#norman you deserved so much better

[kokoasci]

doodles of some totally normal children

[goldiipond]

many lines in tpn dub are delivered in such a way that they are able to take permanent residence in my brain and routinely beat the shit out of me. this is how you know if an anime dub is good

[starshipsofstarlord]

norman reedus // daryl dixon

divider credits. @cafekitsune

🥀 = smut (18+, minors dni)

🍄 = requested

daryl dixon

Sleepless

On the farm, you struggle to fall asleep due to all the things that you know that surround you, from the walkers in the barn to Shane. The only thing that can make you feel any comfort is Daryl (1.4k)

Prisoner 🥀

(Early season 3 based) Winter had been a long journey for all of your group, especially you and Daryl given that there was always a lack of privacy. You find it difficult to feel at home in the prison, but Daryl is always there for you when you need him, and you have the chance to relish in a night alone - or as lonesome as a cell can be (2.9k)

Pretty Eyes

(Late season 2 based) throughout the outbreak, after meeting Daryl Dixon the two of you had always clashed heads. However when you reach the CDC, convinced you had been saved, you decide it’s time that you get along (1.4k) 🥀

you and daryl have reverted to your original positions, however your divide in getting along isn’t only affecting the two of you. it’s endangering the group, and so when needs must, you have to reconcile and make a truce (2.2k)

picking up where you left off isn’t always the easiest thing to proceed with, especially when you and daryl are still bickering. but there are ways to make amends 🥀

Throbbing 🥀

Daryl needs you, however you’re out on a run, so he has no other cure other than to take care of himself (0.8k)

Using You 🥀

you love him, you really do - he’s your best friend, however you’re scared if you choose to be with him you’ll lose him; you’d already lost too much. However, Daryl thinks that you’re using him to distract yourself with sex. It’s up to you to prove him wrong (2.9k)

Bemused

daryl becomes bemused by y/n and her affections towards him. also the story of how daryl ‘found’ his vest (0.6k)

How to Weaken a Man 🥀

you were going to get what you wanted, Daryl however was going to have to wait. He was deserving of a taste of his own medicine, after him constantly being in charge, it was time for a change (3.3k)

Cuddle Bunny

all you can do is reflect on the past as you sit by a tired and bedridden daryl, hellbent on not leaving his side. It seems he doesn’t want you to leave either, as you are the only person that sees him for who he is, in every light (1.3k)

Nexus to the Next Life

the cdc was supposed to be the start of continuing life, however after jenner has revealed that the haven of which you had travelled to is going to self destruct, you endure a battle with yourself. to stay and die quickly, or leave and possibly die slowly (1.2k)

Not Yet Corpses. Still, We Rot 🥀🍄

you were surviving after the prison fell, whilst you felt lost deep inside of yourself. without daryl, and the others that you had lost and yet to find, everything only seemed to get worse. and all was proven when the claimers interrupted your futile attempts of avoiding nightmares

Lap Girl

a series of unchronological scenarios of y/n being in daryl’s lap within part of their journey (part 1 - the first night in alexandria)

daryl needs comfort at the greene farm after he fails to find sophia again. luckily his girl is willing to give him exactly what he needs; her in his lap

there’s no better position for daryl than when his girl is in his lap 😉🥵 🥀

daryl is in mourning for his brother merle, overcome with grief and guilt. all he needs is to lay on his girls lap and receive her affection

y/n and daryl are seated on the couch in their home, however there’s only one problem; he’s in her spot. he’s happy enough to move so that she can be comfortable, but his girl has a better idea

Locked Away 🥀🍄

whilst hiding out from walkers in a closet, you grow extremely bored. the only thing to do is daryl, but you have to make sure he stays quiet

Honey suckle 🥀

daryl gets lost in eating his favourite meal between your legs

in sickness and in health 🍄

daryl is distant, more so than usual, and so you force yourself into his personal bubble, wanting to make sure that he is okay since he is the only reminder of your old life before the outbreak

parental advisory 🥀

at the beginning of the strenuous outbreak, you never thought there would ever be the opportunity to build a family. it was never safe, that was until you reached commonwealth. all you want is a baby of your own, but you are unsure if daryl would agree due to the impractical risks and unspoken label of your relationship together (5.8k)

prompts and drabbles and headcanons

“I don’ have the patience ter remove yer clothes righ now.” 🥀

daryl returns from a hunt, but he doesn’t care for what he caught; he’d rather catch you beneath him (0.8k)

“thought you were mad at me.” “it’s a hate boner, i swear.”

you and daryl, despite fighting and surviving side by side for years, have always had a tendency to get on each others nerves. the one thing he hates more than your recklessness however, is seeing you hurt

nsfw alphabet 🥀

daryl pre-apocalypse dating headcanons

sub!daryl headcanons 🥀

what it would be like to have a subby daryl at your hands 🥵😭

daryl + tit fucking drabble 🥀

daryl + doggy style 🥀

cuddling headcanons

daryl + mouth spitting 🥀 reverse 🥀

young!daryl dixon

surrogate comfort 🥀

daryl comes to your home, finding peace between your legs before you relieve his homeward bound struggles

norman reedus

Got a Light?

Norman goes to a bar after a long day on set, and he’s unexpectedly approached by a ‘stranger’ (1k)

Normal Morning with Norman

inspired by this prompt - early morning kiss - a kiss that’s a wake up call, it’s barely even a lips touching, more like they’re kissing your chin because they’re so tired in the early morning haze (0.5k)

[ursuburbanmother]

I’m On Fire, But I’m Trying Not to Show It || Chapter Four

Pairings: Angus Tully x fem!reader

a/n: did you guys know fifty dollars back in ‘66 was like five hundred dollars??? I didn’t and now I wish I never did. Anyway I kinda just wanted to explore more of Angus and Y/n relationship before the event of the holdovers. So a little backstory on this one. I maybe got carried away. Also this is a long ish chapter cause I have MAJOR exams to take so yeah :0 it might be while till I update again.

Word Count: ~7.5k

Enjoy!

Four Years Before - June 12th, 1966

Your parents had fled to Barbados for a destination wedding which they would follow with a cruise they claimed to deserve. Although it was one of those rare occasions where they had extended an invitation, you had declined. The prospect of being able to stretch your legs on the couch without worrying if you would be crushing some unknown guest, or to be able to walk into rooms without crashing into a waiter passing out shrimp puffs, was much more appealing. You had been left behind with fifty dollars for your fun fund, as your mother called it, and a kiss on the forehead. The nanny your parents kept on retainer would check up on you occasionally only to find you were much better at cleaning up after your messes and doing ordinary tasks than your parents. She’d leave after a few hours and then over the course of the first week she stopped coming.

You had prepared yourself for a month of solitude after Angus had announced he’d be spending his vacation at a tennis camp in Montauk. You must have been reorganizing your bookshelf for the third time that day (once by alphabet, then by color, and finally by size) when you heard a knock at the door. The sun had just begun to set, the sky colored a purple-blue, and you cautiously decided to take your fathers golf club. You dropped the club shortly after opening the front door to find not the face of Norman Bates but of your best friend. You scanned his tear-stained face. His eyes were glossy and his cheeks rosy, like when one stands in the snow and is attacked by the harsh winds that nip at your skin.

He collapsed into your arms, and you are quick to hold him steady. He was crouched over, having had a growth spurt a few months earlier, making it hard for you to look at him eye to eye.

“What’s wrong?” You asked.

It was the summer of ‘66, where paranoid parents were starting to believe rock music would possess you. Ironically, it was the year Pet Sounds came out and you couldn’t stop rewinding the songs on your turntable. And most significantly it was the summer you spent with Angus.

He broke the news through jumbled words and choked down tears. How his father had been placed in a Mental Health hospital and how taking him to camp was just an excuse to make sure he wouldn’t be there when the people from the hospital came to pick his father up. They had apparently come early, mixing the dates up.

“Does your mom know you’re here?” You asked, hugging his torso.

“No. I'm sure she’ll be coming to check soon though,” he sniffled, “She’ll probably try to drag me to Montauk anyway and say that ‘it’ll be good for me’.”

You kiss his curls, “What if you stay here?”

He lifts his head up, “I’m not sure she’ll let me.”

“I think she will,” you reassured, “I am a very good guilt-tripper.”

“You can try if you want. How much did your parent’s leave you anyway?”

“Enough for both of us, don't worry. Even if we run out, we could whip something up to eat.”

His eyes widened, “Let's stick to take-out.”

Your house was the first place Angus’s mother looked in, just like he had predicted. He hid at the top of the stairs, staying away from his mom's line of sight as she pressed you for his whereabouts. You had been truthful about how he wanted to spend the next few nights here.

“Are you serious? I’m not going to leave two fourteen-year-olds alone, unattended, unsupervised! God knows what you’ll get up to.”

“We’re not going to do anything!” you argued, “We’re smart enough to not light the house on fire and to dial 911, in case we happen to. Angus just wants to be away for a little while. You should understand why,” you glared.

She looked down, shuffling her heeled feet.

“Besides, you take him away now he’s just to keep coming back here,” you sighed, stating the obvious.

She cleared her throat, coughing as she nodded, “Fine. Alright. Uhm- just make sure he calls me. Okay?”

“Okay,” you do your best to stop yourself from slamming the door in her face. "Bye.”

“The coast is clear,” you shout to Angus who came barreling down the stairs, skipping the last few steps.

“Did she look mad?”

You shrug, “A little. But she'll move on.”

He hums, agreeing as his eyes flicker around the room. He’s looking at the house he must have been at least a thousand times, whether because you invited him or because your parents did. And for the first time in either of your lives… it was completely silent. …

That first night Angus slept on your bedroom floor on a mattress you had dragged from the guest room. You had only your lamp on, and your window was open just wide enough to bring in the refreshing summer air. You were reading a few pages of your book to Angus, and when you glanced down you saw his eyes beginning to close.

“Do you want me to stop?”

“No. You have a nice voice is all.”

“Thank you. You do want to go to sleep though,” you observe.

“Should I turn off the lamp?” He says almost immediately. He lifts himself up slightly so he can reach your bedside table and waits for your permission to turn it off.

“Yes please.” You settle deep into your duvet. You turn to the side that faces Angus and wish him goodnight.

A few minutes later he speaks up again in a whisper. “Thank you again. For letting me stay here. I'll be out of here by next week, swear.”

“If you could, I would want you to stay here your whole life.” He scoffs at your words as you lean up with the support of your elbows to stare him down. “I’m serious. I only wish I could live in a house with you. Except somewhere far away from here.”

“By the beach,” he adds.

“Yeah. On a beach so obscure they can’t even send us mail because no one will know our address.”

“Oh no. How would your parents ever send you the invitation for your debutante ball?”

“I guess they’ll just have to throw it without me.”

“Shame,” Angus sighs. “I would love to see you in a white dress.”

You pause and then crash down back into your bed. You admire the garland that hangs above you. It’s made of postcards your parents sent you during their many endeavors. In that moment you're reminded of them and turn to Angus. “Oh. About that. My mom told me to tell you to prepare to be my escort in a few years.”

“Already?!” …

You and Angus had fallen into a routine. He’d sleep way later than you, sometimes until noon, and you’d wake him when you got too impatient and hungry for breakfast. He’d stir and groan to the point that it was obvious he was faking before finally getting up.

You would carry what you could from your kitchen pantry onto the backyard patio and eat under the summer sun. It was like an all-you-can-eat buffet of fig jam, English muffins and sometimes pears from the tree that stretched over your neighbor's fence. Afterward you and Angus continued your day in the green grass. He would sprawl himself out on a picnic blanket and read a comic book, wearing shades that were on the verge of tipping off his nose. Meanwhile you would tend to your mother's garden. You’d put on her straw hat too, just to make it feel like you were with her.

When you were little, you’d pull the weeds out of flower beds as your mom pruned her lavender. It was her dearest plant, and she treated them so, regularly nursing it to keep it alive. She’d motion for you to come with her and pick up the shears from the gardening shed. Eagerly obedient, you did as she said, and you would work together until called for lunch. Your mother was always a vivaciously elegant woman, always knowing the right things to say and charming anyone she met. You often wondered why you hadn’t inherited her brilliance, the one that made her seem as if she was glowing in any room she inhabited. It was odd that she’d often claim her ability to converse was her greatest ability when the two got along best when moving in silence.

You did your best to care for the plant too. Before you mom left, she asked to handle their upkeep. You took your duty seriously, checking in on them every day until you saw one sign of disarray.

That summer was like playing house. And although you never admit, for the fear that he’d read too much into and freak, it was exactly as you had often dreamed it to be. June and July passed quickly, and you hadn’t even noticed it. You imagined a life where it could just be you two forever, away from your parents and outside of stifling Massachusetts.

You imagined a life in an apartment described as ‘quaint,’ by the realtor to disguise the incredible small square footage. You wondered if he would like to be in a city like New York or Chicago. Somewhere that was always busy, and the chirping of morning birds was replaced by honking cars.

By the time August had rolled around, you could practically hear the unmistakable sound of the school bell ringing in your ear, warning you of its proximity. Thoughts about the future had you asking Angus one bleary Sunday afternoon, “Are you nervous about starting high school?”

Angus was pushing you on the tire swing, trying to give you motion sickness by twisting the ropes of the swing and letting them untangle a second later.

“Not really. It’ll be like eighth grade just with more tests.”

“I guess. But aren’t you nervous about making new friends and stuff? What if we tangled ourselves into a web so deep that we can’t talk to other people normally.”

“Then I have done my job of keeping you to myself.”

“Haha,” you deadpan, “Seriously though. Won’t you miss having me to talk to?”

“Of course I will. But you’ll write to me and crap… right?”

“Of course,” you echo his words back to him, “You’ll visit me when you get the chance too, correct?”

“Eh. If I’m not busy.”

“Angus!”

“Yes! Obviously, I will.” He pushes you a little harder.

“I do want you to be more out there though. Don’t go sulking in corners like you always do. People would really like you if you let them talk to you for more than one minute.”

“You’re starting to sound like my mother Y/n.”

“Seriously though. Did you notice we’re always addressed as ‘Y/n and Angus’ by teachers. Never just Y/n and never just Angus.”

“Yeah. But I like it. It’s like Bonnie and Clyde. You can’t separate them because then it sounds plain wrong.”

“Okay Clyde,” you roll your eyes. You stop swinging, scraping your shoes through the dirt until you are still.

“I’m giving us two weeks before we break down to each other over the phone.” You lose the hold you have on the tire swings and let them drop onto your lap. You simmer under the sun and enjoy the breeze that flows through your hair.

“Don’t go replacing me when you get to your school.”

“Don’t worry, you got a head start seven years ago. No one else will be able to catch up,” you smile teasingly. “Maybe I’ll find myself a boyfriend though. About time for the both of us, don’t you think?”

He frowns, “You don’t need a boyfriend.”

“Yes, I do. Everyone else does.”

“Since when do you do what other people do? I think you should stop talking to people who peer pressure you,” he flicks your forehead.

“Why?” You rub your forehead, “Do you want to be my boyfriend?” You smirk.

“Gross! No! I was just kidding. Get a boyfriend, I don’t care.”

“You wouldn’t care if I got a boyfriend?” You look at him skeptically.

“As long as he treats you nice and shit,” he rubs the back of his neck.

“It’s just that we do everything together Angus. There are some things I would like to get over with that I can’t do with you.”

“Like what?” Angus wrinkled his nose in confusion.

“Like hold hands and go to bowling alleys or whatever.”

“We’ve done that.”

“I like…kiss,” you whisper, fidgeting with your hands.

“Oh,” he chuckles awkwardly. “So would you want to do that … now?”

“What!” You shout, leaping off the swing and walking a few steps away from him. “I’m not asking you to,” you clarify, shaking your head.

“No, but I would like to be over and done with it too… so maybe we should just…” He motions his finger between you two.

“Uhm,” you laugh, tilting your head, “Wouldn’t that be weird?”

“Yeah, but it doesn’t mean anything. It’ll be just to check it off the list,” he shrugs nonchalantly.

“Um, yeah, okay,” you move closer to him in small timid strides. “You lean in though. I read that the guy is supposed to do that in my mother's Cosmopolitan.”

“Right, right,” he nods eagerly, interlocking your fingers together. With hesitancy he leans his head down and pulls you even closer to the point where you are bumping your noses. You close your eyes, and it's like your brain begins to spin like those show wheels with choices on them. Your brain tries to land on a feeling but loops on endlessly. His lips are softened by the humidity, and you don’t even notice it is over until a couple seconds after he pulls away.

When you think back on it, it really was the most 'first kiss moment’ to ever exist. It was more of a peck, both of you were bright red and shortly after you were as stiff as statues. Not knowing what else to do, Angus clears his throat and removes his hands from yours to wipe them on his shirt. “So, uh, what does your mothers Cosmo say to do afterward?”

You let out a breathy laugh, “I don’t know. I didn’t read that far.”

…

Christmas Eve - December 24th, 1970

After that summer, when you shared a weepy goodbye and headed off to your own high schools, it was undeniable that something had shifted between you both. Even if it often went unspoken. Neither you nor Angus had brought it up, but on occasion you would acknowledge it. Like last night after leaving the auditorium to return to the common room and pick up the dishes, your eyes drifted to the TV where a cheesy kiss scene was happening on screen. The two of you shared a knowing look that said, “That’s not how ours went down,” before shutting the television off and helping Mary into a more comfortable sleeping position.

You tried not to dwell on the past, but it was hard not to when the only thing in your childhood that had always been good, always been constant, was Angus. Every time you looked into his eyes it was like the decade you had spent together flashed by in a sequence of blurs. All he had to do was breathe a specific way in his sleep to remind you of some obscure memory that had died but he had brought back to life.

This morning you felt like you were ten again and Angus was trying to steal your bread rolls at Thanksgiving dinner. Except today he tried swiping your bacon as you shoved him off playfully.

“Get your own Angus,” you say playfully.

“I’ll trade you for my toast,” he offers.

Rolling your eyes you accept, grabbing the bacon and shoving it in his mouth, “Fine.”

“Thank you,” he says, muffled.

You munch on your toast and catch Mr. Hunhams stare.

“I see you two finally made up,” he comments with a sly smile on his face.

“Mm-hmm,” you cover your mouth with your hand as you chew and turn away embarrassed.

Mary joins you all a second later, emerging as usual with her coffee and a cigarette. She switches between eyeing the two men infront of her, “Why’d you two miss supper last night?”

Mr. Hunham and Angus freeze. “We went into town on, uh, some school-related business.”

“And you couldn’t call? You left me and Y/n out in the cold.”

“Yeah Angus,” you pout at him as he nudges your ankle under the table.

“Sorry,” Hunham turned to you, “And to Ms. L/n.”

“No worries. Really. I had fun,” you smile up at Mary who pats your shoulders gently.

Danny, a man you had been introduced to a few days ago, enters with a mop and bucket. You wave to him which he acknowledges with a slight bow of his head.

“Good morning, everybody.”

“Hi, Danny,” Mr. Hunham greets.

“Good morning. You can go on in and make yourself a plate,” Mary points to the kitchen.

“I just saw something funny,” Danny focuses onto your friend. “I walked into the gym, and somebody had vomited in there.”

Mary and you raise your eyebrows in sync.

“You don’t say. I don’t know anything about that,” Mr. Hunham feigns surprise.

“Yeah, me neither,” Angus wipes his mouth as he speaks.

“I’ll look into that right away. Thank you,” he dismisses the conversation.

“Mm-hmm. I see how it is. Trying to leave us out of your boy's club,” Mary tsks. Danny places the custodian supplies beside Angus' chair and walks away.

“Gross Angus,” you say, like it's his full name. You shake your head in disappointment. He nudges your ankle harder, shaking the silverware above. You fight back, beginning to use your hands as a defense. You two are soon in a game of tug of war.

“Knock it off you two! You are acting like fractious children!” Mr. Hunham scolds and stands up from his seat. Across the table, he tries to part your hands. “This is not how young scholarly men and women behave!”

You and Angus are too drunk on laughter to care. …

You and Angus are in a search for Mr. Hunham who stomped away upon realizing stopping you two was a fruitless cause. You intend to apologize; Angus intends to nod along as you speak. You follow the chatter you hear coming from the kitchen to find Mary replacing you as you as her sous chef.

“Hey that's my job,” you point at the potatoes Mr. Hunham is peeling.

“That’s the culinary industry for you. It’s cut-throat. You still want to be a part of it?” Mary peers over her glasses.

You run a hand through your hair, shrugging. “Um. Mr. Hunham?”

He stops his task, “Yes Miss L/n?”

“I want to apologize for my-,” Angus clears his throat, “Our behavior. You were right. It was very inappropriate. Emily Post would turn in her grave.”

“She certainly would. I accept your apology, however unnecessary. I understand it was that childlike spirit in you that is still intact that came out.”

You shoot him a quizzical look. “Uh yeah…”

Angus gasps behind you as he notices the tray of brownies on a table beside him.

“Brownies? God, yes. I want all of these.”

“Each of you just take one. The rest are for the Christmas party tonight.”

Angus snags you a brownie before practically chomping his down.

“What Christmas party? There’s a Christmas party?” He perks up like a dog being told he’s going out for a walk.

“Yeah, at Miss Crane’s house. I’m only gonna go for a little bit, show my face and say I was there. You know Miss Crane said she invited you too.”

“Who’s Miss Crane?” You ask, inspecting the brownie and wondering what Mary does so differently to get it to taste so good.

“School secretary,” said Angus with a full mouth. “Just one of the loveliest faculty members at Barton,” said Mr. Hunham at the same time.

A beat passed as you all noted the flustered expression that passed through Mr. Hunham face.

“Ah- anyways, she didn’t mean it. We were just making small talk.”

“If you don’t want to go, don’t go. I’ll take them.”

“Mary can take us,” problem solved, Angus thinks.

“Oh! Okay… so we are going! I packed a dress that’s been collecting dust in my luggage.”

“No, that’s not how it works. You’re under my supervision,” Mr. Hunham reminds.

“Okay, maybe it’s fine for you to sit around reading books all day, but I am losing my goddamn mind! Jesus!” Angus' suddenness makes you flinch. You avoid the flying brownie as he storms past you.

“Hey! Watch your mouth, young man. Not on Christmas Eve!” Mary yells after him.

“You, see?” Mr. Hunham points at his retreating figure. “I can’t trust him in a social situation.”

“Mr. Hunham, if you’re too chickenshit to go to that party, then just say so. But don’t fuck it up for the little asshole or his sweet little angel of a friend! What’s wrong with you? It’s just a party. What are you afraid of?”

“I don’t know,” Mr. Hunham said so quietly you could hardly hear him.

“Shit. Now you’ve got me nervous,” Mary wipes her hands on her apron.

You’re still standing there until they hear you go retreat the brownie and throw it in a nearby waste bin. “I could replace those?” You laugh uncomfortably.

“That’s alright sweetie. I want to come out of this party with my reputation intact,” Mary winks.

“Ouch,” you clutch your heart jokingly. “So can I go get dolled up?” …

Someway, somehow, Mary had gotten Hunham to take you to the party. You got ready in the room Ye-Joon and Alex had occupied before. You hadn’t anticipated wearing anything fancy, so the dress you had was a relatively simple one. It was red which fit the Christmas theme well enough and ended just above your knees. You hoped Mr. Hunham wouldn’t make a big deal out of it like Ms. Orchard probably would. You wore flats and did your hair the best you could without products. Although you had managed to give it some more volume by using some leftover soda cans that had yet to be thrown out. It was a common hack all Janie Patrick School girls learned in their freshman year. It was practically a seminar, as the senior girls taught you how to roll them into your hair just right.

You waltz out of your room, feeling as fresh as a daisy and catch Angus shaving. You sneak up behind him, putting your hands on his shoulder and looking at him through the mirror. “What is there to shave Augie? You’re as clean shaven as a newborn baby,” you tease.

You try to check your makeup and feel Angus stiffen under your touch. You remove your hands and see him staring at you open-mouthed.

“What?” You panic. Had you screwed up your hair? Was your mascara too clumpy on your lashes?

“Nothing,” he gives you a once over as he gulps. “You just, you look, you… you look pretty.”

“Oh,” you tuck your hair behind your ear, “Thank you. It’s just the makeup.”

“No, it’s not that. You always look pretty; I just never have a reason to tell you. But I can… today.”

“You look handsome everyday too…” you fidget with your hands.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” you smile up at him bashfully. Quickly you take the razor from his hands, “even more handsome once you change. We’re going to be late."

You run back to your room and try to regulate your breathing. In the reflection of the fogged-up window, you admire yourself momentarily. You suppose you do look pretty tonight. …

You four travel in Mr. Hunhams rickety car. You awe at the town Christmas lights before arriving in front of what you assumed to be Miss Cranes house. One by one you all enter, lingering by the front door like wallflowers. You inch closer to Angus, self-conscious suddenly. You loop your arms together when Miss Crane enters to greet you.

“Oh, hi. Oh, you made it! Welcome,” she pauses to address you and Angus, “Aw hi!”

“I'm so glad you're here,” she tells Mary.

She laughs at the flattery and refers to the brownies, “Where should I put these?”

“Um, oh,” Miss Crane lifts the cloth draped over the tray and gasps, “Those, I’ll be putting on my bedside table.”

“Oh! You're a wicked woman.”

“Oh, you have no idea,” she takes the tray off Mary's hands.

“Certainly a lot of people here,” Hunham comments, surveying the room. It is lively with Christmas classics blasting on the radio and kids running around playing tag. The entire house is decked out, almost looking like the spirit of Christmas had barfed out the decorations. Some adults take a swing of their liquor, others smoke, others do both as they chat.

“Yeah, yeah. Some family, friends from town. Only you guys from work.”

“That’s my mom on the couch,” She points to an older lady sitting by the silver and blue Christmas tree. Next to the woman dancing with her toddler who wears no pants. “Uh, that’s my sister Kathy and her son Marvin.”

As she continues to point out each invitee you wander with Angus further into the living room. He seems captivated by a snow globe on a mantel. He shakes it and watches as the snow falls around Santa. You too are enchanted by the sweet melody that plays from it.

“Angus!” Miss Crane snaps you both from your trance. Miss Crane stands next to a girl who appears to be around your age.

“This is Angus Tully. He’s one of our students at Barton. Angus, this is my niece, Elise,” she introduces.

“Niece Elise. Nice,” he glances at you, hoping you got the joke as Elise rolls her eyes at his word play. You give him a tight-lipped smile. “And is his friend Y/n L/n. She goes to the school across the lake from Barton. Janie Patrick’s.”

“Nice to meet you,” you stretch out your hand for her to shake. She does so awkwardly.

“And this is Mr. Hunham. He’s one of our finest teachers. History, right?

“Ancient Civilizations, yes”.

“And this is Mary Lamb. She’s the manager of the cafeteria.”

You don’t know why, but you start chewing your nails. A habit you had thought you had broken in the seventh grade. You bite down particularly hard every time Angus glances at Elise.

“Hey, why don’t you take Angus down to the basement and introduce him to our family tradition?” Miss Crane has a hint of something you can’t identify in her voice.

“Come on,” Elise tilts her head and hesitantly he seems to follow.

“Um. What about Y/n? Can’t she come?”

“Don't worry about that! I have someone I think she would like to meet,” Miss Crane nudges you forward.

“Oh?” you say worriedly.

Elise takes Angus away by the hand and distantly you hear him call out, “Wait what?”

“His name is Joseph Leery. He’s a freshman at Yale!” she gushes.

“Oh? Great? Go bulldogs? That’s the mascot, right?”

“Honey, save your charm for him!”

…

Angus descends downstairs. He repeatedly glances behind him, desperately searching for the remaining bits of your voice. “Um. Maybe I should go back upstairs? My friend Y/n doesn’t do so well with crowds so.”

“Nonsense! She’ll be fine. If I know Auntie Lydia, she’s probably introducing her to the Leery's son, Joe.”

“Joe?” Angus scowls at the name.

“Yeah. Family friend of ours.”

Elise leads him to an arts and craft table, full of scattered red, green, silver and white pipe cleaners. Glitter is spilled everywhere, and the kids take their time decorating their popsicle sticks.

“This is what you wanted to show me?”

“I grew up playing down here during my aunt’s parties. I think it’s kind of cool. There’s a purity to it. I mean, every child is an artist. The problem is remaining an artist when we grow up. Picasso said that.”

“Picasso’s cool,” Angus digs his hand further into his front pockets, “I saw Guérnica once. You know, the big mural, with the horse,” He tries to mimic it as best he can.

“Yeah, I know Guérnica. You really saw it?”

“Yeah. At the Museum of Modern Art in New York. It’s huge. My dad took me.” And Y/n too, he wants to say. Although if what Elise said was true, that Miss Crane fancied herself a modern-day cupid, then he figures he should try not to scare her off by bringing up another girl.

Although it's hard not to think of you when he thinks of his dad. His dad liked puzzles which you happened to have a plethora of that your parents had bought you to keep you entertained during long plane rides. This was before they trusted you enough to leave home alone.

In the winter you’d sit by the fireplace and lay out the puzzles of Monet’s Water Lilies. Then when the spring would offer you limited warmth, you’d all be found in the backyard of Angus’s house trying to piece together Van Gogh's Starry Night.

So many art inspired puzzles eventually had Angus’s father turn to you both and asking, “How would you guys like to see these in real life?”

That easter break had you three crammed into a yellow taxicab and enjoying New York pizza slices.

“Hey Guérnica,” she breaks through his nostalgia plagued mind, “You just gave me an idea,” she smiles.

…

Mr. Hunham stands by the funky-looking Christmas tree when he feels someone’s lips crash onto his cheek.

“Oh!” He says shocked. He feels as if he had just been dumped into a cold bucket of water.

“Mistletoe!” Miss Crane laughs, pointing at the little green and red plant that hangs on the ceiling. She hands him the Jim Beam he asked for earlier as she wipes the side of his face clean to get rid of any lipstick that might have been transferred.

“Yes, of course,” he laughs along, unsure of what else to do but to let her caress his face. “I didn’t you know you were quite the mastermind.”

Miss Crane tilts her head and motions him to elaborate

“Playing matchmaker for Mr. Tully and Ms. L/n.”

“Oh! Well, when Angus said they weren’t an item I figured they’d were itching for a chance to mingle outside of their little circle. I hope I didn’t overstep anything. After all I imagine they don’t get many opportunities to openly chat with people of the opposite sex! Dating is crucial in shaping character.”

“Yes, I imagine it is,” Mr. Hunham agrees, unsure if that is fact or fiction. He is awful at letting silence just be silence, so he does what he does best. Spew nonsensical facts.

“You know, it’s interesting. Aeneas carried mistletoe with him when he descended into Hades in search of his father.”

“Oh. Huh…” Now it is Miss Crane who is unsure of what to do with that.

“Um. Anyways. I like your tree. It’s really space age,” he comments and is hit slightly in the shoulder by her enthusiastic hand.

“I brought it to commemorate the moon landing!”

“Really? Wow.”

Miss Crane takes a sip of her punch, “So where is your family this Christmas.”

“Nowhere. I’m an only child. My mother died when I was young.”

“And your father?”

“Let's just say I left home when I was fifteen.” If Mr. Hunham had known this was what small talk topics had evolved into, then he must have been right in avoiding social functions all this time.

“You ran away?” She guesses.

“Worse. I got a scholarship to Barton. And from there, I went to college and never looked back.”

“But you did a little,” she points out.

“Hmm?”

“I mean you came back here.”

“Ah.” He really did not feel like being questioned so heavily tonight. Not to pat himself in the back, but he believes he's credible enough to label himself as a decent writer, able to handle the equal weight of a pen and his words with ease. But as a conversationalist, he figures even one of the dimwits in his Ancient Civilization classes have him beat.

“It feels kind of like home I guess,” he muses, “and I guess I thought I could make a difference. I mean, I used to think I could prepare them for the world even a little. Provide standard and grounding that Dr. Greene always drilled into us.”

Mr. Hunham can feel himself run out of breath, “But, uh the world doesn’t make sense anymore. I mean it's on fire. The rich don’t give a shit. Poor kids are cannon fodder. Integrity is a punchline. Trust is just the name of a bank.”

“Well…” Miss Crane tries to soothe him by running her hand back and forth on his arm, “look, if that's all true then now is when they most need someone like you.”

Mr. Hunham knows when he is being humored and told what people he wants to hear. He looks at Miss. Crane and for the first time in a while he is looked back at with genuineness.

…

Elise and Angus finger paint on a wide piece of blank paper. He’s mixing the colors, and they all tend to come out looking a sickly brown. Elise covers her side with an untainted red. She seems to be more into it than him as she incorporates real swirls and shapes onto their canvas.

“Am I doing this right?”

“There is no right or wrong,” she reassures. He feels her stare linger on him for a second. He is scared to look up. “Are you okay? You seem… gloomy.”

“Yeah. I’m fine. But, uh, tell me about this Joe guy.”

She looks at him suspiciously, “Why?”

“Just curious. Don’t think I’ve ever heard of him around my school is all.”

“Well probably because he graduated over a year ago.”

“So, he’s in college.”

“Yes. A freshman at Yale.”

“Yale!” He shouts loud enough for even the kids to glare at him for disturbing their fun. “Sorry,” he apologies to them.

“Would you say he’s cool,” he asks a millisecond later.

Elise tries not to laugh at his blatant desperation, “Yeah I would say so.”

“Funny?”

“He's basically Gene Wilder.”

“The dude from The Producers?!”

“Yes, and he was also a football quarterback.”

“What.”

“And valedictorian, and the heir to the Campbell Soup Company.”

“What the hell? Is this guy superman or,” Angus takes a minute to recognize the smug face on Elise. Finally, she breaks out in a loud giggle.

“Oh,” Angus sighs in relief, “You’re messing with me.”

“A little,” she says through fits of laughter. “Anyways if you’re so worried why don’t you go back up there?”

“I was just worried that he would try something. But technically he sounds alright.”

“Ah. So, you’re jealous?”

Angus rolls his eyes, “No. I’m a concerned friend.”

“I’m not sure about that. Concerned friends don’t start interrogating the girl they are on a hypothetical date with.”

She leans down to point at a glob of paint in the corner of the paper, “I think you even doodled her name.”

“Shit,” he curses under his breath, going over it and trying to cover it up along with his embarrassment.

“Don’t worry. It’s not like this was going to go be framed at the MET.”

“What are you implying anyway,” he narrows his eyes.

“You’re going crazy being gone from her for two minutes. What do you think I’m implying?”

Angus slumps his shoulders and admits what had been ignoring. It's like a message in a bottle he threw into the sea, desperately trying to avoid the shore. Even when it does reach land, the cap is tightly sealed, clinging on to the bottle and doing it best to remain unread. When it does pop open and the paper is unfolded, although it might be difficult to read, the message still exists. It still exists even though time fought so hard to destroy it.

“I do think about her that way. Sometimes. Then the rational side comes out and tells me that it's human nature for a girl and guy friend to think about each other that way.”

“Well, does she know you think about her that way?”

“No. Sometimes I imagine she feels the same, but you’d have to know her to understand why I’m so confused. She’s the most thoughtful, kind, and perfect person in the world. It's hard to tell if she’s showing that side to everyone or if I’m special enough for her to give me that treatment.”

“You know Picasso also said that ‘Everything you can imagine is real’.”

“Are you Picasso's biographer?”

Without missing a beat, Elise smirks and says, “Yes.”

Angus is up the stairs without having thanking her, too fueled by adrenaline to practice basic manners. He’ll have to tell Miss Crane to pass on the memo. He’s on the hunt for you but is yanked into the house's kitchen by a mysterious hand.

“Hey?” He asks, disoriented.

Danny is staring straight at him, with both hands on either side of his shoulder.

“I need you to find Mr. Hunham,” he orders. Angus looks past the man to see Mary weeping heavily into the sink. Understanding, he nods firmly and is back out the door.

…

Joseph Leery is not half bad. He’s kind of funny, clever and not a bad person to pass the time with. You sit in the back of Miss Crane's living room on a couch all to yourselves. He tells you how he’s majoring in English in hopes of becoming a journalist.

“What kind of journalist?”

“Investigative. I would love to be the next Upton Sinclair. Or Seymour Hersch.”

“Ew! The Jungle made me so sick for a week after. It was so gross.”

“I know but that's what made it so great. Exposing the meat packing industry probably put him on a few hit lists too.”

“Oh yeah definitely. So, then who are you planning to expose?”

He laughs, “I don’t know yet. Is there any chance you’re planning on becoming some corrupt politician?”

“Not in the foreseeable future. I’ll let you know if I ever do,” you giggle.

“What are you planning to do then?”

“Then? Um... Like as president? I don’t know. Fund schools-.”

“No,” he laughs harder, “I mean like with college and life. Do you have anything planned out?”

“Erm, not really. My parents probably want me to go to the Ivy Leagues and crap. I should have a plan, I know, but I guess I’ve been putting it on the back burner.”

“Why?”

You shift in your seat. “I have this friend. He’s sort of had this rocky life, not I haven’t, and I know it's stupid to mold your entire life to fit around one person’s but for him I would.”

Joseph sniffs and straightens his posture. “Sorry. Lydia didn’t mention you having a boyfriend.”

“No, I don’t,” you stress, “I just really care for him, you know. We’ve known each other for so long. He’s important to me.”

“Y/n have you ever read Persuasion?” he asked suddenly.

“Um, not yet. I know the gist of it.”

“Well, it's ultimately about regret, right? Anne spends eight years longing for Wentworth when she could have been with him instead, had she not given into pressures. The point of the novel is not to wait to love the person you’re sure is it for you.”

“Love?” You hear someone say above you. You look up to see Angus, his arms stiff by his side. He glowers at Joseph. You jump off the seat and on operating on some strange reflex you go to fix his shirt collar that has stood up.

“What's wrong?”

“What were you guys talking about?” he interrogates.

“Books. Why?”

Angus doesn’t buy it but ignores the gnawing feeling in his gut, “Mary needs us in the kitchen. Go ahead, I still need to get Hunham.”

“Oh…Alright,” you turn and wave to your brief companion. “Maybe I’ll see you around.”

“Yeah maybe,” Joseph lifts his canned soda as if to say cheers.

You walk on ahead as Angus loiters behind, silently scrutinizing him.

Joseph takes a sip from his coke and points towards the direction you disappeared to. “Your girl went that way man.”

Angus rolls his eyes but leaves, nonetheless.

…

Miss Crane and Paul are sitting next to each other, their drink half-finished. They can feel the red tinge on their cheeks and themselves becoming looser.

“Are you planning anything special for tomorrow?” Lydia inquires.

“No. Why? Are you having a…”

“No, I just thought maybe you’d be doing something special for Angus and Y/n.”

Mr. Hunham shakes his head and Miss Crane lets out a small gasp, “You should! Help preserve some of the magic. Angus may be a little difficult, but he’s still just a kid. So is Y/n. And life catches up to them so fast. Them,” she stares at her lap, contemplating. “Ha. Us!”

“You’re a very sweet person, Miss Crane,” he compliments.

Miss Crane melts, “So are you, when you want to be,” she quips, “and it’s Lydia.”

He enjoys the feeling of camaraderie between them. He feels a cool breeze at the back of his neck and the sound of the door opening.

“Excuse me for a minute,” Miss Crane gets up and moves past him.

Mr. Hunham turns in time to see a man take off his coat, a gift under his arm. A moment later Miss Crane is there to receive him with a kiss. Together they walk away, and Mr. Hunham is left alone. Once again.

“Mr. Hunham, could you come with me, please?” Angus nearly trips as he stumbles over to the teacher.

“Yeah, what is it?” He sighs as he gets up with a groan.

“Come on, it's serious,” Angus leaps away. Peeking at him at the corner to see is Hunham is following, “Come on.”

Mr. Hunham is dragged into the kitchen, where he spots Mary, crying quietly to herself. Danny is next to her. You’re across the room biting your nails and hinting at Mr. Hunham to do something.

“Mary? You alright?” he questions, even though he knows it's in vain.

“Just leave me alone,” She mumbles.

“Want me to take you home?” Danny offers, placing what he thinks is a consoling hand on her back.

“Back off! Back off!” Mary whisper-shouts, her hands shaking down in anger. Mr. Hunham shuts the door, giving her privacy if nothing else.

“He’s gone,” she erupts into full on sobs. The mask comes off and she’s no longer Mary, the woman who appears to deal with grief like it was nothing but a bump on the road. Instead, it's Mary, who lost a son and whose grief has entirely consumed her until she can no longer breathe.

…

Angus and Mr. Hunham support Mary on both sides, as they make their way to the car. “I was right. This is why I hate parties. That was a disaster. Total disaster!”

“Speak for yourself. I was having a pretty profound conversation. I was about to make some serious life altering moves,” he blurts, angry and unable to believe his window opportunity was slammed shut. He had an internal plan. That'd he’d whisk you away from stupid Joseph and ask you to dance, maybe lead you to a mistletoe and see where it goes.

“With whom? The niece? Are you kidding me? This poor woman is bereft, and all you can think about is some silly girl.”

“I don’t need you feeling sorry for me.”

“I’m not talking about Elise; I'm just saying this is the first good thing that came from being in this prison with you.”

“Need I remind you it’s not my fault you’re stuck here? Do you think I want to babysit you? I was praying to the God I don’t believe in that your mother would pick up the phone, or your father would arrive in a helicopter or a submarine or a flying fucking saucer to take you-.”

“My father’s dead,”

“Angus-,” he hears you say but he holds up his hand for you to stop speaking.

Mr. Hunham stops dead in his rant, “But I thought your father-.”

“That’s just some rich guy my mom married. Give me your keys,” he sticks out his hand.

“It’s unlocked.”

Furiously, Angus stomps away. You excuse yourself from the two adults before doing your damnedest to not slip on the ice. Flats at this time of the year were not your best idea.

“Angus,” you reach him, tugging at the back of his jacket so that he’ll slow down. “Why did you say that?”

“Say what?”

“The thing about your dad,” you mumble.

“The way my mom and Stanley talk about him, he might as well be don’t you think?”

“You don’t mean that,” you scold. “What happened? Are you really this mad about Elise?”

“No. Damn it. I don’t even like Elise.”

“Oh,” despite the circumstance, you can’t help but feel giddy. “Then what is it?”

“You seemed to be having a pretty good time yourself with Joe on that couch.”

“Joe?” You cross your arms. “You mean Joseph?”

“Oh great. You have a nickname for him.”

“Angus, Joseph is his legal name, that's the opposite of a nickname.”

“I don’t want to talk about Joe,” he says. You both reach the end of the block where Hunhams car is parked. In the distance you see them come closer, their feet crushing the white snow.

“You brought him up,” you massage your temple. You think back of the endless list of books you have read, or the many movies you’ve watched. You scour through the genres. You think of how Joseph managed to connect to life. You think of the rewatch of Cactus Flower with Mary. How envious Ingrid Bergman character was every time she saw Julian talk to Toni.

“Angus, were you jealous of Joseph?”

He stops his ongoing struggle with the car handle, finally prying it open.

“Were you jealous of Elise?” he asks you.

You frown and fixate on the pavement; your nails dig into your palm as your hands turn into fists. Deafening silence engulfs you before Angus exhales heavily. Before you can speak, Mr. Hunham arrives and motions for you to scooch over so he can open the passenger side for Mary.

“Sorry,” you apologize and get in the backseat.

“Straight to bed you hear me,” Mr. Hunham warns once you are all buckled in. “Enough theatrics for one day.”

“Mmhmm,” Angus responds, but all he is doing is looking at you.

[my-mt-heart]

Thoughts on TBOC 202

I'm not going to do a full review of this episode because it would require a rewatch and frankly I have no desire to rewatch anything more than Carol's clips online. Here are a few thoughts though...

Melissa McBride is amazing. She gives me goosebumps even when she's performing Carol's composed side. I never would've given this episode a try if it weren't for her (and if it weren't for @that-left-turn letting me know exactly when to tap out before Daryl's character went through the shredder AND if it weren't for the episode leaking early so I wouldn't have to give AMC my money for that unforgivable narrative choice). She and Carol deserved so much fucking better than a really heartfelt arc being upended by the carelessness in Daryl's arc.

Shoutout to Manish Dayal, who is a wonderful addition to the show despite Ash being whitewashed and made a victim of Zabel's gross misrepresentation of women as manipulative and weak for men.

Special shoutout to Clémence Poésy for still delivering strong performances despite her character being reduced to something straight of out of the "TV book of tricks" and for speaking out about it the only way women in the industry can. If only the men in charge understood the power of silence the way she and Melissa do. They'd be doing themselves and us a huge favor.

A sincere fuck you and how dare you to every man in power on this show who used Daryl for whatever personal agenda they had and ignored every fan (Daryl, Caryl, Rickyl, and GA alike) shouting and pleading with them since the S1 finale not to take away what made Daryl special. His loyalty. His unconventional masculinity. His devotion to Carol. His devotion to his family. He was a role model to so many men and women, a man of honor. He was supposed to be different from the toxic men many of his fans have had to face in their own lives. He was supposed to be the man who didn’t hurt them. But instead of acknowledging that he has, that he’s fully unrecognizable now, the male EPs kick fans while they're down. They gaslight them into thinking it's their fault for not understanding "art" when they see it and they tell us repeatedly that we're not welcome to our favorite characters anymore. Case in point, Zabel's entire SFX interview. Nicotero saying they don't write the show for the fans. Norman trying to cyberbully fans who are upset, or rather encourage his diehards to do it for him. Shame on all three of them and shame on AMC for letting them do whatever they want no matter how much it hurts their bottom line.

I believe it's possible to redeem Daryl, but only under a different showrunner who actually values his trajectory on the flagship show, understands his nuances, and respects his fans. In the meantime, I feel like I'm mourning him.

(Note: Gimple does not qualify as a different showrunner)

[olympeline]

Got a sweet message about my FrUK posts. So have a few more headcanons for posterior posterity:

Arthur developed a crush on Francis almost immediately after they met as children. He used to trail behind Francis like a tousel-headed duckling after a swan. Scarlet faced and hanging on to the back of Francis’s robes. Francis found it adorable but didn’t reciprocate. You know how kids are. Even though there would only be a few years between them in human terms, young Francis already saw himself as far too old and sophisticated to return the affections of his “little baby” neighbour. He couldn’t resist teasing Arthur and giggling at his childish efforts at courtship. Only to feel bad when the teasing inevitably went too far. Francis promised himself he wouldn’t do it again every time he saw little Arthur’s lip tremble and his eyes fill with tears. Kids are cruel unfortunately and Francis broke that promise more often than not. He grew up to be kind in love, but he didn’t start out that way. Actually, remorse over the way he treated Arthur was probably one of the reasons Francis grew up to be kind in love.

Their childhood friendship soured after the Norman conquest made England a French colony (kinda, sorta. It’s complicated). They’d both suffered under Rome and Arthur naively expected Francis to do more to protect him. Only to be shocked and hurt by Francis’s seeming callousness. Francis wasn’t really callous. He was just older and understood their situation better. This blew up into their first really bad fight. Francis kept insisting William would be a good king and Arthur should just accept the situation with grace for his peoples’ sake. Arthur kept begging Francis to do something to help him. Francis - much more miserable than he was letting on - lost his temper. He exploded at Arthur in uncharacteristic rage: calling him an idiot baby and saying it was no wonder he kept getting conquered. That he deserved it for being so stupid and weak. Francis was going through national personification “growing pains” at the time. Chin deep in dealing with the angst of the actually-kinda-horrifying-if-you-think-about-it existence of their kind. Something I headcanon all nation people experiencing when they’re old enough. Arthur, still too young to understand, was stunned and dismayed. The guilt at seeing him this way only made Francis angrier. He ranted at Arthur, who ran away sobbing and hid for days. Francis, still horribly guilty, pushed it down with bitterness and didn’t apologise for a long time. One of Arthur’s worst traits is his ability to bear a grudge and, oh boy, did he bear one after that. Even after he himself grew old enough to understand, he didn’t let Francis off the hook for his cruel outburst. Swore he’d get revenge someday and make Francis feel the same pain he did under William. A “someday” that would come a few centuries years later during the Hundred Years War.

They are both perfectly capable of speaking the other’s language but choose to communicate in their mother tongues. Arthur complains constantly about Francis and his “frog language” but secretly* he finds French unbearably sexy. Especially the French exonym for England. All Francis has to do is purr Angleterre in Arthur’s ear and he’s all shivers and tight pants.

(*Well, he thinks it’s a secret, lol).

Arthur’s first kiss was given to him by Francis: a quick peck during their childhood days. He was very disappointed to learn he wasn’t Francis’s first kiss in return. That was Antonio who, ironically enough, ended up being the one Arthur lost his virginity to. As a prisoner on Antonio’s ship during the Age of Sail. Pirate sex, yo! You gotta love it. Meanwhile Francis’s first time was with a young, French farmhand. A very beautiful mortal who came to a sad end. The encounter left him overpowered by a draining need for Francis that mortals aren’t capable of resisting. A human can’t cope with romantic love for a nation person without being ripped apart by its intensity. The poor man eventually went mad and drowned himself in the river. Near to the bank where he’d first made love to Francis. Which traumatised Francis so badly when he found out that he never became romantically involved with a human again. Yeah, for some reason I headcanon Francis as suffering a great deal from being a national personification. I don’t know, I just see him as seeming to carry a lot of sadness from it, you know?

Francis is one of the few non-magical nation people who can see Arthur’s fae friends. Not often and not very clearly. He’ll just catch a glimpse every once and a while. Out of the corner of his eye when the light is right.

As nation-people, they can’t get married in the human way unless their countries join in a political union. Instead they have the equivalent for their kind. The “next best thing” for personifications. It’s another headcanon I play with. I’m not sure what it would be, but some kind of “terra” wedding? Non-binding in any legal way, but a symbolic way of making it official. Only recognised by other nation-people. Like they’d still have rings but wear them on chains around their necks instead of on their fingers. Because symbolism. Both romantic and tragic! So yeah, in modern times they’re married and call each other “husband.” Just in a way that avoided creating Angevin Empire 2: Electric Boogaloo, hehe.

Arthur is slo-o-o-owly getting over his Alfred induced blood spitting sickness as time passes. In the early years after the American War for Independence, he would get it so badly that he was crashed out and bedbound from mid-June to late August. Alasdair would take over as leader while Arthur was indisposed so the UK could carry on as normal on the world stage. These days Arthur is doing much better and is usually up and about before the end of July. Unfortunately Francis’s birthday is Bastille Day and, try as he might, Arthur still isn’t strong enough to get out of bed by the 14th. Let alone do anything to make Francis’s day special. They had lots of fights about it after they became a couple. Arthur is a stubborn creature and two things bring it out that trait particularly badly: hiding weakness, and his love for Francis. Yeah, not a good combo for this situation, lol. Francis kept postponing or cancelling his party to come to England and nurse his sick spouse. Something Arthur absolutely did not want. It made him feel even worse to know he was keeping Francis from what should be his happiest day. Already cranky, he would tell Francis to piss off back home and leave him be. Francis would retort that Arthur was an obstinate fool if he thought Francis could enjoy himself when the love of his life was alone in bed vomiting blood. Arthur couldn’t make Francis leave (he even picked the lock and broke in once!) so instead he tried to force himself to attend the party. Relying on magic and handfuls of human medicine to keep himself upright. A bold attempt which only made everything worse. The staff at the Élysée Palace still haven’t gotten all the bloodstains out of the furnishings. One explosive fight later, Francis and Arthur came to a compromise. Arthur spends July in France where Francis can look after him. In return for Arthur tolerating his fussing, Francis attends his birthday party. Promising to put Arthur out of his mind for one full day and night.

I like the headcanon that all nation-people are good looking. That even the least of them would be considered very beautiful by human standards. Fits with the “more than human, less than gods” thing they’ve got going on. I think Francis would be the most beautiful of them all. So much of his history and culture revolves around the appreciation of art, love, and beauty. I think it would “come out” in him as a personification and he would be a work of art himself, you know? So much so that he would have to “tone it down” around humans to avoid hurting them. Other nation-people aren’t harmed like the poor farmhand was, but that doesn’t mean they don’t get tongue-tied around gorgeous Francy-pants. Especially the younger ones. His good looks radiate off him like the sun’s rays. Something he passed on to Alfred, incidentally. Meanwhile Arthur isn’t as stunning at a glance - you wouldn’t take a second look at him if you saw Francis first - but instead he has the kind of beauty that surprises you. Visitors are always shocked at how lovely Britain is once they get out of the tourist traps and see “real” parts of the country like the Lake District or the Cotswolds. It’s an unexpected but pleasant revelation. I think Arthur’s beauty would be like that: hidden, but then suddenly smacks you in the face and leaves you stunned. Francis would have been one of the first to notice, beauty connoisseur that he is.

I’ve got loads more but this post is getting long so I’ll cut it here. Hope you enjoyed (￣▽￣)ノ

[graphx]

tpn artbook things I noticed!

MATCHING YUUGO AND RAY VEST IM GOING TO EXPLODEEEEEE

Norman with a gun is so funny to me. He is trying so hard to look cool but he is a bird with hollow bones, the recoil from that lil thing would send him to the floor faster than Ray slapping him

stop pretending ur helping Norman, Don is literally doing all the work behind u

he is so scared to be next to ashye even in the poster (rip zack's nose scar)

the fact that norman looks so much like Nat in the concept art XD is that a cowlick or a halo???!?!!

(CHARLIE BROWN????) I regret pointing this out to my sister because now it's my pfp in her phone

vincent's sense of style will never be anything less than amazing. Look at Cislo he is SO READY for game night :D (JEMIMA AND ZAZIE WITH STUFFED ANIMALS AUGHHHHH)

HES IN HIS COMA EVEN IN THE ART IM- jail. jail for a thousand years. right next to his dead dads too IM DONE

have a Dominic it will make you feel better

Paula not knowing how party poppers work is adorable.

what they deserve (im embarrassed to have andrew's face in my camera roll)

look at Ray and Gilda pretending not to care about their little brothers (they love them more than life itself)

HE IS CARRYING THEIR THINGS JUST LIKE A DAD SHOULDDDDDD (upgraded from old man to walking coat rack :D)

why does phil get a father figure that hasn't died D:/ (jk love that for him more stronk phil plz)

YELLOW EYED VIOLET AND BROWN EYED PHIL JUMPSCARE

(my sister: gillian is dying in the bg

me: this ani't about her)

Barbra 🤝 Gillian stealing demon masks and keeping them as souvenirs

EMMAS LOST SHOE!!!!!!!

.......i'm not gonna say anything here........

there was no Don glow up he was always beautiful to me

little bunny revenge arc

he slept in the dining room???? because he didn't wanna go in the old rooms of his siblings where he wrote poachers DDDD:::::::

the ominous messages behind them!!!!!!

[paper-starz]

i was so surprised by the lack of AUs in the My Friendly Neighborhood fandom! So, me and a few discord buddies decided to create our own! The Opposite Au! (Or the OPP AU for short)

its basically a personality swap with a few story changes!

(click read more for bonus doodles + character descriptions!)

NORMAN

Norman is THE BEST character on 'My Friendly Neighborhood' and he WILL remind you constantly!

He has like a bajillion fans and friends that are definitely NOT made up! Of course he has fans and friends from all over the world what do you mean he doesn't???

He's a bit of a diva... ok "bit" is an understatement. He genuinely believes that he deserves to be treated better than anybody else! He proudly displays a star on his door as a symbol of his supposed stardom!

There's a blurry line between fiction and reality for Norman. He believes his on-screen friendship with Lenard translates to real life, despite their mutual mistreatment of each other. Lenard is definitely NOT Norman's friend. (In fact, most of the puppets in this AU despise each other)

Incredibly overdramatic. He once laid down on the floor for 3 hours straight because someone ate the last chocolate chip cookie.

Norman is still very lonely.

JUNEBUG

Much more calmer and introverted than her OG counterpart. She would rather stay inside reading books than play outside with her so-called 'friends'.

She is the resident bookworm of the neighborhood, incredibly smart too!

Her demeanor is highly apathetic; even if chaos erupted in the neighborhood, she wouldn't even lift her eyes from the pages of her book.

She also speaks in a very monotone voice.

She still very much hates responsibility.

She and Norman have a sort of pseudo rivalry with each other, even though it mostly affects Norman. While others react to Norman's antics, Junebug's indifference to it annoys him the most.

Even if she's not currently reading books, she's usually staring off into space or thinking about something. Ms. Lilianna is not fond of her due to her inattentiveness during one of her lessons.

Has a horrible habit of sneaking up to people and scaring them due to the fact that she walks VERY quietly.

MS. LILIANNA

It's MISS Lilianna. Not Lilianna, MISS Lilianna! She is your teacher and you WILL show her some respect!

Miss. Lilianna is incredibly strict and uptight. If you so much as even breathe loudly she will get furious with you!

She does genuinely love teaching! She teaches math, science, english, history... but her favorite lesson to teach are RULES!

Currently, she has 874 rules in her rule book. Here are some examples:

22. No talking while she's talking, that’s rude. 23. No chewing gum 24. no smiling 25. no breathing too loudly 26. no running 27. no jumping 28. no laughing 29. no living 30. no screaming 32. no playtime 33. no snack time 34. no lunchtime 35. definitely no nap time. 36. No blinking more than once per minute! 37. You must sit at a perfect 90 degree angle 38. No writing with anything other than a blue ballpoint pen with a 0.735 mm tip!

Her favorite rule is rule #17: "Everyday is Teacher's Day!" You must give Ms. Lilianna gifts and hugs to show how much you appreciate her!

The most important rule is the "No complaining about the rules" rule! Or else you'll be sent to the principals office! Which is her. She is the principal, the custodian, the janitor, every and any faculty member of the school!

...Except for the Art teacher. Please don't show her any art, she will not understand anything. She lacks any and every sort of creativity.

Her favorite weapon to use is the classic ruler! Light weight AND teacher-y

Baldi's basics lookin' ass

LENARD

Anxious Dog Energy right there.

Poor Lenard is very shy and super self conscious. Like Junebug, he would rather stay alone than be anywhere NEAR people.

He has a bit of a stutter.

He is so anxious, that he's developed several self-defense mechanisms!

He will either SCREAM BLOODY MURDER

Or he will bite you

Or a combination of both.

Sometimes he'll bite for no reason whatsoever!

Lenard is TERRIFIED of being watched, especially while practicing. Memories of him being taunted and teased during the show's production still haunt him.

He's developed severe scopophobia because of this.

He will usually sing and dance in private. Though, he's not a very good singer nor a very good dancer.

GEORGE

The epitome of "I hate my job."

This George really hates being a taxi driver. I mean, wouldn't you hate being stuck as a taxi driver for the rest of your life?

After MFN got cancelled and the puppets got abandoned, George ripped out the 'T' in his taxi cab hat. He tried ripping out more from his taxi uniform, but stopped since his uniform were the only clothes that he's got.

He's now stuck in exitensial dread. What IS George now that he's not a taxi driver? He might've hated being one, but that was all that he's got.

He hates any and all vehicles with 4 wheels or more. All the taxi cabs in the studio are smashed, even the wheels have been taken out!

He still likes rats. However, it's mostly a "appreciate from afar" type of ordeal. The rats in the studio are vicious little beasts.

He once saw a puppet get too close to the rats. Let's just say that the puppet is now a pile of cotton fluff.

The only time he was genuinely happy during the show's production was when they were filming the Pirate's Cove film. It was his first experience of being anything other than his taxi driver role. He still has his pirates hook and he would fight you tooth and nail if you try and steal it from him

AND THATS EVERYONE (for part 1 ofc)

Thank you to my friends who definitely helped with this AU (you know who you are!)

Oh! And please click the images for better quaity!

[viktorpartner]

✨ THE DAN AND PHIL LORE pt. 3✨

CHECK OUT PART 2: https://www.tumblr.com/ashleyeveerson/760707933651746816?source=share

Phil ALSO comes out! (yeah no i'm not crying what? not them feeling comfortable enough to be themselves yeah). 2019 also brings us the adoption of a fish named Norman (a cutie) AND they also post pictures about their recent trip to Japan [the photo of Phil looking up to Dan behind the camera? yeah i am so normal about it, i swear]. There is hope in the horizon still for a Dan and Phil comeback...

BAM! A certain virus runs wild and forces everyone to stay at home. Phil continues to upload solo videos which distracted so many of us during these dark times. Dan, however is AWOL and the only pic we have of him is a shitty screenshot of him in glasses and a mask helping Phil rescue an injured pigeon (lockdown was WILD).

Also, my boy Dan post a cryptic tweet that leads to the announcement of a self-help book named YOU WILL GET THROUGH THIS NIGHT (because you will <3). Nah but I can't count how many times I've sobbed reading it, just him trying to help out others who have also struggled with mental health... istg i love this man

Hey so THEY BUY THEIR FOREVER PHOUSE TOGETHER they're gonna kill me one day istg. "Dan and Phil just decided to pay a mortgage together", top 10 sentences that would kill a 2016 phan. They are slaying, they are glowing... also rip Norman the fish you will not be forgotten

So during 2014 the fates (aka a random youtuber) foretold that Dan and Phil would be married in 2022. Since that clearly didn't happen the meme PHIVORCE united the phandom once more. ALSO Dan is out there shitting on youtube (as he should) and going on his solo tour WE'RE ALL DOOMED! Which i love with all my heart and also Phil being there for him every step of the way... AHHHHHHHH

Anyways a certain video called Dan and Phil finally tell the truth hits the internet and let's just say GOD DAMN. This also starts a wonderful trend amongst Dan and Phil in which they make fun of their audience (we deserve it ngl) and absolutley SHOCK US with new information about bonkers shit from their past [apparently they were offered a threesome MULTIPLE TIMES???]

It's the end. They've decided to give up their channel "Dan and Phil Games" forever... let's take a moment and silent and mourn with a compilation of Heart eyes Howell

...

SIKE! We're back baby and we're better than ever!!! The goodbye video turned out the be an ANNOUNCEMENT of their comeback. They are back, Dil Howlter is here and Phil confesses to having dyed everything green in the house when Dan went on tour bc he missed him (OH GOD). Also, the Halloween baking video introduced us to the icon that is.... *drumroll please*

SISTER DANIEL, the queen of making everyone reconsider their sexuality... she is the moment, she is an icon and she is serving astronomical levels of cunt at all time [jokes aside, Dan being comfortable enough to do drag in public, fuck they've come so far i'm so proud of them <3].

And here we are in the future, it's present day and they are queerer and happier than ever. THE PICTURES I CAN'T ISTG. Also Dan's Birthday stream is beyond iconic. First of all my unproblematic kings make it a charity stream to donate to the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund (using their public influence for good hell yeah)... And how did they raise the money you ask? WELL BY HITTING IS WHERE WE'RE WEAKEST. Sister Daniel makes a spectacular comeback, FATHER PHIL is introduced and Dan even dyes his hair red to be more Good Omens coded... which timeline are we living in again? like how is any of this real?

Also them drawing the PINOF whiskers on their faces again... they're literally growing old together I'm gonna go sob in a corner. Also the fake apology video bc they have no fashion sense in the Sims 4 is hilarious as fuck. HOW CAN THEY POSSIBLY BE SO MUCH HOTTER ON THEIR THIRTIES EXPLAIN??

anyways the phandom is still speculating wether they're erasing "i love you's" at the end of their text when they show them on videos... guess some things never change. Nah but the vibes are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT NOW, they are more open than they've ever been and participate on the phan culture FULLY to the point that they're the ones terrorizing us now.

QUICK DETOUR TO TALK ABOUT PHIL'S FAMOUS BAD LUCK (and then they wonder why he's always dying in the fanfics). Nah but my poor man has had his fair share of medical problems, the most recent being...

OH GOD WHY WOULD YOU ANNOUNCE SOMETHING LIKE THAT THIS WAY?? nah like using humor as a coping mechanism and all but do they wanna gives a heart attack?! iconic i fear however

So yeah the video where they talk about it is WILD (funniest shit about the whole ordeal is that a nurse mistook Dan as Phil's son). Also I saw a tweet speculating about Phil having a hickey like... first of all what is it? 2009? Second of all IT'S MOST LIKELY A POPPED VESSEL FROM LOSING ALL THAT BLOOD YOU KNOW

They still were able to go on their vacation (aka the rodent boy summer) which gifted us with this iconic pics... ALSO they dropped a new Dan and Phil beats for summer go check out the names of the tracks istg they wanna kill their fans.

Nothing is sacred anymore, they've infiltrated twtphan, they're actively reposting memes and writing fanfiction about themselves. It's the wild west, everytime you get a notification is like playing Russian Rulet. Cringe is dead and Dan and Phil ARE COMING NEAR YOUR CITY on a tour named "Terrible Influence" where Phil's spent 300€ on silicone. It's a wonderful time to be a phan.

OKAY SO here's some stuff that didn't make the cut but that i find too hilarious to not mention. In no apparent order: DAN DRESSING UP AS A CATBOY, Dan and Phil playing technicians 1 and 2 on Big Hero 6 and two brothers on the Lion King (wtf was that also they gave the gorilas matching fringes), Dan dressing up as a golden pig (my boy has RANGE) and finally Dan being too embarassed to admit he stalked Phil and telling a reporter he was only asking for "editing tips" if you know what i mean

Also a short compilation of Dan and Phil losing the idgaf war against eachother THEY ARE SO THOUGHTFUL ABOUT EVERYTHING. Special mention to Daniel's 🧡 when Phil praised "We're all doomed!" and Dan's ranch metaphor to describe their relationship (just go watch the mukkbang video OH LORD)

SO, in conclusion... Dan and Phil's refusal to belittle their past and instead embrace it as part of their story while actively moving into the future alongside the phandom YEAH THAT SHIT MEANS SOMETHING. They're simultaneously healing our inner child while embracing us as the adults we've become i have many feelings about them

So what are they?

They're just Dan and Phil.

[reel-fear]

Bendy And The Power Of Representation

So those graphic novel pages huh? Seems I posted my cover post at just the right time because literally minutes after I was informed the preview pages came out and uh. This is Buddy and Norman!

Oh dear... I'll put the full graphic novel pages down below but I have so much to say on how awful this is it'll need several posts. However, right now I want to mostly talk about representation and briefly touch on why it's so damn important + inform others about the current shit Mike and Meatly are saying about the books n such.

Now note: All the things I'm saying below are based on my personal experience, maybe some people don't care about seeing the representation of their identities in the media they consume. Maybe some will think I'm merely being dramatic and I might be but I'm not lying when I say I personally believe being represented and seen in the media you consume can be one of the most wonderful feelings in the world.

Look I'm not here to argue with people who think that Norman in particular was never meant to be a person of color, I would argue he is very coded but the points I'm making here are not about how Norman particularly had to be black. The point I want to make is the lack of diversity in our cast in general and how Norman's design has heavily dwindled it considering most people [including myself] rightfully assumed he was at least one of three black characters in our cast. Not according to this though and looking at the the rest of the pages our chances of seeing any kind of decent diverse character designs dwindle more.

So firstly... Buddy a character who has been said to experience discrimination for being Jewish, lacks any kind of ethnic features at all. That's... Cool but yeah I think this shows a rather grim future for the character designs as a whole.

Also, Norman... As I mentioned he was largely assumed to be black due to his southern dialect, his voice, and other factors. But nope, he's a generic white guy. With... Gross looking hair tbh...

Sadly this is not the first time the topic of poor representation has come up concerning Bendy either.

[note how he disregarded the other mentioned minorities and specifically cites LGBTQ+ characters]

This sucks as a response but sadly considering Mike's recent behavior it seems to fall in line with the Bendy team's general lack of care towards representing anyone who isn't straight and white.

So how did Mike respond to all of this? Well...

TDLR - "Who cares if the Graphic Novel we're selling to our fans for full price sucks, we now no longer consider the books canon."

This is horrible, I know Mike and Meatly are only really in this for the money, the fact BATIM is in the state that it is proved that, but they really couldn't have been less obvious about it?

So basically when it benefited them, AKA when it meant people would have to buy the books to understand important lore like Boris' identity... [the character you spend all of chapter 4 trying to rescue] They were considered canon... At least the author sure thought so.

Hell even in the tweet Meatly made here he doesn't say the books aren't canon, he just says they're not needed to understand Bendy's world. Now Mike is using that as a shield instead of doing the right thing and saying "You're right, the poc in our fanbase deserve better we'll have it fixed right away!" Like most reasonable people would considering how his studio has literally been accused of bigotry, poor rep, and general lack of diversity before. Why risk making more people avoid this franchise?

Also just... Imagine how insulting it would be to be an author who helps flesh out so much of this world and gives its characters depth like NONE of the games have managed to do, filling in plot holes, creating a timeline for events, etc... Then because they couldn't bother to change the graphic novel for ur story to be better they instead throw out all ur writing and declare it non-canon.

If I were her to put it bluntly I'd feel insulted and horrible. Why make her do all the work of making sure her works align with the timeline and game's canon if they're not part of it?

I can't speak for her obviously but Meatly and Mike know of her account, so speaking out against this could very much risk her being fired or at least not allowed to work on Bendy anymore... So I would take all her tweets on this situation with a grain of salt. She very much is not in a position where she could be honest if she was against this.

So with all that history now, the question I'm sure many are wondering is... Why does this even matter? Who cares how diverse the characters are when it doesn't affect the story?

Well for one thing, if you think like that consider having more empathy for your fellow human beings but also it does affect the story. One of DCTL's themes is about the bigotry of the period it is set in.

Now the Bendy team has managed to make the discussion of this book centering around their bigotry which is ironic in a way I almost find funny... Though this entire thing is just a bit too hurtful and upsetting to find any humor in, at least for me...

But another thing is representation can bring people such joy when it's done with care. It really shouldn't be understated how far it can go to make people feel more comfortable in their own sense of self to have a franchise choose to represent them and their experiences. I know this from personal experience.

Now if you've been following me for a while, you know I'm a big fan of Transformers. I no longer engage with it much due to baggage from the fandom's awful treatment of me, but before I left I remember being able to witness the release of Transformers: Earthspark first few episodes.

These introduced the Maltos the family who meets the Transformers and serve as our protagonists and guess what?

It's a family of Filipinos!

Now look I'm not Filipino, but I am half Mexican and I have a lot of love for that part of me. So seeing the representation of any Spanish culture in this franchise I loved made me so happy! I remember just watching the first episode I was happily telling my partner how fun it was to see people like me and my family in a world I love!!

But it didn't end with the Maltos in fact... There was another character who spoke to me, their name was Nightshade. Their pronouns are They/Them and they spoke about it on the show! Not just mentioning it and moving on but actually sitting down to speak about their experiences...

This clip in particular really turned them into an absolute favorite among fans and well... I'll let you see it for yourself.

This scene... Fills me with a joy I cannot describe. It is the creators of a franchise I love telling me they see people like me and find the stories of people like me important enough to include in this series. There really is nothing like being able to say there are Non-Binary characters in a franchise I have so much love for. I was far from the only one too.

This is amazing, this is wonderful, this clip and character were moving to so so many people and...

This is a joy the Bendy creators have no interest in giving their audience. They don't care how you feel as a queer and/or black person, which... Hurts...

I... Discovered I was trans while in the Bendy community... It was where I learned the word Non-Binary and started using it for myself. To me Bendy will always have that connection... But the devs themselves seem to hate the idea of being forced to actually represent that in their games... And I still haven't really gotten over that pain or betrayal if I'm being honest.

So...

With Norman now being portrayed as white here, we are down to two black characters. Thomas [who Meatly has claimed is white in the past] based on a vague conversation with Sammy in DCTL they could easily ignore... And Jacob.... A book exclusive character which according to Mike means he is non-canon.

If we don't count Thomas' vague talk with Sammy about disrespect as confirmation he's black [which the devs don't seem to think so] then we have one black character in all of Bendy... And he recently got retconned into non-existence. Great.

Look... The Bendy fanbase has always been full of wonderfully diverse designs for the staff and even more diverse people creating them. Bendy's fandom was built with the work of queer people from all kinds of places.

If the Bendy team continues to show how little they care for anyone who isn't straight or white... I wonder who they are counting on to buy this book or in general financially support their franchise?

I know right now, I am furious, I am hurt and I most certainly don't feel like buying a book that's currently just a massive fuck you to the fans and I hope I've expressed why I feel this way in an easy-to-understand way here...

Either way, I will not be forgetting this anytime soon and I hope the fanbase does the same. Maybe just maybe, if there's enough backlash to this series of horrible decisions they'll learn better.

Right now, it's kinda of our only hope for a better future, and if you know any poc who are into Bendy right now... Maybe consider making sure they're feeling okay.

I know from experience how much this sort of thing hurts, to have the creators of a world you love straight up tell you they don't intend to fix the fact no one in their stories represents your identity or life...

What I'm trying to say is...

This is a really low point for Bendy and its fans... Even more for the poc who have to witness such ignorant and careless attitudes from Mike and Meatly towards their feelings.

Please don't forget them when you discuss these tweets or this situation. That's exactly what Mike and Meatly want right now.

For them to be unrepresented and therefore... Unheard.

[freefromthecocoon]

Daryl's Mindset

So, I have some thoughts I have been mulling and this may get long. So look below the cut if you are interested. This will cover bits through episode 4.

I have seen a few folks questioning Daryl's mindset and seen a few opinions saying he was rude to Carol or didn't give her props for coming to rescue him. That's fair and it would appear that way on the surface.

I think Daryl was overwhelmed. Daryl has never really had anyone look for him. He washed up on the shores of France and winds up meeting a nun who helped him. Yes she manipulated and lied to him to get his help to get Laurent to Paris. But like Daryl told Carol, they worked out a deal. As things kept happening to keep Daryl from his ultimate goal of getting home to Carol (his words, not mine)...he began to lose hope of that ever happening.

I think everything happened so fast that he did not have time to stop and really think about everything that transpired. As Norman has said about the reunion, Carol showed up when he was at his lowest point. He fought his way through the walkers and THERE SHE WAS. "The one person in the world he needed the most" There was no time for discussion as they were under attack.

Then another person he had grown to care about died but not before giving Daryl the responsibility of keeping Laurent safe. We know that Daryl is very mission oriented and can have tunnel vision at times. This is why he was laser focused on finding Laurent. He wasn't being rude to Carol intentionally. Carol realized this and helped him to refocus in a better way after they got to the cave.

As they walked towards Theo and Didi's (Theo you schmuck), they resorted to their usual sweet banter as they tried to sus each other's thoughts out. Then they meet Theo and Didi. Which was a revealing experience to both of them I believe. This time at Didi's place was the first time I imagine that either of them could even begin to think of a life that.

Another conversation that has been questioned was when Carol reminded Daryl of his responsibility to Laurent. I think Daryl has started to realize he wants a happy life as he has seen Didi and Theo have. When Daryl said he didn't want to lose Laurent, he might as well have inserted Carol's name into that conversation.

Beginning to care about Issa and then having her die so abruptly was one more person in a long list of people he has lost over the years. He thinks if he doesn't embrace his true feelings for Carol, he can prevent losing her.

He watched Theo lose Didi and then it was brought home to him that he and Carol are not getting any younger and perhaps they can stop fighting to survive and start fighting to live a life they both deserve.

Daryl seemed to take the first steps towards this by explaining how Laurent became the glue that held everything together, much like Henry was the glue that held Carol and Zeke together. Carol gets that part. We just have to get Carol to accept that she deserves happiness as well, which I think is still a big stumbling block for her.

And remember what Daryl said, "I never stopped trying to get home TO YOU" And he didn't Carol is Daryl's home. I look forward to exploring more of this in Spain.

[p1nkm1lkslug]

Hello! I’m sorry this is my second request in less than a week, I just love your headcanons so much 🤍 Can I request Isaac with an s/o who’s a lot like Rory Gilmore from Gilmore Girls? S/o has lots of comfy sweaters, reads a lot, loves baking and drinks a fuck ton of coffee, things like that.

I have said or once and I'll say it again, I am a sucker for issac, and this is gonna be season 1 rory because she went downhill pretty quickly (quick rant: season one dean was the best, I hate Tristan and I hate Jess, and lane deserves better)

depending on the size of oversized sweaters I can see him. Stealing your clothes from time to time

meeting him would probably be quite a surprise, for him more then you, because if your in the underworld he would be more then surprised to see someone reading a book that he would have read as well

this might be cringe but the scene where Rory met dean would probably fit you and issac, because imagine dropping your book only to see some tall man in front of you ("your just standing there like Frankenstein all in his Glory " "Marry Shelly. " "Yeah... You read? ")

reading and books being something you bond over (Im currently reading the secret history :3) , weather it be letting him borrow as he leaves his own annotations with stick tabs, or moments where he thinks you would enjoy

he loves you and supports you

you know what he doesn't support? Your caffeine addiction 💀

this man will bring you decaf in hopes you won't notice until your up at 2 and stat feeling tired as you turn to your partner and whisper "liar" Under your breath

as I mentioned before he loves baking, he wouldn't be the best but baby steps okay he's learning 😭 (you got him a Betty Crocker cookbook)

i feel like Lorelei in the show is known for her pop culture references but so is Rory, so issac and you having small teasing conversations regarding everyday activities to your favorite movies ("that man was rather peculiar.. " "Modern day Norman Bates in the making" "Norman..?" "Psycho, 1960,alfred Hitchcock, we gotta watch that one next! ")

expect him to have a tiny library of your shared books

stress baking is pretty common, he uses the amount of Danish pastries you've made as a scale on if he needs to gently have a talk with you or if he need to hold you back and practically exorcise the demons out of you 💀

you claim he does the same and he will deny it but you once caught him just starring at the kitchen as butter melted in the pan ("what am I doing with my life " "Come back to bed :( "

if you have a mom similar to Lorelei the two would surprisingly get along more then one might think, she might throw a joke about him looking like he came straight out of spirit Halloween, and she will have a very calm but threatening talk with him about you, but besides that smooth sailing and her making fun of you two acting romantic, think Jim from stranger Things when el and Mike were in a room together

──‧⁺˖ °˗ˏ ᵎ🧸ᵎ ˎ˗°˖⁺‧ ──

[sammy-lawrence-my-beloved]

not too long ago, I finished BATDR.

and boy oh boy was it an experience.

so, for starters, I'm upset. SAMMY HAS BARELY ANY SCREEN TIME >:(

though I did notice a funny little detail that sammy now has 5 fingers instead of four, so the fact that he plays his banjo slow could either be that he's still getting accustomed to 5 fingers, or he's major sad.

also, the sammy memos were nice :D

the memos and audio logs actually gave a bit more depth to the studio, and that just makes me so happy :3

just silly new characters that are truly canon unlike SOMETHING THAT SHOULD BE CANON (dctl has to be somewhat canon you can't change my mind)

Audrey being a Drew was actually a nice little twist

i wish you could interact with that vending machine in the beginning of the game.

i so badly wanted a root beer

anyway, back on track. game was good, porter was silly, keepers are if norman was more stupid. oh, and ugly as all hell. god I hate the keepers.

on the topic of enemies, we can't forget the INK DEMON SHOWING UP EVERY TWO SECONDS!!!

i got to chapter two, looking at a guide, and I couldn't find a hiding spot in the (maybe) 10 seconds it gave me.

AND I DIED.

i hate the ink demon mechanic in batdr so much :<

i was pretty satisfied with henry's face reveal to be honest. also, malice is just so silly. more depth to her character in the whole interaction. and her death was just so much more emotional

also, pet good boy tom because you can :D

last couple of points before I give my rating

joey's death made me cry. so did the scene like two chapters before where it showed joey's grave. i'm overly emotional, but i was bawling when joey died :<

the silly track 77 pigeon :3

and also, at the tutorial searcher that says "you don't have to kill me," i promised i wouldn't kill him...

AND MY CONTROLLER SLIPPED AND I KILLED HIM WITH THE PIPE 😭

anyway: on to the final score of the game

I give it a solid 8.9/10

i think that sammy deserved a bigger role, and the ink demon should've been... way better to be honest... silly jumpscare though.

:3

[hollowsart]

I do like how Norman Osborn was chosen to be the Green Goblin by the writers who originally didn't even know who actually WAS the Green Goblin, because Norman is like.. the last person you'd ever think would be GG

however.. to me.. it doesn't exactly make much sense. his motives and reasons don't equate in my mind for any logical or reasonable reason for him to BE the Green Goblin in the first place:

Son is a loser crybaby whiner worthless heir to his corporate legacy in his eyes, an utter disappointment

Son's friend seems more like a promising young mind that he is actually interested in having take over for him or at the very least come work for him.

Son's friend is put-off by him and rejects his offers to come work for him and he feels upset by this??

??????

Kill Spider-Man? For some reason?

idk I just never understood it much. I feel like a fun and better and more logical choice would have been Harry right from the start. you could say he was fed up with his father and so he decided to steal some of his dads own technology and such, finding that "Globulin Green" enhancement drug thing as well maybe idk (most of his "insanity" would be derived not from a side effect of the drug, but from his own bottled up anger and frustrations against his dad. the drug merely exacerbates it)

Harry's taking more after school curriculums that involve more advanced levels of engineering and computing/programming and even some robotics maybe?

This is all to help him put together the whole "Green Goblin" thing, building the glider from the stolen tech as well as little pumpkin grenades/bombs and possibly more.

Then.. It ends up with Harry VS Spider-Man cuz Spidey came around to stop Harry from trying to potentially kill his dad. It's not like Norman has really done anything to deserve the saving, but there's better ways of dealing with this. Harry's way is far too extreme, far too over the edge.

but this can just lead to a really hard hitting moment when Harry learns that his best friend Peter is Spider-Man:

"You? You were the Spider-Man? and you didn't do anything to help me even though you knew? About my dad and everything I'd been having to go through?

..I thought you were my friend.

I guess you really don't know anyone as well as you'd think, not even your own childhood friends." -- Harry after Peter reveals himself to be Spider-Man.

[my-mt-heart]

Thoughts on TBOC PalyFest

It started out fine. It felt like Melissa and Louis were getting more opportunities to talk and obviously I liked the focus on Daryl's and Carol's reunion because their relationship is (or should be) the show's beating heart.

I strongly disagree with Gimple that the 204 reunion topped Terminus. It was an imitation and it played in a vacuum.

Norman said "When they come together. The sound goes out. They're the only two people on the planet." And this is what I mean about the vacuum. That sentiment does come out during the scene, but it does not hold true after the scene is over, at least not on Daryl's end.

Gimple really said "we wanted to make Daryl not know who he was anymore" like that was smart.

When asked why Isabelle had to die, Zabel said that "It was looking at the sort of grand plan of the show and building to sort of where we felt like it was gonna go, and specifically in terms of kind of getting to a version that was really Daryl and Carol trying to make their way through new territories and new environments. And so that they seem to go together." Naturally his first instinct is to blame Carol/Melissa for another female character's death, but that is so false it's laughable. Isabelle died because he's a misogynist. Frankly, I think he would have killed her off eventually even if Carol didn't come back.

Both Zabel and Gimple suggest that the death makes Caryl's reunion more compelling because it allows Carol to show up for Daryl when he's "at his lowest." Translation: Carol is also there just to be Daryl's support.

According to Zabel, we can expect the idea of Carol being there for Daryl at his lowest to pop back up in S3, which is just further confirmation to me that the season is fucked. Just because the location changes doesn't mean the misogyny will.

It's one thing for Zabel to think a romance between Daryl and a nun he just met made any fucking sense for the character, but what's Norman's excuse? He said Daryl was wondering "why I can't have this" as if the flagship show never fucking happened. Why does this man have so much creative control when he doesn't seem to know or care about who Daryl is?

When asked what Carol thinks about Daryl's relationship with Isabelle and the other characters in France, Melissa said that it was surprising for her and I think she spoke for all of us when she said of Daryl "I don't know you anymore." I cannot emphasize enough how deeply heartbreaking of a story it is for Carol to do everything in her power to find the most important person in her life and after just a few short months, he's already found a new family. Carol deserved a thousand times better. She is not the one who needs to be there for Daryl going forward. He needs to fucking show up for her, but I don't trust the four horsemen to ever do her justice. The leadership on this show needs to fucking change yesterday.

[hawkogurl]

Tell me good things about Harry so that I'll like him more.

I don't really like him for some reason, but to write good Norman & Harry one-shots/stories, I need to actually like Harry (and loving Norman but not liking his son is ridiculous). I thought you'd be a good person to ask since you're writing a fic about him and seem to like him a lot.

I mean you don't have to answer this if you don't want to, but I assume, like me, you'd love to rant about your favorite character.

Have a good day!

So I’m gonna warn you in advance, I have severe insomnia and I haven’t slept in more than a day so I’m not firing on all cylinders. This is also why this is taking so damn long to write. Also none of this is necessarily directed at you specifically if I mention something. It’s probably a general observation.

While I do think it’s valid to dislike him for a lot of reasons—I think it’s valid to dislike him on the grounds of what an absolute piece of work James Franco is alone—there are some things I will posit for my son boy. It’s worth noting that one, he is seventeen years old in the first movie, he is a baby, and he dies at either 20 or 21. Additionally, most of the more overt shitty things he does are things he’s shown to have developed as a direct result of Norman, namely his treatment of MJ being an explicit result of Norman being a misogynist. And on the topic of reasons I think he’s liked, I know for a lot of people his reaction to MJ commenting on Norman, while not pretty, is just so, so real to a lot of victims of similar abuse.

While at the end of the day I do sort of think that trying to quantify morality sort of misses the point of the Raimi trilogy’s core cast. Whether or not they’re good people is less important than the fact that they are human, with human flaws and human problems who are all for the most part trying to do their best, or in cases where they actually are acting maliciously like Eddie and, not to slander your blorbo, Norman, acting maliciously for very human reasons. I think Harry is a great example of this.

And I do think Harry is a better person than he’s generally given credit for. He maintains his 616 trait of not having it in him to kill, even having a line in the novels where MJ mentions he couldn’t kill a frog in science class. He keeps a lot of the 616 core of his character when it comes to fragility and gendered tropes, having a complex relationship between traditionally female and male tropes as used in those movies. He is subversive as a male character. But that’s getting off topic, even if I could go off about that for hours. He’s more respectful of MJ’s romantic decisions than most secondary male leads in fiction, maintaining a platonic relationship with her long after they’ve broken up. Norman is a weapons manufacturer, yet Harry’s job in OSCORP has him working on accessible green energy with Otto. He’s far more loyal to Peter than people want to give him credit for, resisting his hallucinations and the revenge he’s obsessed over for two years at that point for no other reason than the fact he loves Peter. And it’s important to me that you know the original ending of the third movie didn’t have him going to help Peter after being told how Norman died but instead after seeing a shattered photo of himself, Peter and MJ. That boy cares so damn much. While poorly executed, the amnesia arc in the third movie is very important in my opinion because of what it’s meant to demonstrate. Harry isn’t a malicious or malevolent person at his core, he’s just deeply traumatized and struggling.

And I know well that all that is buried six feet deep beneath his mountains of issues, but that’s half the reason I like him. I think it’s easy to admire Peter, and he’s well written and deserves it, but I don’t think it’s any coincidence that there’s such a decent amount of affection for Harry on tumblr specifically. He’s the character with the subversive gendered tropes, the canon schizophrenic, the one I think a lot of people connect with out of this feeling he was treated unfairly. And I think it’s reassuring to see something that reminds you that no matter how much has happened, no matter how many mistakes you’ve made, it isn’t too late. You can always choose to be better.

There’s also a fantastic video essay about Harry and the stages of identity development somewhere on YouTube that I think is absolutely fantastic because that also is a massive part of his character. Along with his genuine psychological issues, his development of identity has been stunted. He’s soft spoken and tries to make himself as unobtrusive as possible in the first movie, basically molding who he is to try and please the people around him. He swings in the opposite direction in the second movie, where he’s perfectly capable of interacting like a normal human person at Peter’s birthday party, he almost deliberately paints himself as obnoxious as possible around Otto. I’ve written full posts about that before, so I’ll keep it short as the idea that he twists who he is to make himself feel safe. And feeling safe isn’t necessarily what’s actually safe for him, but often just what’s he’s used to. There’s a sense of completion to him simply deciding to go and help Peter. He’s choosing who he wants to be for himself and nothing else, choosing whose love actually matters to him.

I’m happy to talk about the guy in messages or asks upon request. Also have like 293 posts this length or longer about the dude tagged under harryposting he is so important to me. I should probably make a specific analysis tag.