#not super graphic but I also partially started watching this the first time | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

lucisfavoritedemon · 3 years

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Soulmate AU with Cedric

Request @blumenstrase : Hi!!! Can you write soulmate with Cedric please💚

Pairing: Cedric x reader

Word Count: 898

Warnings: none

A/N: I am so so sorry this took me so long to finish. I had been super busy with trying to graduate school at the time, but here is the finished product. I’m glad I stepped away from this for a bit because I feel like I did Cedric justice for all you Cedric Diggory lovers out the

Divider by: @firefly-graphics

I really hope you enjoy!

Legend goes that on your 16th birthday the first words you hear your soulmate speak, appear on your arm. So it was no surprise on my 16th birthday when I woke up to mysterious words on my wrist, 'I had no idea about the badges' seemed weirdly out of context, but I knew in the moment I would understand. At least I hoped I would understand.

I got up and got dressed, and penned a letter to my parents telling them that I can now start looking for my soulmate. Then, I went downstairs and left my common room to go to the Great Hall for breakfast. All my friends wished me happy birthday and asked to see those words. Their reaction made me believe that this was going to be harder than I thought.

“Don’t feel too bad though. Cedric doesn’t have much of a clue as to whose his is either, it’s just nonsense stuttering.”

“Yeah. I mean I’ve never really talked to him. I mean he is in his 7th year. They typically don't talk to anyone in the lower years. He also seems the type to keep to himself." I said.

"You'll find out who it is soon.” My friend said as she continued to eat breakfast.

“I hope so. I just know that this is going to be more difficult than I imagined. What if he is a muggle and I don’t meet him till after I graduate?”

“Sometimes that happens.” She stated.

“Hello ladies.” Two voices rang out.

“Here come the twins.” My friend rolled her eyes, lowering her head down.

“They’re not that bad,” I whispered as they approached, “what can we help you boys with?”

“Do you happen to have the thing we asked you for?” George asked, sitting on one side of me as Fred sat on the other.

“I hope you two know that this has a very high chance of back firing.” I warned, handing them a vial of herbs.

“It’ll work out just fine.” George stated.

“And when it does, we’ll have you to partially thank for sneaking out during the full moon.” Fred patted my back before they both stood up to walk away.

“You two get me detention I swear!” I hollered after them.

“You broke school rules? Better hope Cedric the Prefect doesn’t catch you.” My friend giggled.

“Oh shut it.” I groaned and tossed a piece of crumpled up paper at her.

It had been a few weeks after those mystery words popped up on my arm. The school was bustling with the excitement of the first task of the Triwizard tournament. Everyone was picking who they wanted to win. Someone thought it would be funny to make badges showing their support for Cedric, but they also were bashing poor Harry.

I hadn’t even started putting things together with all the commotion as I watched Harry storm over to Cedric. I wasn’t sure if all of us in the courtyard were about to watch a fight, but a crowd was beginning to form around the duo. I just hoped that Harry was prepared if it came down to a fight.

They debated loudly before Harry finally went to walk away. Cedric walked quickly back up to Harry. I was being pushed and shoved around in the crowd now as everyone anticipated a full fledged fight. That’s when I heard a sentence I thought I wouldn’t hear for another decade or so.

“I had no idea about the badges. I’ve asked them not to wear them.” Cedric spoke in a hushed voice.

“Thanks Cedric.” Harry said, walking off.

The crowd dispersed as I stood there. I tried to form some sort of sentence, or an actual word. Nothing was coming out though, so I decided the smart decision was to start walking the opposite direction.

“Y/n! Wait!” A voice called after me.

I ignored it, walking as quickly as I could, but something inside me told me to stop. I stood frozen in the middle of the hall anticipating the worst from this situation. That’s when I felt a gentle hand on my shoulder.

“Do you mind if I see?” Cedric asked softly.

I turned to face him and rolled up the sleeve of my robe. I watched as his face went from anticipated rejection to a soft smile. He slowly lifted his head back up to look me in the eyes.

“You know how hard it is to find the person who matches up to be your soulmate when it shows that the person can’t even form a sentence?” He asked, chuckling.

“I can imagine pretty hard.” I replied shyly.

“Incredibly difficult. Especially when some people just react that way in general. That’s why I always check because if it’s a match, then I know it to be true.”

“I bet that has gotten pretty annoying, and maybe freak people out.”

“No kidding,” we both chuckle, “so are you going to be rooting for me this week?”

“Of course I’ll be rooting for you. I’d be crazy not to.” I giggle.

He smiles and takes my hand kissing the top of it. Who knew that only just three weeks after I turned 16 I would be walking hand and hand with the person I’m going to be spending the rest of my life with. And what an amazing life it was.

#harry potter #cedric diggory x reader #cedric diggory #xreader

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d-pennants · 4 years

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Through the Moon Instagram Live

Partial transcript of the Instagram Live with Justin Richmond and Aaron Ehasz. It was only posted for 24 hours and a lot of stuff was talked about. I tried to copy the answers as close to what was actually said, but I won’t guarantee I didn’t mishear or miss stuff. I just focused on the stuff about tDP.

No S4 announcement today.

Do you have a favorite character? Are you allowed to play favorites? JR: Yeah. I definitely have characters that I like more than other characters, but I’ll never admit who they are. [laughs]

Fine, how about hints about S5 then?

AE: Justin and I were working on a scene this morning, a scene in which someone makes a sacred promise to Bait. Hope that’s not to big a spoiler.

[Explaining about Through the Moon which is out today (Oct 6th) Shout out to Xanthe Bouma & Peter Wartman, who will be there for the AMA on Friday. And shout out to the team at Scholastic.]

[Technical issues made the audio break up while JR was relocating. I couldn’t catch what the actually questions were for this little bit, but I caught some of the answers.]

Question about Zuko’s VA Dante Basco

AE: He’s amazing to work with. I’d definitely be happy to work with him.

Question about Callum’s Mage Wings

AE: I’d just get mage wing out even just to go to the bathroom at night if I were Callum.

Question about Runaan

AE: I don’t know. That’s a mystery. Runaan is certainly in the magical cursed coin in some form. But I don’t know what he’ll do or if he can survive it. But that’s a story we’ll be certain to tell.

[JR relocated & AE had to log out and rejoin, which fixed the issue.]

Are there other graphic novels coming? Is Through the Moon part of a series with an over arching plot?

JR: Hopefully yes. Hopefully we get to do some more with Scholastic. This is a standalone. It is part of the core story of the Dragon Prince. It counts as canon. But there’s not a sequel to Though the Moon.

AE: We would love to do more graphic novels. We are actively talking about and planning it. Definitely in the cards. But not necessarily an over arching story.

Asking about Janai’s brother?

AE: We’re going to find out about Janai’s brother for sure. He’s a really cool character, a lot of fun.

What do Moonshadow elves do during a full moon? Do they just become invisible.

AE: It’s not just invisibility. It is a stealth mode. I think we talk about it as like they’re almost partially slipping into a “Moon dimension” that partially obscures how visible they are. But also their physically is maybe changed at bit so they can partially materialize for a split instant to do damage, then they’re phasing out. I think they’re phasing in and out of some kind of Moon dimension. So it’s partially invisibility, but there’s also some defense and fighting stuff that happens.

What does Moonberry juice taste like?

AE: In my mind the things that are conjured are some kind of juice blend. Mulberry juice, pomegranate. Justin talked about a bit of cran involved? But I always think mulberries.

JR: Try mulberry juice. Mulberries have like the weirdest, coolest taste. If you haven’t tried it you should do it.

AE: Not ignoring S4 questions, but we just don’t have a good answer. We are working on it. But we don’t have a S4 date. We getting things moving in a good way and we’re excited but we won’t have the information on a date for S4. We really appreciate you being patient for that. Don’t have any age criteria that we can reveal right now.

Will there be outfit changes for the dragon squad?

JR: There’s already some in the graphic novel. Rayla gets some pretty great pyjamas.

AE: They’re just going to rotate outfits. They’re just gonna trade clothes. You should see how great Soren gonna looks wearing Claudia’s clothes. How Callum’s going to look squeezed into some of Ezran’s outfits. Everybody’s just gonna try on each other’s stuff.

JR: I like it. Too bad that actually 3D doesn’t work like that, where you just trade outfits. Because it’d be hilarious. Yeah, of course, people are going to change outfits. There’s going to be some cool new stuff to see. Absolutely going forward.

Is Callum close to obtaining any other arcanum / going to learn any other arcanum in the future?

JR: No spoilers, but there’s little bit of a hint of some of the answer to this in this graphic novel, so you should check it out. I don’t want to spoil anything. I think Callum fascinated by all the arcanum. He’s not just limiting his interest to Sky.

AE: If you’re a betting person, isn’t Callum’s going to be the first human archmage. A little bit trolling, but yeah, he loves magic. He’s fascinated. But he’s groundbreaking. He’s doing things humans haven’t done before and his potential is limitless. May not be S4, may be S17 at that point.

Will there there be more Sarai? I really want Callum and Ezran to visit her memorial statue.

JR: That would be a beautiful moment. That’d be great, that’d be pretty cool to see. There will be some more Sarai, we’ll find out more about their family. I’m not sure how much we’re aware, but Sarai is certainly not gone from the series. You’ll see Sarai again.

Is the Key of Aaravos actually the key of where he was imprisoned?

AE & JR: We can’t tell you.

JR: We don’t even know. We haven’t even discovered the answer yet.

AE: We know! Actually, that was one of the first things we knew at the very beginning. We’ll get to it.

Is the Sun arcanum the only one that can heal? Or maybe the Ocean arcanum can heal as well/or to?

AE: Great question. Yes. I suspect there are healing abilities possible through different primals. Ocean is a perfect example. I think it’s likely different kinds of healers that call on different energy to restore life and health to those who are injured or sick.

Could original characters introduced in the graphic novels potentially make it into the show?

JR: Absolutely. It’s a huge universe, so we won’t hold back if we think somebody from a graphic novel or the game will fit into the show in the right way, of course we would do that. One of the cool things about working with all the same team is that stuff like that can happen, because we can control all of it. Which is amazing. It’s a great feeling.

AE: There’s a character we’ve talked about for a while from the video game and recently that character finally had their moment in the show. We wanna see different ways to access the world and characters.

JR: Also we’re working with Fandom on a tabletop RPG so that can go another way. You can see characters coming into the show.

Do we have to read the graphic novel before we watch S4?

AE: I don’t think we should say too much. You don’t have too, but everything that happened in the graphic novel happened before S4, it really happened. So can probably infer some of it, but best experience will be read the graphic novel. Get yourself up to date.

How will Zym progress throughout the seasons? Will he grow up and learn to talk and how to manage his powers?

JR: I don’t want to say too much. Zym is going to grow along with the other characters. He’s not static. He’s a puppy, he’s a little baby, and he’s growing up.

AE: We’ll see Zym growing up more for sure.

Will there be more Gren content?

AE & JR: Yeah! [Laughing] AE: Of course. JR: How could there not be? AE: Didn’t we announce already that season 5’s Book 5: Gren? JR: Books 5 through 14 is all Gren. Then we’ll come back around to the other arcanum.

Will we ever get to see Ellis and Ava again?

AE & JR: Maybe? Probably. JR: Not 100%

How did the idea of making the graphic novel come about?

JR: Couple of things. We were talking to Scholastic and they were saying “what if we did this thing together” and we were fascinated by that idea. We’ve always been interested in comics. It sorta came up very naturally with them. And then we started talking about the story, Aaron and I, that could fit in here with the writers and stuff. I felt like a natural thing. That’s how I remember it - Aaron may have other memories of it.

AE: I think that the whole dream of this partnership with Scholastic has been to serve the community by being able to continue tell stories in the wider world of Xadia, through graphic novels, and novels and other books. That part of why we’re so excited about this partnership. It’s so much more depth and insight into different characters parts of the world that we may not have time for in the 22 minutes on Netflix. So the partnership with Scholastic is perfect for deepening and expanding those stories. That’s what it comes down to.

JR: They introduced us to Xanthe and Peter, who just absolutely crushed it.

AE: Yes. [Name?] is still at Wonderstorm if someone asks. It’s still happening. JR: Yes, I talked to him yesterday. He absolutely still here. Xanthe and Peter, we got introduced to them through Scholastic and they just absolutely knocked this out the park. It was a joy to work with both of them and what an amazing job they both did on this. We’re super excited to have gotten to work with them on a graphic novel.

AE: More shout outs to Xanthe Bouma and Peter Wartman.

What did Aaravos say to Khessa?

JR: We can’t say. AE: We can’t, but Janai is wondering that too. And we’re excited about it. It’s weird - I’m not being helpful, but it’s a good question. I may not be giving a satisfying answer, but it’s a good question.

How does Janai know Aaravos spoke to Khessa?

AE: She might not have seen it, but she’s going to find out about it.

Someone asked about the Orphan Queen.

AE: We love the Orphan Queen and there are more references coming seasons 4 and onward. It’s a story I’ve always wanted to tell. We think it will be a great movie someday, maybe. The story of the Orphan Queen is certainly relevant to the story and the saga as it’s unfolding now. It’s a cool story we wanna tell.

We know only some Skywing elves have wings, and not all Sunfire have fire-mode, but what about Moonshadow elves. As they can only use their powers once a month, rather than at any given moment, is it an ability all (or at least most) of them have or is it just some of them?

AE: I think it’s one of those things where Moonshadow elves are in tune with the Moon primal, and one of the very powerful skills that a Moonshadow elf being in tune with that arcanum can master is moonshadow mode, that makes you an excellent assassin, so they evolved this culture that does some of this stealthy, assassin work. It’s certainly possible that there are other powers and abilities that come from connecting to that arcanum that can be directly realized - that a Moonshadow elf might be able to manifest. So you may see some of that in the future. Maybe you have some ideas for your fanfiction or your cool art to show some of those powers, but the powers and abilities really come from them being attuned to these primals and some of it comes naturally and some it comes with training and bringing out the ability to do the special thing. I don’t see why it’s limited. In learning, for example, that Sunfire elves have at least two abilities that can connect to the arcanum is part of what may help understand that.

Do we read fanfictions?

AE: Yes and no - not so much. We highly encourage it and we love people do it. Every once in a while we get someone saying “you gotta look at this, it’s so charming” or “oh, this is so cool.” Or someone will bring something to our attention. There is some really amazing work out there and there’s some writers who are terrific. But as a rule I don’t think we do it regularly when someone says “check this out”.

Will there be more dark mages?

JR: Yes. You will see more dark mages, 100%. But I don’t want to say any more than that. AE: It’s interesting too. This is one of the great things about Scholastic partnership again, that there’s this sort of interplay about things you find out in the show and I think at least one of the dark mages is very significant. The first time people will hear about that person will be in Book 2: Sky the core novel. That’s someone who plays him in the story, in the saga, once the series comes back. But yeah, there’s a very important dark mage who will come up in that book.

Did Aaravos create dark magic?

AE: No, it was discovered not created. Did Aaravos turn them onto it or help them discover it? That’s very possible. Whether Aaravos played a role in developing their ability to do dark magic. Exploring the possibilities of dark magic.

Will we meet other types of dragon and/or archdragons?

JR: 100% yes. Dragon’s in the name. We’re bound by oath! AE: There will be dragons.

Is it possible the dragon king will unfreeze?

AE: Should we not answer that? I feel like it’s possible, but I don’t want to encourage or get anyone too excited. I think being turned to stone is a pretty dismal fate.

Can elves do dark magic?

AE: Can we just say yes? JR: Absolutely. Elves can do dark magic. Totally possible.

How do you go about populating Xadia with cities and landmarks? Do you have the landmarks and find places that fit or did you have the shape and find things to fill it? Or mixture of both? JR: A bit of both. There were some places we’d talked about and generally knew where it is or what this place is going to be. But some of it, when we saw the first version of that map, and the details, we were like “oh my goodness,” there were some obvious things we wanted to put in there. Then there’s some easter eggy stuff that just fun.

Do we think Claudia deserves a redemption arc?

AE: Why does she need a redemption arc. Why are you judging her? What has see done that requires redemption? She’s pretty much in the clear. JR: I’m insulted for her. (laughs)

Is Corvus’ middle name Dennis?

AE: Do you want it to be Dennis? JR: It can absolutely be Dennis. No reason it can’t be. I think I know where this comes from. There was a running gag in the writers between Devon and myself where we call Corvus “Dennis Trackerman.” There was a whole thing. It went on way too long. AE: We hadn’t named him yet. JR: We were talking about if there were a whole family of Trackerman, cousins and it went on way too long. I think his middle name could absolutely be Dennis. AE: Seems right to me. JR: So it’s official - Corvus Dennis Trackerman.

Is there a certain reason Rayla is scared of water and if there is will we find out more about it in the show?

AE: I think there may be. We may find out more about it. Part of it is because of the way she’s wired. I think she’s great at running through the trees and balancing and doing the things she does, is she senses the stability of the earth beneath her, the amount of stability or flexibility of a tree limb or side of a cliff. She’s very sensitive and in tuned. I think when you take someone like that and put them in the water, I think it - whoosh - overwhelms them. It alarming. Some of it’s a little physical, but I suspect there may have been something that happened. She certainly brings a sense of emotion around it, feels like it’s beyond discomfort. JR: I feel like there was a tra-

[There was a bit of a pause so they ending up talking over each other. AE starts asking the next question while JR gets cut off].

Someone asked if we can learn the backstory on Ethari?

AE: I know that there’s a beautiful story about Ethari’s birthday on our website that can give you a glimmer. But I think that’s something I would love to hear. I’m sure it’s something that Devon and Ian - perhaps Neil has thought about.

Do you think you’ll explore Callum’s dad or is he not important to the story?

AE: I think it’s possible we’ll learn more about Callum’s dad in the sense of the role he played in Sarai’s life and Callum’s own life. Hopefully in one of the books that comes out. JR: Yes, he is important. He’s foundational to how Callum became Callum.

Will the Dragon Queen in more involved in Season 4?

AE & JR: Yes. Dragons.

Is Rayla the main character of the story of Through the Moon?

JR: It’s Rayla focused, but it’s like the show, there’s various non-Rayla bits. But if I had to pick a main I’d say yeah, Rayla. AE: Probably ask Xanthe what she thought about that question.

Do we see more Crow Master?

JR: We can never get enough Crow Master as far as I’m concerned. If the show was just the Gren and Crow Master show I feel like we can make some stuff happen. We’ll definitely see more of him.

AE: Yesterday we were working on a Crow Master scene, and the writers were like, do we need it, and like, It’s a Crow Master scene!

Is it canon elves have 6 toes?

JR: I think they have 4 toes, right? AE: I’m not sure what happened there. I think that’s an oops someone made. I suspect they have 4 digits per hand or foot.

[Side note: I think Jack DeSena was talking about 6 toes on Zoom into Xadia]

“Gren” is that the main spinoff?

AE: We were gonna a have a spinoff that was just Gren, like the character’s life. Even if it was just mainly Gren enjoying the morning and getting ready for work and winding down at the end of the day and possibly waking up in the middle of the night, thinking about things and going back to sleep. Cause, things will be fine.

Will the history of Xadia’s splitting be important in the future?

JR: Yes, absolutely. That event is crazy important in terms of the history of the continent. You may not see more of the actually event of it, the getting split, but it’s a huge deal that matters a lot.

Soulfang serpents feed on the souls of their prey, does that make them a Moon primal creature?

AE & JR: I think that’s right. JR: And they’re terrifying.

Does Bait have a middle name or a glowtoad tribal name? They’d love to see how Ezran found or got Bait?

JR: I think we’ve said Ezran got Bait from Harrow. Harrow gave him Bait. Glowtoad tribal name is some sort of grunt noise that’s specific, it’s pretty funny to think about. Also, how would you know which is the tribal name and which is the middle? I guess they’d know. It’s only for glowtoads.

Will we see how people react to Rayllum or elf/human relationships in general?

JR: Yes. It could be a huge thing in the show. Human and elf relationships are a big deal, absolutely we will see that stuff going forward. Yes, you will definitely see that stuff.

How long did it take from conception to production for Through the Moon?

JR: I think it was about a year / nine months. To go from story idea all the way to finished. AE: If we’re talking story idea it’s almost a year and a half. It’s a lot of work. We worked with Peter on a number of drafts and outlines and scripts. Then with Xanthe for quite some time.

What is the time gap between the comic and season 3?

AE: Couple of weeks? JR: It’s pretty short. It’s almost immediately following season 3.

Is Opeli actually Soren and Claudia mom, but they don’t remember her?

JR: No, she’s not. But that would be kinda funny. AE: Do you maybe ship Opeli & Viren a little bit. JR: That would be a pretty funny relationship.

The time gap between Through the Moon and Season 4?

AE: Can’t say. JR: You’ll find out in season 4. Lots of weeks.

How long does it usually take to animate a scene?

JR: That’s a pretty variable answer. The way it works is; we write a script, it gets recorded, there’s a bunch of 2D passes where we do storyboards and animatics and those are all hand drawn, and that takes weeks and weeks of time. At some point that’s approved and it gets handed off to the animators. In our show we do 3D animation with a sort of 2D sheet or look to it. So 3D animators would get that animatic, and they’d be handed a shot. Sometimes, depending on how complex the shot is, there’s sometime multiple animators will work on a single sequence. If there’s a lots of stuff going on with multiple characters you’ll get more than one person working on a shot. But it totally depends how much facial animation there is, how much action, how much running around, if they’re standing or talking. It totally depends. There’s a sort of variable number of seconds the animator can do a week. There’s not like a hard or fast answer here. Sometimes if it’s simple they can animate maybe 20 seconds a week, if it’s crazy complicated they may be doing half that. On average, it on the 20 seconds a week range. But wildly variable depending on the shot and what happening.

Is there a bigger world out there or is Xadia all there is?

AE: There’s some stuff on the periphery of the map that is part of a bigger world. But the main focus is this continent. It’s where the key action is. I think there are things on the periphery. We sometimes do jokes the Avatar world is on the other side. JR: If you flip the world over.

Are the elven face marking henna tattoo or are they permanent? JR: They’re more like henna tattoo. AE: Depends on the culture. There are probably some elven cultures where they more permanently tattoo some of the marking and they’re some where they’re more temporary makeup. But I think we’ve said for the Moonshadow elves it’s more like henna. Semi-permanent tattoos.

Will there be more Queen Aanya?

JR: Yeah. AE: I hope so too. JR: I love Queen Aanya. She’s awesome and a very exciting character. Also she has the coolest bow ever and I want to see more of that not matter what.

Aanya/Ezran friendship?

AE: I want to see that. We talked about that. JR: We can’t talk about that yet, but yes.

Who is the best fighter in the show?

JR: I don’t know if there’s a best fighter. There’s a lot of awesome fighters in the show. AE: Rayla and Soren both have different fighting skills. Corvus has different set of fighting skill. They’re all great fighters. Amaya’s incredible. Actually, the answer might be Amaya. If I had to put an answer on it. Just fundamentals. That be my answer. JR: That makes sense. I agree. I bet Soren would disagree.

Do you guys ever play D&D after work?

JR: Yes, we have a whole D&D crew after work. We love Dungeons & Dragons. We love Tabletop RPG We play all kinds of board games, not just Dungeons & Dragons. We had a whole series of board game nights - when we can be at the office - that were really fun. Continue that when we can all get back together. Played some virtual version too since Covid.

Will we ever see Villads again? JR: I don’t know if we should answer that one? AE: I think so, yeah. JR: Also, Villads is the name of a person who worked on the show - he’s an amazing director. AE: Not just a person, the supervising director of the show. Wonderful leader. Inspirational. JR: And a big sailor.

Then they wrapped up. Thanks, shout outs, reminder of AMA etc.

#the dragon prince #through the moon #tdp lore #Q&A

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bi-and-bewildered · 4 years

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📝Aaron hotchner :))

💎shows and movies?

📝Aaron Hotchner Headcanons

-For some reason he definitely gives off lots of Bi vibes so that’s what I consider him as

-I also like the idea that he experiences chronic pain (especially in his hands after beating up Foyet geez) the job is rough and it makes sense it would have an effect on his body

-That man has got to be medicated, obviously for health issues but also for anxiety and such as well

-Hotch makes Reid teach him some magic tricks so he can impress Jack a little more

-He cuts his own hair. First of all, when would he have any sort of time to go to the barber? Second of all men’s hair is just so much easier to do yourself. (Haley actually used to do it for him but then well,,,)

-He has shitty ass handwriting, there’s no way he actually has good handwriting. I have zero reason to believe this except the vibes he exudes

-Hotch rarely ever drinks because his dad was an alcoholic and that shit tends to pass down genetically, he does however pick up the unfortunate habit of smoking when he’s stressed

-He didn’t hit a growth spurt until he was well into college. For the first few years he was a scrawny and short dude and then he finally started sprouting up

-He supports Jack 1000% in everything he does. This ends up meaning he spends way too much money encouraging Jack’s interest only for his son to stop being interested and pick up something else after a month

-He gets a tattoo honoring Haley after she dies (he also has one for Jack but that one is much older)

💎shows and movies

okay if you like criminal minds I definitely recommend CSI (I’m extremely partial to CSI: Las Vegas) it’s about crime scene investigation and the character archetypes are like the exact same as criminal minds (keep in mind it is a little more graphic than cm). I also started watching Law and Order: SVU and it’s pretty good.

Other than that I really enjoyed the Cheer Netflix series and the Sweet Magnolias is super good!

As for movies I really enjoyed The Half of It, Circle (which is kinda horror/sci-fi), and Spider-Man Into the Spiderverse!

#this just made me realize how little TV/movies I watch #(my adhd makes it nearly impossible for me to enjoy anything)#I hope you like the headcanons though!!#criminal minds #aaron hotchner #aaron hotch hotchner #spencer reid #ask #follower sleepover #BAU Headcanons

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phantomphangphucker · 4 years

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DannyMay Day 25: Break - What’s The (Brain) Matter With You?

Danny gets graphically injured, freaks out his class, and possibly changes the definition of ‘dead’; all in one unassuming English class.

Why does bad shit always have to happen in English class? Knowing Danny’s luck it was probably because Lancer was the one teacher that still actively paid attention to him and cared. What was actually surprising is that this time it had nothing to do with ghosts. Well okay, it did have to do with ectoplasm and it was partially Danny’s fault and he was a ghost. So ghosts were sorta involved. Kinda. Not really though.

Now see the reason the explosion was partly Danny’s fault was because of a particular very explosive reaction certain chemicals have with ectoplasm; and Danny was dumb enough to just assume there wasn’t enough ‘plasm in him to be an issue. Course his dumbass was wrong. Figures. That was his kind of luck after all.

It was also technically his health teacher’s fault though, wanting to do that ‘lets take samples of our blood and look at it’ class project. Which yes, had made Danny more than a little worried, since his blood has some strange shit. But apparently the class rule was you could only look at your own, so it was whatever. He still destroyed his slides though. But of course the science class had to share a biohazards and chemical waste trash bin. Of course. And of course there had to be enough of his ‘plasm to react with things violently but belatedly. And of course whatever they did with the waste bins happened to be located right below his English classroom. And finally, of course, said explosive reaction had to happen directly below him and absolutely with enough force to kill someone.

Considering how the explosion had torn a hole through the floor, launched him with a yelp into the ceiling, blown his desk and chair to smithereens, blew out half the classroom windows, put another hole through the ceiling, and that’s without mentioning any injuries. Which, in predictable fashion, Danny was the only one with serious injuries. Sure, Danny preferred it that way. All things considered. But still. No one liked broken bones, or getting impaled, or cracking their fucking skull open. Fucking Ancients. Danny’s pretty sure he had actually seen brain matter go flying into a wall. And by broken bones, he mean so mostly his neck; which is at totally the wrong angle right now. Oh and his arm, which might actually be missing. And honestly, he’s pretty sure, like, all his spine is super fucked up. Couple toes for sure. Maybe his jaw too. Also can’t currently see out of one eye, so there’s that.

Danny wheezes slightly from the ground, spitting out bits of debris or dust or whatever out of his mouth. He’s not even going to bother with finishing mental self-assessment. Because fuck his organs are a mess and he is absolutely just making a pool of blood right now. He should probably cut that out before passes out or something. Maybe. He’s not sure if he even can pass out from blood loss nowadays.

He’s definitely glad for the ringing in his ears to cut it the Hell out. Even if that gives him the very unpleasant reminder that his is currently surrounded by people, people he knows at that.

Needless to say, everyone’s freaking the Hell out.

Lancer’s doing his best to keep the class calm or at the very least calm enough for him to be able to check that everyone’s alright; while the dust and bits of debris settled enough to actually see. “Alright everyone! Please come over to the door slowly and let me check you over. Then head outside”.

The teens, predictably, do not go slowly. Most practically rushing over to him, but thankfully the first few seem fine and are more than eager to get out of the room.

Lancer gets halfway through his class when the dust settles enough for him to notice the absolute carnage in the back of the class. The hole in the ceiling letting in extra light and practically highlighting the blood splatter. Lancer abandons his task at spotting a mangled pale arm speared on a piece of the broken window glass. Gaping at blood dripping to the floor with a chunk of white and red fabric from the severed end.

Everyone following Lancer with their eyes as he basically shouts, “Daniel!”, and moves as fast as his overweight and old body will let him, to the back of the classroom. Mentally trying to ignore the blood and even bits of flesh while fanning away dust. Fanning more away after finding and grabbing a red and white shoe, feeling frankly stunned but also deeply relieved at hearing a, “hey ow, that’s, like, definitely broken”, at least the teen wasn’t dead.

Lancer promptly exclaiming, “Chicken Soup For The Soul!”, and scrambling to back away, followed by a bunch of shrieking and gagging sounds from the rest of the class, when Daniel pushes himself up on one arm and is missing half his head and face; said head is also rolling around his shoulders limply.

Lancer finding his voice and sputtering, “h-how?”, because this was impossible.

Daniel just grabs a piece of shrapnel, that likely was once a chair leg, and just wraps it around his neck; effectively making a hard brace and forcing his head to stay upright and blinks his one eye at Lancer. “Uh, could use some help here”, when no one moves and just openly gapes at him (or in Jesse’s case, throws up), Daniel just leans on his one arm, “that’s alright, I got this”, and grabs a corner of a desk to start yanking himself to stand up with a bit of grunting. Everyone watching his back making some seriously strange movements.

Lancer shakes himself off when Daniel repeatedly falls on his ass after letting go of the desk, his back basically crumpling in on itself every time, grumbling, “Ah dammit”. Lancer actually physically shakes his head and moves to grab Daniel and hoist him up to be laying on an intact desk away from the hole in the ground and glass shards scattered around. Daniel grumbling some more, “the goal wasn’t to just lay down somewhere else”.

Lancer swallows, “Daniel, I don’t think you can stand right now”.

Kwan just loses it at this, “how the fuck are you even alive. You’re missing your face!?!”.

Lancer has to seriously resist gagging himself at Daniel patting at his face, even touching exposed bone and shredded muscle, “oh shit, so that’s why I’m missing an eye. Huh. Fancy that”. Then sticks his one arm out, “someone hand me a pole and strips of fabric”. Brittney doing exactly that with very shaky hands.

Lancer just numbly moves to hold the teen up by his armpits, pointedly ignoring all the blood getting smeared on him in the process; just how much blood could one body hold??? While Daniel makes the motions of attempting to tie the pole to his back. Three other students jerkily moving to help him, two with tears in their eyes and clearly trying not to just break down.

Lancer joins everyone else in openly gaping some more when Daniel actually stands up, kicks a bit of debris and mumbles, “oh yeah, totally broke a few toes”.

Lancer clears his throat and grabs Daniel’s arm, “Daniel, how are you- you need you stay sitting”.

Daniel blinks, moves the arm with surprising strength and scratches the inside of his head, “uh, but I’d like to have something back where it belongs. I don’t know ‘bout you, but not having a brain makes it kinda hard to think”.

Quite a few people mutter, “what the fuck”. And Lancer can’t help but agree, he’s not even going to chastise them for swearing.

While Daniel wobble walks back over near the hole, Lancer muttering disbelievingly, “careful”. Daniel predictably just waves him off over his shoulder and makes his way to the window.

Quite a few more people gag or mutter, “this is disgusting”, but clearly keep watching anyway; while Daniel rips his arm off the chunk of glass, blood splattering down from it, and shoves it in his mouth. Even Lancer has a seriously hard time not throwing up at that. While Daniel starts searching around and picking up pale red chunks off the ground.

Everyone’s dead silent while Daniel makes his way to a desk near them while cradling the fleshy bits in his attached arm, which Lancer’s has now realised are probably chunks of brain matter. The teen flops into a desk and spits the arm onto the desk top, causing more gagging sounds from the class, as it flops around with notably limp fingers.

Lancer blinks, “Daniel... what are you doing?”, shaking his head while Daniel starts shoving bits of the Probable brain matter inside his head using the missing part of his head as an easy entry hole. Lancer doesn’t have any words for any of this and shakily fishes into his pocket, “right, I should probably call an ambulance”. He should have done that a while ago. But this was- Daniel should be dead.

Lancer actually jumps a little from Daniel snapping his head around using his hand, since his neck is clearly broken, “I'd rather you not do that. In all honestly”, one of the brain chunks flying out of his head due to the speed with which he turned his head to splatter against the wall. Daniel turns his head to look at it, then back at the class, “uh, anyone wanna get that?”.

Todd walks over to the piece while maintaining very disbelievingly eye contact with the teen and picks it up using his jacket sleeve, awkwardly saying, “here”, as he hands the bit over.

Daniel grunts like the guy had just picked up his pencil, “thanks, ‘preciate it”, and dust it off before just stuffing back into his head.

Lancer swallows and looks from his phone to Daniel, “uh, I think I should call. Why shouldn’t I? Daniel -Call Of The Wild- you are missing your arm and half your head”.

Daniel shrugs, “your point being? Me and hospitals have a rocky relationship. Meaning a nonexistent one. I’m kinda too weird for ‘em”.

Kwan parrots, “‘kinda’”.

Daniel nods, “yup”, and freaking pops the ‘p’.

Dale sticks his hands out to the side, “do you feel like expanding on that? Like, seriously”.

Lancer nods, “again, why shouldn't I call?”. If Lancer has to make some form of a guess, it would have to be something to do with the fact that Daniel shouldn’t be alive right now.

Daniel just haphazardly shoves the rest of the chunks in his head, which looks to be reforming parts of his skull and even flesh. War Of The World’s, this was beyond strange and frankly, incredibly disgusting.

Daniel responds while literally holding the chunks of brain in place with his hand, “well, I mean, they kinda would freak over my vitals and my blood’s some strange shit”, looking down to his arm and nodding at it, “someone wanna hold this up fer me, rather get that reattached before it gets all melty”.

Todd jerks to pick it up and continues giving a disbelieving look at Daniel but with a slight questioning look added in. Daniel rolls his eyes, “just hold the ends together, dude”. Todd glares but does as he’s told. Everyone gapes and Lancer drops his phone on the floor, watching as the flesh, muscle and blood from the two ends start meshing back together and bubbling; his fingers even start twitching.

Lancer swallows and clears his throat, this kind of healing? wasn’t even possible. People can’t reattach limbs. Lancer’s pretty sure no creature can do that actually. “Daniel, that explains nothing. You shouldn’t even have vitals right now. You should be dead”.

Daniel glances his eye around and shrugs a little, “well, uh, cats outta the bag I guess”, then looks Lancer right in the eyes, which Lancer has to try very hard not to gag over because the teens eye socket is reforming grotesquely, “don’t gotta worry ‘bout me dying, cause I’m kinda already dead”.

Lancer joins the class in sputtering, “what???”.

Kwan squeaks, “so you’re a freaking zombie?”, looking more than a little freaked.

Daniel tilts his head and chuckles, “no. Close though, I guess”, Daniel physically turns his head with his hand to look around, “anyone seen an eye by chance? Takes a lot more energy to reform than reattach”.

Lancer blinks, arms limp at his sides, “no one has been looking, Daniel”.

Daniel shrugs, “fair enough. Probably crushed anyway”, shrugging again, “least I got my brain stuff”, chuckling, “you know how much energy it is to put a brain back together, the human body is so complicated”.

Lancer gives a very awkward, “yeah. It is”.

Jesse tentatively pokes the boy when he uses the reattached arm/hand to pat at the reformed skull and skin, hair starting to seemingly regrow off of it. Jesse asking, “so, about the dead thing?”.

Daniel blinks, “yeah?”, continuing when everyone glares at him, including Lancer, “it’s been, like, two years. It’s not my fault you never noticed. I’ve got some ‘plasm that keeps me going”.

Lancer blinks, “as in ectoplasm?”, shaking his head and scrunching up his eyebrows. Come to think of it, Daniel had been weird ever since that electrical accident that kept him from attending school for a bit. “That electrocution?”.

Daniel nods and points at him, smiling; which is seriously off-putting, since this situation and topic does not call for smiling. “That’s the one! Totally didn’t survive that shit. I mean, it was what? four billion volts? Pretty sure it’s impossible to survive that”, shrugging, “but I had some ‘plasm to keep me goin’, so here I am. I’m not complaining. Though yeah, this is supremely fucking painful. So if anyone’s got, like, some narcotics, that’d be great”.

Lancer walks a bit stiffly to his desk and pulls out a bottle, “it’s... not much, but I have some Advil”. Daniel just shrugs and takes it, removing the bent metal chair leg from his neck after and bending his neck around. Lancer shakes his head, “‘four billion’ that's Four times the amount in a bolt of lightning”.

Daniel nods, “sounds about right”. Earning more gapping from the class.

Everyone looks up then as the class over bell goes off, then looks to Lancer. Who immediately says, “everyone’s free to go home”, looking specifically at Daniel, “and you can just stay right there till you’re done...this”, shaking his head, “are you seriously going to be alright? And you are... dead?”.

Daniel nods, “yup. Just need a bit to rearrange my spine and some organs. Kinda probably soup on the inside”, shrugging, “but uh, I guess be happy that was me who got all mangled and broken. Anyone else and you be dealing with a corpse. Well, a non-responsive corpse anyway. I’m not really sure if I count as a corpse or not”.

Dale mutter, “oh my Zone. This seriously messed up”.

Daniel chuckles, “yeah, welcome to my existence. It’s usually pretty messed up. Shoulda seen the first time I got decapitated. That was wild. Don’t recommend”.

Quite a few people gag and mutter about going home. Which seems to amuse the teen, based on the smirking. Lancer shakes his head, “I think I don’t really want to know”.

All the people still left turn their heads to the door when Tucker appears, points at Daniel, laughs, and says, “dude, your hair is fucked up”.

Daniel chuckles, “yeah, kinda lost my head for a bit there”. Lancer’s just going to assume Daniel’s friends know about his... dead state, since Tucker just chuckles and shrugs.

Tucker points to the hole, “someone mixed your blood with some of those reactive chemicals, by the way. You really can’t help destroying shit, can you?”.

Daniel smirks, “no”.

Todd’s blinks any Daniel, “your blood’s explosive?”.

Daniel just shrugs, “can be, under the right circumstances. There’s kinda ‘plasm mixed in it, and that shit is super reactive. Not to mention corrosive, and toxic, and ecto-radioactive. My blood’s like, technically pretty dangerous stuff”.

Dale tilts his head, “so that’s why you didn’t really want to do the blood examination thing”.

Daniel nods readily, “exactly, guess I really shouldn’t have. Really blew up in my face there”. Then unties the metal pole from his back, gets up, and stretches out. Looking down at his heavily bloodied clothing, “well, I doubt the school would be okay with me walking around in this”.

Tucker waves him off and walks over, stepping over debris like it’s nothing, “eh whatever, fuck ‘em”, and grabs Daniel to pull him out of the classroom.

Lancer calls after them numbly, “just go home”. The boys unsurprisingly shrug, the rest of Lancer’s students leaving shortly after. Leaving Lancer looking around his destroy classroom disbelievingly. Eyes settling on the blood splattered everywhere. Daniel’s blood... which he literally just said was basically an extreme hazard.

Well there’s nothing for it, moving to grab up a mop and bucket, and getting to work. Having to seriously force down bile and trying to not think about any of this; but considering the little specks of green he can make out here and there, Daniel wasn’t lying.

End.

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surveys-at-your-service · 4 years

Text

Survey #329

“i keep it all inside because i know that man is everything but kind”

What is the best thing about your life right now? Uhhhhh... I guess from a realistic standpoint, my partial hospitalization program. I'm learning very important coping skills and have some social interaction almost every day. How was your second serious relationship different from your first? Did you approach relationships differently with some experience under your belt? My first serious relationship was made deeper than what was safe because I was 100% obsessed with him; meanwhile, with Sara, I feel I loved her in a wiser way and with a sense of self still present. I was definitely more hesitant to "let" myself fall in love again, though, and was very insecure at the start. Whose death affected you the most? My dog's, Teddy. What was the best time you’ve had with a complete stranger? I don't exactly make a habit of hanging out with complete strangers... Who has seen you at your absolute worst? How did your relationship change afterwards? Mom, Jason, Girt, and Colleen, probably. Girt showed up at the ER after my overdose (I was a dramatic fuck and wrote a suicide note on Facebook so I didn't just... go without telling some people things I definitely wanted to), and that's when my crush on him really kicked into gear again. He was and is just always there for me through everything. For Jason, I am quiiiiiiiite sure seeing me have an absolute catatonic breakdown the night of the breakup just pushed him away more. I probably looked crazy. Colleen also showed up at the ER after my suicide attempt, and it brought us closer. Then there's Mom, who's, you know, my mom, and my darkest times have always grown our incredible bond, too, because she would never fail to be there for me. What’s your favorite planet? Saturn is dope. What’s your favorite pasta dish? Just spaghetti with tomato sauce and meatballs. What color do you really want to dye your hair? My top three are pastel pink, light/creamsicle orange, and silver, but there are more. What’s your favorite eye color? Sapphire blue or emerald green. What’s the weirdest place you’ve ever broken into? Um, I don't break into places. What’s something really cute that one of your friends does and is totally endearing? Sara gets super squeaky, bouncy, and just in general wordlessly excited at reptile shows. Going with her to one is one of my favorite memories, mostly just by watching her. Tell us a story of something that happened to you after 3AM when you were with friends. Have I ever been (awake) with friends past 3AM...? Idk. Do you have a favorite coffee shop? Describe it! Not a coffee gal. Who was the last person you gazed at the stars with? Sara. (: When was the last time you remember feeling completely serene and at peace with everything? Now THERE'S a fuckin question. I don't have the slightest idea. What was your biggest fear as a kid? Is it the same today? Thunderstorms; definitely not. Have you ever been to a Pride festival? No, but I'd love to. How open are you with your parents? I don't tell everything to my dad (though I know I could), but I'm an open book with Mom. Is there anything you’re more open about on the internet (such as on LiveJournal) than you would be in “real life”? I guess my sexual history. I'm just in general pretty open online. What is the most petty thing you’ve ever done? Oh, I'm CERTAIN it involves Jason after the breakup, but I don't know the "most"... What is the longest you’d be willing to wait to have sex in a new relationship? I myself don't want to until we're clearly serious and long-term by that point, and I know for a fact they're in love with me like I am them. I don't care how long they want to wait, though. I said in a previous survey that sex just... isn't that important to me. It's not my most cherished form of intimacy. Who has had the most positive effect on your life? My mama. Are there any relatives that you are not on speaking terms with? What happened? Most of the family doesn't talk to my aunt's literally psychotic, manipulative fuck of an ex-husband. I don't feel like it's my business to share exactly what happened, but yeah, fuck him with a chainsaw. :^) Who was the last person to ask you to hang out? Did you agree to hang out with them? It was more like an open invitation to all of her friends, but I guess you could say Summer. I did. I honestly wanna hang out again. Have you ever had to take a stool or urine test? Why did you have to do this? Urine ones, yes: to 1.) test for UTIs and 2.) ensure I wasn't pregnant before surgery. Is there a food that you eat basically every day? What food is that? Not every day, no. Can you remember the first video game you ever played? What about your first video gaming system? I don't. It was probably something with few controls, like this Barbie horse riding game my sisters and I loved, or an Elmo game that we had on a demo disc. I think you had to follow a path on a pogo stick picking up letters? We had a PS1 when I was born, so that was my first. The last video game you played - did you play alone or with someone else? By "video," I'm going to assume you're not including the computer, in which case I think it was The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon, which I was playing alone. It does have a two-player option though that I wanna do one day. The controls are definitely meant for two people. If there is a disc in your computer, what disc is it? There is no disc. Do you shut down your computer every time after you use it, or do you leave it on? I always leave it on... Do you know anyone who has ever been in a movie? Who and what movie were they in? What was their part? Hm, I don't believe so. Describe the last shirt you saw that you really liked. Where did you see it? It was definitely some sort of graphic tee on Facebook, I'm sure. It was something with an opossum design and a short phrase. When was the last time you brought a pet to the vet? What was wrong with it? The most recent vet visit was when we got Roman neutered. Do you have any bug bites on you right now? If so, where? No. When you go fishing, do you make someone else get the fish off the hook? When I DID fish, yeah. Not because I was afraid to touch the fish, but because I was afraid of nicking myself with the inevitably dirty hook. Did you go to daycare when you were little? Only very briefly; my incredible separation anxiety from my mom made it extremely difficult. She very quickly chose our neighbors as my and my sisters' babysitters. I could handle that because I loved "Uncle Donny," the granddad of the family, and I could see my house from their front door. He was/is (idk if he's still alive) a wonderful man. Do you know what you’d have been named had you been born the opposite sex? No. Would you ever visit a nude beach? NOOOOOOOO THANK YOU. Who was the last person you dreamt about? I don't remember. Where is your favorite place to be kissed other than the usual place? Don't touch my neck if you don't have free time lmaooo. What is your favorite memory with one of your grandparents? I'm going to be completely honest: I have none that are exceptionally important to me. I only knew one grandmother most of my life, and we had a turbulent relationship. Would you date someone who has cheated in their previous relationships? Naaaaah son. What was the most drastic change you made to your appearance? Chopping 8+ inches of hair off. Is there anything you hope your significant other/future significant other never finds out about you? No. I don't want to keep secrets from them above all others. What are most of your Facebook posts about? If you're talking things I actually compose myself and not share, probably pictures of my pets, haha. Or small statements regarding political issues or mental health. What’s your favorite part of the song that you’re listening to? The beat. Who was the last person you got into a small argument with? Probably my mom, idk. How warm do you like your showers/baths to be? Pretty hot. In the past year, have you lost weight or gained weight? How much? Gained... and I'd rather not share. What year was the last car you rode in/drove? I have zero clue, but it's old. What’s your worst/funniest experience with one of your neighbors? The neighbors at my childhood home had two wonderful rottweilers, but one day they got loose and killed at least one of our kittens. It died in my hands. Mom was fucking livid and sobbing. Besides this occasion though, we got along with them. How much alone time is too much for you before you start going crazy and want to be around people? It depends on the day, really, and how entertained I am in my alone time. Generally, one day of total isolation (from people, anyway) is enough for me to want my mom's company at least or to be texting Sara. The last time you burned your tongue or mouth, what were you eating? A pizza roll burned my tongue just a tad. Honestly, are you shallow? Not at all. Besides clothes, shoes, and accessories, what’s your favorite thing to shop for? S N A K E S ! ! ! I could LIVE on the Morph Market website and "window shop." I love planning out the next morph I'm most interested in adopting. If you have/had any facial piercings, what side are they on? Any reason you chose that side? If you don’t have any, if you had to get a facial piercing what would it be and what side would it be on? I have a vertical labret on my lower lip that goes directly down the center of my face. I chose it because I love the symmetry. I've had my right nostril pierced twice, just because I preferred that side for whatever reason. What, would you say, is your sexiest/most provocative article of clothing? I don't own anything like that. I have zero interest in showing off my body. Do/did you have attendance problems in school? I was notoriously tardy for the first class of the day a lot because I was an absolute beast to drag out of bed all the way up to college. Does/did your parents ever go through your computer or cell phone? Mom did. What song reminds you the most of a particular day in your life? Why is that? "Where the Wild Wolves Have Gone" by Powerwolf is a strong one. I played it again and again the day Teddy was put down, even before we went to go euthanize him. It was my inspiration to one day spread his ashes at Yellowstone in wolf territory. As much as I'd love to keep his ashes forever, like, what happens after I die? And my sisters? Eventually, that container will lose meaning and probably be discarded, so I want to return him to nature. Do you have any close friends that were adopted? No close ones. Who, in your opinion, is the best thriller writer? Idk. Does your Mom eat meat? Yeah. Do you prefer thick or thin crusted pizza? THICK. Thin crust is an utter disappointment. Do you have any friends with the same name as you? No. Who has the prettiest middle name you know? Ha, I mention Alon a lot when it comes to beauty... I can't remember what it is, but I do know hers wins. Do you prefer it when it gets darker earlier? No. It makes me go to bed earlier. Can you touch your nose with your tongue? No. Is there a particular sport you follow on a regular basis? No. Are there any shows that your friends seem to be obsessed with, but that you just don’t get? Oh, loads. How old was the last child that you spoke to? She's six. What’s a song that makes you feel happy? "Pretty Woman" by Van Halen, for one. How far in advance do you prefer to plan? It depends, but generally kinda far. Do you always smile for pictures? With other people, yes. Some selfies, no, but usually. What are you most excited about right now? my MOTHERFUCKIN tattoo appointment in MAY!!!!!!!!!!! Do you prefer the aisle, middle, or window seat on a plane? Window seat, zero doubts. Where would you like to volunteer? I wanna help at an animal rehab. What was the last thing you ate? A strawberry and grain granola bar thing. How do you find new music? Usually YouTube recommendations. What’s your favorite city? I don't have one. What makes your bedroom special to you and what is your favorite part about it? It's a total nests of my various interests. My favorite part is my meerkat collection. Have you ever had a crush on someone “too young” for you? No. Do you shave your legs more than once a week? God no. I haven't shaved my legs since October lmao. Would you get married if you could right now? Definitely not right now. I don't have a job or my own place. What is your favorite type of jewelry (i.e. bracelets, necklaces, etc.)? Chokers. Do you regret losing your virginity to who you lost it to? No. I was wholeheartedly in love with him. What was the shittiest hotel you’ve ever stayed at and why? I've never stayed in a bad one, to my recollection. Have you ever gone on a boat and been sick the whole time? No. Have you ever kept something from the wild as a pet? A turtle for a little while, yes. Don't do that. Ever win first place for something? Yeah, a few things. What was the last thing you fell off of? Idk. Do you have a favorite local band? Who are they? No. What’s the most confusing book you ever read? The style in which Johnny Got His Gun is written is very confusing, but you adapt to understand it. Jumping back and forth from the past to the present can give ya some metaphorical whiplash. Do you have a funny last name? Does anyone make fun of it? No. Has anyone ever called your personality dull? Do you agree with them? No. Have you ever personally witnessed a drug deal before? Possibly. Ever have an ultrasound performed on you? What was it for? Yes, for my liver. I can't remember what they were checking for, but I was fine. Have you ever been kicked out of somewhere? Colleen's house, yes. Have you seen all the Lord of the Rings movies? Nope; got no interest. Would you ever consider getting a piercing in your septum? Nah, not for me. Do you enjoy being outdoors? Only if it's cool out, in which case yeah. Do you enjoy watching fireworks on the 4th of July? Not anymore. I just think about the terrified animals (wild and pets alike) and traumatized veterans. Do you enjoy tanning? Not at all. Which of the seven deadly sins do you commit the most? Sloth. Did you have a Furby when you were younger? Yeah. Creepy fuckers. How long was your first relationship? I actually don't remember how long Aaron and I were together... other than it was just a few months. Who was the first person to break your heart? My dad, generally speaking. Romantically, Jason. What’s the biggest lie you’ve told someone? I don’t know. Has anyone ever drawn a picture of you? Yeah. What did the last key you used go to? The car's trunk. Is there anything, any event, you wish you could remember more clearly? I honestly do wish I remembered my "first time" because that's a pretty big deal to me. What’s your biggest priority right now? My mental health. If you’ve stayed overnight in a hospital, how did you entertain yourself? I've done that numerous times, and given there was nothing good on the TV ever, I just slept time away or read. Since every time I was suicidal, there were very, very few things you were allowed to have. Have you ever rubbed anyone’s feet? EW no. Are your hands unsteady? Yes; I have what's called an essential tremor in both. Are your legs long or short? They're proportional to my body. Is there a bookshelf in your room? No. Do you own a robe? What color is it? No. Who’s the last person you smoked weed with? I've never done it. Ever had a person who was obsessed with you so much that it scared you? No. Has anyone ever mistaken you for someone else? Yeah, my sisters in the past. Is there anything you need to talk about with someone? No. Who was the last person who cried around you? My mom. Who’s the last guy to give you roses? Tyler. What band was on the last band t-shirt you wore? Korn. What piercing do you like most on the opposite sex? Maybe snakebites. Do you stick your tongue out often in pictures? Nah. I only ever really did once or twice when I had snake eyes. Honestly, have you ever purchased something, worn it, and then returned it? Possibly? If you could have your own house anywhere in the world, where would it be? In the mountains in a nicely wooded area with a waterfall close by. It'd be nice to have a small stream or pond too to sit or swim in. If you could create a holiday - what would it be? I wish the legalization of gay marriage in America was a legitimate holiday. Are you shy about singing in front of people? OHHHHH YES. Do you own a robe? Do you sleep with a sleep mask? No.

#survey #surveys #questions #lyrics: ''voices'' by motionless in white

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bemused-writer · 4 years

Note

I miss Vnc so much that I re read previous chapter a lot because I miss ma boys noe and Roland 😭😭. I hope they resume soon.

Oh, I totally feel this pain. XD I miss them, too! And the suffering is real...

I’ve been thinking I might reread the whole series as well, partially because we’re in quarantine and I have time, but partially so I can make sure I’ve picked up on as many tiny details as possible. I still want to write my Roland comparison and I am still haunted by numerous unfinished fanfic, so... Rereading never hurt. 8D

But, uh, if anyone wants my personal suggestions for stuff they can check out while they wait for more VNC (Yes, I absolutely am trying to get more people invested in my personal obsessions) here are a few!

Manga

1. Witch Hat Atelier by Kamome Shirahama- If you like magic, witches, worldbuilding, and a plot that gets more complex over time, you will like this. A current obsession.

2. The Girl from the Other Side by Nagabe - Has a dreamy (or nightmarish?) quality. Uses simple language that ends up more powerful because of it. Haunting and elegant.

3. A Bride’s Story by Kaoru Mori- Incredibly detailed art and incredibly well researched, this one is awesome. It really speaks to the kid in me that loved the Little House books, but this is told in a more complex, adult manner and also takes place across the Silk Road.

4. The Poe Clan by Moto Hagio - It’s a classic for a reason! I just started reading this and I’m already hooked. If you need a vampire fix and a story that spans the years, this is a good one.

Graphic Novels

1. Loki: Agent of Asgard by Al Ewing and Jason Aaron - Actually deals with the idea of what a trickster god is, what stories are, and has a fantastic friendship.

2. Bird Boy by Anne Szabla - I believe you can also find this as an online Web comic. Beautiful art and vibes similar to ATLA.

3. Cucumber Quest by Gigi D.G. - This one is just a lot of fun. Lots of great humor and tropes turned on their head.

4. The Electric State by Simon Stålenhag- Kind of a cross between a graphic novel and a book. Deals with a woman trying to restore her robot brother in a ruined world.

Books

1. Uprooted and Spinning Silver - These are both standalone books, but they’re both by Naomi Novik and have a similar vibe. They both deal with magic, folklore, and they go in directions you might not expect. Highly recommend.

2. Brandon Sanderson - No, not a book, but an author who writes so many good books you may as well read all of them. 8D However, if you want something shorter, I would recommend starting with either Legion or Skyward. The former is a novella and the latter is a YA series. Both are sci-fi, both are awesome. If you want something longer, I would recommend Mistborn and The Stormlight Archive, which are so ridiculously good I can’t even begin.

3. Radiance by Catherynne M. Valente - If you want a book that feels like a silent film and has purposefully old-school sci-fi settings that also feels a little unreal, this is an excellent pick.

4. The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells - If you want some sci-fi novellas that feel like really good movies with witty dialogue and a sympathetic robot protagonist, this is your series.

Television

1. What We Do In the Shadows - Superb comedy and it features vampires. I just love this series.

2. Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency - The first season is so good that I have watched it numerous times, sometimes in a row. Everything you expect will be turned on its head.

3. Good Omens - Decent chance you’ve already watched or read this, but if you hadn’t, it’s very timely and is just a feel-good show despite the forces of Heaven and Hell trying to destroy the planet.

4. Over the Garden Wall - Has a delightfully surreal vibe set in an autumn wood where two boys try to figure out how to get home. Witty and thought provoking.

Video Games

1. Finding Teddy 2 AKA Chronicles of Teddy by Storybird - Super cute, great puzzles, and an excellent metroidvania. Way too much fun.

2. Anything by Frictional Games (Penumbra, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, SOMA). You will feel existential for days and be glad for it.

3. Anything by Wadjet Eye Games (Blackwell series, Technobabylon, Unavowed, etc.). They make fantastic point-and-click adventures with excellent plots and characters. Rosa is extremely relatable.

4. INSIDE by Playdead - A short game featuring a boy trying to escape unknown assailants trying to bring him back to a lab. Haunting, disturbing, and the story is told without a word of dialogue. Love this one.

Anyway, I could go on, but I’ll leave it there for now. 8D If anyone wants more suggestions, I’m happy to give them though. You can find all this stuff online, through streaming services, etc., but if all else fails your library probably has OverDrive and/or Hoopla where you can ask them to get said goods if they don’t have it already (except for the video games, but that’s a given).

I’m definitely looking forward to VNC’s return, but we can get through this! ^^

#vanitas no carte #Bemused's post #reference #suggestions #Anonymous

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halberdierminister · 4 years

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July Monthly Goals Check-In

1. Write 250 Words Each Day Well, I started out very faithful to this. But sometime around the middle of the month, I got pretty choppy. I honestly don't know exactly how many days I skipped. I'm gonna try to write a fair amount today when I can and hope that it is enough to make up for it. Which is fine. It has been an otherwise very productive month in many other ways, so I cannot be too upset about it. I may start running a wordpress blog with a friend of mine, and if I do that may keep me more on track with these.. We shall see. We shall see.

2. Read 55 Books This Year I finished reading 55 books in May! Last month I read 10 more books. THIS month, however… I read 31 books. That brings me to a total of 97 books read for the year!!! A lot of them have been VERY short books. Lots of poetry collections, manga volumes, graphic novels, etc etc etc. But not exclusively!! I was hoping to get to 100 books by the time I wrote this but the last couple days, I have not been able to make the magic happen. But that's fine! That's TOTALLY FINE. This will be a very significant get, but I have months to get over that hump. By the time you hear from me on this goals check-in next month, I will undoubtedly be decently well over 100 books, and I can talk about why that personally feels so good then!

3. Get A Full Time Job I did not get a full time job this month. BUT. I applied to 38 full time jobs. Got a bunch of rejections. HOWEVER, I have scheduled EXACTLY ONE JOB INTERVIEW so far so that is good news! And that would be a VERY good job if I were to get it! Some of these jobs are actually pretty exciting things and I feel confident for the first time in a while that I might actually find a good job IN MY CAREER PLAN!!!! Also I almost lost my part time job but the library director was able to convince the village to let me stay on as a substitute, and it has paid off surprisingly well. I've been working two to three shifts a week on that, which is more than any of us expected. So I guess what I'm saying is I am making good progress again and I hope I can have something positive to report by the time I'm thirty. Eugh.

4. Move Out Speaking of being almost thirty. I really do not want to be here. If I get the job I interview for, I would be able to move in with my friends in Milwaukee just about as soon as possible. So that is good news. Every day it gets more tempting to just say "screw it" and live down there. But that won't help me find a job. And the job really is the important thing.

5. Drink Less Soda I mean yeah. Occasionally, I drink-a the soda. But not too much. I am good at drinking less soda than I did last year or the years before that. That's because I would have several sodas each day, to the point where it worried some of the people I know.

6. Get Something Published Just found out that I'm getting something else published today! So that is one new poem published this month! I also had my fic in the Lalonde Zine come out, but it turns out that the Lalonde Zine was more of a shared Google Drive folder than an actual zine. Maybe I should offer to compile the zine into one document? I should do that. That would be a good thing to do and it would give me a lot of experience with doing that, something I haven't really done in a while. So the practice would do me good! And then I would feel better saying that I got published there too. But yes so besides the Lalonde fic, I have had two poems published in zines, one poem published in an online literary journal, and one fic published in an online fanzine this year! If you include the articles I wrote for school newspapers, I have gotten at least one thing published every year for the past fifteen years. If you don't count the articles (or the Lalonde fic yet), I have had 30 pieces of fiction and poetry published since 2005! That's pretty neat! I want even more though!!!!!! I found a publisher's website that accepts unsolicited manuscripts. I'm going to try to put together an honest to god actual collection of my poetry, one bigger than either of the two digital chapbooks I have made. I have a friend who is a professional editor -- not of poetry, mind you, but I might be able to convince her to give it a shot -- and I would honestly hire her at full price to take a look at it. I actually will need to seek a lot of feedback from a lot of people, so if you want to read a document full of a bunch of my poetry, lemme know and I will show you what I've got when I've got something.

7. Finish Writing A Legitimate Businessman Finished in April! No new news. But just because I completed this goal doesn't mean that is the end of it! I do still have the sequel to work on, even though I haven't done any of that this month. And one of these days I am going to get around to sitting down with the printed copy and a pen and editing the shit out of it so that I can write draft #2! I think I'll probably throw draft #2 up on wattpad (why not?? I've been curious about that website and know absolutely nothing about it) and maybe I'll make a nice looking e-book out of it that I can distribute on noisetrade or itchio or something! I wonder if I could get it printed on demand or something. Obviously not for profit. But like, maybe I have friends I want to send a nice printed copy to.

8. Write More The Revelation of Takaya According to Jin Finished in Februrary! No new news. A friend of mine has offered to bind a copy of it when he has access to the materials, and I think that'd be dope as hell. I ought to work on compiling it into a nice document. I don't know if that's what he would need. He would probably want to do that work himself. Sometimes I think about the concept of making an illustration for it? I don't know. I can't draw. But I might not need to draw for the thing I have in mind. Really I should be consulting with him on that. Ah well. Either way, I hope that ends up happening. That would be so friggin cool.

MINOR GOALS

9. Finish Playthroughs Of 1. The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild: Finished in January! 2. Persona 1 Main Quest Good Ending: I didn't do anything on this whooooops. Getting into the second half of the year without once having touched it. I ought to get back to this. 3. Pokemon Sword: Finished in March! 4. Pokemon Let's Go Eevee: Finished in February and March! 5. Persona Q2: I have finished the fourth dungeon and gotten to The Twist!!! It's weak. This really is the kids' version of a Persona game. Minus like… the fact that it's still rated M for partial nudity. There was exactly one moment of horror and even that was like… just a bit scarier than The Nightmare Before Christmas. But I did some of the side quests and those are actually decently fun. So I have the final dungeon left. I just wanna sort of power through this. I'll worry about completion when I do new game plus, whenever that might be.

10. Record More Ukulele Videos I did not do this. I want a new microphone. These are not inherently related things, as I do have a microphone already. I have everything I need to do this. I just haven't done this. And I would like a new microphone. Also, an amp for the uke would be nice. I should text my old coworker, see if he still has one to sell.

11. Record Let's Plays Neither did I do this. How could I? My parents think video gaming is the Devil's Lettuce. And they are always home. They would notice if they heard me talking to my computer. And that is assuming that I had something I could play on my computer that anyone would want to watch. I need a better computer. A gaming computer. An editing computer. I'm lucky that these are the same thing.

12. Duolingo? I was SUPER gung ho in the end of June and the beginning of July, but before too long I petered out. I've used a couple streak freezes and have really been doing mostly the bare minimum to not drop out of the emerald league. But I've got a streak of about 208 days, and that is nothing to sneeze at! Do I feel like I'm learning? I dunno. But I am at least interacting with Spanish just about every day so that… that's got to be helpful, right? right?

This was over one thousand five hundred words. Wait! Sixteen hundred exactly.

#goals #new years goals #monthly goals #monthly goals check in #check in #goals check in

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fandomsnerd24 · 5 years

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Review of Harley Quinn S1E7: “The Line”

Warning: some spoilers ahead!

I have some seriously mixed feelings about this episode (and about this series as well, but more on that later). On the one hand, there were some good aspects and on the other, there were some pretty messed up aspects. There were two plotlines going on in this episode: one that centered around Harley and the other around Ivy.

I’d say the best parts of the episode were with Ivy. This focuses on her going on a date with Kite Man (god, I thought I’d never write something like that, but here we are). And it’s a lot about her going through some personal growth and coming into her own confidence a little more. I liked it. It was nice. Kite Man, amazingly, also underwent a tiny bit of character growth (you have to squint to see it), but they don’t write him quite as bad as they did when they first introduced him. Don’t get me wrong, he’s still a problematic pig. But I think he’s getting better. Do I like that DC went with the easy, heterosexual route of pairing Ivy with Kite Man? Nope, not at all. I’m actually pretty disappointed in this aspect of their show.

We literally have Ivy and Harley being together in canon. So why the hell couldn’t they angle that that way for this series??? I know a lot of people were hoping for it! As much as I think DC does decently well portraying LGBTQ+ in their various media formats, they still have a ways to go. They don’t get a pass because they have characters who identify outside of the heterosexual patriarchy. They can do better. While I don’t think they’ll ever see this post, this is still my challenge for them to do better on representation.

Anyway, I think that it would have been more meaningful for Harley and Ivy to get together than this stupid Ivy/Kite Man plotline is. Or for them to totally forget about any type of romantic plotline besides Harley working out her issues with Joker and becoming her own woman. I would prefer the no romance to this forced heterosexuality bullshit. Not everything needs romance!! (And this is coming from a soppy romantic.) But still, I’d say Ivy and Kite Man’s interactions are probably the highlight of the episode. Forced heterosexuality aside, Kite Man in this series is absolutely hilarious. I’m going to have to look him up to see if he’s as ridiculous in comics as he is in this series. Because I need more comedy in my life.

I’d say most of the bad lay with Harley’s plotline this episode. So, in this episode, the Queen of Fables is released from her imprisonment in a tax codebook because a judge ruled it as being “cruel and unusual,” which he’s not wrong. It’s nice that they address this. She was then sent to Arkham to serve the rest of her sentence, but Harley broke her out before she got there. Okay, whatever, fine and dandy. Queen of Fables is one fucked up bitch and every time she killed a person, they showed it in graphic detail. Which, okay, I guess this is an adult show. But it was still pretty messed up. And over the line that they set up earlier in the series with everything Harley’s been doing. Harley is a villain, but not necessarily a bad person. She has a lot of humanity in her. To put it simply: Queen of Fables does not. The blood and gore were taken just a little too far in the episode for my tastes. I felt like it didn’t really fit the lighthearted humor and “oooh look we’re the bad guys” campiness that they’ve been doing with the rest of the series.

But. Perhaps not. Maybe it’s completely in line. I read a couple good posts here on Tumblr about how this show has some very antisemitic sentiments with episodes two and six (these are the ones they addressed, there may be some instances in other episodes). Now, when a practicing Jew says something is antisemitic, I’m not going to argue. Another person who self-identified as Jew posted in the comments section that they’re not offended by these lines because this is a show about villains who are all fucked up bad guys. I know there’s going to be Jewish people on both sides of this argument. There’s never not sides when it comes to things like this.

I still had mixed feelings about watching the episode today.

I ultimately decided to watch it. Partially because I remember something one of my Gender, Woman, and Sexuality Studies professors said. The jist of what they said, is that you can like something and still realize that it’s problematic and if you address this. I’m addressing that I realize this show is very problematic in many ways. Antisemitism is not cool. In this house, we love and respect everyone. I’m not trying to justify the writers (and to a certain extent, the producers, actors, and almost everyone else involved in making this show happen) using that type of language. Certainly not my intent. Those in charge of the show should definately be held accountable for this and they should certainly address this and offer up explanations.

Will they? That is debatable. I’m a little surprised by how this is going down because they have so many Jewish characters and because there have been so many Jewish writers and other content creators who’s contributed to DC Comics. I say I’m only a little surprised because it’s hard for humanity to surprise me with their ability to be detestable anymore and because the United States is so dominated by the Christian church and a straight, white worldview. It makes me ask the question: who’s in charge of this series and approves the scripts?

Will I still watch the rest of the series? Probably. Re: what my professor said. Going forward, I’m going to try to be more critical. I’ve done that in some of my previous reviews, but I’ve also been super positive. About episode six, I left a pretty positive review and that’s honestly because I have the privilege of not having to think about how my religion is being portrayed in popular media. Some of the lines that the Tumblr poster mentioned, I didn’t even notice because that’s not where my background leads me to think. Having read some of those posts about what’s going on in the series, I’d probably write a very different type of review for episodes two and six since I’m more aware of what’s going on now.

This series in general started really good with the first episode and every subsequent episode has been super rocky. Like there’s some super yikes moments and some moments where it’s like, yeah I get you’re evil, but maybe you don’t want your show to go down that road?? Who the hell is writing this thing? But then are some really good scenes where you can see the show has such potential. Like, ugh, why couldn’t you have done better with this series. It’s rough, man. They had such potential and I’ve gotta say that this is not their strongest DC Universe original series. It’s just not. Which is a damn shame it’s not better because I absolutely loved the first episode.

So, in summary: I’m going to keep watching but I’m going to try to be more attentive and critical of what I’m consuming. I don’t really want to subscribe to cancel culture, because I feel like if we just cancel without forcing the people in charge to think about what they’ve done and make them accountable for it, we’re not really achieving anything. There are several other things I don’t like about this series (which I’ve talked about in previous reviews), but I can still see some potential in it. I’d like to see them take those good things, address the bad, and become a better show while being accountable for the bad things. Am I asking a lot? Yup. Will it probably happen? So freaking debatable. But let’s be real: it probably won’t.

I suppose I’m a stupidly optimistic person though.

But that’s just my opinion. You’re free to have your own. You’re free to tell me (politely, please. if you’re mean and rude about it, I won’t respond- I’ll probably just delete your comment or block you) why I should reconsider my opinion. I recognize my privilege and I’m willing to learn and grow. I think everyone should have the chance to learn and grow.

(PS: 10/10 because Frank the plant was in this episode; 0/10 for other bullshit)

#tw antisemitism #harley quinn the animated series #Harley Quinn #poison ivy #pamela isley #dc comics

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lizziefosterwrites · 5 years

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Memories

Sam Winchester x Photographer!Reader

Summary: After a rough couple of weeks, you decide to put something together to cheer the youngest Winchester up.

Warnings: Mentions of violence, mentions of wounds, blood, injury, etc. Mentions of alcohol. (Not super graphic). Maybe like one curse word. Also, sucky ending because I couldn’t decide how to end it. (ALso, kinda sucky title lol)

Word Count: 1.6k

Request: So excited to see this blog up and running!! You write for so many of my favorite things! Ima say pick the character you feel like writing the most atm, maybe with a photographer s/o? Best of luck, lovely! You’ll be amazing! @squeakingsheep

A/N: All grammatical and spelling errors are my own. Also, I’m so sorry that this is up so late! My husband was sick and then I had to deal with some major writer's block. I hope you guys like it!

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The latest hunt was a disaster. Dean was injured while you all were fighting a wendigo. This was only one incident of many that had happened over the last few weeks. About two weeks ago, you had sustained a mild concussion after being thrown against one too many walls while fighting a couple of witches in Jacksonville; and about 5 days after that while investigating a Tulpa, both Sam and Dean had received lacerations on more than one appendages. This certainly wasn’t the end of the injuries, however, this routine was nothing new to the three of you. So as you and Sam helped carry Dean into the Bunker there was nothing but groans of pain from Dean and quiet words of reassurance coming from Sam. You stayed quiet, thinking about how eventful the last few weeks were. You all were tired, cranky, and desperately needed a few days off. You watched as Dean grabbed the bottle of whiskey that Sam had brought over from the kitchen and you began to sew the open wound on Dean’s side. It was during times like this where you could take a moment to reflect on the time that you had spent with the boys.

You had met the boys a few years prior while you were still hunting solo. You had tracked down a nest of vampires, assuming there were only two or three, however, there were more than you had anticipated and you found yourself in way over your head. Sam and Dean, thankfully, had been tracking the same nest and found you being held as the nest’s personal blood bag. They put an end to the vampires and released you from your shackles with concerned looks on their faces. That was only the first time you had run into them. Over the next couple of hunts, you kept running into the Winchester boys and eventually, you all had agreed that maybe sticking together would be for the best.

Sam, who was more soft-spoken than his older brother, was a bit easier to talk to. Dean, on the other hand, was more reserved and closed off at first. You assumed that this was because he either didn’t fully trust you or was afraid to lose you. After discussing how you felt to Sam, you found that your assumptions had been correct. Throughout the years of knowing the boys, you and Sam had taken a liking to one another. You both had agreed to take things slow, seeing how any day you spent with one another could be your last. These last few weeks had been a testament to that, and you knew the toll it was taking on Sam. He was looking more worried jumped at every noise he heard, most likely afraid that something was there to take either you or Dean away from him. The way he gripped the steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles were white and was constantly flickering his eyes to the backseat where you sat keeping pressure on Dean’s wound was the final straw. You weren’t sure how much more he could handle before breaking into a million pieces. You were pretty sure if he lost anyone else, he wouldn’t be able to recover. It was then that you decided to put something together to ease his mind.

Snapping out of your thoughts, you finished stitching Dean’s wound and headed off in the direction of your room without another word. Sam and Dean exchanged a worried look but let it slide for now. They both were exhausted and in need of rest themselves.

Closing your door behind you, you fished out an old box that you kept under your bed. Opening it, you removed your old polaroid camera and placed it by your side. You carded through the collection of photos you had taken throughout your time owning the camera. There were pictures of your family before they died, some of Sam and Dean from your years of knowing them. As you sort through the photos you set a few aside that you decide you like the most. A majority of them were of Sam but there were a few sprinkled in of Dean and yourself. You labeled each picture with a date and a memory and a couple had some corny captions just for fun. You looked at the clock and marveled at how time was able to pass so quickly. Resolving to finish your project tomorrow, you showered, slipped on a pair of pajamas and climbed into bed for some much-needed sleep.

The next day you got up early, intent on finding a photo album of some sort. So you searched through the bunker hoping to find maybe an old album left behind from the previous hunters that lived here. In your search you found Sam, asleep at the table in the front room. You padded up to him quietly and sat in the seat next to him. You thought about how peaceful he looked when he slept. Devoid of all worry or fear, he just looked at peace. It saddened you to know that it wouldn’t last for long, but god forbid that you all could have a peaceful moment here and there.

After a couple of hours, you were finally able to find your album. You removed any photos that you could find and started to replace them with your own. A knock on your door drew your attention away from your project. You shoved the album and the photos back under your bed and got up to answer the door. In front of you was a disheveled looking Sam.

“Hey, just wondering how you’re doing. You didn’t say much last night.” Sam asked, scratching the back of his head. He still looked exhausted, but you figured he was used to it by now.

“I’m doing good. I was just really tired after these past couple weeks,” you replied, hoping that Sam wouldn’t look into it too much.

You let Sam into your room, ushering him to sit down on the bed. The two of you relaxed and talked, enjoying one another’s company. It was only when you both heard Dean struggling with something in the kitchen that you both decided to go and investigate. Of course, being the stubborn man he is, Dean had managed to rip his stitches while reaching for a glass in the cabinet because: “I don’t need help getting a fucking glass.” He had proclaimed loudly. You and Sam chuckled to yourselves and partially at Dean before setting to work restitching him.

Later on that night, while the boys were relaxing and talking to one another, you finally had the time to slip away and finish the album you were putting together. It was mostly for Sam, seeing as he had been so defeated lately, but you’re pretty sure Dean would enjoy it as well. You placed the last Polaroid in the album then went to go find the boys.

You found them at the table, drinking beer and reminiscing on old memories. They did that every once and a while, just to try and diffuse the tension that was your everyday lives.

“Hey guys, can you come here? I have something that I want to show you.” You asked, ushering the boys to your room hoping that they would enjoy your little surprise.

They followed you, interested in what you wanted to show them. The trip back to the room was silent, except for the soft padding of yours, Sam’s, and Dean’s feet. When you finally reached your room, you picked up the photo album and beckoned the brothers to sit with you. They did as you asked and you looked at each of them.

“I made this. After we came back from that hunt. I think we all need some cheering up.” You looked between the two of them, who stared back at you with confused faces.

You flipped open the album and began showing them the photos that you had pasted inside. The three of you talked and laughed. Sam even shed a small tear though he wouldn’t be caught dead admitting that. By the time you all had finished looking through the album, it was pretty late. Dean was tired and headed off to bed leaving you and Sam.

“How long have you been collecting these?” he asks, gesturing to the photographs both scattered along the floor and pasted into the album.

“Since before I met you and Dean. Once I met you guys I just had a couple of new subjects to photograph.” you responded, thumbing a few older photos of your family from before.

Sam kissed you softly, cradling the back of your head with his hand, the other wrapped around your waist. You kissed him back, the love you held for him swelling in your heart. The need for air separated the two of you and Sam looked down at you, smiling lovingly. You smiled back, content that your project had brought some happiness to the dismal world you all lived in.

Tag List: @squeakingsheep

#supernatual imagine #sam winchester imagine #sam winchester x reader #sam winchester x photographer!reader #lizziefosterwrites #sam winchester #request

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fyeahbecachloe · 5 years

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the one where beca doesn’t like dogs (4/4)

Beca/Chloe Rating: T Word Count: 2885 Summary:What looked like an emaciated wolf was currently lying on her floor glaring at her. Eyes wide, Beca stood there frozen afraid it would attack her.

Beca doesn’t like dogs but she’s dating a veterinarian so she’s pretty much screwed.

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3

READ ON AO3

Weekends used to be days to go out, hang with friends, go to the beach, or have date nights. Now weekends to Beca is lying on the couch doing close to nothing except watch TV and spend as much time with Chloe doing minimal activities. The exhaustion from their week only allowed them to do so much movement. The only strenuous activities they participated in was sex.

Beca was lounging on their couch, watching a Chopped marathon while Chloe cooked them lunch. She was helping earlier until Chloe kicked her out because apparently kitchen knives were not to be played with. MJ was watching her cook and hoping she’d drop a piece of food on the floor. Every once in a while Beca could hear Chloe talking to him.

“Such a good sous-chef!” Chloe praised and MJ barked. “So much better than Beca.”

Beca scoffed and lifted her head to yell at Chloe. “I heard that!” She returned back to watching but could already hear MJ running from the kitchen and into the family room where she was. He quickly jumped onto the couch and laid his entire body on top of Beca’s. His head was lying on her chest and he looked at her expectantly.

The first time he ever did that, Beca nearly pushed him off but now she’s so used to it. MJ has been in their house for about 6 weeks and he has been completely transformed. His fur has fully grown back and he was the appropriate weight. His one paw was no longer red and raw abut covered in his normal white fur. The fur on his damaged ear grew back as much as it could. He’ll always look a little funny with one pointed ear and one half an ear but Chloe said it made him that much more special. He still looked grumpy though but Beca kind of really liked that about him.

“What’s up, dude? You help Chloe cook my lunch? Am I going to be eating mouthfuls of fur?” Beca reached over and scratched behind his ear. MJ let out a little howl that sounded like he was almost talking. Another thing Beca found out while he’s been there. Huskies are talkative.

“Baby, food’s ready!” Chloe called from the kitchen.

MJ jumped off of Beca and quickly ran into the kitchen. Beca followed him, shaking her head, and sat down at the island and watched as Chloe set MJ’s food bowl down on the floor. “You do know I’m ‘baby’ right?” Beca said to MJ as he waited patiently for Chloe to give him his command. “She was telling me food was ready, not you.” But MJ wasn’t paying attention to her because Chloe had given the command and was already wolfing down his food.

Chloe laughed and set hers and Beca’s plate of food on the island. “You are ridiculous, you know that?”

“He’s ridiculous,” Beca muttered and twirled a large quantity of spaghetti on her fork and took a huge bite.

Chloe shook her head in the amusement and began eating her lunch. “So MJ is pretty much ready for adoption.”

Beca swallowed her food and took a sip of her Coke. “Oh yeah?” MJ had already finished his food and was doing his normal sitting/begging for scraps.

“Yup,” Chloe took a bite of her spaghetti before continuing. “We’re going to film one more update at the clinic, finishing the editing, and then post in on our youtube. Then MJ is going to do a little photo shoot for the adoption website. I’m sure he’ll be adopted super quickly.” Chloe grabbed her iPad that was next to her on the island and opened up the notepad that had a long paragraph written on it. “This is what’s going to accompany his adoption post.” She handed the iPad to Beca.

Hi! I’m MJ, a Siberian Husky. My rescuers estimate me to be about 2 years old. I’m 55 lbs of pure fluff. I know I look grumpy but I can assure you, I’m a big love and cuddle bug. I’m already house trained and know all my commands. I’m very good on a leash and love to stick close to my humans. And while I get along with other dogs, I prefer to be the only dog in a house. I’m also good with small humans too! I’m very active so I need daily exercise so a house with a yard would be a perfect furever home. I’m also a good listener even though I only have one ear! Please consider adopting me, I’ll love you furever!

Beca finished reading with a smile on her face. “Did you write this?”

Chloe grinned. “No, MJ did, duh.” The smiled fell from her face as if she was just realizing something. She looked down at MJ sadly. “You ready for your forever home, buddy? We’re going to have to say goodbye soon.” MJ walked over to her side and put his head on her lap and let out a dog sigh.

Even though Chloe was looking down at MJ, Beca could tell that she had tears in her eyes. She put her fork down and slid her plate to the side and turned in her chair so she was facing Chloe fully.

“What if this was his forever home?”

Chloe turned her head so fast she felt the wind from her hair. Sure enough, her eyes were filled with tears. “What?”

Beca smiled and took Chloe’s hand. “I’m saying, what if we adopt him and he becomes our dog?”

Tears were now falling down Chloe’s face. “Beca, are you serious? You want to keep MJ?” Beca nodded now only realizing the tears in her own eyes as Chloe pulled her into a kiss. She could see MJ’s tail wagging from the corner of her eye. Chloe pulled back only to stand up and pull Beca into a full body hug with her face in her neck. MJ jumped on them and started barking wanting to be a part of the hug.

“You hear that, buddy?” Chloe asked, pulling slightly back from Beca while still having one arm around her. “Mama wants to keep you forever!” MJ titled his at head both of them before jumping up to stand on hind legs while his front paws were on Chloe’s leg.

Beca watched the exchange with a tearful smile. She never told Chloe but whenever she heard her talking to MJ, Chloe always referred to Beca as “mama” and herself as “mommy.” At the time, Beca knew that Chloe was already dangerously attached but a part of her really didn’t mind having that title. MJ was practically the dog clone of her. Not that she’d ever admit that to Chloe.

“So what’s next, mommy?” Beca quipped. “When do we sign the adoption papers? Or like do a gender reveal or whatever it is that straight couples do?”

Chloe rolled her eyes. “I’ll fill them out on Monday and I’ll change all the information on his chip. Still gotta film the last update and tell our audience that we decided to keep him.” She looked at Beca curiously. “What changed you mind?”

Beca took a deep breath and looked down at MJ who was still looking at them like something was about to happen. “Partially you, partially this stinky butt. When he’s not annoying the crap out of me, he’s so…” She stopped not really know how to describe a dog she never wanted made her feel. “Warm.” She looked back Chloe who was looking at her like she was the whole world. “Like you. You both feel like home.”

Chloe was crying again as she softly kissed Beca. “I have a confession to make.”

Beca grinned. “What? You knew I would want to keep him the entire time?”

“Actually no, after all these years, you still surprise me.” Beca smiled at that. “No, I wanted to say that I named him at the clinic when we first got him.”

Beca squinted at her not quite sure where she was going with this. “Okay?”

Chloe let out a laugh. “MJ stands for Mitchell Jr., I named him after you.”

If Chloe wasn’t already holding her, Beca would’ve pulled back from shock. Her mouth was open in offense. “You named a mangy dog after me? How very dare you!” MJ let out an annoyed grunt at Beca’s outburst (proving Chloe’s point more) before going back to his spot in the family room.

“Babe, please, you’re exactly the same. First, he looks grumpy as hell. He has blue eyes, (“You have blue eyes!”), he seemed to only like me and not anyone else, he doesn’t really like playing with other dogs, but once you get to know him, he’s the softest, sweetest dog in the world. Just like you.” She finished by tapping Beca on her nose.

Beca grumbled. “I’m not the dog.” Chloe laughed and pulled her back for another kiss.

“I love you, thanks for letting us keep MJ.”

“I love you too, please don’t tell anyone you named him after me.”

Chloe’s laughter filled the entire house. “I promise.”

Beca was working on a remix at the studio when she got a notification on her phone from youtube. Unlocking her phone, her lock screen was now a picture of Chloe with MJ, she smiled when she saw that Chloe had finally posted MJ’s rescue video. Pausing what she was doing on her mixing program, Beca went to her laptop and opened up a browser to youtube and clicked on her subscription notifications.

The thumbnail on the video was of MJ smiling and Beca couldn’t help her own as she clicked the play button. A black screen with the text WARNING: GRAPHIC WOUND PICURES CONTAINED IN VIDEO. PLEASE ADVISE appeared. Beca frowned because she knew that she’s probably going to be seeing MJ’s damaged ear.

“Hey guys, welcome back to Scrappy Little Pawbuddies, I’m Doctor Chloe.” The video started with Chloe walking outside while filming herself. “I’m here with Xavier.” The camera moved behind Chloe where one of Chloe’s coworkers waved. “We just received a call about an injured husky that’s been frequenting an old shed. The local neighbors are not quite sure how long he’s been there but they have been leaving food for him. We’re here to see if we can get him back to the clinic.

The camera turned so Beca could see where they were walking to. The shed was located on an old lot and she could see MJ coming into view as Chloe and Xavier got closer. “There he is.” Chloe’s voice was a whisper and they stopped about 10 feet from where MJ was. He looked awful laying on the ground like that. He looked just liked when Beca first met him but a lot dirtier and his ear was bleeding. MJ definitely noticed them approaching because he quickly stood up with his tail between his legs. The camera was set on the ground but still had a good shot of the dog and she saw Xavier slowly approaching with a hamburger and a soft snare.

“Hey buddy, you hungry?” Xavier said as he stopped and knelt down a few feet away from MJ but he was already baring his teeth and was growling quietly. Xavier ripped a few pieces off the hamburger and threw it towards MJ. MJ sniffed at them but didn’t eat any pieces. Text appeared on the bottom of the screen. Xavier realized that the dog probably didn’t trust men so we waited a little while before Dr. Chloe tried.

There was an obvious time jump in the video as it cross faded so now Chloe was sitting in front of MJ and was trying to coax him out of the shed.

“Are you sure you don’t want any food? It’s really good.” She too threw some pieces of burger to MJ but this time he ate a few. He very slowly walked out of the shed and approached Chloe. Beca has watched enough of these videos but it still made her worry every single time Chloe would be this close to a stray especially if it was a bigger dog. Chloe had gotten her fair share of bites from scared dogs. But this time, Beca actually knew how this rescue was going to end.

“Good boy!” MJ was completely within in Chloe’s reach now and he licked her hand. She carefully and easily slipped a loose leash around his neck and gently petted him. The video continued showing Chloe and Xavier walking MJ back to the rescue van and he allowed Xavier to lift him into the crate in the back. The video faded again and now they were back in the clinic and Chloe was standing next MJ who was on an exam table. It looked like he was just freshly bathed and his ear was cleaned up. He was trying to lick Chloe as he she spoke to the camera

”Hey guys, we’re back in the clinic and we decided to name him MJ. We ran a few tests on him, gave him a bath, and cleaned out his ear which looks like was bitten by another dog. It had a little infection so he’s now on antibiotics. He was thankfully heartworm negative and surprisingly no fleas or ticks. Main concerns are his paw, ear, and it looked like he had some irritated skin at some point hence the patches of fur missing. It’s thankfully not mange so that hair will grow back soon. He was surprisingly microchipped but unfortunately the phone number was disconnected.”

Another text appeared on the screen explaining to the audience that the previous owner had died.

“We’re going to keep him here for a few days before he goes off to a foster. Well, actually I’m going to foster him until he’s ready for adoption.” Chloe smiled as she tried to keep MJ from trying to lick her during her entire explanation. “He’s actually already very trained so he seems like he’ll be a really good house guest. We’ll keep you updated on his progress.”

The video continued on as Chloe filmed his progress and it was really something to see MJ transform to a healthy dog. Of course Beca was there during the entire thing but to see it happen on a time lapsed video definitely showed the stark difference. Finally it got to the final update which Beca knew was filmed just a few days ago. MJ was wearing a Barden Bella scarf around his neck. Chloe’s idea obviously.

“Hey guys! Back with the final update with MJ and you’ll be happy to know he’s been adopted.” Chloe paused for dramatic effect. “By me! And my girlfriend. Yes, a complete foster fail, right buddy?” MJ licked her face. “We wanted to thank everyone again for watching and donating. If it weren’t for you, these rescues wouldn’t be possible. MJ is now a happy and healthy, very spoiled dog. Thanks for watching this video and we’ll see you again on the next rescue on Scrappy Little Pawbuddies! Say bye, MJ!” Beca let out a laugh when MJ raised his paw a few times and it looked like he was waving. The video faded to a screen with all the information on the rescue and how to adopt and ways to donate.

Beca scrolled through the comments and smiled at all the ones thanking Chloe and the rescue for all they do and the ones saying how cute MJ was. Of course she rolled her eyes on the ones asking about “Dr. Chloe’s girlfriend” and the rest of the comments telling the user that it was Beca. Sometimes she forgot she was actually a little famous.

Her facetime ringtone interrupted her perusing through the comments and her face broke into a smile when she answered Chloe’s call.

“Hey babe!” Chloe’s blurry face came into focus and Beca could see she was in her office. “Did you watch the video?”

“Of course I did, our little stinker is going to be famous.” Beca saw the phone’s camera flip and then she saw MJ’s grumpy face appear on her screen. “What’s up, dude? You’re about to go viral, please don’t let that inflate your ego.” Beca could tell he was a little confused as to where her voice was coming from so he just barked. Chloe turned the camera back to her.

“What time are you expecting to be home tonight? I’m cutting out early because it’s a slower day so I’ll probably be home around 5.”

Beca looked at the remix she was currently working on and saw she only had a few more things to tweak. “I probably could be out by 6 if I’m lucky. Don’t worry about dinner, I’ll get us take out.”

Chloe smiled. “Okay, I’ll let you get back to work so you can home early. MJ! Come say bye to mama.” She flipped the camera again and MJ did his little wave. Beca reflexively waved back. “Bye Beca, love you.”

“Love you, too.”

Beca continued her work with a big smile on her face. The rest of the day flew by as Beca’s mind was filled with thoughts of coming home to her family.

#bechloe #beca x chloe #my fics

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dyketectivecomics · 5 years

Text

Mystics in Therapy - Chapter 2: Groupthink

(Read on Ao3 or below!)

In this chapter: Zatanna and Constantine begin to lead group sessions for our young troubled mystics. (Spoilers for the end of Raven: Daughter of Darkness, and a few references to general pre52 canon. There’s a lot of mixing of canons & the biggest discussion/theme is a character’s death so keep that in mind & buckle up everyone!)

...

“Raise your hand if you have been personally victimized by Baron Winters,” Traci laughed, arm lazily outstretched as she watched each of the teens in the circle follow suit. It was the first thing to break the silence, the unnatural quiet of the room. Small smiles and a few chuckles escaped as everyone seemed to relax a little more.

They turned as the door creaked open again, Zatanna and Zachary following close behind her.

“Told you it was on the left,” Zach sneered, taking the empty seat on the far side of the room. Zatanna only rolled her eyes before taking in the room before her, nails tapping thoughtfully against the final empty folding chair.

They creaked with every fidget and shift the teens made, the metal old and worn. The room itself was lit well enough, but smelled faintly of a citrus air freshener. Too clean, too clinical. Zatanna shook her head, motioning for everyone to stand.

“No one’s going to be able to relax and open up like this. S’TEL TEG EMOS SEHCUOC NI EREH.”

None of the young mystics batted an eye as the chairs were all replaced by a two pairs of sofas and loveseats, all in varying styles. They took their seats again, carefully giving one another space, but none of them sitting properly on the cushions. Traci and Raven both had their legs tucked up, either under them or beside them. Zach had spread himself out on nearly the entire length of the couch opposite of the one his cousin shared now with the urban magician. Lori and Klarion shared the loveseat opposite of the one Raven occupied by herself, each letting their legs dangle over the armrest on the side and leaning against a pile of decorative pillows between them.

Zatanna’s eyes drifted around, carefully watching each of the teens and trying to gauge just how open they might be for this first session together. Not one of them were dressed in their usual hero outfits, instead sporting mixes of graphic tees and lounge wear, a few identifying accessories for personal style.

One would think this were a support group like any other, possibly one for wayward teenagers, instead of young mystics coping with a grave loss.

“Anyone want something to drink before we start? Or snacks? These things can run a little long-”

“Gods, can we just get started already?” Lori groaned, “We all watched Skye die. We’re all super conflicted and probably fucked up over it more than usual! Is that what you want to hear? Is that where we’re supposed to start?”

Raven starts tearing up, and Traci and Zach both roll their eyes.

“Real tactful there, Alice,” Traci grumbles as she conjures some tissue boxes, silently throwing them to each mystic. Klarion catches it expertly, Zach lets his fall at his feet, not bothering to move it. Traci passes the last one she has in hand over to the Titan at her side, giving a soft smile.

“I promise I won’t give you a lame nickname like barf boy’s over there, if you share first.”

The Titan gratefully accepted one of the tissues, shaking her head with a small laugh as she dabbed at her eyes. Zach stuck his tongue out at the magician before turning away again, appearing to take something out of his sleeve. Before Zatanna could call attention to it, Raven spoke up.

“I suppose I should be first… I was the one you all trusted to lead you-”

“I don’t remember putting it to a vote-” Zach started, his hands were occupied playing cats cradle with some glowing string. Zatanna gave a flick of her wrist to snatch it telekinetically from his hands, deftly balling it up and making it disappear in some sleight of hand.

“Shut up, Zach,” was the chorus echoed around the circle, to which the team laughed.

“One of the first rules of group therapy,” Zatanna started, “Be mindful and respectful of one another. I would hope that we’re mature enough to not have to resort to a talking baton to pass around-”

“Nope.” “All good.” “Hear you crystal clear, Miss Zee.”

The Leaguer nodded, turning to look towards the Titan then.

“Whenever you’re ready, Raven. If you need us to skip and come back to you, just say so.”

The empath took another breath, nodding before continuing.

“Like ripping off the bandaid. That’s how the expression goes, correct?” She paused, making tiny tears into the tissue, something to help distract and gather her thoughts. “I have been healing and helping… nearly all of my life. There have always been limits to what I can do. I have made my peace with that. But… It is different, when it is a teammate. Even one that we knew so briefly as we did Skye. I-”

She swallows carefully, “I wanted to help her. But how can we save someone who refuses that help? Why would she…” She sniffs a bit, waving a hand.

“Someone else wants to say something. I can feel it. Go on.”

Klarion and Lori both open their mouths to speak, talking over one another as they decided who would go first.

“I mean, I helped,” Lori laughed bitterly, “Not helped helped, but… Helped her to… You probably can’t feel it as much now, because there’s so many of us here, but I’m a leech. When I hijack someone’s powers, I’m always taking, taking taking. I mean… I killed her-”

“Don’t say that!” “She asked you to-” “That’s not fair-”

“I did!” Lori yelled, “Or I thought I did. At first. Maybe I didn’t take it all away, but if I hadn’t taken her powers she might-”

Zatanna reached over to gently tap the teen’s knee, breaking her rant before she could go too far.

“I don’t believe that, Lori-”

“Alice,” she bit out, “Call me Alice or call me nothing.”

“Alice,” the magician amended. “Some of us have found it helpful to go over the situation with others. In the League, we usually use it as an opportunity to prepare, to do better the next time we’re out in the field. But it can also be a little cathartic.”

There’s a beat of silence as each of the teens look at one another uncertainly, skeptically even.

“Do you want us to start where Winters tried to shanghai each of us individually?” Traci asked, “Or that last battle on Azarath?”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Constantine watched his two charges for the afternoon as they carefully watched him. Amy was a small, strong-willed slip of a girl when she wasn’t galavanting as Princess Amethyst. Right now she was giving her glasses a quick polish with her Wonder Woman shirt before adjusting them on her face. She gave him a glare. Eddie was somehow a bit more unsettling to watch as he smiled at the occultist, all blood red skin and long horns that would make any demon John had faced before jealous. His leg was bouncing with what John could only imagine was either nervous or excitable energy. It didn’t seem like he’d sit still any time soon.

“You kids mind if I smoke while we’re at this, then?” He had the pack in his shirt pocket, already partially pulled as the pair gave their answers.

“No,” Eddie shrugged.

“Yes,” Amy said simultaneously, glaring even harder at the adult. He slowly tucked the pack back into his pocket. “I thought this was supposed to be a group session. Where’s the group?”

John sighed, rubbing at his neck before he took off the tie completely. The room was sweltering, and the demonologist was beginning to wonder if it was too late to change his attire.

“Winters’ little Night Force have something they need to work through together before we can join ‘em. So for now, unless those Shazam kids decide to join ya, we’re all we’ve got till they finish.”

The smile dropped from Eddie’s face then.

“Wait, Winters? As in Baron Winters?”

“What of it, lad?”

“I… I almost joined him. I… didn’t save the guy he sent me to save and… What happened? Oh my god!” He stood up and began pacing the room. Amy and John’s eyes only followed as he went.

“Relax, kid,” John started, “Listen, I’ve been through enough of these things to know how this needs to go. You can’t change what wasn’t in your control in the first place. But we can start talking about what is .”

He pat the seat a few times to invite Eddie to sit once more.

“So park it here, and let’s start by introducing us, yeah? You can go first…”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

With a rough, uncertain start, they worked through their memories, each teen filling in the gaps for the others as they went along, piecing together bit by bit exactly what had led to Skye’s final moments as they remembered them.

“And then she was… gone,” Traci said. “It was like she… tore herself apart or something. Next thing you know, someone said we had to go back to Wintersgate and well...”

Zatanna nodded solemnly, waiting a moment or two for someone else to speak up before she filled the silence.

“It’s part of grief. Wondering what you could have done differently, or what you wish to do now. It may even seem like a good idea, to want to bring her back-”

“Been to Hell, thanks” Lori said, “The sights sucked. Not planning on returning.”

“Who said she’s in Hell?” Klarion pointed. And the group soon devolved into petty argument.

Zatanna massaged her temple before raising her voice just slightly above even her usual booming projection.

It wasn’t a yell. She would deny that much.

“TEIUQ!”

The magical silence was nearly hysterical.

The magician sighed, thinking carefully on what she was about to say next.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Diana’s lip curled in disgust as the staff member finished giving his report to them, immediately standing, fist clenching. But she was also frozen in place. What was there to do, what action could be taken in the news of something so horrendous?

“Where are the children?” she asked first.

“Some of them have elected to stay overnight. Some are at their own homes,” he supplied. “We can get in contact if-”

“And where is Winters?” Diana growled.

“Easy there, luv,” John said, “This isn’t the first time he’s been indirectly responsible for something like-”

“Oh, but we would know all about something like that, wouldn’t we John?” Zatanna sneered, “I should’ve shut him down after that night. I should’ve exposed every last damned thing he had done after Dad-”

“The League will figure out what to do with Winters and how to bring him to justice,” Diana said, interrupting as she paced to look out the window. She gazed into the night, as fireflies danced in the fields and clouds gently rolled, blocking moonlight and starlight alike periodically. “We’ll need to go about that carefully, if what you have told me about the man is true. But our priority needs to be the children.”

“Hard to be in this line of work and not seen a few things to keep ya up night,” John shrugged, “One of the first prices to pay with magic, trading in your innocence.”

“Not all of us had to literally trade it,” Zatanna bit out, “But I’ll call around. See if we can get the community to put a ban on Winters. Make sure he can’t contact them-”

“You two should be the ones to talk to them,” Diana said. The tone of her voice made it clear it wasn’t a suggestion, or even a question. It was a command.

Constantine immediately started laughing.

“You can’t be serious? Zee may be somewhat qualified, maybe, but I’m hardly-”

“A cautionary tale? A man with more experiences and regrets to rival the most accomplished mystic?” Diana guessed, scoffing, “No, Constantine, you’re hardly the man I want for the job. But you’re the one that’s needed. Just as you always are.”

The exorcist closed his mouth, turning away from the amazon as he stuck his hands in his coat pockets.

After a few beats of silence, Zatanna found her voice.

“Diana…” she sighed, “What are we even supposed to say to them? This… This isn’t something that’s cured overnight.”

The amazon turned from the window, hand placed on her lasso as she thought for another moment.

“Tell them the truth. And give them the room to speak theirs.”

#zatanna zatara #john constantine #rachel roth #traci thirteen #lori zechlin #klarion the witch boy #zachary zatara #amy winston #eddie bloomberg #diana prince #wonder woman #hic rewrite #heroes in therapy #mystics in therapy #randywritesfic #oh BOY lots of tags!#theres SO MUCH to say but i won't. (just gonna cross my fingers that anyone who's read the snippets so far also reads this!)#(feedback & reblogs are MUCH appreciated and s/o to EVERYONE WHOS DONE THAT SO FAR I OWE U PEOPLE MY LIFE)

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welllpthisishappening · 5 years

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Not saying you should write something like this but the cubs did a video last month where Kris Bryant saw who knew him better, his wife or his teammate/best friend. It was adorable and all I could think about was blue line

Ok, ok, ok, so you are…a mind reader. Because, literally, last week I was telling @peglegsjones about this exact video and she was like WRITE IT. So, this was basically the push I needed to do just that. Also, thank you for that and for being awesome and for thinking about anything Blue Line related ever. It’s lovely. Also, I’ve had a week, so this was a very nice break from the real world. Here we’ve got: ultra competitive Killian and Regina, vaguely embarrassed Robin, endlessly amused Emma and annoyed he’s not in the video Will.

“There are not enough words in the English language to describe all the ways I absolutely and entirely hate this.”

“I mean…that was a pretty good start, actually.”

Robin glared at him, but Killian just lifted his eyebrows, smile stretched wide enough across his face that the muscles there were starting to ache just a bit as well and he was going to gloat about this for, at least, the next two days.

If not longer.

Because he wasn’t the focus of the video.

For the first time, in possibly, ever.

“Shut up,” Robin snapped, and Killian couldn’t mask his laugh. It was, he assumed, partially because of the video and mostly because of everything else and the regular season was over and the playoffs were about to start and he couldn’t be the focus of this stupid, vaguely ridiculous promotional video because Emma couldn’t go on camera.

They hadn’t really confirmed anything yet.

And going on camera for some stupid, vaguely ridiculous promotional video would do just that. They were having a kid. And Killian could not stop smiling.

He might have been driving Robin insane.

“Spoilsport.”

“I’m going to kill you.”

“That would not work on camera,” Killian pointed out, shifting in his designated seat. The chair squeaked. That seemed to offend Robin too. “And Lucas would be really annoyed.”

“Oh, screw Lucas.”

“Hey,” Ruby called, the clack of her heels echoing off the makeshift set they’d set up in an empty office and Regina appeared determined to set some kind of record for eye rolls. She was smiling too though. So, maybe this was genuinely the most ridiculous thing they’d done.

“That’s rude,” Will added. He had his phone out already, arm stretched to a length that probably wasn’t doing anything for the state of his shoulder. “Locksley, you literally host a show. This is not uncharted territory for you.”

“What are you doing here, Scarlet?”

“Uh…I’m here to watch the show,” he said, as if it were obvious and it kind of was. “And to document.”

Killian narrowed his eyes, understanding rattling down his spine until it settled at the small of his back and it was kind of warm. In a nice sort of way that probably also had something to do with Emma’s growing inability to hide the slight swell of her stomach. They were going to absolutely dominate the first series.

She’d laugh at his use of the word dominate.

Robin huffed – and Killian was going to dislocate something in his face, honestly. Will turned his phone towards him. “I know, I know,” Robin grumbled, waving both hands in the air and Ruby nearly growled when Regina moved onto his leg instead of her designated seat. “But this is—“

“—He doesn’t like being the center of attention,” Regina finished knowingly. She slung an arm around his shoulder, far more relationship than Killian was entirely prepared for.

“You’re going to be super competitive about this aren’t you?” he asked.

Her smile widened. And Ruby’s growl turned into something more resembling a crow. Of victory. “I am going to absolutely destroy you,” Regina promised, fingers moving through the back of Robin’s hair when his head drooped forward.

The rules of the video were, relatively, simple. It was a trivia contest. About Robin Locksley. The name was stupid, Bae vs. Ballplayer – “It’s honestly so dumb, Lucas, it doesn’t even make sense.” “Ask me again if I care, Locksley.” – but Killian supposed there was something to be said for alliteration and Robin had to ask the questions.

He looked furious about it.

On camera.

“Go,” Ruby called from just out of frame. She was slumped in a chair, legs stretched over Will’s and Killian could not possibly keep thinking the word ridiculous over and over again. Emma was going to be very annoyed she missed this.

She had fan events to schedule for the first series.

The one they were going to dominate.

“And stop doing that thing with your face, Cap,” Ruby continued.

Robin hummed. “You are doing that thing with your face.”

“Oh shut up and ask me questions so I can prove how much more I know about you than your wife does,” Killian shot back, and Regina had to twist into an entirely unnatural position to flip him off without it showing up on camera.

He grinned.

“I know more about you than both of your significant others,” Will yelled. “Also, it didn’t work, Gina! They’re going to have to spend a fortune on editing.”

“And muting you,” Regina said. “Robin’s pre-game meal is chicken and—“

“—Whole wheat pasta,” Killian cut in, laughing triumphantly when Regina’s lips all but disappeared off her face.

Robin might have been blushing. “Ok, but I did not actually ask a question.”

“That’s because you suck as a host,” Will shouted. Ruby was doing a fairly awful job of trying to kick him without actually standing up.

Regina’s lips were a medical marvel. “What kind of pasta, though?”

“Who would know that?” Killian argued. “No one.”

“Rigatoni.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“She’s right,” Robin said. “Did you really not know that, Cap?”

Killian scowled, pointedly ignoring whatever look Regina was throwing his direction and Emma was not going to be able to watch whatever Will was filming. His laugh kept making his arm shake. “No one should know that,” Killian muttered. “Being obsessed with a specific type of pasta is absurd.”

“Yeah, well, this whole thing is absurd, so—“

“—Can we not insult the video while we are filming the video?” Ruby begged.

Robin winked. That was unexpected. “If I can ask my questions now.”

“God, you are so annoying!”

“This was your idea,” Killian pointed out, and he couldn’t help but recoil a little when Ruby’s head snapped his direction. Will dropped his phone.

“Because it is adorable, Cap! It’s funny and cute and Locksley hosts a thing! This makes sense!”

“Wait, are we calling Locked In a thing, now?” Robin asked, sounding a little insulted and Will was barely staying on his chair.

Ruby groaned, body twisted in a way that could not have been comfortable. “Shut up, shut up, shut up,” she mumbled, the words getting pushed into her knees. “Locksley, ask your stupid questions. Gina, I hope you absolutely destroy, Cap.”

“Seriously, was anything else ever really an option?” Regina asked. She smiled when Killian gaped at her. “Rigatoni,” she repeated. “You’re an unobservant idiot.”

Ruby hadn’t ever lifted her head.

And Killian was fairly certain she said something that sounded a hell of a lot like this is going to go great under her breath. Will picked up his phone.

“Alright,” Robin sighed, a quick hand dragging across his face. “Let’s do this.”

“You haven’t actually watched it?”

Emma shook her head, slumping further into the small mountain of pillows behind her. “First of all, when have I had time? And second of all, I wasn’t going to watch it without you. C’mon, give me a little credit.”

Killian nodded, that same warmth from before flaring back to life and the mattress creaked slightly when he climbed up next to her. He didn’t try to pull himself even with her though – had started doing it weeks before and really as soon as they got back from the Games, if only because it always seemed to make her lips twitch slightly, resting his head just next to her stomach with his fingers drifting across her shirt and, eventually, her skin and it usually ended with soft laughter and softer kisses and—

“Hello! Welcome to Bae vs. Ballplayer. Today we’ve got New York Rangers captain and occasionally good hockey player Killian Jones taking on an agent who represents some of the best and brightest names in sports, Regina Mills-Locksley in…”

“He’s almost laying it on too thick, isn’t it?” Emma asked, fingers finding their way into Killian’s hair seemingly on instinct. He rolled his eyes. “And these graphics are ridiculous. Who did this?”

“Tell Lucas that.”

“No thanks.”

He chuckled, nudging his forehead against the curve of her hip. “You’ve got to keep going, love. The whole thing lasts—“

“—Shit, does this video last eight minutes?” Killian hummed. “That’s insane! Who’s watching all of that?”

“Presumably you.”

“Yeah, we’ll see.”

Let’s see what today’s contestants will be playing for!

“Oh my God, there’s a prize?”

Killian made another noise in the back of his throat, shifting so his arm wrapped around Emma’s. He could feel her staring at the top of his head, all expectation and Robin Locksley trivia and—

“This one of a kind Robin Locksley fleece throw!”

Her whole body shook when she laughed, the sound ricocheting off the walls and the pillows and making that warmth flare all the brighter. “I’m going to be genuinely disappointed if you didn’t win this,” she said, and he could hear her smile.

“Seriously, Swan, you can’t keep asking for spoilers.”

“Ok, but what is the point of being engaged to you if you’re not going to give me spoilers?”

“That’s the most scathing question you’ve ever asked me. Keep watching.

She mumbled a few curses under her breath. And kept watching.

“I’m going to ask you some questions, very easy questions, mind you—“

“—Oh my God, Locksley, the opinions are not necessary.”

“Are you threatened by how simple this should be for you, Cap?”

“Ask the questions!”

Regina laughed softly, another far-too-knowing and distressingly confident smile directed at Killian. He stuck his tongue out at her. And was fairly certain he heard Ruby groan again.

“What is Robin Lockley’s favorite holiday?“

“Are you seriously doing these in third person?” Killian balked, but Regina was already writing her answer and he knew the answer.

“Alright,” Robin said, nodding once like he was getting into the role and Ruby had made him put a suit jacket on over his jersey. Ridiculous, honestly. “What do you got, Cap?”

“Thanksgiving.”

“Nope.”

Killian threw the whiteboard. Will’s laugh was the single most obnoxious thing he’d ever heard. “What?” he shouted. “No, that is a complete lie. You are lying because you want your wife to have your freaky face blanket!”

“It’s not Thanksgiving!”

“You met Gina at Thanksgiving. At my house!”

Robin nodded, lower lip jutted out slightly, and ignored Killian complete. “Gina, what is my favorite holiday?”

“New Years,” Regina answered, turning her white board and she’d drawn something that almost looked like fireworks as well.

“Perfect!”

“Oh, you guys are lying,” Killian said, but Robin was already shaking his head and Regina was making that face again and the blanket honestly was stupid.

“Christmas,” Emma said, and Killian nearly hit his chin into her leg when he jerked his head up.

“What?”

“You would have answered Christmas. Obviously.”

“Obviously.”

“Ok, but just repeating is kind of a confirmation, so…”

He dropped his head. So he could kiss exactly where his lips landed. “That’s true,” he mumbled, nosing up the hem of her shirt.

“I know it is.”

Dominate. A first-series sweep. He was positive.

“Ok, so maybe Cap can redeem himself with this one,” Robin continued, several questions into the second round and Killian was losing by a number he had lost track of already. “I’m going to, against my free will—“

“Should the sound have just cut out like that?” Emma asked, voice softer than it had been when they’d started the video. She was absolutely falling asleep.

“That’s when Lucas detailed all the ways she was going to rip Lockley’s left arm off if he didn’t stop complaining.”

“Just his left arm?”

“Yup.”

“Huh.”

“You get to ask me a question where I have to choose one of you,” Robin explained. “Whoever I pick gets fifty points and it’s going to be Gina every time.”

Killian shook his head. “Nope, nope, nope. Who’s a better singer? Me or your wife?”

Robin blanched. Regina’s lips disappeared again. Will had to stand up so he didn’t dislocate something when he laughed.

“Goddamn, Cap,” Robin hissed. “I mean—“ He glanced at Regina, twisting to make a face over his shoulder and if the whole thing was ridiculous and unexpected and several other hyperbolic words than her leaning forward to brush her lips over Robin’s was probably a sign of the apocalypse or something. Killian hoped that didn’t mean anything bad. A good apocalypse.

“How often would you say you’re singing, Jones?” Regina asked pointedly.

Killian shrugged. “Mostly to annoy your husband in the morning.”

“I bet your’e a real talent.”

“So my fifty points prove.”

“Alright, alright, here’s one. Robin, who do you think is smarter?”

“That’s rude, Gina.”

“You negotiate your own contract, then?”

Killian made a face, drawing a laugh out of Regina and the color had almost returned to Robin’s cheeks. “She’s got a point, Cap.”

“That is true,” Emma agreed.

Killian hipped at her waist. If only to get her to make that one, particular sound. And because he also agreed with Robin. “Swan. That’s an insult, love.”

“It’s not. It’s a contract-based fact. She’s got that stare down.”

“I don’t think that’s a direct result of her intelligence.”

“Eh…”

“You know, this does not bode well for the inherited intelligence of the kid.”

Emma made a noise, eyes closed when Killian glanced up, but her smile hadn’t shifted and her fingers were still moving every few seconds. “I’m pretty confident in my own intelligence, so I think he’ll be fine.”

“Small miracles.”

“Something like that. And Regina does have a college education. You know…just if we’re pointing out facts.”

He kissed her stomach before she restarted the video.

“After two rounds, the score is Cap at a pretty embarrassing 215 and Gina, 545.”

“It’s because you’re cheating!’

Regina shook her head. “I’m better than you.”

“You honestly cannot win, Cap,” Robin said, still ignoring the banter and the arguing. “But, uh…we’ve got to do round three, so lightening round of fun facts about me, it is.” Killian groaned. “That’s the spirit. You ready?”

“Let’s go.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Emma sputtered, jerking up and Killian grumbled when his neck moved a way he was not entirely prepared for. “Ah, sorry sorry, they just…they made you switch sets? How in-depth was this?”

“Are you not seeing the suit jacket Lockley had to wear?”

“Yeah, that’s fair.”

“Ok, arm around the shoulder or hand holding?”

“With me specifically or..”

“Answer the question!”

“Arm over the shoulder.”

“Yup. Ok, rom coms or horror movies?”

“Historic action movies with people who shot arrows.”

“You are being difficult on purpose.”

“I don’t know.”

“Ok, well, that’s no points.”

“I figured.”

“Jump out of a plane or block a shot?”

“Block…a shot?”

“Nope.”

“Wow, you are really bad at this,” Emma mumbled, exhaustion clinging to the words and there was a pile of game-used march sitting just inside their front door. “And you’d block a shot.”

“That’s right.”

“I know it is.”

Killian grinned, another kiss and drifting fingers and it took a moment to move back up towards the pillows so he could tug the phone out of Emma’s hand. He was ready for the objections, the scrunch of her nose and pull of her eyebrows, but—“You can’t keep your eyes open, Swan.”

“I’m really disappointed you didn’t want that blanket.”

“I think Regina would have beaten me with one of her shoes if I had.”

“Did she know about the jumping out of the plane?”

“Apparently she and Locksley have talked about doing it after he retires. In detail.”

“Huh.”

“Right?” Killian asked, pulling Emma back against his side. It only took a moment for her to curl against him completely, legs twisted and hair in his face. “You don’t want to jump out of a plane, do you?”

“I absolutely do not.”

“Good.”

They fell asleep with the blankets pooled around their waist and no one’s face inexplicably plastered across them.

The video got a ton of hits. More hits than just about anything else they’d done in months, which thrilled Ruby and frustrated Will because he wasn’t included and the first-round series against the Blue Jackets was absolutely going to be a sweep.

Killian was convinced.

And even more so when he walked to his locker before Game 1, a post-it note stuck to the inside wall with handwriting that was impossibly familiar.

Will finally showed me the video he took when you filmed. And you eat the same thing Locksley does because you’re codependent idiots, but you’d rather it be those little bow-shaped pasta things. Skate fast later.

He did. And scored. And Emma grinned at him as soon as he walked out of the locker room, arms crossed over the stomach that he swore was slightly bigger than it had been that morning and—

“Was I right?”

Killian nodded. “They’re more fun when they’re bow-shaped.”

“Yuh huh.”

He kissed her. Or she kissed him. Or whatever. No one took video of it. At least not until there was more kissing a few games later, after an opening-series sweep.

#cs ff #blue line one shots #blue line rambles #the video is actually pretty hysterical #seriously thanks for this though #it was a delightful distraction from the real world this afternoon #stealing-vengence #laura rambles

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bearpillowmonster · 5 years

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Jedi Fallen Order Review

I was going to wait and write this tomorrow but I feel like I have all my notes written down and a solid opinion already formed so I want to just jump into it.

(Non-Spoiler btw) I’m not going to compare this to any other game because every other review I saw said the same thing over and over, The only one I’ll mention is Kingdom Hearts because KH2 is my favorite game of all time so how can I not draw comparisons to it with everything I play. I also want to mention I’ve been playing on the base PS4 model not a Pro, I feel like I have to say that now with performance and graphical based opinions with big games such as this because you might not have the same problems.

I think they changed the way he got caught in the beginning from the trailer because it’s the same scene but different shots, it honestly made more sense because I was playing the game and didn’t even notice the droid watching them while it was much more noticeable in the trailer, maybe it’s meant to be that way so it isn’t obvious to Cal that he was caught.

Main villain is the “Second sister”, it’s based on lore from Rebels. You would think you’d fight all the other “sisters” considering this is the first place I’ve heard of them (I didn’t watch too much of Rebels but researched it for this reason) but you only fight a couple during the game.

The coats are glitchy in cutscenes, so you should probably wear the basic layer for most of the game, if you want to try and avoid that. You are vulnerable while opening chests so you can’t defend or attack during animations but enemies can attack you. It will introduce the abilities through flashbacks so this guy knew these powers but just cut himself off to hide from the Empire and has to relearn them. At one point it will say “you are now reconnected with the force” and all the abilities will be shown on the skill tree in order to unlock, around this part is the turning point of the game (Kashyyyk/second time at Zeffo) because the opening is fine but the next section gets kind of boring because you have scarce abilities but once you start actually getting into it, it’s fun! I know they showed Kashyyyk in the E3 demo presentation they did a while ago so that was to be expected but it was just a matter of if it was a fluke...it’s not.

I’m pretty sure you lose skill tree points every time you die to an enemy (not falling off an edge or something) which is odd and it’s not like “since the last checkpoint” or “since last death” it’s a bit more than you gain in that time period, I’m pretty sure this revolves around what difficulty you’re on which is also pretty odd but correct me if I’m wrong about that theory.

I knew I liked BD-1 already but I was a bit skeptical of Cal’s character when this was announced because he could’ve easily been generic but no, I kind of like his character, you can tell the actor went the extra mile partially through how he interacts with BD and everybody else. He’s better than Kanan in my opinion, who if you remember has a very similar backstory as “the Jedi padawan who survived order 66” but he blames himself for his master’s death which is a dead trope that I didn’t care too much to see.

I hate parrying, I absolutely hate it, not just this game, every game, even in Kingdom Hearts, I’ll barely use it because I don’t (usually) play on the super high difficulties where it’s necessary but this game has it as essential so you have to learn a little bit of timing...and wait until you can upgrade your dodge so you don’t have to parry as much. And they will punish you for missing a parry and just trying to slam them (only the more hefty enemies like the ones with shock sticks) because they have a shield meter and if you get hit by them then their shield will start to go back up.

Some complaints, it takes a long time to respawn and the sliding is a bit off as well because you can control him while falling but he turns at such a slow rate that you might as well not even bother, it doesn’t matter most of the time any way but when it does then it’s annoying.There’s a lot of things that they just kind of brush past explaining, for example, there are these punching pistons that you have to run past and once you reach the end, there’s an opening above but you don’t know how to get there. I tried using force slow and jumping on top of the thing (logical way of doing it) but he doesn’t jump high enough (you don’t unlock double jump until later and it’s a life saver!). There’s a walkthrough for that simple one minute section on YouTube so I couldn’t have been the only one but you have to wall run and then jump off of it, I didn’t know you could wall run to get to higher ledges. Also with story, I wasn’t sure how they were figuring out where to go for some places, they just kind of said “go here!” but they end up explaining that kind of stuff later on which seems kind of pointless in saving it until that point, it would have been just as effective (if not, more) at the beginning. For those who’ve played it, I’ll give you a hint at what scene I’m talking about “Ilum”, if I was writing it, I would’ve made that scene towards the beginning.

Some little compliments are that BD-1 has a back panel that lights up, if your health is decent then it will be green, if it’s not then it turns red, that’s a nice detail “But what about Blue?” Well yeah there’s that too...that’s just for fun. There are also customization skins for BD-1 as well as your lightsaber and ponchos and guess what?! Your ship too! It’s no 13-13 or Project RagTag (there’s no gunplay though) but it’s still a pretty darn good game with some good music tracks (I mean it’s Star Wars though so...)

This game doesn’t have a dark or light ending so you don’t really have to worry about doing anything the wrong way, it’s fun to throw storm troopers off of ledges, not gonna lie, however I will say I feel bad at times. They added a bit of a grey area there because they’ll cower and say “Looks like I’m the last one” “No, stop!” “They’re all dead” “You killed them!” “Just...just leave me alone.” or something along those lines. BD even called me out for lashing out on them once and Cal just says “They just would’ve hurt somebody else.” I was like “Dang” there are some themes going on here that I think they would’ve made a light and dark ending if EA let them, however I’m fine with there not being one (even if it would make the game seem longer).

Even Second Sister has a bit of a thing going on where it’s questionable about her point of view, it’s almost a grey area.

Quick-fire round:

-Be careful, if you heal at a save point then it will also respawn enemies (you have to pick “rest” first before it does that).

-The creatures are harder than the troopers tbh.

-There’s a character called Mari Kosen on Kashyyyk which sounds a lot like “Ikari Gozen” which basically means ‘rageful female warrior’.

-I was worried about even buying this game because of EA’s track record (I almost bought Battlefront 2 before the whole debacle (Thank goodness I didn’t!)) and I didn’t want to chance they mess it up somehow after launch it getting good reviews, but I can confidently say that I don’t see any way they can do that now, should be no need to worry.

I’m not going to spoil it but the ending (though in line chronologically and could have messed with the timeline) seems kind of one sided, there are a bunch of things they could have done and while the decision they made makes sense, is it the best? I personally would have liked to see a bit more, it seemed a little short to me. I want to see what happens to these characters (which is a good thing) maybe there will be a sequel or extended universe book/comic (there’s already a prequel one with Cere) There are some really great moments in this game, I’m tempted to give it a solid 8 because of the high it ended on but I’m going to lower it a little due to the slow start being annoying. 7.5 / 10 Now EA better make more quality single player Star Wars products without stupid monetization schemes, this one was a success.

#star wars #jedi fallen order #fallen order #jedi #sw #review

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gamersonthego · 5 years

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Chase Koeneke’s Top 10 Handheld Games of 2019

With the Switch in full gear and the debut of Apple Arcade, 2019 was another solid year for handheld games. Sequels to many of my favorite games were plentiful, but very few absolutely blew me away. And a few games I really loved (Slay The Spire, Return Of The Obra Dinn, Super Mega Baseball 2) were handheld ports of previous games I didn’t feel super great about adding to my list. So instead, I left this final year of the decade feeling content, and that’s perfectly OK too. So here are 10 games I liked this year, even if I didn’t love them.

10. Tetris 99 (Switch)

I love pretty much all iterations of Tetris. From the iconic Game Boy release I would play in the car, to the Facebook-based Tetris Friends that kept me company through many boring lectures in college, to last year’s gorgeous and powerful Tetris Effect, Tetris is A-OK with me.

Battle royale games on the other hand? Not so much. Despite enjoying shooters in general, I’ve yet to play a single match of PUBG, Fortnite or Apex Legends, and I’m not itching to change that anytime soon. But I found the mechanics of the battle royale genre to translate rather brilliantly to Tetris. It’s a thin experience (even with the expansions made to the game), but it’s an addictive one. And the fact I never quite crested the mountaintop – even if I did get a second place finish to video game Santa himself, Wario64 – is one of my biggest 2019 gaming regrets.

9. Mini Motorways (Apple Arcade)

Dinosaur Polo Club’s previous game, Mini Metro, made my top games of 2016 list, so it’s not surprising to see their latest game show up on this year’s list. What is a little surprising is how much of what could be said about Mini Metro can be echoed here on Mini Motorways. From my 2016 write-up:

Mini Metro wins my heart for its amazing ability to be serenely relaxing and nail-bitingly stressful simultaneously. Watching the train cars move back and forth around the sharp, minimalistic map brings a calming sense of satisfaction, but when the ever-growing amount of train stations hits critical mass, there were few experiences more harrowing this year. The basic strategy is smart and layered, preferring to let you experiment rather than tutorializing you to death up front.

You could remove the word “train” and get yourself a pretty accurate Mini Motorways review. But unfortunately, it’s not quite that simple. While I love a lot of what’s new in Mini Motorways – being able to create partial roads to better plan out cities from the start, colorful and sprightly graphics – the strategy and variety on display here actually pales to the previous game. One Mini Motorways upgrade, the traffic light, doesn’t even seem to function correctly. And the fun modifiers in Mini Metro’s different locations like Tokyo’s shinkasen are nowhere to be found here. Every city has a body of water to deal with, it’s just that some are slightly more of a pain than others. That’s not variety.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Mini Motorways and have put a lot of time into it. It’s my #9 after all. But if I had to pick just one to take up space on my phone, Mini Metro is getting that spot every time.

8. Risk Of Rain 2 (Switch, PS4, Xbox One, PC)

The first Risk of Rain also appeared on my games of 2016 list, and like Mini Motorways, the sequel is good, just not quite as good…and also feels a bit unfinished. But unlike Mini Motorways, Risk of Rain 2 made a bold change, ditching the two-dimensional world and sprite-based graphics for 3D polygons.

Bringing the z-axis to the tried and true roguelike mechanics of the original Risk of Rain makes for a new experience, for better and worse.

The worlds of RoR2 are bigger and more awe-inspiring. The 3D nature makes some classes and items feel more viable (like the melee Mercenary class) and it’s much easier to dodge incoming enemy attacks.

But the shift in perspective is anything but perfect. Just as enemies miss you more, so too will you often miss your own targets. The camera is both too close and yet also too far away, depending on the situation. The levels, after your inspired awe has left you, are barren, and the main objective of hunting for a teleporter to take you to the next area can be a frustrating venture as they are much more easily camouflaged in the polygonal zones.

It’s also just…not done. As of this writing, there’s no final boss fight, just a shrine that lets you sacrifice yourself to say you’ve “won.” There are missing classes on the menu and the artifact modifiers tab says “coming soon.” Last time I checked, the Switch was not an early access machine, and the fact that this version also gets a “Switch tax” makes it go down even more bitterly.

So why would a deeply flawed game like this make my list? Because the core loop of Risk of Rain is still better than most experiences out there. Stacking power-ups to near omnipotence is a blast, and running around with a friend or three in co-op is more fun than ever. Risk of Rain 2 may eventually become a great game someday, but for now, it’s a good game. And despite its issues, it’s still good enough for me.

7. Baba Is You (Switch, PC)

Sokoban meets coding logic; Baba Is You layers these puzzling elements to create something that feels familiar, yet fresh. It’s a simple concept: You push physical words around the self-contained areas to manipulate the level’s rules and collect a flag…or a different win condition if you’re clever enough.

Take the screenshot above for instance. “Baba is You” means you control Baba. “Flag is Win” means you need to touch the flag to win. But say you push the words “is Win” to vertically align with “Baba.” Now Baba is both you, the player and also the win condition, so you can forget the flag. You win automatically!

The puzzles continue in that fashion, ramping up the challenge very quickly (or maybe I’m just not very good at it.) I’m nowhere near mastering it, but for its highly inventive mix of environmental and logic problems, I’ve got an incredible amount of respect for it.

6. Assemble With Care (Apple Arcade)

I’m kind of down on Apple Arcade as a concept (I’d rather just pay for the few games I want and be done with it), but if games like Assemble With Care keep coming out, I might have to soften my stance. Assemble sees you repairing broken objects like rotary phones, cassette players and watches by using the touchscreen to pull objects apart, replace their busted components and piece them back together. It’s wonderfully serene: There’s no time limit, no logic-defying puzzle box qualities, no Operation-style buzzer if and when you make a mistake. It’s just nice.

A lesser game would leave it at that, but Assemble goes a step further, wrapping the repair mechanics with a short, satisfying story with solid writing and voice acting. It’s this year’s Florence, and while it may not be as impactful as that game, it’s a must play for anyone with an Apple Arcade subscription (or a good reason to burn your free trial if you’re not a subscriber).

5. Untitled Goose Game (Switch, PS4, Xbox One, PC)

Like Assemble With Care, Untitled Goose Game does not hang its hat so much on its mechanics as what it chooses to do with them. There are no fail conditions to Goose Game and what challenge it holds is relatively minimal. But it’s a true sandbox game in that it’s loaded the small town you inhabit with lots of little things to play with and discover. It’s Grand Theft Auto, except they’ve replaced carjacking and shooting with taking an old man’s stool or honking at a kid until he hides inside a phone booth. You’re an asshole, you’re just not a malicious asshole.

A list of tasks helps to keep you focused, but it’s more of a nudge in the right direction so you can discover something else to mess with or people to bother. And once the game is “over,” you get a new, more inventive list of tasks, all with the benefit of the entire sandbox available to you. It might not be the most complex game, but when it comes to the enjoyment of play, it’s one of the best this year.

4. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening (Switch)

I’m well known for my aversion to finishing Zelda games. I’ve played almost all of them and have finished exactly two of them (Oracle of Seasons and A Link Between Worlds, probably not the two you’d expect). And despite enjoying it, even the original Link’s Awakening eluded me, so seeing it get an overhaul in the form of a Switch version excited me. Not only was this a second chance for me to play a classic, but it was also another opportunity for the world to see how great handheld games have always been.

Outside of the really well done tilt-shifted graphics, the remake is mostly made up of small quality of life improvements. The overworld isn’t as rigidly screen-based anymore, allowing the player a little more finesse in dealing with enemies. Some equipment, that on the original Game Boy version must be switched in and out ad nauseam, now has dedicated buttons on the controller (never again must you be without your sword). All these decisions allow for the charm of the design to shine through even easier than its original version.

Would it be nice if the frame rate were more consistent? Sure. Is the Chamber Dungeon a completely extraneous and half-baked idea? Totally. Does it tarnish the fun that’s there to be had here? Not in the slightest.

I’m proud to say Link’s Awakening has joined the pantheon of Zelda games I’ve actually finished. Now maybe someday I’ll finish that “Link to the Past” that everyone keeps talking about…

youtube

3. Super Robot Wars T (Switch, PS4)

Super Robot Wars X made my list last year despite me having only played the PS4 version. So it feels a little more legitimate to have played the Switch version of Super Robot Wars T this year. It’s still not available in the US (you have to import a copy of the Asia version that comes with English subtitles,) and it’s still an extremely flawed game with its repetitive and uninspired level design and overly complicated systems, but man, I love this bad game so much.

I love tinkering in T’s dense mechanics, upgrading my anime mechs for perfect turn-based strategy synergy. I love jumping through hoops to find the right way to recruit new units. And I still love the over the top battle animations – seriously, if you’re bitching about Pokemon’s weak animations, the video above will show you Super Robot Wars has your back.

Plus they’ve added Spike Spiegel from Cowboy Bebop this time around, so there’s at least one recognizable character from a non-Gundam anime you’ve probably seen in here. That’s…progress.

Look, this game probably isn’t for you, but it is totally for me. And Christmas came early this year in that Super Robot Wars V (which came before last year’s X – the naming conventions are not here to make sense) got ported to the Switch, and last year’s Super Robot Wars X will get ported soon too. That’s a lot of anime turn-based strategy to play, and I couldn’t be happier.

2. Pokemon Sword/Shield (Switch)

After much Internet handwringing from an extremely vocal minority, the new Pokemon games came out. And, what do you know, they’re good. Really good. They continue the slow evolution (I’m so sorry) of the franchise with small quality of life enhancements, a few new features and a little trimming of the vestiges. I appreciate the renewed focus on gyms and gym leaders and the single connected world, even if it basically two circles with a straight bit in the middle.

The new Pokemon are…fine. Very few that I detest, but also very few that I’d be willing to write home about. The new Max Raid Battles are generally pretty cool, but they all take advantage of the gimmick I’m least thrilled about: Dynamaxing. Making a Pokemon bigger for three turns is not all that compelling to me. And the Gigantamax variants with their special appearances are neat, but it’s basically just a worse form of Mega Evolution.

So yeah, it’s a good entry in the series. And a good Pokemon game is pretty hard to top in my book.

1. Fire Emblem Three Houses (Switch)

Hard to top, that is, unless you’re Fire Emblem. But despite being a new game in my favorite franchise, I was actually dreading Three Houses. The pre-release coverage did not leave me optimistic. Old features I hated were making a comeback (cough, weapon durability, cough). The art style couldn’t hold a candle to the jaw-droppingly gorgeous previous entry, Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia. And whether Intelligent Systems was admitting it or not, there was a strong Persona-fication at play here (don’t get me wrong, I love Persona, but if you’re going to get your Persona chocolate in my Fire Emblem peanut butter, I’d rather you just make a sequel to Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE.)

So the hopes, they were not high. But Three Houses exceeded my expectations with a cast of characters I really grew to love. My loveable loser Golden Deer crew went from zeroes to heroes, and the ability to recruit students from other classes meant I got to make my dream team (Hilda, Petra, and Lysithea were my undisputed MVPs) when saving the world.

The story was deep and complex, and hearing how it changes based on which house you align with is pretty cool. I enjoyed the control I had in molding my students, and appreciated seeing them have a breakthrough in something they used to struggle with, and it becoming one of their best qualities. Turning a lazy, valley girl like Hilda into a front line tank and hearing her bitching about it every step of the way was especially enjoyable.

It’s not my favorite in the series, but I’m glad it’s seen pretty universal appeal and sales from the community at large, cementing its status as one of Nintendo’s premier franchises. Someday I will play through all four of its routes, but for now, I’m content with it comfortably sitting as my favorite handheld game of 2019.

#goty #gotggoty2019 #chase koeneke #tetris 99 #mini motorways #risk of rain 2 #baba is you #assemble with care #untitled goose game #the legend of zelda link's awakening #link's awakening #super robot wars t #pokemon sword #pokemon shield #Fire Emblem Three Houses

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