#was there a gas leak in the writers room. did they come up with the plot using chatgpt. what the hell happened this season.

[lesbiannebonny]

wow the last three episodes of arcane certainly were episodes

[ageingfangirl2]

You Can't Hurt Me! Haruchiyo Sanzu (Tokyo Revengers)

You work in a coffee shop, another day of being bored and fake smiling at customers, until a pink-haired man comes crashing through the window and meets his match. Sanzu x Reader (Bonten Timeline)

'Only two more hours until I can close this place,' you mutter under your breath, leaning on the counter with your hands on your face.

Your eyes roam lazily over the scattered handful of customers in the coffee shop. A loved-up couple in the corner huddled together whispering and blushing, a few businessmen and women tapping away at their phones, and a wannabe writer who practically lives here. All day everyday just like you, you think gloomily.

Still leaning on one hand, you tap your fingers on your other hand impatiently on the counter, musing over ways you could close the shop early for the day. You had three options that sprung to mind; one, you could make up an excuse about a gas leak since the building down the road had one a month ago, two, act crazy so everyone leaves and you potentially get fired, or three, bide your time patiently so you earn every dime of your paycheck.

You decide on option three, blowing out a loud sigh. You needed the money, you couldn't afford to lose this job in the current economy. Making coffee wasn't your ideal life, the job wasn't that hard, it just got boring in the late afternoon when the crowds thinned and you were left to your own devices.

You pick up the rag over your shoulder, deciding to wipe the counter down one more time when a loud crash startles you and snaps you out of your thoughts.

A man quite literally comes flying through the window, sending glass shards across the room, luckily there were no customers in those window seats. Customers scream in terror, as the man, bloodied and bruised rises to his feet, but unlike everyone else, you weren't terrified because things just got interesting.

As if he knew you were watching him, his eyes snap in your direction, his gaze fierce and piercing. You could see why people would be scared of him because he had interesting scars around his mouth and screamed 'mafia' vibes. But right now all you could think about was how you had another mess to clean up and your boss wasn't going to be happy.

'Will you stop dripping blood all over my clean floors?' you ask, voice monotone as you meet his gaze.

He growls, his voice dark and dripping with menace, 'Excuse me?'

'I just mopped,' you reply, and stand up straight, stretching to work out some kinks in your back from leaning over.

He reaches around his back, pulls a gun from the waistband of his trousers and points it directly at you, a wicked grin creeping onto his lips. At this point what few customers had stayed to gawk flee from the shop leaving the two of you alone.

You stare him down as he chuckles, 'It's just the two of us now.'

You nod, 'Great, I was looking for an excuse to close early.'

His grin wavers. He tries to take a step towards you but staggers backwards, wincing. Whatever fight he'd been in, it was catching up to him, 'quick. Help dress my wounds.'

He waves his gun at you with shaky hands, 'or I'll shoot you dead.'

You clear your throat and raise a single eyebrow, 'only if you ask me nicely sir.'

His eyes widen in shock, probably not used to being spoken back to, 'What did you say?'

You sigh loudly again, imagining being anywhere but here right now, 'did your hearing get damaged when you came crashing through the window?'

'NO!' He snaps.

You motion behind him towards the front door, 'Come on, then. Walk outside, and enter with a better attitude. I'll treat your wounds, but you have to be respectful.'

Confusion, anger and something else flash across his face while you watch him with disinterest.

'Who do you think you are? Telling me what to do,' he waves his gun at you again as he speaks.

Your tiredness turns into anger, 'and who the hell do you think you are? If you don't want to bleed out, you need to...ask...me...nicely.'

He stares at you, his mouth agape, speechless. Then he grits his teeth, 'Fine. Will you please kindly help me with my wounds?'

You smile a little, 'there, was that so hard?'

You pull out the first aid kit from under the counter and walk around the counter holding it in front of you as you carefully approach him. You reach out to pull off his suit jacket, but he flinches away.

'What are you doing?' he gasps.

You roll your eyes, 'I need to be able to see the wounds to treat them.'

He blinks a couple of times, realisation dawning on his face, 'Oh, right...go ahead...'

You extend your hand again slowly as if he were a dangerous animal that might bite. This time he lets you help him out of his jacket which you place over the back of a nearby chair, while he winces.

You let him remove his waistcoat, tie and shirt which was bloodied. It was a lot to take in coming face to face with his bare chest, he was in good physical shape. You'd think he was carved out of stone if it wasn't for the warmth that came off his body reminding you he was human. You quickly tell your brain to get out of the gutter with dirty thoughts, seeing the amount of blood on his chest, there was a lot of it.

The main wound was on his right ribcage, and looked like someone had stabbed him, but he had other cuts and gashes across his arms, and even his face, but some of those could have been from being thrown through a glass window.

You take a deep breath, 'let me guess, I'd hate to see the other guy?'

'Other guys,' he grumbles

You pull out a disinfectant wipe and dab at the cut on his face just to the left of one of his scars.

'FUCK YOU! OW!!!' he shouts.

You pull the wipe back in surrender, 'sorry, sorry,' you mumble, 'I should have warned you that this might sting a little.'

He grunts, and you move back in to dab the cut with a much more gentle touch, 'do you have to?'

You bite your lip, trying to hold back your laughter, he's awfully scared for a tough guy, 'if it gets infected, it's going to hurt a whole lot more.'

You try to quickly clean the smaller cuts and gashes not wanting him to lash out at you because he couldn't handle a little pain. After throwing out the bloody wipes, you unroll the bandage and start to tackle the deeper wound on his ribcage. He grunts and grimaces as you wrap the bandage tighter and tighter around his body.

'You really should go to the hospital, looks like this might need stitches,' you observe, as you wrap, noticing some blood seeping through.

He huffs, 'I couldn't care less about how I look.'

You stop your work and pull back looking at him with your own grin. His perfectly styled pink hair and smart clothes, all screamed I care, 'sure you don't.'

You cut the excess bandage and tape it down, 'how did you get into this mess if you don't mind me asking.'

He eyes you suspiciously, 'what do you care?'

You shrug your shoulders, 'Call me curious. Maybe I'd like to avoid ending up in a similar situation if it isn't safe around here anymore.'

He scoffs, trust me, I don't think you need to worry about that.'

You match his scoff, 'why not?'

He eyes you up and down smirking, 'You don't seem the type to get into trouble.'

You chew your lip, weighing up his words, 'Is that a compliment or an insult?'

He shrugs, 'You decide.'

You smile and puff out your chest proudly, 'compliment then.'

You watch him put his shirt back on along with the waistcoat which he leaves open, before slowly and carefully putting his jacket back on with the tie now in the pocket. When he's done you take a step back and finally take in the messy scene around you, 'now you can help me clean this place up.'

His mouth hangs open, 'you want me to what?'

You motion around you at the broken glass and blood, 'Clean up. Look at the mess you made. I've had a long day...a long week... and an even longer year.'

You slump down into a nearby chair, suddenly feeling the full weight of your exhaustion after the small adrenaline rush.

He shakes his head, 'do you think I care?'

You click your tongue, 'I don't know. I don't care.'

His brows furrow together, 'why aren't you afraid of me?'

You shrug a shoulder, 'I'm too tired to be afraid of you right now.'

He squints at you, curiosity in his eyes, 'You should be terrified of me. You should be begging me to spare your life.'

He prowls towards you, wearing a menacing grin, 'Don't you know who I am? Don't you know who I work for?'

'Enlighten me then,' you reply, back in your monotone voice from before.

His eyes narrow to snake-like slits as he takes in your bored expression, 'I'm one the most powerful and dangerous men you'll ever meet. I'm Haruchiyo Sanzu.'

You blink a couple of times, you couldn't care less who he thought he was, you hadn't heard his name before or even seen him around his area before.

He fingers the gun which was back in his waistband, 'I could hurt you so bad. You'd wish you were dead.'

You roll your eyes which you'd done a lot during this encounter, 'Sanzu, is it? I work in customer service. You can't hurt me in any way that matters.'

He looks frozen, almost like a deer in headlights. You manage to make yourself stand up and take off your apron which had his blood on and fling it on the table ready to call it a night.

'You--You don't--' he stammers, and this time when he eyes you up and down there's something different in his eyes, like he's seeing you for the first time.

You put your hands on your hips, ready to hand back any crap he decided to throw your way, 'What?'

He looks flustered, and he can't stop staring at you so you continue speaking, 'What? Spit it out. I don't have all night.'

As you step around him he manages to speak, 'You look better than this place, that's all. You don't belong here.'

You look down at your feet, suddenly very aware of yourself. You try to keep the heat from showing on your cheeks at his genuine words. He was the first person other than yourself who'd told you that you were better than this place.

'What do you mean by that?' you ask.

'It was meant as a compliment, geeze you're annoying,' he snaps back.

You pout, 'didn't sound like one with your tone is all.'

You flip the sign on the door from 'OPEN' to 'CLOSED' before heading back behind the counter to retrieve the brush and pan along with the mop bucket, ignoring Sanzu, though you could feel his eyes on you.

'Well, uh...I guess I'll be going then,' he says.

You glance over your shoulder at him to see he is checking out the name tag on your apron, '...nice name.'

You slap your hand down on the counter, at least pay for a coffee, you've done enough damage.'

He continues to stare at you with the same shocked expression, that seems to have a begrudging respect undertone, you guess he'd never come across somebody quite like you.

'Okay, fine,' he says calmly, and approaches the counter taking his wallet out of his back pocket instead of the gun.'

'Err...wh-what do you want?' you stutter, not expecting him to take up your offer or even pay.

'Surprise me,' he replies, a lazy smirk on his lips.

He knew he was affecting you, maybe getting the upper hand on you after your attitude towards him earlier. So you decide to make him the simplest drink, not just because you are lazy, but because you think it suits him.

'Double espresso, black,' you call out, putting the drink in front of him.

He picks it up and sips it, his eyes sparkling at you over the cup's rim. He doesn't make any noise of approval or disapproval. Instead, he passes a crisp one hundred across the counter towards you, 'Keep the change.'

You gape at him, staring at the money, as he swiftly finishes the drink and throws the takeaway cup in the bin next to the counter. Wordlessly, he struts out of the shop with his head held high, leaving you with the mess he'd made.

[mythandlaur]

Code: July Day 8 - Sissi

Yeah now I'm just flat out going out of order because I don't have the energy to fight my whims just to stay chronological and I've wanted to write this one for a bit

While rewatching this episode it struck me there wasn't actually an RTTP at the end of it everyone involved still remembers the very last take. It was almost definitely a plot hole/writer oversight/meant to happen but cut for time/implied but I just leaned back and went "well. that could've been a problem."

...

"...Elizabeth?"

Sissi grunts, screwing her eyes shut and mashing her face deeper into the pillow. Her head is pounding, her eyes sting, and all of her limbs feel like lead--she definitely slept wrong and doesn't feel like dealing with this right now. "It's Sissi," she mumbles.

"Elizabeth, it's me."

Her eyes shoot open. Oh. Oh, that's her father's voice.

What's he doing in her room?

...Why isn't this her bed?

Sissi gasps and sits up so fast she nearly bowls over her father, who'd been leaning over her. She looks around in a panic--this isn't her room at all it's the infirmary she can see Yolanda rifling through a cabinet in the back why is she--

A wave of dizziness sends her back to the bed with a groan, and she squints her eyes practically shut as the pain behind her eyes turns sharp.

Her father returns to leaning over her with that same worried, tired (he's always tired) look, and she feels him gripping her wrist. "Please, don't strain yourself."

"Wh-what am I doing here," Sissi croaks. Her throat feels raw, like she's been screaming.

"You were passed out in the boiler room," Yolanda supplies, crossing the room and sticking a cold plastic device on Sissi's finger. "Stern came to get me, and I called Mr. Delmas."

"Ulrich...?" Her heart jumps for a moment (so he did care, at least a little!) but then the memories start trickling back, posing a bigger concern. "Wait--he was there, I remember! He was...he said..." The harder she tries to think about it, the worse her head gets, and she whines quietly instead of finishing the sentence.

"...Her oxygen levels are fine, and her blood pressure's evened out." Yolanda takes the device off of Sissi's finger. "Nothing seems to be wrong. Elizabeth, dear, when was the last time you ate something?"

Sissi doesn't even think to protest the name, because now that she thinks about it...she really doesn't know. "I...the last thing I remember is getting up this morning..."

That's not entirely true--it's bits and pieces, like a half-remembered nightmare, except was it really a nightmare if she felt like she could fly, with more energy than she's ever had? If she had that kind of power, Ulrich's club would have to listen to her, she wouldn't need the stupid--

Another gasp. "Daddy? Where's my Walkman?"

"Hm?" He looks a bit baffled at the question. "Oh, it seemed to have fallen. It's completely destroyed--I'll get you another one?"

"No!" The wail antagonizes Sissi's raw throat, but she doesn't care, trying to sit up again (and this time wisely leaning on the pillows for support). "Th-there was a minidisc in there I'd recorded on--I was gonna tell you--I heard Jeremie and Aelita talking in the hall last night and he was going on about how she wasn't really Aelita Stones and she wasn't even a human and--"

Her father sighs, shaking his head. "Yolanda, has anyone else come in lately babbling like this? I should get the pipes in the dormitory building checked..."

"No, sir, no more than usual. I think it's a good idea, but if there was a leak in the building, more kids would--"

"It wasn't a gas leak, Daddy, it was real!" She pounds her fists into the bed. "I heard it! I had proof! They were gonna tell me everything!"

"Elizabeth..."

Her father squeezes her wrist and she grinds her teeth because she doesn't want him to comfort her right now she wants him to listen to believe her she wants to cry angry tears because she'd been so close and what had happened and why had she been in the boiler room with a pipe standing over Ulrich like a maniac and why had he been so NICE to her when her head had gotten funny and she'd slumped to the floor and--

She doesn't resist when he gently pushes her shoulder until she's back down into a horizontal position. She shuts her eyes tight again, trying to keep her lip from wobbling and the rock in her throat from getting out and it's like her whole body's been wrung out like an old towel.

She feels his hand brush her hair away from her forehead. "I have to go now." Because he's busy, he's always busy, he's always been busy-- "Be good for Yolanda, all right? We can talk when you've had some time to recover."

"I love you, Daddy," she whimpers.

"I love you too, sweetheart."

He leans down to kiss her on the forehead, and it loosens the knot in her stomach just a bit, even as she hears his shoes clicking away from her.

...

There's a knock on the door. Yolanda glances over from where she'd been examining her shelves of supplies. "Come in?"

It had only been a few minutes since her father had left, but Sissi was wide awake now, and already starting to hate being in the infirmary for seemingly nothing. But...her head's still hurting, she's still kind of dizzy, and the last thing she wants is to fall on her face in front of half the school. She's sitting up now, crossing her arms and staring at the door as it's cracked open.

"Um...is Sissi still here?"

Her eyes widen, and she sits up straighter. "Ulrich?!"

"Hi." Peeking around the door, he gives that awkward, crooked little grin of his, along with a tiny wave. When Yolanda nods at him, he opens the door fully and steps inside, one hand in his jacket pocket. "I wanted to see how you were doing."

"Oh, I-I'm fine now." She immediately feels her stomach doing flips because he's talking to her, oh god, and with his voice so soft like that, get a hold of yourself. Something about his gaze cuts through her, though, and she ducks her chin a bit. "...My head hurts a little."

"I can imagine," he says, with a huff that's almost-just-barely a laugh. He glances over to Yolanda. "Can I talk to her for a sec?"

Yolanda nods. "I have to go and get a few things out of storage, actually. Make sure she stays in bed? I don't want her falling."

"Sure thing, Doc."

Ulrich gives her a cheeky little mock-salute and Sissi has to swallow a giggle that would definitely make her look stupid. Yolanda takes another few seconds to write a list, then leaves, shutting the door gently behind her.

Ulrich watches her go, then turns his gaze back on Sissi with an intensity that nearly stops her heart. His face is suddenly all harsh edges and seriousness as he leans on the side of her bed.

"I mean it, Sissi, how do you feel? Anything you can tell me."

"U-uh...Well, like I said, my head hurts, and I'm dizzy, just a bit...and my arms feel kinda..."

"Yeah?"

"...kinda like they're loaded with weights." Sissi winces, lifting her arm and stretching out her finger. "And now that you mention it, my shoulders ache pretty bad."

"What about your eyes?"

"They're a little stingy, I guess...?" She bites her lip. "Ulrich, what happened? I remember you were in the boiler room with me..."

"You don't remember anything else?"

"The last thing I remember is my alarm going off this morning."

Ulrich stands up straight, looking away from her and staring into the wall hard enough to burn a hole in it. She wonders, moreso than usual, just what's going on in his head.

"...Forget it," Ulrich mutters eventually.

Sissi blinks. "What?"

"It--you were just following me around, tripped down the boiler room stairs, it wasn't much of a thing."

Sissi doesn't want to feel it, not at him, but anger bubbles up in her chest. She sucks in a sharp breath through her nose. Does he think she's stupid? "You're lying," she says. "Why did I have that pipe? Why were you on the ground?"

"I said forget it, I don't know what you're talking about." Ulrich turns away from her completely, stuffing both hands deep into his jacket pocket.

She bristles, but when she speaks, her voice is terribly small. "You...you know what actually happened to me, don't you? I know what I saw."

Ulrich huffs, marching towards the door. Her fists clench.

"Ulrich! Just what is going on?!"

"See if I help save you again next time," she hears him grumble, before he disappears out of the infirmary--too fast for her to ask what he meant by that.

Sissi groans, flopping back onto the bed. He knows. There's no way he doesn't know. And she knows she wasn't imagining that scene in the boiler room. So why won't he tell her anything? Why is he keeping so many secrets? She's only kind of tolerating all of it because it's him and she wants to keep talking to him, and--

And there's something in her chest, an envy so easy to mistake for the other kind eating at her that she forgets it's there most days, but she feels it when she really looks at him and his club. A sort of...regret, a longing, an opportunity wasted, please let's talk this out, please let me explain, I only wanted to help you, I thought you were going to die and when people are in danger you tell the adults and they fix it why is what I did so wrong why won't you why--

"Elizabeth?"

Sissi startles. She hadn't even heard Yolanda come back in. "Yeah?" It comes out a little too snappy, and she realizes her whole body is stiff as a board.

Yolanda raises an eyebrow. "What's the matter? Did Stern agitate you?"

"Stern always agitates me," she mutters, closing her eyes again.

[w00wzerz]

~The Grayson orbit 🥺💙~

(All that matters in Titans season 3 ep 8)

I have so much to touch on in such little time! So let’s jump right into it shall we?

Kory has got it bad… and I mean bad - bad. From the very moment that her beautifully long legs strutted into the room, her eyes were locked solely on Dick and his polished ensemble. I adore how she harbors a keen eye for the little things - like when she hands her husband a napkin to wipe the crumbs from his mouth.

Dick on the other hand, is simply that - a Dick. Comparatively in this scene where he takes a bite out of his sandwich - the man wants to have his cake snd eat it too!

He is handsomely dressed down in a black suit, his hair slicked back ever so evenly as it glistens the reflection of the dimmed lights in the room. He has plans for a “date” to a gala with Barbara 🙄 but remains at home shooting his pearly white smile and puppy eyes over to an ever so smitten Koriand’r. Gosh this man makes my blood boil.

Now moving on to the next “it” couple of the season! Let me also be clear that I might just be a grand wizard for the amount of accuracy in my thesis of Kom and Conner’s sex life here.

This scene was so HOT! 🥵 I almost found myself stripping right along with them! Lmfaoo that might be a stretch however, despite how entrapped I am by these two love birds - I find it incredibly hard to root for them in the long run.

Who knows what Kom actually has in store for the Titans? And by the way she was so adamant-on her stance of “no second chances” I believe that the writers are probably foreshadowing her role in the soon to come, ultimate betrayal of the team.

Now lets shift our focus onto Dick and the interesting dynamics with Tim.

For starters, can we all appreciate how incredibly smart and persistent my baby Tim is / was in this episode! He had to let Dick know that he WILL not be gaslighted like an idiot. He even got the job done quicker than Dick did in a day 🥴

Personally I believe that once Tim requested to be the new Robin, Dick instantly felt an emotional pull to him, similar to his connection with Jason. However, that chapter has long been shut. Who would’ve thought that Jason would be the first page huh?

Can Tim replace Jason and be the better Robin? In my personal opinion based on the comics - I think so.

Once Tim is shot by Crane, the writers choose to immediately highlight the parallel between Dick and himself. Tim’s impulsiveness, persistency, and determination is the blatant exemplification of the old Dick and his strive. This theory becomes evident when Dick suddenly pictures himself in Tim’s place.

This could also be another foreshadow of Tim’s new spot within the Titans as this particular moment could evoke the parent within Dick and cause him to take Tim in - with the sole intention of keeping him safe and growing the family. Along with his other stray kids Conner, Rachel and Gar.

After Dick discusses the deal with the team that he made with Jason to have him turn in Crane and return home, he ultimately enters extremely hot waters. For many reasons, one being that he made the selfish decision without including his family AGAIN - and two because his hard headed nature just simply will not allow him to listen to anyone!

Once Dick makes a decision, there is no getting through to him. Even as Kory tries to reason with him and call out his BS, he inevitably blows her off - clearly displaying that her words went in though one ear and straight out the other.

I am also really not a fan of the route that the writers have chosen to take these two. They barely have more than 2 scenes together in an episode and they never remain in the same damn room together for more than 2 seconds! They just said screw Dickkory and ALL of their fans huh?

However in the clip Kory brings forth the ultimate one liner from Bruce “be a better batman.” She also highlights that there is a clear distinction in that term, in other words, there is a Batman who kills in cold blood and one who does not.

Kory’s breakdown of the line also properly touches base on the symbolism that ran rampant throughout the last few minutes of the episode. The eminence of fire and water, good and evil. They both cause major destruction however, one is intentional and the other is just simply erratic.

This points out that even some humans with the intention to do good, may ultimately gain an evil label. Kory using her powers to accidentally leak Crane’s gas into the water drain of every civilian in Gotham, will be the prime example of this.

The next step in the Titans future will be as rocky as ever, but with each new step also brings about new beginnings. Hopefully a Wanted title will be enough to wake them up!

But thats all I have for this week’s analysis! I have full hope that Tim will survive because he is my little baby of courseee, anyways see ya next week 💕

[adxmparriish]

sirens in the beat of your heart - read on ao3

writer: lizziebxnnet / godgavemelou words: 3510 rating: explicit

As Jude’s hands grab Cardan’s face, cradling him between her palms, the pounding on the door rattles her nerves. She can hear them trying to pry it open. They only have a few moments.

“Everything is going to be fine,” Jude assures him. It feels ridiculous coming from her mouth, with the alarms blaring and the door on the brink of being busted down. She knows she’s right, though. She can feel it.

OR an AU where Jude and Cardan rob a bank.

I'm tagging a few blogs I tagged for Folktober! If you enjoy please reblog and share <3 @jurdanhell @jurdannet @slightlyrebelliouswriter23 @clockworkgraystairs​ 

---

As the alarm rings loudly inside the Southern Standard Bank, Jude thinks to herself, We’ve really done it this time.

There is endless shouting and random popping coming from behind her as she sprints down the hall, her shoes pounding the marble floor. Her breath is ragged, her heart is racing, and she prays to a God she doesn’t believe in that she can get to the vault in time. The long red wig she’s wearing keeps getting in her eyes and her mouth, and she brushes it back again as she makes her way to where she needs to go. Another pop and a bullet wizzes past her shoulder. The cops are narrowing in on her.

She counts the doors as she runs. One, two, three, four, until she reaches the eighth, kicking it in and slamming it behind her when she’s safely inside. Someone’s desk sits abandoned, and quickly she realizes it’s owner is knocked out cold underneath it, his hands tied behind his back. Jude lets out a relieved breath. She quickly moves, throwing all her weight into moving the desk in front of the door. It won’t hold the police long, but hopefully long enough so she can get out of here.

Right as she’s positioning the desk, fists begin to pound the hard steel of the door. They’re all shouting, their words mixing together. She does her best to ignore them, moving away from the door and into the vault that’s standing wide-open, fluorescent lights bleeding into the room.

“We’ve got company!” Jude shouts into the vault before she enters.

“The bags are full, we just need to get to the underground.”

Jude sees Cardan kneeling on the floor, zipping up two duffel bags. He hasn’t packed up all the money, nowhere close, but it’s enough to keep them going for a long time, years probably, and that’s enough. Cardan’s blonde wig sticks to his forehead with sweat, his hands shaky as he finishes his work. After all their years of robbing, it’s never gotten easier on him. Sure, they mostly steal from smaller places, just enough to get by for a few weeks. Robbing a well-known bank… well, it’s certainly new for both of them.

Jude kneels beside him, grabbing a handle of her bag, before looking him in the eyes. He’s so nervous and scared, it bleeds into all his features. Jude is scared too, every inch of her lit up with nerves, but she keeps it together. For Cardan, she can do that. They need this.

“Give me the plan,” she demands, hoping it’ll calm him down to talk to her.

“There’s a door behind the vault that leads to an underground tunnel. We are going to take it all the way to the end, where the car is waiting. Then we ditch the disguises, and drive as far south as we can.” Cardan exhales shakily.

As Jude’s hands grab Cardan’s face, cradling him between her palms, the pounding on the door rattles her nerves. She can hear them trying to pry it open. They only have a few moments.

“Everything is going to be fine,” Jude assures him. It feels ridiculous coming from her mouth, with the alarms blaring and the door on the brink of being busted down. She knows she’s right, though. She can feel it.

Cardan’s inky eyes look misty, but he nods. His hands grab his own bag, shouldering it as they stand. Jude puts her own on as well, and quickly they move to the hidden door behind the massive vault. When they’re both inside the passageway, the door separating them from the police finally crashes open. Quickly, they slam the door, Cardan pulling out a chain from his own bag. 

He hands it to Jude and her hands fumble as she wraps it around the handles, finally snapping the heavy duty lock. The snap of it rattles them both, and at once they begin to run. Jude’s hand finds Cardan’s as they sprint through the tunnels, the low yellow of the emergency lights their only companion. 

Jude has studied the map of the tunnels Vivi stole for her a thousand times. She knows they don’t have long to go. The curves are winding and narrow, but only a mile or so away from the bank. It’s eerie as they run, the only sounds being their feet on the concrete and their ragged breathing. Cardan’s hand is sweaty, his fingers struggling to keep hold on hers as they grow tired. The bag of money on her shoulder slams against her thigh every time she takes a step.

Finally, when Jude is pretty sure she can’t run another minute, the dim light of the outside shines underneath another door at the end of the tunnel. They slow down when they reach it, Cardan putting his ear to the metal to listen. They’re quiet for a few moments before he smiles wide, the first bit of happiness Jude has seen on his face in days.

“No sirens, no nothing. I think we’re clear.”

They open the door and light blinds them, the afternoon sun blazing down brightly. Their car sits exactly where Vivi parked it, a beat up old Honda she bought with cash a few weeks ago. They move with haste, opening the trunk and finding their new clothes. They change behind the car, discarding their other clothes and their wigs. Jude wraps them in a trash bag before throwing them in the trunk and closing it. They’ll discard everything later - now, time is of the essence. Cardan climbs in the driver’s seat, Jude next to him, and they both take a deep breath.

“Remember Cardan, we want to go slow. We don’t want to look suspicious. They don’t know about this car, if we aren’t here when they get here, they won’t find us.”

“Got it,” he says, fingers shaking as he tries to start the ignition.

Jude grabs his hand, squeezing his fingers tightly. Her own hand threatens to tremble but she can’t let it take over. Not right now.

“Baby, we can do this. We are almost done, and then we don’t have to worry again. Not for a long time. Maybe not ever.”

Cardan’s eyes find her own and his breathing is shallow as he tries to stay calm.

“We can do this,” he repeats back to her. Jude grins. He doesn’t look completely sure, but regardless, his fingers finally turn the key and the car starts.

Slowly but surely, they pull out of the alley. They leave the radio off, listening closely as they edge on to the street, heading to the highway. Jude can hear sirens, but the sound is distant. They must still be back at the bank. They move at the speed limit, keeping their eyes peeled, but so far, they don’t see anything suspicious. They aren’t being followed.

The few minutes it takes to get the highway seem to drag on forever, Jude’s leg shaking as anxiety pricks at her. Cardan’s own hands tremble on the steering wheel. They don’t say a word to each other as they drive. Right before they need to turn on to the highway, they get stopped by a red light. Of course, Jude thinks.

The car is stifling, so Jude rolls her window down. Only a little longer before they truly get away. Only a couple miles of interstate before they can find some back roads and get lost, head south, completely start over. She has to fight a smile from breaking over her features. If only the damn red light could turn green.

Then, like a sledgehammer to the heart, she hears more sirens. They start to grow louder, and the light isn’t changing. They can’t run the red without looking suspicious, and Cardan looks over at her, his eyes wide and terrified. Her own breathing grows stuttered and she looks in her side mirror, trying to find the blue and red lights. How did they find them already? There weren’t any cars around them. 

“What do we do, Jude?” Cardan asks, his knuckles white as he grips the wheel.

“If they’ve found us, we have to go as fast as we can. Hit the gas and go. Don’t stop for anything.” Jude’s voice quivers, but she tries to hide it. They were so close, she really thought they were going to get away.

Like a gift from the Heavens, the light finally turns green but they can’t move, as the car in front of them hasn’t. Jude fights the urge to scream as they remain still, the sirens growing louder in her ears. They need to move, and quickly.

A few more seconds tick by and Cardan’s fist pounds on the dashboard, shaking the car. Jude jumps in her seat, her nerves shot.

“What the fuck is going on?”

Finally, at the same time, they see it. An ambulance flies through the intersection, the lights and siren blaring as they go. They watch it go by, mouths hanging open, not even noticing the car in front of them has finally gone on. Someone behind them honks their horn and finally, Cardan moves, taking their exit and merging onto the highway. 

When their tires hit the black of the asphalt, the long expanse of road that will take them south, Cardan’s lips break into a smile that overtakes his entire face. A laugh erupts from his chest, and Jude can’t help herself but to do the same, giggles overtaking her quickly as she finally realizes they made it. They fucking did it.

Tears leak from Jude’s eyes as she laughs, her cheeks beginning to hurt from it. One of Cardan’s hands finds her own, gripping it tight over the center console as they drive. 

“I can’t believe we mistook the sirens for cops and didn’t recognize them as an ambulance,” Jude says when her laughs finally calm down.

“I was a little busy shitting myself from robbing the biggest bank in the area, Jude. I had more important things on my mind than the sound of a siren.” His words hold no malice as he speaks, but Jude knows he’s telling the truth. He’s been worried for weeks about this going wrong.

“I told you we could do it,” she says. His reply is a smirk, and she takes it.

In about twenty miles, they pull off the highway, merging on to a smaller one. It’s quieter, less police presence, and it goes for hundreds of miles. They plan to take it as far as they can. Cardan finally gets the nerve to turn on the radio, and the only station he can find is playing old country music. He rolls his eyes but settles there, turning it up enough to drown out the noise of the car.

Jude’s hair whips in the wind coming from her lowered window, as does Cardan’s. When she looks at him, the afternoon glow of the sun lighting up his features, her heart aches. They’ve been through so much together. Living on the streets, stealing here and there to eat, to live. When they met in college, everything had seemed destined to be perfect. Years later, when student debt, no job offers, and no opportunity greeted them, they did what they could to survive. It hasn’t been easy, but they’ve made it and that’s what matters. She can’t imagine doing any of it without him.

Jude rotates in her seat, her head leaned against the headrest, so she can watch Cardan drive. This reminds her of their first date, both of them barely nineteen, driving to a local diner at golden hour. She smiles at the memory, at him, and he notices, glancing over at her with an eyebrow cocked.

“What’s going through that devious brain of yours?” he wonders.

“Nothing,” she replies. She glances at the clock on the dash, noticing it will be getting dark in a few hours.

“We should try to find somewhere to stay tonight. We can grab food, a room, and think about where we want to head.”

--

Stacks of twenty dollar bills and abandoned take-out boxes lay all across the floor of the motel room. Jude and Cardan sit with the stacks surrounding them, slowly counting everything they have. They move the money from one pile to another, Jude jotting down the numbers on the little notepad provided by the motel. When their last stack is accounted for, Jude does a tally and almost cries when she sees the final number.

“Well? How much is it?” Cardan asks, leaning over the look at the notepad.

Tears collect in Jude’s eyes, her voice cracking as she speaks.

“There’s almost 2 million here.”

Cardan snatches the paper, eyes grazing over the tally again, ensuring she’s correct. Jude’s heart hammers in her chest as she takes it all in. As Cardan double checks, his eyes grow wider.

Finally, Cardan glances up at her, a breathtaking smile causing her heart to skip a beat.

He laughs, wrapping his arms around her neck and they tumble to the floor, knocking over the pile of money, the stacks cascading all around them. His breath warms her neck as he laughs, and her hands find his hair, tears falling from her eyes as she does. 

“We fucking did it,” she murmurs. All of the struggles, the pain, the fights, the bad luck. It’s gone. They’ll never want for another thing again.

“We did,” Cardan replies.

He lifts his head from her neck and moves to kiss her, his lips sliding over her own. She deepens it immediately, clutching at his inky black hair and pulling it hard. He groans into her mouth as she does. Desire pools inside her, making her want more, more, more.

A stack digs into her back as they kiss and suddenly, an idea pops into her head. Reluctantly, she moves away from him. Cardan frowns.

Jude sits up, grabbing a few of the bundles and ripping off the paper strap holding them together. He watches as she scatters the money on their queen bed and suddenly his eyes light up, mischief dancing in the darkness of them.

“My sweet villain,” he says, coming up behind her and wrapping his arms around her waist. Jude grins wickedly.

As the last bill floats to the sheets, she spins them and pushes Cardan down to the mattress. All around him is the money they stole, wrapping around him like a blanket and she smiles so wide, she’s afraid her face might crack.

“Haven’t you ever wanted to fuck on a pile of cash?” she asks, leaning down to remove Cardan’s t-shirt. The milky white of his skin taunts her and she runs her hands over his chest, nails making tiny red lines as she does.

“Of course,” he replies, doing his part to remove Jude’s own clothes. “Just never thought we’d have the chance.”

“We can do it every day for the rest of our lives,” she replies, her jeans finally coming off as she does. 

“As long as I’m with you, I’d be ready and willing.”

Jude captures Cardan’s lips, kissing him fiercely at his words. She finally gets his pants removed after a few minutes, their inability to stop kissing causing some slowness. Jude goes to move her hand between Cardan’s thighs but he beats her to it, his own hand sneaking it’s way into her underwear. She gasps as he finds the small bundle of nerves, his middle finger caressing it carefully.

Jude’s head falls to Cardan’s shoulder as he plays with her slowly, teasingly. Every once in a while he’ll dip a finger inside her, making her cry out, before withdrawing it again. A warmth builds in her belly and before she can ask him to, Cardan dips two fingers in, his thumb rubbing furiously at her clit. It’s like he can read her gasps, the way her breath hitches in her throat. He knows her like their favorite song.

Jude bites her lip and grips the sheets, bills collecting in her fist as she does. Cardan moves his head up, his other hand pushing aside her bra so she can capture her nipple in his mouth. Overstimulation lights a ravenous fire inside of her. It’s all Jude can do not to scream out as his teeth graze her nipple slightly, causing her to tip over the edge, an orgasm crashing over her.

She shivers and shakes as she comes down, Cardan’s hand moving slower as he helps her ride it out. Before she can protest, he flips her over so her back is on the mattress. His lips find her lips, her cheek, her earlobe, her neck, her chest, her stomach, and then finally, the one place she’s been waiting for.

Jude looks down just in time to meet his eyes before his tongue finds her folds, licking a hot, wet stripe. She’s still sensitive so she moans loudly, the sensation overwhelming. Cardan places her thighs on his shoulders, moving closer to her as he does.

“You deserve this,” he says, licking at her again, making her writhe in his grip. “Your plan got us here. Your determination, your brain.”

“I’d do anything for you, for us,” Jude pants. And it’s true. Her happiness with Cardan was more important than anything. It still is.

Cardan doesn’t respond with words, but in action. He doesn’t come up for air for minutes, feasting on her like he’s a starving man. Jude bucks against him at every turn and he welcomes it, pulling her closer and closer until she’s sure she’ll suffocate him. The fire burning inside her begins to build again. Her fingers find his hair, gripping and pulling hard as she rides his face. 

Her hips begin to buck against him as she threatens to spill over again, only this time Cardan removes himself before she can. Jude pounds a fist on the bed, and at that, Cardan smirks.

“Don’t worry my dear criminal,” he says, leaning over her to kiss her. “I’d just rather you come around my cock instead of my tongue.”

Jude gasps as he enters her slowly, taking all the time in the world. She can taste herself on his tongue as he kisses her. She has so many feelings trying to override another. Her hands scramble to find purchase before they finally settle on Cardan’s arms that are framing her face. He pulls away so he can look in her eyes as he bottoms out. Jude wraps her legs around his waist, pulling him closer, deeper.

Moonlight filters through the curtains of their room, threads of silver highlighting Cardan’s face. Jude reaches up, wrapping her arms around his neck to bring him closer. She loves him, with every piece of her soul. She loves him enough to fight tooth and nail, to steal, to lie, so they can live happily. She’d risk herself every day for him, for her Cardan.

Like he can read her mind, Cardan bends down, kissing her roughly.

“I love you,” he moans into her mouth. 

He begins to move faster, a hand snaking between her thighs so he can play with her clit. Jude bites her lip to fight the scream that threatens to rip from her throat. She loves him so much she can hardly breathe, or think, or feel anything else.

“More than all this money?” he asks, teasing. He pulls away and looks into her eyes. 

“More than anything.”

He grips her hair and yanks, exposing her neck to him. He mouths at her throat, sucking a bruise into the light mocha of her skin. Everything is too much. Jude feels like she’s burning from the inside out. Her arms around Cardan’s neck circle tighter and she lets herself be taken completely over. Everything fades away and it’s nothing but Cardan. The way he makes her feel, his eyes, his laugh, his voice, the pounding of his heart, his everything. 

Jude erupts for the second time, her orgasm crashing over her like a wave. Cardan follows soon after, a moan falling from his mouth and into the skin of her shoulder. When they’re both completely spent, he rolls off of her. He immediately pulls her into his chest, her forehead meeting his neck.

A twenty dollar bill sticks up from underneath Cardan’s arm and Jude laughs lightly, pulling it away from him and throwing it to the floor. It’s everywhere, sticking to their sweaty skin as they’ve moved across the bed.

“I meant what I said, Jude,” Cardan says, eyeing her carefully. “All this money… well, it wouldn’t mean a damn thing if I didn’t have you.”

Jude fights a lump in her throat at his words. She’s never been the type to say how she feels, it’s always been more of Cardan’s thing. She blinks away the mist in her eyes before grinning at him.

“I know what you mean.” Jude pauses. “I love you so much.”

Cardan leans in, kissing her forehead.

“Let’s start our new beginning.”

[techgoddessdeluxe18]

Stop Fucking Up My Dream Firefighter AUs with Incorrect Research - A Long Rant

As a proud veteran of the fan fiction gang (what up 2011 fanfiction.net, pre porn banned Tumblr and 9 years deep into AO3) and an actual volunteer firefighter 

(Im not kidding we had a call to get a cat out a drain and this kid and his friends who had called it in were standing nearby and the kid had the Homunculus symbol from FMAB drawn on his hand and I asked him if he watched the show and he just look at me in awe that a firefighter could even fathom anime.)

I have a SLIGHT problem when wanting to read Firefighter AUs. The writers tend to get the vibe right, the steamy romance, the unhygienic sex in the fire engines, etcetera. But the basic info is almost always jarringly wrong, and its sort of painful to read through. 

So here is a incredibly basic breakdown of what you need to know when writing a Firefighter AU.

Paid vs Volunteer Company

In America, Canada, and most suburban and rural areas, depending on how wealthy your town is, are volunteer companies. Local families and people who have been serving for generations dedicate their time and lives to serve their community. They’re small, so they might have old but well cared for rigs (fire truck, engine, rigs are just easier to call them). Theres usually one Chief, an Assistant Chief, 2 Captains, 2 Lieutenants, and the firefighters underneath them. They work in conjunction with the surrounding companies when responding to a call.

Depending on how wealthy the town is, they might have paid or combination companies. My town was rich enough to fully staff 30 stations, but allowed volunteers to run with them as well.

Major and even minor cities, are mainly paid companies. Theres just too many people in small spaces and incidents tend to multiply in cities. The command structure is similar to the volunteer company, however they don’t have individual chiefs, they have 1 Battalion Chief that responds for the whole city, like for a big structure fire they would assume command from the commanding officer on scene.

Getting Dispatched 

In every county, city, province, there is a small office building with lovely people called the Dispatch Center. People call the country’s emergency number (North America - 911), dispatch takes your information, and says over county radio 

The box number (like say its Company 12, so Box 12-3 would be the north side of town, 12-7 would be the south, 12-10 would be the river, or something like that)

The Incident: Most common but not limited to:

 Possible or Working Structure Fire,

Fire Investigation, 

Fire Alarm (most common and so annoying at 3 AM)

Vehicle Fire (classified by size, like car, van, tractor trailer)

Traffic Accident (Accident w/ injuries, Multi Car pileup, Rollover, Accident with entrapment (stuck but not hurt), Accident with confinement (literally crushed in with the car)

Less exciting ones like Gas Leaks, Carbon Monoxide Alarms, Electrical Hazards, Cats stuck in trees

Medical calls - depending on the company, but mostly Cardiac Arrests, Stroke, Lift Assists (helping old people who fall in their tubs), possible pregnancies?

The most common are fire alarms. Pain in the butts and are usually nothing, but you always have to be prepared for something to go wrong. For some reason Structure Fires and Cardiac Arrests come in batches, so like 2 weeks of like nonstop action, then like a month of boring fire alarms.

The basic rigs are 

Engine (water suppression, 500-gallon tank)

Rescue (Rapid Intervention, vehicle accidents and technical rescue)

Ladder (single 90'-110' ladder), 

Tower (Ladder with bucket at the end)

 Some cities allow combinations such as a Quint, a ladder truck with a tank in it. Most of the time, for most incidents, its 1 Engine and 1 Rescue or Truck or Ladder. The Engine is the constant. For any incident you may write, there should be more engines than anything else, but for a basic fire, 3 engines, 2 Ladder or Truck, and 2 Rescues are good.

For accidents, usually 1 Engine and a Rescue

What to Wear?

All of your gear is in your locker in the Apparatus Bay, in lockers with your name on them. Gear is heavy, about 30 lbs. This is the order they go on, should be dressed and zipped and on the rig in less than a minute and a half (yes we’re tested on that)

1. Boots and Bunker Pants

Your bunker pants are tucked into your boots and they have grips, so tug them on and get your pants up over whatever clothes you have underneath. Suspenders on, though some people don’t use them.

2. Nomex Hood

It looks like a dark colored balaclava, but its soft, stretchy, and thick material, it goes over your head and then pushed back off so it sits around your neck. VERY IMPORTANT, WILL KEEP YOU FROM GETTING BURNED TOO BAD.

3. Jacket

Swing it up and over your shoulders and get your hands into the wristlets. Fire gloves will either be in the pockets or strapped to the front (I perfer strapped its easier to grab and put on)

4. Helmet

This is where OP can get creative because almost all helmets are very personalized, whether with cameras or flashlights or stickers or special handmade leather fronts with the Company number and firefighter name. (Mine has a chinese idiom that translates to water and fire have no mercy, cause im half Chinese)

Going on the Call

So to wrap up this very long post, going on each call is always different. No two are the same. The fire alarms are boring and tedious. The structure fires are fun and exciting and adrenaline rush, but just be aware that there is an entire room on fire and its 1400F degrees and its just you and a hose and you breathing heavily through your airpack. Its scary but walking out of it after is such an invigorating feeling. Your camaraderie with your crew will never be stronger than in that moment. Vehicle accidents are the same, just you and the spreaders (Jaws of Life), and praying that the patient inside is still breathing and conscious. Lastly, for medical calls, never underestimate the capacity of human grief. Cardiac arrests almost never seem to work. Its always very sobering to leave, but you did what you could.

In the end, firefighters are human. We are not epic heros like people like to believe. We enjoy what we do, helping others. We cherish the time we have.

THANK YOU FOR COMING TO MY RANT IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS FEEL FREE TO ASK ANYTIME ANYTHING 

[maxwell-grant]

You've talked quite a bit about Shiwan Khan, would be OK with talking about the other villains who show up more than once, Benedict Stark and The Voodoo Master?

The Voodoo Master tends to get overshadowed by Khan by virtue of being less prominent and because, in a lot of ways, Mocquino does feel a bit like a prototype for Khan. Like Gibson was testing the waters of what kind of major supervillain he wanted the Shadow to have, and was gradually figuring details like the hypnotic traps and unique henchmen and mystic background and a fraudulent dark magician figure with Mocquino, before Khan blew it all up to bigger proportions. Twice already we’ve had instances where Mocquino was set to appear in a Shadow adaptation after Khan, and said adaptations got canned before he could show up (and I don’t think it does either character a favor if Mocquino comes after Khan). And of course Mocquino has the problem of being an ethnic supervillain whose identity and name are tied up to grotesque prejudice that twists cultures and beliefs into Hollywood boogeymen, and the novels sadly treat vodou beliefs far less charitably than how the other novels approach tibetan/asian mysticism. It’s definitely a problem, but not without it’s solutions.

Putting that aside, The Voodoo Master trilogy is very fun, the first novel in particular was the number one rated Shadow novel in a fan poll back then. Personally, my favorite is City of Doom because of it’s blend of gothic, urban and industrial settings, great battles even for a Shadow novel, and a spectacular finale, but they all have very strong points. And I do like Mocquino himself as a character. He is historically significant as the first true supervillain of Shadow Magazine (if you don’t count other odd criminals like The Black Master or The Cobra). He is different from Khan personality-wise in the sense that he is more of an old-school supervillain, who likens his conflict with The Shadow to a “game” they play, who likes to boast and brag about his powers and whose goals largely revolve around extortion. He has a vendetta against industrial society (although he himself employs industrial tactics, because he is a hypocrite), and said vendetta being largely just him trying to destroy it so he thinks people will fall in line with his cult more easily. Unlike with Khan, there’s no delusions or aspirations of grandeur and greater purpose here, it always comes down to crime and profit with Mocquino and he barely bothers to pretend otherwise.

He is resourceful and insidious and racks up a bigger body count than Khan on City of Doom alone, and there’s a real creepiness to his zombie minions as they are regular people stripped of all identity and forced into becoming walking meat shields. I think one way to make him work better on his own could be by playing up his ruthlessness and charm, and focus on the mind control/cult leader aspect. Make him the Jim Jones of Shadow villains.

Justice Inc redesigned him to look like Boris Karloff, divorced him of racist trappings, played up his dark magician persona and ballooned up his abilities into outright superpowers, all of which worked quite well as the closest he's ever had to an update And interestingly, there’s some odd Joker-esque aspects to him in his final appearence in Voodoo Trail:

Though almost silent, the explosion was forcible. The tank disgorged a greenish gas that spread like an expanding monster, filling the entire room that the trio had just left. 

There was something parched and withery in his face, particularly noticeable when The Shadow saw the Voodoo Master's profile. Mocquino bore the scars of flame, not only on his face, but upon the scrawny arm he extended from his robe. Those burns showed like livid brands: a fitting mark for a supercriminal.

That hissing sound in the zombi cave! It was gas, leaking from underground pipes that led into Manhattan. Filtering through the porous stone, it gathered other chemical elements. Mocquino must have discovered that leakage and noted its effects. He had put the discovery to his own use. 

...lips formed a grin so jagged that it was difficult to note where his mouth ended and his scar began.

Mocquino's shrill laugh told that he expected his men to overwhelm The Shadow through force of numbers.

Honestly, “Doctor Mocquino” I think is a better name for him than Voodoo Master. A Rogues Gallery isn’t complete without a major Doctor in there, and divorcing Mocquino of “Voodoo Master” and all that implies could be the better way of making this character work again. Play up the fact that he’s exploiting Caribbean religions and citizens for personal gain and roping them into his crime ring, maybe even have him use similar theatrics as The Shadow to paint himself as this great master of voodoo, but in the end, he’s always just Doctor Mocquino, an evil, rotten shyster who puts his knowledge to use for evil and evil alone. 

Responsible for the first and only cliffhanger of Shadow Magazine with the kidnapping of Rutledge Mann, Benedict Stark is easily the single worst scumbag out of all Shadow supervillains. Just this completely horrible, wretched monster who ends up being somewhat dissappointing and frustrating of a villain in my view. Despite having quite a bit going on for him, Stark is not really interesting enough to warrant the 4 novels he gets, and where as Khan and Mocquino usually escape The Shadow thanks to prior planning and last-minute escape and strokes of luck, Stark seems to get away with it only because the narrative says so, not nearly as impressive as the other two despite being far, far worse, which makes it you don’t want The Shadow to match wits with him, so much as you just want The Shadow to kill him as soon as possible. In fact, here’s what Stark gets away with in the first ten pages of The Prince of Evil alone:

He gaslights a man named John Harmon into thinking he was developing amnesia

Gets Harmon to sign away enough money to be bankrupted for life, and no one, not even his wife, believe him when he says he was conned

Causes Harmon to commit suicide. 

Then, while Cranston's talking with a friend of Harmon named Jackson who wanted to help him, the two go to Jackson's house to find it completely destroyed, his priceless belongings acid-ruined. 

Then, they find Jackson's dog dead, with it's throat slit, and a Bible scattered nearby with the story of the good Samaritan marked, making it clear that this all happened because Jackson tried to help Harmon. 

And then, as Cranston tries to stop one of Stark's goons from brutally assaulting a boy who was just paid by Cranston to watch his car, he gets attacked and knocked unconscious.

And THEN, the henchman gives the kid a brain concussion and then hauls him in front of a coming truck, with Cranston just barely saving the kid in time as the henchman escapes.

This is just the first 10 pages. Not even Spider novels usually start with this many atrocities happening all at once. Whatever problems Tinsley has as a Shadow writer, I’ll give him this: He definitely knows how to go from 0 to 100 in ways Gibson never would. The book obviously doesn’t keep this up forever (thank goodness), but The Prince of Evil is really all about building up Stark’s presence as this new ultimate Shadow villain, and I think the build up is quite solid up to a point.

He’s established as possibly the richest man in America. Where as Cranston is a millionaire, Stark is a billionaire, who owns “ailways and steamships, factories and mills all over the United States". Nobody knows what he looks like, nobody’s ever seen a picture of him, and Cranston, who knows everyone and everything, has never once laid eyes on the man. We also know in advance that he uses drugs delivered by chewing gum to turn his thugs into bloodthirsty savages who desire only terror and torture and inflict those at his beck and call, and we get a passage where Clyde Burke ingests one of these gums, experiences it’s effects, and ends up chasing down a mouse and killing it, for no reason other than it was the only living being nearby, much to his horror. And it very nearly develops into something even worse:

He could hear the snoring of a man sleeping inside a cellar apartment. Clyde halted. His fingers tightened on his iron bar. He guessed that the man asleep inside was the building janitor. He fought against a hot impulse that flared anew in his blood.

He wanted to kill that janitor! He wanted to smash at him with the iron bar until the man was battered and dead! Murder seemed so exciting. And so easy! Clyde could picture the terror of his victim as he struck at him. It would be sheer delight to maim the fool before he killed him.

The thing that saved Clyde was the thought of the chewing gum. He knew that the savage whisper that urged him on to murder was not his own brain talking, but the voice of a powerful drug.

Laying the bar on the concrete floor, he ran for the cellar exit. He didn't glance back. He was afraid that if he did, he'd be tempted to pick up the bar and commit a senseless and brutal crime.

The cold bite of the breeze was like a draft of cooling water against his parched lips. He began to get a grip on himself. Once more he was Clyde Burke, a normal human being who would go out of his way to avoid hurting a fly.

Stark has weaponized and mass-produced a drug that creates an army of Mr Hydes at his beck and call, that can turn even one of the kindest and most heroic characters into the series into a sadistic maniac itching to main and murder anything that’s in front of him, and that alone is not just a much more viscerally horrifying kind of mind control than what Khan and Mocquino use, it’s also got a an edge to it more suited for gritty urban drama. It’s an idea I definitely would have liked to see used again even after Stark’s out of the picture.

And then we actually get to see Stark for this first time, and he’s described as a grotesquely deformed baboon man leering at his beautiful secretaries, who deliberately employs the most attractive people to make his own deformities stand out further, and who is cartoonishly vile everytime he opens his mouth. He never really displays exceptional cleverness, compared to other Shadow villains, except for the fact that he keeps suspecting Cranston is The Shadow, and sometimes just seems to get really lucky. Stark tends to get much, much less interesting as the build-up evaporates and he has to stand on his own feet as a character, I barely remember anything he did in the following books. At the time, I thought Stark’s characterization was weak, and I still do. 

This text blurb here was used on a promo S&S did for Prince of Evil, and it starts by talking about incredibly well-liked people who are kind and how Stark is the opposite because he's evil. Of course, as we all know, evil and well-liked are not opposites. 

Stark may have been a tad more interesting had they went with the angle of him being a horrible monster who's also incredibly popular and beloved and friendly. About 70% of The Shadow’s villains are already middle-aged to elder rich businessmen pretending to be good, so maybe Stark being young and attractive and initially sympathetic-looking, atop being the richest and cruelest of them all, could also help set him apart. Sort of an evil Harry Vincent maybe. 

But instead he's so obviously and viscerally awful all the time he shows up, so incapable of restraining himself, that it's impossible to buy him as a deceiver who’s pulled the wool over society’s eyes. At the time, I thought to myself that he was just painfully obvious of a villain and too brutish and stupid for me to buy that he’s supposed to be the richest criminal genius in America. 

But then again, nowadays I’m well aware that wealthy and respected figures of society, who are cartoonishly horrible even openly in public, is just what billionaires are like, so maybe Tinsley had a point here. 

[nancydfan]

How've you been did you enjoy your break? I'm replaying RE7 and I finally vocalised my thought that the guy Ethan was on the phone with at the start was with him when he got the email though he didn't know about it at the time after work (why he was so dressed up Ethan just dropped everything and started going to Dulvey- and is the reason why the reporters talking about the "gas leak" mentioned that he and Mia were nearby in that report in Village) I have gotten past the rec room in ethan must die and have yet to make it back there and my sister convinced me to wait for December to get Village (and maybe RE3 remake if they both come on sale) so she can watch real time me suffer in general and looking at the world of type writer art with no small degree of awe and just thinking of word art (basically making shapes with words) in general and thinking I could do that with Ethan because it means i have a good reason to listen to those compiliation of dialogue videos and quotes but then I remember I am not good at drawing people so maybe not yet

Hello!!!

I loved my break. I was a bump on the log and basically played DbD all the time. But it's been nice. I enjoyed some of the simple things.

I def agree with you on that! That makes total sense that that dude was Ethan which is why he's like you just disappeared the other night. Poor dude probably always wondered what happened to Ethan ahaha

I need to play re3 again. I played it on my friends but she had a boat load of cheats so it wasn't the same as earning. I have never played Ethan Must Die cause I know I'd be total shit at it, but I feel like my friend might want to watch me fail a million times over lmao.

I'm waiting for a sale too so fingers crossed! I wonder if DLCs go on sale too.

Also draw! That would be awesome and practice makes perfect yeah?? <3

[aesthetical-bucky]

Three’s A Lucky Number

Pairing: Bucky x Female!Reader

Summary: You’ve sabotaged Bucky’s dates three times, but what happens when the super soldier finally confronts you about it?

Requested by @hailmary-yramliah​ -  Hey! So I love the fic Hungry Heart and wanted to request again since you're an amazing writer! XD Could you do a BuckyxReader where the reader is jealous of Bucky's date because she has a crush on him and he's oblivious? Maybe he finds out when the reader sabotages his date and he confronts her? Or you could go a whole different route hehe thanks in advance! ❤️

Warnings: Language, sex toy play (at the end), implied smut, a smidgen of confrontation in a confined space. If I’ve missed anything, please let me know! 

Word Count: 2,220 (oopsies)

Authors Notes: This was requested by the lovely @hailmary-yramliah​ and I’m sorry because I got so carried away with it but it just wrote itself? Hehe! Hope you enjoy reading :)

If looks could kill, the blonde-haired bitch Bucky invited over would certainly be dead by now. You were sat next to Steve when Bucky walked in with her hanging off his arm as they sat on the opposite couch. Truthfully, you didn’t understand why she was here and if you were honest, you didn’t want her here. His date had spent the entire day at the compound, mingling with the others and trying to fit herself in and they had reservations for dinner in an hour at some fancy top restaurant. You hated it and you knew jealousy was an ugly look, but at this point, you couldn’t care less. “Oh, is this Chloe?” You smirked pointing to the lady. Bucky’s eyebrows creased as he tried to figure out what you were up to. 

“Y/N, what are you doing?” Bucky seethed, giving you a warning look which you blatantly ignored.

“Who is Chloe?” The dragon with the voice whispered, her hand grazing his thigh and it was making your blood boil.

“Some girl he brought here last night to fuck. No big deal.” You shrugged nonchalantly, earning a warning nudge from Steve.

“Y/N, Come on.”

“It’s true and then the night before that he brought home that… uhhh what’s her name…” You clicked your fingers and smirked as you continued. “Fiona from statistics!” 

“Y/N!” Bucky warned. Your eyes flicked over to hers and grinned. She was shifting uncomfortably in her seat and scoots away from Bucky, something he easily notices. “I’m so sorry Jess. I don’t know what her problem is.” Bucky scoffed, interlacing his fingers with hers. A lump formed in your throat at their hands, your anger and frustration building up. 

You harboured a crush on the soldier pretty much since the day you arrived in the tower and officially became an Avenger. But you knew he was out of your league but it didn’t stop you from trying. Bucky had reservations for the type of women he dated, the same type that was sat opposite you right now biting her lip like the seductive horny bitch she is. 

And sometimes you felt really angry towards Bucky because that bastard was so oblivious to your attempts. You even told him he looked like sex on legs when he strolled through the kitchen in his sweats and that tattered old henley of his. His hair dishevelled and sticking up so high you could probably pick up a clear WiFi connection. His response? He just told you to be quiet. It broke your heart every time, your crush was turning into feelings and you wanted nothing more than to protect him from all the other single women in the world. You wanted him to be yours, not hers.

You watch as he whispered something in her ear. A blush forming on her cheeks as she twirled her curly hair around her finger. A loud pitched laugh invaded your ears. Anger boiled up when you saw the blonde-haired bitch throwing her head back, Bucky eyeballing her exposed throat.

Bucky was driving you crazy and he wasn’t even aware of what he was doing. 

“Fuck sake.” You cursed with an eye-roll. Though your eyes widened when you realised you just said that out loud, but at least the bitch stopped laughing.

“What’s wrong, Y/N?” Tony smirked when he sauntered in the room adjusting his bracelet. Tony was probably one of the few who knew of your love for the soldier. It was hard to deny it when he found your journal full of desires and inner feelings for Mr Barnes. You made the mistake of writing a dream you had in the journal, a dream where you became Bucky’s wife and bearing his children. Tony hasn’t stopped bringing that up ever since and you hoped he wouldn’t now. “Is your husband annoying you?” He cackled. 

Fuck

“Don’t encourage her Tony.” Steve interfered.

Wait, did Steve know about it too?

“Y/N, come with me please,” Steve ordered, walking into the kitchen and pouring a couple of glasses of wine. 

“Please don’t lecture me, Steve.” You sighed. 

“Was those lies really necessary? You know about Bucky’s past Y/N. You should be happy for him so why on earth are you trying to sabotage his third date this week?” He demanded in his ‘Captain’ voice.

It was true, you knew Bucky wasn’t actually sleeping with anyone because he wasn’t that type of man. But when he brings different girls to the compound, you knew it was only a matter of time before he took a dip in their manhole.

I’d be happy with him. God, if only you knew Steve.

“Now please take this glass of wine to Jess and apologise. It’s not a request.”

“Fine.” You mumbled, taking the glass from his hand and reluctantly going over to them. Bucky watched you with careful eyes and as you neared Jess, you pretended to trip over your feet, sending the full glass of wine down her white dress. 

“Oops.” You shrugged with a grin as she desperately patted down her dress. 

“Oh my GOD! BUCKY! Your friend is a fucking lunatic!” She screamed and Bucky growled and you took it as your cue to leave the room. Only to have a large metal hand wrap around your wrist and march you both out of the room.

You were stumbling hopelessly behind Bucky towards the elevator, his fast walk pace was impossible for you to keep up with. 

“Buck! Slow down!” You hissed as his grip tightened. Bucky repeatedly pressed the elevator button and more-or-less threw you inside once the doors eventually opened, you backed away from him when he stood in front of the buttons, again repeatedly punching his floor number.

“FRIDAY, shut the fucking doors!” Bucky snarled, clenching his hands into fists and breathing heavily. 

You stood there on the other side of the elevator nursing your bruising and sore wrist as Bucky stared straight ahead with his arms folded over his large chest. He almost looked identical to a dragon, minus the smoke flailing out from his nostrils and the tips of his ear turning a bright red. You knew you were gonna be in for it just by the thunderous look on his face. 

The elevator ride to his floor was intense, to say the least. The quiet hum of the elevator, the heavy breathing and the tension surrounding you was so thick it was scary, almost like a severe gas leak, you’d just need one little naked flame to make an explosion. You almost couldn’t stand it. 

You turned to face Bucky and sighed. “Buck, I’m really sor-” you flinched when his large hand suddenly moved towards the big red STOP letters above the numbers and he punched it. The elevator came to a halt and now you didn’t know what to expect. 

Bucky faced you, then stalked slowly towards you, prompting you to take a step back until your back was flushed against the wall. 

“Why are you sorry, Y/N? What did I ever do to make you hate me so much that you took it upon yourself to ruin any chance of happiness?” Bucky seethed, his steps not faltering. “I want to know, what did I do? Did I hurt you? Did I upset you? WHAT DID I DO?!” He growled and your eyes screwed shut, your body tensing from his tone. His flesh fingers gently held your chin. “Look at me, Y/N.” Your eyes opened, his anger replaced by confusion. “Please tell me what I did.”

You felt guilty and you knew Bucky could see the guilt whirling around in your irises. “Nothing,” you whispered under your breath with a shake of your head. “I’m sorry.”

“I don’t believe you, Y/N. Didn’t you once have a dream about me? About being my wife and having my beautiful children?” The corners of his lips lifted into a sly smirk. Your eyes widened to the size of planets. 

“How did you KNOW about that?!” You cringed. 

“I may or may not have stumbled across your little journal. Mrs Barnes.” He chuckled, but not in a tormenting way. Bucky wasn’t teasing you, he was just actually quite flattered. “Why did you keep your feelings from me for so long huh? We could have been married and having our babies right about now.” He smirked. “Tell me doll, did you think about us making those babies, hmm?”

And really, you wished for Hell at this point to just open up and take you. This was a nightmare, the one person who definitely wasn’t supposed to read that journal, did. And you had an intuition that Tony may have had something to do with it. 

Bucky dipped his head downwards. His face was so close to yours that you could feel his breath fanning against your lips. 

“I’m so embarrassed right now.” You mumbled

“I’m actually really flattered but I wished you would have told me sooner because I have been going out of my mind over my feelings for you.” His usual ocean blue eyes are a darker shade. You can feel his heartbeat under the palm of your hand. “Do you still want me?” He asked and your eyes are drawn to his plump pink lips. With no words spoken, your hands wrapped around his neck and crashed his lips to yours in a heated passion. Bucky’s hands slithered down to your waist and behind your thighs, giving them a gentle but firm pinch silently asking you to jump. Your legs wrapped around his waist as your tongues and teeth clashed against one another. 

“FRIDAY, my room!” Bucky panted against your lips. His hard member feeling so constricted in his pants.

“Yes, Sergeant Barnes,” FRIDAY responded and the elevator started moving once again.

Once the doors to Bucky’s floor opened. He carried you down the hall, your lips attacking his neck on the way. Bucky kicked the door open with his heavy combat boot and stumbled inside, kicking it shut harder than necessary. Bucky stumbled over to the bed and threw you down. You giggled when you bounced and saw the hungry look in his eyes. 

“FRIDAY, lock my door and alert the team that Y/N and I are busy for a couple of days.” He ordered and the AI beeped in acknowledgement. 

“Of course, Sergeant Barnes.” The AI responded. Leaving you and Bucky in total silence once again. 

“Now then.” Bucky taunted, removing his Henley and kicking his boots off. “I believe a certain someone sabotaged not one, not two but three of my dates.” He tutted with a shake of his head. 

You brought a finger up to your lips and pleaded with doe eyes. Knowing full well it wasn’t going to help you in this situation. 

“Three dates. Three possible relationships ruined. I think you need three different kinds of punishment, doll.” He smirked, pulling a few items out from his bedside table drawers. Your eyes widened when you realised they were, in fact, sex toys. And you didn’t entertain the idea of those being used on you when they could have been used for the other women in this very room. 

“Buck- no I don-”

Just as though Bucky can read you like a book, he interrupts. “They’re brand new, doll. See? Still in the packaging. I haven’t even slept with anyone.” He reassured. “But you already knew that. So tell me, do you want this Y/N? Do you want me?” He asks for a second time. 

“I do.” You answer with a nod. 

“Ah, preparing for our big day huh?” He chuckled, tearing the plastic off with a simple flick of his wrist, inserting the batteries to the rabbit. Bucky presses the buttons to make sure it’s working and a wide Cheshire cat grin grows. “Perfect.” He throws it down on the bed and his fingers work on the button of your jeans and zipper and swiftly pulling the tight material along with your soaked underwear down your legs and throwing them somewhere across the room. 

Bucky lubes the shaft of the vibrator with a generous amount so you don’t feel any pulling. He grins as he gently pushed the plastic toy inside. The rabbit ears snugged against your clit as Bucky works through the first vibration. He grins, laying down on his stomach with his knee slightly bent, working through the different vibration sensations, sending you into a whole new dimension of pleasure. And if that wasn’t enough, he pressed the rotary button so the shaft wiggled around inside of you, occasionally touching your G-spot.  

Bucky set the vibration on the highest setting and your toes curled into his comforter as you neared your orgasm. And you were almost there when he suddenly shut the rabbit off completely. 

“Bucky!” You whined, which earned you an eye roll as he disregarded the toy. His breath hitched when your juices ran freely from your entrance. Bucky pulled you up to your feet and he sat himself down on the edge of the bed. He motioned to his lap and you went to straddle him but he shook his head. 

“Lay across my lap.” He ordered and you complied. “Second punishment, I hope you’re ready, Y/N. You’re in for a long few days.”

Taglist: @jobean12-blog​ @criminal-cookies​ @nano--raptor​ @marvelgirl7​ @godofplumsandthunder​ @the-wayward-robot​ @littleredstarfish​ @becs-bunker​ @evanstanwrites​

[royalskarsgard]

Once in a Lifetime

Billy Hargrove X Reader

Summary: Is it harder to love the man who broke your heart or to forgive him?

A/N: This is sooooooo overdue, and I’m so sorry. Family issues got in the way. And a whole lot of writer's block. But I hope you can forgive me, it’s super long to account for how long I went missing! Thanks to the loml for helping me through this @hotstuffhargrove

Sequel to ‘Love You, Goodbye.’

Warnings: one swear word

Word count: 2.4k

“Fucking Harrington! Get your dirty clothes out of the bathroom,” you groaned. He always did this after work, he always left his dirty uniforms on the bathroom floor. He claimed he was too exhausted after work to bring them to the correct place. Yet, a sudden burst of energy always appeared when his “study buddy” called to meet him at the library. 

“I’ll get them later! I’m actually. Headed out to meet Lisa at the library. I’ll catch you tomorrow!” He rushed out. You rolled your eyes, wondering why Steve thought his lies were believable. He’s clearly in love. 

Love was cruel and not worth anything in the end. It’s just a consumeristic ploy that gets you to buy movie tickets and to sell chocolate on Valentine’s Day. It wasn’t real. It was all lust, love at first sight? Fake, what they're really thinking is, ‘my god, that person really is fuckable.’

Sighing, you went into your powder pink bathroom. Feet slipping on the water Steve had left after his shower. When all his clothes were in the correct hampers, you quickly passed the kitchen, deciding to skip dinner. You weren’t that hungry, working at a diner was hard, but the free food was a good perk. Especially for a broke college student. 

Your room was dark, the door screamed against its hinges as you shut it. As much as you loved Steve, you were glad he was always gone. In part because it’s what you preferred and you didn’t want to infect in with your sadness. Was it really that pathetic that you were currently reaching for a half-empty bottle of cologne to spay onto your sheets? That in two minutes, you would light three cigarettes and hold them near your pillow? Maybe, but it was the only thing keeping you afloat. Especially now. 

With the cigarettes burning in your hand, you picked up your favorite picture of him. It was a rare one, he was actually smiling. It wasn’t one of those signature smirks he always gave. It was real. The real billy. No one really gave the real Billy a chance. They wrote him off as a punk as soon as they saw him. People are quick to judge when they don’t know the whole story. Just like love, the truth was more painful than what they told us growing up.

“Why can’t I move on?” You whispered to yourself. You took a drag of the cigarette that sat lit between your fingertips. A coughing attack took over, and you groaned reaching for some water. You couldn’t understand his appeal for them, never had, and never will. After all three were burnt, you laid down in your bed that was now plastered in his scent. It wasn’t perfect. Your sheets weren’t mixed with his shampoo, his hairspray or the way his skin smelled after a basketball game. But it was close enough to lull you to sleep for a few hours. 

“Hey! Wake up, we gotta go. It’s an emergency. Pack a bag we’re going to the airport,” Steve shook your shoulders ripping you away from a peaceful sleep. Your heart climbed into your throat and made you sick to your stomach. When you finally gained full consciousness, you watched as Steve ran around the room putting things he thinks you like in a bag. 

He motioned for you to hurry and rushed to his own room to do the same. Grabbing more essentials and getting dressed, you found Steve waiting in the living room for you. He had a toothbrush in his mouth, the paste dribbling down his chin. His shoulder held the phone close to his ear, confirming two flights to LAX. It was two am, and it was officially proven that Steve Harrington was crazy. 

~~

Three days earlier

Billy’s eyes widened as he saw a brown-eyed boy with a bowl cut standing in front of him.  A chill ran up his spine, he knew this kid. The boy smiled before he took a small step back. 

“Will Byers, Jonathan's brother, I was a friend of Max’s?” Billy nodded, finally putting the pieces together. They weren’t friends by any means, but he’d seen him around. He never tried to date Max, so there was no point in getting to know him. 

“How are you alive? We all saw you die, you sacrificed yourself to the mind flayer. How did you survive? Did El bring you back to life?” Rather than frightened, the boy looked confused. He looked as if Billy being brought back to life was an acceptable answer. There was no fear, only confusion, and genuine concern. And for some reason deep down, Billy didn’t feel afraid to tell him the truth, so that’s what he did. 

“Everything was dark, it was Hawkins but with the life taken out of it. It was so cold. No matter what I did, I could never get warm. Sometimes I was in a dark room with water, and I saw that girl you know there too. I tried to get to her, but she left before I could reach her,” with every word he said Billy got more and more withdrawn. A cold breeze running through his body. Will shivered the more he talked 

“We call it The Upside Down, I’ve been there too. When they thought I was missing, that’s where I was. The thing that you saw down there, and what died in the mall was a mind flayer,” the young boy sighed knowing this was information overload. But he also knew that Billy deserved answers. 

“It possessed me too, except I wasn’t stuck in the upside-down. I’m not sure how that happened. A couple of years ago, the U.S. government used Hawkins as one giant experiment, trying to find out that the supernatural existed, to use it as a weapon. Things turned sour, and it left a big mess for my friends, it’s how we found El. She’s the girl you saw down there.” 

On any regular basis, billy would’ve told the young child to go fuck off and give some insult about how he was crazy. But Billy heard the stories about Will Byers, the boy who came back to life. He’d once found an old missing poster with him on it. So for now, he didn’t find it that crazy, especially paired with Billy’s own experiences 

“I saw her touching me.. not me per se but, whatever looked like me. I was sitting on my bed in my room, and she was real and apparently so was I. I tried to yell, to run to get there but nothing was enough. Now it just feels like it’s watching me, following me.”

“We’re connected to it now, to the mind flayer. Even in death, I can still feel it. Maybe it will never leave, maybe it will go away. It’s terrifying, but I don’t want it to control my life. Do you?” A simple question, yet it caught him off guard. He had moved on, things were going fine he had a job, a home, and a small group of friends. But if he asked himself if he was truly happy, he probably would’ve said no. He was scared shitless. 

“Can I ask you for a favor?” Billy whispered. The boy nodded, knowing that despite everything, the two young men would do anything for each other. 

“Can you call someone for me?” 

~~~

Present:

The car moved shook with the bumps along the pavement. The smell of sea salt was becoming stronger, the closer you got to the beach. It was beautiful, that’s what Steve said at least. Your mind was racing, your heart stopped, and your chest slowly moving. You didn’t know how to feel. When you touched down in Los Angeles, you figured something was off, but when Steve started driving towards Palos Verdes, you knew something major must be wrong. You had begged and pleaded to know if El and the rest of the Byers family were okay. It terrified you to no end when Steve remained silent. It took you screaming your lungs out for Steve to finally pull over to a local diner. 

Now you sat in the passenger seat tears streaming down your cheeks. You didn’t know what to say, you couldn’t breathe, you couldn’t even blink. Billy was alive. Steve told you everything on the side of the highway, at first you thought you heard him wrong because of all the cars driving past. But Steve stood there barely looking you in the eyes like he felt guilty for giving you the information. He hasn’t said much either since you stepped in the car. Explaining it all either drained him or he was afraid to say anything more.

“Billy Hargrove died in the Starcourt Mall from a freak gas leak. If that’s not true, that means the truth is more painful than what actually happened” Steve sighed, he had no idea how to comfort you. He couldn’t tell you everything was okay or it would be fine because it wasn’t. 

Billy was alive, you knew that in your heart. You prayed for so many nights it was all a joke and Billy was pissing his pants from how funny it was. That he would pick you up from work and drive you home. That the man you all thought had died just looked a lot like Billy, and you didn’t know who he really was. 

Yet somehow the truth was much worse than that. Billy knew your heart was shattered, he knew that you were in pain, and he was the only one who could save you. Instead of coming back and risking questions, he walked away. He walked away from you, Max, and everyone else. He watched you and decided you weren’t enough of a reason to come back. He lived it up in California while you got to hold max when she cried herself to sleep every night. Maybe everyone was right, he wasn’t redeemable he was just an asshole. 

“Do you want to see him?” Steve asked you, the beach was only a few minutes away, and your anxiety grew with each mile closer. 

“How am I supposed to look at him after everything. I thought he died in my arms and it turns out he was alive the whole time? Why didn’t he come to me?” A small part of you knew why he did what he did, he was scared and alone. 

“You’re the only person who’s looked at him with pure kindness, he was confused and had nowhere to go. Can you blame him for running away?” He reached over and grabbed your hand. A small gesture that brought you great comfort. 

“How many people know?” 

“Only you, me and Will. Billy wanted to make sure you knew before the others. I’m not sure if he ever plans on telling the others.” He pulled into the beaches parking lot. The glow of the setting sun burned your eyes. He was down there, in the flesh for the first time in over a year. 

You figured out later that the last time you saw the unflayed Billy was the night of the accident. He had just dropped you off, and he said he would see you tomorrow, that he loved you and to be safe. He kissed you and smiled before getting into his car and driving away. After that, Billy started pushing you away, using you only for sex. Until that stopped too and he barely spoke to you. Then he died. You’d felt guilty for so long for not seeing the signs. 

“What if I can’t forgive him?” the whispered confession left your lips in shame. Was it fair to have spent a year grieving for this man only to push him away when you finally got him back? 

“Then you move on, but you won’t know until you see him. So go, he’s waiting.” that was his gentle way of kicking you out of his car. 

You stepped onto the hot pavement. The heat immediately suffocating you, this wasn’t Hawkins anymore. You saw Will standing close the steps, silently greeting you. He gave you a warm smile like he was telling you everything was going to be okay. Will nodded towards the water before going to sit in Steve’s car. 

Taking a deep breath of the salty air, you made your way down to the water. The hot sand sinking underneath your feet. Billy was here, this was the moment. Was he still the same? Would you still love him? Had he moved on? Was he just as broken as you? Your mind flooded with all these questions as you kept walking. Billy wasn’t there yet, giving you a small second of relief to catch your breath. 

A small tap on your shoulder broke you from your thoughts, it was hesitant, and he was obviously just as nervous as you were. There he was. When you turned around, the man you loved more than anything was again standing in front of you. He had been kissed by the sun, and his hair was wilder than ever before. His green eyes were bright against his now tanned skin. 

A surge of anger ran through you as you shoved him away, again and again, and again. He took all of it. He grabbed your wrists when you started beating his chest. Bruises would appear later, but Billy knew full well he deserved all of it and more. 

“I’m so sorry,” he begged. His heart was beating so fast against his chest; he was afraid it would kill him before he could get the words out. You looked so perfect, he never doubted you would, but after a year you weren’t just in his dreams anymore. Your face was perfectly clear, the nightmares about forgetting your face vanished. 

He caught you before you fell to your knees into the sand and lowered his own body to you. He ran his fingers through your hair and held you close to his chest. Repeating that he was sorry and that he loved you so much. He begged you to forgive him. 

As he held you, your lungs filled with the smell of cigarettes, his cologne, and the smell of dried sea salt against his skin. He was back, he was warm, life was coursing through his veins. Every image of his cold body being whisked into a black back was replaced. You loved him, he was your one and only. The only man you could ever think of loving. Forgiveness was already given,   and explanations could wait until later. You had all the time in the world, nothing would separate the two of you again. He would always be there for you, he was your forever and always, and you were his.

Tagged: @hotstuffhargrove @asheseiler

[cookiedoughmeagain]

Haven DVD Commentary: 5.10 - Mortality

Commentary with Speed Weed (writer of the last episode) and Adam Higgs (writer of this episode)

AH: This was my first episode of Haven to write. It was a lot of fun. SW: Yeah you came in when we were already a couple of episodes into the season, and you just got up to speed so fast, it was really great. AH: It was a really nice room to come into, great writers, good people. So we changed the opening of this episode a lot. This fist scene of 5.10 was at one point at the end of 5.09, we had it further down near the end of act one at one point. [As we see Audrey driving] SW: There’s the Toyota integration AH: Yes, and a nice beauty shot of the Toyota there. So Audrey here is coming back from dropping off Hank SW: And Emily is talking here to Lucas Bryant’s wife, who did such a good job on the show [as Rebecca Rafferty] AH: I really wanted to start this episode with lots of tension. I thought Speed took us to a nice level, everyone’s against each other, there’s so much conflict going on, and I wanted to start this episode really hot and just push through. And keep raising the tension to be honest. SW: Yeah, and it ramps up very high, by the time we’re done.

AH: So, the fact that this contagion does set off Troubles like crazy, made this episode have some of the most Troubles SW: I don’t think we’ve ever had nearly as many Troubles on one episode as this one AH: I think we might have trumped it with our next pair of episodes, but up to this point it’s a record SW: And it was great to have your fresh blood in the room because, we sort of have this exhaustive pile, or what we thought was an exhaustive pile, of potential Troubles. And you had the challenge of having a bunch of little Troubles, or not little - they were big Troubles but we didn’t make big stories out of them. So you had to sort of ping them here and there; this Trouble’s happening, then this Trouble’s happening. And you did a really good job of getting a whole bunch of Troubles into one episode that we’d never seen before. We as a room had never talked about before. AH: it was a lot of fun. There’s a list for the room of Troubles that they wanted to have in previous episodes, but didn’t have enough context to tell a whole story around, so we were able to talk those dribs and drabs and mush them together to make one big story.

AH: Another nice shot of the inside of a Toyota there [as Charlotte puts the dashcam on.] And this is a nice little scene here, a bit of Haven meet-cute. SW: Yeah; for our first date we can go to a firing range and you can shoot me! Adam you wrote some scenes for Laura’s audition [Laura who plays Charlotte]. Was it a version of this scene? It was before we had actually gone to script on these episodes. AH: Yeah, there was a version of this scene, and then a version of another scene which is coming up later. So we got to hear her perform some of this in our audition.

SW: There was even an earlier version where Dwight’s last line in 5.09 was “I’m going to tell her [Charlotte] about the Troubles.

*both laughing at Mara and Duke’s first lines to each other* AH: I like the interplay between Duke and Mara SW: Yeah. AH: It’s nice to pair certain characters off together; Duke and Mara, Charlotte and Dwight. SW: It’s a big decision for Duke here, it alters the course of the entire season. AH: What a different show it would be if he was just like; Nope. And left Mara chained up for the rest of the season. And that nice sly smile from Mara there.

AH: So again a couple more Troubles here to demonstrate [the Guard member turning a banana ripe with her touch]. One of the things we wanted to do here was just really try to deal with the reality of what it would be like for a person of science to see the Troubles and really accept what it is. And so we see some push back, instead of how often on a show like this, or on this show, it’ll be like; I’m magic! And there’s just an acceptance right away. But we wanted to really push to see what it would take for someone to buy it.

[As Vince is talking to whichever public official it is in Bangor] AH: So here is Conrad Coates who I worked with on Republic of Doyle, it was fun to have him here for this storyline. We got to have Vince throw his weight around a bit, which I really enjoyed. SW: I love that he decided to wear a tie but keep the plaid shirt. AH: And I think Conrad is now on a sci-fi [SyFy?] show … I want to say Dominion I think he’s been cast in, as a new regular.

[As Audrey and Nathan are on their way to the cells to speak to Victor Kirby] SW: Here’s a story line that worked out very well, but I wish we’d had a chance to do your original - you were going to do a nod to Kristine … AH: Yeah so Victor Kirby who we’re about to meet, has a very different Trouble from what he originally had. We had planned to have him have the machine Trouble SW: Louis Pufahl’s AH: Right, machine man with the zamboni episode where machines fell in love with him and reacted accordingly. And Kirby was going to have a Kristine-like Trouble, but instead of the machines loving him, because he treated them poorly they were trying to kill him. So we had this wonderful sequence with a car chase and Nathan trying to take out the engine and stuff and it was great. We went pretty far on it; Rick, the director had it all story-boarded out, and then we ended up having to cut it. SW: It just proved too expensive in the end I think ,right? AH: Yeah, it was a cost issue. So we went and looked for a different curse for him to have. And one of the fun things here was to bring back something from a past episode. And the ability to see the future, in a way, was a fun one just to tease what’s going to happen. SW: Well the pay off is great. It did much more for the arc of the season than the Kristine one would have done. AH: Exactly, it did just fit into place a lot better. SW: Yeah; he sees Audrey’s death. AH: Vanessa Stanley’s Trouble. And it also reminds us of Duke’s experience of this Trouble in terms of the vision Vanessa had of the arm, which we’ll play on in episode 26.

AH: I love that little dog on Duke’s dashboard there. And again, it was such fun to write these scenes. Mara has such a different voice from a lot of the characters on the show. And again this is a really tense episode, the stakes are really high and she’s able to inject a bit of humour, a bit of fun. AH: And this was fun, getting to have Stan have a little interplay here with Eric. SW: Good old Glen Lefchak, such a nice guy. AH: So we’ve got a Victor Kirby and Stan the Man references, going back to my love of the printed form. So references to Jack Kirby, and then Stan Lee, for Duke’s “Stan the Man” line. I think that’s all I did in this one, sometimes in other episodes I’ll name everyone after a hockey or something, so I always try to have some kind of naming convention. SW: Oh that’s good, I’ve never done that.

[As Charlotte is looking through press clippings about gas leaks] AH: And again we’re trying to deal with the reality of it all. SW: Yeah, make Dwight earn it. AH: And it’s kind of fun to deal with the layers of it all. One of the things we haven’t talked about yet is how Vince and Dave have been using the paper to hide the Troubles, but now we’ve also got this character Peter Palek who’s been using information and data to hide the Troubles for years - his whole life basically.

[As we see the Troubled bear suit in the station] AH: I love this music, it’s such a great little cue. And it was great how well this bear curse lined up with what’s going on with Audrey. SW: Thematically with Audrey, right; her worries about is she just an empty suit like the bear AH: There’s some wonderful resonance there. And I like the interplay here with Nathan and Audrey too. It was fun in this season, and coming on board in this season, with the relationship between them being a bit more solid. It’s not a will-they-won’t-they thing, it’s more of a; We’re a couple and we’re in a relationship, and what is like when you’re in a relationship; how you protect each other, but can still give each other space, because you’re in that comfort zone of knowing that this is going to continue. You don’t have to always be buying flowers and dinners every night. Though I’m sure Nathan still does do that every night. SW: Oh, for sure. AH: And again there’s some call backs to previous Troubles there [as Nathan is mentioning douens and golems]. It was fun to come onto a show that has so much mythology and so many stories to highlight. And I think one of the goals for this season was just to lean into that a bit and make reference to where we’ve been and - [sentence cuts off abruptly, presumably as they go to the ad break]

AH: There’s Jayne [who plays Gloria]. I liked writing for her as well, she has an interesting role as a character where she can say some things that no one else gets to say. SW: Yeah, totally free of pretence

SW: It’s interesting about Audrey and Nathan’s relationship. It makes me think that in a lot of ways - I certainly hope the show comes back, but we were writing it to 5.26 imagining that it might not, and wanting to wrap it up in a satisfying way. And, as all shows do, or certainly supernatural shows as they age they become much more serialised, and you can see how much more serialised we’re getting here. And it allowed us to take Audrey and Nathan to a new level, because we didn’t have to build up from there. But if the show comes back, it will come back in a way from 5.26 that has to be reinvented; it coudln’t be the same show. The stakes get too big AH: Yeah we can’t just pick up from where 5.26 left; so much has changed, so much is different. SW: No, I mean, we bring in William Shatner, that’s now big it gets. The Captain himself.

AH: So again we’re ratcheting up the tension here SW: Yeah, if 5.09 was structured as a farce, this is structured as a disaster movie.

AH: It’s interesting, five seasons into a show, getting to see how characters grow and change. Like Speed was saying, it becomes more serialised. And just to see how far Dwight’s come since his first episode when he was a fixer in the background. SW: Yeah, huge change. AH: And he’s now in charge of the Guard, in charge of the police. He’s the hero of this town and he has to act like it. Big decisions, big pressure. SW: And we did that because he let us. He came out of wrestling, never really having acted before, and just did a phenomenal job. And every time we gave him a new inflection, he really delivered. So we really came to feel that there was nothing we could give him to do that he wouldn’t just hit out of the park, and he did. He has a long career in Hollywood if he wants it. AH: For sure.

AH: Now I don’t remember exactly what the combination is on this lock [on the safe in the police station with the aether in], but I do know it’s a Stephen King reference. And this was fun for me to write [as Mara and Duke hid under the desk when Dwight comes in]; inadvertent sexiness. And I’m sure it’s going to be OK that Mara knows the combination to the safe now. SW: She’ll keep it to herself. AH: Exactly, she’s a very private person.

AH: I like Conrad Coates’ wardrobe here; he’s rocking that yellow tie with the yellow shirt there. Very different palette. And these were some of the issues, you know that maybe somebody influenced a political campaign, the Troubles in other parts of the world besides Haven, when we came up with the idea of the shroud, this was an answer to what’s happening outside Haven with the Troubles.

AH: Peter Palek is named after a doctor friend of mine, a good friend of mine, Gary Palek. And I’ve named a couple doctors after him in various shows. And we looked at Contagion the movie to get some of this nice research - and then of course, looked it up. But this R0 stuff [that Peter is writing up on the blackboard in the morgue] SW: And the other source of information that we had that was very helpful in these two episodes, is Adam has a close relationship with an epidemiologist in Canada, right? AH: Dr David Kelvin, my girlfriend’s father, is one of those WHO (World Health Organisation) doctors who travels around the world. He’s in China right now actually, there’s a bad outbreak there. So, if it goes really bad, then sorry you’re listening to this at the end of the world, but enjoy! [I feel the need at this point to note this was being recorded in 2015] SW: I love that the dude has a farm in the middle of nowhere in Canada in an undisclosed location, and suggests that everyone have such a place for armageddon. AH: Well the scariest thing was over Christmas I was told to stock up on tamiflu. But he was a great resource for some of this information on how diseases travel and how a CDC doctor would react. And odd fact about him is he wanted to be a screenwriter when he was younger, and ended up becoming a doctor instead. SW: Oh really! You can shoot him a freelance someday.

AH: Oh here we go, this was the scene that I wrote for the audition [Charlotte telling Dwight about tearing her containment suit in the middle of an outbreak in the Congo]. And she nailed it then and she nails it here again. And those were really the first scenes I wrote for Haven, and Speed gave me really good notes on them. I have to give huge props, and it helped so much to get that out of the way before I got to write this episode. So thank you again Speed. And there’s a reference to Cake Lady again! We love cake lady [the woman who everything she touches turns to cake] SW: She comes back in 26 doesn’t she? AH: I think so. SW: I hope she does. I haven’t seen a cut of 26 yet. AH: I have yet to see it as well. There’s a lot of cameos in 26 though. SW: There are; a lot of people involved. All shot in Canada. AH: Really good work by the two actors there in this scene. And props to Rick, the director as well.

[As Dwight is talking to Kirk in the hospital] AH: So this was an interesting bit of casting here, where we had numerous different characters in this role and it ended up working really well because Kirk continues on in the next two episodes. SW: Very prominently, and we’ve seen him before. AH: We have, and this was a different Guard member for a couple of drafts; it kept changing. Very happy where we ended up though.

[As Mara watches Charlotte leave the lab] AH: Now for everyone at home who’s seen the next few episodes, this is a big moment for Mara. SW: Huge. AH: Huge moment. She just saw … somebody who she’s kind of related to

[As Nathan and Peter talk to Dwight about how Peter is the source of the contagion and we see him struggling to stay calm about it] SW: We’ve always been interested (since I’ve been on the show starting from the beginning of season four) in people that you can’t Trouble Whisper. Shernold and I wrote an episode, 4.12, about a Troubled baby; you can’t Trouble Whisper a baby. And Adam did a great job here with someone that you can’t Trouble Whisper because Troubles work on emotions and Peter Palek is Asbergers - we never quite say it but, AH: He’s on the spectrum SW: Right

AH: I remember this was a later addition, this oxygen Trouble [Kirk’s Trouble sucking the oxygen out of the room], and it worked really well SW: It worked really well. Though we went back and forth about how Duke could actually move when everyone else was down. I forget what we added; oh he’s a scuba diver AH: There’s a scene that was added where he gasps for air at the open window. But we had gone through a bunch of things.

SW: Different Troubles are different in our universe. If someone dies in the middle of expressing a Trouble, some people the Trouble dies with them, other people it can live past them. We think it makes sense. AH: I think so. It was interesting coming on to the show because everything is well thought out. Nothing is random. There’s so much logic behind everything. The history of Troubles of how everything happened in previous episodes is all thought about, nothing is discarded, everything has to line up. And it was interesting to come on board and find how to tell these stories within those margins and those rules. Which I thought made for better stories.

AH: Now Nathan here is not remembering what you learn on an airplane that you should put the oxygen mask on yourself first. SW: He isn’t, but there was only one. He had to put it on his beloved.

AH: So here’s Duke taking a big breath out the window before he goes inside the hospital SW: His pearl diving. For black pearls.

AH: I love the shaky camera work here [to show the lack of oxygen]. Really good work by Rick. SW: Absolutely. I wonder how he shot that; is that a Go Pro on her chest? When you see their arms in front. AH: I think you’re right I think it would have to be. SW: Rick our director was a camera operator and then a DP and then a director, and you can really see that the camera work is just exceptional.

[As Peter is talking to Duke with Mara outside the hospital] SW: This ability of Duke’s has been quite the story engine for us over the years. It’s a real curse, to get a great benefit from killing somebody. What do you do? It’s a moral dilemma of the highest sort. And we’ve done a lot of flavours on it, but we hadn’t done this yet, where Mara forces the issue. Super cool, you did a really good job on this Adam. AH: And that ability, the fact that Duke is special, that Duke is different from everyone else, really builds for the end of this season and then even into the next SW: Much more so for his finale, so to speak AH: I really liked this a lot how all of the Troubles aren’t just powers they are actually curses, things you wouldn’t want to have. And they’re emotional, everything is routed in emotion, and there are places for the characters to go because of that.

AH: So there was originally an additional scene. This [where Dwight wakes up on the lab floor and Charlotte finds him] was not initially the last scene between Dwight and Dr Cross here, we went further on the first draft of this episode where they actually kiss. SW: Oh I had forgotten that. We just have to wait until 5.11 I guess right? AH: It might be 5.12 I think. But it would have been too fast to have it here. It was a great choice to wait. And the chemistry between Audrey and Nathan here is great. I loved writing them as a couple.

Nathan, on screen; “Things are finally starting to look up.” AH: Oh, can’t have that, things can’t go too well in Haven. Audrey; *coughing fit*

AH: And it was fun to tidy up this episode with all these little coda scenes at the end because  there’s just so much more coming. SW: And I just love this scene Adam [Mara talking to Duke in the front seat of the landrover], really, it’s the kind of emotional scene that we don’t get to do too often. It’s very real. It takes a supernatural thing where he had to kill this guy, and talks about the manipulation behind it. AH: It was interesting, I do believe personally from a writing standpoint that with Mara there is some honesty here. There is some truth in what she’s saying. SW: Yeah. AH: This isn’t just her trying to trick somebody. And that’s a fun device too, of Mara knowing everything that Audrey did, having all of Audrey’s memories. It’s a really unique way of utilising a character when you can flip their perspective completely and you still have all of that context. Mara, to Duke; “We’re on our own.” AH: It’s fun to think of this through the filter of what Mara just saw, seeing her mom.

[travllingbunny]

The 100 6x02: Red Sun Rising

This is my second time watching this episode - I first saw it a month ago, together with 6x01, when they leaked, and I’m glad I saw the two of them together, because I had mixed feelings on 6x01, but 6x02 was amazing.

This is what I wanted from season 6, and what I hope to see more of: character-focused episodes with characters forced to deal with their issues and repressed feelings, likely due to weird goings-on on the planet - like Day Trip on overdrive. The episode also had very interesting flashbacks to the history of the people on the planet, descendants of the Eligius III mission, and hints about many of the mysteries of the planet.

The toxin was a great way to shake up the characters and their relationships and for repressed issues to come to light. My theory on why Murphy was the only one who turned out to be unaffected is that the toxin brings our repressed issues and resentments, but Murphy indulges in negativity and bitterness towards both himself and others when he's in the normal state of mind, so he was fine. Instead, he showed the nicer, more heroic side of him. Which, one may argue, is what he is repressing.

Speaking of which, I’m still not sure what exactly to think about Murphy’s complaints against Clarke. Some people have argued that all of them make sense in a way - from Murphy’s point of view, anyway. But the things he mentioned range from perfectly legitimate complaints to things I can’t make sense of. And most of them are incredibly skewed and one-sided views of events - similar to what happens when haters in the fandom try to mount arguments to prove a character is horrible. Like blaming Clarke for Bellamy hanging him, because she kind of caused it by blaming Murphy for Wells’ death (as if it’s hard to understand why she lost it over her best friend’s death, after Murphy had threatened Wells), even though she didn’t expect people to actually try to kill him, and did her best to stop it; or blaming her for tying up him and Emori and planning to test her in the radiation chamber (which was actually done by a bunch of people including Abby, Miller, Jackson, now-dead Roan, and Raven didn’t exactly do anything to stop it except verbally protest), even though she instead decided to test herself and risk her life (and was the only one who volunteered for it - while Emori got another guy tested and killed). And I can’t even make sense of the remark about him being tied up while she was with Lexa, and why he called himself “disposable in her games”. WTF? How is Titus kidnapping and torturing him Clarke’s fault? It’s been argued that he blames her for leaving him with Ontari after she left with the Flame to look for Luna, but that’s not what he said. And I’m really done with people using the nickname “Commander of Death” as an insult. Clarke got it because she did everything to save the Delinquents, Raven, Abby, Kane and others, while Murphy was off on a pointless road trip with Jaha. Also, irradiating Mount Weather was the right decision, because the only alternative was letting the Mountain Men win and kill everyone, and finally, Bellamy and Monty also made the same decision and bear the same responsibility for killing all of the Mountain Men.

So, I’m not sure if Murphy really meant all he said, or was just being a d1ck as usual, venting his frustrations and trying to get a rise out of people. But the moment he saw Clarke trying to kill herself, he did everything to stop her, and later they were saving each other when Bellamy went psycho and attacked them both.

I loved the callback to 3x05 Hakeldama. (”People die when I’m in charge.... Isn’t that what you said?”) Clarke remembers Bellamy's words, even after 6+ years. She was obviously quite hurt and thought about it a lot, even though they've never discussed it since.

Clarke's hallucination reminded me a lot of what ALIE!Raven told her in 3x11 - the same idea of her being poison to others and causing the deaths of people close to her. (Although this time Wells and Finn were not explicitly mentioned - only Jake Griffin and Lexa were - among people close to her that died, but they were arguably indirectly mentioned as Clarke’s hallucination said that people die trying to protect you. The idea that Jake’s actions were motivated by wanting his daughter to think of him as a good guy is something we haven’t heard before. It may be a sign that Clarke does not completely idealize him as she seemed to do. I’ve said in my season 4 rewatch reviews that season 4 (and 3b) mentions of Lexa seemed pretty idealized, but those since have made more sense: in season 5, the mention of Lexa’s betrayal at Mount Weather and long-delayed apology, and now, “Lexa died for the same reason” (wanting Clarke to see her as a good guy) is accurate to what their relationship was like in season 3, which indicates that Clarke is .)  On some level, Clarke really has internalized the idea that she needs to save the others from herself, as these are now the things her own subconsciousness is telling her, which she heard as the voice of her mother, telling her to kill herself so she wouldn’t get Madi killed..

It would be interesting to know what exactly Bellamy's hallucination was. He attacked Murphy and Clarke, but he was talking weird/confused stuff about trying to save people. Bellamy's guiding motivation has always been trying to save people, and feeling bad for failing to do it. But I'm sure he also has repressed resentment towards Clarke, even though he forgave her for leaving him last season - he may not have fully forgiven her in his heart. And I'm sure he also has unresolved feelings from the time he blamed himself for leaving her behind and he believed she was dead. He said something weird about how he won't be the one to die this time - but he wasn't. No doubt he's also been annoyed with Murphy quite often, even though they are friends (as of season 5) and we saw Bellamy try to help Murphy to be more positive and love himself in 5x01, but he probably sometimes just felt fed up with Murphy's disruptive and negative behavior. His hallucination seems to have made Murphy a real threat to the group in Bellamy's mind. "I'm saving us, from both of you".

Bellamy also yelled at Clarke, just as he was stepping from the doors of the room where Echo was locked up with Emori, “In case you didn’t notice, Clarke, I don’t need you anymore” - words likely to hurt her as this is something she feared and at one point came to believe during season 5. But it also felt a lot like what we like to call “protesting too much”. Interesting thing to note, Bellamy never told Clarke that he needed her, at any point during the 5+ seasons - it was always Clarke telling him she needed him, or that they needed each other, which he did not deny.

Echo's hallucination and Emori's taunting were both about the fact that Echo is always the follower who does everything for whatever 'master' she attaches herself to. Finally a meaningful character moment for her. The voices she heard were talking about things we'll probably see more of in her flashbacks. She may have an identity crisis and will probably have to try to figure out who she is on her own.

Side note: There is speculation that Echo may have been the one who killed Costia, Lexa's girlfriend, who, as we know, was tortured and killed at Nia's orders and then her head was left in Lexa's bed. This may be the case because the line "Bring me her head" was stressed and repeated twice. At this point, this wouldn't have any bearing on the plot, but it would be a little reveal for the audience to connect some things from the past.)

Emori's hallucination was all about people trying to kill her, which makes sense with her backstory. First she attacked Murphy because she thought he was going to kill her, then she warned Echo and Clarke that Bellamy would kill them all. But she also cruelly taunted Echo, just like Bellamy taunted Murphy and Clarke.

Miller is another person besides Clarke who was turning the violence on himself. During his psychosis, he was yelling that he didn't want to finish like Obika - the man who died last season after being infected by the mutated worms (eww). He was trying to get the bugs/worms out of his skin - which is also connected to his guilt over the things he did and participated in as Blodreina's follower. Jackson also believed Miller had bugs under his skin and was stabbing him to try to get them out. He and Miller were sharing the same hallucination (what is known as folie a deux, shared psychosis, or literally, madness shared by two). As they pointed out in their conversation in 6x01, Miller was the one who did things, while Jackson felt guilty for not stopping things - and not he was trying to intervene save his boyfriend, in his capacity as a doctor.

Clarke and Bellamy are likely to have some interesting conversations next episode, after they woke up, and Bellamy was obviously shocked by realizing what he did to her and to Murphy, and that she had to stab him to stop him.

BTW, now we know what the writers came up with to explain Bob Morley’s leg injury. 

Interesting visual of Bellamy, Clarke and Murphy after Clarke had knocked them out all with a gas:

Octavia is in a really bad emotional place. She clearly feels guilty,,but won't admit it, and instead lashes out, blames and antagonizes the others, provoking them to punish her - even kill her. In the season 5 finale, she wanted a redemptive heroic death, but didn't get it. Living with her guilt, admitting her mistakes, changing, that's much harder. She would rather die.

Also, Octavia on her knees, asking for death, was reminiscent of Bellamy in Day Trip during his hallucination. Is Octavia finally going to have the character development he had seasons ago? But first, she needs to realize that sins don't get "washed away" if you're successful in your intention to get your people to their destination, which seemed to have been her guiding idea during season 5 and the reason why she was so obsessed with being the one to take them to Eden.

Diyoza was amazing as always. I usually don't like to use the word "badass", but what else do I call her? She's direct, no-nonsense, a great military strategist, snarky... what's not to love?

Madi had quite a badass entrance, too. We’ll see how she’ll deal with her ambiguous role of being officially a Commander, while the adults are actually making leadership decisions and leaving her behind to be protected as a child, but Gaia found a nice way to make it look different when she agreed with Abby’s decision to leave her in the ship for protection with “You’re too important, Heda”.

Abby showed her ruthless side when she blackmailed Diyoza with the option of not helping with the birth of her child, and when just sat there while Octavia was getting beaten up, and only finally intervened when she was about to get killed, and Jordan and Niylah were yelling at her to stop it... and even that may have been because she had it pointed out that this was what Octavia wanted. She probably has a lot of rage from Kane's clinical death/almost-death that Octavia kind of caused.

The surviving hijacker said that the trees eat the bugs.(They have eaten them all by now) Interesting planet.

The hijackers are all Nightbloods, as you would expect from descendants of the Eligius mission. So who is the radiation fence supposed to keep out? If the people in the woods are red-bloods, how did that happen?

The hijackers were really concerned with the dead bodies, and in a way that seems to go way beyond normal reverence for human remains. Diyoza told the survivor "Newsflash, they're dead", but I think these people have a way of recreating dead people by cloning or something similar - however, they would also need a way to recreate the consciousness, because otherwise, clones are just identical twins, not the same people.

A lot of the evidence for this comes from the flashback, which was really interesting and full of reveals:

The Eligius mission was on the planet 236 years ago, which means they came to the planet before the first nuclear apocalypse, which happened 229 years ago (97 years + about 6 months that passed from 1x01 to 4x13 + 6 years + 125 years).

Josephine Ada Lightbourne (they made sure that we know that’s her name) and her astronaut father (played by Sean Maguire) are strikingly similar to Clarke and her father, and not just physically. She even draws like Clarke. I still think that Lightbournes may be related to the Griffins, If they are not, then this was deliberately done to draw the parallels.

Josephine Ada Lightbourne is also the name of the author of the Red Sun Rising book - even though the book could have only been written after the first psychosis incident that we see in the flashback, and it seemed that Josie got killed by her father during his psychosis, alongside her mother a bunch of other people.

Speculation based on info from the trailers, promo and details about the next episode:

Josephine was a taxonomist, and her boyfriend, Dr Gabriel Santiago, was a geneticist, and the next episode is called "Children of Gabriel"... Gabriel also mentioned that they have embryos for reproduction, which means they brought fully formed embryos to the planet, or created them there. But if they have been trying to replicate dead humans for two centuries (since Sean Maguire's character killed so many of the members of the mission), they have to have some sort of a method of transferring consciousness, too, because otherwise, clones are just like identical twins, not the same people. Russell (JR Bourne), the leader of the people from the Sanctum, is obviously the descendant of Maguire’s character, both because of his looks and because the trailer revealed his last name Lightbourne.

My impression, based on the info from trailers etc., is that Russell's people are elitist, self-righteous a-holes who decide that only some are 'worthy' to live in their "Paradise". But it's interesting that "Lightbourne" means something very similar to "Lucifer" (or vice versa - the latter is "light bearer"). This doesn't exactly scream trustworthy good guys, and neither does the attitude we see from the trailer, or the fact that they dress like people from the Capitol and live in something that looks like a castle from a Renaissance Fair. And if they really do have a way of re-creating dead humans, would put a whole new meaning to the whole Sanctum thing and the divide between those within and those outside (the people in the woods?) that Russell's people have exiled/are not letting in as unworthy! Stakes are really high if they are basically deciding who the chosen ones are with the right to "live forever".

Rating: 9.5/10

[why-this-kolaveri-machi]

Fic: Come As You Are (1/11)

THIS IS FINALLY HERE OH MY GOD. 

Summary: A series of codas/tags/missing scenes to every episode of the first season of TItans. In the first episode, our protagonists are moving towards each other, but first, they each navigate the existential nightmare that is their own mind.

Warnings: SPOILERS for the whole series, some swearing, lot of dense parenthetical nonsense and fancy formatting. Dick and Rachel marinate in their own anxiety. I’ve also taken the liberty to fill in some gaps that were left by canon.

this is meant to be a companion series to my episode recap series. i’m in the midst of my worst writer’s block ever--it took two whole months just to write this chapter; i’m still far from happy with it, but if i looked at it anymore i was going to scream--but i hope to finish both the recap series and this fic series before s2 airs this fall. 

(s/o to @cautiousamber whose continued love for the show and for what it's doing delights me always)

Come As You Are

1.01

Strange things live inside Rachel’s head.

When she was little, people around her would come to her in her dreams in coloured silhouettes, glowing and wailing, ripped into pieces by monsters that lurked in the shadowy corners of her mind. As she grew, the figures grew more refined, more recognisable, but they never stopped screaming; when she heard words, it was only the monster that spoke.

I WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU, RACHEL

The years passed, and the dreams started to leak into the real world: she would see strange, fresh scars on Melissa’s arms while trembling in her arms after another DREAM; hazy, coloured halos followed people she knew and horrible things happened to people she hated; the monster would stare back at her in the mirror now, eyes inky black, leaking venom into her veins. TRUST ME, the monster would say, calm while everybody else screamed, and Rachel, well. After a point, she forgot to scream, too.

Then one night, she dreams of a little boy on the trapeze who watches his parents fall to their deaths, and the monster does something it has never done before: it laughs.

-

“Master Dick, I trust you received the package I sent you last week?”

Dick idly doodles a large ‘R’ on his notepad while wedging his phone between his shoulder and his ear. “I did, Alfred, it came in just this morning. Thanks. I, uh,” he makes the edges sharper, the ends like knife blades, “I should’ve called to let you know earlier.”

“Yes,” Alfred says crisply, “You should have.”

He twists the pad until it looks like the R is in motion, bounding across the page. Two tables over, Detective Oyode flings a casefile onto his desk in disgust. Across the room, Johnson is eyeing Dick with suspicious disdain. The air is heavy with the smell of stale coffee; there’s a lingering whiff of cigarette smoke from the balcony where Carter, Takashi and Mulligan take smoke breaks twice every hour, on the dot. The floor buzzes with steady chatter, the clicking of computer keys and ringing phones. Dick’s active cases tray is screamingly empty.

“I’ve been busy,” he says. “Settling in, and all that.”

“I see.” A pregnant pause. “And I suppose your new responsibilities as a police detective is the only reason you requested that I send over your modified batarangs?”

“Birdarangs,” Dick says, without thinking.

“Ah. Yes.” Alfred’s voice turns fond. “It’s been well over a decade since you came up with that convention, Master Dick; I must confess that it is good to hear it again. More than anything… it is reassuring to see that you haven’t decided to retire Robin altogether.”

A knot of anxiety tightens somewhere behind Dick’s sternum. This is about as secure a line as he can get without actually using the comms in his Robin suit, but it’s still jarring to hear someone just—just say it aloud like that. Especially after—

Dick’s grip on his pen tightens and he scores across the ‘R’ with such ferocity that the nib tears through the paper. Johnson’s put his coffee mug aside and is starting to walk in his direction and if Dick tenses any more he’s sure he’s going to do something he’ll regret. “Sorry, Alfred,” he says. “Something’s come up; I gotta go.”

“Very well, Master Dick. I hope that you will continue to keep in touch.”

“Bye.” He slips the phone in his pocket, gets up, and tosses his ruined pad in the wastebin. He neatly sidesteps Johnson, swipes the abandoned casefile from Oyode’s desk, and hurries out of the precinct.

-

(it’s all right. you’re beautiful.)

Now that (she’s) put some distance between (her) and (her) attackers (hot metal projectiles where there should be nothing but fire, but she can’t—she can’t—), the molten panic that’s been fuelling (her) escape abates, just a little. (She) slows to a walk, pulling (her) coat close.

(it’s cold, but she’s known colder.)

The further (she) walks from the woods, the less desolate it is. There are more buildings here and more people, turning to look at (her) as (she) walks by them. Almost on instinct, (she) turns into a gas station and makes (her) way into the bathroom, coming to a stop in front of a grimy mirror. (She) is all edge and glorious skin, shining and sharp.

(beautiful. you will know it. and more importantly, they will too.)

(She) empties her purse to find documents and keys and a dozen little opaque clues as to (her) identity. (She) is Kory Anders, and the name is both everything and nothing at all. It is everything because it fits, slots into place effortlessly in her mind like she’s known it all along, but doesn’t trigger a cascade of memories, or anything other than flashes of light and bone-deep cold (and unimaginable pain).

No matter. She is Kory Anders, and this is as good a starting point as any. Besides, she is sure that the real her has a taste for adventure.

-

When the fight’s over, Dick changes into regular clothes a couple of dead-end alleyways over and limps back to his car, trying very hard not to think about Batmobiles, or Batcaves, or anything bat-related whatsoever. His shoulders ache with tension and his knuckles feel pulverised—he isn’t quite used to being the ones delivering all the punches yet. There’s blood and glass in his hair and the acrid stench of used smoke pellets lingers around him like a miasma; he’s stuffed his costume and weapons back in the case, but there are still red smears around the lock and—

—he’s not even entirely sure he’s managed to leave the site of the fight clean; or if he’s gotten all the security cams in the alley; it’s been so long since he’s done this and even longer since he’s done it alone—

(All right. Deep breath. Deep breath. Another one. And another one.)

Everything feels even more absurd when, later in the night, he’s stuck in downtown traffic, trying to breathe past bruised ribs and the bite of glass shards in his fingers. It wasn’t supposed to be like this; moving this far from Gotham was supposed to be the start of a clean break. He’d been slowly working up to visiting Wayne Manor one more time (one last time, but he can’t—he can’t bring himself to—) to return the Robin costume, trying to reconcile the memories of safety and comfort he had under Bruce and Alfred’s care with yawning isolation of that gigantic mansion, the stomach-dropping terror that he would be abandoned (again) if he failed (again), and the anger that never seemed to stop simmering regardless of how much he punched, how much he cried, how much he laughed.

Being Robin without Batman feels like something vital’s been cut out of him, but just being Dick Grayson isn’t enough for all the evil in the world.

Dick stumbles into his apartment building, trying very hard not to make carrying a giant silver briefcase in the dark seem suspicious. He enters his apartment—dangerously open to the world but devoid of shadows—and lets himself slump onto the sofa. He’s going to (clean his costume and equipment, scrub the security cam feeds, clean the car of bloodstains and evidence, destroy the copy of Oyode’s file that he’d made, type up a report for his personal log) but for now he closes his eyes and—breathes.

Just—

Just for a minute.

-

The city is drab and cold in ways Rachel is entirely unused to; for some reason, she thinks of old white bedsheets turned grey from use and wear and repeated washing over years and years. Melissa ripped one of them into rags the last time Rachel DID SOMETHING STUPID, knocked over a vase, cut her hand on the shattered pieces, and dripped blood all over the kitchen floor. Melissa’d spent an entire afternoon scrubbing at bloodstains, refusing to answer to Rachel’s tearful apologies. (The voice told her to break the next vase over Melissa’s head, which made Rachel want to vomit.)

Melissa had washed the blood out of those rags as thoroughly as she could, leaving them even more dirty-grey than they were. That’s what the city looks like: wrung of colour, washed and washed again into grey submission—

“We’re here,” the officer in the front seat of the car says, dropping Rachel abruptly out of her thoughts. She’s taken into the precinct and asked to sit inside a windowless room; it isn’t until the officer that’s trying to get her attention touches her shoulder and she flinches, light and sound and terror rushing in, that the numbness abates and the voice snarls KILL HIM!

can’twon’tdon’t—

The officer looks shocked for a moment before his expression softens and he backs away. “Somebody will come talk to you now, okay?” he says, and leaves. Rachel waits and picks at the fraying edges of her sleeves, wishing—not for the first time—that she’d brought her phone along. It’s not like she has anybody to call, really; she just wants something to do that’s not staring at the walls (of an interrogation room, this is an interrogation room) and trying not to think about how desperately alone she is right now.

A few minutes later, Detective Dick Grayson walks in and introduces himself. Rachel jolts at the sight of him; she can hardly hear what he’s saying over the chorus of holy shit! holy shit! that’s taken over her mind, because holy shit—this is the little boy on the trapeze. He glows blood-red, and every movement of his leaves behind smudges of light and colour and life in this otherwise cement-grey room.

She holds his hands, tells him, you’re the boy from the circus; he frowns, but doesn’t tell her she’s crazy, or stupid, or BADWRONGEVIL. Dick Grayson promises to help her, and for the first time since watching her mother fall to the floor with a bullet hole through her head, Rachel feels hope.

-

Kory Anders is on a plane to the United States.

Twelve hours ago, she didn’t know her name; now she not only has an identity, but a destination, a purpose (a mission). Everything from swiping cards to speaking a dozen different tongues to summoning fire to her fingertips to the clean, beautiful effortlessness of throwing an asshole across a hotel room has been… intuitive; she thinks as she does, moves as she feels, learns as she touches. She doesn’t know what she will find when she lands (knows without really knowing that where she is going is both impossibly vast and comically small) but she’s going to start with looking for the girl in the photo and see where that leads her.

(--to a bubble suspended in infinite nothingness, shackles around her wrists and feet—)

And if that means burning up a few more entitled assholes along the way, so be it.

[katymacsupernatural]

Love is in the Air Chapter 6

Jared Padalecki x Reader

1300 Words

Story Summary:Jared is a Flight Attendant, one of the best in the country. Y/N is one of the hottest Hollywood stars. Both intensely attracted to each other, but prejudices get in the way. Can Jared get past his idea of how Y/N should be? Can Y/N show Jared that she’s not the normal actress, but one who is shy and down to Earth, giving them a chance at love?  

Catch Up Here: Masterpost

Your good mood stayed the entire cab drive as you made your way to the studio. You were so glad things were better between you and Jared, and you hoped that dinner with him would go well. You really liked him. He was kind, and handsome, and he didn’t seem to like you because you were a famous actress. It seemed like all your recent boyfriends had been interested in your social status more than who you really were. It had been that fact that made you weary to new relationships, wanting something real. And that seemed like it could happen with Jared.

Stepping out of the cab, you walked into the busy studio, waving at the secretary who buzzed you right in. Taking a deep breath, you stepped into the main office, which bustled with life. You could see the writers in their own little conference room, going over the final script, their fingers covered in ink as they crossed out words and argued over what was better.

Across from them was your favorite department, the costume department. This movie would have amazing dresses and outfits, and you couldn’t wait to see them. Towards the back was where the producer, director and anyone else in charge of the movie kept their offices, and that’s where you made your way.

This movie was unique in the fact that everything was happening in one building, but that’s what had made you interested in it to begin with. Everything about this movie seemed to draw you in, and even if it bombed in the theaters, you hoped that it would be something you could be proud of.

“There’s our girl!” Andy, the producer of the show exclaimed, coming forward to air kiss your cheeks, holding on to your shoulders. “Even prettier than I remembered!”

“Hi Andy,” you smiled up at him, the smile quickly disappearing when you saw Tony in the main conference room, winking when he noticed you staring at him. “Andy, how long does Tony have to stay?”

“Oh, that’s right! He said the two of you flew in together,” Andy muttered, running his hand along his beard. “He says you’re totally into him.”

You felt comfortable enough with Andy that you knew you could tell him anything, and it would go no farther. “I think he’s into me. But Andy, he’s kind of threatened me, blackmailed me into a date with him. Is there something you can do?”

Sighing, Andy frowned. “Y/N, he’s our main sponsor. If we make him mad, this whole picture could go down in the drain.”

“But Andy, he can’t treat me like this!” You argued, just as the conference door opened, and Tony, along with Simon, the director.

“There she is!” Tony exclaimed, pulling you into a hug. Feeling awkward and uncomfortable, you stood there stiffly until he pulled away and Simon shook your hand.

“You are right. She is the perfect Abigail,” he stated, looking you up and down. But his look didn’t feel predatory, like Tony’s did.

“She’s absolutely stunning,” Tony agreed.

“Come on Y/N, we have some drawings of the costumes we want to show you,” Simon insisted, pulling you into the conference room, with Tony and Andy following behind.

The rest of your day was spent in that conference room, going over the script, the costumes, adding any ideas as they problem solved. It felt good, to have your voice be heard, to be a part of the process and not just the actress who followed her queues.

You hated how Tony’s gaze seemed to follow your every movement. There were times he would come to stand beside you, his hand resting on your lower back as you glanced over something, making your skin crawl. You wanted nothing more than to slap his hand away, to kick him out of the office, but you couldn’t. Andy had seemed to make that clear.

So when Andy and Simon left, leaving you alone with Tony, you tried to stay on your side of the table, as far away from him as possible. As you peered down in amazement at the costume design, you noticed the room darkening, and you glanced up to see him lowering the blinds, locking the door.

“Tony, what are you doing?” You asked him, but he just smiled your way, continuing on his mission to lower all the blinds. “I’m going to go get a cup of coffee,” you muttered heading to the door, but before you could reach it, he reached out, grasping your arm, halting your movement.

“I don’t think so,” he insisted. “This is our first chance alone together, and I’ve been wanting to do this all day.”

Pushing you until your back was flat against the wall, he trapped you with one hand above your head. Licking his lip, he leaned down, pressing his slimy wet lips to yours as you struggled to get away. “Tony, stop!” You exclaimed, fighting harder when you felt his hand on your waist, moving up your skin, dangerously close to your bra. “No!” You screamed, getting enough strength to push him away.

Breathing heavily, you raced across the room, throwing open the door, running into a startled Andy and Simon. Pointing back to Tony, you stared at them with wide eyes. “Get rid of him, now!” You insisted, drawing the attention of the entire office.

“Now Y/N, whatever happened, we can deal with this. Just calm down, and we’ll talk.”

“No,” you spat. “I don't need to calm down. That man can’t keep his hands to himself, and I want him removed from this office!”

“I don’t know what she’s talking about,” Tony argued, coming out of the conference room, staring down at you with a wicked glint in his eyes. “She threw herself at me. Probably after me for my money, but who was I to say no to a nice piece of ass.”

“That’s not true!” You argued, your voice rising. “This man has pushed himself on me, not once but twice. He’s degrading, and has been nothing but rude to me. If you don’t remove him, then..”

“Then what?” Tony prodded? “You remove me, and this movie won’t get made. No money, no movie. Make your choice.”

Heartbroken that it was coming to this, you felt a tear slip down your cheek. “Andy, please,” you pleaded with your friend, who stared at you with guilt in his eyes. “You know I wouldn’t lie.”

“I know Y/N, but we need his money,” he answered, sealing your fate.

“I was looking forward to working on this movie,” you told them. “But I can’t work in an office that allows a man to harass the women in here. It’s not right, and I wish I had proof so I could have this guy thrown in jail where he belongs.”

“Y/N, what are you saying?” Simon asked, his arms crossed as he stared cooly your way.

“Looks like you’re going to need to hire another actress. Because I won’t stay here. I can’t, and risk the chance that this asshole can’t keep it in his pants. So, I quit,” you muttered, before shoving past them and walking out the door.

It wasn’t until you were back in the sunshine, waiting for another cab to rescue you, that what just happened dawned on you. With tears streaming down your cheeks, you slid into the cab, giving them the address of your friends house.

It was hard, knowing that you had done the right thing. You had given up your dream role, but you couldn’t stay there. Not with that man who wouldn’t take no for an answer.

Sam/Jared Tags:@a-girl-who-loves-disney @barbedwireandbubblegum @imagine-inc @kay18115 @musicalsarelove @lenaabs @lovesamwinchester @mereka18 @sadmac356 @shadowhunter7 @shawnsassymendes-main @sireennotsiren @sizzlingbearpolice @sortaathief

Love is in the Air Tags:@deansgirl215 @eleven-eleven-make-your-wish @i-is-for-inspiring @iamnotsaneatall @imascio08 @is-that-a-gas-leak-or-a-demon @jordannicole56 @kay18115 @lizmalfoywayland @luciferslucille @phoenixia67 @pjofangirl18 @shaelyn102 @shamelesslydean @tiffanycaruso @that-really-awkward-dinosaur @troubletrumble

Forever Tags: @16wiishes @4401lnc @amanda-teaches @andreaaalove @angelsandwinchesters @artisticpoet @atc74 @be-amaziing @bemyqueenofdarkness @bohowitch @brooke-supernatural16  @brunettechick @camelotandastronauts @captainradicalpassion @chelsea072498 @clairese1980 @captainemwinchester @createdbybadappreciation @darthdeziewok @destiels-new-girl @donnaintx @dont-you-dare-say-misha @dslocum89 @duckieburns @docharleythegeekqueen @emmazach @emilicious-7 @emoryhemsworth @ericaprice2008  @essie1876 @generalgoldfishldrm @goldenolaf25 @growningupgeek @hms-fangirl @imboredsueme @internationalmusicteacher @ithinkimadorable-67 @iwriteaboutdean  @jayankles @jbbarnesgirl @jensen-gal @just-another-busy-fangirl @karlee-fay-my-wayward-son @keelzy2 @li-ssu @littleblue5mcdork  @lowlyapprentice @luciferslucille @mellowlandrunaway @mogaruke @my-squirrel-and-moose @nanie5 @newtospnfandom @oneshoeshort @percussiongirl2017 @pilaxia @pizzarollpatrol @plaid-lover-bay25 @rosegoldquintis @roxyspearing @samanddeanmyheroes @sandlee44 @shamelesslydean @sillesworldofwriting @sgarrett49 @skyewardolicitycloisdelena91 @spnbaby-67 @spn-dean-and-sam-winchester @spnwoman @sunskittlex @superbadassnatural @tardis-full-of-fallen-angels @teamfreewill92 @thebikiniinspector @thing-you-do-with-that-thing @tmccarney @totallovelesson @tunadean @vvinch3st3r @wildlandfox @winchesterbrothers-inc @winchesterxtwo @winchester-writes @worldwidehansum @zombiewerewolfqueen

[brimbrimbrimbrim]

Man, you’re "Underwear Earthquakes" fanfic was very intense to say the least. Lol. I know you probably get a lot of fanfic requests and you can’t get to each and every one of them so don’t worry about me throwing a bitch fit if this request doesn’t come true cause I won’t. But I gotta ask, do you think maybe you can do one that is vanilla? I’m thinking something like sensual, not rough, and very intimate. Preferably missionary position on a bed? Sexual diversity matters okay? Haha! XD

Thank you for the request, Anon! Sexual diversity does matter. I haven’t done anything this romantic with Wrench and LowRes yet so I was excited to give it a shot. I also threw you a curveball and did this from Wrench’s POV. Hope you like it!

Blood. Viscera. Broken skulls - sucking, crunching cranium shattering through slippery pink, streaked grey matter.

Heartbeats squelch fast in his ears.

His hands were black; bloodstained. Some power rock ballad was on. Heel soaked with hot internal bits and bobs.

As the epic guitar solo kicked in, a venomous warmth ran up his leg, and like some sadistic maniac, he kept slamming down, breaking more. Curb stomp.

STOMP!

Stomp.

…stomp…

That fucking bastard’s head went from swollen with bile and bullshit to flat and slippery, but when Wrench lifted the heel of his converse from the hollow bone with a sharp clink and chip, it wasn’t that racist shithead’s dead-eyes staring up at him…

‘What’re you doing, baby?’

That face - her cheeks and lips and jaw… how was she talking?

His sweet acorn. His port in the storm when hurricanes passed through his brain like bad memories and crushed glass… she was…

LowRes smiled a broken, red grin until her skin started to melt away and the music got heavy, and his heart felt like it was being destroyed in a juice grinder and-

Wrench jerked awake.

Reality hit him like an electric shock, laying him out flat with his fingers pounding in the sheets. Above him, the ceiling fan swung sluggishly, doing jackshit for the sheen of gross perspiration still leaking out of his pores. It felt like he’d been hung in a stagnant meat locker for several hours.

Wrench swallowed, feeling sandpaper where his esophagus was supposed to be. Throat fucked by a cactus…

A part of him still felt trapped in that nightmare but he blinked hard, and the room stayed the same.

Inhaling heavy and exhaling fast, he shifted into the pillows and stared down at himself. Claustrophobia was hitting him pretty hard. It felt like there was one of those three-hundred pounds Acme weights keeping his ribs from expanding.

Breathe in and out.

Every lungful felt like sucking down mist, but after awhile, it got easier to breathe. A line of sweat ran down the side of his forehead and more gathered on his upper lip - some old and some new. He licked it away until all he could taste was old trauma and salt.

The room was dark except for that one magnum-sized lava lamp glowing orange in the corner - that and the skinny glow of a full moon that was peeking through the pinned Dedsec flag draped over the window.

It was still dark out. Too late to roll into Low, wake her up with a raspberry and pretend he hadn’t had a bad dream in the first place, but not early enough to slip out and get them gas station coffee… maybe slip a cigarette or two to quench the lingering nerves. He was stuck in that limbo place between no fucks to give and thinking it was time to just curl up in a ball and cry like a little bitch kid.

He sighed, swallowed smoothly again and dragged a scabby palm down his face, collecting leftover sweat and leaving an ache behind his eyes…

…that had been a nasty one.

You can read the rest (all 4.5k) at AO3 HERE. You can, if you want, tip your writer HERE.

[asflowersfade]

MacGyver, episode 209. Or, spoilers ahoy!

I pretty much skipped everything Bozer related in this ep. I think that the writers really shot themselves in the foot with his arc. It proves that not only works the team really well without him but this time, nobody mentioned him even once and it didn’t feel like anything was missing. When you can send a character away for episodes on time and nothing changes in the main story - and when you have to do that to even make the character seem relevant - then said character is dead weight. I would love Bozer as a recurring character - similar to Jill, used when needed - but as a regular, he drags the whole episode down, IMO.

Theory: I think that the fact that Bozer’s brother shot himself will be revealed as the reason why Mac doesn’t like guns.

Riley and her father. This won’t end well, just sayin’. The moment he popped up at the Think Tank, it was obvious he had some hidden agenda. I do think that he loves Riley but I also think he loves himself much more. 

Theory: I think there will be a tracking/listening device/something in the album he gave Riley. I mean, why else would he risk raising her suspicion by visiting her at work? 

And now to the GOOD stuff. Or, the Mac & Jack & Cage & Matty part of the ep! *cracks knuckles* ALL the Mac & Jack scenes were gold, of course!

Mac, keeping secrets from Jack again? Boy, that will get you hurt one day for sure. But I’m glad he came clean and told Jack about the film after all. Even if he had to be pushed and prodded to do so. 

The scenes in the lab. Hilarious! 

Them stealing the car together, LOL! That was priceless!

Mac knows Jack so well. He immediately guessed that Jack went after Riley’s dad, that was hilarious!

And then the nerve gas part... Jack was so worried. He was willing to smash the glass and get a blast of the gas himself to get Mac out. 

And then the scene at the end, when Matty’s involvement was revealed. I wonder if Mac will tell Jack about it or if he’ll keep it a secret again. I bet the latter.

And the Mac & Cage scenes...

Gosh, Cage is good! The way she twisted the whole situation around and saved herself!

The scene in the lab, when Mac made the tear gas and promised her that he would have her back, that it would work. I loved that!

And how worried she was about Mac when he locked himself in the room with the gas!

And then the hospital scene. Why do I have the feeling that the phone call at the end had something to do with Mac? Was it Mac’s dad calling? Was it someone else? I mean, since they put the phone call in there, it must’ve had some reason. I hope that it had.

Theory: Cage - Mac’s sister or Mac’s future love interest? I would take either.

Stuff that I loved revealed in this ep:

Matty is actually connected to Mac’s storyline and in more ways that just by being his boss. It makes the whole thing more intriguing.

Cage has something going on, possibly Mac related, too, considering she received the phone call while she was sitting at his bedside? 

Mac will do anything to save his friends. We already knew that - see the beginning of ep 106 - but this time, he went as far as locking himself in a room with a leaking gas canister!

For future reference: Mac’s not afraid of physical pain if it means achieving his goal (saving people). He took scissors and literally rammed them into his own thigh to give himself an adrenaline boost and gain time to destroy the leaking gas. Wow. Need to remember that for his characterization in fics.

To sum it up (sheesh, this got long!): too much Bozer, too little whump but some great stuff  to feed the bunnies. I’ll really have to write some fics based on this episode. SO MUCH MATERIAL TO EXPLORE!

And on a shallow note? Lucas Till looked EXCEPTIONALLY pretty in this ep.

My favorite quotes?

I just love it when someone other than me is in the doghouse, that’s all.

Why do you gotta sprinkle nerd juice over every single game we play?

Is there any way to get your pencil pusher push those pencils any faster?

How long did it last till you were at his front doorstep, accosting him?

You’re nothing if not consistent. 

She would murder me and feed me to her dog. [Riley] has a dog? No, but she would get one just for this.

I do hate secrets. When I’m not in on them.

I know that. I’m just getting you riled up. It relaxes me.

Oh, come on, man. I thought we agreed there would be no Lone-Ranger-ing while we search for your dad.

Even the Lone Ranger needed help. And so do you. If you just asked for it.

Blondie, do your thing.

It’s leaking. Then get out of there! It’s too late. I’m already exposed.

He’ll think of something.

Matty?