#you can’t see the little ?Easter eggs? i put in there because it’s not fully colored. :(

[azrail-emer]

WIP (Apollo 3)

I haven’t finished yet, but here’s the start. I did this months ago but never got around to doing it- 💀

I may change some colors as I work on this, like the skin tone. He’s just fabulous the way he is. Like fabulous, not fabulous. You know?

-Azz

[poetzproblem]

I am so with you on the Agatha All Along brainrot. What are some of your favorite headcanons about the show and/or Agatha and Rio's relationship?

This got very long, so apologies. I'm hiding it all under that cut and also recommending that you go read creator, you destroy me by velvetprayer if you haven't already. It more or less matches my own personal headcanon about the Agatha/Rio past, though her version of Lady Death might be a little gentler overall than I imagine her to be - although fully as angst ridden.

My winded rambling as follows:

So, I’ll preface this all by saying that I’m not really deep into Marvel lore. I only know any of it through the cinematic universe, but I can’t say I’ve ever watched the entire filmography, I did watch Loki and Wandavision, and I obviously fell in love with Agatha from that. I did a rewatch after the first episode of Agatha All Along dropped to refresh my memory, and it helped me form a headcanon for her, though there are some pretty big missing pieces that I haven’t quite worked out, mostly due to the incomplete backstory in AAA and Marvel’s general monkeying up of timelines between their television projects. (The Darkhold was an entire plotline on Agents of Shield, but WV and AAA both imply Agatha has had that book for a significantly long time.) 

So before I go too deep into character headcanon, I will say that I mostly loved AAA. I think it was well written overall with so much foreshadowing and so many easter eggs that really make rewatching the episodes a joy. I appreciated the practical effects, and the song was a banger in every version. I will admit to being a little disappointed that the Road wasn’t real all along but a pocket dimension created by Billy, though I did just enough research about him to know it was one of his powers and saw the speculation about that twist being talked about, so I was expecting it by the last two episodes. 

I also was disappointed with the Salem Seven being a big non event. Rio describes them in the first episode as "the worst of them," and they’ve supposedly been hunting Agatha for something like 320 years, so I expected them to be a real threat. But from what little we saw of them, beyond being creepy, they had no real bite. It felt very much like a fully powered up Agatha, especially one in possession of the Darkhold, could have easily squashed them all a century or two ago? (Again, when did she actually acquire that damned book?)

So Agatha. She’s unapologetically wicked, but I think of her as more selfishly power-hungry than outright evil. Knowledge of the craft is important to her, that was clear in her whole initial confrontation with Wanda, so she’s clearly well studied in addition to powerful. I imagine she really does think she’s more deserving of every other witch's power than they are, so why not take it? 

Her one tiny line in the sand (or salt circle) seems to be not hurting children, although she really didn’t seem all that concerned with Billy or Tommy disappearing with Wanda’s powers during WV. I can only assume that was because Wanda magicked them up in the tiny span of a day or two out of nothing but her chaos magic with fake sitcom labor, so Agatha didn’t see them as real. And now that I know she had a son who she carried for (presumably) the full nine months and put in the real work for, I can kind of understand that. 

WV showed her coven trying to kill her in 1693, and AAA put Nicky’s birth in 1750. That’s 57 years of wrecking havoc with her lover, Lady Death, and my own take on that is that they didn’t actually meet until after Agatha offed her coven. I’m sure Death was there for that event, and I even play with the idea that Death had been hovering around her long before that, but I don’t think she showed herself to Agatha at that point and Agatha wouldn’t have noticed her physical presence yet.  

I don’t actually believe Agatha could control her siphoning powers before she killed her coven - in fact, she seemed genuinely surprised that she wasn’t dying when they blasted her and that her own power was pulling theirs into her. And her coven and Evanora sure as hell couldn’t have known she could do that, or they would have chosen another way to kill her. 

And now that we know Agatha could absorb magic with her touch (kiss?), since that’s what she did with Rio in the end, I think that’s probably how her power worked before the attempted execution. In fact, I headcanon that she started siphoning Evanora’s powers during childbirth, and that’s why her mother thought she was evil and wanted to kill her at birth. I think the trauma of being born triggered baby Agatha’s magic and Evanora started growing weaker and weaker as it dragged on, and she felt her magic being leeched by the child she was birthing, but because Agatha was only a baby and not really all the powerful yet, she couldn’t draw enough to kill her mother outright, only severely weaken her. 

And yes, I also imagine Lady Death was hovering in that room, waiting to see if she’d be taking Evanora Harkness or the baby, and maybe Agatha and her potential intrigued her from those first moments, so maybe she kept an interested eye on her - since Death is technically everywhere all at once. 

There are so many circumstances when a young Agatha could have had her siphoning ability triggered. Like, imagine her trying to steal a treat or something and Evanora grabbing her hand away only for Agatha to start sucking up her magic through the touch. It would have made Evanora slap her away and refuse to even touch her again, and she certainly wouldn’t have ever wanted to allow Agatha to have the knowledge of how to use her power with intent. So of course young Agatha has to go looking for knowledge on her own. I don’t believe she had the Darkhold at this time, but there are certainly other tomes of dark magic she could have gotten her hands on and started reading, trying to understand what she is and why her magic works differently than the others in her coven.

Side note - siphoning through touch would only work in small doses, since once the other witch noticed it, she’d be able to push Agatha away. I mean, Agatha didn't exactly seem skilled at hand to hand combat there, so I imagine her childhood was a series of accidents or ‘accidents’ until Agatha figured out a much better way to employ her magic stealing touch. Let’s just say, I don’t think using her lips to steal Death’s power was the first time she used that trick, and I imagine the other witch might be too pleasantly distracted to realize what was happening for quite some time. 

Maybe this is even the way she betrayed her coven and got put on trial. Both defiling the natural order by cavorting with other women and killing a fellow witch with her touch.  

Anyway, she doesn’t figure out the much easier and, more importantly, faster way to steal power until her coven tries to kill her, but once she does, she gets very good at getting witches to blast her. (I also think this is why she told Lilia the supposed trick to her siphoning - because if she couldn't immediately provoke her, she could have tried going old school with it by latching onto her until she used her magic on her to shake her off, and then she’d get what she wanted the fast way. I mean, Lilia seemed old and frail. Agatha probably though she could take her no problem.)

So, back to past Agatha, now sans coven. She undoubtedly ends up killing more witches sooner rather than later, supposedly in self defense, after she pisses them all off enough to provoke an attack, and that finally brings Lady Death fully into her orbit. There are a number of fic writers who have already imagined the ‘meet deadly’ moment, so I won’t spend much time on that because this answer is already too long with no end in sight.  Suffice to say, they spent 57 years being gay and doing crime. Agatha got more powerful and Lady Death - Rio now in her corporeal, Agatha-loving form - got her bodies and a taste of life that she'd never had before. 

I headcanon that they did (still do) love one another in their own very disturbed, ultimately unhealthy way. And I definitely think Agatha was learning so many things from Rio in relation to magic during their years together. Rio is, after all, The Green Witch, so presumably no one knows more about green craft than her. And as Lady Death, she probably knows about every magic, and Agatha would just soak in all that knowledge over their time together. She probably learned to control her siphoning abilities from Rio so there wouldn’t be any accidental draws on the ancient power that would kill her. 

I also imagine Rio’s presence might have kept the Salem Seven at bay for those earlier years.  (Were they a factor during the Nicky years? Did Rio keep them at bay then too to protect her family from a distance? Why didn't they make a move in the any of the 200 years after?)

Anyway, jump skip to Agatha’s pregnancy which was doomed from conception. If we go with the thought that Nicholas was somehow created by both of them, then he carried the essence of Death inside of him and couldn’t have existed in a mortal body, doomed by his very nature. If we go with Agatha making him herself from scratch, it might have been her own inherent magic that doomed him. Maybe it was even a combination of both. 

In either case, I imagine Rio warned Agatha what Fate would demand from the beginning if she carried the pregnancy to term - what she’d force Rio to do. (If Nicky is hers too, then his very existence is an abomination against the sacred balance.) But Agatha, with her severe mommy issues, was determined to go ahead with it and prove her mother wrong, because the rules of magic have always bent to her power. Death herself has bowed before Agatha - certainly she’d do the same again. Certainly, Agatha is powerful enough to bring her child into the world unharmed. 

Spoiler: she is not. 

But Rio does, in fact, bend the rules for her again, and grants the only thing she can - time. This is why it cuts Rio so deeply when Agatha throws all of that special treatment back in her face on the Road (that isn’t real) - why that argument de-escalates at the mention of Nicky and what really happened. Because what is more awful than the truth that Agatha had loved and been loved by Death herself and even that - even all her own power and the power she stole from other witches - couldn’t save her (their) child?

Would it ultimately have been kinder for Rio to have just taken Nicholas before he’d drawn his first breath?  Maybe. Maybe not. I don’t think there was an answer that could have saved their love at this point, but Rio did (does) love Agatha, and she went against her very nature and defied the laws she was bound by to grant her love time with her (their) son. 

And we know how that part of the story plays out, though I do share the popular headcanon that Rio was lurking around for those six years that Nicholas lived, perhaps visiting him in his sleep, because he went to her without fear or hesitation in the end. She obviously has the ability to infiltrate the mind-space - she did it with the spell Agatha was trapped in. 

That it happened when he was asleep - more importantly, when Agatha was asleep - is the thing that I think has fueled her anger and resentment of Rio all this time. Yeah, she was always going to hate Rio for taking him and be angry for a very long time, but Rio never gave her the chance to say that final goodbye, and that's what made it truly unforgivable. Rio probably thought it was better that way - a more peaceful death for Nicky - but Agatha could never be capable of understanding that. 

So Agatha immediately embarks on centuries long rage and grief spree to gain even more power using the ballad she’d written with her son, and you’d better believe she’s gleefully using those bodies to taunt her ex along the way. That’s what we see, anyway, and there were no black fingers, so she wasn’t actively using the Darkhold for that Witch's Road con she was running. (Again, when did she find that book?)

Rio clearly implies in the first episode that it’s been a long time since they’ve seen each other and that Agatha has been using the Darkhold to hide behind - essentially hiding from Death. Did she have it for fifty years? One hundred? Two hundred?  You’d think she would have gone looking for it soon after Nicky’s death, maybe hoping it would have some spell or ritual to resurrect him. But she didn’t. Or maybe she couldn’t? Maybe Nicky, being the son of Lady Death, didn’t end up in the same place as other, purely mortal souls, so whatever spell the Darkhold contained couldn’t work to draw his soul back?   

(And if anyone is interested after this long ass post, I also have a separate headcanon about Nicholas and the Afterlife that I won;t get into here.)  

I haven’t fully settled on how I think the timeline of those missing years lines up. I’m leaning toward Agatha having had the Darkhold for at least a century - long enough to make it really hurt for Rio to not be able to see or sense her, left with only bodies she knows Agatha left in her wake. 

Now, Rio. Lady Death. 

When we first meet her, she’s inserted herself into Agatha’s crime drama spell. I don’t think she was physically there at the time but projected herself into Agatha’s consciousness, and at this point it’s been either decades or centuries since she’s been able to sense her ex. First the Darkhold hid her and then Wanda’s spell - “You live here now. No one will bother you” - and as soon as both of those are gone from the multiverse, the spell begins to break. No, I do not think Billy broke it. It was already breaking before he tried his analog magic spell. At best, he sped up Agatha’s awakening. 

So Rio has been unable to confront Agatha for a very, very long time, but I believe there were confrontations before Agatha got the Darkhold and after Nicky died. I think it’s fair to assume those were violent and angry on Agatha’s side and probably sad and regretful on Rio’s. They probably hate fucked a time or two. But any mention of Nicky would have set Agatha off and sent her running, safe in her anger and hatred of Rio, so other than the blame game, I don't think they actually have a real conversation about him.

I think Rio probably tries at least once to see her and apologize and assure her that Nicky is at peace and being watched over, but that really wouldn't have be met with anything but venom.  

Agatha is the only mortal Death has ever loved and who has ever loved Death, and she doesn’t know how to let go of that. And then Agatha ghosts her metaphorically before ghosting her literally. 

But still, Rio is surprisingly patient with Agatha as Agnes, even though she very definitely made a beeline to Westview the moment Agatha’s aura came back on the map. When Agatha is finally free of the spell and confronts Herb, he says she’s been acting extra weird on her true crime kick for a few days. That implies she was just rolling along in the Nosy Neghbor Agnes persona prior to that, while Wanda was alive and the spell was still in full effect. 

I think her change in behavior should have coincided exactly with Wanda’s death, even though it doesn’t exactly jive with ‘Ralph’ knowing Wanda was dead when Billy seeks him out. That’s one of the rare plot holes in the writing of this show. Unless he just assumed Wanda was dead since she disappeared after Westview and went into hiding. 

Anyway, Rio shows up and assesses the situation her ex is in, deciding she needs to help Agatha wake up before she tears into her over the decades / centuries of ghosting her. Because what satisfaction can she get if Agatha doesn’t even remember why she hates Rio? 

Billy stumbles into the situation after Rio, so his presence can only speed up what was already started. 

And then Agatha is awake, and what we see in that first confrontation is an angry and hurt Lady Death wanting to strike back at the love of her (un)life for almost certainly stealing the Darkhold and using it to hide from her (and the Salem Seven and probably the Sorcerer Supreme and every other witch/witchhunter out for revenge) while likely also trying to the resurrect their dead son against the laws of the universe and upset the sacred balance. 

She’s saying she wants Agatha dead - which for her would also mean Agatha would be hers forever, no way to run again - but she also clearly still just wants her back in a more willing way. This first fight is very likely flirting for them, and she does want Agatha to get her purple back. She wants them back to the way they were before Nicky. It’s impossible, of course, but after 270-ish years, she’s hoping maybe Agatha has finally processed her grief enough to forgive her. 

I don’t think Billy is on Rio’s radar at this point. Maybe this is because of the sigil. Maybe it’s that William Kaplan wasn’t dead long enough to pull her to his body when Billy jumped in. Maybe it’s a combination of both. 

I do think he’s on her radar the moment the Road becomes real - or at least, the chaos magic that created it is. And since Wanda is gone, that really only leaves one possibility. 

Rio is definitely already in the neighborhood for poor Sharon. She clearly doesn't need the door they opened for her with the summoning spell to come and go from the Road, as she demonstrates when she tears through reality to leave it in episode 8. She does tell Agatha that it wasn't her choice since magic took the path of least resistance, but I interpret that to mean that their spell gave her an excuse to show herself to all of them and investigate what was going on.

When she’s acting as Death, she’s stoic and calm. With Agatha, she’s sad and angry and creepily playful - the humanity Agatha brings out of her on full display. With the others when she arrives on the Road - well, she’s exactly what Agatha accuses her of being - a tourist. She knows the Road wasn’t real before exactly as Agatha does, so her reaction to being there is exactly what you’d expect. She’s admiring the scenery, the vibe, and the magic that created it. She even says, “this is cool,” when she first starts walking it. 

I believe she knows Teen is Billy Maximoff before the sigil breaks. She asks about him as soon as she and Agatha are alone in Alice’s trial, and Agatha immediately tries to distract her with the promise of bodies. And when he ends up hurt, Rio once again makes an exception for Agatha when she begs, “Don’t.” She could have taken him then and maybe had a chance of grabbing his soul before he reincarnated because he hadn’t fully come into his powers yet in this life. But she waits because her guilt over taking Nicky is still a tangible thing, and Billy is saved, and Rio is going to lose her chance to re-balance the scales. 

She’s still hoping for Agatha’s forgiveness, and she makes her confession of Agatha being her scar, and then they share that moment in the woods. But Rio isn’t truly forgiven for Nicky, and she knows it, and she stops Agatha because she doesn’t want her misplaced gratitude for sparing Billy Maximoff.  After multiple viewings, I’m now reading - “That boy isn’t yours” - as less Rio reminding Agatha that Billy isn’t Nicholas and more warning her that Billy isn’t hers to save. He isn’t her second chance at motherhood with a powerful, magicked up son. He’s Wanda’s boy. He’s an abomination. He ultimately shouldn't exist, and his soul (and possibly William Kaplan's suppressed one) belong to Rio. 

If she was going to ignore the sacred balance for anyone, it would have been Nicholas. 

I’ve already posted about Rio’s reaction in Agatha’s trial. How the camera cuts to her after Evanora says she ought to have killed Agatha at birth. First we see Agatha, obviously, because it''s the confirmation that her mother has always thought her evil from birth, and the pain of that statement is twofold for her because she literally begged Death to spare her own child and then spent six years, presumably, trying to amass enough power to somehow save him. I think she believed that if she killed enough witches, if she collected enough of the kind of magic that she didn’t have - healing, protection, divination - she might one day figure out how either outrun Death or conjure more time for her son. 

But right after Agatha, we see Rio with that look of pain, closing her eyes and looking away, because she nearly did with Agatha’s son - with her own son - what Evanora wanted to do. She nearly took him at birth because he wasn’t meant to exist in the living world, and then she was still forced to take him eventually. Just as Agatha hasn’t forgiven her for it, Rio has never forgiven herself for what she had to do.  

And when we next see her after this episode, we see stoic Lady Death again, collecting Alice with bored indifference. Because that’s her job. Her vacation is over. The trials on this fake Road aren’t any fun anymore, and she’s done humoring Agatha with whatever con she’s trying to run this time. Because she knows Agatha could have ended all of this before it started if she’d admitted the Road was never real and Billy created it. 

Billy has come into his powers at this point, and Rio’s likely pissed at herself for letting her chance to collect him slip away thanks to her eternal soft spot for Agatha. Once again, she’s given special treatment and risked upsetting the balance for this woman.  And on top of that, Lilia easily took out the Salem Seven - bad ass of Lilla but so anticlimactic for whatever threat the Salem Seven were intended to be - so Rio's chance of finally getting Agatha over to the other side just took a nosedive. She’s not allowed to do it herself, and I’m not sure she’s yet at the point where she really wants to torture Agatha into begging her for release. If Agatha manages to finish the Road and actually gets her purple back, Rio will be chasing after her again for another century or two. 

She’s close to the end of her patience with her ex at this point. Poor Nicky is never going to see her (other) mother again. 

And then Agatha offers to deliver Billy to her, which I think Rio realizes is bullshit. I don’t think she really believes that Agatha intends to follow through without a trick, and even if she did, she doesn't believe Agatha will actually be able to convince Billy to give himself over to Death. But Rio plays along, wondering what Agatha wants from her this time. Maybe she even thinks Agatha will want to trade him for Nicky - one abomination for another. Maybe Rio actually hopes it would be this because it would give her a loophole to finally say yes. Maybe the prophesied demiurge would be more than an equal trade for the son of Death alive in the world again.

And incidentally, I do find it hilarious that Agatha’s condition is for Rio to stop following her - like, you’ve spent 300 years killing witches. It’s impossible for Death to do anything else but follow you.  But it’s the part about not wanting to see her face when Agatha eventually does die that finally breaks Rio. I mean, that was basically the whole point of wanting Agatha dead now - a way for them to be together with their son. 

It guts Rio, and you can see it in her expression. 

And I believe Agatha fully expected her to refuse - to tell her that it wasn’t possible. All roads lead to (Lady) Death, after all. She’s the inevtiable end of all things, and she hates ghosts. There’s no way for Agatha to avoid her. The best she could do is greet her in her true form and let Rio Vidal die. 

But for Rio, this isn’t just a rejection of her. It’s also a rejection of everything about their shared past. A rejection of Nicholas. If Rio can’t take her soul to the Afterlife, then she can’t take her to Nicholas either. Is Agatha really that much of a coward? (The answer, of course, is yes.) So she reluctantly agrees, heartbroken, but she also expects that Agatha won’t be able to keep her end of that deal, so she won’t need to keep hers. 

It’s kind of a stalemate where they both think - shit, what the fuck did I just agree to?

It’s ironic really. To some degree, I think Agatha finally comes to some acceptance of Nicky’s death in that final trial. "Sometimes, boys die." "From death, life."  

At the same time, this is when Rio fully snaps. She’s stewing over this whole Witches Road deal and Agatha's final rejection, and frankly, fully aware that Agatha just helped Billy create another abomination, messing even more with the rightful balance of things. 

Yeah, Rio has been angry with Agatha, but also guilty and hurt and lovesick, so it’s tempered her somewhat. She’s been the antagonistic kind of angry where Agatha could easily assuage her, but now, with Agatha’s last rejection of everything about their shared past and helping that kid disrupt her domain even more, she embraces her rage in a way she hasn’t allowed herself up to this point. The human emotions that Agatha sparked in Rio take over all her reason and balance and duty, and she lashes out.  The rejected lover, finally allowed to indulge the anger and grief that Agatha spent two centuries indulging with her own rampage. 

I know we didn’t get to see the magical battle due to budget restraints, and honestly, I’m only a little disappointed by that. The Wanda/Agatha one wasn’t exactly spectacular with the boring energy blasts. But we get enough of it to see that Rio never hits Agatha with her full power. She isn’t trying to kill her here; she only wants to hurt her - vent her own rage and heartbreak. They’re even back to their weird kind of flirting halfway through it, but then Billy gets involved again, and oh yeah, the kid is still here. Something has to be done about him, because Rio can’t ignore her duty forever, and Agatha knows she can’t defeat Death. 

So finally, we get that moment, when Agatha looks like she’s getting what she wanted and Billy is willingly surrendering himself, and she could walk away with a nice charge from his power and the promise to never have to see Rio again. 

It’s my understanding that Billy’s mental plea wasn’t originally in the script, and I actually wish they’d left it out. I don’t actually think that his mention of Nicky in that moment would have changed her mind anyway. I think it would have probably had the opposite effect since she’s always reacted badly to the mention of him except when Rio brought him up in that last conversation on the Road.

But, in the context we got, that isn’t how Nicky died. He’d been stolen away in the night after Rio had granted him six more years than he should have ever had. Agatha would have never traded his life for hers. She would have traded hers for him in a heartbeat.  So yeah, I get why that was added, but I don’t fully think it was necessary. Agatha was always going to realize that leaving Billy with Rio was the wrong thing, and she was crossing the one meager moral line she had - hurting children. And this one, specifically, reminds her too much of her lost son. 

She puts a hand to her chest before she turns, right where we know her broach always sat. I’ve watched that scene a few times, and I noticed that we can’t see her broach on her costume for maybe the only time since she broke out of Wanda’s spell. But it’s obviously there somewhere because it’s the one thing left behind when Rio speed runs her decomposition - yet another bit of special treatment in allowing it to remain as a means of tying her spirit to the mortal realm. 

And yeah, like Agatha said, it was a calculated risk. I don’t think Rio has ever outright lied to her or broken a deal, and Agatha technically upheld her end of their bargain but also very much didn’t, but Rio does slightly change the terms of the bargain before that last battle, such as it is. She gives them both the choice - “One of you is coming with me.”  

And yet, she hesitates to take Billy as soon as he offers himself. Because taking him means losing Agatha forever, and despite her anger, she isn’t fully ready to do that. In the end, her hesitation gives Agatha the time to change the terms. She gives Rio what she’s claimed to want from the beginning - Agatha’s death. 

Agatha gives herself to Rio in a way that speaks of both acceptance and forgiveness. And maybe, it’s also forcing the bargain that Rio never gave her the chance to make for Nicky. Her life for his. 

And Rio keeps their bargain about seeing her face again anyway, because I think she knows that she’s finally been forgiven, but Agatha still isn’t ready to face Nicky. She doesn’t collect Agatha’s soul and even allows that broach to stay behind for Billy to take. I think Rio knows full well she just allowed Agatha to remain as a ghost, but she lets her go. She finally lets Agatha go and lets herself grieve their lost love. 

She lets Rio Vidal die with Agatha and reclaims her eternal role as Lady Death. 

And now her sacred balance is shot to hell, because she’s got not one, but two, abominations roaming around in bodies that don’t belong to them, and one stubborn, ornery ghost who she knows damn well is going to meddle in all of that chaos magic.  

And, I think, she also hopes that maybe one day, Agatha will be ready to cross over and see Nicholas again - maybe even see her again - but, it’s all in Agatha’s power now. 

Like Rio said in the very first episode - “If you want to be in control, you can be.”  And it speaks volumes that Rio has honored that at every turn.

Now she just has to explain to Nicholas how she let his mama slip through her fingers again and stick around to mentor that Maximoff boy.

[fangirlingfromdownunder]

Easter Imagine - Jensen Ackles x Reader

Summary - Easter in the Ackles household

Pairing - Jensen Ackles x Reader

Warnings - None - this is pure fluff

Masterlist

A/N - G’day guys, Happy Easter! I just wanted to put out a quick little imagine for you guys for this holiday weekend. Side note: As much as I adore the Ackles family, this work of fiction has the reader as his wife and I have renamed their kids because the way I see it JJ, Arrow and Zeppelin only exist in a world with Jenneel. 

You’re woken up bright and early by your three-year-old daughter jumping on you and shouting excitedly. “Mama! Dada! The Easter Bunny come! I saw paw prints! And Eggs!”

Your sleepy husband sits up beside you wiping his eyes, “Careful, Bubba, you can’t jump on mummy at the moment remember.”

She quickly hops over onto Jensen’s lap, “Sorry, mama, I just excited!”

“I know, sweetie, it’s alright. You just have to be careful. So, what was that about an Easter Bunny and eggs?”

“Come on! Come on! Come on! I show you!” Lilliana yells pulling at her dad’s hands. 

Jensen gets up letting her believe she’s pulling him with her little muscles. You follow behind as quickly as you can while seven months pregnant. The joy of your three-year-old is contagious, you can’t help but smile despite how tired you are. Even the baby starts kicking as you follow Lilliana down the hall in the direction of the white powdery paw prints. 

“Dada! Can’t reach! Egg!”

“Where, Lily?” Jensen asks kneeling down to her height.

“On the shelf!”

Feigning surprise, he picks her up so she can reach the first egg. 

“Yummy! Is that for mummy?” you say, teasing. She frowns and then holds it out for you. “Aww baby, thank you, but I think the Easter Bunny left it for you.”

“I can share.”

You lean over and hug your little girl while giving Jensen a loving look over her shoulder. “Thank you, sweetie, that’s very kind of you.”

“Can we look for more?”

“Of course! Maybe you should look for a basket to carry them in,” Jensen says as he places her down.

She immediately runs downstairs ahead of us in search of the basket and more eggs. Jensen wraps his arms around you enjoying your quick moment of solitude before Lily inevitably calls for help and company. “We made a good one,” you say.

“Yep, and soon we’ll have another one.”

“Thank you for handling all this last night by the way, I just didn’t have the energy. I still won’t be able to keep up with her this morning. You mind helping her while I cook us some breakfast?”

“I love being able to do this sort of thing when I’m home. You never have to thank me for being a husband or dad, I’m just sorry I’m not able to do it more often.”

“You’re here as often as you can be. She doesn’t fully understand it yet, but we really appreciate everything you do for this family.”

Jensen pulls you in for a sweet kiss before you’re interrupted by yelling from downstairs. “Mama! Dada! Come see!”

You both laugh as you pull away, Jensen steals one more quick kiss from you before taking your hand and leading you downstairs in the direction of Lily’s yelling.

“What is it, sweetie?” you call out as you see her at the bar with a bright easter basket filled with a little chocolate bunny and a note. You also note the empty glass and bottle of whisky on the other bench.

“What’s it say, dada?” she asks handing Jensen the note.

“It says: Dear Lilliana, I’ve been here today. And since you’ve been such a good girl, I’ve dropped some colourful eggs along the way. So keep your eyes peeled and give it a whirl. Happy hunting, from the Easter Bunny!”

“Dada, help me look?”

“Of course, Bubba.”

“Mama help too?”

“Why doesn’t daddy just help you and I’ll cook us some yummy choc chip pancakes so we can have some breakfast when you’ve found all the eggs?”

“I love choc chip pancakes! Thank you mama! Come on, daddy!”

You giggle as Lily grabs her basket in one hand and Jensen���s hand in the other dragging him off to search for chocolate eggs. You head to the kitchen and start making the pancakes. You watch your husband and daughter giggling and looking high and low collecting eggs as you mix the batter. You love when Jensen gets to enjoy these moments with her; he spends so much of the year traveling or filming and you know how much he misses out on and how much it affects him. 

You finish serving up the pancakes and coffee (and apple juice for Lily) just in time for Lily and Jensen to return with a basket full of chocolate eggs. 

“Look at all the eggs, mama! I found so many!”

“Wow! That’s a lot of eggs! You must’ve worked up an appetite, ready for some pancakes?”

“Yes, please!”

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

After breakfast you all spend the rest of the day watching Easter-themed cartoons and sharing chocolate eggs. 

Around 5pm you start getting ready to head over to the Padalecki’s for a shared BBQ dinner. Once you get there Lily runs straight over to the boys to tell them all about her egg hunt and haul. You join Gen in the kitchen while Jensen goes outside with the kids to help Jared with the grill. As you walk in, Gen pours you a glass of non-alcoholic wine and then tops up her own glass. 

“How was Easter at your place?” Gen asks.

“Fun, I’m glad Jensen’s here to help out. I would’ve really struggled to make it special for Lily without his help.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean. Growing life really takes it out of you.”

“Hey, you’re only a couple of months in. Wait till you’re carrying around a basketball and it kicks you all day long.”

“I remember…not looking forward to the third trimester – well I am, but you know what I mean.”

“I do. You need help with anything in here or shall we join the gang outside?”

“I think it’s all handled. The kids set the table before you got here.”

You grab your glasses and join everyone outside. The smell of sizzling steaks fills your nose while the happy laughter from the kids fills your ears. You take a seat and watch the sunset as the kids chase each other around the yard. You couldn’t have asked for a better day with your growing family. 

[scribe-cas]

You can't just drop that you have an absolutely unhinged fact and not share it. So give up the weird fact, do eet.

.

.

EVERY WRITER HAS AT LEAST ONE. THIS IS COMMON KNOWLEDGE.

Okay fine I will give in

Okay, so.

I think my weirdest fact, just off the top of my head-

Has to be probably that the wendigo species lactates regularly. Like, with no prompting, pregnant or not. A tie between that and the fact that angels do not have genitalia, but instead, a small star system between their legs.

The wendigo one is weirder so that’s the one I’ll elaborate on.

Okay so

The reason for this is because at one point, some of the species were not given the option to go out and hunt fully grown humans. They were aggressive, harder to catch, and more willing to burn things down to be rid of any monsters.

However, murdering a child (while usually considered bad form anyways) while far easier to do, because you could simply go in, pick up this barely sentient being, and then get rid of it as long as it didn’t start screaming, didn’t provide them with nearly enough food to last off of, and the entire species of demon was slowly dwindling and dying out because of that.

So certain wendigos (there’s not a defining factor yet, although I’m thinking it’s those who were afab?) just somewhat regularly produce milk, because evolution’s solution to this was:

If you can’t kill the adults, but the children don’t give you enough meat-

Steal away a child, and then raise it to become an adult.

They, as wendigos, could essentially raise us like livestock.

And for a while, that was exactly what they did. Like as a species, collectively.

Now, things are a little different, as while we do have much more advanced weapons, we aren’t exactly using fire to light our homes and we definitely aren’t going to throw a lantern into one of our massive industrial sized buildings, because god forbid we have to build that shit again- we just won’t do it, we’ll go get a gun or something. Therefore, adults have become easier to hunt again, especially what with all of the cameras and gadgets that we now use to watch our children with- we have baby cams and the doorbells that let us see what’s at our door and household security systems- it is way easier to run face first into a car and just have an adult go missing than it is to actively scrounge up a child unless they’ve got particularly neglectful parents.

But, the milk gene never went away or dwindled off. It usually stays somewhat out of the way, but often flares up when a wendigo is under times of duress and stress.

Wendigo milk, designed to produce humans good for food, is actually massively full of nutritional value, increases our capacity to build muscle mass, assists our digestive system, and usually tastes vaguely sweet to encourage drinking. (Although the flavor from wendigo to wendigo is different, it’s really neat)

Most wendigos don’t struggle with this as much, but the more time you spend on earth/around humans, the more actively their systems think they need it. Usually, this isn’t an issue- but for some demons who choose to spend the majority of their time on earth, it can get uncomfortable if there’s no pressure release, but usually a nursing pump does the trick to minimize discomfort. You just then have. Milk lying around

This, shockingly enough, ties into multiple plot points of mine- none of which are important to the main story, technically? It doesn’t change anything drastically other than kinda one main detail and then a few background details. But I think its funny because it’s essentially an Easter egg for my friends and I, because all of them know this fact from when I was originally working on the series.

Anyways if you’d like more elaboration I am happy to give it, but for now I will put a cap on my rambling so that you can digest this unhinged mess first. /lh

Hopefully you don’t hate me for this, if you do, I’m sorry LMFAO I know my characters to a near uncomfortable level

[phanfictioncatalogue]

Fics With No Angst Or Trigger Warnings Masterlist

Links Last Checked: June 14th, 2023

Birds Of A Feather Steal Together (ao3) - WritingCactus

Summary: Dan never expected anything remotely interesting to happen during his summer job at a petting zoo. But when he catches a boy with bright blue eyes and a cute laugh trying to smuggle a bunch of ducklings out of the farm, things take a much more interesting turn...

Bluebells - botanistlester

Summary: Dan just really wants to put flowers in Phil’s hair.

Cupcakes And A Child’s Love - wavydanrises

Summary: Dan is working at the bakery “The Cake Whisperer” when a man and his child come into his life. All it took was a spiderman cupcake.

Easter Sunday - cafephan

Summary: Rather than planning a flashy day out for Easter, Dan and Phil decide to put on an egg hunt for their daughter at home.

Even A Vegan With A Cold, Dead Heart Ships It (aka Paul) - ticklishhpickle

Summary: Phil and his sassy Christmas elf boyfriend couldn't be happier they're together, and neither could Santa. Phil's cynical roommate, Paul needs a little more time to warm up to Dan however.

First Dates (ao3) - thatsthephan

Summary: The thought of the lads and their friends playing this game is too funny not to write about it.

give me toothaches just from kissin’ me (ao3) - robertmontauk

Summary: “Hey- sorry to bother you, but is it okay if I sit here?”

Dan didn’t bother looking up from the chemistry textbook splayed in front of them, choosing instead to grab a piece of paper on the table and study it intensely. “Not interested,” they muttered with a quirk of their lips and a short head shake.

A pause, and then - “Oh. I mean? I-I didn’t think you were? But, uh, I’ll just. Find another place to sit, I guess. That’s-that’s fine.”

(alternatively: assumptions are dumb and love is dumber)

Joined At The Hip (ao3) - TheDalmatian

Summary: Dan and Phil are secretly aliens from another planet and they came down and they have to stay together because they're symbiotes and they have to live off of each other.

Jokes, Costumes, And Taxi Fares - placingglaciers

Summary: In which all his coworkers just adore Phil and Dan can’t see why they do. Until, of course, he figures it out.

Just Like Heaven (ao3) - Allthephils

Summary: Dan is a barista and Phil is the best part of his job.

Love Scenario - botanistlester

Summary: When Phil first saw him in the spring, he thought he looked like bubblegum.

Plant Boy (ao3) - Emejig16

Summary: Phil has always loved plants and flowers, and he’d never thought he’d be able to fully share his passion with someone who truly understood it.

Stegosaur-us - melancholymango

Summary: “We’re staying in conjoining rooms at a hotel, which is fine, but it turns out the lock on my side is broken so your kid keeps coming in here to talk about dinosaurs. You keep apologizing but honestly I like dinosaurs so this might work out after all” AU

Tech Yes, Juliet - winkinglester

Summary: In which Dan’s a tech major and Phil’s an english major at the college they both attend, but those majors are in a school-wide “feud”, so the star crossed lover computer nerd dan makes a website to talk to Phil.

The Great Dan and Phil Camping Trip™ (ao3) - orphan_account

Summary: It started with the four of them, Dan, Phil, Martyn, and Cornelia. It started with a rare weekend off and a rented cabin and bad romcoms and getting drunk on clear skies and fresh air and maybe just a bit of alcohol. It started with an offhand comment towards the famously-introverted couple, “You’d never survive a night outside.” And, of course, it was taken as a challenge.

(Dan and Phil go camping)

Unrelated Conversations of a Domestic Nature (ao3) - dizzy

Summary: Unremarkable conversations that take place in the daily lives of Dan and Phil.

Valley (ao3) - Misha_with_wings

Summary: Dan and Phil definitely weren’t outdoorsy people, but the one time they decide to go hiking their lives change forever.

Or- they go hiking and find an abandoned dog and Phil begs Dan to keep it.

Waffles (ao3) - kae_karo

Summary: Phil goes to the 24hr diner with the hopes of seeing his favorite waiter (insp by me seeing a cute waitress at a diner. unfortunately none of the rest actually happened to me lmao)

Warning: Extreme Fluff (ao3) - Do_it_with_the_Howell_Lesters

Summary: A very short snapshot of morning cuddles at the end of Dan and Phil’s honeymoon. Extremely fluffy, you have been warned.

Window Of Opportunity (ao3) - pasteldanhowells

Summary: Dan goes to Starbucks everyday and sits in the same spot. Not even the cold weather can stop his everyday routine. One day, Dan decides to write on the window out of boredom. The next day, he’s surprised to find a reply by a stranger.

[babybluebanshee]

The Bad Guys playlists

So I found out that there are official playlists for each member of the Bad Guys

But not for Diane and that’s intensely disappointing

And I just wanna mention how obvious it is that the crew, like, paid such close attention to detail and put such care into a silly little supplemental thing that they definitely did not get paid extra to do. Like, they could have taken the lazy route; I was fully expecting to see Hungry Like the Wolf in Wolf’s playlist, for example. Just a bunch of songs that had references to animals or something.

But the songs are so...in-character. They’re all pretty well in the same genre, or have a similar feel. And yeah, there songs like The Big Bad Wolf by The Heavy for Wolf and Crawling Kingsnake by The Black Keys for Snake...but they still somehow fit.

Wolf’s playlist is full of dancey, bass-heavy stuff, lots of brass. The kind of stuff you’d expect to hear in a high-speed car chase or a suiting up montage in a heist movie. He totally blasts this shit when he’s taking an hour to get ready in the bathroom every morning, occasionally singing into his hairbrush.

Snake’s playlist is a dad playlist - blues, old rock, jazz, funk. I listen to it and feel like I’m back in my dad’s shitty red Buick. It’s also a very fun little Easter egg that his playlist is very guitar-heavy. He definitely plays this sort of stuff early in the morning, quietly singing along as he prepares his first cup of coffee-flavored sugar sludge.

Webs’ playlist screams hacker, full of techno, dance music, and hip hop, almost exclusively female artists singing about how badass they are. The kind of music you hear at a club, another cheeky little nod to her DJing skills. She pumps this through her headphones while she plays Minecraft whiles away the hours coding, to the point where the others are legitimately concerned for her hearing.

Shark has a playlist of vibes, another danceable playlist with lots of funk and hip hop. The difference for Shark is that a lot of his songs are less about being a badass or getting ready for a heist, and just...about chillin. They’re feel-good songs. This is his fashion show playlist, what he listens to when he’s testing out new disguises. And there’s of course a song from the Jaws score because these nerds can’t help themselves.

Piranha’s playlist is an inspo playlist. Obviously, there’s lots of Mexican pop and dance music, because that’s what he loves to sing along to. When Piranha gets the aux, he’s having a soulful concert in his seat, just letting the music flow through him and having a hell of a good time.

It just really tickles me when a movie crew cares so much about their creation that they put this much time and attention to detail into something so small, okay?

[elriell]

Some jumbled up thoughts about Elain, Lucien and Azriel + Mating Bonds

There have been a lot of conversations regarding this topic and I thought I’d flesh it out a bit myself, but these are facts/observations that as a fandom many have noticed, discussed, analysed. I just wanted to dive in myself fully.

I want to talk about each of them individually as well as, as a whole. Their emotions and mindsets, as someone who loves all three characters and wishes for all of them to get a happy ending. I will preface this with saying I will be discussing why it is very likely Elain will reject the bond and such things, so along the lines of Anti-Elucien. If you are a fan of them, thats cool, just skip this one if you happen upon it. 

We are going to dive in to the following;

Lucien & Elain  (their choices)

Lucien & Azriel  (contrast)

Rejecting the Bond

New Bonds

Fate & THE POV 

and why the writing is basically telling us everything we need to know...

Lucien 

Lucien is noble male, he has a good heart and has suffered his plenty, and this is why people want what is best for him, to be the happiest he can... Unfortunately I think that in this case Elain is not it. 

He is right to feel that way, just as Elain has a right to feel as she does. I think it is incredibly interesting that when we finally see from his POV we see that in a way he feels as though this has been thrust on them. 

That with his last love he had a choice and so did she.

It reminds me very much of this line about Rhysand’s parents, who were an example of an unhappy mating bond.

We will deep dive in to wrong matches further down, but the fact is that mated couples are not always indicators of true paired souls, that they very well could be the couple that do not end up happy together.

I speak on Elain and her agency a lot because I feel like a large portion of the fandom like to discard it as if it means nothing, and even judge her for it but if we actually take a look at Lucien’s behaviour he is not all that more happy.

There are some key differences between them though, Lucien as a male feels their bond to a different degree than she does, and he also has been raised to believe and respect the bond. And thus he feels a certain obligation to honour it in the best way he can. 

This doesn’t mean he thinks she is right for him, any further than his attraction to her (which like same dude same), he hasn’t displayed any signs that they actually aline as a couple. And I feel like SJM clearly highlights this when she sets examples of his gifts not being... well right for her. 

The gloves we know she never wears show us how little they know each other as she loves to get dirty [which Feyre had told him] and the pearl necklace is then contrasted by Azriels which was very personalised to Elain. 

(The rose, the secret beauty of it hitting the light etc...)

These are all deliberate moves by Sarah to showcase their misaligned bond.

And during Elain’s section I will also be pointing out some Lucien moments that really don’t read well for him. I genuinely believe he is much happier amongst the Band of Exhiles than he is when he is seen with The Inner Circus.

Elain

Here is the thing, this situation isn’t any easier on him that’s true but people need to respect Elains feelings, and the fact is she does not like him. Not only does she not like him but she shrinks in on herself, she looses all the progress and confidence she has made since the Cauldron. That is not a good sign of anything healthy.

If this is suppose to be a romance we root for why is she doing everything in her power to make it seem the opposite? If she genuinely was playing the long game she would have at least started to make them comfortable around each other, goodness they don’t even have to talk, but she does the opposite.

She emphasises that he brings out the bad in her. Again, no bueno. She quite simply does not want to be around him and with SJM’s writing I think this is highly deliberate on her part. 

[And let’s be clear there are countless quotes from the other books that do NOT reflect well on their relationship but I am trying to stick to ACOSF, as it is her most recent work, otherwise I would be here all day.] 

Rejecting the Bond

We have almost a two page discussion on why mating bonds are not an exact science, and that they can be more harmful than good. We are given two examples of it, with both Rhys’ and Tamlin’s parents. And then we get a very subtle hit at Azriel. This is all in the book Sarah said she began planting the seeds for the sisters journeys.

We also know from this there is a choice. But that many force it, because they feel it it right, (much like Lucien is probably doing right now, because he feels a duty and hope that it will work out.)  

Then we have the fact thrown at us that a lot of males believe that their mate belongs to them and will challenge the other male, which we now have a call back to with Rhys’ mentioning “The Blood Duel”. 

There is literally not one reason Sarah would put this in TWICE only for it never to happen or come close too happening. How anyone can question at this point that Elriel will happen is confusing to me, she has laid all the groundwork for it.

Now I don’t believe for a second that Lucien wouldn’t respect her choice, I think it will most certainly come down to Beron forcing his hand to wage the war we know he wants.

I think despite what Rhys said in Azriel’s POV under immense stress, TNC will protect Elain and ultimately stand by her decision. 

Not only does ACOSF spend a great deal of time creating a further divide between Elain & Lucien it also add a shockingly large quantity of easter eggs about “Elain choosing bonds” “Other Mate” “What if it chose wrong?” and again in this book like in ACOMAF we bring back up a failed mated pair to remind you of it’s existence.

All possible signs lean towards them breaking the bond.

And frankly from a storytelling perspective having three perfect bonds that are basically the same overarching love story (enemies to lovers) is boring, she would want to shake it up and throw a little curveball.

Lucien + Azriel  &  Why I think Azriel will have a bond with Elain.

“If anyone can sense if something is amiss, it’s a mate” And low and behold it is Azriel who figures out what was going on with her. Not to mention in the reveal SJM further displays that Lucien has no clue what was going on with her.

I don’t know what bridge holds their bond but I wouldn’t trust crossing it personally... :/

Further still, Lucien cannot hear her heart. Their bond is definitely not strong but you could also argue that is not an element of the bond at all but rather of her abilities perhaps. Since we know she could hear the sea too though it was nowhere close by.

But Azriel did hear her, he did pay attention and he figured out what was amiss. 

It is interesting to me that people took such issue with this when I believe very few have issues with Rhys or Cassian fighting for their respective partners. Now I have gone in to it in depth about how I think that this was pure emotion and illogical on Azriel’s part, and I don’t believe he would kill Lucien so carelessly.

I think it speaks to the same blind emotion a lot of them have displayed for their mates, Lucien may have wanted to see if she was worth it but Azriel knows she is worth the fight.

And for all intensive purposes in that moment he was willing to fight for someone he believes shares his feelings.

Now let’s tackle the whole “Possessive” crap.

First of all, all of the male pairings in this series have shown moments like this, so if it is bothering you here why isn’t it bothering you at other points?

Lucien has been just as instinctively possessive from their bond, and let me clarify, I am not shaming him for that anymore than anyone else. What I am pointing out is the double standard, if anything Azriel has more reason to feel like he can fight for her because she has actually shown him care, interest and attraction. 

They have actually bonded a lot more than she has with Lucien thus far.

And if they truly do have an upcoming bond then judging him on three paragraphs when we don’t know what the heck is going on is just ridiculous.

On the same note of that scene, let’s talk about “deserve”

First of all he never said he deserved her, Rhys implied that is what he was gleaning from the conversation and that it is just lust, which we know is not the case. Clearly Rhys perception is not accurate at all so to take his statement at face value and call it fact is a bit disingenuous.

Azriel wasn’t claiming he deserves her, did you read his POV at all?? He didn’t even feel like his hands should touch her let alone deserve her. Please go back and read that chapter again if you can’t see that.

Not to mention I think that the idea of FATE, and believing in hope even when the odds are stacked against you (AKA her having a mate) is actually very consistent with SJM storytelling and Az. Remember this;

The fact that he is hopeful despite the despair of his situation is exactly what people have valued about him. Not to mention after Rhys says this to Azriel he says to them;

So Rhys too believes they were brought in his family for a reason, some sort of fate.

Amren too thinks they are blessed by fate. Why is it so shocking and offensive that Azriel have a little hope that there is a reason they came in to their lives? Because he isn’t with your fav?

Let’s be honest he didn’t exactly get over Mor in ACOMAF, ACOWAR and then even ACOFAS there are slight moments, thats over a long period. Three sisters didn’t just arrive and he went TAG “I want one.”

No, he genuinely grew to care for Elain, and let go of his past, and in watching Elain not find any connection with her mate he saw it as a sign that the Cauldron was wrong, which we know it can be. 

I don’t know if people are selective readers but if you think that he doesn’t care for her as a person beyond being a “sister” I don’t know what to tell you, we are not reading the same books.

ANYWAYS back on topic.

I think Sarah has laid a lot of groundwork for her breaking the bond and perhaps choosing a new one. I know not everyone is keen on another bond as they feel her free will and choice is enough, that’s fair and I agree to a point. 

I just wanted to analyse the data at hand, and I do believe after ACOSF (I never thought it prior really) that they are mates in some capacity, whether that is because of the Cauldron or something that will occur... I think she has laid enough groundwork for them being Soulmates at the least. Hence why I love the idea of a Carranam bond.

There are so many parallels between Rhys, Cassian & Az that could be taken as little signs but honestly this is long enough I am sure you all want to kill me already for making you read all that hahaha 

One last little morsel, it very well might be nothing but Az shouting after they take Elain is an interesting choice, it’s ambiguous enough that you can take it to mean the pain but it could also be another little crumb.

Basically with all said and done I think she will give Elain her agency back and break it.

And potentially something will occur with Azriel as a result but thats certainly more grey than the rest of it.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk!

Obviously, to each their own opinion, have fun and ship whatever you want these are just my thoughts on the text at hand!

(Also I am sorry I got like 20+ messages to get to in my inbox, yeah I kinda ignored everyone and worked on this today, sorry!!! I’ll be back tomorrow)

[patchesthegothictramp]

Feather Seeker and the Okinawa Jail

So anyone who’s been talking to me knows Feather Seeker is a game that’s perked my interest from the get-go, and I’ve been thinking of talking about it for a while. Now that I’ve been able to replay Royal and play Strikers, some other things have come out in the meantime and I’ve been paying more attention to additional media, I want to make a meta post about Feather Seeker, the Okinawa jail from Strikers and it’s connection to Akechi specifically. Be warned, this ended up being a very long post.

Let’s start with just getting a few questions out of the way:

Isn’t it just a mini game made to raise your stats?

Yes, absolutely, it’s optional and honestly if you don’t care for playing the video games it’s easy to miss. I don’t think it was honestly intended to be some massive breakthrough on a character’s backstory but rather an Easter egg that gets you to think about it.

It’s just about Neo-Featherman, there’s references to it in all persona games, so why is this one different?

It’s not different. There’s been plenty of times when Easter eggs have led to something bigger in this game, even specifically featherman ones. There’s an episode of Featherman that describes exactly what happens in the 3rd semester, where a character loves another so strongly it brings them back to life. Now whether you want to apply that to Futaba and her mum, Ren and Akechi or whoever it still fits- there’s an entire semester where at least one character loves another one and wishes them back to life through Maruki’s power. So having another piece of media, like the Feather Seeker game, be another allusion to something else isn’t entirely unjustified.

Feather Seeker is just detailed cos it’s about Featherman, why are you comparing it to other games?

See, here’s the thing and why I needed a second playthrough to make sure I was right about it. Feather Seeker is the odd one out. All of the games have some kind of plot or something going on (except for Golf sim but y’know... it’s a golf sim), but they’re all very, very basic things. Train of Life is just board game with very simple characters, the Goemon game has you just walking through hell but doesn’t really go more in depth with characterisation. Whereas you find out so much about what’s going on with Gray Pigeon and Osagiri in Feather Seeker that it feels a little… weird to simply ignore it. Do I think that the simplest answer, that they just wanted some plot in there for fun, is the right answer? Honestly I think that’s highly likely. But it’s the boring explanation too, it’s easy enough to just write any kind of intrigue like that, so whether what I’m writing about was intentional or not, I still want to discuss Feather Seeker and see people’s own thoughts on the possibility that it could be more than just a basic game.

So with that out of the way… let’s get into it.

First, there’s establishing who’s who. I can pretty confidently say that Gray Pigeon is Akechi in this entire metaphor. This one is the most obvious for multiple reasons, first of which being that it’s the exact same costume Akechi gets in the featherman outfits DLC so there’s the direct correlation there. Beyond that, Gray Pigeon is a character who awakens to a new power and wants to become a hero of justice, just like the feathermen, the hero’s he’s heard about before. Ring any bells?

Also the final revelation of Feather Seeker is that actually the Feathermen see Gray Pigeon as their enemy, who ends up sacrificing himself so they can keep fighting.

Which brings me to discussing who Osagiri and the Feathermen are. Given the timeline presented, I don’t think it’s possible for them to be one specific character or even group of characters. I think these aren’t supposed to be characters, but rather the major influences in Akechi’s life. Osagiri is a scientist (possibly Wakaba, I’ll get into that later), but also the one who pushes him to do bad things. Osagiri starts by training Gray Pigeon to become one of the Feathermen, the good guys, but eventually ends up manipulating Gray Pigeon into trying to kill them. Osaigir at the bare minimum has to be two people- the cognitive scientists who were able to uncover more thanks to Akechi’s escapades in the metaverse and the people who pushed him to commit crimes- the conspiracy.

The Feathermen, at the end of the game, have to be the Phantom Thieves- they’re the ones Gray Pigeon/Akechi ends up sacrificing himself to save but… that can’t be possible. Gray Pigeon’s journey starts with him gaining a new power and wanting to use it for good like the Feathermen do and of course the Phantom Thieves weren’t an inspiration for Akechi to do what he did. I think then the Feathermen are what Akechi aspired to be- the heroes of justice who fought the bad guys.

I can’t lead myself to believe that at 15, Akechi thought of this overly convoluted plan where he would help Shido to become prime minister only to then ruin him, there’s way too many factors in this that could change. I think originally Akechi wanted to avenge what happened to him and his mother, make sure that the man who wronged him would face justice. That’s what the Feathermen would do, right? They fight bad guys. Translating it from Feather Seeker, Akechi was angry, furious even and that rebellion woke hm up to Robin Hood, the embodiment of justice for him.

There’s plenty things that point to Robin Hood being first, his placement when Akechi awakens to Hereward on 2/2 being in the same spot as everyone else’s, the fact that for all of the other Thieves their third tier personas are different versions of their initials personas and that applies to Hereward/Robin Hood and that the trend of initial/second awakening personas is that the first is a fictional who was considered a criminal (Robin Hood) and the second is described in game as a ‘mythological trickster’ (Loki).

Here is where I want to get to the Okinawa jail and why I didn’t post this theory/metapost sooner.

I mentioned earlier that Osagiri could have been in some part Wakaba, Futaba’s mother, and when I initially wrote this I didn’t have all that much to go off of. There’s concept art in the original p5 artbook of Wakaba experimenting on someone. There’s no context given and it’s sort of the odd-one-out. Of course, human subjects would have been necessary to study the cognitive world but this research is so under wraps it seems it’s almost impossible to get. There’s no military connotations anywhere so why is it such a secret? Well, illegal human experimentation would certainly be a good reason to keep this away from the public. They must have figured out somehow that killing a shadow can cause a lot of damage, even death, to a person, we know that from the research notes, but Wakaba was a scientist, working in a lab, she must’ve done experiments that weren’t entirely legal.

Here I wasn’t sure because accusing Wakaba or anyone of illegal human experimentation was a pretty big reach but the Okinawa jail in Strikers shows us that illegal human experimentation is something that was used for cognitive research. I don’t think that Akechi was experimented on there or that was where Wakaba worked, there’s no indication of it but… Konoe and Owada seemed to build on the work that Shido and his scientists began. That being said, I think the Okinawa lab is a continuation of that human experimentation, with whatever lab Wakaba worked in being its predecessor before Shido probably shut it down to prevent it from ever being discovered. Which is also why he had Wakaba killed- the research was only meant for him and no one else.

Beyond what we see in Feather Seeker of Osagiri/sometimes Wakaba experimenting on Gray Pigeon/Akechi, we’re also told (albeit this is of course biased information), that he only targeted people he deemed deserved it but… Wakaba is the odd one out here for the most part. Okumura was hardly a good person and the principal decided covered for a sexual abuser, most of the others were survivors except for accidents which are mostly uncontrollable and unpredictable. Wakaba however, like Kobayakawa and Okumura, were targets that were supposed to die, Akechi intended to kill them. How then was Wakaba a bad person? Illegal human experimentation would explain that, especially if it was done on Akechi himself.

So then, Akechi was experimented on by Wakaba. I don’t think he was fully informed about what he was doing either. Gray Pigeon certainly wasn’t. Akechi was still trying to be a good person, using his power for his own vengeance yeah but I don’t think murdering random people was part of his initial plan at all. I think that Feather Seeker also emphasises just how little he knew about what his actions were doing. How would he know what his effects of shadows are on the real world? He could only know that from the scientists, from Shido. Of course he did find out, eventually, and that rage he must have felt about being used and lied to gave him the power to awaken to Loki, as Futaba puts it, the representation of his anger. It’s only then that he forms his plan, to get back at Shido for all of this, not just him abandoning him and his mother but for using him for his own means as well.

And we know how the rest of the story goes.

The overall story presented in Feather Seeker, as I see it, is this: Akechi awakens to Robin Hood, and realises that his anger is no longer a hopeless endeavour, he can use it, show that he’s useful and get acknowledged by his father. Shido sees this, sees that he can use this power and subjects him to experimentation, as someone who can actually survive the cognitive world and even have an impact on it. Wakaba sees what he can do, tests him but he’s never told what he’s done. He’s manipulated through praise and lack of information. One day he does find out, he realises this wasn’t getting him any closer to vengeance or getting acknowledged by Shido, he’s just another test subject being used by them. He’s angry, he awakens to Loki and now with the unique power of psychotic breakdowns, Shido recognises him and hires him as his assassin.

Granted this is all just my own theory, I think there is a lot pointing us to at least something similar but of course I also think this is wishful thinking as well. At this moment, my biggest wish is that Atlus makes a game that actually delves into what happened to Akechi. All the explicit information we have is given to us from biased sources, ie. Akechi himself, and it’s really the only question I have left for persona 5’s continuity.

[phoebe-delia]

Hello, Phoebe. I’m back :)

How are you doing? Just put whatever you feel like here! This ask is the Phoebe Show; make it yours!

Lyssa, it is always a pleasure to see you in my notifs, but especially in my ask box! Thank you for filling it with kind words, awesome prompts, and fun questions for me to play around with.

This blog is the closest I imagine I'll ever come to having the Phoebe Delia Show, and since you have given me free rein with this ask, I shall endeavor to make it count.

I've gotten some incredible asks about my interests, but I'm going to answer a question that has been asked by exactly no one and rank Taylor Swift's albums.

This will be in order of my favorites; this isn't necessarily a reflection of what I think the rank would be in terms of objective quality; instead, this is based on my own personal enjoyment of the albums.

As always, I will provide a little explanation as to my reasoning, because I am nothing if not indulgent.

I actually really surprised myself with this ranking; as I looked through the albums I evaluated each by counting the number of songs I liked off of each one, and the ranking I thought I had has now changed. (I will explain in my comments!).

So! With that said. The Phoebe Delia Show Presents: Ranking Taylor Swift Albums.

1. Speak Now--To me, there is only one skip on this entire album; it is bop after bop. (If you're wondering, I think "Innocent" is the skip). Every song is just fun! I should also point out that this is also my favorite in part because Taylor said it was inspired by theater/Broadway.

2. 1989--I'm gonna be honest and say that I'm ashamed to have sort of slept on this album for so long. Don't get me wrong--I listened to and enjoyed it a lot when it came out, but I always sort of automatically pushed it further down on my list in favor of my 3rd choice because I liked the songs on my 3rd choice more. But now that I'm older and my music taste has somewhat evolved, I think I can say that 1989 is my 2nd favorite. There are truly no skips on this album. Yes, I know I said SN has a skip, but that album holds a special place in my heart so it gets number 1. I was thinking it over today, and while Taylor has always been amazing, I think this is the album that launched her into superstardom. We, her fans, knew she could do anything, but she still shocked us all by making the transition to an entirely pop album. Remember the "Blank Space" and "Bad Blood" music videos? I still think those are two fo my favorite of her mvs, though LWYMMD is a close second.

3. Red--Oh, my beloved. This album is wonderful. I have a lot of memories associated with this one, particularly watching the WANGBT music video and the IKYWT parody with the fucking goat that makes me laugh so hard even to this day. I am SO pumped for TV in November!! And while, yes, "All Too Well" is my favorite song on the album (and my fave TS song overall), "Holy Ground" is slept on and amazing.

4. folklore--This album is probably the most meaningful to me of them all just because of when it came out. We as an entire global community were struggling, and I know I had immense privilege to have been healthy and safe during that time. Still, like everyone else, I was depressed, lonely, and felt trapped inside my home and inside my mind. I will never forget listening to this album in my room and gasping when I heard TIMT. Not long after this album came out, I also lost my family dog, and this album was essential in helping me grieve. This album saved my sanity and gave me a cathartic outlet. I will be forever grateful to Taylor for writing it.

5. Reputation--This is another one for which I have a lot of memories. I will never forget when the LWYMMD music video came out and the world lost its entire mind. Taylor said there are still easter eggs we missed and I want someone to find them please and thank you. There are a few songs on this album that I'm not obsessed with, but the storytelling is so cohesive and creative. On the surface, one might think Taylor was being petty or whiny, but if you look closer--and remember the utter hell she was going through at the time--I think there are deeper meanings than her just getting back at Kim and Kanye.

6. Fearless--Oh, this album. It has some of her most iconic songs: YBWM, "White Horse," "Love Story"," "Forever and Always," etc. I truly wish I could tie this one with Rep, but I think Rep edges this one out *just* barely with songwriting/lyrical quality. I also don't know if I'll ever fully get over the fact that she kept "Mr. Perfectly Fine" from us for so long, but I suppose I can consider the 10 min "All Too Well" on Red TV to be proper repayment. ;)

7. evermore--I could not believe my eyes when she announced this album. How can this woman write this fast and this well!! I will never forget listening to "champagne problems," "no body, no crime," and "tolerate it" in particular. I ranked this after reputation just bc I think I enjoy listening to Rep more, but some of the songwriting on this album is *chefs kiss.*

8. Lover--I know, I know, I'm sorry. I don't want to put this one so low on the list but I just kind of can't put it any higher? I really love some of the songs on this album, but SYGB is too sad for me, "London Boy" kinda annoys me I'm sorry, and I just never really got into INTHAF or "Afterglow." But, that said, every other song on the album is a bop, even ME!, although I listen to the live version over the studio recording. It's a great album though.

9. Taylor Swift (Debut album)--I feel a little bad ranking this so low but I cannot honestly tell you that this album is better than her others, and something has to be last on the list. There are also some great, classic songs on this album. So, instead of being critical, I'm instead going to say that I remember vividly seeing a snippet of "Teardrops On My Guitar" advertised on Disney Channel for Radio Disney. It makes me smile to think of how far she's come since then.

And that concludes this episode of The Phoebe Delia Show! Tune in next time where I post some other self-indulgent opinion about one of my interests and hope it reaches people who care to read it :)

Send me an ask about Harry Potter, broadway/musicals, The West Wing, and/or Taylor Swift! Or just about life in general :).

Also, I have a playlist of my 99 most listened-to songs of the year so far. Pick a number 1--99 and send me an ask and I'll write you a fic based on it!

[matan4il]

THE SNOW ANALOGY ?????!!??!??????? YOUR MIND OH MY GOD THAT WAS SO BEAUTIFUL 💘💘💘 the idea that in the mess that was eddie's life when he arrived in LA, he found buck and he was the one thing he could hold onto, that he trusted because it was safe to be with him. PLEASE.

Bri! ;_; Thank you so much, darling! I am speechless and so happy that you liked Snow on Palm Trees. I was fully expecting that no one would read it and I am so surprised and happy that people gave it a chance and that they even actually enjoyed it! Amazing and unbelievable. And then to receive this message on top? I am a puddle. I’m so glad that that analogy came to be and yes, I adored writing it for those exact same reasons, it’s just lovely to know that all that resonated with you, too. Thank you again for your kindness, and not just now! xoxox

hey I know I've written this in your last fic, but i had to show you how much i appreciate you , how nuch i adore you and how much i value your arts! JUST KEEP WRITING. YOU CAN MAKE THE WORLD (AT LEAST MINE) BETTER JUST WITH YOUR COMPASSION AND KINDNESS THAT SHOWS THROUGH YOUR LITTLE AND YET MEANINGFUL WORDS.  you deserve all love not just in the world but in entire universe😘😘😘🥺🥺🥺

@yelenabelous my love, consider me being that pleading eyes emoji, too! Thank you so much for all that you did, read the fic, left kudos and a comment and then sent me this ask as well! I can’t thank you enough, it’s made me so happy and it’s absolutely delightful to get to share my creations with you. As for compassion and kindness, please never settle for less, hon. *You* deserve all that and more, as well as all the love in the world! Thank you again! xoxox

Hi, frustrated buddie shipper who is losing hope here. Do you ever wonder if the writers really aren’t thinking into things as deeply as we are? Like the Easter eggs and parallels we find in the episodes really AREN’T Easter eggs and just coincidences? That honestly feels like such a stupid question because I know they’re not idiots and how could it all be just coincidence?? But it’s hard not to read into things with what they give us, but if buddie doesn’t happen then what was it all forl? I’ve been rewatching the previous seasons and the early Ana episodes, and I’m starting to feel like they’re endgame and I DONT WANT TO BELIEVE THAT. They make me cringe so badly. There are just so many things wrong with that relationship, but idk if the writers see it that way?? If they don’t want to make buddie happen, fine. But please not Eddie/Ana!! And at least give us Bi Buck as a consolation prize. Please reassure me 🥴 I am not optimistic but don’t want to completely lose hope. Sorry for my rambling

Hi Nonnie and please, don’t apologize for anything! I totally get it. IDK if you’ve read my meta for ep 408, if not it may help. You can also roam my Buddie meta tag, maybe all those asks together will. Generally speaking, I can’t promise you Buddie will become canon, so you have to decide for yourself what’s right for you. I can, however, tell you that I have not given up hope. Def not because of Ana. Out of 4 eps she’s been in so far, 2 have had a plot (of sorts) and both, instead of being about Ana and Eddie, ended up being about Eddie and Chris, with Buck being a major part of how the whole thing is resolved. That’s not just a parallel we spot that the writers might have put in without noticing (generally speaking, I try to avoid writing about things that I notice, but might be accidental), that’s a narrative choice, a meaningful one, and one that was even more obvious in 408 than it was in 312. And beyond that, you know how there’s a suggestion for writers to ‘show, not tell’? So far we’ve been told Ana is amazing, we’ve not really seen it. She’s uninvested in and so’s her r/s with Eddie. Which the show is rushing through. I just don’t see the staying power for this. And I’m def here for bi Buck, whether Buddie goes canon or not... but TBH, I think the biggest chance for us to get that is if Buddie does go canon. Shows generally fear “turning characters gay” and close minded audiences tend to have a hard distinguishing ‘bi’ from ‘gay’. Which is actually why we should have more bi rep, but from TPTB’s POV, why should they risk anger from less open minded viewers without gaining something? Buddie would be groundbreaking, it would make the show a part of queer TV history (right now it’s just another show with good rep, but not something that has to be included in summaries of how queer rep has developed) and might earn them a lot of viewers who aren’t currently watching 911, maybe enough to compensate for the biphobes the show will lose, maybe even enough to increase the ratings rather than deplete them. Bi Buck alone? A lot less likely to do that. So hopefully TPTB see all that and wanna have an impact, so we’ll get both. I hope this helped! xoxox

(the rest under a cut ‘coz I already rambled too much)

I love that Eddie put his hand in front of his mouth when he laughed because Christopher does the same thing and I always think it's cute when a parent/child duo does the same little thing like that.

Nonnie, I fully agree with this! I adore every little thing that shows the connection between Eddie and Chris, that they’re not just a parent and kid, but a family unit who share so many things. That’s why the opening sequence of ep 204 where we get their morning routine together will never stop being one of the best things about 911. I hope we keep getting these golden nuggets! Thank you so much for this! xoxox

Hello! What are your thoughts on the solar system appearing throughout 4x08 (in Chris’ room and on his shirt)? I thought I was reading too much into it, but then rewatching the invisible strings scenes from 4x02, they show a close-up of Chris’ solar system model before panning to him and Eddie sleeping. That combined with Chris’ shirt and the inclusion of the solar system model in the shot of Eddie picking up Buck’s call in 4x08 just feels deliberate and significant to me.

Hi Nonnie! I replied to a very similar ask the other day here. IDK if you saw it or not. I think that the shot of the solar system during the ‘invisible strings’ talk is very meaningful, it was a short beat, but really, our s4 re-introduction to Chris and showing us where he’s at, so even though it’s a short scene, it’s very meaningful. At the same time, the solar system being featured in other scenes is something I wanna be careful about, because it could be that the prop department is making choices there which are separate to the plot. Meaning, they could be preoccupied with showing a consistent image of Chris’ interests rather than thinking of the theme of that specific scene. What I’m saying is - it’s good to keep this in mind and see if it’s repeated, but I’m not jumping to bigger conclusions in regards to the ‘solar system’ theme specifically just yet. I hope my answer leaves you satisfied, Nonnie! xoxox

Hey, so your writing is absolutely amazing (seriously, I live for it!!) but what are your fav works from other people, if I may be so bold to ask

Thank you so much for your kind compliments, Nonnie! I’m so overwhelmed whenever someone likes my writing by and large! As for fic recs, God. I’m afraid my ability to reply is limited. :/ The vertigo has seriously undermined my capacity for reading, I struggle with reading anything that’s over 1k words (I even have trouble re-reading what I’ve written myself, which makes me even more grateful for my beta’s). However, I did request @ronordmann for cover arts that you can take as recs! She’s not doing any right now, but I hope to get to request more in the future. I believe my requests are all tagged on her blog. So browsing that should both give you an idea and an awesome aesthetic experience. ;) I hope that helps! xoxox

[thequibblah]

directors cut for WTRF? 🥺👉👈 not biased at all obviously just objective third party asking for a directors cut hmmm hmmmmm

literally how could u do this every other word in that fic is an easter egg i can't shut up about..... bestie u are about to have regrets

one thing u should know is that 90% of things in this fic have real-world equivalents and its not even like....... hidden equivalents. serie primo = serie a, for instance. this trend is going to continue and i won't apologise <3

fun fact i named the bar the Bar and the drinks after shapes because i was too lazy to come up with something actually clever

this bit

I’m grinning to myself by the time she approaches my table.

was a very intentional fakeout and if you read this and thought "she" would be lily, feel free to sue me for emotional damages

the biggest conundrum of this AU was, how are jily not going to have met in school when magic exists? the solution was, of course, having multiple magic schools. but i couldn't let one of them have hogwarts, that didn't seem fair. i know i did sort of let lily have it..... but i felt more comfortable making hogwarts a university so there was a legit reason why james wasn't there and in gryffindor (if he'd gone he absolutely would have been)

once solved, i did the fun thing of naming them! ottaline gambol's was easy, i just scrolled through the list of ministers for magic and picked a progressive one. peverell hall was a whim, made all the funnier when lily's reaction is:

Much was made at Otty’s — one of the more progressive magical schools, named for one of the more progressive Ministers of Magic — of schools like Peverell Hall and St. George’s. The latter, I know, is chock-full of pureblooded elite. Peverell Hall is supposed to be slightly better, but still.

dang, it's gonna be funny if she ever finds out james is a descendant of the guy it's named after

fun fact, i included this because peter's question was a real thought i had when reading bond and free, your inspiring writing knows no limits:

The first thing you conjure in Walking Wombat is a yellow quill... “Why yellow?” Peter asked. Eddie gave him a strange look. “Why not?”

i realised i'd put jily in the same conundrum they had in tis the fucking season here:

It’s only then that I remember she’s just bought us drinks. I turn back to my triangle. “Oh, shit.” I suppose I can pawn it off on one of the others.

...but of course the resolution is rather different, and i do so enjoy a james with no filter (aka default james)

I briefly lose control of my brain and my tongue. “Is it too soon to say I’m in love with you?”

by the way, no-filter james will be a theme. wild things sure do run fast but not as fast as this boy runs his mouth!

also, another interesting challenge here was making sure james has a reason to be the way he is in AU. i love playing around with james's childhood/background and seeing how that affects his character while (hopefully!) staying true to who he is. i did that in ttfs by having him move around a lot and not meet the marauders until after the flashback timeline, which is why he's less of a git — he doesn't have the level of comfort in a social setting that canon james has with hogwarts, which is basically his playground from day 2 of first year lol

here, james was probably a fkn nightmare all through school, but of course he gets a big ego check when his quidditch career is derailed. i imagine his years in italy as a continuation of that humility lesson.

I will fully admit I used to be a cocky prick. This is what comes of being a kid who grew up with everything. But one useful thing that the whole fiasco four years ago taught me is humility. I’ve learned how to ask nicely for another chance.

and so much of writing him in wtrf is juggling that typical confidence with the insecurity/fear of losing something he's invested so much in (and has seen slip away before). it's really new to me, because typically i give lily uncertain life circumstances, but i suppose it's both of them in this AU.

the car thing was... i swear didn't start out as smutty, it was purely because i wanted a way to establish lily as muggleborn in a world where the connotations of not having magical parents is very different. more to come on that!

also, come to think of it, by this metric...

I’m now in dangerous territory, since that adds another impressive action to her running tally.

...i think james is already in love with her LOL

this bit:

The street is considered indecent and the downstairs hallway would have our landlady come running at once, so if it pleases Your Honour, we would recommend the sitting room sofa.

...was actually because in draft one lily was a lawyer, but then it was funny enough that i didn't want to take it out, but NOW i realise it makes it sound a little like she's addressing james as your honour, which.... hm. but anyway, we move on

Marc Bolan begs us to get it on through the stereo, vocalising my thoughts exactly.

the song here was initially "you shook me" (h/t @keepingupwithpotters) but i chickened out because zeppelin is SO horny dfjkhgkjs

also, it gave me so much joy to read everyone reacting to lily thinking about her ex (the general vibe was "who the fuck is this guy!!! ew!!!!") — rest assured (or, unassured??) that he has a part to play in all this. anyway, this is one of my fave lines:

He’s just a person, and there’s such a relief in sleeping with James and not the myth of a guy.

because as any come together reader knows....

Just James. Just James. It was never just James.

wtrf lily will learn!

literally the whole world knows i'm obsessed with needle drops that have no subtlety at all, but this one...

We just laugh, tangled together in a sweaty heap, as “Heaven Is in the Back Seat of My Cadillac” plays through the car’s speakers. “On the nose, isn’t it?” James says, sitting up.

...was pure luck, because i was looking up the top hits on the uk singles chart for the week(ish) this scene takes place in so that i could find a song that would realistically play on the radio, saw this, and was like omg the stars really do align

i feel like the thing i enjoy most about writing romance is the importance i get to place in noticing/looking/observing (and sometimes, not noticing!). it's just such a powerful but simple writerly tool, and god knows i am obsessed with pithy descriptions anyway, so this bit i am especially happy with:

James is already waiting, leaning against the car with his hands in his pockets. I feel as though I’m seeing him for the first time, the faint light of the flickering streetlamp catching him in profile: the strong slope of his nose, the hard line of his jaw, the curve of his smile. He studies the facade of our building with open curiosity, and I wonder what he’s looking for.

(one can only imagine james's train of thought in this moment. perhaps "ah. here lives the future love of my life"?)

“Thanks,” she tacks on at the end. I tip my head to one side in confusion. “For what?” “For, I don’t know. Being nice.” She laughs awkwardly. “I don’t do this very much.”

it wouldn't be a quibblah original tee em without some discourse to come about the nature of romantic/sexual relationships, would it? one thing i enjoy about this AU ("one thing" i say as if this isn't the billionth thing in a list) is that i get to write a romantic lily who's squaring that romanticism with what she perceives as the culture of the times. (this is a bit of a staple in all my characterisations of lily, but it is not often paired with casual sex, the complication of all complications!)

oh this bit literally wrote itself like i didn't even pause to think just vomited it out:

In the morning — and it must be early still — the sun streams through Lily’s sorry excuses for curtains with aggression that cannot be ignored. I crack open an eye to find myself sprawled out across her bed, quite literally spread-eagled. She’s attached to my side like a barnacle. Or a very pretty barnacle, anyway.

i'm especially proud of james's voice in this story. i don't often write first-person fic and i was worried how it'd turn out, but i think james as a character/narrator typically colours his own 3rd-person narration so strongly that it ended up a smoother transition than i'd feared!

also i just. i can't resist throwing in comic relief and i hope that this whole segment was a gentle enough preparation for the awkwardness that followed LOL

All of a sudden, the balcony door bursts open. I nearly drop the mug. “What the—” Mary pokes her head around the corner, sporting a righteous smile. “Morning, handsome.” Over her shoulder she shouts, “He’s on the balcony!” I blink. There’s a sound from inside the flat, as if something very large has just been dropped. Then a swear. “Oh, shit,” I say, realisation dawning, “you weren’t looking for me, were you? It’s so loud out here—” Mary cups a hand around her mouth and stage-whispers, “Lily was frantic.” She’s quite violently yanked back, and Lily herself appears in the doorway, slightly out of breath. “Should’ve checked the balcony first,” she says, and closes the door before Mary can insert herself into the space again. “Hi,” I say, which is agreed-upon best practice for greeting a woman you’ve just had fantastic sex with and ideally would like to have sex with again.

to this day i don't know what lily dropped. let's hope it wasn't expensive!

Captained the under-17 English squad at the World Cup some years back, Serie Primo’s lead goal-scorer of last year… Only an injury in what should’ve been his first season at Puddlemere mars his record. I wince reading about it and comparing it to a heap of press clippings. James Potter was hurt, and Puddlemere didn’t fancy paying for him not to play, so they shipped him off to Milan.

(you cannot imagine how much pointed interrogation of my brother it took to gather this intel.) i constantly worry that i've got dates or timelines wrong somehow — you might notice i tweaked under-17, which used to be under-19 until i realised that made no sense (even though in terms of its career importance i would much preferred it to have been u-19.... anyway). i also found out that u-17 football squads don't actually have captains but i said fuck it on that count.

but obviously i started writing this AU for the sports possibilities, only to discover i'm going to have to interfere a great deal with the Timeline (you shall see in future instalments).

god i really went through the whole fic. like i reread the whole thing to do this. here u go clare jfbghjfd

[darlinvandijk]

after care w ruel would be so sweet🥺

After Care

concept: well you already know what this is, so do I need to explain? can’t believe I had to write about the rag. tell me your favorite parts from this since it’s a complete m e s s. also I added a few little I guess you could say easter eggs to find from things mentioned in good girl, can you find them? hope you enjoy :)

Ruel groans into my neck from his place on top of me, his hips softly meeting mine for the last time, my hands completely tangled in his hair. We stay wrapped up for a few minutes, both of us coming down from our highs, before he pulls back and hovers his face above mine. He gives me a soft smile, reaching up to push a few strands of my hair behind my ears, watching me with utter love and adoration in his eyes. He leans down and gives me a few soft kisses, mumbling praises and compliments between each one, before rolling off of me and laying on his back.

We lay there out of breath still, before both of us turn to look at each other, instantly breaking out into laughter at our flushed and bright eyed faces. I raise my hand and poke his cheek, only to end up shrieking and pulling away, laughing at the layer of sweat coating his skin.

“Laugh all you want, this sweat is from being the only person to actually put in work asshole” he sasses, glaring at me even more as I laugh even harder, rolling around in our already tousled sheets. “Stop laughing at me, you’re sweaty too” he whines out, throwing his hands up exasperatedly, not being able to do anything but watch the tears come out of my eyes.

“Yo-you think you did all the work? I was the one on top until the last 5 minutes dumbass” I cackle, rolling away from him as he darts his hand out to grab me. He lets out a small scoff, turning away from me, since he’s the most dramatic person on earth. “Noooo, I didn’t mean it, you’re strong and masculine and tough and put in all the work” I tell him as seriously as possible, trying to keep my voice from shaking as I try to not laugh, my eyes watering from holding it in.

“See, thank you for finally recognizing that I- Hey!” He groans out, finally turning back to me, only to be let down as I finally crack. I let him pull me back to him this time, smiling up at him as he leans over me, his necklace dangling over my face. “Are you gonna be nice to me? If not, then you can clean yourself up sweetheart” he smirks, already knowing what the outcome would be, but of course I have to be stubborn.

“Fine. I don’t need no man to help me” I haughtily reply, lifting my hand to push his face away from me. I sit up and look over to the bathroom, turning to look back at Ruel, only to see him leaning against our headboard with his stupid smirk still on his face. I flip him off before swinging my legs to the edge of the bed, hesitantly standing up, before fully straightening and giving him a my biggest smile. “See, I don’t need you” I laugh out, walking forward only to end up on the floor as my legs wobble from underneath me.

“What was that about not needing any help baby?” Ruel boasts, standing up from the bed to lift me up and throw me back on to it. I let out a groan when I land, my body finally starting to feel sore from our activities. I lay there against the pillows, waiting for him to come back to me from whatever he’s doing in the bathroom, only to hear his soft footsteps seconds later. “Open your legs for me sweetheart” he mumbles, paying attention to whats in his hands, as he gets situated on the foot of the bed. I hesitantly open them, trying to mentally prepare for what was about to happen.

“owww” I whine out, wincing as the wet cloth makes contact, only for Ruel to laugh at me and hold me in place, watching me with a grin from his spot between my legs. His hands start to massage my thighs, hoping to at least slightly ease the discomfort I was feeling, knowing I’d be sore for the next few days.

“Huh you sounded a lot different when you did that earlier” he chuckles out, trying his hardest to lightly clean me up, wincing as my hips buck when he hits a particularly sore part. I let out a quiet whine at the feeling, the dull aching pain spreading through my lower half at any sort of contact. “Sorry sweetheart, could’ve probably been a bit more gentle with you” he tells me, placing a light kiss against my knee, before standing up and throwing the rag into the hamper we have in the corner.

“I’m not going to be able to walk right tomorrow and it’s going to be embarrassing because you know Coco and your mom are going to say something about it” I groan out, rolling over so that my face was shoved into the pillow. I let out a yell of protest as he slaps my ass, flipping my head to the side to glare at him, watching as he gives me a small shrug in return. “Aren’t boyfriends supposed to be nice?” I mutter, shoving my face back into the pillow so I don’t have to look at the smug look on his face.

“While I enjoyed seeing you in this position earlier, I’m going to need you to get your face out of the pillow and stand up” he retorts, completely ignoring my snide remark at him. I let out a grumble of protest, the idea of moving sounding terrible at the moment. I feel his hands latch on to my waist, before I break out of his grasp and roll my body into the middle of our bed. “Are we really going to do this right now? Because trust me, I’ll win.” he says as he gives me a blank stare, waiting to see if I’ll just give in and make his life easier. As if.

“No. My body hurts and you don’t even care. Why aren’t you nice to me?” I whine, watching as a grin starts to tug at his lips. He grabs my ankle and pulls me back to the edge of the bed, looking down at me with a small eye roll, my eyes not missing the way he sneakily tries to look me over.

“Oh trust me, I was more than nice to you. Especially with that little attitude you had at the fucking family get together earlier” he snorts out, lifting me up and throwing me over his shoulder, completely ignoring the fact that my body was repulsed by any sort of movement right now. “Stop whining, you’ll feel better after we shower, I’ll even let you make the water hot just how you like it, even though it’s going to practically melt my skin off” he tries to reason, setting me down as he turns the shower on, watching the way I pout up at him.

He smiles at the pout on my lips, thinking about how I had a similar expression earlier, when he finally had me begging. He leans down and gives me a kiss, before lightly pushing me into the shower, coming in right after me and closing the glass door. He pulls me against him and holds the both of us under the water, lightly rubbing the bottom of my back, easing some of the tension in it. I lift my head away from his chest, puckering my lips for another kiss, getting a small laugh out of him before he complies. He lightly holds me against him, entranced with the way our bodies feel pressed against each other, water steadily flowing over the both of us. He pulls back, lightly biting my bottom lip and watching as it snaps back into place, a needy expression taking over my features.

“I thought you were mad at me for making you get up?” he questions, pulling back to look me in the eyes, grinning as I whine from him pulling away from me. “I mean first you were mad that I made you sore, then it was because I made you move, now it’s because I won’t kiss you. Like you should be happy since I was able to convince everyone to be gone for the night in the first place” he laughs, feeling me grab at his necklace for more affection from him and less talking. He leans down, caging me against the cold tile, his arms on either side of my head as wrap my arms around his neck.

“I’m a changed person, now give me more kisses please” I mumble, grabbing at the back of his neck to pull his lips back to mine, only for him to pull back completely. Before I can even complain about the lack of affection, he lifts me up and pins me against the wall, my legs instantly securing themselves around his waist. The water pours down against his back, hotter than he would usually have it, but the last of his worries at the moment, the only thing on his mind being me. I breathlessly watch him from hooded eyes, seeing his darkened lust filled gaze scan my body, before meeting mine with a devilish grin. “What’re you doing?” I gasp out, his mouth moving around my collarbones, ghosting over the numerous marks he left from earlier, only for him to shut me up with his hand lightly grabbing on to my throat.

His eyes go back down my body, watching as some water droplets travel down the length of my torso, only to end up where our bodies are pressed together. I buck my hips harder into his, wanting him to avert his attention back to me, desperately craving any attention from him that I could get. His eyes meet mine, before he leans in and let’s his lips ghost over mine, smirking as I arch into him, his grip on my neck tightening at the feeling. Feeling needy. Just for him. He leans his head down to my ear, letting his lips ghost over it as my eyes roll back, feeling nothing but euphoria as he makes a breathy promise.

“I’ll be gentle. I promise.”

[papermariosuggestion]

What are you hoping for from a new Paper Mario? What's your "golden ideal", I guess?

I could spend, like, years thinking of things I’d like to see in a Paper Mario game, but I’ll try to narrow it down. Here are some of the main things I’d really like to see:

☆ New partners (plural)

• Based on previously established Mario species, preferably “enemy” species, as “The circumstances of one’s birth are irrelevant; it is what you do with the gift of life that determines who you are.”

• Unusual, but believable, and perhaps even poignant, backstories and fully realized character arcs. I want to care about these characters because I’m invested in this world, its inhabitants, and those inhabitants’ personal successes and failures, not just because their design is so kawaii and/or their dialogue is so funny, though those things are a plus.

• Distinct personalities and opportunities to show those personalities off (through design, body language, dialogue, etc).

☆ RPG mechanics

• Built on the solid foundation established in Paper Mario (N64)

• Turn-based combat

• A leveling system where you get to choose which stat to increase

• Badges (Including superficial badges like the L Emblem and Attack FX badges)

• Something new, like being able to use two partners to perform a Bros.-Attack-like move, or maybe even stats specifically pertaining to your partners.

☆ New locations

• It’s a delicate balance. Locations should both feel like they could realistically exist in Mario’s world and feel like something we’ve never seen before. TTYD has some great examples of this (Rogueport, Boggly Woods, Twilight Town, etc). Super Paper Mario has some creative locations as well, but because it takes place in another dimension, not in the typical world that Mario inhabits, none of them really feel particularly “Mario-esque” in nature. They’re all a bit off-brand, so to speak.

• On a technical level, graphics are improving all of the time, but that doesn’t automatically lead to more intriguing and/or more visually satisfying designs. At it’s core, Mario is a fantasy franchise, an escape from reality, and the Paper Mario series is one of the few series in the franchise that really builds out- or at least used to really build out- its world, and that world was interesting because it was new and mysterious, it practically begged to be explored. Paper Mario games should show me something I can’t see in reality; I know what paper and cardboard and lemons and steaks look like, show me underground cities and palaces, show me sprawling gardens with talking flowers, show me a floating tourist trap in the sky. The biggest limit is your imagination, so let it run wild, and show me that, show me that Alice in Wonderland-like controlled chaos.

☆ An interconnected world and motivated backtracking

• No stage-selection maps. Even if the game is fairly linear, I don’t need to have that shoved in my face. I don’t want to feel like I’m working my way down a to-do list, glued to a track, I want to journey through the world and explore somewhat freely.

• No fast travel by default (maybe you unlock fast travel after beating an optional challenge like the Pit of 100 Trials)

• No pipes that take you right from the hub world to the chapter area; I wanna walk…

…and I want it to be through a believable, expansive, intricate world that changes as I progress through the game, a world I could see hundreds of times and never get sick of because its details are constantly in flux, and because those details are the kind that make it feel realistic and lived-in. I don’t want to be teleported from A to B, or confined on a path from A to B to C, I want to explore, I want to discover, I want to experience this world and to form an attachment to it. This alone would make backtracking more worthwhile, but…

• …another way to make backtracking even more enjoyable would be to add events that make walking into a game in and of itself, like having to follow a creature up in the trees, or having to get through a cursed area in Mirror Mode, or having to dodge and weave through falling rocks because there’s a huge earthquake destroying- and altering the actual geometry of- the area. Walking doesn’t have to be a chore for you to complete in order to get on with the game, and it shouldn’t be, it should be part of the game, just as engaging as anything else you’re involved in.

☆ Non-linear elements

• The game should still be fairly linear overall, because Paper Mario games are chapter-based stories with beginnings, middles, and ends, but having some say  in which chapter comes next, or which partner you meet, or even just which puzzle you solve next would give the player a stronger sense of agency. Story-driven games are at high-risk of making the player feel like they’re just along for the ride, and this would help to counteract that.

☆ Spin dashing

• Gotta go fast! Getting rid of spin dashing always felt like an odd choice to me. Characters like the Yoshi kid, Carrie, and Dashell kind of replaced it, in the sense that they allow you to move quickly, but being able to speed up without switching partners, as well as being able to spin attack and just to witness the utter chaos of Mario flinging himself across the screen again, would make backtracking and walking around in general less of a slog. It would also give you more agency in the overworld and serve as a nice callback to the original game.

☆ Free-moving NPCs & situational dialogue

• In past games, NPCs have been confined to certain paths and locations. They might move from chapter to chapter, but they would always stay in the same general area until you triggered an event that placed them somewhere new. I’d like to see characters wandering around, going in and out of buildings, visiting other locations, having private conversations with one another, getting into fights, buying and selling items at the shop, putting on different clothes, and doing just about anything else they would typically do in-universe. Obviously this would be huge challenge to program, but we’re talking about an ideal here, and anything in this general direction would be an improvement in my eyes. We already see a bit of this in the series, but I’d like to see even more.

• When NPCs say things like “Where are your manners, Mario? You shouldn’t climb on the table” and “Don’t be so careless. There are too many enjoyable things in the world to gamble with your life!” it makes it feel like they actually see what you’re doing and care about what you’re doing. Having NPCs respond to you differently because of where you’re standing, or what partner you have out, or what badges you’re wearing, and so on, makes them into more than just set decoration or a sign to read, it makes them people, or at least more person-like. Nintendo’s been pretty good about this in recent years, probably because technical improvements have made it easier than ever before, and I think it would be fitting for a series known for its world-building.

☆ Dynamic lighting design & a day/night system

• This is all about aesthetics because, as it turns out, visuals are pretty important in a video game. Paper Mario (N64) had some really interesting lighting design, notably in darker areas like the secret passage in Peach’s castle, and we haven’t really seen a lot of that since, despite having more advanced technology that would allow for advanced lighting.

• I’d like to see things like swinging chandeliers that cast beams of light, and cracks in the ceiling that light pours through, and mirrors/reflections that Mario uses to solve puzzles, and shadows that hint at secrets. Lighting is a huge part of shaping a world, and using it in a variety of different and meaningful ways just makes your world seem that much more complex and grounded.

• As for the day/night system, I am picturing a game that visually changes based on the actual time of day, kind of like Animal Crossing games do, but not a game that requires it to be a certain time of day for any gameplay purposes, not for the main quest, not for side-quests, and not even for easter eggs. All I want is for it to be bright when I play in the morning, orange when I play at sunset, and starry when I play at night. This also would add to the game’s replayability, as different chapters would look and feel different depending on what time of day it was when you played through them.

☆ Easter eggs that reference other games in the franchise

• I want it to be clear, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the Mario we see in Paper Mario games is the same Mario we see in other Mario games, not another person, and talking about the time he visited Isle Delfino or when Bowser fused with a sentient tennis racket would really drive that home.

• Make me really look for some, though. It’s cool to spot easter eggs in plain sight, but what’s really rewarding is having to dig for them. I don’t just wanna see Luigi standing in the background, I want to spot little inconsistencies and cracks in the walls and cryptograms spread throughout the world. Sure, the five-year-olds playing might not find them on their first playthrough, but when they’re fifteen and they remember that awesome Paper Mario game they played a decade ago, they won’t just be revisiting a world they’ve fully explored, they’ll be playing on a whole new level, figuratively speaking.

☆ amiibo Compatibility/functionality

• I’m not a big fan of DLC in general, as it’s often overpriced, but I do think amiibos are neat; using a real object to unlock something in a virtual world makes the virtual world feel just that much more alive to me, that much more like it’s a little world I can actually affect.

• The Paper Mario series never really got official merch, and while you do see a bit of your partners’ lives in the epilogue, it’s only a glimpse into their future, so getting little figurines of past partners that make them appear in the game, tell you about a recent adventure they had, and give you a unique badge based on their abilities/personalities/experiences, would be like a dream come true.

☆ Just be creative (I know it’s not that simple, but like, figure it out)

• Surprise me; throw in something inventive and revolutionary, like Wall Merging from A Link Between Worlds or The Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device from Portal.  There’s a whole universe of possibilities out there; please dream a little bigger than items disguised as a gameplay element and a hammer that fills in glaringly obvious gaps in paint. Nintendo’s always pushing the video game industry forward with their creative consoles. Use that, take whatever whacky control method they come up with next and integrate it like Super Paper Mario did- but hopefully even better than Super Paper Mario did- with the Wii remote.

• I see fans writing stories, and drawing characters, and making sprites, and working with all kinds of mediums to make art that knocks everything from recent “Paper Mario” games out of the park. Obviously Intelligent Systems can’t just steal those ideas, but I’d love to see them get on that wavelength and match that passion.

• Make a game that you’d never want to put down because you just can’t get enough of it, and don’t even bother with that “You’ve been playing for a while. You wanna take a break, grab a snack, chill out for a sec?” message; if I die playing your game because it’s truly that good, I see that as an absolute win. That’s legendary game design, my friend; aim to make a Paper Mario game so good it’s worth dying for, and if you fall short of that, hopefully you’ll still land on something pretty awesome.

[criquette-was-here]

Replies

Anonymous said:

Hi Criquette! I love your work and tutorials, in fact, you taught me how to make hood deco buildings light up at night! However, I'm having an issue with the transparency. The day window texture and the main building textures have a transparent gap between them even though they line up perfectly in the image program and GMND preview. Do you know what may be causing this?

Hey anon! Thank you! I’m glad you’ve managed to get your decorations light up at night. As for the gap, sometimes, if a material has ‘alphatest enabled’ on ‘1′ it can interpret almost opaque (i.e. transparency at 50-70%) areas of the texture as fully transparent. Alphatest renders transparency strictly as true/false, or 1/0. I would recommend to turn alphatest off (set to ‘0′) and if you still need to have transparency in your day windows texture, make it work with ‘blend mode: blend’.

@saralynnx​ said:

I'm just in total awe right now. Feverfew completely blew all of my expectations out of the water, and is a prime example of 'TS3 and TS4 could never!' I seriously feel bad for people who are no longer active in the TS2 community for missing out on this masterpiece.

Oh, thank you Sara! Well, this game can wait (i’ve had a break for six years myself) and if someone decides to get back to TS2, Feverfew will be available :)

Anonymous said:

Any chances you could upload just the sc4 terrain for Feverfew? 

Oh, dear anon. There’s no point in doing that. Because the unedited map for thins neighborhood looks like this:

You can still have the Vervainwort SC4 map instead, which makes definitely more sense.

Anonymous said:

Omg I’m so sorry. I really didn’t mind the look of it I just thought I did something wrong! Good to know I’m set. Thank you for replying I know you’re being inundated with messages! Bless!

Not to worry, anon! Happy simming :)

@impassingoveryou​ said:

Had to chuckle a bit at Mr. Bean‘s car. I didn‘t even notice it until my brother casually walked past me and pointed it out. Was that supposed to be an easter egg? :D

Well, I did show some WIP pics of this little car earlier. Not sure about an easter egg, but it’s definitely a mention :) As for the easter eggs, there’s one and it’s not related to mr. Bean ;)

Anonymous said:

Hi, thank you for Feverfew! I don't have a computer at the moment, so I can't dowload it and wander around in it like I want to, but I already love it just from the pictures. Just curious, are there spaces/suitable terrain for beach lots in Feverfew? I have a couple of ideas for beach lots and was wondering if I can fit them into Feverview.

Hi anon! There’s literally one single beach lot in Feverfew and it has a pub so you’ll have to make it over :)

@veetiesims2​ said:

As a detail-crazy worldbuilder I really admire all the work you did on Feverfew. It's not my usual style but it reminds me so much of the village of my childhood that I think I'll adopt it as a side hood! Thanks <3

Ah, thank you Veetie! I’m so glad that so many people see Feverfew this way. I didn’t grew up in a town like this myself, but I really fell in love with small British towns and villages, so it was really something I wanted to try and recreate in-game.

Anonymous said:

This might be dramatic but I literally teared up when I opened up your neighborhood. I wish I was so detail oriented. Your screenshots did not do it justice because W O W

Ahh, thanks anon! Yes, Feverfew looks better in-game than on screenshots ^__^”

@ankapartizankaniko​ said:

Criquette, you're amazing! and your city is amazing! Thank you for a cool gift for the new year. Now I don't want to finish building my city ;)

Oh, please do finish it! :D You’re most welcome @ankapartizankaniko​ and Happy New Year!

Anonymous said:

Hi, I saw a YouTube-video about Feverfew, and there was this river-piece neighborhood deco. Would it be possible to share that piece separately? I love Feverfew, but I play medieval, so I can not use whole hood, but that river hood deco would be perfect!

Hello anon! You can download the whole thing, take the ‘FeverfewHoodCC’ folder and put it into your downloads folder without installing the whole thing. All the hood decorations, including river pieces, will appear as usual under ‘landmark’ and ‘misc’ submenu.

@pleasant-lives​ said:

I was watching the video review of Feverfew and I just kept thinking: I wish we had an open world in ts2! It’s so pretty and detailed, I am amazed

Yes, an open world in TS2 would be nice. But frankly, I’m quite satisfied with the one we have :)

Anonymous said:

2) or, e.g. is it possible to create a default replacement of impostor textures for a lot... by putting its custom textures in a separate package... which would override, upon each load of the game, those textures that game generates after each save? i've never done DRs myself so all of the above is probably nonsense, and even if it's possible it's too much work anyway... but i was mostly just wondering what your thoughts on this topic are. p.s. great worldbuilding in the Feverfew story mode! :)

Is it me, or the first bit is lost somewhere? :D Well, lot imposters work a bit different comparing to usual CC. Although there’s still left some place for experiments and who knows, may be at some point we will be able to improve them somehow!

[aion-rsa]

Superman & Lois Episode 5 Review: The Best of Smallville

https://ift.tt/3d3qbkS

This Superman & Lois review contains spoilers.

Superman and Lois Episode 5

This is the first episode of Superman & Lois that maybe felt like it was spinning its wheels a little. To be fair, this entire season has been unfolding at what can best be described as a deliberate pace. It’s an understandable decision since the entire concept of this show is meant to take fans of the Superman mythos pretty far out of their comfort zones, so there’s still a lot of heavy lifting that has to get done each week, especially as we get used to the Kent family, the Cushings, the history of Smallville, and more.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

That isn’t to say that “The Best of Smallville” is a bad episode, or a boring one, or even a rote one (it’s way too early for this show to have any kind of real episodic “formula,” other than those big reveals that it saves for the final moments each week). If anything, this shakes things up a little by adding flashbacks to Clark’s teenage years at key moments in the episode. And those, just like everything else relating to Clark’s history on this show, are handled with real care and reverence for everything that has come before. But I can’t help but feel that several of the beats we get in this episode, from Jonathan continuing to lose to the troubled home life of the Cushings, is stuff we’ve already been getting in previous episodes, all while the Morgan Edge story continues to just kind of lurk around the outskirts, just like the character himself.

Fortunately, this is Superman & Lois we’re talking about, and this show’s core four (not to mention its terrific supporting characters) make every moment worth watching. I have already written endlessly about how truly endearing Tyler Hoechlin’s Clark Kent is, and I’ll continue to do so. But there’s one thing Hoechlin does with Clark that I’m not sure I’ve ever seen another Superman actor do quite as effectively, and that’s how he makes Clark’s uncoolness not a put-on or an affectation, but as a genuine component of the “real” Clark Kent.

It’s hard to explain, but hang with me for a minute. It’s generally assumed that any time Clark is being “uncool” or overly earnest about something, it’s part of his “disguise.” And with many actors, especially the legendarily perfect Christopher Reeve, that was absolutely the case. The key to a truly great Clark performance always seems to come in the moments when he lets his guard down, and you realize that this is the “real” person, not the “Clark who has to pretend he isn’t Superman” shine through. Hoechlin does this effortlessly, and as dad-cringe as his entire opening enthusiasm about the Smallville Harvest Festival is, it’s real. He doesn’t have to fake this for his family, it’s really who he is. It’s great and I don’t know how many other leading man types who have played this role over the last 20 years or so who could actually pull this off so easily.

Anyway, that was quite a digression. Sorry about that.

I singled out Jonathan’s struggles this episode for some mild criticism above, if only because we’ve been watching this kid’s life unravel pretty much since the first episode. It is, perhaps, a little TOO convenient that he gets dumped by phone the same moment his brother is setting up his first ever date. And maybe this is the kind of thing they could have saved another episode or so instead of letting it come so soon on the heels of his football struggles.

But both of these kids are just so damn good that it’s tough to fault it. Jordan Elsass makes Jonathan perhaps the most likeable character on this show, even when he should be (as Sarah points out) a completely insufferable jerk. I know there’s speculation out there that Jonathan will be driven to villainy by his pretty ordinary teenage struggles, and I just don’t see it happening. These are both good kids, and even when they screw up, it’s pretty clear that their heads are screwed on straight. I’d just like to see Jonathan catch a break soon, though.

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They’re definitely playing the long game with Jordan, too, and Alex Garfin manages to imbue him with the almost wild-eyed wonder of someone who really just can’t believe his good luck…all without either lording it over or condescending to his suddenly unlucky brother. I’ve always felt that empathy is a secret Kent superpower, and Jordan’s got that by the boatload.

Lois and Chrissy are a surprisingly delightful pairing, and so far this show has managed to resist the rest of the Arrowverse’s tendency to “do a journalism” here, even as we see these two starting to dig a little deeper into whatever Morgan Edge is up to. Still, the fact that Lois literally can’t even write for the Smallville Gazette at the moment isn’t doing my or anyone else’s misgivings that they’re sidelining her any favors. It’s great to see Lois in these other contexts, and Elizabeth Tulloch is nothing short of the best screen Lois this century, but I can’t help but think that there’s something being missed with her story so far. (That being said, her thoroughly annoyed “go faster” to the boys at the Harvest Festival was a terrific, and intimidating fun moment.)

Those flashback sequences, though! Just as I love it that Jon, Jordan, and Sarah are all actually believable as teenagers (coughSmallvillecough), I like that they fully leaned into awkward 15-16 year old beanpole Clark and not some already filled out heartthrob type. Clark leaving home THIS early feels like a slightly new wrinkle for the Superman mythos overall, and I’m especially interested in seeing if we’ll see how some of this developed down the road.

I look forward to seeing Wolé Parks’ Captain Luthor continue to develop, but it would be nice to see if they give him enough screen time soon to give us anything beyond “seething, barely contained rage.” I’m also very curious to see if there’s any nuance they can build into his Lois twist, so that she doesn’t just become another object of fixation for the character. Similarly, it’s time for this story to show us a little more of its hand with the Morgan Edge/X-Kryptonite stuff, because sometimes a slow burn is just a fizzle, y’know?

I appreciate this show’s commitment to its family drama first storytelling, and I get that if we show Superman in action too much it will a) not be as special and b) eat up the FX budget so the moments we DO get won’t look quite as good. But I’d like to see a little more, and I certainly hope that more of Superman’s rogues’ gallery becomes open for business at some point. Yes, I get it, so many of those were utilized on Supergirl already, and I don’t want this show to fall prey to the “villain of the week” tedium that The Flash occasionally slips in to. I’m sure there’s some middle ground that won’t lose what makes this show stand out from its peers.

Metropolis Mailbag

Right out of the gate in this episode we learn that Smallville was established in 1949. It certainly was! While it was clear early in the Superman mythos that he wasn’t from Metropolis, and had grown up on a farm, and Superboy was established as a character in 1945, it wasn’t until 1949 that Clark’s hometown actually got it’s name, in the pages of Superboy #2.

Martha Kent giving Clark the sunstone crystal is a new one. Usually, so much of Clark learning about his heritage is tied exclusively to his father(s). Either the crystal itself calls to him (in which case, it’s Jor-El) or it’s Jonathan telling him the story of how he was found. This is the first time I can think of where it’s Martha really speeding Clark along on his journey to becoming Superman, and it’s about damn time.

On that note, their conversation about Clark being “sent here for a reason” is very much a nod to Glenn Ford’s Pa Kent talking to Jeff East’s young Clark in Superman: The Movie.

I assume he’s leaving here because the sunstone crystal told him to head north so it can build the Fortress of Solitude, but let’s ALSO not forget that Supergirl established early on that Clark was a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes in the future, so…this might be the time!

Spot anything I missed with these Superman Easter eggs? Let me know in the comments!

The post Superman & Lois Episode 5 Review: The Best of Smallville appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[majesticnerdynerd]

Author Interview Tag

I was tagged by @iris-best-taken-in-small-doses, thank you for tagging me! <3

Name: Vee

Fandoms: Primarily Sherlock BBC, but also RDJ Holmes, Harry Potter, and the Fallout games universe, plus Supernatural and bits of Doctor Who which I’ve seen and liked

Where you post: Ao3, I love this site

Most popular multi-chapter fic: So far it’s my first ever published fic from earlier of this godforsaken year, Harry Potter and the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, which has just a few days ago surpassed 2k hits. It’s a crossover between HP/SH, and I must admit I do neglect it a little because I have a second fic I publish, which brings us to....

Favourite story you’ve written till date: Definitely Reichenbach Falls. I speed-wrote the first 8-and-a-bit episodes over the course of 2 months while also studying for transfer exams, and I keep my pace up and it is my main focus at the moment. It’s also the most ambitious crossover I’m attempting, because it is the Holy Trinity of SuperWhoLock, and a Gravity Falls AU, so it offers a lot of lore I am proud that I came up with. It has its own challenges I like to tackle, especially when it comes to intertwining characters from numerous TV shows to coherently worked together, plus their character arcs and character developments that are to come. I hide easter eggs here and there and put some of my soul into it, so it is very dear to me. I think I am doing the job adequately so far, but time will tell. :) I do love HPatAoSH, because it is my first fic ever and I am still excited about it, but I put it on the backburner and procrastinate on the chapters I post usually

Fic you were nervous to post: Both my big series, really. One never knows what reception they’re going to get, and we all hope to get the characters to interact just right. The HP crossover because it has two timelines that later intertwine in 1997 when the Golden Trio asks the Baker Street Dumbass Detective Duo for help and I need to make certain corrections in some earlier chapters. Reichenbach Falls because it is SuperWhoLock and as I said, it’s huge, 3 parts in 1 work, so 300 chapters give or take in total, and I hope to do my best with everyone’s characterisation.

How you choose your titles: Depends. HP/SH was a bit self-explanatory, and I think it fits well into the AU and foretells what’s up in a sense that you know who is involved and if you know both fandoms, you get a whiff of a couple shenanigans. Reichenbach Falls was a bit difficult to name and I stalled on it, but then on one hot summer day that I spent cowering inside the house like the pale gremlin I am, I thought hm,,,,, the show is called Gravity Falls, but I can’t use that of course. And then I remembered that Reichenbach is a thing, the waterfall is in canon as well and BAM - Reichenbach Falls. It’s all more about a sudden epiphany than hard thinking, it comes by itself. 

Do you outline: Yes, but do I stick to it? Nah. I do write steps for each episode for RF, but those serve only as a mild reminder of what the end goal is, and I wing the rest to my standard. It works well so far. With HP/SH, I just wing it and rely on the past chapters because as I mentioned, I’m a sorrowful procrastinator on this one for now. My outlines are general which gives me space to improvise and improve on the run, which I like, it doesn’t restrict me in any self-induced way, so I prevent mental blocks nicely. 

Complete: Living Musical, which is a one-shot I wrote for Steph from inevitably-johnlocked. Fluffy, too! And it needs revision because I wrote it in 4 hours until it was 1am and I have no recollection of that evening anymore. And... god, I need to fix the typos. *facepalms*

In Progress: HP/SH crossover and Reichenbach Falls I linked above already. They’re plenty to take care of :D

Coming soon/not yet started: this is what I am excited about! I have a new AU in mind, either some postapocalyptic wasteland AU, but most probably also an AU of the game Fallout: New Vegas at the same time (it’s basically the same concept). I have the basic plot in mind and down, and ohhhhh guysssss I really like it. I’d also like to make it an interactive fic where the readers may choose which factions John and Sherlock could join, which would affect the ending of the fic, much like what happens in the game, but I’m not decided on this. But there is great potential, I think, though I need to make a big mindmap and brainstorm all that would need to be involved, so there’s lots of lore to consider (which I already got started on). It would be another huge fic, and I plan to write at least half of all that could be published before sending it to ao3, possibly. We will see, but you can see how my mind is overworking itself already... >:) it looks quite badass (but that’s just me so far), and its working name is Fallout: New London. Actually, there’s a prologue and first two chapters that are constant (meaning that it is firmly locked to the AU and can’t be influenced by choices) and in progress already and semi-drafted because I am a psycho like that, but no details yet! I have no self-control.. but yeah, this is the biggest one I’m excited about out of all the fics my mind invents.

Do you accept prompts: ehhhh, maybehaps? I don’t know. Probably not at the moment, maybe in a year or so. I like the idea of doing Christmas prompts, so maybe in 300 days approximately, who knows?

Upcoming story you are most excited to write: Currently, it stays on Reichenbach Falls and its 2 later seasons, because that’s when things get real >:)) also Fallout: New London. so much johnlock in sight.

Upcoming story you are most excited about: Due to my lack of time at the present moment, I nowadays mostly revisit some comfort fics if I feel like shit, but I do keep my eye out on @iris-best-taken-in-small-doses‘ The Corvus That Calls at Night. I am subscribed to the ao3 profile so once it an email popped up and I saw ‘medieval’ and all the other priceless tags (pls check them out I love them) I went oo >:D I am merely waiting for my holiday spirit to kick in fully so I can put my feet up and catch up to my reading; there’s also @simplyclockwork‘s Hired Gun I keep my eyes on, and I patiently wait for @jbaillier‘s Messages From Deep Waters -- I remember that back in August(?) she posted a post about doing research on sea fish and how to gut them? Not sure on the English word or if I’m correct at all right now, but hmmm Scotland staged AU, I like that. Also her You Go To My Head stories that are coming, I love them dearly, and I am so excited there’s going to be more Medical Husbands content :’)