#trying to get through the divorce arc by making them flirt

[doduckshavears]

finished!

and! with a playlist to go with it!!

(once again, go check out Nevermore on Webtoon. cheers!)

[partycatty]

was requested to write interviewer!reader by this lovely post so here we are. @super-ssimp

johnny cage > interview

you, a reporter, have some questions for the hollywood heartbreaker. he just can't seem to focus on your questions.

notes: heheheheeggeheegehehegeh he's so fine in the gif i'm gonna shit everywhere

[ masterlist ]

• a box-office smash hit dropped after a long quiet period from hit star johnny cage, back stronger than ever with a movie that blew audiences away with its storytelling and casting. you had to squeeze in an interview with the director, cage himself. you were a part of a big company, front lining with interviews and now face to face with probably one of the most attractive men you'd ever worked with.

• johnny sat in his chair across from you, adjusting his hips ever so slightly in his seat as he holds intense eye contact with you. you return the stare, as hard as it is while a makeup specialist tidied up the powder on your brow.

• "you look great, doll," he's quick to charm, pointing a finger with a grin. "don't sweat this. you'll be fine."

• "i know i'll be," you return his affirmations with your own confidence, a beaming grin on your features that makes his breath hitch. "i've been in this job for nine years, mr. cage. we just haven't met."

• "what.. a.. shame," his voice is teasing, somehow his flirtations come off as honey smooth rather than sleazy. you scoff playfully, earning a laugh from the both of you. two assistants clip microphones to your tops, testing them quickly and hearing a full go-ahead to begin the interview.

• "i'm here with johnny cage, director of the new smash hit 'mortal kombat,'" your voice is smooth, experienced. "i suppose my first question is; what inspired such a story? it's unlike anything we've seen in films."

• the question seemingly didn't register at first, his faraway gaze blocking his thoughts. realizing his flaw, johnny snaps into celebrity mode, "oh, hrm — the ideas that came to me were because of a massive arc in my life. uh — without getting too into it, i was at a low point in the last year, running myself into the dirt. something changed and i wanted to be the new, young, and pretty one behind the camera for once rather than in front of it. i spent the entire summer writing and consulting some friends of mine and we were able to pull this film together based on our relationships and experiences. you won't see anything else like it because there isn't anything else like it. i was inspired by my life, and there is no other johnny cage in this timeline than the one you're talkin' to."

• you nod and agree, face hot at the way his expression lights up with passion as he walks you through his process. "right, and this was after a long hiatus, was it not? there were, rumors, so to speak—"

• "my divorce?" he cuts you off with a glint in his eye as he toys with his ring. "no need to dance around it, i suppose. yeah, different life paths, but i'm a changed man. single and ready to mingle as soon as me and my team crank out some projects we've had in the works."

• "so you confirm yourself to be single? confirming the rumors?" you clarify, leaning forward in interest — whether it was for your own or for the public's, you wouldn't disclose.

• "why?" his question catches you off guard. johnny rests a hand on his chin, tilting his head as he squints. a large grin creeps up onto his lips. "you interested?"

• you tense up, nervously giggling as your eyes dart around the small production team who is trying equally as hard to not laugh at your position. you were trained and professional and yet this man turned you into a blushing mess for all cameras to see. "that's not my question, mr. cage—"

• "—johnny," he interrupts you, pose unmoving. "the pretty ones get to call me johnny."

• what was he getting at? your notecards feel unreadable and your brain's fuzzing from the sudden attention. he was a pretty man, that much was sure, but was he really flirting with you or pushing his behavior for attention? it was hard to tell, his affections were dizzying enough.

• he chuckles at your blank, sweaty stare, your lips opening and closing like the dumbest fish in the tank. you'd been hit on before by interviewees but johnny took the cake without a doubt, from his veiny arms to his touchable hair, all the way to his tight, round—

• "earth to interviewer," johnny's teasing fingers wiggled in your face, grounding you back to the rickety wooden chair and blinding lights. "too much, or not enough?"

• "neither," you lazily protest as you come to. "just didn't... expect all of that." the interview proceeds as normal, with johnny's clicks and compliments littered to keep you flustered right when you regained your composure. it must've been a game to him, how long you're heated over a simple compliment. but it wasn't the compliment necessarily, it was the person giving them.

• it wraps up just as quickly as it started, and the production was being wrapped up the moment you delivered your outro. johnny's suspiciously large, dreamy grin was plastered onto his face for a strangely long amount of time.

• "it was nice working with you," you try to be cordial, it's hard when that smug look is looking back at you, like he's planning something. before you could stick around to figure it out, you spin on your heel with a beet-red blush on your cheeks.

• johnny visibly startles at your sudden turn, reaching forward to grab your wrist before you could fully face away. he flinches at himself and his abruptness, too eager to give away his desperation for just a little more time. he pulls away, scratching his neck.

• "sorry, doll," he gestures toward your wrist, a confused frown on your lips burying his ego for a moment. "just... hey, listen."

• "i'm listening," you cock a brow, stomach flipping at the out-of-script interaction.

• "me and you," he starts with a groaning sigh, struggling to find the words you stole from his throat from one look. "just us two. no cameras, no questions, no divorce — wait —" his slip-up makes you giggle. "no, no, really. lets go out sometime. gimme a shot, whatdya say?"

• "out?" your tone is teasing, a smirk of your own forming on your lips. "you flatter a lowly reporter."

• "you're not lowly," his voice drops down, more serious with a heartfelt smile. "you... make it hard to focus." he's silent for a moment before jumping into his playful attitude. "pick a different career, you're distracting me! but seriously, dinner? movie? not one of mine, i swear!"

• "only if you swear," you grin up at him, feeling far more human with johnny than you had in the interview.

[cuntyqueerleondraisaitl]

I can so see how Eddies current storyline could lead into his coming out arc in season eight, and possibly Buddie canon

He breaks up with Marisol because ... obviously. He cheated on her.

He breaks up with Kim because he's looking for what he had with Shannon. But Kim only looks like Shanon. She isn't and she will never actually be her. This could take one episode or a few episodes, ut Eddie is eventually going to find out, yet again. that he won't be able to replicate his relationship with Shannon with anyone.

His relationship with the rest of the 118 is strained by his cheating, leaving him feeling 'Isolated', maybe with an episode or two left in season seven. But Buck stays by his side for another episode. What eventually causes Buddie divorce #3 is that Eddie starts doing what Buck was doing In season one. Sleeping with a different woman every night in order to try and find his person. AKA; a Shannon carbon copy who he will never find.

While Buck understands, he leaves Eddie to his own devices at the end of season seven. it's not exactly a fight, but while Buck understands what Eddie is going through, he also understands it's not the best way to go about it. He tells Eddie that when he's ready, Buck will be there for him.

Season eight begins a few months later, and Eddie is still trying in vain to find a Shannon replacement. Buck is still giving him space. Finally, after an exceptionally bad night with a woman, he comes knocking on Buck's door, and just breaks down. He starts talking about how he doesn't understand why he can't have what he had with Shannon, and he doesn't understand why he can't replicate that experience, or find a woman who makes him happy in the way she did. And Buck just holds him while he cries.

Eventually, Buck tells him that maybe now just isn't the time for him to find someone. So they decide to go to a bar and just hang out for bit. Both of them get a bit drunk, and Eddie starts getting hit on by some guy, and to his surprise, he starts flirting back. And it feels so much more natural. He's been doing the same thing with a different woman every other night for months but it just feels so different and so right.

So, with a few surprised looks from Buck, they keep flirting. They go back to his place, and then in the morning, Eddie rushes to Buck's house, pounds on his door and speedruns his entire sexuality crisis on his couch.

Maybe this guy sticks around, maybe he doesn't, but either way, Eddie is finally coming into himself.

Buck and Tommy break up, amicably. Maybe its just an issue with scheduling, or maybe Tommy moves somewhere else (Tommy spinoff??? 👀👀👀) But they end on good terms

Then, last episode of season eight,, they're sitting on Buck's couch, eating his lasagna that they finally perfected. They're talking to each other about life, about how their relationships never seem to work out but now they feel like they're closer than ever to finding one that sticks. They make eye contact and boom. Something clicks between them. Cannon Buddie with the last scene of season eight.

Season 9A secret dating arc

Season 9B "we fucking called it" arc with the 118

Season 10 A domestic fucking bliss. Maybe Tommy comes back and he and Buck are best friends because they ended super amicably and Eddie's a bit jealous for like one episode.

Season 10B, Domestic fucking Bliss part two, but they're moved in together, proposal in the finale

Season 11, Wedding.

[stevie-petey]

As painful as the Jonathan phone call was I like how many problems it fixes with the stancy moments in season four. Nancy and Steve's flirty reconnecting scenes now feels like he's relating to her, and they're becoming friends. You said awhile ago that Steve and Nancy never got to be friends and you're right. Their relationship was based on intimacy, that's how it started. (And that's how her relationship with Jonathan started too, I could use this time to talk about the differences between Nancy and bug and their relationships with the boys but maybe later). Steve and Nancy started out by sneaking around and making out, it wasn't until later that they became an actual couple. Even if it was only Steve who fell in love.

Anyway, now that Steve knows about Jonathans feelings (for the most part) and knows how badly it's going to hurt Nancy because he's felt that hurt. He has felt someone being chosen over him, even though he didn't resent Nancy for her feelings or Jonathan's but it was still his first major heartbreak. He knows what it's like to love someone who loves someone else. Now that he knows that Jonathan at some level wants Bug back he's reminded of Nancy wanting Jonathan. He knows what it feels like to not be enough for someone and at some level he wants to protect her from that. He's a loving, nurturing guy. It's in his nature.

I'm not sure if Steve's gonna tell Robin about what bug told him but it works to change the perception on some scenes. Now instead of Robin trying to poke around Nancy and Jonathan's relationship to see how Steve's chances of getting her back are, she's poking to see if Nancy knows about Jonathan's feelings, if they have been having problems. Now it isn't disrespectful and crossing boundaries, it's curiosity about the other side of the situation.

And when they're in the upsidedown after going through the water gate, him and Nancy's talks aren't flirting or Steve trying to show Nancy how he's changed. It's just them becoming true friends and Steve letting Nancy know she has someone to lean on if she needs it. That Steve isn't the immature ass he used to be and he's reliable now. Of course there are gonna be some comments that come across as flirty ( like the " you almost shot me with that one" & " you almost deserved it." ) but now it feels more like a divorced couple kidding around. They don't have feelings for each other, but the dynamic is still there you know what I mean? Which can easily be misconstrued as something else.

Sorry this is so long but my brain likes to go super Saiyan at night so here we are lol.

my only goal for season 4 was to retcon the whole steve nancy jonathan arc again because i HATE IT so much it drives me insane. so when i got the opportunity to change/fix it ,,, i was READY !!

i cant say much, but i changed a lot of steve/nancy centric conversations and added my own to make them more friendly/understanding of one another. i will also delve more into nancys feelings later - but as of right now: steve simply cant think about jonathan and nancy. all he has the energy to focus on is bug. thats it.

its where bug and steve are so similar. while bug is spending all of 4 trying to save max and ignores everything else, steve is spending all of 4 protecting bug. hes blinded by his love for her, bug is blinded by her love for everyone else, and this is ultimately where they misalign and become a tragic tale. its gonna take a lot of growth and conversations, on both ends, to absolve it !!!

[renamusing]

While the writers keep playing us, here are some future plots to consider after robert comes back (ryan HAS to comeback at this point ok? i wont accept anything else):

Post-prison Denial - Aaron cannot forgive Robert or accept that he is back; he shifts the blame for Liv's death from Chas to Robert because Robert LEFT THEM

Post-prison Blues - Robert deals with his PTSD badly which engages Aaron's redemption arc; he stays by Robert's side and helps him through it

Reunion 3.0 / Seb's return - Robert gets access to Seb (he comes to some sort of agreement with Rebecca or something happens to her offscreen whatever) and seeing Rob and Seb (their son!!) together in the village destroys any willpower Aaron still had to fight against his feelings for Robert

Wedding 3.0 - this needs no explanation

Surrogacy 2.0 - i dont actually mind them going there again if only to get them their Sugden-Dingle daughter

The Return of Andy Sugden - everything is going well for Robert and Aaron but Andy's return shakes things up; the farmboy that Jack Sugden caught Robert with back in the day is working with Andy now; so we get jealousy and misunderstandings and high drama in the Still-Madly-In-Love-Husband front (because that's Aaron innit) and Robert finally tells Vic and Andy about what happened with his dad when he was young.

Teen Seb Comes to Stay - Seb decides he wants to live with his dads at the village permanently (rewashed Liv plot i know but im making it easy for them!!) there are issues with his little sister at first but they get quickly resolved. Seb and his auntie Eve become thick as thieves and become the village nightmares

The Return of Adam Barton - because Aaron needs his mate back at some point and I doubt Vic will settle with anyone else ever

Robron vs Caleb - this just seems like it would be fun idk. it could have something to do with Seb because he is just like his dads and finds trouble everywhere which Robert and Aaron always have to solve in the end

Robert vs Kim&Andy - at this point in my AU Andy is with Kim (romantically or as business partners idc) because it serves the purpose of killing two birds with one stone so that Robert can finally FINALLY win back Home Farm

Robert Sugden's Regression - being in charge of Home Farm ofc changes Robert a bit and he starts to become the thing he fears most: his father. Cue him pushing his children and Aaron to the breaking point until, in true soap-fashion, they break up again. The kids split too. Aaron takes their daughter and Seb stays with Robert. And this ofc leads to:

The Parent Trap: Robron Edition - Seb and his sister plot to get their dads back together through a series of funny shenanigans, but then one of them gets seriously hurt in an accident (they should watch out for those evil farm animals amirite? or was it another drunk driver? only the soap gods know) so all the progress they made crumbles. Aaron and Robert blame each other and seem broken up for good

The Biggest Mugs In The World - Aaron and Robert try to prove to themselves and their kids that they dont want anything to do with each other but every time Aaron sends Robert his divorce papers Robert 'misplaces them' until Aaron finds out Robert has been ripping them apart and chucking them into his fancy fireplace. They fight about Robert being a control freak and Aaron a jealous queen, because every person Robert has flirted with since they separated has ended up fleeing the village with their tail tucked between their legs (Aaron made sure of it). This goes on until they have angry make up sex and then hate themselves for it.

Reunion 4.0 - *PROBLEMATIC PLOT ALERT* Seb and Eve become romantically involved and try to hide it from their families (aunt and nephew fits the Dingle lore somehow lmao). When they are found out Robert goes apeshit and casts Seb out of the village (like his dad did to him once) but he and Seb are at The Layby and before Robert can make the biggest mistake of his life, the love of his life arrives just in time to stop him. Robert realizes what he has become and decides to leave Emmerdale himself (after all, he was always the disaster, the one unable to make anybody happy, he should have never comeback etc) but Aaron won't have it. They can't live without each other, and that fact has never been clearer than at that very moment (shot to a teary-eyed Seb behind Aaron). Robert begs for forgiveness and Aaron just scoffs because forgiving Robert is the easiest thing in the world. They had promised each other messed up forever, had they not?

You know. I know.

[ash-and-books]

Rating: 3.5/5

Book Blurb:

A jaded bartender is wooed by a charmingly quirky couple in this fresh and sizzling polyamorous rom-com, set in the glamorous world of high-end cocktail bars—from the acclaimed author of the “tender, decadent, and sparklingly funny” (Lana Harper, New York Times bestselling author) Chef’s Choice.

As a bartender at Terror & Virtue, a swanky New York City cocktail lounge known for its romantic atmosphere and Insta-worthy drinks, Mel has witnessed plenty of disastrous dates. That, coupled with her own romantic life being in shambles, has Mel convinced love doesn’t exist.

Everything changes when Bebe walks into the bar. She’s beautiful, funny, knows her whiskeys—and is happily married to her partner, Kade. Mel’s resigned to forget the whole thing, but Bebe makes her a unique offer: since she and Kade have an open marriage, she’s interested in taking Mel on a date.

What starts as a fun romp turns into a burgeoning relationship, and soon Mel is trying all sorts of things she’d been avoiding, from grand romantic gestures to steamy exploits. Mel even gets the self-confidence to enter a cocktail competition that would make her dream of opening her own bar a reality. In the chaotic whirl of all these new experiences, Mel realizes there might be a spark between her and Kade, too. As Bebe, Kade, and Mel explore their connections, Mel begins to think that real love might be more expansive than she ever thought possible.

With TJ Alexander’s signature “witty and insightful voice, complex characters, and full-throated celebration of the joy of queer community” (Ava Wilder, author of How to Fake It in Hollywood), Triple Sec is a passionate, thirst-quenching love story that will have you asking for another round…or three.

Review:

A poly romance between a bartender, a lawyer, and an artist? In this sweet NB/F/F Romance, see how three people navigate a new relationship dynamic and find a sweet romance. The story follows Mel, a bartender at a fancy NYC lounge. She's seen so many relationships and having just gotten out of a divorce herself, she isn't convinced love actually exists.. until she meets Bebe, a stunning and funny lawyer who flirts with her... and then introduces her to her partner Kade, a nonbinary artist. Bebe and Kade are married, but invite Mel to a party... and then to lunch to ask her to be Bebe's new partner, as Bebe and Kade are in a open polyamorous relationship. Mel has never done anything like this and begins to discover more of herself as she gets into this relationship and begins to fall for Kade as well. The three of them will explore their connections and what it means to be in a polyamorous relationship. This was a overall fluffy and sweet read, it was easy to get through and the conflicts were minor. The story itself is a cute one for anyone who is starting to read poly relationship books and wants to learn more. The book itself spends a majority of time educating both Mel and the readers about being in a poly relationship. While it was a cute and easy read, I was hoping for a bit more when it came to Mel and the overall story. I guess I was expecting something more or the characters having a bit more depth or even giving Bebe and Kade POVS would have been great. It's a fine story overall but I was just hoping for a bit more. I would definitely recommend it though!

Release Date: June 4,2024

Publication/Blog: Ash and Books (ash-and-books.tumblr.com)

*Thanks Netgalley and Atria Books | Atria/Emily Bestler Books for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

[bookloveravenue]

Divorced Men’s Club (book 4): Employing Patience by Saxon James

Art When it comes to regrets, I have none. My life is perfect. I own a bar, work hard, party harder, and smother my niblings in all the love they deserve. I don’t need to settle down, as much as my sister might want me to. But then Joey Manning walks into my office and leaves me all but begging to give him a job … and wanting to give him so much more. The self-professed straight man is in my head and while I know that I need to move on from him, my body isn’t getting that message. It doesn’t help that Joey is a grade A flirt who can banter with the best of them. I’ve never had regrets. Not until Joey Manning. Joey The bills keep piling up and the pressure to get my sisters through college before we’re evicted is always on the back of my mind. Whoever said life was for living, clearly forgot that living’s expensive. My default mode is stressed AF and working myself to the bone, and there’s only one person who gives me a break from all that. Art de Almeida. My boss. The one man I shouldn’t flirt with, but I can’t seem to stop. I want to get under his skin. To leave him panting for me. Which wouldn’t be such a bad thing except that he thinks I’m straight, and I’ve never bothered to correct him. I need this job. But some days I worry that I need Art more.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/63317894-employing-patience

********

May 6, 2023

My Review: 5/5 Stars

Been waiting for this story very patiently for this story! We've seen glimpses of Art and Joey and have been waiting for the day where Art finally gives in and admits he is very interested (and will actually doing something about it) in Art. We get their first meeting together where Joey is looking for a job. And we see lots of their flirting. For Art, he has no problem admitting he is attracted to Joey. But with Joey saying that he is straight, Art doesn't believe anything will happen. He knows Joey is simply a flirt and they may tease one another but Art won't make a move unless he knows it is more than a game for Joey. Instead, he'll sit on the sidelines and stew, while also trying very hard to move on. He's the guy for one night stands, he doesn't do relationships... right? For Joey, he's been working really hard to keep things at home afloat. He supports both his younger sisters, one who is in college and the other who is finishing up high school. He works hard (and even gets another job in addition to working at Art's bar( and barely has time for himself. And he is trying to finish a high school diploma that he never got to finish. It's tough when the bills keep piling up. Then add in the complication of Art. Joey is just as attracted to Art and loves the flirting game they play. He's never really identified himself as anything other than straight more because he's never been with a man and also, any time he has been attracted to a man, it never lasted long. The label of bisexual never felt right. But when it comes to Art? Things are very much different. And he wants to prove to Art that he is serious when it comes to wanting to be with him. And that maybe just maybe, Art wants to be with him too. Loved these two! I was looking forward to this story and it's been well worth the wait! Joey and Art have the best banter and are such a great pairing. You'll be cheering for these two to finally get together. Really looking forward to the next one in this series!

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[sasarahsunshine]

Oh god have we considered ABO HotchReid where they’re together (and living together) during the Foyet arc?? Foyet manages to get the drop on them in their house and subdues them both and they have to watch each other being tortured by him. No character death cuz I can’t handle it but the sheer angst and Hotch would blame himself because he didn’t take the deal but Reid wouldn’t have wanted him to take the deal cuz that’s not who Aaron is and they’d both have to work through their trauma and I just 🥺🥺🥺😭

!!!!

I freaking LOVE Hotchreid during the Foyet Arc! <3

(I also cannot do major character death so you're good, Anon! I will never ever ever write permanent character death <3)

But let's make it angstier, okay? Because I am evil.

Hotch started properly courting Reid after the Hardwicke incident. He waited until he officially signed the divorce papers with Haley, and got confirmation from Reid that the Omega wants to be with him as well. They're not in a hurry to bond and mate: they've known each other for years, and the job comes first (like always).

In the beginning, it's all just courting. Hotch proving to Reid that he will be a good mate, a good Alpha. Reid already knows this (he's known Hotch for years like I said, and he knows that Hotch is an amazing father and mate). Reid gets a bit shy and embarrassed every time he walks into the bullpen and sees food, coffee, a bottle of water, and some kind of little gift on his desk.

It turns into Hotch Alpha posturing while on cases. When other Alphas sniff around Reid, try to talk to him, or get a bit too close, Hotch puts himself in their space and forces them to back off with a growl alone. Only once did another Alpha challenge him, the LEO clearly too young to understand how badly he was about to lose against the experienced Alpha. It ended with a hospital visit, but not for Hotch (poor young buck).

When the whole Reaper thing starts, Foyet watches how Hotch acts around Reid. They aren't mated, not bonded, but the flirting is obvious to anyone who's watching closely. Which, Foyet is. A lot of touching, feeding each other (Hotch isn't the only one courting and proving his worth; Reid is trying to show how much of a good Omega he can be by bringing food and water to Hotch when the Alpha forgets to eat), and a lot of shared glances. Foyet even noticed how, during the scene where Hotch gets upset outside of the bus of slaughtered people-- Foyet's address numbers written in blood on the windows-- Reid is the one to calm him down by allowing the Alpha to scent him, his nose buried in the crook of his neck.

Ah. A weakness. Good.

The night when Hotch would have gone home alone to end up face-to-face with Foyet, Reid ended up following him. He wanted to tell Hotch that he's ready to make it official. The courting can come to an end; it's been a few months now, and he's ready.

But instead of a night of planning a future together, Reid walks into a gun being held against his head. Hotch is standing in the kitchen, hands raised in surrender, growling as his eyes flash dangerously red, but he can't move. Foyet is standing behind Reid, using him as a shield, a wicked grin on his face as he pushes the gun into Reid's temple. He leans forward and inhales the scent of fear that is radiating off of the Omega. "This is my favorite part," he rumbles, licking his lips and watching Hotch's reaction.

Hotch is snarling, fingers twitching as he holds himself back from just going feral on Foyet. "Leave him alone. You want me, remember?"

"Why can't I have you both?" Foyet asks, twisting the gun a little and making Reid whimper. "I bet he screams so pretty."

The next thing Hotch remembers (because things happened so quickly) is he's tied to a chair, watching Foyet straddle Reid, the other Alpha rumbling happily as he traces his knife along each one of the Omega's ribs, grinning as Reid whines and whimpers. He tried to talk his way out of it, like with Hardwicke, but nothing he would say seemed to make any difference. Foyet just patted his cheek with the side of the knife, grin never faltering, "Quiet little Omega. You need to save your strength."

Hotch tries to fight back, to pull against his restraints, growling and threatening Foyet. "Get off him. Get off him or I will make your life a living hell!"

Foyet fucking giggles. Then plunges the knife into Reid's chest, giving it a little twist when the Omega cries out in pain, tears springing to his eyes as he tries to fight back. The Alpha leans down and licks at the blood that is bubbling up from the new wound.

Hotch sees red.

But there's nothing he can do. But watch. As The Reaper stabs his precious Omega over and over again, sliding that knife in so agonizingly slowly, giggling like a maniac as Reid slowly stops fighting back. The blood is pooling on the floor, staining the carpet a permanent crimson red- and staining Hotch's mind with images of his Omega's death.

Eventually, Reid's eyes slip closed, even as Hotch cries out to him, "Spencer--Spencer please open your eyes! Look at me, don't look at him, look at me!"

Foyet hums, tapping Reid's face again to see if he can rouse him. "Huh. Weak Omega. I was hoping he'd last a little longer. At least long enough to watch me do the same to you."

Hotch feels defeated, staring at Reid's chest intently. Is he breathing? Is his chest moving at all, or is he imagining it because he wants to see it so badly?

In the silence of the apartment, he hears it. The raspy breathing of his Omega, the smallest whimper when Foyet climbs off of him.

He's alive. But he won't be for long if I don't get him out of here.

[rexeipts]

Monday morning rewatch thoughts:

I am in my feels, very angry at this episode.

Annie had little to no story so skipping her this time around.

Ruby & Stan:

- Stanimal trying to get the girls to strike was great, and I want to see him (not Beth) run the strip club so bad. I hope that is the storyline they take us down.

- Ruby and Stan once again are king and queen of communication. These two are such an excellent example of healthy and happy marriage.

- Ruby biting a lime at Stan’s replacement gave me life in the montage

Beth & Dean:

That’s who Beth gets paired with this week. Dean. Not Rio. Because that’s how mad I am at her.

- Dean on the bike ride scene was once again far too long and wasted precious screen time. I forced myself not to fast forward through that scene. And you know what I noticed? Dean literally compares being sexually assaulted in prison to being someone’s wife on a honeymoon and being forced to have a baby put inside you. Because that is how Dean sees his fucking wife and marriage. Literal other convicts sexually assaulting someone in prison is like them thinking you’re their wife on a honey moon. Let that fucking sink in. And no, I don’t think that was intentional characterization by the writers. That is just existing as a metaphor these writers chose to use while trying to continue a Dean redemption arc.

- Dean leaving the hot tub when the other guys were shitting on Beth for being a buzz kill was an attempt at showing “growth”. But it’s not. It’s fucking table stakes. See above mention of non consensual sex being like a wife.

- How Beth does not realize this is another of dean’s idiotic schemes and poor money decisions is beyond me.

- I am relieved only in that Beth looked upset after getting Rio arrested this time. Good. Be upset. You had a choice. I’m so mad at Beth right now. I’m honestly starting to think she deserves Dean.

- Beth, honestly you think Rio would hurt your kids? Then why turn him in? You’re so scared of him then why risk it? Choosing him would have meant protecting your kids if you look at it factually, he threatened your family if you turned him in. Like she’s just dumb at this point? The writers have characterized her as dumb. Did she conveniently forget season 1 when he got out? I mean for real? Do these writers even watch previous seasons?

- Beth being with Dean literally undermines all feminism about the show. I have said that before and will say it again. Dean is a cancer on this show’s fun. Pun intended.

- Beth uses her sweet housewife voice on Nick. Literally everyone but Rio. And she literally flirts with Nick. You’re literally married Beth. Divorce Dean before you flirt with yet another person.

Rio & Nick:

- Baby Rio looked like Rio I thought. Him drawing a boxer was heart breaking. Because he literally wanted that his entire life. The last flashback scene made it seem like he wanted it for money. Nick tells him he doesn’t need boxing because they have a way to get money now, but Rio literally wanted boxing from childhood. And Nick ripped that away from him. Nick gave him no choice. Not because he wanted him to learn a lesson, because he wanted to use him. Rio is Nick’s designated fall guy.

- Rio = good egg, Nick bad, better be fucking FORESHADOWING FOR RIO GETTING SOMETHING NICE FINALLY THIS SEASON. At least the writers told us that pretty openly.

- The champ champ champ now all makes sense

- Who is Rio’s coach and can we please have a cheesy storyline where the coach is the only one to ever be on his side

- What is he having them print for? The girls point it out like why does he need all of that?

- Him telling Beth he does need her? No he doesn’t. That was actually a very sweet line. The way he looked at her, he’s in love with her guys. Like his face said yes I need you because I can’t seem to give you up. He doesn’t need her for money. It’s unfortunate they chose to dirty it up with him threatening her family.

- Rio grows from the ashes. He is the designated fall guy who rises from the ashes to be untouchable. Hence Phoenix I guess. Sure.

- I actually like Nick being in the show. First because I’m mad at Beth. But mostly because he is the only character introducing a new dynamic. He is the only thing that’s not repetitive. The only fresh storyline. And he’s already making her talk about Rio. But also, would it fucking kill either of them to say the man’s damn name? But also I like the actor and think he’s pleasant to look at on screen, sue me.

- Oh look, Nick, another man telling Beth Rio is too dangerous for her when she LITERALLY SHOT HIM. Do you all REALIZE SHE IS NOT A DELICATE FUCKING LAMB.

- I am no longer convinced that Rio had a plan all this time, not after rewatching the car scene. It seems like Rio was ready to kill her, mostly because he doesn’t know another choice, and Nick pointed out the obvious. Unless Rio is playing Nick. But truth be told, Rio threatening her family was ooc. And I’m holding on to the fact that he said family, aka Dean Annie Ruby who he has threatened before, and she took it to mean kids. I’m also holding on to the fact that Rio puts on masks. He puts on cold gang banger mask, he tries to manipulate and find new ways to incentivize beth. If you look at it that way, as him trying to get her to choose him rather than a plot of trying to get her to turn him in, it’s heartbreaking. He is so desperate to get her to pick him he literally pulled out his final option. His only remaining incentive that he hasn’t tried on her. EDIT: UNLESS Rio is playing Nick too. Because now? SS trusts Beth. And Nick trusts Rio. Nick thinks Rio and Beth aren’t on the same side. That Beth turned Rio in and Rio’s murderous over it. And Rio can use Beth to take Nick down without Nick seeing them coming. I hope they’re going for that. Because that would be genius. And would really be Rio 100 steps ahead, and would make the whole episode make sense in terms of his characterization.

- The arrest scene was heart breaking. The complete betrayal in his eyes was so sad. As others have stated, choosing to slam him on a table, while yes it is realistic to how he would likely be treated in the real world, was not necessary. He wasn’t resisting and was literally just standing there. Idk why the writers feel the need to be “realistic” in some moments and not in others. Poor choice. But what I did appreciate was him staring at Beth. Like she was forced to face him this time. With his face shoved against a table while she stands there being cuffed gently. She did that. She didn’t see him arrested on tv. She didn’t run away after shooting him. She had to stand there in his gaze looking at the betrayal on his face. Good. I’m sorry but she deserved it. She needs to face the damn consequences of her actions. Sorry I’m upset with her RN.

- At this point I believe Rio is in love with Beth. And it seems the writers are actually pushing metaphors and moments that make us sympathize with Rio and see Nick as the bad guy. I do think Beth will eventually get there/realize her feelings for Rio later this season but it might be too little too late. Time will tell.

Promo/Thoughts going forward:

- I like Phoebe and don’t mind her being around

- Rio and Beth on a bench again is good news to me. On the same bench.

- Idk if it’s a time jump but Rio comes in with a fresh hair cut, new wardrobe, and a tan looking like he just had a hot girl summer and is feeling great, over his ex, and is ready to fuck shit up.

- I want to see Rio remind Beth that she betrayed him personally. I want her to have to face that. It’s not just she betrayed him professionally. I want to see him reject her, I want to see her flirt or bat her lashes at him and him to be like nope sorry. Just for a minute though like just one episode lol. And only because I think it will make her realize her feelings for him.

- Beth and Rio v Nick please. Just give us something fucking new.

- These writers had an amazing path they could have gone down of the housewife partnering with a gang banger. It would have been fun, plenty of comedic gold available, and plenty of options for conflict between them and with external forces. And instead they chose this. I feel sometimes like this show would have been way better if it wasn’t on NBC. This story, this chemistry, belonged with writers who would realize its potential. That’s what I find disappointing.

[carebohe]

*

Ted Lasso Theory- POSSIBLE SPOILERS

I think Nora, Sassy’s daughter, Rebecca’s godchild, is Rupert’s biological child.

Right before Rebecca opens the door in episode 7 she says “speak of the devil” not knowing that Sassy is there. If everything in Ted Lasso is on purpose, then everything is on purpose- and that joke, written in a script would read even more on purpose than it appears on screen.

Something like:

Rebecca: Speak of the devil...

[She opens the door to reveal Sassy.]

Rebecca was married to Rupert for twelve years, Nora is twelve now. They are very clear about both of those things in the show. So adding the nine months on either end for the divorce and the pregnancy- Sassy got pregnant very close to Rebecca’s wedding, or indeed, during Rebecca’s wedding celebration!

Sassy was implied to be drunk the whole wedding weekend. She was the “hit of the weekend”, a phrase that sounds suspiciously like something Rupert would have said to Rebecca after the fact, and that she is now repeating. Clearly it was a HUGE party- Elton John was there?!!

For Rupert, sleeping with the maid of honor would be delicious for him. He’d have gone into that wedding weekend like a normal person enters a hotel room- like “What can I get up to in here?” He saw the opportunity, probably knowing Sassy wouldn’t remember, or if she did would probably never tell Rebecca. What Rupert didn’t expect? Sassy getting pregnant. He probably wouldn’t have given the encounter another thought, because he’s the type of man who knows he can use his money to cover things up if they go badly.

There’s even a joke around the phrase “He said, she said” which is a phrase commonly used in reference to situations like this AND the title of the episode implies another wealthy terrible man who uses women as objects and used the political system of an entire country to bolster his own insecurities.

Flo is her name, she goes with the flow. She’s adventurous and not terribly concerned with the outcome, as we see with Ted. After getting pregnant maybe she didn’t know exactly who Nora’s dad was, but she just assumes it’s Derren- Maybe they are already together, maybe not. She loves Derren and didn’t want to deal with it- but I think it's part of the reason Derren eventually leaves her.

Possibly they were already getting divorced and Derren asks for a paternity test because he’d been getting more and more suspicious as Nora got older. Maybe he’s always known there was a chance but it didn’t matter until they were getting a divorce for child support reasons? Not even sure if Sassy knows who Nora’s dad is yet- but I think she knows it isn’t Derren.

“Saw Derren at a party, he hit on me.”

Derren flirting with Rebecca before mentioning the divorce- why would he do that? Revenge. Derren hitting on Rebecca is him trying to get his own back against Rupert- who he suspects is Nora’s father. If Derren wasn’t *as* drunk as Sassy that weekend, he might look back and think about things that he noticed and arrive at that conclusion. Derren and Rupert clearly treat women as objects when it suits them- i.e. Sassy mentioning that she knows who Keeley is because of Derren.

It's also possible that since their divorces clearly happened around the same time Derren saw that Rupert was in the papers for being a serial adulterer, put everything together and then confronted Sassy about it, leading to their own divorce!

Revenge is the entire plot between Rupert and Rebecca and the arc of having Rebecca in series 3 have to forgive someone something unforgivable would be a fitting ending. So, the opposite version of the ‘I forgive you’ scene from episode 9 might be Rebecca forgiving Sassy.

Rupert has gotten Bex pregnant for revenge. It’s not clear yet if Bex and Rupert are using each other on purpose or casually- but we can see from episode 9 that Rupert is doing it on purpose to ruin Rebecca. He’s an emotional serial killer, he didn’t want a child until he had a use for a child and the purpose of the baby is revenge.

The twist here is that Nora is Rebecca’s *god*daughter- Nora is Rebecca’s ‘spiritual child’. Nora is the child Rebecca was meant to have, not Bex’s child.

Nora has to be important. They bring her up THREE times in that episode, with Keeley even asking who she is at one point so we don’t miss it.

Just before Sassy arrives- Keeley is in shock from something she doesn’t remember doing. They spend the rest of the episode doing things planned around the commercial that Keeley doesn’t remember making. Keeley has no memory of making this embarrassing thing and she has to deal with it. Also, it’s mentioned Sassy is a child psychologist! We didn’t need to know that and it's ironic if the only child in the world she can't help is her own when all this comes out.

ALSO Sassy comes in having stolen Rebecca’s champagne, not knowing it was her champagne. METAPHOR??

The ‘Let it go’ song choice is also perfect here. If Rebecca is Elsa and Sassy is Anna, they are sisters- and Anna is taken advantage of by a pernicious suitor. And their forgiveness towards each other is the resolution of that plot.

Rebecca ultimately gets her revenge through forgiveness.

In the end, it will be important that Rebecca genuinely forgives Sassy to be there for Nora and possibly help Nora financially in the future by making Rupert own up to being Nora’s dad and gets Nora an amount of Rupert’s money in his will?

Rebecca finally knows something BEFORE Rupert does. Rebecca’s ultimate revenge is in private, because she won’t want to affect Nora’s life. But she gets the satisfaction that a significant amount of Rupert’s money will belong, eventually, to her beloved godchild.

In the Gala episode Rebecca says “I was married to a man for twelve years who never took responsibility for [any of his mistakes]”.

I think Nora’s existence is one of his mistakes.

[watching-pictures-move]

Viddying the Nasties #37 | Possession (Zulawski, 1981)

This review contains spoilers.

Andrzej Zulawski's Possession is a movie I'd somewhat been dreading revisiting. When I'd seen it all those years back (on YouTube, split into two parts if I recall correctly, as the DVD had been hard to come by in those days), despite being greatly moved by the experience, I'd also found it an extremely exhausting film to sit through. It's a tortured divorce melodrama (among other things) that starts at 11 and only goes up from there. Lots of shouting and screaming, physical abuse, kicking around chairs and tables. The movie is not what I'd call an overtly pleasant experience. Watching it now (on a Blu-ray from Mondo Vision, a substantial upgrade from my original format), while I won't characterize my previous impressions as inaccurate, I was able to better appreciate how the movie modulates this tone, acclimatizing us to its fraught emotional space. The movie starts off in the realm of a normal, bitter breakup, with the husband having returned from a work trip only to learn that his wife is leaving him and struggling to make sense of it, his frustration and anger stemming as much from the fact of her dissolving their relationship as his inability to comprehend her motivations. It isn't really until the half hour mark that it asks us to dive off the deep end with it. The husband hits his wife in the middle of a fight, follows her onto the street as she tries to halfheartedly throw herself onto the path of a truck, which then drops its baggage in an almost comical bit of stuntwork, their squabble ended when the husband becomes surrounded by children playing soccer and joins in. Any one of these by itself is nothing out of the ordinary, but Zulawski assembles them into an off-kilter crescendo, and does away with any sense of normalcy for the rest of the runtime.

That this approach works as well as it does is largely thanks to Isabelle Adjani as Anna, the wife, who spends the aforementioned scene looking like a vampire in cat eye sunglasses and blood streaming down her grimacing mouth. She delivers perhaps the most bracingly physical performance I've seen in a movie, but again this is something I'd maybe underappreciated initially in terms of how finely tuned her choices are. An early scene where she fights with her husband has her manically cutting raw meat and shoving it into a grinder, as if to channel her frustrations into acceptable form of violence for women. When she takes an electric knife to her throat, she begins to spasm about like a farm animal during a botched slaughter, providing a further comment on her domestic situation. The film's most famous scene has her freak out in a subway tunnel, thrashing her limbs about chaotically but almost rhythmically, maybe like the contractions when goes into labour. Her character later describes this as a miscarriage, ejecting the side of her which is neat and orderly and "good". Adjani plays this other half as well, with a much more old fashioned hairdo (braided conservatively like a stereotypical schoolmarm), one which provides a much more tender maternal figure to the couple's son. Adjani is also well cast because of her emotive, saucer-like eyes, which she isn't afraid to point at the camera repeatedly, providing a genuine emotional grounding during both the quieter and more hysterical sections of the movie.

Her husband, Mark, is played by Sam Neill, who had been cast after the filmmakers had seen him in Gillian Armstrong's My Brilliant Career. To understand why Neill works so well, it helps to know that Sam Waterston had previously expressed interest in the role. Waterston, while a good actor, would have come off too fogeyish as the husband. Neill brings the appropriate edge and even sex appeal necessary for the material. And like in Jurassic Park, his best known role, he brings an inquisitive quality that keeps him close enough to our vantage point to give the narrative arc some grounding. The other major human character here is Heinz Bennent as Heinrich, a new age guru who happens to be having an affair with the wife. One on hand, this character represents the counterculture from Zulawski's homeland, which he had left after trouble from the authorities when making his last movie. On the other hand, Zulawski was drawing heavily from the bitter divorce he had just gone through, and directs a sizable fraction of the movie's contempt at this character, leading me to believe that his wife in fact left him for some new age buffoon. In one of the movie's funnier scenes, he has Heinrich confront Mark over Anna's disappearance and then go into a dumbassed trance while spouting new age nonsense and basically calling Mark a Nazi. This is the guy his wife left him for? This jackass? Mark sets him up by sending him to Anna, knowing full well he could be killed, but the potency of Mark's rage (and Zulawski's, by extension), as well as the ludicrousness of the Heinrich character, keep us from sympathizing with the latter too much. Zulawski has Heinrich die with his head in a toilet, a final flush by Mark serving as one last hilariously mean-spirited gesture of contempt.

Zulawski originally conceived the movie as having another major character, Anna's ex-husband, to be played by veteran actor and director Bernard Wicki, but after the first day of shooting with Wicki, he decided to drop the character entirely. (I suppose it depends on the personalities, but I wonder how actors react to being let go early from a project. Is it worse if it's on the first day? How about if you lead the filmmakers to realize they should do away with the character altogether? I only hope Wicki got paid.) It's not hard to see what purpose this character would have served, particularly in the way that Anna "upgrades" her lovers, having traded a much older man for the younger, sexier Mark, and then trying to replace him with an evolving monstrous fuck-squid (more on this later) that she was trying to nurture and reshape into the ideal partner. The only remnants of this character in the finished film is his young wife, who appears in the climax and his goaded by the "new" Mark (the final form of the fuck-squid) to shoot into the corpses of the real Mark and Anna. The character's proposed thematic purpose might have spelled out this moment's significance more clearly, but I'm not always convinced thematic clarity is preferable to how things move and feel, and the end product does not feel incomplete or incoherent, or at least not detrimentally so. The emotions make sense, even if the events onscreen are outside the norm. (My condolences to those of you who've been dumped for a monstrous fuck-squid.)

Having been conceived after his last project was quashed by authorities in Poland, there's undeniably a political element here, enhanced by the noticeable presence of the Berlin Wall, near which much of the film is situated. (At one point the camera looks out the window and sees the police from East Berlin staring back.) The realities of the Cold War figure heavily in the characters' lives, as it's suggested that Helen (the other Adjani) is from behind the Iron Curtain (she speak of readily identifiable evil, which could be interpreted as the visible presence of an authoritarian regime) and that Mark's work is in the field of intelligence, maybe even espionage. But the movie is less interested in pointing out political specifics than in the accompanying sense of repression and division, which plays heavily into the visual style. The movie often divides its frames to separate the characters, but rarely with any sense of symmetry, suggesting a sense of emotional chaos enhanced by the bruising mixture of wide angle lenses and handheld camerawork. When we're with Mark, the movie looks overcast, bluish grey, appropriately repressed at first, although Anna's presence throws his neat, fluorescently-lit apartment into disarray. Anna's love nest, situated in the Turkish district right beside the Wall is dilapidated and unkempt, which may have reflected the squalid realities of a hastily rented apartment in what I assume is a poorer part of town, but after having excised the orderly part of herself, it seems like an accurately messy reflection of her headspace.

Now back to the fuck-squid. It's hard to go into Possession this day and age completely blind, and even back when I first saw it, it came on my radar as the movie where "Isabelle Adjani fucks a squid". I have a lot of respect for Zulawski for delivering the goods on this front and for Adjani for throwing herself into this material, not because I'm some kind of sexual deviant who gets off on this stuff (although if you are, I'm not here to judge, it's a free country, just clear your browsing history after), but because modern arthouse cinema often defaults to a mode of cold, downplayed and too afraid to raise the audience's pulse (because apparently it's undignified to force a reaction out of the audience) and it's nice to see a movie serve what it says on the tin (this is one I'd have loved to see with an unsuspecting audience back in the day). Producer Marie Laure-Reyre notes that Zulawski was very hands on with the conception of the monster, drawing inspiration from gargoyles in Polish architecture, as if to further imbue political context into the proceedings. When seeing the end product, I can only assume Zulawski broke up with his wife at a seafood restaurant (I would hope he didn't react like Mark and throw around all the tables and chairs). Of course, the design of the monster means that the movie leans heavily into body horror, and its inclusion on the Video Nasty list in the UK and its release in the US in a heavily-trimmed 81-minute version emphasizing these elements likely contributed to its psychotronic reputation early on. (I am still interested in seeking out this cut, as I can't imagine the loss of 40 whole minutes wouldn't substantially alter the film's character.) It flirts with other genres as well. Certain scenes have a clear slapstick quality. Some of these involve Heinrich, the ever-reliable target of the film's ridicule, but there is also Margit Cartensen, playing Anna's friend and Mark-hater Marge, falling on her ass like a Three Stooges bit. And there's the climax, parodying action movies with its woozy cocktail of car chase, shootout and explosions, which leads a headlong rush into the film's apocalyptic final moments.

[hot-mess-choices]

Fixing The Nanny Affair

I’ve had it with this book. I’m not against “naughty” romance novels, but please do them right. I beg you. 

This stuff has been in my brain for a while now so this will be long and messy. 

First up: this isn’t a single LI book anymore. That’s a train wreck of a concept for an app that’s basically an overpriced choose-your-own-adventure book. 

 Who would the LIs be?

Starting with the obvious: Sam, who will remain gender customisable as the “main LI” 

Next is Robin (duh) I’m on the fence regarding their gender but I’d stick with the “whatever gender Sam is” thing. 

Then I’d suggest two entirely new characters:

First addition: An intern at Dalton Enterprise (how this is relevant will follow later on), I’d prefer this character to be female (definitely not to make an all wlw book possible *cough*) but a male intern would also be okay I guess. (Alternatively whichever gender is opposite of the MC)

And 2. *drumroll please* Sam’s wife who’s not dead at all in this new and improved version. ‘Cause that’s how you write about an actual affair Pixleberry, you cowards! I’m so sick of authors using the dead spouse trope without doing anything with it. She deserves to be in this story. However she’d be a “surprise” late entry as it’s important to the story to build tensions. 

Who’s the MC

The MC, gender customisable of course, is still a recent graduate with a degree in chemistry and a passion for science. They do not, however, go to Dalton Enterprise to get a Job as a Nanny, no, they are on their way to interview for an illustrious internship! 

The Story

The story starts of the same. MC has a sexy dream about their (hopefully) new boss, however you get dialogue options to feel very weirded out by that. Not only is that your future boss, they are also happily married as the gossip magazine you browsed the night before suggests. Sam and their wife are a business power couple (think the Beckhams or BrAngelina rip) and get an insane amount of media coverage. 

It comes to MCs attention that they’ve overslept and rush to Dalton Enterprise. A receptionist tell them that they are too late and the position is already taken. Enter Sam and Intern LI who worships the ground Sam walks on and thanks them profoundly for this once in a lifetime opportunity. Sam notices MC and asks if they are the no show, Intern LI takes a light jab at their tardiness; you get the option to flirt with them. (Intern LI is basically something like Jaylen from Platinum or Aurora from OH, but done right and a LI. Rivals to lovers? We love to see it!) Sam asks if MC is still interested in an interview because they might have a position in mind for them. 

The interview is beyond weird with Sam asking for the MC’s thoughts on children, about their living situation etc. Eventually you get to call them out on that and they confess that they only have company funds for one intern and even though the MCs application was a standout and their personal favourite, they can’t hire them. That’s where they propose a compromise: MC becomes their Nanny, as they are in need of one due to recent changes in their personal life, and they get to pay them out of their own pocket. The MC gets the opportunity to work at Dalton Enterprise on the days she doesn’t have to watch the kids.

As you accept you wonder why that is, but don’t dare to question them further as you don’t want to seem ungrateful. That night you come by the apartment to meet the boys, who in this version are a bit more weary of you, but you bond over a chemistry experiment. After they are put to bed you get to the office scene with Sam. You ask when you’ll meet their wife and that’s where you find out what’s really going on here. Sam and their wife are having troubles, severe enough that she packed up and moved out a few months ago. They are trying to work things out but it looks bad. Not only is their personal life affected by this, their relationship is a huge part of their respective public image and even just saying the word divorce out loud makes them see Dalton’s numbers drop into the red. They still keep up appearances, stayed on good terms for the twins but this is just a partnership of convenience by this point and secretly they’re both sick of it. They got married straight out of college, had the twins by their mid-twenties and are approaching their tenth wedding anniversary, the spark’s gone and they crave something new and exciting but are too scared to move on from the known. 

Character Arcs

1. Sam: They are a huge science nerd at heart, they never held big business ambitions and are mostly in it to help improve people’s quality of life. If it were up to them they’d slave away in a lab, happily isolated from the stress of public relations. Years of training went into their suave persona, but deep down they are still an insecure dork. Sam is struggling to adapt to the changes in their life and can’t bring themselves to take that leap of faith and start a new chapter. Their arc would include cutting back at work and focusing on the things they’re passionate about like lab work and spending more time with the twins. With a romanced MC their story would be loaded with tensions of Sam clinging to the past. MC feels like the unfavourable side-piece as long as Sam keeps the facade of their marriage up and the constant threat of their relationship becoming public lingers over everything. In addition there’s the question of Sam’s true motives. Is this just a convenient rebound or more? 

2. The Twins: Mason and Mickey have a hard time dealing with their parents’ separation. Their pranks are more channelled into “parent trapping” them into getting back together. They don’t really understand their parents separation of public and private life and are mostly confused by how hot and cold they are with each other. After their initial scepticism towards MC they see them as a confidant with their problems. MC gets to champion for the twins needs and force Sam and their wife to see how much their behaviour is hurting their kids.

3. Robin: Robin’s been living in Sam’s shadow for all their life and they are so sick of it. Everything they have feels like a constant fight, every snippet of appreciation or recognition is earned through blood, sweat and tears and still not good enough to measure up to their older sibling. They built this careful ‘I don’t care’ façade and have kept it up for all their life. That is until they meet MC. They bond pretty quickly over their struggles to reach unreachable expectations and find a close confidante in one another. Depending on the players choices this will be a friendship or a romance. As Sam’s arc comes to a close with them cutting back at work Robin finally gets to step up and do what they always wanted. They are quick-witted, extroverted, business savvy and well connected. Unrecognised by their father they’ve been the better candidate for the position Sam was in all along.

4. Intern LI: From the get go they aren’t a big fan of the MC. In their eyes, they’ve worked for all the life to get where they are now and feel like the MC was just handed their position. MC and Intern are aware that they are basically two people working a one-person job and are both trying to be the best at it. You get the option to play into this rivalry or make it a team effort. Getting closer you find out that your background isn’t so different after all and that it’s silly to try and hold the other one back. Their love language is still very teasing and snippy but never without an affectionate smile and rare but genuine compliments will come later in the friendship/relationship. A big setback is when they find out that you are living with Sam and they far that that’s an inevitable unfair advantage for you, which it is, but they learn to trust their abilities more than others connections.

5. Sam’s Wife: You’ll first meet her maybe five or six chapters in. Up until then she’s build up to be this perfect, idealised, flawless being. She’s supposedly fearless, fought to be in the position she’s in now, a self-made woman who turns everything she touches into pure gold. As you meet her you are more than intimidated but she’s just pleasant to be around! A ray of sunshine, positive to the bone. You get the option to ask about her and Sam and she sadly has to admit that sometimes people just fall out of love. She tells MC that she needs Sam to move on, so she can move on and nudges them into their direction. Her romance heavily focuses on her fear of leaving Sam behind in her progress but she can’t help her feeling. Her arc in general focuses on recognising Sam and herself as individuals and not two parts of a whole.

This is crazy long already, but just some major events the story would cover:

A company picnic

The ten-year wedding anniversary

A Dalton Enterprise charity gala

Telling Sam’s parents about their future

Insides on the work at Dalton

Time with the twins

 Sorry for the long post, thanks for reading this far!

[aloneeedra]

Start-Up (2020)

Where you can watch it?: Netflix

How many seasons?: 1 (16 episodes)

Rating: 7.7/10

Summary: (mild spoilers) after a parents divorce, two daughters split up, one picking her mother and the other (the main lead) picking her father. In order to get through it, the main lead’s grandmother decides to write the main lead letters under someone eles name taken from a newspaper so she has someone to talk to, and even in lists an orphan boy to help her.

Skip to 15 years later, where the main lead, desperate to prove her sister that picking her dad over her mom was not a mistake, seeks to find her childhood penpal and use him (first male lead) to impress her sister. Of course, the first male lead (who does very much exist) has no idea who she is, but with the help of the orphan boy (second male lead) now all grown up with lots of money and lots of loneliness, he tries to be everything she wants, even if that means lying.

Soon after, the goal changes from prove sister wrong with first male lead to prove sister wrong by becoming ceo of a successful business after a few secrets are reveled. Together (the main lead, the first male lead and a group of friends) compete in Start-Up, a place that can make all their dreams come true, but like everything else, consequences come their way.

Best parts: there are quite a few things I liked about this drama. First, Nam Do-san is adorable. Next, I really appreciate that they did not drag out the misunderstanding like many dramas tend to do. I think the first couple of episodes are absolutely amazing and I would rate those few a 10/10. The humor in those are also hilarious. The backstory made me cry, and I hardly cry at backstories so this is quite impressive. I think the first and second lead make an excellent couple; they are cute. Nice supporting characters. The grandma is great. I really appreciate that they didn’t try to fix everything in the last episode.

Worst part: there’s this thing that happens to me a lot where I start watching a show and the first few episodes are like pure bless, but towards the middle the show seems to burn out, or at least my attention span does. Now, Idk if it’s just me, but I think that in the beginning of the show, the reason why I loved it so much is because I felt close to these characters. As if I could reach them, if that makes sense. Like these are attainable characters, so watching them flirt with each other and overcome challenges was fun. But then, as time went on, there seemed to be more space between I and the characters. Its like before, I had front seats to the screen, but now someone sat in front of me and I couldn’t see the screen so I had to move a couple rows back and then it would happen again and again until I was stuck in the last row.

This show had a time skip. Now, I understand the need for time skips. I understand the need for growth. But before the time skip, I felt I was seating in the second row, but afterwards, I was seating close to the last, questioning if I had somehow ended up in a different theater because these character are kind of not the same.

I kept comparing the ending to My Mister’s ending, asking myself why I found My Mister’s ending so satisfying (since it also had a time skip), while I dislike how clean and neat this one was. I think I found an answer. My Mister’s time skip wasn’t meant to wander. It was short, quick and that made it satisfying. It didn’t overstay it’s welcome. It’s served it’s purpose. Same with Descendants of the Sun, which also had a time skip. The time before was short and had purpose. The time skip in Start-Up, however, was bad. It did linger too long, long enough for me to realize that these were not the same characters I cared about, but not long enough for me to gain attachment to them once again. It was as if they were trying to get me invested in a whole different story. Because both, before and after the time skip, have a lot screen time, it was suppose to win me over twice, but failed the second time. The show got lazy and assumed that I would have those same feelings for those characters, even though now they were completely new to me. They were better versions of themselves, but I didn’t have time to see how. I wasn’t given enough time to compare them. I was simple told to believe it.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, because I didn’t see that change or growth nor was I given enough time to care for the characters after the time skip, when one character pointed out to the other that they have changed a lot, I found myself not buying it, and that itself made me feel less attach to the character so much, that by the time the credits were rolling, I simply shrugged my shoulders and left. It honestly baffles me how I can go from absolutely loving every interaction to being so unbothered by the show being over. Plus, those dragged on moments where the music would play extra loud in the background and having a second male lead with a poor character arc did not help. I was rooting for the second lead for a while there, asking myself if he could possible be the first, but then like every drop of personality was sucked out of him and I really disliked him by the end of the show.

Should you watch it?: Yeah. I still think it’s worth a watch. The ending wasn’t the best, but I still like the drama as a whole.

[ruwithmeguys]

Arrow Season 7 wishlist

I had a season 6 wish-list: about half of them came true.. Sadly, the rest didn’t and there were some really juicy ones.

In no particular order... (I’ll add to this as I go and please be assured; anything I say about characters relates in no way to the actors who portray them)

1) One of he NTA needs to go...

Okay, so this is a dark thought; especially to start off with. But they did this. The writers/creators/producers/executives; they screwed with characters many of us were warming to or flat out loved and forgot how loyal we are to OTA regardless. They FORGOT. I mean, I was very sure they were more attune to their audience than that and we were clearly wrong.

But not in every way. They got a lot right. I’m not holding a grudge; there’s no point. I... have no interest in Rene beyond Zoe, I do NOT like Curtis and Dinah... she shows potential.

But they can’t come back from the clusterfuck of the civil war arc. They can only push forwards. I’m doing the same.

The problem is that, until the majority of us see serious growth, something to keep us/me interested, we’re going to stay in the ‘I don’t give a crap’ squad, which tells me that maybe - just maybe - something huge is going to occur in the first or second episode to make us all spit out our food/drink during the airing of 7.01.

Unfortunately I couldn’t care less that Curtis has a boyfriend or that he’s working with Felicity. People who act likes dicks tend to get the good things in life. Granted he’s suffered: I understood Paul’s reason for divorcing him but his genuine desire to NOT fight for his marriage confused me. This and the fact that he seemed to just exist for a full season (5) made me feel reluctantly sympathetic. Especially when part of his literal reason for existence was to reunite Olicity who didn’t need his help but... that was his thing.

Now? Sympathetic? Not so much. He’s become a massive juvenile, callous and selfish hypocrite that makes us all question his existence on the show. Even his fans.

However, as the sole homosexual character on the show with a love interest, they won’t kill him off. He has zero SL. He very literally has to be joined to Felicity’s, each time. The boyfriend is the only difference. I can’t ‘like’ this person. The man needs to learn humility. He’s become unnecessary enough that he wasn’t even present in the trailer: the ONLY character who wasn’t in it. That’s a bold neon light on the truth right there. Being a judgemental ass is a bad look. 

I don’t have blind faith in Beth but I very much love everything she’s said about S7 so far. I’m giving her the benefit of the doubt THROUGHOUT the season. She’s already proven a better spokeswoman. It’s all good.

Dinah... there’s potential here. Now that she’s finally stepped off her high horse, I’m hoping Oliver’s incarceration will make her question her own horrible choices and what it REALLY means to be a masked vigilante, because she clearly didn’t know in S6. Thankfully, shes actually mentioned this. I don’t need a LI for her this season; that fell flat. Right now, I need her to find purpose that doesn’t make her a hypocritical ‘insert expletive’. 

(I’m a huge fan of love interests occurring when we least expect it: two people that shouldn't fit but do, which is part of the essence of Olicity)

Leaving the civil war arc behind, I still kind of like her. I WANT to like her again. 

Oliver went to prison for them all; surely that should change them all?

She, Rene, Curtis; they have no idea what true heroism means. They’re only in their second/third seasons and they still haven’t been through anything to close to one year of Oliver Queen’s life. 

I’d like to see her find this. And I’d like to see her change and accept responsibility for who she’s chosen to be. It would provide a nice mirror to BS’s viewpoint and actions in season 6.

But Rene... this one is dicey. While he made more headway than the other two, I felt it was partly undeserved. If he wasn’t obnoxious, he was confusing. When eh apologised, he managed to add in a few insults. That kind of, you know... nullifies the apology. But he got away with it. His ‘Hoss’ and ‘Blondie’ have gone dry. Over-dry. His zero care about going against Oliver on trial made his defence fall flat, even when Oliver showed distrust. The only time I liked him, was when he was with Zoe.

If any of them get killed, it will be Rene. I’m not saying it will happen; but IF it does, it’ll be Rene. 

So either... kill Rene or change all of them, because honestly at this point, most of us aren’t here for them.

2) If Felicity isn’t allowed friends, can we get a couple of scenes between her and Dinah or Lyla or both that aren’t all based on their night lives. Give me a few heartfelt moments. Give me something real to believe. Friendship is built; it doesn’t just exist because the writers tell us it does. Show not tell. A mistake made with LL in season 4. 

3) Reunion sex for Oliver and Felicity because, damn if they’ve been deprived. And, why not? I mean, chuck in some hot argument sex, some poignant love affirming sex, some flirty flirt sex, some nude shower scene sex, some epic love reaffirmations; go for it!

They've been put through shit; some of it because of friends. If even ONE friend cock-blocks them, this includes Diggle, they’re on my shit-list.

4) Give Oliver the agency he needs during this prison arc; let us see the process of him falling back into that dark place he started in, S1. Let us see him crawl back upwards without Felicity’s help. 

We know, thanks to Stephen, that Oliver has - in the 5 months since has incarceration - realised his choice was a ‘fucking bad choice’ in terms of what it’s done to Felicity and William. In fact I’d go out on the limb and say he knew that immediately when he got in the cell judging by the dead look in his eyes.

So let’s see him escape prison because this is BEGGING for a break out, and let us see him go to his family, because you know part of the reason he breaks out will be because of THEM. Because he HAS to. Because he’s needed.

Let’s see him and Felicity heal this forced separation, which was, at part, due to him. It was selfless, because he didn’t WANT to. He did it because he thought it was the right thing to do. He’s going to regret it and it’ll hurt to watch in all the best ways.

5) I’d enjoy a scene between Diggle and Felicity which focuses on him being there for her and mentioning that he wasn’t last season.

I’m sorry. I love Dig. But if he’d been there, Oliver might not have gone off on his own.

6) Given that this is a season about redemption, then can all characters be included?

Why? Well...

The theme redemption doesn’t just mean characters finding it, it means characters failing to reach it. People who may realise that it isn’t for them, like BS possibly. Or people who try really hard but can’t and are left devoid.

It involves characters who don’t need redeeming: people like Felicity who, this time, is done with reacting and is going to be proactive. Who deserves nothing but the happiness that has been robbed from her as a woman and as a wife.

It means understanding that redemption isn’t always clear cut and can mean unusual realities occurring.

It means the city, who need to open their eyes to what one man, his wife and his best friend did for their city all these years.

7) Focusing.

I won’t lie: I’m biased, BUT. I’m not wrong when I say Olicity need to be focused on this season. I’m not talking A full season: and there will be plenty of focus apart before they’re together. 

I’m talking time to focus on them as a couple. Separate from them as parents and them as parents, them as friends to others.

This is a normal thing: for a show to focus on a couple that has been put through the mill. I’m guaranteeing it won’t be a lot. 

I do think it will be more than you expect.

I’m highlighting this for a reason. A lot the fandom are under the impression that they get sidelined: Olicity are given quite a bit more screen-time than we think. But some of us notice the lack of other things happening so, those people, rely on more Olicity in order to forget that. Episodes 6.13 - 6.15 come to mind.

Like it or not, they were focused on in season 6. I know Felicity had little story and Oliver was sidelined several times but, sometimes that happens (it happens quite a bit in Felicity’s case). Doesn’t mean we won’r get what Oliver and Felicity NEED in season 7 and onward.

 8) Felicity

I never needed Smoak Tech. 

I just want her to be INVOLVED.

The fact that she’s a) in protective custody living under a different name and looking after William and b) in contact and in actual scenes with Watson, getting more and more INVOLVED (I like this word) with the law whilst committing crime like the ultimate paragon for getting shit done and for being the backbone of (Oliver) heroism in the city and a paradox (a very good person doing the right things by being a cyber badass and vigilante hacker) makes me feel like I’m going to enjoy season 7 already. 

Then we’ll get a prison breakout. Olicity reuniting. Olicity re-acquainting Themistocles with each other through touch, words, sex etc. Re-finding what it means to be a vigilante in eyes of the public will be just as much her mission as Oliver’s.

9) Paying homage

Let’s have tribute to everything Oliver, Felicity and Diggle have done for the past 6 seasons. We’ve had focus on Tommy, on Robert, Moira and LL. They died: none of them needed to.

Robert died to save his son.

Tommy died to save the woman he loved.

Moira died to save her children.

Laurel died because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time and it was reaffirmed in season 6, that it was partly due to her lack of skill and experience, her incredible stubbornness to listen to anyone else’s logic, and her need to reach that high.

They all died, except LL, for love. And all of them had tribute paid to them, some more than others. 

But now that’s over so can due attention be given to what these three have sacrificed over the years? Can we have people see how much Oliver has given to the city, what Felicity has both lost and gone through, the time and effort and heart John has spent on their mission of three?

You don’t have to die to have people recognise the amazing good you’ve done. This isn’t the time of the Renaissance artist: let’s have a little respect paid to the OTA as separate people and as a team of three amazing heroes and as people who have loved each other in many different ways: team mates, partners, friends, family... lovers. Married soul mates. Brothers/comrades in arms.

Let’s have that moment that makes us all glad we’ve been watching for years, where the city, Rene/Dinah/Curtis and the law recognise them.

I’ll probably add to this list.

[kiheons]

someone asked for a sugar mommy au timeline, I realized that this is pretty long so I’m just making a post. This takes place over a few years. If you hate it just hate it, I’m not in the mood for more controversy. 

So this is the most basic timeline for it.

They meet because Vixen, who works for Brianna, brings Aquaria to her new job to just show her what she does

After that they keep running into each other and realize they both frequent a cafe near their workplaces

They start having weekly lunch dates and eventually Brianna starts paying for Aquaria’s meals. Through this they start getting close

Brianna buys Aquaria gifts and stuff and they spend a lot of time together. Brianna has been flirting with Aquaria since like day 2 and Aquaria thinks she’s gorgeous so there’s a lot of sexual tension

Aquaria is struggling to pay rent one month and has to ask Vixen if she can borrow some money. Vixen, who actually finally has some money, still can’t lend Aquaria that much. Brianna overhears and offers to pay Aquaria’s rent

It becomes a regular thing and now Brianna is paying Aquaria’s rent, buying her food, they’re spending a ton of time together and Vixen makes a joke that Brianna is like Aquaria’s sugar momma or something and that’s kinda where it starts

At some point, after weeks of sexual tension Aquaria says fuck it and kisses Brianna

They start dating and it’s fun, sexy and Brianna takes care of Aquaria

Eventually Aquaria just moves in with Brianna but she insists on paying rent and buying her own stuff

Aquaria calls Brianna mommy accidentally one day and that’s where the mommy kink starts

As time passes Aquaria learns more about who Brianna is and what exactly she does.

This entire time they’re having a lot of great freaky sex and Aquaria is very open with Brianna but Brianna is not the same. Aquaria can tell that Brianna is still very much guarded She learns that Brianna is divorced and that she’s still quite close with Bob. Aquaria can’t help but feel jealous. Brianna realizes that Aquaria feels this way and reassures her that while she and Bob are on good terms they’d never get back together for a multitude of reasons

Aquaria is working her ass off at her job, Brianna goes abroad a lot and they both miss each other a ton so Brianna promises her that she’ll make it a priority to spend time with Aquaria

This is what is the initial motivator to take Aquaria with her to these large meetings/parties

Aquaria is pretty nervous about it at first because it’s a lot of powerful people but Brianna is almost a different person at these events. She always looks like she’s ready to go to war and she’s fiercely protective of Aquaria

Aquaria starts going to more and more of these and people start expecting her to be there. Aquaria herself is super busy so it’s difficult for her to go to all but she likes being with Brianna so she does.

At this point Aquaria has become decently engrained in Brianna’s professional life and it starts a tension where Brianna thinks Aquaria is too immature because she doesn’t conduct herself in the same straight laced manner that Brianna does

It becomes a point of tension that escalates into an ongoing issue. Brianna is then expected to attend a dinner with Aquaria but she has a meeting beforehand. She asks Aquaria to go ahead, Aquaria doesn’t want to, and therefore the scene with Aquaria showing up in that skimpy dress happens

After that incident Aquaria really sees what Brianna is capable of and it scares her a little

Monet warns Brianna that she has to be careful. Aquaria must never feel like she has to do something or that she’s scared of Brianna or else Brianna is just as bad as everyone she has to work with.

They are still dating, Aquaria’s job becomes high pressure and Brianna’s revenge on multiple members of this elite group for bothering Aquaria paints a target on her back. All of a sudden she’s being pressured by all sorts of people and it’s incredibly stressful.

They have a huge fight that results in Aquaria walking out and breaking up with Brianna. Brianna insists to herself that it’s nothing and Aquaria will be back. Aquaria goes to Katelyn and the two decide to go to Brianna’s office and talk to her.

Brianna, who’s already barely hanging on by a thread life wise, has security drag them both out of the building. This results in Vixen coming into Brianna’s office and quitting angrily and Katelyn, Monet and Bob blocking Brianna’s number and refusing to talk to her.

This begins what is essentially the Kameron arc. Throughout the fic Kameron has been mentioned before as a head of a tech company and one of the few people that Brianna can actually stand. However, the two of them have a huge rivalry because if either of their companies collapse they each stand to gain the most.

Aquaria says fuck it to Brianna and decides she’s gonna move on. She goes out, casually hooks up and eventually goes to this one bar and runs into a very hot, tattooed girl. On the flip side Brianna, who’s solution to deal with her girlfriend leaving her, her friends refusing to talk to her and her life falling apart, is drinking until she forgets, happens to be at the same bar.

She sees Aquaria dancing with and kissing Kameron of all people and is immediately pissed off. At this point she’s had a few drinks and isn’t in the greatest state of mind so she comes up to Kameron and asks why Kameron is dancing with her girlfriend.

Aquaria snaps that they aren’t dating and she’s not Brianna’s girlfriend and Kameron, who sees an opportunity to fuck with Brianna, says if Aquaria’s single she can take her home

This results in Brianna trying to punch Kameron and Aquaria steps in without even thinking about it, telling Brianna that if she gets into a drunken bar fight her public image will tank. Aquaria gives Kameron her number and drags Brianna outside to call her driver.

It’s the first time in the time that she’s know Brianna that Aquaria genuinely thinks Brianna is just pathetic and sad looking and Aquaria can’t help but feel bad for her. Aquaria takes Brianna home, sleeps the night in the guest room because she doesn’t want to leave Brianna alone overnight and leaves early in the morning before Brianna wakes up

Kameron, who does think that Aquaria is cute, asks Aquaria out on a date. They go on a few and Kameron quickly realizes that Aquaria still loves Brianna. Kameron mentions this to Aquaria but Aquaria brushes it off and insists that she’s over Brianna.

One day they decide to go on a lunch date. Kameron decides the place and it happens to be the cafe that Brianna and Aquaria used to frequent. Kameron says that she likes Aquaria but Aquaria is clearly not over Brianna and this is honestly kind of weird. Kameron is curious about what happened, Aquaria says it doesn’t matter, all that matters is that she tried to talk to Brianna and Brianna kicked both her and Katelyn out of her building.

It’s around this moment that Brianna walks in with a client and by the time they notice each other it’s too late for Brianna to leave without making a scene. Aquaria refuses to leave out of sheer pettiness. The whole thing is awkward and uncomfortable. At some point Aquaria leaves to use the bathroom and Kameron decides to talk to Brianna.

Tells her that “hey I don’t know what you did or what you and Aquaria’s relationship was like. I really didn’t pay that much attention. But she’s a real catch and she still cares about you so whatever you did you should try and fix it cause someone is gonna come and try and sweep her away and that someone is me.”

Brianna tells her that it’s none of her business and Kameron is like “well it is my business after you tried to drunkenly punch me in a club a few weeks ago cause I was dancing with your girl. Oh wait, I guess she’s not your girl anymore. How unfortunate.”

This time Brianna does actually manage to punch Kameron in the face. Aquaria comes out of the bathroom to find Brianna literally being held back by her client while Kameron gets tissues for her bloody nose. Aquaria is absolutely furious and tells Brianna that they’re over, and that it’s not Brianna’s business if she’s dating Kameron or not.

The client is also furious but Kameron says it’s fine. Turns out Brianna was meeting with a rep for a subsidiary of Kameron’s company. This pisses Brianna off even more but the cafe owner says that if this escalates all of them are permanently banned so she leaves it as is.

Thus begins Brianna’s hell of seeing Kameron, who are previously never been interested in all these fancy parties and meetings, suddenly show up to every single one, all with Aquaria. Aquaria hangs off Kameron’s arm, laughs at every bad joke and seems deadset on making Brianna’s life even worse.

People start talking because Kameron ‘stole’ Brianna’s girlfriend and everyone knows they’re rivals. Brianna is asked if she’s going to do anything about it. It’s bad enough that her company is being targeted but all of a sudden it’s also her personal life.

Aquaria herself is also a lot more comfortable at these things. Over the few she attended with Brianna she got to know people and now people come up to her to talk to her specifically. She’s starting to build a network of people who are interested in her. She also likes that Kameron doesn’t care at all what she does, Kameron isn’t protective of her at all.

Kameron can tell Aquaria doesn’t like her, Aquaria can also kind of tell the same but this is her opportunity for revenge and she’s going to take it. She asks Kameron is she can call her mommy at these events. The first time Brianna hears it, because Aquaria does it shamelessly, she slams her utensils down and storms out of the event.

Brianna starts a downward spiral. Every time Aquaria sees her she looks just a little bit worse. Brianna is chain smoking which Aquaria has never seen her do before, she’s not nearly as personable and she goes from being one of the best dressed to showing up in something that barely makes the dress code. Aquaria, who was previously having fun fucking with Brianna, can now see that Brianna is straight up going off the rails.

At one point Brianna asks Kameron for a light like 6 times and Kameron just gives her the lighter and Aquaria is pissed. She asks Kameron why she would do that, can’t she tell that Brianna is gonna chain smoke herself to death? Kameron tells Aquaria that no one cares. Literally no one in this room except Aquaria cares about Brianna’s health. Everyone stands to benefit from Brianna going crazy and losing control of her company. If she wants someone to help Brianna she’ll have to do it herself.

Kameron also reminds Aquaria that’s she’s making headway in her own life. People are wondering if she’ll start her own fashion house and she’s getting attention from big names. Does she really want to put her time and energy into trying to save Brianna.

Aquaria decides that no. She doesn’t. She starts focusing on her own career, breaks up with Kameron and Kameron isn’t surprised because she knew that they were never anything to start with. During this arc Aquaria leaves Alaska’s company and starts working for Violet’s company. Immediately she’s getting requests to design for big names that she knows personally and she delivers. Brianna is in the back of her mind and Aquaria throws herself into work so she doesn’t have to think about how much she misses Brianna.

Brianna’s situation gets worse and worse. She hates herself for what she did, she misses Aquaria so fucking much, but it’s clear to her that Aquaria really has moved on. Katelyn unblocked her but she never talks to Brianna. Brianna’s own mom called her about Aquaria and told Brianna to get it together. She lost the one person she actually cared about cause she wanted to be stupid and a know it all so the solution is work until you drop and that’s exactly what happens. Brianna overworks herself and collapses during a company meeting. She’s sent to the hospital, the media gets a hold of what’s happening and that’s how Aquaria finds out what happened.

Aquaria is absolutely terrified cause when she sees on the news that Brianna is in the hospital she assumes the worst. She decides this has gone far enough and there’s too much left unsaid between the two of them. She admits to herself that she still has feelings for Brianna. The staff won’t let her into Brianna’s room so she borrows Katelyn’s keys and goes to wait at Brianna’s apartment.

It’s been like 8 months since she’s been here but it looks exactly the same. Brianna hasn’t changed anything. Like, seriously, there’s still closet space for Aquaria, there’s 2 bags of the coffee Aquaria drinks in a cabinet, the plant Aquaria bought when she first moved in is still in the corner. The only difference is that there’s ash trays everywhere and Aquaria is pretty sure if Brianna didn’t have a cleaner this place would be a complete mess.

When Brianna comes home Aquaria actually gets a good look at her after a while and realizes that Brianna looks like a disaster. She looks absolutely drained and miserable and Aquaria feels her heart break. When Brianna asks what she’s doing here Aquaria says that she doesn’t want to leave things like this. She still cares about Brianna, she never really stopped. Dating Kameron was fun but it that’s all it was. There was nothing else there. She still loves Brianna but she knows Brianna probably doesn’t feel the same anymore. Still, she wants them to be on good terms.

Brianna, on the other hand, completely loses it. She tells Aquaria that she regrets everything, she’s been through the fight hundreds of times thinking about all the things she could have done differently. She hates that it took her as long as it did to realize it but by the time she did she had already lost Aquaria. Apologies won’t do it justice. Over the past few months Aquaria’s opinion of Brianna has changed. She no longer sees Brianna as the person she did at first. She says that if Brianna wants to, if she’s willing to give it another try, Aquaria wants to get back together.

They do and Brianna starts getting her life back together. She starts talking to Monet, Bob and Katelyn again, she stops smoking nearly as much. However something has changed. Before Brianna was very much protective of Aquaria cause Aquaria seemed naive. Aquaria now is leaving the apartment with a suitcase and when Brianna asks where she’s going Aquaria says she has a fitting for the Korean president’s wife and she’ll be back in a few days. She’s almost unrecognizable and Brianna realizes just how much she missed in the few months they were apart.

Aquaria will go with Brianna to meetings and break off because she has her own business to attend to. She starts buying Brianna gifts and talking to her about this amazing restaurant she went to in Switzerland that they have to try next time and Brianna is in awe. It seems like overnight Aquaria grew. She’s started calling Brianna mommy again but the dynamic has shifted.

Brianna on the other hand is trying to do better. She decides to see a therapist cause she knows she has a lot of issues. Self acceptance and self love are hard things for her but she’s trying.

They have a small fight about how Brianna doesn’t trust Aquaria even now and that Aquaria always loved Brianna more than Brianna loved her. Brianna admits that she’s scared to trust people and it’s an issue that’s been around since she was a child. Aquaria asks her to at least try and Brianna does.

It’s been about a year since they broke up and got back together and Aquaria leaves Violet’s company to start her own. All of a sudden she’s on the same level as Brianna and Brianna is happy for her. Aquaria has grown a lot since they first met. Aquaria is not happy. She’s still not at the level she wants to be so she keeps working.

They go through a period of domestic bliss. Brianna’s doing a lot better, she’s open and vulnerable with Aquaria, it’s a lot less onesided than it was when they first met. Brianna let Aquaria call her mommy when Aquaria fucks her. Aquaria is doing amazing things with her brand.

Aquaria isn’t happy with where she is. She’s seen what Brianna can do and she’s not there yet. Before it was whatever but now they’re operating on the same level. Aquaria knows if she doesn’t tighten up her defenses she’ll get eaten. She’s young, she grew fast, she doesn’t have the same base that Brianna and a lot of other people do. Either she’s out for blood or she’ll be destroyed.

She’s out for blood. Aquaria isn’t concerned with playing dirty. As long as her hands are clean at the end of it and she gets to where she wants it’s okay. Brianna eventually starts noticing this and she’s concerned. Aquaria reminds Brianna too much of herself at a young age. Except Brianna wasn’t in charge of a large fashion house then. Aquaria is becoming someone Brianna can’t recognize and it scares her.

When she confront Aquaria about it Aquaria doesn’t want to hear it. She accuses Brianna of trying to bring her down just as she’s beginning to succeed. They have another fight and Aquaria says that she can’t be around Brianna right now. They don’t break up but Aquaria immediately travels abroad. They don’t see each other for nearly 2 months and Brianna is seriously concerned. She tries to figure out what Aquaria is up to through her contacts but realizes Aquaria has an iron defense. It’s almost worse than Brianna’s. Brianna has no idea what she’s doing.

Aquaria comes back and they head to a party. Brianna finishes her conversation and goes to find Aquaria only to overhear Aquaria joking about how it would be a first if a fashion house bought out a biomedical company. Brianna leaves immediately, spends the next three days going over all the company finances and confronts Aquaria about it. Aquaria says it was a joke, Brianna is overreacting and that she’s never do that. Brianna says that she has spent months working to be open and trusting with Aquaria and now Aquaria is joking about buying Brianna out? This is the one reason Brianna has never trusted anyone. She thought she could trust Aquaria but can she really?

Aquaria tells her that she’s being paranoid but Brianna points out that Aquaria literally bought out a cotton company. She can’t tell who she’s dating anymore and Brianna doesn’t want to be with someone who will step over anyone and everyone to get what she wants. Aquaria tells her that’s how one survives here and when Brianna uses herself as an example Aquaria says that’s funny because you nearly destroyed yourself and your company until I stepped in and pulled you out of your own head.

Brianna is understandably extremely hurt. She tells Aquaria to get out and not come back until she resembles the woman Brianna loves. Aquaria says fine, Brianna is dragging her down and she doesn’t need that in her life. It’s so similar to their big fight but it’s almost like the roles are reversed. Brianna is scared of Aquaria for the first time in her life.

They spend four months apart. Brianna hopes desperately that Aquaria will come to her senses and realize the path she’s on. Aquaria ignores her texts and calls. Vixen is freaked out too and she tells Brianna to talk to Aquaria. Brianna tells Vixen that she’s tried. Brianna sees Aquaria at events. At one point they’re in a conversation with a few other people. Someone in arms asks Aquaria about her production and Aquaria says that she takes care to make sure those who work under her are cared for. The guy she’s talking to laughs and says Aquaria is naive. Switch your production. There’s a lot of countries where child labor is easy and cheap. It’ll cut your costs. Brianna, you should really do the same. I’ve been telling you for years. I know someone who will help you cover if you’re concerned about public backlash. 

Aquaria looking absolutely horrified. She glances at Brianna and Brianna just looks tired. Brianna catches her eye and squeezes Aquaria’s hand and that’s when Aquaria realizes what Brianna was so worried about. Aquaria quickly runs through everything she’s done so far and none of it is to that extent but she’s gone full speed ahead, easily bought out smaller companies, fired people that she thought were a hindrance to her success. Brianna was right.

Aquaria realizes that there’s no way she can reach the level at which some of these individuals operate without exploiting others. She doesn’t want to do that. She asks Brianna about it later, freaking out a little and Brianna just looks sad. “Aquaria I don’t know how to tell you but I’m nothing compared to people like that. If you want enough power to topple full governments you have to hurt others. I don’t want that. I don’t want you to do that either.”

Aquaria comes back to her senses. She comes home for the first time in months. This time they’re actually a united front. Basically the power couple of the world. Aquaria stands equal to Brianna and Brianna trusts Aquaria to do that. It ends there but there’s a epilogue where they get married.

[firesofdainix]

Lloyd one days finds Misako and Wu 'flirting' starts to cry and run to his dad. He tells him that mom is probably cheating on him with his brother and much to Lloyd's confusion Garmadon was only like, "ugh, didn't I tell them to keep it normal in front of the kids?!" And turns out Wu and Misako’s friendship is boundless to society's perception of what platonic relationships are. Lloyd is just as done as Kai once everything about their teacher starts to make sense.

OKAY I AM BETTING ON THE EXTREME FACT THAT MOST OF WU’S BREAK UPS WERE BECAUSE NO ONE CAN UNDERSTAND HOW HE ACTS WITH FRIENDS AND ROMANTIC LOVERS. They break up with him because he thought he cheated and then turns out he was just telling the waiter to go and give them more sauce. He got broken up in front of a KFC 💔💔💔. Wu is bad at differentiating his platonic and romantic attraction through words and gestures, but you can CLEARLY see it in his eyes <3333

PLEASE NOT THE LIBBER IS THE CHICKEN AU. Imagine finding out your husband cheated on you with your friend is crushing, but said friend didn't even know it was Cliff. And he kept on swooning over him. When she got turned into a chicken she stayed with Wu and while she did despise him initially over being the reason why she and Cliff divorced (or should I say, Clouse) she is very petty and really likes making a lot of shenanigans happen during the house. But she grew to sympathize with Wu and provided him comfort as she now makes fun of the ninja. Although she went CRAZY over the part where Wu and Clouse announced they were married. Libber the Chicken became exceedingly hostile and won't stop shocking Clouse, and Clouse is aware who the manic chicken is.

Wu: what's the main course of our wedding banquet, baby girl

Clouse: *eyeing Libber* what about chicken

Jay unfortunately is screaming and is trying to crash the wedding. Libber encourages her son but Clouse almost turned Jay into a chicken to get his mouth sealed. In this alternative universe Jay's the one to become a villain because not only did Wu love his dad he also loved h worst enemies possible. Nya is resigned to it and Kai is just happy to find Wu not in love with his parents.

Kai being an asshole just so he can save himself from calling Wu some form of paternity title is SENDING me. This entire season could've been avoided if Wu told Kai he hates the concept of marriage (and that's the reason why most his relationships went DOWN) early on before Kai goes through his villain arc. He definitely saw the red flags in the significant other but he thought that Wu could control them, so he gave Wu some meaningless advice when it comes to toxic relationships and fed Wu the fear of being alone and lonely for the rest of his life.

Kai when he returns to the present: finally! The world is right for once and there is nothing but Wu’s stable-

*everyone is screaming while his limbs are becoming transparent*

Kai: oh balls I may be in over my head

HELP ME are the villains waiting for Wu to be done with the whole edgy evil gimmick phase before striking??? I'm imagining them waiting in an invisible lounge and talking and acknowledging how shitty Wu’s relationship is.

Garmadon: we need to stop my brother. If I see the bastard who told him to stay with that asshole I will pummel him.

Kai, sweating: ahahahaha protective over your brother much???

Okay thanks to this CURSED THREAD I'm making a Villain Wu design. Spoiler alert he's red and gold themed over all with edgy broken hearts and a big flowy cape because he deserves it. He also has like the WORST villain nickname. Both he and Garmadon can be 'bad at names' together. Wu is like the opposite of Garmadon’s original motivation in which he wants to carve weird ass broken hearts in Ninjago land because his relationship with his bf is unstable and he NEEDS to relieve some stress. Also he made all chocolate exclusive to him and his a-hole boyfriend. When Kai comes back Wu immediately has him captured and thanks him for the shitty advice, which definitely made Kai guilty over his decisions.

I love the idea of Lovebound being a cool title! I'm now thinking his bf was like every kind of controlling person, and Kai and Wu learning to let go, to break up, and to accept those feelings weren't love. And Kai learns that relationships, specifically romantic ones, come and go, and he just couldn't pick and choose for Wu. I agree that this would be SUCH a good topic for kids. In a more... child friendly way, pffff

Kai: I realized.... that even though Wu’s libertine fame is shameful for me as a student, it's also a part of our life.

Nya: Kai are you alright? You were staring at the wall two minutes ago.

The Mailman and Wu had a friendship, but unfortunately, for all his lovers, he simply isn't Wu’s type. F for Mailman. Nadakhan and Delara were definitely his type, I mean, bad boys and pirates combined to one??? JACKPOT for Wu

You have convinced me that Wu's a manwhore. I seen people make Garmadon the manwhore, but it's more hilarious with Wu. The FSM would get a headache whenever Wu brings a guy home.

I mean... it's true, right? I just think Garmadon is socially awkward or bad at maintaining romantic relationships because of the venom and him only being perceived as charismatic. Wu on the other hand has a different problem, while I think he's a little socially incumbent (not as good as Garmadon when it comes to speaking about his feelings or, you know, INFORMATION) he's good with people. He's good with making people fall for him. That's how good he was.

However, for me personally, Garmadon may have few relationships far in-between, but the way it ends was peaceful, with neither side holding a grudge or some depression. Wu, in the meanwhile, his relationships would start REALLY good... and then it comes crashing and burning down when his love either suggest something he didn't want to commit in or he's starting to overthink the entirety of his relationship.

But yeah, FSM would get so mad and exasperated that his youngest son brings tons of his girlfriends/boyfriends/partners home. Thanks to how bad Wu can't hold down a relationship he brings a different person home every week or so.

I just like the personal gag that the ninjas, along with Wu, encounter one of his exes. It's funny to imagine.