#or like the ones pre movie canon if that makes any sense to any of you

[ghost-tings]

aaron: why do we need children books in the house

nicky: for incase we babysit

kevin: he doesn't even come with us to columbia andrew it's a waste of time and money

andrew(on meds): shush *He grabbed a few Disney books*

months later

elio: *sat on the floor having his hair braided reading through one of the many books*

andrew: *looks at the other three* "see books were needed"

[yerimbrit]

[flufftober day 2, wc: 870] - your sweatshirt : y. seoyeon

SOMETHING IS MISSING. no, it’s not the food (or, lack thereof) in your fridge. or the canon digicam that was on your desk, because you watched xinyu sneak it into her tote the other day when she thought you weren’t looking. your hoodie is missing.

on weekend movie nights with your girlfriend, you have a certain hoodie you wear every week without fail. now, weekend movie nights weren’t exactly a thing until around a year ago, and you don’t remember when you started wearing the hoodie during them, but it’s very special, brings back memories to kre’s first stage which you wore it—a white pullover hoodie that has the words “always rooting for s1 yoon seoyeon!” carefully written with a sky blue fabric marker—to.

you still remember the way her eyes sparkled when you surprised her in the waiting room pre-performance, especially after you told her that you wouldn’t be able to make it because of a separate schedule you had as a tripleS member. she held your hand tightly until they were called for standby, her warmth still lingering long after she left. 

anyway, you have an inkling of where the garment has gone. a tiny hint. it might be a figure on the couch, wearing the missing item in question.

you approach the figure, standing in front of them and looming over. “i wonder whose sweatshirt that is…”

they sluggishly look up from their phone, revealing the face of none other than your girlfriend. seoyeon raises her eyebrows, looks down at the hoodie she’s wearing, and looks back at you. she disregards the ever-growing blush on her cheeks and flashes a cheeky smile. “yeah, i wonder who.”

this isn’t the first time she’s stolen clothes of yours. it’s a regular thing; you don’t even need to leave the comfort of seoyeon’s room to get a change of clothes, because half of your closet is in her closet. you can’t remember any of your clothes that she hasn’t worn. it’s practically one of her hobbies, adding to the list which consists of lying around, watching movies… and watching more movies. 

what’s nice about it, though, is the fact that anything that she steals is too big on her. pajama pants pool around her ankles, and she gains sweater paws from any tops she finds. it’s incredibly endearing, and erases any of the (virtually nonexistent) annoyance you might have towards her. like now, where the weekly movie night sweater is bagging up at the sleeves two years later. 

“you’re not gonna give it up, are you?” 

“no?” she retorts, patting the empty space next to her which compels you to sit. the netflix home menu is displayed on the tv, ready to play anything of your choosing. last week’s movie was a rewatch of black panther, one of seoyeon’s all-time favorites and one that the two of you probably rewatch monthly. it never gets old. even if you have to watch the outdated ‘what are those?!’ joke hundreds of times over.

you reach for the remote, which is on top of a stack of albums that everyone in the haus (sans soomin) has signed, and navigate through the different genres that the streaming service offers. “what do you want to watch?”

seoyeon hums, resting her head on your shoulder and fiddling around with the drawstrings of (your) hoodie. her eyes are trained on the screen, watching you sift through rows of movies and shows with a look of disinterest. “you pick.”

glancing down at your girlfriend, who’s now focused on tying the drawstrings into a bow, you jut out your lower lip. your gaze drifts over to the ‘horror’ section and smile. well, it is october. seoyeon seems to notice your lack of movement with the remote and looks up, so you scroll over to it. 

“no, y/n. you can’t do this to me,” she turns to you, absolutely petrified beyond comprehension. her reaction makes sense, because the last horror movie you watched (with kotone and hyerin, when they came over) resulted in paranoia around the haus despite her confidence in not being scared. and you can’t take her seriously when she tries to convince you not to do something, because she really just ends up looking like sad violin music is about to play.

“pfft,” you ruffle her hair and pull the slightly-tightened hood over her head. “you look like that low quality sad hamster.”

“what did you just say about me?” she frowns, seemingly miffed. “it’s barely october. why should we watch a horror movie?”

“it’s still october—a little bit of the conjuring won’t hurt you, seoyeonnie.” 

you press play on the remote, and seoyeon lets out a strangled cry which sounds like a mix of a bird and a dying rat. “you’re dead, y/n. i swear on my life.”

wrapping your arm around her and pulling her closer, you laugh. “we’re not even five minutes in! you’ve got both me and my hoodie you stole, wrapped around you. there’s no need to worry.”

“don’t you hate horror movies too?” seoyeon mumbles into your shoulder, her speech muffled.

oh, that’s what you forgot. but, there’s nothing you can do about it now, is there? “uh… let’s just watch, okay?”

flufftober masterlist!

a/n : hamham iwaly

[puppetwoman17]

Can I just vent for a minute guys? Like, I REALLY need to get this off my chest. Stay with me, okay? I know this sounds kinda bitchy, I just have to get this out.

I absolutely despise—DESPIZZZZE. DC putting Cap/Shazam related things in other comics and having him be a side/background character. It just…Yall, it GRINDS. My. Gears.

Like—the Trinity of Sin standalone issue. That one. Guys. It literally shows the entire council of wizards. It has the SEVEN. DEADLY. SINS. Say what you want about current canon, but the sins have been one of the only recurring points about Billy, Shazam, and the rock. Hell, half the issue happens in KHANDAQ.

Oh and ALSO, it’s literally Billy and his siblings’ job to capture and contain the sins. Main point of current lore. Smack dab in the movies and the comics and one of the consistencies for the rock that has stayed through TIME.

I get Diana. She’s a daughter of Zeus. But Pandora going to the rest of the JL? Who, yes, are importent heroes to us. But to magic as a whole they are inconsequential. Random people in random outfits with random powers who fight crime. The only person who would have an any sort of responsibility would be Fate, and wouldn’t ya know it, HES 👏 NOT 👏 THERE 👏 EITHER.

Again. It is Billy’s. Job. Why are you going to a RANDOM SUPERHERO TEAM—

And you’re telling me the Shazam kids had no idea the sins were out in the world? None at all?

And then there’s….Yall, why is it Superman who is almost always the one fighting Black Adam. Why? What do you GAIIIIN DC? What goes through your mind that says “hey, Cap and Adam have a longstanding rivalry that dates back pre dc. That has a millennia long reason for existing. Both have gone through trials with and against each other. Both are ultimate enemies/friends/frenemies. Both understand each other in some way.

So you know what WERE gonna do? You know what great idea we have? LETS. HAVE ADAM FIGHT THE RANDOM ALIEN HE HAD NO IDEA EXISTED UNTIL NOW AND JUST PUSH CAP ASIDE. Because, it really would look sooooo weird if Superman didn’t win the big, final battle, wouldn’t it? It would totally make more sense than, you know, two mythical beings empowered with godly power duking it out on a truly equal level. Two people, who have suffered similar heartache.”

At this point, let’s disregard all the champion duties Billy canonically has, because that is what DC just loves to do. You wanna take away that? Let’s take away the champion title! Let’s do it! Let’s ERASE CAPTAIN MARVEL FROM EXISTENCE LIKE DC JUST LOVES TO DO—

Ahem.

Sorry. Didn’t mean to get so heated. My bad. I’m gonna go and uh, read all the issues with scraps of Cap/Shazam content like the bottom feeder I am.

This is the reality of a Captain Marvel fan. Thank you for coming to my ted talk.

[theamityelf]

I’ve been thinking of talent swap AUs and I was wondering if there were any talents you would like to see Makoto have? And like if that varies from ship to ship? Like way back you have that post of different Makoto soulmate AUs with different ships, so that but with talent swaps.

On the top of my head, an Ultimate Neuroscientist Makoto would be interested with Hineagi or Kamuegi. Like Makoto is a minute replacement on the Kamukura project and either encounters pre-op Hajime (and maybe tries to save Hajime’s memories along with giving him talents I don’t know) OR meets Kamukura (and it’s the classic treats Izuru as a human rather than an experiment tropes but Makoto is a scientist here)

Oooh, first of all, there's one relevant post I made a little bit ago where I said that Ultimate Rule-Breaker would be a cool fit for him, since we know he will defy the establishment to protect other people.

But your specific idea of matching it to specific ships like in my soulmate AU's post is really cool, so let's give it a try, lol! I don't want to threaten his just-a-guy-ness, but it could be cool to try to use the alternate ultimate to lean into certain particular dynamics of each ship. It really seems to come down to "Is it more fun to do opposites or to coordinate?"

Kamuegi:

Here, I really want to retain the sense of "He isn't super skilled; he's just a really decent guy." A part of me wants to go "Ultimate Therapist" or somewhere in that ballpark, specifically because it justifies Hope's Peak's scientists having arranged for them to be around each other, but I think it's a little important to me that he's not a therapist. It feels like it takes away from his Power of Friendship thing if he's a therapist. Not knocking therapy! It's just maybe not best for the ship. I think the best thing he can offer Izuru is an appreciation for the world around him, so something like "Ultimate Bird-Watcher", like in that other post, or "Ultimate Stargazer," or just something in the ballpark of "person whose skill comes from enjoying things and dedicating himself to that enjoyment". Canon Makoto seems to more have that with people, but for this AU, I think the highly social aspect of Makoto's personality can receive less emphasis. I think for now I'm going to go with "Ultimate Storm-Chaser", because that combines a few cool things. It's an enjoyment of the natural world, it's a kind of wild side that we don't usually get to see a lot from Makoto, it characterizes the whole Naegi family in a pretty fun way (like, I'm just picturing them in a station wagon or van, following storms since Makoto and Komaru were little kids), and it's a thing where Makoto's clumsiness and Izuru's protection can put them in cool situations. And Makoto can still get some heroics in, saving people who are in the path of natural disasters. (I'm picturing the standard screaming child in a disaster movie.)

Naegami:

Oh boy, where to start for this one? I'm not going to act like Ultimate Secretary didn't cross my mind first, but I think the appeal of AU's where he actually becomes Byakuya's secretary isn't usually the idea that he'll be superhumanly good at it. Next, the idea of them being placed at odds by their titles comes to mind. Like, maybe the Togami Corporation is up to some harmful practices and Makoto is the Ultimate Environmentalist, or the Ultimate Activist, and he tries to appeal to Byakuya's better nature, and also it's really funny to think "The Ultimate Environmentalist saves the planet by accidentally romancing the most influential CEO." Boy, I started this point planning to say "but instead", but now I've kind of talked myself into this one. I think I like this dynamic?? Makoto just trying to reason with him, Byakuya reading him as some wide-eyed idealist at first, but Makoto is able to parry everything he says, and they have a Vibe, and then they're dating, and Byakuya really likes him, but if he actually makes the changes that Makoto is passionate about, he's worried Makoto will leave him because a part of him has thought that Makoto was just using him the whole time.

(Also, hey, it's me from after I finished the rest of this post. Yeah, the answer I give for Naezono also applies here.)

Naegiri:

I am pretty charmed by the idea of him being something that stands at odds with Ultimate Detective, like Ultimate Accomplice (and there are a lot of ways he could be someone who deliberately or accidentally keeps people from getting in trouble while she's trying to find out the truth no matter what), but it seems more aligned with the spirit of the ship if he gets something that pairs well with detective, like "Ultimate Lip-Reader". That one would probably involve a lot of him tagging along on the field with her, offering his thoughts and insights and telling her what people are saying in silent security footage. Alternatively, any Ultimate where she's doing the field work as a detective and he's doing the office and/or people-facing side is cool, so "Ultimate Secretary" would actually be pretty great for this ship. (That one fic, Smile at the Mouth of Despair, had him doing file work and stuff, and I kind of love that; it's what I'm visualizing for this point. I like him sorting files and taking calls.)

Komaegi:

Is "Ultimate Friend" cheating? Yeah, that's cheating. I kind of like Ultimate Survivalist, maybe, where people expect him to be really strong and cool, but he's just a somewhat clumsy little guy who just happens to regularly dodge heavy projectiles and happen to have the exact thing he needs in his backpack. (This could include him knowing aikido, since we all love Aikido Makoto, lol.) The way this would intersect with Nagito is, in any given plane crash or house fire or explosion, Makoto theoretically should be safe and able to help Nagito out. I say theoretically because there is a part of me that thinks Nagito's luck would have to kill the Ultimate Survivalist. I don't always subscribe to the theory that his luck does the least likely thing (whether it's good or bad), but I do think that an Ultimate Survivalist, even if the talent works exactly like Makoto's normal luck, would be tempting fate just by being called that.

Honestly, while I said that the highly social aspect of Makoto's character didn't need to be emphasized for Izuru, I feel it definitely does for Nagito, hence the "Ultimate Friend" idea. But I'm thinking maybe a service role that Makoto can have a decidedly healthy approach to, like Ultimate Barista? Is there a word for someone who picks up litter? Because I love the idea of Makoto's Ultimate being focused on cleaning up after people, but him having an overall more generous and friendly outlook on them than Nagito. Maybe Makoto is the Ultimate Custodian, and a lot of people expect him to resent people who drop trash, but he's more, "I'm glad I can help out. Sometimes people are busy or make mistakes, and I'm glad I can keep our shared spaces clean. I meet a lot of interesting people! For example..."

A talent that positions him to know when something's off with Nagito even if he doesn't say anything, like "Ultimate Body Language Expert", would theoretically be cool, because it would allow for Makoto to comfort him when he really needs it, but that also feels a little bit like cheating, lol.

(Him being the Lucky Student, Ultimate Hope, or talentless honestly work best for Nagito, in my opinion, but these are still fun dynamics to explore.)

Naenami:

Oooh, maybe Ultimate Game-Breaker? This is kind of a fusion of bad luck and gamer, where he will reliably find the bug in any game always. Maybe too similar. I think what I'm picturing for them right now is Makoto having a YouTube channel or Twitch channel where he talks about stuff he likes. Like, maybe a CinemaWins kind of thing, but unscripted, where he's actually rambling to the camera. That way, we get a dynamic where Chiaki makes Let's Plays and Makoto makes just general positive vlog content. They try out a new game together, and Makoto is raving about how cool it is and Chiaki's like, "It's fun. The crafting mechanic is a little buggy, and they didn't really integrate it into any storyline. Yeah, it's a pretty good new release." I'm going to say he mostly vlogs, so I can call him Ultimate Positivity Vlogger instead of having to find a way word all of that in one Ultimate title, lol.

Naezono:

Ultimate Stage Hand or Light Technician could be fun. Maybe Ultimate Celebrity Interviewer, and they have one conversation that is just so incredible that she never stops thinking about it. He has a way of really making the people he interviews feel seen and cared about, and that's just so unusual in the entertainment industry that Sayaka falls head over heels. (He doesn't know he has this effect.)

Naekusaba:

Ooh, I'm feeling something in the ballpark of Ultimate Bookkeeper, or just any collection-type Ultimate. Something unassuming in the eyes of pretty much everyone. Here's why: Making him a passionate collector of [something] means we can have Mukuro often shyly gifting him one of [that thing] that she found while she was out doing soldier stuff. He gets to nervously ask, "You didn't kill someone for that, did you?" and she gets to lie, "No, I bought it," or "No, I found it." Also, it means maybe one day Mukuro knocks on his door bleeding, injured, with nowhere else to go, being followed by enemies, and Makoto hides her in his home which is full of collected things and enemy soldiers show up at his house like "Have you seen [description of Mukuro]?" and he's like, "No, I'm here alone. No one's been here." And the enemy soldiers barge in anyway to search the place, but in all his collected things, they can't find Mukuro, so they leave and he brings her some food and water and does his best to bandage her up (or she just stitches up her own wound), and she notices that he has a little bruise or scratch from when the enemy soldiers pushed him aside to search the place, and she's so sorry she brought danger to his door.

Naejunko:

I think Ultimate Hope is already perfect for that one. Alternatively, though, something like "Ultimate World Ender" or some similar thing positioning him as potentially usable to her. It would follow the same rules as "Ultimate Rule-Breaker", though, where the whole point is that he prioritizes others' wellbeing over any establishment, so it would be a situation where Junko tries to make use of his talent for destroying organizations from within (because that's the essence of his talent, here; he's really good at dismantling organizations), but it doesn't work because he's not just out there destroying things; his priority is to help people, and he was titled the way he was because those running the establishments that do harm were seeing him from their own perspectives. Junko can't get the Ultimate World Ender (or whatever else his title is) to end the world, and he's actually a pretty big inconvenience for her.

Or "Ultimate Barista" again. She's talking about her despair plans with Mukuro in some cafe, and Makoto brings them their coffee or tea, like, "Are you guys writing a book?" and casually weighs in on "plot elements" that interest or confuse him, accidentally helping Junko make her plan better. She keeps inviting him to their table for more artistic feedback, and he's having a great time talking with them. They become regulars, and he memorizes Mukuro's order and, even though Junko always orders something different, he seems to somehow intuit the kinds of flavors she enjoys and makes great recommendations. She's in love.

[wildbwills]

so like @cherie-luvv mentioned wanting to make a post about ship opinions and I want to do that too! So we can do it together :3

Uhhh I don’t really feel too strongly about any of the ships but I have vague opinions so here they are, if you disagree that’s fine!

Thomas/Teresa: would have been better as siblings. Makes vague sense I guess, what she did was not forgivable so…. Thomas u can do better.

Thomas/Brenda: Better than him and Teresa, I like their movie dynamic way more than their book dynamic. Also they work well as partners (romance is not always necessary :)

Thomas/Newt: they have a lot of meaningful moments and a good bond w/ each other. My favorite ship in the whole series I think.

Newt/Minho: Not really something I considered before joining the fandom but pre-Thomas’s arrival yeah totally this makes sense they have a great dynamic.

Thomas/Minho: not for me but like…i understand….i see it.

Newt/Minho/Thomas: uhhh. I get it I guess but I feel like their combined dynamic leans a lot more towards roommates? I don’t know I guess I don’t really see it because most of the time all three of them don’t interact as a three person group.

Teresa/Brenda: Nah. Like I get it, but they never interact and when they do it’s so stiff and their ideals clash so much that I feel like it’s so improbable. (Out of canon is fair game though)

Alby/Newt: Not so much as Newt/Minho but I see it I guess. Very ‘old couple who argues a lot’ vibe

anything with Ben: I don’t think we got to know him well enough to like REALLY ship him with anyone but I’m not opposed to it

anything with Gally: there’s people who are all for these and good for you guys! I need to re-read TDC because my main memory of him is mean Glade Gally. I did really like him when he came back (if I remember right) and he deserves someone :3

uhhhh

Sonya/Harriet: yes.

IF I MISSED SOME SORRY IM NOT REALLY INTO SHIPS SO THESE ARE JUST THE ONES IVE SEEN MENTIONED OKAY BYE.

[spnfanficpond]

New Member Spotlight September 2024

The Pond is always growing and we want to make our new members feel welcome! Here’s a list of recent additions to our fishy family and a little info about them!

Turtles

Mads - she/her, US, BookFreaks24 (Discord)

OTP? - I’m definitely a multishipper! ;)

Looking for in the Pond? - Mostly see how the fandom's been thriving over time. Check in with the community.

Pairings you read? - Mostly slash ships but poly occasionally works it’s way in there.

Genres you read? - Crack is an all-time favorite. But my most common genre is hurt/comfort.

What do you like to write? - Mostly pre-series thoughts and dabbles for myself. I tend to jot down headcanons whenever they pop up in my head. 😅

Guppies, Jellies, and Mutuals, oh, my!

Nightbreaker - Eastern US, @the-nightbreaker, The_Nightbreaker (AO3 & Discord)

Looking for in the Pond? - Writing friends and readers :)

Genres you read? - Angst and fluff

What do you like to write? - Angst and fluff. Mostly angst. Mostly Sam trauma angst.

Masterlist!

Dallas - it/he/they, West Coast US, @thicc-mothman, @hotel-casifornia, Thicc_Mothman (AO3), thiccmothman420 (Discord)

OTP? - Destiel

Other fandoms? - lots & lots, far too many to all list

Looking for in the Pond? - community and to get some of my writing out there

Pairings you read? - reader inserts & oc fics mostly

Genres you read? - all kinds, i do favor smut the most though

Masterlist!

Ciel - East Coast US, @incesthemes, southerngothics (AO3 & Discord)

OTP? - wincest (samdean, more weirdcest than wincest)

Other fandoms? - the terror (amc) predominantly, but also a lot of other boat media too. i'm also a fan of interview with the vampire

Looking for in the Pond? - it seems like a great way to network, and also a nice place to talk in-depth about writing and writing theory :)

Pairings you read? - i basically only read wincest shipfic. there are a few ships i'm interested in outside of wincest, but i haven't explored much of the fic scene for them

Genres you read? - i don't have any specific genres i enjoy reading; i just like long (or longer, 7k+ words with no upper limit), well-written, plot-heavy stories. my favorite tropes are soulbonds, bodyswaps, genderbends (in-universe supernatural gender transformation, NOT different gender aus), and canon divergent aus.

Favorite writer(s)? - i'm a big fan of @according2thelore's fics :)

What do you like to write? - i like writing longer stories (15k+) with horror elements—i almost exclusively write romance as a horror, with complicated and toxic relationships are the crux of the conflict and a source of dread and anxiety. otherwise, i enjoy writing much shorter character/relationship studies which deal with a sense of unreality and experimental/creative prose styles.

Masterlist!

Something you haven't written but would like to try? Why not? How can we help? -i have a million and one wips and no time to finish them, lol

Nicole - she/her, Central US, @honestlydonotcareenough, Lorel77 (AO3), nicoleveryofficial (Discord)

OTP? - Destiel (but am a true multishipper)

Other fandoms? - Stephen King's IT

Looking for in the Pond? - Fandom community and getting excited about writing!

Pairings you read? - Usually ships, but am excited to start RIs

Genres you read? - Angst, AUs, casefic

Favorite writer(s)? - kalliel on AO3 is an old favorite :) valleydean (AO3) too

What do you like to write? - i've only written one spn fic, and it was fluffy pre-slash

Masterlist!

Most underappreciated fic? - monster movie

Something you haven't written but would like to try? Why not? How can we help? -I'd like to write a couple of AUs, but they seem like big projects! I could also use help with character voice honestly

Freyja - she/her, South Africa, @eldritchlibertine, EldritchLibertine (AO3), Perephone/hellisotherpeople (Discord)

Other fandoms? - AHS, Marvel, TVD, True Blood

Looking for in the Pond? - Friends who read fanfic, friends who write fanfic, advise on my own fanfic, recommendations, community.

Pairings you read? - Reader inserts and OCs mainly.

Genres you read? - Angst, smut, slow burn, whump

What do you like to write? - Angst, slow-burn, reader inserts, sometimes smut

Amanranth - she/her, under 18 years old, Eastern US, @darkdiamonds7, morethanoneface (Discord)

OTP? - I don’t have one! I’m only on Season 6, but I haven’t found a ship I really like yet. I guess I would say I ship Dean with my OC

Other fandoms? - Marvel, The Owl House, Gravity Falls, AtLA, Shadow and Bone, Spiderverse, Hamilton, Lunar Chronicles, Brandon Sanderson Cosmere, Outer Banks, Arcane, Lord of the Rings, and Wings of Fire

Looking for in the Pond? - I’m looking to read other people’s stuff so I can learn from their example. I’m looking for a community to talk about SPN and delve into its themes. I’m looking for answers about how to write fanfiction. And, maybe, eventually, I’m looking for a place to advertise my work and get feedback.

Pairings you read? - Reader inserts and OC inserts are my favorite to read, and I also love anything AU. But I’ll read anything 😈

Genres you read? - Def fluff, followed by angst

Favorite writer(s)? - Rebekah13592 on Quotev. I read Sola by her over several years and loved it

What do you like to write? - OC inserts, that change the plot slightly. I also add in my own details if there’s something in the original material that I hate

Arty - she/her, UK, @artyandink, artyandink (Discord)

OTP? - Either Dean x Jo (they could’ve worked if she stayed) or Sam x Eileen

Looking for in the Pond? - To share my work with other writers, support them and make friends :)

Pairings you read? - Reader inserts

Genres you read? - Fav trope: coworkers to lovers and I read pretty much any genre

Favorite writer(s)? - @zepskies (same name on AO3)

What do you like to write? - Smut/angst/crack/fluff

tête-à-tête

Most underappreciated fic? - tête-à-tête (Dawson's Creek)

That's all for this month, folks! (If we're missing anyone, let us know and we'll add them to next month's list!) Make sure to say hi to the newbies and make them feel welcome! Thanks to all from @manawhaat, @mrswhozeewhatsis, @mariekoukie6661, @thoughtslikeaminefield, @heavenssexiestangel, and @spn-fanfic-reblog-writes!

[simpingforclaudette]

This is the main account of rrpexp. I was wondering if you had any more thoughts about randy and Stu (and billy if any). Please 🙏 I'm so starved for content!

omg hi! i'm SO sorry for the late answer. i don't check my inbox very often. thank you so much for the ask! and yes, i have more thoughts (:

my first thought is an au where stu lives and is in jail during the events of scream 2 and randy goes to question to him to figure out who are the new ghostfaces.

i feel like this could be an interesting dialogue-heavy fic where stu keeps derailing the conversation by bringing up things that happened between him and randy, things randy is desperate to forget because he's struggling with coming to terms with his bisexuality and the fact that he's had a thing with stu, now known as one of the most infamous serial killers in america.

bonus angst points if randy still dies and stu completely loses touch with reality afterwards, using his phone time in jail to "talk" to him.

my second thought is an au where stu dies, but becomes a ghost and starts haunting randy, going as far as possessing him to commit more murders. but as time goes on, randy's body starts rotting, which means he has to find a way to get rid off stu before he dies.

i just love the idea of zombie! or ghost! stu and body horror and this is a perfect mix of those two things. i also love this scenario because i can't see stu being a genuinely healthy partner for randy, even outside of this au, so it could showcase how toxic their relationship would be and how randy could learn to accept his sexual orientation and stand up for himself and move on.

my third thought is more of a stu/randy/billy thing. it's basically a pre-canon au where randy gets romantically involved with stu and billy. they have secret meet ups, both at stu's house and outside of woodsboro. at some point randy starts sensing something's off about them. he’s convinced, knows, they have something in mind, but he's not sure what. and then the first movie's events happen.

i love the idea of randy being this sort of secret witness to billy and stu's relationship and how they came to plan their killing spree without actually seeing anything (does that make sense?). could it be because stu and billy are manipulating him or because he finds too much comfort in the attention they give him to want to see what's happening in front of him? seeing him try to deal with his guilt afterwards would be very interesting to me.

my last idea is just stu stabbing randy in the third act, leaving him in the garage with tatum’s corpse (because who doesn’t love some homoerotic stabbing?) so he doesn’t get back into the house with stu and doesn’t get shot by billy.

this one is interesting because i can see stu stab him on a non-vital part of his body, giving him a chance of survival, and making some joke that he’ll live since he’s a virgin. and hiding him in the garage could be an attempt to hide him from billy, to make sure he doesn’t find him and finish him off.

that’s pretty much all i have in mind for now. i hope you’ll enjoying reading this as much as i enjoyed writing that reply! if you have stu/randy thoughts too, feel free to send me an ask!

[voxofthevoid]

Hi, can I ask from both ask game :

https://www.tumblr.com/threecheersforinking/677824836625694720/anime-ask-game?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/rafael-silva/90297624190/send-me-a-fandom?source=share

For anime/manga : Jujutsu Kaisen.

Thanks ⭐

For a hot second, I thought I'd reblogged an ask game and forgotten about it 😂

The first one

Favorite Character: Itadori Yuuji. I've talked quite a lot about why I like him so much over the years. Here are a couple of the most recent ones: discussion of 265 and 266, some thoughts on pre-canon Yuuji.

Favorite Arc/Episode/Scene: The Shibuya Incident. I love how it brings together several of the plot threads laid until that point, but mostly, I love how it handles various characters and relationships, especially regarding Yuuji.

Character I Think is Underrated: Kenjaku, I think. They have their fans, but since they're wearing one of the most popular characters in the series (Getou), a lot of people seem to bury their personality and quirks to either make them a one-dimensional villain or turn them into Getou Lite.

Character I Think is Overrated: Getou Suguru. I understand his appeal, and he's definitely an interesting character. But people give his ideology and his rationale for it far too much respect and leeway. It's idiotic, impractical, and a sign of trauma more than thought, which makes perfect sense from his subjective perspective, but I see far too much of it being treated as logical or even ideal by JJK fans.

Favorite Ship/Pairing: Gojou/Yuuji—here's a post where I go into why I like and ship it. It's from May 2023, and I've added far more fuel into my goyuu flame since then, but the fundamentals remain the same.

Something I Love About the Show/Movie: The characters and character dynamics, definitely. The worldbuilding is interesting, but its greatest appeal lies in how it facilitates rich character exploration. The plot quality is...inconsistent, to put it mildly, and the ending doesn't even remotely live up to the build-up, which retroactively fucks with the whole thing.

The second one

The first character I first fell in love with: Yuuji!

The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: Kenjaku, my MILF of the millennium

The character everyone else loves that I don’t: Getou? But JJK is very much a series where there's no such thing as "a character everyone else loves." Everyone has lovers and haters.

The character I love that everyone else hates: Uh, Mei Mei? I wouldn't say I love her, but I find her entertaining, incestuous child predation included. Like above though, she's got plenty of fans.

The character I used to love but don’t any longer: Nobody, really. Characters I loved, I still love. Some characters I merely liked fell into the shitlist due to fandom behavior (Getou) or I started liking them a little less due to canon (Megumi and Nobara), but I haven't changed my mind drastically about anyone.

The character I would totally smooch: Nearly all of them. JJK designs are hot.

The character I’d want to be like: None of them! I like my sanity and insanity as they currently are.

The character I’d slap: Like...sexily or seriously? Well, Sukuna for both! That belly mouth could use a few smacks.

A pairing that I love: Gojou/Yuuji (it's done things to me no ship ever has before)

A pairing that I despise: Gojou/Sukuna (yes, I find even satosugu better than sukugo)

Thanks for asking!

[mirixmoya]

hello friends welcome to GRADING TORTURED POET SOCIETY SONGS BASED ON HOW EASILY I COULD TURN THEM INTO A HAYFFIE FIC (PART TWO) i hope u enjoy.

(you can find PART ONE here, for anyone interested!)

i. the black dog: 8/10. excellent directly-post-war hayffie song. captures a moment when they haven't quite re-connected yet, but they're both dying without eachother. "my longings stay unspoken, and i may never open up the way i did for you" "six weeks of breathing clean air, i still miss the smoke" is all very them. a really effective illustration of how the world feels like a different place in heartbreak, it's desolate and aching, which is all very very hayffie.

ii. imgonnagetyouback: 9/10. this song is bananas crazy, but so is effie. so it fits. it reeks of the turbulent, on-again-off-again, boundaryless, situationship parts of hayffie. once again, i think this could be a VERY good directly-post-war vibe. "i can tell when somebody still wants me" "you'll find that you were never not mine" "even if it's handcuffed, i'm leaving here with you" are all crazy thought processes which i can 100% imagine effie having.

iii. the albatross: 7/10. i know everyone is really stuck on this being a lucy gray / katniss / snow parallel song, but i see the hayffie vision! i think it would be a good song to juxtapose all of effie's relationships with capitol men against her relationship with haymitch. how is she made to behave by love? how does her fame + position loom over her relationships? effie is mythologized by the men in her life, almost made unreal by their perceptions of her, and it's haymitch who makes her real again. if any of that makes sense.

iv. chloe or sam or sophia or marcus: 8/10. EVERYONE HEAR ME OUT ON THIS ONE, but i have this vision of really angsty post-canon hayffie where they try to make a proper relationship work, they really do, but they just... can't. but there is an ache to this failure. a regret. they thought that they would always be able to come back to this, to eachother, but they discover that life is actually a series of closed doors. things change over time. they're forced to grieve this past version of their relationship that they simply don't have access to anymore. "you turned me into an idea of sorts, you needed me but you needed drugs (ALCOHOL) more" "could it be enough to just float in your orbit?" "if you want to break my cold, cold heart, say you loved me" ... yeah, the angst potential is endless.

v: how did it end?: 7/10. ONCE AGAIN, excellent bones for an angsty post-canon 'well, it didn't work out' hayffie vibe. good general thg imagery with "lost the game of chance, what are the chances?" + "the empathetic hunger descends" etc etc. "we were blind to unforeseen circumstances" very very them.

vi: so high school: 5/10. i feel like i could twist it to be hayffie if i tried really hard. like maybe a post-canon movie-verse traumaless fluff vibe where everything just falls into place. "no one's ever had me, not like you" is a very good line for hayffie tho.

vii: i hate it here: 8/10. excellent potential for a pre-canon / during-canon hayffie where effie uses their relationship as her refuge from the rest of the world, it's the only place she can truly be herself. the precocious child stuff, the debutant stuff, "i'm lonely but i'm good, i'm bitter but i swear i'm fine", all feels veryyy effie. this song would also be a good framework for effie being incapable of articulating her relationship with haymitch to other people, the magic of it is lost on them, it comes out clunky and awkward. but SHE knows it's real.

viii: thanK you aIMee: 2/10. not a hayffie song. but i feel like i could make it about effie & The Other Escorts if i really tried.

ix: i look in people's windows: 6/10. listen, this album is just an post-canon hayffie gold mine. "i had died the tiniest death" (the war) "i'm afflicted by the not knowing" (her relationship with haymitch) "what if your eyes looked up and met mine, one more time" (they can try again, can't they?). the anxious, almost neurotic ruminating is very effie to me.

x. the prophecy: 10/10. THE HAYFFIE SONG! if you saw the twitter edit before it got taken down, you KNOW. "don't want money, just someone who wants my company" "i'm so afraid i've sealed by fate" ... devastating. i think the illusions to prophecy & fate & this lack of control all play into her role in The Games really well. the idea that she's being punished for her sins by this lack of love. so much of effie is controlled and precise, i think the fact that this one thing (her relationship with haymitch) is sooo out of her control would drive her insane. perhaps insane enough to beg on her knees...

xi. cassandra: 4/10. not really hayffie focused, but good potential for one of my more politically focused fics. maybe the year of the 75th, leading right up to the rebellion. cinna & portia strike me as very cassandra-coded.

xii. peter: 1/10. not hayffie. maybe seneca & effie relationship study, but def not hayffie.

xiii. the bolter: 10/10. PERFECT EFFIE SONG! NO NOTES! SHE IS THE BOLTER! a precocious child with a "quite bewitching face" who is "splendidly selfish, charmingly helpless"??? welcome back effie trinket! the chorus is very hayffie to me. i'm thinking pre-canon early affair vibes. we get all the fun contrast between her relationship with haymitch and her relationship with the capitol "trophy hunters". the bridge could not be more effie if it tried, "hearts are hers for the breaking, there's an escape in escaping". she falls through the ice (the war) but don't worry folks, she comes out alive!

xiv. robin: 0/10. i genuinely have no idea what i could do with this song. sorry.

xv. the manuscript: 3/10. potential for post-canon living-happily-ever-after hayffie but with effie reflecting on her past relationships with capitol men. there's lots of illusions to grooming and the imprint that age-gap relationships leave behind that i think could really work.

[pencileraser1]

u were keatposting in my asks. now i must do the same in yours since my brain is so obviously filled with him. share ur keating thoughts i know theyre hiding in there!!!!!!!!

i'm just gonna thoughtsdump about this it might not be coherent?but here we go

a lot of my keating thoughts are kind of depressing uh

i think the really tragic thing about this movie (or one of them i guess) is that in the end basically everything that happened likely didn't matter enough in the long term. and one of the biggest losses is that i kind of do think that after keating left, almost none of the students would continue to apply what he taught them. the biggest exceptions to this would be todd and sort of half charlie, i do pretty much agree with the post canon idea that it's likely that todd would end up an english teacher. and i think that he's probably the only person who would genuinely continue to actually apply what keating taught him. charlie i think would continue to be rebellious for a bit longer and then eventually sort of fall in line with what his parents wanted from him in the end, the best outcome is probably that he'd go on to be some sort of artist but i don't think it's super likely that that's what he'd do long term/all the time if that makes sense. for the rest of the poets, i think they'd all go back to how they were before pre-keating. i think you mentioned that neil was really the person who understood keatings lessons the best, which i agree with, and him dying likely prevented the rest of the poets from really getting it before keating left. basically my thought about this is that at the end of the movie, todd and keating are both fundamentally changed, but the rest of the poets aren't, and how much they were able to change is not enough to create a lasting impact.

on a lighter note someone said that possibly the most impressive mark of what keating did was that hopkins stood up on the desk at the end. and while i think that the combination of todd being able to stand up on his desk first, and how keating and neil made it possible to do so is more impressive, i think it maybe comes in in close second for me (i know i just went on a tangent about this not mattering that much but it did matter a little bit and this is still very impressive. like the guy shown to be the Most skeptical stood on the desk that's a lot)

i've seen a theory floating around every once in a while that keating's experience with the first dead poets society might have been similar to what happened with neil, like he had a friend in the society who also committed suicide, and i kind of don't like that theory very much? i guess there are a few elements to it, the biggest being that if someone died the first time, i don't think that keating would even entertain the thought of restarting it. and the second is that i honestly think we could come up with something a lot more interesting.

keating went to welton during ww2, (there's a small possible plothole/timeline issue which is that nolan tells keating he taught english "way before you're time," per the annual, keating begun attending welton in 1941, when nolan was probably about 40 and i suspect not principal since there isn't really any familiarity between the two. my personal theory which i actually really like now that i'm thinking about it is that nolan wasn't at welton from 1941-1944 for some reason, probably ww2 related. not sure Exactly how, nolan's old enough that it's unlikely he would've actually fought unless he had been in the military before, but that could also be interesting, idk there's a lot of possibilities) the us joined ww2 at the end of 1941 so for almost the entire time keating was in school, that would have been going on. and i think that would have put a very unique type of stress on the school and i think it would be really interesting to think about the poet's experience during that time. what i do think happened in lieu of someone dying is probably that they got in some significant amount of trouble at some point, or possibly that they didn't exactly get in trouble but that there was some other issue related to the administration.

other interesting details from the annual: keating was varsity soccer captain and editor of the school annual, likely how he got dps under his name. also btw keating was the soccer coach during the movie if that wasn't clear since the soccer team is. just keatings class minus cameron whose doing fencing. and i only realized this after reading the book (which i do not reccomend if you want to read the book just read the old script it's got all the same stuff and i honestly think the writings better in the script)

anyways i think we should come up with more theories about the original dead poets. bc i think that could be interesting.

i think we were kind of talking about the keating/neil parallels a bit and i'm just gonna talk more about that as well bc i'm a bit insane about it. so like as previously mentioned!!! neil is the one who fundamentally understood keating the most probably (todd and charlie also understood keating but in different ways kind of??? and i think you've spoken about this before too) and there's a lot of like; keating likely starting the original dps/neil starting dps 2.0, both being editors of the school annual (sort of), both encouraging people (todd) to express themselves in ways they might not have thought possible

the way keating and neil's storylines end are also similar. they both set out with a specific goal and while they are successful at first, they are both stopped in ways that are ultimately kind of catastrophic. not fully coherent about this yet but. wanted to add it.

also just wanted to briefly mention keating and mcallister bc i really liked their relationship, all of m thoughts have already been said but i just wanted to add that

keating is in a position where he understands what his students are going through in a way that none of the other teachers do and throughout the movie i honestly think his goal was at least partially just to make their lives just a little bit better. like some of his students would get it and some wouldn't, but for all of them they have one class where the teacher is nice and not as strict or exhausting or gives them ridiculous amounts of homework. and even if keating is just. the one class that's a little bit easier. that still probably helps so much with how the environment at welton was. obviously keatings ultimate goal was probably to teach his students to think for themselves and about what they specifically want but i think the smaller impacts of like. ok here's one class where the teacher isn't a hardass is meaningful too.

[wystericwoes]

Doomed, Sukuna x reader Pt. 2

Masterlist

Warnings: Cursing, violence, gore, descriptions of blood/death, anxiety, it’s JJK so death and fighting are inevitable. Season 1 and Movie 0 spoilers

Adding a whole new character to a pre-established story means some things in the canon are going to be changed. I try my best to stay on the same line and remain honorable to the original characters personalities/timelines so keep that in mind if something doesn't make sense. Or give me some feedback! I'd love to hear it.

“He was her dark fairytale and she was his twisted fantasy. Together they made magic.”

His state was laughable.

To say Sukuna felt a storm of emotions was the understatement of the fucking century.

He’s going crazy. That’s it. He’s been away from his own soul and was in his own domain for so long he’s hallucinating.

“Yuuji is currently harboring a special grade curse. I told you he never ceases to impress me!”

Gojo said with confidence, Yuuji smiled from the compliment.

You locked eyes back to where the second pair was, but when you went to look back all that was there were two eye shaped scars.

“A special grade curse? Like the thing I saw?”

“Oh no. That was just a grade 3. A special grade is the highest level, almost in the same league as I am.”

You didn’t know the extent of Gojo's power, so whenever he would say shit like that you didn’t really have a frame of reference. So, you took most of what he said with a grain of salt, because assuming there was a reason for all his confidence and it wasn't all just talk- that he was actually as strong as he said he was, made you feel abnormally peeved.

That brief second you had seen those eyes you felt a sense of Deja vu. But not a nostalgic one, one that stuck with you like a glue trap.

Life moved on. You met the other students and teachers, slowly sinking into this new and flawed reality that has become your life. Gojo never leaves your side the whole day.

Your attempts at channeling cursed energy were a total bust. And quite frankly- very embarrassing.

You tried everything that your very annoying mentor told you.

“Focus”

“Breathe.”

“Think of something negative.”

"Try thinking about things that stress you out."

"Try a reallyyy bad memory!"

"What's something that gets you angry?"

“Close your eyes and count to five, then start again.”

“Have you tried breathing?”

You couldn’t conjure anything. It’s like you didn’t even have powers at all.

You felt like both a disappointment and like giving up. Gojo kept on fucking insisting that you keep trying for some reason. He would just not let it go.

“Maybe you’re just a slow learner. That’s fine- “

You groaned in frustration.

“Maybe I don’t have any ‘magic powers’ and I’m just really unlucky and can only see them.”

At first you were excited, you had superpowers. What could you do??

But that opinion slowly changed as the sun began to set. It had felt like hours that you were out here trying all these moves and techniques. After so many times hitting the air and straining your muscles you began to feel ridiculous.

You had barely even seen it in action, so you didn’t even have anything to go off of

You were about to give up when Gojo stood behind you and put a hand on your shoulder, fanning his breath against your ear.

“Come on. Just one more try, hm?”

He snaked his hand down from your shoulder to your waist, and with the other one he held your arm out.

Heat rose to your cheeks as you tried to hide the increasing tension that he had created.

“Think of something that makes you feel strong emotion.”

The first thing that came to mind was what it would feel like to fuck the man behind you. Was he doing this on purpose?

What he was into, all the positions. If he’s really as strong as you think he is what could he do to you?

Images flashed through your mind of the not holiest of things, your body heated up as he rested his chin on your shoulder, and you struggled to keep your hand held out as goosebumps were sent down your spine from how close he was to you. Each breath sent a shock through your body as you grew increasingly more sensitive.

He was definitely doing this on purpose.

“Satoru…” you had whispered out.

His hand on your waist moved down to your hips as he began to squeeze harder, that made you feel something carnal. A warmth spread through your body, and you suddenly felt electric as the tips of your fingers lightly pulsed.

You were facing him, faces so close you thought he would kiss you.

He went to nibble on your earlobe which elicited a small moan from the sudden sensation.

His chin rested back on your shoulder.

“Look.” He whispered softly in your ear.

You looked forward for the first time in a moment and noticed a white light was emitting itself from your hand.

“WOAH!”

You were shocked out of it, and it quickly flickered out and died as you jumped back further into Gojo's arms.

“Easy now…” he supported your weight as you leaned against him for support.

“That… did that happen?”

Your heart was racing.

“Mhm.”

He spun you around by your waist as you looked at where his eyes are through the blindfold. You didn’t know if he could see you, but you pretended he could.

“I did that.”

“You sure did.”

He was smiling warmly as if he had just accomplished something.

“You’re not fucking with me?”

“Nope”

“You didn’t do that.”

“Correct!”

“I did that.”

You awkwardly laughed.

“How?”

“I knew you could.”

That praise he had given you along with his smile drove you mad. You both wanted to kiss him and pounce on him and hug him. All at once maybe.

"Go rest. You deserve it."

You felt accomplished and proud of yourself. although a bit disappointed he didn't want to come with you, you took a win as a win, and happily walked away.

The second you turned the corner, his smile dropped.

Gojo returned to his home, deep in thought.

he took his blindfold off and took in his surroundings.

It didn't make any sense. You didn't make any sense.

His whole worldview had been shifted within the span of two days. There's never been many points where the great Gojo Satoru had been completely stumped. Well, he had his theories. But those were just theories. had to figure out how to test them.

He paced around his house as he contemplated whether or not to ask for help. His pride was inflated, but he could admit when he was unable to do something.

Gojo: NANAMIIINN~ I have a question.

Nanami: Do you need to ask me?

Gojo: You're the only one who knows how to keep a secret- everyone else blabs :(

Nanami: That entirely depends on your question, Gojo.

Gojo: Has any sorcerer you ever know ever used reversed curse magic on accident?

Nanami: Why would I know that any better than you?

Gojo: I really need help.

Nanami: How serious is it?

Gojo: If I'm asking you for help...

Nanami: I have a mission tomorrow and will be at the academy for a brief period. If you catch me before then and keep it quick, we can talk.

Gojo: Ok!!! what time is your mission?

Gojo: Nanami?

Gojo: NANNAAAMMMIIIIIIIII >:0

Gojo tossed his phone aside. He had a blank expression on his face.

Every time he would find an answer there’s be more questions. One step toward two steps back

"What are you hiding, Y/n..."

The next day Gojo had left early before you’d be awake when Nanami always gets up (how he is always at work at 5:30 precisely is beyond him)

He sat impatiently tapping his finger at Nanami's desk reading “5:28”

Just before Gojo was tempted to start digging through his stuff Nanami walked in.

“Now, what’s the issue?”

Nanami sat with his elbow on the desk fist clenched against his mouth.

“I see.”

“When I tell you to keep this a secret, I mean it.”

Nanami understood when Gojo was being serious, which was exceptionally rare- and respected that.

“I have no interest in sharing this information.”

He sat deep in thought eyebrows furrowed and eyes closed.

“And I’ve never heard of anything like that, no.”

“I figured.” He sat with the chair facing backwards and his legs on either side.

“You should go to Shoko about this. I’m afraid this isn’t something I know much about.”

“It’s not just that, there’s more to it.”

Nanami listened respectfully as he began dutifully typing away on his computer and started working.

“I can’t see them, Nanami.”

At that he stopped typing, eyes slightly widening.

“I don’t know much, but I know three things. They have a subliminal cursed technique protecting them from six eyes, they naturally used reversed cursed energy, and- “

He took a deep breath.

“Sukuna has been awfully quiet since they arrived.”

Gojo wasn’t proud of seeking help. But Nanami was one of the closest things he had to a friend, and he was the only person he knew at the academy that had no incentive to tell anyone like Mei Mei for money, or power.

The thing about him was that he was loved by everyone but also- no one could fucking stand him. He knows that most his fellow faculty was not above snitching him out to the higher ups or using his emotions against him. Finding a weakness for him was rare after all.

But also, he was consistently lying to everyone around him about you. So, if they had found out about this, there would’ve been too many questions. And being entirely honest with people was sometimes so tiring.

Gojo's desperation was a new look on him. He managed to keep most of it under wraps around you and his peers, but he was losing it.

He had one option left wherein he could get answers.

Hidden to only a select few is a sacred library of sorcerer archives. There it contains every recorded detail of jujutsu history, every student, every crime and name.

It was buried deep within the thousand doors by Tengen, alongside the special grade curses.

It was dusty, and papers with engravings on them were sprawled in every corner.

He shifted through books trying to find what he was looking for, or anything relating to his situation.

There were thousands of years of history, documents, death dates, curses, and the works. He went over all of those without a second glance.

“Reverse cursed energy”

Was the first title to grab his attention.

He flipped through the pages at an ungodly speed, until he reached the page of all known documented users who have used mastered reverse cursed energy.

Present time: (2000- )

-Shoko Ieiri

status- active duty

A very skilled woman who serves as the school's doctor. Has a full understanding and mastery of the technique.

-Geto Suguru

status- deceased

A special-grade sorcerer whose activity was hard to monitor after he went rogue. Not much is known about all he’s capable of except that he can access the technique with the skill of at least a Grade 1 sorcerer. During his time at the academy, he was incredibly skilled, and most likely had control over the technique.

-Kinji Hakari

status- student

A third-year student of immense potential currently suspended for clashing with authority. He has demonstrated immense control over the technique and has a promising future outside his behavioral conflicts.

-Gojo Satoru

status- active duty

A current teacher at Jujutsu high, along with many other mastered techniques he also demonstrates a full control over this technique.

-Okkotsu Yuta

status- student

One of the youngest special-grade sorcerers, Yuta's powers are still not fully understood. A prodigy-born sorcerer who without any extensive training can use it at a skilled level. With no prior knowledge of reverse cursed energy, he successfully healed his peers using the technique in the battle of Geto's invasion.

A person having natural control over reversed cursed energy or knowing it without being taught wasn’t completely unheard of.

What stumped Gojo was that it was the first ever cursed technique you used, and just how enigmatic you were overall. All while being seemingly unaware.

This had proved to be almost entirely useless. He flipped through the pages again scanning to see if anything else would be helpful, he almost skipped past the historical section in the old archives, but decided looking at it wouldn’t hurt.

He browsed through alphabetically of all known sorcerers to have used the technique at a profound mastery or skilled level.

When he got to R something stood out.

Ryomen Sukuna

And just like that, the first red string had been drawn across the cork board tying a correlation.

He closed the book. Somehow a little more satisfied and more frustrated than when he first went in.

Sukuna. Sukuna. Sukuna.

You said his name over and over again in your mind like a prayer.

When Gojo mentioned that name you couldn’t get over that odd feeling that came over you

You wanted to be near him again. But also felt a gut-wrenching nervousness overcome you. Drawn to him like an addictive substance, something you can tell will be bad for you, but you just can't get enough.

Deep deep down something told you to run.

But you suppressed that carnal urge and instead let your brain guide you to your innate desire to know more about him.

You assumed because of curiosity. People can actually get possessed? Well, Yuuji didn’t look very possessed. I mean, all you had to base was on movies, so your judgment wasn’t exactly valid. You didn't know what to look for, blood from the nose, head spinning backward, ominous floating?

You speculated on that until you heard footsteps approaching your door. You were excited because you wanted to see Gojo.

You jumped up to open your door and instead of being met with him, you were met by Yuuji.

“Um hey, I’m supposed to bring you down so we can be briefed on a mission.”

He seemed hesitant; you assumed it was just because he didn’t know you that well.

“Mission...?”

You were so mad at Gojo. His pretty ass face didn’t make it up to you this time.

The day after you managed to conjure up the smallest amount of energy, he lets you be thrown headfirst into the actual field.

“This is going to be a way to test your range of abilities and get some hands-on experience!” That is what he told you before he left to go far away for something. He said that he was gonna be gone away for a while and was gonna be far.

So, then it was you, a man with glasses and dark hair, and three high school students.

The man with the glasses barely spoke a word on the drive there. You were going in almost completely blind, in this scenario you wondered if ignorance was truly bliss.

The remains of a long abandoned middle school. The sky was cloudy, the air was stale. You already didn’t like the feeling of this place.

The man in black addressed the four of you.

“The curse inside is most likely above your grades.”

Megumi was the only one who didn’t appear to be phased by that. What does he mean above? He could see the concern on all of your faces.

“Then why are we here?”

“Unfortunately, in this field, the availability of sorcerers is spread thin.”

His brows were furrowed, and he seemed concerned for you all.

“I only have one piece of advice for you going in… If this curse ends up being a special grade your two options are to run or die.”

If you weren’t scared before, you were now. You could feel your heartbeat inside you, did you have a choice? I mean you weren’t supposed to fight… they just wanted you to watch or so they said.

“I wish you luck.”

He muttered words under his breath, and above you a dark cloud engulfed around the building in a dome shape, effectively trapping you.

“What the hell?!”

Seeing your shock Megumi explained it to you.

“The veil is a way to make sure no passerby’s see, because of the stress it inflicts it could cause problems for us.”

Megumi was quieter between the two of the eccentric characters, he was a bit of the odd one out between them. But his seriousness was a good balance to the playful nature of his comrades. Tactile and good at making decisions in stressful situations.

Yuuji- well you didn’t know much about him other than what Gojo told you. But he seemed nice. Nervous, but a sweet kid. And also, incredibly passionate about finding any survivors or at least their bodies. You admired him and also feared of that.

The mission was simple- destroy the cursed womb, or retreat and take minimal casualties.

Your brain went back to the sight of the woman who had been murdered in front of you. Was this another curse like that? Some gangrenous mutant of absolute evil?

You had to calm yourself and trust that Gojo wouldn’t have let you be put into danger.

And so, you approached the abandoned building.

You wanted to prove something. You weren’t sure what or to who, but you felt the burden of expectations laid onto you.

Megumi quickly briefed you all on what he was instructed to do, and what role everyone was to play. An underlying tone of irritation laced his words, probably because he was stuck with three people who barely knew what they were doing.

Yuuji was supposed to stay with you at all times, and ensure you were never left alone. Yuuji specifically.

Nobara was there to add extra power, and of course give her some in the field experience.

You were told to just “stay in the sidelines” which felt a little degrading considering you were their senior.

Megumi was to make sure everyone followed their roles and keep everyone safe. His cursed ability allowed him to scout areas and cover more ground.

That was a lot of responsibility for one person, but if Gojo trusted him, you did too.

Megumi was essentially the group leader, and as much as you were embarrassed by having to follow orders from someone younger than you- you knew your safety was on the line.

From the shadows underneath Megumi's hand emerged a monster- no. A dog. Megumi explained that he was there to help you all keep track of your surroundings and smell out the threat. When you saw Nobara and Yuuji petting him you couldn’t help but join in. You felt a bit more at ease.

Yuuji was in a mission the second you all walked in. You admired the passion in his eyes as he made a promise out loud that these families would be getting their kids back, or at the very least closure.

When you walked in you were overwhelmed by the sight above you. A series of intricate pipes and structure that went on for seemingly dozens of stories above you.

“Wasn’t this a two-story building?”

Nobara asked concerned.

Megumi was focused, deep in thought as he took in the surroundings around him. Then his eyes widened as he turned around, a moment of realization hitting him like a harsh slap.

“The door…”

You all turned around much to your dismay to see that the door you had come in was gone.

You were fully in the lion's den now. And all that anxiety you had was intensified as you realized there was no turning back.

That all too familiar feeling of shallow breaths and adrenaline shot through you as you did what you could to keep it together. It would be really embarrassing if you had a panic attack in front of these three strangers.

Megumi continued forward supernaturally calm, which made you feel slightly better. He was treating this like it was entirely normal, Yuuji and Nobara followed behind making you feel left out by how unnerving this situation made you feel. Like a sheep, you followed the herd on instinct.

Walking through the halls of this building was an absolute fever dream. You felt disoriented as you wondered this new territory.

Megumi sent one of his demon dogs out as you and the group continued on until you entered a big empty room- something grabbed you and Yuuji's attention.

A dead body, severed in half.

His eyes were bloodshot from fear, mouth agape and surrounded in a pool of dark liquid.

You had become frozen in shock, feeling bile rise up in your throat that you had to hesitantly swallow.

“Is… is that…”

You had your hand against your mouth.

Yuuji approached the body without a second thought, crouched in front of it he read the name tag.

“This is that lady’s son.”

The entire mood shifted. Megumi was unfazed, Yuuji looked angry.

He picked the remains of the body up and sling the torso over his shoulder.

“What’s re you doing?”

Megumi furrowed his brows at him.

“We need to bring the body back to her. we couldn’t save him, but she at least deserves closure.”

“Our job isn’t to save people Itadori, it’s to eliminate curses.”

“How can you say that? No one deserves to not know what happened to their own kid!”

The argument became heated quickly. The air was tense, you and Nobara awkwardly standing next to each other.

“We have to prioritize ourselves first. Don’t go around thinking that saving someone is always worth it, this guy here? He’s responsible for the death of a girl.”

Yuuji's eyes widened, he was still angry, but he was stunned quiet.

Just before he opened his mouth, Nobara fell into a dark hole right next to you.

You gasped from shock and jumped back.

“Can you two stop arguing, I think there’s something more important to fucking focus on right now!”

When your anxiety was full swing you didn’t have that much of a filter. Which was justified, considering that as these two boys were having their pissing contest and someone next to you just fucking sank into the ground.

They turned their heads over to you, but before they could say anything they both froze into place from absolute primal fear.

Something was standing next to them.

You watched wide eyed and terrified as a white humanoid creature with four eyes stood between them. Appearing out of nowhere. The most sickening and visceral smile on its face.

Before they even had the time to process it Yuuji went to punch it, his pure reaction time was incredible. And his ability to not be scared in the face of danger.

Megumi wasted no time.

“RUN!”

The one who was supposed to be the strongest and in charge just instructed you to fucking flee, so you weren’t gonna question it.

The last thing you remember was absolute chaos ensuing. Yuuji was missing a hand, blood spraying from random directions upon where the impact had happened.

Megumi sent one of his cursed techniques after it, but it immediately vanished as it was eviscerated into a pile of black goo and sunk into the ground evaporating into nothingness.

That thing had killed it as quick as it had appeared.

Run. Run. RUN

“Go!”

Megumi and Yuuji still persisted as they blocked a path for you to retreat to safety.

You had turned around to book it, the purest of instincts was absolutely encompassing you in stress. It pushed past your anxiety; you had no time to overthink the situation as your feet carried you.

The hallway closed itself off in front of your face to solid wall. You had just barely stopped yourself from slamming into it, bracing your hands against the hard material, palms stinging.

A deer in headlights, a mouse on a landslide, a baby bird to a snake.

You wanted to help. You realized there was no sure way of escape, and that these two boys were fighting themselves to death so the curse wouldn’t reach you.

Guilt, dread, fear, anger, and above all else frustration. You had just lost your whole life, been dragged to some high school and your only explanation to how they were dealing with it was “we’re taking care of it”

You could’ve lost your job by now, your house could’ve been robbed in your absence, your life had just been turned around and with no fucking reasonable explanation.

You took a step back, the environment around you was fucking warping itself- you weren’t in the same building.

Buried in your basest instincts and fear deep down resided a feeling you had never felt before.

Watching Yuuji lose his arm served as a catalyst for something awakening itself inside of you. A rage that you had suppressed, a protective instinct.

Something that had been dormant for years- buried beneath every stress and inhibitor of your life. You were just so tired of being weaker, of not knowing anything.

There were no thoughts about what happened next. There was no reasoning or technique or explanation. Which seemed to be the new theme of your life.

You ran towards the curse. Megumi was knocked down, and Yuuji was losing so much blood it was almost surreal.

You raised your arms up before the hit landed, and when its fist went to meet you, it hit nothing. Or, more specifically, it stopped inches from you, an invisible barrier had manifested over the spot it tried to reach its impact.

Its sick smile dropped.

“Yuuji!” You shouted at him.

Wasting no time to seize the opportunity of this invisible barrier, you took action.

He was dazed from his blood loss; he blinked up at you.

“What will it take you to get Sukuna out?!”

His eyes widened.

“I-I can’t while I’m not alone. He could hurt you and Megumi!”

“Can’t you choose when he comes out?”

“Yeah, but I can’t see what he does while he is…”

He was in pain, albeit keeping his composure well considering his circumstances. Megumi was still standing but a hand clutched his side and breathing heavily.

You realized that you were the adult. You were the only one capable of making decisions. You didn’t allow yourself the privilege of thinking, you just acted.

“Do it! I’ll get us out of here!”

Yuuji looked at you with uncertainty.

You turned your head over to Megumi.

“Can you escape??”

He nodded. Whatever was the reason he trusted you, he did without second thought unlike Yuuji.

From the shadows emerged a giant bird-like creature, Megumi hopped on as he looked at you with a fleeting worried look.

“Go without me, look for Nobara!”

The curse had attempted to launch itself at Megumi, but before it could Yuuji intercepted it bloodied and beaten, a look of concentration etched into his face as he punched it right in the face.

You felt a sliver of hope inch its way back into you. Yuji seemingly making his own self-discovery and making a breakthrough.

You watched Megumi fly upwards out of sight.

He didn’t know why he trusted you, it could’ve been stress, or maybe he was just that out of it and shocked.

But what he did know was that the cursed energy he felt off of you was the strongest in the room.

“Do it now!!”

“What about- “

“JUST FUCKING DO IT!”

You felt a little bad for yelling at him, especially with the shocked face he gave you. But considering the circumstances, and the fact that hesitance could lead to death- you couldn't feel bad right now.

A small part of you was worried, worried about what Sukuna was like, and if he would hurt you. But you also knew that as long as he did come out, the curse would be dead and everyone else would be safe.

You were heaving and had never felt more adrenaline in your life.

A chemically induced high was pumping through your very veins each second as the stress of the environment around you increased.

You were in a zone of intense focus past any feeling anything had ever given you before. Sports, drugs, sex, anything.

You didn’t know if you had the raw power to take it head-on, but a newfound power and recklessness had overcome you in that moment.

You braced yourself to be hit again, knees bent and stance strong. Nothing in your life had ever been as clear to you as the sight in front of you.

you were so in tune with your environment that when you watched the curse lunge at you it was as if it was in slow motion, the things you only ever saw in movies were happening in front of you.

You could feel and hear each individual beat of your own heart, each pump of blood was felt throughout every end of your body.

Then, like lightning, the curse stepped away from you terrified.

You were confused. Why did this keep happening to you. Were you seriously that badass? Or maybe even curses couldn’t stand you.

“How annoying. Stupid fucking brat.”

A low gravelly voice behind you resounded through your brain and settled in like water to an open flame.

A man stepped between you and the curse, and in what was no more than a fraction of a second the curse's head twisted like a soda can, and it collapsed with a crude thud.

You stood there unmoving. Now you were really a deer in headlights. Staring at Yuuji… or at least Yuuji's body- completely and indubitably in shock.

One hand in his pocket, other sticking out

There was no primal instinct. There was no more fear. There was only a feeling of blankness every second you stared at him.

He turned around slowly to face you.

He had Yuuji's clothes, hair, and his face…

But it wasn't Yuji.

When his eyes met yours, you had just experienced a feeling you hadn’t felt before.

A solar flare, a word about to be spoken, the brief moment before the wick of a candle lights up as the match is held to it.

His eyes… those infinite Irises that looked straight through you as if there was nothing that could ever be secret. You were glass, completely transparent and vulnerable to him- So easy to break.

You two stood in silence for a moment. His face was unreadable, unlike yours which was lit up like you had been struck by lightning.

It was something inside of you metaphysically that was magnetized to him. Even though you knew you shouldn’t. Instinct fighting emotion.

He eyed you up and down putting his other hand in a pocket. You were so stunned you hadn’t even realized that he had hands again.

You opened your mouth to speak but nothing came out.

He turned around from you and just began walking away.

“Wait...”

You began to become dizzy before you could finish, you almost fell over from the feeling of vertigo spreading across your body faster than you had time to think.

Your knees buckled under you and your vision faltered. You saw double as you tried catching yourself but ultimately fell down to one knee.

“Your body isn’t used to cursed energy.”

You looked up at the voice to see him facing you again.

You tried to pull yourself up but failed, a sudden pain in your chest and limbs growing heavy as your fighters high left.

“You overexerted yourself. Don’t try to get up.”

“Aren’t you supposed to... to hurt me?”

You said between ragged breaths.

You closed your eyes for a split second, and he was on his feet crouched over, looking into your eyes.

“Does it look like I want to hurt you?”

Still his expression was entirely blank. He was completely unreadable.

“I don’t know… that's what… what everyone says.”

You tried again to get up, but your body collapsed onto itself, and you barely held yourself up with your knees and hands.

“What did I tell you moron? I try to do something nice, and no one listens.”

“Sorry…”

You didn’t know why you were apologizing to him. He sighed and stared right into you.

“You’re more useful to me if you stay alive this time.”

He said sounding frustrated.

Before you had the chance to think about that, he pressed a finger to your head, and you collapsed unconscious.

Your mouth was dry, body was sore, and on top of that, you woke up in a bed that wasn’t yours.

You felt exhausted in every way and did not have it in you deal with being in a stranger's home.

Y’know that feeling of being hungover on whiskey? Yeah, that. But also add a triathlon marathon, a forming migraine, and seven bar fights.

You sat up barely, able to get your bearings and take in your surroundings.

White bed and silk sheets, modern furniture, abstract art…

Expensive lights, hardwood floors.

A rack of expensive black sunglasses.

Wait.

There’s no way. What the hell happened between the fight and now??

With very slow and careful motions, you managed to get up from under the sheets and sit on the outside of the bed. Your back was slouched, and hands gripped the comforter as you struggled to fight against what felt like seventeen dumbbells sitting on top of you.

You managed to finally stand up and move around, albeit slowly and sluglike.

Rubbing one hand to your forearm you looked down to notice a half healed yellow bruise several inches in length.

“What the hell...?”

Maybe you were actually in seven bar fights.

As you took each step your migraine blossomed further into discomfort.

You let out an audible groan as you moved around feeling like seven bags of horse shit left out in the sun too long- and smelled like it too.

Limping your way out of the room you squinted your eyes at the sudden invasion of light. Huge windows covered what you could assume was the living room.

It was daytime, how long had it been though?

You were in more pain than self-conscientious and began shamelessly rummaging through cabinets absentmindedly looking for anything.

Advil, ibuprofen, some fucking weed even?

You had a sharp pain to you ribs which made you almost fall but you managed to catch yourself with one hand on the expensive marble countertops of an absolutely stunning modernized kitchen.

“Don’t hurt yourself even more while you’re here, I’ll feel bad!”

A voice shocked you out of your painful daze.

You whipped your head around which made your migraine peak into a spike of pain, causing you let out a sharp hiss.

“Satoru.”

You said angrily, but honestly you were somewhat relieved. A familiar face after all the shit that you had been through the past few days was nice.

“You probably have a lot of questions huh?”

Your eyes were closed shut as you rubbed your hand in circles against your temple trying to alleviate the pain. To sore to even make a “no shit” remark

“Well first of all sit down.”

He pointed to a stool against his kitchen island

You immediately went to do it. Not having the energy to protest.

He began opening up drawers and pulling things out as he spoke.

“I’ll just go ahead and start from the beginning. You were assigned to go fight a special grade curse with a few first years including Sukunas vessel- Yuuji.”

He popped open a bottle of pain killers and filled a glass of water

“Because of you everyone made it out alive.”

Everyone? So Megumi and Nobara made it out safe. You relaxed a little feeling slightly less stressed. At least your state of shittiness was worth something. He slid the glass and pills over to you from across the counter

The first thing you noticed was his shirt. He was wearing a loose long sleeve that barely hung over his shoulders, showing his perfect fucking collarbones and neck off to you.

“You look slutty.”

You said before you popped the pills and downed the glass of water like you had never drank any before.

Choosing to ignore your remark, he continued speaking.

“Everyone is safe. And that’s because of you.”

“I think you’re giving me too much credit. Megumi and Yuuji did all the fighting.”

“That’s not exactly true, but even then you told everyone what to do and led them all out safely, without even having done this before. I was pretty impressed when I heard.”

You weren’t gonna admit that you liked his praise, but you turned your head away from him so you didn’t make eye contact to hide your flushed face.

“They found you unconscious on the side of the building. Do you remember anything?”

You recalled the events to him the best you could, but it was all a blur. You remembered going in, Nobara vanishing beneath you, Yuuji losing a hand… all the traumatizing and gory details.

“So you don’t remember what you did?”

“A little… I think I got in the way of one of its hits and that’s why I’m so sore now.”

He smiled and chuckled at you smugly

“Oh no. If you were actually hit by it you would totally be dead by now,”

“You’re fucking with me.”

“Not this time!”

He leaned himself on the opposite side of the counter to you with his elbows and one hand under his chin.

“You used cursed energy. A lot.”

“How?!”

“You tell me babe! All I know is what Megumi and Yuuji told me.”

You didn’t remember seeing any cursed energy…

“You seriously don’t remember what happened?”

You shook your head at him annoyed

“You took several hits from it. But you managed to concentrate cursed energy to the places just before it hit it, so the brunt of the force was blocked but some of the energy still hit you because your technique is still very underdeveloped."

You stared at him half with curiosity and half with confusion, he took your silence as a way to keep talking.

“Your body isn’t used to manifesting or controlling cursed energy like most sorcerers do, and the raw power output you were emitting was more than you could take. It’s probably why you passed out.”

You were lost in thought. There’s something missing. You don’t know what…

“Also, you got really lucky. You got out just before Sukuna did, and so the curse was successfully exorcised, you did good work!”

The more you tried to look back on memories of what happened the more your migraine increased. You wanted to ask questions, but you didn’t know what to ask. There were too many blank spaces and fragments missing from it, he was hiding something.

“Why am I here?”

Gojo perked up and stuck a pointed finger up

“Because my superiors want you dead.” He said so as if it was nothing like the weather report.

“WHAT?!”

You were nearly shocked out of your migraine.

“Relax, they’re not gonna do anything about it.”

“Why do they want me dead?!”

“Because you’ve got something that they haven’t seen in a while, and they’re all conservative old goats who are scared of change.”

Your mouth was agape, staring at Gojo and how nonchalant he was about this.

“You’re acting really calm about this.”

“Well that’s because they’re not gonna do anything about it. Not as long as you stay close to me.”

“Wow I’m honored.”

“You should be! Now, go get ready.”

“Ready for what?”

“We’re going out!”

Even though this wasn’t the first time, it was still a surprise being spoiled like this.

Part of you felt bad but also part of you started getting used to it.

Gojo had thrown on a loose button down shirt, and a pair of his signature specs.

At first you were worried that he wouldn’t have anything for you, but as if he couldn’t have gotten more stalkery before by kidnapping you from a hospital bed and putting you in his- he had also broken into your house and taken some of your clothes.

“You didn’t do anything to these did you?”

“Not this time. Next time maybe”

He teased and you rolled your eyes

He had taken you that night to a semi nice restaurant. You thought it was super fancy but Gojo insisted it was just “okay” which absolutely infuriated you.

You could tell he was breaking you in when you accepted the expensive champagne.

From an outsiders perspective, you two looked incredibly romantic. Combined with his flirtatiousness and touchiness and your bluntness, you got those stares of jealousy from so many random people being seen with him. He loved the attention, the stares and the sparkle in everyone’s eyes when he smiled at them, you on the other hand, had never felt more out of place.

He kept getting numbers from left and right, and he accepted them all. Which was just a crude reminder that you weren’t special, and that this treatment hes been giving you probably was given to someone else before too.

You managed to keep your bearing and nod along as you started walking through the streets at night and admiring the stars. Still a little tipsy from the champagne.

“You’re being awfully quiet.”

You looked over at him and he had slightly pink cheeks from being buzzed himself

“Just nothing to talk about”

You lied

“Wanna head back home then?”

Home. When he said it like that it almost sounded like you two were a couple. You closed your eyes and fought the urge to fantasize about domestic bliss. That this was just a normal date out with a guy who liked you and not him being forced to take care of someone.

You nodded your head slowly. Anxiety creeping it’s way back into your veins as you felt like a burden to him

“You’re sad.”

“Am not.”

“I’m not an idiot.”

“I didn’t say you were.”

He sighed and put his hands in his pockets

“That’s how I know you’re sad. Because if you weren’t you would’ve disagreed with me.”

You didn’t know if it was hormones, the alcohol, or the fact that your life has been ripped from you in the past few days but you were getting emotional.

“I’m not!”

You looked away from him and your lip quivered. You couldn’t cry now, you would’ve just proven him right

“Okay then what’s wrong.”

“Nothing wrong.”

You were starting to get annoyed that he kept persisting but also deep down didn’t want him to stop caring.

You sniffled up some snot and exhaled deeply

“I just don’t want to be a burden on you. You’ve done so much for me recently a-and…”

Your eyes watered and you looked up to try and prevent them from falling

“Aw. Come here, you big baby.”

He pulled you into a hug and that just absolutely sent you into a downhill spiral. You leaned your weight against him and quietly cried into his shirt. Thinking that since he couldn’t see you he wouldn’t know.

You might’ve been a little more than tipsy…

He rubbed your head in circles as your body jerked with each sob. You managed to remain totally quiet which caught his attention but he wasn’t gonna mention anything about it

“This field is selfish y’know.”

You opened your eyes and loosened your grip around his torso a little, listening.

“Being a sorcerer doesn’t give you anything. Objectively speaking, some people like the money or the power. But all you get in return for that is the burden of knowing you have to be the one to save them.”

He was opening himself up to you, which made you feel a little better

You wanted to look up at him but knew that you looked like absolute hell.

“It takes and it takes. And it’s never gonna show you mercy. You were taken from your life and thrown into this one, and you didn’t want that.”

You still were sniffling, but the tears stopped flowing

“I’m sorry…”

“For what babe?”

“I don’t know…”

He had a gentle smile looking down at you. Your face was pressed against his chest giving you a natural pouty face. He thought you were cute

“Do you want to be here?”

“No…”

“Close your eyes.”

You didn’t know what he was about to do but you obliged anyway.

You felt that feeling in your stomach like being in an elevator when it’s going down. A very subtle but still there drop in your stomach.

The second thing you felt was soft sheets instead of a hard metal bench.

You looked up from him to see that you were in his room

“You can fucking teleport?!”

“Mhm.”

“Of course you can.”

You said so annoyed but you were smiling

You stifled a laugh as he made a dramatic pose showing off with a kissy gesture and a hand under his chin

“One of my many talents!”

You chose not to dwell on it for your own peace.

You sat in silence for a moment, just enjoying his warmth.

“Why are you being so nice to me?”

Even though you stopped crying, you were still emotional. The strong facade cracking under the building pressure of all the recent events.

He moved his hand to you chin and lifted it up

“You have a lot more to offer than you think.”

He had a sincere smile on his face

You giggled quietly between sniffles. But you were quickly humbled when you looked back down and noticed the huge grey spot of snot and tears from where your face was

“Oh my god!”

You wanted to die. Right then and right fucking there.

How expensive was that shirt? How grossed out is he? Why would you let yourself cry on him? Does he hate you now?!

“I’m so s-…”

Your rushing thoughts went to sudden stop when he began unbuttoning his shirt and slid it off, tossing it at the foot of the bed

“-orry….”

Your eyes widened and for the first time in a minute he had completely flustered you again. You weren’t one to be left speechless but goddamn was he even finer than you imagined.

“You’re staring.” He had a shit eating grin.

You had pulled yourself back by now and you didn’t know if it was the alcohol talking or if he was just that hot, but somehow you two ended up kissing.

What’s a recipe for disaster?

1 Night alone,

2 lonely people,

3 too many drinks.

And 4 days of building sexual tension.

Pt3

[velvet4510]

This might be a somewhat controversial claim - but it’s one that I feel makes the most sense considering all the circumstances of the situation…

(I write this as a fervent Sam/Frodo shipper AND a Sam/Rosie shipper, so proceed only if you are willing to remain polite in your potential responses to this.)

There is no doubt whatsoever, of course, that Sam was in love with Rosie throughout the story. Even when he fell in love with Frodo, it was on a whole other level from what he felt for Rosie … and thus his feelings for Rosie were never touched or changed. And pre-Quest, marriage was certainly on his mind.

That being said, I really feel like his decision to accompany Frodo meant he was essentially rejecting Rosie. This is mostly true for book canon, IMO. Many assume he was secretly hoping he could marry her when he returned to the Shire, as he always held out hope that he might return, but I don’t think this is the case, and here’s why.

Just the fact that Sam chose to accompany Frodo at all proves that Frodo was a larger priority for him than Rosie. He wanted to go with Frodo more than he wanted to marry Rosie. Some say “it’s only because of his sense of selfless duty,” but that’s only part of it. Anyone who thinks Sam didn’t truly WANT, with all of his heart, to go with Frodo, out of sheer love beyond duty, has simply failed to understand The Lord of the Rings. Platonic or romantic, Sam’s love for Frodo outweighs all others, and his choice to leave the Shire with him essentially meant he was putting Rosie in his rear-view mirror for good.

Sam was well aware that his return to the Shire was never guaranteed. Even when the hobbits first left the Shire without knowing their true danger, there was about a 40 to 50% chance that they would not return, at least for a long time.

Frodo literally sold his home in Hobbiton where Sam worked. Their official new home was in Crickhollow, which was extremely far away from Bywater where Rosie lived. Frodo himself wondered if he would EVER see the Shire again when he left, and was prepared to stay at Rivendell indefinitely, which meant Sam was, too.

Then they chose to go to Mordor, and their chance of never returning to the Shire rose to 99%.

Sam himself says this is exactly why he didn’t propose to Rosie before he left. He knew it was very likely he’d never come back, and he didn’t want to make her a promise he couldn’t keep. This is a rather final statement. And Rosie herself believed for a long while that he would never return. By leaving the Shire, Sam essentially broke up with her.

(This is why a potential romance betwen Frodo & Sam during and/or after the Quest does not involve any kind of infidelity; Sam had already ended things with Rosie just through the act of following Frodo.)

When Sam thought of Rosie during the Quest, it wasn’t a memory that focused on her in a romantic way (like in the movie). He thought of how much he’d like to “see her and her brothers again,” as well as his own sister, Marigold. At this point he really seemed to be thinking of her in a more platonic way, as he had pushed aside his deeper feelings for her when he found a soulmate love with Frodo.

Also, after the Quest on the way back to the Shire, they were not expecting the fight with the ruffians. Frodo and Sam must’ve assumed they’d still be living at Crickhollow, still so far away from Rosie.

Then when marriage to Rosie is actually mentioned in the book itself for the first time, Sam isn’t exactly jumping for joy about it. The actual passage in which he discusses it with Frodo sounds a lot like he wanted to marry Rosie just because he didn’t want to break her heart again. She had made it clear how upset she was that he left and how much she still wanted him. As a natural people-pleaser, this really hurt Sam. He didn’t want to hurt someone he loved. And yet he feared he would do just that if he did marry her, because he wasn’t about to abandon Frodo or break Frodo’s heart.

(Side note: servants marry all the time. There is seriously no platonic explanation for Sam feeling like he couldn’t marry Rosie while being with Frodo … the only reasoning that makes sense is that Sam and Frodo were officially a thing at this point and Sam did not want to leave Frodo or hurt him by marrying someone else.)

Thankfully Frodo was fine with the idea of the marriage and came up with the “poly”-ish situation that solved the problem. (I think this is because he knew he couldn’t stay in the Shire and wanted to ensure Sam was settled and would have someone to care for him after he, Frodo, was gone.) Between this and Rosie’s assertion, it feels more like Rosie and Frodo made the marriage decision for Sam. Which makes sense - Sam only thought of those he loved, never for himself, and would never think of doing anything that would possibly hurt either of the two most important people in his life.

Besides, I think it’s worth bearing in mind that the book text itself is the text of the Red Book, which Frodo himself wrote. It’s quite possible Frodo’s written account differs somewhat from the reality. It’s quite possible their conversation went very differently than it goes in the text. I think there’s a good chance that Rosie herself made the proposal, and Sam was against the idea completely because he’d chosen Frodo, but then when Frodo reminded him of how much he wanted a family deep down and assured him he would not be hurt by it, and when Rosie assured him she understood that their life would always include Frodo, only then did Sam say yes. Then Frodo tweaked it when he wrote the Red Book to hide the truth about his and Sam’s relationship. If you read Elenya54’s brilliant fanfic “All That I Had” on AO3, this is exactly what happens and it just rings very true and accurate.

This is not to hate on Rosie herself, or on her and Sam’s relationship. On the contrary, I adore both - it’s wonderful that Sam had her to love, and love him in return, in order to keep on having something to live for after the loss of his soulmate Frodo. And I feel like reading LOTR from this angle makes Rosie an even more amazing character - she knew she’d always be second to Frodo in Sam’s heart, but she didn’t care. All she truly wanted was a life with Sam, and was willing to break Shire convention and enter a “poly”-ish situation in order to get it. (Just the fact that she canonically moved into Bag End with Frodo as well as Sam, let Frodo name Elanor, and then agreed with Sam that they should name their first son after Frodo indicates that Tolkien intended her to have a love and acceptance of Frodo that was not prominent in the Shire at that point as most hobbits didn’t care about what happened to him and thought he was just being weird by acting so traumatized. But not Rosie. Any gal with this much compassion and understanding is a perfect match for Sam. We all know Sam would never love or want anything to do with someone who would not treat Frodo right. Only Rosie Cotton could ever hope to come close to matching Frodo in Sam’s heart. And I love her for it.)

Yet there’s just way too much evidence that Sam didn’t really return to the Shire with the intention of marrying Rosie. It feels more like he gave up on the idea the moment he accompanied Frodo, and then it was Rosie who put the idea in his head when he returned, and even then, it was only when Frodo assured him it wasn’t a betrayal of their own love that Sam went through with the marriage. And then never regretted it, as they went on to have a happy wonderful life that kept him going without Frodo.

…does anyone agree….?

[swanqueenelmaxshadowhunters]

elmax canon divergence + traumas + fluffy + pre relationship (max and el pov)

After the events at Starcourt, Max starts to hate horror films, and even action films, and refuses to watch them, but when Eleven finds herself interested in movies like Labyrinth, Max can't say no and takes her to the cinema to watch it.

Despite the apprehension and anxiety she is feeling, Max does her best to remain by El's side throughout the film, even buying her popcorn, candy and soda.

There's nothing special about the film, and the effects are... well... poor, for lack of a better word, but at one point, Max finds herself bolting from the room and hiding in the bathroom, with her head between her legs while trying to breathe.

"It's not real, it's not real, it's not real." she repeats while holding the sides of her head and closing her eyes, trying not to cry.

The next moment El enters the bathroom, softly calling for Max until she finds her in one of the stalls and slowly kneels in front of her, but without touching her.

"Max, I'm here." El says, softly and patiently.

She waits until Max lifts her head, and when their eyes meet, she offers a sympathetic smile. A smile that says more than any words she could say, if she were articulate enough.

They stay there for a few minutes, until Max calms down enough and then El asks "what happened?"

"Nothing, it was just something stupid." Max says, wiping her eyes with the back of her hands.

El takes her hands gently and places them on her knees, gently wiping away Max's tears.

"Joyce says it's okay if we don't want to talk, but it's better when we do." El says as she gently brushes Max's cheeks, wet and streaked with tears.

Max looks at her for a while, deciding what to do, but that's El, her best friend, the only person who understands her and doesn't judge her, and who has let her sleep in her room almost every night since that day. 

El, who holds her at night when Max wakes up screaming from her nightmares and don’t ask about it because she knows Max won’t talk, El who strokes her hair and stays awake until she sleeps again, El who lost Hopper, and despite living with the Byers, who are good people, has once again been thrown into a place that is not her home.

Max takes a deep breath and looks at Eleven. "I- I can't watch these movies anymore, El, I'm sorry."

"Why didn't you tell me-"

"I thought I could, and you wanted to see this movie so bad and we barely have any places left to go after-" Max shakes her head, new tears running down her face.

"Max." Eleven says firmly but gently. "Jonathan says we don't have to do anything that makes us un-" She frowns, trying to remember the word. "Uncomfortable. That's it."

"But you wanted to see the movie and I thought I could handle it, but I ended up ruining it, El. I'm sorry."

Eleven says nothing. She knows Max well enough now that words won't do any good, so she does the only thing that seems to calm Max these days; she hugs her.

She breathes a sigh of relief when Max doesn't resist, and leans against her, wrapping her arms around her waist and resting her head on her chest. El closes her eyes, fighting back her own tears as she runs her fingers through Max's hair. 

They stay there until the noise of conversations and footsteps fills the place announcing the end of the film. El gets up and helps Max up. They wash their hands and faces, and El takes Max's hand as they leave the bathroom.

They walk out of the cinema and onto the main street, to the store where Joyce works. As they enter the store, El smiles at Joyce, and that woman seems to have an inexplicable sense of things, because the smile she gives El immediately says that she noticed that Max is not well, and Eleven is very grateful for that.

"Can Max sleep over today?"

"Of course, darling."

Eleven nods and waits for Joyce to get the car keys. They help Joyce close the store and stop by the grocery store before heading home.

They help Joyce prepare dinner and this seems to help improve Max's mood. Will is at Mike's house with the party playing another endless game of D&D and Jonathan is with Nancy, so El and Max sit with Joyce in the living room to watch one of those shows she likes.

When the episode ends, Joyce gets up and announces that she is going to sleep, but says that the girls can continue watching TV if they want. She strokes their hair as she passes, and El smiles, settling on the couch next to Max.

"Do you want to keep watching TV or would you rather do something else?" Eleven asks after a few minutes.

Max shrugs, feeling drained after what happened at the movie theater. She wants to stay up with El, watching TV, listening to music or reading magazines, but she feels like she doesn't have the energy for any of that right now. 

She sighs gratefully when El just strokes her hair again and stands up, extending a hand to her and guiding them to her room.

Max feels her thoughts starting to wander again, down a path she doesn't like, but she can't help it.

Eleven is in the shower, and Max closes her eyes, trying to focus on the good memories she has; the winter ball, movies with the boys, shopping with El, eating ice cream with El, reading magazines to El...

She is brought out of her thoughts when the bedroom door opens and Eleven walks in, smiling. Max adjusts herself on the bed, making room for El.

"Thanks for today." Max says after they are lying down for a while.

Eleven nods and opens her arms for Max to settle against her, and she does so without saying anything, grateful that Eleven doesn't pressure her.

Max closes her eyes, feeling sleep and tiredness take over her body, and the last thing she remembers before falling asleep is Eleven kissing the top of her head and murmuring "I'm here, Max."

[fancyfade]

damian: 2,4, 6, 8. babs and cass: 2, 4,6 , 8 , 11

2 Favorite canon thing about this character?

ahhh this one is gonna be so hard to think of. I mean in like all 3 cases it's "their personality" but XD Trying to get more specific than that

Damian: the gradual-ness of his character arc and how realistic his reaction to suddenly being asked to change how he does everything is written. Damian changes his behavior (no longer killing people) long before he changes his beliefs (it's OK to kill some people). We also see how he understandably cares about saving civilians long before he cares about preserving villains lives which makes sense both from a 'duh' perspective and from a 'logically damian would be raised to believe that he's saving the world' perspective.

I also like the general rough edges his character has, like even long after he's become very conventionally 'moral' I guess (like in Robin: Son of batman where he's like undeniably heroic and trying to make up for every bad thing he did) he still doesn't come across as super conventionally 'nice'.

Babs:

Her self isolation and bad-decision making tendencies have me captivated.

ok /j but :P I love how independent she is and how she responds to trauma and how we see her incredibly reluctant to reach out to people around her. I love when she approaches problems from a nexus of control even though she would hate it if people approached her problems from that POV.

She's a fun character who often does make missteps in her personal relationships but nevertheless always tries to correct them

Cassandra:

Cass I love her perfectionism and the way she approaches her problems. even though I mentioned in Damian's answer that I loved how gradual his character arc and un-learning assassin stuff was, I also love how sudden Cass leaving Cain was*. It works completely for her characterization.

Then the way she approaches her problem (of having killed someone) is completely all-in cass-y. Cass is trying to grapple with what she did as a child (and I saw some really convincing meta about how the guilt she felt from killing the guy was not necessarily due to seeing his pain, as she'd seen pain before, but due to not understanding his death, i'll dig it up soon: EDIT FOUND IT (link)). Her thing is very simple: she killed someone so she deserves to die. She won't kill herself, but she has very little regard for her own life and is perfectly fine going out saving people. and the way she approaches her guilt pre her Shiva arc often goes from a kind of projecting on people I think (where she projects her own guilt on the guy she breaks out of death row when the mother of his victim approaches her, she gives him back to go to his death, she returns a kid to her mom who is exploiting for her talents rather than her criminal father who loves her) and then when she's dealt with her own guilt she can address people in a way that does not quite have that specter of guilt hanging over her.

*tho important note: I don't think that Cass leaving Cain was her character arc, it's a backstory detail

4: f you could put this character in any other media, be it a book, a movie, anything, what would you put them in?

I would put them all in a well-adapted live action movie so more people know about them :P Unless this is like straight up drop them into an already existing fictional universe, it's unclear. Like I like thinking of a 'Batfam as Jedi' AU for one tumblr post for example, but I don't really care enough about 'characters in alternate universe' to need to see it in a fully developed story. A lot of what makes them unique and fun is specific to the universe.

6 What’s something you have in common with this character?

Babs: Self isolation. Also wheelchair using :P

Damian and Cass: General perfectionism

8 What’s something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise?

Damian: Either uwu baby-ifying him so whichever fave can take care of him and protect him at the expense of his canonical competence or acting like he's a terrible person and any time DC writes character assassination for him it was IC because he's always a terrible person.

Cass: forgetting she exists, having her there to just prop up Tim or Jason (Jason ???????), diminishing her competence to prop up some batboy and act like they can easily 'hack' her abilities.

Babs: babsgirl stuff. also people who remember with perfect clarity every jerk thing she hdid and use it against her t osay she's a terrible person (instead of just like. a realistic person with flaws) but conveniently ignore when their favorite batboy did similar things, oftentimes without even trying to make amends.

11 Would you date this character? (just babs and cass)

I would not date either of them sorry ladies. I love you but i'm already mentally ill I don't need more people's issues and emotional constipation

ty for asks! Asks from here (link)

[randomfoggytiger]

X-Files IWTB: First Time React (Part I)

I needed to watch I Want to Believe for a Christmas present project; and, going into the movie, I knew it would be bad.

I didn't know it would be "broken within ten minutes before Mulder and Scully even get into the helicopter" bad.

On the positive side, I'm enjoying David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson's acting; and they're doing the best they can with the scripts, so A+ for effort!

Now, reaction below the cut:

Eyyyyyyyy, looky looky where we are. 

An IWTB reaction. 

Me, the canon denier after S8. 

Yep. 

But never fear! I shall have an absolute blast demolishing all the aspects that don’t make sense and enjoying the parts that deserve praise or kudos. :DDD 

My Position Going Into This

When it comes to any art form, I stand absolute on the position that, yes, if it was created to be art, it is art; but art can also be critiqued on its merits or demerits. Otherwise, we all wouldn’t acknowledge what makes one piece of art masterful compared to another piece.

For movies, I focus on writing: does this plot point make sense in the context of generalized or specific circumstances; or, more specifically, do the actions of X person fit into their pre-established character or break it entirely without providing a reasonable motive? Pointing out the flaws of x/y/z character or moment doesn’t ruin my enjoyment-- every movie, tv show, book, etc. has them-- unless the flaw is noticeably glaring; in which case, what can I do about that? 

In conclusion: this will be very snarky, but I mean no hate towards CC or anyone who helped create this movie. I have criticisms, justly; but I separate art from the artist always, and judge both on completely different scales and metrics. Any and all snark is exaggerated for comedic purposes... or that's my story and I'm sticking with it. ;))) 

And now, onto the reaction~ 

Live Reaction

The movie’s gorgeous, I’ll give it that: tone, atmosphere, lighting, etc., all spectacular. 

For a split second I wished that the man running past the woman victim had been a supernatural creature of some sort-- more X-Files in tone; and would eliminate the Father Joe character completely. 

Dakota Whitney (not given her name yet, think it's her) seems in-tune with Father Joe’s strangeness-- another shame, because her character was squandered on a love triangle.

I will say, though, the spectacle seems… a little repetitive already? “Let him go, let him go” repeated three times with three different cuts. 

Hmmm, I think this is the thought: compared to FTF, this movie seems like its plot is paper-thin, relying on spectacle or repetitive dialogue (or inane plotpoints? we’ll see) to keep it chugging along. 

Scully is here! 

After comparing her intro to the Pilot and Fight the Future and the previous five minutes, it seems… bland? The spectacle is gone, but that's not the problem. Everything is medical jargon as she’s giving an account of her patient to an overhead on a screen. The problem is-- and why I mentioned her previous introductions-- when a main character is introduced, their first scene establishes core aspects of their personality. Now would be a good time to get a thumb on how Scully has changed as she's navigated life on the run and in this hospital... instead, we're given nothing, really, just a medical spiel with no point other than to set up that she has a patient who needs experimental treatment. Nothing that is personal to her as an individual, other than she's more muted, downtrodden, etc. It's a very rushed and criminally underutilized scene.

I understand what CC and Spotnitz are going for: defanged Scully, hands tied and trying to keep her head down and live low-profile. Pouring her exhausted energy into trying to do some good, at least for the boy (since she can’t for Mulder.) It sets her up as frazzled and frustrated; and it makes sense why she pitches the FBI’s offer to Mulder when given the chance. 

FBI agent just bounces in and disrupts her talk with her patient… that’s a plot point, definitely--

Wait, Scully kept referring to Mulder as Fox Mulder… which, yes, she’s parroting the man’s words back exactly to him but also Scully only ever referred to him as “Mulder”, “my partner”, “Agent Mulder”; and didn’t mention him by name otherwise. This is a nitpick, I know. 

Also, from the interviews I’ve read, Gillian Anderson (and David Duchovny) struggled to get back into character in 2008 as well as the Revival (link here.) GA also notes (link here) that she agrees with Scully's characterization: "How she is in this film follows perfectly with where we last saw her and who she has always been." And, if lumping IWTB together with S9, I agree; and, interestingly, it's an aspect of Scully that GA seems to retain in the Revival (I think): saddened, withdrawn, only sparing animation when directly talking to Mulder. It makes sense after the William arc; but it’s sad to think about, regardless. 

THAT’S THE FENCE?????

 I THOUGHT IT WAS A TINY WOODEN FENCE THAT COULD BE HOPPED OVER. 

…That makes a lot of sense, actually. I definitely can see Mulder rigging it up with all the time he had to spare (because, I mean, look at it: rusty, rinky, weirdly tied to the poles.) 

I will say: I give Chris Carter props here because that man had a vision and he executed it: atmosphere, ~vibes~, and the kitchen sink. It’s why I maintain he was the ideas man and Frank Spotnitz was his refiner.  

WAIT. Is that… is that orange juice on the table? (They remembered Mulder’s orange juice but forgot to iron out the plot. The irony. If this were an indie film, I’d find it endearing and charming. …But it’s not.)

Okay, intro to Mulder now. 

Immediately we are shown the nest he’s built, with Samantha taking center-stage on his door. THAT’S how you do an intro; and, to the credit of the people behind the camera, it strikes a descriptive balance between Scully’s dispirited silence and his animated clutter. 

OKAY. Mulder’s “What’s up, Doc?” was worth it. (Don’t you just love when creators behind really cool, innovative series make alternate universe stories in their own universe? The “what if”s? The “glad this didn’t happen but it’s not all that bad, yet” one-offs with big budgets behind them? Visionaries, I tell ya.)

Mulder’s going off on a tangent and Scully’s back in her element and I would be content if the movie skipped from here to the almost end with Skinner and Scully finding him and we (meaning me) the audience wondering “WAIT, WHAT HAPPENED” and then there’s the vacation and it ends. 

Also, pertinent to stop here and reflect on the first Big Issue of the film: 

Mulder and Scully have been living in this house for five years-- as confirmed by the cut lines in IWTB’s script (link here, thank you @dunhamhairograpy)-- which means they were on the run only one year before settling back in Virginia. To satisfy my suspicions, I looked up (on Wikipedia) criminals on the FBI’s wanted list between 2000 to 2003 to see how many years each person evaded capture (if they were ever caught.) In summary, those who were on the run more than a year most likely fled the country and at the very least did not settle back in the state they originally fled; and those who remained locked on American soil were caught within a few weeks to (maximum) a year (three years was the most, I believe. Longer or still at large dipped into other countries, at least temporarily.) The script also confirms that Mulder and Scully are aware that Skinner is aiding and abetting them behind the scenes; and since the agent who interrupted Scully at her hospital immediately cut to the chase-- with the implication that Scully knew where to find her partner-- the FBI likely knew how to find Mulder easily and just… let him be. 

Despite the absolute dumpster fire of S9’s mytharc, we are led to assume that, somehow, Skinner and Doggett and Reyes stamped out the interest of alien-men-in-government and every other enemy that wanted Mulder's head and they all… proceeded as normal? Or Doggett and Reyes didn’t but Skinner did somehow…? 

BUT THAT DOESN’T MATTER, LOOK AT THIS SHINY MOVIE AND THE PRETTY GOATMAN. 

Also, yes, the beard needs work. However, I just remembered that beard oil is a thing but also that hair oil is a thing; and the idea that men might be taking better care of their beards than I do my own locks makes me wanna give them a thumbs up. (…But not Mulder: the texture on his face makes me want to cringe backward from the epidermis to the dermis to the subcutaneous layer of my skin.) 

Mulder “who believes that anymore” was a great line for his first facial introduction (not bothering with technical phrases, gotta keep chuggin’); and his reaction at Scully’s snarky “they do at the FBI, apparently” and both of them being like “uhuh, they wouldn’t listen to you/us years ago” was a great nanosecond of screentime and I want more. 

Mulder's walking wonky with a feverish passion behind his eyes; and I recognize that insanity from the fervor of spending too many hours indoors and online with nothing else to do but brood. 

ALSO, he and Scully both make complete sense here and I cosign this scene. 

(...Yeah, I know, we’ll get to those ones later.) 

Scully getting around Mulder’s mood and straight to his interest and then igniting his sarcastic “oh” within a sentence or two is masterfully them and yep, I cosign. 

Mulder choking on the “I am just as happy having them out of mine” denial stuck in his throat…. also: yes, Scully has a point about the FBI as discussed above but WHY do they want him out of their hair?? There were more people who had death wishes against him than there could be people in positions of power that support him; and with no CSM or Consortium hand-holding their superstar through trials and tribulations because he could “expose” them… again, whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.

Mulder’s being really petulant and I love it but also he’s being too petulant but in a good way, in a sarcastic “at the end of my rope and I’m only barely being polite” One Son way. 

Scully's honest “I worry about you” is touching, that’s nice. 

I just realized: y’know how DD wrote The Unnatural because he wanted to hear Mulder and Scully talk like normal people, not just regurgitate the plot points back to each other with flowery, long-winded expressions (which are great, don’t get me wrong)? Welp, they sound more… human? natural? broken in? here; and I like that aspect. 

Mulder looking at Samantha’s pic and knowing he can’t not help an innocent was a perfect character moment: great writing, thumbs up. (Reminiscent of his prior pattern of reluctantly helping people he disliked or was annoyed by-- Max Fenig in Fallen Angel, Krycek in Sleepless, Skinner in Zero Sum, Crump in Drive, Doggett in Alone, etc.) 

He accepts the FBI’s offer; and Scully’s relieved; and I advise you to keep that in mind for later.

The Big Problems Set In

Whether Mulder and Scully called and told the FBI where to pick them up or the FBI sent a helicopter out, unprompted, as a power move is unimportant in the minutiae but incredibly crippling in the larger narrative: it flew TO Mulder’s house to pick him up. There is no way Mulder is undercover or in hiding any longer; and that means, at this point, Mulder is committed. The end, full stop, point blank, period. 

The movie is broken and it's only 10 minutes in. From here on out, it will try to claim that Mulder is losing Scully by running further into the darkness; but the reality is, he has no other choice because there is nowhere else to run to regain his freedom AND to not put Scully at cross ends (or in danger) with the FBI.

He CANNOT back out: if Mulder withdraws from this deal with the FBI, he has to leave his home, go on the run again, and risk more aggressive recapture and imprisonment and probably broker another deal to escape full penalty at. a. minimum. 

It would be insane for him to back out at any point in the future. He knows it, the FBI knows it, and more importantly SCULLY knows it: she’s the cautious one in this relationship; and she would have weighed the pros and cons before telling Mulder the FBI's offer. Yes, she tends to react without thinking at times-- asking Mulder for his IVF donation without long-term plans, for example, (link here)-- but something as precious as her partner’s life, the only person she sacrificed everything for, would be carefully guarded and protected. 

Surely, she wouldn’t want him to back out at any point; especially because she has constantly suspected their own allies in the FBI all the years they’d been there, even Skinner, over and over and over. There would be no inducement or reason for her to trust the FBI to let Mulder stop on his whim (or hers, or theirs); and it’s a good thing she doesn’t do that. …Right? 

NOW: would it be in her character to want him to stop? Absolutely-- that’s who she is. But to place him in an impossible position then demand something even more impossible on top of it, after Mulder’s hands are effectively tied until the case is solved? That’s what’s character breaking for her. We’ll get to that. 

What’s going to be even more frustrating is that Scully will ultimately break their partnership (or start to) because of jealousy over another woman... for script reasons. (Don’t believe me? I don't blame you. But we'll get to it in a future part.) And that’s the show’s greatest flaw: the writers enjoy playing “are they, aren’t they” with Mulder’s driven passion and Scully’s jealousy and wish to be his priority. What’s worse is he prioritizes her more than any other human on the planet, even in this movie; and, at this point, Scully knows and has made peace with how Mulder is (all things.) To sacrifice their growth and trust in each other because of illogical reasons... we’ll get to that. 

“Past is the past” says Dakota Whitney. That might be enough for Mulder in the long run but it certainly won’t be for Scully. …RIGHT? 

Monica name recycle which is a staple and yet not a Monica Reyes who could have had pull to have Mulder and Scully pulled in on the case… oh, well. 

Yes, Mulder has precedent to write off psychic phenomenon evidence when given to him by his enemies-- he’s petty that way-- but can you imagine how annoyed he was when it came out the psychic was a religious guy? A former Father? An issue that used to pit he and Scully against each other? (I see what you did there, writers.)  

So: we have religious angle to separate Mulder and Scully in this movie. Also, we have jealousy over Dakota Whitney-- this movie’s nicer variant of Diana Fowley and Detective White and Phoebe Green: a gal who wants Mulder and writes Scully out of the picture despite very obvious rumors and even more obvious clues in the present-- to drive a further wedge (will be discussed next time.) What else could go wrong? 

What I do like is that this movie sets up Mulder’s priority list that aligns with his previous character iteration: he wants to chase monsters, but not at the expense of people; and, further, when he doesn’t want to chase monsters, he still will for the sake of others' lives.  

Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy Chris, did you have to make Father Joe a pedophile? 

Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyy. I understand, I do, that it’s about people who want to redeem themselves, who are afraid of the monsters within, who are burdened with a greater purpose, BUT NONE OF THE PEDO STUFF HAS TO DO WITH THE PLOT.

For instance: Roland’s autism directly correlated with the X-File of his case, Marty’s blindness with hers, as well as all the other men and monsters with supernatural powers or inhibitions. Having a random and prominent flaw that doesn’t contribute to anything in the movie is, quite honestly, a waste of precious run-time; and is another example of the movie’s paper-thin story structure that it tosses around willy-nilly. 

Tune’s catchy, though. 

Okay, the movie’s editing is weird again. We’ve already “seen” Father Joe in the beginning; so repeating Mulder’s introduction style (angling towards everything but the man’s face) is noticeably repetitive and out of place. 

Scully going for the man’s throat is a great set up for her and Mulder’s banter but 

issssssssssssssssssss out of place, especially considering they need information out of the man and don’t know how he’ll react to fierce, off-topic interrogation. Yes, harming children is a no-no for Scully, and harming them especially in the name of her faith is a BIGGER no-no; however, she was never this tactless before, not even with John Lee Roche. Further, she stipulates this is Mulder's case, which means she jeopardized his interrogation with her sniping. Not only was it out-of-character, but it could have put an end to the only lead Mulder had to help out the FBI. Her professionalism is rusty, and further, she is sacrificing the high ground for a dig at the man’s ethics. It’s not very Scully, is it? 

“Maybe it’s not God doing the sending” so this was personal, Scully, that dig had nothing to do with the case except for your own want to defend your beliefs against this pedophile. You’ve never done this in the past; and you and Mulder have worked past any insecurities you might have had with regards to your faith. So, THIS means you’re insecure. Maybe those years on the road have you overthinking or rethinking; but, regardless. it’s rolling back the character growth you achieved in all things and needed to be handled with defter care. 

If the writers were trying to establish her as a bloodhound in this movie ala her old self, they can’t start it out with her being listless and downtrodden and suddenly break that in ways that would harm Mulder’s (and her) investigation and then shove her back into listlessness... and then repeat that cycle over and over with no rhyme or reason.

Also, Whitney is being established as the woman who looks to Mulder, always, because she has a big, fat crush on him that the writers will exploit for maximum drama. 

FATHER JOE SENDS SCULLY OUT-- why. Negative energy didn’t inhibit psychic ability in previous cases. If Father Joe's so wimpy that someone watching him with disdain while he does his whammo makes him insecure and unable to… I was gonna say perform, remembered his altar boys, and cringed internally. Anyway, then he needs to be reminded who's in charge here.

The dialogue cracks are beginning to show: Scully’s parting line is cringe. Even though it doesn’t sound natural to say-- that’s never stopped The X-Files before-- what makes it egregious is that there is no connective tissue to her statement. When talking, there is a leadup to a point and a comment that follows it, etc. etc. Scully’s statement-- “Maybe what you see is a way to try to make people forget what you really are”-- is responding to nothing; and is randomly stated. The equivalent of the teacher telling Timmy to go sit in the corner and Timmy randomly yelling "You're not my mom!" before doing so. It achieved nothing; and made her look like a five year old that can't grasp the finer points of communication (because she only reiterated what everyone else in the room already knew.) Also, it sets up Scully as a disbeliever to Mulder and Whitney as believers; and, of course, this puts Scully through a hackneyed journey back to belief even though she doesn’t disbelieve in psychic ability any longer, etc. etc. 

The question becomes: if this is a new pattern in her behavior, it will remain consistent. Another problem, too, remains. We (the audience) are not given a good reason why this rational character is behaving outside of her own interests. Scully has training and years of experience that being on the run for a year and in medicine for four? is not going to erase. It’s setting her up to be sloppy and messy with her decision-making skills; and we are given no reason why Scully is this way now; and, further, why she directly contradicts this new pattern in other scenes.  

Scully getting scared by Mulder on the pedo colony balcony is a scene I didn’t know existed and I like and he was a reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaal snot for doing that and yay, it’s Mulder. 

And also, I have another nitpick: Mulder, although he has backed off and let Scully handle her own issues with sexist cops and the like in the past, would never let a crook dictate the terms of where Scully is supposed to be: Scully would decide to walk out when she didn’t believe a word their suspect was saying, not because she was expected to leave. Mulder didn’t advocate for her here, put his foot down, or even blaze up and insist Father Joe stop playing games. Strike one against Mulder's characterization. 

JUST AFTER I MADE THOSE POINTS Scully admits she was wrong and Mulder immediately defers to her. Which… uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, time to break that down. 

This doesn’t seem like a lot; but that tiny detail completely demolished Father Joe’s introductory scene AND Mulder and Scully’s first scene back in the FBI saddle.

“All I had were questions-- you challenged him.” That’s a very Mulder thing to say… in other circumstances, but not in this one. Here, Mulder shouldn’t have “just had questions” especially because he was bugged that the other FBI people were a little too doe-eyed about Father Joe; and that annoyance would have made him act out on the priest. Furthermore, Scully’s fury against criminals IS something he loves about her BUT was out of place here, too. And all of this is negated because Scully left, anyway, and he didn’t stick up for her. It’s like if Scully and he were middle schoolers and their classmates kicked her out of a group discussion only for him to wander over after it's done and say, “you did great back there, sweetie!” without sticking his neck out for her at all. It smacks of spinelessness, the opposite of Fox Mulder.

Great acting by DD and GA; but terrible, terrible scenario. 

The precedent has been set that Scully will lash out, get shunned to an outer circle, and Mulder will ho-hum, let it happen, get his info, and give her a pat on the head later. That’s never been them; and this pattern is immediately broken by a following contradictory scene. This back-and-forth cycle continues, over and over, flip-flopping Mulder and Scully in and out of character, and further damaging the script with one-off, disconnected responses. 

Also, aren’t Mulder and Scully past this unnecessary drama of poking the bear (an old, Irish? pedo priest) before they get their necessary information? ESPECIALLY NOW WHEN MULDER'S FREEDOM IS ON THE LINE.

Scully finding out Mulder is humoring Father Joe and deciding to leave the situation and beat them all to the car NOW is in-character; but--

wait. WAIT. NO, I WAS WRONG. SCULLY’S JUST LEAVING LEAVING??? WHAT. 

Okay, another essay time-- wow, I’m not even 20 minutes into this movie, HOW-- before we keep going: Scully leaving, now, because she doesn’t want to humor Father Joe has never stopped her in the past. Ten seconds ago she and Mulder were bantering, five seconds ago she bantered as she left, one cut later she’s somber and serious and dour and down and Mulder has to chase after her. WHAT HAPPENED IN A MILLISECOND to change her entire attitude, especially since she doesn't have a new piece of information to react to????? 

In order: 

Sees Father Joe is being humored (tilts head back in her normal, almost-amused, incredulous style): 

Makes a bantery “It’s been fuuuuuuuuuun” remark and an upbeat “no thanks” remark: 

Walks off (which is dangerous to her partner, will talk about that in the below paragraph) with a bantery “anyway, he doesn’t want me here” handwave: 

Mulder is amused (but knows he has to go convince her): 

MILLISECOND LATER with no new info or reaction “This isn’t my life anymore, Mulder”: 

SO, we’re supposed to assume Scully wanted to hand Mulder over to the FBI from the start, sit back, and just let him run willy nilly around with them without her being there; and only came along because he asked her to come but still bailed on him when she didn’t like the case…?

Let’s take John Lee Roche as an example of why Scully wouldn’t react this way: during that and Grotesque and even Folie a Deux, Scully had Mulder’s back even against her own professional interests. She only left him in FTF and One Son because she thought Mulder didn’t need her any longer. Scully’s nature has always been to ride along, even when she doesn’t want to-- How the Ghosts Stole Christmas, an excellent example: even before her keys were stolen, she was still trying to talk herself out of joining Mulder. But now, NOW when it’s inconvenient, she decides to skip out? Now she has even less excuse: this is her partner’s freedom on the line; and he stipulated FROM THE GET-GO that he needs HER to work WITH him to solve this, BEFORE she called the FBI to agree. 

THIS is not Scully. THIS is ridiculous. 

Now, to those who are reading this and thinking, “well, she could have done that”-- true, Scully could have. Anyone can do anything, IF there is a logical reason or it’s in a person’s best interest to take that action. For instance: Never Again was in-character for Scully because it fit into the mold of previously established reactions to father figures and feeling second place. Why this isn’t in her character is because the two keys to Scully’s loyalty-- being prioritized and depended upon as well as valued and trusted-- are being handed to her on a silver platter and she’s rejecting them (AND her partner’s safety) because she doesn’t wanna do it. Again, that’s never been who Scully is: Scully does the hard thing because it needs to be done; and she only shirks or avoids the emotional mirror being held up to her while still doing her job. There’s a life on the line here-- two, possibly, if Mulder doesn’t follow through on the deal-- and Scully would rather dump the problem in his lap when the logical, realistic, and easily graspable answer is do this case for a few rough weeks or months (because Mulder has always worked fast), then have unlimited freedom and time to go back to doing what she wants. This is not the place to write in this reaction: have one for Scully if, in the discussion for his freedom, Mulder starts pushing for reinstatement instead of simply finishing this case and letting his past go. That’s not what happens here (at the very least); so it makes no sense for her to be doing these actions-- especially with the information she and Mulder are working on-- now. 

Scully says “You’ve done all they’ve asked for you to do” as if implying that Mulder’s finished his task NOW, RIGHT NOW-- that one talk with a psychic has won his freedom. …I’m sorry, how did she conclude this and where was this established? 

Mulder was brought on to find an agent; Scully thinks that agent is dead, so oh, well! You’re done here, Mulder, let’s go~. 

Scully. You know and Mulder knows and I know that the FBI said one agent but really meant the whole case. Don’t be stupid. You’re not a stupid person. They never stipulated either way, c'mon, you were there, you know this.  

The problems aren't over AND IT'S ONLY 20 MINUTES IN.

Next pet peeve: as a general rule, Mulder is understanding with those on the wrong side of the law; however, Father Joes is a pedophile. Further, we’re not shown the scene where Father Joe has humanized himself, his reasons, or even his current character enough to justify the soft way Mulder is dealing with him. 

All we have is that--

Father Joe isolates himself in a compound. 

Father Joe told Scully to leave the room when she barked at him. 

Mulder handles Father Joe gently despite him being a pedophile and despite him kicking Scully out of the interrogation (which sets up her feeling left out.)

Mulder is sitting in the car with Father Joe (and Whitney) and not Scully despite the two of them driving to the same place together.

Father Joe’s castration and inner torment is not brought up until later when he wants to appeal to Scully. 

So, for all intents and purposes, Mulder is being needlessly sweet to a guy that confessed (at this point) to touching more than a couple altar boys and ostracized Mulder's partner just because he’s… psychic. Does Chris not remember how Mulder was initially not nice to Samuel in Miracle Man until after he pulled the Samantha card, was never nice to Modell in Pusher, and still picked fights with various witnesses because of their personal decisions? Again, the only time Mulder was nice or at least professionally kind with flawed characters was AFTER they owned up to or tried to atone for their sins…and, AGAIN, we aren’t shown that scene between he and Father Joe. AND THAT'S ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT SCENES BETWEEN THEM BECAUSE IT SETS THE TONE FOR THEIR PROFESSIONAL RELATIONSHIP.  It falls into the “reply without a preceding remark” territory that I mentioned about the dialogue, except this time it's with characters. Really bad. 

The writers try to save the interaction by having Father Joe sympathize about Samantha whereas the other agent up front doesn’t… but that only breaks the scene even more. 

Male agent up front believed in psychic Father Joe before Mulder was even asked aboard the case. 

Male agent up front believes in psychic abilities but still pokes at the man who was an “authority” on them by mocking Samantha’s “E.T.” abduction. 

Male agent has been professionally distant and disdainful from the get-go; but it’s in HIS best interest to not create rifts with Mulder who is helping Father Joe help the FBI (and him) find their missing agent. 

There is nothing in male agent’s character to suggest he is an irrational man; so, therefore, his random poke only serves to undercut his teammates’ efforts thus far to find and bring Mulder on board. This would waste everyone’s effort and precious time. 

This scene only serves as a convenient excuse to simultaneously lore dump about Samantha and attempt, too late, to humanize Father Joe. Lore about Samantha is fine, but not if it contradicts (read: breaks) male agent's character. And humanizing Father Joe is pointless here because every monster can sympathize with others in their own crooked way. A truer test of character would be to show him go out of his way or comfort zone to help another person-- and that isn't what happens here.

Conclusion

Will I do a part two? Yeah, probably: I need to get to "the split" and Skinner and the vacation-- can't leave it (not even) half-done, after all.

Thanks for reading~

Enjoy!

[eightglass]

do you have any book recommendations? nonfiction or fiction. i'd love to hear what you've enjoyed reading!

!!

Books!!! I love them!!!

Uhh

I'm always a big fan of science fiction!

I mean. There's always Star Wars, if you're into it. Best of those would be the three Thrawn trilogies (yes three trilogies) by Timothy Zahn. The old one (Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, The Last Command) is literally sequels to the original movies, and they were canon (and awesome) before Disney did their shit. They are very good.

Adrian Tchaikovsky is a fantastic author! His Shards of Earth trilogy and Children of Time trilogy are some of the best scifi I've read! Completely different vibes though, but both are really good!

Uhh... If you want existential dread forever, read The Three-Body Problem trilogy. If you've ever heard of the Dark Forest solution to the Fermi paradox, these books are where it came from. (Or popularised/named it? idk.) They're also pretty good.

Everything by Becky Chambers. Wayfarers tetralogy, Monk and Robot duology, To Be Taught If Fortunate, all really good vibes. LGBTR (Little Gay Books To Read)

the Red Rising series by Pierce Brown.

The Locked Tomb trilogy by Tamsyn Muir! Wow! These are really good. Lesbian necromancers in space, and it makes sense. The narrators don't tell you anything either, because in book 1 the narrator doesn't know jack shit, in book 2 the 'narrator' gave herself a lobotomy, and the narrator in book 3 is six months old.

the MaddAddam trilogy by Margaret Atwood. Post-apocalyptic, but the pre-apocalypse was also a capitalism hellscape, so you don't feel too bad.

the Lilith's Brood trilogy by Octavia Butler is some of the BEST aliens scifi I've read holy shit. Seriously, read this.

The Book of Koli trilogy by M. R. Carey! 300 years after an environmental/war apocalypse. Written language has been forgotten, the bioengineered trees have further evolved to walk around and hunt humans (among other things), and the leaders of the remaining groups of humans have whatever top-of-the-line, self-repairing, and self-refilling infantry weapons from the war to use on each other.

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine (two books out, dunno if there'll be a third). Ever wondered about a poetry-based interstellar empire? And what if it were gay?

The Andy Weir books. The Martian, Artemis, Project Hail Mary, those are good.

If you're more into YA scifi, then the Lunar Chronicles tetralogy and Renegades trilogy by Marissa Meyer are both fantastic, and the Aurora Rising and Illuminae Files trilogies by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff (collabs) are amazing!

Fantasy is also good! But I don't find myself reading very much of it.

First off: Discworld. I read 25 of 41 over the summer, and they are GOOD. https://www.discworldemporium.com/reading-order/

All of the Greishaverse stuff by Leigh Bardugo is pretty good, but the Six of Crows duology is really amazing.

The Cruel Prince trilogy by Holly Black! If you like fae stuff, but also urban fantasy and romance. Good books!

A Darker Shade of Magic trilogy by V. E. Schwab, those are good! There's also a sequel series coming out atm.

OMG how can I forget the N. K. Jemisin books?? The Broken Earth trilogy is FANTASTIC. What if the Earth hated everyone and there were geology witches that are actually pretty awesome but everyone hates them? The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms trilogy is also really good. What if the gods were actually omnipotent, but sort of hated each other? And the Great Cities duology! What if New York City was a person (six people)?

As for less scifi-fantasy, I've read and really enjoyed:

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, a retelling of David Copperfield, this time with the main character living/growing up in rural Appalachia during the opioid epidemic. Really, really good.

All of the Alice Oseman books of course.

One Two Three by Laurie Frankel

Webcomics! These were really fun and they're still ongoing! My favs are:

Questionable Content (yes, you can start at 2104). Just a bunch of young adults in Massachusetts doing random shit with varying degrees of gayness, eventually the singularity happens and there are robots (they're gay too)

Dumbing of Age Really, really good college story. Fundie girl goes to college and learns about how the world actually works, varying amounts of gayness, horrible very bad parents, and three dramatic character deaths by the end of the first semester.

Gunnerkrigg Court weird scifi fantasy stuff going on all the time, big mysteries, omnipotent trickster god. The art style improves a LOT.

Web serials (if you want to be consumed by a piece of literature that's easily over a dozen normal books in length)

Worm. 1.6 million words. This consumed me from July to September. Good god. Some of the very best superheroes and superpowers, like, ever, beautiful fight scenes, and conflict escalation that does. not. stop. The poor characters never get a break between crises and catastrophes. But by Scion it is one of the best things I've ever read. Don't look up anything about it, the spoilers are insane. And there's a sequel that's even longer.

Uh.. I've started Katalepsis