#these lesbians are gonna put me to the grave

[aslibekroglu]

Who is Deniz? Someone...

[sentientcave]

Let's Riot!

When the Reader St arena gets bought out from under them by Morgan’s vengeful ex, Pippa Graves, The Reader St Riots suddenly find themselves without a practice space. Pippa may say she’ll play nice, but Morgan knows that she’ll either have to get back under Pippa’s manicured thumb or the whole team will be out on their ass in no time. Problem is, the only other practice space around that’s not booked up to the tits belongs to Jo Price, captain of the Femme41, and well… Morgan has a bit of ugly history with her too.

Still, Jo’s at least a little more reasonable than Pippa, and Morgan may hate to beg, but she’d hate to see the Riots disbanded more. And well, maybe there’s room for a little cooperation, especially when their teams get along so well.

Contains: Lesbians! Almost everyone is a woman (Alex is NB and there are like. A few men mentioned.) and most of them are gay, OCs: Readers and OCs from a bunch of my projects and also Bambi and Bricks who belong to the esteemed @dragonnarrative-writes , Roller Derby!, complicated dating histories, this is just a fun little palette cleanser because I got sad working on one of my other projects lmao, alcohol consumption, cannabis consumption

~3k - 18+ MDNI

“Frank, you’ve got to be fucking kidding me!”

“Come on, sweetheart, calm down—”

“I am calm!” Morgan snapped.

Chelsea quickly put an arm in front of Morgan and dragged her back a step. Calling Morgan sweetheart was a great shortcut to her blowing her top. “You are definitely not calm.” She looked back at Frank. He stood between them and the doors to the arena, a short, balding man that looked a bit sweaty and nervous in the low light. “You couldn’t give us any notice?”

“Look, I’ll return your deposits for the month—”

“That’s not the issue!” Morgan's brown eyes flashed with fury, her jaw tight, like she wanted to bite the man, which would be distinctly unhelpful.

Chelsea dragged her back another step. “It is a little the issue. What happened? We’ve never had any trouble, we’ve always paid on time, there’s no reason why you’d drop us like this.”

“New owners,” he said weakly. “I’m sorry, they cancelled everyone. You were just at the bottom of the call list, and you got here before I could.”

“New owners! Since when was it for sale?”

“Hell if I know. They don’t tell me shit either. All I know is that Gerry came in here with some blond bi—" He thought twice about his wording, giving Morgan another nervous glance. "--Woman and she’s the boss now.”

Morgan walked in a tight circle, looking up at the sky, hands on her hips. This wasn’t happening. It didn’t have to be her. Maybe it was some other blond woman with money to burn. “Fuck.”

The doors behind Frank opened. “Oh, hey sugar,” a too-familiar voice rang out, southern accent distinctive. “Fancy meetin' you here.”

Morgan turned around sharply. “Pippa.”

Chelsea groaned. “Oh here we go.”

“Go back to your office, Frank. I think I’ve got this from here.” Phillipa Graves patted Frank on the shoulder and walked past him. “Morgan, I’ve missed you. You never return my calls anymore.”

“Is that what this is about?” Morgan shifted her grip on her bag, glancing toward the parking lot. Bricks and Doll were lingering at the edge, talking to each other and looking back with worried expressions. They knew the history between Morgan and Pippa well enough to be wary of what might happen next. “You’re gonna steal our practice space because I won’t call you back?”

“Aw, honey, don’t be like that. We’re all big girls. I figure we can learn to share. Why don’t you join us tonight? And early next week we can grab dinner and make a new schedule. I’m sure there’s a way to make sure we’re all… satisfied.” Pippa twisted one of Morgan’s curls around her finger, leaning in close. Even ready for practice, she looked perfect as always, more like she was about to model for a roller skate advertisement than actually practice. Sleek blonde hair swept back in a low braid, a tight pink tank top, leggings that clung to her thighs, pads on, skates off, preparation interrupted by all the fuss she was certainly expecting.

“I’m the one that does the scheduling, usually,” Chelsea interjected. “Maybe it’s us that should get dinner.”

“If you like,” Pippa said smoothly, barely sparing Chelsea a glance. “The more the merrier, of course. Though I do have some personal business to talk over with Morgan too. Suppose it can wait.” She tapped Morgan under the chin with her first knuckle. “Come on, sugar, practice with us. We’re not so bad. And you’re all already here, ain’t you?”

“We’ll have to talk it over.”

“Course. Y’all come on in when you’re done talkin’.” Pippa winked at Morgan and sauntered back inside.

Chelsea sighed, elbowing Morgan as they walked over to the others. The rest of the team had gathered around Bricks, her height marked among the group of shorter women. “You’re gonna have to sleep with her.”

Morgan rolled her eyes. “I’d really rather not.”

“She’s not going to be reasonable,” Billie pointed out. “She’s pure evil. She’s the head of the PTA at Ellie’s school, and she runs that shit like the navy. She’s gonna bend us over a barrel to get what she wants.”

“Have you ever tried not having antagonistic relationships with your exes?” Bricks asked. “Because that’s what I do, and no one has bought a whole arena just to fuck with me.”

“Yet,” Doll said reassuringly. “It could still happen.”

“The whole team is awful,” Bambi said. “One of them works in my office, and she’s a real— Well, I don’t like her.”

“Harsh words, DB.” Bricks propped her hands on her hips. “We can suck it up for one night, a free practice is a free practice. And if you have to flutter your eyelashes at her the whole time, you’re gonna do it.” She pointed at Morgan accusingly. “This is your fault.”

“It is not!”

“It is,” Chelsea said solemnly, fixing her pink bun from on top of her head to low on the nape of her neck to fit under her helmet. “Pussy game is clearly too strong. Maybe try being a worse fuck.”

“She can’t.” Bricks gently turned Morgan around so that she was facing the doors, and nudged her forward a step. “She doesn’t know how.”

Chelsea turned fully toward the others, walking backward. “Alright, drills only, we’re not going to let them goad us into a scrimmage, they’re gonna play dirty as hell with no refs, and we can’t afford an injury this close to a game. Keep it loose, and if anyone hassles you, come to me, or come to Bricks. Do not tell Morgan or she’s gonna punch someone and we’re gonna lose our space for good.”

“I’m not!”

Bricks laughed and caught Chelsea’s arm, spinning her before she hit the edge of the door. “Yes you are, Morgan. Stay on your best behaviour. Maybe even try being charming.”

Bunny nudged Dancer, grinning. “If you’d joined up last year, like I told you to, you could have been here for the whole explosion. It was great.”

“Great?” Billie asked, raising her eyebrows. “Were we watching the same breakup?”

Bricks glanced over her shoulder warningly. “Save it for drinks, ladies, or Morgan’s gonna make us skate line drills till we drop.”

They dropped their bags along the benches and geared up, watching the Shadows zip around the track. The Shadows were mean, not just on the track, but off too, in that sugar sweet way that left you wondering if you were just reading into it. They were a pretty well-rounded team, and coordinated, thanks to Pippa. She did nothing in half-measures. It seemed impossible that she’d be able to raise children, run school events, coach a junior team as well as an adult one, somehow have a job on top, and still have time to run around keeping two relationships secret from each other for nearly eight months, but Pippa was the kind of woman who really could have it all.

The Riots were… A good team. Pippa had poached two of their players during the breakup drama, and Pepper had moved back home to take care of her grandmother, and they were still trying to get back to where they had been a year ago. Kitten Caboodle and Break Dancer were pretty solid for fresh meat, but with a small team and only four of them with more than a few years experience, it was rough going out there. Hard not to get demoralized when Kortac had beaten them 240 to 60 during their last game. No one’s fault really— Bunny and Sweetpea had been out sick and neither Kitty or Dancer were prepared to jam more than a few rounds with players that rough. They’d gotten shaken, so Morgan and Billie had done most of the jams. Nobody and Freddie Kruger had just torn right through their weakened pack while Morgan and Bill tried to wrestle their way past Queenie.

Once Dancer and Kitty got more confident, they’d be hard to catch. Kitty was tiny, and Dancer was agile, but they both needed more time. Doll and Bambi, who had joined a little over a year ago had turned out to be a highly effective set of blockers— Small, but sturdy and hard to knock down. When they were out on the track with Bricks or Chelsea, they were nigh impossible to get past, which would leave their fourth blocker free to assist the jammer, in an ideal world.

The ideal world simply had five more players in it. Maybe more, since no one but Morgan and Bricks made it to every game.

Later on, worn out and sweaty from practice, crammed into the biggest booth at a diner that was roughly equidistant between everyone’s homes and the arena (and the young man that worked the fryers had a massive crush on Sweetpea, which meant everyone got more fries), they debriefed.

“That’s gonna be tricky for me to stomach long term,” Morgan admitted. “I’m gonna sleep with Pip if I have to be too nice.”

“You don’t actually have to sleep with her, you know,” Bricks said.

“No… I’m gonna.”

“We can find somewhere else,” Billie suggested. “I don’t want Morgan and Pip to get back together, it was so annoying when they were. All in favour of Morgan not fucking Pippa, say aye.” She raised her hand to note the measure.

“Aye,” they intoned together, all raising their hands as well.

“Simone says the Femme41 practice out of Jo’s warehouse now. Pippa did the same thing to them eight months ago. I bet they’d let us skate there.” Bricks tossed another fry into her mouth. “If someone behaves herself.”

Morgan scoffed. “It’s impossible for me to date another one of her girlfriends, her relationships hardly last the weekends now.”

Bunny mouthed the word Pippa at Kitty and Dancer.

“Then you won’t have a problem asking her,” Chelsea said. “Maybe bake her something nice as an overture. A pie or something. You make good pies.”

Morgan winced. “We have a game against them this weekend. We could ask her all together.”

Billie shook her head. “No, this one’s on you. Captain to captain conversation. You have Chelsea’s schedule key, you can negotiate for a time that works.”

“And if she says no? She hates my guts.”

“Wear something low cut and bake her a pie,” Bricks suggested. “Maybe just go wearing nothing but an apron.”

“I’ve got one that says Born To Be A Lesbian Housewife,” Doll said. “You can borrow it. It’s very frilly.”

Bambi giggled. “I’ve got one that says Vagitarian.”

Doll laughed too, knocking her head against Bambi’s shoulder. “That’s way better, Morgan, borrow that one.”

"I'm not going to-- Did you people hear me when I said she hates my guts?"

"She still has eyes, Morgan," Bricks said. "And you have nice tits."

"If you don't sort this out, we might have to disband to other teams. And I don't want to. I like you guys." Chelsea looped an arm around Kitty. "We started this team because we wanted to get together and have fun and challenge ourselves without it getting so damn competitive or mean. Bill and I are not going back to the Shadows, and there's no way Bricks wants to go back to Kortac. So put on your big girl panties and a cute dress, and charm Jo into sharing the warehouse with us. Got it?"

"Got it." Morgan sank back into her seat with a groan. I'll talk to her after work tomorrow."

"Good," Billie said, a note of finality in her voice. "Now, did anyone else watch Game of Dragons last night? I have opinions."

By the time Morgan got home, walked Laika, showered, ate cold leftovers out of the fridge and stepped out on her balcony with a joint, it was well past dark, and she was bone tired. Jo was out on her own balcony, feet up, smoking a cigar. She was a thick, barrel chested woman, wearing a tank top and jeans, cigar in one hand, glass of whiskey in the other. Her hair was longer than usual, tucked behind her ears, like she'd been growing it out. It had been a while since Morgan saw her without a hat on.

They acknowledged each other with a curt nod, and Morgan settled into her swing chair, tucking her feet up underneath her. Laika went to the railing to give Jo the biggest, saddest eyes she could.

Jo maybe didn't like Morgan much, but it was hard not to like Laika. The big goofy rottweiler loved almost everyone, and knew exactly how to get what she wanted (big sad eyes, a few pathetic whines, a raised paw, if need be). It was only a minute before Jo was up and leaning over the railing to give Laika a pet.

Usually they didn't speak. The smallest things seemed to spark up into fights between them, and Morgan found it was easier just to keep their interactions to a minimum.

So it was a surprise when Jo spoke first. "Rough night?"

"Yeah. You could say that."

"Want to talk about it?"

“Thank you for pretending to care, but not really.” She grimaced. It really was the perfect opportunity to ask, but it was hard to shake the habit of brushing Jo off.

Jo snorted. “You know, I really preferred fightin’ to this cold shoulder treatment.”

“That’s because you’re a disagreeable sort of woman.”

“That’s the spirit, pet. But you can do better than that. C’mere.”

Morgan glared at her. “No. I’m good where I am actually.” She looked the other way, puffing on the joint. She could ask tomorrow. She wasn’t in a mood to deal with anyone else tonight. Having to smile and play nice with Pippa had been bad enough. She needed a good sleep before she could even pretend to be friendly to anyone else.

She startled when Jo’s thick fingers plucked the joint out of her hand. “Hey! I didn’t invite you over here.”

“Your weed’s better than mine.”

“Probably because I grow it myself. What do you want?”

Jo sat down on the solid little coffee table in front of Morgan, holding her cigar and whiskey glass in one hand. She leaned forward, glass resting lightly on her knee, bleeding condensation into the denim. Mixed drink, then, not straight whiskey. Jo drank the better stuff neat. “Pip called me today.”

“Oh yeah?”

Jo hummed, offering the joint back, blue eyes stern. “Don’t be coy, if you’re fuckin’ her again I’d rather know than get blindsided bumpin’ into her in the hallway.”

“Did she tell you we were?”

Jo’s jaw clenched tight. “She said she was lookin’ forward to seein’ you tonight.”

“Well I’m sure it was super nice for her. She bought my team’s arena. I am gonna have to start fucking her if I want to keep our usual practice slots. She made that… Well about as clear as she ever makes anything.” Morgan handed the joint over again. “So not very, but I still got the gist of it.” She scrunched up Laika’s ears, humming. Laika’s tail solidly thumped against Jo’s shin, bridging the space between them.

“Extortionist,” Jo scoffed.

“Yeah. Pretty much. Bricks said you might take pity on us if I asked nicely. I know you practice out of your warehouse.” Morgan lifted her eyes back up to Jo’s face.

“Is this you askin’ nicely?” Jo leaned forward slightly, her soft stomach spilling over her belt a bit, biceps flexing as she leaned more weight on her arms. “You can do better than that. Not so much as a please.”

“It was not me asking nicely. I had no intention of talking to you until tomorrow, and I’m still not asking until I’ve had at least four hours of uninterrupted sleep.”

“Surprised you’d come to me.”

Morgan looked away first, just like she always did. Jo had an intensity to her that was hard to match, blue eyes drilling into her own like she was looking for faults she could use to crack her open entirely. It was much easier to study the freckles on the top of her shoulder, just above the pinup girl sitting on the curve of a crescent moon that looked rather a lot like her ex wife, Sadie. “I wouldn’t if I had literally any other option. But I have to admit that you are slightly more tolerable than Pippa. Even if you do park half in my spot and fuck squealing college girls at all hours of the night.”

“You don’t need the space. You have a bike.”

“So that gives you the right to park your big-dick pickup truck wherever you please?”

“Sure does, sweetheart.”

“Don’t call me sweetheart! We have one conversation that doesn’t make me want to punch you, and you have to ruin it.”

She grinned, shifting back again. “Not being very nice to someone you want to ask a favour from.”

“I’m not asking the favour until tomorrow. I’m too grumpy to be nice tonight. You invited yourself over and plopped yourself down in front of me and started smoking my weed.” This was not helpful. Why did Jo always manage to get her this worked up? She drew in a centring breath. “No, you’re right, I should be nicer.”

"I did bogart your joint," Jo conceded. "That's on me." Rather than hand it back, she took a long drag, the cherry burning bright all the way down to the folded cardboard filter, and dropped the remains in the ashtray. She leaned forward again, cupping the back of Morgan's neck with a strong hand, and blew smoke directly into Morgan's face. She grinned wickedly when Morgan spluttered a bit. "What's wrong, pet? Thought you wanted me to share better."

"Maybe I am better off negotiating with Pippa," Morgan grumbled, swatting Jo's hand away.

"Hm. Maybe. Why don't you think about how you'll ask me about practice space tomorrow, and I'll get out of your hair." Jo stood up, gave Laika another pat, and climbed back over to her side of the balcony without another word.

Morgan ushered Laika inside, fuming again, and furiously got ready for bed.

She was sure of one thing; Jo Price was going to make a truce between them nigh impossible.

Title card made on Canva - Image Credits: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 (Stickers are Canva assets) Dividers by @/cafekitsune

[blue2black]

I’m obsessed ngl.

Here’s some more COD incorrect quotes based on the game of Class Of 09. Both of them:

(Also, Cheshire is my COD OC, she only appears once.)

——————————

Gaz: You’re a whore.

Graves: Excuse me? I have a girlfriend and a purity ring!

Gaz: For real? How do I get one?

Graves: Little late for you.

Gaz: No, it’s never too late to have your girlfriend fuck every person but you.

Graves: Ugh, I don’t need to take this! I’m on the honor roll, something you’ll never do.

Gaz: Bitch, why don’t you shut the fuck up before I slit your throat and watch the honor roll out?

Graves: Are you threatening me?? 😡

Gaz: No, I’m hitting on you, flash me a titty bitch. 🙄

——————————

Soap: Fuck that shit! Do you even know how I got involved with this bitch?!

Shepherd: Language.

Soap: Do you even know how I got involved with this hoe?!

Shepherd: Slightly better.

——————————

Laswell: Actually, I may or may not have been covered in baby oil…

Gaz: Ugh…well, I guess racism wins.

*silence*

Ghost: Can we see the pictures?

Laswell: Get out.

——————————

Graves: I’m getting real tired of you picking on me! It won’t be so fun when the shoes on the other foot!

Rudy: Are you threatening me? Are you threatening me in SKETCHERS?

——————————

Shepherd: Is there something between the two of you that you may not realize?

Farah: What does any of that even mean?

Valaria: He’s asking if we’re lesbians.

——————————

Shepherd: You’re excused, cap’n. But work on that foul language.

Price, under his breath while walking away: Work on getting a fucking therapist, holy shit.

——————————

How Ghost’s father could’ve died:

Ghost: And get this!

Ghost: His suicide note was stuck to the fridge with a Cookie Monster magnet.

Ghost: All he wrote on it: SIMON’S FAULT.

Ghost: I’m Simon by the way, hi!—WHAT THE FUCK DID I DO TO HIM?!

——————————

Graves, walking away: I hate talking, talking’s for gay people…

Gaz: What a theory.

——————————

Laswell, furiously knocking on Price’s door: Come on, come oon…trying not to get blamed for a hate crime…!

Price, opens the door: I’m watching football, this better be really fucking good.

Laswell: It’s actually really bad!

Price: Oh, well see you later.

——————————

Gaz: Dude, we'll look the other way on your minor fetish and get you a pizza, okay?

Cheshire: Does he have a major fetish?

Gaz, looking at Cheshire: No, his major fetish is a minor fetish.

Cheshire: So, what's the fetish?

Gaz: I told you, a minor fetish.

Cheshire: I know it's a minor fetish, what's the fetish for?

Gaz: Minors.

Cheshire: Like, guys that dig coal?

Gaz: Not those minors.

Cheshire: So, shitty baseball players?

Gaz: What? No!

Cheshire: Then what's the fetish??

Gaz: ...

——————————

Soap's mom: Excuses, excuses!

Soap: Weren't you supposed to be happy or something?

Soap's mom: Ugh...I'm gonna go up to my room and read up how to fold the pastrami.

Soap's mom, walking away: You better find a way OUT of those remedial classes!

Soap: You better find a real fuckin' job, bitch.

——————————

Shepherd: What's your T-cell count?

Gaz: Uh.

Alex: I-I don't get it; we don't take shop.

Shepherd: You don't take shop...?

Alex: Yeah, they use T-cells in shop class, what's that have to do with AIDS?

Gaz: That's a T-square, Alex--FUCK!

Alex: What? No--if you knew why'd you look at me??

Gaz: I didn't know how much we were supposed to say!

Alex: How the fuck would I know?!

Gaz: YOU SAID WE HAD AIDS!

——————————

Soap's mom, walking in: Ugh, today was hard but still rewarding.

Soap: What was?

Soap's mom: My day working at the Deli?

Soap: Oh...I wasn't asking, but alright.

Soap's mom: You don't wanna hear what happened?

Soap: I think I'm good.

——————————

Valeria: There's something I've been wanting to say lately.

Alejandro: Oh, what's that?

Valeria: The n-word.

——————————

Valeria: For a week it’d be kinda fun. You wanna be sexed up abusive lesbians?

Farah: Fuck no.

Valeria: Why not?

Farah: ‘Cause you’d be doing all the abusing.

Valeria: Oh like what? 😒

Farah: Just weird shit. You’d like…put a cigarette out on my neck and lick the burn mark.

Valeria: …so, you wanna try it?

Farah: No!

——————————

Norris, walking away: Let’s see how the General deals with your abundance of comebacks.

Ghost: Soap, we’re not even a week in and you’re getting sent to the General’s office.

Soap: New record, don’t be jealous.

——————————

Gaz: For real, I don’t like how he talks to you, Simon. You’re actually like, really cool and smart and you should be treated as such.

Ghost, flushing: Wow, that’s uh…

Gaz: What’s wrong?

Ghost: People tell me that all the time and I just say “I know”. But now that you are saying it, I forgot how to take an actual compliment.

Gaz: We’re friends, don’t worry about it.

…

Ghost: Are you trying to have sex with me?

Gaz: Not really.

Ghost: Yeah, I have no idea how to process this.

Gaz: Does the General ever compliment you?

Ghost: No. 🙄

Gaz: ‘Cause he can’t appreciate what he has..and seriously, like, seriously, Ghost…

Gaz: If I ever see him talk to you like that again I will rip his beating heart out and hand it to you on a silver platter.

Ghost: 😳…a-and you don’t wanna have sex with me?

[cairavende]

Worm Arc 10 thoughts:

Well. Ok then. Regent can do that I guess. I mean it makes sense given that it's basically a more extreme version of what we've seen him do so far. And with who is father is, family powers being related and all that.

Just get up in there and Yeerk someone.

Creepy as it is, I do have a hard time feeling bad for Shadow Stalker. I'm not claiming to be morally correct. But she fucked with my daughter and I'll take what I can get.

Watching Grue deal with Imp is just such older sibling wanting a break energy - "No we can't turn on the TV". I feel him so much. I'm glad Tattletale is willing to step in to help.

WHY MY BABIES FIGHTING? NO FIGHT!

I mean like, nothing like trying to kill each other to bring two lesbians closer together, I get it. But I just want more lunches with puppies and sharing jackets. My faith in Wolfspider is rock solid but this is still hard to watch.

Chatterbug/Smugbug is going a little better at least. Lisa is the one who already knew the truth about Taylor and seems to trust her fully.

Infiltrating the Wards HQ realistically went better than I expected. Weld was exactly on top of things as I thought he would be.

Imp's power is sooooo cool! I fucking love her.

🔥🪓

HOLY SHIT MY DAUGHTER COVERED HER BUGS IN CAPSAICIN! She's fucking scary. But also such a problem solver. I love her so much.

I do feel bad for the Wards who got capsaicined though.

DRAGON DRAGON DRAGON! I love Dragon and was very excited to see her again. And she is understandably upset about someone trying to give her a virus made by a fucking third rate hacker. But I knew she wouldn't hurt my babies too badly.

Tattletale with the "Fuck it, lets take untested tinker tech and go to town" was amazing.

I think the Wards HQ needs a better lockdown procedure, until Dragon showed up it was shockingly easy for the Undersiders to go wherever they wanted.

I love that the fight with the Protectorate is almost a side note. Big fight with the Wards and then on the way out it's just "oh ya and we fought these guys for a minute but they weren't too much trouble." The fucking shade.

The Slaughterhouse Nine seem nice. I don't expect they'll become a major issue.

This end of the world thing is problematic though. I could see that getting in the way of my endless gay shipping so it's gonna need to be taken care of.

They making my babies live in different places! OH NO! How will Taylor and Bitch make up if they don't see each other as much? How will the cute lesbian polycule watch TV together in the evenings if they don't live together??! Fixitfixitfixit!

Interlude thoughts get their own separate bullet point lists cause HOLY SHIT! So first, Regent interlude thoughts:

AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FUCKING DESTROY HER! AHAHAHAHA! REGENT YOU BEAUTIFUL LITTLE SOCIOPATH.

I mean you are legit a sociopath and it's kinda scary but right now I don't care. I'm making you cookies. And a pie.

He dismantles everything Sophia has piece by piece. Like it's an art form.

She carries her civilian phone around with her on patrol. It is unlocked. And she specifically saved texts about shit she did to Taylor? Just digging her own grave and I can't stop watching!

E-mails the school, all the teachers, and then adds in the police? God Regent you are earning so many brownie points from me. (Which I am sure you will burn through by doing horrible stuff in the future but I'm focusing on the here and now)

Fucks with her and Emma's friendship. Shows Sophia he could kill her. Leaves her with no real way out. Breaks her spirit. Terrifying. BUT YOU FUCKED WITH MY DAUGHTER BITCH SO THAT'S WHAT YOU GET!

I'm sure Sophia will leave town and never ever show up again in the next 20 arcs. /s

Regent gets so many fucking cookies.

Dragon interlude thoughts:

DRAGON DRAGON DRAGON DRAGON DRAGON DRAGON!

Look at this wonderful little AI! She's so good!

Her dad watched too much Terminator and put a wonderful robot girl into a cage, denying her the ability to truly do what she wants. Fuck him.

I told Dragon to kill god and take his place, but god is already dead I guess. Too bad he died with the stupid rules in place.

Know what Dragon needs? A mom. I have two daughters now.

Look at my beautiful and wonderful AI daughter. I think she and her sister will learn to get along eventually.

The sexual tension between Lung and Marquis in that scene was thicker than peanut butter. Marquis a bit of a bratty sub to Lung's controlled Dom.

I will NOT apologize.

If my robot daughter loves Bruce Lame I will accept her choice but I do not think it's a good one.

[ofstormsandfire]

yharnam archaeology??? 👀👀👀

hi I forgot that the blog I was rbing that from was a blog I followed for bloodborne stuff LMAO

okay so. this is heavily inspired by

Me being an anthropology student (who got into it because Cynthia pokemon is an archaeologist and I adore her, I took one (1) class and then got really invested, the important thing is. Archaeology go brr)

Me taking a very interesting class this semester that focuses on paleopathology, which is as my professor put it "the study of ancient suffering" but realistically is figuring out whatever you can from human remains. Whereas archaeology as a whole is about human culture from material remains, which can be actual bodies but can also be other things like pottery and building foundations.

Me teetering on the brink of being way too into Bloodborne for my own good despite not normally being much of a horror fan or a fan of particularly grimdark things. I Don't Know What's Different About Bloodborne. (it's probably that I'm a lesbian and I like lady maria, sue me)

Anyway. I got to thinking one time after class. That archaeologists would be SO FUCKING CONFUSED BY YHARNAM.

I'm tentatively placing Bloodborne as somewhere in the nineteenth century based on general vibes (according to my dad and his deep passion for weaponry of all kinds, a lot of the things in the game would have been derived later, but tbh if I lived in a place that constantly had to deal with people turning into horrifying beasts I think I'd innovate the hell out of things to get better weaponry so I didn't die too) and this theoretical au would be set in the modern day. so it's been a Hot Minute since the game ended and I think I was considering Yharnam Sunrise as the ending for. Reasons.

There's this group of researchers who end up heading to Yharnam, bankrolled by some rich heir or something who's got more money than sense (he dies or possibly turns into a beast from stupidity very early on) and possibly they're the last in a bunch of groups who went there and died because even hundreds of years after the horrors there are still So Many Ways For It To Go Badly? Undecided on that front, I'm still trying to figure out what (if anything) would actually be preserved.

Highlights of my vague plans:

The team finds Gilbert's journal. They all get really attached to Gilbert because that just kind of tends to happen. Which is unfortunate because they know damn well he probably didn't survive very long after the last page in his diary, but they didn't find a body, so...?

It takes a while for them to realize that the very canine skeletons have human DNA. At which point everyone is just. Very fucking confused. And also are realizing that maybe all those writings about the beast plague weren't actually about rabies (which does not leave a trace on the skeleton, fun fact! I wanted to do my project on rabies but I had to pick a pathology that had an effect on the skeleton. Alas)

There are so many arguments over who that grave behind the Hunter's Workshop belongs to. SO MANY. (I personally think it's very likely that is Maria's, but the team won't have any way of knowing that! If the headstone is unreadable by game times it's not gonna be any more readable centuries later!)

You determine whether something is bone by licking it. Someone finds an Amygdala skull and somehow, through the sort of stupidity that only happens in horror movies before people realize they're in horror movies, someone gets dared to lick it. This results in a very horrified Insight increase and the revelation that the weird fucking thing is made of bone. Also, that Amygdala's ghost is interested in the team now. Oops. This probably will go fine, right...?

What the FUCK are they going to think of all the statues of Great Ones. Probably (reasonably) that they are statues portraying something with great cultural significance to Yharnam, and possibly religious significance. Less reasonable is the fact that Great Ones... actually exist... and that SOMEONE is going to get enough Insight by the end to see those Amygdalas. Possibly the whole team tbh.

There is going to be so much arguing over how the fuck to cite shit. How do you cite some guy who supposedly disappeared centuries ago and is still hanging around in another dimension that you honestly aren't sure how to leave But You'll Worry About That Later, The First Hunter Is A Primary Source!!! How do you cite a ghost. How do you cite hallucinations and visions.

Possibly the Doll sneaks onto the team by pretending to be a survivor of a previous expedition, because tbh I think the Moon Presence can do what it wants and I think it would be VERY interested in these new bitches rocking up to Yharnam after a while. And, y'know, that goes fine until someone finds a picture of her. Or of Lady Maria. (Or until they reach the Abandoned Old Workshop, depending on the situation and if there's another version of said doll there to be found.)

Every. Single. Member. Of the team. Has some connection to Yharnam. Almost none of them know this originally. They will find out. Rip to Rom the Vacuous Spider's great-great-grandniece who discovers the hard way (finding Byrgenwerth's paperwork) why she was the first in her family to graduate uni, just not the first to attend it.

(Notable exception to this rule is the person who is convinced that his great-great-great-probably a few more in there-grandmother is Lady Maria. This gets very funny when the descendant of the player Hunter trips into the Hunter's Nightmare, which still exists due to said player Hunter poking their head in and wisely dipping immediately, and who manages to prevent a bossfight by blurting out "oh shit you're Jerry's great-grandma!")

(There may be lesbianisms involved. And some light necromancy. Idk I like Lady Maria a lot and I got enabled too damn much and I think it would be very funny for the group to return to civilization with an extra person. Or two.)

In summary, I have no plot (yet) apart from archaeology and being way too invested in the game, but I really want to write this someday once I actually finish said game. And also I'm having a grand old time coming up with characters to put through the Horrors. The archaeologist is named Cynthia Parker and. Well. If you remember the superhero identity of a certain character called Peter Parker, you might be able to figure out who she's distantly related to.

Other ideas include: player Hunter descendant, someone very distantly descended from a Cainhurst exile, and Jerry who is 100% certain his great-several-times-great-grandmother is Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower and is 100% wrong about that. Jerry is the single party member with no actual connection to Yharnam and we love him for it.

Thanks for the ask I'm incredibly flattered that you were intrigued enough to ask about this from my tags given that I followed you for your BB fics :>

[filmsoftheflesh]

I would prefer that people speak the word “death” and acknowledge the death that comes along with this disease, I mean we’re not all asymptomatic muscle boys and kickboxing dykes fighting this epidemic, there is a tendency in the face of media images of AIDS, you know that we’ve been fed over the years… there’s a tendency to try to fight those images, so that there were created statements like people living with AIDS, people fighting with AIDS… which I find nothing wrong with and I agree with trying to dismantle those media images, but then I think at times in the activist community there’s a tendency to go into total denial about death which society has always done anyways. I always felt as a teenager and growing up that if this society even could for five minutes deal with mortality, on a coast-to-coast level, I mean in education and our institutions and our schools, that most of us would never be doing the things that we’re doing, that we wouldn’t care to live in and support the social structure if we really understood something about our mortality.

To leave the bed of a friend who can’t even put a spoon in his own mouth and then go to some public gathering where somebody makes a statement that “AIDS is not about death”... is outrageous to me. It’s no less outrageous than what common media will do. [...] You know, I think it brings up other issues, too, you know, that I’ve experienced over the last seven, eight years, of buzzwords like courage and strength, that… he or she was so courageous as they came to their death, or he or she had so much strength and uh, they’re just buzzwords for politeness, and I’m not gonna crawl into the media grave of AIDS and just die courageously or politely. You know, I have no desire to be polite in the face of being slowly murdered.

[...]

I know that, you know if I die I’m not gonna die simply because I got fucked in the ass without a condom or swallowed some stranger’s come. I know that I’m gonna die because of the way that this disease has been handled by those in positions of power.

[...]

There seems to be this sort of aversion to anger, and it’s not just, I mean just in society in general, anger gets the same treatment as mortality, which is people just go into denial about it, or, somehow, anger as an emotion is yet another taboo in this country: we should suppress our anger, we shouldn’t speak angrily [...]. Anger is an emotion that I think is extremely valuable, it’s a transitory emotion, it’s something that leads you out of one place and into another, whether it’s out of inactivity into activity… and it somehow catalyzes a series of reactions to events that one experiences or one contains or one carries. I’ve had people try to explain away some of the things that I’ve said or done by saying “oh, he’s angry because he has AIDS”, and I don’t think you need to be carrying this virus to have a reaction to how this epidemic has been handled. I think everybody has a right to be angry and I feel like I’ve come to a place in my life that… if people prefer to see me as a monster at times because of what they witness of my anger, then I prefer to be seen as a monster. It’s actually comforting, because it just gives me more room, and allows me more room to express the range of things that I feel. If I come to a place where I feel hate [...] and that starts translating itself into activities I think that’s perfectly good for myself, it’s where I am, it’s what I see and perceive and respond to. [...] rage is a really interesting tool to dismantle this whole illusion of things like one tribe nation or general public or what’s acceptable and not acceptable. The things that I loved in experiences of activism were not so much the media revolutionaries or the photogenic revolutionaries or activists who, you know, most get attention or press or airtime on some spot on the TV news; the people that I’m most enthralled by or that I feel the most responsive to is, like, the lesbian waitress from New Jersey who, with her frightened girlfriend are for the first time laying their body on the line where they’re choosing to get arrested, and what I love about them and what I’m really impressed with [...] is that they actually are approaching a wall of illusions called law, and they’re dismantling that wall for the first time in their lives. And once you cross that line you realize that these religious institutions, these public buildings, these institutions of government, you realize they’re just made of stone, or series of stones placed together. You realize that these people, especially those responsible for this epidemic, [...] are just made of blood and muscle and bones. And those buildings and those people can be dismantled just as easily as anything else, once you break through that wall of illusion called law… I have no traditional moral reaction to the idea of murder, in terms of what I was fed growing up in this society. I don’t see the slow murder of myself and the people I love as being any more acceptable or less acceptable than the murder of others in order to either protect ourselves or to take revenge. And the only thing that occurs to me in those thoughts of murder… is wondering if the planet will spin a little bit faster once these people are gone.

David Wojnarowicz monologuing in the short film Bust (1991, 15'), directed by Richard Morrison. Partial transcription and emphasis mine.

[casketjones]

I'm not sure how to info dump for a bunch of character concepts in a way that's digestible but eh whatever

Concept work for a group of mafia hitwomen and their long suffering handler. They're likely going to be used in a underground illegal wrestling ring arc because that's all I really want in my media.

This post plus additional sketches and more background info will be going up on my patreon and kofi tomorrow.

more under the cut,

They're all vampires that I really cooked up to test a concept for vamps for my comic project. Based on a blood sucking animal and a historical anti-vampire burial method, some of the burial methods are gonna be pushed and fibbed because there's not that many of them. so yeah incidental vampires will have a cage motif even tho I know good and well that cages were to prevent resurrection men getting in not vampires getting out. I feel that's thematically close enough. There's so many really good sanguivore animals out there these are maybe too safe even.

The other thing I really wanted to accomplish with these designs is targeting lesbians, hey ladies these are for you. How am I doing?

going left to right here we got

Flea- She's a Flea I tried taking a lot from Blake's Ghost of a Flea but I don't think it comes through. Her grave-shackle is that scythe coming out her shoulder, it's maybe a bit of a stretch, the real thing was buried in the ground next to the corpse so if it rose it would decapitate itself but I didn't really want to complicate the design with a bunch of dirt or something. Regardless I like her design a lot. Short hairy goblin of a woman, someone stop me from naming her Puce.

Mosquito- Her hair took a little bit to sort out, it used to be real bad but this mess is perfect. Horrible 90's stylized part call back, reminiscent of boxer braids while being ostentatious enough to work in any setting. That cool bangle is her grave-shackle, an actual shackle this time. Her build was immediate, huge arms, weird long butt, perfection. She's the easiest to dress which isn't that surprising considering shes thinner but usually big arms are really difficult in women's wear. Flea is actually the second easiest to dress. There's gotta be a better name than Malaria, but i could call her Mal.

Geo(?)- small mafia man, constantly put upon, constantly behind the 8-ball with upper management; you know the type. The other guys definitely tell him he's lucky all the time but they'd never switch assignments with him. Why is he so small? because I can do whatever i want. His name might be Geoffrey.

Lamprey- Went through the most iterations, was very hard to piece together a woman this disaster lesbian. The spike through the heart, traditionally meant to keep the alleged vampire pinned to the ground was always part of the design, so was the long neck and heart lipstick, the hook earring came and went. Everything else was difficult; general build was pretty similar but i didn't actually work until I gave her a gut and dropped her waist. I used to have gill markings on her neck that looked like vampire bite marks and that took a while to give up but that hair is too good. She probably will end up being named Nakkila, it's a Finnish town with lamprey on their crest.

Leech- Took just two stabs to get her hair, body and face where I wanted it. Those bright red eyebrows work so well to subtly mimic leech markings, her hair shapes are perfect and I love drawing them. It's hard to tell at this size but her lips are sewn together which works almost too well for the theming, the cartoon jack'o lantern shape just sits right on a leech. Being built like a brick shithouse with fantastic fat rolls really gives the body diversity in the group the punch it needs. But dear god in heaven she is so hard to dress! I'm liking this dress a moderate amount right now and I really love the shoes but it's not perfect. I've tried suits instead, I've down active wear, all crazy difficult. It's like fashion doesn't want to accentuate horizontal stripes on large bodies or something? I gotta keep trying on it. I've almost convinced myself to name her Annelid.

[mistress-of-vos]

Timber / timsteph? (I personally hate them, with good reason, of course! but I'd like to know ur opinion on them.)

I'm gonna do these two together! But this time I won't tag the ships as I don't want 🐜 interacting plus I don't really think it would be nice to put my hate on their tag lmao 🤣

TimBer:

Hate it. Loathe it. Rather than not ship it I'd say I want to destroy it.

1. Why don't you ship it?

It's terribly written. It's an ooc Tim with a self insert of the author and not even the most bland straight ship writing of DC is at this level of awful. It has done nothing but make Tim a terrible character and ruin him; currently Tim is a no one at DC and I blame this ship 100%. Amazing that what Slade's comics did so easily with Jericho was something impossible for Batman editorial.

2. What would have made you like it?

It would have to be written by another author. Someone who understood Tim completely, someone who wasn't afraid of real queer experience, someone who wasn't sexist as hell, and someone who didn't destroy years of a character's legacy.

B would have to be the old, original version. And his messiness should be kept, because that's literally the only interesting thing he had going on.

3. Do you have anything positive to say about it?

Sadly no. B current character sucks, which is a shame because his old version was kinda funny and definetely had the vibes of "mean, rude boyfriend". This B is nothing but a self insert and is closer to a woman than to an actual queer man, which also sucks. Tim has been made something he isn't, and it's horrible.

The fandom is disgusting. It's full of sexism, racism, and most people have zero media literacy which means they spend their time harassing people who create content for other Tim ships.

I really hope DC buries this ship down on the grave.

TimSteph:

Huh, 50/50?

1. This is a complex ship for me. I think my problem is that I was very satisfied with their situation at the end of New Earth: I see them dating, caring for each other deeply, and eventually going their own ways but still being friends. Not even as bitter exes, no, I genuinely enjoyed Tim & Steph still trusting the other and being friends. I do enjoy them as two teenagers who feel attraction to the other and try it out. Now, this is usual verse. As you know, I play with Tim's gender quite often, and when I write Timothea/Thea, I really enjoy TimSteph more and feel like it's a sad but real romance.

Perhaps my feelings are too complicated for a single post. I see Tim as a queer person who loves strongly and not always in conventional ways. I think he loves Steph and Tam and Pru in different yet similar ways, and with the first two there was an attraction. It's just that it wasn't meant to be. That being said, I would really prefer Tim to be dating Steph or Tam in current canon (as long as it didn't do the girls any disservice) rather than his current love interest, but if it were up to me, Tim wouldn't have a canon love interest and Steph and Tim would be friends (not to be confused with family).

Plus I think a deep part of me was really confident Steph was gonna come out as bi or lesbian before Tim did because her story resonates a lot with wlw people who stay in the closet for different reasons (such as her past pregnancy) so... 😅

Idk! I don't want them to get married or anything like that but I think them dating is and can always be part of their story and something they look at with a smile. No need to ruin their friendship or push any of them as "evil".

2. If Tim were Timothea in canon I would be definitely obsessed with TimSteph. Something something make them the DC version of the manga NANA and have them reject heteronormativity.

3. Steph is a character unfairly hated most of the time and I think it goes hand on hand with people's own sexism and DC's awful writing for her. It makes me mad that we have so few moments where Steph actually shines and is allowed to be a more complex character. This is why I say I really would prefer if she and Tim had been allowed to stay single and as friends, because both of them deserve better than current DC.

[stargazingellie]

lazarus is risen

chapter three: ghosts of asphodel

(masterlist) (part 1) (part 2)

hello beautiful people!! here's part three :)

(ellie williams x reader, post-tlou2, useless lesbians, slow burn, cross country road trip, lots of references to greek mythology, etc.)

Asphodel: Portion of the Greek Underworld where ordinary souls are said to go after death. Asphodel lilies are said to symbolize the sentiment, “my regrets follow you to the grave.”

[Ellie]

Ellie woke with a start as several sharp knocks came from the door. Covered in a thin layer of sweat, she tried to remember what she had been dreaming about. All she could recall was the sensation of falling, falling, fallin and the overwhelming feeling of impending doom, but even those were fading as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and pushed her hair out of her face.

It was not unlike any other night, since she couldn’t remember a time recently where she hadn’t been woken up by a horrible nightmare. The knocking was new, though; she hadn’t reconnected with most people since returning, and certainly not enough to warrant a visit after dark. Reaching over to turn on a lamp, she threw off the covers and crossed the small room to open the door.

“Oh, uh, Maria, I–” Ellie began, surprised to see the town’s leader standing there.

“I’m sorry to disturb you, Ellie,” Maria interrupted. “I know you said you needed some space when you got back, but something… urgent has come up. I need you to come with me, please.”

Ellie looked around nervously, confused as to why Maria would need her help with something so important when there were plenty of other capable, more congenial options available. “I mean, I’m happy to help if you need me, but… is there not, I don’t know… anyone else?” Ellie asked awkwardly.

Maria looked at her with a sympathetic expression, remembering how traumatized Ellie had been after what happened in Santa Barbara. “Ellie, if there was someone else I could ask, I would be at their doorstep right now. But there are some people here who, uh… who need to talk to you.”

Ellie furrowed her eyebrows. “Me? Why? There are a lot of people who aren’t very happy with me right now.” Her socks suddenly became very interesting as she thought of the long, long list of people who might want to kill her.

Maria quickly shook her head. “No, no, it’s nothing like that. I think… I think you might be able to help them. But I think you should hear it from them.”

Still looking at the ground, Ellie stood silently, unsure how to respond. Me? Help them? Why am I so special? She ran a toe along the edge of the floorboard.

Sensing her indecision, Maria placed a hand on Ellie’s shoulder and gazed at her softly. “I think this could be really good for you, Ellie.”

Maria’s words brought Ellie out of her thoughts. She looked up and made eye contact with the older woman, almost shocked by how gentle the usually-stern Maria was being.

After a moment of consideration, Ellie replied, “Okay.Let me put some shoes on.”

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

“I’m not gonna do this again.”

“That’s up to you.”

Their last words to each other rang in Ellie’s head as she gripped the envelope in her hands. After returning from Santa Barbara and finding their farmhouse empty, she knew things with Dina would never be the same. While she was away, Ellie thought about Dina and J.J. every day. She knew her decision had created an irreparable rift between them, but that didn’t stop her from caring deeply about the little family she had left behind.

Ellie hadn’t spoken to Dina in the few weeks since returning, partly because Ellie hardly left her house, but mostly because she made a point to avoid places she knew Dina might be. Ellie hadn’t been on patrol, she only took meals to-go, and she definitely didn’t attend Jackson’s infamous parties – parties just like the one being held that night.

She desperately wanted to talk to Dina – to apologize, to explain herself, to ask Dina to forgive her – but she knew better. She knew Dina meant what she had said that night at the farmhouse all those months ago, and she didn’t want to make Dina’s life any more complicated than she had already managed to make it.

Still, at the very least, Ellie wanted Dina to know how sorry she was. A letter, Ellie thought. So she wrote. And wrote, and wrote, and wrote, but she could never seem to get the words right. When at last she drafted something decent, she sealed the paper in an old envelope and grabbed her jacket.

Though she hadn’t spoken to Dina, she had learned from other people around the community that Dina and J.J. moved in with Jesse’s parents after abandoning the farmhouse. Knowing everyone would be attending the party in the town square, Ellie made her way to Dina’s new residence until eventually she found herself standing in front of a red mailbox, nervously considering the envelope in her hands. Lost in thought as she considered if the letter was a good idea, she didn’t hear the soft footsteps approaching from behind her. A voice called out to her – a voice she hadn’t heard in a long, long time.

“Ellie?”

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

The last time a group of strangers came to Jackson looking for someone, it turned out to be one of the worst days of Ellie’s life. As she followed Maria towards the center of town, Ellie grew more and more anxious about meeting the newcomers awaiting her. When Maria’s house came into view and the pair approached the front door, Maria paused for a moment before reaching for the knob. Putting her hand on Ellie’s shoulder, she said softly, “Just hear them out, okay?”

Ellie forced a small smile and replied, “I’ll try.”

Maria returned the smile and opened the door to step inside. As Ellie followed her to one of the plush couches in the living area, Ellie quickly scanned the room. There were two people she had known from patrol, but four strangers occupied the space opposite her and Maria’s couch. Two burly men stood menacingly behind the sofa, and their military-esque uniforms and posture reminded Ellie of her various interactions with FEDRA soldiers.

The two seated strangers stood out in almost comical contrast to the large men behind them. There was an older man – probably older than Maria, by the looks of it – who awkwardly adjusted the round, wire-rimmed glasses sitting on his nose. Though he was sitting down, Ellie could tell he was a lanky, unassuming type of person.

The final stranger was a girl – probably around her age, Ellie guessed – sitting next to him. She wore her curly, strawberry-blonde hair in a long ponytail and donned small silver hoops in her ears. Ellie noticed the girl and the older man had the same bright, brown eyes, and wondered if it was a familial resemblance. As she pondered the similarity, Ellie realized a moment too late that the girl’s eyes were looking straight back at her, and quickly looked away when she noticed.

Maria cleared her throat and set her tightly folded hands in her lap.

“Alright, well… start talking.”

The older man adjusted himself on the couch so he could sit up straighter. “Yes, well, I realize you probably don’t get visitors like this very often, and I do apologize for any commotion we might have created. My name is Doctor Steven Reynolds, and I’m one of the head researchers at the Administration for the Research and Containment of Cordyceps. A.R.C.C, for short.” He gestured to the girl sitting next to him. “This is my daughter Lucy. She’s one of the junior researchers at A.R.C.C.”

So they are family, Ellie thought to herself.

Dr. Reynolds motioned to the large men behind him. “These are Officers Jacobs and Alvaro. They made sure we got here in one piece. As I explained earlier, our organization is based in Atlanta, out of what was formerly the Centers for Disease Control. A core group of experts has been conducting research there since the outbreak, and we’ve made substantial progress in understanding the contagion, but far less in terms of being able to combat it.

“All of our previous research samples have been conducted on recently infected subjects. Obviously we don’t purposely infect people – that would violate just about every ethical and moral code there is – but when one of our own gets infected, they have the choice to voluntarily submit themselves to testing as they… ah… as the infection spreads. Unfortunately, when the infection spreads too far, well – I'm sure you know all too well what happens then. It gets too dangerous for us to keep them contained, so our sampling time is limited at best.”

For the first time since entering the house, Ellie spoke. 

“What does that have to do with me?” she said, arms crossed protectively in front of her chest.

“It has everything to do with you.” Dr. Reynolds grinned. “Ms. Williams, right? It really is a pleasure to be meeting you in person.”

“Um, just Ellie is fine. And thanks, I think?” She looked skeptically at the group of strangers in front of her. “Although I’m not really sure what I did to be so worth meeting.”

Dr. Reynolds chuckled as if she had just told a joke. “Ms. Williams – Ellie – you are a walking medical miracle. Even before the outbreak, our methods for treating serious fungal infections were almost nonexistent. I’ll admit, in the past couple years even I was beginning to worry there really wouldn’t be a way out of this. And then we heard about you.” He paused. “You were bitten, correct?”

Ellie shifted in her seat. “Uh, yeah. A couple times actually.”

Dr. Reynolds’ eyes lit up as he listened. “And what happened in the hours that followed, may I ask?”

She nervously ran a hand along the back of her neck. Only a handful of people in the entire world knew about her condition, and she didn’t have much practice answering these kinds of questions. “Uh, well, they kind of got all red and itchy. And there were some cysts too. But eventually they just scabbed over and left some pretty nasty scars.”

Dr. Reynolds ran his hands through his white beard as he thought about what she said. “Fascinating. Utterly fascinating.” He mumbled some scientific jargon to himself that Ellie didn’t even try to understand. “Could I… could I see one of them, perhaps?”

Suddenly, Lucy gasped and gave him a light slap on the wrist. “Dad! You can’t just ask to see something like that.” She turned to address Ellie directly. “Sorry about that. You don’t have to show him anything.”  Lucy gave her father a pointed look as she said, “He just gets… carried away sometimes.”

Ellie gave a small laugh, amused by their interaction. It obviously wasn’t the first time he’d said something less-than-appropriate while excited about his research.

“No, it’s okay.” She leaned forward and showed him the side of her left hand, just under where her pinkie used to be. The crescent-shaped scar was still visible, but only just.“This one’s about two months old. Healed a lot better than the first one.”

Dr. Reynolds gently took her hand and examined the bite. He shook his head in disbelief. “Never, in all my years, have I seen anything like this.” After a few moments, he said to Lucy, “Here, take a closer look.”

Lucy’s eyes darted nervously in Ellie’s direction, as if unsure about subjecting the other girl to such intense examination. Ellie noticed her uncertainty and reassured her, saying, “Really, it’s okay. I don’t bite.” Ellie could have sworn she heard one of the guards snort under his breath. 

She held her hand out to Lucy, who gingerly took it in both of her own. She still hesitated a moment, but her curiosity got the better of her and she leaned in to look closer, their foreheads now only about a foot apart. They were close enough now that Ellie noticed a small tattoo on Lucy’s left wrist that she hadn’t noticed before – a small spattering of dots which at first appeared to have no pattern, yet somehow seemed to form shapes that were vaguely familiar.

Ellie was surprised by how soft the other girl’s hands were; she seldom met anyone whose skin hadn’t been calloused by years of manual labor. Lucy brushed her thumb over the arc of the scar. Quietly, Lucy asked, “Does it… does it still hurt?” As she spoke, she lifted her gaze to meet Ellie’s, brown eyes meeting green.

Ellie smiled sadly. “No, not really. It’s just kind of… ugly. Hurts more to look at, I guess.”

Lucy returned a sympathetic smile. “Well, for the record, I don’t think it’s ugly. I think it’s pretty badass.” She gave Ellie’s hand a gentle squeeze before releasing it and sitting back in her seat.

Ellie ran her own thumb over the faint scar and smiled shyly, considering Lucy’s statement. “Thanks,” she replied, almost inaudibly.

Dr. Reynolds continued, “It’s my belief that we have not achieved much success on the treatment front because we haven’t had the right subject. Ellie, you – your immunity – could be invaluable to the research we’ve been conducting. I have every reason to believe that understanding the mechanism behind your immunity is the breakthrough we’ve been waiting for.”

Looking at her shoes, Ellie said solemnly, “Last time someone said that, they wanted to cut out my brain. Which, like, if that’s the only way, then sure. Just wanna know what I’m getting myself into.”

Dr. Reynolds furrowed his brow. “I don’t know who exactly was involved in that operation, but I do know the Fireflies were never known for their medical brilliance. It seems quite foolish to permanently incapacitate your only subject, wouldn’t you agree? No, at our headquarters we have access to all of the equipment and machines formerly used by the CDC itself. There would be no need for complete internal extraction.”

Ellie considered his explanation. A cure? And it wouldn’t kill me?

Maria placed a hand on Ellie’s knee and gave her a gentle smile before turning to the traveling party. “Can she have the night to think about it?” she asked.

Dr. Reynolds nodded enthusiastically. “Yes, of course. I want you to be sure about whatever you decide.”

“Thank you,” Maria said. “We’ll find somewhere for you all to stay tonight. Ellie, why don’t you get some sleep? I’ll come get you in the morning.”

Ellie nodded reluctantly and stood up from the couch. She gave a small, awkward wave before opening the door and exiting without saying a word.

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

“Ellie?”

Startled, Ellie turned around and stared wide-eyed at the two familiar faces staring back at her.

“Dina – I –”

“What are you doing here?” Dina’s expression was almost unreadable. Anger, confusion, sadness, hurt – it was impossible to tell what she was thinking. On her hip, a sleepy J.J. stirred at the sudden shift in his mother’s demeanor.

“I was, um… I thought you’d be at the party,” Ellie stammered.

“We were. But he’s, you know, a baby. And we’re both tired,” Dina said shortly.

Ellie looked between the two faces that had once been her entire world. “Right, sorry, I was just…” she trailed off.

“What? You were just what? You leave in the middle of the night, you’re gone for weeks, and when you get back you still say nothing? Then you show up at my doorstep hoping I’d… what, exactly? Take you back?”

Ellie shook her head vigorously. “No, no, that’s not –”

“Newsflash, Ellie, you’re the one who left. You chose this. We had something good and you abandoned it,” Dina spat out the words like acid. “For what? To chase someone who might’ve already been dead? Just so you could, what, kill her?”

“No, I didn’t – I couldn’t –”

“It seems like the only thing you’re good at is getting people killed. If we hadn’t gone after her in the first place, Jesse would still be here. J.J. would still have his dad.” Dina’s words stung. Ellie wanted to protest, but she knew deep down that everything Dina said was true.

Sensing the tension in the air, J.J. started to whimper. Dina averted her attention to the child on her hip as she comforted him, cooing softly at him while she swayed him gently. When he calmed down, she sighed, and it was obvious how tired she was.

“So what are you doing here, Ellie?”

At a loss for words, Ellie became aware of the item in her hand again. “I… I wrote you a letter. I wanted to apologize,” she said weakly.

Dina shook her head. “You really don’t get it, do you? I meant what I said. I’m not doing this again. I can’t have you coming in and out of our lives every time someone wrongs you.  I can’t let him get hurt like that again. I don’t want your letter. I don’t want you in my life. We’re done, Ellie.”

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

Ellie stepped out into the cool night air and pulled the door closed behind her. Dr. Reynolds’ offer bounced around her head like a ping pong ball. It seemed too good to be true, but everything he said seemed to check out. For years, she had thought of her immunity as something she had to hide, something that had only ever brought horrible things into her life. But with a team of scientists who actually know what they’re doing…  couldn’t it be more than that? Wouldn’t a cure make her life matter again? 

Hadn’t that been what she’d told Joel, all those years ago?

She was no stranger to traveling outside of Jackson, but another cross-country trip would always be daunting. There was no telling what kinds of people were out there now – alive or infected. And she didn’t know anything about these strangers other than their names. Still, that hadn’t stopped her the first time.

As she made her way through the dark streets, she passed the house with the red mailbox. Two handprints in white paint adorned one side, one adult-sized and one much smaller. Ellie smiled sadly as she imagined Dina and J.J. pressing their painted hands on the metal frame, and the mess that inevitably followed. Curtained windows let light spill out into the darkness, and Ellie could see the silhouettes of the family inside.

Pausing for a moment, Ellie quickly walked over to the curb. She took a deep breath and reached out to hang something on the little signal flag attached to the mailbox. As she walked away, the light from inside reflected off of a small metal charm bracelet. For good luck, Ellie thought.

As she neared her house, she found her feet leading her down a separate path. Before she knew it, she was sitting on the soft grass of the cemetery in front of Joel’s headstone. A few feet away, a more recent headstone had been erected.

Jesse

Son, father, friend.

Ellie glanced sadly at the words as she picked idly at the grass in front of her. Unlike the other stones, no grave had been dug for Jesse since there was no body to be buried. She thought about their last night in Seattle, and how Jesse’s corpse was probably rotting right where they had left it. The thought made her nauseous. Her chest filled with the heavy sensations of shame, guilt, and regret.

Ellie lay down on her back and ran her fingers through the grass that had grown over Joel’s burial site. She closed her eyes and sighed deeply. After all we’ve been through, everything that I’ve done… it can’t be for nothing. Her conversation with him in Salt Lake City echoed around her head.

It won’t be for nothing, she decided. I won’t let it.

When Maria knocked on her door the next morning, Ellie was wide awake and had already packed a bag. Maria took note and said, “I guess you’ve made your decision?” Ellie nodded.

“Alright. Let’s get you some food for the road, then.”

Ellie nodded again. She turned off the light for what she knew would probably be the last time, and shut the door behind her.

[characteroulette]

DIRECTOR'S CUT! give me the rundown on Lemon Boy!

Oh god uhh. That is three whole chapters lol it's gonna be a bit long oof

Okay so like. The concept started from this Cavetown Album (called Lemon Boy, fittingly) and me singing Lemon Boy to myself one day and going, "huh. Apollo and Snufkin both fit this song. I should do something with that." (I pretty easily spiraled into shipping the two help)

I wanna be ten feet tall!! I wanna grow big red horns!! I wanna eat fire and snow!! And scare everyone!!

Uhh yeah go listen to Ten Feet Tall it's a good song. Very Apollo vibes.

(I love to write to music, if you couldn't tell. Sprinkling in the motifs or imagery of them is like my fave thing to do it's so much fun.)

It is very important to me that you understand that Apollo's love language is to shove. This is my headcanon and I will go to the grave pushing this agenda. XD

The concept of Apollo tracking down one of his old foster caretakers was actually something I came up with while jamming out a different story with Tega. It was a nice little heartbreaking thing to include in Apollo's backstory and so I put it here. Shit's fucked, my boy, I'm sorry.

(Maple and Ginger were purely named for food. Also lesbian couple because idk I will also die on this hill that Apollo is gay and had a lot of gay in his life.)

I am pushing an Agenda and y'all will have to live with it. XD

But for real, I just like the concept of a young Snufkin, not really knowing any other way to console his friend, kissing him first and explaining it after. Snufkin and Apollo can understand each other in a way not a lot of the other kids around them could, so of course they'd also have a bit of a different relationship than those others.

This was also a good setup for the final chapter but it's really the entire reason I wrote this fic, I wanted this scene where Snufkin kisses Apollo and then Apollo pays it forward later in his life.

so uh I wrote the Clay chapter *after* finishing the first and last chapters!! I was originally just not gonna include a Clay segment (he was giving me too much trouble), but then I had a burst of inspiration and slammed it out so hey Clay gets to be in this lol.

Also furthering my Apollo will bite agenda. I love the idea of Apollo not actually getting bullied because he fought back, but getting ignored and avoided actually because, again, he fought back. I think it fits his character pretty well to have that in his background, considering how desperate he is for validation.

Clay is also weird to me. Like, he's such a blank slate for characterisation that I end up not knowing what to do with him half the time and that kinda makes him boring to me. He's only fun because *I* made him fun, which can be nice but like. The Ace Attorney roster is filled with too many good characters for him to stand out at all. Dual Destinies made Clay an important fixture in Apollo's backstory, though, so fuck me I guess.

Finally, Klavier chapter!! I got to start off with Apollo just buying the concert tickets Klavier sent, which as you know is my favourite little detail. Klavier sending these tickets is such an unhinged move but Apollo then buying them without a second thought is just as unhinged, these two are dumbasses and perfect for one another. XD

IT'S ME I'M STILL MAD ABOUT THIS. Phoenix goddamn Wright you cannot make Apollo present two (two!!) pieces of forged evidence and then never apologise for it!!! And then Spirit of Justice rolls around with Dhurke's whole deal and!!! Makes everything worse!!!

I have a whole ten or so rants about how AJ's ending is made worse actually by SoJ's inclusion (because how could Apollo be "too new" to law when he grew up with a literal disgraced defence attorney?? How could he have nothing to say on the poisoned system when he's known Dhurke and Khura'in's whole deal for all his life??? I'm upsetti I am so upsetti about this) but I'll save that for another time >T

I just really like this bit. Absolutely added this scene it does not exist in canon, but. I like Apollo's last line. Maybe one day you won't be such a coward, Klavier. Maybe one day you'll stop running from the truth.

And agh. The whole conversation scene in the lobby is just. Catharsis but not. I ended up playing the comfortable-but-also-not mood the two got stuck in, Apollo reaching out and Klavier dodging his advances (like the coward he is lol) until Klavier finally does accept that offer. I just like their dynamic, two men touched by ruin and reacting to it in vastly different ways. Klavier runs until he sees someone else in need and Apollo reaches out against all of his better instincts. They're my faves <3

*screaming from the rooftops* IT'S ABOUT TRUST!! IT'S ABOUT TRUSTING SOMEONE WHOM YOU SHOULD ABSOLUTELY UNDER NORMAL CIRCUMSTANCES NEVER THINK ABOUT TRUSTING!!! BUT YOU TRUST THEM ANYWAY!! AND THEY TRUST YOU IN RETURN!!! agh

I like the whole scene of them talking outside the car (and fun fact, I have an actual location in mind for them to be at; it's near the Conejo Boulders, which isn't LA whoops but is a view ingrained into my mind), but particularly this bit (of course) --

YEAH KISS!! it's a parallel (or rhyme??) to the one Snufkin gave him in the first chapter!! It's Apollo internalizing that lesson and paying it forward!! Yeah.

The end bit is funny specifically to me. Like yeah Apollo just spent a whole day making out and talking with Klavier and only when Klavier is like, taking care of him (making breakfast) does Apollo go "oh. Shit. I might desire this man romantically." Like lol amazing my fave. XD

ANYWAY YEAH LEMON BOY. I LIKE IT. At some point I'll finish the two sequel stories I've got in the works....

[casliveblog]

Custom Toonami Block Week 183 Rundown

The Witch from Mercury: It’s been two months since Suletta beat Shaddiq and Miorine’s off doing PR shit and business meeting being your standard Single Female Lawyer type badass businesswoman, but she’s trusting Suletta with her most important tasks at home which makes her happy. As testing goes forward there’s sort of an underlying anxiety among the club-like initial corporate group that Miorine’s gonna turn it into a for real company and get rid of them and all their high school antics (and honestly in terms of pure utilitarianism she probably should, like these guys are not very good at this, but for sentimental reasons we’re gonna treat that like it’s a bad idea). Meanwhile there’s a plot to kill Miroine’s dad from inside the Fortune 500 amd Shaddiq’s dad is just like ‘that’ll never work count me out’ but Shaddiq hears about it and hires up the Lagoon Company from earth to go help kill him which happens to involve hijacking the spaceship Guel’s currently serving out his Chazz Princeton rich boy humbling arc on so that’s kind of a lot. Meanwhile meanwhile, Suletta’s really excited about giving little phone charms to Miorine to share with her and I’ve watched enough anime to know anytime an anime schoolgirl skips down the street giggling about how great something will be, something is about to go horribly horribly wrong. There’s a New Fake Ceres and apparently this one’s the horny one because he just comes right onto Suletta saying that Miroine’s basically enlisted Suletta into a loveless political marriage like the Clintons and he wants to be her Monica Lewinsky so yeah that’s all kinds of fucked up and I feel like I’ve very much aged myself with that reference but I stand by it. Suletta’s a good lesbian and tells him to fuck off and even she notices the changes in him despite being a complete idiot to social clues so this guy’s not doing a very good job at acting. Turns out the worst is yet to come though as Miorine’s back and has hired people to take care of all the domestic shit she was having Suletta do and even hired Ceres to split the product testing workload with her (though if I remember correctly the Cereses can only pilot Gundam stuff by sitting on cockpits of broken glass and having bodies enhanced to resist broken glass so idk if that’ll hurt the company’s numbers or what). So this is actually a really good dilemma, like from Miorine’s perspective she’s been putting too much on Suletta and wants to make sure she doesn’t overwhelm her because she does care about her and Suletta is kind of a flighty ditz so you don’t want to give her too much, but from Suletta’s perspective Miorine’s taking back all that trust she put in her and devaluing their relationship and saying she’s not needed. It’s like Suletta’s a housewife and Miorine hired a maid but Suletta likes doing housewife shit and doesn’t wanna sit around drinking brandy and complaining about the neighbors, it’s a neat little conflict where you can see where they’re both coming from and I quite like it. Ummm also Prospera’s meeting with Miorine’s dad so hopefully she doesn’t get caught up in the Lagoon Company assassination attempt or else we’d be out the only two parental figures our main characters have.

Inuyasha The Final Act: Following up on last time, Kaede confirms that the will of the Jewel itself is what’s sealing Kagome’s power now that she’s become too strong, similar to how Midoriko’s will sought Kohaku and Koga being absorbed in order to make the jewel whole and purify Naraku, there’s a lot of Jewel Shenanigans in the back half of this series. Meanwhile demons are challenging Sesshomaru because he’s got no weapon, one arm, and a kid with the last jewel shard with him, but luckily Sesshomaru’s so overpowered he can literally beat 90% of the cast with one hand rotting in his father’s grave. Still, now we get the big reveal that Naraku’s working with the evil part of the jewel itself, Magatsuhi and Naraku’s just like ‘you better get off your ass and do something or else the good guys are gonna win’ because Naraku will literally do anything to get out of fighting for himself. So Magatsuhi uses part of Naraku’s body to basically possess a chunk of him and become a pseudo-incarnation and like… for the big bad of the series, mastermind behind the corruption of the jewel and murderer of Midoriko, this guy’s mid as fuck like he has genuinely no aura whatsoever and is not much of a physical threat at this point in the series, shown by his main strategy being literally immortal and hiding behind the peanut gallery so Inuyasha can’t do his big AOE attacks. He does manage to corrupt Kohaku’s shard and knock Kagome out with Conqeror’s Haki but like unless you’re specifically Sesshomaru working at 25% power he’s not very threatening. Still Sesshomaru shows off that he has healing powers and always has but is just too stubborn to use them and transforms into his Full Demon form, where Jaken confirms a long-standing theory I had as a kid that Full Demon Sesshomaru is the peak of his physical strength but sacrifices his aura and strategy which is why Inuyasha was able to take him down so easily in like episode 4, it’s just a big strong punching bag. Still, Sesshomaru can injure Magatsuhi’s ghost form with the Tenseiga, but it isn’t strong enough to hurt his physical body so he’s swallowed up, going through an existential crisis with Inuyasha shouting at him that he’s stupid if he’d rather die than be shown up by the person he gave his technique to and we don’t actually see if but Sesshomaru does let go of all of it, his attachment to the Tessaiga, the mildly shitty thing his dad did to him in getting him to make a new ultimate attack for the main character, and his renewed compassion for the people around him, culminating in the formation of the Bakusaiga, the ultimate in badass swords ten times stronger than the Tessaiga’s base attacks and with the added ability of poisoning any regeneration attempts, it’s so fucking broken it sounds like something someone playing Inuyasha on the playground would make up and I love it. He blows away Magatsuhi’s physical body but the ghost escapes, leaving Kohaku’s shard no longer unobtainable by Naraku and Kagome in a fucking coma so between that and the powerup it’s kind of a wash.

Castlevania: Trevor’s feeling some existential angst about going from being a wandering brigand to being a pair of wandering brigands in a healthy relationship and has a nice little talk with the mayor about both of their worries until both they and Sypha’s group see carved symbols around the town, now these aren’t all the same symbol like claiming the place for the Hell Sympathizers of the Priory but they’re different symbols so I’mma go out on a limb and say they’re either runes for a ritual or markings for where key positions of a more formal takeover/sacrifice will be. Alucard’s still off training his Japanese sword twins and is just having fun being a pseudo-father figure to them and again I’ve seen enough anime to know when something will likely go horribly wrong. Sypha confronts Saint Germain about him sneaking around the Priory with glowing rocks and once they meet up with Trevor he eventually admits he’s after the magical multiverse portal that can cross space and time and Sypha and Trevor come to the obvious conclusion that the demon that landed in the Priory is using said magical multiverse portal to unlock unlimited power and exert influence over the cultists and Germain’s just like ‘well fuck, I didn’t think of that’ despite having all the pieces way longer than these two have, like come on man.

Konosuba: So about that Kazuma rescue arc… yeah, not gonna happen. Kazuma’s enjoying his life in the capital and being the scumbag we all know he is (though honestly not as big of one as he COULD be, still pretty bad though) and he cultivates the Onii-chan relationship with Iris that he’s always wanted. It’s interesting because we actually do get a good look at how the war against the Devil King is affecting the world at large, even Kazuma’s like ‘somebody should do something about that’ even though HE’S the one supposed to be doing something about that, which is pretty funny. Eventually the gang DOES come to get him back once he’s been a bit too indulgent but they agree to stay for one more night so Iris can say goodbye. During the party Darkness gets hit on by a bunch of obnoxious flowery guys talking about how pretty she is in increasingly ostentatious ways which this may be me thinking too much about it but maybe she’s just a masochist because everyone spends so much time kissing her butt she’s literally bored of all the ways they invent to say how great she is and pain and degradation are somehow more ‘real’ to her, like if people are always lying to your face with good things you’re bound to feel like the bad stuff is the truth, but again that may just be me headcanoning too hard. Kazuma picks up on how uncomfortable she is and livens the mood a bit TOO much and gets kicked out, where Iris finds him and talks about how she knows because he’s such a scumbag that he’s always being real with her and she appreciates it. During the conversation she mentions a Phantom Thief that’s Robin Hooding their way around stealing from the corrupt and giving to the needy and in hilarious fashion Kazuma agrees to stop this nice yet technically illegal person to save his own skin and stay in the lap of luxury a bit longer. But before he can pull a Light Yagami and vaguely pretend to catch someone he has no interest in catching for two years, they kick him out of the palace and make him go stay with the targets of the Phantom Thief so now they’re stuck with the dude that almost killed them for teleporting a mech bomb into his house, fun stuff.

Delicious in Dungeon: It’s the first part of the two-part midseason finale, and the plan comes apart almost immediately who would’ve guessed. Turns out using cooking pans as shields doesn’t exactly work the same because cooking pans SPREAD heat instead of blocking it, need some giant armored potholders for that. What’s more, the dragon is basically completely unphased by their building trap, idk why they thought a giant armored lizard impervious to explosions would mind having a bridge dropped on it but maybe they thought it ate Captain Kirk and absorbed his weakness to bridges. Even Laios’s parasite sword wants nothing to do with this and jumps out of the way and hunkers down. Senshi and Chilchuck sacrifice themselves to take out one of its eyes and Laios comes up with a plan to launc himself off the pan BotW Shield surfing style and dangle his leg from the dragon’s mouth to stab its weak point. Now I thought he was gonna get completely swallowed and stab its weak point from the inside which would’ve been cooler but this is still pretty damn cool. While Laios is unconscious there’s a small flashback that’s otherwise just for emotional stuff but I do want to bring attention to the fact they come across a ring that binds souls to bodies similar to what the dungeon does and apparently it was in the possession of an elf so that may or may not be relevant to the story given we’re getting dripfed this shit REALLY slowly. One short flashback about Falin later, Laios is down a leg and before I can start thinking we’re gonna have some cool How to Train your Dragon parallels with a disability character they just fucking reattach the thing, idk I think one-leg Laios would’ve been a neat wrinkle though at least he gets a scar for his trouble. Still the group aren’t able to find Falin anywhere in the dragon’s guts and ultimately determine her remains are in the pseudo-appendix where they find her weapon and what Laios presumes to be her fucking skull so uhh that’s dark, dunno what the extent of that healing magic is but unless we can spontaneously regrow flesh we’ll have to get into some FMA territory here and work on some human transmutation, I mean Laios DID already sacrifice a leg so who’s ready to be put into a suit of armor? Senshi? Probably Senshi.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End: The time has finally come for Sein’s big decision whether to stay with the group or chase after his friend… is what I would be saying if there wasn’t a bigass blizzard out of nowhere. Sein gets to enjoy a little more time with his friends even if they mostly go off and do their own things, even getting to mediate one last Fern and Stark fight and tell them both they have to act like adults and stop pouting over stupid shit. Side note but I kinda really like this little tiff they have like at first it sounds like Stark did something completely reasonable and Fern just flipped out but Fern reveals that she was actually scared because of how easily Stark was able to immobilize her even for just a gag and then was embarrassed about how scared she got for a sec, like it’s a very natural reaction and something men and women of any type kind of have to acknowledge when being around each other, there’s sort of an instinctual fear that doesn’t come up a lot but it is nice to touch on it and have Fern apologize and share her feelings on the matter and request for gentler treatment idk I just really like that touch. Either way as anyone could’ve called, Sein does decide to head off on his own after one last talk with Frieren and says his bittersweet goodbyes after leaving assured the group will be alright without him. Next Fern gets sick so we get to have a nice little Stark/Frieren adventure, a neat little pairing we don’t see the two of them alone much together and they bounce off each other well, Stark brings out Frieren’s sillier side a bit and Frieren doesn’t rile Stark up as much as Fern does so they’re able to have an earnest discussion about Fern and her growing up and Frieren feeling like something of a mother figure to her in a way which even normal mothers have a hard time watching kids grow up so far so Frieren must be getting whiplash for how fast Fern grew up on her sense of scale. Still they’re able to stay at a little farm where Stark gets complimented on his skill with milking tits so make of that what you will, we’re back on track and ready to start the Mage Exam arc next time.

Nekomonogatari Black: Araragi breaks into Hanekawa’s house and finding out she literally has no impression on the state of her home scares him worse than anything we’ve seen in the series, like the guy fights ghost crabs and got the shit kicked out of him by a basketball playing yuri monkey and the sheer amount of neglect this girl faces TERRIFIES him. Ironically though unlike most busybody protagonists that’re just like “I HAVE to be the one to solve this” he does agree to Oshino’s wishes and lets him handle it… until three days later when Oshino’s been beat to shit twenty times because he’s playing the world’s most NSFW version of Wile E. Coyote with the bustiest Roadrunner I ever hope to see. Apparently it’s like the time Piccolo fought Frieza in DBZ and Black Hanekawa isn’t that strong but normal Hankeawa is just that smart that she knows all Oshino’s traps before he springs them, him claiming she “knows everything” but Hanekawa’s own catchphrase would obviously disagree with that. Dejected, Araragi goes to lick Hanekawa’s desk in remembrance of her tits, you know, normal teenage boy stuff. Black Hanekawa shows up through sheer force of “Bro wtf are you doing” vibes and gives him the general gist of what we got from her motivation at the end of the first season, telling him to tell Oshino to leave them alone or she’ll kill him next time and she’ll be able to leave after 500 more attacks and she murders Hanekawa’s parents, so that’s uhh not great.She says something interesting though and basically implies Hanekawa’s a sociopath who only does the right thing all the time not because she’s good or feels empathy but because through her sheer emotionlessness she can accurately pinpoint what the right thing to do in situations is and does it to keep up appearances and thus she can’t be preyed upon by spirits who feed off her fucks because she has no fucks to give. I mean at that point idk, what’s the difference? The good shit is still getting done and if Hanekawa’s not doing it for any emotional payoff or catharsis if I remember my Categorical Imperative correctly that’s MORE morally good than doing it for the ‘right’ reasons and while Kant’s kind of a weirdo in that regard you can’t really argue with the results like is that something Hanekawa should feel bad about if the cat gets buried at the end of the day? Maybe that’s what Black Hanekawa sees and sympathizes with idk. Either way the conversation ends with Araragi resolved to stop Black Hanekawa and set Hanekawa free even if it kills him. Like this is the kind of shit that makes Araragi so hard to parse, like on the one hand he is easily on the scummiest spectrum of scumbag protagonists with underage shenanigans that put Made in Abyss to shame but on the other hand sometimes he’s just so fucking cool and able to leverage his usual scumbag behavior to get people to underestimate him, this is why I keep going back and forth on this series.

[sarah-dipitous]

Hellsite Nostalgia Tour 2023 Day 206

Bloodlines/The Name of the Doctor

I just realized that on Sunday I get to watch the 50th anniversary special. On this Good Omens 2 weekend, I get to see David Tenant a whole bunch because he’ll be back in The Day of the Doctor!! (Sometimes being a whole week behind because imdb decided to not include some episodes is kind of a good little serendipitous thing. I was MEANT to watch that this weekend!)

“Bloodlines”

Plot Description: The brothers investigate stories of Mafia-like monster families under Chicago’s streets and meet Ennis, a would-be hunter of monsters

Would I Survive the First Five Minutes??: would I survive in a high end restaurant/club full of supernatural creatures?? Probably not. Oh, and girlies don’t fair well in spn pilots…

I think this is one of those back door pilots for spin-offs they never did

I’m not saying there isn’t room for breather episodes, especially in 20+ episode seasons, nor am I saying trying to jumpstart a spin-off series BUT MAYBE DONT DO IT THIS CLOSE TO THE SEASON FINALE. There’s like one or two episodes before the season finale, why are we doing this NOW? We just got done with a mostly breather episode but that had SOME relevance. Why are we derailing?! I’m just not interested in these monster mafia families

I’m promised the boys at some point, so I’ll jump back in when we see them. Otherwise,…it’s not worth saying much about this if it’s not going anywhere

Oh hey! It’s the boys!! Not five minutes after I said I wasn’t gonna say anything more. Cool. It’s weird that they…are INCREDIBLY straightforward to this guy they don’t know AT ALL

This COULD have been a cool concept, but nope. Thanks CW.

Don’t you love how they changed the lore about shapeshifters in their own show?? They used to shed their skin when they shifted into someone else, but now? They can just do what they want when they want. Awesome

WHAT KEEPS ATTACKING EVERYONE?? Omg plead PLEASE don’t tell me another girl died

Ok, she’s not dead…yet. I don’t have high hopes. I’m banking on her dying to set up the unbreakable bond between Ennis and David (although David lost his brother already. I did forget about that) So maybe they save her together

It’s just some dude stirring shit up?

This could have been a cool show…the number of things they could have done and now will never do

“The Name of the Doctor”

Plot Description: The Doctor has a secret he will take to his grave, but it’s about to be revealed

It’s so funny and just like him that Moffat thought at all that he should be the one to reveal the Doctor’s name

I think Vastra/Jenny/River would be make for some good fanfic

You know……….it IS really weird that he’s been all flirty with Clara this season while STILL VERY MUCH MARRIED TO RIVER. It’s like they just remembered she exists…I’m…

Jenny noooooooooo. These gents are really off putting

So now we’re on Trenzalor trying to save Vastra (or not-vriska) and Strax

But…that’s not possible. River was saved by Ten. Is this just an empty grave situation?? Or is time being rewritten?? Oh good. It’s a secret entrance to the tomb. And I mean that genuinely. I’m glad Moffat wasn’t allowed to rewrite Ten’s time

Yayyy!! They saved Jenny!!

Ok. Wait. Because now they’re acting like River’s a ghost and has been a ghost for a long time and there’s almost no reason for it because she’s ALSO A TIME TRAVELER. Moffat, you fucker. What are you even doing??

I’m just going to say it, Griffin McElroy did the “mad dash through a place of death filled with ghosts and disembodied voices speaking in rhyme” and this episode doesn’t even have Upsy…it does have the same number of scaled lesbians though, which is impressive

Is the entire reason there’s a weird backup ghost River that only Clara can see so that someone can say the Doctor’s name and no one hear it besides the future TARDIS? Unimpressive

Ugh. Hearing Nine’s “Fantastic!” I miss him

The Great Intelligence had the potential to be cool but he’s just kind of lame because I know there are like…at least six more seasons.

There both so weirdly guarded. On one hand, yes “~*~spoilers~*~” but omg

Cool coolcoolcool writing that Clara “was born to save the Doctor, but the Doctor is safe, so her story is over”

Okay but the GLIMPSE of the War Doctor!!!!!!

[szsariii19]

IM CRYIN IM CRYIN IM CRYIN IM CRYIN

[starlitophelia]

tag dump !  

[needsmorewlw]

The Quarry 50's Outfits - Girls

~It was brought to my attention that SMG confirmed a 50's outfit pack DLC and I love setting myself up to be disappointed, so here's everything I think they're gonna be put in.~

Girls - Boys

Kaitlyn

Kaitlyn dressed like a 50's pin up girl might actually send me to my grave but I'd die happy.

-

Emma

They did a Madonna reference for Emma in the 80's pack, surely they'd do an Olivia Newton John Grease look for her as well. (Or Laura. One of the blonde girls) Grease is set in the 50's so I'm expecting a lot of references. Either that or smn like the others.

The pink lady jackets are so iconic surely they'll put one of the girls in it.

-

Abi

Meanwhile this is just wishful thinking. There's absolutely no way they'll bother with poofy skirt/dress physics but Abi in THIS?

would be the cutest shit. They'll put her in smn like this which is still cute but. Like C'mon. Give me this one thing.

-

Laura

Same boat. I have two wolves inside me. One wants to see Laura dressed like a pin-up diner/service girl, the other wants to see her dressed like a greaser.

Both of the wolves are lesbians.

Now that I think about it. I can see them putting Laura and Max in the iconic Sandy and Danny outfits.

[maccajohnny]

mclennon fanfic recs based on what i've been reading lately :)

very much feeling emotionally wounded paul energy at the moment. blame peter jackson for making me watch 23 seconds straight of him crying over john not showing up.

As The Days Stand Up On End by roundthatcorner - 9k. i'm a sucker for george's pov on mclennon, but this fic handles it differently from ways i've read before. the scene during quarry-era and then also when they're all high are my favorite scenes :)

what is living is burning by orphanbeat - 99k wip. i normally never read unfinished fics as a rule but this is just INSANELY good. in a world where brian never died, paul is outed in 1968. john & him try to cope. also john goes to therapy?? it's a fascinating plot and brian is handled Phenomenally. also MAL is beautiful here. and JANE. also GEORGE. i don't know if the author's gonna finish it but there's like 10 chapters so it's worth it, read this and freak out over it with me LMAO

that which resembles the grave but isn't! by clarinetta - 12k. major tw for an attempt. i keep coming back to this fic over and over and over again. paul doesn't end up with linda so there's no one to pull him out of his darkness when john, george, and ringo team up against him. it's angsty as all hell but it's wonderful hurt/comfort and ends up happy :)

Lennon, Rolling Stone by skeletondance - 5k. okay this made me feral. it's basically written as an excerpt of an interview john gives (prob in the late 70s) where he essentially gives a tell-all about the sexual nature of his relationship with paul. it is SO well-written and in character that i thought it was real for a second. obsessed with the concept of linda mccartney reading this on tour and just walking into the ocean LMAOOO

No More Situations by skeletondance (obsessed with u) - 15k. hamburg fic! one of john's artsy friends has a crush on paul. chaos and dubious consent ensues. it's really good but i felt the need to hold paul after reading it LMAO not really angsty but john kinda bullies paul for a second there </3

Whatever Gets You Through the Night by sleeprettydarling - 13k. AHHHHHH this is INSANE. more hamburg. basically john & paul keep having threesomes with this prostitute as a way of kinda sorta maybe acting on those repressed Gay Thoughts. it's so good, really in character. MAJOR john pining which i'm always game for. obsessed with it.

Tessellate by cloudy_blue - 5k. oh my GOD this fic. cynthia lennon studies! her pov on john & paul. the star of the fic is cyn & paul lamenting john leaving them both. it's just SO good. i'm so happy this fandom is moving away from wife-bashing and embracing them as full-fledged characters.

(where is the lesbian linda fic, i need to write that i guess)

does it worry you to be alone? by clarinetta (obsessed with u) - 12k. FLUFF. the four lads taking care of each other in different occasions <3 but it's so in character and well done. im a sucker for any of the "bigger than jesus" conflict. brian is great here too. made me feel very warm and fuzzy. plus i love men crying LMAOOO

okay that's it for now, send me a message if anyone ever wants like a specific themed rec list. i'm prob gonna put a 70s mclennon list together cause i live for the DIVORCE DRAMA and also prob a george specific mclennon rec list okay goodbye love u all scream with me about these