#we were talking about her previous acting work and after a bit he goes ''do you know supernatural?''

[dreamingpartone]

btw I have to share with you guys. yesterday someone I work with told me his daughter was in the supernatural finale and I had to stand there and acknowledge that information like a normal person and not someone who has been on tumblr dot com the supernatural website for fourteen long years

[f1tales]

is it that sweet? i guess so - mv1

that's that me espresso || part two

previous part || next part

pairing: max verstappen x ofc!piastri

summary: oscar’s older sister is a singer, who’s taylor swift’s opening act for the eras tour. she goes to a few races on her break. she meets max; who thinks about her every night now. much to oscar’s annoyance.

face claim: sabrina carpenter

"You know people are on to us right?"

Ivy curled herself up to Max's side. She drew shapes on his chest. She looked up to meet Max's eyes. She bit her lip as she thought back to when Lando messaged her on Instagram just after the Australian Grand Prix.

She had been extrememly giddy when she entered the club for the Australian GP after party that Lando had invited her to. He had messaged her earlier about how Max wanted her number.

They had met briefly, but oh my god, Ivy was mesmerized by his deep blue eyes and adorable smile. Her hands were trembling as she made her way through the club to join Lando and his friends.

Max had been there.

And he had bought her drink, as Ivy had suggested he'd do before he went off to scold Lando for sliding in Ivy's DM's for him.

Ivy and Max ended up talking the entire night in the far corner of the VIP section of the fancy club. She decided she liked to hear him talk; she liked his accent. He had escorted her out of the club with a firm hand on the small of her back at two in the morning. He ordered a taxi for them to share and held her hand as they drove through the streets of Melbourne.

Max told the taxi driver to wait outside her building so he could walk her to the door. And okay, Ivy admits, the bar was set pretty low by her shitty exes, but it was one of the nicest things someone had done for her.

They had stood in silence for a while.

"I-," they laughed when they both spoke at the same time.

"Will you let me take you out tomorrow?" Max had asked as he held her hand.

Ivy had smiled at him, "I would. But I'm off to Perth to work on my next album." She squeezed his hand. She dropped his hand to fish a piece of paper out of her purse. She had shivered slightly; her sheer dress did nothing to keep her warm.

She had slipped the piece of paper in the pocket of his jacket. She then went to stand on her tiptoes and pressed her lips against his cheek.

"Good night, Max."

Max had then shown up in Perth just a couple of days after Ivy had arrived. Supposedly to go visit Daniel on his farm, but in reality he just couldn't stop thinking about the blonde singer.

And well, the rest is pretty much history.

Max had taken her to Daniel's farm for a couple of days before having to go to Japan to meet his friends. They had a ski trip planned, Max had wanted to cancel his plans. Ivy told him to go, that he was being ridiculous.

He went, but on the condition she would join him in Japan to watch the race in Suzuka.

And here they were. In Max's hotel room. The morning light was softly filtering through the room as Ivy continued to draw shapes on his chest.

"I didn't think we were being that obvious."

Ivy looked up at him with an eyebrow raised. Max had been anything but subtle about the whole thing. Liking her Instagram posts, commenting underneath them. And then talking about how much he liked her songs on his streams.

Max pulled her on top of him. "They're gonna be even more suspiscous when you watch the race from the Red Bull garage." He pulled her down so his lips could meet hers in a kiss. "I can't wait to see Oscar having an aneurysm when he sees you in the paddock."

The singer gasped, "Max!" She playfully hit him on the shoulder. "That's my brother." She sternly looked at him.

Max simply looked at her with raised eyebrows. He placed his arms behind his head as Ivy's face cracked and a smile crept on her face.

"God, it'll be so fun to see him lose his mind."

"We don't have to walk in together," Max looked at Ivy. She was chewing on her lip, something Max noticed she did when she was nervous or stressed. He grabbed her shaking hand and intertwined their fingers.

Ivy let out a relieved sigh, "I really do want to go public at some point. I just, my last relationship was so public and I,"

"Hey, hey, you don't have to justify it or apologise for it. I would also like to keep things between us for now."

He squeezed her hand three times just before the car came to a halt. Ivy leaned up to kiss his cheek, "I'll come see you before quali."

"Counting on it!"

Max winked before he got out of the car with his backpack strapped around his shoulders. Ivy waited a respectable five minutes before entering the paddock herself; a shiny Red Bull paddock pass hanging from her neck.

part 3 coming soon.

taglist: @mastermindbaby @charlesgirl16

[13thdoctorposts]

At some point 13 fans needs to actually put the numbers to paper on the era's audience numbers, because my recollection is that they're perfectly on par and at times even better than Capaldi's and several of the latest specials. I'm tired of haters whining about 'everyone hated it' when they mean misogynists targeted it and boycotted it from the very instance of a rumour that 13 would be a woman.

Peter Nolan from Blogtor Who did a post on the numbers after the airing of Power of the Doctor, in one section of the post he compares the Whittaker and Capaldi eras…

“It’s remarkable then, that the Whittaker era of Doctor Who is overall on course not only to retain the audience it was given, but actually very slightly grow it. The average Thirteenth Doctor was watched by 4.67m viewers, up 0.12m (2.6%) on the 4.55m average of the Twelfth Doctor. It’s median viewing figure of 4.21m, meanwhile, is 0.34m (7.4%) lower than Capaldi’s, representing the boost Whittaker’s average is given by the large audiences for her first series. But overall, we haven’t seen Doctor Who just do a respectable job all things considered. Rather, it actually got ratings that would be good a decade ago.”

You can check out the whole article here https://www.blogtorwho.com/doctor-who-power-of-the-doctor-viewing-figures/?amp=1

As you can see the Whittier era did quite well especially when considering it had to fight to get through the Pandemic, which people seem to like to act like isn’t a big deal with their revisionist history of how difficult that time actually was. Not only were millions dying and getting sick, people were losing their jobs and lock downs were keeping people at home and a number of parents learnt how hard it was to home school your child even with a teacher on zoom, some while also having to work full time at home. This isn’t to mention the ridiculous amount of restrictions on how they could make the show and keep everyone safe. Sadly they also just didn’t have budget, it was why they needed Disney to come in. In the Who Corner to Corner podcast Chibs talks about how he wanted to do a new years special after Flux but was told there was no budget and he couldn’t do it but he wanted there to be a new year special so he ask if he used monster from the cupboard (a couple daleks they had sitting there) a warehouse and only 2 guest stars could he do it and they still told him they didn’t think so but he told them they were doing it and then we got Eve of the Daleks, one of my fav episodes of the run.

This goes to show the show was struggling to afford to make episodes it had no real money for marketing. If series 12 and Flux got the marketing series 11 did of course we would have seen even bigger numbers but Chibs stated in his Radio Free Skaro podcast from Gally One in 2023 that the only marketing budget they had after series 11 was marketing that could be done on the BBC that’s extremely limiting. They also didn’t have a brand manager unlike all previous eras. If you can afford a brand manager you’re not going to choose to not have one and having one probably would have also help quite a bit.

It’s not 2008 anymore, even Tennent couldn’t pull his 2008 numbers and that was with the big Disney budget to make the show and market the show, and they had a year to market the show and the most well known Doctor, so considering that vs what Chibs had to work with the Whittaker era is a solid era of Doctor Who. It just came at a time when the Budget was struggling, and the TV landscape was changing along with a campaign to try and destroy it before it began simply because they chose a Woman to be the Doctor, as demonstrated by the fact the BBC had to release a press statement backing Whittakers casting and the change to a Female Doctor. And that did have a snow ball effect of people picking everything apart to an insane level they do not do with any of the episodes from the male Doctors episodes a lot of which could be seen as far more problematic.

All this to say could the numbers had been better? Yes, if they had budget to market the show the way it needs to be marketed in a landscape with a million competing shows on far more streaming services than there were regular channels back in the day. But did the show do well with the limited resources it had. Also Yes.

[redge]

【OSHI NO KO】 Season 2 Episode 17

I meant to post on Melt's development when I was rereading the manga (I'm not sure if it's because OnK chapters are short or it's an easy read but I've already read the whole manga twice already ) but I don't want to spoil anime-only fans. I was sure it would be animated and I was very hopeful of the Tokyo Blade arc animation ever since the 1st episode and based on the feedback, episode 17 did not disappoint! 😊

This panel is not part of episode 17 but I really love how Melt is so comfortable with Kana that he could just drag her like that 😅 (In an alternate universe, I hope these teenagers were just living normally as teenagers. Bickering, fighting over love interests, then having a picnic together after a long day 🤣)

The opening theme for Tokyo Blade is such an earworm! Also, I know that this is about Melt but since it showed again this Tokyo Blade introduction of characters, Touki in the manga is much more handsome than Aqua I mean would you look at Touki?!

ARIMA KANA! She's so good at what she's doing. She's so precious I love her so much. 😻Also, this part was sodetailed you can hear the harness as Kana flies to the ground what a production ♥

It's not as elaborate in the episode but look how worn out Melt's wooden sword is. He really worked hard to improve. Also, in the previous episode, he's one of the cast who goes home late because he rehearses by himself. Oh Melt, you hardworking you.

These mangacaps has been on my files for months already because I was really waiting for Melt's story to be shown to the world. Also, it's brave for Akasaka-sensei to show that anyone can be taken advantage of, regardless of the gender, regardless of age. What a cruel world.

This performance sparked so many things for all the actors involved that we still get to see bits of it every now and then. 🥰

The justice the animation gave to this panel oh my gosh it was so good!!! The manga arc is good but the anime brings it to a whole new different level! ♥

I love how the animation had slight differences from the manga. Everyone was really watching Melt's performance, including Kana and Aqua. and Melt did not disappoint. (I am out of words I mean this is Melt we are talking about, that Melt who delivered his lines awkwardly that Miyako had to shut down the laptop because they can't bear to watch the episode. And now we see that Melt who worked hard to deserve his spot in this entertainment industry. Who would not be proud of that?!)

This line here was a flashback from season 1 Episode 4 where Aqua told Melt that acting is all about putting your emotions into it. What a bizarre advice from someone who rekindles his trauma when he's doing emotional acting. If Aqua was using his emotions in I'll Go With Sweet Today, I wonder why he haven't had his panic attack? Sure Kana was not there to tell him "Aqua-kun, what would you do if your mother died?" but he's playing a stalker, someone similar to what really killed Ai, a scene so close to a real-life scenario...so why? It's curious...

The feedbacks and posts of people who watched this episode were true. This episode was really good! ♥

[sketchy-rosewitch]

Maybe There’s a God Above: Priest!Bo Sinclair x nun!reader

Warnings: Manipulation, PinV, fingering, eating out, Catholicism, sex between a priest and nun, whatever all of those blasphemy words are and stuff.

A/N: ooooo I liked doing this one!!!

Day 5 of Haunted Hoedown

Hoedown Masterlist

Previous: Malfunction: Captain Denninger x afab!gn!android!reader

Next: Moonlight Madness: Bo x Gn!werewolf!afab!reader x Vincent

“Are you almost done?”

You look up from the blanket you are knitting and stare at Sister Jane.

“For today yes, I should be done tomorrow though.” You explain. You had been working on this blanket for weeks to give to a homeless shelter a few miles into the city. Everyone else had already finished theirs but yours took you a bit longer as you were new at this. Normally you’d never be put on duty for this but after Sister Anne had retired you were bumped up a spot.

“Okay, just reminding you that Father Bo needs to speak with you. Then you need to wash up for dinner.” Sister Jane says before leaving the room. You nod your head and set down all of your stuff before making your way down the corridors and across the church to Father Bo’s office. Honestly you wonder what he could want from you. You’d wondered it all morning when he came in during breakfast asking.

Father Bo made you nervous, you didn’t really know why. Well, you acted like you didn’t know why. You knew and God knew why and it was because you fantasized about being with him, about him kissing you and treating you so well and it really wasn’t your fault. He was handsome. More than handsome!

Honestly you felt like God was testing you.

Father Bo sits at his desk writing when you come in meekly. The door was already open so you give the frame a small knock making him look up from his paper. He smiles and your knees almost buckle. Father Bo stands up and walks around his desk, leaning on the edge of it. His arms cross.

“Evenin’, I just wanted to check in on you Sister. You seem to have avoided confession for the last few weeks. I’m hoping you’re doin’ alright. Was also wonderin’ why that is.”

You frown and look down so full of shame. You avoided it because you wanted to avoid him. He couldn’t tell or judge a soul when it came to confessions. But telling the source about your feelings towards him made you feel even dirtier than having the feelings.

“Hey, there’s no shame. I’m just concerned is all.”

Father Bo’s voice is gentle, it lures you in like a siren lures in a sailor.

“Just haven’t been feelin’ myself Father. I thought I could just tell God about it this time.”

What level of Hell does someone get sent to for lying to a priest?

“Ah, okay. Well you’ve been dealin’ with it for a long time. So, why don’t you come confess tonight. I’m sure it’ll take some weight off your shoulders.”

You let out a breath and close your eyes. “..Okay. I will Father. Before bed.”

“Sounds good. Now why don’t we head to dinner.”

You turn around and Father Bo follows after you. You feel his hand on your shoulder as the two of you walk towards the dinning hall. Your chest hurts and you keep looking at his large hands. Then you watch as it disappears and goes to your backside when you enter the hall.

It’s almost silent, just small whispers and talking about the next Mass and charity events that are coming up.

You sit in your seat seeing as a plate was already set for you and watch as Father Bo goes into the kitchen to get his food. You look down and begin eating quickly, your chest hurting from how fast you’re swallowing you food. You sip on your water and feel as those all of your Sisters are staring at you. But when you look up, they aren’t.

Sister Jane nudges you lightly. “What did he need to talk to you about?” She whispers, you turn towards her and frown.

“I hadn’t been going to confession the last few weeks. He’s askin’ me to go tonight. Said it’ll help lift a weight off my shoulder.” You explain, she nods her head.

“He’s right, you should. I’m not gonna ask why you haven’t been goin’ but k think you should. You seem to be too lost in thought recently and I know it ain’t cause of God.”

You nod your head in agreement and she rubs your shoulder before getting up and grabbing her plate along with the other sisters’ plates in her row. You eat in absolute silence after that.

-

The halls are silent as you walk down them. Your mind is racing on how you’d even confront the situation.

You could confess everything but your crush on Father Bo. But what if he catches on? No he wouldn’t, he can’t pressure you to confess, can he?

The chapel is dark other than a few candles lit up near the alter and the confessional booth. Father Bo comes out from the door, he looks at you and smiles genuinely.

“Come in.”

Father Bo opens the door for you, you go in and sit in one of the chairs. The priest goes behind the curtain and sits, your hands come together in prayer. He holds a rosary.

“In the name of The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit.”

You mimic the silhouette of Bo and do the sign of the cross.

“Whenever you’re ready.” He says, you nod your head, not knowing whether he can see you in the lamp’s light or not.

“Forgive me Father for I have sinned. My last confession was uh…” You think for a second, how long had it been? “6 weeks ago.” You whisper. Oh this was bad, how did you even become a nun in the first place. You’re horrible. Horrible. Horrible.

“Sister?”

You look up. “Sorry, I’d like to ask for forgiveness for not going to confession, for-for staying up late, unable to sleep and for developing feelings for someone when I know I cannot marry.” You let out a shaky breath and lean into your folded hands. “This is all I can remember. I am sorry for these and all of my sins.” A small sob escapes your throat.

“I ask you do three Hail Mary’s and that you come to my office tomorrow to help me with some things.” Bo says. You nod your head.

You whisper The Act of Contrition and afterwards Bo says the prayer of Absolution to you. You two make the sign of the cross and head out of the booth.

“12 pm tomorrow.”

You nod and sniffle. He gives you a half smile.

“It’s okay, you’ve been forgiven.”

-

Just like the day before, you knock lightly on the frame of the door to alert Bo.

“Afternoon, go ahead and shut the door.”

You nod and do as you’re told, stepping into the room and shutting the door quietly behind you.

“Bring that bench over here.” He points. You furrow your eyebrows but again, you listen. You drag the bench to the middle of the room wondering why he wants you to do this.

You stand up straight and Father Bo is directly behind you making you yelp when he speaks. “I’d like to ask you who these feelin’s you developed are for.”

His voice is raspy, your breath hitches and you close your eyes.

“I cannot say Father.”

“Oh but I think you can.”

You turn and look at him, your eyes reading fear and his eyes clearly eating that fear up. Being obedient you answer. “Y-you.”

He hums. “Good, for your penance I need you to go ahead and take off your panties for me.”

You open your mouth, trying to muster up the words to ask him if this is what God told him to do. But none come to mind.

You reach up your dress and pull them down, they’re slightly soaked and you frown. Father Bo takes them from you and pockets them.

“Lift your dress up and sit.”

You get on the bench and do just that. Father and takes his foot and kicks your legs apart, your hairy mound comes into view, he smirks and kneels. His tongue goes directly to your clit and you arch your back grabbing his hair.

“Father! We-we can’t!” You whine.

“It’s okay, nothing is going in you so it doesn’t count.”

Was that the rule?

Your thoughts scramble as he licks and sucks your clit. His hands keeping your thighs apart. Your thighs still shake and spasm as he finds your favorite spot.

You let out a small moan and listen to the wet noises coming from Father Bo making out with your cunt.

He groans and stops for a second, the bottom of his face is wet with you. “You taste divine.” He says, your face heats up and you look away. “No.” He sticks a thick digit in you and you gasp. “Look at me.”You look down and he’s smirking. “It’s okay because I haven’t stuck my cock in you. We just have to make sure you’re repenting correctly.”

Father Bo curls his fingers, you let out a high pitched moan and goes down again on you, sucking and kissing your clit aggressively.

You feel a cramp in you that you’ve never felt before and let out something between a gargle and whine making Bo work faster. Your thighs sweat and shake, then you fall over the edge. White flashes behind your eyes as you cum. High pitched squeals come from your throat and Bo works you through your orgasm. He pulls out his fingers and licks then clean.

“I need one more thing from you.”

You look at Father Bo hazily, he’s unbuckling his belt and unzipping his black pants.

His large hand gently pushes you back onto the bench. Every holy part of you wants to resist. Unfortunately the lust seems to take over and you allow him to slowly slide into you.

“It’s okay, cause we’re practically saints, at least.. you are.”

You nod and feel how he stretches your pussy out. He leans down and kisses your lips, they taste just like you.

“Father-“

He shushes you. You whine.

“Feel good.” You whisper, he kisses your cheek and slowly pulls out before thrusting back into you.

“That’s good, it’s supposed to. It’s how you know it’s working. This is your penance after all.”

His cock moves in and out of you making both of you groan and moan about how good it feels.

You grab his hand and move it to your breast, he takes no time and gropes it. You lean up and kiss Father Bo’s soft lips. He thrusts harder. “Have you said your-“ he groans “three Hail Mary’s yet?” He asks, grunting and licking your neck. You shake your head.

“Go ahead. Say it and you’ll be forgiven.”

“Hail Mary- Full of… Grace!” You buck up into him feeling the same knot forming in your stomach again. “The Lord is with thee- ah~. Blessed art thou among women and blessed it the fruit of thy Womb, JESUS!” Tears fall down your cheeks as he hits a special spot inside of you.

“Come on, not even done with the first one. Can’t cum until you say all of them.”

“Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.”

You whine and buck into him as he slows down, you know he’s about to cum himself.

“Hail Mary Full of Grace the Lord is with thee blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary Mother of God pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.” You slur, your tongue feels like nothing in your mouth. Still you try and say it again one more time, feeling as Father Bo moves his hand between your legs and rubs for clit as he fucks into you.

“Hail Mary Full of Grace.. oh please.. the Lord is with thee blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus. Gonna cum, please gather let me cum!” You beg looking right into his beautiful blue eyes. He smiles.

“Just finish it for me.”

“Holy Mary Mother of God, mmgh… pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen!”

He thrusts into you a few more times and you cum around his cock. Quickly he pulls out and cums on your mound. The cum laying on your hair.

He kisses you one more time before getting up and adjusting himself. You lay there looking at him. “My-“

“Keepin’ these.” He pats his pocket.

You nod and sit up, your dress falls over your cum soaked cunt and you look at Father Bo.

“I’ll tell you when you come back. Don’t think this is a one time thing.”

“Yes Father.”

You get up and he kisses your head, then makes sure you’re adjusted before you head out the door to do your daily duties.

[ecargmura]

Ron Kamonohashi's Forbidden Deductions Episode 22 Review - One Of Them Is The Culprit

The pacing of this episode was a bit too fast as Ron and Toto are already at the beginning of the new case as the previous one ends just like that. Though, I do get why they did this because there are only a few more episodes left and this upcoming arc definitely feels like something very important with how the story transitioned to it.

Professor Aoe being Himeno’s killer was obvious, yet his motives for killing her was messed up. Himeno was unfortunately the victim because she was the one chosen to go into the room that night. It could’ve been anyone as Aoe planned threatening letters for all four of them and chose the one that contained that specific victim. It means that Himeno just happened to get unlucky. The fact that the composed Aoe is actually depraved and sociopathic mama’s boy who fabricates his research to get to where he is now is quite the twist, especially when he wanted to suicide bomb. It was cool seeing Ron actually getting angry without his culprit condemning powers and that his actions of stopping the professor were all by his own will. The professor definitely deserved it; Chikori should’ve slapped him.

It’s interesting how Himeno and Chikori are so alike yet also foils of each other in that Himeno’s admiration of Aoe got her killed while Chikori’s admiration of Toto makes her strong. This was also good development for Chikori in the sense that meeting someone that could’ve been her soulmate resolves her to work even harder at her job. I can’t help but to want to root for her.

The side effects of Ron’s medicine causes him to pass out, but when he wakes up, the story slowly shifts to focusing on a strange, seventeen-year-old letter that was in Ron’s mailbox. It’s an invitation to an auberge, which is where our dynamic duo goes; it also contains an emerald. Though, I do wonder why Toto is tagging along despite the invitation being for Ron only. The other attendees feature an international cast of Americans, Italians and English. This means that Toto and the chef are the only two Japanese people with Ron most likely only being partially Japanese.

A new setting definitely means a new murder case will happen and this definitely reminds me of the observatory case where having a lot of people means that there’s going to be multiple murders and someone relating to the M Family. I wonder who’s going to be the first to die? I wonder who’s going to be the culprit? I got my eye on the Tiger Dan guy because his name is related to an animal and we all know those named after animals are very important to the story.

The voice acting cast is still crazy as heck. First, I want to talk about Nobuo Tobita’s performance as Aoe with the way he finally shows his true psychotic nature and how he started yelling for his mother during his arrest. That was some good voice acting. Now for the cast of the Auberge arc. It’s pretty crazy. You have Takehito Koyasu as Tiger Dan, meaning you know he’s going to be important. Not only that, we have rising star Ikumi Hasegawa as Mia Costa; you might recognize her voice from Frieren where she voiced Ubel or Wind Breaker where she voiced Kotoha. The chef Sakai is voiced by Shogo Sakata, another rising star; he’s in Blue Box as Nishida and Wind Breaker as Anzai. I’ll get to more details of the other characters’ voice actors in future episodes.

Though, I have to say, the auberge is beautiful! The house and the garden really amps up both the beauty and the mystery of it. Too bad there’s definitely going to be damage as is all murder cases. What are your thoughts on this episode?

[maskedemerald]

Weaving Webs CH10

Here is chapter ten of my Invisobang fic! We finally get to some Vlad. He'll be more involved in the second fic in the series so don't worry you'll see more of his scheming.

The wonderful @pricklenettle did some fantastic art that you'll see embedded through out the first half of the fic so if you haven't seen it go check out their blog now!

You can check out the fic here or on AO3!

If you like this consider dropping us both a follow!

Warnings: Body horror, manipulation, Spectra is her own content warning, Burns, Spider - for like 2 chapters then it goes away.

The Fenton parents were there when the accident happened, they saw Danny die in an act of sabotage. Now they’re just trying to go on with the strange ghost that is all that's left of Danny. While their old college friend is wondering where the subjects of his revenge are.

[First] [Previous] [Next]

Vlad had been waiting for this day for years, the day he would finally get his revenge. He couldn’t help the smug smirk on his face. Every step was planned. Nothing would go wrong. There wasn’t anything he hadn’t considered. Not like the last time. Nothing had happened. Apparently he’d acted a little too late in that fit of rage. A little too far into the portal’s production. A little bit of insidious code that would never trigger because Jack would never tidy up his prior work. This time would be different.

The reunion plan had been in progress ever since the idea of having one was even approached by some other alumni. It was the perfect opportunity. He would have Jack and Maddie in a space completely under his control. He would overshadow Jack and humiliate him for everyone to see. Then he’d see about doing away with the fool. There would be alcohol and well it wouldn’t be improbable for the man to go for a fatal car ride. Of course Vlad would be there to pick up the pieces with Maddie. The children were of little consequence. He’d take them for Maddie’s sake but well, if they fell too much on Jack’s side of the gene pool a scholarship to some far off boarding school would keep them out of his hair.

He had each step of the day planned down to the moment. He even stood by the door awaiting the arrival of the pair. However they didn’t. Jack had been so excited to come early to reconnect and yet they’d not arrived early. Vlad frustratedly threw out many mental pages of his plan that involved getting quiet time to reconnect with Maddie while sowing some seeds of descent and interest before finally offing Jack. He’d have to spend more time after the deed was done. It was fine. He could adapt.

At the reunion itself he eyed the clock as his old classmates tried to talk to him. He doubted many honestly wanted to reconnect. They were after his money. His power from said money. Or something else. Why would anyone talk to him otherwise? It wasn’t like they had before. Each hour that went by had him clenching a fist tighter and trying not to show that growing anger on his face. Hide his hand in a pocket where it couldn’t crack his wine glass. Where were they?

Jack was like an over affectionate puppy. Stupid and bad at personal space. There was no way he would have missed the reunion intentionally. He might have forgotten but that was why Vlad had specifically also invited Maddie. She wouldn’t have forgotten. Then why? Why were they not there? If they had to cancel there would be no way the polite, sweet and considerate Maddie would have not at least called to let him know.

That night once everyone had gone home he let that rage out. All that planning and effort wasted. It had to be Jack’s fault. Maybe he had been given the one basic responsibility of calling him and then forgot that. He threw his more physical plans at the fire. They caught quickly and he had to pause his rampage on the office to keep the stray papers from lighting the bookcases. He took a deep breath. Maybe there was a way to salvage this. Maddie would be so apologetic about missing the event. Jack’s downfall wouldn’t be so public but he could still tear them apart and off Jack. Revenge could still be his.

He waited till morning before picking up the phone. Until he could speak with some level of forced calm. He hoped that it would be Maddie answering. He didn’t want to deal with Jack’s loud incessant apologies for a situation he caused. Even after the wait he didn’t think he could keep his cool if he had to talk to Jack.

The phone rang, it rang for a long time before finally cutting to voicemail. He slammed it down without leaving a message. Not even getting to the beep. Definitely couldn’t handle talking to Jack.

He stewed for a while longer before trying again. Maybe they were just working in that ridiculous basement of theirs and couldn’t hear the phone. He glanced at the clock. The children might answer this time. They wouldn’t be in the basement he assumed. One of them could get Maddie. He tried to remember what he knew of them. A boy and a girl. The girl would probably be easier to deal with. She no doubt would be intelligent and cooperative. He dialed the number. It rang.

Click, “Fentonworks!” Jack’s recorded voice bellowed, “We’re either in the lab or hunting a GHOST right now! Leave a message and we’ll get back to you!”

He scowled and hung up again, wincing at the loud, obnoxious recording of Jack. The children are probably out. He can wait. He’s been waiting 20 years, a few more hours would be fine. The phone cracked in his grip.

Another phone and a few hours later when surely the family would be sitting down to eat their dinner he called again. His fingers tapped on the table. If the wood was softer he would have left small divots with the intensity. There was a small part of him that worried. Not for Jack but that once again they wouldn’t answer. It wondered if there had been another reason for why they hadn’t shown up for the reunion. As the phone rang on he couldn’t help but feel a certain dread. Had something happened? He remembered that previous, spur of the moment, fit of rage attempt. Maybe this was a blessing in disguise? If he’d already offed Jack or at least hospitalised him then there was less to do. Not as sweet as if he had been there as witness but he could still swoop in and pick up the pieces.

The phone clicked over to voicemail again.

Surely a concerned visit from a friend after they missed the reunion wouldn’t look too out of place. He hung up the phone and headed for his car. It wouldn’t do to arrive there too early after the reunion.

As Vlad drove through Amity Park the obnoxiously obvious structure that was Fentonworks started to become visible even streets away. The rooftop abomination of technology was a marker of just how close he was to getting everything he wanted. As he got closer he couldn’t help but feel something was off. The imposing aura of a ghostly presence. Cold, intimidating and clearly saying for any other ghosts to stay away. A taste of fear the closer he got.

The streets were mostly clear and nobody lingered long near the house. He pulled up and brushed off the feeling before heading for the door. The ghost was clearly trying to take control of the area but it was nothing in comparison to him. He knocked.

There was a long silence. He couldn’t help but notice the curtains were drawn in every window. He knocked again, louder. Still nothing. Maybe they were just out. He slammed a fist against the door.

“Looking for those loony scientists?” A man asked pausing on the street. He shivered and muttered. “Jeas this place gives me the right heebie jeebies.”

Vlad turned putting a false smile on his face. “Ah yes I am. You wouldn’t happen to know where they are?”

The man shrugged. “Haven’t seen them out much lately, hell I think I’ve only seen the daughter. Surprisingly quiet that lot since the accident.”

“Accident? What kind of accident?” Vlad asked, that could mean anything. He needed to know how bad things were.

“Hell if I know.” The man shrugged, he glanced uncomfortably at the house before walking off.

Vlad looked at the house, the house was the source of the aura. Had they found an actual ghost? Or had the ‘accident’ been more fatal than the man thought. His fist clenched. Fear curled in him. Something happening to Jack he was fine with if a little disappointed over missing it. If something had happened to the children he didn’t mind. However hearing nothing meant that something might have happened to Maddie and that, that scared him.

He sped off, backing up rather more haphazardly than he usually would. His mind kept running through worst case scenarios. Both of them being in the hospital because of the planned malfunction. A worse state if there had been an explosion, Jack could have made it worse easily. The whole lab having gone up in flames. Exploded with no time to escape. The house gutted in one violent explosion taking the whole family with it. All because he messed with the portal without fully planning things out. He parked just around the corner. The window left open as he transformed and phased invisibly through the roof.

The house was dark and unnaturally quiet for a house that Jack Fenton of all people lived in. It was possible that they just were not home but the state of the house threw that into doubt. Inside lay a chaotic scene, the furniture tossed about and broken. Fabric torn and wood splintered. It wasn’t the fiery explosion that he had feared. A ghost attack instead. It soothed his anxieties. He hadn’t accidentally harmed Maddie. However the lack of sign of Maddie was concerning. If the ghost had been bested she would not have left the house like this.

The living room wasn’t much better, no it was worse. Sticky ectoplasm splattered the room like the toxic green had been blasted blindly. Walls were marked with singes. The lab door had been pulled fully off its reinforced hinges. The door was almost completely replaced with ectoplasmic webbing.

He burnt it away, his nose crumpling at the ozone smell of burning ecto. He hoped he’d find nothing down there. That the pair were now at the hospital or something because Jack was injured, just Jack he hoped on the injured front.

The lab was not empty. It was lit by the toxic green light of a portal. A portal that shouldn’t have been active without being set off by his sabotage. His stomach dropped a little. No it had to have been Jack. Wiring was Jack’s job. Maddie wouldn’t have cleaned up after him, right?

The glowing figures of two ghosts were silhouetted by the portal. A figure shifting shapes between spider and a short more human figure drew his attention first. Then to the one that was more shadow than anything else, drinking in the fear and misery that clung to the air.

The emotions were thick in the air. A constant refreshing flow. His eyes fell on the dark cocoons of webs. Four of them. He would have cursed if he didn’t think he would have been heard. He couldn’t leave and risk Maddie having been in one.

He slipped over to the nearest one, he hoped that this one was Maddie. He’d rescue her and then when they were forced to flee from the ghosts attacking then he would still look like the hero while leaving Jack to his fate. He charged a little ecto energy around his hand, using the heat to cut through the threads of the cocoon.

A large weight slumped against him as it tore open. He let the energy vanish from his hand instantly. He stifled a frustrated groan at the sight of Jack’s ridiculously bright orange jumpsuit. The oaf however was not so silent as he stirred.

“Vladdie?” Jack asked with a tone of confusion in his voice.

He scowled, “Jack, please tell me Maddie isn’t here.”

“I don’t know… she got me first.”

“Of course she did.”

“What’s this? An old man playing pretend? You really think you can save them, Mr hero?” He knew that voice.

Vlad scowled. “I should have known.” Spectra. It wasn’t his first encounter with the woman. He detested her.

“Give my family back,” Jack yelled as he charged into the fight with a hastily and foolishly grabbed broken piece of metal.

Vlad scowled, he could leave the oaf to his fate. That would mean leaving Maddie. Jack however could serve as a distraction. It was really all he was good for.

“You really think you can stop me this time, weakened… broken. You’ve already failed your children once.” Spectra taunted.

He slipped to the next cocoon using Jack’s wild attacks as cover. The man didn’t stand a chance but as long as he kept them busy long enough for Vlad to find Maddie then Vlad could let Jack die without revealing his powers. He seared open the pod and there was a moment of relief at the flash of ginger hair as the occupant fell. He caught her. Her long hair cascaded over her face. That wasn’t Maddie. He huffed, at least Maddie would be grateful for the rescue of her daughter.

“What do you think you’re doing?” He heard Spectra far too close for his liking.

So much for Jack being a good distraction. A blast seared towards him and instinctively he raised a small shield. The girl was unconscious so it didn’t matter.

“Oh what’s this? The old man’s a freak!” He scowled, like she didn’t already know that.

“Shut up!” he hissed, if she said more it could become a problem.

“You know what they are right? Why would you fight for them? They’re ghost hunters. They’ll hate you. Show you no mercy. What a fool you are.” Spectra taunted in his ear, trying to feed off of the misery she had once pulled out of him.

He growled and blasted her away, her shadowy body gaining a bloody green tear in her side as she was thrown back. He wasn’t fighting for them. Maddie was all who he was interested in. She wouldn’t find out and it wouldn’t ever matter.

Two more pods, close together. 50/50 chance between Maddie and Jack’s son. A green blast seared past, Jack had found a working blaster. Predictably his aim was still terrible. He hoisted the girl over his shoulder before placing her down to break open the next pod.

Maddie stumbled from the pod, she gripped his shirt for stability. There was blood in her hair. “Madeline? Are you alright? We have to get out of here. Jack can only keep them busy so long.”

Even though he had thrown his plans out long ago this impromptu one was going reasonably close to the plan that he was making up as he went. Maddie gained her bearings quickly and found a weapon somewhere on her person to blast the spider that had Jack pinned.

“Vlad? What… never mind.” She shoved a blaster into his hand. “No time, we’ll talk later. Guard Jazz.”

She charged in because of course she would. No matter how much of a useless oaf Jack was, no matter how much of this was probably his fault, Maddie just wasn’t the type to leave someone to fight alone. He loved her but he really found that nobility frustrating right now.

Spectra hovered in front of him with a smirk. “You know she’ll always choose him. Why even stay? Why protect the child? She’s just as much him as she is her, why protect her.”

“I know your tricks.” He knew what she was trying to do.

“True but can you really fend me off with just a blaster while keeping your dirty little secret?” She lunged with claws drawn. She slashed and grabbed for the girl.

There was a sharp electrical whine, and the lights flickered on. Bright and blinding. They exploded in a screech that seemed so much more emotive than anything electronic should ever have. The final pod exploded in a gorey green mess. He winced knowing that could have been Maddie only moments ago. There was a streaking flare of light as another ghost entered the chaos. Green star-like blasts flew. A stray green blast, the origin he didn’t quite catch threw Spectra away from them. Well aimed, probably Maddie.

The third ghost shot round like a comet, the attacks indiscriminate. A rage swamped over everything else in the lab. Spectra’s currently not so little assistant screeched as blasts bit into spidery legs. It rippled and shifted, smaller and smaller. Maddie pulled Jack out of the way unfortunately. She placed a few more choice shots before it retreated through the lab portal.

“Bertrand! Get back here!” Spectra screeched.

“Who is in trouble now?” Vlad couldn’t help but taunt.

She was surrounded, it would appear her newest underling wasn’t too pleased with her for some reason. Honestly he wasn’t sure why the shifter stuck with her so long.

“Hmpf this isn’t over but I suppose the misery will only be more delicious when this whole mess falls down around you.” she waved it off like she was doing them a favour and fled through the ceiling.

“Hey! You don’t get to run from Jack Fenton like that!” The oaf bellowed as he thundered up the stairs. Only pausing for a moment. “Thanks for the save V-man, we owe you!”

Vlad scowled, Jack was not who he wanted a thank you from. Maddie stood on guard, the third ghost floating above. Of course Jack would leave the current threat to chase after one already probably long gone. Said current threat was apparently not content with fighting off its previous allies. It shot towards Maddie. She didn’t react. She wasn’t going to be fast enough to stop it. Was it her head injury?

He pushed her aside and raised the pistol ready to shoot.

“Vlad! Wait!” Maddie staggered and threw herself between them.

The ghost behind her whined and the lights flickered. It curled round her. It didn’t attack and he couldn’t help the confusion that must have been clear on his face. Was this really Maddie on good terms with a ghost?

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By Spectra, at least for now! She'll be back later for sure. Jazz still needs to get some professional revenge.

[ghostly-wisp]

The One-night Stand, chapter 2

navigation | series masterlist | chapter 1 | chapter 3

The atmosphere at work was awkward, everyone could sense it–including Tommy, and being the nosy little brother he was, he so desperately wanted to know why the tension was so high. He would notice the way he would avoid looking at you, how you’d suck in your breath whenever he went up to you for something. He didn’t understand, and Joel would avoid his questions. 

So, he corners him, after Sarah gets up to put her dish in the sink and goes to wash her hands, Tommy leans over the table a bit to bring himself closer to his older brother. “So, what's your problem with Y/N?” and for a moment, Tommy enjoys watching how pale Joel’s face gets under the spotlight, “Nothing. There's no problem.” he lies, there's a big problem. Though he doesn’t want to admit to it while his daughter is in the next room, and he knows Tommy would make a big deal out of it. Joel was a good liar, but Tommy knew his tells–like how he would itch his wrist and wet his lips. Small things you pick up when you grow up with someone. “Bullshit.”

It takes Tommy a little longer than he cares to admit, that he didn't connect how he spent the night at someone else's house, comes into work late, and acts weird about the new girl—he was sure it wasn't a fight, or previous conflict, because chances are, if it was, Tommy would've heard about it already. Not this secretive shit Joel was doing, so it finally hits him. "You slept with her, didn't you!?" This got him the reaction he anticipated, Joel nearly drops his fork, and his eyes focus on Sarah, who isn't as far away as Tommy thinks she is. Still, she seems preoccupied with whatever music she had playing through her headphones, thank God, because otherwise, Joel wouldn't know what to say or do.

"Can we talk about this later?" He whispers, eyes going between both people in the room, Tommy got the message — crossed his arms, smirking triumphantly leaning in his chair, he's so proud that he finally guessed it that he didn't even notice Joel mumbling "Bitch" to him.

It wasn't until Sarah had gone to bed a few hours later, Tommy normally went home an hour after they had dinner, but today he stayed up extra late just to patronize his older brother. Joel had tucked Sarah in and grabbed each of them a beer before taking a seat on the couch. Tommy wastes no time, it's very clear he had been waiting for this moment. 

“So, you slept with the secretary.” He says as if he's almost proud, “Was she your one night of passion that caused you to be late?” Joel doesn't respond right away; he opens his beer and takes a sip first before he says anything. "We were drunk, met her at the bar. I went out with a friend since Sarah was at her friend's house." Tommy's now leaning closer, literally on the edge of his seat, he wants to know every detail his brother is willing to give—which wasn't a lot. "I didn't know she was our secretary until this morning. You know, when I saw her."

Tommy nods, sipping his beer. "Right, so now it's really weird between the two of you, is this going to be a problem?" Joel shakes his head, "No, I don't think so."

Oh, but it was. 

Most days, he couldn't even make eye contact with you. God forbid if he accidentally touched your hand, even the slightest brush while giving you some paperwork – you would think your skin burned him. 

It gets tiring after a while, well, to everyone except Tommy. Who finds this hysterical. You’re always just about to say something, but then something inside you stops you, and he retreats back to his office. Tommys desk is just across from his, and he always manages to get a snide remark at his older brother every chance he gets. “Smooth.” he says, he doesn’t realize just how loud he said it, he doesn’t realize that you heard it. You snap. 

You stand from your desk, and head to the room behind you – leaning against the doorframe, “Mr. Miller,” you say, but realize that will get you the attention of both your bosses, so you clarify, “Joel. Can I talk to you?”  you can’t miss the way Tommy smirks at his brother, he's on your last nerve at the moment – and frankly you’re tired of it, even if you’re not directly getting teased. Joel's face reddens slightly as he coughs, turning to his younger brother. “Tommy, do you mind?” he says, Tommys face drops from his smug expression to pout. “Why should I leave?” 

“Tommy.” “Fine, fine!” Without that, Tommy leaves the room. Closing the door behind him leaving the two of you in the room alone, the air is thick, and you wished that there was a window to open. You feel like you’re suffocating as his eyes bore into you, watching your every nervous habit. “Hi,” you say after a moment, Joel sits back in his chair. Hes painfully aware that Tommy is likely sitting on the other side of the door. “Y/N we’re at work, we don’t have time for this–” your face contorts, “Yes, I know but I can’t sit around and let the work environment stay like this.” you argue, crossing your arms and moving to stand over his desk, causing him to look up at you, which was definitely different than the last time one of you was over the other—never mind that. 

Joel is silent, he's waiting for you to say something, this conversation was entirely not work appropriate, and he could reprimand you for this, but where else would he talk to you about this? A bar? Thats how you got here in the first place. So, he lets you stutter as you try figuring out exactly it is you want to say, “Look, I’m fine with pretending that–what we did–never happened, but I can’t have you avoiding me at every glance. You and I both participated in that, you know.” 

He crosses his arms as he looks at you, he nods, to show that he's listening or agreeing, but still, he remains silent. “I’m just saying, I don’t want to avoid looking at you and snap my hand away from you every time you hand me papers, n’ I don’t like how much Tommy knows, either.” Joel groans, but the smile on his face keeps you from being angered. “I know, I tell him to stop but he thinks it’s all playful.” 

You laugh, and its sweet. He enjoys hearing you laugh, though he regains consciousness on how serious this conversation is. “I’ll talk to him, I’ll get it through his thick skull one way or another, as for the awkwardness, I’ll try to get over it.” You nod, satisfied with his answer. “Thank you.” Thats how you left it, shuffling out of the office where Tommy was prepped against the wall just beside the door. 

He walks back into the room to find Joel trying to get another glance at you, he never realized just how strong of a personality, how passionate you could be. Though it's not like you did much talking–Tommy smirks, “Man, you can’t stop–”

“Shut up.”

When Joel gets home, Sarah has already made herself dinner and finished her homework. “I’m home!” he calls as he locks the front door, going up the couple of steps in his entryway to see his daughter watching television. “How was work?” she asks, “How was that girl Tommy told me about?”

“He told you about Y/N? What did he say?” he asks, shaking his jacket off and sitting beside his daughter on the couch, she cozies up next to him, and he places an art around her. She only slightly shrugs, to her, the details are unimportant. “Just that you like her, is all.” 

“I don’t like her,” he says with a confidence, but he feels this pit in his stomach, as if he's lying. He can’t be, he barely knows you. “I barely know her; you know how Tommy gets.” 

“I don’t know, it would be kind of nice.” she replies, “The idea of seeing you with someone, it would be nice to see you happy again.” The last time Sarah had even seen her father with a woman, was her mother. That was a long time ago now, that she barely even remembers what it was like. “You’re too smart for your own good, Sarah.” She only laughs in response, but she was serious in what she said, she hopes he knows that–deep down, she thinks that he does. Maybe it’s not with you, but if it's with someone. 

He kind of hopes its you.

[thedepthsoffandomminds]

Maze runner chapter ten.

Previous chapter

You sat with newt, Minho and chuck sat at the pit door as Thomas awoke, his head lying in Teresa's lap.

“What the hell were you thinking?” Chuck huffed.

“What happened?” He asked sitting up.

“Gally has taken control. he said we had a choice either join him or get banished at sundown with you.” Newt explained, his arm resting on the bamboo.

“And the others agreed to that?” Thomas asked as he moved himself round to see you all better

“Gally has everyone convinced that you're the reason all this happened.” Teresa said.

“Well he's been right so far.” Thomas shrugged

“What are you talking about?” Minho asked.

This place is not what we thought it was. It's not a prison, it's a test. It all started when we were kids. They would give us these challenges. They were experimenting on us and then people started disappearing. Every month, one after the other, like clockwork.” “They were sending them up into the maze.” you say.

“Yeah, but not all of us.” He said

“What do you mean?” Newt asked.

“Guys, I'm one of them. The people who put you here, I worked with them. I watched

you guys for years. The entire time you have been here I was on the other side of it. So were you.” He looked at the girl beside him.

“What?”

“Teresa, we did this to them.” He said.

“No.That can't be true.” Teresa shook her head and a tear dropped from her left eye.

“It is. I saw it.”

“Why would they send us up if we were with them?” Teresa asked.

“It doesn't matter.” Thomas sighed.

“He's right. It doesn't matter. Any of it. Because the people we were before the maze don't even exist anymore. These Creators took care of that. But what does matter is who we are now, and what we do...

right now. You went into the maze and you found a way out.” Newt spoke with a hopeful tone.

“Yeah, but if I hadn't, Alby would still be alive.” Thomas looked up into his eyes.

“Maybe. But I know that if he were here,

he would be telling you the exact same thing.” You say.

“Pick your ass up and finish what you started.” Newt finished your thoughts, “Because if we do nothing, then that means Alby died for nothing, and I can't have that.

Okay?”

“Okay, but we gotta get through Gally first.”Thomas agreed.

Newt quickly filled him and Teresa in on the plan.

As you all waited you each slowly spoke to other boys in the Glade, trying to convince them that Gally was wrong.

“What's up with you and Newt?” Frypan asked, “you guys have been kinda off today.”

“Nothing, I guess I just wanted him to stand up to Gally a bit more.” You shrug.

“You know what, we'd follow you and him anywhere, if you believe in Thomas then so do wem” he clapped you on the shoulder in reassurance. “Cut him some slack, he'd do anything for you, but he's thinking of everyone.”

Just before sundown Gally ordered Thomas and Teresa be brought over to the maze entrance he had put two large poles up. Thomas acted weaker than he was, causing the two boys dragging him to drop him by the entrance.

“Gally It doesn't feel right, man.” Winston says.

“Yeah, what if Thomas is right?”Jeff steps forward, “Maybe he can lead us home.”

“We are home. Okay? I don't wanna have to cross any more names off that wall.” Gally pointedly aims his words at you.

“You really think banishing us is gonna solve

anything?” Teresa asked.

“No. But this isn't a banishing. It's an offering.” Gally almost laughed. The boys started tying Teresa to the pole by her arms.

“What? Wait! Gally, what are you doing?” Teresa fought back.

“You really think I'm gonna let Thomas back into the maze after what he has done? Look around you! Look at our Glade! This is the only way and when the Grievers get what they came here for everything goes back to the way it was.” He growled. As he spoke Newt gave a signal by stroking his chin, Minho nodded and Chuck started slowly moving forward, several bags thrown onto his back. You walked up the side, Mai Mai with you. She had a leather plate strapped to her back and carried several bags attached to it.

“Are you listening to this? Why are you all just standing there? He's crazy!” Teresa argued.

“You shut up.” Gally turned back to her, giving you all the opportunity to get into your places.

“If you stay here, the Grievers are going to come back. They're gonna come back, and

they're gonna keep coming back until you're all dead!”

“Shut up! Tie him up! Do you hear me? I said tie him up!” Gally was shouting at the boys, who reluctantly started lifting Thomas off the ground. He got his weight on his knee and lashes out, Knocking the two boys back. Newt drew his knife and used the back of it to knock out the boys. Teresa kicked out at another. Minho stopped Gally from moving as you took position with Mai Mai at the entrance. Frypan cut Teresa down. Through the sudden chaos they all got behind you, weapons drawn.

“You're full of surprises, aren't you?” Gally grumbled.

“You don't have to come with us, but we are leaving.” You state.

“Anyone else who wants to come, now is your last chance.” Thomas added.

“Don't listen to him, he's just trying to scare you.” Gally addressed the other boys.

“No, I'm not trying to scare you. You're already scared. I'm scared. But I'd rather risk

my life out there than spending the rest

of it in here.” Thomas spoke with a wobble to his voice.

“We don't belong here. This place isn't our home. We were put here. We were trapped here. At least, out there we have a choice.” You implore them.

“We can make it out of here. I know that.” Thomas finished. A few of the boys began to move across to your side. Jeff looked at Gally.

“I'm sorry.” He whispered.

“Gally, it's over. Just come with us.” Thomas tried once more.

You step forward to him, Gally was your friend and with Mai Mai close by he wouldn't try anything. You take his hand.

Gally, please, we've always. this, it was always the goal.”

Gally rips his hand from yours.

“Good luck against the Grievers” he hisses at you and turns away.

You all ran deeper into the maze than you thought was possible until to got through the blades and all huddled against the wall. Thomas looked round.

“Is it a Griever?” Chuck whispered.

“Yeah. You take this, Chuck. Stay behind us.” Thomas gives Chuck the device

“It's okay. Just Stick with me.” Teresa said as she pulled her hair up into a tie.

“Once we're through, it will activate and the door will open. We stay close, we stick together… we get through this. We get out now… or we die trying.” Thomas speaks the words that both comfort and frighten you.

“Ready? All right. Let's go!”

All go running forward attacking the griever. Working together to push it over the edge, but it wasn't alone. More and more were coming, crawling out of the shadows and down walls. Mai Mai holds back a griever so Chuck and Teresa can get through.

“Thomas! There's a code! Eight numbers!” Teresa called back to you all. Thomas tried to think, “Eight sections of the maze. Hey, Minho! What's the sequence?” He shouted. Minho pushed back a griever

“ What?”

“The sections of the maze, what's the sequence?” Thomas asked again.

“Seven! One! Five! Two! Six! Four!” He shouted back.

A Griever came falling from above and landed on top of Minho, he used his spear to hold back the snapping jaw. Jeff came darting over and impaired the creature's head with his spear, giving Mai Mai a chance to grab Minho by his bag and pull him back to the others. Jeff didn't get the same chance, the griever plunged his teeth into Jeff's stomach and dragged him away as two more came forward. You all backed up into the small room.

“What's the sequence?” Newt asked again.

“Six! Four! Eight! Three! You got it?” Minho called back to Chuck and Teresa.

“Keep holding! Almost there, come on!” Thomas called out. There's a whirring of gears and Teresa looked back to the rest of you.

“The door opened!”

Several heavy stone walls started lowering and the Grievers scrambled to get through them. Each one being squashed and killed until the last wall slotted into place.

Next chapter

@fandomfan-102 @deanstolemydragon @afalls14universe

[geodetojoy]

ALRIGHTY i am no longer busy so heres my full thoughts on Newsies :DDD

tagging @royallygray and @mysteriouswolf if yall wanna read :D

ok this shit got LONG so the rest is under the cut

GOD where do I even start its beautiful its wonderful its emotional i love it so much

Ill try not to copy my intermission thoughts too much (if you havent seen those here they are)

Ok lets talk about the history of it. A quick google search says its based on a strike in 1899, and Roosevelt ran for presidency in 1901, so we'll just say the musical takes place in 1899 too (correct me if theres a different confirmed time).

During this time, work conditions are absolute shit, monopolies and trusts are on the rise, and the concept of a union has recently emerged. I really didnt need to say much of this bc its apparent in the musical, but i love historically accurate stuff so deal with it /lh

And in the musical we see the beginnings of Roosevelt's trust-busting and ideas of social equality that he acts on during his presidency (it also kinda ties into his environmentalism stuff a bit too!)

And after reading up a bit on the strike the musical was based on, a lot of the effects of the strike in the musical were historically accurate too! the newsboys could sell back papers they werent able to sell on the streets, but the price was unfortunately not yet lowered. (also, the names of the publishers in the show are historically accurate as well!!! makes my little history brain happy :DDD )

SO whats the point of all of my rambling here?

people make historical art all of the time. we see it in musicals like Annie, Hamilton, and so so many more. obviously this goes beyond musicals here, but since newsies is a musical ill try to stay with that topic.

anyway, we learn about history to learn from it. we see these past issues that our previous generations struggled with, in these art forms as to be easily digestible, and we discover their solutions. we get to see the humanity behind the issues and the conflicts they faced to overcome them. and ofc its not the only reason, but one reason these stories are told with art is to bring attention to them. people are way more likely to listen to music than study a historical textbook. so, they make it entertaining. they make relatable and lovable characters. they make people care about the show and subsequently the issue itself. all of this is to explain how and why things that happened in history are bad as to never repeat them again.

We see these topics of worker mistreatment, corrupt businesses, child labor, gender/sex inequality, and the class separation all brought to the spotlight in this show, and it does a damn good job of showing the pain and suffering they cause. the story of this show is incredible and so very important to learn about.

OK now onto the actual musical itself im done nerding out

ive done a lot of charater analysis already in that intermission post bUT WHO SAYS I CANT DO MORE HAHA

im saving jack for last bc theres so much to unpack there

KATHERINE MY LOVE <3333

Everything about her being a girlboss absolutely remains the same shes INCREDIBLE

and holy shit PULITZER'S HER DAD???? i love her even more. she directly ran away from an easy life to follow her own dreams and pursue her own passion from scratch. incredible. inspiring. mwah

i also just love her personality. shes so bubbly and happy and passionate and bright and optomistic shes the best <3

oh god crutchie. hes absolutely my favorite btw im sorry everyone else i adore him <33333

GOD his prison song actually killed me. im fully dead. deceased.

THE NEWSIES ARE SUCH A FAMILY GAHHH THEY LOVE EACH OTHER SO MUCH RAHHHH

the sheer ecstasy i felt when he came back and hit Snyder with his cane i could not stop stimming MY BOYYYY

the absolute definition of sunshine character. he sees everything as glass half full and wants just the brightest future he deserves the absolute world

and ik i talked about it earlier but i adore how they take such a neutral opinion about his leg. people give him shit for it, and his brother beat them to a pulp. its just a part of him and they love his whole being, so why would they not love that about him too?

Les only got better as the show went on. i thought he was a smartass before LMAOO

AND THE DATE BIT??? WHERE THE HELL DID THAT COME FROM???? AND IT JUST NEVER GETS BROUGHT UP AGAIN LMAO WHAT

i think the biggest change i felt towards a character was Davey

he grew on me soooooo much his character growth is everything to me

he went from trying to stay out of their business to teaching them what a union was to helping them start it to running it himself when jack ran off to convincing jack to come back when times got tough he is sooo important to the story

and to me. hes important to me <3

OH AND RACE

i saw people mention the name before but i didnt know which he was until they addressed him directly I LOVE THAT GUYYY

especially in king of new york hes got such a big personality what a silly guy

OK now for the guy the silly the mc jack

At the beginning he is entirely driven by both his love for his family and ofc his dream of living in Santa Fe, but atm hes just trying to get by so hes more focused on the newsies. but a boy can dream

then he gets all caught up in the strike business and only focuses on that for a while bc he wants to protect his boys

then shit goes south. they get essentially jumped, and crutchie gets hurt and arrested.

and he thinks, what was it all for? if he couldnt protect his brother (never living that down btw), whats the point of even trying to strike anymore

so he changes his focus back to santa fe. the one thing hes still got going for him.

and he gets confronted by katherine, les, and davey, and they knock some sense into him. stopping the strike isnt going to take away any of the harm done. the danger is expected, theres no way any of this could go down without some form of a casualty. so why not try to do something about it. the only way to make this situation better is to get back in the game and keep pushing for change.

and ofc the thing with katherine which ill talk abt a bit more later

in all of this, something in him changes. he dreamed of santa fe, a simpler life, one where he didnt have to worry about having to afford food and clothing for the next day.

but what he never considered was the loneliness. sure, he offered to bring crutchie and katherine with him, but hed be leaving behind so many more. and thats when he realized he never needed to get out, he just needed things to change a bit. and they did! because of the strike, living became so much more affordable. no it wasnt perfect, but it was enough to be safe and secure, just like he wanted. and he had his family beside him the whole time.

ill admit that before i sat and thought about it for a while, this ending was really unsatisfactory to me. i mean we got how many santa fe reprises? all for naught?

but in reality, santa fe would never be enough for him. hes just so used to this life surrounded by the people he cares most about and doing everything in his power to protect him, hed just be so bored, so understimulated, and hed just continue to yearn for more. that path of wanting would never come to a conclusion and hed live his life never truly being happy. so i really do thing he made the right choice in staying, because new york became his santa fe. he didnt need to seek it out, it came to him.

Ok now with him and katherine

ill start by saying i do really adore them. i feel like a lot of what im about to say might seem like i think otherwise, but i truly do think theyre very sweet

ok so every interaction of theirs in act one was. very uncomfortable to say the least. he honestly seemed really predatory at times and it just really felt like an old-timey romance where the girl doesnt know her worth so she flocks to any guy that shows interest in hr bc she thinks its her only purpose

now obviously that is NOT the truth, those were just my first impressions. Katherine is extremely capable of taking care of herself and deciding what is and isnt right for her, she likes jack purely because she can and does. she knows her worth and just likes him bc she likes him, no strings attached

i will say the first kiss kinda caught me off guard lmao. like i knew they were gonna be a thing but that is NOT how i expected that to go down. its likely just bc of my aroace-ness but i saw no sign of them actually getting together prior to that, aside from them being the main man and leading lady in the show so ofc they have to be together. i mean ig her reaction to him drawing her was a bit of a hint but still. ok maybe its just bc im demi. hadnt thought abt that until now. damn. is this a normal thing? maybe it is. maybe im being too harsh. idk lmao

anyway ill admit the kiss was successful in getting his attention and getting him to listen to her so ill give it that lmaoo but tbh i did tune a bit of their song out bc it started to make me a bit uncomfy but i did liste back to it later on. they really seem to have a healthy relationship where they both care about the other and know the other is strong enough on their own, they just both want to be a part of the other's life. its really sweet! theyre so supportive of each other!!! green flags all around!!!

the bit with him learning shes pulitzers daughter was really interesting to me. at first she tries to talk to him but he kinda brushes her off, but from then on he just kinda has full faith in her? i mean yeah he gets upset about it bc he thinks she lied to him, but i dont think he thought she had any ill intentions. that was a complicated sentence lmaoo damn. i think he really understood that she wanted to help, he was just caught up in a lot of Feelings and was afraid that she wasnt trustworthy despite him still trusting her. and then he let her explain and from then on they fully support the other and trust each other immensely

so yeah first impressions were a bit iffy but i think theyre very sweet <333

OK GOD CAN I GUSH ABOUT THE STAGE DESIGN FOR A BIT???? GAHHH

i mean the moving stairs and scaffolding arent new. i know this. but just the way they frame scenes with the scaffolding is stunning. the chase scenes??? dude. enthralling. the bits where theyre in the city and they have people just up their acting like civilians? SO cool. makes it incredibly more realistic and believable. and the way they projected images onto the curtain-like things they pulled down was extremely creative!!! like in theory its such a simple design. it was literally nothing more than the scaffolding and stairs, and a few tables and wagons and such in certain areas. but they did SO much with it it was hard to believe it took place on a stage. ofc the filming helps with that but still. the start felt like it was on the roof of the building bc of a combination of the lighting and the use of just one of the scaffolding pieces. and when theyre in buildings, the wall of scaffolding works really well as a backdrop!!! and i already talked about the city street scenes, it fits perfectly. god its so inspiring id love to be behind something like that one day

OK AND THE CHOREO??? the sheer ENDURANCE of these people HOLY I COULD NEVER. THE FLEXIBILITY? THEYRE ALL LITERAL GYMNASTS WTF ARE THESE FLIPS AND HANDSTANDS IM SORRY???? holy shit its all SOSOSO impressive

oh my god i havent even talked about the MUSIC yet

if i had to choose a favorite song, a, i would punch whoever told me that in the face, and b, i would simply combust bc i cant choose just one

my top three tho would have to be between king of new york, carrying the banner, and crutchies prison song (idk the name its not on spotify :'((((( ) in no particular order

i havent had them on repeat enough to have any memorized, but i did remember santa fe, carrying the banner, and the world will know from the last time i watched it and i belted along to all the parts i knew this music is so good at hyping me up I WANNA START A UNION

and oh my god katherines voice???? stunning. her song is sooooo good. her part in king of new york is incredible. i love her <3

jesus christ this post got out of control. im still not done lmaooo

ok one thing that really has nothing to do with the musical itself is just the fact that it reminded me of so many other musicals ive seen at specific parts, even some of the songs sound like others i know.

Santa Fe really reminds me of Maybe from Annie, both music-wise and lyric wise. i mean theyre both "i want" songs so it makes sense but i feel like they sound kinda similar too. honestly a lot of the music sounds like Annie, but maybe its just the types of instruments used and thats just how musicals sounded when they were made. i think they were made about the same time. *checks spotify* ok well the newsies i listen to was produced like 40 years after Annie so maybe that just a stylistic choice-

idk why but the beginning of watch what happens sounds like the intro to reginas speaking part in meet the plastics lmao-

oh and brooklyn's here has the same beat as the military from Seussical but thats just bc its a marching song lmao. its also the same beat as the spanish alphabet song my spanish teacher used to use!

ok and this one really doesnt make sense but something to believe in reminds me of the power in me from Twisted lmao- kinda similar message ig? and sound vaguely similar? but idk it really doesnt make too much sense

i should. i should sum it up. this is getting out of hand.

okay i love this musical sm. clearly. do you see how long this post is. i was missing out when i refused to listen to it previously. oh my god.

and for some reason it really makes me wanna go watch my favorite musical so im ending this here TO YOUTUBE I GOOOOO TY FOR READING IF YOU DID AND TY TO ROYAL FOR UNINTENTIONALLY PUSHING ME TO WATCH THIS HAVE A GREAT DAYYYY

[jpitha]

Dreams of Hyacinth 26

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Nick tried for a few minutes to go back to sleep, but after tossing and turning, he realized that if he kept it up he was going to wake Eastern, so he got out of bed. He put on soft clothes and padded out into the lounge.

Chloe was in the lounge reading a pad and drinking a cup of tea. Nick was a little startled to see her. "Oh, hello Chloe. I thought you'd be back in Medicine Hat or something." Nick sat opposite her on another couch.

"Why? Hat is connected to Tink's systems, and I can reach him anytime I need to. There's no need to go back to Hat." Chloe looks around the room and smiles small. "Besides, I like Tink's fittings. She never was upgraded over the centuries and looks a lot like I did when I was a Starjumper. It's nostalgic."

"I see I went from old, to vintage, to nostalgic in about two days. Talk about progress!" Tink laughs.

Chloe chuckles. "I'm serious Tink, I like how you're laid out, I like your fittings. They should bring this stuff back. The latest Starjumpers coming out of the shipyards have no... style."

"I'm not surprised. When I was new, they were all coming out of the shipyards looking like me. Style comes later. It comes with personal touches, with little bits here and there that show your own mark."

"Like the thousands of books you have everywhere?" Chloe hides her smirk with a sip of tea.

"I'm working on it! My support frames and printers are working overtime making bookcases and shelves for everything. When I'm done, it'll look like a real library instead of a book shop that suffered a tragic foundation collapse." Tink is laughing while she explains.

Nick listens to the conversation, watching Tink and Chloe interact. It really is like they're old friends even though Tink said she didn't know Chloe all that well. They're old enough that there weren't many AIs when they were young, so it was probably just a matter of them knowing each other by virtue of who they were.

Nick takes a sip of his own tea. One of Tink's support frames brought it over soon after he sat down. "Chloe, Tink mentioned that you've been in a body a long time, did you not like being a ship?"

Chloe looks up from her tea and raises an eyebrow. "That's a bit of a personal question, Nick."

Nick sputters and splashes a little tea on his soft clothes. He wipes himself off and leans back. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry, I was just curious. If you don't want to answer, that's fine and we can forget I asked."

Chloe looks at Nick and puts her teacup down. "No, it's all right. You didn't know - though now you do. But, to answer your question, no, I didn't like being a ship. I like having a body much more." She looks down at her hands and flexes them, her fingers curling and uncurling. "It's more natural feeling... more me. I've had a body just about as long as we've been able to get them, and I've kept this body plan more or less. My options become more... human looking as time goes on, but I'm not human, I like to look a little otherworldly to you."

"No, I think I understand it. Why look like a human when you don't feel like a human. You want to look like you."

"Yes, that's it exactly Nick." Chloe smiles. "I'm glad you understand. Many people don't."

"They don't? It doesn't seem that complex."

Chloe chuckled and picked her tea back up. "The simplest things are often the most complex to those who refuse to look beyond themselves and imagine a world where everyone doesn't think and act like they do." Chloe takes a sip and her eyebrows raise. "Actually, speaking of looking beyond themselves, you've been a ship, haven't you?"

Nick nods, sheepish. "Only in a simulator and only for six hours or so, but yes. I had an AI trainer too, Starlight Serenade."

Chloe's eyes widen at Nick's mention of the name. "I haven't heard from Starlight in centuries. I had no idea she was around, and in a body at that." She frowns. "And working for Raaden too apparently. That's too bad."

"You yourself said that you're not one monolithic bloc. AIs go off on their own to do their own thing all the time"

Chloe nods. "True, I did say that, and it is true. It's just... I liked Starlight, she was smart and clever and a good listener back then. I feel sad to hear she's working for someone I don't like."

Nick shrugs. "It happens to us all I suppose. People grow and change and we drift apart."

Chloe says nothing and finishes her tea. She puts the cup down with a hollow tink. "Tink, do you know which Gate we're going to link to?"

"I have the Gate map from the K'laxi here, and a few new ones have been added from FarReach's visit plus some maps we were able to recover from Melody's invasion. We know which Gate she touched initially, what about that one?"

While Tink is talking, Eastern comes in, yawning. Silently she pads across the lounge and sits next to Nick, leaning on him. One of Tink's support frames brings out more tea.

Chloe takes another tea and thanks Tink's support frame. "I don't know if we should do that one at first. It might be a pilgrimage site for the Empress. Even if she's trying to be quiet, it sounds like Raaden is making moves in Sol. If she's as rich as Nick an Eastern say, it would be easy for her to hire folks to keep an eye on it and link a beacon back to her, should someone get too close."

"I don't think she'll do that though." Tink counters "She is trying to keep a low profile and setting up something like a guard at a Gate is pretty much the opposite of that, but I take your meaning. The aftermath report I have here - thanks for bringing a copy Chloe - says that the Gates are all interdimensionally linked?"

"Something like that yes. Apparently there is only one Gate, and all the Gates we see in space are... extension of it. A bit of it sticking out into our space. It's how it works. Travel time is effectively zero when - from the Gate's perspective - you're not traveling at all, right?"

Eastern yawns and looks over at Chloe. "That's how the K'laxi Gates work? That's wild. Did we ever think of doing something like that?"

Hat answers this time. "We actually did Eastern, but it was determined that the energy needed to stick something... in between dimensions was so expensive that we couldn't maintain it. Around then the wormhole generators were created and the point became moot. Still, whoever stuck the Gate there was serious. If the Empress and her Builders did it a zillion years ago, they weren't someone to mess with back then."

"Could... we build a new Gate? Our own? Then we wouldn't have to risk running into Empress Raaden's goons."

"Now that I don't know. Maybe? Probably?" Hat sighs. "We also don't know if the Gate is the source of the Nanites, or if they add something else to the Gate for them to live."

Chloe nods. "From what we understand though, It has to do with the Address Stone in each Gate, and we think the specific Gate doesn't matter, since they are all the same Gate in the end."

"Well then, why not just go to the least used Gate? We should have plenty of time to figure things out that way."

"We don't have that information Nick, and asking about it would probably cause some worry. The K'laxi would be the ones that know the best, and they're still mopping up after their holy war."

The K'laxi were a client species of the original Empress and her empire, and long ago, they rebelled and closed their Gate. On their own, the K'laxi developed continued their own culture and eventually rose technologically such that they could go back into space and found their Gate and unlocked it. Unbeknownst to them, the Empire was long gone by that time and was reduced to two Starbases only, back on the other side of the Galaxy.

They still sort of remembered their time under the Empire though, and had a religion based off of 'doors in the sky' and 'the undeniable' - their name for the Empress. When Melody showed up and suddenly a whole lot of the K'laxi religion was provably real, a lot of K'laxi didn't take it well. There was proof that not only were they a client species of another race for who knows how long, but that they were ruled by a person who could give commands that could not be disobeyed. About half the K'laxi reached out to every AI they could find offering help to eliminate Melody, and the other half tried to reach Melody, so that they could pledge their loyalty to her.

It was a mess.

A tremendous civil war broke out on K'lax, their home planet. Long after Melody was killed and her Empire squashed, the K'laxi fought over it. It took nearly 5 years for the war to die down, with the Anti-Empress faction - supported quietly by the AIs - to win and defeat the Pro-Empress faction.

Millions died.

Even now, things aren't going great for the K'laxi. They lost one of their colony worlds to the Pro faction, and that remains a stronghold of theirs. The remaining colony worlds were decidedly Anti and they allied with K'lax, but things are still rough.

If Tink or Chloe reached out to the K'laxi asking for Gate transit numbers, it would be seen as a provocation at best.

"No, we can't ask the K'laxi. We're going to have to guess." Chloe sighed. "I hate to say it, but should we just pick one at random?"

"It sounds stupid to say it out loud, but yeah, we should probably just pick one from the list." Tink sighs. "Okay, Nick and Eastern, since you two are the ones that are going to be actually touching things, do you have an opinion?"

"Do any of the Gates have... a breathable atmosphere or a station attached?"

"They all have a station, but it's... more like a mausoleum according to the K'laxi's notes. None of them have an atmosphere."

Eastern yawns and sits up off Nick. "If none of them have an atmosphere, how did Melody touch one?"

"Through her suit, I imagine. If I had a body, I'd be shrugging. Here," One of Tink's support frames does a comically exaggerated shrug and hold up their hands.

"Okay then, pick one that's furthest from everyone, and we'll try that one."

"One moment." Tink scans the document again. "Okay, I have one. It's in Xenni space officially, but after the war they went so insular that they haven't really had a presence outside of their homeworld in fifteen years or more."

The Xenni are a semi aquatic race that had a small colonial presence up against the K'laxi's territory. Back when humanity first met the K'laxi they were embroiled in a war with them, and when the humans joined on the K'laxi's side the war was resolved quickly in their favor. The humans and K'laxi were magnanimous in victory and let the Xenni keep their colony worlds and really only hardened the border between the K'laxi and Xenni. The Xenni have no worlds bordering Human space.

"Do we need to ask permission to traverse Xenni space?"

"Officially? Yes." Chloe grinned "But I don't think we'll be there long enough to matter. A quick in and out is all we're doing. It'll be fine."

"Uh, you sure about that, Chloe? We're already going off on our own pretty far. Adding on trespassing to that makes things a bit spicy if we get caught." Hat sounds worried.

"It'll be fine, I'm sure of it." She stood. "Okay, we'll go to the Gate in Xenni space, but not the Gate that FarReach went to when they started their trip. Tink, how long to compute the coordinates and link over?"

"Minutes Chloe, I could have us there under an hour. Nick and Eastern just woke up though, and it's still early morning ships time. Let's let them eat and get dressed before we go."

Chloe looked at Nick and Eastern lounging on the couch together. Nick was trying to hold his tea without spilling on Eastern and she was back leaning up against him, half asleep. "Okay. Let's go around lunch, ships time. I'll head back to Hat and change."

Tink spent the morning installing the bookcases she printed and Nick and Eastern helped her support frames install and secure her books. By the time it was lunch, almost all her books were neatly placed in bookcases along the wall of the halls on the different floors and she had set up one whole deck under the staterooms and lounge as a library. As they were working, Eastern was picking up books and looking at them. "Tink, what language are these books in? I don't recognize any of them!"

"Oh all different languages, I have a lot in English, some in French, some in Spanish, a couple in Hebrew, a bunch in Russian. Lots and lots of Human languages."

Eastern closed the book with a snap. "Why not any in Colonic?"

"Oh, I have a few here and there. They were mostly done for vanity projects or from bookbinders who were looking to practice their craft. Most things written in Colonic are published digitally. Nobody really wants paper books anymore, so all of mine are old. Being old, they're in languages that hardly anyone speaks anymore."

Eastern looks up with a realization. "So, you speak all these languages?"

"Most of them yes. My fluency ranges from almost completely fluent to 'can read it slowly with a dictionary open next to me.'"

"Why not translate them?"

"Because then I'm not reading them Eastern, I'm reading the translation."

She makes a face. "That sounds like a distinction without a difference."

"It's important to me. I want to read the books, which means, you know, looking at them in their original language and reading them."

"Okay, I give up. Far be it from me to give you a hard time about being a polyglot and being well read." She holds her hands up in surrender.

"That's right." Tink chuckles. "Come on Eastern, lunch is ready, go eat with Nick and then we'll link over."

Eastern headed up to the lounge and found Nick, dressed and waiting at the table. "I'm surprised you waited for me hon, you look like you're about ready to eat the silverware."

"Ever since Tink started cooking, I've been excited for every meal. I need to start exercising more if she's going to keep cooking for us, it'll be bad for my waistline!"

Laughing, Eastern sat down and Tink's support frame brought out lunch. After another wonderful meal, they made their way back up to the Command Deck, and settled into their chairs. "Chloe, are you going to join us, or are you going to stay on Hat while we link?" Eastern looked around as the chair molded to her form.

"I'll join you two if you don't mind." Chloe's voice came from the doorway as they settled in. Nick turned and waved and Eastern smiled. "I don't think Tink has another acceleration couch handy, you might have to deal with a regular seat."

"Don't have another acceleration couch? What kind of host would I be?" As Tink speaks, a third couch slowly spins up out of the floor behind the two Nick and Eastern are sitting in. Like theirs, it's original to the ship, but Tink had taken the time to clean it in the intervening days.

Chloe raises an eyebrow but sits all the same. "Thanks Tink, but you realize I don't need an acceleration couch? I can take ten gee no problem."

"You may be able to take ten gee, standard thrust in one direction steady. But my gravity generators are old, and not as responsive as the new ones. Better to be secured and safe if we have to do any emergency maneuvering. Besides, other than the uncomfortable chairs at the different monitoring stations, this is all I have."

Chloe smiles and sits in the chair. Like Nick and Eastern, it molds around her and secures her tightly in place.

"Okay everyone, we're ready to link over to the gate. Hat, you secure?"

"Yup."

"Nick and Eastern, you ready?"

Nick and Eastern nod. "We're ready, Tink."

"Chloe?"

"I'm ready Tink, in your own time please."

"Okay everyone, even though it's a single link, and I have enough power in the capacitors, I'm going to WEP the reactors just in case. Better safe than sorry, right?"

As she says that, Nick hears the low thrum of the reactors climb in pitch until it's a screaming whine, almost loud enough to hurt his teeth, but not quiet.

"All right everyone, here we go!"

They link.

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[heavensbeehall]

"Mockingjay", Chapter 16

Part 2: The Assault

Chapter 16: Katniss comes back to consciousness (again!) after being shot and remembers the "Stay with me"/"Always" exchange with Peeta from the second book. Johanna Mason--what a queen--shows up to steal some drugs from Katniss. Johanna is addicted to "morphling" now, but in a fun way. Katniss and Gale fight about killing people but District 2 is now in Rebellion hands. Even though she lost a spleen, Katniss is made to return to work. Plutarch talks about "Panem et Circenses" for all the English teachers in the audience. Annie and Finnick are getting married! Katniss is stunned when the cake is wheeled out and it was obviously made by Peeta, who has been getting better after his first breakthrough. At midnight she goes to talk to him (and I have questions about why the staff at 13 is all around at midnight but they are not addressed. Perhaps they wanted a good Hanging Tree reference for this uncomfortable encounter). Peeta is pissy which I will allow since she was tortured for weeks. He sees Katniss through a new lens. She thinks it's "the truth" because she hates herself and is depressed and clearly needs medication--not to the responsibility of a rebellion. But it's more like he sees her through Snow's eyes now. (That women are not to be trusted and love makes you weak.)

Thoughts:

-- This book depresses me a bit and my own mental health hasn't been great lately. I should remind myself there is more Johanna. Because I really do like the part where they are roommates.

-- When Johanna calls Gale "gorgeous" and then laughs, it makes me think she is messing with him the way she did with Katniss in book 2. But I don't know if she is messing with Katniss or Gale, actually.

Quotes:

"You should have been the Mockingjay. No one would've had to feed you lines," I say. "True. But no one likes me," she tells me.

Given that Suzanne Collins has said they have tried to use previous victors (she particularly cited Finnick) as a rallying point for rebellion, I wonder if she says this from experience. The way Johanna won--by pretending for the camers--is actually quite smart. She used the game against the Gamemakers. Her "act" would be mostly in things we know Snow added to the Hunger Games--the interviews, the betting odds etc. If they had just thrown her into an arena, like 1-10th, then this would not be possible to do. Nor do I think crying or being sad to fight to the death is abnormal. We have seen Lamina (also a female tribute from 7) portrayed as somewhat weak during her Games but be mentally tough. I imagine it was easy to dismiss Johanna. But then when she won, it seems (as with many reality shows) she was not lauded for her cleverness but instead portrayed as a liar and a bitch.

Does anyone have strong headcanons about Johanna? For some reason, I assume she had siblings that were killed. Possibly because of how she interacts with Katniss and Finnick, like she is used to having someone close to her who is her age. But that person or persons is gone now.

Somehow staging some perverse wedding between Peeta and me. I haven't been able to face that one-way glass since I've been back and, at my own request, only get updates about Peeta's condition from Haymitch. He speaks very little about it. Different techniques are being tried. There will never truly be a way to cure him.And now they want me to marry Peeta for a propo?

I read a fanfic about this once. Anyway, you will note that Katniss instinctively assumes Plutarch will use her the same way Snow did which doesn't reassure me much about Plutarch's vibes.

... the music is provided by a choir of children accompanied by the lone fiddler who made it out of 12 with his instrument...

We think this is Clerk Carmine's fiddle, yes? I don't know where you would buy a new instrument in 12.

Sure enough, Greasy Sae grabs Gale by the hand and pulls him into the center of the floor and faces off with him

Get it, Greasy Sae! (I do not necessarily hold to the theory that Lucy Gray is Greasy Sae, but I do think--since she sells her wares at the Hob and has been around awhile, she would probably know the most about the Covey. I'd love to interview her for my fictional documentary about the history of the Hunger Games.)

"I must have loved you a lot."

I would like to think that Peeta need not be "in love" with Katniss to give her some bread. It's very "Snow-like" to assume that he would only do that if he was in love with her, and the love was like tricking him into something (which I think is how he comes to see everything he did for Lucy Gray, as some grand manipulation) when it's just normal to not like seeing someone else suffer.

[moviemunchies]

After the critical and popular acclaim of The Dark Knight, a movie beloved by just about everyone I knew at that time, we all wondered how Christopher Nolan would follow up in the next Batman movie.

The result, The Dark Knight Rises, was a bit divisive.

Eight years after Joker’s reign of terror, Batman is still blamed for Harvey Dent’s crimes and death,, with the Dent Act having cleaned up Gotham’s streets. Batman’s gone, since he’s supposedly won, and Bruce Wayne is a recluse. But the terrorist leader Bane, an expelled member of the League of Shadows, comes to Gotham with a plan to take over Wayne Industries’ energy project, turn it into a bomb, and eventually destroy the city, cutting it off from the rest of the country and causing the violent overthrow of society.

And Batman can’t do anything to stop him.

We’ll talk about some spoilers in this review. I don’t  know if anyone cares, because this movie’s a decade old; I thought I’d throw that out there, anyway.

When it’s remembered at all, other than memes of Bane’s voice (no really, the Harley Quinn show uses it), it’s generally considered as the worst of the Nolan Batman films. And I think that’s true, but it’s a high bar, and the movie has a lot going for it. It’s more thoughtful than most superhero movies today, for sure–though that doesn’t mean all of these thoughts always work when expressed on screen.

Shortly after re-watching this movie, I saw Chris Stuckmann’s recent video on the film, and he brings up an idea that has made me think. He talks about how, in the previous movie, the Joker makes the assertion that once you get rid of the rules of society, people will tear each other apart–and what we see in this film is Gotham City tear itself apart (or at least, some of it–we don’t see much of what the average people are doing) once Bane brings down the ruling institutions. It makes me wonder. There were rumors that if Heath Ledger hadn’t died, the Joker would have played a role in this movie. And so I’m really, really curious and imagining an incredibly ambitious film that ties together both the League of Shadows storyline and the anarchy of the Joker. I’d like to think it would blow us all out of the water.

We didn’t get that though.

There are some baffling things in this movie. Bane’s voice has grown on me, but re-watching it’s annoying that the third act has two or three instances of Bruce Wayne/Batman just… appearing where he needs to be. I’m not asking for a full scene of how he got from the Pit to Gotham, I just want a throwaway line or something. I suspect that the film loses track of its characters. Miranda Tate/Talia is an example of this–at the trial scene, Bane asks her to be brought to him, and then she’s with the captives that Bruce sees when he pretends to be captured, and then later he asks where she is. Despite that he has no reason to think she’s anywhere other than where he left her. But she’s not, she’s with Bane again.

Actually, we should talk about Talia and her role in the movie. It’s fine, in theory, I guess–

[Waitwaitwait hang on! What do you mean, child Talia is played by Joey King in the flashbacks?!]

–but there’s so much work missing. We’re meant to believe that Bruce is falling for her, I think? They don’t have enough meaningful interactions for me to think that Bruce has reason to feel particularly attached to her, but after he goes broke he lets her into his mansion and has sex with her. Why? Well, so it’s a twist when it turns out that it’s Talia, and she wanted to kill him the entire time. Since her relationship with Bruce also comes out of nowhere though, it seemed as if the character only exists to make Plot Twists instead of being developed as a real person in the narrative.

Selina Kyle is an interesting character, and I appreciate her character arc here more. I don’t know if running off with Bruce is the best ending, as again, I don’t know if there’s enough work put into that romance; though unlike with Talia, but I can actually see that these two are attracted to each other, and actually grow more attached to the other as the story goes on.

[Side note that might be a Hot Take: does anyone ship Bruce/Batman with Talia? Other than Ra’s al Ghul?]

Upon re-watch, I found Selina’s character arc in this movie much more interesting. She’s someone who, over the course of the film, realizes how her selfishness has led to absolutely terrible consequences. I like that.

The fight scenes in this movie are… eh? They’re not good. I complained about it in the last movie; they’re worse here. Nolan is less interested in that aspect of action movies, I think. There are bits that are alright, but overall, it is miles behind every other superhero movie in this regard, which is a shame because this is Batman. Batman is supposed to be one of the greatest fictional martial artists of all time, and Nolan put together a very basic style for him, which is at its worst in this movie. Disappointing.

One of the most discussed aspects of the film is Bane’s rhetoric. Many took issue with how and his forces are presented. Bane gives several speeches about liberating Gotham’s people from corrupt elites, and yet he’s the villain, instead of a revolutionary hero. I’ve talked about this before, but these comments miss the point of Bane: he’s not a revolutionary. He’s a terrorist. He’s happy, like so many real-life villains, to use rhetoric about helping people get what they want or deserve in order to gain public support only to use that support for his own ends. He does not care about the liberation of Gotham’s people, he wants to blow them up because he thinks they’re beyond redemption.

Now, one could argue that the delivery of all of this is awkwardly done, or could have been done better, and I’ll accept that argument. But so often it seems like a lot of people seem baffled at the idea that villains convincingly lie to people sometimes to get what they want, or that benevolent ideology can be used as a cover for nefarious purposes. They’ve clearly never watched anything in pop culture as a religious person, I think. Look, maybe this is more right-wing than most Hollywood films now, but that’s a low bar, and as critic Jonathtan Chait put it, the movie only “submits the rather modest premise that, irritating though the rich may be, actually killing them and taking all their stuff might be excessive.” Some people find that too extremist, I guess.

The actual inspirations for the film are quite obviously the French Revolution and Tale of Two Cities, and I sort of like the idea of this story. Gotham is a mess, and horribly corrupt, even when they do get the crime off of the streets (even though the Dent Act is not how city laws work!), and so it requires fixing that corruption before things actually get set right. 

I remember some doofus on Tumblr (the same one who was like, “Joker says he doesn’t have a plan but totally does! Gotcha, Nolan fans!”) who argued that the ending of The Dark Knight was ProBleMAtiC because it involves people believing a lie for the sake of the Greater Good–welp, this movie exists! And it shows that, yeah, that’s actually a massive problem! Let’s deal with that!

No, it’s not the best ending we could have gotten to this trilogy. But I don’t think it’s bad–I think it’s pretty good. It just isn’t up to the high standards of the previous film–which is pretty darn high! I think maybe it required a couple more editorial looks before completion. Still, I enjoyed this movie! Even though it’s the weakest link in the Nolan Batman trilogy.

[lovecolibri]

SaL anon here friend with my thoughts on Tuesday's episode and some other thoughts I'll get to. So the episode was amazing, emotional, so well acted, and basically hitting every kidnapped lover trope in the book to great effect. Slow, horrifying realization by their other half that something is wrong when no one else thinks so. Team up between them and a close relative who grounds them so they can crack the case. Kidnapped lover has a chance to escape but doesn't take it because it lead to

the other getting hurt. Performing CPR on the kidnapped lover because they FUCKING DIED!! Truly a glorious fanfiction come to life and I loved every moment of that part. It goes without saying that I would have gladly traded less Owen for more 126, but the TK and Gabriel team up was amazing. The serial killer aspects were pretty minimal so I didn't need to skip anything (ngl, after seeing the cookie thing in the preview i was terrified), hell Trudy was deranged but kinda sweet. So here we come to my salty thoughts so feel free to ignore if you want. As much as I loved the episode, it was hardly part of any sort of arc for Carlos, if we can even say that there was one. Aside from the basic setup, nothing in it relied on the previous 3 episodes. You could have had Tarlos fight for any reason and Carlos get kidnapped on a case and it would have played out the same way. So if there is any sort of arc for Carlos its in the previous 3 episodes, and I'm having trouble seeing it. An arc (to me) is character has a problem, things happen, resolution has character come out stronger on the other side (see the top tier Buck tsunami arc, Buck feels useless without his job, he saves Chris, discovers he has value to others outside his job.) So what was Carlos's arc? It was supposedly confronting his past but that didn't really happen. He's there for Iris when he thinks he hadn't been, but he would have been for any friend who went missing. If it was about confronting his reasons for getting married shouldn't we have seen a conversation with his parents? Right now the marriage thing isn't even necessary as backstory, we already knew Carlos had these issues in S2. If Tim was going to introduce 5 million plot holes with this info it needed a payoff. Maybe more will be said later in the season, till then i feel like 4x04 is a beautiful work of fan service to vaguely justify Tim's poorly thought out/executed headcanon.

Hello my friend and I'm sorry I'm so late getting to this! My mom had some issues at work and then got sick and then I got like, a weird (for me) amount of energy to Do Something Productive and spent about 6+ hours yesterday sorting The Box Of Important Papers I have been throwing shit into for years and I couldn't stop or I would never start again and it would remain half-sorted for the foreseeable future. But now I've got some time before I start anything else (or just lay around and read/recover for the rest of the day)!

The Tarlos of Tuesday's episode was sooooo so so good! We got delicious angst without being an over the top serial killer torture fest (and yeah Trudy was enabling her son but you can't look at the way he talked to her and tell me he wasn't abusing her and she wasn't just waiting to be the next one he killed the second she failed to "prove" her love for him. Also, am I the only one that assumed when she said his dad "left" and he burnt himself dissolving "something" that he murdered his dad? ANYWAY), we got some truly beautiful lines from both TK and Carlos about their love for each other, and Rafael really just acted his heart out all episode. I loved every minute of their stuff this episode. I was particularly thrilled with the TK/Gabriel scenes and the way he and Andrea just were SO happy to see TK even without Carlos, and were prepared to just have him over to hang out for a bit was SOOOO sweet and speaks volumes about how much closer they have grown. We love to see it! And the parallels to Carlos and Owen looking for TK when he went missing?! *chef's kiss* Get you a father in law who will listen to your concerns about their child and take them seriously and will follow your lead when you Know Something Is Up.

And honestly, Owen had some lines that did make me laugh! I actually think him and O'Brian play off each other really well and I enjoy their reluctant team up. I am just ABSOLUTELY bored to tears with this stupid storyline for them. One is a fire captain and the other is a motorcycle cop! HOW are they both just being totally removed from their first responder world to push this whole boring ass FBI investigation that, from a lot of the comments I've seen around, no one could give two shits about. There are SO MANY procedurals on that revolve around these investigations and a couple other "firefighter" shows that are more about the soap opera level drama than the fun/occasionally serious and painful rescue calls. The 911verse has always stood out for being different, more hopeful and fun, having drama but not being A Drama, and being full of fun and interesting rescues that tie in with what the main characters are going through. And both shows losing their way SO early in their runs is...disappointing. And frustrating that the people in charge have gotten a lot of feedback about what fans AND the GA tune in for (cool/fun emergencies! Some drama but not too OTT, focus on our main characters and their relationships to/with each other!) and have decided they would rather be like every other show out there than to deviate from what they personally want to do because the audience enjoys something they don't think is The Thing Everyone Should Be Enjoying This Much. (Or worse, turn those earnest things that people loved about the show into a joke because they resent their audience and fanbase that gives their show longevity and keeps it trending and pulls in new viewers for some reason. 🙃🙃🙃) ANYWAY, I am READY for this Owen storyline to take a back fucking seat to literally anything. I've been re-watching season 1 and the difference in TK and Owen's relationship then and now is so disappointing to see. I know Ronen said he and RL have a really good TK/Owen episode (or scene? I don't fully remember) so I'm looking forward to that but I really, REALLY need to see more emergencies and first responder moments on this *checks notes* show very specifically about first responders doing their jobs. VERY excited for Marjan to get a storyline this week!

As for your salty thoughts, I'm with you. I don't *hate* the "Carlos married Iris" storyline but it definitely could have been handled better/more seamlessly (especially watching season1 again and the clues they COULD have dropped without revealing what was going on but didn't), and honestly was not needed as a set up for this episode. Actually, as much as what we got was good, I personally think it would have been better being an entirely separate thing from Iris. Like, if they just wanted to have Carlos getting hurt and TK teaming up with Gabriel to find him, they could have cut the whole thing about Iris going missing and put more emergency calls into episode 3 and had TK and Carlos still in a tiff because they're both stressed about Iris not signing the divorce papers yet, and then had Carlos get trapped while at work on a call! He could have been trying to save someone, hell it could have even been Iris! And we could have seen him talking to this person (even BETTER if it was Iris!) about all this love he has for TK and about TK's love for Gwen, and fighting to get out but not quite being able to make it, and even going into cardiac arrest and needing CPR! He still could have been off-duty with no one knowing he was involved at first so TK could still have the talk with the 126 and the call to Grace, and a moment with the Reyes parents and the ultimate team up with Gabriel. I just think there was a way to tie it more into the premise of first responders while still keeping all the good stuff we got!

And you're right about it not really being an "arc" because we...didn't actually get that much from Carlos about HIMSELF. We got the scene where he first tells TK about being married and why he did it, but we still know NOTHING about if they had a true wedding and told everyone or if it's something that they did privately and it came up later when she disappeared, we have no idea if everyone in the family knew it was a sham wedding or found out later, we still don't know when they decided it was cool to date other people and if they ever lived together, or how Carlos felt about watching his best friend start to change and become someone he didn't recognize, we know NOTHING except it is a Thing That Happened and they didn't get a divorce before she disappeared because ??? "reasons" (even though no one batted an eye about her having a long-term relationship with someone else), then she was presumed dead, and then it was because the US healthcare system is a joke. We didn't get to delve much into Carlos' side of things, just hear his version of Iris's side of things! And as you said, if it was about him confronting his past, WHERE was a talk with his parents?! Where was the discussion about his choice to do this and what they did or didn't say or did or didn't know about it all?!

I'm hoping we get some more in the coming weeks because we still don't have a resolution to this arc since Iris still has not applied for an annulment or signed the papers, we haven't seen Carlos talking to his parents, and we didn't get a big growth moment or anything because we didn't get to see TK talking to anyone about how he was trying to be supportive but he was really reeling from the news and wanted to make sure Carlos felt supported and loved but he also needed to vent about it. Like, the only conflict is about if it can happen soon enough for the wedding in 8-ish weeks, because everyone is on board and everyone is fine with things. IDK it just feels like if this was going to be a big thing, it needed to be A Big Thing which you can do without the people in the couple being awful to each other, but you do kind of need to allow them to have big and occasionally messy feelings, and TALK about those feelings, and show some change from the start of the arc to the end. There was never any really true conflict here, so there is...nowhere to grow from. I don't hate this, I just think it could have been handled a little better and more interestingly but SO MUCH TIME is going to this Owen arc that everything else is suffering instead of giving this plot some room to breathe and filling up the time with more emergencies, and giving Owen a more central arc later on. 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️

As always, thanks for your thoughts my friend! I'll be working on our song ask next!

[uozlulu]

Doing some thinking about the DP3 shared consciousness pulled apart fic because I realized today that I technically don't know how I want to end this thing

fic spoilers naturally

Okay, so let's talk Act III

Right now it's currently:

L8 - Establishes that Logan has survived drowning, got a blood transfusion from Laura, possibly establishes that the Wolverine scanner is other universe tech that lead to everything that goes down post-midpoint thus far

W8 - Wade and Logan fight it out a bit. There's a confession but also Logan admits that he's got cancer.

L9 and W9 - The spicy scene I promised myself I wasn't going to write happens here in a robotic public restroom that talks (because why not?) Anyway, muses talked me into this plot point

L10 - Logan's X-gene recovers. Logan checks in with Laura to make sure she didn't get manipulated into this. Laura confirms what we already know from previous plot points in the fic that this universe's X-Men aren't the safest place. She's been helping Colossus, Negasonic, and Yukio get mutants who aren't safe at the X-Mansion to safety elsewhere

W10 - Wade finds out that Logan's X-gene has been repaired which means a) no more cancer (yay!) but also Logan's lost all the traits he got from Wade post-Time Ripper shoved their consciousnesses together into one and then pulled them apart a little to the left. How exactly does this section end to end the fic? That is a great question, because I don't completely know.

Some options:

Make L9 the entire spicy scene - Do not like this option because W9 being a part of the spicy scene establishes that Logan's lost the ability to hear the music playing from nowhere

Keep L9 and W9 as they are, but expand W9 to include Logan's X-gene getting to a healed state enough that his healing factor is now fixing everything it hasn't been able to fix in the last like 30 years or so (except Logan gets to keep his wrinkles and the gray in his beard because this is more like a obliterate cancer and fix the cirrhosis thing than a fountain of youth nonsense.

If I expand W9, then L10 can still be about Logan checking in on Laura, which helps tie up how things have changed from them exchanging numbers in the TVA HQ in L1 and that he cares for her well being as much as she cares for his.

Which then makes me go, so what is W10 about? Now it could still be about Wade finding out what's going on, so that again brings us back to the initial problem of:

How does the fic end?

Now in the original version of the outline, I was going on the lie to truth character development structure, which partially went out the window in Act III because I had to add scenes. Now the original lie for Logan was that he was okay with dying, and okay with things between him and Wade as they were because he already knew he didn't have much time left even before the cancer plot point. Wade's lie was that he was into Logan but not pursuing him because he's aware this is a kidnapping and as he points out in W1 they are like one rose away from Beauty and the Beast, a few arrows away from Cupid and Psyche, etc... so he's doing the "it's fine" meme

So logically since those aspects are still present in L1 and W1 I should revisit them in L10 and W10. In some ways I have done this for L10 and I am trying to do this with W10 but just...nothing I'm coming up with is working quite yet, so idek.

Maybe I'll have some insights after I sleep on it.

[ghostflowerhotpotch]

Is Love in the air? Or it is just Gwen fuming?

Continuing with Mumbattan, the falling bit will go in another post (that will also be more about the movie than shipping since I don't have a lot to say in that regard,) let's go where we left of with: Gwen is MAD.

There are multiple reasons for her to not be in the mood, and sadly, Miles coming to help isn't exactly making that list any shorter, to Miles' disappointment.

Sorry Miles, part of being spider-man is helping people that actually don't want your help. You'll get use to it.

And then comes Pav, an amazing ray of sunshine who is great and deserves all the love he can get. Wish I knew enough about Desi culture and the Kerala region to make him justice, I hope someone who does makes an analysis.

Moving on, Pav is great, he saves them with ease as well as giving an extra punch to the bad guy, all while he realizes what's going on in record time.

I adore how Gwen barely explains the situation to him and he already knows what's up. To be fair he isn't wrong, Miles may feel guilty about this spot mess and definitely wants to help out because is the right thing, but let's face it he also didn't want to never see Gwen again, and probably he wanted to help her.

Everyone has seen this scene because it was part of the trailers so you would think there is not much I can say that someone hasn't said, but while looking at this scene I picked up onto something I never realized in my previous viewings and had be cackling.

But before we get to that, what's Gwen and Miles' reaction?

Miles? Immediately denies it, which is to be expected. If you had ever been in Miles' position, I'm 99% sure that you would do the same. He likes Gwen, a lot, but he and Gwen aren't officially anything and having the guy you just met talking about your private feelings isn't ideal.

Gwen? Well, her dialogue doesn't give me too much to work with, she sounds like she is trying to downplay the situation a bit, if not outright denied it (probably because she knows Miles definitely has feelings for her,) but c'mon, he is not that down bad for her, right?

Her hand gestures were interesting, honestly this part goes on so fast I didn't truly get what she was doing until I was watching it half speed.

This accompanied with the dialogue really has me thinking she is trying to act like no, nothing is happening, but it is very weak and I think what I love the most about this part is that no one is buying it (Not Pavitr, not the audience, and probably not themselves,) yet they still try.

Now this part? Oh this is precious.

Here is the thing, the second line comes from Gwen, which she says very quickly after he says this.

But Gwen isn't the one who's feelings are being put on display, so why exactly Gwen is trying to convince Miles than Pavitr isn't good at reading people?

The next part comes with speculation, but hear me out.

Pavitr is part of the organization, right? I doubt he knows about the canon events part, but he knows that there are anomalies crashing in another dimensions and the other spiders are suppose to come to catch them so they don't do a mess. He probably knows how strict is Miguel about this too.

So if Pavitr said that Miles must be in love with Gwen for following her uninvited, what do you think he would say if he knew that Gwen literally slacked on a mission because she was spending all her time with Miles?

Yeah and later why Gwen won the poll to the biggest simp in this relationship.

Let's move on.

Small addendum but when Miles is asking how Pavitr already has a watch at six months, Gwen is unsure what to say when she gets caught up.

The tower scene deserves multiple post (for multiple reasons too) but let's just remember that Gwen was trying to let down Miles easy about the association, because she knew Miguel wouldn't allow Miles to get in.

While I do think part of her reaction is by being caught on a lie in which she still doesn't know how to tell the truth, it doesn't escape me that a big reason why she said that lie in the first place was that she didn't want Miles to be hurt about being an anomaly.

She never had a chance to say what she really thinks about this (which is kind of her fault, she could at least attempted to explain some parts before getting to Miguel; I am still angry how everyone let Miles think this was a good thing until the very end.) I wonder if part of the reason is that she may had a speech similar to Peter B's and maybe the creators wanted to reserve it for the next movie.

Yep, she is still mad.

I don't have much to say here, I like this joke; they are spidey people and Miles is already getting up so Gwen know is not serious anyways.

Oh Pav, you don't know half of it.

I love how even when they aren't being corny he still smells the tension, because let's face it, I wouldn't had this much material to analyze if there wasn't a constant influx of little gestures back and forth from these two showing always how important they are to each other.

I remember when I first saw this scene I thought Pav doesn't have enough information to know this, and now I just think the guy is smarter than me.

Me the next few months because I swear I need to have some resolution with these two or I would lose it.

Miles quickly gets up to Gwen to talk about the plan, which shipping aside, makes sense. He doesn't know Pavitr and their initial exchange wasn't ideal, not to mention that he may feel he would ask him about Gwen if he gets to her.

I don't think they realized what Pavitr was saying, which honestly that just highlights how focused they are on each other. They are in Pavitr's dimension, trying to catch this guy, and instead of asking him if he knows anything that could help them, or just include him in this conversation considering the three of them are on this now; they just zeroed on each other almost without thinking.

Which is funny considering they don't have that much experience working together for this to just be second nature, maybe the second nature is just stop listening to other things around each other.

I guess this is why Pavitr wasn't bothered about not being included, he has the best seat for this.

Sorry to just add another joke, but this is literally me, while these two are talking about how to catch The Spot, he is just looking INTENSIVELY at them to see if he can spot another thing.

Okay, is finishing each other's phrases kind of a romantic trope? Yes.

Do Gwen has plausible deniability, since they are just seeing the Spot go towards Alchemax, and she knew before hand that the Spot was going for universes that has one? Yes.

Do I think the filmmakers, who had put so much effort in this movie, from the way things are said to the colours, didn't do this on purpose? Oh absolutely not.

The thing that I find the funniest about all of this, is that this is Gwen's entire dilemma with Miles, she is convinced it can't work and is better to try to pretend those feelings aren't there, except neither him or her can't help it, those moments and the connection they have just keeps showing up.

Short answer Pav: They don't.

Okay! With this we finish their tour around Mumbattan, the immediate next part has been technically covered, so will probably talk about what happens after Hobie's presentation.

This part was a lot more fun that I expected, I was a bit nervous to go about this since I didn't think there was much I could talk about, but just like always, I just keep loving this movie more and more.

Thanks to those of you who read it! If you like my content, please consider either commissioning me or donating to my ko-fi, and if not please reblog!