#sure i could elaborate on how ghosts work but also they have a fucking episode for the perspective of a skull because the dead guys ghost is

[botanicallyinclinednerd]

Incredibly funny (and also maddening) that I have had to develop how ghost work in Teen Wolf, a show that deals with supernatural beings, and can't even if I wanted to for Bones, a forensic science police procedural, because they already fucking did

[cognitosclowns]

ALRIGHT I know part 2 just released, but any theories for part 3?

OHOHO HELL YEAH >:) these may be a bit sporadic and out of order, a catastrophic amount of sillies, perhaps some hooliganism, etc, etc, y'all know the drill by now <3

[IJ part 2 spoilers, ofc]

Same cold open as always (in front of the whitehouse, etc) except this time its RON >:)

he MENTIONED being a huge conspiracy nut in college - considering he's most likely gonna remember elements of Reagan's script, I 100% believe he's gonna slip back into that.

WE GET A GIGI BACKSTORY EPISODE!!! Otherwise I will just start biting people

ok this is just a plea to the IJ writers BUT STILL

JUST,,, PLEASE </3 I want Gigi lore. Her character is delightful, and there's so much potential for interesting backstory. They've set up all these little threads [her working her whole life to get where she is but still being unsatisfied, 'I could get used to being unremarkable', feeling ignored] now I just want them to elaborate on them.

I might be biased bc I love Gigi to death but COME ON, IT FEELS LIKE SHE'S GETTING SHELVED SO MUCH!! I'm so glad she got to do more this season, esp w/ Reagan, but I'm yearning for lore

tldr. Give me a Gigi episode or give me death.

Air Bud (AB) and Alpha-Beta (AB). Can you see where I'm going with this can you see the wires crossing

I'm sorry but I need the silly robot man to get jealous of the team paying more attention to Air Bud than him.

I can picture it so vividly like a vision from an angry god just

'Of course we're a team! we've even got loveable non-human sidekick who grew beyond his original purpose, gained human traits, and became all the better for it!'

-haha, well, I wouldn't exactly describe myself as a side-'

'Air Bud :D'

'I beg your fucking pardon, Mister Hand?'

in short I need smb to offhandedly refer to Air Bud as AB, and watch this man have a cyberstroke from pure jealousy.

speaking of my favorite man,

ALRIGHT,,,, I DO KINDA REALLY WANT TAMIKO DATE 2.0,,,,,,,

I don't really ship them but the potential here is too powerful. I need to experience more of Whatever The Fuck Happens To AB's Mind When He Sees A MILF

Tell me it wouldn't be delightful to see this clown try and ask Tamiko on a proper date. Tell me that wouldn't be magical to witness. It'll be an absolute car crash and I pray the writers give it to us.

also because if (lets be honest, when) he gets rejected, his dramatic, self-pitying crywank moment is going to be. so good. Teenager sulking in their bedroom watching rom-coms and crying about how 'that was just like me and Tamiko 🥺🥺🥺' levels of pathetic. I know it in my heart of hearts. I physically can't wait.

I think overall I just want this man in situations. bad situations. bad not good situations where he will act both bad and not good <3

THE ROBES,,, UH,,,, HRM,,

*GESTURES VAGUELY* THERE'S SO MANY OPTIONS IDK YET GIVE ME A FEW MONTHS TO STRATEGIZE

They could be anything from aliens, to time travelers, to 4th dimensional beings, robots, clones, ghosts, Just Some Guys (tm), to all of the above in some hodgepodge fruitcake situation.

I will however say that,, at least half of what the Robes told Reagan was probably bullshit. The stuff about all catastrophes having meaning? Not buying it, there's smth up here.

[ALSO,, I'm 90% sure that season 2/part 3 is gonna be the start to an actual Longterm Overarching Plot, which the Robes will no doubt be involved in. Please Please Please, this show is already delightful, and a broader plot would just. *italian hand kiss*]

MISC SHIT, MOSTLY JUST HOPES AND DREAMS:

JRand prison moments. homoerotic prison escape. two bisexual men pressed into a dirt tunnel, who knows what might occur in the heat of passion etc, etc

GLENN CHARACTER ARC!!! We're getting little hints at it,,,, he's tried shrooms,, he's growing closer to the team,,, the bisexual arc is right around the corner for this man I can FEEL IT.

I think we might see Atlantis? We've been getting more stuff about them, and since we've covered pretty much all other Already Mentioned Funky Locations, I think that's gonna be the Big Travel Episode next season!!

BEACH EPISODE!! PLEASE GOD!!! Either combined w/ the above, or separate

[Also, shamefully, I'll admit,,,, I kinda want a musical episode. I have no excuse I just think it'd be so delightful. Please Once-More-With-Feeling, Guy-Who-Didnt-Like-Musicals these bitches Shion, I know you have the power.]

A deep-dive into Andre's psyche. SO many things have been brought up, and I hope they really go in on them. He's coping in 1000 different ways and I don't think a single one of them is good for him.

HM. okie this is getting rambly - I'll probably add more within the next few months as these episodes congeal in my brain, but for now, tysm for the ask!!!

[brawltogethernow]

So, I don't think I've ever asked you this... what IS the whole point of the Spider-Sense? It really seems like something that only exists for writers to ignore or work around when they want to inject Legit Tension into a story.

I’ve thought about this power so much, but never with an eye to defend its right to exist, so I needed to think about this. The results could be more concise.

Ironically, given the question, I have to say its main purpose is to ramp up tension. But it’s also a highly variable multitool that a skilled creative team can use for...pretty much anything. It does everything the writer wants it to, while for its wielder always falls just short of doing enough.

I went looking through my photos for a really generic, classic-looking example to use as an image to head this topic, but then I ran into the time Peter absolutely did not reimburse this man for his stolen McDonald’s, so have that instead.

A Scare Chord, But You Can Draw It

That one post that says the spider-sense is just super-anxiety isn’t, like, wrong. It’s a very anxious, dramatic storytelling tool originally designed for a very anxious, dramatic protagonist. I find it speaks to the overall tone of the franchise that some characters are functionally psychics, but with a psychic ability that only points out problems.

Spidey sense pinging? There’s danger, be stressed! Broken? Now the lead won’t even KNOW when there’s a problem, scary! Single character is immune to it? That’s an invisible knife in the dark oh my god what the fuck what the fU--

Like its counterpart in garden variety anxiety, the only time the spider-sense reduces tension is in the middle of a crisis. But in the wish fulfillmenty way that you want in an adventure story to justify exaggerated action sequences, the same way enhanced strength or durability does. Also like those, it would theoretically make someone much safer to have it, but it exists in the story to let your character navigate into and weather more dangerous situations.

For its basic role in a story, a danger sense is a snappy way to rile up both the reader and the protagonist that doesn’t offer much information beyond that it’s time to sit smart because shit is about to go down.

Spidey comic canon is all over the board in quality and genre, and it started needing to subvert its formulas before the creators got a handle on what those formulas even were, and basically no one has read anything approaching most of it at this point, so for consistent examples of a really bare bones use of this power in storytelling, I’d point to the property that’s done the best job yet of boiling down the mechanics of Spider-Man to their absolute most basic essentials for adaptation to a compelling monster of the week TV series.

Or as you probably know it, Danny Phantom. DON’T BOO, I’M RIGHT.

DP is Spider-Man with about 2/3 of the serial numbers filed off and no death (ironically), and Danny’s ghost sense is the most proof in the formula example of what the spidey sense is for: It’s a big sign held up for the viewer that says, “Something is wrong! Pay attention!” Effectively a visual scare chord. It’s about That Drama. And it works, which won it a consistent place in the show’s formula. We’re talking several times an episode here.

So why does it work?

It’s a little counterintuitive, but it’s strong storytelling to tell your audience that something bad is going to happen before it does. A vague, punchy spoiler transforms the ignorant calm before a conflict into a tense moment of anticipation. ...And it makes sure people don’t fail to absorb the beginning of said conflict because they weren’t prepared to shift gears when the scene did. Shock is a valuable tool, too, but treating it like a staple is how you burn out your audience instead of keeping them engaged. Not to go after an easy target, but you need to know how to manage your audience’s alarm if you don’t want to end up like Game of Thrones.

The limits of the spider-sense also keep you on your toes when handled by a smart writer. It tells Peter (everyone’s is a little different, so I’m going to cite the og) about threats to his person, but it doesn’t elaborate with any details when it’s not already obvious why, what kind, and from what. And it doesn’t warn him about anything else-- Which is a pretty critical gap when you zoom out and look at his hero career’s successes and failures and conclude that it’s definitely why he’s lived as long as he has acting the way he does, but was useless as he failed to save a string of people he’d have much rather had live on than him.

(Any long-running superhero mythos has these incidents, but with Peter they’re important to the core themes.)

And since this power is by plot for plot (or because it’s roughly agreed it only really blares about threats that check at least two boxes of being major, immediate, or physical), it always kicks in enough to register when the danger is bearing down...when it’s too late to actually do anything about it if “anything” is a more complex action than “dodge”.

Really? Not until the elevator doors started to open?

That Distinctive, Crunchy Spider Flavor

The spider-sense and its little pen squiggles go hand in hand with wallcrawling (and its unique and instantly identifiable associated body language) to make the Spider-Person powerset enduringly iconic and elevate characters with it from being generic mid-level super-bricks. Visually, but also in how it shapes the story.

I said it can share a narrative role with super strength. But when you end a fight and go home, super strength continues to make your character feel powerful, probably safer than they’d be otherwise, maybe dangerous.

The spider-sense just keeps blaring, “Something’s wrong! Something’s wrong! God, why aren’t you doing something about this!?”

Pretty morose thing to live with, for a safety net! Kind of a double edged sword you have there! Could be constantly being hyperattuned to problems would prime you for a negative outlook on life. Kind of seems like a power that would make it impossible for a moral person to take a day off, leading them into a beleaguered and resentful yet dutiful attitude about the whole superhero gig! Might build up to some of the core traits of this mythos, maybe! Might lead to a lot of fifteen minute retirement stories, or something. Might even be a built in ‘great responsibility’ alarm that gets you a main character who as a rule is not going to stop fighting until he physically cannot fight anymore.

Certainly not apropos of anything, just throwing this short lived barely-a-joke tagline up for fun.

One of my personal favorite things about stories with superpowers is keeping in mind how they cause the people who have them to act in unusual ways outside of fights, so when you tell me that these people have an entire extra sense that tells them when the gas in their house is leaking through a barely useful hot/cold warning system that never turns off, I’m like, eyes emojis, popcorn out, notebook open, listening intently, spectacles on, the whole deal.

It also contributes to Peter Parker’s personality in a way I really enjoy: It allows him to act like an irrational maniac. When you know exactly when a situation becomes dangerous and how much, normal levels of caution go out the window and absolutely nothing you do makes sense from an exterior standpoint anymore. That’s the good shit. I would like to see more exploration of how the non-Parker characters experiencing the world in this incredibly altered way bounce in response.

It’s also one of many tools in this franchise hauling the reader into relating more closely with the main character. The backbone of classic Spidey is probably being in on secrets only Peter and the reader know which completely reframe how one views the situation on the page. It’s just a big irony mine for the whole first decade. A convenient way to inform the reader and the lead that something is bad news that’s not perceivable to any other characters is youth-with-a-big-exciting-secret catnip.

Another point for tension, there, in that being aware of danger is not synonymous with being able to act on it. If there’s no visible reason for you to be acting strange, well...you’re just going to have to sit tight and sweat, aren’t you? Some gratuitous head wiggles never hurt when setting up that type of conflict.

Have I mentioned that they look cool? Simultaneously punchy and distinctive, with a respectable amount of leeway for artists to get creative with and still coming up with something easily recognizable? And pretty easy to intuit the meaning of even without the long-winded explanations common in the days when people wrote comics with the intent that someone could come in cold on any random issue and follow along okay, I think, although the mechanic has been deeply ingrained in popular culture for so long that I can’t really say for sure.

It was also useful back in the day when no artists drew the eyes on the Spider-Man mask as emoting and were conveying the lead’s expressions entirely through body language and panel composition. If you wiggle enough squiggles, you don’t need eyebrows.

Take This Handwave and Never Ask Me a Logistical Question Again

This ability patches plot holes faster than people can pick them open AND it can act as an excuse to get any plot rolling you can think of if paired with one meddling protagonist who doesn’t know how to mind their own business. Buy it now for only $19.99 (in four installments; that’s four installments of $19.99).

Why can a teenager win a six on one fight against other superhumans? Well, the spider-sense is the ultimate edge in combat, duh.

Why can Peter websling? Why doesn’t everyone websling? Well, the spider-sense is keeping him from eating flagpole when he violently flings himself across New York in a way neither man nor spider was ever meant to move.

How are we supposed to get him involved with the plot this week???? Well, that crate FELT dangerous, so he’s going to investigate it. Oh, dip, it was full of guns and radioactive snakes! Probably shouldn’t have opened that!

Yeah, okay, but why isn’t it fixing everything, then? Isn’t it supposed to be why Peter has never accidentally unmasked in front of somebody? ('Nother entry for this section, take a shot.) That’s crazy sensitive! How does he still have any problems!? Is everything bad that’s ever happened to characters with this powerset bad writing!? --Listen, I think as people with uncanny senses that can tell us whether we are in danger with accuracy that varies from incredible to approximate (I am talking about the five senses that most people have), we should all know better than to underestimate our ability to tune them out or interpret them wrong and fuck ourselves up anyway. I honestly find this part completely realistic.

*SLAPS ROOF OF SPIDER-SENSE* YOU CAN FIT SO MANY STORIES IN THIS THING

The spider-sense is a clean branch into...whatever. There is the exact right balance of structure and wishy-washiness to build off of. A sample selection of whatevers that have been built:

It’s sci-fi and spy gadgets when Peter builds technology that can interface with it.

It’s quasi-mystical when Kaine and Annie-May get stronger versions of it that give them literal psychic visions, or when you want to get mythological and start talking about all the spider-characters being part of a grand web of fate.

Kaine loses his and it becomes symbolic of a future newly unbound by constraints, entangled thematically with the improved physical health he picked up at the same time -- a loss presented as a gain.

Peter loses his and almost dies 782 times in one afternoon because that didn’t make the people he provoked when he had it stop trying to kill him, and also because he isn’t about to start “””taking the subway’’””’ “‘’“”to work”””’’” like some kind of loser who doesn’t get a heads up when he’s about to hit a pigeon at 50mph.

Peter’s starts tuning into his wife’s anxiety and it’s a tool in a relationship study.

It starts pinging whenever Peter’s near his boss who’s secretly been replaced by a shapeshifter and he IGNORES IT because his boss is enough of an asshole that that doesn’t strike him as weird; now it’s a comedy/irony tool.

Into the Spider-Verse made it this beautiful poetic thing connecting all the spider-heroes in the multiverse and stacked up a story on it about instant connection, loss, and incredibly unlikely strangers becoming a found family. It was also aesthetic as FUCK. Remember the scene where Miles just hears barely intelligible whispering that’s all lines people say later in the film and then his own voice very clearly says “look out” and then the room explodes?? Fuck!!!!

Venom becomes immune to it after hitchhiking to Earth in Peter’s bone juice and it makes him a unique threat while telling a more-homoerotic-than-I-assume-was-originally-intended story about violation and how close relationships can be dangerous when they go sour.

It doesn’t work on people you trust for maximum soap opera energy. Love the innate tragedy of this feature coming up.

IN CONCLUSION I don’t have much patience for writers who don’t take advantage of it, never mind feel they need to write around it.

[sanchoyo]

danny phantom season 2, eps 1-5 thoughts! opening the new season with episodes like these kinda blew me away. we had multiple serious episodes INCLUDING a two parter!! also, valerie :)

see prev episode thoughts in this tag <3

-I don't know what I expected s2 to open with. but danny portal incident in more detail was not it. (also, I hate to break it to you, sam, but danny's parent's bigass ghost hunting rv def chugs more gas than those vehicles, lmao. unless it runs on ectoplasm or something...)

-WHY WAS DESIREE IN THE SEWER? HAVING TEA WITH IT DOWN THERE?? Her making the giant cow come alive is a boss move, we've almost had all of my fav animals as ghosts now <3 I also don't like how sam was expecting danny to just, haunt the place so the cars wouldn't get sold? I KNOWWW I know she's 14 (and I had a very annoying phase like this, I think I mentioned in a previous post, I GET IT) but they're HIS powers, and messing with (1) dealership will not really put a dent in sales overall because they can just move the cars to another sales lot, and it certainly wont change the industry anyway, it's more of a minor annoyance for (1) location. Also, usually people who work at car sales places work on commission, so if they dont make a sale, they don't have money to pay bills, or eat. sam baby if u wanna be an activist you need to like, actually look into these things. with as much money as her parents have, she could be doing a lot..more useful things for causes she cares about? it's frustrating to see someone with resources who doesn't know how to use them. but shes 14 so again. cannot be really upset :/

-IS THIS A PREDATOR VS TERMINATOR VS FREDDY KRUEGER MOVIE BUT THEYRE ALL WOMEN?? you know, sam is so right to be excited about this. /I/ want to see this movie. that rules

-paulina inviting danny and friends to her quinceañera, aw! even if it is just to get phantom to show up :') and there'll be a meteor shower, and we KNOW danny wants to be an astronaut!! there's not a meteor shower every night!! the tickets are non-refundable, but..she's rich? like. gotta agree with danny, they never get invited!! I KNOW it's the principle of keeping promises, but if she was that upset, she should've said something. directly. I hated how she was like, passive aggressive about it through the episode, like you SAID IT WAS FINE, THAT YOU'D GO TO THE PARTY TOO. MOVIES SHOW FOR A FEW WEEKS IN THEATERS. IF YOU HAD A REAL PROBLEM YOU NEED TO TALK ABOUT IT. WE'VE HAD THIS PROBLEM BEFORE, SAM. YOUR FRIENDS. ARE NOT. MIND READERS.

-MR. LANCER GOING AFTER THE GHOST WITH THE FIRE EXTINGISHER LMAO

-this outfit is everything . anytime the show does an over the top cutesty pink outfit i WANT IT. it looks like shit I wear JKASDHF I HAVE a bow like that and a pink sweater. I need leg warmers </3

-SAMS GOTTA RE-HALF-KILL HIM??? thats fucked up. but also, he finally got his logo!! it took until s2!!! this episode was lowkey very fucked and I felt like it glossed over a lot. does sam have guilt about like. kinda KILLING HIM?? I know, he also agreed and walked into the portal. but. she made the choice to redo it SO quickly (even if it was because someone had to beat desiree) and danny, during their fight, brought up a lot of stuff sam's done in the past, meaning he was holding onto those memories and resentment was building. (I KEEP SAYING HE LOWKEY NEEDS THERAPY, BUT I THINK MOST EVERYONE IN THIS SHOW KINDA DOES) which...is a red flag? and then they didnt even GO to the party URGH I know she tried to make up for it, but it really felt like Sam fucked up and barely faced any consequences and got everything she wanted in the end. I KNOW it's a kids show obv they aren't going to go too in depth, and she undid the damage, kinda, but...I DUNNO how to articulate it but it rubbed me the wrong way.

-but on a note about desiree, her powers of wishes were STRONG ENOUGH TO ERASE NOT JUST THEIR MEMORIES, BUT DANNY'S POWERS?! fuck, if I was danny I'd be like, trying to make friends with her. I know they always have horrible side effects as most genie-granted wishes do, but...c'mon, I'd at least TRY to be like 'I wish no ghosts would hurt anyone in my town' or 'I wish vlad would lose his ghost powers forever no matter What and also forget about my mom' LIKE. SHIT DESIREE IS SO POWERFUL. rewriting reality powerful, basically!! appreciate her. respect her.

-aww, sam helping tucker pass the nurse's office so he wouldn't see because he's afraid of medical stuff? very sweet. I also don't like medical stuff, I've gotten a lot better at handling it tho. but seeing blood and needles still makes me feel lightheaded x_x

-FOLEY, BY TUCKER FOLEY. I want to make my own perfume, that's so cool. even if his first attempt isn't good, he's pretty consistently shown to have an inventor/entrepreneur streak in the show, so like. I can see him inventing or making something (or several somethings) that make him $$$ when he grows up :) proud of my creative son

-I know the 'creepy abandoned hospital on the edge of town' is a joke and the creepy hospital trope is so Worn Out, but in my town we actually DO have a hospital like that! my dad was born in it, but its not in use and hasn't been for, like, 20 years! it needs to be torn down but I think the city doesn't wanna pay the money. the inside is horrible, spray painted and broken glass and shit everywhere. but there's still like, rusty equipment and fucking DOLLS all over the place. the cops drive by it pretty frequently to make sure no one is like, breaking in. (because of water damage, some of the areas really aren't safe. also, asbestos, but people still go in anyway) but also, some of my town was used in a filming for a stephen king show. So it's lowkey spooky all over. just a fun personal tidbit :) to lead into saying, any hospital abandoned for any period of time is NOT safe to quarantine these kids in JKSAHDKF like I KNOW it's a ghost trying to do this, but NONE of these parents are even like, 'well, why dont we keep them in the regular, working hospital'....YIKES. this hospital looks pretty accurate to the one in town. grungy and spooky.

-fentons are tax evaders confirmed by jack's fear of being audited, lol no one is surprised

-ghost sickness via ghost bugs. horrifying concept. I actually expected it to be a new villain, not dr. spectra again! this is a very elaborate scheme. her new form rules, love the new costume. the way none of the bg kids seem to recognize her as their old school councilor. did we just forget about that completely?

-dash watching romance movies in the fucked up ghost hospital. same.

-'oh please, you're ghosts, do you have any idea what YOU smell like?' no, tucker, what DO ghosts smell like? I genuinely didn't know they would even have a smell, I actually want to know now.

-it feels like a while since we've seen jazz!! i was happy to see her again, even if she was a head in a jar for most the episode. I want another jazz-focused ep!!

-we finally see danny doing space-related stuff!! him and his friends stargazing to open ep 3 of s2. cute :) until, GHOST PIRATES!!!!! ...ghost pirate captain is a small child?? VOICED BY TAYLOR LAUTNER???

-oh, the easy listening is ember's song instrumental slowed. 'vapor drone' THEY VAPORWAVED HER!!! ember in a pirate outfit tho >>>>. and the cruise being called m.bersback JKASDHJK. ember adopting a little pirate brother is also pretty cute. concerning this teen and little kid have such bad opinions of adults, like, who hurt you?? (how did you DIE ALSO?? im always lowkey curious about that. we know desiree died at an old age, but her ghost form is young, probably mid-20s, so I wonder how that sort of thing works...its a more mental thing, isn't it?) but ghost team-ups are always cool to see, even if ember bailed after danny took her guitar. I guess she probably thinks youngblood can handle it (which, he's been owning danny this far in the ep, so...fair)

-tucker got that sponsorship from nasty burger for their radio!!! again, opportunistic money maker king, love to see it!!!

-danny taking control of the kids SO FAST. he makes a pretty great leader. no one is surprised, im pretty sure I said I think he's the most mature of the trio, once again, correct, because he's taken on so much responsibility already. all the teens suiting up in the jumpsuits to go save the adults and taking the ship over with a BLIMP. OKAY LETS GO. this feels like it should be a mid finale or straight up finale.

-...speaking of finales. why is ep 4-5 of s2 combined into a 50 minute episode? I havent even clicked play and im concerned. weird placement, like, this season JUST started and we're getting a two parter? okay...why are the episodes placed like this? why not put this at episode 10 or something, for a mid-season thing?

-this is also a cute dress. possibly my fav dress so far. can her parents give ME cute dresses, I'LL wear them.

-it turns out the castle fright knight was in is called pariah's keep and there's something worse than fright knight in there! lovely! fuck off vlad wtf are you doing <3 your hubris <3 is going to literally get you killed <3 'ring of rage' and 'crown of fire' are great names tho. ...vlad turning into a super polite guy when he was scared of mr. pariah was hilarious. and fright knight doing the same...I mean, it makes sense, he's a knight, he serves a king? happy to see fright knight again either way :) vlad telling him to call him tho, lmfao. you WISH HE WOULD. (I wish hed call me, too. 😔)

-so...jack being genuinely concerned about vlad...maddie really didn't tell him what happened at the cabin, did she. damn. if I was her id immediately come home and be like 'YOU WONT BELIEVE THIS SHITTTT THIS CREEPY GUY--' like, I feel like that stuff you need to tell your partner!!! I know she didnt want Jack to think she was an irresponsible parent putting danny in danger at that time, but STILLLL. maddie spilling boiling tea on him. get his ass. how is jack this oblivious to his wife's discomfort with vlad!! ughhh

-fenton wipe (tm). trademarked toilet paper.

-DANNY AND VALERIE BEING FRIENDS??? :D that was a cute moment. 'hey val <3' and 'if you like him like him, make a move, or someone else will ;)' at sam...damn!! I love her. valerie go for it girl!!! I hate how sam and tucker treat val also, like I GET IT YOURE PROTECTIVE AND DONT TRUST but if anything him befriending valerie will help when she finds out or he tells her like I feel like she'll be more understanding that they think! ALSO I feel like her reason for not liking ghosts is valid, like you haven't really explained the full story to her anyway! she doesn't seem to have any other friends after being booted from the a-listers so im like :( but seeing them kick butt together again was nice <3

-the ghosts all RUNNING FROM PARIAH DARK IS NOT GOOD, I thought he sent them to attack or something, but no. why doesn't someone just tell desiree 'hey i wish pariah dark would die' lol. once again I think she can solve every problem <3 but seeing all the enemies in one place, being civil and hiding together? love it.

-you just know danny's gonna have to clean up vlad's stupid mess. also, jack being willing to put on the ectoskeleton pants to help maddie, as soon as vlad heard it could kill him, he suggested jack do it instead of helping maddie himself? this is why jack got the girl, my man.

-ghost skeletons. how do you end up as a skeleton ghost in your afterlife instead of a humanoid like most the ones we've seen? lmao

-the ghosts just making new homes in various stores. I'd totally be setting up in an expensive clothing store if I was a ghost.

-valerie's dad is possibly the most useful adult so far, with that ghost shield expansion!!! and valerie saving vlad and danny, even tho shes been thru it already, shes still so good!!! this family rules.

-danny: *gently caresses valerie* :)

-*then he immediately TELLS HER DAD ON HER. and his first response is 'are you okay?' :'( such a good dad...

-*me every time fright knight breathes* youre doing SO great sweetie :)

-the fenton suit thing is so silly looking. does anyone take this thing seriously

-ALL THE GHOSTS FIGHTING WITH DANNY <3 AAAAA. and the fact that pariah isn't perma-defeated, but just locked away again. yikes. he'll probably get out again, won't he? it wasn't too clear, but if vlad DID make a pact with fright knight, I am rabid. I will beat vlad to death with the fenton bat (tm). YOU DONT DESERVE A COOL KNIGHT.

-valerie being direct with sam and challenging her? kinda love that, even tho I normally don't like 'catfight' type situations. because sam has been very passive aggressive about it which is annoying. valerie knows wtf she wants and wasn't even embarrassed to tell sam, but she did tell her, giving sam time to make her own move! and sam denied it and got embarrassed/mad! and sam did have a chance when danny was about to go off and fight, and she hesitated and didn't tell him. I feel like she's hesitating because they're friends and it might make it weird between the trio (poor tucker would be third-wheeling) but if u snooze u lose, u gotta GO after what u WANT girl. smh this is a No Tsundere Zone. 😤

[adultswim2021]

Aqua Teen Hunger Force #43: “Video Ouija” | April 26, 2004 - 12:00 AM | S04E01

Welcome to a new season of Aqua Teen Hunger Force! I call it season 4. The rest of the world calls it season 3. Sorry about that.

Video Ouija marks one notable first: the first episode to not start with Dr. Weird’s castle. Instead the cold open of the show is Spacecataz, a failed pilot starring the Mooninites and the Plutonians. They chopped it up into little bite-sized bits and stuck them to the beginnings of this season’s episodes, to tell a little serialized story. It didn’t work. Honestly, the pilot isn’t that good, and telling the story this way is kind of a confusing mess. That’ll likely be the last thing I say about Spacekataz.

This episode is GREAT. I remember this season as being maybe the weakest of Aqua Teen’s canon, but I love this one. Meatwad is obsessed with a video game called VIDEO OUIJA, an atari-style video game that lets you talk to the dearly departed. He gets bored with it, which is unfortunate for Shake, who has elaborately committed suicide just so he can prank/haunt Meatwad. It’s gruesome and hilarious. His ruse works, but now he’s just trapped in video game world. Frylock hires Billy Witchdoctor Dot Com to do a seance, screaming “arise chicken!” ineffectually. It’s ridiculously funny and very quotable. I remember going into a live video of chicks hatching and being scolded for quoting it because too many people already said it. I left after a mischievous dog walked up and nabbed one of the chicks and ran off with it, shaking it in his mouth (NOTE: I made this part up! I left because there were too many people logging in to do hatespeech :( In reality the chicks all grew up to be sexy adult chickens, so no worries, mate).

EPHEMERA CORNER

Spacecataz

This is the actual pilot that the Spacecataz segments were pulled from. It’s on YouTube as we speak, but it was originally released on DVD as a bonus feature.

I don’t always do this with the ephemera, but I really did watch this. I was surprised to see that it actually is slightly different from what we saw on Aqua Teen. For example: the part where the Plutonians stop the ship even though they are going warp speed has slightly different dialogue. Also my memory might be deceiving me, but I think they reversed the shot of the Plutonians being flung out of the ship.

Honestly, this pilot isn’t that good. I’m not sure it could sustain a whole series, and they didn’t even work when you cut it up into bite-sized chunks. I kinda rack my brain thinking how these guys could be the focus of a TV series. I think the only thing they could have done well is host a night of Adult Swim via bumpers.

The pilot is extra short, under ten minutes. I’m guessing if it went to series they’d make an opening theme for it to bring it up to 11.5 minutes or whatever. It’s too bad.

MAIL BAG

London Arbuckle writes:

I was trying to remember when exactly we found out Space Ghost was over and I don't think they ever really officially announced it? I want to say the way they announced it was a bump aired sometime later in 2004 simply saying "SPACE GHOST IS KING DEAD" I'm pretty sure they didn't say anything around when Fillmore actually aired but I guess we should've read between the lines.

I do remember that bumper! But I think those guys like to flippantly say their shows were cancelled all the time so I was probably like “it’s not cancelled you IDIOTS” on whatever adult swim message board people were like “oh no” on. Also, I guess Space Ghost technically wasn’t dead since it was being a Gametap show. But, (Cartman voice) that sucked bawls

the final space ghost gets two paragraphs (not counting that ephemera corner nonsense [and it is nonsense]) while you write a small novel about harvey birdman, a show you allegedly hate.

You are a fucking bitch, dude. First of all, the EPHEMERA CORNER is basically an extension of the first part of the post, so YOUR LOSS. Second, that Birdman write-up is only long because I was extremely stoned when I wrote the first draft. I’m not nonsense, YOU ARE.

We're still a year out from Robot Chicken but I think you are gonna like it this time around. I think everyone at the time was heavily backlashing on referential humor back in the day after having their family guy fill that I became cool to hate on Robot Chicken. In addition to just being just well crafted from a technical point of view I think it's pretty darn funny in a vacuum. Promise me you'll give it a shot. Okay? Okay. Also I think Tom Goes to the Mayor stinks the second time around.

I will give it a shot, but I vow to dislike it. I’m sorry. Also, Tom Goes to the Mayor is pretty weak compared to what came after it. I’d argue there’s maybe like 5 really good episodes though.

Just a few more days until Halloween. Getting scared?

I’ve been watching scary movies, some of them are Italian which is opening new avenues for me. The types of screams I do are richer, more continental. I think you’re gonna like it

i would love more adult swim content from the blog

Ask and ye shall receive! Lol

[izartn]

MDZS JGY fic promt

I’m thinking about Meng Yao/Jin Guangyao and I think I would love to read a fic of him snapping in the opposite direction of his desperate grab for power and respect from his shit father. We know, thanks to JGS gruesome murder that at some point, after already being a shitty human doing murdery things, JGY snapped hard and said: “if i’m gonna do the shitty things of running this sect i’ll do them for myself and fuck you to death”. Quite literally. 

So I’d like to imagine a world where he, like, not necessary becomes a much better person; I dunno about the JZX and WWX kill plot, or about NMJ. I think he’s very set in his auto-preservating self-beneficing ways, and if you don’t really work well with that part of his chara then he’s not JGY anymore. 

But instead of being, I’ll become the highest in the cultivation world, so i will be finally respected and listened to (uhm, didnt’ work especially well did it? they never let him forget his mother profession when it was his father who was the absolute worst) he decides that while cultivation is still something to aspire to -can’t forget about his mother dying dream, also longer life and health benefits + being a hero, doing the decent thing- he realises the cultivation sect system as it is horrible. 

He was in the middle of the war, he saw it from both sides. He then went to low to high but still a servant. And it’s always blood what counts. He sees what happens to his other bastard brothers, to WWX when he decides enough is enough, and how he himself is still treated by his Sect despite his intelligence and abilities. And instead of trying to take refuge in the system, he is a bit more self-aware or inquiring; maybe he is more idealistic in some ways? But still oh so bitter, and decides to destroy the system from within.

You know what? Do it so he still rises to Leader of the Jin Sect (without prostitutes murdering and necrophilia; he is now more on the side of the common, so maybe he gets the help of Sisi or someone he knows to aid him poison his father and after he gets them a nice reward and packs them to a new life in Japan or something. Or he simply uses another subtle method without intermediaries or with unaware ones, he is certainly able of doing that when he isnt being an ironic murderer shit.) because it’ll serve him, and to be the leader responsible of making sure the so estimated Jin blood is disposesed will make him smug pleased. To slowly gain power and bit by bit erase the division between the noble clans and people who learn simply bcs of talent, scouting youngsters witht the excuse of replenishing the clans after the war and quiting the idiots nobles from their spoiled positions. 

Hell you can even make LXC and NMJ (did he died before or after JGY becomes Sect Leader? Well if he is still alive, NHS doesn’t destroy him, but then WWX doesn’t come back. If he dies before, then the vengeance is still in play, but it’ll be even more fraughted bcs now JGY goals and methods are a lot more morally grey and watching WWX and LWJ confront that would be super interesting O-O), you can make them see those policies and be like, oh sure, that’s a good thing you’re doing A-yao. But also conflict with their positions in the nobility system, as time pases and JGY subtly passes more changes and brings to ruin those sect leaders more entrenched in the old ways and abusing of their people.

 Programs for literacy, for the spread of knowledge and the civil use of cultivation techniques with the excuse of avoiding beforehand the formation of ghosts and resentment appealing to the lazy nature of the rich while eliminating bit by bit the necessity of their existence, like boiling a frog, the creation of the watchtowers still fits nicely and we know in canon he faced oppposition there so here it’s more important still, even more so Su She I think, will be elated with this turn of events and even more loyal lmao if JGY sells it well and JGY sells his ideas really well. 

Maybe he helps XXC and SL bcs it’s in his interest they find success although he finds them naive; but JGY has a canon soft spot for people who treat him well regardless of his common born status, so. Maybe he intercedes with XY and convinces him to work with him taking out nobles reasonably (I bet XY will like that), and manages to avoid somehow XY elaborated revenge on SL and XXC? or executes him when he is too much of a wild card, but we know how that ended in canon... The best bet is making XY see on his own best interest to help in JGY vision but that’s well. almost crack fic lmao. 

OH! Maybe he finds XY before the massacre of the Chang clan bcs he is searching for someone to help him above table and gets to him by offering a more subtle but still suitable appropriate revenge with the pro bonus of getting to do the same to others after and access to WWX manuscripts. You know this has a much higher chance of working, let’s go with this scenario. So he keeps XY out of his father reach, when he is searching for someone to gain control of the stygian seal and wen ning. Yeah, this will appeal immensely to JGY xD

You know, and JGY being beloved by the people, and having more than a facade of being just or fair, but proving it although it isn't in the interest of the nobles. And as he is politics savvy, although with more effort he could certainly make it so he avoids assassinations or walking in a minefield like wwx etc. 

Depending on the NMJ situation... You could make it so NMJ doesn’t die and then they enter a stalemate of grudging respect bcs JGY wants more an ally in swaying people for his cause than his revenge, although he sure could make non lethal things to inconvenience NMJ lol. And NHS as sect leader wouldn’t have the same power to his decisions and reach, no matter if he is more manipulable; after all isn’t NHS a pampered noble in JGY eyes? Who could be sure if he even would follow JGY anyways... 

And you could give it different endings depending on the development of JGY: a success where he gets to the point were factually the sects aren’t bloods based anymore, just a few like the lan (those traditionalists lol) resisting an unavoidable wave of change taht comes for everybody, and the money doesn’t flow in their pockets like a river to the ocean but instead it goes back to the people. 

You could make it so it’s a partial success bcs JGY is still himself and does more than a few morally grey things that come to light with the NMJ murder reveal, but his changes linger and the common people plus others of the same ideal now trained and in process of being cultivators won’t let themselves be cowered by the awful nobility -another big conflict breeding, and maybe it won’t be successful but people have long memories and books and the new ideals of equality would spread regardless, so it would start again and again each time a bit better-. I think WWX POV in this case would be delicious omg, LXC conflict even more pointed. This would be, I think the more realistic and interesting to write take on the idea. Iand you now, I’m in favor of a novel setting and characterization, but to make it more painful, use the 16 gap of the show and nothing else (i haven’t see the show beyond the first episodes bcs i couldn’t take it lol)  so JGY has more time to make changes. 

You could make a downer ending (this I wouldn’t like lmao, but it’s there) so that shows the cruelty and inability of making changes to something so integrated and supported by itself, that JGY loses much to his revenge he takes more and more radical actions that come back to bit his ass with NMJ and JGS murder revelation. I think XY in here would be appropriate, in an antagonist role as in MDZS. But it still has an impact; JGY’s life, despite his faults was still more inspirational, made better impact than his canon self. Make it poetically tragic and a comment on the futility of trying to change society by oneself, but find beauty in the attempt itself which has created community, which will in the future do the true work of overthrowing the yokes of the high ups, educating and helping each other in their messy human lives.

All this ending, and JL conflict, who at this point has learnt much at his uncle JGY side, who has decided to (dunno about marrying QS and A-Song’s death. depending on your take and ending it’ll have different impact) go on with his labor bc he sees the good on it and swears to not be like the worst of JGY. A legacy he can reconcile with himself thanks too, to the experience of meeting WWX. JL is in a more fraught position with JC in this verse, I think, bc for one, he is more mature/not so spoiled and that would make JC glad, but his ideas are at the same time understable and anatema to JC who puts so much of his life on honoring the clan on making sure the Jiang carry on and his name isn’t forgotten but who recruited from nothing during the war. Who sees the danger in alienating the powers of the cultivation sects bc he saw what it did to WWX and he believes in protecting his own and to hell with the rest. 

So very interesting!!! 

You could spin so many takes from this, it’d be so fascinating and satisfying. I’d love to see the chara of JGY developed in this direction, bcs he has so much potential to waste it in so petty goals. His ambition is certainly big enough to believe he will damn well do a silent revolution well. 

Just, using the classics to argue for equality and education and a good life even if you’re a peasant, using the cultivation basis and its suppose use to better oneself and the world in making a point of avoiding wars and violent retribution (to the public, he’s still a bit of an hypocrit bcs it serves him well to have a stick with which to beat his enemies lmao) and instead use diplomacy and a sort of rehabilitation or service thing. Because those ideas are there, in the different clasics and schools of thought (not confucianism, not as much) it’s just that the nobles and high scholars were never interested and used them to argue for a sort of natural hierarchy were they’re in top. 

 Let JGY create a new school of thought, and LXC and others seeing the merit on it. JGY has the reach and the intelligence and the ability. 

The best revenge is living well and destroying the system which allowed the other to harm you, the ideas, the means. Create a fantasy fulfillment ^^

[katrandomwrites]

Wierdly Human

Alternate title was "Jon the Archivist is Kinda Hot"

Little in between snippets from the assistants and their impressions of Jonathan Sims.

I declare this a fluff and humor only zone! Episode 160 can kiss my butt.

You can also find this on AO3 under the same title.

I got the inspiration for this from a tumblr post about Jon being a clean boy despite crawling through hell and back but I think the writer deleted it because I spent forever looking for it and couldn't find it :n: Also 2 Drink Jon is a reference to 2 other fics I've read so his wild ass is not mine.

Supplemental Headcanons at the end.

--

Pre-Show

There was somebody new at the Institute. 

He was short and dark with black hair neatly trimmed and styled. A pair of browline glasses perched in front of wide brown eyes that seemed to absorb everything around him.

“Hey, uh, Tim,” Martin whispered as he leaned over to where his coworker was digging through a drawer, “Who’s that?”

“Hm?” Tim’s eyes widened as he looked up, “Oh shit, he’s cute.”

“Not helpful, Tim.”

“Um, I think he might be Daniel’s replacement. I think his name is Joe or something,” Tim swallowed, “I wonder what modeling agency Bouchard raided for him.”

Martin elbowed him in the ribs hard, his face going as red as his hair, “Shut up!”

“But look at him, Martin! He has to have a skincare routine an hour long and don’t tell me you didn’t notice that those trousers are bloody tailored. I see you looking at his arse!”

“SHUT UP!”

”What are you two fighting about now?”

Both researchers jumped away from each other as Sasha popped up behind them.

“Hot new guy,” Tim said, earning another jab and a hiss.

Sasha looked at Martin and grinned, “Short, scrawny, Persian, and angry?”

“He’s Persian?” Martin stuttered before slapping a hand over his mouth.

“Yeah, I got to talk to him during his follow up interview. Smart guy but kind of grumpy and super awkward. We got talking about foriegn food and he offered to give me his grandma’s recipe for chelow kababs,” Sasha said.

“What’s his name.” Tim asked, looking back at where the new guy was glaring at a row of filing cabinets with several drawers ajar.

“Jonathan Sims.”

--

Pre Episode 44

Basira watched as Sims limped away with the tape clutched to his chest like a lifeline before sighing and heading out to the car where Daisy was waiting.

“Well?” Daisy asked, “How’s our favorite murderer?”

Basira swatted her feet off the dash, “He looks like he hasn’t slept in 3 weeks and recently got hit by a car.”

“I wasn’t asking about his nasty, worm-eaten face, Basira,” Daisy said, “Does he know we’re watching him?”

“I don’t think so -put your seatbelt on- it seems like he’s more invested in what’s on those tapes for now. I get the feeling he’s more worried about watching the people he works with than us.”

“What a sad little librarian. I’m looking forward to how he managed to kill Robinsen without getting his ass whipped.”

“She was old.”

“Yeah, but Sims looks like he’d get knocked out by a light breeze even before he got munched on by some nasty fucking bugs. Did you see the surveillance from Robinsen’s initial investigation? I went back through to track Sims and watched him struggle move a box that was in front of a filing cabinet for a solid twenty minutes; the big ginger guy had to move it for him.”

“That’s-” Basira snorted, “That’s pathetic.”

Daisy grinned, “He has to be one manipulative bastard to get anything done.”

“Is that your theory?”

“I mean look at you.”

“What about me?”

“He gives you the puppy eyes once and now you’re smuggling him tapes from the evidence locker? I have never known the great Basira Hussain to ever cave to a suspect’s wishes in my life- and don’t say it’s to keep a closer eye on him. We have less illegal tactics for that.”

Basira opened her mouth to argue but found that Daisy had a point. She really only gave into suspects if the circumstances were dire. This was technically classed as a low priority case.

What was going on here? 

--

Post Episode 76

Melanie flopped dramatically onto Georgie's couch and let out a long winded sigh.

"Oh?" Georgie asked from the kitchen door.

Melanie sat up slightly to let her sit down before plopping her head down on Georgie's thigh, "I had to go talk to Sims at the Institute again."

"How's Jon?"

"A fucking bastard is what he is."

"Well I knew that," Georgie laughed, gently beginning to brush through Melanie's hair with her fingers.

"I don't know, he's was wierdly defensive and I think he was trying to gaslight me about one of his new assistants."

Georgie paused her brushing, "I haven't seen Jon in a while but that seems… out of character for him. He's a grump, sure, but I've never known him to be a bully -on purpose that is."

"Yeah, well…"

The pair lapsed into a tense silence.

"Would it make you feel better if I show you a picture of Jon in university that he is very embarrassed about," Georgie ventured after a few minutes, "He's still mad I have it.~"

Melanie twisted her head back and grinned, instantly breaking the tension and sitting up to look at the phone screen presented to her.

On it was a picture of Jon passed out, mouth wide open and drooling, on the ugliest couch she'd ever seen.

"He still owns that couch by the way," Georgie said. Melanie waved a hand in her face to silence her as she took in the details.

Jon was in a pink crop top that Melanie was sure she'd seen in Georgie's closet, union jack boxers, gladiator sandals, and The Admiral was planted square on his chest, though he was about half the size of the fluffball that roamed the flat now. Surrounding them where piles of papers and books on the paranormal.

Melanie began to cackle.

"Our friend group used to call him '2 Drink Jon' and this was after he'd done four shots in the kitchen and decided to lecture us on how ghosts are bullshit and he could beat one in a fist fight," Georgie elaborated, "I'm still not sure when he ended up in that outfit but honestly, if we had recorded his rant he probably could have used it for his Masters thesis."

Melanie wheezed into her shoulder as tears began to stream down her face.

"2 Drink Jon was actually a lot more charismatic than sober Jon. This one time he almost had us convinced that he could talk to plants after two gin and tonics, granted we were also drunk but-,"

"Stop, please," Melanie wheezed, "I'm dying."

"Gosh, one of these days I'll have to tell you about tequila and the alien conspiracy. Randall could almost recite the whole speech from memory."

Melanie fell off the couch.

--

Post Episode 109

Julia and Trevor exchanged a look as the Archivist powered through the spiciest Thai food they could find without even breaking a sweat. 

It was supposed to be a joke, spiking Jon's food, the cashier had even given them a panicked look at the restaurant and Trevor's eyes had been watering the whole way back to the safe house. They'd even waited by the door in case Jon tried to make a break for the case of water bottles in the car but he just unwrapped the plastic fork and dug in without even asking for a drink.

Julia picked at her own food but couldn't quite manage to eat it and glanced back at Jon, "Are you sure you don't need a water or anything?"

Jon looked up for a moment, his eyes were more alive than they had been all day and practically sparkled in the shitty fluorescent light. He shook his head and instead reached for another packet of chili sauce to add to his food.

"What the hell is he," Trevor whispered to Julia in horror.

"I don't know but he's definitely not normal."

--

During Episode 132

Daisy had misjudged Jon. She'd grossly misjudged him.

She flexed her fingers around his, ignoring the way the sand dug into her skin, and gently pulled him closer. The man she'd called prey gave her a soft smile and compiled, pressing against her side like she'd never held a knife to his throat, like she hadn't just admitted to planning his murder before she was trapped here.

Daisy turned her head awkwardly and dug her face into his shoulder savoring the human contact, her tears soaking into his shirt.

The Hunt in her blood tried to sing, tried to fight the Buried, "Safe, Mine, Pack, Protect", it echoed faintly.

Jon said something and began to move, pulling Daisy forward along with him.

"Safe, Mine, Pack, Protect"

Hours past as they shimmied through the coffin, the pain of being scraped and crushed was overpowered by the sheer ecstasy of moving more than an inch every few days.

"Safe, Mine, Pack, Protect"

There was a door, Jon tucked himself under her arm and pulled her up the stairs to the blinding lights of the institute. She ducked her head down to his shoulder again and grimaced as her joints popped and groaned.

"Jon, you stupid idiot! What did you think-"

Daisy looked up to the person she thought she’d never see again and smiled.

"Hi."

--

Post Episode 132

Martin had horrible timing really. He just needed to pee, was that really too much to ask?

Of course it was. The universe hated him.

So instead of slipping into the private bathroom upstairs which was magically broken, he had to go down a level and walk in on Jon shaking dirt out of his clothes.

Martin was going to die here but at least he'd die happy.

Jon didn't even seem to register that someone else had joined him (thank the Lonely) so Martin took a second to sneak a guilty look before darting back out and hiding for 40 years.

Jon was painfully thin. Martin got the idea that he could count every vertebrae and rib if he was allowed and even at a glance he could spot the sunken area where at least one rib was now missing.

Worm scars and burns were peppered up his back along with a few moles and freckles. Little red marks circled his chest in a way that Martin immediately recognized as being from the black fabric crumpled at Jon's feet.

And to top it all off, much to Martin's delight, were a set of three black gears tattooed down Jon's right shoulder blade. Sasha had mentioned once that she had gone out for drinks with Jon when he first started and they'd managed to get on the topic of tattoos. Tim had spent months trying to get Jon to show it to him before 'giving up'.

Martin stepped out and stood in the hall for a moment, red faced and giddy, before stumbling off in search of another bathroom.

--

Somewhere between Episode 132-154

"Hey, guys?" Melanie called.

Daisy and Basira glanced up to see Melanie holding a giant plate of the best smelling food they'd seen in weeks. Steam wafted up into her very confused face.

"Did either of you make this? I went to ask Martin and I can't find him."

"I didn't make it," Basira said, "Daisy?"

"I once made spaghetti and lit it on fire.

Basira grimaced and walked up to Melanie, "Kebabs, Tahdig rice, flat bread, and jam cookies. Those are Iranian dishes, or Middle Eastern at least.”

Daisy looked at Basira, "How do you know that?"

"Took a foreign cuisine course focused on middle eastern food a few years ago," Basira said as she made her way to the kitchen area with the group in tow.

Sitting on the table were three more huge plates of food and two empty plates sitting in the sink. Martin was standing next to the table with pure confusion on his face.

"Did you make this?"

Martin jumped and looked at the group, "Uh, no? I really only do pastas… this is a little outside my skill set. I think-"

"It could be a trap," Daisy interrupted, "Maybe it's laced with something?"

"No, I'm pretty sure-"

"Could be, but who would go to this effort, the Web?" Basira said.

"Guys, it was probably-"

"It was the Archivist!" Helen exclaimed from behind them, somehow having opened her door without making a sound and scaring the shit out of them, "He is an excellent cook."

"Bullshit," Melanie wheezed, setting her plate down before she dropped it.

"No, she right," Martin sighed, "Jon actually cooked something similar a few years ago for a company thing. He gave this whole speech about how grandparents immigrated here from Iran, well Persia at the time, and his grandma made him learn to cook what she called 'real food'."

"You mean to tell me that Jonathan Sims, the skinniest guy I have ever met, can cook like this," Basira said in disbelief before cautiously sitting down at the table with the rest following suit.

"He called it his grandmother's curse," Helen provided cheerfully, "He said that no matter what he does,  he always makes far more than he needs and never has people around to give it to. So he just never cooks."

"You talked to him?" Melanie asked. Daisy began to pick at a plate and made a sound of confusion and delight at the taste.

"Oh yes, he even let me help by getting things off high shelves!"

"This is amazing," Daisy said in disbelief before grabbing a fork and beginning to eat in earnest.

"It is! Jon and I had a lovely chat and I'm not much for 'real' food these days but he really convinced me!" Helen declared, spinning back around to re enter her door, "And I must say it was delightful."

"Huh," Basira shrugged and began to eat.

Not bad.

--

Post Episode 159

For the second time since he woke up, Martin pinched himself. He had to be dreaming, the smaller body smooshed up against his chest and the boney limbs clinging to him had to be a figment of his imagination.

Jon huffed in his sleep and burrowed deeper into Martin before settling again. A few stray rays of the morning sun slipped through the blinds highlighting Jon’s gray hairs and the raised edges of scars that trailed along his skin.

Gently, Martin carded his hand through the wild mess of hair, marveling at how soft it was despite everything. Jon sighed, leaning into the touch without stirring.

He could stay like this forever, with Jon safe in his arms and the dangers of the world outside, away from his happiness.

"Wha' time?" Jon mumbled, stretching before re-draping himself over Martin. He looked up and the light caught his eyes in a way that Martin could see all the blue heterochromatic spots in Jon's left eye through dark, heavy lashes. 

"Doesn't matter," Martin whispered as he pulled him closer, "We have all the time in the world."

--

Supplemental Headcanons: - Jon is a 3rd gen Persian/Iranian immigrant. His grandparents on his dad's side moved to England post WWII. (Persia became Iran in 1979) They took the last name Sims during immigration. - His mother was full blooded English. - He can out cook 87% of the local grandma's when he really gets into it - He built an unnaturally high tolerance to salt and spice as a kid to keep people from taking his lunch or trying to mess with his food and now thoroughly enjoys spicy foods. - Jon does care a lot but his grandma never taught him to show it in any other way but tolerance and mute acceptance. It's hard to know where you stand with Jon because of this. - Was a runner while in school. - Was forced to take violin lessons as a kid and Georgie taught him some piano in University. - Jon is and always has been feral little man though he is more bark than bite (unless he's under the influence of something). He learned it from his grandma. - He's one of those drunks that often wanders/ runs away from his drinking group. He has strong drunk college girl tendencies. - He changed his middle name to Ulysses when he got his first name legally changed because he’s a nerd. - Jon has had the same pen pal since he was 10. They are one of the few points of normalcy he has left. - Jon and Daisy are trans mlm and wlw solidarity. Fight me.

Fun Fact: Sims means "the Listener" which seems almost too on the nose.

[popculturebuffet]

Ducktales Reviews: The Trickening!

Halloween Havoc continues! Louie’s greed and lack of concern for his brother’s feelings or well thought out schedule leads them to a real life haunted house with vampire clowns, dummies, a scary well lady and a gelatinous cube. Because there’s’es always room for gelatinous cube. Meanwhile Della wants to use Launchpad’s dangerous misconceptions about halloween to traumatize children for funzies and Donald had a problem with that for some reason. Also Scrooge is kind of an asshole on Halloween it turns out. No one is suprised. Ghosts, goblins, and full review with spoilers under the cut. 

Happy halloween month everybody! Halloween Havoc, aka my spate of halloween reviews continues as I roll into my first actual halloween episode review of the season! Yeah weird but so far we’ve covered demons getting exorcisims, little girls thinking they can raise the dead, and a horrifying plauge guided by the human incarnation of all that is evil, but not the actual holliday itself. Weird ain’t it? Well that changes with this so as always pitter patter. 

It’s HALLOWEEN here in duckberg, and the mansion kids are planning Trick or Treating. Natural given Huey’s OCD, he has everything planned out a and naturally the kids all have unique and adorable costumes. Huey is gizmoduck, though with a GK instead of  GD, a nice nod to “New Gizmokids on the BLock’ From the original series, an episode I haven’t seen but have heard of so theres that. It’s also because he likely wants to be Fenton’s kid sidekick which.. yeah please do that show. It’d be so fucking adorable. Plus Huey needs to be happy for once without having to go through a gauntlet of misery first. Let my boy be happy. +

Anyways Dewey’s is rather disapointing as it’s a “pirate on vacation” which while hilarious and very dewey, is kind of an anti-climax after months of speculation. Webby is some kind of ancient demon king as apparently in the duckverse the origins of halloween are based on appeasing various monsters, and this is so she can hide from them effectively. And Louie.. is Huey. Which means putting on Huey’s hat and a terribly insulting impression of him. 

Meanwhile Donald and Della are an angel and a devil, with, which I didn’t realize until a tumblr post, Della’s costume being the one one of the boys wore in the classic disney trick or treat short. So that’s a nice nod. Donald wants to nicely give out candy while Della wants to terrify the children. Both end up disapointed as Scrooge instead boots everyone from the house and locks the mansion gates, as he doesn’t like giving out handouts which.. yeah that tracks. 

As it turns out Scrooge also has his own plans.. which are gloriously ludicrous, sounding like something Glomgold would do: He’s going to go trick or treating himself, as when he was a boy, this was the one time of year a poor lad like him could get treats and he worked his tail off to do so and wants to prove he’s still got it. And as we see later SOMEHOW he still gets candy. It’s like if THIS was actually sucessful. 

I would genuinely not be suprised if Scrooge too hadn’t tried to get an oil well from an elementary school this way. As for leaving candy out he leaves out an empty take one bowl which is as clever as it is douchey. So in other words Scrooge in a nutshell. So with handing out treats and scares at the house a non-option, Della and Donald go to see what Launchpad’s doing since Beakly.. is.. I have no fucking idea. NO I really don’t, she shows up for the ending, but before that? If they mentioned where she was I clearly missed it because she’s just.. missing for most of the episode and given every other member of the main cast is accounted for this episode, it’s VERY noticable. Give her more to do dangit!

So yeah we get our two plots, which i’ll cover seperately, then cover the ending where they dovetail together. Kay? Kay. 

The Kid’s Plot centers around Huey and Louie.. specifically Louie wanting to go to a real life haunted house while Huey, as mentinoed has heavily established plans for their night. As for why Louie would go into danger, well as usual for when he does that theirs something in it for him: Rumor has it no kid has ever made it out with their candy.. thus leaving decades worth of candy just waiting to be nabbed and thus never having to trick or treat again. One big score for a payoff.. which didn’t make a lot of sense on first thought and my best guest is whatever preservative Gyro used for Oxy Chew, since it was still edible decades later, was probably spread to other candies since there’s no way in hell Scrooge would pass up a zillion dollar invention like that. Either way works.  Huey is outvoted as Dewey naturally wants the excitment and Webby wants to see if her demon costume works on actual demons. However things quicklky go wrong as they ecoounter a dewey dummy and a killer dummy, as well as a monster clown and a gelatonous cube, which yes. I may not play DnD but I love these things. 

The kids escape the house by accident while tryign to escape and Louie, still being a dick about things, finds out Huey DID know abotu the stash btu avoided it and Louie lays into Huey.. a bit much honestly, feeling he was agaisnt it purely because it wasn’t on schedule.. when you know, Louie could’ve asked to put it on schedule or actually given a damn about this, especially since Huey’s planned their trick or treats EVERY YEAR, so he’s had a full year to ask for this insane idea, or even the short time he’s known about it if shorter. Sure huey might of sputtered a bit, but Louie knows his other siblings, Webby and Dewey could convince him to loosen up and include the house. Louie’s just being kind fo a selfish dick here.. however i’ts not so overwhelming as to overpower the episode, as he has been before and while he should know better about risking his family’s lives after “Timephoon!” it is in character for him to protiize a big score like this over other people’s feelings and it’s not even the first time this season he’s done that. So fair enough. 

But we soon get the second best reveal of the episode: As the kids are backed into a corner by monsters.. they grumble theres no candy and it turns out the monsters.. ARE REAL.. but their traditional monsters like frankenstein, dracula, and the bride of frankenstein, just dressed up like this to scare kids. As it turns out the WHOLE THING is an elaborate yearly scooby doo hoax to get kids candy, with the brilliant twist it’s done by actual monsters> As the vampire points out they can’t exactly shop during the day.. or he can’t at least, so this is how they get candy for the year.. at tribute if you will. Also the Gelationous Cube gets a nice hat as you see above. It’s a REALLY clever twist and I absolutely love it. I DID NOT see it coming and even with some spoiler screenshots I thankfully did not have it spoiled for me. REALLY good stuff. 

As for why Huey’s been so obessed with his planning.. it’s actually really clever and really good character stuff: Huey simply got really into it because back when they were with donald this WAS their adventure for the year: the one time he let them cut loose and have fun, and he got a real kick out of it.. and Louie getting candy for life kind of destroys that. And that’s why Louie still works here.. because he instnatly realizes from this that was the problem and apologizes in his own way. It’s a nice bit of character from both: We’ve rarely had their pre-mansion lives factor in and it’s nice to see it for a change, and it’s nice to see Louie isn’t all dick, just like 20% dick. Unforutnately having no candy dosen’t appease the monsters who are pissed and descend on the kids.. until.. well for the until we have to back up a bit.  So onto the adult plot we go! Della and Donald go to Launchpad whose dressed in a jason mask and ash williams/jason coveralls, weilding a power sander and having barricaded his place. After he scares some children, a bit too much, and Della and Donald are reallyd amn confused, he explains.. and we get the best reveal of the episode.. which given the above is saying something but it’s clear like the “blath” gag in “Astro BOYD” and the non-anthro ducks gag last week, this is one of those things Frank has been keeping under his hat all series.  So as a boy Launchpad crashed his tryke into the mansion, ran into the monsters after reading off a candy wrapper.. and now assumes he unleashed a horde of monsters onto the world every halloween.. and tha’ts what he assumes the trick or treaters are. I just .. dont’ have a lto of words. This is pure comedy gold and easily the best gag of the episode and oen fo the best of the series. It’s clever, fresh, and really fits the character. Naturally Della wants to exploit this to terrify children ebcause she has underlying issues to adress while Donald tries to stop her. Thankfully before Della can get launchpad to scar children for life, Scrooge shows up and fights launchpad.. it’s part of why I also find scrooge’s dickery acceptable as launchpad beats the shit out of him.. it’s still an even fight, as not to suspend disbelief, but Scrooge still looses. I mean he gets out of being trapped in his candy bag easily because scrooge btu still, props to launchpad. So Launchpad decides to go face his fears and Donald and Della decide to stop him before he doesd a muder on a child.  Which leads to an AMAZING climax as Launchpad scooby doo chases the scared monsters around as they have no idea what the fuck’s going on and hte monsters end up really enjoying his scar eof htem and bowing to the master. It’s a good way to end it. After Della explains what’s going on, Louie and Huey decide to explain halloween to Launchpad by taking him to the once house he hasn’t been: the Manor. Scrogoe has finally opened it up, with a line of kids no less, the monsters bond with some kids in line. As for why.. as Webby sadly figures out Scrooge is charging admission, thakns to dewey who thought an all night candy store was a good idea which.. yeah it is. So everyone gets a happye ending and the monsters hang a photo of hte night up in the mansion. A really sweet ending, pun uintended but eh it’s welcome. 

Final Thoughts.  Easily one fo the series best. While the characters are a bit exagerated in places, i.e. della, launchpad , scrooge and louie, it works for the plot well enough and the jokes well enough to make it okay. My only real complaint is a lack of even a cameo from Lena and Violet, as it feels weird to not even have htem in the ending, much less trick or treating with their friends. It just feels odd and could’ve used a throaway line. I get WHY not , as Lena even pre-blue would’ve destoryed the tension with the monsters, but it still feeels really weird to not have them. But it’s a minor quibble in an otherwise REALLY funny and creative episode and a fun halloween treat to revist every year from now on. Really good work.  That does it for this week. For more halloween treats, follow this blog throughout october. So far i’ve done reviews of Demonicsim from Star Vs The Forces of Evil for Tomtober, Croaked, the Casagrandes day of the dead Special and the first of Marvel’s mini-series adapting Stephen’ King’s epic novel The Stand. And until next monday, or sooner if you decide to check any of that out, happy halloween!

[spn-safeandsound]

01. The Beginning

Safe and Sound

Dean Winchester x Original Character

Episode: 1x01; Pilot

Word Count: 10,001

Warning(s): Mature language, canon violence and gore, dirty thoughts

Author’s Note: Here is the first chapter of my Supernatural rewrite! I hope you like Julia! Just know that more of her personality is shown the further we go along. Let me know what you think. Don’t forget to reblog and like!

Masterlist in Profile Description!

Throwing the damp motel towel on the dresser, Dean wandered over to the bed he didn't plan on using to zip open his duffel of clothes. He quickly pulled on one of the last clean pairs of jeans he had and a black t-shirt that he sniffed to make sure didn't stink. He had only managed to slip the necklace Sam gave him years ago over his head when there was a knock at the door.

Dean paused, narrowing his eyes over at the door covered in chipped red paint. He had just paid for the room and didn't plan on staying more than a couple of hours. He didn't think that gave anyone much time to know that he was in town. Besides, the only two people he knew in Palo Alto didn't even know he was there.

He grabbed his gun and held it cautiously behind his back, peeking through the peephole. He didn't see much, just the top of a girl's head. And then the girl stepped onto her tip toes and waved at him, knowing that he was watching her.

"Trick or treat!"

Dean pressed his lips together and set his gun back down on the table. He opened the door and set his unimpressed expression on the younger woman, who smiled sweetly at him.

"What are you doing here, Julia?"

Julia Petersen didn't drop her smile as she slipped past him into the motel room. Dean rolled his eyes, already exasperated with her, and shut the door. He looked her up and down as she paced around the room, studying the furniture with a curious gaze.

She was dressed in a black t-shirt with a ridiculous cartoon ghost on it and khaki shorts that made her legs seem longer than they actually looked. When she turned toward the bathroom, he got a look at her ass and almost groaned before controlling himself.

This is Julia, he reminded himself, cute little Julia who is six fucking years younger than you.

"Julia."

"Right," Julia shook her head to focus and turned back to Dean. "I was looking for some candy but I guess someone's not in the mood for Halloween."

"Halloween's stupid."

"Yeah, I know," Julia rolled her eyes and wandered over to his duffle bag. "All you Winchesters are the same."

"Woah, hey," Dean rushed toward her and pulled her hands away from his clothes. "Keep your hands to yourself, Junior."

"Sorry, I forgot about the weird boundaries you have," Julia gave him an innocent smile and sat on the bed.

"They're not weird. Everyone has them."

"Not me."

"That's cause you're crazy," Dean playfully snapped at her

"That's true," she conceded. "Uh, what was your question again?"

Dean sighed impatiently. It had been almost a year since he had seen Julia and he was already getting annoyed with her. He wouldn't say that she was annoying all the time but she was a kid. A kid who never stopped talking, was always distracted, and the human embodiment of sunshine.

"What are you doing here," he repeated. "and how the hell did you find me?"

"Oh, I tracked your phone," Julia informed him. "and I'm here because Dad left me a message to find you."

"Luke told you to find me?" Dean asked thoughtfully.

If Luke had asked his youngest daughter to find Dean, he probably knew about his dad being missing. Why else would he want Julia to find him? She was already with Sam so it wasn't like she needed protection.

"Yup."

"Well, what'd he say?"

"He said that John was missing and that you needed my help to find him," Julia informed him, scratching her cheek nervously. He caught her tell, having experience from over the years.

"You're lying," he pointed out; she pouted. "Seriously, Julia. Come on."

"I'm not lying about that," Julia stated honestly. "but...I did kind of have a bad feeling."

"What kind of bad feeling? Like you ate something bad for lunch or you forgot to do your taxes?" Dean raised his eyebrows.

Julia's smile slipped from her face. "The kind of feeling where I knew I needed to find you. My dad's message just confirmed it."

Dean appraised her, pressing his lips together. When she was growing up, Julia had bad feelings all the time. There was one time that she knew that her older sister, Beth, had broken her arm and when he used to indulge Sam and Julia and play hide and seek with them, she would find him every time without fail. It was common knowledge that she had some kind of sixth sense but no one really talked about it.

"Okay," he accepted her answer. "Is that it?"

"That's it," Julia nodded, a smile back on her face. "What time were you going to talk to Sam? I wouldn't wait long because we're going out tonight. Well, maybe it would be best if you waited to talk to him until after he was drunk. He might be more likely to hear you out. It's gonna be hard to convince him to go with us but—"

"Hold your horses, Junior," Dean cut her off. "I already had a plan."

"And that is?"

"Private."

Julia fixed him with an unimpressed stare. "If you break into my apartment I'm gonna kill you."

"I won't break into your apartment," Dean rolled his eyes. "I'm not a heathen."

Julia hummed, giving him a doubtful look.

"Okay, anything else you needed?" Dean sighed.

"Nope," Julia jumped up from the bed walked toward the door. "I'll be packed and ready by the time you come to get us."

"Sure thing," Dean nodded sarcastically. "Now leave."

"Oh, one more thing—"

"Nope. Bye," Dean gently pushed her out of the room and shut the door before she could finish what she was going to say.

"Dean!"

-

-

Julia heard the crash out in the living room and sighed, shaking her head as she finished shoving a pair of boots into one of her duffle bags. She had warned Dean not to break into the apartment and he had said he wouldn't but he lied to her face. She had to start getting better at detecting lies, especially if she was gonna be trained to be a hunter.

She was actually excited to go on the road with Dean. She had wanted to be a hunter for a long time. It had been years and her father still hadn't trained her like he trained her older sister, Abby. He had told her to get an education, which she did, and then they'd see. Well, it was now that time and she was itching to learn everything.

Her family had always been in the business of hunting supernatural creatures. Her father's side, the Alexanders, was a well-known family in the world of the supernatural as they had a special talent for getting rid of demons. Her mother's side of the family—the Petersens—were famous, too, though not for the same reason.

Her mother's family owned Petersen Sports Co., a sports store that catered to regular citizens who needed soccer balls and football pads but also to hunters who needed salt rounds, holy water, and all the guns and knives they could buy. The secret hunter part of the store also provided ways to get ahold of other hunters and provided lawyers in case something went south during a hunt. It was a family business, with her older brother Levi as head of sales, Beth and her husband—Taylor—as lawyers for the company, and her Aunt Maggie as CEO.

Either way, she was a bit of a legacy. And, since Abby was the only child out of the four who had gone into the hunting business so far, Julia had to step up.

Julia finished packing by setting her backpack on top of her other bags and left the room. As soon as she entered the hallway, she ran into Jess, Sam's girlfriend and one of her closest friends.

"Jules, I think Sam's fighting off a robber," Jess said hurriedly, cheeks flushed. "Should we call the police?"

"No, no, it's fine," Julia hurried to assure her. "Sam and I were expecting someone."

"At one in the morning?"

"...Yes," Julia laughed awkwardly. "Come on, I'll show you."

Jess nodded and by the time they entered the living room, the fighting between Sam and Dean had stopped. Julia flipped on the lights in the living room, illuminating the Winchester brothers so she and Jess could see them clearly.

"Sam?" Jess called her boyfriend's name, looking wearily between him and his older brother.

"Jess, hey," Sam sighed and introduced her to Dean. "Dean, this is my girlfriend, Jessica."

"Wait," Jess paused, giving Julia a curious look; Julia nodded. "your brother, Dean?"

Dean grinned sleazily at her, his eyes flitting up and down Jess' model figure. She wasn't dressed the most modestly but it was nighttime and Julia's usual pajamas showed just as much skin.

"I love the Smurfs," Dean complimented her, gesturing to the low-cut top Jess was wearing. "You know, I gotta tell you, you are completely out of my brother's league."

Julia rolled her eyes while Jess gave him an unimpressed smile. "Just let me put something on."

"No, no, I wouldn't dream of it," Dean shook his head coyly. "Seriously."

"Dean, stop being a creep," Julia sighed, smirking at the annoyed look he sent her.

"Mind your own, Junior," he snarked at her and then addressed Jess again. "Anyway, I've gotta borrow my brother and this dwarf here—" Julia scoffed in offense. "—to talk about some private family business. Nice meeting you."

"No," Sam objected, walking over to Jess' other side, wrapping an arm around her. "No, whatever you want to say, you can say it in front of her."

Dean looked over to Julia and she shrugged, giving him the choice of whether or not he would divulge what was going on. He must have decided that he would just tell Sam anyway because he gave in.

"Okay," he nodded. "Um, Dad hasn't been home in a few days."

"So, he's working overtime on a Miller-Time shift," Sam shrugged, not worried about his estranged father. "He'll stumble back in sooner or later."

Dean pressed his lips together and looked at his feet for a brief second before looking back at Sam. "Dad's on a hunting trip," he elaborated. "and he hasn't been home in a few days."

Sam's face went blank like it usually did when Julia brought up their families and what they did for a living.

"Jess, excuse us."

-

"What did Dean mean by his dad being on a hunting trip?" Jess asked as Julia tied her hair up in a messy bun and packed her toiletries that she had almost forgotten. "Sam seemed pretty upset about it."

"Well, John Winchester had always been a fan of hunting," Julia sighed, scratching her cheek. "Big game, as far as I know. Usually he gets drunk and passes out for a few days before heading back home."

Jess made an indignant noise. "Charming."

"Yeah, no kidding," Julia agreed, giving her an amused smile. "That's John, all right."

"Poor Sam," Jess sighed as they moved back to Julia's room; Julia made a noise of agreement. "So, why do you have to go with them again?"

"My dad called earlier and asked me to," Julia informed her. "I found Dean earlier today and it seems like he's really concerned."

"Well, how long are you gonna be gone?" Jess' eyes scoured over Julia's two duffle bags and backpack. "You're packed for a long time."

"I'll be back by Christmas," she assured the blonde. "and Sam will be home in time to make his interview. I'll make sure of it."

Jessica sighed heavily but nodded, knowing that Sam would probably give in and go with his brother and Julia for the weekend.

"Just be safe, okay?" she requested. "For me?"

"Course I will," Julia gave her a quick hug and grabbed one of her duffle bags, along with her backpack. "I'll send Sam up, okay?"

"Okay," Jess nodded. "Bye, Jules."

"See you later, Jess."

Julia left the apartment and made her way down the stairs, through the gate, and to the parking lot where she assumed Dean parked. She spotted the two giants across the lot and quickly approached them just as Dean was convincing Sam to listen about the case John was hunting.

Dean nodded at her in greeting and grabbed her bag, dropping it onto the concrete before unlocking his trunk. He pulled up the flap that hid the weapons underneath and began rummaging through the various guns, spell ingredients, knives, and other things necessary for hunting.

"Where the fuck did I put that thing?" Dean mumbled, looking for something.

Julia and Sam exchanged a pointed look, knowing that Dean was a slob for the most part, and waited patiently for Dean to grab whatever he was looking for.

"So, when your dad left, why didn't you go with him?" Julia asked him curiously.

"I was working my own gig," Dean answered. "Some voodoo thing down in New Orleans."

Sam raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Dad let you go on a hunting trip by yourself?"

Dean gave him a pointed look. "I'm twenty-six, dude," he located a manila folder and pulled it out of the trunk, grabbing some papers that he had printed off. "All right, here we go. So, Dad was checking out this two-lane blacktop just outside of Jericho, California."

"About a month ago, this guy went missing," he continued, handing some of the articles to Sam and the rest to Julia. "They found his car but he vanished, completely M.I.A.."

Sam scanned the article on top of his pile. "So maybe he was kidnapped."

"This article is from April," Julia spoke up, showing Sam the articles she had been going through. "And this one is from December of '04."

"There's one for '03, '98, '92," Dean added. "ten of them over the past twenty years. All men, all same five mile stretch of road. It started happening more and more, so Dad went to go dig around. That was about three weeks ago. I hadn't heard from him since, which is bad enough, but," he pulled a recording device out of the trunk. "then I get this voicemail yesterday."

He pressed play and John Winchester's voice came out of the small speaker. "Dean...something big is starting to happen.  I think it's serious. I need to try and figure out what's going on. It may...Be very careful, Dean. We're all in danger."

"You know there's EVP on that?" Sam looked to Dean.

Dean smiled, pleased. "Not bad, Sammy. Kinda like riding a bike, isn't it?"

Sam shook his head while Julia chuckled.

"All right, I slowed the message down, ran it through a gold wave, took out the hiss, and this is what I got..." he pressed play again.

It was a woman's voice this time. "I can never go home."

Julia shivered at the creepy voice while Dean looked at Sam expectantly.

"Never go home," Sam repeated thoughtfully.

Dean nodded and set the recording device back into the trunk, along with the articles he had collected. He threw Julia's bag in, shut the trunk, and leaned on it, giving Sam his version of a guilt trip and puppy-dog eyes.

"You know, in almost two years, I've never bothered you or asked you for a thing."

Sam sighed, quickly giving in. "All right, I'll go. I'll help you find him."

Dean smiled happily.

"But I have to get back first thing Monday," Sam informed him, turning away to walk back to his apartment. "Just wait here."

"What's first thing Monday?" Dean called after him

"I have an interview," Sam told him.

"What, a job interview?" Dean shrugged. "Skip it."

"It's a law school interview," Sam said proudly. "and it's my whole future on a plate."

"Law school?" Julia saw that Dean looked a little impressed.

Sam nodded. "So, we got a deal or not?"

Dean didn't say anything but Sam got the gist that he agreed with him. Julia told him to bring down her last bag as he ran off to the apartment stairs, getting a wave of confirmation in return.

"How many damn bags do you need, anyway?" Dean asked Julia as she turned toward him with a happy smile.

"Three," she told him simply. "Clothes, shoes, toiletries, books, schoolwork, computer."

"Jesus Christ," Dean sighed as he stood from his position against the Impala's trunk and started walking to the driver's seat. "You're in the back, shortcake."

Julia grumbled, already annoyed with the short jokes, and slipped into the backseat. She pulled her pillow into her chest and snuggled into it, getting ready for the long drive to Jericho.

-

The breeze was cool and welcoming as they stopped at a gas station, just outside of Jericho, California. It was still early in the morning, around seven, but all three of them were already up. Dean was inside, getting some things to eat and drink while Sam went through Dean's cassette collection and Julia read through her emails.

"Did you see these, J?" Sam asked her, sorting through the cardboard box the cassettes were kept in. "He's got cassettes. I don't think he's heard of a CD before."

"Uh, Dean doesn't like change, remember?" Julia shrugged. "It's not really surprising he has every old white man's collection of music."

Sam laughed and continued his search. Eventually, Dean came out of the gas station, carrying a plastic bag of goodies he had scored.

"Want breakfast?" he asked them as he started pumping gas.

"No, thanks," Sam mumbled.

"Oh, did you get the—?"

"Cherry cheese Danish and apple juice," Dean cut Julia off, slipping them through her open window.

"Thanks!" Julia immediately tore open the Danish, taking a large bite out of it.

"So, how'd you pay for that stuff?" Sam asked cautiously. "You and Dad still running credit card scams."

"Yeah, well, hunting ain't exactly a pro-ball career," Dean excused himself, finishing with the gas. "Besides, all we do is apply. It's not our fault they send us the cards."

"Yeah and what names did you write on the application this time?"

"Uh," Dean slipped into his seat. "Burt Aframian and his son, Hector. Scored two cards out of the deal."

Sam scoffed. "Sounds about right," he shook his head. "I swear, man, you've gotta update your cassette tape collection."

"Why?"

"Because they're cassette tapes," Julia spoke up, finished her breakfast with a sip of apple juice. "And then there's the music itself."

"Black Sabbath, Motorhead, Metallica," Sam listed the tapes he had been through. "It's the greatest hits of mullet rock."

"Ooh, good one," Julia giggled.

Dean gave them annoyed looks, not liking the fact that they were gaining up on him, and grabbed the Metallica tape from the box. "Well, house rules, Sammy," he put the tape in the stereo. "Driver picks the music, shotgun—and backseat—shut their cakeholes."

Julia rolled her eyes while Sam gave Dean an exasperated look.

"You know, Sammy is a chubby twelve-year-old," he reminded Dean as the tape started, not fond of his childhood nickname. "It's Sam, okay?"

"Sorry, I can't hear you!" Dean said loudly, a cheeky smile on his face. "The music's too loud!"

Julia laughed and leaned forward so her chin rested on the seat between the brothers. "Don't worry, Sam, you weren't chubby when you were twelve."

Sam gave her a flat look. "Thanks, J."

Julia winked at him and leaned back in her seat. While Dean drove closer to Jericho, Sam took the time to call the hospital and the morgue in town to see if there was anyone matching John's description. It was only when they were five miles out of town that he got off the phone.

"All right," he sighed. "so, there's no one matching Dad at the hospital or the morgue. So, that's something, I guess."

Dean raised his eyebrows and nodded. Julia shut her Bible, as she had started to reread Romans for her New Testament class, when they came upon the bridge that went into Jericho. There was what looked to be an abandoned car, a cop car ahead with its lights on, and a couple of police officers milling about.

"Check it out," Dean pointed the scene out to Sam and Julia.

He pulled to a stop at the side of the road and leaned over to the passenger side of the car, opening the glovebox and pulling out a box. The box contained numerous fake FBI badges with Dean and John's names on them; Dean picked a federal marshal badge out of the box and smirked at Sam and Julia.

"Let's go."

Julia didn't think that plaid and jeans—and in her case, a t-shirt and shorts—were the best clothing they could be wearing while they pretended that they were agents of the law. She didn't even have a badge, nor did Sam, and they were all kind of young to be federal marshals. Nevertheless, she got out of the car and followed Sam and Dean over to the police officers on the bridge.

"All right, first lesson," Dean quickly looked back at Julia. "Stay quiet and observe."

Julia fought the urge to roll her eyes and smiled brightly at him, acting like she was zipping her lips. Dean sighed heavily and continued on, giving Sam a pointed look that Julia caught but didn't react to.

As they got closer to the bridge, they saw that the officers had search and rescue down in the river, looking for the missing man.

"No sign of struggle, no footprints, no fingerprints," one of the officers told his partner. "Spotless. It's almost too clean."

The other officer nodded. "So, this kid, Troy, he's dating your daughter, isn't he?"

"Yeah."

"How's Amy doing?"

"She's putting up missing posters downtown," the first officer informed him, shaking his head.

"You fellas had another one like this just last month, didn't you?" Dean announced their presence, raising his voice so the officers could hear him.

The second officer looked toward them, straightening up so he stood taller. "And who are you?"

Dean held up his badge and quickly closed it before the officer had a good look. "Federal marshals," he gestured between himself and Sam before pointing back at Julia. "Intern."

"You two are a little young for marshals, aren't you?" the officer asked suspiciously.

Ha! Julia thought. I knew it.

Dean chuckled. "Thanks, that's awfully kind of you," he walked over to the victim's car. "You did have another one just like this, correct?"

"Yeah, that's right," the officer confirmed. "about a mile up the road. There have been others before that."

"So, this victim, you knew him?" Sam asked him.

The officer nodded. "A town like this, everybody knows everybody."

Julia noticed Dean gesturing for her; she left Sam's side and walked around the car where he was standing. He pointed into the car, mumbling for her to take a look to see if she found anything.

She did as she was told, searching the front seats and dashboard of the car as best as she could while not touching anything. She didn't see anything particular; no blood, scratches in the leather, or dirt on the floorboards. Like the officer said, it was spotless.

"Any connection between the victims, besides that they're all men?" Dean spoke up.

"No, not as far as we can tell."

"So, what's the theory?" Sam wondered.

"Honestly, we don't know," the officer shrugged. "Serial murder, kidnapping ring..."

"Well, that is exactly the kind of crack police work I'd expect out of you guys," Dean commented with a scoff. Julia looked over at him in shock while he winced, Sam having stomped painfully on his foot.

"Thank you for your time," Sam told the police officer with a gracious nod.

Julia hurried to his side as the three of them started walking hurrying off the bridge. Once they were a few feet away from the Impala, Dean took the opportunity to slap the back of Sam's head.

"Ow!" Sam hissed. "What was that for?"

"Why'd you have to step on my foot?" Dean retorted.

"Why do you have to talk to the police like that?"

Dean narrowed his eyes at Sam and stepped forward, cutting him and Julia off so they couldn't walk any further. "Come on, they don't really know what's going on," he stated. "We're all alone on this. I mean, if we're going to find Dad, we've got to get to the bottom of this thing ourselves."

Julia's eyes swept past the brothers, wincing when she saw three older men walking toward them. She cleared her throat loudly, getting Dean and Sam's attention; Dean whipped around to face the men himself.

"Can I help you three?" the man who looked to be the sheriff asked them sternly.

"No, sir, we were just leaving," Julia shot them a dazzling smile. The sheriff almost melted in her presence while the FBI agents walked past Sam and Dean to go question the police themselves.

"Agent Mulder, Agent Scully," Dean nodded at the agents as he grabbed Julia's arm and pulled her past the sheriff; Sam followed them. "Nice work, shortcake."

"I have one of those smiles, I guess," Julia shrugged sheepishly as she slid into her seat.

Dean scoffed. "I guess you do."

-

-

Dean, Sam, and Julia walked through the town square, searching for the girl they overheard the police officers talk about. Amy was her name and she was the victim's girlfriend who was hanging missing posters up over town.

It wasn't hard to find the girl, especially in a town this small. The police officer had been telling the truth when he said that they knew everyone around here.

"I bet that's her," Dean pointed to a young brunette hanging up posters outside of a post office. They approached her carefully, trying not to scare her off. "You must be Amy."

Amy had to be only a couple years younger than Julia and around the same height. She was dressed in dark clothing and had dark make-up on like she was taking grieving to a whole other level.

"Yeah," the girl confirmed.

"Troy told us about you," Dean went with the easiest story he could come up with and introduced himself, Sam, and Julia. "We're his uncles—I'm Dean, this is Sammy—and our little sister, Julia."

Amy gave him a skeptical look and started walking away. "He never mentioned you."

Dean quickly followed her. "Yeah, that's Troy, I guess. We're not around much, we're up in Modesto."

"So, we're looking for him, too," Sam took over; Amy stopped walking to look up at him. "and we're kinda asking around."

"Hey," a girl Amy's age walked up to her. "are you okay?"

"Yeah," Amy assured her.

"Do you mind if we ask you a couple questions?" Sam asked her politely.

It wasn't hard to say yes to Sam's puppy-dog eyes so Amy agreed to answer some questions for them. They settled at a nearby diner and on the walk over, Dean quietly answered some of the questions Julia had for him. He informed her about what kind of questions to ask people—like whether they noticed any cold spots or anything strange that occurred around them.

He had to admit, despite her ADHD, Julia was a quick learner. She soaked the information in like a sponge and it impressed him a little bit.

"I was on the phone with Troy," Amy informed them once she and her friend were settled at a table with Dean, Sam, and Julia. "He was driving home. He said he could call me right back and..." she hesitated sadly. "He never did."

"He didn't say anything strange or out of the ordinary?" Sam took over the questioning, seeming to have a better response than Dean did.

"No," Amy shook her head. "Nothing that I can remember."

"I like your necklace," Julia suddenly spoke up, pointing to the pentagram around Amy's neck.

Amy sadly smiled down at the charm. "Troy gave it to me," she sniffled and laughed a little. "Mostly to scare my parents with all that devil stuff."

Julia grinned at her. "Actually, it means the opposite," she corrected her, recalling some of the information she had learned in one of her classes. "A pentagram is protection against evil. It's really powerful if you believe in that kind of thing."

Dean pursed his lips at her, unimpressed with her change of discussion. "Okay, thanks, Unsolved Mysteries," he snapped at her, earning a frown in return, before addressing the girls, "Here's the deal, ladies, the way Troy disappeared, something's not right. So, if you heard anything..."

Amy and her friend exchanged hesitant looks that Dean caught.

"What is it?"

"Well, it's just—" Amy's friend, Rachel, started. "I mean, with all these guys going missing, people talk."

"What do they talk about?" Sam and Dean asked at the same time.

"It's kind of this local legend," Rachel sighed. "This one girl, she got murdered out on Centennial, like, decades ago. Well, supposedly, she's still out there. She hitchhikes and whoever picks her up—well, they disappear forever."

Dean and Sam exchanged knowing looks. Not all myths were based on fact, but most of them were. If there was a local legend around town, there had to be some truth to it—even if some of the details were blurred.

-

-

It was nighttime by the time Julia, Dean, and Sam headed back to the bridge on Centennial Highway. After getting some information at the library about the so-called hitchhiker the girl was talking about at the diner, they headed there to take a look around. The bridge was much spookier at night, especially once they found out about this mysterious hitchhiker.

The article they had found was about Constance Welch, who committed suicide at the bridge in the eighties. She took a dive into the river and drowned only an hour or so after both of her kids died in the bathtub. Her husband had said that she just couldn't handle her grief.

After Dean parked the impala on one side of the bridge, the three of them walked the length of it. Julia bit her lip nervously as she looked around, hoping that this spirit wouldn't just appear out of nowhere. Then again, she wanted the training, so some of her nerves were from anticipation.

"So," Dean walked over to the ledge of the bridge, looking down at the black river below. "this is where Constance took the swan dive."

Sam nodded and leaned against the railing beside him. "So, you think Dad would have been here?"

"Well, he's chasing the same story and we're chasing him."

Julia wasn't assured by Dean's statement. "What now?"

"Now we keep digging until we find him," Dean informed her, his eyes darting toward Sam. "It might take a while."

"Dean, I told you, I've gotta get back by—" Sam started to remind him but Dean cut him off with a nod.

"Monday," he recalled somewhat sourly. "Right, the interview."

"Yeah."

"Yeah, I forgot," Dean lied. "You're really serious about this, aren't you? You think you're just gonna become some lawyer and marry your girl?"

"Maybe," Sam shrugged. "Why not?"

"Does Jessica know the truth about you?" Dean started to goad him, irritated and a little jealous that Sam could leave hunting so easily. "I mean, does she know about the things you've done?"

"No, and she's not ever going to know."

"Well, that's healthy," Dean's tone was dripping with sarcasm. "You can pretend all you want, Sammy, but sooner or later you're going to have to face up to who you really are."

Dean turned and started walking away, knowing that he pushed his little brother's buttons. He was right; Sam started following him at an angry pace while Julia hovered nervously at the same spot by the railing. The conversation was none of her business and even though she was definitely going to eavesdrop, that didn't mean she was going to interrupt.

"And who's that?" Sam stomped after Dean.

"You're one of us."

"No," Sam's voice was sharp as he caught up with his brother, staring down at him with a glare. "I'm not like you. This is not going to be my life."

Dean paused to confront him. "You have a responsibility to—"

"To Dad and his crusade?" Sam scoffed. "If it weren't for pictures, I wouldn't even know what Mom looks like and what difference would it make? Even if we do find the thing that killed her, Mom's gone and she isn't coming back."

Dean lunged at Sam, grabbing him by the collar and pushing him against the railing on the other side of the bridge. Julia gasped softly and started to rush over, practically feeling the rage in Dean's veins.

"Dean!"

There was a long pause as Julia gently touched his elbow. Dean calmed down a little bit and quietly warned Sam, "Don't talk about her like that."

He roughly let go of Sam's collar and brushed off Julia's hand, turning to walk back to the Impala. He stopped in his tracks, seeing a woman dressed in a white dress standing on top of the railing of the bridge, her skirt blowing in the wind.

"Sam, Jules..."

Julia gawked at the woman as she looked over, made direct eye contact with both of the Winchesters, and jumped down into the river. Dean, Sam, and Julia took off running to where the woman jumped, hearing no splash and seeing no one down in the river.

"Where is she?" Julia asked loudly, her nerves wracked.

"I don't know," Sam shook his head, his eyes still searching the water below them.

The sound of an engine roaring caught their attention. Julia looked over, her eyes widening in horror when she saw that the Impala had started up with no help. She looked over at Dean in confusion, sincerely hoping that it was just a carjacker and not the spirit messing with them.

"What the fuck?"

'Who's driving your car?" Sam asked Dean.

Dean simply reached into his jeans and pulled out his car keys.

"Oh, no," Julia whimpered.

Whoever—or whatever—was in the Impala pressed on the gas. The car sped forward, going way too quickly, and started driving toward them. Sam grabbed Julia's arm and urged her to run as he and Dean took off running.

Julia ran sometimes when she had the time but that was nothing like running for your life. She had adrenaline pumping through her veins as she sped up to keep up with the brothers, almost overtaking Dean. The car was too fast, however, and they had to jump.

Dean vaulted over the railing and dove into the river. As Sam jumped, too, Julia ran behind him and, before she could even process what she was doing, grabbed his arm to keep him from falling.

Sam looked up at her in surprise as she grunted, half of her body practically hanging off the railing so she could keep him from dropping into the water below.

"Oh, my God, you're so heavy!"

Sam scrambled to reach up, grabbing the bottom of the railing so some of his weight was relieved from her. He easily climbed up with Julia's help; once he was back on his feet and Julia was wincing at the strain in her muscles, they looked into the river to see if Dean was okay.

"Dean?"

"Dean, are you alive?"

"Dean!"

"Are you okay?"

"Dean?" Sam and Julia chorused together.

They heard an annoyed groan before, "What?"

"Hey, are you all right?" Sam called down to him, relieved that his brother hadn't drowned in the nasty-looking river.

Dean crawled onto the muddy bank and made an 'okay' gesture. "I'm fucking super."

Julia broke into a relieved snicker and Sam chuckled, growing amused and joining in

They didn't stay at the bridge long after Dean pulled himself off the bank and walked back up to the highway. He didn't waste time waving the other two into the car so they could drive back to town and get a motel room for the night.

Once at the closest motel, Dean took a few minutes to check out the Impala for any damage.

"Everything okay with Baby?" Julia asked him tentatively, wrinkling at the horrible smell wafting off his muddy hair and clothes.

"Yeah, whatever she did to it seems fine now," Dean sighed and shut the hood. "That Constance chick, what a bitch!"

Sam smiled at him, amused. "Well, I guess she doesn't want us digging around," he commented; Dean scoffed in agreement. "So, where's the job gonna take us now?"

Dean huffed and threw his arms into the air, frustrated. At the same time, Julia gagged, the smell coming from the mud covering Dean making her feel nauseous.

The brothers looked at her expectantly and she shrugged, covering her nose. "You should take a shower," she advised Dean. "You really stink."

Dean glared at her. "Thanks for that, Junior."

Julia gave him a sweet smile as he rolled his eyes and Sam chuckled. Dean pulled out his wallet and started toward the motel office, Sam and Julia dutifully following after him. Once at the front desk, he threw his credit card on the counter.

"One room, please."

The old man working the desk gave Dean a reluctant look-over and then grabbed the card, reading the name on the front. "You guys having a reunion or something?"

Sam furrowed his eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

"I had another guy, Burt Aframian," the man informed them. "He came and bought out a room for the whole month."

Julia looked at Sam and Dean, surprised, while Dean made an expression that told her that he was thinking he should have known his dad would rent out a room. Sam quickly made an excuse that they were coming to check on their father while Dean paid for another room.

Once they had their room key, the three of them went straight to the room that John rented out, picking the lock. Sam yanked Dean into the room after him and Julia and firmly shut the door.

Julia looked around the room, her eyes wide. The room was an absolute mess that made her skin itch; there were clothes all over the place, numerous papers taped to the walls, and old food sitting around. Dean turned on the lamp closest to him so they'd have more light to look around, picking up a half-eaten burger on the table below it.

He sniffed it curiously and silently gagged at the rank smell while Sam and Julia stepped over the salt ring on the floor to get a better look at the walls. "I don't think he's been here for a couple of days."

"Salt, cat's-eye shells," Sam listed as he looked at the salt on the floor. "He was worried. Trying to keep something from coming in."

In the back of her mind, Julia remembered that salt was like a barrier for all sorts of supernatural creatures, but at the moment her focus was on the papers taped to the wall. There were a bunch of articles about the disappearances over the last decade, as well as some local lore that he dug up.

"What have you got here?" Sam walked over to her.

Julia wrinkled her nose as Dean came over to take a closer look as well, and said, "Centennial Highway victims."

"I don't get it," Dean mumbled. "I mean, different men, different jobs, ages, ethnicities...There's always a connection, right?"

Julia gave him a questioning look. "So, what do these guys have in common?"

Dean shrugged at her and Julia frowned, looking back at the profiles John had made for the victims.

"Dad figured it out," Sam spoke up, having moved across the room where more papers were taped on the wall.

"What do you mean?"

"He found the same article we did," Sam gestured to the wall where the article about Constance Welch was taped. "Constance Welch, she's a woman in white."

Dean smirked as he looked back at the victims. "You sly dogs."

"What's a woman in white?" Julia wondered, her eyes darting between Sam and Dean.

"It's a sort of phenomenon," Sam explained to her. "They're spirits that have been sighted for hundreds of years in dozens of places. They're women who had husbands who were unfaithful so they suffered from temporary insanity and murdered their children. They take their own lives afterwards and become cursed, killing any unfaithful man they find."

Julia winced but mentally stored the information in her head until she could write it down in the journal she brought with her. She'd been cheated on before but she was never angry enough that she would take a life—let alone a child, if she had one.

"Wow," she breathed; Sam nodded in agreement.

"All right, so if we're dealing with a woman in white, Dad would have found the corpse and destroyed it," Dean spoke up.

"She might have another weakness," Sam suggested.

"Well, Dad would want to make sure," Dean insisted, crossing the room to stand next to Sam. "He'd dig her up. Does it say where she's buried?"

"No, not that I can tell," Sam's eyes brushed over the article on the wall. "If I were Dad, though, I'd go ask her husband if he's still alive."

"All right," Dean nodded in approval. "Why don't you, uh, you guys go to the room and see if can find the address. I'm gonna get cleaned up in here."

Dean started toward the bathroom but Sam soon stopped him. "Hey, Dean?"

Dean looked at him expectantly.

"What I said earlier, about Mom and Dad," Sam said sheepishly. "I'm sorry."

Dean held his hand in the air, stopping Sam from speaking further. "No chick-flick moments."

Sam laughed and nodded. "All right, jerk."

"Bitch," Dean mumbled in reply before heading into the bathroom.

Julia furrowed her eyebrows and walked over to Sam. "Your brother has some serious issues dealing with emotions."

Sam scoffed. "No kidding. Come on, let's go."

He turned to leave but paused when he saw a picture stuck in the full-length mirror. He pulled it out of the frame and smiled softly when he saw that it was him, Dean, and his dad more than a decade ago, sitting on the hood of the Impala.

Julia took a peek at it. "Were you born in plaid?" she joked, sensing that he needed a little cheering up; it worked and he smiled slightly. "You look happy."

"We were," Sam sighed as he pocked the picture.

-

It was noon the next day when Dean finally woke up and started moving, having caught more than his usual four hours of sleep. He went straight into the bathroom, ignoring the happy greeting Julia sent him, and got ready for the day.

Julia rolled her eyes at the grumpy man and went back to her laptop, reading the website that Sam had showed her. There was a lot of information about women in white that Sam hadn't touched on earlier and she made sure to record it in her journal so she could look back on it later if she needed to.

It was while Sam was listening to a message from Jess he had missed earlier that Dean came out of the bathroom.

"Hey, I'm starving," he informed them as he slipped on his hand-me-down leather jacket that was a little bit too big for him. "I'm gonna grab a little something to eat in that diner down the street. You guys want anything?"

"Nah," Sam declined, continuing to listen to the message.

"Aframian's buying," Dean tried to tempt him but Sam shook his head. Dean sighed and turned to Julia with raised eyebrows. "What about you, shortcake?"

Julia bit her lip, thinking about what she wanted to eat. Dean subtly checked her out while she decided, enjoying the pajama shorts and cotton tank-top that she was lounging around in.

"A turkey club?" she smiled up at him.

Dean winked at her. "Coming right up."

Julia's heart raced and her smile fell as he left the room. That man was just too gorgeous for his own good. Dean was attractive, everyone knew that, but Julia had a crush on him when she was five years old and he was an awkward-looking preteen going through puberty. Luckily the crush went away by the time she was in high-school and Dean was a very legal adult. If she wasn't careful, though, she'd be sucked in again.

Her phone rang only seconds later. It was Dean.

"Yeah?"

"Five-oh," Dean warned her quietly; she stiffened nervously. "You and Sammy take off."

"What about you?" she asked worriedly.

"They kinda spotted me. Go find my dad, all right?"

He hung up and Julia stood up, quickly grabbing a pair of joggers to pull up over her shorts. "Sam, the police are here," she informed him hurriedly, grabbing her laptop and sliding into her backpack. "Let's go."

"All right," Sam nodded and stood up. "Come on, there's a window in the bathroom."

Out in the parking lot, Dean smiled charmingly at the police officers approaching him. "Problem, officers?"

"Where are your partners?" one of the officers—the one they spoke to the day before—asked.

"Partners?" he played it cool. "What partners?"

The officer nodded over at his partner and gestured to John's room and their room. The partner made his way over to John's room first, which relieved Dean. It'd give Julia and Sam more time to get away without being noticed.

"So," the first officer looked back at him. "Fake US Marshal, fake credit cards...You got anything that's real?"

"My boobs," Dean stated matter-of-factly, flashing the officer a cheeky grin.

The officer didn't like that very much. He called over his partner and grabbed Dean, hauling him over to their cruiser. He was slammed down on the hood and cuffed behind his back but he didn't care. Sam and Julia got away and he hadn't committed any crimes—yet—so they didn't have anything on him.

He was processed quickly when they got to the station and sat in an interrogation room while the officers gathered evidence from John's room. It was an hour later that the sheriff came in, holding a box of things they had taken.

"So," the man grumped, sitting the box on the table in front of Dean. "you want to give us your real name?"

"I told you. It's Nugent," Dean insisted cockily. "Ted Nugent."

The sheriff gave him a flat look. "I'm not sure you realize just how much trouble you're in here."

"Are you talking like, misdemeanor kind of trouble or squeal-like-a-pig trouble?" Dean asked smartly.

"You got the faces of ten missing persons taped to your wall along with a whole lot of Satanic mumbo-jumbo," the sheriff informed him needlessly. "Boy, you are officially a suspect."

Dean scoffed; this guy was an idiot. There was no way that Dean was gonna go down for these murders since all they had were a bunch of printed out pictures of the victims. That's not actually enough evidence to do anything.

"That makes sense," he snarked at the man. "cause when the first one went missing in '82, I was three."

"I know you got partners," the sheriff was deterred. "One of them is an older guy. Maybe he started the whole thing. So, tell me, Dean—"

Dean paused when the sheriff said his name, a cocky look on his face. The older man grabbed a book out of the box and threw it on the table in front of him. It was his dad's journal.

"—is this his?"

Dean's heart sank in his chest at the sight of the familiar, leather bound journal. His dad never went anywhere without it. Everything they knew about the supernatural creatures they've come across was recorded in those pages, along with a lot of personal information that Dean didn't like to be shared. Information about his mom's death and the way he grew up wasn't something he wanted random strangers to know about.

The sheriff recognized the look on Dean's face. "I thought that might be your name," he acknowledged, walking around the table so he could open the journal. "See, I leafed through this. What little I could make out—I mean, it's nine kinds of crazy."

Dean stared passively down at the pages he flipped through, the pictures of his ancestors, his mom, him, Sam, and their hunter friends filling some of the plastic sleeves inside.

Finally, the sheriff stopped on a page toward the back. "I found this, too," he pointed at a page with Dean's name and coordinates. "Now, you're staying right here till you tell me exactly what the hell that means."

"It's my locker combination," Dean lied easily.

"Bullshit."

"I'm not lying," he insisted. "It's from years ago, when I was in high school."

The sheriff, rightfully, didn't believe him but Dean wasn't budging. He didn't know where the coordinates led to, but it had to be something important. Something that police officers or anyone who didn't know about John or the things that go bump in the night needed to see.

He questioned Dean for an hour, asking about many things. After a while, he veered the interrogation away from the coordinates and asked about his dad. He asked about Sam and Julia, too, but Dean insisted adamantly that he was alone. The sheriff didn't believe him but he didn't give a flying fuck—he wasn't a snitch. He enjoyed riling the old man up, too, seeing his face turn red with frustration and anger.

"I don't know how many times I gotta tell you," Dean sighed when the sheriff asked him about the coordinates again. "It's my high school locker combo."

"We gonna do this all night long?" the sheriff asked him grumpily.

A deputy poked his head into the room. "We just got a 9-1-1," he informed his superior. "Shots fired over at Whiteford Road."

The sheriff looked over at Dean. "Do you have to go to the bathroom?"

Dean gave him a weird look. "No."

"Good," the sheriff pulled handcuffs out of his belt and locked Dean to the table before leaving the room, the door shut firmly behind him.

Dean rolled his eyes and pulled the paperclip he had been eyeing from his dad's journal. He quickly set himself free and grabbed the journal, slipping it into his jacket. He waited until all the police officers left and then escaped, having the time to whistle a little tune.

"Finally," he heard a sigh as he walked out of the building. "I'm been waiting for ever."

Dean gave Julia an impressed look as she walked over to him, her arms folding across her ample chest. "You did that?" he pointed back at the station with his thumb; she nodded with a grin. "A fake 9-1-1 call. Impressive and very illegal."

"You're welcome," Julia beamed at him, pleased with his praise. "Come on, Sam went to question Joseph Welch."

"Ah," Dean nodded and walked by her side as she lead them to a car parked on the curb a block down. "Did you steal the car, too?"

"Sam taught me."

"He taught you?" he gave her a skeptical look. Even he had a couple lessons before he was successfully jacking cars. Julia was good but she wasn't that good.

"Okay, he stole it for me before taking off," Julia admitted. "but I paid attention."

Dean hummed and slid into the driver's seat, starting up the car. He asked Julia to call Sam as he started driving toward Joseph Welch's house and she did it without protesting.

"Hey," Sam answered quickly.

"You taught Jules the fake 9-1-1 call?" Dean greeted him. "I'm proud, Sammy."

Sam laughed. "Well, you're welcome."

"Listen, we gotta talk."

"Tell me about it," Sam sighed. "So, the husband was unfaithful. We are definitely dealing with a woman in white and she's buried behind her old house. That should have been Dad's next stop."

Dean sighed in frustration. "Sammy, could you shut up for a second?"

"I just can't figure out why Dad hasn't destroyed the corpse yet."

"Well, that's what I'm trying to tell you," Dean stated. "He's gone. Dad left Jericho."

"What?" Sam's voice stiffened while Julia looked at Dean in shock. "How do you know?"

"I got his journal."

"He doesn't go anywhere without that thing."

"Yeah, well, he did this time."

"What's it say?"

"Ah, same old ex-Marine shit," Dean grumbled. "when he wants to let us know where he's going."

"Coordinates. Where to?"

"I'm not sure yet," Dean admitted.

"I don't understand," Sam said, frustrated. "I mean, what could be so important that Dad would just skip out in the middle of a job? Dean, what the hell is going on?"

Dean stiffened when they heard the tires screech on the other line. It sounded like Sam had stopped very quickly.

"Sam? Sam?" Dean asked frantically.

Sam didn't answer, though, and the call quickly died out. Dean tossed Julia her phone and stepped on the gas, speeding up toward the address listed on the article about Constance Welch's suicide.

"Do you think he's okay?" Julia asked him nervously.

She was worried to death about her best friend and from Dean's reaction, he could be in seriously danger. She knew Sam was faithful to Jess but maybe the spirit didn't care. Apparently some of them didn't follow rules.

"I don't know," Dean said tightly. "We just got to get there fast."

"Okay."

"You know how to shoot a gun?"

"Of course."

"Good."

They pulled up to the old Welch residence, spotting the Impala parked right out in front. Dean and Julia jumped out of the car they stole and ran toward it; Dean handed her one of the spare guns he kept in his jacket—thankful that the police didn't do a body search—and used his own to shoot out the driver's window where the woman in white was straddling Sam.

The woman in white disappeared but promptly became visible again. Julia shot without thinking, her bullet disturbing the spirit. Sam took the opportunity to start the car and speed into the house, going through the front wall.

"Oh, my God!"

"Jesus Christ, I hope he didn't hurt my car," Dean mumbled furiously as he and Julia ran into the destroyed house.

"Sam?"

"Here!"

Julia ran over to the driver's door. "You okay?" she asked, ripping the door open; Sam nodded. "Can you move?"

"Yeah," Sam breathed as Dean rushed over to them. "Can you help me?"

Dean reached in and practically pulled Sam out of the Impala, getting him to his feet. Julia wrapped one of Sam's arms around her shoulders and allowed him to settle his very heavy weight on her as Dean stepped in front of them in case Constance came back.

Constance sure didn't look very happy with them. She threw down the portrait that she was looking at and waved her hand. A heavy dresser flew toward them, painfully pinning them to the wall.

Julia squeaked in pain as she was pressed against the wall. She was officially unable to move and unable to get away from the pain that the furniture inflicted on her stomach. Dean and Sam tried pushing the dresser away from them but it wouldn't budge.

Then the lights in the house started flickering and water started pouring down the staircase. Two creepy-looking child-ghosts appeared, getting Constance's attention. She stared at them in horror and a deep sadness.

"You've come home to us, Mommy," they whispered in unison.

Julia shivered, creeped out.

The children appeared behind Constance and promptly hugged her, causing her to scream. Her body flickered for a few seconds before all three of them burst into a weird fire that had Julia turning away and disappeared.

With Constance's spirit gone, Dean and Sam were able to move the dresser away from the three of them. Julia sighed in relief now that the pressure was gone and wrapped an arm around her torso. She was pretty sure she had bruised a couple of ribs.

My first hunting injury, she thought proudly.

"So, this is where she drowned her kids," Dean assumed, looking at the spot where the three spirits appeared.

Sam nodded. "That's why she could never go home. She was too scared to face them."

"But I fought we had to burn her corpse to kill her?" Julia spoke up, kind of confused.

There was only so much she knew about hunting but she thought you got rid of ghosts by salting and burning their corpse. That didn't happen here.

"Sometimes you can find a spirit's weakness and that can take care of them," Sam informed her.

"In this case it just happened to be her kids," Dean added, clapping Sam on the shoulder. "Nice work, Sammy."

Sam laughed loudly and grinned at his brother. "Yeah, I wish I could say the same for you," he mocked him. "Where were you thinking, shooting Casper in the face, you freak?"

Dean gave him an offended look.

"By the way, J, nice aim," Sam added, just to tease Dean further.

"Thanks, S," Julia grinned at him before sticking her tongue out at Dean.

"Children," Dean scoffed, shaking his head. "I'm working with children. And another thing," he warned Sam. "If you fucked up my car, I'll kill you."

-

It was almost midnight by the time they arrived back at Stanford. Sam had successfully found where the coordinates that John left them led, a place in Colorado, and had turned Dean down when he offered to drive there now, wanting to go to his interview. Dean was visibly upset but he didn't argue.

Dean pulled up the apartment and parked in the lot. Sam slid out of the car and grabbed his bag from the back before leaning down to talk to Julia and Dean through the window.

"Be careful, J," Sam poked her in the forehead. "Listen to Dean, all right?"

"I will."

"And call me."

"Yes, Dad," Julia playfully rolled her eyes at him. "Say hello to Jess, would you? Love ya."

Sam winked at her and then turned to Dean, his face falling when he saw the sullen look on his brother's face. "Call me if you find him?"

Dean nodded.

"And maybe I can meet up with you later, huh?"

"Yeah, all right," Dean agreed easily. "You know, we made a hell of a team back there."

Sam smiled, his dimples popping out. "Yeah. Be careful."

Dean nodded and pulled out of the spot he had parked in. He quickly drove away from the apartment building and Julia assumed it was because he didn't want to dally and be sad about Sam's departure.

"You all right?" she asked Dean.

"I'm fine," Dean answered gruffly and changed the subject. "So, you survived your first hunt. How do you feel?"

"Good," Julia grinned. "Yeah, it was—"

She paused, scrunching up her nose as she got a bad feeling. She couldn't explain it and it felt different from the one she had about Dean but she knew something was wrong.

Dean gave her a worried look when she stopped talking. "You okay?"

"No," she shook her head. "I have a bad feeling."

As if the universe was agreeing to her statement, the radio glitched out. Dean looked at the dash, noticing that the clock had stopped working. He quickly turned the vehicle, his heart starting to race, and started driving back to Sam.

By the time they got there, the apartment was in flames and Jess was dead.

(Gif is not mine)

[nodesiretogrowup]

alrighty, review time!

Do you think Donald wrote the song? He did write a song when he was younger and the lyrics fit him best

I love that Donald is the sane man of the Caballeros

Why did you choose the bathroom? That’s really weird and kind of perverted

I love the picture of a rubber ducky in a top hat on the wall

Just how big is that bathtub? Four grown men were able to fit in it at the same time

Never mess with a man who has a demon-ghost butler

“That’s the FOURTH rich guy’s bathroom we’ve been kicked out of.” I...I would like to know about the other three. And again, WHY THE BATHROOM?!

“We just need someone to listen to us!” Donald giving us the theme/moral of the episode

Was Louie just waiting out there?

Louie looks like a drug dealer. He also looks a bit like the reboot version of himself from that poster in Quack Pack

“And you’re willing to do whatever I say, at any cost whatsoever?” “Well, not any...” “QUIET, DONALD!” Guys, you should listen to Donald, he knows Louie better than you

Poor Donald, the only sane man here

I love the stickers on Louie’s laptop. I wonder if he actually knows how to hack

I love the stupid “it” trends. Hats-Hats and Invisible Piercings, what will they think of next

Of course Dewey would keep up with an IT list. He actually cares about his image/how his peers view him

The lead singer of the Feather Weights looks like a punk girl version of Drake. I’m gonna go with them being related somehow. Or they used to date. Or they go to the same hair stylist. THEY ARE TIED TOGETHER SOMEHOW

Yo-yo tricks were more of a 2000s thing, Dewey (seriously though, does anyone else remember when yo-yos were SUPER POPULAR for some reason?)

Panchito is so ridiculously EXTRA and I LOVE HIM

“These are my people.” Oh sweet Dewford, they wish they were on your level

“Internet fame-the most important fame of all” Well it’s the most achievable

And then Dewey just rolls off screen

“If only someone had a super-elaborate scheme to get in...KA-BOOM!” Dewey’s not the only showman in the family

This show LOVES some big boards

Why/when did Louie plan all of this? I mean he did want the Caballeros to make him their manager so he could get a cut, but why?

Already you can see that Louie’s pride is gonna get in the way

Again, Donald is being the responsible one

I love their signatures. Panchito’s is like a 12 year old girl’s, José’s is curvy, and Donald’s is the least showy. And I love that Panchito thought “Don” was enough lol. He is close to Launchpad levels of ditziness

The pictures Louie uses on his board are GREAT! I love fridge-raiding Panchito

Agent Dewey-License to Chill. Dewey, that was two episodes ago

“I have a very special job for you.” “Oh-ho ho-ho, special.”

Luis P Canard. Is that a false identity Louie already had or did he make it up for the party? Or is there an actual Luis P Canard?

Huey looks SO CUTE! Though he should have known something was up when Louie asked him to forge a signature. Do you think Huey has forged other documents with or without knowing it?

Louie looks good with that black “lipstick”

“Welcome to the scheme.” “What scheme?” “Nothing.” “TELL NO ONE.”

Gyro Gearloose-Kid inventor. Does that mean he was a child prodigy or that he LITERALLY invents kids? Or both? The possible clone’s tube had K.I.D. on it. I bet this will be explored more, probably next episode

I love how they all stare at the earpieces when Gyro says the DEFINITELY won’t explode 

I love that the lion statues have sunglasses and there’s a statue of a ballerina hippo from Fantasia

OUR QUEEN HAS ARRIVED

How do ducks whistle if they don’t have lips?

Daisy-smiles, Donald-I WOULD DIE FOR YOU

I love Daisy’s fake laugh

With both of them in tuxes you can really see that Dewey and Louie have different body types. Louie has broader shoulders.

“I’M GONNA DANCE DOWN THE RED CARPET.” No Dewey, that’s for the after party

It’s the PEP guy! I feel like he’s gonna become a villain with how much he’s been embarrassed (and he already LOOKS like a cheesy superhero show villain)

GRAVES IS BACK, BABY

Dewey has made a LOT of enemies

“New plan-Dewey is NOT going to the party!” DAMN, THAT’S COLD

“This is the Dewey-est party in town!”

“Oh, WHY was I cursed to be so FLASHY and UNFORGETTABLE?!” I love my dramatic son

Why did the Caballeros have to switch hats?

“SO TIGHT. !”

WE NEED MORE DJ DAFT DUCK

Ok, real talk? That party looks boring as fuck 

I like that there’s sweat when Dewey pulls off his helmet. It’s the little details

“Everyone listens to my plan.” Dewey looks PISSED

“The plan to wow Glamour with our haunting melodies.” Panchito is Drake/DW if he was a Latin Lover. THEY NEED TO MEET. IT WOULD BE HAMMY AND GLORIOUS

“You mean our SICK dance beats!”

Donald is like “girls, girls, you’re BOTH pretty”

But seriously, they need to decide what direction they want to go with their sound

Donald is ALWAYS the voice of reason (except in The Town Where Everyone Was Nice, he got a bit caught up in that lie)

“I will charm my way on stage with my golden voice.” #youtried

That smirk José gives him, beautiful

“Easy, grownups.” YOU JUST GOT DISSED BY A 10 YEAR OLD!

“So I’ll dazzly Daisy with my hip, cool yo-yo tricks.” I would have liked to see how that played out

Does Louie have some kind of dirt on Jane? Why does she keep helping him out? Why does she call him “Mr. Duck?”

Glamour is a BITCH. And it seems like Daisy might share the same luck as Donald and Della

SERIOUSLY, WHAT DO YOU HAVE ON HER, LOUIE?!

Donald was posing all cool

Why send Donald in to do the most important part of the plan? At least have someone with him. Louie should have gone with him so Donald could distract Daisy and Louie could use his pickpocket skills to get the pass. Louie did not account for the variables

“Ooooh PHOOEY.” I love that all of the Duck family say Donald’s catchphrase

POOR DEWEY!

I love Louie’s other distraction ideas-explosion, food poisoning, SET FREE A WILD MONGOOSE, ghosts, ANOTHER explosion 

LET DAISY SAY FUCK

I’m pretty sure Donald got a boner when he saw Daisy DESTROY that vase (I also found it hot). He was scaroused

OUCH. That HAD to have hurt/broken SOMETHING

How did Louie get that picture of Webby? Hell, how was that pic taken in the first place?

“WHEEEEEEE” Webby knows what’s up

“MY FAULT! It’s...your bag.” Oh Donald

LET DAISY SAY FUCK

“My band is sorta...crashing the party.” DONALD YOU ARE TOO CUTE

The yo-yo just rolls away

Louie, you hurt Dewey’s feelings! Also, your plans are pretty ridiculous too, including the one you are currently trying to pull off. There had to be a better idea than a harpy

Listy-er

GLAMOUR MUST DIE FOR WHAT SHE DID TO LOUIE! IT’S A GOOD THING DONALD WASN’T THERE OR ELSE SHE WOULD BE

“I don’t want to be at Funzo’s forever.” “Why not?” Oh Webby, so innocent to the horrors of minimum wage jobs. Also it’s nice to see Webby being able to have an ordinary conversation with someone

FALCON’S EYEBROWS ARE MESMERIZING

It’s equal parts cute and sad how long Dewey takes to count

MANNY IS FUCKING SWOLE

Manny is 0 for 2 when it comes to being the muscle (I’m counting him vs Mega-Beaks as well)

“That was odd.” You have no idea

Donald sees Daisy as the GODDESS she is. GET YOU A MAN LIKE DONALD

I KNEW IT! I KNEW SHE WANTED TO BE A FASHION DESIGNER! It was like the only guess I got right so let me have this

“Nobody listens to me either.” Awww

“They don’t understand me.” AWWW

“Well that’s weird, I understand you perfectly.” MY HEART!!!

I LOVE THIS SONG SO MUCH! And when it changes into how Daisy hears him...chef’s kisses. It reminded me of Remember Me from Coco and I Love You Too Much from Book of Life

Real talk-the song really got me. I feel a lot like Donald. A lot of times it feels like no one is listening or understands me because my thought process is a bit different. Or they can understand but they don’t care, like how Daisy feels. When Donald sings for her, I teared up because I want to be comfortable enough with someone to let down my guard like that. Music is a big part of who I am so I would love if someone sang for me even if they don’t have the “perfect” voice. I want someone to feel comfortable enough with me to let down their guard and be real

Daisy is a woman of ACTION

Do you think she’s been stuck in that elevator before?

“My kids!” “Wait, you have kids?” Whenever Donald calls them his kids I gain 5 years to my lifespan. I can’t wait for Daisy to officially meet the kids

“Oh no, not again!” Starting to rethink your life-choices aren’t ya?

I love Mark. He’s so stupid and out of touch with the real world

“Oh Gravesy! Long time, no crime.” GRAVEBEAK LIVES ON!

I love Mark’s hoverboard crashing and catching fire in the background. And then it chases Slash

Haha, Mark’s name is Markus. What a dewb

I was rooting for rich lesbian aunt, but mom works too

Graves is SO DONE with these people

Dewey is all of us

Poor Louie. His self confidence is the most fragile of the kids

Nerp

“Just listen to me for once.” WE ALL NEED TO LISTEN TO EACH OTHER, THAT’S THE THEME OF THE EPISODE

THEY’RE HOLDING HANDS! And Mark seemed into it ;)

“I want to look away but I can’t” CALLING IT NOW, THIS LINE’S GONNA BE A MEME

I want Dewey’s yo-yo skills to be a reoccurring thing

That’s one of the things he has in common with his uncle-being a performer even if they aren’t the best at it

Louie’s face as he sneaks away is great

“The failure of it is ridiculous...and BEAUTIFUL!” Gonna use that to describe myself from now on

Dewey is IT. SO FABULOUS!

Daisy, maybe you should let the man get rid of them

DOUBLE BADASS ONE-LINERS

LET DONALD SAY FUCK

HE’S SO PROUD OF HIS BOY

I like the “totally not Pirates of the Caribbean” music that accompanies José when he’s fighting

“Nice singing.” “Nice moves.” NOW KISS

“Oo, nice dagger.” Webby, not the time for that

There is NO WAY that the scene with Gabby and Webby isn’t foreshadowing SOMETHING

“I gotta get out of Duckburg.” Jane starts a GoFundMe page to get out of Duckburg when she gets home

BATTLE COUPLE!

DAISY WILL FUCK YOU UP

DON’T MESS WITH HER MAN

It was then Donald realized that he had met his future wife

DONALD AIN’T GONNA TAKE THAT SHIT FROM YOU

It was then Daisy realized she had met her future husband

“LOVE YOUR BLOG” Who knew Manny kept on on the latest trends

Glamour probably realized those fuckers were crazy so she should back off

SILENT M’MA CABRERA!

OMG EVEN THE TREE HAS FUCKING SUNGLASSES

Manny is one suave motherfucker

Glamour playing with the yo-yo while Mark acts like a spoiled brat

DEWEY IS PROUD OF HIS DADNALD!

IF WE DON’T GET DEWEY’S DOZEN AT SOME POINT I’M SUING

“Our brotherhood is the greatest scheme of all!” SO FUCKING WHOLESOME! MORE LOUIE AND DEWEY PLOTS

“HEY, YOU’RE MESSING WITH MY MOJO!” Don’t be a hater, Manny!

“I could listen to it all night.” DAAAAAWWWWWWW

GAAAAAAHHHHH THIS EPISODE WAS SO GOOD! I love that there was a common theme of feeling like you aren’t being heard. Daisy felt like she was too unimportant to be listened to, Louie doesn’t listen to Dewey because he feels like Dewey isn’t serious enough, and NO ONE listens to Donald because his voice is hard to understand. In the end they all get heard, with Donald and Daisy getting the bonus of finding someone who understands them. The two of them really are relationship goals. I cannot WAIT for more wholesome Donisy content. This one bumped Quack Pack down from my favorite so far.

[theradioghost]

could you elaborate on the long term plot of greater boston? i don't mind spoilers! i tried it but couldn't get past the first episode :( but i trust your taste and i've liked every other show you've rec'd so i wanna keep listening

EDIT: okay for some reason the formatting of this post is EXTREMELY befuckened and I can’t get it to behave, so it’s possible that this isn’t going to display with a spoiler cut and if so I am VERY sorry. the “keep reading” break is in the ask instead of the body of the post I have no idea what’s happening right now but if you don’t want spoilers please be aware this post spoils like everything about the show

Sure thing! I will .... do my best, but because of the nature of GB’s plot it’s a bit difficult to describe it without ending up either way too detailed or way too vague. But I will absolutely do my best because if there is any show out there that deserves it, this is that show. Cut for Obvious Spoiler Reasons!

So, there’s a LOT of plot that goes on, but what a plot summary could never convey is that the real heart and soul of this show is the characters. There are a metric fuckton of them, and every one of them is multidimensional and dynamic and wonderful, even if it’s not always obvious at first.

Leon Stamatis of course starts the show by abruptly dying of Existential Crisis/Panic Attack on a roller coaster, which sets everything else in motion. Of that big ensemble cast, at first the most important players are

Nica, Leon’s little sister who wants to be famous but doesn’t really have any concrete plans as to how

Dimitri, Leon’s little brother who is currently traveling in a submarine attempting to find Atlantis and keeps sending Leon letters, unaware that he’s dead

Louisa, Leon’s recent ex, a wedding photographer who later quits and becomes a crime scene photographer slash detective

Leon’s best friend/roommate Michael, who is unemployed and has just had a relapse after being sober for 12 years because he has no idea what to do without Leon

Gemma, a lesbian who absolutely hates her job as an editor at Third Sight, a company which publishes magazines relating to astrology/psychic stuff/divination/etc

Charlotte, Gemma’s pregnant wife, who has recently lost her job as an animation background artist and is feeling directionless

Professor Paul Montgomery Chelmsworth, aka the Mayor of the Red Line, a slightly eccentric college professor and casual friend of Leon’s who is inspired by his death to call for a referendum declaring that the Red Line of the Boston subway system will become an independent city.

It’s that last one that is the real ~main plot~ of the show: at first, more and more of the characters getting caught up in the campaign to create the city of Red Line, and then the chaos that results when they succeed and actually have to run it. But you also have characters like Louisa and Nica and Michael, dealing with a whole rainbow of grief and distress as they cope with Leon’s death. His eccentric personality is the other driving force of the show’s events -- Leon was caring and compassionate, but also obsessed with timetables, organization, and scheduling every action in his life down to the minute.

The other major force in the show is Third Sight, a magazine publisher with a focus on fortunetelling and the like; Michael ends up working there, along with Gemma and several other major characters. Third Sight also has an enigmatic boss no one has ever seen, who turns out to be a manipulative little bastard named Oliver West.

While Red Line successfully becomes a city, “Mayor” Chelmsworth turns out to have some major commitment issues and vanishes as soon as the vote passes, leaving Charlotte and Gemma to clean up the mess. Charlotte ends up interim mayor, but also begins to campaign for the upcoming mayoral election, in which she has two opponents: Isabelle Powell, a Black realtor and an incredible character whom I absolutely cannot do justice here, and Emily Bespin, Literally The Worst Person Who Has Ever Existed, Holy Fuck I Hate Her So Much.

The election is being manipulated behind the scenes by Oliver West, who also takes advantage of Nica’s isolation and a near mental breakdown to convince her to help him by orchestrating several escalating ~pranks~ in Red Line. Honestly he’s manipulating literally everyone, and also heavily backing Emily Bespin, in an attempt to profit off of influence in the new city. Eventually this ends up with Michael kidnapped and imprisoned, several other characters attacked and one badly hurt during a wedding in Red Line, and Isabelle Powell’s nephew framed for the attack. That results in Powell’s supporters beginning a set of protests which throw Red Line into even further chaos, even as Charlotte and Nica begin to have some real moral epiphanies about how they’ve been acting.

As events continue to escalate and the election draws closer and closer, the now-assembled cast have to figure out just who exactly is manipulating events and how -- not to mention how to prove Powell’s nephew’s innocence, what the hell has happened to Michael, and what the hell they’re going to do if Bespin wins the election and makes good on her promise to evict everyone involved in the protests.

Meanwhile, Dimitri is traumatized by finding a mass grave at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, gets rescued and then imprisoned in Alaska by infamous vanished plane hijacker DB Cooper, finally makes it home to Boston disillusioned and lonely only to inevitably find out his brother has been dead for two years, and then gets totally rejected by his sister, because he basically can’t catch a break.

Also meanwhile, the same conflicts playing out in Red Line play out on a more metaphysical level, in the structure of the show itself. While the first season only hints at the possibility that Leon might not be quite as gone as everyone thinks, as the show progresses Leon’s ghost makes his presence known by starting to argue with the omniscient narration. Increasingly taking over the show’s narration until a brilliant scene where said narrator quits and audibly gets up from the microphone and leaves, Leon, the man who spent his whole life trying to impose order on the chaos of the universe around him, finds himself battling the very structure of the story they’re in, in an attempt to help his friends as both he and they are caught up in the chaos of Red Line and Oliver West’s plans. Unfortunately, the structure of the story has other ideas, and plans of its own.

None of this, of course, even begins to touch on the cheese robots; or Michael’s ongoing struggle with self-actualization and alcoholism; or Mallory the foulmouthed teenager who somehow manages to first witness and then be involved in nearly every major plot event of the show; or the in-depth examination of structural racism as it relates to things like housing and city planning and Boston’s history and well-intentioned white liberals and the imprisonment of Black youth; or Star Trek obsessed chaotic neutral gay reporter Chuck Octagon and that one time he flirted with his own mirror universe self; or the complex but beautiful process of Charlotte and Gemma working on their relationship in the midst of all this chaos because while they have troubles throughout they truly love one another and are trying to be better people; or the fact that one of the other major characters is an insufferable Loud Vegan member of a polyamorous commune who -- on the advice of his ~spirit advisor~ the ghost of 19th century feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft keeps changing his name throughout the show to things including Earthman, Panda Bear, Extinction Event, and Dipshit; or the unfortunately real Olive Garden food truck; or the laughter and the tears and the flamethrowers and the fact that one of the show’s most important and heartbreaking conversations takes place on an amusement park log flume ride audibly filled with liquid nacho cheese.

It’s a good show, is what I’m saying, basically.

[noddytheornithopod]

Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker - Initial Thoughts

So yeah, this is a thing. Of course I’m gonna discuss spoilers in-depth, but I’ll put that under the cut. If you want a spoiler free summary, here:

It's not perfect, and I particularly struggled with the first act and it's really fast pacing (JJ LEARN TO SLOW DOWN), but I'm not gonna pretend I didn't enjoy it overall. As long as you're not attached to certain specific ideas and willing to accept it for what it is, you might like it well enough. That being said, I can already see this is gonna be at least as divisive as TLJ unfortunately.

Okay, first thing’s out of the way: I was aware of the leaks about the film, and I can confirm that they were pretty spot on overall. It sucks 99% of the plot got out, there’s a few moments that thankfully didn’t get mentioned in any leaks I saw, so yeah. Anyway, time to get started.

Okay, yeah, the pacing. Definitely my biggest issue with the film. It’s an issue I have with The Force Awakens’ first act too, but there it at least was able to do enough to establish the characters. Here the story moves along relentlessly. Honestly, for the first act, in fact right until Rey and Kylo Ren’s Kijimi confrontation, I struggled to keep up. So much happened, so much exposition and action I felt like nothing really got to land. There wasn’t any time to breathe or let the characters have more moments. I’m not sure if the Rey/Kylo fight on Kijimi was just a major emotional turning point that finally had me properly hooked, but from there either I finally got into the film’s groove or it actually learned to slow down a bit, at least enough for things to actually land instead of BAM NEW SCENE BAM NEW SCENE.

My other biggest issue with the film is something that unfortunately couldn’t be helped: the handling of Leia. It’s VERY clear they were writing around the cut scenes from The Force Awakens, and how vague and generic her lines were REALLY showed. Because of this, her death scene didn’t really work for me? In fact, I’m not even sure why she chose to reach out to Kylo Ren at that specific point, either it was Force shenanigans feeling it was the right time SOMEHOW knowing he was at a vulnerable point or I really missed something (see this is why you don’t pace things at the speed of light, JJ :V). THAT BEING SAID... I can’t really fault the filmmakers for this, because this is obviously the best they could’ve done without a controversial recasting (especially if they used CGI to make the new actress look like Carrie Fisher). It’s clear this was a really hard job, and I can tell they did the best with what they had.

I mentioned the first act was too fast paced, but I actually really dug the opening with Kylo Ren. Palpatine obviously sensed the First Order had subjugated the galaxy, so it was time for him to come out and reassert control with his secret Sith Fleet, hence the message in the crawl. But yeah, Kylo Ren finding the wayfinder and traveling to Exegol only to discover Palpatine was an excellent sequence that really got things getting exciting.

For specific things here: first, Exegol is an awesome planet. It’s perfectly creepy and the best place for the final showdown to take place. The sound design for the place was particularly great. Visually, it’s all epic. I’m also curious about its history - C-3PO says it’s apparently a Sith Homeworld, though I wonder if this is more like an origin point given Moraband was also a Sith Homeworld. Oh look, I’m being a nerd, lol.

I love how Snoke was handled purely because it’s so hilariously anticlimatic and I can see so many people getting mad at it. Like seriously... Palpatine so casually going “I made Snoke” says SO much. Everyone was making up elaborate theories on who he was and why he’s a thing but in reality, he’s just some dude created in a lab for Palpatine to puppet while he’s gone. :P One has to wonder how Snoke felt about the whole thing, literally being made just to be an interim ruler for former Imperials before Palpatine was ready to return, while also being a powerful Dark Side user himself (wow geez, Palpatine can make super Dark Side users now).

Palpatine himself was definitely one of the best parts of the movie, Ian McDiarmid’s performance alone was worth it. I definitely get why JJ chose to bring him back, I agree it feels appropriate for the main Star Wars villain to have a presence in the new trilogy in some way. For how he comes back, it’s curious. The way he speaks and looks, he’s pretty much dead, Palpatine literally says he died in fact. As for how he’s back, he just says his infamous “the Dark Side is a pathway to many abilities, some to be considered unnatural.” Look, it’s SO on the nose and cheesy, but because I’m a nerd I loved hearing that line again. From how I understand it, he’s basically a weird Dark Side zombie, I mean he has a downright undead appearance. It’s not actually explained how he survived, but I kinda don’t mind that it’s currently mysterious? I have some theories based on EU stuff I might go into later but basically, he’s now Zombietine and he’s somehow ended up on Exegol with his weird Sith cult devotees making Snokes and building the Sith Fleet while influencing what he can from afar. Speaking of which... his “I’m every voice you have ever known” line pretty much confirms it was HIM who was talking to him through Darth Vader’s helmet, not a remnant of Vader himself. Him using Snoke’s voice in that line even makes me wonder how much free will Snoke has, and whether him being a puppet is more literal than we think.

Leia like I said I felt despite doing the best they could it didn’t fully work, but I can see how Leia would’ve tried being a Jedi but decided not to follow through with it. I mean, ghost Luke couldn’t always show up, so Rey would need advice from the closest thing to a remaining Jedi.

Pasana was hectic. Given a lot of the first act was there, that and the Resistance scenes on Ajan Kloss were most of what really rushed. Like, you have potential great moments, but the fast pace means the story needs to move on so nothing can land. There’s attempts at character moments but they don’t have time to breathe. Like, even Lando returning just whisked by because of the pacing.

Lando was good I guess. Not much stuff for him, but what we had was cool I guess. It sounds like he was hunting for a wayfinder with Luke, though I guess one wonder why Luke was looking for Exegol? Was this after he confronted Snoke (see the new Kylo Ren comic, that confirms that was a thing that happened, oh look more nerdy shit only I care about) and was looking for answers on what Snoke was up to, did he just want to make sure the Dark Side wasn’t fucking things up, or was he feeling like something was off? Anyway, Lando: obviously he’s a minor character, but him bringing all the ships at the end was cool.

Much of the stuff on Kijimi was pretty fast up until the lighsabre duel of course, so there was issues there too. Zorri’s introduction sped by so it never really landed, she goes from “maybe I’ll turn you over” to “fine I’ll help” VERY fast. Same with C-3PO’s memory wipe scene - the story does finally start to steady a bit and it did have me feeling things, but it still goes by too fast for it to fully land. Poe and Zorri’s one on one was a bit better, though again Zorri changing her heart so fast doesn’t really work for me.

Thinking about it, I did like Poe’s arc in the movie well enough. It could’ve been smoothed out but I did like how even he was struggling with the forces they were up against, and learned to have hope even in this dire situation. That’s why I like the chat with Zorri - even if her character feels rushed, it did establish Poe’s central arc and we see how that plays out.

Finn I feel like doesn’t have much of an arc here? Like, I know his storyline in The Last Jedi was divisive, but at least he did have a major arc there and had major growth. Here, I guess his arc is concluded, but then he’s just kinda along with the crew? I really liked the scene where he met Jannah and discovered more First Order deserters, but unfortunately that didn’t really end up going anywhere. Finn and Jannah are a cool duo, but in the climactic battle they kinda felt like an afterthought? I mean, even Poe and the ship stuff kinda did, but at least I kinda got what was going on there. With Finn and Jannah it’s just “we’re on Pryde’s Star Destroyer, destroy some shit” and... that’s it? Probably the most interesting thing with Finn in the movie was how open he was to the Force. Like obviously he couldn’t sense it, but he definitely believes in and trusts it, and it makes sense how that helps a lot of decisions he makes, especially after befriending Rey.

Jannah was cool but like I said she doesn’t really get much to do. I think what people will mainly focus on is that final scene with Lando, which was TOTALLY not suggesting Lando’s her dad. It’s a shame, because the First Order deserter stuff could’ve lead to some cool stuff, but I can see the film probably couldn’t fit it in with how much it’s trying to do.

Rose was an afterthought. I didn’t expect her to be in it much so I prepped myself for that, but I was at least happy to see she was still around. :) I wonder about how Finn looked at her at the end though, was that supposed to suggest romantic feelings? Kinda funny given they drop the Finn wanting to tell Rey something plotline, which I suspect was meant to imply romantic feelings?

On the topic of romance, Poe and Zorri, meh. And to literally nobody’s surprise, the queer couple we see is two Resistance women having a kiss at the end. At least one is a character that kinda exists, even if I don’t even know her name and just know she’s important enough to be sooorta recognisable given she was in The Last Jedi? It’s pretty anticlimactic, but nobody was expecting the representation to be significant anyway. :P Still better than Endgame from the sounds of it though.

Okay, I wanna discuss Hux. His role is small, but he’s as pathetic as ever and it’s glorious. So one plot point is that there’s a spy feeding intel to the Resistance, and then when Finn, Poe and Chewbacca are captured on the Star Destroyer above Kijimi we discover... Hux is the spy. He didn’t even have a change of heart and turned good, he simply just hates Kylo Ren. :P Like damn, helping the enemy purely out of spite, that’s something alright. And as soon as the heroes escape, Pryde just knows instantly he’s the spy and shoots him without a second thought. Yep, that’s how Hux goes out. Pryde is just there to be the evil military leader of course, and he works in that part.

Rey definitely was a major force in carrying the film, like of course she is given she’s the central protagonist but her story just holds up the best for me. Probably one of my favourite things about it was that we finally got to properly explore the Dark Side in her, and of course that becomes a big part of her story here. It’s something we’ve seen in the past two films, but here it actually becomes a focus.

Okay, let’s talk about Rey’s family. Specifically, how she’s Palpatine’s granddaughter. I’m sure some people who are VERY attached to the “nobody” thing in The Last Jedi will dislike this no matter what, but I still think it works? I will however say that it’s VERY cheeky how they go “oh your PARENTS are nobodies, but your GRANDFATHER IS A BIG DEAL AND YOUR DAD JUST CHOSE TO FUCK OFF”. Weird cheekiness aside, I guess I don’t mind the reveal because for one, Star Wars is a family saga, so I see how this works into things, plus it helps justify Palpatine’s return? But perhaps more importantly, I think the film still honours the ideas from The Last Jedi in a way - yes, Rey may have found she has a major lineage after all, but said lineage comes from the most evil man in the Universe. However, her ancestry doesn’t define her, her family isn’t important, who SHE chooses to be is. Luke outright says blood isn’t everything. Luke and Leia figured out she was somehow a Palpatine descendant, but accepted her anyway because they saw her potential for good. I will say I hoped the nobody thing stuck to being literally myself, but this is a nice compromise that I can work with and has a nice message to it. Also, I should emphasise this: just because this changes how we might see The Last Jedi, it doesn’t mean that what the film explores and says is meaningless. In fact, I think the film goes out of its way to make sure it still matters even if JJ obviously had his own ideas on where to take the story. Whether she’s nobody or connected to someone significant, Rey’s destiny is her own to forge and its still about her, not who she’s connected to.

There’s also this Ochi dude who was around doing work for Palpatine while he was around, and he killed Rey’s parents. Kylo initially assumed he wanted to kill Rey, but in reality Ochi was meant to bring Rey to Palpatine early.

Luke’s appearances were cool. I’m sure some people who love TLJ and dislike this film might cynically take his “a Jedi’s weapon deserves more respect line” as a diss against TLJ, but you have to remember: TLJ was literally about Luke finding hope and something to believe in again. Of course he’d get over his cynicism, everything he said about the Jedi was right, but TLJ’s point is that instead of just burying everything wrong with the past, we learn from its failures and take what’s still good to form something better. That’s what Rey’s meant to do with the Jedi. And I mean, the reason him catching the lightsabre Rey throws works at all is because of the surprising moment where he tosses it away in TLJ.

So, Kylo Ren. I enjoyed his storyline. Like, even when he discovers Palpatine and is made to serve him, he’s already secretly hoping to get Rey on his side for them to take him out and rule together (presumably as the new Sith Lords?). He’s pretty brutal and evil in a lot of the film. Also... I LOVE how they expanded on the Force connections. I love me some freaky World Between Worlds style space bending shit. Like, they even fight even though they’re on different locations. As for the mask, I’m sure someone has a better read on it but I think with Palpatine back and being made to be subservient to another master, he puts it together to seem more intimidating again even though the cracks show the facade (the cracks are based on Kintsugi, a Japanese art or craft where repaired things have the lines of where they were broken visible to emphasise how things have changed since they were broken... someone can explain it better but yeah). With the Force Dyad, I have to wonder: is it something Snoke specifically created when he bridged their minds and left that connection to fester (as we see it still is there after all given what happens here), or was it something the Force always had with them?

So, the big scene on the Endor moon with Kylo Ren (I assume Kef Bir if it’s really called that is a different moon to the forest one from Return of the Jedi). Rey’s already struggling with the darkness after the vision of her dark self, but she goes pretty dark during her fight. She strikes Kylo down in a moment he doesn’t fight back, and said moment was him sensing Leia’s passing. Like I said, I don’t feel like her death was handled that well, though it could just be circumstance with Carrie Fisher’s passing. It’s oddly meta as well - she seemed to know reaching out to her son would kill her but did it because she believed it would save him. So she kinda fridged... herself???? It’s weird, I’m not sure how to feel about it. Is it really worth dying just for your son who’s running what will become a new Empire? And if she was dying already, they didn’t establish it at all. It just happens out of nowhere. And I mean, at least it works, Kylo Ren still has some heart left and feels sad about his mum, and then we get... Han Solo. They do say it’s a memory, but I wonder if this was Force induced. Even if the Leia stuff doesn’t work for me, I still liked the scene with imaginary Han. It’s very on the nose with its parallels to TFA, but it still works I think. Also let’s be real... Kylo Ren deciding to stop being a space fascist just because his mum died, that’s not exactly the kind of person I would still feel safe around lol.

If Kylo Ren has an actual redemptive moment, it comes later. Honestly, him showing up in the final battle to help Rey against Palpatine was pretty cool. Like I said, he’s only really doing this because mum dying made him sad, but hey at least he’s fighting the bad guys, right? Yeah, I’m sure you can tell I’m not the biggest Kylo Ren fan. I just feel like his internal conflict isn’t that compelling compared to what Anakin went through, who is much easier to empathise with, not to mention Kylo Ren is honestly pure redemption bait compared to Vader, who didn’t even have plans on redemption until he was made Luke’s father, lol. But rambling aside, his stuff in the climax was awesome. Rey giving now Ben Solo the Skywalker lightsabre through their Force connection was one of the coolest moments of the movie, and bam he just wrecks the Knights of Ren the moment he gets a new sabre (after throwing his own one away).

Palpatine in the climax is curious, because I’m not actually sure what his ultimate goal was: was it to be killed off for good by Rey, or did he always count on Ben/Kylo to show up to get the Force Dyad in place to drain their life force to rejuvenate himself? I mean, he seemed to find Leia’s sacrifice incredibly unexpected in how it made Kylo turn away from the Dark Side, so it seems like he was ready to be killed, though TBH it actually sounds like he very well could’ve possessed her. I actually want to know what this whole Sith thing is about. He says that all the Sith that have ever lived live on through him, which I guess is something that started with the Rule of Two given it follows that philosophy. The apprentice kills their master, but their master and all subsequent masters have what’s left of them transferred into them. It’s an eerie way Darth Bane can still be around for the day the Sith rule the galaxy. Still, I have to wonder how it works. For someone like Rey who wasn’t an actual Sith, it sounds like all the Sith souls would’ve corrupted her, or Palpatine would outright possess her. I know most people don’t care about this nerdy stuff, but I do so lol. This whole Sith souls thing is intriguing and I look forward to EU stuff exploring it more. I want to know if it’s like Rey and her reaching out for the Jedi souls, or the Sith literally all pile up into this monstrosity and the master becomes a single entity.

Anyway yeah, Palpatine drains Rey and Ben to rejuvenate himself so he can live again. This is the exact kind of creepy Dark Side stuff I’m here for. Ben tries to stop him, but he’s thrown down a chasm. Sheev immobilises the entire Resistance fleet, but Rey is able to draw in his attention, and when she uses both the Skywalker and Leia’s lightsabres she calls on the souls of past Jedi to give her the power to defeat Palpatine (something foreshadowed at the start where she tries to reach voices of past Jedi). So there’s lots of juicy cameos for sharp eared listeners. First, we hear Obi-Wan saying a homage to his TFA line, but with final instead of first steps. We hear LOTS of Jedi, but I was just happy we heard Anakin. I would’ve liked him to have a bigger appearance, sure, but I’m happy he existed at all. He says something like “bring balance again, just as I did”, which is pretty cool, and further cements Anakin as The Chosen One. It’s just Sheev refusing to stay truly dead caused another fuckup that Rey needed to solve. This arguably could change how one reads the Chosen One prophecy, but it still works with it being Anakin. Rey is stopping the Sith from being revived because as I said, Palpatine is basically a zombie and arguably not even really alive. I’m sure one could argue it’s changed, and Yoda DID say the prophecy could’ve been misread, but I’m sure it might feed interesting discussions... I just hope they’re not shitty toxic ones like we always get. For me, the coolest moment was when it concluded with QUI-GON JINN. You know, the Jedi who started it all. Look, Jedi voices is obviously fanservice, but this is fanservice I eat up like the hopeless nerd I am. :V We also heard non-movie Jedi like Kanan (I got so excited when I saw him in the credits I had to explain to the guy next to me my outburst lol), and it seems even ex-Jedi like Ahsoka were included. Given these are Jedi who are supposed to have passed on into the Cosmic Force, I have to say this doesn’t look good for Ahsoka. Not sure if Ezra was in there either, but if he was, then welp indeed. I’m officially worried for them, and whatever evil plans Dave Filoni has for them.

So yeah Rey beats Sheev, but it takes the life out of her to do so. BUT WAIT... BEN SOLO LIVES. Well, for now. Not gonna lie, I got excited when I saw him climb out of that chasm, I was like YEAH GO SAVE REY MAN. I literally heard someone cheer when he climbed out too. Rey of course did the Force healing thing on him before (and earlier on a serpent creature), but to bring her back Ben uses that same ability at the cost of his own life. But before he dies... Rey kisses him. Okay Reylos, you win. Not gonna lie though... I actually didn’t mind that moment? *raises internet hate mob shields* Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suddenly a Reylo convert so no need to cancel me or whatever you guys do, but for what it was, I didn’t mind it? Ben comes back knowing he’s going to probably die saving Rey, but does it anyway. When I said I feel like his true redemptive moment comes later than moping about Leia, this is what I meant. Before, he joined Rey to not betray his mother’s ideals and because of his connection with her. But now, he knows he’s a goner but wants her to live so he sacrifices his life to revive her. Like, this is a proper selfless act. He probably thinks she deserves to live more than he does after the shit he’s put everyone though anyway. It also averted my biggest concern with the Reylo thing - I was worried that it would end up making Rey’s story about saving Ben Solo like all the fan theories wanted, but here it was still firmly Rey’s story. If anything, Ben came to serve her story by letting her live on lol. So yeah, Reylo happened for like a minute... I somehow expect BOTH sides of the debate to be angry. The hardcore Reylos and “Bendemption” people will be upset because Ben dies, but the anti-Reylo people will hate it because Reylo happens at all, even for a second. And here I am, who’s just here like “that was a nice sweet moment plus yeah I want Rey to live over Ben lol”.

Okay, I should say that the whole climax got me smiling. From all the ships across the galaxy arriving to help to Rey getting power from past Jedi, to them melting away Palpatine (yeah he’s not surviving literal disintegration from force lighting deflected with the help of dead Jedi lol), to them taking out the Sith Fleet and everyone celebrating, it just was happy and more importantly, hopeful. Look, I get why people might not be into this movie, but I was genuinely giddy during this climax of not just a film or trilogy, but a now nine part saga (and yes it’s definitely staying as a nine part Skywalker Saga after Ben died, Rey only takes the name to honour the past). It really did feel like a big epic finale. Sure, like I said some of the stuff in the battle could’ve been fleshed out more, but the dumb nerd part of me enjoyed the epicness of it and its climax anyway.

The final scene was nice I guess. Rey finding an identity for herself she feels secure in, and the Luke and Leia ghosts was nice. Also the yellow lightsabre’s first film appearance signalling something new to come.

D-O was there I guess. Didn’t focus much on him and BB-8. C-3PO of course had a fair bit going on and his memory wipe did have some emotional impact even if we recover quickly because FAST PACE. R2 had some nice moments, I felt bad for him when 3PO didn’t recognise him actually, though of course R2 backs up whatever memories he has left of him (IDK what memories R2 had though). I wonder why C-3PO had a thing in his memory blocking him from translating Sith runes though.

Yeah, okay, there were a few fanservicey moments, I already mentioned some of course. Some felt like natural parallels but just with JJ’s lack of subtlety, there were a few that felt on the nose, but many were genuinely fun. Since it’s not just Return of the Jedi 2.0 but a new story that still has a few parallels (naturally, I need to dig for the ROTS and Phantom Menace ones next), it doesn’t feel as in your face as The Force Awakens which called back to so much of A New Hope and the Original Trilogy. But I mean, stuff like the Wedge cameo was cool (though ouch his son in law is dead, JJ killed off one of his best friends in Snap Wexley lol). IDK what the Tantive IV is back, but hey I can work with it. Since it’s capping off the whole saga, it calls back to all three trilogies and doesn’t hyperfocus on just one so it feels less over the top, to me anyway (or maybe my Prequel bias is showing lol).

So yeah... definitely not a perfect film, with a pretty rough first act, but I don’t think it’s a disaster like some people see it as. Could some things have been handled better? Definitely. Would I have preferred George Lucas’ ideas for the Sequel Trilogy instead despite them probably having less popular appeal? Yeah, I’m a weirdo, I know. But look, I went into this film simply wanting to enjoy it for what it was. And for what it was, I’d say it was mostly good. Sure, there’s rough patches, but the good parts are really good.

[hecamity]

petals

this fic was supposed to be a gift for the @bkdksecretsanta​ exchange but unfortunately my giftee ghosted and i had no one to gift this to. despite this, i decided to go ahead and still post it. the work will be, as of right now 10 chapters, but may be subject to change. ao3 link here.

summary: “Ironic, isn’t it? Unrequited love for a shitty little nerd’s gonna be what takes me out.”

Kirishima’s face-hardened. “Stop saying you’re going to die. The doctor said it’s treatable; there’s the surgery—”

“I’m not getting the goddamned surgery, Kirishima.” Katsuki sighed wearily, lifting a hand to run through his blond spikes. “Drop it.”

Kirishima’s eyebrows furrowed as he watched his Katsuki’s shoulders slump forward. He felt a sudden rush of anger at seeing Katsuki resigned to his fate.

“Why the hell not, man? You’re young, you have a whole life ahead—you can’t just die.”

“Because…” Katsuki let out a long breath, almost as if it were painful to breath out. His scarlet orbs moved from the table in front of him to look directly into Kirishima’s eyes. “I don’t want to stop loving him.”

And in that moment, one Kirishima Eijirou decides that the only way to save his best friend was by helping him woo the cute, curly haired man that stole his heart.

Hanahaki Disease only affects a small percentage of the population and is quite rare.

It is a disease that is born from unrequited love, causing its victim to cough up or throw up flower petals.

Not only did its victim suffer the emotional pain of one-sided love, but physical pain as a consequence of the disease.

It always begins with flu like symptoms; a tickle of the throat, fatigue, a slight cough.

Then the tickle becomes unbearable and an insupportable pressure on one’s lungs builds up until the victim heaves a bundle of flower petals.

As time progresses, each episode becomes more and more painful until eventually the victim succumbs to drowning by velvety floral leaves.

Despite the disease being ultimately fatal, there are two possible cures: a surgical procedure that will extract not only the infection, but all lingering feelings towards one’s beloved or by having one’s beloved return one’s romantic feelings.

Unfortunately, fate comes to demonstrate to many victims of Hanahaki Disease that love truly did kill.

April, Year 1

The first time Bakugou Katsuki met Midoriya Izuku was the first day of his first semester during his first year at U.A. University.

The green-haired young man was assigned to be his lab partner in Chemistry class and his first impression of him was not the best.

He’d been bubbly and annoying, but most of all he was clumsy.

The very first time he and Izuku had worked together, Izuku spilled one of the chemicals they’d been working with all over the table and nearly onto Katsuki’s lap.

He’ll be the death of me, this little shit.

Izuku had stood from his chair with a squeak, eyes wide and cheeks red with embarrassment. “I’m so sorry!”

Most of the class had stopped what they were doing to watch the ordeal and the professor was shaking his head, not surprised to see there was already a mess on the first day of lab work. “Freshmen.”

“Oi! Stop standing there like a useless idiot and help me clean this up!” Katsuki bellowed, causing his stunned lab partner to flinch before scrambling to help Katsuki clean up while stuttering frazzled apologies.

After controlling the spill, the duo had spent the rest of the lab period in a terse silence—well terse from Katsuki’s end—only speaking when necessary.

The next time they had class, Izuku had walked up to him with flushed cheeks and pushed a nicely wrapped plastic baggie toward him.

Katsuki raised his eyebrows skeptically, waiting for Izuku to elaborate on why he was giving him a baggie of what looked like baked goods.

“It’s an I’m Sorry For Being A Disappointing Lab Partner and Almost Spilling Unfamiliar Chemicals On Your Lap the First Day of Lab peace offering,” Izuku explained with a shy grin, reaching up to run a hand through his wild curls nervously. “I hope you’re not against chocolate.”

Katsuki opened his mouth before closing it once more, staring blankly at Izuku who shuffled unsurely in front of him.

“Don’t feel pressured to eat them—” Izuku moved to take the bag back but Katsuki had found himself quickly snatching it away.

“Oi, fucking Deku, you can’t just take back a peace offering,” Katsuki drawled, allowing a small smirk play at the corners of his lips. He ripped open the bag haphazardly and took out a cookie.

“Deku?”

Katsuki only tapped a finger against the kanji printed at the top of Izuku’s timetable that his lab partner had left out in front of him in explanation. “Yeah, you’re kind of a useless lab partner, shitty nerd.”

“I never said I was a Chemistry major.”

“You don’t have to be a Chemistry major to not be a fuckin’ idiot.” Katsuki muttered, taking a hearty bite of the delicious looking chocolate cookie that he had pulled out of the bag.

The chocolate chip cookie melted into his mouth, a burst of sweetness causing his mouth to water.

“Holy shit, these are good.”

“I don’t know if I should be offended that you sound so surprised.” Izuku sulked slightly, though Katsuki could see a smile threatening spread across his face.

“Looks like you’re not completely useless,” Katsuki reluctantly said with a small huff, giving him a small glare. “Though you’ll have to work really hard to convince me that you’re not a shitty lab partner.”  

The corners of his lips finally lifted into a wide grin, emerald orbs shining with happiness.

The smile that Izuku gave him in that moment had stirred something unfamiliar in him; there was a slight shortness of breath and the beat of his heart rushed in his ears.

“I think we’re going to be good friends, Bakugou-san.”

He’ll be the death of me, this little shit.

Bakugou Katsuki had no idea just how true those words would be.

It was the second week of school and Katsuki was relieved it was time for his 2 hour lunch break before Chemistry class.

He’d only slipped in his ear buds to watch the latest episode of the All Might anime and had been munching on the messy sandwich he’d made himself with Kirishima’s supplies for half a minute before he saw a bento box gently land in the spot across from him.

Katsuki paused mid-bite and lifted his scarlet eyes to meet bright, emerald orbs smiling back at him.

“Mind if I join you?”

Katsuki felt an odd flutter in his stomach at his lab partner’s sudden appearance, what he’d already eaten churning in his stomach.

Swallowing his bite, Katsuki rolled his eyes and feigned disinterest, giving Izuku his signature sneer. “Do whatever the fuck you want.”

Izuku’s shy smile grew more confident at a lack of rejection. He pulled the chair out and sat down. “How is your second week going?”

“About as well as the second week as a freshman in university can go.”

“Touché,” he responded, and picked up his chopsticks. Izuku watched as Katsuki began wrapping up his unused ear buds and shut his laptop. “Did I interrupt you watching something?”

Katsuki sighed through his nose and gave him an unimpressed look. “Don’t you have other friends to bother?”

Izuku looked taken aback for a moment at Katsuki’s open hostility before giving him a small smile, eyes squinting. He lifted a chopstick, pointing at the blonde. “Just you.”

“If this is your way of making friends,” Katsuki snorted, allowing the corners of his lips to lift in slight amusement. “I can see why you don’t have many friends, nerd. Also we are not friends.”

“But we will be.” Izuku responded with a confident nod, a sure twinkle in his gaze.

Katsuki only huffed at him before returning to the sandwich in front of him.

They spent the rest of lunch in silence; it was not an uncomfortable one and Katsuki was pleasantly surprised.

There weren’t many people he’d felt this relaxed around aside from Kirishima and Kaminari—though he would use the term relaxed with those two loosely as the two shitheads couldn’t not be annoying for longer than five minutes.

Later that night, as Katsuki lay in bed, he thought to himself that maybe this Deku guy wouldn’t be too bad to see around occasionally.

[linsh6]

Speculations for GOT S8

Since I’ve expressed some thoughts about Show!Jonrya, maybe I just outright say all my opinions toward GOT and my S8 speculations.

D&D are really dumb writers

Yes, I won't avoid my “despise” on them so I just outright say it. A lot of people think they just hate Arya so much so they reduce her complex character into a one-dimensional badass assassin and ignore her capacity to become a leader (or queen). But in my opinion, they just purely so suck at script writing that everyone in the show is reduced to a one-dimensional character.

I once held a job as a scriptwriter back in my country (not in English though, and then I quit my job and became a free writer), and I know some important principles and points when it comes to scriptwriting. First of all is the characters’ arcs, D&D apparently have sucked at that so I won’t say much, all of you guys can refer to Grrm’s amazing original and will know how complex character development truly is (He’s so talented and I admire him so much). Why, based on Grrm’s brilliant work, D&D still managed to fuck up the characters’ shapings, I don’t know the reason, just like I suspect why they can even earn their job at HBO. 

Then is the structure and consistency,  I can convince myself that D&D did try their best for the characters but failed, but if the story is not consistent and even contradict itself, it’s deadly. A good scriptwriter (or at least who wants to be) must consider the whole plan from the beginning, otherwise, the story would easily become a total mess.

I believe that D&D do that effort (I believe in their ambition to be remembered and honored as scriptwriters), and we can access that they did plan out some character's development from S1 and talked with Grrm regarding their endings. 

So based on that I would build my personal speculations for S8′s plot.

1. Jonerys’ relationship & Daenerys’ ending.

First of all, I am a little up for the Daenerys’ mad queen theory. In S7 Daenerys literally burn people alive because they refused to bend their knee, which includes Sam’s father and brother. Tyrion felt it not good and tried to stop her, but he failed. 

That behavior is not a really good sign to me, and every character must hold their fate for what they’ve done, remember some actors did refer that there’s a trail for everyone in the final season? If that’s the case, why Daenerys should escape that final trial? I can tell D&D set this up intentionally because Tyrion as a neutral mirror already contradicted Daenerys at that scene.

And I dont’t see Jonerys will end well, their value and ways of lifestyle are too different, and their union in last season was nothing more than a forced push. They only knew each other for several days! How can we count on their relationship to be a great love story? And honestly I don’t see D&D put any effort in developing Jonerys’ relationship, all of their plots are so obvious and cliche, if they really are the final endgame D&D certainly could come up something better & more touching. 

I do think that Jonerys would become enemies in the end. Daenerys has no way back but become a queen to rule the seven kingdoms, otherwise all the efforts along her way to come to now would mean nothing, where there’s no better description than Grrm’s original line “If I look back, I am lost” ( In the books I sympathize for Daenerys, but she’s so flat on the show...)

2. Sansa will die

Honestly, I think Sansa will die halfway both in the show and in the books, she’s not important enough to make it to the finale episode. Actually she’s not even important enough bothering me to talk about, but D&D certainly did show some “fondness” to this character that made us hard to ignore.

Of course, they really “like” her, even to add a rape plot to force her to “grow” and made her first reunite with Jon. But that’s it, they can’t do more. They nearly made her become the top tier characters, but only nearly. Despite of their “fondness” of Sansa, D&D still didn’t make the northern lords fight against Boltons for Sansa like they did for Arya in the books, neither Jon. And D&D shaped her as an ambitious politician who would rather take place of Jon and almost kill her sister, which was verified by the script remark. (And Jonsa is a crackship both in the show and the books, there’s no other way around.)

Sansa still needs to fulfill her final character arc with meeting Cersei at King’s Landing,  so her death may happen at episode 4 or 5 I guess.

3. Arya’s role in the battle of dawn

I surely believe Arya will play an important role in the battle of dawn, even decisive, first point is her valyrian dagger, and second is Nymeria. 

In Isaac’s interview, he did say bran offers Arya the valyrian dragger because he senses there’s gonna be some importance to it. So maybe we can guess Arya would use this dagger in some vital fighting moment like fighting the Night King.

Then is Nymeria, I know people are all upset about the scene in S7, but it must mean for something, otherwise that would be a total waste of time for showing that Nymeria becomes a queen of a wolf pack (and the money too). Remember Ghost and Nymeria are the only Stark’s direwolf left. I believe Nymeria’s wolf pack would show up in the critical moment during the fighting. 

4. Arya’s parallel to Lyanna

I guess that in S8 there may be a scene directly compare Arya to Lyanna. Remember GOT’s team did make some efforts to choose an actress who resembles Maisie to play Lyanna. And Maisie also once said "I remember having a little braid in my hair and the hair and make-up team would be like, you cannot leave with that braid in your hair, we have to take it out. Because people will read into it and find some spoilers with just a braid." 

If Arya has a scene with a braid and be referred to Lyanna, then it must have a strong impact to Jon, because all these years he always wondered about his mother, now finally gonna see a live Lyanna 2.0 before his eyes.

5. Jonrya’s relationship development

According to actors’ interviews recently, that would be a fair guess that Jonrya won’t go well at the beginning, like a forthright hug as they do in S1E2. But I don’t view it as a bad thing, on the opposite I believe a real important relationship would need a proper and elaborate-designed development (never like Jonerys’ one),  that arc would be more moving and impressing.

If Jon & Arya develop their relationship through the final season, like afraid to face each other at the first but then realize they will still love each other no matter what, then I have every reason to believe Jonrya is the endgame. 

And if they do end up romantically (that’s my hope), I guess would be under that stressful circumstance and they still and only have each other (Sansa will die, Bran is emotionless, Jon and Daenerys may turn against each other halfway). Only they would love the other unconditionally, what else does it need for them to go further?

Final word

To close this post, I just want to express my love and respect for the show. Not for D&D of course, they suck at those characters and mess the story after S5. But for Grrm’s brilliant original base and the actors’ amazing performances, including those of Lena, Peter, Carice, Alfie, Aiden & so many other great ones, and finally my beloved Maisie (Not including Kit and Emilia, especially Emilia, they’re lovely though). 

In my view, GOT is one of the greatest show in the world (thanks to Grrm’s original work of course not D&D’s), and I may rewatch and appreciate it every now and then for my later years. 

D&D did a rather good job at least for the first 4 seasons, if they really make an “unexpected” ending as every actor put it and want to impress the audience & to be remembered well, I do hope they could end it well, just like what they did with the beginning.

If that so, I may still not forgive what they did in S5 but would not hate them anymore probably😊.

[nothingneverforever]

The Haunting of Hill House (2018)

I remember sitting through the first episode of this series with my mom, thinking that it wasn't the best option for us to commit to, worrying that it would be a waste of our precious mother-daughter bonding time. The pacing of the first/second episode was too.. American, the emotional expressions too unsubtle, leaving little room for my audience participation, the acting too stilted, and the actors behaving too much like stage thespians .. and because I'd chosen the series after seeing rave reviews online, I remember sitting through the first episode thinking, huh, this is the shit people been losing their minds over?

And then.... suddenly, quickly, it became one of the most deeply affecting and disturbing shows I'd experienced, and thus eventually, one of my favourites. I'm deciding to write this now, about 9 months after I finished the series, because I've just started on The Haunting of Bly Manor, which is described as a "follow-up" series to Hill House. The narratives are not connected, but much of the cast and crew are the same, which is nice because I was so so so so so impressed with the acting of these specific returning actors in Hill House, and after reading a little more into the production process, I've been allowed to understand that the crew is fucking epic and genius as fuck too. I love this series!!!!!

The title of a Youtube video that I love a great deal on this series, by one of my absolute favourite film analysis video essayists, Ladyknightthebrave, is: Stretching Genre - A Haunting of Hill House Video Essay. And maybe this is what I'll talk about first - genre. I've never particularly cared for 'horror' because I'd rather be able to engage with themes and tropes I can relate to in my own life, stories that resemble my own world from my own ever-romantic perspectives. I've always wanted to delve into horror, to appreciate the elaborately designed surfaces as well as be affected in whatever ways by any depth of conversation or concept, but I don't think I've ever been able to achieve any of this. I've tried to enjoy both superficially (i.e. entertainment value) and also more real-ly many horror productions, but always left with a deep sense of meh.  Crimson Peak (which I reviewed here back in 2016) might be the closest I've come to engaging genuinely with anything from this broad genre, but even then I think I liked it more for its kitsch value, its beautiful beautiful beautiful soundtrack, than for the genre-specific parts of the narrative. But I mean, everything makes a film right? The soundtrack and the costumes and the acting are the horror elements in themselves too, I know.

Even then, a lot of the simple reactions I've read for Hill House are ones of surprise, where audiences went in not realizing that a series with the words The Haunting of.. in its title would leave them feeling utterly heartbroken, distraught (sad), emotionally-invested as it were any other drama series. In that Ladyknightthebrave video I mentioned, at multiple points in her essay she says, simply, "hey,... I'm sad" when referencing a particular scene or conversation. And that was, too, my overwhelming reaction to the whole series.... I'm sad!!!!!

Perhaps I should describe the plot a little first.. so the Cranes are a family of 7, mother and father and 5 lovely children: in descending order of age, they are Steve, Shirley, Theo, and twins Luke and Eleanor (Nelly). Here is the official synopsis:

This modern reimagining of the Shirley Jackson novel follows siblings who, as children, grew up in what would go on to become the most famous haunted house in the country.. Now adults, they are forced back together in the face of tragedy and must finally confront the ghosts of their past. Some of those ghosts still lurk in their minds, while others may actually be stalking the shadows of Hill House.

And, from wikipedia, here are some of the notable reviews of the series:

Corrine Corrodus of The Telegraph graded the series with a 5/5 rating, calling it "the most complex and complete horror series of its time." Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com gave unanimous praise to the Netflix adaptation, describing it as "essential viewing," and stated that "[the show] contains some of the most unforgettable horror imagery in film or television in years." David Griffin of IGN gave the series a rating of 9.5 out of 10, calling it "a superb and terrifying family drama," and Paul Tassi of Forbes described it as "absolutely fantastic" and stated that "it may actually be Netflix's best original show ever."

Horror author Stephen King, who holds considerable admiration for Jackson's novel, tweeted about the series, "I don't usually care for this kind of revisionism, but this is great. Close to a work of genius, really. I think Shirley Jackson would approve, but who knows for sure."

Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, in interview with The Jerusalem Post said, "My favorite Netflix series, with no competition, is The Haunting of Hill House."

Due to obvious reasons I give zero fucks about what either King or Tarantino might have to say about, uhh, anything on this planet, but YASSSS RETWEET everything above!!! It is essential viewing!!! Indeed the most complex and complete series of its time!!! Unforgettable imagery!!!

Okie so now on to my own original thots... 

My main learning was this: Horror, i.e. the presence of something horrific, for it's characters in the show/story, isn't about feeling frightened or them 'losing their minds' or being driven to questioning their own perceptions of reality or anything like what we've seen in the last 7 decades or so of seeing the genre develop and evolve. In Mike Flanagan's beautiful ode to Shirley Jackson's incredible story, we come to understand that horror is only ever about genuine trauma. I guess, like I talked about earlier, I never really understood what horror's raison d'etre was at all.. like... why?? What is the greater, lasting impact of having audiences shaking in their boots? What is intended by eliciting a gasp or a scream? WHAT IS THE MEANING OF ALL THIS?!

I asked, and I've been asking and asking for years, and finally Hill House provided: Horror is, in fact, about unspeakable pain.. Pain that has no outlet in a world that will only ever be skeptical of such experiences... it's about being genuinely haunted in such a way that you can never dream of stability in your life ever again; it's about developing into a closed-off, maladjusted adult, knowing that your experiences of early life cannot be related to anyone else's in any way, not even that of your siblings. I remember taking away this lesson very early on in the series, possibly midway through the second episode. Because the siblings (Steve, Shirley, Theo, Luke, Nelly) are all utterly flawed and thus 'real' characters, we're able to quickly why they are the ways they are. (Important note: the siblings are not flawed in ways that make them unlikable at all, or unrelatable, or downright unpleasant to watch - this is a flaw that other productions have definitely fallen prey to before in the name of achieving that 'realness' however Hill House judges things so perfectly that we are endeared to their flaws and never put off by them.) Their disparate experiences with Hill House growing up, their subsequent very personal meaning-making journeys (some looking more like denial, some resulting in substance dependency), their different levels of having access to the 'truths' about what went on in that cursed home, all of this meant that the siblings ended up, where we see them in 'current day', being broken adults with a lot of misplaced anger, unprocessed trauma, and resentment toward one another. It is the aloneness in all their experiences that is the true horror, and the horrors were a very personal, existential kind and so there was no room for mutual bonding and sharing until it was too late, until their babiest of baby sisters had lost herself to the pressures calling her ‘home’.

And suddenly, I realised: this is the true evil. Ghosts don't ruin lives by doing a good epic scare here and there or by turning your irises white by revealing some fucking scary shit: ghosts are seriously... so... fucking... evil because they ruin your whole entire lives..!!! Horrifying realities take the form of many different things, even if they all originate from one main source. The Crane siblings, as children, had to deal at once with their mother being predisposed to falling victim to the spirits of the house due to, as hinted, mental health conditions of her own, while also dealing with differently confusing aspects of a house and a home that taunted them by making them feel unsafe and secure all at once. Now I say all this from an.. artistic appreciation pov, because I am myself unconvinced that the 'supernatural' or anything of a spiritual realm influences our daily lives. Which is all the more significant, right? That a ""skeptic"" like myself (although I'm not an insensitive and stubborn over-rationalizing dumb male like Steve is in the show) could suddenly realise the tragic effects on many many vulnerable souls of a world that clutching on to its medical models and objective scientific truths.

From the series' wiki page: The Haunting of Hill House received critical acclaim, particularly for its acting, directing, and production values, with many calling it an "effective ghost story."

So yea... finally I know what that means. Finally I know what effect a ghost story can and should have. Finally I understand the potential of the genre!!! Sigh there is literally SO much I could say about how and why this is the best series in the world but maybe I'll stop here for now..? There would be no end if I were to discuss everything because it's one of those series that has 'easter eggs', in the form of hidden ghosts (visual) lurking in the dark or specific lines that foreshadow something else later on, but I've never really cared much to 'reveal' these things so yea, go forth and enjoy this best show everrrrr :-)

(For example there is a lot of discussion online about how each of the 5 siblings represent the 5 different stages of grief à la Kübler-Ross, with the eldest Steve being in complete denial that there was ever any supernatural presence to explain their experience, Shirley reacting with sheer anger to all around her, Theo bargaining her way through her own internal conflicts, Luke being surrounded by swirling depression fueling his drug dependency, and Nell eventually accepting the so-called inevitable, etc etc etc but this kinda analysis is a little too lowbrow and heavy-handed for me to get into so yea haha)

There is a specific dialogue that I want to reference however on my way out: when Nell's suicide/death is revealed early in the series, Shirley has the difficult talk with her young children about it. And these 2 simple lines umm basically summarize the entire plot:

Shirley's son: Why did she die? Shirley: I don't know.. I'm just so sad that she did

Everyone watching the show would relate to that immediately but also that sentiment rings more and more and more true as the episodes come to reveal what a painfully innocent and giving soul Nell was... :(

So sad !!!!!

----------

Edit: copying below my mom’s initial thoughts after I forced her to read this post hehe, because her words describe a lot of what I think and feel too, and because I want to remember our discussion and reflection forever!

Each of us -  lives scarred at some time – in some private way – religion drowns it, cosmetises – but horror – is the Couch of reflection, reliving and something of a letting it out.  Feeling again the horror/fear/anxiety/pain/aloneness of that  real trauma – but in an shared room, even if only shared with an older, saner, wiser, learning you.

[survivorbehemoth]

Episode #9: “i hope that i'm out of the pickle and eating the... pickle” - Daisy

how i feel about merge: https://66.media.tumblr.com/68a1cf13a1ea5ca8ec0c6c8a044f92ad/fdb9160ed3342b6d-08/s500x750/a71a511c4f332aba10424d15b5e074bc9bbe5e0d.gifv

Click HERE to watch Szymon’s Video!

Click HERE to watch Daisy’s Video!

Click HERE to watch Chips’ Video!

Click HERE to listen to Szymon’s Vocaroo!

Click HERE to view Szymon’s Trust Rankings!

Click HERE to listen to Szymon’s Vocaroo!

Click HERE to listen to Szymon’s Vocaroo!

Click HERE to watch Daisy’s Video!

Click HERE to watch Rob’s Video! Click HERE to watch another of Rob’s Videos!

So here is my i guess merge confessional! LOOK WHAT I DID! I MADE THE MERGE HEHEHEHEHEHEHE. Voting cindi out last round was very sad but very needed, i think she was looking to have fun and cause chaos but i need some stability in my life rn, crackhead seamus has not came out yet and he can’t yet LMAO. so what happened is as soon as we merged Szymon approached me and wanted to call, and pretty much went on a rant about how annoying Rob is and how everyones so far up his ass, and that HE HAS THE IDOL!!!! And that Szymon wants me daisy and jules to start working together which i was like OH I LIKE THIS. Going into merge i wanted to reconnect with rob, and then keep my alliances with daisy and gage and try and just use them as shields to get into deep merge and then start causing shit.

In terms of my thoughts on everyone…. Gage i am very torn about. Because he is the person i am closest to on a personal level but i think game wise he just is rlly desperate to not lose. I offered him a f2 on our last tribe which i do intend on keeping my word on, but then as soon as we merge i just felt kinda off about him? And he formed a new alliance with Szymon Rob and Conor and didnt say nothing to me or tried to include me. Szymon leaked it tho and so im like oh ok i see i see. I think he is trying to have his hand in everyones cookie jar, but knowing he wants everything is off putting from an ally stance. But also last night he opened up a bit with me and i think he genuinely does wanna work with me, just perhaps not with Daisy. so i am trying to figure out like what is the right move with Gage, is he someone who can actually commit? and will he defend me if people like rob or conor suggest voting me? idk, but i hope he would.

Daisy: my relationship with Daisy is really strong. I think we have a lot in common personally and game wise we mesh really well. Coming in from embb10 i wasnt sure how we would work together but so far so good. everyday she makes me laugh and i want to keep working with her. Supposedly people are painting us two as a duo but i also think if people targeted us they would choose Daisy over me at this point which means i can embrace and keep working with her however openly i wish. Daisy i think also wants to more so work with Szymon and Jules which is fine by me. I think us 3/4 can work really well, it’s just about finding the right time to possibly take a shot at someone.

Szymon: i wasnt sure how i felt about Szymon at the beginning. Sometimes i thought he was annoying, other times i just thought he was being himself which i sometimes just dont vibe with. But him being really honest about his opinions with people shows that he actually is someone i can work with. i am a blunt person and when others are willing to throw mud too, it means we can work well together. I think he is very eager to vote out Rob and also doesnt want to work with Gage which i’m not 100% sure what my plan is yet regarding both.

Rob: rob is a big threat but only because he is so blatantly talking to everyone. dont get me wrong Rob is a great guy, but he isn’t a great ally just because he talks to me. I also know that he has the idol and clearly I aint the top of his ally list since he didnt include me in the one with gage szymon and conor and he also didnt tell me about his idol. Also every inactive person talking to him is not good bc i dont want his farmer ass to let his sheep target me. I think Rob may go home very early and he wont even see it coming.

chips/brandan: we arent working together. that’s about it.

Conor: we became a bit closer during the swap but i certainly wouldnt say he is an ally. more like a neutral friend. i think conor plans on working with gage/rob/szymon. which doesnt include me. But i dont think he has many other connections such as with dylan or daisy or jules. so im not sure how much he’ll be doing anytime soon.

Lovelis: he seems pretty inactive. itll be interesting to see if i can use our pre-established friendship to kinda pull him in and work with him but i also dont know who he plans on working with or doing. very nice and everyone agrees when he is on he is fun to talk to, its just about activity levels and trying to see if he actually is here to play or not.

Dylan: I LIKE DYLAN. BUT HE ALSO LEFT ME ON READ FOR LIKE 16 HOURS NOW LMAO. He was super fun to talk to on our tribe game night, and then in pms but then he kinda ghosted me but continued to talk in the tribe chat. granted i got rlly sloppy drunk last night so when he was free to talk more i wasnt ;/ So ill be interested to see if we can keep vibing, im defnitely open to working with him bc he seems like he would be fun to strategize and work with, but we aren’t necessarily at that point yet.

Jules: juuuules!!!!! amazing, fantastic, the best. but also not the most active. im interested in working with her and i think she appreciates me being crazy and i appreciate her being crazy too. also she is the main reason i won this challenge SOOOOOO. I think me szymon and daisy have a great opportunity to work with her and form a tight 4 if thats the path we choose to go down. Jules is here for fun and to socialize with people and i think some people are off putted by that but i thinks its fine, i just hope we have fun doing crazy stuff together and not against one another :D

THATS IT! MY MERGE CAST ASSESSMENT.

________________________________________________________________

SO I WON IMMUNITY! HEHEHEHEHEHEHE WHICH IS KINDA EMBARRASING SINCE I ONLY ASKED 2 PEOPLE FOR THEIR WORDS, AND THEN DAISY/JULES/SZYMON GAVE ME THE REST. Honk honk i love sharing, this is what communism is all about! But being immune first is kinda a great thing because it really puts you in a firm spot and allows/forces people to strategize with you. since i am unsure if i can attend tribal/live night it also provides some much needed security early on. i am hoping chips goes home at this first tribal which seemingly everyone is on board with. And then id prefer brandan or lovelis to go in live night. But i think Szymon and Daisy will want to vote for Rob. I am not sure if i want to take that shot yet because it might hurt my chances of working with Gage, but also leaves several more inactive people in. if i was confident people like lovelis and brandan would follow rob out the door that would be one thing, but i think it would make people like conor/gage possibly start targeting szymon/daisy/myself and that isnt a good thing. especially if we can wait to f9, and have 5 directly on rob and he goes home and then theres less potential for us getting outvoted

Click HERE to watch Daisy’s Video!

Click HERE to watch Dylan G’s Video!

I know I have been sending only really text confessionals right now and I am REALLY sorry about that, since pretty much a lot of my life has FINALLY FUCKING CLEARED UP I can actually start doing them, butttt since I'm a procrastinator on all sense of the word I'm just gonna type something here and be done with it okay?

Anyways, MERRRRGGGEE! I am fucking SHOCKED that I have made it this far. Keep in mind I really don't think that I would have had any issues getting to the merge keep in mind. Other than the shit I was going through early game and then with some other stuff I feel relatively blessed to be here. I made some connections on my swapped tribe which helped me stay around, and then afterwards I pretty much like... I'm here! I wanted to try and win as many challenges as I could just to help me get by, but then again I'm not the most TALKATIVE person in the world so whatever, I'm planning on fixing that now.

ANYWAYS going into live night I am worried. I was playing three games at once including this WHILE working and BEFORE I got COVID so that was.... okay that wasn't really that fun but still WHATEVER I TRIED GURL OKAY? And from the looks of it the first round should be easy with a relative chips boot which I am fine with. The second round though? That's where the primary issue lies. The only name I heard relative to that is potentially lovealis which I am down with. I got Jules who is a Brandan STAN, my Coco loco alliance with daisy/szymon, and other connections I have made with people like rob. Since after Chips leaves we're in the Final 10 during live night that's easier for my mental sanity. and with me/daisy/szymon/rob/jules, that is already HALF the votes. So I feel... good.

I did not succeed at the social queen immunity.

A social queen i am not.

I was told the vote would be me... so I packed my bags.

Then... a LONG time later they want to blindside Rob. I say okay, I'm down knowing I trust no one so trying to hold on to my smallest sliver of hope that this isn't an elaborate lie.

Then we get live round! If I make it that far I'm ready to party!

Click HERE to watch Gage’s Video!

Click HERE to watch Rob’s Final Words

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Rob is voted out 6-3-1. He becomes the first member of our jury. We then have LIVE NIGHT! At live night, Lovelis goes home 9-1 and becomes the second member of our jury.

Watch the Cast Assessment for this Episode and last Episode below: