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yourolddunsparce · 4 months

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Benny the Butcher - Everybody Can't Go

Y.O.D, signing on,

WE ARE SO (kinda) BACK BABY

Alright, before I get into this, I gotta apologize for not dropping part 2 of my other post. I got like zero interaction and was massively discouraged, but after talking with other tumblr people I learned a very valuable lesson. Reblog all your shit. I told myself I was going to react to this album as soon as I could and not wait for the weekend, and I've had it on repeat for all of my work day, so I'm massively excited. Especially because I quite enjoy this album! This will act as my first "review", but I don't have the musical knowledge nor background to elaborate on what I really want to describe, so I'll be saying a lot of "I like this, I don't like this". If you want some actual in-depth critique from a huge Griselda fan, go watch B-Side Rap Reviews when he eventually drops a reaction video, if he even does. He's not a particularly huge fan of Hit-Boy, so he may skip on this all together, but who knows? It looks like he still has to react to Boldy James's latest project as well, but I like his content, so I hope he does. Let's get back into this though, for real.

(EDIT: Okay fine, I dropped it Saturday, sue me)

Background

As a small introduction, you should know that Benny the Butcher is an absolute fraud, because his real name is Jeremie. Carving out a niche in Buffalo, NY with his cousins Alvin and Demond, he's since started his own label, Black Soprano Family. The majority of his output for last year were features with many of his B$F crew, as well as some higher profile appearances on various projects with his Griselda brothers and a Smoke DZA + Flying Lotus collaboration album (I still need to check that one out). This followed up a huge 2022 when he dropped the latest installment to his critically acclaimed Tana Talk series, culminating in Griselda Records collectively receiving their first ever GOLD certified record. Safe to say, the Butcher has kept busy these past couple of years, especially with the crafting of his Def Jam debut in the new album. Originally set to release as early as August of last year, it got pushed back to this first month of this year. With dual production from Hit-Boy and The Alchemist, it's easy to be concerned with the lack of credits from Daringer and the Griselda stable of producers fans are used to hearing. As you'll soon find out, however, it makes for a mostly solid debut album on his first major label, so I think it all worked out well enough! No, we will not be talking about his mediocre Freddie Gibbs beef.

Track by Track

Jermanie's Graduation - The first Alchemist beat, and holy shit does it hit. Benny the Butcher has quite frankly never missed on intro tracks, and this is no different. A classic piano loop accompanied by a 3 minute verse and no hooks, Benny at his finest. He spits about his come up and keeping his clique together (and emphatically dispels any rumors of leaving his Griselda ties behind on his path to the mainstream), going from the streets to private jets as he flows over the beat. I could definitely do without the poop bars though ("So I'm shitting around these pussies just like a all-gender restroom"), but it's a top tier intro track that sets up new listeners for what's to come while exciting Griselda fans.

BRON - The first Hit-Boy beat, and probably my favorite one, but I don't think it holds much of a candle to Alchemist's beats. You'll see my point later on, but the layered horns make you bounce in your seat while Benny flexes about rich people things. Third single off the album, but I'm confused as to why it wasn't the first. Lebron has been seen vibing out to Burden of Proof and many other Benny projects before, dropping this as the first single probably gets this much more hype then the Lil Wayne feature. I know he's probably going to post a clip of him working out to this though, this track bangs hard.

Big Dog (w/Lil Wayne) - The big single off the album, I like just about everything except the hook and the outro. Benny and Tunechi are sliding on this beat with no effort, and Wayne especially delivers a great verse. The sample sounds like this synth being reversed accompanied by clattering piano chords that pop in occasionally. Not my favorite Alchemist beat, but the dog barks he adds lend to the theme well. The only thing I'm really caught up on is that stressed hook, I'm not convinced Benny can make it work. I especially dislike the outro being a refrain of the hook, and I don't think it adds much to the track, but overall it's an enjoyable listen. Wayne shouts out the Suns too, but they're barely clinging on to the 6th seed, come on.

Everybody Can't Go (w/Kyle Banks) - By far my least favorite track, it's a definite skip for me. The actual song itself isn't that bad, but I think the chipmunk sample is tuned up way too much, to the point where it actively annoys me. It sounds eerily similar to Burden of Proof's Thank God I Made It, which is where I think most of my frustration comes from. It's got a better sample, a better hook, and Benny delivers a sweet tribute to both his mother and shouts out his deceased brother Machine Gun Blak (a very important footnote in Griselda history). Not that this track's lyrical content is lacking, but he's setting himself up for some terribly aged bars depending on this year's election cycle ("Know ima win, like the election if Trump run again").

TMVTL - Griselda fans, this is the one. Vintage storytelling from the Butcher on a double beat switch from The Alchemist. Benny switches up his flow in the first beat switch before reverting back when the second one rolls around, and the eerie soundscapes provided let him tell some haunting stories, with a repeating sentiment of trust over love in some chilling bars. It really turns up in the third half, when he's rapping about himself in third person in a story mirroring a real-life incident where he got shot in the leg. I'm not sure if Benny's done any post release interviews to confirm my speculation, but it would add another layer to the highlight of the album if it were intentional. If you're not into Hit-Boy and the mainstream direction Benny may be headed, this is the first track you'll want to hit up.

Back Again (w/Snoop Dogg) - Probably tied for my favorite hook on the album with a little help from the Doggfather. Snoop doesn't pen an actual verse, but his catchy hook fits in this bass driven beat, courtesy of Hit-Boy. The drums hit nice, and the little xylophones in this sample bring this shit together. Nothing special from Benny as far as rapping here, but he flows well on the track for a solid performance. I wish Snoop could have dropped a verse at the end to cap everything off, but I've now added "boogie" back into my lexicon, so thank you Snoop. I could easily see this track sliding into Burden of Proof, and it's a nice change of pace being placed immediately after the grimy TMVTL. Dub for the sequencing.

One Foot In (w/Stove God Cooks) - 2nd single off the album, and it is a damn shame we don't have Stove on the hook. The adlibs Benny throws in the hook feel way too wordy to work, I think keeping the empty space between his bars would have been fine. Either shorten the adlibs or have Stove come in, but it really takes the song from potentially being great to being just good for me, like with Big Dog before. Everything else about the track is great though, and I love hearing Stove over Hit-Boy as opposed to drumless loops or chaotic Conductor Williams beats (I love Conductor though, check out his new video on his YouTube channel). His verse is funny as hell too, and Benny continues to display his chemistry with Hit-Boy in the beginning verse.

Buffalo Kitchen Club (w/Armani Caesar) - THEY AIN'T FUCKIN WITH LIZ AND THE BUTCH. Tied with Back Again for my favorite hook, I think this is probably my favorite track on the whole album. Armani Caesar fucking murders the hook, and she has a nice verse before Benny comes in to finish the job. I'm not generally a fan of sex bars in general, especially if they're older dudes (looking at you Drake, Nas), but Benny doesn't try to hammer it in, and it feels natural with his flow. This is also probably my favorite Alchemist beat on the song, the bass is absolutely perfect with those piano loops. Low key would add this to the workout playlist as well, but I'll be bumping this regardless.

Pillow Talk & Slander (w/Babyface Ray & Jadakiss) - I've listened to this song maybe 20 times now, and I still don't know what to think about it. It is by far Benny's best hook by himself on the album, I feel like he should lean more into simply 4 bar hooks then try and do what he did on Big Dog and One Foot In. I understand he wants to get in his bag though (And he really does try his hardest, believe me), and he's really showing off his versatility throughout the entire album. The beat itself is this chopped string sample with some hi-hat stutters and a piano? I feel like I've heard this melody in JRPG before, but I know I'm wrong. Babyface Ray is a really interesting artist to me, he could easily have shown up with fellow Michigander Babytron on Lyrical Lemonade's latest album, but he's clearly a big Griselda fan. He has Westside Gunn on his latest album, Summer's Mine, and he's also featured on an Alchemist project as well. Even with those influences, however, his music has stayed predominantly in the trap soundscape, so he sounds right at home with Hit-Boy's production, and he holds his own next to Benny and fucking Jadakiss. Jadakiss's voice sounds like it's steeped in gravel, but it makes his bars more menacing as he snags the third verse of the track. I honestly still don't know how much I love this track, but I do enjoy it nonetheless.

How To Rap - This beat came straight out of Roc-A-Fellas vault. I love the throwback, and this synth sample is super sick. This bass kind of hits like a whoopee cushion though, I know FL has to have better sounds then that. There's also a very faint cowbell sound you can hear, and it's kind of bugging me out, but it's still a nice beat. If anything, Jadakiss should've probably hopped on this joint, and even at 2:42, it still feels like a short track. Benny is still bringing his A-game though, and it makes for another good track coming to the finish line of this album's tracklist.

Griselda Express (w/Westside Gunn, Conway the Machine & Rick Hyde) - To air out a personal grievance I have with this track: Where is Conductor Williams? You got a track named "Griselda Express", you have Benny talking about "the Griselda train not stopping" (which happens like 16 times in the outro), and it's not produced by the dude whose entire shtick is being a Conductor?! No, I don't care if he's not actually a conductor, you're telling me we could've had these 4 on this immaculate shit?!

Anyways,

Solid track, even if it isn't the classic Griselda Big 3 (sorry Mach-Hommy) cypher you're used to on their albums. Benny, Rick, and Conway all do their thing while Gunn takes the hook (WHY I SHOOT LIKE THAT x24), which they've done in the past on Benny's projects. Personally, Rick Hyde doesn't do much for me, and I'd be okay with cutting his verse so you could make Gunn's hook slightly more tolerable. I understand putting your people on though (even if How To Rap is right there), so he's alright with me. It isn't my favorite Alchemist track, but if you're producing for a cypher, it's best for the beat not to be too busy, so I get it.

Big Tymers (w/Peezy) - Alright, this is going to be the main talking point of this album, I fear. Griselda fans, please proceed with caution, because that is Benny the Butcher using autotune on this hook. I honestly don't mind it, personally, but I'm also not sure if it actually enhances the hook either. I guess he's trying to compensate for not having the range of Mach-Hommy or the charisma of Westside Gunn, but even with auto tune, it's a super low energy hook that's almost hard to hear. Still, it's a decent track, and it definitely showcases Benny's ability to flow on trap beats (not that it was ever in question) (I know it's not an actual trap beat but it's so SICK). I had no fucking clue who Peezy was before this, but he does well enough, I think. Maybe this shouldn't have been the closer track, but I also don't know where else you put this on the tracklist.

Overall Thoughts

This was the only GIF I could find here with Benny in it, but why does Jay-Z look so perturbed? Did he forget his laundry? Is this when he found out Beyoncé knew he cheated?! That's a clean suit though, no lie.

I don't know what Benny's looking for in his career at the moment, whether it be going mainstream or simply making music he wants to make easier now that he's with Def Jam. If it's going mainstream, I think he could have definitely done a few things differently (I'm sure this dude has J. Cole on speed dial), but if he's just dropping music? Fuck it, let him do his autotune hooks. I think this was a solid project that's going to put a lot of eyes on Griselda moving forward, just as Gunn's AND THEN YOU PRAY FOR ME is currently doing. As long as these dudes make music, that's all I want. I would've loved to see Rome Streetz on this project as well, especially after learning that he's built like this:

HELLO??? WHAT IS THIS??? Get this dude on the runway immediately!!

In all seriousness though, this is a very good project for me, even if there's a few misses and not many truly "great" moments. The one song that I think will really be talked about in high regard for Benny is TMVTL, but otherwise, these all range from decent to great for most Griselda fans. For those not familiar with Griselda, however, this serves as a good base to find out what you like in Benny the Butcher. He showcases a lot of different things, and delivers (for the most part) on varying his performances and highlighting specific things about him. Maybe you enjoyed Back Again, which could lead you to Burden of Proof. If you liked Buffalo Kitchen Club, I would highly suggest Tana Talk 4. Even with more curated cuts like TMVTL, Tana Talk 3 will satisfy your tastes. If this was Benny's end goal, then mission accomplished.

You have to fix the fucking hair though dude, for real.

This is Y.O.D, signing out

#blog #hip hop #everybody cant go #benny the butcher #lil wayne #kyle banks #snoop dogg #stove god cooks #armani caesar #babyface ray #jadakiss #westside gunn #conway the machine #rick hyde #peezy #def jam #griselda #black soprano family

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precuredaily · 1 year

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Precure Bonus Day: YPC5GG ED 2

It’s been.... far too long since I reviewed some music. Go Go episode 30 brings with it a new ending theme, and the third rendition of an old favorite. The opening hasn’t changed, so refer to my earlier review of that if you missed it or want a refersher. Also, for reasons that will soon become clear, here’s my thoughts on YPC5 ending 2 and Splash Star ending 2.

And here’s a gallery to get you started: https://imgur.com/a/gCCCmWo

Yes! Precure 5 Go Go! Ending 2: “Ganbalance de Dance ~Kibou no Relay~” (Relay of Hope) by Cure Quartet

Cure Quartet is a supergroup formed for this album comprising Gojo Mayumi, Uchiyae Yuka, Kudou Mayu, and Miyamoto Kanako. AKA all the theme song singers from the first 5 series. The B track on the single is a kind of medly/tribute to all the shows in honor of the 5th anniversary.

As usual it’s a catchy bop, this time with a little more of a full band sound to it. The animation consists of everyone doing the now-familiar dance in front of Natts House or other locations. The very first shot is the girls running out of the house and leaping into the air, wearing cheerleader uniforms. These are not seen again in this ending, or anywhere else in the show. It has always struck me as strange that they were designed and used for this one shot only.

There are no counting gags like in the previous few outros, everyone does their part and well. The moves are more or less the same as in previous Ganbalance de Dance renditions, which is to say, kind of silly. The lyrics are somewhat altered once again from the Y5 version, this time dropping any slightly negative causes from the preious version and going into full optimism. Essentially the lyrics say “keep your chin up and dance the ganbalance and everything will be okay!”

Halfway through, the girls all transform into their Cure forms and perform the rest of the dance that way. Real-time transformations are rare so it’s nice to have that here, for the remainder of the show.

While most of the dance moves are the same as ever, they simplify one step, where the characters face their backs to the audience during an instrumental transition. In the Splash Star version, the villains performed this step and were shown twisting one way and then the other. Here though, it’s just stills of the girls and fairies.

There’s some weird and funny scenes that don’t fully make much sense, like Mint and Aqua holding dishes containing bean jelly and lobster, though this is probably a reference to their questionable cooking abilities.

Also, that scene contains a brief shot of Jiya and Otaka, as well as two Cinq Lumiere students. I initially thought they were Kudou Mayu and Miyamoto Kanako, who got guest appearances in the show once last season, but they aren’t. Next I thought they might be student council members, but while the girl with pigtails resembles someone we’ve seen, I can’t find a match for the girl with straight dark har. She actually loosely resembles Honoka from FWPC, but most likely they’re just generic student designs.

Speaking of cameos, Masuko Mika appears in the ending for the first time! She’s trying to snap a picture of Lemonade and the other girls are confused/excited/upset at this.

When played at the 1080p of the blurays, the digital art looks a bit upscaled, while the CG roses used for scene transitions are extremely detailed. It’s a jarring contrast now that I’ve noticed it. Otherwise, the animation and art is good, perhaps not the best it could be, but fine quality for the remainder of the show.

The ending concludes with this nice group shot of everyone mugging the camera, it’s really fun.

The instrumentation in this one is a lot of light brass, strings, a piano, a rhythm guitar, and a drum kit. There’s a small saxophone solo in the full version. The flow is smooth and upbeat, and it feels more full than the previous versions of the song. The presence of four singers also helps this sensation. There are usually at least two people singing at the same time, with the others on backing vocals. Sometimes they’re all four singing the melody, and sometimes it’s just Miyamoto. However, I think it’s my least favorite at the same time. I liked the tune because of its simplicity, and making it a big composition takes away from that in my personal opinion.

I mentioned in my review of the first ending that I liked it better than this, and I stand by that statement. I think Yes 5 remains my favorite version of the song, but it’s the last time we’ll see it, and when we hit Fresh the CG dance endings begin in force. Look forward to that, and look forward to the rest of this show!

#Precure #Pretty Cure #Yes! Precure 5 Go Go!#YPC5GG #PCD Bonus

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attourney-at-lycan · 1 year

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OKAY i finished love love paradise. now. THOUGHTS.

not enough garroth. i want more garroth. i need more garroth.

you can tell the huge difference pdh has had on mystreet if you watch s1 and llp back to back. they reference it a lot so you’d probably be clueless for some of the mentions, though they do vaguely explain some of their references.

at the beginning the voice lines were a bit weird, there was always such a weird awkward pause between the lines that was extremely obvious but it does get better after the first couple episodes

the whole dante, jenna and nicole thing bothered me. IT WASN’T. problematic per say. i dont think it was b a d but it could’ve been done much better? i do like how nicole and jenna didn’t act as if nothing happened and didn’t try getting back w/ him or give him a second chance at love. i like how dante knows he cannot repair the damage he’s done. his plot lines can be mature which sometimes takes me in for a loop. however when zane said “dante is trying, he’s just being dumb” it made me.. yknow the kombucha girl cringe meme? yeah that one. i feel like........ it was taken a bit too lightly imo? IDK HOW TO EXPLAIN IT. i just wish it was taking more seriously.

also the travlyn thing towards the end kinda.. gave me whiplash. LIKE I KNOW it was sorta foreshadowed w/ travis going “i can’t take it” in his convo w/ dante but.. IT WAS SO WEIRD? because initially it was written as a funny joke but then it wasn’t and travis was actually feeling hurt. it’s just i don’t think it was done well enough so it came off as a sudden change in tone thats jarring

oh my god am i being too harsh- i feel like i was being too harsh bc this was not written by a genius so idk why im critiquing it so harshly im so sorry. but i’m still going bc i can :]

BUT ANOTHER THING. the whole aphmau being scared of swimming was hhh? on one hand i feel like it was taken wayy too seriously but at the same time i feel like it wasn’t taken seriously enough at times. by that i mean, aphmau seems to be the type to trust her friends a lot regardless, and she encourages her friends to tell her things no matter how embarrassing they may be, but when it comes to her, she stubbornly refuses to tell anyone but zane. but then when everyone knows, no one takes her fear seriously w/ pushing her into the water or going “lmao you’re overreacting”. maybe it’s me because i also cannot swim and it’s sooo fucking scary being in chest level water. tbh im honestly overreacting bc i would also laugh if someone was in my position ngl

WHERE WAS LAURANCE. WHERE THE. FUCK. WAS MY FAVORITE QUEER?

gene was great i love gene he’s so fun. it was honestly so weird him appearing like that. also what did they do to ivy. i wish ivy kept her haughty behavior but i do get her maturing or wtver but i just wish there was still that spunk now to me she feels like a bland.. character who’s just changed to good.

ONE MORE THING. i forgot what i ti was. GOD I SAID THIS ALREADY BUT SYLVANNA REALLY PISSED ME OFF THIS SEASON. i was fine w/ her not knowing that her daughter had a boyfriend but still going against her wishes despite knowing she has one afterwards simply because you don’t like him hrggghr. i know that mom’s can be annoying like that yeah but jesus fuck it does not help.

honestly aaron was just.. The Boyfriend, yet again. i did like how it was obvious that aaron was becoming more comfortable w/ the people around him and being more outgoing. it was cute. however. most of the things coming out of his mouth was aphmau. EVEN WHEN IT WAS DANTE’S PROBLEM HE COULD NOT HOLD BACK FROM BRINGING UP APHMAU IM SO TIRED.

anyway i give this season...... honestly 8/10? i know i complained a lot abt this seasons but it was genuinely fun to watch. i liked the other little side characters like the token gay couple (guy and nate + teony and The Girl who’s name they mentioned but i forgot), the dad and his son, also the bartender-

ONCE AGAIN i would love to mention this mini review is totally based off my personal taste yaddah yaddah, this is a very subjective and biased post so :thumbsup:

#aphmau #mystreet

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plothooksinc · 1 year

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fic writer asks: 🌈🎈☯️?

🌈is there a fic that you worked *really fucking hard on* that no one would ever know? maybe a scene/theme you struggled with?

There is not! Not that I don't work hard/struggle with my writing, but if I'm having difficulty with a scene you can bet I've been whining about it to anyone who'll listen |D For scenes/themes I struggle with in general, though, definitely the connective tissue scenes which are required between Plot Point A and Plot Point B. In which just enough has to happen to pass some time or set things up, and very often my mind goes very ???? ????? for those and I keep sort of tapping away with random lines until something clicks and I'm like "ah yes this will work". (I can think of themes I would definitely struggle with, but those are themes that would not tend to surface in my work at all, for a variety of reasons. You won't ever get high angst in my stories, for instance.)

🎈describe your style as a writer; is it fixed? does it change?

My style tends to be a kind of bastardisation between Janny Wurts, Guy Gavriel Kay, and Stephen King. 8|a It does change on the regular, subtle fluid changes which largely depend on who I've been reading more of lately-- I'm very easily influenced and inspired by the styles of others if I fall in love with their writing, but I suspect I have a base that stays the same underneath. The more confident I get with a piece of writing, the more experimental the writing may get, and sometimes I start something on a whim and go HEY YEAH LET'S BE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT and I end up first person present tensing all over the place or some such weirdness. I shift slightly based on the kind of story I want to write. Most of my stuff falls into the action/adventure category so that's what you'll see most of the time. But then I want to write something that focuses far more on environment and harsh reality, and I'll sit down and try and really make my writing reflect that. I can see the difference. (It's much, much harder and doesn't come naturally. I'd put Snowblind in this category.) So...mostly fixed, wavers a bit at the edges, then changes drastically for drastically different themed projects (but probably veers closer to what most people are familiar with as I go on those). ☯️how do you think engaging with each other through tumblr, twitter, comments, kudos, creates healthy fandom experiences? How do you deal with that if you're not a social person/experience social anxiety?

Oof. Okay, so, I actually have a social anxiety disorder and a generalised anxiety disorder, so... I can say that, for me, it's very hard to reach out to other fandom people. When they engage with me first I can meet them on their level and it's much easier from there as my brain has tagged them as "oh they want to talk to me! :D :D" and thus it's easier? This is why my reviews to everyone ever are extremely terrible and one note because my mind goes utterly blank when I try to tug on someone else's sleeve and go "...hey", but I can reply to people just fine! The onus shouldn't be on other people, though, so I keep trying. For the other part of the question-- I think engagement is very important. It allows people in fandom to feel seen, to engage and share their love of characters and find other people on their wavelength, and it keeps fandoms healthy and colourful and alive. (It also creates drama, yes, so navigate the waters with care and don't feed the trolls.) So I'm always happy to talk fandom with people and I reply to all comments I get these days (I did go through a huge portion of time I didn't respond at all and I'm sorry to all those people who wrote me at Underdark or elsewhere and didn't get a response, you were seen and I loved you) and I'm happy just being silly in my own corner with anyone who wants to come and be silly with me. \o/ ...just don't ask me for in depth analysis on stuff because I'm... decent at writing that in a fictional sense but not so much on the fly. lmao. Thank you! Ask meme is here.

#@consultingjedi #fic ask meme

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soul-wanderer · 2 years

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First Kill - a (very subjective) review:

Let me preface this by saying that I am probably not quite the target audience age wise, but even if I acknlowledge that some of the teen angst is meant to be, there’s still plenty plots and writing that was done pretty cheaply imo, even for a show that was mainly produced for teens/young adults.

- Was it the writing? Was it the acting? I am not sure, but for some reason the chemistry between Jul and Cal was just...lacking, a lot of the time. But I will give the actresses the benefit of the doubt and say it was mostly due to the writing or maybe they just made a mistake when they cast two actresses who were well above the age they were gonna portray on the show (will Hollywood ever learn not to do this? The short answer is No. The slightly longer answer is that they did this on purpose because of the unexpectedly sexual scenes throughout the season)

- The amount of plot holes, man. I can’t even list them here, because...dude. This is what happens when you take a short story and don’t properly develop it for a whole show. Then again, it’s teen angst and the plot probably wasn’t the focus, but still. If there ever is a second season, this is gonna be a wild ride

- There’s vampires. Fine. Let’s just bring in every other mythical character we can think of, okay? Not okay. For real. You lost me at zombies, sorry not sorry.

- I will not hold it against the producers or writers but this Romeo and Juliet trope needs to be done with. Please.

- Both sides keep blaming the other side for stuff they started and just?!? It gets pretty darn tiring by the final episode of season one

- A snake? Inside daddy dearest’s chest? Seriously? No explanation? Sure, fine, let’s roll with that...I guess.

- Bro just unhinged his jaw to eat grandma? Okay, that was freaking funny, as long as you don’t overthink what’s happening

- Not ONCE do we learn how exactly people get turned into vampires. Which- fine, okay. But from what we have seen it’s the same act as them feeding and killing people, so - what’s the difference here? How do they control that power? Anyone?

- Jul clearly doesn’t know how this shit works. How would she, if not even the writers know? And Cal still blames her for turning her brother? Your vampire girlfriend clearly did not expect this to happen, because no one ever taught her the different between feeding and turning someone into a freaking vampire

- Cal being upset is fine, truly, but calling Jul a monster and shit? After all the “maybe not all monsters are the same” talk the whole season? That seems like a bit of a stretch, even if she’s upset and angry. I truly hope they resolve that if there’s ever a second season

- the visual effects were crap at a lot of points, sometimes it’s as plain as that

But also:

- Aubin Wise single-handedly carried that show on her shoulders. Seriously, give that woman an award for that level of acting skills

- Also, Talia and Oliver are the only two people with common sense on that show? They’re awesome and deserve more spotlight

- Seriously though, I’m here for Oliver fucking shit up and he’s the kind of villain we deserve

- Talia and Margot - need I say more? Let’s be real, this story should have been about them to begin with

- The vampire origin story was actually good? Like? I can get on board with this and in general I support the snake being part of the plot - unless she’s in someone’s freaking chest

- Solid soundtrack choices were made - thanks for that

Long story short: it’s probably enjoyable for younger audiences and entertaining for “older” audiences if you can overlook the clichés and plot holes, but mostly worth it for a) badass and hot mums and b) the openly insane but sane brother who is ready to fight the matriarchy, hey ya!

#First Kill #Juliette Fairmont #Calliope Burns #Aubin Wise #Margot x Talia #spoilers #it's entertaining if you don't overthink it

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placegrenette · 1 year

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Every Ninety One Song Reviewed: “Órik,” 2022

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“Órik,” released as a single, 2022 Music credits: Daniyar Kulumshin (Bala) Lyrics credits: Dulat Mukhametkaliev (ZaQ) Music video director: Adil Kazkenov

We are back to our regularly scheduled programming. Apparently the album’s not coming out until March (and all signs right now point to it being an album, not just an EP) but the album pre-promo is flowing so freely that I took a few days off to write about some brave men whose work had nothing to do with Kazakhstan or pop music but is nevertheless worth your time, and suddenly I’m two singles behind.

The first of the two, “Órik,” feels like it’s trying to cover ground “Bol Bizben Birge” left alone. The previous single was an Alem/Ace collaboration; this one is all Bala on the music. The previous single was melodic and sentimental; this is a bhangra-laced trapfest whose central metaphor may be sexual. (Maybe? Probably? I went through the English subs three times and I’m still not sure. On the one hand, Bala seems to be talking about a beat, or energy; on the other, I don’t think the peach emoji has an alternate meaning in Kazakhstan.) The last video had wholesome Christmas tree decorating; this one has sops to TikTok and Ace getting felt up by a skeleton.

I mean, I don’t blame you, skeleton (and Ace doesn’t seem to either), but the man is making actual progress on getting an apartment, maybe wait for some privacy before you go stealing second base.

Oh, what do I think of the song? Y’all should know by now it’s not a good sign when I’m this far into the review and I haven’t talked about the song. We are all grateful that my critical opinion has absolutely no effect on the commercial and personal successes of Ninety One. Also that my enemies couldn’t see my face the first time I heard that “shimmy-shimmy-shimmy” bit. (From Ace; Alem gets through his part with considerably more dignity.) No, this is not one of the better efforts. It’s a cute B-side, like “Qiyalman” before it, but “Qiyalman” had guitars and a bit of self-deprecating social criticism, and “Órik” has neither. The chorus has exactly one idea repeated over and over. Even ZaQ’s rap feels only half-filled in, as if he were thinking ahead to future set lists where “Órik” might land between two songs with more demanding bars.

On the plus side, we do get English subs this time. (Which occasionally raise more questions than they answer: this is the first time ever I’ve seen sau bol translated as “bless you,” rather than the literal “be healthy” or the more common “bye.”) And given the sheer speed of events, I think, like “Suraqtar,” this was something they knocked out quickly rather than investing a lot of time and pride. Which is fine! They don’t have to bring their A game to every single song, especially if they’re going to be prolific. Let Bala have his fun shuffle. But let’s not make more of this than it is.

How’s the Hair/Styling? The preppy look actually suits ZaQ nicely; Bala deserves credit for being game for Zhadra’s more daring hair-color ideas, but I’ll be glad when they move on; Alem is on the verge of being too old for this setup; and Ace would probably be okay if his hair were a different color (he was already back to brown by the time of the Astana concert on the 23rd), cut more flatteringly, or both. Should You Start Here? No, but I say that as someone who generally finds TikTok irritating and don’t particularly want to encourage the guys’ efforts on that platform.

#ninety one #every ninety one song reviewed #come find me eaglez #music from kazakhstan

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tamakiamajikistentacles · 4 years

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Bite to Break Skin {Katsuki Bakugo}

A/N: Please be sure to reblog, comment, review, and like if you enjoy! Feedback is what keeps me motivated! Welcome to my first time writing for A/B/O dynamics, one of my absolute favorite things in fanfic. There’s so much potential and I’m definitely interested in exploring it with other characters! Just a small heads up, this one is pretty dialogue heavy throughout.

“C’mon,” he said as his breathing finally slowed, “we gotta get up.”

The fingers combing through his damp hair paused. “Can I wear your shirt?”

“You’ve been wearin’ ‘em for years, ain’t gonna stop you now, idiot,” he huffed as he peeled himself away from her, their skin tacky with sweat. “Let’s go.”

“Don’t be shitty to me, Katsuki, I have your virginity!”

“And I have yours. Even exchange. No reason to stop teasing you,” he grunted. Pulling her to her feet he guided her towards his bathroom with a hand on her lower back.

They cleaned up in easy silence, each of them still feeling the content fuzziness in their minds that now seemed amplified and even better than usual. At different points they briefly wondered if that was normal after losing their virginities.

Probably, they decided. For them it was a natural progression in their over two-year relationship. Having gotten together just after the provisional license exam in their first year their hero course schedules only got busier and they got less time to spend together between classes and training and work studies and internships. But those moments were coveted and left plenty of time for them to take their relationship at the perfect pace for them.

Two years of wandering hands and mouths had culminated that afternoon while the majority of the class had gone to the shopping district and neither of them could regret a single thing about it.

“Katsuki?”

She felt warmth bloom in her chest as he looked over his shoulder, his eyes half-lidded and expression relaxed. “Yeah?”

“I love you,” she smiled, fingers absently twisting the hem of his shirt that she wore.

“’Course you do,” he smirked as he wrapped an arm around her shoulder and returned them to his bed, the grey sheets rumpled. He bunched them down to the end of the mattress and laid down, pulling her to lie next to him curled into his side.

He was always so warm and she loved it, now especially as the chill of January lingered in the dorm hallways and throughout their rooms. Being close to him as they laid together was one of her favorite things about their relationship. As much as he seemed like a loner in their first weeks at UA she never believed it was true and once they were together behind closed doors he was happy as long as they had some sort of contact with each other. She’d never been prouder of being right than that day.

His attentiveness was something she knew would likely contribute heavily to his secondary gender when he presented in the future. There was no doubt in her mind that he would be an alpha, and an amazing one at that. His protective streak and pride in his own abilities couldn’t be attributed to any other presentation. While she herself was unsure of what she would present as, he had always promised that it didn’t matter.

“Alphas want omegas but I want you, and that means I get you no matter what we are,” he’d grumbled one evening not that long ago when she revealed her fears of presenting as a beta and not being what his alpha would need. “Secondary gender can go fuck itself if it thinks I’d leave you over some random omega. Shit, you don’t even know if I’d be an alpha anyway, dumbass.”

If she hadn’t been sure about him before, that conversation had cemented it in her mind and in her heart. Katsuki Bakugo was the one for her and it sent her heart into a tailspin to know that he felt the same way.

She pressed herself closer to him, basking in the warmth of his body and of her thoughts.

“You’re warm,” he mumbled against her forehead.

“So’re you.”

“Nah, your skin’s pink like you took one of your showers from hell.”

She huffed out a laugh. “’M fine, Katsuki. It’s ‘cause you’re warm and I’m still kinda hot from before.”

“You’re always hot,” he said with a pinch to the seat of her underwear.

“Just cuddle me, you ass.”

His arms tightened around her and they laid together in comfortable silence. At one point she started to doze against the warmth of Katsuki’s chest, one hand on his hip at the waistband of his sweats. She’d never felt safer.

In the middle of her dreamless nap she awoke to a persistent poking to her nose. When she opened her eyes, her boyfriend’s furrowed brow came into focus as she blinked. He pressed the back of his hand against her forehead.

“You’ve got a fever.”

She wanted to protest but the trails of sweat she could feel having trickled down her back was unmistakable. She definitely felt warm but she wasn’t disoriented or feeling sick.

“It’s like a full body fever,” Katsuki muttered, dropping his hand from her forehead.

“I feel really hot, but I don’t feel sick,” she told him, sleep leaving her as confusion took over.

He fisted the collar of the shirt she wore at the base of her neck, squeezing for just a moment before pulling back a glistening hand.

“Shirt’s soaked with sweat, take it off and I’ll get you one of my tanks,” he said, rolling out of bed and walking over to his drawers.

She peeled the sticky fabric from her skin, the feeling more uncomfortable than the fact that she was sitting topless once it was off. Nothing Katsuki hadn’t seen plenty of times after all.

A black tank top hit her chest before falling to her lap and she picked it up immediately, pressing her nose into the bundle. It’d barely been a minute since he left her side but she needed the comfort. Which is why when all she smelled was the scent of detergent her nose wrinkled.

“It doesn’t smell like you,” she complained, and he laughed from where he was straightening the other tank tops in his drawer.

“It’s clean, dumbass, I haven’t worn it yet. I’ll be next to you again in like two seconds anyway.”

“Hurry up,” she whined, slipping the tank top over her head and surprising him with her needy tone. “I haven’t smelled roasting chestnuts in almost two minutes, this is cruel. I even miss the little bit of sugar.”

He turned to her with furrowed brows. “I smell like that right now?”

“You smell like that all the time, ever since I’ve known you. What, you don’t know what your own cologne smells like anymore? You gone nose blind?”

He shook his head slowly. “My cologne is sandalwood. Always has been. The sugar I’ll give you because of my quirk but your perfume has nothing on that with your sweet cherries’n shit.”

Now it was her turn to be confused. “That’s not my perfume, Katsuki. My perfume is the same floral one I’ve worn since middle school, it’s not fruity or sweet at all. Come here, do I smell like that now?”

He crossed back over to the bed and sat in front of her, gently tugging her forward to press his nose into her hair. Her face tucked under his chin and she breathed in the same familiar scent.

“Sugared cherries just like always,” he muttered. “Do I…?”

“Mhm, roasted chestnuts with a pinch of sugar,” she replied almost dreamily. It was stronger than usual, but maybe that’s because she was concentrating on it. It felt like it was surrounding her and through her and it made her skin burn hotter. It was good. So so good, and she wanted and she needed more.

She pressed herself closer to him, his confused grunt falling on deaf ears until he grabbed her shoulders and pulled her from himself to look at her. He’d felt her skin grow warmer against his bare chest, the heat startling. But when he looked at her panic shot through him as she doubled over with a whimper.

He called her name but she didn’t answer, just clutched her stomach harder while curling further into herself and whining low in her throat.

“Alright, hey, hey, listen, okay? I’m calling Aizawa, he’ll help us figure out what’s wrong,” he tried to soothe, pulling her back into his chest. Her skin burned against his but he needed her to know he was here, he wasn’t going anywhere when she wasn’t alright.

It was awkward trying to reach his phone on the bedside table with her curled against him but he was hellbent on making her feel better and if that meant practically popping his shoulder out of its socket with the stretch so fucking be it.

“What’s wrong, Bakugo?” was the greeting he got and he immediately started listing off what was happening as she continued to tremble in his lap.

“She’s burning up to the point I feel like I’m touching an oven and she—”

“Todoroki’s still in the dorms, call him up and have—”

“NO!” he snarled into the phone. “He doesn’t need to be near her, just tell me how I can help her! She’s in fucking pain and nearly incoherent right now! You’re not fucking helping me!”

Aizawa was silent for a long moment. “Bakugo, where are you two?”

“We’re in my dorm and I’d appreciate if you could save the damn lecture for when she’s actually conscious enough to fuckin’ hear it too.”

“How long has she been like this? What was she doing when she started feeling the fever? Is there anything that’s—”

“For fuck’s sake, I don’t know! An hour or so and we were just here, she was asleep while I scrolled through my phone.”

Aizawa’s tone went knowing as he prompted, “And before that?”

He weighed his options for answering. They were already in shit for her being on the boys’ side of the dorms, how much worse could it be? They were consenting adults and they were responsible about it and if it did help figure out why she was—

“That’s what I thought,” Aizawa sighed before he could decide how to answer. “I can’t be there to help but I’m sending Recovery Girl. Try and keep her comfortable until she arrives.”

When the line went dead, he could only mumble out curses as he dropped his phone and kept her pressed against him. Her little noises of pain had lessened and she didn’t feel as tightly coiled in his arms as she had, but he was still worried. At least the old lady might actually be able to do something.

“Well I must hand it to Aizawa,” Recovery Girl chuckled as she pulled the thermometer from her lips, “the man does know his students.”

“The hell are you laughing for?” Bakugo hissed. He had been pacing back and forth while she examined her, hovering close and getting more frustrated by the moment. Sure, his girlfriend didn’t seem to be in pain at the moment but he wanted whatever caused it to be taken care of now.

“Don’t take that tone with me, boy, you may be an alpha but I won’t be disrespected.”

He did a double take, sputtering, “An alpha? I’m eighteen, I haven’t presented!”

She smiled in amusement. “Not fully, no, but you’re both presenting as we speak. Fated mates can present at an earlier age when establish an intimate connection prior to turning twenty. It likely hit her first being an omega and that pulled you over too. I must say I’m a bit surprised as fated mates are quite rare at your age, though maybe even more so that this took so long. It’s admirable of you children to take things slow but when I was your age—”

“We’re fated mates?” she murmured, breaking the older woman’s rambling. “So we…?”

“Quite a spin on the high school sweetheart’s trope wouldn’t you say? Certainly a story for the pups.”

“Wait, so she’s burning up because…” he trailed off as his cheeks flushed pink. “This is…”

“Yes, yes, this is her heat beginning and your rut will follow, keep up boy. I’m sure I don’t need to go into detail on that—”

“NO!” they shouted together, mortified.

She laughed, high pitched and maniacal. “Oh alright, I’ve had my fun. You children are so easy to poke at these days. But I do suppose we need to get you prepared for the next week or so. Dear, make a list of things you’ll need from your room and Bakugo will go fetch them for you.”

“I can’t just go myself?”

“Look at that boy’s face and tell me he’s alright with you leaving his den.”

Of course when she looked to him Katsuki’s face was contorted into an angry grimace, his lips twitching back to bare his teeth.

“Just tell me what you need,” he ground out, and she quickly rattled off everything she could think of that she may possibly need. Without a word he disappeared through the door, a lingering touch to her hand a silent promise to return quickly so as to soothe any worries of abandonment or actions that could be interpreted as rejection by her inner omega.

Recovery Girl turned the chair towards her and grabbed her bag from the floor. “We have a few things to discuss now, dear.”

She went over the arrangements made by Aizawa for their classes and schoolwork as well as daily drop offs of prepared bento boxes for them since they wouldn’t be leaving Bakugo’s room. Their parents had been contacted which sent a fresh wave of nausea through her for reasons other than the heat, but she was assured that it wasn’t as a punishment since they were both eighteen. Still, she could only image the conversation she would hear at the end of her heat when she heard from home.

Expectations of what would happen during the shared heat and rut were next and she while she was sure her face couldn’t get any hotter, she was proven wrong. As awkward as it was though, at least she was talking it over with another woman; having the same conversation with Aizawa would have killed her.

Finally, it seemed that the verbal torture was finished as Recovery Girl reached into her medical bag with one hand and beckoned her closer with the other.

“Let me see your arm, I need to give you a preventative injection.”

“Ah, I uhm,” she stuttered, cheeks still reddened but not from the heat, “I’m already taking…”

Recovery Girl shook her head with a chuckle. “Presenting alters your existing biology by releasing additional hormones which awaken parts of your mind and body that contribute to the primal instincts of your secondary gender. Generic contraceptive methods would be fine for a newly presented beta but as an omega the hormones released at presentation boost your fertility to a point where the pill may as well be candy for all the prevention it does.”

“Oh.”

“Yes, ‘oh.’ Now unless you and that boy of yours have decided that you want pups within the year I need to give you this.” The syringe was brandished in front of her.

She held out her arm and she cleaned the area with a swab before feeling the familiar prick to her skin and the cold chill spread into her heated blood.

“Any last questions for me before he gets back?”

She went to shake her head but paused. “Just… what about our quirks?”

“Nothing to worry about, dear. Quirks take a backseat during these times unless a threat arises. Once bonded you will kill and die for the other and your pups, but for right now you two shouldn’t have an issue. I’d say ‘won’t’ but I think we both know your class has a habit of finding trouble, hm?”

“More like trouble finds us,” came a grunt from the doorway.

Katsuki reentered the room with her laundry basket on his hip and a tote bag over his shoulder. He visibly relaxed as he crossed the threshold and set her things on the floor at the foot of his bed.

She sat down on the plush area rug to go through what he’d brought, her legs tucked beneath her as Recovery Girl began speaking to him about the upcoming week like she’d done for her.

Rifling through the laundry basket she pulled out her pillows and blankets as well as her favorite hoodies, then she pulled everything out of the tote and put those sweaters and shirts onto Katsuki’s bed. Once everything was piled atop his sheets she began to sort through everything, enjoying the familiar smell of her own things mixing with the scent of Katsuki’s den. She hoped he would scent a few of his shirts and let her use his pillows and blankets for her nest.

“…and once you know the heat and rut have passed I’d like you to give me a call so I can come and assess you two.”

“Whatever,” Katsuki mumbled, his cheeks burning from the conversation as he took the offered slip of paper with her number. He’d never been more relieved to have a conversation end, and as soon as the door closed behind the terrible old bat he turned back to his girlfriend and his heart nearly stopped.

She was absently arranging his sheets with some of what he’d brought from her dorm to make the beginnings of her nest. Their combined scents filled his room to an almost dizzying potency but he had never felt more alive, more proud, and his inner alpha growled happily in his chest. Here was his mate, his omega, building a sweet-smelling nest in his den for the two of them and their pups.

The thought of pups broke through the haze of his instincts to allow nerves to set it. They were only eighteen and just about to finish their last few months at UA before becoming fully licensed heroes. Having pups wasn’t something they could do, at least… at least not now.

Recovery Girl had mentioned the preventative and rationally he knew that she wouldn’t give them something designed to fail and he was grateful for that but at the same time, he’d love to have pups with his mate. She was everything he could ever imagine wanting in a partner and he knew his mate would be the best mother to his pups. He’d thought so long before they presented and he was sure he’d think it until he took his last breath.

Her soft voice brought him out of his musings as she looked up at him through her lashes and shyly asked, “Could you… scent a few of your shirts and sweaters? For the nest?”

“’Course,” he replied, and seeing her eyes flicker towards his discarded pillows added, “You can use anything of mine. We’re mates.”

The heat-induced flush on her cheeks darkened slightly with embarrassment, but she nudged his pillow towards him anyway. He grabbed it and held it in his hands feeling both uncharacteristically anxious about scenting something for the first time and filled with pride at his mate seeking out his scent for her nest.

As he scented different things for her and she took them to construct their home for the next week or so he could see the flush fading little by little and he saw less sweat droplets running down her hairline. It was almost as if the larger and more structured the nest grew the tamer her inner omega became. That soothed him too, making him thankful for the calm before the storm of her first heat really began and pulled his rut to the forefront with it.

He leaned against the far wall as she worked in silence arranging their things into the what he assumed was a perfect nest—he didn’t know much about omega nesting instincts but it looked inviting enough to him that he had no qualms about spending the next week tangled with her in the textile haven. It was as if the movement she caused sent more of that sweet smell of hers wafting through the room and he could’ve sworn the sugary scent was getting stronger by the moment.

With a few last cursory pats to the sweatshirt walls she looked up at him.

"Do you think we'll lose ourselves in the heat and rut?" she asked quietly, shifting from foot to foot.

Katsuki sighed. "That's what happens with most people."

"You know, I… I knew you were it for me a long time ago, Katsuki. This morning is an amazing memory and I guess, even if this is how we get to spend the rest of our lives I'd like to remember this first too."

"Then maybe we can bond before it fully hits. I can… smell that it's going to hit hard again and that you're already feeling it creep up.”

The slick feeling between her thighs meant he was probably right. "Yeah. Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. I guess I'm just nervous."

"Hey, I know this whole thing became way bigger than either of us thought but I’m still me—the alpha part doesn’t change that. Shit I couldn’t even think of hurting you without wanting to die before, can you imagine what type of insufferably sweet asshole I’m gonna be now?” he asked with only mild disgust as he crossed his room to lay one hand on her hip and the other on her cheek.

The smile he received was worth the uncomfortable admission of his feelings; reassurance wasn’t his forte and sharing his feelings even less so but he’d always try for her.

“I know, and I’m happy you’re the one I get to be with.”

“C’mon, your nest looks good,” he said, easing her forward towards his bed. “We able to get in it yet?”

She kissed his cheek. “Yeah, let’s get in our nest, alpha.”

The shudder was hard for him to suppress, but he allowed her to pull him into the plush space where they laid together once more. They laid on their sides facing one another and Katsuki reached out to stroke his thumb over the back of her hand where it lay between them.

It was an unspoken agreement to take all the time they could before allowing themselves to indulge in the instincts of their new secondary genders, and they spoke quietly about what it all meant for them.

Mates were more permanent than marriage and fated mates even more so. The idea of claiming bites at only eighteen was daunting but at the same time it was always the plan anyway. Of course they knew they’d present but that seemed far off and more inconsequential the longer they were together prior to a few hours ago. They had their after-graduation plans and a claim had been a mutual desire, and even pups sometime in the far future. Secondary gender, as Katsuki had loved to point out, wouldn’t change that.

But with the presentations occurring and revealing them as an alpha/omega pair there were still some things that hadn’t been discussed or planned for, and they needed to be addressed.

“I’m getting warmer,” she murmured.

“We’ve got a long week ahead of us but it’s nothing we can’t handle,” he smirked.

She gave him a weak smile and pushed past her nerves to bring up what had been on her mind since her talk with Recovery Girl.

"Will… will you…?"

"If you want to, we can bond now while we're still mostly clear-headed. Some shit I’d like to remember too, you know?"

Her cheeks went pink. "No—well, yes that's probably a good idea but I… I'm… will you actually knot me?"

He choked on his tongue. "Fuck, shit, do you want me to? Do I need to? For your heat?"

"I don’t— Don't you need it to get through your rut?"

"It's… I don't want to make the decision for you, alright? If you want me to I will and if you don’t I won’t. ‘S always your choice.”

She rolled onto her side to face him, one hand rising up to trace his cheekbone and the slope of his nose, even the dip of his cupid’s bow until she came to a stop at his chin. She pressed lightly and he turned his head to look at her.

“I’m not afraid of you or anything like that. It’s all just very sudden and a lot to wrap my head around, you know? Six hours ago we were virgins and now we’re literally together for life. That’s not bad, just a lot.”

“I know,” he mumbled. “But it’s why I want you to make the call. I ain’t gonna force you to do something you don’t want. We got forever to figure our shit out.”

She laughed. “Yeah we do. For now though, I want you to. We’re gonna bond today and then heatshare, rutshare, and get tied together for the next week. This morning was amazing and now that we know we’re fated mates I think that’s gonna make it even better.”

“Once is all it took to get you addicted, huh?”

“Shut up!” she whined as she pushed against his shoulder and turned away with a blush. His loud laughter echoed throughout his room and she crossed her arms with a pout.

“Oi. Look at me.”

She rolled onto her side to face him again, lips still pouted cutely. His eyes were soft as he looked over her face and she felt proud of the small smile upturning his mouth as he did.

He reached out to smooth a hand over her hair and then gently nudged her shoulder. “Lie back.”

She moved onto her back and he settled himself over her, lying between her parted legs. It was familiar and made her smile; they’d laid together like this a hundred times over the course of their relationship and maybe it was the perfect way to cross into something more permanent.

“Katsuki,” she murmured, feeling his hands go below the tank top. He pushed it up and over her head, tossing it to the side and fixing her with an unwavering gaze.

His hands slid beneath her, pressed between her body and the sheets below, and he kissed her softly. Her hands slid up his back before settling over the solid muscle of his shoulders.

“’M gonna be the best alpha on the fuckin’ planet,” he said as they pulled apart. His lips ghosted over her cheek and down her jaw to settle at her neck. “Know I already got the best omega.”

“Will you say it?” she asked quietly, closing her eyes.

The huff of a laugh and curl of his lips on her skin made her shiver. He moved in closer to her and raised up to whisper exactly what she wanted.

“I love you.”

Her arms tightened around him and tried pulling him closer but she knew it would never feel like enough until they bonded.

Katsuki seemed to understand that too because he moved back to her neck and grazed his lips teasingly for just a second before sinking his teeth into the perfect spot as a claim.

She gasped as her head tipped back at the rush of sensations that seemed to flow from the bite. Her brain filled with static but her body felt a rush of coldness like ice water had been poured over her to combat the heat she’d been feeling for so long. Her heart sped up in her chest and she knew it was synched perfectly with Katsuki’s. The entirety of her being was aligned with his and the bond cemented as she let herself move forward and bite into her mate’s neck to stake her own claim.

Time seemed to speed up before slowing down again when she was tasting blood off of both her and Katsuki’s lips as his hands cradled her face and kissed her deeply. The coolness she had experienced during the claim had been almost completely swallowed by the heat she felt pulsing through her and becoming tangible as a needy whine against his mouth. He was so close and smelled so perfect and she wondered if she could feel him closer, her hands digging into the defined muscles of his shoulders as she held him against her.

“Look at my pretty mate,” he said lowly, his voice hushed. He nosed against the underside of her jaw just above the fresh bite as his hands roamed over her torso. “My omega, smellin’ so sweet just for me.”

The purr that bubbled from her lips surprised her but his warm hands on her and the quiet praise pushed it aside quickly when he kneaded her chest.

Her hands traced over his arms, fingers trailing down over dips of muscle. “The strongest alpha I know is all mine. I’m so lucky to have such a handsome mate.”

A please growl rumbled through his chest as her fingers hooked in his waistband and began sliding down the sweatpants until he was able to kick them off. He quickly returned the favor with her underwear to leave them both completely bare. With their scents completely unhindered for the first time with the bond formed, they could both smell the heavy, warm sweetness of roasted chestnuts and cherries that filled his dorm room. It was spicy but soft and made their heads spin knowing that this was them.

Katsuki’s hands roamed the familiar curves of her body as he leaned forward to kiss around the bite mark, feeling her lips against his neck as she did the same to him. Shivers ran up his spine at the contact and a groan escaped him as his fingers reached the apex of her thighs.

“Tell me what you need.”

She whined, hands splayed on his toned stomach.

“C’mon, tell your alpha what you need,” he coaxed.

“You,” she whispered. “Your knot. Your pups. Our pups.”

When we’re ready, was the silent understanding about the request.

Their hips met as Katsuki rolled his forward, breathy moans coming from both of them as they relished the still-new feeling of intimacy and clutched onto one another tighter.

Instincts took over, cutting the moment short, and filled with room with groans and whines and pleas between the two of them. There was no slow fumbling like there had been earlier but instead the primal need to be closer and chase the pleasure that came with the heat and rut.

She kissed him hard as the heat throughout her body pooled low in her stomach and she could tell the difference in the feeling of closeness but her hazy mind couldn’t dwell on it past knowing that this was what she needed, what would finally cool her down at least a bit.

“You’re mine,” she murmured as her back arched up from the bed and her nails dug into his shoulders.

“’M yours. You’re mine,” he grunted, mouthing at the bite once more.

Their scents were overwhelming the closer they came to their end.

“C’mon alpha, need your knot,” she whined, crying out as he still within her.

His teeth sank into the bond mark fully again, and she bit into his as she felt exactly what her inner omega needed, what she herself wanted, and allowed herself to succumb to the feeling of contentment and pleasure she would live in with her mate going forward. Warm and sated and full and safe with her alpha was where she wanted to stay.

“Bakugo. A word.”

He stalked over to his teacher, watching his mate step into the hallway from the corner of his eye. The new bond was sensitive and he was anxious when he couldn’t be with her. “What?”

“May I ask which of you proposed the idea of a non-traditional bite?”

“The hell are you talking about? We both have bites and they’re scarring the right way.”

Aizawa regarded him silently for a moment before waving him off. “It’s not important. Go.”

The blonde rolled his eyes and left the room, and he gathered his sleeping bag in his arms to set up in the corner for his midday nap.

It was annoying and awkward to have to deal with the paperwork and phone calls to guardians because two of his problem children couldn’t keep it in their pants while on campus—what he wouldn’t give to have seen Mitsuki Bakugo deal with this shit—and he certainly didn’t like the fact that he had to relay to the class what had happened either. He had prepared what would’ve been one of his best punishments to date for when the overwhelming scent of newly presented and bonded mates had lessened at least a bit, but it had all been abandoned the moment the two stepped up to speak with him.

Her embarrassment was obvious, the fact that her twice her age male teacher knew exactly what had been happening in that room for the past week probably enough to make her want to vomit, but furious blush aside she held herself well. Bakugo had (likely somewhat unintentionally) over scented the room alarmingly with equal parts calm for his mate and warning to his alpha teacher, his own blush prominent.

What stood out though, was the bond mark on her neck. It was already scarring which was to be expected and its placement was correct but it was backwards. Traditionally a bond mark was given to an omega by an alpha in the midst of a shared heat and rut, primal positioning meaning that the bite was given from behind. It was biology, instinct, the overwhelming need to lay claim—he understood that, had experienced it many times over even long after a bond mark was given. Fated mates were more susceptible to this too, especially when presenting early.

But this type of bonding mark made him think that it wasn’t fueled by that need or desire built deep into the rumbling chest of an alpha. At least, not completely. Looking into someone’s eyes was intimate, vulnerabilities laid bare before the person they’re going to spend their life with. That wasn’t easy, and a week prior he would’ve said that Bakugo would probably never be able to do it. To see that it was quite the opposite and seemingly unconscious on his part was fascinating.

He considered that instinct wasn’t the reason but the more he thought about it as he sat cocooned within the warmth of his sleeping bag, the more he realized it may actually be the opposite. Maybe it was instinct. Love was funny like that sometimes.

A/N: Please be sure to reblog, comment, review, and like if you enjoy! Feedback is what keeps me motivated! I have a few ideas about a possible sequel for this story that would take place in the future when they’re ready, though nothing concrete just yet!

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shemarmooresfedora · 3 years

Text

Menagerie

Summary Quote: “Don’t you get it? It’s all been a lie, Spence. Since the moment we met, our entire relationship has been founded on a carefully crafted lie and since then, we have been tricked into thinking this was love...but maybe that was a lie too.”

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Fem! Reader

Genre: Angst with happy ending, Fluff

A/N: this fic has already been completed! it’s 25 chapters and just over 40,000 words. i don’t plan on posting all the chapters on to here but i have included the first two and the ao3 link to the rest is at the bottom if you are interested!

Chapter 1

You woke up from your peaceful slumber to hear a loud crash followed closely by someone yelling “FBI”. You screamed, alerting the agents of your presence thinking you were in danger but once the agents had reached your bedroom, you were being put in handcuffs and read your rights.

“W-What is happening? Is this some sort of sick joke?” you stuttered.

“Do you think killing three men is a sick joke?” the muscular intimidating agent spat back.

You were in utter shock. You barely even left the house let alone go out on a murderous rampage.

“I-I don’t know what you think I did b-but I can assure you I-I didn’t kill anyone or do anything illegal,” you tried to stay as calm as possible but you were shaking profusely.

The other agent that was the back-up in your apprehension seemed to notice this and took some sympathy on you by lightening his grip on your cuffs as he led you out of your front door that had been kicked down.

You sat in the chilly interrogation room wishing you had something else on rather than a thrifted oversized t-shirt with stains on it that said “Best Dad Ever” and sweatpants. They removed your handcuffs, I guess you weren't considered that much of a threat in a locked room in FBI Headquarters. Although you could not see past the one-sided glass, it was obvious the agents from before and possibly others from their team were standing on the other side, observing you.

“Well she is definitely not what I was expecting,” Prentiss was the first to break the silence as the whole BAU team watched you through the glass.

“She was sleeping when we apprehended her. Her facial expressions and body language showed clear signs of distress but I can not be certain if it was because we have the wrong person or she is scared she finally got caught. In her apartment, we found nothing in the slightest bit incriminating, mostly just lots of books,” Spencer spoke, while he was trying to remain impartial, he had admired your taste in literature as he was looking for evidence.

“I’m not convinced. I think this is whole ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about’ thing is an act,” Morgan stated as he strolled to the door leading to the room you were being held in.

The door opened and your eyes flickered up. Much to my dismay, it was the muscular agent rather than the tall, lanky agent who seemed a lot friendlier to you, given the circumstances.

He took the seat across from you and spoke firmly, “I am ready to take your confession whenever you are.”

At this point, you were just getting frustrated. You were ripped from your bed in the middle of the night given no explanation other than you had supposedly killed three men and he had the audacity to ask for your confession to something no one would even tell you the details of. So against your better judgment, you opened your mouth which has been known to get you in trouble from time to time.

“Well, considering no one has even told me what I am formally being accused of or the details, I can’t do that. Do you even have any evidence to keep me here? Oh wait...you don’t...that’s why you need a confession because all your evidence so far has been circumstantial. Only too bad for you...I know my rights. So, you have forty-eight hours to find some real evidence against me, that doesn’t exist if I may add, before you have to let me go.”

The agent looked back at the glass with his jaw dropped.

“I watch a lot of crime TV shows,” you huffed and crossed your arms.

“Okay this may be harder than we originally planned, folks. We are going to need everyone on call for the next forty-eight hours until we find some incriminating evidence,” Hotch spoke.

The agents began to depart from the room to review old case files and dig deeper into your personal history. Spencer stayed back for a few minutes and saw tears start to roll down your face when you thought no one was still watching you. You quickly wiped them away and wringed your fingers together. Spencer didn’t know if he should or not yet but he felt bad for you.

Chapter 2

The door opened again but this time, you just kept your eyes down at the table so the person could not see your watery eyes.

You have been trying to put up a brave face but every time, a different agent comes in to question you about your routine, friends, family, and personal life, you just feel exposed.

Traces of your DNA had been found on the bodies and they had all visited your bookstore but that wasn’t enough to convict you I guess. You didn’t know the victims personally but you still felt bad for them.

A cup of coffee was placed gently into your line of sight. You wrapped your hands around the warm paper cup and mumbled your thanks.

“I didn’t know how you liked it. I can add more creamer or sugar if you like,” the voice spoke.

You glanced up tentatively and it was the tall, lanky agent. Your lips turned up ever so slightly into a small smile but it was the most you could manage at the moment. You took a sip.

“No it’s fine, thank you. It really helps. I appreciate it,” you said.

“I’m Spencer, by the way”

“Y/N, but you probably already know that by now.”

He chuckled at your joke. Silence filled the room once again.

“I didn’t do it, Spencer...and I know I can’t really prove that but I wish I could. Most of my friends live in another state and so does my family so I don’t go out too often. I don’t have a boyfriend. I own a bookstore so I spend most of my time there. I don’t really know why this is happening to me,” you started to get choked up again so you stopped talking.

Spencer involuntarily blushed when you stated you didn’t have a boyfriend.

He really needed to get it together as much as he wanted to believe you.

You could be a murderer for all he knows...but a really pretty murderer with a great taste in literature and probably even a bigger collection of books than him.

Stop it, Spencer, get your head in the game. He smiled softly once more at you cradling your drink and exited the room.

The forty-eight hours were up. They had nothing solid against you. If anything, the team had less of a case against you.

The bodies were all dumped on the opposite side of town from where you lived but it was clear they had been transported there. Garcia’s digging showed you had no car and you weren’t lying when you said most of your friends and family live out of state so the chances of you borrowing someone else's car were unlikely.

Credit card receipts showed you hardly ever went to that side of town and they had profiled the unsub would know the area well.

The victims did come into your store a few times but they also visited all the shops on that street occasionally as well. It didn’t make sense for you to kill your customers. That would just be bad for business and easily linked back to you.

The team agreed that they believed Y/N was no longer a suspect.

An officer drove you back to your apartment where luckily, your door had been fixed.

You ordered takeout and took a shower to hopefully rid yourself of the stress of the past two days. Shortly after your dinner, you fell asleep hoping your door would not be busted down again by the FBI.

A few days had past and you were opening up the store for the morning. You were in the back organizing the nonfiction section when you heard the soft bell chime of the door opening.

You walked to the front expecting to greet one of your regulars. Once you saw who was standing shyly at the front desk, you stopped in your tracks.

“Spencer?”

“Uh h-hi-hello Y/N. How are you?”

“Good...unless you are here to bring me back in for more questioning”, you said half-joking half-seriously.

“Oh! Um no, you’re all set. I am truly sorry about that. But I do have a question for you”, he was nervously wringing his hands just like you do, looking anywhere but your eyes.

“It’s okay kind of sounds like the wrong thing to say because I would preferably not be dragged out of my bed in the middle of the night and then held for forty-hours but I understand, you were simply doing your job. Anyways, ask away,” you replied.

His eyes finally made contact with yours and he opened his mouth like he was about to say something but completely lost his confidence.

“Do you...um do you...do you have a nonfiction section?” Spencer blurted out.

You didn’t understand how the nonfiction section could make someone so nervous. He looked as if he was going to say something else but thought better of it.

“Of course! I was just organizing it! Right this way!” you chirped with a smile that seemed to untense his shoulders just a little bit.

Spencer perused the section a bit before deciding on a hefty book about the different plants and flowers native to the East Coast. When he made his way up to the front desk to check out, you praised his choice.

“Aw! I love reading about plants. I have some many succulents in my apartment. It's honestly more of a jungle. Have you ever seen forget-me-nots? So lovely!”

Spencer smiled and nodded, knowing if he tried to speak it would be gibberish because he could not focus on anything when he was looking at your radiant smile.

“Did you do it?”, Morgan asked as Spencer entered the bullpen with a brown bag.

“No but now I have a book on plants and flowers. I actually am excited to read it. Did you know that some plants like orchids do not require soil to grow they get their nutrients from-”

“You chickened out”, Derek sighed.

“She is so pretty! She was just standing there in all her radiance smiling at me and I couldn’t take the rejection. We dragged her out of her bed and put her in handcuffs only to find out two days later, she is innocent. I can hardly believe she is still being nice to me despite it.”

“Well believe it or not, the first night I met a girl, she was in handcuffs in her bed with me so it’s not always a bad thing,” Morgan smirked.

“Not appropriate, Morgan,” Spencer scolded.

“What are we talking about? I don’t like to not be included in the gossip!” Garcia ran over in her pink heels with Prentiss right behind her.

“Pretty Ricky here went to visit Y/N at her bookstore but then chickened out about asking her on a date,” Morgan informed them.

“Awwwww! I like her! She’s so pretty! Plus, I have already done a background search on her and she is squeaky clean now that we have proven she isn’t a murderer,” Garcia excitedly rambled.

Prentiss was nodding her head in agreement, grinning at Spencer.

Spencer had already chugged his morning cup of coffee during this conversation just to have an excuse to go get another cup and leave this conversation.

“You can’t run away from your feelings, Boy Wonder!” Garcia shouted.

Chapters 3-25

#spencer reid fluff #spencer reid x you #spencer reid x reader #spencer reid fanfiction #cm fanfic #reid x reader #spencer x reader #spencer reid #criminal minds

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everlastingbutterfly · 2 years

Text

Doubt season 4 prologue translation part 2 (Doubt~ Underworld edition~ Do you enjoy dark lies?~)

Words: 2180

Reading time (all parts): 8 minutes

❌ do not take translations without credit

★ reblogging okay

If you enjoyed reading, please consider liking and/or reblogging to spread to other fans.

This is part two, part one is below: https://everlastingbutterfly.tumblr.com/post/669047960538136576/doubt-season-4-prologue-translation-doubt

Review the evidence here:

DOUBT PART

MC: What were you doing last Tuesday night?

Takeshi: Last Tuesday? Ah, I was working over time until late.

Prove that he wasn’t at the hospital working.

Photo of timetable

MC: According to the timetable you weren’t rostered on that day.

Takeshi: Oops! I remembered that I got called by a colleague and went drinking near the hospital.

MC: Near the hospital? You were actually in Ginza!

Takeshi: I wasn’t in Ginza, it’s so expensive there.

Prove that Takeshi went to Ginza

Taxi fare receipt

MC: You had this receipt on your desk for a taxi from Ginza until home!

Takeshi: Ahhh that’s right, the colleague wanted to keep going so we went for a second round at Ginza. Of course I wouldn’t lie to you (lol yeah right).

MC: Then how do you explain this?

Prove what Takeshi was doing in Ginza

Photo of father and Karen

MC: My friend sent me this photo and look, you’re in the back.

Takeshi: It’s probably someone who looks like me? Okay, he really looks like me or even could be me! But I don’t have much of a memory of that time because I had so much.

MC: Fine, then I’ll ask this. You’re hiding something from me aren’t you?

What’s Takeshi hiding? A. He’s borrowing money

B. He’s cheating

C. He has a cat ear fetish

Answer: A

MC shows him his phone screen and says “here it says you’re taking loans from ‘father’” and he starts to argue that she shouldn’t be looking at his phone, but there have been times in the past that he “just happens” to look at messages that come through on her phone etc. so he has no right to complain.

Sweating it up.

She points out that he’s looking for other jobs, working at other hospitals, all because he must be having trouble paying back the loans. He denies it, saying he’s saving up for a wedding. She can’t forgive him for just casually throwing around the idea of marriage. If he was saving up money why did he go to a club in Ginza when one night at a club costs tens of thousands of yen (several hundred USD).

Takeshi: It’s because “father” was paying, I didn’t spend anything!

MC: Your father has that much money?

Takeshi: It’s not MY father, it’s yours..!

Takeshi: …Oops.

MC: You have a connection to my father, the leader of the Ryumon group and this proves it.

Prove their connection

Memo (with amounts of money written on it)

MC: This is a special memo pad that only those of the Ryumon group have.

Takeshi: N-no way! I bought that at Tokyu Pands (Tokyu Hands).

MC pulls out the one that she received from Okura earlier that day with her father’s contact details on it pointing out they are the same. MC says he’s been borrowing money from her father and he admits it but says something like they’d all be family when they get married. MC is thinking that her father offered this money to him as a way to be connected (and tie her to the group) or something like that not sure sorry!

Takeshi: Calm down and think about it. Really, I’m the only man who would marry a daughter of a yakuza-

MC: Never underestimate a yakuza woman!! * (this is MC’s trademark line, and is said in Kansai dialect and I’m not sure the greatest way to translate it. In Japanese it is 極道の女なめたらアカンで！)

MC slaps him. She is surprised that those words slipped out.

MC: What exactly did you need the money for? Takeshi: My friend invited me to play baccarat, I won big and couldn’t stop. I lost and lost then on… Yes, I lied to you but my feelings for you aren’t a lie. I promise I’ll make you happy so please, won’t you give me another chance?

Final choice

A. Don’t forgive him

B. Forgive him

We all know the answer right?

MC asks Takeshi that if he weren’t in dire need of money if he would still marry her (with her being the daughter of a yakuza boss). He hesitates and she knows that’s all the answer she needs. She says she won’t be with him and he needs to leave and he says that’s troubling and that she should be the one to leave (x_x) as he can’t pay all the rent and that if he isn’t with MC anymore he won’t be able to receive money from her father, go out eating etc. anymore. She gets angry (rightly so) and points out if that he’s that desperate for money he can sell his silver filling for at least some money. He kneels down in dogeza position to apologise. She packs her things and leaves.

Karen’s room.

MC goes to Karen (who lives in a share house) and talks in her room about all that’s happened. MC says she’s glad she discovered his true nature before marrying him and Karen asks MC what she would do if MC’s father were to arrange her to meet a man from the underworld to which she protests profusely, because she wants to be normal.

MC says she needs to find a new place to live and Karen suggests living in that very share house as there is a spare room and everyone is nice. MC likes that idea since she can live with her friend and also that it’s super close to the hospital she works at. Karen calls the owner and he okays it.

MC’s room

MC has moved into her room and someone knocks on her door. It’s Kazuma Kazemiya, a fellow resident who’s come to introduce himself and invites her to come drink with everyone else.

The living room, and Kazemiya-kun’s intro.

??: Ah you must be Miss Newface? I’m Reiko Himeno but please call me Hime-chan.

Next for intros is “Amy” (Ami Sugiyama) who is 26 years old and grew up in America but now works in IT.

Last up is Yuuki Kamukura who is also 26 years old and works as a freelancer photographer. Everyone calls him Yuu-kun so he invites MC to do the same.

10 image limit reached (again), very short part three here:

https://everlastingbutterfly.tumblr.com/post/669092799137841152/doubt-season-4-prologue-translation-part-3-doubt

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maddiwrites · 3 years

Text

Secrets of the Shore (Chapter 4)

Pairing: Pogues x OC, Eventually JJ x OC

Summary: This is just my rewrite of the show Outer Banks with my own twist by adding another main character which also happens to be John B’s twin sister.

Note: Changed my update schedule to two times a week (probably Sunday and Wednesdays) because three days was kind of overwhelming hahah. Again, thank you for all the wonderful reviews and feedback!! I appreciate every single one!!!

Word Count: 4.2k

Warnings: Being shot at?

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3

The Pogues come over later to hang out like usual. No one mentions last night's party. I don't know whether its because they don't want to talk about it or we're pretending like it never happened. I'm fine with either.

I sit next to Kie who taps her fingers on a bongo and bobs her head to her own beat. Pope's shuffling a deck of cards to my right and JJ sips on another beer across from me. It's hard to concentrate on what they're talking about. I'm too busy locked in my own head, thinking about what Peterkin said - foster care - what life would be like if we were taken away. Would I ever see my friends again? Would John B and I be in the same foster home? The thought of being separated makes me sick.

"Look, I'm calling it off. All right?" John B pulls me out of my thoughts. JJ rolls his eyes at my brother and glances at me. "Peterkin said if we stay out of the marsh, she'll help us with DCS."

"And you believed her?" JJ asks. "An actual cop, John B. You believed a cop."

John B sighs. "All I gotta do is stay out of the marsh for a couple days, and she'll help me out. It doesn't help that your ass was the one shooting a gun."

Here we go.

"You know what I should have done? Just let Topper drown your ass."

"Topper was gonna drown me?"

"Sure looked like it."

"Funny," John B deadpans.

"Have you looked in a mirror?"

"Tell me some more. Come on." I can tell by the look on John B's face that he's getting annoyed. It's pinched and he keeps rolling his eyes.

JJ steps closer to him. "They always win, don't they, man? Kooks versus Pogues. They always, always win!" He turns around and punches one of the small volleyballs we have tied in a string like a decoration.

"Look, it's okay!" Kie tries to calm him down.

"No, it's not okay! It's not! They don't want us to go down into the marsh." JJ comes back. "That means there's something valuable down there, and you know it." He turns to me and points. "I know you do." Then he looks at Pope. "I know you do. And I understand why you don't wanna go. You're the golden boy. You got way too much to risk. And you -" He turns to Kie. "I mean, you're already rich as fuck anyway. Why would you bother? But you and me, and Marleigh, man, we got nothing to lose! We really don't all right?"

"JJ -" I sigh.

"And I know it didn't use to be that way for you -"

John B shakes his head. "I don't want to talk about this. I don't want to talk about it!"

"So that's it?"

John B shoves past JJ. "Just get out of my way, bro."

"John B, listen to me. I have a plan." Well thats never good. "You got the key to Cameron's big boat right?"

"No," John B says, already knowing where JJ's head is at.

"There's scuba gear. We borrow that, and then we go down to the wreck this afternoon, and that is what's gonna save you, man. You don't see rich kids going into foster care, do you?"

Here's the thing about JJ. He can be really convincing, which is usually the reason he and I get into the most trouble. Because I always fall for what he's saying. He gives me hope when I don't think there is any. He can be surprisingly optimistic sometimes. And when he is, I fall for his charm and agree with everything he says. If he told me to jump off a bridge, I probably would.

When he looks at me, my lips tug upwards into a smile. This creates a domino effect, and soon the other Pogues get excited. John B looks at me, trying to look disapproving but I shrug in response. I mean, JJ's right. What do we have to lose?

~ ~ ~

I light a match and ignite my gas stove to make myself lunch. A can of chicken noodle soup that's been in my food closet for who knows how long. John B left to grab the tanks from the Cameron's boat, so the rest of us are waiting here until he comes to pick us up.

"You're eating soup? Its like a hundred degrees outside." JJ walks into the kitchen and lifts himself up on the counter next to the stove.

I stir the liquid around with a wooden spoon and smirk. "Do you see any other edible food around here?" JJ chuckles at that. He knows better than anyone how horrible John B and I are at food shopping. "I meant to go to the store today but..." I sigh. "I've been busy."

JJ pauses, causing me to look up at him. He's usually so quick with his wit and humor. Something I admire and love about him. How he always manages to put a smile on my face with some dumb remark or a sarcastic reply. Only now he's staring at me with curiosity. "Are you okay?"

"You mean other than the impending doom that is foster care that's going to hit me and John B in the near future?" I say sarcastically. I turn the stove off and grab two bowls out of the cabinet behind JJ's head. He ducks for me and my waist presses against his thigh. I pour half the soup in each bowl and hand him one with a spoon.

"Yeah, I mean other than that," JJ says. I blow on the liquid on my spoon to cool it down. The steam that comes up from my bowl already makes me feel hot.

"I'm fine," I tell him.

He gives me a look that says he's doesn't believe me, but I ignore it and he doesn't press me on it. Truth is, I am fine. I just have a lot of my mind but I'm going to do my best not to let it ruin my summer. JJ got me excited again. He's promising an adventure and possibly a fortune. He's right. John B and I have nothing to lose. If we don't go on the marsh today, DCS will find another reason to snatch us. So why hold ourselves back?

"Mar, JJ, he's back!" Kie calls out to us from my yard.

JJ sips the last of his broth out of the bowl and I shovel in the last couple of scoops into my mouth. We throw the bowls in the sink and run to the dock where John B and the others are waiting for us.

Pope directs John B to the part of the marsh where we found the wreck. I sit next to Kie in the front of the boat. She's looking at the two tanks that John B was able to snag off the Cameron's boat. Her brows are furrowed in confusion as she studies the gear.

"This is empty," Kie says, looking up at my brother who stops the boat when we find the sunken Grady-White. "You took empty tanks?"

"I..." John B says slowly. He definitely didn't look at it before he took it.

"Okay, this one's a quarter full," Kie says, pulling the tank to her left closer to her. "Its enough for one of us."

"Love it when a plan comes together," I say sarcastically and pass a look to JJ who rolls his eyes.

"Does anybody know how to dive?" Kie asks.

I purse my lips and look around at my friends and brother. None of them speak up.

"Uh..."

"Anybody?" Kie asks.

"It's kind of a Kook sport," I say.

Pope raises his hand. "I...read about it."

"Great, Pope read about it so someone's gonna die," Kie says.

JJ walks towards us and picks up the mouth piece and shrugs his shoulders. "Look, you put the thing in your mouth and breathe. How hard could it be?"

Pope answers, "If you come up too fast, nitrogen gets into your blood, and you get the bends."

JJ glances between Pope and the rest of us. "Bends like..." JJ bends forward, purposely sticking his butt out, "bend over and..."

Pope cuts him off. "The bends kill you."

JJ snaps straight up. "Right."

I roll my eyes and stand up. "I'll do it."

"Uh, I don't think..." JJ starts to say but my brother cuts him off.

"No. I'll do it."

"What, why?" I turn to my brother and send him a glare.

"Because Pope just said it can kill you and you don't listen to instructions very well." My brother glares back at me. I roll my eyes. He does have a point and evidence to prove it. I usually follow my own gut and ignore others' directions. And because I don't want him to bring up past events, I decide not to fight him on it.

"He has a point," JJ says, earning a punch in the bicep from me. He looks at my brother. "You can dive. I'm cool with that."

"Since when can you dive?" Kie says not liking the idea any more than me.

He shrugs. "I'll do it. It's fine."

"Let me do some calculations real quick," Pope says as John B starts putting on the scuba gear.

"You serious?" JJ asks.

"That boat's about thirty feet down. Okay? So it'll take twenty five minutes at that depth. Twenty five. Which means you need to make your safety stop at about...ten feet."

Contrary to popular belief, I do the actual listening to instructions, I just don't always follow through. But I process everything Pope just said and think of a way to make this easier for John B.

I shimmy out of my jean shorts and pull my top over my head, leaving me in a purple and white striped bikini. Without saying anything, I jump into the water with my shirt.

"Uh..." Pope says, looking into the water where I just disappeared. "What was that about?"

"I don't know. But I liked it. A lot," JJ says, staring at the same spot. John B slaps the back JJ's head and glares daggers in his direction. JJ pretends to clear his throat and turns away from John B. "Uh, so..."

Pope pretends to focus on his calculations again, not wanting to get caught by John B for staring at his sister too. "Yeah. Uh, when you uh, when you're down there, you look for the cargo hold. You stick this thing inside and twist and pull, okay?"

I guesstimate how deep ten feet is and tie my shirt around the chain attached to our anchor. I look one last time at the blurry image of the sunken boat and pull myself back up.

"Hey," I say to grab their attention. They all look at me. "I tied my T-shirt to the anchor chain about ten feet down. It's where you need to do your safety stop."

John B nods. "Cool."

I stay in the water, loving how the water feels around me like a protective blanket. I listen to Pope explain the important parts of diving. There's some kind of meter he has to pay attention to to keep track of time.

"Okay, how much do I need?" John B asks.

"Unclear," Pope answers. "Breathe as little as possible."

JJ slaps John B on the shoulder. "Zen. Think zen, you know?"

John B turns to the water, preparing to jump in next to me. "Yeah. Got it."

"Hey," Pope says, stopping him. "If we get caught in the marsh, we're basically screwed, so better get a move on."

"No pressure or anything," I add.

"Copy that," John B says.

Kie approaches my brother and stands in front of him. She's really close to him, almost inches away from his face. Then she leans in and kisses his cheek slowly. Way more intimate than usual. My eyes widen in surprise and I look at Pope and JJ to see their reaction. They mirror mine.

"Diver down?" Kie says softly.

"Diver down." John B says just as softly.

"See ya, dude," JJ says.

John B jumps in the water and sinks down below me. I lay on my back in the water and bathe in the warmth of the sun above me. I even close my eyes, letting relaxation overcome me. I could probably sleep here if I wanted too.

"Shit, JJ," Pope curses, catching my attention.

"Guys, that's the police," Kie says.

"Oh, you gotta be kidding me," JJ says, glancing at me.

My eyes go wide with anxiety. I swim closer to the boat and look up at JJ. "JJ, they can't know I'm here. If they find me-"

"Hey, hey, hey. It's gonna be okay. They're not going to, just stay there."

I nod and press myself tighter against the boat.

"Just act freaking normal," Kie says through clenched teeth.

I can hear the sirens coming closer until I feel their boat bump against ours. I flinch against it and kick my feet faster to stay afloat. I look down at the water, but I can't see John B. My heart races at the thought of him running out of air.

"Evening," I hear one of the cops greet my friends.

"JJ, tie it off," Pope says.

"How you kids doing? You know the marsh is closed?" The officer asks them.

"No."

"No. Wow."

My friends play dumb. I look up, finding comfort in seeing JJ's long hair. I can tell he's trying hard not to look down at me.

"Why - why is it closed?" Pope asks.

"Well, we're conducting a search out here. Boat went down." The officer explains.

"Oh."

"See anything?"

"No." JJ purses his lips and shrugs.

"No boats," Kie says. "No."

There's a pause and for a split second I think he's gonna call their bluff. But he doesn't. "Where are the other two kids you always hang with? The twins? They here?"

I bite my bottom lip hard in anticipation for what's to come. He knows we're here. He has to. I can tell by how suspicious he sounds. I look back down in the water, John B still invisible to me. I don't know how much time he has left, but he's definitely running out of it.

"They both had to work," I hear Kie answer.

"Hm," The officer hums. "I'm gonna check your little boat out."

Shit, shit, shit, shit. I look around for a place to hide, but the only thing surrounding me is water. I'm going to have to go under.

"Yeah." JJ coughs, risking one last look at me before pretending to help the officer into the boat. "Yeah, hop aboard."

I push myself under the water and swim directly underneath the boat. I open my eyes, ignoring the sting of the salt water. I can see John B's silhouette by my T-shirt and the blurry light of his timer.

Thirty more seconds pass. I swing my arms upwards, pushing myself deeper into the water. The shadow of the cops' boat is still next to ours. My lungs are screaming at me for for air like they're tearing into my chest. Just like John B, I don't know how long I'm going to be able to last down here.

My body reactively gulps for air, forcing myself to swallow the salt water. It feels like a stab in my chest, my throat on fire. I've got to pop back up to the surface or I'm going to drown.

Just as I'm about to reveal myself, the shadow of the boat drives off. I push myself up, coughing up the water I swallowed and gasping for air. Less than a second later, John B pops up next to me.

"Oh, god! Jesus Christ," Kie says with her eyes closed and her head looking up.

"Don't scare us like that!" Pope says.

JJ watches me instead of John B, concern laced into his features. As I feel my heart go back to its normal pace, I smile at him and laugh the anxiety off. "You good?" He asks me. I nod and let him help me back up to the boat. "How'd it go down there?" He asks my brother. "Did you find anything?"

"Did I find anything?" John B scoffs and holds up a dark velvet bag.

"Yeah, there we go!" JJ claps his shoulders. "That's my boy!"

"Jeez, dude," Pope sighs.

"You okay?" Kie asks John B.

John B pants as he swims closer to the boat. "Yeah, I ran out of air."

"You and me both," I tell him.

John B pulls himself up. When he stands, he's met face to face with Kie who shoves him back playfully. "You scared the shit out of me."

"Yeah, the cops were up here, but, uh...we took care of 'em." Pope says, trying to act like he wasn't going to piss his pants the entire time he was talking to them.

"My bad," John B laughs.

"You're all good."

"Yeah, you kinda missed the show, brother," JJ says.

I move to the back of the boat to ring my wet hair out when something catches me eye. Its another boat, but it doesn't look like the one the cops were just using.

"Hey, guys? Guys!" I call louder to grab their attention. "Bogey, two o'clock."

"What?" JJ comes up next to me and eyes the boat that's making its way closer to us.

"Do you recognize the boat?" Pope asks.

"I've never seen it," I answer.

A bad feeling settles in the pit of my stomach. I can make out two people, I think men, standing in the front. They keep their eyes straight on us. No laughing or talking like a couple of buds would on a boat day in the marsh.

"What are they doing here? The marsh is closed," Kie says.

"Let's not stick around and find out." JJ places his hands on my bare waist and pulls me to the side so he can pull up the anchor.

"JJ get the bowline," John B says, not realizing that JJ was already on it.

"Yeah."

"Should we wait on 'em?" Pope asks.

"No. No. We should leave now. Right now," Kie says, looking directly at John B.

"Go get the stern," John B tells me. "Go!"

I kneel next to JJ and help him. Similar to how I felt in the water, my heart beats violently against my chest and my breathing becomes static. I try not to think of the fear that creeps through my veins as I help release the boat from it's hold in the marsh.

"Guys, don't wait for us! Go!" JJ yells.

"Go!" Kie says.

"Pull out the stern!" Pope yells at us.

I yank the chain hard, revealing the slimy anchor covered in seaweed and moss.

"I don't like this," I mutter to JJ between clenched teeth.

John B pulls away from the wreck. JJ looks between me and the boat that still driving in our direction. "Are they coming for us?"

"Maybe they're fishing," Pope says.

"Go, go, go, go!"

"Go into the marsh," I tell my brother, constantly glancing between him and the other boat.

"Let's go," Kie says. I can hear fear creep into her voice and her hands shake around the drivers seat she's holding with a death grip.

"I'm going. Act natural!" John B hisses and revs the engine of the boat.

He takes a left turn into the marsh. I watch anxiously for the people in the other boat to make its move.

They turn left.

"Guys, they're following us!" Kie says.

"This can't be good," Pope says.

"Dude, you gotta go faster!" JJ says.

"I'm going!" John B yells back.

"Gun it!"

I look behind the boat. They're getting closer. Too close. Can't say I'm surprised. The HMS Pogue is no match for their boat that looks more expensive than my house. However, something catches my eye. Something long the guy in the passenger seat is holding and pointing right at us.

"Is that..." I mutter before I'm cut off by exactly what I was going to say.

The gun shot rings through my ears as if the person who shot it was standing next to me. Before I can react, JJ pulls me down to the floor of our boat by my waist and covers me with his own body. I gotta say, this isn't how I pictured him being on top of me. His left arm outlines my head, keeping me face down while other bullets pass our boat. The cries of my friends are dull through the blood pounding in my ears and my heart inching its way up my throat.

"Holy shit!" Kie shouts.

"John B, get down!" JJ yells.

I try looking up at my brother but JJ's hold is strong. John B's still behind the wheel, trying his best to duck from bullets without crashing the boat.

"We're gonna die!" Pope yells.

I try looking around the boat for anything we can use against these guys. Of course JJ decides to leave the gun he stole at my house for the day, leaving us practically useless against these two strangers.

My eyes find a net pooling in front of Kie's face as she keeps her head down. I try crawling out of JJ's embrace which only makes him tighten his arms around me.

"Kie!" I shout. She looks up at me with wide eyes. "The net!"

Immediately she understands what I'm trying to tell her. She pulls herself away from Pope and army crawls to the wide net. This only makes my friends yell at her, telling her to get down, but she doesn't listen.

"Get down, Kie!" John B shouts.

Another gun shot echoes through the air, making me flinch closer into JJ.

Kie throws the net overboard towards their boat and drops back down to her knees. The sound of the other boat's engine clanging against the net gets my head to perk up and I watch Kie's reaction. She's surprisingly smiling. When she looks at me, she lets out a breathy laugh and shakes her head in disbelief because that just worked. Their boats gets stuck.

"Let's go, let's go, let's go," Pope says.

One last gun shot rings through my ears before we make our getaway. I pull myself off the floor and look back at the boat one last time. We severely underestimated how important finding that boat was. Whatever John B found was worth killing us for.

A couple minutes later, John B pulls the boat up to the Chateau and docks it by the wooden slacks that I used as a bed last night. My friends cheer and actually smile after what just happened.

"That was insane!" Kie says.

"Whoo!"

I look at my brother with adrenaline rushing straight to me head. I feel giddy about finding out what JB found - what must be so important. "What do you think it is?"

"Gotta be money, right?" He asks, looking at me.

"That or a couple of keys with street value to the low-to-mid-mills," JJ says, leisurely danglingly his arm around my shoulders.

"Can we please just open the bag?" Pope says loudly, forcing everyone's attention at him who now looks at us sheepishly.

"Wow, Pope," John B laughs. "That's a rare outburst of emotion."

"Okay, you guys are literally killing me with anticipation," He says. "Open the bag!"

"Jeez." JJ whistles.

"We almost died over this," Pope says like its an explanation. But he's right. We did almost die for this, which is why I need to know what's in it now.

John B opens the velvet bag. Something heavier than money falls out of it with a thunk. Its round and metal. Dirty and dented. Physically ugly and maybe priceless, but it looks familiar. I narrow my eyes at it, trying to study it and rack my brain through where I've seen it before.

"Oh, wow. Yup. That's about right," Pope sighs at the sight of our treasure. "Good job, everybody. We found a compass."

The word compass hits me like a train and my body goes slack like my limbs just turned into jell-o. John B is already looking at me, shocked at the real meaning of what we just found. I push myself in front of JJ and look down at the object he's holding. Priceless maybe true to the others but not to me. Not to John B. This means everything.

JJ looks between John B and I and laughs nervously at our reactions. "Dude, what? It's not worth anything."

My brows furrow together in confusion as I try to wrap my head around how we just found our dad's possession on another man's boat. A dead man's boat. But I feel blank. Like someone just wiped all my thoughts and memories.

"This was our father's compass," I say emotionless, keeping my eyes on JB who looks equally as terrified.

Tag List: @notyourcupofteax @acvross-the-universe @jjmaybankzz @jeeperky @realistic-breadstick @moniamaybank @urbinoutfiters @brebear121 @x-lulu

#jj maybank #jj mayback x reader #jj fic #jj x reader #jj maybank fic #jj maybank one shot #jj maybank imagines #jj maybank x reader #jj maybank imagine #outer banks imagine #outer banks fic #outer banks #john b routledge #outer banks rewrite #jj maybank x oc #pope heyward #kiara carrera #obx fic #obx

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incorrectlumityquotes · 3 years

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FULL REVIEWS: “Lost In Language”

Lost in language and I don't know much. Was I thinking aloud and fell out of touch? But I'm back on my feet and eager to be what you wanted.

Seriously? Nothing? You guys have never heard Air Supply? I mean, they’re old AF but still. It’s a funny pun. Whatever.

Back in the day (like it was so long ago) I didn’t know what to expect from this episode. The only thing I caught from the description was library, but hoo boy, we got so much more!

I love the cold opens to this show. It always reminds me that Luz is a silly ass hyper fangirl who still wants life to play out like it does on TV.

“Learning about love and life through the eyes of a child.”

Spoken like a true person who have never done any actual babysitting. The Bat Queen gets her own soft intro for another episode, which I’m noticing more and more re-watching this show. She pays Eda to watch her baby in exchange for a butt-ton of money. Eda, in classic Eda fashion, would rather not split the cash with Luz and gives her an errand to run so she doesn’t have to do it.

I don’t know about you guys, but liked going to the library when I was a kid. It was the only way I could play computer games or go on the internet. Getting online is the easiest thing in the world today, but when I was a kid, it was a luxury my parents couldn’t afford. And dumb-dumb kid me didn’t know that you can borrow movies and comic for free at the library too. That’s how I saw Jaws for the first time.

The library at The Boiling Isles is almost exactly what I expected. Kinda like the Hogwarts library, but with a lot more teeth and eyes everywhere. Luz has a bunch of fun just messing around, until she stumbles upon the cutest goddamn thing ever!

Amity reading to kids at the public library in her free time. My god.

I’m with Luz here. Holy hell, I did not see that coming. I thought Amity was the rival character, the Draco Malfoy of the show, the reluctant ally, the jerk with the heart of gold DEEP in there somewhere. Instead she’s at the Kid’s Corner reading her favorite childhood classic to toddlers. I didn’t know there were angels in the demon realm.

Stop. Stop! You’re already cute.

Seriously this moment made me go “aw” and laugh at the same time. It was weird. Also how does this library have a manga section? Do they import these books from JAPAN in the HUMAN REALM? Is there a publishing company that acts as the middleman? Or are these just the books that the trash slugs ended up barfing on the beach somewhere? I’m thinking too hard about a throwaway joke in the background. Big brain hurt.

AND back to reality...

Luz tries to extend the hand of friendship to Amity and Amity rejects it. I have...thoughts.

First, they this up with another parallel to Azura in the beginning of the episode. I get it. It’s a theme that they are doing, but I would have rather have Luz try to befriend Amity because she wants to, not because Azura did it. It’s not the only reason she does it, but it does kinda bug me a bit. It kinda goes back to Luz wanting life to play out like a story.

Also, a part of me thinks that this is something Amity likes to do alone. Her way of getting away from everyone else and just do something that she enjoys and makes her feel good. We have no proof that it gives her extra credit, so she could just use that as a way to save face. She seemed so happy to do it too.

Finally, you know what this else this reminds me of? The Karate Kid and Cobra Kai. There’s a popular fan theory that has been around since the eighties that if you look at The Karate Kid from the rival’s perspective, the protagonist is the bully. I’m more than sure that’s what going on here. From Amity’s perspective, Luz just gets her into trouble. We’ll get more into that later.

Luz walks off dejected and we get the second big surprise to punch me in the face.

Holy hell, why the fuck are you two so goddamn fucking pretty? I mean, holy shit, look at these two. My god. And ERICA LINDBECK as Emira? Jesus Christ, I’m going to be feeling things I shouldn’t be feeling in places I can’t say!

Joking aside, we get one of our first full introductions that didn’t come with a soft intro from a previous episode. Enter Emira and Emira, Amity’s older siblings who in true sibling fashion like to give Amity a hard time.

“Hey, mittens!”

This seems normal at first. Siblings always rib each other. No big deal.

Amity storms off. The twins introduce themselves proper to Luz (and the audience) and they mess around for a bit.

In fact, they have so much fun messing around with Luz that they decide to invite her back afterhours to check out The Wailing Star. Luz thinks that this is a great way to get on Amity’s good side by befriending her siblings. Why she would think this I have no idea.

Meanwhile the B-plot continues its adventures in babysitting. I don’t like using the word filler (so I won’t) but this B-plot is really just for two things: setting up Escape of the Palisman and jokes. It does both. No harm, no foul.

Also the twins said for Luz to meet back at midnight and Luz was at The Owl House for like a hot second. There’s like a huge gap of time there. What did she do until midnight? Whatever. If it was important it would have been animated.

Also also, I love all of Luz’s little saying in this episode. She does it a lot but they cranked it up in this episode. Featuring great hits like:

“This sour lemon drop has a hidden sweet center.”

and

“I thought we were as cool as cucumbers but we’re as sour as pickles.”

and my favorite

“Call me a library book because they were checking me out.”

I hope they keep doing that.

Back at the literal Wailing Star (I laughed so hard), The twins and Luz discover that The Wailing Star brings the content of the books to life. Does that work for all books in The Boiling Isles or just the library? Enough. No more big brain. The three proceed to...mess around some more.

The twins discover offscreen (Really? Really.) that if you edit the contents of the book, you change what comes to life. Then the twins reveal their true objectives. Apparently, Amity has been tattling on the twins whenever they cut class or do whatever it is that they want. They’ve decided to look for her secret little hideaway (that they somehow know is in the library), find her diary and post all the pages all over school to teach her a lesson.

Um, fucking no.

And here we enter the true lesson of this episode and probably the reason why Hecate is draw with two faces. People being more than just what they appear to be at face value.

Amity appears to be the bully character of the show, and while she did bully Willow, Luz and King, there’s more to her than that. Amity is lonely. As a fellow person who grew up lonely, trust me. I can tell from a mile away. She puts pressure on herself to be the best at whatever she’s doing and to be the best. She hates that she follows the rules but people like her siblings seem to get rewarded for breaking the rules and doing whatever they want free of consequence. She sees the double standard that they live by and it angers her. But at the same time, everyone seems to give the twins a free pass so she can’t do anything about it.

Even worse, there’s no one for her to confide in. It wouldn’t make it better but it would make it easier for her to just vent and get the bullshit out of her brain. She doesn’t like her friends and the one friend she did like...that’s for another episode. Hence, the diary. Amity is a big ball of frustration and loneliness. I know because I grew up in a very similar way.

When you’re forced to keep your anger inside you, you lash out at any little thing that bothers you just to ease your frustrations. It doesn’t make it okay but it’s the only way to cope sometimes just to get by.

The twins on the other hand seem like everything you’d want in a friend. They’re fun; they like you; they’re attractive; they’re attentive. But in reality, they live in a world where they believe consequences and accountability don’t apply to them. And they’ll do anything to keep it that way. Even humiliate their sister.

Luz seems like a happy-go-lucky, friends to all things kinda person, but she can also be innocently insensitive. She just does things hoping they turn out the way they would for Azura without considering how the people around her would feel about it.

It doesn’t make any of these characters two-faced. We just are different things to different people.

Amity discovers what’s going down and Luz (being the empathic person that she is) decide to try to go talk to her.

Then I’m reminded that this is a horror-comedy.

My god, you’re ugly.

One climax later (don’t laugh), and Luz and Amity try to make amends with each other. They both have to think about how they’ve been treating the other, earning the title of bully or not. They’re not friends yet but this is...better.

FINAL SCORE: 5 - Loved it.

Damn, The Owl House is one a roll. That’s what? Three 5 scored episodes already? Hot damn. This episode was fun but it really hit hard with the character work on Amity. She quickly became one of the most interesting characters and a fan favorite. And the third act provided a good amount of horror to call this a horror comedy. The B-plot is fine but probably one of the weakest only saved by several funny jokes. This is one of those episodes I kept coming back to and a favorite to watch.

Could you two please not? I’m gonna get in trouble.

#the owl house #my works #full review #full reviews

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solo-23 · 3 years

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I'd debated about whether or not to post this because it's definitely a rant and there is definitely a lot of negativity, but I need to vent after last night's episode (with some leftover issues from earlier this season, too). If Betty is your favorite and you don't like to read anything negative about her, you will not like this post.

1. The way the voicemail has been blown completely out of proportion by the writers, reviewers, and some shippers is ridiculous. We keep hearing about how it was terrible, emotionally abusive, toxic, and something that Jughead definitely needed to apologize for, but nothing he said was actually out of line. There is absolutely nothing in that voicemail that Betty should have been surprised about, let alone treating it like it somehow turns her into the victim in the fall of Bughead.

It's not surprising that Jughead has now apologized twice for the voicemail, even if he doesn't actually remember all of it, because he knows that it hurt Betty. He can also probably guess what he said because he knows what he feels and how it can be exaggerated when he's feeling depressed or under the influence of drugs and alcohol. Generally if you actually admit what you're thinking or feeling when you know it would hurt someone, you feel bad about it. It doesn't matter if it's true or not, or if you're under the influence. A good person apologizes if they know they hurt someone. Jughead is a good person.

Just a note here, I've seen other people saying that Betty's actions while high should be excused just like people have said Jughead's voicemail should be excused because he was under the influence. Being under the influence DOES NOT excuse the voicemail.

The fact that Betty cheated on Jughead, did continue to sneak around with Archie while debating whether or not she wanted to "officially" pursue him, hid the whole affair until Jughead actually caught on and she had to make up a direct lie to his face or confess, never actually explained anything to Jughead (things like she was the one who stopped the affair, she wanted to stay with Jughead, etc.) even after he asked if they could talk about it, stood him up at Pop's a year later, and then stood him up again at the book release party justify Jughead's voicemail. And he has apologized for it twice.

2. That is why it was so intensely frustrating for Betty to just brush off his apology (again) and then turn the conversation to her, but without actually apologizing for anything. When Jughead mentioned not really being able to remember the voicemail, she could have brought up what bothered her in it so (a) he would know and (b) they could actually discuss the issues, which could have led into Betty actually explaining what happened with the cheating, including how the affair ended, and she could have apologized for that. It still wouldn't have been fully satisfying because Betty never apologizes first for her actions, but it would've been better than nothing. She also could have apologized for standing him up, although at least she explained why she didn't make it to the book release party.

3. However, she still didn't admit to or apologize for giving away Jughead's manuscript. The entire reason Jughead relapsed into drinking and almost plagiarized Cora is because Betty gave Jessica his manuscript. No, Betty does not get credit for "saving" Jughead because she was present when he got a phone call from Samm and admitted that he wasn't the author. She's the reason he was in that position in the first place. Yes, she had been drugged. Yes, Tabitha was present and didn't stop her. No, neither of those things excuse it. It also doesn't excuse her from sharing the voicemail with Tabitha and Jessica.

Why not? She and Tabitha were still shown as functional when all of this happened. Jessica admitted that she drugged them to try to get the manuscript. They were both capable of thinking and arguing. Betty chose to give the manuscript to Jessica. It wasn't until afterward that Betty and Tabitha started being really impacted by the drugs. Jughead's manuscript wasn't Betty's (or Tabitha's) to give away and doing so completely screwed Jughead over.

There are some questions here--did he switch over to his typewriter and that's why there was no backup? did he forget to save a copy on his laptop? did his laptop crash or get lost? who knows, but in the story it doesn't matter. There was one copy and Betty gave it away, placing Jughead in the position of losing his agent or plagiarizing another author.

Also, for playing the voicemail, Jessica had just brought the drugged fries to the table. No one is shown as having felt the effects of the drugs until Tabitha made a comment about being warm after the voicemail is over. Betty had been reluctant to help from the beginning, before Tabitha mentioned the "don't be a Betty" line, and made fairly rude comments about Jughead throughout the episode. I don't think she needs to apologize to Jughead for sharing it, but I also thought that playing the victim and having some people blame it on "being high" was ridiculous.

4. You cannot convince me that Betty cares about Jughead in the slightest when he was telling her he was an alcoholic and he's trying to get better and he's clearly drinking alcohol right in front of her and her response is "I'm an addict, too. I'm addicted to serial killers." She's struggling, yes, and it's good that she's opening up, but if she cared about Jughead at all an appropriate response here would be "So, why are you drinking?" or "are you okay?" Show some sort of concern for someone who is relapsing in front of your face. Jughead does it for Betty when he suggests she should take a break, even though he's in a moral quandary caused by Betty, depressed, and drunk.

Also, no, chasing serial killers is not an addiction in the same way as drugs or alcohol and it's insulting to say they're the same. Chasing serial killers could be described as a compulsion for Betty, or a hyperfixation, but it's not the same. It's difficult, but you can choose to not follow a compulsion without experiencing the often severe physical side effects experienced by actual addicts. I'm glad Betty recognized that she has a problem, but no, that is not an addiction.

5. The entire conversation is extremely awkward. It's clear that it isn't what Jughead had in mind, but his life that he had just been starting to get back together fell apart. He sank to new (or at least different) lows. Betty seemed like she wanted to leave as soon as she got there (understandable given how awkward it was, even secondhand) and disappeared once Jughead was distracted by a phone call. It's understandable, but disappointing. The part that was really frustrating, though, was that after talking to Jughead about how unhealthy her serial killer obsession is and how she's worried about her mom, she still goes out. Alice was passed out on the couch, which Betty paused to acknowledge. That should have been a turning point for Betty and it just wasn't. Screw these writers.

6. I loved that Tabitha and Jughead had mutual apologies, discussed their issues, and genuinely seemed to care about each other. I also loved that Jughead still cares and worries about Betty (frustrating as it is when it seems unreciprocated) because it's so true to Jughead's character.

7. It is absolutely fine and understandable if Betty has moved on from Jughead. She seemed to believe that if he found out about the cheating in their senior year, it would be the end of their relationship. She started shutting him out and trying to move on the next day.

However, as a Jughead fan, it's intensely annoying to see him still struggling with the lack of closure and continuing to have feelings for Betty after all of that. I would have preferred to see either both of them move on, then rediscover each other later (or not, depending on where the show is going), or have Betty be the one who still clearly has feelings for Jughead and have her regret blowing up the relationship.

8. Overall, I hate a lot of what the writers have done this season. I don't particularly like any of the backstories for the characters during the time jump, I don't like each character following a separate plot line(s), the lack of interaction between characters, and how disjointed everything feels.

The mothman plot was interesting, but seems destined for a disappointing end. There have been a lot of missed opportunities to bring storylines together (Jughead went missing while Archie was looking for escaped prisoners, he could have found Jughead; Jughead hitchhiked with a random trucker, even without the trucker attacking him he could have seen clues or found Polly; Sweet Pea or Fangs could have seen Betty playing hooker and organized an intervention instead of having the weird cult plot line; I'm sure there's more). Maybe it'll be better with a binge watch, but I'm having trouble maintaining interest in the final three episodes, let alone rewatching this mess of a season.

BONUS: I was relieved that the Bughead talk did not go with my worst case scenario. Based on the possible B/A return, I was a little bit worried that Jughead would apologize for the voicemail and remember what he said, then talk about how he always knew Betty had feelings for Archie. Betty, who said she'd been "wanting this since high school," would then nod along and say she was sorry for hurting him, but acknowledge those feelings. Then Jughead would ask why they never acted on those feelings after the breakup, Betty would talk about the FWB, and Jughead would go full B/A cheerleader and tell her to give it a chance (like the Pacey and Joey chat about Dawson at Mitch's funeral in Dawson's Creek). I was dreading that possibility and I'm so glad the show didn't go there. I'm sorry if I've given anyone nightmares.

#anti betty cooper #rd fandom negativity #riverdale writers negativity #anti barchie

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goodguydotmp3 · 4 years

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two questions: why don’t you like harry and do you really think harry villanized the weed video or do you think that was the people attempting to court him (azoffs)

Whew, this is a long one folx!

Why don’t you like Harry [Styles]?

Let me preface this response by saying that I’m a pretty new “fan” if one can still call me that. I got into the One Direction fandom in the summer of last year, and much of my opinions of the boys where shaped by fan reactions. After gathering more and more information however, I realized that the fandom and I were wrong about some things, and over hyping others.

Still, it wasn’t until this year that I actually broke out of the Harry-centric bubble to realize that the shady goings on where much worse than I originally thought. Add to this my realization that Harry’s music really doesn’t withstand the test of time, and that his persona is pretty Stagnant, and I’ve come to feel rather bamboozled.

Of course I know that the entire point of his PR team is to sway public opinion of him one way, and if I ate it up that was part of the plan. That doesn’t mean I have to like it. It also doesn’t mean I feel any less hurt about it. It also doesn’t mean that I like when other people fawn over him, as quite a lot of what I’m going to say has been public knowledge, and some of it before I was even a fan.

A. Music

Actually getting to a big part of the problem here, his music isn’t good. Well, not long term like I said in the preface. He doesn’t really have much of a vocal range despite being a singer for more than ten years. He does not care and acts like he does, often leading to him sounding like he’s screaming instead of singing. He’s lyrics are boring and flat, and his melodies are fine, they just don’t make up for his unmemorable lyrics. I personally think that the cause is him more heavily relying on song writers to fill in more in more, but that’s mostly because I don’t want to believe that the same person who wrote Happily and Olivia also wrote At the Dining Table and Treat People With Kindness, because that would just mean he’s getting worse or putting forth less effort.

Of course one could argue that I’m not a professional, I don’t have the necessary Jargon to correctly critique, and I’m no longer a singer so I can’t even do what he does. But to that I say fuck off. I know what sounds good! I know what I like!

Even more than that though, If you bought a product (non food), and you could only use that product for the first two weeks you bought it, you’d say it was a shit product! You’d scream from the rooftops that no one should ever buy this product because it’s crap! Well guess what? I pre-ordered Fine Line just to listen for two weeks and never pick it up again except for golden, she’s a funky tune every couple months.

Besides the test of time, there is still the subject of actual talent/listenability if you will. I feel there’s four main categories when I listen to music that makes it worth listening to

1.Amazing voice

2.Awesome lyrics

3.Funky/ cool ass melody/Beat

4.Catchy as hell

Now, a song doesn’t need to be all four, however the more they have the more likely I am to like the song. Also, I’ve said “main categories” because I’ve definitely had songs were I just through the beat drop was cool, or maybe the bridge was sick as hell, or maybe I just liked the pacing or the way the singer/singers stressed a note. Alternatively there is a sweet spot for me of super depressing lyrics but a melody/ that makes you want to dance. See: most of After Laughter by Paramore, Lola By Mika. But in general, those four usually make me love a song long term.

If it’s an album, it usually Just has to sound like it belongs on the same album/ tell a story. Like I really don’t like albums that sound like it’s just a playlist of songs personally. I should be able to listen to a song and go “oh yeah, that’s off --- album” or I didn’t like the album as a whole. An album is a bit like an outfit to me. It’s not going to be all tops, nor does it need to be monochromatic, but it does need to go together

For Example, I love Four as an album. I thought it was amazing. I still hate Spaces and Illusion. I hate both of their melodies, I don’t like the Illusion intro, I’m not to keen on those lyrics, and they’re definitely not catchy, I skip every time.

So taking that logic to Harry’s music, I think HS1 works very well as an album, almost all of the songs sound like they’re supposed to be there. And I hate every song but Kiwi. The lyrics are boring/don’t make a ton of sense, the melodies definitely don’t make up for that, he doesn’t have the range, and none of them are catchy! And then you get to Kiwi and she’s got that vibe you know? She’s a pop punk bop and I cannot fucking believe that Harry has one pop punk bop among unmemorable pop rock album.

Going to Fine line, It’s not as great as an album. There are some songs that don’t really feel like they fit? Like just going through the album, cherry doesn’t have any business being there? Like the lyrics fit sure, but what is that weird intro and outro? It probably would have been fine If the song didn’t have those two, but having them there upset the pace a bit I felt. And then there was Treat People With Kindness, which was really Jarring and doesn’t feel like it belongs on the album at all? It actually feels like it’s trying to be Kiwi - it’s loud and garish, and the lyrics are trying to be carefree, but! It just doesn’t work! TPWK sounds like Hippie music! Kiwi sounds like Brendon Urie could sing it and people would be like “good ol Panic!”. And then the album goes back down into Fine line the song, which again is Jarring because you’ve had this TPWK monstrosity right before it.

Then, looking at the overarching theme of his music, It’s whiny piss baby music He hates to take responsibility for his actions! It’s all in his lyrics! And don’t get me wrong, I love Honest lyrics, but not if the person is an asshole! LIke I fucking hate confessions by Usher specifically becasue he’s talking about how much he’s a piece of shit in the most whiny and piss baby way, making it all about him and no the people he hurt. I also really hate that one song that Zayn did with Usher and Chris Brown, because you have these awful men completely misunderstanding what it means to write a love song, and then you have Zayn at the very end all like “actually I really am in love tho…” Esp Chris browns verse! It boils down to “Hey I know I was a asshole seven billion times but I miss you tho :(“ GIRL BYE!

Harry sounds the exact same though, Except he can’t even blame himself for his own mistakes, and just wades through self pity about how the object of his affection won’t love him even though he didn’t even do anything except it wasn’t his fault and why are you still mad it wasn’t even his fault and he was young and reckless and drunk and horny. Like??? WRITE A NEW SONG TAYLOR SWIFT 2.0! There’s only so much you can repackage the same narrative before it becomes stale no Cinderella does not count keep that shit coming. And It really jumps out in his writing, even through 1d, although I will say there were some catchy beats, and awesome lines to keep him afloat back then. Although wtf was Walking in the Wind??? Choke!

Then there are the melodies I’m talking post wondee here which often give this 70’s pop rock vibe. Which fine I guess, it’s his brand, but that doesn’t make it interesting. Or new. Or fresh. Or an interesting take.

Now I completely understand relying on nostalgia to boost people’s opinion, but you could at leas have the decency to actually have good music. For Example, Miss you by Louis Tomlinson has a very distinctive pop rock feel, but it’s also an amazing song. Great lyrics, amazing voice, catchy liddle diddy that happens to be reminiscent of that 2005- 2010 punk pop/emo pop feel. Sour diesel has that like,,,basey 90s pop feel, and it fucking works with the lyrics, and of course his voice is beautiful. When Walls dropped and Lou put out that playlist of songs that were an inspiration, you can hear the influences when you listen to the album, but they’re also really good songs in their own right, with amazing lyrics, and Louis’ distinctive voice. Comparing that to Harry, it seems like he’s mostly relying on people’s nostalgia rather than actually good music.

Okay so this last point I’m making on music is a little petty but it’s been like a week and I’m still pissed about it so I’m saying it now. Someone said that Harry Styles is the best pop rock artist right now???? Just admit that you don’t listen to pop rock tf. Louis Tomlinson is right there. Brendon Urie is right there. Mika is right there. Haley Williams is right there. Janell Monae is right there. I don’t listen to a lot of pop rock lol but i feel my point has been made

B. Public Persona

He get’s so much clout! SO MUCH CLOUT! For doing the bare minimum (this is not specifically about the fandom, that’s for later)! People will write all these glowing reviews of him for him??? Being polite??? Like okay and? Just because a person is polite doesn’t mean they’re fucking Jesus??? There’s a million and one stories so i’m not fucking looking them up but there’s the pizza story and the fish story and the plane story and the snl story and the Stormzy story and the WS story on and on and on! Stop giving this man brownie points for basic human decency. “I didn’t expect him to be like that!” okay is that because of their perception of what a rock star is supposed to be like? Because in that case we need to start holding people accountable for being assholes. Or is it because he seems like an asshole. Cause valid.

I also don’t like him leaning so heavily on the queer image thing. Like! If that’s how he likes to express himself, Fine, But so much of it is just...so manufactured! And I Know I’ve heard people say oh well he wore the one rainbow on his lapel that one time or he wore the shirt or he wore the Keith Harring.

1. That Rainbow pin is sus as hell I don’t care what ya’ll say It absolutely screams set up, if he wanted to not be seen he would have not been seen

2. That goes for literally every other time. I can’t believe it’s not a set up to push a queer image. (that he profits from!)

3. If he actually did his homework on Keith Harring he’d know that the man was a predator, and he wouldn’t have worn those shirts. It seems so performative! To add to that, does he know now? If so, why isn’t he using his platform to correct his mistake? Why didn’t he come out and let people know not to buy Harring’s stuff??? He knows the pull he has! He absolutely could have been like “I’ve made a mistake, if you are looking for queer artists to support, here’s some” But he fucking doesn’t

4. To add on to that last part, It is actually sus that he gets to profit off of this queer image, and yet the only queer voices that he’s propping up are white gays. And then not even directly? Not a “queer artists, esp queer artists of color are important and need their voices boosted because they are the back bone of society” but this wink nod type of deal, where again, he mainly boosts white gays.like??? One queer black woman that doesn’t work for the Azoffs, and then a bunch of white gays. Like?? That’s not racist to anyone else???????Just me? okay.

Now from a professional point of view, it’s even worse. I’m not saying that artists can’t be campy or blurr gender lines, or imply that they ‘re queer subtly. But I think it’s fucking disrespectful to play both ends. Like, he profits off of using the queer image, all while Dancing around the subject, but then on the back end he never says that Homophobes/Transphobes aren’t allowed in his fandom. He gives this empty ass tpwk and then washes his hands of it.

Don’t get me wrong, I am always upset when people who have lots of queerphobes in their fandom bullying and harassing the actual queer people never say anything to let queerphobes know they’re unwelcome (clearly money is better than morals) but for me it’s an extra kick to the gut for it to literally profit Harry to seem queer. Look at that time that gay company sold out shirts in less than an hour,because harry was wearing it and tell me people aren’t throwing money at him because they feel he’s queer.

C. Fashion

This one is a really rough one for me because this is partially what drew me into Harry in the first place. But he’s really not all that in terms of fashion. He’s expensive certainly, but sometimes, the things that are more expensive are worse. Even When He’s not looking like a grandparent out on the town, his style is very dated, and yet he gets paraded around like he’s the freshest new thing?? Like who is his team paying of for him to get that many articles about how he’s fashion’s biggest star. And the thing is, his style is even dated for the mainstream. There’s already a post about how he copies prominent pop/pop rock stars of the 70s, which means that his style is 50 years old for the mainstream. Now don’t get me wrong, I think it’s totally fine if you’re addicted to seventies wear. I don’t think he should be heralded as this huge fashion star if his wardrobe is this dated

Even more than that. Gucci???? The Gucci with a history of Racism?? The Gucci with the child labor??? The Gucci with the 14 hour days Gucci??? Ugly ass Gucci????? Soulja Boy don’t even fuck with Gucci no more and he fuck with Gucci since like 2007. (although that was because of the racism, not cause it’s ugly)

I think that bothers me the most though. Like it’s not enough to exploit people, you also have to be tacky ugly and expensive???? For what??? @Gucci cease to exist please.

If Harry wants to be tacky ugly and expensive, that’s of course his rights to do so! But don’t act like he’s at the very pinnacle of fashion every time he does.

I’m actually always very conflicted about that. I personally prefer a style that’s very loud and campy and avant garde but like,,,,that ain’t it. Maybe it’s something you got it or ya don’t??? Like for example Billy Porter could wear a trashbag and make it work. The expensive sweaters and the slacks? The suits? Not a good look on one Harry Styles. Maybe it’s because they’re expensive sweaters and slacks and expensive suits. What are you, Ted from accounting??? Grow up.

D. Treat People With Kindness

Ugh this is the thing that pisses me off like the second to most. This phrase is so fucking empty. You could not have made up a more corporate mandated phrase if you fucking tried. It stands for nothing! Just like him!

Let’s break it down. “Treat people with kindness” is, at face value, a call to action. It’s asking you to do something. But it doesn’t actually tell you what to do!! So it’s pretty inoffensive! You don’t actually have to change your behavior in anyway for two main reasons:

1. What the hell is Kindness??? This phrase never actually says what it is??? It’s just this short little punchy thing that assumes you know what kindness is! What if you didn’t actually know? What if you have differing ideals of what is considered kindness? I mean to my mother, Misgendering me is kindness, but I don’t think that’s kindness. To my father, not letting his children have autonomy is kindness, but I don’t find that kind. And yet they could both use that phrase and feel confident that they go around treating people with kindness. After all they cooked dinner didn’t they? They smiled at Janice from public relations didn’t they? That’s kindness right?

2. It also assumes you know what “people” are. Queer people are people. Queerphobes don’t consider queer people, people. Racists aren’t going to consider some people, people. So they can continue their harassment and dehumanization of them and still be treating people with kindness, because they never harmed actual people (to them)

E. Harry bots

Bitch?? Corporate spies?? Tf ??? That’s not weird to ya’ll ?? I think the thing that shocked me more than someone from Colombia records admitting that he manufactures the hype around people signed to Colombia, is the fact that the Fandom been knew!!!! Ya’ll been knew and ya’ll wasn’t gon tell me???????? I just found out last week wtf????????

Another thing I don’t like about them Harry bots, is it’s one thing to hype up Harry, but why tf do they need to shit on the other boys??? Is it because they’re more talented, good looking, and charming??? How about you get good!!!! I esp hate that it’s usually Louis. What is Corporate’s obsession with putting Louis down like? What a bunch of fucking weirdos?? It��s not enough to be a Harry fan and live up his ass, I gotta hate Louis too?? You lost yo damn mind. If you reading this and you a spy? Die.

F. Capitalism

Honestly that should be the end of it but here the fuck we go I guess. Now I get that there is going to be some capitalism involved when you get music, especially mainstream music, there are tones of articles out there with people who used to be in the industry telling you about how fucking awful it is, all in the pursuit of money. (Which isn’t fucking real by the way! We made it up! People out here getting traumatized! Belittled! Bullied! Married off! So some corporation can make all the money! The Imaginary Credits! That we made up! I hate it here!)

But it’s another fucking thing to participate in a capitalist system? He invested into that one sleep app, even going to do one of the voice sessions (So you could have Harry Styles themed sleep paralysis) and you pay for that! He makes money off that! It’s not enough that you buy his mediocre music or his ugly ass merch, you also have to give him money through the sleep paralysis app.

Then there was that Google Camp for Rich People Only! I don’t even want to fucking hear that it was on Climate Change oh wow all the rich people took helicopters and Yachts to a resort with manicured lawns??? To talk about how they treat the environment? That’s not at all Counter intuitive! Not at all for show! Fucking disgusting.

Oh and the Covid Shirt! Really bitch??? You need to Profit off a deadly pandemic? Are you profiting off of AIDS next you fucking bastard. And he can of course get a tax write of for his “ charitable donation” fuck off.

G. Racism

This! This is the thing that gets me the most! YA’LL CAN EXCUSE RACISM???

No, I’m not talking about the Native American Headdress thing, that was plenty despicable on it’s own, No I’m talking about the on going racism. The whole, using black people for clout and then dropping them and never returning the favor when they sing his praises thing. Specifically I’m thinking of Sis the activist, Stormzy, and Lizzo.

The Lizzo thing pisses me off the most actually. I think it’s very fucking convenient that Harry started taking interest in Lizzo after there was uproar from black fans noting his hypocrisy of performing for Pepsi (Notoriously racist) and Having BLM sticker on his guitar. So he shows up at one of her concerts dressed like a senior citizen that got lost on the way to the retirement home bathroom. She looked fucking amazing and he couldn’t put forth the effort to at least not look senile. Then there was the covering of her songs, and then there was the cuddling up with her at the awards show. Funny how I haven’t seen any interaction after the fact! And Of course everyone forgot about the Pepsi concert! Fuck all the way off!!

Also! Are we just never going to talk about the fact that he didn’t comment on the blm protests earlier this year until his team could gauge whether or not it would be profitable to do so by DATA MINING HIS FAN BASE???? And then when he actually did he got the most praise for it, truly fucking hate it here. Also when he marched with those protesters he made sure we knew it was him. There were posts flouting around everywhere on how to best cover up to make yourself completely unrecognizable should you wind up on camera or fucking worse, get attacked by the police. Funny how Close Sprouse could follow the advice and not Harry? Also supper funny how he got the hell out of dodge before things got super bad and I have not heard anything on the matter since. Guess what Harry??? We’re still out here fighting for the rights to exist! Still wanna have a photo op while our own government tries to squash us with force????? This is like that Jenner Pepsi ad but with sunglasses and a pandemic.

H. Fandom

I think I would hate him less if I didn’t have to hear about him every hour of everyday. Stop Hyping this man so much. Even after unfollowing and blocking a bunch of Harries and Larries he’s all across my dash. And twitter. And insta. KURTIS CONNER FUCKING LIKES HIM I JUST WANTED CRACK CONTENT AND NOW LOOK.

I. Conclusion.

After writing all this I think the running theme is that Harry Styles isn’t even a person, he’s a brand. I do not like or trust brands! And I definitely don’t like being advertised to! Just like It’s fake as fuck when Absolut is all about queer rights, it’s fake as fuck when Harry does it too. Just like I know Target doesn’t actually care about Black lives, I know Harry doesn’t either. People are always like “oh he’s so nice!” no! He’s polite! There’s a difference. Zayn Is a truly kind person. Liam is a truly kind person. Louis is a truly kind person. It shines though so brightly all the time, and yet people are really out here worshiping the Brand Harry Styles.

Do I think It was Harry or The Azoffs throwing Zouis under the bus.

Truly doesn’t matter! Whichever one did it, Harry was totally fine with it! Which tells me that he doesn’t give a shit about anyone but himself. He’ll go along with anything as long as it gets him to the top, and that’s fucked up on one million and one levels

#hazza curly mchazzerson #This is like 4 thousand words #Have fun #Harry Styles

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slyeposting · 4 years

Text

Rating Marvel’s new New Warriors

(long post)

After seeing the character designs for Marvel’s new series of New Warriors comics as well as watching multiple reaction videos and reading other people’s reviews, I thought I would summarize some basic points and add my ratings/review. Please prepare yourselves for this hot garbage.

Screentime: 3/10

wow starting off strong

looks like Ben 10

basically if Alexa was your obnoxious Fortnite-obsessed younger brother

writers will probably make him say “Ok bOomEr” and unironically floss

got his powers from internet gas????? whatever the fuck that means??????

Superhero name makes him sound like he’s six and his parents are trying to stop him from watching Ninja for 12 hours a day

useless in combat bc other than him having a smartphone for a brain he’s a regular kid (aka: will die in one hit from a villain with actual powers)

only redeeming quality is his visor reminds me of Geordi La Forge

Trailblazer: 3/10

Dora the Exploer if she got really into bad 90s fashion

Backpack looks like Sleeper from the Venom comics

her description says she “she doesn't think of herself as a Super Hero,” which is good because she isn’t one

slightly more useful in combat than Screentime because she could potentially pull an RPG out of her pocket dimension backpack or something

oh wait she can’t even control what comes out of it!!! nevermind!!!!

fucking Percy Jackson did this with Leo and even then he had his own powers as well as this

there were so many fat jokes/fatphobia in all the reviews i saw on youtube and it made me want to smash my head into a wall (not related to the review but I thought it was worth mentioning if anyone wants to look up any reviews after this)

I keep coming back to the color scheme and it’s just. so bad. Neon sucks especially when it is clashing with other neon

apparently she got the backpack from God, but “not the god you’re thinking of...” very cool writers. Real quirky of you. Can you be any more annoying.

fingerless gloves

Snowflake and Safespace: 1/10

oh god

oh sweet jesus

I don’t even know where to begin with these. the names? The costumes? The color scheme? Safespace’s fucking sideburns? help

ok let’s start with the names

it does not matter who you are on the political scale, where you are on the gender spectrum, or how okay you are with “”edgy/dark humor””- nobody who has even the slightest knowledge of 2017-era Twitter language will look at two superheroes named Snowflake and Safespace and think “these characters are reclaiming these otherwise insulting terms and using them as their own.” They will think the characters are a joke. It shows how utterly out of touch the writer is with modern day culture, which is not a good sign considering he’s writing modern-era comic with all teenage characters. Snowflake is an insult. It just is. The idea of a “safespace” has been demolished because of the way it has been used by trolls online. No amount of woke points and “flipping the script” is going to change that. It’s a sad attempt to pander to a very specific audience, and the writers still manage to make it feel like a slap in the face. This is one of the poorest attempts to make a new-age, hyper aware characterization that I have seen in a long time. It fucking sucks.

Also Marvel makes their first nonbinary character and they name them fucking Snowflake? Are you kidding me Marvel? I’m going to scream

Moving on to the costumes, they’re actually shit. It’s like if the Wonder Twins became semi-professional roller skaters who watched Tron once while tripping on LSD. Why do they have vests.

Why is everything Neon??!?!! Does the designer not know how value and complimentary colors work?! Can the saturation not be constantly at 100 please my eyes are suffering

Apparently their characters are just as obnoxious as their hair

“they see their Super Heroics as “a post-ironic meditation on using violence to combat bullying.” They're probably streaming this.” WRITERS HAVE YOU EVER INTERACTED WITH A TEENAGER. THIS READS LIKE A REDDIT POST DO YOU THINK WE TALK LIKE THIS

the best components out of these characters are the powers, and even then the powers aren’t extraordinary. Ice shurikens and force fields? Fine. A little standard, but fine. I just wish their powers weren’t so connotative with their names. I can’t fathom that someone actually approved these characters. This is exhausting.

B-Negative : 6/10

probably the best one out of them all

what every emo kid wanted to look like in 8th grade

a cohesive color scheme that isn’t trying to attack me through the screen

actually has super powers that aren’t googling things or pulling things out of a magical Jansport that not-God found at Target for $30

apparently this is where the creativity ends though because in the end he is literally just a vampire minus the immortality (why, you ask? I don’t fucking know. It’s like the internet gas everything is a shitshow)

“B-Negative ages like a regular person (or does he?) and he definitely drinks blood (or does he?)” I don’t care. (or does he? Jk I don’t fucking care. Stop trying to be quirky, writers. It’s not cute.)

“The world is a vampire…and so am I.” Hi what the FUCK does this mean

fingerless gloves

Final Thoughts

I am very tired

Marvel doesn’t know their audience at all

The creators of these characters tried to make modern characters despite being extremely out of touch, making the concepts already seem dated and unappealing

I’m honestly suprised they didn’t have a Hijabi character for those sweet sweet woke points ™

please for the love of god can I get some neutral colors once in a while. I can’t take this much longer

fingerless gloves

#WOW this was way longer than I planned #thank you to anyone who read the whole thing!#rant #marvel #marvel new warriors #new warriors #trailblazer #marvel trailblazer #screentime #marvel screentime #snowflake and safespace #god i hate that I had to tag that #b-negative #marvel b negative

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carelessannie · 3 years

Text

maybe it goes like this: tony courts peter (part 3)

Read on A03

Read the Stuckony backstory WIP

Starker focus (Tony x Peter), Stony (Tony x Steve), with reference to Stucky, Winteriron and Stuckony

Let’s see how Tony does courting an Omega...

Major warnings: D/S Au, A/B/O Au, Misunderstandings, Soulbonds (?)

---

Maybe it goes like this:

Mr. Stark’s been acting weird.

None of the other interns have said anything, but Peter has noticed increased attention towards him, specifically, in the lab.

And it’s innocent, normal things like,

“Hey Pete, want any feedback on this project?”

Or,

“If you ever need extra time in the lab, just let me know, I’m often here after hours,”

And lately,

“I’d love to work with you one on one, Peter.”

It’s innocent. It’s frequent. And it’s infuriating.

Right now is one of those times where Mr. Stark— or, Tony, as he keeps insisting— is doing his rounds, and singles Peter out. Again.

“You know, Pete, sometimes working with a team is best for accurate results in this type of work. I’d love to help double check your numbers, if you’d like to stay after for a bit?”

And, as usual, Peter has to stop himself from rolling his eyes, instead responding with a clipped, “No, I’m fine, thanks.”

Peter can see his boss shifting uncomfortably in his peripheral, and just knows the man is going to respond with, “Oh… okay, Peter. Let me know if you change your mind,” and rocks back and forth for a moment, before moving on to the next intern.

And it wouldn’t bother Peter, alright, except he is the only person being singled out. The only one Mr. Stark makes sure to check up on, and certainly the only one offered extra work time for his projects and to double check his results.

It makes sense, he concluded a few days ago, I am the only Omega in the lab.

He honestly thought working with SI would be different, that he would be treated equally in an academic setting, similar to his classes at NYU. But even though he loves what he’s doing, it’s hard to go home feeling like he’s excelling in research and simultaneously falling short of his peers.

Now, after a few weeks of special treatment and Mr. Stark practically babysitting him in the lab, he plans on bringing it up with his boss after the other interns leave for the day.

---

“Mr. Stark, can I talk to you privately?”

Tony whips around from his workbench, where he was reviewing another intern's work, to see Peter waiting a few feet away in the otherwise empty lab. Huh.

“Tony, please. And yeah, of course. Uh, where did— are the others gone?”

Peter takes a look around, nervously nodding, “Yeah, they all went home, Tony, but I thought we could talk for a minute, if— well, this won’t take long.”

As Peter takes a seat, Tony’s confusion grows. Although he’s been subtle about his interest in the Omega, maybe Peter’s noticed and grown uncomfortable? Or maybe he’s having an issue with treatment from his peers? Either way, this can’t be good, and as Peter steals himself to talk, Tony’s concern grows.

“Alright Peter, what’s up?”

Peter takes a deep breath, “Tony, you know how thankful I am for this opportunity, and I’ve enjoyed it immensely,” he drops his eyes, and Tony lets him gather his courage to continue, “but, Tony, I feel as though I’m being treated differently in the lab.”

Okay, that’s not what he was expecting.

“Oh, okay Peter, I’m sorry you’re feeling that way. Is there anyone in particular who’s causing problems for you?”

“Tony— I just. I don’t. None of my peers cause problems for me. But you— ”

Oh, shit.

Peter squeezes his eyes shut, voice small,

“Is it, is it because I’m an Omega?”

After a beat of silence, Tony confused as hell, Peter’s eyes fly open and he continues, losing his timidity, “Because I honestly didn’t expect it from you of all people, Tony. I’m working hard, and I feel like I’m doing well, but every day it’s always, ‘you need help, Peter?’ or ‘need extra time for that, Peter?’ but never to the other interns, right?”

Tony is speechless, and Peter stands up, moving closer as he speaks,

“And Tony, I get that I’m young and I know since I presented late I’m not always the best Omega, but dammit if I didn’t work hard to be on this team. I deserve to be here just as much as the Alphas and doms do, and if you don’t believe that, I can—”

“Peter,”

“No, I’ll leave, I swear, Tony— ”

“Peter. Please.”

And Tony watches him visibly deflate, face setting into an upset pout as tears gather in his eyes.

“Peter, I— I’m so sorry. I had no idea my offers were patronizing to you, and you have to know that I’m convinced you are the smartest and most interesting person in this entire group.”

Confusion flashes over Peter’s beautiful expression, and he whispers a small what that has Tony shaking his head.

“I knew it would be a bad idea to do this, but Peter you need to know the truth.”

The younger man sits up straighter, Resolve in his scent, and wipes at his face with his long sleeves, gesturing for Tony to finish.

“Peter, I haven’t been giving you attention because I think you need it. I’m trying,” he sighs, and looks the omega in the eyes, “I’m trying to court you, Peter.”

---

I’m trying to court you, Peter.

Tony’s into him?

Peter reels as his entire worldview shifts around the new information, his mind turning rapidly to readjust how every time Tony offered his assistance, it was out of interest in his company instead of disappointment in his productivity.

“You— what!?" Peter squeaks, sounding shrill even to his own ears. Tony stands, probably slowly, but much too quickly for Peter’s current processing speed, and Peter falls out of his stool.

He curls his hands over his head, bracing for an impact—

Cinnamon

Oh, not Chai after all.

And suddenly he’s sitting outside, cuddled into May as Ben kindles the fire. It’s chilly out, so he’s wrapped up tight in a quilt with a steaming mug of hot chocolate, spiked with spices that his uncle insists are “the exact ones they use in Mexico, Peter.” He sips at the spicy drink, inhaling deep the scent of

Cinnamon and Fall Bonfires.

Strong arms haul him upright and he blinks his eyes open, staring helplessly into Tony’s deep, dark eyes.

And yeah, he gets it now.

Of course he’s always thought Tony Stark was attractive. From that first day in class he knew they were quite possibly compatible, but not like this. Never like this.

Pressed against each other and breathing each other’s air, Peter closes his eyes, lifts his chin, and relaxes his body.

Submitting.

He hears a faint growling and feels a tender touch to his face, but is just lost in the scent, and the tight hold, the warmth—

“Peter, baby, please. Please stay with me, okay?”

ConcernedUpset... Calming Beta scent filters through Peter’s haze along with pleading words, and it helps him climb out of the space he was certainly heading towards.

“Beta— ”

Tony groans and shifts, no doubt feeling his instincts wage war to Take and Claim the compatible Omega.

After a few minutes of grounding himself, Tony holding him the whole time, Peter returns the sweet touch on Tony’s face.

“Tony, do you— did you feel that?”

The Beta shakes his head, “Honey, I’ve never felt like that before in my life. You are so sweet, you scent so sweet.”

Peter hums in agreement, pulling back slightly to look at Tony, eyes blown wide and lips parted in awe.

“Please, sweet Omega, can I court you?”

Peter smiles wide, nodding, “Yes, please, Beta.”

With a sigh of relief, Tony pulls back all the way, keeping one of Peter’s hands in his larger ones. He scents so happy, and Peter promises him silently to always make him smell this way.

“Good, good Peter, I’m so happy. And I’m so sorry about the misunderstanding before, you know—”

“No, Tony, please I understand. You’re just— have you never courted an Omega before?”

The older Beta flushes slightly, avoiding eye contact, “That obvious?”

Peter can’t help but laugh, this man is adorable, and brushes his fingertips over Tony’s cheek. How did he miss this? Tony looks at him with such child-like wonder, and Peter feels so damn foolish.

“Don’t feel bad, I’ve never been courted before. I don’t even— are we even allowed to be together? You technically being my boss and all?”

Tony shakes his head, “I don’t know, but I’m convinced Pepper is actually your boss,” he pulls Peter over to the workbench, purposefully putting the table between the two of them, causing Peter to pout, “Aw, don’t do that. We need to talk logistics, and I cannot be holding you and trying to think straight, honey.”

Thankful for the direction, Peter settles in and checks the time, sending a quick text to his pack that he’ll be home later and not to worry.

Tony is watching him when he puts his phone away, “First, I want you to know that I’m in a pack, Peter. I have every intention of courting and possibly mating you, but want you to know I am intimately involved and intend to be bonded and mated to my entire pack. If this isn’t something you’re interested in, that’s fine, just please let me know before we get to know each other so I can prepare for something short term with you.”

“Do you want something short term with me?”

Tony looks hurt, “No, honey, I know I want long term with you. It’s just… you’re twenty. And so beautiful. And the smartest man I know. I don’t want to assume that you want a permanent pack.”

Peter feels his heart clench, “Oh, Tony. Please let me meet your pack. I have a Beta and Omega, although none of us are that intimate unless someone drops, and none of us primarily swing dominant. I’d love for you to meet them, and talk more about a permanent pack, okay? But let’s get on a date first, because as much as I could sit here with you forever and talk, if you want to court me we probably need a chaperone, right?”

“Shit , you’re right, Pete. Can we meet for coffee next week, one day after your classes if you have time?”

“Sounds perfect,” and it really does, “and we can both bring a chaperone from our pack, although can I request, maybe ask your Omega? One of my packmates has some bad history with Pack Alphas, and I’d feel more comfortable with you being the most dominant in the room, if that makes sense."

Tony’s hands flex and unfold, looking as though he wants to reach out and devour Peter,

“Perfect sense, beautiful, whatever you’d like.”

Peter could get used to hearing that.

---

As Peter leaves, Tony collapses onto the couch towards the back of the lab, waiting for Steve to come scrape him off of the floor and take him home, since they drove into the city together that morning.

He doesn’t even hear the doors to the lab open, but feels a solid weight settle on his left side.

“Rough day?”

Ah Steve, always so perceptive.

“Overwhelming, not bad,” Steve hums in acknowledgement, silently letting Tony continue.

“Steve— did you have a Compatible Memory when you first scented Bucky? Like, first really scented him?”

He can feel his Alpha tense up and pull him closer while considering, “I did, Tony. And so did he.”

“Did it— was it—”

“I was suddenly in my childhood home, sitting on my mother’s lap, as she cut up fresh fruit for a salad. She could rarely afford to feed us produce, but it was a special summer day. She had already poured me a glass of milk, handing me my bowl of fruits and a Hershey’s bar. I picked out my favorite fruits, and ate the Oranges and Milk Chocolate together.”

“Oh, Steve.”

“I don’t know if we have soulmates in this life, Tony, because I know you and I are compatible as hell. But I also know that moment is something Bucky and I share that we probably won’t have with someone else again.”

It’s silent for a moment.

“Tony, did you—“

“Yeah.”

“Who—“

“His name is Peter. He’s been working in the lab as an intern from NYU, and I’ve been trying to court him, Steve,” the Alpha looks surprised, then offended, and goes to complain, but Tony stops him, “we didn’t tell you because I hadn’t discussed it with Peter until today, and we knew you would overreact—“ and Tony realizes his mistake.

“We??"

Woops.

“Did Bucky give you this advice? Did you tell him before you told me?”

Tony rolls his eyes, thankful that Steve’s Dominant Alpha tone has no effect on him, and works to emit Calm Beta for the overexcited Alpha.

“It doesn’t matter, Steve. I needed advice about courting a submissive Omega—“

“And you didn’t think to ask me, a man who has successfully courted an Omega?”

Okay, good point.

“No, I didn’t, Steve. But I— babe, you’re gonna love him, I swear. He said yes when I asked him out next week, and we’re both bringing a chaperone.”

“Bucky?”

“You understand, right? Steve, he’s so submissive and such a sweet Omega, and I don’t know him at all.”

“No, I get it. I’ll meet him once we do official pack introductions, if it comes to that.”

Tony turns on the couch, looking up into his Alpha’s handsome face.

He reaches up to trace his thumb over Steve’s jaw, his brow, and leans in for a slow kiss, humming as Steve strengthens his hold and pulls him in closer. They’re both used to fighting for dominance in their relationship, so soft moments, where they can meet each other in intimacy, are Tony’s favorite.

He gives Steve’s lower lip a gentle tug as he pulls away, and admires the way his face has softened, filling Tony with pride at taking care of his packmate.

“He fell, right off the chair, and I didn’t even hesitate to jump and catch him.”

“Peter, right?”

“Yeah, and he fits so perfectly in my arms. I had caught scent of him before, and it was lovely, but this time I was out in the field behind my parents' house, running through my mother’s garden and out toward the tree line. I could hear my butler and mother chasing after me, calling my name, because I had stolen the cream for their coffee. I crawled under a few thick vine coverings, into my favorite hiding place under the trees, and settled down for a while to enjoy plucking and drinking Honeysuckles and sweet Vanilla Cream.”

Tony sighs and stands up, holding out a hand to pull Steve to his feet. Once Steve is standing, Tony pushes up on his toes to dot a kiss underneath his jaw, before pulling him towards the doors.

“Tony?”

He stops, turning, “Yeah?”

Steve steps up and pulls Tony into a quick hug, running his fingers through the short curls on the top of his head before kissing them.

“You’re right, I’m gonna love him.”

#starker #tony x peter #stony #tony x steve #winteriron #stucky #stuckony #tony stark is a wreck #peter is an angry kitten #steve is a good alpha #fluff #poly fic #stevetony #d/s fic #light d/s #maybeitgoeslikethis #MiGLT #omegaverse

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