#probably blames him for brooklynn

[darkchocolatedimples]

ik there’s a lot of speculation around kenji and brooklynn having possibly broken up before her “death” (still not believing it) but doesn’t darius’s phone call with brand in the first episode kind of point away from that. didn’t he say kenji doesn’t want to hear anything i have to say or something like that? or am i tweaking

[morurui]

CHAOS THEORY SPOILER REVIEW

Cause I just finished it and I have thoughts!

Sooooo I honestly have mixed feelings about Chaos Theory if I’m going to be honest I feel like there are some things that worked in my opinion and some things that didn’t really work for me so I’ll be separating this review into three parts: Things I liked, Things I wasn’t a fan of, and General thoughts.

Things I liked:

-The animation was absolutely gorgeous, it was such a step up from Camp Cretaceous that it’s weird to think that they’re apart of the same series. The team behind it did an absolutely amazing job!

-The last two episodes. Oh my god were those last two episodes so good, they had me at the edge of my seat as well as episode 10 finally giving us interactions between the entirety of the nublar 5

-YASAMMY. I think yasammy was done so well this season. Their fight was so real, nobody was totally in the wrong, but they both weren’t communicating their feelings to each other well and they resolved it in the end. It was just perfect

-Yasmina Fadoula. She was written so well I loved how they didn’t just completely forget she has PTSD and anxiety and included that in her character arc for this season. I also loved how they used her to address how bad it is to infantilize those with mental disorders. (Yaz and I are anxiety twins 🧘‍♀️)

-Mateo. The GOAT. I am the number one Mateo fan, dont ever forget it. I love that man and I will stand by him, I was stressing for his life during episode 10.

-Microbang villain girl was such a menacing villain at the end and I honestly love her. It’s clear that while she is using the atrociraptors for evil deeds she does clearly care for them. I desperately need to know more about her…

-Kenji and Brooklynn’s new voice actors do such a good job with the characters and while I’ll miss Jenna and Ryan, their new voices were casted very well!

Things I wasn’t a big fan of:

-Now to address the elephant in the room…Darius being in love with Brooklynn. (I’m going to try to look at this through an objective pov, but since I don’t ship dinostar obviously there’ll be a slight bias)(nothing wrong if you do ship Dinostar I’m happy for you, but these are just my feelings) Im not a big fan of this. To me I’ve never really read Darius and Brooklynn as being romantic together and their friendship is something I truly cherished about JWCC. I do see why they probably decided to make the decision to have Darius be in love with Brooklynn, but to me it’s kind of upsetting in a way to have Darius’s extreme grief response not be just because they were best friends. It feels like the writers were saying “Well, he’s not experiencing this grief so hard because she was his best friend, but it’s actually because he loves her!”. We’ve seen loss be something Darius takes extremely hard (His dad’s death and Ben’s death) and so I don’t really see why they made it so he was in love with her to justify his response when it’s in character without it. Idk man…

-Brooklynn being alive….HEAR ME OUT HEAR ME OUT. THIS IS NOT BECAUSE I HATE BROOKLYNN SHES ACTUALLY ONE OF MY FAVORITE CHARACTERS. But idk these fake out deaths are starting getting to wear me down. Even Bumpy had a fake out death 😭. I get why they kept her alive being as she is a beloved character, but I just think it would’ve been better for her to be a character that somewhat haunts the narrative. It adds more onto the mystery, not only that but it allows the nublar five to explore “Hey our friend was hiding things from us and we’ll never truly get answers, but we’re going to find out what lead to her death and put a stop to it”. Which was what the nublar five are on a path to, until Brooklynn inevitably shows back up and explains everything. Also why did they give her the 2017 Katy Perry haircut…

-Kenji and Darius’s dynamic. I loved how they used their dynamic at the beginning of the show with Kenji blaming Darius for Brooklynn’s death, but beyond that moment their dynamic felt off to me. It was not helped by the whole Darius being in love with Brooklynn thing, but it just felt like they toned down their brotherly bond in this show (ironic since this is the first time we see them call themselves brothers)

General thoughts

-Jesus Christ was Kenji this shows punching bag 😭. He literally does not get a break, it just keeps on coming, breaking up with his girlfriend because she’s not invested in their relationship anymore, living in a trailer with a failing rock climbing business, his girlfriend kept secrets from him all while working with his estranged dad behind his back, his dad trying to use him again and then dying saving him, AND his brother was in love with his ex girlfriend. All in the span of ten episodes. If I was him I would have a mental breakdown every single day.

-Do yall think Ben actually has a girlfriend? I’m like at a 70/40 split, because he only talks about her two times and the first time he brings her up she totally sounds fake. “She’s from…Europe” Why did you have to think so much Benjamin? Also he fully just said she’s from the continent of Europe rather than a specific country in Europe. Also also it’s implied he hasn’t had a phone on him for a while so how does a long distance relationship work if he doesn’t have any means to contact her??? And he doesn’t even have a picture of her in his van. That man is hiding something I need to know…

-Ben and Darius had like 30-40 minutes of screen time shared between them, which is weird because like most of the show was marketed with them being the main protags and they barely interact beyond episode 4. (Their dynamic was too strong for people to handle “do you talk to your mother with that mouth” broke the world)

-Bumpy having a baby is something I predicted and I’m happy I was right!

Anyway that’s really it, sorry this was pretty long and excuse any typos or grammatical errors, but these were just some of my thoughts!

[transraptortrainer]

I'll speak to specifically the trauma of them losing Brooklynn to a dinosaur !!

Kenji obviously became extremely avoidant which I think was perpetuated by a lot of trauma he experienced just dealing with the dad stuff. It's not easy for him to talk about his feelings or address them directly, and I think he knew he'd be hurtful to Darius - someone he really cares about - if he saw him again after Brooklynn's funeral, which is why he dropped contact with him and the others. He didn't want to hurt his brother but he needed space and a lot of time to heal from what had happened. That being said I don't think he would've ever broken that silence if it wasn't for Darius showing up on his door.

Darius isolated, and as he's always done, he blamed himself. Darius has suffered from survivor's guilt even since his father passed. It's never been easy for him to move on or forgive himself. But he also became a bit obsessive, and knowing that there was originally this plot for Darius to just hate dinosaurs because of the event was passed around in early screenings of season 1 is soo much but it really indicates how much Brooklynn's death meant to him. He couldn't view dinosaurs through the same passionate lense he always did. I think that is extremely representative of his feelings.

Similarly to Darius, Ben also became obsessive in a different kind of way...? Idk if anyone's noticed that his anxiety has kinda evolved into a what appears to me as a kind of paranoia disorder , which. Same queen I get it. He even went as far as to consider his friend Sammy may have been involved! He admits he had to rule out all possibilities which I can only imagine made him feel incredibly guilty. I think he also had to detach, probably mostly because the event caused a split in his friend group. He's become extremely self-reliant but his disorders are manifesting in fun and interesting new ways LOL.

Sammy copes through keeping busy. Obviously. I wouldn't be surprised if this is somehow related to the fact her family decided to end contact with her. But btw can we talk about how much that must've been the straw that broke the camel's back? We know family is the most important thing in the world to Sammy. Not only did she lose her family, but her camp fam haven't been together in 6 months and it's broken her heart. But she keeps busy. She cooks, she cleans, she cares for bumpy. She tries to do anything but think about what's happened to her.

For yaz.. well she's the only one actively receiving therapy. So she's coping. I would bet she thought about quitting therapy and school to support Sammy after everything happened but Sammy refused to let this happen. Yaz is very pragmatic and probably fell into a mindset once or twice that something like this was only bound to happen eventually...Yasmina seemed maybe the least effected by the loss and I think that's probably entirely because she was actively speaking about the trauma and working through it with a support group on the island. Love you girl.....

[aristaspark]

My Chaos Theory... well, theory.

Who's the villain?

I thought about it hard, and I think I came to a pretty solid conclusion as to who's the villain.

And the best candidate is...

Matteo.

There are so many things not adding up with his character, but I'm going to lay out why I think that.

1: He's way.too.nice. I don't buy his whole naive persona, sorry, I still have PTSD from Tiff and Mitch.

2: The night Brooklynn "died". His story is awfully convenient and can actually seem believable from Darius and Kenji POV, but from an audience standpoint? Hell no. We know Brooklynn is alive. She was saved by someone that night (there was only a puddle of blood so it's certain she was picked up by someone with a car). I don't care how strongly he claims he covered his ears, he would have seen or heard something/movements (her screams because she lost her arm, for starters). The fact that, if he tells the truth, he would have magically waited for Brooklynn to be taken away by someone before coming out of the bushes is ridiculous.

3: His reaction when Kenji and Darius are shocked that she had a secret apartment. I swear, I found the delivery of his line suspicious the first time I heard it. "You didn't know she had a secret appartment? 🥴" It seems like he was saying "Well, how could you not know your friend was the kind of person to have a secret apartment, even I KNOW THAT since she's been after my ass for months before I tried to kill her.

4: I don't remember the line exactly, but when the DPW agents said the boss didn't like when things weren't "done right", basically, which made me sure we had already seen the villain.

5: Sorry it took me so long to give the phone of your dead friend back to you, I just conveniently waited for you to be targeted by a psychopath to do so. Just because.

6: Why did he take the phone in the first place? 😂 Even in the scenario he gave to Darius and Kenji that part isn't explained like dude wanted a new phone??? Like in his scenario he had no reason to hide it, if he was who he claims to be he would have given it to Darius right away.

7: The fact that he was the one at the crime scene is suspiscious enough. If it hadn't been deemed a dinosaur attack, he would have been interrogated by the police right away.

So my theory is that:

Brooklynn discovered that someone was doing some horrible things using the DPW to dinosaurs. She pretty much had all the informations, except for one thing: the identity of the person who was doing these things (aka Matteo). Maybe Matteo's daughter is real, and she is the one who told him Brooklynn was getting closer to him (possible she's the one Ben spoke to on DarkJurassic) (or Matteo's lying about that too and is actually really good at tech). The night Brooklynn died was an ambush and he had planned on killing her, but he wasn't actually there, only his subordinates. Brooklynn was saved by someone though, which is why now he is so hell bent on finishing things. When he arrived, he discovered her phone and took it, in case it could be of some use (and maybe to erase all the things she had on him), and that's when Darius arrived. He decided to leave the campers alone since they didn't suspect anything anyway, but when Ben started questioning the night Brook died on Dark Jurassic, he panicked. For the time being he knows Brooklynn didn't tell anything to her friends and probably doesn't know his identity, but he knows that if the campers start investigating, he's in danger. So I think he has two reasons to target them: So that they don't investigate further but the main reason: to make Brooklynn come out of hiding, and to kill her for good (he now has a personal vendetta kind of thing). Maybe he's the one who put the money in her appartment, I'm not sure about that, he might be willing to put the blame on her so that when she reappears everyone will think whatever he is doing was her doing all along (since poor Brooklynn already appears to be suspicious for faking her own death) and that's why he decided to try and gain the trust of the campers.

I think that's about it.

[memyselfandmya]

JWCT PROMPT COUNTDOWN

Jwct countdown May 16-17 -> post-nublar shenanigans:

So, I had so many ideas for this prompt, and ended up only doing two. I will be writing more of them and maybe I'll put some of them on tumblr but a lot of them are going to go towards my fanfictions. I'm not used to this multiple point of view thing with limited action and so many characters so the 1st part is a little wonky. I really love the 2nd one; it's shorter than I'd like it to be but I'll probably end up lengthening it later on. Enjoy!

I

“I mostly play with the dinosaur mods,” Darius says. “Can we add—”

The loud chorus of “No!”s is unmistakably noticeable especially with his headphones on. He has to lift them from his ears for a moment while the group settles down.

“No offense, D, but I’ve had enough dinosaurs for a lifetime,” Kenji tells him. “I’m gonna make the server.” 

Brooklynn groans. “Don’t name it anything stupid, Kenji.” 

“I don’t even know why you bother,” Yaz says, propping her bandaged ankle up on her desk chair leg rest.  

“Too late,” comes Kenji’s response. “I just sent you guys the server invite.”

Groans are heard all throughout headphones when they see the server named “trauma-craft.”

“Really, Kenji?” Sammy questions. “That’s not even remotely funny.”

“Yeah, yeah, just join the server.”

“Hey, guys,” Ben says. “How do I join the server?”

Brooklynn sighs. “Oh my God, Ben really?”  

“I’ve never played!”

Darius and Brooklynn give Ben the run-down while the others join the server. 

“What I’m most surprised about is that Yaz, of all people, has already played minecraft,” Kenji teases. He’s loaded into the world but so far it’s just him.

“Shut the hell up, Kenji,” is what Yaz tells him. She’s next to load in and the first thing she does is punch Kenji.

Sammy giggles. “You have to admit, Yaz, you’re not the type of person you'd think plays minecraft.” Her character spawns right next to Yaz.

Yasmina scoffs. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing, Darling. Don’t worry about it.”

“All right, I think I got the hang of it,” Ben says. He, Brooklynn, and Darius finally join the game. 

“The gang’s all here,” Kenji says triumphantly. He makes his avatar run around in circles as he sips from a (non-carob) juice box. 

“Well, I think it’s obvious what we do next,” says Sammy. They all respond at once. 

“Go mining,” Yaz says. 

“Build a house,” comes Darius’ response.

“Make weapons?” Is Ben’s suggestion. 

“Explore the map, obvi,” Brooklynn says.

There’s a moment of silence. Then comes Kenji’s voice. “Guys, guys. I think it’s obvious what we do first: punch a tree.”

“What I was going to say was we should go looking for a cute biome to live in,” Sammy answers. 

II

Hey guys, Ben texts the group chat one day when he’s visiting Yaz in South Carolina. Yaz and I are going to get our ears pierced together.

It was a completely random decision that they made. Ben’s mom just so happened to have some work in South Carolina to take care of so Ben tagged along to pay one of his closest friends a visit. They had been hanging out at Yasmina’s house all day, just chilling and playing games, when Ben says, “We should get our ears pierced.”

Yasmina looks up from the deck of cards she’s holding. “I already have my ears pierced, Dummy.”

“Okay, well yeah, but I’ve been thinking of getting mine done.”

“Sick,” Yaz says. “Do you think your mom’ll go for it?” 

“I mean, yeah probably.” He flops down on Yaz’s bed and stares at the ceiling. “My mom has been crazy nice to me lately. I think she feels guilty about sending me to Nublar.”

“Sending your kids to their presumed death will do that to you,” Yaz hums. “But yeah, my mom feels guilty about it too but it’s not their fault. We should be blaming Wu and the maniacs who made that place.”

“Oh, believe me. If I ever see Wu’s face again, I’m jumping his ass.”

Yaz smiles. “Perfect, we can tag-team him together.” The two fist bump and Yaz sets down her set of cards. “Now that you mention it… I wouldn’t mind getting a second piercing and Mom would totally let me. Do you think Sammy would like it?”

Ben laughs at the question. “I think Sammy would like anything you do. You could shave all of your hair off and she’d still love you. Have you guys said it yet, anyways? The “L” word? And no, I don’t mean lesbian.”

Yaz clicks her tongue against the roof of her mouth. “Yep, we have.”

“Yaz!” Ben exclaims, gripping Yasmina by the shoulders and shaking her while she fights the smile growing on her face. 

She ducks her head down to hide the blush creeping onto her cheeks. “Anyways, let’s go ask our moms about getting our ears pierced.”

And that’s how Yaz and Ben end up at a tattoo parlor (don’t go to Claire’s, kids) sitting next to each other as they wait to get their ears pierced. 

WHAT!? OMG SEND PICS WHEN YOUR DONE, comes Brooklynn’s reply. 

When Ben sets his phone down he begins tapping his finger against the seat’s armrest. “Is it bad I’m getting kind of scared,” he asks, watching the man prepare the needle.

Yasmina rolls her eyes and laughs. “Man up, Pincus. What happened to the Ben who defeated Toro?”

At that Ben’s face reddens. When he said it back on the island a kajillion times, it was like a badge of honor, but back home on the mainland, whenever he told anyone they looked at him like they would a person who just lost an arm in a war: with pity.  “Yea, yea. You’re right,” he says. 

Their parents are waiting up front so it’s just the two of them until the piercers come up to them, needles primed. “Are you guys ready?”

Ben looks at Yaz for a split second and then nods to them. “Hold my hand,” he says, stretching his arm out towards Yasmina. She groans but holds it anyway. 

Ben takes it like a champ. He hardly even notices when the needle pierces through his skin and the earring he chose is placed in the new hole. The second ear goes just as smoothly.

Yasmina isn’t as lucky. 

She’s gotten her ears pierced before, back when she was younger, so she’s relaxed up until the point the piercer disappears behind her head. She’s right by Yaz’s ear and on the very edge of her sight to the point where Yaz can’t even see her, but her presence is certainly there. 

Deep down, she knows that she’s not on Nublar and the woman right next to her isn’t a dinosaur coming to sink its teeth into her neck but her mind is a sick little thing that loves to seize her with fear. Yasmina closes her eyes but the image of Nublar won’t disappear and she’s certain that Blue is approaching her, hunting her. She has to run—but she can’t.

Ben’s calm until he notices Yasmina’s hand tighten around his and he glances at her to find her eyes shut tight and her knuckles turning white from gripping the armrest. The woman finishes with her just as quickly as Ben had but even when she walks away, Yaz is still hunched over and what hair that’s not in her ponytail shades her face. 

“Yaz,” he says, hesitantly. “You good?”

“Mhm,” she responds, but Ben can tell that she’s not really there. He doesn’t know why he bothered asking when the answer was so plain to see, however he does know that he has to help her in some way. He knows Yaz isn’t one for touch but when he tries to pull away, her grip tightens around his wrist. “It’s over, Yaz,” he says. “You’re okay, I’m here.”

It takes a moment but eventually Yaz’s grip loosens and she sits up a little straighter. She’s still staring at the floor, though, and avoiding his gaze. 

 “Do you want some water?” Ben asks, before digging through his fanny pack which he still makes a habit of wearing. He takes out a mini water bottle and hands it to Yasmina who accepts it gratefully and downs it all in one gulp. “Thanks,” she whispers once she’s done. 

“Of course,” Ben tells her. 

[negligentbabysitters]

Random thoughts on the trailer under the cut (mostly just me saying whatever)

Ha. They actually killed Brooklynn. Apollo gave us all the gift of prophesy.

Yasammy "wanna make a little chaos?" (Another win for the sapphics)

Can we take a moment to appreciate how slay Brooklynn looked in her last moments.

The best designed character shows up for a grand total of eight seconds. Wow.

Also, I personally do not think she's coming back because, like, Jenna Ortega is probably busy, so I really think Brooklynn is dead and gone. Maybe I'll be wrong, maybe she will pull a Ben Pincus in the last episode, but we'll see.

DARIUS BLAMING HIMSELF CAUSE OF COURSE HE WOULD (get this man some therapy, actually, get the whole camp fam to group therapy, they need it)

BUMPER CAR!!! SHES BACK!! MOVE OUT OF THE WAY SAMMY! (That's a joke, I will not tolerate any anti-Sammy propaganda)

Also, look at my boy. Look at him.

Honestly, the new character designs don't look half bad. They're not perfect, but they're nice.

Looks like we get to see Sammy's ranch! (Pretty sure that's where this scene takes place)

Also, the tone is very clearly darker than Camp Cretaceous, which we already know, but it's cool to like see it, yk

PACHYRHINOSAURUS!!!

Call Dino Nerd!

Does that say "over 3x?" ???

Brooklynn and the Allosaurus just making eye contact for a good few seconds before Brooklynn actually starts running.

No, but what's up with that she just stood there???😭😭😭

???

I don't think the audio that plays in this scene belongs to this scene. They're probably trying to throw us off, and that's actually Brooklynn's phone or smth.

I watched the trailer like 80 billion times slowed down and without audio. It's practically engraved in my brain at this point. Someone send help.

Anyway, it looks like there's some sort of shipping... is facility the right word? Idk, they're shipping dinosaurs or moving them off to somewhere I'm assuming illegally??

I've hit the image limit- okay then- will I ever continue this post? Unlikely, I don't have anything interesting to say anyway lmao

[takerfoxx]

Okay, finished up season 1 of Chaos Theory. And as you might imagine, I have THOUGHTS!

Non-spoiler review: it's really good.

Spoiler review...

Damn.

Like, this was actually great. Sure, I clown on the Jurassic World movies for being shit and have done so for nearly a decade now, but if this is the sort of content that spins off from them, then by all means, keep making those shitty movies. Of course it's not perfect, there's things to nitpick, but that's true of just about everything.

Okay, lots to talk about, so let's go into things bit by bit. Starting with...

Brooklynn!

Yeah, of course she's not dead. Like, did anyone honestly think that there was the slightest possibility that they would actually kill off one of the campers like that? As soon as I heard "Brooklynn's dead," my thought was, "Lol, no she isn't. She'll be dramatically revealed to be still alive in the final scene." And wouldn't just know it!

Still, there is a lot to discuss with her. We all know that she isn't really working for Mantah Corp or the Broker (more on them later), and is probably doing her investigative journalist thing to try to bring down the dino black market thing from inside, and was prodding Daniel Kon for information, and all that jazz. I imagine that this will get expanded on in the next season. However, I didn't see her losing a hand coming. So, she didn't deliberately fake her death. I guess she barely got away after the Allosaur or maybe the raptors bit her hand off and Ronnie found her and rescued her, and now she's in hiding.

However, just because she's not dead doesn't mean that she didn't die. And by that I mean her friends (and I presume family) all genuinely believe that she really did die, and have had to deal with the grief and trauma and try to process it in their own ways.

And honestly, that's what I loved the most about this season, how frankly and maturely it tackles the topic of grief and trauma. It's clear that everyone was deeply affected by losing Brooklynn, and I love how seriously this show takes things.

Darius.

Starting with our man, Darius is very much not okay. Well, none of them are, but he's definitely taking the atoner route to dealing with his grief. He feels immense guilt for not being there for her and blames himself for her death, so he quits his job and throws himself into hunting down the Allosaur as a way of redemption. He doesn't talk to his family unless they actually manage to get him on the phone, he doesn't talk to the other campers, but he does call Brooklynn's cell phone on the regular just to hear her voice as a way of coping. Like, usually the leader-type main character is supposed to be the one with his shit together, so I love that the show allowed him to be shown in such a vulnerable state.

Ben

Goddamn, Big Ben is right. Talk about the shooting up like a fucking palm tree.

Anyway, it's fitting that the boy who was raised to fear everything would transfer fall deep into paranoia and conspiracy theories as his own way of coping. Like, sure, he overcame the fears he had at the start of Camp Cretaceous, but that sort of ingrained behavior doesn't go away. And sure, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that they aren't out to get you, and he is right, but the show also take time to show that it is still an unhealthy way of coping, with him jumping at shadows and being convinced that everyone is in on the conspiracy, even going so far as to suspect Sammy.

As for the girlfriend in Europe thing, this might be just a set-up for a joke where she get revealed as being real (maybe the ship will take them to her or something), but a lot of people are justifiably calling bullshit (notice that we never get any details about her?), and, like in the last show, suspecting that he's actually gay. And yeah, I definitely see it too, and wouldn't be surprised. That being said, part of me is actually kind of, sort of hoping that we get Ace Ben instead.

Look, as someone on the aro-spectrum (not exactly ace, but it is related) and has sarcastically made up girlfriends in the past just to get my family to get off of my back, it would be nice to have some more characters like that, though I do see how that would be harder to portray than someone who's gay.

Okay, moving on.

Kenji

It's funny that a character that I was actively hoping would get eaten when I first started Camp Cretaceous because of what an annoying douche he was has now evolved into my favorite. Hmmm, someone with father issues who struggles with resentment and feelings of betrayal. I wonder why I empathize?

It's obvious that despite breaking free from Daniel, Kenji still feels the need to prove himself to him, even in a negative way, hence the whole rock climbing business. And honestly, I don't blame him for being mad at Darius. And you know what? I'm so glad that the show made it so he was the one who broke up with Brooklynn and not the other way around. Teen dramas like this usually have one character who's the designated "wrong one" who has to learn the lesson over and over again, and given that he started off as an arrogant jerk who needed to be humbled, it would have been easy to lock him in that roll, but no, he was allowed to fully mature and become sort of the moral voice of the group, with Brooklynn being the one who let him down. Granted, she was probably preoccupied with her dino smuggling investigation, but even so, I'm glad that they didn't do the lazy thing and have Kenji be the one who's always wrong.

And dear God, that scene after Daniel's death where he just breaks down on the side of the road? Magnificent. In...a really tragic sort of way. Like, what a naked expression of grief. He knew that his father was a terrible person who he tried so hard to escape from, but that didn't change the fact that it was his father, who he spent his entire childhood looking up to!

Now, about the love triangle thing between him, Darius, and Brooklynn, I admit I'm not too hot on that, mainly because I hate love triangles. But it does sort of make sense for Darius to develop feelings for Brooklynn, and she and Kenji had been broken up already, and it's an interesting take to have the person that the other two desire actually be "dead" already, so instead of them competing over her, it's more about these two friends who fell apart coming to terms with their very complicated feelings regarding her and each other. It's a fresh take on a tired cliche.

Sammy

If Darius is guilt-ridden, Ben paranoid, and Kenji resentful, Sammy is in straight-up denial, relying on toxic positivity and endless distractions to keep herself from falling apart. Her abandonment issues are in full force, not only with Brooklynn's death, but also growing apart from Yaz and not knowing why, and I also noted that her parents are nowhere to be seen. It may be nothing, but a queer girl in rural Texas? You kind of know how that tends to go. She is someone who will go to great, sometimes morally ambiguous lengths to keep her family together, but now it's falling apart around her, and she feels helpless to do anything about it.

Yazmina

Leave it to Yaz to be the one to say, "Hey, I'm heavily traumatized! I'm going to get therapy!" And you know what? Another thing I really like about this show is that it goes more into depth on what the world would be like if dinosaurs are suddenly on the loose everywhere, even more than Dominion did. Like, there's one blocking a gas station. There's a shitty Tiger King tourist trap with poorly taken care of dinosaurs. And there's a therapy compound for people traumatized by dinosaurs.

And Yaz, someone who really struggles with fear and self-esteem, is not only there for her own sake, but also working on projects to help others with the hologram thingie. I guess her injuries on the island meant that running wasn't really feasible anymore, so she found a new calling.

As for her and Sammy, okay, I am so glad that they didn't drag out the issues between them and instead got the fight out early. And I love how it was handled. Like, neither of them were really the bad guy or the innocent one, they both made mistakes but had understandable reasons for making them. Like, Sammy can be a bit...much, and after losing Brooklynn, it makes sense that she would get really clingy and smothering, which Yasmina did not need. But by the same token, she did sort of cut Sammy out of her life and left her to spiral. It's a very human approach to them having relationship problems.

Bumpy

Okay, just putting this here because Bumpy is best girl, and she now is a mother. Lol. We're definitely getting baby Speckles in a season or two. But do my eyes deceive me, or was Speckles one of the eggs that Jensen had?

The Atricoraptor Handler

Okay, I really want to talk about her, because, my queen!

Yeah, yeah, yeah, she's meant to be creepy and threatening. Uncanny valley, never blinks, never speaks above a whisper, heartless killer, I get it. She's a bad guy.

I still love her.

Why? Well, I know it's not exactly a deliberate or positive take, but they kind of, sort of ended up with an autistic-coded character who loves raptors. I can't help but connect.

But yeah, most of show, I was scared of her like everyone else. She's just so...off, and so intimidating. But then we get to that last scene, when she's about to sic her raptors on the campers again, only to notice how injured and fatigued they are, and instead decides to call off the attack for their sake (the raptors, I mean. Not the campers), and even comforts the one closest to her. And that's when she won me over.

Look, as much as I love JP, it really rankles me how the raptors always seem to become disposable mooks. I love raptors, and feel that they deserve more. Like, does no one remember the raptor nest scene from the original book? All the other dinosaurs often get sympathetic portrayals, even the carnivores, so why are raptors, which canonically are intelligent creatures with complex family units, often just end up as serial killers with claws to be exterminated? As much as I bash the JW movies, the one thing I do love is Blue, and even she had her siblings all wiped out!

So, throughout the finale, I knew the campers would be okay, but I kept saying, "Don't kill the raptors. You're gonna kill the raptors, aren't you? Please don't kill the raptors." And then it looked like the Rex did kill them, and I rolled my eyes. Here we go again.

But then they turn up alive and the Handler just shows them that sort of affection? My QUEEN! Yes!

Yes, I know she's still evil, but no one else is doing it!

Now, is she a raptor/dinosaur hybrid? A robot? Just sort of like that? I'm hoping that she's just a weird human who raises raptors, but a human/dinosaur hybrid has nearly popped up in the scripts, and human clones are canon, so who knows?

The Broker

Let's face it: the Broker is probably either Dodgson or someone who works for him. We finally got him in the final season of Camp Cretaceous, and since this show takes place right before Dominion, it makes sense that BioSyn would be behind everything. It's the only established character that makes sense.

Though, hey, wouldn't it be crazy if it ended up being Ian Malcolm as part of his cover? Ain't gonna happen, of course. But it would be really funny.

So yeah, really good show, ranks up there on the list of my favorite JP things, can't wait for the next season.

[mangosaurus]

some benrius related questions i can't help but ask before jwct episode one comes out tomorrow:

is ben familiar with darius's fence system because that kind of security has become so commonplace with dinosaurs running around, or has he been to darius's cabin before?

if ben has been to darius's cabin before, is he the only one that knows where darius lives now? or did darius share his location with the other campers, too?

if ben hasn't been to darius's cabin before, did he track him down himself?

why is darius so angry that ben showed up at his cabin anyway? something about the "so you show up here—" makes me think it isn't just about the prank call, or whatever ben had to tell darius (i'm assuming his conspiracy theory)

so ... had darius drawn a line between him and the other campers following brooklynn's death? was he so scared of repeating the same mistake that he intentionally severed himself from the group? is ben showing up to darius's cabin a violation of that boundary? I DON'T KNOWWW

what was ben and darius's relationship like leading up to the tragedy? were they still good friends? or had they drifted apart since ben was busy with his internship/getting ready for college while darius was off giving presentations and working with the DPW?

how many episodes are we getting with just them alone? before the second trailer dropped, i wasn't even sure if we were going to see the other campers in season 1, but now it's very clear that they're going to be playing a major role. even then, though, a lot of the promotional material still revolves solely around benrius, including the first clip we got and the cover for volume one of the junior novelization. if i had to guess, i'd say we get 3 or 4 episodes max until ben and darius reunite with yaz and sammy at least—kenji will probably come later, which makes sense, since his reunion with darius will probably be the hardest

don't get me wrong: brooklynn's death in and of itself must have hit ben incredibly hard, and i can easily see how ben fell into some kind of conspiritorial spiral as a way to process his grief. but i have to wonder if darius was, in part, motivation for ben to find out the "truth" behind what got brooklynn killed that night. ben knows better than anyone just how much self-blame darius tends to carry on his shoulders, so maybe ben wanted to alleviate that by investigating what happened.

... is this the first time ben's come to darius with a theory like this? or has darius heard this all before, but without the evidence to back it up? is he tired of it. does he wish ben would just let him rot away in the woods instead of trying to make him feel better.

not a question, but imagine if ben had been writing darius letters but darius just kept discarding them. he could never bring himself to actually throw them away but they keep piling up in the back of darius's closet, unopened. i'm fully aware that i've ventured completely into fanfic territory with this one. i love being emo

[campfam4lyfe]

So good to meet another Brookji/Kenlynn fan! What do you think that will happen between them in JWCT season 2 (or later seasons)?

YESSS ANOTHER BROOKENJI!!!!!

okay so, honestly, i have like. zero clue. of what i think will actually happen, because there could be so many different roads for them to take. i know what i want though, and that is a kenlynn endgame. i understand why they broke up, i do. but to see their faces as it happened. the devastation--neither of them wanted it. but kenji had to do it, and i dont blame him.

but guys! brooklynn loves the camp fam--she keeps their picture up on her mystery board. she kept it as her lockscreen. she loves them. i also have to say, that brooklynn loves kenji. as a boyfriend, as a lover--as her person. darius says she was real broken up about the breakup, and she clearly had regrets. she told darius about how and where it happened. she kept that video with the "brokwie bear" and "kenji wenji." she has that video because she couldn't help but film him bc she thought he was being cute. it was one of the first things they saw when they decided to look through her phone! she loves him!

and kenji loves her--his grief over her death, his anger at the people he suspected of being involved in her death--the constant "where were you's" to darius--he needed to know why he wasnt there. that bit where he says "be honest with me. if you loved brooklynn, and mean, really loved her, why werent you there?" broke me, absolutely, cause goddamn ouch. like. he loves her, so he couldnt imagine not showing up if she called him. to the extent where he needs to know why darius wasnt and its like. does he, somehow, blame himself a lot? is that a veiled, *i* could have been there, why didnt she want me there?? devastating stuff.

but. thats all s1 stuff. youre asking about season 2 and onwards! so. what i think will happen--okay, so, you remember how in the end of s1 cc they showed ben was alive? and then we got a ben&bumpy episode that spanned the near-month he was alone. im wondering if they'll do that with brooklynn at some point. truly, i dont know. its possible, but maybe there going to reveal it in pieces, like flashbacks.

i want to know how brooklynn survived. the extent of her realtionship with ronnie, and about all the stuff she'd uncovered abt the dino smugglers since she started till now.

but also, i want a reunion so so bad, and since CT was handling everything else so well, i think theyll do a reunion justice too. and that means i think they will give some of the characters space to be angry. obviously i think there will be relief--who wouldnt be, to find out your friend is alive? but then i think there might also be betrayal, or anger or both.

and maybe also a little horror. brooklynn lost her HAND. and those moments leading up to it must have been terrifying.

i want the fact that she has lost a hand to be addressed. for instance, she can't drive her motorcycle anymore, at least not without a proper prosthesis. and its clearly something she liked doing--her helmets! one for her and one for kenji. just. AHHHHHH you know???

i want kenji to be wooed, let brooklynn woo kenji CT writers, let them woo each other.

i realize i keep meandering and never properly answering your question. im so sorry! okay--i think things will be tense, probably, with relief mixed in, but also a lot of hurt, and some anger. i think brooklynn will have her reasons, its a matter of whether or not the camp fam can accept those reasons or not, after all, we cannot force anyone to accept our apologies. i think they will however, though it may be at different stages for different characters. i think kenlynn will be able to reconcile, and im hoping for a "i knew youd come around/dont ruin it" call back. (my biggest hope is for that ghost line callback tho) but i also think brooklynn will have to show kenji that she does value his time and being with him, and just, him. which, i think its clear she does, but she got a little too consumed with her mystery for a hot sec.

[annymaght]

Reasons Why Daniel Kon is a D*ck: Part 2 (Spoilers: S5, Eps 1, 2, 3 & 4)

He fake hugs Kenji

He authorised the killing of Dr. Turner, but when it was brought up, he blamed Kash alone to get the campers and Mae on his side.

He refused to take the campers home immediately to better the success of his company.

He “iced out” Kash after learning of Sammy’s “death”, basically blaming him for it.

Despite saying how much he missed his son, he still couldn’t give two flying f*cks about what he has to say.

He did not tell the Mantah Corp Board of Directors what he was using the money for.

He attempted to convince Kenji that dinosaurs where mindless killing machines, and that making them fight was natural.

He hasn’t told Sammy’s family that they are now working for an illegal company that they can’t escape from.

He open fired on Big Eatie because he didn’t trust Kenji, despite her being chained already.

He told the campers that he would stop dino fights, but did not carry out that promise.

He freed Kash the psychopath, so that he could continue working for him.

He black-mailed Mae into working for him, and threatened to kill the campers (probably including his own son) if she refused.

He lied about what Brooklynn was doing to Kenji to separate them.

He wants Kenji to work with him, despite Kenji still being a child (child labour).

He told Kenji that Sammy and Brooklynn broke into his office despite him saying earlier that he didn’t want Kenji to know, just so he could use that information later to further distance Kenji from his friends.

He didn’t stop Cyrus or put him in his place when he hit Kenji.

He man-handled Kash and said he is getting more than he deserves by still being alive.

He allowed the investors to force the dinos to fight.

He put his anger out on Kenji when the campers crashed the presentation.

He allowed the investors to try and kill the campers

He ripped Kenji off of him when he tried to comfort him.

He locked the campers in the nursery.

He told Kenji he did the right thing with his friends even though he obviously didn’t.

He fake comforts his son only to be drawn immediately away by the missing gaddi.

He asked his son to come with him into the forests of Isla Nublar. And despite Kenji’s reluctance, he kept pushing, dismissing his son’s trauma.

He hires a mercenary with a history of abusing children.

He, again, threatens Mae, saying that he’ll kill children if she doesn’t help him.

He still goes after herbivores to use as bait for the carnivorous dinosaurs.

[idle-compy]

s5 spoiler review ahead!!

Ok, so I didn't do a review while watching this time so we'll see how much I remember. Also, this is probably more of me talking about my favorite moments rather than a review

First of all, this season was so much better than 4. It actually developed the characters and focused on their relationships with each other. I loved the fact that the characters felt real. They were joking around, trying to have fun when it wasn't really the time. They were being kids. Also, so much more dinosaurs and so much less robots.

Yasammy canon?!?!?! I mean I knew it was gonna happen but when it happened?? Ya girl lost her mind. The kiss??? Absolutely spectacular. Sammy pretending like the didn't hear Yaz so she would repeat her confession?? They're secret "I love you" language?? I will never recover

And on that note, Ben being absolutely the perfect person for Yaz to go to about it. He knew exactly what to say and the scenes of him trying to get them together were so wholesome but also lowkey hilarious

And Ben in general?? Like they somehow took perfect s4 Ben and made him more perfect. Also that scene where Bumpy was going after him while controlled was insane. The way Ben was just going to accept his fate, but not blame Bumpy because she couldn't help it, and then she managed to break control of the chip so she wouldn't have to hurt him :'))

Also I'm so glad that Darius finally got to process and talk about his feeling with someone. Him lashing out at Kenji?? He has been way overdue for all that. I did appreciate that this season adressed the fact that he shoves his feelings down

Brand, Dave, and Roxie showing up early in the season was absolutely perfect. Even though it took them until the last episode to actually find them, I loved getting to watch the lead up to that. Also, Mae working with them was perfect

Mae was also a delight once again this season. The way she was willing to sacrifice herself to Nublar if it meant Mantah Corp not getting what they want. Absolutely iconic of her

Kenji's dad just kept getting more and more awful. Everything you think he couldn't get worse he did. It was hard to watch him lie and manipulate Kenji to get what he wanted. That showdown scene between him and Kenji at the plane?? He couldn't even tell his son he cared about him or that he loved him, and barely put up a fight to get Kenji on that plane before just leaving him there

I actually liked Kenji's development. Watching him slowly fall into this mold his father was making him into, working really hard just to make his dad happy, just to realize he cared about his business and his name more than his own child. The end where he realized he didn't really have parents anymore was painful

But, while it's depressing, he got a better family!!! Seeing Darius' mom take him in instantly made me cry so much

On that note, the reunions scenes!! When Darius and Brand saw each other again?? That's when my tears started and then didn't stop for the rest of the episode. Also seeing how excited Dave and Roxie got to see these kids they only knew for a week, and then the kids reuniting with their parents. I was just a sobbing mess by then

When it cut to grown Darius giving a speech, I just broke. He's grown so much!! And then Kenji was still there!! Living with him!! They're brothers!! And they we got to see the rest of the campfam??? Sammy and Yaz live together, Ben's off working alongside dinos with Mae, and Brooklynn's a detective?? Perfect. All of it. Except for Yaz, Sammy, and Ben's designs?? Yaz and Sammy just looked cheap (Sammy was still in the same shirt) and, I don't know, just wasn't really digging Ben's

Ok, now for some smaller things I loved that I can remember

Darius cried!! Three times!! Finally!!

"But have you ever though about that maybe you want be more than best friends?" "Um, Yaz. Bumpy's a dinosaur? I just don't think it would work"

Also Ben's awful accents?? Peak

Brands new jacket!!

I know I mentioned it above, BUT THE YASAMMY KISS?? I will never stop thinking about it

"I've been trying to tell you something all day just waiting for the perfect moment, but there are no perfect moments and even though I probably still smell like the tunnel and it looks like you have nothosaurus drool in your hair and Ben is standing right there... I can't wait another minute to tell you how I feel!!"

The kids creating a new watering hole for the dinos!! And they dived off the cliff into it!! And Yasammy jumped together!! Holding hands!!

The Nublar Six. That's all I'm gonna say

Ok this is all I can think of for now!! It will probably be updated throughout the day

[ailendolin]

Spoilers for season 4 / Ben's trauma

I love that Yaz’s trauma was a major plot point this season but I really wish they would give Ben’s trauma the same focus. He’s clearly not okay but where Yaz’s trauma gets continuously brought up over several episodes, Ben’s more or less gets ignored and is only briefly mentioned every now and then. This is obviously not just a problem of season 4. His fall from the Monorail / attack by Pteranodon and subsequent abandonment was never properly discussed in seasons 2 and 3 either. But compared to how the show dealt with Yaz's trauma, he really got the short end of the stick again, and here's why:

After Brooklynn and Kenji get separated from the group during the sandstorm, Ben is way more frantic to find them than the others are and blames himself for the situation. That's probably because he doesn’t want them to go through the same thing he did – being all alone, thinking no one will come for them.

Just shortly after that, Ben finds the berries and starts panicking and second-guessing himself. At this point, they still have hope of finding other people and getting home and he’s utterly terrified of making a mistake and getting someone hurt.

When they fall asleep by the fire that same night, he’s the only one on high alert. The others are sleeping fairly soundly while he startles awake gasping for breath. His instincts – the ones he got because he had to survive on Isla Nublar on his own – save their lives in that moment and yet Darius questions them, makes Ben question them because of the incident with the berries.

Then the sabre-toothed cat attacks and Ben leads it away from the group, probably for the same reason I mentioned under #2. Another one might be that he thinks he hasn't got much to come home to compared to the others. He doesn't like who he was before - “Scared Ben” - and it's not too far-fetched to think he believes himself to be expandable because of that.

And speaking of “Scared Ben”: the fact that he forced himself to change and become someone he’s not is something I really wish the show would discuss. And by that I don’t mean that short moment at the end of 4x02. Ben has been wearing a mask ever since he came back to the group in season 2 and Darius telling him he can be “just Ben” now is not really going to cut it in my opinion. (Side note: I kind of wrote two fics about that which you can find here and here)

In later episodes, we meet the baby dinosaurs and even though we see Ben struggling with his decision to leave Bumpy behind, it doesn’t really get discussed in-depth. The other characters leave him be and Ben works through it on his own when Firecracker gets captured.

And finally, the Pteranodon return. They’re the personification of Ben’s trauma and I’m glad he acknowledges that in the episode but again, I really wish the show would give him the chance to talk about it. (I wrote fic about that too here).

So in short, Ben has a lot of trauma to work through and he deals with most of it on his own. The few talks he has with the others feel superficial compared to the help Yaz got this season. I’m not saying his trauma is worse than hers because trauma is trauma but I feel like Ben’s bottling up a lot of it because he's trying to be okay and thinking that's the only way he'll be accepted.

He needs what Yaz got: a break.

[morurui]

You know how in Camp Cretaceous Darius was our protagonist, Kenji was our deuteragonist, and Brooklynn was our tritagonist while the other 3 were tetartagonists. I definitely think Chaos theory is going to switch up which characters are going to be in the spotlight (and not only because of the Brooklynn situation obviously requiring a new tritagonist 🥲) this is how I predict the dynamic switching.

-Darius is obviously going to remain our protagonist I don’t see that ever changing and the plot is tied very heavily to him so I don’t have many thoughts on that .(I’m very excited to see more exploration of his psyche)

-Ben is shifting to our deuteragonist this time around seeing as not only is he taking charge of collecting everyone and researching the behind the scenes stuff (as well as having involvement with mantah corp through his work on the island), but his character is also heavily tied to Darius. Due to Brooklynn no longer being in the picture (☹️) and hints that Darius and Kenji are distant at the moment, he’s clearly the closest person Darius has right now and from their time on the island it’s shown that they understand each other in a way that others don’t (I mean he literally knew that Darius would be blaming himself for Brooklynn’s death and set out to reassure him that it wasn’t his fault).

-Next up is our Tritagonist, and upon further reflection of the trailer and especially the new poster that came out recently I think it’s going to be Sammy. I’m not a hundred percent sure about this but when watching the trailer there was a lot of focus on her much more than Yaz and Kenji. I think her ties to mantah corp are definitely going to come back and we can see through some hints in the trailer (and especially the new caution sign promo photos that were posted today) that bumpy is most likely living on her family’s ranch reaffirming her ties to mantah corp island. Do I know exactly what role she’s going to play? Nope no idea, but do I know I’m going to love seeing her more often? Yes, yes I do.

-This leaves Yaz and Kenji as our Tetartagonists. I want to note this does not diminish their importance to the plot. I feel like it implies that they won’t be as important, but that’s simply not true. Kenji is obviously going to have an arc centering himself, Darius and Brooklynn as well as his ties to mantahcorp through his dad. And from the small snippets of Yaz that are in the trailer we’re probably going to explore her ptsd further. They’re obviously going to be involved in the plot, but just not as centered as the others that were previously mentioned.

At the end of the day this is just fun speculation and there’s no way to know for sure what the dynamics are going to be like until the show comes out! I just wanted to put my thoughts out there on the topic because I had a lot to say about it.

[ren1327]

Lean On sneak peek

Hi everyone! Here's a sneak peek of Lean On ch.1

This concept was suggested by @azuremoses and is multi-chaptered and inspired by the Percy Jackson series and the song Lean On by Major Lazor

Don't be afraid to send in suggestions or feedback Enjoy!

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

"You need something, Kon?"

They always glared at him.

Why wouldn't they? He took the blame for losing their smallest, not youngest, brother. The one they all looked out for. Who tended thier wounds, and mixed lotions and balms he knew they would need sooner than later.

And Kenji...Kenji was the son of Hades.

The bad omen whom many believed would snuff out Ben's light with his shadows.

What was he suppose to do? Tell them it was the beloved son of Athena who let Ben fall into a cloud of Stymphalian Birds?

That every bit of Ben was probably gone before he hit the ground?

He took a deep breath, looking at many angry, sad and hate filled gazes.

"No. Just taking a short cut." He said and kept his pace, his back tingling from the glares and muttered curses as he held his head high.

As he moved past the golden cabin, he could see through an open window Ben's bed still made, his book still opened as if Ben had just left it ten minutes ago instead of three months.

His breath hitched when he saw a young girl stand over it and close her eyes, most likely praying. He sped up, remembering countless nights he begged his father to let him see Ben, or come back down and be with him.

And the answer to both was "I'm sorry, Son. No."

Darius was waiting at the gate with Brooklynn, Yaz and Sammy.

Brooklynn smiled as she held out an extra bag of rations. "Quest Time?"

Kenji smiled sadly back. "Quest Time."

[theswampspirit]

Hello Camp Cretaceous fandom!

I’ve got a new season 4 idea for y’all!!

So, at first I thought that they probably wouldn’t go back to Nublar, because the s3 finale sets up a whole new adventure for the kids, as well as some unresolved inter-character relationship plot lines (mainly Kenji and Darius, but for the shippers, we’re still waiting to see the outcome of Yaz and Sammy).

But…we also know that the Mosasaurus is very recently out now, as in the night of the whole steal the laptop-save Brooklynn debacle. It’s also likely hungry, and willing to attack anything on the surface of size… and let’s not forget about the stowaway of unknown species….

So let’s say there’s a simultaneous attack on the yacht, and the Mosasaurus gets its meal out of the dinosaur but destroys the boat. And the kids get sort of separated and drift into the ocean, eventually coming back to (dun dun dun) Nublar! I don’t know how they should separated and who should be with who, you decide that yourselves. But the important thing is that everyone is back on the island, which could take a toll on Darius. He could this as his fault, start to go into a major downward spiral that makes s1’s look tame, might even temporarily blame the dinosaurs and his love for them. If he and the others are together again, he may see this as a sign that he’s no longer fit to lead.

Kenji, who might be torn between wanting to be there for his friend and still being mad at him for s3’s finale, takes up the mantle of temporary leadership. He might even snap at Darius or passive aggressively say something for Darius giving up. As we go on a new adventure with the group, we could see the gang dealing with the fallout and potential clashes between Kenji and Darius in different ways, attempting to mend it or even taking sides (the last one is unlikely but still a possibility). Perhaps, despite Kenji showing potential leadership capabilities, he finds himself better at serving as second in command instead. As for mending the rift between them, I’ll allow y’all to think of that one. Eventually, Darius and Kenji have made up, Darius has found new resolve to get everyone home, and the Fam is stronger than ever!

These are just thoughts on how the new season could go down. Let me know what you think! I plan on writing some more soon.

[redrosesartcabin]

The cave incident: Kenji x first perspective reader pt. 2 of 2

(Link to part one https://redrosesartcabin.tumblr.com/post/641312472793546752/the-cave-incident-kenji-x-first-perspective )

“Looks like we are stuck here”, Kenji said with a calmness, that however had that kind of underlaying tone that suggests a storm of panic coming soon.

“Hey hey hey: Not so fast. Let’s not give up just yet”, I answered softly, “Maybe if you could stabilize the motorcycle whilst I climb on top I could reach the edge of the cave”.

“Ok”, he said sceptically.

He held the vehicle whilst I stood on top. My fingers reached to the edge, but I was definitely still too far away. I knew that had been the only option, but still I tried contemplating.

“Ok, maybe if you sit on top and I get on your shoulders-“

“Y/n”, he interrupted that thought process bluntly.

“What?”, I grunted

“Stop. This may not be the deepest of caves…holes…cave-holes, but this ain’t a three feet puddle. Face it, we are stuck. We have nothing that could us even close”

“Yeah yeah, ok, you’re right”, I had to admit. Not something I liked to admit, but he was. But I sure didn’t do it without a glare.

“What are you looking at me like that for? Did I suggest riding the motorcycle?”

“Oh I see: now you want to blame it on me! The macho man finds himself in a bad situation and needs a scape goat. Ain’t that typical for you”, I hissed back.

Usually, or especially in the beginning, he would’ve kept on discussing and defending his greatness, but this time, to my surprise he flinched.

The quiet settled in faster than a second could pass.

He sat down on the ground and seemed to space out for a moment. I couldn’t move for a while, that’s how much that reaction surprised me.

Finally my body obeyed me again. I got down on my knees before him, trying to catch his eyes.

“Kenji, are you ok? I’m sorry I-“

“NO”, he interrupted me, “you’re right. I did try to act like I was better. I can’t seem to stop it… It’s a wonder anyone likes me at all”

“Oh hey now: What’s with the sudden change of attitude?”, I asked concerned, “didn’t you consider yourself the charming glue that holds the group together? Where has that Kenji gone?”

He let out a sad sounding laugh, “That Kenji did a run for it. That Kenji did call himself that but … did anybody ever say that about me because they genuinely thought that about me?”

“Did they ever dispute it?”, I asked, trying the lighten the mood, though I was starting to get his point.

He however still didn’t look convinced. I sighed in deeply, “Look: You might’ve started off as a jerk. Maybe even a major one. You might’ve come off as a rich, spoiled child. Which in many regards, is what you are: But you’ve proven, that that was just your outer shell. You’ve proven, that you are compassionate and understanding. And you know it.

We all have flaws. Some more than others. Some appear more undesirable and annoying than others. And especially those are hard to get over, because those have been acquired by default of how you grew up”

“Oh wow”, he simply answered, “I didn’t know you understood me… that well”

“I like psychoanalyzing people”, I answered with a bemused smile before I returned to the appropriate serious expression, “but besides that: I think we connected… or at least I thought so”

“No no … you’re right: We have but… I just… nobody ever even tried to understand me that way so deeply like you have, not even our other friends”

“It’s a gift I suppose”, I smiled, a concerned frown planted on my brows, “but I might have just also taken a liking in you”

“That’s the thing: I have taken a liking in you too. That’s why I realized more quickly this time, that this thing that I keep doing is just such an asshole move. I’m sorry”

“It’s ok-“

“No! It’s not ok.”, he interrupted me. The pain he had in his eyes almost hurt: I had never seen him so serious and broken, “I didn’t want to be like this. Not with you anyways. I know It’s not impressive or great. Yet that has been planted in my brain for so long. Like a tumor you can’t get rid of. And I just don’t know how to be different. How to connect to others my age that way.”

“But you do. You’ve shown who you are. You see: Getting out of a habit is a process. There are high and low points. Moments where you succeed and some where you slip again. But eventually you won’t slip at all. It’s a matter of patience and, you could say, practice. But eventually: eventually you’ll be the version you’ve always aspired to be”

He looked at me directly now. His gaze struck deep as he gifted me the most honest and cozy kind of smile he had ever mustered up, “How are you this understanding and patient with me? How do I deserve it?”

“I love you, that’s-“, I interrupted myself as he stood up in an abrupt motion and stared at me with his eyes wide open.

“Oh”, I whispered, “I slipped”, I said out loud, “that confession was way too sudden. Sorry”

He ignored my blabbering and asked instead, with a voice as quiet as a mouse, “When did you plan on telling me that?”

I chuckled saying, “probably never”, and averted my eyes as quickly as I could.

“So, it took us falling into a cave and an accidental deep talk huh?”, he said, seeming a little stunted at it all.

“I mean: I was afraid. I’ve always been someone afraid of rejection and I didn’t think you’d like me. And you apparently-“

“Do”, he interrupted me. Now I was the wide eyed one.

“I’ve been afraid too. And not even that cave made me slip You just seemed too kind, too smart for me”

“Oh wow”, I could only say.

I stood up as well again now.

The wind was cool down here and with the sun setting. The pink and red hues of the sun set crept down the hole and lay on Kenji like a bright shadow surrounding him making the moment even more surreal. He literally looked like I was looking at him through rose colored glasses.

I had to chuckle. Luckily, that loosened the tension and he laughed back.

Kenji dared to step forward now. He came closer and closer until I could feel his hot breath on my face. I looked up at him curious and expectant. He gave me that look with half lidded eyes, knitted eyebrows that suggested a certain gesture.

I closed my eyes and led myself be led by the motion he had initiated until I could feel soft lips on mine. A moment I thought I could only ever dream of had settled and I felt at peace.

“There you are! Guys I found them, they are more than fine!”, Kenji and me suddenly heard Sammy yell.

We broke apart quickly, a little embarrassed to be caught in the moment of our first kiss, yet very happy to be found.

We looked up where we saw Sammy and Bumpy standing. One second later Ben followed who scratched Bumpy’s head and whispered something I could decipher as “good girl”. Bumpy apparently was the one who had discovered us.

At last, the others came as well, who brought a big rope with them.

“Come on you guys. I fear we got to leave the motorcycle behind, but we’ll get you out in no time”, Yaz said and we kept it at that.

And in a matter of second we were up again, holding hands as we stood before our rescue squad.

Brooklynn smiled, “I knew it”

“I can’t believe I didn’t believe you. Again!”, Sammy had to laugh as well, “but there they were smooching it away”

“We were not smooching”, I pouted

“Wait: You two?”, Ben and Darius asked in chorus.

“Am I really the only one who noticed? Come on guys!”, Brooklynn asked. We all laughed at that heartily.

I had to give it to her: She really had a feeling for people. Not even I had noticed his feelings for me or vice versa.

“And that’s why you are the unboxing girl and not us”, Kenji chuckled.

“Very funny Kenji”, Brooklynn retorted, “but seriously: It took you both to fall into a freaking hole to confess. You both are chicken”

To back up that point both Darius and Ben made chicken noises at which Sammy laughed and Yaz rolled her eyes, but with an endeared smile as she looked at Sammy laughing.

‘Those two should confess too’, I thought but kept it to myself: They’d figure it out eventually.

“Ok enough of us and kissing in a cave…hole…cave-hole”, Kenji announced, “let’s get home”

“Let’s do”, I smiled.

‘Best accident ever!’, I thought, and I’d like to think, so did Kenji…

(I hope you liked it!) (please leave feedback if possible. Also: Feel free to send requests for one shots if there is something specific you’d like to read in regards to Kenji x reader fanfics (though I won’t accept every suggestion if its about something I have little to no experience with I hope you understand <3. With that I wish y’all a great day!)