#the people I moved in with let me use their 3 horse trailer so I didn't have to pay to rent a van/truck

[purplesaline]

In our current society (in North America and much of the western world) we can't completely avoid capitalism, but with some work and dedication we can reduce how much we have to participate in it.

Building community is hard, and it often requires a lot of up front investment in time and energy before you start seeing returns on that investment. I know not everyone is in a place where they can make those expenditures without getting anything back right away which is why it's even more important for those of us who can to start building sooner rather than later.

When you have a healthy, thriving community of people you can start withdrawing yourself more and more from reliance on a broken capitalist system. Yes there's mutual aid within a community but what's even more exciting to me is the option of participating in a barter/trade economy because it's so often more empowering for disabled folks and other marginalized groups that struggle in a capitalist economy.

And even more importantly than that, it's how we can survive a political landscape that is openly hostile to us. It's as impossible to avoid the fallout of the current political situation as it is to avoid participating in a capitalist economy, but being part of a strong and healthy community can at least help mitigate some of the harmful effects.

Neighbours sharing produce from their gardens can lessen the chances of food-borne illness as a result of lax food safety regulations.

Creating, maintaining, and sharing resources that help marginalized groups can help protect vulnerable people in your area when the larger resources are being dismantled or when people acting in bad faith are pretending to be a helpful organization.

Communities have more leverage (and resources) when it comes time to put pressure on local government to make progressive changes

As communities grow, empathy and compassion for the people in the community also spreads and that can help create allies against the bigotry and prejudice some of the community members face. When you're in community together with someone it's harder to depersonalize them. They aren't [insert oppressed group] member, they're the person who walks your dog and brings you beets in exchange for piano lessons, or the person who loaned you a spare tire so you could go to work and when you got home that evening they'd fixed your flat tire for free because they had the time and some spare material laying around from a repair they did on their own tire.

It's going to be really easy to give in to despair in the coming months and I'm not going to lie and say you can survive it. Some folks won't. I'm not going to lie and promise if you can make it through that things will get easier, they might not!

But if you can hang on I can promise you there's a chance things will get better, and I can promise you there's a whole heck of a lot of us out there trying to make sure it does get better. I can promise you that building community will help you survive when things start getting harder, and I can promise you that community can be a beacon of light in dark times, a bastion of hope in a desert of despair.

I know you're tired and I'll understand if you can't keep fighting, but I really hope you've got enough resilience left to hang on long enough to find a community to be part of.

[justakidicarus]

Dark Link - The Fall of a Hero (3/?) Part 2 - The Hatching's Interlude

This one has a lot of world-building. Assumptions can be found in the Prologue. This part does not actually include Link at all, but it does discuss him and builds a bit more on Drakeon as a character.

More notes for parts of the story mentioned and different pieces of worldbuilding I haven't been able to integrate into the fic are beneath the fic. Spoilers for the trailer of Echoes of Wisdom. This fic should be considered Non-canon to the events of Echoes of Wisdom and is heavily canon-divergent. Fic below the cut.

---///---

“You failed to break in the Hero. Worse, you allowed him to escape.” The demon king growled from atop his throne as the silver Lizalfos strolled into the room with an air of nonchalance. Drakeon paid little mind to Ganon’s building rage, instead busying herself with checking over her staff. The little brat gave as good as he got, she could give him that. Still, it was only a matter of time before the scouting parties found his location. Once she knew where he was, it would be whelp’s play to bring him back.

Ganon’s growl deepened and the Lizalfos winced as she heard the boar slam his staff into the ground, an echo of’ Warning’ ringing through the room. The demon king hissed “Do not ignore me Hatchling. I am your King, and you will respect me as such.” The Darkness thickened and writhed, responding to its master’s fury.

“Ah get ya the results ya want better than any o’ your stuffy Fallen-born Monster ever could an’ you know it.” Drakeon pointed out, reminding him of why her insolence is excused. The Monsters of the Fallen were weak, used to gorging on Darkness so much that they became lazy and inefficient. Her kind never got that luxury. Drakeon herself didn’t even hail from the lands of Hyrule, far removed from its dark powers. Her people worked for every bit of strength they had and earned every bit of respect they received from both the land and her spirits. No fallen-born monster had the drive to bring the best out of a Monster. Only her kind, Whelp-born with enough grit and determination to make it to adulthood, had enough drive to get things done. Drakeon was the only Whelp-born to get on this side of the veil anyway. She was irreplaceable and they both knew it.

“You failed to get results this time. I do not tolerate mistakes.” Ganon said, eyes narrowing dangerously from what she could see out of the corner of her eye.

“An ah don’t tolerate them neither,” Drakeon shrugged, rolling and unrolling her tail. It had begun to grow past her comfortable length. She’d have to see if she could cut it down soon to something more manageable.

“And yet you deign to make one.” The Demon King rumbled, like the thunder warning of an incoming storm. Drakeon took a deep breath, looking to the sky where the veil between realms was at its thinnest.

“Tha Hero’s spirit is that of ah sublime beast.” She quoted from memory. The Divine Beast of Twilight’s words wore heavily on her shoulders, alongside his canine stare and sharp fangs. She turned to look directly at Ganon himself, not hesitating to make direct eye contact with the yellow-eyed boar. She tilted her head to the side as she asked: “Do ya ‘ave any idea what that means?”

She didn’t let the demon king get a word out before standing, swinging her staff in a ‘Listen’ motion as the room quieted to let her speak. “It means tha out there is a beast that ‘as a master, you if we wanna be technical. If ya chain up ah wolf, it’ll bite ya back real hard. If ya put a horse in lock up, it’ll kick ya whenever ya get near. If ya cage a bird, it’ll fly away first chance it gets.” She drawled, strolling around the room as her staff made barely audible clicks as she moved. “Ya don’t wanna piss off ah wild animal ya hear? Mah tribe an’ I lived among them, we know how they work. Ah won’t lie, Ah’ve met tha Hero type before too. Ah know how tha’ brat works better than ‘he does. Tame at first glance, feral as all hell the next.”

Ganon moved to speak. She slammed her staff down with her next step, ‘Warning’ roaring through the silent chamber. “Tha Hero’s spirit is that of ah sublime beast.” She repeated, the shadows of the room responding with her words, her lineage, as the veil thinned imperceptibly. “An treat a beast right, let it run free on tha wind, an’ feed it when it comes tah heel, and it’ll be loyal ferever more. Ah, don’t make mistakes Ganon.” She spat, tail swaying behind her as she twisted around toward the entryway, letting her words and their meaning sink in. She had her plan, and while the hero running didn’t make it easy, she knew what she had to do to bring him in.

As she made it to the grand doors, she glared over her shoulder at the demon king who remained on his throne, seemingly considering her words and what it would mean for his future strength. She remembered his earlier words. She wouldn’t let them go uncorrected. “An yer not mah King.” She hissed, slamming the doors of the throne room behind her on her way out.

---///---

First (Prologue) -> Previous (Part 1: Recruiter's Call) -> Current (Part 2: The Hatchling's Interlude) -> Next

This is all the pre-written parts I have since Part 3 is what I hit my writer's block on. It's mostly finished too I'm just trying to get past the final bit of the part and then I could post it.

Lots of notes this time sorry for the chunks of text:

Drakeon hails from the Ordona Provence. Her tribe were reclusive and lived off the land, not encountering the Hero of Twilight until well after the events of Twilight Princess. As the tribe was considered citizens of Orodona Provenance by the Light Spirit due to a truce, Twilight was instructed by the spirit not to attack the Lizalfos. The tribe and Twilight had good albeit uneasy relations from Twilight’s side until the hero passed when his soul moved to the Twili realm post-mortem and he became the realm's divine protector. Drakeon’s tribe were gifted the ability to move through the veil between realms, which allowed them to travel to the Twili realm, where Drakeon met Twilight. Drakeon later travelled through the veil again but with different intentions, discovering the Downfall Timeline. She travelled it, met the Demon king's army, and enlisted for the fuck of it (and because she was disgusted with the attitude of the army and wanted to whip them into shape). Her strangeness made its way to Ganon and they met, Ganon promoted her to General and placed her in charge of all military training. She refuses to tell Ganon anything about her timeline, to his chagrin, but he would be a fool to kill such a valuable and irreplaceable asset.

While monsters are aware of the other timelines, they couldn’t travel to them. The Downfall Timeline calls their monsters Fallen-born (As the Hero of Time was killed), the Child Timeline Whelp-born (As the Hero of Time was a Child (a Whelp) when he thwarted Ganon), and the Adult Timeline Hero-born (as the Hero of Time was fully fledged in their timeline). Hatchling is an insult meant to poke at Drakeon’s Lineage as a Lizalfos hailing from the Child timeline, yes, Ganon is racist.

Ganon is in fact, not Drakeon’s demon king. TP Ganondorf technically is, but he never called the Ordonian Lizalfos to arms so they never caused trouble at the behest of darkness. If anything, the only being that could claim rulership of the tribe is Ordona xemself. And yes, Drakeon has an Ordonian accent and also identifies as Ordonian

Yes by locking up Link Ganon kinda fucked himself in the long run. Yes, Dark Link has obsessive loyalty to the demon king but that loyalty is magic-induced and as soon as Link is free from it he gives Ganon the mother of all wallops. Meanwhile, Drakeon gets to go free and unharmed because she was never overly cruel to Link. She treats him as she would treat a wolf pup that wandered into camp. Her more violent acts were corrections, not done out of cruelty and wanting to cause pain but more to correct his behaviour. Don’t misbehave, don’t get hurt. Drakeon gave Ganon the tools to keep Link permanently at his side. Ironically those tools are care, trust, and understanding of limits. Ganon disregarded this and paid the price while Drakeon got out of it with a free ally.

Anyway any sort of feedback is welcome within reason and if there are any questions, feedback, or suggestions feel free to comment or send an ask and I'll try to answer them.

I don't have a set time for when I'll be able to send the next part though so we'll see how it goes!

[ripperdoc-is-daddy]

She wins her own buckles

Reader is black coded and AFAB.

It's your first barrel race and you are nervous af. Inspo was me reminiscing back when I used to do western riding events. Heavy on the Western Horse world terminology. Mare slander abound. Geldings FTW. MHA/BNHA gang are support af. No pairings but if you can ship it if you want. It's written for you to interpret that aspect yourself. Fluff!

You were nervous. Today was the day all that training and work was gonna finally gonna come to fruition. You were competing in your first barrel race. You were in the open Adults (18-34) category and there were quite a few entrants. You would estimate that there were around 25 people including yourself who had all registered to run. The excitement of the competition was starting to make you nervous and you were gnawing on your bottom lip.  

A harsh jostling under you and between your thighs breaks your thoughts. Looking down you frown at your Grulla tovero mare and smack her thick neck. “Aiight. That was a dick move. How about we just not?” you speak to your steed knowing she doesn’t care. Mares never did. Rolling your eyes you look around for your trainer to hurry up and arrive.   

You had driven here 2 days ago with your mare and both of y’alls equipment. Your 4-horse Gooseneck trailer with quarters was a better ride and more comfortable for the horses than his 2-horse bumper pull. Plus, it had AC and the horses could lounge inside out of the heat. Drinking filtered water and munching that good, good, Alfalfa hay to make them nice and hot. Your trainer would show up the next day and help you prep.   

  

Well, that had been the plan. Clearly, that isn’t what went down since it was just you here. By yourself. Taking care of 3 horses and getting all the gear sets up and organized. Shaking your head, you bite your lip and glare at nowhere in particular. You were going to give him a verbal ass reaming when you saw him. He didn’t even have the decency to call and let you know what the fuck was going on. Well, he might have. You tilted your head off to the side and scrunched up your nose when you remember the signal here was spotty at best. He still could have called one of the other riders you both knew or even the organizers to relay the message to you, so he wasn’t off the hook!   

  

Righting yourself, you nod your head. Satisfied with your logic that said he was def in the wrong. Your mare begins to paw at the dirt impatiently. You cluck at her and she stops with a snort and neck bounce. Shaking your head, you begin to whisper self-affirmations inside your head that will reassure you that you will do great! You will score 2-D and bring home some cash so you can brag to a certain someone that he isn’t the only one who can make money racing.  

A woman with a long blonde braided ponytail is fast walking towards you with a clipboard and some dark shades on. Her skin is a beautiful warm umber color and she carries herself with a sense of authority and command. She stops when she is next to you, gives your horse a quick rub on the neck before her focus settles on you. “You’re up after this run. Gate 2. Stay behind the line and don’t move up until you are told to. Good luck.” She nods at you and you return it. She turns away and you nudge your mare forward with a shift of your body weight.   

As you ride forward to your gate you catch sight of the current race going on for the Men’s Division and wince. The runner had a horse who dropped its shoulder. That was bad form. He was all up in that poor thing's mouth too. Busy hands. It looked like a hot fuckin’ mess. Shaking your head, you nudge with your heels on your mount’s barrel and she begins to trot forward. The aisle is clear so you aren’t too worried about being reprimanded for bad etiquette. Besides, you both had nerves to work out. It’s all good.   

  

You bring your mare to a complete halt after you arrive at your gate and line up. You were happy all the work you put into this paint mare was worth it. She was a registered, 16hh Grulla Tobiano out of a dam and sire you had been in love with. She was pedigreed out the ass with amazing extension and the most beautiful engine you had ever seen on a horse since her Great Great Grand Dam. Densely muscled but testing negative for HYPP and Lethal White she was also a breeder's dream. Hopefully, this would be the beginning of a lustrous career that would set her up for a successful breeding career afterwards. She clocked high and was fully grown and matured at 4 years old. Sure, she was older than most of the 2-year-olds here but she would outperform the vast majority of them. You knew it. Now you had to do it.   

“What are you smilin’ like that for? You look creepy smilin’ to yourself like that.” A brash and deep voice breaks you out of your musings. “Mmm. Oh, look. You FINALLY decided to show up. Good for you. I’m about to run now soooo, you can go. I grained your horses as well. You’re welcome.” you snap back letting annoyance bleed into your tone of voice.   

  

“Yeah, yeah. I had some shit to do back home before I headed out. I thought I sent you a text about it but I guess it never sent out. Thanks for taking care of my idiots. Now stop being an idiot and get out of your head. You haven’t won shit.” Your head whips around so fast you feel the bones snap in a somewhat pleasant way though it sounds alarming as hell. “What the he-ARE YOU OK?” his voice gets louder as he inquires on your status after hearing that. Your mare snorts and begins to nod her head rudely over and over while pulling at the reins.   

Both of you chastise her and she turns her head to rudely bump your trainer in the chest. He grabs her chin and pulls her closer then scratches between her ears. “You haven’t lost shit either. Go in with a clear mind. Remember she reflects you. If you are shit for brains then she is gonna run for shit.” he scolds you while cooing at your mare and telling the traitor that she is the most beautiful and important woman in his life.   

Rolling your eyes, you tap your mare’s neck with the reins lightly and face both your heads forward. “Yeah, yeah. I got it, Bakugou,” you grumble, adjusting the Black Swarovski crystal-studded, 20x Beaver Felt hat with an Ostrich leather hat band that had cowrie shells around it. You hear an approving grunt in your trainer's direction so you sit up a little straighter in your seat. Thankful that your saddle was broken in so nicely. He “tch’s” and flips you off. “Bakugou, is it now?”  

  

Warm hands lightly pat your leg and you lift your black base with turquoise and red feather-stitched ARIATs out of your stirrups while the blonde owner of the hands begins to shorten your stirrups a bit more. “You need a proper seat. You had um too long. Leave them here for now. Any higher and you’ll be a jockey.” He says in jest though part of what he said you know is the truth. You look over at his tall frame, making contact with his Sanguine colored eyes. “Worried?” you question him. “Nah, I believe in her.” He kisses your mare’s neck and brings her head down for another smooch just above her brow bone. “You got a medicine hat. You’ll both do amazing.” Two more pats to her neck and he 2 finger salutes you.   

  

A cough on your other side breaks your attention away from your current conversation. Katsuki continues to check your gear and double-check your girth. Smacking your mare’s gut when she refuses to let out. She does with a loud fart and a rumble in her chest. The blond shakes his head and readjusts the girth one more time.   

“Move to the gate, please. You’re up.” Another somewhat shorter blonde winks at you from underneath a bright red rabbit-felt hat. It had matching red feathers on the browband and a single bright topaz concho affixed to it. “Thank you kindly.” You say as mockingly polite as you can. Trying to hold in the snickers. “Go away Hawks. She needs to focus. Why do people call you that?” Bakugou complains loudly as she places a hand on your mare’s rump and moves behind you both to cross the aisle.   

  

“Later boys!” you call out behind you as you nudge your mount forward. “Later. DO YOUR BEST!” Hawks calls out after you, breaking from his conversation with Bakugou. “Kill ‘em all!” Bakugou yells slightly louder earning him a few wary stares. You chuckle to yourself and steel your mind. Your moment was about to happen and you were going to prove that you were gonna be one of the best.  

  

The aisle is cleared and you see the attendants hop up over the corrugated steel gates. On either side. You are instructed to go forward to the starting line. You take a deep breath and clear your mind. Focusing on the beat of the music and calming yourself. Heart rate slowing and the sound of the crowd was drowned out the by words of the music.  You didn’t need to completely tune out everything.  

  

You hear y/n with your mare’s registered name along with nickname announced. Sucking in one last breath you let all the tension leave your body. Right now, was your time to shine.   

  

And shine you did. As soon as the signal to go went off, your mare shot out them gates like a bat out of hell! You made your way to the first barrel. Hugging it so tight it looked like your black, boot-cut ARIAT jeans were gonna touch the barrel but they didn’t. You and that mare were in perfect sync as you came around to the second barrel. Your hat is still firmly affixed to your head via bobby pin magic. Your 2B Senegalese twists were blowing black behind you as you came around the side and continued the pattern to loop the last barrel. After this, it was the straight shot.   

All those close turns shaved your time down but what you really needed was your mare to let go in this final stretch and secure y’alls win. Rounding the final barrel you kick your mare a few times and urge her to go all out and out all she does. The two of you are blazing down the center. You atop your lightning-fast steed, lookin’ like a force of nature. Running through the exit you use the lane to slow your horse down and bring her into a circle at the end to slow her down into a trot and then a walk until you can finally stop.  

You fan yourself several times and grab the collar of your black and turquoise stitch ARIAT long-sleeve top and pop it to give yourself some air. “Holy shit. Holy shit.” you chant to yourself realizing you finally did it. You made your race! A smile steals itself across your face and you beam up looking proud. You begin to walk you and your mare outside for a cooldown and to clear the lane for the next runner. Trusting your trainer to get back to you about your score results.   

  

You are on your cooldown walk with your mare when Hawks comes walking up to you eyes wide. “You did it!” he cheers quietly so as not to startle your excited beast of burden. “I did it!” you chime back at him happily. He gives you double-finger guns and comes up to your side to help you down. You take the offered assistance and slide out of the saddle and into his arms. You stare up at the man and thank him graciously. “Where is Katsuki?” you ask as you bring your reins around and unclip them as Hawks halters her up and hands you the lead once he is finished.   

“Mm? Dynamite had a run himself that started after yours. He is probably getting both of your scores right now.” the taller red and yellow Stetson-outfitted man says as he hands you a water bottle you have no idea where he produced it from. Not lookin’ a gift horse in the mouth, you begin to chug it. “Settle down now. We don’t want you to choke after that perfect run.” He chastises you.   

Rolling your eyes must have been the theme of the day because here you were doing it again. Sighing you shook your head and resumed drinking till the plastic bottle was empty. The two of you headed back to your truck and trailer pleasantly chatting and catching up with one another. When you arrive, you see a couple members of your circle lounging on your black Dodge Ram 3500 fully loaded.   

  

You whistle at the group and wave at Kirishima, the Todorokis (Touya and Shouto), Ashido, and Midoriya. They look over at you and cheer. Touya nods at you in his black jeans and black short sleeve t-shirt combo. A stark contrast from his brilliantly white hair. He walks up to you and takes the lead out your hand. He guides your mare to the round pen you had brought with you and set up off to the side. Out of the way of everyone and with permission from the grounds manager. He removes her gear and sets it off to the side while he leans against the gate and watches her buck and fart after he turns her out.   

You smile fondly at him admiring how he dotes on your mare. Cheering her on and praising her. Overinflating her already overly inflated mare ego. That would be a thing you were gonna have to deal with later. When you got home. You weren’t gonna deal with that attitude right now.   

  

Right Now, you wanted to celebrate with your friends and wait for Bakugou to get back with your damn results. You already knew he had won his run. He always does. Huffing you dance over to your group. Moving to the rhythm of GIMS-YOLO. Ashido meets you and the two of you giggle as you celebrate your run and Keigo (or Hawks as he goes by) recounts your run with much embellishment.   

  

The playlist continues to go through GIMS, Mohammed Ramadan, Idris, Soolking, and a few of y’alls other favorites when Bakugou shows up with his Gelding. Scowling. Like normal. He ignores you as he removes his tack and ties his horse to the trailer. Going inside the stall compartment to grab a hose, brushes, and various other things he would need to cool his horse off. Izuku joins him and begins to water his horse and quietly praise him while Bakugou leans back on his heels contemplating.   

  

You start to wander over in his direction but stop when two women boldly come up to him and begin to chat him up. Shouto side-eyes them and nudges Eijiro as they turn their focus onto your trainer and his new companions. The conversation starts out harmlessly enough. They praise his run. Say it was expected since he is a 4-time Pendleton Round-Up champion. He nods boredly at first and gives the usual canned answers. It wasn’t until they begin to talk about you that his attitude changes.   

You were upfront by the speakers with Ashido to give Katsuki some space to have his conversation since the area was small when you heard the slander.   

“You must be so sick of y/n following you around all the time.” A short pale blonde commented.   

“For real! Her race wasn’t even that great. I left as soon as I heard you were running, Dynamite.” a slightly taller redhead says beside her.   

Your head snaps back and to the side with your mouth doing an “O” face in surprise. “Oh no they didn’t like I am not here!?” you loudly whisper to Mina who motions for you to quiet down and points to Katsuki who appears to be neutral about the whole thing. For a whole four seconds. Then he is roaring with raucous laughter.   

“The hell are you two harpies talkin’ about? You tryin’ to say she is a buckle bunny? Hah! Right! She is so much of one she went and earned one herself!” he announces proudly as he flashes you a bright and happy smile. Breaking away from the now put-off women to strut over to you and hand you a paper with your time on it circled in bright red.   

  

You had placed first! You were 1-D! Your jaw drops and you begin to whisper your disbelief. “Is this legit?!” you demand to know. “No shit, Sherlock.” He flicks you on your forehead. You jump up and wrap your arms around his neck and hug him dearly. “I won! I really won!” you cheer and chant over and over. “OH OH! GROUP HUG!” Mina announces and runs over to join in. Katsuki growls and wraps his arms around you returning your hug and accepting Mina touching him when she joins to hug you.   

The rest of your group joins in, including Touya. He enjoys the look of misery on Katsuki’s face. Your crew completely dismisses the rude pair of women who summarily leave. They are not missed as your circle continues to celebrate till your next event is to start later that night. Everyone smiles as they cheer you on and leave you fresh and ready to take on your next sport which you were completely at home with. You were on Bakugou’s cow-eatin’ Bay Tobiano Stallion and you were getting ready to show everyone what the sport of cutting was all about.   

  

You grin up at the crowd, wave then turn to face your opponent. A beautiful black Angus steer that had mean written all over it. He was a beacon in the herd of red Angus. Tipping your hat to your quarry you grin deviously and move forward. Ready to win this shit and take home another buckle.   

  

Fin 

[pairadots]

20 Things I Hate About You

More specifcally, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

I hadn't watched the last movie because I was annoyed by the Suddenly Palpatine of Rey. It was a blatant bait and switch that I found insulting and had no plans to watch it. After my recent trip to Disneyland I changed my mind. Here are my thoughts as it progressed.

1. Palpatine is alive? He was thrown, sparking, into a nuclear reactor. There is nothing left to rebuild. They do not have the technology. I call bullshit.

2. The pacing is a bit manic for my taste. Can we slow it down a snooch? You're giving me anxiety.

3. Why does a random stranger kid care about Rey's family name?

4. C-3PO went from lovably annoying to a complete narcissistic twat. Was it the red arm?

5. "I never told you Rey". He still didn't.

6. Suddenly Rey can heal when it's never been done before? I call bullshit.

7. Sudenly Rey and Kylo are strong enough to "force" transport ships around, also, when it's never been done before. More bullshit.

8. Hux was the spy? The pile of bullshit is really starting to reek. A life-long military man who worked his way up to general doesn't suddenly switch sides cause he hates someone he sees as beneath him.

9. Leia dies because she's sad? This is that same Padme bullshit all over again. The strongest women in the galaxy don't just die because they're sad. Misogynist garbage.

10. The force suddenly hands out light sabers? I'm getting really tired of all these rabbits out of the hat.

11. They land on a star destroyer they are trying to take down, kamikaze style. There aren't enough resistance fighters. Let's do the most reckless thing possible, shall we?

12. FUCKEN HORSES!?!?

13. Marionette Palpatine?! Fucken weekend at Bernie's much?

14. Come on Palpatine. "Here, come watch your friends die." Cause that worked so well with Luke.

15. More rabbits. How big is this hat? Palpatine can suddenly take their powers. I'm ready to start throwing my remote across the room.

16. All the random resistance fighters all show up at once. "You guys get a group rate or something?"

17. The cannon has a fucken extension cord!!! How stupid do you think we are?!

18. The suggestion that all the first order defectors did so because they're force sensitive. Having the force doesn't give you morals. There would be no sith.

19. I want out of this rabbit hole. Now suddenly Kylo can bring people back from the dead. No one's ever done that before either.

20. Rey is not a Skywalker. You purposely tried to trick us into believing she was. Dick move all around. Stop sticking to it.

Now I'm seeing the trailer for the next one. Lord's saints preserve us. I don't know if I can take much more of this.

May the force be with us all.

[pick-em-pool]

WEEK 10

TEN WEEKS DOWN 🔟 AND WE ARE IN THE BACK HALF OF THE SEASON 🏃‍♂️🏃‍♀️ Gabby and Lisa are trying desperately to hold on to the top spots, while Juliette and Abby are looking to maneuver their way out of the basement. This week featured the LARGEST 🗻 difference between the best scores and the worst scores so far 🤩 let's dive in. ARRRRRRRRRRRR YOU READY KIDS?

JULIETTE - 11 POINTS

I'm getting WHIPLASH watching Juliette shoot up and down each week 😵 as the Arizona Alto goes from last week's LAST PLACE 📉 score to this week's FIRST PLACE SCORE 📈 I have to keep reminding myself this week's winner is only 15! I've seen her Instagram, she's got a better chance at getting into the bars than Brady 🍸 Which Juliette are we getting next week? The CHAMP or the SCRUB??? I don't know, but it will be like watching on of Gabby's reality T.V. shows, love is blind: I'm shocked, I'm appalled, I can't look away!

GABBY - 10 POINTS

OOOOOHH BOY 🚨🚨🚨 KEEP CALM EVERYONE, AS GABBY HAS TAKEN THE LEAD 🚨🚨🚨 She's all alone at the top after great picks for Minnesota AND Pittsburgh ✅ Gabby's here to collect on some deferred revenues in the back half, and increase her FREE CASH FLOW 💲💲💲 with a WIN. Can She Do It? I'm loving this, Gabby the champion!

RUSTY - 10 POINTS

Rusty has now moved up in the rankings for THREE consecutive weeks 😎 Could he be the DARK HORSE candidate to win some cash this year??? He's playing FEARLESS 🏂 right now, with excellent calls on the Detroit and Green Bay upsets 🔥 Not only is he getting better at football, he can maneuver his boat trailer backwards through a corn maze blindfolded while eating a chicken chalupa. I've never seen anything like it, especially considering my attempts, where I need to make a 657 point turn to back in

LISA - 9 POINTS

FOOTBALL IS TOUGH PEOPLE 😣 as just the slightest 🤏 slip-up means Lisa drops down to second place. SHE'S NOT OUT YET 🥊🥊 As she's only a single point behind 🏇 But she's got to stay LASER FOCUSED 🤓 I'm worried about Big Mamma's concentration, as she's be hitting the GYM to improve her golf game🏌️‍♀️ THAT'S TIME THAT COULD BE USED STUDYING PICKS LISA

JJ - 9 POINTS

If the season ended today, JJ would be in his best finish EVER 🏆 as our favorite hockey star is rock-solid in 4th. HOWEVER 🛑 We still have 8 weeks to go. Can JJ keep his improbable streak alive, or will he have to return to THE BOYS IN THE BACK in ignominy? JJ has been as much as a RIDE OR DIE for Aaron Rogers as you can be, picking Green Bay almost every week. To me that's a weird horse to bet on 🐴 considering Aaron looks like he's an 98 year old who has never had a full night of sleep in his entire life 👴🧓👵 With a TOUGH matchup against Tennessee tonight, will JJ stay loyal to Aaron?

JANIE - 7 POINTS

I'm not going to lie, I'm glad I'm not in the Daigneault household right now 😬 as Janie stumbles YET AGAIN with a tepid 7 point performance 🥴 I'll bet the angry sounds of the stair-stepping machine are going as we speak 😡 She's not done for yet, but the reigning CHAMPION is nine points behind gabby. For shame, Gabby! Janie spends 22 years raising you, and you repay her by CRUSHING her in fantasy football 😗 After everything you put her through growing up!?

ABBY - 7 POINTS

Well Abby got one single week of fresh air before being sent back down to the basement, now in LAST place after a paltry seven point performance 😞😭 I think her mental fortitude is lacking 😤 Who can blame her though, her College mascot I a symbol for wieners and her University mascot is a hat... a. hat. 🤠 Anyway, I won't worry about Abby for too long, she has a way of being able to drown her sorrows

VAL - 6 POINTS

Val I SWEAR ON MY GREAT AUNT ETHYL'S GRAVE 🙄 Last week I officially crowned her a contender 🎖🥋 for the throne, and then she takes my praise and promptly scores a measly SIX POINTS 👎 Dropping her all the way from 4th to 7th 💥 Val has been picking the Rams EVERY week. And what is their record? 3-6. First the jets ✈ and now the Rams? Val has some sort of attachment to underperformers (lucky for Peyton HOOOOOOO GOT EM 💯💯💯)

PEYTON - 5 POINTS

Speaking of underperformers, we're rounding it out with Peyton 🏉 Who freefalls down to NINE points behind Gabby 🪂 With misses on the New Orleans pick, the Las Vegas Pick, BOTH Los Angeles picks, it's ugly over here 🥴 Someone please inform Peyton that this is not Frisbee Golf and that one point is a BAD thing 1️⃣ Lewistown? more like LOSERtown 💥 O.K. I have another one: Peyton? More like PeyTONs of bad picks 💥 O.K. O.K. This one is better: Radford? more like BADford 🤔 Hmmm the commissioner needs to work on his zingers

ANYWAY folks somehow someway you all make it interesting every week 🎉 and I am on the EDGE of my seat 🪑 waiting to see who is going home with the big bucks 🦌 💲🤑💸💰 Until next time everyone!

[bestworstcase]

just for ✨fun✨ i want to do a quick round up of things in the v9 trailer, the sneak peak from last year, and teaser clip that strike me as direct references to specific passages from alice’s adventures in wonderland / through the looking glass. because there are . a lot for such a short amount of screen time

#1: the title of ‘the girl who fell through the world’ itself: 

Presently she began again. “I wonder if I shall fall right through the earth! How funny it’ll seem to come out among the people that walk with their heads downwards! The antipathies, I think—”

#2: “who had she become? would she still be the same when she went back home?”:

”Let me think: was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I’m not the same, the next question is ‘Who in the world am I?’ Ah, that’s the great puzzle!” […] “It’ll be no use their putting their heads down and saying ‘Come up again, dear!’ I shall only look up and say ‘Who am I, then? Tell me that first, and then, if I like being that person, I’ll come up: if not, I’ll stay down here till I’m somebody else.’”

#3: the fall through the void, and ruby grabbing the orange blob:

Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look around her, and to wonder what was going to happen next. First, she tried to look down and make out what she was coming to, but it was too dark to see anything: then she looked at the sides of the well […] She took down a jar from one of the shelves as she passed: it was labeled “ORANGE MARMALADE,” but to her great disappointment it was empty.

#4: ruby landing in/near the sea, specifically:

As she said these words her foot slipped, and in another moment, splash! she was up to her chin in salt water. Her first idea was that she had somehow fallen into the sea.

#5: the rocking-horse fly:

“All right,” said the Gnat. “Half way up that bush, you’ll see a Rocking-horse-fly, if you look.” […] Alice looked at the Rocking-horse-fly with great interest, and made up her mind that it must have been just repainted, it look so bright and sticky; and then she went on. [TTLG]

#6: ruby following a path that inevitably puts her back where she started:

“I should see the garden far better,” said Alice to herself, “if I could get to the top of that hill: and here’s a path that leads straight to it—at least, no, it doesn’t do that—” (after going a few yards along the path, and turning several sharp corners), “but I suppose it will at last. But how curiously it twists! It’s more like a corkscrew than a path! Well, this turn goes to the hill, I suppose—no, it doesn’t! This goes straight back to the house! Well then, I’ll try it the other way.”

And so she did: wandering up and down, and trying turn after turn, but always coming back to the house, do what she would. [TTLG]

#7: the dodo bird (and more moving in circles):

”In that case,” said the Dodo solemnly, rising to its feet, “I move that the meeting adjourn, for the immediate adoption of more energetic remedies—”

[…]

“What I was going to say,” said the Dodo in an offended tone, “was, that the best thing to get us dry would be a Caucus-race.”

[…]

First it marked out a race-course, in a sort of circle, (“the exact shape doesn’t matter,” it said,) and then all the party were placed along the course, here and there. There was no “One, two, three, and away!” but they began running when they liked, and left off when they liked, so that it was not easy to know when the race was over. However, when they had been running half an hour or so, and were quite dry again, the Dodo suddenly called out “The race is over!”

#8: ruby wanting to get to the big tree, and getting stuck, frustrated, and crying:

After a while, finding that nothing more happened, she decided on going into the garden at once; but, alas for poor Alice! when she got to the door, she found she had forgotten the little golden key, and when she went back to the table for it, she found she could not possibly reach it: she could see it quite plainly through the glass, and she tried her best to climb up one of the legs of the table, but it was too slippery; and when she had tired herself out with trying, the poor little thing sat down and cried.

#9: the island raining when ruby cries—not quite a flood but it does evoke the imagery here:

But she went on all the same, shedding gallons of tears, until there was a large pool all around her, about four inches deep, and reaching half down the hall.

#10: ruby asking the mouse for help (incidentally, the mouse is also the first wonderland character alice has a conversation with):

“Would it be of any use, now,” thought Alice, “to speak to this mouse? Everything is so out-of-the-way down here, that I should think it very likely can talk: at any rate, there’s no harm in trying.” So she began: “O Mouse, do you know the way out of this swimming pool? I am very tired of swimming about here, O Mouse!” (Alice thought this must be the right way of speaking to a mouse; she had never done such a thing before) [...] The mouse looked at her rather inquisitively, and seemed to her to wink with one of its little eyes, but it said nothing.

#11: accidentally terrorizing the mouse by mentioning a cat:

So she began again: “Où est ma chatte?” which was the first sentence in her French lesson-book. The Mouse gave a sudden leap out of the water, and seemed to quiver all over with fright. “Oh, I beg your pardon!” cried Alice hastily, afraid that she had hurt the poor animal’s feelings. “I quite forgot you didn’t like cats.”

“Not like cats!” cried the Mouse in a shrill, passionate voice. “Would you like cats, if you were me?”

“Well, perhaps not,” said Alice in a soothing tone: “don’t be angry about it.”

#12: “what are you?”:

“Well! What are you?” said the Pigeon. “I can see you’re trying to invent something!”

“I—I’m a little girl, said Alice, rather doubtfully, as she remembered the number of changes she had gone through, that day.

#13: the purpose of names [FINGERS CROSSED FOR THE FOREST]:

“What’s the use of their having names,” the Gnat said, “if they wo’n’t answer to them?”

“No use to them,” said Alice; “but it’s useful to the people that name them, I suppose. If not, why do things have names at all?”

“I ca’n’t say,” the Gnat replied. “Further on, in the wood down there, they’ve got no names.” [TTLG]

#14: things being named for what they do:

“There’s the tree in the middle,” said the Rose. “What else is it good for?”

“”But what could it do, if any danger came?” Alice asked.

“It could bark,” said the Rose.

“It says ‘Bough-wough!’” cried a Daisy. “That’s why its branches are called boughs!”

BONUS ROUND: not a direct reference but stares at neo

“But it’s no use now,” thought poor Alice, “to pretend to be two people! Why, there’s hardly enough of me left to make one respectable person.”

[yikesharringrove]

Show Pony

Chapter 3: Roses Are Falling

Read on Ao3

-

Steve’s hand was sweaty in Billy’s as he pulled him through the crowds in the fairground, ducking and weaving between the people milling about. 

Billy let himself be dragged, staring at Steve’s ass in his little denim shorts. 

It had been one week since their date at the diner. 

A week of Billy showing up to the rodeo, watching Steve compete in his event, and making out with him behind the arena. 

It was fun, sneaking around together in the blazing summer heat. 

He had even brought Max a few times, letting her wander around with some chick her own age she met. Apparently, her dad works at the rodeo or someshit. Billy wasn’t listening when she explained. Steve had been across the arena, taking off his flannel shirt and trading it for another one of his slutty little crop tops. 

It was a gorgeous show. 

But Max was somewhere eating her body weight in funnel cake while Steve took him into a tent labeled Employees Only. 

There was an eclectic group of people sitting at the long tables in the tent, all greeting Steve as he pulled Billy through to a group of younger people sitting together at the end of one of the tables. 

Steve pushed Billy onto one of the benches, perching right on his lap like that was totally fine. Like it was easy for Billy to just. Keep his dick in check. 

The girl sitting across from them sighed heavily, raising one eyebrow at Steve. 

“Shut up, Robin.”

“I didn’t say anything,” she was still giving Steve a very pointed look. 

“You don’t have to.” Steve slumped back against Billy’s chest, no doubt petulant. 

She shook her head, finally addressing Billy. 

“I’m Robin.”

“She does barrel racing,” Steve leaned back, muttering the information into Billy’s ear. His breath was hot against Billy’s skin, and Billy had to fight down a shiver that crept up his spine despite the blazing heat.

Another girl was sitting next to Robin, a pretty brunette with doe eyes to rival Steve’s. She seemed vaguely familiar. 

And then it clicked. 

“Aren’t you in the pageants?”

She laughed softly.

“My name’s Heather. And yes, I’m reigning Miss Rodeo USA, so I’ve been with these guys and will be until the next girl is crowned. It’s been a good time.” She glanced over at Robin, bumping their shoulders together. Billy raised one eyebrow at Robin, catching her eye and making her flush slightly. He shot her a quick wink. 

Steve shifted in his lap, putting one arm over Billy’s shoulders, winding his fingers through his little ponytail. 

“So, Billy,” Robin tried to move the conversation along, rolling her shoulders back. “We’ve heard a lot about you.” 

“All bad, I hope.” 

“Nah, just, I feel like I know you quite well know. Like, really well. Like better than I ever wanted to know a guy-”

“Okay, yeah, Robin. We get it. Thanks.” Steve squirmed slightly in Billy’s lap, the back of his neck and the tips of his ears a bright red color. It was cute. Billy didn’t realize when Steve’s cheeks went all pink, that, other, places of him flushed too. He wondered how far down that rosy tint on Steve’s cheeks went. If it was all over his chest, if it leads down to his-

Nope. Not going there right now. Not when Steve is sitting on Billy’s lap, and they’re in fucking public. Absolutely not. No thanks. Billy’s fine. 

Robin squinted at him, and he tried to keep his face as blank as possible. 

Steve sighed heavily through his nose, shaking his head. 

“I’m getting a pop. Anyone else?”

Robin waved him off, and he was gone with a roll of his eyes. 

“So, you’re the poor San Diego bastard. My condolences.”

Billy squinted at her. 

“Not sure what you mean.” 

She took a deep breath, looking at Heather briefly. 

“Look. You know this little fling is just that. A little fling. Steve, he kinda, does this. Finds someone in every place we’re stationed, and has a month-long something with them. He loves attention but he’s too scared of commitment to do anything else. And honestly, I’m saying this all for your sake, because I’ve seen people get attached. He’s gonna eat you alive, and then he’s gonna leave, and it’s easier for you if you know that going in.”

Robin’s words settled like a fucking pit in Billy’s stomach. 

Because, yeah. He, like, kinda figured that. He knew their time was limited. Knew that Steve would slip through his fingers. And really, that was fine. Billy thinks he’d be the exact same way if the roles were reversed, that he would be constantly moving from one person to the next, never getting lonely, but never getting deep, either. 

He understands the whole commitment-phobe thing. Kinda takes one to know one. 

So he gets it. 

Doesn’t mean it doesn’t feel like shit to have it put. So plainly.

“I’m sorry. That was probably too harsh but, you seem like a nice guy, and Steve doesn’t mean anything by it. He’s not trying to hurt people, he just, definitely uses the whole traveling rodeo thing to his advantage.”

“Nah, I get it. Really, I kinda figured it out. He said he likes to make friends wherever they are. So, it’s fine. And I think sometimes harsh can be alright.” He doesn’t wanna make Steve’s friend feel bad. 

And really, he did know what they were doing and what this was about. It just sucks having it confirmed by someone else. And put. So plainly. 

“I’m really not trying to be mean. I just kinda wanted to prepare you. If this is gonna be something that hurts, maybe it’s best to get out now.” Robin had very pretty blue eyes and freckles all over her face. She seemed warm, and the way she was staring at him was with so much concern. 

“Thank you. I get it, honest. I’d probably act just the same if I were him.”

“If you were who?” Steve had returned, slapping a can of root beer on the table in front of them, taking a seat pressed as close as possible to Billy, lifting up his arm to slide underneath it. 

“Quit being nosy.” Robin reached out to muss up Steve’s hair, poking him in the forehead. “What are you two doing today?”

Steve shrugged, taking the bait and moving on. 

“Wander the grounds. Maybe hang out at my place.” Billy’s interest piqued. He had no idea Steve had a place. “Might sneak out and go for a drive or something. You got any preference?” Steve leaned over the table, resting his elbows on top, placing his face in his hands, turning to look at Billy. 

“We could kick around here. I gotta drive Max home later so we should probably stick around.” Steve grinned at him. 

“Well, c’mon then. You’ve got plenty to see around here.”

Billy felt like Steve has already dragged through the entire grounds, he doesn’t know how there’s more to see. 

But it turned out there’s a lot more. Because Steve’s place, as it turns out, is one in a huge crowd of trailers. 

It was kinda out of Billy’s wildest imagination. Like what he’d picture an old-school traveling circus to be like. 

People were milling around everywhere, Steve saying hi to almost everyone they passed. Animals were being led to and from the large arena and the makeshift paddocks that were set up in the open grass. 

It was like nowhere Billy’s ever been before. 

Steve led him through the maze of trailers to a smaller version of an old school Airstream near the back of the lot, still hitched up to the back of a much larger, and very nice-looking, RV. 

Stevie Harrington was painted in curling dark green letters on the rounded metal door, a little cow munching on some grass painted below it.

“That your art?”

Steve snorted.

“ God, no. Robin did it for me a few years ago. That’s why it looks good.”

The hinges on the door squealed when he pulled it open and led Billy inside. 

It was hot in the airstream, and Steve turned on the solar power to get a small fan moving air through the place, propping open the door and the tiny window above the table.

“Home sweet traveling home.”

“Damn. This ain’t too bad of a setup.”

It really wasn’t. Sure, it was small, but it was perfect for one person. A tiny kitchenette faced the minuscule bathroom. The far sides of the trailer were taken up by a dining area, a table with booth-like seating, and a queen-sized bed taking up the opposite side, a small closet smushed between the bed and the kitchen.  

It was immaculately clean, not totally what Billy had expected from Steve. The bed was made, an old-looking, worn-out stuffed horse placed neatly in front of the pillows. 

There were pictures pinned up on little string light clothespins on the wall the bed was shoved against, and Steve even had a few posters over the booth seats. 

“It’s kinda nice. I saved up for a while to buy it. It’s kind of a lot being trapped in an RV with your parents, let me tell you. I’m still hooked up to theirs, and when we move I ride with them, usually, but at least I’ve got some space to myself.” Steve looked down at his feet. “Plus, I kinda figured, this is about as close as I’ll ever come to living on my own.”

“I really do like it. You’ve made it real nice in here.”

Steve looked back up to him, smiling proudly. 

“We don’t have to like, hang out in here. I just thought I’d welcome you in. To like, say, you know, if you’re ever around but don’t wanna hang out doing the same rodeo shit all the time, we could, like, spend some time in here.” Steve’s cheeks were going red. 

And Billy was fairly certain he knew where this was going. 

So he took the metaphorical bull by the horns, and wrapped his fingers in Steve’s literal belt loops, and pulled him close enough that their lips could touch. 

And apparently, Billy was right. Because Steve kissed him back immediately, and fervently, sliding his arms over Billy’s shoulders and pressing into him enough to move Billy back a few steps until his knees hit the bed, and he fell to sit on it. 

Steve wasted no time climbing on his lap, kneeling straddling Billy, pressed together as close as possible. 

Steve broke the kiss, his chest heaving as he breathed heavily and Billy attached himself to Steve’s neck, leaving wet kisses in his path down the long column of his throat. 

“God, fuck. Can we-”

“ Yeah. Yeah, Baby,” Billy was breathless as he replied, getting both hands under Steve’s ass and flipping their position in one fluid motion, getting Steve on his back, his legs wrapped around Billy’s waist. 

“Get the door.”

Billy pressed a long sucking kiss to Steve’s neck before pulling away, slamming the door closed as Steve drew the blinds on the window above the bed and turned on the air conditioning unit in the ceiling.

“It’s gonna get super fucking hot in here if we fuck.”

“That’s a chance I’m willing to take.”

Steve laughed at Billy, rolling back to lay properly on the bed, taking his stuffed horse and tossing it on the table behind Billy. 

“I don’t want her to have to see this.”

“Fine by me.” Billy was back on him in a second, pushing his hands up Steve’s shirt, yanking it off him as fast as possible. 

Steve was so fucking gorgeous. 

He had a light tan all over his body, with definite paler parts where his shirts usually sit. 

And he was fit. His muscles weren’t as bulky as Billy’s, but he was obviously strong. 

Billy leaned over him, tasting the salt on his skin as Steve began fumbling with the buttons of Billy’s shirt, pushing it off his shoulders so roughly one of the shoulder seams groaned, threatening to rip. 

Billy took that as his cue to pull away from Steve again, shedding his shirt and kicking off his shoes, helping Steve out of his little short shorts. 

He was wearing this excellent pair of boots, deep red with white embroidered stitching covering the boot. 

Steve leaned forward, moving to pull off the boots.

“Wait, no. Leave ‘em on.”

Steve looked at him.

“You call me a hick all the fuckin’ time, and now you’re here saying you wanna fuck me in my boots.”

“It’s hot. You’re like the chick from Footloose .”

“Aren’t you gay?”

“Hot is hot, Steve.” 

Steve huffed a laugh, putting his leg back down, letting Billy settle between both of them. 

“So, are we gonna talk about the girl in an eighties movie, or are you going to fuck me through this mattress?”

“Alright, bossy. You got lube?”

Steve huffed, poking Billy’s chest until he moved off him. 

Steve sat up, crawling to the end of the bed, digging through the laundry in the hamper for the bottle of lube. 

Billy stared at him. 

Mostly, he was just staring at his asshole. It was so perfect and pink, and looked buttery and soft. 

And Jesus, he really just wanted to lick it, to get his face buried between Steve’s cheeks and go to town on the pretty pink furl of muscle. 

And, well, what’s stopping him? 

Absolutely nothing.

He got up, following Steve’s path until he was behind him, taking each cheek in one hand. 

Steve froze where he was digging through the laundry, Billy’s breath puffing between his cheeks. 

“What are you-” 

And then Billy licked up his crack, his tongue dragging all the way up from his balls, flicking once against his hole. 

“ Billy .” Steve spread his legs, pushing his hips back into Billy’s face, wordlessly asking for more. 

So Billy gave it to him. 

He opened his mouth, licking all around his rim, pressing his tongue just slightly inside, sucking on the soft pink flesh, making Steve’s breath hitch and whines pour out of his mouth. 

“Fuck, you’re good at that.”

Billy responded by pulling back, and spitting on Steve’s hole. 

Steve was taken by surprise, if his soft gasp was anything to go by. He dropped his head against the bed, biting onto the blanket. 

Billy just kept going, using his lips and tongue and teeth, opening him up and getting him wet. 

“Fuck, Billy, please just fuck me. I want you so bad .” Steve’s voice was pitchy and breathy, muffled in the blanket. 

He was grinding his hips forward and back, pressing himself against Billy’s tongue. 

Like he wanted nothing more than he wanted Billy’s tongue in his ass right then. 

And Billy certainly wasn’t complaining, not at how fucking nice and soft his asshole was against his tongue, how he tasted kinda clean and kinda musky at the same time. It was heady and Billy would happily spend the rest of his stupid life with his face buried between Steve’s cheeks. 

Something smacked against the top of Billy’s head, and he pulled away briefly to find a bottle of lube on the bed, the one that Steve had no doubt tossed over his shoulder and accidentally accosted Billy with. 

“That fuckin’ hit me in the head, you piece a’ shit.”

“I don’t care,” Steve whined, pushing his hips back even further, spreading himself out more and more for Billy to hungrily take in. “Just finger me and fuck me !”

“Bossy.”

Steve huffed, shifting his head around until he could look back at Billy, his brows pinched in a little scowl, giving Billy a dirty look that was equal parts adorable pout and sexy scowl. He looked like the grumpiest little slut. 

And Billy indulged him, squeezing out a big glob of lube, meticulously coating his first two fingers with it. 

“I know what I like, and I get what I like.”

“Jesus, I thought all them girls were the rodeo queens. Not you .”

“I’m the queen of getting my fucking way. Now for the love of God, put your fingers in me.”

And Billy couldn’t do anything but indulge him. 

He began with just one finger, sliding it slowly and deliberately down to the last knuckle. 

Steve sighed as Billy’s finger entered him, relaxing his upper body into the bed, somehow canting his hips up even more, his back arched as much as Billy’s ever fuckin’ seen. 

So Billy took a chance, pumping his finger in and out a few times, pulling it nearly all the way out, only to replace it with both fingers. He moved slowly, simply fucking Steve with his fingers for a moment, watching Steve as he crooked his fingers downward. 

And Steve moaned, and it was like he became a puddle. All his muscles relaxing and unwinding as Billy curled his fingers, pressing deeply against his prostate, rubbing tiny circles into the small bundle of nerves. 

“God, Bill. That feels so fucking good,” Steve said through a throaty moan. Billy was slowly moving his fingers in and out of Steve, pressing down into that wonderful spot each time he was buried all the way to the knuckle. “Add another. Please, I want you in me.”

Billy had to palm himself to relieve some of the pressure of his own dick, flushed red and oh so painful where it was hard against his stomach. 

But he did as Steve told him to do, drawing out his two fingers to press in a third. 

There was something of a shift in the sticky airstream. As those three thick fingers sank into Steve, it was as though both boys agreed to move faster. Steve began pushing his hips back and forth, fucking himself on Billy’s fingers, matching the steady pace Billy had set with his hand. 

Billy was tugging his fingers in and out, pushing into Steve’s prostate with each movement, the lube creating a squelching noise as they picked up the pace. 

And finally, Steve had enough. 

He moved his hips forward, sitting back on his heels to look at Billy over his shoulder. 

His face was flushed, his bangs sticking to his forehead with sweat, his pupils blown wide, making his already dark eyes seem nearly black. He tossed Billy a condom, and Billy caught it against his heaving chest. 

Steve’s breath caught as Billy ripped open the condom wrapper with his teeth, looking like some kinda fuckin’ animal, rolling it onto himself with a practiced hand.

“Billy, I fucking want you-”

Billy cut him off by pressing himself against Steve’s back, kissing him harshly as he felt him up, his hands roving, touching every bit of Steve he could possibly manage. 

Steve had his own mission, reaching awkwardly behind him to take Billy’s stiff cock in hand, fumbling slightly as he lined up the flushed head of his dick with his slicked-up hole, teasing himself before urging Billy to push on in. 

Their lips lost touch from one another the second Billy began moving his hips forward, their moans mingling in the space between them. 

“God, fuck, Stevie.” Billy could hardly control himself. He so wanted to let loose, start fucking wildly into the tight heat of Steve’s body, take him as hard and fast as possible. 

He let his hands drop down and settle on Steve’s hips. He could feel the firm muscles tensing under his hands, like Steve was barely keeping himself from rocking back to fuck himself harder and faster on Billy’s cock. 

And that’s what pushed Billy over the edge. 

He pushed Steve forward until he was back in position, face down, ass up. His hands gripped Steve’s hips hard enough to leave bruises, and Jesus, Billy hoped to fucking God Steve had dark marks in the shape of Billy’s fingers for days and days. And he let himself go for it. 

Steve was making these breathy, punched-out noises, like with every harsh thrust of Billy’s hips, all the air in his lungs was being forced right out of him. 

Billy was slamming them together, pulling Steve’s hips back as he surged his own forward, pulling out almost entirely each time. He was relentless, taking Steve like a goddamn animal right there on the once neat bed. 

Neither of them was going to last long, they both knew it. 

Billy had taken so much time opening Steve up with his lips and tongue and fingers, Steve wouldn’t even be shocked if he came completely untouched, falling apart with only the attentions Billy has granted to his hole. 

Until Billy reached around him with his left hand, still gripping Steve’s body with his right. 

He took hold of Steve’s leaking cock, brushing his thumb over the slit to collect some of the glistening precum, drawing his hand tightly down the shaft, moving at an agonizingly slow pace compared to the buck of his hips, keeping Steve on the edge of something, making everything way too much and definitely not enough. 

And there was nothing Steve could do. 

He felt fucking helpless as Billy pounded him. It was taking all his energy not to just melt into the mattress at this point and let Billy have his way with him. 

But Billy was getting close, too close to keep this game up for much longer. 

He sped up the movement of his hand, his fist beginning to pump faster and faster over Steve’s aching cock. He wanted him to finish first, wanted to watch as Steve writhed and moaned about. 

It didn’t take long. Less than a minute of Billy jerking Steve as quick and rough as he was fucking him, and Steve was spilling out onto the blanket below him, nearly yelling out while his hips convulsed and his fingers twisted until he had a white knuckle grip on the blanket. 

Billy could only just hang on, fuck and jerk Steve through it, only letting his grip on his cock go a little slack when Steve finally relaxed a bit below him. 

Billy pulled out, snapping off the condom and taking his dick in hand, finishing himself off all over Steve’s lower back, watching his thick cum drip down the slope of his ass. 

“ Fuck. You’re so hot,” Billy said, totally in awe. Steve was even hotter than normal wearing nothing but his bright red boots and Billy’s spunk. 

Billy took a cloth from the tiny bathroom, getting it a little wet to wipe the cum off of Steve as he lay stretched like a cat on the small bed. 

“Thank God I don’t have to ride tomorrow, I don’t think I’ll be able to sit, let alone get in a saddle.” He threw a wink over his shoulder at Billy, bending his knees to let his feet kick up behind him, crossing his ankles in the red boots. 

“We should make the best of our good fortune, then. I’ve got a few more rounds in me.”

“Billy Hargrove, you fuckin’ devil .”

[bothcreativitybois]

The Mayor’s Sweet Treat Chapter 3

Wordcount: 2955

Ship: Intruality

TWs: Food, horses, dogs, skipping meals, a little bit of past angst, sexual references, swearing 

Taglist: @star-crossed-shipper @crazydemigod666 @idont-freaking-know @someoneiwasnt @seraphiie @the-sympathetic-villain @cute-and-angsty-princess @lonelymuffin 

Remus flung out of the truck and smashed on the bakery door. 

“Wakey wakey!” Remus shouted at the doors. Above him a window opened. Patton smiled down radiantly. The cold night breeze rustled his hair dreamily while Remus’ long locks thrash slightly.

Remus you dumbass! He isn’t used to this!

“You’re an impatient one, Mr Grinch.” Patton joked.

“Actually it’s Mr Manzana.” Remus shouted back. “Are you coming down or not?” Patton giggled and closed the window. A few seconds later he appeared beside the building.

“So where are we going?” Patton asked as Remus walked up to him. Remus laughed.

“The best place in town, which is conveniently also the only place.” Remus joked. Patton followed him down the street to a little restaurant with a yellow sign. Remus opened the door for Patton as they entered the small restaurant. There were a handful of tables set up with only one in use. Remus walked over to greet the small family at the table. Patton followed awkwardly.

“Remus!” A gruff father looking figure shouted and pat Remus on the back. “Good ta see ya.” Also at the table were two small children and an elderly lady.

“How are you doing, sweetheart?” The elderly lady chimed in. Remus smiled widely while Patton just sort of shrank behind him.

“Staying out of trouble as much as possible.” Remus chuckled, both the adults laughed.

“Which for you isn’t possible.” The man laughed heartily. Remus smiled and put a hand on his shoulder.

“Clyde, let me introduce you to Patton.” Remus held a hand out as to present Patton. The man looked at him happily.

“Great to meet ya.” Clyde stood up and enveloped Patton’s hand in a strong handshake.

“You too.” Patton said meekly. The large man laughed.

“Don’t worry, I don’t bite.” Clyde joked. “Remus however…” He elbowed Remus who pulled a fake innocent face.

“These darling angels are Taylor and June.” Remus ruffled the hair of the two children who both tried to push his hand away. “And this is Ms Cath. She taught me when I was the kids' sizes.” The elderly lady stood up and hugged Patton. The hug was soothing, it reminded him of his mother. He thought about how long it’s been since he was hugged… a couple months?

“Welcome to our little town, honey.” Ms Cath soothed. “Well let you two get back to it. But if you ever need anything then just stop by the school and see me.” The old lady winked. Remus put a hand on Patton’s back and after a few more words with the family guided Patton to their own table. Patton looked around the restaurant. Not in a nervous way, just the way you do when you enter a new place. The people he’d just met were chatting happily and enjoying their food.  Remus snapped his fingers to get Patton’s attention.

“Hey so the waiter is a friend of mine and he has some unique features. Don’t to stare, it upsets him.” Remus whispered. Patton nodded politely just as the waiter in question showed up.

“So this is the baker I heard about?” The waiter said. Patton looked up to see a little name tag reading ‘Janus’. The man had a large black birthmark and a lazy eye. He figured that’s what Remus meant. 

“I like your hair.” Patton smiled. Janus touched the small bun his dreads were pulled back in. His face was surprised.

“Thanks.” He turned to Remus. “You getting what you always get?” Remus laughed.

“Don’t fix what ain’t broke.” Remus confirmed with a wide smile. “And an extra for my friend here.” Janus nodded and scribbled something down on his notepad.

“Great. I’ll be off work at midnight so if you plan on taking ‘your friend’ home then please be done by then.” Janus said calmly and walked away. Patton blushed but Remus simply laughed. He looked down at Patton, he realised how uncomfortable he looked.

He reached across the table and grabbed Patton’s hand. He noticed a small tattoo on Patton’s wrist he hadn’t seen before, a little frog.

“Sorry, I kinda threw you in the deep end there.” Remus apologised. “Janus was just joking around, he’s really nice albeit a little dry and blunt.” Remus attempted to reassure Patton, it seemed to work as he released the tension in his shoulders a bit and nodded. Remus pulled his hand away.

“Everyone here seems really nice.” Patton said. Remus smiled and looked around. 

“It’s that small town spirit.” Remus replied. “When everyone knows everyone no one is really mean… well except for some of the older families who have weird rivalries but that’s a story for another day.” Remus was so calm, it was weird. Usually he was bouncing off the walls by now but something about Patton was keeping him on the ground.

“Tell me about growing up here?” Patton asked. Remus took a deep breath. There were thousands of stories racing around his head and he needed to find a way to summarise them all.

“It’s chaotic but somehow also predictable.” He eventually answered. “From the outside it’s like a horse rolling around on it’s back. It looks ridiculous but it knows exactly what it’s doing.” Patton was amused by the analogy. He understood that Remus was a country kid but now he was just being cliché. Not to mention Patton knew next to nothing about horses.

“And what does it mean when a horse rolls around?” Patton asked, genuinely curious about the silly behaviour of horses. Remus’ face lit up.

“Most the time it means they got colic and are trying to dislodge whatever got stuck. But if it’s a younger philly they could just be having fun. Colic isn’t serious though, usually it’s solved just by leading it for a walk or a shot of penicillin.” Remus explained. Patton watched how Remus’ eyes sparkled as he talked, he seemed a lot more in his element. “Colic is what keeps the vets round here in business. Pretty much everyone has a horse and the farms all have at least three. I got one still livin’ at my parents place, I’ve been meaning to move her to mine but she’s scared to death of trailers and I don’t have the ti-” Remus was cut off by a groan from Janus who had appeared with two plates.

“Kraken is fine on the farm, they have good use for her.” Janus began. “If we brought her to our place she’d be stuck in a paddock all day and only get ridden every week or so.” Janus placed down the plates with two tall burgers. “Two lamb burgers, one with extra pickle and barbeque sauce.” Janus pulled a face as he announced the last part.

“Thanks.” Patton smiled happily. Janus nodded and walked away. Patton looked over at Remus who was taking pickles off his burger and putting them on a napkin. “Why did you order extra pickles if you aren’t eating them?” Patton was confused. Remus looked up and smiled devilishly. He liked pickles, but always ordered extra for something special.

“You’ll see.” Remus winked as he wrapped up the pickles and put them in his pocket. 

The two men didn’t talk much as they ate. Remus was used to being the kind to devour food quickly while everyone else told him to slow down, so he was surprised when he saw Patton finished his burger first. Patton was just happy to be eating real food again.

“You finished that fast.” Remus said as he took the last bite of his burger. Patton looked up and blushed. Truthfully it was the first thing he’d eaten today, he had skipped breakfast and was too stressed to eat while working. Patton laughed awkwardly. Remus reeled, he meant it as a compliment but was worried Patton didn’t take it that way. “I mean that in a good way, pancake. It’s hard to find people who can keep up with me.” Remus quickly added. Patton giggled. Remus stood to leave but Patton stopped him.

“Wait! We need to pay.” Patton fretted. Remus looked over Patton and winked at Janus, he sighed and waved them away. Patton watched the weird exchange and didn’t notice Remus grab his hand to pull him out of the restaurant. He was tugged out so fast he nearly fell down but he couldn’t help but laugh. Remus pulled him down the dark street as they both cackled.

“Where are we going?” Patton asked through the laughs. Remus looked back and flashed a brilliantly evil smile.

“You wanted a tour, didn’t you?” Remus said as he halted to a stop. Patton nearly ran right into him if it wasn’t for Remus’ outstretched arm. “Here is where we start!” Remus pointed to the building in front of them. A brick building with a clock above the door.

“Mindville Council Hall?” Patton read from the sign next to him. Remus shook his head and shook his pointed hand. Patton followed the line of sight to, “The… clock?” Remus nodded excitedly so fast he looked like he might burst. He reached into his pocket and took out the napkin from the restaurant.

“The clock hasn’t worked in years.” Remus said as he took a pickle from the napkin, he handed the rest to Patton. “This is a way better use for it anyway.” With that Remus hucked the pickle slice into the air towards the clock, it hit the glass cover with a barely audible splat. Remus would come here as a kid and throw all sorts of things, but he found out quickly that pickles were not only the most accessible but also stuck the best. Remus celebrated with a loud cheer and took the pickles from Patton. “Give it a try.” Patton gently took a pickle and looked up at the clock. It was at least ten meters up.

“I’m not sure I can get it…” Patton conceded. Remus took a pickle slice and laughed.

“Who cares?” Remus shouted as he threw another pickle, this one hitting above the first. Patton took a deep breath and pulled back his hand. He closed his hand and threw the pickle as hard as he could. He looked up in time to see it land just short of the clock. He blushed in embarrassment but to his surprise Remus hollered.

“Whooo!” Remus cheered. His whoops were brash and loud, like when the electric mixer hit the edge of the metal bowl. “That’s a great shot!” Patton smiled at the enthusiasm and grabbed another slice. Remus did too and they both threw them together. Remus hit the 4 while Patton’s was just shy of the clock again. Suddenly the lights of the building turned on around them. “On to the next place!” Remus threw the napkin with the rest of the slices and began bolting down the road, Patton stood shocked for a second then followed.

“Aren’t you the mayor?” Patton huffed as they ran. Remus was surprisingly fast and he had trouble keeping up.

“Yes, and?” Remus said, barely breaking a sweat. When they were far enough away Remus slowed down and started pointing out the shops they walked past. “That is the butcher, if you ask nicely they’ll give you bones that aren’t big enough to sell as dog bones. That’s Salamanders Silk, one of the 7 places I’ve gotten a cut that needs stitching which is ironic given it’s a clothes store.” Something told Patton this tour wouldn’t be overly informative of the actual places. “And this is the bakery that makes amazing muffins.” Remus stopped. Patton realised they were in front of his shop. He looked up at the bare walls of the building, it looked abandoned. Every shop in town had nice signs and lovely paint but his just looked sad. 

“How about I give you a tour?” Patton chimed in happily. Remus looked down and nodded excitedly. Patton walked up and unlocked the door. “Welcome to Froggy and Doggy Bakery.” Patton sang happily.

“Finally, I get a name.” Remus joked. Patton sighed and looked up at the empty space where a sign should hang.

“Yeah I need to get on to the sign company again.” He said sadly. Remus took a mental note of Patton’s qualms.

“How’d you get the name? Is doggy your favourite position or something?” Remus asked as he walked in. Patton locked the door behind them and flipped on the lights.

“Actually it’s based on a story my mother told me as a kid.” Patton started. Remus regretted his previous statement. “There was a princess who had two suitors, a prince and a farmer. She asked each to bring her an animal as a gift. The prince brought her a well bred dog with beautiful hair. The farmer brought her a small green frog. She took each pet and announced she would be marrying the farmer. The prince got mad and demanded her to answer why. She said that anyone can go out and buy a dog, but the farmer had spent time catching the frog and cleaning it to present to her. Even though his gift wasn’t the most pretty or conventional, it had the most effort and thought put in it.” Patton smiled as he told the story, Remus was entrapped by his words. He clearly had fond memories of that story and it was reflected in how happily he told it.

“I think that’s my new favourite fairy tale.” Remus said when Patton finished talking. “Is that why you have that tattoo as well?” Remus gestured to Patton’s wrist. He nodded.

“My ex was a tattoo artist and he did it as a birthday gift.” Patton said as he rubbed a thumb over the small frog drawn on his wrist. It took him a moment to realise he had just come out to a man he’d met only earlier today. He looked up expecting some sort of reaction from Remus, but he didn’t care. Remus was just looking around the bakery, closely inspecting a sign on one of the walls. Patton found it refreshing to have someone not have a big reaction.

“Art gallery? What’s this for?” Remus asked. The wall had no art on it, just a few small shelves. Patton walked over to join him.

“Oh my mother had the idea that artists could put up any art they had to sell here for a small fee. That way we could generate more business while helping people.” Patton informed. “That reminds me, is there a homeless shelter I could donate any unsold items to?” Remus was surprised. Patton had never been here and already wanted to help the people. It was admirable.

“Well there aren’t any homeless shelters here because there isn’t a need for them, but there is one in the city as you probably know. It’s an hour drive but they’d probably be very happy with a donation even once a week.” Remus explained. Patton looked back blankly.

“Why would I know that?” Patton asked.

“You lived there before you moved here, didn’t you?” Remus thought it was obvious. The only people who knew about this town were the people living in it and some of the people in surrounding areas.

“No. I lived on the coast.” Patton said. 

That’s in the very least 3 hours away. Remus thought.

“Why’d you move here then?” Remus asked plainly, not knowing that for Patton it was a loaded question. Patton crossed his arms and looked down. Remus noticed. “Oh- uh- you don’t have to answer.” He stammered quickly trying to comfort Patton. He was curious but didn’t want to make Patton uncomfortable.

“Thanks.” Patton whispered. It hurt to think back to the time before he moved. It hurt to remember how he pretended to be happy so much that he even fooled himself. He shook his head to get rid of the thoughts and smiled at Remus. “How about some dessert?” Patton chirped. He really bounced back quickly. Remus wasn’t sure if Patton was serious or flirting so he just nodded his head. Patton clapped and made a happy noise. He led Remus up the stairs to his apartment and unlocked the door, the whole time Remus becoming more and more confused what this invitation entailed.Patton opened the door and allowed Remus to enter. He entered the small studio apartment with an impressive kitchen. Remus didn’t know how to play this. Did Patton think this was a date? Even so he was so sweet and kind that Remus didn’t pin him as the kind to give it up on the first date. Remus tentatively walked over and sat on the large bed. Patton looked across the room where Remus had taken a seat on his bed. It suddenly hit him how his offer may have sounded. Thoughts crashed against Patton’s mind. He quickly walked over and opened the fridge. Patton pulled out a few small caramel tartlets and brought them over to Remus. “Ta da!” Patton announced.

Oh of course. Remus thought. Of course Patton meant actual dessert. He’s a fucking baker.

Patton once again was alone but this time he was a lot happier. 

“They look great.” Remus said as he admired the lovely caramel tarts with chocolate shavings.

“Take them. As a thank you for tonight.” Patton pressed the plate into Remus’ arms. Remus took the plate and tried one of the tarts. The rich caramel melted in his mouth and blended perfectly with the buttery shortbread crust. “And tell Janus I said thanks too.”

“He’ll love these.” Remus mumbled, shoving another in his mouth. Patton giggled. Remus said his goodbyes and left. 

[s1i9d]

AMPHIBIA SEASON 2 FINALE: INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS AND SHIPPING

SPOILERS FOR ALL OF AMPHIBIA PRE-"TRUE COLORS" & SEASON 2B TRAILER

It's time.... I can't believe this is the final week of Amphibia before the hiatus for Season 3. We can cry about that in May, but for now we have some business to get to with Relationship drama!

DISCLAIMER: This is a shipping/platonic interpersonal relationship discussion post for the relationship between all three of the girls. All healthy ships are good ships, but I’m talking from my perspective. This is my own speculation for the show, and what I interpret may not be the crew’s intent. So I’m doing this with the knowledge that there’s a possibility that this is all speculation and not canon.

If no ships at all, or the ship you wanted did not happen in the Season 2 finale, do not blame the artists and creators for such. Many fandoms have done this and it’s possible that it will happen again. Just don’t be those people who ignore the hard work and beautiful storytelling the Amphibia crew have done and just complain to them about not doing the ship you/we desperately wanted. Harassing the crew for telling their story is a horrible thing to do. So please be mindful of that.

I will also talk about both monogamous ships and a potential polyamorous ship (which is WILD that a Disney frog isekai has one of the most potential for LGBT Poly representation). So if you're polyphobic or monophobic, this post isn't for you. (while you're at it block me.)

But let’s get started:

The Polaroid

A recurring prop used to showcase the happy memories of Anne, Sasha and Marcy. We’ve only seen two of the same Polaroid: one with Anne, and the other with Sasha. It's used to showcase the three girls' tight friendship and bond initially on Earth, and I think if Marcy shows hers, it might showcase the angst of her working for Andrias. (More on that theory in my plot speculation post.)

There is no one else to morally ship them with.

Pad Thai shippers, calm down. In a show like this, there would be a dude who came to Amphibia with the three girls and Anne or someone would fall in love with him. But like The Owl House, there is no hetero ship presented with Anne, Sasha or Marcy that aren't Amphibians. The only people we can ship the three girls with are each other, and even then Sasha and Anne's ANGST is too much for a healthy relationship at the moment. Marcy would be the only real potential option for a happy ship with Anne. (Don't attack me Sashanne shippers, just stating the facts on screen.)

"Well, romance isn't the focus of this show!" You're right. Romance isn't the focus, but the show does do romance. We've seen several times with Sprig and Ivy, and Hop Pop and Sylvia. They may not be the centre focus (which is one of the reasons I love this show) but it exists. The show has done romance several times, and if they culminate a romance with [two or all three of the] girls, it would make sense. The potential is there, but will it happen?

Romance Thread

Hop Pop and Sylvia, Joe Sparrow and Bessie, Sprig and Ivy, "Quarreler's Pass" where Hop Pop asks Anne if she has a boyfriend to fill the awkward silence: these are all romance threads/points throughout the season and it makes so much more sense to have them culminate in this finale or at least showcase an idea of further explicit queer relationship, and do the romance in Season 3.

An overarching story with these three girls has been their interpersonal relationships with one another as Sasha is controlling of both of them, and Anne and Marcy try to find their own path and reach their own autonomy. By having Marcy and Anne find themselves devoid of Sasha, they are free to be themselves.

Sasha as a Complex Character

Sasha at the current moment is not ready for any relationship with Anne or Marcy, especially with what we learn about her in “The Third Temple” in using Marcy, Anne and the Plantars to storm Newtopia. She is a major component of angst in the show, and the main conflict to Anne and Marcy's arcs. Especially with the Season “wrapping” up their angst by "Battle of the Bands", but touching on it in several episodes of the season: it seems like it's going to be thrown over to the next season. The Season 2 finale will be somehow more angsty than “Reunion” (which... how are they going to do??) and the Season 3 finale will introduce a sort of distrust arc and denouement of them realising their relationship and dynamics were not healthy. The biggest disconnect in the last episode was Sasha thinking that after she uses them to get into Newtopia safely, she can somehow control this relationship she has between Marcy and Anne.

[You might be wondering: "okay, but if their angst is doubling down this season, why do a big post on potential shipping and relationships?" Because I can and I want to. I'm just very into these adorable teenagers being in a happy relationship as soon as possible (especially if it's not hetero).]

Sasha and Marcy - Hold your horses, this isn’t a Sasharcy segment. I’m talking about the relationship and interactions between these characters themselves.

We haven’t yet seen how Sasha and Marcy interact without Anne there: similar to Season 1 where we knew who Anne and Sasha were in terms of their own characters, but in “Reunion” we saw how their dynamic was and how that played a great influence on the Battle of Toad Tower. I think “True Colors” will delve a little into that with perhaps a flashback.

Another similarity and difference between the two is that Marcy is willing to give up her hyper fixated goal for the people she cares about. We see it in "The First Temple" where Marcy is willingly forfeiting the game to save Anne and the Plantars from the harm of the Temple. While with Sasha, we see in "Barrel's Warhammer" that she is persistent in going through with obtaining the Warhammer, even at the cost of the people around her. In this instance, Percy and Braddock. I definitely think that Marcy and Sasha are two foils while still being similar overall. If Andrias' plan means risking Anne and Sasha, I think Marcy would very quickly try to undo it and help Anne.

One theory I saw floating around was in "Reunion", Sasha forgot it was Anne's birthday, and so she sent Marcy to find her a gift while she distracted Anne with all the "fun birthday" stuff. I think perhaps we'll see some more of that, to showcase their relationships as a second chapter to "Reunion" where we see their dynamics. Or it could just be a Season 3 thing.

Anne and Marcy

Something I really like is a post made by @pyroclastic727. They talk about how Marcy and Anne were other-ing each other when I’m their relationship with Sasha. As much as Anne and Marcy cared for each other pre-meet-up, Anne in Season 1 focuses on Sasha. And of course who wouldn’t? Sasha is a force to be reckoned with, and last such an impression that we were terrified of who Marcy was going to be before we met her. I recommend checking their post here for full context.

One thing I am interested in that will probably be a Season 3 flip is how Marcy and Anne met. They seemed to be friends since they were babies, there isn’t really an understanding of where their relationship started. It could be they were best friends, but they started othering each other once Sasha joined them. But now, they’re high tier solid friends again.

The major thing Sasha isn't accounting for is the fact that Anne has changed and grown over time. She's not the exact same girl from Earth, she has grown and changed. Become better and able to stand up for herself. Sasha and Anne's relationship seems to be more angst driven than it was in "Reunion". (HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE???)

THE ARC OF WOMEN LOVING WOMEN

Now that the general stuff is out of the way, let's dig a little deeper into the arcs of the three girls these two seasons so far.

101B - “Best Fronds” - We see Anne’s relationship with Sasha, and how she manipulates Anne and Marcy to do as she says. I’ll talk about this a bit more in the “Barrel’s Warhammer” section from Sasha’s POV, but this is big stuff.

110 - “Toad Tax” + “Prison Break” - These two episodes tie in Sasha and Anne’s angst for the season. It directly ties in two plot threads that are very prominent in ”Reunion”: “Toad Tax” with Anne’s progression as a character and her connection to the people of Wartwood, while “Prison Break” shows Sasha willing to do what it takes to get back home and find the other girls. This is the main plot of the season 1 finale, where Sasha helps Grimes to get what he wants in order for her and Anne to find Marcy and get home, even if it means killing off Hop Pop since he’s a frog and according to her, he doesn’t matter.

119B & 120 - “Anne of the Year” + “Reunion”

There's so much to unpack here. But this is a major moment in Anne standing up for herself, Sasha's "sacrifice", and the future of their relationship hanging in the balance. This is the main trigger for the Sashanne dynamic, the toxic and angst driven story. The end of Act 1 of this 3 act story.

201A - “Handy Anne”

This is an essential episode. The premiere immediately starts off with mentions of Sasha in the events of the Battle for Toad Tower. In addition to Marcy being mentioned only a few moments later. Clearly Anne isn't over the events of Toad Tower, but she's pushing forward and trying her best to move on positively; especially with trying to find Marcy, her third and final friend sent to Amphibia.

204 - “Quarreler's Pass” + “Toadcatcher”

As I said, the Hop Pop/Anne B Plot in "Quarreler's Pass" where Hop Pop tries to fill the awkward silence by asking Anne if she has a boyfriend is very telling of their relationship. But what I find interesting is as soon as the episode ends with Hop Pop saying, "Now we can talk about Anne's boyfriend again." And he gets shoved off the cliff. We immediately go to Sasha. We could have had any other episode with Sasha, but why the one immediately after discussing Anne's romantic life? We know the show likes to tie in plot threads through A and B episodes, so it's a possibility!

"Toadcatcher" is all about the Sashanne angst from Sasha's perspective. She tries to distract herself with training, but Grimes points to her that she's afraid their relationship will never be the same again. Sasha also reveals that she has been training to protect Grimes, the one person she can count on right now. After the fight with Yunan and making plans for storming Newtopia with a Toad Army, Sasha says, "It's not over between us. Not even close." Which just highlights their angst arc for the Season. We'll touch more on it in the B segments of 217 and 218.

206 - “Marcy at the Gates”

Here's the thing about this episode. We touch on Sasha and Marcy in the F-Wagon, and then we speak more on Marcy than Sasha. Something Anne says in the beginning with Sprig: "Look, Sasha and I might be going through a rough patch, but that doesn't mean I don't care about her." It shows Anne still cares about Sasha, and she wants to continue their relationship in a healthy way moving forward if possible. If not, then it's something she's willing to let go.

The rest of the episode is a Marcanne fancam people. So much love for Marcy, some suspicion of her from Sprig. But in the end, she's loved by all. If you don't love Marcy, you're a monster. A key reaction in this episode is wariness in the fandom: after Sasha, everyone was terrified and unsure who Marcy is and if she had a similar trait. But she’s amazing and a wonderful nerd.

Something I did find interesting in the Rebecca Rose interview that Matt Braly (and creator of The Owl House Dana Terrace) is that Braly said Marcy was the most important key to the whole show: if the audience don't love her in the first few minutes of her introduction, the entire show would collapse. What is so vital about Marcy that would cause the entire story to collapse? Is it the romance or the plot? Is it the overall arc or what?

207 - “Scavenger Hunt” + “The Plantars Check In”

Marcy and Anne episodes, with Anne feeling insecure about Marcy and Marcy feeling envious of Anne's social skills and befriending the people around her. It solidifies their dynamic and doubles down on Marcy being the cutest and greatest character of all time.

210A - “The Sleepover to End All Sleepovers”

This is a heavy episode for Sashannarcy. Although not seeing Sasha since "Toadcatcher" and we wouldn't be seeing her until "Barrel's Warhammer", this episode does good to remind the audience of Sasha's presences and lasting effect on the girls. Anne talks about Sasha as though she still wants them to be friends if possible to continue their relationship in a healthy way.

The episode does more so focus on Anne and Marcy in the sleepover, but Sasha's presence is still very strong, enough that you feel her presence looming over them. It's not healthy, but it's part of the healing process.

210B - “A Day at the Aquarium”

This is where alarms were set off about Andrias. His proposition for Marcy directly after she tells Anne to go with the Plantars back to Wartwood really does create a new dynamic. So far, it seemed as though Marcy really wanted to have her friend around her. She had no one from Earth until Anne came, and it seems as though she can't reveal informal secrets and insecurities to King Andrias or Lady Olivia. It is a real victory to have Anne go with the Plantars to Wartwood, but Marcy is left without her friend and Andrias takes advantage of that. It's still very unclear what his plans with her are, but that's just the other shoe waiting to drop.

214 - “The First Temple”

Marcy is wonderful. We see flashbacks through Anne's perspective as we see Marcy's issue of extreme hyper fixation not allowing her to pay attention to her surroundings. This was in "Marcy at the Gates", but it doubles down here. It even shows in the Temple where Marcy seems to be so into all the trials that she is unable to see the Plantars being squished, burned or smashed to pieces as a result.

I mentioned this as a comparison, but Marcy really does give up all her chances of recharging the Green gem just to save Anne and the Plantars. She gives up her hyper fixated goal just for them. Her extreme presence of empathy and care of Anne and the people who she may not have incredible emotional attachment to is what separates her from Sasha.

215A - “New Wartwood”

Directly after "The First Temple" with Marcanne development, absolutely no one saw this segment coming in hot as one of the gayest ones yet. It is an Anne and Marcy episode with a slight emphasis on Mayor Toadstool. I think I would have seen this episode as solidifying Anne and Marcy's friendship if not for that blush in the beginning of the episode. Marcy geeks out about the swamp Wartwood is built on top of, and Anne blushes at her asking for more info she learned in the town. If Anne and Marcy were "just friends" I don't think Anne would have blushed at Marcy geeking out about frog stuff. The only other times we've seen her blush is when she's embarrassed, and it doesn't seem like that's her emotional state at that moment. You could just brush it off and say its an error, but there's no way that's an error. It went through production and post-production and was locked in! There's no way that's an error!!

216 - “Toad to Redemption” + “Maddie & Marcy”

Not a lot to say here, but this is important. These two episodes are directly after "Return to Wartwood" and a while after "The First Temple". Each segment features Anne and Marcy having their own adventures, and their stories can be separate from one another. In "Toad to Redemption", Anne is helping Mayor Toadstool remain the Mayor of Wartwood and not become the head of the Southern Toad Tower. In "Maddie and Marcy", Marcy is helping Maddie with reviving a pet to life. Both Anne and Marcy are key players this season, but they each play a supporting role to people they didn't really talk to or meet previously in these segments. This shows their independence from one another, and that my friends is the sign of a healthy relationship!

217 - “The Second Temple” + “Barrel’s Warhammer”

Buckle up folks, the Sashannarcy segment we've been waiting for.

"The Second Temple" has a focus of Marcy and Anne, but more specifically Anne since this Temple was her trial. Still not sure of the exact location of the temple, but it's fine. The trials show Anne and how she cares about the people around her, how she is the "heart" of the group, and her growth from Season 1 up until that point. The deep love she has, especially at the end where she gives up charging the gem midway to save her friends who are screaming.

"Barrel's Warhammer"... yikes. This segment is perhaps the biggest insight into Sasha's psyche we've seen. In comparison to Marcy who gives up what she hyper fixates upon for the people around her, Sasha is persistent and attaches her worth to her goal. She does not like failure or losing, and I think that shows in this segment. This shows her absolute fear of abandonment and desire for complete control (which we'll talk more about in "Battle of the Bands") over the situations around her, which causes for unsympathetic actions and negative repercussions of the people around her. This episode (very late into the season) just highlights Sasha's journey further and what she needs to work on. It's not Anne and Marcy for leaving her: it's her. Her tunnel vision is shoving them away.

218B - “The Third Temple” - This episode made me feel so down on shipping. Like it’s a great episode over all, but what it means for the Season 2 finale is... angsty. Sasha fake apologises to Anne in order for her and Grimes to enter Newtopia safely for the invasion. Just as much as she understands she is doing it, her slight look of conflicted feelings at the end of this segment really does showcase how even she is unsure if she should go on with this. Sasha really does not deserve Anne and Marcy, and I think she knows it too.

219 - “The Dinner” + “Battle of the Bands”

The biggest disconnect Sasha provides is that she believes after they get the Toads to invade Newtopia, she can get her friendship with Anne and Marcy back "under control". Which I believe is the friendship they had back when they were on Earth. Sasha didn't realise how much Marcy and, more specifically, Anne had changed in their time in Amphibia. Sasha is really the only person who hasn't changed nor made solid emotional attachments to anyone other than Grimes. Anne and Marcy grew, while Sasha didn't. "The Dinner" just proves that where she is unable to have her feelings of being other-ed in their relationship. I think Sasha's fear of missing out, and not being the centre of their relationship just plays into her "Barrel's Warhammer" insecurities and problems.

While "Battle of the Bands" shows her need to be in control of everything and everyone around her, even with her realising it's very tiring. She doesn't like mindless people (like Toadie) who obey her every command, she likes the challenge of controlling people into submission. Which is very bad, but I think by the end when she plays the song she realises it's okay to let loose with help from Toadie. Even at the end when the three of them lose to Grimes, she realises that it was more fun to play with Anne and Marcy with a silly, heartfelt song instead of making it perfect and winning with a controlled performance. By the end, Sasha is controlling them because she does have the plan to invade Newtopia with Grimes. But this is just the calm before the storm.

TL;DR - I don’t think a relationship can healthily start in the finale, especially with the Sasha betrays Anne and Marcy betrays Anne plots both coming to a head. There’s no way that Sasha is going to be an immediate better person and get into a relationship with Anne and/or Marcy. There is a logic to them starting the relationship, but I don’t think it’s gonna be this season. Instead, I could see perhaps a declaration of love or some kind of coming out scene happening where someone confesses their love to the other. I don’t come to this show for shipping, but there is a logical through line as a connection to the overall story which could culminate in romance.

Either way, lemme know your thoughts and ideas! No shipping wars in the comments please, but do tell what you think? Is it happening? Is it not? Are we going to be explicit in canonising (by that I mean a confession of love or something) or saving it for Season 3? As always, let me know your thoughts!

[mlbpotter]

Character analysis-Ladybug and Marinette.

There are some things people just ignore that about her.

1) Careless and irresponsible

★ She literally transforms behind a bench, or any visible place she sets her eyes into. Adrien as well. Like girl, tf is wrong with u. There are great hiding spots to transform. I am surpirsed that Paris hasn't figured out her identity.

★ Ok, so she can be careless right? In hack-san trailer she gave her miraculous to Alya, when she could've used the horse miraculous to teleport. Or maybe just cosmo bug, by putting an akuma alert on her phone.

No, this is not an Alya hate page. Just saying, you could've also trusted Alya with a kitty things that beeps (NYC). But there is a reason why she shouldn't trust anyone with the miraculous. Not all of the people have the big brain Marinette has, so they could fail. I mean I kinda understand that she wanted to spend time with her family, but still, being a superheroine requires some sacrifices.

★ Why did she give Viperion the snake miraculous in wishmaker? She could've given it to Alya, as she knew her identity so it didn't matter if she found out. And even if Chat Noir was hit infront of Alya, it didn't matter that much. As she already knew ladybug's secret identity. At Least only one identity was put at risk, not two!

★Ok, so we know she lets all the kwamis roam around freely, which is pretty irresponsible. What if someone just barges into her room, a supervillain for example? Like in sole crusher Chloe just randomly barged in, and if Marinette hadn't hurried, the kwamis could've been discovered.

Ugh, sometimes the plot kills me.

2) Stalkish

★Do I even need to say anything? She literally boarded a plane to Shanghai just to go after Adrien. Just because the writers couldn't find a better way for Marinette to be in Shanghai. Because even for her, this is too much. Adrien wasn't going forever you know.

★knows Adrien's schedule for 3 years, which is kinda pretty much impossible for even a model. Cuz u can't have the same schedule for 3 years! It's not realistic at all.

3) Can be dumb.

★Why? She is intelligent agreed, but she can be dumb as well. In sentibubbler, she could've just moved further away , in the bubble and then transform. It's not that hard!

★Marinette gives away the miraculouses waaaaay too much. Like literally all her classmates have one. I'm just waiting for the teachers to get as well.

★She trusted Zoe, a person who she just met for a few days, with a miraculous. Does the miraculous has no value anymore?

In season four, the miraculouses are seemingly easy to get. Imma got to Paris, suck up to Marinette, and if I don't get a miraculous, I don't hate Zoe🙄

4) Immature, nervous.

★ She has a bad habit of stuttering around Adrien, can never get her words right. Alright, if someone's your crush, sure you can be nervous but even it has a limit!!!

★In the episode Felix, Marinette was about to send a message to Adrien confessing her love for him, but how inappropriate that was, since it was the time when his mother had died.

Yet, despite these mistakes she also has alot of good qualities as well.

[gettingvetted]

An Update

I’ve been a little absent on here recently, but I’ve been going through a bunch of life changes!

First, back in November I started crunching some numbers and realized my boss was not paying me the commission I had earned. Between that and the multiple ways that this clinic just does. not. work. for me as a practice, I knew I was going to leave at the end of my contract anyway. I decided to wait until after the holiday season to broach the topic with my boss. By early January, she owed me about $25k in commission. She told me I was calculating everything wrong, that it was illegal for me to send my numbers to my lawyer so he could check after me (spoiler alert, it’s definitely not illegal to do that), and that if I wanted to be paid that much then she would have to start firing support staff and she *cares* about those people. Mhmm... well that pissed me off to no end, so that night I applied for 4 different jobs and was offered positions at 2 of them by the beginning of February. I was all prepared for her to sue me when I broached the topic of leaving my position early (she had threatened to sue a previous associate over leaving 3 days early, much less 2.5 months early); however, she did not. I turned in my 60 days’ notice and my last day is April 18. I start at my new clinic on May 1 (or May 3, since May 1 is a Saturday and they probably won’t start me out on a Saturday with no other doctors there for my first day). This clinic is the complete opposite of where I am now. They have spectacular boundaries with the clients (things that are not emergencies do not get worked in if they don’t have any more same-day sick appointments available), are completely willing to fire clients for poor behavior, there is no on-call, I will work every 3rd Saturday (instead of working every Saturday except one each month), I will get paid a lot more, and their standard of medicine is generally much higher. The one thing that makes me sad is that it will be small animal only (and exotics, if I decide I want to dip my toes into that pool). However, I happen to be friends with the owner of the mixed animal (mostly large animal) clinic in the same town and he is going to let me ride along with him a couple of mornings each month so I can keep up my large animal skills. I have secured housing that is only 15 minutes from work and 10 minutes from Walmart and grocery stores/restaurants, while still being out in the country on private land with a private landlord, in my budget, on a well (so no water bill!) and literally within walking distance of the place I planned to keep my horse no matter where I ended up living.

Second, speaking of my horse... I bought that mare, Elara. She was over my budget but seemed absolutely perfect for me. I brought her home on January 30 and for a long time she was a completely different horse. Extremely herd-bound and anxious etc. It was too cold/too snowy/too muddy to do anything with her other than grooming for about 4 weeks, and then when I tried to ride her she was hot, sassy, and I was sure I was gonna get bucked off so I got off of her and then even struggled to lunge her because she wanted to take off. I kind of threw a temper tantrum on Facebook about that, because a horse that can’t be ridden and is herd-bound and anxious is not one that I want to own. I got some suggestions from horse friends for how to work with her, and enrolled the both of us in a professional virtual groundwork clinic. Since then we have both improved in our communication with each other. She has calmed down a lot and for my first real ride on her as her new owner, the barn owner where I am keeping her took us on an 80 minute trail ride up and down a difficult mountain trail and we both survived. There is no English riding around here, but the stable where I plan to keep her in the new place offers exclusively English riding lessons and training, so I hope to start taking lessons on her and competing in some local hunter/jumper type competitions this summer and work up to some BN/novice level eventing as well as take her on some trails. The property where I will be living backs up to some National Forest trails, and the landlord’s stepdaughter has a group of trail riding buddies and she’s willing to trailer the horse for me. Plus my best friend and her husband live about half an hour from where I’ll be living and they just bought their own horses to trail ride as well, so I hope to be able to ride with them too.

My relationship is doing well (I think). This move is about 95 minutes from where I’m currently living, but will only add about 20 minutes to our drive to see each other (picture sort of a triangle - here, there, and his place) so we plan to keep seeing each other. Plus, if he gets into medical school (which is his current plan) then my new place will be significantly closer to both of the medical schools where he’s had interviews so it will be easier for me to visit him on weekends. My mental health was pretty darn poor through January and February, partially because of S.A.D., but also just because of my job situation as a whole and how it went when I tried to confront my boss about not being paid what’s in my contract (not to mention the horse frustration). It is improving now that the days are getting longer and warmer, I have an “out” and something to look forward to, and working with Elara is getting much better. I have also finally restarted in therapy (my previous therapist was a grad student and graduated back in December) and this will be my first therapist who is not a grad student or involved in low-cost community-type work (not that there’s anything wrong with that - grad student and community therapists have helped me a lot but it’s nice to have a therapist that really wants to be there and can pick their own clients and determine their own client load).

Overall I think things are looking up and I am excited for what’s to come!

[marvelvsmarvel]

Team Valentina Allegra de Fontaine aka Thunderbolts or Dark Avengers?

It’s curious because based on the current roster of 2, US Agent John Walker and Former Widow Yelena Belova, it seems like the MCU could be building their own version of the Thunderbolts... or Dark Avengers? However I like the cleaner simpler idea that she is building up a New Avengers roster Nick Fury style. As it stands there currently isn’t an active Avengers roster as of Spider-Man: Far From Home and the present day Disney+ series WandaVision and Falcon and The Winter Soldier. It would make sense for someone to want to occupy that space where even the most well thought out intentions i.e. Sokovia Accords could cause serious problems for the heroes doing the avenging. The MCU tends to blend in their adaptations so it would not surprise me if Kevin Feige and Co. work out a storyline of both anti-Avengers teams. But first the speculation...

Valentina works for somebody as suggested with her raise comment who obviously allows for some government jurisdiction. Sonny Burch from Ant-Man and the Wasp also referenced that the people he works for don’t take “No” for an answer while having some legit resources like “not truth serum”. There is also the wealthy new owner of Avengers Tower from Spider-Man: Homecoming. Someone out there is already an incredibly powerful person and it could be anyone of a wide range. Let’s go Top 3:

Secretary of State, Thaddeus Ross: The most obvious answer (even though he also was the obvious identity of the Power Broker in FATWS and wasn’t) due the crazy amount of authority he wields in the MCU. The most important of that authority being his oversight of the Accords or specifically heroes in general whether they sign or not which includes oversight of their crime and punishment over vigilantes. We don’t know if he was snapped or not and the triple bypass comment was news so his current state in the MCU is unknown.

Kingpin Wilson Fisk: A probable answer. The guy couldn’t even beat a blind guy amiright? Fisk has his own crazy amount of undetectable influence from police to FBI Agents. It is possible that he learned from his previous failure and has decided to do more business from the shadows as well as finding more powered individuals to work for him. While Fisk is a Marvel Netflix property, the rumors of Charlie Cox potentially reprising his role in Spider-Man: No Way Home only makes this that much more of a possibility. Just like General Dreykov’s grand vision, Fisk could use these “would-be” Avengers to return from out of the shadows and realize his power once again.

Genius Billionaire Spidey-Villain Norman Osborn: Dark horse answer as there has not even been a hint of an Osborn in the MCU Spider-Man franchise but of course it makes a lot of sense especially with the comic book context. The new owner was hinted at through that franchise so it makes sense that they pay it off there with giant OSCORP letters lines across the Tower. He definitely has the money and mastermindfullness? would be huge for the third installment with it marking the Green Goblin’s third iteration as well. But I have previously made the case the Norman is a formidable foe in and of himself and working with the Dark Reign (Avengers) storyline is a great way to showcase that.

Finding Avengers doppelgängers is risky business but let’s fill out who can work out the remaining spots of the original six for Valentina:

Abomination: The recent Shang Chi trailer showed a glimpse of what looks like a more comic book accurate Abomination in a cage fight. Last we saw this Incredible Hulk BIG baddie he was somehow being arrested under you know Thaddeus Ross’s jurisdiction. Could easily see him returning all remilitarized mentally Winter Soldier or Red Room style as being the big dumb brute of the group. Should go smoothly.

Taskmaster: Having seen Tasky already perfectly bounce an arrow from a moving vehicle directly under and in the middle of another moving vehicle is an obvious audition for Hawkeye. There should also be some new Ronin footage for her to add to her sword skills.

Ares / Man-Thing / Beta Ray Bill: One of the previous champions depicted on the Grandmaster’s Tower on Sakaar are supposedly could be steady favorites to stand in for Thor, especially Bill. Ares has the comic book context in this given situation but his happenstance on Earth would be less obvious unless the rumor that the Olympians being set to appear in the Eternals is true. Man-Thing obviously has Thor’s naturally good looks and is a powerhouse in his own right.

Whoever turns out to be the man in the shadows to be the new Tony Stark: This is a lame answer but I believe the most probable one. Tony signed the Accords and it makes sense that he would have handed over at least some collection of Iron Man suits over to the government. Whoever is this new shadowy big bad is sure to at least have access to one and wheeling one out is perhaps a bigger statement than wielding Cap’s shield in the MCU. Ross could turn to arc reactor technology to help his evidently bad heart. Kingpin would need a Hulkbuster but it would be more badass than funny. Norman has the intelligence to build his own and it would be a hell of a thing to see because comics.

Dark Thunderbolt Avengers... well we’ll see...

[twdmusicboxmystery]

10x19: One More - Analysis

Okay, what did everyone think of 10x19? I really liked it a lot. I’m still trying to get a handle on what everything meant, and I think there’s a lot more to be had than what we see on the surface, but it was a really tragic and moving episode. I got lots of messages from people who watched it early and immediately noticed the Bethyl callbacks.

So, I’m going to do something slightly different this week. Today, I’m going to focus on those—all the obvious callbacks—and tomorrow I’ll do more of a forecasting post about what I think this episode means for the future and where I think it’s going.

***As always, spoilers abound below for 10x19. Don’t read until you’ve watched!!!***

I kind of figured from the description that this would be a case of Gabe and Aaron = Beth and Daryl. And that’s definitely true. I’m going to call this a mixture between Still callbacks and Consumed.

Still, because of all the callbacks I’m sure you noticed at least a few of. And Consumed because it’s two friends out looking for something. Actually, the first thing that made me think of Consumed is that they kept showing really sad things accompanied by really sad music, which reminded me of Consumed. I know for most people in our fandom, that’s not our favorite episode because it’s a Daryl/Carol episode, but just for the imagery and music and sadness of the dystopian world, I really love it. And this episode was similar to that.

So, it starts by showing some—both white and yellow. This flower

Is an Easter Lily. Yeah, not kidding. EASTER Lily.

Of course there are both white and yellow flowers. The yellow ones are reminiscent of the ones we saw in the cemetery in Alone.  

Then we see Aaron and Gabe surrounded by walkers. When they start killing the walkers, its shows blood hitting all the flowers in a really kind of graphic way. I was like, “ew.” But at one point, they also hit a green grasshopper.

So, I was thinking that blood hitting the flowers and the grasshopper could possibly represent Beth being shot. And there are plenty of blond walkers to be had in this episode.

Aaron and Gabe arrive at a particular house. On Maggie’s map, it says this should be a two-story house with a root cellar, and she wants them to check the cellar for supplies. But when they get there, all that’s left is a doorframe with a swinging door and the chimney. The rest has been burnt, and by the looks of it, fairly recently. This is where they see the three charred skeletons with the pink flowers growing around them.

Couple of things. 1) This is a foreshadow for later in the episode. It has to do with the 2 stories, and I’ll get to it at the end. 2) The charred skeletons are a bit like what Daryl saw in 6x06, which was chalk full of Beth symbolism. 3) The pink flowers. (Pink Theory.)

In terms of foreshadows, this really screams the CRM to me, because of the burnt skeletons and the ties to 6x06, and remember that in 5x09, the radio voice (Andy) talked about the republic and a group that was setting people on fire. It’s like that’s one of their tactics.

One thing I didn’t realize from the trailer is that these are not three adult skeletons. It’s two adults and a child, all with their arms wrapped around each other. There’s a huge theme in this episode of families dying and specifically children dying. (Which is actually another tie to Consumed; remember the mother and child walker they find, and Daryl burns? Well, here we have two parents and a child, all who’ve been burnt. Yeah, not a coincidence, folks.)

We have two or three representations of families or children dying in this episode. I was thinking about the family in the gas station in 4a. I don’t think any of theme were children, but Daryl said something about them holding hands and taking themselves out Kumbaya style. And a lot of the skeletons we see here seem to be either taken out by their family members, or else they’ve committed suicide. There’s the child walker Carol and Daryl saw in 5x06. There was the creepy nursery near Denise just before she died. Etc. And it’s really very dark, ominous symbolism. Very sad.

Then Gabe pulls out an egg timer (another one of those), sets it for 5 seconds, and lobs it into the field. When it rings, tons of walkers spring up. So, it’s their way of checking before walking into tall grass. In this case, it shows the dial turning as the timer counts down. It definitely feels like a symbolic countdown to something big.

There’s also huge bullet theme. And usually single bullets. Mays makes them play Russian Roulette, which is all about one single bullet in the chamber. But there are tons of times when they pick up single bullet casings, or we see bullet holes in cars or walls or cans. Just a huge theme.

Okay, let’s get specific. They come upon a line of cars, which is really important. But just before that, Gabriel sees basically two piles of bones. I could tell not all of them were human. Some were too big. And I thought they might be horse bones. @bluesandbeth told me she thought they were two horses with their riders still on top. And she’s right. I couldn’t tell when I first looked at them. But once she said it, I could see it. It’s like a horse lying on it’s side, with the rider still straddling the horse, also lying on his side. And they died that way.

Now, other than knowing that we’ve definitely seen horses in the show before—think Buttons—I wasn’t sure what to make of it. Until @wdway said something interesting. You know the two horseback riders we see in the opening credits? Me and my fellow theorists are always going back and forth about who they are. I originally thought Rick and Michonne, which is the obvious conclusion. But @wdway told me she thinks this is actually Rick and Beth.

And you know, that makes a lot of sense since we didn’t see these new opening credits until Rick disappeared into the CRM. So, they could represent the two missing sheriffs.

And that makes a lot of sense with these bones. Because this scene with the cars has about 20 callbacks to Beth and what we think happened during the missing 17 days. So the bones represent the two riders from the opening credits, which represent the two missing sheriffs.

Now, onto the cars. One has the trunk open (Still) one has the side door hanging open (5x09). And there’s a van where Aaron sees a female walker in the front seat, which is kind of like what we saw in 5x09. Gabe finds a can of food, but there’s a bullet in it, which probably means the food either leaked out or spoiled. 

But the really interesting thing is that him opening this trunk and looking in is very reminiscent of Maggie opening the trunk and finding the Beth walker in 5x10. So if we can equate those two things, both times, it represents opening the trunk and Beth being inside. In 5x10, she was represented by the walker. Here, by the can of food with a bullet hole in it, just like Beth got shot in the head.

Another thing I was reminded of was in 6x04, when Morgan sees the man and woman and she puts down a can of food and a bullet on top and says, “Thank you.” I think this symbolism may be related to that.

Then they go to the MiniMart. On the outside, it feels like the Big Spot or else maybe the gas station where Rick and Daryl met Jesus. In fact, much like in 6x10, there is a post for cigarettes with a price of $4.30.

When it pans out, there’s a coffee pot lying on its side (important because it’s something that water runs through, and we’ve seen a coffee theme as well) a walker with a bullet hole in its forehead, a bright yellow magazine rack by the door, etc. And this was a place you could play the lottery, so there was a poker theme going on.

 Okay, the ARM symbolism is alive and well. My fellow theorists and I have been obsessing about what the arm symbolism points to ever since Leah threw the walker arm at Daryl. In this episode, a walker sticks both hands out of the door, and Gabe hacks them both off, around the forearm/elbow area. 

Then, another walker gets its head and torso out and Aaron stabs it in the head. He and Gabe both grab an arm to try and yank it out of the way so they can get by, but the arms (really the hands because it separates at the forearms) just come off. And really, it’s just the skin, not the bones that comes off, but still. (Ew.)

This is where Gabriel goes up on the roof and we get the scene from the promo.

Okay, so when I first saw the promo, I immediately said this was a Grady callback. The “SAVE US” is something that could only be seen from the sky. Like…from a helicopter? Plus there were some important scenes on the roof of Grady. There’s a walker that’s handcuffed. So it’s an imprisonment theme. And Grady was all about imprisonment. And finally, we have what looks to be two lovers, dead, but entwined together on a mattress. I was thinking that if this is meant to represent Grady, that might represent Beth and Daryl. The love that never happened because Beth “died” and the relationship died with her. Or something equally tragic.

But there are other things we can connect this to as well. First off, what you don’t see in this shot is that there are two other walkers also tied to a second pole, but neither of them are animated. They’re just corpses. So we have a grand total of three prisoners here. If you look closely, the man lying on the mattress has a gun in his hand. Which suggests this might have been a murder/suicide situation.

It’s reminiscent of Merle being handcuffed on the roof in season 1, which was just before he went missing. It also reminded me of the strange, unexplained handcuffs Daryl found in 8x02 in that office building. Those were never explained. But the point is, it’s a handcuffs/imprisonment theme.

A big part of this is a foreshadow for the end of this episode and what happens with Mays. But given that he and his bro are one-off characters only appearing in this episode, I think this must foreshadow more than that, too.

We don’t actually see the inside of this place because Gabe goes to the roof, takes the ladder down (Ladder Theory) and then comes out the front door, but tells Aaron there’s nothing they can use in there.

Then they talk about going home. Aaron and Gabe been out for 2 weeks, which is definitely a Heath/Tara thing. In S6, they’d been out scouting for supplies for 2 weeks, and that was just before Heath disappeared into the CRM. Just saying.

Okay, then Gabe falls in the mud. Here’s the thing: we really thought Gabriel might die in this episode. Obviously not. But I do see some fairly clear death omens for him here. Of course I can’t be sure of anything, but I still think his death is probably close.

First is the fact that he trips at all. Anytime anyone really faceplants on the show, it sort of shows a coming catastrophe for them, which is often death. Beth face-planted in the elevator shaft in 5x04. Spencer fell off the zipline in S6, and died less than a season later. You get the idea. When, when Aaron lifts the walker off him, it leaves some intestines (ew) on his stomach, and the camera focuses on them for a moment. Just felt like a death omen to me.

I will say, however, that anyone who’s read the comics knows that this feels a lot like they might do exactly what they did there for his death. And they don’t usually do that. They almost always remix it in some way. So this could also just be a nod to his comic book death. We’ll have to see where they go with it.

But this scene is super interesting. It feels like EXACTLY the same thing we saw in 10x18. We have Gabriel’s map being ruined, and then a huge storm that immediately follows. And there’s Beth symbolism (talk of a water tower, etc). So I thought it was interesting that we saw it twice, in two subsequent episodes. Also, for most of the episode they’re kinda sorta trying to get to the water tower. As though water tower is end game or something.

Then they get to a warehouse that wasn’t on the map. Gabe finds the bibles inside. I’m still forming a theory about the passage he opens up to, but we all know they use biblical symbolism in this show a lot, and especially around Beth. But remember they found a bible in the barn in Alone. Later, Mays says the pages are torn because he uses them for toilet paper. (Toilet Paper Theory.)

Then we get to the really good Bethyl callbacks. Aaron and Gabriel eat pork, drink alcohol, play poker (not exactly the same as Beth and Daryl’s drinking game, but it’s a game), Aaron has a “bullshit” line, Gabriel shows an 8 and a 2 card, Aaron says he needs to “take a piss,” etc.  

I did notice something while watching, but wasn’t sure what to make of it until AK was talking at the end of the episode. It shows one hand of poker and Aaron folds, which means Gabe wins. This is where he shows a 2 and an 8, which isn’t anything in poker. So, he won the hand on a bluff. And I went, huh. Wonder what that means. But it was a foreshadow of what happens with Mays. I’ll get to that.

Gabe has an “I’m serious” mention. In one of the bigger parallels, the dialogue is not the same, but the meaning is. So, different words, same meaning. Gabriel says his line from the promo about how evil people aren’t the exception, they are the rule. That really disturbs Aaron and he says, “okay, now I’m sober.” It’s the equivalent of “you ain’t a happy drunk at all.” And then he drives it home by saying, “I’m going to go up to the room and pitch myself off head first.”

And THEN—get this—he picks up a golf club and smacks a golf ball at FG, hitting him in the foot. Gabe says, “ow.” So not only a golf/Still reference, but I think it specifically ties back to when Daryl uses the club to kill the walker and hits Beth with the gore.

They say in TTD that they actually did an extended golf sequence where Aaron and Gabe set up this huge mini-golf course thing, but most of it got cut from the episode for time. So there was originally a massive golf theme in this episode.

Of course Mays shows up to take them captive. He shows Gabriel Aaron’s metal arm. So, more arm symbolism.

Without going into tons of detail here, let’s just recognize that the entire theme of this episode is whether or not there are good people in the world still. (Beth line.) Mays thinks all people are evil but Gabe and Aaron prove him wrong by refusing to the point the gun at one another during the Russian Roulette game. There’s a line where Gabriels screams at him that he needs to remember who he was. (“who you were.”) Which is a direct parallel to Beth telling Daryl to stay who he is. Which is a good person. So it’s a similar theme being explored here.

At one point, Mays says, “there’s nothing left in this world but thieves and murderers.” It’s not the same line Glenn says in 5x02, but the wording of the first part is exactly the same. “There’s nothing left in this world that isn’t hidden.”

We also definitely get an “illusion/hallucination” reference here. I noticed Gabriel said (and I’m paraphrasing; didn’t write down the exact words) that Mays was so bitter, and had so convinced himself that everyone in the world was evil, that he’d blinded himself to the truth and couldn’t see that he was about to kill two very decent guys (Gabe and Aaron). So, it just struck me as a you-can’t-see-the-truth-that’s-right-in-front-of-you theme. Plus, maybe a see no evil theme?

Another theme that jumped out at me is whether or not they are the same as him. At one point, he says, “you’re so close,” and I think he means to becoming a villain, like he is. During their fight, he says they’re the same and Gabriel rebukes him, saying they aren’t like him.

We’ve seen that theme a lot before. It’s like a theme of the bad guys trying to make the good guys like them, and the good guys have to prove they’re better than that. So, Crazy Tattoo Guy at Terminus came running out of his train car yelling, “we’re the same,” before he died. Joe Claimer tried hard to convince Daryl that he was like them and one of them, even though he wasn’t. And we could even tie this to Beth saying, “I’m not like you or them, but I made it.” Slightly different meaning in that case, but the verbiage is similar.

(BTW, notice in the pic above, Aaron has a head wound, bleeding from exactly the spot Beth was shot.)

And surprisingly, they actually manage to convince Mays that they’re right and he puts away the gun and unties Aaron, looking as if he’ll let them go. He unties Aaron…and then Gabe kills him. Pretty brutally.

So this is the second reason I think this might be a death knell for Gabe. And it also ties to the bluff in the poker game. AK said that everything Gabe said to Mays about him still believing in God and the bible was a bluff. So we’re left wondering if it was a complete lie, and Gabe has entirely lost his faith. Now, a crisis of faith does line up with Daryl in Inmates/Still, but at the very least, Gabe is in a really dark place. But he hides it well. It doesn’t look that way to others. But I feel like he’s spiraling and being super self-destructive, and this might soon lead to his death.

Remember when he killed Dante? It’s a lot like that. And at one point, Aaron says that Gabe doesn’t mean that (all the negative stuff he says) because his mind is just really full of the Whisperers still, but not all people are like the Whisperers. So, I think the idea is that dealing with the Whisperers really messed Gabe up.

But of course they go upstairs, or up a level and find Mays’ twin brother. And the thing is, Gabe wasn’t entirely wrong to kill him. I mean, in terms of Gabe’s inner arc, obviously he was being really, disturbingly brutal. But Mays was keeping his twin brother a prisoner upstairs. We see two bodies—that of a woman and child—each with a bullet hole in their foreheads. Which is obviously reminiscent of Beth. But the brother also says Mays “made him play.” Which means he did the Russian Roulette thing, but unlike Gabe and Aaron, he didn’t shoot himself but rather turned the gun on his wife and child and eventually shot both of them.

So neither of these guys was exactly Alexandria material. Then the brother gets ahold of Gabe’s gun and shoots himself. Aaron and Gabe leave. On their way out, it shows a photograph of the two brothers laughing together, clearly before the apocalypse.

Okay, let’s talk about this scene. This is what I meant was foreshadowed by Maggie’s two-story building description. Gabe and Aaron found a 2-story building where a family died together. You could say the same thing here of Mays and his brother.

I’m still not entirely sure what to make of the evil twin/evil sibling symbols. I think it must foreshadow something, and we just don’t understand what it points to yet. We saw it with Lizzie/Mica, with Noah’s twin brothers (and the picture of Mays and his brother is very reminiscent of that) and now here. So it’s really fascinating to me, and I’ve talked about it before, but it’s obviously symbolism that’s still in play and that we don’t entirely understand. For more on this, see the 5x09 Post I recently wrote.

But here’s the other thing about this scene. It was this scene in particular that reminded me of the handcuffs Daryl found in S8. 

Because Mays’ bro was handcuffed in the same way. Near those cuffs in S8, there was also what might have been a dogfood sandwich, which is exactly what Daryl was fed at the Sanctuary in 7x03. So you see what I mean? It’s a whole imprisonment theme, with similar symbols around it. And dog symbol always = Sirius = Beth, which is why I think it has to have something to do with her. Then, I saw this:

Guys, this is the exact same brand of dog food we saw with Daryl at the Sanctuary. It’s called A-OK.  

And what does it mean? I’m not sure, but consider this: even in 4x01, Beth had a lot of imprisonment symbols in her cell. A bird cage, a no exit sign, a garden gnome. And if Grady was tied to the CRM, and was absorbed by them, then Beth may have been a prisoner of the CRM for like 8 years, now. And even putting her aside, Rick has been their prisoner for 6 years. That much is confirmed in the show. So I think this points to the CRM in one way or another. It’s about a long imprisonment term, but is tied to Sirius and the return.

In the last scene, Gabe and Aaron walk through a field and they are coming up on the water tower, though it’s still in the distance. One of them says it’s the last place on the map. And I think that’s significant. So, I had a few different thoughts about how we could interpret this.

So, as I already said, Beth = water = endgame. But we also know the CRM is purifying water. So CRM = endgame. What I mean is, maybe it’s saying that the CRM is the last huge battle they’ll have to fight, and maybe then they’ll get the world back. And we’ve kind of thought that for a while. That they’ve been hinting at this group and this war, since season 1 when Rick saw the helicopter in Atlanta. And Beth will be a big part of it.

I also think we may be getting lots of hints of them losing Alexandria here. So it might be a matter of losing one more home or finding one more home. Something like that. If the CRM is the “one more” in the title… well, at first, Gabe says, “two more,” and then eventually “one more.” So I’m thinking two more big arcs. The first is the Commonwealth. The second “one more” is the CRM. But I think that will last for several seasons.

It also occurred to me that the “one more” could also be a death omen for Gabriel. One more place. One more battle. One more episode? And then he’s done. But all of this is just conjecture. Me brainstorming ideas.

One other thing I wrote down is that AK said the bullet in the gun in the Russian Roulette game represented one last trial, and would this be the bullet that will break them? I thought that was interesting, especially in terms of Beth’s loss breaking Daryl.

Okay, lets go back to what I said at the beginning. Obvious callbacks to Bethyl and Still, and lots of things suggesting her imminent return. Since the water tower = Beth and Gabe and Aaron were kind of searching for it the whole episode, you can see how that parallels 5x06, Consumed. But I also think it foreshadows the spinoff with Carol and Daryl leaving together to go search for Beth, even if they don’t know it initially. The fact that Aaron and Gabe were originally searching for something else (food/supplies) but sort of ended up aiming for the water tower here is probably purposeful.

Bottom line? This still points toward Beth being very close. I’ll do more general forecasting tomorrow. Thoughts?

[serendipitous-magic]

You might've talked about this already, but any tips for writer's block???

(Disclaimer: many of these are paraphrased from writing advice I've seen and liked myself, but can't for the life of me remember where I saw it or who said it.)

1) For existing stories: have a plan. Even if you’re someone who doesn’t like planning stories, have the most basic of skeleton plans. You don’t have to come up with the whole plan at once, and you don’t have to plan every little detail. But when you think of a plot point or scene or detail or whatever that you want to use later in the story, jot it down. Don’t count on yourself to remember it. You won’t.

And if you’re a person that hates planning stories, don’t think of it as a plan. Just think of it as saving the ideas you want to use later.

-_-

2) Write down your daydreams.

No, seriously. One of my biggest challenges in writing is that when I’m trying too hard, nothing happens. My best ideas happen when my brain is just playing, not even writing, just like... Going off on intangible adventures while I wash the dishes and listen to music. I’ll surface from some complicated daydream about a band of cowboys staging a horseback rescue mission for a friend being held prisoner on a moving locomotive, ending with the horse leaping over a narrow canyon Spirit style, and suddenly I’m like “wait, shit, this is good.” This applies for individual scenes, but also plot - the same thing often happens (to me at least) for larger plot points. I’ll be happily daydreaming a scene and suddenly one of the characters tearfully says, “I expected this from the others. I did. But from you? My own brother?” And I’m like WHOA WAIT, THEY’RE SIBLINGS? PLOT TWIST! And like... sometimes that shit makes it into the actual story I’m writing (or I write it down and save it for a future story) and becomes a major part of the plot, lol.

Point being, the things you come up with when you’re not even trying - when you’re just having fun, fucking around in the fandom or in whatever various universes you’ve created in your brain (anyone else? No? Just me?) - those effortless ideas are often some of the best ones. Because of how human brains work, it can be really, really hard to force yourself to make something good.

So if you’re just happily daydreaming, and you find yourself thinking, “Damn, this is actually pretty good,” write it down. You might be able to use it later.

-_-

3) If you’re in the middle of a story / scene and you get hit with writers’ block, or you find yourself rewriting the same sentence or paragraph or page over and over, or simply feel unable to continue forward - your problem is not that sentence / paragraph / page, it’s several sentences / paragraphs / pages back.

For example: if you can’t seem to figure out what a character should say next, first try the usual thing and plan ahead. Where does this conversation need to go? What needs to be revealed? What emotional beats need to occur? What information needs to pass from character to character? Does it need to continue? Maybe you just need to cut the scene or have the next plot point happen there.

But if none of that (the “usual stuff”) is working, don’t look ahead, look back. Your problem is probably actually a few lines ago. The conversation meandered too far from what it was supposed to be, or the conversation could have been three lines and it just kept going on for two pages after the plot point ended, or you’re not sure what the emotional beats of the scene are supposed to be so you’re floundering.

When trying to move forward isn’t working, look back instead. Mid-story writers’ block is often a sign that something went awry a little while ago, and you’re seeing the symptoms now. The stubborn paragraph is the check-engine light, not the engine itself. Go back and read over the last page (or more, depending on how big the issue is) and see if you can feel out what the issue is. Did the plot point end two or three pages ago and you just never stopped the scene? Are you relying too much on action and dialogue but forgot to describe the scene as it goes on, so it’s all happening in kind of a vague gray void? Did you get into a rut of repetitive sentence structure because you lost the flow a while ago, and now you’re just cranking out words mechanically?

-_-

4) Don’t be afraid to write “stupid version:” at the top of the page and just go for it, in the most cheesy, over-the-top, bad, obvious, flat, boring, illogical, improbable, unbelievable way. Or whatever way ends up coming out of you. You can go back and fix it once you’ve found the ideas you want to hold onto. Remember, “the first draft (whether that’s for the entire story, or just a draft of a single scene, or a single page, or a single paragraph) is for making it exist. The second draft is for making it functional. The third draft is for making it effective.” (I’m paraphrasing and I don’t remember where that quote came from, I’m sorry.)

-_-

5) If you’re having writers’ block on in coming up with new ideas, here are some things that work for me:

-Write down your daydreams (see above)

-Listen to music. Soundtracks and video game music are great because they’re designed to support a narrative, and to almost tell a story of their own. But, like, any music. I often end up making little “trailers” in my head when I listen to songs I’m currently taken with, and sometimes I’m like “Hey those could be some good elements for an actual story.”

-Look back at old notes for story ideas, if you keep any

-Or, look through any medium you use to save ideas - playlists, pinterest boards, art, whatever.

-Consume other content. I know that’s old advice that literally everyone gives, but hey, it works. You’re great and your brain is great, but you are not a closed ecosystem. You can’t just keep creating, growing, thriving all on your own without taking in and integrating other people’s ideas. Read something. Watch something. Read fanfic, see what the fandom’s up to. Reintroduce yourself to an old favorite with new eyes, or seek out something you’ve never seen before. Watch one of those old classic black and white movies that you never got around to watching. Read a book in a genre you don’t usually read. Find a terrible, I mean truly awful show and watch it with someone you can laugh with. Look at art. Ask the people in your life about their passions and their weird little cornerstones of knowledge.

-Give yourself time. Let yourself percolate. Let yourself think.

-Write yourself into an idea. Open up that dreaded blank page, switch to red ink, and just start typing like “Okay so it’s a werewolf story I think but not one of those pulp romances with the Alpha Wolf or whatever shit, I think I like the idea that it’s about the pack dynamic, so like a family story? But maybe the main character is a human. Do they get adopted by the pack for some reason? Why? Maybe they like... saved one of the pups or something. How did the pup end up in danger?” Etc.

6) It’s hard to force your brain to be interested in something it’s not currently interested in. If you’ve been super into sci fi and are all about Star Wars and Firefly right now, but you’ve been meaning to write a gritty crime mystery for like ever... you’re probably gonna have a hard time writing a gritty crime fiction if all your brain wants to think about is spaceships. (Unless you set the gritty crime mystery in a sci-fi setting 👀)

Trying to control your muse is like trying to leash a cat. You’re probably gonna have way greater success (and way more fun) if you just write whatever the hell you wanna write, whether that’s a 300K spy drama or another fake dating AU for your OTP even though you’ve already written two. (I promise you, nobody’s ever gonna get tired of it.)

[phantoms-lair]

I’ll Face Myself Part 3

Woot, actually got it out in time for the new video!

As Lewis entered the cave it began to fade around him, leaving him in a much smaller and narrower space, the rip being the only thing that stated the same.

“Lewis you need to stop antagonizing him.” Lewis opened his mouth to argue but Mystery cut him off. “He didn’t take Arthur to the actual place he died, he turned this truck container into a recreation of it. He’s powerful enough to warp reality, so badly it tore a hole in space and time. He’s powerful and unhinged and you need to be more careful.”

Lewis swallowed and nodded. As much as he wanted to dig some more at the wraith’s stupidity, it showed it didn’t think of collateral damage and there was an injured Vivi out there. Bracing himself, he exited the back of the truck. But whatever he was expecting, it paled in the face of what he was seeing. 

Kingsmen’s was a place he’d been countless times before. But it was currently a warzone. The van was crashed into the side of the building. Vivi was injured on the ground, clutching a sword. Lance was standing over her, the smoke from his shotgun showing he’d just fired it.

What he’d shot was a strange plant lady, half her face missing but rapidly regrowing. She was fighting off what looked like a giant Mystery and the Wraith with an oversized pair of shears.

It was almost too much to take in, so Lewis focused on the important part. If Vivi was still on the ground while this was going on she was definitely hurt. He ducked over to where she was, ready to carry her away in the confusion.

“Wha-Lewis?!” Lance asked in disbelief. “Where the devil have you been, boy?”

“I don’t know, apparently undead and out of my freaking mind?” Lewis couldn’t keep his panic out of his voice. Vivi was nowhere near as bad as Arthur was, but she still looked like she’d been knocked around a bit.

“Have you seen Arthur? I can’t find him.” Lewis was sure Lance had wanted to ask a whole bunch of other questions, but of course that one took priority.

“Apparently Anger Issues over there accidentally ripped a hole into the past and future Arthur fell out of it. My Vivi and Arthur are taking him to the hospital. Mystery and I stayed behind to distract the wraith.”

“Hospital?” Vivi tried her best to sit up. “Lemme up. I need to get to Arthur.”

“Oh don’t worry, we’re getting you to the hospital as soon as we can.” He glanced up. “Do you think we can sneak her out?”

“Not sure. The plant lady was pretty focused on her.” Lance huffed.

Lewis glanced around. There wasn’t much cover, besides the truck he had emerged from (and damn, apparently the chaos had overwhelmed Mystery. He was just sitting in front of the trailer and staring). “The rip is in the truck. If we can get Vivi there, we can go back to the present and hopefully lose her.”

“That’s where Arthur is?” Vivi asked hopefully. “It is,” Lewis confirmed. 

He and Lance helped her up and led her towards the portal when the plant lady gave a sudden shriek and rocketed towards them, blades first. Lewis pulled in front of him and curled around her. He only hoped those shears weren’t powerful enough to go through him and into her.

A blur of white and red whooshed past him as Mystery, the one who’d come with him, collided with the plant lady. Only now he was the size of a small horse with far too many tails.

Apparently the canine who has been fighting the tree lady didn’t just look like Mystery.

Speaking of, the tree lady seemed shocked by a second Mystery and was thrown off enough that the wraith and his Mystery was able to drive her back. The older, more injured Mystery limped toward them. He stared at Lewis a moment. “Time Travel?” he asked. “Thanks to my idiotic future self.” Lewis grumbled.

“Future self?” Lance turned an incomprehensible look on him. Apparently they hadn’t put it together that the rampaging wraith was his ghost. “You’ve been trying to hurt Arthur?” Vivi’s voice was a growl, fierce despite the fact that she couldn’t stand on her own. “You know I would never- Father Wennel.”

Vivi’s face cleared immediately. “Oh...oh that makes sense.”

“What makes sense?” Lance’s tone was dark. “Father Wennel was a priest whose church was a station on the Underground Railroad. He was caught and tortured for other locations, but died rather than give them up. Because of his violent death he came back as a wraith - and immediately attacked his former comrades.” Vivi explained.

“All he could remember about his death was their names and locations, the information he was trying to hide.” Lewis continued. “And in his altered state mistakenly believed the information was of the people who killed him. So if I died violently while worried about Arthur-” “And Arthur lost his arm the same time you disappeared.” Lance finished sadly. He glanced at the burning wraith.

“Don’t pity him.” Lewis said heatedly. “That thing used to be me, but it isn’t anymore. It’s dangerous and will stop at nothing to hurt Arthur. It needs to be put down. If we’re lucky it and the tree lady will take each other down.”

“No chance of that.” Mystery said grimly. “He is exceptionally powerful for a ghost, especially for a new ghost, but Shiromori is on a whole different level. I know no way to permanently defeat her, and the only one who can stop her, even temporarily, is Vivi.” “Me?” she asked, surprised.

Mystery nodded. “She was sealed away by your ancestor centuries ago. You could redo the sealing-” “How?” Vivi demanded. “-by driving your ancestor’s blade through her.” Mystery finished. Vivi shot him a look. “Two problems with that. One, I have no clue where it is, two I can barely stand much less wield it.” “The first is not a problem, it can be summoned. The second is more pressing.” “Which is why we should continue with the getting out of here,” Lewis pointed out. He tried to pull her towards the truck, but a wall of plant matter burst through the pavement blocking their path. “Makes sense, if I’m the only one who can stop her, she won’t let me go.” Vivi gritted her teeth. “Okay, Mystery how do I summon the blade?” “You must speak its name.” Mystery leaned forward and whispered something in her ear. Vivi nodded. “Okay, big guy, can you support me? I need you to be my framework.”

“No problem.” Funny, though, it was usually Arthur who called him Big Guy. He leaned down, supporting her weight on his arms. He closed his hands around hers, steadying the bat she was holding like a sword. “Thanks,” she said, then shouted something in Japanese. 

Lewis couldn’t understand it, but it apparently infuriated the tree lady, who abandoned her fight with his Mystery and his ghost, and made her charge towards them.

“Lunge forward when I say.” Vivi instructed. She gripped the bat tighter, causing Lewis to improve his grip around her.

Tree lady’s shears was uncomfortably close when Vivi shouted “Now!* along with something else in Japanese. The previously blunt bat glowed and extended into a blade, right through the enemies chest.

The monster looked shocked and horrified. She dropped her shears as the excess vegetation shriveled and died. The shears fell from her grasp as her body shrunk in on itself until there was nothing left but a twisted vaguely human shaped tree.

“Holy fuck.” Vivi whispered, staring at the tree.

Lewis’s Mystery collapsed in relief, shrinking back to a dog, while the future Mystery nuzzled Vivi. “You did amazing.”

“You have so much explaining to do buster.” Vivi breathed heavily. “But not now. We got to go through that tunnel and find Arthur.” “*ArThUr…”

Oh yeah. That. “Get over it!” Lewis snapped, forgetting what Mystery had told him about not antagonizing the wraith. You know the story of Father Wennel, Vivi told us ages ago even in my time. You know Arthur would never want to hurt me, especially not for as stupid a reason as that.” “Of COURSE I know about Father Wennel!” The wraith snapped back. “But he couldn't remember his death. I very clearly remember Arthur laughing as I fell to my death. And then having the nerve to ‘look’ for me as if he didn’t know what he’d done.” “He didn’t!” the older Mystery protested, drawing the attention of everyone there. “I changed my mind.” Vivi said shortly. “Start talking.”

The kitsune looked visibly uncomfortable. “It was my fault. I wasn’t fast enough. The demon in the cave took Arthur’s body for his own and killed Lewis before I could move. The only way I could get it out was taking his whole arm off.”  Mystery was whining through the story, the memory clearly causing him pain.

That was a lot to unpack. Lewis glanced around. He couldn’t see Vivi clearly from the angle he was holding her at, but his own Mystery was looking clearly horrified and Lance looked shocked, but also angry at the kitsune (if Lewis had to guess, for being the one who dismembered his kid).

“That sounds too convenient.” The Wrath growled.

“That sounds the opposite of convenient,” Lewis shot back.

“Arthur pushed me!” The Wraith shouted. “He killed me with a smile! Why is everyone making excuses for him?”

“Why are you making excuses for it to be him?” Vivi met the wraith’s gaze with calm certainty. “I know who you are now and I know Arthur. And at one point you knew him too.” Vivi tilted her head up and looked at the Lewis holding her. “I’ve seen how far Arthur would go for you, he cares more for you than for himself. So why are you so determined for Arthur to be the villain in your story?”

“Because he is, why can’t you see that?” The golden locket thumped on his chest in a way that looked painful. From the cracks in it purple flames seemed to lick out from the inside.

~

She was gone. The demon let itself relax at last. It had been annoying for her to show up right as he had finally freed himself from that cave. He didn’t know if she had left or been slain, but he was leaning towards the former. Now he could come out of hiding and continue.

It wasn’t hard to find the kitsune. He was leaking power and nearer by than could be hoped. It skittered as fast as it could manage toward the beast. There. And what luck, he was damaged too. There were others, some mortals and the ghost of that one boy it had killed the last time it had almost claimed a host, but they were inconsequential. Mortals were powerless and such a newly formed ghost would hardly be better.

True, it’s own strength was diminished enough that it would need to kill the kitsune before it took him as a host, but for trapping it in this arm, it was more than willing.

There, it was distracted, Now was the time.

~

The Wraith’s attempts to cast doubt on Arthur’s character was interrupted by the older Mystery screaming as something green latched onto his throat. Five thin splotches of blood began to stain his fur.

“Mystery!” Vivi called out, trying to run to him, but having her knees buckle under her.

Lewis continued the charge, yanking the thing off Mystery’s next. Then he saw what he was holding and flung it away with a scream.

It was an arm, green but not with the color of rot. The nails had become black talons now liberally coated in Mystery’s blood and a single eye stared out hatefully from the palm. But the worst thing from Lewis’s perspective was the dirty worn wristband around it’s wrist. He knew that wristband, had bought it himself as a gift for his friend.

This was Arthur’s arm.

“There,” Older Mystery gasped. “..is your killer.”

“You…” The Wraith stared at the arm, and Lewis knew he must have recognized it the same way he did. “What are you going to do about it?” taunted the demon within, in a voice that sounded like nails on a chalkboard.

And then there was fire. So much purple fire that Lewis pulled Lance and Vivi in close to try and protect them and both Mysterys stood protectively in front him. The flames devoured everything, rendering the arm into ashes as well as the demon inside. The tree that used to be a monster was unaffected, but the shriveled remains of vines and such went too. All the while the wraith screamed.

Soon there as nothing left to burn, but he continued screaming. His form flickered, first into Lewis’s face on the wraiths form, then as he was currently, and finally covered in blood with gaping gory  holes in his torso and head. The screams changed too, from anger to fear and pain. The Locket was thumping like a heartbeat, with flames blasting out of it and shard flying off.

“He’s destroying himself,” The older Mystery realized. “He was formed from a hatred of Arthur and a desire to avenge himself. He’s done the latter and now knows Arthur is innocent of any wrongdoing. His power is turning itself inward.”

“That’s why he couldn’t believe Arthur was innocent.” the younger Mystery added. “His very existence depended on Arthur being guilty.” The two looked at each other then nodded and charged into the flames.

Lewis felt his heart jump into his throat and Vivi actually cried out, but the flames didn’t seem to touch either of them. Spells flowed simultaneously from both their mouths as they wove a sealing spell around the wraith. The flames vanished, leaving only silence and a badly damaged locket sitting still on the pavement.

[muffintonic]

Alright, I think i’m done BOTW 2 spamming for today. Anywho, time for some thoughts in general!

1) I hated how the shrines in BOTW were so cold and dark compared to the bright and lively nature outside (I wish they had all looked like the Master Trials challenge where there were trees and stuff incorporated inside), so I hope if we’re forced to have dungeons they’ll be more like the Wind Waker ones. 2) I hope they don’t make us use the grappling hook or anything like in Wind Waker to move around the sky islands (I hated that mechanic). 3) I’m probably one of the few people who wanted less Zelda and more of the Champions in HWAOC since i’m only really attached to BOTW (and we saw a fair amount of Tetra in Wind Waker)/apparently Zelda’s been sidelined in all the other games, so i’m hoping in vain that we get more Champions material in BOTW 2. Also, Link could stand to have some more cutscenes centered around him as well (the few we got in some of the sidequests in BOTW were great). 4) I only really somewhat care about Riju and Sidon, so I won’t mind if the new gang gets sidelined in BOTW 2 (I still think Nintendo wasted the found family/band of brothers aspect on the dead characters--I love them so much and they’re all I want!! The problem is, they’re dead and I don’t really care all that much about their replacements!!! I dunno, maybe i’m hampered by the fact that I can replay the original champions’ memories whenever I want/read their diaries, but I can’t rewatch the new gang’s cutscenes AKA i’ve forgotten their characterization since they don’t talk to me much now that the game’s over). It’d be great if they have some weaving storylines in BOTW 2 that will get me more invested in them, but currently i’m not that interested. 5) Speaking of which, I know it’s 100% not going to happen, but goddang if I don’t want the Champions to have been returned to life. Nintendo totally squandered HWAOC by not making it a true prequel/canon to BOTW (the Champions Ballad confirmed that the Divine Beasts had trials in order to be synced to the champs, so the new gen use of them wouldn’t have happened without that + Mipha thought Link had changed in BOTW yet says in HWAOC that he hasn’t changed + some scenes like “Champion Revali’s Song” never happened at all/got replaced with alternative scenes that really changed some dynamics + basically all of Revali’s time-relative characterization from his diary/pre-100 years of solitude got thrown out + I feel like Daruk got totally sidelined), so i’m still craving that Champions content. Also, I feel like it’s totally unfair that Zelda came out of 100 years totally unaged while everyone else died. Life seems to really suck for people in the LoZ universe who aren’t chosen by divine powers. 6) They’d better keep it open world and non-linear. I can’t go back to being forced to backtrack/trudge through things, I just can’t. BOTW was everything i’ve ever dreamed about in a game (truly open world + non-linear + interactive + meaningful story + lots of outfits + beautiful landscapes) with Skyrim previously being the only thing that came close to what I wanted, so I really hope BOTW 2 doesn’t deviate too much from that. 7) I really liked Kass in BOTW, but i’m not sure what direction they’d go with him in BOTW 2/i’d be fine if he sat BOTW 2 out. I worked so hard to complete all his quests in BOTW so he’d go back home to his family, GODDANGIT, KASS. 8) Someone mentioned that since the first trailer had underground aspects, we’re probably going to be playing as Zelda with the Slate there, and I agree. They didn’t make a playable model for her in HWAOC for nothing. 9) I want to be able to stable the deer and bears and stuff, but I know that won’t happen. Being able to ride the moose and rhino things from the Hebra area probably won’t happen either, but I want to ride them!!! 10) I hope there’ll be at least a few new buildings and stuff in the towns/they’ve started construction on some areas in Central Hyrule, but I guess that’ll depend on how long it’s been in-universe since BOTW. Or maybe not, considering how there’s still Karson and Hudson even though Bolson retired from Bolson Construction--insta-towns like Tarrey Town could totally be feasible if they wanted! 11) I have one foot in the camp that believes there’ll be time shenanigans in BOTW 2. HWAOC totally threw me off with it being an alternate timeline, so i’m not sure whether we’re going to be experiencing that again or time travel itself, but I definitely won’t be surprised this time around if Nintendo goes that route again (and it would be super interesting to see the Link from 10,000 years ago). I’m not entirely convinced that the Link we see exploring the sky in the second trailer isn’t our Link, mainly because he seems to still have on the blue boxers from BOTW. 12) I also heard that maybe this will be the last LoZ game ever since something something Demise something Skyward Sword something something lore from games i’ve only vaguely looked into (i’ve only ever played BOTW --> Wind Waker --> HWAOC)??? If so, it kind of sucks that I came in just when they started making games with playstyles palatable to me (I had to look up every single thing when playing Wind Waker, but BOTW let me solve things according to MY logic/I missed being able to explore in HWAOC), but at least it’ll end on a super high note/I won’t experience later disappointment, I guess. If BOTW 2 involves breaking the reincarnation cycle for the Triforcers, I would be really surprised. (On a related note, Nintendo making Ganondorf good would also be a 100% shock to me, but it would be great to end on that as a subversion. Yes, I want them to bring back the semi-complicated Ganondorf from Wind Waker.) 13) I hope they don’t rush releasing it. I heard they pushed back BOTW originally (I got it in 2019), but it came out fantastic for it! I know COVID’s been affecting things, so I really hope they’re treating their staff right and are mindful of crunch. 14) I want even more outfits (there seem to be at least two new ones, if the variant of the Hylian Tunic crossed with Link’s Champion’s Tunic counts). Give me all the outfits!!! Also, I hope we get even more hair variations in addition to the hair down option (which is all i’ve ever wanted since I saw the mod that altered the Ancient Helmet). 15) I wonder if we’re going to get a bonus for having both BOTW and HWAOC save data. 16) I wonder if we’re going to be keeping the Champions’ skills. I’m going to miss being super overpowered, if not. 17) I hope Nintendo doesn’t cave in and make surfaces climbable in the rain. Having that limiter is more realistic and Link would otherwise be too overpowered with a super climbing ability. 18) I liked BOTW’s scattered music that got more noticeable in populated areas because it was fitting for the post-apocalyptical/nature aspect. Hearing your footsteps in an open field and the buzzing of insects was super nice and prevented me from getting music fatigue (which i’d probably experience since whenever I play BOTW it’s for 5-10 hours at a time). I hope Nintendo either keeps that or makes audio options. 19) I heard that BOTW 2 is going to be super dark or something, and i’m okay with dark, but not GRIMdark, so I hope it doesn’t go that far. From what we’ve seen in the second trailer it still looks beautiful, but I hope it doesn’t do that thing that some games do where after the midpoint/a certain story point all the scenery permanently changes to be dark and scary (that’ll seriously hamper post-game playability for me if so). 20) If they expand on the Zonai, that would be super cool! Doubly cool if the time travel shenanigans involve them/ancient Link being one! 21) I kind of want windstorms to be a weather feature. We had lightning, heat, and cold, but no wind! No, I don’t count the wind geysers and the occasional breeze in Tabantha. 22) I want a chest in my house to hold more weapons than just the gear mounts. BOTW only had enough mounts for the champions’ gear, but it also had rare items like the Kite Shield and Forest Dweller’s Sword that you can’t get anymore once you use them up! 23) I want to be able to stable my horses at my house. What’s the point of that little area if you can’t stable your horse there! 24) Speaking of Link’s house: where is Zelda going to live? If the castle’s not reconstructed, it’d be neat if Link adds an extension to his house for her. 25) I hope they open up part-time jobs (think Mabinogi) as an option to earn rupees. Having to hunt for Luminous Stone deposits or feed Trott to make money can be such a chore. I think some of BOTW’s minigames/sidequests might count as those, but those minigames were either frustrating if your goal is to earn money (since most of them cost money to play in the first place and the mechanics weren’t always easy), or didn’t earn that much in general. 26) I wonder if Kilton is going to have updated items since the monsters seem to have changed. 27) I want to be able to dive underwater (mainly so I can explore the beautiful reefs over at Lurelin). A dive meter like the one from Super Mario Sunshine would be cool. Also, it’d doubly be neat if you had a separate stamina wheel for swimming and could permanently upgrade your swim/diving stamina (the speed+ swimming items just consumed your stamina faster, which was a pain)! 28) It’s definitely too late for this, but it’s a shame that the Hylians have so many face/body/hair and outfit variations, but the Zora, Rito, and Gorons don’t. The Gerudo were kind of okay with the hair and body variations, but the other races seemed to have a serious copy-paste problem. I guess technically some of the more important NPCs (ones with quests/cutscene triggers) had different coloring, but they were severely lacking in clothing variation. Also, the only old Rito was the elder??? At least the Gorons and Zora had some old folks besides their leader walking around. Very weird, but I don’t think BOTW 2 can fix any of this. 29) I wonder how they’re going to do the final boss battle, considering how epic/cinematic the BOTW 2x battle was. What can top fighting (on horseback, no less) a giant, flaming boar made out of malice? 30) I wonder what the Yiga are going to be up to, considering how Ganondorf seems to be somewhat kicking in BOTW 2.