#so basically the plot of the quarry lol

[shepherds-of-haven]

Had a dream about the Shepherds at summer camp. I haven't had a (coherent) dream about them in a while so this was surprising to me! I think it was, like, an adult summer camp that corporations or what-have-you send people to for teambuilding and whatnot. Red, Ayla, and Halek were camp counselors; Halek was in charge of the mess hall. Trouble was some kind of ranch hand type dude who helped the camp wrangle their horses and fixed up fences and whatnot?? Briony, Lavinet, Shery, were there on an annual girls' trip and were in Cabin #8 while Riel, Blade, and Chase were in Cabin #11 as part of some forced exercise by their, like, law firm or something. The former two were absolutely miserable about it and Chase was thrilled. They were all gathered around the campfire on the first night telling scary stories about some sort of serial killer rumored to stalk the forest around the camp; then Riel stepped away to try and find signal because he was expecting an important phone call (even though the camp rules stated he shouldn't have his phone). Then he discovered that all of the camp vehicles had been sabotaged, and the terror began...

[lilrobinbird]

Long Ass Tag Game

Cause I wanna get to know you guys better

Thanks for the tag @edas-boytoy <33 Putting this under cut

I accidently wrote looong answer for one question shdhs

How many tumblr accounts have you had before this one?

It's my first one actually haha, I've made like two/three more after this but now they're abandoned forever

Also for this blog I have two sideblogs, I don't really use them now either

How long have you been in fandom?

Like the current one? By the end of July 2023 I posted my first Kyoshi novels fanart and maybe one month earlier I started rebloging and commenting on posts from others, this was after I read the novels and I jumped into their fandom and then in the procces I've also got into tlok and atla (I enjoyed them way earlier but I just didn't participate in their fandoms)

Your favorite trope in fiction?

HMMMmmm Grumpy serious stoick ish x chaotic more fun (and other antonyms that matches first character idk) (whatever heituat has going on))), expressive women with strong personalities, girlfailures<3, severe stern ruthless etcetc women but caring deep down inside (optional), morally gray characters, and I'm just a little obssesed with mother daughter relationships in fiction if that counts as a trope

Your favorite random fact?

That might be well known idk, but sometimes for a video game character they'll hire one person as only just face model, and then differnt person as voice and acting/motion capture

Must feel weird and funny when you basically see yourself in video game doing stuff you didn't do speaking with a different voice

Your favorite game or kind of game?

Now I don't really play video games myself but since I've watched Until Dawn gameplay yeaaaars ago I still like to watch playthroughts of those choice based horror games (the quarry, devil in me, resident evil etc), and later I watch other playthroughts for different choices outcomes scenes etcetccc, The games can be kinda stupid but fun, alsooo playthroughts of adventure games(???), I usually watch them when I eat something

Also CHECK OUT "STRAY"!! I only watched playthrought too but it looks so cool, you basically play as a cat (they did good job with motion capture, feels like real cat moves and it looks so fun to play) and you're in a world when humans no longer exist and there are cool looking robots, you can stratch walls and make robots pet you but I promise it's not just that lolol it has an actual plot and wordbuilding

Aside video games I like chess but I suck big time, but for my defence I mostly played with my friend who sucks even more aHA, we downlanded one chess app for two players and played during some classes

I think I'm just interested in 3d models and graphics hehhh I like 3d modeling

There's also a game called Hades, and this one I actually started playing myself, not the kind of games I'm usually into (roguelike),but friend got me it and! The character designs are very cool

HA nerd long anwser

A place you'd like to visit? (If carbon emissions, logistics and money weren't in question)

Honestly idk, somewhere warm, Greece? Spain would be nice too mmm mm architecture

Or someplace with cool mountains

An animal you're irrationally afraid of?

Ladybugs. No further explenations. But I do appreciate their beauty on photos and from big distance, I'm serious they are very pretty

What's your favorite season?

HMmmm currenlty maybe spring

A smell that brings you nice memories?

I still remember taking a breath of fresh spring air in a specific room last year and getting hit with memories lol, is that even a smell? felt like a smell

(If you're ok talking about food. If not, delete this part)

What's your favorite food from where you were born? And what's your favorite food from some place else?

Pierogi, krokiety and bigos from our stupid potatoland, from other places hmmm, most kinds of pasta maybe, I love pasta, pasta!! which is a little boring but mmmmm mm mmmm pastaaaaa

What's your favorite drink (if you drink alcohol, alcoholic and non-alcoholic)?

I do drink but not too often and I don't really care what, I like flavoured beer, which is alcohol for babies as my friend would say and she might be right but I like it

Do you give your pets random table scraps?

Not too often but sometimes yeah and depends what is it

no pressure tag @korrasamibottles

[somewhereinthepines]

Hello, Pines! Is it okay for me to call you that? You can not answer this if you don’t want to, but you are one of few people who don’t have strong feelings for Dylan/Ryan ship. I wanted to know why? I hope it doesn’t come off combative!

hi, and yeah, it’s more than okay! when i was writing ‘by design’ i was called this by a reader and fellow author, so i kind of gentle of this nickname now, haha.

now, about your question….it doesn’t read as rude or combative to me at all! i don’t get irked, when i’ve asked about stuff that i don’t like or not into. but in turn, i have to warn that i do prefer to be honest about my opinion, and while i don’t hate dylan/ryan ship, i think that people who really love it might find my words kinda downing. my opinions are whimsical and fully based on my own pref and tastes, and what i look for in fiction, so i’d just ask people to view it as this. just me speaking for myself, from my own tower. 

*waves a hand* but let’s begin. so ah, dylan/ryan. it’s true, that i indeed don’t have any particularly strong feelings about them as a ship. or about dylan. i don’t hate him as a character, i just don’t care about him lol. surprisingly enough, i didn’t actively distaste anyone in the quarry. and it’s smth, bc supermassive does tend to create/write at least one character, who pisses me off in their games. either way, dylan wasn’t that. he was fine. i just didn’t find him interesting or compelling, or felt like ryan had some insane connection to him. 

i look back at all the interactions, that dylan had with ryan, and it’s very generic to me. the game trying to force them into ‘romance’ only made everything worse and feel scripted, rather than coming off natural. i mean, what ryan and dylan have narrative wise, first of all? 1) they talk inside mister h’s office, and it all while they lie out plot points for us, and dylan also makes a comment about ryan always going through chris’s things. so technically speaking, he makes sexual comment about a guy, who he likes with another man. like, if he’s into it okay lol. but it was a bit strange. 2) they might have a kiss, that was basically not happening out of free will. it happened bc of a truth/dare game and not bc either of them decided to do it, while they had some meaningful moment together. more so, i find it almost funny how if ryan picks truth, emma asks about him and mister h. so even the girl, who ‘shipped’ those two or smth, was actually curious about (once again) ryan and another man lmao. you are beginning to see the pattern here too, i believe. 3) the cut off hand scene, that was just….not super impactful, despite it supposed to be tense in an emotional sense vs just a tense gameplay. but it’s not. in fact, i often think, that if the quarry pulled a john & andrew there, aka ryan would have been stuck with his camp leader during the night (and chris wasn’t a werewolf), and they run into the same situation with cutting off hand or not, it would have been so good, y’know? no matter whose hand would have been at stake, it would have been so much more loaded and hard for them to decide what to do, even from non-shipping point. like, how can you intentionally harm someone even if they ask you to, when you feel responsible for them (chris) or when you admire them and they are the most important adult figure in your life (ryan)? cutting off dylan’s hand was traumatising for both dylan and ryan, don’t get me wrong. but it was missing a heavy key-emotional aspect in it. for me, it’s always gonna be more of an evil dead ref, than anything else. i love my gore to be meaningful in one sense or another. which brings me to the following point…. 

nothing really happens after that. at all. there wasn’t any tension or uncertainty. and okay, maybe they didn’t want to take the route, where dylan would look at ryan oddly, bc he finally realised that he doesn’t even really know the dude at all. but then, nothing in the game led me to believe, like dylan or ryan would be attached to each other to the point, where they both would be able to ‘overlook’ this moment in future, either. so yeah, it only proves, that there was no aftermath, and it was kinda a meaningless scene in terms of the ship, and what a waste! i watched du’met killing charlie 4 separate times, and each time, it was ofhduhgi great, amazing, i could see a personal touch there. and those two weren’t even officially speaking, written as a couple. then, there is dylan who doesn’t even question things and ryan, who have no time to question if he’s fucked up for doing it or not, bc he has other things (mister h) on his mind. and the thing is, that i legit wished that the game would at least make dylan and ryan’s interactions entertaining for me, even if i wouldn’t have shipped them together. like until dawn threw me a bone in chris/ashley segments. i do not ship those two at all, but i loved how the gameplay actually forces you to deal with consequences if chris will pick to shoot ashley or pick josh and not her. at least, they made it interesting and gave a bit different angle to both characters and their possibly not all that deep relationships lol. ashley pettily watching chris to be torn apart spoke volumes about how he might have not been the guy, she thought he was. dylan and ryan don’t get even a bit of this. 

next bit be that dylan is a boring character to me, even outside the ship. i cannot think of anything, that would personally interest me, if i had to put him and ryan into a ‘romantic’ set-up. him being prone to panic in extreme situations or insecure doesn’t pull anything in me. it’s very mundane things. and it’s not like i haven’t ever shipped an aloof/emotionally stunted/mental character with basically a ‘normie’. one of such examples be the nite own/rorschach (watchmen). and here is the thing, i don’t like dan lol. he piss me off on a few occasions, and i generally don’t vibe with his character at all. i look at him and see an average joe, who chased after a woman, who usually wouldn’t even glance his way, unless she had some turmoil happening in her life. i see a person, who put on a costume, but couldn’t ever actually commit to all the pain and suffering, that would come along with it, just so that he could do the ‘right thing’. but it didn’t change the fact, that i did like how he had affection for rorschach and how rorschach essentially only ever liked dan in return. even if nite owl was plain for me, he clearly wasn’t for rorschach, who was hilariously delusional about him (along with other things). and i also always saw a chance of dan getting ‘corrupted’ into rorschach's ways of living, which would in return traumatise him and ‘isolate’ him, and make him ‘perfect’ for his fucked up partner. in the end, dan was a simp lol. He wasn’t simp just for laurie, but for rorschach as well, so there was always hope lol. and it’s smth that i cannot see in dylan and ryan’s case at all, bc i don’t think that ryan would care that deeply about some guy to go and try to chase after him. or that dylan would be simping for ryan so hard, that he will be able to shrug off his cool deminear and flat affected reactions. inside my head, they just do not work at all. if you look at all of my multi-chapter fics, that i ever wrote, for whatever pairs, there is a common theme of smth being ‘not quite right there’. i don’t ship someone who is normal and who does normal things, and who doesn’t have some huge ‘flaws’ or clear problems or red flags, that would affect their relationships and who can form a very specific bond only with that other specific person. i wouldn’t have bothered with dan/rorschach, if i didn’t feel like dan’s crush on laurie can be made meaningless and unimportant in the end of the day, bc he would pick rorschach and just be with him, even if he now kills people…. 

in that sense, dylan for me is what max is for travis/laura shippers. a cuck lol. and trust me, i don’t want or have intentions of diminishing the dude in my fics or hcs. as i said, i don’t think that him having a crush on ryan was bad or that he was having said crush due to a very 20 smth worldview is smth to be frowned upon. like in a way, it legit sucks to be dylan or max in a situation, where your cool eyepatch gf or sofrcore metalic bf would rather fuck some redneck grandpa, than you lol. to summarise it, i’m a guy, who watches ‘phantom of the opera’ and thinks, that i would love to dropkick paul from a rooftop, bc i just don’t need him there lol. i wanted christine to get isolated and corrupted, and disappear with her ‘angel of music’. i’m a dude, who watched dracula and wanted mina gone forever, bc dracula and john were so much more sexy to look at. i’m someone who wished, that ichabod crane would have been abducted in a sleepy hallow movie, like he was in the book. i love it, when it’s complicated and maybe even, ‘bad’ or downright scary to want that thing, but if you are ready to go after it, stay with it, this means that in the end you want it more, than anything else. it’s fiction and i love my fiction to be extreme, be it emotional extreme or smth else. so yeah. ships like dylan/ryan, chris/ashley or idk, erin/jamie weren't made for me, and that’s okay. bc chris/ryan and du’met/charlie is what was made to a t, almost as if to tailor my own fascinations, and i don’t care that canon doesn’t spell it out for me, that they’re destined lovers. in my head, and in my understanding they are. and that's the fun of shipping, really. to just indulge yourself in what you see as crucial for a dynamic to work. 

*looks up at the wall of text above* well, uh yeah. i guess it’s all that i say here. like about the ship and dylan on his own. i always compare preferences in fiction (characters, ships, media) to food, bc i feel like it just drives the point across. i’m a very picky eater irl (some textures, tastes would make me gag and i just won’t be able to stomach the said food), and i’m like that with what i ship too. it doesn't objectively make smth amazing and the best there to be, it just makes those things tasty and great for me, subjectively. and i do hope, that one day, internet would just take a chill pill on that matter, and there be less ‘call outs’ about shipping this or that, or someone getting aggressive just cuz someone else doesn’t like their ship and not even in a rude way. 

and thank you for asking me this, i do think that it’s important to know why you don’t like smth or just don’t care about it and love that other things instead. it really helps to not fall into ‘trending’ and ending up doing smth that you most likely won’t enjoy at all. spent your time only on stuff, that really ‘speaks’ to you.

[bookinit02]

HI im so sorry i just finished reading the e4 script and i am just . fuckign speechless i cant articulate at all lol it was soo amazing when i finished i needed to stare at a wall for like three minutes straight just to process hang on one sec hang on a minute let me uh let me jsut two seconds here hangn on HDSHHSDCHSCSCVGSCVGDVGSCDCGSXCGXSCXSCGSGSCGCGHCXGHCGXHCHXHXFFHCHXD#DFFDCEFHDFSNCNKSDCNJDSTHFH3489FDJNHJFVDSHJFDHSDFDHVHGSDCVDGHC489FHJHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH i am literally SO OBSESSED you are such a talented writer and im so sorry once again for dumping all my thoughts in ur askbox especially when most are just incoherent but i have so many of them 😭 and this has been on my mind like all day lmao chewing on drywall actually<3333

okay first of all i LOVE HOW EVERYTHING IS COMING TOGETHER IT'S SO INTERESTING all the little plotlines feed into the bigger ones,,,,,, th hive mind isn't toxic plot which means SHITT vecna isnt trying to kill them he's trying to do something Else WHY ARE YOU SO GOOD AT PLOT TWISTS AAAAAAA and the back-and-forth between dustin and robin, the reveal that vecna was trying to force someone out ("where's will?")CHILLS. THE CHILLS. GODDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD it was so cool omgg omgomgomg. also max's storyline is literally INSANE i am SO INVESTED and i love how you've handled it so far i can't wait to see where you're gonna go with it!! <3 like. LIGHT. run the other way run to the light,,,, and the whole thing with TERRY is so genius it all makes so much sense but i never saw it coming and it was just SOOO SICK to see play out on the script i was on the edge of my damn seat the whole time you are literally SO TALENTED i am yelling sosososo loud!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

kind of continuing on from that i love all the references to past seasons :D the heart motif with lumax and byler has me in a chokehold btw grnjfrgnjfdjknnfjdgvknjkgfdjnkhehe!!!!!!! and the "you can leave, it's---" the rain is DEAFENING. will FLINCHES. THE RAIN SCENE??? also HELLOOOOOOO EMOTIONAL RAIN SCENE i think i can speak for all of us when i say im FLOOORED!!!!! gahhhhhh I CANT I ACTUALLY CANNOT YOURE AMAZING AND SO IS YOUR WRITING!!! plus the curiosity voyage WHO CHEERED :)

the. the byler quarry scene i. the lead up to it was INCREDIBLE and the gut punch sliding down walls head in hands heartwrenching 1000year brainrot is REAL because it has been my resting state since i read it when it dropped!!!!!! <3 basically my quick review is AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA and woag the slightly less quick review is also AAAAAokay no im kidding dont worry i have soo many thoughts head FULL girl i am so unwell over it "stay" THE CHEEK TOUCH THE HAND OVER HEART THE "i cant" and then it's TOO LATE.throwing up!!!!!THROWING UP and the jump and the running start and the rainstorm as a whole i am . I AM !!!!!!!! I AM SOOOOOOqhjwhjsdhjjhdjhdsjwjsdjhhjdhjehjwejhogufdoudfgjgdfjjwhdjhd dyinf a thousand deaths passing away rn

ANYWAYYY looking back on this i realize how long it is I AM SO SORRY JESUS😭😭😭 but yeah thats my roundabout way of letting you know that this rewrite and the s5 plot and scripts and fic and shoutout to the characterization which you NAILED it's absolutely EVERYTHINGGGG okay i promise im done now im so sorry like i said this got Way Unreasonably Long but thank you sosososo much for sharing this with us i hope you have a great rest of your day!! :D

this is the comment that made me cry at work btw so please never apologize for it being long😭😭 this was soooooo nice of you and it makes me so happy to know that all the work i put into these scripts is being recognized!!

one of the biggest challenges of this script has definitely been all the intersecting plot lines. i’ve never really attempted anything this expansive or complicated before, so there’s definitely a learning curve to it! i’m glad you’re enjoying it so far. & while i don’t think this plot twist is one of my best by any means, and honestly i wasn’t even thinking about it as a plot twist, i’m still glad you liked it! i really adore writing plot twists, and i love the feeling you get when reading something that has been so cleverly executed. it’s really the same feeling that i strive to emulate in all my fics!

i just said this in another ask, but i am SO psyched about max’s plot. i was really stuck on what to do with her, but i didn’t want to sideline her. pairing her up with terry was something that i never considered, but i literally had a revelation one night and was like oh my god that’s PERFECT!! & i haven’t seen anyone else do anything even moderately close, so i’m very excited to try something new.

i love a good reference!! parallels make my heart so happy. or so sad. depending on the circumstance. the rain fight one was a little bit evil, i’ll admit. the curiosity voyage was a lot more fun!

i was also unwell over the quarry scene. i literally cried writing it. i had to take multiple breaks. just ask suni i was SO unwell oh my god😭 so i’m right there with you.

again, please don’t apologize!!! this was incredibly kind of you, and it makes me so unbelievably happy to get comments on my script. this is an episode that i was insanely proud of, and i’m really happy that everyone has enjoyed it so much. thank you so much for all your kind words!!💗🫂

[leakinglungs]

hey! do you have any book recs?🙏❤️ I remember you mentioning reading a lot and you seem to have good taste so I trust you🫡 classics or contemporary, fiction or not doesn't matter. I don't really know what I like but I'm kinda picky about prose. I don't care for murder mysteries or anything about like, rich girls in NY having rich girl problems lol

hey<3 i absolutely have book recs<3 this is such a nice message<3

used this as an excuse to make a whole notes app list of best books of 2022 bc this year, during my summer of empty office receptionisting, i read the most books i have in like a decade lol

best books 2022:

fiction

* ulysses by james joyce - classic! i am not educated enough to read this book and i still read it and i think that's what james joyce would have wanted (cool enough prose to read 800 pages not understanding basic plot points)

* milk fed by melissa broder - wacky funny contemporary novel w/an anorexic female protagonist that actually doesn't suck

* her body and other parties by carmen maria machado - horror short story collection themed around womanhood

* seeing red by lina meruane - unsettling autobiographical novel w/very cool prose about a woman going blind

* we have always lived in the castle by shirley jackson - a classic, fast, creepy shirley jackson read

* the book of x by sarah rose etter - idk how to describe this one, but if the concept of a meat quarry intrigues you, i would give it a go

nonfiction

* house of psychotic women: an autobiographical topography of female neurosis in horror and exploitation films by kier-la janisse - maybe my favorite book of all time ever

* the liar's club by mary karr - the og Childhood Memoir

* slouching toward bethlehem/the white album by joan didion - stylish essay collections about The Sixties and The Seventies

* growgirl by heather donahue - celeb memoir by the blair witch project girl about how she quit acting and became a medical grower

[theteasetwrites]

Protector

❧ Pairing: Daryl Dixon x Female Grimes!Reader ❧ Era: Season 1 ❧ Pronouns: she/her ❧ Warnings: swearing, violence, attempted sexual assault ❧ Word Count: 5.2k

❧ Requested by @quinnmccurty (this request)

❧ Summary: A one-night stand with your brother's best friend, Shane, proves to be more trouble than it was worth when he develops a bit of a worrisome obsession with you, and your friend and confidant, Daryl, isn't too happy about it.

❧ A/N: I was so excited about this request, especially because (as I said once before) I was initially planning on having a little love triangle between Shane, Daryl, and Reader in The Beginning series, where Shane has a thing for Reader and there's some jealousy and idk it just didn't get put in because I had enough plot to work with there, but I like being able to put that idea into a oneshot! This version is a little different, with Reader being Rick's sister and there actually being a history between her and Shane, plus the incident with Lori at the CDC happens with Reader instead, and it's pretty scary. Basically, Shane is a huge asshole in this story so if you're a big Shane fan you might not like it lol. But, everyone who follows me is probably a huge Daryl whore anyway so if you love Daryl then you'll like this story! Protective, sweet Daryl is always a treat. <3

He watched you with a sharp, critical eye as you moved, carrying a basket of laundry down across the campsite.

One look at him now was enough to fill your entire being with regret so potent it burned the back of your eyes as images of what had gone on between the two of you played in your head. It was like the feeling of getting too close to a fire, how the heat could become so unbearable against your skin the longer you stood still, letting that faux burning sensation warm you far beyond the realm of comfort.

You’d known him for so long that he had at one point been the closest thing you had to that sense of comfort and warmth, but the morning after you realized what had happened, that you’d slept with him, you were burned.

For you, it was a moment of weakness, a yearning for the world to return to the way it was, for your brother to be alive again, with his family, but for him, it must’ve been something more, since he hadn’t left you alone since.

His gaze sharpened with every step you took as you hurriedly made your way down to the quarry, and when you felt his hand on your shoulder, and heard your name on his lips, you turned with a startled yelp to face him, nearly dropping the basket of laundry in your arms as you did so.

“Jesus, Shane,” you huffed, returning to your hurried pace as you made your way towards the water. “I’m busy.”

He scoffed, biting his lip with his hands on hips as he watched you scooping out blood-soaked clothing in preparation to be washed, rung out, and dried in the warm late August air.

“What, doin’ laundry?”

“Yes.”

He shook his head, looking around to make sure there was some semblance of privacy, so he could speak to you without the impediment of another man who seemed to captivate your attention recently.

“I gotta talk to you,” he said. “(Y/N)... Why aren’t you talking to me? It’s been, what, two weeks almost? Did I do something wrong?”

“No,” you said quietly, still unable to look him directly in the eye. “I—I just…”

He grew impatient with your silence. “Just what?”

You shrugged, soaking one of Dale’s shirts in the shallow water at the edge of the quarry. “I, um… It was a one time thing, you know?”

His face seemed to freeze, and though he seemed to break into a smile, you knew from all the time you’d known him that wasn’t a good sign.

“Shit, (Y/N),” he said, chuckling under his breath. “That… That ain’t true. You know it.”

You shook your head, laying the shirt out flat to dry upon the rocks. “It’s true,” you said. “I’m sorry if you thought it was something else, but it wasn’t that for me.”

“What was it then?”

His face jutted forward, questioning you as his eyes bored into the side of your head. You tried looking away, not matching his eye contact as you wrung out someone’s sock, you weren’t sure whose.

“You owe that to me, (Y/N),” he said. “What was it? What’d it mean to you? Think about it.”

You raised your head to look him in the eyes now, fire rising up in you as he continued hounding you with questions. “It was nothing,” you said simply. “I was lonely, and you were there. That’s all. I’m sorry, Shane, but that’s what it was—nothing. It didn’t mean anything to me, so please just leave me alone.”

Shane bowed his head, and peered back up at you from the lower angle, almost enraged now as he studied your face. “Well, it meant something to me.”

You huffed and turned to face your body towards him, now feeling guilty for what you’d said. Maybe you’d been too harsh, and maybe you should have known better than to sleep with your brother’s best friend, who’d had his eye on you long before Rick died, but you couldn’t change what you’d done two weeks ago, and at the time, it seemed like exactly the right thing to do.

“Shane, I—”

“Nah,” he said, rising to his feet to look down at you with something new in his eyes, something you’d only been noticing rather recently. Until now, you’d only seen this vitriol out of the corner of your eye, but now it was on display in full right in front of you. “Just forget it.”

He left it at that, and in a way, you were grateful, thinking it wasn’t so bad of an ending to your fling as it could’ve been. Certainly, he handled it better than you thought he would, considering how quick to anger he was, and how blunt you were in your rebuff. Still, his gaze only became harder, more calculated, in the following days, and though you were sure he would leave you alone now, you found yourself jumping at the slightest motion, expecting the man to approach you again, maybe to even touch you or hurt you, if his looks were anything to go by.

When you heard the snapping of that branch under his foot, you turned with an anxious swiftness, steeped in the combined guilt and fear you’d been experiencing since you’d put an end to whatever relationship you had with him.

Except, it wasn’t Shane. Not in the slightest.

“The hell you doin’ out here alone?” he asked, covered in sweat and dirt from his hunt, and with a string of freshly shot squirrels dangling over his shoulder. 

“Daryl,” you sighed, breaking out into a wide grin as you chuckled at your own jumpiness. “Sorry, thought you were someone else.”

He scoffed and sat himself down against the base of an aspen tree, patting the space beside him to invite you there, too. It had become somewhat of a ritual now, unexpectedly running into Daryl in the woods, where you often retreated when Shane’s stares got too much for you to handle. 

Daryl would stumble upon you, usually alone, staring up at the canopy of treetops above you, wishing to live a life as simple as the birds upon their branches. At first he tried to get you to come back to camp, insisting that being alone in the woods wasn’t safe, but you’d poke holes in his logic, pointing out that he, too, was alone, and how if the two of you were together, then neither of you would be alone. 

That, and you’d refuse to go back to camp until you’d gathered the courage to face Shane again, his heavy presence always weighing down on you, and seemingly becoming more and more volatile.

You smiled and picked up your bag, dragging it over to sit beside Daryl, who smelled putridly of walker blood and decaying squirrel, but the offensive odor had become somewhat of a comfort to you, something to look forward to when you inevitably crossed paths, as if something was bringing the two of you together.

“Loverboy again?” he asked, in that characteristic southern drawl of his. 

“Mhm,” you answered, trimming the moss off a stick you’d picked up from the ground. “As usual.”

He himself played with a leaf in his hand, twirling it around by the stem as his eyes watched your fingers deftly peel off the moss, and roll the green, spongy substance between your fingertips to create a tiny ball. 

Biting his lip, he shook his head, scoffing under his breath at the very idea of Shane. Daryl himself had been the victim of some less than friendly interactions with the man, and had received his fair share of dirty looks from afar. He could take it, of course. He couldn’t care less about Shane, about what he thought of him, but what really got to him was how he looked at you, how he followed you around and made attempts to speak to you despite your clear indications that you didn’t want anything to do with him. 

“You should let me take care of him,” he said. “Asshole wouldn’t bother you no more.”

You chuckled and shook your head. “Oh, Daryl,” you laughed, “I told you, it’s fine. He’ll get over it eventually. I told him it was just a one time thing.”

“Yeah, and since when does Shane listen to anybody ‘cept himself?”

He had a point, and indeed, Shane had only seemed more hostile towards you the last few days, to the point you were afraid of being alone. Maybe that’s why you went alone into the woods that day, hoping somewhere in your heart that you’d run into Daryl again, that you wouldn’t have to be alone.

Or, maybe, that you could be alone with him. 

“God,” you sighed. “What have I done, Daryl? I mean, am I a whore?”

Daryl’s eyes shot open wide at the notion. “Absolutely not,” he said with a scoff. “You were lonely. Said so yourself. Was a mistake. Don’t make you a whore. Everyone gets lonely sometimes.”

You smiled at his reassurance, and nudged his shoulder with yours—a recent development in your repertoire of interactions with the surly redneck, who seemed to stiffen up whenever anyone in your group touched him, but in your presence, he loosened up somewhat, and the more you talked to him, the more you realized he wasn’t all that bad.

“Thanks,” you said. “You really know how to make a girl feel good.”

God, you thought to yourself, immediately regretting how you spoke to him, with a subconsciously expressed flirty lilt to your tone of voice. You really are a whore. 

The feelings you had towards Daryl were different, though. They weren’t born out of fear or loneliness or grief. Your feelings for him were built over hours of hammering at his hard exterior, breaking down his walls and finding yourself intrigued with every word that came out of his mouth. Indeed, you were fond of him, and you had the subtle feeling that maybe he was fond of you, too.

“Shut up,” he said, rolling his shoulders as if to shrug off what you’d said, and how it made him feel. Indeed, he was fond of you. “Just said you ain’t a whore.”

“Well, I appreciate it.”

Not long after that, your brother, risen from the dead and blissfully unaware of your onetime tryst with his best friend, led your group to the CDC in the hopes of finding a new home, somewhere safe in the wake of a herd running through your camp.

Tensions seemed to come to a head that night, as Shane, drunk on whiskey and more emboldened than he had been the last few weeks, kept his eyes locked on you… and Daryl.

You didn’t leave his side all night, yourself tipsy and rather flamboyantly falling into his arms as he walked you to your room, holding your waist and helping you into bed, spending much longer in that room with you than Shane would’ve liked.

“Daryl…” you mumbled, laughing at his disheveled hair that you’d messed up somewhere along the line. “Oh, your hair.”

He shook his head and suppressed a laugh, trying to maintain his stoicism despite his equally tipsy state.

“Go to sleep,” he said.

“Mm… Wait,” you said to him just before he could turn to leave. “Daryl, you’re a great guy, you know that?”

He chewed his lip and averted his gaze, wiping his nose in an attempt to distract you from his blushing cheeks.

“Ain’t nothin’ special,” he said. “Just wanted to make sure you got into bed safe, that’s all.”

You found yourself twirling your hair around your finger, biting your lip as you admired his strong arms and broad shoulders. 

“I think you’re special,” you said, and raised your hand to hold his, tugging him down until you could lean up to kiss his warm cheek. “And very sweet.”

He found himself frozen, unable to quite comprehend what you’d just done, but when you turned his cheek and pressed your lips ever so lightly against his, he pulled away with all the strength he had, convinced you had no idea what you were doing.

“(Y/N),” he said, swallowing hard as he spoke your name. “You’re drunk.”

You turned serious. “Just a little… Sorry if I…”

“Nah,” he said, shaking his head adamantly. “Don’t be sorry, just… I don’t want ya doing something just ‘cause you’re lonely.”

You smiled at the notion that the feelings you had for Daryl could be anything remotely close to what had spurred your fling with Shane.

“I’m not lonely,” you said. “Actually, I’ve never felt happier than I am right now, here with you. It’s nice. I feel… light, you know? I always feel light when I’m with you, like everything’s okay.”

He smiled. It wasn’t a big smile, as Daryl wasn’t known for that, but it was a small, slight curvature of the lips, a little gesture to show how happy your words made him. 

“Guess I feel the same,” he said.

You bit your lip, eying his once again. They weren’t particularly plump lips, but had a sweet, defined shape, with prickles of dusty brown hairs above and below the modest pink pillows upon which you very much desired to rest yours. 

He cleared his throat, unsure of what to do now, and terrified he’d ruin this moment if he dared open his mouth, but words came tumbling out regardless.

“Can I kiss you?” he asked. “I—I mean, ya know… if that’s okay, and if that’s what ya want.”

You nodded and leaned up to hold his cheek in your hand, pulling him closer until your lips met, and though the kiss was pure, short, and sweet, it was everything you’d imagined it could be, and you didn’t need anything else to solidify this feeling.

Your fingers trailed delicately over the scruffy surface of his cheek as you pressed one more short peck to his trembling lips.

His eyes fluttered open as you waved your hand in front of his face, attempting to wake him from his stupor.

“Daryl,” you laughed. “You okay?”

He cleared his throat as he opened his eyes, nodding his head to try to play off how shocked he was in this situation, having done something he’d wanted to do since he met you.

“Yeah,” he said. “I, uh… That was nice.”

You bit your lip and stared hazily, wandering over the delicate features of his face, some you hadn’t noticed before, especially his lips. God, you wanted so much more from those lips… But it was late, and you were tired, and you didn’t want to rush it. 

After all, what would Daryl think if you asked him to make love to you barely a month after a one night stand with Shane? Surely he’d think you were a whore then, though you knew he was better than that. 

“It was lovely,” you agreed. “I’d love to do it again sometime.”

He nodded, scratching the back of his neck in an anxious habit. “Me too… You should get some sleep. You look tired.”

“Mm,” you hummed, letting your head sink down into the pillow beneath you. “I’m very tired, Daryl. Thank you for the goodnight kiss, though. I think I’ll have nice dreams tonight.” You kissed your palm and pressed it to his cheek, which felt hot under your hand. 

He tentatively grabbed your hand, and placed his own kiss upon your palm, despite the shakiness of his nerves sending a tremor through his arm. “Goodnight.”

He pulled the door shut, and stepping out into the hallway, he could’ve sworn he noticed a strange presence, familiar yet somehow different in that a pair of sharp, critical eyes were fixated more directly on him.

Of course, he was still quite inebriated, and it might’ve been his imagination, so he rubbed his eyes and crossed the hallway to his room, closing the door behind him and eager to sleep, in the hopes he, too, would have pleasant dreams about you.

For Shane, though, this was the opportunity to tiptoe to your room, quiet so as not to alert the ever alert hunter across the way.

There was hate in his heart when he saw Daryl sneak out of your room, a redness to his cheeks and a cold sweat dripping down the side of his face, his clothes a little askew, as well. He knew there was something going on between the two of you, something more intimate than friendship. 

When he looked at you, though, half asleep on the cot in your room, eyes fluttering open at the narrow beam of light shining through the crack in the door, his drunken mind could only process one thought: mine.

“Sh-Shane?” you asked, sitting up in your cot and rubbing your eyes as you reached over to switch on the lamp on the side table. “What are you doing?”

He shut the door behind him, and you immediately eyed the bottle of whiskey dangling in his hands. “Shane, you should go to bed.”

“(Y/N),” he said, out of breath and nearly slurring his words as he approached, the whiskey bottle dangling haphazardly in his hand. “I need to talk to you.”

You scoffed and pulled the covers up further, as if they could protect you from him as he came closer to your bed. “We can talk tomorrow,” you said. “You’re drunk, and I need you to leave.”

“Daryl sure was in here a long time,” he said lowly, eying you with a strange darkness in his gaze. His lips were wetted by the alcohol and slightly hanging open as he licked them. “You let him fuck you?”

“What?” you replied, angered at the questioning. “Get the hell out of here, Shane. I’m serious.”

“Answer me, (Y/N),” he barked, backing up from the bed as you swung your legs over the side, preparing to stand up and push him out now. “Did he fuck you?”

You stood up to your feet and shoved him away, but his face only kept jutting at yours, almost to the point his reddened forehead knocked against yours. 

“That’s none of your goddamn business,” you said. Your eyes narrowed at him, and your nostrils beginning to flare with each indignant breath you took, you shoved him again, causing him to stumble a little as he tried to catch himself. 

“Yeah, actually,” he said. “Yeah it is.”

He carelessly placed the whiskey bottle on your nightstand, and you were careful to watch his hands as they moved, one going so far as to touch your shoulder. 

“Stop,” you said, removing his hand with so much disgust you’d think his touch was poisonous. 

He tilted his head, now gazing at you with a softness that seemed almost hostile in its insistence. His presence was terrifying, much more than it had been before, as he somehow had begun to push you backward with each step, cornering you until your back hit the wall beside your bed. 

“I know it wasn’t just nothing, (Y/N). It meant somethin’ to you.” His hand trailed up your arm now, while his other rather harshly held your cheek. Your face contorted in fear at how he touched you. The only time he’d touched you this way before was that night you slept together, and this wasn’t at all what you wanted. 

“N-no,” you stuttered, swatting away his hands despite his continued attempts to touch you. His body was so close to yours now, and so much bigger and stronger than yours, that you were sure you couldn’t go anywhere, not if he didn’t want you to. “Shane, please leave.”

He shook his head, as if frustrated by your failure to admit your feelings for him. “I love you, (Y/N),” he said. “And I know you love me too. What we had that night was special, it was real. You need to come back to me.”

You tried to shove him away again, but this time he responded by pinning your shoulders against the wall, causing a loud thud to echo through the underground halls of the CDC. 

“Shane!” you cried out, nearly sobbing in fear of whatever he was going to try to do to you. “Let me go!”

“You’re confused,” he slurred, holding your trembling body snug against the wall, this time not leaving any room at all between your bodies. He raised one hand to brush back your hair, while his knee split open your thighs. “But I need you to know who you belong to… Just let me show you.”

You squirmed and attempted to push his hands away as they groped your body, one making its way down to your crotch and feeling you over your pants. 

“No!” you cried out. “Stop it! Stop!”

His lips suctioned onto your neck, and with one hand you tried to push his forehead away, the other tried to remove his hand from your crotch. 

Your protests fell on deaf ears, and your desperate attempts to push him away were no match for his strength as he pinned you to that wall, groping and kissing you despite every fiber of your being screaming out “no.”

The only thing stopping him from further assaulting you was the slam of the door as its handle was launched against the wall, flying open as Daryl wasted no time socking Shane in the face with every ounce of strength in him.

“You son of a bitch!” he bellowed as he leaned down to pick up the disoriented Shane by the collar of his shirt. “I’ll kill you.”

You could only fall into your brother’s arms as he ran to you, holding your cheeks in his hands to make sure you were all right. 

His words were muffled against the sheer volume of the next hit Daryl threw at Shane, though this blow didn’t send him tumbling down this time, and Shane quickly lunged forward, throwing a punch at Daryl as he yelled. 

“This ain’t none of your damn business, Dixon!”

Daryl scoffed and moved forward to attempt another blow, but this time, Rick quickly moved to stand in between them, holding his arms out to keep them at bay.

“Stop this!” he yelled, and quickly turned to Shane, a deep, dark anger rising up in him as he realized just what Shane was about to do to his sister. “What the hell is goin’ on in here?”

You had sunk down in the corner now, shaking and holding your sobbing face in your trembling hands as Rick screamed some incoherent words at Shane.

All you felt then was Daryl’s hand gently touching your shoulder, and when you removed your hands from your eyes, you saw him kneeling down before you, his face somewhere between sheer rage and utter melancholy. 

“(Y/N),” he said. “Are ya—”

You interrupted him as you threw your arms around him, nearly clawing at his shirt as you sobbed into his shoulder. Even Rick was surprised by this, turning his attention away from Shane to see you in the arms of a man he hardly knew, as the man you had known since you were a teenager glared the both of you down, nearly lunging at Daryl again before Rick could stop him.

“What is wrong with you?” Rick growled, pushing Shane back as Daryl lifted you to your feet, your hands still clinging to him in a terrified stupor. 

You suddenly remembered where you were now, in a strange milieu of your brother, your former one-time lover, and a man you genuinely were starting to believe you might actually love, all of whom were at odds with each other in some way in this moment of questioning and utter confusion. 

Daryl found himself sheltering you from Shane’s eye contact, standing in front of you and puffing his chest up in an instinctual display of defense. “Your buddy here tried to force himself on your sister,” he answered, his chest heaving in rage with each word that clawed its way out of his throat and emerged cloaked in his hoarse, abrasive voice. “Can’t take no for a goddamn answer. You better do somethin’ about it before I do. Can’t have that kind of shit in our group.”

“What the hell would you know about it?!” bellowed Shane, still fighting against Rick’s weight as he held him back. “Rick, you know me. (Y/N),” he said, daring to address you now, a gesture which surely would’ve ended his life if Rick wasn’t standing between the two men. “(Y/N)... I—I’m sorry.” He chuckled nervously as he spoke, his feet stumbling underneath him as he tried to go forward towards you. “I love you.”

“She don’t love you,” replied Daryl, his voice so heavy now it even weighed him down as he spoke from the depths of his abdomen. “Even if she did, you got no damn right to touch ‘er like that.”

Rick held him back once again. “We’ll deal with this tomorrow,” he said. “But you stay away from her.” 

“Bullshit,” growled Daryl. “Rick, you either throw his sorry ass out now or I’ll kill him. I will, I swear.”

Rick huffed, peering over Daryl’s broad shoulders to see your forehead leaning against his back as you cried, and his hand holding yours by his side. He had no idea what was happening between you and him or you and Shane, or what had happened, but he knew you were upset, that he had to do something. Just not now, not like this.

“Tomorrow,” he said, glowering down at Daryl. He turned to face Shane again, pushing him towards the door. 

Shane was losing his balance now, the effects of the blows to his head and his drunkenness surely affecting him now as Rick dragged him away, taking him as far from you as possible. 

He eyed Daryl as he left, though, as if warning him, silently telling him to beware whatever ill intentions he might have, despite the feeling in the pit of his stomach that he’d never hurt you. 

Daryl turned to face you then, encircling his strong arms around your waist and welcoming you against his body again, with so much comfort and warmth in his presence as you cried into his shirt.

He didn’t say anything, not for a while, at least. He simply held you, at some point sinking down to the ground with you, leaning his back against the bed, legs outstretched as you lay your head upon his lap, his hand gently rubbing your back. 

“Daryl,” you said, your voice still shaky, fragile like ancient glass that could shatter if breathed on the wrong way. “I wish I’d never slept with him. I feel so stupid, so… I don’t know, I just should’ve known this would happen.”

“It ain’t your fault,” he said, his voice equally as quiet and soft as yours. Whatever pain you felt he seemed to absorb, taking it within himself in an attempt to shield you from it, to rid you of the feeling of helplessness and vulnerability, but there was only so much he could do. He could never know the feeling, as much as he tried to relieve you with his sympathy. “You were lonely, scared…”

“Yeah,” you sniffled, “and now I’m scared again.”

That plunged Daryl’s heart into an abyss, so deep and dark he couldn’t bear to pretend he was strong enough to handle it. Fear was a feeling he knew well, and to know you were afraid again, when your group was safe, when finally things were starting to look up… It was horrible, and all because of Shane.

“I’m sorry, (Y/N),” he said. “You don’t deserve that… I swear, I’ll keep you safe, though.”

You turned your head to look up at him, curious as you wiped away your tears. “Y-you mean that?”

He never meant anything more in his entire life. Even if you never kissed him again, never felt what you had felt in that moment that night again, he’d keep you safe as if it was his sworn duty, as if he were some medieval knight with a chivalrous code of conduct to always stand strong for you. 

You, his only friend, his favorite person, the one thing that kept him barely scraping by in this world. There were a lot of shitty things about the end of the world, but meeting you had to be the best thing that had ever happened to him.

“Course I do,” he answered. “You mean a lot to me, (Y/N). And I’ll tell you somethin’ else, Shane ain’t ever gonna hurt you again.”

You closed your eyes and sighed, raising your hands to your face and wiping away the stray tears that had fallen. “As long as you’re with me,” you said, “he can’t hurt me… So you should stay with me… Always.”

He raised an eyebrow, almost skeptical of your statement. “You sure about that?” he asked. “Think you might get tired of me.”

You laughed through your tears, and raised your hand to rub his cheek. “I don’t think I could ever get tired of you, Daryl. You make me feel strong.”

That touched him, glued angel wings onto his heart as it fluttered away, up into the clouds where your sweet words held him blissfully hostage. You had that effect on him, that light, fluttery feeling. He knew what it was, of course. It was love. He might’ve never felt it before, but it was the kind of feeling one knows the moment it tears down one’s defenses and seeps in like a flash flood. It was love, and he was swimming in it.

“You are strong,” he replied. “But if I make ya more aware of it, and if it keeps ya safe, I guess I’m gonna have to stick around ya, huh? Make sure no one ever hurts you.”

You smiled weakly, though if you weren’t still a little terrified from your experience that night, you’d be beaming from ear to ear. Still, you weren’t about to let what Shane had tried to do to you ruin the beautiful moments you shared that night with Daryl, a man who you knew truly cared about you, a man with whom you didn’t feel like you needed to use to find relief. What you felt for him was real, and it was beautiful, whatever it was. 

“Protector,” you sighed. “That sounds nice… Best guy for the job, I think.”

Living up to his job description, he held you all night, keeping you wrapped up in a tight, protective embrace. There wasn’t any obligation, no fear or loneliness, just a sense of innocent comfort and stability. 

Whatever would happen in the morning would happen, and whatever awaited you in this uncomfortable, unstable world would still be there when you woke up, but in this moment, at least you had him, and he had you.

~

Thanks for reading! Likes, reblogs, and comments of any kind are always appreciated!

Masterlist

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My Byler theories/predictions for S4

Since s4 is already confirmed to not be the last season, I don’t think Byler will officially get together in s4. I do think that we are definitely going to get a large amount of Byler’s development in s4 though, we just aren’t at the finish line yet. Since Byler has been being developed all through each of the seasons, I think the writers are playing the long game with Mike and Will. I really appreciate a queer romance that is so well developped, especially in something so popular! I think the season will end on a note where it’s understood what Mike has been struggling with, It’s made known that Will is gay, and that Mike has feelings for Will, and Will has feelings for Mike.

My predictions/theories for Byler in s4:

Mike might be acting a little off at school and Dustin is going to notice his odd behavior and ask what’s up

I think Mike will be getting in trouble at school and at home (based on whenever he doesn’t have Will/El around he does stupid things - like graffitti the bathroom wall, plagiarize essays, curse at adults, etc.) I don’t know if Mike knows about Eddie dealing drugs, but he might and he might get drugs from Eddie and do them to cope with everything he is struggling with. His parents might ground him for doing drugs, and forbid him from going to visit the Byers, and then we could get our runaway smalltown boy montage! LOL

Lonnie might come to visit the Byers in California for Will’s birthday. He will probably show up because he thinks they have money now, or he wants to sue Starcourt like he wanted to sue the quarry in s1. Mike will also be there visiting for Will’s birthday. Lonnie will mock Will and make fun of him like he always did, but he will also hate Mike. Lonnie will definitely notice Will and Mike’s dynamics and he will definitely comment about it. He might even call them homophobic slurs like we know he used to do with Will when he was younger. Lonnie will probably make Will cry and Mike upset. Lonnie might possibly “out” him and Mike before they are out and confirm it themselves. Some of the movies on the stranger writers twitter for s4 also hint at this, as well as having the baseball references. There are also hints to Will’s birthday throughout the show: The rainbow happy birthday mug seen in the crazy together scene, the “sorry i forgot your birthday card” in Will’s room from Lonnie, and Joyce’s speech in the shed discussing Will’s 8th birthday and his “rainbow ship”. Jonathan also mentions how Lonnie made him kill a rabbit on his 10th birthday and he cried for a week after, just more hints that if Lonnie shows up for Will’s bday, it’s gonna be bad.

Mike might get Will a watch for his birthday. This would reference the clocks being central to the s4 plot, and “not wanting things to change/turning back the clock” in Hopper’s letter

Will is being homophobically bullied at his new school again, possibly references to Will having HIV/AIDS because the height of the epidemic was in the 80’s and it was very stigmatized

Mike will call Will more than he will call El. Will might be slightly surprised by this, El’s frequent calling will annoy Mike and he might turn off his walkie talkie. (basically the reverse of what Mike said would happen in the s3 ending mileven scene)

Mike and Will will be in the same location for most of the season, like s2. They will not leave each other’s sides for the majority of the time they are together.

S4 Group Predictions:

- El, Will, Mike trio together with Jonathan and Argyle. (we will get some obvious tension between El, Will, and Mike, and Mike will hate Argyle at first)

- Robin, Steve, Erica, Max, Dustin, Lucas, Vickie, Eddie, Nancy

- Joyce, Murray, etc?

- Hopper and the other Russians (Dimitri, etc)

The rift between Mike and El will continue to grow.

When Mike comes to visit, she will notice he seems much more interested in Will.

El will ask why the bullies call Will those things (queer/fairy/gay/homo, probably f slurs too), what it means and if he really is “a queer”.

I don’t know if Will is going to come out to El. They have never interacted before, and I doubt Will trusts her or really likes her much mainly, because of Mike. Unless they get super close during the time not portrayed on screen between s3 and s4, or by being all each other has in California, I don’t know if  he will come out to El. I could see this going either way depending on how their friendship develops. I definitely do not think Will is going to tell El he likes Mike, even if he does confide in her he is gay. I think she will find out eventually but in some other way, probably just from Mike’s behavior towards Will.

El will eventually realize she doesn’t actually love Mike and let go of the ‘romance’ aspect of their bond, but still highly value him as a friend.

Mike might be called homophobic slurs at school as well. Mike will definitely be teased (regardless of his sexuality) because he is in the hellfire club and since satanic panic is sweeping the town, people look at D&D as if it is a satanic game, and he will be teased because of that.

Based on the leaked bts pics, I have a theory a cheerleader, or someone else, might show interest in Mike.  Mike will not reciprocate and she will call him out for it asking why he doesn't like her because “any other guy at this school would” or something like that, maybe even ask “what are you gay or something”. It would certainly be good for Mike’s narrative but idk if it will happen.

Will may confide in Jonathan about his feelings for Mike and the things the bullies say to him at school. Jonathan will be supportive of Will, as will Joyce. I think he will also try to protect Will from Lonnie and they will both defend Will to Lonnie.

I think we need a scene of Mike with his Mom telling him to follow his heart, like who you like, etc. because life is too short to waste it being miserable or something like that. This could be inspired by Mike’s parents seperating, but idk. This could also encourage Mike to initiate more romantic things with Will.

I would love to get a scene of Will confronting Mike for “Joining another party”, after Will said he wouldn’t.

Will and Mike need to discuss what was said in their fight.

I think since Mike's been holding in a lot of turmoil and struggling with his sexuality for so long we might get a small breakdown scene from him, of him telling Will he’s really sorry for how he treated him last summer, and for all the things he said to Will. Mike will profusely apologize and also hint at how he’s confused and been dealing with a lot.

I think Mike will be the first one to break down and confess he has feelings for Will and has been struggling with coming to terms with his sexuality.

Once Will has confirmation Mike is also struggling with his sexuality, Will might come out to him. I would love for him to reference the fight being like “You were right. I don’t like girls.” (from @itsonlystrange ‘s 4x07 byler script it’s so good!) I don't know if Will will confess he likes Mike to his face or not. I don't think it's likely given how shy Will is and how afraid he is of Mike not reciprocating, but who knows.

Mike may initiate a kiss between him and Will - towards the end of the season probably (eyewitness parallel - explained in my byler proof google slides)

I think Mike and Will might write letters to each other, with some love-y connotations. There is a lot of evidence for this in the canon comics of them writing notes to each other, and that cryptic tweet from stranger writers twitter with a blocked out message and the date Will went missing saying it wasn’t about a couple or hopper. Maybe byler related? This tweet may not be a letter but it might be. The most popular theories are that the message is to Will, “love mike”, which I love. https://twitter.com/strangerwriters/status/1184945905973153792?lang=en

Will has a new haircut (bts pics) and Mike will gush over it. Maybe some gay-panicking too hopefully

I think El will be either physically or at least emotionally distant the entire season from the other kids (again following the pattern of even and odd seasons) El needs some personal development this season, since she didn’t get any in s3.

El might confront Mike and ask if he is gay and if he likes Will, which could be El’s motivation to go off on a journey of her own to learn more about her own life. I don’t think it will be a huge fight, but El might make some references to him always lying to her. I think Mike might just kind of try to talk his way out of it at first, but he will eventually break. This might be a two part discussion and Mike doesn’t admit she is right until later. I don’t think it makes sense for El to be heartbroken (explained in my byler proof slides), just slightly annoyed. This is based off of the movie Tootsie which they borrowed the “gift” idea from in s3 already. In the movie, the girlfriend then after receiving the gift asks “Michael” if he is gay.

I really think eventually El will realize it’s okay because she doesn’t love him romantically either, and once she realizes that her own personal development can really begin.

I think we will see a noticeable change in Mike’s demeanor. I think Mike will mainly just be trying to hide that he is gay now. He joined the hellfire club so we know he’s playing d&d again meaning he is reverting back to his true self, not the weird act he put on in s3 trying to be straight and change himself. He is still struggling, but he knows he likes Will. Regardless that doesn’t mean he is going to be super clear about how he feels. He is going to be extremely afraid of opening up and then getting hurt by Will. He will probably do some of his usual ‘lead Will on and then shut it down’ thing. And I really want Will to call him out on this. This could also lead to Mike breaking down in front of Will and confessing. I think we are going to get a lot of 'Mike gay panicking' moments, he's going to be extremely afraid of being found out/suspected.

Byler things I really want to happen that we may get because they would have narrative significance:

I really want flashbacks to those 3 months of summer between the starcourt explosion and the Byers moving, of moments between Mike and Will when they hang out alone together, with some obvious romantic tension. Like where they are super playful and almost kiss, or they are kind of touchy, or something in the realm of that. I think we need a flashback of something that explains Will’s flirty nature at the very end of s3 with Mike, because he doesn't normally act like that. I want noticeable “is something going on with them?” vibes. This could also happen during the thanksgiving/christmas flashbacks.

I hope we get flashbacks of Mike going to the Byers for Thanksgiving, and the Byers coming back to Hawkins for Christmas. Preferably of some Mike and Will moments that hint at Mike’s confusion or how he feels “so alone” without Will, maybe with some “crazy together” references too! I’d also love some tension between the 3 of them, maybe this is when El starts to get suspicious of Mike liking Will.

Hopefully we get some shots of Mike biking past the byers old house and going to look at castle byers and reminiscing.

I’d love to get a flashback of Mike the day the Byers moved away, of him crying or being upset, alone in his room/basement while looking at Will’s drawings or pictures of Will and him together. Mainly to confirm for people that Mike was upset about Will moving, not as much El.

This one does not seem super probable, but it is a very popular theory. Idk if it’s possible because of location logistics, but if they spend enough time together, I’d love for Mike to get to know Robin better, and Will too. Maybe once everyone comes together at the end of the season, she will notice their dynamics and could help guide and inspire them to be themselves. Hey maybe thats for s5 :) But I do think it’s a possibility that Mike may work at the video store with Steve and Robin, and she will pick up on Mike’s behavior and understand, whether she communicates that to him or not.

[not-your-bro]

got tagged in this by @emmamountebanks (hi hello) and true to form i'm doing it basically a week later ghkjfhlj. created by @lowonmelatonin

favorite counselor and least favorite counselor. why?:

favorite counselor: kaitlyn, hands down. i love how sharp her tongue is, so all of her banter - with dylan and jacob especially - is so good. i love her weird intensity, like how she gets so into truth or dare, and the fact that - according to that game scoreboard you can find - she trounced every single camper by a wide margin (and i'm sure felt ZERO shame for not letting a kid win). i like that she's well-meaning but doesn't really know how to emotionally communicate - like if nick kills abi and kaitlyn has to break the news to emma, she's all "don't worry, her head got ripped off so fast i'm sure she didn't feel anything" :)

god. what a gal.

also: tiny bitch big gun. sometimes it's that simple.

least favorite counselor: in supermassive games i don't really have "least favorites" so much as i have characters i'm simply least interested in. and in the quarry, that falls to nick. i like that he's clearly quarter-life-crisis-ing about what he should do with his life and what his "thing" is, but man just gets so little screen time that unfortunately he feels more like a plot point than a fully fleshed out character.

favorite chapter and least favorite chapter. why?:

favorite chapter: chapter 9, in large part bc of the junkyard sequence. god that part fucking RULES. i'm obsessed with dylan and kaitlyn bonding over not really getting anywhere with ryan, and the DREAD i felt when i saw those motion-activated lights turning on one by one....unmatched. even at the hackett house, ch. 9 pops off in a big way, and - especially on a first playthrough - everyone's lives feel like they're really hanging in the balance. i probably felt the most stressed during ch. 9 and bc of that it holds a special place in my heart.

least favorite chapter: chapter 7. it's giving mike sanatorium - engaging on a first playthrough but a real slog after that, bc it's all plot stuff you already know but you have to power through anyway. nothing makes me wish supermassive let me fast-forward through cutscenes more than ch. 7.

favorite ship (you can pick a maximum of 3)?: 

blygbank blygbank blygbank. once again supermassive gives us two characters with off the charts chemistry and expects us believe they are simply platonic besties. HOW!!!

biggest counselor crush:

kaitlyn. do i need to say "tiny bitch big gun" again

how would you survive the quarry?:

by fuckin sleeping LOL. fr. anyone who knows me knows that i can sleep like a champ, and mr. h would not have needed to ask me twice to stay holed up in the lodge.

if i was forced awake against my will...well. then i'm just dead, there's no way around it.

favorite the quarry fanfic writer and fanartist:

i honestly haven't read any quarry fic, but if anyone has any good blygbank recommendations, drop 'em in the ol' ask box!

as for artists, i have to shout out @sharkflan for these three pieces making me crack up like no tomorrow. they're just delightful. (and her climbing class art from the UD fandom days is beyond adorable.)

shoutout to some friends made in the fandom :)

i'm shy and bad at being the first to reach out lol so i've looked fondly from afar more than i've directly interacted. but being part of a lil fandom again has been a hoot - i love the new folks i've followed and seeing the same bunch of people in the quarry tag and in my notes. ily ily!!

[dindjarindiaries]

DIN DJARIN WEEKLY FIC REC #1

This week’s fic rec (January 24th to January 30th) is here! Below the cut, you can find a wide selection of Din Djarin fics to read, whether they’re multi-part, one-shots, drabbles, prompts, or headcanons. I challenge you to provide these writers with feedback if you choose to read their fic!

You can start submitting next week’s fic rec here.

MULTI-PART FICS

Space Cowboy by @punkrock-writer​​

summary: A Girl is teleported from her hotel room, and dropped onto the floor of the Razor Crest. Chaos ensues as she tries to convince The Mandalorian not to freeze her in carbonite, and do her best to find her place in the endless Void of space.

pairing: Din Djarin x F!oc

warnings/rating: Mature. Canon typical violence. Lots of swearing.

genres: angst, fluff, hurt/comfort

submitter comments: Hi this is my first fic, you can find it on AO3 also. I’d really appreciate some feedback or any ideas because I have a hard time figuring out if I’m doing the right thing😂 Thank you for doing this.

Touch by @magicrowiswritingstuff​​

summary: It seems so unfair that he is able to touch you and send shivers down your spine when you’re not.

pairing: Din Djarin x female!reader

warnings/rating: A bit of violence and injury/blood

genre: fluff

submitter comments: Just wanna say that I really love this idea and am excited to browse through all the recommended stories on Sunday! <3

Ciryc Ca’tra (Cold Night Sky) by @javi-djarins​​ (Ao3: brianmay_be)

summary: When you crash-land on a frozen planet on your way to Trask to find the Frog Lady’s husband and more Mandalorians, you and Din work together to keep the Crest afloat and keep your little family safe.

pairing: Din Djarin x wife!reader

warnings/rating: G

genres: fluff, hurt/comfort

submitter comments: She may be adding an epilogue that contains some smut, but right now all of the chapters are rated G!

Blossom by @dinthisisthe-wayson​​

summary: Alone.  You felt like you had no purpose in such a powerful galaxy, being the bystander is what you felt was the only thing you were good at.  But when a warrior with a child extend a helping hand.  You take it.  Not knowing that you will no longer be alone for the rest of your time in the universe. Not knowing that your place in the galaxy will be much bigger than you expected.  And just like any flower, you will blossom. In more ways than one.

pairing: Din Djarin x Reader

warnings/rating: Teen and Up, violence and language

genres: angst, fluff

submitter comments: N/A

Narudar by @zapsalis-d​​​

summary: You, an experienced bounty hunter working for the Bounty Hunter’s Guild, have found it difficult to sustain yourself lately, requiring more and more credits after each hunt to be able to buy your basic needs. Yet with so many members of the Guild, high rewards were tough to find. Until you’re given a bounty with the prize being something extremely valuable – beskar. During your hunt, you bump into an old enemy you were just so tired of fighting. On your attempt to finally get rid of him once and for all, he found out a secret you wished he hadn’t and now you don’t have any other choice than to team up with him, whether you like it or not. The both of you thought it would be simple. Deliver the quarry, split the reward between the two, and hopefully never see each other again. Oh, how you were wrong.

pairing: Din djarin x female reader

warnings/rating: Rated t for now (but im not sure if that writer will change that in the future or not)

genres: angst, fluff

submitter comments: N/A

Connection by @beskarhearts​​

summary: Din Djarin and you were very similar. You both were closed off from everybody and had on masks of your own. But, when the universe brings you and Din together, you form a connection you didn’t know you two could have.

pairing: Din Djarin x f!reader

warnings/rating: Cursing, family members passing away (think that’s about it so far)

genres: angst, fluff

submitter comments: N/A

Homeward Bound by TheStarvingWriter (Ao3)

summary: After Luke Skywalker takes Grogu, Din Djarin is adrift. He attempts to find solace in his old ways of bounty hunting, but he feels like an imposter—a shell of his former self, roaming around in a suit of beskar that no longer feels like his own. When a visit to Coruscant leads him to a Seer who tells him that Grogu is in danger, however, everything changes. Now, it’s a race to find his kid and return him home, before he truly loses him forever.

pairing: Din Djarin and Grogu (father/son)

warnings/rating: Teen and Up Audiences 

genres: angst, hurt/comfort

submitter comments: The writing of this is phenomenal. The way they write Din is fantastic and the angst is insane. There will be eventual reunion and each chapter leaves you wanting more. 158288483/10 recommended!!!

the light of stars by @tiffdawg

summary: In pursuit of the Child’s people, the mysterious Jedi, Din Djarin and his foundling find hope in a woman who shares the kid’s strange powers. Newly partnered with the Mandalorian, you are trained in the ways of the Force, but you’re no Jedi. You’re just trying to find your place in the galaxy.

pairing: din djarin x reader

warnings/rating: hurt/comfort, sexism, mild injury, mild language, angst, kissing

genres: angst, fluff, hurt/comfort

submitter comments: N/A

ONE-SHOTS

Only for You by @firstofficerwiggles​​

summary: You like to sing and it ends up bringing you closer to the Mandalorian. Events take place sometime between Seasons 1 and 2. It’s pretty much fluff with a teeny bit of story. Still has plot though :)

pairing: Mandalorian x female reader

warnings/rating: Rated: G, Warnings: None

genre: fluff

submitter comments: I hope you like it!

Getting Through This by Whumptastic (Ao3)

summary: Din has a hard time dealing with Grogu’s leaving, and like a true friend Cara offers support.

pairing: Din and Cara but only as best friends

warnings/rating: none really, lots of crying/sad vibes tho

genre: hurt/comfort

submitter comments: N/A

Fifty Four by @themand0lorian​

summary: Reader gets a drunken holo from Din, based on Pedro Pascal's 24 hour play monologue (linked in fic)

pairing: Din Djarin x gn!Reader (no Y/N)

warnings/rating: E

genres: angst, fluff

submitter comments: N/A

Reassurance by @galaxysgal​ (Ao3: imjusttheoutgoingsidekick)

summary: You worry about Din and his recklessness during and after the events of Morak and the two of you have a small chat about it.

pairing: din djarin x gn!reader

warnings/rating: PG, major spoilers for The Mandalorian Chapter 15, canon typical violence, near death experience (for Din), some swear words (both sw swears and regular english ones lol)

genres: angst, fluff, hurt/comfort

submitter comments: since it's up on tumblr and ao3 i wasnt sure which link/acc name to give so I just gave both :)

ni kar’tayli gar darasuum by @pumpkin-stars

summary: Din was friends with another foundling as a child, they never saw each other’s faces, both shrouded in beskar from everyone. But feelings form from actions and words, not sight. AKA Din gets married to someone equally touchstarved.

pairing: Din/Reader (no pronouns)

warnings/rating: safe for everyone - warnings for (happy) crying, and it's my first attempt at a star wars fic so the finer details might be a bit dodgy

genre: fluff

submitter comments: i love your fics! i'm still new to the fandom but you seem so sweet and this is a really good idea/thing that you're doing! xx

The Vexatious Nine by Balsamique (Ao3)

summary: While searching for more of his kind on the desolate planet of Karth, a blizzard traps the Mandalorian, the child and seven lodgers in an isolated stopover. When one of the lodgers is mysteriously murdered, it’s up to the Mandalorian to catch the killer before they can claim their next victim. But as the storm thickens, so does the mystery — and this isn’t a problem he can shoot his way out of.

pairing: N/A

warnings/rating: General Audiences

genres: Action/Adventure, Murder Mystery

submitter comments: Author's name on Ao3 is Balsamique. On Tumblr it's first-order-media-department.

what happened to you? by @lesbisoka​

summary: After the events of Episode 8 (S1), Din returns to Sorgan to recover. Omera finds him in a less than ideal state.

pairing: din djarin x omera

warnings/rating: General Audiences, no archive warnings apply

genre: hurt/comfort

submitter comments: N/A

Sprained by @kesskirata​

summary: Rebel spy reader is injured and can’t make her meet up with The Mandalorian

pairing: The Mandalorian x reader 

warnings/rating: none

genres: angst, fluff, hurt/comfort

submitter comments: N/A

Over the Moon by gobuyastarwars (Ao3)

summary: Din and Grogu travel with Boba Fett and Fennec Shand for a time. The Mandalorian, Boba, Fennec, and Grogu stop to refuel and find an unpromising tourist attraction nearby– an amusement park. Din doesn't want to go into the amusement park, but Boba and Grogu do.

pairing: Din and Grogu

warnings/rating: Gen, no warnings

genre: fluff

submitter comments: N/A

You can start submitting next week’s fic rec here.

[yeats-infection]

asking this feels like cheating so I’ll take whatever I can get, but: graeme/lockett, au where things are more ok?

i want to extend a sincere thanks to you and anybody who continues to ask me questions about graeme and lockett and the in the garden stories... they mean a huge huge huge amount to me and i’m always very grateful when people appreciate them! 

SO i have written a couple little graeme and lockett AUs where things are a little better. here’s one and there are some more here. it would have to be a serious AU for things to be more okay because they are both such fucked up people, but here are some thoughts about a silly and sweet college AU lol: 

1) lockett is a dropout townie drug dealer who hangs out at an old abandoned quarry with his crew of bad boys in this weird new england town. graeme is a philosophy student who lost a friend in his last year of high school and as a result spends most of his time in varying stages of inebriation and is clinging to passing grades by his fingernails 

2) they have seen each other around but really meet at some silly autumn party in a barn where the air is really thick with pot smoke and everyone is making out on hay bales and drinking punch made with grain alcohol and kool-aid... graeme is drunk and spends the entire time flirting as hard as he possibly can but in the end lockett walks him back to his dorm in the bitter cold and says goodbye without leaving his phone number or anything

3) this story would basically have no plot except for graeme following lockett around like a puppy and being like “why don’t you love me” until lockett is finally like “because of trauma, and YOU only like ME because of trauma so this is really good for neither of us, and also you are Good and i am Not Good so you have to leave me alone” 

4) after licking his wounds for a little bit graeme decides he’s not going to put up with this and he storms down to the quarry in the snow without enough layers on and finds lockett skipping rocks on the ice and gives him an ultimatum and lists all these reasons why he’s wrong

5) lockett doesn’t know if he believes any of this but he semi-relents and allows graeme to follow him back to where he lives which is a squat in an abandoned factory and they make a fire and smoke a joint and talk about the bad things they’ve experienced and then kiss a lot 

i honestly love this and it’s breaking my heart so maybe i have to write it hahhhhahah .. hahah ... ha

--

just send me any question at all to distract from my election stress! and also i hope you have already voted or will tomorrow! 

[melaninja-mo]

Us (movie) Analysis/Theory pt 1 :

MEGA SPOILER ALERT!

Holy mackerel. I watched the movie Us finally, with a notebook and index cards to analyze everything I saw. Below I have amalgamated that information & I hope it satisfies you.

🎞 We all perceive the film differently, so this is my personal perception + analyses of symbolism. All themes play into the movie universe. At the end I will try and communicate what Jordan Peele may be trying to say externally for my “conspiracy” (truth) theorist.

🚨 Under constant edit.

✂️✂️✂️✂️✂️✂️✂️✂️✂️✂️✂️✂️✂️✂️✂️

DUALITY is basically THE theme of the movie. Everything has a double meaning & can be tied to something else. Even the dialogue features mention of double and triple. I’m going to name the ones with 3 as well.

•Above world & the underground - 2 worlds

•Humans & their Clones - Double People

• 11:11 - Double 1’s & palindromic ** (I’m going to do a whole section on 11)

•I got 5 on it - Means going half for some dank.

•Black flag shirt in 1986 & On twin in present day

•Hands across America happened during the Gemini season. The zodiac representing twins.

•Mirrors & reflections everywhere

•2 large ambulances with the number 2 on them - One carrying life / The other carrying death

*3rd ambulance was between two those worlds.

•Lots of Black & white color placement

*Red is a third color seen a lot

•Generator & Back up generator - Power

•Jason wearing a Mask

•Big spider & Little spider on coffee table

•The white girl twins

*They say the same things all the way to triple jinx

•The story of the princess and her shadow

• Night & Day / Sun & Storm

•Jason & Pluto’s hand gestures are opposite of each other as they are walking backwards.

•The painting on the wall has a little girl inside of a deranged looking older woman

*Theres also a painting with 3 people in it

•Jason’s drawing is an over the shoulder drawing, which means 2 people in the picture

•The shadows on the beach create the illusion of a shadow family.

•The little girls hairballs are different colors in the therapy office

•The meaning of Hands Across America changes

•• One I thought of: Lighthouses are suppose to guide you to safety, but it did the opposite for young Adelaide.

Plot necessary Easter Eggs & Prop placement

•A shirt can be seen with “Fragile” on it

Nods to the underground

•A fact at the beginning of the movie brings up the underground and abandoned mine shafts.

•The game of Whack-A-Mole at the carnival - The game of keeping things underground.

•When they first arrive to the summer home, Adelaide is laying down on the couch. We see a spider on the coffee table with a little spider coming from under it.

•Jason digging tunnels at the beach

Classic movies & games

The movies are seen in the beginning next to the old style TV.

•C.H.U.D - An old movie, the title means “Cannibal human underground dwellers” I believe. Speaks for itself.

•The Man With Two Brains - Movie about a man who has a connection with a brain in a jar (Lol that is very vague, pls just search it.)

•The Goonies - Movie about kids going underground

•The Lost Boys is being filmed at the carnival during 1986. The title speaks for itself.

•Guess Who, Magic, and Candyland can be seen in the closet with Jason & Pluto

•Rock, paper, scissors is seen being played multiple times. Scissors is an obvious reference to the scissors, but I haven’t deciphered the others.

•Jason is wearing a Jaws shirt, a movie about a creature coming from below aaaaalso at a beach.

•Jason’s name is like Jason Voorheis who also wears a mask.

•The name of the House of mirrors goes from “Shaman’s quest” to “Merlin’s forest”

Elements

I’m glad I’ve seen other people notice this, but the elements, as there are 4 primary ones, are depicted within the 4 characters. I always look for this in movies with 4 main people.

Adelaide is Earth - Earth represents foundation. She was taken from her home & put in a completely opposite one. She has seen above & below ground. Values her family.

Gabe is Water - Loves his boat, wants to go to beach, kills his quarry on the pier.

Jason is Fire - Loves the magic trick, was in a fire previously. His double is a pyromaniac. The double also sits directly in front of the fire.

Zora is Wind - Is a runner & quick thinker. Her double is extremely fast.

Patterns & Colors

White - Adelaide is wearing white for most of the movie until it is stained red

Black - Used in the stairs to the underground, the power outages, the Thriller shirt,

Black & White - Jason’s bow tie shirt

Red - Name of Adelaide’s double, color of blood, color of pending danger. It’s also the color of the lamp over Jason’s bed & the color of the flare gun. Represents the color of the Tethered.

Checkboard - A Masonic print used in places for rituals

Stripes - I noticed them but haven’t figured it out! I shall though!

The Rabbit

•Seen in the underground

•Zora’s shirts - One is green with a rabbit on it, the other says “Thó” which is Vietnamese for rabbit.

•Adelaide is playing with a rabbit in the sandbox at the therapy office

•Adelaide has a toy rabbit in a box at the summer home

•Jason has a toy rabbit

*He keeps a rabbit at the end

THE NUMBER 11

In numerology, double numbers possess good meaning and usually mean change, transformation, growth, etc.

Here’s all the times I saw it.

•Jeremiah 11:11

•Channel 11 @ 11

• “I want number 11” Addy says at the carnival

• 11:11 on Jason’s clock

•Sports team score is 11/11 - Channel 11

•Black Flag T-shirt - 4 straight lines could be 1111

Random Key Things I Noticed

•If Red is the real Adelaide, and Adelaide is the clone; that means the clone gave birth to the children. Making the children half-tethered.

•Adelaide & Jason snap off beat, but Zora and dad sing on beat.

•Jason & Pluto have a very strong connection, because they are half-tethered. The twins even call Jason weird on the beach.

Which he is, because he’s digging tunnels. He’s also obsessed with masks, communicates strangely, and chooses the weirdest times to display emotion. Which could probably be a result of being half-tethered.

•The Thriller shirt. Not only do the lyrics go with what’s happening metaphorically, but Michael Jackson happens to go crazy with the duality in Thriller. He’s half man-half werewolf & also half alive-half dead. This plays directly into the movies theme.

•In the Bible verse mentioned, if you continue reading, it makes mention of Baal. How God knew the people were burning incense to Baal. Baal is baphomet, The goat demon. A principle associated with him is the “As above, so below”.

*There is a pentagram on the frisbee thrown at the beach.

*When Red holds the scissors towards the end of the movie, it is in the pose of Baphomet.

Class system?

•The people above ground have access to much more than those below. Like the class system seen in America.

•The white family friends had a backup generator, representing the amount of “Power” they had.

•Gabe asks “What are you?” not “Who are you?” Showing that he viewed the tethered as inhuman.

•The tethered do not speak, just like the lower classes have no social economic voice.

[nomanicsdak]

New Post has been published on http://manicdak.com/?p=2405

The Handsomest Man in all of Greece

I Know, I know, It’s Been 84 Years, etc…

Note: I wrote this one well before the holidays and am just now getting to posting, for the record!

What Are You Up To, Kleon?

We’re out to help Kleon today now that they Symposium is over! Let’s see what kind of job he has to offer. Probably not the drunken orgies that Perikles and Co. had for me, but, hey—you never know! Let’s go raid some Spartan camps! (As is Kleon’s wish, if you remember that far back.) That being finished, I go back to Kleon, with a note from a Spartan polemarch about further secret missions for Athens that Kleon is engaging in. Of course, this isn’t the end of his quest for me. I now have to rescue a messenger at a quarry. Come to find out that he is dead, but I do managed to rescue a sea captain who is also in on the plan. They are all being very hush hush about what is on his ship, and that makes me really suspicious. Better I don’t know? I beg to differ!

Well, not only was this guy captured, but so was his entire crew. I have to rescue them and then go defeat some Spartan ships, and maybe I have discovered the reason we parked in some random cove…because my ship is right there for me to swim to! Barnabus lets me know I have a message about a lead on some cultists, which I will check out later, and I make short work of the ship and head on back to see if maybe these dudes will tell me something!

Nope, nobody tells me anything. Maybe I have doomed all of Athens by helping these guys, or doomed somebody else. Who knows? Mayhaps it doesn’t actually matter since most of the time there is just an illusion of choice. Heh. I mean, I can go about raiding all of Athens and it doesn’t seem to affect much in the way of interactions.

In fact, let’s go on a side quest now that I’m done with Kleon. I know I said I was going to Korinth, but you know me. There was never a spot on the map that I ever want to pass up! So, I accidentally run through a restricted area and get chased by some guards all the way to my exclamation point destination. Let’s see who it is!

[singlepic id=101 w= h= float=center]

Dudes being Bros

Ooo, boy. It is none other than Alkibiades and his bud Sokrates. They are still at it. Sokrates is talking and talking and Alkibiades is flirting and flirting. What kind of shenanigans are they up to? Well, Alkibiades wants me to help his friend become a citizen by sneaking into a place and signing his name to a thing. Alright, seems easy enough, yes? I think my abilities of sneaking have been way over estimated by the game. Quest completed though. I return to Alkibiades and he gets a new exclamation point above his head. Dude. What now???

Well, I have to find a witness, for this citizenship; a “handsome” dude named Peiroos. Neither I nor Ace here can be the witness, because he is a friend and I am not a citizen, but I should be careful not to get too distracted by Peiroos handsomeness. I think I can manage. What I don’t think I can manage is not giving this guy the nickname “Poos”. Hahaha. I am 12. Anyway, I just get some vague directions to find him; the quest isn’t going to lead me directly there this time. I guess I will just look out for the too handsome dude.

And OMG, I keep running into this restricted area. I am not meaning to do this, just there’s these big steps leading up to this temple and regular citizens are just running around there all willy-nilly. Why can’t I? Boo!

I Got This.

But I Was Expecting This

Well, it’s this guy. Lol. Okay, if you say so, Ace. I have a feeling that every person that walks into his eyeline is probably the most attractive person in Greece in that particular moment. Anyway, Peiroos doesn’t want to help. Sophanes, he’s the dude I’m helping with the citizenship and here I am still on this quest so I guess I’ll remember his name for a minute. Anyway, he’s a betrayer who turned on his own troops or something. According to Peiroos he doesn’t deserve citizenship. Great. Now what? Fine, I’ll bribe him…pay for his debt with this huge pile of drachmae I have that I never spend on anything. Surprisingly this bribe works without me having to do any more favors. Ok, I guess I will find out what damaged I’ve wrought later if any.

Reporting my success to Alkibiades, I give him some shit for not telling me all of the deets about Sophanes apparent treachery. At least I can grumble at somebody for it, if I can’t grumble at Kleon. He says he didn’t think I would care, but now he knows. Have I rebuffed Alcibiades too many times now?  Who knows, but he believes in second chances. Me too. When he leaves Sokrates and I rap about whether good people can become bad or bad people can become good, and can we predict anything about it. Alexios seems relieved when Sokrates finally bows out of the discussion leaving it for a later date.

I guess the later date is now, because the next exclamation point is leading me to Sokrates who has apparently transported himself all the way across town instantaneously. So, Sokrates is in an argument with some playwright named Aristophanes (Fannies?) about Kleon and another dude name Hermippos. Apparently Hermippos (Hippos obvs.) thinks Kleon is the bees knees and isn’t afraid to shout it from the rooftops, and Aristophanes is done with it. Not sure what Sokrates can do about it, but I’m sure we will find out.

Stop Hippos!

Ok, the short of it is Sokrates is down with freedom of speech. Aristophanes thinks some people should shut-up already. Even Sokrates. Anyway, I’m going to be hired to find Hermippos so Aristophanes can give him the what for. 

I get some more vague directions, but I’m pretty sure I already tried to break into his house earlier when I was completing locations. Yep, I did. He does have quite the suspicious amount of guards and huge villa for a playwright. I find a note from Kleon about his play and some huge amounts of money just laying about, and the cherry on top is this Cult of Kosmos mask. *Gasp* Something culty is afoot here after all! And here, I thought Aristophanes was full of shit. Let’s get him! There is another cultist in Athens and my map tells me I will find clues in the quarry, so I’m going to go back there and see what’s up.

My map lies! Ok, well, not quite. I’m supposed to do favors for nearby people and maybe I will stumble upon the clues somehow. Instead, I ignore that little notation and head directly to the quarry to complete the location with much effort and dying and it got me nothing except a check mark and some armor that is a lower level than the armor I already have on. I stayed up way past my bedtime for this? Yay? 

I go in search of a maybe helpful quest and take on some bounties that I’m not sure I’ll finish. I get a mission to collect some seals from some Spartan polemarches in some forts and also realize I have a finished quest that hasn’t been completed because I didn’t go back and talk to the dude that gave it to me yet. I think I got distracted by the magical spear upgrady machine. Anyway, I head on back to the beach where I first landed to help my twice not!brother, brother. I cause troubles at some forts to collect my one part of the required goods. 

After raiding several more forts I have now realized that they are Athenian, and that is the reason I’m not getting the special quest required polemarch seals. Uuuuuggghhh. Self. C’mon! I am going back to Athens, there’s lots of Spartans in that area. 

In search of forts, I do find another human sacrificing faction in a cave. Nothing to do with the Kosmos cult, these guys are Pan fans, they’ve got the sacrificial altar and a pit of blood. I fail at sneaking and basically have to pick them off with my arrows whilst trying running backwards around and around in a circle through the cave tunnels. This tactic somehow manages to work without me being desynchronized once. Phew.

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Old Friend, New Trouble

I do a few more quests and meet up with a former fellow mercenary, Heitor, who is now one of those dudes that runs a weapon store. I still have not managed to procure another polemarch seal, but that is for another day apparently. Anyway, this guy wants me to get his very special sword back for him from this huge, well guarded Athenian fort. Cool. I do that, but in doing so learn that he actually probably sold the sword to the Captain there. He, of course, admits nothing, but whatever. Team Merc. 

NOW, he wants me to save his friend who has been captured, which I agree to, but who knows. He probably sold this guy too. Harumph. On the way I run into some lady who gives me a sob story about her play being banned for being just toooo dramatic, you guys. It brought all the soldiers to tears and they stole it so no warrior would ever be overcome with such emotion again, she is just so talented. She doesn’t want me to rescue her play from the sad soldiers, but she does want money, which I give her. I’ll take the easy XPs, whatever. I’m fairly certain this was a con. *shrug*

Anyway, I go through all the trouble of rescuing this guy in less than stealthy fashion and get him down to a boat where Heitor is waiting…to kill him. Uuuuuugh. Why? Because this guy was shackin’ it up with his wife and she ended up dying when she got in between their fighting. A love triangle gone awry. 

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Let’s All Just Enjoy the Sunset and Forgive Each Other, Eh?

Guys. Stop. Think it through, my mans. I tell them nothing is going to bring her back and somehow convince them to part ways without bloodshed for once. Yay! Now let’s clear some more locations before we move on. I mean, I haven’t quite forgotten that I’m looking for my mom this time, so I clearly have more busy work to do!

Oh yeah, the Seals guy. I think I finally gave him the seals and now he wants me to find more seals. To be honest, I’ve kind of lost the plot with this guy, but I’ll keep him on mind as I’m going on this next quest to the Silver Islands. I don’t remember where I picked this one up, but I’ve been hired to aid a failing rebellion on Myknonos! Let us be off! I have my crew drop me off away from civilization because I saw a dot in the distance sitting on a beach and I wanted to check it out.

Levitating Bears; Up to No Good!

It is a bear! I don’t really want to kill this bear, because on one hand he is pretty, but on the other hand the beach is littered with dead guys. Clearly, this bear is a trouble maker like me. Once that is done, I explore his cave which doesn’t really yield any good treasure. I do come to the realization as I crest a nearby hill that I am not in fact on Mykanos at all. Ah well, Let’s explore this island while I’m here I guess. I am on the sacred Lands of Artemis on Delos island…part of the Silver islands it turns out. It is a beautiful place with purple flowers all over. This one speaks to me. Maybe I can retire here, but probably not I’m sure someone with a spear is going to chase me away soon enough. (This last sentence in retrospect…oh boy. In my headcannon, My only mercenary retirement plan this Alexios has is this, and the only kids he will be having are the baby voyeur goats that I will be raising with Alkibiades, history be damned! Cute country doctor and Sokrates can come too.)

I move on to the next section called the Birthplace of Apollo where I find more people, a terrace of Lions and a Sacred Lake. Obviously, I must defile the sacred lake, because surely this place must have treasure at the bottom even though it isn’t a marked location. I am right for once when I find a bunch of loot and a sword down there. Haha!

Greetings from Kira

Bless! I am finally on Mykanos where I find out some guy is basically being a dick all over the place. We’ll call him Murdery von Taxation since I forgot his name. I really forget the specifics because all this happened last week So, so, very long ago, and I didn’t write anything down. Does he have a name? Is he a cultist? Perhaps. Perhaps I am just here to help Kira on her quest to bring him down. Anyhow, she has me running around meeting her places and investigating stuff, but I run into a beggar lady first who, as it turns out has some secrets to unload on me.

You see, she was once Kira’s nurse, or something, and Kira’s mother was Murdery’s mistress. When he found out she had a kid, he came around to kill her, and succeeded. The nurse absconded with Kira and didn’t even tell her any of this. So, now I have to tell her that the man she’s vowed to take down is her very own father. I know the feel, girl. My dad threw me off a cliff! I think that’s where I left it.

 Okay, so, I have absolutely no idea what happened because I played a little and then went on a long vacation to the heart of it all (Ohio) and yeah. I’m pretty sure I told Kira the secret and tried to console her and then we took down her dad, there’s no guarantee that that is going to do anything to help the situation. Someone higher up the chain might just come and be just as terrible to the townsfolk, but I’m just going to assume my job is done and get on with the questing.  (Unless I haven’t, in fact, finished this quest, in which case…I’ll do that!)

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[wthomeland]

It seems to me that we're in the middle of another "9 days" and no one is noticing. Neither C not Q have tried to contact each other and story wise it's been 3-4 days at least since Q was bust out. It's likely that C at least knows Q is gone as I would think the police would contact/look with her first. It's increasingly bother me that the writers are being so obtuse AGAIN. Does this bother no one else?

Anon 2: Already seeing the “why hasn’t C asked about Q?” posts, and honestly, I can’t. Even if she could pull her “Carrie Mathison, miracle worker” strings, she isn’t right now b/c Dar dropped this “taking your child away from you” surprise to keep her depressed and distracted from Q. Saul is getting her back on her feet to help with the spy plot. She’ll come around for Q, too, don’t worry! Not every episode can be Quarrie-centric. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and the reunion love hotter!

LOL, thanks Anon 2 for basically beating me to the punch in answering Anon 1. 

Dar’s scheme was to distract Carrie with the Franny thing, and it worked. End of story. 

And, sorry, the feminist in me has to say: She just lost her CHILD, why the fuck should she be thinking about a man? Fuck Quinn, TBH. How about a little empathy for Carrie? 

Clearly the writers tell pieces of the story in isolation. This episode was about both Quinn and Carrie reaching their low-points. They had to be apart for maximum emotional impact. 

You may or may not argue that the writers shouldn’t let an episode pass without each mentioning the other, but clearly this is how they tell their story. If we can anticipate it, maybe we won’t have to get so bent out of shape every time it happens.