#really cbs? i have other awesome ideas for you

[ink4blotches]

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/spiderman/images/c/cb/Spider-Woman_Vol_7_1_Variante_Chew_Sin_texto.png/revision/latest?cb=20200722230535&path-prefix=es Sorry if this request is kinda long but could I please request a Pavitr Prabhakar dating shy reader who’s from the same dimension as Miles, even best friends with Gwen Stacy & is (blonde) Peter Parker & Mj adopted daughter, well known superhero spider person who had a blood transfusion along with venom blasts from her dad, maybe showing him her dad base or hanging out one of their dimensions, just fluff

YOU ALREADY KNOW IT!!!! I gotchu anon ;))

Synopsis/Feels: SO BASICALLY, THE GIST OF IT IS....SHYISH AWKWARD FEM READER SHOWING PAV AROUND HER SECRET BASE, AND THEYRE TWO PARTNERS IN A ROOM AND THEY MIGHT KISS....THEN MJ WALKS IN AND IS LIKE '🧍‍♀️'

IF IT DIDNT COME OUT THE WAY YOU WANTED, PLS LET ME KNOW!!

Word Ct.:898

Without further ado...

JEALOUS?(Pavitr Prabhakar x Reader)

•

•

"So, did you really make all this stuff?" He asks as he continues to walk around.

"Yeah...I did." I smile a bit at Pav's amazement. He's way smarter than me, yet he's so amazed by the simplest stuff..

"This is seriously cool, Y/N. These web grenades..." He picks one up and before I can warn him it explodes in his face.

Yeah, those were still in progress.

"....are awesome. I need some of these in my life!" Pav excitedly yells, shaking the webbing off his face.

"They're not THAT impressive..." I voice to him as I walk over, rubbing off some of the web that he missed.

He suddenly grabs my hand.

"Are you kidding?! I mean, web grenades with rainbow webs?! What have we been doing all these years!" He shakes my hand in both of his as he smiles.

"Yeah...those were actually Miles' idea. Couldn't have done it without him." I say, and it's true. Despite Pav being my literal boyfriend, the boy that's been in my lab the most is actually Miles.

Crazy, right? "Okay, but seriously. How come you didn't show me any of this sooner?!" Pav fanboys over a bunch of the stuff in my lab.

"Uh...I dunno, it's not that cool." I say, living at nothing on the ground. I invited him here so we could hang out, free of..prying eyes.(she means Miles).

But the entire time he's been here, all he's done is fanboy over stupid spider gadgets.

Maybe I should just venom strike him-

"You okay Y/N? You're quiet..." Pav raises an eyebrow at me, setting down one of my prototypes and walking over.

"Huh? Oh- no I'm fine- I'm okay!" I mentally slap myself for being so awkward. He stares at me for a second while I try to hide my panic.

"Ohhhh, I get it. You're jealous!" Pav wiggles his eyebrows at me. "Um, what?" I ask with the most blank face I've ever mustered.

"I've been spending too much time worshipping your inventions and not enough time worshipping you!" Pav concludes.

I bring a hand up to cover my face.

"Jealous?" I ask with a sigh, knowing he's right but not wanting to straight up admit it.

"I mean, I would be jealous too if I was you. Don't worry, I'll leave your stuff alone!" He smiles at me, taking one of my hands in his.

"Thanks!" I try not to look like a complete idiot in front of him.

"Pft, I'm sorry. It's just so obvious that you're trying not to freak out and it's so cute!" He exclaims, laughing lightly.

Once he stops, we just stand next to each other in awkward silence.

"You know, it's nice being with you." Pav admits. I swear my heart is literally about to explode. But don't freak, it's cool. Say something cool Y/N.

"Really?" Totally blew it.

"Yeah, really. You're like a breath of fresh air from my universe. I love Mumbattan, but there's always..." He trails off, seemingly searching for a word.

"Traffic?" I guess. He lets out a laugh. "Yeah, traffic. But spending time with you takes my mind off the...traffic." Pav shrugs, hiding a small grin that plays onto his face.

"Uh....spending time with you makes my traffic go away too." I mumble.

I want to jump off a building without my web shooters.

"...I'll take it." Pav laughs with a little shake of his head.

After another moment of silence, we both try to speak at once.

"Sorry fo-/I love y-."

"Wait what did you say?" I ask, my eyebrows almost shooting off my face.

"Huh? Nothing. What did you say?" Pav asks, looking equally shocked.

There's a brief silence before we both start laughing.

•

•

•

•

"You don't have to say it back or anything, I just thought I should tell you." Pav finally says as we're seated next to each other on a blanket.

"I...loveyoutoo." I blurt out. He sits up, looking at me with comically large eyes.

It's almost like he's a fictional character sometimes with those wonky expressions..

"What was that? Didn't hear you!" Pav smiles, urging me to say it again.

"...nope." I shake my head at him while he begs me to say it again.

Suddenly, he places his hand on my cheek lightly and I almost have a whole heart attack.

"You had...your earring almost fell off-." Pav stutters a bit, handing me the earring I was wearing. Meanwhile, his other hand is still resting with no rent on my cheek.

"Yeah, okay." I smile at him, putting my hand on top of his. He leans in slightly and panic mode instantly reactivates.

IS HE GONNA FRICKING KISS ME?!

No, that's crazy! We've only been dating fr 7 months- or do couples usually kiss within the first 7 months?!

This is some marriage type behavior!

But do I want to kiss Pav? Yes! Obviously, is that even a question?! I mean seriously- but what if I'm bad at kissing?

Does my breath smell?

I realize he's getting closer, a little bit TOO close.

Suddenly I hear a loud knock before the door to my lab flies open.

Pav and I back away from each other at lightning speed.

MJ stands there with a hand on her hip.

"Well...dinners ready..."

[cbsghostsmetasandtrevor]

CBS Ghosts - Hello! - Jay's Belief

Warning Spoilers May Appear.

I love how Sam's like - what's the best way to convince Jay that ghosts exist? (None of them offer to use their powers to prove it), and immediately goes - THE CHOLERA GHOSTS.

The ones that saved the house earlier.

I love how Sam just takes off and expects to Jay to follow.

LMAO Jay backing slowly out of the room making an 'I'm watching you' gesture. DUDE you can't see them, but I do think it's hilarious.

I LOVE seeing Jay's perspective here.

It's a rarity since obviously we want to see the ghosts, but it's always a treat to see Jay's perspective - no ghosts but somehow Sam knows things that she shouldn't know.

Jay's just like "You're wrong" but Sam just casually goes - "A little further, 'cause it's been off for 40 years".

And it freaks him out! Which is TOTALLY fun.

I wonder if he would've not believed her had it NOT worked?

Anyway, Sam's feeling AWESOME!

I love how Jay's like "Well, I guess I believe you" - I feel like he probably believed her from the start, especially since he saw the "Trevor and Isaac vs Hamilton" with the computer, but he REALLY didn't want to think about WHAT having ghosts means - particularly that means A) not usually alone - like ever, B) they're always around judging you, and C) there's people you CAN'T see hanging around you. That shit is scary.

And if he acknowledges this, he has to LIVE with knowing THEY HAVE GHOSTS ROOMMATES that he can't see or hear because they have no other option. That's rough.

It's nice that Jay does attempt to look at them here.

Also Sam saying "They" - and triggering Jay's curiosity. Sam's pretty cute here.

First time that Sam straight lies to Jay about something - yup, only two. Poor Jay - he has no idea what happens in his own house.

On the other hand, I love the way that she stands surrounded by them. The Cholera Ghosts are SO HELPFUL, she should ask them what THEY want. Wonder if she ever tells Jay about how many there are and/or if she ever does anything for them?

Thanks for reading!

Feel free to chat! :)

[the-firebird69]

This is the look and it's aerodynamic a lot of fairings even on Japanese motorcycles make it slower this will make it a little faster because the way it's designed it's actually designed to go through the air and cut through it even the fender and the exhaust too everything is made together and this is what year Michael look like the Honda 650 or Honda 750 or they make a 350 all of them will go much faster the Honda 350 will go from 135 mph top speed with a full kit which is the way we sell it to 195 miles per hour it's a big leap it's a different class Honda 650 we went over the Honda 750 CBR will go from 185 mph and that's right it doesn't go much faster than the 650 stock when you add the speed kit to make it into a Ducati it will go 320 mph.

Meghan Markle says oh my God

We're going to have a good time with it she says and it's going to be a nice crotch rocket

And as a reason that it's because he's excited about it and these things are really really fast that is changing a bike a little bit to get a lot out of it the original Ducati the 750 top speed is 300 mph and that's really pushing it it's actually about 292 mph so yes you would be faster they don't cost as much as they used to it's not really true the dealer has prices but you can't get them at all you can't get one of those things if someone paid you our son could buy one but nobody else. And he doesn't have the money for it but still it is a very sought after bike and they can't produce enough they don't have enough out there matter of fact they're not making enough to provide enough for Italy.

This is going to be a number one seller and come Monday we're going to have our kit ready and our fairings are sturdy okay that's how you can tell and it will cost that much the kid won't cost that much and there's a few other pointers we will have a complete kit all the trim and any wires and so forth that you need to change lots leave stuff out.

Thor Freya

Wow this is a great idea I'm going to start making my kid today as for my people use Honda CB models are everywhere and he says he might dip into the 70s and make it as like a '80s Ducati for that particular year they look different we will probably do that too those things are still around but there's tons of them from the 90s and they all look like the new one and it's going to be an easy conversion and yeah if you don't make the fairing solid it doesn't mean anything it's not worth trying but the shape makes it faster this is going to be awesome I once took a Ducati fairing and I tried to put it on a CB 650 and it actually fit which is really stupid cuz you can buy them aftermarket and it's going to be millions of kids but people want the thing so you just put it together and you don't have to modify it and I had to modify it to get it to work so they probably will take it in and modify it and sell the kit and boy is that easy it's already made and it's pretty sturdy you have to check

Brad

The speed difference is remarkable and I would have to check that and from memory I believe it's true

Trump

And yeah I've made these before and a lot of them and it works very well it made like 10,000 of them and from the 750 is that fast it's a superbike and those are extremely fast out there everybody that kind of speed is fast and accelerations fast and the way to do it these days they'll probably make the new one faster than what they said probably about 350 cuz it's got better motors and gearing you put the new exhaust on it freeze it up I'll tell you we're going to sell a ton of these too and there's companies that make the fairings people are calling them now

Terry c

Usually they make them in house only if that's how it goes and there's tons of them we're going to do it for ourselves it's a great idea

Thor Freya

Good now get ready for today it's an awesome idea and I thank you for it

Hera the Templar conversion to Enduro kit we're going to start on Monday too selling it and it's a 250 and a 125 and the kit is about $300 is more expensive ones that you change the fairings tomorrow Street look but really it's tires and a few other things and then it's got it's a DOT approved it's more than 300 because of the exhaust it's around $1,200 and we don't mess with the top end you don't have to it's not true you have to change the manifold in the carburetor and so liquid cooled too but it's worth it on this bike so we're going to start selling those kits and he says it probably won't sell in that format but there's a famous that's like a street racer and it is a Ducati and we can make it for these Chinese dirt bikes that are 250s cuz now they have 17 18 horsepower and we do have someone who did it and they go to the Ducati street racer and it makes it faster because of who put his speed kit when you first get the bike they go about 90 miles an hour and the Templar goes 110 even with the nobbies and you change it out and the regular Chinese dirt bikes or Enduro really know it's the dirt bike the enduros are slower and you don't want the EFI to convert but if you take the Chinese one the base model it goes after you put the street racer kit how about 210 mph , but the expo Templar has more power and when you convert it it goes from the 110 mph with 130 lb person to 280 mph and it looks like a street bike but these kids are going to be around $6,000 but you're buying a bike that's $1,500 in either case and you're ending up with a Ducati label on the tank which is factory applied and a Ducati emblem on the cases and the Ducati look and speed and it'll be about the same as Ducati street racer speed 280 the other one is a little bit slower yeah but it's really the speed of the Kawasaki Ninja 650 just saying 550 which is probably true but so what is it 250 and it's liquid cool with the kit. Now these are bikes that are already out there and you're going to see that this sells a lot and more than the CBR even though that will make a super bike every time the Templar x pro will make a superbike just not over 300 and It will still have off-road ability

Hera

Zues

I've done this as well and you have people are excited about this and I've done it with the new Chinese dirt bike not the Enduro. I got about 220 miles per hour and they're not lying it is damn fast and I did it with the ex-pro Templar and people don't believe it but I had to do it because I did it with the other ones I got about 290 mph and I weighed 150 lb this thing flies that's superbike speed and top of the line and I'll tell you what it's a Chinese 250 so watch out okay and these things are light and their motives work very well and I did make it liquid cool and they fly this is a great idea we're going to start making these

Terry c

Olympus

[lightofraye]

so i made my point right?

Jensen loves his wife, he clearly does.

Where? Him sharing the same ghost story several times over, repeating the story of the divining rod, him claiming she's "busy and hard at work" isn't a sign of love. That's the sign of a husband who can't even tell you what his wife does as a hobby.

then why should your opinion on his marriage matter?

Am I not allowed to have an opinion? Is @themoodyestj not allowed to have an opinion? You disagree. Cool. We disagree with you. We will then proceed to ignore each other.

he loves her, whether you like it or not. he said so, shouldn't that be enough?

When was the last time he actually said "I love my wife/Danneel"?

if you really cared for him you would take his word, you would be happy for him, glad that he has such an awesome life, glad that he found love. even if you aren't a fan of his wife, it doesn't even matter your reasons whether they're legit or just a bunch of bs. he loves her, and you have no say in his life.

We never said we had any say. We just shared our opinions and support for such opinions. You're the ones who can't accept that we disagree with you.

And no, anon... that's not how caring for someone works. Caring does not mean blind acceptance when it's clear there's some level of abuse occurring.

I honestly hate that idea. "Not my monkey, not my circus."

There is a line for that. The line is: "If someone is being harmed--emotional, financial, physical, sexual--it should become our problem." We as a civilization need to give a fuck when there's harm occurring. I mean, wouldn't you want me to give a damn if I heard you screaming for help? Or do you want me to go "Not my monkey, not my circus" and ignore you?

Maybe we can't reach Jensen, but if someone recognizes something in what we've shared, in what we've stated, and realized they were being abused and got out of it, I'd say we did some good.

why can't you just love Jensen as he is? it beats me.

I know Moody's statement. This is mine: "I do." You don't. Or rather, the AAs don't. He has to be perfect, so they twist themselves into excusing any bad action. I do not do that. I cannot do that. They obsess over his looks, don't really care about his career beyond insisting he be on their screen 24/7 and whine when there's no content.

He has to be so perfect that if he liked a mustache and they didn't, they whined and he heard about it. It hurt him, anon. When they whined about him wearing the same shirt at a different convention, he heard it and it hurt him. When they saw a photo of him with a cigarette, it was so bad that one of his costars had to edit it to pretend it wasn't there.

They insist he must be Batman. They insist he'd do a better job as Joel in The Last of Us. They insist--

Is that love, anon?

Or is what we're noticing--his unhappiness, his pain, his regrets at being a model--what we call love/acceptance/caring about him?

you critizice Danneel for "putting him down" but you are the one who doesn't think he's good enough as an actor or as a singer, or even as a person.

Who's the one that has a career? Jensen. Danneel's acting career is dead in the water. She has no place to talk. Zero. I mean, she can't even pretend to be a loving wife. Especially when she tried to do that bullshit to Jared--a man highly sought by CBS, one of the biggest broadcasters. Uh huh.

As for us... what? We can't have an opinion and say "He has the talent. Just needs more work."?

you rather view him as a coward who cares more about appearances than his own children. why the heck would you stan someone like that?

And there it is. If a man is abused, he's weak. He's a pussy. He's a coward. He's [insert bullshit]. As a survivor, I say a very merry fuck you. He isn't a coward. He's someone in a very tight, difficult situation who is likely unaware he doesn't have to take it. Or perhaps he's one of many who thinks he should stay married for the sake of the children--when studies and research show that being divorced is better for the children than seeing their parents in an unhappy marriage. (Doesn't even need to be an abusive relationship either!)

The bigger question for you anon is... why can't you just ignore our thoughts and opinions? Why does it matter to you that we feel this way?

There's something called "block". Please utilize it and live your merry life thinking Jensen is in fact in love, happy with his marriage, and that he's doing well.

That's your opinion.

This is ours.

so i made my point right?

Jensen loves his wife, he clearly does. then why should your opinion on his marriage matter? he loves her, whether you like it or not. he said so, shouldn't that be enough? if you really cared for him you would take his word, you would be happy for him, glad that he has such an awesome life, glad that he found love. even if you aren't a fan of his wife, it doesn't even matter your reasons whether they're legit or just a bunch of bs. he loves her, and you have no say in his life. why can't you just love Jensen as he is? it beats me. you critizice Danneel for "putting him down" but you are the one who doesn't think he's good enough as an actor or as a singer, or even as a person. you rather view him as a coward who cares more about appearances than his own children. why the heck would you stan someone like that?

Ok, Anon, let me see if I can make myself clear. You have been very respectful in your asks, and I will exercise the same respect. I really do hope, though, that you read my words thoroughly and try to understand where I come from. Because, in a way, I do understand where you come from. So, bit by bit, shall we?

so i made my point right? Jensen loves his wife, he clearly does. What was your point exactly? That Jensen did a lot to keep that marriage alive? I never doubted it. Now, does that mean that I consider that marriage to still be alive? The answer is no, for a number of reasons you can find beautifully worded in my and my mutuals blogs. Nor I see it that clearly. I see him very uncomfortable around her, actually. But again, let me make this very clear: My criticism has nothing to do with Jensen being married to her. She could be the love of his life, and I would still criticize her. Now, I would argue that your faving her has *everything* to do with them being married. then why should your opinion on his marriage matter? he loves her, whether you like it or not. he said so, shouldn't that be enough? Well, it matters to me. It matters to the people who read me and follow me. Why does my opinion matter to you? Like I said, I'm a very tiny blog, which you can easily block. I don't interact with AAs unless provoked. I stick to my lane. Plus, he actually said a lot of things. And shown a lot of things. You have your own interpretation, I have mine. But again, my criticism is not supported on the fact that Jensen loves her or not. if you really cared for him you would take his word, you would be happy for him, glad that he has such an awesome life, glad that he found love. even if you aren't a fan of his wife, it doesn't even matter your reasons whether they're legit or just a bunch of bs. he loves her, and you have no say in his life. I don't assume I have a say in his life. But I have a say in my own opinion. And mind you, I have never interacted directly with any of them (unlike some of you do), or forced my opinion on anyone. I keep my opinion in the confinements of my very little blog. It was the AAs idea to publicize it. I'm easy to ignore. I didn't even care about much about Jenna until she started posting pictures of my posts. why can't you just love Jensen as he is? it beats me. you critizice Danneel for "putting him down" but you are the one who doesn't think he's good enough as an actor or as a singer, or even as a person. Ok, first of all, I don't love him, that's creepy. I love my family, my friends, people I share my privacy with. I don't love celebrities. I don't know him personally. I know his career, and while I enjoy his work, I also have a critical mind over the product he offers and that I watch. I'm a consumer. I'm a fan, not a fanatic. Upsetting how most people don't understand the difference. And all the criticism I have offered was in the hopes of seeing him do better. Wishing someone to grow is not the same as putting them down. Again, upsetting how some people don't understand the difference. you rather view him as a coward who cares more about appearances than his own children. why the heck would you stan someone like that? Yeah, that is your interpretation, only. I never said that. And even if I did, it wouldn't say it in a derogatory way. There are tons of reasons why people do things, and to say they are cowards for it is a very simplistic (and honestly ignorant) way to put things. Trust me, considering my line of work, I would never say that. Those were your words, not mine. In conclusion, and it's important that you understand this, this is my blog. I will write about what I want to write. Again, my criticism is based mostly on the fact of people taking a role model that shouldn't be taken, just because of their marital status. My criticism is also to the people who come to my blog telling me what I should and should not write about, so a bit about you, yeah. Not everyone in this world will think like you, and that's life. You are entitled to your opinion (hence me posting this ask) and I'm entitled to mine. And that's not going to change. No matter how much it pains Jenna, or you, or your buddies.

[let-me-love-you-loki]

Head Over Feet--Ch.1

A/N: Since this is an AU of The Too Late Tales, the "Reader" from those stories plays a role here. To make this make sense, I've given her a name. When reading the TLTs, please feel free to ignore anything you read about her here and continue to self-insert!

Chapter 1

           Her name was Samantha. But she preferred Sam. She was an art student. Two years older than Nick. Brown hair and matching eyes. Smart as a whip and funny. She loved Anchoes and Black Bear Diner and lived in Riverside. She drove a Honda and liked Fall Out Boy. A contagious laugh and an even bigger smile. She was pretty, and she looked at my little brother like he hung the moon.

           I was glad for him, I really was. I’d never seen him so happy. Sometimes it was like he was a different person. Where he used to grouch and complain about how his Nissan couldn’t take the miles we put on it forever, he was now driving an hour round trip to Riverside every other day when we were home. If we were wrestling anywhere in Southern California, it wasn’t hard to find Sam in the crowd watching.

           We rode together most of the time. She’d come up from Riverside and climb in the backseat of the Nissan—even though I always tried to insist that she take the front seat—and just listen to the two of us. Sometimes it was stupid stuff about ideas for new gimmicks or gear or merch. Sometimes it was stories from backyard wrestling or traveling to Japan. But it was like she soaked in the history and the things that made Nick who he was.

           At first, it was annoying that whenever Nick and I hung out that she was there. It was like she was intruding on this thing Nick and I had. We’d been best friends since we were old enough to know what wrestling was. We’d been a tag team for years. I knew him almost better than I knew myself, and I’d bet he pretty much thought the same. Having Sam there was like having a rock in my shoe. Annoying as hell, but there wasn’t a good and quiet way to get rid of her.

           It took a while, but Sam and I eventually became friends. It wasn’t for lack of trying on her end. She wheedled information out of Nick so that when they were over at my apartment, she could bring my favorite snacks and stuff to eat. More than once they showed up with Cracker Barrel. Then she insisted on cooking and made a mac-and-cheese bake that was honestly better than CB, but I was too stubborn to tell her that. After that it was Starbucks every time I saw her. Eventually I couldn’t act like an ass any longer.

           Like I said, I was happy for Nick. Sam was great, and she sent my brother straight over the moon. Mom and Dad adored her, DJ was already secretly planning a wedding, and Mal just followed the rest of the family. She was there every time we set off on a new loop, and she was there at LAX whenever we came back sore and jet lagged. Sam might have hugged me in the terminal, but she wasn’t really there for me.

           Jealousy sat sickeningly in my guts. And I swear it started making me bitter.

***

           Living in Southern California is kind of awesome. It’s warm all year round. Bright sun and beaches in one direction and mountains in another. I loved being in Japan, and I was glad that wrestling allowed me to see more of the country and the world than I ever could have afforded otherwise. But there really was no place like home.

           I was glad we’d been able to move back to Rancho Cucamonga once we started making a little money. We’d been born there. Gone to elementary school there. But we’d had to up and move to Hesperia when the city became too expensive for our parents. I still remembered our old house. I wondered if the ghost was still hanging around in the upstairs hallway.

           Tuesday was one of the only days we had back at home. But this time we had a week before we had to head off on our next loop. We had a PWG show in Reseda on Friday night, but for a few glorious days we could relax and recuperate. My neck had been killing me. Some r-and-r seemed like a wonderful thing to me at the moment.

           I walked downtown, through the shopping center where Mom used to buy all of our clothes. They’d opened up this new coffee shop that everyone said was amazing—no Starbucks, of course, but still—and I couldn’t help but give it a try. What can I say, I was a coffee addict of the highest order.

           “Matt?” I heard my name and I jerked to a stop, looking around for its origin. When I didn’t see anyone I knew I just shrugged and walked on.

           “Matt!” There it was again. Instinctively I jerked my head up and looked. They must be yelling for another Matt.

           “Matt Jackson!” Okay, that got my attention. I turned around, expecting to see one of the few friends I still had from my early Rancho days. Then I realized it was a female voice calling out and I froze. She still lived in Rancho as far as I knew. God, save me from running into her ever again.

           This girl walked up to me, grinning shyly and waving. “Oh my God, it is you!”

           A fan. Great. I couldn’t even walk to a coffee shop in my hometown?

           Her face fell. “You don’t remember me, do you?”

           “I’m sorry, I—” I shook my head, wondering where I was supposed to remember her from.

           “Mrs. Rainier’s class, sixth grade,” she said, looking at me kinda like I was stupid. “I sat right behind you. I used to watch you guys from the other side of the fence when you wrestled behind the carpet store.”

           I opened my mouth to tell her that I was sorry, but I didn’t remember her. And then it hit me. A memory clear as day from being eleven years old and seeing her standing on the other side of a chain link fence, her fingers poked through as she watched me, my brother, and our friends stage matches on piles of old carpet and padding. Blond hair, honey eyes, braces and an NKOTB sweatshirt.

           “Danielle?” I said in surprise. “Danielle Kyle?”

           She grinned at the recognition. “I go by Ellie now, but yeah. How’ve you been?”

           “Good! Great actually,” I replied, surprised at how loud I was. “My brother and I—you remember Nick, right?”

           Danielle—Ellie—nodded. “Who could forget Slick Nick?” Then she laughed and I couldn’t help but join her. God, we were stupid kids.

           “Yeah. We’re a tag team. Legit. We’ve been wrestling here in Southern California, but we’ve spent a lot of time in the last two years over in Japan and around the U.S..”

           Her eyes got wide. “Wow, you guys actually did it. I’m so happy for you!” She reached out and punched me lightly in the bicep. Like we’d been super best friends as kids. “Now I can tell everybody that I was front row for the early days of the… what are you called?”

           I rolled my eyes. I’d hated the name at first, but the longer we went with it the more I liked it. Fans seemed to like it, too. “Young Bucks. We’re the Young Bucks.”

           Ellie grinned even more, nodding. “I like it. Matt and Nick Jackson, the Young Bucks.” She paused for a second, tugged the strap of her bag up higher on her shoulder, and looked me over once. “It was nice seeing you, Matt! I can’t wait to see you as a big star.”

           She stepped to the side to walk around me. I hadn’t seen her in fifteen years or more, but I had this weird nagging feeling. “Hey, Ellie?” She looked back over her shoulder. “I was just heading to that new coffee place. Wanna join me and catch up?”

           For some reason, when she smiled the only thing I could think of was that she didn’t wear braces anymore. “Sure, I’ve got a bit of time.”

           We walked side-by-side down the sidewalk and into the coffee shop tucked in the corner curve of the shopping center. I held the door open for her and followed her in, literally sinking in happiness as I was hit with the smell of roasted coffee beans. “Oh sweet Jesus, that smells good.”

           “I’d live in a coffee shop if I could,” Ellie said as we stood in line. “Coffee scented candles never really smell right.”

           “When did the braces come off?” I asked out of nowhere. I wanted to run straight into the wall. Why did I ask her that?

           She went bright red, and I thought she was going to slap me. “Eighth grade.”

           I tucked my hands into my pockets and looked anywhere but at her. Maybe this was why I was still single. I’d never really learned how to talk to girls. She and I had been together almost from the moment I graduated, so I never had the chance to practice.

           “I’m sorry, Ellie. I have this really bad habit of saying really dumb things. Pretty often actually.” My shoulders touched my ears as I tried to hide from the idiot I’d just made of myself. “Feel free to slap me if you want. I’m pretty sure I deserve it.”

           Before she could say anything, we were next up at the counter. She put in her order—something far simpler than most girls would grab—and reached for her wallet. I held out my hand, waving her to put it away. “It’s on me.”

           Ellie looked over. “Well, in that case, I’ll take one of those sausage and egg bagels.”

           “You heard the lady,” I said to the barista with a half smile. “Make that two of those, and give me a dark roast with a shot of espresso and milk.”

           I handed over cash to pay for our order as Ellie walked down toward the pickup counter. I shoved the change in my pocket and went down to join her. “So…” My small talk game was so bad it was embarrassing. “What have you been up to?”

           “Since sixth grade?” Ellie replied.

           When I looked up, she was grinning, her brows raised. I looked at my shoes sheepishly. “I guess so.”

           “Well, I went to high school. And that was an adventure. I played varsity soccer for three years. Went to UC Davis.” She stepped up to the counter when the barista called her name. She returned a second later, handing me mine. “I teach middle school.”

           “Voluntarily?”

           Ellie laughed. “Everybody has that reaction. It’s not as bad as people think most of the time. But I have developed the uncanny ability to predict the full moon without looking at a calendar.”

           I had no idea what she was talking about, but I acted like I did. “I bet. I’ve gotten pretty good at time zones. And navigating airports. And eating on a shoestring budget.”

           “Sounds like we need to swap war stories.”

           The barista called out again. I grabbed our sandwiches and gestured for her to pick a table. She took an open two-top by the window. It wasn’t the best view—a blacktop parking lot that had to stretch for four or five acres—but it was better than the dark corner in the back.

           “Sounds like.”

Tag List

@mrsmatt​

[nononsenseladies]

Soo I thought I could finally share my thoughts on The Gilded Age, even though nobody asked or wanted me to do it, and I'm super late to do it with only one episode left before the season is over. Perfect!🙌🏼

Before we start, if you want to talk about the show your welcome to ask or send a message! I'd be happy to talk and exchange ideas and everything😊

So I love the Gilded Age, I had and have a great time watching it, and I'm happy there will be a second season. I'm very interested in (most) of the characters backstories, to learn more about them and what will happen in the future. I think it's a solid show, with potential to be even better. Do I think this will make TV-History? Nope, but it doesn't have to for people to enjoy, and if they don't fuck it up completely, I believe many people will enjoy watching it for a few more seasons.

I already like the small "fanbase" that has formed around the show and would like to contribute to that. And since my only talent in that department is being a mediocre fanfiction writer, that's basically the only thing I can do for you. Sorry not much🤷🏼‍♀️😅. But I do it with passion and love for anyone who reads my stories. And though I don't know that much about about the 19th century America, I take my research seriously!

On to the show itself. Like I just mentioned I'm not an expert on the time this show is set in, so I'm not nitpicking about the wrong kind of carriages used in the background or that some kind of stitch on a dress wasn't popular until 1894. I think they did a good job at least, I personally like how the show looks and the costumes especially, I love watching them in their fancy dresses

The characters are awesome. I won't say much about Christine Baranski's Agnes bc I love her. I started watching bc of her and I worship the ground that woman walks on, so she has to be my favorite, those are the rules. I can't wait to see more of her and how her past influences her actions and what she does about the Russell's and keeping her niece from doing stupid shit

I also firmly believe that my second favorite the wonderful Denée Benton as Peggy Scott will help Agnes smacking some sense into Marian's head. She is an amazing character, one of the few who got a brain between those ears, and I can't wait to find out how her career as a writer is going to evolve and hopefully change her future for the better. New York Globe editor I can't remember the name of and her would make a cute couple in my eyes. And I so agree with some ideas flying around tumblr and wonder too if Mr Raikes told her the truth about what she wanted him to find out. I hope we get some answers to that. So Peggy deserves the best and while CB was the reason I started watching, Peggy is definitely a reason for me to continue so.

Aunt Ada, is a mystery to me. I like her but at the same time I wonder if she is just acting bc then she appears to be no threat whatsoever. Or she is just like that. Either way, Ada and Agnes are pure gold and I want more of them.

Marian...I like her, she is okay. I do think that some of the critique is deserved, Louisa Jacobson's acting isn't breathtaking. But I do believe that some also comes from Marian as a character, who doesn't offer that much for an actor at the moment. I do hope that when she finally realizes she is being played and comes crashing down from her naive bubble we get to see more emotions and hopefully Louisa can proof she is better than she seems to be at the moment. But that storyline with Raikes really is infuriating at times, like, damn girl listen to the people around you!! If you can't listen to dear Aunt Agnes then pick some of the other people around you, there are a few to choose from by now.

The Russell's yeah I'm gonna throw them all together bc I can. I'm not on the Bertha/George hype train, I love their characters and their relationship. (Glad they didn't do the husband sleeps with one of the maids cliche) But at least regarding Bertha I'm not a fan of throwing your friends away to climb the social latter, like maybe keeping one or two would have been a good idea? I totally understand though we're it's coming from any why she did it especially in the time period. But she also collects some minus points for treating her daughter that way. It's not like Gladys wouldn't be willing to marry good to do something right in her mother's eyes for once. And if you use your daughter that way at least try to fun for her too once in a while, bc I sense this is might backfire for Bertha in the future. But again I understand the motives, that's how things were done, just my opinion.

I'm also totally for an reluctant alliance between Bertha and Agnes, being forced to work together against some of the other Old Money folks like Mrs Astor for example. I don't know, but could you imagine the absolute hell fire they could cause? I do and I love it! (But if they have to stay foes hating each other, than my heart is rooting a bit more for Agnes. Again that's the rules)

I also don't mind the little backstories of the servants. I like them, they have more normal people problems and life's but since it's still set in the 1880's their different enough to make it interesting for me. And they can play significant roles in the life's of the upper class their working for, since they know so much. Like I don't think we have seen Turner for the last time, and she could really damage Bertha's reputation and her rise to the top.

Well, those were my insignificant rambles on the Gilded Age. I can't wait to find out how they end the season and if course what will happen in season 2!

Also you can expect a story or two from me to (hopefully) enjoy in the future!😊

[discotreque]

LwD 1.10, “No Small Parts”

Well, that was the most fun I've had watching Star Trek in literally a quarter of a century.

I had high hopes for this series. I love TAS, largely because of its wacky outsized concepts that could only have worked in animation—not that they all did work, but the potential was so apparent to me, even as a kid reading the Alan Dean Foster novelizations—and as an adult, there's something about the imagination of Lower Decks's FX setpieces that transcends even the glorious CGI bonanzas of Discovery.

Pause for a confession. I've long pushed back against criticism of serialization in new Trek. That's just how TV is now, okay? Might as well complain about it being in widescreen. But I'm backing down a little, because I've realized there is something about Star Trek that's inextricable from at least a partially-episodic format. And while Picard was telling a different kind of story, I can't deny that my favourite episodes of Disco have been the ones with a mostly self-contained A-plot. After 10 delightfully episodic instalments of LwD, its focus on long-term development of characters instead of a season-spanning puzzle-plot (okay, mostly just Mariner, but we only have 10 × 22 minutes and she is the star) has been downright refreshing.

So here we are, at the end of the most consistent and well-executed Season 1 of a Star Trek series since, arguably, Those Old Scientists. And sure, if they'd had to produce another... yikes, 42 episodes? Then sure, they probably would have dropped a clunker or two—but they didn't, and winning on a technicality is still winning. I'm practically vibrating with excitement for Disco to come back next week, but damn, I'm going to miss this little show while it's on hiatus.

Spoilers below:

Something I've been keeping track of finally paid off this week! (Which never happens to me, lol.) The destruction of the USS Solvang marked the first present-day death(s) of any Starfleet officer on Lower Decks, the only other on-screen killing at all being a flashback in "Cupid's Errant Arrow". Which makes sense, being (a) a comedy, and (b) about typically "expendable" characters: it hasn't been afraid to flirt with a little darkness here and there, but killing people off at Star Trek's usual pace wouldn't just be wrong for the tone, it would be downright bizarre.

But... people die on Star Trek. That's one of the core themes of the show, really: space is full of knowledge and beauty, but also danger and terror, and believing that the former is worth the risk of the latter is (according to Trek) one of humanity's most noble traits. I'm the least bloodthirsty TV watcher I know, but the longer we went with a body count of nil—ships completely evacuated before they were destroyed, main characters hilariously maimed without permanent consequences, etc.—well, I didn't mind per se, but the absence of truly deadly stakes was definitely getting conspicuous.

Turns out they were saving it up for maximum impact. And holy fuck, I've never felt such a pit in my stomach watching a ship get destroyed that wasn't named Enterprise. It felt grim and brutal and somehow both much too quick and dreadfully inevitable—and yeah, it looked extremely fucking cool—and I'd like every other Star Trek property for the rest of time to take notes under a large bold heading labeled RESTRAINT.

Comedy doesn't need to do this, but my favourite comedy does, and in a way that few other art forms can even approach: lower my emotional defences by making me laugh, endear character(s) to me with goofy-but-relatable antics—then BAM, sucker-punch me in the motherfucking feels. M*A*S*H is probably the classic example on TV, Futurama was notorious for it, and even Archer has pulled it off a few times; it's also a staple of some of my favourite standup. I wasn't sure if Lower Decks was going to go there in Season 1—and wasn't sure if they'd earn it—but I knew if they did, that they'd nail it, and damn. Feels good to be right.

Last batch of notes for the season!!! I rambled enough already, so let's do it liveblog-style:

I fucking KNEW they were going to use "archive" visuals from TAS at some point, I KNEW IT :D

"THOSE OLD SCIENTISTS" ahahahahahahahahahahahaha

I like chill and confident Boimler a lot? You can really see—

oh bRADWARD NOOOOO

That opening shot of the Solvang tracking down to the red giant was extremely Discovery-esque... minus the motion sickness, that is

A lady captain AND a lady first officer? That's—oh hey, it's Captain Dayton's brand-new ship. Hahaha, that means they're totally fucked, right?.

Yep! They sure a—umm, wh—shit, okay, but—oh no—no, you can't—wait DON'T

...fuck

FUCK.

Narrator: "And then Amy needed a five-hour break."

[live-action Star Trek showrunner voice] "Gee, Mike! Why does CBS let you have two cold opens?"

Okay, yes, the bit with Rutherford cycling through all the different attitudes in his implant was transparently an excuse for Eugene Cardero to vamp while waiting for something to do in the story, but as far as I'm concerned they can contrive a reason for him to do a bunch of different silly Rutherfords in a row any time they damn well want, because that was classic!!!

EXOCOMP EXOCOMP EXOCOMP EXOCOMP

AND THE EXOCOMP IS PAINTED LIKE THE EXOCOMP IS WEARING A LITTLE EXOCOMP-SIZED STARFLEET UNIFORM

EXOCOMP!!!!!

The slow burn and now the payoff of the Mariner-is-Freeman's-secret-daughter plot has been executed so well. I'm beyond impressed with this writer's room, y'all—they are threading a hell of a needle here

"Wolf 359 was an inside job" would have been a spit-take if I'd had anything in my mouth

...how many memos do you think Starfleet Command has had to issue asking people to stop calling the USS Sacramento "the Sac"?

CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW THEY'VE DECORATED THE SHUTTLECRAFT SEQUOIA THOUGH

Is, uh, is it weird if I'm starting to ship Tendi and Peanut Hamper a little? It is weird, isn't it. I knew it was weird...

Coital barbs??? I take back everything I said about wanting to know more about Shaxs/T'Ana.

The "good officer" version of Mariner is... kind of hot, tbh! But Tawny Newsome has done such a great job of building this character all season that her voice getting uncharacteristically clipped and martial and "sir! yes, sir!" is also deeply, deeply weird

Ah, so this is literally exactly like when TNG (and DS9) would bring in, and then blow up, a never-before-seen Galaxy-class ship, just to underscore that we're facing a real threat this week, baby. And hey, it fucking worked—my heart was in my throat, omg, for the reveal of the—

PAKLEDS?????????

The fucking PAKLEDS have been gluing weapons to their ships for the last 15 years. GREAT.

(We interrupt the SHIP BEING SLICED INTO SCRAP for an interesting bit of world-building: on Earth, the traditional First Contact Day meal is salmon!)

"I need a dangerous, half-baked solution that breaks Starfleet codes and totally pisses me off! That's an order." I'm starting to think Captain Freeman might actually be overqualified for the Cerritos, y'all—she's REALLY awesome

OH SHIT IT'S BADGEY, this is a TERRIBLE IDEA

"How much contraband have you hidden on my ship?" "I don't know! A lot!"

Awwww, Boims!!!

AHAHAHAHAHAHA, FUCK THIS, PEANUT HAMPER OUT

BADGEY NOOOOO

AUGHHHHH WHAT THE CHRIST DID HE JUST—BUT—RUTHERFORD'S IMPLANT????

RUTHERFORD!!!!!!!!!!

SHAXS!!!!!!

F U C K ! ! ! ! !

ahaIOPugdfhagntpgjrq90e5mgu90qe5;oigoqgw4ouegrw5SP;IAEHURVa IT’S THE TITAN???????????

IT'S CAPTAIN WILLIAM T. RIKER ON THE MOTHERFUCKING TITAN??????????

i'm screaming I'M SCREAMINGGGGGG​TGGGTGQER;​LBHAOIBVNV;​OAPBIJNVagr;h;​oagruipuwtnaetbaetgq35ghqet

I'M SO GLAD THIS WASN'T SPOILED FOR ME WTF

I AM WEEPING LIKE A CHILD

...

(Just a brief 20-minute pause this time)

And oh wow, seeing Will and Deanna hits different after Picard too, in a few different ways, which I may even get into later now that my heartrate is back to normal, lmao

Oh, I am always here for some jokes at the expense of the Sovereign class. The Enterprise-E sucked. They should have built a new bigger model of the D and new Galaxy-class interiors for the TNG movies, and I will die on that hill

OKAY, FINE, YOU GOT ME, RUTHERFORD × TENDI WOULD BE ADORABLE AND THIS IS ACTUALLY A PRETTY GOOD SETUP FOR IT

Awwww, Shaxs though :( Congrats on the single most badass death in Star Trek history, dude. The Prophets would—well, the actual Prophets would probably be slightly confused about most of it, but Kira Nerys would be proud of you and I feel like that probably counts for more. RIP, Papa Bear

I am here all damn DAY for the Mariner–Riker parallels, ahahahahaha

Pausing it to record my prediction that Boimler's commitment to not caring about rank anymore is going to last 3... 2...

Yep.

Bradward, how DARE YOU.

"Those guys had a long road, getting from there to here." OH FOR THE LOVE OF—

What a brilliant way to resolve and renew the various character arcs and relationships moving into Season 2! The writers could easily have brought everything back to status quo—chaotic Mariner fighting with her mom and being a bad influence on Boimler, etc.—and done another 10 just like these, but I suspect that wouldn't have been ambitious enough for these writers. What a blast. I cannot wait for more.

Thanks for following along, friends! Stay tuned for my (similarly patchy and amateur) coverage of Discovery, starting next week!

[leverage-commentary]

Leverage Season 2, Episode 7, The Two Live Crew Job, Audio Commentary Transcript

Dean: Hi, I’m Dean Devlin, Executive Producer and Director of this episode of Leverage.

Amy: Hi, I’m Amy Berg, Supervising Producer and Writer of this episode.

John: John Rogers, Executive Producer and Co-Writer of this episode. Hold on. [Opens bee.] There we go.

[Laughter]

Dean: The beer has been opened.

John: The Guiness has been opened. Amy Berg where did this episode come from?

Amy: Well, I mean, when you have a show about a team of con men sort of- one of the first episodes that you think of is- 

John: Yeah, it was like one of the first ones we broke- we talked about last season-

Amy: What happens when they go up against another team of con men? And obviously that's not something you really wanna, sort of, pull the trigger on during season one, so we sort of sat on it for a bit.

Dean: But we talked about it a lot in season one.

Amy: We did talk about it.

John: Yeah. But really you have to have your- part of the fun is having your characters and opposition- of people that make a difference, having the opposition of you need to know the characters really well.

Amy: You need to learn who our people are before we can bring in a new set of people.

John: Yeah, so it was a lot of fun putting together the different combinations and different variations on this- the evil team of evil Leverage.

Amy: Loves it.

John: Why the Gustav Klimt?

Amy: The Gustav Klimpt, now you're testing me and it's been a while, I believe this painting was called Higeia and it was technically destroyed by the Nazis in 1945. And it was sort of a choice to pick a painting that wasn't actually in existence, so we weren’t stepping on anybody's toes, saying that this was a stolen painting.

John: The likeless- the equivalent of likeness rights on paintings is an enormous pain in the ass so as a matter of fact, there's a statue of Lincoln in the park that's in the sequence later that we shot and then we had to get the rights to using that statute, even in the background.

Dean: Yeah.

John: Now that's very tricky stuff. Dean tell us about the fun of shooting this.

Dean: Well we wanted to try and keep perpetual motion and show two different attempts. Our team, which tries to do a low tech break in through basically just cutting through a wall through this cheapo office behind the high tech office, and then the daring team that actually chases the bullet head on.

John: Yeah. And there is our villain, Griffin.

Amy: Griffin Dunne.

John: Exactly.

Dean: I've wanted to work with Griffin my whole life. I remember seeing him in An American Werewolf Through London and just falling madly in love with this guy; I just thought he was amazing. And then when we went to do this episode, it was actually Tim Hutton who said, ‘What do you think about my pal Griffin Dunne playing this part?’ And it was just like a gift from heaven.

John: Oh yeah, we are all over that. And this is a lot of fun and we built a fake wall- And that is Tim's assistant, correct?

Amy: That’s that’s Elle, yeah.

John: That's Elle, Tim’s assistant, in her big screen debut with us tormenting her.

Amy: Indeed. And they're playing detectives Marlow and Archer who, as you know, is an homage to both Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald.

John: That's right.

Dean: And there's fun outtakes from that which will be in the gag reel.

Amy: Excellent. This should have a lot of gag reel footage.

John: It's also- to tell you what's weird is, Archer actually- 

Amy: Was the name of Tim Spades partner in [mumbles]?

John: That's right. That's what the original reference was. That’s also Ross Mcdonald.

Amy: But Ross Mcdonald was inspired by that character in order.

John: Really?

Amy: Yeah.

John: I didn't know that. There you go.

Dean: Fans of the show In Treatment should know that this actress, Noa Tishby, is actually the Executive Producer of In Treatment on HBO.

John: That's right Noa is an Israli actress, she was in Israel, she saw the original show, she dug in, got the rights herself, brought it to America, and wound up executive producing the American version.

Amy: By the way, that's Wil Wheaton.

[Laughter]

Amy: Which is so awesome. And who cast Will Wheaton in this episode, John Rogers?

John: Well I technically cast him, but I believe you had the idea of hiring Wil Wheaton because I'm the one who actually signed the papers.

Amy: Thank you, I appreciate the credit on that.

John: Yes.

Dean: And I was so happy because Wil Wheaton and I actually used to play on the same hockey team together.

Amy: That's right.

Dean: And this was back when he was on Star Trek. And I was dumb enough to allow him to play goalie at the time and-

[Laughter]

Dean: And [Unintelligible]’s son took a slapshot that cracked his helmet open and gave him 17 stitches across the forehead.

Amy: You helped break Wil Wheaton's face.

Dean: And the producers of Star Trek called me screaming at me and forbidding me to ever allowing him to play on the team again.

Amy: Nice. Dogs Playing Poker, by the way, totally public domain. That’s why we chose that one.

John: There you go, there's a lot of variations of that, too, that’s right. And this is actually our little slam is not a part of the subtle on a lot of the CBS crime shows; just the sort of horrible-

Amy: Yeah, the over the top-

John: When we created Leverage, one of the reasons we did it was because so many shows were chasing serial killers. I think it was Chris Downey who said, ‘You know what? Serial killers are covered. Let’s chase rich white dudes in suits.’

Amy: I think they're done.

John: There's only ever been 10 and they've been caught 100 times. And that was Apollo Robbins. This is a great- this is one of Dean's signature roundy-rounds. And I was saying the other day-

Dean: An amazing steadicam shot.

John: I was saying the other day, we've actually learned in the writers room how to assign dialogue to make this easier.

Amy: Yeah.

[Laughter]

John: So rather than rewriting on the fly-

Amy: -we write towards the circle track.

John: Cause you can actually see. It goes- it's like triple play: it goes to Beth to Aldis to Chris to Tim and then back around again.

Amy: I love Parker; there’s always- always something secret going on, whether its secret nazis or- 

John: Yeah well, we kind of establish it in The Day of the Hunter Job, Parker’s realm of knowledge outside of stealing is not good.

[Laughter]

John: Like, anything that doesn't involve stealing, she will believe it if the other team members tell her. Oh this is great. I remember we shot this day. Dean, tell us about this bit.

Dean: Well this was one where we actually went full circle because we came in, we rehearsed it one way and it felt really good, but then we started to feel like, ‘Gosh we're not doing enough.’ And so then we reblocked the entire scene so we could all do more and have more happen, and then we all paused and went, ‘You know, the first one was much better.’

[Laughter]

Dean: And that's what we went with.

John: Yup. What I think was part of what was driving that was because I was on set that day, ‘Do not touch the motion sensitive bomb.’

Amy: Thank you.

John: Was the fact that this was gonna be Gina's last episode, full day with the cast- And also, she really dug in on the fact that the character was going to die and it genuinely upset the cast. Like the cast was a little freaked out here; they got way- cause this is a very claustrophobic set, very claustrophobic scene. The way we usually shoot is we shoot longer takes. So we do the whole thing, like we’ve shot entire acts in one take at some point.

Dean: That's true.

Amy: Yeah. By the way, this bit with the pudding, I've known John for two years and this is the only time I've ever turned him on.

[Laughter]

Amy: I wrote this bit, and he read the act and he came in and he burst into my office and was like ’hahaha’.

John: Remember you didn’t use it you; had talked about it and-

Amy: That’s true. That’s true. I brought it up in dialogue, but I didn't actually employ it. They didn’t- Parker didn't actually use it.

John: I actually kicked in the door- the only time I’ve yelled at you- 

Amy: Yeah, he yelled at me.

John: I kicked in the door and said, ‘How do you come up with instant pudding in a motion sensitive bomb and not actually use it?’ And so we had- and Parker, we had Parker do it. There's a lot of great acting in here, there's a lot of Gina digging in on, sort of, Sophie's past catching up with her. Hardison-

Amy: But this is a scene where it’s really easy to overwrite it, because your instinct is sort of to write to the emotion of this scene like Sophie could die. But the point is to underwrite and let your actors find the emotion between the lines.

John: That beat right there with Chris and Gina.

Amy: Yes.

John: There's a very nice recurring thing we try to do, which is, whenever it becomes something about killing someone, they go to Eliot because Eliot- because Eliot used to do that. And there's a nice moment there. I was actually there- oh look at that look. I love that look. Where-

Amy: Emotion between the lines.

John: Where basically Eliot signs off on the fact that she's probably gonna die and Gina and Eliot worked that out and it's just a lovely moment. Ahhh this is great, now how did we do this?

Amy: Gina just knocks this out of the park.

Dean: So Gina was very pregnant at the time, so we had to do a double for the wide shots, for the running, and Gina for the closeups.

John: Yeah, and then this is a miniature.

Dean: That's right. Well, the building is the actual building we shot at, but the explosion is a miniature that we shot at our parking lot that we digitally composited on top of it. Now at the time, people didn't know what we were gonna do with Gina's character because Gina was pregnant. So when we did this scene and we aired this episode a lot of people were really upset at this point because they actually thought we had killed her off of the show. 

Amy and John: Yeah.

Dean: And early Twitters were very upset.

Amy: Were not favorable.

John: Were very angry.

[Laughter]

Dean: How could you kill her off the show? But then-

Amy: This was originally intended to be the midseason finale, which in that case, the fans would definitely think for sure she was gonna be gone for a while or forever. 

John: Yep.

Amy: But we ended up adding two episodes to the end of the midseason run, so we did get to see her again.

Dean: I don't know what it is exactly, but for me, Parker’s performance- or Beth’s performance as Parker in this section here is reminiscent of some of the great comedians. 

Amy: Yeah.

Dean: Because it's so subtle what she's doing. And a lot of this came out of Beth herself who said -

Amy: I rewrote this scene based on Beth's notes that you were so kind to give me, and it sort of- it made the scene like 10 times better. I don't even remember what it was originally, but-

John: She's trying to remember what her lines are to say as Parker and her eyes roll up like ‘what am I supposed to say’ and then she gets freaked out at seeing Gina dead and loses it.

John: And then she totally spirals out.

Amy: There's a lot going on in, like, 20 seconds; it's pretty funny.

John: And then Hardison having to go up and bail her out. And again, there's a lot of- there's a lot of stuff going on in the structure this year with Gina leaving, and just for that tempering and having us to accelerate that storyline- There's a lot of Hardison/Parker relationship stuff between the lines on all the shows, we just never made it an A plot, but you can actually see the relationship evolve over the course of the season, when you watch the entire season particularly, the second half. And of course Chris is wearing a bandana under his hat because that's when he had slammed his head onto the set.

Dean: In the previous episode.

John: Exactly.

Amy: Yeah, he’s got a giant scar on his forehead right now.

John: Beautiful cemetery up on a big hill in Portland, nice enough to let us shoot there. Beautiful, gorgeous location. And that's a nice bit of acting, too.

Dean: Yeah, just the little moment of him seeing her and then getting that shock of losing someone that he cares about.

John: Yeah, and just processing.

Amy: So far you've pointed out that your favorite moments are the ones where there's no dialogue, so I'm glad I could contribute to that.

[Laughter]

John: Well you wrote- no no, that’s right, I usually go back and write the stage directions, but you do a lot of the-

Amy: This- and so it begins, when John makes fun of me throughout the commentary.

John: I don't make fun of you, just when you take too much credit.

[Laughter]

Dean: This is the controversy.

Amy: I was taking no credit!

Dean: In this scene, the gravestone says Cathrine Klive, her actor name, and at the end Sophie Deveraux and a lot of people thought that was actually a mistake, but why don't you address that?

John: Well we were really- it comes up in the end. We really wanted- and this is sort of a meta structural thing - she wants to kill Sophie Deaveraux. She realizes Sophie Deveraux as an identity, as a life, is a dead end, and so she changes the tombstone so that she can eventually give up that identity. And it's interesting because what Sophie is- realized is that she's going down a dead end, and in theory she’s the current criminal and Nate is the honest man. Nate is also going down a dead end, but he's way too obsessive and blind to realize it.

Amy: Yeah.

John: And so by the end of the season, you’ll see Sophie is a lot more emotionally evolved than Nate is.

Amy: It's true. This is sort of the beginning of Nate’s spiral where-

John: Yeah, maybe the end of Sophie’s thing.

Amy: His priority shifts and, like, winning becomes more important than servicing the clients.

John: We just sort of tease in 206. Great scene between Griffin and- really that was kind of fun. Once we knew we had Griffin Dunne, a lot of these scenes became, ‘Alright, it's really just gonna be head to head.’

Amy: Yeah, yeah.

John: Yeah. It's just- we’re just gonna have the two of them- And the fact that they're friends was really helpful.

Amy: And this the promise of the premise when you do a crew vs crew episode. What you are promising to the audience is you're gonna have one-on-one faceoffs between the characters and their counterparts.

John: And this is part of the evolution of writing an episode, is when we were breaking this, we had a really hard time getting that up as fast as possible, and that's what you wound up- doing the inner cut break in at the opening. Because even though they weren't facing off at each other, we gave the audience the promise of the premise.

Amy: Yes.

John: And the beautiful Hyundai Genesis. A fine automobile.

Amy: A fine, fine vehicle.

Dean: Beautiful peel out.

John: It was nice. In a cemetery!

[Laughter]

John: There was a moment where I was talking to one of the actors, I looked down and realized I was standing on a civil war veteran’s grave. That was a little disturbing.

Amy: That’s classy Rogers.

Dean: I absolutely love the little makeup and hair choices of Gina in this scene, it's so 40’s noir.

John: Yes.

Amy: Yeah, yeah the hair.

John: The whole episode she's playing 40’s noir. And it was a really interesting look, and not one we can do a lot because of the characters she's played, but this was interesting; she's not playing a character ever in this episode except in the opening.

Dean: Right.

John: I kind of liked her in the cop outfit.

Amy: It's one of my favorite running gags in the entire series of the show. Parker just not entirely buying that Gina’s actually alive.

John: Yeah.

[Laughter]

Amy: ‘I'm not dead!’

John: Some part of her brain understands it, but the emotional center is so screwed up.

Amy: ‘I saw her in a coffin, ergo, she must be, in fact, dead.’

John: This is also great, is digging in on the fact that the whole ex-boyfriend/crew/guy who runs the crew she used to be with. And for a while, for like a minute and a half in the room, remember that character was Sophie's boyfriend for the whole first half of the season and this was gonna be the payoff, but we just never knew if we were gonna get the availability for that actor and we just couldn't risk it. And it also seemed a little dishonest she would hide that, so.

Dean: I love the Hardison line, ‘You saw other teams before us?’

[Laughter]

Amy: ‘No, just another Nate.’

John: ‘Just another Nate.’ That's- yes, this is a big family beat of looks back and forth. 

Amy: Lots of looks.

John: Now how did you- I remember you were very, Dean, very big into designing the other team’s headquarters.

Dean: Yeah, well I really wanted to feel like a mirror of our headquarters. But in a believable way in that they don't have permanent space so they’re in a small space. But I was trying to mirror even screen direction-wise that one team is looking left-right the other team is looking right-left so that we can really feel like these are absolute mirror images of each other.

John: Yeah even the looks left-right and right-left match.

Dean: That’s right.

John: Yeah, no it's interesting. And there's Apollo Robbins, who we haven't mentioned yet.

Amy: Apollo Robbins! Yes, he's our technical consultant on the show. He is a master thief. But not anymore, he's a good guy now. I feel like I should point that out.

John: Yes we should. You can't hire him to do crimes.

Amy: When I say consultant, I mean he's not actually a thief anymore.

John: This is also great; this is also the Mona Lisa scam. Why don’t you explain the Mona Lisa scam since you’re a research freak?

Amy: Oh great, now I’m-

John: 1911.

Amy: Yes, 1911 there was a con man, I don't remember his name, but someone says it I think in this scene, where he created six forgeries of the Mona Lisa, stole the original, and then sold the six fakes on the black market to individual buyers as though they were the original and got six times the profit.

John: Some con and heist shows will just do that plot and act like they came up with it. [Coughs] Asshole! [Cough]. 

[Laughter]

John: Rather than mention the fact that this is something that really happened, that you should honor. 

Amy: This is something that really happened, that I actually read about.

John: Also used the Doctor Who's: The City Of Death written by Douglas Adams.

Amy: Oh yeah, oh yeah.

John: There you go. This is something else we did a lot of, which was the process of elimination bit with the screens. Remember we did it in Hunter too? And it's just kind of fun because it’s kind of something from my physics background which is all about probability. And the fact that a series of educated guesses- it's kind of like our version of detective work.

Amy: Yeah.

John: You know, it's like crime detection, it's a lot of fun. And yeah, and now we're really seeing Nate start to spin out of control.

Amy: But this is what I would call dueling competence porn.

John: Yes it is.

Amy: This, and the third act where the teams are doing their jobs and doing them well.

John: Competence porn, by the way, is a term- I forget how it came about, but it's basically-

Amy: It's just a room bit.

John: It’s a room bit. It’s like, you know what? I just like watching people who are good at their jobs doing it, especially if they're entertaining. A lot of it was from 208 was watching Beth Riesgraf- in 208 there was an entire act that's a break in-

Amy: Oh yeah.

John: That’s Beth breaking into a vault. And when you're writing it, you're like, ‘Gosh, that feels thin,’ and then you're watching it and you're like, ‘I'm watching Parker break into a vault for 15 minutes and this is amazing!’

Amy: I could watch it for 40 minutes.

Dean: This is one of my favorite bullet time shots that we’ve done.

John: Yes, now this is- now remember this is all done not digitally- well we do it really. We freeze everyone in the background and the cameraman walks through it and we digitally speed it up. What is this space? This is the- 

Dean: This is an actual museum in Portland that we turned into our space.

John: Yup.

Amy: Wasn't there a naked sculpture that you guys put a leaf on?

John: Yes, up in the upper level.

Amy: That's my favorite story.

John: Yeah. And then- yes, this is 4-way; this is not as insane as the one in the season opener.

Amy: But it’s still insane.

John: But this is a 4-way through about 100 extras.

Amy: I don't think Dean understands that we’re making television.

[Laughter]

Dean: Well, you know, honestly you don't even attempt a shot like this without a steadicam operator like Gary Camp.

Amy: Gary Camp is amazing.

Dean: He's a serious feature film guy. I mean, that was all one shot.

John: Yeah. That's stunning. And then you bring it back to Parker- and this is also fun, is the fact that we make fun in the show. And this was- even when we did tap out and some people were like, ‘Oh, you're making fun of Lincoln, Nebraska,’ when we had Sophie make fun of the food. We’re not making fun of the locations, we’re making fun of the fact that Sophie’s a little princess.

Amy: Yeah.

John: She's not someone who does well with things that- and the van, the van, actually, over the course of the second season becomes a character.

Dean: I love that she's says about how it smells a little whiffy.

[Laughter]

Amy: Which is a callback in The Future Job as well.

John: Yes, this is hard work, it smells like hard work. Yeah, Hardison's affection for the van.

Amy: Respect the van!

John: Respect the van, yeah.

Dean: Now this is actually the first scene where we’ll see the teams start to go head to head.

John: Yeah. Split up, call out your jobs.

Amy: This is the promise of the premise act, as we call it. And it's the Van Gogh that they're after, the Cafe Terrace At Night, I believe it’s called.

Dean: And this is a very important moment because it really established who Nate and Sophie were to the rest of the team. Nate being the one that makes the plans, but Sophie being the one who keeps them safe. And that had never been exposited before, and by doing that, it really set it up.

John: Boom! And then the parallel structure over to Hardison's opposite number, Chaos, played by Wil Wheaton, just four vans down. 

Amy: Nice.

John: That was really inspired. They’re the most twin of the bunch. Oh, and this is amazing. This is amazing because that's all real time. That wallet never came off. This was this whole section we just gave to Apollo.

Amy: Yeah. He's like, what can you do? And he just basically-

John: And he took Beth aside and they came up with a bunch of- it’s like, you know what? We're just gonna run camera, you just do a bunch of you do you, man.

Amy: By the way, there was no one else we had in mind for Apollo. Even when I was like- when I came up with the concept, and then I also did the outline, I also called the character Apollo, hoping at some point we would actually cast him.

John: But was the Wil Wheaton character originally a girl?

Amy: In fact, she was.

John: Yes, that’s right.

[Laughter]

Amy: Yeah, it was- I believe it was a hot Latina- 

John: Yes.

Amy: -that he was going up against, and then at some point, you know, in the casting process I turned to you and I was like, ‘You know, we've been talking about Wil Wheaton for something. Is this not the prefect role or not?’

John: And Noa Tishby rocking the dress. Noa was actually in the Israeli army. So that was kinda cool as we were looking at a lot of different actresses and Dean had seen her tape.

Dean: Yeah.

John: And it was like, you know, I wanna try a different ethnicity. I wanna try a different look, and brought her in. And what's great is she looks like she can take a punch, you know, that's a tough chick. And she really did great in the fight scenes and was a really- we got really lucky in this episode.

Amy: Oh yeah.

John: You know, we usually have to cast one big role; we cast five. 

Dean: Right.

John: And they were all great.

Dean: Now this fight scene was-

John: Ok I'm gonna take credit for this one because nobody else is-

Amy: I wasn't gonna take credit for it.

John: No shadow on this, I had to explain this 9 times.

[Laughter]

Amy: Oh yeah, that’s right.

Dean: And this sequence was actually getting directed by Marc Roskin and you, John.

John: Yes, at two o’clock in the morning. But I will give Mark Franco big props for throwing the old 1970’s film look.

Amy: The film reel stuff.

Dean: I love it.

John: That is so great. The Shaw brothers look is that and this is the whole-

Dean: That's how they see- in their minds that's how they see fights, like the karate movies they grew up watching. 

John: Yes. And this is based on two things. 1) a great story about samurais- I love that look that Chris did. Great story about two samurai who faced each other, knew each other’s skills so well they fought the entire fight in their head and walked away. And Warren Ellis’ character the Midnighter from The Authority comic book who has sort of the same thing. He does fights backwards in his head. Ah look at that, oh he's a great physical actor, too, it was really- it was nice, cause we cast Apollo, he's never done acting before, he'd never done TV before. And it's the one gamble on the whole show and he was fantastic.

Dean: And he totally pulled it off.

Amy: But he's just so damn charming, it’s like you, sort of, just believed from the beginning that he could do it.

John: Yeah, he's very dangerous. 

[Laughter]

John: It's really- if he ever turned evil, we'd be in a lot of trouble.

Amy: Oh my gosh.

Dean: This next sequence, outside, while I had done the storyboards for it, Marc Roskin shot the hell out of it. And what we wanted to do was an homage to the great Western movies, you know, the Spaghetti Western.

John: Well this was the challenge, and we talked about this when we were writing it. It’s like, nobody does hacking in an interesting way. There's no way to do hacking in an interesting way.

Amy: Visually it’s- filming it is not effective.

John: So abandon trying to do it with the computers and just do the metaphor, which is two guys pitting each other’s intellects against each other, and make it text.

Amy: And it's much more interesting, look at each other than looking at screens.

John: Oh and that timing is great, look at this, it’s just fantastic.

Amy: This is so nerdgasmic.

[Laughter]

Dean: He even had that Spaghetti Western whistle.

Amy: Yeah. I remember the first cut it was only in there subtly and you were like, ‘Hey turn that up, man.’

Dean: Listen, I’m-

John: And look at the little holster move, too. 

Dean: I'm all for subtly, I just want a lot more of it.

[Laughter]

John: Oh no, Wil knocked it out of the park in this. Did you know that he had been doing a bunch of shows and people have come up and asked him to sign his autograph as this character?

Amy: As Chaos.

Dean: That's great.

John: Somebody came up with the anarchists cookbook and asked him to sign it as Chaos.

Dean: And I love that Sophie can’t use a computer.

[Laughter]

John: Utterly useless.

Dean: She just closes it.

John: Well Hardison’s taught Eliot- and the look to the swords. We had so much fun coming up with different props in the scenes. And this was at 2 o’clock in the morning fight fight fight, you win. Fight fight fight, you win. And just- cause they had to learn the routines and we were banging it out in three sizes at a time, it was great. Then we shot the bird. 

Amy: So many looks.

John: And this- you could run the entire Parker/Apollo scene without dialogue and you'd know exactly what's going on.

Amy and Dean: Yeah.

John: Actually-

Dean: She's a little bit the Harpo. You know what I mean.

Amy: She's the Harpo.

John: She's the Harpo, he's Groucho in that scene, it's very subtle.

Amy: Is that Chase? Was that Chase walking towards the camera? It looked a little like Chase.

John: No, no. And this is, again, one of the rules, one of the hard rules of doing these shows. These shows are very hard, is that it can't be a random obstacle. Whatever is your obstacle heading into the third or fourth act must either be a product of the villains plan which you've already set in motion, or something that the team has screwed up or succeeded too well. And not screwed up too often cause that means they suck. So-

Amy: You make it sound like we did something good on purpose. That’s awesome.

John: Yeah, every now and then. And this is just- I want-

Dean: We almost didn’t do this.

John: We almost didn't do, but this is the punchline to the bit, that they're so locked into each other-

Dean: I'm so glad we did it.

John: Yeah. I actually was ready to bail on it, you were like, ‘Yeah, you know what? Let's make time.’ And the little look, and he gives them a bunch-

Dean: A bunch of crazy idiots.

John: Yeah, exactly. Now this is great, Nate’s totally lost in the need to win at this point.

Amy: Oh yeah.

Dean: I love Parker saying that, ‘The people in this line of work are unstable; we can use that.’

John: Yes.

Dean: Completely not realizing that she's in that line of work.

John: Tapping the pad look at that and look at the look Chris- that's another thing. 

Amy: ‘I'm totally helping.’ That's it.

John: Gina gives a little smile which I missed the first time I saw this show.

Amy: There's a lot of little subtleties.

John: And again, second season, you start pairing up things differently. Chris and Gina found a nice rhythm for Sophie and Eliot this year that wasn't there first year, just in the pairings. And we wound up working; it was nice. And this is- yeah, she killed a guy with a mop.

Dean: I love Hardison's jealousy about Chaos, the whole ‘ugh.’

Amy: ‘Chaos.’

[Laughter]

John: Cause, you know, and it's a great thing of acting on Aldis’ part, you know he's beat him. You know that Chaos has beaten him a couple times. He's really- he’s not a pleasant loser, Hardison. And the nice little fist tap for the Kobayashi Maru.

Amy: Nice little knuckle bump, Parker. 

John: Yup. Well that was another one of the little subtle things, that Parker has plainly sat down and watched like all nine Star Trek movies with Hardison because it was just something he did on a Saturday, you know?

[Laughter]

Amy: Well she wants to see, you know, what normal people do.

John: Yeah, Hardison's probably a bad example of that.

Amy: I don't think that's right- the right choice.

John: There's not- you know-

Amy: I gotta say, I love Tim in this scene.

John: Yeah. He’s really mad.

Dean: This one, out of all the cutting back and forth, this was the trickiest because it had to match rhythm, intensity-

Amy: And dialogue.

Dean: -and dialogue.

John: That's right. 

Dean: This was really tricky.

John: Line by line. And that was the tricky bit, too. We had to give both of them the entire script for each one so they could know what they were doing to each other. I think- did Griffin come down the first day and watch Tim?

Dean: I actually think this was Griffin’s either first or second day on the show.

John: That's right. Tim came down to watch- yeah, so he would know what he had done physically. There's a parallel structure even with the team. This was a lot of fun. But this is one of those things that looks really elegant, but scripting, it's a little chimpy. It’s like, once you know what you're going to do, this wrote pretty easy.

Amy: Ok, yes, but I'm gonna go on record in saying that this is the best third act we've ever done in the history of Leverage. I just love it so much.

John: Well, you know what? Again, this is something you sorta learn. We- you know what? You learn how to write the show while you write the show. This is when we really where we realize you only need to do one thing an act. We so tried to buff all the people and, ‘Oh look, at the incredible plot twist’ like, you know what? They're fun characters, they're good characters, let them do one thing.

Dean: Yeah, it's fun to watch them do their thing.

John: One thing every act.

Dean: And I love how they all started to get pumped up for it. On both sides, they are gearing up for game day.

John: This is a great act break.

Amy: Nothing about that act I dont like. And I had very little to do with it.

John: This is easily- this is one of my favorite shows of the season. Of both seasons.

Amy: Mine too.

Dean: And beautifully photographed by our great cinematographer, Dave Connell.

John: That's right, because we were shooting parallel; we were shooting inside the museum and outside. You were outside running back and forth.

Dean: Very intense.

John: And this is a lot of fun. All the security guys were great. Portland once again gave us a great, great acting pool. 

Amy: Go Portland!

John: And then this was a lot of fun, was setting up the snarky dialogue and Aldis and Wil basically sat and sweated in their vans-

Amy: Yeah.

John: -for 6 hours. Cause Aldis is always going, ‘Nobody knows what it's like to work in the van’. That van is hot. So he was very glad to have a playmate.

Amy: Aldis had like one full day of shooting in the van and nowhere else.

John: Yeah, exactly.

Dean: I love the character Tim came up with here, that was great.

John: And Emily is actually the girl I went to prom with. That's where the name comes from.

Dean: Nice.

John: Yep.

Dean: Poor Emily.

John: Yeah I’m- hey!

[Laughter]

Amy: I said nothing. If you noticed, I stayed quiet and said nothing. I'm learning.

John: And Tim plays drunk, distracting guy an awful lot this season. This- and by the way, the security guard that talks him down is great, he's got a really great comedic beat. This, by the way, is a stunning sequence.

Dean and John: 10 millimeter lens.

Amy: 10 millimeter lens? 

John: Down in the basement.

Dean: And look at this steadicam move - down the stairs!

Amy: Running down the stairs.

John: This is a guy walking!

Dean: And then whipping around, that is-

Amy: This is inhuman.

John: It really is.

Dean: For steadicam artists, they will understand how difficult that shot is.

John: By the way, I like the fact that we just locked Beth into the air conditioning system.

[Laughter]

John: ‘Are we gonna build one? No, there's one downstairs! Should we put Beth Riesgraf in moving machinery? If she's up for it.’

Amy: Not sure why we had to put the lock it, but that's ok.

John: It's a good look. And oh yes, it-

Dean: I think this is my favorite of all the air duct scenes, this is my favorite air duct scene.

Amy: This is actually-

John: Well like Two Horse- all of Two Horse where she was bitching while having to do it.

Amy: Oh yeah.

John: This is also- we built the most complicated duct system on earth for this.

Dean: Talk about the bird, because you were there for this.

John: Oh yeah, I- we thought the bird would be CG, much like, we thought we’d be on a CG roof the series premiere, instead we wound up in Chicago 40 stories up. Dean went and found a bird- 

[Laughter]

John: -a North American Kestrel. He said it would be easier to shoot a real bird that was trained, and so if you go on my blog you see pictures of the bird, but that's the last thing we did that night, so at 2 am we had this bird in a box, which was really beautiful.

Dean: Yeah.

John: And- 

Amy: No birds were harmed in the making of this episode.

John: No birds were harmed. It was a really beautiful bird. But yeah, the trainer was hiding right off screen to summon the bird to get it to fly across.

Dean: This was actually one of the most difficult fight scenes we've ever shot, mainly because of the small space they were in.

John: How did you get the camera up there?

Dean: We literally locked it onto the ceiling and just let it run for the whole day. And then hoped we had good material.

John: Oh cool. That everybody would hit their marks.

Amy: She's so intense, I love it.

John: And the- him switching back over to Hebrew, this was a lot of fun. Oh and ‘now I’ve got the lasers.’

Amy: ‘No, now I’ve got the lasers!’

Dean: His arrogance was just awesome.

John: The two of them were fantastic.

Amy: He’s almost too good at it.

John: Big thanks to Derek, yet again, for building a great interface that lets the audience know exactly what’s going on.

Amy: Derek’s our graphics guy, he's amazing.

John: Does all our computer stuff. And our security guards, you know, somewhat oblivious, but good guys.

Dean: That's just the oldest gag in the world that I love.

Amy: It flickers only when they're not looking at it.

John: You know what it is, it’s the Abbott and Costello, it’s the candle on Dracula’s coffin.

[Laughter]

Dean: And I love that.

John: I love that reveal.

Dean: And he comes in dressed as, and named as, Nate Ford. I mean, that is just fabulous.

Amy: He's with the insurance company, what?

John: It is a great little, ‘Fuck you,’ from that character. 

Dean: And Tim’s look at him for doing it, it’s just awesome.

John: But this was the fun of the fourth- and this was really hard when we were plotting. It's like ok, in the fourth act they have to be good, but they have to look like they’re losing. And they have to look like they're losing so bad you come into the fifth act not knowing if they won, and then we have to somehow pull it out.

Amy: Yeah. This, by the way, the scene with the two of them talking with the bird cage, was one of the first images that popped into my head when we were breaking this episode. I just love this.

John: But this duct tape- cause here's the thing, we have to shoot this direction and you have to shoot them crawling off these directions. This thing was huge, a human sized hamster trail. Took up an entire ball room for that one shot. Great fight scene, and we had talked about this, and this is a lot steamier and sexier than originally pitched.

Amy: It's literally steamy.

John: Dean was all over- like ‘I'm going to fight. I'm gonna shoot the steamiest fight scene that we've ever had.’

Dean: I thought it would be interesting to do a fight scene as a love scene.

John: Yeah.

Dean: And so the fight is actually foreplay.

John: Yeah.

[Laughter]

John: And a dance. It’s really like a dance sequence. We used to always say fights are like dances because of the movement and everything, but you know, you took that very literally and everything, which was great.

Dean: Now, by the way, we've done lasers in several episodes before. 

Amy: Yeah.

Dean: These are the best lasers we ever did by far.

Amy: It's pretty cool.

John: Yeah, and having them move, that was the key. It's yet another example of something that you think will be really hard, actually turns out to be a little easier and way cooler.

Dean: And way cooler.

John: Yeah.

Dean: And again, kudos to the effects artists. If you look carefully, you can see the lasers reflecting in her pupils.

John: Reflecting in her eyes. I know, that’s sick. 

Amy: That's really hot.

John: That was really great. This is a big ‘they are screwed’ act out.

Amy: Oh my god, look at that!

Dean: That is so cool.

Amy: Why did I not notice that before?

John: And wet people fighting.

[Laughter]

John: You know what? We give you everything on Leverage.

Dean: Little sex, little violence. 

John: And it’s good.

Dean: And now we were able to take the hat off cause we were able to use the real scar on his forehead finally in the episode!

John: Also kinda cool, Kevin, our stunt coordinator, had them fighting in Israeli military style. That they were both- they had both sort of picked up- we always had Eliot kind of fight in that style, but the fact that that would be her training-

Dean: And I love that these two are standing next to Honest Abe.

[Laughter]

John: And that's a great entrance. She's really got-

Amy: ‘Oohhh.’

John: She's got 3 great entrances this year. 

Amy: Yeah, she does.

John: One I'm not gonna talk about. 

Amy: Cause you haven't seen it yet.

John: You haven’t seen it yet. But the Annie Croy entrance in the season opener was one of my favorite Gina bits, and then that.

Dean: Fabulous. Gina absolutely brought her A game this season.

John: And yup, this is our double just whipping through this.

Amy: That was me.

John: That was you? I forgot about that.

[Laughter]

Amy: It's a secret skill. I don’t like to talk about it.

John: And that's the thing, that was footage of the gymnast whipping through those maneuvers with Beth popping up. The special effects people had to put the lasers through those moves to coordinate with- you know, ordinarily, you build these shots incredibly carefully. It was like, ‘No, here's the footage. Make it work.’

Dean: I love this old school crank.

John: ‘Can't hack a classic.’

[Laughter]

Amy: More competence porn.

John: More competence porn. Hardison- the staff will tell you the first year we had Christmas together, I got them all wind up radios and flashlights. 

Amy: Yes.

John: I'm a big believer in emergency preparedness for the apocalypse.

Amy: He cares! He cares about us. 

John: You mock.

Amy: Wants us to live through the world ending.

John: Well, you know. I play a lot of Left 4 Dead. I want to make sure my crew’s ready.

Amy: Alright, cool.

Dean: I love that - Parker not quite good at acting yet.

John: No. This is key, Parker can't do a long con. She can maintain it for maybe 4-5 minutes before her inability to mimic humans breaks down. And there we go.

Amy: By the way, this episode totally screwed my- the way I do story telling now, because I'm thinking as the criminal all the time.

John: Yeah.

[Laughter]

Amy: Like, it's terrible. ‘How would I break into an auction house? Well to control the motion sensors-’

Dean: I love this beat right here.

John: Yeah.

Dean: Like, ‘Ahh, screw the fight.’

[Laughter]

John: Well he knows he's won by this point, so it's just really- 

Dean: And she's so turned on by the fact that he did, cause no one else has ever beaten her.

John: Yeah, that was a lot of fun, was the idea that people- it's, again, you respect someone who’s competent. And the hand- yeah the little look after the handcuff-

Amy: Wow.

John: He actually looks a little scared there.

Amy: I know, I know.

John: He's like, ‘I got you! Oh wait, what did I get?’

Amy: ‘Is it over?’

John: This is nice.

Dean: In the original longer version, they originally kissed and then fell out of frame.

John: I missed that! I missed the fact that they banged out a quickie during the middle of the con.

Amy: Uh, no.

John: Alright, fine. By the way, Christian loves the badge on the chain. Anytime he can have the badge on a chain, he’s the happiest man alive. And Hardison-

Dean: A little bit of improv-ing by Aldis Hodge here.

Amy: Indeed.

John: Aldis- and again, this pops up in the next episode, Hardison always goes a little too far. He's never able to quite control the- he’s never able to get out without pushing it too far.

Amy: Are you saying that's going to catch up to him at some point?

John: That will catch up to him. The very next episode matter of fact. And yeah, this was a lot of fun driving police cars around Portland at six o’clock in the morning.

Amy: I'm sure no one was alarmed.

Dean: Now young filmmakers, that little move there is to get on the other side of the line.

Amy: Oh yes.

John: What was that?

Dean: So we- after we established them coming out of the building the camera slowly tracks over to the other shoulder on both sides, so now we're on the opposite side of the line and all of their looks have now reversed from the previous scene.

John: You and your looks.

[Laughter]

Dean: But this allowed us to now do our car gag, because we couldn’t really blow up a car in this location.

John: At two o’clock in the morning.

Dean: So we had to whip-pan off of a look to a parked car, then later we blew up a model car and replaced it.

Amy: We did two miniature explosions.

John: I love this reveal. I love this look. It’s like, ahhh, it's like Christmas.

Dean: Bingo.

John: Yeah.

Amy: Always knew you were evil, Wil Wheaton.

Dean: And now the evil speech of evil.

Amy: The evil speech of evil!

John: The evil speech of evil! A crucial part of the- well, this isn't really an evil speech of evil. The evil speech of evil is usually when they are-

Amy: Yeah, it’s the evil griping of evil.

John: The evil speech of evil is just: define your behavior. He's straight up monologuing here.

Dean: This is a little bit more of the, ‘I would’ve gotten away if it weren’t for you meddling kids.’

John: Yes, exactly.

Amy: Are you saying this is a Scooby Doo?

John: In the original version of this, he pulls off the Wil Wheaton mask only to reveal he's still Wil Wheaton.

[Laughter]

John: But he wears a Wil Wheaton mask. You know what? We should've called Wil for this.

Amy: Oh my god, why didn’t we do that? Now we gotta record it again.

John: I know. Maybe- You know what? We’ll do one on iTunes with him.

Amy: We'll do a special one.

John: And we may be playing Dungeons and Dragons while we actually do the commentary. This is great now. This is tough. And talk about- we had a couple different endings for this episode in this particular scene.

Amy: Yes.

John: Go ahead.

Amy: I don't remember them, I just remember there were multiple endings. [Laughs]

John: We actually, for a couple different versions of the outline, had him lose. Had Nate and the guys lose.

Amy: Oh, that’s right.

John: And then our team conned them about the painting. And the moral was basically our team kinda sitting around, pissed off they lost, but they were still a family while the other team broke up. And it just didn't feel-

Dean: Wasn't satisfying.

John: It was one of those good writer beats- and that's why Dean’s actually a very valuable producing partner, because he's all heart. 

[Laughter]

John: Seriously man, he’s- and he’s, ‘I don't feel it.’

Amy: And we have none.

John: And we have none, because we’re writers and our blackened little hearts are shriveled away.

Amy: And our dark souls.

John: It's very easy when you're writing a con and heist show to get a little too clever for your own good.

Amy: It’s true.

John: And Dean’s a very good barometer on, ‘You know, do I really-? Am I gonna be happy with this?’ And you know, he’s right.

Dean: I like a little fromage.

Amy: Well what were the reasons-?

John: No, not fromage, but just, you know-

Amy: I think one of the reasons we were gonna have them losing was that this was gonna be episode three or four, and then we had the wild thought that we would bring the evil team back for episode seven.

John: Yes.

Amy: And sort of do, you know, ‘We lost the first one, but we won the second one.’

Dean: There's the recall of your Emily story.

John: Yes, that's right, the little go to the dance with. No it's- oh and that's great.

Dean: Again, that was Apollo who came up with that idea. 

John: Yeah, that they're picking-

Dean: A lockpicking race.

John: And also Beth tossing the lockpick into the air and catching it? After a week with Apollo, she’d really gotten disgustingly good. I think they're actually picking there.

Amy: Well Apollo has gone on record as saying Beth can actually be a professional pickpocket if she wanted to.

John: She's got soft hands.

Dean: And this is, again, one of those scenes where Christian shows you how good he is at comedy. How subtle he is when he realizes she may be the person who actually shot him.

Amy: Look at that look!

[Laughter]

John: Yeah. 

Amy: His eyes widen just like a millimeter, but-

John: Yeah. And that was an improv, I think. ‘Y’all nasty’. He's supposed to just look at it. 

Amy: That’s awesome.

John: And Griffin doing the Nate Ford, ‘I'm an honest man’ speech here, incredibly uncomfortably!

Dean: Well, we always want the villain to suffer and this is how he suffers.

John: He’s just sweating it out.

Amy: He's getting more satisfaction out of watching Griffin Dunne lose than he is from getting the painting back to the clients.

John: Which is something wrong.

Amy: Yes, that's not right.

John: Sophie's actually the moral center of this scene.

Amy: This is the episode where they, in a way, sort of switch roles. She becomes the honest thief, and he becomes-

John: They were a lovely couple. God, these actors were nice.

Dean: Just amazing local actors.

John: No, this was a lot of fun. And then, again, giving him just enough rope to hang himself with. And making sure that he's pissed off enough to come back in season three.

Dean: The other part of this scene I like is, it really shows how far Sophie has come, that she’s actually not just doing this, she’s actually, really- she’s drank the kool aid by now. She really believes in what they're doing. 

John: To a little bit more than Nate at this point.

Amy: Yeah.

John: Yeah. Which, you know, and that- we really took the, ‘You killed Sophie Deaveraux.’ And the funeral was a late addition; that wasn't in the first outline.

Dean: Yeah.

Amy: No, it wasn't. That was something that we added later. 

John: Yeah it was. 

Amy: But that was an element of knowing we were gonna lose Gina and trying to set up an awesome departure.

John: Yup. And that bomb thing wound up being really- Because originally- it was originally a sort of investigatory clue path and then when we lose Gina it's like, alright let's scare the audience a little here.

Dean: How did you come up with this bit of how they tracked-?

John: I think that was some geek bullshit I had in the notebook, I’m fairly sure. Whenever it’s some tiny minutiae of how phones work, it’s you know-

Amy: Good old GPS.

John: Yeah well, you know what? I think at the time there were some protests about the fact that you couldn't turn off the GPS tracking in your phone, and it was- they were talking about a lot in England you being able to do that, so that just kinda stuck.

Amy: Well I imagine all this would-

Dean: There's Chase!

Amy: See, yeah, there's Chase. I knew I saw him at some point.

John:  Is this-? Yeah, here we go. All these great local actors.

Dean: And I love the security guard; this woman is fabulous.

Amy: So much personality, only a few lines.

John: And again, this is one of those things where you are trying to come up with a really clever way to screw him and then you suddenly realize, no, it’s just a box full of paintings; there's nothing really subtle about this. You’re just going to jail forever.

Dean: But in a way, this is what makes it work. ‘This is the real one.’

John: We had a couple of different notes, too.

Amy: He lost by winning. Cause what he wanted was the paintings, and we gave him the paintings, but that’s what did him over in the end.

John: Another rule: the villain must be brought down by their own sin. 

Dean: Now this, for me, is my favorite scene for a number of reasons. 

John: It’s a good scene.

Dean: First of all, just the lighting. We got this at the perfect time of day.

John: Yeah, how'd we get the lighting Dean?

[Laughter]

Dean: We accidentally went over that day and somehow went into-

Amy: Oh accidentally?

John: Oh did the director somehow go over in the morning, so we just happened to be shooting at the magic hour?

Dean: It was odd how that worked out.

Amy: Oh interesting.

Dean: That we just happened to be in magic hour to shoot the romantic scene.

Amy: That is so funny.

John: What I love is the fact that you’d never work again as a director for boning your producer that bad, except you’re the producer?

[Laughter]

John: No, this scene is stunning.

Dean: They both knocked it out of the park on this day. And for me, it's weird to say it because I directed the episode, but this is the best almost-kiss I’d ever seen before. And it's really the way they did it.

John: Yeah. This was another one where it was like, set up the cameras, let the actors work.

Dean: This was also a callback to what happened in the episode at the school, because-

Amy: Fairy Godparents.

John: Yeah.

Dean: Cause in the Fairy Godparents that she had never really been honest. 

John: Exactly.

Dean: And here she realizes she doesn't know who she is anymore because she's been so many other people for so long.

Amy: She got dumped because she wasn't being truthful with her boyfriend, and she actually recited all the names of her aliases, and this is sort of the callback to her having to bury them in order to move on.

John: Yeah, she's more attached to fake people than real people and it’s caught up with her. And this is the moment where Sophie Deaveraux becomes a better human being than Nate Ford.

Dean: And that red coat was totally Gina.

John: That was Gina. That's right, she came in with that she and Nadine went hunting for that. This is a great almost kiss.

Dean: Ow! Ow!

John: This was an Italian over. This is- what's that terminology?

Dean: It’s a French over. Rather than being in the front of them, you're over their backs and then this walk away.

Amy: The Italian over is you're drinking wine while you’re doing it.

John: And this walkaway was fantastic with that light right there!

Amy: Through the trees! It's so pretty.

John: You knew what scene was good when we were shooting it because I was watching it on the monitor and I turned around and all the local PA’s were standing behind us watching the scene and two of the girls were crying.

Dean: Yeah. It was awesome.

John: You just really nailed it. And that was going to be the summer season ender, 207, and wound up being still a great send off for that character. And really one of the best episodes of the two years I gotta say.

Amy: Yup, it's one of my favorites for sure.

Dean: For me it's almost like the two part season finale of one, season one, done in one episode.

Amy: Yeah, exactly.

Dean: So thank you for watching.

John: Thank you for watching.

Amy: Thanks everybody!

[thelordofdarkreunion]

Magnificent Scoundrels: The Team, Part I

After having this idea buzzing through my brain for a while, I got bored and decided to write it.  This is a multi-sci-fi universe crossover story, involving the Star Wars, Star Trek, Halo, Titanfall, Mass Effect, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Warhammer 40,000, the Empyrean Iris stories by (), and my own sci-fi story, Tongues of Fire.  

Disclaimer:

I only own Tongues of Fire.  Disney owns Star Wars, CBS owns Star Trek, Microsoft owns Halo, Respawn Entertainment owns Titanfall, Marvel owns Marvel (should be fairly obvious), Games Workshop owns Warhammer 40,000, and starr-fall-knight-rise owns Empyrean Iris.

Note: Italics indicate thoughts

Note: Star Wars, Star Trek, Halo, and Marvel (as in Marvel Comics and Marvel Cinematic Universe) exist as fictional stories in the Empyrean Iris Universe, as they were specifically mentioned or alluded to in the stories that make up that universe.  Likewise, Star Wars exists as a fictional story in the Marvel Universe, as it was specifically mentioned in several of the movies.  Otherwise, the other universes, even though they are fictional stories in the real world, do not exist as fictional stories from the respective fictional universes.

Now, sit back, relax, try not to die, and enjoy the story!

On the edge of several different galaxies 

Admiral Adam Vir walked the dark streets of what he thought was probably a long dead moon.  After the events of the past several weeks, he had received a mysterious summons from a mercenary from another galaxy to come here, this day, and hear an offer.  It was…uh, well, complicated.  Actually, complicated was putting it rather mildly, he mused.  Apparently, the man, named, he turned and discreetly checked the transcript of the message, Thomas Drake, was going to assemble a team of magnificent people to “to be all around awesome, make a ton of money, and generally get up to as many shenanigans as possible.”  This was going to end real well.

The shadows grew long as Adam, Sunny, his first lieutenant, and Krill, his medical officer, both aliens, walked into a small black building that looked like the outside of a respectable restaurant.  Two tall black-suited human guards stood at the entrance.  Strangely despite the dark, they wore eye-covering sunglasses.  As Adam and his retinue reached the entrance, the closer guard smiled.  

“Admiral Adam Vir?” he asked.  Adam forced a smile, overriding his instincts that this probably wasn’t a good idea.  Sunny and Krill shared a look.

“That’s me,” he replied.  The guard held up something that Adam recognized as a fingerprint scanner.

“Just put your hand here sir,” instructed the guard.  Adam did as he was told, and a green light blinked on the side of the device.

“You can go right in, sir,” said the guard as he opened the door for Adam and his friends.  

It was not what he expected.  It looked like an extremely high class lounge.  The windowless room was decorated with large black drapes with red trim, and had many white table-clothed booths and tables spread throughout.  There was an elegant bar on the side of the room near the door, and a dance floor on the side opposite it.  It looked quite classy, and quite cozy.  But the room itself took second place as the most interesting thing there.  By far the most interesting were the people.  Lounging and talking throughout the room, or quietly keeping to themselves and looking with suspicion at everyone else, they were probably the strangest and most varied group of people Adam had ever seen.  

Sitting far away from the door at one of the back tables, nursing a small glass of amber liquid, was a man with short-cut black hair.  He was completely by himself, and seemed rather content to remain so.  He was wearing some sort of strange, sleeveless armored vest, the likes of which Adam had never seen before.  An odd-looking green helmet with a strange x-shaped viewing slit sat on the table next to him.  The man had the look of a professional soldier, although exactly what type of soldier and from where, Adam had no idea.  

Across the way, sitting in a both, still towards the back but on the other side of the room, sat perhaps the strangest group of people Adam had ever seen, and that was saying a lot.  There were two two relatively normal looking people, a man and a woman, wearing military fatigues who glared pointedly at the two aliens in Adam's retinue when Adam looked at them.  Their regular looking appearance only served to contrast the man sitting in the middle of the both.  He had a long, scarred, rather handsome face that was framed by neatly trimmed sideburns.  Adam couldn’t really tell what color his hair was, however, because of the hat.  Where to begin with the hat?  It looked as if someone had taken several doses of LSD and tried to design an officer’s cap worn by the secret police of a fictional government agency, then made it several sizes bigger than normal.  The uniform wasn’t much better.  It was as if an insane Napoleonic-era Prussian tailor had created it, added an equally horrible-looking greatcoat, and draped the entire thing in altogether too much gold lace.  The overall effect was...bizarre, to put it mildly.  Although, now I want one, mused Adam.  The two wearing military fatigues looked at the gold-laced one, probably their boss, if the uniform quality was to be gone by, then looked back at Adams' group.  They seemed to be arguing over him, and the man made several gestures to emphasize a point before bringing his fist down on the table with a thump.  The insane-uniformed man rolled his eyes, grinned, said something that appeared to placate the two wearing fatigues, and swirled his drink experimentally before tossing it all back.  The two wearing fatigues kept glaring suspiciously in Adam’s direction.  It was only then that Adam seemed to notice the fourth person at the table.  The fourth man was sitting quietly by himself, wearing a more plain set of fatigues, bothering no one, but something about him felt...off.  Looking at the man sent chills down Adam’s spine, his collar itched for no reason, and his stomach suddenly felt slightly queasy.  He brushed it off, and kept looking across the room.

In another booth, towards the middle of the room, was...Han Solo and Chewbacca?  The hell was going on?  Was there some mercenary captain who dressed like Han Solo, the character from a 2,000 year old movie?  And there weren’t any aliens that looked like Chewbacca, or were there?  Confused, he shook his head to clear it and continued his search around the room.  His jaw dropped.  There, leaning against a wall, was the video game character Master Chief.  Another fictional character from a 2,000 year old story.  What the hell was happening?  He continued his around the room, now suspicious of where this was going.  

At another table, this time closer to the door, sat two tough looking humans males and one figure wearing a strange body suit with a purple-hued mask that completely obscured the face.  One of the humans appeared to be wearing normal civilian clothes, (the first normal one in the room, thought Vir) and the other was wearing black body armor with the numerals “N7” stamped over the right breast.  If Adam had to guess, he’d say the humans were mercenaries of some sort.  The other one, he had no idea.

Moving over to the ornate bar, located on the same wall of the room as the door, stood a tall man in a black leather greatcoat.  HIs face was movie star handsome, and framed with immaculate black hair.  He had an easy smile, and looked rather out of place in a room filled with soldiers and old fictional characters.  And talking to the man was...Captain Kirk and Spock from Star Trek.  Adam shook his head as if to clear it.  Obviously, this was some sort of fever dream, and he’d wake up in his cabin at any moment…

But it was not to be.  The door slammed open behind him, and a strangely familiar voice said, “Excuse me.”  Vir turned around, and when his eyes laid on the figure walking through the door, they almost fell out of his head.  Walking into the room was a blond-brown haired man wearing a red colored greatcoat and a small, old-fashioned music played attached to his waist.  Following the man was a green skinned human looking alien, and a raccoon walking on it’s two hind legs.  The Guardians of the Galaxy.  Another ancient fictional story, come to life.  The raccoon sneered at him.

“Finished staring?” it asked with a surprisingly human-like voice.  Adam shook his head again.

“Er, yes, yes,” he trailed off.  What was happening here?  The black haired man from the bar appeared suddenly next to him and gave an enthusiastic grin.  

“Ah Adam Vir, Sunny, Krill, Peter Quill, Gamorra, Rocket,” he addressed each of the new arrivals by name and with a small smirk as he shook each of their hands.  All the new arrivals looked at each other with confusion.  How does he know our names?  We don’t know him, seemed to be the unspoken consensus between the two groups.  “Welcome.”   He turned behind him and spoke to the rest of the room. “Alright now that everyone’s here, we can begin!  It would be best if we all sat or stood in the middle.  Yes, yes, there it is, wonderful.  You’re fine there.  C’mon, get your gluteus in gear and get over here, Han.”  Everyone shuffled somewhat awkwardly to the middle of the room.  The black haired man and several tuxedoed waiters pulled over a group of tables and chairs.  The man, who Adam guessed was their host, Thomas Drake, gestured at everyone to sit.  Most sat, with several electing to remain standing.  Drake languidly leaned against the edge of a table.

“So.  As you may already know or have already guessed, my name is Thomas Drake.  Due to several of your galaxies messing around with the fabric of time,” Drake glared pointedly at Kirk, who gave a sheepish smile, the solo military-looking man from the back of the room, who shrugged indifferently, and the elaborately uniformed man.  Said man threw out his hands in a defensive gesture.

“Hey, I’m just a humble Commissar.  If anyone’s screwing with time, it’s the Inquisition.”  Drake sighed.

“Whatever.  Anyway, before I was oh so rudely interrupted, I was saying that due to several of your galaxies screwing with time, all of our galaxies, which existed separately as alternate realities, have all combined into a massive, multi-galaxy and multi-timeline mess.  The reason that all of you are here is because, apparently unlike the rest of you, I’ve done my homework, and I’ve found something interesting.  In every one of our collective galaxies, there seems to be a badass, lucky, famous, and all around awesome soldier or mercenary.  You.”  Things were starting to make much more sense.  Drake continued, “I have invited and/or got permission for all of you to be here today for one simple reason: I plan on creating a group of all of us.  Put together, we can overcome any obstacle, learn more about this new reality of many different galaxies we are facing from inhabitants of said galaxies, cause a bunch of shenanigans, eliminate any threats to the governments we work for or the people we love, and if none of those are incentive enough, make an ungodly amount of money.”  Several people (and aliens) around the table grinned at the last one.  “I’ve already gotten permission for those who need it to join this little group, so, the only question remains,” he spread his hands wide for dramatic emphasis, “who’s in?”

Chewbacca growled something and Han Solo nodded.  “We’re in.”  The lone military-like man nodded.  

“I’m in.”  The Guardians looked at each other and nodded.

“Making tons of money and exploring new galaxies?  Oh, we’re definitely in.”  The tough-looking man with the “N7” on his armor and the hooded figure in his retinue nodded.

“I have Council authorization.  I’m in.”  Drake looked at Adam.

“And you?”  Adam’s mind was made up.  Get the chance to go through multiple galaxies, some actual fictional stories from his childhood, meet a ton of new people and get to see new aliens?  Definitely.  He looked at Sunny and Krill.  Sunny nodded, Krill merely had an exasperated look plastered on his bug-like face.

“We’re in.”  Drake looked at the elaborately-uniformed man.

“What about you?”  The man pursed his lips.  

“You got permission from the Administratum for this?” he asked skeptically.  Drake rustled through the pockets of his greatcoat and came out with a piece of parchment with a medieval-style wax seal.  

“No, I got permission from one Inquisitor Amberley Vail.  These are the written orders.”  He tossed them to the man.

“Ah.  That would explain several things.  I’m in.”  Drake turned to Kirk and Spock.

“And you two?”  Spock frowned.

“This does not seem as if it were in the best interests of the Federation.”  Drake smiled dazzlingly at him. 

“Your government would want to explore these new galaxies anyway, and who would they send?  You.  This way you have more allies to help you.”

“Fair point.  We’re in.”  Drake grinned wickedly.

“Wonderful.  Time to Rock and roll!”

[thefandomlesbian]

hotchreid and/or morcia for the ship ask!!

HotchReid:

Who eats breakfast food for dinner: Spencer.

Turns the radio volume up until their ears bleed: Aaron

Waves at random animals?: Neither, they don't particularly like animals.

Binge-watches shows until two in the morning: Spencer

Takes all the pillows: Spencer

Plays with rotating doors: Spencer (he's been decked by them on more than one occasion, but he thinks they're such a great visual stim that he doesn't mind)

Would fight with a sword if they could: Spencer

Forgets every little thing: Aaron

Loves the thought of a double-date: Neither of them, they both think that sounds like a unique form of hell.

Has to eat fast food three times a week: Spencer, because he can't cook for shit.

Enjoys hugs: They both claim not to and they both melt like little happy puppies when it is thrust upon them

Could kill with a stare when someone flirts with their partner: Aaron.

Remembers all the holidays and goes above and beyond on gifts: Aaron. Spencer remembers the holidays, but he is very accustomed to doing nothing and forgets that now he has a reason to care that it's Christmastime.

Would cosplay as their favorite character: Spencer can and will do it again.

Stares dreamily at their partner like they're the sun: Aaron, when he isn't under scrutiny. Spencer is not as good at hiding it, though.

Could fall and still look perfect: idk what to say, CBS gave us two relatively attractive guys, they look fine 🤷‍♀️

Loves pumpkin spice: Spencer. He spends years denying it until he tries it. Then Aaron is getting him his fix every morning for three months straight.

Would fight for their partner's honor: Aaron will absolutely put his fist through a window to prove that Spencer is cool and awesome and the best ever.

Morcia:

Eats breakfast food for dinner: Penelope

Turns the radio volume up until their ears bleed: Derek

Waves at random animals: Penelope

Binge-watches shows until two in the morning: This is something they do together. Penelope always conks out on Derek's shoulder by twelve thirty, though.

Takes all the pillows: Penelope

Plays with rotating doors: Derek, usually while trying to prank Spencer.

Would fight with a sword if they could: Derek. He's very much team "fencing is so lame, just fight like a man" until he sees Spencer showing Aaron a video of some fencing on youtube, and then he's like, I can be good at that, too! Penelope does not approve of his rampant sword purchases.

Forgets every little thing: Derek

Loves the thought of a double date: Penelope. She likes to show him off. But she spends all of her free time at work, and getting to go on dates with Spencer and Aaron is boring, because she's like, "Look! My hunk!" and they're like ... We know... We see him every day...

Has to eat fast food three times a week: Derek. He blames it on Penelope's vegetarianism but they both know it was something he did a long time before he was with her.

Enjoys hugs: Penelope. She will glomp any unwilling target.

Could kill with a stare if someone flirts with their partner: Penelope. Derek thinks Pen is cute when she gets all feisty when someone else flirts with her, but if someone flirts with Derek, Penelope has no problem sidling up onto his arm and showing exactly how important she is to him, and also hacking the offender's bank account without taking any money just to mildly inconvenience them in punishment.

Remembers the holidays and goes above and beyond on gifts: They both do this! Penelope's gifts tend to be a little more bawdy and less practical; Derek is used to buying for his mother and sisters, so he has a better idea of what women typically like. He does miss the mark sometimes, though, especially with cosmetics—anything from "I was having a really hard time picturing your skin tone in the store and I bought foundation that is either five shades too light or too dark for you" to "I accidentally bought cosmetics that fund puppies being murdered in cages and now you're crying"

Would cosplay as their favorite character: Penelope

Stares dreamily at their partner like they're the sun and the stars: Penelope. She's not very discreet.

Could fall and still look annoyingly perfect: Penelope.

Loves pumpkin spice: They both love pumpkin spice, but Derek's love for it is closeted. No one can know. Penelope begins to make great sacrifices... If they are where someone can see them or hear them, she'll order one black coffee and one pumpkin spice and specifically ask for identical cups (confusing baristas everywhere) and then will bring Derek one of them. Then she will proceed to choke on black coffee to protect his honor because coffee is gross but if she ordered two lattes, people would Know and he wouldn't like that. Eventually Spencer figures it out because when Penelope orders a pumpkin spice for herself, she always makes it vegan, and she doesn't do that when she's ordering for Derek.

Will fight for their partner's honor: Derek will fight physically. Penelope will destroy a person's life by stealing their identity, ruining their credit, wrecking job opportunities, and more. Once Derek told her a story about being hazed on the football team in college and he was in the trunk of a car, and the other boys said it stalled over train tracks and were outside pretending to be desperately trying to get him out. The car was actually parked right next to the train tracks and was meant to make him piss himself when the train went by as a joke. A few weeks after relaying this story, something he finds moderately amusing and still somewhat traumatizing in adulthood, he gets a weird message on Facebook from one of the guys, asking for money because his social security number, identity, bank account, and more were stolen, and now he has not a dime to his name and is facing eviction and has nowhere to go with his family. "Penelope. What did you do?"

She's innocent. "What did I do what?"

"What did you do to Roger's credit score?"

"Nothing he didn't deserve."

"He has a baby to feed."

"Well, he should've thought about that before he parked my boyfriend beside the train tracks in the trunk of a car."

"That was fifteen years ago!"

Penelope does feel bad and starts sending food to their residence. Only for the wife and kids, she tells herself. That dick totally deserves despondence, no matter what Derek says.

[woozi]

l&r shua and specially studio choom l&r shua... i still have no idea how i survived that, also it gave us blue hair cheol too <3 ... him sleeveless with blue hair, there are so many happy things just from this cb jdjsksskks i adore it.

wonshua fr were something else during l&r... omg after school, I'm guessing you've been into kpop way before me. anytime any clip from 17tv pops up i'm just ' they're so smol here they're so cute ' but also most of the time i have no context as well it's djjdsjskks. idk why but svt club is still something i find myself watching again i really liked its concept and them talking and sharing their thoughts it's very simple but also heart-warming.

is it creepy if i say i kind of did sghjkk i actually got to know you are interested in got7 recently when i ended up clicking the links in your bio. i swear im not a weird stalker jdjeekke i've been following your got7 blog way before than this one djdjdjjddj i only found this svt one recently after i decided to completely move back to tumblr and started following svt accs. I didn't know both blogs were you for a long time jddjdkd i apologize if it does seem lil creepy JDJDKSKSLS

jinyoung and mark are my biases, my ults actually <3 and yess i'm keeping up w/ their solo projects even more than before 😭 it's so jdjdkdkd. 2017 was the year i started listening to kpop and around that time or lil later i came across ' you are ' this song is so dear to me i loved it in first listen, its lyrics i love its lyrics sm i made everyone i know listen to it dhjddk yet i didn't dive in deeper bc i was caught up with other group at that time but slowly I started watching their content from 2018. it's like got7's been w/ me since the start & at the same time not </3 but look, lullaby and more importantly spinning top came and everything changed with that album it's so goood from then i started keeping up with their music and check their cbs. i knew jype was meh even when i didn't stan them but i didn't know to what extent, i only got to know after 2019. so far it's all so good and i hope it stays like that. all of their different companies treat and promote them nicely 🥺.

with svt it was instant love i got to know abt them during march 2019 ig, their songs grew on me so fast and boom by the time may came i was a carat, with got7 it was gradual love, it increased lil by lil it's nice but i do wish i could've stanned them earlier. the only cb experience as an official birdie i have is nbtm and last piece 😭 anyway both of these groups are very dear to me not just musically but emotionally too. i love them very much 😔.

also omg those are some of the great artists!! i honestly have no idea how khh and krnb are i mostly listen to kpop and kbands more. i actually listen to a lot of artists but regularly only zayn, svt, got7, the rose (ik we're talking abt kpop but i can't leave zayn out of this djdjdkdk he's the first ever artist i have stanned <3)

also onewe, n.flying, a.c.e, gaho ( i love his voice <3) woodz, day6. yk when you want new music but also something which you'd instantly enjoy otherwise you don't want new music sghjk, when i feel like this i just go to any of their discography. also special mention to hoppipolla and lucy bc they always bring something new to the table i love them for it. i love these artists but honestly i listen to them when i am in mood. i listen to gotsvt and zayn the most at the end of the day. goodnight <3 i love talking to you too 🥺🥺🥺 also feel free to answer late when you're free. hoping i made sense in this one and answered everything bc i am too sleepy rn fjdjkd - 🪂

BLUE HAIRED COUPSIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WITH THE RIPPED ARMS!!!!!!!!!!!1

iconique if u ask me <3 i heard lnr was indeed a good era for everyone!! wasn't it also cheol's first cb after his break? y'all must've had Fun fun

yes i have 😭 i grew up w koreans so... i guess that's also an influence. i got into kpop on my own volition during 4th grade though, so that's prob 2009/10??? GOD I FEEL SO ANCIENT RN!!!! honestly i still dk what 17tv was about i feel like we were just watching streams of some boys w no context as well 😭 AND YES OMG I GET THAT!! svt club is super chill and it's a great way of learning more abt the members!

JKDFJKKJDFFDKJ HELP!!!!!!!!!!! WAIT OH MY GOD YOU WERE IN MY G7 BLOG 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 IM SO EMBARRASSED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 as i've mentioned last time, got7 got me back into kpop and consequently tumblr 😭😭😭 i 'left' tumblr too and was just checking in occasionally, so when i made that g7 sideblog i was WAY behind the times and my first edits were so fucking- 😭 everything about me then was also so performative idk why i felt the pressure to be in on the club 😭 why were you not annoyed with me then 😭 i'd block me if i saw me on the dash KJFKJFDKJDF thank god i got over it though (or should i be.. i'm a menace on the dash now <3 KJDKKJDFKJF) AND NOOO OMG it's not creepy at all. i put those links in for people to see them after all!! and i'm actually kind of honored you followed me even w/o knowing its me <3 i feel like i've passed the vibe check JJFDKJKJFD do you also follow my main 👀 i rmb someone greeting me here on my bday who said the exact same thing you did 😭

U LIKE OLD MAN JINYOUNG 😭😭😭 ok that makes sense w ur svt bias line tbh <3 i like jinyoung a lot too he's such a smug pain in the ass <3 ALSO MORK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i l*ve mark oh my god i- i know i keep saying this... but ur taste <3 AND YOU ARE 😭😭 THE ERAS YOU DISCOVER/GET INTO GROUPS ARE SOOOO GOOD </3 you are was so meaningful to them, and i'm still so incredibly proud of them for this regardless of commercial success. also what group were u into that time omg 👀 I ALSO GOT INTO THEM DURING SPINNING TOP ERA KJFDKJFDKJFJKFDJKFD WHY ARE WE SO SIMILAR!! u seem to like jaebeom's songs a lot <3 AND MS LULLABY!!! oh my god that's my favorite era <3 and yeah, so true bestie, i couldn't be happier for them they're doing FAR better than they have ever had compared to when they were in that shitty company. i'm still so amazed how they pulled all of this off though. jaebeom's must've went thru loads of papework he was prob so determined to show that old man what they are capable of FDJKDFJKD

NAURRR OMG IT'S SO CUTE HOW U PUT IT THAT WAY!! and i'm sure you'll get to experience more cbs with the 7 <3 they were already hinting at it yesterday on twt JKFDJKJKFD

OHHH THAT'S COOL!!! i haven't had a chance to listen much to kbands now, and if u ask me abt them the first ones that come to mind are ft island and cnblue bc im a kpop hag 😭 OH WAIT MAYBE DAY6 for the new ones?? my friends have also been recommending n.flying, the rose, and onewe to me. which bands do you listen to? and zayn??????? <3 ur so right abt that DFKJKJDFFDKJFD also omg go listen to khh they changed my life <3 i can give u a playlist if u'd like!! <3

OH WAIT THERE GOES THE BANDS FKDGKJKJF i usually reply paragraph by paragraph without reading the whole ask so JDFKJDFJK WAIT WOODZ????????????????????????? HELLO???????????????????? I LOVE THAT MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!! HE'S SO SEXIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and he's so cute too if that helps </3 ALSO MOOD I CANT BRING MYSELF TO LISTEN TO NEW MUSIC NOWADAYS EVEN IF I WANT TO BC OF THE SAME EXACT REASON 😭 the way we get each other is so- and i've never heard of hoppipolla omg i'll go listen to them now!! indeed <3 gotsvt is our home <3

and nooo u are so cute omg </3 and don't feel pressured to respond immediately to me as well!! i'm a v late replier but i'll always reply JKJKFDJKFD AND DW everything u said made perfect sense <3 i hope u get/got a good night's rest!! and that you'll have an awesome day ahead <3

[mymelodyheart]

Starting Over Chapter 32 ~The Surprise~

"Hey, Jamie, look at this! Ye remember this picture?" Rabbie called out from the other side of the attic, waving a piece of yellowed photograph. "I must have been ten here and look at ye ...ye look like Annie from that musical show."

Ian got up from where he was sat sealing boxes and peered over Rabbie's shoulder. "Fuck, Jamie, ye look flaming hot!"

Joe grimaced and gave Jamie a sympathetic look. It was a normal occurrence that Jamie was the butt of the jokes in the family, having inherited the MacKenzie genes. He'd been the easiest target with his unruly coppery curls, but he'd learned from an early age, the best way to deal with it was by not responding.

Jamie gave a long-suffering sigh and looked all around him. There weren't enough hours in the day, and there was still so much to do before he went to see Claire and got on a plane to France. They needed to box all his rugby memorabilia, trophies and professional photos to be brought later to the rugby academy and displayed in the built-in, glass case Willie had recently installed. It had been his ma's idea to exhibit his rugby collections and awards, in the hope of inspiring young athletes who would be attending the academy. The only problem was, he just hadn't realised there would be plenty of it and paired with a lot of mucking about from his younger brother.

"And here's another one ..."

Willie shot Rabbie a look. "We're supposed to be boxing things up, no' spending yer time on the floor looking at pictures."

"Cool yer jets. I'm going through Jamie's rugby photos, but some of them are mixed with the family ones ...oh look! Here's one with Joe ...oh, and Claire's in it. Jamie, I didnae ken ye knew her back then."

They all gathered around behind Rabbie and bent down to take a closer look. On the photo standing next to Jamie was Joe, another medic and then Claire. Her hair was pulled back, and she was wearing a cap with a Scottish flag sewn into it, the visor almost concealing her eyes. Whereas Jamie and the rest in the photo had been smiling for the camera, Claire's face looked inscrutable.

They stared at the photo for a while. It was taken not that too long ago and wondered if Claire was with Frank already. Jamie guessed she was.

Joe broke the silence first. "Claire used to help my medical team during the early days of her internship," he explained, straightening up. "And working during the rugby game could be quite hectic with all of those lads getting all sorts of bumps and bruises. It was hardly a place to mingle."

"Aye, I understand that, but Jamie ye're in the same photo as her. Didn't ye notice her back then?" Rabbie asked, glancing at Jamie.

Jamie cleared his throat as he peered closer. He had a vague memory, but then again, after their meeting in Lallybroch, he'd always thought Claire looked familiar. He must have seen her in passing but with everything that usually happened in the sideline and all of his concentration focused on the game, it would have been easy to overlook a lot of things. "Aye ...weel ...there were a lot of people going in and out of the locker room after the game. As Joe said, it's hardly a place to socialise." He rubbed a hand behind his neck, wondering what it would have been like if he and Claire had been acquainted back then.

"Hang on a minute," Joe interrupted. "Now I remember that photo. Rabbie, flip it to the other side. There's a message on the back." He looked at Jamie. "I gave you that photo to sign it for Claire. I guess I must have forgotten to ask for it back. She'd wanted an autograph from you, but she'd been too shy to approach you and ask. She was worried you'd remember that awesome smackdown she gave you that time when you got too cheeky with her, so she'd asked me to ask you instead."

_ Ah yes! _ He remembered that encounter now. He'd been teasing her while she'd been attending to his injuries. Jamie felt his cheeks flushed. "Here, give me that. Let me take a look." He took the photo from Rabbie's hand and flipped it over. And sure enough, there was a message from Claire with her neat cursive writing.

_ Dear Mr Fraser,_

_Could you sign this photograph for me? I would be forever grateful if you could spare a moment of your time as I am an avid fan of yours. _

_ Many heartfelt thanks, CB x _

_ PS I am the one on the far right on this picture. _

Despite himself, Jamie grinned. _ Mr Fraser indeed! Will have to get her to say that in private, one of these days. Maybe while we're getting busy under the sheets. _ "I'm keeping this," he said suddenly, running a finger over the written words. _ Christ, I miss her already! _Ever since he'd confessed about Forbes, Claire had finally conceded to staying in his apartment every night. These past few days were like as if an invisible dark cloud had lifted from their midst, and there was more openness in their relationship allowing him to see the future more clearly. Already he was itching to see her again, and it was only a few hours ago he'd last seen her. Now he wished he wasn't going to France anymore.

"Uh-oh, look at him! Ye've gone soft, Jamie lad."

Ian's ribbing launched him out of his reverie and snagged the attention of Rabbie, who grinned and sniggered, making Jamie realise he'd been staring at Claire's writing this whole time,

"Aye, definitely, he's gone soft. Just the other day, I saw him buying tampons for Claire in the shop, and he didnae see me. I overheard him asking a girl if there's a size that fits all," Rabbie chuckled.

Joe and Ian burst out laughing.

_ Ah fuck, here we go! _

Rabbie shook his head. "Hey Jamie, how come ye dinnae ken about tampons? Ye've had a few of them stuck up yer nose when ye'd taken a bashing in the field."

"They're nasal packing you dimwit!" Joe snorted, throwing a crumpled paper at Rabbie. "But I guess you can call them that as it does the same job."

"Ach, Claire has been Jamie's Achilles' heel, and Kryptonite rolled into one," Ian grinned. "Jenny says, when ye start buying tampons for yer girlfriend, that means ye're ready to take it to the next level."

"Aye, I think so too," Rabbie agreed, nodding his head. "I wonder when Jamie is going to ..."

"Are ye done with those photos, Rabbie?" Willie cut in, trying hard not to smile at Jamie's expense.

Rabbie scowled at the older Fraser as he gathered the photos and stood up. "It's done, ye grouchy git," he muttered, getting up and placing the photographs in the open box. "Ye're just surly because the only thing ye're laying at the moment are bricks."

Jamie muttered a curse under his breath. He didn't have time for this, and the last thing wanted was to be in the middle of the big brother and wee brother verbal match. He might have been the target of their taunting as a tag team when they were bairns, but he wasn't about to play referee, middle brother or not.

"Right, lads ...ye think ye can sort this all out without me?" Jamie asked rapidly before Willie could come back with a rebounder for Rabbie. "I need to see Claire before I catch the plane. When I come back from France, dinner, drinks and more drinks are on me for sorting my stuff out." He grabbed his jacket from the nearby chair and pulled them on, careful not to crease the photo in his hand.

Willie scanned the room. "Aye, we can handle this. Ye go ahead, and we'll deal it. See ye in a few days?"

"Aye, see ye in a few days. Everything under control, aye?" When Willie nodded, Jamie faced the room once more. "And Joe, check up on Claire once in a while, alright? She's staying in my apartment while I'm away. And ye Rabbie behave. See you soon, Ian."

"Always mate!" Joe replied as the rest of the lads said their byes. "Now go before ye miss yer ladylove's lunch break."

With that, he turned around and left the attic.

..........

Ignoring the gazes that landed on him and the hush that followed, Jamie scanned the hospital cafeteria for Claire. When he found her sitting on her own at the far end of the room eating something, what looked like a sticky bun and reading a book, he quickly made his way to her, unhearing of the gushes and whispers that followed his wake. He caught her unaware when he planted a kiss on the nape of her neck.

"Jamie!" Claire gasped and looked around, her face blooming red as she caught the glances and attention they were gaining by the second. "You should have called. Do you want to go somewhere private?" she asked, putting the book down.

"No, here will do," he said, taking the seat opposite her and taking her hand in his. When she tried to pull it away, he tightened his hold and grinned. She looked so beautiful when she blushed. "What's the matter, Sassenach? Are ye embarrassed to be seen with yer boyfriend?"

"Of course not! How can you ask such a daft question? I'm surprised you haven't been mobbed, walking in like that without even a cap on."

"I was hoping ye'd protect me if that happened." When she didn't laugh and frowned at the people from the nearby table for staring, he kissed her fingers to catch her attention. "See it this way ...if I came in here with a cap on or any sort of disguise and your colleagues saw us holding hands, they would have figured out eventually who I was. Most of them already ken ye're with me, so they're hardly going to think there is some other bloke ye like to hold hands with. Unless of course, there's another bloke." When her frown deepened, he twined his fingers with hers and changed the subject. "Just joking. Don't mind them, Sassenach." He sighed. "I wish you were coming with me. I'm going to miss you and us, like this."

He'd asked her only once to come to France with him, and when she said she couldn't, he didn't push any further, knowing how dedicated she was to her work. He knew she wanted to go but asking her to take two weeks off was too much of an ask.

"Jamie, I wish I could come too ...you know that. But you'll be busy attending interviews, shoots and other stuff. So really there's no point in me coming. I'll just be bored out of my mind waiting for you to finish when I could be here doing something more productive." She sighed and looked down as he stroked the inside of her wrist. "The only thing I'll regret not coming with you is, we won't be together on my birthday." She looked into his eyes. "But don't worry about it. I'm aware you're doing this for the academy. If it's going to take a little separation sometimes to make this right, then that's what we have to live with."

He wished now they were somewhere private so he could take her in his arms. Instead, he kissed her hands again alternately, taking a few precious moments to lock away the irreplaceable sensation of basking in her love and understanding.

"We'll celebrate yer birthday when I come back," he promised. "Once the academy is up and running, I think I'll settle more into a routine. But I still think we should go on a break before the academy starts. The biggest part of the work is done, thanks to Willie and his team. But God knows when we'll get a chance once we get down to the nitty-gritty part, like hiring and administration. I intend to have the academy ready and functioning by next year, and I want to have everything covered before we officially open our doors."

She leaned forward, propping her elbows on the table and smiled at him. "Just do what you need to do and hurry back to me. I'm quite sure we'll manage a little break before the academy opens." She squeezed his hands and gazed longingly like she's trying to keep them at this moment for as long as possible. When she finally pulled back, it's with a resigned expression. "You're going to be late for your flight. Call me or text me when you get there."

"I will do, I promise."

They left the cafeteria and walked together to the main entrance, and when they were stood outside, she turned to him. "It's only for two weeks, Jamie. We can do this. You've been away from me longer much longer."

"But this time, it's different," he said, referring to the time before he confessed about Forbes.

"I know," she whispered. "We'll be both busy, and before you know it, you're back again."

He nodded and smiled. It took an effort to act like saying goodbye wasn't physically painful. "Aye, ye're right. I'm quite sure the days will fly by quickly. See you in two weeks, Sassenach."

He kissed her briefly, knowing she was conscious of people watching and taking photographs.

"I love you, James Fraser," she whispered, before turning around and going back into the hospital.

Before he could say it back, the door already closed behind her.

..........

_ Nine days down and five days to go before Jamie arrives home_. Claire had taken three days off for her birthday to visit her parents' grave and left last night for Oxford after her gruelling shift. Arriving late at her booked Airbnb, she'd immediately gone to sleep so she could wake up early and have the cemetery to herself.

Before she'd left Edinburgh, Geillis had made her promise to be back around late afternoon today for whatever uncle Lamb had in store for her. Initially thinking Jamie had something to do with the surprise birthday celebration uncle Lamb had planned, her excitement had grown exponentially, believing Jamie would be home earlier than expected. But that hope was immediately dashed when she saw an announcement in social media that Jamie would be attending an interview with a sports network in Paris later today.

She walked past the giant redwood tree, clutching her mother's diary in one hand and a tote bag holding a tartan blanket, flask and flowers in the other. The sun was bright and early, and the autumn air crisp. Today she'd worn her mother's knitted red scarf for the occasion to commemorate her parents' death anniversary. Every year, for the past eight years, instead of celebrating her birthday, she came to visit Wolvercote cemetery where her parents had been laid to rest many years ago. She'd looked forward to visiting, welcoming the tranquil and peaceful surroundings and the chance to get things off her chest, but she had to make sure she arrived early to avoid the tourists that came to see the graves of the Tolkiens.

Following the same route of years past, she took her time wandering through the maze of headstones, reading inscriptions, stopping now and again to say a silent prayer for some of the memorials she'd become familiar with. The engravings promised the dearly departed ones they'd never be forgotten but a promise which sadly, sometimes were broken. She left a single flower on some of the old crooked, crumbling monuments which had no visit or care in a long time, greeting them like they were old friends. In a way, it felt like that, for whenever she stopped by to say hello, time seemed to stand still, the wind unmoving and the birds stilling in acknowledgement.

When she finally reached her parents' graves, their plots side by side next to each other, she was surprised to see generous bouquets of forget-me-nots laid on each headstone. She smiled, thinking it must have been from Reverend Wakefield, an old friend of uncle Lamb or perhaps his housekeeper, Mrs Graham. Either way, she was glad to see the graves well taken care of and free of weeds.

After she'd placed her own flowers in the flower holders, she laid out the tartan blanket on the ground between her parents' graves and settled herself comfortably. She poured herself some coffee and drew out a picture from her mother's diary. It was a photograph Jamie had sent her from France. It was a group photo of him, Joe, a colleague and her. At the back was her own writing she'd written a few years back asking him to sign an autograph. To her delight, he'd signed it with a note saying, _ long overdue _and a smiley face and sent it to her via post.

"Hey, mum and dad ... it's me. How is it going up there?" she whispered, leaning forward to touch their engraved names. "Well, whatever you're doing, I hope you're having a blast and a time of your afterlife. Unfortunately, I don't have much time today because uncle Lamb is planning something for my birthday, so I need to be back home tonight. Anyway, there's something I've been dying to show you ever since I got on the plane last night. Here take a look at this." She held up the photograph in the air as if she was showing it to a live person. "See that guy on the far left? That's Jamie. You probably heard all about him up there and how much of a big deal he is in rugby. Yeah, he's the same guy I've been crushing on for years, and you might remember I've mentioned his name a few times before. Well, what do you think? He's handsome right?"

An unusually warm breeze for a cold autumn morning caressed her cheeks as a monarch butterfly settled on the headstone. She stared at it for a while before slipping the photo back into her mother's diary. "I bet both of you have plenty to say after the year I had. Well, this time last year, I was engaged to Frank ...you remember Frank? Of course, you do. Stupid question. How could you not?" She shook her head as memories from her last visit to the cemetery came flooding back. "You might have noticed during my last visit, I was in a place of uncertainty. And I remember taking mum's diary with me for the first time hoping it would be our way of communicating. I have no idea why I thought of that. Maybe because her writing has brought me comfort over the years." She took a deep breath, and a wood pigeon cooed from a high branch. "It sounded a bit daft at the beginning, but when I look back with hindsight, I think it worked. I know ...I know ... a priest would be having a canary right now if they could hear me talk. You see ... last year I asked you what you thought about me marrying Frank, and then I opened mum's diary and read the first passage my eyes landed on. Can you remember that passage? Because I'm not sure anymore if I said it out loud to you. Well, allow me to remind you." She flipped the diary open to the page she was looking for. "It said ... here's a snippet ..._ from an early age, I've learned to trust my gut because I realised it knows what your head hasn't figured out yet _."

Sighing, her finger drifted over the words she just recited, admiring her mother's beautiful penmanship. "So there you go. Looking back now, I think you were indeed trying to tell me something about trusting my guts, even if the words didn't immediately register into my muddled brain. It may sound crazy, but I honestly believe that with my whole heart. And before you remind me of my Catholic upbringing and call this a form of divination, I'm sorry, but I have to disagree. Reading this diary has been my saving grace while growing up, and it always felt mum wrote those words to guide me one day, and it has, in a lot of ways." A lone starling landed on the neighbouring headstone and chirped.

She closed her eyes for a moment breathing the fresh air and soaking in the warmth of the sun. Then she laid down the diary and took a sip of her coffee. "Anyway, I'm not here to talk about Frank. I'm here to talk about Jamie." She fidgetted with the edge of her scarf and smiled. "Mum, dad, I really love him, and what I feel for him, it's something I've never felt before. It's different this time, and I want you to know I'm happy ...happiest I've been for a long time. So that must count for something, right? I know he made a lot of bad choices in the past ...choices you probably would disapprove of. But hey, we all make mistakes at some point in our lives, and I am no different. Yeah, he is a complex man, I must admit, but he has a big heart and an inherently good soul, and he's proven it time and time again. So I'm hoping you will like him and maybe find it in your heart to love him the same way as I do. And perhaps if it's not too much of a big ask, you can relay a message from me to the old man up there to watch out for him."

A wind suddenly picked, sending a folded note she hadn't seen before from one of the bouquets to land on her lap.

Curious, she unfolded it. When she saw the writing, she gasped, and her eyes widened. _ Oh, sweet mother of God, it's from Jamie! _ With trembling hands and blurring eyes, she read the simple yet heartfelt message.

_ You had left this world a long time ago, but your memories are still fresh in your beautiful daughter's heart and mind. May you rest in peace, knowing I will always protect her and love her with all of me until my heart stops beating. JAMMF _

_ ...Until my heart stops beating? _ Her heart swelled. Who needs a birthday present or celebration when Jamie did something like this out of the blue? At almost every turn, he somehow managed to surprise her with his affection and tenderness, something he'd doubted he'd be capable of. But here it was, a perfect example of love from a perfectly flawed man. She didn't know if it's the words, or the flowers, or the fact she missed him so damn much making her feel like she couldn't breathe right. Half sobbing and half laughing, she reread the note over and over again.

"Good God ...mum, dad, did you see that?" She shook her head and swiped her cheek. "Jamie's even trying to make a good impression on you. Who would do that? And what do you have to say about it? He is charming, isn't he but oh sweet Jesus, I have a sneaking suspicion he knows it too. He's cocky like that, you know? If you were alive today, he would have probably given you a lifetime free ticket to watch rugby. Or a free ticket to anywhere. Uncle Lamb only got a season ticket and a signed jersey, but it was uncle's fault pulling that meat cleaver move on him. But honestly ... Jamie's that smooth he makes my eyes roll, and I can almost see you doing the same."

She pulled out a miniature Fraser whiskey from her pocket. "I know it's still early in the morning, but shall we have a toast? It's my birthday, after all." The wind blew, the falling leaves of red and gold drifting all around her and flipping the pages of her mother's diary to a picture of her first birthday. "I get it, mum and dad," she whispered as she worked on opening the bottle. She didn't know if it's her parents' absence from years gone by or Jamie not being there that made the thought of having a celebratory drink seem bittersweet. Still, she smiled. There was so much in the future to look forward to.

"Today," Claire began, saluting the air with the wee bottle of whisky, "I'm going to honour my uncle's wish, and we're going to start our own new tradition. It was far too long ago that I lost you both, and even though I would give anything to have you both here with me, I wouldn't trade the time I spent growing up with uncle Lamb. So, from now on, every year, I'll celebrate your legacy, instead of dwelling on what could have been." She touched their headstones once more. "I wish both of you could be here to meet Jamie and see what a great job uncle has done being a parent. I have no doubt you're always watching over us. But I want you to know you also had a hand in raising me, with mum's little nuggets of wisdom written in her diary. Thank you for that and know you'll always be in my heart."

She raised her whisky. "To you, mum and dad. I love you both."

She sipped her drink, and as she swallowed a mouthful of the peaty alcohol, the wind lifted the pages of diary once more. She read the first passage her eyes landed on.

_ When the stormy clouds follow us with the turbulent concert of thunder, know that the liberating rain will finally wipe away the tears from our eyes. _

Suddenly out of nowhere a fat blob of water droplet fell onto the page, and when she looked up, she realised for the first time the clouds had drifted to cover the sun. Grabbing her phone from her pocket, she sent a quick text to Geillis, letting her know she would be heading home soon. With a smile, she said goodbye to her parents and gathered her things before she could get caught in the rain.

..........

Claire fished around in her oversized handbag to find her purse as the taxi slowly came to a standstill. She was just pulling a few pound notes when her phone rang.

She groaned when she saw Geillis' name flashing on the screen. "Ah, blooming heck."

When she paid the driver, she answered the call as she struggled to climb out of the vehicle.

"Geillis, hey. Did you get my voice message? I'm sorry I missed my flight in Oxford, so I'm catching the next flight from London. Sorry I'll be late."

She stepped out onto the kerb and gasped. It started to rain hard. Again. Squealing, she ran for the nearest cover, glad she only had a duffle bag to haul.

"Yes, I got yer message but are ye fucking kidding me? How could ye have missed yer flight?"

She paused, took huge deep breaths before making a mad dash to terminal five. "Well, it started to rain unusually hard," she explained huffing. "The Airbnb owner offered to drive me to the airport, but his car broke down on the way, so I missed my flight in Oxford. The best next flight I could get was here in London."

"Yer uncle was very anxious and fidgety when I told him about yer voice message."

"Oh, well, that's to be expected. Uncle Lamb has never planned a birthday surprise before."

"Please make sure you get in the next plane."

"Wow, you're really into this surprise party for me. Who's anxious now?"

"Weel, I put in a lot of effort, so I don't want ye to muck it up."

"I'm so sorry if I sound like I'm taking this lightly, but I'm in a bit of rush here too. Thank God I've printed my boarding pass. I think I'm running a bit late."

"Claire! Don't ye bloody dare miss this flight too or I swear to God ..."

She was trying to walk past a big group when she slipped on the wet tiles. As she let out a scream, her phone and bag went flying in all directions, and she fell heavily on her bottom. When she tried to get up, she slipped again and this time landing on her knees. She grunted when she tried to get up.

"Oh, bugger, bugger!" she muttered, wincing as the pain shot up her leg.

People crowded around her, asking if she was alright as two men helped her up. Mumbling she was fine, she quickly grabbed her handbag, but when she picked up her phone, the screen was cracked. _ Bloody hell! Whatever next! _

"Claire? Hello? Are ye still there?"

"I can hear ye Geillis," she replied, straightening her coat and scarf.

"Hello? Hello? Claire? Ah fuck, she's gone. Probably ran out of battery again. I swear I'm going to kill her."

Realising Geillis couldn't hear a word she was saying, she stuffed her phone back into the pocket of her coat with a sigh of resignation. As the crowd dispersed to catch their own flights, she scanned the area once more in case she'd dropped something else. Satisfied she got everything, she limp-ran to the boarding gate and realised she was the last passenger to board that flight.

..........

By the time Claire made it out of the terminal in Edinburgh, it was already eight in the evening, and she was hungry, bruised, cold, and missing Jamie terribly. To make her discomfort worse, her clothes, still slightly damp from the rain earlier, hadn't dried properly during the flight. She'd tried to change them in the cramp plane's toilet, but too bruised and sore from her fall, she couldn't even manage to lift her leg into a pair of jeans. She still couldn't believe the string of bad luck she'd endured after visiting her parents' grave. Maybe that's what happened when you decide to celebrate your birthday on their death anniversary.

Claire had taken another sneak peek on the last passage she read from her mother's diary. As she reread them again and again, she took the meaning literally and surmised it was probably a warning of the impending rain. Shaking her head, she tamped down the absurd thoughts, scanned the arrivals and was relieved to see Geillis walking towards her.

"Oh my God, what happened to ye? Ye look like a drowned rat!"

Claire wanted to cry and collapsed into Geillis' arms but refrained herself from doing so, afraid of causing a scene. She'd had enough of that in London earlier, so instead, she quickly filled her friend in with the incidents that took place as they made their way to the bathroom so she could change into some fresh clothes. It took them half an hour to make her look decent, and by the time they were in Geillis car, she was ready for bed.

"Christ Geillis is there any chance we can do this birthday party tomorrow? I'm really bone-tired, and all I need right now is a bath and a warm bed."

"Oh no, you don't! A lot of thought has gone to preparing your birthday, so suck it up, princess." When Claire didn't reply, Geillis rummaged through her bag and got some paracetamol. "Here take this, this should take the pain from yer bumps and bruises," she said, handing her the painkillers and a bottle of water.

Grateful, Claire took the medicines and popped two tablets into her mouth. "Sorry for sounding selfish and ungrateful, but it's just that I'm a bit emotional after visiting my parents' grave and missing Jamie so much. I haven't even spoken to Jamie all day."

"Not Jamie's fault, hen. Even if he had a chance to call now, your phone is damaged anyway. Besides, he's busy rearranging the stars in heaven for ye." Geillis handed her a bandana. "Here put this over yer eyes. And make sure ye cannae see a thing."

Claire glared at her. When she saw Geillis was serious, she groaned. "Oh no, Geillis, please no! Do I have to? I promise I will look surprised when we get to wherever we're going. Besides, is this really necessary if there's only me, you, Joe and uncle Lamb?"

Geillis gave her a sympathetic look. "Look, just humour me, alright? I ken it's been a rough day, but I need ye to trust me on this one. Just remember, Lamby had his heart set on this."

It was no use arguing with Geillis when she had no fight in her left. Grumbling under her breath, Claire gave in and tied the bandana over her eyes. When she was done, Geillis checked if she'd done it right.

"Good lass," Geillis said, starting the car and guiding it out from the parking lot.

They rode in silence for the next few minutes, and with all the turns and roundabouts Geillis took, Claire gave up guessing where they were heading to. She was relieved when they finally stopped as she was beginning to feel nauseous. With Geillis' erratic driving and impatience with slow-moving vehicles, Claire's stress level had reached an all-time high by the time her friend turned off the ignition.

Geillis hurriedly got out of her side of the car and helped Claire. "Right, here we are! Mind yer steps, we dinnae want a repeat from the London incident."

"That wasn't funny," Claire scolded, grabbing Geillis' hand. She sniffed the air for some clues to their location, but the one thing that stood out most was the eery stillness of their surrounding. The only sound she could hear was the traffic from a distance. "Jesus, where are we?"

"Patience, lass," Geillis replied, tugging her hand and guiding her forward. "We'll get there soon enough."

They walked for several metres, and when they finally stopped, Claire heard keys jiggling, some electronic beeping sound followed by a heavy door opening. She knew they weren't anywhere near the city and certainly not in a residential building. As they shuffled in, the loud echo of their movements made her think of empty open spaces. "I hope this is not a slaughterhouse you're leading me to. You're mentally unstable enough to come up with something like that."

"Ach, ye're sense of drama never ceases to amaze me."

"And your sense of humour is sometimes sick."

Geillis laughed as she gently pushed Claire into the lift. "Not far to go! Take huge big deep breaths and just remember, no one is making any sick jokes on ye. This is yer day, and it's high time we do a bit of celebration ...Lamby style."

"I don't even have a clue what his style is, so whatever he's got in store for me, it'll definitely be a surprise, and I don't think I would need to pretend anything."

"No, I don't think so either." The lift pinged, and the door slid open with a whoosh. "Alright, this way, we're almost there."

"Oh dear, here we go," she mumbled.

They stepped out, walked some more and then stopped again. Claire heard another door opened and Geillis gently pushed her inside. She held her breath, her heart already near her throat, unsure what to expect next. She just hoped no one was going to jump on her and shout "surprise!" as she had a strong feeling her nerves wouldn't be able to take it after the day she'd already had. Before Claire knew what was happening, Geillis gave her a bear hug. "Happy Birthday, hen," she whispered, her voice suddenly laced with choked emotions. "Just enjoy this, okay? Soak it all in. Promise me."

Surprised at her friend's sudden change in demeanour, Claire could only embrace Geillis back, thinking uncle Lamb must have done something extraordinary to get her all worked up.

"Ye can take off the bandana now and open yer eyes," Geillis whispered.

Before Claire could respond, Geillis stepped back, and the door suddenly shut. _ Ah, hell! _ She whipped off the covering from her eyes and blinked. She was engulfed in darkness. But there was the distant soft glow of city lights coming from outside the window and other than that, she couldn't see a thing. "Hello? Anyone in here? Please don't shout and jump and scare the bejesus out of me, because if you do, I'm out of here."

Nothing. No response.

She carefully moved forward until her hands grasped the ledge of the window and squinted. It was too dark to see and decipher the place she was in. But one thing she was sure of, she was outside of Edinburgh as its silhouette and lights were visible from where she stood.

She heard a whirring sound, and then all of a sudden, brightness replaced the darkness outside, as floodlights illuminated a wide-open space of green. She gasped when she realised she was looking down at a rugby field. It was complete with covered stands, benches and team shelters and even the lines on the mowed field were freshly marked with white. On the far end was a gigantic white screen and surrounding the area were netting erected in place. Everything looked brand spanking new and fresh. It could only mean she was in Jamie's academy. Shaking her head, she laughed out loud. _ He's done it, my bloody Scot has gone and done it! _

Tears started to fall as pride for Jamie overflowed in bucket loads. She was about to grab her phone from the pocket of her coat, but she remembered it wasn't working. So instead she allowed herself to cry like a child, knowing how far Jamie had come and at what cost. This was what he'd always wanted and worked so hard for, and she couldn't be happier for him and what he'd accomplished.

"Why the tears, Sassenach? Don't ye like it?"

Her heart jumped out of her chest, and the moment she spun around, she heard something clicked, and the light in the room went on. Jamie was sat on an office desk, looking ruggedly handsome in his black shirt, faded jeans and a leather jacket, and sporting a week-old scruff.

"Jamie!" she breathed.

He beamed, and it's the most beautiful sight she'd ever seen. With her heart pumping madly, she took quick steps towards him and launched herself into his arms.

He laughed out loud as he caught her, lifting her against him and burying his face into the crook of her neck. "Mo chridhe," he murmured. "Christ, I've missed ye." He inhaled deeply, his lips warm and tantalising against her skin.

"Not as much as I've missed you," she whispered, raining kisses on his jawline. When they drew away, she looked into his eyes, all the restlessness from the past few days dissolving in the warmth of his body heat. "What are you doing here? I thought you were going to do a live interview."

His hands gripped her waist and leaned his forehead against hers. "I did have an interview, but it was done early this morning. The show featured it tonight as live even if it wasnae. I didnae want to miss yer birthday for anything, so we did a pre-recording."

"But when are you going back?" she asked, pulling back. "I love the fact you came here for my birthday, but does that mean you will be away longer because you came here today?"

He stroked her hair and kissed her forehead. "I've finished everything I needed to do." He gave her a lopsided grin, unable to hide his joy. "I did a lot of rescheduling as I didn't want to hang around and wait in between interviews and photocalls. I told them I have a lot of business obligations, so I managed to convince them to scramble their timetable for me."

Her eyes widened in surprise. "Really? So, that's it?" She smiled at him, happier than she could fully express. "No more public appearances?"

"Aye, that's it. The only interview I will entertain in the future will be for the academy." He brushed his lips against hers. "Oh, by the way, happy birthday, Sassenach!"

She linked her hands behind his neck. "Thank you. You being here is the best birthday gift ever and by the way too, congratulations on the completion of your academy. But how on earth did you do all of this so fast?"

"Weel, when I bought this sports complex, all the infrastructure were already here in place, and that helped a lot financially. It needed a lot of work done, and an additional extension to the building, but that wasnae much of a problem as Willie has a great construction team. The extension isnae quite finish yet though, but as ye saw, the field is complete. We are still waiting for some of the equipment for training and gym to arrive. But they're on their way. And this here ..." he waved a hand in the air. "...will be my office."

Claire looked around the spacious room, taking it all in for the first time since she came in. It was beautiful, masculine and fit for a rugby academy director. The whole space had been fitted out with rich dark wood, high-quality furnishings and the latest electronic gadget, including a massive TV on one wall. The exposed brick wall and the wide window overlooking the rugby field lent the room a more modern, twenty-first-century edge, without compromising practicality. It was simply too stunning for words.

Claire untangled herself from Jamie and walked over to the window. "This office reminds me of a private box in Murrayfield stadium. You have a bird's eye view of the whole field. As well as an uninterrupted panorama of Edinburgh."

"That's why I chose this space for my office." He stood behind her and pointed to the roof of the stand's cover. "And over there, Sassenach, is one of the spots where the sign and logo of the academy are going."

"Yes, I can see it already, Jamie," she whispered. "In big, bold, beautiful letters ...James Fraser Academy."

Jamie cleared his throat. "About that, Sassenach, I have something to show ye."

She turned around to face him and watched as he took out a bundle of folded papers from the inside of his jacket and placed it in her hand.

"What's this?"

He smiled nervously and nodded. "Take a look."

It was some sort of official document. Claire flicked through all the pages, skimming paragraphs as she went, but it was all legal jargon to her. "I don't understand, Jamie."

"Oh, sorry," he mumbled, his face turning red. "It's on the last page. Tell me what ye think."

There were only three sections on the page, and right at the bottom where Jamie's signature was supposed to be on the dotted line, was blank. Claire carefully read the words, and as the meaning behind them began to sink in, her heart started to race. Jamie had named his academy FRASER-BEAUCHAMP RUGBY ACADEMY.

She licked her lips and reread the page again, just to make sure she didn't misunderstand anything. "Jamie, but why ..." When she tore her gaze away from the paper, her heart stopped. Jamie was down on one knee in front of her, holding out her mother's engagement ring.

"Sassenach," he said gruffly. "I ken I do a lot of things poorly and a few things well. And when I'm with ye, I feel I can achieve anything and everything. Ye make me a better person, and I want to keep getting better with ye by my side. What I'm trying to say is, I want to spend the rest of my life with ye. I want to have babies with ye and grow old with ye. And if you agree to be my wife, what's mine will be yers, that's why I havenae signed that paper yer holding yet. And I swear as God is my witness, I will cherish ye with every fragment of my being each and every day until I draw my final breath." He swallowed audibly and whispered, "Claire Elizabeth Beauchamp, will ye marry me?"

She gasped. Every ounce of oxygen and emotion she felt for Jamie poured out of her with such incredible force, she couldn't stop the tears from streaming down her face. "Oh, Jamie ..." Her hand clapped over her mouth, stifling her cry.

"Sassenach?"

"Oh, this all too much."

He stood up and pulled her into his arms. "Sassenach, are ye upset because I asked ye to marry me?"

She shook her head and pressed her face against his chest, inhaling his clean, masculine smell. She was crying because they were two broken people when they first met, and despite all odds and their past, their pain had brought them together. It was the messiness of their histories that drove them, and the damage that came with it connected them at a soul level. The scars they carried were so deeply embedded they couldn't see them anymore but recognised them in each other. It would have been easy to wallow in bitterness and succumb to all the negative emotions, but somehow in understanding each other's hurt, they were able to heal and forgive their own shortcomings and give them the strength to have faith in love.

Jamie's hold tightened. "Please tell me those tears mean ye're saying yes. Because if it isnae, this would go down in history as the worse birthday present ever."

Taking a deep breath, she looked up at him and laughed through her tears. "Oh God, Jamie, yes, I want to marry you."

A single tear slid down Jamie's eye as he slid her mother's ring into her finger with trembling hands. And when he kissed her with so much reverence, it felt like they were kissing for the first time. As they gradually pulled away, he wiped the tears from her face. "Uncle Lamb gave me this ring to give to ye. He said this ring has been missing for a while and he found it a few weeks ago. Maybe it's a sign yer ma approves of me."

Claire laughed. "Oh, my mum and dad definitely approve. You don't need to worry about that."

"If ye dinnae approve of the ring, I can buy a new one. I cannae give ye my mother's because she's given it to Willie already."

"Oh, Jamie, this is perfect," she said, splaying her fingers out to admire the jewellery. It was a simple platinum Art Deco ring with two matching cut diamonds in a square frame. It had belonged to her father's mother.

"That's good then if ye think so," he grinned, putting on a pair of AirPods into his ears. "Now are ye ready for this?"

"What are you doing?"

Jamie didn't reply as he swiped a few times on his phone. When he shoved it back into his pocket, he smiled at her and pulled her into his arms. "I want everyone that matters to know that ye said yes. So, Sassenach, ye really do want to marry me?"

"Yes, Jamie, I want to marry you. I have the ring on now, don't I?"

A sudden loud roar of cheers came from the TV, and when she turned around, she was stunned to see Jamie's family, uncle Lamb, Joe and Geillis applauding and cheering on the screen.

"Oh, my God, so this is the surprise," she whispered, more to her herself than to Jamie.

While more shouts of congratulations and good wishes followed, Uncle Lamb's face filled up the TV screen. "Well, what are you both waiting for?" he grumbled into the camera, his face comically up too close. "Everyone is starving. Show us a kiss and come down here and let's celebrate."

Jamie and Claire both laughed and obliged their family and friends. When they got carried away kissing, another uproar ensued reminding them of where they were. With hesitation but with laughter, they untangled themselves from each other's embrace and left Jamie's office, heading down to what would one day be the cafeteria.

But before they entered, Jamie stopped her and pulled her into his arms once again. "Thank ye for choosing me, Sassenach. I still cannae believe I get to call ye my fiancee. But please, let's not make this a long engagement because I cannae wait to start our life together and start calling ye my wife."

She smiled up at him. "I don't want a long engagement neither nor do I want it all over the papers, nor do I wish for a fancy wedding. If ye want we can get married tomorrow."

Jamie shook his head. "Now, Sassenach, dinnae be silly. I want a proper wedding, and I want to see ye walking the aisle in yer dress. I'm gonnae get married only once, and I want to do this right."

"Fine, now kiss me before everyone starts looking for us."

"I love ye," he whispered before he lowered his head to kiss her.

"And I love you too," she murmured against his lips.

When Jamie's phone started to beep, they both groaned in despair.

"Come, Sassenach, we have a double celebration coming up, and everyone has been waiting for hours.."

With smiles in their faces and hearts, they entered the room to the cheers of their love ones.

As they walked hand in hand, Claire realised that loving Jamie will never cease to amaze her. He was like thunder and the gentle rain that follows. He was both fire and balm to her soul. There was no doubt there will be heartaches and pain along the way, but they've seen each other's mess and brokenness, and they still loved each other and came out stronger. She used to think it was fate when he caught her fall from the church window. But now, after all the twist and turns they'd been through, she believed fate is what one makes out of it - you get the love you fight for and the one you think you deserve. Their destiny was to nurture that love and keep reminding themselves, that whatever life throws at them, they will always find their way to each other.

[kajaono]

hi so I saw you reblogging so much of (different) sherlock stuff. where is it all from and how gay is everything if u dont mind me asking? :D have a good day/night (:

Updated version: 27.11.2024

Hey nonny, thank you for asking. I guess you allready know BBC Sherlock so i skip that and come straight gay to other stuff.

1. The The Furtive Festivity. It is a Johnlock comedy short movie that was produced during the bbc sherlock season 4 aftermath (seaosn 4 aftermath = fans who didn't liked the idea of canon Johnlock said that IF we want a canon Johnlock we should do it ourselves. So the heros of @sherlockppu started a crowdfunding page and made this short movie). It is about John who trys to organize a surprise party for Sherlock. It is really funny, full of heart, unapologetic gay and has a super soft ending. It can be watched for free on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQaoCdh7q6I

2. CBS Elementary. It had the bad luck to be released during the second season of BBC Sherlock. So many people ignored it and/or gave it a lot of hate. It is not justified imo. Like BBC Sherlock it plays in modern times, but it plays in modern NY. Sherlock is a tattooed ex junkie (still british) who just got dischared from a rehab center and Joan is an chinese woman. She is an ex doctor and now should help Sherlock for six weeks to get back into his regular life, find a job again, stay clean and go to therapy. Even with those changes is a really briliant adaptation that stays really true to the orginial stories. It is super nerdy, the humor is on point, the cases are really clever and the show cares deeply for its characters. It is also really diverse. For a whole season Sherlock is dating a disabled woman, mental illnesses are a topic, Sherlocks drug use is topic in every season, lgbt people get mentioned really often and appearing often as side characters. Sadly noone of the main cast is queer but the possibility is allways discussed. Actually the sexuality of the whole main cast, expecially of Joan Watson and Marcus Bell, are left open and there are a lot of nice shipping options in the show that the writers deeply care for: male/male, female/male, female/female as well as an OT3. I would highly recommend to check it out. It is my favorite adaptation. The last epsiode is aired tonight. The show is closed in seven seasons. I can not say how season 7 final is, but orginially season 6 was planned as the final and it is an awesome final season that gives you everthing you want and more.

Edit: Season 7 is absolut amazing. Reichenbach happens, no shock value ending. No force straight relationship. Untraditional family bounds. The ending is honoring the relationships of the characters and the growth they archieved. This show is amazing. Please watch it (many shows can still learn from this ending).

Edit 2: After I asked one of the Elementary writers (Robert Hewitt Wolfe) here on tumblr about the queer undertones he confirmed that Sherlock - in this adaptation - is definitly implied to be queer (Longest yay ever!) He also confirmed that Sherlock - in this adaptation - is basically neurodivergent.

Proof:

3. RDJ Sherlock Holmes. The movies with RDJ and Jude Law are focusing more on Sherlock nature as a fighter then on his deduction skills. Nevertheless they are also really clever written and i like how Guy Ritchie is filming his stories. There are two movie, a third one will be released decemeber 2021. The first movie is named “Sherlock Holmes” and focus on a more fictive case that is not discussed in the orginial ACD books. While the second movie focuses on the Moriaty case and stays more true to the ACD canon. The relationship between John and Watson is really queer, especially in the second movie. Sure it is still a Hollywood movie so Sherlock is dating Irene, but a kiss between Sherlock and a woman that you can see in the trailer was cut from the final movie and instead we got a Sherlock and John dancing scene. (In the second movie: A game of shadows.”). Jude Law himself describes the movie as a rom com. I would also recommend you to check them out. They are on Netflix. Also the humor is great and costumes are a dream.

4. Granada Sherlock Holmes. That is a TV show that was released 1984 and actually retells all of the orginal stories 1:1. With a few changes. John never marries Mary and the personal life of John and Sherlock gets more fleshed out. Jeremy Brett who is playing Sherlock Holmes is really close to how i imagined ACD Sherlock Holmes. John Watson is not portrayed as dumb side kick like other adaptations did back then but as a clever fellow. Of course because of the time it is only subtextual queer but due to the performance of the main actors they are really shipable. Jeremy Brett the actor of Sherlock was bisexual in real life and said such golorious things as “If it cheers up the gays, I’m thrilled“

5. the private life of sherlock holmes. The movie was released 1970. I do not know if I can highly recommend it but the author wrote Sherlock as a closet gay man in this adapatation and if you are a fan of BBC sherlock you will find a lot of similarities. Because the writers of BBC sherlock based their TV show on this movie. Nevertheless there are some great queer scene. For example where Sherlock refuse to impregnate a woman by saying that he and John are in a loving relationship. You can also find that scene on Youtube if you are interested in that.

6. Miss Sherlock. A TV show from HBO asia where both Shelrock and John are japense woman. While the first case is really disappoiting imo it gets a lot better in the later epsiodes. I only have watched the first three epsiode (because i am from germany and i do not like to stream illegal) but from what i saw it is a really promising show. John and Sherlock are of course really shippable again. What of course gets a really great new dynamic with both of them being women. Some who watched the last epsiode even go so far to say that Johnlock is canon in this adaptation. I can neither confirm nor deny that.

Edit: I have now watched all epsiodes and I can tell you that this adaption has the most well written Reichenbach ending I have ever seen. First, does the show levels up from a really mediocre first epsiode to a breathtaking final epsiode it. Second, while a few elements in the final epsiodes are copied from BBC Sherlock they are 100% better written, so clever and so well crafted. Also I now understand why people say that Watolock is canon here. I do not want to spoil to much but at the end Wato has to choose between her boyfriend and Sherlock. The rest is obvious, isn‘t it

7. Gosick. Also a japense adaptation. In this case as an anime and as books. I only read the books. In this adaptation Sherlock is a teenage girl with long blond hair who lives in the higest room of an old library in a school for rich kids. John is a teenage boy who comes from Japan and got an internship at this school because his brothers and his father are army members. John himself is not really a soilder but he does his best. He and Sherlock (Victorique) are solving cases in 9 different novels. There is nothing queer about this adaptation but i love how well written the cases are and that unlike other young Sherlock novels John does not gets ereased. Appreantly there are also sequel novels but i can not tell you something about.

8. House md. An medial/hospital AU where both John and Sherlock are sucessful doctors. Sherlock (Gregory House) has a drug addiction, is really arrogant but allways gets soft when he is around his Watson (James Wilson). All in all it is more clever written hospital show, but it never forgets its orginis (House is living in 221B, Irene Adler gets mentioned and in the last season Reichenbach happens). And i can spoil you so much. It takes you a time to ship House and Wilson but later they move in a house together, propose to eachother (”as a joke” sure jan..) and they drive into the sunset together at the end. Also pay attention to the music soundtracks. Most of what is left unsaid is told by the soundtracks. The show is closed in 8 seasons.

9. Enola Holmes - Books.  The books are about a fictive young sister for Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes who is solving cases on her own. The stories are still set in 1900. I only have read the first four novels so far. Now, 2024, there are nine Enola Holmes books.

There is nothing queer about the first novel. Sadly, John does not even appear in the first novel and imo the author gets a few things wrong about how Sherlock thinks about women. But the book is surprisingly feministic for a teen novel. Being a woman in Victorian era gets used as a weapon here in a way you wouldn’t expected. Ther first novel does not even has 200 pages but is a good read if your want a well crafted young teen book with a strong female lead.

Edit 1: I have now read novel 1 to 4 and until now there was only one Johnlock moment. At the end of the third book Johnlock gets their own short chapter. Nothing queer… just really soft (I am not complaining). On the other hand, Enola has a “friend”, a young lady that she constantly needs to save from trouble, Lady Cecily. They are not girlfriends, but really shipable in a very cute ‘first teenage love’ way. When Enola thinks about her (and she does that really often) she calls her “my missunderstood lady”. Especially the fourth novel turned out really queer in general, with all being subtext and probably not intended by the author herself.

Edit 2: I now have read book 1 to 8. The books are still not queer but Nancy Springer (the author) said she is okay with every interpretation we might have of Enola and her love life, she just won't give Enola a romantic relarionship, neither male nor female. (She is actually really angry at the movies for making Enola fall in love with a boy, lol). Still nothing queer between Holmes and Watson, but the Enola/Cecily relationship keeps on going strong. Go lesians! (not canon).,

I can highly recommend the books!

9. Enole Holmes - two movies. Based on the Enola Holmes book series a movie was released 2020 with Henry Cavil as Sherlock and Millie Bobby Brown as his young sister Enola. The movie adapts the first book but does not really sticks to its orginial plot. Many things get changed. That does not mean it is a bad movie but many motives seem really poorly explained in the movie, when you compare it with the book. A really MAJOR change happens in the movie: Enola falls in love with a boy what NEVER happens in the books (she is more attracted to girls, see above). So there is nothing queer about the movie. Also because Cavill!Sherlock does not meet his John yet. There are one or two nice gay panic scenes for Sherlock nevertheless.

Edit: the second movie was released recently. Sadly it is still really heterosexual and has nothing to do with the books anymore. I really enjoyed the second movie nevertheless. And we finally got our John! Sadly he is only appears at the end of the movie and only for a few seconds but he exchanges some really soft smiles with Sherlock. So I am really hyped for a potential third movie, hopefully with more John watson content!

10. The Irregulars - TV Show. The Irregulars is a TV-show that was released on Netflix 2021 and has one season so far. I actually do not think the official description of Netflix is really accurate so i will choose another one. The Irregulars is about Sherlock Holmes who lost control over his drug use so John Watson is engaging a gang of street kids to solve crimes for him, and like that tries save his and Sherlocks reputation. The Baker Street Irregulars were allready featured in the orginial novels by ACD. Allready here they helped Holmes to solve cases from time to time. The Irregulars (the show) mostly focuses on the cases the gang has to solve. They have a supernatural twist. John and Sherlock are more supporting characters, but nevertheless center of the story. Is it gay? Yes, definitly. Slight Spoilers ahead. Beware. In this adaptation John is a) a man of color and b) gay. He is confirmed - in the show - in love with Sherlock. He admits it multiple times and he has to face no homophobia for it. Also some background characters are gay and dance, kiss and cuddle at the birthday party of the prince of Endland. On the other hand Sherlock is really straight in this adaptation. And not in the way Elementary is straight with a few sex scenes and a girlfriend. But straight straight. So there is no canon Johnlock in this adaptation…. yet?  All in all this adaptation is really tragic so noone is happy in the end. Nevertheless it allready holds a special place in my heart. Not only because it is the major Sherlock Holmes adaptation where John is canonly gay. But also because this show straight- and queerbaits the audience in the most beautiful way possible. Some people say the show gets Sherlocks and John personality completly wrong but i would argue in its weird twisted it gets them better then any other adaptation i have seen so far. “Sherlock Holmes i not the work of one man, but of two.” And Royce (John Watson) is doing the most jealous, heartbreaking, love puppy faces i have ever seen. This man has an acting range. It blows me away. The only downside, especially the first three eps are really bad written, but it gets better and there is a lot of potential to develop. (i will add a better picture of these two cuties as soon as i find one)

11. BBC Sherlock - closed in 4 seasons. It was brought to my attention that many people haven’t watched BBC Sherlock these days, or never finished it. So i am finally adding BBC Sherlock here as well. It plays in modern London and every episode is 90 minutes long. But every season has only three episodes. It doesn’t really has an overall plot but more focus on the overall cases. Nevertheless Moriaty is allways in the focus of the story. Sadly I can not say it is gay. But it is great at queerbaiting. So good that even the official BBC3 twitter channel posted Johnlock shipping posts… but they never become canon in this adaptation. Also neither John nor Sherlock are confirmed queer. The show heavily plays with the idea of them being a couple without actually ever going there. John even asked Sherlock if he has a boyfriend when they first meet. But actually the close relationship they have is allways played for jokes. There are some gay side characters but all of them turn out to be evil. Nevertheless season 1 to 3 and TAB are really well written and worth a look. Season 4 is a mess full of plotholes and abonding every chemistry these two shared in favor of a straight ending.

12: Sherlock Hound - closed in two seasons.

Sherlock Hound is an anime, done by Studio Ghibli, directed by Hayao Miyazaki (Totoro etc.). It is about Holmes and Watson who happen to be dogs, in a universe where everyone is a dog. The episodes are around 25 minutes long each, and always feature one closed case. It is always Moriarty and his gang vs. Holmes/Watson. There are many throwbacks to the original ACD books, which is really lovely. Sometimes the easter eggs are hidden, sometimes they are really obvious. I only have watched the first 8 cases but so far the show is a lot of fun because every character is treated with respect, especially John. He is not the dumb side kick but a best and caring friend. So there are many soft scenes between him and Holmes. Even though it is not "gay" it is still cute to watch, especially when you enjoy a well written Holmes/Watson dynamic. But they both seem to be attracted to Mrs. Hudson? Thats what i am still really confused about. I will keep you updated.

13. Sherlock & Co - season 1 still running

Sherlock & Co is podcast, currently running on Spotify and everywhere where you can listen to podcasts. Its about John who just returned from the Ukraine, wounded and jobless. And of course he ends up in 221B together with Holmes. And they start solving cases together. The twist, John is a podcaster in this one. So he always speaks directly, to us, the audience. So its an audio book, pretending to be a podcast. Its a lot of fun. John is an akward nerd in this one, suffering from PTSD, and Sherlock has canon autism, among other diagnoses. The cases are always split in two or three parts, between 20 to 30 minutes long. Is it gay? Well.... we don't know that yet. They made Victor Trevor gay, which is big thumb ups from me, and the authors are aware of Johnlock. But if they will go there eventually? Only time will tell.

Edit: So the author of Sherlock & Co has spoken about Johnlock in their adaptation. So far, they don't want to do it:

Nevertheless he used the same tweet to imply that their Sherlock might be queer:

If we get something canon inside the podcast itself... nobody knows. Again, only time will tell

Edit: Regarding the One year anniversary of the podcast Joel has now confirmed Sherlock as queer in the one year anniversary Q&A on Youtube:

So far Sherlock is not confirmed as queer in the show itself.

Update: We got that quote in The Sign of Four, Part 4. I think it is still not a 100% confirmed but we are moving closer:

14. The Great Mouse Detective - movie

Thats a Disney movie from 1986. Sherlock and Watson are mice, living under 221B. Watson just returned from Afghanistan and is looking for a flat. He runs into a little crying girl. Her father got kidnapped by Moriarty. They go to Sherlock and together they solve the case. Its a great fun movie but also super unhinged. It has some really scary scenes, considering its a kids movie. BBC Sherlock might call himself a drama queen. THIS Sherlock here is the real drama queen. Its unbelievable. But also really funny of course. Him and Watson are really soft, Sherlock cares deeply for Watson and its really sad when he wants to leave again eventually. Nothing gay of course but a well written Holmes/Watson relationship.

15. The hound of the baskervilles 2002/The case of silk Stocking

These two are TV movies, aired 2002 and 2004. The connecting element is Ian Hart as John Watson. The actor of Sherlock Holmes gets changes in the second movie:

Both Holmes aren't good options imo, but Ian Hart as John Watson is a dream. The first movie focuses A LOT on Watson. The second one.. not so much. Is it gay? Well... it is compliacted. The first one has a really interesting take on the Holmes/Watson relationship, opening the movie with Holmes and Watson in a turkish bath, and them sharing a deep bound and many emotional scenes together. I personally read those scenes as queer (even though they were probably never meant like this). Watson has a really active part in the relationship. Setting boundraies and telling Holmes what to do and not to do. The first movie ends with Holmes asking Watson out on a date. The second movie? Gives Watson a random book non-accuarte love interest, and mostly ignores him. In the end Watson marries and leaves Holmes behind, featuring the iconic line: "“For me,” said Sherlock Holmes, “there still remains the cocaine-bottle.” And he stretched his long white hand up for it." So there are some queer undertones and i really think they were intentional (like Holmes being featured on the wedding photo) but all in all it is not queer.

16. Asylum Sherlock Holmes aka the one with the dino

Let us get one thing straight: This is a trash movie with no budget and it is absolutly aware of it. Nevertheless the actors carry the whole movie on their shoulder.. in just one oufit and a vest that is too short. While they battle a dinosaure... idk what else to tell you about this movie... But you are here for the important stuff. Is it gay? Surprisingly... yes?! Yes it is. Of course not out and proud. But Holmes and Watson nearly kiss? I nearly fall from my chair when it happened. There wasn't even a #nohomo! They nearly kissed (at this point Gareth David-Lloyd had already made out with JB in Torchwood so he is definitly open to kiss men). And then the movie just wents on. In the finale, after the battle is over and the big bad is dead (and no, its not the dino) they just stand there, look at each other: "Holmes...." then they nod, leaving A LOT of things unsaid and return to their home, 221B. This movie also has a really affectionate Holmes who touches his Watson a lot, who rushes to Watson once he is hurt, begging Watson not to give him drugs against the pain calling him "a bad bad man", also a lot of banter. Yeah it is a trash movie, yeah it has no budget, there isn't even a T-Rex in it, the poster is a complete lie... and still. My babies!

17. Sherlock Holmes 2002 - a case of evil (with James D'arcy)

Again a TV movie... what even is the plot of this movie? Holmes against evil drug dealing Moriarty? Idk honestly this movies goes in circles and circles. And Holmes has a lot of sex with women. The movie breaks with a lot of Sherlock Holmes rules on purpose and completly fails. Like Sherock not smoking a pipe but smoking exclusively cigarettes, or him not shaking Watsons hand when they meet for the first time so he can not deduce him ('afghanistan or iraq?') Its not good... nevertheless James D'arcy is a really enjoyable Sherlock Holmes who just nails the Holmes-look. A shame he was wasted like this. I think the potrayal of Watson is really interesting here. He is really bossy but never in an annoying way and he just moves into 221B without even asking Holmes. He takes care of his Holmes and they work really well together. Even with his 'odd' look (see below) he grew on me. But is gay? Not at all. If you squint really hard this Holmes got himself a top and a sugar daddy... but... no. Just don't watch this movie.

Upcoming: CBS Watson A medical drama, focusing on Watson who is working in a hospital. At this point Holmes already got killed by Moriarty. This is everything we know so fat. Watson will be played by Morriss Chestnut. It is written by the CBS Elemenetary writing team

Upcoming: Young Sherlock

Written by Guy Ritchie, it focus on the Young Sherlock Holmes, based on the Young Sherlock Holmes novels by Andrew Lane. It will have Hero Fiennes Tiffin in the main role as Young Sherlock.

So that should be all for the beginning. I hope that helped. If you want more detailed information on one of the show feel free to contact me again.

It could be that i forget a show. In this case i will add it later. 

And at my fellow Sherlockians feel free to add Russian Sherlock or Rathbone Sherlock or any other adaptation i haven’t watched yet.

[the-firebird69]

These are great ideas and they're awesome okay and they really work and people are really intense about it and they wanted kids involved they want all these motorcycles so they spending and we have a safer electric motorcycle but they want the ones that are here so they can train and they say not the exact same cuz it won't be sitting on the gas tank and stuff it's rare because they pressurize usually the have a relief well have a relief hole in the top and it's not that bad but we do have that too and the collapsible ones and the light cycles and a safer and they build better and they said wow this is practically what we use cuz we have things that are close to and they said the ones that he's got for the top level light cycle are practically what we have and we said there's a good reason for that and he's the inventor years ago and they start to ponder what's going on you want to get there and they have to and we're making it almost mandatory we have a system now and everybody's joining up and everybody wants everybody to join up too and not to leave anyone behind and she's probably had that to credo we won't leave any of us behind and we're going to go ahead and put that on there and it's only a little but we get it. It's like toys for you get good at it and people get good at toys and they have fun with them and it's a good time and we have competitions and chess matches and three dimensional chess matches and checkers and all sorts of things Rubik's cube you should see something he invented this while he was there and there's the one that's the shapes it's going I sucked at it for a while and it's mine and tons of people thought that was the funniest thing I've seen then they saw you solve it a few times and they got mad and they said he invented them and he has puzzle boxes and the puzzle box that he invented is the one that's in hellraiser and there are many replicas and one of those pretty close and it's by Tommy f it's because he's studying it and he's trying to make he's trying to break the code and he won't let people see it or use it but there are other replicas it's a real puzzle box and he learned the art of it from his father in Japan and his father in China and they taught him personally and his wife was taught by her side and the woman and he said what about our side of the women and when they teach the wife and that's her so the other men taught him too and they're different and he got better at it he said look at this and he made a wicked one and these things really are awesome you should see how awesome these things are takes a while to remember it. He's making a joke or Chastity development require a hellraiser key.

I'm going to get my Santa Claus stuff on I'm going to do this and get this program going for children too little children and they'll see their big brothers and sisters driving in patrol and they have little patrol cars and radio stuff CBS

Thor Freya

I'm going to get into this this sounds way too rich and way too much fun

Uriel and Goddess Wife

You have all the uniforms and we're ready to do it and for here and for children it's crazy they're going to go nuts this is going to be insane and they'll have rank and you insisted and it's a good idea

Posieden and Goddess Wife

No that can't be true it is you have to be kidding me we have our area and there's a lot of Europe here this is insanity it's going to be absolutely out of control and our stuff is a little more real than America used to be at least as soon as it stops pretty cool and here we go another idea this is intense

Salazaar and Goddess Wife

Olympus

[choisanii]

hi there, darling! i am doing a social experiment, can you list and tag your friends on tumblr? you can say something nice about them to spread positivity too, but it's optional! i hope you have a lovely day! ✨

aww this is so cute :’)) i joined atinyblr not long ago so i don’t regularly talk to a lot of ppl (yet) so i’ll also tag a few moots i’d definitely like to talk to more in the future! but first

@sanshine biba.... one of my very first moots on atinyblr.... i’m so glad you dmed me just to say hi bc it sparked a beautiful friendship!! thank you for always being there to scream with me abt san and the rest of ateez and i absolutely love watching vids with you online (we need to do that again soon!!) bc it’s just truly clown and simping central but in the best way possible 😤😤 your gifs are always so nice and i hope you’re feeling as if you found your place here bc we all love and appreciate you so much. love you lots you’re the sweetest angel ever mwah 💖

@jonghours aka my fellow clown and theory buddy 😔✊🏻 we’ve talked pretty much every day for the past few weeks and there is no one else i’d rather work thru theories with!! your huge galaxy brain stuns me all the time and i’m so glad we’ve been able to bounce ideas off of each other but also have our matching clown wigs at the ready when ateez goes in a completely different direction than we thought 😤😤 i’m so ready to clown w u this cb and hopefully future cbs as we discover more abt the ateez universe!! ur the best and ilysm 💖

@chwejongho iri where the heck do i even start like we have truly been thru it all from debut stay tumblr and now atinyblr 2 years later i’m so glad i came back and we were able to pretty much pick up from where we left off!! thank u for indulging in my yelling abt san and your love for woojong is just the absolute cutest. your gifs are always stunning you are truly a giffing QUEEN and i promise i’m going to get into victon soon so we can yell abt that too!! i am SO ready for this cb it’s going to be absolute chaos but of the best kind and we will clown hard together 😤😤 you’re an amazing person and such a light on this hellsite i love u so much MWAH 💖💝💞💗💓💘💕

@jonghc amanda you are truly one of the goddamn funniest ppl on this hell site and i have absolutely loved talking to you (albeit a little sporadically lmao)!! your gemini vibes are immaculate and your taste is mwah and i literally cry laughing whenever i read your tags and you seem to have such a wise and mature view on things (something i really admire about you) and hopefully we’ll be able to talk more in the future!! lots of love you’re the best 💖

@sanchoi lu... my fellow san s*mp as well as another galaxy brained ateez theorist 😤😤 we haven’t talked regularly but every time we do i feel like i just relate to u on such a spiritual level lmao like truly we are kindred souls 😔 your gifs are always so beautiful (your coloring especially is just *chefs kiss* mwah) and i’m always inspired by your work!! you keep doing you bc you’re awesome and i hope we’ll get to talk more in the future!! 💖

some other amazing moots who i’d love to talk to more often but i’m shy and bad at socializing alsjdjdj: @anewz @park-seonghwa @choi-san @choisanful @ateezgf @hongjooong @songmingki @jaeyounqz 💖💖💖

[offerappa]

Earn Money Online Best Tips of 2020

Super Affiliate System 3.0 [2020] Review and Bonus

Every affiliate marketer wants a course that can guide them by the hand and show them exactly what to do to be successful. The sad truth is, quality courses are hard to find. You can spend hundreds to thousands on cheap courses that teach you a bunch of fluff with little to no substance. John Crestani’s Super Affiliate System 3.0 is a breath of fresh air.

Before we dive into this review, I wanted to share some proof that I have earned an affiliate income myself! Below is a snapshot of some commissions I earned back in June of 2018. The sale was part of a payment plan, so I have netted close to $1,500 USD just from that sale alone!

And Moad here went from zero to +$3,000.00 in just 2 short weeks!

Click here if you are ready to get registered for the live [FREE] webinar!

What is Super Affiliate System 3.0?

Obviously, you have probably figured out that the Super Affiliate System has been updated more than once. That is a good thing for two reasons:

The course MUST have been successful in the past.

You can be sure that the course material is up-to-date and you are not spending your hard-earned money on outdated strategies.

You can be sure that the course material is up-to-date and you are not spending your hard-earned money on outdated strategies.

Super Affiliate System 3.0 is a detailed course on affiliate marketing. The course was created by John Crestani after he experienced massive success as a super affiliate. By massive success, I mean over $100k-per-month success. Now, I know the phrase, “super affiliate” gets thrown around A LOT in too many courses nowadays, but in Super Affiliate System 2.0, you get the foundation that makes that kind of success possible.

Super Affiliate System 3.0 has been revamped and condensed from 12 weeks to just 6 weeks. The training is MUCH more streamlined and productive than the previous stuff.

Additionally, you get the Internet Jetset system thrown into the online training, which is a standalone course all about free marketing strategies. Newbies can start with Internet Jetset and move on to Super Affiliate System 3.0 once they’ve mastered Internet Jetset to really catapult their income!

This system is a full-scale paid traffic business model for pretty much any of the main traffic sources you prefer. You can choose to master one… or master them all.

Who is this John Crestani?

Crestani is a world-renowned affiliate marketer. Since his meager beginnings in 2009 with no direction in his life, he has created a $500k-per-month affiliate marketing empire he can literally scale on demand.

It all started with the book, “4-Hour Workweek,” by Timothy Ferriss. He thought the idea of building passive income with affiliate marketing sounded “freaking awesome” and set his mind to doing just that.

He pretty much read the book, then proceeded to knock it out of the park (ahem, Bryce Harper)!

Crestani has been featured in the media for his story and ideas. Here are a few articles to check out in your free time:

How A 28-Year-Old Got Fired Then Built A $500K-A-Month Business While Traveling The World

Millenial Mogul Turns Clicks To Cash

Fox TV Interview With Crestani

CBS Interview regarding Internet Jetset

You’d think all of this media attention would go straight to his head, but he remains humble and passionate about helping others succeed. Who wouldn’t want to learn from someone who earns $500,000 a month while living the dream?

What Will I Learn In Super Affiliate System 3.0?

The Super Affiliate System 3.0 is more catered towards the seasoned affiliate marketer, but since the course was revamped in 2019, the training (and resource section) make this course a must-have, whether you are a beginner or expert marketer. Originally, you would buy Internet Jetset for $47 and get offered 3 different pricey OTO’s (including the original Super Affiliate System).

Click here if you are ready to get registered for the live [FREE] webinar!

Visit  OfferAppa.com For More Detail.