#so all these guys probably had normal names and he’s gonna ?? maybe have to resurrect them?

[xoshepard]

the initials in john’s stories do match the lyctors’ and their cavaliers’ initials so i’ve been assuming that’s who this is about but also when mercy and augustine call john out about perfect lyctorhood their whole thing about the eyes sounds like sleuthing rather than an accusation based on their memories

however, he is naming two of the bodies names that a lyctor/cavalier pair have so who knows. cant wait to see how this goes

[bestbonnist]

Chapter 168.1

Now that we know that the people who picked the doll and Kanitarou up are friendly and just happened to see them, that means that the person who was chasing them in the last chapter was someone else. Probably the guy from Chapter 167.1. And probably gonna track the doll to where she's currently hiding out.

Two things. One: we can see a bit of a scar on the mechanic's nose that matches the one on Kai's. The mechanic being amiable with the doll while maintaining a wariness towards her is also a very Kai thing to do. He's very observant. I think at this point he's older than he usually appears once resurrected, and judging from the apparent ages that we saw on their wanted signs, I'm guessing they were freshly resurrected a few years ago.

Second thing: Kai's probably referring to the Beholder/Satoru when he talks about someone who wanted to become human, and not Fushi. Because Fushi's never described themselves as human or discussed their desire to be human after the Takunaha arc. Satoru, on the other hand, was very upfront about wanting to be human, and Kai was there when Messar insinuated that the Beholder wished he was mortal.

I really like that Kai and Eko have both become mechanics. Or Eko has become a mechanic and Kai is her assistant, it's a bit unclear. It's so nice seeing Eko having something that she's passionate about, and that her dream of being able to communicate her thoughts to others has been fulfilled without her having to sacrifice an important part of her identity. And Kai is a blacksmith, so he knows a bit about working with metal and maybe that translates over to engineering somehow? I don't know.

A few notes about this part of the chapter: first, the script that hasn't been translated (because Ooima made it up) says the same thing that appeared in Chapter 166.2 before the doll's flashback.

The only difference is that the percentage that's been restored is marginally higher.

In the original Japanese, the text for the dialogue is in a specific font that's only been used for the person with the blindfold. I've included the raws for comparison.

And finally, the pill is the same one that was around their neck.

Based on the evidence, we can conclude that the doll's "self-identification system" is for her memories, we'll get a flashback every time a bit more of that system is restored, and the pill was an essential part of the process of making her human. We'll probably get the full story when the system reaches one hundred percent, but at the rate we're going it's gonna be a while.

Kai says earlier in the chapter that the mud only responds to human brainwaves specifically and on the final page we see the doll controlling it. df;dfa;dafslkadfs;dasflkj NICE.

How the doll has brain waves and no brain is a bit of a mystery, but the point is that they're implying that it's human already and just stuck in a different form. Which :\ is part of the mystery I guess, clearly the doll has a past involving efforts to become human that it can't remember. I don't love the idea of its backstory being "well, it's not a normal doll, it's a special doll that was secretly human all along." I'm hoping we get something else, because I think the doll being a piece of technology who's human anyways is more in line with what the manga's had to say about humanity so far. Like, maybe experimenting to make it human failed, or the experiment was just to make a program that thinks it's human, because thinking you're human = actually being human. I would imagine that learning that would really fuck the doll up, because in that case everything it's been trying to do in the name of proving that it's human was just more proof that it's not. And that's what I would do if I were Ooima because she loves to think of the worst possible thing that would happen to a character and then do that (compliment).

Still, no matter what the doll's backstory turns out to be, I'll be into it as long as it adds more layers to her character and to the story. Which it will because this is Ooima we're talking about :)

[kafkaoftherubble]

Ooooooh. Conspiracy abounds!

I have never pursued the line of thoughts where Abel was a clone before, so this is incredibly intriguing! I just assumed Abel was born through normal means by Anton's parents before being dumped because he's a Lacking (or maybe they had their own complicated reasons beyond "he's a Lacking!". Maybe it's against Kaibara law to have a naturally-born child?), and then returned only after Abel supposedly had a tagchip implanted (supposedly, because judging from how Abel couldn't answer the stupid non-sequitur questions despite drinking Peach-flavored Memory Water, bro didn't actually have it implanted).

There's also a possibility that Anton's parents aren't necessarily Abel's birth parents; they simply wanted to adopt Abel for their own reasons. Maybe they felt bad for Abel after seeing him one time? It's all speculation for now.

If Abel was a clone, that would be quite fascinating! One of Doll's flashbacks showed Abel in a lab-like facility or was at least within 32's vicinity. 32 was already told to us readers that she's (1) a Mizuha clone, and (2) restricted to the highest level in this society. This limitation certainly lends credence to Abel being some sort of clone or experiment because 32 and Abel might have met each other there.

For now, I'm gonna hold onto the idea that Abel was born through normal means and was near 32 for some other reasons than because he was a sort of clone... just because each hypothesis needs a principle proponent! You'll be the proponent for the Clone Hypothesis! I'll be the proponent for the Normal Birth But There For Other Reason Hypothesis! That makes speculation for future chapters fun!!!

--

Yo, ditto on that Biblical name thing!

Though I kinda thought the brother here alludes to Anton. I mean, judging from Anton's naivete and temper, I think it's well within the realm of possibility for him to kill Abel by accident. This is especially true when we remember that Abel is a Lacking and is therefore only as durable as we normies are (I mean, he's also really buff like a gym bro, but he ain't no-selling Anton's souped-up punches any time. Remember that bounty hunter guy who lost his tag chips? 'Member what happened after he rightfully called Anton out for being a baby?).

I don't think Anton realized Abel is a Lacking. In fact, it's likely that few do, because Abel passes himself pretty well as a Tagged. It took Fushi, who can supernaturally sensed pain and pleasure, to see through this lie Abel had probably concocted for his whole life.

But hey, if Fushi managed to Yuuki'd into Abel's life, Abel could very well be resurrected like the rest of the Immortal just for this arc... even after Anton squashed him like a fly.

New to your eternity chapter sure was something

Yea! I mean, me investing in Abel Day stocks and reaping returns? Fuck yea! I definitely feel like I won something! And I'm gonna keep winning. I've also invested in the Doll-san stocks!

It actually gave me a Ramble Essay idea, but I'm kinda busy with work and some other things at the moment. The mood for rambling is also a little low right now because...

What do you think though? Liked the chapter? Some of our fellas have begun thinking that Abel might be the reincarnation/rebirth of Hana, ya know! For that MizuHanna continuation. It's mostly the glasses, I think, 'cause I don't think Abel looks like Hana or Parona. But I'm never good at recognizing faces or semblances both in manga and real life anyway, and maybe one of the characters will point out that Abel looks like Hanna again?

What are your thoughts?

[whaleofatjme1920]

Seeing Him Smile and Kiss Someone Else (Hoodie X F!Reader)

[Hoodie/Brian Thomas X F!Reader]

[Warnings: none]

[AN: Howdy! I cross post these on quotev under ‘Elsie I Guess’ and on AO3 under ‘Whaletales1920′ under the title ‘The Places You Shouldn’t Be’. Just thought I’d start uploading them here too.]

Part 2

Proxies aren’t supposed to do a lot of things: speak back to their master, challenge hierarchical roles, have relationships with each other of that caliber, and never, never ever absolutely never have romantic relationships with humans. 

Why? It’s a losing game. Everyone knows that. Should proxies seek any kind of attachment, platonic, romantic, even sexual, their best bet is to stay within their own kind: other proxies. It’s the polite thing to do. It’s the right thing to do. 

When you first came in, you bonded almost immediately to your group of four other individuals. There’s Masky, your group leader. He’s really sweet when he wants to be and seems to care the most about you - it’s probably because you’re new. Toby is akin to the middle child. He’s always buzzing around you a lot like a bumblebee. While he has his jerk moments, he’s got an eye out for you. So too does Kate, once the group’s newbie/runt. She’s the one you replaced. She’s relatively quiet and sticks to herself, but she’s never a stranger to helping you out and immersing you in the culture and world you’ve found yourself entangled in. 

And then there’s Masky’s right hand, a proxy named Hoodie, but you know him as Brian. Out of all your group members, Brian was the hardest to warm up to. He hardly acknowledged you when you were first placed in his group and was amongst the hardest in the hazing process (you’re still technically going through). But, after some time and getting to know each other, the two of you became the closest of friends, even going so far as to rival Masky’s friendship with him. It’s safe to say you got a bit of a crush on him, in simplest terms. 

Three times. Three times you felt you liked him.

The first time was when you were about to head out of your safe house on a grocery run. Proxies don’t have any leads, so cards are absolutely off the table. You walked out of the safe house, yawning slightly, and barely made it down the driveway when Brian had popped back out of the house. 

“Reader,” he called out, slowly moving to lean in the doorway of the empty house the five of you were squatting in. 

“Yeah?” You asked sleepily. 

“Forgetting something?” He holds up his hand - it’s the wallet. 

You feel heat rush to your cheeks as you speed walked back to the front door to retrieve it. “Guess I’m still kinda tired,” you admittedly awkwardly with a small chuckle. 

Brian shrugged slightly and threw you a smirk as he met you halfway, “Think I’ll accompany you this morning,” he said with a wink. 

The two of you began to walk as you mentally mulled over the man walking beside you - his hands in his pockets. You’d never really thought of him like that before, but the way he smiled and that wink… It planted a seed. You weren’t quite sure you were going to acknowledge it or if it was just a fluke, but the thought stayed, and then it remained. 

As the two of you traversed the grocery store for various things your comrades had asked for, you and Brian traded conversation about everything that popped into mind. 

“Oh, like you knew any better in high school,” you wheezed before tossing in a box of brownies. You’d just been discussing how terrible and how gods awful high school relationships can be and how at one low point, you got into one. Brian had said he knew better than to mess around in high school, but you had retorted that ‘we’re all young and dumb once.’ 

Brian raised a brow at the box but allowed it anyway. “I most certainly did and I knew how things were gonna play out before they even happened.” 

“On what basis? It’s not like you have future vision,” You snorted. You watched as he pushed the cart forward as you plucked items you needed from the shelves. 

He shot you a look. “I’m a guy, it’s practically flowing through our veins,,” he said as his eyes raked over the list. “I’d most likely be the reason those things are happening to begin with and knowing that is like it’s own future vision..” He flashed his smile at you. “Come to think of it, I don’t think I ever grew out of the dumb part,” he chuckled. 

Your heart skipped. 

The second time you thought you liked him was when you were in the car with him, heading back to your safe house (in an entirely different part of the country). The two of you were more than exhausted after clearing a house whose occupants the Operator wanted dead for one reason or another and Brian decided to steal a car. So, there you sat in the passenger seat. 

“Something on your mind?” He hummed, arm resting on the console. His hazel colored eyes flicked over to you with interest. 

You shrugged, “just thinking.”

“Dangerous for people like us,” Brian chuckled. “Care to get specific?” 

You sighed slightly and turned your eyes to the passing street lights overhead as the car pulled onto the late night expressway. “Thinking about all the things I’ll miss,” you admit. 

Brian nodded from the corner of your eye. “I think about that stuff too,” he said, a small frown pulling onto his face. “You were finishing up college?” 

“Yeah,” you said. “I mean, I guess I’m getting out of the college loan debt but… Y’know,” you trailed off slightly, your posture changing slightly. “Maybe I would’ve been normal. Get a cool job, live a non murderous life, have a family and a loving partner. I don’t know, like, whatever the American dream says we should have. Anything but this.” 

Brian laughed slightly, “sorry. It’s not - it’s not you,” he explained. “It’s just awfully similar to what I wanted.” 

You turned your attention from the passing lights over to Brian. “White picket fence is your thing?” 

“More or less,” he hummed. “Wanted to live the rest of my life like a normal person.

Certainly died like one, more or less,” he finished. 

You mentally hummed, already knowing what he was referring to. Died and got resurrected. “Don’t think falling from a floor up counts as normal.” 

“Hey, it worked out for…. Something nice,” he quickly chirped. “Fell and met an angel.” 

He briefly turned his head to look at you and flashed a grin. 

“Oh that’s so bad.” 

“You love it.” 

You really do.  

The third time was when the two of you were on the rooftop of some house you’d been spending a lot of time at. It was kind of nice to be able to settle down in one place for more than a month - it’d been going on close to a  year. It was your roof, the one you shared with Brian. Late in the night, when the crickets sang and the stars danced, the two of you snuck up against Masky’s best wishes to talk about the world and life before. 

When summer was giving way to autumn and sending cool breezes throughout the night, you and Brian had been up there once again. 

“You think EJ will be around?” You asked, looking up at the stars you barely knew the names to. “BEN did say he was in the area.” 

“Gonna say yes,” Brian hummed back, momentarily pausing to point out Altair. “He’s always had a soft spot for our group,” he noted. “Why? You looking forward to seeing him?” He chuckled, hand reaching out to ruffle your hair. 

You laugh as quietly as you can and shake your head, “we’ve hardly ever spoken!” You giggled. “I just think he’s cool.”

Brian snorted in response and nodded, “yeah, I think so too. Though, where’d you get the opportunity to talk with BEN?” 

“There’s a little computer cafe in town,” you said, eyes flicking towards the direction of said cafe. “I’ve been spending a lot of time there. Mostly to use the internet,” you admitted, a slight heat coming to your cheeks. Proxies really aren’t supposed to use the internet. “Toby also sometimes tags along.” 

“So that’s where he’s been getting those weird references from,” Brian said with a tone of understanding. “Next time you go, let me know. I’d love to see what you children are up to online,” he teased. 

You laughed again and nodded, “sure thing.” 

The two of you continued to talk before a particularly hard gust of wind came in. On instinct, you shivered - though you weren’t really cold. 

Upon seeing you shiver, Brian took no hesitation in taking off his hoodie, much to your chagrin. 

“Oh, you don’t have to-” you began as you attempted to push it towards him. 

“I insist,” he had said, already popping the thing over you. 

You relented and allowed the giant hoodie to envelop your form like a warm hug. It smelled just like him - something woodsy, smoke, and the faintest of graphite. When you looked back at Brian, he was staring up at the stars, a small smile on his face. His eyes did not leave the inky blueish-black, not even when your hand came within millimeters of holding his. 

All it took was three times. Three times to know you liked him, and once to know you’d lost him. 

As stated before, it is absolutely a losing game to get involved with humans. Humans are frail and prone to panic. They can’t understand the world the way you do, nor are they suited for life the way you are in their current form. In your society, humans are the lowest of the low, akin to cattle - albeit, sentient cattle. Only when they are lifted from their human status are they finally given the time of day. 

He never would have known about her if you never brought up that computer cafe. Truly, it was a mistake on your part. You didn’t mean to, but it had happened anyway. 

“Cute place, right?” You smiled, eyes traveling up and down the rows of tables. 

“The cutest,” Brian agreed with a small chuckle. “Do we go up to a counter and order or..?” He trailed off slightly as he inspected the place and took in all the minor details. 

“Just take a seat, a waiter will be around shortly,” you said, immediately pulling him to your preferred spot by the windows and tucked away into the corner. 

Brian followed your lead and took a seat next to you where he immediately powered on the computer. “It’s kinda weird that they let us have food this close to the electronics, no?” 

“Oh no, it’s super weird,” you nodded as you began flicking open tabs to get to the things you wanted - maybe say hi to BEN. “But, it works. So like, c’est la vie?” You giggled, fingers moving quickly across the keyboard. 

A few moments later, a waitress stopped by. You had already managed to pull up a chat with BEN and were so engrossed in catching up with him that you failed to notice her. You hadn’t even recognized she was there until you heard her giggling at something Brian had said. 

“Never thought I’d be that star struck,” Brian had finished the small anecdote with eyes that practically sparkled. 

Her smile only widened. “You? The star struck kind?” She teased lightly. “Have to see it to believe it.” 

Brian looked up at her, his lips now pulled up into a smile. “You’re looking at it right now.” 

It pulled you so hard out of your conversation with BEN that you’d accidentally sent him a half-baked thought. “Wait what?” 

Your sound of confusion had snapped the two back into reality. “Oh! I’m sorry, sugar,” the waitress apologized with a slight blush rising to her cheeks. “Was there something I could get you?” 

You blinked a few times, your eyes darting between the two before finally managing to stammer out your drink and pastry of choice. You watched as Brian’s eyes followed her out and when she came back in. 

Long after the two of you had finished, the two of you decided to head back. 

“That was fun,” you said. 

“It was,” Brian replied, thoughts drifting elsewhere. 

Ever since that moment, he’d been going to the café with and without you. Sometimes you’d find yourself heading there only to see him entranced in conversation with the waitress, and when that happened, you turned right back around. At first it was to give them space, and then it was to give yourself space. 

You wished you could allow yourself to weather through this one with grace and that it didn’t bother you, that it didn’t get on your nerves, but it did. Slowly but surely, it had chipped away at some odd part of you that you didn’t even know existed prior to. 

Masky was the first to bring it up. 

“Reader,” he began. “Can you wrangle Hood from that café? Operator wants us to do something - I just need him,” he said, barely looking up from his newspaper. 

“I can go if you want,” you suggested before poking your head back out from the refrigerator. 

“Hm?” That got Masky’s attention. “Are you sure?” He raised his eyebrow, giving you an inquisitorial look. 

“It’s no big deal,” you said with a small smile as you plucked your drink out from the fridge. “Besides, I think Hoodie’s busy.” You had to fight the unpleasant feeling that bubbled up in your chest after you said that. 

“Oh,” Masky gave a hum of recognition. “Toby did mention he was getting a little close to someone there,” he said in passing. 

You shot Masky a look. 

He shot one back. 

Internally, you both know that’s not the best thing - but Masky’s not going to stop his best friend. And you know you won’t either. 

Kate mentioned it next, though she seemed to be telling you that you’d get  over it. It came relatively out of the blue. See, the two of you were standing in the living room of a house painted in blood just chatting, waiting for the Operator to give you direction on what he wanted for the man he wanted alive when Kate got weirdly serious. She sat down on the sofa and invited you to sit down next to her. 

“You can’t keep avoiding him like that,” she hummed, her shoe digging into the man’s chest as he wriggled beneath her step. “I know it’s awkward, but he’s your comrade first.” 

You rolled your eyes and lightly pushed at her. “Come on, it’s not that serious,” you said, attempting to play off your feelings that were so gods damn obvious throughout the time you’ve been spending in this area. 

“Are you kidding me?” Kate chuckled. “Look,” her hand is on your shoulder as she digs her heel into the man’s chest, cracking his ribs slightly. “It’s uncomfortable. I get that. It’s why we don’t… Do that kind of thing.” She rubbed her thumb in little circles on your shoulder as she grounded you. “It’s probably for the best, even though you can’t see it right now.” 

You sighed and gave her a look of slight pain. “You’re probably right.” 

“I know I’m right.”

It’s not that Toby is bad at reading a room, but it’s that he’s really bad at reading a room. When the two of you went to the computer café for your outing, he was excited to see the girl Brian was ‘seeing,’ as he somehow managed to miss her from every other precious visit. It was so obvious that they had been - her perfume was practically embedded into his skin now - and his smile was brighter than the sun after seeing her. 

And here you were, not even wanting to know her name. 

It’s Fiona. 

“Toby!” She greeted as she bounded up to your table. “Reader! What a nice surprise!” There was no malice in her tone. She was genuinely happy to see you. “What can I get you two today?” 

“C-Chocolate croissant and some h-h-hot chocolate please,” Toby said. He then turned to you, and as if he read your mind, gave her your order as well. “H-How have t-things been?” He asked. 

“Really good,” Fiona replied. “He’s such a sweetie, got me this necklace.” 

Your eyes immediately left the screen and travelled to her neck. There it was. Beautiful necklace. Silver chain with a hunk of rose quartz at the bottom in the shape of a bullet.You remembered seeing that pendant. It hung on his mirror for such a long time. You once overheard him saying to Kate how it was your possible birthday gift. 

“It’s so pretty,” you smiled, eyes not quite following. 

You were damn certain if you were suffering from hanahaki you would’ve choked on flowers by now and died. The last nail in the coffin? 

Now. Right now. You came back to the safe house just wanting to relax, maybe star gaze for a bit and fall asleep outside - anything and everything sounded better than just being alone in your thoughts after the Operator had some harsh words to say to you on account of your performance slipping ever so slightly from his golden standards. You fix yourself a warm mug of tea and start making yourway to the rooftop. It’s the same path you’ve always taken: head up the stairs to the upper floor, last room on the left side of the hall, go in and open the study windows there and hang out on the roof. 

You make sure to take careful steps as you ascend, not wanting to spill any of your carefully made tea as you seek to unwind. With a deep breath, you start making it through the hallway, thankful no one else is here. Masky is away on business, Kate is doing something with Jeff and Toby left a few hours ago to meet with someone he deems important. Come to think of it, you haven’t had the house free in a while. 

But, as you step closer and closer to the last room on the left, you hear it. Giggling, whispers, conversation that’s so innocent and intimate at the same time. You notice the study door is closed. It’s never closer. You step closer. 

“You’re so sweet,” That’s Fiona’s voice. “You don’t have to get me all these things - I don’t even know where I’m gonna wear all of them.” She giggles. 

“Wear a different one every time I come to see you.” That’s Brian. “Gonna be burning through those things like crazy.” You hear the sound of a kiss. 

“You got a deal,” Fiona chuckled. Another kiss. 

You hear the roof shingles move slightly as they move closer together. Against your better judgment, you push open the study door slightly. Must you be so nosy?

There, sitting on the roof outside the window is Fiona and Brian. She’s wearing his sweater (it’s just polyester) and giggling as he peppers her face in kisses. When she’s decided he’s covered her in enough kisses for an entire year, she presses her lips to his. 

He smiles before kissing her back just as fervently. 

Without a sound, you begin to head back to your room. 

Perhaps tea in your room would be better. 

[smallestclowninthecircus]

Season 3 notes popping off

due to my desire to not completely fail all my classes this year i made myself slow down significantly while listening to this season, and the fact that the other person i'm listening along with had to catch up. We've managed to convert several other people to start listening and its pretty great.

ep 81: what does it even mean to be chosen by one of them? And if he was chosen by the eye. we know Gertrude wasnt? Because she cut the eyes out of the magazines?

ep 82: elias lmao. I understand why people like him so much bahshdhdk i thought he was gonna snitch on Jon but he didnt so he's fine. Ok but how do we think he knew all that stuff. Idk probably just institute connections. I love the fact that the recorder just wants to record stuff randomly bjahsjdhd. Elias feels a lot like Michael in the sense that he knows more than he should and talks in a way that implies he just wants to wait and see how things play out for his own benefit. I understand him knowing the things that happened but his description of her emotions implies something paranormal. Maybe he's connected to one of the entities. Which one I cannot guess.

ep 83: did a file get delivered randomly to the place he's staying at? Probably elias lmao. He thinks the mannequin is related to the stranger. Idk I would believe it.

ep 84: worms? I know he says earth worms but idk. Again? Is she making gordon golems out of trash? Martin popping off. You can tell the statements get to him more that they get to Jon. How come martin is so mad about it? I want to assume he just doesnt want her to get stuck there but idk. Jude Perry. The calliope organ. Jon heard a circus in one of the last episodes

ep 89: he's talking to perry? Like jude Perry? He says ... God? Is that what it is? Lmao. The Desolation. Jon is tired of ppl being vague and not telling him stuff lmao. Oh God Jon is so confused. Compel her? Is she assuming he has some kind of power? Does he have powers? Hmm. im agreeing with jon here please jesus christ why does everyone have to be so cryptic. Just say what you mean. "maybe you get an itchy eye" bahasjkdfklsjdf girl what. Agnes saved her? Oh this is the girl from the cafe story? So theres the Cult of the Lightless Flame? They worship whatever entity this is? The Desolation? Why do they all seem like they sorta worship her then? Is Gretchen gonna die oh god. fuckin michael. a different michael aaah. i see. dont do it shes gonna burn you. sir. please. sir dont you dare do- WHAT DID I SAY what did you think was gonna happen hhh.

ep 90: try to make it less obvious you're trying to get fired big T. Elias that doesnt sound like the most healthy thing to do. oh dear is this gonna be triggering for me. uuuuuh. uuuuuuuuuh. doesnt seem like it ok gonna keep listening. Jared. hmmmmm. Ok we've seen Keay and hotner or whatever his name was.

ep 91: Michael Crew. Oh is this the lightning scar guy. Mister jon sir did you just die. No? God everyone is so fuckin cryptic. Say normal things please. They all just like to go on about pain and agony and j e s u s c h r i s t we get it you got hurted by whatever thing. So theyre avatars? question mark? Jude Perry is an avatar of The Desolation? hhhh fractals. thats a spiral thing innit. Yup. messing with your perceptions. God they all talk about feeding their god and feeding that which feeds them and. hh what does that meann. Leave big J. please. uh oh. is it daisy? how come he has the web lighter still? the tape recorder just turns on sometimes you know how it is. So he can compel people? not that he knows it obviously but. a bit wack. powers go brr i guess? If the eye just wants knowledge i guess he feeds it by getting the statements? b/c i doubt it wants him to murder ppl or whatever.

ep 92: elias you all knowing fuck what do you know. (i guess all given what i just said) Lukas. Heard of them before. Mordecai Lukas. Loneliness. The lonely even. Jonah Magnus. Elias ur sounding like a bit of a dickhead rn. lmao jon's just like "i dont care" elias what is ur deal. Why does he want to tie her in. ohh i see. lmao theyre all just like "elias why" The Unknowing lol seems very much like something the eye wouldnt like. lol elias is gettin all philosophical. what does it really mean to be human. this still doesnt answer why gertrude wanted to destroy the archives tho.

ep 93: bahsjdfh he seems so dead inside rip. awww admiral. i love him already. ghh breacon and hope. purple mold. doesnt sound like anything we've seen so far. I think the funniest explanation for breacon and hope is that they dont actually serve the stranger they just kinda happen to be a random neutral party that cart around random spooky entity related stuff. ooooh. when we hear the slight static of the tape recorder it's cuz he's compelling ppl.

ep 94: the end! listen man they were all just grayed up for 4/13.

ep 95: the end also? death but also savagery/ animalistic shit. aww martin. lmao becerra. she's just been chillin in the corner.

ep 96: return to sender. haha minecraft go brr. prediction: breacon and hope? yup there we go. jon why is there an echo. are you in a stairwell? is he gonna eat it- yup. how did i call it. unsure abt what theyre talking about but ok. they kidnapped someone? Sarah Baldwin. ooooh that guy.

ok im just putting this here so i have notes for when nicholas gets to this part. It seems like (from jon's conversation with jude perry) that the desolation and the eye are kinda at odds with eachother? like i guess not directly but it seems like they dont really vibe? so how could be with both. Cuz if he has the heat powers and shit then we know he's an avatar of the desolation. but then why does he have so much eye imagery. also he got burned intentionally? like jude did when she went on her monologue about the feeling of burning? but then why did he wear the eye pendant. it stops him from being burned all the way which seems like he's not fully accepting the fire or whatever.

Nooooo I lost like a bunch of my notes rip. I keep forgetting to save.

Ep 104: tim gives a coherent statement without jon even being there. Ugh. Fucking robert smirk. Dont like him. Joey. Dont recognize the name. The show must go on. Clown. The spooky circus?

ep 105: total war... shogun 2? jon is just understanding languages again. "if i understood mandarin or cantonese" are you sure you dont big man?

ep 106: havent we heard this one already? mans in space? oh no this is just another episode in space. fairchild... uuuh. cant remember. oh! this is related to that! this is one of the ppl from the other side. sounds like a Vast thing. oh he's the one that the dude saw? but that guy didnt have a face... she's sorta like jon. wanting to dismiss the statements. lmao i love the workplace gossip. ace jon for the win! oh cmon elias dont be a dick. sunny meadows or whatever. thats the place we heard about.

ep 107: oh great is it jude perry again. Third Degree. bahahsdkfj she was arrested. sorry but imagining this old british lady getting arrested is funny. she was trying to resurrect him. using the skin book. he's not feeling well. jon take a nap. i wonder if this is what happens when he uses his powers too much. He gets into The Zone when he reads statements lol. didn't we have a burning train car in anothre statement? is it julia fairchild? bahahahs "kidnapped. Again." poor jon honestly. julia... about her dad. daughter of the murder shed guy? hunting like your dad liked to hunt or normal people hunting. oh hunting vampires!

ep 108: melanie has been suffering. poor martin peter lukas why do you have to be like this. can he not just use the front door? does he have to bother the ppl doing statements?

ep 109: how come he cut her off? kinda rude tbh. its either jon's influence or there was smth he didnt want her saying. is it gerard on the table? this sounds kinda like smth from one of the university episodes. is it the closed eye on the hand? yup. he's like one of the students! if the thing listening in is elias then... he can do that without the tape recorder yknow. plus who's to say it wont just turn itself on again

110: who wants to bet its a leitner?

111: Lukas related to The Lonely. I used to not like Gerard that much but i like him more now. but i thought there were 15? ohhh thats right isnt flesh newer? gerry for the win honestly. finally telling jon things.

112: lol "again" no one ever tells any of these ppl anything. tim and basira are just out of the loop constantly. music, like the war episodes. The hunt or the slaughter? probably the hunt. so Daisy is related to the hunt right? basira likes the reading, she's doing fine at the institute. daisy's getting worried...

113: it just turned on randomly. what is it lol. explossives! oh boy. why do they always assume he turned it on intentionally. melanie youre not making me like you that much. which entity is this about i cant tell. lol he was disappointed it was just the end. The title Breathing Room made me think it was gonna be about the buried but i guess not. So many of these entities deal with death but the end is one that deals in just death. it has no need for fancy deaths, just death is enough

114: more hilltop road statements? the tree. oh boy. ok the tree has 8 arms obviously theres the spider parallels. was she taken into an alternate universe? oh no. jon tries to phrase things so he's not asking questions. thats honestly good. "sometimes i was kidnapped" oh dear. they got gertrude. daisy ur so odd lmao. who wants to bet they dont know the tape recorder's running?

115: silaca? or whatever? antique man? meat grinder... related to the meat is meat episode? oh wow. they buy antiques from him. maybe dont antagonize this creature which can kill you?

116: lol theyre all just so done with elias. music? is it like the one band that if you hear them you die or wtvr. oh its chess? i am very much confused. mmm stranger go brr. gorilla skin? oh shit the dance. woah. this is so good. this is so gender. the words are wonderful. "you can just say tim" lmao trying to fool elias never feels like a good idea.

117: except elias lmaoo. oh shit. leitner getting some use for once idk. bruuh poor melanie she has been thru so much shit. martin you can just say youre worried about jon. lol he's so accurate in his jon impression. lol who was that. was that daisy? lmaoo. oop hi tim. oh god i hope tim doesnt die. i feel like i wouldve heard about that? but im not sure. destroying the source of knowledge is gonna be hard for jon. yay jon! you did a good thing. let him rest.

118: go off martin lmao. awww poor martin. oh god the tape gets that squealy quality and its awful.

119: woah. lots of things happening. uhh. POP OFF TIM!!

120: lmao elias giving a statement about jon's dreams lol. damn jon doesnt even get his own dreams? has to stay Watching even when he's asleep? f in the chat this man goes thru so much shit. oh boy its peter. lol martin my beloved. idk i dont trust peter.

[brandstifter-sys]

Since I missed Remus’ birthday x_x please take this dukexiety mess as an apology

Dead?

Word Count: 1944

Pairings: Dukexiety (background royaliceit)

Rating: T

Warnings: death mention, intersex enby remus, sex mention, frog mention, spider mention, sibling rivalry

Virgil is just an ordinary necromancer with friends in high places. He goes off exploring on a quest to find a white stag and finds something, well someone, who looks like they’re sleeping in the middle of a tomb that’s been sealed off for a century. It’s one heck of a shock to accidentally raise the dead, if that’s the case, and even more of a shock because Remus is....themself.

Reblogs > Likes 

There were legends and stories that circulated the kingdom, all of them fantastical and hard to believe. Most of the time there was some sort of inaccuracy in the legend, like the story of the princess cursed to sleep for a hundred years with her whole kingdom, only to be woken by true love’s kiss. She woke up after a hundred years and went ballistic, screaming at her father for not inviting the thirteenth fairy to her first birthday party, but that was ages ago, and like her parents, she angered the fae as well. Her two children were hit with a similar curse, but unlike her, her children would sleep for eternity until their true loves came. She never told them.

The legend got marred over time, so that people only remembered one of the children. No one believed that legend until recently, when Prince Janus, recently married to the man who he saved from his own curse, found the old tower and investigated. He found Prince Roman and woke him, not giving details on how he did it. It was fine because Janus and his husband, Patton, were madly in love and madly in love with Roman. Too bad Roman didn’t mention that he wasn’t the only one cursed in that tower. 

...

It was a rather overcast day when Prince Patton suggested his oldest friend go investigate reports of a white stag in the forest. If change was afoot, Virgil would be the first to tell if it was a blessing or a curse. Virgil reluctantly agreed, if only because Patton made puppy-dog eyes at him. Those puppy-dog eyes were going to kill him someday, and he was the only person he couldn’t resurrect. The things he did for his friends.

That’s what led him deep into the woods, beyond where most people dared to tread. He hated the looming feeling of foreboding nipping at his heels, the way the wind whispered his name. But he kept going, always glancing back, and always moving on when there was no threat. He only considered turning back when he found the tower where Roman was sleeping before. There was no reason to go beyond the boundary of the kingdom, especially with a crumbling ruin in the way. 

The door was still open, hanging on its hinges, just as Janus left it. Virgil neared it, just to see what level of stupid Janus reached when he found the tower. But something caught his eye. There was a trap door at the foot of the spiral stairs. Something about it called to the nervous necromancer, and he couldn’t fight the urge to investigate. 

Virgil coughed when he opened the door and a cloud of dust hit him in the face. Covering his nose with his cloak, he descended the stairway he revealed, using the magic gem on his walking staff to light his way. 

The walls were lined with bones, artfully placed to scare the average person away. Virgil worked with death, it was more of a comfort to be surrounded by it, even if he accidentally reanimated a few bodies when he was startled. If this detour didn’t reveal something new and useful, it would still be fun to tell Prince Roman that he was asleep over a tomb for however long he was there. He would probably cringe at that information.

Something was certainly there, a door that looked ancient with dark hinges and an even darker stain. It radiated magic, making Virgil’s hair stand on end. He could handle a few zombies if he had to, so he flipped his bangs out of his face and pressed forward.

He opened the heavy door with some effort and stepped inside. The room was simple stone with old green tapestries and a stone slab in the center. The green curtains around it were drawn, displaying a body that showed no signs of decay. The person looked like Roman, but they had a mustache and longer hair. Virgil stared at them, wondering what kind of magic kept a dead person so well-preserved. They had to be dead, Roman was trapped for over a century, sure, but he had some kind of air flow at the top of the tower. This person, they didn’t, and they weren’t breathing or twitching like a normal sleeping person. Virgil was confused.

BAM!

“Holy shit!” Virgil yelped and spun around when the door slammed shut. He hastily tried to open it and breathed a sigh of relief when it moved.

“Ack! What the hell!?” a voice yelped from behind him. Virgil’s heart stopped. Not again. He turned around to see the person, sitting upright, glancing around the room. Their eyes landed on Virgil, and a smile crossed their confused features.

“Hi! You wouldn’t happen to know where we are, would you?” they asked with way too much enthusiasm.

“We’re in a crypt under a cursed tower,” Virgil answered slowly, gripping his staff tightly, “and I accidentally disturbed your resting place.”

“I was dead!?” they gawked, “And I don’t have any maggots to show for it!?” 

“Yeah I thought that was weird too. But it’s probably been over a hundred years for you so I’m gonna go ahead and put you down again.”

“Aw, do you have to? You’re the first person to talk to me since my brother before he got cursed! And he yelled at me for putting a frog in his shirt! Can I stay undead just a little while?” they pleaded and fluttered their lashes. Virgil blinked twice as their words hit him.

“Who are you?”

“Me? Well I’m Princex Remus! Second in line for the throne! Who are you?” 

“I’m Virgil, a necromancer, but you probably figured that out already. You said your brother was cursed.”

“Oh yeah, him,” Remus pouted, “He turned 18 and then he went into a major coma. Mom said it was her fault and we had to keep him safe. Let’s not talk about him, I’d rather know about you, VeeVee.” 

“I hate that nickname,” Virgil deadpanned.

"Virgilicious?" 

"I'm not responding to that."

“Scare Bear?”

“Sure,” Virgil huffed, expecting the list to go on if he didn’t stop it there and then. 

“Okay, Scare Bear! So what is a snack like you doing in a place like this?”

“I was on a mission for the three princes–Patton, Janus, and Roman–and then I stumbled across this place and got curious.”

“Roman!? He woke up!? Okay you gotta take me to him right now! I’ll come back and stay dead but I gotta see him! I owe him a century’s worth of ramblings!” 

“I don’t have much of a choice do I?”

“Nope! He got cursed and passed out and wouldn’t get up until his true love woke him! I set him in the tower and came down here to relax with the decomposed after that workout!”

“And then?”

“That’s the last thing I remember! That guy had some nerve getting cursed at the bottom of the stairs, I might be strong and nimble but mommy’s favorite is as heavy as he is whiny!”

“Shit," Virgil grumbled as he tried to put the pieces together, "Let me try something." Remus watched him expectantly. The gem in his staff glowed a bright purple, as did his eyes. Remus couldn't understand the words slipping from his lips but that double voice was doing something for them. He was trying to put Remus back. It wasn’t working!

“That was cool! Can you magic me a pair of big ol honkers?” Remus cheered and clapped their hands. Virgil’s shoulders sagged and his face fell, his eyes losing the purple glow.

“I’m a necromancer, I can only raise the dead.”

“And my dick!” 

“Right, yeah, okay, point is you’re not dead, you were asleep for a century.” 

“Just like Ro-hoe?! Then that means—”

“Oh no,” Virgil groaned. He did not sign up for this. He was too aro for this. Remus was cute and hyper but he wasn’t sure how they’d handle a full on rejection. It could get ugly.

“Oh yes!” Remus giggled, “It was the same curse, you woke me up, you’re my true love! This calls for a celebration! No one should love me so it’s a huge deal!”

“Wait, what?”

“We should definitely make out!”

“You have near-death breath, and more self-hatred issues than me. I'll pass."

"Self-hatred issues? Me!? No! I just don't do that romance shit and I was born in between! That's why I didn't think I would be cursed like Prince No-Bone! But I was and you woke me! We’re gonna be bestest friends! With benefits!”

“I know Roman, if you’re like him, there’s no benefits whatsoever.”

“Ha! I like you! We’re gonna be besties! Let’s go so I can show off that I got a hot soulmate and make Ro jealous!” Remus cheered and jumped to their feet full of life and running on sibling spite. 

“Don’t. Just tell him I raised your corpse. He’ll shit himself," Virgil countered and leaned on his staff with a dastardly smirk. Remus had never had someone come up with something else to torment the precious firstborn. It was too good to be true.

“I’m starting to think I did die and went to heaven,” Remus mumbled. Virgil shook his head and stood up. 

"Sorry to disappoint but if I'm here it's hell." 

"You are selling me on this whole soulmate business! C'mon let's go get some embalming fluid and really sell it! And some frogs! Ooh maybe there’ll be some mama frogs out there with their eggs in their backs! Trypophobia and even more frogs! Roman’ll shit a brick."

“The frogs aren’t gonna cut it this time. He’s got two husbands, and one of them was a frog for most of his life.”

“No frogs?” Remus pouted. 

“If you can give up the green, salamanders would work,” Virgil shrugged and pushed the door open with just as much effort as when he opened it. He didn’t catch the bright grin that crossed Remus’ face, but the body slam to his back when he got that damn door open, he didn’t miss that!

“You’re right! Or maybe I could use worms! Or spiders!”

“Just don’t touch mine. Gigi just finished molting,” Virgil grunted and balanced himself.

“You have spiders! Ooh! You have to show me! Spiders are so cute!”

“Don’t eat them.”

“I wasn’t planning on it, that would be awful!” they laughed, then purred “But if you wanna give me something better to eat---” Virgil jolted and stumbled back when the frisky little whirlwind grabbed his butt.

“Give me a good enough reason once we’re out of here, and I’ll consider it,” he huffed and led Remus to the stairway.

“Really?”

“Yeah, if you can convince me. But don’t hold your breath.”

“You know if I die and you want some action all you have to do is bring me back! You look like you’d enjoy some zombie fun, and I’m just a rotten kind of cute when I don’t get startled awake!”

“Don’t you have some sibling scheming to do?”

“Yeah, and I have to get back to arting and training and pranks and making people uncomfortable with my existence, that last one is my specialty!”

“Then let’s go. You need to get started on all those things soon.”

“I’m not making you uncomfortable?”

“I know, I’m just as surprised as you are. Maybe it is that soulmate bs,” he teased and led Remus into the world again. Maybe the soulmate thing wasn’t bs, and maybe it was the best day of either of their lives, they just hadn’t realized it yet.

[fizzingwizard]

Alright and now for episode 23! Which was a lot more interesting. Still lacking in pertinent ways but at least it got some stuff moving, and there were a few small but very nice character moments.

I took a LOT of Taichi spam this week you guys. The animation was slightly better than normal and my boy was just so good.

At parkour. He’s good at parkour.

More below!

We pick up where we left off last week, with Devimon arriving in his true form and picking a fight over Poyomon. He’s so threatened by a wad of jelly.

He does seem a bit weird though. More on that later.

The quintessential Taichi picture.

And just a cute one.

So okay, Devimon makes mincemeat of MetalGreymon and WereGarurumon. Like he wipes the floor with them. Even though they should be a level above him. I was like what’s going on. Clearly dark powers are giving him extra strength, but this still seemed like too much...

Yamato yells for Takeru to go hide. Taichi then yells for Yamato to go hide xD However Devimon has no trouble destroying all their possible hiding spots and attacking them.

Takeru worries about his brother :’<

Taichi quickly tries to think of a strategy but yup “Hide” is all he can come up with.

They communicate via digivice and Yamato has something of a better strategy but... it still just amounts to hiding.

Meanwhile their partners continue to get their butts kicked.

MetalGreymon: Hey watch it I just got this painted!

WereGaurumon: My nails! I just had them done!

Taichi: Would you two stop fussing, you’re so vain!

Taichi: We’ve got more important things to worry about! Like my hair!

Meanwhile in the real world... the four are together and Koushirou updates Jou and Mimi on the situation, which boils down to Not Good. The tank ships are still on a collision course. On top of that, Koushirou notices that the data being absorbed by Calmaramon’s... idk what to call it, data collection tower? thing, is being sent directly to the digital world. He guesses it’s going to be used to power the creature whose name I forgot they fought before.

This guy.

Koushirou also guesses this probably means Taichi and Yamato are in some deep shit rn.

Taichi is pretty smart too... he’s able to tell that Devimon is able to manipulate the dark mists and that’s how he’s able to find their hiding spots and attack them so easily.

Here’s the evil crystal that I would have thought was from Sailor Moon. Ahhh evil is so beautiful. And purple. Hmmm, the Crest of Knowledge is also purple, and absorption of data is converted to power.... GUYS KOUSHIROU’S GOING TO GO DARK.

Kidding, kidding. I would totally watch it though.

So the others go to fight Calmaramon and destroy the tower to help Taichi and Yamato. But, uh, they didn’t count on Calamaramon’s tentaclesx ;D

Kabuterimon makes the classic amateur mistake of DRAMATICALLY ANNOUNCING HIMSELF when he swerves in to rescue the girls...

... and he gets his just desserts. :P

Meanwhile Taichi and Yamato... are still losing. So who steps up to the plate but...

Takeru and Poyomon! Lol!

No seriously, this scene SCREAMED of the one in 99 where Hikari sacrifices herself to protect Yamato and Sora. I was really expecting Takeru to do the same thing here. “Leave my brother alone! Take me instead!”

But, I guess, since he’s a boy, he’s less self-sacrificial and more just... irrationally strong...

His conviction results in evolution!

Poyomon becomes Tokomon! THANK GOODNESS. I could not handle another “poyo, poyo!”

Devimon takes one look at this pink-cheeked thing and FREEEEEEAKS OUUUUUT.

“You remind me... of someone I once knew... you have... the same eyes... GRRRRRRRRR!!!!”

he didn’t say that but he totally should have lol. Now someone please make an edit of Angemon where he takes off his helmet and he has Tokomon eyes underneath x’D

Data readings on Koushirou’s computer start going haywire! The data is being sent somewhere fast!

I was expecting some kind of power up but I wasn’t expecting full on evolution. Because yup. That’s what goes down. Devimon evolves.

And here’s where he gets weird. His evolution seems painful. Unnatural. He doesn’t seem exactly pleased with it, to be frank. He’s really agitated by Tokomon but he doesn’t do much in the way of monologuing and it’s not even clear that the evolution is by his own design. It just kind of seems to happen. Then, once he does evolve, he’s much less talkative. This is generally not the sign of sanity or even sentience. It’s like Devimon is imprisoned by his evolution, which goes on a rampage.

Neodevimon. Actually, original Devimon is scarier but :P

Lol and then Tokomon gets blown out of Takeru’s arms and goes for a tumble while Takeru runs frantically after him xD Great moment.

Rollin rollin rollin, though the streams are swollen...

NeoDevimon is very powerful but y’know... WereGarurumon just STOOD there. This... this is totally his fault that he gets hurt here x’D

Taichi is displeased with this development, and yet, still cute in his displeasure.

Finally Koushirou manages to get through! Taichi is too preoccupied to jump for joy or anything but you can see that he’s excited. “Koushirouuuuu please save us!!!” basically that’s what’s going on

However he’s right away blown over and his digivice scatters and the signal drops...

Yamato is very Stressed.

However, contact with Koushirou has rejuvenated Taichi.

LIKE THE PHOENIX HE RISES FROM THE ASHES

Taichi: “FUCK THIS SHIIIIIIIIIT!”

His renewed conviction becomes power. Yeah, that’s a thing, we know.

Meanwhile, in the human world, the others have worked out that Taichi and Yamato are fighting and need help, and they combine the powers of their own passionate hearts in a classic shonen anime trope.

Koushirou gets a special moment all to himself! It’s really fast but still, the episode makes a point of focusing on Koushirou’s desire to connect with his friends and help them. I choose to believe this a nod to Koushirou’s significant role in the show and a way of saying “Sorry they’re not all together right now but they will be soon and characters other than Taichi and Yamato will get to do cool things in the not so distant future!”

Their partners are then able to defeat Calmaramon and destroy the data collection tower.

BOOM, baby.

Meanwhile our heroes who never sleep manage to defeat Devimon. Which, I figured, meant he’d retreat for now, but...

He freaking dies! Yup, that’s right! Disintegrates!! I was like what the heck?? This was a Boss Battle???? It had none of the signs of being a boss battle other than the boss being present and it wasn’t even that hard...

However, it’s not over till it’s over...

... Tokomon looks on NeoDevimon’s death kind of creepily. Like, the episode makes a point of showing us Tokomon’s reaction, not just the group’s. So... I feel like this is gonna be relevant. I COULD BE WRONG. But I just personally wouldn’t stick this bit in without it meaning something. But that something could be pretty much anything so we still don’t know much.

The sailors aboard the tankers whose control systems are restored at the last second are pretty darn relieved anyway.

This was my favorite moment in epiosde, Mimi flinging herself over Koushirou and knocking Jou out of the way to hug Sora in her enthusiasm over their victory xD awww Mimi

Yamato wants to know what’s with Taichi. Taichi’s like, “The others helped us from afar, I just know it...” AND THAT’S WHY HE’S BEST BOY.

Yamato gives Takeru an adorable pat on the head and tells him good job. Only thing that could have made this moment cuter would have been if he also patted Tokomon’s head. BECAUSE HELLO. KID JUST EVOLVED. SAY HI AND TELL HIM YOUR NAMES AT LEAST.

But then! Darknightmon uses the dark crystal thingy and...!

Le gasp! NeoDevimon’s corpse emerges from the ground...

Taichi has a flashback to another time they thought they won only for their defeated opponent to be infused with dark energy and resurrect...

... uh I forgot this guy’s name too >_>

Taichi: “Wow I never saw this coming!”

Well, I did. :P Due to being over ten years old...

We end with NeoDevimon’s mask cracking off!

Creepy!

Final thoughts... it now kind of looks like Darknightmon is the one pulling Devimon’s strings rather than the other way around. But my guess is that’s not the case. It could also be that Devimon told Darknightmon to do this - after all, Devimon used the stone’s power to evolve Darknightmon before, and this is just the reverse of that. Or it could be they are equals and in cahoots with each other. I definitely think there’s an even greater, bigger Bad out there that they either work for or are afraid of etc something like that, I think we probably all feel sure of that at least. But Devimon in this episode really surprised me in the ways he seems to lack agency. He seemed like a pawn of evil rather than the chessmaster himself.

So next week! Looks lit!

Devimon’s new evolution? or power up? whatever is creepier than NeoDevimon so that’s a relief.

BUT THIS IS EVEN CREEPIER HOLY CRAP TAICHI! Get some sleep, your eyes are all red! (And he’s injured. His hand is where he got hurt two weeks ago fighting Splashmon right? He got hit with miasma. I wonder if this is the same wound and if it’s somehow controlling him due to the dark energy getting into his system... But everyone’s more or less been hit with the dark energy at this point so maybe not. Anyway, CREEPY EYES, CREEPY CREEPY EYES.)

Also Yamato DIES. He DIES y’all. *funeral march plays* Hmm, Tokomon looks hungry...

Then we got this bit which in case you can’t tell is Takeru being awesome. So I figured, ahh, THIS is the boss battle, and we’re gonna see Angemon again already... weird as that sounds :P

HOW-E-VER

We also get this???? Taichi silhouetted against a brilliant light????? What does it mean? I mean we know Takeru has healing powers so I’m fully expecting that to happen but uhh are we also going to canonize Taichi next week? lol. Saint Taichi. I love him the best but I will be a bit miffed if next week IS the big boss battle and Takeru’s role is “power up Taichi so he can kill it” and that’s it... But I guess we’ll have to see.

It does rather look like they saved the animation budget for next week, the preview was nuts x’D Can’t wait.

[spaceskam]

there’s no use trying, it’s like denying the sun

ao3

warning for temporary character death, blood/gore all over the place, being drugged, guns, invasion of someone’s mind, and vague mentions of The Event in 2x06 (ps this isn’t intended to be anti-maria or anything, I did my best to be fair to her, but she isn’t portrayed in the BEST light. I like to think it was more of a human-error in the context of this fic, but also just a warning)

“Closing time.”

Maria smiled as she looked up at Michael who strolled a bit closer to her, locking the front door with his mind. She would forever find that impressive and yet she didn’t have the right words to express that. So, instead, she rolled her eyes. 

“So, what’s the plan?” he asked. She took a deep and cocked her head to the side.

“Well, you could wipe down tables for me.”

“I got you,” he said boldly.

And it should’ve just been that, but Maria gasped and her mind warped. Suddenly, she wasn’t in her bar. She was somewhere else entirely. She didn’t know where, but she was there.

In front of her, Michael was on his knees and holding someone while he cried.

“I got you,” Michael said, sniffling harshly as he rocked that person back and forth, “I got you. It’s okay, I got you.”

Maria hesitantly moved closer, curious to see who he was holding. She was suddenly in front of him now and it was plain as day as he cradled Alex in his arms in a pool of blood. His hand was pressed over Alex’s chest, but it didn’t seem to stop the bleeding. Alex wasn’t conscious anymore, he wasn’t breathing. The sight was horrific.

“It’s gonna work, I promise,” Michael said, voice breaking as he sobbed and pressed down a little harder on Alex's chest, “Any second now, I’m gonna fix it. I’m gonna heal you, just gotta hold on ‘til then. I got you.”

Maria’s entire body ached and she didn’t know how to tell him that Alex was dead. There was no healing. He was too late. He wasn’t strong enough to heal, much less a full blown resurrection.

But then she was back in the Wild Pony, bracing herself against the bar as she tried to breathe. Michael was staring at her, worry etched on his face.

“What just happened?” he asked, “Did you see you something?”

Maria steadied her breath and stared at him, more than a little lost. Should she tell him? Would that make it worse? Kyle’s thing was different and so were the few other bad things she’d seen. She saw signs, she knew where they were. Alex, though... She had no fucking idea how they’d get in that situation. She couldn’t just tell him that Alex was going to die in his arms when she couldn’t prevent it.

She shook her head, swallowing hard and trying to manage a smile.

“Yeah, it was just, uh, it was just Alex getting a package,” she lied. Michael furrowed his eyebrows and pursed his lips.

“That’s it?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, like, was it a bomb or something? Don’t you usually see bad stuff?”

Maria scoffed, trying her best to act normal, “I don’t always have to see bad stuff.”

“I mean, okay, but maybe you should text him to be careful just in case,” Michael said.

Maria forced a laugh and nodded. Now what?

-

“Liz. Liz, I did something bad.”

Liz looked up from where she stood behind the counter at the Crashdown. Maria hadn’t been able to sleep the entire night before, tossing and turning beside Michael as she tried to rationalize the lie that she couldn’t go back on. If she told him, he’d hate her.

“What happened?” Liz asked softly. Maria just looked at her as urgently as possible, chewing on her thumb nail like she hadn’t done since she was a kid. Liz seemed to notice and she quickly flagged down the other waitress, telling her she’d be right back before she led Maria to the back of the house and then into the stairwell that led to the apartment. Once they got there, Maria couldn’t hold back her tears anymore.

“I had another vision when I was with Michael last night and I lied about it and I shouldn’t have lied because something bad is gonna happen and I know and I can’t stop it and I don’t know what to do,” she rambled. Liz instantly moved in, grabbing her arms to steady her. Maria latched on.

“Well, what was it? I can fix it, just tell me,” Liz said. Maria shook her head. The words were too horrible to say. “I can’t help if you don’t tell me.”

“It’s Alex,” Maria whispered, bowing her head as she thought about it. Liz clutched her a little tighter.

“What about Alex?” Maria whimpered softly, shaking her head. “Maria, you’re scaring me. What’s going to happen to Alex?”

“I should’ve just told him, he’s going to hate me,” she said, gasping for a breath through her tears, “I just got him to myself.”

“Maria, forget about him, what did you see happen to Alex?” Liz said, chasing Maria’s gaze. 

Maria put her hand to her mouth as she choked on a sob, shaking her head.

“Someone’s going to kill him.”

-

“Alex!” 

Alex turned to the sound of his name, seeing Liz running towards him still in uniform. He gave a confused smile and gave her his full attention as she ran up to him.

“To what do I owe the pleasure?” he asked playfully. Except, as she came to a stop in front of him, he realized she wasn’t playful at all. In fact, she looked terrified. “What happened?”

“What are you planning on doing in the next two days?” she asked. He tilted his head.

“Um... Nothing? Why?”

“What do you mean nothing? Like, details on nothing,” Liz told him. Alex just stared at her like she’d lost it. “Just humor me.”

“I don’t know, Liz. Work, home, work, home. That’s it, same old, same old. Research in the middle probably. Why?” he said. She let out a big sigh, her shoulders dropping.

“You don’t happen to have any plans to go anywhere alone with Michael, do you?” Liz asked. 

Alex felt discomfort brew in his stomach at the man’s name. He hadn’t seen him in nearly three weeks, both of them avoiding each other like the plague as they tried to move past everything. However, it was definitely hard to move past when every time he slept, he got a new, better version of that stupid night. His subconscious seemed determined to erase Maria from the equation and, honestly, he found it hard to try to fight that. 

“No, why would I?” Alex asked, trying not to show how uncomfortable he felt at the mention of him. Last night’s version included him getting stabbed and Michael immediately appearing and punching the guy in the face before carrying Alex off, patching him up in a way that was straight out of a raunchy erotica. Definitely hard to feel comfortable with that on the brain.

“No reason,” she said, shifting as she clearly debated something in her mind, “Just, um, stay away from him for awhile, okay?”

“Have been,” Alex said, feeling more confused by the second, “What’s going on, Liz? Is something wrong?” 

She stared at him, eyes betraying her guilt. Worry slowly but surely started to fill his entire system. Was he hurt? 

“No,” she said, “Just... stay away from him, please?”

“Okay,” Alex agreed. She stared at him for a few seconds longer before coming close and hugging him. He froze for a moment before slowly hugging her back. “Are you sure everything’s okay?”

“Yeah,” she promised, slowly letting him go, “I’ll see you later?”

“Yeah, of course,” he promised. Liz nodded and slowly backed away. 

The whole thing was weird and, by the time he made it to his truck, his worry had sky rocketed. Had something happened to Michael and they didn’t want him to know? Did something happen between him and Maria and they were saving Alex from the heartbreak? That was unlikely.

As he turned the key, Alex decided that stopping by the junkyard couldn’t hurt. He could make up a lie about his truck and just see for himself that Michael was okay. He just... he needed to make sure.

Sure enough, as Alex pulled up, Michael was leaned over an engine and talking on the phone. He looked fine. That gave him a little bit of solace, but Alex couldn't help himself. He just needed to be sure that he was okay. And maybe on an embarrassing level, he just wanted to hear his voice again.

Alex got out of the truck and slowly made his way to him, reciting his excuse in his mind while Michael seemed to get increasingly irritated with whoever was on the other end of the line. He did his best not to eavesdrop, but, well, he was talking loud.

“No, I haven’t been practicing... Who the hell would I practice on? Do you know someone who likes to get hurt repeatedly for my own personal power trip?... No, Maria, I’m not mad at you, but–... Okay, fine, I’ll try to work on it, Jesus, you don’t have to lecture me.... Not mad!... Sorry, fuck, I’m working... Yeah, bye,” Michael sighed. Was it petty of Alex to find joy in his irritation?

“Hey,” Alex called. Michael looked over at him, back straightening as they locked eyes. 

“Hey,” Michael said, voice uncharacteristically kind, “Um, how are you?”

Alex furrowed his eyebrows and he gave a soft laugh, overwhelmed with confusion at Michael’s body language and tone. He didn’t act like that literally ever. It seemed like Alex’s renewed presence had drained him of all his cocky behavior.

“Uh, fine,” Alex said awkwardly, “How are you?”

Michael looked him over and licked his lips, seeming like he was trying to find his words. Which was, again, uncharacteristic. What the hell had happened since he saw him last?

“I’ve missed you,” Michael admitted bluntly. Alex blinked and his eyes went wide, feeling thrown even further off course. Was he in the wrong universe? Was this why Liz didn’t want him to go anywhere near him? “I kinda got used to you being around–platonically, of course–and I didn’t realize how much I would miss you when you weren’t bothering me every day. I’m sorry I fucked things up so badly. Again.”

“I think that was a compliment and an apology?” Alex said, laughing slightly as he shifted. This was weird. What exactly did Liz give him? “Um, are you okay? You’re being weirdly honest.”

“I just... You ever feel like something bad is gonna happen and you have no basis for why you feel that way, but it doesn’t stop you from feeling like it? Because I keep feeling like something bad is gonna happen to you with no basis and it’s really fucking annoying and then you just showed up, so it felt like a sign,” he rambled. Alex gave a soft smile as it clicked that Liz didn’t give him anything. This was him just being human for once.

“Anxiety,” Alex filled in. Michael licked his lips and shrugged.

“I guess...” he said. He shook off the weirdness. “Anyway, what brings you ‘round here if it’s not life threatening?”

“Um,” Alex started, considering using the excuse he’d concocted on the way here, but decided against it. Michael was being honest, why shouldn’t he? “Anxiety, too, I guess. Liz told me to leave you alone and I was worried.”

Michael’s eyebrows pulled together in confusion, genuinely taken aback by that statement.

“She told you to leave me alone? What the fuck?” he asked. Alex shrugged. “Man, first Maria’s acting weird, now Liz.”

“And you,” Alex teased. Michael rolled his eyes. “I don’t know, maybe the planets are aligned in some type of way.” Michael huffed a laugh.

“I don’t know, just seems weird.”

“Yeah,” Alex sighed, looking around and trying to find an excuse to stay. Liz said to leave him alone, but if it was just because he was feeling anxious, then he wasn’t about to do that. He missed him too. “So, I heard you need someone to practice healing on.” Michael tilted his head.

“You eavesdropping now, Private?” Michael asked. Alex shrugged and took a step closer, shoving his hands in his pockets.

“I’ve got nothing better to do,” Alex said, “Why not help a friend? Platonically, of course.”

Michael’s face split into a smile. “Okay.”

Which is how Alex found himself sitting outside the airstream and cutting open his palm with a sterilized knife like he was in Supernatural and planning to activate some kind of sigil. Michael looked at him hesitantly as he scooted closer, taking Alex’s hand between his.

“Have you ever done this before?” Alex asked.

“Uh,” he laughed awkwardly, “No. So, sorry if this takes a minute.”

“Take your time, I’ll be fine, just focus,” Alex encouraged. He nodded and licked his lips, his eyes closing as he focused really hard.

In fact, it might’ve been too hard because his face was going red instead of his hands.

“Are you breathing?” Alex asked, trying not to laugh. Michael groaned and separated their hands for a second, wiping his bloody and sweaty ones on his jeans. Alex didn’t do that if only because his hand was still bleeding. “Breathe and focus. Just imagine it healing.” 

“I am.”

“Don’t imagine your hands glowing,” Alex told him, not having to even get confirmation that’s what he was doing. He knew Michael well enough for that. “Imagine my skin coming together.”

“Right,” Michael said, nodding and grasping Alex’s hand between his own again. They sat there, palm to palm, and waited. After a couple minutes, Michael sighed. “You’re still bleeding and it’s not working, let me get a–“

“Hey,” Alex said, mindlessly reaching out to touch his chin gently with his non-bloody hand. He wasn’t quite sure why he did that, but he would blame it on the fact that they’d been holding hand for ten minutes. But he still immediately dropped it when it effectively got Michael’s attention. “I’m okay, it’s not gushing blood or anything. You can heal it, you just need to focus.”

Michael stared at him in the eyes like he’d just told him the most confusing thing in the world. There had to be something going on because this was weird. Alex loved it, but it was weird. Michael didn’t just look at him like that for no reason.

“Hey, are you okay? For real, like, is something going on?” he asked.

“I mean, no,” Michael laughed weakly, “Just... you sound like you believe I can actually do it.”

“I do believe that,” Alex said.

“Why?”

“Because you’re literally biologically capable of it,” Alex stated simply, “You just need a little bit of positive reinforcement.”

“Positive reinforcement?”

“Yes,” Alex confirmed, layering his other hand on top of Michael’s, “You can do this. I believe in you.”

Michael huffed a laugh, shaking his head as he turned his focus onto their hands. “Gonna make a man melt, Manes.”

Alex smiled easily, shaking his head. Sometimes he wished he could know exactly what he was thinking. This was one of those times. He didn’t exactly know how to read what he was saying or the way he was acting. Yes, he was being uncharacteristically nice, but how long would that last? Was this simply self-sabotage? Was this just another way for Alex to get his hopes up before Michael went back to Maria?

But, more importantly, how much more touching did Michael want to green-light before that happened?

They sat there for awhile, Alex trying to hype him up while Michael tried his best to focus. Eventually, though, the sun went down and the blood was starting to dry and their palms were sticking together in a way that burned a little bit. Alex hissed slightly when Michael pulled away a little and it stung.

“Let’s take a break,” Alex suggested and Michael nodded easily. He pursed his lips as he checked Alex’s cut, holding his hand closer to his eyes. “What are you doing?”

“Realized I didn’t wash my hands after handling that engine, making sure there’s no dirt or oil in your cut. Don’t want it getting infected if I can’t heal it,” he mumbled more to himself than than to Alex. He eventually dropped his hand though. “Want a beer?”

“Sure,” Alex agreed, watching him in an almost mesmerized fashion as he got up and went into the airstream. What the hell had happened over the last three weeks that made him so nice? Is that really what Maria was doing for him? Maybe she was good for him. The idea hurt him a lot more than he was willing to admit. 

But Michael came back with two beers, a small flask, and a wet rag. Alex watched as he plopped down in the old chair and pulled his hand back into his grasp. Then he opened the flask and poured it directly onto Alex’s wound.

“Oh my g–What the fuck, Guerin?!” Alex snapped, yanking his hand away as it started burning.

“Vodka,” Michael said, flashing a teasing little grin, “To sterilize it. Give me your hand, here’s your beer.”

“You don’t use vodka to sterilize someone’s hand,” Alex scolded, but he still gave him his hand back. Michael started carefully wiping away the dried blood with the rag.

“Didn’t have any rubbing alcohol.”

“Everclear’s close enough, I guess,” Alex said dryly. Michael flashed a smile and popped the caps off the beers with a simple nod of his head. Alex laughed and reached for one. “Alright, show-off, we get it, you’re cool.”

Michael looked up at him through his eyelashes. “You think I’m cool?”

“I mean, you’re a telekinetic alien, that’s a given,” Alex told him before taking a sip. Michael smiled and continued cleaning his hand. “So... you and Maria.”

“What about it?” Michael asked. Alex licked his lips. This wasn’t exactly his favorite topic, but he was trying to figure out where he stood. He’d missed him for three weeks and now suddenly he’d gone to see him and it was basically something out of a dream. Something had to have changed.

“You seem... happy,” Alex noted, “Together.”

“I guess,” Michael said, shrugging as he gave Alex’s hand one last look before letting him take it for himself, “We’re not really together though.”

“What do you mean?” Alex asked, his eyebrows furrowed. Michael sighed and took a sip of his own beer.

“We’re not dating, not her boyfriend or anything.” That didn’t confuse Alex any less. If that was the case, then what the hell had been going on? Why did he choose Maria if they weren’t even going to date? “I’m doing my best, though, to be a good whatever. I’m looking through files to try to help her and her mom, try to communicate, try to fix all my stupid mistakes I’ve made.”

Alex nodded, swallowing even though his mouth was dry. He knew it made sense and he was happy that Michael was aware of his mistakes and was trying to fix them, but he couldn’t help but feel a little burned by that. Wasn’t it cliche for a woman to swoop in a fix all the damage?

“Well, I’m glad she’s good to you,” Alex said. Michael shrugged, picking at the label of the beer. 

“Can I be honest?” Michael asked softly, “And you not take it personally?”

“Yeah, of course,” Alex agreed, shifting in his seat.

“Sometimes I think she feels like this is as good as I get. Like, no matter what I do, the bar is so low for me that she expects nothing of me and so I always meet it. Which, which is cool, I like not being pressured and stuff, but... I don’t know, I kinda like the way you always thought I could be cool and smart. Miss the way you challenge me,” Michael admitted, huffing a laugh, “I feel more useful than I’ve felt in weeks and I didn’t even fucking heal you.”

“Ah, so you missed my Drill Sargent mouth, not me,” Alex teased. Michael laughed, shaking his head.

“Nah, I missed you,” he said sincerely. Alex smiled a little sadly and nodded. Why couldn’t they admit that when they still had a chance?

“I missed you too.”

“Hey, uh, you got a package lately?” Michael asked. Alex’s eyebrows met in the middle.

“What? Why?”

“Nothing,” Michael said, putting the beer to his lips. Alex stared at him in confusion for awhile, but slowly let it go.

They sat there for awhile in silence, just drinking and enjoying each other’s company. It was easy to slip back into this despite all the bullshit from before. Because, at the end of the day, spending so much time away from someone you love while knowing they were right there was harder than it seemed. Alex wasn’t quite sure where Michael stood, but he liked to think the feeling was mutual still. Why else would they be sitting here like this?

“You still feel anxious?” Alex asked after awhile, using his good leg to reach out and kick him. Michael scrunched up his nose, shrugging his shoulders.

“I got eyes on you, so it’s easier to remind myself you’re not gonna die,” Michael said with a soft laugh. Alex smiled at him and nodded.

“I feel that.”

Easy silence came back over them and Alex knew, logically, he’d have to leave soon. He couldn’t stay all night even wanted to. They couldn’t fall back into old habits now matter how appealing it was. However, he could make excuses to stay longer.

“Wanna try to heal me again?” Alex asked as he finished his second beer, holding out his hand and wiggling his fingers. Michael smiled and nodded, scooting to the edge of the seat.

“You know, if this works, you’re gonna have a hand print on you, right?” Michael said.

“I’ve got gloves.”

“No, I mean... You’ll be able to feel my feelings and I’ll be able to feel yours,” Michael said, glancing at him hesitantly, “And I’ve never done it before so I don’t know if I’ll be able to, like, respect your privacy.”

“Michael,” Alex said, “I know. I don’t mind.”

“You don’t?” he clarified.

“No. I mean, you already know everything about me. Maybe it’ll actually click how I feel about you too,” Alex said. He meant it to be a little teasing and it was definitely influenced by the lighter feeling the alcohol gave him, but Michael just stared at him with a blank expression for a concerningly long time. “Scared?”

“No,” Michael said. He almost sounded like a determined little boy and, for a moment, Alex got nervous that he would react badly to feeling the way he felt. But Alex had already hit rock bottom when it came to Michael Guerin, he’d already ripped himself open for this man over and over, so, honestly, he wasn’t scared to get a little clarification on his end. Maybe Guerin was right, he needed to really make it feel over. “No, I can do it.”

“Mhm,” Alex said, holding out the hand with the cut. Michael took it into his own carefully, grazing his fingertips over his sore skin before pressing his palm against his again. It was warm and still stung a little, but Alex didn’t flinch. 

Alex wasn’t sure what changed from the first dozen times they’d tried that afternoon. He wasn’t sure if it was the alcohol or the fact that it wasn’t bleeding anymore or the fact that the sun had gone down or maybe it was just that Alex had assured him that he didn’t mind the mental invasion, but that low glow started to emit from his hand as it shook with concentration. 

Alex opened his mouth to praise him for it, but was immediately just hit with a wave of pleasure. His jaw dropped even more than intended and he clutched the stupid lawn chair with his free hand so tight he knew it would be sore later. His breathing got heavier and his eyes closed, a strained moan vibrating low in his throat without warning as that euphoric feeling only seemed to get stronger and reach every inch of his mind and body.

But then everything went black.

-

“He’s not answering his phone.”

“Neither is Alex.”

“Fuck.”

Maria found herself crying all over again, guilt pooling in her stomach. She should’ve just warned them. Even if it meant losing Michael, she should’ve just been honest. This was karma at its finest. 

“Maria,” Liz instructed sternly, grabbing her arms again, “Calm down. I’m gonna call Max and Isobel and Kyle and we’re gonna find them.”

“Alex is going to die and it’s my fault,” Maria said, bowing her head as she cried harder. It was hard to just calm down when her not-quite-boyfriend and her best friend were in danger. It didn’t seem to matter that Alex had stayed away from Michael, maybe this was supposed to happen all along and she just didn’t know.

God, why was she so stupid?

“Maria, stop,” Liz said, “We’re going to find them and it’s going to be okay, but we can’t do that if you don’t keep it together. You’re the only one who has seen the building they were in, even if it was only for a second, we need you.”

Maria sniffled, swallowing harshly as she nodded. She took a few grounding breaths and raised her head. She needed to focus and remember. She refused to let Alex die.

-

“Alex, hey, wake up.”

Alex groaned, his head throbbing. A pair of hands were on his shoulders and shaking him awake, not letting him sleep even though he wanted to. When he reluctantly opened his eyes, Michael was above him with wild, panicked eyes. Alex looked around the small room.

“Where are we?” he asked, pushing himself up onto his elbows. Michael helped him sit up. He stayed ridiculously close, his hands never leaving his arms.

“I don’t know,” Michael whispered like he was scared someone was listening. They might’ve been. “Last thing I remember was I was healing you and then something hit me and I woke up here. Didn’t even get to finish and you’re still all hurt.” 

Alex lethargically looked down to his hand to see the cut was indeed still there, but he could feel Michael more than he normally could and it made it clear that he’d gotten at least partially done. He didn’t know they could actually do half-way things like that. Still, he didn’t have time to dwell on that, so he looked around to try and figure out where they were.

“Whoever they are, they know who we are,” Alex noted, his hand going up to rub the back of his head. The room was small and didn’t seem to have a door, just four walls Michael could probably reach across both ways if he laid down and stretched. It was empty except for them. “They waited until we were distracted and then they knocked me out first so I couldn’t fight.”

“Oh,” Michael breathed. He scooted a little closer even though he was already nearly on top of him, reaching out to feel the back of his head. “Are you okay? There’s a knot, but it’s pretty small. Are you nauseous? Dizzy? Your responses are a little delayed, but I can’t tell if that’s because you just woke up or because you have a concussion.”

“I don’t have a concussion.”

“Irritability is a symptom of a concussion, are you–“

“Michael,” Alex said, putting a hand over his and looking at him with a gaze that seemed to fix him in place, “I’m fine. I don’t have a concussion. Do you?”

“No, but I knew something shitty was going to happen. I knew it and I let my guard down and now you’re in pain,” he said. Alex shook his head, grabbing his wrist gently.

“Not your fault. But we gotta get out of here, so I need you to stay calm and use that brain of yours, okay?” Alex instructed softly.

The hand print, as dull as it was, still had him feeling all that secondhand anxiety that seemed to be filling Michael to the brim. He wondered if they were just feeding off of each other’s negative emotions and making shit worse. He pushed his bad feelings down as far as he could just in case, sending all the supportive ones through the connection instead. 

“Do your powers still work or are they dulled?”

Michael looked around for something to fuck with as a test, but considering there was nothing to move, he focused on Alex. With a little clever wiggle of the nose, Alex’s hair smoothed itself out in a very detailed manner. He smiled and squeezed his hand.

“Thank you, you’re incredible,” Alex said, knowing that the extra little compliment would help them out in the long run. For the first time, though, he could feel how Michael took that little word to heart and cherished it. He gave a small smile to make it that much more meaningful.

“I can feel you,” Michael told him, eyes still wide and a voice hardly making a noise at all. He almost looked like he did when he got a little too high and that worried Alex, but he decided not to question if they’d been drugged on top of kidnapped. 

If he was on drugs and still ached the way he did, well, he had bigger problems. 

Michael leaned closer, his nose pressing into Alex’s cheek before he slowly rubbed against his face like kitten. “You’re in so much pain, I hate it. You think about pain too much. Pain and math, too much pain and math.”

Well. At least he knew for sure that Michael had definitely been drugged.

-

“Alex’s truck is at the junkyard.”

“What?” Maria asked, more than a little horrified at the information Kyle was giving them. “Liz, I thought you told Alex not to go to him.”

“You act like that wouldn’t make Alex immediately go to check on him,” Kyle scoffed from the other side of the phone. Both women pressed their hands into their face, stressed to hell over this ridiculous revelation. What the hell were they going to do? “Listen, Isobel is on her way. When she gets there, try and see if you can stir up any triggers that’ll tell us where they might be.”

“Okay,” Liz agreed, looking over to Maria who nodded in agreement.

“If you think of anything, call me. Max and I are gonna scope the place out, see if there’s any clues. Stay safe.”

“You too.”

The call ended too quickly and they sat in silence for a moment. Maria had a billion thoughts running through her mind, but the main one that stood out was Michael sobbing as he tried to heal a lifeless Alex. It was horrible and she was terrified that it was going to come true if they didn’t find them fast enough.

“Who would take them?” Liz scoffed, shaking her head, “I don’t understand.”

“Alex’s dad, maybe?” Maria suggested, “He’s all evil and stuff, right?”

“Yeah, but this feels weird even for him. Why would he specifically try to get just Michael and Alex out of the picture, not the rest of the aliens?” Liz asked. Maria shrugged.

In that moment, Isobel strutted in like she was in a TV show that no one else had been informed of. She took off her sunglasses with a dramatic flare and set her sight on the two women.

“Alright, DeLuca, let’s find my brother.”

Before Maria could even agree, she was warped into her mindscape.

-

“You remember how you said you thought it was gonna be us?”

Alex sighed, stroking Michael’s hair as he laid against his chest. It became very clear that whatever was in his bloodstream had made him weirdly touchy for the time being and Alex just had to ride it out with him. Besides, Alex had already scoped every inch of the room over and over and couldn’t figure out where a door might even be. For right now, there was nothing he could do but try to make sure they’d both be aware enough whenever they got the chance to escape. 

“Yeah, I remember,” Alex said, trying not to get too accustomed to the way Michael was rubbing his chest. As soon as they were out of this situation, things would go back to normal. That meant no more I miss you’s and no more cuddling.

“I’m still kinda scared it’s not,” he whispered. Alex sighed, his head still aching. This felt extremely unfair. Not only was Michael drugged and he wasn’t, but now he had to listen to him talk about them as if it was an option. And, while Alex could feel that he still loved him, he could also feel the complete fear Michael had when it came to them. Alex didn’t know if he could ever be with him in good conscious knowing that.

“It’s probably not,” Alex admitted, “But that’s okay. You and Maria are good together.” Michael made a wounded noise and pressed into him even more. It made his back ache, but Alex didn’t say anything. Michael just pushed his head into his chest more, the movement more akin to an angry cat than a human being. “Hey now, you’re the one who fully admitted to being more mature and communicating more. That’s good.”

“It’s easy to be honest when you don’t care what they think about you. I care what you think,” he grumbled, the heel of his palm pressing down as his hand slid down. Alex stopped it before it got too low, sighing.

“You’re not in your right mind,” Alex told him, using his other hand to comb through his hair in a veiled attempted to soothe him a bit more. Michael just gave another whiny, sad noise. “Once we get out of here, we’re gonna go back to the way we have been which is okay.”

“No.” Michael moved in closer, his leg moving on top of Alex’s and his knee wedging between his thighs. Alex sighed as he let him invade his space completely and kissed his head. Yeah, this had to be a very specific brand of torture.

“What did they even give you?” he whispered against his hair, eyes scanning the room again. 

Not only were there no signs of a door, there wasn’t really any sign of a camera either. However, there had to be something. It didn’t feel like they were losing oxygen, so it wasn’t sealed, and whoever put them there must’ve been watching them. What other benefit would they get from shoving Alex in a room with a drugged Michael? That’s when that very specific brand of torture sounded less like a joke and more like reality.

“Someone’s targeting me,” Alex noted, furrowing his eyebrows as he sat up a bit straight. Michael whined in protest, but Alex just kept his hand on the back of his head to keep him in place as he thought hard. 

Whoever had done this had to have known Alex would only let his guard down enough to be captured when he was with Michael. Not only that, but they had to wait until he was in the middle of healing to do so. Then they chose to drug Michael, but not Alex. It left Alex feeling all of his pain, but also let him taking care of an emotional alien. What the fuck?

“Ow,” Michael whined, nearly kneeing Alex in the dick as he scrunched his whole body up, “You’re thinking too loud.”

“I’m thinking too–They amplified your powers,” Alex said. The fact that he could feel Alex more than Alex could feel him, him being able to do something as specific as flatten his hair in all different directions without even straining, him being able to hear his thoughts. He pulled Michael’s head away from his chest and looked into his eyes. His pupils were still blown. “Why the fuck would they amplify your powers? Wouldn’t they want to make you less of a threat?”

Michael stared at him instead of answering. It was very similar to the look he’d given him back in the junkyard, but far more open and admirable. He slowly started leaning forward, going in for a kiss that Alex dodged at the last second.

“I don’t understand,” Alex murmured as he held Michael’s head against his shoulder again, keeping him from doing anything stupid, “Why would they make you more powerful?”

“Maybe it’s a test,” Michael whispered against his neck, soft enough that even if the room was mic-ed they wouldn’t hear it, “Seeing what it takes to break you. Maybe they expected me to be mean.”

Alex’s jaw set as that seemed even more plausible than ever. It had him wondering what kind of drug they could’ve concocted that was intended to make Michael angry but instead made him emotional and clingy while still boosting his powers. The first thing that came to mind was a weird alien hormone that he’d been given an extra dose of. As dumb as that sounded, Alex couldn’t rule anything out. He took a deep breath to prepare himself. 

“Thank you for that big brain of yours,” he said and kissed the side of Michael’s head for good measure. Michael gave a happy little hum and nuzzled closer. As much as Alex wanted him to keep holding him, though, he realized he needed to get on his feet so he wouldn’t be caught off guard. “I need to stand up.”

“Why?” Michael whined.

“I just do,” he repeated more firmly. 

It took a moment, but he eventually got Michael to get up and to help him to his feet. He was a little unsteady for a moment from both not standing for long and also having his prosthetic on for so long. The moment he got stable, Michael looked over him and checked the bump on the back of his head, still gazing at him with a look that was far too overwhelming.

“How are you feeling?” Alex asked. Michael shrugged his shoulders.

A few seconds later, an alarm sounded one of the walls in it’s entirety started moving. Alex’s eyes widened in confusion and Michael placed himself firmly in front of him. This was the first time that Alex actually trusted him to be there. He was powerful right now, Alex could feel that, and he was protective. He knew damn well whoever was behind this couldn’t have predicted that.

A man slowly walked into view, so distinctly not his father that it actually shocked Alex. What the hell was going on?

“Hello, Captain,” he said.

“What do you want?” Alex demanded. The man grinned and took a step closer. Michael held his hand out in front him, locking the man in place. He still smirked.

“Come closer to him and I’ll kill you,” he said. Alex gently touched his hip and moved to stand to his side and a step closer to the man.

“Play nice for a minute,” he whispered. Michael’s jaw clenched, but he let the man go. His smirk got wider and he continued to saunter closer, not seeming phased by Michael’s power. What the fuck? “What do you want?”

“Where to start?” he asked, “Ah, I know where. I talked to your father. He said you had a peculiar attachment to a specific extraterrestrial. Who would I be if I didn’t quickly get you both to be apart of the experiment?”

“Experiment?” Alex repeated. He could feel the waves of irritation waft off of Michael. His switch from caring to angry had flipped so quick, Alex felt more sure than ever that it was hormones. 

“We’ve had a very, very small group to work with when it comes to imprinting over the years. Four pairs in total, to be exact, and all have resulted in the same conclusions. It’s better than biological weaponry, I swear. The bond between one of these creatures and their masters can be incredible. You two, however, have one noticeable difference to the other sets we’ve tested on. Usually, they only have a few months, maybe a year, to form that bond and it’s already strong enough where the creature will just fold to their master’s will. But you two... over a decade. Incredible.”

“Is he saying I’m, like, your fucking Pokémon or something?” Michael asked softly. 

“I don’t know,” Alex answered, stepping a little bit more in front of Michael.

“I can already tell this will be fun with the way you both act. I’ve never seen it look so organic before,” he stated, looking genuinely proud of the discovery. Alex didn’t share the sentiment. “He handled the pheromone dose well, I see.”

Pheromone dose. So they weren’t trying to make him angry, they were trying to make him love him more. Well, it fucking worked. And, honestly, Alex wouldn’t be surprised if they’d manage to give him a dose before he even made it to the junkyard earlier. What else could explain how eager he was to talk to him and admit that he missed him? Alex tilted his head and couldn’t help the grim look that overcame his face. They were so fucked.

“I’m excited to see if you’ll both survive. First time for everything, you know?” the man said, seeming to be genuinely giddy about the whole thing.

Things moved far too fast and he was gone, leaving them in what looked like a tiny arena. Slots opened in the walls and four mechanical arms slowly exited out of them. For a moment, Alex had hope that maybe they’d survive this and it was really just a dumb test. But then he realized they all had real weapons, throwing knives and guns. Three men, fully decked out in protective gear, walked in as well with their own deadly weapons. It was the fucking Tento di Cruciamentum.

“Alex,” Michael said warily. Alex licked his lips and firmly planted himself in between Michael and the things designed to kill them.

“Do you trust me?” Alex asked, reaching behind him to grab Michael’s hand. He squeezed it when it overlapped the dull hand print, feeling a rush of determination and loyalty.

“Yes,” Michael said. Alex brought Michael’s hand up and placed it on his shoulder with his palm facing outward. It was their own little weapon. They had to just play along.

“Then do as I say, alright?” he whispered, taking a deep breath as a buzzer sounded as if to signify the beginning of this sick test, “Keep the weapons off me and I’ll handle the hand-to-hand.”

Michael did as he said immediately, all four mechanical arms imploding on themselves enough to startle the men into trying to hide their own guns. Alex smiled in sheer pride.

“That’s my boy.”

-

“You’re such a bitch.”

“Heard it before, try something new.”

Maria glared at Isobel as they stood in the foggy mindscape that laid somewhere between them. Together, they had gotten better at the whole psychic thing. They were two very different kinds of psychic and it helped amplify each other in ways neither of them had thought possible. However, she still needed to fucking ask before she did that.

“I know you want to find your brother, but you can’t just invade my mind without asking,” Maria said. Isobel wasn’t amused, just giving her a tight smile.

“He’s been gone for hours and you haven’t done anything to help, so help.”

“I don’t know how. I only got a glimpse and it was just–“

“Show me.”

Maria frowned as she looked at her. The last thing she wanted to do was watch Alex die again, but she couldn’t think of a good reason to say no. Isobel had the power to replay the scene perfectly and that was the only way they could even kind of grasp the location.

“We need to help them, chop chop,” Isobel said.

As angry as Maria wanted to be, she knew it would just make things take longer and that was putting Alex’s life at risk. So, instead, she focused as hard as she could on that vision. Isobel grabbed her arm, giving her that extra little power boost to make it happen.

She knew she was there when she heard Michael’s sobbing.

Maria couldn’t help but look at the scene, holding back tears as she listening to Michael cry and promise to bring him back. 

“Stop look at them, it makes it harder, focus on the room,” Isobel instructed. Maria reluctantly look away so she could take in the room, trying to ignore the sobbing. 

There were three men laying unconscious on the ground, most of them seeming alive except for one who’s head was nearly on backward. On the wall, there were four open holes with destroyed, smoking machines in them. The walls were all covered in metal and the floor was dirt, but, when she looked up, the ceiling was high and wooden. It looked like someone had too much time on their hands.

“Is it a renovated barn?” Isobel said out loud.

“I think so,” Maria said, quickly looking around to try and see if there were any windows so she could see where it might be. Except the vision ended, warping back into the default mindscape. “Shit.”

“Do it again,” Isobel instructed. Maria looked at her a little helplessly. “We need to see more, that wasn’t enough information.”

“Can you really stand to hear Michael cry like that again?” Maria asked. Isobel looked at her with a hardened gaze.

“If it means saving his life, I’ll listen to it a thousand times.”

And they sadly did have to listen to it five more times, trying to look for an outside view. By the time they did find an outside view, Maria felt nearly desensitized to the sound.

“Are we good?” she asked as they got a good look of the farm space they’d been at. It looked like an old, abandoned farm. Maria didn’t know what to do with that information personally, but she assumed Max might know. It was apart of his job to know where she was in Roswell.

“I think so,” Isobel said. It was clear listening to Michael be so distressed actually had impacted her, but she kept it to herself. “Let’s go save them.”

“Finally.”

-

Michael hated this.

He knew Alex was a fighter and he knew it was strong and, had this not been a life-or-death situation, it might’ve been really hot to see him fight three men and use their protective gear against them. Right now, though, Michael felt like his skin was going to burn off. He wanted to get the fuck out of here and just tuck Alex up in his arms and keep him safe. That was the fucking goal, but god forbid these assholes let that happen.

When he had nightmares about being an experiment, this just wasn’t what he had in mind.

“Guerin!” Alex yelled. Michael responded by throwing the guy who’d managed to get in a cut on Alex’s arm across the room, slamming him so hard into the wall that it knocked him out. 

He was trying his damnedest to get them all to fuck off, but they were trained fighters and he wasn’t used to anything more than a sloppy bar fight which mean he just had to stay back and use his brain. Which would be fine, but he could already feel his power dwindling. He needed acetone and a break soon or they were fucked.

He realized that, if he just put in the effort to knock the remaining to out, maybe they could get the fuck away. He watched as Alex dodged a punch and then landed another one, but it only did so much when they had protective gear. One of the men grabbed Alex’s arms and Alex used that as a brace to shove his prosthetic straight into the other guy’s face. It had him stumbling back and sent both Alex and the guy holding him to the floor. Anger pooled in Michael’s stomach and he used it to throw the guy who got the metal leg to the face like he’d thrown the first one, watching him fall too the floor and not move.

Then he focused on Alex and the other guy. He wanted to help, but he wasn’t sure he had enough gas to throw him when he and Alex were fighting on the floor. So, instead, he threw himself at the guy whenever he got on top of Alex, tackling him even though he knew he shouldn’t have.

“Fuck,” Alex cursed, but he didn’t seem to be angry at Michael for it and that’s all that mattered. 

He wrestled with the guy, trying his best to try to free him of at least one piece of of the gear so he had a weak point. Alex was on it too, both of them using their body weight and Michael’s power to pin him to the floor. He looked panicked as they became successful and Alex took the headgear off before slamming his head into the ground, knocking him out for at least a second.

Michael and Alex locked eyes over him. His first thought was to kiss him, but that would be a little senseless so he didn’t. He wanted to though.

“Let’s get out of here,” Alex said and Michael agreed.

They used each other as leverage to get to their feet, both of them weak and needing to get the hell out of there. They won, but there was no telling if this was just round one or not. They looked around for an exit as quickly as they could, spotting a piece of the wall that looked a little different than the rest of it. Michael held out his hand, having to focus a little more than he’d like to admit to break it open and reveal the outside world. He needed acetone.

“You’re fucking brilliant,” Alex gushed, grabbing his hand and starting to pull him that way so that they could leave. 

But then a shot rang through the air and Alex fell to the ground almost instantly.

Secondhand pain and straight devastation coursed through Michael as he tried to break his fall. He felt like his mind had completely short-circuited as he fell to his knees with Alex. 

“No, no, Alex. Hey, no, stay with me,” Michael scrambled. His pretty face was morphed into shook, quick gasps falling from his lips as his body fought to breathe. Michael noticed the bullet had gone straight through him, straight through his lung. Wasn’t that just horrifying?

He looked up to spot the culprit, the second guy he’d thrown looking at him with sick joy and a gun in his hand despite the fact that he was still weak. Michael’s pain and hate brought tears to his eyes and, without so much as a second thought, he held his hand out and screamed, draining himself a little too much just so he could see his neck snap. He shot Alex. He shot Alex.

Michael pulled Alex closer into his lap, his hand pressing to his chest that just seemed to bleed so much faster than any person should and breathing slowing into something nonexistent. His hand was shaking and his mind wasn’t processing anything, everything in him just saying that Alex wasn’t allowed to die. He’d just fucking understood shit for once. He couldn’t. He needed him. Fuck, he needed him.

“I got you,” Michael said, sniffling harshly as he rocked Alex back and forth, “I got you. It’s okay, I got you.”

Alex’s eyes were wide, staring up at him still. He wasn’t gasping anymore for air, but Michael could still feel him and that was enough. If he could feel him, he could heal him. He’d healed him before, he could do it now when he knew that Alex loved him and trusted him. He could do it.

“It’s gonna work, I promise,” Michael said, voice breaking as he sobbed and pressed down a little harder on Alex's chest, “Any second now, I’m gonna fix it. I’m gonna heal you, just gotta hold on ‘til then. I got you.”

He closed his eyes, drawing on whatever was left to try and heal him. But, that was the problem. He felt like he was sucking on the straw in an empty juice box. There was nothing fucking there. He whined low and horrified, feeling so fucking useless as he tried over and over to find power that hadn’t been replenished yet.

“No, no, no,” Michael cried, choking on his sobs as blood started coming from his nose and his ears the more he tried. He didn’t even care. Not when Alex wasn’t breathing and hadn’t blinked. “Alex. Please, stay with me. Please. I just need a second.”

“Well, that was unexpected,” that stupid fucking man said again, coming out of nowhere. Michael glared up at him, still holding Alex and waiting for things to just work. This wasn’t real. This was fake. Fake, fake, fake. Alex was alive and well and this was a bad dream. “Usually the creature will jump in front of the master, sacrifice themselves. I’ve never seen a master die and the creature end up unharmed. You must be very manipulative.”

Michael cried harder, unable to even find words to bite back. He’d never felt a pain quite like this. He bowed his head to look at Alex, rocking him a little as he pressed on his chest. Heal, god damn it. He believes in you. Don’t let him down.

“No, seriously, I’m impressed. You’ll make a good soldier. You have very fine-tuned skills for a telekinetic.”

“Fuck you,” Michael managed, bending over even more to press his head against Alex’s. His eyes were still open, staring lifelessly right back. It was easily the worst thing Michael had ever seen. “Come back. I miss you.”

“Cute,” the man said.

“I miss you,” Michael told Alex again, his tears mixing with his blood that mixed with Alex’s blood. He pressed harder on Alex’s chest, trying to just get him to wake up. He could still feel that low hum of Alex in his veins, but it seemed to be stuck on his last set of emotions. Pride and then pain and then fear and then nothing. “Come back, please. I’ll do better, I promise. Please, Alex.”

“Police!”

Michael didn’t budge, not having it in him to care about anything that wasn’t bringing Alex back. He couldn’t even bring himself to stop staring at his eyes, just waiting for a sign of life. It had to come. It had to.

Things happened around him and he didn’t notice, trying so hard to find his strength to get him back. He had to come back.

“I miss you,” he repeated, “I don’t wanna miss you anymore.”

“Michael, buddy,” Max’s voice sounded as he touched his shoulder. Michael didn’t move. “You gotta let him go, okay?”

“No,” Michael argued, “No, I can fix this. He’s okay.”

“Michael,” Max said again.

“No.”

Faintly behind him, Michael could hear crying. He ignored it completely.

“Isobel, come here for a second,” Max urged softly. Michael felt another hand on his other shoulder.

“I’m not leaving, not until he wakes him, you can’t make me,” Michael snapped.

“We know,” Isobel assured.

Slowly, Michael felt her other hand layer on top of his that was covering Alex’s wound. Then Max’s layered both of theirs. Michael quickly realized what they were offering and he found himself crying even harder.

“You ready?” Isobel said. He took a deep breath and sniffled. “One...”

“Two...” Max added.

“Three.”

-

Michael woke up, his body aching from head to toe and an IV stuck in his arm. 

The moment he did though, he scrambled to a seating position. Was that a dream? What the fuck happened? Where was Alex?

Sure enough, Alex was curled up in bed beside him, his own IV in his arm. He had bags under his eyes and he looked stressed despite the fact he was sleeping. Michael sighed in relief, scooting a little bit closer to him. That was when he realized that there was room to scoot closer and a quick look around told him he was in Max’s bedroom. The door was open and everything, giving them a way out of he wanted to. But, honestly, if Alex was alive, he didn’t want to.

He slowly laid down and ignored the way his back protested, facing Alex with unbridled guilt in his system. Whenever Alex woke up, he would hate him. He couldn’t even save him by himself. How pathetic was that? So much for a bond or whatever.

Still, he couldn’t help himself as he reached out to smooth his eyebrows out so he looked less distressed. Alex groaned at the touch and Michael snatched it away.

“Why did you touch my face?” Alex grumbled.

“Your eyebrows were all scrunched up.”

“What?” Alex asked, opening his eyes. They were tired, but alive and Michael couldn’t help but feel like that was the only thing that mattered. 

“You know, they were like this,” Michael told him, mimicking the way his eyebrows were. Alex gave the smallest smile and huffed a laugh, letting his eyes close again.

“Okay, valid reason to touch my face.”

Michael hummed in response, hesitant to reach for him again despite how badly he wanted to. He almost lost him. Hell, he did lose him. He didn’t want to leave.

“Alex,” he whispered, “Are you okay?”

“Define okay,” he said, “‘Cause I’m alive so that’s something. But we were also kidnapped and put in a fucking test arena because of some stupid fucking theory and that’s fucked.”

Michael continued to stare and let himself wonder why the universe hated them so much. Why couldn’t they have good memories? Why did everything have to do bad for them?

“I’m sorry,” Michael said, “This wouldn’t have happened if I just–“

“Stop it,” Alex sighed, “This is literally in no way your fault. In fact, you saved me.”

“I didn’t though,” Michael whispered, tears pricking his eyes, “I tried and I failed. You died in my arms because I didn’t protect you and I couldn’t even bring you back. I lost you. That was the worst moment of my life.”

“Hey,” Alex said, moving as close as he could with the short IV line, “You helped me. That’s all I could’ve asked from you.”

“Stop trying to make me feel better, you’re the one who died,” Michael pointed out. Alex gave a grim look and reached out, grabbing Michael’s hand in his own. He pressed that dull hand print against his palm, effectively showing Michael just how much he still loved him and didn’t blame him. In fact, he loved him more than before. “I-I don’t understand.”

“Love doesn’t make sense, moron,” Alex sighed, pulling his hand up to his lips and pressing a kiss to his palm. 

Michael understood a lot more in that moment. In fact, he understood worship. Was this how Alex felt after every other traumatic fucking event they shared? Unbridled love and devotion? And, if he had, how the hell had Michael not felt it? More importantly, how had Alex survived being turned away?

“I love you,” Michael gushed, wishing that he was stronger so he could do something about it, “Holy fuck, I love you.”

Alex let out a soft little laugh, smiling as he kissed his hand again.

“That’s the first time you don’t feel scared of what that means,” Alex said.

“Because I’m not scared anymore,” Michael said, too many feelings rushing through him as things just made sense for once. Everything made sense. Everything had an answer. The answer was Alex. “Because I’ve already lived my biggest fear and you’re still here, you still love me.”

“And there’s no sign of stopping,” Alex hummed. Michael let out a heavy breath and pushed himself forward on a shaky arm, desperate for closeness more than ever before. Which was saying something.

“Hey, you’re up,” Maria’s voice said from the doorway, stopping them from getting any closer. They both looked to see basically everyone in the doorway, peering at them with matching concerned-mother looks. “Both of you.”

“Yeah,” they said. A hesitant silence filled the room, no one knowing what boundaries they could press.

“If you want to ask about why we got taken, can that wait? It’s confusing and long,” Alex said. Max was the first to respond, shaking his head.

“No, we found the files when we arrested that guy on drug and homicide charges,” he said, noticing their confusion and adding an explanation, “We couldn’t exactly charge him for kidnapping or anything without explaining the alien thing. Had to stage it as a drug deal gone wrong.”

“Oh,” Michael breathed, licking his lips as he remembered that guy he killed. He always thought he’d feel guilty about it, but it didn’t seem to effect him that way. He’d killed Alex, it seemed fair. 

“But the files are interesting and, when you guys are feeling better, we’d like to go over them,” Kyle said. They both nodded. Michael wondered when they’d leave them alone.

“Okay,” Michael said, “So, uh, I don’t wanna be mean, but I’m tired.”

“Yeah, of course,” Liz said instantly, “But we wanted to say something real quick.” She and Maria shared a quick look before turning back to them, taking deep breaths.

“I saw you die before it happened, Alex,” Maria said softly, “And I told Liz instead of telling anyone else because I was scared and didn’t know where or when it was happening and I just got scared. I’m so sorry.” 

Michael furrowed his eyebrows, feeling genuinely confused and hurt by that admission. Obviously, she couldn’t have predicted the context, but, fuck, a little more of a warning other than a phone call about practicing healing would’ve helped.

“You could’ve warned us,” Michael said, “Why the fuck wouldn’t you say something?”

“It’s okay,” Alex said. Michael immediately scoffed.

“No, it’s not okay,” he insisted.

“Okay, but I’m tired,” Alex sighed. Michael felt a little torn as he looked to him and then to Maria and Liz who looked extremely guilty. “Can I just yell at you when I feel better?”

“Yes,” Maria said, Liz nodding along, “You can yell at me or cut me off or whatever you want, I’m so sorry, Alex.”

“Can I steal my boyfriend back?” he asked instead of anything else. Michael huffed a shocked laugh, looking over at him. 

“Yes,” Maria said again, though a little more sad about that one. Michael, as much as he liked her, wasn’t. Alex took a heavy breath, his eyes closing.

“Yay,” he breathed. Michael–and everyone else, honestly–watched him as he seemed to drift right back to sleep. He eventually looked back at the group.

“Is he gonna be okay?” he asked, his eyes directed to Kyle who nodded.

“Yes, he’s just going to need a bit more time than you. Turns out traumatic experiences can do one hell of a number on your physical health regardless of alien healing,” Kyle filled in, taking a step further into the room and going to check on their IV bags, “Yours is basically an acetone drip, that’s why.”

“Oh,” Micahel said, nodding slightly as he slid his attention back to the group in the doorway, “We’ll talk about this later?”

“Absolutely,” Liz said and Maria agreed. 

“Okay, can I take a nap now?”

Soon enough, they all cleared the room, even Kyle who left him with a ‘you hurt Alex, I hurt you’ look that Michael wasn’t even mad about. Still, he used what little power he could muster to close the door and he scooted closer to Alex despite the IV in his arm.

“I love you,” he told him, “And I’m gonna do right by you, even if it’s because I accidentally imprinted on you.”

Alex smiled just a little bit or maybe Michael imagined it, but it didn’t matter either way. He meant it. He grabbed Alex’s hand again, weaving their fingers together.

“I’m gonna kiss you when you wake up,” he promised, “And it’s gonna be cosmic.”

Alex smiled obviously that time, peaking one eye open. Michael grinned at him. 

“Well, what are you waiting for? Another pheromone dose?”

“Shut up,” Michael laughed and he moved forward, finally kissing him again having it mean something.

He was going to make this work this time, they had to. Not when they knew what they could and should be. They were bonded together in a way they’d never been before and it was obvious.

No more denying.

[bigskydreaming]

@elfysparkles88​

#listen it's a universal problem#I love my mans Scott#everyone is always bagging on him WHY#Scott Summers#X-Men

Its because Scott Summers is inevitably compared and contrasted with those around him, and he has the great misfortune of running in the same circles as an all-star line up of like....just the absolutely most Ridiculous People to Ever Ridick.

We’re talking about a guy whose dad was abducted by aliens and from there went on to decide, welp, guess I gotta become a space pirate now, jaunty earring and all, no, shhh, shh, no, there are no alternatives, I gotta, no, I said no - SHUT IT, I SAID I GOTTA BE A SPACE PIRATE NOW ITS THE ONLY WAY. Oh btw, meet my fianceé. She’s an alien mercenary who is a little like a skunk but don’t call her that to her face or she’ll shoot you in yours. How’s that for swoonworthy, am I right, son?

We’re talking about a guy whose own son was a literal sixty year old Grumpy Old Man overburdened with world-weariness, wildly unnecessary shoulderpads and arthritic joints when Scott was barely hitting his third decade. With said son now randomly being a moody sixteen year old again, with a pet sentient sword he talks lovingly to, because apparently Nathan Summer’s take on teenage rebellion was to act out by being all LOL Fuck Time Travel Paradoxes and then rebelliously zooming around the space/time continuum while blasting a soundtrack of MCR probably, until he finally got a bead on his older self and shot himself in the face while being like “its not that I’m angry with you, I’m just disappointed” and look this is the part where your eyes are gonna wanna just glaze over so your brain can have a break, shhh, shh, don’t ask questions, just let it be, it happened, its a thing.

We’re talking about a guy whose brother rode a merry-go-round of “Am I a good guy this week or am I a bad guy because Reasons or sometimes Brainwashing or sometimes I Don’t Even Fucking Know, Look Don’t @ Me Bro, I Just Fucking Work Here, I’m Not In The Loop” for most of his twenties until dying in a fiery explosion only to inexplicably return years later as a coma patient who finally woke up one day and said “Whoa, just got back from tripping around the multiverse and boy do I have stories cuz apparently I’m the Nexus of All Realities, so hah, SUCK IT, big brother, and yes that is TOO a thing, shut up, LET ME HAVE THIS. Oh and also btw don’t spend a lot on your wedding gift for me and Lorna because I’m gonna leave her at the altar once I realize that I’m actually more in love with the random nurse lady who changed my bed pans while I was in a coma having a romantic rendezvouz with her in Paris in my brain courtesy of her psychic eight-year old kid trying to play matchmaker for her cuz like, she doesn’t date much apparently but its whatever, this is FINE, I have no objections. Ugh why are you looking at me like that Scott, no, I don’t need to “talk” with someone about everything I’ve ‘been through,’ ugh I’m HAPPY you asshole, god, why don’t you ever want me to just be HAPPY ugh you just have to control EVERYTHING with your over-bearing BS like “I am concerned your decision-making processes might be affected by all the people tampering with your decision-making processes over the years” like umm DID I ASK? No? I didn’t think so? YOU’RE NOT MY REAL DAD, SCOTT, UGH THAT DOES IT, IM RUNNING AWAY TO BE A SUPERVILLAIN AGAIN AND THIS TIME ITS TOTALLY YOUR FAULT, YOU’LL BE SORRY WHEN I CRY HAVOK AND LET LOOSE THE DOGS OF WAR THIS TIME FOR SURE, AND OMG FOR THE LAST TIME I KNOOOOOOW THAT’S NOT HOW ITS SPELLED, ITS ABOUT THE AESTHETIC SCOTT, ITS CALLED HAVING A SENSE OF STYLE, UGH, LET ME LIIIIIIIIIIIVE.”

We’re talking about a guy whose other little brother randomly showed up and started killing people one day being like “hahaha surprise, bet you all forgot about me, PS, I’m REALLY FUCKING MAD AT YOU ALL FOR FORGETTING ABOUT ME” because the world’s most powerful telepath made everyone forget about him and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day they all had once and this is fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine, this is normal. As is the way his newly discovered slash remembered slash resurrected slash recently returned from spending the last decade fucking around as a disembodied energy ghost on a rock up in Earth’s orbit little brother then decided the Earth just wasn’t big enough for the both of them, the both of them in this case meaning both him, singular, and his Angst, as a wholly separate and towering entity in its own right. So instead he fucked off to space and decided to conquer a vast alien empire and spend the next several years being their god-emperor or whatever until he got bored with that. And also he kinda sorta killed their dad for a bit but whatever, its fine, he got better, and then he also kinda sorta died for a bit himself but whatever, its fine, he got better, and there was that whole interstellar war between himself and the Inhumans but whatever that wasn’t even his FAULT, Scott, THEY STARTED IT, god, do you ever stop JUDGING ME AND MY LIFE CHOICES and PS I’m still mad at you for killing Xavier, you fucking asshole, not because you did it but because like, you KNOW I wanted to do it, I had a whole fucking villain monologue moment about it and everything, you were literally there, UGH WHY WON’T YOU LET ME HAVE NICE THINGS?!?! YOU ARE THE ENEMY OF FUN AND JOY AND HEY MAYBE YOU WERE THE REAL VILLAIN ALL ALONG, DID YOU EVER THINK OF THAT? HUH? MR. I’M THE BOSS, WAIT WHO’S THE BOSS? OH YEAH STILL ME, SCOTT, I’M THE BOSS, YOU GOTTA STOP BEING A SPACE EMPEROR GABE BECAUSE YOU CAN’T BE THE BOSS, ONLY I AM ALLOWED TO BE THE BOSS BECAUSE I’M THE BOSS AND I SAID SO AND YOU GOTTA DO WHAT I SAY OR I’LL TELL DAD.” 

And that’s not even getting into how we’re also talking about a guy who basically ended up divorcing his first wife and suing for sole custody on the grounds of “Well, your Honor, she tried to sacrifice our son on a literal demonic altar in order to summon Hell to Earth to destroy everything just to get back at me after I left her. Yes, your Honor, I understand that is in fact Asshole Behavior, but there were extenuating circumtances, you see, the woman I left her for was my first love before her who I thought was dead. And also, she was literally my wife before my wife was. No, I don’t mean I was married before Maddie, I mean Jean was kinda pretty much already Maddie before Maddie was Maddie. Its this whole clone thing. Look, I’m just saying it was a complicated situation and I know I have my part to play in it, but I still stand by my conviction that trying to sell out our entire planet and species to the legions of Hell while using the innocent blood of our ten month old as the Golden Ticket to the Chocolate Factory was still a little over the top and not really the right way to handle it either. Also, I contend that I can provide a better home environment at the moment than someone who is insisting on being addressed as The Goblin Queen because what even is that, honestly, Your Honor, and also, she also brainwashed my brother into trying to kill me on her behalf, which to be fair does happen about every other month anyway, but still, like. Dick move, you know?”

And we’re also talking about a guy whose second wife who was kinda sorta his first wife but only in that It Ain’t Bigamy If Its A Clone Thing way....like, I mean. Its kinda hard NOT to come across as the bland one in the relationship when your second wife occasionally moonlights as the AirBnb of choice for a cosmic parakeet goddess of rebirth and fiery destruction who is pretty infamous for the ragers she hosts every time she pops into town for a visit, all smiles and (literal) sunbeams (of scorching lethality) and “Lol hey hot stuff, remember me?” As if someone who ate an alien civilization’s sun the last time she hit a Mood is like....really in danger of ever being “New phone, who dis?”ed. But that is neither here nor there, much like the sentients of Alpha Centauri Bumfuckville after she went all Goodnight Sun, Goodnight Moon, Goodnight Solar System on their corner of the galactic neighborhood, because.....tbh I don’t think she ever actually said “why” there. Its one of those things where if you don’t already KNOW why a cosmic parakeet goddess of rebirth and fiery destruction has decided its nighty-night time for this particular zipcode.....like.....that’s not really something you just ASK, y’know? Its....tacky, probably. Also, low on the self-preservation instincts, probably.

Plus we’re talking about a guy whose second marriage to Yet Another Woman It Probably Should Have Registered As A Bad Idea To PIss Off Like This ended in like....so, okay, this was a bit more His Bad than even Round One was, courtesy of a “Groundbreaking. Revolutionary. Show-stopping” reinterpretation of what was up until this point te much more ambiguous and metaphorically named “Mental Affair” concept. Though it must be said, Scotty always has skewed a bit more towards the literal minded in his personal approach to things, so, y’know. That tracks. But regardless, the pattern remains consistent here, as once again, its not always easy to register on peoples’ radar as anything other than the Plus One when your newest paramour prides herself on being both the entire planning committee AND star attraction of Victoria’s Secret (assuming that said Secret is Secret Aims at World Domination) Presents: A Renaissance Faire. But in an evil and also kinky way. Except now with sixty percent less evil on account of how Emma’s reformed these days, but not a hundred percent less evil because she’s not like, REFORMED reformed, cuz that would be boring, eww, could you imagine, no, you couldn’t, because she won’t let you and she can do that, she’s that good at telepathy and that bad at boundaries. Still the same amount of kinky as before though, but like. That’s just about Strong Branding. After all, at the end of the day Emma Frost is above all else, a good businesswoman.

But yes, she is also a big fan of the Aesthetic, with that aesthetic being Her Whims On Steroids because like they say, go big or go home, and Emma Frost does not believe in going home when she can simply acquire your home instead. Hate the game, not the player. She didn’t make the rules, she just came to win. Point being, its hard to follow up an act like Jean-Who-Is-Sometimes-Phoenix-And-Sometimes-Dark-Phoenix-And-Oh-Hell-She-Cant-Even-Keep-Track-So-How-Could-Anyone-Else-Really, but say what you will about Emma’s wardrobe, she’s more concerned with clothing herself in unapologetic take no prisoners ambition, and as such, her being the follow-up to Scott’s epic romance with his childhood sweetheart turned literal cosmic embodiment of fire and passion, like.....this was never a big checkmark in the con side of a pro and con list for Emma. It was more like oh, yes, hello there, Challenge Absolutely Fucking Accepted.

Which, y’know, all the points to House Frost for showing spine and boy howdy, that’s a spine alright.....but at the same time, going head to head with someone who is classified as a galactic threat when people are deliberately low-balling her, like, for no other reason than you’re bored and your manicure appointment isn’t for another couple hours.....like that’s the kind of thing where it has to be pointed out that there were possibly alternative options worth considering somewhere in between ‘having no spine’ and ‘spiting cosmic entity who can kill you with her brain by stealing her man and saying come at me bro because like....my spine, let me show you it.”

But again, just to reiterate the premise here.....our thesis here today is that Scott Summers Gets a Bad Rap For Being Bland or Boring or Not Standing Out, But In Reality The Issue Is Just That All The People He Knows Are Truly Ridiculous People.

In other words, Scott Summers is no more the Everyman of the X-Men than any of his Truly Ridiculous Friends and Family.

Because an actual everyman would have bounced out of that madhouse way the fuck back in Chapter One: In Which Things Just Got Ridiculous.

Cut to Scott Summers, in contrast: *looks around, purses lips, weighs options* Nah. This is fine.

See also:

His daughter, who didn’t so much arrive after the traditional nine months of waiting and preparing for a bundle of bouncing baby joy but instead just like...plopped back into the past as a full grown woman hailing from a dystopian future she was hellbent on preventing by any means necessary, even if that means had Scott frantically shouting RACHEL NO as she screamed RACHEL YES and sprinted straight at someone like Selene (a villain who has survived 17,000 years of pissing people off and making enemies of actual, literal gods) while thinking “oh yeah, I got this.”

(To be fair, she probably DID have it, or would have, if Logan hadn’t chosen that moment of all moments to have his once-centennial contemplation of “Wait, what if....murder is...NOT good?” Never underestimate the daughter of a cosmic goddess.)

Or see also also:

Scott’s original classmates, including Doctor Hank “I’m not an over-archiever, I’m just stress-eating because its lunchtime and I’ve only revolutionized two whole fields of scientific study so far today,” McCoy, Warren “Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful, hate me because I’m a billionaire, wait no, I’m just kidding don’t hate me at all hahaha I’m too sexy” Worthington III, and Bobby “I may look cute and unassuming and like my only priority in life is video games but sike, I too am a potentially cosmic level immortal being of nigh-unlimited power or at least I will be whenever I get around to tapping that potential like I’m currently tapping xy up down A + BBA like a boss, now shhh, don’t interrupt me while I’m kicking ass at Mario Kart I said I’ll GET TO THAT LATER, ugh, JEEZ, my priorities are FINE, Scott, like get off my back already, you’re not even my real dad” Drake.

In conclusion:

Scott Summers is valid, and there may be legions drinking his Hatorade, but make no mistake, its not that he’s Less Than, its that every single person in his social circle is just that damn Extra.

[writingkeepsmewhole]

You Remember.

This is part 3 of Angel Eyes I hope you like it.

Fic Summary: Dean, Callie and Bobby find Sam.

Dean Winchester x OC Claudia

Warnings: Language, talk of death.

Taglist: Let me know if you want to be tagged. @magssteenkamp​ @deanwanddamons​ @lemondropirwin​ @vicmc624​  @lilulo-12​ @eternalevie​

Part 1  Part 2

After we ate lunch we decided to try and find where Sam was. I was sitting on the counter in the kitchen Dean leaning next to me drinking a beer as I started to call Sam.

“Yeah?” He answers, sounding out of breath.

“Whatcha doing?” I ask my eyes locked on Dean.

He didn’t seem to mind his eyes meeting mine as well.

“You sound happy, did your hunt go well?” He asks, sounding like he was messing with something.

“Yeah, but where are you?”

“Illinois why?”

“I thought we could grab a bite to eat.”

“Alright I’ll text you where I’m at.”

“Thanks love you.”

“You too.” He says hanging up the phone.

“So where is he?” Dean asks, turning to face me.

“Illinois.”

“Well let’s go.”

By the time we got there it was dark. We found Sam’s hotel with ease. It was right off the interstate. Knocking on the hotel door I felt a rush go threw me realizing this was the first time Sam would get to see Dean again.

I was a bit shocked when a dark haired woman opened the door. She was dressed in a tank top and panties.

“So where is it?” She asks looking at us as if she was expecting something.

“Where's what?” I ask.

“The pizza that it takes three people to deliver.”

“Hey is the pizza-” Sam says coming out of the bathroom, him stopping in his tracks when he sees Dean.

I watched as Sam's face went through the emotions of shock, and unbelief.

"Dean?" He says sounding like the wind was knocked out of him.

"Heya Sammy." Dean says stepping into the room.

I jump and the other girl screams when Sam slams Dean into the wall trying to kill him.

"Sam stop!" I yell as Bobby jumps to get him off his older brother.

"It's really him Sam! I tested him myself." He says pulling Sam back.

I quickly move between the Winchester's, my back to Dean.

"Sam I promise it's him." I say pleading with me eyes and voice that he will listen to reason.

I watch the light bulb go off in his head, him once again looking at him.

"Dean?" He asks again.

"Yeah it's me." Dean says Sam quickly pulled him into a hug.

"So are you two like together?" The dark haired girl asks, making me turn to look at her.

I get this weird feeling in my gut like dejive. Or when you see someone you know but can't remember their name.

"What? No? He's my brother." Sam says looking at her.

"Right, uh I should probably go." She says pointing to the door.

"That's probably a good idea." Sam says.

She quickly gets dressed grabbing her things and walking to the door, Sam holding it open for her.

"Well I'll see you around Becky." He says smiling.

"It's Becca." She says her face, dropping.

I wrinkle my brow. It's weird for Sam to forget her name.

He wasn't normally like that. How bad did Dean's death affect him? Probably just as bad as it did me. I doubt worse. I don't think Sam had the hallucinations.

"So how much did it cost?" Dean asks looking at him from my place on the hotel bed not wanting to know the price of Sam's date.

"I don't pay Dean." He says putting his shoes on.

"Funny but that's not what I meant. What did it cost to get me out?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't lie to me."

"I'm not Dean. I wish I was." Sam says standing up just for Dean to get in his face.

"Don't lie to me." He says his jaw clenching.

"I'm not, I wish I was. Dean I wish to God I was. I tried everything, you were in hell for four months and I tried everything to get you out but no demon would deal. Dean I'm so sorry." He says, his voice getting tight.

"It's okay Sammy I believe you." Dean says softly.

"Well I'm glad your soul is still intact but that does raise the question. How'd Dean get out?" Bobby says, making me bite my lip.

"Whatever it was has got to have something up it's sleeve. The bad thing is I think it might be Dean." I say running my fingers through my hair.

"What do you mean?" Sam asks looking down at me.

Standing up I join the three men standing in a weird circle.

"Well we've spent our lives putting demons back in their fiery cells so why would they want Dean back out? They know he would never join team black eyes so what does him coming back mean?" I ask knowing none of us had the answers but I just needed to vent my questions.

"Well whatever it is it ain't good." Bobby says making a pit of worry settle in my stomach.

"I have a question? Did you call me before or after you knew Dean was back? If so why not tell me?" Sam asks, changing the subject.

"I didn't want to rune the surprise besides I didn't know if you were behind his resurrection." I say shrugging.

"I promise you I wouldn't make a deal." 

"Yeah, which you tried to break clearly."

"Well what about you? You weren't exactly dealing with his death." Sam says my face darkening.

He knew about all the twisted things I saw and said about myself.

"Yeah I wasn't but-."

"Will you two shut up?" Bobby says using his dad voice. Both of us closing our months and taking a step away from each other.

"It doesn't matter about that now. Dean is back and we need to figure out why. So you two stop fighting like cats and dogs and let's get to the bottom of this."

"You're right. I'm sorry Callie." Sam says looking at me.

"S'okay." I say shrugging, wrapping my arms around myself.

"Good now what we're you doing here if you weren't making a deal?" Bobby asks looking at Sam.

"I was tracking some demons and they packed up and booked it up here."

"Yeah well that makes sense where I popped up at it looked like a nuke went off." Dean says just as a knock is heard on the door.

"Ooo pizza." I say turning to go answer the door.

The three men behind me turned to hushed whispers as I opened the door, a teenager standing there a pizza in hand. He looked bored out of his mind that, quickly changed when he saw me.

His eyes bounce from me then to the boys behind me then back at me.

I roll my eyes a slight smirk on my face wondering what is going through his head.

"How much is it?" I ask, placing my hand on my hip.

"Oh umm 10.70." he says snapping out of it.

"One second." I say holding up my finger then walking over to Dean.

"Money pwease." I say holding out my hand using my little kid voice.

It's his turn to roll his eyes but he pulls a twenty from his pocket and hands it to me.

"Thank you." I say standing on my toes and quickly kissing his cheek.

I give the money to the pizza guy and walk back to the table.

"Where's my change?" Dean says looking at me.

"There's no change." I say open the box and hand him a slice of pizza.

"You gave that kid a ten dollar tip?" He asks looking down at me.

"Yes I just made his night."

"He looked confused outta his mind." Sam says taking a slice from the box.

"Well duh a hot chick like me in a room full of men is kinda weird." I say Bobby shaking his head, Sam lifting an eyebrow and Dean smirking.

I smile and move to sit next to Dean at the table.

"I'm gonna go rent a room and leave you idjits alone." Bobby says looking like he was done with us for the night.

"Goodnight Bobby wove you." I call after him as he walks to the door.

"Yeah yeah." He says leaving.

After Bobby left Sam stood up giving Dean his necklace back that he gave to him when we were kids.

I smile at the touching moment from my seat at the table.

“So what do you remember?” Sam asks the question that’s been bouncing in my head but I couldn't bring myself to say it.

“Not much, I remember being a hell hounds chew toy, then waking up in a pine box. Everything else is just blank.” Dean says, making me sigh in relief.

“That’s good.”

“Yeah.” Dean says nodding.

“We should probably get to bed, we’ll start looking for whatever pulled you out in the morning.” Sam says, him always the responsible one.

That’s exactly what we do, within an hour all of us were ready for bed. Dean climbed into the free bed. Sam is already asleep in the other one. But I wasn’t in either.

I changed into some baggy sweat pants and an old shirt of Dean’s without thinking about it. But it hit me when I walked out of the bathroom seeing Dean laying in bed.

I was wearing his shirt because it was the only thing that helps me sleep at night. Sleeping next to him for most of my life had my brain wired that if I couldn’t smell him I couldn’t relax. I didn’t feel safe. Now that he is back, and in the same room as me I felt frozen.

“What’s wrong sweetheart?” He asks looking over at me.

“Nothing just not tried.” I lie. Something I must have gotten better at because he nods and lays down.

“Don’t stay up too late.” He says making me smile.

“Okay dad.” I say earning a chuckle.

I stared at the TV till I felt like it was too late for it to be on then just sat in darkness. I should have been jumping at the chance to lay next to Dean. To know that he was real and okay but I was scared if I did in the morning I would wake up and he would be gone. Or worse his dead corpse would be there.

I chewed on my lip worried that whatever was happening was temporary and would end soon. Maybe this wasn’t about Dean, maybe this was Lillith trying to get back at Sam and me. Let us see Dean again just to snach him away again.

My mind raced until it couldn’t anymore. Me finally falling asleep at the table around 2AM. I didn’t get to rest long. My body decided it needed to pee.

I don’t make a noise as I get up not wanting to wake either brother up as I walk to the bathroom.

I opened it jumping when a figure was standing inside of it looking in the mirror. I quickly realized the figure was Dean staring at himself.

What worried me was he didn’t seem to even react to me coming inside. I look at his reflection realizing he was staring deep into his own eyes as if he was trying to figure something out, or forget something.

It doesn't take long for me to know what’s going on. I shut the door gently not wanting to spook him or wake Sam and lock the door.

Walking up to him I slowly touch his shoulder, making him jump and spin around to face me.

“You remember don’t you?” I say softly, him blinking as if he’s just now noticing me.

“I-.” He says his forehead wrinkling up.

“You don’t have to lie to me Dean. I won’t tell anyone. You don’t even have to talk about it. All I need is a yes or no.”

“Yes.” He says nodding.

“I remember all of it.”

“Okay.” I say as I pull him into a hug.

He wraps his arms tight around me. So tight it hurts but I don’t say anything. Okay wrap my arms around him as he buries his face into my neck.

“I missed you so damn much.” He says surprising me.

“I missed you too. Come on let's go to bed.” I say pulling away from him just enough to land back on my heels. 

He nods and takes a step back, our arms leaving each other. I grab his hand and lead him back to the empty bed.

It felt strange to put him to bed when it was always the other way around. I wasn’t used to Dean being broken.

He gets under the covers laying down then holds his arm out asking me to join him. I do just that. Laying down next to him, he wraps his arms around me, his head on my chest. I play with his hair as his body heat starts to seep into me.

It doesn't take long for either one to fall asleep. It was just so much easier when we were together. 

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S4 Episode 2: Rebecca...She’s back, I guess?

So I got hella sick this week so it’s...just one update this weekend. The rest of the next update has the caps done but then the copy I was putting together got very distracted about which Founding Father was the hottest and I think that was the Dayquil? I barely know what day of the week it is rn. I think it’s Saturday, is it Saturday?

Anyway, we’re battling that Monocle guy. Gurimo? Yeah his name is Gurimo. I honestly can’t remember him saying his name even once, so thanks Google for the help.

It’s a new season so not only did we suck all the power out of God Cards but now you can’t use them anymore with the new glowing green mechanic. The writers really did just...a lot to make it so God Cards are no longer relevant. Like they buried them so far.

This guy repeats himself quite a lot about being soul hungry? Yeah I watched all of Sailor Moon so like, I’m super up to date on my soul energy anime. I’ve walked this path before I know it well.

(read more under the cut)

Such a shame we can’t read those stats which may just be Hebrew letters in lorem ipsum (note that when Pegasus makes you a card, you don’t get to have stats) but it’s nice to know that, if you wanted to, you could play Rex and Weevil in universe of the show and something would happen.

Anyway, Gurimo lost, his eyes went all glowy red at some point, and decided to go out throwing stuff because it’s Yugioh and you have to throw cards at least 3 times a season, its in the contract.

Don’t think about physics guys, just trust that cards can do this on a roof where there’s no wind for some reason.

And then he went up in a green ball of glory. It was nice of the green beam of soul energy to wait until the impossible card toss was over.

Lol this show and how it just kills people on screen just...all the time. All the freakin time. Can’t show a gun, but murder as many people as you like. It’s OK, his soul is in a paper card so he’s not *really* dead. That won’t terrify children under the age of 10.

So Pharaoh decides to do the tactic of telling a bunch of motorcycle gang edgy kids (adults? not sure about those three) that stealing is Wrong.

They also, youknow, are implicit in murdering Rex and Weevil but youknow, stealing is wrong and the God Cards don’t belong to them and Pharaoh is shook that these kids won’t keep their end of their bargain that whoever wins the card fight keeps the cards.

So basically Gurimo died for freakin nothing.

Welcome back to the fold, Rex and Weevil, apparently this show isn’t done with you yet. I was pretty much done with both of you 3 seasons ago but alas, you will be back, with your raspy as hell voice acting, at the beginning of S5. I am sure of it.

(PS I just noticed I spelled resurrect wrong and I know I should go back into photoshop but like...I’m too sick to care at this moment so maybe I’ll change it in the next week or so I dunno, I’m just gonna post this thing so I can feel like I did something productive today.)

And so these kids decide the police are never going to freakin show up to the rooftop brawl where a guy super died and several children were endangered and a huge beam of light you can see from space went out like a bat signal to the rest of the city of “ps, something bad is happening over here, if any of you adults feel like helping out these four high school drop outs? Nobody?”

First, they decide to keep this horrible thing:

(which second thought is not SO surprising, because Yugi clearly loves hoarding dead people)

And then this other horrible thing:

Why would you keep these? Why would you do this?

I mean Yugi’s got such specific dark tastes that I wouldn’t be half surprised if his closet is filled with dozens and dozens of rat skulls he collected from the subway station.

And then the next day, Yugi decided to just like watch Joey and Tristan dangle Rex and Weevil like puppets. It just seemed super unnecessary.

Like Yugi isn’t even Pharaoh right now but he’s absolutely fine with these guys getting shook around. Yugi is all sorts of gray area in this show and I’m glad that’s never changed although sometimes it’s like “Is Yugi slowly turning into a mob boss? Because I’m down, but also somewhat concerned?”

Anyway, the God Cards aren’t even here anymore so we say farewell to Rex and Weevil who seem just as confused at how the hell you can steal a God Card as we are.

*not entirely sure where Rex and Weevil are from. I’ve been assuming the UK or the US but like...maybe they live here? I don’t even know.

And then Chibiusa--I mean Rebecca showed up.

Ah, remember this plot point from S1? What if she shows up and (according to Bro) Just never leaves?

I’m coming to terms with this. Anyway, Rebecca’s only purpose seems to be as a part of a (love????) triangle (square????) between Yugi and Tea but like...

And maybe this is the Dayquil speaking but...

Is this even weird?

Seriously, they’re family friends, why is this weird? Maybe it’s because one of Rebecca’s core traits is that she’s American and I’m also an American so I don’t even see a problem with Rebecca and how she acts (since she’s a freakin child with a crush on a card-famous person) but like what small child see her friend she hasn’t seen in 2 years and is not going to hug him?

Anyway, Yugi was the worst to not remember this chick. Maybe his brain looks like a box of loose packing peanuts (I say as a metaphor remembering that his brain literally looks like an Escher painting screensaver), but he can’t remember this chick from just 2 years ago that he gave his rarest card to? The chick who’s grandfather had that blue-eyes he gave to Yugi’s Grandfather? The chick who’s grandfather helped his grandfather get that necklace around Yugi’s neck? The necklace he wears every single day and is super cursed by?

How do you forget the Hawkins when they are part of the reason everyone thinks you’re losing your mind?

But I guess she looks older now and got a pair of glasses (bifocals????). She No longer has her hair in pigtails but, I dunno, she looks basically the same to me since she’s still about the same size as Yugi but wtv.

And then Yugioh was like “Listen everyone, we’re very tired of all of your angry reviews, and I see y’all are saying we never do romance, well get ready, we know how to do romance really well, get ready for it, we can make things move faster than a snail in wet cement, just watch.”

Because somehow, after Yugi was the biggest asshole ever to Rebeca, I guess she figured like “well, at least you’re still card famous”

You know what? I have several girlfriends who I am not dating, but, if it’s been a couple weeks since they’ve seen me last, will give me a huge as drunk hug on my arm and go “MY LOVE MY GIRLFRIEND MARRY ME” and like...Again I’m American so maybe this is just my culture here in California?

I’d like to believe that Rebecca is just messing with these people because she can.

Ps I’m pretty sure this girl was 6 last time we saw her but they decided...we better age her up if it’s gonna be a romance but they only made her 12. OK show. Yugi’s pushing 17 at this point so like...barely even logical. I’d say legal but I’m thinking more of just logic at this point because the last time we saw this girl she was holding a teddy bear (which we can guarantee is probably still shoved into her luggage)

...OK, show...

Now listen listen listen. All ships are fine here. I’m not gonna go after shipping because like, c’mon, it’s 2019. If you stan Rebecca and Yugi, go for it, why not? I’ve said it before, and my feelings haven’t really changed, I’m immune to shipping, so I feel absolutely no different with Rebecca and Yugi than I do with Tea and Yugi. I think Tea makes more sense, but that’s not saying very much because literally anyone else on this cast who isn’t related to him could probably work. Go ahead and bring back Mako Tsunami. There’d be a fun pair.

Bro got very excited when I mentioned a MakoxYugi pairing just now ps.

But it really does feel like this ship has the dynamic of the Usagi/Chibiusa/Mamaru ship from Sailor Moon where Usagi was always jealous of small little Chibiusa spending time with Mamaru who was her OWN DAD. Why would you EVER be jealous of a 12 year old girl hanging with your boy...friend? Tea is a 17ish year old ballerina who never, ever wears full pants. She’d have this in the bag if she ever decided to like...do anything with...this. And I don’t blame Tea for never doing anything with “this” because like...look at “this.”

I just don’t think the writing team knows how to write a competent love triangle (square) but...this exists now. They even had Rebecca decide to dress nearly identically to Tea as a demonstration of her devotion but like...it honestly comes off more that this small child just admires Tea. Because she’s 12.

Yugi is just babysitting this girl for his Grandfather and it feels like the writing team just had to have the girls be all catty at eachother. Because it’s a kids show. Gotta have those girls all catty. Can’t let them be friends.

Anyway, back at this museum that these kids visit so freakin often, you’d think they’d change their home address, we meet up with the granddads in question.

Ah, now Ishizu is no longer with us, Exposition Grandpa is here to take the torch. Can’t wait for that.

And I made his font gray because I freakin give up. Grandpa Hawkins might change his font color every episode. I...I’m figuring it out.

And then, every helicopter in Domino shed a single tear.

Wow. I’ve been so mad for so many seasons that they never use a freakin seaplane to cross the ocean that when they actually do I’m like...kind of disappointed?

I mean it’s not shaped like a dragon, but I will take this perfectly acceptable seaplane.

I can’t believe they drew a normal ass plane. on this show.

*Waits patiently for it to turn into a blimp next episode*

Anyway, if you just got here, this is a link to read all the caps in chrono order. There’s over 3 seasons of this. Y’all I’ve done over 100 episodes.

[callieshipman]

the 100 tag game!

i was (sort of) tagged by @easilydistractedbyfanfic! thanks <3

1. What Station on the Ark would you be from?

I like to think Farm, I love plants! But also maybe Polaris, because getting caught up in someone else’s drama and then dying offscreen is probably about how my TV life would go. 

2. What would you get arrested for on the Ark?

...making an inappropriate joke about treason? this is based off the fact that I once made a joke about overthrowing the government whilst touring Parliament and did NOT notice the policeman behind me.

3. Would you take off your wristband when you landed on the ground?

 my mum thinks I’m dead if she sees I don’t reply to her texts within five minutes so i’m gonna say no because i hate worrying people lmao

4 What would the necklace Finn would make for you look like? (Clarke: deer/Raven: a raven duh..)

i have so much dragonfly stuff, so probably that! i don’t even know where that came from, but it seems fitting.

5. If you could resurrect any MINOR character who would it be?

100% maya vie, the revolution queen always and forever! though she is not minor in my Heart

6. Create a squad of 5 characters to go on missions with. Who are they?

Bellamy, Monty, Raven, Abby, Indra! Between them they cover our bases of leadership, plants, machines, medicine, and general badassery

7. What Grounder Clan would you belong to you?

Shallow Valley looked like exactly the kind of place I’d like :)

8. What would your name be in Trigedasleng? (example: Octavia=Okteivia…just make it up!)

This is hard for Tabby! I guess Tabi?

9. Thoughts on Finn? Some people hate him, and others love him, so I’m curious

i’m not gonna sing his praises, but i think he’s more complex than some people give him credit for.  he did terrible things, but i’m never gonna get behind the grounder agenda of spending hours torturing a child to death. i recognise that this is entirely bonkers to say in the universe of the 100, but that dude should have had a fair trial

10. Be honest. How willing would you have been to take the chip without knowing all the horrible things it does?

i wouldn’t do it! also i have trouble with pills, there’s no way i’m dry swallowing that massive hunk of plastic

11. What character do you relate to most?

monty!! i have also watched people i love deeply fall apart, and his struggles in season 4 really resonate with me. but on a lighter note, i also relate to his sense of humour and his deep seated need to snark at people. and eating leaves.

12. What character do you like the least?

i’m gonna go with Cage Wallace, because fuck that guy. he’s just smarmy, it annoys me lmao

13. Describe your delinquent outfit. (Would you wear something like Murphy’s jacket with the spikey red shoulder patch or have a trademark like Jasper’s goggles? Be creative, yet practical)

i would probably have a pretty normal shirt and a thick jumper. i like yellow, but that probably wouldn’t fare so well with hiding in the woods and such so i’m gonna go with a dark green. that + trousers + my trusty walking boots.

14. Favourite type of mutant animal?

the glowing butterflies are pretty great!

15. What would your job be on the Ark?

probably counselling or something? i can’t imagine i’d be very high up, but probably with people a lot, i’m no good with machines

16. Would you have willingly pumped Ontari’s heart if Abby asked?

yeah but my face would be like D: the whole time

17. If Lexa wasn’t Heda, but she was still alive then who would have made the best commander?

Indra’s my go-to! she has experience, she’s level-headed, she’s respected, and clearly a strong fighter. i would follow her into war is what i’m saying here

18. How would you act if you ate the hallucinogenic nuts like Jasper and Monty?

i’d probably get loud and just start talking over people and offering opinions that no one asked for then fall asleep

19. How would you have dealt with Charlotte’s crime? A more John Murphy approach or Bellamy Blake approach?

i’d never have turned her away from the camp, but she definitely wouldn’t get away with it scot-free and i’d probably keep her away from the others to keep her and everyone else safe

20. Who should have been the Chancellor, if anyone?

jake griffin :’) he has a strong code of ethics, he’s smart, and he’s kind

21. Would you have been on Pike’s side like Bellamy or on Kane’s side? Or Clarke in Polis?

Kane’s, but probably somewhat removed from the drama

22. Mount Weather had a lot of modern commodities. (example: Maya’s Ipod) What is the one thing you would snatch while there?

i feel like i should say their advanced medical supplies, but i’d probably just take the iPod tbh! love me some music and i know maya had good taste

23. What would your Grounder tattoos look like? Hairstyle? War paint?

i looooove those winding tattoos that go all around arms and legs like vines, so maybe something like that? and my hair is pretty short so i’d probably wear it as it is, but maybe add tiny braids. as for war paint, i can’t be bothered to do regular makeup so i don’t know if i’d even do it. minimal if anything.

24. Favorite quote?

“My mom was the revolutionary. I’m just trying to make things right.” It’s Maya lovin’ hours! i don’t know why, i just really like this one. i’m not sure it’s my favourite, but i can’t think of anything else right now

25. If all of the characters were in the Hunger Games, who would have the best shot at winning?

Octavia, but only if someone else killed Bellamy, she’d never do it

26. Least favorite ship? Favorite canon ship? Favorite non canon ship? NOT INCLUDING CL OR BC OR BE

Least: uhh i don’t really dislike any ships that much but i guess i never really got the cl.exa hype

Favorite canon: up until s5, i really loved kabby! afterwards, i have no idea tbh a lot of the ships didn’t quite do it for me in s5 but i enjoy becho

Favorite non-canon: i’m hoping for the rise of niytavia this season ;)

27. A song that should be included in the next season? If there had to be another guest star like Shawn Mendes on the show, who would you want to make a cameo?

john mulaney. next question please.

28. What would you do if you were stuck in the bunker with Murphy for all that time?

well hopefully we become friendly but i would probably also go a bit nuts

29. You’re an extra that gets killed off. How do you die?

i choke on berries in the background of a massive fight scene

30. A character you’d like to learn more about and get flashbacks of?

Indra :0

31. A character you’d bang?

raven but preferably not just bc she’s sad again. also i would like to not perish immediately afterwards.

32. Would you stay in the Bunker? Go up to Space? Or live on your own in Eden?

spacekru! i would not survive either of the other environments at all

33. In the Bunker, would you follow Octavia? What would you do to pass the time underground?

i like to think i’d be the leader of some cool underground revolution, but publicly i’d follow her because she’s terrifying. i think i’d read and write and sleep a lot

34. What crime would you commit in the Bunker that lands you in the fighting pits?

underground revolution as mentioned above! alternatively, i am the blanket thief

35. Up in Space, who would you bond with first? Who would be the most difficult for you to get along with?

the100!tabby is gonna follow monty everywhere, let’s be real. i like to think we’d get on. as for most difficult...i’m not good at reaching out to people, so it would probably be a while before i ended up close with echo purely by virtue of neither of us ever starting a conversation

36. How long do you think you would last on Earth by yourself?

oh god, not long at all. i have zero survival skills, i’d starve. madi would have to parent ME

37. When the Eligius ship lands what do you do?

probably reveal myself and make it very clear i am in no way a threat- i’m not clarke griffin, i’m 5′4, unarmed, and i look like i’m made of noodles

38. Favourite Eligius character? Least favorite?

favourite: diyoza no competition (except sassy rewind guy)

least favourite - mccreary but in a fun way

39. Would you Spacewalk?

absolutely not you couldn’t pay me to do that

40. Would you prefer to eat Windshield Bugs, Space Algae, or Bunker Meat?

algae...for monty :)

41. Would you start a war for the last spot of green on earth? What would your solution be to avoid it?

i would try the negotiations! i’m sure they could have gotten somewhere in peace talks

42. Would you rather dig out flesh-eating worms or stick thumb drives into bullet holes?

thumb drives in bullet holes- the worms are much worse

43. Are you willing to poison your sister for the Traitor Who You Love? What would you do to stop Octavia?

yeah i’d do it, but i’d hate it. i’d try to avoid killing her, but if she needs to be incapacitated, then i’d do it for the safety of everyone else

44. Would you go to sleep in cryo or stay awake like Marper?

probably sleep, i’m not sure i could handle that life in isolation

45. Who are you waking up first to explore the new planet?

more or less the same lot. i’d actually wake Gaia too, she’s the Flamekeeper and might know some helpful hints about flame culture and stuff. she certainly knows the history. 

i’m tagging: @commanderclarke @paintingbellarke @sarka-stically and anyone else who wants to do it!

[terramythos]

My liveblog/commentary on October Daye #11 "The Brightest Fell" or "Friendship ended with Sylvester Torquill. Now SIMON Torquill is my best friend"

God if you told me that's a sentence I'd write when I read book 1 I'd call you fucking insane. We had this whole Cain and Abel thing going and Seanan McGuire had to go be a GOOD WRITER and make them COMPLEX CHARACTERS and shit.

Also featuring a "Resurrect Your Gays" novella at the end so.. that's nice

-Wow, this opens with a story so far section and everything 👀

-who would be like "gee the October daye series sounds interesting. Let's start with book 11"

-omfg The Luidaeg singing Poor Unfortunate Souls. Fucking hell yes.

*stares at my vampire crack theory* *stares at that line* *stares at the camera*

-(To be fair, it does parallel when Simon showed up in book 8, which is probably the actual intent, but uhhh)

-then AGAIN, half the foreshadowing lines in this series had double meanings in context

-Amandine calling Simon "your father" oh oof.

-oh my god Amandine is AWFUL. Jesus christ. Insults everyone in the room then kidnaps 2 people and just strolls out. This puts Tybalt, one of the more OP allies, out of commission for like the whole book lol

-Definitely Impossible Quest: find this character that disappeared over 100 years ago who Simon spent the last century committing misc atrocities to find

-This does lead me to wonder what motivated Amandine to show up suddenly and force October to find August. Is she just unstable/crazy as has been implied, or is it something more?

GOD shes awful!

-So oh boy we are actually waking up Simon! I'm glad we are getting more development for him cause holy crap he's an interesting gray morality character.

-Sylvester using the same binding spell Evening used on October in book 1, but this time to keep Simon from hurting October, sure draws some.. uh.. interesting parallels.

👀

-Amandine shows up again and is just fucking AWFUL. I'm trying to figure out if she has any real sympathetic traits. This is the first book she really shows up as a character out of flashbacks and the trippy shit in book 4.

- "Oh yeah Toby the reason I abused you and twisted your blood human as a kid was I wanted to mourn the daughter who disappeared and then let you die asap" like. Yikes

-Simon, established as an Arch Villain just being an awkward dad (at least toward October) is interesting. I'm kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop.

-oh hey saving the pixies in book 5 actually set up a Thing in this one. Huh.

-Surprise that random pixie you saved in book 5 is relevant and a full fledged character now.

-The Luidaeg is a sympathetic character and a consistent ally in the series but BOY does she have her moments. Egads. (Quentin, who adores her, was NOT amused. We'll see how that shakes out...)

The Luidaeg just.. resurrecting an extinct race here. No big deal. I'm sure this has zero future implications.

-oh fuck the Babylon Road is back. Oh shit book 3 vibes. Oh shit

-lmao they literally end up in Blind Michael's lands. Just fuck me up

-ok theres a line that basically implies Blind Michael wasn't even that bad of a guy at one point, that he did The Ride with the best of intentions and for the life of me I am trying to figure out what they mean by that

-also intentional parallel between Blind Michael and Simon with the whole "best of intentions" thing.. Simon started as like, the arch villain. And now look where we are. So what is that implying about Blind Michael? 🤔

-I mean Blind Michael is the closest this series has come to a Dark Lord character. He was fucking awful. I'm interested to see if we are going to explore from a different angle?

-Goddamn world tour here showing up in Annwn.

-Oh duchess Riordan.. she's so pleasant. I'm glad we get to see what the fuck she's been up to since being trapped there

-Oh fuck they found Officer Thornton. He is not Well. I remember speculating what we were going to do with that plot thread lol

Are you FUCKING kidding me

-That was book SEVEN. I fucking REMEMBER that part. August was a fucking throwaway background character??? Chekhov's missing sibling?

-And it was intentional because of the door thing! She was described in a weird amount of detail for a background character! What the fuck!

-AAAND we found August. And the first thing she did was attack and basically turn October almost human. Whoops.

-And she doesn't recognize Simon. Her father. Because the Luidaeg's price was her way "home". Which includes Simon. Yikes

-omg Simon's magic finally smells like it does in flashbacks before he got corrupted. Smoke and mulled cider. Maybe I'm kinda sappy but I like that that paralleled the whole redemption arc thing

;____; FUCK dude

-October accidentally makes herself almost entirely human to save Simon. Whoopsie daisy!

FUCK DUDE ;______; full redemption arc shit there I'm gonna cry

-OK so I'm inserting this after finishing the book. And I realize this sounds like a MAJOR "not as much of an asshole as you could have been" award. But Simon had NO reason to treat Toby well. And he certainly did not in the brief glance of him in the book 1 prologue. That's changed by his second appearance (book 8). She's a changeling (always seen as inferior in Fae society) and she's the bastard child of his wife. He has every reason to treat her like shit. Yet he doesn't. He seems to want to be a father figure for her, even though she isn't really his blood related daughter, and this book reinforces that attitude. He even gives up things he wants--on multiple occasions--in order to save October, simply because he wants to. Compare him to his wife, October's actual biological mother, someone who literally created her as an expendable coping mechanism and resents the fact she's still alive? Despite everything he is WAY more of a parent to her. Found family sure is a thing in this series, huh.

-i like how instead of going all emo that she turned basically human October's just like "oh yeah I was raised in a street gang" and beats the absolute SHIT out of August

-Simon: uh excuse me did you just hit my daughter in the back of the head with a CLUB

October: she'll be fine

Well SHIT. The other shoe dropped, but not how I expected it.

-Like Simon genuinely redeemed himself, saving both August AND October despite everything. And he just sacrificed all of it. That was the final price of redemption for him. Yikes. YIKES. Like I knew it wouldn't be that easy, but this SUCKS.

-And this basically states that he wont be back to normal until fucking Oberon returns. I know the series has been leading up to that but... when the fuck. That seems like it would be the endgame.

-this is somehow worse than killing him off. How the fuck.

-August might have some redeeming traits. Shes an asshole but she is genuinely distressed when she realizes what Amandine did to October. Amandine? I'm pretty sure theres nothing to redeem her at this point. Shes fucking terrible.

-Jazz and Tybalt come back.. completely traumatized. Yeah. Ok. This entire last third is just complete despair I guess.

And award for "bleakest ending in the series" goes to...

-i think "The Brightest Fell" is the most fitting title in the series. It works on so many levels and for multiple characters. Especially in the context of the Shakespeare quote.

-i have.. thoughts. I think I'm going to do a compilation of said thoughts when I finish the next book and am officially caught up.

For now, there is also a novella @ the end so I will read that!

-"Of Things Unknown" (the novella) can basically be summarized by:

It's cool to get April's perspective! And some good old fashioned "resurrect your gays" on top of it.

-The Luidaeg: hey toby you know how you brought me back to life? You probably should not have been able to do that. You probably should not make a habit of raising the dead.

Toby: *resurrects like 5 characters who got killed off in book 2*

The Luidaeg: *breaking down the door* What the FUCK did I just say

-I am sure that January (a fucking month name) being resurrected has absolutely no future implications whatsoever :')

-Oh god theres one book left then I'm caught up. At least the novella softened the gut punch that was this book a little bit.

[bluerosesburnblue]

Liz Liveblogs Bravely Second: Chapter 3

Bravely Second Chapter 3: Up, Up, and Away is now on, and being posted in a decent amount of time. I think we’re gonna go steady straight to the end of the game at this rate!

Agnès seems to be okay in the wake of the Skyhold getting hit and going down. She didn’t even notice. Her knitting got messed up and she’s mad. God, if Agnès ain’t me

Oh, and Tiz spotted her lost yarn through video call. Cuuuute

SP reading from Luxendarc? VP Appleberry, explain!

There was nothing to explain. The laser energy was the same as the stuff we use in the Bravely Second hourglass. I sense a meta chapter coming on

Something is sealed in Skyhold. The Kaiser and Anne are worried it may break free. And they’re refusing to let Nikolai look into the laser. They’re sending Geist, who I remember from the demo. His asterisk job was kinda useless, at least for my playstyle. So they’re sending a torturer because... why not

I don’t know if I mentioned it, but they pronounce “Anne” as “Ann-eh” and that kinda messes me up?

Game is crazy if it thinks I’m not going to immediately turn around and grind out all of the ocean’s bestiary entries

Monoceros are terrifying oh gosh I think that was my first game over so far? I got unlucky with a group of four lurking out of sight

Also, Striped Rabbies are fish? Weird

Hey Liz what did you do today? Oh, you know, spent three hours completing bestiary entries

Man, I’ve gotta be about halfway through the game at this point. The team’s level 45, bestiary entries are about 50% complete in all categories that aren’t Dragons and Bosses... There’s supposed to be six chapters, right? Maybe some of the later ones are shorter

It’s the prettiest city in all of Luxendarc: Florem!

Staging, huh? Tell me it’s not another beauty pageant

Oh are those Ancheim NPCs there because I took deRosa’s side in the sidequest? Sorry guys... if it’s any consolation I intend to undo evicting you from your homes?

Ah. Flower Festival time. Of course. At least the festival workers seem to have realized their errors from last game and they’ve replaced the beauty pageant with another contest, and they pick both a male and female winner now. Exciting... I guess

Nobody in Florem knows anything about the Skyhold or the attack on it, but the Matriarch is gonna send their baby vestaling, Sylvie, with us to put up a shield. I... do not have high hopes for this child’s continued existence

Just put the barrier up and Sylvie is not dead yet, but I’m still worried for this mute child

Oh??? My God??? Is the “Revealing Outfit” that Magnolia found just a cloth diaper? Isn’t that the DLC outfit for Tiz?

Great, the Empire’s here for an inquisition. Because Florem totally has a giant laser cannon, guys! This random passerby definitely knows where that came from!

The Florem battle background is gorgeous, though

What is Geist’s accent? It’s as unplaceable as Tommy Wiseau’s

Also he just killed two guys on stage. I guess the Kaiser doesn’t care about subtlety if this is the guy he’s sending

And he’s using his gameplay gimmick of undoing turns to revive them. While I appreciate the nod to his job class, does this really count as a “turn,” Geist?

Also it’s kind of messed up that he can kill someone, revive them, and they retain their memories of dying. Though is it really any worse than normal JRPG resurrection?

How did this man, completely covered in blood, manage to make his way to the stage completely unseen in the first place?

Alternis, baby, back for the save yet again!

...aaaaand he’s down yet again. But now he’s taking advantage of his Dark Knight abilities to hit Geist back

“What a power couple!” They all ship Edea/Alternis

The crowd is naming Edea and Alternis the winners of the pageant because Edea would sacrifice herself for the city, and Alternis would sacrifice himself for Edea

“It seems that even with my helmet donned, I cannot hide my manly charms.” This isn’t Alternis, is it? Thought his line delivery was a little different. That’s gotta be Ringabel, at least in this scene

The mood whiplash in this scene is incredible! We’re going from Geist threatening to brutally maim everyone, revive them, and do it over and over until someone confesses, to “OH AREN’T ALTERNIS AND EDEA A CUTE COUPLE haha what a situation” gags

So no one seemed to understand Magnolia’s burst of French, which is understandable since contact with the people of the moon has been limited, but this guy in the crowd speaks French, too???

“Our” tongue? Do we have a moon immigrant on our hands or something?

“The language of the Sagitta”. So the Sagitta are an ancient tribe that defeats Ba’al. Speaking of Ba’al, I feel like we’re probably about due for another fight with one

So I guess we’re gonna go chat up the Sagitta elder. Give them info on the moon for their info on the giant laser of death

Lotus of the Sagitta. I see the symbolism. He’s gonna die, isn’t he?

Helllooooooo sidequest. Guide says Barras vs. Einheria

Well, Edea’s the new superintendent of Florem schools because the old one got tired of it and Edea was standing close by. Seems legit

So survey teachers on Co-ed schools vs. Non-Co-ed. So is that the big fight this go around?

“Ms. Rhea Veeling”? Ohhh boy

Swetti Tracsute... in Eternian sky night garb? Was he from the first game or has it taken me so long to play this one that it feels like he was from a whole other game

Eugh. It’s a battle of gender stereotypes. Can we noooooooot

For the record, my stance is that the owner of the school or whatever should be free to choose whether it’s co-ed or not. That’s it. If there’s sufficient demand for both, then neither of you are in the right. HOWEVER, since this doesn’t seem like it’s going to be about the school itself, per se, but about the equality of the sexes. In which case, uhhhh there shouldn’t be any discrimination by sex on a legal level?

Aaaaand Swetti’s lost me with his “school is about falling in love, not learning!” spiel

You’re both wrong. Sidequest closed. Give me both jobs already. I’ll fight both of you if I have to

So while Bravely Second’s sidquests are an interesting idea, I do wish they’d mixed it up a bit. Every single one of them feels like I’m resolving some petty childish squabbling on the side. None of them are relevant to the story and they’re just getting predictable at this point. Remember in Bravely Default when we had a sidequest where the party’s alternate-universe selves all died in one of the other universes they went to and got to see what the people they loved were like without them? Tiz’s brother Til, Olivia Oblige, Alternis and Braev... yeah, I remember when they were deep and poignant. Now look at us. We’re deciding what the Florem school district should do with its time, and it will inevitably end with two people from the last game fighting and us having to defeat one of them. They’re just so... irrelevant and not even well-written to compensate?

In general I’m on Swetti’s side. Cooperation between the sexes is the only way to get rid of discrimination between them, and Florem doesn’t have ANY co-ed schools yet, so opening one up is probably a good idea. So naturally I gotta kick his ass, for Worst Timeline purposes

Or kick Barras’s ass, since he’s here now. Hey, dick. How’s your bitch girlfriend doing now that she’s doomed the continent of Eisen to a slow economic death?

So Rhea was one of Einheria’s soldiers in the Bloodrose Legion in the last game, just like Swetti was one of Barras’s. There’s the tie-in, I guess

And Rhea is just being obstinate... for the aesthetic? To keep Florem beautiful? She isn’t even making a point! She just doesn’t like the idea of guys being around! “I’m all for equal rights for men and women but they’re just so grosssss...” that’s not an argument. Stop.

And now I’ve gotta battle through the Twilight Ruins to make my report. This is so aaaaaaarbitrary

The bestiary entry for the Twilight Ruins enemy, Dark Stomper, has Voice call the moon civilization “our civilization”. So Voice is a Moon man?

“Your decision is probably going to drag us into a battle against the losing faction” even Tiz is pointing out how same-y these all are

Guess the sidequest is over already. Just time to kick Barras’s ass for being right

I may have charmed Swetti and let him do most of the damage to Barras. Whoops?

Seems like the anti-co-ed argument is BUT TRADITION. CHANGE TAKES TIME. Yes but opening up a school with optional enrollment is exactly the small change that would... oh forget it

Innovation>tradition for me. Sorry, it just is

And Rhea has a crush on Swetti. Because that’ll be a healthy relationship where all they do is scream at each other

Whatever, let’s get back to it with the Sagitta

THAT GIANT OROCHI SKULL IS METAL AS HELL

And the Sagitta forest is gorgeous. I’m so glad this is what we get after that abysmal sidequest

I worry that a boss is coming up every time the Adventurer gives me the option to rest in the cottage

I never thought I’d hear “open sesame” spoken in French but there it is. The password for Sagitta Village

OH MAN IT’S ONE OF THOSE FLOATING VILLAGE DEALIES that’s rad

“You fear this is the end? True despair lies in the lack of a future. The unchanging world... We call it the end layer” The first NPC I talk to in a village shouldn’t be allowed to be so ominous OR title drop!

So the Sagitta were told that they descended from the moon people, but few believed it was true

And Elder Sirius is determined to blow the Skyhold to pieces, Agnès’s safety be damned. Okay, dude, chill for five minutes while we grab her, then you can do it. No? Christ, what a dick

Nooo Agnès is being self-sacrificing again through pendant call. I love how Edea turned Agnès’s “Unacceptable” catphrase back on her for that suggestion

“We’re Agnès’s Avengers, remember?” Hey, I thought we agreed that we were Yew Googlymoogly and his Three Yutzes now

At least Lotus wants to help us get transport to the Skyhold

Aww, Lotus has a son named Procyon. And his deceased wife was the Elder’s daughter, so Procyon is the big heir to the position

Procyon thinks Tiz’s hair is funny... but I have Tiz as a Catmancer so the zoom in on the ears was comedy gold

Confirmation that the Sagitta fired the laser, and they have no clue where their SP cannon comes from

Edea’s plan was to fire us out of the cannon... Edea, it’s not a normal cannon. It’s a laser. It’ll disintegrate you

They don’t know what SP is, just that it’s produced from “the flow of time” just like how wind turbines collect energy from “the flow of wind” which... they just convert kinetic energy into electric energy so that’s not quite how it works but okay

It’s also harnessed from people sleeping. I can see where this is going to get meta. The Bravely Second hourglass charges when the 3DS is in sleep mode, in other words, when the “player” is asleep. So to them it looks like it’s charging automatically, but it’s actually harnessing the player’s sleeping energy. Given that last game implied that the player was a Celestial watching the party, it has to be intentional

Now to have Lotus and Procyon guide us to Old Sagitta so we can see if we can use SP energy to fly!

Oh no another sidequest’s opened up

What on earth did Edea just throw at that man

And he sings every other line. Wow. That won’t get old

Rocca Pellar, grandson of bard Arca Pellar, owner of the baton that we used against Praline last game. She’s gonna be in this quest, isn’t she?

At least the party’s as done with his singing as I am

...why are we in deRosa’s molestation basement?

Buddy no. Do not use this as a studio. Some dark stuff went on in here

So Praline and Barbarossa are both harassing Rocca for an old song his grandfather wrote. And Rocca describes both of them as having voices so bad he couldn’t understand them. Rude

And Edea’s gonna help because they’re both Kamiizumi’s people and she feels responsible

This Jpop song is so loud I can’t hear what they’re saying. I see they haven’t fixed the mixing from the last game

Praline wants to remix the song and pass it off as her own. I’m gonna imagine Barbarossa wants it released in its original form. On the one hand: potential art theft on Praline’s part. On the other, since the original artist is dead, the song may be public domain. Though if she’s asking for rights the answer is probably “not yet”. In which case, she can wait and I want to side with Barbarossa

I forgot Yew was scared of ghosts. This ship must suck for him

Yeah. Barbarossa doesn’t want her to be able to mess up the song. I know I said tradition<innovation in the last quest, and I stand by that... but the song was never released, so it can’t be tradition. So release it in its original form, then, years later, we allow Praline to remix it. Problem solved, people just have to be patient

I like Barbarossa more. So I’m gonna kick his ass in this, the worst timeline. Which is great, because I prefer the Pirate class to the Performer class

Cutscene, cutscene, OLD DUNGEON FROM THE LAST GAME, pick a side, boss fight... I don’t even hate this quest but it’s formulaic as anything

Tent event reveals that Yew is Pellar’s #1 fan and he’s geeking out that Tiz and Edea not only spoke to his disciples, but also have his baton. And now he’s distressed that Edea used it as a backscratcher

Edea ATE the baton by accident?! Good lord, girl, how???

Another thing that bothers me about these quests is that there doesn’t seem to be much correlation between the jobs offered? Like, it’s never a choice of “defensive swormaster vs. defensive knight” where both are attacking classes that just fill different roles or something, it’s always, like, “defensive vs. summon” or “buff vs. attack.” I just think it would be cool if the jobs offered were similar in some way, just filled different roles so your choice was more necessary. Ninja vs. thief for speed-based knife users, Buffing Performer vs. Buffing Time Mage... etc.

So Pellar’s song even came with a dedication to all sailors, so Barbarossa was right that it would be disrespectful to Arca to change the song’s meaning. Though, Rocca has no problem with the remix. I stand by my previous judgement. If Arca wanted the song as-is, then give it some time as-is. Praline can wait to remix it. Especially since I’m sure she won’t be respectful to the intent of the song

To connect this to the last one in terms of innovation vs. tradition, that one involved whether to open up a co-ed school or yet another all-girl’s school. Florem had none of the former, and people willing to run it. The issue was more large-scale and governmental in nature. The old law didn’t have feelings, it’s not a person, so innovation was the go-to. This quest has the direct notion that Arca would not want his song changed. Arca may be dead, but his wishes for his work should still be respected. It was a personal project, not a governmental one, and one that never got released so he wasn’t able to control what happened to it. The school benefits all of the guys in Florem who are now allowed rights there, and would change the way the country works forever. The remix would just make people happy for a bit and then be dropped once it’s no longer popular. It’s fleeting and shallow. So I guess artist’s rights>governmental innovation>disrespectful innovation>gender segregation?

Also, Arca can’t be that long gone. At least give him 100 years in the grave before screwing with his work

WOW Edea, that logic SUCKS. “The world doesn’t care about your grandpa’s wishes, they just want Praline, so screw your grandpa. You don’t owe him”

“Let Praline make a mockery of your grandfather’s legacy because pleasing the masses is the only thing that matters!” What... the fuck, Edea?

God, I love Barbarossa. “If you want to be taken seriously, face their legacies head on! Put some blood, sweat and tears into accomplishin’ somethin’ of your own!” He’s having none of this. And I do agree. If Praline has to piggyback off of someone else’s work to be popular, is she really that good?

deRosa, DeRosso, Barbarossa... the last game really loved using similar sounding words that mean “red” for its villains, huh

Benediction Wall is so good holy shit

Praline’s song is kind of annoying. Also sounds like it would fit in Splatoon more than a fantasy game like this

Old Sagitta is AWESOME. Blue/green glowing mushrooms and ancient runes in a dark temple? That’s my aestheeeeeetiiiiiiic

The music is chill, too

I really like Lotus. He doesn’t like that his son’s the heir of the elder because he wants his son to be able to go out into the world and form his own opinions. Heck, he wants his son’s beliefs to be challenged so that he grows. Procyon shouldn’t be performing the duties of the Sagitta halfheartedly, but because he’s seen everything there is to and come to the conclusion that he agrees with their ways regardless. And if he decides he doesn’t like the way the Sagitta do things? Then Lotus will accept that. I’ve got a lot of respect for that. It’s open-minded, but the fair kind. The kind that implies thought, not believing everything you hear

It’s just a shame that that kind of stuff is a death flag. Especially with Geist running around

Neat gimmick. There’s invisible floors and illusionary walls, so the path forward isn’t always clear, though you can see them if you look hard enough due to their sheen

This Ancient Sagitta document is playing the same music box tune that shows up for the ending narration. It’s a gorgeous piece, but now I’m sure this document is really important to the story. Moreso than I suspected before

A Professor Altair of the Dimensional Bureau made a device that allows you to jump to any point in spacetime. The “spaciotemporal compass,” which I believe the Kaiser’s army stole in the chapter with Minette. So his aim is to travel across time, huh?

Seems Yew’s an amazing chef, while Magnolia is... not. I see who’s gonna be doing the cooking in that relationship

The spaciotemporal compass was stolen. The Sagitta people came about because Director Sagitta felt responsible, and dedicated his life to fixing his mistake. They boosted security, but it didn’t fix the problem

Altair was around when Eternia was founded. He died of colonic disease, and his dying words were a wish to see “Vega” again. Vega is probably a woman, and given the music box theme, I wouldn’t be surprised if she turns out to be that lady doing the monologues at the end of each chapter

Shit, Altair was 34? Damn, poor guy

Yew is not pulled in by this lore. We gotta hit up the Skyhold, guys!

It mentioned a Buster Ship, which Magnolia seems to think is significant. Was that the ship she came to Luxendarc on? I can’t remember

It’s pronounced “all-tire”???? “ALL-TIRE”??? Guys that’s... that’s a real name! And it’s pronounced “Ahlt-air”! You can’t just keep pronouncing things in the most asinine way possible!!! (It’s like KH’s “ay-vuh” vs “ah-vah” thing all over again)!!!

So Tire man’s got a tablet listing all of his inventions. He’s invented everything. Including the airborne battleship Sagittarius. Sagittarius. Sagitta. Duh

Lotus knew about the battleship. Because it’s gone. The SP cannon is all that’s left of it

“The Ba’al and the empire are quiet” OH GOD LOTUS WHY DID YOU JINX IT LIKE THAT. I CAN JUST FEEL THE DRAMATIC IRONY

Yew... where are you sneaking off to at night?

Ah, he’s going to sneak into the Sagitta underground and figure out how the village floats to see if they can use that. And Magnolia’s coming, because.

I’ve got such a bad feeling about this whole endeavor. No music... just wind sounds... ominous

Aw, Yew wanted to be a scholar. But after his big bro disappeared, he abandoned his own dreams to fulfill his brother’s. That’s some familial dedication

Giving someone a flower on the moon means “I will protect you for as long as we both live.” Yew’s flower meant everything to Magnolia because she was terrified and alone, and then Yew showed up with nothing but the promise of unconditional support. I’m actually tearing up right now, that’s really sweet and it’s paired with the most amazing music

And the thing is, Yew was alone, too. He’d just been betrayed by Janne and all he really had was Edea. He needed Magnolia. Someone to commiserate with. Who understood how afraid he was and who wanted to help, too

Ugh, Voice, you’re ruining the scene

“So, too, will your passion bear sweet, sweet fruit” VOICE YOU’RE MAKING IT WEIRD

Oh shit Yew fell off Sagitta and Magnolia jumped after him. They survived because it turns out the rock Yew broke off floats. Magnolia’s “I knew I’d be fine because I trust you” was... cute, but amazingly stupid

And Voice is a shadow against the sky? Or was that supposed to be someone else?

“I woke up and everyone was gone!” ...so where did Tiz go, then.

The shadow is both Tiz and Voice. I’m just gonna guess that the soulstone we shoved in Tiz to wake him up at the beginning was Voice’s soul

AND VOICE IS ALTAIR. Tire man you’d better have a good explanation for your bizarre vegetable rants last chapter

I guess this also explains how voice was writing in our journal. Tiz had plenty of access to it

An intruder? Probably Geist.

...definitely Geist

And he followed us here. Of course he did

Lotus stop telling him exactly what everything is and what it does! It’s just gonna make him want to break it more! This is not a man with empathy, he’ll use that information to cause more damage!

So Tiz is possessed by Altair for this battle, which seems to effect nothing but is certainly happening

Oh come ON. The fight ends when you get one volley of attacks off on Geist? I could’ve torn him a new one I’m so overlevelled!

Altair says that Geist’s pulling a Life is Strange and rewinding small bits of time every time he “undoes” something, but that makes him susceptible to being attacked by large bursts of SP. Lucky for us he decided to fight us next to a giant SP fuel tank, I guess?

Also lucky that Altair invented the tank and knows the secret override code (seriously, no one ever changed that in the hundreds, maybe thousands of years since it was made?)

...the fight seems to be taking place in the Ba’al dimension with the music box theme playing, and Altair says it’s his memories they’re seeing, because emotions and time are inseparable.

Just gonna guess now that the Ba’al are the physical manifestations of Altair’s memories, given form by corruptions in time or just time energy. Paradoxes. It’s Final Fantasy XIII-2 now. Everything is paradoxes

Also, Geist can still undo, just not as much. Can’t completely nerf him for the fight, I guess

Undo as much as you want, that Benediction wall I put on you heals us every time we hit you, doofus

Ah yes. Now we, too, can be blood-drenched time-warpers that look like we shambled out of Silent Hill

Lotus is gonna die protecting this tank isn’t he

OH SHIT PROCYON JUMPED IN FRONT OF HIM MAYBE I WAS WRONG ABOUT WHO RAISED THE DEATH FLAG

Oh thank God Edea jumped in and killed Geist with a katana I know she absolutely does not have equipped

His dying words were hoping that his son “Rev” is now finally free. Dude you literally almost just murdered a father and his son without mercy, now you want sympathy because you’re also a dad? Is this how you people think equivalent exchange works?

“The kaiser intends to unleash the power of the spacetime compass!” Nooooooo really, Altair? I thought he stole it because it looked nice on his wall!

So unlike the last game, where the “time loop” was actually traveling to an alternate reality, in this game it is an actual time loop. I actually knew that before starting the game, which is why I’m so flippant about getting the worst endings on sidequests. Unlike the last game, where bad consequences never got undone because we weren’t going back in time, just to a different world, in this game whatever we do here gets undone in the next loop

So Altair can only possess Tiz at night? That’s some serious gameplay and story segregation because I know you’ve been writing in our journal during the day, you hack!

God we’re gonna have to tell Tiz about this. “Hey buddy we found out your body gets possessed by an ancient scientist at night” “Oh. Is that why it feels like I haven’t slept in months? ...is that why I’m currently covered in wounds?”

Wait, Tiz has been active at night before, so it can’t be “Altair takes over Tiz every night.” So it’s just only an option to possess him at night, but he can still choose not to take control if he doesn’t feel like it?

“But before I go, I would leave you with some cherished words of advice” DO NOT RAMBLE ABOUT VEGETABLES AGAIN

He’s rambling about GRAPES well, I mean, I said vegetables specifically, so you win this time Tire-man

“Which means what, exactly?” I love Yew. He’s my son. I’m adopting him

Tiz says he kinda knew about Altair. Not specifically Altair himself, but that he could feel another presence within him. Poor guy must’ve thought he was going crazy all this time

Altair, when did you have time to write Tiz a letter explaining everything last night?

So, confirmation that Altair was the soulstone we used to bring Tiz back, and that he stayed quiet because he was worried Tiz would try to get him out of his body. But he got attached to these kids and started getting more and more involved, by writing in the journal and giving us advice while out of sight, because he basically emotionally adopted us and wanted to help protect his old world

He also gave Tiz permission to exorcise him. Altair, I may hate the way you pronounce your name and ramble about produce, but I kinda like you now. Welcome to the team, Team Dad Who is Also a Ghost

That’s such a Tiz thing. “I mean he may be possessing my body but I’m not gonna exorcise him! That’s mean!”

Time to corner the Empire at the Water Temple and put a stop to their plans!

Agnès is overloading the Crystal. And her voice is all echo-y. Don’t tell me she’s possessed, too, because I totally called that in the last liveblog

I knew the barrier wouldn’t work. After all, what’s a vestaling’s power to a full-blown Vestal?

Tiz, stop asking her to stop and grab her!!!

Now we know for sure why she was kidnapped. And why the empire’s plans didn’t seem to start until the beginning of the game

Aw, damn. Anne’s here. We’ve gotta be heading back in time pretty soon to undo this

Vucub Caquix? What... THAT’S a name

I thought this was going to be the end of the chapter, but there’s a whole sidequest and two summons on my list I never did. Did I miss them???

Actually, screw it. I saved just before this scene, I’m gonna go check

I did not. Guess this isn’t the end of the chapter, then?

Ugh. Sapp and Piddler are back on a mechanical bird that they don’t know how to fly. How dramatic

At least Anne’s amused?

It absorbs lightning damage, which would’ve been nice to know when I scanned it

And it transforms into a wrestler. I... hrm.

Nevermind, it absorbs all magic. Magnolia’s Summon in a Pinch is gonna sabotage us, I know it

Just glanced at a guide. It actually absorbs ELEMENTAL damage, so the Wizard’s Spirit spell works

So tedious. Rad death animation though

Bestiary entry stated the operation manual inside says the designer gave it “the name of one of the gods from my homeland.” I wasn’t aware that the Mayans existed in the Default universe

Oh, fuck off Nikolai. Are you actually gonna do anything or are you just gonna monologue at us?

Blah blah he was part of the original Crystalguard, they were corrupt and lost to the Eternian Anticrystalists and the disbanded Crystalguard did some shady stuff that he did nothing to stop, so now he feels guilty and joined the kaiser to go back in time and undo it. Okay. Sure. I get it. You’ve never read a time-travel story in your life so you’re unaware that “fixing the past” goes wrong 90% of the time. We get it

Yew, my precious child! Sticking up for his beliefs and telling Nikolai off by professing his love for his new family!

“He’s like a big brother to me!” I LOVE ME A TIZ/YEW BROTHERHOOD

And everything he’s said about Edea sounds like a younger sibling talking about their annoying older sibling I LOVE THIS FAMILY

MY BABYYYYYY! “The people who matter most to me are right here, in this world! And you are not gonna take them away from me!” THAT’S RIGHT KIDDO. This world may be broken, but there’s good in it and the bad can still be fixed! The sacrifice of your family is UNACCEPTABLE

“I’m gonna make it right. Here, in this world.” I. LOVE. YEW

FUCK OFF, NIKOLAI. THE ULTIMATE SIBLING TEAM IS HERE

You know, Nikolai, I can’t have Yew resurrect himself as a Bishop, so why can you?

Just stay down, Nikolai. “Show the world your coup de gravy” is some... awful dying words

Janne’s alive. Falling off a cliff has never killed anyone in fiction

Okay Kaiser’s voice sounded familiar to me so I looked it up. It’s Cam Clarke, who voiced what appears to be, no joke, a large portion of the cast of Back at the Barnyard, Toph’s Dad from Avatar: The Last Airbender, Simba in all of his non-first movie appearances, including Kingdom Hearts II, and, most pressingly the original Leonardo from the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. In my liveblog of the Prologue, I noted that Yew was voiced by Michael Sinterniklaas, the voice of 2003 Leonardo. Is this the most bizarre casting gag ever???

Nikolai’s bestiary entry is complete, so this really is the last we’ll ever fight him

Oops, Empire’s already about to shatter the worlds

The Rubadub can fly? Lotus taught Sakura the controls? Yew asked him to do it with the levistone? What???

Lotus join this family forever please

We use the hot springs to heat the levistone to fly. I can’t believe we have a flying hot springs boat

There’s the sidequest. It’s Grandship, moored in the Ba’al crater in Eternia

Oh the ship lets you fast travel anywhere. Sick

Heyyyy, Zatz, Datz, and the Proprietress! ...and they’re complaining about taxes

So Grandship ran out of power, and now they’re a refugee micronation

Oh hey, Alternis. Somebody ask him about the Florem competition. I want to see his face when he realizes his alternate self is ruining everything again

No, game, it’s not suspicious at all that you’re giving Alternis an introduction card right now when he’s supposedly been part of the main plot since last chapter. Not suspicious at all

“By what strange trick of fate do your paths cross anew?” NOT SUSPICIOUS AT ALL

This scene where we hang out with our airship buddies from the last game is really cute, I’ll admit

Alternis sounds so happy the second these orphan kids come up to him. Also really adorable. There’s a lot of reasons I love Alternis

HE GAVE THEM FOOD AND GIFTS. My heart! And it makes perfect sense that he cares for the orphans given the fact that he was an abandoned kid

He’s hanging out at Grandship because it takes care of the lost. I think he’s found the perfect home

Holy shit that meal was 1,825,890pg WITH discount?! Edea what the hell did you eat?!

Or it’s just absurd taxes. But I’ve got my eye on your share of the meal, Edea!

Oh god crazy Chompcraft guy is here abort abort let’s book it

“Everyone is responsible” jackass, that ain’t how taxation works, even with a council. Stop trying to cover your ass

...Alternis’s views on taxation are not something to love him for. Sure, some taxation is always going to be necessary, especially for general welfare programs. But a nation only has so much money to spend! Eventually there’s not gonna be any left, and now everyone needs the welfare, instead of just some people, but we already spent the money funding the welfare, so there isn’t enough to go around

“We must look after the orphans and the aged” Alternis, bud, your heart’s in the right place, but that doesn’t make the system any less broken

He’s acting like by abolishing taxes we suddenly stop all welfare programs. That’s... not how it works. It just needs another source of income. One that doesn’t completely use up the rest of the nation’s cash, so that nobody can pay for the kids. We need people to be able to make money, because that keeps it flowing, both within the nation and around it. And when you open up money to outsiders, they will return with more. That’s where the money for the kids should come from. Collaboration with the rest of the world, not a drain on an already impoverished people

Please don’t let this be a repeat of the Profiteur/Holly quest where the entire conflict was “sentimental dumbass flunked out of high school economics”

I just noticed that Agnès is missing from the pendant in the menu. Sometimes the gameplay and story integration in this series is fantastically on-point

Oh neato! Since the Charybdis summon is a debuff we don’t have to survive an attack, but instead fight the Anchorite while debuffed. Cool!

And don’t think I missed the fact that they put a summon named after the Greek monster, Charybdis, on a boat

I’m glad that Yew clarified that “end layer” is just another term for the apocalypse. So the title of the game is basically “Go Back in Time: The Destruction of All”

Oh good, ex-King Khamer is here. I’m sure he knows how to run a nation (it’s so unfortunate that he’s the most experienced here in that regard)

Makes sense, though. He and Profiteur are the only people in the world who worked with finances before, thanks to the Merchantry

There were THIRTY taxes? Grandship, what are you doing?

7000pg for a SLICE of bread? Are you guys trying to destroy any potential tourist income you have AND drive away your current residents?

And hey, Khamer isn’t saying it’s wrong to help the orphans. But unless there’s reform, the poor laws aren’t going to collect any money regardless!

“Your ideals have blinded you, and you refuse to see the truth.” He’s got a point. Alternis is too caught up in helping the orphans to see that no matter which option they pick, those orphans are gonna run out of state funding real fast

This is just Profiteur vs Holly, except it’s shorter and I like Alternis and the Grandship crew, so it’s instantly better if still really dumb

I’m so on Khamer’s side here. There is no “good” option for the orphans. Either they lose going to school, or they lose THEIR ENTIRE HOME NATION. So Khamer’s solution actually hurts the kids less. Alternis is just so emotional right now he can’t see it

Worst Timeline Prerogative states side with Alternis and doom Grandship, so that’s what we’re gonna do

“It might seems crazy to risk financial ruin just to take care of the poor” Seem? Edea, dear, the poor won’t be taken care of at all without cutting the taxes

“But, if you think of the country as a family, then it’s not crazy at all” Edea, it’s a NATION. They’re not equivalent! Governments have to do cruel things sometimes because it’s their job to benefit as many people as they can, not just the ones they want!

The worst part of all of these sidequests isn’t that someone’s usually wrong. It’s that Edea attempts to morally justify whatever she does to make it sound like the “superior” option, and never for convincing reasons. It just makes her come across as shallow, and I know that’s not who Edea is. She doesn’t moralize to everyone she meets, at least, she shouldn’t in this game. The Edea from last game might, but having her be team mouthpiece here forces her to ignore her character growth from last game in realizing that situations can be morally ambiguous and need COMPROMISE, not just picking one side and calling it a day. It doesn’t always have to be either-or, and this game’s Edea knows that! She just sounds really immature in these sidequests. Like she can’t conceive of ever doing something morally ambiguous because it seemed the better morally ambiguous option at the time, she has to be 100% morally correct all the time

You’re all just gonna make people move out of Grandship, and now who’s going to pay the poor laws? The poor?! If people can’t choose whether to support the poor or not with their the way their money is spent, they’ll chose with their bodies by just leaving

Alternis, darling, noooooo. You don’t have the money to buy them nice things. The poor laws should only provide necessities and the groundwork for them to work themselves out of poverty. Give them assistance, not freebies that they’ll never repay

I agree with everything Edea’s saying, but we literally picked the option that DOES NOT ALLOW FOR THAT PLAN

We just created a socialist hellstate. Great.

No one’s concerned that I switched Tiz to Exorcist and he’s just sitting there, covered in blood

They’re trying to claim that everyone’s making enough to support the taxes and that the kids are gonna grow up and help the nation, but... that’s blatantly false? We saw they couldn’t literally last night? And the nation’s gonna run out of cash in two weeks, so... this ending’s bullshit?

And Khamer wasn’t a citizen so he shouldn’t have been in the council in the first place and went broke, but he can take advantage of the poor laws despite that? Has anyone considered that he went broke BECAUSE THE TAXES WERE SO HIGH?!

Also, this whole thing comes off as just... desperately trying to justify bad decisions based on emotion, which it REALLY should not. The government needs to be held to different standards than a person. Just own up to the fact that you fucked up, guys. Stop trying to sugarcoat the fact that Grandship is gonna go broke in two weeks. It all sounds like a lie to make sentimental fools feel better

By invalidating Khamer like this, the sidequest loses ALL impact. Everything would be so much more poignant if he was a citizen, was really going to be effected by everything, and the choice had actual consequences. Heck, outside of this scene, people are still complaining about the taxes! You talk to anyone but the orphans on this ship and they talk about how they’re lucky to get by! Writers, it is OKAY to admit that your protags made a bad choice. No one learned anything here, and Grandship is still going to go bankrupt!

I really wished that quest had spawned before the battle at the Water Temple, because it killed the pacing

They’re gonna sell merch featuring the Warriors of Light. Yeah, sure, that’ll fix it. You solved the economy. Congrats. Just... someone buy Tiz that mug with his face on it and we’ll call it a quest, yeah?

I’m gonna go grind out Everlast Tower and snag the Girtablulu summon, then see if I can call it a chapter

Half of it’s locked down, but I snagged the summon and did as much as I could. Onwards!

Everyone’s saying it’s the point of no return. By name. Think it might be the Point of No Return™?

Wait, it’s the female voice. The chapter’s already over? Wow.

“I waited - how long I waited - for the day when the two of you would meet again.” I want to know who she means. She says “you,” not “us”

Well, I guess that was the end of the chapter! My guide says there’s only one Asterisk next chapter, so I feel it’s gonna be a short one! Definitely a Disk One Final Dungeon at the Skyhold

“Great Distance” is, as always, a pleasure to hear

I cannot believe how many characters raised death flags this chapter, and yet no one died. I also can’t believe there wasn’t a Ba’al fight! This game is screwing with my expectations and I’m happy Lotus and Procyon are alive but also???

I really enjoyed this chapter. Not the sidequests, which is to be expected at this point. It feels like they’re written by a completely different team than the main storyline, and I wonder if that’s the case, because they’re so tonally off and the main story is doing GREAT at moral ambiguity, which makes the complete lack of it in the sidequests despite the fact they act like there is, completely baffling.

But! We got some wonderful interactions between the main cast, especially the part where Yew tells Nikolai that he’s got a family now and he won’t just let them be erased, and then goes one step further and vows to fix the Crystalguard’s past mistakes without taking the easy way out and just undoing them! Some amazing lore reveals and worldbuilding with the Sagitta, my new Favorite Dad, Lotus, the airship (finally!), and the SP plot involving Altair finally makes its appearance. So I genuinely like this chapter, and I can’t wait to finish up the first “arc” of Bravely Second before things start getting real. Since Chapter 4 looks to be short, I’ll be checking back in real soon! ‘Till next time!

[youremyonlyhope]

Children of Earth: Day One

AKA Torchwood takes the “creepy child in a horror movie” trope to a global level.

Apparently I hate myself since I’m rewatching this season for the first time. Even though it’s so painful I haven’t ever watched it since the first time back in 2013.

Kids walking willingly (or so it seems at this point) into a bright light. Ok. Totally normal and not a creepy way to start the episode. I just know that at some point in this post I’m gonna start saying “I hate this why am I doing this to myself all over again?” in every other line. Not yet. But it will happen. Maybe not in Day One. But definitely by Day Two. CAPALDI! MY LOVE! The first time I’d ever seen him. Oh. Oh I’m already in pain. Why am I doing this???? Wow look at that it only took one more scene to get me started on that. OH GOD STEVEN. I ALWAYS BLOCK THIS OUT AND THEN REMEMBER IT AND THEN BLOCK IT OUT ALL OVER AGAIN. I’m glad that Gwen has an eye for weird stuff though and noticed the kids. Oh the Hub. For the last time. OH GOD WHY IS IT NOW HITTING ME THAT THIS IS ALL JUST 5 DAYS WHAT THE HELL. The first time I watched this, I finished Exit Wounds just before. I remember having to clean part of the living room that day, and I know I cleaned it either just before starting Exit Wounds or just after finishing it, so maybe I had a half hour break between this and Exit Wounds if that’s when I cleaned. But either way, I had just watched Exit Wounds before this and Gwen saying good morning to the picture of Owen and Tosh hit me way too hard in the feels. OH RUPESH. I LIKED HIM. I WANTED HIM TO STICK AROUND AND NOT BETRAY THEM. RUPESH. I WAS ROOTING FOR YOU. Remind me to use that Tyra gif when the betrayal happens. You boys need to get better at faking sadness. Now I’m remembering that this season, while not as bad as Countrycide, was a little gorey... I mean, if only that laser knife could be real.

Rupesh: *Sees “Torchwood” written on the van* You’re Torchwood! Jack: *Getting into the Torchwood van* Never heard of them.

I laughed out loud. I love this show. Most well-known secret organization ever. And Jack barely even tries to hide it. “This whole city talks about you.” I LAUGHED OUT LOUD AGAIN. I LOVE TORCHWOOD. Rupesh is smart. He thought of a interesting case. Ugh he had so much potential and used it for the wrong side. Hey it’s my girl Lois! Sad Martha couldn’t be here, but Lois, girl, you stole my heart. I love you. She’s arriving at the same time as Frobisher. Oh my god watching this when he becomes the Doctor later on is so trippy. Oh my god. Asking for easy alien stuff. Wow. “No, you get killed, not me. You die like a dog. Like an ugly dog.” OK Jack you’re gonna regret that foreshadowing in a few episodes. “What’s his uniform? That’s not British Army, is it?” MY GIRL LOIS. SHE HAS A GOOD EYE. “So far we’re the only ones with software clever enough to piece this all together” HA. “Well, us and Torchwood.” Oh ok. Martha’s on her honeymoon. With Mickey but they don’t say it. God. If only they could have developed Martha and Mickey even the tiniest bit. Literally just Jack saying “I don’t know, she only met Mickey a year ago. I think they’re moving too fast.” and Gwen responding “Well I like him more than Tom, I’m glad that ended.” and then the show moves on with its life. Sure, that’d be the easy way out, but I prefer the easy way over what we got which was them barely even trying. I WANT to ship Martha and Mickey, JUST GIVE ME REASON TO. “Ask about Torchwood and most people point towards the bay.” You guys really have to get better at being a secret organization. I was about to say that I did not know Torchwood’s paid by the Crown, but then my brain was like “Queen Victoria founded it, you idiot.” But now I’m imagining Queen Elizabeth signing checks for Torchwood. God Rupesh. I remember thinking “Oh I’m gonna love him on the team” during his little speech about the suicides. I FORGOT THE SCREAMING. I LEGIT GASPED AND THREW MYSELF BACKWARDS OH MY GOD I FORGOT THE STUPID SCREAMING WHY AM I DOING THIS TO MYSELF THIS IS THE WORST. OH MY GOD. This screaming made me realize my right earbud might be dying. Either that or my hearing’s worse in that ear. I FORGOT THE ‘WE ARE COMING’S. I THOUGHT THEY WERE AT THE END OF THE EPISODE. Remember when the Not-British-Army dude was like “We’re not sure if it’s extraterrestrial yet” YEAH WELL THESE CHILDREN ARE SCREAMING “WE ARE COMING” SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO IT’S PROBABLY EXTRATERRESTRIAL.  Oh yeah and the old dude’s doing it too. “What’s in there?” “Big, science fiction superbase. Honestly. See ya.” See this is why Torchwood isn’t a secret. You just tell everyone your business. Oh god oh poor Lois. First day on the job. And there’s an international crisis. That isn’t even me making a joke, I immediately thought of Janice in Come From Away, her first day at the news station and she has to cover 7000 people arriving in Gander after 9/11. Aaaaand now I’m gonna cry. Oh Bridget will regret giving Lois that password. But also, it ends up helping save the world to an extent so it works out. Thanks Bridget. LOL literal red flag next to Jack’s name. Love it. Honestly I agree with this Dekker (Dekkler?) guy, all this is just more reason to not have kids. “So every single child in the whole wide world is speaking English.” Oh the British. Thinking they’re the center of the universe. Though, I really should not be speaking since I’m an American. “We can adopt a Filipino and get her to clean the chimneys” Woah wait what kind of line was that?!?!?!? What? Awww look at Rhys being useful, noticing patterns. “I’m going into England. Farewell forever.” Knowing that the Welsh hate England makes me happy. Wow Jack, you literally had to think to remember that you have a grandson. “What do you recommend that we do?” “You tell me.” See, look at that. Already pushing all the blame and responsibility onto Frobisher. At this point, Frobisher’s basically nothing so why would the Prime Minister say “You tell me.”??? He already plans to make him deal with it all. Ok but also Frobisher’s the one suggesting wiping the record so yeah you suck too. I love Capaldi with all my heart, but at this point I hate Frobisher. So yeah, wiping the records and pretending it didn’t happen, blame Frobisher. Everything else so far? Eh. Up in the air for now. I’ve blocked out everything about this entire season besides Ianto’s death, that scene about the Doctor (though I WISH I could forget that), and “John Frobisher is a good man.” “I’m not having my name on this.” Have some integrity Prime Minister. Now you’re officially to blame too because you agreed to it but knew it was wrong so you didn’t want to be connected. At least Frobisher was never planning on acting like he wasn’t a part of this. Rhiannon has the right idea about the group hysteria thing. She’s wrong, but it’s a great theory. “I just can’t stand it, Dad.” AND HERE’S 2013 ME GOING “WHAAAATTTTT” God this whole conversation about Steven just hurts. I’m glad Rhiannon’s supportive. Rhiannon’s husband coming in to ruin a nice moment. 52 in 2009, he would have only been 8 in 1965... HONESTLY TORCHWOOD, YOU’D THINK YOU PEOPLE WOULD BE BEYOND USING PHONES THAT CAN BE INTERCEPTED. TOSH, GIRL, YOU HAD TIME TO CREATE A TIME LOCK BUT NOT A SECURE PHONE LINE?? No but Tosh, girl, you are perfect I’m not mad I’m kidding I love you you’re the best. And Bridget in her mind is like “Oh great. I’m a part of a government coverup.” Yeah I’d have to get up and run away from my computer too. That’s how I feel after writing papers (Also! I just graduated college on Saturday! No more papers unless for some reason I decide to go to grad school!) and I can’t imagine how much worse the feeling is after deleting government records. My girl Lois. Snooping. I love her. But like, is killing the people involved really necessary? Like, can’t you just maybe lock them up in a jail until this all blows over? Jack. Where in the world did you get that car? You live at the Hub. Where do you park it? And did you pick TARDIS blue on purpose? RUPESH.

STILL NOT OVER THIS BETRAYAL. WATCHING THIS THE FIRST TIME I WAS LIKE “OH YES. GOOD. RUPESH JOINS THE TEAM AS A NEW MEDICAL OFFICER. I LIKE HIM.” AND THEN HE BETRAYS US. HOW COULD YOU, RUPESH!? Now here’s the thing: I’d love this lady if she wasn’t evil. And the government picked the worst person to be a part of a secret deal with aliens when they picked Jack. Yes, he seems like the best because he’s in Torchwood, but he’s the worst pick. If they have the option in the future of an Order to Kill, they should always think ahead “Hey, we’re doing this shady deal. It’s supposed to be a one time thing, but there’s the off chance it might come back to bite us. Let’s make sure everyone involved can be killed later on.” and not hire the one person who can never die. They could have avoided having to literally blow him up and collect the pieces. Or, you know, not have an order to kill option in the first place and lock them up until it blows over. Just a suggestion. “Who killed the Chinese man?” “I did. I had to, he just fitted the story.” “Then get off your high horse, then.” Girl has a point. Wow I wish I could love her. I love Jack. I love that his resurrections are always perfectly timed. “Do you think it’s true, what they say about him?” *Jack dramatically comes back to life.* Even in death, Jack lives for the drama. His immortality ability was like “...just... give it... 2 more seconds... ok they’re talking about Jack TIME TO WAKE UP.” And I LOVE that she was so ready to shoot him again. Girl was ready. I love it. It’s terrifying that the soldiers are like “Oh she’s shooting someone as they run away again.” and know to go off to the sides. You know, the theory of Jack’s immortality being connected to the rift isn’t a bad one either. It’s wrong, but the logic is there. All these people thinking of great theories, unfortunately they don’t take aliens into account. “They kill you?” “Yeah.” *Ianto gives Jack a comforting hug.* I LOVE TORCHWOOD. And everything’s falling apart at once. Gwen’s having a baby, Jack’s having a bomb, and all the kids are speaking with demon voices again. “We are coming... back.” Now that’s how you end an episode.

Yeah so Day One is not as painful as the rest of the days. But it’s still VERY dramatic.

Ok. Gotta find time to watch Day Two over the next week. Maybe tomorrow. We’ll see.

RIP Torchwood Three Hub. 1885-2009. (Also while looking up the year Torchwood Three started, I found out that it was founded by a woman name Agnes Havisham. So, good for her.) But seriously, the Hub’s gone, and my heart died with it.

UPDATE 2 days later: WHAT HAPPENED TO MYFANWY AND JANET!!?!?!?!?!?! All of season 1 and 2 I kept bringing up how I wonder what happened to them after the explosion, but then once I get up to the episode with the explosion I forget about them. ARE THEY OK!? Please tell me Janet escaped to the sewers somehow and that Myfanwy flew away and is off being happy and safe.

[ragnarssons]

the 100 ask game

I was tagged by @nightbleeder ty <3 (even tho half of the fandom won’t like my answers, yikes)  1. What would you get arrested for on the Ark? as the things were on s1? Probably punching Kane in the face just for being around... or probably stealing some supplies for people I care about. Or murder, because sometimes the urge is strong, it has to be even worse on a very limited space like the ark. 2. Would you take off your wristband when you landed on the ground? ehhhh uuuuh, no, especially not with Bellamy’s ways of doing things at the time. Yeah, when Bellamy started to forbid people from eating unless they take their wristband off, is the only time I sided with Finn... 3. What would the necklace Finn would make for you look like? (Clarke: deer/Raven: a raven duh..) a fist in his face? Idk, Finn would have never made me a necklace because I wouldn’t have liked him at all to begin with. But if it has to come to that, maybe a tree leaf or something that simple. 4. If you could resurrect any MINOR character who would it be? *big breath* SINCLAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIR 5. Create a squad of 5 characters to go on missions with. Who are they? Bellamy “eyes sharp” Blarke, Clarke doctor Griffin, Monty, Roan (because broanlarke and also their mission was badass), and Raven “it won’t survive me” Reyes. I have guns, swords, brains, abs, technology, and medical support. 6. Minty or Briller? Briller. I’m actually looking forward to see what they did with Jackson and Miller tbh.... 7. What would your name be in Trigedasleng? (example: Octavia=Okteivia…just make it up!) ehhh, Mari? Yeah kinda like Madi, cool. 8. Thoughts on Finn? Some people hate him, and others love him, so I’m curious  Who? Listen, I didn’t hate him at first, when I started the show. To me watching the first eps, it was THAT simple, Bellamy was the “bad guy” and Finn was “the good guy” the storyline sides with every time. And Clarke and him are the “rightful couple”. But delving into the show it gets more complicated and even tho I shipped Bellarke and Bellamy was by far my fav over Finn, I was “mehhh” with Finn. I didn’t care about his ass tbh. When he died I didn’t care. And then I rewatched the show. And I re-rewatched it. And re-re-rewatched it. And I HATE Finn. There is no more self-righteous character (except Octagon), and yet he’s the most basic douchebag you could ever put on a tv show. He’s lying, he’s cheating people, yet for a long while (5 episodes is still a long while) the narrative makes us want to be like “yeahh Finn ur so gooood”. And when there actually is the “love triangle” he goes all weak ass about it, being “sorry” and yet doing NOTHING to atone for what he did. He sleeps with Raven while it’s SOOO OBVIOUS that she’s just fucking him because she’s desperate and sad and just running away from things. SERIOUSLY? You don’t love her, she loves you, but you sleep with her??? And the way both Raven and Clarke had to be the “bigger person” for his sorry ass. I’m glad they worked things through and got an awesome relationship even tho he was here, with his “sad puppy eyes” dumb face. And the way he’s stalking Clarke wherever she goes, questioning and criticizing all her decisions. AND when on Unity Day he put CLARKE’S ass in danger, then went all “youuu should have truuusted meeee” when Clarke got her ass saved by Bellamy, BECAUSE his idea was dumb to begin with (and also because he kinda “forced” her hand to speak with the Grounders while she NEVER wanted to do that in the first place... why didn’t he go himself ehhh if he’s sooo smart? And after that he acted all schocked because the Grounders came with weapons - DUUUUUH). Do I hate Finn enough here?  9. Be honest. How willing would you have been to take the chip without knowing all the horrible things it does? Not. I’ve known really hard times, but never in my life I have thought about “turning my feelings/pain off” in a superficial way. And idk, kinda knowing it’s some kind of computer thingy (do they know?) “taking control” over you, ehhh no. I don’t do drugs. 10. What character do you relate to most & What character do you like the least not including the obvious ones like Pike, etc… I relate to Bellamy the most. Idk, yeah I don’t have a little sister who was my duty for all my life. But on a larger spec, I’d do most of the things he did. I know I’d kill only if it were necessary and I know I wouldn’t be able to live with it and trying to atone for it. I know that I’m true and impetuous and impredictable like Bellamy.  And the ones I relate with the least are Octagon and Mur.hy (let’s not tag him because heeee). 11. Describe your delinquent outfit. (Would you wear something like Murphy’s jacket with the spikey red shoulder patch or have a trademark like Jasper’s goggles? Be creative, yet practical) I’d be a basic bitch. With Clarke’s good earth cleavage because I can rock it too.  12. Favorite type of mutant animal? I loved the idea of the deer (also on s1 Lincoln actually has a “mutant horse”). I think Pauna is ridiculous, tho. I’d like to see more of these, on the other hand. 13. What would your job be on the Ark? Janitor? 14. Would you have willingly pumped Ontari’s heart if Abby asked? I think so. I know that when my adrenaline kicks in, I am able to push back a lot of my discomforts. Even tho I HATEEEEEEEEE everything related to surgery and stuff like that. To save Clarke, I would have, yeahhh... 15. If Lxa wasn’t Heda, but she’s still alive right? then who would make the best commander? No one? Idk just destroy this autocratic way of ruling. Wells would have been a good leader *side eyes*. Idk at least the Chancellor is elected, but I really disagree with the whole Grounders’ politics soooo I really don’t care about all this. 16. If you were a grounder, then where would you live and who would be your mentor? I’d love my mentor to be Lincoln. And ummm as for the clan ummm, I don’t care?? Trishanakru? The butterflies are nice, you know. 17. How would you act if you ate the hallucinogenic nuts like Jasper and Monty? Monty. I too want to give the Earth a giant hug. 18. How would you have dealt with Charlotte’s crime? A more John Murphy approach or Bellamy Blake? I would have given her some therapy cuz I don’t know why Wells had to die because she was seeing Jaha in her nightmares. Like?? Logic?? Where are you?? I really don’t know what I would have done but certainly NOT what they did to Murphy but also NOT what he would have done himself had he caught Charlotte (or what he did through the episode). Banishment seemed like a good idea, but she’s still a kid. Gosh I have no idea.  19. Who should be the Chancellor, if anyone? Someone from the lower ranks on the Ark. Like Sinclair? Given his relationships to a lot of characters, he would have been a good Chancellor, yeh. Or Ginger Dad. 20. Mount Weather had a lot of modern commodities. (example: Maya’s Ipod)What is the one thing you would snatch while there? Dante’s art collection. 21. Do you think you’d have caught the virus spread through camp or would you have been immune like Oct.via? Since my headcanon is that the virus was like “a moral compass” (since only the good characters got it), I’d say that I wouldn’t be immune. (I’ll never buy this bs saying that Octagon and Finn are “the strong ones” LMAO) 22. What would your grounder tattoos look like? Hairstyle? War paint? type Aloy on Google and that’s it. Aloy is bae. I also loved Lxa’s back tattoo tbh. And no war paint (idk all of these, on the show, are ridiculous). 23. Favorite quote? “For all its faults, Earth is really beautiful” also “We save who we can save today”. I also love the Traveler’s Prayer.  24. Can you forgive Mur.hy for his actions? How about Bellamy? About Mur/hy it’s gonna be a big NO. Like, sorry, I still have zero empathy for this character. People call him “complex”, to me, he hasn’t changed ever since the beginning of the show (he literally abandoned his “buddy” Bellamy on 401 like ehhh??). And the way he’s so judgy and “sassy” while he’d morally have ZERO right to be. I think the fandom works way more to make me dislike him, how everyone integrated the fact that he’s a bs human being and act like it’s normal and it’s a reason to like/love him. Bellamy has changed a lot from s1 to s4, I’ve never seen him NOT atone or try to do better after his screw-ups. That’s the main difference to me. Starting as a certain person, distrusting the others, okay, it’s one thing. Never buging from that? Nop. Several characters showed a lot of care for Mur.hy and he never did (apart from the very last moments of 413 so who knows, maybe coming from that, my PoV will change, but from s1 to s4 my PoV never changed on him). I honestly like the idea of the show integrating a character like this in the story, it’s “different”, yes. It’s just not characters I like and/or relate to. I also feel like the writers don’t (didn’t? until now) know how to put him in a narrative close to the people he could evolve with (because they... didn’t want him to evolve?). He was just alone on lots of times, aaand very often, sadly for him, related to SLs I didn’t like (Polis, Jaha’s quest, the mansion and all). I don’t like the “in it only for myself” kinds of characters. (if it can help, I also disliked both Bellamy and Kane when they seemed to be “just that” as well... but they evolved). 25. If one of the characters was in the Hunger Games, who would have the best shot at winning? NOOOOO ALREADY SO MUCH DEATH NOOOO One of the Grounders most likely. And unless it would be Lincoln then I wouldn’t care. 26. Least favorite ship? Favorite ship? NOT INCLUDING CL OR BC anything including Octagon. Also anything including Finn. My favorite ship is Bellarke and I ain’t gonna bend the truth *shrugs* I care very little about any other ships on here lmao (except Monty and Harper, they have my thumbs up).  27. A song that should be included in the next season, like when Radioactive was? If there had to be another guest star like Shawn Mendes on the show, who would you want to make a cameo? Some Olafur Arnalds, let’s suffer. 28. What would you do if you were stuck in the bunker with Murp.y for all that time? Honestly? All the data he had about the past in that thing? I would have watched it all. (or did it have only the one video with ALIE and Becca? I don’t remember) 29. Opinion on Emori? Roan? I loved Roan when he was an ally, but I do think he had a manipulative side that he played on Clarke a lot. I think he could have had way more potential than what they did with him. As for Emori... I like her, I’m glad she’s still alive as in, I hope they’ll delve into her more to make me like her more. Because I liked how she started to develop a “care” for Clarke and the others after ep408. Before that, I also didn’t like her, the “Bonnie and Clyde” thing she had with Murp.y didn’t interest me. 30. Would you want to be an extra that is killed off in a brutal way? Eh, yeah why not. 31. A character you’d like to learn more about and get flashbacks of? MONTY, I mean? Why did he never get flashbacks?? Also Harper, Miller, Jackson, idk the Sky People ya kno.  32. A character you’d bang? Look, “Satisfied Girl” and Bree are my girls goal. @head-and-heart @bellamynochillblake @bellsbeard @captainheroism @grumpybell @bellamyslaugh @perhalta @bobnorley @foolish-nymeria ehhh if anyone else wants to do it, let’s go!