disturbed me a little when Hebe and Demeter got to talking is how Rachel tries to pass off Hera's trauma dumping on Hebe as if it's nothing.

First of all, 18-year-olds are still kids. I know (at least for the vast majority here in the US) that 18 is the legal age of adulthood, but the human brain doesn't finish developing until around age 25. Even if that's how the rules in LO work (I have a sneaking suspicion they're not though, seeing as Persephone is technically stuck at age 19 for the rest of time) Hebe is 7 years off from having a fully developed brain.

Additionally, I don't like how Rachel frames the idea that Hebe found out all of this information from her mother as a now 18-year-old. I don't know if Rachel is forgetting her own damn timeline (not that there was a cohesive one in the first place) but Hebe wouldn't have been 18 at the time of finding out this information.

Remember the 10-year time skip? Yeah, that whole thing? And how 5 of the 6 Traitors were in a coma? For 10 years? In case you haven't picked up what I'm trying to put down, Hebe was 8 years old when her mother went into that coma. Which means that Hera dumped all this information on a literal fucking child who was 8 or potentially even younger since we have no frame of reference for when Hebe was told this information.

Demeter is right. It is wrong to burden your kids with that. I don't know Rachel, but from this writing, I would venture a guess that she's never had a parent trauma dump on her.

I have. Rachel has no idea how mentally taxing it is to have a parent trauma dump on you or have them drag you into the middle of their fights or vent about their spouse/your other parent to you behind their back. That is not something a parent should EVER do to a child and I'll be damned if I ever do that to mine.

And while there is a shred of truth to what Hebe is saying, about how that information helps her understand her mom, Hebe does not (and in fact should not) be part of her mother's journey to work on herself, especially at that young of an age. Your child is not your therapist.

Demophon, the not child of Demeter

I will say, I am glad that Demeter finally decided to open up to her somewhat adult daughter. Oh, what's this? Persephone looks upset and-

😀😐

of-fucking-course

Is this it?? Is this the moment when we finally find out what happened to Demeter in Attica all those years ago-

Anyway, what we find out is that while in Attica, Demeter supposedly fell in love with the King of Eleusis and had Demophon, a my little pony-looking abomination not worse than whatever the fuck the above pictures are supposed to be. But if you note my title for this portion of the chapter, you'll see it says "the not child of Demeter". And that, dear readers, is because Demophon is in fact not a child of Demeter in the original myths. And Rachel also spelled his name wrong. (You can read more about him here: Demophon of Eleusis)

It seems to me that Rachel is doing what most couples with a failing relationship do: throw a baby at it and hope it will fix the problems.

What technicality? Do you mean the "technicality" that Demeter was punished for insubordination (regardless of her intentions) and lived as a mortal for 10 years? And during that time as a mortal had a son who was born as and died as a mortal? Forgive me if I'm being slow here, but I don't see what this "technicality" is supposed to be. How is Demophon's death any different from the mortals that Persephone killed and asked if it was possible to bring back?

I'm gonna sound a little nitpicky here, but Hades is the god of the dead (and wealth) not the god of death. Believe it or not, there is a difference, and the brushing aside of that difference is the reason why people still get Hades and Thanatos mixed up to this day. Plus does no one remember what happened to Asclepius when he figured out how to raise the dead? tl;dr: not good things.

I have a feeling that all this is happening because Persephone and Hades are trying to buy off Demeter. They want brownie points with the woman who is rightfully upset about everything that is happening right now. And I'll be willing to bet that this smooths things right over with her.

Ch. 261

Off-topic, Demeter looked really pretty in this chapter #standemeter

The "technicality" and Hades' BS

I am glad Demeter gets this small bit of happiness but also:

Nice try, but that's not how that works. Get your smug, ugly-ass mug out of here. Once again, why is Demophon the exception? Because you're whipped for Persephone? Because you want a gold star from your MIL who has perfectly valid reasons to not like you?

Ah. I guess his name is Triptolemus now. Triptolemus who is the older brother of Demophon. Who is also not a son of Demeter. Sure.

NO DON'T FALL FOR IT DEMETER. IT'S A TRAP-

The sisters

It is nice for the most part to see Hera, Demeter, and Hestia interacting. I don't think that's something we've seen outside of flashbacks.

I don't, however, like this interaction between Demeter and Hera:

Yeah, no, that's not how that works. Demeter has every right to be mad at you for helping Hades and Persephone get around the fact that they "violated the laws of Xenia (hospitality)". It doesn't matter if Persephone was a "wild card". Hera had no right to marry them.

In fact, I had a conversation with anoldplace and something we discussed is how much Hera's responsibility/involvement in Persades is kinda just... brushed off. Especially if you look back at the way early chapters (I'm talking s1 early) when Hera changes her tune from "wtf, that's so gross, what is wrong with you" to "Let me get this whole ball rolling". Persephone wouldn't have even had half the interactions she did with Hades had Hera not put her in that internship for the underworld. And Demeter doesn't even know about the early stuff. Think about how livid she would be if she found out Hera was pulling the strings from the beginning. Yikes.

Different topic but the fact that both Demeter and Persephone love to swim is cute.

Ch. 262

Jfc, finally. I'm so tired lol.

Hera's prophecy

In honor of Hera's ugly highlighter-looking color, the sections shall, too, be in yellow.

I was pretty excited to see that Hera got a vision. I'm also sad that this isn't something we see utilized more often in the series. In fact, we don't really see any of the goddesses use their powers besides... oh, for Christ's sake. I don't even want to say it, it just adds to her Mary Sue-ness.

Place your bets on how long it takes for Rachel to dress Persephone in something similar, if not identical, to this.

Moving on, we see Kronos smush and kinda throw Hera away and she's left wondering:

That's cute and all, but no. Like I huffed and puffed with the whole "attempted murder" bullshit with Zeus, for one to die, they must be mortal. If gods could die, they wouldn't be gods. They would be human looking at you Demophon. I understand why the sentiment of dying is upsetting, but Hera, Zeus, whomever cannot die. I suppose similar to Egyptian mythology, they could be chopped up and have their parts scattered to the winds but from what I've seen, there's nothing in Greek mythology that details anything like that.

I did see a really funky theory that I agree with that Hera must be some kind of fertility goddess. In fact, I've seen a lot of people speculate that she was the fertility goddess on the wall of that cave that was destroyed. It would be really wonderful if that greyed-out goddess in Hera's vision was her and not Persephone. Kinda like the ultimate "taking back the power" moment. But tbh I'm not hopeful.

Persephone and Hades... yay/s

*gag* anyway-

Hades decided to give the MORTAL Demophon his whole stash of ambrosia but he doesn't really know if it will actually work and he's salty that Zeus is stingy with it.

Okay, first of all, if it's that damn important that you have ambrosia and you're going to be a salty mofo that the only person who has it is stingy with it, make your own damn ambrosia. You're telling me you've been alive for thousands of years yet the thought hadn't occurred to you once? Bffr. Watch this come back and bite them in the ass in the series finale.

Secondly, if you've never done this before, how do you know it's going to work for Demophon? I mean, it probably will because plot armor, but seriously? What would happen if Demophon just kicked the bucket all over again? Like congratulations, you re-traumatized your wife's mother who already doesn't like you.

Final thoughts

This is all just unraveling so quickly. Watch Demophon disappear and never be addressed again. I am really hoping that this series wraps up between March and May like genericpuff predicted because I am tired. I mean, I'll miss the ability to make content while the material is still piping hot, but also reading this comic is taking a toll on my health. I have never seen my blood pressure in such a state. And I'm not even the one writing the comic.

I can't imagine being in Rachel's shoes rn. I know this point has been beaten to death by everyone and their moms (myself included), but it's so clear that Rachel just doesn't give a shit about this comic anymore. And it's sad. But I also get it.

Rachel has talked about after LO she wants to do a comic along the lines of this but involving Egyptian or Norse mythology. I hope she doesn't for very obvious reasons, but if she decides she wants to step up to the plate for what will inevitably be LO pt. 2, I hope she takes the time to actually research the cultures and learn from the very egregious mistakes that she made here. I won't be there if she does.

[alwaysmicado]

https://www.tumblr.com/free-my-mindd/746081775532605440/chris-mc-geown?source=share <- this is the link i supposed to add in previous ask but dunno why disappeared (i still can't figure out how to add a link in the ask 🤦🏻‍♀️)

read the latest part. my logical side told me that torturing joel somehow means torturing our baby reader, HOWEVER, my rage keep screaming that DON'T LET THAT FUCKER EXIT SO EASILY PLSSS. (of coz i well believe you will keep developing about reader's mind tht this chapter's ending doesn't mean the cloud is cleared or joel is forgiven.) he definitely has not sufferedorry enough. (or will there be a joel's POV chapter to let that fucker explain himself?)

what can i say about tommy? i thought their relationship is so unbelievable (in good way). where would the world got a married guy that still care a girl enough that pick up drunk/cry-call in the middle of night and not hang up? (or my friends are just too shitty 🤦🏻‍♀️) hope i didn't get it wrong from this chapter, besides the common ground from their traumatic history, tommy is just an extremely sweet guy? stupid question here - they seems cleared the prospect of romantic involvement but still able to keep a close relationship. <- i should get this from this chapter or that will be further flashback about this?

thanks so much for your great work and patience to read my rambling 💛

Hi Rachel 😍 Oh yeah, this quote fits reader perfectly:

there were two reasons I was scared to let people in; the damage they could do, and the damage they could find.

After Sunshine, @witchofthedeepwoods was also saying that Angels Like You by Miley Cyrus reminded her of reader and I couldn't agree more!

It's not your fault I ruin everything And it's not your fault I can't be what you need Baby, angels like you can't fly down hell with me I'm everything they said I would be

About Sink or swim:

he definitely has not sufferedorry enough. (or will there be a joel's POV chapter to let that fucker explain himself?)

First of all, you calling Joel a fucker is so damn funny to me, I dunno why 😂😂😂

Second of all, YES! The ending doesn't mean it's all resolved. Not at all. It just means that she's finally ready to be honest with herself, with Joel, and also with Tommy (since he knows now anyway). I guess we'll have to see if Joel makes the right call in the next part and is able to reassure reader somehow that he really is serious about her 😌. What I have planned for sure is to write out the confrontation between Joel and Tommy. I dunno yet if I'll post it separately or within the next part, but it's coming.

hope i didn't get it wrong from this chapter, besides the common ground from their traumatic history, tommy is just an extremely sweet guy? stupid question here - they seems cleared the prospect of romantic involvement but still able to keep a close relationship. <- i should get this from this chapter or that will be further flashback about this?

I think Tommy sees a lot of himself in reader and that's why he understands her so well. And she is comfortable with him 'cause she really feels like he does understand her without judging her. Plus, he's proven over time that he won't abandon her, and that's also huge for her.

At this point, their relationship is platonic and they both appreciate it for what it is. I'm not gonna tell you if that was always the case or if they had more going on after their first night (or even what happened there exactly). Maybe I will some day, but for now, you're free to imagine whatever you like 😋.

I could imagine that Joel's got his own thoughts/questions about their relationship though hehe. But, as @pattwtf and I discussed, I'm positive that Joel honestly wouldn't care either way.

Thank you for reading my story and taking the time to share your thoughts!! It's so much fun and I appreciate it a lot! 😍 Have a wonderful day! 🤍

[pragmatic-optimist]

Sonia, I'm roping you in with an ask even though you're not always here (miss u, love u) 💜 we know you are the romcom QUEEN - give us your top 5 favourite romcoms!

Hi friend, thanks for this totally not difficult-at-all question. Lol.

Okay, as you know, I can’t ever answer anything succinctly. I am going to take this opportunity to plug this nonfiction book I’m listening to on audio, titled “From Hollywood with Love: The Rise and Fall (and Rise Again) of the Romantic Comedy.” –highly recommend it to anyone who is a rom-com nerd like me.

The book asks the following question to determine what can be considered a romantic comedy:

“If you removed the love story from this movie, would you still have a movie? If the answer is no, it’s a romantic comedy.”

With this question in mind, here is my list (not in ranking order, I’m just listing them as they come to me.) Also, yes, this means I can’t list the 2000 gem that was Miss Congeniality. That is my #1 favorite Sandy movie. Not to worry, though, Sandy B. still makes the list.

Here we go:

Serendipity: The trope. NYC as a character. The cast—John Cusack, Kate Beckinsale, John Corbett, Molly Shannon, and the illustrious Eugene Levy who stole all of his scenes as the Bloomingdale’s employee making John Cusack’s life miserable lol. It’s just so good. It’s peak rom-com in the early 2000s. Those of you old enough to appreciate that era of rom-coms will know exactly what I’m talking about. It’s one of my all-time favs. 👏🏽

Two Weeks Notice: Sandy B. Listen, I had to work hard not to make every movie on this list a Sandra Bullock-starring film. I feel like choosing your favorite rom-com actress from the 90s/2000s is a little like choosing your boyband team from that same era. I am Team Sandy B. all the way. (No disrespect to Julia and Meg, and so many others who also made movies I loved.) I love Sandra in this movie opposite Hugh Grant, she’s so smart and so funny. The premise of this movie is actually one I still hold out hope for seeing written as firstprince fanfic someday. Sandra is an environmental lawyer who goes to work for a billionaire’s company in order to save a community center that is very dear to her. There are aspects of that plot that I think Alex and Henry would fit into, and aspects to tweak because I don't think Henry would be quite as arrogant or bumbling as Hugh's character. I could talk about this at length lol.

Definitely, Maybe: Again – the cast. Ryan Reynolds. Isla Fisher. Rachel Weisz. Abigail Breslin. The trope/premise?? So good. I love how it jumps through time and shows us how second chances present themselves in our lives. It’s just a really lovely film and probably my favorite Ryan as a rom-com leading man, though The Proposal is a close second.

Hitch: This movie had me in tears, both from laughter and emotions. Also, the scene where Will Smith is teaching Kevin James’ character how to dance. Iconic. "I'm making the pizza!" “Don’t need no pizza, they got food there!” 😂

My Big Fat Greek Wedding: Windex. Nia Vardalos and John Corbett, watching their characters meet and fall in love. Just so damn dreamy. 😍 I also really love how this movie portrays that when you choose a partner, you’re also choosing their family. 💖

Set It Up: I know this is six lol. But I had to add in a movie post-2010. I love this one so much. I know a movie has become part of my personality when I start adopting the dialogue into my everyday vernacular lol. “I overdicked” is said A LOT. 😂 Also GLEN POWELL. 😏

Thanks for the nice ask! 💕

[tunashei]

First Impressions of Animorphs!

I'm listening to the Animorphs series while I work, through Animorphs Aloud - a fan made reading of the series. Here are my first impressions/random thoughts about them! Spoilers below if you haven't read them.

Book 9: The Secret

You know how we have the mirror test for animals to test their self awareness? How do you reckon they'd react to a clone test. My cat Sadie hates all other cats, would she hate herself if I morphed her?

BITE HIS BALLS CASSIE

Oh my gosh Tobias hangs out at Rachel's watching tv or reading books? That's adorable

Sigh. I wish I lived near untouched wilderness. Not very common on our island

(Morphing a wolf) 'The rest of the morph continued. My knees reversed direction' APPLEGATE. Why. Why do you do this to me?

One of the things that got me into Animorphs was seeing someone's take on an Andalite. They mentioned that Andalite's are never described as having a humanoid torso, so their design lacked that. It was a really nice design. This book does mention Ax having a humanoid torso however. Shame

Not another Eusocial animal! Why wouldn't the exact same loss of identity happen like it did with ants?

I wonder if anyone has animated a morph. That'd be cool to see, the images on the books are freaky enough so in motion would be even cooler

This is a pretty shitty forcefield if it just stops at the ground. You could literally dig under it, no termite form needed. If the Yeerks had made this forcefield a sphere they would have been fine

Uh oh we definitely getting hypnotised by the termite queen

I always felt bad for queens of insect colonies, spending your entire life in a hole secreting eggs sounds like hell to me. But this passage is making me reconsider the idea, if the soldiers really were like slaves and controlled by the queen then it's as if the entire colony is actually the queen. One organism. Hmm

In this book, Cassie commits regicide!

One of these days you guys are going to get yourselves crushed by demorphing in an area too small that you can't destroy

Well that was a easy escape

'The colour of nature wasn't green. It was red. Blood red' damn that's hard

Oh god damn Tobias ate one of those baby skunks. That's surprisingly dark.

Think I've discovered how I'd fail as an Animorph. I would totally morph a cat and end up dozing off in a sunbeam past the two hour limit and being trapped as a cat forever. Not the worst way to live though

Cassie is apologizing to Jake but honestly Tobias deserves one too. You can't blame him for acting on his nature especially when he didn't know these were 'special' kits. And he just saved Cassie's butt. And is offering to help raise the skunk babies.

Has a suspicion Homer would get skunked this book. Someone had to, and he was mentioned earlier. Also weird to me that someone would just trust their dog to go home on their own

My first thought upon hearing this was Cassie was gonna straight up murder Farrand 😭

I mean I guess this Yeerk plan was pretty low stakes to begin with, just them trying to hunt the bandits, but this was a pretty pathetic fight. They give up because smell bad and would have to refit ship. I guess I've never smelt skunk spray though so I don't know how bad it is

Visser Three has lost pretty much all his menace by now

[vicky82gargoylesfan]

My Thoughts on X-Men 97 Episode Tolerance is Extinction Part 1

Another great episode, the action and fighting scenes were awesome. Nightcrawler was amazing in this episode.

Spoilers

Oh Cool Professor X is back in the line up but no Storm yet.

Hmm, Jean has her hair up. I'm glad to see her and Scott are working things out now.

Cool cameo of future Polaris and Rachel.

Oh damn, so the Genosha Massacre had to happen, so they can't stop it with time travel.

Oh damn, Bastion leaked the news that Xavier is alive.

Oh no, Rogue is still out, possibly in a coma. I did have a feeling she would still be unconscious, as she wasn't seen in any of the new shots from the final trailer. It looks like she not physically injured, as Wolverine can heal her. But it looks like she's affected mentally.

I just love this interaction between Nightcrawler and Jean. Jean telling him that even though Cable is not her son but she has all of Madelyne Pryor's memories of being pregnant with him but he is Madelyne's blood and we can see her getting a bit teary eyed. Nightcrawler telling her Blood is Blood, family is choice, as he was abandoned by Mystique and says Rogue is his adopted sister and are close.

Erm, why is Magneto strapped to an X and in his underwear?

Oh you stupid Woman, Val Cooper is alive and working for Bastion but it does seem to not know what Bastion's plans are.

Trish arrives to apologise to Beast, i'm surprised she was allowed in the "basement area" of the Mansion.

Cyclops, Jean and Cable find out more about Bastion. Jean using Psychometry on finding out Bastion's backstory was awesome. His parent's were seen in the 2 part episode One Man's Worth.

Oh wow Dr Doom!!! With the speculation that we could be getting Onslaught, does this mean The Fantastic 4 could make an appearance in season 2.

Sorry I don't know much about Zemo.

Oh my gosh!!!!! Bastion has got prime Sentinels everywhere, he even changed his own Mother into one. So they are mostly sleeper cells, some people volunteered and most were done against there will.

Oh Damn!! even Trish is one and even took out Beast.

Love the transition between scenes.

Morph changing into Juggernaut was pretty cool.

Jubilee and Roberto being chased in the mall by these Prime Sentinels, is a little similar to Jubilee being chased by Sentinels in the 1st episode of the original series.

Wolverine fighting Prime Sentinels in the sky was great.

The Prime Sentinels watching Rogue was creepy

Wolverine and Nightcrawler fighting the Prime Sentinels was awesome, love seeing Nightcrawler using 3 swords. Also as the humans are robots, they can go nuts in slicing them up without being too graphic. But they are so tough they can put themselves back together.

Awww, Nightcrawler is protecting his sister and teleporting the Sentinels out the room.

Seeing inside Nightcrawler's teleportation was amazing.

Roberto has been using the Danger Room to control his powers and learn to fly, which is pretty cool since he doesn't live at the Mansion but is allowed use there facilities.

Lol at Jean being a parent and putting seatbelt on Cable.

Another Blackbird destroyed, love that Cyclops keeps his car in it.

Love the Summer's family moment here with Cable shooting the Sentinels, Jean controlling the car and Cyclops blasting through the mountain.

Love the fist bump between Father and Son

Oh man, Roberto's Mother is bitch, she let the Sentinels take her Son and Jubilee away.

Val let Magneto go, she knows that what Bastion is doing is wrong. I just love her monologue and says Magneto is Right.

LOL Magneto flying to the North Pole in his underwear is hilarious.

Oh wow!!! Magneto just used a EMP to shut down the world, which is actually bad, as it would kill millions of people.

Holy Crap!!! Spiderman!!!!!

Oh wow, Silver Samurai and Omega Red.

At least the Prime Sentinels have been taken down, I wonder if they will change back to humans again. I know they were in the comics but these ones are lot different.

I just love that Wolverine and Morph are drinking beer.

He's back, pretty funny that he crashes his spaceship into the mansion, making it even more destroyed.

Professor X "I hope, I'm not too late" LOL, yeah bit late yeah.

Love Morph's smiling at seeing Xavier back.

Xavier calling back his X-Men gave me goosebumps.

Can't wait for next episode and hopefully Storm will be back.

[not-so-mundane-after-all]

garchel implications aside ( i am sobbing, i am screaming, i am scared ), what are your thoughts on season 4 from what we've seen / know so far???

it looks like we're getting gar, rachel, & dickkory stories ( which. thank GOD ) so what do you think / want to happen?

also the mother mayhem clip kinda reminded me of your purifaction series ngl

I didn't get to fangirl and analyze right after because it was late and I had to get up early for work but you're giving me a perfect opportunity to gather all my thoughts together in one place, thank you.

I am choosing to IGNORE any implications of this shot whatsoever until we get a concrete confirmation (and we better not). I hate the dread this one damn picture caused all over the fandom and overshadowed the hype BUT I'm choosing to remain reasonable and not assume the worst. This picks up literally right after S3 so Rachel has been back for what, 2 days? She's allowed to catch up and cuddle with all her family members, something tells me she will be glued to Dick and Kory as much as she is to Gar here. It doesn't need to mean absolutely anything deeper than that.

And if it does, if they are really going to screw us over like that... Well, we have to prepare. Because I am NOT abandoning my babies, I will keep watching the show even if they are going to shove this thing down my throat. I love this family too much to leave it.

UPDATE:

Teagan confirmed this is platonic. We're safe.

Some things we found out before the panel actually made me really excited. First Brenton confirmed some season 1 villains are coming back + at the panel Greg added to this that death isn't an issue in this case, so I'm hoping for Adamson or Angela and The Nuclear Family.

Then Joseph Morgan said this

And it's REALLY INTERESTING how he only mentions Dick and Rachel specifically. This is giving me hope for some good moments with my father-daughter duo! My mind was overflowing with theories throughout the weekend and if it goes how I'm thinking it might go, it's going to be absolutely GLORIOUS.

(I wish they didn't waste half the panel on talking about Lex and actually discussed Brother Blood instead but it is what it is)

Everything Ryan said about Gar's trauma coming back and how it's a good thing for the character makes me so happy. It's about time this is addressed. It's Ryan's and Gar's time to shine!!!! Also THE SUIT. I am in love with that suit!!!!!

And DICKKORY! Brenton, our King, our Captain, finally pulled through. I love watching that clip, he's blushing like crazy hahahaha. "You're on HBO MAX now" "We're allowed to do some things, yeah" I love that man. It's going to be hot as hell in there!!!!

Now, that fight with Mother Mayhem. She kicks their asses, leaves them licking their wounds - they said that, we've seen that. And as badass as it is to see the team finally together like this, the whole thing seemed pretty... stupid.

Because are they seriously taking turns going at her while there rest just stands and watch? Dick really thought it's a good idea to charge at the woman only with his escrima sticks after two (TWO!) of the most powerful team members got knocked out in seconds? Are they all really that stunned by the fact a magic wielder is attacking them?

So these are my thoughts on what we've seen and learned. I will be watching the panel again after work and maybe come to some other conclusions.

As for what I want to happen?

I hope they won't waste too much time on Lex. We don't need another Crane situation.

I want a lot more family moments, that tight knit vibe. What we got is a pretty good start.

Obviously the most important thing to me here is my father-daughter duo, so I'm gonna say this: I'm expecting some protectiveness right away because for god's sake Rachel passed out after that attack - I better see a concerned father in action.

Also this makes me wonder if this the reason for the whole white hair/no gemstone thing:

Mother Mayhem sucked in everything Rachel gave her in that clip, drained her basically. Will this be the after effect? Ever since I saw those pics I thought something big and painful is going to happen and it will be sudden, but maybe the change is gradual? Her her starts fading, gem either falls out or melts into the skin - and they rush back to Star Labs to get help. We'll see.

Then there's Joseph Morgan saying his "sweet and innocent" Sebastian is on first name basis with Dick and Rachel specifically which makes me think - Dick is going to trust that man with Rachel's wellbeing and he will DEEPLY regret it later.

[genericpuff]

wait wait wait, regarding that Minthe post, you're telling me that Rachel literally wrote the character as having BPD.....and portrayed her as an abusive mean piece of shit??? WOW. fucking WOW. sorry for being so angry, but even if she "retconned" that - it's still so god damn disrespective. as someone who has BPD it hurts so much to see my mental illness villanised :(

ugh I'm so sorry pal. and I don't blame you for being angry about it, like I don't even have BPD and I'M fucking pissed LOL like I can understand why Rachel might have wanted to backtrack from that knowing fully well that Minthe's story wasn't gonna have a happy ending, but writing her with BPD in the first place and then BACKTRACKING from it as soon as she likely got heat for it (or just realized it wasn't a good look) isn't much better because it means now all she's done is written the stigmatized negative effects of BPD into her character without showing the more positive outlooks of healing and managing. Maybe that was doomed to happen considering Minthe is someone who doesn't get a happy ending in the myths, but it begs the question of why she'd write her with BPD to begin with because in hindsight it really does seem like she just wanted to use it as a way to make her "evil".

But like, when you read the actual episode, you can SEE the potential there for character growth, you can SEE that she's aware of her actions - but doesn't understand why she's "like that" which is a VERY common feeling among people with undiagnosed mental illnesses - but it was never meant to be.

Like jfc not only is it HEAVILY IMPLIED, but again, the episode is literally called "Splitting". And we see exactly that with Minthe, who can't seem to rationalize with herself that she messed up.

But... that leads me to another point that I failed to mention in that first ask response: she DIDN'T mess up. Like, yes, she messed up by escalating it to the point of slapping Hades, but it wasn't her fault that she didn't make it to her date with Hades. Whose fault was it?

Continuously throughout the first season we see Thetis being an awful influence who manipulates and gaslights Minthe. They're "friends", but it's clear Thetis does not have Minthe's best interests in mind. In this very scene we see Thetis manipulate Minthe and even attempt to get her so drunk that she won't be able to show up to her date. And then of course when that plan works and Minthe freaks out, Thetis spins it around on Minthe in a very passive-aggressive way.

But of course, the narrative has to find a way to turn this whole thing on Minthe being the bad guy. Hence we get the slap which shifts the focus entirely away from what led up to it back onto Hades who has, in a lot of ways, put her in a situation that she can't control. And of course, being in those kinds of situations does not help with mental health.

Like, sorry, I'm really going off here now, but... the slap happens in Episode 76.

When is it finally addressed again? Episode 103.

It took Rachel nearly THIRTY EPISODES to finally bring it back to Minthe, and in that time the reader has spent SEVERAL EPISODES reading about how sad and lonely Hades is, and about how cute and lovey he is with Persephone. The reader has not had ANY time to reflect on Minthe's circumstances, because it completely pivots away from her to focus on H x P as a sort of distraction from the fact that Minthe is a victim in her own right.

And when it DOES return to Minthe in 103, we get this harrowing reminder that her entire life is dependent on Hades-

And once again, here comes Thetis to the "rescue", reinforcing the negative feedback loop that Minthe is trapped in where she's put in unhealthy situations. She drags her to a bar and the whole time Minthe is not having fun because she's understandably still reeling from what happened.

Now we DO get some character development here, where Minthe realizes exactly what I've just finished explaining, that Thetis isn't her friend, that she'd rather not have Thetis as a friend than continue being talked down to and manipulated.

But then, as we know, because Rachel still needs Minthe to be the "bad guy", the breakup between Hades and Minthe winds up being all about Persephone from a POV that attempts to villainize Minthe for being "jealous" (rather than focusing on how shitty Hades actually is for having an emotional affair with Persephone to begin with) and then Minthe goes right back to hanging out with Thetis anyways for the sake of having the "evil other girl" who wants to "ruin" H x P's relationship.

It's not until Season 3 that we finally see Minthe tell Thetis to fuck off for good, but by then it's too little too late, and Minthe has lost an entire character arc. Rachel tries to go "see! Minthe's life is so much better now that she's taking care of children!" but that's an entirely different solution to a problem Minthe never had. She never got treatment for her BPD. She just got away from H x P which, while is a good thing, isn't actually analyzed as such. It's treated more as a "good thing" for H x P and the readers, because now they don't have to be subjected to Minthe's evil scheming anymore, something something "the evil is defeated". And don't even get me started on this comic's problem with constantly resolving female characters' story arcs through motherhood.

It bums me out so fucking much. Minthe deserved so much better. She's one of the many characters in LO who make it so painfully ironic when they're done dirty, because despite Rachel's attempts to write a "feminist retelling" that focuses on "moving on from trauma", she's inadvertently done more damage to feminism and the stigmas around mental health and trauma through her assassination of grounded and realistic and relatable characters like Minthe and Demeter who are shown ZERO empathy or understanding for their actions (unless it can be done so by making Persephone and Hades into the heroes). It happens so often throughout the comic it almost feels like how the comic markets itself as a "progressive feminist retelling" is some sick joke that I'm just not getting.

[ally-writes-many-things]

Deserving (Eric King) Part 1

Summary: After working with Eric for almost seven months and hating him, you slowly realize you had feelings for him.

Words: 2.1K

Warnings or A/N: This story will contain NSFW and a cheating trope. (Not Rachel and Nick well them too)

Tags: @yellowroseskolchek @thefictionalgemini @house-of-kolchek

You couldn’t believe that some high and mighty asshole got you transferred to be his charge, you were perfectly happy with sitting behind a table doing intelligence, but no since you were so smart you were forced to go. You finished packing your things and sighed you heard a slight knock on the door. You turned around and saw your CO or former CO standing next to the door. “Last time we see each other, huh?”

He was why you enjoyed your job here. You mean it in no romantic or sexual way. He was a hell of an O.C. He was your closest friend and your favorite person. “I’m sure we’ll see each other again… hopefully,”

-Half a year later-

It's been nearly seven months since Lieutenant-Colonel Eric King took you under his command and it was miserable working for him. He's a selfish asshole who doesn't give a damn about anything but his stupid Caylus program. That’s why he got you transferred. He thought you could help with it, but you have to be honest, you have no idea what to help him with it, especially since he didn’t allow you to see all the data. "How am I supposed to help you when you won't let me look at all the data, Colonel?"

“You see what you need to see,”

“How do you know that? What if there is a teething problem that I can fix if I see the entire data you’ve collected?”

“There is no teething problem,”

“Then why the hell am I here then? You took me from a post I liked to come work for you with this stupid satellite that you don't even let me help you with,"

"Get rid of the attitude. I'm a superior and I'm going…

“You will what? Fire me? Get me discharged? Go fucking for it. I’d rather be discharged, then work for an egotistical jerkwad like yourself,”

Eric stood there staring at you in shock at the way you handled it. “Well? You want me to pack or what?

“No, but you’re dismissed for the rest of the day,”

You backed out of the room. “Gladly,”

You walked a few doors down and opened the door to the barracks. “I really can’t fucking stand him,” You said, plopping on your bed.

“What did Captain Goldie lucks do this time?”

You looked over at one of the ladies that you share the room with before you laid on your side on the bed to face her. “I think the better question is what hasn’t he done. He’s a fucking egotiscal jackass who wanted my help but won’t show me everything,”

"I know it can be frustrating, but at least he's hot,"

Eric was really attractive, but that attitude was unpleasant. “He is but that ego of his,”

“Say no more, The new recruits are something else though,”

You laughed. ”Yeah no kidding,”

Over the past few months, you have been watching the new recruits try to impress Eric with their computer knowledge and/or flirt with them, but Eric couldn't care less about him. “Yln,”

You looked the other way and saw one of the new recruits. “Yes?”

"Colonel Klein asks for you in the briefing room,"

“Did you say Klein?”

“I did ma’am,”

You jumped off the bed and practically ran to the briefing room. The minute you walked into the bedroom, you saw him sitting on the table. “Colonel Klein,”

“Yln. We need to talk,”

You rolled your eyes as you knew what this talk was gonna be about. You walked up to the chair that was next to where he was sitting. “He’s a jackass, okay,”

"You do not have to love him, but you must abide by him. He is your commanding officer,”

“Do I have too?”

"If you get fired, you won't be able to work for me again,"

“UGH fine. I promise to be on my best behavior. Only if you put me back where I belong,"

“I’ll try,”

-

You opened the door to Eric's office without looking at the file you were holding. "Colonel, I found something you should look into."

You looked up to him when you finished that phrase and you saw that Eric was taking care of him and you laughed. "Couldn't you have waited until everybody was asleep to do that?"

Eric rushes to cover himself up. “Well most people knock on my door before opening the door?”

"Right, but I'm not most people," you laughed. "Do you need assistance?"

Eric stared at you with an eyebrow raised. “What?”

"Let me help you with this,"

“Again. What? Why would you offer to help me?”

"You won't get the satisfaction you want with your right hand and maybe I'll help you and you'll stop being an asshole. So when I give this to you last, do you want me to help you?

Eric removed his hand from his cock, you threw the file on his desk and got on your knees and took his hard member into your hand and you grip the base of his dick as your tongue flicks against him. You slid your hand up and down the shaft, your mouth and fingers working in tandem. Your other hand reaches underneath to gently cradle his balls, stroking the underside of the sack. You quickly found an easy pace with your hands gripping his thighs, bobbing your head on his member but you still did try to annoy him but slowing down every few seconds. Eric grunted when you did that as he didn’t like that as he grabbed a fist full of hair in both hands and started shoving your head up and down his cock. You gagged on his dick a few times. You felt his dick twitch as he let out a thick groan and you swallowed all of it. You dropped his dick and wiped the mouth. “Satisfied?”

“Yes, thank you,” He said, putting himself back into his pants.

You nodded and picked up the file on his desk. “So what I was saying is that Caylus found something interesting?”

Eric got out of his seat and walked over to where you were standing. “Did it?”

You handed the file to Eric. “Take a look and you tell me,”

He flipped through the pages and studied them before looking at you. “This looks like?”

“The weapon locker? That’s what I thought too,”

“We need to move on this,”

"Wait, Colonel. With all due respect, we should maybe double-check that this is what we think before we go in, because it could be quite different."

“Yln, I’m the Colonel here. I say when we move and I say we move now,”

“Okay, still a dick,” You said walking out of his office.

Even though he was still acting like a dick, you didn’t regret it. Now, every time he gets excited, he's gonna think of you.

-

You were setting up Camp Slayer's computers two days after you showed that data to Eric. He wasn’t kidding when he said that you were moving now. It took no less than a day to get it all ready for Iraq. Camp Slayer was the base that was part of the Saddom chemical weapons operation. “Colonel King,”

A woman's voice pulled you from the computer and you saw who you were pretty sure was the "Queen Bitch" Jason, the first lieutenant, was also referring to. And Eric's wife, too. Something you didn't know before you sucked Eric. You were going to talk to Eric about that when you had the chance.

Eric turned round and stared at his wife. "Mrs. King

She did not react to what he said, which you found quite peculiar. “Eric, this is my team. If you wanna brief them, you clear it with me first,”

Eric shook his head and spoke with Rachel. “I should have warned you I was moving the briefing forward. That’s on me but things escalated, I had to move fast,”

“I have a duty to my team to stay ahead of the curve,”

“I understand, Rachel, but CENTCOM has give their orders,”

“Orders?”

“I’m now Commanding Officer. I didn’t mean for you to find out like this. Truly. I’m sorry, Rache,”

“Somehow I doubt that very much,”

Jason approached the happy couple and handed her the note that Eric gave him when you landed here. “This is from SOC Central. It confirms that Lieutenant Colonel King has assumed control of this operation,”

You spoke to Rachel in the spot you were standing in. “I’m gonna need access to your network,”

She turned and let her wraith out on you. “Who the hell are you?”

The corners of your lip have slightly turned upward to the sheer boldness that bitch has. You were on the verge of saying something, but Eric talked to her. “This is Yn Yln. I’ve given her full clearance,”

“I bet you have. I’ll patch you through,”

“”Thank you,”

Eric took his eyes off his wife and walked closer to you. “Yn, please prepare the presentation,”

Yoy nodded and started tapping away on the computer so you can pull up the presentation. “Yes, sir,”

“You found something?”

After a few minutes and finalizing everything, the presentation was ready and everyone was in the room. The other Marines that were about of the operation were in here as well. The one who was fucking gross was talking about of his ass. “Fuck is that? Modern art or something?”

“This is footage from the highly classified Caylus program,”

“That suppose to mean something to me?”

You rolled your eyes at the Colonel. “Colonel, the only two people that know about Caylus here are me and you. You might wanna explain what it is,”

Eric nodded at you as he came to that realization. “It’s a thermal satellite system that I personally pioneered,”

“Ohhh, well I’m impressed. Please, pioneer away,”

Eric wasn’t having any of Merwin jackassary. You didn’t agree with Eric on a lot of things but Merwin was pissing you off too. You beat Eric this time. “Is he always this fucking annyoing? Do you ever shut the fuck up? I don’t understand how no one has knocked you the fuck out,”

“What did you say to me?”

“You heard me,”

“Colonel, you either shut this bitch up or I will shut-”

Eric looked between you and then Merwin and he took a few steps closer to Merwin. “CORPORAL! I’m gonna stop you right there so you don’t finish a sentence that you are going to regret,”

“But Colonel,”

“Make one more threatening comment towards Yln and I will have you packing your bags and on your way back to the states, got it?”

Merwin side eyed you for a few seconds before shutting up.

. "‘You behave like this in all of your briefings Corporal?”

“Now back to what I was saying. Satellite sweeps of the warzone have undercovered what appears to be an undercover storage facility. This well, of course, requires further investigation but I strongly suspect it’s where Saddam’s chemical weapons are hidden,”

Merwin and Nick fisted bumped and Jason looked up to the ceiling. “We got you, you son of a bitch,”

Eric pointed at the screen. “CENTCOM has given the green light to raid the facility and seize any weapons on site. Hostiles may be over but there are holdout groups of Republican Guard all over the country. They could deploy the weapons at any time, so we need to move fast. As soon as they get here, the army is giving us a ride out there in their helos. On arrival Lt Kolchek will lead the way to the facility. Once it's secured, we’ll carry out a full weapons inspection. Now listen up. There’s been a change of leadership but Rachel’s operational ex[ertise and local knowledge is just as valuable as ever. She’ll be flying with us, and I want you all to show her the same respect. Any questions?”

Merwin was the first to ask. “The fuck we waiting for? I’m ready,”

Jason was the next one to say something. “That’s tribal territory out there, Colonel. Make no mistake, those people are feral. I take it we’re getting air support?”

Merwin answered him before anyone else did. “Nah, too many birds could bring them down on us. ‘We more fast-in, fast out,”

Joey spoke next. “That’s pretty much what your mama said to me,”

“Hey, careful boy! If I didn’t pull out so fast. I could’ve been your ‘papi’!”

Jason spoke up this time. “Merwin, that’s enough. Sir, what’s your call?”

Eric actually looked like he was thinking about what Jason had said. “I’ll put in a request for air-support to be on standby,”

“Our birds can fly low under the radar. The site is in the Zagros mountains so we’ll have plenty of ground cover,”

“We go dark until the weapons are secured. If we don’t break radio silence within 24 hours, CENTCOM will mount a rescue operation.

“A lot of shit came go down within 24 hours,”

“Ah, quit being a bitch,”

“I’m not being a bitch, I’m just saying,”

Eric was trying to keep his cool but you can tell that this unit is wearing on his last nerves. “This is why we went to war! This is what gets us out of bed every morning! Make no mistake, ladies and gentleman, this is how we stop Saddam from using these weapons. Be ready in an hour. Dismissed,”

Eric walked over to me and started to point at the equipment. “Oh, you already put it all up,”

“Yep. Do you want to check to make sure I put them in correctly? I mean I know how particular you are,”

Eric looked like he was on his last nerve.You looked around to make sure it was just you and Eric in the room before laying into him.“You have a wife?”

[bambirex]

Waaahhh. You can’t leave the Pezberry one like that. Can we get a part two, angry love confession? Also can you post your glee stuff to ao3 plz? :)

Sorry, the angst train took me haha! Here's a version with a happier outcome! And i might eventually post the requests to my ao3, I'll put the link into my pinned post once I started :)

Warnings: none

**

The argument started when Rachel told Santana that she couldn't cook dinner that evening, because she was going out to see someone. Some stupid, pretentious nerd who had a role in the same production Rachel was in.

Santana had an awful day in general. She'd missed the train and then got told off for being late from work, then she managed to trip in front of everyone in her heels when she was going home. Her angry-meter was slowly rising higher and higher, threatening with an overblow. It's been a while since her so-called evil self, Snixx took over, but it seemed like she would be returning tonight with full force.

"I cooked dinner the whole week," Santana grumbled from the couch, "you can move a finger too, you know."

"And I've cooked the whole week before that," Rachel shot back. She was already getting ready for her date, currently doing her hair in front of the mirror. Santana wished she didn't find her roommate so pretty in that blue dress, especially when she was so angry with her.

Pining after Rachel was such a stupid thing. It would lead to nowhere anyways, and it was high time for Santana to make peace with that. She had already admitted to herself that her constant annoyance with everyone Rachel had ever dated was a product of her stupid romantic feelings- that was already such a huge task, why did she have to make everything even more difficult for herself by being unable to let go?

"Whatever, I bet that guy isn't even worth it," Santana scrunched her nose up at the mental image of some obnoxious dude kissing Rachel tonight. "You could just ditch him."

"You say that about every guy."

"And I'm always right. Remember Brody?"

Rachel scoffed. "That was one time! Not every man I see is your enemy, Santana."

"No, they're your enemies. They're all douchebags, and you don't even notice."

Rachel turned around. Her eyes were harder than Santana had ever seen them before.

"Well, maybe douchebag guys are all I have!"

Her voice was high-pitched, annoyed, but also hurt. Santana looked up at her questioningly.

"What do you mean?"

Rachel shook her head. She stared down at her feet, looking even smaller than usual.

"Just drop it, Santana. Gosh, you call me dramatic, and then you kick up such a fuss over dinner..."

How Santana wished this was only about dinner. She couldn't care less about who made the casserole tonight: she just didn't want Rachel to leave and spend the night with someone else, someone who wasn't Santana.

"I just don't want you to get hurt, Berry," Santana sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose tiredly. She felt a headache coming on. "Why are you being so damn stubborn?"

"Why are you?" Rachel crossed her arms, finally looking up again defiantly. "I just wanna have one freaking date without you snapping at me and preaching about how awful all these guys are!"

"I wouldn't have to preach, if you just listened to me!"

"Oh, like you ever do!"

"That's not the point!"

The tension rose higher and higher, along with their voices. Santana didn't even realize they got closer to each other, until Rachel was standing right in front of her, staring up into her face with stormy eyes.

"Why do you even care so much? Why does it matter to you, Santana!?"

"Because I'm in love with you!"

If the sound of their yelling was harsh, then, the silence was deafening. Santana clapped a hand over her mouth, all her blood rushing to her face as she realized what she had just said out loud.

Rachel's eyes were large and wide, and her mouth fell open. She blinked once, twice, her lips twitching as if she wanted to say something, but couldn't.

Santana wished the ground would open and swallow her whole. How could she be so careless, letting her temper once again get the better of her, and say this? How could she ruin everything so spectacularly with her stupid, unrequited feelings?

It felt like a fever dream from the second Rachel finally moved. She surged forward so suddenly that she nearly knocked into Santana, and pressed her lips against hers.

Santana's head spun and her ears started ringing. She thought she would actually faint, with Rachel's lips plastered onto hers, her hands grabbing Santana's waist almost angrily.

"I hate you," Rachel growled against Santana's lips. Her breath was hot and her hair tickled Santana's face, who gripped Rachel's shoulders helplessly, trying to keep herself up.

"I'm in love with you too," Rachel sighed, and Santana was horrified to see the tears in her eyes. She finally woke up from her haze and cupped Rachel's face.

"Rachel..."

"I've been in love with you for so long," Rachel whispered, the tears now streaming down her face, "but I couldn't tell you, and you would always act like you weren't interested, and now you have the audacity to scream this into my face!?"

"I couldn't hold it back," Santana admitted. She could barely fight back her own tears. "You should have said something! You were chasing these stupid dudes all along!"

"The same way you were chasing all those hot girls!"

They fell silent again. There was so much to be said, but Santana couldn't get the words out. She couldn't believe that Rachel had felt the same way all along, that she was so blind. They should have sat down such a long time ago and talk about this, but it seemed like overdramatic confrontations were their way of pushing through any emotional turmoil.

"So..." Santana whispered, gently running a thumb across Rachel's cheekbone, "are you still going on that date?"

Rachel chuckled, rolling her eyes. She turned her head to press a kiss against Santana's palm, her cheeks heating up slightly.

"No, I'd rather stay with you. If that's okay with you, too."

"Damn right it is," Santana laughed, before leaning down and capturing Rachel's lips in another, much softer kiss.

They clearly had a lot to talk about, but right now, the truth was finally out, and that seemed like a great start.

[palavrasdeputaria]

Just got home from watching The Woman King and it was amazing.

Two and a half hours of an emotional roller coaster, I cheered, I winced, I covered my face, I cried and so much more

Viola Davis is so damn impressive and her range is unreal. I kept thinking of her as Annalise Keating or as Rose Lee Maxon or as Ma Rainey and consistently being so blown away by her ability to just morph into her characters.

Wow, I mean everyone was so damn good and the styling! THE FIGHT SCENES! The intensity and softness. The bits of humor and delicate moments. I could go on and on. I want to watch it again.

Finally finished Gideon the Ninth, literally only got hooked in the last few chapters then the last line has me left in with a difficult decision to make. Legit, most of the book kind of bored me. Then it finished so damn strong and do I want to find a way to buy the second book so I can read Nona the Ninth that I have just sitting on a shelf? Do I just want to find a synopsis online and get the general idea of Harrow the Ninth then move onto the third book?

Do I just want to dive right into The Genesis of Misery by Neon Yang and give up on Harrow all together? Somebody buy me all the books okay?

Today the internet also annoyed me greatly. Everything I opened was just drama about people who should be left well alone so I closed it all and just watched TV and worked.

Went out to see a movie with Amaya and Rachel instead, much better use of my time.

I'm feeling better, sort of, my stomach is feeling better. Not completely, but it's much less painful and I don't feel like I'm at risk of shitting myself constantly. Maybe this weird diet is working. I'm trying not to be too hopeful, I still have blood tests and possibly a colonoscopy to get through.

I just learned today that you get knocked out for a colonoscopy, which is going to be challenging. I wonder if I can pay an Uber driver to deal with me being not functional and get me home safely.

I worried a lot about you today, not sure why. I think maybe because it's getting cold and it's getting dark earlier. Perhaps it makes me more wary of the world in general.

I think I'm going to re listen to the Tensorate Series and contemplate my next literary move.

I hope you're okay. I miss talking to you today, I kept having moments where I wanted to hear your opinion. Hear one of your exquisite verbal onslaughts denouncing or lauding whatever thing spurred your passion. There is still just such a vast emptiness.

Anyways, here is the cover of The Genesis of Misery. I think you'd like it.

It looks fucking cool right? I also just realized that creature as four arms, I wonder if that will be explained or if it's just for coolness.

[tuiyla]

Your post about Every breath you take reminded me of another reason I hate the pezberry feud, an issue probably nobody else has lol but not even one (1) thing about those two being on a Broadway show was factual, if it were, there would've been no feud to begin with - technically Santana would have been Rachel's standby, not the understudy, and she would've only gone on if both Rachel and the understudy were out. If Santana isn't in the show outside of playing fanny (usually in the ensemble, sometimes a supporting part) she's not the understudy. Many standbys can be in a show for a year and never actually go on, or only once or twice. So take your vitriol out on your actual understudy Rachel, she's a ton more likely to actually play the part instead of santana the standby. Also Rachel giving santana 10 shows? Not a thing. She doesn't have that kind of power. Auditioning in an actual theater? No. The already cast lead being there for auditions for her understudy? Nope. Where's the casting director? Rehearsing on stage at the same time when they're both playing the same part? Blocking, what's that? Santana getting the part even though she can't sing it in the right key? (I love Naya and I love her version of Don't rain on my parade but they did have to lower the key for her). Obviously I'm well aware glee isn't really set in reality but I find it a little strange that they couldn't be bothered to be even a little factual with what's basically the main arc of their main character throughout the entire series, being on Broadway. Those scenes are just so damn distracting to me haha (Although I guess none of these still aren't as stupid as Kurt and Rachel being allowed to sing on stage at wicked... Now that's the scene I'm going to choose to consider non-diagetic lol it's all in your heads kids)

Gotta say, I'm no theater kid so most of what I know is from Glee but I appreciate this perspective, TIL! That point about understudy vs standby makes so, so much sense.

So basically what I'm getting from all of this is that Glee twisted real-life logic even more than usual just to make the Pezberry feud ~work~. What a bastardly thing. I mean, Glee not being true to life isn't a surprise but you know what really gets me? When they don't even have an internal logic. Because the show itself makes a meta joke that Santana got Fanny despite not being Jewish and has the galls to compare it to Rachel being in a "Puerto Rican marching band" and they completely fail to see the irony in regards to West Side Story?? You know, the musical that should have been a one-woman show if McKinley insisted on putting it on. This is barely relevant I just bring it up whenever I have the chance because Glee lacks self-awareness to an appalling degree at times.

Anyway. Because I'm no expert on musical theatre and basically only here for the gay lmao I don't think about this stuff during Every Breath You Take, I'm too busy soaking in the Drama. But that's why I really appreciate this perspective and yeah, you're right and you should say it Anon. Then again, they just threw logic out the window the moment they decided Rachel's Broadway dreams would come true at age 19, didn't they?

One day kids we'll cover the Pezberry feud in depth. One day.

[getnight]

So, hi, here is the part of my big fic about sons of Mike&Rachel and Harvey&Donna. It's just a little piece. Actually, Chris and Tyler (their sons) are my Original characters, but... I like them) And, yeah, we haven't Marvey at Canon, so i did their children in love. They are cute, I think🌚 Soooo... Maybe you'll be interested. Yeah.

Christopher caught up with Tyler in a few seconds, yanking off his hood and grabbing him lightly by the neck with his forearm. The boy flinched, leaned back and tried to pull his arm away, and when he failed, he tried to fall with his attacker to the side of the road. At that moment, Chris let go.

— Hey, Tyle, take it easy. This is me, — He steadied Tyler from falling and stood beside him, brushing him off.

— You... why did you do that? — Tyler frowned, pulling the headphones out of his ears and pinching a lollipop to his cheek.

— Why are you so cute? You're a formidable genius, but you love lollipops and you frown like you're five instead of fifteen.

— I'm not cute, keep your high energy endorphins with yourself, — Tyler pulled up his hood, turned around, and was about to continue walking when Chris literally dived in front of him, blocking the way.

They faced each other. Chris was literally a centimeter taller, but he had rather broad shoulders, which made him look much bigger than Tyler.

— Hey,— Christopher whispered.

— What? — Tyler replied.

Chris smiled fondly as he pulled back his hood.

— That's better. I love your hair, — he hesitated for a second, then gently took Tyler's hand, the other gently pulling the candy out of Ross' mouth and tugging at his wrist, pulling him into a soft, chaste kiss that Tyler happily responded to. Christopher's other hand went to the back of the boy's head, and he felt long fingers on his waist. When they finally parted, Chris said:

— Good morning, Tyle, — and he smiled sincerely, expecting something like that in return: "Don't call me that”.

— Good morning, Topha, — and the kind of smile that only Tyler Harvey Ross could give. Sincere and pure. The one that no one but those closest to her had ever seen. The one that opened the veil of a brilliant, sullen guy.

The nickname "Topha" seemed strange to Chris. It was indeed a derivative of his name, Christopher, but how Tyler came up with it... no one ever found out. Parents said that as a child, baby Ross could not pronounce Chris ' full name and called him "Topha". And so it turned out. Since then, Tyler only calls his boyfriend that when no one is looking.

Tyler pulled the hood up again. His clothes were no different from what he always wore. Black ripped jeans, a huge black hoodie, and... something had changed that day.

— I'm not going to ask about the paint stain, or what wall you painted on the way here, but do I really see your badge? — Chris stared at the rainbow-colored iron circle attached to the left side of Tyler's chest.

— Exactly one year, three hundred and sixty five days, eight thousand seven hundred and sixty-six hours, five million two hundred and fifty-six thousand minutes ago, I first realized that I was in love with you, — Tyler said calmly.

Christopher choked and blushed. No, no, no, no. Damn, why is he so bad with emotions?

— I'm sorry, I… — Specter whispered, and suddenly felt a warm hand on his cheek.

Tyler looked at him, not affectionately, not solicitously, just calmly.

— It's all right. I know we'll be working on your emotional range, — he said.

— God, — Chris suddenly smiled, — How do you do that? How can you so easily talk about your feelings and understand them, but absolutely not be able to communicate with people? — he abruptly hoisted the thin Tyler onto his shoulder, running ahead of him down the road.

At first there were attempts to resist and shouts that they would be seen, but then the guy just hung on Chris ' back.

— You took my lollipop, by the way, — he mumbled.

— Is that the only thing that bothers you? Christopher laughed.

— No, the fact that you laugh for some reason means that you experience joy, happiness, euphoria, fun or…

The schoolhouse loomed up ahead, and Chris lowered his boyfriend to the ground.

— Here, just shut up, highactivity sociopath, — he said, handing Tyler a lollipop he'd taken from his backpack. Yes, he always had such a supply. It was the most important thing in his things. What Chris checked every day before he left for school. Ever since he had the pocket money. That is, from the age of nine.

Tyler's face lit up with a childlike smile, and he took the candy, opened it, put it in his mouth, and said through it:

— You can't blame my love of Sherlock.

— I'm not blameing.

Tyler's entire room was covered with posters, quote sheets, DVD boxes taped to tape, and other decorations. By the way, the love of watching movies on DVD was instilled in Tyler by Chris ' father.

Christopher never disapproved of posters and things like that, no. Conversely. He thought it was extremely cute. In his room, despite the fact that he had both favorite movies and favorite bands, there was not a single poster. Somehow, he had never been attracted to such a way of designing a room.

A couple in love walked towards the school, holding hands. Tyler, who was always more open with Chris, chatted about how he'd tried to curl his hair again over the weekend, which he did often, and he liked it. Chris, always a sociable bully-athlete in front of everyone and a little modest, relaxed and allowing himself to revel in his mind, not strength, and the mind of the person he talks to, in front of Tyler, listened carefully to his boyfriend, once saying that he wanted to make Tyler's curls himself one day.

Closer to the school, they uncoupled their hands. At school, they are just childhood best friends, close brothers. There may be rumors that will quickly reach the teachers, and from them to the parents. Both Chris and Tyler agreed to hide it from the families at all costs. They didn't know what the reaction and consequences would be, so the longer their relationship was kept secret, the better.

— I have literature, — Tyler said, pulling his hood up again and searching for something in his backpack.

— Math, — Chris said.

— Here. I drew it yesterday. Will you watch it? Tyler waved his hand, closed his backpack, and walked away, putting in his headphones.

Christopher hated painting, drawing, and galleries. But there was one exception. The exception who bore the name was Tyler Harvey Ross. His boyfriend was an incredible artist, he drew a lot of different sketches, gradually a whole pile formed in his desk drawer. These drawings were never shown to anyone other than Chris. Moreover, Specter suspected that even he did not know all of Tyler's works.

— Chris! — a voice called out.

Christopher turned.

— Let's go to class, buddy — said the guy who flew up.

— Where are you going in such a hurry, Jim? Christopher chuckled.

Jim was one of the guys on the football team.

Jim ruffled Chris ' red hair.

— Come on.

They entered the classroom,where there were already quite a few people. Christopher walked past a girl who was eating grapes and brazenly stole one of the berries.

—Thank you, — he chuckled.

The girl said nothing. Everyone is used to it. Chris Specter is a real badass.

The teacher appeared and the bell rang.

When everyone had calmed down, and the rowdy teammates and friends were deep in math, a topic that he and Tyler had gone through with Uncle Mike a year ago, Chris pulled out a drawing, unfolding it.

It was their portrait. Him and Tyler. Just a sketch, not even painted, but Christopher just couldn't look away. The two of them were standing on the pavement of New York City, high-rise buildings behind them, and a car was driving in the foreground. Chris was hanging up the Topha Coffee sign on the stairs. The building he hung it on says "Open," and there are all kinds of cakes and other desserts in the windows. Inside, there are a couple of tables and a counter. On the sides of the picture are depicted tree branches with birds. Tylee himself was standing a little apart from his boyfriend, his index finger outstretched, apparently instructing him on how to hang up the sign. Tyler's self-portrait was perfect. It was the coal-black hair with the little curls, the ice-blue eyes (the eyes of both of them were the only color spots in the drawing), the thick eyebrows, the lean body hidden under a large apron that Chris found charming, wide nose and sharp cheekbones.

Christopher seemed to be busy with the sign, and Tyler was busy with putting it up, but their eyes were only on each other. And there was life in those eyes, real life. Frozen, yes. But it's real. Perhaps such a picture was their dream. Chris wanted to move to New York, and Tyler wanted to open his own cozy little coffee shop with his paintings hanging on the walls.

A couple of times Specter asked his boyfriend if his genius mind would not be bored in such a routine. Tiley just smiled and shook his head. Then Chris realized that the teenager himself did not know. He wants a simple quiet happiness, but at the same time not to lose his mind and genius. He's afraid of society, shuns it, finds it boring and disturbing, but he wants to see people smile when they drink his freshly made coffee or try a piece of that apple pie that Edith Ross, Tyler's great-grandmother, then Uncle Mike, and now Tyler himself, baked. He rushes around, not knowing where to put himself and what to do.

Maybe they should just finish school first and enjoy their youth. And then… Then they will definitely come up with how it will be. They will tell their parents about their relationship, go to university, and who knows what will happen next. We'll see. That was Chris ' opinion.

The bell rang in the hallway, dismissing all the students for recess. Christopher carefully folded the drawing and put it in his pocket. They'll meet at dinner, they always do. And this day will be no exception.

That's what Christopher thought as he walked out of the math room with his friends in his arms. But perhaps this day will be something that will soon change their entire lives and views on her, their family and each other.

[wellamarke]

Alright. This is going to be shorter than I planned because I keep tying myself in knots over the very first shot, but I'm going to skip straight to my main point about the Dashing White Sergeant, which is this:

Nobody gets to dance with the person opposite them in the circle.

That is not how the dance works. In DWS, you dance with two people: the ones either side of you, in your row of 3. Yes, to be fair, you join hands and walk back and forth to meet your opposite person, but that person never gets your hand. So, how, pray, do we get this:

AND this:

Well, it's because, in what is arguably his boldest move since 'carrots', Gilbert breaks the set and spins Anne over to his side:

When what they're supposed to have done is this:

ie. Diana, Gilbert and Jane should have performed a straight swap with Caleb, Anne and Charlie. That twirl? Does not exist in the Dashing White Sergeant.

This absolute... opportunist, sees his moment and risks throwing the whole dance just to get to hold Anne's hand. I'm so proud.

The first time they come into the centre he's all smirky, because yes, being face-to-face is fun and an excellent twist on their usual head-to-head. But that's not enough, he wants to dance with her. He's going to get his hand-hold after 3 years of waiting for it, damn it all.

(I know, I know, I'm coming late even to the Netflix release and I've missed the intense week-long dissection of the scene by literal months, so obviously all this has been said. But it's NEW TO ME and I haven't seen the text posts so I'm going to still talk about it).

There is so much metaphorical resonance here.

The two positions (beside and opposite) are supposed to be irreconcilable in the dance. Anne and Gilbert are two people who so often oppose each other but, when it comes to things that really matter, they are on the same side. Likewise, the parts of the dance they spend opposite each other are fleeting, and for the main section, they are on the same side.

Both Anne and Gilbert are the center dancers of their row (the center is the only person who dances throughout - all 4 corner dancers wait out certain bars). This mirrors how both of them have their own storylines, concerns, goals etc in the show. But when Gilbert breaks the set, positioning Anne as to his choosing, he doesn't make her a corner dancer. Instead, she becomes the center dancer of his line. What an interesting fact about the axis on which Planet Gilbert spins.

Even when they're part of the same row, things aren't straightforward: there's a third person involved. In real life it's Winnie; in the dance it's Charlie. Gilbert watches Anne with Charlie and has to wait out the bar. Anne will have to do the same with Winnie.

At the end of the dance - literally in the last few bars - he returns Anne to her original position. In practical terms, this means Mrs Lynde doesn't have anything to complain about, as there's no evidence by the end that the set was ever broken. In sneaky terms, it means he gets to finish the dance face-to-face making eyes with Anne, and not Jane or Diana. In heartbreaking terms, it foreshadows how (at least for now) the discoveries made during the dance aren't going to change their relationship, as everything goes 'back to normal' on the outside. In romantic terms, it could be seen as Gilbert saying: "I want you by my side, but in the end, I'll put you before myself" (in the sense that 'before' can also mean 'in front of').

Breaking the set ought to have thrown everything off - if nobody else moves, Gilbert has put Anne next to Diana, so the boy-girl-boy-girl pattern is lost. The fact that the dance is able to continue means that others have moved to compensate. Crucially, one of them is Diana, who is best placed to perform damage control as it's her spot Anne's moved into -– foreshadowing her manoeuvring the situation on the train and saving the day! But it's not just Diana: everyone in the set will have noticed the shift – mirroring how the whole of Avonlea are basically aware of how these two feel about each other before they are.

Or, in more mathematical terms, the other 4 people in the set, shifting to make way for Shirbert, represent the 4 people with the most to say about Shirbert: Jane plays Winnie (telling Anne she isn't engaged to Gilbert; this parallel works weirdly well since Jane and Gilbert are seen dancing together, and Jane's traditional values mirror Winnie's 'expectations') Diana plays herself (being the person best placed to call Gilbert out the train journey, and being the person best placed to compensate in the dance itself, since Anne's in her spot. Damn, she even does the callout opposite him in a train carriage, a position usually held by Anne). Charlie plays Cole (telling Anne about Gilbert's crush; interesting, then, that Charlie's got a crush on Anne) and Caleb Lynde plays Bash (knowing about Shirbert before so much as meeting Anne; and would you LOOK at that, I was about to say I can't find a link between Caleb and Bash, but the link is MISS STACY!)

Most dancers look in the direction they are skipping in for the circle part of the dance: Gilbert and Anne look dead across at each other before the swap, and then after the swap:

...yeah, they're looking at each other the whole time, even for the direction change - which means that one of them is always skipping 'backwards' (sideways, but against the direction they're facing, led by the other). If that ain't a metaphor for trust, I don't know what is. Also, they will each be the backwards-facer for the same amount of steps, and if that ain't a metaphor for compromise... you get what I'm saying.

I will probably think of a few more resonances after posting this, and yes, I know that I'm reaching on some of it, but even without all that symbolism, you HAVE to hand it to Gilbert. As far as he knows this might be the only time he'll ever get to dance with Anne, so he's going to make the most of EVERY SECOND, and dance more with her in that one rehearsal than any other couple in the room have managed in two.

Something else I like, as well, is that he knows the format of the dance from watching the initial demonstration - so he COULD have tried the spin in the first run-through. But he doesn't do it until he gets the vibe from their first face-to-face that Anne, maybe... isn't opposed to dancing with him. (Also, he waits 'til he's invalided Moody out of the running, freeing his buddy up to give them some nice twinkly backing music... Gosh, Gilbert, how far back does your web of cunning go?!)

Just as a parting shot, I'll point out that Miss Stacy is the one who pushes Gilbert (nonsensically) to the other side of the room, where Anne ends up. I say nonsensically because at the beginning they're standing like this:

with Gilbert being the ONLY boy on the right hand side of the room, so no way should he be moving across. What actually needs to happen is that two boys from the left should go to join him. Gilbert should have stayed put. But no, Miss Stacy wants him over there:

She ships it, y'all.

Gilbert then stands for a bit in the middle of the room, foreshadowing his indecision/being torn between two options later on:

Look at him, stroking his chin, all confused! Thankfully, Mrs Lynde is there to park him firmly on the left side of the room, ensuring proximity to Anne. Thanks, Rachel. Thanks, Ms Stacy.

And most of all, thanks to whoever choreographed this scene! It took me so long to get a comprehensive look at Gilbert's actions because I kept getting distracted by everything else that's going on: Ruby, Tillie and Jane are all wonderful too, and let's not forget Moody and Charlie partnering each other just before Mrs Lynde yells 'stop'. Wonderful. Perfect scene is perfect.