#like when the scene started i was ready to get traumatised again

[raincitygirl76]

Felice Ehrencrona is a QUEEN!!!

Also great tags by @tooindecisivetopickaurl Excellent point that, as someone who is at or near the top of the social hierarchy, Felice is in a good position to challenge tradition. Sara is an outsider striving to be accepted by her new friends, so she never considers not following the initiation tradition.

And more great tags by @prncewilhelm, @justanotherhyperfixation, and @willeandsimme

THIS

When Felice said this I got filled with so much warmth, the fact that she reassured Sara that she didn't need to do this if she didn't want to or felt uncomfortable

[scarfacemarston]

Ok, hiiiii!!!

Right, so I’ve noticed Sadie doesn’t get enough fanfics and I have a little idea if that’s all right 🤭🤭

Ok so hear me out, after Sadie gets with the reader once she’s been able to find herself love and not been so traumatised anymore, she asked the reader to marry her because she doesn’t want to loose them like she lost Jake (specifically fem!reader, if it’s all right?)

Yep! Here ya go. :D Content warning: Gun violence and gunshot injury. Non-graphic. Bullets whirled past you at lightning speed. It was supposed to be an easy smash and grab, in and out, super easy. Wrong. You, Sadie, and Arthur had staked the scene out the night before, noting every possible point of entry and exit. You were thorough - but not exhaustive enough.

It started easy enough creeping up to the impressive homestead, but despite all the time spent scouting, there was a hidden covered window on an unseen third floor - a lookout room. It wasn’t long til you heard a voice announcing your presence - and then the rain of bullets began, causing you to duck for cover.

Sadie had taken the lead as usual, causing you and Arthur to share a look and sigh. She always was a firecracker. Things were going ...okay. The three of you had finally carved out an escape route when you heard the frantic shout of your name and copious amounts of cursing. Then, you felt it. The dull throb and the burning, the red seeping through, wetting and sticking your skin. Time seemed to slow down; why had Sadie and Arthur’s voices seemed so far away?

You heard Sadie let out a furious roar before your eyes rolled back, and darkness took you. 

From there, time was a blur. You felt pressure on your hands, and Sadie’s voice called for you to hold on, her voice sounding increasingly desperate.

“I’m fine,” you slurred.

“You certainly ain’t fine, young lady! Gettin’ shot ain’t fine!” Arthur chided.

You felt a calloused small hand cupping your chin.

“Come on. Hold on, baby. I’ve got you. Don’t you dare die on me, or I swear I’ll kick your ass in the next life.” Sadie threatened, but the panic was evident.

Everything was a blur, from hearing murmurs from Hosea and Grimshaw discussing how to best remove the cloth from your shoulder to hearing arguments between Grimshaw and Sadie.

“I ain’t leavin’ her! I shouldn’t have…..” to hearing the frightening words, “Hold her down.” 

A damn shame the pain wasn’t a blur. You remembered crying out and later a cool cloth on your head … Someone….it had to be Sadie, whispered words of encouragement.

“Come on, they’re almost finished. You’re being so brave. So damn brave. Just a little longer.” You gave Sadie’s hand a weak but present squeeze before passing out again.

Next thing you knew, you were awake, resting on a cot in Sadie’s tent with a bandaged shoulder and clean clothing. You glanced around, ready to prop yourself up - 

“No, don’t you dare try an’ sit up.”

You tried again.

“Come on, stop it. Damn you’re stubborn as a mule.” You heard Sadie’s voice ring out and a light shove on your good shoulder.

You grinned toothily.

“Think you like it that way. Stubborn. Keeps you on your toes.” You slurred, your voice hoarse.

Sadie sighed before giving you her canteen.

“That what you think? Drink up.” Sadie ordered. She sat at the edge of your cot, staring at the ground. Sadie wasn’t the most talkative of women, but this was something different. Her shoulders were tense. Sadie had something to say. You wondered if she was going to admonish you for not being careful enough.

“Look, I ain’t good at this. All of this.” Sadie said, gesturing between the two of you.

“It’s a wonder Jakey and I…..that we became a thing. When he died, I felt like my world had gone dark. Like the sun would never rise again. Then I met you and my world seemed a little lighter. We took our sweet time gettin’ to where we are now, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Now the sun is back and it’s all because of you. But today? Shit, I thought I lost you. There was so much blood. I felt I couldn’t do nothin’ but shoot. Sometimes, I feel like that’s all I’m good for.” Sadie said with a humorless laugh.

“I ain’t the prayin’ sort. Not at all, but I prayed today. I already lost one love, I can’t lose another. I can’t. I’ve never done this before, and can’t say I ever saw myself doin’ this, but you somehow make me do a lot of things I’ve never done before.” Sadie smiled slightly.

She reached into her pocket, fidgeting with something before revealing a gold band with a light blue stone. 

“It won’t be the same as a man and his woman, but I think we have our own special thing that no one can take from us. Will you do me the honor of bein’ my woman? My gal for the rest of our lives? You make my day a lot brighter, and I’d do anythin’ to make you happy for the rest of your days.” Sadie held up the ring, hopefully willing herself to keep eye contact.

You clapped your hand over your mouth and gasped.

You thought about marriage as a girl. Most girls did, but you always expected it to be what girls were “supposed” to be thinking about. Then you met Sadie, and your world turned upside down. You always had feelings for women, but Sadie was something else. You didn’t know women could even have something like marriage until Sadie came back with a book about Boston Marriages.

Sadie shuffled her feet, bringing you back to reality. Shit, you had been thinking too long.

“Of course! Yes, of course I’ll be your woman. I never thought it was ….I never thought this day would come!” you said with a splitting grin and a heart full of love. You laughed joyfully, causing Sadie’s shoulders to soften, a wide grin of her own stretching her features as she relaxed.

"Oh, Thank God. I don’t know what I would have done if you said no. I woulda managed, but I woulda felt mighty awkward.” She chuckled.

You reached out for her, hoping for an embrace before hissing in pain. Sadie rolled her eyes. 

“What am I going to do with you? Let me.” she huffed before wrapping you in her arms before planting her lips to yours.

END

[bubuslutty]

HC: what would happen if another witch cursed John Price?

part of the ‘the bear in the witch’s hut’ au

pairing: John Price x witch! fem reader

word count: 793

a/n: i wanted to write this longer but i dont have enough brain power to whip something more coherent out. oh, and i wanted to traumatise john and write his witch go ballistic. enjoy <3

✩ Another witch curses John and he's now a bear and his wife has to take care of him.

✩ Price’s unit (gaz, soap and ghost) was going through a forest when Price freezes, seeing a shadowy figure staring right back at him, and it was another witch and he was mortified because she was hauntingly beautiful and he really wanted to run but he can’t scream, and she circles him like a predator, breathing in the air around him and hissing, “You’re taken. What a shame. You’d be beautiful if you were mine.” And she blows air on his face and he can’t see anything and then he changes into a bear, with his skin ripping and changing shape in real-time.

✩ When his men find his gear and ripped-apart clothes, Simon sees red and Soap starts calling his captain assuming the worst and gaz is the one who realises that there was no blood on the clothes, and they looked like they ripped apart due to sheer force, not a blade.

✩ And they keep looking for 2 days but can’t find him anywhere and they decide to rest and think of what to do, they haven’t found any blood trail, so he must be alive, somewhere (they hope)

✩ When Gaz falls asleep, he dreams of being with his brothers, hand-picking oranges and putting them in baskets and John’s witch comes to him in his dream.

✩ “I felt something. What happened?”

✩ “We lost him, and we have been looking for 2 days.”

✩ “Where are you?” And she pulls a map and Gaz points down at their location.

✩ She pulls up in 2 days on horseback and gives the men a list of plants and herbs to collect for her while she goes looking for price on her own.

✩ She takes off her cloak and all unnecessary layers of her clothes, including her boots so she can feel everything in the forest, every brush of wind, every whisper and rumble on the ground through her bare feet.

✩ She finds him hiding in the trunk of a huge tree, shielding him away from the light and he starts growling when he sees her.

✩ She eventually gets him to come out and he jumps on her, snarling and ready to bite her face but he doesn’t because he’s still human on the inside and he’s just terrified.

✩ And she sits down with his heavy head on her lap and runs her fingers through his brown fur, whispering spells until he curls in on himself and starts shaking and he turns back, screaming and sweating as his body changes.

✩ He’s shaken up and is naked, shaking and curling himself on her side, clutching to her body for dear life as she shushes him. And when he calms down a bit she manages to make him stand up, naked and all.

✩ And she reassures him it’s just her, and she takes off her dress, and is standing there as naked as the day she was born. And with their fingers interlinked, she leads him to the river to wash away any traces of magic on his skin.

✩ When they’re done, she picks up and wears her dress back on and makes her way back to the men who were sitting worried sick for their captain, they dress him up and wrap him in cloaks and blankets, starting a fire.

✩ And Simon sees her wearing her boots back on and throwing her cloak over her shoulder, “Where are you going?”

✩ As soon as Price hears this, he panics and grabs her arm, still not saying a word.

✩ And an unknown form drags the witch back to the forest at an inhuman speed, the men watching the scene, are terrified, and then a high-pitched scream was heard and complete silence.

✩ And after a while, they hear weird noises, muffled screams and branches snapping from across the river and shaking trees, and then they see another woman, crawling on her stomach, trying to get away and Price tenses, recognising the witch who cursed him.

✩ When Price’s witch reappears again, her hands, knees and lower half of her face are bloody and he panics, “It’s not mine.” She reassures him with a kind smile.

✩ “I’ll be back, my love. I promise.” She said and kisses him on the head, and after some coaxing, Price lets go and she thanks him, and promises them she’ll be back very quickly and left out to the forest. (they’re sitting near the river)

✩ Then she busies herself with making talismans for her man and the others to protect them from curses.

✩ That night she washes the blood away and sleeps curled up around John, and the next day they pack up and leave to go back to base.

tag list (pls ask to be added or removed): @obiwankenobis-lap @goapgrim @smalldemonlover @silviafantin15 @reveluving @bobastayhigh

[deadite-central]

Crazy to think I’ve finally reached the last post for Dressrosa, this arc is so long but if you couldn’t tell by now, I love it a lot. Anyway, my favorite fight in One Piece has finally started, and like I said the last time, Luffy vs Doflamingo is phenomenal

First of all; THE REVEAL OF GEAR 4. The last time we were introduced to a new gear has been in ENNIES LOBBY, so finally seeing another one, after we went through so much in Dressrosa, it’s just so good. Gear 4:Bounceman is amazing in both how it looks and how it works, somehow balancing being incredibly goofy and genuinely cool which props to Oda for that. I also really like how due to it’s silliness Doflamingo dismisses it at first, even laughs at it, just to get absolutely decked and flown from the Palace to the streets of the country. Once Luffy pulls this out, even with Doflamingo awakening his devil fruit, the fight is clearly turning into Luffy’s favour!

Unfortunately, just like with every Gear before this, there are consequences to using such a power up, so Luffy goes into ‘not-able-to-do-anything’ mode, promising he will be able to take down Doflamingo in a single punch once he regains his energy. While in the anime it felt like just another way to drag Dressrosa out, during my read I realized that this was actually kinda needed? Not only to set a clear boundary on Luffy’s new power, but also for more character work to the side characters. The people of Dressrosa start seeing Luffy as the person to save them. Like Fujitora will say later, Luffy has an ability to make people believe in him, and that scene where they all chase the Straw Hats so Fujitora won’t be able to throw rubble on them would not work as well if it wasn’t for everyone putting their faith in Luffy here. They cheer him on, he’s their hero, their hope, and they will stand behind him

On the topic of side characters of the arc: Viola. She had already been set up as a kind soul forced to work for the Donquixote Family to keep her country safe. Now that there’s someone else who’s ready to set his life on the line to save her country, she believes in him, and buys him the time he needs by, once again, putting her life on the line, but this time, facing against the man who ruined her life. She went through so much just to protect her people. And when Rebecca, a girl with just as big of a heart as her aunt is put into the scene, the fact that Doflamingo uses that to probably give Viola the most gut wrenching death he could think of, one that’s going to traumatise Rebecca forever, I’m honestly ready to turn away and not look at the tragedy in front of me

Thankfully, Luffy is back in action. And while the fight itself is great and creative, the real reason Luffy vs Doflamingo is my favorite fight in the series is this. Doflamingo stands for everything Luffy despises, he’s a manipulator, one that takes away the freedom of others both figuratively and literally. Luffy defeating Doflamingo while screaming in his face how the way he goes about everything suffocates him, as Doflamingo is screaming back how he’s above humans, how he’s better, and how Luffy can’t defeat him is striking, and when Luffy finally lands that final (incredibly satisfying) punch, Doflamingo goes flying under the floor, defeated, with his glasses shattering. Just a second ago he was shouting about being on top of the world, just for that to shatter with them. It’s so fucking good

As one last big thing, I really like how the themes of family are used throughout Dressrosa, and a lot of the resolutions for characters in here include a familial theme. I know a lot of people think it’s incredibly cheesy that Sabo was a secret third brother with amnesia, but like I said before, I do really like that Luffy has a brother that looks out for him, and the flashback panels of Sabo’s memories coming back, at the worst time possible probably, are some really well. I also really like how the resolution of Law’s arc here, who has been striving for revenge the entire saga, is finally talking to Sengoku, who makes him realise that Cora simply cared for him, and wanted him to live his life the way he wanted. It’s a theme that has been touched upon before, but this scene always catches me by the heart

And to FINALLY finish Dressrosa off, while I still despise the Colosseum, I do love the Straw Hat Grand Fleet. Not only cause it once again shows how Luffy inspires people, but also that they decide “yeah we’re doing this you can’t do anything about it man” I love them and their following cover story is great

[billpottsismygf]

Right, okay, overall that episode was great. Really fun, really atmospheric. Effectively straddled the line between hilarity and terror in the spice girls scene. NPH exceeded all my expectations as the Toymaker; he was giving very Emcee in Cabaret vibes when he was doing the camp German thing, but then was able to reign it in and be in control and frightening when he switched into an English accent. He was defeated a little too easily for my liking, but that's far from the biggest problem with the episode.

Now. The bi-generation. I hate it. I don't necessarily hate that it happened - I quite like that Fourteen and Fifteen got to work together - but I hate that it wasn't resolved at the end. If this had been a two parter, the regeneration could have been a fun cliffhanger and led into a part two where there were some more games with the Toymaker - since his part could easily have been extended, as could John Logie Baird's - and where the bi-generation got resolved. As it is, however, now there are… two Doctors… Permanently? If it is going to be resolved in the future, though, why not just do it now?

My main issues:

It undermines Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor. It feels weirdly like he's a secondary Doctor, rather than being The Doctor. Especially being the first black Doctor in the main running order, that's just a bit suspect. Although the final shot was of Fifteen heading off in the TARDIS, the focus of the end of the episode was so much on Fourteen instead of this exciting new era. This should be a fresh new start with Ncuti Gatwa at the helm, but instead he feels like an after thought. (He has given one hell of a performance so far, though, so I'm still incredibly excited to see his Doctor shine.)

It undermined what felt like a lovely bit of character growth, with David Tennant's Doctor being ready to leave this time.

I just don't believe that the Doctor would settle down like this? I get it, he's traumatised and needs to heal, but I still don't believe he would act like this! I usually think RTD is fantastic at character things, but that final scene was weird and wrong (I also don't believe Wilf would ever shoot moles). Even the idea that he's taking little trips doesn't make sense. The Doctor is incapable of not accidentally getting embroiled in a war or an invasion.

RTD has already done this! Why does he have an obsession with creating an additional David Tennant Doctor and then getting him to settle down into a human family life? And it worked better last time! At least then it was a Doctor that was part human and locked off in a parallel world.

Why are there two Doctors now??? This is just weird????

There are two TARDISes as well! Our favourite ship has been split in two… That's a sentient being!

The one thing that is slightly saving it for me is that Fifteen appears to still canonically come after the end of Fourteen's time as the Doctor, rather than Fourteen having the ability to continually regenerate into other Doctors. My only evidence for this is that Ncuti's Doctor says that he's mentally healthy now because David's Doctor did the work. So… Does Fifteen have the memories of Fourteen's time with Donna and family? Are they going to have to meet up and re-merge at some point? That would be better than the alternative, which would be for David Tennant to just perpetually be around as the Doctor. I love the man, and was even saying that I was surprisingly sad at how quickly our time with Fourteen would be over, but I don't want it extended like this. Not like this!

It's such a shame that what was otherwise a pretty good episode, if a little rushed, has been completely overshadowed by this bad and pointless decision.

Anyway, we got some hints about the future. The Toymaker has called on his legions, there's the One Who Waits, the tooth with the Master has been picked up by someone with red fingernails (again!). I'm still looking forward to what's to come; it just feels like this brand new adventure has been held back somewhat by clinging onto the, admittedly wonderful, David Tennant.

[kuschelkissen]

reverse unpopular opinion: nagano trio

Ppl send topics and instead of salt or hot takes, you MUST talk abt smth you like about it. Good excuse to gush abt smth you already love, OR think and find smth positive to say. 

LMAO what have you done, as if I'm not already gushing over them at any given time during the day 😂

Long post under cut, so you can skip more easily

I'm not even gonna talk about the shipping side of them because you see me gushing over that all the time anyway.

(Plus, I have a metaphorical goldfish brain, and I don't even remember how it all started 😅)

So.

What is there NOT to like about them??

I really love their overall dynamic. All three of them, but also the individual pairs.

It's not really stated, but in my head, they're all childhood friends. Kansuke and Yui are confirmed to be, and Kansuke and Taka'aki... kinda? They've canonically known each other since grade school and always competed with each other, established to be "rivals" since then. So it's reasonable to assume that all three of them spent at least some time together, right?.

(And they still do, look at them hanging out together after work.)

(They're on a date)

I love their bickering and teasing.

Yui calling Kansuke "Kan-chan", and when he objects, she goes: "Yeah, yeah, inspector Yamato 😉", clearly not taking him seriously (and he knows it. Just look at him "=_=").

Then you have Taka'aki mocking Kansuke for being so obvious in his plan of helping him get back to headquarters. "I would have done the same for you, but I would've been way more subtle about it." - "Yeah you know what, you can stay here and rot for all I care! =_="

Both of them are teasing Kansuke in the woodpecker episode about the bad plan of Yamamoto, just for him to go "?? It's not MY plan, so why are you acting like it is??" (Look at their faces, man, Taka'aki looks so playful 😂)

And Kansuke is overall just... Kansuke. 😅 The first scene with him is yelling at Yui, and more or less the first scene with Taka'aki is him basically telling him to drop dead (and boy, does he look HURT by that??). AND YET??

Yet, it is very obvious that he cares for both of them. They all do.

In their first case, Yui throws herself in the way of a bullet to protect Kansuke after he tried to protect her first (I think this is anime only).

Kansuke tells her that he's gonna wait for her to return to him the police.

Kansuke brought Conan to the Red Wall case not to help him, but so Taka'aki could solve it with his help and then return to HQ (which in the end was useless because Taka'aki actually cracked the message before anyone else lol).

We find out that Taka'aki went against all orders to find Kansuke, who had been declared dead, and got demoted because of that (he dashed to his support...).

Kansuke was ready to throw himself into a house completely ENGULFED in flames to save Taka'aki from death. And Yui DID throw herself into those flames! (still salty that they didn't show us how she rescued him)

You have Kansuke and Taka'aki communicating completely nonverbal on more than one occasion.

And then of course we have all the tragedies surrounding them.

The death of Kai Kuroto, Yui finding his dead body. Kansuke going missing on the search for his murder, declared dead, then found again in a coma, with his eye lost and leg damaged in undisclosed way (they hint that it's reversible in the Woodpecker case (Manga only), but who knows). Taka'aki getting demoted after throwing himself into the search for Kansuke, Yui on the other hand getting married to a suspect to further investigate Kai's murder.

And do I even have to mention the whole Family-murder past for Taka'aki?? Imagine coming home at 13 (?14?) from summer camp and finding your parents brutally murdered and your little brother traumatised (and we know he's only still alive because the murderer thought he'd lead him to his (dead) daughter one day! So it could've ended even worse!), then being separated from your brother by long distance (I checked, it's about a 3h ride by train from Nagano city to Tokyo.), AND THEN YOUR LITTLE BROTHER IS ALSO KILLED WHILE UNDERCOVER?? Give that man a fucking break!!

Also love how all of them had been a crime suspect at least once lol

And appart from all of that, I just love how the Trio just... accepts that Conan is ... different. There are no questions asked when he storms onto the crime scene, they'll let him watch the gruesome surveillance videos, no big deal, they overall just... treat him like an equal?

I mean?! In their second appearance, Kansuke and Yui go all the way to Tokyo just to get him on the case! Sure, officially they get Kogoro, but Yui outright tells Conan that Kansuke came to get him!

I also just love how they can keep up with him. Sure, you have Conan making hints for the other cops, too, and them then figuring things out, but with the Nagano Trio, they often figure out things ALONGSIDE of Conan, getting the same ideas, etc (well, Taka'aki and Kansuke at least, Yui only did that once in her debut episode you can blame Aoyama for sidelining his female characters once again) and like I said, I think Taka'aki in the Red Wall case is one of the very, VERY few occasions of someone cracking a code BEFORE Conan. I love it?! They're so fucking smart!

So... yeah?? I think I'm done gushing. For now. Insert Marge Simpson Meme, I just think they're neat??

And imagining them as a throuple makes it all so much funnier.

[brionysea]

okay SO. @madwheelerz' manifestation theory. in trying to wrap my head around it, i have come across some THOUGHTS

season 1

mike wants will back. the universe rearranges itself to give him this. i find the first season the easiest to understand in terms of mike's internal world being expressed through the supernatural, because of its relative simplicity

season 2

mike wants el back. the universe, again, rearranges itself to give him this. the new supernatural threat draws el out of hiding and back to the party

there's also a lot of talk about trauma this season. a lot of it is limited to what they knew about PTSD in the 80s but i find it really, really interesting in this context

owens: it's called the anniversary effect. we've seen this with soldiers. the anniversary of an event brings back traumatic memories. sort of opens up the neurological floodgates, so to speak.

hopper: so what does this mean for the kid? he's gonna have more episodes, nightmares?

owens: yeah, that. maybe some personality changes. he might get irritable. he might lash out.

will's anniversary is around the time the second season picks up, but there's another one that flies under the radar: mike's. lucas and dustin were with mike when the demogorgon cornered them, but they're fine. they're having fun with max. they're vibing. meanwhile mike is acting out, being abrasive and argumentative towards absolutely everyone, shutting himself off in his basement even when his friends spend all day trying to reach him

what owens said above doesn't really apply to will at all, beyond him literally acting like a different person, but it applies perfectly to mike. mike, as of season 2, according to the show's own definition, is traumatised

owens: just treat him normally. be patient with him. don't pressure him to talk. just let him lead the way.

joyce: i'm sorry, what you're saying is it's gonna get worse and worse and we're just supposed to pretend it's not happening?

owens: it sounds counterintuitive, i know. but i assure you that is really the best thing you can do for him.

this is the approach the wheelers seem to be taking. i'm reminded of karen saying mike would "come to them when he's ready" when ted asked if he should go talk to him after will's body was found. joyce does the exact opposite of this at any given opportunity, but karen seems to buy into it, and ted follows her lead

a year later, nancy's not better yet. mike's not better yet. that's to be expected, but i think the way those facts are treated is pretty reflective of the emotional situation in their household. will has endless support from joyce and jonathan, to the extent he feels suffocated by it, but mike just gets told to suck it up and stop making his parents look bad. nancy clearly understands this more intuitively from how she isolates herself before letting herself express much of anything unless she's drunk (and even then, she didn't start laying into steve until they were alone). their reputation is more important than their mental health

the demodogs, as an antagonist, are a physically smaller (but larger in numbers) retread of the demogorgon. almost like when something traumatic happens and your brain keeps going back to it in bits and pieces. and who got directly traumatised by the demogorgon? who thought they saw their friend get taken away by it right in front of them? mike. that scene in the middle school was very obviously traumatic for mike and mike alone

owens said that more episodes should be expected close to a traumaversary. and when's the last time mike was as upset about anything as he is about el being gone, one year later? when will disappeared. so he did something about it without realising again

season 3

following the pattern of the upside down being used as a tool to address lingering trauma: the mind flayer comes back

again, the mind flayer being will's trauma is more obvious. it took control of his body. it used him to kill dozens of people. it used him against his friends and family. but another thing that flies under the radar is the fact that mike witnessed all of it

mike saw will get taken on the field. mike saw will's nightmares. mike saw will's seizures from the tunnels being burned. mike saw will screaming. mike saw will slowly becoming less and less of himself. mike was the only (conscious) child trapped in the lab with the demodogs

if you think that just witnessing things like that isn't enough to count as traumatising, allow me to remind you of something this show's certified Trauma Monster has said:

vecna: i just want you to watch.

just watching is what got max killed. just watching is what got fred killed. just watching is what traumatised mike the first time around. just watching is what traumatised lucas and dustin. experiences like this do not have to be firsthand to be harmful

mike's more clued in to the wheeler rule of acting like everything's fine this time around, but he's still... not quite himself. he's ignoring most of his friends. he's extremely anxious and panicky about the idea of seeing el die again. he's denying himself things he used to love. he went through hell to get will back and keep will and now he's suddenly pushing him away out of nowhere. things like that don't happen without a reason

he's got even more trauma now than he did before, and when you're a 14 year old boy who can't go to therapy because it would make your parents look bad, that's not going to go away just because you act like it's not happening

season 4

being the Trauma Season, this one's source is more unabashedly, purely emotional: the relationship drama

last season, el took max's advice and dumped mike. while they were broken up, they started having friendly conversations again and both seemed happier and more comfortable, both as individuals and with their relationship. then the whole "because i love her" mess happened and they got back together, notably without any input from mike at all. immediately after that, the byers and el moved halfway across one of the biggest countries in the world

here's mike's issue: he's not aware that you can Not Date someone and also Not Lose them. el saying that she loved him back recontextualised all their interactions when they were broken up as romantic, and made him think that if he isn't el's boyfriend, he can't have her in his life at all. this is unacceptable to him for obvious reasons

so mike, knowing full well what he's doing, tries to give el what she wants without lying to her. obviously, this doesn't end well, but it also has a massive impact on mike's mental health in the meantime, which is only compacted by the distance from el and will. he's not eating. he needs constant reassurance. his bedroom and basement are messier than we've ever seen them. mike, much like max and chrissy and nancy, is not okay

mike sees things in a very, very black and white way. good and evil. monsters and superheroes. that's why he was so weird about el hitting angela: good guys protect, bad guys hurt. mike rarely thinks violence is justified, even in self defence when it comes to his own bullies, and el's physical safety wasn't being threatened

now put someone with a mindset like that into a situation like the one we've laid out

mike isn't an idiot. he's young and inexperienced and doesn't have a clue how to handle his emotions, but he's not unintelligent or lacking self awareness, and he's not this dense. he knows what he's doing. he knows he's not okay. he's just not doing anything about it, because that would mean hurting el, and mike would always rather get himself hurt than another party member

and isn't it convenient that the latest supernatural threat is one that says, "admit you're not okay or die. get better or die. fix this or die." doesn't that sound like exactly the kind of thing that mike, when backed into a corner, with his binary viewpoint of how good people and bad people act, would think of? doesn't it sound like his subconscious telling him this isn't right? to get his act together and stop pretending?

[xatsperesso]

Ahhh I really love your Kalego content!!! Best dad 😍

Are you still open to prompts? Wonder how Dadlego will react when seeing/smelling Iruma’s human blood for the first time

Put yourself first

Kalego was tired.

He was once again roped into sacrificing his weekend for the chairman's whims, and once again Opera teased him in front of the kids like he hasn't spent years trying to build his reputation. Then he goes to teach the school but ever since the secret got out the abnormal class has become insufferable!

They no longer listen to him when he teaches, instead they keep asking Iruma about anything and literally e v e r y t h i n g. From schooling to fashion to why he doesnt have horns, and while some questions are intiguing and worth looking into (Is their food really healthy for humans?) ignoring his lessons for a week to ask iruma all the questions they've been suppressing because they didn't have the courage to ask him beforehand is just unaceptable!

So of course, Kalego thought the best way to punish them for not listening to him would be to double their homework, but that didn't deter them from getting their answers.

So Kalego tripled their homework, and it all snowballed from their to where he is now, correcting 80 assignments per student each day, having regular meetings with Balam (whom he beleives to be his..friend, according to human culture) Opera and sometimes Iruma to figure out what needs to be changed to provide him with the best learning environment they could, and trying to figure out exactly how many people who knows of the brat's nature without tipping them off.

So, of course, Kalego is tired, and while some will blame it on him (He really should stop doubling the kids' homework) he beleives that he deserves to re-

A pencil, long left by a brat who Kalego swears he will find, caused Kalego's leg to slip and him to fall. Now, Kalego could've easily caught himself, but poor, tired Kalego thought that it'd be alright to let himself just fall. There are no kids around, no one to see this embarassing scene of himself.

And it would have been fine, except that he slipped and fell off the third floor

on a very beautiful fence that gaurds Balam's new blue fire flowers, the amaryllis.

said fence happened to have very skillfuly carved spikes.

why is his life like this? Why did he wake up this morning? To be impaled on the fence and be seen by anyone who happens to be in the garden? To be the laughing stock of his colleagues once they find out about this humiliating moment?

Kalego sighed a very tired, sad sigh. He'll get up. He'll heal himself. He'll stop by Beur to make sure that everything in its place, and he'll go to Shichirou's office to see what else needs to be changed and he'll finish grading the 1040 assignments he's got to grade (how do they even finish them all in one day??)

He just, just needs a minute, or five. Just five minutes, and he promises he'll do all of these things. Just a five minutes break.

Kalego closes his eyes, and takes as deep of a breath as the pole allows him to, and just-

"S-Sensei!" Opens his eyes again because the universe refuses to give him a break

"Sensei y-you're hurt!"

"Yeah, no shit" he says, and immediately regrets once he saw the very teary eyes that looks just a second away from full on bawling.

"Iruma, I'm fine" he tries to reassure the kid who started shaking all over. Shit, would it be better to put his hand on the kids shoulder? No, no, his hand is covered in blood.

"Bu, but you, you" and the tears are falling. Fuck, Opera will hang him for traumatising his kid, but why is he so shaken up? Is this his first time seeing anyone hurt? Oh shit he's a human what if it is the first time-

Iruma starts to very shakily recite a spell under his breath, and kalego thinks he knows which spell he's using-

"Sonuvabitch!" Kalego winced as he tried to muffle the curse. The brat used the damn floating spell to get him off the spikes, and Kalego was so not ready for this. He was not ready for pain that is resembled being used as cerberus's chewing toy.

"I'm sorry, you're ok, you're going to be fine, everything is going to be fine" is Iruma trying to assure Kalego or himself? Kalego has no idea, but he kept repeating those words like a mantra as he lowered him down to the ground.

"I am fi-" a metallic smell, so strong it felt nauseating hit Kalego so hard, and something was dripping on his wound. Kalego opened his eyes to look at the wound as it fizzled closed before his eyes.

"What the," Kalego didn't know of any potion that healed so quickly. He looked up to see what potion in the name of Delkira could Iruma have-

He saw a knife. He saw crimson liquid that fell from Iruma’s hand, and he saw a shaky smile painted on Iruma’s face.

He's ashamed that it took him a long moment to process what Iruma just did, but by the time it fully clicked, Iruma was already talking out a piece of cloth to wrap around the wound. The wound that he just inflicted on himself, to heal Kalego who was not healing himself because he was lazy.

"Iruma," Kalego watched as Iruma's smile started to dim at his tone and immediately stopped. Wound first, scolding later.

"Give me your hand" he streched his arm, waiting for Iruma to give him his injured arm, and he watched as Iruma relaxed slightly and did as he said.

He unwrapped the cloth, and the metallic smell was so strong he almost choked, but he took a deep breath and casted the spell, making sure that the wound was healed completely, leavinv not a mark or a bruise behind.

"..Does human blood always smell like this?" He asked as he kept poking his hand and seeing if Iruma gives any reaction.

"Demon blood doesn't?" He asked as he tilted his head to the side. So his blood is supposed to smell like that.

"No, it doesn't smell so metallic" he paused for a second, before looking into Iruma’s eyes.

"Why did you hurt yourself?" He asked, and watched as Iruma averted his eyes and started to look guilty and self conscious (Good. This means he knows that this was wrong)

"Well, human blood heals demons, so," he trailed off and started to play with his fingers

"Yes, I saw that" Kalego nodded "but why did you hurt yourself?" Iruma started to fidget in his place, and he looked like he was trying to force the tears down.

"You were hurt, sensei" he finally looked up at Kalego, and his mouth started to quiver

"I, I didn't want to lose you" he averted his gaze immediately after whispering those words, and shit how should Kalego proceed from there?

"...you wouldn't have lost me" he started with reassuring his kid "all of the teachers here know high level healing spells, and we have Beur-sensei on campus for a reason"

"Oh" the tears started falling, but other than that Iruma looked overall calm

"Then, why were you just laying there?" Kalego sighed. He needs to word this correctly so that Iruma wouldn't come out of it with any wormg ideas.

"I," he started, hating the sentence that was forming in his head but knowing that it is the safest one for someone as reckless as Iruma

"I was doing the very stupid act of overworking myself, and when I was on the pole instead of prioritising my health and well-being, I took it as an opportunity to rest. I was going to go to Beur, but then you caught me and didn't listen when I said that I was fine"

And now Iruma is looking embarrassed. Good, because he really should listen to him more.

He started fidgeting again, but this time out of embarrassment "I thought you were lying, or just trying to reassure me"

"Lying," he leaned forward and poked Iruma’s to really drive the point across "is for dumbasses who think everyone around them is too weak to help. And hurting yourself," he picked up the newly healed hand "to help someone should not be your first response. To anything. Period"

"Bu-but what if someone is dying! What if there's no other choice!" And Kalego really, really wants to tell him that there's always another choice. He wants to tell him that he's safe, that he would never be in a situation that he would ever need to use his own blood to save someone's life.

But Iruma has already been in these situations. He’s been in these situations five times, and he's extremely lucky to come out of them alive, let alone uninjured.

"Then you consult an adult, and if there’re no adults you use as a last resort" he really wishes his kid, all the kids could be safe. He wishes he could give Iruma another answer

But the world they live in is an unfair one (maybe it'd be safer to just send him back)

"Yes, sensei" He nods very determinantly, and Kalego, not for the last time, sighs as he knows that Iruma will most likely ignore his words.

He needs to give those kids first aid lessons. They've been through a lot, and judging from recent incidents, they'll be through even more. He's surprised they didn't teach them these lessons yet.

Kalego gets up, totally ignoring his knees that pops louder than those works of fire, and picks up Iruma from the scruff of his uniform, completely taking him by surprise.

"I will be report what just happened to Opera-sen, Opera-san" he said sternly as he started walking towards the chairman's office

"Yes, sensei"

"What were you even doing after school hours?"

"Grandpa (the old ground keeper) asked for help in the garden"

"Ah"

--

Ifrit was drinking a juice box

Orias was eating a bag of chips

Murmur was roast marshmallows on Ifrit's tail

They were all standing around a big puddle of blood under a very bloodied fence

"Mmm, where do you think that came from?" Orias asked, before stuffing his face with more chips

"I don't know, but what is that smell?" Murmur started assembling s'mores as discretely as he could so Ifrit won't extinguish his fire

"That's the smell of a human blood, probably Iruma’s but the smell is too faint so all of that probably isn't from him" Ifrit noticed the melted s'mores in Murmur's hands, and snatched as he extinguished his tail

"Oh damn, didn't know we were a boarding school. That explains were Iruma came from" Orias ate more chips and watched as Murmur tried and failed to take his s'mores back before Ifrit ate it in one bite

"No, Iruma is Sullivan’s grandson. Legally. Sullivan showed off his adoption papers to me when I tried asking him about the new semester's schedul-Hey! Put me down!"

Murmur started angrily shaking Ifrit in the air "You took my s'mores!"

"*munch munch munch* you guysh shink we should report shis blood to shome one?" Orias tilted hus head to eat the cheeze dust and immediately started choking as some went down the wrong pipe

"Nah, someone will do it eventually-Ow ow ow ow ow too hot too hot too hot-"

"Put. Me. Down"

Orias took one last look at the blood puddle and wiped away the tears that were starting to form

"You guys wanna play some video games?"

"Heck yeah," Murmur let go of Ifrit and totally ignored the thud and the 'oof' that followed "I'm playing as Gyari!"

"Then I'll play as Kuromu, and I'm kicking your ass"

"...you guys don't even know which game I'm talking about"

-------------------------------------------------------

Anyway, kalego keeps doubling and tripling their hw (the bastard) and i just think that he does it without thinking of the fact that he would have to correct it

And what if demon blood doesnt have red blood cells, thus doesn't have haemoglobin, the thing that gives blood it's metallic smell/taste (i think) what if there blood doesn't need it and it can hold oxygen efficiently? Do i know what im talking about? Not really, it's been 2 months I've last read my bio books but anyways im pretty sure(not sure at all) insects dont have red blood cells so ya know biologically it is possible and could be an easy and definitive way to identify humans from demons since there are a lot of diversity in demons.

Also just because there are books on human world (books that balam have memorised) doesn't mean that they cover all the info needed to grow your own info, and seriously, is the food good in the long run?

[forensicated]

Series 21 Mug Watch

Unfortunately it was quite disappointing for our Mug Watch fans this series as there hasn't been a lot to report home about! On occasion he's been cheeky and held it a little low down too so there's a couple of obscure shots to ensure there was a cap of it!

So yes. I definitely do need to get out more.

It took 13 episodes for The Cup to first appear this series with the first being just before the station was attacked by Colin Fairfax. This is literally just the episode before it happens - Episode 287.

Admittedly then Smithy is off for a while recovering from his injuries and the next time we see him with a cup it's Episode 304. Shock horror, it's not a West Ham cup but just a run of the mill mug. It wouldn't be an official Mug Watch post if I didn't post a completely anal fact about this mug... it next appears in Mickey's house in Episode 360. Seriously. Why have I started paying so much attention to the mugs that assorted officers use? Because they are SERIOUS BUSINESS, MY FRIENDS!

Time to relax in episode 317. Ken, Andrea and Marilyn may not have survived the fire and explosion, but Smithy's West Ham cup did. I swear he must have a bomb proof safe for these things by now. I can see Sgt Army lovingly hand washing and carefully drying each one with a lint free dishcloth before placing them in a safe each night after shift.

It doesn't return again until a blink and miss it appearance in episode 341 in a scene between Smithy and Zain in the Sgt's office.

Then again, 7 episodes later he's spotted with a mug that is not a West Ham one *gasp!* ... but it's Adam's house and is still included because we are anal AF here at Mug Watch.

In Episode 350 we are spoilt by it appearing twice. Admittedly it's in the same sort of scene as it's a follow on and different areas of the station and the 2nd cap allows a cheeky Smithy cap appearance so I'm taking it!

Finally it doesn't appear again another blink and miss it scene in a corridor between Phil and Smithy in episode 367 when Phil asks Smithy for some help from uniform to go through some boring video footage.

After that for the rest of the series as it doesn't appear again!

It's also it recap wise until after Christmas! There's recaps twice a day until the 10th December ready in the queue but after they finish there'll be no more until January! I also apologise like what... about 6 weeks in advance as series 22 sort of traumatises me a bit for what happens to Smithy. There may will be flailing until around episode 400.

[averywiseanimatedcat]

Rewatching Good Omens season 2 liveblog

Episode 2, ‘The clue’ post 4

Link to previous post

Starting off strong with

FUCK

OFF

GABRIEL

Step in a puddle with socks on.

*when my boss is watching me work and I don’t know what I’m doing*

Azi and Crowley were such a disaster in this scene, just winging it. But Azi LIED for the first time!! This was so important because we saw him have to make a choice, and he had to do it quickly. So he went with what his true ethnical orientation is-to protect Jobs family. So this part of the flash back is really quite poignant for Azi. It’s the moment he feels like he fell, and was suddenly no longer safe.

Then when we’re back in the bookshop we find out Crowley just left at some point while Azi was staring at that picture? Did he try to get his attention? Does this happen allot? Crowley doesn’t seem at all concerned so I feel like it does happen a fair bit that Azi gets kinda lost in something and Crowley just goes out for a stroll until his Azirphale is ready to talk about whatever it was.

His lil concerned/traumatised face I can’t.

FUCK OFF AND BANG YOUR FUNNY BONE ON THE DOOR AS YOU LEAVE GABRIEL.

I’m sorry that was an automatic reaction. He’s actually kinda cute in this scene with his lil ‘am I bad now?’

‘Gotcha’

GOTCHA. David really killing it with the line delivery this season. I love Nina’s character because she just rolls with it, and Crowleys like ‘oh a human who isn’t completely put off by my weird ass’ and I think that’s why he respects her and listens to her later on when she tells him to talk to Aziraphale. She’s not put off by him even though she literally saw him skull 6 shots of espresso, get hit by lightning and then ask her about rain and the girl who has a crush on her over the road? Like this is the weirdest mother f-er she’s ever met and she’s like ‘ok and what?’ He respects that. We respect Nina in this house.

STOP HIS LITTLE HEAD POPPING OUT. And did he miracle out there? There was the miracle sound when his head popped up. Why is he so cute. And I love how we can see Crowley was just wandering around waiting for Azirphale to come find him, he didn’t go anywhere he just waited for Azirphale to be ready. I just reminded myself of the final episode…shit…

“Oh.” Again. This is like the fifth ‘Oh’ Crowleys done when Aziraphale says something clever this episode it’s fucking cute.

This is apparently the Good Omens book this absolute FUCKWIT is holding. I’m sorry I’ll try to tone down the aggression he’s Jim not Gabriel Jim not Gabriel…

#season 3 vibes with Azi sitting alone? Lol I’m in pain.

But this ending scene was…oof. The symbolism of Aziraphale sitting alone, thinking he’s fallen then Crowley comes to be with him. He didn’t have to do that at all, he could’ve just left. But he went and looked for Aziraphale knowing he must be struggling.

He’s such a sweet not-lad who pretends to be big and scary but really he’s a softy.

Their conversation was so sweet and we again see how Crowley is kind to those who he can tell have good intentions. Crowley teased him in the cellar about going to hell but he could see this was a time to be serious. He was honest and admitted it was lonely to be on your own side. I think this is the moment where they really connect for the first time. They were very much themselves here, with no walls up.

On their characters-Crowley doesn’t seem to have much sense of self worth and I think that is what allows him to be so brash and confident. He doesn’t think he’s worth anyone caring what happens to him. And he is working within an impossible system so figures he might as well do what he wants and deal with the consequences later. He’s bitter and has mostly given up trying to make any big change, he just does the best he can with what he has at the time.

But Aziraphale is very idealistic and believes he can do good on a large scale. He believes he has potential and has tainted that by lying/going against gods will. And he believes this because he lacks confidence in his own judgement. He’s very intelligent, but still stuck in a very closed cycle of thinking. And honestly, that hasn’t changed a whole lot since. He’s made some headway, but he is still holding onto the same ideals more or less.

But despite Aziraphale idealistic side he is drawn to the confidence and freedom Crowley seems to possess. He appreciates his honesty and straightforward nature. Crowley says and does the things Azirphale knows is right, but can’t/won’t admit. I think in a way he also needs Crowley to give him permission to do ‘bad’ things, he wouldn’t do them alone but Crowley is an accomplice that gives him confidence.

Crowley is drawn to the pure hearted nature Aziraphale possesses. He’s drawn to Aziraphales unending hope that things can be good in the world. Aziraphale is like a ray of sunshine on a cloudy day. And it’s a very forceful Ray of sunshine. He respects Aziraphales desire to do the right thing. Again, same with Muriel and Jobs kids. He is drawn to those who remind him of himself before he fell. He sees himself before he was hurt, before he lost all his hope and before he became bitter and angry. Maybe he thinks it’s to late for him, but it’s not to late for him to preserve those who still possess what he’s lost.

Long story short I’m obsessed with this flashback. And it shows just how LONG Azirphale has been struggling. Crowley had his moral compass pretty well oriented even back then. But Azirphale is still struggling all the way up until the last episode where that struggle really explodes and causes them to fly apart.

Ironically, this flashback illustrates how the thing that caused them to fly apart was also the thing that brought them together in the first place!

And I’m sad now so here’s a cute smiling Crowley bc he deserves the world

Link to episode 3, post 1

[too-many-rooks]

Writing procrastination game!

Thanks @lastlymatt for tagging me, I got rambly so I’ll put this under a ‘read more’

Tagging @pigandpepper @known-concepts @countessrivers

1.) what’s the name of one of your wips?

My doc names are usually very boring 95% of the time I finish a fic and think it’s ready to post and realise I need a title. How about ‘Yassen Bedroom Visit’?

2.) Describe a Wip in the format of __+__=__

SCORPIA heir Alex + totally normal kidnapping and drugging in the middle of the night get to safety orienteering exercises = childhood trauma

3.) What tags/warnings will one of your Wips need if you share it?

Forced child seperation?

4.) alternative title to a wip?

I don’t really have alternate titles! Titles tend to come pretty late in the process!

5.) which wip are you most likely to update/finish next?

Probably one of my s3 aus I’ve got brewing, there’s a longer thing I posted the first chapter of today but I also have some one shots, one where Yassen gets wounded fighting off Alex’s enemies and Alex basically has to hold him down to say he cares about him, and another where Yassen comes to chat to him in the middle of the night (while Alex is sleeping) and they catch up.

6.) what is one of your wip’s document title, not what it’s name is but what you have it saved as?

Again, extremely boring. Some examples - ‘Tom/House introduction’, ‘stables’, ‘the ball’, ‘heir apparent 1-9’, ‘hunting’ ‘hostage’ ‘orienteering.’

On reflection, these are very badly organised. But, hey Ho.

7.) post any sentence from your WIP?

Okay this took me forever to decide bc I want to share like, all of my sentences, but here’s a sentence from my SCORPIA heir Alex thing where Yassen just tries to take a day off, but is interrupted by Alex sneaking out of school/the country and mountain his school is on

‘Rubbing his eyes with his forefinger and thumb, he blocked out the little blonde headache sat before him, and sighed, already imagining the state of his email inbox when he got back to his laptop, which he’d sworn would stay folded in its case for the rest of the day.

“And how long ago was this? When should I start expecting panicked calls from your father?”‘

8.) a scrapped idea from your WIP?

Not necessarily a scrapped idea but evidently one I forgot about and rediscovered as I was flicking through google docs - originally a pre-season 3 idea (but could work post s3) where Yassen retires, and decides it’s time for Alex to retire too, even if he doesn’t want to. Very “congratulations you are being adopted! Do not resist.” Meme with Yassen that I’ve seen on here, the bit I’d written was him contemplating the least traumatising way to kidnap him, to make sure they’re a happy family unit post-kidnapping

9.) what’s a story you would love to write but have yet to start?

Alex sees dead people AU - Ian knows, when he dies his ghost becomes bound to Alex, and helps take care of him/watch over him in the field, Alex bumps into Yassen at Point Blanc and immediately recognises the ghost bound to him as his father, especially as he begs the assassin to stop pretending like he can’t hear him for once and let him see his son, to protect him.

10.) how many WIPs are you actively working on?

Four - regency fic, darker Alex s3 au, two other s3 aus I mentioned earlier. Suprised myself by how much of this longer ‘SCORPIA heir’ Alex thing that I’d put off for a while I’ve actually written. That’s one that I really want to finish before I start posting bc I’m bad at doing work without an immediate emotional reward/it’s a longer than anything I’ve written before and I don’t want to give up on it when it’s half published. I had been delaying it till after s3 but maybe time to get to work (will try and finish regency fic first)

11.) is there a scene your struggling to write now?

Oh I mean so many but the most immediate stumbling block is with the regency fic, chapter after this one they go to a ball and that’s almost basically written and so is a lot of the next two chapters but there’s things I need to thread into this chapter that just don’t want to be threaded - I need Alex to start being a bit more suspicious of Yassen, and remember that whole thing about his uncle being murdered now he’s a bit passed the initial princess diaries revelation moment.

I was thinking like Alex waiting up for him on Christmas Eve or something and falls asleep then is woken by Yassen sneaking back in and Alex noticed he’s got blood on his clothes or something and Yassen just shrugs him off and reacts more strictly/authoritatively than he has before. But the scene is a bit sludgy I my mind atm.

12.) Not a question but a second kudos!

[the-chickenshit-oddity]

I posted 10,522 times in 2022

That's 8,112 more posts than 2021!

875 posts created (8%)

9,647 posts reblogged (92%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@birdkeeperklink

@atypical-snowman

@tony-stark-ing

@kcsplace

@eventhorizon451

I tagged 2,680 of my posts in 2022

#stupid - 628 posts

#the-c-odd-prompt - 254 posts

#prompt - 196 posts

#cool art - 96 posts

#yes - 87 posts

#tony stark - 80 posts

#lol - 78 posts

#iron man - 69 posts

#lmao - 69 posts

#ironstrange - 65 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#in which steve is the cool uncle and charlie has a thing for bananas and danny has to stop steve from leavin the country cause he feels bad

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Snape & Harry prompt

Make it shippy if you want, I'll keep it gen for myself.

Snape survives the war and when Harry goes back for his 8th year, Snape ignores him. No more insults, no more detention, no more asking him questions he doesn't have the answer to, nothing. Since it's after the war, Harry's a bit...traumatised, and feels kind of without a purpose, because he doesn't want to fight anymore but he also doesn't know anything else, much less what he wants to do. And so, his helper-complex kicks in and he thinks clearly Snape's traumatised too, so much so that he doesn't even enjoy his favourite pass-time anymore : tortuting Harry. So Harry's new purpose is to annoy Snape into being a giant dick again, and make him feel better. Except the whole dickishness (well, the extent of it anyway) was part of his spy gig so Snape doesn't wanna go back to it, but my god is that Potter kid a pain in his...backside.

125 notes - Posted March 24, 2022

#4

Mystrade/Mycroft prompt

Mycroft's waistcoat is a bulletproof vest. Mystrade version is Greg finding that out the hard way.

126 notes - Posted March 7, 2022

#3

All the ships

A's got some visible consequence of trauma ; maybe scars, maybe nervous ticks, maybe some obvious reactions to stuff, anything. B asks them about it and A lies, but A's a shit liar telling a shit excuse and they're in a bad place right now so when B just accepts it cheerfully, A thinks "oh, you don't care enough to call me on my bullshit". In the end, A realises "oh, you care enough to wait for me to be ready to talk about it"

144 notes - Posted March 14, 2022

#2

All the ships:

Strangers to flirty Friends to Lovers to friendly Exes to ... Well after that you can choose what you want.

So, they used to date but for some reason they broke up and they thought "well we were friends before, we can be friends again now as exes, right?" but wrong because they weren't friends, they were flirty friends, the kind where the friendship is mostly based on the mutual attraction which prevents real connection because you wanna impress. So now they realise they've got nothing to talk about and friendly Exes become "haven't talked to you in weeks but no hard feelings" kind of strangers. And then they meet again and start over.

154 notes - Posted January 3, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

One prompt all the ships:

Soulmate AU where you have "the most meaningful touch" your soulmate ever gives you as, like, a birthmark.

A has a giant handprint all across their face, covering their mouth and cheeks. Obligatory angst of "oh shit my soulmate is violent/hates me/etc" until it turns out that B (the soulmate) actually saved their lives by preventing them from making a sound while danger was near (or something else non-evil).

(an example would be that scene where Klaus covers Caroline's mouth while 'saving' her from Psycho-Alaric ; another would be a high level of "shut up now before you say something you shouldn't" slam-my-hand-against-your-face thing)

449 notes - Posted January 5, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[semper-legens]

47. Five Nights At Freddy's: The Twisted Ones, by Scott Cawthon and Kira Breed-Wrisley

Owned?: No, library Page count: 295 My summary: It's been a year since the events at Freddy's, and Charlie is trying to move on. But Freddy's is not done with her. People are turning up dead, killed in gruesome ways that remind Charlie of the animatronic spring locks. But Freddy's is closed, dormant for months. How can the animatronics be escaping? And why do all of the victims look like Charlie? My rating: 2.5/5 My commentary:

Look, if you've followed this blog for any amount of time, you'll know that I have a bad habit of always finishing what I start, even when I'm not particularly enjoying it. And since getting a weird fascination with the Five Nights At Freddy's lore, I've decided I'm going to read all of this first book trilogy - not the later stuff, there's too much and I don't care enough about it, but these first three books are reasonable. And mid. They're just so mid. If it wasn't connected to FNaF I probably wouldn't be bothering - they're just standard kid horror, not really all that special, or even reaching the heights of some of the kid horror I remember reading when I was younger, like Goosebumps or Anthony Horowitz. And yet, I'm still getting a perverse sense of enjoyment from complaining about them. So here we are, ready for some complaining.

The characters have been reduced, from far too many in the first book to just three - Charlie, John, and Jessica, though some of the others get token mentions. It's a better move, far fewer people to keep track of, but ultimately none of their characterisations are really all that interesting. Charlie is traumatised and wants to solve the mysteries around Freddy's and her past. Jessica is the Best Friend who is a little more 'normal', John is the love interest. Charlie is really the only one who gets an arc and gets some greater focus, and even that is not particularly deep. She wants to know what happened to her twin, the one taken by Afton, but there's no particular reason why, and she's singleminded about it to the detriment of anything else. She wants to solve the mystery, and that's that. Even her newfound interest in robotics is secondary.

Which is really the downfall of this book - it's bland, and overly focused on Lore over story and character development. And like, I get it, that's how the FNaF games operate, but this is a prose narrative and needs to follow the trappings of a prose narrative, not of background flavour to a video game. The rules are different. The characters need to be more engaging. There needs to be room for something other than just plot, plot, plot in the narrative. The characters need more characterisation, better arcs, more motivation. We need to get to know them, which doesn't really happen here. I couldn't really tell you a thing about John and Jessica beside their basic character outlines, and that's not how it's meant to be.

And what isn't bland is just nonsensical. Charlie learns about the new wave of killings when Clay, a police officer and her friend's father, takes her to a murder scene without warning her about it so she can identify the springlock injuries. I know that the police are incompetent at best, but surely taking a random teenager to an active crime scene is frowned upon? It turns out that the body of Dave/Afton hasn't been removed from Freddy's, which I'd also have thought would be something the police would have done. Clay seems perfectly fine with treating these kids like they're consultants and partners on the crime, which is probably breaking a good few laws. He even delays reporting another death so Charlie can snoop around the dead woman's house! Why? It stretches credulity, and clearly just happens to get Charlie into the right place to learn the next plot point so she can continue down this story. It's very paint-by-numbers storytelling. Afton coming back from the dead again just seems goofy in this medium, too. We saw him die, twice, and yet he's still here. The thing that annoys me the most, however, is that we still don't have a good reason for Afton doing what he does. Most people don't just up and murder kids on a whim, there's usually a reason behind it, even if it's not, you know, a good reason. But nope. Afton just likes murder, I guess. We don't need motivations or to understand our characters! Bleh.

Next, from the short to the…less short, it's a dip back into the Outlander series!

[chaotic-multi-fandom]

I started young royals open to Marcus, determined not to hate on him just because he's a love interest than Whilhelm. I ended up hating him. Not because he ruined my ship or whatever the fuck, that boy was horrible and manipulative, and I'm actually so mad AND impressed at how WELL, they portrayed this kind of subtle manipulation with Marcus. He knew about everything Simon had gone through, he knew, it hadn't even been that long, and yet he very quickly approached Simon and flirted with him. At first I didn't necessarily see anything particularly wrong with this, but it did set me off slightly as it would be common sense to think that Simon probably needs space, and most importantly is in a *vulnerable* position.

However, I gave him the benefit of the doubt, he seemed sweet. But then, everything got worse, as soon as Simon told him he wasn't ready for anything sirious he said he "could wait" and that they'd "take it slow" 🚩🚩🚩🚩. NO. From the scenes with previous to this, and with the way he expresses his feelings to Marcus that he doesn't want a relationship at all rn, but with this subtle "comforting" that Marcus uses with Simon he still let's open the relationship, he's stopping Simon from ending the relationship and instead let's the door open just slightly. If he really liked Simon as much as he claimed to do, he wouldn't string him along in any type of situation where he might feel uncomfortable AND he wouldn't settle to have a type of relationship he doesn't want to, just like Simon didn't with Whilhelm when he realised he'd have to be a secret.

After that he continued to make insinuations (or directly saying) how much he likes Simon, such as when he says he only brings the dates "he really likes" to the spot he brings Simon too, only very shortly after Simon has expressed not being ready for a serious relationship, it's such a brilliant and subtle guilt tripping it grinds my teeth. Followed by the whole competition thing, in which he kisses Simon in front of the whole school.(which includes Whilhem)??? LIKE WHAT. SIMON LITERALLY JUST SAID THIS IS THE OPPOSITE OF WHAY HE WANTS, je doesn't want some big, committed public thing, yet Marcus does the opposite and you can TELL that Simon is uncomfortable in this. Yet, because Marcus went there to support him, he can't say anything.

I'm not even gonna talk much about the whole jealousy thing with Simon and Wilhelm and the ball. Simon never hid he had smth with Wilhelm and Marcus knew this, plus he knew all the drama that went around it, and yet he has the audacity to get annoyed when there's obvious tension or lingering feelings between Simon and Whilhelm. He makes Simon feel guilty for this, as if he were "playing" with Marcus' feelings, even though once again Simon was very clear about not wanting anything serious.

Finally when Simon fully breaks up with him (which he shouldn't have to do anyway, since they weren't supposed to be in an actual relationship, Marcus made him feel like he owed him this) as many manipulators tho Marcus snaps. He calls Simon all types of horrible shit, and worst of all, brings up his father (YIKES!!) a man that has traumatised Simon, and is a horribly sensitive thing in his life. He had no right. This was the moment of realisation for many people but their were so many other signs.

Anyway I'm aware a lot of this doesn't make sense, this a rant not an analysis or anything like that, it's me le letting out my frustration. Fuck Marcus

[breakfastteatime]

OKAY! I am ready to discuss my Fallen Order thoughts and feels. And the place I want to start is how this game reminded me of why I love Star Wars. It has been so long since I felt this adoration. While I am old enough to have started out with the OT, I am a prequel fan at heart. This era fascinates me, and Fallen Order capitalised on everything I find narratively satisfying.

So, here we go. BIG spoilers ahead:

BD-1. I have never cared about a droid in Star Wars like this. When you're separated when Cal's captured by the bounty hunter, I was racing around the cells in a panic to get BD-1 back. Just the fact that BD-1 is your little buddy, helping you out... oh goodness and when you see the video from Cordova where BD-1's memory was wiped. I wept.

Cal. Okay, firstly, as a natural ginger, I was THRILLED to have a ginger Jedi. Basically, Cal is me and I am Cal, okay? 😋 Secondly, his character development, from this traumatised child to young man finding his own strength just got to me. The idea that he didn't have to keep himself hidden, that he could be who he is, hit HARD. The vision where he has to face his own pride? AMAZING. Order 66 has always, always, always been so devastating and THAT SCENE in Revenge of the Sith always wrecks me. You know the one. When you finally find out what happened to Cal and his Master, it hurts. Oh my gosh, the fact that you HIGH FIVE A CLONE right before Order 66 broke me. Just... oh gosh. So much crying.

Found family. Look, I am a sucker for a found family story. This had all the right ingredients and I cannot wait to see where they go in the sequel.

Worldbuilding. For the first time in ages, the Star Wars universe feels BIG again. It's not just "Sand Planet that isn't Tatooine", "Starbase That Isn't the Death Star". Right at the start where you see the giant Separatist ship, I was just fascinated with where they were going. And the fact that you see the remnants of the Clone Wars everywhere, aged and forgotten already, fascinated me. I also loved the Tomb Raider / Uncharted vibe to the whole thing!

The Jedi. The fact that Cere and Cal didn't know each other and weren't constantly dropping the names of other famous Jedi really worked for me. And look at that, you CAN care about characters that surnames aren't Skywalker or Palpatine... *AHEM* Finally, the Jedi Order feels HUGE again. Yeah, we got a Yoda (and a Yaddle omg!!!!) reference, and of course we saw Obi-Wan's warning, but Cal wasn't like "I trained with Master Kenobi once, and Master Skywalker! And this one time, I got to see Master Windu's purple lightsaber!!!" I love that neither of them knew who Vader was. It felt more organic, because why would Cal know anyone when he was so young when The Purge happened? Oh, and the Inquisitors being Jedi who were tortured into succumbing to the dark side is such an amazing plot point. I am so curious to see where this might go in either the Kenobi show or the next Fallen Order game.

DARTH VADER. For the first time in my life I was genuinely terrified of Darth Vader. That moment when he's just THERE when you get on the turbolift?!? Omg. Screaming. I was SCREAMING. The nature of a videogame meant you really feel the depth of his power. I had no idea that was coming. The whole finale was just phenomenal.

Lightsaber combat. Let's just say I'm glad all my hours of Dark Souls and Bloodborne prepared me 💪

So all in all, an amazing story with awesome characters and I am ready for MORE!

[bigstripeylie]

Ghosts theory- “sucked off” edition

Apologies for the title.

I have a theory about how each of the ghosts in Ghosts has a parallel with another Ghost and how this could be the key to them finally being able to move on, or “be sucked off’ as Mary would say.

Putting it behind a cut as this is extremely long and rambly. Spoilers for pretty much every episode of Ghosts

First of all I was listening to Mat and Jim on the Empire Spoilers podcast and Mat said something really interesting about how he intended “you stays how you dies” to refer to the ghost’s mental and emotional state, as well as physical. So Thomas always being obsessed with seeking love is because he died broken-hearted and Fanny always being so grumpy is because she died angry at her husband. 

I believe, therefore, that if the ghosts were able to overcome each of their emotional blocks that would be the thing that would allow them to move on. Furthermore, each of the ghosts has another ghost that seems perfectly suited to be able to assist them in that.

Let’s go through them:

Thomas- Thomas died believing his love never loved him back and now is forced to spend eternity seeking for love as a ghost. If Thomas was able to find someone who could reciprocate his affections, this would the resolve that issue. In the Series 2 episode “About Last Night” when Alison drunkenly tells Thomas “if you were alive and I was 200 years older, then we might have…” we hear a choir start singing and Thomas is pulled, as if compelled, through the wall, similar to how Fanny is pulled forwards towards the window to jump when she “doesn’t even realise [she’s] doing it.” Thomas desperately craves love and affection from another person, but in life was constantly rejected by the people he loved most. You know who else that sounds like? Kitty.

Kitty- Like Thomas, she is from a wealthy family who sheltered her a lot growing up, but is ultimately good and tries to be honourable. Kitty also craves love and affection as well as companionship and she tries to seek it, first in Eleanor and then in Alison (because Alison reminds her of  Eleanor, like how Alison reminds Thomas of Isabelle). However it comes up again and again that Kitty’s relationship with Alison isn’t as fulfilling to her as she would like it be because her being a ghost prevents her from sharing every activity with Alison, and Alison cannot show her physical affection. Kitty is trying to recreate aspects of her relationship with Eleanor using Alison as a substitute but this isn’t very healthy for her, as it simply traps her in the constant state of seeking affection that will not or cannot be returned fully. We don’t know the exact circumstances of Kitty’s death but after Series 3, if seems likely that her sister was in some way involved. Maybe what is keeping Kitty trapped as a ghost is her need for approval and love that she never got in life? But by seeking it in people who remind her of Eleanor exclusively, she is further trapping herself.

If Kitty and Thomas could find love with each other, they could each fulfil the other’s need for reciprocated affection. They are both equally needy so this quality wouldn’t likely annoy the other. Kitty seems to genuinely enjoy high romance in earnest and in finding an outlet for her love in Thomas, she could finally move on from her sister. Thomas would also find someone to love him and could devote himself completely to someone who would actually return his love, instead of fruitlessly pursuing women who remind of Isabelle’s rejection. This could lead to the resolution of both character’s finally moving on from their deaths.

Next up, let’s look at The Captain-

The Captain’s central conflict is obviously his sexuality. I believe that the resolution to this conflict would be him finally accepting and coming to terms with being gay and feeling comfortable with that part of his  identity. Which ghost could best help him in this?

Fanny. 

Maybe not the answer you were thinking, but hear me out. The Captain already has a strong positive relationship with Fanny built on mutual respect. He is more likely to value her opinion as an equal that any of the other ghosts and he seems to align himself with her on most issues. Which makes his choice to go against Fanny and defend the same-sex wedding and its guests to her in “Perfect Day” really remarkable.

In “Perfect Day”, Fanny expresses some pretty disapproving remarks about the wedding guest’s attire and some homophobic opinions about the same-sex wedding in general, which prompts the Captain to defend one of the guests to Fanny. “It’s chic, it’s now, and if it makes her feel fabulous…”

Imagine a scene where The Captain has to defend himself towards Fanny in a similar manner after coming out, showing that he is finally accepting of his sexuality as being the right thing for him. 

Anyway, that was a slight digression…

Fanny is still struggling to deal with the circumstances of her own death which was brought about in part because she caught her husband having an affair with other men. Fanny needs to accept and come to terms with the fact that her husband didn’t love her and that while he was obviously wrong for murdering her, she needs to move on so she can stop reenacting it by jumping out the window every morning. Because she died feeling angry and betrayed, she is trapped in that state in death. Discovering that one of her closest friends is gay and realising that it is possible for someone to be both gay and a good person might prompt her to think differently about her own life, as she started do with Humphrey in Perfect Day. 

The Captain, in turn, could be driven by Fanny’s ability to accept his sexuality into thinking ‘if she can accept that part of me, then maybe I can too.’ Personally, out of all the ghosts, I think it could only be Fanny who could prompt him to think that because it would mean the most to him coming from her.

Humphrey- Humphrey died because he was trying to protect Sophie, who rejected any attempt to get to know him and who he believed didn’t even like him. In death he is trapped in a state of being a selfless self-sacrificing people-pleaser and desperately wanting to be included in the other ghost’s activities, even allowing himself be kicked and thrown around if it means he can just be involved. In ‘I Love Lucy’ he even attempts to make a relationship with Fanny work, showing he is willing to sacrifice his own happiness for the sake of others.

Julian, by contrast, is the most selfish of all the ghosts at Button House. Deep down he feels guilty that his selfishness negatively affected the relationship with his daughter but seems not to be consciously aware that he feels like this. Julian’s selfishness to not spend time with his family ultimately leads to his death in Button House, as he neglected his family to spend more time at work and was clearly cheating on his wife, showing he is driven by selfish impulses.

If Julian were to perform a completely selfless act to the benefit of Humphrey, then Humphrey would get to feel as though someone was putting him first for once and valuing him the way he seeks to be valued. Julian would also break the pattern of selfish behaviour that caused his downfall.

The rest are little less well-defined:

Pat is the probably the ghost that we know the most about, through seeing his death and actually meeting his family in “Happy Death Day”, to the numerous anecdotes he reveals about his life throughout the show. However, I can’t decide for sure what is the thing that is keeping him a ghost. Pat himself seemed to think it was that he was missing his family, but this was ultimately proved wrong after he saw them again in ‘Happy Death Day’. Even meeting the boy who killed him and forgiving him in ‘Perfect Day’ didn’t cause him to move on. It could be something to do with Carol’s affair with Maurice but I just don’t know for sure. I like the idea of him fitting in with the plague ghosts. I think his personalty and leadership style would get along better with them than say, The Captain, who is too authoritarian. I also think Pat is someone who thrives in a group setting.

Robin and Mary are also tricky to work out what the thing keeping them as ghosts is because we know so little about their lives and deaths compared to the other characters. I think these are the only two ghosts who have not yet received a flashback to their lives. We know that Mary was in some way involved a witch-trail and this has traumatised her. Robin also has experienced a lot of trauma in his life but he seems to be more philosophical about it and accepting of it. He shows great empathy towards others both in trying to comfort Pat about his death in “Happy Death Day’ and Kitty in “About Last Night’, he could use his experience of trauma to help Mary deal with hers. They both seem to be looked down upon and ‘othered’ by the other ghosts due to their perceived lack of intelligence even though they are both very emotionally and socially intelligent.

If anyone has any thoughts about these last two pairings or any of the others, then please reblog and add your take!

I am not in any way saying that I think this is what will happen in the next series or what even I think should happen, but that this is one possibilities for much further down the road when the ghost are all ready to move on.

Also I have spent way too much time thinking about this…