#the previous scenes i could get away with but OH MY GOD (pun intended) this most recent one??

[smooth-boob]

-

[crackheadgeminibby]

appearances pt. 1

pairing: 40s!bucky barnes x female!black!reader

warnings: language, angst, mentions of racism a bit?

word count: 2.2k

part 2

a/n: watched the first avenger and my brain almost immediately felt the need to write this down so enjoy, friends!

i do not consent to my work being copied in any way, shape or form or reposted on any other platform

not my gif

Being a Black nurse in the United States in the 1940s was far from easy. Your parents had always taught you to take care of and protect yourself. As you grew up, you learned that people weren’t as black and white, no pun intended, as they had made you believe. As a near 20-year-old now, you still used their advice, but you did so with a grain of salt.

You had always felt the need to help people, which was why you had decided to become a nurse. Sure, it was hard, but you were a strong, determined woman that believed that nothing could stand in the way of your dreams.

And it was by doing exactly that that you had met the love of your life.

James Bucky Barnes.

He was an extremely handsome man. One that came to the hospital far too often to get his friend Steve checked on.

Bucky was a huge flirt, which you didn’t mind, it’s not like you spent that much time together. But after a while, you noticed that Steve always seemed to stay at the hospital slightly longer than the previous time. He always said that he wanted to stay to make sure that everything was okay or that he had a headache and he preferred to stay where it could be monitored. But somehow, Bucky always stayed right next to him.

After about three months of coming to the hospital at least four times a week, Bucky had asked you out. At first, you had thought he was fucking with you. A handsome man like him asking out a regular woman like you? Even after you said no? It had to be a trap. Or so you thought until Bucky had left to use the bathroom one time and Steve had convinced you to say yes to him. He seemed so earnest while talking about how much his friend liked you and talked about you often that you couldn’t refuse. So, you had told him yes but only if you went somewhere private and at night.

It wasn’t because Steve and Bucky didn’t mind the color of your skin that everyone else in town shared that feeling. And you didn’t need this kind of thing coming back to your parents.

And so, you had started dating. Sure, it was in secret and only Steve knew but you didn’t mind. Bucky called you a hopeless romantic, but you liked to say that your romance was like that of Romeo and Juliet.

The sneaking around was fun. At least, at first it was. But now, a year after your relationship had started, it was getting increasingly energy-consuming.

Today was your anniversary with Bucky and it just so happened that you had the day off from work. You were supposed to meet him in the park where you had your first date at sunset but until then, you didn’t have any plans.

So, when your mother asked you to go grocery shopping for her, you hadn’t hesitated to say yes. Oh, how you regretted it now.

You were currently walking back from the grocery store, bags of food in hand when you had first heard it. Bucky’s laugh, coming from near you.

You frown as you focus on it to find him. Your breath hitches and you feel tears pooling in your eyes at the scene in front of you. Bucky is leaning against a wall in a hidden alley, flashing his smile at a girl in front of him, his hand on her cheek. Even with her back to you, you could recognize her.

Dolores. Or Dot as people usually called her. She was Bucky’s longtime pursuit. Everyone thought they would end up married with a whole litter of kids. Childhood sweeathearts and all that.

Bucky looks up, spotting you, and you see his smile falter for half a second before it’s back up like nothing happened.

You bite your lip, trying to keep your tears in, as you turn around and walk faster towards your house. Luckily for you, your family lived near a large park, full of thick, tall trees that were essentially soundproof. As soon as you step foot in the park, tears are flowing freely down your face and sobs are shaking your body.

You hated that you were crying because of this. But what you hated even more was your complete inability to do anything. If you had had any kind of reaction back in town, an uproar was sure to happen. You didn’t want or need that and neither did your parents.

You let out a breath when you arrive at your house and see that nobody’s home.

You put away the groceries hurriedly before taking a hot shower. As you exit the bathroom, you see that the sun has set, making your room pitch black. You also notice that your family has made it home, hearing your father, mother and sister talking downstairs. You close your curtains and turn on your bedside lamp, not wanting a light too bright illuminating your room. You put your pyjamas on as you hear a knock at your door.

“Come in.”

Your mom opens that door and walks in, leaning against your desk before asking, “Already in your pyjamas? Did you already eat?”

You shake your head, replying, “No… I’m just not very hungry so I think I’m going to read a bit then go to sleep.”

Your mom nods slowly before answering, “Okay, good night then, honey.”

You mumble a “good night” to her as you get under your covers. You reach for the book sitting on your bed night table. You didn’t even remember the last time you had time to sit down and read.

You barely read a sentence before you hear a small noise at your window. You roll your eyes, knowing exactly who it was.

You set your book down and walk to the window, opening the curtains and sliding the window open just a smidge.

“What do you want, Bucky?”

Bucky cringes at your use of his full name. In the past year, you had only ever called him Buck or Baby, sometimes James when you were joking, but never Bucky.

Bucky smiles slightly at you, “Can I come in?”

You sigh, opening the window completely and turning around to sit on your bed. Bucky climbs into your bedroom and sits down on the edge of your window.

“So, how was your day?”

You look at him, mouth agape. Was he being serious right now?

You cross your arms across your chest and reply sarcastically, “Gee, Bucky, my day was great, thanks for asking.”

He bites his bottom lip before coming to sit down next to you. “Nothing happened with Dot. We were just talking.”

You sigh and shake your head, getting up to pace around your room. “I don’t care, Bucky. That’s not the problem. I just…” You stop in front of your closet, looking down at your feet, “I can’t do it anymore, Bucky. I can’t handle it.”

Bucky walks towards you rapidly, “No, no… Don’t say that, doll. I won’t see Dot again, I promise. I won’t talk to any other girl, only you. Just don’t say that please.”

You shake your head, looking up at Bucky.

“It doesn’t matter if you see her again or not. Or who you talk to. It just can’t work.”

Bucky stutters, trying to find the right words to say, before looking into your eyes, unshed tears in his.

“Why are you doing this to us?”

You glance at the floor before looking back into his eyes, biting your bottom lip, “Because, Bucky, it just has to be like this.”

Bucky shakes his head, “No but I won’t talk to Dot again, it’s fine.”

“God, Bucky, it’s not about-”, you start, practically screaming before Bucky puts a hand over your mouth, frowning.

“Keep your voice down!”

You rip his hand away from your face before walking back to your bed.

“It’s not about Dot, Bucky. Or anyone else. It’s about me.”

Bucky looks at you confusedly.

“We’re not going to go anywhere, Bucky. It’s not like we’re going to get married and have kids or something. It’s stupid to keep doing this when we have no future together.” You finish, throwing your hands in the air.

Bucky’s face contorts with an expression of hurt and slight anger, “You don’t see a future with me?”, he whispers.

You look up at him and despite every single cell in your body screaming at you to say yes, you shake your head at him.

You see a single tear fall from his eye before he nods his head dejectedly. He wipes it away angrily before walking back to your window. He makes his way on your roof but before jumping down to the ground, he fishes something out of his pocket. He slams a small, black box on your windowsill and says, “Happy anniversary, by the way.”

He looks at you one last time before jumping down from your roof. You feel some tears falling down your face before you walk slowly to your window. You take the box, exhaling deeply as you open it, feeling the air being sucked out of your lungs.

A modest but beautiful engagement ring sits in the center of the box, surrounded by velvet. Tears are now freely flowing down your face as you take the box and lay down in bed, staring at it for God knows how long. After feeling like no tears are left in your body, you close the box, tucking it in your bed night table drawer, before falling asleep.

The next morning, you wake up, stiff, dehydrated and with a headache. As much as you would have liked to stay in bed and cry some more, you had a shift at the hospital this morning that you absolutely could not miss.

You wearily get up from your bed, following through with your morning routine before walking to the hospital. As you look at your assignment for the day, you hear a small throat clear behind you. You whip around, seeing Steve right behind you, looking exhausted. He waves at you, muttering a “hey”.

You take him to his usual room and make him sit on the bed before getting the clipboard from the counter.

“So, what’s wrong with you today, Steve?”

“Nothing. I came to talk to you about Bucky.”

You swallow thickly before putting the clipboard back down slowly. You lean on the counter and cross your arms before nodding at Steve to continue.

“He came back home last night, sobbing. I could barely even understand anything from what he was saying except your name. What happened last night?”

You look away from Steve uncomfortably before biting your lip and answering quietly, “I broke up with him.”

Steve frowns in confusion before asking, “But why? I thought everything was going super well. Did he mess up the proposal or something?”

You feel tears rise in your eyes at the mention of Bucky’s proposal. You shake your head slowly before replying, “He didn’t make it to the proposal.”

Steve looks at you, even more confused than before.

You sigh, saying, “I broke up with him because it’s what’s best for him. He doesn’t need to be held back by me. Do you know what people would say if they saw us together, Steve?”

Steve looks at you, surprised, “Since when do you care about what people have to say about you?”

You shake your head, “Us.” Steve tilts his head in confusion.

“People wouldn’t be talking about me. They would be talking about Bucky and me. I’m protecting him. He doesn’t need to go through that kind of shit. If anything, I’m doing him a favor.”

“Why can’t you let him decide what he needs?”

“It doesn’t matter, Steve. It’s done. Bucky probably doesn’t want to see me ever again.”

“That’s not true.”

You feel the air being knocked out of you as you turn around to see Bucky in the doorframe. He looks drained, his face void of color and his eyes bloodshot.

“I love you more than anything else in the world. How could you ever say that I don’t want to see you?”

“Bucky…”

Steve gets up from the bed, walking towards the door, “I’ll leave you two alone.”

As Steve is leaving, Bucky enters the room and closes the door behind him.

He stands in front of you, slightly out of reach, with his hands in his pocket.

You exhale deeply before starting, “Look, Bucky, I can’t do it. It didn’t really hit me until yesterday that we’re not going anywhere together, it can’t work.”

Bucky clenches his jaw tightly, “Stop saying that.”

“But it’s true, Bucky. Do you really think that anyone is going to support us?”

“Steve does.”

You roll your eyes slightly, “Steve is literally the definition of good. He couldn’t be mean to me if he tried.” Bucky chuckles softly, knowing that you were right. His face becomes serious again before he replies, “Who cares about anyone else? There’s you and me in this relationship. No one else. So, no one else matters.”

You shake your head, “Bucky, we can’t just live with no friends and no family. What kind of life would that be?”

“It doesn’t matter because I would be with you.”

You feel your heart squeeze at Bucky’s words, “Bucky, we can’t. It has to be this way.” You look up at the clock behind him.

“I have to go, my shift started 10 minutes ago.” You walk towards Bucky, stroking his cheek. He leans into your hand before you kiss him softly. His eyes flutter shut as his hands grab your waist.

You pull away from him gently before saying, almost inaudibly,

“Goodbye, Bucky.”

hi @saiyanprincessswanie i would love it if you could read this! part 2 is coming in about a week though!🤗

[httphopewrld]

hot summer (sneak peek pt.2)!!!

He was a boy across the street—no—an attractive boy across the street who happened to be a tattoo artist. You didn’t want to do anything about it, but your friends encouraged you to either stop sulking or make a move. And you chose the latter. 

Pairing: tattoo artist/neighbourjungkook! x female reader

Genre: fluff and smuuuuuut

Rating: 18+ because there’s some smuuuuuutttt (it’s the most detailed I’ve ever written, soooo proceed with caution) and swearing

Warnings: smut, soft sex, dom!/sub!jungkook, dom!/sub!femreader, penetrative sex without protection (don’t be silly, wrap your willy!), bullet vibrator, oral fem receiving, creampie, fingering, making out, and swearing. There are mentions of domestic violence, but it is not detailed. It is in the perspective of the reader, who is witnessing this from a distance.

Word Count: 9,000-10,000 (each because there will be 2 parts)

A/N: Uni has been a lot, so I will be post the full part 1 on Monday. Thank you so much for waiting, and for all the support and love I’ve gotten from the previous sneak peek! Here’s a little more to keep you on your toes ;)

Also, if you’d like to be on this fic’s (and future ones) taglist, comment your username, and I’ll update this fic and have your username in future fics too! 

⊱ ────── {⋅. ✯ .⋅} ────── ⊰

You looked across the traffic, into the apartment building across from yours. A boy sat back into his chair, holding a book in his hands. He began to read, of course, in a simple manner. His eyes scanned the pages, imagining the words written in his mind.

He was man, most likely, in his early twenties, but referring to him as a “man” felt odd. 

You were fascinated by him. He was good looking, even from kilometres away. If you leaned against your balcony’s rails, you could see his dark wavy brown hair, his slightly sun-kissed skin, and his all-black clothing ensemble. He wore no shirt, probably from the heat or being in the comfort of his own home. 

You stepped away from the railing and back into your apartment, drawing back the curtain and turning your back to the balcony.

How long have you been gawking at this stranger? Had he glanced up from his book and saw you standing there? 

You drew all your curtains closed, paranoid, and embarrassed. 

People crowded the city’s streets. 

The sun was out, which meant everyone became runners, joggers, and walkers. People, families, and friends came out from their hideaways and into the sunshine. You, on the other hand, sat safely on your balcony. 

Crowds made you nervous. You liked meeting people, but the thought of pushing through a dense mass of strangers made you shudder. 

So, you watched people push and brush pass each other from ten floors up, sipping at your iced tea. 

You gazed at the apartment from the other night.

It was empty. 

You could see simplistic black and white art and photographs decorating the walls and modern furniture. His bedroom is to the left, with a gaping window that allowed anyone to look in. The same applied to the rest of the apartment: big windows and no curtains. 

You sipped your iced tea. 

You could imagine this man’s wardrobe. Minimalistic shades, and maybe some pops of colour. Chunky black sneakers and dark accessories. He must’ve been an artist of some sort. 

Your phone rang. 

“Hello?”

“Y/N!” Your friend, and roommate, Ashly, chimed on the other end. “Are you busy at the moment?”

“Not at all,” you replied, setting down your drink, “what’s up?”

“I was thinking of having a get-together. There’d be wine, snacks, and music. It’d be small, maybe five people, including ourselves?” 

“You want me at your party?”

“Well, it isn’t a party—just a few girls and gossip.” 

You pondered for a moment. “Where is it?”

“The get-together?”

“Yes,”

“It’d be at our place in two weeks.” Ashly sighed. “Is that enough time, mom?”

You chuckled. “Yes, my child.”

“Awesome! We can plan when I come back from work.” 

“Okay, see you soon.”

“See ya!”

“Bye.” You hung up and looked back at the apartment. 

The boy had come back. He wore a back cap, which he quickly took off and ruffled his hair, and, like a few days ago, adorned a full black ensemble. Despite the warm weather, he had worn a black leather jacket, jeans, and sneakers. 

You watched him shuck off his jacket and toss it on the couch, and head to his bedroom. 

He, with a lack of better words, flopped onto his bed and appeared to take a nap. 

You chuckled to yourself—definitely a boy. 

.

.

It had been a week since you looked back at the apartment. 

You had just come back from work, and Ashly usually arrives back home an hour later. 

The apartment you shared with Ashly was a carbon-copy of an IKEA display. You joked about it before, saying, “if someone were to flip through a 2019 IKEA catalogue, randomly choose a page, you’d probably think our place looked the same—or you’d find one of our pieces of furniture.” 

It wasn’t a bad thing. IKEA was a popular place to shop at, and it was excellent quality. 

Your furniture was various shades of white, navy blue, grey, silver, and light brown. The colour palette continued to your cutlery, kitchen items, and your bedrooms.

The place was cozy and didn’t leave room (pun intended) for a frivolous lifestyle. 

The boy’s apartment was similar yet different. There was a sense of minimalism, like yours, but the furniture was dark—almost raven black. 

As remarked before, there were black and white photographs and inky modern furniture. There were no colours in his home, just assorted shades. 

His front door opened, and two bodies tumbled inside—his and a female. 

Their bodies entangled with one and other and gripping each other’s clothes. The female’s clothes were the first to come off, exposing her bra and lack of underwear. The boy seemed pleased because he smirked before attaching his lips to her vagina. 

You were shocked, scared, and worried all at once. You wanted to look away but found a curiosity within. 

This man—boy—didn’t appear to have any desire to shut the world out. 

You watched as this boy perform oral sex to this female—in the right way because the girl appeared to be moaning a lot—and you couldn’t look away. 

It was like watching live porn, in a weird and public sense. It was, slightly, pleasurable too. 

They took off their clothes shortly after the girl seemed to orgasm and engaged in penetrative sex. He took her from behind, against his couch. You, and whoever else stumbled upon this erotic scene, had a perfect view of their naked sides. 

“Oh, my lord,” you gasped. 

You felt the familiar tingle in your lower region. 

Realizing this, you cursed under your breath and closed your curtains. 

“What the fuck,” you exhaled, leaning forward on the dining table. 

“I just watched my neighbour have sex,” you muttered, “and enjoyed it.”

You paced the room as if giving a lecture to a child. 

“You were turned on by your neighbour having sex!” You shouted at yourself. “What the hell?! Were you fantasying? Him?! What the fuck, Y/N? Might as well be Joe Goldberg, and whip out your—”

“Y/N?”

You stopped in your tracks and turned to your front door. Ashly stood in shock. 

“Are you alright?” Her Australian accent was thick with concern. 

You smiled, “Never better.” 

She let out a pulse of nervous laughter before tossing her keys in the small dish on the kitchen counter. 

“What were you saying about Joe Goldberg? The guy from You? And why are the curtains closed?” Ashly leaned her hand against the counter, and her other on her hip. She resembled a mother about to lecture their kid about a text from a stranger. 

You chuckled.  “Nothing of importance—anyways, how was your day, Ash?”

“Oh, no, no, no, no, Y/N. You’re not escaping this one.” She walked up to you and firmly placed both her hands on her hips. “What is all this that about?”

“Look who’s the mother now,” you muttered, making Ashly raise her eyebrow. 

You inhaled a lungful of air. “The boy in the apartment across from us is having sex right now, and they’re bare-ass naked in front of their big-ass windows. I had to close the curtains because I felt like I was intruding on their sexual activity, and it was just weird that they didn’t close their own—but I feel like that boy doesn’t own any curtains—so I just closed our curtains.” You said in one breath.

Ashly’s eyes widened with shock, “What?” She walked past you and threw open the curtains. 

“Ash, don’t just rip them wide open!” You rushed over and closed the curtains. 

She glared at you before cracking the drapes a bit to take a look. “Oh, my God.” She gasped. “They are having sex.”

“Still?” You crouched down and peered through the break. 

“Oh yeah,” she nodded, “and harder than ever.” 

You both watched, only for a few seconds before closing the curtains again, the boy drill into the girl. The boy faced the windows, leaving everyone to see his face and the top of the girl’s head as she tilted it back with pleasure. 

“Well, he seems very good at what he’s doing,” Ashly commented, walking away as you closed the drapes. 

“Ash!” You said in a loud whisper as if the boy across the street could hear.  

“I’m just saying, the girl seems like she’s having the best time of her life, being pounded by that dude!” She defended.

“Jesus Christ, Ash, shut up!” 

“I’m not wrong,” she shrugged. 

You looked at her sheepishly, and you both burst with laugher. 

Both of you spent dinner recapping your days: Ashly was currently dealing with an HR (Human Resources) problem in her company—she couldn’t go into details because of confidentiality, but it had to do with a problematic employee who was spouting racist nonsense online, which could affect the company’s image; and was immorally wrong because racism and any discrimination based on sexuality, race, religion, and so on, cannot be tolerated. 

Your day and work-life were conversely dull. 

You managed finances and taxes for your corporation, and the only exciting event to date was the incorrect money evaluation from a co-worker, which lead the company to believe there was wiggle-room for spending; when in reality, they were spending too much.

You pushed the pasta around in your plate while looking at the covered windows. You watched the curtains sway in the wind. Ashly had opened the windows a few minutes ago to let the hot air out of the apartment. 

It was the hottest summer since you moved to the city five years ago, including the weather and the recently noticed neighbour across the street. 

You continued to think about him and the way he had sex with that girl. It was romantic, yet aggressive and needy. 

Fuck. You cursed. 

“Hello?” Ashly waved a hand in front of your face. “I know that HR can be boring to listen to, but please try to look interested.” 

You chuckled, “Sorry, Ash. I just zoned out a bit.”

“Oh, I know,” she replied, “but thank you for the apology.”

She sighed. “Well, I’m ready to watch some Netflix.” She looked at her watch, “And as it is almost eight o’clock, I think I’ll only be able to last for a ripe two hours until my old body starts to shut down.”

You laughed, taking both of your empty plates and cutlery to the kitchen. Ashly joined you, bringing the drained wine glasses. 

“Care to join me?” She asked while you loaded the dishes. 

“It’d be the highest honour, m’lady.” 

⋅. ✯ .⋅

Reminder:

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(ex.)

Hello! I would like to be in your taglist. My username is _____. Thank you!

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- Mae (httphopewrld)

[swiss-cheeze]

What Gube Wore || Matthew Gray Gubler

Request: YES/NO: I asked the Instagram account whatgublerwore if I was able to use a few of their posts (as well as a few I asked for specifically) and they agreed!

Gender: they/them, none.

Warnings: uh, cute? Kissing, Gube being Gube.

———

‘Can we go for a walk?’ you had asked, ‘of course, after I finish learning this scene babe,’ he said. Oh yeah, walk, AN HOUR AGO. All you wanted to do was to take a walk in the nearby park, frolic in the flowers and then walk home in the dark with Matthews arm wrapped around your shoulders as you try not to fall asleep on him.

That's it, that's all.

You loved him with every fibre of your being, for five years of course you did, DO. But goddamn can Gube be annoying.

------

Puppy.

Fish.

Matthew at a red carpet two years ago.

Criminal Minds.

Cosplay.

Puppies.

This is what graced your instagram page as you scrolled through that little magnifying glass at the bottom of your screen. Scrolling. Scrolling. Scrolling. God, it was endless! You let out a little huff as you put your arm down beside you, phone still in hand, and let your head fall back on the top of the couch. You could hear Matthew rehearsing upstairs for one of the newer movies he recently got cast in; Gube did allow you to rehearse lines with him every now and then when he needed it, bounding down the stairs with a ‘BABE HELP’ before shoving the paper into your chest, telling you what to read and where to end before bounding back up to his office for another few hours, however that was not the case today. Picking up the dreaded block of wires and battery you scrolled to the top of the discovery page, pulled down and waited for the pictures to load, however as soon as the pictures did load, one caught your eye. You cocked an eyebrow as you pressed on it; a half picture of Gube and the shirt he had on and the other half was the shirt he was wearing in the picture.

‘Whatgublewore’, was the name. You cocked an eyebrow as you clicked onto the profile, and sure enough there was 29 posts of shirts that Gube had worn, that teddy bear face coin purse (you swore you saw that purse not a day ago), sweatshirts, jackets, a cup and that orange and black scarf of his you loved. They were all there including the real names as well as ebay listings or prices from the actual website, you couldn't help the smile that spread on your face as you went through every single post, looking at the listings as well as the names and liking the ones you, well...liked, obviously. It didn't cross your mind that yourself and Matthew had been out about your relationship for the past 4 years and whoever ran the account would see that ‘(Y/n)_Gube’ would be liking their posts...whoops? You shrugged at the thought as you finally got to the end of the posts, and followed the account as a devious plan crossed your mind, an evil grin replaced the previous happy smirk as you got off the leather couch and bounced to Matthews office.

“Guuubbeeee~” you sang from outside the door with the ‘shave and a haircut’ knock. You could hear the rustling of Matthew as he put down his script, possibly his journal, what sounded like a few pencils and another book? (possibly his art book?). The oak door opened and you were met with a disheveled looking Matthew; hair sticking in every angle and matted, sweaty, but still smiling.

“Hey darling, you okay?” he asked, you gave out a laugh as you pushed Matthew back into the room and walked straight for the unopened window.

“You have to learn to open the window in this room Gube, remember last time?” you questioned as you opened the window, a nice gust of wind rustling the sill, curtains and loose papers as Matthew let out a soft sigh from the sudden coldness in the room.

“What? Me passing out? No not at all,” Matthew said with a laugh as he played with his shirt before sitting back down in front of his desk and picking up a blue colour pencil, you shook your head as your devious plan rolled itself onto its back in your mind.

“Gube, you said we would go for a walk when you finished the scene!” you huffed softly like a little child as the scratching of Matthews pencil came to a halt and he placed his head in his hands on his desk, your face fell. He was exhausted, “oh...babe,”

“Im sorry,” the small whisper came from Matthew as he rubbed his hands over his face, “Darling i am really sorry,”

“Oh sweets,” you mumbled as you padded softly to the man in front of you, your hands coming onto Matthews shoulders and rubbing the tension and knots out of them, Matthew groaning appreciatively, “come on babe, it's not too late; let's go for a walk to the park and get some ice cream” you kissed the side of Matthews head softly before going lower down his ear. Leaving butterfly kisses to the side of his neck, down his collarbone before giving a little nip and quickly kissing your boyfriend's cheek, his hearty laugh bubbling from his throat.

“Yeah come on, grab some shoes let's go to the park,” Matthew said happily as he stood up but you blocked his walk way, a cocked eyebrow was all you got.

“Can I wear your Coach Western Parka with fringe from the 2018 fall slash winter collection?” you questioned with a shit eating grin, Matthews mouth dropped open for a moment before closing, opening, closing and opening again as his finger came up to point at you, took a breath before clothing his mouth again.

“My what?” Matthew questioned, completely oblivious and confused, you giggled.

“That jacket you wore to the Horse Girl premier earlier this year!” your excited voice rang out, Matthew winced slightly with a laugh.

“Right, that one, of course! How could i forget” Matthew said with a laugh as he put a finger in his ear and wiggled it, “huh? I'm sorry? What? I can't hear you, my girlfriend made me deaf” Matthew said with a laugh as you giggled with him, giving a little ‘im sorry’ before Matthew shook his head and quickly picked you up, throwing you over his shoulder and walking to your shared bedroom. Your loud screams of ‘GUBE’, ‘PUT ME DOWN’, and ‘TWIG’ seemed to go on deaf (pun definitely intended) ears as you hit Matthews butt softly, after a few seconds of Matthew walking (seemingly taking the long route to the bedroom) you started to just play with his nice rounded butt, hitting it like bongos while making ‘boop boop boop’ sounds. “You good back there?” Matthews asked, aliebt loud so you could hear what he was saying.

“Perfectly fine besides the dizziness of my blood rushing to my head!” you said with a laugh before Matthew finally got to the bedroom and placed you down on the shared bed, walking to the wardrobe he found the jacket you requested and threw it to you from across the room before the two of you started moving around the room/house; grabbing shoes, keys, purses or wallets as well as Matthew quickly shoving on a jumper he left from earlier in the day before heading out the door for a nice relaxing walk...plus ice cream!

-------

About a week passed since you asked specifically for Matthews clothing and since then you hadn't asked for them by name, just taking what you wanted because you knew Gube wouldn't mind either way, but as the two of you where getting ready to go shop in a few new thrift stores as well as the newly opened ‘The Smell Of Old Books And Coffee’ cafe; buy, read or rent books while drinking your favourite drink or cakes, only rule? You spill it, you buy it. You grinned as you swiped through that same instagram page before finally landing on something good, you liked the photo, read the title a few times and then closed the app and your phone and shoving it into your jeans pocket as Matthew walked into the bedroom.

“You ready doll?” Matthew asked as he put away a few of your stray shirts, you smiled.

“Yeah, can i just borrow your Vintage Tuak Canada Wool Sweater?” you asked with a devilish grin as Matthews face broke out in a smile too.

“Okay, what's up with you?” Matthew asked as he stood in front of you, “how do you know all these names suddenly that I can't even remember or know?”

“I have my ways~” you singed, “gray zip up sweater with what looks like brown snowflakes on it,” you said describing the jacket, Matthews eyebrows rose in confusion.

“Gotta give me-”

“You spilt orange juice on it when we went on a breakfast date in the winter two years ag-”

“YEP OKAY” Matthew said quickly, remembering the embarrassing moment instantly, you laughed as you put a finger in your ear and wiggled it.

“I'm sorry? Did you say something? I think my boyfriend screamed so loud HE MADE ME DEAF” you yelled at the end of your sentence jokingly as Matthew rubbed the sweater on your face, muffling your laugh.

“Blah blah!” Matthew said as you took the jumper and slid it on, zipping it up halfway before walking out with Spencer to the shops, your evil plan still dwindling in your mind.

-----

You waited another two, almost three weeks before asking for another article of clothing; this time it was for an radio interview for the both of you, ‘celebrities and their relationships: Matthew Gray Gubler and (Y/n) (L/n)!’.

“BAAAABBBBBEEEEEEE” your loud voice rang out from the kitchen as you heard the tell tale sign of Matthew footsteps moving towards you, his head popping out from a doorway making you laugh as his hair bounced.

“Wassup?” Matthew questioned.

“Can I wear your blue blue japan woven rayon MT. fuji & sakura fubuki short sleeve shirt?” you questioned, “jesus christ that was a mouthful i didn't even think i would get out,” you said with a deep breath and a laugh, Matthew was laughing too with that beautiful smile of his.

“You gotta tell me what shirt that is love,” Matthew said as he finally came to lean against the door frame.

“Blue shirt, you wore it in japan for your book tour,” you said with a grin, “cherry blossom petals-”

“GOT IT” Matthew exclaimed from the hallway as he ran to the bedroom, you waited a few moments and sipped at the juice you had in front of you before hearing Matthews footsteps coming back and into the kitchen with the shirt you requested.

“Thank youuu~” you kissed Matthews cheek on your tiptoes before pulling the shirt over your head and tucking it into your pants.

“You gonna tell me how you know the names of all of these shirts or still keep me in the dark?” Matthew asked as he fingered the collar of your (his) shirt.

“Imma keep you in the dark a little longer” you said with a sigh and sweet smile before Matthew rolled his eyes teasingly and beant to kiss your forehead.

“Alright fine, you gotta tell me soon though” Matthew mumbled softly, you kissed the man's chin as it was the only thing you could reach with his lips on your forehead.

“I will, promise” you said softly, “I just like messing with you, you know that,” Matthew finally released your forehead as you looked at him, your eyes beamed with love and mischief as Matthew smiled before tugging you out of the house and towards the interview.

-------

Again a few weeks past before you asked for another article of clothing of Spencers, this time it was for a cute little local carnival that the two of you agreed to go to, and you just thought this little number would be cute for people to see, so, you bounced to Matthew who was in the kitchen pouring a cup of coffee.

“Oh no, did the body come back alive?” Matthew asked as he added sugar with a grin.

“Oh shit yeah, i had to uh, kill someone else cuz they saw me burying the other one” you said with a laugh, this was an inside joke of course and you two didnt actually kill anyone, Matthew laughed as he took a mouthful of his coffee and leant against the kitchen counter.

“Okay, what do you want this time my little duckling?” Matthew asked, the nickname made you grin wider at the irony.

“Since we’re about to leave for the carnival~” you singsonged as you cozied up to Matthew, him looking down at you with such love and adoration, “could i wear your Ralph Lauren Mallard Sweater?” you asked with a knowing look.

“And what sweater is this exactly?” Matthew asked as he kissed the top of your head and wrapped his arms around you, coffee cup still in hand.

“The ducks!” you happily exclaimed, Matthew made a ‘ah’ sound.

“Should've known,” Matthew laughed, “i'll go grab it while you pack the car?” your boyfriend asked, you gave a nod, kissed his cheek and bounced off to the car to start packing. A few minutes passed and of course Matthew came out with the sweater of your request, handed it to you, gave you a loving kiss against the car and then got in; driving off to the carnival.

-------

The two of you flopped through the door of Matthews ‘haunted tree house’, showbags, teddies and food tucked under each of your arms and a few bags in your mouth for extra space (Matthew had laughed when he asked where the last few bags would go and suggested a second trip but of course, you being you said two trips where for losers and simply opened your mouth, and of course Matthew didn't say no). The bags rustled as they where put down on the couch and you stood around for a little, taking in the day as you pulled out your phone and scrolled through the numerous photos you had taken; on the ferris wheel, darts, milk bottles, a few with fans (those made you smile the most).

“Why are you smiling at your phone doll?” Matthew asked as he somehow morphed next to you, you grinned.

“The photos from today,” you showed the photos on your phone to Matthew who giggled at a few and pointed into some others at peoples passing faces that he thought was funny, but, his laugh was caught short when you swiped across for another photo without realising that that new photo was of Matthews Cherry Blossom shirt, and it was an instagram screenshot.

“Babe whats that?” he took your phone as you protested against him, swiping for the piece of tech, Matthew swiped a few more times and sure enough there was more, specifically of the previous items of clothing you'd asked for in the passing week. He turned to you with a confused look, “okay, cats out of the bag, what's this?” Matthew questioned, you huffed slightly but agreed, the cat was indeed out of the bag.

“Okay okay, i found this account,” you paused and took the phone from Matthew and moved it to Instagram, “here,” you showed the account to Matthew who idly scrolled through the few hundred posts, “they came across my suggested page and i thought they were so cool,” you shrugged feeling slightly embarrassed, “they do a lot of research for what you wear and have and i think it's just a really cool thing that they do and other people also buy what you've worn and it gets those brands out to more people and all of that good stuff and...yeah” you shrugged, “i'm sorry” you mumbled.

“What? No sweetheart, don't say sorry, this is like amazing!” Matthew exclaimed as he brought you in for a hug, “this account is amazing,” Matthew reached into his pocket and brought out his own phone and found the clothing account, “‘Whatgublewore’?” he laughed, “that's one way to put it,” and with that Matthew followed the account as he handed back your own phone.

“You do realise the heart attack you're going to give that person who runs that account right?” you asked with a chortful laugh as Matthew had realisation all over his face.

“Shit,” he thought for a moment.

“Send them a message Gube,” you said knowingly with a laugh.

“RIGHT, yeah that would be a good idea wouldn't it?” Matthew said with a laugh and a smile as he brought up the messaging box.

‘Hello!

Yes this is the real Matthew Gray Gubler.

Thank you so much for this account! It's amazing that my fans do these sorts of things, it's slightly weird but weird is good. (Y/n) found your account and for the past few weeks has been asking for certain shirts, jumpers and sweaters with their exact names because of your account!

It's amazing that you've done this and I encourage you to continue.

Don't be afraid to message me if you get stuck, i can send photos of the tags and...stuff, lol.

Thanks,

Gube.’

“How's that?” Matthew asked you, you scanned the message and smiled.

“I think they’ll love it,” you said with a nod, Matthew grinned as he sent the message and turned off his phone.

“Well i think that's enough phone time for one day,” Matthew said he he plucked your phone from your hands amongst your protests, “how about we go up to our room with all the candy we've got, watch movies and eat ourselves into a sugar rush slash sugar coma”

“That sounds brilliant” you agreed as the two of you started gathering the candy into one bag (leaving the others on the couch for you to deal with tomorrow), grabbing a water bottle each from the fridge you always have stored (reusable don't worry) and headed up to your shared room to start binge watching...well, whatever you wanted really.

[owl-with-a-pen]

Episode three was just... no comment.

What did you think?

me through the entirety of Lex’s trial: 

6x02 episode spoilers under the cut! (warning: I may have written a short essay)

In all honesty, I’m a bit comme ci, comme ça about the episode. There were parts I liked and parts I didn’t like (as there always are) but to begin lemme focus on Brainy and Nia because, duh, you should expect this from me by this point.

Brainy is an endlessly fascinating character to study and I think a large part of that comes from what Jesse manages to bring to the role. In this episode, it’s clear that Brainy has put a lot of effort into pushing aside his emotions. We see a little bit of that charm back in the way that he deals with the vampire-not-vampire character at the beginning of the episode with the whole ‘pun not intended’ part, and I loved seeing him in action again, using his very unique and incredibly fun to watch fighting style to disarm his opponent. But, I think it’s clear that in this instance, it’s more for show than anything else. The whole episode, Brainy is incredibly reserved, even when he’s talking to Nia. There’s a firmness in the way he deals with the situation and it goes to show just how focused he is on getting Kara back.

This doesn’t surprise me, to be fair. Brainy clearly blames himself for what happened to Kara and I think he’s trying to hide that guilt, hide everything he’s feeling just so he can operate and fix things. I loved seeing Brainy create a simulation for Nia and how confident he was in her ability. He knew with all certainty that she was capable enough to get Kara back, to use her powers to their fullest extent, and although the way he spoke to her felt rather pragmatic, it made sense for him in that moment. Also, there was so much care behind the intensity of those words that Nia definitely picked up on. I also just love seeing the two of them training together again! Also, Nia mentioning how without her mother or Maeve, she felt she couldn’t gain the full scope of her powers was very interesting. It makes me wonder if there might be a possible return of Maeve in the future? 

I think what further adds to Brainy’s mentality is that at the end of the episode when he sees Lex on the news, he breaks his keyboard without even thinking. I’m a big fan of seeing Brainy using his strength - and just seeing him snap in general - so that ticked a big box for me. I’m hoping that this means we’ll actually get a character arc for him that focuses on what removing his inhibitors really did. Brainy was essentially thrown into the deep end with his emotions and had to immediately bottle them all away to work for Lex. He doesn’t just harbour hatred for Lex, he blames Lex for everything, and seeing him get free after everything he did, everything Brainy helped him achieve, is that emotional trigger that finally causes Brainy’s standoffish attitude to fall apart. It’s enough that he loses his composure to the extent that he breaks the first thing he can grab hold of. There’s a lot to unpack here and I swear to god I will be having words with the writers if that isn’t explored in more detail. 

(I, however, will explore this in more detail in my writing, I can guarantee you that!)

There was a direct parallel between Alex and Brainy’s anger which I liked, and I of course loved that Kelly was there for Alex. Do I wish we’d had a tender scene between Nia and Brainy? Of course. Do I understand why it wasn’t appropriate for the scene? Yes. Does that make it suck any less we didn’t get to see it? Lol, of course not. But Brainy said it himself, after all, now wasn’t the time to focus on anything other than training - which is why seeing Lex later on hit him so hard. 

Speaking of Lex. The trial. The trial. The trial. I somewhat feel like the way Lex got off free was a poke at the American political system and quite possibly Trump which, y’know, appreciate the jab, but it still felt rather off. As I said in my fun little meme, I don’t really know much about court cases so I’m not gonna dwell on what did and didn’t make sense, but I have a sneaking suspicion Lillian was the mastermind behind Lex getting out as easily as he did. It’s all about image, right? And Lex certainly turned the tables of the trial to gain some sympathy... even though it was totally undeserved and oh my god could he have been any more of a sexist asshole??

Lena making her testimony was very interesting. I liked the back and forth between her and Lex, as always their dynamic is very fun to watch. However, what really got me was that Lena still had the gall to try and explain herself for Non Nocere, how it was never meant to be mind control, how Lex took her design, blah blah blah. But, she used it for mind control at the DEO. And, also, regardless of what you’re using it for, changing a person’s emotions is still mind. control. Plain and simple. Her motive was selfish, and I’d thought that she had begun to understand that from her previous conversation with Brainy in 6x01, but I guess we’re just gonna casually forget about that.. again..? I wanted an organic way for Lena to come to terms with what she’d done and actively strive to do better because of it, but now I worry her thoughts on the matter will be dismissed for more Drama. Which. Well. Doesn’t sit right with me. 

I loved seeing J’onn referencing his daughters again and relating that to his care for Kara. I also loved seeing J’onn and Nia amplify their powers by working together against the Phantoms. If you’ve read some of my Past, Present, Future fic you’ve probably noticed that I use that dynamic a lot. So, seeing it on screen was super cool!

As for the Phantoms, I like their character design, although the Phantom Zone itself feels rather... flat... at the moment. Am I surprised that the mysterious Kryptonian was Kara’s dad? No. No I am not. Did I kinda wish it would be someone else from the House of El? Yes, yes I did. A lot of Kara’s trauma was rooted in the fact that she lost her planet and her parents, and although getting her mother back was very sweet, now having her father conveniently return in the Phantom Zone felt a bit... I don’t know, exactly. I guess it just felt a little forced. Regardless, there’s a lot of potential to see the pair team up to try and get out of the Phantom Zone, and I’m hoping the Phantom Zone will feel a bit more... daunting than it does now... the more we see of it. 

Another thing I wished we’d seen was Nia and William actually working together. Andrea putting them together for Lex’s trial sounded like a good opportunity to get some proper interaction between the two and maybe also give William a bit more weight in the storyline, but he still feels like a bit of a blank slate where character is concerned. I feel like they missed out on a good opportunity there by just... skipping over it. I’m sure there’ll be time for that later, but still, a William and Nia work dynamic sounds like it’d be fun to see, especially while Kara is MIA. 

So, I’ve almost definitely missed stuff out here, I’ve only watched the episode through once and it was totally during my work hours so I’ll certainly need to do a re-watch to catch everything, but that is my brief(ish) essay on what I did and didn’t like about the episode. 

All in all, I’d say I enjoyed it in the sense that it was entertaining and we got to see some character progression that I’m eager to have explored, but I do also think it was lacking in many elements as well. 

Thanks for sticking around with me to the end of this jumbled ramble of stuff if you made it this far. And thank you for the question! x

[adnauseums]

One Night Stand

Title: One Night Stand

Word Count: Here

Description: Y/N Y/L/N is always up for a good time. On summer break from college, Y/N travels to NYC to visit her estranged father and to have some fun. This fun just happens to include a New Year party at the Avengers Tower. Arriving early, Y/N faces one simple fact: she’s bored. And who better to cure her boredom than America’s Golden Boy?

Pairing: Steve Rogers x Reader

Warnings: Age Gap, Reader is over 18 (Reader is 20), Unprotected Sex, Public Sex, Semi-Public Sex, One Night Stand, Steve Rogers has a big dick

A/N: So if this gets a good enough reaction I might make this a full-on series.

Tag List: @papi-chulo-bucky @bellero @deansbbysblog @ssebstann​ @persephones24 @buckthegrump @thottybarnes open for more!!

-

Y/N drummed her fingers on the bar counter, humming in wait as the bartender returned with her vodka. This party was dead. Well, could a party be dead if it hadn’t even begun? She was here for a reason, just one reason only, and if she got something fun out of it then it wouldn’t be a total loss. Y/N downed her two requested vodka shots when the bartender had brought it over. The first was just for the burn. The second was for an added bout of liquid courage.

The room was all but empty, except for the hunk of man a few stools down, the band on the stage all the way across the room, the bartender, and Y/N herself. Her eyes were drawn to the man slab, adjusting her dress subtly to expose more cleavage, spreading her legs slightly to further split the slit in the side of her dress. After a moment of preparing, Y/N cleared her throat. “Hey there,” She stated with a smile. The man looked around briefly, chuckling when he realized that they were alone.

“Hey. It’s pretty dull, isn’t it?” He asked.

Y/N nodded, looking around the room. “Pretty dull indeed. Isn’t Tony Stark supposed to throw these amazing parties? My mom raved about them. Tony Stark knows how to party, and he’s only gotten more elaborate with age. Like he’s a fine wine or somethin’.” The man stood up and moved closer to Y/N, causing her to smile.

“I guess. That’s what people say,” The man said skeptically. He stretched out his hand. A big hand with long, thick fingers, calloused pads. Y/N took it, shaking it in her smaller, seemingly daintier hand. “I’m Steve.” He introduced.

She knew but feigned innocence. “I’m Y/N,”

After a couple hours of talking, more and more people filed into the large room, and Y/N couldn’t help but notice that Steve seemed nervous. “You seem nervous. Everything alright?” Jittery. And little did she know, she actually called it.  Steve was, in fact, very nervous, his knee bouncing, hands wringing. 

Steve looked her over, smiling half-heartedly. “Just a tad bit anxious. Parties were never really my scene.”

This was her moment, Y/N thought. She cleared her throat, standing up from the stool and brushing off her dress. “I think I have a cure for that.”

Steve raised his brows at her, standing with her. What was that Natasha had said about him being more... what was the word? Spontaneous? “Oh? Please, feel free to share it with me.”

Y/N giggled. Oh, she planned to.

-

Y/N pulled Steve by his shirt into the family bathroom, the room wide and spacious enough. She closed the door and locked it behind her, finally releasing the Super Soldier. He was flustered, feeling both embarrassed and aroused. “Lemme show you my favorite little stress reliever,” Y/N pulled him down by his tie, smashing her lips against his. His hands dropped to her waist and Y/N moved to nip at his neck, peeling back his collar and having her way with his buttons.

She found it increasingly aggravating, “Fuck it,” She muttered, abandoning his shirt and moving to his belt. She unlooped it and pulled it off of him, dropping it onto the floor with a loud clang that seemed to echo throughout the small space. She unbuttoned his pants and pulled his bottoms pass his knees, briefs and all. His cock laid semi-hard against his thigh and a small wave of anxiety washed over her. He was big. She would have guessed six, maybe seven based on his stature, but in the flesh (pun intended) Steve rested at eight and a half, easily, almost as thick as a Guinness. “Shit.” Y/N muttered. She looked up at Steve, seeing his blushing figure. “Can I?” She asked, a little breathlessly.

“Y-Yeah, but you don’t have t- Oh, God.” Steve was cut off by his own moan as Y/N latched her mouth around his appendage, kitten licking the uncut tip, the head poking through. She pumped the rest of his length as she worked down his cock, Steve growing larger and more noticeably hard. With one hand and her own mouth, Y/N went to town on him, from balls to cockhead, reaching down with her other hand to pull her own panties aside to rub her clit.

Steve tensed, clutching the countertop of the bathroom with his hand. His eyes fluttered open and shut, his mouth agape as Y/N took him further and further until he hit the back of her throat. He felt a coil build in his stomach. It grew tighter and tighter and tighter until, “St-Stop.” He sputtered out. Y/N slid off him with a pop! His length fell back to his thigh, now fully erect, the tip red and leaking precum, and he looked down at Y/N. “I want you. Now.” He muttered, his voice gravelly, and firm.

Y/N bit her swollen bottom lip as Steve pulled her to her feet, moving her dress up to her waist and ripping her panties away. They tore easily, and Y/N opened her mouth to make a snide comment, but Steve quickly silenced her sarcasm with his lips on hers. “Fuck,” Y/N moaned, lips feeling bruised from the sheer force of the kiss. “Steve.” She hissed as Steve spread her wet folds with his fingers, gently pushing and thrusting his thick digits inside of her heat.

“Damn, babydoll,” He muttered, nipping at the skin underneath her earlobe. “All hot and ready for me?”

Y/N moaned and nodded as Steve slipped another finger in. The pleasure seemed insurmountable as he thrust his fingers with one hand and rubbed her clit with his other. She tensed, shaking slightly as he brought her to her first climax of the night, and Steve dropped to his knees, pushing Y/N against the counter and burying his face in her folds like a man dying of thirst in the desert, devouring her.

Y/N let out another pitchy moan, hands gripping the counter behind her as Steve went to town, pulling her into another orgasm. Steve pulled back from her heat and rose to his feet, moving to undo his buttons, “Gotta stay quiet, sugar. I got a reputation to uphold.” He commented, tutting and shaking his head as he discarded his shirt to the ground. Y/N bit her bottom lip, panting heavily, “How do you want me, big guy?” She asked, her voice husky and drenched with need.

Steve pulled her forward, slapping her ass and spinning her around so that his leaking cock was flush against her ass. “I’m gonna fuck you like this,” He lined himself up at her slick heat, “Ready, doll?” He muttered, kissing your neck.

“Yes, yes,” Y/N begged. “I’m ready, I want you.” She panted, “Steve, fuck me!”

Steve wasted no time, thrusting forward and filling Y/N to the hilt, and he bit into her shoulder, groaning muffled against her skin. “Fuck me,” He muttered, pulling out slightly before thrusting back in, “You’re so fucking tight.” 

Steve wasted no time thrusting into Y/N, his hips slapping against hers, flesh against flesh. The smacks echoed in the restroom as his pelvis snapped against Y/N’s. He covered Y/N’s mouth as he repeatedly thrust into her, moving his other hand to rub her clit. “Come on, babydoll, one more time, I’m so fucking close.” He hissed into her ear.

Euphoria possessed every nerve in her body, and Y/N moaned into Steve’s hand as her climax seized her in the throes of passion. Steve focused on achieving his own release, snapping his hips into Y/N at a brutal pace until, one, two, three, four, five quick ruts later, Steve pushed himself as deep into Y/N as he could possibly get, pulling her down and flush back against him. His cock pulsed and twitched inside of her, and Y/N’s walls clamped down around his cock. Steve released a choked moan as his load sprang forth into her, ropes of white cum painting Y/N’s walls until he was spent.

But was he done? No, he was not. He was still rock hard, and he fucked Y/N through his climax, pulling out of her swiftly afterward and picking her up, placing her on the counter to face him, her knees falling together. “You look so fucking pretty, fucked out like this,” Y/N was red in the face, her lipstick smeared, hair plastered all over her face, her lips swollen, “You got another round in you?” Steve asked as he continued to pump himself, his former spend providing good lubrication for the action. Y/N nodded breathlessly, “I need words.”

“Yes,” She stated, opening her legs, “Fuck yes.” Steve aligned himself once again, pushing into her, his cock twitching as she clenched around his member once more, the squelch of his previous climax pushing around her slim channel. “Best fucking decision I ever made,” Steve muttered under his breath, chasing his climax once more.

He held his breath as he pistoned his hips into her, throwing her legs over his shoulders to hit a deeper angle. His grunts were primal, animalistic as he ruthlessly pounded away at her heat. His thrusts soon became sloppier and sloppier, and he pulled her even closer, rutting into her like some beast chasing his prey. Almost... there. His lungs burned, and Y/N moaned out a slight sob of pleasure as she was pulled into her fifth and seemingly final climax. Steve pulled her into a bruising kiss as his seed burst forth from the tip of his cock, spurt after spurt of white spend joining a mix of their cum inside of her, deep inside.

He fucked her through his orgasm, so sensitive, so on fire that after a few moments of pushing through, he felt his high draw nearer, the perks of super stamina, it seemed. After setting a final bruising pace, Steve came once more again, strings of his seed splashing against her cervix in thick ropes, the Super Soldier letting out a choked gasp that was accompanied by a face and a loud moan that was certainly not becoming of him.

He nestled his face into the crook of Y/N’s neck, holding his place inside her as he cut his breath before realizing, Fuck. If he didn’t pull out now, he probably wouldn’t for another couple of rounds at least. He slipped out of her cunt with a sigh, pulling his jeans back up and tucking himself back inside his briefs. “That was... amazing,” Steve muttered breathlessly.

Y/N nodded, looking completely fucked out, “You know,” She breathed deeply, “I’ve gotta meet my dad tonight? Or, at least, I did. Wh-What time is it?” 

Steve pulled his phone out of his pocket, flipping it open. 23:02. “11:02. We’re just in time for the New Year.” He said with a laugh. Steve moved forward, helping her clean up her thighs, his cum leaking out of her and onto the counter. “We should clean this up,” Steve muttered as Y/N hopped off the countertop, pulling her little black dress down.

“You know,” She muttered, primping her hair and washing her face of the makeup streaks. “We could.” Y/N stopped her sentence there, finishing cleaning her face and hair up before shrugging, “Or we could leave it.” Before Steve could get another word out, Y/N started applying a new layer of lipstick. She closed the tube and turned towards Steve with a wicked grin, sliding it into his front jean pocket, her fingers brushing up against his cock, “Call me a whore if you want- most people do, but can you blame me for gettin’ off to the thought that you’ll think of me every time you see that lipstain ring on your pretty little cock?” She asked, tilting her head.

Steve groaned, throwing his head back and staring at the ceiling. “Fuck me,” He muttered.

Y/N opened the door, “Language, Captain.” She said with a wink, walking out as fresh as she went in, only with a deep tinge to her cheeks as opposed to earlier.

-

Steve didn’t think he’d see Y/N again, and he’d certainly looked for her throughout the rest of the party but she had seemed to escape his sight. Come one in the morning, Steve had said his goodbyes to his fellow Avengers (despite how new the team was) and trudged upstairs to his floor, flopping onto his bed, “Happy 2013.” He muttered before falling into a deep sleep.

He’d awoke the next morning to JARVIS announcing that Tony had requested everyone’s presence downstairs, awaiting the arrival of a special guest of his. Tony seemed excited, at least more perky than usual and a lot less sarcastic. Apparently, his 20-year-old daughter was moving to New York to finish her law degree closer to her father, and Tony hadn’t seen her since she was just a little kid due to bad blood between himself and his daughter’s mother.

The front doors to the door swung open and a petite woman walked in, shades on and heels in her hands. She’d clearly done some sort of walk of shame, like she’d slept in her makeup. “Y/N/N!” Tony exclaimed.

Natasha rolled her eyes at Tony’s nickname, shaking her head and laughing, “Well, you’re nothing if not your father’s daughter.”

“Hi, Tash.” The young woman said with a grin, Tony shaking his head, “Hiya, Dad.” She took off her shades, her gaze flickering to Steve and she smiled, feigning innocence as if she didn’t even remember their crazy one-night dalliance. Steve froze. He paled. He did a doubletake.

“Hi there, you must be Steve. My dad’s told me quite a bit about everyone,” She addressed Steve. She placed her shades on her head, reaching her hand forward for him to shake. “I’m Y/F/N Stark. But you can call me Y/N.”

[sparrowsabre7]

Used a guide, because life is short and this game is long. So I'm meant to talk to Fragile by selecting Fragile jump in my room. I guess that makes sense but given it's only ever been for fast travel not sure how I would have worked that out as a method of communicating, or that Fragile could put you into a beach.

It's quite a nice story beat, that Fragile can't jump to Amelie as previously explained, but she can jump to Sam and Sam can get to Amelie through the things that bind each of them like knots on a strand. It may be a little on the nose but it still works, as does perhaps the first moment of consensual touch Sam allows in the game, after Fragile quietly says "I'll have to touch you" and he silently accepts. For all his weird sexualisation of some scenarios and badly worded dialogue, Kojima can still sell emotional beats when he needs to.

On the beach at last; ok, Higgs is Darth Vader now and has force powers. He creates a BT spiderweb and sets Amelie at the centre before a fourth wall breaking monologue about stick vs rope and one last boss fight: no items, final destination, Fox only.

It's Strandin' Time!

Ok this kind of... blows. It's a stealth segment where he can find out where you are almost instantly. Why the fuck wouldn't you take any weapons Sam? It's really hard to break line of sight. I know I need to throw the boxes to distract him but it's not working. Did manage to yeet one right in his dumb fucking face though. Didn't see that coming Mr. God Particle.

Ah fuck this; LEEROOOOOY mmJENKINS!! Decked the shit out of him then pivoted to bind and then kick the shit out of him some more. God, that's satisfying.

After a few rounds of that, "I don't need a gun Sam". Brave of you to say half way through the fight dickwad. Come at me.

When you were partying, I studied the strand. When you were learning how to control BTs, I mastered the parry mechanic. While you wasted your days at the gym in pursuit of vanity, I cultivated inner strength. And now that the world is on fire and the barbarians are at the gate you have the audacity to come to me for a boss fight and expect victory. Welcome to dirt, punk.

Oh, and apparently you don't need a gun but do need grenades. You're a real honourable warrior, Higgs. Truly the last of the samurai.

Kicked out a Snake-like "Aaaaaah" from him and it's over.

No. Wait. Round 3. "We got DOOMS, Sam! This was only ever gonna end one way." Ok, I... I don't know what that means but now we're in Tekken apparently. Health bars above our heads and everything. Oh no, it's Mortal Kombat, with the slow mo jaw break.

This...

This is kind of a shitty end to a boss fight... I'm literally hammering attack and winning it's just so incongruous with the rest of the game, should have left it at stage 2.

It's got dramatic music like it's meant to be the Snake and Liquid fight in MGS4 but I have no emotional connection to Higgs, in-game or out. He's just kind of a shithead, there's no brotherly bond here and he's not been established enough.

Ah multiple headbutts finisher. It is literally trying to be that MGS4 fight.

I know this isn't the end since Cliff's thing is still unresolved, but it is definitely trying hard to feel that way.

Oh shut the fuck up Higgs, stop with your "you won but still lost" bullshit. Fragile, kill the fuck out of him, please. Ugh, don't repeat I'm not that Fragile like it's your catchphrase.

Ha! Fuck you Higgs! Run out of BT juice. Oh... was that it? One punch. Also, don't just repeat "You're damaged goods" back to him like you're in a Joss Whedon film and that's an adequate comeback. Wow after a strong start this not-finale has been super anti-climactic.

Oh nope,she is going to shoot him. But offscreen. Fragile managed to bring Lou over too, nice. "Where should I take you?" Fragile asks, before Amelie butts in with "He doesn't need you, he's got me." Alright, calm down. Jealous much. But Sam is like "yeah you should go." Glad Fragile at least calls them both out on it.

Ok, so now Amelie says she could have left at any time basically, but did it to force Sam to connect the Chiral network.

And now we're "Mario and Princess Beach" running back home.

And now everything has gone insane. Now Bridget is here but maybe she's also Amelie and Die-Hardman is here to kill Bridget for fucking the world up and now Cliff is here and he knows Die-Hardman (who's real name is John) and Bridget is sending him after Sam but now she's Amelie again and behind Sam and tells him to run by pushing him in the sea, causing him to repatriate but in the repatriation sequence it's not BB inside Sam but one of those horrid dolls.

What the FUCK.

Ok and now I'm back in my room and Deadman tells me Amelie ported me here and then checked out to "finish what Bridget started" which I'm guessing may still mean blow up the world or the beach or something. Christ it has got very dense very quickly.

"We've been operating on the assumption, Higgs was controlling Cliff"; have we? News to me, I always assumed they were two separate antagonists given the Battlefield was entirely separate from Higgs' brand of goopy nonsense. So now Cliff has Amelie AND Die-Hardman on the beach. Great so things have gotten worse. Now Fragile can't port me to the beach either because reasons.

So I have to walk all the way back East all the fucking way because she transported all the secondary characters before me.

Thanks a fucking lot. This has been a real kick me while I'm down moment.

At least I don't need to carry anything there save protection and climbing gear. Hope I can at least drive some of it.

Ooh more flashback time. Looks like Bridget was intending to use BB as a sacrifice to build the UCA, unclear if by causing the Death Stranding or somehow starting the Chiral network.

Anyway now I'm walking these 6k or whatever back to Lake Knot. Some zipline help but one asshole put the zipline where the dismount is off a cliff. Sam echoes this though with a "nice zipline, asshole".

I also have no equipment, so stopping off at the paleontologist to gear up. Nice, a free bike too. Everything's coming up Bridges.

Oh fuck off Deadman, I don't want a Cliff notes session (pun intended), especially when you're just restating a bunch of theories. So Cliff wants BB to b whole, yep already gathered, the battlefield is tied to him due to his anger dragging his hellscape through with him. Sure, cool, can I get back to my drive now?

Oh come on... BTs can now spawn as catchers immediately, don't even need to grab you. Fuck this, I'm running. Sorry purple bike!

Jesus fucking christ Deadman, fuck OFF. Blah blah secret BB experiements were to make BT detectors but actually they were designed to make the Chiral network like I thought.

Oh.

They made the network by building all the cities with a BB integrated into each one.

Jesus Fucking Christ, I didn't see that coming...

That's some heavy shit man. This is that episode of Doctor Who with the space whale heavy.

While I ponder that horrific choice I'll inevitably have to make I am enjoying coming back and seeing how much bigger the highways have gotten in my absence. It's so fun to boost down them on a trike.

Another call from Deadman. Cliff put his BB in the care of the scientists but didn't know they were going to use the BB for the Chiral network, I assume he thought the experiments were benign per the lie told. Deadman says he's unsure how he was able to arrive on Bridget's beach and that there must be more to their connection so I'm going to go ahead and guess, he's Sam's father as well as the BB's, or he's a sibling of Bridget.

Fucking hell, another call from Deadman. Jesus give it a rest. No apparent connection between Die-Hardman and Bridget because his past has all been redacted, also suggested that Die-Hardman had no connection with Amelie/Bridget and that it's DH connection to Cliff that allowed him access to Bridget/Amelie's beach. God my head hurts.

Heartman's saying that the beaches are beginning to merge into a single seam, aside from the battlefield and Heartman's beaches. Amelie may have some kind of super bridge that controls all beaches which further my theory that she was BB patient zero.

Oh boy, big ol' Chiral storm, looks like it's battlefield time.

Flashback time, Cliff gives a sad speech about being a father and it looks like Die-Hardman killed Cliff under Bridget's orders.

Ok we're in Vietnam now and Cliff's wearing DH's mask. Comparatively this opener is less badass than the WWI and II battlefields but only in comparison. In any other games this would be a ridiculously cool moment. The arena itself excels as always, still not sure I could pick a favourite. Vietnam feels more linear but the mix of violent explosions, fire and oppressive silence and darkness work so well together.

Ok, I was wrong, actually reaching Cliff gives a supremely cool scene of Cliff and co marching through a lake of fire.

Another intense game of cat and mouse later and Cliff is finally down.

It's actually a really nice moment of emotional catharsis. Cliff begins to whistle a tune to BB and Sam completes it. It's not a big shock reveal, just a quiet mutual realisation that Cliff is Sam's father. They embrace and then a gunshot is heard and Cliff disappears, having first transitioned from combat gear to a suit, I hope implying his becoming whole and at peace. Despite minimal development until this past hour of exposition, Cliff has been a much more successful antagonist compared with Higgs.

Another flashback, DH is saying that Cliff should escape with his BB, but he will be forced to carry out any orders Bridget gives, hence the previous flashback. Seems DH was one of Cliff's soldiers. Still unclear if the woman lying on the bed, who is Cliff's wife, is the same person as Bridget. It's deliberately vague and when Bridget approached the BB in a previous scene her face was covered with DH'S mask.

Oh... Sam seems to think Cliff is Lou's father but that very much wasn't my take away from that scene. Deadman comes along with a recording of DH, says that Amelie left a message for him to get to the beach with one of Cliff's dolls. He knows it's a trap but plays along anyway and says Amelie also has no recorded past and made the point no one's ever met her in person. Seems to point to the fact that she may only exist on the beach.

DH says that her soul remained on the beach while her body deteriorated in the real world, but with high DOOMs abilities. She could then travel to the beach body and soul by the time she was 20 and the president said never contact Amelie except by hologram, but once the Chiral network was up and running DH checked the old records:

Bridget had uterine cancer in her 20s and never had children, yet Amelie is the spit of a younger Bridget, so... what's the connection?

Ok, now Fragile's here, and says Amelie was behind Higgs, she led the Demens and he abandoned Fragile when Amelie showed up, began the extinction initiative. She could control BTs and she was the one who turned Higgs into Homo Demens, able to command BTs at will. There was no BB in Higgs' chest pack either, only another of the dolls Cliff had.

But if that's all true, then why did she not just trigger the death stranding when Sam competed the network? Why did she need Sam to kill Higgs?

Another chapter closes but I feel we've still got a ways to go.

[duxarcana]

Clear Card Chapter 40 Review

Looks like the fandom has kind of died down; there was no hype about the new chapter, and no one is talking about it. Since it seems no one else has uploaded a review of the new chapter, I’ll do so here (not that anyone will ever read it). 

So let’s start off with the GLORIOUS cover artwork. I’ll admit I let out a rather loud squeal when I first saw the video thumbnail. This is one of the most beautiful outfits Syaoran has worn, and the similarity of its style and color scheme to his previous outfits makes me hope that we may one day see this as a battle costume. Kaito looks stunning here as well, and it’s nice to see his staff in colour. The image of these two enemy magicians who both hold the power of the Moon and are connected to time, depicted together, wielding their magical artefacts among clock gears with a full moon in the background--this image is simply ethereal.

Now, moving on to the content of the chapter:

We start off with Sakura recounting to Tomoyo the circumstances of The Mirror attending school in her place. I’m always down for some good Tomoyo content (which seems to be kind of lacking in Clear Card), so this chapter was off to a great start.

We also find out that because of all this, poor Syaoran was late to class. Since he seems to have quite a serious concern for punctuality, I hope he wasn’t too stressed out about the situation. I feel bad for the poor card, too. Accidentally coming to class without the homework was scary enough for me back when I was in secondary school, even without attempting to impersonate someone else on top of it! At least Sakura apologizes for putting her through that.

Sakura then gives the outfit she wore back to Tomoyo, and explains that she repaired it with Repair. Tomoyo comments on how much the card resembles her. I find it kind of funny that although she had seen it earlier in Chapter 34, she didn’t notice it looked like her because she was too busy fangirling over the adorableness of Rewind (weren’t we all?). 

She then asks Sakura to not use the card except in emergencies, and to bring all other items to be repaired to her instead (she even makes a pun on the card’s name by saying “repair” in English, which was cute). I also find Tomoyo’s protectiveness of the dresses she made to be really cute. I hope at some point CLAMP allows her to tell Sakura how she feels, as it would not only continue their trend of LGBTQ+ inclusiveness (another aspect which seems to be lacking in Clear Card), but would be an excellent opportunity to demonstrate how much Sakura has matured in the supportive answer she would surely give to her dear friend.

Suddenly, enter Syaoran! He apologizes for being late and talks about his conversation with the teacher. We are also blessed with this precious image:

Anyway, something interesting is that since Japanese typically doesn’t require pronouns if they’re implied, the gender of his teacher is never revealed, but in other languages, these pronouns are necessary. The Spanish and French translations both chose female, but the English translation chose male. 

Syaoran mentions how the teacher was worried about him taking care of himself when he’s living alone. I agree with your teacher (and Yue, and Sakura, and Eriol...), Syaoran! Please make sure you’re taking good care of yourself!

Then poor Syaoran goes on to do what he always does: doubt his own abilities and claim to not be able to do anything. As much as I hate it when he does this, I can honestly relate to him a lot. I hope he learns to develop more self-confidence and realizes how important his contributions are!

Sakura does her best to reassure him a bit, but it doesn’t look like it did much. Another thing I am hoping for in the series is for Sakura to at some point attempt to help Syaoran with his anxiety, instead of just commenting about it to others. I get that she’s trying her best, but I wish she would realize the extent of Syaoran’s insecurities and actively help him to overcome some of them. 

Thankfully, Tomoyo brightens the mood a bit by starting to film them, leading them to start quickly opening their bentô in embarrassment, where we are graced with another beautiful picture of Syaoran:

Syaoran informs the two that the teacher also told him that on Saturday, their school will be having a zyugyôsankan, an event in Japanese culture where parental figures visit the school to observe their child in class for a day. And that’s the last we see of Syaoran in this chapter...

Sakura brings home the information, worried that her father will be unable to attend due to work. Tôya begins to offer to go in his place, but Fujitaka interrupts and excitedly declares that he can go, calling the university to arrange for him to not work that day. It feels like Fujitaka has been shown to be very cheerful and innocent in Clear Card. Sakura’s personality is often compared to Nadeshiko, but it is nice to see that she gets some of it from her father as well. 

We then see that Akiho is having a similar conversation with Kaito. She talks about how she told the teacher that no one could come to observe her, as all her family is living overseas. She also mentions that there were other students who didn’t have any family members who could come, one of which would obviously be Syaoran. Since we don’t see him at school at all on Saturday, I wonder if he went about his school day alone or just stayed home. I just wish someone (like one of his friends, maybe? Looking at you, Sakura and Tomoyo) had remembered him that day and made sure he wasn’t lonely :(

But anyway, enough about my favorite character, since CLAMP clearly doesn’t feel the same way.

Kaito slyly remarks that he could go to the school as her parental figure, if Akiho so desired. Akiho, blissfully ignorant of Kaito’s evident malicious intent, says she would be very happy if he did so. I must admit that while I wish Akiho were a bit more perceptive, her elation is very cute. I hope Kaito listens to Momo and realizes how much Akiho cares about him before he decides to do any evil stuff around her--or worse, continue to use his time magic and sever his soul beyond repair.

After Akiho is safely out of earshot, Momo asks Kaito if he intends to “do something”; i.e., attempt to cause the creation of another Clear Card. Kaito says that he would like to if he has an opportunity, but explains that his real reason for wanting to go is that there is a person he assumes will be there whom he would like to meet. 

The day comes, the parents see the children in class, et cetera. The topic of Sakura and Tomoyo resembling their parents comes up, and Sakura asks Akiho if she looks like any of her family members. Akiho says she doesn’t know, as she has rarely seen the faces of any of her family members, and she was told her parents passed away right after she was born. This is very interesting information. While the depiction of the person assumed to be Akiho’s mother on the cover of Chapter 37 having angel wings did suggest that she was not alive, it has now been more or less confirmed. However, Akiho’s phrasing unnerves me a bit. The creepy and clearly evil Clan to which she belongs, which has always valued the gaining of more power above even the lives of its members, informed Akiho that right after she was born, her parents “passed away”? I wonder what terrible fate befell the two of them after their failure to bear a magical child...

Sakura, being kind as always, takes Akiho’s hand and tells her with a smile that she is the first person whom Akiho resembles. An innocent comment that, with the knowledge of the forced magical synchronization of Sakura and Akiho, becomes slightly less cutesy.

Kaito comes in to watch the choir practice, and Fujitaka seems quite startled--I wonder if, with half of Clow’s power, he can sense Kaito’s presence?

We find out that the person Kaito wanted to meet was indeed Fujitaka. Here lies another bit of discrepancy between translations. In the Japanese and Spanish versions, Kaito says that the vessel they have created (i.e. Akiho) holds even greater magic potential than Fujitaka, half of the reincarnation of Clow Reed. In the English version, however, he says that Fujitaka himself is a vessel, and that he is an even bigger one than Akiho. (I did not finish the chapter in French, and it seems CLAMP has taken down the video now, so I unfortunately do not know how the French version translated this scene.) The quality of the official English translations for Cardcaptor Sakura, whether the original manga or the Clear Card chapters, is just pathetic. It’s no wonder I spend half my time in the fandom answering basic questions for English fans--the garbage translations can’t even bother to properly translate essential plot points. Just how is it that the unofficial fan translations people produce are more accurately translated than all of the OFFICIAL English translations? Alright, I’m done being salty. Back to the chapter.

Kaito is all ready to start causing mischief in order to inspire the creation of a new card, when who should appear...but NADESHIKO. Oh my god. The intensity of her expression, the mild fear in Kaito’s eyes...I am entirely ready to see Nadeshiko protect her husband and the two little Alices in Chapter 41!

If you read this far, thank you so much for taking the time to hear my thoughts!

[onegirllis]

Have you really gone through episode 2 of LIS2? I really wonder what you think about it. Better, of course, the full answer.

I finished it indeed. The episode is about 3-4h long, depending on how much you want to explore and how much time it would take for you to find a way out. I was battling with the idea of sharing my thoughts because it’s very hard to judge just a slice of the story, instead of the whole season, but why the hell not. Maybe I will read it when episode 5 comes out and see how wrong I was. 

So, without further ado, here’s my review of episode 2, but please be aware it includes a lot of spoilers. It’s also as honest as possible, although it’s my personal opinion only. And yes, it may be harsh, not sugarcoated, but sincere. 

MY REVIEW OF EPISODE 2 OF LIFE IS STRANGE 2

Call me naive, but I really had hopes. I really did. I didn’t like ep1, it was way too slow for my taste, with some dramatic moments that felt off, but overall I assumed that it might be just an exposition, an introduction to the world, the characters and their problems, and that the game would elaborate on everything else later. Sometimes the beginnings feel off and it gets better later, so that’s why I had some hopes (not super high) that ep2 of LIS2 will remind me of why this game even belongs to LIS franchise and why I should play the whole season. 

Well, it didn’t work out. 

Characters

Again, It’s my opinion only but I don’t feel that there are any character developments whatsoever. Daniel and Sean didn’t learn anything freezing their asses off in the mountains. They didn’t change their ways, not learning patience nor being careful. There is no tension between them or any quarrel about the events. The acceptance of their fate is understandable, but not helping with the lack of overall tension. The moments of calm, that usually gave the player the opportunity to know more about the main character’s inner thoughts, instead serve the purpose of a summary of the few previous scenes and nothing more. It almost feels like the writers don’t like the PC and don’t want to tell us more about Sean, because there is absolutely nothing worth telling. Remember the girl Sean was in love with in ep1? Never mentioned again. Remember his friends, his boss, his job, school, or sports he was interested in? He doesn’t mention them either. There is nothing in the journal or in the dialogues that would show us anything we don’t already know or wouldn’t assume by ourselves, and Sean’s insights seem more like repetitive whinings than anything impactful. In episode 1 I could wave off the fact that they decided to walk to Mexico being shocked, traumatized and lost. In episode 2, when they notoriously risk their lives or reject any other solution not learning from experience just to run away, you start questioning their sanity. I know the reason behind it - “oh plot” but “oh plot” is not good enough. 

The boys miss their dad, but don’t feel much upset or don’t present any sign of emotional trauma. There are no breakdowns and the brothers are more or less in good spirits staying optimistic, not asking themselves a single question about the future. Comparing to Chloe who was repeating “I wish Rachel was here” over and over and was living in this trauma the whole time, they don’t seem very much impacted by the events, but on the other hand, they place the dad’s photo on the table, so his death can be conveniently mentioned. The dog died (yes, it’s true, Mushroom is killed off in the first 20 minutes), and even if Daniel is supposedly devastated, it takes him only 5 minutes to shake it off and never mentions this dog again (oh ok, maybe once). If the characters don’t freaking care about this animal, why should I? 

It also seems that the characters keep forgetting what the objective is here. Maybe it’s on purpose, but they recall certain friends only when it’s convenient for the plot. “I’m gonna call Lyla” says Sean towards the end of the episode, even if he hadn’t mentioned her for 2 hours of gameplay. And even when getting devastating news about her, he is not really concerned, shrugs and sighs deeply. Yeah, we sigh with him.

When it comes to Sean himself, I really don’t mind the PC being a guy, really. If I had a problem with it, I wouldn’t be able to play 90% of video games. The thing I do have a problem with though, is Sean being an utter asshole. Yeah, he takes care of his brother and all, but he is freaking mean to his grandparents, showing lack of empathy and acceptance of a different point of view. Calling the grandma, a woman who opened her house to them “an old bat” is just a bit too much, especially after a month spent in an abandoned house without food or heating. There is no reason for him to judge those people so much and if there is a reason, we don’t know the details. How can I emotionally invest in a character that is not opening up to me, the player? Or maybe there is nothing more about Sean, and that’s even worse. 

There is a big mystery regarding why their mother left her sons but if you expect any answer while the boys are visiting their grandparents and can snoop around in Karen’s old room, you’d be mistaken. The devs are building the mystery in the typical David Cage style, that one of the characters is about to tell you something “Oh, I will tell you what your mother did..~” and then something happens and we’re left in the dark again. At this point, I expect some explosive explanation of why their mother left the family, but it’s ether drugs, a religious cult or some relationship stuff.

Tragedy Porn

Dear devs, the fact that a lot of people in the fandom are familiar with this term and use it regularly, doesn’t mean you should take it literally. I know that the LIS franchise is about hard choices or difficult situations, but killing kids and small animals left and right is just cheap and really unnecessary. It quickly gets old, just like “the boy who cried wolf” (pun intended) that as some point I don’t even blink when witnessing another digital death. I can’t be devastated by Mushroom’s death, because the dog had less screen time than Sean’s skateboard. I can’t feel sorry for every character (human or not) that you didn’t even give me a chance to feel connected to. I know that you want me to “feel something” but at this point the “feel” changes into “yawn”. Chris AKA Captain Spirit being dead (or almost dead) AGAIN - so I helped the boy just to see him die 1 hour later (I know it’s optional but still)? Lyla in the hospital, the family from the abandoned house being wiped out of the face of the earth because of cancer (at least not a car accident this time), Chris’s mom dead, the boys’ father dead, grandpa almost dying because of the accident… It’s too much. It feels cheap and not impactful. At this point, I will be surprised if you won’t just kill everybody. Who needs people on the West Coast anyway, huh?

I don’t even know if I want to learn more about the boys’ mother since you probably will kill her too.

Politics and Religion

In this episode, politics have been toned down, still visible though and there are a few moments when I literally rolled my eyes. This time the devs decided to say something more about religion since it’s a significant part of life if you live in a small town in America. Maybe it’s just me, but it seems that the power of prayer is being mocked rather than actually shown as somebody’s way of life. Acceptance and tolerance go both ways though. 

The boys surprisingly identify themselves as Mexicans, even though they are half Irish and have never been to their father’s homeland. There are a few moments when you are wondering whether they had ever really liked to live in the US, questioning everything around them. Sean, who spent a decent amount of time with his dad on “the road trips” as stated in ep1, seems genuinely surprised that in his country people keep the Bible by their beds, as if he had never been in any motel whatsoever where the Bible is always present, placed on the nightstand or in a drawer. If being religious bothers him, boy, oh boy, you will be hella surprised in Mexico. They also don’t know how to pray, which I find extremely hard to believe. It almost feels like a scene from “Anne of Green Gables” but damn, the girl had a valid reason not to know. They don’t, especially if they identify themselves as Mexicans. We could assume that they were also part of Mexican-American communities and I cannot believe that in THIS WORLD the immigrants from this particular part of the world don’t know how to pray. Although if you expect some deep conversation about God or religion in general, forget it. It’s just there to be there and that’s it.

I don’t want to discuss the articles in the newspaper about “the gentle police officer” that was killed by immigrants because it makes my blood boil. 

Against the logic, the brothers are still planning to escape to Mexico and no grown-up is really trying to talk them out of this idea. There are no alternatives provided or discussed except a pat on the back and an offer for a quick stop if even. Even the grandparents are a bit concerned but no one really gives them any real advice, which I find unlikely. The problem is that if anybody would actually give them a piece of real advice, we wouldn’t have a game.

And that’s a problem, isn’t it?

Gameplay

We have a few mini-games and fetch quests like finding bottles in the abandoned house (why always freaking bottles?), the pirate version of dice poker (never brought back again) and drawing. None of those serve any purpose except a filler that you might enjoy but it doesn’t matter if you succeed in them or not, unless the game forces you to succeed. Don’t get me wrong, I’m aware that this particular genre doesn’t usually provide a set of complex challenges in its gameplay, but it seriously looks like LIS2 is throwing us a bone, remembering from time to time that uh, it’s a game, not a movie. Those mini games are not really engaging, not really connected to the plot, but just for… whatever reason, as part of the daily chores. 

But it’s a game about choices, you say! Yes, it is, but only some of them really matter and I’m not sure for how long. If you give me a choice to do something or NOT to do it, please consider that I might pick the latter and don’t force me into your favorite path. It happens from time to time and it’s utterly annoying. If you want me to do something, just don’t give me the illusion that I can refuse. 

It almost seems that LIS2 turned into a dark alley where you are rewarded for picking the “good, canonical path” and punished for playing it differently than the devs indented. I loved LIS1 for ambiguous choices that I might pick, depending on my personal preferences, not to mention that those choices are made during an emotional moment. I don’t feel I have that opportunity here, just as if somebody who constructed it forgot why LIS was so great and is so loved.

When it comes to dialogue, it is way better than LIS1, regarding how people actually speak. On the other hand, the lines are just there to be there and I can’t recall a single line that would be worth quoting. 

And one more thing. Cutscenes. So many cutscenes. The moment when I actually could do something with my controller was a celebration. I don’t mind cutscenes in general, but it almost feels like a movie.  A long, boring, super slow movie.

Superpower


The superpower is mentioned, mostly in rules that Sean is lecturing Daniel about, but it’s non-existent in the gameplay almost at all. It’s drastically different comparing to LIS1, when Max was using her power almost all the time or was a challenge not to use it. Here we know that Daniel can do things but most of the time he conveniently forgets about it or uses it in the wrong moment. I know the game is about education but the superpower itself seems like a plot device, an additional reason to run to Mexico than anything else. They talk more about it than use it. It sounds like a good idea in general and it probably looked great on paper, but at some point I didn’t care about the superpower at all, forgetting that this secret even exists.

Season 1

When it comes to references to season 1, Arcadia Bay, or any character that we know from LIS1, there is almost nothing. Yes, you can find a drawing of ”door to another world” instead of hole to another universe, or graffiti on the wall that Sean and Daniel were here, similar to the famous junkyard thing, but it won’t give you any insight about what had happened to the favorite characters or any glimpse of their fate. There was more about Arcadia Bay in Captain Spirit than the whole LIS2 so far. The devs were damn serious, showing us Arcadia Bay in episode 1, destroyed or not, saying that this is the past. It seems that they don’t want to even refer to this past much and it’s fine, but if you’re hoping for anything, just anything related to LIS1, forget it.

Technical problems

Oh, boy. I’m aware that creating games is not an easy job and a team sport. I know that it’s almost a miracle that some of the titles even got shipped, but episode 2 of LIS2 is probably the MOST BUGGED EPISODE in the history of this franchise. Glitches, problems with sound, teleportation of objects, animations that didn’t work or songs being cut off… I’m not talking about a few mistakes here and there, but it happens all the time. It’s so common it’s an epidemic and you face some technical challenge almost in every scene as if Bethesda was putting this episode together. This episode looks like advanced beta, not a finished product that had been delayed for months. It seems ironic when recalling the posts from the Life is Strange blog about QA teams, one in France and one in Canada, carefully checking every detail and describing how quality was important. Especially in that context, this is really a disaster, however, I didn’t face any technical problem that would make this episode impossible to finish.

What worked

So what’s great about this episode? Does everything suck? Well, of course not. On the upside, the locations are absolutely stunning. You want to explore the town, the houses, play in the snow, dive into the world, even if you don’t expect anything groundbreaking to happen. The level design, in my opinion, is better than in LIS1, more consistent and intriguing. I know a lot of people might disagree with me but somebody put their heart and soul building this environment, creating something really beautiful. Except for the locations, I liked some songs and the music, way more than in ep1, but it’s not as good as in LIS1 or BTS. Better, but not great.

Cassidy

Oh, somebody was reading “Preacher”, weren’t ya? Or is ia reference to “On the road”? A lot of people seem excited about her finally showing up. I have mixed feelings about this character since I’m not sure if I want to discover the world from her perspective. A stoned, hippie-rasta girl, who takes pride in being free and “not owned by any corporation” (except Square Enix hehehe), is maybe a realistic character and I’m not saying that people like her don’t exist here, but I’m on the fence, to be honest. It seems that the devs are trying to establish the next canon ship or something with her being interested in Sean and him actually “liking her” after exchanging 3 sentences, but that really feels off. She seems more like Chloe 2.0 than anything else, but we shall see (in the next 6 months or whenever they will fucking publish the next ep). Plus for fuck’s sake, Sean was into Jenn (I don’t remember her name exactly), and there was Lyla, and then this girl. Dude!

Summary

It was boring. It was extremely freaking boring to the point that I lost my patience to check every single detail or examine every object. I don’t feel any need to replay it, even if the consequences of my choices weren’t great. I’m not curious about different outcomes nor do I want to check if I missed anything. There is not a single scene I want to see or experience again. In my game, Chris died and I don’t really feel the need to replay it and change the outcome since I will never meet him again or even deal with the consequences of his death. The whole road trip setting is intriguing but drastically different to what I loved about Life is Strange - learning more about each character, dwelling deeper into the situation, uncovering a hidden mystery. We won’t learn more about most of those characters (or it doesn’t seem possible) since we just pass them and move on, exchanging a dialogue or two like with a pedestrian on the street. There is a charm to the road trip idea, but then I would have to be extremely interested in the main characters, including the PC, to actually follow their journey closely. In LIS1 I didn’t have to like Max to play the whole thing, curious about Chloe or Rachels’ disappearance. In a road trip setting the two brothers are the core of the story and if you’re not fond of them, it won’t work.

So far it’s not working for me.

[sceptilemasterr]

Catalysts Play Open Heart: Chapter 2

Summary: The shenanigans continue as Michelle and the others play through the second chapter of Open Heart!

Previous Chapter: Link

Note: The things in bold are scenes from the actual Choices chapter. Ian and Alyssa are my twin Endless Summer MCs.

“Guys?” asked Raj, poking his head out of the kitchen. “Has anyone seen Furball?”

Estela turned to look at him, frowning. “Huh. Now that you mention it… no, not for a while. Think Quinn would know?”

Ian, sitting beside her on the couch, shrugged. “Yeah, probably. Furball seems to like her the best, after all.”

“Good point,” said Raj. “I’ll see if I can find-”

He was interrupted by a blue blur zooming between his legs and out of the kitchen, followed a few seconds later by Alyssa and Craig, holding glasses of water that were spilling everywhere as they ran past Raj. “Get back here, you stupid fox!” yelled Craig.

“We need you to make ice cubes!” Alyssa yelled. “So Craig can pay me ten bucks!”

Ian rolled his eyes and scooped up Furball as he ran past them. Raj rubbed his forehead in confusion as Estela sighed, trying desperately not to laugh. “Alright, ‘Lyss, what the hell…?” asked Ian.

Alyssa hid behind Craig. “Are you… hiding from him?” asked Raj.

“...Yes?”

Ian held his stern expression for about two seconds before bursting out laughing. “You’re lucky that worked out better for you than it did in the story,” he said, and Estela, Craig, and Raj all started laughing as well when they realized why the situation seemed so familiar.

“Mrrrr?” mrrrred Furball. Ian rubbed his head and set him back down. He immediately sprinted as fast as he could away from Alyssa and Craig.

“Speaking of the story, by the way… shouldn’t we keep going?” Raj asked. “We’re done with the dishes. Wonder where everyone else is?”

“Dunno, somebody should go find them,” Craig said, pointing to Ian.

“What? Why me?”

“Uhh… because… I pointed to you?” Craig explained.

Estela let out a dramatic sigh and stood up. “I’ll do it, then,” she said, walking off to go find the others as Raj, Alyssa, and Craig all sat down in the same chairs as before.

Several minutes later, Estela had managed to get everyone rounded up and back in the lobby, ready to continue playing Open Heart. Michelle and Quinn were sitting by the projector as before, so that they could use the phone. Quinn had gotten another fruity drink from somewhere, and she’d made one for Alyssa as well. Jake, Raj, Craig, Zahra, and Ian all had fresh glasses of whiskey. “Same rules as before?” asked Jake.

“If there’s as many one-choice options as last time, we might have to cancel that rule,” Quinn suggested. “That was a lot.”

“It was pretty funny, though,” said Zahra. “Alright, let’s do this.”

“LEEEEEEROY JEEEEEEEENKINS!” yelled Craig, right in her ear.

“God dammit Craig, ever heard of inside voices?!”

“...No?”

“Come on, let’s just start the story already!” said Diego. “I can’t stand another minute of waiting on that cliffhanger!”

“Okay, okay, calm down,” said Michelle. “I’m starting it now!”

Everyone cheered as she selected the option to start Chapter 2.

OPEN HEART: Chapter 2

Code Blue

“Hey, it says ‘Code Blue’ and it’s written in blue! I wonder if that was on purpose?” asked Quinn.

“There is a slight possibility,” Aleister deadpanned.

Jackie: What were her symptoms?

“Are we voting?” asked Michelle, hesitant to pick what she knew was the right answer.

“It was the hemo… thing, right?” asked Jake.

“No, that was the President’s secret vampire twin,” said Diego.

“I do not understand,” said Varyyn, looking bewildered.

Aleister rolled his eyes. “You certainly aren’t the only one, Varyyn,” he said.

“Come on, let’s not mix up the patients,” said Sean. “Michelle, just go ahead.”

Michelle shrugged. “Okay,” she said, picking the ‘headaches and nausea’ option.

Jackie: Look! She’s breaking out in hives.

“Sounds like an adverse reaction to the antibiotic,” observed Michelle.

MC!Michelle: She’s in anaphylactic shock!

“Damn, Michelle!” said Estela. “Good call.”

Michelle smiled at the compliment before continuing.

MC!Michelle: Allergic?

“Well, how was I supposed to know that?” asked Michelle, frowning. “She said she had no known allergies…”

Quinn giggled. “Your reaction is right there as one of the options!” she pointed out.

Everyone laughed. “Alright, guess we’re picking that one,” Michelle said.

Defibrillator: Pull it closer!

Everyone stared at Jake expectantly. “What?” he asked, before he tore his gaze away from Alyssa and noticed the one-choice option on the screen.

“If you’re done gazing into your wife’s eyes, you’ve got a line to say,” Zahra reminded him.

“Right… Drink, y’all!”

MC!Michelle: What do I do?

“Whoa, timed choice alert!” shouted Diego in surprise. “All you, Michelle!”

“Got it,” Michelle replied, easily clicking through the correct options. “It’s funny, we’re going to be doing our actual ACLS training next month.”

“‘ACLS?’” echoed Craig. “Wait, does that stand for… Awesome Craig Likes… uh… Spatulas?”

Everyone facepalmed. “Since when do you like spatulas?” asked Zahra.

“What?” said Craig defensively. “It was a good guess!”

“No. No, it really wasn’t,” snarked Michelle.

“Oh! I know!” said Raj. “Actual CPR, Lives Saved?”

“An acronym inside an acronym!” said Diego. “Acronym-ception!” He air-fived Raj.

“That was… actually pretty reasonable,” admitted Alyssa. “Better than Craig’s guess, anyway.”

“Hey!” shouted Craig.

Michelle shook her head. “Good guess, Raj, but no. ‘Advanced Cardiac Life Support.’”

“My guess was more awesome, though!” said Craig.

Zahra sighed. “Literally nobody cares.”

“Alright, let’s move on,” said Quinn.

Defib paddles: Clear!

“Drink, y’all!”

The monitor beeps once… twice… Annie’s heartbeat returns, accelerated but constant!

Everyone cheered. “We did it!” exclaimed Quinn excitedly, hugging Michelle.

“Cliffhanger resolved!” crowed Diego triumphantly.

“CHYEEEEEAH!” Craig bellowed into Zahra’s ear.

“God dammit I am going to buy 500 pairs of earmuffs now…” muttered Zahra, annoyed.

Dr. Ramsey: What the hell is going on in here, Rookie?

Diego started humming the Imperial March from Star Wars. “Dun, dun, dun, dun da-da, dun da-da…”

MC!Michelle: Dr. Ramsey!

“Shall we vote on this one?” suggested Grace.

“Sure, I don’t mind,” offered Michelle. They quickly had everyone raise their hands for the different options, and ‘We have it under control’ won 3-7-4.

Jackie: Just doing my job, Dr. Ramsey.

“Hey! Why does she take the credit?! That’s bullshit,” complained Jake.

“...And that is why you’d make a terrible doctor,” Michelle snarked.

Jake glared at her for a moment as if he was about to snark back, but then sighed and relaxed back into his seat. “You’re not wrong,” he admitted.

“You all have no idea how many times we had ‘Professionalism!’ drilled into our heads since day one,” Michelle told the group.

“Professionalism is an admirable quality in any profession, not simply medicine,” Aleister pointed out. “I vote we maintain professionalism in this choice.”

“Oh, are we voting again?” asked Estela, glancing up to look at the choices. “Well, I say we need to stand up for ourselves!”

“Professionalism, Estela,” Michelle reminded her.

They quickly tallied the votes, 8-6 in favor of “Dr. Varma really bailed me out.”

Jackie tries to read you, knowing she just took full credit for the save.

“She knows what she did…” muttered Sean, annoyed at Jackie.

Ethan pinches the bridge of his nose, mumbling something about ‘interns’ under his breath.

“Wow, twice in one day. Two chapters. Whatever,” observed Ian.

“Maybe that’s just his default reaction to everything,” suggested Diego. Everyone laughed.

Intern: Yeah… Too bad he doesn’t actually need to see Dr. Ramsey.

“Ha! Nice!” exclaimed Zahra. “Love this girl already.”

“Z, can you do that for me next time a professor asks me to stay after class?” asked Craig.

“No.”

MC!Michelle: You lied to Dr. Ramsey for me? That was so…

Another unanimous vote followed, for the “Sweet” option.

“Best character, seriously,” said Diego. “And she doesn’t even have a name…”

Sienna: I’m Sienna, by the way. Or Dr. Trinh. Whichever floats your boat.

“...Uh, spoke too soon.”

“Sienna is a nice person,” said Varyyn, stating the obvious.

Diego just smiled at him. “Yes. Yes she is,” he said.

When the next choice came up, everyone once again unanimously agreed to support Sienna with the “Safety in numbers” option.

MC!Michelle: I’ve already met a couple of sharks today.

“Wait, sharks? When did that happen?” asked Craig.

“Obviously not literal sharks, dumbass,” said Zahra.

“Oh. I was wondering how they’d swim in a hospital, anyway…”

MC!Michelle: So long as I don’t have to make the dolphin noise.

Before anyone could comment, Michelle turned around and glared at Craig. “The answer is no, I won’t try it,” she said. Craig opened his mouth. “And no, I won’t make a whale noise, either.” Craig closed his mouth again.

MC!Michelle: Am I really cut out for this?

“Um, YES!” chorused everyone besides Michelle.

Michelle smiled gratefully at all of them. “Aww. Thanks for the confidence, guys.”

Suddenly, the door swings open, and somebody walks in!

“Wait, if the person already stepped in, how do we get to choose who it is?” asked Diego, frowning. “I’m confused.”

“Uhh… Vaanu did it?” suggested Grace. Everyone laughed.

“Let’s vote, then,” said Estela, “though I’m still annoyed at Jackie. Backstabber.”

There was an awkward pause as everyone stared expectantly at Aleister. “What?” he asked. “I’m not the official vote-counter or anything. Why doesn’t one of you do it?”

“Uhh…” said Jake.

“I’ll do it, then,” said Ian, standing up and taking everyone’s vote. Bryce won, 11-3.

MC!Michelle: …

“‘I’m just looking for something?’ Worst excuse ever,” Diego commented.

“You’re not wrong,” Alyssa agreed. “Besides, this isn’t the moment to brush it off! You’ve gotta have a heart-to-heart!”

“...Pun intended?” Ian teased.

“Shut up,” his sister snarked back, throwing a pillow at him, which was easily caught by Estela. Everyone quickly voted for the ‘My first patient almost died’ option.

Bryce: But if every hospital employee who ever hid in a supply closet quit, there’s be nobody here but the patients.

Michelle chuckled at the line. “Ha. That sure sounds true enough,” she commented.

“No one at the hospital but the patients? That would be awkward,” said Craig. “Who would take care of them?”

Nobody responded to this.

Bryce: You’ve got two options. One, breeze through life with an unshakeable self-assurance like me.

“Amen to that,” said Jake, raising his whiskey glass in salute.

“Self-assured? Jake, yesterday you were calling yourself a failure because you forgot to bring along a blanket for me,” Alyssa teased him.

“That doesn’t count!”

“Do you have any idea how many blankets there are at a resort hotel?”

“...You’re never gonna let that go, are you?”

“Nope!”

MC!Michelle: ...Okay, I’ll try.

“No! Do, or do not. There is no try,” quoted Diego.

“That was a scarily good Yoda impression,” Sean told him. “What’s your secret?”

“Oh, I’ll never tell!” Diego responded, grinning broadly.

Bryce: Is there anything else I can get you?

When the choices appeared, Quinn giggled. “Ooh, we should definitely ask for a hug!” she said.

“Does this count as shameless flirting?” asked Jake.

“Only if we choose it,” Raj reminded him.

Jake considered this. “Okay, voting time,” he said. “Who picks the hug?” Everyone raised their hands except for Aleister. “That settles it, drink, y’all!”

You look up at him, your faces close.

“Please let there be a kiss option!” said Quinn excitedly.

“Seconded!” agreed Diego.

“Thirded,” said Jake, before adding “...So we can drink again.” Alyssa playfully smacked him.

Everyone laughed when the next choice appeared, and there was indeed a “Kiss him” option. But before anyone could actually vote, Michelle simply selected it without waiting for the vote. “Screw it, we all know it would’ve won anyway,” she pointed out.

“Sure, why not,” Zahra muttered, looking expectantly at Jake.

“Drink, y’all!”

You throw a leg around his side, pulling him even tighter.

“Damn, is it hot in here, or is it just me?” asked Alyssa.

“Why? You gettin’ any ideas?” teased Jake.

“Get a room,” grumbled Zahra.

“Aww, Z, don’t be like that,” Craig said.

...When suddenly, the door opens!

“Cockblocked by a door,” groaned Diego. “Ouch.”

Resident: Or, if I may be so bold… might you hand me a suture kit?

“Wow,” laughed Sean. “Nothing fazes this guy.”

“It’s just another Monday for him, I bet,” Ian said.

MC!Michelle: Maaaaybe we should get back to work.

“You don’t say!” Michelle said to her MC self, laughing.

Bryce: Hope I cheered you up a little.

“Oh, he sure did that!” blurted out Estela, before quickly covering her mouth with her hands and blushing furiously.

“Hey, no shame!” said Alyssa.

Ian looked at his wife, confusion on his face. “I’m not sure if I should take that as an insult or not,” he said.

Estela leaned in, speaking softly and intending for only Ian to hear. “He’s super attractive, mainly because he looks a lot like you,” she said, and now it was Ian’s turn to blush.

“Ian and Estela, sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G!” chanted Craig, who had managed to overhear her.

“Craig. We’re literally married,” Estela reminded him, glaring daggers for good measure.

“Oh yeah…”

“Ahem!” said Michelle. “Back to the story!”

You look up, and realize you have no idea where you are.

“Sounds like the first day at Hartfeld, all over again,” Grace says. “God, that was nerve-wracking. I hate getting lost.”

“On the plus side, you met me!” Quinn reminded her. “So it wasn’t all bad, right?”

Grace smiled. “No, I guess you’re right. Silver linings?”

“Silver linings!”

Intern: Hey! It’s Harry Potter, M.D.! You know… living under a staircase and all.

Diego frowned. “Hey, he copied my reference!”

“Well, you predicted his reference, technically,” observed Aleister. “Since he is a fictional character and cannot hear you.”

“You know what I meant.”

“Indeed,” said Aleister, a hint of a smile forming at the corners of his mouth.

“Hang on…” said Jake, “was that… a joke? From Slytherin of all people? Somebody call the press, the apocalypse is starting!”

“I decline to respond to that.”

When the next choice appeared, Aleister was again the one to call for the vote. The choice went 10-4 in favor of “I’m completely and utterly lost.”

MC!Michelle: I swear this hospital doesn’t look this huge from the outside!

“Plot twist: The hospital is secretly a TARDIS!” shouted Raj excitedly.

“Hey, I was gonna say that!” said Diego, exchanging another air five with Raj.

As you get in, she shuffles away, her bare butt showing out the back of her hospital gown.

“That wasn’t a mental image I needed today,” Zahra said.

“At least they didn’t actually show it?” Jake pointed out, laughing.

“Oh my God, there’s an option for ‘Your butt is showing?!’ We’ve got to pick it!” exclaimed Raj.

“Why are butts funny?” asked Varyyn, confused.

He looked at Diego for clarification, but Diego was equally confused. “Honestly, I… have no idea. They just are.”

“Come on, guys. Professionalism,” Michelle admonished the group.

“Yeah, but this isn’t real life,” said Zahra. “Live a little! Alright, whoever votes ‘your butt is showing’ gets to drink.”

“Hey!” protested Michelle. “You can’t bribe people for votes with drinks!”

“I just did.”

Thanks to Zahra’s bribe, the vote swung 8-6 in favor of ‘Your butt is showing!’ Michelle sighed and reluctantly picked the option.

Mrs. Martinez: I’m teasing you, my dear. I like the breeze!

At that line, everyone burst out laughing, even Michelle. “Okay, I have to admit, that was pretty funny,” she said. “Mrs. Martinez seems super fun.”

Elijah: You should’ve seen your face, Michelle.

“That’s true IRL, too,” said Craig, still laughing.

“Excuse me, did you just say ‘IRL’ out loud?” asked Aleister.

“...Maybe?”

MC!Michelle: Ohmygod! I know what’s wrong with Annie!

“That was random,” Quinn commented.

“What is she, Dr. Sherlock?” asked Jake. “That was way too fast.”

“Hey, it’s Michelle,” Sean said. “Sounds about right.” Michelle blushed but said nothing, continuing the story. When the next choice came up, they ended up voting for “I solved the case!”

MC!Michelle: You also told me that you were prone to panic attacks when you were stressed out.

“Isn’t everyone, though?” said Diego.

“Ain’t that the truth,” agreed Sean.

“Hey, speak for yourselves. I never panic,” said Jake.

Alyssa rolled her eyes. “Sure, Pinocchio,” she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

MC!Michelle: And you resurfaced too quickly.

“Of course! Decompression sickness!” exclaimed Michelle triumphantly.

“Too bad your other you beat you to it,” said Craig.

“To be fair, she’s still got two more years of med school, you know,” Quinn reminded him.

Craig frowned. “Wait, real Michelle, or Choices Michelle?”

“Great, now my brain hurts…” complained Raj.

“Real Michelle, obviously!”

Dr. Ramsey: I wanted to give you a chance to right the ship, first.

“That’s… weirdly generous,” observed Estela.

“Shouldn’t he have just treated her, then?” asked Grace. “I think that would be more important.” A few moments later, she giggled when the next choice came up, and the ‘You should’ve treated her right away’ option appeared.

“Well. I believe we know which option we ought to select, then,” Aleister said. “Let us go with Grace’s comment.”

“What happened to democracy, Malfoy?” Jake said, smirking knowingly.

“I… er…”

Michelle sighed and selected the option before Jake could continue putting Aleister on the spot.

Dr. Ramsey: But if I don’t push you to grow, then how many lives will be lost down the line because you’re not ready?

“That’s… actually a fair point,” conceded Zahra. “Glad I’m not gonna be a doctor. That kinda pressure… no thanks.”

“He’s still a jerk, though,” Jake said.

“You’re not wrong,” agreed Michelle.

MC!Michelle: (Oh, crap! I totally forgot that I was working with Aurora on this case.)

“So did I, to be perfectly honest,” admitted the real Michelle sheepishly.

When the next choice came up, everyone was surprised. “So, what, we can throw her under the bus like Jackie did? Payback time!” said Estela, a little too excitedly.

“Or we could be the bigger person, seeing as Aurora isn’t even the person who threw us under the bus last time in the first place,” Quinn suggested.

“Yeah, I’m gonna have to go with Quinn on this one,” Michelle said. “Sorry, Estela.”

“Are we not voting?” asked Aleister.

“Uh… apparently not,” said Sean, watching Michelle go ahead and pick the “Apologize to her” option.

Aurora: ...It’s okay. I wasn’t here. This was your win.

“See? Kindness prevails!” said Quinn.

Sienna: Hey! You survived!

“Wow, I like that outfit,” Alyssa said.

“This is the first time we’re seeing any of the characters in casual clothes, isn’t it?” asked Grace. “She looks good!”

“They all do,” observed Diego, as the other characters appeared in their casual outfits.

Then the outfit choice appeared. “Hang on, if we say ‘no,’ will we still be in our scrubs?” asked Michelle. “Because that would be… awkward.”

“Don’t forget, Michelle, I have already offered to purchase-” Aleister started to say.

Jake interrupted him. “Only one way to find out, Michelle! C’mon.”

Michelle sighed. “Thanks, Aleister… but I really am curious.” She selected ‘No thanks.’

MC!Michelle: I’ll stay in this. This is all I brought with me.

“Drink, y’all!” said Jake.

“Man, I should’ve bet somebody on that,” Craig complained. “I could’ve won ten bucks!”

Elijah: Who cares? We’re all a hundred-K in debt anyway.

“God, don’t remind me,” groaned Michelle.

A toast! Cheers!

“Drink, y’all!”

“That’s hilariously great timing,” said Raj. “Should we make that count double, since they’re actually drinking in the story?”

Zahra shrugged. “Why not?”

Another toast! To new friends!

“On second thought… this might be a little much,” Zahra admitted. “Scratch that double-drink rule.”

“Aww… you’re no fun,” said Craig.

“Trust me, your liver will thank me in the morning.”

“Aah! Timed choice!” exclaimed Raj when the next choice appeared. Michelle quickly picked ‘To making the world a better place.’

Landry: And this… human needs to switch to water for a while so he doesn’t puke in a potted plant.

“Sounds familiar,” Zahra said, looking knowingly at Craig.

“I don’t remember that,” Craig said.

“Not surprising.”

MC!Michelle: She’s cute! Go and talk to her!

Both Ian and Alyssa shot knowing glances at Diego. Diego blushed and laughed softly. “Okay, okay, yeah, that’s me all right,” he admitted. “But it worked, didn’t it?”

“We’re forever in your debt, Diego,” said Ian mock-solemnly.

“Best wingman ever,” Alyssa told him, wrapping an arm around Jake.

“Well, that settles it,” said Michelle when the next choice appeared, picking the ‘Good thing I’m your wingman’ option.

MC!Michelle: Who knows, maybe she’ll think that whole staring-across-the-bar thing is romantic.

Landry: It is my go-to move.

“Sounds like somebody else we all know,” laughed Alyssa, gesturing at Ian and Estela, “though in your case, it was on a plane…”

“Hey! To be fair, Estela did the same thing,” protested Ian.

“Not going to comment,” said Estela. “Let’s just move on…”

Sienna: Or were you raised somewhere they didn’t teach manners?

“Ha! Sick burn! Take that, dick-rocket,” said Craig.

“‘Dick-rocket?’ Huh?” echoed Varyyn. “What is a-”

“NOT IMPORTANT!” shouted Diego quickly. “NEXT SCENE!”

Everyone laughed when the next choice came up. “She’s about to kick his ass!” everyone chorused. Michelle smiled and picked the choice in question.

He looks down at Siena, whose eyes are on fire.

“If this girl’s death glares are anywhere near as terrifying as Estela’s… yikes,” Craig said. “You do not wanna be on the wrong end of one of those.”

“You’re damn right,” Estela agreed.

What do you do?

“Alright, official decision time: are we gonna buy diamonds, or not?” Michelle asked the group.

Aleister nodded. “Honestly, it’s no trouble at all. Besides, it isn’t like we have anything better to do with our time.”

“Either way, since it apparently costs money to hang out with people… drink, y’all,” said Jake.

“So who do we pick?” asked Quinn. “Bryce?”

“Well, we went with him for the closet scene,” Michelle pointed out.

“Jackie, then?” suggested Jake.

“Yeah, let’s give her a second chance to make a good impression!” said Grace.

“Agreed,” said Ian.

Aleister crossed over to the phone and put in his credit card information to purchase some diamonds before Michelle selected “Dance with Jackie.”

Over Jackie’s shoulder, you see Sienna grinning at you. She gives you an enthusiastic thumbs-up.

“Oh my God, she’s a girl version of Diego!” laughed Raj.

“Was I really that obvious?” asked Diego.

“Umm… kind of?” Ian said. Everyone giggled.

When the next choice came up, Michelle looked back at the group. “Alright, the most important question ever: Sexy or Silly?” said Diego in an overly-dramatic voice.

“Umm, sexy, duh,” said Craig, getting up to demonstrate a supposedly ‘sexy’ dance.

Zahra facepalmed. “I have never seen a less sexy dance in my life. If you were going for ‘silly,’ though…”

“You know what?” Michelle said while trying not to laugh at Craig’s dance. “Just for that demonstration… I’m going with ‘silly.’”

“What, no vote?” asked Grace.

“Sorry, Grace! I already picked it!” said Michelle apologetically.

You do a ridiculous dance, kicking out your legs and flailing your arms.

Everyone laughed at the description that almost perfectly matched Craig’s demonstration. “What?” he asked them, oblivious. Then he read the screen. “Uh… that’s nothing like what I was doing! It’s a dance from Legends of-”

“Nobody cares, Craigslist,” snarked Jake.

Jackie: Where on earth did you see that?

MC!Michelle: A video game.

At this, even Craig had to laugh this time. “Okay, okay, this app wins the Craig-prediction game,” he admitted.

“What if… Quinn, is your phone psychic?” asked Raj.

Quinn looked at him, trying to decide if he was serious or not. “Uh… I don’t think so,” she said, not really sure what else to say.

“Whoa, now that would be a plot twist!” Diego said.

“Do telephones often predict the future?” asked Varyyn, completely seriously.

“Not… usually…” Sean told him.

Raj shrugged. “Hey, it could happen! I had a dream where my phone could talk to me in my mind once!”

“Fascinating,” said Varyyn. “I must obtain one of these telephones.”

“I’ll buy you one!” offered Diego. “Er… wait, when’s your birthday?”

“Twelfth Sanell, Rahena,” answered Varyyn.

Diego stared at him for a moment. “In our calendar,” he said finally when Varyyn didn’t clarify.

“Oh! Right, my apologies. I shall look it up later, for I do not actually know your calendar very well yet.”

Zahra held up a hand. “Hold on, back up. You two have been together for how long and you still don’t know his birthday?!”

Diego blushed. “It… just never came up!”

“Dumb excuse alert!” Alyssa called out.

“To be fair, Varyyn doesn’t know either,” Sean pointed out. “At least not in our calendar. And ‘Twelfth Sanell Rahena’ doesn’t really help Diego, or any of us for that matter.”

“See? Thanks, Sean,” said Diego gratefully.

“Anytime.”

“Alright, I’m continuing…” muttered Michelle impatiently, as she clicked through more of the chapter.

Jackie: It’s a cutthroat business, Michelle. I’m just trying to survive.

“You know, as much as I hate to admit it… if I’d been put on the spot like that I might have done the same thing, now that I think about it,” admitted Michelle. “She’s got a point.”

“And that’s why I’d never be a doctor,” said Raj. “Too intense. Cooking, you get plenty of time to just sit back and enjoy life. Besides, if everyone was a doctor, then who’d make the food?”

“Amen to that,” said Jake, raising his glass. Raj raised his and they air-toasted from across the room.

Then the next choice popped up, and Michelle shrugged when she saw the options. “Alright, maybe you’ve got a point about Quinn’s phone being psychic,” she joked as she chose the ‘I’d have done the same thing’ option.

MC!Michelle: What matters is that Annie survived. And now she gets to go back to school and live a full life.

Quinn smiled. “I can relate,” she said. “Michelle, I know you’ll make the same kind of difference in real life, too.”

“Meeting you, and hearing your story… honestly, Quinn, it really made me appreciate my career path that much more, on a different level,” Michelle told her. “It’s definitely a lot more personal. I want to give my patients the same kind of chance you’ve been given. Though, admittedly, I probably won’t have a magic Vaanu crystal in my medical bag…”

“That’s so sweet, Michelle. Thank you!”

“Oh God, I’m gonna get diabetes from this conversation,” groaned Zahra, and Quinn and Michelle both laughed before everyone turned their attention back to the screen.

Jackie: Oh, god.

“Wow, it’s even predicting you now, Z!” Craig said.

“No comment.”

Jackie: You’re smart, you’re pretty good under pressure, and way too good-looking…

“Sounds about right,” said Estela.

“Seconded,” added Sean, and the others nodded their agreement as well.

“Wait,” said Craig as Michelle blushed at the compliment, “are you talking about the character, or the real Michelle? I’m confused.”

MC!Michelle: (What do I do?)

“Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!” chanted Quinn.

“Drink! Y’all!” chanted Jake, as he and the others took another sip.

Aleister huffed and crossed his arms as Michelle picked the ‘Kiss’ option. “So we’re completely ignoring the concept of democracy now, is that it?” he complained loudly.

Grace rubbed his back soothingly. “It’s a phone game, Aleister, not a company board meeting,” she reminded him.

Aleister’s entire body blushed. “Er, you’re quite right, I’m not sure what came over me, it’s nothing to get worked up about, indeed,” he stammered.

MC!Michelle: (The night’s still young. What should I do next?)

“What, we get to pick more than one?” asked Alyssa. “That’s nice!”

“Yeah, but it still costs money,” said Quinn, frowning. “And I really don’t want to keep borrowing Aleister’s money.”

“I’ve told you all twice now, I honestly don’t mind,” Aleister said. “I can afford it easily!”

“Rub it in, why don’t you,” snarked Michelle.

“Well, to be fair, we did already get a scene with Bryce and Jackie,” Sean pointed out. “So let’s save the diamonds for something else.”

Michelle shrugged. “Fair enough,” she said, choosing Landry’s option to stay at the table.

MC!Michelle: How’s that long game working out for you?

Landry: Great! I think she glanced at me!

Alyssa burst out laughing. “Sounds like Ian, all right!”

“Shut up,” her brother snarked, but then he started laughing in spite of himself. “Alright, I’ll admit it’s kinda funny, though.”

Glass of Water: Take one.

“Drink, y’all,” said Jake.

“Okay, but do you mean actual waterrrrrr?” asked Zahra, clearly drunk. “B’cause it says ‘glass of water.’”

“You know what he meant!” laughed Raj.

Sienna: What if we all got a place together?

“Hey, that’s an awesome idea!” agreed Craig. “We should all do that!”

“Craig, our schools and jobs are all literally in different states,” Sean pointed out.

“Jake could fly us!”

“Absolutely not,” said Alyssa, crossing her arms.

Jake frowned at his wife. “I’m not that bad of a pilot-”

“YES, YOU ARE!” chorused everyone besides Jake and Craig.

Jake sighed and shook his head. “You just don’t appreciate my maneuvers,” he muttered.

“You mean the completely unnecessary maneuvers that make me vomit?” Alyssa asked him.

“...Point taken.”

MC!Michelle: It would be a 24/7…

Michelle looked around at the others. “All right, since Aleister cares so passionately about this… let’s vote.” Aleister scowled while everyone else laughed. “Study fest?” Only Michelle herself, Grace, and Aleister raised their hands.

Zahra snorted. “Predictable.”

“Okay, party?” This time, Varyyn, Craig, Raj, Jake, Alyssa, Quinn, and Zahra all cheered and raised their hands (or drinks, in Jake’s case.) “Alright, that one wins, but… Netflix binge?” asked Michelle, just to be sure. Ian, Estela, Sean, and Diego raised their hands for Netflix binge. Michelle shrugged and pressed the ‘party’ option.

“By the way, Malfoy… Michelle voted ‘study fest,’ so you would’ve gotten your pick if we hadn’t done democracy,” Jake pointed out with a smirk. Aleister glared at him but said nothing.

Elijah: To Craigslist!

“What?” asked Craig.

“Not you, the actual website,” Michelle pointed out.

“Oh. Jake, stop confusing me with your nicknames!”

“Sorry, it’s my thing, y’know? ...Craigslist?”

Craig frowned, looking more confused than before. “I think… I think you, like, uh... broke him,” slurred Zahra, waving a hand in front of his face.

Michelle clicked through a few more times, and they got to the end of the chapter. “Whew,” sighed Diego in relief. “I was afraid we’d get another cliffhanger again!”

“That was a cute ending, I like it!” said Quinn.

“Yeah, honestly, this is surprisingly kinda fun,” admitted Jake. “Do we have another one?”

“Can we… uh… do this… tomorrow?” asked Zahra, before she fell asleep instantly and slid onto the floor.

“Lightweight,” snarked Estela, before yawning heavily and leaning on Ian’s shoulder despite being fully sober.

“Aaaaand that’s our cue to finish,” said Michelle, handing Quinn’s phone back to her. “Let’s do some more tomorrow, same time?”

“Sounds like a plan,” agreed Sean. “Doctor Nguyen.”

Michelle smiled at the title. “Just a few more years,” she reminded him. “Night, everyone.”

“Zahra, what should we do with…” Diego started to ask, before spotting Craig picking her up. She was still completely sound asleep. “Guess we just leave this projector stuff here, then… nothing bad could happen to it overnight, right?”

(Credit to @endlesshero1122 for the “Awesome Craig Likes Spatulas” joke!)

Next Chapter: Link

Tag List: @brightpinkpeppercorn @endlesshero1122 @endlesssummerfan @marmolady

[ryouverua]

Trial 5 - Post-Execution

Investigation 1 / 2 - second half is where I put my own theories that I penned before playing the trial.

Trial: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8

Pre-Execution

;’’’) That’s a good look on you, Monokuma.

what this no i’m not crying you’re crying shUT UP

Have any other executions ended with the corpse literally landing in front of them in the trial room? I feel like this is a first???

uUM

K.... K1-b0? Buddy? Are - uh - are you okay? You’re looking a bit.... ?????

A-ARE YOU THOUGH -

Uh, okay??? So I want to go over Kaito’s execution and be upset about his death and everything but suddenly, this? This came out of nowhere??? also skldfj they took the ahoge off his sprite too omg

Crap I badly want to mourn Kaito for a while and yeah this is taking away from that but I don’t exactly want to not address K1-b0 literally BSoD-ing in front of us -

Oh! Gloating! I’m good for gloating too. Rub it in his face, Sweetcheeks. You’ve got my full backing here.

Normally I’m against kicking someone while they’re down but KICK HIM! KICK KICK KICK! I’m so down for this collective group smack-down.

Man, this Monokuma has been so much less in control and emotional than the previous Monokumas. I mean, the competition is pretty stacked - last Monokuma was literally the god of his world and an omniscient being that pervaded their entire ecosystem with one exception - but between throwing up a second motive in the first chapter, getting ‘overthrown’ by Monodam ** (even if he ‘went on vacation’ and this entire chapter, this ^ guy is barely hanging on by his teeth.

** I just realized the whole ‘Monodam takes over the killing game’ may have been bloody foreshadowing for this chapter sdlkfj

Monodam even got pushed to his limit for all of a whole chapter/killed two Monokubs and even though Kokichi didn’t directly kill them, he does have Gonta and Miu’s aka two classmate’s blood on his hands even with the most charitable look at chapter 4′s events before both Monodam and he ultimately take actions to end their own lives

this has been another mini-episode of ‘I read into things too much’

ANYWAY quietly skips over everything but the most pertinent Monokub dialogue, don’t mind me ~

Who would though, at this point? .... K1-b0, depending on what’s going on with him right now?

Shuichi is so pumped up thanks to Kaito and Kokichi’s teamwork! This has to be what Kaito was hoping for. Kokichi probably wanted to win the trial in its entirety, though...

Something about him saying ‘you’re certainly entitled to your opinion’ is incredibly grating and hilarious. It’s so.... passive-aggressive and banal? So un-Monokuma? I feel like behind the plushie, someone is pouting with their arms crossed tightly and just grumbling to themselves. They can’t even muster up a whole ~despair~ rant right now.

SWEETCHEEKS SWORE :O

I want to make a fun reference to Saimota but then I remember Kaito’s corpse is still warm on the ground a few feet away from them and I cry

LMAO IT SWITCHED TO A SILENT K1-B0 IMMEDIATELY AFTER....

K1-b0 isn’t about to like... become a killing game enforcer or something??? Like, completely flip his switch? fml this silence is dangerous

blah blah blah monokubs do their ‘cute’ schtick and I get tired of it, anyway -

oh great, it’s the sprite I blocked out of my brain up to this point

DID MONOPHANIE JUST DRAG ME

Please put away the tongue when they leave ffs

Aaah damn it, here comes the hammer. D:

Participant......... and then he mentioned about it going on for a long time, so.... a cycle...??? If Rantaro is repeating it, does that mean they’re all repeating it...??? The same sets of personalities/memories/talents, in new bodies every time or something - ? Is that an idea I should follow -

FFFF DID MONOKUMA JUST FLASH US

YES, PUN FULLY INTENDED SOMEONE HAS TO MAKE THOSE JOKES IN MIU’S ABSENCE

yeah hilariously while I was starting to think more about his statements Monokuma literally surprised me just like he surprised Shuichi and the rest of them lmao

Meanwhile Sweetcheeks is just twitching beside her, possibly even foaming at the mouth -

YEAH WHERE’S THE NEXT SET OF MEMORIES, BUDDY

anyway he talks about despair and hope again, I glare at the yellow text with tired resignation, etc

It really does sound like it’s something that’s repeating when he puts it like that, right??? And with Rantaro’s video - what is this, a test simulation of the gopher project or something?

Another wild theory appears - the original students with the talents Makoto/Hope’s Peak wanted to preserve, or for whatever reason digitized their memories/personalities/talents (think Gonta Alter-Ego) died - or were ‘hunted down’ aka the Ultimate Hunt - and in their place they pick up 16 ordinary kids to give them to, possibly by force. Or hell, maybe not, if Rantaro remembers and said something like ‘you wanted this’, though wasn’t that in regards to the killing game???  And then... they set up a simulation? Maybe? To test their viability? .... The question is who introduced Monokuma to the whole thing. Is that part of the test, or was that the cult sneaking in... and if the students really are ‘easily replaceable’, are they just picking up new ordinary kids as replacements? Are they looking for an outcome where they can defeat Monokuma? If this is a simulation, does it operate under the same rules as the NeoWorld program, where they die in real life?

Eeh... not sure how I feel about this. It feels like it has holes still. 8′D

ffffffff

!!!!!!

Aaaaw....

I mean I think we knew after the deductions in the first chapter but yes, mastermind confirmed - ! And -

WHAT

NO

WHAT

NO

WHAT

N O

W H A T

please go away

I-I MEAN... YOU REALLY DON’T.... HAVE TO...

BANGS HEAD AGAINST WALL

asdlkfjsdl why junko WHY MUST YOU BE BACK

So I was going to put this at the end of the post but then A LOT OF STUFF happened at the end of the chapter and it... doesn’t really fit there....

Okay... t-there is a second option. I mean, Junko could really be back for the third (fourth? do Shiro/Kurokuma in UDG count?) time and I really hope that isn’t the case fff - but ‘Junko’ facing away from us for a reason, right? Which means it could be someone dressed as her, right? Even if it did sound like her seiyuu...

But out of everyone left, assuming this isn’t happening at the exact same time/immediately after the trial... well, I mean, out of everyone alive, two people could be in Junko-dress right now, right? Both Maki and Tsumugi could fit, and considering we haven’t gotten to look at Tsumugi at all and her talent... I’m heavily leaning towards her.

..... except.................. cospox though. Crap. Hmm....

I think... I could maybe follow up on some of the speculating I made in this post? About Junko being elevated to a larger-than-life figure in history? Maybe there’s some leeway in there, in the same way that we have historical figures that end up being featured prominently in fiction, or even become warped/satirized in various ways because they’re so removed from us in our current time... and perhaps Junko has become more than a person in that same way, or even more than that, a title/role that can be inherited and passed down? Is it possible to get around cospox that way? It would fit in with her early Chapter 1 comments - let me see if I can dig them up from my old posts - ah this one, here, if you want to look at it. i also am totally into what she’s saying if you’re wondering why I remember this so well lmao

If she is from the cult... and this is a parallel to Angie, who constantly spoke about being a conduit for Atua’s message, Korekiyo, who was just a vessel for his sister according to himself, and Kaito, who literally acted in Kokichi’s place............. maybe....... this could work........... ????

...... except I don’t know if it’s enough of a stretch to get around this. I MEAN. MAYBE IT IS. MAYBE. I could just be stretching reeeeeeally far in order to avoid an inevitable Junko returning. maybe i just want to see the power of the ultimate cosplayer since it’s a hobby so dear to my heart idek

Whelp it doesn’t matter the scene is moving on without me anyway so 8′D

FUCK NO MORE TRAINING TIME OR TRAINING JOKES OR STUPID TITLES FOR THE TRAINING POSTS THIS IS THE WORST TIMELINE

Man I really love the close connections Shuichi has to people in this game. Maybe that’s why I’ve been enjoying it so much? He recognizes his classmates and what they have to offer, sure - but he’s a regular kid. He’s got his favoured connections, and the people whose deaths he feels more powerfully than the others, and the reactions he has to everything around him... well, maybe that’s my own bias because they really resonate with me. I don’t usually have much of an interest for audience surrogate characters (I don’t dislike them, I just, you know, don’t adore them or anything) but - and I know now that this is a divisive topic - I really like Shuichi’s personality. I really do. And I think he has one. He’s a quiet guy - he keeps most of his thoughts on the inside - and I get that for a lot of people, quiet = no personality, but the way he has responded to a lot of the situations that have come up previously have both been different than what I’m used to seeing from ‘protagonist’ characters and, erm, pretty... familiar to me personally and that has been a bit of a shock tbh. seriously what’s with this - same birthday, same blood-type, same hobbies, likes and dislikes, same Best Boy, etc....

I’m not sure where this tangent is going tbh, but I guess I’m sorta gearing up for next chapter? We don’t have many people left to work with. 8′D Kaito’s gone, Kokichi is gone, and all we have left are a collection of differing quiet personalities. It’s going to be very, very different, that’s for sure.

“Oh yeah I forgot this turned into a group activity like, three sessions in.”

“I mean, you did too by poisoning them both, but that’s neither here nor there.”

I am being a bit harsh on her though - to her credit, she seemed initially confused about why he was blaming himself (despite him repeating all the things she said to him during the beginning of the trial). There’s no one left to connect them now and she seems to have realized that - they’re going to have to finally do the heavy work themselves.

Like Chapter 4 Maki, I feel like she’s speaking in that same roundabout way she did when asking about Shuichi’s interest in Kaede. “Are you lonely too?” or even, “do you need someone to talk to/be with who understands how you feel?” She still has a lot of trouble being forthright but it’s great that she’s taking the initiative, especially after her earlier confession.

I hate to say it, but I think Shuichi may have ended up in a similar state as Ryoma after Chapter 1 if he was left spinning his own wheels...

Solidarity. 8′/

!!! 

For all the things that he did... fml I can’t think of anything better. He spent so much of his time trying to bring you both out of your shells!

I wonder if Shuichi is including his entire class in there. It was only a few days ago that Kokichi said he considered them all friends too. Also Korekiyo hilariously enough

omg they’re still so painfully awkward but it’s so sad and relatable and they’re trying to start building a bridge without Kaito acting as their support...

Ooh! This is the first time they’ve been approached aside from Tenko in Chapter 3, right?

Aaaw he’s so happy to see them. 8′)

YES!!! New team training! New team training!

Yes this is exactly what they need to do after the trial! They need to stick together! ... Now where the hell is K1-b0???

quietly skips over Tsumugi telling us we won’t lose to despair because I am stubbornly clinging to the time before hope/despair was brought back up -

- Sweetcheeks why

so much goddamn hope

But I’ll allow it because it’s leading to an overdue cheesy friendship speech and after the tragedy of chapter 5 I need that right now.

Though... hm. I was sort of hoping Shuichi and Maki could hash out some of her actions in the last trial, or Maki would offer some kind of apology. Would that have happened if they weren’t interrupted?

Yeeessss new image! I love it! Also lmao Himiko maybe you’d manage to finish one if you took the big bulky hat off...

Good - a commitment to keep living is important, especially from Shuichi. Now the majority of you are carrying someone’s wish, huh... except Tsumugi, unless you count Gonta maybe. I figure Miu could count for K1-b0, though I guess that’s a bit of a stretch too?

fuck my heart had been ripped out and stomped on, especially with the flashback to third chapter training:

.... See you, Space Cowboy.

Now fade to bla -

..... Huh.

I’m glad one of you is concerned after what happened. 8′/ I’ll excuse Shuichi and Maki because they have every right to be distracted by grief but between you and Himiko you couldn’t keep an eye on him?

Because seriously, none of them know where he is. And there is no way that’s a good thing.

BUT SOLIDARITY!!! also robophobic!!!

Well that’s an ominous way to end the chapte - oh never mind it’s not over??? What, three ‘epilogues’ this time? Not that I’m complaining because I’m happy to extend the trial for as long as necessary but jeez -

K.... K1-b0???

It was lost after the accident??? So it wasn’t just programming... a... a transmission then? So it really was some sort of antenna...

Wait that makes it sound like you weren’t just using it for guidance but actually being controlled by it?!

More hope and despair references -

Music change???

Wait, dude, what do you mean by that -

What

WAIT WHAt ARE THOSE TURBOBOOSTERS

HE CAN FLY?!?!

UM EXCUSE ME WHERE DID THIS COME FROM

Kokichi was dying to see all of these cool functions and only now when he’s literally dead do you show them off? RUDE

WAIT WHAT THE FUCK K1-B0 THERE ARE STILL LIVING STUDENTS DOWN THERE

MISSILES TOO -

OH WOW UM OKAY THIS WAS NOT THE QUIET CONTEMPLATIVE END-OF-CHAPTER SCENE I THOUGHT WE’D BE GETTING DEAR LORD

dON’T YOU ‘END TITLE’ CARD ME, GAME

a;sdlkfja

i

i forgot this

happened at the end of the

chapter

oh god

skldfj

ugh, ghghhgh

cool thanks sweetcheeks and I will cherish this forever,,,

...

assuming he survives long enough to

[fresh-outta-jams]

Life in Vivid Color

Life in Vivid Color Hoseok x Reader Soulmate AU

Author: Admin Mo Sequel to Rainbow Connection (Link in Masterlist) Word Count: 2.2k Genre: Fluffy Soulmate Fluff

You fired up your camera and focused the lens on Noodle, your adorable snake.

“Are you ready to meet Hobi today, Noodle?” You asked, reaching out to gently stroke his scaly white head with your index finger. “I think he’s ready. Now, if Hobi will be ready for Noodle is another question entirely. I may or may not have told him about my beautiful baby. But, uh, I’ll edit in the clip of Hobi’s previous experience with snakes later. This won’t be up until he’s here anyway.”

You laughed and turned the camera on yourself. It was obvious you were exhausted, given it was around 4am and you were up for a music video shoot. You checked your phone.

“It is...4:12 am at the moment. I uh, I have a music video shoot today and I have like two hours of makeup because we’re going for a mermaid concept for the Blue music video. Catch me falling asleep in the hair and makeup trailer.” You struggled to keep your eyes open, even standing up. “Stop 1: my coffee machine. Then work. And Hobi is meeting me on set because he may or may not have a teeny role in it. Maybe. Who knows? But yeah, I haven’t seen him since the Disney trip so I really just can’t wait for him to hold me.” You sighed, closing your eyes. “Hobi gives the best hugssssss…I’m so lucky, you don’t even know.”

You made your coffee and scrolled through some of the questions from Twitter you had screen-shotted earlier. “Alright, so a lot of you are asking me if I listened to Hixtape and um, it’s my ringtone, it’s my text tone, it’s my alarm when I wake up. You think I’m exaggerating, but-” Your phone started ringing and Daydream’s chorus started playing. “See? Proud girlfriend.”

“Hey baby,” you answered the phone.

“We’re six hours away. I’m going to sleep but I wanted to say good morning to my rainbow girl.”

“Aww, well good morning, sunshine.” You smiled. “I can’t wait to see you today. I was just talking about you, actually. I’m filming a vlog.”

“Tell your subscribers I say ‘hi’.”

“He says ‘hi’.” You told the camera, causing Hobi to chuckle. “Get some sleep, alright? I’ll see you when you wake up.”

“I love you.”

“Love you too.” You hung up. “God, I love him so much. Listen, kiddos. Everything your parents and teachers tell you about soulmates that you kind of wave off and go ‘oh yeah whatever’, all of that is true. Seems like BS, but the minute I laid my eyes on him, I knew. Mostly because the world literally burst into color, but, yeah. There is so much love in my heart for this man.”

You finished off your vlog and drank your coffee and got to set in time for hair and makeup. The stylists worked, tying your hair back so they could layer the blue wig over top. Then, they created a scale effect on your face and arms, painted gorgeous silver glitter on your eyelids and cheeks. Next, you got into costume, silver shells and a huge sparkling silver tail. It was quite the look. The stylists layered crystalline jewelry on your neck, wrists, and fingers, finishing if off with a crown made of pretty shells.

You filmed most of the beginning of the video, in which you made a daring escape from a sea witch, whose inky black tentacles threatened to drag you into the deep. An analogy to your Gray Syndrome depression. And once you escaped her grasp, and burst free, so did a wave of color. You went through the ocean, slowly restoring the hues and life to the deep sea that had been darkened by her black magic.

The playback footage was amazing. It really got your message through. You had been stuck in that deep pit for so long that even watching it like this really hit home. It was sure to be even more beautiful and powerful once the effects were put in.

“(Y/N), Hoseok is here.” One of the producers told you. You moved to get up but remembered that you were trapped in place by the large silver mermaid tail currently binding your legs together.

“Can someone bring him to me?” You asked, laughing. The crew laughed too, one of the interns running off to find him. “HOBIIIIIIIII!”

“I’m comINGGGG!”

You heard a call steadily growing louder as your soulmate ran to you. He nearly knocked you off of the fake rock you were sitting on and both of you erupted into a fit of giggles. He kissed your cheeks a million times before his lips found yours.

“There’s my rainbow girl.” He smiled and it felt like you were staring directly into the sun.

“I would get up to hug you, but uh-” You motioned to your tail. “I’m stuck.”

“Then I’ll come to you.” Hobi wrapped his arms around you tight, kissing your temple. “I’m ready to be your handsome prince.”

You reached up and gently stroked his cheek with your thumb. “You already are.”

***

Filming went (no pun intended) swimmingly. Hobi filmed his scene and then you filmed your scene together for the ending, and finally, you got out of the tail and back into your leggings and flowy flowery top. As soon as you were free from the wig and makeup and everything else, you ran to where Hobi was standing and jumped into his waiting arms, wrapping your legs around his waist like a koala.

“Much better,” you whispered into his ear, leaning in to peck his cheek.

Hobi’s arms tightened around your waist and he laughed. “I missed you so much, jagi.”

“I missed you too.”

Once you grabbed your stuff, the two of you went through the Panda Express drive-thru and back to your place. You sat at the dining room table across from each other and ate lunch, talking about all of the little things you had forgotten to mention over the phone or in your texts to one another.

As soon as you were finished eating, you headed out onto the town and picked up some of your other musical friends for a beach day adventure.

“So this is the famous J-Hope I’ve heard so much about.” Your friend Natalia slid into the back seat and finally made eye contact with your soulmate. “(Y/N) never stops talking about you.”

“Really?” Hobi smiled and put a hand over his heart, smiling wide. “Awww! Babyyyyy!”

Your face went red and you hid behind your hands. “Don’t look at me, I’m so red.”

Hoseok gently moved your hands away from your face and kissed your cheek. “A beautiful color for my beautiful girl.”

“Aaaaaah, hushhhhh…” You blushed deeper, laughing as he carefully tickled your middle with one of his long fingers. “Hobiiiiii!”

You picked up three other friends and then arrived at the beach in the middle of a perfect, sun-filled day. After pulling your keys out of the car and getting out, you pulled on your white sun hat and shades. A loose white BTS shirt hid your rainbow one-piece, and on your back, it said ‘J-HOOOOOOPE!’ in bold black letters.

“I like your shirt, jagi.” His finger traced a line across your shoulders and then he wrapped his arms around you from behind, kissing your cheek.

“Gotta show the world I’m yours somehow, right?” You grinned.

He laughed and tightened his grip, lifting you off of the ground and into his arms. Hoseok was smiling so bright and the sky was so blue and you swore you had never been happier in your entire life.

Hobi ran over to the umbrella your friends had set up, yelling the whole way while you laughed at him. God, you loved the noises he made. But when he got closer to the water, he ran right past your friends and out to the ocean.

“Hoseok…” You looked up at him with a warning in your eyes. He laughed mischievously. “Hoseok, I swear to God.”

“It’s just water.” He grinned.

You squirmed, trying to escape his grasp before he dropped you into the water, but it was no use. He was stronger than you and determined to put you in those waves.

“You little- aaah!” You shouted as you hit the water. He laughed, getting in the water himself. He didn’t care that his shirt was getting all wet, nor that your sun hat was floating helplessly while you splashed back to the surface.

As soon as you were both above water again, you splashed him, laughing while he did the same. Eventually, you went back to the umbrella and put on sunscreen. Hobi helped get the spot between your shoulder blades and you slathered the thick white cream all over his back, laughing as he squirmed and shrieked at your cold touch.

“(Y/N), did you bring a speaker?” asked Alex, one of your friends from your recording studio. He was the owner’s son, and he and his girlfriend had come to spend the day at the beach with you and the others.

“Should be in my bag. It’s the big Beats pill.”

“Oh, found it.” He pulled it out of the bag and you connected it to your phone through bluetooth.

You clicked on your beach playlist and Katy Perry’s ‘California Girls’ started playing. Hobi began dancing. He spun you around and then pulled you into him. You weren’t all that confident in your dancing, especially compared to your soulmate, who was quite literally a god at it, but you were getting better since you and Silence and Red had been practicing together for a surprise for the boys.

After a while, the six of you started playing a lively game of beach volleyball, and right as you served the ball, a very familiar song started playing. The ball hit the sand on the opposite side of the net and Hobi stopped to listen as Daydream started playing from your speaker. You watched, a grin on your face as he started dancing and excitement spread through him.

“This is your playlist?” He asked.

“Of course this is my playlist.” You laughed, standing on your toes to kiss him. “It’s a bop, babe, of course it’s on my beach playlist.”

“Y’all are too cute.” Natalia turned the volleyball over in her hands. “But that doesn’t mean I’m going easy on you.”

“Bring it on.”

***

You went back to your place later that evening sunkissed and tired as all hell. Hobi carried your stuff inside, despite your offers to help him. He just grinned a sleepy grin and took your big bag from you. You unlocked the door and turned on the lights of your large LA home.

“Jagi, where’s your bathroom?” He asked after setting the bag on the dining room table.

“Down the hall, second door on the right.” You pointed, still half-asleep. It didn’t even occur to you what else was down the hall until you heard his blood-curdling scream.

Noodle.

You sprinted to where Hoseok was frozen, horror in his eyes as he looked at the adorable white scaly creature. “Baby, it’s okay. It’s just Noodle.”

“I-I h-hate s-s-snakeu.” He shuddered.

You wrapped your arms around him from behind and pulled him back, further away from Noodle’s tank, speaking softly as you did so in an attempt to calm him down. “It’s fine. You’re fine. It’s fine. He can’t get the lid off of his tank. Believe me, he’s tried. And even if he did, he doesn’t have fangs.”

He was still shaking, but less now. “Sorry, jagi…” he apologized softly.

“It’s okay to be scared, baby. You don’t need to be sorry.” You walked in front of him and reached up, turning his face down towards yours. Your smile was soft, head tilting to the side and looking over him with concern. “You okay?”

“Mmhmm…” He bent down and buried his face in your shoulder, wrapping his arms around your waist. His arms were still trembling a little bit, but the jitters were slowly seeping out of him as he inhaled your scent and pulled you close. “I’m okay.”

“I’ll make dinner if you want to use the bathroom upstairs instead.”

“I love you,” He whispered, arms holding you just a little tighter.

“I love you too.” You gave Hobi directions to get there and then put a pot of water on the stove.

Around fifteen minutes later, you were sitting at your dining room table, a few candles flickering in the dim room and a large plate of spaghetti sitting between you. Hobi smiled mischievously as he watched the tail end of a long noodle swerve across the plate. While you were distracted by the stars outside, he picked up the end and put it in his mouth. You didn’t even notice until you felt a soft pair of lips against yours and then his large hands framing your soft cheeks.

You kissed him back and both of you stood up from the table, meal long forgotten as you got lost in each other’s touch. It didn’t matter how much you saw him or how often, you realized. You would never get enough of this. You would never get enough of him. 

[goforwardgreenwriter-blog]

The Worm Reads: Empire of Storms, Ch 34 - 37

Because Chapter 38 is a... doozy, today we’’ll be covering some extra chapters. My treat.

She was a liar, and a murderer, and a thief, and Aelin had a feeling she’d be called much worse by the end of this war.

Pfft, I’ve called her worse during these chapter reviews.

Securing this alliance was only part of it. The other part, the bigger part … was the message. Not to Morath. But to the world.

“I mean yeah innocent people might die but who cares I just want attention from the whole world because I’m so ~special~ lol!”

[Aelin] was not a rebel princess, shattering enemy castles and killing kings. She was a force of nature. She was a calamity and a commander of immortal warriors of legend.

No, you’re a selfish asshole who cares only about herself and throws tantrums whenever someone doesn’t immediately bow down to you. Also, love that final nail in the coffin to the original concept of t0g. May the first two books rest in peace.

Gavriel was still too busy staring after Aedion, who hadn’t so much as glanced at his father before fastening his shield and sword across his back, mounting a sorry-looking mare, and galloping for the watchtower.

I S2G SJM, leave Gav alone.

People were panicking in the streets as the dark force took shape on the horizon: massive ships with black sails, converging on the bay as if they were indeed carried on a preternatural wind.

See Alien you fuckin’ prick, innocent people live here!!! And you’re totally okay with them all dying if it means everyone knows what an uber powered snowflake you are you piece of shit!!!!!

Rowan’s hatchet gleaming while he hooked it at his side

Again, total nit pick, but.. why do both Lorcan and Rowboat use hatchets? I mean it’s totally okay, I love other kinds of weapons getting used other than swords, but they both have hatchets? Let’s get some battle axes, maces, and other cool weapons in here!

Aelin strode for them. “Anchor them to the mainmast and make sure there’s enough room for them to reach right … here.” She pointed to where she now stood in the heart of the deck. Enough space clear of everyone, enough space for her and Rowan to work.

I’d point out she doesn’t have authority here, Rolfe does because it’s on his ship, but I might as well talk to a wall. Alien is putting the iron there in order to steady herself while using her magic, FYI. She has so much snowflake power she literally needs restrains lmfao SJM you’re killing me.

[Aelin] flicked a glance toward either watchtower to see Dorian arrive—then Aedion’s golden hair racing up the outer spiral staircase to the enormous mounted harpoon at the top. Her heart strained for a moment as she flashed between now and a time when she’d seen Sam running up those same stairs— not to defend this town, but to wreck it.

I despise Alien but the callback here works pretty well. Whereas back then, Alien was wrecking this town, she is now defending it, even without Sam at her side which highlights how much has changed and how much she’s gone through since her previous visit here. I mean, she is also the reason this town is in danger, but regardless.

Lysandra jumps into the sea and transforms into a sea dragon. I’ve already complained about her OP shifting powers, but I’ll admit, this scene is pretty cool.

Lysandra dove, and she let them see the long, powerful body that broke the surface bit by bit as she plunged down, her jade scales gleaming like jewels in the blinding midday sun. See the legend straight from their prophecies: the Mycenians would only return when the sea dragons did. And so Aelin had ensured that one appeared right in their gods-damned harbor.

Like c’mon, that’s pretty bad ass. Lysandra is a cool character in spite of her shitty powers, and that’s really only the fault of SJM’s crappy magic system. We transition into Assdion’s POV.

Aedion chucked off the shield from his back and slammed into the seat before the giant iron harpoon, its length perhaps a hand taller than him, its head bigger than his own.

So like.... a harpoon cannon, essentially? Because those were invented in the late 19th century. Consistent world building who?

Well, at least [Aedion] now knew what secret form Lysandra had been working on. And why Aelin had insisted on getting inside Brannon’s temple. Not just to see the king, not just to reclaim the city for the Mycenians and Terrasen, but … for Lysandra to study the life-size, detailed carvings of those sea dragons. To become a living myth.

How does this make any sense?? So Lysandra can perfectly replicate the system, the anatomy, and the size and powers of a beast by looking at a drawing of it? The fuck??? She doesn’t even need to see it in real life?

Gonna pull from Animorphs again; the kids have to see the animal in real life and actually touch it to absorb its DNA. They can’t turn into animals they haven’t touched even if they know what they look like. This makes sense in a sci-fi fantasy setting. Lysandra’s shifting powers do not.

Lysandra had studied the carvings of the sea dragons at the temple, once Aelin had burned away the dirt on them. Her magic had filled in gaps the carvings didn’t show. Like the nostrils that picked apart each scent on the current, the ears that unraveled varying layers of sound.

HOW DOES MAGIC DO THAT??? We’ve received several hints magic is its own sentient being but it’s never explained or expanded upon?? Lysandra’s magic is only as old as her, how can it know all these details about a beast she’s never seen? SJM I’m not asking for an amazing magic system, I just want things to be consistent and make sense!

Next chapter!

Perched on the rail of the Sea Dragon, gripping the rope ladder flowing from the looming mast, Aelin savored the cooling spindrift that sprayed her face as the ship plowed through the waves.

Even though the sudden pirate and adventures on the seas element is... well, sudden, I’m all for it. Gimmie some awesome pirate battles!

Tightly grasping the rope, Aelin leaned out, the vibrant blue and white below passing in a swift blur. Not too fast, she’d told Rowan. Don’t waste your strength—you barely slept last night. He’d just leaned in to nip at her ear before sliding onto Gavriel’s bench to concentrate.

You’re in a battle. You’re sailing into almost certain death. Can you not be fucking horny for five seconds please I am b egging. Why couldn’t he have done something pure and sweet like a kiss on the cheek?? Why does everything have to be ~sexual~, SJM?

Aelin again looked ahead—toward those black sails blotting the horizon. The Wyrdkey at her chest murmured in response.

You know what? I’ll take this over “The Wyrdkey between her breasts” any day.

Alien puts on the iron chain to restrain her magic. Rowboat kisses her ass for a bit, then we get this.

“I’ve recovered, I’ll have you know. So this morning’s little display…” “A way to take off the power’s full edge,” [Aelin] said wryly. “And make Rolfe piss himself.”

I hate you.

[Aelin] lifted her head to study [Rowan’s] face, the harsh planes and the curving tattoo. He leaned in to brush a kiss to her mouth.

If Ratlin starts making out during this battle I am actually going to quit. No joke. I’m warning you, SJM.

All anyone on deck saw, she knew, was two lovers embracing. But Aelin tunneled down, down, down into her power, felt him doing the same with his, felt every ounce of ice and wind and lightning go slamming from him into her. And when it reached her, the core of his power yielded to her own, melted and became embers and wildfire.

The actual reason SJM didn’t make a magic system was so she could pull this and justify her OTP making out in the middle of a battlefield. You cannot convince me otherwise.

[Aelin’s] magic whispered to start digging through that ash and silt. But Rowan’s grip tightened on her waist. “Easy,” he murmured in her ear. “Easy.”

If this was a ship I actually liked I’d be living because I love the “loved one helps protag with their uncontrollable magic” thing, but I hate Rowboat and Alien. I can’t even win when SJM uses my favorite tropes.

Alien shits out a huge column of fire out after Rowboat lends her his magic.

Aelin was ripped from his arms with the force of it, and Rowan grabbed her hand in a crushing grip, refusing to let her break that line of contact. Men around them stumbled back, falling onto their asses as they gawked upward in terror and wonder.

Higher, that column of flame swirled, a maelstrom of death and life and rebirth.

Oh my god I get it, Alien is the most powerful snowflake ever

So apparently this fire shit isn’t even burning or attacking their enemies, it’s literally just a display to the world. So Alien is burning (no pun intended) all of her magic just for a pretty fire display for everyone to fear how ~special~ she is? Holy shit. People actually stan this shitstain.

The flames winked out at the same second [Aelin] reached into Rowan with burning hands and tore the last remnants of his power from him. Just as she ripped her hand from his. Just as her power and the Wyrdkey between her breasts merged.

JHNDSJKAHDSKAHDKAHDSAJ SJM STOP YOU FUCKING HORNY ASSHOLE I SWEAR TO FUCKING GOD YOU CANNOT WRITE AN EPIC MOMENT OF YOUR PROTAG DISPLAYING HER MOST POWERFUL MAGIC AND THEN STOP TO FOCUS ON HER BOOBIES FOR NO REASON KAHFKHSKFHDSJKFHKSD

So apparently Alien gets possessed because she was wearing the Wyrdkey. Idiot, why’d you go and do that, then? So who is possessing her?

“Deanna,” Rowan whispered. [Possessed Aelin] flicked her eyes to him in question and confirmation.

So for those who didn’t know, Deanna is a goddess mentioned in some of the other books. So the gods have gone from actual gods that were briefly mentioned to spirits who can possess people.... huh.

We switch into Alien’s POV again as she is unable to do anything while Deanna struts around in her body.

And those flames—her flames and her beloved’s magic … they belonged to the Other now. To a goddess who had walked through the temporary gate hanging between her breasts and seized her body as if it were a mask to wear.

Okay, guys, can we be completely honest with each other here? Tumblr user to Tumblr user? Does this bother anyone else?

Am I over reacting? Because I find it completely undercuts the tension of the moment when I’m suddenly forced to picture a Wyrdkey jammed in between Alien’s boobies. IDK maybe I’m just going crazy after being exposed to this book.

Alien busts a nut after hearing Rowboat’s voice and it’s enough for her to gain the willpower and strength to kick Deanna out. Not enough for her to not immediately fuck everything up though.

The ship beneath her, the center and left flank of the dark fleet beyond her, and the outer edge of the island behind it blew apart in a storm of fire and ice.

God job, Alien! If any innocent people died it’s all on you. Fuck you.

My god. We’re only on chapter 36. I... I’m going to break.....

Aelin drifted down, as she had drifted into her power, the weight of the Wyrdkey around her neck like a millstone— Deanna. She didn’t know how, didn’t know why— The Queen Who Was Promised.

Hm.. that sounds familiar.... lemmie just Google it to see if-

INCH RESTING...

Didn’t SJM once claim she hated Game of Thrones? Lmfao she’s so full of shit.

What had she done what had she done what had she done—

Later. Later, [Aelin]’d deal with that rutting goddess who had thought to use her like some temple priestess. Later, she’d contemplate how she’d shred through every world to find Deanna and make her pay.

Okay, but.. is this just Alien fuming or can she, like, actually do that? What are the gods in this world? Are they just spirits who can teleport between worlds I’m?? so confused???

Fenrys takes Alien, since she’s such an idiot who couldn’t save herself from drowning in a puddle, and jumps from the remainders of Rolfe’s ship. Good fucking job, Alien. Can’t wait to see how the narrative justifies this.

Think of that later. Aelin shoved through and ducked under larger bits of debris, past… Past men. Rolfe’s men. Dead in the water. Was the captain among them somewhere?

She doesn’t even give a shit she killed dozens, maybe even more, of innocent people on her side! But I have no doubt she’ll angst about it later but only so Rowboat can fuck her and convince her it’s not her fault even though it fucking is.

While Alien is busy wailing for someone to comfort her poor feefees, Lysandra actually makes an effort to save Rolfe and his first mate even though the sea wyverns are an issue.

Blood laced the current. And not the puffs that had been staining the water since the ship exploded. Great, roiling clouds of blood. As if massive jaws clamped around a body and squeezed.

Ain’t that edgy. We all know SJM is gonna forget all this gore and death took place once the porn kicks in.

[Lysandra] was so tired. Shifting afterward might not even be possible for a few hours.

So amassing the power to shift into a huge ass dragon doesn’t tire you out.... but destroying a few ships with your dragon form. Okay, SJM, okay.

tl;dr Lysandra kills the two sea wyverns and the chapter ends. One more to go for this review... one more....

Assdion’s POV opens up this chapter, where it’s revealed the two sea wyverns Lysandra killed were just juveniles, and there are three adults.

Faster and faster, those three bulls closed in. Lysandra remained at the mouth of the bay. Holding the line.

Even though her magic pisses me off, I think I’m about to stan Lysandra. Here she is, weakened with no magic left, and she’s willing to make a final stand and protect her friends.

The three wyverns spread out, so huge Aedion’s throat went dry. And for the first time, he hated his cousin. He hated Aelin for asking this of Lysandra, both to defend them and to secure the Mycenians to fight for Terrasen.

WHAT THE FUCK??? ASSDION NOT PRAISING ALIEN’S EVERY ACTION???? This can’t be right. This can’t be the Assdion who is only a plot device to kiss Alien’s ass...

Lysandra destroys the last warship and traps one of the wyverns into impaling himself on the remains. Then she leads the other two near Dorian’s tower, where he freezes one of them.

Dorian loosed a battle cry. And Aedion had to admit the king wasn’t that useless after all as the catapult behind Dorian sprang free, and a rock the size of a wagon jettisoned into the bay

Lmao bitch you thought! You've literally done nothing this battle while Dorian is out here killing a sea wyvern so you can climb off your high horse, Assdion. Also, Lysandra loses sight of the final wyvern.

Aedion scanned the bay, rotating in the gunner chair as he did, searching for any hint of that colossal dark shadow— “YOUR LEFT!” Gavriel roared across the bay, magic no doubt amplifying his voice.

Hate when dialogue is typed in all caps. Also magic can now be used as a megaphone? Lmfao aiight.

“SWIM,” Aedion roared, even if she couldn’t hear. “SWIM, LYSANDRA!”

Assdion doesn’t even have Gav’s megaphone magic powers, so you have no excuse for this shit, SJM.

Lysandra swims for the beach and Assdion rushes to her while everyone celebrates. This is a good concept, so like, can anyone write this but with a good ship? Might have to make a self indulgent AU for one of my ships just to scrub away the filth of this novel.

“Open your gods-damned eyes,” Aedion snarled. [Lysandra] snarled back but cracked open an eye. “You made it this far. Don’t die on the rutting beach.” The eye narrowed—with a hint of female temper.

Why the fuck is temper gendered now? SJM, you saying a woman’s temper is somehow different than a man’s? You implyin’ all women have bad tempers and they should be shamed for it? What the fuck is the point of this?

Aedion drawled, even as his relief began to crumble his mask of arrogant calmness, “The useless sentries in the watchtower are now all half in love with you,” he lied. “One said he wanted to marry you.”

Uh... why you lyin’ Assdion? I think he’s trying to compliment her, but this is kinda weird?

“But you know what I told them? I said that they didn’t stand a chance in hell.” Aedion lowered his voice, holding her pained, exhausted stare. “Because I am going to marry you,” he promised her. “One day. I am going to marry you. I’ll be generous and let you pick when, even if it’s ten years from now. Or twenty. But one day, you are going to be my wife.”

FUCK I would like (some of) this scene if it wasn’t for Assdion..... Someone rewrite this but with a good ship please.

Those eyes narrowed—in what he could only call female outrage and exasperation.

... I’m done. We’re packing this chapter up.

Alien and the others show up and Assdion realizes that Alien used the Wyrdkey and nearly killed all of them. He’s understandably mad but criticism against Alien? Rowboat’s Fae peen says no!

[Assdion] was shaking now, that rage indeed taking over. But Rowan snarled at him, low and vicious, “Save it for later.”

Oh fuck you, Rowboat. You know damn well you’ll never let anyone criticize Alien. This entire fucking narrative sucks up to Alien so much and I’m pissed. If your characters make stupid ass mistakes, punish them for it! Let them know! Don’t pretend they’re perfect uwuu unproblematic babies and let others criticize them without being portrayed as villains for it GOD I’M SO FUCKING DONE

As if SJM is trying to throw me a bone, there’s this.. actually decent scene afterwards. Gav watches Assdion as he watches over Lysandra until she has the energy to shift back. SJM refers to Assdion/Gav as the Wolf and the Lion though, gets kinda repetitive.

Sand crusted [Lysandra’s] naked body, and she tried and failed to rise. The Wolf moved then, slinging his cloak around her and sweeping her into his arms. The shifter didn’t object, and her eyes were again closed by the time the Wolf began striding up the beach to the trees, her head leaning against his chest.

In a better world where Assdion wasn’t an ass to Lysandra and he was a good character... I would ship this. Fuck. Just gonna go casually write this scene but with one of my OTPs  so I can get this sweet gesture without Assdion’s shitty personality.

The Lion remained out of sight and held in the offer of help. Held in the words he needed to say to the Wolf, who had downed a sea-wyvern with one arrow. Twenty-four years old and already a myth whispered over campfires.

Fuck... the way Gav describes his son as an outsider, since Assdion hasn’t accepted him yet... it’s really good. I love this. Damnit why can’t the rest of the novel be like this?

If you guys thought these chapters were bad, buckle up. Because the next chapter is the long dreaded it.

Yup, next time we’re covering the Ratlin sex scene.

[ryik-the-writer]

A03

Previous Chapters

Chapter 1: Pan meets a Wendy

Chapter 2: Scars (Felix’s Story)

Chapter 3: Day One

Chapter 4: Revenge and Fireflies

Chapter 5: Brighter than Stars

Chapter 6: filler: The Tigress

Chapter 7: Operation Spotless!

Chapter 8: Operation Spotless: Reporters Down

Chapter 9: A Dance with the Devil

Chapter 10: filler: Felix and the Pancake

Chapter 11: The Girl with Blue Eyes pt. 1

Chapter 12: The Girl with Blue Eyes pt. 2

Chapter 13: The Girl with Blue Eyes pt. 3

Chapter 14. Recovery

Chapter 14.2 Recovery some more

Chapter 15: Trapped

Chapter 16: Fairydust pt. 1

-,-,-,-,-,-

Pros of going home for the summer: free food (when someone goes bloody food shopping), free wifi (when someone plays the bloody bill) and my cats (no problems here they’re perfect).

Cons of going home for the summer: You lovely people get a chapter I finished at 4:30 in the morning because I can’t sleep with all these damn people going in and out of the living room I sleep in :) This is really just an idea I was tinkering (pun intended) with when I first began writing this story, so I thought now would be the time to incorporate it into the fic.

P.S. I’m sure some of you have heard of the wildfires in Greece. If you’d like to help, please try sending money and supplies to the Greece Red Cross.

-,-,-,-      

The sound of muffled yelling greeted her as she reached Tink’s floor. Her defensive instincts broke through her tiredness and she readied for a fight. As she turned the corner she was surprised to see Felix standing outside the door, pacing in small circles and chewing on one of his thumbnails.

Wendy’s heart ceased its pounding when she saw that he wasn’t in fight-mode like her, but her spine remained straight as she edged closer. They exchanged worried glances, the yelling behind Tink’s door becoming more audible.

“We’ve been through this a thousand times, just leave me alone!”

“How dare you raise your voice at me!”

Wendy tensed at the sound unfamiliar and gritty female voice. Tink Le’Belle was beloved around town, even by Granny who was the closest thing to a rival she had. Who could she possible have as an enemy?

“I will raise my voice at whoever I want to! I’m twenty-three years old and you will not ever tell me what to do again!”

Wendy glanced at Felix, hoping he could relay an explanation to the commotion, but he looked too nervous to answer questions.

“You’re living in sin with that boy!”

“Not this crap again!”

“Oh God.” Felix moaned.

“Should we…intervene?” Wendy inquired as the two women continued to yell at each other.

“Absolutely not.” Felix sighed. “My presence just makes things worst. Not to mention the last time I got in the middle of them I had one of my worst seizures to date.”

“Who…” Before she could finish her question, the door burst open and a woman in a blue convent outfit stormed out of Tink’s apartment, causing both Wendy and Felix to jump out of her path. She spared a look Wendy’s way, but she paused to full-on glare at Felix, as if everything that the loud conversation that had occurred in Tink’s apartment was somehow his fault.

Felix matched her glare, his sharp jaw clenching in an unforgiving line. He’d always looked so fragile to Wendy, pale and lanky. However, compared to the woman in blue, who’s eyes were as hard as diamonds and spine as straight as a telephone pole, he seemed unabatingly powerful.

With a loud huff the woman stalked down the hallway to the stairs, leaving behind a confused Wendy and a seething Felix, who burst into Tink’s apartment as soon as the woman was out of sight.

Wendy paused to listen to Felix’s muffled apologies, her heart clenching when she heard a muffled feminine sob.

“She’s always doing this.” Tink cried quietly.

“We can still get a restraining order.” Felix returned soothingly. “She can make sure she never comes near you again.”

Wendy swallowed, feeling powerless, and for whatever reason, guilty. She was surrounded by so many mysteries and thus knew of no way to help anyone, especially the young woman who had been nothing but kind to her from day one. As she looked on at the comforting domestic scene in Tink’s living room, she wondered if she could help at all. Felix seemed to be giving her all the relief she needed because he whispered something into her ear and she giggled softly, the tears on her cheeks drying into the lines of her smile.

Wendy managed a small smile, but her heart remained heavy and her curiosity peaked.

Tink finally noticed her presence and sat up, wiping her eyes and smiling brightly.

“Hey,” she greeted. “How was your day?”

Oh god he’s dead!

You and Jekyll?

This is my business, my life! Stay the hell out of it you nosy pest!”

He’s my brother!

“Fine.” Wendy lied, holding her breath when she caught a phantom whiff of corpse and woods. “Is…everything okay here?”

Tink rolled her eyes. “Just some crap from my past I can’t seem to get away from.”

Wendy nodded. She could certainly understand that.

Tink stood, rubbing her hands together as she fell back into her usual mode.

“You want to order in? Or I’ve got a frozen pizza in the freezer…”

“Actually,” Wendy began, the subject she had wanted to bring up between her and Pan’s rescue from the evil turkey and the car ride pushing back into her attention. “I was thinking I’d use the rest of the night…to gather my things.”

“Oh…” Tink’s smile fell some, and Felix gave her an odd look.

“Yeah,” Wendy said, clenching and unclenching her hands. “I…had an experience today that helped me realize that I will be okay on my own. I think the bad karma’s left.”

Tink nodded, her smile sad but understanding.

“I hate to throw this on you now…” Wendy apologized.

“No! Not at all. This is a weekly occurrence.” Tink laughed, though the sound was strained.

A moment of silence followed, not tense but still unwelcomed. Wendy couldn’t understand why the lack of sound made her feel so nervous.

“I’ll pull the car around.” Felix suggested, bringing in just enough sound to ease the anxiety creeping through Wendy’s mind. When the door closed behind him, Tink stood and offered to help Wendy pack.

It took little to no time to gather Wendy’s toiletries (Wendy was ever the immaculate houseguest), however it took her and Tink a moment to find her clothes. The girls were about the same size and borrowed each other’s clothing, which only now had become an issue.

“I can just come back for anything I leave.” Wendy assured as Tink ruffled through her closet.

“No, it’s that lace shirt, the one you made yourself? I’ll never give it back if you leave it here.”

Wendy nodded. The shirt was one she made back during her fabrication phase that had somehow survived despite the frail fabric.

Wendy turned and began going through her drawers. Her hands scaled through a cluster of t-shirts until her fingertips grazed something cold. She held her breath, praying that she didn’t pull out something totally nonsensical like a gun or a sex toy. A quick peak assured her that it was neither of those things and she pulled the object out with a sigh of relief.

It took her a moment to understand what she was looking at. It was old and heavy, obviously some kind of silver that needed a good polish, with cloudy jewels running down the middle. It looked like an old cross, the ancient kind one would see in historic cemeteries, only this one was broken towards the bottom, as if it had been sawed in half.

“Please be careful with that!” Tink cried when she finally noticed Wendy. She took the object from Wendy’s hand, holding it close to her chest. “It’s really old.”

“I can see that.” Wendy said. “What is it?”

Tink placed the object on her dresser, running a finger down its cold metallic surface.

“It’s part of a cross my parents left behind when they gave me up.”

Wendy watched her friend, the information she just released hitting her immediately. Was there anyone in this town who didn’t have a horrible family secret?

The way Tink had said it however wasn’t necessarily sad, but accepting of the situation. Still, it made Wendy wonder what kind of parents could give up someone like Tink.

“I’m…sorry.” Wendy said, unsure of what else she could say. “I didn’t mean to pry.”

“No, it’s fine.” Tink assured. “It’s just…today brought up some bad memories.”

“That women…” Wendy led.

Tink rolled her eyes. “The head nun from the convent. Mother Superior. More like Mother pain in my ass!”

Wendy calmed a growing smirk. “Is she technically your mother, or…”

“Surrogate, but just barely.” Tink sat down on the end of her bed and Wendy took it as an invitation to join her. It was time for another story, it would seem.

“I was left on the doorstep of the nunnery shortly after I was born. According to my file I had some of my umbilical cord still attached.”

Wendy gasped. “Oh my.”

“The nuns took me in, raised me, and Mother Superior was there to monitor every waking second of my life.”

A dark thought entered Wendy’s mind and she hesitated only for a moment before voicing it.

“She didn’t…do anything to you, did she?” To her surprise, Tink snorted in response.

“Geez Wendy Darling, get your head out of the Twilight Zone. You’ve been spending too much time around Pan.”

“Tell me about it.” Wendy muttered. “But back to you, why was she here earlier?”

“The same reason she always stops by: she’s trying to get me to join the convent permanently.”

Wendy blinked, trying to envision Tink in the same stuffy outfit Mother Superior had been wearing instead of her ripped jeans and green tank top. It just didn’t seem plausible.

“At eighteen, any of the children who live at the convent get to choose to convert or go out on their own.” Tink explained. “I chose to leave, and she’s been trying to pull me back ever since.”

“Why didn’t you want to stay? Free rent, three meals a day. It might be a set routine but you’d never be without a home.”

“That place was never a home.” Tink said. “It was a building I lived in. Sure, there were good people in there, and I was never cold or hungry, but Mother Superior made it so constraining. I could never have friends or wear what I wanted. I couldn’t even watch TV or listen to music! I’m the only person in town who didn’t know who Lana del Rae was!”

Wendy chuckled but straightened up quickly. “You decided to leave and make your own decisions. Nothing wrong with that.”

“Well it…wasn’t just wanting to get out of the convent.” Tink said with a small smile. “It was the people I met, Lily Tirgress, Pan…and Felix.”

“Ah.” Wendy smiled. “You fell in love.”

“Well, not at first.” Tink scoffed, leading both girls to laugh.

“Well, details.” Wendy insisted.

“Let’s see…I was home-schooled up until eighth grade. I wanted to live during my last years of school, so I begged Mother Superior to let me enroll, suggested a “religious” presence might influence the other students.”

“Clever.” Wendy commented.

“Believe it or not, it was Pan’s suggestion, but that’s a different story. Anyway, I was enrolled into Storybrooke High and smoking cigarettes in the girls’ locker room by the third day.”

Wendy laughed. Her high school experience involved her eating lunch in the library and becoming a legend after she nearly set the home economics room on fire when one of the sewing machines started smoking.

“By the time graduation came around, I was ready to permanently transition into the real world. Felix and I even discussed getting a place together before…” Tink paused, a painful glint flashing in her deep green eyes.

“What happened?” Wendy pressed carefully.

“Felix had his accident.” Tink relayed, the words sounding heavy on her tongue. “His parents were killed and he spent a few months healing. It put a damper on our plans.”

Wendy thought about the scar that ran over Felix’s face. She had figured he had sustained it from an accident, but hadn’t realized the severity of it’s origins.

“Mother Superi-ass said it was God’s punishment.” Tink said, her voice hard as diamonds. “I was out of the convent in an hour.”

Wendy thought of something to say. She and her girlfriends back home never had conversations this deep.

“Things…seem better now.” She tested.

“They are.” Tink agreed, her spirit’s lifting. “I have a good job, a good boyfriend, and most days good friends when Pan isn’t being an ass. I have a good life.”

Wendy noted just a twinge of hesitation when she said the last bit, but her smile was convincing enough that she didn’t press for more. Then again, why would she press for more? This was Tink’s business, and details on her life should be given, not inquired upon.

Still, Wendy’s natural curiosity was peaked, and she needed to leave before she asked anything Tink wasn’t ready to share.

“You can keep the shirt.” Wendy declared. “Consider it a thank you for…everything.”

Tink blushed and nudged Wendy with her hip.

“Deal.”

-,-,-,-,-

“Wendy?”

Something was touching her hair.

“Wendy!”

Something was pulling it.

The intern journalist just up from her desk, her mind going into an instant panic before her blurry surroundings became clearer.

Pan was standing at her desk, hands shoved in his pockets, revealing his innocence.

“God your hair looks awful.”

Wendy sighed, her brain hardly awake to deal with his insults.

“Then I suggest you never cut yours this length. What do you want?”

“The janitor said you’ve been here since 4. Did Tink kick you out?”

Wendy shook her head as her heartbeat returned to its normal pace.

Upon her return to her apartment last night, she was met with instant regret with her brave decision to move back to her place. Every noise made her heart skip a beat and every shadow looked like it was coming towards her. She had kept all her lights on and had headed to the paper as soon as one of the janitors had come to unlock the doors at 4 a.m. She had meant to keep herself busy, but the second she had sat at her desk she crashed.

“I um…wanted to get started on the Jekyll story.”

“Already wrote it. Come with me to the printers, give it a look.” He stormed off before she could reply, giving her the chance to notice that his limp was nearly nonexistent now, though she could still see the ghosts of several scars he had accumulated in the last few weeks.

She followed him cautiously, recalling their last encounter. His coldness, and then his confusing revelation about Gold. Why had he done that, and what had he thought it would accomplish revealing to her?

What would it change between them?

She was barely in the room before Pan shoved a sheet of paper in her hands.

BODY OF FORMER MORTICIAN FOUND IN CAR

“Former mortician?” Wendy scoffed, her skin crawling. “That’s much too nice for what he was.”

Pan shrugged before busying himself with something. “Glass wouldn’t let me use “Ex-sociopath dead, good riddance”.”

Wendy hid a smile and read through the article, checking off the details in her head. It was cut and dry, omitting the details about how her and Pan were held captive in the car by a turkey. Coroner details provided that Jekyll had been killed the night he had held Wendy and Pan captive and that no fingerprints or other evidence had been found.

“Oh no.” Wendy gasped when she got to the third paragraph.

“…with Jekyll’s body being found on his property, Booth will be held for questioning...”

“Sheriff Graham doesn’t really believe he had anything to do with it does he?” Wendy inquired out loud.

“Would he be in an interrogation if he didn’t?” Pan snarked.

Wendy glared at him and laid the story down. “And you’re not concerned? You two were…” Wendy stopped herself. Assuming that anyone was anything to Pan was dangerous, and really just an argument-starter.

“We were what?” Pan smirked, his eyes filled with a dangerous darkness.

Drop it.

“Something.” Wendy breathed, the word flowing out so easily despite how hard she had tried to contain it.

The silence that followed her declaration was heavy, and shifted the possibility of peace for the two of them away.

Pan’s glare was strong, but he gave no comeback, no insult or jab to her person. Because for once (as far as he was concerned at least) she was indeed correct. But not about August.

She had used that same word when she described Jekyll. Something.

He was something with everyone in his life, even to those he deemed dearer to him then most (but they would never know it).

They weren’t lovers, or friends, and they sure as hell weren’t family. Those words were too personal.  They were just something.

But you’re not just something, Wendy.

“If he’s innocent, Graham will snuff it out and he’ll be free.”

Wendy shook her head, the idea that he was still pretending he didn’t care astonishing her. She’d seen his vulnerable side enough times already.

Why is he still cutting me out?

“Whatever.” Wendy sighed, shoving the story back to him. “I have something else I wanted to talk to you about anyway.”

Pan paused, his stomach curling with anticipation. It had to be about Gold. Why the hell had he told her about him!

“Well?” Pan introduced, leaning against the desk casually while his heart drummed in his chest.

Wendy worried her lip, the subject she was about to approach having followed her home and distracted her from the darker parts of her mind.

“What do you know about Tink’s parents?”

Pan blinked, the question catching him completely off guard. When the hell had Tink told her about that? And how had he not known that she had told her? He realized he hadn’t spent a lot of time around them lately but…

“Why…do you want to know that?” Pan inquired quickly.

“So you do know something?”

“Perhaps, but answer my question first.”

Wendy frowned, calling his bluff. “You know bullocks.”

“Any knowledge I have is some that you do. That’s…” he smirked. “something.”

“Wanker.” Wendy growled. But he had a point. He had roots in Storybrooke and knew where each one led.

“Fine.” Wendy surrendered. “The…head nun came to Tink’s apartment last night. She was really upset and then she brought up how she was abandoned at the convent. I thought maybe someone had to see something that night. Sheriff Graham wasn’t even an officer then so…you’re my only option. You…have a way of finding buried things.”

“True.” Pan agreed cockily. “But you might not want to go digging for this skeleton, little bird.”

“And just why not?”

“Because it’s too personal.” Pan answered, his tone changing to genuine concern. “Not to mention if Tink wanted to know about her parents, she would have gone digging for the information when she turned 18. She didn’t want to know then, and nothing’s changed.”

“You don’t know that.” Wendy retorted. “You didn’t see her face. Maybe there’s something else, information she wasn’t given. Something I can find for her.”

Pan’s eyes lowered, and Wendy could only imagine what he was thinking.

“You mentioned yesterday that you and Glass came across records, in the library?”

“Yes.” Wendy nodded. “He mentioned that it was the town’s storage unit.”

“Start there. The nuns keep crap there as well. Then check the newspaper archives.”

Wendy nodded, smiling gratefully before turning to run out of the print room. “Thank you. Let Glass know I’m taking the day off.”

“I’m not your fucking secretary!” he yelled after her, feeling surprisingly unfulfilled when she didn’t respond.

The silence that followed her departure seeped into his mind, echoing, drumming his senses.

Oh no…

Not the quiet.

Pan grabbed as stack and printing paper and hurled it at the window. He breathed in relief when the clattering sound filled the room.

He quickly turned on the printer to fill the void, his mind racing as fast as the papers on the belt.

Wendy hadn’t asked about Belle, or about their fight yesterday. She hadn’t even wanted to continue talking about Jekyll or August or the rest of the filth they encountered on their latest adventure. Didn’t she want to know?

Didn’t she still care?

Why is she cutting me out?

-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Now that she was standing outside of the library where nine days ago she almost met a ghastly end, Wendy wondered if finding out Tink’s past was worth the panic attack she felt coming on.

Police tape and a fresh lock closed off the door she and Glass had gone through during their research session. They had tried to solve the mystery of Belle’s disappearance on their own, but all they had accomplished was another trip to the hospital.

Jekyll and Pinnock were dead, and the police force had raided their underground prison for more danger. There was nothing to be afraid of, yet she was still terrified. Maybe she should have asked Pan to come along. His company was better than the crippling silence that usually followed her around.

She turned on her cellphone flashlight, her hand shaking as she used the light to find a different entry. She wasn’t even sure what to look for, or even if she would find anything at all. This town had so many secrets under its charming facade. Jekyll’s was literally buried underground. She could only imagine where Tink’s would lead her to.

Without much searching Wendy managed to find a window. Heavy from year of untreated rust, it took some effort to open and crawl through it, resulting in Wendy scrambling for a grip on the wall when her foot got caught in the window. With an annoyed huff, she snatched her foot forward, freeing her but causing her to fall face-first into the dusty library floor.

“Ow.” she groaned as she pulled herself up, rubbing her chin from the impact. Otherwise unscathed, she picked herself up and shown her phone light around the room. She was surrounded by mountains of boxes, all covered in layers of dust and unmarked.

“Great.” Wendy huffed. “This is going to take a while.”

Four hours later, Wendy’s hands were caked black and her nose was pink from sneezing so much. But, miracles of miracles, she had finally found a box of files from the year Tink was born.

She had the files spread out by month, squinting through the contents for anything to do with a found baby. She was relying solely on the light peeking through the boarded windows, her phone battery having gotten too low to support the flashlight any longer.

Finally, she found a file labeled “Convent infant: 1991” and Wendy hissed in self-congrats. She flipped the file open, her eyes instantly falling on a photo of an infant labeled “Margatink La’Belle”. Wendy smiled at the picture of her friend, the idea that she was once small and helpless instead of the confident woman she was now.

She carefully through the details of the file, all of which was cut and dry and containing the same details Tink had described: a nun had heard her crying and found her on the steps of the convent. The nuns called the police but with the convent not having cameras at the time, the person (or people) who dropped Tink off remained unfound.

Wendy sighed when the information ended, leaving her in a dead end. Closing the file, she headed to the archives in the back, hoping any story that was published on the incident would have more information.

Her head was throbbing by the time she found articles from October 1991. There was mostly small-town drabbles, such as construction at the diner and new playground equipment. Wendy wondered briefly when exactly Storybrooke became as hectic as it had when she arrived.

A picture of a bundled baby caught Wendy’s attention, and the headline caused her heart to pound with excitement.

NEWBORN BABY ABANDONED AT CONVENT

“Newborn…” Wendy mused, reading ahead.

Sister Corrine Blue, 17, discovered the abandoned infant shortly after 1 a.m. Wednesday night. A doctor’s analysis showed that the baby was just over a week old and still had an umbilical cord stomp in her belly button.

“Poor Tink.” Wendy sighed.

The baby was abandoned with a wicker basket, flannel shirt, and a broken metal cross. The other half of the cross has yet to be located.

“We’re very grateful that the child is healthy, and the Sisters of Saint Meissa will do everything to make her comfortable until social services decide on a plan of action.” Blue said.

Wendy read through the article again, look carefully for other details that she may have missed the first time. The only addition information she found was a small article stating that the convent had been allowed to adopt her. It would seem that Tink’s story ended there, but Wendy knew that it was the event leading up to her adoption into the convent that was most important.

After snapping photos of the pictures in the articles, she pulled out her notebook and began making a list of possible interviewees. Mother Superior was already at the top, being that she had taken responsibility for Tink’s upbringing. If she found Tink, then she might have seen something else. Then, of course, was Sheriff Graham. He may not have been sheriff then, but he could still tell her who his predecessor was. And finally, the author of the article, Sydney Glass.

As Wendy ready through the list, another name came to mind. It was a long shot, but any information anyone could provide would help.

Especially if that particular person owned the town and knew every corner of its happenings.

Mr. Gold.

-,-,-,-

Part two is almost done, but damn if this chapter wasn’t 8000+ words and bordering on 23 pages! It would have taken me months to edit!

[sharethisgemwithme]

R’s blind watch, In Too Deep

At the start of this month, R moved from her previous house, two or three towns away from me, to move in with her fiancé, a 45 minute drive away. So watch sessions will be less frequent, especially once the school year starts up and I have to go back to work, but we intend to make them count when they happen. As evidence, our first session at the new place covered the first half of season 3. I’ll keep the posts limited to 5 or so episodes at a time, though, especially when they’re in an arc.

Key: “Show dialogue”, R talking, me (J) talking

3x01 “Super Watermelon Island” - As Melon!Steven #1 roams through the village: I thought they were all just Stevens, but there’s a dog and... horses? Is this whole episode just gonna have no talking because they’re watermelons? This part is no talking, but it’s not the whole episode. As Melon!Steven #1 is offered up for sacrifice: Ahh, okay. [Malachite appears] OH SHIT! That scene remains my all time #1 favorite for liveblogs, btw. The first appearance of Stevonnie is a close second, but there’s enough lead up that you can kinda see it coming... Malachite is a complete curveball and it’s HILARIOUS to watch someone who doesn’t know it’s coming.

No big discussion as the fight gets started, but then Melon!Steven #2 goes and gets the reinforcements: They all look exactly the same except for the couple. The watermelons begin to fight: This is stupid and adorable. “You two should spend some time apart.” [snicker] After the battle is won, and Melon!Steven #2 goes star-eyed: Gee, I wonder which one is Steven. Jasper falls down the hole. Bye-bye, fucker! Like, for good? Or just for now. For now. Not forever. “You got this, Steven. You know the drill!” Ayyyyyyyyyyyyy. “And Steven...” I love you? “We love you.” Close enough. I briefly talked after this episode about the fact that everything in the show is from Steven’s perspective (allowing for stories being told to him), which helped explain why the opening scene is such a weird moment.

3x02 “Gem Drill” - When Peridot puts on the music, R called it “schmaltzy”. Her assessment of the parts where Steven was being surrounded by ghostfaces was Actually kind of terrifying imagery. Pretty cool though. And when the episode ended: Really? That’s sweet, but... really? We talked about how many (including me) found the resolution to the Cluster arc... sudden and unfulfilling.

R: Will any of them find the rest of their selves in there? In the way Steven’s suggesting?

J: I mean, they could, but there’s a lot of them.

R: So... is that it?

J: For now, yeah, basically that’s it.

3x03 “Same Old World” - As Steven’s attention is drawn to the barn: Huh? What am I missing? They brought someone else back. Wait, what? Lapis is sleeping in the barn. Oh, right. When the rest of the gems are packing up, and Peridot decides to stay. Did the barn always have that gaping hole in it? It’s from when Peridot used her giant robot to break out. “I should probably fix the hole that I made with my giant robot.” Well, there we go. As Steven is trying to find Lion: “You can't hide from me too long because you love me soooo much!” They drop the L word VERY loosely. Just sayin’. When Steven and Lapis begin their flight: They’re gonna fly around and she’s gonna decide Beach City is okay. “What happens in Empire City... never sleeps!” What? I thought they were going for a New York, but... It’s New York mixed in with some other things. At episode’s end when Lapis decides to stick around, and Peridot shows up: Oh, Jesus Christ. I actually joked in either Loreweaver’s or Zephyr’s discord that I should start an “Oh Jesus Christ” count for how many times R just gets exasperated by the show. Usually it’s bad puns.

3x04 “Barn Mates” - I hope you’re a fan of Friends-style shenanigans. I was never a fan of that show. When Steven suggests splitting the barn in half: Oh shit. No no no no. “I like the cut of your gem, Steven Quartz!” Kiss ass. As Peridot rants about how Yellow Diamond is out to get her: She doesn’t care about you. When Peridot writes the card to Lapis, and Lapis reads it aloud: Oh for-- why didn’t Steven edit it!? R correctly predicted that the tape recorder was getting smashed, but still recoiled a bit at “I don’t want... your garbage.”

After the Ruby pops out to set the stage for the next episode, we had some conversation:

R: Why a Ruby? Do they want Sapphire back?

J: Why are you saying “Why a Ruby?”

R: Well what are they trying to do? Someone else should be the explorers. Are they actually here for Peridot?

J: They’re here for someone.

R: I guess they’re the away team?* Does the placement of the gem mean anything? Or was that just to get a badass shot?

J: In the case of that Ruby, pretty much for the badass shot. But for the principal gems, there is a lot of symbolism to gem placement. So Pearl thinks with her head, Garnet’s very hands-on, and so forth.

* - I am just realizing as I type this up what a (completely unintentional, of course) dumb sports joke this turned out to be. The rubies were, in fact, the away team in the baseball game! Of course, she meant it in the Star Trek sense.

3x05 “Hit the Diamond” - As CG-Ruby walks up: Hey guys, what’s up, what’s happening? When Steven suggests the baseball game, we got the first of MANY Oh god interjections. I called attention to the episode title: Hit the DIAMOND. So many of us thought, “oh shit, the Diamonds are coming?!” Nope. It’s baseball. CG-Ruby and Sapphire flirting got a lot of the Oh god groans. But when all was said and done: I didn’t hate that episode as much as I thought I would.

I’ll probably put the rest of that watch session (”Steven Floats” through “Kiki’s Delivery”) in a single post, sometime in the next few days. We did have another session the following week, so we’ve finished Season 3, but I’ve got a lot of typing up of notes to catch up on.

[pamy92]

Tango on the Campania (Ishikawa run) Review

This is a fan review of the Ishikawa run of Musical Kuroshitsuji: Tango on the Campania (TotC), for both 3rd February (setsubun special) and 4th February shows. I also had a glorious close-up view of Ciel and Sebastian when they appeared behind my seat. SO READ ON TO FIND OUT MORE! 

ABOUT ME

 I have been watching Kuromyu ever since the first musical. I am glad to be able to finally watch it live in person after all these years. I am also a huge musical nerd, and am musically and dance trained. I also live in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, right now. 

I attended the opening show on Saturday and the closing show on Sunday! Super happy to be part of the special setsubun celebration during the curtain call, and I’ll share more later in this review. My seats were on row 10 (Saturday) and row 18 (sunday), so I am pretty close to the stage!

This review will not contain huge spoilers or a full summary of the entire plot, so you can go ahead and continue reading without dying from spoilers.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

IT. WAS. AMAZING! I was pretty bummed about the circus version last year because the music was just...bad. Pretty sure their entire budget went into the costumes and acrobatics department instead of music 

For TotC, It is pretty fast paced but it has the key stuff from the Campania arc! The set is beautiful, the Bizarre Dolls were great, dance choreography marvellous as usual. Kudos to the supporting cast! There was no bad singing at all (unlike in Noah’s Ark Circus).  You’ll tear up at the sad parts and you’ll get chills at the scary parts and great singing! It’s THAT good!

There are some slight changes in the Saturday and Sunday ad-libbed parts, in consideration to fans who attended both days. Bless them! <3

MUSIC & SONGS

The music in TotC was so good! But of course, it cannot beat the masterpiece of Lycoris featuring our vocal prowess Akane Liv. Yuta Furukawa (Sebastian) was so good, and his songs really show off his vocal talent. 

My favourite song is ‘私は執事、あなたは伯爵’ (I am a butler and you are an Earl), especially Part 2 reprise of this song when Sebastian sings about Ciel’s soul after realising his little Master isn’t content with just being an Earl and wants revenge. The lyrics then changed to ‘I am a demon butler and you are a fake Earl’. So so SO GOOD!! 

The other side characters had very nice songs too, especially the 2nd comic-relief song ‘Ey yo, Ey yo!’ sung by Viscount Druitt. It was hilarious! Druitt is a GREAT singer and in his first song, he did this flamboyant pose and crooned ‘PHOENIIIIiiiIIIX~!’ at his entrance. Yes, lucky dude got to sing two solos! I know some of you may be thinking oh man, a comic-relief song when zombies are killing everyone? Don’t worry! Because the whole second half of the story was super intense, the comic relief song by Druitt was refreshing and helps steer us out of this depressive wave. This song ended with Ciel, Sebastian, Grell, Ronald doing the fabulous mass Phoenix pose that is exactly like in the manga! The dancers encouraged us in the audience to clap along too! 

The actress for Lizzie sang really well in her solo song too! Her voice was very cute and she kept up the moe-vibe. But her song was really sad and some people cried when she sang about ditching everything to be cute for Ciel. 

BIZARRE DOLLS

The Bizarre Dolls (supporting cast) was marvellous! Their zombie-walk was great and their dance choreography was to die for (pun not intended). Remember the basement scene where Ciel, Lizzie and Snake discover thousands of coffins with Bizzare Dolls rising from the dead? The show used a projection screen to project the rattling coffins and it looks really good and realistic! Then suddenly, this screen was raised to reveal a hoard of Bizarre Dolls lunging forward for them. Accompanied by the music, I literally got chills running all over my skin. 

To make up for the lack of BIzarre Dolls, extra zombie mannequin dolls were used and tossed around to fill up the zombie numbers on stage. 

FLOODING & SINKING SHIPS

Screen projections were used to create many of the effects on the ship. They used a transparent projection screen to project the rising flood-waters as well as water raining down from the ceiling. It was pretty realistic considering they cannot have real knee-length water flooding the stage.

Projections were also used to show the Campania breaking in half and when the ship started tilting as it sank! 

KEY/ FAVOURITE MOMENTS

1. The playback of the pre-show announcements featured Reo’s super cute voice. I could see some fans of him squealing when they heard his voice.

2. Characters (AbberHank duo, Midford family, Ciel, Sebastian and Snake, Ronald) entered the stage from the audience exits and not from stage left/right. I am not sure if it is done at other shows or just for Ishikawa. In previous musicals, they did not have character entrances from the audience except for Hank/Abberline. 

In the Saturday show, Ciel, Sebastian and Snake appeared and stood behind my seat (to my shock and delight). I could see their gloriousness up close! Reo/Ciel was just scowling and man, Reo is so skinny up close! His black tights made his legs look like chicken legs! Yuta/Sebastian looked utterly (and perfectly) demonic! I swear my heart stopped beating right there and then. Unfortunately, my Sunday show seats were further back but the trio did not stop behind my Saturday seat but instead continued walking towards the stage.

3. The opening for TotC is also different from previous musicals. We usually start the musicals with the contract scene but this time around, we had a Campania song with the characters boarding the ship.

4. The amount of Campania wordplay jokes..god! They were so funny!

(While boarding the ship)

Abberline: I heard they are selling merchandise on the ship.

Hank: What? What kind?

Abberline: Cam-badge (Campania + can badge)

Audience: LOL

-------------------------------------------------

(At the banquet)

Ronald, Abberline, Hank: Kampai-nia! (kampai (cheers) + Campania)

5. Yuta/Sebastian & Reo/Ciel doing the Phoenix pose was hilarious! Reo/Ciel was wearing heels so he was wobbling on one leg. The rich man from the Aurora Society circled Reo/Ciel to make sure he is keeping his Phoenix pose and the audience laughed. 

In the Sunday show, poor Reo actually lost his footing but thankfully Yuta quickly caught his hand to stabilise him! It looks so authentic and in-character, and it delighted the audience! I am so sad that this probably won’t be in the DVD release... 

6. Ryan Stoker also interviewed the front row audience about what is the most crucial thing aside from life, and the poor lady (on both days) kept giggling uncontrollably.

7. In the scene where Yuta/Sebastian fights the hoard of Bizarre Dolls in the ship’s basement, a giant red silk cloth was run over the audience’s heads towards the stage to signify a bloodbath/ wave of blood. This scene then led to the belated contract scene song!

8. YES. THERE IS AN ICE-BERG IN THE MUSICAL! It is huge, it is fabulous and it had Grell standing on top of it as it neared and crashed into the ship! What a fabulous entrance!

9. Yes, the fan-favourite scene of Sebastian calling Grell a hentai (pervert) is in the musical and it is super hilarious.

Grell: Ehhhh. So mean! I even bought some bromides (of myself) as presents.

Audience: LOL

10. Lizzie’s badass reveal was perfectly executed! She even did the same fighting choreography in the anime movie! She also the same poses in the manga! It was so good and I think Momoko really delivered and a perfect casting choice. 

11. Undertaker’s shinigami reveal was really nice too! HIS DEATH SCYTHE IS GLORIOUS!!!!

12. In the stabbing scene, both Reo and Yuta were lifted by the supporting cast so it looks like they are ‘falling’ off from the top floor. The projection screen behind then projected the blood splatter as Undertaker’s scythe stabbed through Sebastian’s torso. 

13. My favourite part in the whole musical is when Sebastian narrated his initial life as a butler to Ciel. As we all know our!Ciel is not the real Ciel! Reo actually portrayed our!Ciel very well. He hesitated before calling himself with his dead twin brother’s name. Sebby says 「 かしこまりました/ I understand.」 in the most super lazy, sarcastic and reluctant way, it was super funny. In the Sunday show, Yuta/Sebastian sat on the Earl’s bed after serving him milk & honey, which led to Reo/Ciel shoving him off. Yuta/Sebastian also made a ‘tsk’ sound when Reo/Ciel reprimanded him about cooking everything from scratch like a real human butler should. And as he walked away, he spat out 「クソガキ」(stupid brat) before launching into my favourite song  ‘私は執事、あなたは伯爵’ (I am a butler and you are an Earl

14. The final Bizzare Doll fight scene in the middle of the ocean was beautifully executed. You can refer to the official trailer on the website to see how it was done! 

15. Grell was more worried about his false eyelashes after Ronald and Grell found a boat. It was super funny!

16. The musical ended with a reprise of ‘私は執事、あなたは伯爵‘  and the Campania theme song. 

SETSUBUN SPECIAL CURTAIN CALL 

So setsubun was on Saturday and the cast prepared a special curtain call for us! Abberline and Hank did their ad-libbed comedy routine, and here are some of my favourite parts:

Hank:「鬼はoutside！福はinside！」(starts rapping)...あ、でも、鬼がいないので‥ （‘Oni outside, luck inside, ahh, but there aren’t any oni inside here...)

Hank: Oh, look so many oni! (gestures to audience)

Abberline: Oi, don’t be rude! (smacks his head)

Hank: ...you’re right, there is only one oni...(gestures to one poor audience member in the first row)

Audience & Cast: LOL

Abberline:じゃ、「鬼はなし！福は内！」にしてた！(Well, let’s do `There is no Oni, Luck is inside’ then!)

The supporting cast then entered the hall and spread out, they tossed packets of 福豆 at us. I did not manage to catch a packet but the lady beside me did. Lucky girl.... 

The main cast also threw the packets of beans and Reo/Ciel got too excited and tried to fling the packet further out, and his Phantomhive ring flew out from his finger. He had to leap off the stage to recover it from the first row. The AbberHank emcees teased him about it 

How can Earl Ciel do that? 

That’s not something Ciel will do? (LOL)l

SATURDAY & SUNDAY CHANGES

As mentioned earlier, the cast made an effort to make every show unique so it doesn’t matter if you attend just one show or many shows. Each show has special changes in the actions and ad-libbed dialogue. Here are some of my favourites:

1.  Opening Entrance: On Saturday, Abberhanks appeared together in the audience. On Sunday, only Hanks appeared alone and was super happy. But he met Abberline as he was walking to the ship who pretended not to recognise him. 

Hank: Aren’t you Fred Abberline?

Abberline: No, I am Fured Abburraineee...(exaggerated accent)

Hank: No-th-that, besides the accent. The name is the same isn’t it? Fred Abberline! 

Abberline: It’s Fured Abburraineee...

2.  Banquet scene: Ronald taught Abberline how to pick up ladies, but Abberline was being socially awkward when flirting with them in the Sunday show. The trio only kept drinking in the Saturday show.

3. Ronald & Grell on a boat scene: In the Sunday show, Grell ad-libbed something random. Not sure if he forgot his lines but it was really funny...

Grell: (pauses before gesturing to the sky)  Look so many birds, I want to be a bird too...

Ronald: (bursts out laughing)

4. Curtain call: We did not have long thank you speeches on Saturday due to the Setsubun special. But we had it on Sunday for the closing show. 

Abberline: TADAIMAAAAA ~!  Audience: OKAERIIIIIIIII~!

Congratulations, you made it all the way to the end of my super long review! 

I will attend the live-viewing of their final performance at the cinema again on the 12th  (just so I can see the set/costumes and all that in super high-definition on the big screen). Also I kinda wanna see the cast start crying when they make their final thank you speeches! Also because they mentioned we will be watching exclusive back-stage clips and I really wanna watch it! 

Please, please PLEASE order a copy of the DVD/BLU-RAY. Please support the cast and giving them a well-deserved income from these sales.  

The DVD/BLU-RAY will be released in Japan in June 27. You can order it off CDJapan, Amazon Japan or Animate International.   I will be buying a copy myself as well!