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unholyplumpprincess · 3 years

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Take Care of You

Fic for @fyeahnix ! Thank you so much for your patience during this!!! This also is a sequel for her other fic, ‘Don’t wanna forget a thing’, but can be read as a stand alone!

Ao3 link here

Summary: Wraith and her no good, awful, terrible day. Nothing is going right, stress is piling up, plans aren't going right, and to top it all off she can't sleep. She's gonna have to finally suck up her pride and ask her girlfriend to come over and help her sleep. But, Anita has better plans than just sleeping to help ease her girlfriend.Or! In which Anita takes care of Wraith in more ways than just helping her de-stress.

!!!Minors and ageless blogs dni or you will be blocked!!!

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Fandom: Apex Legends

Relationship: Bangalore/Wraith

Warnings: R18+/NSFT, fluffy moments, mentions of Wraith’s depression, Anita tops with a dragon dildo and it’s gr8, rimming + anal play

Words: 9.5k

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Life could be cruel.

A statement that Wraith had made herself familiar with for quite some time. Though, she supposes, that this could not be the cruelest it could be. No, this was nothing like when she found out of her past- or... one of her pasts. It could get confused on who and which ‘she’ she was thinking of. Or even if they were a ‘she’ at all. Or what path, which life, which people, which--

Sigh.

Exhausting. It's all too exhausting to consider. Every path, every outcome, every recent nightmare plaguing her mind and making her even more irritable. Nightmares that she didn’t know if they were of watching a life of hers get hurt, another path. Or if it was simple fears that every person had.

Everything just seemed to be going wrong for her. It started off small enough, her nightmares had been triggered back into place. Insomnia making her dark under eyes look more like bruises nowadays and not helped by the way she rubs her eyes in exhaustion.

Natalie, bless whatever planet she came from, would always chide her and gently move her hands from her face once she noted Wraith’s nails starting to sink into flesh. Wraith was forever grateful to her, but she wasn’t about to let Natalie believe she had to take care of her in any form of the manner.

Natalie wasn’t her keeper, not her mother. But whenever Wraith would gently try to tell Natalie that she had this, she’d get a look from her best friend. One that was so gentle with a soft reminder from her glossy pink lips.

“You do not have to do everything alone either.”

!Rest under the cut here!

A statement Wraith was familiar with. She’d been doing things on her own since she could remember. It just seemed hard to break that habit. To feel like she needed to do it on her own, to try and succeed when she knew it would be better to have even one shoulder to lean on.

Relationships and friendships required balance, equality. She had to allow herself to get just as much as she gave.

Harder than it sounded.

On day three of her awful week, she looks at her phone for a moment in the night. Her thumb resting over the call button of the name ‘Handsome’ with a heart and ring emoji beside it. Cheesy, she’s aware. But for a moment, she thinks of calling Anita or even texting her.

Just asking for her to be there.

She would be. Wraith knew she would drop whatever she was doing to come take care of her, make sure she was okay. Wraith could practically taste Anita’s grape lip balm on her lips, the taste of mint on her tongue. The hint of gun smoke that always clung to Anita’s frame. The deepness of her cologne.

Anita’s presence was like the first drink of water in the morning. The first warm bliss of sunshine after being in the biting cold. The first taste of warm food when you’d had a shitty day. Her presence was like that of comfort.

Her home.

In the end, she puts her phone face down. Welcoming another sleepless night with too many people talking. Too much tossing and turning. Too much yearning in her heart, but too much of a stubborn fool to do anything about it.

The season is about midway through. Wraith had a strong start, topping the charts with her ferocity. Spurred on by Anita on an opposite squad and making her feel a bit more hectic in her need to hunt her girlfriend down. To pin her by her neck, dig her knees into Anita’s hand and murmur, “Surprise.” in her ear to watch those pretty freckled cheeks flush and a snarl uplifting one side of Anita’s lips before she stabbed her kunai into her throat.

Flirting with your girlfriend just got more vicious when you were a part of a blood sport.

Halfway through the season, they paired her with new people who were hoping to get in to call themselves Legends. Most wanted the glory all to themselves, going off as a solo only to get foolishly killed. Of course they did. This was a team sport, after all. But that left Wraith open and on her own. Just another body bag to take off the battlefield.

Day five, she looks at her phone again. Thumb hovering over the text box that led to her and Anita’s conversation.

It would be so easy.

She would come if we just asked.

Don’t you miss her?

We miss her.

Text her-

Call her-

Just press the button, you dumb girl-

The girls, as Wraith has been recently referring to the voices after Anita lovingly calling them ‘Her Ladies’- as they are just people as well. They always have an opinion when it involves Anita. Wraith has always wondered if in all her other lives if they were with her as well, or if all of them had the same attraction. If they even all knew her from various lives.

That sometimes made her smile. A childish desire to believe soulmates were real.

Whatever the answer, they all had an opinion about the sunshine in Wraith’s life. Normally trying to get her to do like she’s considering now: Getting Anita into her quarters.

Wraith huffs. Placing the phone face down on the nightstand and resting in bed with an arm over her eyes as an uproar of voices start trying to convince her to change her mind or to do something saucy to get Anita’s attention.

Plans with Natalie fall through at the end of the week. She’s had a breakthrough on a project, meaning she needed to focus all her attention there to possibly prevent a meltdown. She apologizes profusely, but Wraith is quick to tell her she understands and to not worry, they can try for another day. Wraith promises to check in on her in a few hours to make sure she’s not forgetting to eat either, as she knows how Natalie can be when on the brink of something this big.

So that falls to plan B of Elliott having told Wraith that he and Pathfinder were going to be having a night at the bar and she was free to join. But when Wraith calls him for that, he explains apologetically that Ramya wasn’t feeling too hot today so he was staying in to make sure she was doing okay. Siting something about not leaving family behind.

It’s sweet, and understandable. Wraith once again explains that she understands, but when the call ends, she feels so horribly exhausted and at her wits end. A sigh on her lips, rubbing at her face and feeling on the very last leg of her thread.

When she lies on her bed for the seventh day of the week, she stares at the ceiling with a blank expression. In desperate need of something. Anything.

A sigh escapes her, her brows furrowing and coming to the realization all at once.

She has to swallow her pride and call her girlfriend.

It’s not that she doesn’t want to- oh she’s wanted to all week. But it’s...hard to admit to someone that you aren’t okay. That you just need someone there. Not to mention she feels a tinge of guilt. Whenever she had a bad time, her comfort was her girlfriend. To be wrapped in her arms and hear her soothing voice calming her. To smell her cologne and know her worries were put at ease with an easy kiss to the forehead and a tuck of her hair behind her pierced ear.

Not like Anita hadn’t noticed Wraith doing well- attentive as she was. Wraith just kept saying she had it, that she was fine. Her poor defense mechanism kicking in and pushing away even the woman she loved.

It’s hard enough for her to even sit up and grab the phone, once again hesitating before forcing herself to just send a simple ‘Hey’ text to her. Telling herself that if Anita said she was busy or even if she wasn’t going to respond because she was already asleep- that Wraith would drop it immediately. That she’d find something else-

Ting, ting!

Her phone lights up, casting a blue glow in the dim room and making Wraith’s heart pound at the quick reply. She feels like a teenager as her fingers wrap around her phone and flipping it to look at the text. Her heart does a flutter, feeling relief already in her body and tears pricking her eyes when she sees the text given back to her.

‘hey boo whats goin on?’

A small, tired but fond laugh crosses Wraith’s lips. Rubbing at her eyes to steady herself and feeling a bit ridiculous for having worked herself up to the brink. But exhaustion still wears out her bones. Wraith sinks down onto the ground, pressing her back to her bed and sitting cross legged as she begins typing.

She erases what she’s writing a few times, starting to become frustrated. Nothing sounds right- or it sounds too needy. Too whiny. Too wanting. But she finally settles on one.

Honesty.

‘I just miss you.’

That’s what she types at first, letting it sink in before swallowing her pride once more and beginning to type again.

‘And I...’

A moment of hesitation to continue when she hits enter the first time.

‘I feel like shit. Been having a rough week. Was wondering if you could come over tonight so I could get a few hours of sleep?’

When she hits send again, she debates deleting it. But when the read icon pops up in two seconds flat, she knows she’s got Anita’s full attention.

Something about that makes her feel terribly wanted .

‘of course pumpkin’

Wraith hates that it makes her smile, tired and soft. Pressing her hand to her cheek and feeling a bit ridiculous just how a confirmation and a nickname could make her heart flutter.

‘be over in twenty’

Wraith clicks her phone screen closed. Moving to stand to go take a shower so she at the very least looked half presentable for Anita. Even if her body screams at her to just lie down already.

Ting ting!

Another text? Wraith would have assumed Anita was going to finish her nightly work out and then head over. She flips the device in her palm, opening up their conversation.

‘and don’t even think about showering yet. I’ll take care of you tonight.’

‘bath? I’ll bring the snacks’

Wraith’s eyes linger on those words with an air of feeling like she was going to melt into a puddle. ‘I’ll take care of you tonight’ Anita said. And she could hear it in her voice too. Low in Wraith’s ear, her full lips caressing the shell of her ear and her voice dropping to a husk with a squeeze to her waist. Where Anita’s hands liked to linger, moving towards her softer abdomen that she oh so loved on her.

‘I’d love that. Sorry if my hair is a mess :/'

Wraith finds herself texting back in a more playful manner. Emoticons weren’t normally her thing. But, after texting between Elliott and Natalie who were both plentiful in emojis, Wraith finds herself trying to express her words better by adding some sort of emotion to them. Not so clinical.

‘you look sexy when your hairs a mess’

And once again Wraith hates that it’s the small things that make her pale cheeks flush red. Huffing an amused noise under her breath and knowing Anita is probably laughing in return as Wraith shuts off her phone.

Her room is a bit of a mess. She hadn’t had the energy to really take care of it much. So, she works on picking up dirty clothing and putting it into the hamper. Finding water bottles to toss out and taking glasses left around her quarters to go wash later.

It wasn’t horrible, no, just some things where she just felt like she couldn’t do it. Where if she touched one more thing, she would have exploded.

It looks presentable in a few minutes. Tasks put off that could have been easily done in two minutes that instead took a week to complete. It would have frustrated Wraith on any other day, but today she feels accomplished for even getting that much done. The small wins, as Anita would have put it.

It makes Wraith feel proud for even rolling out of bed today.

She also changes into some clean clothes. Nothing fancy, just simple. A spaghetti strap black camisole that her chest near spilled out of- a favorite sleeping shirt and a favorite of Anita’s to see. And some gray sweatpants that were most definitely stolen from Anita with how Wraith has to roll up the bottoms of them to not trip over them. Her hair is tied into a messy ponytail, some black waves curling around her cheeks and making her blow them out of the way with a gust of air.

She figured she looked presentable enough. Anita tended to like when Wraith was dressed casually, even when Wraith knew how her eyes wandered whenever she dressed up.

A reminder of their trip just a few months ago for their anniversary crosses through her mind. A small smile playing on her lips when she remembers how Anita couldn’t take her eyes off her in her tight dress.

The time they spent in Psamathe would always be treasured. Every moment. And every photo tucked away for safe keeping for Wraith’s eyes only. The ones that were more...appropriate had another spot. Namely in her bedroom, on her desk with a photo of the both of them. With Anita’s arm around Wraith’s waist and leaning her cheek atop her head while Wraith smiled with her eyes closed.

It was one of her favorites.

She’s outside.

Wraith makes her way to the living room just as she hears the telltale ‘beep beep’ of the door being unlocked. Able to see the sliding door open to show Anita. Dressed in her casual clothes with her workout bag and a plastic bag slung over her shoulder. Her curls are a bit wet looking, clearly fresh from a shower. A tight white crew neck t-shirt clings to her frame, tucked into camouflage cargo pants and a black leather jacket with silver studs on the shoulders.

Wraith feels her clit throb. Feeling a bit too wound up already.

Before Anita can even get a word out, Wraith pounces her. The door sliding shut behind her and bracing Anita’s back to prevent her from falling. Wraith hears a vague ‘woah’ from her and the thump of the two bags over her shoulder hitting the ground.

Wraith can’t help herself as her strong legs slide around Anita’s hips to secure herself. Feeling calloused palms grab her ass to hold her up and in place just as Wraith’s hands move. One grabbing the nape of Anita’s neck, the other cupping her cheek and dragging her into a hot and heavy kiss.

Wraith feels all her worries melt away the second their lips make contact. Tasting Anita’s grape lip balm, the taste of mint on her tongue, inhaling the smoky scent off her clothes and the deep scent of leather. The subtleness of the musk and citrus of her cologne.

She moans freely into her mouth, delighted when Anita hums back, her hands gripping Wraith’s plump ass tight and appreciative.

Anita is the first to break the kiss, but that doesn’t even make Wraith pause. Kissing down her jawline, down her neck where her teeth start to nip the sensitive flesh right above the silver chains on her dog tags.

“Fuck-” Anita hisses through her teeth, only spurring Wraith on to seal her lips on a spot on her neck and beginning to suck. Stopping herself from smiling when she hears Anita's breath hitch.

There's a tighter grip on her ass as Anita walks them back into Wraith’s bedroom. Wraith’s back turned towards her bed and-

Move.

When Anita goes to throw her onto the bed, Wraith moves fast to let herself hit the bed. Rolling out from under her just as Anita goes to pounce and promptly hooking her legs around Anita’s waist. Rolling them over so Wraith comes out on top on her lap, delighting in how Anita blinks a few times to get her bearings before her eyes settle on Wraith victoriously atop her.

“You little -” Anita starts, but is promptly cut off by how hungry Wraith’s lips press to hers.

Wraith can taste the frustration melting from Anita, feeling how her hands go from pressing at Wraith’s sides to shove her off potentially. To now moving slowly down the curves of her sides, sliding over her plump ass and encouraging Wraith’s little humping movements against her.

Their lips part occasionally to mingle their breath. Both their half lidded gazes meeting and Anita’s full lips tugging into a small smile when Wraith sighs at the sight of her. But that’s cut off when Wraith leans in again, meeting her tongue first in a kiss that draws a low, deep moan from Anita’s lips.

Anita’s hands are all over her as Wraith’s hips slowly grind into her. Anita’s hands slide up along her sides, up into her hair to tug it free from its ponytail. Silky black locks fall free, and Anita parts from the kiss just as Wraith sits up a little. Her calloused fingers sliding up and over Wraith’s collarbones, up her neck and just holding loosely for a brief moment around her throat.

Wraith’s heart flutters, her lashes fluttering just the same and arching her back. A low moan leaving her lips when Anita croons low and raspy in her throat, “Love when you look a mess for me.”

Wraith shudders under the attention, worries already starting to get put on the back shelf for Future Wraith to deal with. Content to lean back in for another kiss, taking her time licking into Anita’s mouth. Her hands starting to slide under Anita’s shirt, nails scratching along the way across taut muscle-

Watch it.

Wraith doesn’t have time to question it. Not when she’s so intoxicated by Anita’s taste and scent. Fingers wrap in her hair at the root, pulling and forcing Wraith’s back to arch and forcing her to sit up. She moans for the pain of it, her hips rolling helplessly into Anita’s lap with a hiss and a flutter of her lashes.

A low, breathless chuckle falls from Anita’s lips, and Wraith knows the sight of her is making her just as much of a mess as Wraith is. “Woah, Kitty. Relax. I missed you too, but let's focus on you for now, yeah?”

“I like my way better.” Wraith speaks, a smirk in her voice that is quickly extinguished when her hair is held tighter and forcing her to bare her throat. Keeping her in place like a scruffed kitten as Anita sits up to kiss the expanse of her neck down to the strap of her tanktop on her shoulder.

“Betcha do. Always been good at distracting yourself from your feelings, hm? Let’s get you cleaned up, princess.”

Pent up but willing to follow, Wraith only groans low in her throat. Letting Anita slip out from under her and peeking up at her when Anita looks down at her. Wordlessly, Wraith lifts her arms up like a pouting child, enjoying the way Anita’s eyes roll despite her soft smile and she lifts her up. Allowing Wraith to hook her legs around her and arms around her neck to be carried into her bathroom without much of a fight.

The bathrooms for their quarters were nice. Some had walk in showers, some had clawfoot tubs. In Wraith’s case, she’d gotten a tub. At first that had been a struggle, but if she wanted a shower she could just go to Anita’s or the gym’s locker rooms. Especially on nights where no one else was awake.

Small risks were had on those nights. With a hand over Anita’s mouth and the other sinking fingers into her and making the soldier beg.

Anita sets Wraith atop the sink so she can begin drawing the bath. Going under her sink and finding the self-care items that Anita and Natalie had equally purchased for her.

Bottles full of expensive hair care items that Anita had gotten for her, siting her expertise on hair care. Things like bubbles and soaps purchased by Natalie, who for some reason knew what scents were too much for Wraith and managed to avoid them miraculously.

“Let’s get you undressed, baby.” Anita’s voice gets Wraith out of her trance. Feeling the weight settling back on her of the last two weeks. Suddenly tired, worn out. Too tired to take off her own clothes and grateful when she feels Anita gently working her out of them. Her warm touch sliding over her bare flesh and it makes Wraith sigh softly, her shoulders slumping.

When she finally can refocus on the world, it’s when Anita is gently leading her to the tub. Letting Wraith sink into the warm water, the scent of lavender and vanilla quiet in the room. Anita only leaves briefly to return with a few candles, setting them around and turning off the lights to leave a quiet, low glow.

Wraith watches her quietly. Watching as Anita begins to strip and sighing to herself at the sight of her working out of her clothes. Her eyes sliding over the muscle freshly wound up from Anita’s work out, the scars on her body telling stories not even Wraith knew all the answers to.

She was picture perfect- even if Anita didn’t think so some days. No one would think the headstrong soldier could have her shy moments, but Wraith knew the truth. When the clothes came off and her dark eyes looked at Wraith as if waiting for her to comment something other than how handsome she thought she was.

When Anita comes close, Wraith makes room for Anita to slide in behind her. Sliding her legs on either side of Wraith and sloshing the water a bit. Wraith leans back into her when Anita’s arms slide around her slowly, encouraging her to lean back until Anita can rest her chin atop her head.

They sit in silence, and Wraith knows that Anita is waiting on her to open up. To work through her feelings and talk about it.

It’d always been...difficult. Where the words wanted to come out, but Wraith’s throat closed. Where her frustrations became something more than just something as simple as a shitty week of back-to-back frustrations.

Where her memories cannot separate past from present.

“I don’t know where to start.” Wraith murmurs finally, feeling Anita’s fingers tracing circles into the softness of her abdomen and soothing her immediately. She tips her head back against Anita, closing her eyes when lips press to her forehead gently.

“Don’t have to say a word ’till you’re ready, Shorty.” Anita murmurs in return, making Wraith at least crack a small smile at the familiar pet name.

“And if I’m never ready?”

Wraith can physically feel the smile Anita pulls on her forehead, another press of a kiss there before she grabs Wraith’s chin. She tips it all the way back, straining Wraith’s neck so she has to look up at her. “I have a good way of making stubborn kittens like you talk.”

Wraith’s face flushes, her heart pounding in her ears and pulling herself from Anita’s hold of her chin to face forward. Anita’s body rumbles behind her with laughter, her nose nuzzling at the top of Wraith’s head and her arms squeezing her back to her strong chest.

It’s...easy. The thoughts come easy when it’s Anita. Where the words once clog her throat and anxiety eats at her lungs- she can finally find the words.

And Wraith spills. Talking of her hard week, feeling a weight lifted the second she mentions just how tired and exhausted she is. That she’s tired of being leader, that she just wants to get taken care of and for things to go right. How all her plans have been falling through.

All while Anita is attentive to her. Humming and going ‘Mhm’ or nodding her head in understanding. Starting to work on washing Wraith’s hair for her, massaging into her scalp and briefly making Wraith’s woes disintegrate with each loving swirl of her fingers and scratch of her nails. The soft scent of lavender and figs filling the room as Anita tips Wraith’s head back to pour water through her hair and pecking a kiss on her forehead.

Familiar movements come with the conditioner. Where Anita twirls her hair through each strand as if to encourage her natural wavy pattern. Anita was the type to be very particular about her hair, teaching Wraith the care behind it when she expressed interest in doing her hair for her.

As Wraith’s words start to dwindle down and tears stop pricking her eyes, Anita starts to wash her body so lovingly. A washcloth with vanilla scented soap working all across her body. Her head being practically cradled back into Anita and Wraith’s back arching so she can let her wash her thoroughly. Arching back into her and sighing when Anita moves the washcloth down her body, down over her abdomen. As if pushing all worries down, down, down, into the water below to be later swirled down the drain.

Wraith can’t really help herself when her breath hitches as bare fingers skim down over her happy trail, down over her mound and then back up. It’s a purposeful tease, one that makes her sigh shakily when she hears Anita’s fond hum behind her in her ear. A small nip to her pierced ear and Anita’s deep tone crooning, “Be patient. Thought you said bath time was a sacred place?”

“Starting to regret past me.” Wraith huffs, her head straining back in an arch against Anita’s shoulder when her hand starts to come up. Squeezing one of Wraith’s full breasts and skimming over a pierced nipple in a way that catches her breath. It only quickens when Anita’s hand comes up, loosely wrapping around her exposed throat and a low moan leaving Anita’s lips in a way that makes Wraith’s clit throb .

“Don’t look so temptin'. Might eat you alive.”

She could make us forget.

She better watch her mouth before we shut it for h-

Imagine her tongue-

Her hands-

What she could do to us-

Watch it.

Wraith’s eyes open just in time to see a bubbly hand come up and a finger to gently tap to her nose. Bubbles linger, popping and tickling and making her nose scrunch.

Laughter falls from Anita, only to spike up when Wraith squirms from her, grabbing a handful of bubbles to shove into her face. The water sloshes with Anita’s jerk and the sharp gasp from her that’s intended to sound more dramatic and offended than she is. But when she wipes the bubbles aside to look at Wraith’s smug expression, she narrows her own dark eyes. “Oh, it is war.”

Laughter ensues when Anita lunges forward with a new handful of bubbles. The water sloshing around them and onto the ground as they both try to smash bubbles into each other.

There's giggling, yells of ‘no fair’ and ‘brat’ being exchanged until finally Wraith goes to splash her and ends up with both her wrists being snatched and held to Anita’s chest to keep her still.

They’re both panting. Anita’s curls have bubbles popping in them, her skin wet and glistening with the soapy water. Bubbly water swirls down the drain beneath the tub built into the tiles, the floor wet and an even more dangerous battlefield.

“Truce?” Wraith speaks, looking at how Anita’s eyes narrow with her smile. It’s one that tells her she’s debating throwing another metaphorical punch in.

“Truce.” Anita finally decides, jerking Wraith’s trapped wrists forward so she can press a kiss to her nose.

They finally make it out of the bath, but when Wraith goes for her clothes- she's quickly shooed away from them and told to just go lie on the bed after she dries off.

“Whatever you say, Boss.” Wraith teasingly quips back, quickly getting her ass pinched and making her yelp with laughter as she heads for the bed. Feeling a bit less exhausted then when they had started.

Lying on the bed dutifully in the dark, Wraith lies on her stomach with her arms crossed under her head and a pillow tucked under her chest and stomach for comfort. It feels a bit exposing to be lying there naked, the sheets feeling cool against her warm flesh. But, Wraith finds comfort in closing her eyes and easing her body’s tension. Knowing Anita wouldn’t do anything to harm her or surprise her.

When Anita does enter the bedroom again, Wraith can hear the soft swish of clothing on her body. Only mildly disappointing, Wraith’s almost tempted to crack an eye open and grumble for her to get undressed again.

But words die in her throat when the bed shifts with Anita’s weight, her strong legs straddling Wraith’s thighs and the pop of a cap heard.

The scent of some sort of oil fills Wraith’s senses first, hearing Anita rubbing her hands together before they start sliding the oil across Wraith’s shoulders and back. Working the taut muscles there first and making a sigh leave her lips as talented fingers slide up the back of her neck and then back down along her spine.

Anita is god sent with her motions. Even more so when she leans down towards Wraith’s ear, murmuring with her chest pressed to her back and making Wraith feel each rumble of her low voice. “There you go, kitten. Nice and easy, yeah? Relax for me.”

Wraith hums low in her throat in reply, a sigh following when Anita sits back up and her fingers work down her back and over her sides. Feeling her shift down her body to work more across Wraith’s body and all her taut muscles. Kisses press down her spine, down towards her lower back and kissing each dimple there before the weight shifts again.

Hands slide over her ass and Wraith tenses up but soon eases. A low moan leaving her when the massaging touches get rougher. Soon pressing to her thighs and pressing them apart until Anita can move her body between them this time.

If it were anyone else, Wraith would feel exposed. Too exposed for comfort. But...with Anita? She’s never been more willing to rip herself apart, expose all her bad- all her good that came with it. To bust her ribcage open and hold her beating pulse if it meant seeing Anita’s soft, sweet smile that was always crooked and how her dark brown eyes looked at Wraith like she was the most beautiful thing on this planet.

Wraith’s breath catches, her fingers curling into the sheets when teeth nip at her hip. Soft, pale skin easy to bruise there and making her sigh again when a tongue dips out to taste the bite.

“Bleh -” Anita huffs, clearly getting a mouthful of oil as she sits up and the moment breaks momentarily. It makes Wraith laugh, shifting to peek over her shoulder to see the way her girlfriend’s nose scrunches and she’s wiping her mouth off on the bottom of her tanktop. Lifting the fabric towards her mouth and showing off her abs in a way that Wraith can’t help but admire.

“Not your smartest move, baby.” Wraith quips, seeing how Anita’s eyes shift up to her face and narrow in reply.

“Hey, don’t condescend me.” Anita huffs back at her, reaching and smacking Wraith’s ass just hard enough to make Wraith jump with a flutter of her lashes. “I’m trynna make you feel good. I don’t need you acting like a brat.”

“Mhh. My apologies, Ma’am. Won’t happen again. I’ll be good.” Wraith smiles through her words, knowing they sound a bit too sarcastic for Anita’s liking with the look she gets.

Her laughter is smothered in her arms when Anita swats her ass again in a quiet way of telling her to shut up.

When the tension dies down again, Anita gets back to work of her massage. Working on Wraith’s lower back and easing her once more, working back down to her ass where her hands slide over the plump frame of it. Nails catch Wraith, scratching down the backs of her thighs and making a whine catch in her throat. Another kiss is pressed on her lower back, and that’s all the warning she gets when hands grab her ass and spread her apart.

Wraith’s face flushes bright red, burying herself deeper into her arms at how exposed she feels. She knows she’s wet too, feeling the warmth seeping there and shuddering when Anita adjusts her grip to make sure she can spread her pussy apart too with the action.

Wraith can’t help but tip her hips upwards, arching her back and shuddering when Anita moans low in her throat with a, “Good girl.” It sends Wraith into a spiral as her hips jerk into the air without even being touched.

It was rare Wraith wasn’t in control. She liked having it over Anita- who she believed needed a break from being in control all the time. And just...Wraith struggled with feeling submissive. But in times like this, it didn’t feel so much as submission as it felt like they were equals. Where Anita’s touches were experimental and quiet, always room for Wraith to disagree or politely tell her otherwise.

It also helps that Anita’s talented hands just made her into putty. Relaxed for the first time in weeks. Her mind thankfully empty except for the thoughts running rampant about being touched.

Still exposed, Wraith can feel how her cunt drools with slick. She can hear how Anita moans low, her breath close to her skin before her tongue slides up. Licking Wraith from her clit, all the way up her cunt, up further to lick across her ass and along her hole.

Wraith feels dizzy from how turned on she is. Whimpers falling from her throat unwillingly when Anita’s tongue focuses on her ass. Swiping over her hole, licking and pressing wet, open-mouthed kisses. The pleasure isn’t new, Wraith has been touched like this before, but it doesn’t change how electrifying it feels.

“God, ‘Nita-” Wraith breathes out, her lashes fluttering when she lifts her head to breathe. Tipping her head back and moaning outwardly when she hears Anita hum against her, her tongue pressing into her experimentally.

Anita’s rough fingers slide up Wraith’s thigh, slipping briefly along her pussy and collecting the wetness seeping there before her mouth leaves her. Fingers toying now with her ass, brushing wet knuckles across until Wraith feels like she’s going to snap from how tight she’s wound.

“’Nita- ” Wraith whines this time, her name like a prayer on her tongue as one finger sinks into her ass. Anita’s mouth doesn’t stop though, moving to kiss across her ass instead and sinking her teeth into a soft cheek. Undoubtedly getting more oil in her mouth, but being more subtle about the mistake by dragging her tongue across Wraith’s hip.

Wraith is practically humping the bed to brush her clit across the sheets. A second finger is introduced to her hole, and her entire body trembles.

“That’s a good girl. Gotcha purrin’ like a little kitty, hm?” Anita’s voice is rough, sending tremors through Wraith’s body and a mewl following to make her point even more clear. Anita’s fingers pump inside of her, fucking her at a nice pace and sending another jolt through Wraith’s body with a cry. “What a good kitten you are.”

It’s an experimental phrase. Not that Anita hasn’t teasingly referred to her as a cat before. But in bed? This was new. A new word that only proves to make Wraith clutch at the sheets, mewling and twisting her body as her lower half fills with fire of desire.

“A-Anita-” Wraith gets out, her breath stuttering and ragged. A third finger is introduced, and she buries her face into the pillow beneath her to muffle her raw cry. Tears fill her eyes at the pleasure, caught between trying to fuck herself back onto Anita’s skilled fingers, or hump downwards against the bed.

“Use your words, baby.” Anita’s voice is like silk, her fingers rocking slow and hard into Wraith. Dragging them slowly back and pressing back inside, curling downwards into her and making Wraith feel oh so full.

“Hhh-” Is all Wraith can get out at first, definitely drooling on herself by now as her eyes go unfocused. But she manages at the very least. “Fuck me- just fuck me already, ‘Nita, G-God you’re so good- ah!”

Hard to talk when your girlfriend can’t get enough of you, it seems. Because Anita only hums at first, still fucking her fingers into Wraith without a sign of stopping. Her tongue returning to lick around her fingers.

But finally, blissfully, she departs. A small pat to Wraith’s ass and a murmur to wait there and get on all fours being said.

Sluggishly, Wraith picks herself back up on shaky arms. Moving so she can sit herself up on all fours, hugging a pillow to her chest and arching her back to put her ass nice and high in the air with spread legs. Even going so far as to slowly sway her hips, living up to that cat persona Anita is so fond of calling her.

She’s watching.

Wraith can hear fabrics shifting and the loud zzpppt sound of a harness being tugged tight around Anita’s body. She only knows she’s looking because she can hear the mutter of a swear under her breath. It makes Wraith smile to herself, knowing she had such an effect on her.

The bed creaks and shifts with Anita's weight. She settles behind Wraith, a hand coming underneath her to brush her whole palm against her cunt until Wraith presses down into it in a hump.

A chuckle is heard behind her before two fingers brush past her enlarged clit, sneaking down until they can slip into her cunt and curling forward. Wraith doesn’t hide her cry, or her eagerness when she shoves her hips back into Anita’s fingers with a moan.

Wraith knows Anita won’t finger her long- not out of not caring, no. But because Wraith liked the pain of the stretch. It was something Anita had worried about at first the first few times she was allowed to top. Always asking if Wraith was okay, if she was hurt. But nowadays, Anita knew that the rougher she was, the wetter Wraith got.

“Mmh, hey, Rey?” Anita’s voice is gentle despite her fingers curling into Wraith. It’s hard to hear her at first, but Wraith catches it, humming in her throat quizzically. “Remember when we had our anniversary?”

It’s not a question. It’s a set up to something bigger. But it’s hard to really be suspicious when your girlfriend is curling her fingers inside of you juuuuust right and her dumb, stupid, gorgeous smoky voice is doing a number on you already.

So, you can’t really blame Wraith when she practically whimpers out a, “Y-yeah-” without any hint she’s actually listening or curious to what else Anita has to say.

Thankfully, Anita doesn’t seem to press. Just humming in reply. “Yeah. Was nice.” In a manner that would normally make Wraith suspicious at first, if she wasn’t feeling Anita’s fingers leaving and hearing the shuffle behind her as she comes closer.

Questions for later.

Now Wraith can feel the dildo behind her. Anita’s chosen cock of the night was one she was familiar with by now. She can see it in her mind clear as day. A dark, obsidian base to a dragon-like imagery. Thick and girthy, with ribs and bubbles that stimulated harshly. It wasn’t very long, just about maybe six inches, but it was incredibly thick. Fading to a deep shade of red at the tapered head with gold flecks hinting into the silicone.

Wraith sighs, practically melting so her front rests on the bed and her ass sticks high in the air, thighs splayed wide and ready. She can’t help but move her hips back across Anita’s cock, slipping her cunt across it and letting her breath catch.

Anita’s laugh behind her is soft and low, her hands grabbing Wraith’s plump ass and holding her nice and steady. “Nice an’ easy, kitty cat. Look like you’re about to purr. That happy to get fucked?”

Wraith won’t entertain her with a retort. But she does entertain her with a huff, tipping her head so she can look behind her shoulder out of the corner of her eye. Catching Anita’s look, how her head tilts and her curls remain immaculate, her lopsided smile and the glow of the lamp behind her makes her look heavenly.

Sunshine incarnate.

And Wraith, the moon, helplessly attracted to her and aching to be within her orbit.

She’s beautiful.

She wants us.

Look at how hungry she is.

We could have her-

If she just let us-

-uld take her, wipe that grin right off her mouth.

For a brief moment, Anita’s face crosses with worry. Undoubtedly from the milky white of Wraith’s eyes. But with a small smile sent her way to quietly tell her it’s alright, her worry vanishes back to that cocky look and a squeeze of Wraith’s ass.

“My Ladies distracting you?” Anita says with that same cocky look, that same lopsided grin and gentleness in her dark eyes that makes Wraith’s heart race from more than just arousal now.

Yes.

“No.”

Wraith’s quick reply is met with a laugh. And Wraith hides her smile and playful lie by turning her head back into her arms.

It doesn’t take long to get back into it. Where Anita lines herself up and gently presses the head in. She’s always so careful at first, always so gentle with her grip on Wraith’s hips. It could be sickening sometimes how gentle this soldier could treat her sometimes. Like glass.

Like Wraith was something precious to her.

Wraith groans, shoving her hips back and moaning when she feels the sharp bite of pain from taking the entire cock in at once. She’s greeted with the hiss from Anita, a sharp slap to her ass and a harsh grip that only serves to make Wraith groan.

“Hey- you’re not in charge here.” Anita grunts, her voice low and blunt nails digging into the soft flesh of Wraith’s ass. Wraith can’t even pretend she’s sorry, not with her moan and how she rolls her hips back into Anita’s for her to just get on with it. “Keep acting bratty and maybe I’ll just have to tie you up.”

Now THAT gets Wraith’s attention. A weak mewl leaving her at the idea of Anita having to hold her down by the back of her throat, another on the rope binding her wrists behind her back, just using her however she pleased. Taking what she wanted.

Now that was a thought.

“Promises, promises.” Wraith manages to choke out through another moan when Anita pulls her hips back nice and slow. Feeling each bump, each rib stimulating inside of her. Apparently, her retort isn’t desired when she feels a slap hit her ass, making Wraith’s body jerk, only to be yanked back roughly by her hips onto Anita’s cock.

It’s a repetitive motion, one that Wraith tries to keep up with. Trying to fuck herself back onto Anita’s cock or trying to even push herself up onto her forearms to get a better angle. But Anita lets her have none of that, a hand twisting in Wraith’s hair and pressing her cheek back down to the bed, her other hand gripping her hip and holding her still to fuck into her.

Wraith is a mess under her, clawing at the sheets and trembling under her. Anita’s voice caresses her ear, thick and low and murmuring, “Yeah? You like being treated like this, baby? Like being mine?” And Wraith is so helpless, unable to argue or come up with snarky in time. Only able to whimper in turn.

When Anita sits up behind her, Wraith can hear the wet sound of maybe fingers in her own mouth before two fingers brush by her ass again. It’s all the warning she gets before they plunge into her, curling and pressing downwards to make Wraith feel fuller and fuller from both holes.

It’s so overstimulating. It’s so much- she's so close-

And then Anita stops.

And Wraith practically screams in frustration, trying to twist herself but still held down by the hand in her hair and only able to exhale sharply in irritation. Trying to fuck herself back onto Anita’s hips and fingers, but unable to with how she’s scooted forward to press flush into Wraith.

“What’s the matter, sweetheart?” Anita’s voice is teasing, dripping with faux sympathy. Her fingers aren’t stilling either, pumping into Wraith and making her feel her own slick drool down to the bed undoubtedly in strings. “Ya wanna cum?”

“Yes- ” Wraith practically hisses, her nails digging into the sheets and feeling just a second closer to ripping open a rift just so she could get the upper hand.

“Then be a good kitty for me and make some noise. Meow for me.”

Wraith’s face turns three shades of red, her heart still pounding in her chest from being on the precipice of cumming. There's a feeling almost like humiliation in her and yet she...

She kind of liked it.

“Make me.” Wraith finds herself saying, almost immediately regretting it from the way Anita’s fingers still and pull out of her. The feeling of her strong hands holding her hips and sliding them up and over her waist.

“Suit yourself.”

It’s with that that Anita pulls out, and at first Wraith goes to maybe turn herself over, but a hand on her lower back keeps her in place now. Feeling how the head of Anita’s cock slips further up, brushing across her ass and making Wraith’s breath catch. There’s no warning when Anita grabs her hips, sinking her blunt nails in and the head popping into Wraith.

It almost hurts. Almost. But there’s something about that bite that makes Wraith’s eyes roll into the back of her head with each inch fed into her until Anita’s hips press flush to her ass.

Oh, what Wraith wouldn’t give just to see what Anita looked like right now.

Wraith is a mess, squirming and on the same hand trying so hard to hold still. Especially when one of Anita’s hands slides off her hip, reaching under her to capture her clit between her index finger and middle finger’s knuckles to jerk her engorged clit casually.

Anita knew just how to work her. Just how to drive Wraith to the brink and bring her back down. Until Wraith was squirming back on her cock, choking on a sob over how full she feels and how Anita’s hand slaps lightly across her cunt and makes Wraith’s body jump. Pushing her back further onto Anita’s cock and making a moan choke from her again.

Anita was going to kill her. And what a beautiful death it would be.

“You know what I want.” Anita gruffly murmurs by Wraith’s ear. “Gonna make me force it out of you? I can do this all day, baby.”

That finally seems to do it. A mewl parting from Wraith’s lips, followed by Anita’s murmur of ‘Good girl’ that only makes Wraith do it again for good measure. A shatter of Wraith’s need for control.

Anita’s fingers hook around her hips again, pounding her hips into Wraith’s ass and fucking her harder now. Each loud slap of skin on skin bringing Wraith closer until she’s stuttering on her next pronounced mewl as she’s cumming. Cumming harder than she think she’s ever done in her life with harsh tremors of her body and sobs of Anita’s name.

That doesn’t even stop Anita, only making her a bit rougher as she reaches under Wraith to grab at her breasts, thumbing at her pierced nipples. Sob after sob leaves Wraith, squirming as her clit throbs and squirt dribbles down her inner thighs from the intensity of her orgasm. Her eyes roll into the back of her head, helpless but to take whatever Anita gives her.

And take she does.

It’s when Anita slows her hips down does Wraith finally begin to catch her breath. She’s drooling for sure on her arms, blinking blearily and making a soft noise in her throat of curiosity at why the pace has slowed.

“Said you remembered our anniversary, right?” Anita asks in that way that really means it’s not a question, so Wraith doesn’t respond. Not until her hair is pulled and forces her head up with a cry, bowing her back beautifully for Anita. It’s then that she gets why Anita is asking.

In front of her, on the pillow, is a laptop. One that Wraith didn’t even realize was put there. And on the screen is that video she’d taken. Seeing herself crawl up onto the bed to work Anita into a strap on, her own voice in the video ringing out, “Wasn’t really asking you, Princess.”

Wraith’s breath catches in real time, the fingers twisted in her hair keeping her nice and still as Anita’s hips start to pound into her. “Keep watching.” Anita murmurs, lips brushing by her ear and sending a shiver through Wraith’s frame.

She’s made to watch as she guides Anita’s head in the video to her cunt, how she’s covered in Wraith’s lipstick from the night, how she slips her panties past her lips, how Anita looks so adoringly at her.

Like she is now.

Lips press to the side of Wraith’s neck, just under her ear and kissing down her neck, down her shoulder. Each thrust sends her body bouncing, jerked right back onto Anita’s cock and hearing just how Anita moans nice and low. The harness must be pressing right against her clit, sending dull vibrations through.

Wraith’s mouth waters at the idea of being able to lick her raw.

Anita’s low groan and her hips stuttering capture Wraith’s attention. Feeling her hair released so her hips can be grabbed, her wide hips being held still so Anita can fuck herself into her, humping her ass and once more making Wraith’s eyes roll back. The sounds of her girlfriend cumming making her match as she begins to cum with a cry, equally matched by how Anita slaps her ass and grips the plump cheek with a groan.

As they both come down from their highs, Wraith can’t support her own weight anymore. Not when Anita slips from her and releases her, making Wraith practically melt onto the bed in a splat. Legs apart, one lightly pulled up, her body shaking and trembling and lying in her own little wet spot with lubricant leaking out of her ass.

Surprise.

Click!

“Anita!”

The click of a camera following flash and one of the Ladies speaking makes Wraith groan in embarrassment. Hearing Anita chuckle and lightly patting her ass lovingly. “What? Thought you’d like a reminder for later, baby.”

“Mnnnhph-” Wraith groans in turn, reaching back to swat blindly at Anita who laughs as she slips off the bed.

From there, Wraith is gently pulled into Anita’s lap- who has set her harness to the side and slid her shorts back on. Gently, Wraith is cradled in her lap, a hand on the back of her head and pressing her face into Anita’s neck where she inhales her scent and the hint of sweat. Anita’s other hand rubs Wraith’s thigh softly, soothingly, giving her a fond and comforting squeeze to her frame.

A kiss presses to Wraith’s ear, and just the gentle move makes her blush, squeezing her arms around Anita tighter and making a positive noise.

“How do you feel?” Anita murmurs, pressing a firm kiss to Wraith’s shoulder adoringly.

“Better.” Wraith confirms in a small voice, her throat aching and her mouth dry. “Little thirsty.”

“Mmh, I’ll bet.”

“Anita.”

Anita laughs at the stern, scolding tone. She murmurs an ‘Alright, alright’ as she gently shifts Wraith off her lap and onto the bed- out of the wet spot on the bed. She’s only gone for a moment before a cold water bottle is given to her, following a sugary pack of gummy prowlers that makes Wraith break out into a beam.

Easy to please, she’s well aware. But she’s also aware of the way Anita looks at her oh so fondly with a little half smile as Wraith snatches the candy delightedly.

Once more Anita leaves after double checking Wraith didn’t need anything more physically. When she returns, it’s with an armful of fresh sheets, but at first Wraith doesn’t pay any mind to her being there.

She’s watching us.

Peeking up and through her lashes, Wraith tries to hold back a blush at seeing Anita with an armful of new sheets and blankets. The little smile back on her face and the lightest flex of her biceps in her tanktop making Wraith feel how she did the first time she’d ever seen Anita look at her like that.

Thankfully the silent staring is broken when Anita walks in and shoos Wraith from the bed to take the soiled sheets and change them. From there, she goes and gets a wet washcloth to help clean off Wraith without the need for another bath, also getting her a new pair of panties and one of her big hoodies she took comfort in.

Anita gestures for Wraith’s arms to go up as she holds the hoodie and Wraith obeys. Only for Anita to pull it down over her head, stopping when she’s at her shoulders while Wraith is blind so she can push her back onto the clean bed. Sending Wraith gasping, only to fall into a giggling fit when Anita’s hands grab her hips to hold her in place. Anita presses kisses up her tummy, pressing a raspberry there while Wraith is helpless and squirming, still caught in the hoodie.

The torture ends soon when Anita tugs the bottom of the hoodie down to rescue Wraith. Wraith can feel her cheeks flushing as she looks up at Anita, seeing her half-lidded eyes and her fond half smirk down at her. She’s straddling Wraith now, arms on either side of her head and looking all the more charming per minute.

Wraith can’t stop her racing heartbeat when Anita leans in, fondly pressing their foreheads together.

“Hey.” Anita softly murmurs.

“Hey.” Wraith murmurs back just as soft, closing her eyes and turning her head to rub their noses softly together.

They move back into the bed together. With Wraith tucked into Anita’s arms, her ass pressing back against her and her cold fingers holding onto Anita’s arms around her body. Anita’s chin tucks against the top of Wraith’s head, occasionally moving to press a kiss.

“How are you feeling, by the way?” Anita starts, resting her cheek against the top of Wraith’s head. When Wraith hums back quizzically, Anita clarifies. “You were upset earlier. Ya know just makin’ sure my baby’s okay. I mean, I know you’re satisfied physically-”

That earns her a laugh from Wraith and an elbow in the ribs, sending Anita laughing in turn. It’s good she’s got her back to Anita, or she’d see just how much her absentminded ‘my baby’ affected Wraith.

“I’m better,” Wraith murmurs, pulling Anita’s hand up to her face to kiss her palm tenderly. “Thanks...for coming over, I mean. And just...being with me. I should have told you earlier but I-I was...”

Wraith trails off, pulling Anita’s hand to cup her cheek and sighing when Anita’s thumb caresses her cheekbone. A quiet and patient understanding as she waits for Wraith to continue.

“I don’t know- I was stubborn, I guess.” Wraith finishes after a moment. Rolling over to look at Anita and letting her arms drape over her waist. At first not meeting Anita’s gaze, not until fingers gingerly grab her chin, guiding her gaze up to Anita.

“Hey, I get it. It’s hard asking for help. But you know I’m here for you, okay?” Anita’s voice is gentle, a low rumble and making Wraith’s heart burst into a frenzy again. Especially when Anita leans in, pressing a warm, soft kiss to her forehead. “I love you. For better or for worse.”

“Your ‘hopeless romantic’ is showing again.” Wraith playfully mumbles, smiling when she feels Anita smile against her forehead in turn.

Soon they settle back down. Only the soft glow of the fairy lights Wraith has overhead making the room glow. Anita cradles Wraith to her chest, stroking through her hair and down her neck, occasionally drawing or writing mindless things with her fingers.

One day, Wraith’s mind reminds her.

One day they could forget the games. Start a life on their own together.

For better or for worse.

#Bangawraith #Voidstrike #bangalore x wraith #apex legends #apex lemons #apex legends nsft #nsft #lemon #commissions #princess writing

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ecoamerica · 1 month

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youtube

Watch the 2024 American Climate Leadership Awards for High School Students now: https://youtu.be/5C-bb9PoRLc

The recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by student climate leaders! Join Aishah-Nyeta Brown & Jerome Foster II and be inspired by student climate leaders as we recognize the High School Student finalists. Watch now to find out which student received the $25,000 grand prize and top recognition!

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thesunshinydays · 3 years

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[insert blaseball fic title here]

a wip for @blaseballwipamnesty about lenny marijuana learning how to deal with splort related anxiety before her first game, all as part of my scheme to put more real sports things into blaseball content. theres a lot more that i want to add to this including scenes from the game itself, but i just havent gotten around to it yet. also, this is @waveridden ‘s sister!lenny because thats my favorite lenny. overall id say it isnt even halfway done, though i do intend on finishing it at some point

i put it under a readmore because it needs content warning for food and a very frank discussion of dealing with a nervous stomach

“Okay so, I’m not nervous,” Lenny says, feeling like she might throw up at any moment. She’s looking down at what would normally be a perfectly appetizing waffle. It has a chunk cut out, separated from the rest with a fork stuck in it. She had tried to take a bite. She really had. But the idea of actually having to eat it was making her even more nauseous, so she is staring at it instead, as if that will let her passively absorb the calories she needs to pitch her first real game out of the shadows. She is pointedly *not* looking at Mike Townsend sitting across from her as she continues speaking: “But let’s say, hypothetically, I know someone who is pitching their first game today and is nervous about it. What advice would you suggest I pass along to them?”

“Well, first,” Mike says, “it’s normal to be nervous, so your friend shouldn’t feel bad about that. Any athlete that says they’ve never been nervous for a competition is a liar.”

“Really? I’ve never been nervous, ever,” Lenny lies.

“Oh, obviously. But for your friend: the secret to maximizing personal performance isn’t about not feeling anxious, it’s about learning how to work with that anxiety in a productive way and knowing that you can perform your best even while nervous,” Mike rattles off rotely.

“Why does this sound familiar?” Lenny asks.

“Because it’s in the presentation that the splort psychologist gives during every preseason training camp, which, I might add, your friend would know if she didn’t, hm, I don’t know, fall asleep in the middle of it,” he says.

“At least I don’t know it word for word,” she snaps back.

“I thought it was your friend who needed advice?” Mike looks a little smug and Lenny kicks him lightly under the table in retaliation. He laughs.

“Are you gonna give me real advice or what?” Lenny asks. She tried to make it sound biting or sarcastic, but she’s not sure it worked. She looks down again at her waffle chunk and pushes it around the plate. Teddy had worked hard to talk the hotel manager into opening up the waffle station at around four in the afternoon for the team, since it was normally reserved for complimentary breakfasts. She knew this wasn’t the team’s standard operating procedure. Normally, they’d go wherever they wanted for lunch, but Teddy had suggested this today instead. She feels shitty having to let the effort go to waste. She looks back up at Mike and says, “Quit it with the stupid psycho babble and give me something actionable, I feel like I’m gonna hurl.”

“Well first off, milk is the wrong choice,” he says as he takes her barely touched glass of whole milk and pushes his untouched glass of orange juice toward her.

He thought something like this might happen and got the juice for me in the first place, that fucking sneak, Lenny realizes.

“Second,” Mike says, ”stop trying to force yourself to eat if you feel like you can’t. It’s better to snack throughout the day if your stomach won’t settle than to eat a bunch at once. The ideal would be dried fruit and jerky so that you get carbs and protein to give you energy in the moment and through the course of the game, but we can make trail mix work.”

“Can’t, peanut allergy,” Lenny says.

“We can get you one with granola and almonds. Also, if you really, really can’t eat during the game, at least make sure you’re drinking a sports drink. It’s a lot of sugar, but it’s better than nothing and will keep you hydrated. Also, if you’ve recently had a lot of dairy, you might think about taking a lactaid.”

Lenny squints at him. “Those pills for lactose intolerant people? But I’m not--”

Mike cuts her off before she can finish. “I know, but it might help digestion go smoother and faster anyway, or at least placebo effect you into thinking it’s working.”

“Okay, I was giving you shit earlier but this is actually really helpful.” Lenny’s impressed. Somewhere along the line she had starting thinking of Mike as her weird mom friend -- her mind briefly supplies “adopted brother” but she stomps on that line of thinking before she can let herself analyze it -- and had forgotten that he was also one of the most famous (or infamous) pitchers in the ILB with half a dozen or so seasons of experience.

“My stomach isn’t quite as bad as yours, but I did used to get really nervous for games,” he admits.

“Used to? What changed? I thought you said anyone who says they never get nervous is a liar?” she asks.

“It’s not like I never get nervous, it’s just that… after enough games you start to get used to being nervous. That and well, after everything that’s happened, my perspective has shifted.” He gives a small shrug and looks past her out a window.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” She knows she shouldn’t even have to ask. She asks anyway.

“The only games I get really, really nervous for anymore are eclipse games,” Mike says, still looking away, “‘Cause how I perform determines how long we stay on the field.”

#blaseball wip amnesty #blaseball #seattle garages #lenny marijuana #mike townsend #brief mention of teddy as well #SunnySpeaks #writing #wip amnesty was a good idea it made me get more work done on this and its fun reading everyones stuff #*rubs my sporty little hands together* yes more relatable athlete experiences in blaseball my evil agenda #its the olympics and im taking it out on fake people

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popculturebuffet · 4 years

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Ducktales Reviews: The Phantom and the Sorceress

Ducktales returns! The Phantom Blot returns to animation after too damn long with a neat backstory, an infnity guantlet and a hate boner for anything magic related. And since Lena is magic related she’s forced to go to her worst enemy and local close up magician Magica De Spell for help. Also Gladstone is here because we missed him and for no other reason. But we missed him so it’s okay. Friendship Is Magic, under the cut.

Woo-ooo! We’re back! Months later and in a new room, with new things to be depressed about because this year is groundhog day and everyone is bill murray, which isn’t as fun as it should be, Ducktales is finally back on screens and in my heart. And my galbladder.. he really likes ducktales. But yeah with the recent cancelation of the venture bros, it’s nice to get it’s spirtual littlte brother back just a few weeks later to help fill the void, and while a comparison to it now I know frank’s a fan and noticed the simlarties between rusty and gyro thanks to a tumblr post, the same post for both things inf act, I might just do that one day. But tha’ts not what your here, for , iv’e had to rewrite this intro enough times, Pitter Patter, let’s get at er.

This episodes opens with Scrooge sitting down for his morning tea when the kids pop out of the tv and hte bored way he figures it out is really hilarious. David Tennat is really good at selling just how Scrooge has both seen it all and has the deductive skills of Barbra Gordon. What eveyrone syaing “Of batman” gets old after a while and she’s just as smart as he is, especially as oracle. Point is it’s a good bit. As he correclty guesses the kids were playing Legends of Nerverquest or whatever that game Huey and Della played last season is called, one of them wished it was real, presumibly Dewey, and Lena’s magic accidently made it happen. And since it’s her first spotlight episode of the season, and possibly only one since this season is kind of packed, it’s time to talk about Lena! Admitely I PLANNED to do at least her first episode and her two season 2 episodes before this, but life got in the way so here we are. Lena.. is easily one of my faviortes, the number of weblena chats have made that clear. She’sd got a compelling arc, the show tackles abuse well in her narrative, and she and webby have really sweet chemstiry. Plus she brought us Violet and i’ll always be greatful for that and she’s voiced by Kimiko Glenn in her first major voice acting role so that helps too. SHe’s a great addition to the cast and the canon. Same, as the previous comment made obvious, goes for Violet, and the three togther have a great dynamic and i’ts nice to finally see an episode with JUST the three of them post “Friendship Hates Magic.”.

But yeah Lena’s magic’s been going haywire and I do feel the setups abit rushed.. hilarious but rushed. While Night on Kilmotor hill did establish her magic can run wild, it was also vauge if it was because of her, or it was because magica was messing with her head. IT’s still a plausable setup since we haven’t really SEEN her use her magic or have any intrest and doing so and she’s only done so either while working for magica, to undo something magica did, or to give her sister a mace so she could literally go midevil on some alien ass, it just feels a bit abrubt. And while Night on Kilmotor hill also set up a problem we hadn’t seen on screen, it felt like it gave us more time to ease into it and Lena’s issues, and made it clear SOMETHING was up instead of just telling us that. The rest of hte episode is still good i’ve just seen the show be way better at setup than this.

But yeah Lena’s magic keeps runing their fun and she feels bad about it, while Scrooge ends up putting his foot and spats in his mouth by voicing his hatred of magic, with all his nephews giving him a “Grandpa no look” and Webby glaring at him.. and whiel I didn’t realize it while watching it.. whiel sh’es given him a disaporving look, the equilvent of shooting bambi in the face emtoinally, she’s only been THIS angry with him one other time.. and it was the time he said “Your not family”. Thankfully this time he’s not in defnstive arrogant bastard mode, so he meekly walks it back to exclude her and she shrugs it off: She hates magic too. And really.. it’s not hard to see WHY given that most times it’s enterted her life, it’s nearly got everyone she loves killed, and that the only spellcaster she knows personally is the absuive aunt whose gaslighted her on multiple occasions, most recently to try and renslave her. Thankfully before Webby can make an old man bleed for his insesntivity, Della reveals some magical creature is there and Scrooge, while annoyed it’s more magic, is happy for another adventure and invites everyone along. And I jsut love that he dosen’t even show the slightest hesitation bringing Violet and Lena along. As far as he’s concerned probably their family too, maybe not as much as Webby but their still welcome. I mean granted i’m sure della and donald had an awkard conversation with Ty and Indy over all this to make sure it was cool, but still, it’s a nice gesture on his part and show’s his personality: He really dosen’t care who comes along as long as they can pull their weight and share his love for adventure, their welcome. It’s also nice ot see him and Lena interact since the two really haven’t since the shadow war: Sure he’s been in the same room with her twice, btu they haven’t really spoken. Though my honest guess is they could’ve genuinely meant for Scrooge to adopt her into the family.. but when coming up with Violet found her family adopting her and them becoming sisters to be a better idea and went with that. And to be fair it is, and not just for shipping purposes, I just wish we got some closure on that line, but i’m also aware the show has a LOT of ground to cover each season, so I understand it probably got squeezed out by all the other stuff going on and don’t really sweat it since we got something better anyway, her getting two gay dads and a sister, it just felt worth talking about. And in universe.. I feel he didn’t simply because he didn’t either know she was back or have a chance to, though i’m also damn certain, at least in my own headcanon, he helped those men formally adopt her. I mean he owns most of the city, and they probably also had to make Lena legally exist in the first place since I doubt Magica bothered to put her on any offical records that weren’t signed in blood and written on paper made of avian flesh, which given SCrooge’s experince is probably not the first time he had to get a person into official records who came into being by way of magic or some other weirdness.

Anyways, Lena opts out of the adventure because she’s worried about it going haywire and Webby opts out out of sympathy and while Violet is clearly keen to go, she gladly does so for her sister.. though this just makes Lena feel worse since now her girlfriend and her sister are missing out on stuff because of her, and suggests just going to sleep before she whoopsie daisy magics them to death. The girls end up woken from their sleep however by a bang at the door. It’s Gladstone!

Yup it’s time to talk about another character I haven’t talked about yet. Gladstone is easily one of the show’s best overhauls. See in the comics while Gladstone is just as lucky and lazy.. he’s also just..

Okay i’m amazed it’s taken this long for me to refrence jean ralphio in one of these reviews but i’m glad it was for this. Back on topic, while I know Gladstone in the comics has his fans, and is softend a bit in european comics, but in most stories i’ve read with him he’s an insufferably arrogant dick. Even BEFORE getting his luck, his first apperance, which I own in trade and read earlier this year, has him trying to take Donald’s house and kick him and the nephews out on the street over a drunken wager to take a polar dive, which Donald fials because life hates him and he’s a coward. Thankfully Daisy rushed in and saved the day because she’s great sometimes ,and turned things on him wiht his own drunken crap, but still, it says something when your first apperance is trying to force three ten year olds and your own cousin out into the cold.

He .. did not get any better once his super luck came into play. Instead he just flautned it all the time and tried to constnatly win Daisy over from donald.. which had varying sucess based on how much of a shallow dick she was being that story, and in general was just unplesant. He really only works for me in comic in those aformetioned softer times: when a writer makes his luck ruin his love life or add actual depth instead of him just being the raincloud on donal’ds parade. The original ducktales and the going quackers game are the only places I can think of he showed up otherwise, prototype in the old disney shorts nonwithstanding, and Ducktales Classic made him a nice guy from what i’ve heard. Thankfully frank and crew knew exactly what to do to adapt him perfectly: He still retains some aspects from the comics: Donald and Scrooge still hate him, Donald for Gladstone always winning and always having it easy while Donald.. is donald and thus utterly miserable half the time and on fire the other half, and Scrooge because he’s a lazy asshole who gets whatever he wants with the least effort, which didn’t change. What did change was his attitude. While he still is proud of getting whatever he wants in life with no effort and being “the best at getting something for nothing” he dosen’t lord it over everyone else. Sure he’s proud of it but he dosen’t rub Donald’s nose in how much better off he is on purpose, and genuinely loves his family, something I really coudln’t say about most versions of comic Gladstone. While he’s self serving he’s perfectly happy to share his luck with whoever else: He can always get more money whenever he needs it because of course he will. The other factor helping is , as with this entire reboot, the voice acting, in this case the marvelous Paul F Thompkins of Bojack and so much other stuff fame, who really sells the “Sleazy vegas layabout” vibe this series gives him, updating his old aristocratic asshole vibe to something more fun to watch and really being a treat anytime gladstone comes up. Gladstone singing in season 2 was entirely something Paul Improvised during his first apperance they made sure to use eventually. He’s a delight any time he shows up and a total 180 from his utterly agrviating original version.

As for why he’s here.. said luck. is gone. After being hit by some weird energy, Gladstone suddenly, since he didn’t see it hit him, finds himself living normally: going to a restraunt offers no free meal for being 100th custmoer or anything, his wallet dosen’t magically have 20 dollars in it, and the atm gives him 20 dollars.. which would seem normal except it’s actually usually a sack of rubys. Naturally Gladstone having coasted his entire life on his magical luck, has no idea how to function as a normal human being and is utterly hilarious as he breaks down. Admitely he’s not the biggest part of the plot, he’s mostly here for comic relief and COULD have been eaisly cut.. but he’s so hilarious and seeing him utterly fail at being a normal person and whine about things as simple as walking or going up stairs is just groovy. As for what weird magical bolt took it, Violet being violet figures it out quick: The Phantom Blot! For those unfamiliar, he’s a charcter from the mickey mouse comics, though I know him from one episode of house and mouse that adapted those comics that I need to read more of, a master schemer and old school villian par excellence and Mickey’s greatest foe. I was ecastic to see him come here and in the capable hands of Giancarlo Espisto. While I haven’t watched brekaing bad i’ve heard nothing but good thigns and he does his best with what little he’s given. But here instead of a master schemer he’s an infamous magic theif and is obviously the one who drained gladstone.. and unforutntely for scrooge the boys and presumibly everyone else... we see him in action using his fancy infnity guantlet esque magic draining gauntlet to drain the portal they took. Ruh Roh. It gets worse when he mistakes Lena for magica, and charges after her, though Webby is able to hold him off with the axe she grabbed on the way to the door earlier, and damages his gauntlet. he retreats.. but it’s obvious he’ll be back and both Webby and Violet come to the conclusion Lena needs to grasp her magic in order to survive.. and both have the same unfortunate relization: They only know one person who can do it and Lena, once she realizes what hteir thinking, wnats nothing to do with her, and neither do they. But they have no options: they have to go to magica. So they journey to her house on Dagobah, with Gladstone tagging along because they need a wacky comedic sidekick to help lighten the mood what with the serious, grim hunter wanting to murder a teenage girl inf nront of her tweenage girlfriend and kid sister, and their only resort being going back to her abuser for help. Magica however isn’t all that helpful at first. Being Magica her first move is to make a grab for the Amulet to get her power back, which her running crew thwart quickly but naturally Lena still wants nothing to do with her and Magica just insults her for not using magic and because she’s a terrible person. SHe does however end up changing her tune when she hears the blot’s involved. She whisks them inside while we get a cutaway to FOWL headquarters where blot is working on his guantlet more on him in a minute. We soon get the Blot’s backstory which is actually really inttresting and invovled even if it’s not a lot like who he is in the comcis or house of mouse: A long ass time ago before meddling kids got in her way, Magica took over a small vililage with the threat of destroying it and eveyrone in it outright unless they gave her tributes.. and when those got boring she just did it anyway. Problem was, as happens a lot when evil sorecerers calously destroy hometowns, one of them survivied. It’s even lampshaded by Magica as she points out Blot wasn’t the first. The problem was.. he was persitant. The blot never gave up, coming up with better tech to fight her magic each time and coming back stronger and likely more determined. I like this verson: While he’s not the bwahahah mastermindk, he’s still an utter threat, a force with an unyielding hatred and a burning mission to take out the target of his hate and anything like her. He reminds me a lot of toffee from star vs but if htey actually gave his backstory on screen. A meancing, somehwat quite, or mostly silent in the blot’s case, immortal menace who’s deterimiend to wipe out those who wronged him and anything related to them and has warped from what was once probably a decen tperson into a human engine of destruction with one goal and one goal only. He’s a good enoguh villian for the episode, I just hope if he comes back they give him better lines. his dialouge is really what dosen’t work for me as whiel his backstory and aura of meance work, Giancarlo is given nothing to work with line wise. He dosen’t need to be a chatty cathy or anything, just give him one or too really cool lines. Sometimes tha’ts all you need. Watch how the pros do it.

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I do like this verison, I jsut think they could do more, but given the show has a good track record for only getting better with their villians with every use, I have no worries about that and he’s still a cool enough threat. I also wish we got more of fowl or why he’s working with them. just a small scene with one of them was all I asked, because we’ve barely gotten fowl this season. It’s really one of the season’s only real problems so far: 8 episodes in and while FOWL agents have shown up twice, adn one of the episodes did advance that plot by showing off heron and steelbeak, we really haven’t seen any progress on their plans to both take the missing mysteries or kill the Clan McDuck. HOpefully this changes as we go and again, it dosen’t ditract from the episode itself, jsut the season as a whole. Anyways, Lena is still relucntant because Magica is terrible and keeps slipping in how much she wants to take the amulet every five minutes. I love the show and catherine tate’s take on magica: just as hammy and nuts as before but when she does have magic, she’s the utter threat she was before too times ten. But yeah while Lena’s relunctant.. neither of htem really has a choice> Magica needs her amulet secure to get her magic back, and Lena needs to not die. So they relucntantly agree to work together among more hilarous sniping. Cue a training montage set to a hell of an 80′s tune. The show really has a good habit of making good incdental music to use in bits like this. Lena trains, uses gladstone as the training dummy, and it’s funny as it is creative and we even get some karate kids bit and the obvious star wars refrences. Meanwhile the blot approaches ever closer.. We also find out something important from Magica as she chastises Lena for having fun with her friends while training after Lena uses blue magic instead of purple: Turns out much like spellcasters in say owl house or my little pony each caster has a specific color to their magic, a Colur of magic if you will. Magica’s, and lena using hers is purple while the blue magic we’ve seen from her is her own powered by friendship and love. It’s a nice advancement of what we’ve seen so far: We’ve seen her magic powered by webby is stronger than her other stuff, and we’ve seen it come out during times their bond, or in the case of kilmotor hill her bond with everyone, is strongest. We knew something was diffrent with the magics and it’s now given a though and clearly well thought out explination why: Magica’s magic is hers and Lena was just borrowing it.. the blue stuff is hers and hers alone. Magica does try to get her to master it by having one of her friends shoot her.. Webby of course strongly objects so Violet takes it up since it is for study after all and her sister can take a hit. Lena also wonders how she can even do magic without the amulet, but as Magica makes clear, and as I outlined above, the amulet is just help. The blue magic is her. Lena fails to use it though to deflect in time.. and to make matters worse the blot shows up after plopping gladstone down and wants to kill them both. We then get easily the best laugh of the episode.. as Magica tries stage magic and the blot wonders what the hell he’s looknig at. I mean this is his mortal enemy, the monster who killed everyone he’d ever known or loved... pulling out a bunch of colored rags and asking him to pick a card. It’s amazing. Lena attacks from the side and Webby and Violet quickly asist, with Magica joining in to use the rope to bind him and Lena’s magic kicking in, turning the rope into chain and summoning a snake.. but in a show of badassery the blot easily shrugs it off: he absorbs the magic, escapes and knocks them around while Webby asks the snake for help.. can she speak snake? She hopes so.

Then things get dire as The Blot starts absorbing the magic.. and killing lena as she starts to fade away. Magica of course can’t even feign dispaointment in anything but loosing her magic. And that’s also something I really love here: The show makes no attempt to make magica better or turn around because it just isn’t who she is and even if she did after all the abuse she did, Lena would have zero reason to forgive her. It’s nice that they DON’T try redemeing her or shoing a brighter side: she’s a bad person, a worse caregiver and they only came to her because they had no choice.

But as the magic’s absorbed magica does tell her to find the source of the power and we get a great scene: She first thinks of all the abuse magica’s done to her and it’s a harrowing montage to watch. But webby, breaks through that, since that obviouslyf ails and reminds her of where HER magic comes from: Her and webby. and we get an adorable,a nd shiptastic montage as we see more clips from past episodes.. but this time we see their adorable fistbump from “Beagle BOy Birthday Massacre”, their hug from “Jaw$!” and Lena’s return to the world and hug with her lady and future sister from “Friendship hates magic”. IT’s her friends, her sister and the love of her life who are her real source of power, and her magic connects to htem as lena ccccchanges. And I mean entirely, her outfit changes and she gets these.. weird bright blue eyes. Like I like the rest of her outfits, a white and blue attire to show her change with a badass cape, looks like a superhero so naturally I love it.. her eyes just look really off. Like when Milo Muprhy’s law tried to give characters colored irses. Because no one else in ducktales has them it just loosk.. weird.. Otherwise though I like it. We then get a beam struggle, but with adde dhelp from her friends and her new power, Lena eventually beats the blot, as her sheer power overloads the guantlet and sends him running. However in the confusion the amulet was lost.. and Magica gets it back. Lena whollops her easily, pointing out her magic’s purpose is to protect the world from people like her. It’s a nice development too: Lena realizes MAGIC isn’t inherently evil... it’s how it’s used. Star Vs could’ve maybe taken this lesson, but regardless, it’s a nice bit of character development realizing that magic is a part of her IS Her, and she shoudln’t have to give up something in her nature because of her abuser. Magica, while repowered, is force dto lookf or her staff while Lena gladly floats team magic home. Also with the guantlet broken gladstone is back, as a rain of 20 dolalr bills he uses as tissues confims, and the portal returns, and with Lena you know, havin ga whole superhero outfit, glowing blue eyes and her hair streak now blue, they know something clearly happend and the episode just kind of ends. Still a good one. Final Thoughts: This was a good one as I just said. While I had my nitpicks here and there as I also said, Lena’s strong character, and the game performances of Espisito, Thompkins, and Tate really add to our usual trlo, and as I mentioned before it’s nice ot see team magic get their own episode now their a full team. IT’s just a good romp and a good way back. I”ve made my complaints clear but their drowned out by good jokes, good character stuff, and good worldbuilding that makes this an utter thrill and a great one to come back to and i’tll also be intresting to see where Lena goes from here. But wherever she goes she’ll have webby. They can be whot hey are, independent together, if theyt ry. And yes that’s my shiping song for htem and yes I have one.

Quick bit before I go I dind’t get to, Gladstone flirts with magica when she lands in his arms, a little something for the shippers and a nice gesture on frakn’s part. Whle she rejects him and he dumps her in the sludge with a shrug. I mean.. their probably going to bang at some point. Gladstone’s powers mean he’ll likely find her when sh’es super horny and more than willing, and he’ll be like “eh why not boobs”. I mean I thought about this: I figure his powers allow him to find a willing partner, any gender or none at all I see him as pansexual, who happens to probablyb e loaded and diseased free, whenever he happens to be into it who naturallyw orks out perfectly because if he gets money whenever he wants it, why not sex? It’s not even a concious thing as we’ve seen things just work out for him so of course he probably gets laid, and as we see here it’s only if the other person consets. Good for him. Hope to see him again sooner. I want to see more of him and della interacting and see what she thinks of him. Freshe eys andall that.

But yeah this was great to come back to. If you liked this i’ve reviewed the rest of the season up to this point and will be reviewing each episdoe every monday till they stop again, so keep an eye out for that. You can check the tabs on my blogs for more reviews, come back this weekend for regular loud house coverag,e follow for more reviews or shoot me a pm if you’d like to comission me to do an episode. For just 5 bucks i’ll review any episode of any animated show of your choosing, and as i’ve only covered one season 2 episode of ducktales, there’s over 40 left ot choose from if you have any you want to hear my thoughts on. Until then stay safe, quack hard, and Go Team Venture! Play us out Steg .. and Co.

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#ducktales #the phantom and the sorceress #weblena #lena saberwing #webby vanderquack #violet sabrewing #scrooge mcduck #gladstone gander #magica despell #the phantom blot #giancarlo esposito #reviews #animation #disney #disney channel

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takerfoxx · 4 years

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When trying to write a big balloon of good feelings with the EXPRESS INTENTION of bursting it... how big is too big before it's just cruel?

A very good question, and it comes down to purpose, execution, and follow-through.

Now, given my history and reputation, those sorts of situations are something of my forte, and I’ve had a lot of experience and trial and error to work things out, so here’s how you get maximum impact out of your dark, cruel plot-twists.

First, ask yourself why are you doing this? Is it purely for shock value, or does it serve some greater purpose for the plot and characters? If it’s the second, then go ahead and skip to the next section. If it’s the first, then go ahead and put that idea back in the oven because it’s totally not ready yet.

Look, as a writer, I get the appeal of shock value. Shock value got Imperfect Metamorphosis on the map. Shock value is in my blood. But if all you have is that shock and nothing else, then it’s shock value for shock value’s sake, which is just shallow and useless. You want to shock and disturb, yes, but you also want your audience to keep going to find out what happens next! Dangle that emotional catharsis in front of them! Give them some measure of hope that this is leading somewhere satisfying! Even stories like Chinatown and The Mist, which ended with the protagonists losing in horrible ways despite all their efforts, still felt like they were saying something bigger about the human existence and didn’t feel like they were cheating the audience.

For example: Marisa’s death in IM. I’ll freely admit, the idea first occurred to me and became part of the plan for the shock value, a way to throw down the gauntlet and show that no one is safe. But since the idea came to me early in IM’s run, I had literal years to refine the idea, build towards it, and map out how the fallout would go down, so that by the time it came around, it had turned into an essential part of the plot, from which the rest of the story would lead.

See, here’s the thing you need to understand about dark plot twists: they follow the same rule as edgy humor that breaks societal taboo. And that is this: the twist is not the payoff; the twist is the set-up. Think of the difference of between a rookie “comedian” who thinks that saying shocking things that you’re not supposed to say constitutes as “funny” and those who are offended just don’t have a sense of humor, and a genuine master like George Carlin, who used edge subject matter and taboo breaking not as the punchline, but as the set-up to the bigger joke and thus earn the big laughs when he managed to land the punchline and say something bigger about the topic at hand. It’s a wire act without a net, something that is spectacular if you can pull it off and lead to something greater, but will end in disaster if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Now, let’s move onto the next part: execution. Here you have to be careful, because while it’s perfectly acceptable (and in fact encouraged) to break the rules and conventions of the story’s genre, you still have to ensure that it’s keeping with your story’s internal consistency and rules, and that it makes sense! You want such-and-such a character to betray their friends and turn bad guy? Okay, but it has to make sense and be consistent with their backstory and motivations. You want to pull the rug out from under the heroes and ruin everything they had been working toward? Okay, but it has to be consistent with the rules that you had set up.

I’ll give you a few examples. Now, Game of Thrones might be in the doghouse due the dumpsterfire of a final season, but there was a time when it was upheld as the gold standard of dark plot twists, with the two big examples being Ned Stark’s execution and the Red Wedding. The reason why those moments were so shocking and effective wasn’t because they came out of nowhere, but because they broke the conventional rules of storytelling. OF COURSE the main character would survive! They even gave him an out by having him sentence to the Wall where his bastard son was, where they would no doubt reunite and plan their next steps! Ned’s the hero, after all! Except no, this isn’t that kind of story, Joffrey is still a sociopathic narcissist, doing what sociopathic narcissists do.

And the Red Wedding? OF COURSE it would work! Walder Frey had accepted the compromise, and we’ve put a lot of time and investment in Rob and Cate and their retainers. Rob was practically the new main character, and the driving force against the Lannisters. What was more, he was winning, and he was going to keep winning, even with his one or two slip-ups...except no, he wasn’t, because he had been warned about Walder Frey’s easily bruised ego, he had broken his word, so there was going to be consequences when the Frey’s cut a deal with the Lannisters, so welcome to Medieval-style skullduggery!

Hell, you can have some real fun with this too! And if I may toot my own horn, let’s look at the most recent dark twist from IM: the return of the Shadow Youkai.

Now, I know what my reputation is, and what people expect from me. As such, I can use those expectations to play a sort of follow-the-cup game with the plot. Everyone knew that the Shadow Youkai wasn’t gone for good; the epilogue of Fires of the Sun pretty much showed that. But no one knew when she’d be back, and that let’s me play with expectations a bit.

So I put together a big beach trip, where Rin takes all of her friends, new and old, out into public. And since this is Rin’s story, everyone expects it to go wrong. She expects it to go wrong. Because things always go wrong for Rin!

Sure enough, here comes Hong Meiling and Koakuma, two people with reasons to ruin Rin’s life! Surely they’ll catch and bust her! In fact, it turns out that Koakuma is Elis’s cousin, so surely that would mean she would...except no, they have a short chat, Koakuma doesn’t expose them, and they all go their separate ways. Nothing happens.

Oh shit, here comes Reimu! Not only does she know Rin, she also knows everyone in Team Nineball, and has fought most of the other girls as well! This isn’t good, how will Rin wriggle out of this (no pun intended)...except she doesn’t need to. Reimu and Rin’s various friends walk right past each other over and over without noticing, she chitchats with Hong Meiling and Koakuma for a bit, and then she’s called away to the next chapter’s plot. Rin never even so much as realizes that Reimu was there. Nothing happens.

But wait! Flandre is still a problem, and Seija’s still loose out there! And there she is, taking advantage of Rin’s absence to trigger Flandre’s madness! Surely THIS is the big disaster that’ll...except no, Kogasa quickly gets Seija to piss off and Wriggle coaxes Flandre back to sleep. Nothing happens.

Wait, the beach party was...a success? Nothing bad happened? Everyone had fun and made friends like they were supposed to? And it ends with Rin actually saving a stranger’s life and getting praised for it? Which story was I reading again?

Oh hey, there’s Minoriko, someone who hasn’t been seen a long time, and she says that Hina successfully devoured the Shadow Youkai’s essence, so there’s nothing to worry about. Well, that’s a relief! Strange though that a little curse goddess could handle something of the Shadow Youkai’s caliber, seeing how Sariel already mentioned how unsafe it is to use anything other than the original sword to do so, and how Rhapsody of Subconscious Desire already established that the Shadow Youkai is capable of taking over a secondary host, provided that she had access to their subconscious, and-

Click.

Boom.

So if you’re going to do it, make sure you set up believable reasons why it would happen in advance, even if the audience doesn’t notice them at first. Otherwise, you get Vince Russo’s booking of late-90′s WCW, where everyone was switching allegiances on a dime left and right just for the sake of having a SHOCKING SWERVE! Remember: it’s a highwire act without a net. Know what you’re doing.

Also, for the love of God, if you’re going to have a bad guy do a really bad, shocking thing in one part of the story but later join the good guys later on, don’t just sweep said bad thing under the rug. If Cain the Bloodspiller butchers little Timmy in book one but becomes Cammy the Bloodsaver in book five, then don’t let little Timmy be forgotten. Make sure that there’s still consequences.

And finally, the follow-through. Justify this shocking twist. Have it mean something. Take your time to explore the consequences. Show how it affects the characters. Dig deep into their psyches and make it feel real. The reason people STILL talk about Aeris’s death in Final Fantasy 7 is that the gameplay itself was designed to make you feel her loss, both from the viewpoint of the characters and you, the player.

One of my favorite dark twists is Mami’s death in PMMM, because it follows all of these conditions and does so spectacularly. It sets up how dangerous fighting witches is and explains that someone could really die while doing it, while tricking us into not expecting that to happen by already showing us how Mami kicks ass and establishing her as a main character with a promise to form a lasting bond with Madoka right before pulling the trigger. And afterward, it takes the time to really dig into the consequences of her death, from Madoka’s depression to Sayaka’s increased recklessness to being the catalyst that brought Kyoko into the story in the first place. Everything that happens after does so as a result of that moment.

So yeah, by all means, do that shocking thing, but make sure you put in the work to both earn and justify it.

#writing advice #game of thrones #puella magi madoka magica #pmmm

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athenagc94 · 4 years

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Gust and Piper - Beginnings Pt. 6

Hey fellas. It’s been awhile. Life has been crazy and I’ve been on a D&D kick recently, so inspiration has been hard to come by, but here’s the latest portion of the story. Please enjoy!

I’m also posting the story here on AO3!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Are you just about done?”

Ginger hummed in response as she continued threading Gust’s hair into an intricate braid. She’d found a new style and wanted to practice it on him. As usual, he was unable to refuse. “Why the rush?” She grabbed another section of his hair and pulled it tightly into place. He winced. “It’s not like you plan on going anywhere.”

Gust glanced down at his watch. “Actually, I have plans this evening.”

“Oh really? I don’t think working on the harbor project counts as plans.”

“I’m actually meeting people at the Round Table this evening.” Ginger’s fingers stilled. Gust sucked in a breath through his teeth. He’d been hoping to keep this information to himself, but as time ticked on, the antsier he got. “Piper invited me to play games at the Round Table with her and Sam and I’m in a good mood, so,” he shrugged, trying to play it off, “I agreed to join them. It’s not a big deal.”

“Not a big deal,” Ginger echoed, “Not a big deal? I don’t think you’ve made plans with anyone besides Albert since coming back to Portia. This is a huge deal.” Gust rolled his eyes. He anticipated this kind of reaction, which is why he hadn’t planned on saying anything.

“It’s not,” Gust said firmly, “we’re just playing darts.”

“That’s what it starts out with, but soon you’ll be having lunch dates or getting invited to parties!” Ginger said as she continued working diligently on his hair, “I’m so happy to see you putting yourself out there and having fun.” She sighed wistfully. “My darling brother is finally making friends. I’m so proud.”

“If anything, I’ve made an enemy,” Gust snorted, “Sam looked like she wanted to smack me when I threw the game. Arlo was about ready to hold her back.”

Ginger giggled. “What’s wrong with a little friendly competition?” She pushed his head forward so she had better access to the nape of his neck. “You have no idea how happy this news makes me.”

Gust drummed his fingers against the top of his knees. He hated this. In Atara, he’d been charming, charismatic even. He could hold a conversation and his free evenings were spent galavanting about the town with friends. He was someone completely different in Atara, but even then, it hadn’t really been him. It was an act. Beneath the thin veneer, he was still a bitter and angry teenager who’d run away from home. When he came back to Portia, there was no mask to hide behind. Everyone already knew who he really was. There was no pretending, so why should he try?

“Are you almost done?”

Ginger sighed. “You know,” she said softly, “you don’t have to close me out. I know you feel guilty because you weren’t here while I was growing up, but that doesn’t matter to me.” She finished off the rest of the braid and smoothed a few of the wispy flyaways. “All that matters to me is that you’re here now.”

Gust swallowed thickly. He didn’t want to talk about this. Not now. “I guess.”

Another sigh. “I want you to be happy Gust. I really do.” She tied off the end of his braid and let her hands fall to his shoulders. He stiffened under her touch. “I’ve only ever wanted your happiness. I hope you can find it here, but I know that’s hard for you right now. Just know, I’m on your side. I always have been.”

Gust let out a shaky breath. He knew Ginger was on his side. He knew she supported him and loved him. Her actions always reflected that. But hearing her say it out loud was different. It made his heart swell in his chest. “I know you have.”

“Good.” She gave his shoulders a gentle squeeze. “So please, go find some happiness out there.”

↢↢↢↣↣↣

Gust hated dirty things. He also hated getting dirty. Throughout his life, he tried his hardest to avoid situations where he would encounter either scenario. And for the most part, he’d been successful. Yet, here he was, combing through fields of wildflowers on his hands and knees of his own free will. In past years, finding hibiscus flowers was an easy task. He’d stroll towards the waterfall, find a nice patch, and pick a small bouquet. It would take a half hour out of his day total.

This year, he hadn’t been so lucky. He’d searched the hills around Bassanio Heights for at least two hours and so far he hadn’t found anything. It was more than a little disheartening and panic started to fester in his chest. He blew his bangs out of his eyes with an irritable huff and settled back on his knees. His hair had fallen out of its braided coif an hour ago and he was covered in dirt. He grimaced down at his disheveled appearance.

His heart ached as he regarded the rolling hills around him. The Harbor Project had eaten up a lot of his free time. That mixed with the game nights he now attended every week left very little down time. This afternoon was the first time in weeks he had the time to come out and pick flowers for his mother. It was late into the season, but he figured there’d still be something left for him to find. Perhaps he’d missed his chance and the mere notion made him want to cry. Even now, years later, he was a poor excuse for a son.

“Gust? What are you doing out here?”

Gust pulled himself from his thoughts just as Piper stepped off the lift that led to Bassanio Heights. She had a sack filled with Light-knows-what slung over her shoulder as she approached him. Whatever it was, it oozed from the bottom of the bag. His lip curled as he pushed himself off the ground and tried to brush the dirt from his slacks. Now that she was closer, he saw the dry blood crusting her lower lip and the dark purple bruise forming along her hairline.

“You look terrible,” he noted, “are you alright?”

Her fingers ghosted over the cut on her lip. She tried to hide her wince with a breathy chuckle, but he saw it all the same. “Oh this? I’ve had worse,” she said nonchalantly, “I needed some supplies that’s only found in the abandoned factory and I finally had some free time to venture up there to get it. I forget how nasty those bandirats can get, but I handled it.”

“Are you sure? I can go get Dr. Xu?”

He took a tentative step towards town, but she waved him off. “No need, I have a few healing salves back at my workshop. I’ll patch myself up when I get home.” She adjusted the sack on her shoulder and he heard the squelch of something organic within. He grimaced. “But you never answered my question,” she continued with a tilt of her head, “what brings you this far up the hill? Kinda out of your workzone, don’t you think?”

Gust shrugged, “I was looking for Hibiscus flowers,” he admitted.

“Never took you for a flower guy.”

He smiled thinly. “I guess I’m full of surprises.”

Piper chuckled, but it sounded tight. “Fair,” she said, “have you found any?”

Gust shook his head. “They normally grow around these parts this time of year,” he explained, “But I can’t find any this year for some reason.”

“Do you need help?”

Before he could respond, she was setting her bag off to the side and rolling up her sleeves. Her arms were covered in shallow scratches and small bruises. Gust frowned, but she either didn’t notice or ignored his concern “I can head back up the lift to see if there’s any growing up there if you want?”

“You don’t have to do that,” Gust insisted, “you’re hurt.”

“That’s never stopped me from helping people before,” Piper’s gaze softened as she took him tenderly by the hand and squeezed. Her fingernails were caked with dirt and the palms of her hands were a little tacky, but in that moment, Gust didn’t care. “Please, I want to help you. Just tell me what to do.”

“They sometimes grow around the waterfall.” His voice was small as he stared at their hands. He traced the slopes of her bruised knuckles with his thumb. “I haven’t checked there yet.”

“Say no more. I’m on it.” She let go of his hand, sack full of trinkets forgotten and brushed past him. He noticed her flinch of pain, as she stepped gingerly on her right ankle.

“Are you sure you’re alright?”

“Yep.” He wanted to argue, but she didn’t give him the chance. She shambled down the hill and out of sight.

Gust glanced down at his hand. Some of the sticky residue had transferred onto his palm. It was ruddy brown and looked suspiciously similar to the ooze that bled out the bottom of her bag. He couldn’t even find it in himself to be disgusted. He was too busy trying to slow the racing of his heart.

Piper had dropped everything to help him. She was limping and bleeding, but that didn’t matter to her. She asked for nothing in return. She was always helping others, but who was helping her? Did she even want help? These were questions he couldn’t answer. He curled his fingers into a fist, his nails dug into his palm, but he barely felt it. With gritted teeth and a steely resolve, he followed after her.

↢↢↢↣↣↣

“Did you find anything?”

They’d been searching the area around the waterfall for at least an hour, maybe longer. The sun had already dipped beyond the plateau and a bitter autumn chill was settling in. Gust shivered and pulled his coat a little tighter around his shoulders. Piper popped up from her spot a few paces away. Dirt caked her bare arms and her hair had started to fall out of her top knot. She had looked tired before, but now she looked ready to keel over.

“I think so,” she stifled a yawn, “no flowers, but I did find this weird soil while I was digging around. Maybe that’s why the flowers aren’t growing this year.” She pushed herself off the ground, barely managing to keep herself upright on her one good leg. “I’ll ask around tomorrow. One of our resident gardeners should be able to give me some insight.”

“I can ask around,” Gust insisted, “I’m the one who wants the flowers.”

Piper waved him off. “Finders keepers. I’ll tell you what I find out tomorrow.” She took a deep breath, bracing herself, as she took a hesitant step forward. Her ankle buckled under her weight, sending her crashing to her knees. Gust was at her side before she could push herself back up.

“Stay.” His voice was firm as he placed his hands on her shoulders. Piper pouted at him, but she didn’t argue. “Show me.” She sighed and shifted back into a seated position for him. He rolled up her pant leg and examined the damage. Blood pooled under the swollen skin. She flinched as he ran his fingers over the angry red purple bruise. He clucked his tongue and turned his gaze back to her. She avoided his eyes, staring pointedly off towards the river.

“You shouldn’t be walking on this. Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Because.”

Gust sighed. She was going to be a brat about this. Fine. He’d treat her like one. “Don’t be stubborn.” Before she could respond, he scooped her up in his arms. Her breath hitched as he cradled her to his chest. “I’m surprised you were able to walk on that thing at all.”

“What are you doing?” He didn’t respond as he started the long walk back to town. She squirmed in his arms, but he held her firmly in place. “What about my stuff back up the hill?”

“I’ll come back for it.” He kept his eyes trained ahead. “I’m taking you home first.”

“I can make it back on my own.”

“No,” he snapped at her, “you can’t.” His blood was boiling. He wasn’t sure who he was more upset with. Piper for her blatant disregard for her injury, or at himself for not saying something sooner. He’d seen her limping, but he let her help anyway. He breathed. In and out. He could dwell on this later, but right now, he needed to get Piper home and patched up. “How long did you plan to hide this? Your ankle isn’t going to heal overnight.”

Piper sighed. “I figured I’d cross that bridge when I got there.” She picked absently at the dirt under her nails. “I guess I didn’t have much of a plan.”

“Yeah. That much was evident.”

Piper snorted. “I’m more of an act now, think later person.” She shifted closer and let her head rest on his shoulder. “That’s probably why I find myself in these situations.”

“Well, you probably will be out of commission for the next few days,” Gust noted with a sniff, “you’ll fall behind.” Piper groaned and buried her face in the crook of his neck. Her breath tickled his exposed skin. Gust hid the shudder that crawled up his spine.

“I didn’t even think about that.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Cry probably?” Piper managed a tight chuckle. “Depending on how long this takes to heal, I’ll probably be about a week behind.” She sighed wistfully. “And I was so close to surpassing Higgins in the ranks, too. Shame.”

“You can still construct small things though, can’t you?” He felt her shiver in his arms and he pulled her a little closer. She hummed softly and leaned into it. “Work on your smaller projects for the time being.”

“Easier said than done,” she said with a roll of her eyes, “I can’t go out and collect materials for the projects. I also have to refine the raw materials. Can’t do that if I can’t walk around to fill and empty my machines.” She groaned again. “This is the worst, I’m going to be so bored.”

Gust fought the amused grin that tugged at his lips. “Do you want help?”

He instantly regretted his question when Piper blinked up at him. “Help?” She arched an eyebrow at him. “Why? Are you offering?”

Gust considered this. He was currently in a lull at work. His part of the harbor project was done and they were finally back on track. Albert wasn’t begging him to lend a hand these days. He had some free time. He could help her, if she even wanted his help. He doubted his skills would be very useful to her. “You’re always helping everyone around town. Maybe someone should help you for a change.”

“And you’re volunteering yourself?”

Gust pursed his lips. “I suppose I am.”

“You’re full of surprises, you know that right?” He hummed in response. So it seemed. He was surprising himself more and more these days. “If you’re offering, I’m willing to accept,” she gave him a coy smile, “but I won’t go easy on you just because you’re pretty.”

Gust sputtered. He could feel the blood rush around his ears. “I wouldn’t expect you to. I can handle whatever you throw my way.”

“I’m sure you think you can.” He gave her an unamused look and she stuck out her tongue at him, unfazed. “But thank you. For all of this.” He nodded. A comfortable silence settled between them as he continued his trek towards her workshop. She let her head fall back against his chest, eyes fluttering shut. He moved slowly, careful not to jostle her. Not too long after, she was out cold.

Gust watched the slow rise and fall of her chest, desperately trying to ignore the warm feeling that blossomed in his chest. It was the same feeling he had when she complimented his work or when she’d given him the book. It made his heart beat faster and his head spin. This feeling was reserved for Piper alone. It didn’t feel like the affection he had for his sister or the general regard he had for Albert. This was something else, but he wasn’t sure how.

Gust worried his lower lip between his teeth. Piper curled in on herself, whimpering softly. Her brows were pitched, unsettled. He frowned. She always carried herself with a carefree air, but as Gust watched her squirm and whimper in her sleep, he knew there was more to the story. He pulled her closer, as if that would protect her from her thoughts. But Gust knew better. Nothing could protect you from unsettling thoughts.

#my time at portia #mtap #mtap gust #mtap ginger #mtap builder

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ecoamerica · 2 months

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youtube

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florenceandthemachine · 4 years

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since we’re back on our bullshit pls consider: jackson in glasses and stiles losing his mind at how soft he looks in them thank u and goodnight

now that we.... back on our bullshit?

“hey Siri were we ever not on our bullshit?” “no”

“ok ty”

anyway here’s a little short thing because the only thing Stiles loves more than Jackson is Jackson in some big handsome dorky frames, ahahaha ha h a!!!!!! what a nerd, am I right? h haha hahahhahhh!!!

Jackson would probably get them in college. He’s getting his pre-law stuff out of the way so he can get into law school a year early, and taking an accelerated program even then so he can graduate at the same time as Stiles does with his masters in criminal justice.

(And partially because his parents said that they would pay for his schooling, which in Jackson’s mind meant the sooner he was done with school, the sooner he could burn that bridge and never look back.)

He got accepted into UCLA, and accepted because he wanted to go there, thank you very much, not because most of the pack had been accepted there as well. And Stilinski, for some reason, how had such a weird level of scholarship fuckery that he basically had a full ride—Jackson could admit that was impressive, because if anyone knew what it was like to fuck the system so successfully, it was Jackson.

As great as college would be, as great as it would be for Jackson to become more independent, and more reliant on himself and the pack, as great as it would be for Jackson to have his own “great bi awakening” (”shut the fuck up, Stilinski, I swear to Christ—”).... college would be a whole new realm of issues for him.

The most annoying was easily the least problematic—staring at screens for ten hours a day hurt his fucking eyes.

It didn’t seem to be something that could be helped, either—staring away from the screen helped his supernatural healing kick in, sure, but the irritation came back as soon as he was looking at his laptop.

Old Jackson would have probably shut up and stared at his laptop screen until he went blind, because he was NOT one to deal with things in a healthy manner.

New Jackson was.... a little better, in that it only took him a few weeks before he asked Derek what the fuck was up.

As it turned out, blue light was an issue for werewolves, so that was cool.

It was an easy fix, but that didn’t mean that Jackson was thrilled about it. He had never had to wear glasses before—he had kind of hoped that becoming a werewolf was going to head that off at the pass before even age would affect his vision—so he was less than looking forward to the next pack study session.

As usual, he was one of the last people to show up to the huge table they had basically claimed in the Darling Law Library (it was his week, next week would be in the Biomedical library for Lydia), and he slunk to the furthest end of the table before pulling out his glasses, glaring daggers at anyone who dared to make a remark.

They weren’t bad looking, of course. Jackson had basically picked out the nicest designer frames he could find, ignored anything having to do with a prescription, and paid extra for the blue light filters. The result was something he could live with—a nice dark frame, thick enough to add credibility to his profile without being bulky, stylish in a timeless way instead of something trendy that would be out of season in a year.

By the time Stiles showed up, they had already broken into their little teams—Allison and Lydia were flipping flash cards at a frankly impressive rate, Scott and Isaac were busy working on translations that neither of them were getting quite right (seriously the formal vous was not that difficult) and Jackson was nearly buried behind a pile of books.

Truth be told, he had literally taken less than a minute to forget about the glasses—the relief from his headache was great, but nothing he could really focus on. So when Stiles sat beside him and Jackson looked up, catching his gaze, he literally had no idea why Stiles cut himself off and started to gape at him like a fish.

Jackson did the worlds slowest double take when, typing up several more passages from law textbook, he saw Stiles still staring at him. He moved to push his glasses up, and—oh fuck, that’s right, he was wearing glasses—and suddenly Stiles’ staring took on a whole new tone.

“Can I help you?” he snapped, his self consciousness coming out in a sneered whisper that would probably have been much curler sounding if he had any volume in his voice. Stiles, for what it was worth, seemed to shake out of his stupor.

“No, no, Jackson, you just... I mean... you have really nice eyes. I can’t believe I didn’t notice before.”

Jackson frowns, scanning the heartbeat for a lie, but Stiles is being honest... and that’s something that he’s not sure how to deal with quite yet, so he just shrugs it off.

“All of me is pretty, Stilinski, now get to work.”

As Stiles was so fond of saying, once was an incident, twice was a coincidence, and three times was a pattern, and Jackson was pretty sure that he was up to six times and counting where he had adjusted his glasses, or pushed them up into his hair, or even tapped at the side of the frame, and had Stiles immediately snap his attention to him.

Which wasn’t a bad thing, he figured. He was man enough to admit that he had definitely grown to appreciate how Stilinski grew into himself over their first year of college—gone was the awkward, s scrawny teenager, and in his place was a more confident, self respecting, young adult...

... who just seemed to revert back into a teenager whenever Jackson did something like, take off his glasses. Or clean his glasses. Or push his glasses up. Stiles would always falter in his step, or trail off in his speech, or—as Jackson noted, pulling his glasses off as he pretended to read and sticking one of the arms in his mouth—literally walk into a doorways.

And it just. Kept. Happening.

It got to the point where Stiles got a B on his midterm (which was NOT the end of the world, like Scott kept reassuring him, but for a perfectionist like Jackson... well, he could definitely relate to how stressed out Stiles got about it).

He even started to try to leave his glasses at home when he could, but that was always a recipe for disaster. Because now that Jackson had noticed Stiles looking at him, it was all he could notice, even without his glasses off. The only difference was that he now had a headache, so he was already irritable, which meant he usually started snapping between the second and third time he caught Stiles staring at him, which meant that there was more than one study session where Lydia had sent them all home early.

The most recent of which ended in Jackson, sitting in his car, rubbing his temples and growling, as if that would help the headache. He had all but threatened to gut Stiles if he looked over one more time, and Lydia had taken a minute after declaring the session was over to mentally shake Jackson to death.

“You two get to study alone next week until you can play nice. Whatever the fuck is going on, fix it. With him. Immediately.”

Jackson hated Lydia. Mostly because she was always right.

Since they had been banned from the library by She who Wields the Table Reservations, Jackson had decided to announce that they would be taking a study break—Stiles only seemed too happy to oblige, especially if Jackson’s idea of a night off was terrible food and bad movies. He had threatened Stiles under risk of bodily injury to secure the good couch on the fourth floor of the student union while he went and picked up far too much fast food for two growing boys, even if one was a bottomless pit and one was a werewolf.

“So, are you finally going to ask me out or what?” Jackson asked, an hour into their “study session” where neither of them had even attempted to crack a book yet. After giving up on forgoing the frames, he had started wearing the glasses more and more often—even when there wasn��t a laptop in sight, just a couch and a table littered with wrappers from their greasy, delicious haul.

He figured it was the safest way to address the tension between them. Either Stiles would snap at him and storm off, or laugh about it and shrug things away, or they could actually fucking get somewhere like adults—Jackson wasn’t picky, he just wanted something to fucking progress.

Stiles promptly choked on a curly fry, looking at Jackson like he was crazy, opening his mouth to prepare for what Jackson knew was going to be a protest—so he was surprised when Stiles closed his mouth again, tilting his head.

“Fine, but you better be taking me somewhere nice.”

Jackson laughed and threw another fry at him, shaking his head. “Fucking finally. Here I thought you just liked me for my glasses.” he said with a smirk, looking at Stiles over the rim of his glasses in a way that he knew would have Stiles blushing so prettily in no time flat.

Stiles tiled his head a little at that, a small smile on his face. “Don’t get me wrong, the glasses look is definitely... I mean, it’s.... god, you’re so pretty, but dude, just ask Lydia. I’ve been gazing longingly at you ever since you announced you wanted to go into family law to help make sure no kids wind up in your situation.”

Jackson frowned—that was at the beginning of freshman year, just over a year ago, there was no way—but Stiles heart was ringing true.

Oh.

“Oh.”

Jackson pinked up, and Stiles crooned.

(On Halloween, Stiles talks Jackson into doing a couples costume—Batman and Superman. Jackson shows up to Stiles’ apartment in a suit, tie, and his glasses, and Stiles—clad in his Batman suit—is pissed. All Jackson has to do is open his button down shirt to reveal the big “S” underneath and Stiles has to pick his jaw up off the floor.

“My hero.” he breathes.

They barely make it to Lydias party before midnight.)

#stackson #stiles stilinski #jackson whittemore #teen wolf #prompt #late night writing for the bae #because I forgot I had a fucking ask #because I'm what?#a garbage person #college au #flospeaks #mutually assured devotion

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corbo-florbo · 4 years

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Fantasy Booking: John Cena & Elias

Tagging the awesome @mith-gifs-wrestling and the amazing @adriennegabriella for this one, since they seem to enjoy my fantasy bookings so far!

So as of writing this, John Cena is coming back to Friday Night Smackdown on February 28 of 2020, and I’ve got a couple or few ideas of what I’d like to have done with him. I figured, why not start with one that seems like a continuation of a recent subtle ongoing feud with The Drifter, Elias?

Are you ready for a good time? The episode of Smackdown opens with a bang, as fireworks go off and fans cheer. Then the hum of John Cena’s music blasts through the arena, and he looks as happy as ever when making his way to the ring.

Cena grabs a mic, and waits for the cheers to die down. “Boy, y’all sure did miss me huh? I gotta admit, it’s been a while. I left y’all behind while I pursued my acting career, but it’s okay, it’s fine, The Leader of the Cenation is back baby!” *cheers* “But it’s not all about to be sunshine and rainbows, I’m afraid. See, I gots some things to share with y’all, and I dunno how y’all are gonna feel about it.” John then turns his hat around to where the bill is facing behind him. “Y’see-”

A guitar strum silences John as the arena goes dark and the spotlight flashes on one sole figure making his way to the ring. That figure ladies and gentlemen, is Elias. “John, John, John. Oh, this is so us. I interrupt you, you interrupt me, it’s a whole thing! Sometimes I beat your ass, you beat my ass, you know how it goes! Why, last time you threw a package of nuts at me, and quite frankly, you said some mean things at me. When was that? Oh, uh... Wrestlemania! But it’s all good, John. I’m glad to see you back! Maybe this time we can duet, because I”m tired of playing with myself.” John grins at this. “Oh, you like that one don’t you, John? Yeah, that was pretty funny. Now, I’m not sure why you tilted your hat backwards, but I thought maybe we can show it’s all water under the bridge and have some honest to God fun! It’s Wrestlemania season after all!”

Elias steps in the ring and John leans on the turnbuckle opposite Elias’s end, with a Cheshire grin on his face. Elias strums and plucks at his guitar. “Hey John, why don’t you start us off with a rap verse, maybe? I think that’ll get the people of Boston in the spirit! What do ya say, Boston?” Obviously, cheers.

John nods, puts his arm around Elias’s shoulder, and as a melody emanates from Elias’s guitar, John opens his mouth, as though he’s about to rap, until a quick turn and Drift Away! Ladies and gentlemen, John Cena has taken down Elias with his own move! Why, John, why?!

The next week passes and there’s a new episode of Smackdown. Neither man is to be found until the main event, advertised earlier in the day as an explanation from John Cena. People sit, waiting for the familiar “My Time Is Now” but instead are met with “Basic Thuganomics”. Cena comes out, decked in the same wear befitting of someone dressed in early 2000′s hip-hop clothing style.

“Word Life” brass knuckles wrapped around his fingers, microphone in hand, the Doctor of Thuganomics speaks. “Now, since I was so RUDELY interrupted last week by that weak, punk ass jobber, allow me to lay down the line right here, right now. Y’all cheering me were the same ones booing me all them years. No matter what I did, it wasn’t good ‘nuff for ya. It wasn’t until I used my profile to elevate others, you seemed to care. 2006. One Night Stand. Manhattan. Hammerstein Ballroom. I came out to toxic, nuclear heat and my shirt being thrown right back at me. Said I ain’t got no moves! I gave them moves! They boo’d that shit too! I’d give my all, yet I was so hated. Yet the children loved me. Guess what? Those kids grew up. Y’all even popped loud as hell whenever someone mentions my failed relationship with Nikki Bella? Y’all so easily worked it ain’t even funny! She and I are still tight, life just pulls us in diff’rent directions. Y’all hated me, now ya want me back. Now I’ve been gone so long, y’all miss me? Well, John Cena don’t forget, no he don’t! I remember clear as day, y’all as fickle as Daniel Bryan always said, but he back in the Kool-Aid now, talkin’ bout the Yes Movement comin’ back. Now he fickle too, but that’s okay ‘cause Cena here to collect. Talk about my golden shovel, talk about burying talent, well guess what? Anyone in my path gon’ wish they was dead. Cena out.”

Cut to next week’s Smackdown, things seem to have gone back to normal. Elias is back, and is in a match with Mustafa Ali. Of course, he is a little paranoid of John Cena, which Ali takes advantage of, easily getting in the win. Elias doesn’t seem to even care or process the loss. He just...leaves. Like someone who left a haunted house, but the haunted house hasn’t left them.

Main event time, and the Dirt Sheet is dunking on everybody. They continue to talk smack to The New Day in their ongoing feud. John Morrison dunks on Elias for his upset state, while Miz derides the outdated nature of John Cena. On the Titantron, John Cena calls them out via satellite, as he sees himself above fighting anyone on the roster on a measly episode of Smackdown. “I mean, I’m John F%#^ng Cena!” Miz and Morrison then challenge him to a 2-on-1 handicap match, now he’s got them too heated to go after Kofi Kingston and Big E of New Day, that they MUST beat Cena. And they must do it at the upcoming Elimination Chamber pay per view.

The night of the match, Cena dominates. He takes both men out with ease. Miz, perhaps the easiest, but Morrison’s parkour gives him at least a sliver of a chance. Cena is the victor.

More Smackdowns, more of Elias being afraid. Miz and Morrison act like nothing happened, pretending they didn’t just fight and lose to John Cena. Elimination Chamber didn’t happen in their eyes. They continue to emasculate Elias, who on the fifth Friday night, grows tired of them mocking him and takes them down, accusing them of being in cahoots with him. He’s greatly losing it, as is evident when he plays his guitar out of tune, or messes up lyrics.

Roman Reigns, however, is tired of it all. He calls out Cena, challenging him at Fastlane, which Cena accepts. Not before he chastises Roman about how he had to elevate him at No Mercy 2017, about how while he isn’t as hated by crowds anymore, he’s still just “a guy”, and will never reach that level. That Roman’s 2017 win was just a fluke. Yet another nut joke by the Doctor of Thuganomics before a low blow and an F.U. lays Roman out at the end of the night.

Fastlane 2020 approaches, and the two put on a 30 minute classic. Roman gets more vicious, and Cena becomes more dastardly. He constantly taunts and goads Roman most of the match, and at one point even HEADBUTTS HIM. That’s something you don’t do to Samoan pro wrestlers, yet Cena evades it all, wearing Roman down until he runs out of steam. Roman, staggering, falls victim to another F.U. before being gifted with Cena’s Five-Knuckle Shuffle, and goes for the pin. Cena wins, but his victory is shortly celebrated after Elias slams a guitar on Cena’s head, the last visual of the match being Elias glaring down at his handiwork.

Elias is not to be seen the next several Smackdowns leading to Wrestlemania, at least not live. In pre-taped segments, in front of chain-link fences, Elias rambles on about how John Cena lives rent-free in his head. In the final vignette of his ramblings, Elias declares at Wrestlemania that he will get his groove back, as he plays a new percussion instrument, one he calls John Cena before declaring the match needing to be No DQ. Meanwhile, Cena hosts mini-segments where he freestyle raps about how trashy a lot of the wrestlers signed to WWE are, along with old legends. Last Smackdown, he raps about how easily worked Elias got, that he doesn’t stand a chance because Cena declares himself the master of psychology, adding to his resume, added along with being a doctor of Thuganomics.

Wrestlemania time, and Elias is easily dominated early in the match. It’s almost like Cena vs Lesnar at Summerslam all over again, until Elias goes in for a Drift Away and hammers on Cena. He even grabs his head, “slamming” it down on the mat before stomping and kicking Cena. Elias manically grabs at his own hair, before bringing chairs into it.

Elias slams Cena with chair after chair, but like a superhuman, Cena rises again and again. He can even be heard that no injury, no chair could hold him down. Elias doesn’t stop though. He hits like he has lost his mind. It’s as though his brain is now the one drifting in and out, not him. There’s almost a rhythm to Elias’s shots. Then he sets it up for a con-chair-to. And another. And another and another, you get the picture. Cena’s lifeless body is rolled over and Elias covers him for a pin, and you see his hand move, but he does not kick out. Elias gets the win, and is tearing with joy. His first Wrestlemania win, and it’s one not for a title, but a peace of mind and a reclamation of his lost sanity.

Almost as if knocked into his senses, Cena rises, clutching his head. He removes the “Word Life” armbands and wristbands and shakes Elias’s hand before raising it. Cena has reclaimed his own soul, seeing everyone cheer for Elias. The sight of what he missed was enough to wake him up. He had grown cocky of having won the world of wrestling, music, and film that he forgot what it was like, being someone looking to make a name. He remembers that same John Cena that made an impact after beating Kurt Angle and winning the respect of the locker room back in the early 2000′s.

Elias is able to move on to other feuds, no longer feeling the need as a drifter to bash other towns he rolls into, and even finds himself in main events every now and then. Cena reflects the night on Raw after Wrestlemania that he is done with wrestling now, but the WWE Universe will see him again from time to time. He leaves with letting everyone know the three most important words to him: Hustle Loyalty and Respect.

The end.

I hope you guys enjoyed it! I got two more Cena fantasy bookings, then I hope to jump into some fresher ideas later!

#john cena #elias #WWE #fantasy booking

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murasaki-murasame · 5 years

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Thoughts on Fruits Basket 2019 Episode 22: “Because I Was Happy”

In spite of how last week’s episode was kinda meh, this episode ended up being one of the single best episodes of the show thus far. It at least goes to show that this adaptation is incredibly good at drama, even if it’s not so great at comedy.

Anyway the TL;DR of my feelings right now is just a whole pile of those pictures of crying cats. You know the ones.

Thoughts under the cut [and spoilers for the manga as a whole]

To get right to the chase, this episode adapted chapter 51, which is interesting because this makes it the first episode adapting material that straight up hadn’t even been written when the 2001 anime was made, since I think that came out when the manga was at around chapter 43 or so. Even Uo’s backstory arc had already been done in the manga by that point, and they just chose to cut it in the first adaptation. So I can’t exactly fault the 2001 anime for not having adapted this chapter, but man it really goes to show how much of the story the 2001 anime was missing, and how much good stuff we’re in for here.

I think it was a good choice to put the two Hana chapters back to back like this, even though in the manga they were like 20+ chapters apart from each other. It’s by far the most standalone chapter of the manga, and it’s specific placement has always kinda baffled me, since it happens right after we meet the student council characters and Kureno, and shortly before the summer vacation arc, and none of that had to do with Hana. I think it’s just one of those things where Takaya’s nerve disorder probably impacted how she approached the story, and lead to some odd detours into side stories and backstories until the ‘main story’ kicked back into high gear. It flows a lot more naturally here, and the fact that the whole episode is a flashback with no real present-day context or framing isn’t even noticeable when it comes right after the events of the last episode. It felt like a bit more of a harsh narrative shift in the manga.

But it’s still always been one of my favourite individual chapters in the series, in spite of it’s awkward timing. The material itself does everything it needs to make it stand out. And the shifted placement in this adaptation just helps elevate it’s strengths even more.

I’ve been wondering how anime-only people might react to this episode, for lots of reasons, and I’m glad that everyone seems to love it. It really does come as a huge curveball in terms of tone and focus after how self-contained and comedic the last episode was, but it works nicely.

And even more than that, it’s fun watching people react for the first time to the reveal that Hana’s powers are actually 100% real, and the story ends up being dead serious in depicting how they impacted her life. Basically Fruits Basket suddenly turns into Carrie But With A Support Network for an episode, and I doubt any new fans saw that one coming, lmao.

Though tbh I still think it’s [intentionally] ambiguous whether or not she actually had supernatural powers. It never really comes up again, and the handful of cases of her using her powers on people can technically be written off as a mix of coincidences and a sort of placebo effect from people who think she’s seriously gonna curse them. In terms of what Takaya thought when she wrote this, I think Hana probably does have straight up psychic powers, but there’s room for interpretation, and I think this episode is really interesting when viewed through the lens of Hana having some sort of severe mental illness.

I’ve been pretty occupied recently with thinking about the topic of disability in Fruits Basket when it comes to Kyo’s arc [and oh boy do I have stuff to say about that very soon], but I’d kinda forgotten that Hana’s backstory here is another good example of that.

I don’t exactly want to jump to conclusions and start armchair diagnosing her, but the ‘voices’ Hana heard could definitely be symptoms of something like social anxiety or even schizophrenia. Depending on how literally you want to take the idea of her ‘hearing voices’.

In general there’s a sort of blurry line in this series between supernatural stuff, and things that are realistic to the experiences of disabled [or otherwise oppressed/neglected in general] people. But I’ll talk more about that later.

On a somewhat related note, one surprising thing about this episode is that in spite of the overall tone and events of this episode, Hana’s family is completely supportive of her, and never doubt the existence of her powers, or hate her for it. Instead all they care about is her safety and well-being, and they’re willing to move towns if it means removing Hana from a toxic school environment. I think I’ve said it before, but I think it’s good that this series has a whole range of types of parents/families who have their own unique feelings about their childrens’ struggles. You can’t really accuse it of being one-dimensional.

The thing that really struck me about this episode most of all was just how good the artistic direction and overall execution were. In terms of the story it was a pretty 1:1 adaptation of the manga, with nothing changed/added/removed from what I can remember, but it was just executed incredibly well. Pretty much like how things went with the Uo arc.

Specifically I really loved the way that the entire episode had a consistent cool grey tone to it all, and was filled with deep shadows and harsh, artificial-looking lighting, right up until the point where Hana admits that she wants to stay with Tohru and Uo, and suddenly everything is bright and warm and filled with light. It’s not exactly the most complicated thing ever, but it really made the climax of this episode stand out.

But the way it handled the lighting and shading up until that point was genuinely really neat in and of itself, and lead to a really atmospheric and oppressive vibe to everything. Especially scenes like the one where Hana got her arm burned by those bullies, and the whole scene was incredibly dark and shadowy and eerie. I also really liked the cut of her running down the school hallway, and how the harsh bluish lighting from the windows contrasted with her silhouette and the darkness of the hallway itself.

The way they handled the scenes of her hearing voices by having the screen be slowly blotted out by cloudy blackness and overlapping voices was also really neat.

I think it’s really neat that some of the best material we’ve gotten thus far has come from some of the most unlikely characters. Normally with a series like this you’d think that Tohru’s best friends would be disposable comic relief characters [which they kinda were in the 2001 anime, tbh], but they both ended up getting incredibly good backstory arcs that flesh them out immensely and deliver some of the strongest emotions and messages in the series. It really goes to show that this is an ensemble cast type of story that cares about all of it’s characters instead of just the core few. In the manga it wasn’t really apparent until later because of how things were paced out, but this adaptation’s really making it clear already that this series is totally willing to basically ignore it’s main trio for episodes on end in order to focus on the supporting cast, lol.

And on THAT note, to balance out the fact that Kyo in particular has been kinda absent since, like, the lake house episode I think, the next episode is gonna dive straight into what will ultimately be a three-episode story arc focused on him, his backstory, and his relationship with Tohru. I hope it lives up to the expectations of all the new fans who’ve been anxious to see more of him, and I hope they know to keep their hands inside the rollercoaster at all times because we’re about to Go Places [tm] :)

I’d been expecting for a while that the next episode would adapt chapters 30 and 31 and end with Kazuma’s introduction, so that the last two episodes of the season can focus on the meat of the true form arc, and thankfully they just outright used Kazuma’s line from the end of chapter 31 as the title of the next episode so that spells itself out, lol.

I’ve seen some people worry that this means they might be skipping the soup chapter, but I don’t think that’s the case. I think it’d actually be really easy to cover both of those chapters in one episode. You could actually splice the events of them together pretty nicely, so that Tohru getting sick is still the main thread of the whole episode even if it ends with Kazuma showing up.

I think they could at least do some things like making the part in Chapter 31 where Kyo and Kagura go shopping together be related to Kyo cooking for Tohru while she’s sick. But we’ll see.

I know some people think that ep24 will cover the whole true form arc, and that ep25 will be chapters 35 and 36, but I don’t really feel like that’d work well. The true form arc is way too much of an emotional climax all around to not be the season finale. And chapter 35 in general would serve as a nice sort of semi-recap of the true form arc to start season 2 off with.

And in general I don’t think the series has ever adapted three whole chapters into one episode, and I don’t think they’ll start with this arc. I think it’ll be like how they adapted the Uo arc into two episodes when it was also three chapters long. Either way, I think they’d be able to pretty easily flesh it out a bit to cover two episodes, whereas it’d be difficult to condense it into just one episode without it feeling rushed. But who knows. I have faith in them one way or another.

For the time being I’m just gonna emotionally prepare myself, lmao.

#murasaki rambles #fruits basket #me @ the fact that the kyo arc starts next week: this is fine :)))))

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incarnateirony · 6 years

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Sam lensed thoughts

I think what’s killing me right now is Sam’s juxtaposition to Dean at our current advent in season 14.

In a lot of ways, Sam is fulfilling a true character arc -- finally. Passed the keys to the bunker; using his tech savant skills to build a network and a legacy; not as ready or thoughtful of retirement as Dean yet, but still wanting peace; Dean readily accepting him taking on a leader role--

But Dean himself isn’t complete and so, even removing Michael -- if we pretended that was a nonissue -- Dean himself is still broken up over the aftermath and Sammy doesn’t know how to fix it.

He tried. He thought he had it.

In season 10, during the Mark of Cain chaos, Dean took comfort and “felt like himself” again by being taken on a vampire hunt.

Dean: “Yeah, you know, for the first time I've been back, I didn't feel like the Mark was pushing me.”

Sam: “First time?”

Dean: “All I know is, back there, killing those vamps... I felt like me again.“

Sam: “Alright, so that’s good, right?"

D: “Yeah.”

-- Sam & Dean, 10.08 Hibbing 911.

Now, in season 14 with Dean hiding out in his room, not only does Sam do that but finds like, The Perfect Case™ that’s just perfectly suited to get Dean out of a funk with the interests he never lets himself deeply invest in and boom -- plucky Dean at the end of the episode, but we all saw something still wasn’t right.

And, in 14.5, Dean does show where he’s grown. Sam doesn’t get to really see these discussions as he talks about trying to let things go every day because The Past Is The Past (trying to think like that every day, rather than S10 where it’s “the opposite of what I do”; also keep an eye on S10, we’re gonna keep tapping back to it), but the thought echoes up later. And Dean, sideways in it all still, admits -- he’s still not okay. He almost felt like himself. Almost.

“You know, I’ve been trying to– not forget, but to move on, from what I–from what we– from what he did. And to be honest, I was– I was starting to feel like myself again. Almost."

– Dean 14.5 Nightmare Logic

Almost.

In fact, the sentences are framed so painfully similar, and the evocation of Americana in both of these episodes (though 14.5 it was a shortly previous scene with sending off Mobby), I can’t help but feel it was, truly, intentional. “You know,” [introspection] “I felt like me again/I was starting to feel like myself again. Almost.”

Almost.

The “Almost” is murdering me. As is this.

Sam: "K. Then let’s go with that."

[everybody loads up and rolls!]

-- 10.08

Sam: So we’ll work harder.

Dean: How, Sam?

-- 14.05

As we know, Dean goes on about Sam’s lack of sleep, Sam just offers to... sleep less, work harder. But aggressively goes into saying they’ll find Michael. But let’s be real -- stabbing Michael and racing to the end of the book won’t fix the traps Dean knows “i/we/he” set up. They won’t deal with Dean’s emotional state. And Sam isn’t dumb. He knows that. And even that much Dean doesn’t have real hope in right now.

Sam is sort of flailing to find a salve for his brother.

What’s worked in the past, and even the semi-recent past (I mean, 4 years ago isn’t ancient in the scale of things; and even by S10 it had become evident that Dean’s masks and easy patches weren’t working anymore), just isn’t doing it here. Even with the Mark of Cain literally under Dean’s skin, this is all the more under it.

Which means we have to look at how else Sam can even try to fix this.

Sam’s being the sounding board for everybody. I mean, that’s not unusual, it’s Sam. But right now, we have -- in example --

“Look, the point is,” Sam comes back, from a point of knowing, “people put up walls for a reason. So whatever your Bobby has behind his, I doubt it’s pretty.”

Mary: “But you think I should try and find out?”

Sam: “You know what? If you care about him? I think you should.”

We now interrupt your deep character insights with discovering a critical part of the hunt.

Sam was, of course, quick to tune into it. Before that discussion at all,

You know, “I wasn’t gonna mention it, none of my business, but it seems like you’d gotten pretty close, lately.”

Everything -- the entire discourse -- poured from a place of silent knowing. Just like, with everything from DreamHunter to Dean repressing Michael’s memories and it not being as hunky-dory-okay as he was pretending,

There’s things Sam knows he can’t give Dean. He tries to fill the gaps by finding perfect hobby hunts, distractions, directions for Dean to gun it while everything sorts itself out, but even that is thinning out. It only-almost works. Almost.

DEAN Look, I have no illusions, okay? I know the life that I live, I know how that’s gonna end for me. Whatever. I’m okay with that. But I wanted you to know…that when I do picture myself happy…it’s with you. And the kid.

LISA Wow.

DEAN I mean, you don’t have to say anything.

LISA No, I…I mean, I know. I know. I want to. Come inside. Let me get you a beer.

DEAN I wish I could. Take care of yourself, Lisa.

-- 5.17, 99 Problems.

A conversation Sam wasn’t privy to witness, but the psychology behind his brother was still not something Sam missed. Just like he wasn’t privy to most of Sam and Mary, just like he just saw a few hunters cooperating and saw something there. Just like Sam Knew. It’s something Sam’s always excelled at. He just pays attention and reads people around him.

SAM: Really? You don't . . . Ever want something more?

DEAN: I'm sorry, have you met us? We're batting a whopping zero in domestic life, man. Goose eggs.

SAM: You don't ever think about something? Not marriage or whatever. But . . . Something? You know, with a hunter? Somebody who understands the life?

-- 11.04 Baby.

We can, of course, argue that sometimes Sam thinks about this himself, but it’s not as thematic. Eileen, for example, was a good reprieve for him. Amelia, as much as we hate that story. Sam knows and understands it, but he’s not quite there right now. Right now he’s building a legacy, being passed the keys in so many ways -- from the keys to the bunker, to almost the keys to the car; the keys to this hunter circle he’s been leading while Dean’s down, crushed under himself, or in an episode full of mirrors of all the characters where keys to a shop legacy were passed while one wasn’t quite following the vein and the spirit of past expectation came to haunt them.

Sam has never needed a confessional to gloss things like this from his brother, though he was not witness to it.

DEAN What if I said I…I didn’t want to die…yet, you know, that I wasn’t ready?

FATHER DELANEY Are you expecting to?

DEAN Always. [Chuckles] You know, the life I live, the work I do…I pretty much just figured that that was all there was to me, you know? Tear around and jam the key in the ignition and haul ass until I ran out of gas. I guess I just thought sooner or later, I’d go out the same way that I live – pedal to the metal, and that would be it.

FATHER DELANEY But now?

DEAN Now, um… recent events, uh… make me think I might be closer to that than I really thought. And…I don’t know. I mean, you know, there’s – there’s things, there’s…people, feelings that I-I-I want to experience differently than I have before, or maybe even for the first time.

FATHER DELANEY Go a little deeper, perhaps, than with Gina.

DEAN Yeah. Yeah, I’m just starting to think that… maybe there’s more to it all than I thought.

-- 10.16 Paint it Black

Sam never pried about what Dean confessed, despite standing right outside. “I wasn’t gonna mention it, none of my business,”

But he noticed. Like Sam does. Even in this episode we double back to Sam already silently knowing how Dean is coping,

SAM I heard what Sister Mathias was saying about, you know, hiding pain by taking on a mission, and I-I know that’s what you’re doing a little bit. And it’s okay. I mean, it’s fine. I get it. I’ve done it before, too. But… I don’t buy for one second that the mark is a terminal diagnosis, so don’t go making peace with that idea. There has to be a way. There will be a way, and we will find it. That’s what we do. So, believe that.

DEAN Okay, Sammy.

SAM You want to… Uh, try that again like you mean it?

DEAN [More determined] Okay.

This was, in fact, in stream with the Hibbing 911 10.08 episode I started this with. It was a consistent stream. Take on a case, Dean feels better. Take on a case, know he’s dealing with pain by taking on a mission. Faith -- there is a way -- Dean is waffling, but at least back then, Sam could inspire sparks out of Dean in that. But now, they’re fading as quickly as they come. Hibbing 911 to Paint It Black was an 8 episode stretch and Sam had to voice it as a cover -- after a 5-episode stretch post-saving Dean(mon) to get to deciding that worked. Now -- for the better in communication -- Dean is voicing it doesn’t work anymore, and we’re only a few episodes in, 3 episodes from being brought back. It already isn’t working.

There has to be something more in the long term than fixing the immediate problem for Dean.

And Sam knows.

And that’s really what’s slaying me right now. Sam keeps trying, but every time it’s working less, they’re losing ground on Dean. Even when Dean communicates openly, it’s that the old vices simply aren’t cutting it anymore. The old fixes won’t work. They can try to race ahead to the end of the story (though it’s not the ending, it’s the journey, right?) but even stabbing Michael dead won’t fix everything. They both know that. There needs to be another remedy.

Now bounce back to his conversation with Mary. Bobby, who doesn’t know any other way to live -- who Sam recognizes the thick walls of, who he encouraged to try to get past those walls. Who’s the first person setting up their arrangements?

Mary frets. You sure she won't mind? "No," Sam eagerly expresses, hand out, "Donna says her cabin is your cabin." And Dean, one who knows too well, "Take as much time as you need."

Bobby's apology for snapping kicks in here, and Sam had already moved on from it. Bobby, like Dean, recognizes what Sam has within him for this. After that, we get down to Mary and Dean -- and everything I've talked in these posts. [x] [x] [x]

But then we fall back to Dean's conversation with Sam immediately. He keeps almost feeling like himself. Almost.

There’s nothing quite as awful -- but quite as mature -- as realizing you can’t be the end all fix all for somebody you care about. Sam is left to look back, maybe even literally in this shot, on everything within this episode, and everything behind them since at least season 10.

He can and WILL do whatever he can to make Dean’s days a little better. Frankly, I imagine that’s going to be some of the crafting in Dean partnering off with Jack a few times in upcoming episodes. There’s another answer out there, and maybe Sam won’t leap to the One Cure All solution, but it’s a way to fix-and-cope gradually, outside of his own reach, as much as that may pain him to realize.

It is entirely possible to have a deep, meaningful relationship without being codependent. Sam started this season as boldly independent despite being the more dependent brother for immediate engagement in the past. Dean’s dependency was more based on his sense of duty -- having to take care of his little brother. Sam’s was more on feeling left behind. But he’s been growing past that.

It’s not to say the brothers will throw all the papers in the air and stop caring -- not by a long shot. But the breadth of family and responsibilities have diversified into a more recognizeable human relationship -- or arrangement. I would not be at all surprised if it is Sam’s suggestion on one or both weeks to hang out with Jack. Dean never got that childhood -- maybe that will be a salve, let Dean teach Jack how to be a kid, and in the same stretch, get to be a kid himself.

This is healthy, but painful -- a new way for SPN to be exploring its characters. Well, “new”. It’s been creeping in since Dabberens really set to rock’n’rolling, but generally speaking, the old days of brothers slapping verbal bandaids ignoring the actual problem on seem to be over.

I expect there to be some minor regressions. Lifelong habits are hard to break. But similarly, doing the same thing over and over again, the same way, expecting different results is the definition of insanity -- and in their case, has only antagonized the situation. It would be so easy to yell, “Oh it’s just Dean stressed about Michael,” but no. No, Sam knows his brother more than that. Sam Knows. Sam remembers. They’ve been here before and each and every time, it’s more desperate. He can arrange for his mother to go be happy, but there’s no easy solution floating by for Dean. Or hey, maybe there is and they’re just not ready to take that path yet.

And while Dean sends Mary off like this--go, mom, be happy; I think deep down, Sam is waiting for the chance for that for Dean. Dean was his mother /and/ his father. As long as it’s some tragic ending though of somebody dying or getting trapped or any of their other histories, that will never come to pass. Which is why, really-- Sam seems so obsessed with ideas of, “Do you ever think we can stop all the bad, all the monsters?” -- Dean hangs in lament of the impossibility. But Sam wants to hope. And really, I think that’s more for his brother than for himself.

In the end, it was Never Too Late for Dean to get that beer with Lisa in 99 Problems vs Swan Song; but while Dean had theoretically patched up and moved on, Sam’s caged status didn’t exactly lend to actual peace.

The strangest thing, I think, is Sam will need to realize -- in my opinion -- his need for his own peace, before Dean ever truly is willing to move on. From The Life, from Life. What have you. Death has far been painted from being The End here, it’s just the entrapment of it all that separates and confines. They still have a purpose here -- even if it’s heavily diverted to things like, I dunno, raising Jack. It’s been Sam’s turn to be both a Mother and a Father (given more explicitly in S13, but.) It seems to have shifted his overall perspective, filling Dean’s old shoes in that way.

If this were Carver or Gamble or Kripke, I would say-- Sam has a pipe dream. It’s empty. His hopes will be crushed. There’s no way to stop the monsters and the bad. But this cage imagery haunting us is giving us our actual subversion target (given, I’ll talk that in another post.)

But this isn’t Carver or Gamble or Kripke. As Bobo says, SPN -- their SPN, this Sam and this Dean -- believe in heroism, not just tragedy. And with all the telegraphed goals hit time and again: finding someone in the life, stopping all the bad, all the monsters, breaking their cycles, cages and fencelines suffocating them -- I see fairly clearly, in my opinion at least, what Dabb intends here.

And honestly?

I’m proud of my boy. Even if it’ll take another year or so to really Come to Pass. I’m proud of him. And I think... eventually we’re going to hear that from Dean too, similarly to the 12.22 recognition of how Ready Sam was to be a leader.

#supernatural #sam winchester #brothers #sam knows #season 14 #meta #bro bond #mobby #mine #my meta #endgames

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douxreviews · 5 years

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Gotham - ‘Pena Dura’ Review

Eduardo: "You left the army for this city?" Jim: "It grows on you."

How right Jim is here. And while 'Pena Dura' is actually a pretty outstanding follow-up to last week's episode, it also bears a disheartening feature often found in Michael Crichton novels; it builds up some thrilling concepts for the first two-thirds, but the actual executions of said concepts in the last third are quite lackluster.

Still pursuing the unknown culprit behind Haven's detonation, Jim Gordon and Bullock follow a lead given by Barbara on a dealer of RPG's. Unfortunately, the confrontation with the dealer himself is cut short when a battalion called Delta Force drops in and axes off Gordon's only lead. As it turns out, Delta Force is led by Eduardo Dorrance (Shane West), a former comrade of Gordon's when he was still in the army. And right away, I marked Eduardo as a character drafted to inevitably betray Gordon at some point down the line, because even if Gotham chose to keep West's eventual transformation into Bane confidential, he still reeks of someone you could just all too easily see double-crossing our protagonists; he's enthusiastic, he's chummy right from the get-go with Gordon, he gets a lot of the zingy one-liners once in action, in fact, he's too much of all these things. It's as if he's almost too eager to be here in Gotham City mowing down its costumed gangsters one by one, because he's got some kind of clandestine government cabal pulling his strings. But now I'm just getting ahead of myself here...

Quite surprisingly, I expected Gotham to drag out Gordon learning that Nygma was the one behind Haven's detonation by at least one more episode, but in fact, the pace doesn't drag too much after Eduardo steps in, and he and Gordon learn from the RPG dealer's logbook that Nygma was his most recent client. Gordon and Delta Force try to arrest Nygma at his safehouse, but Nygma is able to make his getaway by activating an IED below Eduardo's feet that will go off if Nygma is shot down. I must confess that this scene alone gave Nygma the essence of The Riddler more so than anything Season 4 did for his character. He's got his massive ego back, he's rigged his safehouse with booby traps, and of course, it takes the solving of a riddle too to deactivate the IED. As Gordon appropriately puts it - "there's always a puzzle with Nygma."

It's becoming a bit muddled though as to who exactly is in control of Nygma's body now. At the beginning of Season 5, it seemed that it was the Riddler trying to retrace his steps and learn what Ed has been doing during the blackouts, but in 'Pena Dura', the geeky CSI Ed is now the one the focus is on. What's more, Gotham seems to be doing a bit of retooling to the Ed personality as well; he's suddenly aghast to learn he was behind the bombing of Haven and the deaths of hundreds of civilians, yet he had no issue with making a name for himself as a feared criminal mastermind back in Season 3 by mercilessly stabbing a stage performer.

With Nygma on the run, Gordon puts the word out around the city that Nygma's the most likely culprit behind the attack on Haven. As a result, it isn't long before Nygma is captured and bound by a group of stereotypes, evidently intent on avenging their dog that was killed in the attack, and tortured through electroshock administration. In the process, buried memories start rising to Nygma's conscious, most prominently, a vision of Oswald promising to 'fix' Nygma. Believing Oswald to be the one behind his constant blackouts, Nygma engineers another escape and confronts Oswald, in a much-anticipated reunion for many of the show's viewers. Regardless of whether or not there's meant to be some sexual undertones in the conversations between these two, there's no denying that their bickering and their scene-chewing is always a welcome highlight. I got a kick out of how Oswald basically admitted too that only because he shot Butch last year did Nygma by default fill the slot of being his 'best friend'.

I've also grown fond of the increasing competitiveness between these two over the last year. I don't think they'll ever be able to return to the relationship they once held back in the beginning of Season 3, but they at least now retain a mutual respect for the other. They'd never go out of their way to kill the other, but they also definitely would not hesitate now to throw them under the bus if it meant saving their own skin, as Oswald does moments later when Delta Force shows up on his doorstep. Oswald tells Gordon that Nygma's going after Hugo Strange next, since Strange was the one Oswald ordered to 'fix' Nygma. I also haven't forgotten that Oswald also asked Strange to 'fix' Lee Thompkins, but the show seems to have, so let's move on.

Strange, greeting Nygma with an impeccable George Takei imitation, admits he is also unaware that Nygma has been blacking out, but confesses to having installed some sort of microchip that is subject to remote control in Nygma's head while he was in the process of being resurrected. Yet Strange oddly enough is also not the one who has been controlling Nygma. In a twist of events that now makes the twists of How I Met Your Mother's finale look rather superb, it turns out Delta Force and their shadowy government-affiliated leader Walker have been controlling Nygma the entire time. But here's the darnedest thing - the eyeroll and exhale this reveal got out of me wasn't a result of the twist being obvious - it's just that I feel Gotham has earned its place as being a series that should have shelved plot points like this. If Gotham remained in the confines of the grounded cop drama it was attempting to be way back in Season 1, then a reveal like this would have felt more accommodated to the show's nature. But Gotham is well past that point, what with their featuring of laughing gas, serial killers with pig masks, shapeshifters and countless resurrections, I know it can do more than just the evil-government-conspiracy that wants to clean house shtick.

Meanwhile, at the Sirens' club, Selina is being celebrated for killing the clearly not-dead Jeremiah Valeska. Funny how Bruce and Selina are always attempting to alleviate the other in Barbara's club, and this felt like a nice parallel to their encounter back in Season 4's 'Pieces of a Broken Mirror'. As much as Bruce wants though to convince Selina she's not a cold-blooded killer, Selina's only form of rebuttal is by trying to - once again, no less - demonstrate to Bruce that she doesn't give a hoot about anyone else except herself. This blather doesn't strike me as genuine though, as much as it more feels like Selina's just trying to save face. I also trust in Bruce to know Selina well enough to see through her jibber-jabber. Jeremiah himself turns out to have survived Selina's stabbings through the use of some nifty body armor. As commonplace as that solution does sound, we finally get a laugh out of Jeremiah by the episode's end. Something else I haven't seen others comment on is how it sounds almost as if Cameron Monaghan is evolving his Jeremiah voice with every episode. By now, he's done a phenomenal job at distinguishing his performance as Jeremiah in every aspect from his performance as Jerome.

To capitalize on my earlier metaphor, 'Pena Dura' has a first-rate setup that's unfortunately dampened in the end by its anti-climatic resolutions - our big baddie for the final season looks to be our own government, Nygma's been reduced essentially to a murder-bot hitman, and Jeremiah survives a stab wound to the chest (he even mentions that one Selina's attacks missed the armor) merely because the story needs him to. Not to mention that the cat-and-mouse game of pursuing Nygma and Strange could have been trimmed down by ten minutes.

Other Thoughts: • I don't consider myself much of a dog person, but if something ever happens to Oswald's bulldog, Gotham's showrunners will be receiving a vent-heavy letter penned by yours truly.

• I thought I heard Eduardo misspeak at first, and refer to Walker as 'Waller', leading me to suspect that Gotham was actually in the midst of introducing to us Amanda Waller and conceiving their own lineup of the Suicide Squad.

Aaron Studer loves spending his time reading, writing and defending the existence of cryptids because they can’t do it themselves.

#Gotham #James Gordon #Bruce Wayne #Edward Nygma #Selina Kyle #Harvey Bullock #Oswald Cobblepot #Alfred Pennyworth #DC Comics #Batman #Gotham Reviews #Doux Reviews #TV Reviews

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artpharos · 6 years

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Arty’s VGC 2018 SG Open Team- 2nd Place Finisher

Anyway I figure since I FINALLY LEGIT PLACED WELL AT A REGIONALS-LEVEL EVENT even if it was just a 38-man regional sobs I’m just gonna write a summary of a team I’m proud of even if they’re technically not that good oops

Put under cut because it’s long haha I put a lot of thought on my pokemon vgc teams weeps

So I haven’t had a lot of success in VGC 18. Not since the actual VGC 18 format, anyway. I’ve struggled to find a team composition I feel comfortable with, and I’ve had a lot of trouble relearning all my forgotten skills and regaining confidence in myself, especially since I was Out of Action for like... 2 years. But then after watching Brazil Internationals, I realized a lot of the standard ‘meta’ teams had this really gaping weakness to Bisharp and... I really missed Bisharp a lot. So then, I popped onto Showdown, placed Bisharp onto a team I was working on which was then Kangaskhan/Zapdos/Tapu Fini/Snorlax/Gothitelle/Landorus-T and then realized if I replaced Goth with Bisharp I needed another setup sweeper. I remembered back in VGC 13 that Volcarona was a good partner for Bisharp (or vice versa tbh) and I played a few games and then a month later I was in the top 100 on Showdown. And after staring at the team for a while I realized it had a strange resemblance to my 2015 team (Kangaskhan/Talonflame/Sylveon/Bisharp/Landorus-T/Rotom-Wash), which would explain why I was strangely comfortable with it. So then I ran it in a few tournaments, top cut a few MSSes, had a friend talk me over my mental blocks, and got 2nd at Singapore Open. Anyway, a breakdown of the team: Potato Kangaskhan @ Kangaskhanite Ability: Scrappy Level: 50 EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD Adamant Nature - Fake Out - Double-Edge - Low Kick - Ice Punch

Throughout the season, people have been telling me since Jan 1 2018 that Kangaskhan Is Bad. And after a whole season and 38 teams of Kangaskhan, I can finally come to the conclusion that yes, on paper, Kangaskhan is a Bad Mon. Kangaskhan, as a mon, just isn’t as good as in 2015, when she was the overwhelming force of the metagame. The Parental Bond nerf has seriously hurt her damage, and Psychic Terrain makes it difficult for Kang’s primary support option (Fake Out) to be completely useful. The loss of Power-Up Punch, and the general increase of offensiveness in the metagame, and Kanga’s neutral matchup towards Intimidate Incineroar have all been factors in why Kangaskhan, in theory, does not work.

But to be completely honest, whenever I used another Mega I’d just run straight into the stuff they’re automatically weak against and the thing is: Unlike the other Megas, Kangaskhan has technically no matchup that she automatically loses. It just feels a lot easier to put Kangaskhan into a position where she can do work, and I can accept the shift of her role from Primary Attacker to Offensive Support, relying on her to deal constant damage for the team and providing Fake Out support.

So a breakdown on Potato. I’ve tried all sorts of Kangaskhan, and for the longest time I was convinced that Jolly was the only way to go because without the max speed investment, you’d be unable to outspeed stuff like Tapu Lele and Charizard. However, Jolly Kang always ran into the problem of being outsped ANYWAY since Tapu Koko, Kartana, Mega Metagross and other random fast pokemon exist, and without any investment in her HP she can’t take hits that well. So after trying out my friend’s team, I finally decided on the Super Bulky Kangaskhan with 0 speed investment. I’m still not content with the bulk-speed ratio on Potato, but with the way that the metagame is so matchup dependent, I feel like it’s safer to be bulky than not. In fact, after recent battles, I think if I had to improve Kangaskhan, it’d be to actually drop her attack (since you’re still going to get intimidated to Kingdom Come anyway) and invest in her bulk some more.

Anyway, on to the moves. Fake Out because Kangaskhan is still, in my opinion, the best Fake Outer in the game, especially with Scrappy to hit ghost types (Hi Mimikyu!) and the ability to outspeed the other premier Fake Outer (Incineroar). Double-Edge for the consistently painful damage that OHKOs stuff like Tapu Koko and Charizard Y, Low Kick to deal 70% to Snorlax/almost OHKO Stakataka/random heavy things like Tyranitar and 4hp Heatran, and Ice Punch to still OHKO 4hp Landorus-T even after Intimidate. Potato functioned more as cleanup, or to clear certain threats that my main sweepers didn’t want to fight.

Cernunos Landorus-Therian @ Groundium Z Ability: Intimidate Level: 50 EVs: 20 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 228 Spe Jolly Nature IVs: 0 SpA - Earthquake - Rock Slide - Protect - Knock Off

Landorus-Therian is, arguably, the best mon in all of VGC. In fact, in VGC 2018, it’s only matched for utility with Incineroar, who’s also another Intimidating Cat. It’s also been constantly placing at the top (or near to the top) of all the usage stats, and it’s been said that the Best Way to check a Landorus-Therian is to use your own Landorus-Therian. In fact, it’s gone so far that some Landorus-Therian have switched the special scarfed Hidden Power Ice variants I also really liked the scarf Landorus-T variants since that would have helped my matchup vs Metagross+Tapu Lele/Charizard Y and random fast mons like Gengar a lot. However, given that I only have one other Ground-immune (Zapdos), I opted for the Groundium-Z variant, WHICH OHKOS INCINEROAR AFTER AN INTIMIDATE HAH TAKE THAT YOU STUPID CAT and does a bunch of other neat stuff like being a really powerful nuke, being a single-target ground attack (even if only for one turn), and has the ability to P R O T E C T. Being base 91 speed has its drawbacks, sure, but I hoped to mitigate that somewhat with Tailwind, and once you get an unintimidated Landorus-T on the field with the ability to switch moves+a nuke+x2 speed, it’s definitely a huge boon on your side.

So Cernny’s set is actually something Coach gave me. Jolly to abuse as much of that fast speed as necessary, attack to maximise the damage output, and the rest in split defenses for some ‘bulky’. His moveset was Earthquake (of course), Rock Slide (for the flinchy flinchy and Charizard Y/Zapdos), Protect and Knock Off because I hate Snorlax and any other mon that uses one of the Super Healing Berries, as compared to the lack of Steel/Normal type mons that you’d usually run Superpower for (and let’s be real, Superpower doesn’t OHKO anything of worth anymore, and without a scarf it didn’t really make sense to run Superpower).

Castor Bisharp @ Life Orb Ability: Defiant Level: 50 EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe Adamant Nature - Iron Head - Knock Off - Sucker Punch - Protect

I’ll be honest, Bisharp is pretty much the glue holding the team together. The ability to gain attack boosts from any status drop, and the ability to pull out a powerful priority attack with those boosts can utterly cut through teams that are unprepared for him. All it takes is an Icy Wind or an accuracy drop from Muddy Water, and Castor can go to town. Especially since most teams rely on Intimidate to control opposing physical attackers, Defiant/Competitive users like Bisharp and Milotic can do a lot of work in the right conditions. Moreover, dark is an extremely good attacking type, even now, and with the ability to hit Fairies super effectively with Iron Head, Bisharp has almost perfect neutral coverage for most of the metagame (with the exceptions being idk Blaziken and Lucario).

I was running Adamant Nature with max speed and Life Orb because that was the damage calculation/spread I was used to since 2015. Bisharp’s moveset is Iron Head for comfortable STAB, Knock Off to take out berries and also potentially KO weakened Cresses/other bulky mons/stop Snorlax before their berries trigger. Sucker Punch is priority, which helps me pin and maneuver around faster mons, and Protect is Protect lol. At max speed, Bisharp outspeeds most spreads of Tapu Bulu/Tapu Fini, Heatran, and also my own Kangaskhan, which allows me to make some silly plays like Knock Offing a Porygon 2′s Eviolite before Double-Edging into them, destroying fairy redirectors like Togekiss, or limiting Cresselia’s Ally Switch utility by taking out the supporters before Kang attacks.

Curry Volcarona @ Firium Z Ability: Flame Body Level: 50 EVs: 4 HP / 92 Def / 192 SpA / 220 Spe Modest Nature IVs: 0 Atk - Quiver Dance - Heat Wave - Giga Drain - Protect

I admit I named Volcarona Curry for certain very blatant biases BUT ANYWAY. I haven’t actually used Volcarona that well in VGC at all, dabbling in it only at the start of 2018 with a Salamence/Azumarill team that Did Not Work because I always felt that Volcarona was better off setting up Quiver Dance and sweeping than playing Rage Powder. Remembering that VGC 13 had a Volcarona+Bisharp team working super well for my brother, I decided to try it in VGC 18 because why not. Volcarona had 135 SAtk and with a Quiver Dance, I bet Inferno Overdrive would be extremely spicy. The other item choice that has been recommended to me time and time again is a Super Healing Berry, but to be completely honest I’m perfectly happy with having a secondary nuke in case I can’t land Tectonic Rage for whatever reason.

Volcarona pairs well with Bisharp, Kangaskhan, and Tapu Fini, being able to clear steel/grass types as well as luring in stuff like Landorus-T into the battle (which its teammates can then take out before Volcarona starts quiver dancing). Volcarona is not a ‘good’ mon; it has far too many weaknesses and requires a lot of ifs to set up properly, and even then it’s main stab is Heat Wave and its defenses are, to put it mildly, shit. However, with most of the metagame being physically defensive, being able to set up a powerful special attacker that gets boosts in speed/special defense/special attack can seriously nuke a lot of teams to oblivion.

So, Volcarona ran Quiver Dance, Heat Wave, and Protect. Modest 192 SAtk was to maximize my Special Attack as much as possible, but I do know that at +1, in the Sun, Volcarona’s Inferno Overdrive has been able to net OHKOs on Charizard Y of all things. 220 Speed was to outspeed modest Tapu Lele, 4HP/92Def was to survive a -1 Spread Landorus-T Rock Slide. Giga Drain was run to have a better way to deal with Tapu Fini and Milotic, but even at +1 Volcarona will still die to Hydro Vortex so that’s something to keep an eye out for.

Vegetable Zapdos @ Iapapa Berry Ability: Pressure Level: 50 EVs: 28 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 220 Spe Timid Nature - Thunderbolt - Heat Wave - Tailwind - Sky Drop

Zapdos has been something I’ve slowly grown accustomed to over the season. Without Talonflame, I’ve been searching for another Tailwinder that provided the sort of support/pairing ability with Landorus-T that I just couldn’t find elsewhere. While I am more used to the Misty Seed/Roost version, I just felt that it was far too passive and didn’t really feel like it could help contribute to the team with a low speed stat that the Misty Seed variants run (ie, set up Tailwind before dying to a Charizard Y Overheat). In the end, I decided to try something slightly different- not the Gigavolt Havoc Zapdos, but the fast speedy Tailwind support with Iapapa Berry. While it worked somewhat well, I realized that my team had issues with Azu+Redirector support, so I decided to toss Sky Drop onto Zapdos (something I learned from playing Hawlucha earlier in the metagame).

Sky Drop easily opens a lot of doors for my team, being able to stall out Trick Room, Tailwind, deal with redirectors, and force mons into not being able to Protect the next turn when they’re dropped. While my Zapdos spread meant that it was actually exceedingly frail for a Zapdos, it’s also an extremely good utility mon, if used properly (Hint: I still haven’t completely figured it out yet).

Thunderbolt for obligatory STAB. Tailwind helped support my team a lot, since the majority of them were slow and would greatly appreciate the speed advantage. Heat Wave was chosen over HP Ice because of the great Kartana weakness I seemed to have, as well as being able to threaten the 3hko on Mega Metagross. And Sky Drop is... Sky Drop. (Fun fact: I still haven’t completely understood all of Sky Drop’s mechanics yet, isn’t it fun?)

Ultimately, Vegetable started off as a mon I didn’t really like, but it is incredibly necessary for this team to work. If there is one thing I would change, I would drop its Satk and try to figure out a bulkier spread and go max speed Timid simply because I am tired of not having the ability to speed tie Charizard Y.

Melusine Tapu Fini @ Mago Berry Ability: Misty Surge Level: 50 EVs: 236 HP / 4 Def / 196 SpA / 12 SpD / 60 Spe Calm Nature IVs: 0 Atk - Scald - Moonblast - Calm Mind - Protect

So finally, the Tapu of my team. Tapu Fini easily loses out to ALL THE OTHER TAPUS of the metagame, but it also has one of the best terrain abilities. Immunity to status? Yes Please. Also, being the slowest Tapu (barring some really slow Leles/Bulus), it is almost guaranteed Terrain Control on turn 1.

I opted for the Calm Mind variant of Tapu Fini because I Like Setting Up, and also Fini just doesn’t do enough damage otherwise. Calm Mind also helps shore up its special defense, giving it a chance versus Tapu Lele and occasionally Tapu Koko/Charizard Y/MGengar/other random powerful special attacking mons. I’m using the standard CM Tapu Fini EV spread, which allows it to outspeed slow Bulu while dealing some really nice damage with its STABS.

While most Tapu Fini opt for Muddy Water, I’ve lost far too many games from Muddy Water missing, so I decided to go for the more reliable and slightly more powerful single-target Scald. Thus far, I have not regretted that decision. Moonblast for fairy STAB because you need Fairy STAB somewhere on your team to deal with Kommo-O, and Protect because this should be totally standard by now.

AND I HAVE SPENT 2 HOURS WRITING A LONG DRAWN SUMMARY OF MY TEAM. I’M EXTREMELY PROUD OF HOW WELL THEY DID, OF SOME OF THE BATTLES I’VE MANAGED TO PLAY WITH THEM, and while I’m not certain if I want to bring them to Worlds, I’m glad that this is the team that finally helped me overcome my own weaknesses and gave me my confidence back to play.

Tl;dr: I really love pokemon vgc and I really love this team

#arty's vgc 18 ramblings #pokemon vgc

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nekojitachan · 7 years

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TFCFansgive fic - Favor with the Stars (TFC Renison)

This is the fic I wrote for @cabeswaterlovesthem as part of @tfcfansgive - I really hope you like it, I had such fun filling the prompt! Much thanks to @magnesiumeternity for the beta.

So, basically a T rating, no trigger warnings other than references to Allison’s past and the sexist nature of Exy. I’ll probably get this up on AO3 later.

*******

Allison groaned as she felt the bed shift next to her, unwilling to wake up just then since she was still tired and there was a crick in her neck and things were so nice and warm…. Something cool and smooth stroked along her left calf, followed by a hand sliding along her left hip, which caused her to murmur out a complaint. "Not playin’ fair, dammit."

"Hmm, looks like you're not awake yet, sweetie. Still dreaming or something," Renee told her as Allison snuggled closer. "Good morning," she said before she placed a kiss against Allison's left shoulder, body warm against Allison's back.

Dammit, it looked as if she had no choice but to wake up after all, Allison realized with a bit of grumpiness as she hugged Renee's arm tighter against her belly and tilted her head up and back enough for a proper kiss. Even with her eyes closed, she could feel the smile on her wife's lips, begrudgingly giving in to one of her own as their fingers entwined, before rolling onto her back with Renee leaning above her.

"It's morning," she admitted as she opened her eyes to find Renee still smiling, pink-hued hair tousled from sleep and framing her lovely face, and dark eyes sparkling. "I'm not conceding anything else right now." Not until she got at least another kiss and a couple of espressos into her.

Well used to their morning routine by then, Renee's smile deepened. The faint wrinkles around her eyes crinkled (Allison would be appalled for her, except - as with everything related to Renee - it was adorable as hell. Besides, Renee didn't give a damn about crow's feet from smiling). Allison had just managed to sneak her left hand up beneath Renee’s cotton t-shirt when there was a loud shout about ‘not fair’ (which oddly enough echoed her thoughts just then), prompting a low moan caught between amusement and frustration.

“Why did we adopt again?” she asked, her arms flopping back onto the luxury mattress even as her lips twitched into a smile. Renee gave her a slight peck on the tip of her nose before slipping from their king-sized bed (sadly not so huge because of the very enjoyable things they did in it when they had the time and energy, but because of the shared company they usually had crawling into it at all hours of the day and night).

“Ha, ha,” Renee chided as she grabbed her robe from the chaise lounge at the foot of the bed. “I’ll go see what’s causing the latest crisis while you get ready.”

“If it’s Jared fighting over pop tarts again, tell him he’s lost his internet privileges for the day,” Allison called out, although, judging from the glint in Renee’s eyes, she shouldn’t have bothered; Renee was an amazing mother, was there for their ‘brood’ 24/7 and even cut back to part-time work at the local woman’s shelter so she could take care of the two youngest kids while Allison managed to balance running a successful clothing line and have enough time for her family. Still, that didn’t mean she let any of their four kids walk all over her, even if she was better with the whole ‘affection’ thing.

Allison was doing her best, was determined to not make the same mistakes which her parents had made— her and Renee were both determined to give their kids everything that had been denied them growing up, to provide a safe, stable home where their daughters and sons could achieve their dreams without censure or abuse. Some days, though, the doubts were ever present.

And some days, the doubts vanished when she walked into the kitchen to find Jared laughing as he helped Maddy with the breakfast dishes, as Renee and Ryan sang along together to a popular tune while Hailee finished the last of her cereal. Allison hummed along as she grabbed the mug of coffee waiting for her, swooping in to give Ryan a kiss on the top of his awful bedhead and going over to tousle Jared’s bleached spikes, as always torn between joy and a slight heartache at how he looked so much like a young, carefree version of Seth. A version of Seth she was determined to ensure would have the best chances in life this time around, who would avoid all of the demons which had dragged her old boyfriend down.

Maddy laughed at Jared grimacing at the gesture of affection and smiled at Allison; she was growing lovelier each day with her long black hair, dark eyes, and sun-kissed complexion. “You two almost ready?” Allison asked. She was responsible for taking them to school on her way to work; Renee would get Ryan to preschool in a little bit and Hailee to daycare for a few hours when she went to the shelter.

“Yes,” Jared and Maddy said in unison while Maddy put away the last of the dishes and Jared hurried to dry his hands. They rushed over to give Renee a kiss ‘goodbye’ before they grabbing their backpacks and the large duffel bags which held their sports gear; Jared was on the under 10 soccer team and doing well, while Maddy wanted to (so far) ‘carry on’ the family ‘tradition’ and was into Exy. Allison had to say that she was a damn good offensive dealer, and even Dan agreed.

It was an unexpected emotion, to feel so much joy and pride in what another person— a child at that— did, in their accomplishments, but there it was. Allison was doing a lot of new things these days, was in a lot of uncharted territory, and it was all because of Renee.

It wasn’t the fancy life she’d imagined— the endless parties and the expensive penthouse and a different city each week— but she was happy. She had a nice home in a gated community not far from downtown Los Angeles; she had a successful business, an amazing wife, and a wonderful family.

Not to mention her kick-ass custom pink Porsche Cayenne with a supped up v6 engine, which purred like a kitten and handled the highways (when there wasn’t too much traffic) like a champ— and always got her a few narrowed looks dropping off the kids. She made sure to give the other parents a big grin and a wave of manicured nails before she floored it out of the school zones on her way to work.

Once at the office, she got down to business, which was getting the winter collection ready for show even if it was early spring. She worked on a few new designs of her own and approved several others while her assistants, Emilio and Becca, ran around like the well-organized lunatics they were and helped her field the calls for new orders, interviews, production lines and so forth.

During lunch in her office, she took the time to chat with Renee, and spending the rest checking up on her Foxes, on seeing the pictures that Dan had posted of her kids (Abram was the spitting image of Matt while Tori and Davey were getting so big) and of Nicky and Erik’s recent vacation. The Foxes were off to a good start in the latest season, Matt’s team had just beaten Kevin’s, and of course there was nothing but cat pictures on Neil’s Instagram.

Seeing that his and Andrew’s team would be in LA in two weeks for a game, she fired off a message to the hopeless case that she expected the two of them to free up some time for dinner. She knew that Renee would be working on Andrew as well and figured it would be worth putting up with Andrew to get her Neil time for the night. She spent the rest of her break heaping more abuse on Kevin for his loss, which made her smile, especially when Nicky came online and joined in on the fun.

Then it was back to work, especially since she had to leave early for Maddy’s Exy game. For years, Allison had sneered at the term ‘soccer mom’, at the thought of the parents who had shown up all the time to the Exy games she’d played while in high school, who had cheered on her teammates and yelled at the coaches if they felt a call had been messed up— overbearing parents who pushed their kids too much, in her opinion, who lived through their kids’ accomplishments rather than their own.

Her parents had never come to one of her games, had never supported her while she played Exy. They might be coming around now that she had her own successful business and adored Renee, but she never forgave them for being unable to accept her for so many years, for letting her struggle on her own and stand without support. But that was the past, and she refused to repeat those same mistakes, to be like them.

When Maddy and Jared had come along, she’d realized that going to the games was important to them, to show them that she (and Renee) was there for them, to cheer them on and offer encouragement and support. Most days, Allison and Renee had split the games between them— to have Allison go to Maddy’s one day and Jared’s the next and then Renee switch off with her, but the kids were happy as long as someone was there to watch them play.

After all those years where Allison had struggled with Exy, had gotten by with sheer determination and spite, had put up with the bruises and abuse merely to prove everyone wrong… she wasn’t going to let Maddy down or go through it alone. She wasn’t going to let Jared feel that he didn’t have any support, that he didn’t have someone who believed in him (she never could convince Seth that he had at least one person who believed in him, dammit).

Traffic being the bitch that it was, she got to Maddy’s game right before it started, which meant that there weren’t any good seats left around the court. Allison shrugged and went to stand near the Plexiglas barrier, where she reached into her Chloe bag to pull out her phone so she could let Renee know that she’d made it to the game.

Already out on court, Maddy waved when she caught sight of her (the five inch Prada heels helped, and Allison refused to take them off after she caught a snide comment from one of the other mothers that ‘it’s not the division championship, what’s her deal?’, even if they would start to hurt like a bitch by half-time) and she settled in for the game. Allison filmed a few minutes of it so Renee could watch their daughter in action later, as always proud of the girl; it was the under-13 division so some of the kids were bigger than Maddy, had already hit their growth spurt and so could really shove the smaller kids around.

And, as always with Exy being a co-ed sport, you got some boys who seemed to think that girls had no right being out on their court. ‘Still, Maddy refused to be intimidated by them and stood her ground.

Allison and Renee had raised Maddy— all of their kids, really— to stand up for themselves, to know that they were worthy of respect and of being treated properly. Maddy had several ‘uncles’ who played Exy and believed that women had every right to be out on court, and had been taught she could do anything she wanted. She faced the challenges on court without fear and played with a sense of determination and skill which made Allison think that here was a Reynolds (well, Reynolds-Walker) who would take Exy all the way to the pros.

So when a backliner for the away team knocked her daughter down in a blatant foul that made Allison ready to rip open the door and go charging out onto the court, she forced herself to take a deep breath and remain calm. She knew how she’d have hated it if someone interfered when she’d been playing, if she thought that someone else had been fighting her battles. Pride swelled in her chest when Maddy got up on her feet and, after patting down her legs and letting the team nurse check her out for a couple of seconds, picked up her racquet to continue playing.

Except the Cougar’s latest coach indicated that he wanted Maddy off the court, when she was one of the team’s best dealers and clearly fit to play. Maddy frowned at that and tried to argue, but Coach Nichols didn’t listen and waved her off.

Allison caught her daughter’s eyes, giving her a reassuring smile. She watched from the stands as the Cougars lost to the Sea Lions 4-10, as the away team battered down their defense again and again. Maddy never got a chance to get back out onto the court, while Allison bided her time until the pathetic game was over.

Her feet aching and temper in shreds, she managed a smile when an upset Maddy came out of the locker room with her arms open for a hug. “I’m so sorry, mom. You came only to see us lose.”

“Hush, you were great out there,” Allison assured her as she held her daughter close. “You did your best, as always.” She gave her a quick kiss while she kept an eye on the doorway, and soon enough, Nichols finally came out into the parking lot.

Stalking forward to get the man’s attention before someone else could, Allison called out the bastard’s name. “Nichols? Mike Nichols?” When he gave her a curious look, she smiled, the expression poison-sweet. “I have a question about the game tonight.”

“I’m sure you do,” he said, his tone as sour as he glanced around. “Which kid is yours?”

“Maddy Reynolds-Walker, offensive dealer, number nine.” Maddy had been so happy to get Renee’s old number for her own.

“Right.” Now Nichols’ expression was as sour as his tone. “Look, kids are going to get roughed up in this game, if you don’t like that-”

“No, that’s not what this is about,” Allison said as Maddy crept up to stand beside her, as a few other parents and their kids stopped to watch the interaction. “I very well know that Exy is a contact sport.”

“Sure you do,” Nichols said in a patronizing manner as he pulled out his phone to look at it, as if he had a better way to spend his time than to listen to a ‘soccer mom’.

“You better damn well believe I do,” Allison snapped. “I’m not sure if you’re aware, but both me and my wife happened to play Exy in college. We were on the same team as a few people you may have heard of . . . Kevin Day, Neil Josten, Andrew Minyard, and Matt Boyd, to name a few.” She didn’t usually drop names like that, but she had an asshole to tear apart and a point to prove, and not much time to do it since Renee would have dinner ready for them soon.

As soon as she’d said ‘Kevin Day’, Nichols jerked his attention away from the phone to gawk at her, and his jaw had dropped when she got to ‘Andrew Minyard’. “Yes, I’m an ex-Fox, in case you don’t recognize me,” she told the bastard. “So I damn well know a few things about the game, and so does my daughter. You know, the girl who had helped to keep the team who went on to beat your team’s ass in check until you pulled her off the court for some stupid reason.”

“But… but… she’s just a gir- ah, a kid,” Nichols attempted to argue. “She was getting smacked around out there.”

Just as Allison had thought, another asshole who thought that women couldn’t handle playing Exy. “Maddy? Were you or weren’t you fine out there? Tell the truth.”

Maddy straightened up and nodded. “I had the wind knocked out of me, but I was fine to play. I know what Uncle Kevin and Aunt Dan told me about playing injured and I wasn’t hurt at all.”

There were a few twitters at the ‘Uncle Kevin’ part, and Allison noticed that a couple of other parents with young girls as players appeared very interested in the exchange with Nichols at the moment. “See? My daughter has had it drilled into her head to get off the court if she’s hurt and she told you she was fine to play, yet you ignored her. You took a player who’s a starter for a reason out of play because… well, the only thing I can think of is that you’re a chauvinistic asshole and that makes me rather unhappy,” Allison warned. “Unhappy enough that I’m sure my daughter can find a better team to play on with a coach who knows the value of his players.”

“Mom,” Maddy whined, but settled when Allison gave her The Look.

Meanwhile, Nichols shook his head. “It’s not like that, I just wanted to make sure that your kid didn’t get roughed up!”

“Yet you allowed boys her size to continue to play,” Allison pointed out, which made several parents raise their voices in agreement. “Something to consider, no?” Feeling that she’d proven her point, she motioned for Maddy that it was time to leave. “If I see you making a negative call against Maddy or another girl on this team again, we’ll find another team for my daughter to play on, one that truly is co-ed.”

A few of the parents joined in on that statement as Allison and Maddy made their way to the Porsche, where Maddy waited to say anything until they pulled out of the parking lot. “Really, Mom? Did you have to do that?” she asked with a pout as she folded her arms across her chest.

Allison didn’t respond until about a minute later, when she was certain her tone wouldn’t be snappish in any manner. “Look, I get it, I do. That probably was a bit embarrassing for you, but I’m not going to let some asshole get away with something like that, with belittling any of you kids and your skills.” She glanced over at Maddy and smiled, the expression a little sad. “Ask Aunt Dan one day about all the stuff she put up with for being the first female captain in the Class I division, but it’s not going to be pretty, those stories. I can’t fight all your battles for you, I don’t want to fight all of them because that’s what makes you stronger, but I’ll do what I can to get you to where you’re ready to go out there and kick ass yourself.”

Maddy stared at her with those full lips of hers pushed out in a pout, and then she smiled. “Okay, first? Mom would yell at you for all of that swearing, you know.”

Allison smiled in earnest at that. “Yeah, so do me a favor and keep it a secret between us, all right? Mani-pedi on Saturday?”

“Deal,” Maddy agreed in a rush. “And second?” Her expression softened. “Thank you, even if it really was a bit embarrassing.”

“Then I’m doing my job.” Allison laughed when her daughter groaned at that statement. “Just be thankful it was me here today, because your other mom would have handed that guy his spleen for treating you like a delicate little flower.” There was no way Renee would have just stood there and allowed some asshole to sideline their child like that.

Maddy groaned again as she tucked back a lock of hair, which had escaped the bright pink elastic she’d pulled it back with into a messy ponytail. “Oh no, I still remember what she did to Jared’s math teacher when she told him that he clearly didn’t grasp the subject just because he doesn’t speak up in class!”

Oh yes, that had been quite the takedown, one Allison was sorry she’d missed because she’d been in New York City at the time, but she’d heard enough from the kids to savor the way Renee had torn into woman – hell hath no fury like the truly righteous who knew how to kill you with a slip of paper. A truly righteous person who could hold their own against Andrew Minyard and Neil Josten at that.

Allison and Maddy spent the rest of the drive home talking about colors and styles for their ‘girls out’ morning on Saturday, and arrived just a little later than usual to find something delicious scenting the air in the kitchen and Jared setting the table with Ryan’s help. He dumped a handful of forks to come running over to give her a hug and brag about his win, which set off some teasing when Maddy had to admit that her team lost – but only because her coach was an idiot. Allison left them to their bickering to go give Renee a kiss.

“Hmm, how was your day?” Renee asked as she smiled up at Allison, lovely as always, dressed in faded jeans with an old Fox t-shirt with her hair pulled back from her face in a loose ponytail.

“Interesting.” Allison picked up Hailee and settled her youngest daughter on her hip, uncaring that her Lanvin silk dress would get wrinkled. “The restock of the fall collection is well on its way to selling out, I threatened to castrate the guy who’s handling— or mishandling, I should say— the production of our coats for the winter collection and I think he liked it a little too much,” Renee laughed at that, “and I gave a verbal beatdown to Maddy’s coach because he seems to think girls are too breakable for Exy, of all things.” She rolled her eyes at that as she bounced Hailee up and down, making her daughter laugh and grab at the long gold necklace she wore.

“Hmm.” A blank look came over Renee’s face for a moment as she stirred some more paprika into what looked to be some sort of goulash. “Well, I helped Laura sign the paperwork for her new apartment,” she said, which made her smile – Allison knew that helping the women move into a new home was one of Renee’s favorite aspects of her job – “assisted a few others with filling out some resumes and agreed that we’d co-chair a fund raiser next month.” Now her expression turned a bit rueful. “I hope you don’t mind.”

“You know I love to throw parties, and it’s a welcome change from kids’ birthdays,” Allison said as she held Hailee up above her head. “Someone didn’t want black tie for their second birthday, you heathen.”

“Black tie!” Hailee cried out with evident glee. “Higher, Mommy!”

Allison gave her a gentle toss a couple of times before she set her down on the floor, where Hailee went stumbling off toward Maddy, laughing all the while. Renee watched on with a tender smile curving her lips before she turned toward Allison, her expression suddenly much more intent.

“So . . . Maddy’s next game is Thursday.”

“Yes, I believe so,” Allison agreed as she picked up a spoon so she could taste the goulash. “Oh, that’s good.”

Renee gave her wrist a gentle swat. “It’ll be done in five minutes, you can wait that long. I was going to take Ryan to the dentist that afternoon, but I want you to swap with me.” It was clear that it wasn’t a request.

Since Allison very well knew why the love of her life wanted to switch things around, she smiled as she leaned in close. “I’ll do it for a kiss, and if you promise to tell me all the gruesome details.”

“You’ve got yourself a deal.” Renee rocked up onto her toes to seal the agreement, while Jared complained that he was hungry so no more kissy stuff and Ryan ran over to hug them both, his short arms barely fitting around their hips.

They broke off the kiss with a laugh, Allison almost dizzy with joy as she held them against her close.

#tfcfansgive #cabeswaterlovesthem #tfc #aftg #renison #hope i didn't mess this up too much #gift fic #don't mess with allison #definitely don't mess with renee #it's a bit fluffy

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talesfromsomeday · 7 years

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A.Z - Blood Moon

Read on AO3 Title: Blood Moon Fandom: Aldnoah.Zero | Pairing: OrangeBat/Inasure (Unspecified) Rating: G | Warnings: None | Genres: Retrospective, Revisiting Summary: [ POST-CANON! Spoilers up to the end of the series! ] Slaine wakes up in the middle of the night to find that Inaho has, without any prior warning, arranged to have him taken out of prison for a few hours to view a lunar eclipse. Author’s Notes: I actually started this fic a long time ago, after the end of the first season. There was a total lunar eclipse in October of that year, and I was inspired to write this because of that. However, as my rotten luck would have it, the Moon was completely obscured by clouds for the duration of the eclipse, and in my disappointment and annoyance, I never finished this fic. Flash forward to this year; I just finished my rewatch of A.Z recently, and I decided to rework this idea as a post-canon fic. It's honestly much better this way, in my opinion. Anyway, there's your brief history of this fic. I hope you enjoy it! *************************************// Years of reflex kicked in when Slaine awoke to the squeaking sound of his cell door opening, and he was up and in a defensive stance before he could even think. His heart hammered in his chest with the newly supplied adrenaline. The guard, midway through the action of opening the door, froze in place, obviously startled. Slaine watched as he took a deep breath through his nose. “It’s alright,” the guard finally said. “There’s no danger.” Slaine wasn’t inclined to believe him, especially given that he recognized this guard as belonging to the night shift, but he allowed himself to relax a fraction.

“What’s going on, then?” He asked suspiciously. “He said he wanted to tell you himself…” Slaine’s arms finally dropped back to his sides at that. “Kaizuka Inaho,” he said, more a statement than a question. “Y-yes.” The guard signaled behind him, and another guard stepped forward. “We’re taking you out,” he said. Slaine sighed, but stepped forward and held his arms out tiredly. The second guard latched the familiar cuffs onto his wrists, and he was led out of his cell, through the narrow hallway that bore the only open window. Slaine looked out as he passed, as he always did, and just as he thought, it was the middle of the night. Something about the view seemed off, though… He didn’t have enough time to think about it before he was carefully urged on by the guards behind him. He obediently continued on his way down the hallway and into the awful glass room that he was accustomed to visiting far too frequently, but to his surprise, he wasn’t escorted to the table in the center as usual. The guards continued to usher him through the room to the opposite door, where he was temporarily stopped as they undid the heavy lock. Once the door was open, he was escorted through it and into a dimly lit corridor beyond. Too busy looking at the unfamiliar walls, he didn’t notice Inaho standing in the darkness until he had nearly walked into him. But what was he holding…? “Where are you taking me?” He finally thought to ask as the guards unlocked his handcuffs. “What is—?” He cut himself off as he finally figured out what was in Inaho’s hands, and he stared at it for long enough that he finally prompted Inaho to speak. “It’s cold outside, please, put it on,” he said, urging the heavy coat in his hands towards Slaine. It was held out as though Inaho planned to put it on him himself, and that combined with everything else strange about the situation made Slaine continue standing there staring, not moving a muscle. “Slaine.” He started at the sound of his name. “O-outside?” He stuttered. “Yes, we’re going out. It’s cold.” The coat was once again moved towards him, and finally, Slaine shuffled forward and slipped his arms through the thick sleeves. Inaho pulled the coat properly up and settled it on his shoulders, and Slaine, uncomfortable with his back to the man, turned to face him again. He looked questioningly at the extra stripe on Inaho’s sleeves, but if the man noticed his obvious curiosity, he didn’t make any remarks about it. He nodded towards the guards behind Slaine, and the handcuffs were quickly put back on. “Let’s go.” Inaho turned towards the door. One of the guards standing near it undid the bolts and latches while the other handed Inaho a bundle of something. Slaine didn’t have much time to wonder about what it might be before the door was pulled open, frigid air blasting through the opening and shocking his skin. Inaho stepped through the door, motioning Slaine to follow after. He stepped slowly after Inaho, eyes immediately searching across the landscape, across the open sky, disbelief coloring his features. He didn’t realize he’d stopped until Inaho stopped too, motioning for him to follow again. Slaine hurried to catch up. “T-the guards aren’t going to follow us...?” Slaine wondered aloud, momentarily distracted again by the bright stars. He hadn’t properly seen this open sky in more than two years, and now that he could, it seemed even more ethereal and otherworldly than it ever had. “Not this time,” Inaho answered. “I managed to get permission from my superiors to take you out alone tonight, but the handcuffs, unfortunately, were something I could not persuade them out of.” “Why are you taking me out?” Slaine asked suspiciously, still following as Inaho led him towards a bench that was slowly coming into view. “There is something I wanted you to see.” They finally reached the bench, and Inaho stopped to turn back towards him, tipping his head to indicate Slaine should sit. He did as he was asked, perching on the cold edge of the bench, and Inaho sat down to his left, uncomfortably close. “Sorry,” he said when Slaine gave him a displeased look. He started to unfold the bundle he had been given. “The blanket is not very big.” He shook it out in one big motion, then settled it over their laps. Slaine wanted to protest about sharing a blanket with Inaho, but he found he was too happy for the extra warmth to say anything. Inaho was right, it was very cold. Slaine turned his eyes away from Inaho to look up at the sky. Something still seemed off, and as his eyes adjusted further and he finally found the larger fragments of the Moon, he realized why. They were dark. Not like a new moon, but still dark, and Slaine turned his eyes back towards Inaho with the unspoken question. “There’s a lunar eclipse tonight,” Inaho explained. “I wanted to take you out before the penumbra passed over it, but I was not allowed enough time to view the whole event. I apologize.” “It’s fine,” Slaine said distractedly. “Why didn’t you say something about it before waking me up in the middle of the night?” “I thought you might refuse if I suggested it ahead of time.” “Why would I turn down a chance to go outside?” Inaho shrugged. “I was under the impression that you hated me,” he said, eye level and betraying nothing. Slaine was taken aback for a moment, but he quickly recovered. “Well, you would be right about that,” he said, and even to his own ears, it didn’t sound quite genuine. For a split second, when his eyes turned to meet Inaho’s again, he could swear he saw a tiny smile, but the man turned away before he could be sure. “Aren’t you worried I’ll try and run?” “I don’t think you will. But even if you do, you haven’t been able to properly exercise for quite awhile, and I am certain that I would be able to catch you.” “Fair enough,” Slaine begrudgingly admitted. “We will be out here for a few hours,” Inaho said. “If you get too cold, please tell me.” “What would be the point? Were you planning to cuddle for warmth?” Inaho looked at him, and Slaine could tell that’s exactly what he had planned. “No, no way.” Inaho frowned. “Why not?” “It’s uncomfortable enough just sharing the blanket,” Slaine said sharply. “It’s only practical to share body heat when temperatures are—” “Yeah, yeah, I got it. I’d rather freeze, Kaizuka Inaho.” “…suit yourself,” Inaho finally said. “So when is the actual eclipse going to start?” Slaine prompted, gazing at the darkened moon fragments. “The umbra will begin passing over within the next few minutes. Most of the large fragments in the area of the penumbra will be in total eclipse, and those surrounding will be in partial.” Silence stretched between them as Slaine stared up at the sky, embracing the strange feeling of being able to really look at it, like he hadn’t been able to do so long. “Do you know why lunar eclipses appear red?” Inaho finally asked. “I don’t,” Slaine said. “It’s the same reason why the sky appears blue.” “Ah, Rayleigh scattering, you’ve told me,” Slaine said, a hint of annoyance appearing in his tone at the memory. “Yes, exactly. When sunlight enters Earth’s atmosphere, it encounters molecules and particles which scatter it. The amount of scattering is inversely proportional to the wavelength of the light, and since the violet side of the spectrum has shorter wavelengths, they scatter more readily, creating the blue color of the sky. The Sun, by contrast, appears orange, because the red end of the spectrum has longer wavelengths, and does not scatter as much.” “Yes, you’ve told me—” “However,” Inaho continued. “When the Sun is setting, it is closer to the horizon, and its light must travel a longer path and pass through more atmosphere to reach our eyes. Therefore, most of the shorter wavelengths of light are scattered through the atmosphere as they travel, and only the longer wavelengths manage to reach through to our eyes, creating a red and orange sky.” He paused, seeming to be making sure Slaine understood before he continued. “In a lunar eclipse, the Earth moves directly between the Sun and the Moon, casting a shadow onto the Moon. The Moon would appear completely dark if Earth did not have an atmosphere; however, because Earth does have an atmosphere, it refracts the light from the Sun behind it, which causes it to land on the Moon. And because that light passes through the denser atmosphere, just as it does during the sunset, it causes the Moon to appear red, creating the so-called ‘blood moon’ of a lunar eclipse.” His explanation complete, Inaho finally fell silent. The seconds stretched on before Slaine finally decided to speak. “Did you bring me out here just to lecture me about science? Because you could’ve done that inside, too. Or better yet, you could not do it at all!” “I merely thought you would want to know what exactly you were viewing.” “Don’t you think it takes away from the majesty of it all, though?” Slaine asked, slightly exasperated. “No, I don’t think so,” Inaho said frankly. “To me, knowing all that goes into creating the phenomena only makes it more incredible.” Slaine was startled by the strangely revering tone. “I have seen Earth from space, I have stood on the scattered fragments of the Moon… but nothing can dull the sense of scale that comes from knowing these things.” Slaine wasn’t exactly sure how to respond to that, and the thought of being in space still ignited a sense of terrible anxiety in him, but he couldn’t help but begrudgingly agree. That objects as large as stars and planets could move and create this phenomena… it made him feel exactly how tiny and insignificant he was, and there was an odd sense of comfort in the feeling as he gazed up at the fragments of the Moon, which were ever so slowly becoming red. “Maybe you’re right,” he finally whispered, and the silence descended back on the two of them for a long time. It wasn’t uncomfortable, but Slaine was still very aware of Inaho sitting beside him, staring up at the same sky that he himself couldn’t take his eyes off of. After the largest fragments of the Moon had finally turned a deep, bloody red, Slaine decided to break the silence again. “Why did you really bring me out here?” He saw Inaho look at him out of the corner of his vision. “I told you, I wanted you to see—” Slaine turned to look at him directly in the eye. “Even if that’s true, you never do anything without ulterior motives.” That seemed to make Inaho pause. He turned back towards the sky, Slaine watching his profile carefully. “Do you know why it is called a ‘blood moon?’” “This isn’t the time for more lessons—” “Answer the question, please.” “…I suppose it’s just because it’s red?” Slaine ultimately relented. “That is true, but it’s more than that. Since ancient times, the blood moon has been considered an omen of many things, by many different cultures. Generally a bad omen, but occasionally a good one. For example, many cultures believed that some type of beast had swallowed the Moon, and that it may devour them too unless they scared it away.” Inaho paused, turning back towards Slaine. “They believed this, and so they did what they had to do to restore their Moon in the sky.” “And…?” Slaine finally prompted when Inaho just stared at him for several long moments. “Even if the Moon is swallowed, even if it becomes the victim of a beast, or an evil omen, or a sacrifice, or anything else… even if it becomes all of those things, in the end, the Moon always can be saved, and it always is, even if it’s difficult or takes some time. The blood passes away from it, the shadow passes as well, and eventually, its light is restored, just as bright as it once was.” Slaine stared at Inaho, dumbfounded and unsure if he dared believe what he thought Inaho might be implying. Inaho stared back, unblinking and betraying not a single hint. “What are you…?” Slaine vaguely questioned, unsure what exactly to ask. Inaho finally relented, his eye flicking way from Slaine’s face. “I’m not good with metaphors,” he said carefully. “And there are certain things that I am prohibited from telling you, but… I hope that you understand what I’m trying to say.” With that, he turned back to looking at the scattered fragments of the Moon. Slaine stared at his profile for a moment longer before he turned back as well. “Maybe the blood moon gets to be saved, but there’s no going back for the Moon that’s been shattered, right?” He laughed bitterly to himself, and Inaho said nothing. “Still… I think… I think I understand. Thank you.” Inaho nodded once in acknowledgement of the rare gratitude. Slaine gazed at the reddened Moon, fingers twisting in the blanket over his lap. He didn’t know what to do with the information that Inaho had presumably given him. He was scared, terrified really, that any glimmer of hope handed down to him would only result in more suffering, like it always had. Yet, somehow, looking at the bloody Moon and feeling Inaho’s still form beside him, he felt he might just have the strength to allow himself to believe in a small hope again. It wasn’t much to hold onto, but it was something, and it was certainly more than he had had to hold onto for years. Maybe that was all he really needed right now.

#aldnoah.zero #aldnoah zero #a.z #az #orangebat #inasure #kaizuka inaho #slaine troyard #slaine saazbaum troyard

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trendingnewsb · 6 years

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Glenn Close: You lose power if you get angry

From vengeful mistress to Agatha Christie matriarch: the actor talks about Harvey Weinstein, mental illness and growing up in a cult

Glenn Close and I sit at the corner of a large boardroom table in an intimidatingly minimalist office on the 14th floor of a Los Angeles talent agency. Its the kind of environment in which Patty Hewes, the ruthless lawyer Close played in Damages for five seasons, would feel at home and Im almost waiting for her to stand up, slam both hands on the table and shout, Ill rip your face off or any of the other terrifying put-downs that defined her double Emmy award-winning performance.

But Close is in high spirits and radiates such warmth I barely notice the chill from the tower blocks air-con. After we fiddle with the settings on our swivel chairs, which are so high they make anyone under six foot kick their legs like a child on a swing, the 70-year-old, six-time Oscar nominee and star of stage, television and film starts telling me about her dreams. I have had a lot recently, full of this wonderful love for a younger man. The dreams just keep coming and I wake up thinking, that was wonderful! It wasnt necessarily us doing the sexual act, just the feeling of love.

With her white hair cut to a sharp crop, and wearing a relaxed navy blazer, chinos and black scarf on account of the arctic corporate temperature, she looks stylish and fit. I have never felt better in my life, and I am, like, 70, she says. Im really a late bloomer.

She says she feels a disconnect between how she sees herself and how people may view me when I walk down the street, like: Theres an old lady. You know, there is now this cult of the model. Everyone on the red carpet is made into a model. That is very hard to not play into I have a bit of podge I am trying to get rid of, but its hard. I just think, Oh fuck, Ive been doing this my whole life! But the irony is, you just get better and better with age. You dont feel less alive or less sexy.

In Agatha Christies Crooked House. Photograph: Nick Wall

We are here to talk about Crooked House, the Agatha Christie adaptation debuting on Channel 5, before its theatrical release, in which Close plays Lady Edith, a matriarch of a very dysfunctional family. Close says, Christies grandson came to the set and he validated the fact that it was her favourite book, and the one that had never been adapted. He said when she handed it to the publisher, she was told she had to change the ending, because it was too upsetting and controversial. She refused. Its still pretty controversial.

This production, co-written by Julian Fellowes, might not be as spendy as Kenneth Branaghs $55m Murder On The Orient Express, but the ensemble cast is equally starry: joining Close are Gillian Anderson, Max Irons, Terence Stamp and Christina Hendricks. Close presides over her co-stars with gravitas and grace, in an understated performance that finds the humour in an otherwise bleak setup. But youd expect nothing less from the actor whose 40 years in the business started with star turns in Broadway productions (she won a Best Actress Tony in 1983 for Tom Stoppards The Real Thing). Her first film role, at the age of 35, was with Robin Williams in The World According To Garp, for which she received an Oscar nomination as she did for her supporting roles in The Big Chill and The Natural. Her performances in Fatal Attraction, Dangerous Liaisons and Albert Nobbs, about the life of a transgender butler in late 19th century Ireland, which she also co-wrote, racked up further Oscar nominations but still no win. This is seen by many as a travesty: Close brings a precision to her film work, honed through her years on stage. She has that rare taut quality Jack Nicholson also has it where you believe that beneath the steely control she is capable of snapping at any moment.

It was this that led Andrew Lloyd Webber to cast her in 1993 as the tragic silent movie star Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard on Broadway. Close reprised the role 23 years later, getting her old costumes out of storage (she has kept all her costumes and recently donated the collection to a university in Indiana) for its revival in Londons West End.

As Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction: Clearly she had mental health issues. Photograph: Rex/Shutterstock

But it was her Oscar-nominated turn as Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction in 1987 that proved career-defining. Thirty years on, Close still counts Forrest as the character of whom she feels most fond; she has admitted to fighting tooth and nail against the films eventual denouement, which turned the character into a bunny-boiling psychopath and Close into the casting directors go-to woman on the verge for years afterwards. Now we have the vocabulary to talk about these things, clearly she had mental health issues, she says.

Close sits regally still as she speaks, emphasising her points by leaning forward and locking eyes. Shes comfortable with silences and often takes a theatrical beat or two before answering questions. Shes all poise and control, but does she ever lose her temper?

I express my feelings quietly. I am not afraid of confrontation, but I am not particularly good at it. If I get attacked, I am not good at attacking back. There is fight, flight and freeze and I tend to freeze. That is not a strength of mine. I love the fact that my daughter Annie [Starke, an actor] is more of a fighter than I am. She doesnt let people get away with shit. While she agrees that women have a harder time being angry, publicly, than men, she says, I have played a lot of characters, and actually anger makes you lose power. Patty Hewes [in Damages] she hardly ever lost her temper, but when she did, it was very specific. I have always felt you lose power if you get that angry.

The collective outpouring of anger among women in Hollywood right now is something of which Close is acutely aware. She says that sexism in the industry has shifted more slowly than it should have done throughout her career: It took Harvey Weinstein and someone calling him out [for real change to happen]. I know Harvey, and he has never done that to me, but people would say he was a pig. I never knew that it was that bad and I dont personally know anybody who has endured that. I would like to think that I would have done something about it.

We discuss whether its possible to separate the work from the personalities involved in it. News has just broken that House Of Cards will be back for another series without Kevin Spacey, after it was originally canned because of harassment claims brought against its leading man. Close wraps her scarf around her chest and fixes me with her electric eyes. Artists, to make a huge generality, walk on a very thin line. Sometimes, like my beloved friend Robin Williams, who was one step away from madness, whatever makes them a great artist also makes them very complicated human beings. Again, that doesnt mean they can prey on and abuse people.

With Harvey Weinstein in 2013. Photograph: Mike Coppola/Getty Images

At the root of the problem of sexism in Hollywood right now is, Close says, biology. I think the way men have treated women, from the beginning of time, is because they have different brains to women. So I am not surprised by it at all. I say to a guy, Tell me the truth, if you see a woman walk into a room, what is the first thought that goes through your head? His answer, always, is, Would I fuck her? It doesnt mean they act on it. If you can evolve into a society where men know that they should not always act on it then there has been a positive revolution. But you cant just say that theyre not going to have the thought that is ridiculous. It also has to be the women, who are not powerful, to be OK to say no and leave the room. I think its unrealistic to say were going to change but we have to evolve.

I ask Close who she thinks is a great man today. She is silent, thinking, for what feels like a full 60 seconds in which I am so tempted to throw out some options: Barack Obama, the Pope, the friendly security guard on reception who let us in

Nelson Mandela, is her final answer, but Im not sure shes convinced. I guess for me, she says, greatness is taking your humanity and still doing the good thing. Its sad to say that there are very few men, who are leaders, who have some sort of moral code that they dont deviate from because of popular opinion.

She thinks we are undergoing a crisis of masculinity: In the public mind, yes. I was outraged when I heard that there was a war against men I was like, are you joking? What do you think has been happening against women for centuries?

Close knows all too well about the misuse of power, because her own upbringing was, as she puts it, complicated. When she was seven, her parents joined a cult. Moral Re-Armament or MRA was a modern, nondenominational movement founded by an American evangelical fundamentalist which extolled the four absolutes: honesty, purity, unselfishness and love. Her father, a physician working in the Congo, sent Close with her brother and two sisters from the family home in Greenwich, Connecticut, to live at the MRA HQ in Caux, Switzerland (Closes mother, Bettine, was a socialite).

She is vague on the details but clear on the impact this experience had on her as a teenager: I was repressed, clueless and guilt-ridden. The timeline is patchy, but Close travelled with MRA in the 60s as a member of their musical groups, and spent time back in Connecticut at an elite boarding school. I had a wonderful time at Rosemary Hall, a girls school, she says. I was in a renegade singing group called the Fingernails: A Group With Polish. But she remained, as she calls it clueless. A lot of my friends knew boys youd have these horrendous dances with boys schools and they would get the guys they wanted and I would just stay with the person I was with.

As Patty Hewes in Damages. Photograph: Rex/Shutterstock

She was briefly married before going to university. It is a complicated story for me. I was married before college, and kind of in an arranged marriage when you look back on it, and my marriage broke up when I went to college, as it should have. I was 22. But my liberal arts school had a wonderful theatre that was my training, my acting school.

Was that where she finally learned about sex, popular culture, the ways of the world? Not really, she says. I still am learning.

Close has two sisters, Tina the eldest, and Jessie her younger sister; and two brothers, Alexander, and Tambu Misoki, who was adopted by Closes parents while living in Africa. At the age of 50, Jessie spent time in a psychiatric hospital and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, a weight that had been hanging over the family, undiscussed, for years. Talking about mental illness just wasnt done, Close says. You dont have a vocabulary for it and youre also very aware of appearances. You dont want to appear a crazy family.

In 2010 Close founded Bring Change to Mind, a charity that aims to end the stigma around mental illness by talking openly about it and its effect on families. It was my nephew who was first diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder. This is basically schizophrenia with an ingredient of bipolar. And when that happened, it was like, What? My sister Jessie, his mother, didnt know what was wrong. He went to the hospital for two years and that saved his life. Then Jessie was, finally, correctly diagnosed herself.

With sister Jessie in 2009. Photograph: Getty Images

Close felt a duty to her family to give them a high-profile person who is not afraid to talk about it publicly. It affects the whole family. We always knew my grandmother and mother had depression my sister does, I do to a certain extent. But I didnt know my great-uncle had schizophrenia. I knew my half-uncle died by suicide. There was a lot of alcoholism addiction, self-medication. Nobody ever talked about it. I knew my grandmother was depressed, but at first I thought she lived in a hotel, not a hospital, because she always said how good the food was.

Close says she and her siblings are of one mind politically, but admits she does have members of her family who voted for Trump. I tried to understand that. Theyre not crazy people who have been brainwashed by Fox News, but I try to understand the anger, because I think that has been building up ever since Watergate. It was watching that scandal unfold that made her realise Americans have always been naive, we just take for granted what we have, and we always thought of our leaders as good people. With Watergate, people became cynical about government.

Today, she says, Washington is a bunch of self-serving She searches for an expletive and after a second settles on men. She says, Its hard to believe that people are so out for themselves. It goes against what you would like to believe about your country. I feel eloquence is incredibly important for a leader, and we had that with Barack Obama, who made his initial impact because he gave that incredibly eloquent speech, but he lost his eloquence in his presidency. We always need someone to say, I hear you, someone who can put their words into unity and hope and we dont have that. I think the last person may have been Robert Kennedy.

And now you have Trump tweeting nonsense.

Its devastating. Social networks are now like our nervous system, and if you keep pumping that kind of crap into the nervous system, it is going to have an effect on a population.

With Kevin Kline in The Big Chill. Photograph: Rex/Shutterstock

Close doesnt talk politics with her friends because she doesnt really have many friends. I have always forced myself into situations I am not comfortable in. I am an introvert, and I was painfully shy as a child. I think I still have a big dollop of that in my persona. I read a book called Quiet: The Power Of Introverts In A World That Cant Stop Talking and it was a real comfort to me I realised I was that person I had always been. And it was at that point I told myself to stop pushing myself into situations that I dont enjoy. I dread cocktail parties.

She tells me shes pretty reclusive and can count her closest friends on two fingers. I ask if shes still good friends with Meryl Streep.

I have never been close friends with Meryl. We have huge respect for each other, but I have only done one thing with her, The House Of The Spirits.

I apologise for assuming they were pals, being of a similar age and stature in Hollywood, and admit this negates my next question: Who would win in an arm wrestle, you or Meryl?

Close laughs. Oh, I would, because I am very strong.

***

The tightest bond Close has is with her only daughter Annie, 29. Annies father is the film producer John Starke whom Close dated for four years from 1987, but never married. Annie was never a door-slamming, difficult teenager. Close tells me: When my Annie was three, she looked at me, and said, I want you. I knew what she meant. I, at the time, was a single working parent, sometimes even when I was home, working or producing something, I was there and not there.

With daughter Annie Starke in 2010. Photograph: Rex/Shutterstock

She doesnt think its any easier for working mothers today and acknowledges, I had it easy because I could afford to have help think of the women who cant afford it and have to put their child in some shaky childcare centre. No, I think it is incredibly hard for women. Any person, in any profession, feels that tug [of guilt]. We discuss the intimacy of the single-parent, only-child bond. Once, I went to vacuum Annies car seat as we were moving house, and a lot of life had happened there, so I was crying. She said, Mummy, are you OK? I said, Yeah, Im OK. And she said, Here I am.

She was married to businessman James Marlas from 1984 to 1987 and then, following other relationships, including that with Starke, she married again, in 2006, to venture capitalist David Evans Shaw, divorcing him nine years later.

Would she marry again?

I dont know.

Does she think marriage is important?

I think it is a positive evolutionary component that we are better with a partner. I think to have a partner that you can go through life with, creating a history with, that you can find a comfort with, have children with there is nothing better. This is an opinion I have come to very late in life, at an ironic moment, where I dont have any of that. I dont know if I will again. But I do think its a basic human need to be connected.

Despite this, shes happy on her own right now. This is a good time in life. I do think, what would it be like to have a partner again? But it would have to be very different from what I had before. Then I have that great dream and wake up happy.

Crooked House is on Channel 5 at 9pm on 17 December.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/dec/16/glenn-close-harvey-weinstein-mental-illness-cult-fatal-attraction

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