#the way his face goes into a full slug mode

[hyunpic]

not hyunjin going “ow.. eww” when they had a staring contest 🤣

[babyhatesreality]

The Sinner and the Saint Ch 4

Pairings: Slow Burn Mob!Boss Bucky x f!reader

Warnings: NSFW, f!reader, language, fake names (for now), reader is referred to and goes by her stage name, sarcastic talk of mafia violence, everybody has secrets, reader says unkind things about herself, reader is an exotic dancer, slow burn relationship. There will be many, many more warnings for future chapters including mafia and all the stuff that comes with that, kinks, and smut. ALSO- narrative focus will go back and forth between Bucky and reader from here on out. 

YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR OWN MEDIA CONSUMPTION. MINORS DNI. THIS IS AN 18+ STORY ONLY AND IS NSFW. I DO NOT CONSENT FOR ANY OF MY WORKS TO BE COPIED, REPRINTED, OR TRANSLATED ONTO ANY PLATFORM EXCEPT MY OWN.

Previous- Chapter 3

Chapter 4

“Here you go, Mr. Barnes,” Natasha said with corporate formality. “She’s all yours.”

Bucky Barnes scanned the print out of the week’s schedule quickly, trying to find your stage name and start planning. Then it hit him. He looked up at Natasha quizzically. 

“‘MR.’ Barnes?” he said, his forehead furrowing in confusion. “What the fuck, Red? Since when am I ‘Mr. Barnes’ to you?”

Natasha returned to her formal smile with her hands politely folded behind her back. “You’re the one who stormed in here like Pacino with a grudge,” she said sweetly. He could practically see the sarcasm radiating off her, and it made him scowl. “I just thought we were moving in a more professional direction, that’s all.” She tilted her head and gave him her empty, saccharine smile. 

Bucky suddenly chuckled under his breath, shaking his head. “Remind me again why I haven’t murdered you yet?” he said, looking at her affectionately. 

“Because you love me,” she said, slugging him on the arm in a sisterly way and dropping her corporate stance. “Also because who else would keep this place running like a top? Don’t you like owning the most successful exotic dance hall in all of New York City?”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Bucky said, going back to the list, waving her away with a hand. She chuckled and gave Steve a quick wink. She grinned at the slight blush that crossed the blonde’s face, but he remained perfectly stoic. She’d get him to crack one of these days, she thought to herself. 

Bucky made sure to catch your stage name everywhere it was printed on the list, even going so far as to take a quick picture of it and save it to his phone, just in case. He carefully folded up the print out and put it in his jacket pocket, right next to his heart. He turned to Steve, a strange and fascinating glint in his eye. 

“She’s new in town, only been here a little while,” he said, answering his right hand man’s unspoken question. He and Steve had been best buddies since the cradle, and no hierarchy in the family could or would ever change that. “She didn’t recognize me.”

“For the amount we pay the press to keep your face out of it, I’m glad to hear it,” Steve replied, the tiniest smile curving at the corner of his lip. He gave a slight nod to Bucky’s gloves. “She didn’t think anything of the gloves?”

“Nope. Gave her the old standby,” Bucky said, shrugging with a smug grin.

Steve looked at his best friend, slightly exacerbated. “Don’t tell me you used the-”

“Poor circulation,” Bucky interrupted proudly. “Works every time.” Steve just rolled his eyes- being one of the only people in the world who could do that in Bucky’s presence and live- but didn’t comment further. Bucky turned back to Natasha. 

“Make sure none of the girls tell her who I am. You tell them all to keep their mouths shut,” the Don ordered, the power radiating off him as it always did when he was in full boss mode. “Especially Nebula. She tries to fuck with Angel and she’ll be sorry.”

“Done,” Natasha said, folding her arms. A soft smile bloomed on her face. “I’ve never seen you like this over a woman before, Buggy.”

“How many times do I gotta tell you, Red? Stop calling me Buggy.”

“Then stop calling me Red. What is it about Angel that’s got you so smitten?”

Bucky ran his index finger around his mouth as he got lost in thoughts of you, too caught up in the last hour to remember he was annoyed at his little surrogate sister for calling him that stupid childhood nickname. A slight grin pulled at the corner of his mouth as he thought about your honesty, your passion, and your nervousness. The sparkle and snap of your eyes. Those insane legs that just would not quit. There were a few other things he’d noticed too, but it was too early to think along those lines...in company. Finally, he turned to them. 

“That’s my business,” he said with finality. They both knew better than to challenge that. He reached into his other inside jacket pocket and withdrew an envelope. “Make sure she gets the whole thing. And that she knows she’s mine for the rest of the week.” He wanted to give you something to think about tonight. He wondered if you would dream of him.

*********************************************************************

“You’re KIDDING.”

You stared at the contents of the envelope. It was easily three times your rent in cold, hard cash- and in New York City, that was saying something. Your gaze shot back up to Natasha in disbelief. She seemed to be enjoying your confusion. 

“I told you, if you made a good impression you’d walk away plush,” she said, grinning at you. “And you made a really good impression.”

“Is this what it costs to be in the VIP Champagne Room?”

“No, that’s just your tip. Your cut of the fee will be in your check.”

“THERE’S MORE? I....Jesus...what-”

“Take a deep breath, Angel. You did good, kid.”

“But I barely did anything!”

“You talked. You were honest. You gave him what he wanted. Why is that so hard to understand, honey?”

“I just...” your words failed you. It wasn’t real- couldn’t be. You finally just held up the envelope. “I’m not worth THIS.” Natasha’s face took on a sternness you had never seen before. 

“You listen to me, Angel,” she said, stepping deliberately towards you. You were suddenly aware of how powerful she was- something you’d never really noticed before. She was not someone to be fucked with. “You are absolutely worth that. And more. And you better hope that whoever made you think that you aren’t never meets me. Because it will not end well for them.” She stared you down, daring you to contradict her. When all you could do was blink in wonder at her, she held her position for one more moment, before relaxing and chuckling, instantly breaking the tension. She lovingly chucked you under the chin. “Got it slugger?” she said in a joking tone, making you giggle in relief. “Oh. Also, he’s booked you for the week,” she added nonchalantly, her smug smile making a reappearance. 

“WHAT?!” you shrieked, back to panicking instantly after the sweet but tense moment.

“Keep your voice down, there’s still a show going on,” she scolded gently, before shrugging and grinning again as you obediently snapped your mouth shut. “What can I say? You did good, kid. He’s also coming to watch you dance tomorrow night, too.”

“Natasha, who IS he?”

“I told you. He’s a frequent flyer around here.”

“Yeah, but he’s got to be more than that. He told me that you two know each other, that you’re...how did he put it? Work colleagues?”

“He said that?” she asked, looking surprised. 

“Actually, he said you were like a sister to him.”

“That one I find hard to believe,” she said, arching her eyebrow sarcastically at you. “What did he actually say?”

“Um...”

“Just tell me.”

“That you were like the sister he never wanted.”

“Yeah, that sounds about right,” she chuckled. You could have sworn you heard her mutter “Dick,” but had turned her face away for a moment, before refocusing on you. She chewed on her lip for a second, like she was thinking. “We’ve known each other for a very long time.”

“Is he an investor in the club or something?”

“He’s here enough, he ought to be.”

“What’s his real name?”

“Oh, no. If he didn’t tell you that, there’s no way I will.”

“Please?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because no.”

“Is that a normal thing for the VIP room? No one uses real names?”

“It can be. Don’t stress over that one, honey. Instead, you should be thinking about what song you’re going to perform tomorrow night. You want a classic, or something new?”

Your brain instantly thought of fucking him senseless after you’d performed all the song possibilities that you had. What in the world were you going to choose?

And then, the perfect song came to you. You only hoped Natasha would go for it. It wasn’t the typical fare- but then again, neither were you. 

****************************************************************************

The next day, you were a bundle of nerves. There was a giddiness combined with anxiety that reminded you, strangely, of an opening night buzz. Something was about to happen, something big. Or maybe you’d flop and fail. Either way, your life was about to change. 

You picked out your performance outfit carefully, as well as a special one for the Champagne Room afterwards. Just because you were already booked with this gorgeous and mysterious stud didn’t mean that you didn’t want to try to look your best. Although you were probably fooling yourself. Maybe he really did just want to keep talking. Maybe this was all for nothing and he just needed a sympathetic ear. 

Then you thought about the way his bare finger traced your cheek before he left the room. And your heart beat its new rhythm. 

Or maybe not. 

Sprite came to give you the heads up that you were on deck. You marched out of the dressing room, took off your robe, hung it on the hook next to Sersi’s who was currently onstage, and took a deep breath. You barely noticed the applause and hoots and hollers as Sersi exited, but you managed to give her a smile and a kind word as she passed, almost as if you were on autopilot. Rhodey announced your name, and you slipped through the mylar curtain. Your stage persona took over then, and you felt your face bloom into that mysterious, alluring smile that drove the patrons wild. 

You couldn’t help but quickly scan the room. And there he was. Tucked into a smaller booth in the back, over to the side, with a perfect view of the stage. You’d never have noticed it if you weren’t looking, but now it seemed to draw your attention like a siren’s call. He was wearing a dark suit tonight, black shirt with no tie, but still with the leather gloves. And you nearly lost your cool when his deep blue eyes instantly locked on yours. 

Summoning up everything you had in you, you marshaled your professionalism and shut out everything but the moment. You subtly brought your right foot behind your left, and looked down. You were ready. 

The music started. You looked up slowly. Right into those blue eyes. Your lips twisted into a devilish smile. 

Chapter 4

[lizamango]

Finding You (Bucky Barnes x Reader) 2/?

A/N: Hi everyone! I’ve decided to call this fic Finding You, just to inform you for future chapters! Getting my second vaccine tomorrow!! 😁🤩

Summary: You’ve been one of SHIELD’s top spies for years but what happens when the organisation you’ve put your trust in crumbles and Captain America gives you a mission to help him find his best friend? The last thing you expected to happen was to fall in love with your assignment and become best friends with a witch.

Taglist ~ just comment if you wanna be added

@buckylokisimp​, @white-wolf-buckaroo, @austynparksandpizza, @markandlexies

Word Count: 2345 (this is so fucking satisfying omg)

Masterlist

Chapter 1

Warnings: Just curse words, rewrites are hard but it’s kinda like shifting but through fanfiction??

Chapter Summary: Steve Rogers doesn’t trust you very much

Chapter 2: BUT YOU KNOW BETTER

On our way back, the STRIKE team is on celebration mode while Rogers is quiet. It won’t be a surprise if he goes to see Fury about the side mission I was assigned without his knowing. As we land on the Triskelion landing pad I watch as Captain Rogers leaves without a goodbye and heads to, undoubtedly, Fury’s office.

I tune into Fury’s communicator.

“Heads up, Fury. Angry Cap on your way. He found out about my mission.”

“Batroc?” he asks.

“He got away,” I answer regrettably.

“I’ll have international agents on high alert. You’ve done your part. Just leave the drive with me after Rogers.”

“Yes sir.”

I put all the weapons into the cache and go to clean up, changing out of my stealth suit and into a SHIELD hoodie and sweats that I keep in the locker for after missions. I wait by Fury’s office doors and he finally emerges from the elevator without an angry Cap.

“Gave him a little tour of Project Insight,” he says as he unlocks his office.

I walk in behind him. “That’s brave of you.”

“He didn’t like it.” He takes a seat and so did I.

“I’m sure he didn’t.” I fish out the hard drive and put it on the table. “One super secret hard drive for Nicholas J Fury,” I announce like a waitress.

“Good job.”

“He didn’t think so.”

“I want you to keep an eye on him. Just make sure he doesn’t do anything, alright?”

“What could he possibly do?” I raise my brows.

“He isn’t on board. I need you to get him there.”

“Don’t you already have an agent assigned to him?”

“Agent 13 is for when he’s off duty. You will be there for when he’s on.”

I scoff. “Have you met the guy? That’s all the time.”

“That’s an order, Agent.”

I nod. “Fine. Have you heard anything else on HYDRA?”

“The last reliable intel we have is three years old now, Y/N. It’s hard to track them down.”

“I don’t understand why you had to take me out. I was getting close to something. Someone. I don’t know.”

“Finding the world’s greatest soldier just took precedent. You weren’t getting anywhere for a whole year. Whatever it was, they packed it up tight.”

“Because it was something big,” I defend. “I still think you made the wrong choice. Captain America doesn’t need two babysitters.”

“Well, you try being asleep and waking up 70 years after to a whole new world and see how you feel. You’re dismissed. Get some rest. Make nice with the old man.”

I get up and leave his office. Make nice…. How do I do that when he doesn’t trust me anymore?

I get a ride home from Fitz who congratulated me on completing the mission.

“So what was he like?”

“He doesn’t like me very much,” I chuckle.

“Why not? What did you do?” he asks in an accusing tone.

“Me?!”

“He’s the perfect man, what could he have done?”

I roll my eyes but don’t answer. We arrive at my apartment and I thank Fitz for the ride back.

Unlocking my door I go straight to the bathroom for a bath. I run the water to the perfect temperature and add a bath bomb that turns the water a glittery lilac scented with lavender. I also light a candle that crackles like a fireplace that emits a subtle smokey French vanilla. A girl’s gotta treat herself. After a good long soak I get out and decide to rest up not wanting to do anything for the rest of the day.

I wake from my nap to the ringing of my phone. Reaching over to my bedside table I read the screen which has nothing but the number 1212. Well, that can’t be good.

“This is L/N,” I say.

“I need you to find the star. Keep your guard up.”

Shit, I think as I jump out of bed and get dressed in something inconspicuous. Black trousers, leather combat boots, a Kevlar vest under a back hoodie, two pistols on my belt and a knife tucked in each boot. I pick up a grey Von Dutch trucker hat on my way out.

Walking is the safest option so I navigate toward Steve Rogers’ DC apartment that he was relocated to after the New York Invasion as he decided to become a full time SHIELD agent.

I arrive outside his apartment and see Sharon on her way out.

“What are you doing here?” she asks.

“Mission. Waiting for the Captain,” I say. I look at her scrubs. “How you liking the infectious disease ward?” I ask.

She rolls her eyes and laughs. “Well it’s just a uniform. I guess it’s better than people shooting armour piercing bullets at me.”

“I’ll see you ‘round, Kate,” I wave, using her alias.

I track Steve’s whereabouts on my phone and see that he’s at a counselling centre for veterans. Fair enough, it’s good to admit you need help.

What do you want me to do here, Fury? I wonder to myself. I decide to do a perimeter check for any bugs, wire taps or double agents.

I reach an alleyway and after peering into it I hear the scraping of a manhole against the ground. I reach for my gun and keep it to the side as I slowly approach it.

I hear a grunt and raise the gun.

“Agent,” I immediately recognize the voice as Fury’s. “Stand down.”

“Shit, Fury.” I holster the gun and help him out of the manhole. “What happened, who did this?”

“Not safe,” he says in pain.

“W-where do we go? Rogers isn’t inside.” I inspect his wounds. “Looks like you have multiple fractures on your left arm and abdominal bruising-“

“Car ambush,” he utters as he approaches the fire escape. “Stay out here, keep a look out.” He pushes a phone into my hand, I don’t recognize it as his day to day. “Anything happens, secure line 0405. I have to… get to Rogers. Do not engage unless enemies fire first.”

“Fury-“

“That’s an order.”

I put the phone into my back pocket and stay behind as he climbs up and through the Captain’s Window.

The sky is starting to darken so I make my way through the perimeter again. Sharon returns and shortly after that, Rogers arrives, weary but alert. Just as a soldier would.

I hear some 40s music coming from the walls of the Captain’s apartment. I suppose he heard it too and got suspicious because he exits his apartment building to climb up the very same fire escape that Fury did.

My eyes follow him up and survey the roof of the building for any suspicious activity.

Suddenly three shots are fired right into one of the apartment building’s walls.

“Fuck!” I whisper, looking for the source.

“Foxtrot is down, he’s unresponsive. I need EMTs,” I hear one of my comms come through. It’s Sharon’s voice.

“Do we have a 20 on the shooter?” a dispatcher responds.

Before I know it, Captain Rogers is jumping out of his window and into the building the shots came from.

“Captain Rogers is in pursuit,” Agent Carter says.

I follow the Captain as he runs through a building following the shooter while he runs on the roof. They don’t fight but Rogers manages to throw the shield at him and does what some would say impossible as he catches it and throws it back just as hard. I stop where I am and just observe which is what Fury wanted me here for. The shooter jumps from the building and it looks like he catches himself using his… metal… arm. I look up and see Rogers standing at the edge of the rooftop, looking back down the shooter is out of sight.

“Transporting Foxtrot to BridgePoint Hospital Capitol Hill,” the dispatcher says from my comms. After sweeping the place one more time for any sign of the shooter and coming up empty I decide to take a cab to the hospital.

I put out an arm but it’s not a cab that stops in front of me.

“Get in, L/N.”

“Hill?” I get into the passenger’s seat and she starts to drive. “You’re supposed to be –“

“Fury called.”

“He was shot.”

“I know. Ballistics will tell us more at the hospital.”

“He’s gonna be okay,” I say but it’s more for my comfort than hers.

We arrive at the hospital and Maria takes a phone call while I find his room number, viewing the operation through the glass. Rogers is already there.

“Is he gonna make it?” I ask the Captain.

“I don’t know.”

“Tell me about the shooter.”

“He’s fast. Strong. Had a metal arm.”

“Ballistics?” I ask, knowing he can hear Hill’s conversation outside.

“Three slugs, no rifling. Completely untraceable,” he answers and looks at me.

Hill enters.

“Soviet-made,” I add as I put the picture together in my head.

“How did you know?”

I don’t get to answer her as the surgeons and nurses say that Fury’s in V-tach and rush to solve the problem.

“Fuck’s sake, Fury,” I whisper. “Don’t do this.” My hands start to shake as they lose his pulse and can’t bring him back. I notice that I’m mumbling something repeatedly but I can’t realise what.

I feel Rogers leave as the team gives up.

“Time of death, 1:03am,” the doctor calls.

I watch them wheel him out as Hill goes too. Taking a deep breath, I walk outside into the hallway.

“How did you know they were soviet-made?” Rogers asks, following me.

“Do you trust me?” I ask him, turning to face him.

“No. How did you know?”

“Why are you asking me when you don’t trust me?”

“Why are you dodging the question?”

“Cap!” Rumlow calls. “They want you back at SHIELD.”

“Give me a minute.”

“They want you now.”

“Okay,” he replies irritated.

“You’re not gonna ask me what Nick was doing in my apartment?” he asks.

“I know what he was doing there. Do you?” I raise a brow and turn on my heel, walking away.

I see Maria in the viewing room with Fury’s… body.

“I need to take him,” she says. “Don’t get yourself into trouble, alright?”

I roll my eyes. “I’m not a child, Maria.”

“Do you want a ride anywhere?”

“I’m good, thanks.”

“What, you’re just gonna hang around here until Rogers comes back?”

Yes that’s exactly what I was going to do. “No.”

She chuckles and walks away. I wait for all the SHIELD and STRIKE agents to clear out of the floor to go back into the waiting area. I go to the vending machine to pick up a snack and notice something that shouldn’t be there… the drive I gave Fury with SHIELD intel hidden behind three packets of bubble gum. Frowning I buy out the stack until the drive also falls to the dispenser. I take a seat, waiting for Rogers.

I don’t realise when I fell asleep until someone shakes me gently.

“I heard.”

I look up and it’s Sharon. “Hey.”

“How are you doing?”

“I’m fine.”

“Sure.”

“Don’t you have an assignment debriefing to give?” I reply.

She shrugs. “That can wait. I wanted to see how you were doing.”

“Did you wanna know what Fury was doing at Rogers’ apartment too?” I ask, suspicious.

“Do you know?”

I nod.

“Then that’s all I need to know.”

“Fury trusts – trusted him,” I correct myself. “That means we have to.”

A beeping comes from her wrist communicator and she sighs. “I have to go. I’ll keep you in the loop about what happens at the Triskelion.”

I frown. “Why would I need to be kept in the loop?”

“Because I know you’re gonna be on the run, soon. With him. To find that shooter. Pierce won’t like that you’re after him outside of mission directives…”

“I know. You be careful, Sharon.”

She smiles stiffly and I know it’s because she’s worried about me. “If I didn’t know better I’d say you were being careless and rash.”

“But you know better.”

She chuckles softly and turns to leave. I get up walk around to stretch my legs. Where the fuck is Rogers?

An hour passes and I’m back where I started but I see the man of the hour stop in front of the vending machine. I pop a strip of gum in my mouth and walk up behind him, blowing a bubble.

His face sharpens and he sighs then pulls me by the arm and takes us into a room.

“Where is it?”

“Safe.”

“Do better.”

“Fury trusted me. I’m on your side if he trusts you.”

“He doesn’t trust anyone. That’s the problem. That’s why he’s dead,” he says harshly.

I swallow the lump forming in my throat.

Rogers sighs and pulls away. “What’s on it?”

“I don’t know.”

“I bet you knew Fury hired the Pirates didn’t you?” he accuses.

No, no I didn’t. Stunned, I blink at the news. “Made sense. The ship was dirty, Fury needed a way in, so do you.”

“How did you know it was Soviet-made?” he repeats his earlier question, losing patience.

“I know who killed Fury,” I say. “The metal arm… I knew as soon as I saw it. 2009, Natasha had a mission in Odessa. Someone shot out her tires and killed the engineer she was protecting by shooting right through her. Soviet slug, no rifling. Metal arm. The intelligence community call him The Winter Soldier. I’ve heard him as the Asset. That’s who killed Fury.”

“How do we find him?”

“He’s been credited with two dozen assassinations in the last 50 years, Rogers. You don’t go after him. I’ve tried.”

He looks up at that, as if surprised. But he doesn’t know half the shit I’ve been through while working for SHIELD.

“So he’s a shadow.”

“Was.” I pull the drive out of my pocket and hold it up to him.

“Let’s find the Asset, then.”

 💖

Thank you for reading! I’ll update once I’ve finished Chapter 4 but I am busy this weekend!

Chapter 3

[fanfux]

Todoroki Shoto with a depressed S/O

A/N: Two posts in one week?? 2020 truly is all out of whack. I’ll see if I can keep this same length throughout all my headcannons. Hope you enjoy!

TW: Mentions of Depression

Todoroki's not exactly a warm person, but that doesn't mean he doesn't feel. You weren't ever going to get a massive emotional reaction out of him, but you eventually learned to understand him and his non-verbal language.

None of this changes when you get into a relationship with him. While he was much more open and vulnerable with you, he was still much more subdued than many of his associates

His love language is primarily with Quality time and things done together. Social activites for him can be draining, so he'd rather much just /be/ with the love of his life. You don't have to be doing an activity most of the time, so long as there's some skinship or general warm ambiance.

He treasures the small things with you. As corny as it sounds, but a cherished memory of his is when, after coming home from work - if he didn't get held up - he would come home and make dinner with you. The routine was comforting, and it always helped him unwind. He'll send you candid photos of whatever catches his eye as he goes about his day or night. Simple, yes, but it shows that he's always thinking of you.

He picks up on things, sometimes even before you do. He notices when you start to slip, or slow down. Make excuses all you like, but don't make them for him. He can see the vibrance begin to die as you slowly start to lose control, or the energy starts to leave you.

If you're unable to function as you're used to, he doesn't mind picking up the slack. Expect for chores to be magically done, and meals prepped for easy consumption. Even if your depression isn't as severe, or doesn't cripple you in that way,or at all, he's still more than happy to take that worry off your shoulders.

While, if you're in an unmoving state (or as I like to call it, slug mode), he'll lie next to you, either messing with your hair, wiping away any tears you might be shedding, rubbing nonsense shapes onto your back, arm or thigh, or with some part of him - usually his head - against you. Expect to recieve an occasional kiss against your temple or the back of your hand. If your love language is something else, he'll be doing his best to convey his love for you that way. Whatever he gets you, he's doing it.

Todoroki's perception sometimes feels like he can read your mind - like he can see those dark thoughts forming behind your skull. While he's not one for speeches or grand gestures, he'll tell you exactly how he feels, in a direct, yet heartfelt manner. He'll point out all the things about you that le loves, the parts he's proud of (even if you're not) and how important you are to  him.

Self-deprication, even in joke form? Absolutely not. While gentle, he's firm. He takes it very seriously, and the idea that those things are even on your mind is very upsetting to him. That ship does not sail with him. He's going to interrupt you or talk over you. Worst comes to worst, he'll put his hand over your mouth with a gentle 'No'.

Celebrates the small steps you make. Defintely not one for pictures and tears, but will indulge with you in some cheesecake, or a fancy dinner at home. Sometimes, it's a long, warm hug. He'll full front face you, look you in the eye and tell you he's incredibly proud of you and how far you've come from the very bottom of his heart.

He understands the need for distraction, but is strict with how, and how long.  Definitely will not allow you to spend an entire day on one activity. If you can't manage a shower, he'll take a bath with you. If you can't cook, he's competent in the kitchen, and is not above ordering takeout if things don't go right.

Incredibly mindful of the media you're consuming. Assuming you've opened up to him about your past or the things that have negatively impacted you, he'd steer you away from anything that might trigger a memory. If not, he'd queue up something positive or sufficinetly distracting.

Personally understands that you can't expect to be happy all the time, and that sadness, fear and anger aren't emotions t run from. You have to let yourself feel things, sometimes. Fully understands that he can't get better /for/ you, as much as he'd love to. As much as it hurts him, he can't coddle you and promise you sunshine and rainbows forever. Life is shit sometimes. He knows a thing about therapy and treatment, with his mother being a long-term resident in a mental hospital. Watching Rei slowly get better has made him a believer. He won't force you, but definitely encourages you to go. He's more than happy to listen to you unload, but he can't process all your shit for you, and there are times where he feels out of his depth.

[hideandseaking]

Last time during dnd:

Featuring: Kara the redheaded human with 1 braincell and 4 anger cells, Mars Bar the slug alien human-like person with antennae and tears, Rango the small bounty hunting lizard with piss legs, Chip Hop the very big rabbit robot with a broad spectrum of emotions, and Olga the oldest and meanest slug alien with no human-like attributes except her face

My players were horrified to find out that the primary species on this planet are humanoid aliesn with three mouths, no eyes, feathered wings under their arms, and small spikes protruding from their skin

And they have to help these people

My players also realized slowly but surely that they were exhausted from pulling an 8 hour work day from their first mission and are trying to do a second mission without any rest

But only the young slug and the old slug were tired at first

They approach the house where the GPS says the next person requesting a mission is at

They try to knock on the door, both Rango and Kara at the same time, and they realize the client is behind them carrying groceries and wondering wtf they were doing at her house

she asks them to get the key for her out of her pocket so they can go inside the house... rango takes the key and unlocks the door while mars bar takes some of the groceries and goes through them

Once inside, Rango and CH raid the fridge and drink her soda while Mars Bar puts away the groceries in all of the wrong places. She rewards herself with a poptart and goes to sit down

Olga is reprimanding them for acting so rudely in someone else’s house and starts arguing with CH about taking people’s food without permission

Olga: “You didn’t even ask! she paid for that stuff!! you didn’t even ask to pay her back!” Chip Hop: “Okay” *turns to the client* “do you want me to pay you back for the soda” The Client: “Well, it’s fine since you guys-” Chip Hop: “SEE. It’s fine. Your logic is faulty.” Olga: *screams*

When they all finally settled down, the client had to shut the door that they left open before walking over and sitting down to explain the mission to them

She’s a 15 year old girl named Raine whose younger sister went missing three days ago

Raine: “Her name is Jewel-” My Players: *starts to make Juul jokes and posting Juul memes incessently*

They ask her what happened and Raine says that she got her sister ready for school and they parted ways to go and then suddenly she’s disappeared and hasn’t returned since she saw her that morning

Obviously Kara and Mars Bar do not believe this at all and press for more information about how that morning went

Raine: *goes on a very detailed but unnecessary recount of her entire morning*

CH: *vibrates more and more intensely the more she talks because he wants her to shut up*

Raine said she’s worried because two other kids have been kidnapped in the past 2 weeks and she’s worried about Jewel

Kara asks if she’s talked to the police and Raine admits that she hasn’t because she’s scared about Jewel being taken away from her if she returns since they don’t have any parents

Kara is completely unsympathetic and apparently a bootlicker and berates Raine for not telling the police

Raine starts crying which means that lots of drool just comes out of her topmost mouth of three

And it horrifies everyone

This causes everyone to just want to dip........ so they do........... with a promise that they’re going to get information on this

They go outside and Kara says, “Okay, so we have 2 options-” Rango: “We go to the playground.” Kara: “....Okay so we have 3 options.”

Which were 1) go to the police, 2) investigate the playground, 3) investigate the school

Kara or Olga idr who: “We have the perfect amount for all 3.” Rango and CH: “We call the playground!” K or O: “Okay so-” Mars Bar: “Actually, I wanna go to the playground too.....” K AND O: “....... Okay we all go to the playground......”

They check Google Maps and find the playground closest to both the school and the house and start to walk there

Rango starts to bother Kara for her phone, since she’s the only one in the group with one, and she refuses and starts to ignore him

He gathers some pebbles to launch at her, but she catches them, while CH joins in to try to take the phone

Kara threatens CH that she’ll flip him.... Me: “Girl, he’s 2 tons!” Kara’s Player: “..... Well I’m gonna do it cause I said I will”

She fails her roll and instead hits her head on the metal on his hand when she tries to attack

Rango tries to persuade her for the phone but she beats his roll and they all decide to drop it and continue to the playground

When they get to the playground, Olga and Mars are super tired, and Kara is realizing how exhausted she is too so she and Olga take up their own respective benches to take a nap

Well, okay, Olga absorbs into the bench........ Kara lays down obnoxiously and tries to sleep

Mars Bar goes to a swing and tiredly pushes it back and forth with her feet

Rango is still full of energy and takes the one next to Mars and starts to swing himself

CH decides to do some investigating and launches himself over to a mother of a child playing on the playground

Which scares the shit out of her and she takes her child and runs

CH is dejected over the entire interaction and mopes over to Rango and Mars and asks them if they wanna be pushed

Rango says yes and he almost gets launched into the air

Mars says yes “but gently.... please...” and also almost gets launched into the air

Rango wants another push but CH puts too much mustard into it and flips Rango around the top of the bar

And then he swings over and splatters against CH’s back

CH doesn’t notice and starts to freak out over where Rango went

Mars Bars is laughing her ass off as he starts to freak out more

He runs out towards a more open area of the playground and starts calling for rango’s name

This causes most of everyone else to start to disperse

CH gets down on his knees and calls Rango’s name into the sky in despair, believing that he has died

Rango peels himself off of CH and taps him, saying he’s okay

Which freaks out CH and makes him grab Rango and launch him 100ft away from the playground

Everyone: “Okay bye Rango... you’re dead..... better start rolling up your new character” Rango’s Player: “.......................”

Rango rolls an incredible success and actually starts to manuever himself and flip himself around so he starts to slow down the launch. He cartwheels and starts to bounce and somersaults and roooooooooolls out towards where the foliage starts to turn into desert. Not a scratch on him !!

Only the party is at the playground at this point, and Olga and Kara are woken up from this

Mars Bar is damn near peeing herself with laughter and CH hops out towards Rango to see if he’s okay

Mars Bar’s Player: “Wait have we peed at all during this whole thing?” Me: “Uhhhhhhh...”

So I roll how much each of them needed to use the bathroom

Yes we’re all 12 i guess so shut the fuck up!!

Rango: 10/10 will pee immediately, Kara: 9/10, Mars Bar 4/10, Olga I can’t remember but it wasn’t that high, CH only shits out like lead balls or something and he was okay

Kara realizes how badly she has to pee and tells Olga that maybe they should all rest so she summons the ship to autopilot over to them

Rango: “Perception pls” Me: “It’s all weeds and some cabbage-like plants that are slowly tapering off to be just a very large and wide desert” Rango: ““:0 I get stealth in the desert... I must investigate this....”

He sees CH hopping over and takes a plant and starts to munch on it while pissing himself and thinking

CH and Rango discuss if they should go out to the desert or not, and Rango tries to convince CH but he says no and wants Rango to rest and tries to convince him to rest with the group while Rango wants to explore

The ship lands in between CH/Rango and the playground

And kara sprints towards it

Mars is being polite and walking with Olga until she starts going “ECH” loudly with each step, so she runs towards the ship too

Kara runs into the bathroom and pisses her brains out I guess... Mars immediately decides to go in too while she’s peeing... and it’s a single bathroom so it’s not like there’s stalls

Cue me and Kara’s player trying to determine if Kara would freak out before deciding to just roll on it

She does freak out, but Mars Bar is too oblivious to care and just starts washing her hands

she’s not great at it and starts to count to 20 but loses count everytime.... she eventually feels satisfied with her hand washing before just walking out and leaving the door open

Kara sees Olga down the hallway and is begging her to close the door for her

Olga decides to move in the slowest possible way to get to kara and by the time she closes the door, it’s in kara’s face when she’s done washing her hands and wiping them off

The slugs go to their rooms while Kara is walking around and making sure everything is secure

CH finally convinces Rango to go to the ship, but when Rango gets on he’s deciding that he’s going to go explore the desert

Ch goes to stand in the kitchen, desolate and unmoving

Rango’s Player: “Is there a compass?” Me: “???? Like on a PIRATE SHIP???”

He lifts the ship up off the ground and kara walks over asking what he’s doing

Rango: “I’m exploring the desert” Kara: “Rango... can’t this wait until tomorrow? We’re all tired...” Rango: “I’m not tired! I can keep going!” *fails his stamina roll, wavers at the wheel and shakes the ship* Kara: “Yea, definitely.” Rango: “I was fine before you got here! .... But fine I guess i could sleep.”

He lands the ship and everyone goes to bed

Rango jolts awake realizing that CH might need to be charged and goes to the kitchen to ask him about it

CH recharges with the sunlight and moonlight, so he decides to go outside and burrow in the ground to hide while still exposing where he can charge from while he enters a sleep mode

Rango goes to bed and everyone goes to sleep

Mars Bar has a dream where she is at home with her brothers and she’s sitting outside of her house with her older brother while her younger twin brothers are out playing in the distance

Her older brother points at the sky and says “Look! The meteor shower is starting!” and shooting stars start to jump across the sky

she is watching for a little bit before looking over at her brother

And seeing that his head has turned into that of seaweed the goldfish, who they had rescued earlier in the day

She immediately freaks out and gets scared and wakes up

and starts to cry

Kara is woken up from her own dream by Mars Bar’s cries

She sleepily walks over to her room and asks if she’s okay

Mars says from her room that she’s fine but it’s clear that she isn’t fine

Kara asks if she can come in and Mars says she can. She sees Mars is hiding under the covers

She asks if she can do anything for Mars Bar and she asks Kara if she could read to her

So she reads her 6 pages of Mar’s MLP comics before realizing that she’s back asleep

And Kara sneaks out quietly and goes back to bed

When it becomes morning, CH is woken up to giggling and pushing on him

He gets up to see that children are there, seeing who he is

They ask him some questions and start to touch at the metal on his body, which makes him uncomfortable but he lets the kids do

They decide to go because they have school but all say goodbye and start to leave

He calls out to them and one of them lingers behind to answer his questions

she’s the sister of one of the kids taken earlier in the 2 weeks, and she says that she heard a rumor that someone saw it happen at the Southern Park (we were all calling it South Park cause haha funny funny) and she asks CH if he can find her sibling

CH says he’ll try and she runs off

Mars Bar wakes up feeling refreshed and head empty, and decides to go get something to eat

She looks outside and sees some children waving goodbye to CH while he’s standing outside

She goes outside to check it out, and says good morning to CH

CH: “............................................................................. good morning” MB: “.................... so what’s up” CH: “........................................................................................................................................................................... those kids had some information” MB: “Oh that’s cool...............” *They both stare at each other* MB’s Player: “This is  so awkward  for her!!” Everyone: *laughing* CH: “Mars Bar.............. I love you.”

And Mars Bar sprints away without even acknowleding that

CH feels the immediate burn of rejection

Kara wakes up and decides to get herself something to eat

She checks out the common area and sees that there’s a parking ticket on the windshield

And decides she’ll worry about that later

She checks the fridge, and there’s only food that Rango and CH stole from the prince that they helped yesterday

so she decides to make fried chicken breakfast tacos

Unfortuantely, Kara has a wide imagination but no skill so she burns the food

Which the smell wakes up Rango and Olga, who both think it smells great

Kara realizes it’s inedible for her and gives it to them, which they gladly take

she informs them of the parking ticket and Olga says, “Oh we don’t have to pay that. We can just make a collage out of them. That’s what I do!”

Kara decides to get dressed before continuing on with her day and Olga tries to find tea but instead finds a silica DO NOT EAT packet and eats that instead

Rango goes to get CH and sees him just looking dejected out towards the city

He asks what happened, and Ch says he confessed to Mars but she ran away

CH: “Rango, do you think I’ll ever find true love?” Rango: “Well, I love you, buddy.” CH: *feels worse cause that’s not the same*

Rango tries to rally Ch to the ship so they can search the desert, but Ch says that he heard from the kids about the South Park

Rango: “Why didn’t you say that in the first place!?” CH: “Rango, I got rejected” Rango: “That’s less important!”

They go onto the ship and Kara and Olga ask what’s up and where’s Mars Bar and CH tells about his confession to her where she ran away

and then the party gives CH the worst dating advice I’ve ever heard

Kara: “You just need to keep trying with it! Keep telling her that you love her and you’re bound to get her eventually!”

Olga: “Next time, say ‘good morning’ and ‘how are you’ first AND THEN release the ‘i love you’! That’ll work.”

Rango: “You need to beat her in combat to show her that you want to be with her.” *flashes back to his old relationship from his past*

Mars Bar’s Player: NO DON’T FIGHT ME PLEASE

CH: “Thank you guys for the advice :’)”

Ch also tells them about the south park and they decide they’re going to find Mars Bar and then go to the park

So they put in the coordinates for the middle school and decide they’re going to try there first

Meanwhile, Mars Bar runs up to the children and tries to ask them for info, but they all run away from her and she gives chase to them

............ all the way to their school..............

A teacher watching the outside sees Mars Bar and stops her, and asks her why she’s annoying the poor kids

She says she’s from the government, but has no ID, so he doesn’t believe her so he goes inside and tells her to come back when she has something

She sits outside of the school and pouts for about half an hour before realizing that she’s hungry and getting nowhere with this

she’s lost so she checks out parts of the city, and tries to hide her face with her scarf before realizing that everyone is suspicious of her

she goes in another direction and finds a diner to eat at

she watches a couple start to go in and one says to the other “I could KILL for some eggs right now”

Mars takes that very seriously and decides to go in after them to make sure they’re not going to kill for some eggs

She sits down at the barstool area near where the couple sits and she looks at the menu but is illiterate so she’s going off of the few pictures provided on it

She decides she’s going to get a waitress to give her free food and gives her a compliment

she hears from the TV about the southern park and asks another waitress how to get to it, and recieves pretty simple directions

The couple starts to argue behind her and one of them leaves the other in the diner

Mars slides into the empty seat and tries to “comfort” the one left behind

That one is comforted and feels very empowered but also has no money so they get up and leave mars bar with the check after eating both theirs and the person who left’s food

The waitress brings out mar’s food and asks if she’s okay

She constructs a lie about how she’s friends with the couple and they said they would pay for her food since she doesn’t have money but they fight wherever they go and left her with the bills

so the waitress feels sympathy for her and pays for her

Mars gets a good meal of french toast and ham and walks out feeling full and ready to go to the south park

And we ended there for the night

[kcaruth]

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Review

Before the dark times, before the mouse empire, LucasArts published several fun, memorable Star Wars video games, from Star Wars: Bounty Hunter to The Force Unleashed series. After Disney’s acquisition of LucasArts in 2012, the Mouse House stopped all internal developments at LucasArts and laid off most of its staff in 2013. Signaling its turn to the dark side, Disney awarded EA (voted worst company in America multiple times) a multi-year license to create Star Wars video games.

EA rebooted the Star Wars Battlefront series (2005′s Star Wars: Battlefront II has to be one of my most played video games) and released the new Star Wars Battlefront in November 2015. Critics acknowledged the game’s great graphics and visuals, but it quickly became apparent that the game lacked content. The hero and villain rosters were very limited, and the game only included content from the original trilogy, not the prequels.

Then came EA’s disastrous Star Wars Battlefront II, the repercussions of which shook the gaming world. Released in November 2017, Battlefront II had some promise. It was the first game since the Disney takeover to feature a single-player story mode that was canon to the film series. The game also contained content from the prequel, original, and sequel trilogies. Additionally, EA greatly expanded the hero and villain rosters. However, EA showed it true colors with the game’s loot boxes, which could award players significant gameplay advantages if they purchased them with real money. Essentially, the game turned into a pay to win system, thereby making players who did not purchase loot boxes feel so disadvantaged that Battlefront II virtually became pay to play.

Although Visceral Games, the studio behind the Dead Space series, was developing a single-player Star Wars game, even getting to the point in the development process where they could tease everyone with in-game footage, EA canceled the game and shut down the studio. Not counting the Lego Star Wars games and mobile games, EA’s Battlefront games were the only new Stars Wars video games on the market, an astonishing reality compared to the rate at which LucasArts used to produce games for the franchise.

Eventually, EA finally came to its senses and assigned a single-player action-adventure Star Wars game to Respawn Entertainment, the studio behind the Titanfall series. Former Santa Monica Studio employee Stig Asmussen served as game director, and heavy-hitting talent like writer Chris Avellone, perhaps best known for his work on Fallout: New Vegas, joined the project. Finally, Respawn released Jedi: Fallen Order in November 2019 to much critical acclaim.

Now, with that long-winded background introduction establishing the recent state of Star Wars video gaming out of the way, let’s get into the real reason why everyone is here. What did I think of Jedi: Fallen Order? I am usually well behind on newer video game releases, but our current state of affairs with the global pandemic has afforded me a bit more time to dust off my controller. Having just beaten Fallen Order earlier this week, I have plenty to say about the game. (I even made a pros and cons list! Can you tell I have also been spending my time watching the misadventures of Leslie Knope and company in Parks and Rec?)

At its core, Star Wars is about family, friendship, and good versus evil, so let’s start by talking about this game’s characters and plot. (Don’t worry; I won’t spoil anything from the story.) Fallen Order nails the spirit of Star Wars. Set five years after Revenge of the Sith, players control Cal Kestis, a Padawan forced to keep a low profile after the Jedi Purge. Cal lives on the planet Bracca, where he works as a scrapper salvaging ships from the Clone Wars. Kudos to the game here. I stopped a couple of times just to admire the visuals of Bracca. It was definitely a “wow moment” seeing TIE fighters shriek by overhead and watching a Separatist ship descend from the atmosphere. One day, Cal taps into the Force for the first time since Emperor Palpatine’s Order 66 to save a friend from certain death from a workplace accident. Unfortunately, an Imperial probe droid records the incident, alerting the Empire of a Jedi fugitive. Two Inquisitors quickly arrive on the scene to track down the Jedi. Introduced in the animated series Star Wars Rebels, the menacing Inquisitors are an evil organization of Force-sensitive beings, some of them former Jedi, who have been tortured and turned to the dark side by Darth Vader and the Empire or otherwise willingly joined the organization out of hunger for power. They are tasked with hunting down surviving Jedi in hiding and others exhibiting Force potential. Somehow, Cal has survived this long even though he still carries around his lightsaber with him everywhere! When the Inquisitors corner him, he literally just pulls it out of his pocket! How has no one ever noticed it before? Did none of the Imperial probe droids floating around the planet ever take a snapshot of the weapon? Plot holes aside, two new characters, Greez and Cere, rescue Cal from certain doom at the hands of the Second and Ninth Sisters and ferry him off world.

Cere is a former Jedi who held the role of Seeker in the Order. A Seeker located infants with Force abilities who could be taken to Coruscant and trained in the Jedi arts (think the good version of the Inquisitors). Greez is a starship pilot with a bad gambling habit, a green thumb, and an insatiable appetite. Cal finds a small droid named BD-1, who reveals a message from Jedi Master Eno Cordova, detailing the existence of a hidden Jedi Holocron containing a list of Force-sensitive children across the galaxy. In the wrong hands, this list could lead to the children’s demise. Cal and Cere want to use the list to rebuild the Jedi Order. Thus begins the race between the Empire and our crew of ragtag misfits to secure the Holocron.

Overall, the story is good, great even for recent Star Wars standards. It fits the Star Wars cannon very well, and I loved the nods to the Clone Wars, mentions of obscure characters, and the foreshadowing of future events. Some moments elicit chuckles from the appropriate Star Wars humor, while others go to some truly dark places. The way the game tackles Order 66 earns it extremely high marks from me. The developers need to be applauded for bringing in new and relatively unknown planets that we have not really had the chance to explore before. There is no Hoth, Jakuu, or the like to be seen here, thankfully. Star Wars is a big galaxy; it is about time we saw different parts of it. We have spent more than enough time on Tatooine. The planets we do visit feel alive. Each one has a different color palette, climate, weather pattern (although the developers may have been a little heavy-handed on the fog in a few of the locations), and, of course, flora and fauna.

Cal fights everything from annoying rat creatures to ram-like slugs, from giant venus fly traps to trampoline spring-plants. Players can even collect plant specimens on different planets and plant them in Greez’s terrarium, which was a nice little way to take a piece of each planet with you on your journey. Oh, and the spiders. Cal has to kill tons and tons of spiders. Again, this is Star Wars! There is a whole galaxy at your disposal full of creatures that look like whatever your imagination can dream up, and the best we get is different species of spiders? That is probably nitpicking, but it felt like it was worth pointing out.

When it comes to the Empire, however, the variety is fantastic. Of course, the run-of-the-mill standard stormtroopers are here, but there are also variations like shock baton-wielding scout troopers, flame troopers, and the dangerous Purge troopers, essentially the special forces of the Inquisitors. The chatter between the troopers is great. Before they spot him, Cal can overhear them talking about their notorious accuracy, the planet’s hostile wildlife, or even mundane topics like food rations. Once Cal starts fighting them, they often taunt him, full of confidence in their abilities, but then they come to the realization that they are facing off against a Jedi. The confidence in their voices gradually turns to panicked fear as Cal slices through their numbers. By the time Cal gets to the last trooper standing, that trooper will regularly plead for his life or confess how scared he is. Every once in a while, the Empire will even throw AT-ST walkers at Cal, which are a fun enough challenge, though the strategy to defeat them becomes clear within a minute or two, and players are never forced to change up their tactics. I do love that after Cal destroys the walker, the trooper will crawl out of the wreckage and start shooting at him. Nice touch!

With all that said, the story is not perfect. In fact, once or twice it just feels dumb. For example, Cal goes on this grand mission seeking out an important leader in hiding, and when he finally encounters him, they exchange maybe one full sentence before the leader gifts Cal a rebreather so that he can swim underwater. You are telling me I conquered various obstacles and enemies, traversing across multiple planets all to get...a rebreather? This whole section could have been cut out and streamlined so that the storyline goes directly to the main setpiece of this planet I am talking about. Have one of Cal’s crewmates give him a rebreather and send him on his way instead. Regardless, at least the back and forth traversal gives players another chance to board the ship, ascend from the planet, and blast off into hyperspace. Seeing that never got old.

Respawn and its writers did a great job with these characters, including one of the Inquisitors (the other one is just kind of...meh). I enjoyed getting to know my crew, but I wish they had a little more to do in the game. In reality, they just stay on the ship 95 percent of the time while you are out running around on your mission (not that I entirely blame them...it is a cool ship). The conversations between these characters were usually good, but sometimes Cal would not mention huge, seemingly significant events or people he ran into to his crew! For a cinematic franchise like Star Wars, this game could have used a couple more cutscenes. The game often feeds the plot or a character’s mindset to players by making them idly stand near a crewmate and tapping R3 a handful of times to get them to cough up a couple of lines of dialogue.

As is to be expected from a Star Wars product, the game’s music is terrific. Gordy Haab and Stephen Barton composed the score and recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra and the Bach Choir of London. Mongolian folk metal band The Hu also wrote and recorded a song that is featured during a couple of prominent portions of the game. The song lyrics were written in Mongolian and then translated into a fictional Star Wars alien language. The music compliments and elevates the game’s setpieces, with one standout part reminding me of Thor: Ragnarok. A couple of times, the game goes full John Williams to really make some moments hit home, and boy does it work! Hats off to Respawn for putting in this much effort in regards to the music for the game.

Getting into the gameplay, Fallen Order is an amalgamation of several other games. Dark Souls, Zelda, Uncharted, Metroid, Castlevania, Sekiro, heck even Sonic...they are all here in some form or fashion. Unfortunately for Fallen Order, it does not elevate the features it borrows from those games. The biggest reason? The bugs. Oh my goodness the bugs. How can a blockbuster release like this have so many bugs? Maybe it had something to do with EA or Disney wanting to push the final product out before the release of The Rise of Skywalker the next month, but the amount of bugs in this game are simply unacceptable. While none of them led to a complete game crash, I definitely caught myself grumbling, “I hate this game,” with my frustration levels constantly reaching the scorching temperature of Mustafarian lava, especially considering Fallen Order’s inexcusably long load times. Seriously, the load times after dying are so long that I had enough time to run to the bathroom, heat something up in the microwave, or make a cup of tea (to help relax me from this rage-inducing game) before the game finished loading. How can I lift off from a planet and travel through hyperspace faster than the game can respawn me after dying? It is not just dying, by the way. The game developers think they cleverly hid load times behind elevator rides, but that did not work either! At least throw in some elevator music or comm chatter if you are going to make me stand there for so long!

One time, I fell through the level to my death while walking on what was 100 percent solid ground. Speaking of solid ground, or should I say the lack thereof, enemies continued to fight me while clearly hovering in thin air when they should obviously be plummeting to their death. Woe is me if I tried to reach them, though, because my Jedi character must not have that ability, leading to, that is right, more death falls for me as the enemy looked on from his invisible sliver of ground above. If I was lucky enough to have an enemy remain in my relative vicinity and not stand off a ledge, that enemy had a chance of pinning and glitching Cal against a wall, leaving me trapped until I died from the beating. The enemy who kills Cal glows gold until players shave off a piece of that enemies health, which is great, but that means players cannot see that enemy flash red when he uses an unblockable attack. How could Respawn not notice this error when it is such an important component of the combat? For all the aggressive enemies with magical glitching powers, there were also those that would have a change of heart mid-combat and go pacifistic on me. I found this especially common in the later game and on one planet in particular with ranged enemies. They would fire at me, I would block their shot back at them and injure them, and then they would just stand there staring at me. It was really bizarre and made me uneasy turning my back on them to explore the area. I also experienced my health and Force bars completely disappearing from the screen. The first couple of times it happened, I thought it was intentional and meant that Cal could not die for that sequence of the game. Wrong! So much for thinking I was momentarily invincible with unlimited Force powers. This bug was especially crippling during big boss fights, as you can imagine. Respawn throws in some quick time events once in a while where players have to press the correct button in a very short amount of time. For the most part, I did not mind these, but one exception got my blood boiling. Cal is fighting a giant creature and ends up free falling. The game requires Cal to land in a very, very precise spot and pull of a quick time event. I cannot count the number of times I fell to my death during this part because of how finicky the game was being. Cal conveniently stumbles across every single icy or muddy slide in the galaxy during his travels, a way for the game developers to disguise a way to get players from point A to point B quickly, but these slides are also quite particular with when players jump and where they land. Another good portion of my deaths came from Cal not making a jump on one of these slides when he clearly had the distance or him seemingly landing and making the jump only for him to glitch and then fall backwards into a never-ending dark chasm. The game developers may have thought players would enjoy these slides, but I came to dread them.

The worst game bugs by far, however, dealt with frame rates and level textures. Not contained to one section or even one planet, unfortunately, garbage frame rates wreak more havoc across the galaxy than the treacherous Empire. I am telling you the frame rate is absolutely abysmal in this game. I can forgive a drop in frame rate if it happens a couple of times, but it is like it is a built-in gameplay feature of Fallen Order. It was maddening! How can Respawn expect me to properly block or dodge if the game cannot even keep up with my movements or camera adjustments? Texture pop ins and clipping were also recurring issues. One time, I noticed a soldier’s helmet load in late. Another time, a Wookie’s fur took a while to fill up the character model. (By the way, the Wookies in this game look horrendous.) Sometimes, it would get so bad that the game would just pause completely so that it could load in the content of the area. I honestly thought the game had crashed and was about to reboot the console before everything stuttered back into place and Cal got moving again.

I have done a lot of ranting about the game’s flaws the last few paragraphs, so let me get back to some things I did like. The combat works well. I cannot begin to tell you how satisfying and occasionally outright hilarious it is to Force push a trooper off a ledge, especially when he is standing there trying to intimidate you. I had so much fun simply blocking stormtroopers’ laser bolts right back at them. Best of all, I started taking every opportunity I had to pull enemies toward me, especially ones perched up on higher vantage points, and stab them straight through with my lightsaber. The lightsaber boss fights were a highlight of the game. Players feel the weight of every strike and every struggle when the blades cross.

In addition to Cal’s lightsaber, he also has his Force powers at his disposal. He starts out with Force slow and gradually adds other abilities, such as push and pull, as the game progresses. Players may question how Cal, a Jedi, can struggle with a squadron of stormtroopers or the local wildlife, or they may ask why he does not start with all of his Force abilities, but it all makes sense when you consider that Cal has to rebuild his connection to the Force. He has not used it since he was a child, after all. It makes sense that this amateur padawan who did not complete his training runs into a tough time in combat. When Cal does unlock new Force abilities, the game cleverly flashes back to show Cal’s master teaching him that ability during his training before Order 66.

Players can further bolster their Force, survival, and lightsaber abilities through a skill tree. Skill points accumulated from defeating enemies grant players access to increased health, stronger stim potency, increased lightsaber damage, and mass push, to name a few skills. Even later on in the game when most of your Force abilities have been unlocked and Cal has found a couple of fun new gadgets, the game still feels balanced. Cal never feels overpowered like Starkiller in The Force Unleashed games. Even when they are maxed out, his Force push and pull do not appear to have much of an effect on bosses. At most, they will briefly stagger them, whereas when they do it to Cal, he will comically tumble over like Palpatine when Yoda Force pushed him across his desk in Revenge of the Sith.

I will argue that a couple of Force abilities become outdated later in the game. At one point, I forgot I even had Force slow because I had not used it in a while. I only remembered it while I was trying to solve a small puzzle to escape from an area and had exhausted all other options. Can you blame me for always wanting to Force push enemies off a cliff instead of slowing them down?

I appreciate that the game developers allow players to adjust the difficulty at any time. I started out at a higher difficulty and found myself dying before I even left the first world, Bracca. However, I persisted. That is, until I faced off against Oggdo Bogdo and his trash hitboxes. Players can stumble upon Oggdo Bogdo very early in the game. Oggdo Bogdo, a carnivorous amphibian creature, is a boss variation of the more common lookalikes of him. There is a similar optional alpha creature boss encounter on most planets Cal visits. No matter how hard I tried or how many different strategies I employed, Oggdo Bogdo proved to be too tough for me, and after waiting through countless death loads and having to run back over to Oggdo Bogdo’s location time and time again, I decided to lower the game’s difficulty, allowing me to finally slay this ugly creature.

Like Sekiro’s sculptor’s idols or the bonfires in Dark Souls, Fallen Order relies on meditation circles as its save points. Cal can rest to full health and restore his Force meter as well as restock health stims. Meditation circles also allow players to access the skill tree and spend skill points. These meditation circles implement a good risk versus reward system. If players choose to rest at a meditation circles, all of the enemies he or she has defeated since the last rest will respawn. I regularly found myself weighing the pros and cons of my situation, questioning if I should heal and get more stims or push on so that I did not put more enemies in my path.

While I am on the subject of these meditation circle save points, I have to point out that Fallen Order does not have fast travel. Instead, it encourages players to backtrack and explore previously inaccessible areas that they can now open with their newly unlocked abilities. This was fine for a while, but I quickly grew tired of it when I noticed how much of the backtracking had me slowly climbing, traversing across narrow walkways that Cal has to carefully balance on, or shimmying over narrow cliff edges. This is padding by exploration. While the vine and rope swinging was fun, especially with Force pull, I stopped enjoying climbing up a conveniently placed arrangement of vines and the like by the halfway point of the game, if not earlier. I will admit that I believe Fallen Order contains just the right amount of playtime, but this stuff had it teetering on the too long side. This is compounded by one important world that players have to visit multiple times that feels too big. The developers’ creativity and excitement got a little out of hand here. Just pull up the map of that world to see how unwieldy it is. When I completed the story on a planet like this, I felt exhausted rather than triumphant. Why can’t I hail my crew to come pick me up in the ship where I am rather than having to run across the entire planet again to get back to the landing pad, fighting the same enemies I already cleared out a couple of hours ago? The game developers do provide a few shortcuts that players can open, but the amount of time they end up saving is negligible in some cases.

I was disappointed that there is no real endgame content. Sure, players can continue to explore or fight enemies for the heck of it, but the developers could have done so much more. After players unlock every ability in the skill tree, the skill points they collect after that become meaningless. I will confess that I chose to rush past enemies to get to my next destination rather than waste time or energy fighting them for the 50th time after I had filled out my skill tree. Why not unlock fast travel after players beat the story? How about adding in a fighting arena where players can test their maxed out skill set against waves of enemies? Heck, let the players unlock dark side Force abilites like Force lightning or Force choke after they complete the story so that whatever they do then is not canon. I would have continued to gather skill points for that!

Now I mentioned Cal’s droid companion BD-1 earlier, but BD-1 deserves a special shout-out. BD-1 is spunky and lovable. Not only does BD-1 shoot Cal stims to heal him, the droid also provides hints for puzzles, scans enemies to suggest tactics to take them down, plays recordings that push the story along, and helps Cal navigate the worlds by hacking locked doors or carrying him across zip lines. Additionally, BD-1 projects the holomap of each planet, which is vital to keeping track of where Cal is in relation to the ship or his destination. The holomap itself is decent. Color coding helps players see what is inaccessible and what is unlockable, but for the bigger worlds with multiple levels it can be quite a burden to scroll across. Not to knock BD-1, but I grew impatient waiting for the droid’s animation that it goes through every single time Cal finds a hidden chest. Cal opens up the chest, BD-1 jumps in and rumbles around, and then jumps back out with whatever was inside it, all while Cal repeats the same lines of dialogue, like “Woah, buddy!” or “Careful now.” or “What did you find in there?” There are 107 chests in the game. Let that sink in.

These chests are one of the rewards for exploration. They contain items that players can use to customize Cal, his lightsaber, BD-1, or the ship. While this is motivation enough at the beginning of the game, this customization serves no purpose beyond cosmetics. It comes down to which poncho or paint job players find more aesthetically pleasing. I love that the game developers let players change lightsaber colors, but I wish these different ponchos and lightsaber parts had some sort of effect on the gameplay, such as restoring more of Cal’s Force meter or refilling a small amount of health after defeating an enemy.

Force echoes serve as another reward for exploring. Cal uncovers lore from past events by reaching out through these Force echoes. They rounded out the worlds nicely and added to the feeling that they were lived in, real places in the galaxy. The final element of exploration is BD-1′s scans. While you are running around, BD-1 will occasionally crawl down off Cal’s back and scramble over to something the droid wants to scan. These unlock data entries on the planet, its flora and fauna, the Empire, or other characters. This is all fine and dandy, but the level of exploration the game developers expect players to do with all of the backtracking involved needs to reward me with more than just basic lore, especially when some of the entries feel like the writers did not even try when they wrote them. Is an entry on a storage crate telling me that the Empire stored materials in it really worth stopping to scan? I think not. Instead, the game developers could have really motivated me to explore more by throwing in a few interesting side quests or fun Easter eggs. Maybe players could stumble upon active Imperial transmissions and overhear characters like Tarkin or Thrawn. Maybe players could find an abandoned Imperial camp and watch Imperial or Rebel propaganda over a holofeed that was left on. They could have even hidden a squadron of battle droids that were forgotten from the Clone Wars. So many possibilities!

Jedi: Fallen Order is far from a perfect game and has so much unrealized potential, but I would not trade away my time with it. For every flaw, I can point to a positive, and vice versa. At the end of the day, I got to be a Jedi, and that is good enough for me.

[dukereviewsmovies]

Duke Reviews: The Christmas Chronicles

Hi Everyone, I'm Andrew Leduc And Welcome To Duke Reviews Where We Are Continuing Duke's Yultide Reviews...

And On Today's Show, We're Looking At Last Year's Gift To Us From Netflix, The Christmas Chronicles...

This Film Follows 2 Siblings Named Teddy And Kate Pierce Who Hatch A Scheme To Capture Santa Claus On Christmas Eve. But When Their Plan Goes Awry, The Kids Join Forces With Jolly Old Saint Nick (Played By Kurt Russell) And His Elves To Save Christmas Before It Is Too Late, Will They Succeed?

Let's Find Out As We Watch The Christmas Chronicles...

The Film Starts With Videos Of The Pierce Family Celebrating Christmas But That Was Then And This Is Now, As We See That The Youngest Of The Family, Katie Is Watching The Tapes While She Looks For A New One So She Can Send A Video Letter To Santa Claus...

But While Katie Makes Her Video, Her Brother Teddy Hits Her In The Head With A Shoe So He Can Take The Camera From Her, Saying That She Can't Believe That She's Making A Video Letter To Santa Claus As She's 11 Years Old Which Leads Teddy To Try To Tell Her That There Is No Santa Claus But Despite Being A Jerk, Teddy Decides To Instead Just Say That There's No Chance That Santa Will Watch Her Video As He Only Reads Handwritten Letters In The Mail...

Yeah, Katie, With The Way You're Going You're Going To Put S.D. Kruger Out Of A Job...

Look At That Happy Face! Do You Really Want To Make Him Sad By Making Him Obsolete, Of Course Not...

Going To Meet His Friends, Katie Tells Teddy That She's Coming With As He's Supposed To Be Watching Her But Instead He Dumps All Of The Fish Food Inside Of Her Fish Tank In An Attempt To Get Away...

Managing To Save Her Fish (I Guess, I Would Think That Getting Them Into Cups Of Water Would Take Longer Than That) Katie Follows Teddy To See Him And His Friends Carjacking A Car...

Confronting Teddy On It When He Gets Home, It Leads To A Fight Between The 2 That Knocks Over Their Family Picture And Their Christmas Tree But When Their Mother (Played By Father Of The Bride's Kimberly Williams Paisley) Returns Home Asking What Happened, Kate (While Telling The Truth At First) Lies For Teddy Saying That Teddy Pushed Her Into The Wall Knocking Over The Picture...

Mad At Her Kids For Not Getting Along, She Tells Teddy To Put Up The Tree And To Decorate It As Their Father Would Have Decorated By Now...

Yep, We're Going With The Old Father Figure Is Dead And Everyone Is Handling It Badly Routine..

Decorating Cookies With Kate, Mom Gets An Emergency Phone Call Telling Her That She Has To Handle The Night Shift At Her Job At The Hospital, Forcing Teddy To Babysit Kate For The Night...

Going Up To His Room For The Night, Kate Asks For Him To Do Something Together With Her Since It's Christmas Eve And Ever Since Their Dad Died, All He Wants To Do Is Hang Out With His Friends Instead Of Her, But Comparing Her To A Boring Slug, Teddy Goes To His Room...

Watching Christmas Videos After The Cookies Are Done, Kate Notices A Hand In A Red Coat In The Picture That Katie Believes To Be Santa Claus...

Showing Teddy The Video, He Considers The Possibilities While Kate Already Has Goosebumps. Suggesting That They Make A Video, Teddy Is Like People Have Tried This Before What Makes You Any Different Than Them? And Despite Having Proof, Teddy Says No...

However, Kate Tells Teddy That If He Helps Her Pull It Off, She'll Give Him The Tape Of Him And His Friends Carjacking The Car And She Won't Say Anything To Mom As Swears On An Award Their Dad Won...

So, Setting Up Traps Like Home Alone Because The Guy That Directed That Directed This Movie Which Means We Got To Have This Music Playing...

Setting Out The Milk And Cookies, They Hide In And Eat Junk Food In An Attempt To Stay Awake, But Eventually They Fall Asleep Which Is When Everything Happens...

With Their Trap Springing, A Bell Wakes Up Kate Who Sees Santa And Wales Up Teddy Who Hears Santa On The Roof, Grabbing The Camera, Teddy And Kate See Santa Going From Roof To Roof And House To House As Follow Him To An Alley Where They Find The Sleigh...

Whoa, Is Right, Keanu...

Climbing Trucks, Buildings And Lightpoles To Get A Good Look At The Sleigh, Kate Ends Up Jumping In With Teddy Right Behind Her But Before They Can Get A Good Look At The Cockpit, Santa Finishes Up And The Sleigh Flies Off...

With Teddy Getting A Good Look At The Front Of The Sleigh, Kate Eventually Gets Cold...

And At That Height, It's No Wonder She Does...

Teddy Looks For A Blanket But Not Able To Wait Kate Goes To Ask Santa, Scaring Him And Causing The Sleigh To Go Off Course...

Going Higher, Kate Falls From The Sleigh But Luckily Teddy And Santa Are Able To Save Kate But In Doing So, They Get In The Way Of An Airplane Which Scares The Reindeer As They Enter Some Sort Of Hyperdrive Which Is Awesome But Once They Get Out Of Hyperdrive Mode, Santa Loses His Hat, The Presents And The Reindeer...

Crash Landing In Chicago, Santa Tells The 2 Kids That They Really Have Messed Things Up Stating That If He's Not Up And Running Within A Few Hours, The World Will Face Another Dark Ages...

Going For A Jingle Bell In The Sleigh, Which Will Lead Santa To His Presents, But As He Goes Find It The Magical Way, Santa Finds That He Doesn't Have His Magic As All Of It Was Inside Of His Hat...

Realizing That He Has To Do This The Normal Way, Santa Tells Teddy And Kate To Head Home (They're In Chicago How Are They Going To Get Home Without You?) And Not Bother Getting Up Early In The Morning As They're On The Naughty List For Life (That's Fine, But You Already Delievered Their Presents, Dummy)

Realizing That They Caused This, So, They Have To Help Santa To Make It Right, Santa Let's Them Come With Despite Being Pissed At Them...

Entering A Restaurant Called Nick's Place, Santa Tries To Get Enough Money From The Patrons So He Can Call A Taxi, But When Teddy Notices One Of Them, Dialing 911, He Gets Santa Out Of There...

However, With Christmas Spirit Down 35%, They Still Need A Ride So, Teddy Decides To Steal Some Car Keys From A Valet. Despite Santa And Kate Believing That That's Not A Good Idea, Teddy Reminds Santa That With Christmas On The Line Now's Not A Time To Be Picky Especially When Santa Breaks Into Houses To Deliver Gifts Every December 24th...

Plus, They're Not Really Breaking The Law As The Car's Already Stolen And When They're Done With It They'll Turn It Into The Police. Getting In The Car, They Drive Off In It...

Going Through All The Junk In The Car, Santa Turns The Car Radio Into A Police Band Reciever To Discover If Anyone Has Called The Police Yet And Turns Out They Have However They Also Also Hear About A Reindeer Sighting On Michigan Avenue...

Arriving On Michigan Avenue, Teddy Slows Down The Car So Santa Can Attempt To Call His Reindeer But When Kate Spots Them They Head Down The Street Where Kate Saw Them Only To Lose Them Again And With Police Approaching They Need To Hurry...

Santa Tells Katie To Go After The Reindeer While Teddy And Him Keep The Police Distracted, Which They Do By Driving All Over The City. Eventually Finding The Reindeer, Kate Gives Comet A Candy Cane Which Makes Him Trust Her Enough To Take Him And The Other Reindeer To See Santa...

Chasing The Police Around Chicago, Teddy And Santa Nearly Crash Into A Car Which Leads Them Jump Into A Snowbank...

Getting Out Of The Car, Teddy And Santa Try Explaining The Situation To The Officers But With What They're Saying To The Officers, Santa And Teddy May As Well Be Telling Them, Go Ahead, Arrest Us!

Which Is Exactly What They Do With Santa, However When Kate Shows Up With The Reindeer, Santa Gives Teddy The Jingle Bell That Locates His Sack And Manages To Get Away From The Cops By Hopping On One Of The Reindeer...

Dumping The Reindeer At A Christmas Tree Lot, They Head For A Church Where Teddy And Kate Hear Their Dad's Favorite Christmas Song Which Happens To Be My Mom's Favorite Christmas Song...

(Just Kidding, She Hates This Song, Love You Mom)

This Leads To A Tender Moment Between The 2 Siblings Where We Discover The Reason Teddy Is Acting Like A Jerk Is Because He's Mad At His Father For Dying And He Thinks That If His Father Could See Him Now He Wouldn't Like The Man That He's Become...

But Kate Tells Him That He's Not An Awful Brother And That Their Dad Wouldn't Be Disappointed In Him Because She Sees Him All The Time In Teddy...

Or In Other Words...

With The Bell Beeping More Frequently, The Kids Continue Their Quest While Santa Is Being Questioned By One Of The Officers Who Still Doesn't Believe Santa But Giving The Officer Gifts He Wanted Since He Was A Boy, The Officer Starts Questioning Things After Realizing That Frisked Santa On The Way In So There's No Way That He Stole Those Items...

With The Officer Telling Santa To Stop, Santa Instead Gets To What Dave Wants This Year Which Is To Get Back Together With His Ex-Wife, Freaking Out Over How Santa Knows This, Santa Says That It Doesn't Matter But All He Needs To Do Is Just Give Her A Call....

Doubting Everything That He Has Seen, The Officer Reminds Santa Of The Charges That He's Accused Of Which Leads Santa To Tell The Officer That By Tomorrow They'll Seem Like Nothing As Christmas Spirit Is Down To 31% Now And If He Doesn't Get Moving All Of Chicago Will Look Like The Purge Movies And The Police Will Have Their Hands Full...

But With The Officer Believing Him To Be Some Kind Of Con Man, He Locks Santa Inside Of A Cell With A Bunch Of Other Criminals...

Meanwhile, Teddy And Kate Locate The Bag In A Tree And Manage To Get It Out Of The Tree, Looking For Elves Inside Of The Bag, Kate Goes Inside Of It Only To Disappear. In An Attempt To Look For Kate, Teddy Gets Kidnapped By 3 Hoods Who Take The Bag...

While Inside Of The Bag, Kate Finds One Of The Elves Who Leads Her Into This Vortex Of Presents...

Which Eventually Takes Her To The North Pole..

While Looking Around The North Pole, Kate Decides To Look At Santa's Many Letters From Kids All Over The World To Look At Teddy's Many Letters To Santa Claus Only To Discover That Teddy Wrote One This Year Asking Santa If He Can Let Him See His Father One Last Time...

But Before We Discover The Reason Why, Kate Sees One Of The Elves Walk Past To Go And Hide, Eventually Finding Him, Kate Introduces Herself To Him And The Other Elves Who She Eventually Finds Saying That Santa Sent Her But The Elves Don't Believe Kate And They Tie Her Up With Lights...

Telling The Head Elf (Who Looks Nothing Like David Krumholtz) Everything, They Take Kate To A Book To Show Kate That She Comes From A Long Line Of True Believers...

And The Elves Are Like...

And They Release Her....

Back At The Police Station, The Police Station Starts Filling Up As The Officer's Partner Tells Him That It's Never This Busy On Christmas Eve, Which Has The Officer Realizing That Santa Warned Him About This...

While In Jail, Santa Discovers That Christmas Spirit Is Down To 19% So, He Decides To Try And Raise It By Livening Up A Little Bit Of The Spirit With Help Of The Convicts Inside Of The Jail Cell With Him...

Back In The Car Of The Hoods, They Take Teddy To Their Boss Who Goes Through Santa's Sack Only To Get A Lump Of Coal, The Hoods Do The Same And Get The Same Thing. Believing The Sack To Be Useless,The Hoods Boss Attempts To Burn The Sack...

But When Teddy Goes To Save It, The Hoods Grab Teddy So Their Boss Could Tell Them To Kill Teddy, However, As They Attempt To Do That The Elves Spring From The Sack And Attack Them...

(Man) Retreat!

Spotting Teddy Who Hid During The Attack, The Elves Attempt To Attack Teddy (Believing That He's One Of The Gang Members) But Luckily Kate Pops Up And Tells The Elves To Stop Before Teddy Is Sliced In Half By A Mini Chainsaw...

Realizing That The Sleigh Is Still Broken, They Ask The Elves To Fix It While Santa Settles Things With The Officer, Who Gets A Call From His Ex-Wife Who Wants To Get Back Together With Him...

Breaking Santa Out Of Jail, The Elves Give Him A New Hat, Courtesy Of Mrs. Claus And So, The Officer's Permission, Up The Chimney He Goes...

With Everything Back On Track, Christmas Seems To Be Back On, However, While Being In Jail, Santa Lost Track Of Time And They Now Have Less Than An Hour Before Sunrise...

Completely Hopeless, Teddy Tells Santa That That They Started This And They're Going To Finish It And While He May Not Know How Things Are Done At The North Pole, A Pierce Always Sees Things Through...

Admiring Teddy's Passion, Santa Still Hasn't Cut It This Close In Forever And Has No Clue How They're Going To Pull This Off, Suggesting That If They Work Together They Might Be Able To. Never Having Human Helpers In The Sleigh Before, Santa Realizes That With Only A Little Bit Of North America Left, They Just Might Be Able To Pull It Off...

With Kate In Charge Of Chucking Out The Presents For Santa To Deliver And Teddy In Charge Of Driving The Sleigh, Santa Starts Delivering Toys From House To House And State To State...

With Time Getting Tight, Santa Asks Kate To Ask The Elves To Help Him...

Missing One Present, They Have Less Than 9 Minutes To Get It There...

Managing To Get It There Only Three Seconds Left, Christmas Is Saved With All The Presents Delivered And Christmas Spirit At 95%...

Taking Teddy And Kate Home, They Ask Santa If They'll Ever See Him Again, Santa Tells Them Most Likely No, But If He Ever Needs 2 Helpers He Knows Where To Find The Best Helpers He's Ever Had..

But Before He Goes, Santa Gives Teddy His Hat, Saying That He Doesn't Need It Because He's Santa Claus...

Hoping On Board The Sleigh, Santa Leaves Just As Their Mom Pulls Up....

Going Inside, They Find The Place Completely Decorated The Exact Way Their Father Decorated It...

Opening Presents, They Get Their Usual Ugly Sweaters From Their Aunt Peggy Before Kate Discovers A Gift To Teddy From Santa, Opening It He Finds A Letter That Says "Dear Teddy, I Got Your Letter. I'm Sorry, I Don't Have The Power To Grant Your Wish But This Was The Best I Could Do, Santa"...

Opening It To Discover An Ornament, Teddy Places It On The Tree, And The Magic Within The Ornament Shows Teddy, His Father Who Says He's Proud Of Him...

Back At The North Pole, Santa Adds Teddy's Name To The Pierce Tree Of True Believers As Mrs. Claus (Played By Goldie Hawn) Comes In With Wood For The Fire While Talking With Santa About Last Night...

And That's The Christmas Chronicles And Why Has This Not Been Released On DVD Or Blu-Ray?

This Film Is A Holiday Classic In The Making And Is Honestly A Good Movie, The Story Is Good, The Cast Is Good, The Elves Are Cute, The Effects Were Awesome It Is Defiantly Worth A Watch And I Say See It...

Till Next Time, This Is Duke, Signing Off...

[astreetcarnamedwynn]

bnha rewatch: episodes 3 and 4

In which I analyze the first tentative steps Midoriya takes toward self-confidence, Iida’s and Uraraka’s initial contrasting characterizations, why Present Mic is the next big hero introduced after All Might, and the recklessly clever and somewhat shady UA exam. I’ve posted this on AO3 as well if that’s easier to read; the link to the account is at the top of my Tumblr. 

The first two episodes of My Hero Academia explore, in part, the negative consequences of doubt. No one believes in Midoriya’s ability to become a hero, not even his own mother, and in the first two episodes, he’s clinging to his dream by a small thread. He hasn’t given up on it, but he’s not actively fighting for it either.

Enter Toshinori.

All Might dismisses Midoriya like everyone else, stating bluntly that a person needs power, and thus a quirk, to become a hero. When Midoriya tries to save Bakugou against the sludge villain, he knocks Toshinori out of his All Might persona and reminds him of himself. Midoriya reminds Toshinori of who he used to be, and thus of what heroism used to be and should be. Toshinori tells Midoriya this and tells him that he believes that Midoriya can be a hero, that he already is a hero in the most important way.

We see the positive consequences of this belief in episodes three and four. Just one person believing in Midoriya (or perhaps the right person believing in Midoriya) motivates him to accomplish great things. In 10 months, he completely cleans the beach and transforms his body, which, despite the upbeat montage to the contrary, would not be easy. Every minute of his life for 10 months is planned out: what to do, what to eat, when to sleep. It’s hard. Midoriya struggles. He falls asleep in class and spaces out in a quintessential mumble fest. Yet he pushes himself beyond this. Now going above and beyond in his initial training is not good, and Toshinori calls Midoriya out on this when he realizes what is going on, but it’s serves as a dynamite example of the importance of belief. Again, just one person believing in and helping Midoriya motivates him above and beyond.

This, of course, contrasts Bakugou at the end of episode two, who furiously declares to Midoriya that he was fine by himself against the sludge villain and that he didn’t need any help. He did, and Midoriya did, too. It’s interesting that it’s Toshinori who is the first one to help Midoriya to become a hero when he’s partly responsible for the notion of heroes going it alone. He is THE symbol of peace. Singular. One. And yet the All in One for All seems more important in BNHA. Midoriya even comments at the end of episode four that his life changed completely because of the help that he received.

Yet he hasn’t changed completely. Midoriya still doubts himself in these episodes. He doesn’t think that he can clean the beach at first (in a nice allusion to The Empire Strikes Back and Luke Skywalker doubting that he can lift his X-Wing with the Force). And even after 10 months, even after all he’s accomplished, he still questions whether he’s worthy of receiving All Might’s help, much less his power. Additionally, when he runs into Bakugou at the UA entrance, he still cowers before Bakugou, “out of habit” despite the fact that he’s not “defenseless Izuku” anymore. And in the mock battle, Midoriya is too afraid to fight the first robot he encounters; he can’t even move he’s so afraid. He’s taken big first steps in believing in himself and his ability, but progress and healing are slow, especially for Midoriya who wants so desperately to be a hero, yet who lives in a society where the very notion of heroism has been twisted.

I don’t think it’s an accident that Present Mic is the second hero we’re introduced to in the show. No offense to Mt. Lady, Kamui Woods, and Death Arms in the first two episodes, but they’re on a different level than Mic and All Might and the other heroes associated with UA, if only narratively. So why is Mic the second hero introduced, why is he overseeing the hero exam and not Eraserhead or Vlad King, who become some of the first year homeroom teachers? It’s because Mic is ALL FLASH. It goes back to the sham and show aspect of heroism, how a hero’s career “depends on their ability to stay in the spotlight.” Or as All Might says in these episodes, heroes just focus on “capturing flashy villains and showing off these days.” Mic has the showing off aspect down to a T. He puts on the old RAZZLE-DAZZLE in front of the prospective students, so much so that some of them come to view the test as a video game. Being a hero is a game. It’s a show. It’s all fame and fortune.

And yet it isn’t. All Might tells this to Midoriya in his training. Midoriya has to clean the beach not just to improve himself physically, but to serve the community, without any gratitude or acknowledgement from the town. Service is what matters, helping others is what matters, and the UA exam assesses this.

I’ve always been struck by how UA kept the full parameters of the test hidden from the students. They know about combat points, but not about rescue points. Why keep this hidden? It seems like it’s to assess their character, to see if they really have a heroic spirit. Tell students that rescue points are a parameter, and most will act selflessly yet for a selfish reason: to succeed in the test, not to genuinely help others. So UA keeps this parameter hidden, and they place students in situations that assess how willing they are to aid others. Most aren’t, which we hear in the exam when the students start sniping at each other in their efforts to get more points. We see it too when the Zero Pointer is unleashed. Midoriya is on the ground, clearly afraid and in need of help, yet all the students, including Iida, run right past him. Additionally, Uraraka is in even more distress than he is, pinned beneath some rubble as the Zero Pointer approaches. And yet no one helps her. No one except Midoriya.

I love this moment, maybe even more than when Midoriya tries to save Bakugou from the sludge villain, because, before Midoriya hears Uraraka, he’s in full selfish mode. He’s only thinking of himself and getting points to pass the test. Then he hears Uraraka, and everything goes quiet. He stops thinking about what he needs, he stops thinking altogether, and he just acts. He runs, and in a mimic and expansion on what he did against the sludge villain, Midoriya slugs the Zero Pointer right in the eye.

Midoriya is not the only one with this heroic spirit. Uraraka has it, too. It’s her first defining characteristic. Before we know anything else about her, her name, her gender even, we know this character is someone who saves others. She saves Midoriya from falling on his face as they enter UA. It’s a small moment, but it’s in stark contrast to how everyone else treats Midoriya here. Bakugou is Bakugou. Iida chastises Midoriya twice, first for his mumbling during Mic’s explanation and then for wanting to speak to Uraraka before the exam, suspecting him of trying to sabotage her. All the other students, including Aoyama, smile at the thought of Midoriya being a weakling because it means one less person to fight against in the test. But not Uraraka. She saves Midoriya from falling on his face not once, but twice, saving his life the second time though she must sacrifice herself physically to do so (paralleling how Midoriya sacrificed himself to save her), and she demonstrates her selfless, heroic spirit a third time when she tries to get UA to donate her exam points to Midoriya. Ignorant of the true parameters of the exam, she calls UA out for failing to award Midoriya for saving her. That’s more important than destroying some random robots.

This attitude is in stark contrast to Iida. Iida’s introduction does not highlight his helpful, saving side. Rather, we see him chastise and call out people three times: Mic when he thinks UA has made an error in their robot explanation, Midoriya for mumbling during the explanation, and Midoriya again when he’s trying to thank Uraraka for helping him. Then we see Iida run right by Midoriya when the Zero Pointer comes. It’s only afterward, after Midoriya’s shocking display of heroism, that Iida reflects and reassesses both Midoriya and the exam. Iida directly contrasts his own selfish action of running by Midoriya to Midoriya’s selfless action of saving Uraraka, and he wonders if rescuing others is a hidden parameter of the test. In a move reminiscent of Bakugou at the end of episode two (when he tracks down Midoriya and doubles down on being fine on his own and not needing anyone’s help, when he denies the truth basically), Iida tries to deny that his actions here say anything meaningful about him. Rather, they were a reflection of the situation, not him. Iida thinks that, if this were real, he would have acted as Midoriya had. That’s not true, as seen in the Stain arc. Iida is an inversion of Midoriya in these episodes. He looks more like a hero than Midoriya does, he’s taller and stronger, and he has a serious, competent air, which contrasts Midoriya, who mumbles and trips and flails and generally fails to impress. At least until the moment of truth comes, and then the truth comes to light, and like Bakugou (though he denied it) and like Toshinori (who maturely admitted it), Iida is affected by Midoriya’s heroism and has started his path of growth.

[oh-theatre]

Sycamore High: The Auditorium  (Chapter 10)

A/N: So many characters! So many stories! So many perspectives! I LOVE WRITING TED. Also, I have only had Tommy for a chapter but if anything very were to happen to him...

summary: The gang goes through an odd morning before class

words: 1,690

warnings: Cursing, slight homophobia, mentions of yelling, implied abuse, VERY NEGATIVE THINKING

Ao3 link

So cute

He is so cute

I love him

WOAH WOAH, pump the breaks, Ted, you pump those breaks

~~~

Emma turned the corner sleepily, god had anyone gotten any sleep?

“I can't believe they have a coffee cart at this school… how fancy can you get?’ She mumbled to herself making her way towards the smell of sweet sweet caffeine. She reaches the eyesight of the coffee cart to be met with a very different scene. She finds herself staring at Paul and some unknown man who looks very angry. She can't hear what they are saying but the taller man's face gets very red and Emma decides that maybe she should intervene seeing as Paul looks like he could care less what happens to him. She stepped in front of the pair and held up her hand, catching a very sweaty fist in it. The man grunted and kept pushing his fist against her hand, she didn't budge. She gave him a look before he snarled and gave up, walking away followed by a very chatty crew.

“Emma!” Pauls perky voice shouted from behind her, she spun to see an equally sleepy Paul grinning like an idiot, so cute.

“Hiya Paul, what was that about?” She asked, scooching past him a bit to collect her own coffee and Pauls.

“Emma! My dear friend! The girl I met just a while ago! The girl who I might have a crush on!  I don't know!” Emma immediately shushed him and dragged him away from the overpopulating coffee cart. She huddled them into a corner still covering his mouth. “I am really tired” He said smiling, insane eyes shining through.

“Yeah, I can tell…” She paused examining him “How much sleep did you get last night?” She asked concerned

“Literally 0 hours” He said still smiling, she wanted to laugh he really was adorable “My mom was loud and fighting with my dad, we don't like him in this household” He whispered the last part. Emma felt like she was listening to a gossip session. “Anyway they were fighting, VERY LOUDLY” He shouted, Emma, nodded sighing… she was getting annoyed. Paul caught on and decided to continue. “Sister, having boy troubles or whatever… and… “ He suddenly got very sad, his face fell. Emma took his hand not thinking and giving it light supportive strokes “Ted… I was worried about Ted” He pouted, Emma nodded. She looked around her surroundings.

“Let's get you back to class” She decided to hand him his coffee. He took it and followed her lead towards the auditorium. 

“Hey how did you do that-” He paused gesturing wildly “Hand thingy”

“I take self-defense classes” She said, slightly leading Paul who was now full-on drunk/sleepy mode. He gasped loudly, jaw-dropping.

“You are so cool” He whispered amazed, she smirked before they reached the auditorium doors. He looked at the doors then down at his coffee. “Oh no! I forgot Bills coffee…” He pouted again and furrowed his brows “Eh, fuck Bill” He stated before the pair made their way into class.

~~~

“Ok, we can't keep doing this!” Charlotte exclaimed “This isn't like me” She said, furrowing her brows. It wasn't, she wasn't the type of person to sneak into a dark corner of the school and have a make-out session.

“God! Charlotte! You say this every-time, and then the morning comes and here we are” Sam replies frustrated. Charlotte winces at his yelling, she doesn't like yelling. “Look you need to figure out what it is we are doing ok?” Charlotte nods unsure before racing out of their corner, she feels a firm hand grab her and pull her back in for a moment. A warm kiss is placed on her lips and she cant help but melt into it. Sam pulls away after a moment before winking goodbye and making his way to class.  Her face flushed before she made her separate way towards the auditorium.

“There you are” The concerned voice of her best friend Emma calls across the room, she turns smiling at her friend

“Here I am” She says dreamily “What's up, buttercup?”  Emma rolls her eyes and drags her over to the seats.

“Ok I have so much to tell you but first why do you look high?” Charlotte's face fell immediately a sense of panic set in.

“High? I don't look high? Omg, do I look high?” She rambled, Emma squeezed her hands

“Kidding!” She said unsure at her friend, Charlotte pouted and hit her shoulder

“Not funny” She said

“You did it wrong” Emma joined in her pout “It's actually ‘Not Funneh!’” Emma exclaimed mimicking the John Mulaney skit.

“Ok nope, I'm not doing this, it's way too early-”

“Paul said he might have a crush on me” Emma blurted, softly enough for only the pair to hear.

“Good Morning class!” A voice echoed through the hollow theatre “Unfortunately Professor Chad is unavailable today so I have been asked to step in. I'm Professor Hidgens and that is what you can call me” The nervous professor looked at the students expectantly before deciding to begin roll call.

~~~

He is really cute though

Yes, but you don't love him! You don't even know him!

Still cute

“Enough!” Ted shouted out loud, the car stopped abruptly and Tommy looked over at Ted in a panic. Ted covered his mouth quickly as the pair made eye contact. “Sorry, I was… just thinking” He said, Tommy sighed relieved before continuing on. Ted cursed himself, idiot, He thought.

“So what's your first class of the day?” Tommy asked casually as he pulled into the school parking lot “Mines Equine Care and Management, I really love horses” He informs excitedly, Ted could listen to him speak for hours. Tommy parks the car looking over at the boy expectantly.

“Oh! Well it was Physical Education but somehow I got transferred into Musical Theatre with a bunch of my friends” Ted wanted to hit himself, he sounded so lame. Tommy's eyes lit up as he unbuckled.

“I love the theatre!! I really wanted to take that class but my…” He trailed off “Doesn't matter, that's super cool though!” His tone had gotten sadder, Ted felt a fiery ball gather in his stomach, he wanted to punch whoever made him feel this way. He just wanted to protect Tommy.

Dammit!

What is wrong with you?

I don't know

Get it together, man

What would your father think?

“Why do I care?” He mumbled to himself getting out of the car. He had dried off a tad bit so he wasn't slugging water everywhere. He grabbed his things and followed Tommy into the school, he couldn't help but stare the entire time. He was absolutely, head over heels, in l-

STOP IT!

You aren't, you CAN'T be

You're just confused, it's just a phase

It's just a phase

Just a phase

“Could I walk you to the auditorium?” Tommy asked sweetly, no pun intended “I've always wanted to see it” Ted watched as Tommy's eyes grew wide with excitement, and a beautiful smile crossed his face.

“How could I say no?” That was supposed to stay up here, Ted thought. Tommy jumped, yes jumped, excitedly and latched onto Ted. He immediately froze at the sudden contact the two boys now shared. Tommy wasn't bothered, and Ted wasn't either perse but… he was confused.

“Lead the way Teddy” Tommy mumbled softly. Oh? Using my childhood nickname? NOT FAIR UNIVERSE! And so he did, Ted leads them through the almost empty halls right to the auditorium doors. Everything was going great, they talked and laughed. They were so close until-

“Got yourself a boyfriend Porker?” A gruff voice asked from behind. Ted felt his mood immediately drop as the pair turned around to be met with Billy. “Aww look, he even has pigtails, so you can pretend he's a girl”

Ok that's it, Ted roll up your sleeves lets get this motherfucker

Why? He's right, isn't he?

“I'm not his boyfriend” Tommy said calmly, why did Ted's heart hurt when he said this. “I'm just a friend, he's much too good for me” Both Ted and Billy were shocked by this. Ted felt a pang of guilt hit him.

Too good for you? No… no… you've got it all wrong Tommy

“Even if he was my boyfriend” Ted said, his voice wavered by this sudden participation “You would be the last to know”

Wow great job Ted, I’m sure that will get him going

“So what? You like boys Porker?” Billy said scoffing. Ted furrowed his brows, he went to answer.

“You interested Billy? Unfortunately, you're not my type” That shut him up, ted watched amused as Billy stuttered over himself before walking away defeated. “Also yeah I do!” Ted shouted, He just really wanted to rile him up. Tommy let out a giggle and covered Ted's mouth.

“Stop.. you're going to get yourself punched” The pair giggled, Ted felt happier than he had in a while.

“I've been through worse” He shuffled his feet, Tommy let out a breath before examining the halls once more.

“Sorry about that” He said, Ted shook his head furiously

“Not your fault, Billy has always had it out for me and my friends” He glanced over at the direction where Billy had gone “I guess this time it was justified” Ted said disappointed.

“What? Are you joking? It was absolutely not! So you like boys? Who cares?” Tommy said getting very defensive, ted was taken aback by this sudden anger he felt wash through him. “Look I don't know you that well but clearly you have some things you need to work on, but I meant when I said we were friends, ok?” he looked around again “It's ok to like whoever-” Tommy paused “Just don't like Billy ok? Cause… ew” The pair erupted into laughter once more “I should get to class… see you around Ted” Tommy smiled, that damn smile before disappearing, leaving Ted with a very hollow stomach and an awful feeling of longing.

So...Not a phase

What would your father think?

[ghostbustermelanieking]

would you ever consider writing fic where william is sick with a cold or stomachbug and scully has to take care of him? maybe set somewhere post season 11?

Jackson is holed up in his room, and Scully can hear him coughing wetly from down the hall as she paces around the room with her daughter dozing off on her shoulder. She didn’t hear him come in last night. Thank God he didn’t wake the baby; her sleep schedule is fleeting enough without an unexpected wake-up as an added bonus. Scully pats her back, casting nervous looks down the hall as she passes the open door where she can hear the coughing. She has no idea where he’s sleeping at night; he could have pneumonia, for all she knows, from sleeping outside in the cold. She hates not knowing where her son is half the time, but she supposes she should be grateful that he shows up at all.

Lily is blinking sleepily, her fist shoved halfway into her mouth. Scully strokes her downy hair and kisses her little forehead before setting her down in her crib. Lily curls and uncurls her little fingers sleepily; Scully covers the baby with the star-speckled blanket that Tara had mailed about a month before the baby was born, strokes the side of her cheek before leaving to go check on her oldest.

Jackson is bundled up in the guest bed, buried under a pile of blankets. “Dana?” he mumbles underneath the comforter. He sounds like he is speaking through piles of cotton balls, his nose stuffed up.

“Hi, Jackson,” she says, going to the bed to feel his forehead. He is burning up. “You not feeling well?”

“No.” He sticks his head out. “If you think the kid’ll get sick, I can…”

“No, don’t be ridiculous,” she says immediately. “What are your symptoms? I’ll give you some medicine.”

“I’m, uh, cold,” he says. “And congested. I think it’s just a cold—” He breaks off into a coughing fit.

She checks his fever again, brushing sweaty hair away from his forehead. “I’ll get you some cough syrup,” she says softly. “Do you want anything to eat? Drink?”

“That’d be okay.” He offers her a small, grateful smile. Scully smiles back, tousling his hair a little, tells him she’ll be right back.

When she comes back upstairs with a glass of orange juice and a bowl of hot soup, Jackson is dead to the world. She leaves the juice and takes the soup, planning to heat it later. She brushes her fingers briefly over his hot forehead before leaving him to sleep.

—

Lily is not at a place where she sleeps through the night yet. She and Mulder are definitely used to it, and Jackson is definitely not. When she wakes them up screaming at two am, Jackson comes padding out of his room with them, sleepy and pale and shaky. “Kid still cries at night?” he mutters irritably in his raw voice, rubbing at his forehead.

“Yep,” Scully says back with her own brand of irritably. This particular part she didn’t miss at all.

Mulder pads past them down the hall. “Go back to bed, I’ve got her,” he says in a cheerful tone that makes Scully want to slug him. He’s still in new-fascinated-parent mode, and his insomnia gives him an unfair advantage. “You too, Jackson, you need to rest,” he adds, before entering Lily’s room.

Scully looks at her grown-up son, blinking blearily in the doorway, flushed and tired, and feels a rush of sympathy. “Are you feeling any better, sweetie?” she asks.

He shrugs. “No, not really,” he says congestedly.

She can hear the sound of Mulder pacing in the background, shushing the baby underneath the brunt of her cries. Rubbing at her temples, she offers, “Do you want to go sleep downstairs? It might be quieter down there.”

He shakes his head, shoving hair out of his eyes. “I’m cool up here, thanks. I’ll just… use headphones or something.”

“Okay.” Scully actually feels a bit envious; she wishes she could just plug headphones in and actually get a full night’s sleep for once. “Well, do you want any medicine? Anything to drink?” As long as she’s already up…

Jackson turns a little green, swaying in place. Before she can ask if he is okay, he’s running down the hall to the bathroom. Moments later, she can hear the sounds of retching. She winces with some sympathy; with morning sickness a not too distant memory, she has too many memories of vomiting herself.

“Hey, Scully?” Mulder calls from Lily’s room, sounding nervous. “Lils just threw up a little.”

“Oh, great,” Scully mutters inaudibly.

—

It seems as though Lily has caught Jackson’s virus. The pediatrician says neither case is severe, but that Jackson has likely caught the brunt of it. He holes up on the couch, covered in several blankets and whining the same way Mulder does when he’s sick. The baby mostly alternates between napping and spitting up. Scully tries to keep her hydrated. Lily lies curled against her stomach, staring up at her with bright eyes while she eats, and Scully is filled with a sudden rush of love and affection for her daughter.

“It’s like we’ve set up a makeshift hospital,” Mulder jokes at one point, and it is somewhat like that. They’ve set the kids up in the living room, mostly because it’s the only room with a TV, a makeshift bed on the couch and the playpen set up by the chair. Jackson and Lily sleep through Alien and half of The Shawshank Redemption. Jackson wakes up for the second half, erupting to life with a coughing fit. “Oh, I love this movie,” he mumbles, rubbing at his eyes.

“Prisoners becoming lifelong friends and rebelling against the messed-up system?” Mulder asks absently, his hand dangling over the side of the playpen.

“Yeah, classic redemption story or whatever,” Jackson mutters into the pillow. He rolls onto his back, blinking blearily at them. “Sorry I got the kid sick,” he mumbles apologetically, as if just now remembering that he isn’t the only sick one.

As if on cue, Lily wakes up, wailing indignantly. “Right on cue,” Scully says with a little bit of laughter. She lifts the red-faced baby from the playpen, balancing her on her hip. Lily’s hot little hands curl in her hair as she cries. “It’s okay, Jackson,” she says, rocking the baby back and forth. “It happens. We’d rather you be here recovering.”

Jackson says nothing for a moment, watching the baby cry. Scully shushes her for a few moments before passing her to Mulder, wonders if it was a bad idea to go there. Almost a year and they still walk on eggshells in reference to the fact that he’s mostly staying with them, but also disappears for days on end and doesn’t disclose where he’s going. “Do you have The Exorcist?” he asks finally. Scully grins companionably.

Mulder sighs dramatically. “You should be glad you won’t be able to remember this, Lils,” he says to the baby, touching her nose as he stands. “This is the type of movie to scar you for life.”

“And we definitely want to avoid that,” Scully says tenderly, tickling the bottom of Lily’s socked foot. Mulder bounces the baby on his hip as he carries her upstairs, retrieving the bottle from the fridge as he goes.

“So you like The Exorcist?” Scully asks her son, sprawled over the couch.

“Love it.” Jackson blows his nose noisily, his cheeks red with fever.

“Want to watch?” She’s already halfway to the shelf where they keep the movies.

“Yeah,” says Jackson. “The green vomit may make me less self-conscious.”

Scully snorts out a laugh, retrieving the DVD from the lower shelf, where Mulder makes sure to stash the movies she likes so that she can read them. She both loves and hates this.

She brings Jackson a cough drop and another glass of orange juice along with the DVD. “I don’t really like orange juice this much, you know,” Jackson says, his nose stuffed as he takes the condensated glass. “It’s just kind of… okay.”

“I know,” Scully says cheerfully, popping the DVD into the player. “Drink it anyway.”

—

The baby starts clearing up about the same time Jackson does, which is also about the same time Mulder and Scully start getting sick. Jackson offers to hold Lily so she doesn’t get sick all over again. “You know,” he says. “Preemptive strike or whatever.”

Scully hands over the baby just before sneezing all over herself. “Family life,” Mulder says with an equally stuffy nose. “We should’ve seen this coming.” He wraps an arm around her as she sits beside him on the couch.

Jackson sits carefully in the chair, sitting Lily up on his lap, and flips on the TV. It lands on The Bibbletiggles and Lily’s eyes widen in a way that suggests childlike interest. “No,” Mulder and Scully say at the same time. Jackson raises his eyebrows, but he changes the channel. Lily’s eyes well up a little as she starts to whimper in protest. Scully passes Jackson the pacifier.

When Jackson lands on a channel that no one protests, he leans back in his chair and lets out a low sigh. “So I was thinking of taking off soon,” he says. “Since I’m better and all.”

Scully rests her head against Mulder’s shoulder. She’s more or less learned to expect this, but it still stings a bit. “Oh,” Mulder says, the cough drop in his mouth clicking against his teeth. “Right.”

“But I figure I can put that off a bit,” he adds casually. Lily is sucking on the pacifier contentedly, tucking at Jackson’s finger. Scully watches them both with a raised eyebrow. Jackson shrugs. “Return the favor, since I got everyone sick.”

“Oh,” Scully says lightly. She sneezes again, into her elbow, leaning away before snuggling back into Mulder’s side. “That’d be great, Jackson, thank you.”

He shrugs. She smiles gratefully. The TV buzzes in the background and Jackson watches, balancing Lils on his lap absently as she sucks her pacifier. In the moment, Scully feels a sort of blissful, peaceful happiness. She thinks she’d like to stay there forever.

Mulder sneezes violently before he can warn her. She wrinkles her nose in disgust, scooting away from him on the couch. Mulder pats her knee in apology. Without taking his eyes off the TV, Jackson passes them the box of Kleenex.

[ask-joeydrewstudios]

Henry's Unfortunate Ink-antation Part 6

[submitted by: @the-elusive-blue-skittle]

Day 2 

In the morning, the smell of coffee wakes Henry up from a nice, restful slumber. He sits up in bed and rubs his eyes, soon finding that Bendy had curled up next to him in his sleep. Henry shuffles out of bed, stumbling as he has to get used to his noodly legs all over again. Slugging over to the nightstand, he finds a note with his name on it next to an inkwell.

  To Henry…          In order to keep your strength up (you were melting when I found you in the music department last night…), you need to drink this. It may taste funny, but you can’t go on without drinking it forever.

Joey

Henry winces. He doesn’t want to drink it! God, it’s the most disgusting thing he’s ever heard of, and he HAS to do it. The little toon whines,

“I don’t wanna drink it…”

Bendy rolls over and opens an eye, muttering to Henry. “Quit whinin’ an’ just do it, ya big baby…”

Henry rolls his eyes and uncorks the bottle. Grimacing, he plugs his nose with one hand and chugs the black fluid. Once he’s finished, he coughs a small amount of the liquid up and into his hands. “Oh, gross!! So disgusting…”

There’s a mug of hot coffee also sitting on the nightstand, poured into Henry’s favorite mug, which is ironically labeled:

HENRY’S MUG

And if it’s in HENRY’S MUG, it must be for him. He picks it up and looks inside, tilting his head a little. Aren’t toons not allowed to drink coffee? He takes a sip…

Ew, decaf. Well, it’s better than nothing to get the taste of ink out of his mouth. The little toon wanders out into the rest of the studio, where people are waiting in line to punch in for the day. A few employees stop what they’re doing to gawk at Henry, and it makes him feel two inches tall…

Maybe in heels.

He gets nervous, legs quivering beneath him in a comical fashion. “Wh-What’re you all starin’ at me for?”

Oh, right. He’s a toon. Perhaps he’s getting a little TOO used to this. His co workers continue to stare at him, making the toon unbearably nervous.

“Hey, stop that, would’ja? Please? It’s not polite to stare!”

At Henry’s escalating frustration, the majority of employees quickly glance back to their work, though some of the older individuals still raise an eyebrow in confusion.

Henry pouts, waving them off. “Feh.. To heck with you all…”

Chugging the rest of his decaf coffee, the toon makes his way to the staff lounge to put his mug away. Before long, he fails to pay attention to his surroundings and proceeds to run straight into one of his co workers, knocking his glasses off his face in the process.

Uh-oh. He can’t see without his glasses. LITERALLY. Everything is black around him, unable to see who he ran into.

“Oh, my, Henry, I’m so sorry! Here, let me help you…”

“S-Susie? Is that you? I can’t see a thing!”

The blonde-haired woman notices Henry’s glasses on the floor in front of her. She helps the little toon to his feet, and carefully pushes his glasses onto his face with a smile.

“There. That better, sugar?”

“Yeah, much better… Thank you, Susie.”

“It’s no trouble! What happened, by the way? You, uh…”

Henry sighs. “Pranks happened.”

Susie snorts at how high-pitched and Bendy-like Henry’s voice had become. Though not quite on-par with how he usually MOCKS the little devil, the pitch is nearly a perfect match. She’d know about that kind of thing.

“Hey! What’cha laughing for?”

She waves him off. “Oh, n-nothing, I just- eheh- I was just thinking about somethING-”

Susie gets thrust into a full-blown laughing fit, though with no ill intent. “I’M SORRY, I CAN’T-”

Henry seems terribly confused. He’s gotten more into the mind of a toon, so when Susie started laughing at him without him having done anything funny, you can bet the little toon would be met with befuddlement.

“No, really, Susie, I don’t get what’s so funny!”

Susie wipes a tear out of her eye, going back to meeting her co worker’s gaze. “It’s just… Heehee… I’ve never heard that voice before! Are you doing that on purpose?” “No, I’m not doing it on purpose! It’s stuck like that!”

“Oh, Henry, you’re the second cutest thing I ever did see..” “What’s the first?” “Ah, well… I won’t say a word!”

Susie looks at the clock. It’s already eight-thirty!

“Oh, golly.. Look at the time! I’ll see you around, Henry. Take care, now!”

Susie wanders off, humming to herself as she goes to her own department for the day. Henry blinks.

“What just happened?”

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

Norman stands up in his projector booth, joyfully drumming his fingers to the beat of the band playing down below, when Sammy Lawrence bursts in and shouts,

“STOP THE BAND! STOP EVERYTHING!”

The violins screech to a halt as the trombone honks pitifully.

“YOU’RE DOING IT ALL WRONG! MY LORD, WERE YOU ALL RAISED IN A BARN?!”

The music director throws down his clipboard in a small fit of rage, stomping down the stairs to confront and conduct the band himself. If it can’t be done right…

Meanwhile, Henry’s having a chat with one of his co workers over a cup of decaf coffee. The toon is standing by the door, finding it too difficult to squirm up and onto one of the high-up chairs in the break room.

“And that’s when I said: ‘How are we gonna get that many cucumbers this late at night?!’ ”

The other man in the room, Shawn Flynn, laughs boisterously. “AHAHAHAH, AH WOW…  Henry, you are a RIOT!”

“Thank you kindly,” Henry replies with a smirk, adjusting his tie in a conceited fashion.

Just then…

SLAM. Sammy storms in the room with a bitter scowl, with Susie following close behind to try and talk some sense into him. Shawn stares at the door in disbelief as Sammy shouts at the top of his lungs about the clarinet players.

“Uh, Sammy-”

“AND THEN MICHAEL STARTED PLAYING IN THE WRONG KEY! CAN YOU BELIEVE-” “Sammy, I-”

“WHEN THE DRUMMER STARTED PLAYING ON TWO AND FOUR INSTEAD OF ONE AND THREE!! OOOH, THAT JUST-”

“SAMMY!!! GET’CHER HEAD OUTTA YER TROUSERS AN’ LISTEN TA ME!”

“Oh, for the love of.. WHAT, SHAWN, WHAT?!”

“Henry was behind the door you were slammin’!”

Sammy turns around to look at the entrance, where a half-splattered Henry peels himself off the wall and lands on his face on the hardwood floor. Susie gasps, and turns to Sammy with an intense stare.

“Sammy! Look what you did!” “But Susie, I-”

Susie approaches Henry with a panicked expression.

“Sugar, are you okay?!”

Henry, feeling the most nauseous he’s ever been, can’t seem to find the motor skills to open his mouth and speak, not to mention that his voice hasn’t exactly found its way back to his body. The toon nods, soon slapping a hand over his gooey mouth. He feels like he’s going to be sick.

Susie turns back to her partner. “Sammy, if you hadn’t been waltzing around and slamming doors, this wouldn’t’ve happened!”

“He had it coming to him!! Maybe he shouldn’t have been standing behind the door!”

“What if he was about to leave?!”

Henry stumbles to his feet with the help of Susie. The toon wobbles, holding a hand to his forehead as he adjusts his glasses with the other.

“Hooh, wow-wie… That’s less fun on this side of it…”

Just then…

SLAM! Bendy bursts in the room, frantically glancing around. “Where’s Henry?! Is he okay?!”

Shawn is trying his hardest not to bust out laughing. The door slowly swings shut, revealing a re-splattered Henry all over the wall.

Again.

The little devil panics and produces a giant spatula out of nowhere, proceeding to shove it underneath the splattered animator to pry him off the wall. After successfully peeling Henry off, Bendy carefully and fearfully coaxes Henry to reform.

“Aaaaalright, nice and easy.. Find yer face, pally….”

Henry slowly forms a body of pure black ink. He rises to… Whatever replaces his feet and stumbles. He can’t see a thing! The splattered toon tries to communicate this problem, though only soft squeaks and growls come out of his half-formed mouth. Henry almost immediately goes into panic mode, and Bendy has literal alarms going off inside his head.

“H-Henry, ya gotta calm down! Yer fine!”

The taller toon shakes what could be perceived as his head as he grasps at what could be perceived as his throat.

“Yer throat? No, no… Yer voice? That’s gotta be it! Henry, yer voice is gonna come back, don’t worry, but right now, ya gotta focus on the rest’a yaself!”

Henry gurgles and coughs, seeming to nod in understanding. Bendy goes back to gently coaxing the other to reform, small bits at a time.

After about half an hour, Henry is mostly reformed, but still fairly blackened and goopy. At least he’s got his face, body, and hands under control. His little friend carefully helps him stand up once more. The taller toon coughs hoarsely into his hands, threatening to keel over again. Bendy pats his back softly with a small smile.

“Easy now, pally… You got this..”

Henry shudders. Everything is cold, his inky hair won’t stay out of his face, and he can’t stop shaking. He glances down at Bendy for a moment before swiftly, though wobbily, scooping him up in a big hug. The little devil opens his mouth to tell him to put him down, but this time…

He doesn’t quite mind.

Bendy smiles big, wrapping his arms around his beloved animator in a tight squeeze.

“Eheeheehee… You’re welcome, Henry.”

// I WILL NOT DISAPPOINT, EVEN THOUGH I’M AT DETENTION

((THANK YOU FOR ANOTHER PART, I’m sure people will appreciate this after all the Pain ‘round here lately. I mean this chapter’s a little sad too, but it’s got some cute in there still.))

part one | part two | part three | part four | part five | part seven

[bizarrebird]

Guys. Guys. Guys. It’s the first Spike episode. He’s here. My shitty boy is here. Full disclosure, Spike is and always has been my favorite character and I do in fact ship Spuffy (yes I am fully aware of the fact that it becomes terrible in season 6 and believe me, I’ll talk about that when we get there. It’s bad, Spike is bad, the writing is bad, and I hate all of it) but this is not gonna become all Spuffy all the time, I promise. Even this one, no, this liveblog is about appreciating my mom Joyce Summers

So without further ado Season 2, Episode 3: School Hard

We start in Snyder’s office where he’s in full lecture mode to Buffy and random girl (Sheila) about how they’re both super troublesome because Sheila stabbed a teacher with pruning shears (hardcore but what the fuck) and Buffy burned down a gym*. Synder tells them that Parent-Teacher night is coming up and, to avoid expulsion, they’re in charge of setting it up and if they do well, he will tell their parents they aren’t complete gremlins. Buffy clearly wants to toe the line and Sheila doesn’t give a crap and runs off to make out with someone who she calls ‘meatboy’ (I have questions Sheila) Xander and Willow show up for playful banter and discuss the situation and then Xander jinxes everything cause he’s a fuck

And now we cut to the bEST FUCKING ENTRANCE EVER as a car mows down the ‘Welcome to Sunnydale’ sign, blaring music and outsteps my shit boy in all his duster wearing, bleach blonde, vampire glory. There he is. That motherfucker. Spike. And here we mark where the show really gets good** before we go to OPENING CREDITS

After the credits we see some generic vamps and the anointed babby talking about who’s gonna step up now that the Master’s gone. I guess there’s an evil power vacuum or something going on? but no one wants the gig cause Buffy will make whoever steps up dust. Random Vampire says he’ll kill her cause some vampire holiday is coming up that gives them more power, so it’s the perfect time to strike. He’s all speechifying and bragging when Spike (my sweet shitlord) cuts him off and calls him on his shit, cause Spike’s the guy you call when someone needs a dick slapped out of their mouth

Spike starts talking to the baby, saying he knows about the slayer problem and he can help cause he’s already killed two before (one of them who’s coat he’s wearing right now) But he trails off when Drusilla walks in, looking all dainty and lovely and he drops the vamp face case he’s gotta go be soft with her. We get the idea pretty quick that Dru isn’t all there and Spike makes mention of the fact that she’s weak for some reason (I think it’s explained later, but I can’t remember the exact details off the top of my head rn) Spike and Dru do their sweet, but creepy weird thing and he announces they’re moving in and that he’ll deal with Buffy as long as the baby keeps his goons in line

Now we go to Buffy and Joyce in the old Summers abode. Mama Joyce has apparently not been told by Buffy that parent-teacher night is happening and they have some serious talks about Buffy’s previous issues and how moving was hard on both of them. The scene closes out with Buffy being clearly iffy on her feelings about not telling her mom the truth about the slaying stuff and then we go back to high school and prep for parent-teacher night. Buffy (in adorable overalls) works on decorations with Willow and Xander’s there too I guess, and they decide to go to the Bronze because Angel, which means she has a million things to balance and here come Giles and Jenny with one more thing to add to the pile: super vampire night

Giles is... kind of a dick about things, saying slaying has to come first, but Willow and Xander volunteer to help to try to lighten the load. And here comes Giles with the Watcher’s shittiest rule that the slayer must fight alone because reasons???? (no like what the fuck, it’s the shittiest rule and clearly that hasn’t helped all the previous slayers not die, fuck the watcher’s council honestly) Synder shows up and notices Sheila isn’t there. Buffy covers for her just in time for a clearly hungover Sheila to show up and ask Buffy about the burning down a building thing (cause Joss just really loves sucking his own creative dick)

And we go to the Bronze where Buffy’s trying to study and party simultaneously and that’s going about as well as you’d expect. Buffy’s hoping Angel will show up, but so far nothing, so she agrees to dance with Xander as we see Spike looming in the back of the club. He talks one of his lackeys into attacking a random club goer and then loudly announces someone’s being attacked so he can watch Buffy in action (and he doesn’t have heart eyes yet, but like... you know he’s into it) Xander manages to not be a useless slug boy and goes and grabs Buffy a stake from her purse so she can kill rando vamp. Spike then slow claps (cause yes, even my baby is a tool) and says he’s gonna come after her on Saturday when the vamps get all super charged and slinks away

Next we see Sheila leaving the club with two random guys, who get yanked away off camera and then SURPRISE SPIKE RIGHT BEHIND HER. He flirts and it’s creepy and we know it’s not gonna end well. Cut to the library with the Scoobies trying to research Spike and coming up empty. Luckily Angel shows up then and he knows what’s up with Spike although Buffy’s a little more interested in why he didn’t show up earlier. But then just as people are asking Angel about Spike, Angel just leaves cause drama and he’s an asshole

There’s dramatic music and some chanting as we move to Drusilla being creepy with some dolls. Spike tries to talk her into eating because she’s weak (something something mob in Prague), but Dru just wants to be weird and tells Spike he has to get the other vamps to trust him more. He agrees, on the condition that she eat Sheila. The scene cuts before we see what happens and we find the Scoobies prepping for parent-teacher night and super vamp throwdown

Parent-teacher night begins and Buffy’s big plan is to just stop Snyder from getting anywhere near Joyce (fair, he’s a disgusting lizard man) Buffy is stressing as Cordy approaches and tells her her mom is super hot (not in those exact words, but listen Cordelia is bi and she’s a queen) Joyce mentions that she’s having a strangely difficult time actually talking to any of Buffy’s teachers, how strange. This of course is wen Snyder finally catches up with her and asks to speak to her in his office. insert scare chord here

Meanwhile in the library, Giles finds a book talking about Spike and his old moniker ‘William the Bloody’ and that he has killed two slayers, so he means business. Back with Buffy we see Snyder and Joyce return and clearly Mama Summers isn’t happy with whatever he told her (idk what the fuck he even would tell her, Buffy has don’t nothing wrong ever in her life and the lizard man is just mad that he can’t ever hope to be as pretty as her) As Synder’s turning off the lights on parent-teacher night the school windows get smashed as like a dozen vampires burst through cause Spike got tired of waiting and decided to  say fuck it and attack early. Great idea there. I love this guy, but he’s an idiot

Buffy leaps into action and gets her mom and most other people to safety. Cordelia and Willow get attacked by a vamp, but Willow saves Cordy and the two of them stumble into a supply closet to have their shared gay awakenings (okay listen it would be a good ship, I swear) Buffy tries to get everyone into the library, but vampires cut them off and she has to herd them into a different room. The power goes out and one of Spike’s lackeys says they lost the slayer. Annoyed, Spike murders a random teacher/parent and decides if he wants something done right, he has to do it himself

Giles apparently has a secret way out through the library and sends Xander (after some whining) to go get Angel cause he knows Spike somehow. Back in the classroom Snyder’s a little shit and wants to bust out the windows to run, but Buffy tells him not to and starts giving orders before making to head into the vents. Joyce tries to stop her, but Buffy goes anyway (mooooom, all the other kids get to fight demons) Spike’s wandering the halls being creepy and passes right by Cordelia and Willow’s hiding place. Cordy starts panicking, so Willow gets all up close and personal to put a hand over her mouth (hey Willow, you know another way you could keep her quiet wink wink nudge nudge IT’S REAL GAY IN THAT CLOSET LISTEN)

In the library, Giles is about to bust out to go help Buffy (who has to work alone now, huh? Look I’m glad he’s being less shitty now, but I’m still holding that line against him, that was garbage) But the air vent above him opens and surprise ceiling Buffy is here now. She insists she’s gonna handle all the vamps, just like Giles told her too, and she has to do it alone, just like Giles told her too (HMM PERCHANCE A PATTERN IS HAPPENING HERE) And she tells Giles that he’s gotta get her mom and the others out in case she doesn’t make it back

Back in the classroom, Snyder’s being a dipshit and Joyce is telling him not to and being a proud mama saying they should listen to what Buffy says. Snyder’s a fuck stick and convinces another guy to go out the window anyway (guess how that’s gonna go) Out in the hall, Spike finds a fireaxe (that they just... have in a school??? really???? no one thinks this is a safety hazard???? okaaaay) and in three two one--the guy Snyder sends through the window gets munched on. Who could have guessed. Joyce quickly shuts the window and is a big enough person not to say ‘I told you so’ even though it’s totally warranted

Xander gets there with Angel, who goes all vamp mode and pretends he caught Xander. Meanwhile Cordy and Willow are still in that closet, sitting real close cause they’re totes gay. Buffy’s still in the ceiling, which Spike has picked up on and he starts trying to force her out. She pops out right on top of the vamp trying to get at Joyce and the others and stakes the shit out of him. Joyce, who is also a queen, tells Buffy to save herself, but Buffy says nah. Surprise Sheila from nowhere, who Buffy tells to go hide, but she grabs a fireaxe and follows Buffy to ‘help’

In another hallway, Spike’s still jabbing the ceiling fishing for Buffy when Angel shows up all vamp face. Spike calls him ‘Angelus’ (huh wonder what that’s about) They hug and that’s not a bro hug cause these fellas are bi (Joss can deny it all he wants, but they are. We all know it, say they’re bi Joss, say it you coward***) They shoot the shit, clearly showing they go waaaaay back. Angel’s putting on a decent act, which Xander apparently falls for cause he is instantly down to believe any guy who’s into Buffy**** is super evil, and he offers to let Spike snack on him

Meanwhile, Buffy’s about to do some slaying, but we see Sheila behind her all vamped out, not surprising, but kinda sad. Giles sees her through the window and yells warning her to look out. Buffy ducks and stakes the first vamp, but lets Sheila get away. With the way clear, she has Giles get her mom and the others out and, despite Joyce trying to get her to come along, Buffy doesn’t go. There’s more vamps to slay

Back with our totally hetero boys who are about to share a tasty Xander snack, Spike asks Angel why he hasn’t killed Buffy and he says seeing her kill the master made him play good vamp. Spike goes with it for two seconds and then punches out Angel, cause he knows he’s full of shit and starts getting really upset and emotional, you know the way a totally straight dude would when his totally straight friend bro betrays him. He moves in for the kill, but Angel and Xander book it out the door. Before Spike can follow, he hears a Buffy sound that draws his attention

Spike brags a little about the last slayer he killed begging for her life, but says he doesn’t think Buffy will do that (correct, he knows a tough lady when he sees one and he respects that) He then says that he’ll make it quick and try not to let it hurt when he kills her and sounds weirdly genuine about it, not that Buffy pays that much attention, cause she’s soooo not impressed with him. They fight and it’s super hot. Meanwhile outside, Xander’s getting his ass kicked and Angel saves him as Giles gets the civilians out, but Mama Summers stops cause Buffy still isn’t there and she has to protect her baby

Spike manages to get the upper hand, but then FIREAXE TO THE BACK OF THE HEAD AND JOYCE TO THE FUCKING RESCUE with a “You get the hell away from my daughter”

Joyce telling bitches to back off her daughter before it was cool, I love her so, so much

Spike runs off cause two powerful Summers ladies is waaaaay too much for him to handle. Joyce and Buffy hug and it’s wonderful and everything is good (wonder how long that will last, fuck you Joss) Snyder’s shown talking to the cops, who seem to know something’s up with the situation, syaing they’re going to tell the press the “usual story” and cover the vamp attack as gang violence, showing people in town aren’t quite as out of the loop as they’ve seemed. Giles and Jenny talk and flirt and that’s cute. We see Angel and Xander talking about the situation before, Angel makes excuses, and Xander whines

Buffy and Joyce walk together and Joyce is so proud and I’m gonna cry. Oh also, Cordelia and Willow are still in the closet and really, they should just make out already to pass the time

We go back to the anointed bab’s hideout where Spike’s complaining about this slayer having family and friends makes her harder to deal with (HUH WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THAT WATCHER’S COUNCIL HOW FUCKING INTERESTING) Dru reassures him before he goes to talk to the anointed one, who grumps at him for not killing Buffy. Spike makes it two words into an apology before changing his tune and putting the baby vamp into a cage, which he lifts into the light of the sun to burn him up, officially making him and Dru the new big bads in town

FINAL THOUGHTS: Good episode, my son is here now and we’re onto more personal conflicts, which is very much a good thing. Also Joyce was a shining star here and I love her.

For the record I’m gonna skip Inca Mummy Girl and Reptile Boy cause you couldn’t pay me enough to watch that first episode suck Xander’s dick, and the second one is very meh filler and Cordelia’s already been captured twice this season and I’m kinda tired of that.

So next up is Season 2, Episode 6: Halloween

*Ooookay so this probably confuses some people, and for good reason. See we don’t see Buffy burn down a gym ever in the show. This is because it was supposed to happen in the preceding Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie. To those of you who have seen that movie (I’m so, so sorry) that probably doesn’t make this make any more sense because no gyms burned down there. This is because the gym burned down in Joss Whedon’s original script for said movie, but it never made it to the film because the movie was a fucking trainwreck and you can literally see the point where he started to lose any creative control. However, that doesn’t stop Joss from thinking that scrip was god’s gift to cinema and will insist on referencing it and treating it as canon despite, you know, it never being more than just a script

**I don’t mean just because of Spike, though he does play a part in it. See, this is the turning point away from the more generic doomsday villains like the Master, who was vaguely threatening, but kind of a nothing entity, and go for more personal villains and overarching plots, which is really what makes the show special. Spike, Drusilla and *SPOILERS* later Angelus were the first villains who really made things super personal for Buffy and the Scoobies, giving the conflicts new depth and intrigue. Not that the show was bad before this, but this episode really marks where it starts Growing the Beard as tropers would say

***For the record, this is not shipping goggles talking. This is due to the fact that, in later seasons of Buffy and Angel, the Spike/Angel dynamic is played up a lot. There is very clear if not romantic, at least sensual and sexual subtext here, culminating with Spike’s line in season 5 of Angel “Angel and I were never intimate, well, except that one time” indicating that there is some kind of sexual history there. Joss Whedon has also vagued in interviews saying (paraphrasing cause I don’t remember the exact words) “they’re open minded guys, y’know they’ve been together for so long, something must’ve happened there” However, he won’t say they or any other characters are bi cause Joss Whedon doesn’t think bisexuals exist, despite the fact that he has written several bisexual characters whether he will admit it or not

****Any guy except Riley, who, when we get there, Xander’s never gonna shut up about how great he is and how really Buffy is the one that doesn’t deserve Riley cause of that cool thing Xander does where his mouth moves, but Joss Whedon talks

[chessgroup69-blog]

Prospects who should vie for a roster spot

As Spring Training gets underway, MLB.com has taken a closer look at prospects getting the chance to show what they can do in the Grapefruit and Cactus Leagues. For example, there's been a story on 20 prospects likely to be impact rookies during the 2019 season.

Our beat writers also singled out one prospect to watch in each big league camp. But that didn't necessarily focus on prospects vying for Opening Day jobs. The 30 prospects below all are getting very long looks this spring with an eye toward breaking camp with the parent club. Even if they start the year in the Minors, they all should get the chance to contribute at some point in the very near future.

American League East

Blue Jays: Vladimir Guerrero Jr., 3B (No. 1 on Top 100 Prospects list) Guerrero probably won't land on the Blue Jays' Opening Day roster as the club looks to retain an extra year of control over one of the best prospects in history. However, it almost goes without saying that the 20-year-old third baseman is ready to make an impact in the big leagues after he led the Minors in average (.381), slugging (.636) and OPS (1.073) in 2018. With his 80-grade bat and potential to hit 35-plus homers, Guerrero should become one of the sport's premier talents in short order.

Video: MLB Network on Vlad Jr. being game's top prospect

Orioles: Richie Martin, SS Left off the A's 40-man roster despite his breakout 2018 season in Double-A, the '15 first-rounder became the first selection in the Rule 5 Draft in December. A plus defender who runs well and hits for average, albeit without much pop, Martin is penciled in as the Orioles' Opening Day shortstop right now, and he does enough things well to stick on the active roster in a reserve role.

Rays: Brandon Lowe, 2B/OF  Breaking out in earnest in 2018, Lowe slugged his way up to Triple-A and hit 14 homers there to earn his first big league callup in August. With the Rays, he overcame an 0-for-19 start to his career to finish with six home runs and a .774 OPS in 129 at-bats, keeping his prospect status in place. Given Tampa Bay's emphasis on defensive versatility, Lowe, with his ability to play both second base and the outfield, is a candidate to get regular at-bats in '19.

Red Sox: Colten Brewer, RHP In search of low-cost bullpen options, Boston acquired Brewer from the Padres in November in exchange for second-base prospect Esteban Quiroz. Brewer has a difference-making pitch in a 92-96 mph fastball with tremendous natural cut, and he also has a power curveball that he doesn't always land for strikes.

Yankees: Jonathan Loaisiga, RHP (MLB No. 66) New York doesn't have an obvious rotation opening after trading for James Paxton and re-signing J.A. Happ and CC Sabathia. But Loaisiga impressed at times during his big league debut last summer and has three pitches (fastball, curveball, changeup) that grade as plus or better when at their best.

AL Central

Indians: Yu Chang, SS/3B Chang is not going to dislodge Francisco Lindor from shortstop, but he is capable of playing second and third base and winning at least a utility role this spring. He could approximate the production Cleveland gets out of Jason Kipnis at second base for a fraction of the veteran's $14.5 million salary.

Royals: Richard Lovelady, LHP The Royals do have a pair of Rule 5 Draft picks in Sam McWilliams and Chris Ellis, and we know they like to keep those guys, as well as hard-throwing prospects like Josh Staumont. But Lovelady's funky delivery and potential to have three very usable pitches gives him the chance to get some high-leverage innings very soon.

Tigers: Christin Stewart, OF The second of Detroit's two first-round picks in 2015, Stewart reached the Majors for the first time last September after hitting 93 home runs in 460 Minor League games. He homered twice in the big leagues, hitting both as part of a multihomer performance against the Royals, and he impressed with an approach that has improved in every season. While his limitations on defense suggest that Stewart will likely see most of his time as a DH, he has the combination of massive raw power and on-base skills to stick in the role.

Twins: Stephen Gonsalves, LHP Gonsalves' first taste of the big leagues didn't go so well last year, but the hope is the adversity he faced there, along with some mechanical tweaks he's made, will help him going forward. The Twins' rotation is crowded, but look for this lefty to help out at some point in 2019.

White Sox: Eloy Jimenez, OF (MLB No. 3) Jimenez not only should win a corner-outfield job with the White Sox, but he also should be their best offensive player as a rookie. While the No. 3 overall prospect may have his arrival in Chicago further delayed by service-time considerations, he's ready to rake after batting .337/.384/.577 with 22 homers in the upper Minors a year ago.

Video: MLB Network on talent of No. 3 prospect Eloy Jimenez

AL West

A's: Jesus Luzardo, LHP (MLB No. 12) A lot of eyes are on the top lefty pitching prospect in baseball, as he is being given every chance to make the A's rotation this spring. Keep in mind, though, he's only made four starts above Double-A, so a little seasoning could be in order. Expect him to pitch well enough in Cactus League games to make the decision very tough.

 Video: Luzardo on feeling no pressure and improving in 2019

Angels: Ty Buttrey, RHP The Angels clearly liked Buttrey enough to get him in the Ian Kinsler trade with the Red Sox last summer, but they were more impressed with his complete repertoire than they anticipated. In addition to his outstanding fastball, he has the chance to have two excellent secondary pitches, which points to a future pitching late in games.

Astros: Josh James, RHP (MLB No. 62) A 34th-round pick out of Western Oklahoma JC in 2014, James broke out last year by leading the Minors in strikeout rate (13.5 per nine innings) and claiming a spot on Houston's postseason roster. He misses bats with three pitches and should open the season in the Astros' rotation provided he throws enough strikes.

Mariners: Justus Sheffield, LHP (MLB No. 43) The M's acquired Sheffield in the Paxton deal with the expectation he'd contribute to the rotation in 2019. If everyone is healthy, Seattle has a set five ready to go, but the young lefty will get a long look and could break through with a strong spring, or at least be ready to be the first one to answer the bell when there's a need.

Rangers: C.D. Pelham, LHP Pelham rocketed from Class A Advanced to Texas last year and has the highest upside of any of the left-handed relievers on the club's 40-man roster. With a fastball that can reach the upper 90s and a cutter that can be unhittable at times, he just needs to throw strikes to become a late-inning force.

National League East

Braves: Touki Toussaint, RHP (MLB No. 50) So many pitchers, so little room. A number of pitching prospects who contributed to the Braves' playoff push will get innings in Florida, with Mike Soroka, Kyle Wright and Bryse Wilson coming most to mind. Toussaint, though, made a lasting impression and landed on the postseason roster, giving him a small leg up.

Marlins: Sandy Alcantara, RHP Alcantara might have the best stuff of any of Miami's rotation candidates, though he still needs to prove he can harness it on a regular basis. He can reach triple digits with his fastball and carve up hitters with his slider and curveball when they're working.

Mets: Peter Alonso, 1B (MLB No. 51) After he tied for the Minor League lead with 36 homers and led it outright with 119 RBIs in 2018, Alonso enters the season with nothing left to prove in the Minors. There was clamoring from fans for the Mets to promote him late last season, and that is likely to carry over into Spring Training. The Mets must keep Alonso in the Minors until mid-April if they want to ensure an extra year of team control, though with the organization seemingly in win-now mode, a spot on the Opening Day roster could be a possibility.

Video: Top Prospects: Peter Alonso, 1B, Mets

Nationals: Victor Robles, OF (MLB No. 4) After making his debut in the big leagues as a 20-year-old and then winning a spot on the Nationals' postseason roster in 2017, Robles appeared poised for an everyday role in the team's outfield last season until a hyperextended left elbow in April derailed his progress, landing him on the injured list for three months. Robles should finally get his chance as the Nats' center fielder in 2019, and has the type of across-the-board tools -- headlined by top-of-the-scale speed and defense -- that could make him an impact player in all facets of the game.

Phillies: Enyel De Los Santos, RHP The Phillies have some pitching depth amassing at the top of the system, with lefties like Ranger Suarez, JoJo Romero and Cole Irvin all just about ready to help out. De Los Santos chipped in last year and has the stuff that would fit well out of the bullpen if that's where the need is in Philadelphia.

NL Central

Brewers: Keston Hiura, 2B (MLB No. 20) The No. 9 pick in the 2017 Draft, Hiura raked his way up to Double-A in his first full season, then garnered MVP honors in the Arizona Fall League after he led the circuit in RBIs. The Brewers likely will send Hiura, a plus hitter with plus power potential, to the Minors to begin the season so as to offer him more upper-level experience. However, second base has also been a black hole of production for the club in recent years, and there's no better prospect at the keystone in the Minors than Hiura.

Cardinals: Alex Reyes, RHP (MLB No. 33) After Tommy John surgery cost him all of 2017 and delayed the start of his campaign in '18, Reyes, the Cardinals' top prospect in each of the past four years, returned to the Majors last June, only to leave his first start with a torn tendon in his lat muscle that required season-ending surgery. His rehab schedule has him on track to pitch during Spring Training, and if he proves to be healthy, Reyes, with his power stuff and knack for missing bats, would be a welcome addition to the Cards' Opening Day rotation.

Video: Mayo on Reyes being a prospect to keep an eye out for

Cubs: Dakota Mekkes, RHP Mekkes led NCAA Division I in hit rate (4.1 per nine innings) and strikeout rate (15.2) at Michigan State in 2016, and has put up similarly crazy numbers in three years as a pro: 1.16 ERA, 5.3 hits and 11.6 strikeouts per nine innings. He succeeds largely on the basis of a low-90s fastball that plays way above its velocity because of his extension and deception, just the kind of different look that would fit nicely in the middle innings for the bullpen-needy Cubs.

Pirates: Kevin Newman, SS Jordy Mercer is gone, so there will be competition for the shortstop gig in Pittsburgh. Most think Erik Gonzalez will be the guy, but Newman will get the chance to win it and push Gonzalez to a utility role. The former first-round pick has hit in the Minors, but looked overmatched during his brief big league debut last year.

Reds: Nick Senzel, OF (MLB No. 6) Senzel was primarily a third baseman. Then he saw time at second. Now he's learning how to play center field. Even though injuries curtailed Senzel's 2018 season, the Reds think Senzel's bat is just about ready, so they're trying to find a spot for it in their lineup, and center might be the best opportunity right now.

NL West

D-backs: Yoan Lopez, RHP Signed by Arizona for more than $8 million in 2015, Lopez overcame a host of struggles early in his career, both on and off the field, to put it all together in '18. He made the jump from Double-A, where he had averaged 12.7 K/9, to the Majors in September and showcased electric stuff out the D-backs' bullpen, pairing a fastball that reached 99 mph with a wipeout mid-80s slider.

Dodgers: Alex Verdugo, OF (MLB No. 35) One of the best pure hitters in the Minors, Verdugo has batted .321 in Triple-A the past two seasons as one of the youngest regulars in the Pacific Coast League. But Los Angeles still has a logjam of outfielders, even after trading Matt Kemp and Yasiel Puig to the Reds, so he faces an uphill battle.

Giants: Chris Shaw, OF No Giant managed more than 16 home runs last year, a total Shaw easily could top if he wins San Francisco's wide-open left-field job. He has averaged 23 homers in three full Minor League seasons and his first big league shot was a 468-foot blast off Seunghwan Oh last September.

Padres: Francisco Mejia, C (MLB No. 26) Acquired from the Indians at last year's All-Star break for relievers Brad Hand and Adam Cimber, Mejia slashed .328/.364/.582 with seven homers in 31 Triple-A games after the trade before joining the Padres in the big leagues as a September callup. He's an advanced switch-hitter who makes a lot of hard contact from both sides of the plate, though his defense is inferior to Austin Hedges'.

Video: Top Prospects: Francisco Mejia, C, Padres

Rockies: Brendan Rodgers, INF (MLB No. 10) With DJ LeMahieu signing a free agent deal with the Yankees, second base is up for grabs in Colorado. Rodgers, who has seen time at three infield spots in the Minors, joins fellow prospect Garrett Hampson and recently graduated prospect Ryan McMahon among those competing for the job. He might start the year in Triple-A, but look for him to hit his way back up quickly.

Source: https://www.mlb.com/news/spring-training-prospects-vie-for-roster-spots/c-303944644

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METAL SLUG ATTACK 3.9.0 APk Download

metal slug attack 3.9.0 is a Metal Slug Collection 20th Anniversary Official Title” for Android and iOS, courtesy of SNK Playmore for cell devices. In every stage, you either face different enemies like your self or huge bosses that may make devastating assaults in your base. Join this community and the world of metallic slug protection and Assault. Presently, the best unit remains to be arguably the Jupiter King, a excessive-value, long-vary support unit that offers a huge chunk of injury to all enemies in a wide space in one burst.

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METAL SLUG ATTACK 3.9.0

It is extra of the identical within the old arenas with leveled-up enemies, however some missions can surprise the player with an out-of-place boss reminiscent of Allen. After reaching degree three, payer will get other sport modes. metal slug attack for Android has some sport modes.

Attack's Extra Ops missions are inclined to have their very own mini-plots, though typically (that's most of version 2.0's) it is nothing more than: Here's the boss, here's the pre-acquisition unit, boss is defeated, Mission Full. The unique title screen in Metallic Slug Attack has changed with the character illustrations of Yoshino, Dragunov, a Martian, Marco, Common Morden, Abigail, and the Professor to mark the anniversary of the collection.

As you understand, this sport provides more variations for players to consolidate attack, building, and defending. The Reload Assist in Assault robotically reduces all models' cooldown to zero, allowing them to perform their particular attacks immediately. The Recovery Help refills all models HP and their manufacturing reload robotically goes to zero.

METAL SLUG ATTACK Action Review

In Attack, certain air models will apply a suicide attack as soon as they have been destroyed. Good luck and be sure to have higher items as a result of this man has chunks of HP and his attacks are already lethal as it's. This is good for dealing damage to necessary targets which can be protected by heavier units, or for clearing away hordes of cannon-fodder units.

Metallic Slug Defense is a cellular recreation launched fairly all of a sudden by SNK in 2014. Particular attack helps to destroy more enemy to gain Motion Factors. Some missions require you to make use of their defense on the proper times to win. Knockback : Most models endure from this upon being hit by powerful assaults but surviving.

Within the recreation 'pre acquisition' models are provided each month for a hefty price of some times fifty dollars other times a hundred dollars! At all times Accurate Attack : Tetsuyuki generally fires a laser that hits all the discipline, player base included.

Cheap and with four hundred HP at degree 20. He attacks at shut vary with a knife and might throw grenades. Claw models are deceptively gradual, but at long range they cost into the fray to maul any enemy in its manner. There are Assault, Special Ops, battle, Fight Faculty, and Guild Raid.

Gatling Good : Units resembling Marco, some Slugs and Allen wield this weapon either normally or as their particular attack. Online (unlocked at Level 10) is the equivalent of MSD's Wi-Fi VS and is the only real-time PVP mode obtainable. Rescuing POWs in Assault has been made easier resulting from them always showing in the identical spot in a degree.

The new unit from the Destroy The Tower further ops in Attack is the Amadeus Corporal who offers thousands of harm in addition to having about 10,000 HP. Morden's special in Attack previously can injury enemy's base with the invincible summoned Hi-Do's. In case you can spend the time and browse the wikis to get your head around how all of the meta stuff works, metal slug attack might change into completely engrossing and properly worth moving into.

The many different human, machine and monster units have a basic assault, in addition to distinctive charged strikes which sometimes require good timing for use accurately. You also get models to attack. Team Battle (unlocked at Stage 20) is a aggressive asynchronous multiplayer mode, much like Battle but having to battle three completely different decks and requiring beating 2 out of 3 battles to win.

As it's a free-to-play sport, there are components reminiscent of layers of stage grinding, missions costing credit that recharge over time and a lot of the unlockable characters solely being out there by way of a secondary foreign money more accessible for those prepared to spend cash on it.

Pre-acquisition items can be this, however as an alternative of paying for it with medals, a player should pay $a hundred for a hundred and ten elements for that specific unit (which means a total of $300 to platinum rating of said unit) as well as an exclusive gold bordered android games avatar that come with it. Fortunately, these pre-acquisition items will finally turn into obtainable via medal crank, so if you want a strong pre-acquisition by spending medals as a substitute of cash, you just have to wait.

In particular, additional set 1 gets you the Massive Snail and the Large Caterpillar, two of one of the best defensive models in the sport, whereas beating extra set 2 unlocks the Samurai Tank, an inexpensive, long-range unit with a disproportionately excessive amount of HP.

Glass Cannon : The HP of the player's base is not such an necessary stat to upgrade first as a result of if a decent group of models reaches a base in any respect, it should almost certainly be done for as a result of defending items will not have time to charge their special strikes to do helpful harm and may't even cover their base's hitbox.

From Steel Slug three first appears in space 10, stage four. The Mars Mecha is also current within the final set of bonus levels. A number of players be a part of into single guild then take the enemy whereas one other is defending. In case your gadget has had no games put in for a long period, please test if QooApp is properly put in and logged in with the identical account.

All the things's Deader with Zombies : The zombie enemies from Steel Slug three are present. A sequel by the name of Metallic Slug Attack has since been launched on Feb. Anti Air : Sure units have attacks that both shoot projectiles in an arc or at a high angle, permitting them to wreck aerial units.

Morden may have an awesome particular attack, however his commonplace assault just isn't as effective as his 950 (1500 in Assault) AP price would lead you to believe and he tends to get knocked again typically, leaving the remainder of your units uncovered as he tries to make his method again to the entrance.

The gatcha techniques aren't why people play freemium video games like this one, although. It is a subreddit for Steel Slug Attack, the sequel to Metallic Slug Protection. A development by the tip of the first year of Attack's launch, items of the Further-Ops are new recolors of either earlier bosses or items.

Battles are all about defending your drop-pod and attacking the enemies' as an alternative. Whereas not a lot of the Amadeus Syndicate is seen in the recreation, an growth later added a bunch of items and some levels from the Ptolemaic Army, and later some models from the Venusians too.

You might have permission to destroy enemy base utilizing any assault or weapons. Allegedly Free Game : The existence of premium foreign money (Medals) and an energy system (Sortie Points) mean that those who are keen to cough up enough money will always have a bonus over free players.

The game got around three million downloads at the first few month because it's release (word: metal slug attack defense has 27 million downloads.) nonetheless when they have determined to indroduce the 'pre acquisition' models many month glided by and it still stayed at three million or so downloads.

You gather them by having units attack the spot where they're hiding. In Steel Slug Assault, this can get somewhat excessive when you 1) Acquire the abilities that permit the principle characters to maintain their weapons after using them and a couple of) Field lots of the predominant characters at once.

When the Parachute Truck was first launched, it dropped a hail of projectiles at a superb range that did penetrating injury so long as they touched an opponent, decimating even the largest items in seconds. Unused animations current in the primary sequence grow to be used in Defense and Assault, resembling Abul Abbas' assaults.

Models can be upgraded in various methods - from flat stat improve to studying special assaults and effects. It spawns highly effective high-value models from out of nowhere when you get close or hit its base. This is sequel model of previous Steel Slug, so participant should know the essential approach to play this recreation.

Screw This, I am Outta Right here : Most "Supply" characters (Sisilia, Fast, the Aikawa sisters) will run away when their HP is depleted as an alternative of dying. "I think this game is dangerous" and transfer on. Go play Steel Slug X. Or, since SNK solely releases good video games, go play Mercenary Kings.

Steel Slug Assault is an excellent tower protection game that takes benefit of the Metallic Slug license, offering a wonderful gameplay and spectacular graphics. The Bikers cost ninety AP but have 1000 HP at level 20 and transfer sooner, whereas otherwise performing just like the riflemen and complementing them properly.

The degrees in Steel Slug Assault are designed to be beaten as fast as possible. Art Shift : Ralf, Clark, and Leona use their sprites from the Metallic Slug games (which are re-edits of Marco, Tarma, and Eri respectively), whereas the remainder of the King of Fighters cast have a redrawn rendition of their preventing sprites.

: The intro to Steel Slug Assault showcases an animated recreation of the promotional artwork, having various characters and units operating on a desert discipline with explosions everywhere till an in depth-up of Morden seems, though he's not the ultimate boss of the principle game.

Promoted To Playable : Almost every thing, from the common mook to these badass bosses although some items like the Huge Shiee will stay as a boss and won't be playable until several updates later. The game mode has more variation with simple graphic.

Announcer Chatter : The announcer does his factor when the principle characters use their particular attack, corresponding to Marco using the HEAVY MACHINE GUN or Fio utilizing the ROCKET LAUNCHER, for instance. More notable in Assault, the Ptolemaic Army and Amadeus Syndicate are given extra attention than what that they had of their residence video games.

At the finish of the day metal slug attack 3.9.0 it does not really matter if you're willing to help or not, I simply thought there'd be some individuals who hate pay to win video games who know the sensation of playing one. His potential to summon Hover Models (and reset that cooldown) appears very superior, until you discover out that stated Hover Units give the opponent a pretty good quantity of AP if destroyed, making the Commander extra of a legal responsibility than an asset.