#well. full disclosure. i have no kids want to kids and do not currently work for the FBI. so my statements may be uninformed.

[mulders-too-large-shirt]

s6 episode 4 thoughts

hello all. today is a bit of a gloomy day where i live. i have no desire to go forth and watch an episode, but we must push through and do things we love rather than give into despair. am i right?!?!

so, last episode was quite fun. mulder loves scully. did you know that? i knew it, but hearing it out loud made things even better. 

it seems that today we will be dealing with some sort of body swapping problem. which is deeply unfortunate. no idea how such a thing occurs or how one goes about reversing it.

post-episode thoughts: this was literally 45 minutes of mulder atoning for his crimes of being a moody man. he went through so much that i actually forgive him for his previous actions. he has served his time. poor man. sopping wet meow meow.

but also, poor scully!! it's a good thing i'm not her, because i would have whipped my sig out right in the middle of the office and brought the adventures of mulder and scully to an abrupt end after a Certain Moment. DAMN. no one was winning in this episode! poor sweet scully... truly she has suffered so much.

we begin today in nevada. with my friends the FBI agents!! 

“outpost 134. two miles to go” “i’m alllllll atingle” <- LMAOOOO, oh scully. she does not give a damn about area 51; meanwhile, he's going on a sacred pilgrimage, and the excitement is visible on his face

he’s convinced that this dude who gave them some vague information is not a liar and that this time they will REALLY get the proof- but scully just wants a break!! i can't blame her. how many times now has he been convinced that "proof" is right around the corner?

scully monologue! “mulder, it’s the dim hope of finding that proof that’s kept us in this car, or one very much like it, for more nights than i care to remember. driving hundreds, if not thousands of miles, through neighborhoods and cities and towns where people are raising families and buying homes and playing with their kids and their dogs, and… in short, living their lives. while we… we, we just keep driving”

OH MY GOD, we are barely a minute into this episode and i’m already going to cry. she sounds so sad!!! she wants a life!! or at least thinks she wants it, because tbh i find it very hard to picture her “settling down” and putting aside all the Kicking of Ass and Saving of Lives- but damn it, she wants a house and a dog, and maybe when mulder works out whatever it is he is experiencing, they can obtain a baby.

but then again, he’ll always have something he’s chasing in terms of aliens and bigfoot and x files… so maybe that wouldn’t be for the best. babies are a lot of work. however, he seems to really want one, and has talked about "settling down" before. or does he just like the IDEA of a family because he is chasing bringing his own back?

but again, i also think that there would be something that scully is always chasing! some new medical mystery will need tending to, or scientific phenomena will need to be explained. does "settling down" imply giving those things- the late night drives and quests for proof- up? what is the alternative?

this poses some serious philosophical questions about our lead characters that i lack enough life experience to answer.

how are you supposed to get the kids home from elementary school if you're tracking down a governmental conspiracy and half of DC wants you dead? the vetting process for godparents must be INTENSE.

also, love her use of the word "we" about the continued driving in favor of "living their lives". it implies that whether they keep chasing aliens or give it up and get a more normal job to get a house and a dog, either way it will be done together. which is especially fascinating because they haven't even kissed.

oh god. please display some sensitivity to this rare scully display of emotions, mulder.

while she asks if he ever wants to settle down and have a normal life (to which he replies “this IS a normal life”), four cars surround them and keep them from going any further. which has never happened to me, personally, and i claim to live a pretty normal life. so we have different definitions as to what that means.

they are ordered out of the car, and a guy smoking a cigarette approaches them (later revealed to be named morris, but it gets far more confusing as the episode progresses). which is visual shorthand for a bad guy in this show.

morris says they have to leave, but then something that looks like a UFO approaches!!

OHHHH... mulder’s grabbing her arm as it flies closer……. god. he is investigating. but he also needs to make sure she sees this. because so often she does not see these things.

but then scully walks away with the other guy, morris?? calling him mulder??

oh man. oh BROTHER. so does mulder see himself through the eyes of this other dude?? a real-deal body swap? what a headache!!

(intro time)

we have yet to have a full-length intro this season! it's throwing me off of my rhythm!

these soldiers are waiting to take orders from mulder, who is in the body of morris, and he is utterly gagged, because he just watched scully leave with a stranger!! oh, if i were him, i would be losing my MIND! who is this man driving away with scully?!?!

so mulder is in the body of a guy named morris, who is part of some top secret area 51 project. the other men in the car with him are asking why he let the FBI agents go, but some other guy says they’ll have the FBI handle their own people. right, that's surely what morris meant! absolutely! definitely! (/s)

oooo, this is both an immense opportunity and terrible situation for mulder to be in. because he can learn all the secret area 51 stuff in this body, but he also isn’t himself, and who knows wtf this other guy is gonna try with scully!! personally, i would be too focused on getting back into my own damn body to go on any alien sidequests! but who knows what he will do; mulder has interesting priorities...

there are all sorts of mysterious aircraft in area 51!!

omg!!! we, the audience, see him as mulder, but when he looks in a security camera, he appears to have the face of this morris guy!!

he unfortunately does not know where to go, but thankfully morris’ door has a name tag on it. and it’s filled with photos of him doing his job with people like ronald reagan. 

but he just looks at them and mumbles “scully” <- OHHHHH :( not even getting all of the answers to his biggest questions will keep him from thinking about her

(also... the way he thinks of her when he sees the photos of morris with his wife and kids on the wall... someone hold me. i'll faint)

how will he convince her of this predicament?!

meanwhile, the real morris (in the body of mulder) is driving scully, who wants to know if he is okay!! he hasn’t said a word since they got caught, and he just tells her the gas cap is on her side, which throws her off. ohhh…. i feel so BAD! she wanted to check in on him!! and she thinks mulder is just blowing her off!!! :(((

morris-as-mulder is cranking up the music in their car, which we know to be unlike the real mulder. while real mulder-as-morris tries to call her, but he gets interrupted!!!

morris-as-mulder asks for a pack of cigarettes, and she’s asking “since when do you smoke?”- he is MEAN to her about that (AND he called her dana, which is so evil!!!!)

oh, she knows something is afoot… even if he has been acting weird lately, this is TOO weird for him. picking up smoking?!?! nuh-uh.

(i love that post that says they get to call each other by their first time approximately once each calendar year because it is so true. c'mon scully, you HAVE to notice that this is unusual, even for him, the guy who is famously very unusual!!)

some other guy is trying to explain to mulder-as-morris that there is an info leak in their department, but since he’s actually mulder, he has no idea wtf to say. when mercifully, his phone rings. 

OH NO!! it’s morris’ wife!!! and she wants him home!!! and also, he must bring the milk!!!

oh god. this is going to be so weird. 

he’s being dropped off at morris’ house (sans milk, i do believe) and i am immensely uncomfy at the idea of what will happen next.

he tries to call scully on the house phone, but the operator asks him if he wants an outside line and he says no. which maybe means he cannot call DC? idk. GAAAH!! how will he reach her?!

oh gosh, mulder-as-morris must get in bed with his “wife”. i am uncomfy!!!

NOPE, he shuts the door!!! LMAO!!! he did not sign up for that shit. i respect that immensely.

is he going to fall asleep to some porn? sleeping on the couch instead of with his "wife" in bed?!?! this dude is going to fuck up morris’ marriage, LMAO.

(what an odd guy. never heard of people falling asleep to porn before... i've heard of people putting on regular TV shows or football games just for the white noise, but moaning? very strange)

somewhere else, a bunch of fires are being put out. there was a crash of the secret area 51 aircraft!! this guy, the pilot, is inside a rock??? and the other pilot is speaking a foreign language!

so maybe they got switched around, too. although idk how to explain the rock situation.

back in washington, scully is waiting for morris-as-mulder at some sort of meeting with kersh. and he is late!! and says he got lost!!! scully is not pleased at these words!!! she knows something is up...

oh no… kersh has been told to reprimand them… and morris-as-mulder is yapping about the whole thing being a big mistake. scully, meanwhile is like, what the actual FUCK is going on?! morris-as-mulder promises that he will never EVER disobey kersh again. which is horrible, because i imagine that mulder will, in fact, do that again.

scully is MAD, LMAO: “what was that about? ‘i’d give you his name if i had it?’ whatever happened to protecting our contacts? protecting our work?” <- she has had ENOUGH!! she said there NEEDS TO BE SOME INTEGRITY IN THESE OPERATIONS!!! and i love that about her!! that fundamental Need to do the Morally Correct Thing!

but he’s going back into the office to FLIRT WITH THE SECRETARY?? oh, if i were her i would be so MAD! and she is!!! “what is going ON with you?”

OH MY GOD, HE SLAPPED HER ASS???????????? asking if she was JEALOUS????

my JAW………… it is on the FLOOR….

we need to kill this morris guy. but we also need to make sure scully knows that was NOT mulder. he would NEVER!!!!! oh god, can mulder just sneak out to a payphone and call her…?

(this moment made me immensely uncomfy!!! it seemed like it was supposed to be some sort of joke, and i didn't find it funny! i would have supported scully throwing hands!! does the FBI have a good HR department? bleugh! it made me feel sick! the horrible idea of someone you have lived with and loved, no matter how you define that "love", for years, suddenly treating you like meat... i'd cry!!)

OH NOOO!! poor mulder-as-morris, who fell asleep watching porn on the couch, is slapped awake my morris’ wife, and he goes “scully?” <- AWW, POOR GUY :( he thought she came to save him :(

his not-really-his-wife is FURIOUS with him!! asking what the kids would think if they saw him up to such behavior!!!

and then one of those kids comes downstairs, he calls her by the wrong name, and she starts SOBBING LMAOOOOOO oh man. oh man. this is a nightmare. he just wants to know where his keys are. 

oh gosh, i’m laughing, but also cringing with secondhand embarrassment as he is asked about the daughter’s nose… WHAT about her nose?!?! 

“um… i think… i think she’s a little young for plastic surgery, don’t you think?” (she starts sobbing) “oh, for god’s sake, morris- a nose ring! she said she wants a nose ring!” 

BAHAHAAAA, OH MY GOD… poor mulder… he is paying for his crimes!! he is literally atoning… this teenage girl is saying she hates him and she wishes he were dead!!

well. having glimpsed life with teenage children, i have a feeling he is going to be put off by the idea of settling down and having a life as scully earlier proposed. and can you blame the guy?

(he also is such a dumbass, though. like, he could have just said "yeah" or "i need more time to think about it" to get out of answering whatever the nose question was. he went to the worst possible answer. smh!!!)

his wife asks if he wants a divorce, and he’s like NO NO NO, i don’t want to do all that! at least he is trying to think of morris and the family while stuck in some other guy's body!! but frankly, i'm sure his wife could do better than morris, so maybe if he did call the whole thing off, he'd be doing her a favor.

then she points out he’s in the same suit from yesterday. and getting changed finally allows him to see himself as morris. filming that mirror scene had to be hard. and now he’s DANCING around??? when the wife walks in!!! oh no!!!!!!!

he’s such a loser BAHAHAHA

but fun time is over, because someone from work is calling to let him know he has to get here NOW. 

the guy from the aircraft crash before who was talking in a different language- captain mcdonough- is mumbling prayers in hopi! but the dude whose body he is in has no known foreign language skills. he claims to be mrs. chee, a 75-year-old hopi woman!! meanwhile, mrs. chee is in the next room, behaving exactly as captain mcdonough!

oh lord…

at the FBI, morris is playing golf video games, and frankly, if i were scully, i would have shot him already. but her phone rings, and hopefully it’s really mulder, and he can explain what is going on. 

it is!! but she doesn’t believe him, or even remember the UFO incident. she has morris-as-mulder jump on the line, but real mulder picks up that it isn’t secure, and hangs up. 

this is the part where i would be making “mulder” answer incredibly specific questions about my life before proceeding. 

oh god, morris-as-mulder makes another awful misogynistic comment. things seem to be clicking for her… 

real mulder is buying some sunflower seeds. and i am happy for him for finding joy in such circumstances. but as he drives away from the gas station, some sort of earthquake thing begins!!!

more men in white jeeps are arriving, saying he has to come with them. execute that flawless k turn, mulder. 

what is going on!! he runs back to the gas station to try and find the attendant whom he just purchased the seeds from.

oh my GOD??? the man is severely injured, and when mulder-as-morris advocates for taking him to the doctor, the other henchman just takes his gun out and shoots and kills him. bro. these people are CRAZY. holy hell.

so what is causing this body swapping slash earthquake phenomena????

they light the gas station on fire and leave. damn.

NO!!! scully goes to mulder’s place, where she finds morris-as-mulder KISSING kersh’s secretary!!! oh, she looks BEYOND furious. you can tell from the way he is putting back on his clothes that they just hooked up, which raises all sorts of ethical questions on the ability to consent when body swapped.

“mulder, YOU, are out of YOUR mind!! WHAT IS UP WITH YOU?” <- YELL AT HIM!!! oh my god, i PRAY that she can come to believe he really did get body swapped, because!!! i would not forgive him for this shit!!!!

“this is your LIFE’S WORK!!! your crusade!!!” “as i understand it, we’re off the x files” <- ohhh, and she SLAMS THE DOOR AND WALKS AWAY!!!!!! morris calls her a bitch!!!

we need to draw and quarter this man, and i’m not joking. 

back in nevada, some lizard has had its head turned into a rock??? like the pilot who was also rocked before???

the area 51 guys say that there has been a tear in the space-time continuum from the space craft malfunctioning. poor lizard…. now his head and the rock can exist in the same space.

oh god, mulder-as-morris wants to know how to reverse it, but the other dude doesn’t even think it’s possible. PLEASE FIND A WAY. i cannot watch either of our agents suffer any longer.

scully has driven down to nevada by herself!!! and that is a hell of a drive!!! featuring her big ass flashlight!!! she is investigating the gas station where earlier the mystery nevada men lit everything on fire

oh GOD, mulder is again going through the motions of being yelled at about morris’ marriage. “it’s just that you don’t want to ever make love to me ever again, that’s all. that, and you mumble something about scully in your sleep” <- OH MY GOD???? oh lord, i don't want to see all this...

he deflects the accusations of cheating by asking DOES SCULLY SOUND LIKE A WOMAN’S NAME, LMAOOOOO

he is acting his ass off here, saying he doesn’t know who he even is anymore. and he apparently sells it, because she thinks he just needs viagra. OH MY GOD. CRINGE. stooooop, he is going to need 8 million years to recover from this.

LMAOOOOO NOOOO, THEY HAVE THEIR HEARTFELT MOMENT AND THEN SCULLY SHOWS UP AT THE DOOR LOOKING FOR MORRIS FLETCHER........ LMAOOOOOOOO STOP. oh my god. i'm gonna claw my face off.

ohhhh, he’s trying to hard to explain everything to her, but she is wondering why some dude named morris fletcher wanted to meet with her??? he must convince her!!!

“all right, your full name is dana katherine scully. your badge number is… hell, i don’t know your badge number. your mother’s name is margaret, your brother’s name is bill jr, he’s in the navy and he HATES me. lately, for lunch, you’ve been having, like, this little six-ounce cup of yogurt, plain yogurt, into which you stir some bee pollen, because you’re on some kind of bee pollen kick, even though i tell you you’re a scientist and you should know better”

AWWWWWWW, STOOOOP :( 

he notices so many stupid little things…. and he knows bill hates him…. and why has she been into pollen lately now that she knows some pollen has an alien virus in it...?? i have so many questions!!

she still doesn’t believe him, though!!! and she drives away!!! while his "wife" is calling him a cheater and tossing all of his stuff out of the house!!!

ARGH, scully!!! i want her to BELIEVE him!!

maybe he should have gone more esoteric with his confessions. that post about them needing some secret word to truly identify each other gets more and more true the deeper i get into this series.

it would have made things very awkward, but i would have said "last week you saved me from drowning in the bermuda triangle, and when i was in my hospital bed, i confessed my love to you, and you probably thought i was high, but i meant it. i meant it. and you were the only one in the room so HOW COULD I HAVE FOUND THIS INFORMATION OUT? PLEASE, scully, it's ME!"

"remember that time 5 years ago we were hunting the liver eating lizard man and you got me a liver sandwich? that was so funny!" etc etc.

it is safe to say i would not handle being placed in this situation well. he says he can find evidence and prove to her that the body swapping really did happen. i am glad he has not given up hope.

but morris-as-mulder followed scully down to nevada??? and he calls the guy who morris works with, saying that he knows who leaked the information??? oh my GOD!! he's going to frame mulder so he can keep staying in his body!!

so mulder-as-morris is in area 51, shuffling through classified documents, trying to find the scientific evidence to prove to scully that such a time warp could take place by stealing a bunch of evidence and attempting to dip. which i imagine will not go well, because someone is watching him!!! 

NO! kersh calls her!!! he says she better follow his instructions to the letter or don’t bother coming back to DC at all!!!

i really despise this kersh fellow.

NOOOOO!!!! she is forced to organize a sting operation when she meets up with mulder-as-morris!!! and he gets taken away as he tries to bring her the proof!!!! he’s screaming that he wouldn’t do this, and that it isn’t him!!! 

ohhhh :( this makes me sad!!!

to be continued...

this was another somewhat silly one with the agents being thrust into such a ridiculous situation, but i am sad for each of our characters!!! scully was literally assaulted and her bestie turned into a horrible person overnight, and mulder is trapped in another person’s body!! and no one believes him!! ohhh :(

there are definitely some elements of this episode that have... aged poorly. misogyny, man. it is a hell of a drug, and very rarely a funny punchline, one that i am not finding funny on today of all days. whew, boy. i don't enjoy seeing scully subjected to such things.

i'm also a staunch scully defender, but this time i was like, oh my gosh queen, please just believe. just this once! it's okay! i won't even snitch that you are betraying your tidy worldview!

i do think by the end she was believing him based on the way she apologized and how furious she was with morris-as-mulder; i mean, i can never, EVER imagine mulder slapping her ass or not caring about the x files. like. c'mon. that's mr. spooky. he will never abandon the grind or his life's work.

i think this episode was pretty okay, but yuck, morris-as-mulder calling scully a bitch, hooking up with that random lady, slapping her ass, disrespecting her... you'll forgive me if i say "ew". yes, i get it, that was the point; real mulder wouldn't do those things! but that doesn't mean i have to enjoy the idea of scully thinking he would or experiencing them as if it really was him doing so. we have enough of that in real life to the point where i want to see it addressed in a serious manner rather than a cheap joke, or just not at all.

(gestures vaguely to the current state of things to make my point)

yeah, i know. the 90's. things have changed. i know!! but you're getting the show through new eyes, and this is how i see it.

maybe in time this episode will grow on me, because it did have very funny elements, but it is hard to say.

also, looking back, i am laughing at how intensely i analyzed that opening scene, only for them to be IMMEDIATELY separated. many such cases.

so. where do we go from here?!? i guess we shall have to tune into part 2!

[loveandleases]

Full Disclosure, I went through PAGES of tags to find the Pregnant-by-Chris!MC asks so I could revisit the angst, and it also got me wondering. How would the ROs react if MC ended up pregnant with their kid? And with regards to the F!ROs and trans ROs, how would they react if THEY got pregnant by MC? I'm down with this going in a fluffy or angsty direction, as you gathered from my search for the previous asks about it, so answer however you like!

Oh noo. I swear I'll get to work on the masterpost so you can find things easier, it's been a long time coming and I need to stop procrastinating. I feel like I did this ask before...but I'm not positive. So I'll do it again with how the RO's have developed. Below the cut~ (Tagged with pregnancy for those who don't want to read.)

❤️ Cam - Ec-fucking-static. At first. Cam would be so pleased because finally his own family. Not that MC and Em weren't already. He would give all of his love to his child, unlike what he got from his parents. Then there would be the problem. What if he's just like his parents? What if he's unable to love them the way they need or support them when they need it. MC would have to have an honest heart-to-heart with him.

💙 G - Very nervous at first. There are a lot of things to consider such as school and childbirth. Is their current living space even safe for a kid? And what if MC or G has more than one kid, it's possible. G would need a bit to kind of come to terms with it. Once they have, G is golden. They're happy and don't bother to try and hide behind their cool demeanor.

Now if ex-G/MC had gotten pregnant. It would be so painful for them, because would MC want to be in the picture or would MC allow them to be. If the breakup still happened and MC had gotten with Chris, G would fight with everything they have to see their child, or to give MC the chance to see them. (it's bittersweet)

💚 Kara - So she would be scared more than anything. Happy comes way later, once she's sure this is what she wants. Because for Kara, she doesn't really get to make her own decisions so much of her life is decided for her. If her first real big decision is having a kid, she's going to ace it. First off by having a chat with her parents (who would to overstep), then MC's parents. About what is allowed and isn't. The grandparents don't get to dictate the pregnancy, the childbirth, the child. If they want to be involved then they will be expected to abide by Kara and MC's wishes or be cut out. That simple. (She will buy too many baby clothes ahead of time, it will be a problem)

💛 M - What!? Excuse you, whose pregnant? With a baby? Like an actual human being? How did this happen!? (This is M's reaction regardless of whose pregnant. )MC has to remind shocked M how in fact that did happen. In which case M turns blood red and refuses to look at MC until they've calmed down.) M is going to go through 5 stages. 1 being shock, 2 being really shocked 3 understanding 4 go back and repeat step 1, 2 and 3. 5 acceptance. Leading them all the way to joy. M will take a good bit before they get through those steps, but when they do they're happy, nervous but happy. M isn't sure how to deal with kids. If they have one should they just go ahead and have another too? M will want to call their mothers' immediately. Get some info about raising a kid and what to expect. They will order far too many books about kids and what to expect when you're expecting. (take their computer for their own good)

💜 Isaac - They very well might have a breakdown, and it's not due to not wanting to have a kid with MC. It's more of knowing that you're not promised forever, as someone who lost their mother. Isaac is going to take it hard. Because she will never get to see her grandchild, and Isaac will never get to have that moment with her. Now onto how they feel outside of that, Isaac will struggle. Because they realize they have something else to lose, and to someone who is afraid of committing due to that it's not an easy situation to be in. They would need reassurance, that this is what MC wants. That they'll work hard, and together will do their best for their child. Isaac wants to be there for everything, every checkup, every milestone. All of it. Proudest parent ever.

🖤 Ardent - The amount of breeding jokes to be told : 14. The amount of tears shed: Over 50. Which he will deny with every breath. They're happy tears. Happy to have a family with MC, happy for his niece to have a cousin to navigate the world with. He is too happy, so cocky. Rubbing MC's belly, giving it so many kisses. He did that, him! Can you believe it? Not to mention, Cupid is going to have to take classes now. That's the first step, Cupid learning how to behave around babies. Ardent is very big into reading, he will overread though. Like MC is going to learn the nitty gritty just like he is. Oh, and they'll probably have to move if they're currently living in the apartments. To a place with an actual yard, the kind his parents had back in Greece. MC will be spoiled, because Ardent will cook every meal. He will ensure MC doesn't have to life a finger, or even Cupid if they feel like they can't. He would be a great dad, plus he has been saving up dad jokes. I apologize ahead of time.

[emeritusemeritus]

Hi!! If it’s okay, can I please request a (Fred lives au) Fred Weasley x Muggle!fem!reader where it takes place after the Wizarding War, and Fred is wandering around Muggle London, needing a break from the repairs him and George are making on their shop (that had been badly damaged during the war), wanting fresh air to clear his head. He hears a woman scream, very clearly in danger, and he goes to help her, ending up saving Y/n in a dark alley, him using his powers to do so. Leaving Y/n shook (and still scared about the situation). He makes the bad guys (who are also muggles) forget about him using magic, and while he wishes he didn’t have to make Y/n forget as well, as she’s currently clinging to him in shock after he saved her, he still makes her forget. They run into each other again the next day, Y/n not remembering anything from the night before, and they have a lot of chemistry and start dating, and all is going well until Y/n finds out about the night he made her forget, about magic and wizards, and Y/n is upset that he lied to her about it all? Especially upset that they had met before and upset that he made her forget at all, and Fred tries to explain why he had to make her forget. George ends up playing “Parent Trap” to get the both of them in the same room to reconcile? With a happy ending?

Hi my love, full disclosure: I didn’t go full parent trap as I have something in the works a little similar so I hope this is okay for you! 🖤

Warnings: Brief mentions of assault and attempted SA but only one scene. I’ve added asterisks before and after so you can skip past it if you want to avoid. Lying, violence, deception, George meddles, Fred is a bit of a simp. Fred calls us sweetheart. POV change after the time skip. muggle!Reader. Bit of heartbreak, a bit of breakup and makeup. One sexual reference at the end.

Word count: 3.7k

Little bit of liberty taken with this one as I’ve written that spouses of wizards and witches can visit Diagon alley (similar to parents of muggle born kids) as lost as they are accompanied by magic users.

Stupefied

London was always rather bleak this time of year, no matter where you went. It seemed there were roadworks and building works happening in nearly every neighbourhood, workers mingling with the tourists that found to get their photographs in between the newly erected cones, temporary walkways and fences.

It seemed that it wasn't only the wizarding world that had suffered, though Fred doubted this actually had anything to do with Voldemort. Arthur had a theory that the juggle prime minister had funded an effort to 'clear up' London whilst Diagon Alley underwent extensive repairs as to not alert the muggles to the work, noise and sudden influx of workmen disappearing through the entrances to the Alley. Looking at the work sites all around him, Fred was inclined to believe his initially mad conspiracy.

Diagon Alley had been near decimated in the war with deatheaters looting, emptying and burning down stores for no apparent reason. Half of the shopping district had been abandoned, left to rot, the owners fleeing or captured and the other half was essentially destroyed. Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes had thankfully not fared too badly; it still needed extensive and expensive repairs to the exterior but the inside had been virtually untouched. Fred was eternally thankful of the jinxed he'd put on the premises along with the anti-alohamora charm he'd crafted which had seemed to keep away the deatheaters.

Even though it hadn't fared too badly, he was still exhausted from the repairs. He and George disagreed about what repairs should happen, the priorities and so on, neither if them agreeing if they should improve things or repair them back to the original. Use the full money on repairs or scrimp on the exterior issues and boost for a full restock once they were open. It was a constant battle of wits and opinions, a never ending cycle of unresolved issues and Fred had found that he just had to step out for some fresh air, to clear his head. Discussions around replacing the large figurehead of him and his twin's likeness had been the last straw, pushing him over the edge to the point where he just needed to escape for a bit.

It had fallen dark as he wandered around muggle London, the night time beginning. Due to the building sites and road works littered around, there was virtually no light. Whole clusters of street lamps out of commission with hardly any replacements, leaving this area of London in near darkness. Just as he grumbled to himself about the figurehead, unable to forge it from his mind, a loud, panic filled noise rang out and grabbed his attention. It was a woman screaming, the kind of scream that only happened when you were truly terrified and calling for help.

He knew the sound exactly, having heard it multiple times in the battle. He forced those thoughts out of his head and tried to follow the route that would lead him to where he'd heard the noise, realising he was the only one around to help.

When he ran past a little jitty between two shops, a butchers and a mechanic shop, he froze and retreated upon himself, looking down the dark alley to see a sight that turned his stomach. Three men, all approaching a woman that clearly did not want their company.

*

One was holding her by the throat, pinning her up against the brick wall whilst one's hand began wandering up her leg, pressing something to her throat with the other hand, something that looked silver and sharp, though Fred couldn't exactly see from his place in the shadows of the alley. The third man was just stood there, evidently the lookout, though he was doing a terrible job, choosing instead to watch the woman who was rightfully beside herself in fear.

He couldn't take three men on at once, not if they had muggle weapons. Fred was far from small but he'd never had to truly work with combative skills or fighting as his wand did most the duelling.

It took leas than twenty seconds before he reacted, fuelled by the woman's desperate whimpers as their hands began to wander, all whist threatening her with the blade.

"Stupify!" Fred said clearly but quietly, aiming directly for the third man, the lookout as he hung back in the shadows. The man flew back and hit his head on one of the big bins outback, rendering him unconscious. The man not holding you hostage with the blade turned in shock at what had just happened to his friend, his twisted and demented face turning towards Fred's direction trying to see if anyone was there. When they didn't see anything, both the men looked at each other and gave a disgusting chuckle at their friends expense before turning back to the woman who was still struggling against them.

Fred honestly didn't know if this would work, but he aimed so carefully at the weapon holding arm and cast a quiet 'expelliarmus,' to hopefully disarm the pathetic excuse of a man. It worked, the knife clattering to the floor some distance away as the blokes argued between one another, that they were messing it all up.

"Stupify," he cast once again on the second man who was trying to search for his knife on the ground as he verbally threatened the woman to stay where she was. The man immediately flies back much like his friend, hitting his head on the same dumpster and falling into a slump beside the first one.

The last remaining man looked on in fear, realising he was next. His hand slipped from the woman's neck as he looked upon the slumped bodies of his friends and realised quickly that he was without a weapon.

*

Fred took great pleasure in the full body bind he cast upon the man, rendering his completely still and useless on the floor, as if an invisible net had been cast around him, rendering him useless.

Fred stepped out of the shadows then, not yet replacing his wand as he stepped over to the bound man. He didn't know what had come over him but as he looked at the poor woman who was crying and shaking, he felt rage like never before.

His eyes were filled with pure rage, hateful anger filling his body as the man on the floor noticed him, fear filling his eyes at whatever he had done to him.

Fred pushed aside his anger as he turned to you, throwing his jacket over you and offered some calming words which he hoped would help you even slightly. Suddenly, you threw yourself at him and he accepted you into his arms without any thought, trying to calm your frayed nerves as you clung onto his body.

He aimed his wand at the two men who were mostly unconscious, though the first was beginning to come around with a groggy groan. He knew he didn't have time to get you away before he needed to do this and began obliviating the two slumped men.

He then turned to the third who looked utterly terrified at what Fred had done, unable to talk, move or get away from the mad man with a stick of wood.

"I hope this hurts," Fred says dangerously low as he points his wand directly at the man's head, ensuring the tip of the wood was ever so slightly sticking into the flesh of the man's forehead before he obliviates him.

As soon as it's done, he pockets hits wand and turns to face the woman, wrapping her in his arms as her silent cries lessen. She's so cold, so scared, it makes his heart ache. He was only wearing a work uniform from a local pub, evidently walking back home from her shift and it makes him feel even worse when he realises you were just going about your day, completely oblivious and undeserving.

"It'll be okay, you're safe now I promise," he says soothingly, not wanting to touch her outright after what had so nearly happened but still wanting to give her comfort.

"What, what did you do?" She asks with a sniffle, clearly a little afraid of what had happened.

"Better I don't explain," he says, cursing himself for having no other way of protecting you. "Where do you live? I need to know you get home safely."

When she doesn't reply, he realises his mistake.

"Sorry, it's okay not to tell me, I just want you to be safe. Do you have somewhere to go?"

He feels her nod against his shoulder and exhales the breath he hardly realised he'd been holding. He knows what he has to do but as he looks down at her frightened and rather pretty form clinging so desperately to him, he realises how much he doesn't want to. He wants her to forget what happened with the men, knows she needs to forget what she'd seen him do but the idea that she'd forget all about him made him feel disproportionally sad.

He holds his breath as he slowly pulls out his wand and holds it up towards her back, feeling guilty and wrong about what he's doing as he battles his raging inner monologue.

"Obliviate," he says gently, watching as the blue tendrils of the spell erupt and consume her. He has to be quick, pulling his jacket away from her shoulders and stepping away, walking quickly out of the alley. He doesn't want to leave her, his brain fighting every step that he takes but he can't stay, without an excuse as to why he was there.

He considers watching her as she walks home, checking that she made it back okay but he knows that would look worse. He couldn't have her be scared of him.

When he gets back to the shop, almost completely consumed by worry, he ignores George's rant completely, agreeing to whatever his twin wanted. He hardly sleeps that night, worried for her. He knows it's wrong but she was so pretty, so scared, it's like she'd imprinted onto his brain. Maybe he needed to be obliviated to forget her.

The next morning, he's up bright and early having abandoned any chance of sleeping. He remembers the logo on her work uniform and wants to check that she was alright, hoping that she might be there by now. He knows he can't mention that night, or ever meeting before but he can at least try to calm his mind if he saw her alive and well.

He never even made it into the pub, bumping into you on the way there. He smiled widely when he saw no lasting damage, no trauma and that you hadn't gotten frostbite or pneumonia from your extended time in the alley. In the daylight he realised you were absolutely beautiful and he took full advantage of your 'accidental run in', asking you out on the spot.

You thought it was strange that he didn't have a phone, or any real concept of technology but it all became clear six months into your relationship when he revealed his big secret, that he could use magic.

The conversation was approached with caution, having gathered tips from his siblings and his dad on how to proceed. You'd actually taken it surprisingly well, though if course you were shocked and disbelieving at first. It helped that you'd gotten really close with George and that he'd also assured you that they weren't pulling a prank on you. It all took a while to sink in with Fred slowly opening up more and more about his world. There were things you loved about it, and things that you found odd but that was the nature of growing up so differently. You'd met his family and been in complete amazement at their weird and wonderful home and they had been unbelievably warm and welcoming, making you feel like family already. You'd seen the incredible shop he and his brother had opened and had been amazed by everything in there. You'd moved in together, certain that you were endgame for each other. You saw how everybody in the wizarding world loved them, their inventions and it warmed your heart to know that you'd chosen a good guy.

It all came crashing down when you began talking about how you met, one night in your flat over a bottle of wine on your one year anniversary. Naturally, you assumed that it had been a coincidental run in that morning near your work, a fated moment where you met your soulmate. From that moment you just couldn't stop talking, couldn't be apart. Your relationship moved quickly but it felt right in every way, never giving you reason to puse or think twice. You were certain you'd never seen him before; you'd definitely have remembered his fire red hair, wide shoulders, gorgeous towering height and that beautifully mischievous smile. Fred however, had accidentally let it slip that it hadn't been your first encounter really, his eyes widening in panic when your eyes snapped up to his in utter confusion, realising he had said too much.

You managed to extract the truth from him eventually, the whole truth. He'd saved you, but then wiped your memory. You felt dirty, betrayed.

Knowing that those men had had their hands all over you, of what they wanted to do, it made your stomach roil dangerously until you were throwing up your celebratory anniversary meal. You couldn't look Fred in the eye, the strong sense of betrayal making you want to run away from him, feeling like you couldn't trust him at all. Everything was built on a lie, your entire relationship, the home and the life you'd built together, talks of the future.

You left that night to go back to your parents, scrubbing yourself raw in the shower at just how dirty you felt, how wrong you felt in your own skin. It had been nearly a month and you hadn't seen him once. You'd ignored his letters, thankful that he didn't have a phone because you'd be ignoring that too. You'd taken time off work so he couldn't find you there and had openly avoided any place in London that he might think to look for you- especially avoiding anywhere close to Diagon Alley. He'd come in and changed your life completely, given you hope for a wild and adventure filled future and then spoilt it all.

And the worst part is that you couldn't explain to anyone why. You didn't know a single other magical soul who wasn't directly or indirectly related to Fred and you couldn't exactly explain to your muggle friends and family the exact reason that you'd left him. The questioning from your parents was exhausting, wanting to know what happened between you and that 'sweet boy', your parents already considering him their son in law. But you couldn't say anything and so you remained vague, taking their questioning and opinions on the chin, taking the hit for him.

He saved you that night, you reminded yourself. It wasn't as if he was the one that had done you any harm, he'd actually saved you from getting hurt. Logically you knew that he had to wipe your memory, it was in their statue of secrecy, an unspoken code of conduct for the wizarding world. But still, the lingering feeling of betrayal never went away. Your relationship had been a lie, he had been a lie.

It was a Tuesday afternoon when you received a letter by owl that you'd nearly immediately thrown in the bin until you watched the owl fly away, noticing that it was a different colour to the one Fred usually used. You looked at the letter and noticed that it wasn't his writing but rather a smaller, more cursive font that wasn't as heavily scribbled as his was.

George.

You immediately felt guilty, realising that not only had you left Fred that night but you'd also left George in the dust, abandoning him as well. He wrote to say how much he missed you, that he was sorry and that he didn't know. He asked you to meet him at the leaky cauldron on Friday, if you still wanted to be friends, regardless of his brother.

You began to write back only to realise that you'd sent the owl away, that you'd have no chance of getting the message to him. Your only option was to meet him there Friday.

To say you were nervous was an understatement, trying to blend into the background as you walked through the opening of the cauldron, sticking out like a sore thumb amongst the witches and wizards bustling about inside.

"Y/n!" You heard from the side, a little booth that wrapped around a brick pillar off to the side and you smiled when you saw George waving at you. You walked towards him, feeling a little calmer as he pulled you into a brief hug, asking how you were.

"Oh merlin, I left my wallet in my room," he says with a frown, looking at the staircase.

"Room?"

"Yeah, had to do some repairs to the flat so I've been staying here, bastard twin took the room at mums." You try not to react at the mention of his twin but your eye inadvertently flinches, forcing you to look away.

"It's okay I can get them," you began to say only to be cut off by George as he gives you a knowing smirk.

"Oh yeah, got a load of galleons in that bag?"

"Right, wizard money," you say with a frown, not having even considered that. "I might have some left over in here."

"It's okay, why don't we nip up to my room, it's only up there, be back in two minutes. If I leave you alone they might ask you to leave."

The smile on your face that had been there since reuniting with George disappeared the second you stepped into the room and saw a slightly broader version of George sat on the bed. At first you hoped it was just a mirror but when he turned to glare at his brother, you knew it was Fred instantly.

"Really George?" You said in frustration, turning to see him looking at you with a guilty and almost sad expression.

"I'm sorry, I just wanted you two to talk. I can't take his moping anymore," he says, gesturing towards Fred who still gives a thunderous look towards his brother.

"I told you not to get involved!" Fred says loudly towards his twin, the anger evident in his eyes.

"I missed her too," George argues but it's weak under the venomous glare of his twin. "Fine," he relents, feeling the double glare coming from both your and Fred.

"Just let me," he says slowly before quickly opening the door and closing it behind you. You hear the key turning in the lock and bolt to the door, trying to open it. You look to Fred who appears by your side, banging on the door and trying to pry the handle open but it was unless.

"He's jinxed it," he says in annoyance, turning to look for his wand that was on the table but is longe there. "Git's stolen my wand!"

"There aren't any repairs on the flat are there?" You ask, realising he'd fooled you completely.

"I haven't been back since we," he says, all anger dropping from his tense figure as he looks at you briefly before diverting his eyes.

"I meant at the shop, George's flat," you say, feeling a little awkwardly.

You look up at him in confusion when you hear him snort out a laugh. "That was what he told you?"

"How was I meant to know?" You asked sharply, not liking the laugh he'd given you because you fell for his trick.

"No I didn't mean, never mind." he says quickly, defensively before he breaks off his speech mid sentence, sighing and taking a seat on the bed.

It's painfully awkward as you take a seat at the little desk in the corner, Fred sitting on the bed. The room is small, completely taken up by the wooden four poster bed and it leaves little room for you to avoid each other.

"I," Fred says after a while, breaking the tense silence. "I'm so sorry."

Your eyes slowly trail up to him to see him looking at you with wide and emotion filled eyes. "I should have told you, I should have done more so that you knew but I really thought I was doing the right thing."

"You did."

You watch as his eyes bulge at your words, as soon as they sink it. His wide eyes suddenly merge to a look of confusion as he ponders your reply.

"You did do the right thing, at least for the wizarding community. A muggle saw what happened, you had to fix that," you say quietly with a little shrug, looking away from him. "I understand why; I just hate that you hid it from me for so long."

"I know," he replies, "there was just never a right time. I couldn't tell you until you knew about me but by then I was already so in love with you that I couldn't risk losing you so I kept quiet."

You can feel his gaze on you but you don't look at him, worried that if you looked at him now your heart would break all over again. You never expected love to be so complicated, never knew that with great love came great heartbreak.

“I miss you sweetheart.”

Those four simple words broke your resolve completely, shattering whatever resentment you were holding on to completely.

You finally look at him, really look and you can see that he looks tormented, like he’s not been sleeping right. You miss him too; you want your old life back, where you were happy together.

“No more lies,” you say, fixing him with a soft but meaningful glance, laying out your terms.

“No more lies,” he agrees, a hopeful smile tugging at his lips as he watches you slowly stand and make your way over to him, the past forgiven and forgotten.

When George enters the room an hour later, checking on the progress and to see that you were both still alive, he sees a lot more than he bargained for… and certainly more of Fred’s arse than he ever wanted to see.

[7ndipity]

Disneyland trips

Ot7 x Reader

Summary: what a trip to Disneyland would be like with them.

Warnings: brief mention of sickness

A/N: Full disclosure, I've never actually been to any of the parks, so this is all based off what I know from vlogs. This is just me indulging one of mine and @this-must-be-my-tardis current hyperfixations.

Masterlist

Requests are open

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Jin: Welcome to season 2 of Eat Jin! Fr tho, y'all would be one of those couples that visit every month for a different challenge, like trying/ranking all the different churros or smth. Matching ears, because this man is into couple outfits, idc what anyone says. Goes on a few rides, but screams the whole time and says "no more!" after each one(immediately turns around and gets in line for another one)

Yoongi: Knows all these random facts about the park. Like, did you know that the wedding ring stuck in the concrete outside the Huanted Mansion was originally just part of a pavilion post? Or that they use vegetable oil to grease the trolly tracks on Main Street so it won't leave residue on you shoes? Well, now you do! Actually laughs at the jokes on the jungle cruise, but will vehemently deny it unless you catch it on film.

Hobi: Night time visit because ((vibes)). So many mini photo shoots. Another that's into matching couple ears. Spends ages in Toontown going through the character houses. Gets motion sick after like two rides, and then just want to go to the gift shops and get dole whip. Might legit reuse the popcorn bag/bucket as a regular bag for a bit afterwards(acorn bags 2, disney boogaloo)

Namjoon: A bit embarrassed by the ears, but he'll wear them if it makes you happy. Another fan of going at night because it's a little calmer and y'all can take your time and just wander around. Has a surprising amount of fun on the rides in Fantasyland and even tries his hand at the sword in the stone, insisting he felt it wiggle(pls get him away from there before he breaks it).

Jimin: You might think he would be chill and more go-with-the-flow about your plans for the day, but no, he's got it all mapped out and is determined to do as much as possible. Like y'all are there from gates open to gates close. You work your way though the whole park, from one land to another. By the end of the day, you're both so exhausted you almost fall asleep during the fireworks show, but it was totally worth it.

Taehyung: Lowkey would be into disney-bounding(probably as someone like prince Naveen, so he can keep his aesthetic) but if you don't watch out, he's gonna get too immersed and start talking like the characters. Makes you go on the teacups with him, cause he thinks it'll be cute, but ends up getting motion sick. Soo excited to meet some of the cast members and get pictures. Is just a giant kid having the time of his life.

Jungkook: if you're not into rides, I'm so sorry, because he has to go on Every. Single. Ride. The Matterhorn, Huanted Mansion, Space Mountain(twice), even the Storybook Boat! He's skipping through the whole park, churro in one hand and pulling you along with the other. You're gonna feel so sick, but he's having such a good time, you almost don't have the heart to tell him you need a break. Almost.

[marinecorvid]

Hey corvid, how open are you to Ranger head cannons? DO you have any yourself?

I am ABSOLUTELY open to headcanons and i have sososo many. here are some of them, typed out haphazardly and not quite fully formed but are the basis by what lens i see GS through

OKAY so this is turned out to be. long. and some a lot the vast majority of these headcanons are way more in depth/personal than other generally applicable hc stuff so yknow look upon my works ye mighty and despair, etc etc. ended up [redacting] some stuff, partly because i'm not ready to share in the state it's currently in in my head, and sometimes because i am still figuring stuff out sorry this is probably way more than what you were looking for but brain cells go out the door when i think about GS.

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coolio FIRST UP. MY KIDS

Summer Serrano: A sensitive, romantic, and compassionate person at heart, but with a sharp chip on her shoulder from a rough early life, Summer enables the "offense is the best defense" strategy personality-wise, causing her to often be perceived as much more aloof/prickly than she usually actually is. Clever, creative, insightful. Observant. Open to new experiences and learning. Quiet. Quietly snarky. Easy to irritate. Has a deeply skewed sense of danger/self preservation due to a depression/trauma combo; operates by a "go hard or go home" mindset (part of an in-universe explanation for why, when faced with Mewtwo not once but TWICE, she didn't back down. The other part was "flight" in fight or flight wasn't an option here, it was do or die).

Fun facts: Is a polyglot - speaks the Orre dialect of Paldé (Poke-Spanish - considering that Orre is based on Arizona and how close that is to Mexico, I'm headcanoning there's a lot of cultural influence), Galaic (Poke-English), is picking up Almian, picked up Oblivian in Oblivia, and can stumble her way through a conversation in Kalaic/Fiori (French/Italian, based on the fact that they're both romantic languages like Spanish, there's enough similarity she can kinda get the gist), and Ben's taught her a few words in Kantese; considers Paldé her native tongue, is much more talkative in it than Galaic, in which she's fairly quiet. Has a hyperthymestic/eidetic memory, IE she can remember most things vividly almost to the point of exactly. Drinks black coffee, sometimes brews it with Red Bull instead of water when she's hyperfixated on something and is regarding sleep as a choice, not a necessity. Calls Ben a variety of nicknames (Benjamin, Benji, Benvolio) when she wants something (his attention, just to bother him); he tolerates this with grace. Has a height of a exactly five foot zero and is deeply disgruntled about it. Isn't a very material person but likes to collect little knickknacks and trinkets from where she and Ben visit/go on missions.

Backstory: Okay full disclosure I've been reworking her mental backstory a lot in my head, so there's gonna be some very vague/blank spots. Born n raised in Pyrite Town, Orre in a not great neighborhood but not the worst. Parents are out of the picture, I think lived with an aunt/distant relative/foster parent? that ended up wrangling a bunch of kids that pretty much meant Summer grew up kinda doing whatever the hell she wanted, the kind of young ne'er-do-well who would make a game out of throwing rocks through the window panes of the old abandoned factories because there's nothing better to do. Ran with most of the other local kids because that's what you did (safety in numbers. You don't want to get caught alone, especially after dark. That's how people disappear).

Except uhh maybe early-mid teens?? The local Colosseum itself is old as shit, hasn't had maintenance in a while, part of it collapses midmatch into the Under, triggering a bunch of landslides and cave-ins due to the unstable land from all the mining that was done in the past. Summer gets caught in one of these, gets stuck for a few days, experiences the worst 72 hours of her life, eventually gets pulled out by an emergency response team (now that I'm writing it out, maybe by some Rangers that offered Orre assistance??? food for thought). Spends a few days shuffled around at an overworked hospital/clinic. Because she managed to get out without any broken bones and only a mild concussion, they push her out the doors to focus on worse patients. Doesn't go home, kinda wanders the city in a daze thinking "what the fuck. what the fuck. fuck this place." wandering takes her to a some kind of high place where she can look over the city and all the emergency crews and smoke and thinks "is this really it? is this gonna be my life? stuck in a dusty city where the streets are collapsing and everything's always broken and constantly looking over my shoulder?" (because even though her neighborhood was once alright, things have been getting worse) and then thinks "fuck that. fuck that so much"

and maybe like… in a few days? wanders back home, grabs a backpack, takes as many snacks and scrounges as many dollars as she can from home, hikes herself out to the nearest tracks, and hops a cargo train out of Orre up the Western Coast. (In my mental map of this corner of the Pokemon world, passes through some unnamed regions and into Paldea.) Scrounges up enough currency to catch a ferry to Almia? and … sometime … she gets involved in the Ranger Union, huzzah. maybe a Ranger that pulled her out of the rubble got her thinking about the Ranger Union? it makes an impression? very haphazard. I'm working on it

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Ben Yuuko: If you'd ask your average Almian citizen to describe your average Ranger, 1 out of 3 would describe an archetype resembling Ben. Earnest, honest, easily trusting, fun-loving, with misplaced confidence to walk out of dangerous situations unscathed, Ben is the "possess social smarts - doesn't always use them" to Summer's "has street smarts - doesn't always use them." Similar to Summer, a deeply compassionate person. Prone to mild teasing. Had a relatively easy adolescence, somewhat naive - struggles DEEPLY during the events of GS, as a lot of rose-tinted lenses are being shattered, as he's now dealing with a traumatic happenings himself that he's only "experienced" second-hand through the people around him (Summer, former foster siblings in worse situations); dealing with how people will have seemingly irrational thoughts + actions that seem perfectly justified in the moment, why even the people you care for lash out at you, that people who seem villainous are still deeply human and rarely pure evil. Deals with some pretty bad anxiety.

Fun facts: Speaks Kantese and Galaic, kinda picks up Oblivian, Summer's taught him a little Paldé. Is a pretty decent cook! Can make some good food with minimal ingredients; it causes him physical pain to watch Summer dip pickle slices in Nutella like chips and hummus. Considers his most valuable possession to be a pair of 90s moon shoes. Takes dance classes for fun when not on duty. Calls Summer a variety of nicknames (Sunshine, Summertime Sadness) for fun; she is grumpy about it. Uses Summer's shoulder as an armrest when he thinks he can get away with it without being elbowed in the ribs.

Backstory: Born and raised in Johto, I'm thinking Olivine City. In contrast to Summer's chaotic home life, Ben was fostered with caring adults and a handful of younger kids, both biological children of his foster parents and other foster children that cycled through. However, though he deeply appreciates what they've done for him, and that he's rationally aware he was raised in a VERY good foster environment, he never really connected to them as parents. (He does keep regularly in touch with a few of the foster kids he helped wrangle though.) (Also sorry Ben. you don't have very detailed info in comparison to summer rn)

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Ben and Summer: Besties, partners, ride or die for each other. Queerplatonic relationship, in the sense that they're both queer and not romantically involved (though there was brief 5-second period of Summer accidentally concussing Ben and him thinking he was in love with her) but by the time GS has finished with canon events they pretty much always consider each other when thinking about what they want to do in life

The first time they met after spending a day together (under undetermined circumstances but shenanigans were probably involved), Summer (grew up in a dangerous place) looked at Ben and thought "this is the most harmless guy on earth. Jesus Christ he's gonna get eaten alive at the first sign of actual trouble" and decided protecting him would be her #1 priority from that point on. Ben (grew up being an armchair therapist to foster kids more troubled than he) looked at Summer and thought "she is so scared and so dysfunctional even in a safe environment :(" and decided he was going to be her best friend from then on.

Of course by living together and working together their perceptions of each other have evolved. Ben deeply admires her competency in the field (despite her unorthodox methods, usually lacking in self preservation) and by the time GS comes around, is looking to her blasé attitude towards danger as something to imitate, which is what leads to Ben kinda mouthing off to Red Eyes the first time they meet, which isn't really authentic Ben behavior; he gets better as the game's canon events continue and he realizes Summer's seemingly natural confidence is a carefully maintained mask that she keeps to prevent anyone from seeing how scared and nervous she actually, and to keep herself from breaking down from all the stress and anxiety she's under. Though Oblivia is a shit time for them in many ways and leaves them with many issues, it also deepens their understanding of each other and are far more open emotionally, and lays the groundwork for future growth.

on a less serious note

Them that's Them

Since you need to be at a certain rank to fly on Staraptor, I'm going to say they're actually pretty good Rangers in their own right before Oblivia

Oblivia is their first overseas missions, and Hastings specifically wanted them to have a mentor in Rand, who's an experienced Ranger and could help iron out some issues that were forming (worried they were getting too codependent w each other. ironically they just ended up with horrible separation anxiety); their modus operandi is that Ben talks more with people, and Summer does more of the heavy lifting

during Oblivia they picked up the habit of sleeping in the same bed; they don't feel safe not being able to reach out and feel the other nearby

Ukulele Pichu is technically Summer's partner Pokemon but they're equally attached to the little guy and vice versa. He likes to hang out in the hoods of their jackets when it's chilly

The first time Summer ever experienced a real winter, Ben stuffed snow down the back of her coat within 5 minutes. Summer retaliated by dumping a bucket of it on him while he slept that night

Ben would say one of the greatest challenges he faces in his life is getting Summer to stay in bed when she's sick

Summer is a chronic clothes stealer; Ben starts buying two of everything when they start sharing a dorm in the Union

In the years following Shadows of Almia and the very public dissolution of Altru/Team Dim Sun, there's been a surge in Ranger applicants and Union leaders are frantically trying to figure out where to house so many people; usually the people who get the best academic scores are stationed at the Union building directly, but lots of runner ups ended up being temporarily housed there while other accommodations are being developed. However, upon realizing that Ben and Summer are both more capable beyond their number scores, they were reassigned to the Union building.

General Ranger headcanon is that to prevent mental and physical burnout, all Rangers are required to take either staggered breaks or one big chunk of a break/vacation time throughout the year

Summer and Ben usually spend theirs in an apartment in dockside Puel Town (not allowed to live in Union building during mandatory break, as it might encourage one to act on duty even when they're supposed to be resting), but post GS incorporate Oblivia into their break time; Rand and Leanne more or less consider them their own kids and are always happy to house them

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OBLIVIA REGION + MYTHOLOGY:

Okay so you know how in canon Booker is Hastings' brother? The only reason Oblivia (who as a reason at one point definitely was under threat from some kind of occupation, so some older folks are pretty wary of outsiders) is so tolerant of Rangers coming in and solving shit is because whatever governance the runs the place collectively sees Rangers as "Oh those are some of Hastings' kids, yeah they're alright" (because Hastings helped found the Ranger Union, etc etc, and he's pretty smart and wants to keep Oblivia left alone as possible so if he trusts these people, so will we). I know in canon they're pretty. Well. Oblivious to all the shit that's going on but not so in the sandbox of my canon, in that the local folk are pretty hostile towards Pinchers and have their own grassroots force also working to keep an eye out and fend them off when Rangers are in a different part of the region.

Oblivia is also a lot bigger than the main islands we see! The reason we don't get to go to other islands is because they're by and large uninhabited: by not being able to support human life, because Pokemon have made their home there, or because they're forbidden on accounts of being cursed ground. Which is also why Purple Eyes needed Leanne to discern Zapdos' location, because it could've also theoretically been on any other treacherous mountain island (and also to translate a lot of other stuff he was having trouble with)

Misc. headcanon: a lot of people assume because Rand is the breadwinner man of the house that he's like the head of household, however 1) both he and Leanne would argue they are equals in this marriage and family, neither of them outrank each other, and 2) Leanne is head of the household. it is not acknowledged and she herself denies it with an fondly exasperated eyeroll but everyone else living there knows she is Mom, Terrible And Mighty and all decisions are run by her first

Misc Headcanon #2: Rand is a very good baker, and because I feel bad he doesn't have a partner Pokemon of his own I say he has a Mightyena named Lucky! he walks with Nema to and from school. Post game, Leanne gets a therapy/emotional support Espeon

Nema's somewhere on the autism spectrum. Sometimes goes nonverbal when she gets overwhelmed, but instead of learning sign language communicates with a pseudo-Morse code, using a combination of already existing codes and some ones they made up; Ben and Summer get pretty good at it and Summer starts using it frequently too

Suicune is the most no-nonsense of the legendary beasts, mostly because the Sky Fortress is hidden on their island and therefore they're the one who's working hardest to keep it hidden. Entei is like an old cat/dog, a little lazy, prefers a calm environment, sometimes casuallly shows up when Rand's grilling food outside, flops on the ground, and doesn't leave until they get thrown a steak or something. Raikou is like the little brother of the bunch, they're very active and like to run, nosy, always smells when Summer has treats with her.

Following the defeat of Sabios and the Sky Fortress in ancient times, Oblivia's Golden Age came to a close. The royal line thought to be ended, as Sabios fled the region in disgrace and Ravio sired no known heirs, and the ancient Oblivians were so desperate to bury the Sky Fortress, that if they couldn't destroy it or the Golden Armor the least they could do was to destroy everything else pertaining to it, burn any paper holding knowledge of it, seal the living batteries for it (titans of the sky) to the highest peaks, strike every wall naming it except for one they erected in dire warning in the hopes that should anyone be fool enough to stumble across it they would be persuaded against unearthing anything else. And so history became legend, legend became myth, and for a thousand years all knowledge of the Sky Fortress, the Golden Armor, and Ancient Oblivia passed out of almost all knowledge, even to modern Oblivians - until some guy calling himself Amun had to come dig it all up, realize his folly too late and try to bury it again, but by that time the Societea had already caught wind of it, and you know what happens next.

Summer didn't fall directly into the ocean from that height like in canon, once Ben realized what happened, he flew down after her and managed to grab her, slowing her down enough so that that fall distance would be survivable. Unfortunately for them, Red Eyes brought his Charizard to the party, Ben got grabbed, and Summer still falls. (She also isn't nearly as conscious as in canon when she hits the water, she's barely manages to get her rebreather on before her vision goes dark, and only sees the underwater Rainbow Dais in a very feverish state.)

The Celebi that transports you to and from the past is running the longcon. Bringing Summer back in time to inspire Ravio to become the ancient hero with Summer's stories of the ancient hero, while Summer is inspired by stories of the ancient hero to act as the next guardian of Oblivia. It has lived on this islands since before any other Pokemon or humans settled there, and the extent of its knowledge and motives are inscrutable to literally everybody. Post-GS Celebi wouldn't take a distressed Summer back in time to stop the sky fortress from rising in the first place because that would mess up the time loop it's got going on. The time loop is also why all the legendary Pokemon trust her so much immediately after meeting her and give her their sigils; they remember her from the old past

Before Ho Oh (and eventually the legendary beasts) was the main religious focus in Oblivia, many many years ago, Arceus was worshiped. However, due to [SEE BELOW], Arceus stepped to the side and allowed a spiritual leader in ancient times to take the mantle of Guardian of the Sky, being reborn as the first Ho Oh in recorded history upon her death. In a similar fashion, the legendary beasts, titans of the sky, and Guardian of the Sea all were once human in their first life, but bear only memories and not the emotions attached as their time as timeless guardians.

Alola was not the first region Ultra Necrozma terrorized in its desperation for light; after being nearly wrent asunder by an priestess blessed with the power to bend light, it fled down the equator, finally coming to Alola. A portion of Necrozma's light body settled upon the span of the Oblivia region, becoming the origin for a power that eventually fueled the creation of the Steelhead Armor, the Golden Armor, and the Sky Fortress.

I also know I've mentioned this before but Lugia absolutely is involved in storming the sky fortress. Ho Oh is too old and weakened to fight off the titans of the sky by herself so Lugia has to get involved and knock the shit out of em before Ho Oh can neutralize it enough that summer and ben can get in there. They're also the one who drags Summer onto the shore of Dolce Island instead of getting waterlogged when she gets knocked into the sea (headcanon made entirely by the fact that during the title screen, you can see lugia's silhouette in the background. and also my belief that lugia is one of the coolest pokemon ever and deserves screentime all the time)

Post-past missions and after the Sky Fortress is sealed away for the first time, Ravio summons Arceus to try to apologize for the sins of his father, who bound it to his will with the Golden Armor. It didn't end well.

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VILLAINS:

Red Eyes AKA Reid O'Sullivan: also born n raised in Pyrite, like Summer. (totally wild coincidence there. that won't affect anything at all) Grew up SUPER admiring the Colosseum battlers, got a Torchic from uhh somewhere? Anyways it's the Blaziken you see in the post-game. He was really looking forward to starting a mentorship kinda thing with a battler who had a habit of taking youngins under his belt, you know to keep them from getting into crime and whatnot. Unfortunately for everyone involved, said battler died when Pyrite's Colosseum collapsed midmatch, Red Eyes barely made it out as mid-teen, and lost some friends of his own in the fall.

Feeling distinctly fucked over, got into some worse circles, got a reputation for being a tough guy who's half-competent with good battle instincts, gets involving in a poaching ring. Eventually gets to be the de-facto leader of that poaching ring as a young adult. Eventually approached with an offer to expand, combine with another poaching ring or two by a backer who'd be willing to invest and whatnot. Red Eyes, generally a proud guy and flattered, goes "SURE" (he will later regret this) and actually takes on the moniker of Red Eyes because if he's gonna do bigger stuff he doesn't want to be throwing his legal name around.

And uh I'll be honest with you - by the time GS rolls around, he's not having a good time with the unified Pinchers. He hates his boss. His boss's bosses, whom he only barely knows about, are getting them involved in some Weird Ass Shit, like looking for wall carvings instead of poaching. He doesn't fucking like it, but because confusion and unsurety is weakness, he does not show any of this. He's actually at the end of his rope when Summer and Ben roll up, and is so stressed out that he falls for like, a basic level taunt from Ben and tries to shoot him out of the sky. Summer, of course, takes the hit, falls into the ocean, they drag Ben back to the sub so he can't cause any trouble for them. He stares at the wall in his room. He might've just killed a Ranger, and that's, uh, a potentially serious murder charge. Shit. Good thing's she's not actually dead! Somehow! and totally not someone he recognizes. at all. And then proceeds to have a somehow worse time as Summer just. keeps. beating him

Blue Eyes AKA Blaire Park: Uhh not sure if born but definitely grew up in Gateon Port, learned about boats n shit, why she's the one in charge on the submarine. I'm not sure exactly what she was doing before the Pinchers, but she was doing something that was going fine! right up until she, flattered in some way, goes "SURE" (she will later regret this) and actually takes on the moniker of Blue Eyes because if she's gonna do bigger stuff she doesn't want to be throwing her legal name around.

But by the time GS rolls around, Blue Eyes, like Red Eyes, wants Fucking Out. She, like Red Eyes, is stressed to hell, and from the time Summer shows up in Amun's mansion to accidentally getting trapped in an underwater cave, shit's a conga line of failure and embarrassment. She was not, perhaps, in the best state of mind when she decided to Plan Z the submarine. (Getting fired by Purple Eyes in the moment was not a fun thing, but she did realize she got away mostly scot-free, so she got what she wanted in a way.)

And that's how those two become friends/coworkers-with-benefits-who-sometimes-antagonize-each-other-for-environmental-enrichment, and also they bond over and complain about their asshole sadist of a boss, but not where he can hear, because he's an asshole sadist and they don't want to piss him off and invite him to be a sadist in their direction.

Fun facts: Red Eyes probably would probably stream playing Dark Souls IRL and despite being p good at it would get stuck on one boss for hours and Blue Eyes would be his maybe roommate maybe something else, who knows, who would intervene before he gets mad enough to break the controller and beat it in maybe. 3 tries just so he can continue in the game. chat goes nuts for Blue Eyes

Post-game when Blue Eyes hangs up the ol control gauntlet and decides to try to live a mostly respectable life, she ends up reading a lot and eventually decides to try and write her own :)

and Red Eyes eventually turns out to be a pretty good exhibition battler (kinda like wrestling matches, predetermined but still showy and intense)

Red Eyes likes spicy food. Unfortunately for him he is not good at making food. He's not allowed to use the submarine stovetop anymore

Blue Eyes is transfemme (look at her uniform colors! baby you are not subtle and i love you for it), and because I'm choosing to believe the Pokeworld is the better timeline in which HRT something you can get like over the counter, she's been living her best life

POST-POSTING EDIT: blue eyes had a tentative truce with red eyes pre-pincher unification with whatever gangs they were running, i don't think hers was a poaching group though - maybe something about resources? - she developed those skills as a leader post-unification; they kinda became more equals when the societea n purple eyes made them an actual group

And also they both have a crush on Summer because Red Eyes is the kind of guy to be "I like the kind of woman that can kick my ass" even if he's a sore loser abt it lmao and also [REDACTED]. but he takes a few levels in kindness postgame so he holds out hope. and Summer's saved Blue Eyes several times so there's some complicated feelings there. But also Summer is very pretty and very nice and considerate when she's not a stressed out Ranger on duty. so.

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Purple Eyes AKA [REDACTED]: This guy. One of my favorites of all time. He's hilarious. Drama queen. Utterly self serving. Charismatic enough to know how to function like a normal person most of the time, he just… doesn't care to unless he's trying to get something he can't get with force. How did he get to this point

Because canon is my sandbox, I say: I don't think Purple Eyes went into this whole venture /wanting/ to do the whole "rule the world through fear" thing. I think that's a combo of 1) truly horrendous mental health 2) spite, based on a couple of different slights against him 3) Oblivia Ruins are cursed, haunted to hell and back, and definitely fucked with his perception of the world + himself + what he wants after spending so long trying to decipher the place, and just… never recovered. not that he had a lot chances we see in canon, since so much happens So Fast and bonus wifi missions are wobbly hand motion on the timeline, but for however long he lives after GS he's just. so fucked over in the head. him metaphorically kicking the dog by usurping Ed was mostly entirely due to absolute spite at being kicked at Mt Layuda. he didn't have a plan for ruling the world he just wanted to get payback against Ed and his least favorite Rangers in existence while he was at it

IDK MAN I HAVE A LOT OF THOUGHTS. CONCEPTS. IT'S ALL IN A ROUGH STATE RN THO. just scrapped a whole 2 paragraphs bc i didn't vibe with it. so i'm not gonna say any more on this particular subject.

sorry my guy you're not the star of this very lengthy answer. ANYWAYS i'm torn between my desire to humanize all villains i deal with (because he's still very much a standard cartoon villain) VS desire to just see that guy go from 0 to 90 right from adolescence. stay tuned

HOWEVER he's definitely Sabios' descendant (from the past missions) and that's why the Golden Armor responded to him over Ed at the Sky Fortress. proof: share musical leitmotif, purple theme, evil second-in-commands, on the sky fortress he says something like "i did some research and learned something about the golden armor" which is never really expanded on so i think the implication was that the golden armor would choose him bc it remembers old blood

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SOCIETEA: I am gonna to limit this to Ed because he's the one I care to humanize the most and this whole thing started with him getting an idea. Altered character motivations and interpretations abound.

he hangs around a lot more with Summer n Ben than in canon, both because he's trying to get a feel for their progress, if they're a genuine threat to the Pinchers' progress, and also because they're not bad kids and he does want them to feel reassured that there are Adult adults in their corner. as untrue as it may be.

he's especially fond of Summer, he's definitely doing some grandfatherly projection. she reminds him of himself at a young age: restless, far more clever than she's allowed to be (for differing reasons), having experienced loss due to war (her parents; he lost an uncle and niece who followed in his footsteps as field medic), they both feel more jaded compared to their peers

you know how there's like fanon that there was a war before the games? like before of LT Surge's dialogue? there were a few wars. scattered across like a century or so, Pokeworld was in real bad shape

Ed's parents were rich Galaic folk, you know like old parliament lords that their families still hold places in the govt. and still have lots of old money? yeah he's from that kind of family. his father was an old military man turned politician. wanted ed to follow in his footsteps, ed wanted to go into medicine, they found an unwilling compromise when war broke out and he became a young field medic

eventually war he was involved in ends. father eventually dies. has the freedom to be a kleptomaniac to his heart's content across the world with his friends; focused on high profile art pieces, artifacts, expensive rare limited editions. tensions between regions erupt again, more war, acts as a philanthropist with money to help vets n whatnot. still socially runs in the old circles of politicians and whomever, isn't involved too much though

i'm getting tired so i'm gonna simplify the shit out of this and maybe come back to this later but basically: he and the rest of the gang have been doing some international-conspiracy shit for a decade or so and basically want to do the "last war to end all wars" kind of thing (because. i mean. regional tensions ARE picking up again at this point. nothing solid so far but things aren't are great as they could be) with no conflicting leaders so no more mass violence. except for these potential acts of mass violence. and the half sentient golden armor of course Does Not help with that thought process and is what leads to the destruction of Dolce Island

still definitely wants immortal life tho. war will fuck up your sense of life and death he's definitely got some problems that've been marinating for the past however-many years

he was never really liked purple eyes but was willing to employ him because he was efficient and finding half decent archaeologists who are willing to work for your evil schemes are rare in circles of villainy. but between him no longer really needing him once zapdos was located, disapproval of him kidnapping leanne and claiming he figured it out on his own, and disdain of him kidnapping leanne and nema (ed's not an evil evil guy and didn't have anything personal against rand & family), Ed was all too happy to kick him to the curb

[lover-of-mine]

okay so: opinions on buddie having a confession similar to the jolink one at the end of 19x20?????

(I know jolink have more of a romantic/sexual past than buddie do currently, but when I first watched that scene all I could think about was buddie, because of the fact that the kids were included as part of the speech but not the main focus, and the whole 'I'm so in love with you. How do you not see that?' bit and so many more reasons that have escaped my brain right now)

(Also full disclosure: I'm not a fan of jolink as a couple, and wish they'd stayed as friends, but I do love the buddie parallels/vibes they give me 😅😅)

((Sorry this was long!!! 💚💚))

(just to get it out of the way, I was fighting and kicking and screaming at them putting jolink together because they had such a great friendship and damnit media needs more friendships between men and women who are straight but not trying to get with each other)

I'm kinda obsessed with the idea of getting something like that now that you mentioned lol. I mean, there would have to be some adjustments, I feel like a lot of it works the way it does because they slept together and decided to say it was just casual, with the way they explicitly draw the line and said "no we are just friends" and I feel like that wouldn't work as long term as they played it with jolink when applied to buddie (not unless they want to make us suffer more for a few seasons but if buddie sleeps together then wakes up and go nah we should just be friends is never gonna happen again, I'll burn something down), but I am legit obsessed with the idea of Buck hiding behind Chris for a change and just snapping, listing things about loving Eddie and Eddie is just staring at him with his exasperated husband face and going "you idiot I love you too". If they kiss in the rain too I would spontaneously combust (with the lightning and the well and every bad thing that happened to Buck involving water and the way the moment they start getting along involves literal fire, the symbolism behind them getting something good in the rain would be everything to me really)

But since we're talking Jo, I rewatched the perfect storm the other day, that's why I ended up making the parallel between April and Buck, and I keep thinking about a situation like when jolex gets together. The whole they have a huge fight, Jo tells Alex to stay away from her, then she shows up hurt, Alex gets all protective, he's about to say it, but then the tree falls into Alex living room, and they ignore it until Jo says she doesn't deserve it, that she'll ruin it and Alex is all you asked yesterday you wanted to hear it I'm gonna say it but them he freezes, and she's all i don't hear anything, and they banter a little bit before Alex finally says he loves her and they kiss. I feel like if we get a proper build up with buddie where everyone is aware of where they are going and they keep fighting against it until something snaps but right before they actually do something the universe intervenes, and have them dance around the fact that they almost said it dealing with an emergency, all while the tension between them keeps getting higher, until they finally get a moment alone and they can talk and Buck is all we should just forget it, you're my best friend, I'll mess it up, depending on the nature of the emergency that stopped them you can even add a line of like "that was a sign, the universe was stopping us from making a mistake" that Eddie could counter with his level is skepticism "I don't believe the universe speaks to anyone and you wanted to hear me saying it so I'm saying it" and then freezing and having them banter back and forth until one of them says I love you and the other goes in for the kiss, could work. And it would be one hell of a scene.

So the conclusion here is that Jo has very buddiecoded love confession since Alex and Link get the best friend place before things evolve and either one of them makes for a killer getting together scenario for buddie.

[daveturbittcomics]

The Grind/Side Hustle/TikTok/Celeb-lit vs Comics

Hi everyone I've just been reading these two articles, one via bluesky and one via Neill Cameron on twitter (you probably already know Neill's comics work, if not go and find it because he is really very very very good). It's interesting where artists and creative people are right now in terms of trying to make a living from their art. The Vox article, about the hugely pressured "Personal Brand/Constant TikTokker" phenomenon, talks mainly about music but a lot of visual artists are hitting the same walls, but concluding that this is just "a thing we need to do to get paid. Get hip to it, grandad!"

Neill Cameron's piece (paywalled but you get 1 free article per month) talks about Graphic Novels/kids comics being a new feeding ground for celebrity dilettante children's authors, as he refers to them - Celebrity-Author Apex Predator. And how actually kids comics made by people who have spent decades making comics are doing pretty well thanks to publications like The Phoenix. (Full disclosure, Neill Cameron is employed by The Phoenix).

I found both of these quite thought provoking and hope they're conversation starters . It's never a popular thing to ask out loud in a public space or on an in invite only server, but there is a big unspoken truth at comic cons and meetups around the country, we seldom talk about it because it would possibly, momentarily, break the magic spell of those Artistic Community Spaces if we acknowledged it, but I suspect many of us in the comics making sphere do not make all of our income from our art. My own distant hope is to one day have a fair chunk of income at least come from comics. Currently I make a decent living as a Product and Design Manager for a kids entertainment company, so there are time pressures in my life that reduce the time I can spend drawing.

But looking at these two articles I do wonder, how possible is it?

[phoenixyfriend]

Rey Gives No F*cks About the Grandfather Paradox

Okay so since nobody’s suggested a fic under these terms, I ended up expanding on this post on discord and things snowballed. We kept to the basics of the entire plot revolving around Rey really hating her grandad and leveraging her blood relation to not be unalived about it.

With contributions by @atagotiak​, @dracothulhu​, @thepallaspalace​, and several others. The title comes from @gelpenss​.

The basic thing I absolutely need is this: Rey gets thrown back to the middle of the clone wars, and the subsequent plot leans in really heavily on her being, genetically-via-clone-dad, the daughter of the guy running the entire galaxy.

Nobody knows what to do with her.

The timing is mid-TCW for the past (because I want Ahsoka there) and vaguely between Episodes 8 and 9 because I... never watched E9 and don’t want to worry about the timeline. The only things that matter is that Luke is dead (he can die as he did in canon) and that Rey knows she’s Palp’s granddaughter (not the way she does in canon).

We'll say Luke found out from Anakin's panicked force-ghost and just went "well, fuck, okay, I should tell her this before she ends up in a situation like mine and finds out mid-battle or something."

Luke, prior to time-travel: Okay, so, now that I'm dead I know some things I didn't before. Like who your parents were. In the interest of full disclosure because I was in a very similar situation and I don't want you learning the way I did, I'm just going to come right out and say that your father was a clone was Sheev Palpatine. Rey: ... Luke: Are you okay? Rey: I don't know who that is.

(She grew up on Jakku, the history education was a little subpar.)

Setting The Scene

Imagine Rey showing up during or immediately before the clone wars. There’s this phenomenally powerful feral teenager from a desert backwater who tells you that if you ran a paternity test, it would probably pop up the Chancellor. She may or may not bring up cloning. She accuses said Chancellor of being a Sith Lord.

Your other phenomenally powerful feral teenager from a desert backwater, who may not be a teenager anymore but only barely, is very offended by this because Palpatine’s a Very Nice Old Grandfather Figure, but also he’s a little full of side-eye because if the blood test comes back as proof, then Palpatine had a kid and didn’t even know about them, or lied to Anakin, and that’s! Bad! Family’s important!!!

Palpatine hears about this daughter he apparently? Has? And is very confused because the timing doesn’t match up with ANYTHING he was doing, so the kid isn’t natural, and he says as much. (There is an explanation! It’s not a correct explanation, but he does come up with one.)

Finn and Poe and BB-8 all get dragged along because why not have the gang there? Nobody that’s already born, because [handwave] conservation of souls or something, IDK, point is the only person dragged along that’s even remotely close to already existing is Luke’s Force Ghost, who mostly hangs around begging Rey to be less impulsive. Finn is good because he is a nice polite boy, but for actual useful information they need Poe. The unfortunate situation is that the three do not land together. They land at the same time, in completely different corners of the galaxy. This means that nobody is there to curb Rey being her most impulsive self.

Time travel Rey knows two things. Luke’s dad ends up evil. Palpatine has always been evil.

She can solve one of these problems by killing the other, yes?

Rey: Ready to Rumble

See, the initial idea was this: Rey tried to break into the senate to kill Palpatine, got arrested, and then used the "he's biologically my father" card to get out of jail free. (Force Ghost Luke follows her like “please take five seconds to think this through.”)

But.

But.

It would be very, very, very funny if The Force just dumps her in a flash of light in the senate building and she just attacks Gramps on sight. Just a shouted "YOU!" and no-hesitation attempted murder.

Palpatine has no idea what's going on.

Rey took maybe two seconds to get identity confirmation and then started swinging.

[Image Description: An individual in a green metal helmet with an eye slit, holding a pistol. In the upper left, upper right, and lower middle are the phrases “I do not know who I am...” “I don’t know why I’m here” and “All I know is that I must kill.” End description.]

Of course, she gets arrested. There are Master Jedi in the Senate. There are Clone Troopers. Palpatine isn’t the weak old man he pretends to be. Of course she’s stopped.

But she isn’t executed in time for Palpatine to stop her from ruining his entire reputation.

Immediately after Rey fails to kill her Shitty Granddad, Luke's ghost shows up and begs her to not talk about the Sith thing because it will completely undermine everything she's trying to do. Pass off the attempted murder as something else!

Rey, panicking: "that fucker left me on a desert planet for 10 years!" "You owe me 19 years of child support you son of a Hutt!"

The Jedi have to do the investigation, because the girl showed up with a laser sword, and the conversation is, uh... interesting. (“Where did you get that lightsaber?” “I got it from a mysterious old pirate lady I never met before. I don't know, I was being shown around by a smuggler and a Wookie.”)

Interviewer: Why did you try to assassinate the Chancellor? Luke: Say it wasn't assassination. Rey: It wasn't assassination. Int: You weren't trying to kill him? Luke: Assassination has to be politically motivated. Rey: This was, um... not political. Assassination is political, right? Int: You mean this was personally motivated? Rey: Yes. Int: I see. What personal motivation? Luke: Jakku! Rey: He's my grandfather. Int: ... Rey: Possibly father. Nobody was very clear on that. Int: ... Luke: Tell them to run a paternity test. Rey: Oh hey, a blood test would tell us which, right? Int: ............ Rey: I spent ten years as an orphaned scrapdealer on Jakku. He's my father. I'm kind of a little angry. Int: ........... Luke: Good job, kid. You bought yourself some time. Int: I'm going to get a medic to see about that parternity test.

Obviously, it comes back positive. Congratulations, Sheev, you’re the father.

Rey comes with a ready-made built-in excuse for hating Palpatine that nobody can question or fault her for!

Rey, pouring Truth into the Force: I didn't even know I was related to the Chancellor until a few months ago, but it's his fault I grew up the way I did, and he should take some responsibility!

The entire thing is mostly kept hush hush but someone leaks it to the press and Palpatine's ratings tank.

"Chancellor, I think we'll need to waive family visitation until she wants you a little less dead." "I would like to find out why she wants me dead, and indeed, where she came from." "...sir, for your own safety--"

Who would win? A master plan years in the making spanning decades of manipulating and work? or One (1) paternity test

"Okay, so, Rey Palpat--" "Ew, no, I don't want his name." "You--okay. Sure, we can understand that. Is there a name you would prefer to put on the paperwork?" Rey, who would have gone by Skywalker in honor of Luke but can't do that when Anakin is right there and all: "Can I think about it?"

Rey: I don't know what I want my last name to be but I know I don't want his, and most of the people I’d want a name from have famous families like you... Luke's ghost, pointing out the Literal Nobody that she cares about a lot: How about Solo? Rey: ...Solo, then.

(A few months later she runs into Poe again and he offers for Finn and Rey to both take his name because honestly they need SOMETHING but at that point she’s already decided on Smuggler Dad.)

Backtrack a bit. We’ve got a bigger cast.

They all arrive separately. Poe, for one, does better than Rey, who is aiming for a murder, but not quite as well as Finn, who is currently being adopted and hidden like a secret cat by a bunch of Alpha Clones on Kamino. He vibes with the names-or-numbers thing. He doesn’t necessarily tell them where and when he’s from, but he’s very sweet and a great liar and they adopt him wholesale anyway.

The Finn situation is just... "Buir Ti, we need you to hide this man, we've decided he's our little brother but if Nala Se finds out she'll make him leave."

Of course, this leads into Shaak Ti teaching Finn how to Jedi.

Maybe consider Finn needing to almost be tricked into learning Jedi things because he willfully forgets it could apply to him. Finn does not like to think of himself as special, which is super valid, but frustrating for Shaak Ti when it comes to, you know, getting him to acquire knowledge. Finn's training at some point is "here, levitate objects with the Force to entertain the tubies." It’s a lot easier to convince him to practice when it involves the babies.

(Everyone on Kamino looked at Finn and went “oh I love him I’m keeping him and teaching him things.”)

(He’s just very lovable.)

Poe, meanwhile, buys the trust of Anakin Skywalker via R2D2 declaring BB-8 the absolute most baby of droids. R2D2 met BB-8 three hours ago but.

"Hey Obi-Wan this is Poe I met him like five days ago but R2D2 says he checks out because his droid is a baby." "That's nice, Anakin, did you know the Chancellor has a daughter who tried to assassinate him in broad daylight yesterday? Because guess who had to stop the Chancellor from getting assassinated by his daughter in broad daylight yesterday."

A summary so far:

Finn, on Kamino: Hey, um, I don't know where this is, but it's not where I was a few minutes ago. Do you think you could get me a comm? What's your name? Poe, on [dice roll] Denon: Oh, hey, you're General Skywalker? Nice to meet you, I'm so sorry about my droid, she's a little excitable and thought your R2 unit looked like a friend of hers-- Rey, on Coruscant: DIE, GRANDFATHER

Finn: [Peacefully vibing on Kamino, unaware of the chaos and bonding with the clones] Poe: [Trying to explain how he knows someone who tried to kill the chancellor and defend Rey] Rey: [Arrested for trying to kill the chancellor]

Just... just...

Anakin: Some guy ended up lost on base yesterday with his droid, how’s your day going? Obi-Wan: I had to stop someone who claims to be the chancellors daughter from murdering the chancellor after she seemingly blinked into existence in the Senate building. Poe: 😐

(Poe: Oh, so that's where Chaos^2 went.)

Poe: In her defense, she is his... well we don't know if she's his daughter or granddaughter, but she's definitely related to him, and she definitely grew up in a shitty situation that was his fault, so...

(Poe is trying very hard to explain this and not get arrested on the military base.)

As you’ve probably guessed, what's especially funny about all of this for me is the fact that Palpatine is fully aware that this girl shouldn't exist, but can't find a single piece of evidence about where she came from. He didn't start any experiments that could result in a female child, and he didn't have sex in that period of time, so where the hell--

Rey spends so much time in jail... BUT they do eventually assign her a Jedi Master. Possibly before she actually proves her evil grandfather is in fact evil. Most votes went to either Plo Koon or Obi-Wan. Plo, because he’s dad-shaped, and Obi...

"Obi-Wan, you already raised one feral desert child with implausible amounts of power, you handle this." Rey in return is very "Sweet, you vaguely remind me of Master Luke," and nobody knows who the hell she's talking about. Obi-Wan is NOT on board with this plan, she'd really be better off with Plo or like........ Mace.

Reunion Tour

What I need out of this is the eventual Finn and Rey reunion scene that is just excited screaming while someone in the background explains to Shaak Ti that yes this is apparently Palpatine's terrifyingly force-sensitive daughter who hates him.

(Finn senses Rey’s approach and just. Gathers the everyone to wait. He’s just :D REY MY FRIEND REY GUYS MY FRIEND REY IS COMING.)

Anakin shows up with Poe--just a guy who signed on to the military, no big deal--and then Poe and Rey are EXCITED and everyone's just like "Cool, how do you know this literal terrorist child?" And Poe has to scramble and "Uhhhhhhhhhhhh she saved my droid from a scrapheap once and BB-8 is basically my child so I owe her one."

Rey knows that Anakin ends up evil so she’s maybe not actively hostile but definitely very “I’m watching you.” That said, she vibes with him on a lot of things that he maybe doesn’t actively notice.

Rey picks up a snake, snaps off the head for venom avoidance, and starts biting off chunks. Obi-Wan's reaction: [undisguised horror] Anakin and Ahsoka: Ooh, where'd you find that? (Obi-Wan: And now I’m up to three feral children.)

What Does Palpatine Even Do?

OBVIOUSLY at a certain point, Palpatine is just phoning up every ally he has to figure out who broke protocol to synthesize a daughter for him.

So of course, Palpatine blame Plagueis.

She'd have been born five or so years before Naboo, just a few years younger than Anakin. It's such an EASY theory to build a conspiracy around. It is ENTIRELY WRONG, but it’s plausible! And anyone who might have been involved to say otherwise is probably dead!

A random bio-kid shows up you can’t possibly have contributed genes to? Maybe it’s the evil bio spark that did it.

Palpatine tries to placate her with the ‘my genes were stolen for an experiment and I didn’t know’ thing. It doesn’t work because her actual main complaint is he’s evil in her future but he tries.

It'd be a struggle to even get access to her, because of the aforementioned “maybe don’t try to talk to the daughter(?) that hates you” thing, but you know who Palpatine does have access to? The Chosen One.

Rey kind of decides on her favorites early on (she gravitates to Dad Energy and Sad Old Men so Plo and Obi-Wan are on her list, and that means decent time around Anakin and Ahsoka). It's really easy to talk Anakin into helping to some degree because "he'd like to connect to a daughter he never knew" and "a child of her power on a planet like that, you'd know her struggle, my dear boy" and so on. Anakin tries to connect! He tries to play up Sheev’s kind political work and how it can’t have really been his fault! It doesn’t work. Rey does not believe a word of it. Mostly she doesn’t even seem to hear him.

Rey's just like "...oh right, you're the melted mask that Kylo Ren was always ranting about," which means absolutely NOTHING to Anakin, but he mentions it to Palps, who loses his goddamn mind trying to figure out what she's talking about, because it also means absolutely nothing to him.

Here’s the thing: Rey’s already decided that Obi-Wan is cool, because Luke said so, and Plo Koon is dad-shaped, and she also gravitates towards earnest kindness in general, like she made friends with Finn real quick, so Ahsoka? Already getting along great.

She doesn’t dislike Anakin, really, he isn’t evil yet, he’s just... meh. She’s a little suspicious and she likes him less than the others but... Anakin.

Rey, to Anakin: You are my least favorite. Anakin, to Palpatine: YOUR DAUGHTER HATES ME???

And he goes from “she’s a lil standoffish” to “she doesn’t like me” to “she hates me” as is normal for Anakin.

It’s just an escalation of this one time Palpatine wants Anakin to not have rifts and trust issues with a person, at least not until later, because he needs information.

Meanwhile, that very moment, Rey is just like "huh, nobody here is listening to me about how make a sixth-hand carburetor work, where's Luke's dad?"

Anakin is venting to Palpatine about how hard it is to talk to Rey, and she's over in the Temple just like "Hey, that guy was useful last time, I should ask him," but also she only ever thinks of him as Luke's Dad.

(At one point, Obi-Wan is having a bit of a break down, and then Anakin starts having a breakdown about that, meanwhile the clones are (badly) trying to hide Finn behind their backs, Rey is watching Ahsoka practice and being like "I want two lightsabers," and Poe is trying to keep R2 from stealing BB-8 and Force Ghost Luke is just face palming in the background.)

(Rey deserved a saber staff, maybe one that can detach and turn into a jar’kai set. Possibly a pike. Mostly I just wish she got more chances to whack things with a big stick.)

[makeste]

how Bakugou broke the manga

full disclosure, the title of this post is clickbait lol. this isn’t really a post about Bakugou; this is a post about Horikoshi and about the manga-writing process.

anyway, so I just wanted to talk a little bit about the reason why this latest arc has felt so extremely rushed in places. I know there’s been a fair amount of criticism directed at Horikoshi’s latest editor, and there’s also been a lot of speculation about Horikoshi himself being worn down or sick and/or otherwise just not feeling himself. however I think there’s another explanation for all this. and the good news is that if I’m right, we might see Horikoshi return back to form in these next few upcoming chapters.

so before I start, let me just quickly say that on the whole, I have very much enjoyed this latest arc, and I think that Horikoshi was very successful in achieving what he set out to do, which was to slowly bring Deku’s character to this current place where his fears and burdens have transformed him into this dark version of himself which is so strikingly different from the hero he originally set out to be. I also really enjoyed the battle with Nagant, all of the delicious angst, and of course this last chapter especially which broke my heart in about a dozen different ways.

but that all said, the fact that I’ve enjoyed this arc doesn’t mean I’m blind to its flaws. and they are there, and there are quite a few of them, and I think it’s fair for people to point them out as many have been doing. a lot of this arc’s developments have felt very hurried. the pacing has felt very out-of-whack, and a lot of things have just felt abrupt, with next to no build-up. hence why the new editor is taking a lot of the blame, honestly.

however, I’m pretty sure that it’s not his editor’s fault. if you really want to know whose fault it is, brace yourselves lol.

yep. Bakugou Katsuki, in all his rising glory.

so here’s the thing. we tend to think of BnHA as a weekly series, because, well, that’s what it is lol. but the thing is, not everyone is reading it weekly. even now in this age of digital releases and manga-reading apps, there are still plenty of people in Japan who exclusively read the tankoubon releases. what’s more, the tankoubon versions are basically the remastered, “definitive” versions of the series. so there’s quite a bit of effort that goes into them. and part of that effort involves planning ahead so that each volume ends at a natural break in the story, but one which leaves the reader eagerly anticipating the next release. some recent examples:

vol. 25 ends with Endeavor agreeing to train the TDBKDK trio, and the big double spread of all the kids starting their internships (ch. 246)

vol. 26 ends with the massive gathering of heroes assembling and marching toward Jakku Hospital (ch. 258)

vol. 27 ends on Tokoyami and Endeavor showing up just in the nick of time to save Hawks and Mirko (ch. 267)

vol. 28 ends with Deku and Katsuki swooping in to join the fight against Tomura, and saving Aizawa (ch. 276)

which brings us to volume 29, as seen above. Bakugou Katsuki: Rising. this volume pretty much had to end here; anything else would have been an utter waste of that beautiful, character-arc-defining, fade-to-black self-sacrificing moment. cutting the volume off either too early or too late would have resulted in the chapter losing pretty much all of the OOMPH from its cliffhanger impact. that’s a moment the readers are meant to stop and think about for a little while afterwards before just diving right back into the action. and so Horikoshi planned ahead, and it ended up working out perfectly.

...for that volume, that is.

lol. because here’s the problem, though. volume 30. so at this point, Horikoshi had probably estimated that he had about ten chapters left in the arc. which is perfect in theory, because he could wrap up the battle, and with any luck could then end volume 30 on another perfect cliffhanger with the villains getting away. when it comes to length, each volume spans roughly 184-200 pages, with about 16 of those being omake, table of contents, and so forth. so he knows how much space he has to work with, and he knows which plot points he needs to fit into that space -- Deku’s encounter with TomurAFO in the OFA Void; the rest of the LoV showing up at Jakku; Ochako fighting Toga; Dabi revealing his past; Jeanist showing up; and last but not least, the villains getting away. and so, with a bit of careful planning and a little luck, he can get all of this done within roughly the next ten chapters and make it all work.

unfortunately though, things did not quite work out that way. the first half of volume 30 was actually paced pretty well, imo. we made it through the OFA encounter and the OchaToga fight, and then Dabi showed up to make his grand entrance and dump bleach all over his hair. but around chapter 292 I think is where the trouble really began. this is where I think it started to sink in that Horikoshi only had a few chapters left in which to wrap up the entire battle. and so this is when everything starts happening in weird, frantic clumps. Jeanist shows up, then Mirio pops in out of nowhere, then the sedative finally kicks in and brings down Machia, then Bakugou wakes up for just long enough to announce his hero name before passing out again, and then Compress is all “oh shit I just realized I haven’t done anything for this entire arc” and does his weird butt-compressing thing. which leaves Horikoshi with exactly ONE chapter left in which to wrap everything up lol.

chapter 295 is a hot mess. there’s basically no other way to describe it. everything feels way too abrupt, and the pacing is a total shitshow. pretty much the entire chapter is all build-up for the speech at the very end, which admittedly is a gut-punching moment, imo. “you killed so many of us, and hurt countless others. that is unforgivable. it’s unforgivable... and yet. back there, when you got swallowed up by All for One... at that moment... the look on your face...”

this is an amazing callback. but unfortunately, in order to bring us to that moment, Horikoshi ended up rushing through a ton of material that would have almost certainly benefited from being spaced out a bit more. and that’s why the ending of the arc feels so abrupt. because of this one page, and because Horikoshi started the countdown in the previous volume, when he chose to end it on the Rising cliffhanger even though he could have fit in one more chapter afterwards and thus given himself a bit more breathing room in this one.

mind you, I do think that preserving 285 as the volume-ender was absolutely worth it. but there’s no denying it started a domino effect which we’re still paying for in the most recent chapters. and so moving on to that, volume 31 (which should be released in August) will open with chapter 296. and even though it’s not official yet, I would be shocked if it doesn’t end on chapter 306, a.k.a. the epic “Deku left U.A.” cliffhanger with him standing on the building overlooking the city with his cape blowing in the wind. that’s another moment which, as with 285, I’m pretty sure Horikoshi has had planned out in his head for years. and as a result, I’m almost positive that some of the stuff that he originally had planned for the hospital mini-arc wound up getting cut so that this cliffhanger could make it into the volume instead. even with the cuts, it would still be the longest BnHA volume to date. (in fact it might be too long, meaning there is also a chance that vol. 31 will end on chapter 305 instead, which would basically mean that all of Horikoshi’s efforts went to waste lol. but that could explain the random explosion at the end of chapter 316 -- because if vol. 31 ends on 305, vol. 32 would have to end on 316 rather than 317.)

anyways though, but when important character development moments wind up on the cutting room floor, we inevitably wind up paying for it later on, and that was unfortunately the case here as well. like, this is all just speculation, but here are a few examples of scenes which I’m almost positive Horikoshi originally intended to write, but which later got cut:

an extended scene of Deku talking to Gran and showing us why he took his cape

a scene setting up Hawks’s relationship with Nagant (which would have more effectively foreshadowed her appearance, and also made Hawks’s arrival and speech to her at the end of the fight feel less out-of-the-blue)

a scene in which Hawks questions Ujiko about AFO’s plans

a scene in which Hawks talks to All Might in greater detail about Deku and OFA and why Deku was chosen (which would have explained Hawks’s sudden random admiration of Deku’s moral character in 316, and provided some great ironic foreshadowing material for Deku’s dark character turn at the end of this arc)

you’ll note that there’s a lot of Hawks stuff, and it’s because -- aside from the Jakku/Gunga aftermath and the Tartarus outbreak -- the bulk of volume 31 basically is just Hawks wandering from place to place reflecting on his life and learning the Todorokis’ secret past and finding out about OFA. he’s the central character of that volume, because in the aftermath of the War he was the one who realized that they couldn’t just sit around licking their wounds forever and that they had to form a new plan of action. and so he became the one to step up to the plate, and essentially take charge. and I think that there was originally more planned for that little mini-arc. Hawks is a character who is always observing and always asking questions, and so it makes perfect sense really that he would find out everything he could about the boy who was chosen to inherit OFA from the greatest hero of all time. and the fact that Deku is quirkless turned out to be essential to the story, so All Might would have had to explain it, and that in turn would have led to questions about WHY All Might chose an untrained quirkless child as his successor in the first place. which would have led to All Might explaining about Deku’s heroic heart and the potential he saw there -- a.k.a. the exact set-up we needed coming in to chapter 316.

so yeah. this is my best guess as to what was originally supposed to happen. but once again, just like with chapter 295, Horikoshi wound up writing himself into a corner because he wanted to end the volume on the cliffhanger moment, and he basically just ran out of story space in which to do it. and so in the end, he chose to skip over those last few parts of the hospital mini-arc in order to finish the arc on his self-imposed schedule -- a decision which unfortunately hasn’t panned out so great at times (for all that I think he’s still managed to nail the really important stuff in this arc).

the good news, though, is that regardless of whether volume 31 ends on chapter 305 or 306, the following volume, 32, is now over and done with either way. it’ll either end on the “SUCKS TO BE YOU, DEKU!!” explosion in chapter 316, or (preferably) the “Deku leaves All Might” cliffhanger from 317. either way, though, it means that as of this upcoming chapter, we will officially be starting afresh, leaving Horikoshi free to take as much time as he wants with the next few chapters. so what I’m hoping this means is that things won’t feel as rushed, especially if he learns from his recent mistakes. I don’t expect him to suddenly slow down to a snail’s pace or anything -- this is still the final act after all -- but especially given that this next arc has the potential to be character-defining if not series defining, I’m hoping he’ll remember to take his time when it counts. anyway, so thus ends my rant, and here’s hoping the Rescue Deku arc becomes a full return to form. I’m definitely excited to see how this goes.

[saiyanqueenreads]

So, You Just Turned 18/Just Moved Out: Free Financial Advice From a Banker Pt.1

There’s a lot of expectations surrounding your ability to manage your money seemingly the second you turn 18 or move out on your own for the first time.  Society assumes that good financial decision-making skills are automatic or that kids just have them downloaded into their brains by the time they’re late 17.  But considering that schools often don’t teach even basic money management, and many people don’t or can’t get those lessons from their parents or guardians.... I thought I’d offer my 2¢.  Some, or even a LOT, of this may seem like ‘well duh!’ advice to some, but I read hundreds of complaints a week that prove otherwise!

(I should point out that all of this banking advice comes from someone who works at and banks with banks within the United States only.  There could obviously be major differences in other countries.)

Opening your first bank account:

What to bring with you to open the account. When you go in to open your account you’ll need to have a government issued photo ID like a driver’s license, State ID card, or your Passport. You should also have your Social Security card. If you are a non-resident you should go ahead and call the bank ahead of time and ask them if you’re eligible for an account and what paperwork will be required for your particular non-resident status.  Also, if your current address is different than what is printed on your ID you’re also going to want to bring a relatively new utility bill (power, internet, ect) along. Also, don’t forget to bring money to put down for your initial deposit.  A lot of places require at least a $25 deposit before the account is officially opened, even online.  Cash, money order, check, wire transfer information.  You name it, your bank it likely to accept it!

The accounts often are NOT free!!! Most financial institutions offer standard checking accounts that have a monthly service fee that can range from $5-$30 or more a month. That’s the monthly service fee.  The cost of owning an account as it were...

Some banks offer “FREE” checking accounts.   View this with a healthy amount of skepticism.  I know it’s boring, but you really should sit down and interrogate a bank employee before you agree to open an account. “Free” accounts often have hidden fees for the silliest things.  Things like getting paper statements, replacing a damaged debit card, or using literally any ATM.  But we’ll get into service fees in a future post... Just know that any bank worth a damn will happily provide you with a fee disclosure pamphlet (or have it easily accessible on their website) even if you’re just feeling the place out.

There are often ways to waive a monthly fee. Pay attention to this!  If using your debit card 10 times a month can waive a $15 monthly fee, and you know you use it a ton.... GREAT!  If keeping $500 in an account waives a $5 fee but you have trouble even keeping a positive balance.... not great.

Banks are REQUIRED by law to disclose their fees.   But many bankers do it by handing you (and then mailing after you open the account!) a pamphlet full of small print and giving you the CliffsNotes verbally.  Do yourself a favor and actually READ that bad boy before you sign anything.  Because one of the things you’re going to be signing says that you understand all the fees associated with the account and agree to them.

Shop around. Yeah it can be tedious, but plug your city into google maps and see what banks (and credit unions) are within reasonable driving distance.  Check out those bank’s websites.  Convenient locations, or plentiful ATMs can be super important to many people.  And there are also services like safe deposit boxes, money orders, or getting things notarized that some banks do and others don’t.  And remember it’s not only about comparing against OTHER banks, but comparing different accounts the bank itself may have.

Don’t be fooled by interest!   Many people, when shown 3 different types of checking accounts, fall into the trap of automatically picking the one that says it pays interest (or the highest interest). Free money right?!   Not always.  Unless you are keeping large amounts in the account, like waaaay over $25,000, these offers are often not worth it.  Because better interest (or interest at ALL on checking accounts) can mean MUCH higher monthly fees or harder to waive fees.  An account that earns you $0.04 interest is not worth it if you end up having to pay $30, or even $5 a month to have the account in the first place.  Free interest bearing checking accounts CAN exist, just be sure to watchdog the heck out of it for the first few months.  At the first hint of weird fees you didn’t expect, bail!

Do you REALLY need multiple accounts? Banks are a business.  And it is to the bank’s benefit for you have as many accounts as possible, because they can earn money from fees.  So if you are offered (or pressured into, which they should NOT be doing!) a savings account to go with that shiny new checking account you just opened, keep that in mind. 

Online-only banks ARE an option! Online-only banks are often enticing, with checking accounts that also pay interest, and offering much higher interest rates than brick and mortar banks usually do.  And they can be a great choice!  But again, do your research and read the fine print.  Also, decide if you want to live without the conveniences that places like US Bank or Wells Fargo offer. Plentiful free ATMs, being able to walk in and get a money order, eventually getting a credit card or mortgage from them, 24/7 customer support, ect.

[winnipegpatty]

hockey is [not] for everyone

and until it is, here’s what we can do to help change it.

UPDATE: While I was writing this, there have been reports that the NHL will be postponing games tonight (8/27) and tomorrow (8/28) which is GOOD. But I still think this information is important, and so I”m going to still share it. 

UPDATE 8/28: It’s been brought to my attention that Evander Kane (a co-head of the HDA) has sexual assault accusations against him from the past and is also very hateful towards black women, and does not support black women. I wholly, unequivocally support everything that the Hockey Diversity Alliance is doing, even with his involvement, but I do not support Evander Kane, his actions, or his treatment of women of color. I was asked to bring this to attention on this post so that other hockey fans of color could know his past and steer clear of him. I will, for just transparency sake and also extra information let you know who the guys are that are involved in the HDA so you can support them, and not Evander, and also link social medias where I could find them. 

Akim Aliu (co-head), Evander Kane (co-head), Trevor Daley, Anthony Ducalir, Matt Dumba, Nazem Kadri, Wayne Simmonds, Chris Stewart, and Joel Ward

okay, so like most of you i’m incredibly disheartened, upset, and frankly angry at the NHL’s lack of stance against racism over the past two days. For a league that made such a huge show of wanting to “end racism” they have yet again shown themselves to not only be “last to the party” as Matt Dumba put it, but literally not even AT the party. 

full disclosure: i’m a white fan who in no way shape or form is trying to come off as an expert here, but simply trying to create some actionable steps to try and help Change Hockey Culture, like I know all of us here on hockeyblr want to do. I know I woke up this morning feeling a bit like “well, what now?” and i don’t have all the answers, but i wanted to take a moment to highlight some of the ways i feel like we can help or further the conversation. if you have things you’d like to add to the list, feel free to do so or to message me and i’ll edit the post. 

The Hockey Diversity Alliance: pretty sure we all know what it is at this point, but they “strive to create sustainable change on all levels of hockey. At the top, [they] will educate and encourage accountability from our leagues and leaders. At the grassroots level, we will work to ensure hockey is accessible to anyone who loves the game.”

How can you support them?

1. follow them on instagram and twitter if you aren’t already. they’re sharing their latest efforts on there and also you can share some of their quotes/posts/etc on your own feed to raise awareness of the HDA

2. Shop their merch: proceeds go towards their initiative. 

3. Donate here: you can find a general breakdown of what they support with those funds here

4. Also, tell the NHL that you support the HDA and want them to be fully supported and backed by the NHL, and brought into the forefront of the conversation to change hockey culture. The HDA has sent the NHL a list of requests, tell the NHL that you support these and would like them to honor these requests! 

Black Girl Hockey Club: “The mission of Black Girl Hockey Club is to inspire and sustain passion for the game of hockey within the Black community, specifically with our mothers, sisters, daughters and friends.”

What are they doing and What can you do?

1. They have a scholarship for black girls ages 9-18, information about it can be accessed here if you know someone who could benefit from the scholarship program. 

2. They regularly are posting educational information

3. Donate here

4. They also sell cute stickers

5. Follow them on Instagram and Twitter

Soul On Ice: this is a documentary that has to do with black player’s role within the game of Hockey. You can find it on iTunes, Amazon, and Google Play. You can rent it for $2.99. It is also available in Canada for free on the CBC Gem app!

Boycott the NHL

1. if you watch their games legally, stop.

2. if you have one of their subscriptions, here’s how you can cancel it 

3. Unfollow the official nhl and nhl pr accounts if you are following them currently

4. tell them that you support the BLM movement as well as the HDA. Support the voices of Wayne, Matt, and other players from the HDA who are calling on the NHL to hault playoffs. 

5. don’t live blog or tweet anything about the games.

6. hold white players who have previously claimed their allyship accountable (in a respectable manner, don’t go harass people).

6. sign this petition asking the NHL to pause playoffs

7. support the Seattle Kraken Instagram page. They have posted in solidarity with Jacob Blake and against Police Brutality, and have posted a link to resources here. These resources vary from voter registration, to volunteer, to local seattle organizations, to hockey related resources as well. it is a good, comprehensive starting place so check it out, and send them some love on instagram because they are receiving a LOT of hate. They are currently, to my knowledge, the only team that has taken this stand. (Other teams have made statements since the postponement of games, but I haven’t see any offer resources like this!)

Time to Dream Foundation : this is a foundation founded by HDA Co-founder and NHL Alumnus, Akim Aliu. They strive to make youth sports, including hockey, more accessible and affordable for all kids. You can Donate Here 

Check out Akim Aliu’s CBS This Morning interview about the HDA.

Read Akim’s article in the Players Tribune if you haven’t already. 

[sprnklersplashes]

exes pretending to still be together but it’s also christmas (also on ao3)

“I need your help.”

Cady’s face appears as soon as Janis closes her locker door, and Janis bites down on the inside of her cheek. She doesn’t get the reason why. It’s not like they hate each other now or that they’ve sworn off seeing each other. That would mess with their current friendship group way too much, and besides, it’s not like the break-up was awful (well, it was, but not that kind of awful). They’ve agreed to be friends, and they are friends. And friends help each other when they need it, so of course, she puts on a smile, leans up against the lockers, and nods at her small friend.

“What’s up?”

“It’s a big ask,” Cady begins. “So just like… prepare yourself, okay?”

“Uh, getting nervous now,” Janis says, half-laughing. There’s a lot that makes Cady nervous, sometimes the kid is like a walking livewire, but this feels different. They know them, and they know what other types of nerves mean. And this is past ‘calculus test jitters’, so she takes a slight step closer and lets her voice slip into that softer tone. “Hey. It’s okay, Caddy. You can ask me anything. I’ve got your back.”

“Really?” they ask, relief widening their eyes. Janis taps her shoulder and ignores the tightness in their chest.

“Totally. Now, what’s the big ask. Full disclosure, if it’s anything illegal, I do have alibis prepared.”

“No, it’s nothing like that,” Cady scoffs. They look down and pick at their blue-painted nails. “Okay, so… my family’s having a big Christmas party this weekend. I think I might have told you. I’m sure I did.” They didn’t, but Janis just nods. It’s not important. “And… I haven’t told my family that we broke up yet.”

“You didn’t?” It comes off as far more judgemental than she meant it to, but also they broke up over a month ago. Janis told her They within days (and they responded by buying out the ice cream aisle at the grocery store). She just assumed Cady would do more or less the same.

“No,” they sigh. “I wanted to, but they were both so busy, and I wasn’t sure when or how to drop it on them that my first relationship was over. You know how they make everything into a big deal. And then I got so busy with school and they were swamped with work and… well, I forgot.” Janis stifles a laugh at that. It’s such a Cady thing, to forget to tell your parents that you and your girlfriend broke up. They raise an eyebrow and make to flick at Janis’ head, successfully shutting them up.

“Sorry,” she says. “So, your parents don’t know.”

“Yes, and neither does the rest of my family.” They take a deep breath, and what they say next can only be described as a speedrun. “So I was kind of hoping that maybe you could come with me to my family’s Christmas party and pretend to still be my girlfriend for like one night, and I’ll do your calculus homework for a week.”

They collapse against the lockers then, panting as though they’d just run a marathon, and Janis sifts through what they just said. First, they separate everything and work out what exactly Cady just asked of them, because it all came in such a jumbled mess. And then they try to process it, and that’s the bit where their brain breaks.

“You want me to what?” they ask. “Pretend like we’re still together?”

“Yeah,” Cady breathes. “Just for a few hours in front of my family.”

“Why don’t you just tell your parents we broke up?” they ask. “Not really sure what you need me for here, Cads.”

“My parents aren’t the problem,” she groans, dragging a hand across her face. “My asshole cousins are coming over too.” In the back of her mind, Janis remembers a few conversations with Cady about their extended family.

“Anti-vax cousins from your mom’s side or the queerphobic ones from your dad’s?” she asks.

“Queerphobes,” she sighs. She looks down, toying with the hem of her shirt. “And amongst them, my biphobic cousin Anna who told me at Halloween that my being bi was, and I quote, ‘just a phase I was going through.” She adds air quotes for the full effect, and Janis’ jaw clenches on instinct. “That bisexuality isn’t real and that I’m just experimenting, and soon I’ll get over it, and all that shit. And if she finds out that we broke up when she comes over….”

“Then it’ll feel like you’re validating every stupid thing she said,” Janis finishes. Janis might not know all of Cady’s experiences, just as Cady doesn’t know all of theirs, but this is one experience they definitely share.

“Exactly! I just know how she’ll take this. She’ll assume we broke up because I’m not really into girls.” Cady flops back against the locker, eyes looking up to the ceiling, and lets out a long sigh. She almost looks like a deflating balloon, sagging against the lockers like this. Janis hovers, wondering if she should pat her shoulder or something. That’s comforting, right? “I know that it’s a lot to ask. But I just cannot face Anna and her biphobic crap right now.” They turn their head, and if Janis was on the fence before, the exhaustion in Cady’s face pushes her over. As does their face in general. Especially those damn eyes. “Please?”

She hopes she won’t regret this.

“Two weeks calc homework,” she says. “And you buy me an iced coffee at lunch.”

That’s how Janis finds herself on Saturday night, standing on the Heron’s snow-covered front porch, dressed in a dark red dress and fishnet tights. She picked her black jacket, the one with flowers up the sleeves since it’s definitely her classiest one. And because her parents raised her right, a box of store-bought cookies in her hand. She’d have made them herself, but it was short notice.

Cady answers almost as soon as she knocks, kind of giving Janis the implication that they were sitting waiting for her to arrive. They barely have a greeting out before Cady grabs them by the arm and pulls them inside. If they wake up with small bruises on their arm tomorrow, they won’t be surprised.

“Jesus Christ Cady, what the hell,” they ask.

“You’re late,” she tells her in a hushed voice. “Or you’re nearly late. I thought you were late, okay? Anna got here ten minutes ago.”

“You said six; it’s five fifty-seven,” Janis points out. They slow down in the hallway, and Janis uses the opportunity to pull them into a corner. Before she realises what she’s doing, she cups Cady’s face in her hands, her finger running gently down the side of her cheek.

She pulls away once she sees Cady calm down, her arms folded across her chest.

“You good, Caddy?” she asks.

“Fine,” they sigh. They shake their head, curls bouncing around their shoulders, and come back to themselves. “Sorry, it’s just been a pretty wild evening. Anna got here before you, and I’ve been avoiding her the whole time.”

“Well, your fake girlfriend has arrived,” Janis says proudly. “So let’s go out there and symbolically punch a biphobe in the face.”

“Thank you so much for doing this.”

“Well, it’s not like I had plans.” She taps Cady’s shoulder, the gesture just shy of awkward, and dodges around them. They go to head to the kitchen, her social event smile ready, until they feel a tug on their wrist. Cady hasn’t moved, except to turn around, and Janis frowns. “What is it?”

“Just… we should maybe hold hands. Or something.” Janis’ eyebrows shoot up, a laugh catching in her throat, all to hide the way her heart doubles in speed. Cady shrugs innocently, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. It kind of is, they guess. “No-one’s going to believe we’re still together if don’t act like it.”

“You’re overestimating people’s capabilities,” Janis replies, but it’s a deflection and one Cady sees right through. They’re right, and more to the point they know it, which makes it worse. So Janis suppresses a sigh and holds out her hand.

Cady takes it, and Janis’ heart almost stops altogether.

Janis is in the kitchen precisely four minutes before they’re ambushed by what has to be cousin Anna. And it’s a shame because up until then, they’d been having a pretty good time. Seeing Cady’s parents again is surprisingly nice; they’d forgotten how cool they are, the buffet spread across the kitchen table looks amazing. They were all set to grab a paper plate and load up on samosas before they were rudely interrupted. So not only is Anna a biphobic ass, but she’s cutting into Janis’ samosa time. They get why Cady hates her so much.

“So, Cady,” she purrs from her pink-painted lips. She looks Janis up and down, not bothering to hide the contempt in her gaze, and Janis only at the last second remembers not to flip her off. Kill them with kindness, isn’t that the expression. “Who’s your friend?”

“Anna… This is Janis,” Cady replies through gritted teeth. Janis has only ever seen this simmering anger once from Cady, and it was directed at Regina. There’s a good chance that in Cady’s head, Anna is being mauled. “My girlfriend.”

Anna’s eyes almost pop out of her head, and Janis forgets every second thought they had about this because that image makes it so, so worth it.

From there, it only gets better. Janis finally loads up a paper plate with mini samosas and little quiches, and Cady grabs her a drink (Fanta in champagne glass because they’re playing at being fancy). And sure, they have to keep up the pretense of being a couple, but it’s barely anything. An arm around Cady’s shoulders, holding her hand, maybe a little nuzzle here and there, but it’s fine. After all, they’re friends. And weirdly, this is making the process of being friends easier. They were like this before they started dating anyway, and maybe they should’ve done this a lot sooner. It would have skipped a whole lot of awkwardness.

They honestly hadn’t realised how much they’ve missed this—just sitting here, talking to Cady, without Damian or any other third party. They used to do it all the time, sitting up to the small hours talking about something stupid. Even before they were together anyway. She hadn’t realised you could miss a person like this. Like someone had taken a part of your body away, and you only realise it when you get it back.

Cady leads them into the living room, one hand holding theirs, the other holding a plate, and weaves in and out of relatives until they find a free spot. Janis lets out a laugh when she sees what’s in the living room corner, and nods over in its direction.

“I take you had a hand in decorating that tree.”

“Is it that obvious?” Cady asks. Last Christmas might have been Cady’s first real Suburban American Christmas, but they were a little distracted at that time. And so this time, without shiny hard distractions, they’ve poured all their attention into the tree, and it’s…. It’s definitely something. Every branch is weighted down with baubles, ranging from traditional to homemade to Mickey Mouse, and the tree is more tinsel and twinkling lights than green. Small Safari animals peek out amongst the branches, the perfect Heron touch. Janis especially likes the lion with the Santa hat. It’s a mess and probably a safety hazard, but it’s beautiful. And what’s more beautiful is the glow in Cady’s face when they look at it, brighter than any of the lights.

“It’s cool,” they say, and they take another sip of their drink. “Really cool.”

“Thanks.” Cady’s voice is soft, and she bumps her arm against Janis’. They retake their hand, their thumb rubbing the back of it, and that’s when it happens. The realization that has been slowly creeping up on her all night jumps on top of her and knocks the wind out of her lungs. It takes everything in them just to keep standing as the room spins around them, their heart thumping louder and faster to the beat of ‘oh shit.’

“Will you just excuse me for just one minute,” they mumble. Cady nods, but they’re gone before they even say anything.

The cold air shocks their skin when she stumbles outside, even though it does nothing to cool the heat on their cheeks. They take in big gulps of the crisp air, hoping it will clear the static in their head. Before they know what it is they’re doing, their cold fingers unlock her phone, typing in the number she has committed to memory.

Who else would she turn to right now?

“Good evening,” Damian greets, picking up after only the second ring. “How’s the Heron Christmas party going?”

“Damian, we have a huge problem,” she says. She presses her hand to her mouth.

“Hey, hey, what’s going on?” he asks seriously. He probably thinks someone’s getting beaten up or something. She can almost see him, leaning forward on his elbows, concern lining his face.

She swallows past the lump in her throat; her eyes squeezed shut. God, this is insane to her. Five weeks of pain she’d avoided rushes through her at once.

“I think I’m still in love with Cady.”

There’s a long pause then, the muted chatter from inside and the wind the only things she can hear. And then, just as snow begins to fall, Damian tells her,

“Buddy, I could have told you that.”

“That isn’t helpful, Damian!” she snaps. She rakes a hand across her face, her sleeves falling past her palms. “What do I do?”

“Well, here’s an idea,” he says. “Tell them how you feel.”

“Are you on crack, Hubbard?” she sighs. “Completely out of the question.” They cross their arms over their chest. Confessing their feelings to Cady was hard enough the first time. Weeks of trial and error and chickening out. They’re not sure they can do it again. Not after it almost killed them.

But if they don’t… then that might kill them too.

“I don’t know if I can,” they confess. Their voice is small, as broken as she feels right now. They turn around and vaguely make out the shape of Cady through the curtain, conversing with some other relative. They seem happy. “Maybe I should just leave.”

“That’s not the Janis Sarkisian I know,” Damian says. “They don’t run away from anything. Not anymore.” They both know the implication. The last time she ran from something, she was twelve years old.

“Low blow,” she says, but there’s a ghost of a smirk on her face. She goes to say something else, to tell him how unsure she is, that how can she even do this, but then the door behind her opens, and she doesn’t need to guess whose footsteps crunch the snow behind her. “I’ll call you back.”

“Good luck,” he tells her.

Cady tilts her chin up to look at her, blue eyes so wide, her tiny frame shivering without a jacket.

“Hi,” they say softly, a small puff of smoke escaping their lips. She wraps her arms around herself, and Janis sees her nails dig into her arms. “Are you all right?”

“Yeah.” The word is cracked and feels false on her tongue. Cady nods and slides their hands into their back pockets, avoiding Janis’ eyes entirely. There was a time, not long ago, when Janis could read their every thought just with a look. But lately, they’ve been a mystery, and Janis doesn’t know who to blame for that.

“Cady um… Did you hear any of that?” Cady shakes their head, a half-smile on their face, and Janis takes in a deep breath. Their work’s cut out for them then. “Uh… okay. Well, I… I’m sorry I flipped out back there. I guess I just… I panicked.”

“You panicked?” Cady repeats, frowning a little. “Panicked about what?”

Please make this easy on me, Heron Janis thinks. Use that smart little brain of yours, because God knows I’m not smart.

She exhales, her fists clenched inside her pockets. Her stomach plummets like she’s on the top of a roller coaster, about to plunge into the best or worst phase of her life. She’ll either use their broken pieces to make a mosaic or maim both of them.

“I miss you,” she manages. “I miss us, Caddy.” She gasps a little, and suddenly her eyes sting. “I still… I still love you, Cady.”

She stumbles back then, her confession winding her, and waits for Cady’s reaction. She waits and watches Cady’s jaw clench, her mouth open and close, the wordless gasp that escapes her, and finally, her eyes glistening in the amber streetlights.

Her heart hammers against her chest, a steady rhythm of ‘mistake, mistake, mistake’. It gets louder by the second, but then it starts to subside. Cady approaches, their steps shaky, and closes the gap between them.

And up close like this, Janis sees the dimples in their cheeks, the small gap in their teeth.

“I miss you too,” they whisper.

The snow falls just as Cady’s lips touch theirs, and Janis’ arms wrap tightly around her waist, pressing their body against theirs. Their handle tangles in Cady’s hair, rings catching on their curls. Janis kisses her until it hurts, until she can't tell where they end and Cady begins. Until they stop asking why they ever let them go, because they forget it even happened. All they can think about is Cady's hand against their waist and the faint taste of vanilla on their still-cold lips and how god damn in love with her they are. That's it, and that's all that matters really.

“You’re shaking,” Janis whispers when they pull apart. Cady’s hand is on their chest, their touch like ice. Cady half-laughs, half-sobs, and Janis presses a kiss to their forehead. “Let’s go back inside. Get you warmed up.”

They go back in, Janis’ arm around Cady’s shoulders, and find an armchair to squash into for the next few hours.

“Do you want to stay over?” Cady asks suddenly. They shrug, playing it off as nothing, but the wall between them is gone now. Janis knows what she’s thinking. She thinks the same. She links their hands together, and presses a kiss to Cady’s knuckles. When their cheeks turn red, it’s not from the cold.

“Sounds perfect.”

[windona]

Prompting night: the Legends an young Justice season three interaction?

A/N: Set during True Heroes, the mission to rescue Tara.

A flash of red and yellow burst through the arena. Heedless of the situation, Artemis' mouth opened dry. "Wally?"

Jefferson, noting that Nightwing was also dry mouthed and dumb struck, looked over the arena and at his teammates.

"Look, this is an unexpected change in plans but we can make it work. Nightwing, we still don't have eyes on Tara. Think you can use the distraction to try and get the registry, see where she is?"

Snapping his head over, Nightwing's posture went back to mission ready. "Right, yeah. I can do that."

Brion made to go with him before Jeff put a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, we need you here and ready."

"But!"

"The registry might not be anywhere near Tara. You don't have hacking skills and Nightwing can tell you over comms. Trust me."

The masks did not allow good reads of emotions. The fact that Jeff's hand no longer felt like it was over a campfire sufficed.

"Besides, I think we should help those guys." Superboy pointed to the steel man trading blows with Tommy Terror.

"Agreed. Duck out of sight so as not to blow our cover, then gear up. SB, you're on the Terrors. Tigress, Icicle. Geoforce, you're with me to keep the kids safe as we free them."

Nods were traded as they went off. Soon Jeff found a pen, and zapped it open. He carefully fried the control chips, and motioned for them to follow while Geoforce mostly kept watch.

"Tara!" Geoforce yelled as Jeff turned his head.

A woman in white combat gear with a staff was leading a group of kids on a slight jog, a man in power armor keeping the rear.

"Brion?" A slight blonde muscled her way through the crowd.

The woman pursed her lips at the casual reveal before relaxing. "You two know each other?"

"Yes!" Brion went to hug his sister, smiling and giving a light hug. "Oh Tara, I'm so glad I finally found you."

Yeah, Jeff had a feeling he was going to have to field this one. "So, you're here to rescue the kids too. Have a code name?"

"White Canary. We're the Legends of Tomorrow."

"Never heard of you."

"We're not the type of team people hear about." She gestured her head, and the man in the power armor gestured with his hands before all the gates were open.

A wave of some sort of energy field, and all the control chips were fried. Jeff suspected his comms were fried too.

Pausing, the various heroes looked at each other before Jeff tilted his head to the side. "Team up?"

"Steel's going to be annoyed that we ended up in another crossover," Power Armor said.

"Too bad." White Canary grinned at them. "Seems like. We've got everyone, so it's time to bounce."

With the extra heroes, the super villains were easily on the ropes and distracted as they escorted the victims to safety. Having flown the Waverider and Bioship to a safe spot, the teams finally could have a moment to talk.

"So, White Canary, who are you?" Nightwing focused on the woman, his efforts to avoid looking at the new Kid Flash causing a bite in his voice.

"Former assassin, never been caught," she said flippantly before straightening. "Full disclosure, I am a former Shadow. But I left, and since then have been working to save lives instead of taking them. And I am the current leader of the Legends of Tomorrow, a team dedicated to saving the time stream. And the multiverse, apparently."

"Apparently us speedsters just don't have a monopoly." The new Kid Flash shook his head before looking at Superboy. "By the way, are you this universe's Superman?"

"No. And why did you come to this one?"

"Meta with breacher powers. Trust me, you do not want a supervillain able to walk the multiverse at will."

"And while we were here, well, always time to rescue others," the alternate universe Atom said.

"Kinda like how you guys came to rescue his sister and everyone else." Kid Flash gestured towards Geoforce.

"Ah, yes. Thank you." Brion still had Tara in a one-armed hug. "Was the person you were looking for a Shadows wash out too?"

White Canary frowned. "No." Looking at Tara, she continued, "And if you need to talk to another former Shadow, let me know."

Nightwing sighed. "Well, with that out of the way, I think we should get the kids to STAR Labs to help get them sorted out and home, and some training to use their powers safely. You want to come?"

"I think we're good. Got a timeline to protect, after all."

With that, the two groups parted. Soon enough all the kids were safely in Taos, and Conner came home to find his and M'gann's apartment beaten up.

The Legends, for their part, headed home. Sara smiled as she sat in the Captain's chair. "Hey Gideon, open a line to Cisco. Let him know that the Earth 16 version of Dante Ramon is safe."

[pluviophile-bookworm]

High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Rewatch pt.3

Ok, full disclosure: I should not be doing this right now. But I've been thinking about it since yesterday and, well, I reckon I can go over 1x4 and 5, and then move on to my actual work. So here we are. I'm really, really excited for these two, so without further ado, I'll dive right into:

1x4: It's hard to believe that I couldn't see... the majority of what happens in this episode when I first watched it

Why is Nini such a pro at making a scene with whoever her current boyfriend is in the middle of a public place? I mean, I get it that she's upset about EJ going through her phone — who wouldn't be — but maybe - and this is just a friendly suggestion — she could try and discuss that in private, not start a shouting match within view of all their classmates. Just saying.

'Ricky would never steal my phone' — well, perhaps not, but he's not quite above deleting stuff from it, either... I wonder if whoever is writing this show knows that there are many other ways to make a relationship unhealthy... it's not funny anymore. Just repetitive.

Ahhh Natalie and her emotional support hamster! At least there's one good thing about this scene.

Sure, Ricky, blame Big Red for the fact that you misplace your stuff... a very nice best friend he's got, indeed.

Gosh, everything is so awkward and there is just so much tension all over the place — Ricky's parents, then EJ and Nini, and then Carlos just being oblivious to the fact that they just broke up... you know, that last part just made me laugh. And then Ricky's reaction to his parents legally separating just broke my heart. That boy's been through too much.

Big Red being completely clueless about theatre terms is super funny and endearing, but let me just put myself in his shoes for a sec. He's followed his best friend into a badly thought-out scheme to get back together with his ex, got dragged into joining the crew, and is now expected to know what everything is. I would not put up with that... ok, who are we kidding, I'm a massive pushover and would put up with anything, but my point is... he shouldn't have to. At least people are doing the bare minimum to help him learn and nobody's laughed at him for not knowing. That's the good thing about this crew.

Ok, so I have posted about my thoughts of their take on What I've Been Looking For before, back when the episode was brand new, so I won't go into detail about that. In short, I think they've got the arrangement all wrong considering that it is a plot point in the original movie, but... the execution is funny. The scene is about Nini and EJ's post-breakup tension and it shows. I just kind of wish now Miss Jenn had pulled Nini out and put Gina in, even just for this rehearsal — and I might or might not be saying this as a Portwell shipper.

Miss Jenn is done with the students' personal drama and honestly, I'm right behind her. These kids are being completely unprofessional — and well, I realise that we can't expect them to be professional at this stage, but... they could at least try to concentrate on rehearsal and not their personal lives for a second.

Ricky hugging a cushion is my spirit animal. That's it, that's the comment.

Ahhh the tension between EJ and Gina though... 'around here seniors don't follow sophomores' — well, we'll see how it goes, Mr. Senior.

What gives Nini the right to shout at strangers about their relationship? I am honestly so frustrated with her these days. Wonder why I never was during season 1. The reasons are all there.

'He loves you' — yeah, like a little sister, he does. Also, Ash is so precious, always trying to see the good in other people. EJ 1.0 is so lucky he had her as an example.

Ok, I'm not going to go into what an amazing best friend Big Red is because we all know that (plus I'm saving it for a certain scene in 1x5), but this must be so hard for him. I mean, he's trying his absolute best to help Ricky feel better and distract him from his problems, and Ricky is turning everything down. I mean, I guess I understand where he's coming from too, but I'm unable to look at things through the lead-centric lens alone anymore. I'm more aware of non-lead characters now (some more so than others) and this is putting a whole new spin on my perception of everything that happens.

I've got no idea how Big Red can sleep with all this noise, though. I could never. But to each their own.

'perfect on paper' — that's EJ 1.0 to a T. I've got to give Nini that.

Ricky wearing the pride t-shirt... we love to see it.

See, this is why I keep forgetting why I ever shipped Rini and then remembering again... their chemistry is just so on-again-off-again, and here it's definitely present, but I just need a couple with consistent chemistry, you know. Hey, isn't that kind of what All I Want is about? Kind of. I don't know. I've been unable to listen to that song ever since it got big irl. I have this... problem with media that becomes popular and mainstream... I mean, I never hold a grudge against things just for being popular, but I just... relate to underrated stuff much easier. Not because it's underrated, but it just so happens that nearly everything I like and relate to is underrated in some capacity. Even HSMTMTS itself — it's practically unheard of here in Bulgaria, so I would not have found it if I hadn't been looking for it specifically. Ok, this comment got derailed several times. I guess I'll just stop here and move right on to 1x5 at this point.

1x5: A bedazzled tablecloth, a perfectly balanced unicycle and bad reception at the barn... not the perfect ingredients, but they can still... Work This Out

'Miss Jenn says that's a life in the arts... well, that and almost constant unemployment' — alright, I know this line is not supposed to be funny, and that it's a painful reality for a lot of people, but... maybe it's the delivery. I just laugh every time.

See, this is what I mean when I say I want to see consistent chemistry — Seblos have it. I mean, I really don't want to jinx things, but... they do.

Big Red seems to be in a more... outspoken mood today, I guess you could say. Too bad Ricky is still shutting everything he says down. Seriously, Big Red and Seb should start a club for people who try their best to be there for their loved ones and still keep being shushed.

I might be super frustrated with nearly everything Nini says and does (can somebody please tell me why that is?), but... flushing her dress down the toilet? Major mood.

Listen, I love Miss Jenn and that she's close to her students, but... emerging from a toilet cubicle and inviting herself to Kourtney and Nini's girls' night was... Will Shuester level of questionable.

Ricky being the mature one about his parents separation is... I mean, it's admirable, but how did he move past the impending depression of last episode and towards being the one who tells his dad to get up and move on? Well, I mean, good for him. But I think the issue is far from buried yet.

'Friend of the year'? Ricky? I don't think so. First of all, if he were, he'd know that Big Red does not have two left feet. Wasn't it you, Ricky, who was stumbling over the steps in HSM a couple of weeks ago? You're one to talk. Plus Big Red's been listening and trying to help while you've just been spouting off about your personal problems for... how long has it been now? I get it, Ricky has issues that he needs to work through, but he's almost legally blind in both eyes when it comes to Big Red.

Ok, but Ricky is the epitome of 'cannot solve his own problems but has a suggestion on how everybody else should solve theirs' in this episode. Maybe take a step back and listen to your own advice?

'My parents think I'm bonding with the livestock' — I've got no idea why I find this line so funny, but I do. And I've got so much love for this entire scene. Carlos' reaction to Seb's response to his invitation is just... the most adorable thing ever! My heart might just burst. Especially given what we're about to go through tomorrow in 2x10... I am. Not. Ready.

The entire karaoke scene just reminds me of... pretty much every extended family reunion on my mum's side. Her cousins love karaoke and are also completely tone-deaf. I love it that they're able to have fun with it, but my ears are still recovering from my great aunt's birthday party two years ago.

'When did you become Nini?' — Why does Mr. Mazzara know so much about his students' dating lives? I mean, Miss Jenn does, too, but he doesn't strike me as someone as invested in them as her. Idk, it just struck me as kind of weird.

'I didn't agree to photos' — please, EJ, I'm sure you'll want memories from your first fake-dating gig with Gina... once you're no longer fake-dating, you know. Boy, these two are going to have stories to tell to their grandchildren.

I've said some stuff about Nini, but... 'a bedazzled tablecloth' is the funniest description I've heard for Gina's homecoming dress.

'Maybe it's not actually about you at all.' Yeah, you tell him, Reddy! Ricky needs to get over himself.

The way Big Red sniffs out the drama, though... I was not-so-randomly reminded of that moment in 2x9 where Seb was like Carlos. and Big Red was like, 'Are you guys fighting?'...

Big Red doing a comedic lip-reading of Gina and EJ's dramatic scene is absolutely hilarious. I might or might not have sold my heart and soul to him after seeing that scene for the first time. But I just remembered how he said earlier that maybe he can't read lips and that just makes this 100% funnier — he was basically like a child who can't read yet making up a story based on the pictures in a book, and I mean it in the best way possible. He's a theatre dark horse, this one, and they should all be intimidated — or inspired, whatever they choose — by his hidden talents. Gosh, I love this guy. But can you blame me?

'You think I'm actually going to confide in you?' — Absolutely. You can't bully someone from your position of authority over them and then act like you're their friend. I do know now that Mr. Mazzara has hidden depths, but he had no right to be as rude to Carlos as he was in 1x3. He was right about one thing, though — Carlos doesn't need a dance partner to dance.

Ricky saying he was going to apologise to Gina and counting that as an apology is giving me major TJ/ Buffy flashbacks. I wonder why that is... * sarcasm *

Nini feeling like a fraud makes me actually sympathise with her for a second. But I feel like Nini's flaw of defining herself through boys and Ricky in particular has been addressed one time too many now, since it was first addressed here in this episode. If they make her and Ricky get back together again in season 2, I will riot. [side note: I feel like the Born to Be Brave scene says a lot about both Rini and Seblos as couples. Nini and Carlos both feel, in the moments leading up to the song, like they are incomplete without their partners. Ricky, too, has built his personality entirely around Nini at that time (and is still not completely over that in s2). And then the song comes in to remind them that they don't need a partner to be happy. I'm just thinking of Big Red's 'perfectly balanced unicycle' comment from the promotional materials, and of how he and Ashlyn, even when they're dating in s2, are never portrayed as being incomplete without each other. I guess there's a reason why they're the Beta Couple of the show — their relationship drama is nearly non-existent, and when it does exist, it's just caused by them caring too much about each other. Every other couple on the show should learn from them.]

Everybody supporting Carlos during the Born to Be Brave number just warms my heart so much... I am actually crying real tears. And then the end, when Seb finally shows up, right in time for the slow dance... I have a lot of feelings about this scene.

Seblos' dialogue here still kind of makes me cringe a little... but like, in a good way.

Yikes... Miss Jenn's getting into trouble... I mean, it was bound to happen sooner or later. But she's lucky she's had enough time with her students for them to love her enough to fight for her. Still, this is a topic for another episode, and so I won't expand on it in this post.

Well, that's it. That was 1x4 and 5. Those were pretty much my favourite episodes when season 1 was airing. And I can definitely see why, even if my views on some things have changed due to stuff that happens later. But, as I constantly say, that's what rewatches are for. In other words, 'once more, with feeling this time' as my choir director used to say.

[colorofitall]

Welcome! This is an ongoing series of indefinite length on how Ludwig Göransson’s score for The Mandalorian ties nicely into John Williams’s history of leitmotifs in his Star Wars score. (And other cool stuff I notice.)

If you read through any analysis of John Williams’s score for any of the Star Wars movies, you’ll see lots of references of leitmotifs or themes. He loves to drop bits of music that represent people or themes into all parts of his scores. Other film composers do this too, but John Williams is a *master* at this.

So. We have a great main theme (which is Din Djarin’s theme). It runs at the credits. It’s really neat and it’s likely going to end up on every middle school band kid’s wish list of “Shit I Wish My Director Would Let Me Play Instead of John Phillips Sousa”. But the series doesn’t open with this theme; instead, we get a lot of random music instead.

Except…

Did you know that through the first half of Chapter One’s score, we get bits and pieces of Din Djarin’s theme; but we don’t hear the full theme until he’s up on the blurg, riding across the prairie like a cowboy? Neither did I. Until I listened to the score full blast while driving up to Rural Clinic™. The things one does to stay sane in a pandemic.

Full disclosure, if you’re reading this, I’m assuming you’ve seen the whole series. Spoilers abound. I’m too tired to hide stuff, so…

I’m using the episode score released onto Apple Music for this analysis, because, honestly, it’s hard to catch some of the musical notes with the rest of the action going on. I don’t have a copy of the written score, nor do I currently have a piano to transcribe this stuff myself, so I’m literally going off of my ears here. Be kind.

Okay. We open with “Hey Mando!” and that beloved bass recorder tune (Sidebar: so I knew there were bass and tenor flutes, but a bass recorder? WTH? But it makes sense if you want to have a recorder choir…) which is our first introduction to Din walking in to get his bounty. But instead of resolving into the rest of the theme as the music suggests, the theme cuts off and we get some bad ass fight music instead. Cool cool cool. We also get the very opening part of the theme (the two deep piano notes) at about 1:40, but I’m cutting Göransson a little slack here because that’s the title card theme music, and it has to show up. Again, it’s just a little piece of the theme, but not the whole shebang.

In the next piece of the score, “Face to Face” (which is where Din drops off his *numerous* bounties and meets Greef and the Client), we get to hear the bass recorder again, (at about 0:40) but this time, we get more of a variation on the main theme before it cuts off again.

Can I break here and mention what a fabulous use Göransson makes of bass instruments as a whole? I mean, that was an awesome use of the bassoon! Anyway…

Again, we get the deep bass piano opening notes from the main theme at the start of “Back for Beskar” which is Din returning to the Covert. It’s a nice match with the tone of the score here, and I’ve been wondering for a while if the deeper bass notes used for Mandalorians as a whole is a nod to Boba Fett’s original theme from Empire Strikes Back. You also get a little of foreboding bass recorder as well at 1:20. I’ll talk more about this piece and the next piece a little later because they showcase their own themes as well.

The next part of the score is “HammerTime”, which is when we get to see the Armorer work her magic. At about 0:45, the strings you hear at this point are playing that same awesome bass recorder line at the beginning of the “The Mandalorian” theme (just speeded up a bit). I also want to talk about all the hammering going on in this piece, and the blending in of the electric guitar which adds to the techno-vibe of the Mandalorians as well.

We finally get to “Blurg Attack”. Which makes sense for a title since they’re like sharks with feet. It starts out as a fun little attack piece but start listening at about 1:00 and you’ll softly hear the big brassy part of the main theme, but (I think) on French horn (or baritone).

Last but not least, “You Are a Mandalorian”. Does anyone else like Kuiil and how unimpressed he is with Din? We get the whole opening of the main theme right at the beginning of the piece, and just like at the beginning of the whole episode, the theme just drops out halfway with no resolution (lol Din gets bucked off, drop your heels dude and sit deep in your seat).

So throughout this episode, we’ve gotten little pieces of the theme throughout all of the action, showing all the separate parts of Din. There’s a part of Din that’s a bad ass bounty hunter, and a part of him that hangs out with not so nice people to get the work he needs, and a part of him that’s a super awesome beroya who’s invested in the foundlings of his tribe, and a part of him that’s still a scared little boy.

And as he rides out to find the fifty-year-old bounty who’s going to tie all these disparate parts of him together, finally we get to hear the whole theme.

Going through bit by bit: the violin parts from “HammerTime” (which echo the bass recorder from “Hey Mando” and “Face to Face”), the deep piano notes from “Back for Beskar”, and the brassy theme from “Blurg Attack”. Fun fact here is that those deep piano notes are also the lead-in notes for the main brassy theme.

And then the theme resolves finally. Load of stress off my back at least (Think of music resolving as that feeling you get when you know that a musical phrase is completed, and unresolved themes make me ITCH.)

I’m not covering Bounty Droid or The Asset here – I think they tie in better to later episodes and I will try to get to those later. Also for fun, listen to “The Mandalorian”. It’s the end credits theme and since it’s a little more sparse, it’s easier to hear all the parts come together.

And if you’ve read this long…

Two other fun things to note here. We get introduced to two other themes in this episode. One theme I think of as “The Forging” theme, and the other theme I think of as “The Mandos” (in order to keep it separate from our protagonist’s theme.) “The Mandos” first shows up at about 1:20 into “Back for Beskar” (Din returning with the first piece of beskar that becomes best paldron). The main theme you hear in this piece is the theme we will hear again during Din’s recollection of how he was brought to the Mandalorians; specifically, as he watched the Mandalorians kick the snot out of some Separatist droids.

“The Forging” theme starts at the beginning of “HammerTime”. (god some of these pieces have the BEST names). Recognize it? We’ll hear it again at the beginning of Din’s recollection of how he was brought to the Mandalorians; specifically, as his parents were running with him and placing him in the bunker. It’s important to note here that the theme starts *before* Din has a flashback to the Separatist raid. That’s why I think of it as “The Forging” and not “Din’s Trauma Extravaganza”. We can think of forging as a physical activity, i.e. “make or shape (a metal object) by heating it in a fire or furnace and beating or hammering it.” (Thanks OED!), but we can also think of a person being forged. And in my thoughts, the Separatist raid is part of what forges Din into the person he is during the series. So, it’s nice to have an explicit link between the Armorer’s forge and Din’s memories of his finding.

Enough analysis of the use of themes?

Enough. Bye bye!

 Side note: I did not realize the Blurrg were a thing in Star Wars: Rebels as well. Two-legged shark guys look just as weird when they’re drawn!

[masterthespianduchovny]

No please share your theory if only you want to though. Well I mean David did kinda almost slip up when he said years age Nate's the single guy lol & him unintentionally always bringing her up and Gillian is getting flustered and shit and whatnot all the time when he's brought up. In your OWN opinion do you think that DD is also captivated/charmed with GA's charisma and her being her in general?

Wait, what does “Nate’s the single guy” refer to again?

Full disclosure: the only thing I claim to be true is that David and Gillian are friends, which I’ve stated before last Sunday.

This is all speculation on my end and I don’t claim it’s the truth by any means.

Personally, the only way I can make sense of David and Gillian’s is if they were/are having a torrid affair.

Antis will claim this is a fantasy of mine, but I don’t fantasize about people having affairs. However, I am realistic that these things happen.

As I mentioned in another post, how is Gillian still flustered about a question she literally answers several times a year for almost 30 years? Why can’t she give a straight answer? Why does she lie and sometimes contradict herself?

Because she was and currently is involved with David in an on again/off again affair. Depending on her answer, they’re either involved at that moment and/or she’s upset at him.

Where as David can answer the question, but he slips up in other ways.

And it explains why they’d lie about it.

Let’s get something clear: they’ve always admitted that they’ve had a complicated relationship, which they are open about, but they’ve never said they’ve hated each other.

Part of the reason is that they both have dominant personalities, the other reason is that they couldn’t or wouldn’t commit to each other for whatever reason. Then when they got married to their respective spouses and had kids, but still fucked around, they couldn’t expose their indiscretions.

They’re both trying to protect their kids, David more so than Gillian. David’s father cheating, and then leaving his mom for his mistress, deeply shaped David and his brother. People may think this is ironjc and hypocritical, but sometimes kids mimic their parents behavior. Even the toxic shit. As a result, he doesn’t want his kids finding out what he did because he knows what it could do to them. It’s also to spare their former spouses embarrassment (to be honest, I’m not sure David and Gillian would ever receive public blowback for it, esp now. People already think they’re fucking, so what difference would it make). Acknowledging that they ever hooked up leads to questions about when, and then people doing the math.

Gillian’s marriage was from ‘94-‘97 and David’s from ‘97-‘14. Okay, so maybe Gillian was single for a few months and David was single during his separations from tea. I’m not sure there’s a lot of overlap where they were both technically single at the same time. David dated Perry and the woman who dated det white. There has almost always been a relationship going on.

So if they’ve been fucking on and off for almost 30 years, it wasn’t always when both were single. One or both of them were definitely in relationships.

Something we know happened: Gillian admitted that they were talking (as in trying to see if it could lead somewhere) when David lost interest because she wasn’t from New York.

So there is evidence straight out of Gillian’s mouth that when they first met they kinda hit it off in that way before David walked away.

During the dark ages, you know the time they famously ‘hated’ each other, David elopes and doesn’t tell Gillian. Months later, her and David are doing an interview for print or video where they interview each other. Gillian brings up tea and is like, “you must’ve really liked tea to marry her so quick” and “why didn’t you tell me that you were getting married?” This isn’t verbatim, but the gist of it. David says, “you’re still mad about that?”

Let’s take a moment to note how weird that is. They hate each other, right? Why would Gillian fucking care that David didn’t tell her he was getting married and that it happened so quick? It doesn’t matter, but she was hurt by that. She really was. It wasn’t friend hurt, it was jealousy and betrayal.

David hates Gillian, but makes snarky remarks about her boyfriend Roland aka “six pack” (or is it eight pack). “Well, he hates her right, so it makes sense he’d make cracks about her boyfriend?” Well, years later, it’s an inside joke between them.

Their failed relationships are inside jokes to them. Does anyone else find it unusual how often they joke about their failed marriages and relationships? How is this something apart of their narrative or necessary when talking about how long they’ve known each other?

The only way their behavior and responses makes sense to me is if their relationship is messy as hell.

Why would you lie about how close you are to someone unless you had something to hide?

When you comb through their history and read/see what they were doing and what they said, it doesn’t match this narrative that they hated each other. They were at a difficult point in their relationship, personally and professionally, and that bled over into work and interviews. But they’ve always maintained that it wasn’t hate, it was just complicated.

I think in “ghost in the machine” Gillian pretends to blow David. They insisted on doing the “cut” FTF loss and I write cut in parenthesis because, although it was cut, it shouldn’t have existed. They made out twice for fun. Why? Why would you make out for fun with someone you hate? And didn’t this occur during the dark ages? In the unnatural, after tea leaves the set, David starts humping Gillian and she giggles. Yes, two people who hate each other right there.

Their relationship was so tense and complicated because they were stubborn, proud, and strong willed. Those type of people are bound to clash. Throw in their work environment and their relationships, it was a pressure cooker. An explosion waiting to happen.

When people say they hated each other, the question is why and how did they get over that?

There’s never an answer for it. Or when they do claim something, it’s disproven.

And that’s because they didn’t.

If they hated each other, they wouldn’t have done IWTB, various cons together, or even seasons 10 and 11.

Could I be 100% wrong about this, ABSOLUTELY.

Look, it’s no skin off my back if I’m wrong.

I just can never shake the sensation of how Gillian looks like she’s about to be caught or is scared when she’s on a late night show and someone says “picture” and “David” in the same sentence. She looks shaken.

What was up with their kimmel interview?

Why we they basically flirting while talking about hooking up with women?

I expect anon hate accusing me of saying “you said that they had a horrid affair doe 30 years.” 🙄 “but Gillian was so in love with Peter and David loves young pussy.” But my whole point is, I don’t know what to make of their relationship and this is the only thing that makes sense to me. Both of those things could be true in these hypothetical anon hates, it still doesn’t change what I said.

Hell, even Téa while freshly married to David described his relationship with Gillian as sibling like and like a married couple. What does that even mean?

People who talk about “Téa had to force David to invite Gillian to his housewarming party.” Was that because he hated Gillian or because they used to fuck/were fucking. Inviting your former/current lover to your new home with your new wife. A bit awkward and disrespectful, wouldn’t you say?

Keep in mind, months before (or a year before), he was her date to the Emmys, as a friend, to support her because her divorce was being announced that day. How do you go from that to hating each other and not wanting this person to come to your housewarming party?

What was the catalyst?

Why did the fall out?

Didn’t their tension start around the time he married Téa? 🌚

I don’t know if it’s in the same year or within the same 12 months of his marriage, but she’s mad at David at one award show and kissing him on the cheek at another. Dark ages, right?

Remember when Gillian gave a spot on, unfavorable assessment of David and he responded to it all hurt and moody? 😂

And, how could I forget, let’s think of the other suspect behaviors.

1. David: we only email like five times a year.

Gillian: that’s what you like to tell people.

2. Gillian’s gum falls out of her mouth, David puts it in his mouth.

3. Gillian spitting food in his hand and David not being grossed out by it.

3. David pulling on the hem of Gillian’s shirt to pull her closer so he can sign it. Neither thinks twice about it, despite the level of intimacy being unusual.

4. David biting on her shirt.

5. David going quiet and making shit awkward after joking about her saying she kept saying she’d point at random men and say, “I’m going to marry that man.” Same occasion two minutes before, Gillian asking how David knew who mitch’s wife was (it was her stunt double). It felt accusatory.

6. The chili’s story where she has to explain she means Mulder and Scully had sex at Chili’s and not them.

7. Then holding hands under the table at comic con in 2013.

And there’s a lot of stories either I forgot or don’t know, I’m still finding out new things.

I know this theory destroys their perspective of DDGA and it ruins them for some fans, but it’s just a theory. Like I said, I’m not saying it’s the truth. I’m saying it would explain a shit ton about the ebbs and flows of their relationship and why they’re so inconsistent and reactive to being asked about each other for just about three decades. Why aren’t they bored of the question by now and answer it without this big to do?

I don’t know if David stans believe he is/was a cheater, but Gillian stans swear he is until you mention he could’ve cheated with Gillian. All of the sudden, he’s faithful and committed. 😒

I can admit that I might be wrong because I don’t know them. Only they know what goes on in their relationship. But if you had friends acting like they do, you’d think they were fucking or wanted to even when they insist otherwise.

To tour last question: OF COURSE David is captivated by Gillian. Gillian is attractive, funny, and flirty. They seem to have similar senses of humors at times as well. She’s silly too. I can totally see David being taken in by her because we see that now.

He’s more of the straight man to her zaniness, but he finds her zaniness endearing.

EDIT: please feel free to add any normal colleague behavior between David and Gillian over the years. 👀