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thecreaturecodex · 1 year

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Agathion, Ophinal

"Snek" © Cindy Avelino, accessed at her ArtStation here

[The name "agathion" for Pathfinder's NG outsiders is derived from "agatho daemon", or the "fortunate spirits" of classical Greece. The agathodaemon, sometimes named Tycho, was popular in Ptolemaic Egypt, particularly in Alexandria. Which is why, for a venomous snake-based agathion, I feel comfortable slotting it into Africa for the World Tour project. For more information about snake veneration in the Greek world, Drakon by Daniel Ogden is an excellent book, and was the inspiration for this entry.]

Agathion, Ophidinal

CR 4 NG Outsider

This creature appears as a snake with a human torso and arms. Its scales are colorful, and its expression beatific.

An ophidinal is an agathion devoted to healing above all other arts. They serve heavenly forces and mortal temples alike as doctors, able to patch injuries, treat longer term ailments and expel most mundane and some magical afflictions with magic. Although their aspect resembles that of venomous snakes, they are actually anti-venomous; a creature bitten by an ophidinal has the toxins purged from its body, and any natural poisons it secretes temporarily suppressed.

Ophidinals dislike combat, and rarely choose to fight. They can defend themselves with teeth and claws if they must, but would prefer to heal than to harm. They are usually mobile on the battlefield, casting a sanctuary spell on themselves and then moving between allies to grant them support. In addition to healing, their touch can bring with it good fortune. An ophidinal will happily lay down its life to protect goodly allies.

Unlike many agathions, which eschew civilization for wilder spaces, ophidinals are comfortable in buildings and cities. There are many hazards that urban populations have to deal with—hunger, disease, crime—and ophidinals work to minimize these impacts on common folk. An ophidinal is especially good at dealing with pests. Insects and rodents are often eaten as snacks, and venomous serpents are bitten to suppress their venom and then encouraged to take up residence elsewhere. Ophidinals are suitable for calling with lesser planar ally to act as a source of healing, and their prices for such services are typically taken in healing items magical and mundane, or simply blankets and digestible food to make the lives of the sick more comfortable.

An ophidinal is about eight feet long, but come up to about four foot high when posed upright. Some have hoods, eyelash scales, colored stripes, or other markers of particular species of venomous snake, sometimes mixed and matched in ways unseen in nature.

Ophidinal CR 4

XP 1,200

NG Medium outsider (agathion, extraplanar, good)

Init +4; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, Perception +13, scent, tremorsense 30 ft.

Defense

AC 18, touch 14, flat-footed 14 (+4 Dex, +4 natural)

hp 42 (5d10+15)

Fort +7, Ref +7, Will +7; +4 vs. poison

DR 5/evil; Immune electricity, petrifaction; Resist cold 10, sonic 10; SR 15

Offense

Speed 20 ft., climb 20 ft., swim 20 ft.

Melee bite +5 (1d4 plus antivenom), 2 claws +5 (1d3)

Spell-like Abilities CL 5th, concentration +7 (+11 casting defensively)

At will—detect poison, diagnose disease, sanctuary (DC 13), stabilize

3/day—cure moderate wounds, lesser restoration, protection from evil (DC 13), remove paralysis, remove sickness

1/day—remove blindness/deafness, remove curse, remove disease

Statistics

Str 10, Dex 19, Con 16, Int 13, Wis 16, Cha 15

Base Atk +5; CMB +5; CMD 19

Feats Alertness, Combat Casting, Lightning Reflexes

Skills Climb +12, Diplomacy +10, Heal +11, Knowledge (nature, planes) +9, Perception +13, Sense Motive +13, Stealth +12, Swim +12; Racial Modifiers uses Dexterity for Climb and Swim

Languages Celestial, Draconic, Infernal, speak with animals, truespeech

SQ bit of luck (6/day), healing ritual, lay on hands (5/day, 2d6), undersized weapons (small)

Ecology

Environment any land or urban (Nirvana)

Organization solitary, pair or clinic (3-6)

Treasure standard (healer’s kit, other treasure)

Special Abilities

Antivenom (Su) A creature bitten by an ophidinal automatically has any poison affecting it removed, as per a neutralize poison spell. A creature with a poison special attack that is bitten must succeed a DC 14 Will save or lose the ability to use its poison for one day per HD of the ophidinal (5 days for the average specimen). The save DC is Charisma based.

Bit of Luck (Su) An ophidinal can touch a willing creature as a standard action, giving it a bit of luck. For the next round, any time the target rolls a d20, he may roll twice and take the more favorable result. An ophidinal can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + its Wisdom modifier (6/day for a typical specimen).

Healing Ritual (Ex) By increasing the casting time for any of its spell-like abilities with the healing subschool to one minute, an ophidinal can grant itself a +4 bonus to its caster level for the purposes of the spell’s effect.

#ophidinal #agathion #pathfinder 1e #world tour #agathodaemon #greek mythology #ptolemaic #alexandria

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tabsters · 4 months

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SOMEONE LIKE ME (CHAP. 12) - A STARGLASS ZODIAC X ZODIAC EXPERIMENT CROSSOVER

heehoo another chapter

previous chapter is here

next chapter is here

masterpost is here

tagging @mythicalmagical-monkeyman @hyperfixation-tangentopia @maiawhimsicalt @sweet-star-cookie

"Sagittarius and Cancer should be in the forge at this time," Scutum said, opening an enormous set of double doors to a large building. It had tall, imposing walls of stone brick, and as soon as the doors opened, a wave of heat washed over Ciara.

"Cancer! Sagittarius!" Scutum shouted as they entered the forge. Armor racks fitted with various helmets and breastplates lined one side of the room. On the other side, swords and other blades rested on weapon racks. In the center, Sagittarius was pounding upon an anvil with a hammer. Cancer was watching him intently.

Sagittarius glanced towards Ciara, nodding in acknowledgement before returning to his work. "Be with you in a bit."

"Hello!" Cancer said, turning towards Ciara and Scutum. "Our newest visitor, eh? Nice to actually meet you!"

"Hi," Ciara said, craning her neck to look up at Cancer. A small creature—a two headed serpent?—sat on her shoulder. Cancer noticed Ciara's stares, and brought her hand to her shoulder, the creature hopping into it.

"This is Hydra," She said, bringing the tiny thing closer to Ciara. Its two heads chirruped in unison, sounding like some kind of Pokemon character.

"That's...Hydra?" Ciara asked. "I—I mean no disrespect, of course, but the Hydra in my world is, well...bigger."

Cancer chuckled as Hydra hopped around on her palm. "That's what many people expect of these two—a big, threatening monster. But in reality, they're just small and harmless."

Hydra's two heads squeaked in annoyance, and Cancer went back on her words. "My mistake. They're just small and mostly harmless, unless provoked. Isn't that right?"

One head nodded in agreement, and the other grinned in satisfaction. Ciara giggled. "They're cute! Way cuter than my own Hydra."

"What is Hydra like in your world?" Cancer asked, returning Hydra to her shoulder. Hydra promptly began crawling and climbing up Cancer's sandy blonde hair, onto her head.

Ciara thought back to her Hydra. They hadn't spoken in a while—Hydra used to be one of her best sparring partners but after the drama with Eclipse's capture, they never got around to meeting together.

"Uh...she's got blue hair. Her hair is also a shitload of snakes, like Medusa, I guess. She used to be my sparring partner but we sort of stopped talking. She's the sister of my own Pisces, and she's pretty chill."

Cancer nodded. "I see. And, if I might ask, what am I like?"

Ciara hesitated at this. Cancer was basically her father figure, and she cared for him tremendously. He was kind, and sweet, and he had so much love inside his heart. How to describe someone like him?

"Cancer's basically my dad. He's awesome. Although he doesn't make armor or weapons like you—that's actually Virgo's job. He's one of the best healers in our Astral Plane because his tears have healing properties."

Cancer nodded in understanding. "How interesting."

"I'm finished," Sagittarius announced, hefting the weapon he had finished working on over his shoulder. When he talked, he spoke with a strong accent—Scottish, maybe? "Ah, how nice, our visitor's here. A pleasure to meet you." He held out his free hand to Ciara, which was covered with scars and calluses. "I'm Sagittarius, but perhaps you knew that already."

Ciara shook it, staring at the weapon he was carrying. It looked like some sort of battle-axe, and its blades curved upward. It vaguely resembled the glyph of the Taurus Zodiac.

Sagittarius noticed her gaze, turning the axe so it lay in both his hands. "A fine piece of work, isn't it? It belongs to Taurus. She's always breaking her weapons, constantly needing repairs."

Ciara nodded. "My Aries has an axe similar to that. It's huge."

"So you also have an interest in weaponry?" Sagittarius chuckled. "You've a small look about you, but I imagine you're quite strong."

"I actually helped to make this sword," Ciara said, unsheathing her own sword. "I did the stuff with the anvil like you—well, Virgo did the majority of the stuff. But I helped enchant it too."

Sagittarius stroked his long, bushy beard. "Fascinating. Would you mind if I took a closer look?"

Ciara held out the sword, and Sagittarius gently picked it up, observing the blade's shine, the glyphs etched into the metal, and the build of the hilt.

"Very fine craftsmanship," Sagittarius said, turning it round and round. "These glyphs, what do they mean?"

"Oh, those?" Ciara bent forward, pointing to each glyph. "They're what gives the sword the ability to perform elemental magic. But they only respond to me, and half the time they don't even work properly."

"And these smaller carvings near the hilt?"

"My sword's name. In my Astral Plane, it's typical to name your sword once you take ownership of it. She's called Godhunter."

Sagittarius handed the sword back, and Ciara sheathed it. "Very interesting indeed. Thank you for letting me look at it."

"Sagittarius, sir!" A new voice shouted from the front. Ciara turned, and there was a boy struggling to open the heavy doors. He had dark, curly brown hair, dark skin speckled with patches of lighter skin, and was holding several swords in his arms. "A—a little help, if you wouldn't mind?"

"Right away." Sagittarius quickly ran over to hold the door open, letting the boy walk in. It was then Ciara noticed that the boy had four legs—he was a centaur like Sagittarius. However, he had horse legs instead of bear legs.

"Thank you, sir." The boy looked around. "Oh, hello, Cancer, and—oh!" He shifted suddenly, almost dropping his load of swords. "You're the newcomer! The visitor from another world!"

"Guilty as charged," Ciara said, waving slightly. "And who are you?"

"Oh, I'm Centaurus! But most people just call me Rus." Centaurus deposited the swords onto a table for repair. "It's very nice to meet you!"

"Funny thing, actually," Ciara said, looking at both Sagittarius and Centaurus. "In my world, Centaurus is also Sagittarius' companion constellation. But Centaurus is actually older than Sagittarius. Also she's not an archer—she's a fortune teller."

Sagittarius huffed, amused. "Imagine that! You being older than me!"

"Does the Centaurus in your world like astrophotography too?" Centaurus asked, now excited. "I've been trying to chart the skies for a while now, it's sort of my hobby."

"Actually, she kind of does." Ciara thought back to Centaurus and her fortune telling rituals. "But it's more related to the planets than anything else. She says stuff like 'Mercury is in retrograde' or something like that."

Centaurus' eyes lit up. "Really?! It's too bad I'll never meet her. Anyway—I have the swords you requested, sir."

"Thank you, lad." Sagittarius patted Centaurus' shoulder. "That'll be all for today."

"Why do you need so many swords?" Ciara asked, suddenly concerned. "Is there a war happening right now?"

"Heavens, no!" Cancer quickly reassured Ciara, though the younger girl didn't miss how all the other people in the room tensed up at her question. "These are merely precautions to ward off creatures from the Voidlands—but it's nowhere near the scale of a war."

Ciara nodded, lost in thought. Scorpio had mentioned 'Void magic' earlier that morning. Were the two related? And if so, what did Scorpio have to do with the Voidlands?

“Hey, Cancer?” Ciara asked, looking up at the woman. “Does Scorpio have something to do with the Voidlands?"

check out @sweet-star-cookie's starglass zodiac lore if you liked this!! questions about my lore are greatly appreciated!!

#oc #oc lore #zodiac #zodiacs #zodiac sign #zodiac signs #zodiac lore #zodiac oc #zodiac ocs

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tricoufamily · 6 months

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obscure associations tag 2

tagged by @itsmariejanel <33 thank youuu maria did 2 in 1 so i'm also doing 2 in 1 these are the rules beckett green connor purple YIPPEEEEEE

ANIMAL: DOG / a snake or a cat but like. lucifer from cinderella you know

COLORS: green / purple 🤭

MONTH: july / january

SONGS: rocky mountain high by john denver, piano man by billy joel, mammas don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys by willie nelson and waylon jennings / mama by my chemical romance, you're gonna go far, kid by the offspring, ptolemaea by ethel cain

NUMBER: 12 / 4

PLANTS: dead grass with a prominent desire path going through it / venus fly trap

SMELLS: the winn-dixie from your childhood, cigarettes (he doesn't even smoke), old furniture / conditioner packet from box hair dye, jolly ranchers, jeans

GEMSTONE: agate / jet

TIME OF DAY: sunrise / 3 am

SEASON: summer / winter

PLACES: backroads, appalachia, abandoned house in the woods / gotham in the batman 2022, closed museum at night, cemetery

FOOD: southern biscuits and gravy / fish

DRINKS: MOUNTAIN DEW / black coffee

ELEMENT: air / fire

ASTROLOGICAL SIGNS: i don't think i've ever given blood sports characters birthdays. please don't make figure out the timeline in minute detail oh god there's so many of them

SEASONINGS: fuck ton of black pepper / garlic and he loves the smell mmm num num num fuck garlic smell haters

SKY: blue and cloudless / pitch black

WEATHER: punishingly hot / bad thunderstorm

MAGICAL POWER: speed / necromancy and he's using it for evil purposes he's bringing random people from the dead to do his bidding

WEAPONS: rifle / his black clip point knives

SOCIAL MEDIA: none #amish / myspace

MAKEUP PRODUCT: he'd despise the texture of all of it / black eyeliner

CANDY: grandma candies from purse / warheads

METHOD OF LONG DISTANCE TRAVEL: hours and hours in his truck with his music playing he loves it / plane

ART STYLE: regular show / arkham knight

FEAR: what comes after death / uhh nothing at all (😐)

MYTHOLOGICAL CREATURE: church grim / siren

PIECE OF STATIONARY: chewed on pencil / scissors

THREE EMOJIS: 🚜🦨🥤 / 💀🥀🔪

CELESTIAL BODY: jupiter / black hole

#if you don't have a winn-dixie from your childhood and have its scent forever imprinted in your memory idk if you'll ever truly see me #'are you saying beckett stinks' ok he doesn't smell BAD but. well. but. but. well #he smells like the outdoors. he'd never wear cologne he does wear deodorant #but sometimes he sweats through it and has a slight sweaty smell. it's very MASCULINE and SEXY ok #i wanna smoosh up against and breathe him in #beckett #connor #blood sports

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moshpitpuppyx · 6 months

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12 54 68 83 and also what if we kissed in the top .001% of cobra starship listeners

12. Bring It (Snakes on a Plane) - Cobra Starship

54. Cut Up Angels - The Used

68. Picture You - Chappell Roan

83. LAX to O’Hare - The Academy Is…

also

us in the .001% of cobra starship listeners ^^^

#THOUGHT I ANSWERED THIS BUT I QUEUED IT ON ACCIDENT IM SORRY

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couldnt-think-of-a-funny-name · 1 year

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answer ALL the music asks! 🫶

oh God fine

1:A song you like with a color in the title: welcome to the black parade lol

2:A song you like with a number in the title: 867-5309

3:A song that reminds you of summertime: forever young. very eating water ice on the back porch while lightning bugs just start to come out for the night vibes

4:A song that reminds you of someone you would rather forget about: breakaway by kelly clarkson lmfao

5:A song that needs to be played LOUD: elevate (from into the spider-verse lmfaoooo)

6:A song that makes you want to dance: mamma mia!

7:A song to drive to: (I don't drive lol)

8:A song about drugs or alcohol: walking in space (from the musical Hair!)

9:A song that makes you happy: good as hell by lizzo

10:A song that makes you sad: the letter (from the musical billy elliot). immediate skip I can't get through it

11:A song that you never get tired of: bring it! (snakes on a plane)

12:A song from your preteen years: poor unfortunate souls (jonas brothers cover!!!)

13:One of your favorite 80’s songs: heaven is a place on earth!

14:A song that you would love played at your wedding: when you look me in the eyes by the jonas brothers. be quiet.

15:A song that is a cover by another artist: miley cyrus' cover of zombie (by the cranberries). it's PERFECT for her voice omg

16:One of your favorite classical songs: not sure!

17:A song that would sing a duet with on karaoke: take me or leave me (from the musical RENT)

18:A song from the year that you were born: turn the beat around lol

19:A song that makes you think about life:

20:A song that has many meanings to you: don't let me get me by p!nk

21:A favorite song with a person’s name in the title: montero!!!

22:A song that moves you forward: always starting over (from If/Then)

23:A song that you think everybody should listen to:

24:A song by a band you wish were still together: honestly can't think of anything here!

25:A song by an artist no longer living: like, everything jonathan larson ever wrote tbh

26:A song that makes you want to fall in love: waterloo, but specifically the mamma mia here we go again version lol

27:A song that breaks your heart: tis the damn season by taylor swift. for literally no reason lmao

28:A song by an artist with a voice that you love: 29 by demi lovato!

29:A song that you remember from your childhood: sakura by 175R

30:A song that reminds you of yourself: could have been me by the struts

#asks #molly mumbles #mishavacado

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adultswim2021 · 1 year

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Fat Guy Stuck in Internet #1: “Threshold” | May 14, 2007 - 12:00AM | S00E01

Fat Guy Stuck in Internet was the third-most-voted pilot on the Adult Swim website poll, as part of the Night of 1000 Pilots event. It was based on a webseries called Gemberling, named after the main character and star John Gemberling. Curtis Gwinn, who plays the bounty hunter Chains, was a co-creator. The show is about an arrogant hot-shot computer programmer who gets sucked into his computer and gets trapped inside the internet. What a jerk!

The premise of the show is that Gemberling is trying to find his way home. Meanwhile a shadowy figure that heads the company he’s working for (who is like the Emperor on Star Wars) is trying to get him back using the services of Chains the bounty hunter. Fat guy Gemberling gets wrapped up in some plot after meeting Bit and Byte, a pair of siblings ensconced in some sort of fight between good and evil in the digital realm. We also meet a wizard guy who tells Gemberling that he’s some sort of chosen one, and a little head guy who bounces around on a heavy console computer. Those last two are left behind in this episode, when the wizard dude dies and the computer guy is deemed too heavy to bring along. The Wizard’s death scene is reasonably amusing, with him lamenting that he can’t relay important information to Gemberling because he’s dying, while also dragging out his death to redundantly repeat his lamentations while Gemberling loses patience with him.

I feel like I’m forgetting huge swaths of story. I don’t care! I’m tired of writing insanely long write-ups! Seriously, I am spending way too much fucking time on this blog (which may or may not be why I randomly didn’t update last night. Sorry). I remember watching this episode and the second episode (which debuted during an April Fools stunt or daylight savings event or some such thing), and I remember little else about the show. I feel like I mostly did NOT watch this program. Looking back, it’s not as bad as I remember it. I didn’t laugh at a single thing in the entire episode, which is a bad sign for a comedy show. But the thing that I respect about this show is that it’s not arrogantly pretending to be low-budget schlock like Saul. It just IS low-budget schlock.

The difference between those two things is that they don’t seem to make a joke out of the chintzy nature of the show almost at all. They’re trying to make this shit look presentable to the best of their abilities, which is why shows like this are charming in the first place. I admire this choice. It’s a good way to produce interesting art. It’s like if you were filming a sketch where the joke is that you can’t sing very well, and you don’t happen to be much of a singer, it’ll probably be funnier if you just tried really hard to sing well and failed than if you jokingly put on a bad singing voice.

I guess that’s my main takeaway: the show is reasonably fun and well-made (considering), and I’m willing to give it a fair chance. I did watch the first episode of the web series Gemberling, which is a mild pain. The episodes are downloadable from the Channel 101 site in .mov format, and you can play those on VLC. The first episode of that show is about five minutes long, and is roughly 80% the same as the first few minutes of this. I have vague recollections that the wizard character was Bill Cosby in the web series, but I literally don’t feel like watching more of it to find out! Sorry!

The title! Why is it called that? Because: I thiiiink it’s meant to evoke the then-viral movie Snakes on a Plane? Remember that movie? It went viral, so the producers self-consciously tried to make it into a wacky cult movie. I don’t think it worked. I famously never saw it. But that... that, my friend, is a story for another time...

MAIL BAG

Oh yeah, Ephemera Corner. It’s the web series that I already linked to. Please I don’t wanna make or find a screengrab. Okay, Mail bag time now:

Idiot. Drew Carey had three great themes songs. Don't second guess yourself because you have the confidence of a titmouse.

(timidly) chirp.

I'm not gonna lie, I kind of like how fucked up Drinky Crow looks. Maybe the only thing I like about it because the actually show ain't funny. Looks like a PS2 game.

I think it’s unforgivably nasty but to eats his zone

Love the blog but please don't make it a habit to review SNL stuff on this blog. I simply detest Lorne Michaels.

Looks like we have a hater bitch in the blog. Lorne rocks... fuck you pal!

Step off with the David Herman slander my dude. Us Herm-heads don't f around!

David Herman is an idiot (just kidding I like him, he called into Seven Second Delay once as a fan)

#adult swim #adultswim2021 #fat guy stuck in internet

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deakyjoe · 1 year

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Same anon from the movie question: you're a Heath Ledger fan? Who are your other favourite actors?

I love these film related questions 😭

So here are my top actors. Some of them I have seen most of their filmography and others only a little but still think they are remarkably talented and/or entertaining. The favourites I’ve listed are purely about their performances, not necessarily the films themselves.

1) Heath Ledger. Obviously. I have loved him my whole life and I can barely think about the man without crying. He was phenomenal and could do anything. I’m so sad he didn’t get to see his own Oscar win. Favourites: 10TIHAY, A Knight’s Tale, Brokeback Mountain, The Dark Knight

2) Jake Gyllenhaal. Give this man an Oscar already. Every few months I suddenly remember his filmography exists and rewatch as much of it as I can. Favourites: Brokeback Mountain, Zodiac, Prisoners, Donnie Darko, Nightcrawler, Love & Other Drugs, (I could list several more)

3) Nicolas Cage. Okay so maybe he’s not the best actor in the world but I will watch anything this man is in. And I mean ANYTHING. Favourites: National Treasure, Knowing, TUWOMT, G-Force, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

4) Pedro Pascal. Another obvious one. He’s so good and I’m so glad he’s getting so much appreciation at the moment. Give him an Emmy please. Thank you. Maybe not the first that comes to mind when you think of “great actors” but certainly should be. Favourites: Prospect, TUWOMT, TLOU, The Mandalorian, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Narcos

5) Viola Davis. I cry every time she cries. She always hits me right in the gut and you can feel every ounce of pain. She’s EGOT for a reason. Favourites: HTGAWM, Prisoners, The Help, Fences

6) Angela Bassett. You know you’re going to see a good performance when Angela Bassett appears on your screen. Favourites: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, 911, AHS

7) Paul Dano. Soft-spoken and constantly being beat-up on screen. And yet he’s incredible every time. Favourites: The Batman, Little Miss Sunshine, Love and Mercy, Okja, There Will Be Blood, Prisoners, Swiss Army Man

8) Samuel L. Jackson. Every time this man says “motherfucker” I smile uncontrollably. Favourites: MCU, Pulp Fiction, The Incredibles, Star Wars, Kingsman: The Secret Service, Snakes on a Plane

9) Queen Latifah. Brings a certain energy that cannot be matched. Favourites: Chicago, Hairspray, Ice Age

10) Lucy Liu. I fell in love with her when I saw Charlie’s Angels for the first time. Favourites: Charlie’s Angels, Kung-Fu Panda, Chicago,

11) Michelle Yeoh. She’s just cool, man. I don’t know what else to say. Favourites: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Last Christmas, Reign of Assassins

12) Jeff Goldblum. He plays every character the same but IT WORKS and I love it every single time. Favourites: The Fly, Cats & Dogs, Thor: Ragnarok

13) Willem Dafoe. I never intentionally watch films with him in them but always get a million times more excited when he shows up in them. Favourites: Spider-Man, American Psycho, The Great Wall

14) Joe Mazzello. Underrated actor honestly, deserves a lot more appreciation and better roles. Petition to get him a better agent. A lot of his work as a child are great as well. Favourites: Bohemian Rhapsody, Jurassic Park, The Pacific, Undrafted, Dear Sidewalk, The Cure

15) Leigh Whannell. The guy is Australian and plays whiney, pathetic characters. What’s not to love? He’s also a great writer and director! Favourites: Saw, Dying Breed, Cooties, Insidious

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voluntaryvictim · 2 years

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12 for Spotify wrapped :)

#COME ON BRING IT #answered #roozmatazz

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dominicsorel · 2 years

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HEARTBROKEN FROM THE START: a bipolar mix (37 songs, 2h17m)

1. Bring It (Snakes on a Plane) by Cobra Starship / 2. Supermassive Black Hole by Muse / 3. I’m Not Okay (I Promise) by My Chemical Romance / 4. Lithium by Evanescence / 5. Build God, Then We’ll Talk by Panic! At The Disco / 6. Valley of the Dolls by MARINA / 7. Paint It Black by The Rolling Stones / 8. Liability by Lorde / 9. Cult of Personality by Living Colour / 10. My Medea by Vienna Teng / 11. Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana / 12. Arsonist’s Lullabye by Hozier / 13. Ghosting by Mother Mother / 14. Personal Jesus by Depeche Mode / 15. Toxicity by System Of A Down / 16. Andy, You’re A Star by The Killers / 17. Unwell by Matchbox Twenty / 18. I Wanna Be Sedated by Ramones / 19. Where Is My Mind by Pixies / 20. I Hate Everything About You by Three Days Grace / 21. Misery Business by Paramore / 22. Thanks For The Memories by Fall Out Boy / 23. My Own Dance by Kesha / 24. Shut Me Up by Mindless Indulgence / 25. Fake It by Seether / 26. Don’t Stop Me Now by Queen / 27. Inside Out by Eve 6 / 28. Freak On A Leash by Korn / 29. Mad World by Tears For Fears / 30. You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid by The Offspring / 31. Pretty Handsome Awkward by The Used / 32. Pork and Beans by Weezer / 33. Thank You For The Venom by My Chemical Romance / 34. Chop Suey! by System Of A Down / 35. Crawling by Linkin Park / 36. Hotel California by Eagles / 37. Are You Satisfied? by MARINA

LISTEN HERE ON SPOTIFY

#bipolar disorder #mari maya #rin okumura #fanmix #music #bipolar tag #the covers are actual characters i headcanon as having it so i tagged them too

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cosmiclatte28 · 3 years

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Long Flight (Taeyong x you x jaehyun)

SUGGESTIVEEEE YAHOOO (sorry idk what’s with me, I made this into suggestive fic and the idea started when I took a long flight across Pacific Ocean)

tagging @neopalette and @yutahoes

a/n : do not proceed if you’re young (innocent) other than that, just go lol i know we’re all thirsty. daddy dom and master kink

jae is your colleague cabin crew (and your daddy), Taeyong is a famous designer taking first class flights who happens to get you as his stewardess and oh a fun night is about to happen in this long flight

UH AND IT’S A LONG ASS RIDE

Long flights are a literal pain in the ass. For lee taeyong, long flights are inevitable especially with his business trips that require him to fly from Korea to the Free land of the United States. He is lucky as a designer to be called from one runway to another. Attending photoshoots, ending the runway of his collections and of course after parties.

Though he is never fond of the jetlag and morning flights plus the 12 hours butt pain, he finally meets you. From one of his shittiest flight. He needs to rush to New York but his plane got canceled and that’s how both of you meet. You're in charge of the first class passengers and importantly, him. You're trained to give the best service, making sure his seat is comfortable and his bed ready if he really wants to lay down.

“A long flight ahead sir,” you greet him after keeping his suit on the hanger and helping him with his stuffs.

He looks coy with his fitted bomber jacket and eye glasses. His fragrance reminds you of the forest with deep musk coming out from him.

“Yes and my flight got canceled. I was moved here.” He rumbles, though he is sort of happy because he got upgraded to the first class. His invitation earlier was only for business class but here he is now on the second floor with a nice personal stewardess and of course a bed.

“I am so sorry about that, but i'm here to help you enjoy your flight.” You smile nicely to him.

“For now do you want some drinks?” you take out the menu sheet you’ve prepared.

He takes a glance and smirks “Surprise me? I’m in for an enjoyable flight with you (y/n).” Taeyong winks to you.

You blush, “My pleasure, Lee Taeyong-ssi" you bow before leaving him to take the drink and calm your heartbeat.

You know him, he is famous for his designs and cool godly handsome face. Gosh he really looks handsome!

Your light steps bring you to the bar in the lounge and your fellow mate, Jaehyun, is already busy making orders for the other passengers.

“What may I help you with?” Jaehyun playfully smiles at you and winks. You're used to it, you share almost all of your trips with Jaehyun and you won’t lie, both of you share some nights together.

Your eyes scan the liquor collection and hum while you think “I'll just get him some gin and tonic.”

Jaehyun nods “Who is the special guest tonight?”

You gulp “Lee Taeyong, the famous designer.”

Jaehyun smirks, “Lucky you! Guess I'll be alone tonight and the night after.” He steps out of his cubicle and playfully slaps your ass. You glare at him but he just pushes you the drink and kisses your cheek “Goodluck, heard he was a bad drinker.”

You professionally go back to the narrow hallway and stop just in time to see Taeyong taking off his jacket.

“Here's your drink and please let me help you with your jacket.” You reach out your hands and he gladly passes it to you.

“Hmm gin and tonic, simple but best for me.thanks" he winks and gulps down half of the drink.

His face turns red and you clearly knows tomorrow an apple juice might be a better option.

“Did I turn red?” he asks with big eyes while touching his forehead and cheeks to check his heat.

You nod “A bit sir, but you still look great.” You blurt out and turn shy suddenly when he smiles and runs a finger over your arm “Aw thank you, heard that a lot but it sounds better from your red lips. I wonder why you don’t end up on my runway but here instead in this small airplane!”

He sure is not hearing himself, you know he's more humble than this. Must be the drink.

You just smile and nod “Well, I am glad I can serve you tonight. Now, we'll take off soon. Please fasten your seatbelt and ring me up if you need anything. Enjoy your flight sir,” you bow before returning to your seat so the plane can take off.

Taeyong keeps his eyes on you as you exit the aisle and he can’t help but bite his lips when he sees how perfect you walk in a heel and how beautiful your legs are.

“I should probably start making stewardess uniforms.” He giggles to himself before feeling fuzzy and closes his eyes to sleep.

“So, any sign he's into you?” Jaehyun asks after the plane is steady in the sky and you're not called over yet. You sit on the stool and lean your chin on your arms.

“What? No way. He's out of my league.” You look to your arms and feel Jaehyun staring at you.

“Huh? Don’t you see how he looks at you when you leave him?” Jaehyun asks while his hands are still busy making drinks. The bar is empty, the passengers are still mostly sitting on their compartments.

You raise a brow “You were stalking me?”

He wiggles his brow “Gotta make sure you are working and not flirting with him.” He pulls your chin and blows over your lips “I know how naughty my little baby can be.”

You feel heat creeps into your core and cheeks. If both of you are not in duty, you'd play along and ask for drinks already.

“Stop teasing me, I am working.” You cough and try to remain professional though Jaehyun's deep stare is not helping you at all.

“We’re going to stay in New York for two nights, where do we wanna go?” Jae traces random lines on your arm and you hold your breath “I don’t know, guess we can have a night of sleep and the other one for fun.” You wink and his smile blooms “Fun? Are we thinking of the same fun?”

You want to answer him but a bell chimes and you glance to the intercom to see Taeyong's request for your assistant.

Jaehyun sighs “Tough competition I smell here.”

You tap his shoulder “Aw don’t be sad. I'll be right back, promise.” You blow him a flying kiss and tidy up your uniform before marching to Taeyong.

“Yes, how may I help you?” you nicely check on his stuffs, and he looks at you with clouded eyes. Gosh how many alcohol did Jaehyun put earlier? Is Taeyong this light headed?

“I- I want some snacks.” He looks at you with “that" gaze.

You gulp “Oh right, I can do that. We have-" you almost recite him the snack options before he pulls you onto his lap and snakes his arm around your waist.

“Not that snack, come on I know you know it.” He boldly presses his nose on your neck taking a whiff of your scent

You shiver and breathily moan “Sorry sir, I'm on duty.” You remind him but your hands are already touching his hard abs and thigh

Taeyong giggles next to your ear “On duty? baby I saw you flirting with that bartender guy right there. Didn’t you promise me you'll serve me well tonight?” his tone sounds sad at the end and you never like to hear someone sad because of you, so you quickly look around and whisper back to him

“I- I am-" you stutter when he runs his hand closer to your core “You're what princess?” he grins smugly

He sure is drunk. But he's super hot and you're super aroused!

“I am Sorry sir,” you whisper and he smiles with satisfaction.

“Good girl, now after dinner when the bed time is near, I'll ask you to prepare for my room and princess, be ready." He presses a small kiss on your nape and you gasp. Taeyong quickly presses his hand over your lips “uh oh we don’t want to get in touble right?”

You nod and when he taps you back, you get up and return to work like nothing happens.

Dinner is served and you notice the first class passengers are just few tonight. Only Taeyong and three other people. You notice Taeyong's bed is also far from the other's rooms.

He requested for a glass of red wine on dinner and when you collect his plates, you notice he finishes all of it. Wow, just how drunk is he planning to be?

“Baby, just remember you owe me one fun night,” Jaehyun whispers next to you when he sees you fix your face and tidy your appearance.

You roll your eyes “You look more interested into him, do you want to join us?” you tease him

Jaehyun turns red and he growls “Baby, try to remember all the wrongs you make today. We'll see if you can get as much spanks as your faults, daddy will reminds his baby about her attitudes.” He palms your breast and you clasp your mouth when you see the light for your duty lights up.

“Duty calls, gotta go-" you lean next to his ears “Daddy,” you kiss him quick and walk to Taeyong.

“Evening sir, tired already? Do you want me to prepare your bed?” You ask the standard procedure and he nods.

“Alright let me take you there, master.” You whisper before kissing him quick and following him to his cubicle.

“You're such a good kitten aren’t you? So ready for your master.” He grins when he sees the small bedroom already tidied up and shone in dim lights.

He goes into the room and after making sure no one sees, you enter and lock the door.

“I am glad I got to do this in first class, not in the lavatory.” Taeyong sounds drunk and confused to which you mentally slap yourself.

“Whoops sorry, ruined the mood. Come here kitty, master can show you how great he is when powered with wine!” he unbottons his shirt and you climb to his lap

“Tell me sir, do you want the soft kitty or bad kitty?” your fingers already play with his hairs and you lightly grind on his lap.

He groans when you touch his hardness and from his hooded eyes he makes his request “Both kitty, both.”

“Greedy, but as you wish master. Your words are my command.” You tie your hair up before diving to a deep desperate kiss with both of your hands roaming wildly around each others curves.

Your breathy moans could be heard if anyone is standing right in front of the door, you don’t mind it though. The room is locked, Taeyong rocks you so well and he is wild on bed. It's like having the best wildest fever dream and you're reaching cloud nine on a plane!

He was a great man in bed, a great master who puts you back in place and a great one to teach your soft side more about the wild fun.

You slip out of his hug when you notice he'd fallen asleep. Gently you tuck back your heels and uniform. Your under garments are broken but you'll skip them

With one sticky post it left on the bedside and a kiss, you slowly creep out from his room to meet your cabin crew.

“last night you were both wild and loud.” Jaehyun already greets you on the bar and you pause in track

“You were eavesdropping?” you turn to look at him

He shrugs his shoulder “Someone ordered a drink, I happened to pass by you and your master.” He playfully scans your body.

“Where did your bra go baby?” He walks closer to you and calmly pulls your chin up to face him.

“Look at daddy when you want to answer.” He warns you when you're about to answer.

Your eyes shake as you lock eyes with his fiery one.

“Broken, i'll change into another pair.” You gulp suddenly feeling small and vulnerable to Jaehyun.

“Don’t bother wearing one. I want to see them suffer in cold.” Jaehyun flicks one of your nub and you shudder

“Yes daddy.” You gulp “Anything else?”

“Oh, no touching yourself until I got to be the one touching you. Also, once we land… you're taking a room with me.” He takes your neck and pulls you into his chest “I want all of his traces gone by the time we're together.” He growls next to your ear “Understand baby?”

You nod “Words" he coughs and you mumble “Yes daddy.”

“Good, now don’t forget all the things you did and good luck finishing your errands.” He pats your ass and pushes you lightly.

“Good morning sir, how's your sleep last night?” you go back to your daily routine like nothing happened last night.

Taeyong looks sober already and his stomach is rumbling “Good. I had a good sleep, lucky me for I have to catch up a runway this afternoon.”

You nod “Coffee or tea for breakfast?”

He smiles “Coffee, without alcohol okay" he winks and you smile “Alright one coffee coming to you along with your breakfast sir.”

He turns red “calling me sir just makes me turns hot again princess.”

You wink “I'll be right back sir.”

:”Wait!” he holds your hand and you pause in track “Here take this,” he fishes something out of his bag and hands you a nice invitation

“Come to the gala, walk to the backstage pass and meet me for your dress.” He puts on his sunglasses

“I am invited? Well thank you sir, it's such an honor.” You smile widely

He shakes his head and peeks from his shades “Invited? You're my guest of honor. You'll walk the runway!”

You stare at him in disbelief and he quickly taps your arm “Now go princess, prepare me your best breakfast and i'll see you later.”

Oh yeah this will be the greatest experience and oh no tomorrow is gonna be the longest night with Jaehyun.

end, yow any great smut writers if you see this and want to make the hot scene TAG ME I WANNA READ :D thanks!!

#jaehyun x reader #jaehyun x you #jaehyun x y/n #taeyong x reader #taeyong x you #taeyong x y/n #taeyong smut #jaehyun smut #taeyong suggestive #jaehyun suggestive #nct 127 smut #taeyong scenarios #jaehyun scenarios #jaehyun oneshot #taeyong oneshot #nct smut #nct scenarios

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liquidstar · 3 years

Note

I'd love to hear some of your recommendations! And I'm good without any content warnings, but since you're posting this for all your followers to see probably best to add them

Alright sure! I’ll be general then and since you’re just starting out this will sort of be bringing up a lot of really popular ones, the really good ones where the general consensus is “you gotta see this!”, but I’ll also try to give ones from different genres so you have a variety of things to pick from, so this isn’t really a list of personal favorites but I’ll throw in a couple of those too lol, but generally think of this as a handy beginners guide with just a little personal bias.

I wrote a lot so I'm gonna put them under the cut here.

Fullmetal Alchemist

Fullmetal Alchemist is a franchise that’s considered a must-watch, it takes place in a world where alchemy is a borderline magical power, but is considered scientific in-universe and follows scientific laws, namely the law of equivalent exchange. Something can’t be made from nothing, to gain something of equal value must be lost. The story follows the story of two brothers, Edward and Alphonse Elric, who at the ages of 10 and 11 committed alchemy’s one and only unforgivable sin, human transmutation, in an attempt to bring their mother back to life. As a result, one brother lost his arm and leg and the other lost his entire body, leaving his soul bound to a suit of armor. However the brothers are resolute to regain their original bodies, and the older brother, Edward, joins the State Alchemists, a branch of the military, to try to gain access to research materials to help them achieve their goal. But was that really such a good idea?

Fullmetal Alchemist can be a bit confusing to get into due to the fact that there are two series: Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (2009). The latter is a reboot with a different story that follows the original manga. They both have the same beginning, but diverge paths and tell very different stories. My recommendation for how to watch this show is: Watch 2003 first, and Brotherhood second. Everyone has a different opinion about which is better, but everyone agrees that 2003 has better backstory but a contrived ending, and Brotherhood has a rushed beginning (Because it works off the assumption that you’ve seen 2003) with a great and fulfilling ending. If you can’t do both I say just watch Brotherhood because it will leave you more satisfied and you don’t have to watch 03 to get into it.

For both series the biggest trigger warnings are: Parental death, child death, pet death, war, genocide, dismemberment, religious themes, and miscarriage. For brotherhood specifically: on-screen suicide, and for 2003 specifically: rape (not on-screen) and pregnancy from it. The 2003 series is also a lot darker than Brotherhood which has a more optimistic tone, so that’s worth noting too.

Soul Eater

A show I think is incredibly fun, and a good one for an October watch if you wanna save it. It takes place in a world where certain people have the ability to transform into weapons, and they team up with other people who become their meisters. The characters often travel around, but the main setting is Death City, a fictional city in Nevada based off of Las Vegas but with a huge Halloweentown vibe, and a school right at the top of it called the Death Weapon Meister Academy (DWMA) where a bunch of kids that turn into weapons learn how to hunt down witches and kishins (Beings that consume human souls). The school, of course, is run by the grim reaper, Lord Death himself.

Our main characters for the series are a group of 7 students. Our protagonist Maka Albarn and her weapon partner Soul “Eater” Evans, a scythe. A loud mouth assassin named Black✰Star and his weapon partner Tsubaki, who has many weapon forms. And the son of the grim reaper, Death The Kid, and his two weapon partners Liz and Patty Thompson, who are twin pistols. There are also a bunch of really lively colorful background characters and antagonists, and the cast of the show being as insane as it is really makes it, on top of the great atmosphere and of course the plot, which just builds more and more as the series progresses. Also Crona is there and we all love Crona.

Trigger warnings for this show include: Child abuse (Mental and physical), manipulation, snakes and spiders (The motifs of two major villains), some very surreal moments that can verge on unreality. Also, in the dub and most subs: misgendering of a canonically trans character. Crona is a character who is non-binary, but the dub and subs use gendered pronouns for them due to general ignorance about neutral pronouns in 2008, though this isn’t the fault of the original series and falls on the translators hands.

Also it’s important to note: that the first 3 episodes are prologues and they take themselves less seriously, there’s more fanservice in them than there is in the rest of the series (Except for Blair she stays the fanservice character :pensive:)

Zombieland Saga

Idol anime is really prevalent as a genre, the most popular being Love Live, but my personal favorite is Zombieland Saga. It’s an idol anime, but it’s also a comedy about zombie girls who become idols. It sounds ridiculous but there’s an insane amount of heart in it regardless, it wasn’t a show I expected to get emotional at but I did! It also made me laugh a lot too. The series itself can serve as a bit of a subversion on what idols are, not just because they’re literally zombies, but because of who the characters are.

Sakura Minamoto is a character who starts off as a more typical idol, a peppy pure girl, as the series continues her struggle with depression gets highlighted. Saki Nikaido serves as her initial foil, a delinquent girl with a criminal record who subvers the idea of pure perfect idols. Ai Mizuno, a former idol who has since undergone severe trauma (The way she died). Junko Konno who has ideals that seem very different on what idols “should” be due to the time period she died. Lily Hoshikawa, an explicitly transgender idol. Yugiri nolastname, a former high ranking courtesan, subvering the pure image of an idol by being a sex worker. And Tae Yamada, a completely nonverbal idol who’s still treated with the same amount of importance as the rest of the team. The premise here really is just that these girls don’t fit the incredibly rigid mold of what idols should be and yet they still all deserve love and they gain a fanbase by being their earnest selves.

Trigger warnings for this series aren’t incredibly severe but since they’re zombies there’s still talks about death and they way they died (Including motorcycle/car accidents, plane crashes, getting struck by lightning, and a heart attack), there’s also comedic dismemberment, as in their arms just sort of pop on and off and stuff like that. The most notable thing is the deadnaming of Lily, the trans idol, by her father, but it doesn’t appear to be malicious in any way.

Note: this series is in the middle of it’s second season right now, if you want to wait until it’s over it should be 12 episodes long and just aired it’s 3rd, so about 9 more weeks.

Death Note

This is also absolutely another series that gets recommended to people right off the bat, and for good reason, this show is an intricate game of chess between a serial killer and a detective trying to catch him, and it’s incredibly easy to get super invested in the suspense of what happens next. The story begins when a shinigami, a god of death, drops his “Death Note” into the human world out of pure boredom. A Death Note is simply a notebook where if you write someone's name in it… They die! And who better to pick up such a powerful object than Light Yagami, a prodigy praised for his genius and academy accomplishments as well as his charm and popularity, and with a very strong but juvenile black-and-white sense of justice, likely due to being raised by a cop.

So naturally Light begins his power trip as soon as he finds the notebook, he intends to “fix” the world by cleansing it of all the bad people, but truly he intends to become the world’s new god. Or the “God of the new world” as he puts it. But there’s one thing standing in his way, a detective resolute on catching him with the codename L. The series entire crux is a game of cat and mouse between these two, as they try to outsmart each other and the murders continue, Light loses more and more of his humanity, L becomes more resolute on catching him. There are more twists and turns than a cheetah race, and it’s honestly pretty addictive to see what happens next.

Trigger warnings here obviously include a lot of death and murder, including suicide, but in some cases it’s a forced suicide at Light’s hands. Also abuse, as Light loses his humanity he isn’t above manipulating and discarding people who love him. And one instance of near-rape on screen fairly early on, but the purpitrator dies before it happens and the victim escapes.

K-On!

Slice-of-life is an incredibly popular genre, and K-On! is the quintessential example of it. It’s a series that not everyone will like, because not a lot truly happens, and it can be overly saccharine or “moe” for a lot of people, and that’s fine. But I personally think that despite not a lot happening, the story has genuine substance, more than you may gather at first glance. It’s true that not much in the way of big plot really happens, it’s mostly life events, that’s why it's a slice-of-life. But it’s not about nothing. The real theme of the show is the fleeting nature of youth. It’s about how important the friendships you form at that time are, how they’ll stick with you for a lifetime, and how everything comes to an end. It’s sweetness even becomes a little bittersweet because you knew their after school tea time would end come graduation, and as they realize this it breaks their hearts a little, but they continue on, because they’re still After School Tea Time!

The series itself is simply about 5 girls in a band, Yui Hirasawa on lead guitar, Mio Akiyama on the bass, Ritsu Tainaka on the Drums, Tsumugi Kotobuki on the Keyboard, and Azusa Nakano on Rhythm Guitar (Who shows up later). They’re in a club at school called the light music club where they waste a lot of their time just drinking tea and eating cake, but they’re having fun and that’s what counts! The series has a lot of really great direction and expressive animation despite the fact that a lot of it is just sitting around and talking, it’s incredibly visually interesting so you don’t get bored.

I honestly don’t think there are any big trigger warnings I can give for this series, maybe that Sawa-chan can be a little too forceful when she wants to dress up the girls in cute outfits sometimes but it’s usually not presented as too creepy especially after season 1 where they tone it down due to straying from the manga.

Mob Psycho 100

This series is an absolute love letter to the art of animation as a whole, the artstyle itself may not seem like much to look at but the animation is some of the most expressive, fluid, creative, and vibrant out there right now, it’s the type of series that you can tell was made with a real passion for its medium and it’s story. It’s protagonist is Shigeo Kageyama, nicknamed “Mob”, a term that literally means “Background character”. Mob is a middle school kid and an incredibly powerful psychic, like, insanely overpowered, but he’s currently working part time for a shady conman, Reigen Arataka. Though it may seem as if Reigen is just using Mob for his powers, their bond is actually a very sweet one and you can tell they care for each other, it’s a very important one at the heart of the series.

The core themes of the series itself are what really make it shine, it’s message is stated as clearly as possible in the opening songs, “your life is your own” and “if everyone is not special, maybe you can be what you want to be”. Put simply, you’re the protagonist of your own life, but the other important message of the series is that all the supposed background characters are just as important. The friends you make, the connections you have with other people and the way they impact you, they’re what make you strong. No one is born special, everyone is just a normal person, and everyone deserves kindness. It’s a series that I recommend incredibly strongly for just how powerfully it portrays this message.

Trigger warnings for this series include kidnapping, possession, a scene with a “man in a dress” joke, and a racist design for a background character. Also (spoilers) a scene where it seems like a child was murdered and a scene where it seems like Mob’s entire family was murdered.

Kaguya-Sama: Love Is War!

Hey, speaking of amazing animation, Kaguya-Sama is a romantic comedy series centered around the premise of two incredibly arrogant people falling in love. Kaguya Shinomiya and Miyuki Shirogane are the vice president and president of the student council at the prestigious Shuchi'in Academy, they eventually develop feelings for each other but they’re both simultaneously too proud and too insecure to admit it, so the real crux of the series is the 3D chess they play with each other to try and get the other to confess first. Along with the scatterbrained secretary, Chika Fujiawara, the treasurer in desperate need of Prozac Yu Ishigami, the cast is incredibly fun and they all fit into the comedy great. Every single little game of “do you like me?” that they play is written like the most intense thing in the world, the insane animation absolutely adds to it, making it seem almost like a psychological thriller, the comedy comes from the absurdity of just how much they hyperbolize it.

It’s not pure comedy though, due to a lot of the series being set up around mindgames, the characters are actually fairly psychologically complex with a lot of genuine development stemming from their childhood to explain why they are the way they are. The series may be about mindgames, but the actual narrative frames them as a juvenile way to go about relationships, a way to try to protect yourself from getting hurt because you’re afraid to trust. The entire core theme is that communication in relationships of any kind is the most important thing and you cant replace it with clever little tricks, so the main pair only ever make actual progress when they’re actually upfront with each other. Even if it’s scary to be that vulnerable with someone, especially if you’ve been hurt in the past like they have, the relationships you build off of mutual trust and openness will be worth the risk, and they can help heal you. And one of the things I love about the series is that this doesn’t just apply to the main pair, but it places equal emphasis on the importance of friendship. All the characters' relationships with each other are unique and interesting and they all develop the same way, with trust and openness, and they become better because of each other.

Despite being generally a comedy, a lot of the characters deal with some really heavy things too so trigger warning for: child abuse (not on-screen), child abandonment (again not on screen), anxiety and panic attacks, suicidal ideation- initionally played off as a joke but it becomes very obvious the character in question is legitimately suicidal and in the manga he nearly attempts it but is stopped, this plotpoint will most likely be in the anime at some point as it’s also not complete.

Your Lie In April

Alright I gave you a funny show now I’m going to make you cry. In fact it’s hard for me to type this synopsis because I’m an absolute crybaby and thinking about this show gets me, but I think it’s absolutely worth checking out because it’s a very beautiful sadness. Your Lie In April is a series that follows the stress and trauma young musical prodigies face in their lives, as well as the people around them, and it’s a series about the beauty of music and art, and just how much it affects people. The music in the show is absolutely gorgeous, the way that they convey emotion through it is so beautiful and intricate that it just sticks with you. You feel the music, and you understand.

I’m actually going to give the trigger warnings right now instead of at the end because in order to explain the plot I’ll have to talk about them so tw for: Child abuse (phsyical and mental, on-screen), terminal illness, death, in depth depictions of PTSD, vomiting, panic attacks, the works.

The series follows Kousei Arima, a formal piano prodigy who hasn’t performed since the death of his mother two years ago. Kousei's mother was terminally ill, but she was also incredibly abusive. Kousei has incredibly complex feelings about his mother because of this. The trauma she instilled in him is severe, but because he was a child, he still is a child, and he loved his mom a lot, as any child would, and he didn’t want her to die and he blames himself for not being good enough. He wanted to make her happy, and the only way he knew how to do that was to play the piano. So he played and played and practiced until he was perfect, they called him the human metronome. But he would still get severely punished for being anything less than perfect. He had lost all the passion he once had, and after his mother died it was the final nail in the coffin, his trauma manifests now in a way that makes him unable to play. But all that changes one day in April when he meets a violinist named Kaori Miyazono, a girl full of life and passion for music, she’s someone who according to Kousei “Exists in springtime.” and she’s going to help him play again and refined that love for music whether he wants to or not! Teen drama happens of course, but there are much bigger roadblocks ahead.

Assassination Classroom

This series is thankfully generally more lighthearted… Most of the time at least. The premise is pretty simple, but incredibly ridiculous. An incredibly powerful octopus-like creature is the teacher of a classroom of middle school students tasked with the assignment of assassinating him in order to save the world. The series starts off very slice-of-life as it focuses on introducing the very large cast of characters inside of Class E, also known as the “end class”, but it quickly gains traction and gets a lot more intense as time goes on.

The octopus creature in question, Korosensei, is actually a very kind and genuinely good teacher to all his students. The real crux of the series is that it’s sort of a critique on the educational system, the students in the end class are there because they’ve been ostracized from the rest of the campus, far away in the mountains, to be made examples of. Why? Because they’re students that are considered worthless, instead of getting help they’re only pushed back further down in the system and left to struggle within it fruitlessly. They’re given up on, despite being children with so much potential, because they don’t fit a very rigid mold. That’s what Korosensei wants to help them with, and they’re able to grow as people together. As the series progresses you feel such a great sense of unity for the class, they’re like a family, they stick together and it’s very heartwarming. And watching them work as a team of assassins is so fun!

However the series can get heavy at times too, it doesn’t stray from heavier subject matter at all and i found myself incredibly shocked by it a few times, so trigger warning for: Child abuse (on-screen and off), both at the hands of a parent and a teacher and in one case a parent who is also the principal, misgendering of a character, sometimes as a “joke” but other times played dead serious at the hands of his mother, child death- specifically suicide, a successful one as well as 3 assassination attempts that doubled as suicide attempts by the main 3 characters (weird parallel they all got there huh)

Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Honestly this is a series that is good to go in blind for if you need to tws, it’s a deconstruction of the magical girl genre, but if you don’t want to know more than that you can stop reading here. If you want to know more, it’s a series that starts off very light-hearted and in tune with typical magical girl conventions at first, however by episode 3 it’s made painfully clear that these girls are being led to sign up into something they shouldn’t. It’s heavy, though not incredibly so, but it’s also a lot to explain in a summary. Madoka magica is… It’s Faust with magical girls.

I’ll explain as much as I can without giving too much away. The story begins when Madoka Kaname and her friend Sayaka Miki encounter a creature who calls itself Kyubey, who says it can grant a wish of theirs and in exchange they have to become magical girls and fight witches. Both the girls are hesitant, but Sayaka wants to wish for her childhood friend’s injuries to be cured so he can play violin again, while Madoka is content as she is and can’t think of a wish. Luckily they have a mentor, a magical girl named Mami Tomoe who helps introduce them to everything. However something is stopping Madoka from becoming a magical girl, a mysterious new student who is also one herself, Homura Akemi, is resolute on keeping Madoka from becoming a magical girl by all means possible, for reasons Madoka doesn’t understand. Things get even more complicated when a rival magical girl shows up, Kyoko Sakura, who becomes Sayaka’s new rival. As things get more heated between those two they discover a terrible secret about the nature of magical girls, and what they truly signed up for.

Spoilers ahead but trigger warning for: Child death, parental death (backstory only), decapitation (off-screen), needles, incredibly surreal imagery inside the witch’s labyrinths that may feel unreal, mind control, suicide, depression and despair expressed by young characters. Also don't bother with Magia Record

The Disastrous Life Of Saiki K.

Alright something lighthearted now, there are a lot of comedy anime I enjoy, a lot of series that have made me laugh, but none has made me bust a gut like this series has, it’s absolutely hilarious. It follows the life of a boy named Saiki Kusuo who has psychic powers. His powers are incredibly overpowered, and he absolutely hates them, in his eyes they cause him nothing but trouble. There’s not much in the way of a plot to describe, because there isn’t any, the series is comprised of 5 minute segments surrounding Saiki and an incredibly vast and colorful cast of characters that are just all completely insane, many serve as parodies as types of anime tropes because the series as a whole is very self aware and doesn’t shy from breaking the fourth wall a lot, but the characters surrounding Saiki are what make his life… Disastrous.

Like I said there’s not really a plot to describe but like FMA people may get confused with this one, there are 3 seasons but one of them is titled “The Disastrous Life Of Saiki K: Reawakened” as is a continuation of the first two with just 6 episodes in it. Also for some reason only the second season isn’t dubbed so if you’re planning on watching it that way you’d have to either stop or switch to subs for season 2

The only major tw I can give here is an ongoing joke about a character being into his sister, he’s treated as disgusting for it of course because he’s a parody of that trope but that doesn’t make it any less uncomfortable, luckily he doesn’t show up much.

Little Witch Academia

Little Witch Academia is a series I personally just adore, it takes place in a world where witches are common and well-known among the people, but the era of witches is over and magic is dying out. However that doesn’t mean passion of magic doesn’t exist, the protagonist is a young girl named Atsuko Kagari, or Akko for short. She’s resolute on being just like her icon, a witch known as Shiny Chariot, as she attends the same magic school: Luna Nova! Unfortunately Akko isn’t exactly a magical prodigy, in fact she can’t even fly a broom, but that’s not gonna stop her, nothing will. Just like Chariot said, believing in yourself is your magic.

Once at school Akko gets into all types of crazy shenanigans with her with her two roommates, Lotte Yanson and Sucy Manbavaran, and occasionally her rival, Diana Cavendish. Akko still struggles a lot in school, in fact her inability with magic is pretty explicitly handled as a metaphor for a learning disability, and though this makes it harder for her she’s still resolute. Though the series is generally episodic, a concrete plot starts to form by the second core. Along with the help of her guidance counselor, Professor Ursula, Akko learns that she needs to unlock 7 “words” to bring magic back to the world, each time she learns a new one it comes with an important lesson to her and ultimately relates back to each of the core themes of the series

The series is pretty lighthearted so the biggest trigger warning I can give is one for bullying, two characters in particular tend to target Akko for not being a good witch and it can really sting to watch. Other than that none come to mind

#if you want stuff out of a more specific genre i can give a list of those too but this is like. general

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etheshadowlord · 3 years

Text

UNPROFESSIONAL REVIEW OF EVERY POWER RANGERS EPISODE I CAN FIND PART 3!

Spoilers ahead for episodes 11-16. It's been a while I hope this post finds you...I don't know what state it will find you in but it could be Connecticut for all we know. Anyway, it's been a long time so I had to back up pull these out of the drawer and dust them off. I"ve mostly finished season 1 already at this point and started season 2 because the filler was getting to me and then I realized, life is far too short to get impatient. So time to slow down and reflect.

As well as subject ourselves to this madness.

Episode 11: No clowning around.

We start the episode off with Kimberly, Zack, Billy, and Jason at the Angel Grove Fair with Zack showing his hip-hop stilt dancing....yeah no it doesn't really work that well and he takes a short spill only to quickly reveal today's Villain, evil imposter clowns. Meanwhile, we see Trini bringing the kid of the day....her cousin.

Kids are cute, clowns are wholesome and nothing bad could possibly happen. Right.....so short fact I love clowns. I hate evil and monster clowns because they give the noble profession a bad name anyway whoever Pineapple the clown is, the clown council is probably greatly displeased with them.

Bulk and Skull enter the picture to tease the main team and get egg on their face. The eggs came from Billy attempting to juggle eggs on offer from the villainous clown Pineapple...Not sure but it's the thing today I guess.

So we get a segue to hearing the Gloriously Evil plan for her repulsiveness. Magical Pineoctopus that turns people into cardboard cutouts and....a...fake....fair? You know if magic stuff wasn't involved I would question how the fuck the police aren't shutting these stunts down before people get hurt. I wonder if there's just an "it's not my problem" field on these things.

So the monster of the week flattens Sylvia and the rangers convince the park goers to leave thus begins the fight. Meanwhile, Trini saves Sylvia with some water and then rejoins the Rangers in time to Put this clown down....for good. Okay, he's a fruit cephalopod but that's beside the point. End of the episode Vignette and we learn never to go with strange clowns.....or strangers period.

Fun: * * * - -

Rita: Mad

These Clowns: Failures.

Episode 12: Power Ranger Punks

We start this episode with a reminder that Baboo...

This person is actually capable of evil as well. Though not skilled at the practice of monster molding, his specialty seems to be making potions. In this case, ones to make Kimberly and Billy into....Punks.

Meanwhile, Rita unleashes the Terror Toad while they try to figure a way to correct their friends' bad behavior. Through an antidote. It works they beat the toad with a well-aimed arrow to the mouth and save the day. Sorry Baboo, no villain star today for you.

Baboo: Great alchemist....also where'd you get the Rattlesnake Lips? Share your sources please and thanks.

Drinks: Don't leave open drinks Also don't drink open drinks if you're a hero. Even if it was fine earler.

Punk: Not dead.

Episode 13: Peace, Love, and Woe.

So we start off with both Bulk and Skull causing chaos and with Rita demanding Finster to make her....Madame Woe, who is apparently almost as evil as Rita herself. Huh... also love strikes when you least expect it. Billy ends up falling for Marge who asks him to the dance and...Marge gets mistaken for a Power Ranger.

Clearly, because Rita didn't give her loyal servant the proper intel. So yeah Marge and the rangers get zapped into Madam Woe's funky dimension of Woe where she is all-powerful and send the Blue Ranger back to beat her in One on One combat, Madam Woe is defeated and we get a vignette of learning....that Bulk stores his money in his shoe.

Knowledge: Cursed.

Fun: * * * * -

Woe: - - - - -

Episode 14: Foul Play in the Sky.

We start the episode by meeting Kimberly's Uncle Steve who is a pilot and a sleeping potion.

Rita, if Monsters can't kill the power dweebs then what about flat-out gruesome murder. In fact, why hasn't she just poisoned them with a deadly poison at this point? Is it the fact she wants to look upon them as they despair? Is that the game here?

Anyway, Steve is put to sleep and Kimberly lands a plane all the while Bulk and Skull are in the back passed out because obviously you'd faint hearing that the pilot is out like a light and you're probably going to die. Rita's monster of the week is a snake man thing that fires power-draining snakes.

The plane lands and Kimberly shows us some real archery skills with a regular William Tell signature move. And we end the episode on a light note of Shakes on Bulk and Skull.

Fun: * * *- -

Plane controls: * * * * -

Rita: Wanted for attempted murder through sabotage.

Episode 15: Dark Warrior.

So another family member makes a one-time appearance. Trini's Uncle Howard is a brilliant scientist. He even made an invisibility formula. And Bulk and Skull decide to pick on Billy for....quarters for a dumb arcade...game?

Actually, we've seen Billy do some really stellar martial arts so why is he putting up with this? Seriously?

Uncle Howard shows up and....isn't wearing his glasses as he's looking for his niece. So he dumbly puts the formula on the counter. This will cause trouble later I can tell. Also, Rita sends a new monster out to find this formula. The labeled Dark Warrior. Looks more like Camo with a scarf to me. I mean invisibility can also mean camouflaging.

So Dark Warrior being a sadistic monster captures Howard, then tries to extort the formula from Trini. They fight the dark warrior and defeat him with the combined power of friendship and giant robots. Then we see Bulk and Skull get a taste of their own medicine as Uncle Howard shows off the invisibility formula that apparently can be drunk and affects your clothes as well? Weird.

Science: - - - - - WE DON'T WATCH THIS FOR ACCURATE SCIENCE!

Fun: * * * * -

Boxes: Marked with TNT Like this was Minecraft.

Episode 16: Switching Places.

You'll never know a person until you walk a mile in their shoes is usually how the saying goes. I think it works better if they were them for a week. You really get to know someone's life after a week of having to do things the way they do things.

Anyway, we start this episode with Squatt being the little Gremlin he is messing with Billy's Invention....the machine in question is a Machine to allow someone to read your mind...

So first mistake not going through the line of making sure everything is right before the experiment. Secondly, human experimentation is a bit....questionable in ethics.

Anyways, Kimberly and Billy get Switched. Like you know....body swapped. THIS IS WHY YOU SHOULD ALWAYS CHECK THINGS BEFORE THE EXPERIMENT!

....The same also happens to Bulk and Skull.

All while this is going on Squatt unleashes a mighty Genie to fight the rangers. Guess it doesn't subscribe to the classic Genie Rules. However, the true power of the genie is in the lamp...obviously and Alpha defeats the genie by zapping it to...wherever he zapped it to. We close out the episode with everyone getting their minds back in their own bodies even Bulk and Skull sorta learn their lesson.

Switch: eroo

Genie: Wished out.

Skull: Pretty dull still.

Thus ends part 3 of this synoptic unprofessional review of every power rangers episode that I can get a hold of at least on Netflix. The next part will be the Green With EVIL special. Hence why I went with six episodes for this part because it's a five-parter coming up. Until then, see you in the next post.

#Power Rangers #unprofessional review #this is for fun #The show is campy and I haven't done these in a while and was bored #I still like the Power Rangers #really these are more like me giving my own commentary on these episodes but that's fine I'm allowed to post what I want on my blog

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scullydubois · 4 years

Text

Only the Light: Ch. 9

Back in DC, Missy helps Scully get to the bottom of what's plaguing her. As Scully's journey gets a bit clearer, Missy drops a bombshell about her own life.

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

Scully’s stomach clenches as the plane touches down on the runway, jostling she and the rest of the passengers around like pawns in its game. Only forty-eight hours ago, she and Mulder had lifted off toward another mystery, another puzzle daring them to solve it. Now she is back, knowing scarcely more than she did then, with a mystery of her own to solve. She is forever chasing ghosts, and trying not to become one.

As the winged giant rolls into its gate, Scully glances out the window. Thick clouds blanket the sky, an unending greyness rolling out over the city as far as the eye can see. So much for there’s no place like home. She’s been realizing lately that home is a feeling, not a location. Sometimes she feels like she needs a map to navigate her own apartment, or like everyone in DC knows some language she never learned. Well, almost everyone. There are a couple people who speak the same language as her.

And she’s about to see one of them now. The crowd of passengers--mostly suits who had sleepless nights-- stand up in their rows, ready to file out into the bureaucratic machine. The man on the outside of Scully’s row opens the overhead compartment and pulls down his bag and the carry-ons of Scully and the woman next to her. Scully thanks him demurely. She can’t remember the last time someone other than Mulder did that for her.

As they fall into line and shuffle off the plane, Scully wonders what her life will look like next time she boards a plane. With any luck, this will all be a fluke and she’ll be heading back to Aubrey tomorrow. Then again, even if it isn’t a fluke, she’ll still probably join Mulder back in Aubrey. She knows herself.

What would she say to him, then? Having to admit she lied about her reason for leaving, coming back with the type of news that turns worlds upside down...it doesn’t seem fair to him. It hasn’t been fair to her either, but that’s out of her hands.

She had knocked on Mulder’s door before the sun was even up. She hadn’t expected him to be awake, and so was particularly surprised when he came to the door with a towel around his waist. Evidently, he hadn’t expected her either (though who else is coming to his motel door at 6am?) because the longer she stood there in front of his barely dressed body, the more his color drained away.

Needing a lie lame enough to be true, Scully told him that Melissa had sprained her ankle and would need some help getting around for a couple days.That she asked Scully to come home rather than go stay with their mother, because who better to be nursed by than a doctor? Mulder had nodded, told Scully to go, assured her he could handle BJ and the case. Scully is sure that Mulder knows what she told him is a lie. But he didn’t object, and that’s the permission she needed to feel settled with him and herself.

She follows everyone off the plane, through the tunnel, and into the terminal. Moments like this remind her of her obsolescence in the universe, and she is somehow comforted by that. She is no chosen one, no messiah nor martyr, no mother of a holy child. She would like to stay that way.

She surveys the crowd waiting to pick up their beloved passengers. All of her fellow fliers, mere faces in her vicinity for an hour or two, are someone to somebody else. She is, too. They are all emerging from obscurity into a realm where they are known, for better or for worse.

At the edge of the crowd, Scully catches her sister’s unmistakable smile and glowing red locks. She saw her sister only two mornings before, but Missy reacts as if they’ve been separated a lifetime. She engulfs Scully in a hug that just about sends the butterflies in her stomach into hibernation.

“How are you feeling?” Missy asks, pulling away to scan her sister’s face for the honest answer she won’t give.

Aware of this, Scully turns the corners of her mouth up. “I’m okay, really. My migraine went away at about four in the morning.”

“So you barely slept,” Missy interjects.

Scully frowns. “Well, I laid in bed from roughly eight to six. There was sleeping involved at some point, I think.”

“How about on the plane? Did you sleep there?”

“No, you know I can never sleep with strangers around.”

“Oh, right. Did they teach you that at the Academy or something?”

“The things I saw at the Academy taught me that.”

“Oh.” Missy regrets bringing it up. As they head toward the luggage area, she holds out her hand, lets her sister place the handle of her carry-on in it. A silent apology, an acknowledged acceptance.

“So what did you end up telling Mulder?”

Scully is endeared that she has successfully chipped away at her sister’s tendency to call him by his first name.

“Oh god, you’re gonna think it’s so stupid.”

Missy laughs. “What did you say?”

Scully’s voice is rife with amusement. “I told him that you sprained your ankle and needed a doctor around to take care of you.”

Melissa bursts into laughter. “Good girl.” Scully would kick a man in the groin if he ever said that to her, but coming from her sister, it’s high praise.

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

They ignore the elephant in the room until they make it to Missy’s car. The plastic of a CVS bag rustles at Scully’s feet as she settles into the passenger seat.

“Three pregnancy tests,” Melissa explains. “I stopped on the way.”

“You didn’t have to--”

“But I did.” That had been their father’s comeback whenever someone tried to, as he called it, ‘pity the helper.’ They both smile just a bit, their memory of him alive and well.

“Can I pay you back?”

“No!” Missy insists. “I’m living with you rent free.”

Scully decides this is a good enough reason to let it go. She crosses her legs, watches her sister pull out of the space. She lets a question float around her head until they make it out of the labyrinth of airport side roads.

“Do you think I would be a good mother?”

Missy flicks her gaze toward her sister. Dana is peculiar in her way. Instead of fishing for sympathy like most people when they ask questions of this nature, she expects punishment. She’s practically asking to have a nail hammered into her cross.

“You’d be a wonderful mother, Dana,” Missy soothes. “You’ve never had a bad intention in your life.”

“Haven’t I?...I killed a snake with Bill and Charlie once.”

“And you cried afterward. I remember seeing the tear stains on your face when you got home. Not to mention that you were what, five or six?”

“Well, what about Daniel? Surely my judgement was wrong there.”

Melissa sighs. “Okay, I’ll rephrase it. Any bad intention you’ve ever had was paid for with regret, and that’s not true about most people.” She frowns. “It’s always the purest souls who are the hardest on themselves.”

Scully stares through the windshield. She will expend no brainpower on her sister’s implication. She doesn’t believe it to be true.

After a moment--“Do you remember those Raggedy Ann dolls we had, Betsy and Betty?”

Melissa smiles, nods. “Of course. Betsy was yours, and Betty was mine. We had those little wooden bassinets for them.”

“Right.”

Missy lets the memories flow back to her. “We used to sing lullabies and rock them to sleep. Actually, I’d sing, you’d pray with them. Mom and dad thought it was the sweetest thing ever, and I would get so mad at you. I thought you were sucking up to them.”

Scully laughs. This is the first time she’s heard of her sister’s woes. “Missy, I was three. There was no conspiring going on.”

“Say what you will, but your stocking was always a little bit fuller than mine.” She smirks at her sister, who blushes and looks at her lap.

Dana has the unfortunate distinction, at least in Melissa’s mind, of being the favorite daughter. Bill Jr. always was and will be the favorite child. He molded to all their parent’s expectations of him, never deviating from the upstanding family man they imagined when holding him for the first time. Dana had done well up until she decided on the Academy. As Missy reminded her countless times, it wasn’t that they hated her going into the FBI. It just wasn’t in their vision for her, that’s all.

Missy doesn’t fret about her place, even finds it somewhat funny. She isn’t the least favorite child per say (thanks Charlie!) but she is the least favorite child her mother is still in contact with, and that’s a title that takes some maneuvering.

Scully laces her fingers together, rests them in her lap. “Do you remember telling me that I wasn’t a good mommy one night when we were putting Betsy and Betty to sleep?”

Melissa looks to her sister so quickly she practically forgets she needs to be watching the road. “No, of course not.”

Scully can’t meet her gaze. “Well, I know it’s a silly thing, and we were just children, but it’s stayed stuck in my brain for all these years.”

“Dana, you had probably just finished a ‘now I lay me down to sleep’ prayer, and I felt like I needed to knock you down a notch.” She pats her sister’s shoulder. “There was no truth in it, and I’m sorry it’s bugged you for so long.”

Scully shifts in her seat. The CVS bag crackles as her heels bear down on it. “I’m afraid it’s turned into a self-fulfilling prophecy at this point.”

Melissa won’t give weight to her sister’s worries, but won’t discount them either. “The good news about a self-fulfilling prophecy is that you can always change your thinking...You don’t believe in psychics, so don’t try to be one.”

Scully looks at the dashboard, then her sister. “I would hug you right now if we weren’t doing 75,” she coos.

Something has clicked in her head, some comfort she has long been depriving herself of. Sometimes words fill in the cracks left by those that preceded them. The right words go even further, it turns out. The right words give you permission to heal.

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

A dreadful anticipation plagues her as she and Missy walk up to the apartment. She wants to get it over with, even if it goes badly (and she knows it very well might). She craves the relief of surviving such an ordeal. Scully imagines that this is what the French must have felt on their walk to the guillotine. Except instead of the relief of surviving, they got the release of death. Scully is not ready for this yet.

Missy unlocks the door, ushers her sister in. Dana is not used to coming home and finding things in different places than before, Missy can tell from the inquisitive look on her face. She is surveying her territory, updating her memory bank. Looking for the exit signs, maybe.

Melissa closes and locks the door. Letting her sister set the pace, she leaves the CVS bag on the side table. Dana has already taken the carry-on and suitcase to her room.

Her room, Scully finds, is a shrine to sameness, everything looking exactly as she left it two days before. Untouched and completely under her control...these are the reassurances she requires now. She lifts the suitcase onto her bed but leaves it zipped. Its fate is no clearer than hers at the moment. Then she places the carry-on on her dresser, makes a mental note to let Mulder know she made it home safely, and returns to her sister in the living room.

“Have you eaten?’ Missy asks, edging toward the kitchen.

“I won’t be able to until we get this over with,” Scully replies, making her priorities clear.

“Okay.” Missy won’t fight her on this one. She retrieves the bag off the side table, perches at her sister’s side. “Are you ready now?”

Scully screws up her face. “No, but yes. I just need to know at this point.”

Missy takes her sister’s hand with a specific kind of gentleness, like a fairy godmother about to cast a spell upon her princess. Scully is willing to be led. She follows her sister into the bathroom and sits on the closed toilet while Missy pulls the pregnancy tests from the bag. Scully tries not to think about any moment beyond the current one as her sister opens each test, lines them up along the counter.

“Do you want me in here or outside?” Missy’s tone matches the sympathy that Scully needs.

“Outside, please,” Scully says sheepishly, wishing she could have some guts for once. If no one else witnesses this moment, then maybe it’s not happening. Flawed reasoning that even Mulder wouldn’t agree with, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

“Okay. I’ll be right on the other side of the door.”

Scully nods her thanks as Missy slips out of the bathroom and shuts the door quietly. Left alone, she feels the crushing gravity that has been trailing her all along. She’s almost certain that her heartbeat would be visible through her skin if she looked.

She stands, picks up the first test, opens the toilet. Her hands shake so violently that she thinks she might drop the stick in the toilet, which would be a pretty terrible way to return her sister’s kindness. She pulls it away and takes a deep breath to steady herself, holding her arms out in front of her like a sleepwalker. All the things she’s seen, and she’s never been as scared as this moment. Never felt the life she knows and has grown to love so acutely threatened. Never balked at the future in such a fervent way.

It occurs to her that she might seriously need her sister to come in and help her. The thought of that is just pathetic enough to kick her into action. Her hands are barely any more steady than before, but her resolve is ironclad.

On the other side of the door, Melissa listens as a long period of silence is broken. She’s sitting down, her head resting against the wood, a hand laid against the door like it’s the chest of a lover.

Silence again, ruptured by Scully’s quiet murmur. “Will you hold on to the test, please? And read the result when it’s ready?” She didn’t know she would need this, but she does.

“Of course.”

Scully cracks open the door, passes the stick to her sister. “I wiped it off.”

Missy suppresses a laugh. “I wouldn’t care if you didn’t, but thank you.”

Scully closes the door quickly, not wanting to hold eye contact with her sister, not wanting to accidentally see the result herself. “Two minutes, right?” Her voice is on the verge of breaking.

“Yes, Dana. Two minutes.”

“Should I wait to do the next one?”

Missy eyes the test, waiting for it to make up its mind. “You can go ahead. It’ll take two minutes too.”

“Okay.” Scully’s voice is barely audible.

“Or you can wait,” Missy offers. “I just suspect that you’d want to check the accuracy as soon as possible.”

“Uh-huh.” She grabs the second test, wearily sits back down.

Missy’s voice reverberates through the door. “I’ve done this before you know. For myself and for a friend.”

“Really?” Scully’s brain had tricked herself into thinking she was all alone.

“Mm-hm,” Missy confirms. “Mine were never positive, but hers were. I went to Planned Parenthood with her.”

“Oh.” There are things, Scully realizes, that she has neglected to think about. Or maybe she’s putting that off until she knows for sure. It wasn’t a conscious decision, more of an act of self-preservation. Her gut feeling is that she wouldn’t, but she never envisioned herself in a situation like this. If there’s any situation where it’s justified, it’s this, right? Not that she has a problem with it; women should be able to choose for themselves. She just always thought she knew what her choice would be.

Melissa lifts her eyes from her watch, looks at the door as if she can see her sister through it. “It’s ready.”

“It’s been two minutes?” Scully’s voice rises.

“Uh-huh. Do you want me to come in or…?”

Scully scrambles up, lays the second test on a fresh piece of toilet paper. “I’ll come to you.”

She opens the door, kneels to be eye level with her sister. Prayer position is in close proximity. She bites her lip, her dilated pupils begging her sister to either curse her or free her.

A thin smile appears on Missy’s face as she flips the test so that Scully can read it. “Negative.”

One line. One very defined red line set against the white space. Has anyone, Scully wonders, ever gotten a tattoo of that?

“I--” Tears burst out of her instead of words. She lands in her sister’s arms, utterly unsure of what she’s feeling. Relief, yes. Happiness? Not quite. Sadness? Something like that.

Missy smooths her sister’s hair down, holds her in the tightest hug she’s probably had in decades. “How do you feel?”

Scully is tempted to ask how her sister does that, always there with the tough questions. Instead, she gulps air until she’s calmed down enough to talk.

“I don’t know,” she laments, tears streaked down her reddened face. “I thought I would be glad but...I just feel numb. Like I went down the wrong fork in the road and missed something important, but I don’t even know what it is since it didn’t happen.” She sniffles. It sounds like a heart breaking. “I just know it’s supposed to be there.”

“I thought you didn’t want--”

“Not under these circumstances, no. But then...when else is it gonna happen?” Her voice is a sheet of glass. “Because it doesn’t look like any time soon.”

Missy hugs her once again, rocking her back and forth. She overflows with warmth, sympathy, and love. “Honey, you have plenty of time to make your life what you want it to be.”

Scully sobs into her sister’s neck. She feels like an emotional hemophiliac, constantly hemorrhaging pain. Every time she thinks she’s bottomed out, there’s farther to fall. “I’m sorry I’m such a mess,” she says, wiping her face. “I didn’t know I would be.”

Missy pulls her in a third time. “Don’t ever apologize to me for anything, even the things you’re actually wrong about.”

Scully laughs half-heartedly. “Oh!” She realizes then. “We still have two more tests, don’t we?”

Missy nods, smiles empathetically. “The second one should be ready by now.”

Scully is about to get up, but Missy lays a hand on her back, beats her to it. “I’ll grab it.” She strides into the bathroom, picks the stick up off the counter, and takes a look. Again, she flips it so her sister can see. “Negative.”

Scully presses her lips together, a stopgap to any further emotional reaction. “We should do the third one then, just to be sure?”

Missy detects a lift in her sister’s voice, a space she’s made for hope. “Whatever you’d like, Dana.” It seems that her sister will always end up disappointed through no fault of her own, no matter what she wishes for. This chills Missy to the bone.

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

The sisters share dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets for lunch because this is the kind of food Melissa buys when left to her own devices. Missy dunks hers in honey mustard, Scully takes hers plain. Remnants of anxiety hang in the air; Scully’s plight remains unresolved, and they are well aware of that. Whatever path they are walking, this is just the beginning.

The phone interrupts their silent reverie, and Scully hops up to disguise the fact that its ringing made her jump. “It’s probably Mulder,” she tells her sister. “I meant to call him when we got home.” Missy nods, continues with her nuggets.

Scully grabs the phone off the wall. “Hello?”

“Hey, is Mel there?” It’s a sweet, flowery voice, very different from the one Scully expected. She furrows her brow. Could Mel refer to her sister? She’s never heard anyone call Melissa that. “Who is this?” Missy looks up, watches her sister curiously. It’s not Mulder, evidently.

The woman on the other line clears her throat. “It’s Trinity. Am I speaking to Dana?”

“Yes, this is Dana,” Scully says slowly, unnerved by the caller knowing her name. “Are you calling for Melissa?” Scully offers, hoping she might get out of this scot-free.

Hearing this, Missy wipes her hands on a napkin, gets up, and rushes toward Scully, holding her hand out for the phone.

Scully ignores her, keeps the phone to her own ear as the caller speaks to her. “I am, but I was actually wondering about you. Mel told me your worries. How are you doing, Dana?”

Scully is now particularly spooked. Who is this woman, and why does she know all of her business? Missy pokes Scully in the bicep, then gestures for the phone. Scully hasn’t seen her sister this greedily desperate since she snuck out the window when she was seventeen and needed Scully to unlock the front door so she could get back in before their parents woke up.

“Um, Trinity is it, Missy--Mel wants to talk to you.”

“Oh, okay! It was nice to finally meet you!” the cheery voice practically sings. Scully just nods and makes her usual ‘Mulder you’re crazy face’ as she hands the phone off to her sister.

“Hi, Trin.” Missy speaks in a rush. “I can’t really talk right now, but Dana is home and all the tests were negative so she’s doing okay. I’ll call you tonight, alright?”

Scully can hear the voice on the other line, but she can’t make it out. Her sister says “I love you, bye” into the phone, then hangs up.

Scully raises an eyebrow, feeling it her duty as the little sister to pry. “Who was that…?”

Missy puts the phone back on the wall, circles around to her plate, sits down. She answers calmly, casually. “That’s Trinity. She lives in Portland, we used to waitress together.”

Scully slides back into the seat across from her sister. “How come you’ve never mentioned her? She seems to know a lot about me.”

“Well, you’re the reason I moved to DC and all.”

“I didn’t know you were still in contact with anyone from the West Coast.” Scully picks a stray crumb off one of her nuggets, thankful that her sister is in the line of questioning for a change.

“I bounced around the area for three years, of course I have friends from there.” She grabs her own empty paper plate, points to her sister’s. “Are you done?”

Scully pushes the plate--with two uneaten chicken nuggets--toward Missy. “With the food, yes. Not with the questions.”

Melissa takes both of the plates to the trash, then rinses her hands in the sink. “Yes. Does that answer your question?”

“Depends. What do you think my question is?”

Missy dries her hands on the dish towel, swivels to face her sister. “Is Trinity my girlfriend? Because yes, she is.”

Scully’s mouth drops open the slightest bit. She had known Missy was bi, but she had never met any of her girlfriends, not even in passing. Missy tended to keep them to herself, fearing that the Scully family might encroach on the holy ground she created. “Really?” she asks excitedly.

“Uh-huh.” Missy sits back down at the table. “For nine months now.”

“Are you serious? That’s incredible, Missy! Why didn’t you tell me?”

Missy just raises her eyebrow. Scully feels like she’s looking in a mirror. “What? You know it doesn’t bother me.”

“Sure, but mom, and Bill…”

“I don’t think that mom would be upset by it,” Scully answers level-headedly. “Surprised maybe, but not mad.”

Missy balls up a napkin, tosses it back and forth between her own hands. “I don’t know that she would be, I just...don’t trust that she wouldn’t. And besides, nothing mom says or does will change how I feel about Trinity. So it’s not really a pressing issue. No need to cause a scene.”

“I can’t believe you moved here without mentioning her. I wouldn’t have let you leave her, you know.”

Missy laughs. “Oh, I do. That’s why I didn’t say a word.” Scully’s laugh is her first genuine one all day.

“She seems very nice,” Scully says, flicking a crumb off the table.

“Oh no, she’s a total bitch,” Missy replies. There’s a moment of silence while Scully figures out that was a joke, then they both laugh.

“Just kidding. I love her very much.” Missy’s smile could melt ice. “I’m glad you got to talk to her. Now my two favorite ladies have technically met!”

“I’m afraid to ask whether I’m in first or second place.”

Missy reaches out across the table. “I moved across the country for you, honey.” Then, with a smirk--”But I could move back any day now, so watch out!”

Scully smiles, nods. She can’t imagine what these past few weeks would have been like without her sister near. She hopes Missy never goes away again, as unrealistic a thought as it is. If there are angels on Earth, her sister is one. But Mulder too has emerged as a force in her life; no one destabilized her life quite like him, but he would be her rock if she let him, she knows this. She owes him a call. She knows that too.

#i think this is the best part so far #it's angsty as helllllllll #and two big reveals!!#the x-files #only the light fic #missy and scully fic #txf fanfic #txf #dana scully #melissa scully #mine

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imjustthemechanic · 3 years

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The Price of a Soul

Part 1/? - Agent Russel Part 2/? - The Letter Part 3/? - Miss Lake Part 4/? - The Stewardess Part 5/? - An Assassination Part 6/? - Fallout Part 7/? - Face to Face Part 8/? - Deals, Details, and Other Devils Part 9/? - Baggage Part 10/? - Private Funding Part 11/? - Just Passing Through Part 12/? - Party of Four Part 13/? - Resolute

Sure enough, something shows up on the sonar.

Their final stop before the search could begin was the tiny village of Resolute, which consisted of a few houses huddled around a little sandy bay in the midst of an otherwise breathtakingly inhospitable landscape of craggy rocks and ice. The beach itself had to serve as a runway for a nail-biting landing in the arctic darkness, but Howard pulled it off with a smile and then got out a sextant.

“I’m gonna double-check our position before we turn in,” he said.

“I’ll get some supper out,” Lake offered.

“You really think we’re going to let you anywhere near our food?” asked Peggy.

“Suit yourself,” Lake said with a shrug.

As it turned out, they did not need to start on their rations. The town itself was inhabited almost entirely by the local Inuit people, who rarely saw visitors and many of whom did not speak good English, but Peggy could find no fault with their hospitality. A party of them soon approached the plane to ask if the group were lost and to offer food and warm clothing. Peggy assured them that she and her companions were quite all right and just passing through – but when she thought of the army rations stowed under the seats of the airplane, she simply couldn’t refuse the offer of a hot meal.

This consisted of flatbread with berries, venison soup, and rhododendron tea served up in one of the little kitchens of the town, while out the north-facing window they could see the green curtain of the aurora borealis moving sinuously across the sky. Howard spread out a small navigation map on the table, and pointed to their position.

“We’re here, and it looks like Kay’s coordinates are just west of us,” he said. “We’ll start on the exact spot and go in a spiral outwards.”

Lake nodded and swallowed a mouthful before turning to the house’s owners and asking them a question in what Peggy had to assume was their own language. There was a surprised reply, and then what sounded like an exchange of pleasantries before the woman pointed to the west and began describing something, using her hands to indicate a thing that had moved across the sky.

Peggy’s heart quickened. She had no idea what Lake had said, of course… it could be she’d asked this woman to play-act. It was better not to get her hopes up. And yet in that moment, for the first time she found herself thinking that maybe, just maybe, Lake was telling the truth. Maybe the Valkyrie really was out there. Maybe they really were here to bring America’s lost hero home. If that happened… would she trust Lake thereafter? It was hard to say, although she doubted it.

“She says they saw the plane go over and come down in that direction,” Lake translated. “They didn’t think it had crashed at first, because they didn’t see an explosion, but a hunting party found part of the wing on the rocks a few months later. A mother polar bear had dug her den underneath it.”

“We’ll have to be careful, then,” said Peggy. She had no desire to run afoul of any large carnivores.

“A couple of shots will drive it off,” Howard said. “Or make it into a very nice rug.”

“A conversation piece, to be sure,” Peggy observed.

Their hosts had no spare beds but did offer them extra blankets so they wouldn’t be too cold sleeping on the floor of the plane. That was just as well, Peggy realized, because otherwise Lake would have had no bedclothes at all. She looked quite comfortable curled up with her head on her folded coat, and it made Peggy wonder what sort of places she was used to sleeping in.

Halfway through that thought, she realized she was on the verge of feeling sorry for this woman, and quickly quashed it.

In the morning they got up well before it was light and ate a quick breakfast. Howard buckled himself into the pilot’s seat, Jason took up his position next to the sonar equipment, and Peggy and Lake sat on opposite sides of the plane so that they could watch the landscape on both sides. A crowd of children from the village turned out to watch the plane take off, and waved as they roared into the air. Lake smiled out the window and waved back.

Peggy kept her eyes glued to the window as they flew out over the frozen ocean. On a sunny day, the light reflecting off the miles upon miles of ice and snow would have been blinding. In the pre-dawn, there was very little to see at all.

“Okay, okay! We’ve got a reading!” said Jason eagerly.

Lake started to get up, but Peggy held up a hand. “Don’t you dare,” she said. “The last thing Howard and Jason need is you carrying tales of their technology back to Russia with you.”

“This isn’t patented yet,” Jason agreed.

Lake seemed to think about it, then reluctantly sat back down again. Peggy stayed seated, but moved so that she could see the paper unspooling. Based on the lines his pens were tracing out, it seemed like the top of the ice was quite flat, but the bottom very craggy, and the seafloor beneath gently sloped down. The black trace suddenly jumped up to above the other two before falling back down again.

“See that? We just passed another little island,” said Jason. “This one I think is no more than maybe a hundred yards across.”

Lake pressed her face to the window. “I don’t… I guess we’re already passed it.”

“You might see it on the way back,” said Jason. “Or it might be totally buried in snow. Fresh snow isn’t dense enough to show up.”

They pressed on.

The sun rose slowly, throwing the icescape below into startlingly high relief. Every rock, every crack, and every stunted bush had its own coal-black shadow stretching away to the west. Peggy squinted, trying to spot anything that looked artificial, but in this light every shape seemed to have the same unnatural sharp corners.

“Oh, look at that!” said Lake.

“What?” Peggy asked, and then made out a long, snaking crack between ice floes, with shapes moving along it almost like cars on a road. For a moment Peggy had no idea what it was, but then a shadow showed that they were, in fact, narwhals with their long tusks, using the space as a highway to keep breathing as they headed south. She wondered where they were going.

The cetaceans were in view for only a few moments before the plane left them behind, and then Peggy heard a dreamy sigh from Lake.

“Unicorns of the sea,” the woman said happily.

Peggy was a bit puzzled. “You said you’d been here before.”

“Yeah, but I’ve never seen a narwhal,” Lake told her. “There are so many unspoiled places still left in the world… maybe I’ll get to see some of them.”

“The view isn’t very good from prison,” Peggy replied darkly.

“Hey!” Jason said suddenly. “Hey, hey, Howard! Turn around and fly over this area again!”

Peggy turned around to look. There was a scribble on his polygraph paper, where for just a moment, all three pens had twitched and drawn over each other… just as he’d said they would when encountering a man-made object. Her heart quickened and she turned to look out the window again, but there was nothing visible there except ice. The landscape outside tilted as the Skytrain made a wide turn, and Peggy squinted… would their be any sign?

Something glinted in the sun. Was that ice, or metal?

“There it is again!” said Jason. “That’s loud. It’s got to be either rock or metal. Fly around east-west this time so we can get another angle on it.”

The plane swung round again. They passed the narwhal highway, though the sun was now too high for the individual animals’ shadows to be seen. Their lane of open highway sparkled as the water moved, and Peggy wondered if all she’d seen earlier had been a puddle or a bit of unusually smooth ice. This time it seemed to take much longer for them to get back to the same spot, but then it happened for a third time. The needles zagged wildly across the paper, and Jason beamed in triumph.

“Did you get our heading?” he called to Howard.

“Got it!” the reply came back. “Does anybody see anything?”

“I may have seen a piece of something metallic, but it’s very hard to tell in all the snow,” said Peggy.

“All right, we know where to look now, heading back to Resolute!” Howard said. The plane began to turn again.

This seemed to come as a surprise to Lake. “We’re not landing?” she asked.

“This thing isn’t designed to land on the ice, Doll-Face,” Howard replied. “We’d probably go right through.”

“And here I thought Howard Stark would have more tricks up his sleeve,” said Lake.

“Now you’ve done it,” Peggy told her. “He won’t rest until he’s made it work.”

The locals in Resolute were interested to hear about the results of their quest – Peggy suspected that very little ever happened in such a place, and this was the most excitement they’d seen since the end of the war. There were congratulations all around, and Howard had no trouble renting a pair of sleds and teams of wonderfully fluffy malamute dogs to pull them. To Peggy’s surprise, Lake seemed to fall in love with these animals immediately. She knelt down to ruffle their thick coats and let them lick her face, cooing endearments to them in English and the local language both.

“You wouldn’t have struck me as a dog person,” Peggy observed.

“I had a friend who absolutely adored them,” Lake told her. “If I met these pretty boys and girls and didn’t tell them how much he would have loved them, he’d haunt me to the end of my days.”

Peggy wouldn’t have wanted to take too much advantage of the people of Resolute and their hospitality, but the alternative was those rations on the plane, so she allowed them to be invited for supper again. It was very much the same as the previous meal but that was all right, as was the fact that Lake and a couple of the children were trying to give Howard and Jason lessons in Inuktitut. That gave Peggy an opportunity to let her surroundings fade into the background and analyze her own thoughts.

Did she believe they’d found the Valkyrie? It squared with the descriptions Lake claimed to have gotten from the locals, but Peggy still didn’t know if she’d been truthful about that. There certainly wasn’t any sort of secret base, though, unless it had somehow been built on the seafloor and the ice allowed to re-freeze above it. That seemed enormously impractical. How would they bring in people and supplies? The locals would surely notice, unless everything were done by submarine… and if there were submarine traffic in the area, there would probably not be any shy cetaceans like the narwhals.

But if it were the Valkyrie, then what did that mean? How had Lake ever managed to find the place, and why, having done so, had she chosen to tell nobody but Peggy? She very much doubted it was just to be nice. She wanted Peggy to feel in her debt… she’d gone to the effort of coming along on the expedition to be sure they all knew who had made this possible. She was going to want some kind of repayment. Was all this just to secure Peggy’s help in getting Dottie back to the USSR alive, or was there something else?

She knew better than to ask. Lake would not give her an answer.

Peggy also wondered what she was going to do if they found the Valkyrie. Lake had described Steve’s body lying there above the plane, having been forced out the windows as seawater poured in. That meant if they uncovered the wreck, it would be one of the first things they saw. Peggy had to prepare herself for that. When she’d thought this was all some kind of trick, she hadn’t needed to worry about her own emotional stability but now that the specter of actually finding him had reared its head… she didn’t know if she were ready.

And that was absurd, because Peggy had always lost Steve Rogers three times. The first had been when she’d heard the radio go dead, and knew that he was thousands of miles away dying among fire and ice. At the time she’d sat there and sobbed mindlessly for a while. Phillips had patted her back and assured her it had probably been quick. She’d drifted through the next few days in a kind of numbed haze, wanting desperately to get drunk but not allowing herself to do so. Steve had not been able to get drunk when his lifelong friend had plummeted into a ravine, only days earlier. Why should Peggy be permitted the privilege?

She’d lost him again a week later, when she’d waited all night at the Stork Club, knowing he wouldn’t be there but hoping against hope. Of course he hadn’t come. At sunrise she’d finally gone home. When she’d heard Steve die on the radio, Peggy had felt hollowed out, as if she had no room for anything inside her but sorrow. Leaving the Stork Club, she’d felt resigned and empty. She was a tiny mote whose hopes and dreams and loves meant nothing in the face of a cold, uncaring world, and she would have to live with that.

The third time had been when she’d poured the vial of blood into the East River. That had been sad, but peaceful. It was time to let him go, and Peggy was ready to do so. She would move on, and follow his example as best she could.

Could she really lose him a fourth time? Could she look at his corpse in the ice and know that this time there was no room for even the most fleeting of fantasies, that the truth really was as cold and hard as the arctic ice? Peggy didn’t know, and she wasn’t even sure she wanted to find out.

#fanfic #captain america #agent carter #peggy carter #steve rogers #steggy #fix it fic

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