#so just hermann for now (for ME)

[cowabinah]

[jtownraindancer]

Hello. I'm Lawrence. I think up clever ideas to make money.

Burn Gorman as Lawrence in BBC Four's 2007 airing of "Sex, The City And Me."

[unnonexistence]

hermann gottlieb WOULD play magic the gathering

[loumauve]

sometimes you pick up a book and are violently tossed back into remembering past grievances..

[ameliathornromance]

Monsters With Pets

Orcs:

- Orcs are pack monsters, they don’t go anywhere without each other.

- And that’s why I believe they would have wolves as pets.

- Wolves and Orcs are similar, they hunt in packs, they stay together in packs and they’re all incredibly loyal.

- At first, you’re afraid of them.

- You’d grown up on stories of vicious wolves, who hunted down and tore men to shreds for even daring to step into their terriroties.

- “They don’t bite love.” Your Orc Boyfriend had said as he held your hand, guiding you over to the wolves.

- He had three, Maximus, Prime and Brutus.

- All three of them had been abandoned by their pack at birth for being runts, but your Orc had taken them in and turned them into some of the most loyal pets you had ever seen.

- “Don’t be shy okay? They’re actually really sweet.” Your boyfriend reassured you as you held your hand out to them.

- The trio of wolves sniffed at you, really getting a good whiff of you.

- Prime’s tongue shot out and gave your fingers a lick, making you flinch.

- Your Orc boyfriend chuckled at your surprise, “he’s just being friendly.”

- And after you’d met the wolves, they were constantly following you around wherever you went when your boyfriend wasn’t around.

- You grew to like them too, as you taught them how to do tricks that your boyfriend had been struggling to do for years.

- When you weren’t looking, your boyfriend tried to get them to obey his command, “sit,” he commanded Prime.

- Prime simply stared at him as Maximus and Brutus wagged their tails and gave a completely blank stare.

- Desperate, your Orc turned to Maximus, who was the most obedient out of the three. He thought that if he could get Maximus to follow his command, then the other three would follow.

- Maximus was like the wolves pack leader, your boyfriend could trust that what he did, the other two would follow.

- “Roll over.”

- But not this time apparently.

- Maximus simply tilted his head in confusion at his masters request.

- Your Orc Boyfriend sighed as you approached and the three wolves rushed over to you. “You three have gone completely soft with her, haven’t you?”

- Still, he couldn’t deny that he enjoyed seeing you and his pets get along with each other.

- One evening, your Orc was struggling to find his three wolves and found them in your shared tent, all curled up around you, while you slept peacefully.

- He watched the four of you for a while, a small smile tugging at his lips, before he decided he wanted to join you.

- It had been a long time since he’d been able to cuddle his pets, but as he stepped closer, Brutus, who was curled under your right arm, let out a growl as he got closer.

- “Hey,” your boyfriend said, “sharing is caring. Let me join in.”

- Brutus’ growls lowered as you stirred and smiled up at your Orc, who had now picked Brutus up and put him under his own arm.

Vampires:

- Vampires live for eternity, so I believe that they would fully have a pet that can live a very, very long time.

- So, I think a vampire would have a few pet tortoises.

- Yup, that’s right, a few.

- I can see him having a kind of menagerie of tortoise enclosures, one for an African Spurred tortoise that had plenty of space to move around in, beside that, a few smaller enclosures for Hermann tortoises.

- Honestly, I could go into the whole lay out of the place, but we’re not really here for that.

- Point is, he’s got a lot of tortoises.

- He’s collects them like trading cards.

- He teaches you about them, what they eat, the perfect temperature for them and the kind of lights they like in their enclosures.

- Your Vampire doesn’t name them, mainly because he can’t really think of any names.

- He’s happy to let you pick the names for them if you can think of any though.

- Since your Vampire can’t spend a lot of time in the sun, he often asks you to make sure that his pets get the allotted amount of sunlight needed.

- It really makes him happy that you’ll help him take care of his tortoises when he can’t.

- One time, you peered around the threshold to the menagerie, to find your vampire boyfriend, lying on his stomach and holding a cabbage leaf out to one of his oldest tortoises while kicking his feet back and forth while cooing at the shelled creature.

- You still tease him about it to this day, a pale pink dust lighting his cheeks every time you bring it up.

- He has thought about buying a shark too, since they can live for over 30 years, but you shot down that idea relatively quickly.

- “Sharks eat humans! And it’s cruel to pull a wild animal out of the ocean just for you to look at!”

- “I eat humans!” Your Vampire boyfriend had retaliated. “And I’d take care of them! They’d get to eat the bodies of my victims!”

- He feels a kind of kin ship with Sharks, tortoises too… but tortoises don’t drink blood to survive.

- At least Sharks are carnivores and relish the metallic taste of liquid life on their tongues.

- You’d both agreed to a mid point, where you agreed that he could have different kinds of sea creatures: Lobsters and Koi fish.

- Lobsters because they eat fish and can (technically) live forever

- And the Koi because they’re pretty and can live a long time.

- When the evening would set in, he would rise from his coffin while you would be just preparing to go to sleep and the pair of you would sit and watch the Koi swim.

- It’s a very calming experience for the both of you, since neither of you would speak during this time.

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Taglist <3

@sunndust @greenie-c

[themultifandomgal]

Please may I request something with Severide and pregnant!reader where he puts his hands under her belly and lifts to relieve some of the pressure on her back? Like the tiktok video

Maybe he does it at the firehouse and everyone awhs at how cute they are and what a good dad he will be

Kelly Severide- Relief

Since finding out I was pregnant I've been benched. Normally I would be fighting fires with Matt as my lieutenant, but Boden has put me on paperwork duty and doing everyone's payroll. Which is kinda boring if I'm honest. I'm now 8 months pregnant and my back hurts so bad most of the time, but I'm determined to work right up until the birth. Although right now I'm rethinking that idea.

Sighing I stretch my arms over my head needing a break from sitting down. I get up and waddle to the kitchen where I find everyone

"Does anyone know if we have any pickles and chocolate?" this has been my pregnancy craving since I basically got pregnant

"Top cupboards, I'll get them down for you" Matt says walking over to me

"Thanks" I move out of the way for Matt who reaches to the top shelf for me. I take the chocolate place it in a bowl and warm it up

"Hey baby how you feeling?" Kelly walks into the kitchen from outside

"Alright. Hungry, tired, back hurts, just the usual" I sigh as the microwave beeps. I take out the now melted chocolate and dip in a pickle

"Remember when you hated pickles?" Hermann chuckles. Just as I'm about to  leave to go back to my little office Kelly stops me

"Come here. Let me help you back for a little" his arms move around my waist lifting up my bump. I let a moan out leaning back on to Kelly, relief from the extra weight I'm carrying

"Aww" I hear Gabby gasp

"Wanna carry on eating your chocolate pickles?" Kelly asks. I give him a nod before dipping another pickle in my chocolatey soup. Unfortunately my relief doesn't last to long since the alarms go. Gently Kelly lowers my bumps

"Won't be long and when I get back I'll hold the bump again"

"Thanks"

When they return Kelly comes back to me holding a bag

"What you got in there?" I ask

"More pickles and chocolate" he says getting them out and placing them on the kitchen work tops "now lean back on me again" I do as he asks and once again he lifts up my bump giving me some relief from my discomfort

"You guys are going to be the best parents" Brett gushes watching the interaction.

[leveloneandup]

Christen Press is a changed person as she nears return from injury: ‘I enjoy my life more’

Christen Press hasn’t gone two years without a soccer game since she learned to walk. So when she was laid up by a torn anterior cruciate ligament that took four surgeries and nearly 25 months to repair, she decided to make use of the free time she never thought she’d have.

As a result, the player who returned to training with Angel City this month is not the same one who was carried off the field eight games into the team’s first season.

“I definitely feel like this is the best version of me that I’ve ever known. And I hope it continues to evolve,” Press said Saturday in an interview that was heavy on smiles and optimism.

“I don’t know if I would say I’m a better person. I am a more grounded person. I’m more peaceful. I’m more at ease with myself. I’m more self-aware. I enjoy my life more, absolutely.”

It would be hard for her to be a better player than she was two years ago. A two-time World Cup champion and Hermann Trophy winner whose 64 international goals rank ninth in U.S. women’s national team history, Press was arguably in the best form of her life when she sustained the first major injury of her career.

At first she expected to be back in time for last summer’s World Cup. Then she thought maybe she could play in this summer’s Olympic Games. But the injury proved to be stubborn, and doctors had to go back in three more times for additional repairs.

She’s now 35, and it’s uncertain how her reconstructed knee — and the rest of her body — will hold up when she returns to the field. That question probably will be answered during one of Angel City’s three Summer Cup games, which will be played during NWSL’s seven-week Olympic break.

Given what she has gone through already, Press is confident she can handle whatever comes next.

“Every single day when I go out to the field I asked my knee, ‘Are you ready?’ It’s out of my control in a lot of ways,” she said. “It’s not, ‘Oh, you’re back and everything’s easy.’ My career will never look like it did.

“I want to make it back. I want to see if I can be good.”

Angel City could certainly use the help. The team went into the Olympic break having won only one of its last nine games, falling to 11th place in the 14-team NWSL with 10 games to play.

Press is likely to be ready for significant playing time when the season resumes in late August, but she might not be the only addition to the roster. With the transfer window opening soon, Angel City is nearing deals on two significant summer signings, said one person close to the team who is not authorized to speak publicly on personnel matters.

Despite the injury, Press was never really inactive. Physical therapy after each operation ate up much of her time, and she said she still does four to six hours of daily exercises just to keep the swelling down.

“Honestly, it’s a full-time job for her,” said Sarah Smith, Angel City’s director of medical and performance.

Still, she used the opportunity to work on other things as well. Press said she started therapy — the mental kind, not the physical kind — last September.

“I was like, ‘Well I have all this additional time that I can’t be on the pitch. What can I do with it?’ ” she said. “And I had a lot to work through, like my childhood, but also a changing life.

“Being healthy and strong has been my whole career, right? But it hurt to go up and down the stairs. It was a very big shift in identity.”

She has also devoted more time to the eclectic business empire she and her partner and former teammate Tobin Heath are managing, one that includes RE—INC, a gender-neutral community-driven fashion brand, and the RE—CAP Show, the couple’s entertaining award-winning podcast on women’s soccer.

That has given the whip-smart Stanford graduate a jump-start on the next phase of her life, though she’s not sure when that phase will begin in earnest. Her Angel City contract expires at the end of the season, but Press said that if her knee holds up, she’s not putting any limits on how much longer she might play.

“There’s part of soccer that has been really hard that I don’t miss. And then there’s simultaneously a deep longing and a sadness for not being in the game,” she said. “My body’s craving competition. It’s like a dichotomy.”

If the last two years have produced nothing on the soccer field and have been mostly painful off it, mentally and physically, they’ve been invaluable in many other ways. She’s grown. She’s become stronger, smarter, healthier and wiser. And she promises that’s going to be good for everyone — but especially for her.

“There’s pain and there’s also an opportunity,” Press said. “I have this ideology that things don’t happen to you, they happen for you. So I always ask myself, ‘What’s the gift of this?’

“It’s a happy story. It’s life, you know. It’s happy and it’s sad. [Am I] a better person?’ No, I’m different.”

[chaifighter]

Rewatched Pacific Rim Uprising the other day with my sister and god. Just. What a masterpiece of funnybad cinema. Mako’s never-mentioned-before brother is the main character alongside a girlboss teenager whose homemade jaeger curls up in a ball and rolls like Sonic. Mako dresses like a flight attendant now. Drift compatibility is no longer a measure of your connection to another person, instead it’s something you’re ‘good at’ or not. Raleigh died offscreen of cancer years before the movie but this is only addressed in the novels so when you’re watching pru you’re just wondering why no one even mentions him. (There’s a moment after Mako’s death (she died bc her never-mentioned-before brother’s jaeger fumbled the pass on her helicopter lmaooo) where you see a memorial with her, Stacker, and… one of the Russians? Not Raleigh? Why did they not put Raleigh’s face there to at least communicate that he’s dead?) The Jaeger program inexplicably still exists even though there are no kaiju. The government was trying to defund Jaegers in favor of the sea wall even when the kaiju were still around and tearing through the wall like tissue paper on a weekly basis, why are they still funding them when the only demonstrated use case is as oversized cops that can barely navigate a city street. Anathema Device is there just to be the pivot in the world’s blandest love triangle (semi resolved by a winky implication of a polycule? Okay sure I guess). There’s an evil black Jaeger which exists for no reason conceivable outside of Doylist apologia. One of the Cool New Toys Jaegers is just a normal big robot with a spike ball on one arm it looks so fucking stupid. Charlie Day is eating up every scene he’s in and Burn Gorman is having the time of his life elbow deep in kaiju guts. (The two of them and their scenes are genuinely great zero complaints but they’re living in a different movie than the rest of the characters.) (Okay for real I have to address it Newt and Hermann are genuinely so good in this movie 1) for what and 2) fucking how? Why is Hermann mucking around in kaiju entrails He Would Not Fucking Do That but Burn is having so much fun it works somehow. Newt’s wretched fashion sense bad mandarin and shitty plastic sunglasses have bewitched me utterly I need to study him. Elevator cane beatdown. Hermann they’re in my head. The breathless little smile on Newt’s face when he sees Kaiju Voltron (yeah three kaiju turn into one bigger kaiju. Like Voltron. Don’t worry about it).) The monster is trying to blow up the earth by throwing itself into Mount Fuji???

[heartmix]

Rebel - Kelly Severide

Pairing: Kelly Severide x fem!reader

Word Count: 800+

Warning: One swear word, mention of we*d (the whole fic is about this)

A/N: Just a warning, I've only seen half a season of this show and a full season of Med. So if I get a character wrong, my bad. Also, I mention that the reader is Boden's niece but she doesn't need to be blood-related. She can be a family friend niece or whatever you want to decide.

Masterlist / One Chicago Masterlist

Once in a while, everyone would be in a good enough mood to sit down and have dinner. No excuses about needing to clean the truck or refill the ambo. Also now excuses from Squad 3 that they were having an intense round of cards. Them being free to actually sit and eat together was probably due to the fact that you cooked dinner, something that was rare. Often you were too tired, but today felt different so you decided to do the task of cooking dinner for the firehouse. 

For the first 10 minutes, everyone was quiet. Other than utensils clashing against each other hardly any words were said. Everyone wanted to get a good amount of food in before a call would come through.

Although it wasn't long before someone started up a conversation. In a second the table looks like a real family dinner table, loud. The topic seemed to be reminiscing about being young, before becoming a firefighter. You were one of the youngest at the table so you didn't think they were gonna ask questions about the topic. Your youth wasn't that long ago. 

"What's one thing you miss when you were younger." Sylvie asked you seeing as you were next down the line.

"Smoking weed." You casually said which made everyone look at you with a raised eyebrow. They thought you were joking or not believing you.

"What? I work for the state, I can't do that anymore." You shrugged as if it was no big deal. You really didn't think it was, it was so easy to get the supply so it shouldn't be that shocking.

"You used to smoke weed?" Casey asked again still in disbelief as with everyone else.

"Yeah, who hasn't at last once?" You asked and soon courses of 'me' all spoke at once. Some of them had to be lying right?

"God you guys were boring." 

"Next you're going to tell us you got arrested." Otis quipped which made you gasp.

"Wow just because I smoked weed you make that connection, and no I haven't I just ran from the cops." You mumbled the last part not knowing why you were feeding them this information. Sure you were all one big happy family, but big happy families don't need to know everything about each other.

"What the hell, kid," Hermann said making you give a sheepish smile. The look on his face told you he was never going to look at you the same again.

"It was a different time, I was having the time of my life." You defended yourself. Sure weed wasn't legal in Illinois, but it wasn't bad. It was a herb.

"What else did you do?" Kelly asked who surprisingly has been quiet this whole time. He didn't look as shocked as everyone, but he didn't know you had this side of you.

"Uhh shoplifted?" You said in a questioning tone. Still, you didn't know why you were confessing all this.  

"How did you do a 360?" Sylvie asked impressed. You acted nothing like the girl you were talking about. Their young, sweet, rookie.

"I got sent to live with Boden, that's what happened," 

"I heard my name." You heard the devil himself say from behind you as he made his plate of food. He must have had an important call if he didn't come to eat right away.

"We didn't know your niece was a rebel child," Sylvie said making Chief laugh. He had the pleasure of watching you grow and is a big part of why you are today.

"Yeah, but look at her now." He said in a proud tone making you smile.

"Well he just made stop half the dangerous illegal stuff, I still smoked." You added not thinking much of it, you really didn't know when to stop.

"You what?!" He exclaimed making my eyes go wide.

"I thought you knew this!" You defended yourself. This was your sign to stop talking and not spill anything else about 'the time of your life.'

"No! How long did you do it for?" He asked making me gulp, all of a sudden you felt like you were 16 again.

"I stopped when I got hired." 

"You continued for 5 more years. You were smoking in college?!"

"How did you not smell it, I had some good shit. I thought you let me go since I was doing good in school." You defended for what seemed like the millionth time in just 5 minutes. 

"I'm going back to my office." He shook his head making you laugh. You knew it stressed him, but years have passed. He was just going to have a good laugh about it when he gets over the fact he couldn't tell what was happening in his house.

"Who knew you were such a rebel child," Otis said making the table chuckle.

"Oh like I'm such a good girl now. You older people are a buzzkill." You pipped in taking a jab at them, they were really showing their age. Even the younger ones who weren't that much older than you. 

"You got your hands full Severide," Sylvie said making your boyfriend shake his head in amusement. 

[sabine-smitten-obviously]

and now i have to find myself a tower in a forest near a wall ...

... and look for a black, dark sorcerer !

You love fairy tales? You love Good Omens? You loved Aziraphale and Crowley in medieval clothes? Then you will love this not so little fanfic i dearly recommend to you!

Villainous by @ineffablepenguin

What it is about:

Once Upon A Time…

There was a red-haired sorcerer who lived alone in a high tower, and a blond prince who lived in a palace full of people. And they were both of them desperately lonely.

The Kingdoms of Empyrion and the Sorcerers of Apollyon have hated each other for hundreds of years, ever since the Great War. They do not interact, other than to occasionally try to kill one another. And they certainly do not make friends.

Crow is an exhausted sorcerer who just wants everyone to leave him the hell alone: for the Sorcerer’s Council to stop harassing him to live up to his potential, and for wannabe Empyrion Heroes to stop attacking his tower to try and kill him. Until one day when he meets Prince Azra of the High Fells, who doesn’t behave anything like he’s supposed to…

Part fairy tale, part fantasy, all love story. There’s magic, and grand romantic gestures, and Heroes and a handsome Prince, and a Villain. There are even some wild heroics, though not necessarily from who you would expect. At its core it’s simply about two (relatively) sane people living in a mad world who find each other.

What i love about it:

🫅🏼 I mean - fairytales? And a lot of them? I found it very nice to guess all the tales when stumbling upon a hint. Nice touch: in the epilogue there is a list of all the fairytales which have kind of flown into this fanfic and i am quite proud that i only missed 1 i actually know (and of course those i dont know).

👑 This story is RICH - and i mean really rich. It goes into details over everything and sometimes it reminded me of books written bei Hermann Hesse because of all the little things that kept coming and being mentioned. On my e-reader it was 566 pages! And yes, it took them about 200 pages for their first kiss 😅 That said, its always drawing a picture and reading the story is kind of seeing in your imagination. Obviously nothing is ineffable for @ineffablepenguin 😉

💪 The action scenes: oh my, its like a Schwarzenegger-movie, you cant stop reading, its fast, its furiuos ... oh, thats another movie, ngk.

🩷 The character development: both of our beloved angels start out being insecure of their roles, their place and their worth. But - this is the first fanfic i ever read, where both of them get to be BAMF !!!!

🩷 The plot: i love being suprised - i mean we do know a lot already, diving into a GO-fanfic with the tag "happy ending", right? So there were some really interesting turns and sometimes i wondered "ok, just how will this play out? How will the author get to unknot THIS?" And i have to admit, sometimes i really didn't see it coming. Very nice!

🩷 The healing: i dont know if it was on purpose or the author just felt like our ineffables needed to hear and think stuff, but actually the way their characters develop and how they help each other with it, what they are thinking etc ... reminded me a lot of trauma-therapy. So as one of those few (ähem) people who really spiraled after the big 15 of S2, this was such a nice feeling.

💫 the epilogue - this story doesnt end at happily ever after. Instead we get to know, how they make a living for themselves and sneak a little into their daily lifes. I truly appreciate that, its a nice way of comforting the Reader out of the story.

This wonderful art is from @pinkpiggy93! 🩷

Most beloved quote:

"And i love you too, my dear," he said firmly. "You are so very easy to love."

And isnt this quite a sentence, we all need to hear?

So if you are into good omens, fairytales, long fanfics to really dive in to for several hundred pages, some surprises and of course a happy ending - this is quite the story for you.

🩷🤗

Reading is not a hobby, its an attitude.

[firestorm09890]

On Wuthering Heights and Canto VI (complete)

wow.

move over “Call me Ishmael” line, this is the Canto that most resembles its source book. We’ve got direct quotes! We’ve got scenes playing out like the original, beat for beat! I’m so glad I read Wuthering Heights beforehand, because unlike the previous ones where it just enhanced the experience a little (or even left me unsatisfied that they didn’t adapt certain things), I can’t imagine what it might’ve been like to not know everything in the book.

It’s kind of uncanny, actually, the extent to which things are similar. At the end of part 2 I was thinking about how there could’ve been a universe where the events of the book continued to stay the same if not for Erlking Heathcliff learning about the alternate worlds, and hey, after looking at so many universes of Catherine and Heathcliff making each other miserable, Dante (*edit: I wrote Cathy here first. I forgot it was Dante who saw it) found one where they’re happy together, both as ghosts, which! Is just the end of real actual Wuthering Heights!

We continued to have canon divergence in that way of "what if [character] had done something different?" which is always my favorite, even if some of it was just visions into a timeline where things were different. What if Heathcliff recognized he was just as bad as Hindley when it came to Hareton? What if Heathcliff and Cathy hadn't gone to spy on Thrushcross Grange that night? What if Heathcliff had stayed to listen to the rest of what Cathy had to say?

It's a tragedy, and Erlking Heathcliff, and our Heathcliff, and every other Heathcliff believed that it was the type where he was doomed from the start, because of who he is, and nothing can change that. But Dante knew that no, actually, it's a tragedy because of the choices that were made, and they can't be changed now, but you can change, and that's how you change your fate.

Individual characters

Not surprised Hindley distorted. I think this one had a lot more hate within him than the original

RIP Isabella Linton, I mean Isabella Edgar. She found someone who wasn't Heathcliff and her brother STILL stopped talking to her, and ended up being used by Erlking Heathcliff anyway

Speaking of Linton (Edgar). I don't have much to say because if I'm being honest I don't like him very much and everything he said was kinda overshadowed by his absolutely disgusting death. Catherine saying he looked like a prince out of a fairytale is very interesting considering how much he looks like the Black Swan guys

I'm sad Josephine died. It makes narrative sense but it would’ve been funny if she outlasted everyone else just like in the book

Cathy! There's a lot to say about Cathy but I'm not sure I can be the one to do it. I like her. I'm glad she was fucked up and we got our "everyone sucks here, you're perfect for each other, never involve anyone else in your business" but of course other people are getting involved because this is fucking Wuthering Heights

SPEAKING OF GETTING INVOLVED! NELLY!! I'm sooo glad they gave her the unreliable narrator trait, and managed to put the whole "burning letters" thing in there too. I'm also glad that when she did inevitably betray the team, she stayed exactly the same in personality. It's like she said herself, the happy moments in the past were real. I hope she stops associating with Hermann and goes to do something else with her life. Imagine finding out that in every universe you're wrapped up in Heathcliff and Cathy's bullshit

no Hareton or Catherine II, but Catherine I and Heathcliff did a fine job breaking the cycle themselves, I think.

there's probably more things to say about the Erlking and the Wild Hunt but I'm so tired

[unnonexistence]

idk if there's anything in stories i get more petty about than poorly-written "main character shows up to a new place and meets everyone" character introduction scenes

[sailingfireshipz]

Ok so this is my discourse in response to @stellariders post a while back. Linked at the end.

1. Kelly should have been captain 3-4 seasons ago and I'm tired of them using the excuses of paperwork or being behind a desk because I've seen Van Meter behind a desk & talking about about how backed up they are on cases which is PAPERWORK. When he is in the field, it's after all the "action" that they speak so highly of has already taken place & it's more so like solving a puzzle rather than running into a fire. Atp I'd respect it more if they said Kelly can't be captain because he can't be Stella's commanding officer at the same house.

2. I'm sorry. I love Hermann however I'm struggling with seeing how the hell I'm supposed to take him seriously as captain on a scene or call when they've NEVER shown him in that light. The last time I saw him really fired up regarding a call was the factory fire. Also they haven't shown an ounce of Hermann actually preparing or studying for the exam. So we're supposed to believe that the same Hermann that failed the LT exam how many times passes the captain test on the first try? OK...

3. Mouch doing more has at least been foreshadowed now for a while. The episode in which he saved that kid & Casey talked about the retirement age going up. Also, Mouch has at least been acknowledged by the CFD with a commendation back in S9 & helped out with Paramedicine. We've seen his journey & arc build a little bit more than Hermann, so even if it wasn't for a potential Stella pregnancy on the horizon, I could still rationalize Mouch wanting to do more. We've never seen that same arc for Hermann, so it makes it hard for me to get behind it.

4. The disparity in storytelling amongst the cast is starting to become problematic for me. Stella & Ritter are the main two that stand out to me in this moment, but I'm sure there are more examples. Ritter has been on this show in some capacity since season 7... there is absolutely no reason why he has been treated like a background player all this time & is just now starting to get an inch of more screen time when Carver has had MULTIPLE arcs of the course of his FIRST season & now this one. Hell Novak is in her first season as a series regular & we already know a little bit about her past & what makes her tick. Not even about to start in on Stella because yall already know how I feel about it however what I will say is Stella Kidd deserves more than 1 GOF episode a season & 1 episode where she's fighting for the underdog. All of her other stories are directly or indirectly associated with Kelly/Stellaride/ white men, causing her unnecessary grief.... Casey never had this many damn personnel issues in the 10 years he was on T81. I'll leave it at that.

5. I'd love for Squad 3 to get some new blood. Not saying I want anyone to go anywhere, but I'd love to see Kelly Severide have to navigate teaching & training someone new. Add another man or woman to the crew & let's really see how Kelly's leadership comes through.

Same for Engine 51... like i find it interesting that they gave Ritter up to Truck yet won't commit to Kylie joining Engine full-time. Like outside of Hermann, who the hell else do we now know on engine? No one..

6. I'm confused by how close Kelly & Pascal have gotten in such a short amount of time. Historically, Kelly has always been very reserved when it comes to change, especially change in power dynamics. I also find it interesting that they continue to isolate him for the other members that he's worked alongside for much longer yet have planted this Pascal & Severide relationship dynamic. We've been asking for Kelly & Violet since S11... hell the Kelly & Mouch episode we got in S11 was adorable. I'd take him, Ritter & Carver, yet we're getting him & Pascal who clearly has an issue with Stella, his wife. Feels intentional

7. If they are committed to not actually giving Stella an appropriate backstory, then they should at least commit to strengthening her bonds in the house. They did that really well in earlier seasons, like mentioned about her relationship with Enily Foster. Same can be said with Casey, Otis, Gallo, Boden & Kylie but none of those people outside of Kylie are on the show anymore. Felt like when Stellaride got married, they were like alright no more family dynamics with anyone else except for Kelly & thats so not fair to her character. She mentioned it to Boden that her real family is the house. OK, so let her actually build out more relationships with the people that are there now.

8. I know I'm a vocal Newman critic, but I also like to think I give credit where credit is due. I made a few posts ranting & raving about how S12 for what it was (short, needed to be executed quickly) was a REALLY good season. It's why I was so excited for S13, but we're 8 episodes in & i fear we've lost the plot. Like, i go into these episodes with such high hopes because the meat is THERE yet walk away from some of them wondering wtf was that. Like, I'm almost wondering if S12 was so good for her because it was shorter, so there wasn't much room for filler because it honestly fills like she doesn't know what to do with 22 episodes. Grant it, we have an entire back half of the season to go, so I could be speaking too soon. However, I don't know what to even anticipate for the rest of S13.. like i have concepts & my own personal wants, but I don't have actual faith that it'll come to life because everything she's teased thus far has been so far from expectations.

Damon had so much more potential. As a firefighter, brother, & brother in law. That baby convo could have touched on so much more of Stella's fear & what the actual cause of that dread she spoke about could be coming from. Violet could have actually apologized to Carver & explained her grief/ why that caused her to ice him out. Even if they didn't make up right away, it would have set the groundwork for what they'd work towards if they're actually endgame(sometimes i don't know). Ritter getting blown out of a window could have been dug into a little deeper. Even the blood program that Novak proposed a call linking to why it is so important would have just driven the messaging home.

I saw a tweet a while back that basically said it's not character or plot development if it happens off screen & we never see it. It feels as if recently a lot is playing in the background or off the pages that we're somehow supposed to know is going on without ever seeing or hearing it. I love this show, this cast & think if shows like the Law & Order franchise or Grey's can be on air for decades, then so can Fire. I really hope the back half of S13 kicks it into high gear & starts connecting dots for me because I want to get renewed for 3-5 more seasons! I'm simply not ready to let them go, especially when there's so much left in the tank they just need to have the right pieces in the right places to execute effectively. 😫

As always, thanks for coming to my rant session. Let me know your thoughts & opinions below. I'm always up for a healthy debate or yap session. Check out @stellariders original post here.

[clash-of-the-wizards]

WELCOME TO CLASH OF THE WIZARDS 2024!!!!

It's that time of the year again, wizards, witches, and magic users of all kinds! Time to pit our favorite magic users against each other in a bracket battle to the death!

I'll be your mod, Hermann (they/them), who's running your competition, just as I did last year!

The gig is simple-- from your nominations, we pit 32-64 delightful fictional magic users against each other, and try and see who's Tumblr's favorite! Who's the most powerful, most wizened, uhm,,, the hottest. Who knows?

Last year's valiant winner was Miss Eda Clawthorne from The Owl House!!! But, who will be this year's champion? That's for you to decide!

GUIDELINES:

I will not take submissions of real-life magicians, as this is not real, reality-bending magic, it's misdirection. So, sorry Houdini, and sorry Penn and Teller, you're out of this one!

You can submit anyone from any fandom! Just as long as they wield magic and partake in the silliest of sorcery! Except I probably won't take submissions from Harry Potter for my own personal comfort, and also because that's chock full of so many wizards

Please don't come back and repeatedly nominate the same wizard. I would like some diversity! However, you can come back and nominate NUMEROUS wizards!

Lastly, have fun! This is all for sillies, don't take it too seriously!

If there's a tie that needs to be broken, I'll have you guys (my audience) vote to break it!

Got any questions about the polls or about me? My ask box is open, and I'll try and answer everything! Something about the comp inspires you to make art? I think you so should! I just ask you either drop it in my inbox or you tag me in the post!

This year's competition is sponsored (inspired) by... @bestadaptationtournament @best-bot-tournament-2023 @who-do-i-know-this-man @favoritenintendocharacterbracket and @best-overplayed-song

THINK YOU GOT IT? GOOD! NOW..... GO NOMINATE SOME WIZARDS!!!!

[delespresso]

IT'S YOU ━━ Antonio Dawson x fem!reader

author's note; hi! it's been a while since i actually wrote something and i really wanted to start again so here we are. first time writing for my man antonio and i hope it's good and liked <3

prompt; "what do you think i've been doing this for?" from this list

summary; after a pretty messy breakup, she ends up crashing at antonio's. and she ends up moving in — but they're just friends.

━━ ☄. *. ⋆

Antonio had known her for years. When she first moved to Chicago and became Gabby's partner on Ambulance 61, he was one of the few people that welcomed her from outside the firehouse.

Since then they'd been good friends, usually hanging out at Molly's or helping each other with mundane things. She was even good with Eva and Diego which always helped lessen his load after the divorce. There were times when she helped watch over the kids when Gabby couldn't and Antonio was stuck with a case while his ex-wife was traveling the world with her fancy new boyfriend.

He wasn't sure when it started, but at some point he felt it. The way his excitement grew at the prospect of seeing her again even if just for a drink with their circle of friends at Molly's. Or if they bumped into each other while on scenes. Or the few moments he'd get roughed up on the job and would come to her instead of an actual doctor or something.

But when he realized the way he was leaning onto her more than he probably should, he still couldn't stop it. Which was probably why he immediately offered her a place to stay when she broke up with her boyfriend whom she'd been living with.

“The kids are at a sleepover this weekend, but you don't need to worry about them,” he said as he brought two bottles of cold beer out for them.

She was on his couch, wrapped up in one of his hoodies as she curled up. Her boyfriend of four years turned out to be sleeping with his secretary. Cliché, but god she never expected it.

“You're sure they're gonna be fine with me staying?” she asked, wiping her nose with a tissue since she'd just stopped crying as she took the beer he offered.

In all honesty her heart was crushed. Who wouldn't be? She'd trusted her boyfriend only to find out he'd been stepping out on her.

Antonio could see the way she was hurting. And it filled him with a subtle rage. He wouldn't risk showing it though, all he did now was be there for her.

He let her curl up on the long couch as he settled in the armchair, watching her as she drank her beer.

“They love you,” he reminded her. “Eva would be happy to know you're here so she'd have someone to gossip with.”

They shared a chuckle over that. She did love the long chats with Eva about high-school drama. It was much simpler than her life now.

“You can stay as long as you need,” he added gently, a soft smile as he reassured her.

She looked at him, mustering up a soft smile of her own. How on earth did she get so lucky as to have a friend like him?

⊱ ━━━━.⋅ εïз ⋅.━━━━ ⊰

She'd been staying at Antonio's for half a year by now. The search for a place of her own wasn't going so well. But Eva and Diego were pretty much doing everything they could to convince her to just stay.

Antonio's feelings had been all over the place now that she was literally in the room next door to him. Everywhere he turned she was there. It didn't help with the ongoing want to always be around her.

She was usually so sharp on social cues. She'd notice if her friends had crushes or admirers from miles away. But when it was her own case, she was practically blind to it. Which clearly showed now as she was helping Hermann bartend at Molly's and serving up a drink for Antonio.

“You know you've got a hot one eyeing you up on your four o'clock,” she teased, passing him a bottle of cold beer.

Antonio was aware of the other woman. But his eyes was fixed on the one behind the bar in front of him.

“Yeah,” he chuckled, picking up his bottle and bringing it up to his lips, “I'm not looking for that.”

She rested her hands on the bartop, tilting her head at him. Now that she thought of it, he hadn't been on any dates for a while now. Much less flirting with anyone. Well, anyone but her. But they always had their harmless flirty banter.

“Then what are you looking for?” she asked, leaning forward slightly as she questioned him.

He sighed, scratching his stubble lightly as he turned his head for a moment. God, he loved her but he wished she opened her eyes sometimes.

“I'm not looking anymore ‘cause I already found it,” he answered simply, turning back to her with a soft smile.

“Meaning?” she asked again, raising her brows.

“Well, there's this girl,” he started to say. He paused though, grinning when he saw her lean in slightly as if she was interested in some hot scoop of gossip.

“She got her heart broken a while back. Since then, I've been tryna make her feel better. Pick up the little pieces.”

She paused then, her brain picking up all the information piece by piece. For a minute, she felt like she made the connection. But she didn't want to jump the gun.

“You told her how you feel?”

“Doing that right now.”

There were a few seconds of silence. Both of them just looked each other in the eyes as he smiled softly at the way she simply stared at him like that. He knew she was picking it up now.

“Antonio—”

“It's you,” he cut her off, pushing his beer bottle aside slightly. His arms were folded over the wooden bartop as he spoke to her. “It's been you for years now.”

She blinked, completely dumbfounded. Her heart felt like it was fighting to break out of her ribcage.

He felt like the weight was finally lifted off his shoulders now. It was out. He couldn't take it back and he didn't want to.

“Why didn't you say anything?” she finally asked after a few beats.

“You were spoken for,” he replied.

She'd been taken for the past four years. And he respected the relationship, so he never said anything or acted on his feelings. He wasn't the type for it.

“Not anymore,” she then said.

He paused, his eyes locked on hers for a moment as he nodded slowly.

“Not anymore,” he echoed. “What do you think I've been doing this for?”

A soft smile pulled on her lips as she looked at him, finally realizing she was right. She had sensed the subtle hints, but she was too scared to properly read into it.

Now though, he was making himself clear.

“I like you,” he said properly, making her smile brighter which caused an immediate rise in his heart rate. “And I know you're in the room next door—”

She laughed softly at that, looking down briefly. She was still living in his place after all.

“— but if you'd like, I'd love to properly take you out,” he finally finished.

He was nervous. In all honesty, she made him so nervous it made almost no sense. But he had to take the leap. He'd been waiting for years for the chance and he'd be damned if he didn't take it now.

She smiled, looking at him with those eyes that always made him weak.

“I'll clear my Friday night.”

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[bornwholocker]

Maybe this is too narrow of a fandom overlap but.. jayvik as newt & hermann from pacific rim is calling to me.. i have ideas for a whole AU forming in my head bro caitvi as mako & raleigh jinx being yancy bro someone please hear me IT MAKES SO MUCH SENSE WITH THEIR DYNAMIC vi underestimating cait in hand to hand like raleigh did to mako and then getting her ass kicked i could rewrite the whole damn movie with arcane characters with the way my stupid brain is making connections..this started just as me thinking abt jayvik and then suddenly thinking abt pacific rim and going “oh i could see them doing the reseach at the thunderdome like newt and hermann” and now I can’t stop thinking about this whole thing

I don’t know who would be more more of the newt or the hermann role though… neither of them really fit either character to a T, with viktors past with singed and his whole deal I could see him being interested in kaiju biology but at the same time I’m thinking about maybe he’d be more invested in stopping the rift like maybe he lost someone in a kaiju attack or some shit I don’t know I just have ideas man.. and connecting to the kaiju attack idea I could def see Jayce getting overly excited about kaiju and that causing like tension between him and viktor bc as much as we love jayce our boy can be a little oblivious and/or tonedeaf at times </3

Mmm but with the cait-mako bit part of me says yeah her mom could be stacker pentacost but also ambessa is calling to me in which case really Mel would be mako so you’d need a whole new role there which you could def make work but I’d wonder how to work in the caitlyn thing because with how her mom made her quit being an enforcer in s1 after she got put in danger on progress day if I remember correctly, they could definitely have that dynamic of cait wanting to go fight and be a pilot and her mom not wanting her in danger and definitely not wanting her around vi lmfao

I don’t know it’s almost midnight this is just me throwing spaghetti at the wall but perhaps it’ll stick for some nerds like me out there