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a-singleboat · 4 years ago

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Virtual Reality

Word Count: 2.4k

Request: hi! if your taking requests, i was wondering if you could write a damien x reader, where they meet through Twitch? add anything else you want i always love everything you write, thanks so much!! - anon

Warning(s): like, one swear

It was a Thursday night when you first met him, or rather, heard of him. You had been streaming for five hours heading into your sixth when you decided it might be time for you to log off for the night. As per usual, you took at least thirty minutes at the end of your stream just to talk with your viewers, usually about how their lives were going in exchange for a story from your own day.

Tonight, however, there was an influx of people asking if you’d ever heard of a streamer by the name of Damien Haas, which you hadn’t, and if you would do a collaboration with the man anytime soon. Apparently, your content was eerily similar and you were, and I quote, “Practically the female version of him, looks aside.”

“Damien Haas…” you rolled yourself back closer to your desk, hands settled on your keyboard. You typed his name into the search bar, patiently waiting for Twitch to pull up his account. You clicked into the first one, making an impressed face at the purple checkmark next to his name. You squinted at the screen. “Is this him? In the profile picture with the LEDs in the background?”

You glanced at your chat, chuckling as the viewers started spamming ‘yes’ and ‘oh my god it’s happening,’ and your personal favorite, ‘mom come pick me up the best crossover of 2020 is happening and im SCARED.’

“He plays a lot of Animal Crossing,” you observed, clicking on one of his videos and dragging the tab onto your main monitor so the stream could see it. You skipped through the beginning part, biting into a pretzel as you watched.

“He’s kinda cute,” you commented, laughing as your stream freaked out once more. There were a few people commenting what looked like it could be a ship name though you ignored it. “Shame I’d never meet him, though.”

You paused his video, taking note of the time, before rolling out your shoulders. “I think it’s time for me to head out so I’m gonna end this stream with a huge thank you to you all for sticking with me through this entire stream and if you didn’t stay the entire time, I’m glad you decided to join in on the ride even halfway through. I’ll see you guys next time.”

You ended the stream, waving goodbye to your viewers before the light went out and you could relax the smile off your face. Don’t get it twisted, you loved streaming and you loved your viewers but just like any other job, it could get exhausting at times. You shut down your monitors, the screens turning blue before fading to black. You stretched, taking your phone up from its charger and launching yourself into bed, opening your phone and clicking on Twitter.

Much like staying thirty minutes after you were done streaming to talk to viewers, you usually went on Twitter right after to answer questions and respond to DMs. This time, however, instead of opening the app to see a bunch of post-stream questions, your mentions were filled with the video clip of you saying, “He’s kinda cute,” as well as maybe a million people tagging both you and Damien in them.

Well, shit.

Soon enough, that was all that filled your timeline. You couldn’t move in one direction without running into another screencap of you admiring the man. God, you knew the consequences but something in the back of your mind was urging you to reach out to him.

After a few moments of contemplation, the lonely side of you won out, forcing you to message him against your better judgment. Without even thinking about it, you found his Twitter and sent this message:

Hey, I’m sorry about your mentions blowing up because of me tonight. My viewers recommended your Twitch to me and I spoke without thinking about it on Live.

And with no expectation of his response, you fell asleep right there with your phone on your chest and the DM still open.

You woke up the next morning with a sore neck and a dead phone, which was a terrible way to start your day. You rolled over, plugging your device into an outlet before crawling out of bed to start your day. When you weren’t streaming, you worked as a freelance editor for different YouTubers, helping their editors with their workload or even staying on as a Temp for different companies. Occasionally you edited the odd commercial here and there, but those gigs were rare.

Most recently, you had received some material from a group of YouTubers, Smosh. This job was different, however, because if you did well on this you could be looking at a permanent place of employment through their parent company, Mythical Entertainment.

You knew Mythical Entertainment, it was hard not to, especially since your aunt was one of the producers within the company, but tended to ignore everything the company did. The last you’d heard, they’d onboarded another YouTube group (which you did later find out to be Smosh, the same YouTubers whose video you were hired to edit).

After a quick shower and a half-assed attempt at a proper breakfast, you were ready to start your day. You situated yourself behind your monitors, opening the video clips that had been sent to you. The first was a sample video, something that gave you insight on what their editing style was actually like.

But imagine your surprise when you’re staring down the same man you have called cute the night before, his approximately five-eleven stance taking up one-sixth of the space. He was standing next to a blond, who had been marked as “Shayne Topp.”

Despite there being five other people in frame, your eyes kept moving back to Damien’s figure, watching his mannerisms through the screen and laughing along to his jokes when they fell upon deaf ears.

Your eyes slid over to your phone, now decently charged after sitting for so long. On your screen were dozens of notifications. There were maybe two from your mom, asking if you’d be coming home for dinner sometime that week but the majority came from Twitter. You picked up the device, unlocking and responding to your mom with a, “yes,” before opening Twitter.

Nothing much had changed from the night prior. Your mentions were still being flooded with the video from last night but newer content had been ushered in, namely fan edits using footage from your streams and, you assumed, his.

The only major difference, however, was the fact that Damien had responded to your DM from the night prior. The first message read:

It’s really no problem! My stream had mentioned your name before, too.

Followed by the second:

P.S. I think you’re cute, too.

You couldn’t believe your eyes. Mr. Damien Haas, the man that you had made a thoughtless comment on stream about, also thought that you were cute. Suddenly, the fact that you had been staring at him for the past hour seemed less stalkerish and more like a blooming crush. You wrote back:

Aw, thanks! Have you seen the newer fan edits? They’re all so talented.

You cringed at yourself. A cute boy started talking to you and you’ve suddenly forgotten how to be suave, not that you really were in the first place. But still, you liked to think you had some tact when talking to people that you found attractive.

Not even a moment later, there came a response.

Yes, I have, he responded. And I agree! They are all very talented individuals.

You looked from the monitor in front of you. You had about a quarter of the footage left to go through before you could start editing but this technically wasn’t due until the following night. Feeling emboldened by the fact that he had actually responded, you replied:

Are you going to TwitchCon on Friday? We should meet up or something.

Anxiously you awaited his response, taking his silence as an opportunity to watch a bit more of the footage and take down notes according to the sample they’d given you. Roughly thirty minutes later is when the next response came in, reading as an affirmative to both questions.

You didn’t respond, choosing to leave your social media for after you’d finished editing the video. Your heart still pounded, however. Just the thought that there was a possibility for the two of you to meet was, simply put, insane. You’d just heard of the guy the night before and decided that he was going to be your latest hyperfixation.

But who could blame you? He was a nice, funny guy that showed the slightest bit of attraction towards you. It didn’t help that you were a sucker for guys that were nice to you.

Fast forward to the Friday of TwitchCon, also known as the first day of TwitchCon. You and Damien had been talking steadily over Twitter DMs and just last night you had gained his phone number, giving you even more access to the man than you had before. But of course, who were you if you didn’t tease your fans with the prospect of you meeting.

The night before, at the end of your stream, you’d given your fans the little tidbit of information that you and Damien were, in fact, planning on meeting up sometime during TwitchCon and would be greeting fans together for an hour at your booth.

That sent Twitter into a frenzy, both of your combined fans getting your ship name to trend within the hour, which confused the hell out of a bunch of locals.

It was nearing the time you and Damien had set to meet up. The plan was you’d meet around twelve for lunch, take an hour for yourselves, before going back to your booth and meeting with fans for an hour or so as promised.

You had never been more nervous than you were in that moment. Not only were you about to meet your three-day-old crush but apparently a very popular YouTuber. You tried not to let the thought mess with your head. One of your friends, Wilbur Soot (who you played Minecraft with from time to time) was poking fun at you for being nervous about meeting a popular YouTuber.

After three years of streaming and gaining a solid following, you’d think you’d be used to meeting other popular content creators. But because it was him, you found yourself unable to think straight.

“What if I fuck up?” you asked Wilbur anxiously. He’d flown in from London for this event at your insistence and because you’d offered to pay half his airfare to get there and back. He didn’t have his own booth as his arrival was very last minute, but he didn’t mind. He signed the occasional poster though his main purpose was to provide you mental and emotional support.

“You won’t fuck up,” he comforted, leafing through one of the comics a fan had given you. The entire thing was hand-drawn, which was an insane fact in itself. It looked professional, which was what blew you away when you’d received it. “Well, you won’t fuck up as badly as you did when you first met Schlatt.”

You groaned in embarrassment. “Don’t remind me.”

Long story short, you’d dumped a red in color slushy on the man accidentally after tripping over an unmarked cable. It really wasn’t your fault but the boys hadn’t let you live it down since then.

Half a moment later, Wilbur was poking your side. “Is that him?” he asked, jabbing his pointer finger into your side while looking in the opposite direction. He was looking at a familiar figure walking down the hallway toward your booth. He stopped for a moment to take a photo with a fan, talking to them about something, before continuing on his way toward you.

Your eyes locked and you gave him a smile while trying to beat Wilbur into no longer poking you. He stopped when you slapped his arm the first time, sticking his tongue at you before going on his phone. You rolled your eyes at his half-assed attempt of pretending he wasn’t about to start listening in on your conversation.

“Hey, Y/n, right?” Damien asked as he approached. You nodded, reaching out for a handshake but becoming pleasantly surprised when he instead pulled you in for a hug.

“You ready for lunch?” you asked glaring slightly at Wilbur as he made kissy faces over Damien’s shoulder. Luckily, Damien hadn’t noticed your moron of a best friend.

“Yeah, I saw this sushi place on the way in if you wanted to try that?”

“I’d be down,” you agreed, reaching behind your table to grab your bag. Wilbur was set to meet with a few other Minecraft streamers, meaning you didn’t have to worry about him while you had lunch. You looked over your shoulder, making sure everything was set for you to leave before saying goodbye to Wilbur.

Over the course of lunch, you and Damien had gotten to know each other pretty well. Once the conversation moved away from your fans and, well, work, and more into personal details, you found that you actually weren’t all that similar. For starters, Damien loved watching anime while your guilty pleasure was Gilmore Girls. The one show you both had a love for, however, was Avatar the Last Airbender, which made sense.

Another thing was that he actually enjoyed being in front of the camera while you tolerated it on most days, really only putting on your face cam for the last thirty minutes on most days. Despite that, he still classified himself as an introvert.

You returned back to your booth much later than you anticipated, thoroughly shocked at the line that had formed with Wilbur at the front of it, entertaining the fans that had shown up early to meet both you and Damien.

“Y/n!” one fan called, pointing in your direction. Immediately, the entire line turned and gaped at the sight of you and Damien walking together. You greeted them happily, stopping for pictures and verbally promising that you’d stay until you got to meet everyone personally.

“You really love your fans,” Damien observed as you put your things back down behind the table. Wilbur had set up shop on your right side, chatting with a few people at the front of the line.

“I wouldn’t be anywhere without them,” you admitted, pulling a silver sharpie from your bag. You handed a gold one to Damien. “I also wouldn’t have gotten to meet you without them, which I’m still sorry about, by the way. Your feed must have been chaotic.”

“You have no idea,” he chuckled. “But everything happens for a reason.”

You nodded, grinning up at him. “Yes, they do.”

Permanent

@beautiful-holland @toms-order @starlightfound @grandmascottlang @positiveparker @bippity-boppity-boopa @caswinchester2000 @andreasworlsboring101 @imladylunaticbitch

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shesawriter39049 · 4 years ago

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|Got Me Loosin All My Cool| M|

Pairings: Jungkook X Reader | Jimin X Reader( Smut) FT- Side Tae & Yoongi

Note: Kook is in 80% of this but he’s “new” to the dynamic...so the smut is with Jimin and the OC...not Kookie!

About- Jimin and yourself take Jungkook shopping for a new suit to wear to the “Spectrum” launch party! OH, and Jimin fucks you in the backseat of your truck in the parking garage of the mall…..

OR: You know Kookie still in that “Broke college grad” phase only being with the company barley a month, and you don’t want him to feel self-conscious at the event! You’ve also been too busy to really check in with him to see how he’s adjusting! So, you thought something like this, in a more laxed atmosphere, would be a good solution! Oh and Jimin, honestly he’s just nosey as fuck and inched himself along, like nobody really invited him he invited his damn self! Also Jungook can’t underatand why the fuck your all so damn attractive...like...why!?

Jungkook’s a sweetheart and lowkey confused and whipped for everybody

Tae’s kinda being a spoiled asshole

Yoongi’s over it!

Jimin’s being a brat, he’s not use to having to “Behave” around others, espeically while your wearing “that” dress.....

-Song Reference- COOL- Dua lipa

WC: 6K

WARNINGS: Semi-public sex/Top OC/Power bottom Jimin/ Spit play/ Cum play/ Fingering (F receiving) Cockrings/Lube (yes ppl actually use that IRL )Dirty talk/ biting, finger sucking

FINAL NOTE: This little excerpt is the prequel to the next full-length one-shot “All Eyes On Me” which is Hoseoks official ‘Intro” if you will. The full Summary for that can be found in the Masterlist which is linked below! Also if you’re new here..this is a stand-alone one-shot within my OT7Poly AU called “7 Deep” Short version: Your husband Namjoon and yourself run a successful Adult Film Entertainment Company called “Onyx” with your 5 best friends from college who you also happen to be in an open relationship with!

(Sneak peek)

~~~~~~

ONXY ENTERTAINEMENT 10:45 AM

Jungkook’s happy I guess almost surprisingly so, I mean yeah Yoongi and yourself seemed cool in the interview, and when he did is work interview the vibe was chill. But let’s get real, we all know shit always seems better than it actually is in the interviews!

For one he honestly wasn’t expecting to be given such free reign already which is also why he’s happy as hell he didn’t listen to his roommate’s Mark and Ten and lie on his resume. Granted, everything still had to go through Yoongi first but he wasn’t just... I don’t know editing thumbnails like he thought he was actually doing real work. He’s been here barely a month and he already has reels he can add to his portfolio! Learning new tips and tricks, believe it or not, even through his internships he’s learned that some people are stingy when it comes to sharing knowledge. Yoongi however was far from that, thankfully he was well aware that just because you teach someone your “secrets” doesn’t mean you’re essentially replacing yourself! What makes you good at your job isn’t just how it’s done its how you do it!

If only Kookie could stop internally fangirling over Yoongi his life would be a little easier! He’d seen hundreds of your companies films before and being the production major he is..of course, he’d watch it the first time to jack off..then the second time he’d find himself just as if not even more turned on for the production quality. That’s something Onyx is always praised for..”Aesthetically pleasing porn”. Every morning, Yoongi would sit him down and show him something new and for the first time he finally understands what people mean when they say that someones mind is..attractive! Not Yoongi himself though, because that’s his boss and that would be weird but like his brain, ya know? Yoongi’s brian is sexy in a broboss way...I don’t know just go with it!

Anyway, Kook’s current project was actually one of his favorites so far because it was forcing him to actually challenge himself! This was something actually requested by Hoseok, who he learned was 26, the head of marketing, always bouncing around like he’s had 6 expresso shots and somehow manages to make streetwear look professional…. But anyway the task is creating trailers for films that are pc enough to not be blocked on platforms like IG but spicy enough to get ppl to wanna watch the full thing. Making a climax without the actual climax if you know what I mean. So he’d have to sit there and watch the films, try not to get hard and wanna jack off while watching said films...then take notes and screencaps of the best moments and compile them together without showing “too much”. He’s never been so thankful that he could wear sweatpants to work….because…..yeah it was hard..literally and figuratively hard...but like I said he’s happy and can pay his bills so that’s cool too!

Don’t get me wrong he still feels a little out of place at times and surprisingly enough not for the reason he expected! Two months shy of his 21st bday he assumed he’d feel a type of way because he’s the youngest but that’s not the case! Hell, they went to Nobu for lunch last week and Jin actually slid him his drunk so he wasn’t the only one not drinking! Flashing him a cheeky little wink and whispering “Don’t tell mom” in reference to you once Kook looked back at him like a deer in headlights! It seems as though they care more about his talent than his age which is the way it should be because he knows he’s good at what he dose!

However, Onyx is kinda like those offices you see on TV, the kind he never thought where real, behind closed doors the environment is far from pc! It’s not a normal morning unless somebodies cursing out there computers! This morning he swore Taehyung told Jimin he had a shrimp dick…… There’s “that’s what she said” jokes being thrown out left and right, people cracking jokes on one another. And it’s not that he feels uncomfortable by any means again he’s a 20 y/o kid from LA it’s just ...he’s new...ya know? So he doesn’t know if he’s “allowed” to do that! So in the meantime, he just spends his days laughing until his chest hurts!

But besides that everybody’s chill , he’s still trying to learn people, regardless of how laxed the office is everybody’s busy as all hell especially Namjoon and yourself! The two of you are actually his biggest mystery, he’s never thought of marriage being something that he’d want. He’s always heard that people change, and shit gets boring, but even in a work environment that’s far from the vibe he gets from the two of you! You actually make marriage seem exciting, worth it, like a gift, not a task…..

Something else that he can’t truly wrap his head around is that your his boss, like legitimately his boss! Somebody that looks like you,I mean fuck your not even 30, you sway around the office in your little dresses and designer heels! Always dolled up hell sometimes he questions if he’s the one in some upscale porno! Actually, not just you all of you why the fuck are all of you so effortlessly attractive and put together?! To make it even worse you all know your shit too! Two days ago for example Kook went to Yoongi to ask if there was a certain way he wanted the ending credits to come into frame, and instead of Yoongi responding you did! Using terminology that had him ready to run home and pull out his “Intro to production” text box! Shit don’t make any Goodman sense...even Yoongi sitting in his office looking like he could be in one of the films he’s editing and no, god no why is he thinking this about his higher-ups?! No, no, nope try again Jeon!

However, now that we’re on this topic, there is one person that he can’t quite wrap his head around...I mean yeah he’s nice but he just seems more reserved around Jungkook than everyone else. Which is odd considering he’s the one Kook meet first, he’s actually the one that encouraged him to even submit his resume, to begin with! What makes it even odder is Yoongi and yourself actually told him that Tae was the most outgoing...it’s not that Jungkook nessercally thinks Tae dislikes him it’s just ...I don’t know, I don’t know…I guess he was just...warmer when the two of them met at Starbucks then he is now that they actually work together!

...And I guess that’s why he almost shit himself when his phone rang and the incoming name rang though as….”Taehyung Kim”...he kinda hoped he pocket dialed him and would just hand up! But wait, I guess you can’t really do that from a landline can you?? Fuckkkkkk

“I know technologies come a long way Kook, but phones don’t answer themselves ya know…” Eyes fluttering over to see Yoongi smirking at him, tone blatantly amused as he flipped through a file he had in his hands.It’s like he could sense how nervous he is too “Don’t worry about Tae, he’s more bark than he is bite, he’s literally a puppy dressed in Gucci…” Flicking his chin in the direction of the phone with a reassuring smile.

With a timid nod and shaky fingers Jungkook picks up the call on the final ring “H-hello??”

“Jungkook? Can you come to my office in the next 5 or so minutes?” His tone wasn’t rude by any means but it also wasn’t the most inviting. Eyes fluttering overly timidly in Yoongis direction because he knew Tae was loud enough that the elder could hear and he smiled fondly, nodding in approval. Arms crossed firm against his chest, head cocked to the side, eyes squinting slightly from under his black baseball cap, as if he was now purposely trying to hear the conversation.

“Umm, yeah, yeah of course…” God, why does he sound like he’s still going through puberty right now!? Voice fluttering ina and out of an octave!

“Great!”

Tae just hangs up, no goodbye ...promoting Yoongi to roll his eyes, with an exasperated sigh...Jungkook just sits there for a moment, not too sure what to do!

“You’re free to go, Seok dosen’t need these until Friday and your deifiently far enough along, a little time away from your desk wont hurt! Oh, just save your stuff first though! The systems moving slow as fuck and I’m about ready to break my damn computer so I’ll probably do a system reboot while you’re gone!”

Jungkook nods timidly, swallowing so hard he’s sure Yoongi heard it, fingers scattering to do as Yoongis instructed, he literally feels like he’s going to throw up! Why does Tae make him so nervous? I mean no offense but Tae isn’t even his boss why is he more freaked out of Taehyung than is actual boss!

He hears a heavy sigh fall from behind him, as Yoongi invites himself to take a seat, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder ‘First off, you’re doing fucking great, and I mean that, so step back...and breath...” Squeezing his shoulder slightly, tone calm yet stable enough to ground the younger!

“Second, I’m ordering lunch from that coney up the street, Hyungs treat” He watches Jungkook go to open his mouth in protest and Yoongi just groans, loud and obnoxious, eyes fluttering to the back of his head more times than he can count!

“Don’t even try and give me that “Your not hungry bullshit” Eyes narrowing in the youngers direction challangingly “So let’s try this again, what do you want? And yes Tae can wait I already texted him and told him so you’re fine! Now go to google and pull up Leo’s menu and lets order lu-”

“Yonngggggiiiii!!!’ Whines through the studio, which only promps the man in question to slowly sink into his chair as if he was trying to make himself dissapear! And before Jungkook can even make heads or tails as to what’s happening...a pair of skin-tight leather pants, a florial silk shirt, that was sitting so low it mideswell not even be buttoned, flashy shades and windswept pastel pink hair comes strutting in... Looking like something straight out of Vouge so again he asks why the fuck does everybody look like this!?

Not even botherng to ask if he’s interupted anything, just flinging his arms around the production manager’s neck, propping his chin on top of his head,

“I need like...20 headshots edited...in the next half hour” Jungkook watched Yoongi go completely ridgit a scowl on his face as he tried to pull away but the casting manager only held on tigher “...and before you kill me even though I drunk some of it this Amerciano is for you soooo, I feel like I’ve made it worth or while, please and thank you! ” Smiling so big his eyes dispered into his face it took everything in him not to coo and swoon all at the same damn time!

Jimin fucking Park......

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Heyyyyyyyy,

That’s all she wrote for now, don’t know the post date yet, I’ve written up wo when they actually go to the mall so it’s like halfway done.....

MASTERLIST FOR THIS AU IS DOWN BELOW, I’M GLAD PEOPLE ARE ENYOING THIS “UNIVERSE”!

7 DEEP

#jungkook #jungkook x reader #jungkook au #jimin #jimin smut #jimin x reader #jeon jungkook #park jimin #jimin au #bts #bts au #bts smut #yoongi #yoongi au #bts poly #bts poly au #kpop #kpop smut kpop au

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corvidry · 4 years ago

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All About RP Icons For Beginners by Birdy

Hi OP, I’m not sure how experienced you are with all the nonsense surrounding the making and using of RP icons, so I’m gonna come at it as though you don’t have any experience with it at all and I’m sorry if that’s too simplified for you, but also if I’m gonna write many paragraphs about one topic I may as well make it accessible for as many people as possible ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This post goes into what tools are out there for the popular methods of finding/making RP icons in the first half and my personal methodology for choosing and using them in my RP for the second half. This is a very surface level answer to the question and is not meant to be an in depth tutorial for the more labor intensive aspects of the process, but if you guys want more information and can’t find it elsewhere, please ask and I'll know what I should be talking about next.

Also I’m also contractually obligated to mention to the masses that I do take commissions both for the drawing of RP icons and the service of capping, cutting, recoloring, and framing canon icons. Sometimes I even post batches of canon character icons for free on this blog so like,,,,, hit me up if you want. But!! You don’t need me, you can absolutely do all of it yourself!! I go into the broad strokes below.

Question 1: “How do you get icons?”

This is kind of a broad question and the answer depends on what your needs are. The right answer for you is gonna live in one of two camps

Find some that already exist that are free to use

Make them yourself / commission somebody else to make them for you.

What you'll choose is gonna depend a lot on your character first and foremost. The big determining factor in most cases is whether or not the face you want has been in anything you can take pictures of.

If you have a canon character who exists in visible media--

--you're in luck! The chances of you finding some resources that exist already is higher when you have a canon character who is in at least a few pieces of media. OP asked about Pearl from Steven Universe, and she's a great example of a character with a lot of resources. Searching for rp icons of a popular character will often yield packs of icons on Tumblr, Dreamwidth, Livejournal, etc. Most of these will be completely free to use or have very reasonable conditions for use (like credit the person who made them for example.) It's often a good first step to see what preexisting resources are available to you even if you still plan on making your own icons.

If you have an OC or a character that's not all that popular--

--you're gonna fall into the second camp. If you want icons, you have to have them made. So what are your options?

Help! My character appears in no media! What are my options?

If your character appears in no media you're in a tough spot. Different people approach this problem in different ways.

Face Claims

One option you have is to choose a face claim to represent your character. In roleplay a face claim or ‘FC’ is a person or character whose appearance you use for the physical description of your character. I personally am not big on doing this, I prefer drawn icons and I tend to RP as animated characters, but some people really like using celebrities and stuff to represent their characters. When I was playing Angus McDonald he hadn't appeared in any visual media yet, so I sometimes used Bryce Clyde Jenkins as the face claim for certain types of threads.

If you're somebody who likes to use face claims there are loads of resources out there for finding the perfect one, including here on tumblr. Try searching up RP Faceclaim Directory and playing around with some of the ones that pop up.

DIY RP Icons

The other option you have is to create those icons from scratch. Draw them yourself based on icons you like or commission an artist to draw some for you. If you can't draw yourself, I've seen some people get really creative with this. Some people create their character in the sims, dollmakers, or their favorite RPG and then take screenshots of that to use for icons. There's also no law that says every icon you use has to be your character's face. When I was writing a trashy mermaid AU I got a lot of mileage out of icons that depicted harbor and oceanic scenes with no actual faces. Get creative, go nuts, have fun.

Icons Aren’t That Important

The other thing to remember that icons are not a must in many RP circles. It's perfectly possible to have a great time and write cool stuff without any pictures at all. Depending on your platform of choice there are probably also other interesting ways you can make your posts unique to you by formatting the text or using symbols or emojis or otherwise denoting your personal style in text.

Help! My character appears in lots of media! How do I make icons?

Again, there are a million and one answers to this question and it really depends on what tools are available to you and what your preferences are. This section is not a tutorial but it will outline some of the options you can look into.

The icon making process is typically in 2 stages-- stage 1: get all your images of your character, and stage 2: edit all of those images into icons.

If you have access to the source material, any version of Photoshop, and software that automates the collection screencaps from video (KM Player, VLC, etc) you're pretty much gucci. You're gonna have no problem getting loads of nice icons in a reasonably short amount of time and there are a million different tutorials on how to use those things whichever way you prefer.

If you don't have access to those things you still have options.

You can still screencap things manually, and you can screencap in batches by holding down the windows key and pressing PrtSc any time you want to save an image. They should be saving to >pictures>screenshots unless you’ve set things up differently. It’s a good way to take a lot of screenshots without stopping in between.

( EDIT / UPDATE: to say that if you use automation for taking screencaps remember to turn that shit off when you’re not using because it oh mylanta it WILL continue to take images without you realizing. Figured out where all my disk space has been going with this rookie mistake, thanks OP)

Additionally, PhotoScape X is a really great little tool for windows and mac that I've never seen anybody talk about, but I use it sometimes and it's totally free with the exception of a few paid features I’ve never once needed or wanted. This program is not as efficient as using Photoshop but it has presets for cropping images easily as well as batch editing options for some basic borders and color retouching. While it’s not as powerful as Photoshop, you can get a lot done with it reasonably quickly compared to other choices. You can also take and edit snips of anything on your screen with it, which is really really useful if you don’t have access to the video or image files you would need on your hard drive for other version of this process. The program looks like this:

Also, not to be like a minimalist about it, but you can also just fucken use Microsoft Paint or whatever you have. Like, whatever, there’s no law. You graphics dont have to be comlpex or deep fried. Half of my icons have been made or edited in paint at some point. It wont be as fast as some of these other methods but a lot of us aren't out here making icons in batches of 100 at a time.

Anything that you can use to make smallish images of your characters face will work to make icons.

If you want more information about any of these methods of icon creation let me know and I’ll talk about them.

Question 2: “How do you make your icons ‘work’ in posts?”

I'm a little confused on what you mean by "make them work" so I'm gonna cover my bases here. I'm assuming what you're getting at is a sort of sense of cohesion in the icons I use, or having the "right" expression for the scene I'm writing. Either that or them not stretching and looking weird thanks to tumblr. I’ll get to both of those.

And before I go into my own rationale for icon choices I feel I should point out that a lot of people who aren't me do successfully manufacture cohesion out of their images by doing fun stylistic things like recoloring their images all the same way or putting cute borders and stuff around them or making them fun shapes, and that's totally something you can learn how to do if it interests you. I do this for icons commissioned by other people and I’m not against talking about how to do those things, but I don’t really bother with them for my own icons all that much. That stuff is all fun and it’s a neat thing you could get into that can make your icons all look really nice together.

BUT ANYWAY --

Since the character you asked about is Pearl, I’m going to focus on her. Nearly all of my Pearl icons are completely unedited and a lot of the credit I would have to give regarding icon quality goes to Pearl herself and the consistently good lighting that the show uses. I don’t have a huge need for editing or color retouching beyond making memes or whatever other goofy things I might be getting up to. Pearl is extremely expressive compared to other characters I have written and since she's in nearly every episode, I've managed to collect…

...oh god, that’s too many icons.

Pearl is a main character and I've been RPing as her for over 6 years now so I have a fuckload of images to choose from and I'm not gonna pretend that doesn't help when I wanna “make things work”. She gives me a lot of options.

That said, you absolutely don't need 3000 images to make a good post. The way I've collected and organized these images may be of use to you even if you dont have as many icons. I've done a lot with my setup to make finding the right icon very easy.

For starters, a minor subset of my Pearl icons are grouped by a particular defining feature. I have one large Pearly folder full of icons and then a few smaller folders inside for icons I thought worth grouping separately. For example, all icons of SUF Pearl in her new jacket are in the same folder. All icons of Pearl in short term alternate outfits are in the same folder. Anything I sourced from Attack the Light is in its own folder. I do this with anything that has a very specific use, such as writing AU content or flashbacks to specific time periods. If I can picture an icon in my head, I usually know where in my ridiculous hell collection to go to find it.

This folder was originally just for her pre-canon outfit but now all of her outfits that only appeared temporarily are in there.

Perhaps more important for the sake of cohesion is that nearly all of my icons that aren’t squirreled away in some smaller folder are loosely arranged by episode. What that means is that most of the time I have icons from the same scene right next to one another. It makes it incredibly easy to make my RP replies appear as though it's all one cohesive scene even if I use more than one icon. When you do it this way it becomes very easy to choose icons that have the same lighting or that appear to lead from one expression seamlessly into another. Exhibit A:

While the vast majority of my icons are numbered, I do take the time to name ones I find myself using a lot or that have particularly unique expressions. Usually I'll choose names that I'll find descriptive or easy to remember based on the context of the icon. You can have a lot of fun with that and never lose your favorites.

Also don't be afraid to lean on icons you got from weird places if you like them. The icons of Pearl from the official comics run don’t look like most of what I have. I think them being different would turn a lot of RPers off, but I use them a lot because I like the style and I almost never see other Pearl RPers using them. It either makes me stand out or it makes me tacky, one of the two, haven’t figured out which, but also I’m not stopping.

And just to reiterate, you can use icons that aren’t your character if they’re thematically relevant or vague enough to look like them. When I’m capping I’ve started saving a folder of miscellaneous environments of interests, hands, and other everyday types of scenery that appear in the thing I’m taking screencaps of.

You can use any size you want for RP icons but the most common is 100x100 or 150x150 pixels. Any smaller than that and the image gets to be difficult to read and work with in my opinion. That doesn’t stop people, of course, but I’m elderly and need glasses now, so no tiny icons for me. On that note, I rarely see RP icons larger than 300x300. Any larger than that it tends to get bulky and be in the way of other people’s comfortable internet browsing experience, especially on mobile. Of course, these are just my suggestions. What you choose will ultimately be up to you, but somewhere in that 100 to 300 px range is pretty safe.

A very tumblr specific thing to know is that any image that is wider than 300 pixels will be stretched to hell, so you probably want to keep it smaller than that.

Thanks, Tumblr, I hate it!

Also, don’t be afraid to make trash images for fun if you’re so inclined. People love that, or at least I do. Not having the right icon can be fun and lead to a very silly solution. Lean into being a shitposter if that’s what you’re called to do.

So yeah, that’s basically what my suggestions are. Collect your images in a way that helps cohesion and ease of use. Keep them a good size. Don’t be afraid to get unconventional with your choices or make memes or whatever. It’s all for a fun time.

Anyway, that’s all I can think of right now, but more info on any of this can be obtained at the price of one ask, I know it was a lot of different moving parts.

#rp #rp icons #birdy answers #my graphics #my icons #long post

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analyzingadventure · 4 years ago

Text

Catching up with Psi!

Episodes 37-41!

Episode 37, MIMI CHAN WARS, LET’S GOO

Tailmon is so intense about protecting Hiari... I love it... Patamon just wants to play... Agumon is helping with the food...

I love the wholesome interactions like these... I love them...

Sora?? WHY JUMP IN??

Dumbasses just fucking evolve Piyomon and- ah fuck it’s too late

YEAH IF YOU HAD JUST EVOLVED THIS WOULD’VE BEEN AVOIDED

And now the kids are all alone! (I mean Tailmon will protect them, I’m sure, but still) (Oh yeah Koushirou is with them too) (But Koushirou is also a baby so)

Hell yeah Mimi! Bring the justice in and save those Digimon!!

The stone castle reminds me of Vamdemon’s castle a bit...

Mimi says Capitalism Bad!! Hell yeah!!!

I like Golemon, Golemon’s a buddy :) (Please don’t kill him Psi)

I mean to be fair Greymon’s already evolved and can kick the Goblimon’s ass easily so

Mimi, what the hell are planning to do with these gems. I just. What’re you planning

IS IT BLASTMON??

XROS WARS RIGHTS?? PLEASE?

Nope, not Blastmon, woe is me ;_;

OH JESUS GOLEMON’S IN PIECES??? JESUS??

Oh god I though Mimi wanted Lilimon to eat the diamond dfkgjhsdfkghsjk

Ah, the sunset colors are super pretty, this is so nice and pretty

NEXT EPISODE, 38, BLAZING BLUE FRIENDSHIP

Oh is this the Gabumon crucification episode?

OH IT IS LMAO

Yamato how are you not dead yet

JYOU HAS FINALLY ESCAPED THE SPRING

WHERE ARE HIS CLOTHES??? JESUS

Mephismon is very cool, I love his vibes lmao

Jyou, I know how to solve this situation, you ust need a sutra-

WHY DIDN’T EVOLVE GARURUMON TO WEREGARURU???

Jyou is so happy I love him

dsfksjdfsdfgfxcjhvjxv

Awww, the divorce is still canon in Psi...

DO WE FINALLY HEAR THE BACKSTORY TO HOW YAMATO AND GABUMON MET

Yamato this is so unnececarily dangerous

BABY!!!

TSUNOMON!!! YOU ARE SO CUTE

TSUNOMON!! I am fighting my instinct to screencap every frame of him becase he is so freaking cute but oh my god... Baby...

Sassy baby...

Okay but the question is, how long ago did Yamato meet Gabumon? Was it like weeks before this entire thing began, or was it like 5 minutes before Taichi entered the Network??

This sparks joy

Honestly this whole climbing thing is so dangerous I want to argue that it would’ve been safer Zudomon had thrown his hammer at the mountain and Yamato had just rode it there

JDKFHSJKDJDF YEAH JYOU, CHANT!! DO IT!! USE THE POWER OF YOUR BIG BRAIN!!!

You’re both dumbasses ;_; <3

Oh Yamato... you lonely baby...

This is so cute y’all

OH THEY FOUND EACH OTHER TOO! NICE

Time for the POTATO HELL (episode 39)

Tailmon is CUTE ;w; <3

Yeees give me more cute Digimon hanging out

IS BURGAMON VOICED BY MOFURUN (MAHO TSUKAI PRECURE) (YES, IT IS THE SAME VOICE ACTRESS, I’M SO HAPPY RIGHT NOW)

“Since fries are hard to grab” You’d think the Digimon would make bigger, easy-to-grab potatos by default then, but Gomamon’s point is valid jdfhsdg

Lunamon helps by washing Digimon, that’s so silly I love it

THERE’S A TANKMON

Are you sure this is Potato Hell? Jyou seems like he’s in Potato Heaven

IS POTAMON VOICED BY DOKAMON OH FUCK THEY ARE

I’M SO HAPPY RIGHT NOW this combo of voice actors is so fucking cute I’m dying thank you so much Psi I’m in heaven

Potamon is Jyou’s Digisona jdskfhkjghdfg

This is so stupid and cute

Potamon is gonna dark evolve into Done Devimonsdjh WAIT I WAS JOKING I DIDN’T EVEN GET TO FINISH THAT SENTENCE

This episode is so fucking dumb I love it

PUSURIMON GOT TO DEBUT IN THIS EPISODE! :D (I mean like, animation debut)

This is so silly omg

YEAH JYOU, USE THAT FUCKING HAMMERDFIDHSFJDFGKLJ

This episode was dumb as balls, I loved it, 10/10

OH NEW ENDING!

Oh that was cute :3

EPISODE 40!

THEY’RE PLAYING SOCCER?! THANKS I LOVE IT

THEY’RE EVEN USING IKKAKUMON FOR THIS GAME?!

Poor Tailmon, getting stranded on the other goal... jdhfkjsdhfg

Oh that’s just a floating island, nothing unusual

Y’all really should’ve taken some cover from the stuff falling down

asdfdfgdfsgdf

Agumon how were you planning on getting the extra fruit without getting a lift from Birdramon (or did you assume you’d get a lift anyways??)

A FRIDGE

But is it filled with eggs?

oH MY GOD BABY TAICHI AND SORA WERE SO CUTE OH GOD

POMUMON! THE NEW BABY!

Turned into fruits and eaten?? I mean some Digimon just cannibalize others the way they are so IDK why they need to be turned into fruits before eaten but okay I guess

I love how the promise of juice swayed Yamato lmao

Pomumon is such a baby ;w;

WAIT DID TAICHI ALSO GET FRUITIFRIED

TAICHI HAS BEDFJSJKDFHDFGHJS HE’S A FRUIT NOW DJKFHSKJH

Pomumon, I love you, you absolute baby

Garudamon is so fucking cool in this episode y’all

Imagine having a giant bird monster tell you you’re cool

NEXT EPISODE!

Last one I can watch rn v_v 41 Mon-Mon Park in the Fog!

MONZAEMON! So the park is kinda like if they mashed the Toy Town and the random ass amusement park from Server together

OPOSSUMON!! Oh man, being reminded of Hunters is now reminding me of... him...

Man imagine if they also put references to that amusement park into this episode? That’d be wild, a true smorgasbord of references

"Land of Dreams” of fuck off don’t you tease me!!

GABUMON’S READY TO DRAG YAMATO FOR BEING AFRAID OF THE HAUNTED HAUSE JDSFHLSGHKJDFG

This is cute y’all

XIAOMON?! BABY!!? ;A;

Never gonna get tired of Pegasmon... Love the hoarse

bAKEMON?! MY BELOVED GHOST!

I call BS on Opossumon being a faster flyer than Pegasmon, c’mon dude

WARUMONZAEMON! :D

Angemon’s back yaaay

This episode wasn’t as good as the previous two but okay

Episode preview!

Nothing interesting except but Garbemon (long time no see!) and Raremon! (Last seen in Xros Wars but was redesigned, so fun to see the original design back!)

Yeah so, out of these five episodes I did enjoy 3 a lot but, yeah, the filler isn’t particularly thrilling or anything. But I had fun! And as per my previous post concerning episode 43 spoilers, while I’m not particularly excited about the next episode, I SURE AS FUCK AM FOR EPISODE 43

So I’ll see y’all either next week or two weeks from now (I might not be excited enough to watch episode 42 right when it becomes available so I might wait until 43)

#Psi #Psi reaction

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ultradiplr · 5 years ago

Text

#1 Fan

Plot: You catch the eye of your favorite baseball star Siebren de Kuiper before a game~

Tags: Sort-of-Sexting, Age Difference. Semi-Public. BJ. Overuse of the smiling emoji. Reader radiates big bottom energy, but is otherwise gender neutral. Sigma is a… Fuckboi. lol

A/N: I have no self control and even though I have like five other things I’m working on right now @sketchingshow ‘s Baseball!Sigma has given fuel to a new fire.

You look at the clock over the ticket booth and grimace, looking down at the digital ticket you had pulled up on your phone screen, mentally face palming at how you had gotten 12:30 and 2:30 mixed up. You sighed and walked up to the qr scanner, verifying yourself, and walked through the rotating metal pipes of the entrance, figuring since you were already here you might as well check in. It’s not like you could go home and wait considering it took you an hour to get here.

Oh, the things you were willing to put up with so you could see your favorite baseball player Siebren de Kuiper in his last season.

There were a bunch of people here already, staff and fans alike, though mostly for the home team, so you weren’t that anxious at being so early. You walked through the entrance hall, taking a few photos of some of the player posters hanging, and out through a vomitorium that lead into the stadium. You looked out over the empty field, bright and green and surrounded by high walls of seats, and took a quick selfie with the vast expanse of the stadium behind you, at least being this early meant no one knocking you down or being in the way for a cute photo.

You wandered down closer to the field, taking in the smell of freshly cut and watered grass, and took a load off in one of the more expensive seats. The home team was currently practicing before the game so you didn’t really care that much about watching them, content to fiddle with your phone until somebody told you to move.

For a while you browsed some videos and looked through your social media when you got an alert. Siebren de Kuiper had posted an update on his profile. You tapped the notification and simultaneously had your heart drop into your feet and your stomach rise into your lungs when you saw something you never thought you would,

A picture of you, sitting alone in the stands wearing his name and number, boredly looking at your phone with the caption,

“Not seen much nowadays, an eager fan. Lol. -Siebren.”

Your face was instantly set ablaze with embarrassment, too embarrassed to glance up and see the teams trading off field time, not sure how you’d react if you actually saw him looking in your direction. God, you wanted to die, but at the same time you felt like shouting out loud and dancing. You didn’t know what to do, you’ve never been noticed by a celebrity before. Should you leave a comment? Reshare it? Screencap it, print it, and hang it on your wall? Well, maybe not that, but what! Oh god this was so cool and crazy and oh god, you looked so weird in this pic! Was that what it looked when you sat down? Such poor posture! Ugh and you looked so tired! Would it be weird to try and doll yourself up or-

You shake your head and pinched the bridge of your nose, you were overthinking this. What would a normal person do in this situation? You typed out a quick comment. “Haha, that be me!” No, no too childish. “Wtf, that’s me!!!” Too surprised. Hmmm...

“Lol that’s me!”

Normal and friendly. Exactly how it should be. You were proud of yourself as you submitted the comment, marveling at it under his picture. You were nervous at him seeing it as you scrolled through his feed a little, mostly selfies of him with his team, over filtered pictures of his home life, and reshared posts about space facts and dumb baseball puns. It was honestly kind of adorable and underappreciated, if the low amount of likes meant anything, the man was as wholesome as they came and no one seemed to appreciate it!

A new notification popped up as you scrolled, a reply to your comment!

You tapped it and felt your heart flutter, Siebren de Kuiper had liked and replied!

“Thank You for your eager support then! :) - Siebren.”

A wide smile crossed your face at that, god that was adorable! You typed out a reply without thinking,

“Always a pleasure! <3”

You giggled when you hit confirm, insides all warm. This was so cool. Like, literally, this was the coolest thing ever. You glanced up to the field, face burning when you noticed that he sat not too far away from you, sitting in the dugout a little diagonally from you, tapping away on a smartpad. Most likely browsing his own stuff. That was cool. He was cool. And handsome. And nice. And funny. And smart. And- okay your brain was going haywire.

You needed to take a walk before you began to hyperventilate. You stood up and walked back into the entrance hall where miscellaneous vendors had set up, mostly baseball paraphernalia for the visitor’s team since the home team had it’s own gift shop in the building. You browsed a bit to distract yourself from the excitement.

You were looking at a new version of the shirt you were already wearing when your phone buzzed with a notification.

“New direct message.”

That was odd, you never got dmed. You quickly opened it to find that you got a message from a random, empty account you weren’t following named Sigma14, weird name.

Where did you go?

You always forgot to lock dms to private, shrugging, you typed out a quick reply.

Sorry, Wrong person!

You were flipping through your settings to find the right configuration when a new reply came through.

Oh, I’m sorry!

I forgot this was my personal account!

It’s me, Siebren!

Your heart stopped and heat filled your body again, but your rational mind was rightfully unconvinced.

Yeah, sure you are.

Just send me the virus link

lol

You typed out, but waited for a reply this time, not knowing if you’d prefer to be let down with this being some weird scammer or actually get a real reply. Both seemed equally upsetting but for different reasons and on different ends of the spectrum.

Here’s Proof!

He sent a few pictures. The first was of him, smiling into the camera with a thumbs up while sitting in a dugout, his face sweaty and his greying hair a little mused, then the next was a picture of the field you were just in, the name of the stadium clearly seen, and the last was a picture of the seat you were sitting in with a red question mark and arrow pointing to it.

See!

He added after. You hugged your phone and squealed quietly, suddenly bursting with energy. Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy shit. It was really him!!!

akdjfldjsaf!

it’s really you!!!

I’m a huge fan!!

You typed out excitedly.

Haha

I noticed!

Thank you for supporting me!

So where did you run off to?

You took a photo of the shirt table you were standing at, glad that it was still pretty empty so no one seemed to mind you loitering around the table. You framed two different shirts with his name and number on it in two different colors, home and away.

Just buying some merch.

I need a new shirt

Lol

Which one do you think I should get?

You smiled when the texting bubble instantly popped up, feeling bubbly at the knowledge he was paying attention to you and not practicing.

Firstly, You have excellent taste!

And secondly, I don’t know…

I think I’d have to see it on you!

That last message almost killed you as you stood with your mouth open, if you’d been an omnic you were sure you’d have overheated and combusted. What the heck! What the Heck! Was he? No. Was he? No, surely not! He couldn’t have. That was… that was.. Did he just ask for a pic? You were blushing hard and silently staring at the words on screen before the typing bubble came up again.

Goodness!

I’m sorry for that last sentence!

I didn’t realize how that sounded!

I hope I did not upset you!

You let out a breath reading his reply, nerves calming. Of course he didn’t! Why would world famous baseball star Siebren de Kuiper want to get a pic of you in his jerseys? You were sure he could have actual models if he wanted. He didn’t need you! Oof, that was harsh, but true.

asfadaafsd haha

it’s alright!!!!!

I didn’t think anything of it

I think I’m just going to buy both, they’re both nice

You quickly replied, not wanting him to think you were upset at him. And you weren’t. Surprised, yes. But not angry. You mean, you’d totally send pics to him if he wanted, but you were sure he’d never want that. Right?

They are!

And I’m sure both will look great on you!

Your hands flexed on your phone as you gripped it a little tighter, looking at the two still unpurchased shirts. You picked up the shirts up, buying them and went to the nearest bathroom. You take off your shirt and replace it with the away shirt, leaving it a little unbuttoned, and snapped a mirror selfie, and looked at it on your phone. Cute despite the bathroom behind you. You did the same with the home shirt.

You sat on the toilet holding your phone tightly as you debated actually sending them. They weren’t very explicit but still, the implication would be carried if he really meant anything the first time around. If he meant anything. Which he probably didn’t. So these photos wouldn’t be too bad to send… right?

You bit your lip and hit send. Waiting anxiously for a reply. Your heart was racing as you waited, feeling your blood pressure rise when the typing bubbles popped up.

:) :) :)

I was right.

They do look good on you!

You erupted in a fit of giggles, nerves a little on fire, god this was the craziest thing you’ve ever done. He wasn’t finished as more texts came in,

Would you like to get them signed?

Holy fuck. Was he flirting with you? He had to be, right? Well shit, you couldn’t pass this opportunity up! You quickly typed out a reply, fingers shaking a little.

Would you?!?

Omg that would be amazing!

His reply came in instantly,

Come by entrance five in ten minutes.

I’ll gladly sign you.

You actually yelled laughed, face burning like a stove, and pumped your fist in the air. Yes. Yes. Yes. You left the bathroom insanely giddy, wearing the white home shirt, and went to look at a map of the stadium. Entrance five was the farthest from the main entrances, and from what it looked like on your phone, a part of the stadium that was going to be completely empty. You chewed your lip as you made your way over there, nerves on fire. God you hoped this was going the way you wanted it and you hadn’t just misinterpreted everything.

About twelve minutes later as you sat in the empty hallway flipping through your phone and trying to distract yourself from your racing thoughts, he walked in through the stadium side. You got up instantly as his large shadow stretched across the floor. God, he was tall. Seven feet if you remembered correctly, two feet taller than you, and broad, insanely broad, arms like pythons. He looked a bit sweaty in his baseball uniform, an outfit that hid very little on his hulking frame, and smiled at you apologetically.

“I didn’t mean to keep you waiting.” He said coolly as he walked inside.

He stepped up toward you gently, a kind smile as he held out a hand. You grasped his hand with both of yours, his hands were large, insanely, fuck, he was so much bigger than you, your mouth watered a little.

“It’s no problem, I was happy to wait!” You said nervously and a little quickly, “I’m Y/N.”

“Y/N.” He repeated in his slightly accented voice, warm and absolutely lovely, sounding a lot different than what you were used to from watching interviews. “A lovely name.”

You laughed nervously and looked off, embarrassed, “T-thank you.” you stutter out as you dropped your hands to hide in your pockets.

“So, make this out to Y/N then?” He asked, pulling a pen out of his pocket and looking at you softly. God, your heart was a puddle.

“Uhh, yeah, I guess.” You said and he hummed in agreement.

You were going to hold out a piece of your shirt out for him to sign, but instead he stepped a little closely and bent down, putting the tip down just under your shoulder. You didn’t miss the glimmer in his eye as he bent in close, holding you still a little with his big hands, and wrote delicately on your skin. You held your breath, biting your lip as the hulking mass of him was so close to you, making your head swim.

“To my loyal fan Y/N,” He said as he wrote, his tone having gone down a notch, making your skin erupt in goosebumps, “Siebren.” He signed, eyes locking with yours as he stood back up.

You laughed breathlessly, leaning on the wall behind you for support as he didn’t move back much, looming over you a bit.

“T-thank you, I, uh… thanks.” You said, biting your lip a little and fluttering your eyes.

He smirked as he leaned on the wall above you, caging you a little, though leaving enough room that if you really wanted to leave you could. He was giving you a chance to stop, maybe saving face if he also misinterpreted, this was all up to you.

You chewed your lip as he looked down at you expectantly. Your hands shook a little as they rose and gently rested against the rough fabric of his uniform over his chest. He continued watching you, eyes darkening as you hands wandered over his abdomen, feeling him up a little. He was so firm and a lot more ripped than you had thought. This man was a damn brick house.

You hesitated a little as you got lower, looking up at him for permission as your fingers got to his waistband. He smiled, his hand not propping himself against the wall raising to grasp your smaller ones and gently pushing you lower himself, right over his half hard on.

He huffed hotly as you made contact with him through his pants and you couldn’t help the little whine that escaped your throat. You felt him up, mouth watering a bit at the feel of the size of him, only half hard it was already bigger than the length of your hand. You groped and stroked him through his pants, pulling a few groans from him for the effort, but as he got harder he stopped you.

“Enough of that.” He said a little strained, voice heavy with lust as he patted your greedy hands away.

He stood up a little, no longer leaning over you for a moment as both hands went to undo his belt as your hands rested on his large thighs, you mind momentarily filled with the image of you straddling these thick slabs of meat. When he finally pulled himself from his pants, just as long and thick as you always imagined.You licked your lips and looked up at him, his face red, sweaty and eyes looking at you hungrily, it made you shiver in excitement. Fuck, you wanted him to come undone.

Without any prompting you bent down and kissed his cockhead as you slid onto your knees, earning a breathless word in dutch. You didn’t know what it was, but it sounded endearing and it stroked something inside you. He had to bend his knees a little and haunch over you, leaning his head against the wall, the height difference a little difficult while standing, but it made it all the more hotter in your opinion.

You lavished his hard cock with wet kisses and gentle stroking, going off the amazing noises he was making to get a feel for what he liked as you licked him sloppily. His dick was so hard and hot and beautiful His tasted a bit salty but he smelled really good, like grass and dirt and... chalk? It was a strangely arousing combination.

You smiled up at him as he stared at you, eyes half lidded and face red, looking a little angry and a little delirious. So handsome. Like a wet dream. You trailed a line of kisses from the underside of his base up to his tip, eyes locked with his as your lips got closer to his head, and when you did, you opened your mouth and laid his head on your tongue.

He moaned loudly, his hips canting and slipping through your hold into your mouth a little, dragging another moan out of him as you enveloped his head with your soft mouth. A hand dropped from the wall above you as it weaved itself into your hair. Your tongue swirled around his head, humming with please as he choked a little at the feel and gripped your hair a little harder.

He began to circle his hips a little, his cock slowly leaving and entering your wet mouth, getting a little deeper as he went. You just took it, drooling and moaning as he got deeper and deeper and pulled out less and less. As you got most of him in he stilled to a halt, breathing hard as you swallowed around him, looking at him with eyes full of hot tears with the stretch. Fuck, the feeling of him so deep was glorious, but he hadn’t hilted, and despite the fact he looked about to bust and you were not that sure if you could, you began bobbing your head a little to get farther.

His strangled moans where music to your ears as he didn’t stop your endeavor, burying his head in the crook of his arm against the wall as his other hand still had a tight grip in your hair. Your throat was getting raw as you mouthfucked him and you knew that you were probably depriving yourself with sufficient oxygen, but you didn’t care, the desire to please him much too large.

Finally your nose met the pubes on his groin and he held you still against him, every muscle on his body pulled taut. He was mumbling something, but it didn’t sound like English, or dutch for that matter, just pure breathless gibberish as you felt him pulse in your mouth. You focused on breathing and relaxing around him, brain too scrambled to do much else.

Everything felt so good, your nerves were so sensitive and every little sensation made you shiver in desire. The feeling of your shirt against your chest, of your pants against you groin, of his fingers in your hair, of the feeling of his thighs under your hands, it all felt so good. Fuck, having him in your throat was turning you on so much it felt like you were going to cum from this alone.

Slowly he began to rut into your mouth, using your mouth as his own little fleshlight. Fuck, it was so hot. H was breathing so hard, his thighs twitching under your hands. He was saying something now, dark and needy, spoken like demands or praises but you couldn’t understand him, couldn’t hear anything over the sound of the squelch inside your head of him fucking into your throat.

Your eyes lulled and you just moaned around him, feeling the drool spill onto the front of your shirt as he fucked you to delirium, choking you repeatedly on his cock. Suddenly he held you tight to his base and said the first words to break through the haze of lust since you started,

“Swallow.” He said through grit teeth, like you had any other choice.

The feeling of him twitching in your mouth and spilling his hot cum in the back of your throat triggered your own orgasm, and without any direct stimulation your body was wracked with a full body shiver. Your body flinched against his hold as you felt the thick liquid get forced down, but he held you steady, and before he was finished, he pulled out quickly to squirt the last of himself on your slightly swollen lips and drool covered chin.

You would have been angry if you weren’t so out of it. He hummed with please as you stared up at him through the tears in your eyes, tilting your face up to him so he could see the copious amount of cum on your tongue.

“Swallow.” He said softer than before, out of breath.

You obediently closed your mouth and swallowed, opening it again to show him and he smiled widely, petting your head.

“Goed, goed.” He purred and it made you bristle in happiness in your post orgasm state.

You stayed like that for a while, him petting you and whispering kind words as your mind slowly booted up again. As he got himself presentable again and you cleaned yourself, he helped you back onto your feet and you checked the time on your phone. 2:15? Geez, time really flew by.

You were about to alert him of this when his hand met your lower back as he lead you back toward the entrance hall, “Yes, I know.” He said with a wink.

You were confused until you actually got out and saw through the large glass windows of the entrance the sheets of rain pouring over everything. There was an alert on your phone from the ticket holder,

Delayed Game.

You looked up at him and he smiled smugly, “It seems I have a bit more time before the game.” He said with fake surprise.

“Do you have anything else you’d like to get signed?” He asked, hand still on your lower back as he lead you into the more private area of the stadium.

The fire of desire was lit again and you smiled up at him, “I still have two more shirts.” you say innocently.

He hummed and you felt his thumb rub lightly over your lower spine,

“Well, then, let’s find a pen.”

#Sigma #Overwatch Sigma #Sigma Overwatch #Siebren de Kuiper #Sigma/Reader #Siebren de Kuiper/Reader #reader insert #self insert #Sigma fanfiction

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brainy-storm · 6 years ago

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S414 - ‘EL MAYARAH’ HEALED MY HEART (2/2 aka Karadox Edition)

Well, hello, hello, ladies, gentleman and esteemed NBs. We are gathered here today to witness me, a karadox fan who is too deep, commentate on and (over)analyse the happenings of that delicious episode that is Supergirl 4x14 Stand and Deliver. In the proceeding post, I will be going through many, many frames. So hold on to your dashes cause this is gonna be a hecka long post.

Warning: Again, LONG LONG post. 95 screenshots, guys. I recommend reading this on a computer. MUCH karadox. Including Brainy’s amazing speech, ofc . And the amazingness that was Kara Zor El.

Now, my friends. Where to start? What’s this? You wanted to go to the hand holding? We shall get there in due time. For now let us go start earlier at the 7:11 timestamp that I have. In which Brainy gets given -

The Letter

This is Querl Dox aka Brainy. His eyebrows furrowed as one of their DEO targets was captured. I might say, he’s cautious about what this letter might be. Who knows? It could have been a threat that Menagerie or The Elite might have wanted to pass on.

Nah, it’s a note from Supergirl, and it made him smile.

I mean, it’s a very cute-looking note (I love Kara’s handwriting, mine’s a mess). She could’ve just written ‘from Supergirl’ but nah, gotta draw that logo in. Love it. Go Kara!

“Supergirl left us a present, and a note.” Brainy whips this note from behind his back. He can’t just bring the note normally. No, he’s gotta whip it out like ‘surprise b*tch’. He not only likes to show off in front of Kara, but also likes to show off in Kara’s stead.

“Says: you’re welcome.” Brainy looks like he’s trying to return to a neutral expression here, but his tone didn’t quite hide his smugness. And throughout this scene he still looks like he wants to keep smirking.

Now, we know that Brainy’s on Kara’s side. He’s part of the super-friends, of course. I’m pretty sure that Brainy’s supposed to at least pretend he’s backing the DEO fully. But he can’t help himself from celebrating a victory for Supergirl. His loyalty is always towards Kara, and I like how they keep this consistent even if (well, especially) Kara’s not around.

Alright, now it’s time for Kara to finally interact properly with -

Brainy!

“Brainy!” says Kara. What does that mean? Nothing much, she just turned around when she saw heard the door open and saw Brainy. But after several episodes of no proper interaction, it’s nice to hear her say his name. Yeah, yeah, I squealed, this is how deprived we were.

And then, unprompted, immediately after saying his name, she walks over to stand next to him. Must...not...overanalyse...must....resist....can’t --- AIGHT look she moved next to him. Didn’t need to. Nia’s not moving. Brainy wasn’t talking to her yet. Might one say she subconsciously feels comfortable being next to Brainy?! MIGHT ONE --- okay fine, I’m reaching, I’ll stop. But go on. Rewatch the clip. 23:10 is the timestamp.

Oh yes, this is probably why they wanted Kara to move. To get this angle specifically and reaffirm the #SpouseEnergy radiating of these two. Exasperated dad and amused mum. Look at it. Breathe it in. Rejoice.

Oh, this is just to compliment Melisa Benoist and Jesse Rath, just cause they move super in sync here, almost like you’d see in a cartoon/anime and I just found it pleasing. Moving on.

Alright, the next screencap is where Brainy thinks he’ll never see his ring again and is understandably in a bit of a shock. He looks at Nia and then Kara, then back at J’onn. Kara looks down before looking at Brainy.

Okay, you get the point. If it looks like Kara’s getting closer to Brainy every screenshot, it’s just cause the camera angle is shifting, by the way. Although, if you watch the clip, she is shifting her weight back and forth between her feet, throughtout this whole moment, which I didn’t notice until taking these screenshots, which is some very nice subtle acting from Benoist.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think this is the first time Kara has seen Brainy when he’s emotionally vulnerable (onscreen, at least lol). She wasn’t there when he was rattled by the hatred he got when his image inducer didn’t work (Alex was there). She didn’t see him cry and didn’t hear him talking about his tears of logic (Lena was there). And when he just lost his ring, she wasn’t really there either (Nia was there). Anyway, she and the others are visibly unhappy when Brainy is unhappy. Even as part of a group shot it’s nice to see it, finally. It only lasts a little while anyway, because Brainy swiftly changes the subject.

It’s like an appetizer to the emotional main course we’re getting right after. For that moment when our beloved Brainy says -

El Mayarah - (IT’S GO TIME PEOPLE)

“Ah...yes, it’s the march today...will you all be joining?” He finishes that sentence, looking at Kara. Because we know who he wants to go most. Ahem *cough, cough*.

@fairyroses pointed out that here, after J’onn has said he’ll be there and Brainy proceeds to say ‘Wonderful! ..Kara?’ That this might be the first time Brainy addresses Kara directly as ‘Kara’ when speaking to her. As in usually he’s like ‘Supergirl, we need to....’ etc. Which is strange considering we’ve been shown that he’s close enough to hang out and watch movies at the loft with her and Alex (pre-mind-wipe) but nope we haven’t had an onscreen ‘Kara’. I tried finding one to no avail. So this must be it, then.

Also, look at that raised eye-brow right here. He’s so excited, bless.

‘Yes, I definitely think we should be there’ -

‘HUZZAH’. -- Yep, Brainy is happy that they’re going. Look how excited he is.

With the same energy from 4x01 where Kara says ‘nice work, Brainy’.

Okay, again, look how happy Brainy is. And he’s just looking at Kara with that smile. My actual heart eeeek.

And then his confusion when he realises that she didn’t mean that she was going to march with him. Complete confusion.

‘Uh..’

‘Kara...a..’ (SECOND KARA)

‘A word’ He looks shook the whole time.

He takes a while to actually start talking to her. He looks down again, back at her as if he’s about to start talking about then away again for a tiny moment. (also whoops got that screenshot mid when he’s licking his lips. Was an accident but...you’re welcome.) I wonder how many thought tracks he’s using to try and get the correct words to talk to Kara about this, because there seems to be some hesitation there.

‘I think it would mean a lot to have Supegirl march today’ - So more obviously I think Brainy says that as a sense that the aliens attending would feel more strengthened by her marching, and of course that everyone could see who Supergirl stood with. But of course, I think he also means this, as in personally, since this is the march, that he organised.

“I wish I could, Brainy, but I think it’s more important for me to patrol. In case anything gets out of hand.”

Kara’s genuinely sorry here, and that glint on her glasses makes her seem even more remorseful (yay angles), and I like how she makes it clear that she wants to support Brainy and the march, but is putting her duty to protect as Supergirl first.

“They won’t. I am American Alien. Hash-tag, American Alien.”

So, Brainy didn’t feel the need to tell the others that he himself organised the march. I think he assumed they would all be up for going, without saying. He reveals this now, to reassure Kara that as the organiser, he would be able to keep things under control. I also like how confident he is here, with his ‘they won’t’.

“You..you organised it?” - and now it’s Kara’s turn to be surprised.

“When I lost my Legion ring, I realised how much I depended on it for strength and confidence. I thought it was what made me a hero.” Oooof there you go, there’s that vulnerability that Kara has not been shown to have seen before. “But not having it these past few days made me see, it wasn’t the ring that gave me strength.”

“It was fighting.” *breathe* “alongside all of you.” - @kara-querl mentioned that she thinks that Brainy wanted to just ‘alongside you’ at first, but changed his mind. Which I could totally believe. But I also think he might be remembering fighting as a Legionnaire back home as well.

I think a reason why we didn’t see his realisation is that 1. well, airtime 2. He’s been showing that he gains strength from fighting alongside others over the past few episodes. That’s why he was so adamant on getting together a superhero team - trying to convince Nia to join them when the DEO fired Supergirl, and then being more eager about it after Alex’s mindwipe. Going to J’onn with money to try and get him to join their team. He wanted to gain their strength for Kara, but he also needed their strength too.

“helping to make the Earth a better place.” Oof and look at Kara’s face. I think she’s getting just as emotional over this as we are. I also love how she just listens to Brainy. She doesn’t interrupt or even try to, which is excellent. Pefect communication skills.

“In times like this change won’t come from someone with a Ring, or a cape. It will only come when each one of us answers the call to stand up and be heard” Brainy is not asking for Supergirl, the symbol and is not going as Brainiac 5, the legionnaire. He wants them to go, purely as themselves.

“El Mayarah” - OKAY CUE ME LOSING MY SH*T RIGHT HERE. especially after making that post about wanting inside codes/jokes in Kryptonian for them, I’M He uses Kryptonian, trying to convince her and not any old plain Kryptonian but her god dang House of El family motto. This is not about just trying to convince Supergirl, this is trying to convince Kara Zor El.

So Kara has been listening carefully and holding eye contact with Brainy this whole time (thank you), and when he says ‘El Mayarah’ she looks down immediately. How long has it been since she’s been specifically an El? A while. And even though she loves being Kara Danvers, and that’s who she is with Alex right now, Alex doesn’t know the Kara who she first met, the one she first met as Kara Zor El.

“Stronger together.” I love love love how he reiterates this 1. cause lol I’m sure a lot of viewers forgot what it meant 2. He just says the meaning again in the language of Earth, the one sh’es adopted, calls home, and is trying to protect.

And here Brainy follows her eyeline when she looks down, coaxing it back up as he says ‘stronger together’. I’M SOFT.

He takes another breath and breaks eye-contact and looks away. Yup, that was a lot. A lot of emotion right there. He needs a break. I need a break. [we’re just about to hit screenshot 40 WOW I do need a break]

I like how Kara’s still looking at him, nice. Thanks. Also Nia just streching in the background, not interuppting yet. Dad and Mum are having a Serious conversation, gotta keep busy and not make eye contact, duh.

“Just because we’re superheroes, doesn’t mean we forget who we are.” - Beautiful. What a beautiful speech. Brainy always seems to be there to help remind Kara of what’s important. 3x10 - with her as Kara Danvers, and now 4x14 with her as Kara Zor El. He’s there to support her not only as the hero, Supergirl, but all sides of herself, all sides of Kara.

She takes a breath here, and I think she’s definitely conflicted . She follows with a , I’m sorry Brainy...the risk is too great.”

BRAINY DOES A LITTLE TINY SHAKE OF HIS HEAD. Like he has more eto say but is also still shocked. And then Nia says she’s ready.

(OKAY YOU GUYS TOOK SO LONG. CAN WE GO PLAY PATROL NOW? PLEASEEE?)

And here Brainy is still in disbelief and worried, like look at this face and oh my god --- I took this screenshot and then just had to replay the clip - HE’S FIDDLING WITH HIS FINGER WHERE HIS LEGION RING USUALLY IS. THE THING HE DOES WHEN HE’s FEELING ANXIOUS. Lord help me, I’m done.

“Supergirl may be a symbol...” -- ooof they look so pretty there.

“but more importantly, she’s a citizen of Earth. Like the rest of us”. And he does this little shoulder raise at ‘like the rest of us’...my heart. He’s trying to appeal to her as people who both are not from Earth, but call Earth their home. [sidenote: ohoho ARE YOU EXILED FROM COLU, HUH BRAINY? IS THAT REBOOT BACKSTORY, I HEAR? sorry, moving on]

Another long pause before the “Remember that” --- ahhh he still looks so soft, end me.

NOPE. NOW I’M DONEKARA’S FACE AS SHE WATCHES HIM LEAVE. SHE’S SHAKEN BY THE SPEECH AND I THINK SAD THAT SHE’S LETTING BRAINY DOWN. AND HERSELF DOWN AS A CITIZEN OF EARTH.

Phew. That was long. A long but beautiful secton. ALRIGHT. LET’S KEEP GOING, SHALL WE? LET’S HEAD OVER TO -

THE MARCH -- IT’S TIMEEE

“They’re not like you - you’re a superhero.” --- I’m starting here because I think it’s important that he doesn’t say ‘you’re Supergirl’ he says ‘you’re a superhero’, because Brainy’s whole speech’s bottom line was “Just because we’re superheroes, doesn’t mean we forget who we are.” That they’re not just superheroes.

And I think here, she fully understands what Brainy meant.

“No, you’re wrong, I am just like them.” --- so in otherwords, she’s a superhero but more importantly she’s a Citizen of Earth, just like them. This episode is not just great for karadox but great for Kara’s character development because her identity as Supergirl was so at stake, that she’s put that above all else and now she remembers what she needs to be doing. I’M SO PROUD. Rip rewatching this part made me a bit teary wow what is this. KARA I LOVE YOU.

Hmm...is Brainy the first one to look up? MAYBE SO. im not sure but shh

THERE SHE ISSS. SHE.

Everyone’s in awe.Also, Brainy’s fingers are steepled here, when they weren’t before. (Excitement? Perhaps? idk, hm)

AWE I SAY. AWE.

“Supergirl.” HE’S HAPPY. LOOK AT THAT. LOOK AT HIM. AHHHH.

“It’s Kara Zor-El.” KARA ZOR EL OF THE HOUSE OF EL. WITH HER GOD DANG ROBES. ‘ In times like this change won’t come from someone with a Ring, or a cape.’ -- SO SHE CAME AS HERSELF.

“Citizen of Earth” - Just to reiterate -- ‘ more importantly she’s a Citizen of Earth’. She says this. While maintaining eye contact with Brainy the whole time she lands and joins the march. His speech helped her make this decision directly, and she’s letting him know that it did. Her smile in this screenshot and the one above. HER SMILE. BLESS KARA.

And now J’onn says ‘nice to have you with us’ - and they automatically hold hands. Oof and my heart, Papa J’onn. The father figure we all deserve. And...ohhhhH...hmm see Brainy is still holding his hands in position and maybe they made him do that...

To make it clear that it wasn’t automatic. So that Kara has to offer her his hand. Look at her smile. He’s still just looking straight at her. ALSO LOL J’ONN IS LOOKING. HE SEES.

AHAHA LOOK AT BRAINY JUST STARING DOWN. ‘oh yes, I should...hold the hand’. And kara’s smile like ‘yes, yes, it’s okay’. AND LOOK J’ONN IS SMILING AGAIN AHA. He ships it is proud too. hmm I wonder if J’onn was secretly listening to their convo the whole time...or hm maybe Brainy voiced how he felt that Kara wasn’t coming to the march to J’onn before it started. I gots to know

THERE

IS.

alksdjaslkjdalsjdlaskdjlaksjd

wow wow wow wow wow

STRONGER TOGETHER INDEED.

1. the alien march is stronger together

2. MY SHIP IS SO STRONGER TOGETHER BECAUSE THEY ENCOURAGE EACH OTHER TO BE THEIR BEST SELVES.

Brainy takes his hand and Kara tightens the hold on it. THANK YOu. THANK YOU.

See, the reason they gave this close up, I think, is to

1. reaffirm the themes of togetherness in this episode

2. FEED ME THAT GOOD KARADOX FOOD THAT I ORDERED.

Kara is just taking a breath here but lol I still laugh at how much it looks like the Distracted Boyfriend meme.

“Thank you.” *turns to Kara* “Both”. So much direct eye contact this episode.

THIS IS THE PUREST OF SMILES. KARA. SMILING AT BRAINY THANKING HER. WHO IS HAPPY TO BE HERE TOGETHER IN THE MARCH. PURE. MY SHIP IS PURE.

And you can’t see it well, or much at all, until she turns but he was smiling too, even if it’s not that clear.

And off they go, to confront Lockwood at -

The Rally

A bottle is thrown over their heads.

“Stay peaceful! - Brainy. Kara is shaken, by the looks of it. And Brainy just instinctively holds his hand out to Kara this time.

Takes a moment after he holds her hand...then...

“Don’t stoop to his level.” - again, supporting each other. He takes her hand this time.

BLESS THIS EPISODE.

So here they’re looking at the people who were here supporting Lockwood and I love how Brainy just looks them straight on. Kara’s also maintaining eye contact in the face of aggression.

The Fight

“Hologram!”

“Then where’s the real Manchester?”

Okay, so I just like how they can switch so quickly to get into the fight. Superhero mode starts exactly now. And just look how smoothly they go about it. I love them.

So here, she says she’s gonna go find Hat.

“Hello, Hat, we meet again.”

*insert fightscene that you can see giffed by @fairyroses here http://fairyroses.tumblr.com/post/183443782018*

“You don’t need a ring, when you have friends.” Throwback to how he gets his strength from fighting alongside the team.

“So where are your friends now?” - jinxed yourself, mate.

Kara literally is only a blur in this scene. And lmao Brainy catches the hat, which I did not realise till I saw the gifset. I’ve included @fairyroses tags here because she says it all and I literally can’t take any credit for noticing this lol. Bless you.

“Nice work, Brainy.” - I am fed well with all the times she has said Brainy today. Compliments today too.

“Now get him to the DEO.” - LOOKING GOOD BRAINY.

“Then help me get as many of these people to safety as you can.” Menagerie was brought in my the team sans Brainy, and now Brainy and Kara are taking down Hat together. I like how she says then help me. Just another confirmation of yes, you are on my team, even if you’re going back to the DEO for a tiny bit for the delivery. Again, stronger together.

“And this was from the time me and your mum took down a villain named Hat together” - is not something that was said, but is going in my future headcanon, thanks.

And yep, that’s the beautoful end of the karadox interactions of this episode, time that I start -

Wrapping it Up

Shh, yes I have more to say, bear with me.

“I know that Supergirl and I have not been on the same page lately, but you know, seeing her out there in that march, hand in hand with everybody else,I was inspired.” - so ‘I think it would mean a lot to have Supegirl march today’ ---- Turns out it also meant inspiring Alex to take action too. Brainy’s speech being the root of convincing Kara and Kara taking that stand. directly inspired by Brainy grabbing Kara’s hand that second time, kthx

“Yeah.” - Kara agrees, and then makes a funny joke about roughing Ben lockwood up lol. She did tho.

“No, *laughs* no, you know I followed my beliefs, not the rules..and it felt really good to take a moral stance.”

“Yeah, I think everyone at the march felt that way.” - Kara was glad to have gone to the march and she felt better for it. Oof look at that smile. Look at how good she thought the march was.

“It just goes to show to show, no matter who you are. Alien, human, superhero. Every action counts. And every voice matters.” ---- again, throwing back to Brainy’s speech.

“In times like this change won’t come from someone with a Ring, or a cape. It will only come when each one of us answers the call to stand up and be heard”.

So everything ties together nicely, in -

THE END

Thanks for bearing with me, which I assume you have if you’re all the way down here.

To summarise:

Brainy and Kara make an excellent team and they both are each others’ strengths, and help each other grow. They are stronger together.

#supergirl #brainiac 5 #karadox #querl dox #kara zor el #my post #kara danvers #my text #supergirl ramblings #my ramblings #karadox ramblings #cw supergirl

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ryouverua · 6 years ago

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Trial 6 - Revisionist History, Pre-Accusation (2)

AND WHOSE FAULT IS THAT?!

Trial: 1

So last time on YGO I was getting a bit full of myself because everything was pointing to me being right about the mastermind, and then I proceeded to get clothes-lined by Shuichi’s conclusion about the first trial:

Sweetcheeks is taking revenge on me for all the times I got ahead of him in the trials. It’s okay I’m here for it -

TFW you’re called on in class and you were barely paying attention to what was going on -

Also yes any excuse to beat down on the Monokubs I will welcome with open arms THANK YOU DRV3

“Also hey, player controlling me right now? Fuckin’ duh.”

It’s okay Shuichi, I’m more than happy to have been wrong on this one.

... which also could have doubled as planted evidence to frame Kaede as the mastermind I-I’M JUST SAYING okay maybe not 100% over it -

But okay, ‘I’m getting carried away. The important thing is that there is no doubt that this shot should be associated with Kaede. She and Miu rocked that pink look, after all.

whispers I miss you Kaede; I’d like to think you’re with us in spirit right now

MAN Sweetcheeks is making this look so easy in hindsight! When I originally thought it was just part of the frame job, I didn’t consider the implications of having a clean shotput there with the fiber. After all, if it existed, the bloody version complete with the fiber would have worked just as well!

I’M SHOOK

But... but Kaede didn’t know that, did she? That’s why things went the way they did. She believed she was the killer the whole time. And that’s part of the genius of the plan...

And what, she - they got away with it? With all the groundwork and clues pointing to Kaede, it was just fine for Monokuma to accept that wrong conclusion? Does that mean if they had ever come to a wrong conclusion in any of the other trials - well, wait. No, the actual killer would know that they had gotten away with murder....

....

What..... if Monokuma had pulled a similar stunt in a different trial, but executed an innocent person anyway? I wonder how the killer would react to the idea that they wouldn’t be freed after all - and how they would continue living with everyone with that hanging over their heads. Well, I guess we know how Korekiyo would probably deal with it, but what about Kirumi or Miu, for example? Would they kick up a fuss or accept it quietly and bide their time with the knowledge that there wasn’t any way to truly graduate? Hell, what if they had chosen Kokichi for the 4th blackened and Monokuma accepted the ruling, and a totally oblivious Gonta survived with the rest of the cast to Chapter 5?

sorry don’t mind me just speculating...

Tsumugi adored Kaede, but she just couldn’t bring herself to trust her, huh. Did she have back-up plans for all of the murder plans or just this one?

STOP KILLING THE ONLY TOLERABLE MONOKUB!!!!

BLOW YOURSELF UP NEXT TIME SMH

because he made a great play to steal her potential girlfriend in a super cute nail-painting scen - I-I mean -

yeah that seems more likely somehow

But Kaede folded first...

Are you telling me that after all that planning, all that work, all that effort, all that agonizing -

she....

SHE MISSED?!

The goal wasn’t to kill them off.... well, of course it wasn’t. Rantaro even aid at the beginning that if they wanted them dead they could have killed them off with the exisals. It was always about the game.

So the plan fails, and because Tsu - the mastermind was keeping tabs on Kaede and Shuichi’s plan (for obvious reasons! I wonder if she was ready to deal with someone else finding the door aside from Rantaro?) she was able to prepare a second backup shotput and take things into her own hands... with Kaede none the wiser that she had failed.

Attempted murder and murder by proxy aren’t considered equal - Chapter 4 was proof enough of that. And yet...

‘Played along’ - again, talking about him like he’s a completely separate entity and that he should be treated as such.

“The moment you let murder into your heart, you lost.”

Again, what if Kokichi had ended up taking the fall for Gonta’s murder and Monokuma let him??? What would have happened? Would Monokuma have executed him? Would Kokichi have protested at the last minute??? And Gonta wouldn’t know better - !

It was always just killing.

The wound he got when Kaede died healed, but it was never truly gone. It’s been a few weeks at most, and it got ripped open again during the investigation. I’ll probably end up making a few small asides about how he’s only bringing up Kaede over everyone else (including Kaito who! just! literally! died!) but at the same time, he’s probably reeling at the idea that he was tricked into sending her to die. It’s not surprising that she in particular is monopolizing his thoughts right now.

“AND UH EVERYONE ELSE TOO BUT I’M REALLY OVERCOME BY FEELINGS OF SUNK SHIPS’ PAST!” okay I see like I really couldn’t resist

You know what’s really awesome to see amidst all of Shuichi’s speculation? How helpful the rest of the class is being. They’re contributing now just like they were in the investigation, in big ways! Even Himiko, who is definitely out of her element, isn’t letting herself get distracted and is trying to keep everyone’s spirits up!

With that said... hehe ~

fml that was cute

I didn’t need to keep this screenshot but I love Himiko’s spell names lmao

GRHGRKGHK

Shuichi literally blocked out the Kaede twin!theory from his mind.

“Tsumugi please - We’re not actually doing this, right? Right???”

My cousins are twins too! CLEARLY ONE OR BOTH OF THEM MUST BE MASTERMINDING A KILLING GAME SOMEWHERE -

“And all twins have at least one evil person in the set! That’s, like, science or something!”

“Well crap - I’d refute that but without the solid backing of the Ultimate Genetist, can we really say that’s not true?”

The ellipses better be leading to a ‘fuck no’, Sweetcheeks.

To think that all of those awkward ‘Himiko has a small bladder’ jokes have l had to suffer through were leading to this grand pay-off.

‘Please tell me this isn’t the answer. Damn you Tsumugi, I’ll give it 5 minutes of my time at maximum, but I will be so mad if it’s the answer.’

That noise is totally Shuichi’s inner voice, master of deadpan and silent sassy killer, breaking free from the confines of his mind to dunk on Kaede!mastermind theory one last time.

AND DUNK ON IT HE DOES. And oh boy did Motherkuma really screw Miss Mastermind over, because that line about ‘visiting the room often’ knocks that 17th person theory straight out of the park.

And honestly? That rules out a ‘faked their death’ student scenario too, for the same reason.

.... Which, just like the above, rules out a hidden student theory for a fantastic reason that didn’t really occur to me as a fully-formed thought apparently because I was nodding along with Shuichi’s reasoning, lol. There’s no use for a classroom that hides its contents for someone who could have easily set up a hidden room for exclusive use in their hiding spot. Though with that said... why not have it in the mastermind’s lab? What was the point of keeping them separate?

“Crap, you weren’t supposed to see that. Why didn’t anyone tell me he saw that???”

.......... This....... really does make it sound like he hasn’t realized who the mastermind is................

What a totally unbiased bit of speculation, Tsumugi!

I would kill to know her thoughts right now. There are moments like this where she helps out, but only with information that seems to be inevitable or easy to speculate. She needs to maintain the image of helping out. And then, of course, there are her wilder diversions offered under the guise of speculation that she’s able to throw out with that same tone of voice! What is your thought process, girl???

I think there’s a deep part of himself that’s known this from the beginning. Even if he didn’t know it was specifically Tsumugi, he knew that one of the last four people here was the mastermind. And ruling Maki (who got tricked and almost became the blackened) and K1-b0 (who literally just went berserk and had to be talked down from destroying the whole school) out, well...

The fact that Himiko is trying so hard to keep them all together and cheerful, even ending her speech like this:

... is, uh, darkly hilarious.

A WITCH!!! wait wrong series -

AND SOMEONE WHO DIDN’T PLAN ON ‘DYING’... just sayin’

I mean, the rest of them can be friends right??? Just because one of them trapped the others in a strange place, stole/potentially overwrote all of their memories and made them kill each other - wait, this is coming out wrong -

“Seriously, I’ll take any leeway I can get here.”

“Well now that you bring it up, we never actually saw Kokichi’s body and he’s absolutely, totally, 100% a Remnant of Des -”

..... Oh thank god no one actually said this. I was kinda expecting Tsumugi to try this tbh. 8′D So, um, when exactly are we going to use his motive video then?

WE’RE NOT PLAYING DR1 DAMN IT NOT AGAIN

Which Shuichi knows. Oh, Sweetcheeks definitely knows. And he remembers....

Ooooooh this is it. This is it!!! We’re finally going to the trial 1 alibis! And I know a certain someone’s alibi that isn’t going to stand up to scrutiny this time... ~

“A nice hole that we can just thrust our big, hard truth into. That was for you Miu, RII (Rest In Innuendos).”

can you imagine if we just had a little tribute to every character we lost along the way in this trial GET ON THIS SWEETCHEEKS

I cannot impress upon you all how desperately I have been waiting for this moment - !

So I let all the dialogue play. Every little bit of it. And oooooh boy, seeing Shuichi react to seeing that certain obvious part stick out....... well.

You can tell I was looking forward to this part because I was literally screencapping every bit of her dialogue lmao while also trying to maintain proper, y’know, control of the reticle.

Yup...

How very ~convenient~.

WHICH KOREKIYO BROUGHT UP SPECIFICALLY.........

WHERE IS THE GOLD TEXT

FUCKING

COUNTER

BABY!!!!

If he wasn’t sure before... if he even had a hint of a possibility in his mind before... there is no way he doesn’t know now. There’s no way he isn’t sure now.

HIMIKO YOU CREATED THIS CHANCE FOR US!!!

“Wow, I’m really glad I didn’t go through with murdering you after all!”

Tsumugi is absolutely standing there sweating bullets, just wondering when the hell this was discovered under her nose. You really should have tried to stick with Shuichi to mislead him further!

YOU’RE DAMN RIGHT IT IS.

“No seriously, when the hell did you find the bathroom secret passage?!”

FML okay the fact that Himiko is still hoping she could find a way to defend Tsumugi is.... incredibly sad....

he placed a receipt in the doorway

he put tape on the windows

the entrance was sealed via detective’s authority

I wonder how she knew the right timing to go to the girl’s bathroom... maybe she had a similar alert set up for when Rantaro went into the library? She was only gone for five minutes - any longer would have been suspicious. Does she have a way of accessing the cameras outside of the lab, or am I just nitpicking something that has an explanation I’ve forgotten?

.... WHELP ANYWAY -

Come on, you’ve been so creative up until now - there’s no way you don’t have something else up your sleeve!

OI -

OI!!!! HAVE SOME PRIDE!

wait why am I getting defensive about this -

The ability to navigate truth and lies and know when to be relentless in pursuit of truth... is this the new Shuichi we’ve been building up to? It’s interesting, because there are similarities to the last trial where he wouldn’t be shaken off the path to the truth - but taking after Kokichi, he won’t let emotions sway him this time. Where he was gentle and tentative in Chapter 4, he won’t give an inch here.

DAMN BOY! HE’S COMING OUT SWINGING!

Neither of these two are clamouring to come to her defense, I notice.

speaking of people who can’t deal with much more heartbreak and betrayal, how about that ‘slowly slipping back into depression’ Himiko here -

“HEY DON’T INTERRUPT MY DEFENSE YOU’RE MAKING ME LOOK WAY MORE SUSPICIOUS!!!”

Er, well, about that next chapter...

What proceeded was probably Shuichi’s most aggressive, brutal and merciless Rebuttal Showdown of the entire game. Damn, Sweetcheeks!

....... yeah, they didn’t stand a chance.

“.... and it will require you all to test me and yourselves by finding ways to slip the word ‘birth’ in casual conversation around me. Or really awkward sentences! That’ll work too, I’m actually not that picky.”

LMAO WAY TO THROW HIM UNDER THE BUS

“EVEN NOW, IN THE FINAL CHAPTER OF THE GAME, ROBOPHOBIA PERSISTS - “

let tsumugi say fuck

Maki gives NO FUCKS

Actually, you gotta appreciate how Maki isn’t swayed at all. Right now Shuichi really needs that steady support by his side and, with so few options left, it looks like Maki is ready to act that way for him.

NO THIS IS TOO SAD, EVEN WHEN HE’S CREATED AN AIRTIGHT ARGUMENT HE STILL HAS A SHRED OF DOUBT IN HIS ABILITIES AND DEDUCTIONS...

But... more importantly, he’s okay with being wrong. He’s not afraid of being proven wrong and being potentially embarrassed in front of everyone the way he was before. That.... takes a lot of guts, for someone as perpetually anxious as him. Good on you, Shuichi.

And Maki is with him 100%. I think she may have already accepted Shuichi’s deduction as the real deal, tbh.

but what is there left for her to defend herself with at this point

What is going on in your head right now -

quietly skips over the random interlude where Monosuke attempts to conspicuously disrupt the proceedings and gets blown up for his trouble -

Thanks, dude.

GREEN PUKE

WE ALL KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS thank atua

Also it’s interesting - they have a bit of a back and forth about Monokuma ‘loving’ the kids which, you know, has been of a running joke. But unlike during the rest of the game, he’s never actively destroyed them before... but he is now. Why? He brought them back to man the exisals and attempt to take the fight out of the students after the fifth trial, so why is he knocking them off one after the other like this? Sure they’ve been shown to be replaceable but...

Two different entities with different goals, I’m telling ya!

The moment of truth..... it’s finally here.

It’s. It’s finally here.

Well then.........................

here we go.

Looking like she would rather be anywhere but here...

How strange.... to see the accused so rattled like this. Not crying like Gonta, not angry or upset like Kirumi and Korekiyo - and just think of the last game too, where they were resigned, resolute or just accepting - she just looks.... scared in a different way. And decidedly not ‘mastermind’-like. So where are we going to go from here?

“Any last words?”

“Goku didn’t die for this.”

#Ryou plays drv3 #Shuichi Saihara #Tsumugi Shirogane #Himiko Yumeno #Maki Harukawa #K1-b0 #Kiibo #Keebo #spoilers #drv3 spoilers #i underestimated how long this post would get oTL #should have split it up #ah well live and learn #my hand's been worn out though I'll have to continue asks tomorrow 8'D #and play the game then like damn that was supposed to be TODAY

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mittensmorgul · 7 years ago

Text

Clarification and Consequences

I don’t normally write close-read reviews of episodes, but 13.06 is sort of demanding it. There’s just… a lot here. From the recap highlighting Jack’s fear of his own powers, Cas’s death and trip through the Empty, annoying a cosmic entity, a reminder that zombies exist followed by “what’s burned stays dead” and then Cas coming back, we have a tidy summary of the Major Stuff that’s happened so far this season.

Below the cut, over 8k words, and a vast number of links to other meta posts. I don’t think I can even bring MYSELF to read it all again, so it’s unedited. For anyone brave enough to read it, it’s probably long, boring, repetitive, and just a collection of details I wanted saved in one place for future reference.

(not technically meta, this is literally just a close read of the entire episode with annotations. This is like... pre-meta. Meta seeds scattered on soil. Just, fyi)

(all screencaps from hotn)

Interestingly, Jack considers “being able to move a pencil with his mind” as “one good thing” he was trying to do, and honestly that’s a pretty damn non-thing to focus on, you know? It accomplishes nothing substantial. But like his first attempt at “teleporting” that involved him walking through a door and accidentally locking himself out of a motel room, followed shortly by accidentally booping himself out to the alley in an unintended emotional reaction to conflict, it seems they’re using this escalation to show how he comes to understand his own abilities.

In the THEN, they show him unable to move the pencil, but then using his powers in a similar way to deflect a bullet from hitting Sam. Arguably a “good thing” he did with his power, but he can’t repeat the feat on demand. It was an emotionally charged reaction, just like throwing the tattoo artist and shorting out his tattoo machine as an entirely unintentional reaction to physical pain. He wasn’t even aware after the fact that he had done anything.

Oh, and Cas is back! :D

That brings us to Dodge City, Kansas. Historical cowboy town. Dean is inexplicably hunting in a graveyard with a stranger, and their quarry seems to be getting the better of them. The man Dean’s hunting with comments that what they’re hunting is fast, but Dean clarifies, “Not faster than bullets.” They split up so Dean can flush out the bad guy, leaving Sarge to cover him. While Sarge is focused on where he expects the guy to come running out, a hand reaches up from below the ground, grabs his ankle, and drags him under.

Dean comes running back, sees the hole in the ground where Sarge had been (and his abandoned rifle and cowboy hat), and his response is, “Aw, hell.”

This is a really interesting choice of words. Big holes in the ground do tend to lead directly to Hell in this show. Like the portal Jack was tricked by Asmodeus into opening in 13.02, which itself was reminiscent of the portal to the Cage that Sam jumped into in 5.22. At least this particular hole isn’t filled with actual hellfire… but in this brief scene we don’t yet know how or why Dean is even hunting with Sarge. This entire scene is presented without context, as sort of a “remember this, there’ll be a quiz later” bit of info.

Then we cut to “48 hours earlier,” the reunion of Cas with Sam and Dean. Behind them, the road is shadowed in reddish light (hellfire, anyone?), Sam is framed against the Bison Bud’s sign, while Dean has the only white light on their side of the road framed over his shoulder the entire time-- a glowing cross. Cas is framed beside the last working payphone in America, standing next to the blue and white lights. A siren blares in the background as Dean essentially asks for final confirmation that this really is Cas, while Sam sounds as if he’s insistently denying it was even possible.

Cas steps away from the phone, away from that artificial light, and yet he moves out of the shadows as he does so. Sam doesn’t know what to say (i.e. he doesn’t have words for this), but Dean does (I do. Welcome home, pal.) Hugging ensues. Then the questions start.

“How long was I gone?” and Dean replies, “Too damn long.” (this offers emotional clarity, about Dean’s feelings on the matter, but not actual facts that could put Dean’s feelings into context. If Cas had been gone for a week, this response would carry a lot more weight than if he’d been gone for say 10 years, you know? We assume that Cas will eventually see a calendar and that he will be able to understand that he was gone less than a month, but for right now he’s just got to file away this reaction for later scrutiny. Dean believes his feelings are clear, but to Cas they’re clear as mud.)

Sam asks if Cas was in Heaven, but Cas immediately clarifies he was in the Empty, and without prompting goes on to give Sam and Dean the Cliff’s Notes version of what he learned in 13.04. It’s where angels and demons go when they die.

Sam asks what it was like, and Cas gives the oddest details: “It was dark, and… nothing. [the light in this flashback flickers and whooshes out] It’s like… nothing.”

Cas believed that Sam and Dean had done something to “wake him up.” Like Dean believed that Sam had been responsible for his salvation from Hell early in 4.01, but Dean told him no, they didn’t even think they could bring him back. In trying to figure out who DID bring him back, they eliminate Chuck as a possibility immediately, because he has no power in the Empty. The only being with unknown powers and any sort of connection to Cas, as well as a personal motivation for wanting Cas alive, is Jack… And if that ain’t the most unsettling development of 2k17.

When Sam and Dean arrived back at the bunker with Cas, Jack is hard at work on the laptop. He looks up at Sam, and immediately asks, “What’s wrong?” I’ll tell you what’s wrong… Sam is suddenly terrified that you can apparently unconsciously reach across the veil where even God is forbidden, and just boop dead angels awake.

But the show doesn’t give us a chance to truly internalize that horror. Instead, Cas comes in, and immediately the tone switches from wary to confused to relieved. Confused because Jack’s infantile knowledge of things can’t process how Cas can be alive when “what’s burned stays dead.” And then they ask Jack if he was the one who brought Cas back. Unsettlingly, Jack doesn’t know.

Jack explains his feelings toward Cas, how he wanted and begged for him to come back, but he doesn’t understand how those feelings affected his power into acting to bring Cas back.

Cas lets all of that go for the time being, and thanks him. I already made one post about how Jack’s “I missed you so much” just felt off to me. Like, this is a being you’ve never met in person before, but you power did latch on to before you were even born. Jack’s power used Cas like a vessel, and most of his first day of life was spent looking in vain for Cas, because he expected Cas to be there waiting for him. So I guess in that respect, he would’ve missed Cas. But it feels so excruciatingly wrong and creepy to me because of the nature of their entire previous interaction.

Then immediately after this reunion hug, we have another reminder that Things Happen Offscreen. “Sam and Dean tell me you’re doing well.”

Jack’s next thought is to eagerly demonstrate his advanced pencil levitation skills. Like, he’s showing off his Amazing Cosmic Powers to levitate a pencil a foot in the air, and yet the true reach of his powers in waking Cas up just slides past him because he doesn’t even know or remember doing that. The pencil trick is intent-->action-->immediate result. It’s a magic trick compared to resurrecting dead angels from the empty without even knowing you were doing it. But it’s like Jack still can’t identify himself as the source of Cas’s resurrection, so it’s not something he actually did in his mind. It’s an extension of his description of his powers from 13.01, “Me, but not me.” He actively tries to separate everything out so it can all be neatly classified and ordered and labeled. “Good or bad.”

Right now, resurrecting Cas and that shocking display of cosmic power is being classified as “not me” because he literally can’t wrap his head around the fact that he’d done it.

(also, here’s lizbob going on about the significance of that conversation happening in the library, of Jack working in the library in the “heart of the family” room: http://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/167685945845/the-jackcas-hug-w-dean-in-the-background-strikes)

But Jack’s found a case. He’s learned some basic computer and hacking skills from watching Sam and Dean, so he’s incredible at observation. This will also become important later, but it will also be important to notice where his rigidity of thinking and his lack of wider context and understanding outside of his own experience will also be important.

Dean asks what kind of case, and Jack eagerly replies, “Zombies!” He’s 100% absolutely convinced it’s zombies, because he knows what they are now. And granted, Jack’s intuition on finding the case, and his logic up to the point where “the dead are rising in Dodge City, Kansas” was pretty solid. He pieced together a case from a single report of a grave robbery involving a vintage pocket watch that someone had tried to sell at a pawn shop, but Sam pointed out it could’ve just been grave robbers… but Dean (partly because even the BODY was gone, and mostly because Dodge City means Cowboys) insists on checking it out anyway.

And yes, I’m making a mandatory side note here about the whistling cowboy music in Dean’s head at the mention of Dodge City, and the fact that for NO OTHER REASON, as soon as that music started playing, Cas glanced up and gave Dean the squinty-eyed wtf is that cowboy music about Dean are you seriously going to make me live through your cowboy fetish again today i’ve only been alive again for like a DAY and already you’re going to be going on and on about cowboys aren’t you. Because there’s no other explanation for Cas’s face there, and his reaction to the music in Dean’s mind. Okay, back to our regularly scheduled meta. You’re welcome, Lizbob. :P

Two salty hunters, one half-angel kid, and a dude who just came back from the dead. Again. Team Free Will 2.0.

Which brings us to the Stampede Motel and Western Wear Shop. What a wild conglomeration of things in a single building. All your tack and motel needs in one easy destination. Because everyone on vacation at a tourist trap is looking to buy quality riding gear... Also, the horse statues out front of the shop have been bothering me. I keeping thinking that black and white one is a cow. I guess it could be a bad rendition of a paint horse, but yeeps:

I suspect it moos. I asked Lizbob if I was just nutty for thinking COW, and she suggested it may be part of a larger theme of misinterpretation being critiqued this season. I suggested (even though I will address all these things later in this post, I’m putting them here because I’m filing them all under “mooing horse”: Jack's convinced ZOMBIES! but it's a ghoul. He asks about cold spots and weird smells, but that's irrelevant in either case. He tries using EMF in a graveyard... :P He says his power's never done one good thing, while Cas is sitting alive ~right there~

Okay back to the show.

Dean’s all excited because not only did he pick this On Point Touristy motel, he got them the best room in the joint. He doesn’t even pause to put down his luggage, including his fancy-ass hat box containing his genuine cowboy hat that he brought from home, before gleefully pointing out every last Old West historical figure depicted in their room.

Jack has never seen this side of Dean. Not just his thing for cowboys, but just Dean being happy. Meanwhile Sam is rolling his eyes because he knows it’s not going to stop until they leave that place, and Cas has resigned himself to being included in whatever cowboy-related fuckery Dean throws at him.

(all entendres intended)

Dean pronounces the room “awesome,” then immediately suggests “quick shower, steak dinner” and postpones all hunt-related activity until morning. Through the swinging saloon doors to the bedroom, Dean begins hanging up their plastic-wrapped-from-the-cleaners suits. I think that’s the first time we’ve ever seen them with suits in that particular state. Yet another reminder that they do ~normal life stuff~ off screen, like taking their FBI suits to the cleaners. We don’t see it, doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.

Dean exclaims from the other room, “Yes! Stirrup hangers!” and heck I’m disappointed we didn’t actually get to see those... But THEEEMES because it happened offscreen, and we’re being invited to take Dean’s word for it. Are these hangers specifically FOR stirrups? Hangers in the shape of stirrups? Or made out of repurposed stirrups? How does that work? We just don’t know, but we have to use our imagination to fill in the blanks here.

Then we have the unsettling conversation between Jack and Cas about who will get the couch, since Sam and Dean already appropriated the two covered wagon beds for themselves. Jack offers the couch to Cas, because apparently he doesn’t really sleep anymore. Cas confirms that he doesn’t sleep at all. We’ve known that for ages, but the Jack-not-sleeping thing is new... But I addressed my concerns about this already in this post:

http://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/167644768190/all-of-the-stuff-between-jack-and-cas-this-episode

I’ve already written several posts about the Infamous Closet Scene, too, while I’m bothering to look for links on my blog:

http://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/167600573730/fair-enough

http://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/167594918500/omg-i-was-already-rewatching-13x06-and-came-to

Dean opens the closet doors, and Sam can’t believe Dean brought his own hat. Dean can’t believe Sam didn’t. Meanwhile Dean’s busy unpacking with the reverse side of the cowgirl painting and her perky butt, the pose of which at one point I had to pause it, because I thought it was a mirror. Dean’s back was to it

But suffice it to say, this is a moment that underscores the very different things that Sam and Dean would consider a “pretty damn big win” respectively. Sam questions Dean’s good mood, suddenly turned around from the depths of despair, and he concedes Dean’s assertion that getting Cas back was what turned him around, while Sam’s struggling to understand how Dean could just ~forget~ about Mary... because that’s been Sam’s Major Issue since 12.23. He repeatedly has failed to understand that Dean’s Major Issue has been Cas.

And then we have poor Carl, the police officer investigating a stolen truck abandoned on the roadside. But it wasn’t quite as abandoned as he’d thought, and he ends up becoming Ghoul Chow because of it.

Meanwhile, we have to assume TFW 2.0 are busy enjoying that steak dinner Dean suggested earlier. Did all four of them go to a restaurant? Did they get takeout? Room service? Did Cas and Jack eat too, or just Sam and Dean? Was the restaurant as kitchy as the motel? Was Dean insufferable all through the meal? More things that happened offscreen, which we need to know about.

I’m gonna have to start tagging s13 as Season Fanfic Gap.

That brings us to the conversation that first make me want to write this post, before it turned into a gargantuan endeavor of a close read: Cas and Jack, not sleeping.

Jack is relating his Life Story, or what little of it there is, but he’s having difficulty with his level of understanding. He describes the angels that tried to kill him in 13.01, but then stops his storytelling, because he thought angels were “good.” Cas attempts to explain that in Heaven, “good’s a relative term.” But this has been one of Jack’s major problems. He doesn’t understand “relative.” He understands definite and unshakable labels.

But now Jack asks Cas what Heaven is like, because his mother is there and he wants to know that she’s happy there. But Cas has entirely too much baggage with Heaven from the entire opposite end of what a human soul would experience there, and of course that’s the description he defaults to-- his personal experience there. He waffles and says “that depends,” and when Jack asks if it’s “nice,” he replies, “it can be.” All very waffly, middle-of-the-road, not-actually-answer answers.

Then Jack reminds him that Kelly is in Heaven, and Cas turns to talking about her while she’d been alive. Jack tells Cas about the “message” Kelly left him, that an angel was watching over him, and again Cas feels guilty that he wasn’t there for Jack from the beginning.

Jack understands, and says he knows why Kelly trusted Cas. Then clarifies that to, “Why I trusted you.”

There’s the creepy callback to 13.01 where

Cas sits up at this, realizing that Jack remembers trusting Cas, before he was born.

Jack remembers feeling “safe” because of Cas. He’d felt decidedly unsafe multiple times (with Dagon who drove Kelly to attempt suicide, when Sam suggested trying the grace-removal cure, with Dean the moment Dean shot at him in his nursery, when the angels attacked the police station and tried to kill him, when Sam and Dean took him to get warding tattoos, when they were arguing with Donatello in the motel room in 3.02, in Mia’s office when Buddy was going to kill them all...), and we know how his power reacted to all of those circumstances. It immediately acted to make Jack feel safe again...

Cas continues to reassure Jack that Kelly would be proud of him, and that he believes Jack will help make the world a better place. I can’t help but think... better than what? How? Jack can’t even understand the subtleties of things not being objectively all good or objectively all bad. The idea of him reshaping reality is more than a little disturbing.

Jack gets a hit on the computer monitoring program he was running, and immediately goes to wake Sam and Dean to tell them what he’s learned about the case, despite the fact it’s 4 am and they’re sleeping.

Cue the “Dean’s an angry sleeper, like a bear” scene, reminding us that Cas really knows Dean, far beyond Jack’s excellent powers of observation could teach him in a few weeks’ time. Jack runs right over to Dean before Cas can stop him, and taps him awake. When Dean reacts like a hunter, pulling a gun from under his pillow, Jack leaps backward holding up his hands, telling him “It’s me, it’s me.”

He repeated a line, but didn’t clarify it. It reminded me of 13.03 when Sam knocked on Jack’s door, with “It’s me, it’s Sam.” We laughed at the time, because who else would it be, but it fit this theme of vague-->specific, that Jack just demonstrated a few minutes ago with his “she trusted you, I trusted you.” So while Sam and Dean are blinking themselves awake on their lil plaid pillows and snuggled up in their Trenchcoat Tan™ blankies, Dean blearily looks TO CAS and that’s what seems to reassure him:

“Who’s making me coffee?”

(We’re assuming Cas, because he got good at making coffee back in 9.06, when he got good at a lot of Human Things, and we know humans learned about coffee from the goats because of Cas and I have FEELINGS™ about this, Cas and coffee and humanity)

(okay lizbob had feelings too: http://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/167707261095/elizabethrobertajones-elizabethrobertajones)

(then we get a horn honking outside as Dean pours himself a cup, and the sun’s just beginning to rise outside, and while Cas confidentially tells Jack that he’d warned him about Dean being an angry sleeper, while Dean’s entirely within range of hearing this conversation and yet has no snarky retort and just lets Cas talk about him in this intimate personal way like nbd, like Cas (in 8.08) once sat on a motel room bed casually digging through Dean’s belongings and examining his toothbrush and Dean was equally nbd about it with zero commentary on Personal Space or ‘hands off my stuff’ or whatever... There’s just zero boundaries anymore)

Sam brings them back to the case, and Jack’s even finishing Sam’s sentences, eager that the victim being covered in bite marks seems to confirm his zombie theory. But Dean’s the one who chimes in with, “or like anything else that has teeth.” Because Jack’s so fixated on his zombie theory that he doesn’t yet understand that there are still OTHER OPTIONS here. As a hunter, it’s not practical to let one theory blind you to other possibilities.

Sam takes Jack (and his single-minded zombie theory) to the graveyard to investigate, while Dean grumpily finishes his coffee until he and Cas are ready to go investigate the crime scene. Division of responsibility at Sam’s discretion.

I mean, he chose the obvious pairings. Jack is so inexperienced and Sam feels he’s better able to deal with his level of enthusiasm and naivete than Grumpy Pre-Coffee Dean would be, and letting Cas take Jack on either side of this investigation would’ve probably led to some fairly bizarre and inexplicable interactions with the locals... but as a result, Dean and Cas get to hang out dressed as cowboys and playing Tombstone.

All through this scene, Cas has got this light behind him:

This lil glowing conestoga wagon. Y’all. You know what folks called these sorts of covered wagons, back in the day? Prairie Schooners, because the canvas covers were reminiscent of the sails of a ship at sea. Okay, there’s your ship imagery for today.

Cas immediately gets up, but from just one lil hand gesture from Dean, he resigns himself to wait for Dean to finish his cup of humanity and sits back down.

We see the sun shining down through the branches of a tree while more whistly cowboy music plays and the Impala rolls up to the crime scene, parking in the middle of the road like Dean’s declaring ownership over the whole road. Dean gives Cas the rundown on how to handle the situation, how to “play his role” with the whole Tombstone conversation. And I mean, this entire scene has already been broken down and analyzed to bits so I’m gonna defer to these posts and save myself some typing, because this nonsense is already closing in on 4k words and I’m not even halfway through this episode:

http://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/167607867385/someoneworthfinding-here-are-my-babbling

http://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/167625399000/okay-but-cas-was-so-cute-when-he-said-youre-my

http://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/167607370265/not-that-we-need-it-but-i-think-its-relevant-to

http://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/167631016525/clarification

(note: some of those posts have been edited as I learned more about the movie Tombstone, so if you’ve read them before, note that they might be slightly different now... and more accurate... >.>)

Yet another callback to 9.06, Dean helping Cas improve his look, removing the stupid touristy hat band from Cas’s souvenir cowboy hat. Because Cas isn’t a “tourist” in Dean’s mind. Cas is “home.” And ain’t that just a heartwarming metaphor.

In the wake of Dean’s absolute pure happiness at having Cas back, for all his awkwardness, “Follow my lead, you’ll fit right in.”

*Space Cowboy plays as they slow-mo walk to the crime scene side by side*

*narrator voice: Cas totally tries, and seemingly does not “fit right in” with the locals, but hell if he doesn’t still “fit right in” with Dean, because despite the incredibly painful awkwardness, Dean’s still so glad Cas is back*

“HOWDY PARDNER.” “MUCH OBLIGED” *woody from toy story cowboy walk*

So they meet the guy Dean believes to be the local Sheriff, who immediately corrects them to “Sarge,” CLARIFYING that the sheriff is on vacation. So the “lead authority” figure is away, and Sarge is acting as a stand in. He also immediately clarifies the very personal nature of this case, since he was deputy Carl’s uncle, and has known him since birth.

Dean introduces himself as “Russel,” and instead of also giving Cas’s alias as they so often do (even in 13.05, Dean introduces both him and Sam with “Agents Page and Plant” and then just moves right along with their purpose). He actively encourages Cas to be an active participant in his lil Tombstone roleplay. And Cas totally borks it, but he’s done no real harm to their covers and provided Dean a lil fond forehead slap/eyeroll moment.

At Dean’s prodding, Cas awkwardly comes out with, “Uh, Kilmer. My name is Val Kilmer.” And Dean’s like:

But Cas knows how to introduce himself when they’re playing agents. It’s just this whole “playing the cowboy role” bit COMBINED with “playing law enforcement agents” bit that’s sort of thrown him off. He’s being asked to essentially take TWO SEPARATE THINGS and MAKE THEM ONE.

In the process, he gives us another bit of clarification, however awkward. “Kilmer” to “Val Kilmer.” broad to (arguably) far too specific. Sarge kinda side-eyes him, but shakes his head and accepts it. Finally moving along with what they’re doing there.

Sarge says. “What do you want?” not, “How can I help you” or “Why are you here,” but specifically WHAT DO YOU WANT. The “need vs want” theme again in text.

We get yet MORE clarification from Sarge. There’s a hell of a lot of vague-->specific in this scene. Imma use bullet points:

“His name was Carl Phillips.” and then he clarifies it as “Deputy Carl Phillips.”

“He is... was my nephew”

He describes the murder as “someone slit his throat and then left the body out for the coyotes to chew on” because in his experience these were two separate things, and yet we know that they are actually ONE thing (the ghoul who slit his throat ASLO did the chewing...)

Cas redeems himself completely with the sincerity of his “We are deeply sorry for your loss” So for Sarge, we know that in addition to this being about a fellow police officer, it’s also about family.

Sarge asks why a couple of Texas Rangers are interested in this case, and Cas nearly blows their cover again, about to revert back to their usual FBI cover, but Dean cuts him off and doubles down on the Texas Ranger Cowboy Roleplay. Like, even despite Cas’s awkward Worst Cowboy Ever act, Dean is not gonna drop the act. Dean covers them both with a believable story that they’re chasing a fugitive with the same MO as the grave robber Carl had been investigating when he’d died.

Sarge also delivers the warning that he intends to work this case outside the purview of his role as a law enforcement officer, because again, this is about family business.

And cut to the psychobilly and bubblegum pink embalming fluid aesthetic of Athena Lopez, mortician. She can’t hear Sam and Jack show up and begin asking her questions, because of her headphones and focus on her work, but eventually sees them out the corner of her eye and startles.

Sam apologizes for startling her, and introduces himself and Jack with their FBI aliases (notice they’re not Texas Rangers in cowboy costumes, they’re just FBI in normal suits). But Jack sorta wanders off and... I already wrote about this scene:

http://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/167601058715/athena-or-eileen-or-jack

And here Jack is SO FREAKING CONFIDENT that he’s mastered the Hunter Cover, that unlike Cas, he has no concept of just how wrong he is here. The absolute pride with which he asks Athena about “cold spots, or strange smells” which is entirely irrelevant to this case even if it HAD turned out to be zombies, but he just doesn’t get that there’s not some sort of formula or set script that always works in every hunt. Plus, Athena just told them she wasn’t there, and that only made Jack’s questions seem even more out of left field.

And this “completely missing the point” theme only continues as Jack and Cas check out the graveyard. If you’ve read all my linked posts so far, you’ve already read all about that... somewhere or other... so I’m gonna save more typing because we’re now creeping up on 5k words, and I’m STILL not even halfway through this episode.

Down in the grave, Sam finds not only a tunnel, but a bone. Jack asks what it is, and Sam’s reply is, “I think it’s--” and the scene cuts to Dean back at the motel holding the bone, teeth marks clearly etched on it. We THINK the answer is supposed to be specified to “hip bone,” or “human bone,” but Dean instead clarifies that it’s “LEFTOVERS.” Like, not only does this clarification give us some insight into Dean’s personality, but also highlights his experience as a hunter. He skipped the entire logic train from “bone found in a grave” to “hey this bone has teeth marks” to “someone chewed on this bone and left it behind in a grave where the body’s gone missing,” and arrived at the logical conclusion: Ghoul, which Sam confirms verbally.

This conclusion utterly perplexes Jack, who still hasn’t moved past the ZOMBIE! hypothesis and was still working under the assumption that he’d already completely understood the case. And again, I’ve already covered this in one of those linked posts above, but real quick, Cas has to explain what a ghoul is, “a monster that feeds on the dead and takes on form of whoever they’ve eaten.” And goes on to explain how to kill them. Jack’s still processing all this, and is unable to just incorporate this knowledge as a new thing in and of itself, but instead attempts to categorize it based on things he’s already familiar with. “Zombie Shapeshifter.” Which Sam can’t argue with, but does the opposite of clarification for everyone in the room who’d already accepted the accurate “ghoul” label. Jack’s need to separate and categorize and label just demonstrates that basic lack of understanding, his rather concrete and for lack of a better word childish view of the world that we see more clearly demonstrated by his insistence on filing things away as either “all good” or “all bad.”

But he does make a valid point: when hunting a monster that could look like anyone, how do you find it? This has been a HUGE theme this season, masks and monsters who can change their identity (13.05 with the plague masks, and 13.02 with Asmodeus taking on other appearances, 13.03 with a wraith who can influence what his victims perceive, 13.04 with literal shapeshifters-- one of whom takes on Dean’s appearance and rips his face off like a mask... and there’s already plenty of meta on those episodes and this particular theme).

That brings us back to Athena the rockabilly mortician, and my first thought is ON NOES I hope she’s not the monster! I like her! And my second thought is OH NOES I hope the monster isn’t about to get her because she can’t hear it through the giant pink headphones... And oh noes there’s a shadowy figure at the end of the hall, and we know it’s not one of the “good guys because they’re all back at the motel still. (Cut to Dean opening a beer and flicking the cap across the room)

(Dean is drinking Kingdom beer, btw... famous for being the Last Supper Beer from 10.18 with the ridiculous crossfade between the label and Cas’s face... this is The Cas Beer)

Dean is sick and tired of fighting things that look like other things. :P Cas suggests Athena may be the ghoul, and Sam gets the logic... a creature that eats the dead would have an all you can eat buffet in a mortuary and nobody would ever notice (hey, like Amy Pond in 7.03, who became a mortician so she wouldn’t have to prey on the living). Dean immediately points out the flaw in the logic, if it was her, why would she need to tear up her own graveyard which drew unwanted attention?

And the ominous music plays over her muted rockabilly as she works on another body, and the shadowy figure looms closer.

Jack finds A Clue with his lil laptop. He’s getting good at this investigation stuff: Tracking the plates on the stolen truck, and scouring through traffic camera feeds until he got a good view of the driver. Jack is really fast at scanning through stuff like this, and it’s like he’s got an eidetic memory for these sorts of details. Dean zooms in on the driver and amazingly enough HE recognizes the guy... “Dave Mather.”

*cut to Athena being slapped on the rear by Dave Mather.*

Jack, Cas, and Sam all say “Who?”

Dean doesn’t clarify, just restates, “Dave Mather.”

*cut to Athena saying, “Dave!” and their interaction makes it clear that they are in a relationship. He tells her basically she was asking for it by being “bent over, all sexy.” She tells him she doesn’t like being slapped on the rear, he tells her she does like it. Sometimes. And she smiles at him.*

Dean begins to clarify, excitedly: Cowboy. Outlaw. One of the Dodge City Gang.

*Athena relents and she and Dave kiss*

Dean gets up, pulling a photo off the wall, and couldn’t possibly make it any clearler, presenting photographic evidence of who Dave Mather was as a church bell rings and the cowboy music starts up again. Dean goes on about his reputation as a gunfighter, mentions he died in 1886, and then gives his nickname, “Mysterious Dave Mather.”

Dean is all aflutter about this, gets up, and says, “I’m gonna get my boots on.” As he leaves the room, he’s still all excitedly going on about “One of the best gunslingers ever, WHOOO!”

(he was already wearing his regular boots. the only thing about his appearance that changes after this is he puts on his jacket. Lizbob made a Terrible Post about the dilemma this has been causing us, so I’ll save myself some typing and paste this here: http://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/167714147275/elizabethrobertajones-spent-the-entire-weekend)

Back at Athena’s morgue, Dave brings her a letter from a SFX makeup school she applied to, letting her know she was accepted. She is thrilled, because this is a dream of hers, but Dave is just meh, “cool.” He proceeds to try and talk her out of it, because LA is expensive, they’re not “swimming in cash.” She’s even ready to sell her mortuary if she needed to, ready to do what she really wants with her life, but Dave is insistent that they already have a good thing, and that her plans for her future would “mess that up.” She’s upset that he tried to crush her dream that quickly, and desperately tries to change the subject by mentioning the FBI agents who visited earlier.

Athena was so weirded out by Jack’s questions, that that’s what stood out to her about the FBI interview, and so that’s also what she relates to Dave. He instantly knows that those FBI dudes are actually hunters, who are likely on to him.

And suddenly he’s got a motivation to get out of town and start over in a big city, expenses be damned. So he cooks up a plan to save his own ass from hunters while still framing everything as something he’s doing for Athena. What a sleazebag. :P

And Jack’s same naivete that outed them as hunters to Dave finally proves helpful. He remembers seeing Dave’s picture at the mortuary, in a romantic pose with Athena. So TFW head over to talk to her. Sam and Dean go in, leaving Cas and Jack waiting in the back seat. Have a visual. This is an important scene.

http://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/167596638755/out-in-the-open-hunting-rule-36-never-tell-a

After Dean’s broken, brutal honesty with the sheriff in 13.01, and his continuing sort of oversharing during his “I just don’t care anymore” phase, now that he has Cas back and is feeling that will to live again, he’s back to the complete snark about what they should tell Athena about her boyfriend-- who and what he really is, what he snacks on, and why they’re there to kill him...

Sam and Dean let themselves into the morgue looking for her, but for once she’s not wearing her headphones and she’s the one that finds THEM. They tell her they’re looking for her boyfriend, and she asks if it’s about the grave robberies. Dean clarifies that it’s also about a murder. Then clarifies AGAIN that it was a sheriff’s deputy who was murdered the night before. She’s completely honest with them. Dave told her he had to go to the bank.

Cut to the bank, where a helpful security guard holds the door open for a customer who leaves the Stagecoach Credit Union. The guard tells the banker he’s going to lock up for the night, just as Dave barges in with a bandanna and a gun drawn, aimed at the guard.

Just like Cas said earlier at the crime scene, Dave opens with “Howdy partner.”

Only for Dave, it’s not “put on.” He’s such a weird anachronism. This old west outlaw (or a monster wearing his face), robs the Stagecoach Credit Union, in the Old West Outlaw Milieu, but also listing off all the “modern day bank robber demands.”

You hit the alarm, you die, you give me a dye pack, you die, you try to play hero, you die.

It’s fascinating, reminding us that the old west outlaw is literally a role the ghoul is playing. He’s hung on to Dave Mather’s body so that he can continue to “become” Dave, because it’s a role he enjoys playing and a face he enjoys wearing. He’s choosing to play this particular role despite having probably become thousands of other people he’s eaten since Dave died in the 1880′s. I don’t even want to think about eating bits of 140-years-dead-Dave... >.>

But Dean’s waiting for him outside the bank, with a shotgun already pointed at him. He identifies the ghoul by name, “Dave Mather.” So even DEAN is playing into this role the ghoul has chosen for himself. I mean, Dean does have this interesting habit of killing famous “bad guys.” I mean, he killed Hitler (who happened to be wearing a new body), and now here’s Dave Mather, who isn’t really Dave Mather but a ghoul who stole his famous face.

Dave immediately identifies Dean as “the hunter,” and Dean replies that he must like to play cowboy. But then Sam cocks his gun and Dave notices Dean’s posse (he loves him some posse. I wonder if he ever got that t-shirt?). Dave proves he can count to four, and Sam asks him to come quietly. Dave decides to try and fight his way out and draws his gun.

Sam shoots first, but misses. Lots of shooting ensues. Cas and Jack hide behind a mockup of a stagecoach outside the bank, while Sam and Dean hide behind a car in the lot. Cas advises Jack to stay hidden, but Jack insists he’s got this and runs out before Cas can stop him. Cas runs after him, but inside the bank, the guard is doing one of the things Dave told him not to: he tries to play hero. He tells the banker lady to stay put and goes outside, drawing his weapon. Dave shoots Jack twice, which doesn’t hurt Jack at all. This freaks Dave out, for obvious reasons.

Just as the security guard reaches Dave, Jack launches a glowy-eyed power blast at Dave, sending both him and the guard flying. Dave lands in the parking lot, but the guard wasn’t so lucky... Jack is so distracted and distraught over having accidentally hurt the guard that Dave is able to make his escape.

(here on Cas’s powers to heal/resurrect: http://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/167624981350/do-you-have-any-thoughts-about-why-cas-didnt-have)

I already covered this scene in one of the linked posts at the top, and as this is now approaching 7k words and I’m just past the halfway mark of the episode... I’m gonna try to be more suscinct from here on out >.>

Dean chases after Dave, and has yet another “chase the bad guy, nearly get run over by a moving vehicle, and then lose the bad guy” scene similar to the one in 13.03.

Jack didn’t mean to hurt the guard, and he begs Cas to heal him, but it’s too late. The guard is already dead. Just before Sam pronounces the fact, thunder rumbles, and then we return to the motel room where Jack’s sitting distraught on the couch as even louder thunder rumbles... and the rest of TFW is standing in the bedroom having a Grownups Conversation about Jack...

Cas asks if it’s the first time he’s hurt anyone, and Sam replies no, but this is the first person he’s killed. Dean makes a decision, that Sam and Cas should take Jack back to the bunker for his own protection, since local law enforcement may figure out that Jack was responsible for the guard’s death and come after him. Cas volunteers to stay with Dean to deal with the ghoul, but Dean insists he’ll handle it, because Cas may need to help Jack deal with his powers. Cas relents, but nobody is really thrilled with this circumstance.

Meanwhile back at the morgue, Dave stumbles in with his big bag of cash and a couple of gunshot wounds, and Athena is initially worried for him, until he proudly announces that he robbed a bank for her. She’s not impressed. Honestly, I wouldn’t be either. He makes it seem like he’s doing it all for her, when it’s really all about himself.

“You can go to that school, and I’m gonna come with you.” As if she needed his permission and he’s graciously granted it, along with the promise of his company. And then he insists they leave immediately.

But Athena thinks he’s lost his mind. He goes on to confess to the grave robberies, but that the small-time money he’d made from pawning the things he’d dug up wasn’t cutting it, hence the bank robbery. Athena is shocked to learn he was the grave robber all along. And she ALSO puts together the fact that that means he’s a murderer, too, that he killed the deputy. She’s distraught that he killed someone, and can’t accept Dave’s reasoning that “he had it coming,” just for investigating his grave robberies.

She doesn’t even want him to touch her, and he goes off... how he’s given her everything she ever wanted, that he will always protect her, but they need to leave, now. She struggles to get away from him, but he won’t let her go. Outside the window, headlights pull up, and he knows it’s too late.

But outside, we see it’s not Dean, but Sarge. Dean pulls up next, in a stolen car. Sarge tells him about the bank robbery that turned into an “OK Corral” shootout, and that he’s looking for the shooter. The bank teller recognized Dave’s voice as the man who’d been dating Athena, so Sarge came out to find him after matching the prints from the bank robbery to those found at Carl’s murder scene. And for a ghoul with the ability to change his prints just by snacking on someone else before committing his crimes, that’s just weak, Dave. :P

He got caught because of his fondness for this particular false identity.

Sarge runs through all the logic, Dave’s place is cleared out, he won’t leave town without his girlfriend. He was really clear about all of this. Then he asks Dean why he’s there, and Dean answers “Same thing.” Dean asks where his badge is, and Sarge answers he doesn’t need one, because he’s not there as law enforcement, but as family business. Dean gets it, and jumps in with Sarge with both feet, confirming that Dean’s not taking him alive, either.

Without giving Sarge any of the other details about the supernatural and the fact that Dae is a ghoul, he’s already prepared him for the hunt, knowing he won’t waver on taking the shot. All Dean needs to tell him is, “Aim for the head.”

Both of them have shotguns as they prowl through the graveyard. They hear rustling, and Sarge is perplexed. Dean pushes on. Then we’re right back to the opening scene, where Sarge gets yanked underground. This time, WE GET CLARIFICATION! Or at least, we get to see what happens next.

Unlike at the beginning of the episode that ended with Dean staring into the hole and saying, “Aw, hell,” this time we see him take action. He immediately gets down, grumbling about not wanting to go face-first into a ghoul tunnel, but then he sucks it up and goes, because that’s what he does.

(we get Dean’s Die Hard impression as he struggles through the tunnel, which we’ve already talked about elsewhere)

Then we cut to the Impala, with Sam and Cas trying to counsel Jack. They’ve both been in his place, having hurt someone unintentionally, but neither of them is particularly comforting to Jack.

SUFFER WITH ME: http://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/167595896815/mittens-i-choked-on-my-juice-because-cas-said

Cas shares some of his understanding, that even if it hurts, he should never stop fighting. Just because he made a mistake doesn’t mean he can’t be better, or do better.

And here’s another clarification, which rings the same bells that Kelly’s “It’s not what you are, it’s what you do” line to Jack. Can he “be better” or can he “do better,” because those are two different things.

Cas then delivers a line nearly identical to Mia the Shapeshifting Therapist: “I believe that, I have to believe that.” Again, a clarification.

Sam tells Jack that they still believe in him, but Jack doesn’t want to hear it. He asks them to stop. Please stop. Again, not a clarification, but a repetition and the emphasis added with the please.

Back to the morgue, where we see what appears to be the door to a crematorium open, but it’s actually the tunnel through the graveyard. Dean opens it from inside, and then loudly falls out onto the floor. He sees Athena tied to a chair with Dave’s bandanna tied around her mouth. He removes the gag, and she asks what’s going on. Dean tells her her boyfriend isn’t exactly human, and she’s like WHAT?!

Dean’s distracted from replying by a groan, and sees Sarge lying on the ground nearby. He runs over to check on him, and sets his rifle down a Sarge’s side. Sarge is hurt, and weirded out that Dave was able to drag him through the ground and toss him around like a rag doll. Dean asks if Sarge has any idea where Dave is, and he answers, “A little bit.” And we hear Dave’s gun cock behind Dean.

Dean slowly stands up and raises his hands, turning around to face Dave. Dave insults Dean’s intelligence for daring to follow after him without even bringing a gun, because Dean appears to be unarmed. Dave taunts him about this, but Dean’s entirely unperturbed, because while he might not be holding the gun, he didn’t arrive unarmed. He just left his gun on the ground... with Sarge...

Athena distracts Dave for a moment, pleading with him not to do this. He insists he’s doing it for “us,” and she replies, “There is no us.”

Dean’s still standing with his hands raised, and whatever silent communication he’s exchanged with Sarge while we (and Dave) weren’t watching them has obviously given him some confidence, and he taunts Dave about her breaking up with him. Dave taunts Dean about how he’s gonna put a bullet between his eyes, then we get the line about how even if Dean had a gun he wouldn’t be fast enough, and Dean replies, “No, but he is.”

Dean takes a little side step, and trusts that Sarge used his time during Dean’s distraction wisely to aim, and he blows Dave’s head off. Happy trails, cowboy.

The whole time, we saw Dean’s uncanny trust in Sarge, from the nonchalant way they just sort of had this understanding about hunting for Dave back in the graveyard, to this incredible display of trust in Sarge’s otherwise entirely unproven ability. Like he just knew this was going to work out for him.

Maybe his recent conversation with Billie about his importance to her is making him a bit overconfident? Or maybe Dean is just this cool when people point guns at him while he’s unarmed?

In daylight, Sarge asks Dean exactly what happened back there. Dean says, “Sure,” and then proceeds to lay out the absolute barest facts possible. “A guy named Dave killed your deputy. He tried to kill you, and you shot him dead. I was never here.” Sarge replies, “Fair enough.” He might not ever get a realer answer to his question, but he knows better than to press. Dean also pushes one lie after this, that Dave also killed the security guard at the bank. He’s lied to protect Jack, though I don’t know if the human legal system would be prepared to deal with Jack anyway... Something tells me he’d just boop himself out of prison.

Dean arrives back at the bunker, and Jack’s again sitting at the same spot in the library he was before. Only this time he’s sulking with his arms folded instead of eagerly researching cases. Down in the War Room, Sam and Cas sit on opposite sides of the table. Sam stands when Dean comes in, and Dean tells them how the hunt went. When Sam replies, “Good,” Jack questions that... he doesn’t think it’s good at all.

Cas tries to calm Jack down, telling him not to do this to himself when he presses for details about the man he killed. Dean answers him honestly. And honestly so much has been written about this scene already:

http://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/167593430430/so-what-did-you-think-of-the-episode-overall-did

http://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/167672126250/do-you-know-of-any-instances-in-canon-history

(that second post is about something else entirely, but touches on this final scene where Jack flaps off)

And on that note, I think I’m done. At least I seem to have purged the need to pick at this episode. I feel better, anyway. If anyone actually read all this, I’m sorry. Have a cookie.

#spn s13 spoilers #spn 13.06 #the scheherazade of supernatural #yeehaw #narrative structure #silent storytelling #this is a jerry wanek appreciation blog #narrative negative space #using your words #need vs want #okay i give up just still all the major s13 meta tags on here #spn fashion hour pffft #you learned it from the goats #supernatural beer signs #where's that gif of the Kingdom logo fade in to cas's face from that episode...#seriously though why doesn't everyone just trust dean's gut instincts it's like he's got an uncanny magical gift here...

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