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nicoappreciation · 1 year

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thots on tsats

okay this is gonna be very long and extremely rambly and not very planned out ok? ok. spoilers under the cut

FINE. I LIKED IT. WHATEVER. hit me with a car.

obviously there were parts of it that i didn't like. obviously there were moments that i felt were out of character. nevertheless, i had a lot of fucking fun while reading it. i love nico and overall i'd say i'm happy with where the story leaves him. yes, this book's existence is extremely unnecessary. but i appreciate it for what it is.

okay let's get the main things i didn't like out of the way:

nico would NOT know who lil nas x is. also why was the montero music video mentioned in a book for middle schoolers.

i understand the role that nyx is meant to play in the story and the message of it but idk i kinda wish they did her character a bit differently. she really reminded me of white diamond from steven universe i'm so sorry.

speaking of nyx that WHOOOLE weird "our children" thing with nico and the cacodemons. that made me very uncomfortable.

last nyx complaint the final confrontation with her ended pretty anticlimactically. kinda like with gaea, it felt like the way to defeat her was a little too simple. but y'know i haven't really been satisfied by a final battle since tlo so. that's just how it is.

it felt like will was kiiiiinda useless for a lot of it. obviously he was important for the story but i wish they had let him do some more cool stuff besides occasionally shooting some light lasers. i get he's a healer but why didn't he bring a WEAPON??? like at the very least he could have had a bow or a knife. y'know we haven't really had a character who uses a blunt force weapon as their main one besides hedge. i would've liked to see will with just a baseball bat or something LMAO.

kind of an add-on to the last one i think that will was nerfed wayyy too much. it makes sense that the underworld would weaken him, but it sometimes felt like they were stopping every five minutes to let him rest. we've seen before that he's quite strong and athletic, i just feel like he should've had a bit more stamina.

there were a few dialogue moments that sounded like they came from some extremely online gay teenager and not nico and will. "bisexual chaos" haunts me. he would not fucking say that.

NO HAZEL APPEARANCE and NO REYNA MENTION. this is the worst one.

i feel like tartarus should've been more physically dangerous. like they fought some monsters here and there and the terrain was hard to navigate but most of the dangers that they dealt with were more mental/emotional. you could argue that we got the physical danger from percy and annabeth's journey so that's why this one focuses more on the mental danger and i could see why you'd think that. but idk sometimes it felt like it was a little toooo easy y'know.

there were some parts of the backstories and flashbacks that were inconsistent with the previous books, like nico saying he spent weeks at camp half blood when he first arrived when he was actually there for only one. but continuity errors are just par for the course with these books at this point so it honestly doesn't bother me too much. we make our own canon.

i'm not a fan of the name cocoa puffs. i feel like they could've come up with something better.

i'm sure there are more that i'm forgetting, but those are my main gripes. okay now onto the things that i liked!!!!

the book was fun. it was just fun. there were some jokes that i genuinely laughed at and there weren't really any points that felt like a slog to read through. i was pretty consistently entertained the whole time.

WILL AND NICO WERE CUTE OKAY. THEY WERE CUTE. maybe this is just 12-year-old me talking but i sincerely found their relationship very sweet. it's abundantly clear how much they both care about each other and what they're willing to do to protect each other. they mean a lot to me okay.

i want to specifically draw attention to the part where it was revealed that nico gave will his skull ring and now he wears it on a necklace. absolutely devastated me. changed my life. people died. in a good way.

I LOVEDDDD the tension and conflict that will and nico had between them for most of the book. it made their relationship so much more believable to me! they haven't even been together for a year! they're complete opposites! they had very different upbringings! they're in an INCREDIBLY STRESSFUL AND DANGEROUS SITUATION in an environment that is literally designed to dig up their biggest frustrations and insecurities! they're going to clash and have fights and have very different worldviews that they need to work through. that doesn't make them a bad couple like i've seen some people say. tell me you've never had a loved one say something hurtful or ignorant to you. tell me you've never said something hurtful or ignorant to a loved one. you can't! because you have! but if you love each other you talk about it and work through it and try your best to understand each other!!!!!!

adding to the last one i like how the conflict got resolved by will realizing he needs to put in more effort to understand nico and nico realizing he needs to open up more to allow will to understand him. open and honest communication and a willingness to be vulnerable babey!!! if you want to be loved you have to submit to the mortifying ordeal of being known!!!!!!!

I LOVED. THE DREAM SEQUENCES. they all went so hard. some of them were downright disturbing. good shit.

even if they had some continuity errors, i enjoyed the flashback scenes and the backstories. we got quite a lot more than i thought we would. i was not expecting to see the entirety of nico's first journey through tartarus. it hurt me a lot.

i think it's cute they're making it canon that nico and will knew of each other since pjo. they were in each other's orbit before they even knew it. it actually got me thinking about some of my own relationships. i have a friend i knew back when i was 4 who i completely forgot about for years, only for us to reconnect by chance when we were 12 and be best friends ever since. i have a friend who was a vague acquaintance of mine for years, but then one day we somehow started talking more and now they're one of the closest friends i've ever had. idk. something about meeting someone once at the wrong time and then again at the right one.

nico was very cool. he was also a massive dweeb. he can do both. i love him.

i like the cacodemons as a very literal metaphor for learning to live with your trauma and the "worst" parts of yourself. celeste vibes dare i say. also nico just has a bunch of lil guys following him around now and i think that's neat.

fuck man. i like seeing nico be happy. i like seeing him in a happy relationship with someone he loves and who loves him just as much. i like that he's still learning to let go of his grief and move on. i like that he's hopeful at the end of the book that he can actually find happiness. he's always been one of the most tragic characters in the pjo-verse and it's so nice to see him just being HAPPY.

despite how hard to believe it was i did really like the little dream scene with the whole di angelo family. nico got to talk to bianca and maria one last time, he got to hug his dad, he finally got to rest for a bit. it was very cathartic and i maybe cried.

this book's message was very clearly for young queer kids who don't have everything figured out yet. you're allowed to change. you don't have to always be one thing. your past doesn't define you. you can find love. you can have hope. no matter how badly written you believe the story is, no matter how inconsistent you believe the characterization is, it's hard to deny how important these messages are and how badly some kids need to hear them. if the book has one redeeming quality, it's this.

so. yeah. i liked it. i had a good time. there's more that i could say but i would honestly just end up adding onto this forever. people who don't like the book have plenty of valid reasons to feel that way, even if i may not agree with some of them. at the end of the day, this story and these characters are not real. please be nice to each other and try not to take things too seriously. we're all just a bunch of late teens and young adults reading a book series for middle schoolers, and i think that's beautiful. thank you for reading if you actually made it this far, i know it was a lot. peace and love on planet earth.

#THANK YOU AND GOODNIGHT #the sun and the star #tsats #tsats spoilers #the sun and the star spoilers #nico book spoilers #text #my post

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mylittlesapling · 2 years

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Y'all are only talking about the letter. What about her last remaining scar?

Some other thoughts while reading, spoilers below

I kinda thought the book was too fast. I didn't really sense a build up of romantic feelings, it just felt like they appeared out of nowhere and without reason.

Couldn't Jacks have just gone back in time to Donatella and he would've gotten his 'one true love' and she would've survived? Though I bet that time would've tried to take Evangeline to make up for it.

I think the stones should've had their colors switched ngl.

The only part I thought was fantastically written was the very very end when her memories were wiped. The emotions in that scene were a lot, and I didn't really feel too much emotion with the rest of the story (besides the part when she was a half vamp and Chaos was on top of her).

Who'd been torturing Apollo?

How did Apollo even get the ability to wipe Eva's memories?

What was up with the fate blood on the statue in front of the arch when Eva had returned?

I loved hearing that Jacks had been stabbed with a butter knife.

Handsome stranger 😭😌😌🥺🥰🥰 I absolutely adore this Momma's boy. Why'd he run away though after he bit Eva 🖐🖐😤😠

It's probably because he was more human, but Jacks just felt really different towards the end. It came out of nowhere, all of his emotion. I just felt like their relationship hadn't developed enough for him to react in such a way quite yet.

Why did Jacks immediately switch from Chaos to Castor? Wouldn't that habit of saying Chaos be a little more difficult to break?

3.5 ⭐️

I would give it 5, it's just that I interpreted so many of the quotes wrong and made such an epic story in my head that the cannon one just can't really compare.

Anyways, have a wonderful day. Maybe getting Jack's POV will change my mind.

I'll add more over time

#tbona #stephanie garber #ouabh #the ballad of never after #evajacks #evangeline fox #jacks

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melishade · 1 year

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How long was Gabi and Optimus were with Shockwave before they were rescued? Also better watch out Shockwave. If Prime somehow gets his hands on you without your pet interfering, he might give you the big ol' Bayverse treatment.

Previous Episode of the Dark Timeline

Three months.

That's how long Optimus had been a prisoner under Shockwave. Three months. Gabi was longer due to her being taken prior to Optimus' capture.

Three months of pain and torture. Three months of fear and uncertainty. Three months of knocking on death's door.

And for the island, three months of fear for Optimus' life, for their survival. Three months of arguing, brutal training, and intense preparations for an attack on the island from Shockwave. Three months of Hanji drowning herself in work. Three months of Megatron trying so hard to lead without screwing up. Three months of trying to cope with the loss of Connie and so many others.

Three months...of pure agony.

...But one interesting situation develops during those three months: Mikasa tells Eren she loves him.

No beating around the bush, no 'you're my family', none of that. She takes Eren aside, and plainly tells Eren that she loves him. Which...Eren is having a hard time trying to wrap his head around. Mikasa tells him that she's loved him since they were kids and that she never really stopped.

Eren can only ask why now? Why bother telling him now during all this chaos and uncertainty? When everything could collapse around them in an instant?

"That's exactly why I'm telling you," Mikasa declared, "We'll never be able to go back to our normal lives, even if we somehow manage to make it out of this. We could die tomorrow, in a month, or a matter of minutes. And I know that you would have never been able to live a full life, I'm aware. But...I don't want to live a life of regret. If I die tomorrow, I wanted to make sure I told you how I felt, so that I'll die with no regrets."

Mikasa merely states that Eren doesn't have to say anything and continues doing her job. But surprisingly, because she got that off of her chest, she's able to focus more and make sure to do her job right. Finally confessing what she had felt inside, had made her more effective in protecting and caring about others, not just Eren. She knows that Megatron will make Eren stronger. It's just...confessing had become a sense of relief.

However, it's all Eren can think about now, and Eren does bring it up when he's training with Megatron. And is shocked when Megatron says "Finally!"

"Wait! How long have you known?!" Eren demanded.

"I can give you a time stamp for how long everyone else has known," Megatron deadpanned, "It's amazing how dense you are."

Eren doesn't really know what to do here. Should he reciprocate? Megatron tells Eren that he's not obligated to. Mikasa most likely confessed to clear her mind and live her life properly. Eren still states that even if Shockwave wasn't around, he couldn't give her the life that she wanted anyway. Megatron just states that emotions like love are uncontrollable. It doesn't have any form of logic. Mikasa would not have cared how long he lived; she just wanted him by her side for as long as he could give. I mean, just look at Historia and Ymir. Ymir has less than 8 years left to live, but she still chose to marry Historia because she loved her.

"So what can I even give her?" Eren asked.

"A future," Megatron answered, "A long life."

After everything they had been through together, Eren owed Mikasa that much. He didn't know if he felt the same way about Mikasa, but she was still an important person in his life. He would find a way to protect.

Eren is surprised that Megatron's giving solid advice on love-lives. Megatron dryly comments that he should've seen Optimus with Elita-1. And Eren, understandably, is screaming "WHO?!"

(This is kind of like the calm before the storm that is Arcee and Wheeljack arriving in the Dark Timeline. Also Optimus has been through a lot under Shockwave, but I don't think he's at Bayverse Level pissed yet.)

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leverage-commentary · 1 year

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Part Two of: Leverage Season 3, Episode 14, The Ho Ho Ho Job, Audio Commentary Transcript

Hi friends! So quick mod note here. The Google Doc for this transcript was 51 pages long, and when I tried to paste this over, Tumblr told be that there can only be 1000 'blocks' in a post? Which I'm assuming means lines/each person speaking here. So I am splitting it into two posts. I just posted part one of this episode transcript; here are the last 26 pages of the transcript.

John: That all of the Leverage fans have been waiting for.

Chris: With the beard of evil!

Aboud: Beard of evil.

John: With the beard of evil, Wil Wheaton, ever since Wil Wheaton grew the beard of evil.

Michael: Did he not have a beard on the- when he was on before?

John: He had a scruff of evil.

Chris: Yes.

John: Now he has a full beard of evil.

Aboud: We’re about to see him, aren't we?

Michael: Oh yeah, yeah.

John: Yeah we're about to see him back then, did he have the beard?

Michael: Call the flashback.

Aboud: There it is!

John: Yeah, yeah, he had the beard, it's more scruff, I think he has a fuller beard now. Now the freakout in the van. Boy was he a champ during this, cause we locked he and Aldis in those vans for like 12 hours.

[Laughter]

Marc: Yeah, couple days.

John: Couple days.

Michael: I feel like it should flashback to the DVD commentary for that episode.

John: Yeah.

[Laughter]

Aboud: Oh, there we go.

Michael: Lay that in.

Chris: There you go, it's perindelian [sp?].

[Laughter]

John: Yeah.Yeah and this is also- Wil does great snark. There's nobody who does the-

Aboud: Absolutely.

John: The brutal mocking quite like he does. And he’ll talk about this actually, that once he gave up trying to be a nice guy in his acting and embraced his inner asshole-

Chris: Yeah.

John: His career took off.

Marc: Yeah, he just picks apart the whole team here.

John: Yeah, it's great. And it's fun.

Aboud: One by one.

John: One by one. And it's a lot of fun because the team is very hyper competent, so it's pretty tough to pick apart- to find a villain that's worthy of them, you know?

Chris: Right.

Aboud: And there are a few villains in the Leverage universe that, you know, shit talk.

John: Yes.

Aboud: That's not generally who we- we don't have people that are as colorful in a kind of obnoxious way as Chaos.

John: Yeah, Sterling yanks their chain, but does it more through omission, yeah.

Marc: Oh and this is the best part when he imitates Eliot.

Michael: Yeah, yeah.

[Laughter]

John: The Eliot imitation, oh that's great.

Aboud: “Y’all”.

John: And Wil doing Christain is actually a lot of fun.

Michael: Yeah.

John: No, what it's tricky because for this one, you had to create a perfect Christmas heist plot, get away with it, to a great degree, and then come up with a totally different perfect heist plot.

Chris: Cause it was all mislead.

John: Yeah.

Marc: And he's even drinking Hardison's soda.

John: I know.

Aboud: Gosh this guy.

Marc: Really?

John: Really and he's taken his proxy penis.

[Laughter]

Aboud: Proxy penis.

John: It's really- and fried Lucille. Oh that's just- why can't he have nice things?

[Laughter]

Michael: That's what Tim should've said. ‘This is why we can't have nice things!’

[Laughter]

Chris: Where were you at 2 in the morning when they were shooting?

John: Let's go back and we loop that now, ‘Why we can’t have nice things.’

Chris: Loop it in.

Michael: Like there's a bomb going on in the back of that car.

[Laughter]

Chris: Yeah I know, I thought it was just flames.

Aboud: That's a great effect, a great practical effect of the smoke being emitted, and I believe it was an LED panel that was just pulsing.

Chris: Sparking.

Aboud: And that's how we got the sparks.

John: We don't usually let Aldis play pissed off either. He's kind of-

Aboud: He can do it, though!

John: It's kinda nice seeing that flavor Wil brings that out in him and he's like, you know. It's nice- a lot of people kind of, you know, take Christain’s character off, but when you- we were talking about this the other day on another commentary, Aldis, to a great degree, is the emotional barometer of the show.

Aboud: Right.

John: So whatever Hardison is feeling tends to be what the audience is feeling, you know.

Aboud: And he can do pissed, he can do badass.

John: Yeah.

Aboud: Very well.

John: Yeah the survivalist episode he was very good in, very physical.

Marc: Our 360 shot.

John: Nice 360.

Chris: Yeah.

Aboud: Sort of a signature of this show.

John: It is, ever since the accursed pilot.

[Laughter]

Chris: Now for the-

John: Though we did this handheld, right?

Chris: Now for the geeks, is it handheld? Is this steadicam?

Marc: Steadicam.

Chris: This is not on the track.

John: This is not on the track- I put a $10,000 bounty on the circular track one year, like, if that were to disappear it would-

Chris: Now Yakamoto building, who was Yakamoto and how did he- why did they name this-

Michael: It's sort of off of-

Marc: Yakitome.

John: Yakitome Plaza from Die Hard!

Michael: This has to be the badass building that's impossible to break into.

Chris: I was wondering what role did he have in the founding fathers of America?

Michael: Edgar Yakamoto?

Aboud: Oh no this is a holdover from- I've got a whole backstory for this.

Michael: Tell us!

Chris: Tell us about Edgar Yakamoto!

Aboud: This is from that era in the 80’s when the Japanese were buying up Rockefeller Center and all the big, you know-

Chris: Oh ok.

Aboud: Landmarks, and the Yakatome Company-

Michael: Yakamoto.

Aboud: Yakamoto- yeah. Was running their high tech security apparatus out of this tower.

Chris: Oh great ok.

John: There's also a lot of little Christmas images in here, which is her ability to fly as an elf.

Aboud: Yes.

Chris: Oh, and also going down the chimney.

Aboud: Yes exactly.

Michael: Another fun thing to write was saying we’re gonna pull an Edward Albee and having Gina and Tim do a little Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf con.

Aboud: Yes.

[Laughter]

Aboud: Interpret that.

Chris: Which they'll be doing down at the Burt Reynolds dinner theater in a couple of months, if you're down in Jupiter, Florida folks.

[Laughter]

Aboud: That’s-

John: Now here’s-

Aboud: Delightful moment.

Chris: Ohh ohh.

John: Oh and shh shh shh!

Marc: Shhh.

All: Shhh.

[Laughter]

John: I would like to remind everyone he's not-

Chris: Is he saying sugarplums?

Michael: Sugar plums!

John: Sugar plums that's right he's sending him to dreams, he's sending him to Christmas sleep, dreams of sugar plums dancing in his head.

Aboud: Sugar plums.

John: The most menacing sugar plums ever.

[Laughter]

John: But for those of you who are worried about the security guard, you can go on YouTube and see people choked out all the time and they're fine, like, five seconds later.

Aboud: Oh yeah.

John: It really is, it's just he's cutting- he’s not cutting off oxygen he's really just, you know, cutting off the blood flow to the brain, making him go to sleep.

Aboud: I mean he was out for about three hours, but you can go on YouTube and see that people come back in five minutes.

Michael: Minor brain damage.

John: Christain didn't quite get the grip right, that guy really bounced back.

Aboud: It was close.

John: We let him sleep up around the set, just kept watch on him.

Marc: The scary thing is this is really the server room that controls all of the sanitation-

[Laughter]

Aboud: Oh yeah.

Marc: And plumbing of Portland.

John: That we’re in? With our giant cameras?

Chris: Is that true? Is that for real?

Marc: Giant cameras and hooking up our computers to it.

Chris: So if you just pulled one thing out, a whole city block wouldn't be able to flush their toilets.

Aboud: Gone.

Marc: A whole city block- it would be like Ancient Rome.

[Laughter]

Aboud: A sewage-

John: Really, it would degrade that quickly?

Aboud: A sewage storm.

John: A tidal wave of cholera.

Chris: By the way, anytime you upload a worm there is a skull and crossbones.

Michael: Oh yeah no, that comes with, you can't have a worm without that.

Aboud: You know, actually, that is normally a pet peeve of mine, false UI. I don't like computer UI in TV, like that does bug me. But I can buy it when you've got a Hardison or a Chaos-

Chris: Yes, yes, you're right.

Aboud: Because they have clearly, from the ground up, built their own system-

John: UI, yeah-

Aboud: They've built their own UI, so yeah why not.

Michael: That’s user interface for those-

John: Yeah, especially if they are working in Linux or something that's really customizable, a lot of guys really have that as a signature.

Aboud: I don't have a problem with that.

John: There you go, and also we’re kind of fighting twenty years of television computers.

Aboud: Right.

John: Where when we in the pilot, for example, the first half of season one we did a lot of stuff really realistic and it turns out to be visually not very interesting.

Aboud: Right, right.

Marc: This was a good graphic save that Derek did, cause we couldn't afford to shoot a building at night with all these vehicles outside the building.

Chris: Oh this is great.

John: Yeah.

Marc: So we said let's come up with a graphic.

John: I love that little leaving them hanging.

Aboud: Don't leave me hanging.

John: Don't leave me hanging.

Aboud: How great is Derek Frederickson, our graphics person.

Chris: Oh yeah.

Marc: Fantastic.

John: It's a crucial part of the storytelling of this show.

Marc: Yeah.

John: And it's interesting- and you guys glommed onto it very quickly, but when writers start on the show, a big part of writers learning to write Leverage is learning that they don't have to write speeches- go to the screen.

Aboud: Yeah.

John: The screen is there, it's six feet across, you know, use it.

Aboud: The screen in many ways represents a sort of objective reality. You know, that's one thing for facts to be parceled out in dialogue.

Michael: [Snores]

[Laughter]

John: Oh god did you go to Harvard? That's a really Harvard-

Michael: Oh I'm sorry.

Aboud: Yeah.

Michael: We back?

John: Ordinarily you could-

Aboud: Sorkin writes our dialogue, Sorkin writes all our dialogue.

John: You could ordinarily think that Colton fell asleep because it was boring, but he really fell asleep because it wasn't about him.

[Laughter]

Michael: I just hadn’t spoken on the commentary track, so-

Chris: There you go, there the great-

John: Great Wil Wheaton gloat and grin. And now we're in a totally different episode! I love this.

Marc: That's right.

John: We’re in a totally different plotline here.

Aboud: Some emotional stuff out of Nate and the team.

Marc: Yeah, Nate takes it on the chin.

Chris: Mea culpa. He's very mea culpa this season, we don't get that a lot out of him.

John: Well you know, this was one of the things we were building to this season, is because the way he behaved last year, he has to accept that he is a peer of them now.

Aboud: Right.

John: Yeah, now he can't just dictate, he is one of the team and he has to take his lumps.

Aboud: He's one of the thieves.

John: Yeah now we're about to cut from the lovely mall to a real- to the guts of the sanitation building. What was it like shooting in the sanitation building?

Michael: Smelly.

Marc: It smelled- it actually smelled a lot worse above ground, it was hard. I mean getting all the gear down there was tough.

Chris: Yeah.

Aboud: It was dystopian.

Marc: It looked beautiful!

[Laughter]

John: It was [laugh] Viggo Morrison with the shopping cart.

Marc: You can't build tunnels like this!

John: No, no you can't. It's really one of those places you have to shoot the location.

Marc: Yeah you just- we got a lot of production value out of it.

Chris: And then the fake fact I like that they had underground tunnels in Boston back in the day.

Aboud: That was inspired by the fact that downtown LA, combination of things: downtown LA does have an abandoned pedestrian infrastructure that was built in collaboration with Disney. They wanted to put Wedway people movers throughout LA and realized it's sunny here all the time, you never will need that!

[Laughter]

Aboud: And they wisely stopped the project. The other half of it is the steam tunnels of MIT.

John: Yes.

Chris: Oh okay.

Aboud: Which are notoriously fun to run around.

Marc: And here you go, you get Wil Wheaton in tights.

John: Yeah, I love the fact that he has anticipated- that he is gone and either bought or made this outfit to close the deal.

Michael: Well he had it.

Aboud: So unnecessary!

Michael: He owned it.

John: There’s no reason!

Chris: It is very much- no you wanna approach a Santa-

Michael: Chaos used to go to ren faires, he had that.

[Laughter]

John: Exactly. Will might've owned that costume.

Aboud: Yeah.

John: I'll ask him when I talk to him next time. And now we've got a cross going, we've got like our third heist in the entire show going at this point.

Michael: It's exhausting, frankly.

John: Also in Boston actually there was- there's apparently still a lot of leftover underground infrastructure from the Big Dig when they put in the tunnels to the Logan airport.

Aboud: Oh sure, absolutely.

Marc: This is a 360 around the work force table that we've never done before.

John: Is this one of those things you realize that you were about to do for the first time as you were preparing the shot?

Marc: Yeah.

John: Yeah, that's always a good thing.

Chris: But I like it. That's a nice way, you got Nate moving away.

Marc: I got him from one end of the table to the other end, and then an exit.

[Laughter]

Marc: Perfect!

John: Well it's hard, it’s one of the challenges is breaking up when we've got static shots is like: keep people moving.

Marc: And again to cover the five-hander.

John: When the writers strand you like that, with the big stinking load of pipe like that.

Michael: Huh what?

John: Nothing.

Aboud: Uh-oh.

Michael: Santa fight.

John: Santa fight coming up.

Aboud: No not yet, first the wall saw.

Marc: Looking at this, this is my favorite graphic, the wall- the graphic of the saw on the screen, when that shows up.

Chris: Now how many-

Aboud: He went to the trouble to make a graphic of a saw to chart the progress of the real saw.

Marc: And we see it! Yeah.

[Laughter]

Aboud: Here it goes.

[Laughter]

Chris: There it is! That's the saw.

John: You know what? That would not be hard to do, I can see why he would do that.

Marc: That's CG dust and debris there.

John: Really?

Marc: Yeah, cause our fake-

John: They wouldn't let us cut through the wall?

Marc: Our fake walls were not creating enough.

Aboud: It isn't creating enough masonry dust.

John: Our fake walls were too well made?

Aboud: Apparently.

Marc: This was actually the last scene of the episode that we shot.

John: And another great little cheat is bounce through the window and they're looking out at this big giant exterior that will never- we don't have to connect them with.

Aboud: Exactly.

Marc: Yes, big cheat.

John: But it's useful, I mean, we did this in the pilot, though, remember when we shot that we built a window that he was looking out at the opposite building with.

Marc: Yup.

Aboud: Flashback to our kid.

Michael: Oh ohhh.

Aboud: Putting two and two together.

Michael: Planting seed.

Aboud: It's under the north pole.

John: There you go. That's also a nice job you guys did, which was making sure everybody had a little hero moment, I mean besides the fight. One of the things we were trying to focus on this year- and you saw it a little bit at the end of season two, was that Eliot was a very unpleasant, dangerous human being, and as such, he has a strategic sense that comes into play into these situations. He's not just a hitter.

Aboud: Right.

John: Also nice respect the suit, there you go.

Michael: Mhh hm nice Dave Foley, this is-

Marc: His exit here is the best.

Michael: Yeah.

Aboud: Think Downey said this was his favorite line of the season.

Chris: It is my favorite line.

Marc: That little stutter.

John: No this is a-

Michael: The morphine line?

Aboud: That's later.

Chris: That's coming.

John: I can't believe you let me drive it later, because it just takes the stink off, I mean. That's a great group shot. I've never noticed that before. I don't know just cause we were jammed up when we were shooting this one.

Aboud: The way they break, how about that.

Chris: Very nice.

Aboud: Here we go.

John: Santa fight. I think we just chanted Santa fight in the writers room.

[Laughter]

Chris: [Mocking] Chaos.

Marc: [Mocking] Chaos!

[Laughter]

Aboud: Look at that stink.

John: And there's a nice moment here, actually, where he's gonna beat Chaos up because he wrecked Hardison's van.

Aboud: Yes.

John: One of those little moments of friendship.

Chris: Well didn't he sort of- Wil picked up on the van thing.

Marc: Oh yeah, he said-

Aboud: Oh Wil was-

Marc: Well I wrecked that van.

Aboud: I wrecked that van.

Michael: That's right.

John: They turned it into like he banged his girlfriend.

All: Yeah!

John: I'd forgotten that. And they did it on the set right?

Chris: Yeah.

Aboud: He wrote that line on the set.

John: Yeah [laughs] wrecked that van.

Chris: This is great.

Michael: Wrecked that van.

John: Great Santa fight. And tricky too, this is one of those writing versus set challenges cause the way this was written- the geography of taking the bags and stuff was much easier; then you get down into the tunnel and it's like, ‘Oh, this doesn't line up with our imagination back in Los Angeles at all.’

Aboud: We’re gonna have to figure that out.

Chris: You smartly gave him a slightly different hued Santa suit so you didn't get confused as to who was-

Michael: He actually just spilled red wine on it.

John: Unfortunately hammered. Is that digital steam?

Marc: That is digital steam.

Aboud: Both.

Marc: We had a little bit and then we just added it to create the wall.

Chris: That's great.

John: Yeah, it looks nice.

Michael: Looks great.

John: Mark Franco, our digital effects guy here, adding production value every single week.

Aboud: Definitely.

John: I like the little braid in the Santa hair- would Santa have braids in his hair? i'm not-

Michael: Santa- some Santas have cornrows now.

Marc: He's Cherokee, part Cherokee.

John: Part Cherokee Santa? Alright. Fair enough, I did not know that

Aboud: I think that was actually a tie to secure it, but it's gotten loose in the fight.

Marc: Yeah.

John: It's interesting because all the December episodes are kind of our fable episodes, like the ones we've always wanted to do.

Chris: Yeah.

John: You know the steal a country, the Christmas episode. It's- they're a little gentler than the other ones.

Aboud: Sure.

John: You know.

Marc: This was the best stuff, filming scenes with children and stuntmen.

[Laughter]

Michael: When there were about 20 minutes had to go-

Marc: Without a fight!

John: Yeah, apparently there were all these laws about how many kids you can have-

Chris: Now where's the-

Michael: That's from Die Hard, right?

Chris: Where did that come from, did we buy that?

Michael: Looks like Die Hard.

Chris: We bought that, that was great.

Marc: That was a stock shot. Yes, you have ten minutes to film these kids or we’re all going to jail.

[Laughter]

John: Oh come on.

Aboud: Well stunt men and kids are enemies in the wild.

[Laughter]

John: That’s true.

Michael: Stunt men eat kids in the wild.

John: Well actually, that was a big deal - we had to have guys with those poles with loops on them right off camera to like grab the kids from the stuntmen.

Aboud: The wranglers.

John: That's right, Charlie Brewer popped one of these kids - just hit them right in the face.

Aboud: Oh totally, he had it coming.

John: The kid was obnoxious and missed his cue. This is- and we bring Christmas back. I like this is a good natured episode, I like this.

Marc: Yeah.

John: Even though Santa is brutally beating [laughs].

Aboud: I mean-

Chris: No, but then they are redeemed too, the evil Santas - they are moved by the children!

Michael: The kiss of a child!

[Laughter]

Michael: That'll do it.

Aboud: Their hearts are warmed.

Marc: That will do it every time.

John: Their hearts grow three sizes that day, that's nice.

[Laughter]

Aboud: And here we reveal that Eliot, on purpose, caused the steam wall as a ruse. Part of the clever plan of team Leverage.

John: They all look very happy here. And there you go, the undercover FBI.

Chris: Now did she flash a badge underneath the-?

Marc: Yeah, I think so.

Michael: I don't know what she flashed.

Aboud: It worked.

John: You know what, this is one of the things where it's like if a woman in an elf costume comes up and says she's an FBI agent, you're gonna believe her.

Marc: Course you are. Especially when she looks like that.

John: Yeah, exactly. And then she, you know, fights for the Christmas spirit, absolutely.

[Laughter]

Aboud: It's just-

John: Kindly FBI agents.

Chris: I think we need to-

Marc: There was a shot of Beth's sister in there as one of the mothers as well.

Michael: There we go, kiss! Awww!

All: Aww!

[Laughter]

Michael: I'm gonna give up my evil ways.

Chris: He loved it! Everybody!

John: Man, when I get out of jail in seven years I'm really gonna be changed.

[Laughter]

Michael: And here's the line!

John: “Can't believe you let me drive!”

[Laughter]

John: It's just so wrong!

Chris: Oh, that made me laugh.

John: Oh, and it really does take an actor like Dave Foley to land it, to kind of take the stink off it and- you know. This is it.

[Laughter]

Aboud: And then ho ho ho, you're right, that was ill advised.

John: And then.

Aboud: This guy just waiting, lying in wait for him.

John: Yeah. If Eliot-

Chris: And the backstory is he's an underprivileged kid, right?

Aboud: Exactly.

Michael: He's a latchkey child.

John: He’s a latchkey and now this is his last year for Santa.

Chris: Got a Rubbery Robby.

Michael: He's in juvie.

John: He's in really? What was he in juvie for?

Aboud: Caring too much.

[Laughter]

John: Really? I didn't know-

Aboud: Yeah.

John: -that was a crime.

Chris: There you go.

Marc: It's my third man shot of-

Chris: Yeah that's great.

John: That was really third man, that's nice. I wish we had the van going.

Aboud: The shadows. Put them up in a ferris wheel.

John: There you go. And man, you know what, we get a lot of mileage out of those FBI-

Marc: Jackets.

Aboud: Windbreakers.

Chris: Cafe press, we need to start.

[Laughter]

John: You know, I think they would probably have words with us if we started making FBI gear and selling it online.

Michael: Is that a problem?

John: That would probably be a problem.

Aboud: I think they'd have issues.

Michael: I like this bit.

John: The gloat.

Michael: Meaning of Christmas.

John: The meaning of Christmas gloat, just because Wil is so truculent.

[Laughter]

John: He's so hateful.

Michael: But he was right, the meaning of Christmas did not help them.

[Laughter]

Aboud: It barely applies!

Marc: Barely applies!

John: What I love is he's right, but that- I think that's kind of Chaos’s superpower, he is actually the only sane person in every episode he's in.

[Laughter]

John: Everyone else is living in Leverage-verse and he's kind of the cranky realist.

Aboud: He's the Frank Rhines.

John: He is, he’s the Frank Rhines of Leverage.

Chris: Oh here we go.

John: And this is a nice scene.

Chris: And this, now Marc, how long did this take?

Marc: This took a half a day.

Chris: Wow.

John: To shoot this whole sequence, the one scene.

Marc: Yup, this one scene.

Aboud: Lot of coverage.

Michael: I feel like there was stuff added that wasn't in the script. Like the- some of the Eliot with the sword and-

Marc: Yeah, I thought we'd do that. I added that just to give it just some action and plus, you know, Christain has a sword, why not?

Aboud: I don't think I added that much time though.

John: Yeah. I we originally had, like, killing ninjas-

Marc: Yeah, exactly.

John: Some ninjas arrive and he kills them, but that turned out to be too big.

Aboud: It's just the nature of having five people in that configuration, that's the trouble.

John: Well thank god for that corner of the bar. We found second year- we found that first episode second year and we were shooting all over the bar and were like how do we- ahhh this corner!

Michael: Oh, frame it around the portrait of JFK.

John: Rightfully so, by the way.

Michael: Yes.

Aboud: Yeah.

John: There you go.

Chris: Here we go.

Aboud: Watch this little bit he does. He pulls it ‘herh’!

Chris: Digital- that’s digital folks!

Marc: Digital glint!

All: Digital glint!

Marc: Course.

Michael: Now I forget, this was- we named it after the Kill Bill sword, which is not a real thing.

Aboud: Correct.

Michael: It was made up for Kill Bill, but this- I think now we're saying the Leverage universe exists within the Kill Bill universe.

Chris: No another great fake fact!

Aboud: From Kill Bill.

John: This establishes us in the Kill Bill universe.

Marc: Wait, this is my favorite part when he puts it back in.

Aboud: Here it goes!

Marc: Like Hardison’s gonna steal it.

John: And he's about to disappear off into the forest.

Aboud: Yeah.

John: No, it's great. Well it's kind of a will newton thing i'd like to see on the website now, people kinda connect the Leverage verse together with the Kill Bill-

Michael: They can write fanfiction. It's like Jackie Brown and-

John: Exactly. Because the Quentin Tarantino movies all exist in the same universe.

Michael: Yes.

John: There you go.

Aboud: And we should point out that when Mark Foley was going to- Dave Foley, excuse me, not Mark Foley.

Michael: Not congressional.

Aboud: Very different story. When Dave Foley’s going out of the country, he's going to San Lorenzo!

Michael: Ohh.

John: That's right.

Marc: Cause there's no extradition there.

John: Exactly, we established that you guys put San Lorenzo in there to establish that, that was very nice.

Aboud: Planted that seed.

Michael: Ope.

Chris: Oh that's great.

John: How did you do that?

Marc: We cut it, and glued it.

John: Nice. Just struck it. And I love the- she just likes money.

Michael: The smell of it, feel of it.

Chris: Just smelling it.

Marc: Gina was great in this scene, she played it really well.

John: Just sort of get me something shiny. This was great and this was tough. It was actually tough to see, yeah we had to digitally highlight that to get “your name here”. And people are wondering what she writes down. She does not write her full name down here.

Michael: We what was that- Falooza Pricklebottom or something? Is that her real name?

John: That is her real name, thanks for spoiling it for the audience.

Chris: People are gonna, you know, analyze the-

Aboud: The pen strokes.

Marc: Oh yeah, in the outtakes every time Tim would grab the napkin and go, “Steve?”

[Laughter]

Marc: Oh, and here's our snow.

John: Oh, yeah there you go.

All: Aww.

Michael: The innocent face of a child.

John: The lovely look on Beth's face, that's a hell of a read right there. Just busy-

Marc: Just walks right under the knife.

John: He's just thinking about killing, he’s really-. ‘I'm thinking about killing, you kids are thinking about Christmas.’ Now this is actually one of my favorite ending shots of all three years-

Michael: You can't see- they can't see, but you're crying.

John: I'm crying, I have tears running down my eyes.

Michael: Oh no that's Guinness.

John: That's Guinness [laughs] smeared all over me like I'm a small child.

Michael: Crying Guinness.

Marc: Digitally enhanced snow.

John: That smile back? That's killer.

Marc: Oh yeah.

John: That's killer right there.

Aboud: And he has to like-

Chris: He always has to-

Michael: Crane shot!

John: And then the crane. We paid for the crane, use the crane.

Marc: That's right, watch the flake land on her tongue!

All: Ohh great! [Laughter]

John: Digital?

Aboud: No, that was real!

John: That was a real one!

Marc: Enhanced!

John: And that was The Ho Ho Ho Job! That was a ton of fun. Thanks for watching and stay tuned.

Aboud: Merry Christmas!

Michael: Merry Christmas everybody!

John: And a happy new year!

#Leverage #Leverage TNT #Leverage Audio Commentary Transcripts #Audio Commentary #Transcripts #Parker #Alec Hardison #Elliot Spencer #Nate Ford #Sophie Devereaux #Season 3 #Episode 14 #Season 3 Episode 14 #The Ho Ho Ho Job

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darth-shado · 2 years

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(Not so good) Memories

-Desert duo Double Life fic crossposted on ao3 (written after 4th session)

Warning: Description of violence (not very graphic but putting a warning just in case)

Tags: Angst with a Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, No Beta

Can be read platonic or as a ship

Word count: 810

Once again they were outcasts living away from others. As they would say but actually they were hiding from everyone else on the server. Scar was but Grian went to the pool party that didn't go exactly as planned. Tired from running away from a group of people trying to find their hideout he finally laid down to relax. Through the dim lighting that was in their new home there wasn't much to see, at least not properly. Suddenly Grian heard a shrug of a blanket from where Scar was sleeping.

"How was it?" Scar asked which made another man jump because he was sure that he hadn't heard him.

"It was awesome." Grian smiled to himself remembering the zombie army approaching from the depths of a pool. He definitely enjoyed watching all the chaos this caused. "Weren't you supposed to be asleep?" He added after a while to keep the conversation going.

"You know I've just been thinking." Scar shrugged, not giving much away he didn't wanted to talk about it just not now it was too early to jump into conclusions.

"And what were you thinking about?"

"When are you going to tell me."

"Tell what?" Grian asked, confused. There was a lot of stuff that he could tell Scar about.

"You and BigB." Scar turned to the side now facing an unstable dirt wall he couldn't bring himself to look at his soulmate during this conversation. He knew he wasn't the best at hiding his emotions.

"What about it?"

"Listen I'm not stupid I want to know is he a reason you've been avoiding me."

Grian sat up surprised to know that his soulmate found out about his secret soulmate.

There was an uncomfortable silence between the two of them. One of them wanted an answer and another didn't know how to give one.

"Just be honest."

"Yes, partially that was the reason I've been avoiding you."

Scar was expecting that but wasn't ready to hear it. He tried denying this thought as often as he could in his worst fear of it being true.

"I'm sorry I should've been honest from the beginning. It's just that…" He was quiet for a moment to find the correct memory that was stuck in his head. "It's just that I don't want to repeat what has happened in the desert."

"What do you mean?" Scar asked

"Remember the Monopoly Mountain?"

"Mhm"

"Well I didn't wanted it to go like that. Sure I had fun with you but most of us didn't realized what this game was really like. Back then nobody really cared how many lives they had because they didn't known what it was like to die permanently. I was afraid I was gonna lose you but eventually we managed to survive longer than many other players." He paused for a moment remembering the pain that night had caused him. "Then you made me fight for a stupid piece of paper or else you will take my life away from me as you did. You instantly betrayed me and didn't show a sign of guilt like you always wanted to do this."

Grian hugged his knees closer to his chest.

"After that there were only us two. It was like fate that a fight in a ring of cactus and fire would happen between us. I still remember punching you in the face until your jaw would break or giving you the final hit in the ribs. And when you were taking your last breath. I couldn't handle it being alone in the world. Without others, without Pizza, without you." He added the last part more quietly than the other.

Scar stood up with a blanket in his hand. He sat beside another man covering him with a blanket for comfort.

"I wanted to know how it is to be cared for."

"Every time I cared for you. I am really sorry about the betrayal. Honestly, I don't know why I've done that so I won't even defend myself. I admit I have a weird way of showing how much you mean to me."

Grian smiled slightly at Scar's words.

"You seemed to be distant from me and I had hoped that the Panda Sanctuary would help us but it seems that this idea didn't work out."

"It's really nice of you. Maybe after all of this we could try going there."

"You think so? Oh do I have a surprise for you!" Scar enthusiastically stood up and walked up to a big dirt wall. He picked up a shovel that was laying on the floor and revealed another dirt shelter with dozens of Pandas.

"Oh." Grian expressed his surprise. "Maybe it's not so bad to be soul bound with Scar after all." He thought to himself as he walked up to see the animals his soulmate brought.

#double life #double life smp #double life grian #double life gtws #desert duo

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beyondthetemples-ooc · 1 year

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I have a Lot of thoughts to nerd out about in this episode, so yeah!

So in the "prologue", pre-themesong introduction, I thought the zoom in on a Sqwovet (sp?) was Foreshadowing. Now, I haven't played or researched Galar, I know the ghosts and that's about it. (What can I say, I'm a specialist.) I didn't know what that thing was called until the "Who's That Pokemon" bit turned out to be that thing. {lD So I def don't know what the dex says about them.

But I know Pokemon traits often parallel their real world counterparts, and squirrels gave rise to the phrase "squirrel away" with good reason! So my first thought, "that's the one stealing all the food."

Then I thought, maybe that's too obvious. Maybe it's the Dragonite, who seems content to watch the chaos unravel.

Or... Maybe someone's making a pact to keep it all for themselves. Like the "prankster" Misdreavus and "loner" Sandile that have obviously teamed up here?

So for all I think I'm good at creating Pokemon emoting, I'm not terribly good at figuring out what the anime is showing. So I know they're teaming up, but like... To do what? Figure out who's behind this, I thought? But that wicked little grin on my favorite little ghost didn't look Entirely benevolent. Though the whole "pointing at the empty food trays" sequence tells me that's probably Part of it?

Eh. I was pleasantly surprised that this prankster got enough screen time for me to see expressions I've never seen in those eyes. And in that hair, that amused me! I mean, since I saw Lil' Miss shielded her face with her "hair"/??arms?? I've figured they use them to emote. But those motions were delightfully arm like. The spread of a grand presentation! The holding of the trays! //I think they actually gave the tips finger-like dexterity//, which is! Whew, that's a new one! Also, I think this is the most I've ever seen Misdreavus's eyes and mouth animated expressively! How fun!

Ooooh, and I don't know terribly much about Golurk, I know there have been Some plot relevant things involving them, but I can't remember watching it. Did the dismantling of its hinges really cause the rain? Could it control that or was it an accidental switch? A defense mechanism triggered, perhaps?

--Oh, yeah should've just watched for five more seconds. Removing the seal removes its control.

So this whole time I was like, I've always understood Misdreavus to feed on fear. We see one eating physical solid food at least once so like, clearly not All the time, but it's in the dex entries, so it must be True to SOME extent. So I was like, why's THIS guy bothered? But I guess I wouldn't want to have to go out and harvest my own food every time I'm hungry either?

But then at the end when they lay out more food, you see 'em just floating above everyone else instead of eating. So I have no idea which way it's going, actually. {lD;;

Misdreavus's voice isn't as cutesy as the Japanese voice that always melts my heart, but it's still a lot more fun and, uh, mischievous than that sort of low raspy monotonous voice they have in a couple earlier episodes. I'll take it!

Aaaand I should've trusted my writing senses because it was the Sqwovet after all.

I'm definitely going to go back and rewatch this one, so for posterity, this was the one called "Panic in the Park". (Atm I don't want to watch the Whole Thing again and the time stamp on the player isn't cooperating for me to pinpoint times. Meh.)

Edit: Couldn't help it, watched it again. And the collusion made a Lot more sense the second time around (they were impressing the others by making it look like Sandile broke the tree, and maybe trying to barter food for protection. And then I think when the other group showed up, they were like "Well go on then, protect us!" Which they couldn't do, hence all the Expressions.

And also upon rewatch, I think the Misdreavus floating in a Satisfied way like it has already eaten, with it's tendril-arms on its belly. So I think it does in fact eat physical food too!

(This makes me wonder if there are, perhaps, some essential physical vitamins and minerals their bodies can't synthesize from fear alone? Do different kinds of fear produce different nutrients? I already headcanon that different kinds of fear from different beings "taste" different to them.....)

This has been Zira Gets Way Too Into Their Favorite Pokemon, part 385937.

#rhs pokemon #Why yes I DO overanalyze a children's cartoon about fantasy creatures in a videogame! Why do you ask!!!#I'm sorry to those who came here for rarer fandom stuff like TLT or YGO or TT.#I am also a Poke nerd but I put most of that on a separate blog.#Episode and game commentary have a history on this blog though so here it shall stay.

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donotalwaysbebatman · 1 year

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Tim Drake: Robin #10

Okay, this story was really rushed (presumably because the series was cancelled before it could fully develop any of the points it was trying to go into) and I think that more points should've been left open instead of trying to wrap them all up with a bunch of throwaway lines in a row. It would be fine to leave Kate out of this issue entirely, because sacrificing himself for Kate doesn't really have the same That's What Robin Does energy of using a stranger in her place. And it didn't actually answer literally any questions I had about Kate anyway, so if that was what it was attempting to do, no.

I also didn't think there was any point to the whole 'ooh Tim's cheating with Robin' because there wasn't enough room to actually have that misunderstanding. It would've been interesting to see! It could've been funny or moving! But since there wasn't time to do it, I think it should've just been glossed over. Just have Bern say 'hi' because he's close enough with The Marina Family to just be hanging out with them, no explanation needed. Teasing an interesting conversation and then not having it is just annoying and did not need to be included at all.

Also, I know the bit where he said Batman was not real or whatever was supposed to be character flavor for Bern, to remind us he's a conspiracy theorist, but since he knows about Tim it's implausible that he doesn't know about Bruce, and, again, not enough time to explore the ways in which that could be interesting. I would've gone with the classic, "Is it true that [crazy theory]? Right. Not the time for that. Sorry." Because it was rushed, it also felt a little bit like Bern was trying to convince us that the Batfam would help Tim? Which feels both condescending and ridiculous. Of course they would.

I think, since there's basically a group shot and not that much explanation necessary for it, there should've been more people included. We know the Batfam and the Marina, and of course they should've been included, but - and this is a product of ignoring every superhero's civilian life in recent years - I think other people could've been included, too. Either Tim's friends from older comics (Bern should still know some of those), civilians that Robin has saved over the years, or even unnamed characters that are implied to be Bern's friends, because he should have a life outside of his supporting role.

Overall, I did like the message, and I thought the way it was said was nice, but I don't think we had enough time to fully get there. You can see the emotion it's going for, but I don't think it carries it all the way. In this short of a conclusion, it would need a lot more dramatic irony to pull it off than was included. The story does feel concluded, at least (which is more than I can say for I Am Batman) but I wish it hadn't been cancelled, especially before Tim came up with his own identity. (Still pulling for Fruit Bat.)

I just feel like, since we weren't going to get the Chaos Monsters concluded plot-wise, they should've been used more heavily as a metaphor. Less talking - I know, I know, there were cool quotes the writer still wanted to include - and more being used to create a shadow narrative of Tim's entire superhero story. And then Bern coming in with the cavalry. Unfortunately, this would necessitate Bern basically not being in this issue, and also I don't think Tim would get to do a heroic sacrifice, but this is the problem with having most of an issue written and then getting the series cancelled.

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silkenblankets · 1 year

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Bow For Me

Day #2 - G-40087

cw;; pet whump, mild sexual assault

Ya I told the Capt’ that I had a good feeling in my gut. Something was gonna happen at base today, I ain’t going on the hunt today, I gotta clean me a nice deer and get that fire going. What was funny was that gut feeling was me just bein’ hungry. I like to lick the fat off when nobody be here. Runs right off the body and I can lick it off like the dog I am. Ya know what they say, once a pet always a pet.

I was takin’ myself out a smoke break after I finished skinning that thing. I threw the skin into a pile outside, planning to let it freeze overnight. I wasn’t a sewer, 31 was our art guy. Could probably make me a nice little poncho outta the rough stuff if I asked him.

I had gotten two good puffs in, I savor those cigarettes it’s rare that we get one. So imagine how surprised I was when I accidentally dropped it onto the ground. My body would never let me waste such a precious item if it wasn’t have a pure emotion.

A shape walked into our base without a care in the world. No weapons, no defense, didn’t even seem terribly worried. That was our turf, what they doin’?

I walked into the house after the shadow, being as weary as a drunk tryin’ to pass a substance test. It happened within minutes— the shadow came running out as fast as it could, paired with a terrified scream. Yeah, I was pretty shaken up myself, I ain’t got company here. It just me.

The decision to capture the madman was easy, then I could chain ‘em up and wait for the boss. I didn’t even need to do much, I gave them a mighty shove when they passed it and they hit the ground like a rock.

Dustin’ my hands off on my pants, I was certainly startled, Ya, I just did that. And I was surprised to see the shadow disfigure itself, the guy was holdin’ a kid? Our protocol for this kinda stuff was to tie ‘em up outside, and while on the topic I feel like we were prepared for anything ‘cept a kid showing up. Felt kinda bad, poor kid looked very frightened. Big eyes, shakin’ the guy— oh shoot she was askin’ for Mamma.

Capt’ didn’t prepare us for kids nor them women. I was really rolling some dice here, could get into trouble no matter what I did. Maybe the excitement of a woman would distract Capt’ from the fact I messed up. None of us ‘cept Capt’ have gotten to touch a woman before, it’ll be chaos.

I decided to drag her to the butcher room, grab some of them chains we use to hang the deer up. Hoisted her up the ceiling like that deer next to us, oh she’s gonna have a fright when she wakes up. Oh well, maybe she’ll be fine. Ugh, wish Capt’ was here to help me out a bit.

I set the kid on the table, didn’t know what else to do.

…

That’s a lie I did know what to do. I gave the kid a deer bone to chew on and on my way out I gave the lovely lady’s boobs a lil’ tiny squish.

When I sat down at the poker table, I was still a bit shaken.

Day #2 - Captain E-112120

I'd been wandering the woods around the station all morning, mostly looking to see if I could find some edible plants. So far my pockets had a lot of blueberries and a few good pieces of rhubarb, wasn't sure if anyone else would eat them but that just meant more for me. Here I thought I might starve once I mad with out here, geez I didn't think people would pass up such a good area. Guess I should've run off sooner, ha!

I thought I heard rustling off to the side, looking up to see nothing but shadows. With a small glare, I dismissed it as a wild animal, or another runaway. Tch, better not be a snitch. Couldn't break my streak now, really I swear I'll lose my mind.

As I walked back to the old gas station, I stopped to grab a bundle of sticks tied up by the entrance. I had some time to kill, anyway. Stepping inside, I glanced over to see one of the fellas was sitting at the poker table. Really it was just a display table surrounded by upside-down buckets but it got the job done. I set the sticks on the table, my gaze wandering further into the building.

Oh, looks like someone got a deer all skinned and strung up. That'd taste good later- holy hell. There was a man strung up beside it, and a girl? Dear God it wasn’t a man, it was a woman. Despite the mask muffling the sigh, I still stared at my fellow runaway through the dark veil that acted as the only barrier between us. I pointed to the lady, then to him.

"You mind tellin me why we got a stranger inside the walls? Who the hell hangs a lady like that anyway?" I rambled, my fingers drumming the table. "Let her down, see if she's worth talking to..."

#whump #whump fic #whumpblr #pet whump #lady whump #whump drabble #whump writing #whumpee #bow for me

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analviel · 3 years

Text

Once Tim got so fed up with being in between Bruce and Dick's not-arguments, forced to either jump into the conversation with an obvious question for Bruce or pestering Dick to go out and get ice cream, Tim decided that it's way too much work for free and charges Bruce. To add to the 'Robin salary' he writes, he also adds 'Proffesional annoying little brother' as an occupation and with the appropriate raise.

And because Dick deserves it, Tim also puts an 'Emotional support firstborn and part-time babysitter' among Bruce's list employees with regular salary wired straight to Dick's account.

Babs -the only one aware of what Tim's getting up to- has 'dealing with all this shit' that is an hourly wage pay, and Cass has a 'being badass' and a few bonuses of 'being extra badass when we thought you can't get anymore badass' to her name even though she's never looked at her accounts and it's handled for her by someone else.

Then Tim also adds 'full-time live-in child of Wayne Manor' and the accompanying additional hazard pay that comes with that under his name too, which he also puts on Damian's new bank account that Tim makes for him once he arrives.

Jason has 'prodigal son back from the dead' it's a pretty large amount of money actually and Jason might've noticed the money Bruce's account is paying him if the damages he causes aren't being subtracted from his salary.

Steph has 'you owe this to her Bruce' and is a set aside debit account that is regularly refilled with whatever Steph has taken.

Then of course for old time's sake, when Tim left the Manor to go on his Bruce quest, he takes out the 'full time live-in child of Wayne Manor' and replaces it with 'Uber Tim, location: beginning and end of time, destination: Home'.

Dick is upgraded to 'full-time replacement' with a couple additional zeroes for bonuses because he's not just doing it as well as the original, he's exceeding the quota -not a very high bar, admittedly, but definitely a lot more than he should reasonably be expected to match.

Jason has 'M-E-P reparations' which is mental, emotional, and physical.

Damian starts getting the 'Robin' pay cheque too, though perhaps not as soon as he should've seeing as Tim was also busy.

(In fact, Tim paid Uncle Eddie with the money from these 'jobs'. He once considered putting himself up as a working student but decided that's too shameless even for him.

There's also the 'I'm sorry I pulled you into this chaos', 'I'm sorry you met this whackjob', 'you're cool and you deserve this', 'welcome to the family and I'm sorry' fee, etc. etc. paychecks. While most of the positions for the main fam are exclusive, the lower ranges have a flexible minimum and maximum beneficiaries, and some even has constant vacancies.

Tam Fox is a proud 'I'm sorry I pulled you into this chaos' under Bruce's employ, and every person that's ever been a member of the Young Justice as well as civilian friends like Ives and Callie are 'you're cool and you deserve this'. Duke is the first 'welcome to the family and I'm sorry' and Tim pouts to himself for not having thought of it sooner.)

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bi-bard · 3 years

Text

First Kiss - Team Free Will 2.0 Preference (Supernatural)

Title: First Kiss

Characters: Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester, Castiel, Jack Kline

Requested: Nope

Word Count: 1,698 words

Warning(s): mentions of death and violence

Author's Note: I wanna write more preferences!!

Hey! I did a rewrite of the ending of Supernatural. It took a really long time to complete, so it would mean a lot to me if you check it out. Here’s a link! (it’s on my personal account)

-------------------------------------

Dean Winchester (Season 11):

I sat across from Dean in the bunker library. I felt like he hated me now. I had lied to him for months. Now, Charlie was gone and the darkness was loose.

He wouldn't look at me. He just stared at the lore book and let me watch him.

"Dean," I said softly. He didn't move.

I have never been as scared as I was now. I had faced demons and angels and leviathan but... Dean hating me... it was something I didn't want to face.

I took a deep breath, gathering my courage, "Dean."

"What," he asked, looking up at me. His glare made me want to crumble and avoid the subject.

"I'm sorry," I said in a damn-near pathetic tone.

He sat silently. Dean Winchester... king of bottling up emotions.

"I wanted to tell you but Sam insisted we didn't and I didn't think he'd let me help if I said anything," I continued. "It feels stupid because I should've just fucking said something and said screw the consequences but I kept seeing you seem scared of yourself. I just... I thought I was helping and now I know I wasn't. I am so... so sorry. And I know that doesn't make up for anything but... I'm not gonna stop trying. I'm not."

As I spoke, Dean stood up and walked around the table to stand next to my chair. I stood up and hugged him tightly.

"You don't have to forgive me, but I wanna know you hear me," I muttered. My face was half-hidden in his chest. His arms wrapped around me.

I looked up at him, seeing a few tears falling from his eyes. I reached up and cupped his cheek. He closed his eyes for a moment before looking at me again.

"I'm so sorry," I whispered.

I went to lean in and kiss his cheek. It was a sign of comfort. That was it.

However, before I made contact, Dean turned his head. I pulled back as soon as our lips touched, but Dean grabbed my waist so I wouldn't move.

There was a moment of silence.

He kissed me again, barely longer than the last one. Careful and hesitant. I let him. I didn't pull back or push anything further. I just let him kiss me softly until he just barely pulled away.

"Dean," I mumbled.

He grinned softly, resting his forehead on mine, "Was that okay?"

"Y-Yeah," I nodded. "It was... definitely okay."

"I could never hate you," he promised quietly. It was like he had read my mind earlier. I grinned softly, feeling more tears in my eyes.

Dean closed his eyes for a moment. I did too. It felt like things were getting better. They weren't fixed- nowhere close- but they were better.

Sam Winchester (Season 8):

Being friends with the Winchesters often meant meeting randomly on hunts. You would stumble into the same bar or diner and it wouldn't take long to figure out you were both looking for a case. It was normal.

For the Winchesters and me, it happened far too often. Seriously, it was to the point where we both made jokes about stalking one another.

It was after one of those many hunts that Sam asked me out to dinner. One nice, calm thing in the midst of complete chaos. I accepted.

We ended up at a restaurant a few towns over from the hunt. We used my car because Dean really wanted to get back to their new bunker.

It was weird... in a nice way.

It wasn't uncommon for us to talk about personal things but we were usually pulled away from the subject by hunts and lore. Now, I was sitting and laughing as Sam told me about Dean's often stupid drunk antics.

"I... I had a nice time tonight," I said as we walked to my car. We weren't even saying goodbye for the night but it felt like the right time to say it.

"Me too," Sam replied. I was about to get into the driver's seat when he spoke up, "(Y/n)..."

"Yeah," I asked, freezing by my door. He seemed to bite his tongue. "Sam..."

"Sorry," he chuckled. "I just haven't done the date thing in a while."

I chuckled too, "Me neither. It was much nicer than finding someone at the bar."

He nodded.

I took a deep breath and stepped closer to him. Sam just smiled at me. I leaned up and pressed my lips to his softly. His hands touched my back, pulling me closer as I touched his shoulders.

It was slow and gentle. Everything I wanted it to be.

I pulled away slowly, not wanting to move away completely... not yet.

"Maybe we can do this again, Winchester," I mumbled with a grin.

"I'd like that," Sam replied before leaning in and kissing me again.

Castiel (Season 13):

After a long hunt that included Dean nearly sacrificing himself, I was more than relieved to curl up in the backseat of Baby and try to sleep on the drive home.

Dean was driving and Sam was sleeping in the front seat.

Then, my phone rang.

I looked at the unknown number and assumed it was one of Jody's or Mary's burner phones. I just answered it.

"Hello," I said, seeing Dean glance at me through the rearview mirror.

"(Y/n)," an all too familiar deep voice replied.

My heart dropped. I felt the air knocked from my lungs. He was supposed to be dead. Gone.

"I-I'm sorry," I mumbled, voice shaking. Dean looked at me again, hitting Sam's arm. Sam looked back at me.

"(Y/n), it's me," Cas said again. "It's Cas."

"Pull the fucking car over," I looked at Dean. He just listened to me. "Where the fuck are you?"

"I... I don't know," Cas stammered. I looked to Sam for help. "I'm using a payphone."

"Stay where you are, okay," the tears had started to fall by now. "We'll- We'll find you. I promise."

My voice started falling into a whisper as I continued mumbling.

"Okay," Cas replied. "I'll see you soon."

"Mmhmm," was all I could get out. I hung up and handed my phone to Sam. "Trace it. Find it. Do something."

"Who was it," Dean asked as Sam got his laptop and getting to work.

"C-Cas," I said. I was shaking and watching Sam. Dean turned around and reached out for my hand. "It... It was Cas."

A few hours later, now nearly three a.m, we turned into an alleyway.

There he was. Castiel. Angel of the lord. Love of my life... though I hadn't told him that.

I got out before Dean and Sam could move or tell me to wait.

Cas was crying too as I walked over to him.

"(Y/n), I'm sor-"

I cupped the sides of his face and pulled his lips against mine. It was a bit rougher than I had hoped our first kiss would be, but I still clung to him, my hands moving to grab onto the edges of his trenchcoat. His hands touched my waist, wanting to pull me even closer than I already was.

"I love you," I whispered to him, barely pulling away. Our noses still touching. "I'm sorry I never told you before but I love you so much."

"I love you too," Cas mumbled, kissing me again.

It was much softer this time.

"So much," he spoke against my lips.

My hands loosened around his jacket, now knowing that he wasn't going to just disappear. We only pulled away when we heard the other doors to Baby open and close.

I stepped back so he could see Sam and Dean. They both took their turns hugging him. Once they both stepped back, Cas grabbed my hand.

It felt like I was pulled back to the ground for the first time. Cas was home and he was mine. Things had been fixed by... someone.

Jack Kline (Season 14):

Watching Jack die was a terrifying moment for all of us. I sat next to their bed, trying not to cry as I kept them company during the inevitable.

We had been closer than they had been with the Winchesters. Them and Cas had a different kind of bond altogether. Jack and I were absolute best friends. Movie nights and practicing powers. We backed each other up on hunts. We were just... close.

Then, the boys brought them back.

They each took their time hugging them when they looked at me over one of the brothers' shoulders. I smiled at Jack. They stood up and walked over, hugging me tightly. They hid his face in my neck, arms wrapped tight around me. I closed my eyes. I put one hand on the back of their head and the other on their back.

"You're back," I mumbled. "You're safe."

Later that night, Jack and I were sitting in my room. I was showing them one of my favorite movies. It was our first calm night since they had collapsed after a coughing fit.

There was a moment where I looked over at Jack with a grin. I just watched him, closely. I was almost in wonder. They were here and they were safe. I had them back.

Jack turned to me as I stared, "Are you okay?"

My breath almost stopped when I realized how close our faces were. I nodded at them. They didn't move. They just seemed to study my face.

"Can I kiss you," they asked.

I spent a few moments in stunned silence. I just looked into their eyes silently before I nodded.

Jack made the first move.

They leaned forward and barely connected our lips. Soft and gentle. We sat there with our lips touching.

I slowly started to properly kiss them. I leaned in more, taking the lead of the moment. I reached over and grabbed their hand. Jack's lips followed my lead. I pulled back in a matter of seconds.

"I liked that," Jack mumbled. "We should do that again."

I nodded, "Whenever you want."

Because I would never complain about getting to feel their lips against mine again.

-------------------------------------

Masterlist

What I Write For

Request Guidelines

Musical Prompts

Small Moments With…

When Worlds Collide (Doctor Who Crossover Series) Masterlist

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folklore/evermore Writing Challenge (and Masterlist)

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anakirui · 2 years

Text

i have created a chart of dsmp parallels i have noticed

/rp /dsmp

explanations below

dream -> skeppy

this ones weird, but if you watch early dsmp clips it makes sense. dream indirectly learned to use emotional attachments over people because of skeppy, and skeppy showed signs that are similar to dream's current character before dream did. i.e. expressing a desire to manipulate tommy (albeit skeppy nor bad acted on this despite discussing it with eachother) and explicitly promoting war and chaos.

adding onto this, skeppy has always wanted control over the server. this is something he basically proved with his own words. (he clarified that the discs have all the control on the server, and then proceeded to try and trade for all of the discs from dream right after saying that using spirit's leather) he also, much like dream, has no emotional attachments but his one exception is badboyhalo as far as we know

bad -> dream

this one is pretty obvious in eggpire bad. in fact, it's so obvious that puffy even writes in her captain's log that he's starting to act like dream- because he is. eggpire bad is very openly manipulative, but what's ironic is that bad before/after the egg arc was manipulative anyways. (l'sandburg, badlands stuff basically, that shit apology he gave for the egg arc that was literally just him dealing with guilt in the worst way possible aka scapegoating ant)

a lot of his parallels to dream are essentially the same parallels that dream makes to skeppy, but there are still some small extra ones. for example, bad canonically steals a lot of people's things and keeps them in his vault... but unlike dream he tries to avoid taking things that are emotional attachments.

also he's broken the rules of his own faction before. l'sandburg was voted to be an outpost by ant and sam (which would overrule his vote to make it an embassy, because that's how their direct democracy or whatever works) only for him to keep stating that it's an embassy and that it belongs to him and skeppy specifically... which is just an abuse of power tbf, my guy is kinda a tyrant-

also bd island is similar to the skeppy jail. ironically. my guy isolated skeppy on an island because the skeppy jail and the egg freaked him tf out when he literally just made the equivalent of the skeppy jail and then pulled a mild exile card on skeppy and basically refused to tell him why he was taking him there except for "you are bad at minecraft" (and no this was not presented in a lighthearted manner. this was presented in a "bad is trying to make skeppy feel inferior" manner.)

bad -> skeppy

this should've been expected. but besides everything mentioned in the two paragraphs above, there is actually more than previously mentioned. bad literally parallels early egg arc skeppy throughout the entire second half of the egg arc. they both deal with loss in reckless ways that ended up affecting most of the server because they can't just fucking communicate or cope properly, they both get very possessive and controlling of eachother if they feel threatened by any external force, they have the same goals and methods, they deny any sort of claim by anyone that they are mistreating eachother (skeppy yelling at puffy when she said he wasn't being emotionally supportive enough to bad, bad yelling at foolish when skeppy apparently wanted to move out (which was a lie btw haha))

karl -> red skeppy

red skeppy is marked as a seperate character here because 3/2 (a bd island stream) establishes skeppy and red skeppy to be two completely different individuals with their own thoughts and feelings about things. this parallel though is extremely obvious if you have watched bad's 4/18 stream and quackity's 11/27 lore stream. karl and red skeppy are both characters who act like absolute dickheads to their loved ones because of their brain being messed with. in karl's case, it's his memory loss from time travel, while in red skeppy's case, it's the egg literally possessing him (3/2 bd island stream has literally expressed the concept that the egg can physically take over c!skeppys body even if he's conscious and speaking. freaky shit.)

quackity -> bad

okay when i first started seeing this parallel back during the egg arc i was genuinely fucking scared. news flash: quackity paralleling him STILL scares me. i really shouldn't even have to explain how obvious 11/27 made this parallel, with them both losing a loved one to lava and having a serious argument with a loved one in one stream as already a major one. but something that's clear (and this is the part that scares me) is that quackity sees bad as this individual that can do no wrong when bad definitely is an individual who has done shitty things, and that's why im terrified when i see him essentially... following into bad's footsteps. because it makes me think, if he ever comes to the conclusion that he is acting like bad, and then has the conclusion that bad can do no wrong, what is that going to say about quackity's morals? like he's already pretty gray but how much would that belief allow him to justify far worse shit that he could possibly do in the future? yeahh...

sapnap -> happyduo

unironically picks up a lot of behaviors from these two. the pet killing probably came from skeppy as they both have a history of threatening/harming animals. despite that, sapnap has a ton of emotional attachments to pets just like how bad does. all three of them also don't really pick sides, but in happyduos case it's more like they're their own respective side and do whatever benefits them while sapnap properly does the people > sides thing.

quackity -> wilbur

pretty sure this has been pointed out like 6363663 times so im too lazy to explain it

sapnap <--> quackity

they do be kinda paralleling eachother like how happyduo does and im also too lazy to explain this either might edit this later

possible parallels:

sapnap - -> wilbur

has quoted him before for some reason, he called el rapids an "unfinished symphony" for example

wilbur - -> bad

has also quoted him before and nobody noticed it, him talking about there being a power vacuum with dream being in the prison and "turning over a new leaf" are both things eggpire bad has literally said

sapnap <- -> foolish

honestly i just want this parallel so bad. as characters they have a lot of similarities so far but i wish there was more. they both have a close individual in their life with memory issues, they both have a history of violence that they've been identified with by some people, they both have actively tried to be peaceful but now they can't, they both have sorta iffy relationships with their parents, they both have a relationship with an elemental power (sapnap is associated with fire, foolish has canonical lightning powers), and both have a ton of pets.

foolish - -> dream

this one barely counts but all i need to say is lmanburg and lsandburg and both of them making plans to kidnap skeppy coincidentally

other than that they're nothing alike, foolish is more of a victim in lsandburg than anything

#c!dream #c!quackity #c!wilbur #c!karl #c!sapnap #c!badboyhalo #c!skeppy #c!foolish #dreamsmp #dsmp #dream smp #analysis #parallels #dream smp analysis

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zaeedsflipflops · 3 years

Note

Zaeed, Kasumi, Joker!

Full disclosure, I don't know why I reblogged this ask game bc I almost never remember my first impressions of anything lmao

Zaeed

First impression: lol I don't know. I think I enjoyed him.

Impression now: He is my favorite shitty elderly man full of rage and chaos and horrible morals. I just really get such a kick out of him. Maybe it's bc I immediately drew a parallel between him and my beloved Shepard so I was like "oh he is beloved too now I guess". Nasty man. Evil.

Favorite moment: I like when he's stuck under that burning pillar 🥰

Idea for a story: So many, weirdly. But none that focus on him. I just want him to pop up in other characters' stories.

Unpopular opinion: LISTEN. LISTEN. i KNOW in my heart zaeed is a stinky man who smells like old dish rags and, like, garlic for some reason. but like... his game model could get it, you know? his va is robin sachs. like. 👀

Favorite relationship: I like him and Garrus' interactions. Zaeed is like the Bad Future for Garrus. them interacting is enjoyable and brings out the worst in both of them and that's so sexy and fun

Kasumi

First impression: I don't remember specifics, but I liked her. I thought her hood was cool.

Impression now: I love her now, and I love how playful but also wise/street smart she is. It's kind of refreshing to have a character with both traits. I just wish she had more content in ME2 (and ME3, but the same goes for all ME2 squad mates).

Favorite moment: Probably during her loyalty mission when she explodes at Hock. her voice actor is really good at showing her range from playfully indifferent facade to grief and anger.

Idea for a story: I'd love to see some of her and Keiji's heists explored

Unpopular opinion: I don't know if I have one? tbh I don't think I even know the popular opinions about her

Favorite relationship: @bluhawke has opened my eyes to the idea of the Kasumi and Thane friendship and I hate that they don't really interact

Joker

First impression: idk. probably funny pilot guy who wisecracks

Impression now: I like his characterization a lot. I like that they have him in that wisecracking sidekick role to Shepard but he's very much his own person. I love that he's got so much anger inside him. I feel like I don't see a lot of angry characters who aren't just Mad all the time, but whose anger comes out less obviously

Favorite moment: I love when he and Shepard steal the Normandy and share that little look and it just gets me all pumped up for the story, and it's also like, the subtle camaraderie and loyalty 🤌

Idea for a story: Some Shoker thing. A rewrite of some ME3 stuff I don't love.

Unpopular opinion: Unpopular idk, but I think he should've been a romance option. I'm also not a huge fan of him and EDI as a couple. I don't hate it, but it doesn't sit super well with me for various reasons.

Favorite relationship: Him and Shepard, platonic or not. he's kind of the only person on the Normandy in ME1 who doesn't open up to Shepard and is just kind of in the background, but he comes thru at the end and then follows Shep to Cerberus. he never mentions how Shep died saving him and downplays it but it comes out in ME3 that it's clearly been bothering him. Like I love the loyalty plus the emotional unavailability of him and Shepard. It's interesting

#mass effect #asks

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becausethathappens · 3 years

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Will you please write a super angsty fic where Link is freaking out because he thinks the wedding vows he has written aren't good enough and Rhett helps him go over them and make corrections and says they're perfect but also, just says the vows he would say for Link if it was them like it should've been because he's heartbroken and Link can tell but their hands are tied and they don't know what to do so they soldier on without saying a word, but wordlessly communicating lifelong love and misery and everything, maybe comfort as well?

i'm really really sad and i can't shake it off and i really want some good angst and hurt/comfort and i really love you, maura, you're awesome

I don't do unhappy endings, anon. I'm confident you don't either. In fiction or otherwise. So, pardon this if it’s not what you expected.

Please enjoy? This was done a little hastily to share it with you (and I should be writing other things per usual) but I've had a rough week and I want to hopefully make someone smile. (I have way angstier stuff in the drafts and I will be sure to get those out eventually, too.) You’ll feel better soon. 🤞 Thank you! 💞

-———————-

now or forever

4k - Rhett writes Link vows.

If you were my boy, Blue

I’d bathe you in honeys (sp?)

I’d sing write you a love song

I’d shoot you a star**

If you were my boy, Blue

There ain’t nothing in this life I wouldn’t give

From my heart, to my toes, to my fingers, my nose (**)

Whatever it takes just to watch you live

continue to ‘ ’ grow with you like a vine ‘round a rose

If you were my boy, Bue

I wouldn’t want you all for myself

There’s no star bright enough to match your lightin’

In sickness, blue, so certainly while we have health

Hand in hand, no longer fightin’

What’s destiny (**)

You and & me

If you were my boy, Blue

I'd marry you

Thank God for Rhett. Giving him, delivering him, blessing him with Rhett.

Link is in the middle of a spiral (what he’ll later recognize as a panic attack) when Rhett arrives, the eve of his wedding. Bailing him out of this with pen, paper, and a smile.

Link has always been good at improv.

Though Rhett tended to find the words to start. These were his own vows and Link has been putting time to sit and start them off for weeks. Now that he has to, he’s dumbfounded, despite being deeply in love.

Amidst all the planning and chaos, writing his vows was such a given that Link left it as priority sixty-seven on a list of many more.

Unfortunately, even as busy as they’ve been, that list was shredded with the “who gifted what” tracking sheet (both literally, accidentally, and figuratively) back around the bridal shower and it’s been anarchy ever since.

So he thanks God for Rhett, who’s here, to stop another needless disaster from happening.

That same generous God, however, watches him plagued with thoughts of utter devotion at Rhett’s willingness to drop everything on a weeknight and rush over to help Link find his words.

His lyrics, really, is what Link has in mind. Since they used to write songs together and this felt much the same. He’s been floundering all night and now that Rhett’s here, he knows he’ll at least get what he needs done. Even if it’s not all he wants, right now.

That same God seeks judgment on his every decision or flinch against His will, for any reason, to spite him.

For this reason.

He wants to smush Rhett’s face and kiss him. Deeply. He doesn’t.

Even if there were sometime in the past that he could get away with a platonic smooch, now he can’t. He simply could not prevent that from escalating.

So, he merely tightens his grip on the wrinkled scrap paper in his hand and scrunches his eyes.

“Why can’t it be you up there…” Link bemoans, loudly, in his frustration.

Rhett’s eyes widen, in horror, and Link slams his other hand at his mouth, rolling his eyes. “Not like - I mean - why can’t you go say my lines for me. You’re so much better at this kinda thing.”

“Let me read what you’ve got,” Rhett says.

After some review, Rhett sighs, not unkindly and sits down next to Link. “Let’s just talk through what you’re trying to say because, yeah, this reads like liturgy.”

“Ain’t is supposed to? It’s in a chapel!”

“What do you like about her?” Rhett asks, ignoring his nitpicking. “Christy?” Rhett stares at him, waiting, too upset for Link to chastise but clearly wanting to.

“She’s patient,” Link says, reminded by the similar. Rhett folds over the book to an open page and clicks the pen in his hand, writing that down. “A-And she’s kind. Like considerate, ‘specially with babies and little animals. Sh-She does this thing where she immediately drops to their eye-level to make sure they don’t feel unheard or seen. Probably ‘cause she’s always been so tall…”

Rhett’s still writing.

“Then when I’m sick, she forces me to rest. You know I hate that,” Link says, voice rising a little, at the memory. “But you know I need that. You won’t be the last to make me stop and smell the roses or take a break, once in a while.”

“Her hair, write, her hair - the way it looks in the sunshine. Like warm caramel with flecks of gold. She’s a vision, an angel. Especially when she’s wearing all white, like,” Link says, pausing to point to Rhett’s undershirt and pale grey sweats. “Makes blondes look ethereal-like, always has.”

“Oh, and her voice. Sometimes, the way her accent catches, well, you know she don’t like to sing like us, never has, but when she says certain things, asks a question the right way - it’s music. The way it harmonizes with my answer, reminds me of singing, reminds me of us.”

Rhett keeps writing, quiet, and focused.

After a short time, Link can’t stop and wants to crane over to see what he’s come up with. Rhett hands it over after crossing a final “t” somewhere on the page.

“Those’re good, Link, but I think you need to keep closer to what I wrote, leave out the stuff about me.”

“Stuff about you?” Link asks, having spoken in a stream-of-conscious style, Link forgets most of what he even said

Rhett looks away, shakes his head.

Distracted by the desire to read the rest, Link abandons the lingering questions he has about Rhett’s suggestion and response.

“These are great, man, thanks,” Links says, pushing a soft hand into Rhett’s side.

His eyes scan to the bottom where Rhett’s added a few lines about the journey, the marriage, all the ceremonial aspects of the day for him to close with, but then something more.

Something about him.

Rhett catches him catch it and looks further away. “I know Christy pretty well, too, y’know. Y’all are just alike, in that way. She might need some back-up vows, to have and hold.”

Link reads them.

“You know, just in case.”

Link looks up and tries to laugh.

He doesn’t laugh.

He goes back to reading them.

Rhett shifts uncomfortably, touches the back of his neck, and shuts his eyes.

“Rhett, these ’re…”

“I know, bo, you can forget ‘em,” Rhett excuses, still not meeting Link’s gaze. “You want me to… I can rewrite the others on a different - I can turn the page and write ‘em there so you can just…”

“Hey, hey,” Link interrupts him, mad at Rhett putting down his best friend, and eager to explain his actual thoughts. “Rhett, these are perfect. These are… I’m sad I can’t say anything as nice in return to you.”

Rhett finally looks up to acknowledge that and their gaze heats and lingers.

“Not that I…” Link stutters to clarify. “Y-You’d have to be a - if that’s something that was gonna - you know - if that was gonna work…”

His mind does it’s usual jump to a visual for the worst case scenario depicting the implication he stumbled across. Him out eight grand on the wedding. Not to mention a wife, a family, a future, a faith -

a friend -

Link gulps, pushing that back away, pushing them both forward, in his estimation.

It’s too much to bear to think about for another second. When he glances at Rhett, he can’t get a read on his face what he thinks about it, and that’s scary enough for him to want to abandon the concept altogether.

“Christy’s gonna love them.”

It’s enough, saying his fiancée's name, to ground him again. Enough to make it okay for him to grab Rhett’s palm and squeeze it in thanks, between them.

Rhett’s made his choice to give up on film school.

Link’s made his choice to give up on whatever schoolboy obsession he has with monopolizing all of Rhett’s days and nights.

He’ll stick to the days or every other weekend, however they can still fit time together, is fine by him. This ceremony, tomorrow, feels as much about his graduation from friend to husband, and all that that entails.

They’re adults.

They both know there’s a lot of sacrifices to be made and this feels like the first time he’s really acknowledging how hard they’re going to be to make. He hopes they’ll still see each other.

He hopes their kids will get along.

He has a lot of hopes.

All of them involve Rhett.

There’s a lot he should write down for when Rhett finds his own bride to wed.

Link notices, suddenly, that Rhett is crying. The same part of him that's nearly broken the headwind of these conflicting emotions turns back to comfort him.

“Hey, don’t cry,” Link soothes, realizing he’s also still holding Rhett’s hand.

“‘M sorry,” Rhett intones, the words bubble up and out of him simultaneously, sounding like water draining in a filled sink. “And the night before your wedding, good Heavens.”

“Hey, I’ve been crying all week,” Link says, waving a hand at the stress that planning a wedding has kept put on him. “Nothing I haven’t seen in the mirror.”

Rhett laughs, rubbing a thumb over his own thigh in a way that brushes upwards against the place Link’s clasping his hand. Link nearly pulls his hand back, thinking Rhett’s trying to get him to sense his want for space, but when he meets his eye it’s clear he’d like nothing less.

“I think I’m just -” Rhett starts to say, trailing off. The light from the lamp on the far coffee table is the only thing on in the room. Link drops his gaze a few inches to try and see more of Rhett’s downturned eyes as he hems and haws. He squeezes their hands together, again, this time clasping it more firmly, still pressing Rhett’s large palm down from above. “I think I’m just a li’l jealous, is all.”

It’s the quietest admission he’s heard from Rhett since he told him he failed their chemistry mid-term in eleventh grade.

Link is also so lost at the innocence of the admission that he can only think of follow-up questions. “Of me?”

Rhett looks at him for a long, long minute and finally, when Link’s gaze remains confused for the whole length of the pause, he shakes his head, no.

Then he waits.

He waits for Link to realize what he means.

But he’s still waiting when Link, oblivious, moves onward trying to comfort Rhett, instead of understanding him fully.

The tension in the room is palpable as Link talks, but only to Rhett, it seems. Only Rhett pictures air bags being deployed in a car safety video as metal hits cinder block. Only Rhett moves his hand, though it’s all it takes to dislodge them from each other completely.

“I know you’re gonna make an amazing husband some day.” Link is saying.

Rhett’s hand aches where cool air now surrounds it.

“I know your wife is gonna get to hear you say such wonderful things about her.”

Rhett wipes his hand of the misunderstanding on the cotton of his pants.

“I know she’s gonna say the same kind of things about you, when it’s your turn up there.”

Rhett mourns the idea that this would ever be requited.

“I know she’s gonna love you, just as much as I do, so she’ll have plenty to say.”

Rhett looks away, wiping the last of his tears from his eyes.

“I’ll make sure she has plenty of ideas where to start.”

Rhett pats Link’s leg, in camaraderie, and nods.

And that’s it. They shoot the shit, they make a plan to meet up at a donut place for the groomsmen’s breakfast to thank them for their help, before the ceremony, and they’ll talk things through if Link’s feeling jittery still. Then Rhett’s gone.

It’s not until the next day at eleven on the dot (everyone has an agenda to follow and every moment is accounted for) that Link understands Rhett’s pain.

His mother straightens his tie and flattens the edges of his suit. “You’ll wanna know I heard Christy looks like an angel in her dress, from the girls upstairs.”

“Those actual angels you been talkin’ to, Sue?” Rhett jokes, where he’s twisting his cummerbund around every so often, bored.

“Very funny, honey,” Sue ribs back. “From the cousins, Beth and Hailee Sue. Remember they’re friends with the hairstylist you got to do the curls for Christy’s hair, today? She was over last night getting Christy ready for bed with how to wash and dry it a special kind of way. They were there, too.”

Link starts to tune her out, since there’s a lot on his mind, but then she says more.

“She says the hairstylist was talking about how jealous she was of Christy, all night, getting to marry you,” Sue relays.

“Oh, mama, please,” Link dismisses. The compliments he’s been getting have felt faker than the toupee on his uncle Bruce. That girl has never even met him. “I’m the only person here people should be jealous of, who would be jealous of Christy,” he says, trailing off, muttering his reasoning as he did. “Marrying a trainwreck like me.”

Link looks up in the mirror where some of his friends continue to mingle in various states of undress. Rhett is already dressed, however, and staring straight at Link like he’s been caught with a hand in a cookie jar.

Link’s about to ask what’s wrong when he remembers his words. Then looks again over the planes of Rhett’s face.

Last night’s words slam back into his mind and Link’s mouth drops open.

The church organ belts out an opening flurry of notes before Canon in D begins playing loudly through the sound system built into the rafters above them. Link looks up to see one of the church staff at the door instructing them to join the bridal party to line-up.

Link’s mom dashes off to where she’s paired with her nephew, Link’s favorite cousin, to be escorted down the aisle.

Rhett sees Link’s face rushing through a wash of emotions from a distance, he nods to the staffer in silent understanding that he’ll handle it, and then they’re alone.

He walks up to Link and takes his hand. He squeezes it.

“Hey, you gotta go. We gotta go. It’s showtime,” Rhett insists.

Link looks around like a bomb went off, since in some ways it did, and he doesn’t know what to do.

Rhett seems to pick up on that. He squeezes Link’s hand again.

“I’ll get over it, Link, it’s okay,” Rhett whispers, on the verge of desperation.

That confirmation is enough to fully shatter Link.

Only for a moment.

The music continues and Rhett keeps his hand hold.

They are adults. They are in love. They have to marry.

None of these things can be helped.

“I’m gonna be so jealous of Her, too,” Link whispers back. He squeezes Rhett’s hand one last time, as they part.

They leave.

They walk straight.

They part again.

Until later.

They move houses and cities and states.

They move mountains, inside and out.

They move together.

Much later.

They join again.

They run crooked.

They return.

To one another.

Link has spent years worrying a ring that means too much to too few people.

In the beginning, when he cries himself to sleep at what he thinks has been the mistake of a lifetime, it’s His talisman. It reminds him of the expectations upon this life he’s made.

As the years pass, however, the adherence to the bogeymen of their childhood’s rules wears thin. It starts to strictly represent love and patience.

Sacrifice.

It begins to feel like a burden. A representation of what’s been lost, not what’s been found.

He contemplates taking it off, but believes that to be a betrayal of all that it stands for to the people he stands for.

Then, one day, (surely mid-spin) he hears Rhett tell a story about wanting to change his ring.

He watches the silver twirl as Rhett explains.

He believes he was rushed into a certain type of marriage and a certain type of life by a certain type of person.

It’s a life that he’s grown to love but the ring represents a union forced by custom and not one that’s grown through devotion.

His ring reminds him of that too often to be good for him.

Link twists his again at the admission.

So, Rhett’s thinking about replacing the ring.

Link returns home that night in a stupor. He’s sure he said one too many things to Rhett to emphasize how wild it felt to hear him talk about changing rings.

Any memories of that day, their wedding, bring up a rush of emotions that he’s never been good at sorting through.

Today’s admission makes him feel the same spur to make use of idle, betrothed hands he feels when he cleans the fridge.

He wants to clean the slate.

He finds an old DVD copy of their wedding ceremony that he paid to have converted from miniDV some years ago. Now he struggles to find a place to watch that DVD. How quickly time has flown by.

Eventually, he ends up in his son’s room - no one’s home for the remainder of the night but he and Christy - now, he’s sitting on a bean bag, squinting at the game console’s controller trying to get the joysticks to move to “play” on screen.

The ceremony bursts to life and, like it was yesterday, Link’s nerves fizzle awake.

About halfway through the video, Christy finds him like that and sits down next to him in a thwump absorbed mostly by the stuffing of the chair.

They watch themselves smile happily at each other and Christy takes his hand.

“Should I be happy or scared to find you alone watching this on a Saturday night?” she asks, wryly, squeezing his palm.

Link doesn’t know what to say. He’s caught up in Rhett’s bygone script being spoken on screen. Words about Christy and about Link that were not their own, declared loudly in front of the congregation.

“I don’t know,” Link admits, shrugging. He doesn’t. He squeezes her hand back.

“You wanna tell me what’s eating you?”

Link hesitates, but relents. He wants that clean slate, after all. “Rhett’s getting his wedding ring replaced.”

“Replaced?” Christy asks, balking.

“Replaced, yeah,” Link responds, sure he didn’t misspeak.

“With what?” she asks.

“Oh, some new one. Fancy thing, very cool, made of trees or something. Honestly he wears the other one, the slick black one more than his wedding band half the time. He says it feels like the old one? It’s the kind of ring you get in a bauble at a vending machine crank. So, he wants a new one.”

“Jeesh,” Christy says, making a face at the screen. The camera catches Rhett stealing glances at the couple, then at the crowd, beaming at all with unbridled pride.

“Wouldn’t you be mad if I did that?” Link inquires, still baffled at the idea.

“Well, no, but don’t you love your ring? Heirloom and all that,” she says.

Link cringes. “Yeah, yeah. Honestly, I do.”

“So?”

“So, I still kind of want to and I’m not sure what that means.”

They watch the screen together.

“Do you wanna stay married?” she asks, in a small voice.

“Yes,” he breathes out.

There’s a long pause.

“To me?” she asks, her voice even smaller.

“Yes,” he breathes in.

She squeezes his hand, her confidence built back up. She begs him to join her.

“And him?” Christy whispers.

They both look the screen, the lens centered on the two of them, but their gaze is mutually torn to where Rhett stands wiping a tear from his eye at Christy reciting the last of the vows that he wrote her. Wrote him. Wrote them both.

She squeezes his hand again.

“Yes,” he breathes out.

She leans her head on his shoulder.

“You should probably get another ring, then,” she jests. “We shouldn’t have to share everything.”

The slate is clean.

There’s a lot he wants to say to Rhett about it, but just as before, he’s relied on Rhett to give him the right words to say. So, instead of words, he starts wearing Rhett’s ring.

Then, a new one, when he realizes he can match him separate from the other, all told. Have something of Rhett’s, all to himself.

In his unspoken push towards something more, their hands now match along with their steps, as they walk forward.

On the last week in July, they get ice cream at the fifth place that month to mistake them for husbands, but the first one he hears Link crow an affirmative in response.

Rhett waits for him while he triple-tips the cashier (for the guess) and pays for their cones.

“Bad joke,” Rhett says, softly, but firm.

“Who’s kidding?” Link parries back, a smirk dancing it’s way across his lips.

Rhett watches him with a wistful look of disbelief.

“Link, we’re married,” Rhett warns him.

Link shrugs. “I know. I’m just waiting for you to figure that out and minding my ice cream here, all right?”

He’s got a mouthful of vanilla bean and extra cookie crumble, the next second, so his vow ends there.

Later, at home, Rhett startles Jessie awake when he fully realizes Link’s words.

He shakes her awake. He shakes them both awake.

“I’m in love with Link,” he says, like it’s a confession.

She kisses him because so is she. So are most people.

“What’s wrong?” she asks.

Rhett repeats himself.

So does she.

They stare at each other under the cover of silk and moonlight.

“We’re married,” Rhett whispers, touching his hand to hers. Their rings clink, new and shiny.

“Yeah, and so are we,” she whispers back.

They fall asleep smiling.

The next day, Rhett sneaks up behind Link while he’s working and causes him to spill his cup of coffee. He gets the stink eye for only a minute because it’s the same length of time he can stand Link’s grumpy mug before he has to swoop down and kiss him on the lips.

“You figured it out,” Link says, grinning.

“I did,” Rhett chirps as he kisses Link more.

They take a car to their house. It’s filled with their love and the history of it; before, during, and after.

“What’s this?” Link asks, dazed in their post-sex glow, naked and alive.

He spots an old chord book of theirs from last time they wrote music.

“Oh,” Rhett says, bashful. “I came looking for you here this morning, hoping you slept over again, but, uh,” Rhett stalls, looks away and tries to take the songbook from Link’s hand. Link pulls it far enough he can’t reach. “You were already at the job.”

“And?” Link asks, using his spry, sinewy body as an advantage to slink away from the bed out of Rhett’s grip. He still has the book in hand.

“Those are your vows,” Rhett explains.

Link looks down and squints, confused. These aren’t the vows that Christy read at their wedding. He’s seen that video only a few months back and is sure of it.

“Our vows,” Rhett whispers, explaining further, at Link’s puzzled look.

“It’s a love song,” Link notes, marveling at the gesture. What it means to a young version of himself that once felt like they had surely cut out and mourned the possibility of this - all of this - ever happening. To have that thought coexist with the image of a nude, hulking tree trunk of a husband laid before him smiling up adoringly felt panoptic.

“So are you.”

Link begins to cry.

“Play it for me.”

Rhett wipes his cheek.

“Get my guitar.”

They sing twice more that night, always in harmony (not always in lyric), then spend the rest of their lives together doing much the same.

#things i wrote #@anon #i hope you are doing well soon #💙#rhink

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