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ladyluscinia · 1 year ago

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Ok, I think I might be exiting the "are you fucking kidding me?" period and ready to make a real argument, so lets talk about Three Act Structure!

Is OFMD S2 just the "Darkest Hour"?

A very common explanation I've been seeing for some of the... controversial... aspects of S2 is that it's meant to be that way. That the middle act is where the protagonists hit their lowest point. Where we get the big failure point. Where everything looks kind of shit.

S2 is supposedly just that point. It's The Empire Strikes Back. People have been making that comparison since before the first episodes even dropped, telling everyone to expect something that could be disappointing or unsatisfying - it's just a matter of needing to wait for S3 to pull it all together.

It's not a baseless framework to consider the show through - I'm pretty sure David Jenkins has mentioned it in interviews (or at least mentioned he planned for three acts / seasons) so it's certainly worth asking how he's doing at the 2/3rd mark.

So - quick summary of Three Act Structure:

Act 1 introduces our characters and world. It includes the inciting incident of the story and the first plot point, where a) the protagonist loses the ability to return to their normal life, and b) the story raises whatever dramatic question will drive the entire plot. Act 2 is rising action and usually most of the story. The protagonist tries to fix things and fucks them up worse, in the process learning new skills and character developing to overcome their flaws. Act 3 is the protagonist taking one more shot, but this time they are ready. We get the climax of the story, the dramatic question gets an answer, and then the story closes.

If you want examples, the Star Wars Original Trilogy is a very popular template. And, hell, he said it was a pirate story... the main Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy also does a solid job with their three acts.

Let's compare. (Spoiler: I'm not impressed 🤨)

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First thing I need to establish... Wait. Two things. First is that Three Act Structure is flexible, so we can't really analyze success or failure by pulling up a list of necessary plot beats that should have been hit in X order. Second is that if you tell me you are writing a romance with a Three Act Structure - where "the relationship is the story" - the first thing I'm going to do is ask you how you are adapting it. Because while there's not necessarily anything preventing you from applying this to a character driven plot, most people are familiar with it as plot structure for externally driven conflict.

Unless there's a reason the status of the main relationship is intrinsically tied up in the current status of the war against the evil empire, a standard Three Act Structure is going to entail either an antagonistic force that absolutely wants your main couple apart being the main relationship obstacle OR the romance aspect being a subplot to the protagonist's narrative adventure. None of those sound like how the show has been described.

So how is OFMD adapting it?

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Act 1

(Can't figure out how well Act 2 is doing if we don't start at setup.)

Right out the gate, OFMD breaks one of the main "rules" for a story where the Acts are delivered in three parts. Namely the one where the first Act is treated as an acceptable standalone story, with it's own satisfying yet open ended conclusion.

In Star Wars, A New Hope ends with the princess rescued, Luke finding the Force, Han finding his loyalty, and the Death Star destroyed. The Empire isn't defeated, the antagonists still live... the story is not over, but this one movie doesn't feel unfinished.

Similarly, Curse of the Black Pearl gives Jack his ship back, Elizabeth and Will get together, and Norrington has the English Navy let them all off the hook and give Jack and the pirates one day's head start.

OFMD's final beat of S1 being Kraken Arc starting is not that, even if Stede returning to sea is still a pretty hopeful note. Now... I don't necessarily think this was a bad call. At least, not if the story is the relationship. It's easy to close on a happy ending and then fuck it up next movie if the conflict is external and coming for them. Not so much if you're driving the story with your protagonists' flaws, in part because it should be really obvious at the end of setup that your main characters need development and can't run off together right now. I actually like that they were risk-takers and let S1 look at the situation clearly vs doing a fragile happy end, because it takes into account the difference between a character-driven and plot-driven narrative.

I think OFMD's Act 1 actually ends at maybe the Act of Grace? Well, there through the kiss on the beach, counting as our "first plot point" before everything goes wrong, basically.

At that point, they have setup the story and characters. We've been introduced to Edward and Stede's current issues. Signing the Act of Grace does make the intertwined arcs between them real - it's no longer a situation that either one of them could just walk away from like it was in 1x07 - and we narrow in on the (alleged) driving question of the show:

It's not about "Will Stede become a great pirate?" or "Will we develop a better kind of piracy for the crew?" - the show is the relationship and the big question is "What is Stede and Edward's happy ending?"

Act 1 ends on their first solution, being together and making each other happy and admitting it's more than just friendship. Act 2 starts, appropriately, by saying both of them are currently too flawed for that to go anywhere but crashing and burning.

Now... looking back, what does Act 1 do well vs poorly?

I think it's really strong on giving us the foundation for BlackBonnet's characters and flaws. We aren't surprised Stede goes home or Edward goes Kraken (or at least... we weren't supposed to be surprised. There are still a lot of holdouts blaming Izzy for interrupting Edward's "healing" despite how at this point in the story it doesn't make sense for Edward to have the skills to heal... but I digress). The relationship question is compelling at the end of S1, the cliffhanger hooks, and the fandom explosion of fics did not come from nowhere - the audience was invested.

I also think Act 1 does a great job of settling us in the universe. We understand the rules it abides by, from how gay pirates are just a fact of life to how there's no important organs on the left side of the body. Stede has a muppety force field. Rowboats have homing devices, and port is always as close as you want it to be. Scurvy is a joke. The overblown violence of pirate life is mostly a joke, but we are going to take the violence of childhood trauma seriously.

Lucius's fake-out death, while technically part of Act 2, works well because Act 1 did a good job of priming everyone to go "obviously this show wouldn't kill a crew member for shock value, and we're 100% supposed to suspend disbelief about how he could have survived getting flung into the sea in the middle of the night." And we do. And we get rewarded for it.

Regarding antagonists - a big focus of any setup - the show is deliberately weak. The one with the most screentime is Izzy, and he's purposefully ineffective at separating our main couple. Every antagonist is keyed to a particular character, and they function mostly to inform us of that character's flaws and development requirements. The Badmintons tell us about Stede's repression and feelings of inadequacy, and Izzy tells us about Edward's directionless discontent and tendency to avoid his problems. Effectively - the show is taking the stance this will be a character driven narrative where Stede and Edward's flaws are the source of problems and development the solution. No person or empire (or social homophobia) is separating them...

...which leads me to something not present - there nothing really about the struggle of piracy against the Empire. Looking at Curse of the Black Pearl... we see piracy is in danger. The Black Pearl itself is described as the last great pirate threat the British Navy needs to conquer. Hangings are omnipresent - Jack is sentenced to die by one almost as soon as he's introduced to the story, when his only act so far had been to wander around and save Elizabeth from drowning. OFMD tries to invoke this kind of struggle in 2x08, but there's no foundation. Our Navy antagonists are Stede's childhood bullies, and so focused on Stede the crew isn't even in danger when they get caught. The Republic of Pirates is getting jokes about being gentrified, not besieged.

Even the capture of Blackbeard by the Navy is treated as a feather in Wellington's cap but not a huge symbolic blow against piracy... because we just do not have that grand struggle woven into Act 1. You only know the "Golden Age of Piracy" is ending if you google it, or have watched a bunch of pirate shows.

Overall, a solid Act 1, well adapted to the kind of story they've said they were looking to tell - a romance in the (silly-fied) age of piracy, instead of a pirate adventure with a romantic subplot.

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Now, Sidebar - Where is the story going?

The thing about the dramatic question - in OFMD's case: "What is Stede and Edward's happy ending?" - is that a) there's normally more than one question bundled up in that one + sideplots, and b) while you aren't supposed to have the answer yet, you can usually guess what needs to happen to give you the answer.

Back to our examples... Luke's driving question is "Will the Empire be defeated?" Simple. Straightforward. Also: "Will Luke become a Jedi?" The eventual climax of our story from there is pretty obvious... the story is over when Luke wins the war for the Rebellion in a Jedi way. That's the goal that they are working toward.

Pirates of the Caribbean is a bit more complicated. We're juggling more characters and have a less defined heroic journey, but there are driving questions like "Is Jack Sparrow a good man?" and "Is Will Turner a pirate / what does that mean?" and even "Will the British Navy defeat piracy?" They get basic answers in Curse of the Black Pearl, and far more defined ones in At World's End. Still, this is another plot-driven narrative. They've laid the foundations for the Pirates vs Empire struggle, and when that final battle turns into the trilogy climax then you know what's happening.

OFMD is not doing a plot-driven narrative. To judge how they are doing at their goals, we have to ask what they think a happy ending entails in a character sense.

Clearly it's not the classic romantic sideplot, where the climax is the first kiss / acknowledgement of feelings. They've teased a wedding in Word of God comments a lot, so that's probably our better endpoint. Specifically, though, a wedding where both of our protagonists aren't ready to flee from the altar (big ask) and where they've both grown enough that their flaws / mutual tendencies to run away from life problems won't tank the relationship.

In Stede's case it's still massive feelings of inadequacy and being too repressed to talk about his problems. Also he ran away from his family to chase a lifelong dream of being a pirate - "Is Stede going to find fulfillment in being a pirate captain, or will the real answer be love?" Edward meanwhile expresses a desire to quit piracy and retire Blackbeard, but we also find out he's struggling with massive self-loathing and guilt from killing his father - "Is retiring what Edward wants to do, or is he just running away?"

If they are going to get to a satisfying wedding beat at the climax of their story, what character beats do we need to hit in advance?

Off the top of my head - both characters need to self-realize their flaws (a pretty necessary demand of anyone who runs away from problems). They are set up to balance each other well, but also to miscommunicate easily. They have to tell each other about or verbally acknowledge that self-realization so it can be resolved. Stede has to decide how much being a pirate means to him. Edward has to decide if he's retiring and what he wants to do. They both need to show something to do with getting past their childhood traumas given all the flashbacks. Through all this, they also need to hit the normal romance beats that convince the audience they are romantically attracted to each other and like... want to get married.

Oh, and this is more of a genre-specific sideplot, but once they demonstrate a behavior that hurts the people who work for them, they need to then demonstrate later how it won't happen again. Proof of growth, which is kind of important in a comedy where a lot of the humor is based in them being massively self-centered assholes. Stede doesn't earn his acceptance in the community until he kicks Calico Jack off the ship, making up for causing the situation with Nigel in the first episode. A workplace comedy can get a lot of material from the boss as the worker's antagonist, but if you want the bosses to stay sympathetic you have got to throw them some opportunities to earn it.

All that sounds like a lot, but like - the relationship is the story, right? If we spend so much time on establishing flaws big enough to drive a story, we also have to spend time on fixing them. Which is where the turning point hits.

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Act 2: How it Starts

This is where the full story reality-checks your protagonist. Glad you saved your boyfriend and embraced new love in Act 1, but his repressed guilt means he's about to completely ghost you, and your own abandonment issues and self-loathing are about to make his dick move into everyone else's problem.

Again, it's a non-conventional choice OFMD has this start at the very end of S1 rather than with a sudden dark turn in the S2 premiere, but it's still pretty clearly that point in the Three Act Structure.

In Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back opens with a timeskip to our Rebellion getting absolutely crushed and hiding on a miserable frozen planet. The Empire finds them as the plot is kicking off and they have to desperately flee. They get separated. Han and Leia try to go to an ally for help and end up in Vader's clutches. It's a sharp turn from the victorious note that A New Hope ended on.

Pirates of the Caribbean's Act 2 starts dark. Dead Man's Chest opens with our happy couple Will and Elizabeth getting arrested on their wedding day for the "happy end" escape of the last movie. Jack has not been having success since reclaiming his ship, and we'll soon find out he's being hunted by dark forces. As for the general state of piracy, we get a horrifying prison where pirates are being eaten alive by crows, and a new Lord Beckett making the dying state of piracy even more textual. "Jack Sparrow is a dying breed... The world is shrinking."

The key here is making a point that our heroes aren't ready. This is the struggles part - things they try? Fail. The odds do not look to be in their favor.

Now, OFMD apparently decided to go all-in on flaw exploration, especially with Edward. The first 3 episodes of S2 are brutally efficient in outlining Edward's backslide. In S1 you could see he had issues with guilt and feeling like a bad person. S2 devolves that into a destructive, suicidal spiral where Edward forces his crew into three months of consecutive raids, repeats his shocking act of cruelty with Izzy's toe offscreen (more than once!), escalates it with his leg, and finally they state directly that Edward hates himself for killing his dad so much that he fears he's fundamentally unlovable and better off dead.

Stede's struggles are subtler, but most definitely still there. He's deliberately turning a blind eye to tales of Edward's rampage, half from simply being too self-centered to care about the harms Edward causes others, and half from being unable to face or fathom that he had the ability to hurt Edward that much. Upon reunion he wants to put the whole thing behind them, not addressing why he left in the first place. Very "love magically fixes everything" of him, except Stede is no golden merman.

Interestingly, here, BlackBonnet's relationship dysfunction has very clearly been having a negative impact on the surrounding characters we care about. Make sense, since it's the driving force of the story, but that also adds a lot more relationships we need to make right. Like... Edward is the villain to his crew. The show focuses on their trauma and poisoned relationships with him. And then draws our attention even more to Stede taking his side to overrule their objections to him.

For a story where the conflict and required resolutions are primarily character based, and the setup had already given the main couple a good amount to work with, dedicating a lot of S2 to adding more ground to cover was... a choice. Potentially very compelling on the character end, certainly challenging on the writing end... but not a complete break with the structure.

Bold, but not damning.

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Act 2: How it Ends

Now it is true that Act 2 tends to end on a loss. Luke is defeated by Vader and loses his hand, and Han has been sent away in carbonite. Jack Sparrow for all his efforts cannot escape his fate, and he and the Pearl are dragged to the locker.

But the loss is not the point. The loss is incidental to the point.

Act 2 is about struggles and failure, but it's also about lessons learned. There's a change that occurs, and our cast - defeated but not broken - enters the final act with the essential skills, motivation, knowledge, etc. that they lacked in the beginning.

Luke Skywalker could not have defeated the Empire in Return of the Jedi until he'd learned the truth about his father and resisted the Dark Side in The Empire Strikes Back. (Ok, confession, I'm using Star Wars as an example because literally everyone is doing so, but frankly it's a better example of formulaic Three Act Structure repeating within each movie because on a trilogy level - relevant to this comparison - it is a super basic hero's journey in a very recognized outfit and as such the Act 2 relevance is also... super basic "the hero tries to fight the antagonist too early" beat where he learns humility. Not really a lot going on. So, for the better example...)

Dead Man's Chest has a downer ending with the closing moment of the survivors regaining hope and a plan against an enemy now on the verge of total victory - a classic Act 2. But in that first loss against Davy Jones we get Will's personal motivation and oath to stab the heart, Jack finally overcoming not knowing what he wanted and returning to save them from the Kraken (being a good man), Elizabeth betraying Jack (being a pirate), Barbossa's return, and Norrington's choice to bargain for his prior life back. The mission to retrieve Jack from the World's End is the final movie's plot, but things are already on track to turn the tables back around as we enter the finale.

Now, relevant sidenote - one major difference between Three Act Structure within a single work vs across three parts is that Act 2 continues into Part 3, and only tips over into Act 3 about midway through. This is because obviously your final movie or season cannot just be the climax. That's why both movie examples start with a rescue mission. They have to still be missing something so they can get the plot of their third part accelerating while they go get whatever that something is.

But if you wait until the 3rd movie / season to get the development going at all - you're fucked.

Jack's decision in the climax of At World's End to make Elizabeth into the Pirate King goes back to the development we saw in the Pearl vs Kraken fight in Dead Man's Chest. So does Elizabeth's leadership arc. Will's whole arc about becoming Captain of the Dutchman gets built upon in the third movie, but it starts in the second. Not just as an idle thought - he's actively pursuing it. Already consciously weighing saving his father vs getting back to Elizabeth as soon as he makes the oath. Everyone is moving forward in Act 2. Their remaining development might stumble for drama, or they might be a bit reluctant, but I know that they know better than to let it stick, because they already faced their true crisis points.

I'm not sure we can say the same about OFMD.

S2 does a good job of adding problems, yeah, but there's not really any movement on fixing them. Our main couple stagnates in some ways, and regresses in others.

Stede opened Act 2 by running away in the middle of the night back to his wife without telling Edward anything. We know he did it because of feeling guilty and his core childhood trauma of his dad calling him a weak and inadequate failure. Now in S1 he actually speedruns a realization of his shitty behavior with Mary, but what about S2? Well...

He continues to not talk to Edward about... pretty much anything. My guy practiced love confessions galore but Edward only finds out about going back to his wife via Anne, and it gets brushed aside with a love confession. He seems to think Edward wants him to be a dashing pirate, or maybe he just thinks he should be a dashing pirate. Idk, it doesn't get examined. Regarding his captaincy, they give him an episode plot about Izzy teaching him to respect the crew's beliefs, but this is sideplot to a larger arc of him completely overruling their traumas and concerns (and shushing their objections) to keep his boyfriend on the ship so. That.

Stede kills a man for reasons related to his issues, shoves that down inside and has sex with Edward instead of acknowledging any bad feelings. At least this time Edward was there and knows it happened? Neither Chauncey's death nor his dad have been mentioned to anyone. He gets a day of piracy fame that goes to his head, gets dumped, and ends on a complete beat down by Zheng where he learns... idk. Being a boor is bad? He's still wildly callous to her in the finale, and spends the whole time seeking validation of his pirate skills. He reunites with Edward, kisses, and quotes Han Solo.

Where S1 ended on a great fuckery, his S2 naval uniform plan after they regroup is ill defined except to call it a suicide mission - and we don't get to see what it would have been because it devolves into a very straightforward fight and flee. And gets Izzy killed. Quick cut funeral (no acknowledgement of his S2 bonding with Izzy), quick cut to wedding (foreshadowing), quick cut to... innkeeper retirement? Unclear when or even if BlackBonnet discussed Stede's whole driving dream to be a pirate and live a life at sea, but I guess that got a big priority downgrade. Despite the fact he was literally looking to Zheng for pirate-based compliments in the post-funeral scene.

I guess he's borderline-delusionally dogged in his pursuit of love now - so unlikely to bolt again - but he's also got at least a decade of experience mentally checking out in a state of repression when he's unhappy. And he's stopped being as supportive and caring toward the crew in that dogged pursuit, while arguably demonstrating a loss in leadership skills, so, um, good thing someone else is in charge?

And if Stede is a mess, Edward's arc is so much worse.

As established, they devote the Kraken to making Edward worse. He literally wants to kill himself and destroy everyone around him in the process because Stede left, and this is fixed by... Stede coming back. That's it. The crew tries to murder him and then exiles him from the ship (and Izzy takes the lead on both, indicating exactly how isolated Edward has become), but it's resolved in half a day by Stede just forcing them to put up with his boyfriend again. Like they think he murdered Buttons and still have to move him back in???

The show consistently depicts Kraken Era as a transgression against the crew, but they also avoid showing Edward acting with genuine contrition. He admits he historically doesn't apologize for anything, and then mostly still doesn't. It's a joke that he's approaching probation as a performance (CEO apology), and then the only person he genuinely talks to is Fang - the one guy cool with him - and the only person who gets a basic "sorry" is Izzy - the guy he really needs to be talking to. Edward's primary trauma is guilt, but apparently he only feels it abstractly after all that? He's only concerned with fixing things with Stede, despite Stede being about the only person around who hurt him instead of the reverse.

Speaking of primary traumas, Edward hating himself doesn't really go anywhere after the beat of self-realization. Apparently Stede still loving him is enough of a bandaid to end the suicide chasing, but he doesn't like. Acknowledge that. Edward is maybe sorta trying to go slow so he doesn't hang all his self-worth on Stede again (you can speculate), but they a) absolutely fail to go slow, and b) he doesn't make any attempt to develop himself or another support structure. Just basically... "let's be friends a bit before hooking back up." And then we get the whiplash that is Blackbeard and/or retirement.

Kraken Era is Blackbeard but way worse, like no one who has known Blackbeard has ever seen him. In the Gravy Basket Edward claims he might like being an innkeeper, before destroying his own fantasy by having the spectre of Hornigold confront him over killing his dad. The BlackBonnet to Anne & Mary parallel says running away to China / retiring makes you want to kill each other - burn it all down and go back to piracy. Stede rightfully points out prior retirement plans were whims. Edward gets sick of the penance sack after a day and puts his leathers back on to go try "poison into positivity". But also claims to be an innkeeper (look - two whole mentions!) when trying not to send children to be pirates after teaching them important knife skills.

Killing Ned Low is a serious, bad thing that prompts ill-advised sex and then going hardcore into retirement mode - leathers overboard, talk about mermaid fantasy, get retirement blessings from Izzy, end up dumping Stede for a fishing job instead of talking about how he's enjoying piracy. The fishing job, however, is also a bad thing and a stupid decision because Edward is a lazy freeloader fantasizing about being a better person. We have an uncomfortable, extended scene of "Pop-Pop" weirdly echoing his abusive dad and then sending Edward to go do what he's good at - disassociate, brutally murder two guys, fish up the leathers, rise as the Kraken from the sea. He continues with comically efficient murder but also he's reading Stede's love letters and seeking to reunite with him so... wait, is this a good thing? Post makeout / mass slaughter he's trading compliments on his kills with Zheng so. Yeah. Looks like it. Murder is fine.

Wait, no, skip ahead and Izzy is dying and Edward suddenly cares a whole lot as Izzy makes his death scene about freeing Edward from Blackbeard. Now being a pirate was "encouraging the darkness" because Izzy - a guy who had little to no influence over Edward's behavior - just couldn't let Blackbeard go. Murder is bad again, and he is freed. Minus the little detail that the murder he explicitly hates himself over was not related to Blackbeard or piracy whatsoever, so presumably haunts "just Ed" still. Anyway he's retiring to run an inn with Stede now, as the "loving family" Izzy comforted him with in his dying moments sails away from the couple that can best be described as the antagonists of their S2 arc. Also Edward implicitly wants to get married. It's been 3 days since making out was "too fast". He's still wearing the leathers.

So most of the way through Act 2 and Edward's barely on speaking terms with anyone but Stede, who he has once again hung his entire life on really fast? Crushing guilt leads to self-hatred leads to mass murder and suicide, but only if he's upset so just avoid that. He's still regularly idealizing Stede as a non-fucked up golden mermaid person (that maybe he personally ruined a bit) because he barely knows the guy. His only progress on his future is "pirate" crossed out / rewritten / crossed out again a few times, "fisherman" crossed out, and "innkeeper ?"

Just.

Where is the forward movement?

It's not just that the inn will undoubtedly fall apart - it's that the inn will fall apart for the near-exact same reasons that China was going to at the beginning of Act 2, and I can't point to anything they've learned in the time since that will help them. I guess Stede realized he loved Edward enough to chase after him, but that was in S1! They should be further than this by now. You can't cram another crisis backslide, all the Act 2 development, and the full Act 3 climax into one season. Certainly not without it feeling like the characters magically fix themselves.

If they just fail and keep blindly stumbling into the same issues because they don't change their behavior, then Act 2 doesn't work. You're just repeating the turning point between Act 1 & Act 2 on a loop.

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Where Did They Fuck Up?

Actually... lets start on what they did right.

The one consistent aspect of S2 that I praised and still think was done well in a vacuum (despite being mostly left out of the finale) was the crew's union-building arc.

With only 8 episodes and more to do in them than S1, side characters were going to get pinched even if the main plot was absolutely flawless. That was unavoidable. With budget cuts / scheduling issues, we regularly have crew members simply vanish offscreen outside of one scene, meaning cohesive arcs for your faves was not likely. Not to say they couldn't have done better - my benefit of the doubt for the TealOranges breakup and Oluwande x Zheng dried up about when I realized he was literally just her Stede stand-in for the parallel - but something like Jim's revenge plot from S1 was realistically not on the table without, like, turning half the crew into seagulls to afford it.

The union building works around this constraint really well. They turn "the crew" into the side arc, and then weave Izzy's beats in so that they aren't just about Izzy. The breakup boat crew working together to comfort each other and protect him turns them into a unit, and Stede's crew taking it upon themselves to address the trauma vibes while the captains aren't in the way solidifies it across all our side characters. The crew goes to war with Stede's cursed coat and wins, they Calypso their boss to throw a party, and they capitalize on a chance to make bank with an efficiency Stede could only dream of.

We don't get specific arcs, but Frenchie, Jim, and Oluwande are defaulted to as leaders in just about every situation, and Roach is constantly shown sharing his inventions with different characters. Individuals can dip in and out without feeling like the sideplots stutter. Any sense of community in S2 is coming from this arc - even if there are cracks at the points where it joins to other storylines (Stede and Edward, Zheng, etc.)

So why does it work? Well, because it's a workplace comedy, and you can tell they are familiar with working on those. They know where the beats are. They know where to find the humor. They know how to build off of S1 because they made sure the bones were already there - an eclectic group of individuals that start as just coworkers, but bond over time in the face of their struggle against an inept boss who they grow to care for and support while maintaining an increasingly friendly antagonism because, you know, inept boss.

OFMD does its best work in S2 when it's being true to its original concept... and its worst work when it seemingly loses confidence in its own premise.

"The show is the relationship," right? It's a romance set in a workplace comedy. The setup of Act 1 was all about creating a character-driven narrative. So given that... where the hell are we getting the dying of piracy and a war against the English Navy?

That's not a character-driven romcom backdrop, it's an action-adventure plot from Pirates of the Caribbean or Black Sails. It's plot-driven, creating an antagonistic force that results in your characters' problems. Once the story is about the fight against the Empire, the dramatic question becomes the same as those adventure stories - "Will the British Navy defeat piracy, and will our protagonists come out the other side of the battle?"

Forget the wedding. The wedding is no longer the climax of the story, its back to the happy ending flash our romantic subplot gets after winning this fight.

Except, of course, trying to pivot your story to a contradictory dramatic question near the end of Act 2 can be nothing short of a disaster, because either you were writing the wrong story until now, or you've completely lost the plot of the real one. I shouldn't even be trying to figure out if they are doing this, because it should be so obvious that they wouldn't.

And yet.

What do the Zheng and Ricky plots add to the story if not this? Neither of these characters have anything emotionally to contribute to Stede and Edward - they truly are plot elements. It's a hard break from the S1 antagonist model, but it also takes up a lot of valuable screentime. This was considered important, but still Zheng's personality and motivation only gets explored so far as it's an Edward-Stede-Izzy parallel with Oluwande and Auntie, and they only need the parallel for Izzy's genre-jumping death scene. Which follows a thematically out-of-left-field speech about how piracy is about belonging to something good (workable) and how Ricky could never destroy their spirits (um...?). And then David Jenkins is pointing to it and saying things about "the symbolic death of piracy" and speculating S3 might be about the crew getting "payback"??? An idea floated by Zheng right before our temporary retirement, btw.

Fuck, the final episode of S2 didn't have time for our main couple to talk to each other because it was so busy dealing with the mass explosion of Zheng's fleet and Ricky's victory gloat. We get lethal violence associated with traumatic flashbacks until they need to cut down enemy mooks like it's nothing, at which point we get jokes with Zheng. The Republic of Pirates is destroyed outright, and it feels like they only did it because they got insecure about their "pirate story" not having the right kind of stakes. Don't even get me started on killing a major character because "Piracy’s a dangerous occupation, and some characters should die," as if suspending disbelief on this aspect makes the story somehow lesser, instead of just being a fairly standard genre convention in comedy. Nobody complains about Kermit the Frog having an improbably good survival record.

Did someone tell them that the heroes have to lose a battle near the end of Act 2, so they scrambled to give them one?

Just... compare the wholly plot-driven struggle in 2x08 to Stede and Edward's character-focused storylines in 1x10 and tell me how 2x08 is providing anything nearly as valuable to the story. Because I can't fucking find it.

At best they wasted a bunch of time on a poorly integrated adventure plot as, like, Zheng's backstory or something, and just fucked it up horribly by trying to "step up" the kind of plot they did for Jim. In which case the whole thing will be awkwardly dropped but damage is done. Otherwise, they actually thought they could just casually add a subplot like this because they've done something wildly stupid like think "pirate" is a genre on the same level as "workplace comedy" and can just trample in-universe coherency while you draw on other media to shore up their unsupported beats.

Bringing us to the most infuriating bit...

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"...end the second season in a kinder spot."

If this was the goal, the entire season was written to work actively against it in way that is baffling and incompetent.

The really ironic thing is that the reason that the Act 2 part typically gets a downer ending is because of the evil empire that OFMD did not have to deal with until they pointlessly added it. A plot-driven story has an antagonistic force - a villain - that the heroes need to defeat. Something external working against them. The story ends when they beat the thing, and it's not much of a climax if they do most of the defeating before you get there. Ergo, they have to be outmatched up to the climax. Ergo, the second part cannot end on them feeling pretty comfortable and confident going into the third.

The same rules do not apply in the same way to a character-driven arc.

We already established Edward and Stede declaring their love is not the end of the story. Nor, necessarily, is both of them confidently entering a relationship. Even once they've developed a bunch they will have to show that development by running into the kinds of problems that would have broken them up before and resolving them better.

David Jenkins keeps talking about this idea that S2 is getting a hopeful open ending and S3 will get into potential problems, and like... I don't see any reason why they couldn't have done that successfully. They didn't, but they could've.

If S2 grew them enough as characters and then had them agree to try again in the last minute of the finale, they absolutely could have had a kind and hopeful ending where you were confident they could do it. And then a potential S3 can show that. It's a bit rockier than they were counting on, but they have learned enough lessons to not break up. And then the overall plot can build to proposal (start of Act 3) and wedding (the romantic climax). It doesn't have to be a blow out fight to be emotionally cathartic.

(Hell, the main rockier bit that they overcome in the S3 Act 2 portions could be marriage baggage. I'm sure they both have some. It would work.)

In the same way focusing on our character's long term flaws and character-driven conflict makes an Act 1 "happy ending" more difficult, I suspect it makes an Act 2 "happy ending" easier.

Instead they wrote an Act 2 that failed to convincingly start development and got confused on its direction, and then presented a rushed finale ending in a copy of the predictable disaster from S1 as though it's a good thing. They yanked the story at least temporarily into an awkward place where a romcom is trying to sell me on a bunch of serious drama / adventure beats that it has not put the work into, and inviting comparisons to better versions of those same beats in other, more suited media that make it look worse. The need to portray everyone as reaching happy closure overrules sitting with a major character death and using it for any narrative significance, while still letting it overshadow those happy endings because a romcom just sloppily killed a major character with a wound they've literally looked into the camera and said was harmless.

If I'm being entirely honest, Dead Man's Chest ends effectively at Jack Sparrow's funeral and then cuts to the British Navy obtaining a weapon of mass destruction, and it still feels kinder and more hopeful just because I leave with more faith the characters are actively capable of and working toward solving their problems.

OFMD S2, in contrast, has half-convinced me our main couple would live in a mutually obsessed, miscommunication-ridden horror story until they die.

---

Additional Reading

Normally I link stuff like this in the post, but that requires more excitement than I'm feeling right now. Here's my alternative:

Where I thought they were going with Edward - really outlines the mountain of character development they still have unaddressed

Where I thought they were going with Izzy - touches on a lot of themes that might be dead in the water & also context that's still probably relevant to why Izzy got a lot of focus in S2

My scattershot 2x08 reactions

An ask where I sketched out the bones of this argument, and another where I was mostly venting about the fandom response

This one, this other one, and this last one (read the link in op's post too) about genre shifts and failure to pull them off

The trauma goes in the box but it never opens back up - the whole point of Act 2 is that they needed to start opening shit like that - and also they focus so much on needed character growth and so little on following through

They can't even carry through on character growth that we got last season???

Why Izzy's death feels like Bury Your Gays ran smack into shitty writing

EDIT: Oh and this post is REALLY good for outlining the lack of change in way less words than I did

#our flag means death #ofmd #ofmd s2 #ofmd s2 spoilers #ofmd meta #three act structure #character arcs #blackbonnet #genre #blackbeard ofmd #stede bonnet ofmd #my meta #ladyluscinia #ofmd critical

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luvhughes43 · 2 years ago

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summer loving | luke hughes x zegras!reader

zegras!sister masterlist

word count: 0.8k

this is yours and lukes second time at the lake house together but first as a real couple. while it's true you were dating last time, it was all secretive.

todays activity was golfing and the fact that you've only ever played mini putt did not escape your mind.

“okay you’re up y/n!” jack shouted, shielding his eyes from the sun with his forearm. you had hoped that your boyfriend, brother, and his friends would all conveniently forget that you were with them but there was no chance they were letting you get out of golfing.

“i really don't think that-” you started but were cut off by your brother, trevor zegras, handing you a golf club. “trevor, please don't make me play!” you tried pleading to your brother who rolled his eyes at you in response. he nudged you towards the tee, and you stumbled towards it. you turned around again to try and plead to luke but he shook his head and walked over to you.

“here, you wanna stand like this,” luke said, adjusting your posture and stance so that you were properly aligned to play. “okay, so now you're going to hold the club like this,” he adjusted your hands on your club and you felt the heat rise in your cheeks as you tried not to smile at lukes demonstrations.

luke then stood behind you, and like all cute cliches, he held onto your hands as he helped guide your swing.

“this is disgusting” your brother scoffed as he turned away from the scene in front of him.

“what? they’re so cute!” jack practically cooed as he watched his younger brother and his best friends sister.

“I’m going to be sick!” trevor pretended to gag and you rolled your eyes as you let luke guide you through one more practice swing.

“look at y/n! she’s blushing like a lovesick fool! this could make a grown man cry!” jack teased, and all the other guys laughed at trevors reaction. he looked disgusted with his face all scrunched up.

luke finally stepped away from you and you swung on your own. you hit the golf ball and sent it flying towards its desired destination. you had no clue if you were actually close to the target but by the boys' impressed reactions you were sure you’d done something right.

“baby that was so good!” luke smiled at you and you giggled into his shoulder as he pulled you into a quick side hug.

“please don’t call her baby” trevor groaned, and you laughed at his discomfort.

ynzegras

liked by lhughes_06, jackhughes, trevorzegras, and others

ynzegras im going to be honest, i have no idea what i’m doing here

tagged: lhughes_06, jackhughes

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lhughes_06 you killed it today❤️🔥

ynzegras thankfully i had a good teacher!💘

jackhughes babys first golfing trip🔥💯

fanone whys jack calling lukes gf baby??😭

trevorzegras never again.

ynzegras ??

trevorzegras you know what you did.

colecaufield see you soon😤

colecaufield can't believe you didn't wait to play your first game with me

ynzegras sorry coley i was pressured😓💔

“Luke! Luke! Luke!” you shouted your boyfriends name as you ran from your place on the hammock up to the deck where luke was sitting at. your book was in your hand, finger marking your spot as you crashed into the spot next to luke. he laughed as he brushed the hair from your face and you smiled at him. you laid down with your head on his lap facing up at him. you repositioned your book so you could read it, “Twenty-five but she felt forty. Married but she was alone. Childless and yet, hadn’t she raised children?” you read the malibu rising quote to your boyfriend who eagerly listened.

“Luke, it's just so sad! Nina deserves the world actually and-” you then went on a long tangent explaining the entirety of malibu rising by taylor jenkins reid to luke, who was hanging onto your every word.

“And he's in every single one?” Luke asked, genuinely interested in the taylor jenkins reid lore.

“In this universe yes. but anyway, so nina-” you went on to further explain the details of your book, and luke sat smiling at you as you flipped through the pages and read him various quotes.

ynzegras

liked by lhughes_06, jackhughes, yourbff, and others

ynzegras got him hooked on the tjr lore🙏

tagged: lhughes_06

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yourbff doing what every gf should😭🙏

lhughes_06 no because what happens with jay and hud? like they're just gonna let all that slide??

jackhughes hes so whipped trevorzegras

trevorzegras 😐

jackhughes smile ! clap !

lhughes_06

liked by ynzegras, jackhughes, dylanduke25, and others

lhughes_06 love you to the moon and to saturn🌙❤️🪐

tagged: ynzegras

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fanthree OHH IM CRYINGG

fanthree seven lyrics?? It should be me😭😭

ynzegras there are tears in my eyes rn

ynzegras i love you so much🥲🫶

lhughes_06 love you always❤️

ynzegras 🌙❤️🪐

lhughes_06 🌙❤️🪐

jackhughes trevor is crying and throwing up right now

trevorzegras SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP

fanfour i know trevors curled up in a ball rn😭

dylanduke25 u guys are alright

ynzegras we’re the cutest couple ever stop lying !

dylanduke25 cringe

ynzegras ill remember that next time u want me to bake u something.

dylanduke25 WHAT NO?? my phone was stolen it wasnt me i swearrr😫🙏

_quinnhughes happy for you two💙 liked by ynzegras, and lhughes_06

#zegras!sister x luke hughes #luke hughes x reader #luke hughes insta edit #luke hughes imagine #luke hughes fic #luke hughes blurb #jack hughes x reader #trevor zegras x reader #nhl fic #nhl blurb #nhl imagine #nhl fanfiction

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tigereyes45 · 2 months ago

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Today (Oct. 16th) is my 26th birthday!

As many who have been following me for at least a year now know, I always open my asks to writing prompts from everyone to celebrate my birthday.

This year I'll be accepting requests from October 16th - October 23rd. (My hand has been sore due to a bee sting so this post is a little late. As a result me accepting requests will last a little longer than typical this year.)

As always you can send as many prompts/requests as you want, for any fandoms/characters/ships/etc. Under the Keep Reading there will be a list of the fandoms I am the most into at this moment in time. As far as shipping goes I'm a multi-shipper and enjoy most ship(s)/ship dynamics. I'll only write smut for the listed star trek shows. My inbox is open and anon is on.

The list includes my current favorite fandoms/shows/ships/characters. However you can also make requests for ships/people/and shows not on the list. So here's what I'm most into writing at the moment:

Star Trek TOS (Mcspirk, Uhotty (uhura x scotty), Chulu)

Star Trek AOS (Mcspirk)

Star Trek Lower Decks (Mariner, T'lyn, Tendi, Rutherford and basically any ship of the core four or any of them plus T'lyn)

Star Trek Voayger (Especially Janeway x Tuvok, Mark x Janeway x Tuvok x t'Pel, T'pel x tuvok x Janeway, and B'Elanna x Tom x Harry)

Star Trek Ds9 (they are such a polycule, in so many shapes and forms, my favorite characters are jadzia, kira, odo, Ben Sisko.)

Star Trek Enterprise ( Trip x Archer, Archer x T'pol x Trip, Mayweather x Hoshi)

Star Wars (Ahsoka, Hera, Kalluzeb, Kanera, Plo Koon, Captain Rex)

Red vs Blue ( I will never not be a grimmons fan though all the other ships are fun too! Not to mention any gen fic of any of these characters is always a blast to write!)

Fire Emblem Awakening (Kellam, Yarne x Lucina, Morgan x Nah)

Fire Emblem Fates (Siegbert)

Fire Emblem 3 Houses (Claude, Raphael, Marianne, Byleth)

The Walking Dead Game (Clementine, Violet, Louis, Lee, Kenny, Nick)

RWBY (Nuts and dolts, Nora, Ren, and Sugar rush)

Mass Effect (shakarian, tail x shepard x garrus, kandros x ryder, vetra x ryder, jaal x vetra, jaal x vetra x ryder)

The Librarians (Cassandra, Jenkins, Fleve)

Merlin (Merwaine my love)

Dragon Age (All games/books, I adore Sten, Shale, Warden Surana, and Varric x Hawke)

Tales of Arcadia (Blinky x Aaarrrgghh, Draal, Barbara)

Fallout (tv series)

Fallout 4

Critical Role (I like campaign 2 the best, Caduceus. Veth, and Caleb)

TMNT (all versions)

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layce2015 · 2 years ago

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Supernatural (Dean Winchester x Female!Reader)

The Benders

Masterlist

"I know you’re just doing your job, but the police have been here all week already. I don’t see why we have to go through this again. The more he tells the story, the more he believes it’s true." Mrs McKay said to us as Sam, Dean and I were now posing as state policemen. We came here cause a man had gone missing under suspicious circumstances and that Mrs McKay's son had seen what happened.

"Mrs. McKay, we know you spoke with the local authorities." I said as we take off of our hats. "But, uh, this seems like a matter for the state police, so…." Dean said, shrugging. "Don’t worry about how crazy it sounds, Evan. You just tell us what you saw." Sam said to the young boy.

"I was up late, watching TV. When I heard this weird noise." Evan explained. "What did it sound like?" I asked him. "It sounded like….a monster." He replied and the boys and I exchange a look. "Tell the officers what you were watching on TV." Mrs McKay said to him. "Um...Godzilla Vs. Mothra." Evan said and Dean smiles.

"That’s my favorite Godzilla movie. It’s so much better than the original, huh?" Dean said to Evan, excitedly. "Totally." Evan said, smiling. "Yeah." Dean said then he nods towards Sam. "He likes the remake." Dean said. "Yuck!" Evan said, disgusted, while I shake my head and Sam glares at Dean and clears his throat at him.

"Evan, did you see what this thing was?" I asked him. "No. But I saw it grab Mr. Jenkins. It pulled him underneath the car." Evan said. "Then what?" Sam asked him. "It took him away. I heard the monster leaving. It made this really scary sound." Evan said.

"What did it sound like, Evan?" I asked him. "Like this…whining growl." He replied and Sam, Dean and I exchange another look. "Thanks for your time." Sam said to them and we walk out.

That night at Kugel’s Keg, Sam and I were having a beer at a table, doing some research while Dean was throwing darts. "So, local police have now ruled out foul play. Apparently, there were signs of a struggle." Sam said. "Well, they could be right, it could just be a kidnapping. Maybe this isn’t our kind of gig." Dean said, shrugging. "Yeah, maybe not. Except for this—Dad marked the area, Dean." Sam said and Dean comes to the table and looks at their father’s journal.

"Possible hunting grounds of a phantom attacker." Sam said. "Why would he even do that?" Dean asked. "Well, he found a lot of local folklore about a dark figure that comes out at night. Grabs people, then vanishes. He found this too—this county has more missing persons per capita than anywhere else in the state." I said. "That is weird." Dean mutters. "Yeah." Sam and I said.

"Don’t phantom attackers usually snatch people from their beds? Jenkins was taken from a parking lot." Dean said. "Well, there are all kinds. You know, Spring Heeled Jacks, phantom gassers. They take people anywhere, anytime. Look, guys, I don’t know if this is our kind of gig either." Sam said. "Yeah, you’re right, we should ask around more tomorrow." I said and Sam nods. "Right." He said as he takes out his wallet.

"I saw a motel about five miles back." He said and Dean holds a hand out. "Whoa, whoa, easy. Let’s have another round." He said to Sam. "We should get an early start." Sam said. "Ah, c'mon, Sammy." I pleaded. "Yeah, you really know how to have fun, don’t you, Grandma?" Dean asked and Sam smiles.

"Alright, I’ll meet you guys outside, I gotta take a leak." Dean said and he grabs his coat and heads to the bathroom. Sam and I gather up his research then I turn to Sam. "I'm gonna use the bathroom too. Meet you outside." I said and Sam nods as I hand him his stuff and I head to the bathroom.

Minutes later, I walk out of the bar and see Dean by the car looking around, confused. "Dean?" I said as I walk up to him. "What's wrong?" I asked him. "Sam's not here. He left his stuff on the hood." Dean said. "He's not in the car?" I asked him and he shakes his head and begins to walk around the parking lot and I join him.

Then a group of people, who seem really drunk, come out of the bar and we walk up to them. "Hey, you guys been outside, around here in the last hour or so?" Dean asked them and they shake their heads and walk away.

"Sam!" I shout as we look around frantically. "Sammy!" Dean shouts as I turn around and notice a surveillance camera on top of a streetlight. Then Dean and I walk into the middle of the deserted road and look around as we said, with fear. "Sam."

"So, what can we do for you and your partner, Officer Washington?" Deputy Kathleen asked us after she looked at our fake IDs. We thought maybe the local police could help us with Sam as we couldn't find him at all last night. We introduced ourselves as Officer Greg Washington and Officer Joan Miller.

"We're working a missing persons." Dean replied. "I didn’t know the Jenkins case was being covered by the state police." Kathleen said to us. "Oh, no. No, there’s someone else." I said.

"Actually, it’s my cousin. We were havin’ a few last night at this bar down by the highway. And we haven’t seen him since." Dean said. "Does your cousin have a drinking problem?" She asked us. "Sam? Two beers and he’s doin’ karaoke." I said, jokingly, and she smiles. "No, he wasn’t drunk. He was taken." I said. Kathleen nods and sits down at her computer. Dean and I follow her and sit across from her.

"Alright. What’s his name?" She asked. "Winchester. Sam Winchester." Dean replied and she looks up at us. "Like the rifle?" She asked. "Like the rifle." We said in unison. She types Sam’s name in the computer and brings up his police record.

She observes the page, then clicks on something and reads whatever popped on her computer. "Samuel Winchester. So, you two know that his brother, Dean Winchester, died in St. Louis. And, uh, was suspected of murder." She said as she looks up at us. I glance over at Dean as he tries to look nonchalant.

"Yeah, Dean. Kind of the black sheep of the family. Handsome, though." Dean said and I rolled my eyes. "Debatable." I said and Dean narrows his eyes at me and I give a smirk then stuck my tongue out at him as Kathleen types something else on the computer. "Well, he’s not showing up in any current field reports." She said. "Oh, we already have a lead. Joan, here, saw a surveillance camera by the highway." Dean said as he gestures to me.

"Uh-huh. The county traffic cam?" She asked. "Right. Yeah. We were thinking the camera picked up whatever took him. Or, whoever." I said. "Well, I have access to the traffic cam footage down at the county works department, but—well, anyhow, let’s do this the right way." Kathleen said and she stands up and gets some paperwork from a filing cabinet.

"Why don’t you fill out a missing persons report and sit tight over here?" She said as she hands Dean a clipboard.

"Officer, look, uh, he’s family. I kind of—I kind of look out for the kid. You gotta let us go with you." Dean pleads. "I’m sorry, I can’t do that." She said and she starts to turn away. "Well, tell me something." I said and she turns to me. "Your county has its fair share of missing persons. Any of ‘em come back?" I asked her and she gives me a sad look.

"Sam’s our responsibility. And he’s comin’ back. We're bringin’ him back." Dean said and she stares at us.

Later, we were sitting on a bench outside as Dean's leg bounced a bit. "Hey..." I said to him as I placed a hand on his shoulder. He looks over at me and I could tell he had a worried look on his face. "We'll find him." I assured him and he nods just as Kathleen comes up, holding some printouts.

"Greg. Joan." She calls out and we stands up. "I think we’ve got something." She said and she hands us the printouts and we look through them. "These traffic cams take an image every three seconds, as part of the Amber Alert program. These images were all taken around the time that your cousin, Sam, disappeared." She said as we see just a bunch of pictures of either empty roads or some passing cars

"This really isn’t what we're looking for." Dean said as he flips through the pictures and I look over at the. "Just wait, wait—next one." Kathleen said and Dean turns the page and we see an image of a rusty truck driving. "This one was taken right after Sam left the bar. Look at the back end of that thing." She said and we do and see the license plates.

"Now, look at the plates." She said and he turns another page and we see a close-up image of the truck’s license plates. "Oh, the plates look new. It’s probably stolen." I said and Kathleen nods. "So, whoever’s driving that rust bucket must be involved." She said just as we hear a whining noise.

Dean and I turned around and see a beat-up van driving by. "Hear that engine?" Dean asked. "Yeah." Kathleen said as I nod and watch the old van. "Kind of a whining growl, isn’t it?" I asked. "Sure." She said as Dean and I stare at the van as it drives away. "I’ll be damned." I hear Dean mutter then he and I exchange a look.

"Okay, the next traffic cam is fifty miles from here, and the pickup didn’t pass that one, so…." Kathleen said as she drives her cop car and Dean sits in the front seat and I sit in the back. "So, it must’ve pulled off somewhere. I didn’t see any other roads here." I said and Dean nods. "Yeah, neither did I." He said. "Well, a lot of these backwoods properties have their own private roads." She said and Dean sighs at this. "Great." I said, annoyed, as I stare out the window.

We sat there in silence for a few moments until Kathleen speaks up. "So, guys." She said and Dean and I turn to look at her. "Yeah?" We said. "I ran both of your badge numbers. It’s routine when we’re working a case with state police. For accounting purposes and what have you." She said and I started to bite my lips.

"Mmhmm." Dean hums. "And, uh, they just got back to me." She said and she pulls the car over to the side of the road. "It says here both of your badges were stolen." She said and we look at her surprised.

"And there’s a picture of you." She said as she turns the computer to Dean, where we see a picture of a heavy African-American man.

"And there's a picture of you too." She said and she shows me a picture of an old woman with grey hair. "I lost some weight. And I got that Michael Jackson skin disease." Dean chuckles. "And I dyed my hair and use lots of make-up." I explain as she takes off her seatbelt.

"Okay, would you two step out of the car, please?" She asked us. "Look, look, look." Dean and I said and she stops. "If you wanna arrest us, that’s fine. We’ll cooperate, I swear. But, first, please—let us find Sam." Dean pleads to her. "I don’t even know who you two are. Or if this Sam person is missing." She said. "Look into our eyes and tell us if we're lying about this." I said and she scoffs as she looks between us

"Identity theft? Both of you are impersonating a couple of officers." She exclaims. "Look, here’s the thing. When we were young, I pretty much pulled him from a fire. And ever since then, I’ve felt responsible for him. Like it’s my job to keep him safe. And she's been helping me in anyway she can. I’m just afraid if we don’t find him fast—" Dean said as his voice breaks. "Please....He’s our family." I plead to her.

"I’m sorry. You two have given me no choice. I have to take both of you in." She said then she glances at her visor. I look at it and see a photo of her and another man, smiling. She looks at it then sighs.

"After we find Sam Winchester." She said as she fastens her seatbelt. Dean looks at her, confused, then to me and I shrug at him as we begin to drive off.

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mrsreginagold · 24 days ago

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Saw

Saw 🪚🩸

the first character i ever fell in love with: Lawrence and Amanda since they debuted in the first film.

a character that i used to love/like, but now do not: I get the love for Adam but that faded for me pretty quickly. I could never hate him obviously, just not in my personal fave's list.

a ship that i used to love/like, but now do not: I was neutral to Hoffstrahm at first and then got really irritated by it being basically the sole content for Strahm fanworks (I did eventually find the Perez/Strahm ship tag, but by then I was very over Coffinshipping)

my ultimate favorite character™: William Easton.

prettiest character: Besides Actual Disney Prince William Easton 🤣 I would say Peter Strahm for the guys. As for the ladies, it's a tie between Kerry and Perez, but honorable mention to Pamela Jenkins.

my most hated character: Mark Hoffman

my OTP: My own creation, William Easton/Grace Le Domas (Willace), but in terms of canon compliant options, Strahmrez (AgentShipping) and Brit/Mallick (Pintshipping)

my NOTP: Pirahnashipping and Hoffstrahm

favorite episode movie: Saw VI

saddest death: William Easton 😭

favorite season: Since that isn't applicable I'll go with my second fave film, which is Saw V

least favorite season: Going with least favorite movie, which is Saw III

character that everyone else in the fandom loves, but i hate: John Kramer and Mark Hoffman. Also Brent Abbot.

my ‘you’re piece of trash, but you’re still a fave’ fave: .... I haven't seen Saw X all the way through but I have a sneaking suspicion Cecilia Pederson would fit here.

my ‘beautiful cinnamon roll who deserves better than this’ fave: William Easton. Also Allison Kerry.

my ‘this ship is wrong, nasty, and makes me want to cleanse my soul, but i still love it’ ship: I don't particularly have one.

my ‘they’re kind of cute, and i lowkey ship them, but i’m not too invested’ ship’: Shotgunshipping simply due to it's popularity. Same with ChainShipping (are you kidding I meant this all along and it autocorrected to a NOTP and I had to go fix it 🤦🏻‍♀️)

#asks #mrsreginagold #fandom

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newstfionline · 4 months ago

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Friday, August 30, 2024

Can Tech Executives Be Held Responsible for What Happens on Their Platforms? (NYT) This month, X closed its Brazil operations after one of its executives was threatened with arrest for not taking down certain content. Last year, Changpeng Zhao, the founder of Binance, pleaded guilty to federal money-laundering violations that took place on his cryptocurrency platform. In 2021, Twitter executives in India faced arrest over posts that the government wanted removed from the site. And on Saturday, Pavel Durov, who founded the online communications tool Telegram, was arrested in France as part of an investigation into the platform’s complicity in crimes including possession and distribution of child sexual abuse imagery. For years, internet company executives rarely faced personal liability in Western democracies for what took place on their platforms. But as law enforcement agencies, regulators and policymakers ramp up scrutiny of online platforms and exchanges, they are increasingly considering when to hold company leaders directly responsible. That shift was punctuated by Mr. Durov’s arrest over the weekend, raising questions over whether tech executives like Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg also risk being arrested when they next set foot on European soil.

California has become a new center of political corruption (NYT) Jose Huizar, a former Los Angeles City Council member, is scheduled to report to prison this week to begin a 13-year sentence for tax evasion and racketeering. “He was the King Kong of L.A. City Hall for many, many years,” Mack E. Jenkins, chief of the criminal division at the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles, told the court. “And with his fall, a lot of devastation was left in his wake.” He is just one of 576 public officials in California who have been convicted over the past decade on federal corruption charges, outpacing states that are better known for influence-peddling like New York and Illinois.

Stealing to order (BBC) More than 430,000 shoplifting offences were recorded in England and Wales last year, the most since current police records began in 2003. And the British Retail Consortium reports a growing trend in "unscrupulous businesses taking on local product that has been stolen to order”. Ross, who has 15 convictions for shoplifting but has never been to prison, estimated he stole goods worth £300 ($395) every day, which he would then sell on to fund his crack cocaine and heroin addiction. He said perfume, cosmetics, alcohol and food were among the items he would regularly steal and sell on “as the cheapest wholesaler”. “If I had a bag full of stuff, I would know which shop to go to,” said Ross. “They’d take me into the back room, I’d lay it out on the floor and we would discuss a price.”

Surf before you worship at this church in Portugal (AP) Porto takes pride in its beaches, old churches covered in blue-and-white tiles and its famous port wine named after the city in northern Portugal. It’s also home to a different kind of church—located on its beachfront suburbs along the Atlantic coast near a fishing town known for some of the world’s largest waves. Parishioners attend in boardshorts, T-shirts, flip flops—even barefoot. They surf before they worship. Surf Church was established by a Brazilian-born Portuguese surfer and ordained Baptist pastor to spread the Gospel in a once-devoutly Catholic country—and top surfing destination—where about half of young people today say they have no religion. In less than a decade, it has grown from a few families to dozens of parishioners representing more than a dozen nationalities from across the world. Their motto: “ We love waves. We love Jesus.”

As the far right rises in Eastern Germany, companies struggle to attract skilled foreign workers (AP) Germany is facing a massive skilled labor shortage. Experts say that the country will need to hire about 400,000 skilled immigrants each year to maintain its economy, thanks to demographic decline and a shrinking workforce. Unfortunately, some parts of German society don’t care what the experts say. The far-right AfD party, which has focused on whipping up anti-immigrant sentiment to boost its support base, has garnered a massive amount of support, especially from rural Germans. “Even when there are no majorities so far, there are considerable minorities who vote for the AfD, either to express their protest or to openly express anti-immigration and anti-liberal positions,” said one German policy researcher. According to a recent poll of over 900 German firms, a majority of companies see the AfD as a risk to their workforces and garnering new investments in Germany. Recently, the International Monetary Fund rated Germany as the world’s worst-performing developed economy, adding to the economic worries in Berlin.

In Eastern Ukraine, Terrifying Bombardment and Near Total Destruction (NYT) In the darkness of the cellar in the eastern Ukrainian town of Toretsk, the soldiers did not know how close the Russian glide bombs were landing. But the sudden change in air pressure that accompanied bone-rattling booms testified to the bombs’ destructive force as they tore into nearby buildings. There are many ways to kill and be killed in Russia’s war with Ukraine, but Ukrainian soldiers say that glide bombs are perhaps the most terrifying. They are free-fall bombs, many left over from the Soviet era, but now outfitted with pop-out wings that feature satellite navigation, turning them into guided munitions. Referred to alternatively as “KABs” or “FABs,” they weigh between 500 and 6,000 pounds and are packed with hundreds of pounds of explosives. A single blast can reduce a high-rise apartment building to rubble and obliterate even concrete fortifications. In recent months, Russia has used the bombs to devastating effect, tilting the balance of fighting in eastern Ukraine in Moscow’s favor and allowing Russia to continue to make steady gains in Donetsk region. The bombs have also allowed Russian forces to raze whole towns and villages with ever greater speed.

Ukraine’s ‘flying furniture’ (BBC) Backed by Western tech and finance, Ukrainian firms are making hundreds of cheap one-way attack drones every month. Terminal Autonomy is producing more than 100 AQ400 Scythe long-range drones a month, with a range of 750km (465 miles). The company also makes hundreds of shorter range AQ100 Bayonet drones a month. It is one of at least three companies now producing drones in Ukraine at scale. The drones are made of wood and assembled in former furniture factories. Francisco Serra-Martins, a former Australian Army Royal Engineer, set up the company with his Ukrainian co-founder, backed by US finance. He describes his drones as "basically flying furniture—we assemble it like Ikea". The Bayonet drone costs a few thousand dollars. A Russian air defence missile used to shoot it down can cost more than $1m (£750,000). These drones have forced Russia to move aircraft to bases further away and reduce the frequency of their attacks.

Indian Doctors Lead Landmark Protests (Foreign Policy) For more than two weeks, doctors and medical workers have been protesting across India—the longest-running such movement in recent memory. The demonstrations were triggered by a horrific case of sexual violence at one of India’s oldest hospitals: On Aug. 9, a 31-year-old female trainee doctor was raped and killed at R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata. The doctor had just completed a 36-hour shift and was resting in a seminar room. Police have arrested a hospital volunteer; however, the victim’s family alleges that she was gang-raped. In response to the killing, thousands of Indian doctors went on strike, declining to provide nonemergency medical care. In Kolkata, as protests continued this week, police responded with tear gas and water cannons. Sexual violence is a long-standing problem in India, but the Kolkata case has prompted unusual outrage, which protesters attribute to the shocking circumstances of the crime: The victim, sworn to caring for others and exhausted after a long shift, was targeted in a space where safety should have been guaranteed. Some female doctors say the tragedy underscores the prevalence of abuse of women in India’s medical system.

At Least 10 Killed as Israeli Military Steps Up West Bank Raids (NYT) Hundreds of Israeli troops backed by drones and armored vehicles carried out raids in the occupied West Bank, Israeli and Palestinian officials said on Wednesday, a growing third front in conflicts that extend from the Egyptian border with the Gaza Strip to southern Lebanon. At least 10 Palestinians were killed, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, in what Israeli officials described as an ongoing operation targeting militants and concentrated in Jenin and Tulkarm, two West Bank cities that an Israeli military spokesman, Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, said have become militant strongholds. The Israeli military said it had killed nine militants. The operation followed months of escalating Israeli raids in the occupied territory, where nearly three million Palestinians live under Israeli military rule. More than 600 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the Oct. 7 Hamas-led assault on Israel, according to the United Nations, in violence involving both the Israeli military and extremist Jewish settlers. Israel has also arrested thousands of Palestinians suspected of involvement in armed groups.

Israel agreed to pauses in the war for polio vaccinations (NYT) Starting this weekend, Israel will temporarily pause its military operations in specific areas of Gaza to allow health workers to give polio vaccinations to about 640,000 children under the age of 10, according to the U.N. Israeli officials emphasized that the move was not the first step to a cease-fire, but rather an effort to stem a potential outbreak of the virus.

Food insecurity crisis (Foreign Policy) Namibia authorized the killing of more than 700 animals this week to help feed its population, nearly half of whom are facing acute food insecurity, according to the United Nations. The Environment, Forestry, and Tourism Ministry announced that hunters will cull 300 zebras, 100 wildebeests, 100 eland antelopes, 83 elephants, 60 buffaloes, 50 impalas, and 30 hippos “sourced from national parks and communal area with sustainable game numbers.” Namibia is facing its worst drought in 100 years due to this year’s record-breaking El Niño, which flooded some African countries and left others with extreme temperatures and drought. In May, the southern African country declared a state of emergency for the more than 1 million people struggling to obtain food and water. The drought has also caused high inflation and rising unemployment rates in Namibia as most households depend on crop and livestock farming.

African farmers are using private satellite data to improve crop yields (MIT Technology Review) Farmers in Africa are using space imaging to check in on the status of their crops, tapping into imaging from California satellite provider EOS to monitor the state of fields. Last year the company launched EOS SAT-1, which is solely for agriculture and has fees on the order of $1.90 per hectare per year, which makes it ideal for smaller farms and priced reasonably well for developing countries. Over 242,000 people in Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America, the U.S. and Europe use the crop monitoring platform, with 53,000 joining the service last year.

Subsea fiber-optic cables (CSIS) Subsea fiber-optic cables, a critical information and telecommunications technology (ICT) infrastructure carrying more than 95 percent of international data, are becoming a highly consequential theater of great power competition between the United States, China, and other state actors such as Russia. The roughly 600 cables planned or currently operational worldwide, spanning approximately 1.2 million kilometers, are the world’s information superhighways and provide the high-bandwidth connections necessary to support the rise of cloud computing and integrated 5G networks, transmitting everything from streaming videos and financial transactions to diplomatic communications and essential intelligence. The scale and exposure of undersea infrastructure make it an easy target for saboteurs operating in the gray zone of “deniable attacks short of war.” In 2023, Taiwanese authorities accused two Chinese vessels in the area of cutting the only two submarine cables that supply internet to Taiwan’s Matsu Islands, plunging its 14,000 residents into digital isolation for six weeks. And in October 2023, a Baltic Sea telecom cable connecting Sweden and Estonia sustained damage at the same time as a Finnish-Estonian gas pipeline and cable. An investigation focused on a Russian-flagged ship and a Chinese-owned vessel operating in the area as the likely sources of the alleged sabotage.

Accidental falls in the older adult population (Journalist’s Resource) Accidental falls are among the leading causes of injury and death among adults 65 years and older worldwide. Globally, some 684,000 people die from falls each year, and the death rates are highest among people aged 60 and older. About 37.3 million people each year require medical attention after a fall, according to the World Health Organization. In the United States, more than 1 in 4 adults aged 65 or older fall each year, according to the National Institute on Aging. In 2022, health care spending for nonfatal falls among older adults was $80 billion, according to a 2024 study published in the journal Injury Prevention. Several factors, including exercising, managing medication, checking vision and making homes safer can help prevent falls among older adults. Removing fall hazards in the home—such as increasing lighting in dark hallways or adding railways to stairwells—reduced the number of falls by 38% among older adults.

#headlines #news

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whatsonmedia · 6 months ago

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Experience the Vibrant As One in the Park Festival 2024

Get ready for an extraordinary celebration of LGBTQ+ pride, diversity, and festivities at the As One in the Park Festival 2024. Taking place on Sunday, July 21st at Walpole Park in Ealing, West London, this inaugural event promises a day filled with joy, creativity, and love. With an impressive lineup of DJs, captivating performances, delicious street food, and exciting entertainment, this festival is set to be a highlight of London's summer schedule. Discover the vibrant world of As One in the Park and immerse yourself in a celebration of LGBTQ+ culture. Join the Celebration of As One in the Park Festival: Uniting for LGBTQ+ Pride and Festivities The As One in the Park Festival 2024 is a one-day extravaganza dedicated to celebrating LGBTQ+ pride, diversity, and inclusivity. On Sunday, July 21st, immerse yourself in the vibrant atmosphere of Walpole Park in Ealing, West London, as the festival unites the community for a day of joyous festivities. Experience the rhythmic beats of renowned DJs Hannah Wants and Absolute as they take the main stage by storm. Prepare to be captivated by the incredible performances of drag superstars Danny Beard and Baga Chipz, who will bring their unique talents to the festival. Indulge in a variety of entertainment options, from mesmerizing cabaret shows to side-splitting live comedy acts. Be awed by circus performances and dance along to the energetic routines of talented dancers. Explore the market area, where you can get your body painted and add a touch of glitter to your festival look. Tantalize your taste buds with an array of street food offerings and refreshing drinks from the pop-up stalls. And for those seeking an elevated experience, the VIP area awaits you with its own stage, DJs, entertainment, and delectable food options. The As One in the Park Festival is committed to supporting local talent and ensuring accessibility for all. With ticket prices set at an affordable £20, it's an opportunity for everyone to come together and celebrate LGBTQ+ pride without breaking the bank. Heading up Main Stage festivities is the self-taught turntablist & global star Hannah Wants, who’s just released her new single “Cure My Desire” ahead of a US tour. With standout shows at Coachella, Miami Music Week, EDC Vegas, Avant Gardener (NYC) and Shambhala (Canada), Hannah is an international headliner who knows how to get the party started. Line Up: DJs Hannah Wants, Absolute, Kevin McKay, Massimo Paramour, Arnaldo Novris, Callum Crighton, DJ Lonyaz, DJ Kaspa, DJ Nkay, DJ, Zaago, Etham Denton, Fabio Luigi, Lee Harris, Lewis Jenkins, Liam Chaplin, Mas Que Nada, Nick Shepherdson, Raul Botella, Raul Mata, Ross Anderson, Tony English and Zach Burns Artists: Danny Beard, Baga Chipz, Amy Laqueefa, Brandy X, Callum Crighton, Chantelle Ayanna, Flesh And Bones, Not Just That Jade, Pork Elizabeth Pie, Silverhook, Smiley Vyrus, Son Of A Tutu, Ysheblack Collectives: Uokhun? Featuring DJs Rita Lin, Victoria Peckham ++ - Sundia - Lana Del Rave - The House of Happiness - Beef Mince - Homoparody - Poc Doc - Beyond - Orange - Vanilla - A:M - Lil Miss Jackie - Mint Known for her deep, tech and rolling, bass-driven sounds, with an ability to combine classic influences, Hannah has headed up events at Printworks (2023 season), Parklife Festival, and BBC Radio 1’s Ibiza event. As well as being one of Defected Records A List artists, she also has her own imprint, Etiquette. Hannah also created the soundtrack for Chantelle Cameron’s 2023 World Title fight against Katie Taylor, one of the biggest boxing fights in women’s history of the sport. Don't miss out on this fabulous addition to London's summer festival scene. Mark your calendars for Sunday, July 21st, 2024, and join us at Walpole Park in Ealing for a day filled with love, acceptance, and unforgettable moments. Get your tickets now at and be a part of this vibrant celebration of LGBTQ+ culture. For more Festival updates visit WhatsOn Join the Celebration of As One in the Park Festival: Uniting for LGBTQ+ Pride and FestivitiesCollectives: Uokhun? Featuring DJs Rita Lin, Victoria Peckham ++ Read the full article

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naturecoaster · 11 months ago

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A “Berry” Exciting Weekend of Fun and Festivities at the Floral City Strawberry Fest!

The Floral City Strawberry Festival, a beloved tradition in Citrus County, is back for its 37th year of berry-filled fun and excitement. Presented by Jenkins Automotive and produced by the Citrus County Chamber of Commerce, this year's festival promises a weekend overflowing with strawberries, entertainment, and family-friendly activities. Mark your calendars for March 2nd & 3rd, 2024, and join us at Floral Park for a celebration of local agriculture and community spirit. With fresh strawberries hand-picked right around the corner from the festival at Ferris Groves, you can look forward to luscious strawberry shortcakes along with flats and half-flats of whole fresh berries that you can take home with you as a sweet souvenir of your day to make your own delectable treats. Not sure what to do with all those delicious Ferris Farms Strawberries? Check out the Floral City Strawberry Festival's Berry Bakery on its website at www.GoStrawberryFest.com. Saturday morning, the festival opens with the posting of Colors, the Pledge of Allegiance, and our National Anthem. Live music and entertainment will fill the main stage all weekend with a full performance lineup! Saturday will kick off with the sweet sounds of bluegrass with ReKindled Bits of Grass from 10 am – 1 pm, followed by headliner X-Hale from 2 pm– 5 pm with a special appearance from Sada Davidson. Sunday will feature Sada Davidson from 10 am – noon followed by headliner George Morris & The Lariat Band from 1 P.M. – 4 P.M. Additionally, take your time to explore the roots of the beautiful Floral City community with a tour of the Historic Duval-Metz House in Floral City where they will be making strawberry ice cream and strawberry lemonade for visitors. Take a quick ride to historic Floral City for a tour of the Duval-Metz house and some strawberry ice cream and strawberry lemonade. Image by Diane Bedard. Considered to be the oldest home in Citrus County, the historic Duval-Metz House will be open both days from noon – 4 pm. Quick shuttles will transport you to the heart of Floral City where you can view this historic destination and explore the quaint town offering a true taste of old Florida from the festival site. Strawberry Pie Eating Contests and Princess Pageants Sticking to its very berry American roots, the annual pie-eating contests and princess pageants will also be back! Ooh and ahh on Saturday morning as poised young ladies take the stage in their favorite strawberry-themed attire for a chance to earn a crown and become the next Strawberry Princesses. Welcome Miss Citrus County AND Miss Florida as two of this year's pageant judges, along with April and Brelyn Royal as the Pageant Director and assistant. There are pageants for strawberry festival princesses. Image courtesy of Citrus County Chamber of Commerce. Maybe getting messy is more your style? Then sign up to compete in the strawberry pie-eating contests for your shot at bragging rights until next year! Pie eating competitions are free to enter and will be held at 1 pm both Saturday and Sunday with registration that day at the festival. There are limited slots so make sure you get signed up early! Soccer Collies Return to Challenge Festivalgoers We are also excited to welcome back the Soccer Collies! Kids of all ages (and even adults) won’t want to miss this fun and exciting free attraction as the Collies take on festival attendees once an hour beginning at 9:45 am. Participants will circle around the trained dogs as the Soccer Collies use their skills to score “goals,” pushing the ball outside the human goalie line. Think you have what it takes to take on the Soccer Collies? Join us to find out! Enjoy Shopping 250 Art and Craft Vendors, the Beer Garden, and the Food Vendors Round out your festival adventures by strolling the park and browsing over 250 art and craft vendors; indulging in a cold beer, a glass of wine, or a hard seltzer at the beer garden near the main stage; enjoying the gastronomic pleasures offered by the many food vendors; or enjoying laughs and smiles with the young ones as they “play themselves silly” in the kids’ area. NatureCoaster is one of the sponsors of the Floral City Strawberry Festival. Stop by our booth in the vendor area and get some merch! Image courtesy of NatureCoaster. Floral City Strawberry Festival hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday. The entrance fee is $5.00 for adults, and children 12 and under are free. Park free at the Citrus County Auditorium and take a shuttle to the festival location. Floral Park is located at 9530 S. Parkside Ave., Floral City, FL 34426 For complete information on the Floral City Strawberry Festival, visit www.GoStrawberryFest.com. On Facebook, search for “Floral City Strawberry Festival.” What's better than a real live strawberry? Image by Diane Bedard Floral City Strawberry Festival at a Glance When: Saturday, March 2, 2024, from 9 am – 5 pm, and Sunday, March 3, 2024, from 9 am – 4 pmWhere: Floral Park, 9530 S. Parkside Avenue, Floral City – 3 miles south of downtown Floral City on US Hwy 41Cost: Festival Admission is $5 per adult, children 12 and under are freeParking: SATURDAY at the Citrus County Auditorium located at 3610 S. Florida Ave, Inverness. SUNDAY at the Citrus County Speedway just north of the Auditorium. Free shuttle buses will be running all day, on both days.Website: GoStrawberryFest.comFacebook: Search for “Floral City Strawberry Festival”Phone: 352-795-3149 Read the full article

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adickaboutspoons · 1 year ago

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Ok, but I NEED to talk about the duel and duelling in general right now, because this is v. much of the David Jenkins School of Historical Accuracy. Duelling in the 18th century was not just "fighting but with swords". It was mostly a thing the upper class did, and there was a whole Code Duello that spelled out the roles and the steps of the duel from issuing a challenge to the terms under which satisfaction was achieved (I swear I'm not trying to make it sound euphemistically sexual, that's just the terminology). But most of all, it was never about "winning" or one party or the other being proved "right" through victory - it was all about honor. The aggrieved party suffers some slight against himself or his family that he perceives as damaging to his honor, and issues a challenge to the offending party, in public, and stating the specific grievance. The offending party can then either apologize in public, or accept the challenge to show that HE has honor (importantly, EITHER condition supports this conclusion. The only way to lose face is to refuse to do either). The challenged party gets to chose the weapons, the challenger gets to set the time and place. Seconds and physicians are engaged by both parties. If either party fails to show up, he's branded a coward (interestingly the only condition under which there is a clear "winner" - be default, the party that shows shows up is the one who has demonstrated his honor, so his side of whatever the slight was is considered justified). Seconds can try to broker an understanding or restitutions before the duel starts. If an agreement can be reached, then everyone has conducted themselves honorably and can go about their lives. If no agreement can be reached, the duelling space is defined (usually a 20 paces x 20 paces square with the corners marked by handkerchiefs. If you leave the square, you are considered a coward). Opponents stand at opposite corners and wait for the signal to be given for the duel to commence. Fighting to "first touch" wasn't a thing (that's olympic style fencing, which has it's own complicated set of rules). Fighting to "first blood" was generally considered cowardly and dishonerable. But also, v. few duels were "to the death". Mostly, combatants went at it until they wore themselves out or one of the physicians called it (though a fair few died from infection from wounds sustained during the duel because 18th century medicine was a big yikes). And that was it. Both parties established they were honorable and went on their separate ways. In other words, it was all pagentry and intricate rituals. So Izzy had already broken protocol when he a) issued the challenge without stating his grievance, & b) chose the weapons, though that was CLEARLY Stede's perview as the challenged party. Stede, as a member of the upper class, would have heard "I challenge you to a duel" and thought "oh FINE. The angry chihuahua man is probably still cross that I forgot his name or something. I'll do this and he can blow off some steam and then everything will be fine." So of course he would accept. And THEN Izzy pulls out the nonsense about there being a winner and a loser and the stakes that are attached? Have you no honor, sir?

Stede never actually agrees to Izzy’s terms for the duel where the loser gets kicked off the ship. Stede agrees to a duel, but Izzy doesn’t introduce the idea of the loser getting banished until after Stede has agreed and then he immediately attacks Stede without giving Stede time to say whether or not he agrees to these new conditions. So I think it’d be funny if Stede had lost and then just refused to leave the ship because he had never agreed to that.

#</pedantry from your friendly local sword bi>#ofmd #our flag means death

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thedeadthree · 2 years ago

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FIVE SONG OTP PLAYLIST

tagged by the darlings @adelaidedrubman, @leviiackrman, @marivenah, @dihardys, and @shellibisshe! ty so much you all! and saw @risingsh0t do this as well!

(x)

TAGGING: @griffin-wood, @aartyom, @queennymeria, @blackreaches, @chuckhansen, @lacunafiction, @pheedraws, @swordcoasts, @virassan, @confidentandgood, @saintsilver, @arklay, @steelport, @celticwoman, @florbelles, @belorage, @rosebarsoap, @multiverse-of-themind, @jackiesarch, @alexandbear, @heroofpenamstan, @shadowglens, @pegxcarter, @inkrys and you!

BAD HABIT // STEVE LACY

kinda mad that i didn't take a stab at it / thought you were too good for me my dear / never gave me time of day my dear / it's okay things happen for / reasons that i think are sure, yeah / i wish i knew, i wish i knew you wanted me

DAFT PRETTY BOYS // BAD SUNS

i don't like you / you look so pretty from afar / i despise you / why you so f*ucking perfect on the outside? / she's dressed in sunrise dressed like dusk / going out she's getting into something / he's going all or nothing

SWEET TALK // SAINT MOTEL

you might want me to drop dead but i don't even care / sweet talk / everything you say / it sounds like / sweet talk to my ears / you could yell / "piss off! won't you stay away?" / it'll still be / sweet talk to my ears

MAKE ME YOUR QUEEN // DECLAN MCKENNA

i know that i mean nothing to you, babe / i'm in your grip from which i can't escape / and i can't help but think that i mean nothing to you babe / so make me your queen

EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED (TAYLORS VERSION) // TAYLOR SWIFT

all i know since yesterday / is everything has changed / come back and tell me why / i'm feeling like i've missed you all this time / and meet me here tonight / and let me know it's not all in my mind / i just wanna know you better

KILLER // FKA TWIGS

dancing in the dark, i can feel it in my heart / you're a killer, but i didn't want to call it / something in the way you put your hands on my waist / pulled me nearer, no, i never wanna call it / didn't wanna call it, didn't wanna call it / took your love for righteous / and now i'm in a crisis with a killer

MARKED FOR DEATH // EMMA RUTH RUNDLE

who else is gonna love someone like you that's marked for death? / who else is gonna be with you when you breathe your last? / who else is going to take my place and hold and keep you safe? / who else is going to stay? who else is going to stay?

DREAM GIRL EVIL // FLORENCE + THE MACHINE

am i your dream girl? / you think of me in bed / but you could never hold me you like me better in your head / make me evil / then i'm an angel instead / at least you'll sanctify me when i'm dead

HIT ME WHERE IT HURTS // CAROLINE POLACHEK

maybe there's something going on, i'm not insane / if i'm already out of time, then make it worse / go on and hit me in the heart hit me where it hurts / go on and hit me in the / blindspot, achilles' heel / vertigo, vertigo / high stakes, popped ears / promise one day / you will hate me

THE LIAR // MARRIAGES

oh mother they say, they say he was made for me / just you wait a while, just you wait and see / he tattooed with the devil's eyes / idle hands so kind / that lies / but he lies / you lie, you lie, and suffer my name / it's mine, it's mine to give or take it

GEMINI // NIGHTS

lust only pops in mysterious ways / sleep over don't get invested / fall in love and then i pay her rent / hustle and hustle and hustle and die

YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT LOVE IS // CHET FAKER

you don't know what love is / do you know how lost a heart fears? / the thought of reminiscing / and how the taste of tears / lose their taste for kissing / you don't know how hearts burn / for love that cannot live yet never dies / until you've faced each dawn with sleepless eyes

MONEY // TARA CAROSIELLI

love me like your money / i just want you for myself i put on a show / love you better than the others, you don't even know / tell me why you're never here and always doing road / baby when it's time to leave i don't wanna go / i just want you for myself did i say it too late?

I HEARD (FT. THE DREAM AND VORY) // DJDS

and still i wait up, i stay up, i wake up / i pray about you / i know i f*ucked up, throw my face in this cup / can't live without you / but he lies like i lied, but my lies were sweeter / he lies 'cause he wants you / and i lie 'cause i need you

TRY ME // THE WEEKND

better try me / don't you mess with me / don't you mess with me / the way i kissed your scars / the way i fixed your heart, oh / don't you miss me babe? / don't you miss me babe?

MY TEARS RICOCHET // TAYLOR SWIFT

you know i didn't want to have to haunt you / but what a ghostly scene / you wear the same jewels that i gave you / as you bury me / i didn't have it in myself to go with grace / 'cause when i'd fight, you used to tell me i was brave / and if i'm dead to you, why are you at the wake? / cursing my name, wishing i stayed / look at how my tears ricochet

WHERE'S MY LOVE - ALTERNATE VERSION // SYML

old sheets / but where's my love / i am searching high / i'm searching low in the night / does she know that we bleed the same? / don't wanna cry, but i break that way / did she run away? did she run away? i don't know / if she ran away, if she ran away, come back home / just come back home

WALKIN' AFTER MIDNIGHT (FEAT. MAURA DAVIS) // KI:THEORY

i go out walkin' / after midnight / out in the starlight / just hoping you might be / somewhere walkin' / after midnight / searching for me / i walk for miles / out along the highway / well, that's just my way / of saying i love you / i'm always walkin' / after midnight / searching for you

EXILE (FEAT. BON IVER) // TAYLOR SWIFT

i'm not your problem anymore / so who am i offending now? / you were my crown / now i'm in exile, seein' you out / i think i've seen this film before / so i'm leaving out the side door / so step right out, there is no amount / of crying i can do for you / all this time / we always walked a very thin line / you didn't even hear me out / you never gave me a warning sign (i gave so many signs)

IN YOUR LIKENESS // WOODKID

watch my fears unravel / can you see the truth of me? / i don't want the light required / for this endless walk on wire / i know / i'm not made in your likeness

#only if you want to of course! 🖤#im a bit tardy so please feel free to pass on this if you've done it already! finally catching up on the things I've missed <3 #oc: edelgard vanderweyden #x: edelgard x reese #oc: caitrìona mac cathmhaoil #x: caitrìona x marcus #oc: viktoriya vays #x: viktoriya x jenkins #oc: líadáin talovaire #x: líadáin x leon #my brain is a fried egg or you can BET i would have added #more janskaxn like.. i slept the whole day todayjhabhkjsa. the post con sleepiness i tell ya #but lía and leon had NO BUSINESS taking me out at the knees like this! their playlist GETS me everytime!#i have done EXTENSIVE lore esays on daft pretty boys and make me your queen and how they're literally eddie and reese!#and now theres a new contender! bad habits makes me crazy its them!#SPEAKING OF SONGS THAT MAKE ME CRAZY! killer and marked for death! especially after the recent update! they make me crazy!#GODD like.. his most recent sitch.. the missing chestnut from the fire and how he's quite literally marked for death now?#and in killer? after samhain? and the DANCING..! that song THAT SONG like..! this is fine!#and just the chefs kiss of vika and jenkins I MISS THEM SO MUCH GAHH they mean the world to me!#in honor of the upcoming dlc theyre living in my head rent free again! shes back! return of the queen!#leg.ocs #leg.txt #leg.tagged #TY SO MUCH DEARS <3

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supernaturalgirl20 · 2 years ago

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A Fate so Cruel

Pairings: Pero Tovar x f!reader

Warnings: Smut 18+, explicit, unprotected sex, fingering, past life lovers (sorta), witches, soulmates, mentions of soulmate mark, immortality, cursing (because it’s Pero 😏).

Summary: Pero’s greed cost him everything he holds dear. Now, he must search for a way to break the curse placed on him centuries ago and help the woman he loves to remember who he is.

A/N: this is my fic for the @pedrostories secret Santa. My secret Santa is @artemiseamoon 💕 I went with Pero on this one, I hope you like what I’ve written for you 🥰🥰 thank you so much @misspearly1 for the beta x

***follow @supernaturalgirl20-writes and turn on notifications for updates on my writing***

Peeping around the bookshelf at the chime of the bell, you catch a glimpse of who entered and a wave of disappointment washes over you. It was Mrs Jenkins, but you hoped it was a certain dark haired Spaniard.

To your displeasure, you greet her. “Good morning… I’ll just be a moment then I’ll be right with you, Mrs Jenkins.” You call out from behind the pile of books stacked in your arms. They’re a heavyset of books and you breathe a sigh of relief when you place the last one on the shelf.

“Pacing… outside.” She replies and the proximity of her voice startles you. She seemingly appeared out of nowhere when only a second ago, she was standing by the front door. However, you didn’t catch what she said and quickly turned to face her, your hand held over your chest as your heart thrums in your ears.“I’m sorry, come again?” You apologise with a quizzical expression.

“Are you deaf girl?” She retorts, “I said, that young man who has been frequenting the place is pacing back and forth like a mad man outside.” Her face is stern as she glares at you from behind her glasses, though a shy smile creeps onto your face as you look toward the window. There he was. The certain Spaniard you hoped for, and now you hope that he decides to actually come inside today.

The sound of Mrs Jenkins clearing her throat snaps you out of your thoughts and you turn your attention back to her. “If you’re finished ogling the man, I have an order to collect,” she says with a clipped tone before turning to make her way toward the cash register.

You diligently follow her with a slight roll of your eyes. Despite her snippy attitude with you at times, the woman is generally rather nice. “Here we go.” You place a large box onto the counter, which she studies quickly before handing over the money. “Do you need any help, Mrs Jenkins?” You ask, then move around the counter with your hands held out, offering your assistance.

“Nope,” she grumbles as she slaps your hand away. “I’ll manage just fine, thank you very much.” Oddly enough, you weren’t surprised by her actions and brushed it off as she grabbed the box and turned to leave. The bell chimes once again and you both turn your head to spot Pero standing just inside the door, looking rather… Nervous?

“Hm.” Mrs Jenkins mumbles, then proceeds to mutter incoherently under her breath as she shoves past him. He watches her leave before his eyes find yours. “I do not think she likes me very much,” he declares while walking toward you slowly, his hands nestled in his front jeans pocket.

“I wouldn’t take it personally. She doesn’t like anyone.” You smile brightly at him before jerking your head to the side for him to follow. “A few new books came in the other day and I had a quick read of them. Well, skimmed through them really, but some of them are extremely old and they’re from China too. Or at least that’s what Jerry said,” you say with a shrug of your shoulders. “You said you’ve visited the country before so I immediately thought about you.”

Looking up at him as you quickly rummage through the box of books, you find him staring down at you with what looks like adoration in his eyes. His gaze, intense and lustrous, made your skin heat up and you almost lost focus of the task at hand. Great, now he probably thinks I’m weird, you thought while clearing your throat awkwardly before continuing to search for the book.

“Ah. Here it is.” You beam with triumph as you locate the book and hand it over to him. The man matches your smile, evidently relieved that you had found it, until his gaze drops to the cover. Then his smile suddenly fades. Okay, not how I pictured this going. “Is everything ok, Pero?” You ask, slightly worried that you’ve upset him somehow.

“How… Where did you get this?” He questions, his tone slightly harsh making you flinch a little with surprise. You assume he didn’t mean to come across this way and that he was just astonished.

“Jerry brought it in,” You explain, “Said he found them in this old house he was renovating or something. Why? Is it important?” You’re curious now and unconsciously lean closer to him as he flicks through the pages.

He closes it abruptly and rummages through his pocket before handing you some cash. You stare down at the money in your hand and gasp. “Pero this is too much. Well, I haven’t even had a chance to price it but this is definitely too much.”

“It’s not enough, hermosa.” He shakes his head, “Trust me. This book…it may be the answer to my prayers.” The man takes another quick look at you before rushing out the door without another word.

Well, that went great… I think? You wonder silently as you stand staring after him.

***

Pero couldn’t believe his eyes. This was the book he has searched a lifetime for. How ironic it is that you were the one to find it. The gods must be laughing at him right now.

As he rushes out of the shop -albeit reluctantly - he thinks back to his time in china. The memories flood his brain and it’s as if he’s transported back in time.

“You are so beautiful, mi amor. The gods blessed me the day they brought you into my life,” he whispers into your neck. His lips peppering kisses and you groan as his teeth nip at the skin of your there.

“Pero my love, William will be back soon,” you say playfully as you try to push your husband off you. He pulls back, his gaze locked on you and a growl emanates from his chest as he grinds his hips against you. “That idiota will be occupied with general Lin, so we have all the time in the world, amor. Now, let me make love to my wife.”

He sighs at the memory. How he longs to have that again. To have you remember him. To be able to hold you and kiss you, he would give up his life for just a moment with you and your memory of him.

Turning the corner he almost runs into a young child dressed as a witch - Halloween is just around the corner - and he curses in Spanish at the costume. If there was anything on this earth that he hated, it was witches. After all, it was a witch that cursed him to live a lifetime without you. And all because of his greed.

William had warned him. Told him not to do what he was about too. That the woman he was about to rob was a witch, but when has he ever listened to his Irish friend?

The necklace was worth a lot of coin and he was going to sell it and finally build you that home he promised when you left China and the Great Wall behind you. A home that you could fill with his babies. The thought alone had him hard as a rock.

Why had he let his greed get the better of him. You had told him you were happy with the life you both had. Your simple life. Together.

He should have listened. He took the necklace right from under her nose but she soon found out and when she realised that he had sold it, she wasn’t pleased at all. Apparently, it was a much loved family heirloom.

She had cursed him that day. Cursed him to live a life of immortality which was bad in and of itself but then she had cursed you too, only you wouldn’t remember him or the life you both had. What he wouldn’t give to go back in time and change his fate.

The witch - whose name he had learned was Helga, made sure you were lost to him and he spent his life searching. Searching for you and for a way to break this godforsaken curse. His search had led him to the ‘Last Chapter’ bookstore where he finally found you. His Reina.

His body thrummed with nervous energy. Could this be the answer he has been searching for. Would you finally be his again?

He finally makes it home and throws the papers off the table as he places the book on it and begins to search for the right page. No. Not that. Where are you? Ah yes. There you are. His eyes scan the page quickly, searching for the words he hoped were written. Sure enough, they were there.

I’m almost there, my love, he thought.

***

In the days that followed Pero’s departure from you, he hadn’t once come back to visit. You grew worried, especially because of the way he left so hastily, and from the look of desperation he had.

Truthfully, you spent more time than you would like to admit thinking about him and that book. You’ve wondered what significance it has, or what importance it means to him. You only pray that he finds what he’s looking for without driving himself mad.

You also pray that he will pay you a visit again, preferably soon as you wish to see those eyes of his again. They’re so beautiful and warm, transcendent. Whenever he looks at you, it feels as though you’re welcomed in and wrapped up in something familiar. Something you’ve never felt before with anyone, but with Pero, you feel like you’re home.

However, lately you’re left with only the memory of his eyes as he remains unseen. The days pass at a leisurely pace and you bide your time by working the hours away in the bookshop, arranging the bookshelves or reading during your breaks. The tale you read today is a true love story. One of your favourites.

A Spanish soldier falls in love with a maiden from a small village and they travel the world together until they are torn apart by magic. Love conquers all though, and they meet again and live happily ever after.

There’s something so sweet and joyous about reading a love story, no matter how many times you have read stories like this, it never bores you. More often than not, you can guess the endings, but it’s as if you vicariously live through the characters, wishing that their story of love was your own.

As you sit behind the counter on your little cushioned chair, flicking through the pages of just one book out of hundreds in your store, you wait for a customer to ring the bell or something to tear your attention away. Business has been slow today, not that you mind, it’s nice to take a break from time to time.

You ponder in thought about what you’re going to do later, after work that is, and the first idea that sprung to mind was taking an exceptionally long soak in the tub, basking in the warm soapy water and maybe even indulging with a glass of wine.

However, your mind wanders back to Pero - as it always does - and you begin to think about him again. You even hear the sweet pet name he calls you, hermosa. The way it rolls off his tongue so naturally is attractive, and the language he speaks, fluent and smooth, is sexy.

“Hermosa,” You hear the pet name again, this time audibly in your ears and not in the depths of your mind, causing you to exit your train of thought and peep over the counter. There he was. The Spaniard you hoped to see was there once again, as if your prayers were answered.

Thank the gods.

You don’t even know how he managed to enter the shop without the bell chiming, but you don’t care enough to ask. Besides, you were probably too wrapped up in your own mind thinking about him to notice anyways. Quickly snapping your book shut, you lay it down and rise from your chair eagerly to greet him.

“Pero… Hi,” You say bashfully, then ask. “Is everything ok? You left in quite a rush the other day….I’ve been worried about you.”

“He steps closer, a smile edging at the corner of his lips. “Do no fret, hermosa. I’m ok.”

“Oh, good. That’s… That’s good, I’m relieved.” You stutter nervously, finding yourself losing your train of focus yet again as that familiar feeling from his eyes returns. It felt so comforting. It felt like home. “So, did you like the book?” You whisper softly as you walk around the counter, still holding his line of sight.

“It was exactly what I was looking for, hermosa.” Pero moves closer and you notice he’s nervously scratching the back of his head. The movement draws your attention to his hand where he is wearing a silver band. A wedding band. Of course he’s married. A man this handsome couldn’t be single, you think to yourself as you take a step back. How had I not noticed that before?

“Do you believe in soulmates, hermosa?” He asks, moving closer again.

“I - yes I do. I know that probably makes me seem silly but, it’s the hopeless romantic in me I suppose. To think that two people are destined by the gods to be together,” you say softly, a smile spreading across your face.

Pero is smiling back at you and that look of adoration is in his eyes again making you feel hot all over. “Did you know that when the gods fated two souls, they marked them with an identical symbol so that when they descended to earth, they could find each other.” He says, his voice soft and low as he stands directly in front of you.

His breath is hot on your face and you can’t help but look into those deep brown eyes, that slight golden fleck so familiar somehow. “I….is that….did you read that in one of your books,” you ask, your breathing becoming slightly more ragged.

“No, hermosa. I learnt that from my wife. I learnt that from you.” His proximity is causing your heart to beat faster and you can hear it thrumming loudly in your ears. Your vision begins to blur slightly and you feel like you’re going to faint.

“I don’t….how….” You stammer and you take a few steps back until your back hits the counter. Pero’s intense gaze is still set on you as he reaches out both hands, resting them on the counter beside you. He has you caged in, his body pressed against yours and you take this opportunity to really take him in.

He’s so handsome. Even with that scar across his eye. But he’s fucking delusional. Of course you fell in love with the crazy guy. “What are you talking about Pero? I’m not your wife. I’ve never been married. I don’t even have a boyfriend.”

His eyes drift from yours to your lips, where they linger for a moment, before meeting your gaze again.

“I have searched every inch of this godforsaken world looking for you. It’s taken me far too long, but I’ve finally found you and I am not letting you go. Not now, not ever.” He laughs, his head dropping slightly before he lifts it again and lets his eyes drift around the shop.

“Of course this is where I found you, hidden among your books. You always did love to read.” Something on the counter beside you catches his eye and his face lights up when he sees what you were reading.

“I see you are reading our book, hermosa. It is my favourite story of all,” he stands a little straighter as he moves one of his hands to rest on your hips. The heat from his hand permeates your skin and a shiver works its way down your spine.

“Our….our story,” you stutter as he moves his other hand to cup your cheek. “Si, nuestra historia. But the story isn’t over yet.”

His thumb caresses the skin of your cheek and you unconsciously lean into his touch. “Pero I don’t….”

“Do you trust me hermosa?” He asks, his voice soft and low as his eyes flicker between yours. You gulp loudly before nodding your head, suddenly unable to speak.

Without another word Pero begins to lean in, his eyes searching yours for any hint of hesitation and when he sees none, he continues on his course. His lips meet yours in a soft kiss and you can’t help but close your eyes. The feel of his lips on yours causing you to moan involuntarily.

Gods, he tasted so good. Like coffee and a hint of peppermint. Like home. The hand that’s resting on your hips squeezes you slightly. “Te amo, mi amor,” he whispers against your lips before he licks along the seam of your bottom lip.

It’s like a flash of lightning.

Like a film reel playing in your head and all you can see is him. Him and you and the life you had together.

Your eyes dart open and he pulls back as you gasp out a breath. “Hermosa?” He asks wearily as he waits for your reaction.

“Pero? What…what the hell is going on?” Your eyes look around as if you're seeing everything for the first time. Your gaze settles on the man in front of you once again and he’s stepped a little closer.

“Mi Reina? ¿realmente funcionó?” My queen. Did it really work? He asks as he reaches out for you.

A smile spreads across your face and your eyes gloss over with tears as you rush forward and hug him. “Oh Pero. I remember everything. It's been so long, mi amor.” You say with a strangled sob.

“How did you break her curse?” You ask as you search his eyes for the answer. A single tear falls from his brown orbs and runs down along his cheek.

“It was really quite simple. All I had to do was make you fall in love with me again. I should have known but I am a fool, always have been.” You caress his cheek and smile up at him.

“You’re no fool, Pero Tovar.” You say softly as you wipe his tears away with your thumb. “Si, I am but I will spend the rest of our lives making it up to you, amor.”

His lips meet yours in a passionate kiss that starts slowly but quickly escalates when he slides his hands down along your curves and pinches your ass.

He groans into your mouth grinding himself against you and you can feel his desire for you hard against your thigh. “You always did love my ass,” you say against his lips.

“Si. And now I am going to take you right here and now, amor. It’s been so long,” he says with a strangled groan.

“We can’t Pero. What if someone walks in?” You say incredulously. He smiles at you. That same devilish smile he gave you when he was up to no good.

“I turned the sign when I came in. No one is going to disturb us mi amor.” His hands run along your sides, caressing your curves before his hand wanders to the hem of your dress. His fingers slowly move up your thigh until they reach the lace panties covering your slick.

He pulls them to the side and runs his fingers along your slit and you groan into his mouth. “So wet, hermosa. Is this all for me?” He teases as he slowly pushes two fingers inside your aching cunt.

“Yes. All….all for you Pero. Only you,” you gasp, your body tingling with pleasure. The coil in your stomach tightens and just when it’s about to snap, he pulls his fingers out.

“No,” you groan and he smiles at you before taking his fingers in his mouth and sucking them clean. “Gods I’ve missed your taste, hermosa.”

A low deep growl emanates from his chest as he works to quickly undo his belt before shucking his trousers down to his knees. Gods, you forgot how thick he is. Well, of course you did, you were cursed.

He lifts your leg over his waist, holding it in place as he lines himself up with your core. Panties once again pushed to the side, you wait with bated breath as he slowly works himself into you.

“Mierda,” he cries out before burying his face into the crook of your neck. “I’m never letting you slip through my fingers again, amor. Not when you take me so well.”

You both moan loudly when he is fully sheathed inside you, taking a breath until you adjust to him. His lips pepper kisses along your neck, “ready amor?” He whispers into your skin and you shiver with anticipation.

“Yes. Please, Pero. Fuck me.” His hips pull back a little and then thrust into you, over and over again. His pace is slow at first but as soon as you moan his name it’s like a switch is flicked and he starts pounding into you.

“Eres tan hermosa, cariño. Nunca dejarte ir de nuevo.” You’re so beautiful, baby. Never letting you go again.

“Pero…oh fuck I’m….I’m gonna come,” you cry out, body shuddering as your orgasm washes over you. The feeling of your cunt clenching him tight, sends him over the edge and he comes with a loud grunt.

A gasp from behind him startles you both and you quickly fix yourselves before turning to find Mrs Jenkins standing there looking aghast.

“How dare you, and in a bookshop of all places. I knew there was something about you,” she says, anger evident in her tone as she points a finger at Pero. “Sick pervert. And you,” she turns to face you, disgust clear on her face. “I’m gonna make sure you get fired for this.”

She turns with a gasp and rushes out of the shop. You turn to find Pero bent over in laughter and you slap him gently on the arm. “Not funny.”

“Oh come on hermosa,” he says as he moves closer towards you. “It’s a little funny. She definitely doesn’t like me now though.” His eyebrow is raised in amusement and you can’t help but laugh. “Well if it makes you feel any better, she definitely hates me now too.”

“I don’t care who hates me mi amor, as long as I have you.” Pero gazed at you, his eyes full of love and adoration. He swore silently to himself that he was never letting you go again. Ever.

#pedro pascal #pero tovar x f!reader #pedro pascal x reader #pero tovar x female reader #pero x reader #pedro pascal x female reader #pedro pascal fanfiction #pero tovar fanfiction #pedrostoriesgift22 #pedrostories

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wayward-dreamer · 2 years ago

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Leave It All Behind

Dean’s Lessons Part 4

Pairing: Mechanic!Dean x Female!Teacher!Reader

Word count: 1,736

Summary: Selected chapters from Life’s Lessons told from Dean’s POV. Scenes that you didn’t get his perspective on, or scenes that you didn’t see… now you can. This part takes place after the events of chapter 9 of Life’s Lessons, the Thanksgiving chapter.

Warnings: Slight angst, brief fight, that’s about it.

A/N: I know, it’s been a while. I’m really hoping to get back in the swing of things with the LL saga, and I just really hope people have stuck around for it and continue to, but I completely understand if y’all don’t want to. This part was a lot of fun to write, and something I was hoping to include in LL but it just didn’t fit properly, so here you go. As always, happy reading and enjoy! :) beta’d by my darling @evergreencowboy.

Life’s Lessons Saga Masterlist

Dean jolted awake as his alarm blared loudly, fumbling to turn it off. He glanced to his side, seeing Y/N shift under the covers with a soft groan, before her breath evened out again and she went back to sleep. He cursed himself for forgetting to turn off the reminder to wake up at 7am, considering he had the day off as it was the Friday after Thanksgiving. He had no plans for the day, just wanting to spend it with Y/N as much as possible after the harrowing way her Thanksgiving ended. Her and Mark were most likely finished, at least he thought they were after everything she told him had happened at Mark’s apartment. He had blamed her for his own problems, and it had no doubt brought up some awful memories of her ex for her, so all Dean wanted to do was be there for her.

If he could find Mark and rip him a new one, he would, but there was no way Y/N was going to tell him where Mark lived.

Well, maybe she didn’t have to.

Deciding to make use of the time now that he was up early, he got out of Y/N’s bed slowly, being careful not to wake her. He smiled to himself as he remembered the night before, her asking him to sleep next to her because she didn’t want to be alone. He knew it was important to heal from the relationship with Mark first, but he was certain that this was the start of something incredible for them.

He walked out to the living room and picked up his jeans, pulling them on along with his jacket, tapping the pocket to check for his keys. Glancing around her living room, he knew he should leave her a note to tell he’d be back later and was glad to see a notepad and pen on the coffee table. He was in the home of a teacher, after all. He scribbled a quick note and ripped the paper off, slowly walking back into her bedroom, placing it on the pillow he slept on.

Mornin’ beautiful,

I didn’t have it in me to wake you up, but there’s some things I had to do this morning. I promise I’ll be back later, and we can hang out.

See ya tonight,

Dean

He smiled softly as he saw her body rise and fall with each breath, before he turned and left the room, walking to the front door and closing it behind him. He made his way across the street to his own home, opening the door and dropping the keys on the table near the door. Walking into his office, he sat behind the desk and pulled his laptop towards him, opening a new window. He bit his lip as he thought about how to start searching. Mark’s last name was Jenkins, and that was too common; he’d probably come up with at least five of them.

He also knew the man worked in advertising so that did narrow it down. He typed in “Mark Jenkins advertising” and found the company website and his profile, his picture making Dean’s blood boil. He looked at the address of the building, and then typed his name into the Kansas City directory. Sure enough there were five Mark Jenkins’, but he looked for the one who lived closest to the advertising agency, and the bar that Y/N had gone to for her birthday. He smirked as he found the one he was looking for, typing the address into the maps and closing the window, shutting his laptop. After a quick shower and change of clothes, he hurried towards the door and picked up his keys again, slamming the door shut behind him as he left.

He didn’t really care how early it was to make a house call. He needed to punch Mark Jenkins in his stupid face and give him a piece of his mind.

The day after Thanksgiving meant there was barely any traffic on the roads so early, knowing people would be out shopping later for the Black Friday sales. He sped down the highway, trying to figure out how he was going to approach things with Mark. As much as he wanted to hurt the guy, hopefully he wouldn’t have to if he showed he was sorry for the way he acted. If he didn’t, well then, all bets were off as to what Dean was going to do.

He reached the city after an hour, driving and turning through the streets as directed by the GPS voice. He pulled into the street parking right in front of the building, cutting the engine to the Impala. He got out of the car, locking it, before taking the stairs up to the entrance. He glanced over the names on the intercom, finding Mark’s name and pressing the buzzer.

“Yeah?” a gruff voice came through the speaker.

“Mark, it’s Dean. Winchester. Listen uh, we gotta talk, so can you let me in?” Dean asked, waiting for his reply.

“D-Dean? What’s this about?” Mark asked in return, his voice laced with confusion. But Dean knew better.

“I think you know, man. And unless you wanna have this conversation with your neighbors listening when they come down the stairs, I’d open the door, huh?” Dean reasoned.

The only reply he got was the buzzer going off, the door opening and letting him in. Dean took the steps two at a time as he went up to the third floor, finding it slightly ajar. He pushed it open, his eyes meeting Mark’s as soon as he stepped in, seeing the blonde-haired man leaning against his kitchen counter. Dean sauntered towards Mark, slowly, standing a few feet in front of him, his heart beating rapidly against his ribcage as his jaw clenched.

“If this is about what happened with Y/N, it’s really none of your business,” Mark stated, his voice rough and an octave higher than it needed to be.

He already had his defenses up, and Dean was going to have to put him in his place.

“It is when my friend comes home, in tears, because of the guy she’s been dating being a dick,” Dean countered, glaring at him.

“Hey, she’s the one who accused me of-” Mark started to argue but Dean cut him off.

“Look,” Dean took a step towards him, the scowl never leaving his face, “I don’t give a fuck about the specifics, okay? At least not from you, because there’s just no way I’m gonna believe you. You owe Y/N an apology, so just do it, and then you go on to be a disappointment to some other girl, okay?”

Mark stared him down, a glowering expression on his face. “Fuck you, man. And fuck Y/N. She wants to keep blaming me for issues when she’s been opening her slut legs to you or some other guy-”

Dean didn’t give Mark time to finish his sentence as he pulled his fist back, punching Mark across the face, the silver ring on his right ring finger cutting the blonde’s lip. He grabbed him by his t-shirt and turned him around, slamming him on the kitchen counter, holding him down.

“What the fuck?!” Mark yelled. “Get off me!”

“Say one more thing about her and I swear to god I’ll kick your fucking teeth in,” Dean snapped, his jaw tight with the anger coursing through him.

“I’ll press charges,” Mark threatened, his voice quivering, and Dean called his bluff.

“You really won’t,” he countered. “Because no matter how much you’re gonna deny it, you know the truth. So I suggest sending Y/N a message, telling her you’re sorry about being a dick and then end it with her.”

“So you can swoop in and take her, huh?” Mark asked, glancing up at Dean. “That’s the plan, right?”

One side of Dean’s mouth pulled up into a smirk. “There’s no plan.”

Mark scoffed, shaking his head. “Should’ve known there was something between you two.”

“At least I know a good thing when it’s right in front of me,” Dean stated, pushing his head harder against the counter. “Clearly an apology’s gonna do nothing, so now… you stay the fuck away from her.”

“Gladly,” Mark bit out.

Dean pulled Mark off the kitchen bench and pushed him against the wall, grabbing his shirt and staring him down, his scowl deeper than before. He knew it ultimately wasn’t worth getting into trouble for, so he shoved him back and stepped away. Without another glance in Mark’s direction, he walked out of the apartment, slamming the door behind him. He hurried down the stairs and out to the street, getting into the Impala before he slid down in his seat, leaning his head back against the top of the leather bench. He let out a deep breath, trying to calm himself down as he closed his eyes.

He had no idea whether Mark would call the police or not, but he was willing to bet he wouldn’t. The guy probably didn’t care enough, and it was his ego that was more bruised than anything else. Dean knew he couldn’t tell Y/N because she’d worry, and while he didn’t want to lie to her, he also didn’t want her to overthink this. Knowing he did have errands to do today, he would just have to cover up his little visit with some more truths. He’d tell her eventually, but not when it was so fresh.

Turning the engine on and hearing it roar to life, Dean pulled away from the curb, turning Baby back towards Lawrence.

Mark was out of her life for good, and she could move on now. Whether that was with Dean or someone else, it didn’t matter to him. He just wanted her to be happy, to be free of someone who couldn’t see how amazing she was. They were both free to make their own decisions about what they wanted now. He knew he wanted to be with her, and had known since the day they met. He thought that she felt the same, but he wouldn’t know for sure until they really talked about it.

All he knew for certain was they could leave everything else behind them, because hopefully, they were each other’s future.

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Forevers: @evergreencowboy // @makeadealwithdean // @writercole // @flamencodiva // @440mxs-wife // @sexyvixen7 // @foxyjwls007 // @maliburenee // @waynes-multiverse // @weepingwillowphoenix // @kyjey // @lunarmoon8 // @stoneyggirl2 // @hobby27 //

Supernatural: @winchest09 // @deanwanddamons // @jensengirl83 // @watermelonlipstick // @emoryhemsworth // @katelyn--renee // @spnwoman // @lacilou // @kazsrm67 // @mariaenchanted // @smellingofpoetry // @snowlovespie // @stephv213 // @desimarie12 // @redbarn1995 //

Dean: @akshi8278 // @whatareyousearchingfordean // @candy-coated-misery0731 // @siospins2 // @deans-baby-momma // @globetrotter28 // @pink-sparkly-witch // @krazykelly // @lyarr24 // @perpetualabsurdity // @lessons-of-red //

#Life's Lessons Saga #Dean's Lessons #Dean x Female!Reader #Dean x Female!Reader Series #Dean x Female!Reader Fanfiction #Female!Reader Insert #Mechanic!Dean #Teacher!Reader #Dean x Reader Fanfiction #Dean Winchester Angst #Dean Winchester Fluff #Dean Winchester Series #Dean Winchester Fanfiction #Supernatural Fanfiction

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