#the chemistry is insaneeee. i love them

[thrudthorsdottir]

My name is Victor Strand. I lied to you about so much. But what I felt for you was real.

[tonydaddingham]

Hi! I saw your tags on a post talking about car trouble as one of the great good omens fics and I've put it on my tbr! I wasn't really active in the fandom after season 1 so I feel like I missed out on all the great fics. I know about Demonology and Slow Show and I know about others from Aziraphale'sLibrary from their classics tag. But I was wondering what your list would be, your list of what the best and greatest good omens fics are. I'm young, so I have time to read lol

GASPS I HAVE RECS COMING OUT MY EARS @queenofthearchipelago, BUCKLE UP KID💕

this will be a mixture of genres and a lot of them are well known so may well already be on the AL classic lists (but, well, theyre classics for a reason imo) but im just gonna dump them here; these are literally just off the top of my head so won't be very coherent/in order - i'll give the links and ratings, but will leave you to peruse the synopses directly (most will be human AUs, they're my particular favourites), just to save making what will be a huge post even longer!!!

Car Trouble (E)

Petrichor and Parchment (E)

Memory of Eden (M) (and its sequels - imo The heartbreak series of all time. i sob like a baby) (it's written pre-s1 release, so book!omens, but i find it relatively easy to re-imagine if tv!omens is how you imagine them too etc) (no seriously if i ever get any fic professionally bound into a physical book, it's this series)

For Want of a Seed (T) (and also a huge shout out to Right of It also by cassieoh but it's unfinished - ive had it open as a tab in my phone for like a year? in the fervent hope it'll be updated, which fair enough if it isn't!!! but it's beauuuutiful)

Stranger in Paradise (E)

Infernal Bodyguard (M)

Wicked Thing series (E) (and anything by phoenix_soar, frankly. just... damn🫠)

i then also want to shout out a couple of fics from some amazing people on tumblr here (listed in no particular order!) which you may have already seen? but definitely worth mentioning because they're similarly insaneeee:

Shoot to Thrill and Learning on the Job (both E) and tbh anything by @teddybearbutchh, otherworldly affinity for not only writing in general, she's so talented, but her smut is 🫠

How Do We Turn On The Light? (M) by @moonyinpisces is soooo good as a post-s2 fic, she's really captured how i personally imagine aziraphale and crowley to act after the feral domestic, i love her characterisation!

The Loophole (E) by @fellshish is a different take post-s2 but incredibly funny and the apology dance is. life changing

Chemistry (E) by @twilightcitysky, i simply revisit their works time and time again, but this one is a particular favourite!!!

and im sure there are some lovelies that might read this and want to add their recommendations too, or self promote???💕✨ but these are my faves, like i said, right off the top of my head!!!

[moonshynecybin]

Your takes on Marc always feel so accurate so I’d like to hear more of what you think in reference to that ask

i thinkkkkk this ask was about the pre argentina post sepang period where marc is like. attempting to mend his relationship to valentino by pure force of will and also being very sweet but vale is a lil reticent if sometimes polite... estranged but still hanging on to that lethal chemistry. death would be kinder if your name is marc marquez. but im going to take a HARD turn into omegaverse land here so sorry to god and his motorcycle racers

SO i think marc obviously like. doesnt really want to believe its over. hes soooo in love here (and as a canonical late bloomer i dont think hes EVER had a heat without vale?? and he is discovering that he is in fact quite bad at dealing with them by himself?) and i really do think that, as hurt as he was by the sepang fallout, he really thinks vale will get over it with time ! and that eventually theyll be able to be as close as they were previously! as soon as he unblocks me the wedding is back on ! truly cannot imagine doing a heat with anyone else he feels literally cold down to his bones thinking about it. and its not even just the dynamic stuff... he misses the grabby hands on cooldown laps and the hugs in parc ferme and the way vale used to put his long fingers in marc's hair to put him where he wants him when they were fucking and the soft skin of his neck and how when vale would touch him everything in marc's brain could just go quiet. truly he feels it in his TEETH like the longing is LETHAL the longing is PHYSICAL the longing has marc IGNORING HIS BODY'S BASIC NEEDS and refusing to go out and find someone to spend a heat with that would actual resolve the hormonal part of his biology reaching for vale (and break that mf bond). so the heat never quite fully resolves! and he feels antsy and feverish and smells literally crazy for weeks at a time. every alpha in the paddock bristling when the wind changes direction... vale staring at the sky with his nails digging into his palms

so marc's already shaky self control is pushed to the limit by his body's insane hormonal situation (motogp doctor is like. technically he can ride !) and so for a few years he decides to kind of. wage this tentative little campaign to see if he can get vale to smile at him or literally touch him at all and relieve a little of the tension swimming around in his body. ANY relief. so he says hi to him every day. goes up to him in parc ferme. small little touches on the podium. just making vale smell like him a little bit. hind brain rejecting the reality where they havent really touched skin on skin in months. waiting for vale to take off his glove before he shakes his hand. BUT because this is omegaverse and i love DRAMA, what marc doesnt realize is that he is sort of. fortifying the beginning stages of a bond that they had started to form when they were fucking. a bond that WOULD have just died if he left it alone or found someone else, but he canttttt because hes oblivious and in love... AND THEN he gets another heat, and its SO much worse... like the effects are compounding, and he can barely see straight and he's feverish and shaking with big eye bags all pale and sad... and eventually alex notices and pulls the plug. says you will NOT get on a bike like this and marc gets permission to stop and basically COLLAPSES

but meanwhile vale is being driven INSANE this entire time because the bond wont DIE but its also not COMPLETED, and marc keeps TOUCHING HIMMMM and smelling insaneeee like hes in heat literally constantly and vale doesnt know what the ISSUE is.... and hes caught up in soooo much resentment but theres literally a base part of his body that cannot physically ignore marc whatsoever. so its an escalating arms race of horny frustration until marc suddenly pulls out of the race one weekend (the official line is for "dynamic reasons" which vale stares at for full minute wondering. is anyone taking care of marc like he would. caught between wanting him to be okay and feeling SICK thinking about another alpha helping him through any of it...) and then theres a knock at his motorhome door. and its alex marquez, looking tired and a little nervous. and he just says. i need your help. its marc.

[a-lil-bi-furious]

Top 10 Ships Involving POC in 10 Different Fandoms (Round 4)

Thanks to the wonderful @welldressedllama for the tag! 🥰 Just for funsies, this time I’m doing enemies-to-lovers/rivals-to-lovers/maybe-not-traditional-enemies-but-way-too-antagonistic-to-not-fit-the-bill-to-lovers edition. In no particular order:

1) Macy Vaughn x Abigael Jameson-Caine (Macigael) - Charmed CW

I ultimately respect the AbiMel plot, but these two were literally Right There. Excellent chemistry from moment one and they perfectly mirrored each other with Macy as a witch with demon blood (struggling with darkness) and Abigael as a demon with witch blood (struggling to accept lightness). To think of what could have been with the two of them and the acceptance of good and bad and the whole complex mess of the self makes me insaneeee

2) Nicky Shen x Zhilan Zhang (Zhicky) - Kung Fu CW

Idek what to say their dynamic was just so fun and watching them begrudgingly grow close was chef's kiss.

3) Eve Polastri x Villanelle (Villaneve) - Killing Eve

Literally THE enemies to lovers imho. What more do I need to say? Eve said seduction into my darkness? Yes please. Villanelle said feel emotions for one (1) woman and obsess over her? Okay. They're enemies AND lovers. They've both tried to kill each other. So? They get each other like no one else. No one's doing it like them

4) Scott McCall x Theo Raeken (Sceo) - Teen Wolf

Sorry but I'm clawing at the walls, gnawing on my hands, howling at the moon over them. Exploring all the tension and the guilt and the fear and the longing is delicious. And the layer of long-lost friends? The subtle seduction into trust and the mutual destruction on Theo's part? Sorry I'm crazy about it sorry.

5) Mona Vanderwaal x Spencer Hastings (Vanderstings/Spemona?) - Pretty Little Liars

Somebody in this fandom needs to tell me right meow why they're not a bigger thing??? Quintessential 'they hate each other's guts but no one matches their freak better'. Throw Hanna in the mix and that's the perfect formulation, but they hold their own on enemies-to-lovers grounds sooooooo well.

6) Raven Reyes x John Murphy (Murven) - The 100

Truth be told they're not my top ship for each other BUT they are the epitome of enemies to friends (to lovers). Some of the best relationship development I can think of.

7) Bonnie Bennett x Nora Hildegard (Bonnora) - The Vampire Diaries

Literally why were they not a thing? Bonenzo ily but look at them! They had such a fun little antagonistic flirty thing and Nora was canonically crushing on Bonnie. All I want is queer Bonnie and I was so close to having it

8) Kitty Covey x Yuri Han (Kitturi) - XO Kitty

Kitty literally took one look at rival Yuri making music and crossed that thin line from hate to love. Girl was like "I will take this Angry tension and transform it into Sexual tension" and I respect that

9) Kathani "Kate" Sharma x Anthony Bridgerton (Kanthony) - Bridgerton

I've only watched one full episode and seen random bits here and there but I'm obsessed with her and I'm obsessed with them. Literally scene one I was all in. They are the bane of my existence and the object of all my desires

10) Luke Alvez x Penelope Garcia (Garvez) - Criminal Minds

I missed Morgan as much as the next guy, but Penelope and Luke's banter and chemistry is unmatched. Shame on the new seasons for lying to me and saying they went on a date but didn't have the same chemistry, that is such Bull

Honorable mention: Zafira x Nasir (Nasira? Nafira?) from the Sands of Arawiya duology, who I feel I cannot officially include because I have only read a small excerpt so far, but I expect to like very much

Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3

As always, no pressure whatsoever, but I’ll tag @freddieslater @aconfusedidentity @userlaylivia @scribeoffate @sees-writes @rhyslahey and anyone else who wants to play! :)

[yiangchen]

something that i've never been able to figure out is why i enjoy the build up to rory's relationships but can never get fully invested in them once they actually happen. with dean, it was really cute and wholesome for almost the entire first season, but then he tells her he loves her and lashes out when she doesn't say it back. at this point, he had officially become the typical "nice guy" who's not actually a nice guy at all once he doesn't get what he feels entitled to. ew. immediately gave me the ick. and it just got worse from there. i never shipped them again after that moment.

then in comes jess! and i was like omg yay! dean is awful and jess is so cute. i was so excited about it. even though i enjoyed early dean/rory, imo she had far more chemistry with jess and the build up was immaculate. i honestly didn't even mind that she cheated lmao because it actually made sense in the story and they were just young kids making mistakes. plus, it was a very good kiss soooo yeah. i was completely on board, even through the drama that followed, right up until they got together. it was so good initially. and then almost immediately, i lost all interest in their relationship because jess was just such an asshole a lot of the time! he was cringy. he was annoying. he treated her awfully. i couldn't enjoy them at all anymore. and then the relationship deteriorated, progressively getting worse and worse.

a bit later and in comes logan and i was even more excited for him! i was like yes this must be what i have been waiting for! it's the third romance trope. let's fucking go. and the build up was even better than jess/rory imo!! they made me go insaneeee before they got together. like. fuck. i was so so soooo invested. but their first kiss was somehow so meh to me. a lot of the time, i could still enjoy them together and i thought they had a lot of cute moments, but the magic that i felt before they got together was just kind of gone. sometimes i could still feel it and other times i just didn't. so, between that and some really bad writing decisions/ooc behavior (such as their breakup in s6 and all the drama that lead up to it and came after it), i could never fully ship them either.

i prefer rory/logan over the others because overall they had the healthiest relationship, but there's just something missing with every single one of these boys with they way they were written. it just doesn't feel like any of them are meant for rory. it feels like there's someone else out there for her that she hasn't met yet. am i the only one that feels this way? i feel like i am because all i see is team jess and team logan and i'm just team rory over here ig.

i will say though. i think there was a chance for me to fully get on board with jess or logan in the revival had things been different. both have second chance romance potential, but they didn't go there with jess/rory because they decided to give rory/logan yet another unsatisfying storyline. the writers clearly had a bias for jess, so i don't know why they didn't have a romantic storyline in the revival. it's just kind of weird. ideally though, i wished they'd just gone about rory/logan in a different way. if they'd had logan working at luke's inbetween jobs and rory comes home to visit and doesn't know and she comes into the diner expecting luke and sees logan waiting on tables?? and then there's all this build up to them rekindling things??? maybe they kiss and then after rory is so flustered when she sees him again in the diner and she runs into something and almost falls over, just like lorelai did because of luke once upon a time?? it would have been so cute! rory/logan have the chemistry. they just needed a better storyline!

[curestardust]

Dust Watched: Black Clover: Sword of the Wizard King

Genres: Shounen (VERY), Fantasy (Magic) // 1 movie (2h) // S01 (x)

As I don’t keep up with anime news very much, I’ve lived under the assumption that this movie was a continuation of the main series. It isn’t. My disappointment was immeasurable and my day was ruined... Okay, not really, but the first 5-10 minutes of this movie gave me whiplash.

✧  story  ✧

Now I’m not sure if this is considered canon as a freshly minted booklet/manga was made alongside the movie, explaining the plot and characters. The story takes place after the (VERY LONG) Elf Arc but before the Spade Kingdom Arc. Now, considering that the whole lead-up to the latter is the Magic Knights training to become stronger because they are too weak to take on the Dark Triad, I’m going to file this away as an AU because the cast is way too OP in this movie.

This movie is the most Shounen thing I’ve seen in ages. It’s literally 2 hours of non-stop battle sequences with barely any downtime and... it’s great! If you like that thing (and if you’re a Shounen fan then you most likely do). It’s basically an arc without the filler. 

The plot itself is paper thin on the surface. The former Wizard King, Conrad, breaks Julius’ seal that was keeping him imprisoned. Then using the Sword of the Wizard King, Elsdocia, he revives 3 former Wizard Kings who held very similiar ideals to him: in order for an equal society to be born the current one needed to be completely destroyed because it was rotten to its core. I’ll further go into these characters in the next section but yeah, that’s about it. Four incredibly powerful Wizards are trying to destroy the Clover Kingdom and our main characters try to do everything in their power to stop them.

Also, the fight choreography! Probably the best parts of the original season were the fights against the powerful villains, however those fights often only included 3 or max 4 characters using their magic together. In this movie, the scale is MUCH bigger. It was a lot of fun!

✧  characters  ✧

A few mentions on the already existing cast: Asta and Yuno probably interacted more in this movie than in the last 50 episodes of the original season, the side characters didn’t get much screentime but the ones they did were used very well and highlighted the most important part of their personalities and/or skills.

An absolute highlight of the movie was definitely the treatment of the female characters. Probably some of the best I’ve seen from any Shounen in recent memory (this includes the original season!). Noelle finally wasn’t used for fanservice nor was her entire arc framed around Asta. I do think her reaction to what happens to her was pretty mid but the character focus was like a revolving door so nobody really got any meaningful focus (besides Asta) so that’s more of an overall complaint I have not specific to Noelle. Nero’s new "job” was great, that science lady who showed up for like 5 minutes was great, and the obvious GOAT that cannot go unmentioned, Mereoleona, was insaneeee here. I cannot put into words how much I loved her chemistry with a certain other female character.

But that directly leads me into probably my biggest complaint with the movie, the villains. The way the 4 of them want to go about creating their equal society is portrayed as crazy, and while it’s definitely extreme, everything they say is true! In fact it’s SO true that their argument, the fact that the Wizard Kings have no power and that basically nothing has changed with the class divide and the treatment of people with weak magic powers through GENERATIONS was one of the thing I complained about in my review of the original season!

And that’s why I’m deeply disappointed that their backstories were not shown or explained *in the movie*. That booklet/manga they gave out with the release of the movie? It’s in THERE. But that makes absolutely no difference to me, and most people who’ll only watch this movie who will not understand where the villains are coming from. Because it’s such a great exploration of the world itself and proper worldbuilding has always been a weak point of Black Clover. I do understand that the flow of the movie might’ve been broken if we had flashbacks but then do what every Shounen does: make the characters drop exposition in the middle of combat. The things they say gives us a glimpse into their personalities but not where they’re coming from that they’d literally agree to come back from the dead to carry out this plan.

Of course, with the lack of any insight into their pasts, who they were teamed up against didn’t really matter but as I read their backstories on the wiki, I thought the final team ups could’ve also been tweaked so they were essentially fighting their “past selves” . I won’t go into detail about their backstories, I linked the wiki if you want to read it but I would’ve went with Princia vs Noelle, Edward vs Yuno, and Jester vs... I dunno. But he is perfectly gremlin shaped and loved him for that. Actually, by the end of the movie I grew to like all of them. But, as I keep repeating, putting more of their backstories into the movie itself would’ve made them even better.

✧  art  ✧

I was initially really scared because the movie starts off with some mad ugly CGI establishing shots but thankfully that was pretty much the only time they stuck out like a sore thumb (not a good first impression though!). For the rest of the movie, there’s so many angle changes that the CGI wasn’t noticable anymore. Princia’s soldiers were probably the weakest part of the whole movie visually but everything else around it was so high quality that I’ll give that a pass.

The animation in this movie absolutely blew me away. Especially with the length! 2 hours long and not a single drop in quality??? It was insane, BIIIIG props to the animation and art department, for real.

This movie also fixes what I mainly complained about with the original season which was that the colours were very washed out making the battles much less exciting to look at. Not here, though! A beautiful and, most importantly, vibrant colour pallette makes the fight scenes POP like they should’ve in the original.

✧  sound ✧

Probably the only part of the movie I found quite disappointing. Most of the OST felt like some Disney knock-off ‘badass fight music’ and whenever something good came on I realized that they were just the OP’s from the original season.

But holy hell, did the VA’s put on a PERFORMANCE. They were fantastic, and especially seeing how much Asta’s VA improved was a treat.

✧  overview ✧

I took off a point for the lackluster villain backstories and honestly, as much as I like bombastic Shounen fight scenes, there was so little breathing room in this movie that I kind of zoned out a few times. 

My Rating: 8/10

[toasty-broski]

Finally finished season 6!!!! It was good!! Not sure what all the hate is about (I’ve seen people say they don’t like it). Maybe I just have bad taste idk, but I loved it. Episode 15 where they’re Jared and Jensen made me die laughing I swear. Misha tweeting throughout the episode was EVERYTHING to me. He was amazing.

Also, with the way Rufus is talked about in the fandom I thought he lived WAY longer than this season!! When Bobby stabbed him I was sure he was gonna survive. I was wrong. Balthazar too!! Is he dead dead though??! They didn’t show his wings so idk I’m still iffy on that… but the light… whatever, I’ll see eventually.

One of my fav things from this season is right after Sam gets his soul back, you an just see Deans face saying “yeah, my brothers back 😌❤️” and I think that’s beautiful.

My fav Soulless Sam moment was when Samuel tells the boys “you can either put a bullet in your grandfather or let me go” or something along those lines and Sam just PULLS OUT HIS GUN AND AIMS IT AT HIS HEAD. That was so hot.

ACTUALLY I LIED!! My fav Soulless Sam moment was when he fucking bit himself till he bled so that he could use his blood for the demon circle thing. When he smiled with his mouth all bloody?! FUCK. YES. BITCH. UUGGHHH.

The make out between Meg and Castiel made me feel something. Like their chemistry is insaneeee. I need them to hate fuck IMMEDIATELY.

I liked Soulless Sam chasing Bobby through his house when he was trying kill him, I feel like that could have been a whole episode of Sam just going bat shit crazy because he doesn’t want his soul back. Opportunity missed.

The consent issues regarding Sam’s soul is something that should be talked about more I feel like. Him screaming for Dean before he gets his soul back broke me tbh.

Rachel popping off on the boys because they only called Cas when they needed him was everything. A bad bitch.

I love love LOVE how Crowley went from helping them last season to full on becoming the main villain for this season. He’s the only villain that sees the brothers as an actual threat and I love how he knows that with them alive, he’s always going to be in danger.

Cas is terrifying as God, I hope he doesn’t do anything fucking STUPID next season. He already broke the wall in Sams mind (fuck him for that, bitch), I’m scared of what’s gonna happen next.

I’ve only watched up to season 5 of Supernatural and I had to stop because my heart literally couldn’t take it anymore. I don’t even know when I’m going to start back up again but for now I just need to take a break.