So damn funny to me how the dc comics' Taurudonna is completely inversed to the show

Show!Adam: my darling, I only ever wanted you by my side as we watch the world burn together

Show!Blake: we live here, you idiot

Meanwhile...

Comic!Blake: I'm not afraid of you (romantic)

Comic!Adam: cool. Didn't ask

Everything

I'm supposed to be studying for my exams, instead I wrote this. I had to do 2 chapters! (short ones, would barely take me an hour, but still!) This might be the first installment of a series. Idk, my muse is unpredictable.

Anyways... here ya go, my fellow sterek lovers <3

PS: won't be putting this on AO3 yet, I'm not opening that again till my last exam is over. Now on AO3 after some minor edits! And wowza i did not realize this thing was more 2k words lmao. I was thinking this a lil ficlet oof.

One should never fuck with a genie, otherwise they fuck with you.

How does Stiles know this? Because he's an idiot. An idiot who rubbed the lamp even after Lydia told him not to, and asked for a wish he really wishes he hadn't. And the worst part of it all?

He's all alone now.

*

He wakes up floating in the air. He screams, because he can see the forest floor below him, and he's definitely gonna fall so he needs to brace himself—

"Where the hell are my legs?!"

"Gone," the genie giggles. She's blue in hue, white jewels around her white eyes, and she has her teal long hair in knots the same way Stiles' stomach is now. Stiles gulps. She laughs. "You wished for this, Stiles."

And with that, she's gone.

Stiles doesn't fall, but he wishes he had. Especially when he sees his dad trudging through the forest with K9 dogs, unaware of his existence even though he shouts, cries, and yearns.

His dad looks up, but never at him. He tries to touch his dad, make him aware of his existence, but all his dad does is look terrified of something Stiles doesn't know of and unaware of Stiles' mere existence.

Finally, his dad leaves, muttering, "Stupid teenagers and stupid games."

Stiles follows, because that's the only thing he can do right now.

*

Turns out, this isn't 2013, and this isn't post senior year. He's in 2011, and this is the morning after Stiles and Scott had found Laura's body and Scott had gotten bitten. Except, in this freaky world, Stiles doesn't exist.

Why would Scott even go to the forest at night if Stiles didn't force him? Scott's said it himself, that if it wasn't for him Scott never would have had to endure the life he has. He could have been normal. If only Stiles wasn't there.

And in this world, Stiles wasn't.

He gets the answer the same time Melissa gets it, her mascara smudged, wedding ring on her finger, matching his dad's, both of them sitting on the couch of Stiles' childhood home.

"We haven't located him yet," his dad is saying, voice tinged with regret and fury. "That kid. What could have been so important that he went to the forest in the middle of the night? And after I told him about the body!"

So Laura is still dead, huh. He wonders why even this world is taking from Derek, but that's forgotten when Melissa says this —

"Did you ask Jackson? He knows everything that Scott does. He must know where our son is!"

Jackson and Scott are friends in this world? What even? Stiles had always believed that he was the only thing keep Scott from being cool and popular, and now he knows this to be true. If Stiles never existed, then Scott would have had a much better childhood. And much cooler people to hand out with.

"I did. He says Scott was terrified of the killer and had wanted Jackson to come over for a sleepover, but Lydia didn't let him." At least those two are still together. "And that was the last thing Jackson and Scott talked about."

Melissa looks up, staring straight at his dad. "And?"

His dad never beats around the bush. As a cop, it's much better to be blunt than to dance around the truth, and right here, right now, he's a cop delivering a bad news to a woman whose child is missing.

"And Scott had a fight with Lydia over that, apparently, and he went to cool down at his favorite spot in town." His dad pauses, and Stiles' stomach drops out.

"Where, John. Where?"

He says in sync with his dad, "In the preserve." And then in sync with Melissa, "Damn it Scott!"

*

Scott comes home in the evening, unscratched and alive, and it seems like he hasn't been bitten, and Stiles is glad for a moment, but then he sees things. Like Scott scrunching his face on the second floor when the main door opens and shuts, Melissa leaving for work, her worries for her son soothed. Like Scott laughing at seemingly nothing, but then Stiles goes down and sees that his dad's watching a rom-com in the living room. And most damning of all, the next day, Scott does the thing with the pen. He gives it to Allison right as she enters the class, like he heard she forgot hers — even with multiple walls and a good amount of distance between where that conversation happened and where Scott was sitting in the class.

And then Stiles realizes, he never had anything to do with this. It was Scott's destiny to become a werewolf, and it doesn't matter if Stiles is there or not. It's Scott's destiny.

"His destiny was always to become a True Alpha."

He's in his not-bedroom, sitting on Scott's bed, contemplating his original wish. He was upset at the time; Scott had reinforced his belief of Stiles ruining his life, and he'd just found out about the genie lamp Lydia ordered from... somewhere. It was like fate, him wishing to never exist, so that the people in his life could have a better life without him.

He's contemplating whether or not that wish was even warranted, and what are all the implications of him never existing in this world, what else changes, and if it doesn't really; that's when the genie decides to come back, a somber look on her face.

"He wasn't."

She scares the shit out of him, her hand on his knee, comforting but cold. He shrieks, and she gives a little smile, shakes her head. Repeats, "He wasn't meant to be an Alpha."

And Stiles tells her everything.

"Me being there... it doesn't matter. He became a werewolf in this world, because it was destiny." And, "I don't impact the people around me." And, "Nobody would miss me. Nobody. I'm just a nuisance. It's great for them that I don't exist in this world."

The genie looks at him sadly. "No, Stiles," she cups his cheeks, and he lets him, lets her wipe his tears with her thumb. It's comforting, like his mother's voice or her laugh. "That's not true. You matter. You matter in ways you don't even realize."

"Do I, really? Do I?"

"Yes. Scott was never meant to be a True Alpha, but you know who is? This person." She snaps her fingers, and they're in the charred remains of the Hale House suddenly, sitting on its burnt floor. Stiles' heartbeat quickens, and he sees him then — sad, angry, and terrified, all at once, all of it in his eyebrows, his face a marble statue carved out of a constant state of paranoia.

"Derek."

"Derek Hale," the genie agrees.

"He was...? But he gave up his powers. To save Cora. And then—"

"And then Derek's power weakened. It didn't vanish. For any other Alpha, the spark would have been depleted completely, but not for Derek."

"Not for Derek?"

"Not for the greatest Alpha to walk this land since the very first Alpha that ever existed." Stiles is too stunned to speak. All he can do is look at the Derek sitting in the corner of the destroyed living room, gripping a folded photo in his hands, looking so young yet so old. Wracked with guilt and pain, so much pain.

The genie continues.

"He is Destiny's Child. The Seed of Power, The Bloom of Prosperity. He is The Phoenix, risen from flames of blood and death and betrayal. He is the True Alpha, and for him, the power would have come back."

"Then why didn't it?" His head is spinning with all the titles, his mind hysterical over them. But he's sitting with a genie in a world that isn't his own, his legs turned to a single tail like a mermaid floating in air, and he believes now.

"Because where there is light, there is darkness. Deaton used nefarious ways to steal that Alpha Spark from Derek, and with Julia's sacrifices, the Nemeton was a powerful conduit for his malpractices of magic."

"And he gave that to Scott. But why?"

"Stiles... Derek is Power. And you? You are Knowledge. You know why."

"Seed of Knowledge... He's the brawns and I'm the brains? Geez, you make it sound like we're the two sides of the same coin." The genie just looks at him, her white eyes sparkling. He decides to not focus on that, instead thinking of an answer to his own question. And then he gets it. "Having power is great... but controlling it is even better."

"One makes you accountable, the other makes you the master."

Stiles has to admit, "Deaton is smart. Shit, does this mean Scott was manipulated all this time?"

"Perhaps. But right now, I want you to focus on this: What is your destiny? You said it youself, you're the two sides to the same coin. You, my child, were correct."

"Like I always am?"

"Like you always are," she agrees, and then they're shuffling through scenes of Stiles' life like it's a goddamn movie.

Every scene is Stiles saving Derek. Or being there for Derek. Being Pack.

When Stiles spent nearly a whole day with a dying Derek in his Jeep, and almost chopped off his arm save him.

When he let Derek lay low in his own room.

The pool.

After Boyd's death.

The time he spent the whole day at Derek's loft, deliberate and silent, a shoulder to lean on, the day of the fire's anniversary.

And on and on and on.

"That's you two, existing, side by side. Now look at this."

She shows him this world's Derek. His fate.

Derek dies by Kate's bullet, untrusting of Scott to go ask for help, and too stubborn to not haul ass into the Argent's mansion to go look for the bullet himself. Unfortunately for him, Grandpa Crazy was there, too, enjoying his meal. And then later...

"I don't- I can't- Not him, please, He can't die, I—"

They're back in his not-bedroom.

"Why would you show me that?! Why the hell would you—"

"Because you matter. Humans interact every day, and maybe sometimes those interactions mean nothing. But you and him? Each one of your interactions does mean something. Your Destiny is intertwined. You are the brain to his brawns, the brawns to his brains. You're strengths of each other in a way that Ares himself envies, that Apollo sings of, that Eros prides himself on."

"What are you saying?" This is getting too much for him, now. It's one thing to be there for each other, for him to mean something in someone's life, in Derek's life... but this? Too much.

The genie smiles, teeth and all. She has vampiric teeth, except all her teeth are long-fanged. "You are each other's."

Stiles pauses. Thinks through everything that has happened between him and Derek. They're friends. Derek is a beta and he's still the annoying human, and they're always circling each other, joking and ribbing and fighting and slamming each other into surfaces. Well, the last part Derek does to him.

They're close.

They're not in love.

"Not yet,"

"Don't tell me you can fucking mind-read." He only gets a smile in return, the full-fanged one. "Okay... moving on. What do you mean not yet? And you didn't actually complete your sentence. We are each other's what?"

"You are each other's everything." The words echo all around him, inside his skin, in his bones. They hold a weight, bearing down on his chest, arms around his body, like a tight, vicious grip, and the genie repeats, "Everything."

And that's the last thing he hears out of the genie before waking up on the preserve floor, Derek staring down at him, his eyes flashing red.

Stiles blinks up at him.

"Stiles, what did you do?"

He gulps.

"Technically, I didn't do anything,"

"Stiles!"

Hi can I please request A platonic fic where male!reader has to take care of the ninja after they got turned into kids during child's play

Have a great day/night 💖

KID! NINJA AND MALE! READER

-------------- ☆

"light is on the way,

we'll be having a fun time!

it's such a sunny day,

we should pocket the sunshine!"

-------------- ☆

summary: when the ninja were in the museum, you stayed in the destiny bounty. master wu and nya told you to look after the bounty and lloyd. until someone called the phone.. 

pronouns: all of the ninja lol he/him, reader he/him.

trope(?): BABYSITTING!! 

warnings/head's up: no capital letters, basically reader acting like a  big brother lmao

author's notes: hellooo anon!!! i ABSOLUTELY LOVVVEEEE this idea!!!!! thank you for the request :333

-------------- ☆

ah, yes, the wind in your hair while you rest your hands on the bounty railing. you were spacing out until nya broke the silence, "oh, they should be back now.." you look towards nya and master wu's direction, realizing who she's talking about. 

"oh, i fear something terrible has happened to them." master wu said as he turned to you and lloyd "[reader], lloyd," before he finished, lloyd gasped before quickly switching his comic book to a lesson book and you straightened up your back. "you two are in charge of the bounty while nya and i have a look around town." you two look at each other then look at master wu to answer "yup, yeah, okay, sure." is what came out of each other's mouth.

as master wu and nya started to walk away, lloyd pulls out his friz donogan comic book "okay, fritz donogan, i guess its just you, me, [reader], and the imperial sludge" you look towards him and ruffle his hair "you're so adorable, you know that?" you chuckled as lloyd furrowed his eyebrows and pouted in annoyance.

after a few hours, you two were hanging out playing video games, a phone rang and you two looked at each other with a "you do it" expression. after a few seconds of being tired of the sound of the phone ringing, you picked it up and put it on speaker so that the two of you could hear. 

"hellooo-? destiny's bounty, [reader] speaki-"

"[reader]!? it's jay!! can you bring sensei here?"

oh, cool its one of the people that master wu and nya are supposed to find. you and lloyd looked at each other with shock and curiosity. 

"uhm.. sensei and nya are actually trying to find.. you guys. where are you guys anyways? what are you doing?"

lloyd replied while still playing with the console. 

"apparently, you need parental permission to take the bus and we can't seem to get out of the city!"

jay groaned through the phone. 

"uhm.. excuse me?"

you said as you try to register what he just said.

"never mind.. its a bit complicated, just meet us at buddy's pizza in, like, ten minutes. oh, and bring our weapons!"

jay said as he hung up the phone. 

"weapons?" 

you and lloyd said in sync, lloyd falling off his chair at the same time. "but.. we have to look after the bounty?" lloyd look towards you, waiting for your answer "we need to get to them! what if they're in danger!?" you said as you went to get the weapons "you're worrying like a parent again, [reader]" lloyd said, following you from behind.

you two stand in front of the pizza place, looking in disbelief and curiosity, you two went in. 

looking around to find the ninja, you thought that they would be at the counter. on the way there you two heard someone whispering to the two of you. 

"psstt.. [reader], lloyd!" you guys turned around and saw four kids sitting together. 

"beat it, brat. we're on a mission." lloyd said as he tried to turn around and look for the others, until you looked at lloyd while crossing your arms. "lloyd, apologize to that young man right n-" "no! guys, its kai!" 

your guys' jaws were on the floor. you guys look again and see that.. it is them! seeing that, you two gasped and lloyd dropped the weapons on the table. 

"hey.. our weapo-" "woah! what happened!? you're! uh.. uh.. small!!" lloyd shouted, cutting you off and making other people look towards us. "keep it down. we're trying to lay low." kai whispered

"your father's mega weapon not only turned us into kids, but unleashed a creature whose sole purpose is to hunt down ninja." kai continued to talk, "typical garmadon!" cole said. 

"now, everytime we try to tell someone, they won't believe us.. cause we're kids!" jay said as you pick up their weapons. after hearing what jay said, lloyd laughed. "lloyd, why are you laughing? your brothers are in danger, you know?" you scolded and they all stopped to look at you with a surprised look on their face. 

"brothers..?" zane said as he tilted his head, "come on! you guys just act like brothers together!" you said as you hugged them and ruffled all their hair. "hey! let go!" all of the kids, except zane and cole, say as they struggle to get out of your embrace. 

"haha! i thought today i was gonna babysit one kid, guess fate had something up her sleeve!" you exclaimed as you let them go, "argh! let's just get this over with!" jay huffed and crossed his arms. 

"i'm gonna be a big brother.." you muttered under your breath "we can hear you!" they all said in sync, sounding quite annoyed. 

this is the best day of my life!! 

-------------- ☆

oooo dont know anything abt pacific rim but hell yeah 👀

its just "humans use big robots to fight big monsters" basically LMAO but i realized it had some parallels to tmc so. i got a bit silly lol. putting it under a readmore bc its Long

brief pacific rim summary for those unaquainted: bascially monsters start appearing from the ocean and fucking shit up so humans make these big robots to fight them BUT its really dangerous and requires 2 people who are 'drift compatible' to pilot them (basically its the ability to control a big robot with ur mind while also being in sync). thats all u really need to know for this au i think

pacific rim au: this is based purely off of my memories of the first movie (which. i watched when it first came out in uhhh 2013!!!??!?! THIS MOVIE CAME OUT IN 2013??? 10YEAR AGO A DECADE??? WHAT THE FUCKanyways. um. i'm probably missing some stuff but whatever<3 -kaijus become a thing in like. idk 1980 or so. -by the time mark and cesar are 18 the big robots exist. what are they called. JAEGERS thats it. -mark and cesar get sort of. drafted into testing it out and find out they are drift compatible!! -i think in this au they are besties but. they could be worsties. maybe. perhaps toxic if thats what canon says. but in the origin draft of the au they are besties so im going with that -anyways they fight kaijus for a bit and they are pretty good at it!! until a kaiju attacks their hometown (or something. idk how an ocean beast would get to wisconsin. WAIT lake superior AND lake michgan flank wisconsin i can use this) -okay so. a kaiju comes out of the great lakes and the government is like"???? THEY CAN DO THAT??? fuck." and send mark and cesar to deal with it since they. live there -everything goes to shit when a kaiju (altcesar) attacks mandela, their hometown, and ALSO where sarah is!!! and shes like. 5 or smth -so mark is SUPER stressed out, his sister might be dead already, and to top it off?? the kaiju can like. idk hijack their drift link or whatever idk still working on that. im trying to incorporate alternate bs into how kaijus work -anyways mark is the one the kaiju targets and it uses cesar's voice/image to fuck him up and both cesar and mark die. and sarah watches it happen. oops. -sidenote: altcesar kaiju is based off of the crab one. bc sarah is loosely based off of the main protag girl in the movie whats her name. MAKO MORI. apparently. she watches her brother die + entire county get destroyed -another sidenote: since secar apparently DOESN'T die in canon. maybe he survives in this au?? mark is dead as hell tho :(( -anyways sarah is so so traumatized by that. however she is also VERY FUCKING ANGRY because uh. turns out mark and cesar were not the only ones patrolling winconsin!! thatcher and ruth were meant to be back up but uh. they. did NOT get there in time. and sarah thinks maybe if they had gotten there in time mark wouldn't have died. -speaking of those two. ANOTHER kaiju attacks mandela not too long after altcesar does and um. thatcher and ruth DO go out to deal with it but. ruth gets knocked unconscious during the fight. and thatcher can't wake her up. so half of their jaeger is just powered down and stationary while the kaiju rips its arms off and tears into the cockpit. eventually thatcher realizes he has to evacuate to save himself. he tries to bring ruth with him but he can't. -needless to say. thatcher is DEVASTATED. he feels like a coward, even if he DID follow protocol, and he never really forgives himself for leaving ruth behind. dave supports him through it, but. he never really recovers after that.

-…and fast foward 17 years, to the actual events of the au!! -bps is founded by sarah to um. idk actually i have NO fucking clue what they are doing in this au but it IS just. VERY ILLEGAL. and they get caught -however, the government can find literally nobody to pilot the giant murder death trap robots due to A) how rare a drift link (or. whatever its called im 99% sure its called that) is and B) nobody wants to fucking do that. so they just decided to say "hey. you guys are criminals. BUT if you go in the giant death trap robot AND you can pilot it then we'll forgive your criminal charges!! :)" because of course they would do that -anyways. bps agrees to this. and it turns out jonah and adam are drift compatible!! hooray!! they get to pilot a jaeger together -…which leaves sarah. due to testing her against adam and jonah, the government knows she CAN connect to a jaeger, and pilot one. she just needs a partner. -which is were thatcher comes in. he takes the place of the guy whos brother dies in the movie. -sarah is NOT FUCKING HAPPY about this. the moment she recognizes him she freaks OUT. immediately starts chewing him out. -however, she does have a deal to uphold, and she has to at least TRY to pilot the jaeger with thatcher. so they do a testrun and. it turns out they ARE compatible. -so with that the government goes "okay cool we're sending all of you to the faciltiy (or whatever idk)" and. sarah fights this tooth and nail until she realizes they. really don't give a shit LMAO -so she's stuck with thatcher. and her two idiot coworkers but thatcher is the real issue. -so they get shipped over to the training facility and. start training. -dave and evelin take the place of those two gay scientists. dave has so many kaiju tattoos n shit and evelin is just Normal. just kidding shes weird too shes just better at hiding it lol. evelin is officially his 'assistant' and mentor but dave treats her as an equal. they are silly scientist coworkers -dave and thatcher are also still friends. not sure if its strained or not but i dont think it is they can be silly. besties even. -i also think dave is sarahs estranged but still on good terms uncle. hes is ESTATIC to see sarah!! she hates that hes friends with thatcher but she is literall incapable of being mad at dave so she just takes it out on thatcher instead LMAO -also dave sits thatcher down and is like "y'know i think this is good for you actually. being a mentor figure really helped me w moving on i think you could really bond with my cool awesome neice :D!" "dave she tries to kill me every ten seconds" -anyways the au centers around sarah and her relationship with thatcher from one-sided enemies to eventual found family :)

other things: -adam glows in the dark and is just sort of fucked up. surely this means nothing (he is not entirely human) -oh yeah jude and lynn are killed by the same alternate that kills ruth. i think. or it was six but when thatcher and ruth are sent out altthatcher double teams them and thats why they failed. -vol 2 sort of happens (the girls are fighting) but jonah does NOT die. -dave gets hooked up to a kaiju brain like the guy in the movie and like. his brain implodes a little bit and his eyes bleed but hes (mostly) fine^^ -all of the alternates are kaijus i get to be soooooo silly with designs :3 -dave and sarah lost contact when sarah started bps so they are very happy to reunite -i am just making shit up about a movie i saw a literal decade ago so. um. im probably missing a lot of important stuff but oh well lol. -i also have a barebones alt version of this au where everyone lives and nothing bad happens and they just fight monsters. bc i got sad.

the side missions are really cool in this game... but i don’t like them

or well i do. i just don’t like doing them. i mean i have a hard time even knowing what’s side content but you know. like i just got through the entirety of the da vinci disappearance stuff and i just found out it’s all dlc lmao. it was pretty cool like each memory related to it sent me to the vatican which is an area i never go to otherwise (idek if i have access to it normally) and they were all very stealth-based and had some cool ideas which i liked. but they were fairly difficult and i have a lot of trouble when trying to stay undetected especially when there’s sync requirements as well, it’s both cool and not that fun to play through for me.

then there’s leonardo warmachines of which i’ve done two and attempted a third one, the idea behind them is really cool, the areas are also places you don’t get to go to and each mission deals with a different warmachine that you get to drive, so you can crush people with a tank or shoot ships with a floating cannon or whatever, yea it’s really cool.

but the first half of each of them is also stealth-based and i have so much trouble with them like i get so stressed and stuck, not to mention that the controls for the warmachines fricking suck on keyboard because of course they do. i might still end up doing a few more or even all depending on how many there are, bc they are neat and they have cool cutscenes and have i mentioned you get to crush people with a tank. it’s a really interesting experience especially since this is still reinassance rome. but the reward is a parachute which i actually don’t want at all lmao

then there’s the courtesan assignments which are kinda lame tbh since you usually just gotta tail someone and then kill or beat up one specific guy, i really can’t be assed to do more of them, like i barely use courtesans anyway so the leveling them up is pointless.

the copernico ones are... well the story is really interesting imo but the missions themselves are just ‘deliver this letter to this guy in this specific amount of time’ and sometimes you either just can’t fucking find the guy bc they don’t give you the actual location, or he fucking dies anyway. i’d like to get through the entire story bc i imagine it has an end or smth but idk if i have to do all the missions or what

then there’s guild challenges which are basically just so you can level up each faction like the thieves and the courtesans and the mercenaries, and then when you do them all you get a reward, usually a weapon or smth. they’re just kind of a hassle for me and i don’t care to pour in enough time to do all of them.

although doing the ones for the assassin recruits gives you altair’s sword which is apparently the best weapon in the game, and i’d like to get it bc i never got altair’s armor in ac2. having a really hard time completing them though bc i have no one to engage in combat with and i’m also scared of the recruits dying if i do call them to fight?? they’re nearly fully leveled up though so once that happens maybe i can get my notoriety up and then just fight everyone. then again it’s very pointless bc i won’t really get to use the sword at all?? unless i do all this before continuing the plot thus making sequence 7 the longest sequence in existence

OHH AND THERE’S ALSO THE CRISTINA MEMORIES i can’t believe i forgot about them oh my gooooood they’re def my favourite of the side stuff, i’ve found out that they show up based on your sync level so you could maybe go through the entire game without even knowing about them. i mean the sync requirements are kind of a pain sometimes but other times they’re really easy and this is basically the only reason to even pay attention to them. idk how many memories there are but i’ve seen 3 so far and pretty much each one made me cry, like they let you return to florence for like 2 minutes and the entire thing is so interesting and sad

like the first memory was about how they met, like ezio saw her on the street and then very badly got her interest, in the second one it was somewhere around the beginning of ac2 when ezio went to retrieve his brothers and his father’s corpses and she was basically his emotional support for it, and then the third one was two years later when he came back to find out she was engaged to a guy. so ezio saves the guy from some shit and then threatens him to be a good husband. then he smooches cristina for a loooooong time and then fucks off and she’s left like ???? 

honestly i feel really sorry for both of them like it’s obvious they love each other but idk how they could possibly make it work considering everything. or technically they could have if ezio just said ‘I LOVE YOU COME WITH ME’ instead of fucking off. i think. but who knows there’s still more to the story and i can’t even speculate about how it ends but it’ll probably make me cry buckets so yea. best part of the game for sure. fuck i miss florence

on an unrelated note i have found out that you can in fact sync a viewpoint however many times you want, it just won’t update your map bc it’s already updated. isn’t that the best thing to discover when the viewpoints in this game are so few and far between and so hard to actually get to thanks to the shitty architecture AND YOU DON’T EVEN GET THE SOUND AND VISUAL EFFECT WITH LIKE 12 OF THEM BC BURNING THE BORGIA TOWERS DOES IT AUTOMATICALLY >:(

also there is one thing about this game that i absolutely love that doesn’t exist in ac2. basically there’s this huge ass acqueduct that spans across one of the district and you gotta repair it as you go through the game and when it’s fully repaired you can climb it and be really high up and run for like 10 minutes in water. the splashing sound effect is so fucking funny for some reason i’ve spent way more time there than necessary. i’ mso sorry ezio i know running in wet shoes sucks bUT ITS SO FUNNY. it’s also pretty much the highest place in the entire game if you don’t count this huge ass structure that walls the entire city that i can’t even get onto. nice

LEVERAGE REDEMPTION 1X13 THE HURRICANE JOB

- this half season splits up the team a lot. both literally by putting them in completely different locations and figuratively by having episodes very focused on certain people. breanna wasn't in golf job AT ALL. i'm not sure i like it. i'd enjoy it more if they split the team up in a way that put h/s alone together and there's only one bed.

- why yes, i had a little freak-out. for a hot second, harry and soph just made it sound like they pulled a job, just the two of them. but the others were there, too. they did, however, fly home together, WITHOUT the others. 👀

- i think this means that THEY'RE GONNA BE RIDING OUT THE HURRICANE TOGETHER AT THE OLD THEATRE. JUST THEM.

- lol "as long as they're nowhere near the gulf, they should be alright." a++, leverage.

- "i've taken every truth serum known to man and i come out smiling." LMFAO ELIOT. but also, wwwwow. they're really fucking with the ot3, aren't they? i mean, i get why hardison can't be there. frankly i'm amazed they managed to get three of the previous main five, and good for aldis for being popular! but without john rogers at the immediate helm, it feels like tptb are really trying to tear the ot3 apart, and while they've never been my main ship on this show, i a) do love them, and b) am ABSOLUTELY not here for tptb fucking with a giant part of the fandom community. from the episode summary, this ep was supposed to be "eliot and parker stuck at a hotel", would make for at least SOME ot3 content. but now that eliot has called the marshall, that's utter bogus, isn't it? "eliot and parker pretend to be siblings while eliot's gf is with them"? NO THANKS. and i like the marshall, and in my own personal headcanon, she can totally be involved with eliot without it invalidating the ot3, but DO NOT FUCK WITH THE OT3 FANS. i take that personally.

- huh i expected it'd be the old white guy (hotel owner?) they'd end up conning, but apparently not!

- eliot told the marshall about parker, but they "don't talk about work". what did you tell her, eliot? 😏

- fhakfhsjfbje ELIOT AND PARKER GESTURING IN SYNC. 🥰

- lmao parker pretending they have ""bosses"" at the ""agency"" they work for. that's so interesting to see, how parker's grifting style varies from sophie's. i mean, she's obviously gotten really good at the acting part of grifting, but it will never come naturally to her like it does to sophie. sophie inhabits a role completely, she BECOMES the character she's playing, because she loves grifting. for parker, it's a necessity. parker loves picking locks and cracking safes, crawling through vents and jumping off buildings, but not grifting. we already know parker can learn just about anything she sets her mind to, but burglary stuff is always going to be the thing that she enjoys the most. and i love that. i mean, don't get me wrong, i absolutely love that parker became the new mastermind at the end of leverage. it was perfect. but it had me worried that tptb would turn her into a superhuman version of herself, i guess. being the thief AND the grifter AND the mastermind at the same time is close to, if not actually, impossible. and there's no way to make that happen on screen, from a storytelling perspective. she physically cannot be conning a mark while at the same time cracking a safe while at the same time running around behind the scenes, rotating problems in her head. which is i think the storytelling reason for why sophie gets to run a lot of the cons this season, beyond the canon "sophie needs a project/distraction" explanation. anyway. i love everything about this. as much as i enjoy parker as the mastermind and grifter, i'm so happy she doesn't have to give up crawling through vents and jumping off buildings.

- HARRY AND SOPHIE STILL STUCK AT THE BASE TOGETHER. AND THEY HAD PIZZA. AND THEY'VE BEEN ALONE FOR HOURS.

- eliot just found the radio. so far, nothing has happened at the base yet. all we know is that, at some point, sophie will radio eliot to tell him harry's going to the hospital. I WONDER WHY. what are you doing to harry that he needs medical attention, soph? 👀

- "we should have some kind of bat signal." HARRY YOU RIDICULOUS DORK. 😍 but also i think you mean "eliot signal".

- "you're on an island in the gulf; you gotta get out of there!" oh harry. harry harry harry. you lovely man.

- HARRY AND FANTASY FOOTBALL. i really don't get the appeal of that, personally, but LOOK AT YOU USING YOUR GAMER AND GAMER-ADJACENT SKILLS, HARRY. and sophie's pretty impressed.

- eliot suddenly showing up out of the dark like that (and not for the first time) is equal parts amazing and terrifying. he's like one of those weeping angels from doctor who that move when you're not looking (idk, i don't watch doctor who, don't ask me about details, but i am terrified of those angels).

- ok the marshall is badass and i love her and she should totally be another leverage team's hitter. just not... eliot's (exclusive) girlfriend.

- harry wilson really just out there in 1b, throwing "sophie"s around left and right. 👀 i wonder why. i wonder what's made him suddenly start using her name all the time. like, there's a DEFINITE, noticeable difference after bucket job. he didn't use her name ONCE until unwellness job. and we never did see that conversation they had in bucket job. 👀

- LMAO AND THERE IS DOCTOR HARRY. awwww this must be so cool for noah. if you think @cminerva and i didn't make a "playing doctor" joke here, you'd be very much wrong.

- SOPHIE JUST CALLED HIM DOCTOR WILSON!

- and omg i have been counting "sophie"s and it's... impressive. it's like... they are so OBVIOUSLY endgame i'm worried it's TOO obvious. i mean, nate and sophie were endgame from the VERY first scene sophie was in. and it feels weird to like, have this repeat?

- "why are you protecting these people?" - "because you are supposed to." jfc eliot i already love you to the moon and back, there's no need to make me love you even more.

- "refill, doctor wilson!" - "indeed." why are you trying to get harry alone, soph? 👀 i mean, i know it's so eliot and parker can have a scene by themselves, but canonically, why? huh? harry letting sophie go first, his arm outstretched. HE'S SUCH A GENTLEMAN. where can i get my own harry wilson plsandty?

- "how do you know all that medical jargon anyway? - "tv." jsjfjsdjfjsjfjsjchejdjsjfwjxhw

- and they walk off together. 😍

- parker being worried eliot is going to leave them!!!!! and ARM OVER HER SHOULDER. 😭 i love them so much. and i have all the feelings anyone has ever had about the fact that parker thought eliot might leave them. TIL MY DYING DAY. they're forever.

- lmao the very last shot of the episode ends with a slow camera pan across and then almost under the counter they always sit at, and for a hot second, i expected the pan to go even further and show like, sophie's bra under the table or something. but then, harry would never let that happen. he'd make sure any and all stray bits of clothing were either very well hidden or back on his (or sophie's) person.

Family

I wanted some fluffier Kantoph than what I'd been previously posting (and I meant to post this yesterday whoops). But anyway. Hope you enjoy! And I hope it makes sense but I can't keep reading it lmao.

......

He woke up suddenly in the middle of the night, noticing the silent restlessness of his partner beside him.

Kanto turned in their bed to face Toph, trying to assess the situation and the cause of his sleep disruption. He noticed Toph’s stiff shoulders and quick, rigid moves, as if her muscles were involuntarily reacting to something.

She was having a nightmare.

They didn’t happen as often as he expected, especially when he considered the things she witnessed as a child. But nightmares were still nightmares and all were taken seriously between them, and they learned early on that having to wake her up was always the most difficult part. Still, Kanto did what he thought best for his partner, and he prepared himself to gently prod Toph awake.

The moment his fingers met her shoulder, Toph’s hand whipped around in defense, and had Kanto not been prepared for this, her hand would’ve hit him right on his jaw. But he swiftly moved back to dodge her ‘attack.’

He called out for her to wake. “Toph?”

She didn’t respond to his words, but instinctively threw her arms in the air, trying to find contact with whatever disrupted her initially. Toph’s fists came bearing down at Kanto at an alarming rate, and he grabbed her wrists in defense. “Toph! It’s me, you’re having a nightmare.”

He could see the tears welling up in her eyes, she fought for her life in the nightmare, but was unable to yell or scream. Kanto maintained his grip on her wrists, moving with her jerky movements and calling out for her to wake up over and over. His thumbs gently rubbed her skin and hoped to bring her back to consciousness.

“Toph,” he whispered. “Please wake up.”

Her watery eyes showed signs of awareness, and when she finally woke up, her tears fell as she choked out his name.

“Kanto,” she said breathlessly. “I—”

He pulled her into a tight embrace before she could finish her thought. And when her arms wrapped around his waist and she clung to him for dear life, Kanto rubbed soothing circles on her back. “Shh, it’s okay. You’re okay.”

Toph said nothing, but balled up his t-shirt in her fists and silently cried into his chest.

They never talked about their dreams. Both trusted each other with their life, trusted that they would pull them back to reality when they were too terrified to wake on their own, but admitting to their fears and becoming vulnerable was a new experience for them. Being weak wasn’t an option when they were younger, and vulnerability wasn’t a trait they wished to broadcast to the world, sometimes even to each other.

Still, they always asked if tonight was a night where talking about feelings was necessary, and almost every time when they asked each other, the answer was always, “Not tonight.”

Except today.

He asked her like he always did. “Do you want to talk about it?”

And instead of a shake of her head, she mumbled something into his chest, and he pulled away slightly so he could hear her properly. Toph let out a quiet sniffle and whispered, “It’s almost always the same.”

Kanto remained silent as they lay back in bed while Toph settled her head to rest on his chest. His heart hummed a rhythm that soothed hers, and every breath and beat she felt with her ear and fingertips gave her clarity.

And for the first time in a long time, she felt brave enough to be vulnerable to Kanto. He had her heart, and she his.

Toph took a deep breath in sync with Kanto’s, and she recalled the dream that haunted her for years. “There—there were a lot of times I was close to dying during the war, but there was only one time I thought I was going to.”

“When the comet came?”

“Yeah,” she nodded. “I was with Sokka and Suki, we got separated from Suki, and then Sokka and I were apparently surrounded by Fire Nation troops.”

“Apparently?” he asked.

“I couldn’t see. I was—” it took her a second to formulate her words. The experience was one she would never forget, but to say it out loud was something she had never done before. “I was dangling from the blimp, I could only see Sokka.

“He said that this was probably the end, and I could feel the truth in his words through his hand. All I could think about was how I was gonna fall and not know when it would be over. I would just fall, until I didn’t.”

“Toph—”

“And then as our grip started to slip, for some reason I was so determined to hang on to the last shred of vision I had.” The tears began to well up again, but she couldn’t stop talking now. The liberating feeling she got after speaking was too strong to stop. “I just wanted to hang on to the feeling of my friend until it was over. But then there was a crash and he let go and we fell onto another blimp.

“And every time I dream about it, it’s just playing out all the ways that I could have fallen. Or should have. If I fell, if we both did, if I had let go, if he let go of me… Every time I go to sleep I get this feeling that I’m playing out the scenarios that should have happened. I shouldn’t be here.

“It’s like I’m just waiting for the day I actually fall.”

Toph didn’t realize how much she was crying until she felt Kanto’s damp shirt underneath her. Her hand on his chest curled up in a fist, angry that she even let herself become so affected by this stupid dream.

But perhaps there was a part of her that thought that deep down, her dreams really should’ve been reality. That the only thing that kept her tethered to the world was the naive thought that loyalty and friendship and hope would keep her alive, but all were a childhood fantasy. If the scene unfolded in her life tomorrow, she wouldn’t survive. It was a silly thought that Toph entertained whenever her nightmares showed up, but the fear embedded itself into her, and no matter how hard she tried, the nagging voice in her head always told her the same thing after she woke up from a dream:

You are a burden to your friends.

When the silence invited Kanto to speak, he did. But when he responded, he answered her thoughts more than her words. “But you’re fighting those scenarios. When I try to wake you up, you fight back, because you don’t wanna fall.”

“Yeah,” she quietly scoffed. “I don’t, but—”

“But Sokka would never let you go. He’d rather fall before he let that happen,” Kanto explained. “All of them would rather fall than let you go, but Sokka especially. I hope you know that.

“And I will fight a thousand soldiers and fall a thousand times before I ever let you go.”

His words meant a great deal to her, and his reassuring hand on her back and the one engulfing her fist on his chest comforted her. Everything he said was true, but still. She felt so uneasy.

It was as if he could sense that, too, for he continued, “Your friends are loyal to you, not because they feel bad or obligated to help you, but because they want to.  You’re not a burden, you’re their friend and they love you. They will always have your back; they’ll never let you go.”

Thoughts swirled around in Toph’s sleepy mind, comprehending what made Toph Beifong love her friends, what made her love Kanto. And the answer came relatively quickly to her considering the hour in which they were talking.

Her friends were loyal. They loved her. The same could be said regarding Kanto.

And what a beautiful and comforting feeling that was to hear those words out loud, and to hear and feel the sincerity from Kanto.

The man had more to say, apparently. “I know you sometimes feel like you have to face things alone because of your past, but you don’t. You have a family in them, maybe...” Kanto’s voice trailed off, leaving Toph wondering what he was implying.

“Maybe, what?” she asked, sitting up on his chest. Her mind was reeling, and she dared to think of the possible scenarios he could have told her, wishing and hoping for… a sign.

Kanto let out a quiet sigh and gently brushed her bangs out of her face, tucking them behind her ear. “Maybe… Maybe one day you’ll consider me part of that family.”

She sucked in a sharp breath, and Kanto must’ve assumed it was a bad sign. He began to ramble in an attempt to walk back his previous statement. “I mean, obviously not now. For fucks sake, that would be crazy. I’m just saying that maybe, in the future, I can be something more to you? If not, that’s okay too, it’s just that I love you, and I consider you my family, but I totally understand if—”

Her lips on his interrupted his stream of consciousness, and when Toph felt his quickened heart rate slow, she pulled back, resting her forehead on his.

They breathed together, and Toph thought about what Kanto said, all of it.

At the mention of her friends, her family as he said, she felt at ease. Kanto was right, they loved her and would protect her, even though most of the time she could handle her problems on her own. They were there when she needed them most, and that meant everything to Toph.

And when Kanto implied that they could be a family, she felt so much love and hope. Toph wasn’t one to plan for the future, but with Kanto? Her mind wandered years down the line, curious about what they could become.

Truthfully, she liked what she conjured up for the two of them. All that was left in her daydream was to know whether or not Kanto was on the same path as her, and now she knew for certain that he was.

With her forehead still on his, she smiled. “You’re my family, too, Kanto.”

His heart fluttered and she could feel him grin widely at her comment. “I’m your family?” he asked. Spirits, his voice was so childlike and hopeful, like it was his birthday and was about to receive the greatest gift of his life.

“Yeah, Hotshot,” she smirked. “You’re my family, and I’m yours.”

She barely had time to finish her sentence before his lips found hers again. He turned them over in the bed and he was on top of her, kissing her and grinning like a fool while he did so.

“A family. You and me against the world, Angel.”

“Is that okay with you?” she lightly teased.

“More than okay,” he replied, his voice giddy with excitement. His arms playfully wrapped around her waist and imitated a platypus bear hug as he said, “I’m holding onto you and never letting go.”

Toph grinned at his antics and accepted his barrage of kisses.

In the back of her mind, Toph thought of how quickly the night’s conversation veered and shifted. But Kanto had that effect on her. The smallest gestures and words of sincerity changed the outcome of most sensitive subjects, and every time, it never ceased to make Toph smile. He was always there, he would always be there, and he told her he was never letting go.

She felt the truth in every word he spoke to her, and Toph felt so safe and happy with him. And she knew that was how it would be with him until the end of her days.

Hello! I'm the anon from the 4 part ask that you answered earlier! I saw your post about the different "eras" of DNF and I would like to share some of my opinions since I've been in the fandom since March of last year, so maybe I can write my own analysis and briefly explain what happened during these times (and hopefully someone will find enjoyment in reading this)!

So the first era was probably the most "baity" period where every interaction between Dream and George with slight romantic undertones was pure bait. From Dream placing romantic music in the background, to the small texts on screen that would read "arguing like a married couple" and even proclaiming his love to George any second he could, it was obvious that it was a means to garner a reaction and moments that could be used in compilations, edits, videos, etc. Dream addressed George just the same as he currently does Sapnap or Bad: Dude, Bro, etc, and when they weren't attempting to bait, for example on streams, things were chill, no tension, just two bros hanging out in minecraft.

LOVE OR HOST ERA. The catalyst in DNF's relationship, in my humble opinion. Now, where do I begin? So, LOH was definitely a time that I believe Dream became aware of his feelings towards George (platonic or romantic, I can't be sure) and his fear of losing him. Before/During George's LOH, we got Dream saying some interesting things, the most notable one "George is the only man I can see myself dating". Now, I'm pretty sure this was meant as bait, but how he reacted prior to LOH, was very telling. Dream would avoid George like the plague in every situation that didn't require them to interact. Twitter? Only one mention (and that was literally him tagging George in Andrea's post in spite). Stream? That I can remember he didn't join much during this time, nor did he stream that often. During MCC, the DT was separated in different teams, Sapnap & George together and Dream alone. Now Sapnap DID pop off. He was doing amazing. And Dream complimented him and his team quite a lot. But what about George? I believe he mentioned him ONCE. This was the first time we see Dream jealous in regards to George, and the lack of content and interactions between these two made many believe DNF was dead and abandon the ship all together.

QUACKITY AND KARL. Now there is a lot that happened in between LOH Arc and the friendship between the DT with Karl and Quackity. Dream and George seemed to have solved whatever occured between them, and things were tranquil. We got a few baity moments here and there, but we also started to get the start of the infamous "name-truthing", the soft voices and other subtle moments. Now, during this time George, Dream and Sapnap started developing their friendship with Quackity and Karl, George in particular started getting closer with them and spending LOTS of time with them, so much so that we got more G/K/Q content than we did DT content. And we get Jealous Dream 2.0., only difference from the other occurence of jealously? He addressed it publicly, admitted that he was frustrated and physically affected by the lack of attention from the british man. He confronted George while he was streaming, with an audience of 50k+ viewers. He was desperate.

Things were pretty calm after that, the more intimate and subtle moments between the two became more and more apparent and began to outweight the baity moments. Quackity/George/Karl continued to blossom their friendship, and DNF was slowly becoming a topic to tease George and Dream (I can only compare their teasing to that of middle schoolers when their friends had a crush). We can compare this teasing to that of Skephalo, the difference, while one is leaning on the more explicit side and used to make others laugh or get an over the top reaction, the other was used as an inside joke of sorts, only brought up to embarass or shut up Dream/George when they got over-confident (most times it would effectively leave them quiet, important to note, is that they never denied the claims nor attempted to).

TRAINS PODCAST. Oh boy, was this a night to remember. A historical mark for DNF. The point in history that George decided to become BOLD and actively flirt with Dream whenever he wanted to, rendering or poor Leo speechless most of the time. That podcast changed these men, it unlocked something within them and things have never been the same since. This is where we see the dynamic take a major switch, and baity moments had become almost non-existent, and instead we got probably some of the most tension filled convos between these himbos. Name-truthing had become something natural between them, the unavoidable excitement whenever they hear one another in call, suddenly ever call became a matter of how long until they were third-wheeling everyone. It's also during this time that we clearly see a difference in between Dream & Sapnap's relationship and Dream & George's relationship (not that one outweighed the other, but the nature of these relationships were very much opposing)

And finally we are in our current stance. Where the sweet, obnoxious moments continue to pile; More and more of their friends are calling them out (you can literally see Quackity and Karl becoming more direct and, quite honestly, aggressive with their call-outs. I bet they are just as tired as we are); The whole hoodie fiasco and the secretive pictures; Syncing sleep schedules once again; Tension continue to grow and you can see them testing the waters, in a game of tug of war until one of them caves in and starts the conversation.

As I said before, they have nothing to gain from the bait they are currently doing. They excuse it as being a joke, and hide behind this lie, as a means to test the development and seriousness of whatever they have going on. The whole Valentine's thing proves that they (unfortunately) do not understand when the other is being sincere or baity...

Also here is some food for thought. George has been very clingy with Dream ever since he and Sapnap moved in together. Not being able to see each other is certainly another factor that is affecting them.

I'm anxious to figure out what in the hell is happening next between our oblivious idiots with communication issues. It sometimes seems surreal the things that occur between them, and straight out of a fanfic.

Anyway, sorry for the long rant and if this wasn't very interesting to read! Just wanted to get some thoughts out of my head!! Stay safe and hope you have a good day/afternoon/night! ❤

Hi love! Glad to have you back <3

Firstly, don’t ever be sorry for ranting in my inbox, especially ab dnf. I love to see it!

Thank you for this, especially the early parts when I wasn’t in the fandom yet. Ahh this is super helpful.

I agree that George has gotten more clingy since Sapnap and Dream moved in together which is so funny because Dream and George have a more similar sleep schedule than Sapnap and Dream do LMAO

But yes all of this ugh I’m deeming you my genius anon

Survey #361

“the world is a vampire, sent to drain”

Have you ever been through a phase of thinking emo guys were hot? A phase? Hunny, they're still hot lmao. Have you ever dated someone that could play an instrument? Yeah. Juan could play guitar, and Girt played I think the tuba in band. What’s so horrible about wearing leggings like pants? I've actually never understood why people freak about this. Like so long as they're not sheer and fit you fine, why exactly is this a problem...? Weirdest picture you’ve ever taken of yourself? Oh dear. When someone claims to be suicidal, do you take them seriously? FUCK you if you don't. Honest to god, fuck you. This is NOT something you just don't even blink at. Even if it's surprising to hear from that person, you take that shit seriously and try to talk to them about it. Ever been kicked out of anywhere? Colleen's house. Ever had Skittles vodka? No, but that shit sounds good. Ever punched someone in the face? No. If you haven’t, do you want to now? Uh, I'll pass. Do you truly HATE anyone? No one I know personally, but people like rapists, pedophiles, etc., I sure as hell do hate them. Most historical/famous landmark/building you’ve been to in your country? No clue. Favorite flavor for most things? Strawberry, watermelon, or blue raspberry, depending on what the thing is. Ever taken pictures in a photobooth? Who with? Yeah: Summer, Jason, and I'm pretty sure Sara and I did? What is the closest book to you? It's a full collection of Poe's poetry that Mom got me. Are you reading it or someone else? I'm not right now. I may eventually. Milkshakes or Sundaes? Hm, I gotta go with milkshakes. Do you like watermelons more or cherries? I'm not a fan of either, but I'd definitely pick watermelons over cherries. Who was the last person you ate with? My family and I went to Ichiban (a Japanese steakhouse that we have here where they cook directly in front of you) yesterday to celebrate Nicole's graduation. Do you prefer broccoli or asparagus? Broccoli. I hate asparagus. Do you have any bug bites? No. Do you have any flowers in your room? No. Do you know anyone that owns horses? Loosely, anyway. It's a family I took pictures for, and I still have the mother on Facebook. When you were little, did you ever go to feed the ducks? Yes, I LOVED doing that. Don't feed ducks bread, by the way. Have you seen any of the seven wonders of the world in person? No. Have you ever won anything out of one of those crane machines? Yeah. Can you remember being taught how to ride a bike? Was it hard for you? Yeah. I don't THINK it was too hard. Did you get carded the last time you ordered an alcoholic drink? No. Do you know anyone who uses medical marijuana? No, it's not legal here. Do you know anyone who’s died in childbirth? No. Which was the worst phase in your life? 2016 was. Towards the end of '15 was the breakup, and through aaaaaaall of 2016, I was just dead inside and totally useless. Every day I wanted to be dead. Can you remember your last dream? I had a nightmare some stupid kids were fucking with my snake Venus, so I was trying to protect her. Do you ever use Snapchat? No, I don't have one. What’s your favorite musical? I don't like musicals. What happened at the last party you went to? Summer prepared some little Halloween treat bags for us guests, we watched a horror movie, and everyone but me smoked some weed. Are you more comfortable sitting or lying down? I would assume everyone is more comfortable lying down... Have you ever been a fan of N*Sync? Yeah, as a kiddo. Favorite kind of cake: Red velvet, yum yum. What is your middle name? Marie. TV shows and anime you watch regularly: None. Do you want to have a big family in the future? Just a big family of pets with a spouse. What was the last thing you did that gave you a rush? Oh boy, I couldn't tell ya. Is Vegas one of your must-see places? No. Pet rat: yay or nay? YAY!! I've had many, but I don't think I'll get any more. I've just had bad luck with them, save for one that died of cancer at an old age. Would you call yourself a writer? Written any stories lately? Yeah. I haven't really written any big RP posts of the late, but I did recently write a poem. Are needles something that you’re afraid of? Okay, so this is super weird. Tattoos and piercings? No problem. Little prick, getting blood drawn, that sorta little stuff, no problem. I am, however, NOT a fan of big needles, which used to not be an issue. It's actually kinda recent, and it's why I'm nervous about my second Covid shot coming up, aha... What was the last unexpected hug you gave/received? I really haven't had an unexpected hug since Jason asked for one before he left my house after our final talk. Who was the last person you held hands with? Either my niece or nephew. Have you ever been in a parade before? If so, was it on TV? No. Do you have a fear of rollercoasters? If so, were you ever forced to go on one? If you don’t, what is your favorite rollercoaster? I have a big fear of them, yeah. Post a picture of you from a recent time. Don't feel like it. Who was the last person to give you some of their food? Miss Tobey let me try one of her dumplings yesterday when we were at Ichiban for dinner. The last person you met, what was your first impression of them? I actually didn't quite like her. Have you ever been to a football game? Yeah, because my sister was a cheerleader. Do you like the snow or rain better? Snowwww. Have you ever faked sick? Yeah. What is your blood-type? A-. Have you ever eaten a bug? Not knowingly. The last time you were in the fridge, what were you looking for? Salsa. Mom got these veggie chips at the store and they apparently taste better with salsa, which it did. They weren't great, though. Are you listening to anything at the moment? It's Gab Smolders' turn for me to watch her Resident Evil 8 upload, haha. I'm literally watching three different people (Mark, John Wolfe, and her) play it. Can you take a bra off with one hand? I haven't tried, I think? I doubt I could, given that I'm not exactly small. Do you have an innie or an outie bellybutton? Innie. Can you crack your neck? NOOOOO AND DO NOT DO IT AROUND ME YOURSELF. Are you donating your organs? Yeah; what am I gonna use 'em for? It just seems like a waste otherwise. They're just gonna decay. When was the last time you talked to you mom? Before she left with Tobey to go to the store. Do you like pumpkin pie? NO. I don't like pie, and I hate pumpkin. Do you own your own computer? Yeah. Did you ever have to share a room with one of your siblings? Yeah; growing up, my little sister and I did. Is there any piece of technology you want to buy? I REALLY want a PS4. Did you ever have a night light when you were a kid? Yeah. What TV show had you hooked from the very first episode? Meerkat Manor, 100%. I had to know that Shakespeare was okay. What is your least favorite Sour Patch Kids color? Orange or red, can't pick. Have you ever seen the movie Matilda? YES! I love that movie. What is the weirdest chant you have ever heard? Uh, idk. How are you feeling? Annoyed and hurt as fuck because shit Miss Tobey says without thinking for a single goddamn second. I'm honestly beyond sick of this woman. Do you know anyone with a unibrow? I don't think so. Doughy or saucy pizza? Doughy. Do you have anything that’s limited edition? Yeah. Do you have an air freshener in your bathroom? If so, what scent? I... think we do? If so though, I just don't notice it. The bathroom doesn't smell like anything in particular. Do you like Jalapeno Cheetos? Oh man, I forgot about those! Love 'em. Are you a fan of salads? Yeah, they're fine. I have to be in the mood for one, though. What’s one random thing that you don’t like? Uhhh carrots. What’s one random thing that you like? Shrimp. Do you like chicken noodle soup? I don't. Is it easy for you to accept loss? NOPE. I'm the absolute worst with it. You just got a free plane ticket to anywhere. You have to depart right now. Where are you gonna go? I really wanna see Sara, so take me to Illinois. Do you know anyone with the same birthday as you? No, but a former best friend had her birthday the day before mine. Is there someone you just can’t imagine your life without? Not anymore, honestly. After Jason, I stopped that "I can't live without you" mindset. Truth is I'm going to lose people through life, and I'm not attaching my ability to happily exist to anyone. Are you wearing a ring? Two. Have your friends ever stopped by your house just to say hi? In the past, yeah. Do you like Chinese food? Not really. I only ever get pork fried rice and eggrolls from Chinese restaurants. Have you done any shopping for something in specific recently? No. Do you still live in your hometown? No. What was the reason behind the last time you stayed up all night? I don't recall, honestly. I haven't done that in a very long time. Have you ever had a UFO sighting or a sighting of strange lights in the sky? A very strange light, yes. Have you ever seen your mom or dad drunk? Yes to both. Seeing Mom drunk is very, very rare though. My dad was an alcoholic when I was growing up, so I saw him drunk plenty. Do your parents vote? Mom does, idk about Dad. Who’s the most romantic person you ever went out with? Jason. What restaurant has the best fries? Nowhere has anything on Bojangle's, y'all. Have you ever had a surprise party thrown for you? No.

Prompt: For Dean's birthday, Cas Googles "presents for loved ones" and inadvertently follows recommendations for romantic gifts.

Shit. Okay. Hi anon, i forgot how to see inbox notifs and have no clue if u sent this during my drunk promt ask or sober prompt ask but will fill now.

Alright nvm ^^^ that didn’t happen.

 I lost this prompt for days after I got drunk and I couldn’t find it in my drafts and alas, finally. Anyways, this was written fully sober, lmao.

Just a Little Bit of Your Heart, 2.2k, 

fluff, light angst, post s14. (ao3 link if u want)

It’s January 20th, 4 days out from Dean’s 40th birthday and he still has yet to decide on a gift. It’s his first time, really, buying Dean a birthday gift. Sure, there had been the pack of funny socks he had snagged in passing from the check out at a Gas-N-Sip, but there hadn’t been any thought behind that, no planning, nothing that Castiel thought constituted the socks as a gift. Not really. 

Not only that, but there had never really been occasion to purchase a gift for Dean until now. Sam and Castiel had decided that, with the world coming to an end and all, Dean finally deserved a proper birthday party. In years past, he had either insisted on drowning out his birthday’s with booze or insisted on ‘no gifts.’ 

Castiel isn’t sure why, maybe because the eldest Winchester brother would only feel more indebted to the others around him, or perhaps because he simply didn’t like gifts. Either way, that’s why it became his mission to get the perfect gift for Dean. Something that isn’t a curse, but a comfort. 

The time after Mary and Jack had passed away and Chuck opened the gates of hell had been rough for Dean and him. Sam had kept a protective arm’s length between Castiel and Dean, insisting Dean needed time. It hurt to feel their bond being stretched thin as he’d watch Dean across the bunker from the corner of his eye, careful not to step into his space. Castiel had decided to stay in the bunker despite the tension though, Sam insisting they needed all hands on deck as they began on the long road to killing God.

Still, despite their close proximity, and the time they’ve had to heal, he can’t help but feel further from Dean. 

Cas remembers when Sam told a story of the time he gave Dean a chocolate bar and some motor oil for Christmas. Apparently, Dean had lit up at the sentiment, but Castiel can’t handle settling for something like that. 

Dean deserves something special. 

Castiel begins his search on Google using the simplest, most “Dean” search terms he can think of. 

Men’s flannels

Not special enough

Classic records

Maybe some time, but still, not good enough.

A new pair of boots

Shoes are always too risky. 

Cowboy costume

Halloween maybe, but not for this. 

Guns

Dean already has one he trusts. 

It’s been nearly two hours browsing Google and Amazon before Castiel has to take a break and let his head loll back with a sigh. 

After stretching a bit and standing up to pace the length of the bunker, he finally settles on a Google search that he’s sure will bear fruit. 

Gifts to show you care for someone. 

Castiel takes his time clicking through the links and scrolling through many of the lists. He nearly gives up when finally, an article entitled, “Gifts to Connect You to the Person You Care About”  catches his eye.

Cas smiles at the headline and clicks through the list, cataloging the possibilities away in his mind.

However, all those possible gifts dissipate from his mind as soon as he sees it. It’s perfect, and they have some in stock at the Bed Bath & Beyond an hour and a half away in Nebraska. With that, Cas calls a “Be back later!” into the seemingly empty bunker and heads out to fetch Dean’s gift. 

When he finally arrives at the store, he makes his way inside and heads to the sleep section, his eyes lighting up when he sees what he’s looking for on the shelf below a big “As Seen On TV” sticker. 

Next to the sticker it reads: “Bed Beats” 

Bed Beats are a pair of wristbands and compact speakers that are connected via wifi anywhere in the world. Just slip the wristband on, place the disc speaker underneath your pillow and send a request to your partner through the app. When they slip on their own wristband, the device will relay their heartbeat to your speaker and vice versa. Never feel disconnected again.

Castiel grins, giddy, and picks up the first box on the shelf. It’s exactly what he and Dean need. It’s the perfect way for Cas to watch over Dean without invading his space. It’s anatomical communication without speech. Cas will know when Dean needs help as his heartbeat speeds up, he’ll know when he’s at peace, he’ll know he’s alive. 

He also blinks at the bursting yellow sticker that sits on the top left corner of the box that exclaims, “Great for Long Distance Couples!” 

They may not be a couple, but with the way that their souls and relationship has grown distant, Castiel decides that’s enough to classify them as ‘long distance.’ 

As he waits in the line to check out, Cas also grabs a simple card and a tube of discounted, red wrapping paper left over from the holiday season. 

When he gets back to his car, he decides it’s best to get everything in order before presenting the gift to Dean. When he finally gets into the heavily taped box, he pulls out one set of the wristband/speaker combos and sets it aside for himself. 

Before shrouding the other set in the metallic, red of post-Christmas, 99¢ wrapping paper, he syncs the devices and downloads the app to avoid the hassle of setting it up later. 

Then, he writes, with his thigh as a sort of table, in the card with an old pen he found in the console of his truck. 

I’m including the instruction booklet in this card (please don’t read until after you open the gift!)

Dean, 

I know I’ve made so many mistakes lately, and that perhaps we do not see eye to eye on everything any longer, but this is a chance to connect without having to agree. Just to sleep and not be so alone. 

Happy Birthday. I hope you like it. 

Yours, Castiel

However, he scribbles out the ‘yours’ as it feels out of place in this letter. With that, he seals the card, and the instructions, into a white envelope with Dean’s name in angelic script printed on the front.

The drive home is pleasant and he can’t help but feel butterflies for the moment he gets to present it to his charge. 

The next days pass silently, Castiel with his gift for Dean hidden in his own closet and nearly forgotten amid all the preparations for the party. 

Sam was in charge of inviting people and Dean had insisted on being in charge of food and drinks. On the day of the party, Castiel sits off to the side as many of the guests enter, most are hunters he’s never met before, and he can’t help but feel like an outsider as the day of barbequing and reminiscing devolves into pie and drunkenness by nightfall. 

He’s glad to see Jody and Claire, but even then, their conversations are stilted, both of them want to speak primarily to Dean, the ‘birthday boy’, while Cas isn’t allowed that luxury. 

He sits away from Dean all night, only making contact to say “Happy Birthday, Dean” after he blows out the ‘4’ and ‘0’ candles that someone stuck straight through the latticework on a sweet, cherry pie. Cas smiles as Claire goes up and whispers something to Dean that makes him throw his head back in laughter and begin a lively conversation with her. 

That’s when he realizes he’s on the outside looking in. 

From where he stands, nursing a finger of whiskey, he can see Alex and Garth discussing the medical anomalies of Lycanthropes, Sam, apocalypse-world-Bobby, Donna and Jody playing some sort of cards-and-drinking game, a few people he doesn’t know attempting beer pong in the war room and even a pair of local hunters musing over the library’s expansive collection. 

He’s an outsider like he’s always been with the Winchesters. When he’s not of use, he feels unwelcome. He knows there’s never any ill intent, but even now, when he doesn’t even need his angel mojo, he still doesn’t quite fit. He doesn’t understand half of the banter thrown around the room, he can’t get drunk unless he drinks the entirety of the Men of Letters scotch collection, and he can’t interact with the guests without Dean coming up. 

At this, loneliness overtaking him, he decides to retreat to his room to wait the party out. 

He sends a nod and a tip of his glass to Sam before motioning that he’s leaving, Sam acknowledges him with a grin, drunk on whiskey and the excitement of the party, and Cas slips out of sight. 

Before letting himself rest, he sneaks into Dean’s room to place the card and the gift on his bed. 

He decides it’s best that way.

–

Castiel keeps his personal speaker and wristband close to him, beside his phone on his nightstand, hoping that some night it will be of use. He feels the uncertainty drift in and out as each night passes without so much as an acknowledgment of the gift. 

A week passes before anything happens. It’s 3 am when Castiel’s ears pick up on the small ‘ding’ that pops out of his phone speakers. 

He rolls over and grabs his phone. On the screen sits a notification. 

Bed Beats

Dean would like to share his heartbeat. Accept?

Castiel grins into the dark and arranges the speaker underneath his pillow before securing the soft band around his wrist at his pulse point. 

With a tentative thumb, he swipes to accept and lays his right ear down onto his pillow to hear Dean. He can hear his heart beating quickly, possibly a nightmare, Cas thinks, and wills his own jittery heart to slow. He has to be the grounding one for Dean, has to be a comfort. 

His own heart beats deep like a drum, and soon he can hear Dean’s heart rate slowing to match his own. Soon, they’re in perfect sync with one another. He feels closer to Dean than he has in months and hopes Dean feels the same. 

He listens as his charge’s heart rate begins to slow even more, to around 75 beats per minute, he notes, and assumes he’s slipping into sleep. 

Castiel, usually one for wandering the bunker after the brothers are asleep, doesn’t dare lift his head from his pillow until Dean ends the connection come morning light. 

It continues like this for many weeks, Dean requesting Castiel’s heartbeat in the wee morning hours, disconnecting at sunrise, and going about the days as if nothing has changed. 

Nothing’s really changed during the day. They continue to keep their distance. Dean thanks him for making the coffee one Sunday morning and Sam tells Cas, “See, space is all you needed,” his eyes sincere, “It’s healing.” But Sam doesn’t know the reason the healing process has begun to speed up. Cas can tell Dean hasn’t told his brother of the gift, and he prefers it that way. It’s the first thing between them that Sam isn’t clued into since before Mary’s passing. That alone brings him peace.

It’s a Tuesday in early March when everything shifts. Cas is lying on his back in his bed, nerves nearly taking him. Dean almost always pings by 3 am, and now it’s 45 minutes past and he’s trying to keep calm. 

A sound makes Castiel’s ears prick up, but this time it’s not a sharp ‘ding,’ it’s the soft sound of knuckles rapping on his door. 

Cas, beneath the covers in his most comfortable shirt, one Dean loaned him for the brief period he was human, props himself up on one elbow and quirks his head as the door opens softly, revealing Dean in his doorway. 

He’s in a Led Zeppelin t-shirt with holes around the seams, and a pair of black briefs, and the “Send Noods” socks Castiel bought him. 

“Dean?” 

“Hey, Cas” Dean whispers into the darkness as he steps into the room, shutting the door behind him with care. 

Words die on Castiel’s lips and his breath hitches as Dean pads, soft and calm, to his bedside. 

He lifts the corner of Castiel’s blankets ever so slightly and looks down into the glint of Castiel’s blue eyes as if asking permission. Castiel gives him a slight nod and holds his breath as Dean lifts the covers further and slips in under them. He positions himself with his head resting on the left side of Castiel’s chest, ear right above his heart and arm draped across him, hand gently thumbing at the soft fabric on Castiel’s right shoulder. 

Castiel can feel his own heart rate pick up, it’s swift and uncontrollable and it’s filling his vessel up to the brim with hard thumps. He’s beginning to wonder if he’ll ever breathe again when a low thud overcomes his near panic. 

As bright as a bell in a void, he hears it, Dean’s heartbeat, drumming from the deep. This time it’s his charge’s heart that’s strong and steadfast and convinces Castiel’s own to join it in slow synchronization. 

Castiel takes in a breath and slows his own heart rate. He sees Dean’s eyelids flutter shut and he lets his chin rest in the soft of Dean’s hair, his left hand rubbing slow circles into his back. 

“I missed you.” 

Dean doesn’t speak, but Castiel can feel the whisper of a smile move on his chest. 

As he lets himself drift into peace, thoughts blink in his mind at the pace of his heart. 

I fit here. Dean fits here. This is my family. This is who I love. This is home.

____

(Gift based on this!!!)

BnHA Chapter 244: Have You Read This Book

Previously on BnHA: Deku visited his mom on New Year’s Eve and was all “here’s a new letter from my ever-expanding fanclub of adorable preschoolers whom I saved from trauma” and Inko was all, “I’M SO PROUD OF YOU IZUKU I FEEL LIKE I DON’T HAVE TO PROTECT YOU ANYMORE” because she doesn’t watch the news at all or keep track of ominous plot developments I guess. The next morning, a.k.a. New Year’s Fucking Day, while other kids their age visited shrines or sat at home watching TV, Izuku, Shouto, and Katsuki were bussed off to go be child soldiers at Endeavor’s hero agency. Katsuki was all “HEY ENDEAVOR YOU’RE KIND OF A DICK,” and Endeavor was all “SHOUTO IS THIS VULGAR AND PUGNACIOUS YOUTH REALLY YOUR FRIEND” and Shouto was all “TOO LATE DAD, YOU SAID!!” and Endeavor hmmphed and booked it out of there and the kids all followed him and there was this old dude with a beard floating around screaming about END TIMES!! and Hawks was there and, what?? Seriously does anyone actually know what’s going on?

Today on BnHA: Endeavor chases down the old man (who may in fact be an actual prophet, though? Horikoshi what games are you playing) and sets him on fire and tackles him and it’s all very violent. Hawks then appears out of nowhere and breaks up BakuDeku’s tag team effort all “SAVE IT FOR THE MOVIE YOU TWO!” and is then all “hi Shouto” and “hi, you must be Midoriya, Tokoyami told me all about you, I wanted to work with you too, BUT -- [stares off angstily into the distance].” Then, because I forgot that Hawks never shuts up, he’s all, “Hey Endeavor have you ever heard of this book, ‘Paranormal Liberation Front’? Don’t let the really dumb-sounding title put you off, it’s actually a rousing tale full of hidden clues about all the bullshit I’m actually up to. I highlighted the relevant portions if you can’t be assed to read it, well anyways, Hail Hydra.” “Well that was a strange conversation,” Endeavor thinks to himself as he stares uncomprehendingly into the void. Sob someone please help them why are they so bad at this oh god.

(All comments are my unspoiled reactions from my initial readthrough of the chapter. I did a quick edit for grammar and clarity immediately afterward, and added a few ETAs in the process, but aside from that there are no changes.)

so thanks to that little stunt Horikoshi pulled two weeks ago, our chances of finding out Bakugou’s hero name any time within the next dozen chapters are slimmer than ever. probably he’ll reveal it at the end of the arc instead. it’s like he doesn’t even care about the databook. whatever I’ll have plenty of time to sulk more about it after I get to readin’

anyway the title of the new chapter is “Recommendation”, so... actually that does sound fairly promising, though? am I just eternally doomed to get my hopes up? is this referring to Shouto pestering his dad to take on his two best friends as fellow interns? what’s going on here

anyway so we’re opening with this

I love that it’s the two supposed goody-two-shoes kids who are actually being vocal about blatantly disregarding Endeavor’s orders. Shouto is just not having it to begin with, whereas Deku at least is trying to rationalize his own reckless behavior. Katsuki meanwhile is too focused on doing this fancy kick move to switch his suitcase from his left hand to his right to bother talking right now. reminds me of him playing with the soccer ball as a youngling

also the fact that his case is number 17 and Deku’s is number 18. have I talked about this before? I think I have but it was with some other numbered thing. anyways love the symbolism of him trying to stay one step ahead of him and Deku always being right on his heels. or maybe I’m reading too much into it but anyways rivals, yay

damn Endeavor is really determined to get ahead of them though

uh oh Horikoshi how much action did you pack into this chapter. starting to run out of time to finish all your panels again huh. you had a whole extra week! how fucking insane is this arc going to be holy shit

anyways Endeavor way to leave your brand new interns behind minutes after meeting them for the first time smdh. this is exactly how it went down with Hawks and Tokoyami

okay so like, I know a flash fire is an actual thing, but for a second I started wondering if in this kind of context (with him speeding off), it might also be a reference to the DC hero. then I remembered that the name of Endeavor’s technique is different in Japanese and the pun probably doesn’t translate. ah well

anyways dude is fast. but I wouldn’t count the kids out yet, they’re all pretty fast too!

so now we’re back downtown with Old Man Doom And Gloom, and oddly enough it seems that this isn’t actually an out-of-the-ordinary occurrence?

fucking quirk society. you guys are just so desensitized to the most bizarre fucking things. but I guess we in the 21st century are hardly ones to talk ourselves sigh

anyway now he’s being a bit more extra than usual and they’re starting to worry

?? the fuck is that? that sure as hell isn’t Hawks or Endeavor lmao. IF IT’S SLIDIN’ GO I SWEAR TO GOD

or wait, is it still the old man talking? should I actually be paying attention to his ramblings, my bad

is that a fucking Spirit Bomb

(ETA: in truth this is the most badass attack name that has ever existed or will ever exist and I should give it its proper due actually.)

so now I guess he’s hurtling it at them??

...hold up one sec

“revelations from the universe, I have received. flee, flee good citizens. the Dark Lord’s lips curl into a wicked crescent” -- holy shit, this all tracks?? IS THIS DOOMSDAY CRACKPOT MOTHERFUCKER ACTUALLY RIGHT ON THE FUCKING MONEY HOLY SHIT. ARE YOU A WITCH GOOD SIR. DID YOU WRITE A BOOK OF HIGHLY ACCURATE AND DEVASTATINGLY WITTY PROPHECIES BY ANY CHANCE

“the end is nigh! the wicked stars are conspiring against us! we must stop them! the earth is on the verge of being engulfed by darkness! flee, my fellow citizens! I am the one who shall destroy this source of darkness! be revealed! servants of the dark lord, come forth!”

okay listen. if he’s aiming this fucking thing at Hawks, though, after a speech like that? fuck it, I’m a believer. I’m sorry old man, I wrote you off without a second thought and here you are being the only one who’s actually like “HELLO!!!? PEOPLE!!!? THE LEAGUE OF VILLAINS!!?! THEY HAVE AN ARMY!!? AND NOUMUS!??! FUUUUUUUUCK”

and I don’t know where you’re getting your information, but those are some legit-ass universe revelations. fucking even talks about the “Dark Lord” specifically only describing his lips. because he doesn’t have anything else to describe nowadays, face-wise. shit that is spooky

anyway so that sure was unexpected. let’s see what shenanigans Master Roshi here is gonna get himself into next

did my boy just get fucking flashfired. jesus Endeavor show some fucking mercy

...

someone want to explain to this man the concept of a proportionate response? anyone? ...

fucking Todorokis I swear to god. if they weren’t all so good at being amazing superheroes, they could easily fall back on a career of being dramatic bitches for hire instead

anyways when did Endeavor change his clothes. this dude was wearing a turtleneck and slacks thirty seconds ago. did he literally just burn them off. how. what. fucking plot holes left and right

lol imagine if like on the next page the interns finally catch up and they’re like holding his fucking jacket and looking peeved

-- holy fucking shit, Endeavor

not cool, dude!! what the fuck. this isn’t a fucking Noumu for fuck’s sake THAT IS A HUMAN PERSON

(ETA: I guess he ended up being okay, but shit, for a moment it looked like we were going full blown Raiders of the Lost Ark over here. anyways the moral of this story is that Endeavor is terrifying, fuck.)

so now of course Nostradamus is trying to get the fuck out of there, because if he sticks around Endeavor apparently has no qualms about burning him alive. fuck me Endeavor, I’m still rooting for your redemption arc my dude, but tbh if Dabi happens to pop up out of nowhere here looking for some revenge I’m not gonna say no to it right now. quit burning people alive!!

so now 12/21/2012 is zooming down an alley and Endeavor is zooming after him and telling some extra with a sword to stay and lead the evacuation

oh??

Endeavor have you flown yourself right into a trap?

oh my god what the fuck is this

it’s like Dabi VS the Liberation Army all over again. fucking check all these motherfuckers who apparently want to get themselves deep fried. this one guy really thinks he’s going to clock the Number One with a piece of fucking PVC pipe

LMAOOOOO

LOOKS LIKE WE GOT OURSELVES A RUCKUS, BOYS! you better believe I have the Powerpuff Girls theme song playing in my head right now

-- !!!

HAWKS!! I WAS STARTING TO WONDER IF YOU REALLY WERE THERE TOO OR IF THE PANELS IN THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER WERE DELIBERATELY MISLEADING

LOOOOOOL

pour one out for these poor sobs who somehow got themselves caught up in an accidental pincer attack between the dynamic fucking duo and fucking Angry Bird here. where the fuck is Shouto btw. or is he the one that got stuck carrying Endeavor’s jacket

loool look at Hawks out here making friends

SURPRISE BITCH

oh my god though you guys look at this??

HELLO SURPRISE NEW FAVORITE SERIES OF PANELS, CAN I JUST TAKE A MOMENT TO LOVE ON YOU A BIT HERE, BECAUSE

1. Bakugou and Deku IN PERFECT SYNC, not even thinking about it. just effortless. that was an amazing tag team thing you guys had going on before SOMEONE stepped in and ruined it all omg. do you want me to talk to Hawks for you. I’ve been meaning to discuss some other things with him anyway so it’s not like it’d be going out of my way. can you believe this fucking pigeon blocked my number. WHERE IS JEANIST YOU BASTARD

anyways 2. “I thought Endeavor might have been in a tough spot” that’s a funny way of saying “I was lonely and missed my angry arson dad”! and fucking look at this ridiculous bantering between them. “did it look like I was in a tough spot?” I FUCKING CAN’T YOU GUYS PLEASE STOP

and 3. Shouto just watching. is he impressed by his dad? or just trying to figure out whether Hawks is his dad’s adopted son or boyfriend. I’m pretty sure it’s the former, Shouto, but I don’t blame you for being confused, Hawks just has that kind of energy with everyone

oh my god

somebody arrest this man. I can’t fucking deal with your cheeky fucking face Hawks

is Skeptic getting all of this?? are they sitting there with bowls of popcorn back at the League of Pliff HQ trying to figure out whether Endeavor and Hawks are dating

...and shit, I just realized the League officially knows now that the disaster trio is interning with the number one. so that’s fucking great. not that it would have been a secret for long, but still, things are officially starting to get real. in hindsight, after the Kamino arc we had a nice long stretch of chapters in which Deku, Kacchan, and Shouto were not in immediate danger from the main fucking villains, so that was nice while it lasted I guess. those days will soon be behind us

ahhhklkljkl

fucking shit Hawks could you be any more ominous. oh my god this arc really is going to kill me

so now we’re cutting away to somewhere. Pliff?

-- oh, nope, still in the same place, we just fast-forwarded to the part where the police came to haul all the bad guys away

and now the manga is being all clever and foreshadowing-y and would you look at this

BUT IS HE TALKING ABOUT ENDEAVOR, OR HAWKS omg. or hell, he could even be talking about Deku. or AFO even though he’s not actually there. point is, you know he’s not actually wrong. but what is he actually trying to tell us ahhhhhh Servant of the Stars please reveal your secrets

(ETA: in all seriousness you guys, I’m fully down for counting this as a prophecy. it’s already canon that future-seeing quirks are a thing, so. the only problem is that this is some Game of Thrones-level ambiguity as far as who he’s actually talking about. it seriously could be anyone. anyways at least we’ve got some shiny new theory material to play around with here so that’s nice.)

LMAO

HAWKS YOU BASTARD, JUST LIKE THAT I’VE FORGIVEN YOU FOR THE FUCKING JEANOCIDE

how does every single person Deku meets not greet him this way?? I sure as hell would. “well if it isn’t the kid who just. fuckin blew up his own hands on live television, multiple times. salutations”

anyways where’s Katsuki, the boy whose previous hero mentor you murdered in cold blood but he doesn’t actually know that yet. when are we gonna start in on that?

Hawks says he’s heard about Deku from Tokoyami. and he even says he would have liked to work with Deku too, wow. that’s high praise

ffffff here it comes, THAT GOOD HAWKS ANGST. WE WERE WAITING FOR THIS BUT IT’S STILL BRUTAL GAH

is this entire arc just going to consist of Hawks saying cryptic things with double meanings known only to him and then glancing sideways at the camera all broodingly omg

AH, THERE HE IS

Katsuki’s natural instinct to dislike 100% of newcomers on sight might work out to his advantage here. Hawks’s maxed-out Charisma stats VS Katsuki’s middling Perception stats which nonetheless have a tendency to land high whenever he performs an ability check! I might need to back off from this metaphor though before it becomes really obvious that I don’t actually play D&D

lol

omg Endeavor can’t a guy just drop in on his grumpy pal out of the blue to make sure he’s doing okay without having some sort of ulterior motive? why are you so sure that Hawks showing up means that plot must be happening. because you’re not wrong, is the thing. but he’s probably just being standoffish for show

holy shit and now Hawks is just pulling out the Liberation Army’s book just like that?? IS HE ALLOWED TO DO THAT

(ETA: “let’s see, what’s a subtle way I can try and clue Endeavor in on the fact that I’ve become an undercover agent in the Paranormal Villain League of Liberation Front Armies. ... ...shit I’m not good at this.”)

and since when was this book called “Paranormal Liberation Front”?? did they change the title to match the new name?

and what’s Hawks’s game here, though? is he going to play it as though he’s secretly investigating Pliff? you know, like he actually is doing? is this some kind of hiding in plain sight thing or what

guys. is Hawks just... actually really bad at being a secret agent. omg

so he’s all “DESTRO’S IDEALS ARE EVERYTHING WE COULD ASK FOR” and lol what. fucking look at Endeavor’s face though

this motherfucker could use a boost of his own wisdom stats, fff

(ETA: swear to god he’s two seconds away from a Katsuki-style “hah?!”)

oh my god

fucking fuck me. he better have highlighted a really obvious section of that book, because otherwise I’m not gonna hold out hope for this message getting across at all. at least we know what that “recommendation” title was referring to now I guess

(ETA: Endeavor: [reading the highlighted section backwards] “‘‘it’s fun to smoke marijuana’!? what in the --”)

loooool

the fate of the world now rests upon Endeavor’s abilities to See Underneath The Underneath and somehow decipher that when Hawks says, “ENDEAVOR I CHASED YOU DOWN IN ORDER TO GIVE YOU A COPY OF THIS BOOK THE VILLAINS WROTE, I THINK IT’S REALLY KEEN AND YOU SHOULD CHECK IT OUT”, what he’s really saying is, “ENDEAVOR I NEED YOU TO INVESTIGATE THIS SUSPICIOUS ‘LIBERATION FRONT’ THAT’S BEEN COINCIDENTALLY GATHERING A LOT OF ATTENTION SINCE THAT SHADY INCIDENT IN DEIKA CITY WHERE ‘TWENTY GUYS' BASICALLY DESTROYED AN ENTIRE TOWN. IF YOU’RE TOO DENSE TO PICK UP ON ANY OF THAT, I HIGHLIGHTED THE RELEVANT PORTION OF THE BOOK SO HOPEFULLY EVEN AN OBLIVIOUS DUMBBELL LIKE YOU CAN FIGURE IT OUT.” jesus christ

at least Endeavor now has some nerdy interns who fucking love to read. hell, Deku has probably already read the book. please help this dumb jock to understand his bird son’s coded message, Deku-Wan Kenobi, you’re our only hope

and that’s the end of the chapter! except that I heard there was a new poster for Heroes Rising that was released as well! how come it wasn’t included here now I have to go hunt it down

son of a bitch is this really the best quality that’s available? damn

well all right. not really much going on here that’s a big revelation or anything, aside from the surprise inclusion of Hawks in the upper right hand corner. did we know he was going to be in this? and like, even if the anime does make it as far as his debut in season 4, will it have reached that point by the time the movie premieres in December? glad I caught up beforehand if they’re gonna start spoiling things like this

so that’s all she wrote for this week! databook is due out next week so that should be fun! we’re finally going to get Hawks’s real name from what I understand. so I can start yelling at him using his full name like a disappointed mom. I have a feeling that’s going to come in handy a lot during this arc. go to your room young man

(ETA: and just watch it be the Japanese equivalent of “Judas McMurder” or some shit. smh. y’all. we stan a shady bitch.)

and finally, the conclusion of the dark brotherhood questline 

i have been through so much and lost so much but i gained the one thing that matters most of all.....  cicero’s heart 

-----

well

these aren’t the real emperor’s clothes but i have this still,

i put it on the dawnstar sanctuary mannequin with the jester hat lmao

:( my favorite guard friend who hangs out around the shops in the mornings with me is onto me 

hes not hostile or reporting me to the jarl or anything at least tho 

Dont woRRY About It

i did have guards after me for a while (i had. several just go ‘ok ill let you off this time :)’ bc. i. asked nicely. after attempting to assassinate the emperor of skyrim) but eventually just paid my bounty and they were like ok you’re good and now apparently everyone has completely forgotten That Time I Tried To Murder The Fucking Emperor 

anyway after the fucking massacre that happened at the sanctuary i was absolutely Out For Blood

i mean like....... i realize maro is completely justified here. we are in fact a league of assassins guilty of murdering A Lot of people, we very much did make a real attempt on the emperor’s life (and killed his double, who was less important but still like, an innocent guy, presumably)(or even if it was like that death note thing where its actually a criminal on death row anyway, like, we clearly didnt know that) and i did personally murder maro’s son and ruin his reputation, so. like. we are the bad guys in this situation no matter how you look at it lmao but STILL THOSE WERE MY FRIENDS, FUCKER

so i decided to murder him out of pure spite, but. uh

I DONT REMEMBER WHAT I DID TO CAUSE THIS BUT I ACTUALLY GOT THE SOLITUDE GUARDS TO MURDER HIM FOR ME LMAO I DIDNT EVEN HAVE TO DO ANYTHING

im trying to remember what the fuck even happened here im clearly. underwater, i think maybe i like. confronted him and he got hostile but i jumped off the pier and the guards were like “woah that guy’s losing it” and intervened but he fought them too or something ??? ??  I DONT KNOW BUT THE GUARDS KILLED HIM FOR ME :’) thanks guys 

then after everything we still kept the contract, and... the new plan.... was for me to sneak onto the emperor’s ship before he leaves skyrim and kill him there.... WHICH I COULD HAVE FUCKING. DONE IN THE FIRST PLACE. THIS IS SO MUCH EASIER THAN... KILLING SOME OFFICIAL’S SON AND PLANTING FALSE EVIDENCE AND TRACKING DOWN THE GOURMET AND MURDERING HIM AND IMPERSONATING HIM TO TRY TO POISON THE EMPEROR AND IMPLICATING A RANDOM CHEF WHO HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH IT AND

EVERYONE IS DEAD!!!!! WE COULD HAVE AVOIDED ABSOLUTELY ALL OF THIS. WAS ASTRID GETTING ME ALL MIXED UP IN THIS WILD GOOSE CHASE ON PURPOSE FROM THE BEGINNING ?? ? ? SORRY!!! IM ANGRY

i got all the way here without anyone even seeing me (i used a couple invisibility potions for the really tricky spots, but still) i could absolutely have just done this and avoided the entire everything. god 

anyway i again dont really understand the politics of skyrim but. the real emperor was expecting me to find him one way or another. he had already accepted his death and made peace with it. it was. actually kind of sad. i dont know enough to say whether he was actually a decent guy or not but he seemed like he was. i couldnt bring myself to steal his clothes so i still just have the duplicate emperor’s clothes but it looks the same anyway

i took a war axe from one of his displays though. i dont remember if i already mentioned my ongoing tradition of always taking something from my victims and enchanting them later to mark who it belonged to, but thats a thing ive been doing. little murder scrapbook

im not really sure how murdering the emperor counts as “serving the empire” but sure ok 

i also killed this guy lmao the emperor’s last wish was for me to kill whoever it was that betrayed him and i dont like this dude in the first place so i was like yea you got it 

i built a memorial with the weapons rack in my room in the dawnstar sanctuary

enchanted special weapons for each of our fallen members (left to right it’s astrid, arnbjorn, festus, gabriella, and veezara) (i also later added another dagger for lis bc i had one space left) 

theres also gemstones on the floor beneath each weapon but they keep sliding out of place :’ | 

ANGEL DARLING SONG OF MY HEART LIGHT OF MY LIFE YOU’RE ALIVE

you can see the game autosaving in the corner bc i had Just come out of the sanctuary lmao thats how lightning fast i reacted to this 

[sobbing] baby boy.... baby.... i was SO WORRIED

i murdered the fucking emperor of skyrim bc i was so desperate to continue this questline to see if cicero would come back I DID ALL OF THIS FOR YOU.....

(he pranked me and pretended he was gonna kill me at first. i almost lost it thinking he STILL wouldnt forgive me but it was ok :’) u got me, ) 

sniffs...... best friends forever........ this is the best possible outcome this is all ive ever wanted it was all worth it for this 

we got our window back!!!!! also ft cicero subtitle photobombing me with his boundless enthusiasm for murder but i forgive him 

oof we also have... a bunch of torture victims hanging around now too :’ ) oh

i kinda feel bad about them but there doesnt seem to be an option to let them go, 

i mean i could just kill them all i guess. i killed one guy to see if i could. you Can. his body is still there. nobody seemed to care that i killed him

I TURNED AROUND AFTER NAZIR SAID THAT AND CICERO’S JUST. LOOKING AT ME LIKE THIS,

i fuckign love this cute little shit. what the fuck. this is such justice too everyone was so rude to him, everyone made fun of him and talked down to him, everyone wanted him dead after he went after astrid, but she sold us out and got everyone killed, he was RIGHT, and now hes the right-hand-man to the Listener who is now ALSO the leader of the brotherhood. he’s basically second in command to the entire organization now and nobody can do a goddamn thing about it bc they all KNOW not to fuck with me now 

i also realized hes taller than me and i dont like it, :’)

im still deciding medea’s taller than him anyway i dont care. she would be taller than the character model is allowing for

he likes to randomly start singing/humming really off key/dancing around its SO cute.... im lov him...............

darling..... calm down, :’) 

hes so completely devoted to me now im in pain

i realized i could tell him to go to sleep and he actually did it the absolute madman 

he gets up if you try to sleep beside him though

i mean. not that i tried that or anything

he stands SO close to me all the time.... i turn around and hes right there beaming adoringly at me. i cant do this 

he kept saying mother needed some flowers so i took him out to collect some nightshade for her n dropped them around her feet 

“whats the point of thievery lol like..... just kill them?????? stupid” 

having cicero constantly two feet behind me jus making cute comments and/or half singing The Weirdest Shit I Have Ever Heard is absolutely delightful 

ur so cute when you’re threatening people

he also hates the forsworn see we’re in sync

I WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU ALONE AGAIN

me, the leader of the brotherhood, in full brotherhood armor, with cicero following right behind me giggling to himself about murder:

I was planning to make my own post about how I think the wind mana spirals will go, and then Cygames went ahead and laid it out for us way earlier than I expected, lmao.

But anyway there’s some interesting stuff going on here that I have some thoughts on.

Basically all three of these characters went in slightly different directions than I expected. Mostly Hawk and Lin You, but still.

I thought that they’d give Hawk the exact same buff as Nefaria, maybe minus the buff dispel, but even though they still stuck poison on him, his S2 is at least slightly different to hers, since it’s now a skill shift thing where the first round lets him inflict stun and poison via his next two force strikes, and then the second round is a damaging skill with poison punisher. He also gets loses the Full HP condition on his A1, whereas Nefaria still has hers, so that’s interesting.

I’m very curious to see how much this helps him, since Nefaria got a MASSIVE boost to her DPS through her mana spiral upgrade. Though she also got some unique utility with her buff dispel that gives her a meta position in Kai Yan even if you ignore her high damage. Hawk doesn’t really get any sort of unique utility like that, but maybe wind Agito won’t really require anything like that. And tbh I’m glad that it means he probably won’t serve the exact same role in wind Agito as Nefaria does in Kai Yan.

It’s kinda hard to tell if the skill shift on his S2 is going to raise or lower his overall DPS, if you compare him to Nefaria. Her altered force strike is apparently extremely powerful, so Hawk might be held back by having his S2 only change his force strikes half the time. Although Nefaria’s S2 powers up her next single force strike, while Hawk’s powers up his next two force strikes, so that also might influence things.

He might still be very good as a poison enabler in wind Agito when that comes out, but I’m not sure if he’d be good enough to break into the HMC meta. The poison meta has had a very hard time catching on in HMC, and we already have Joachim as a poison-enabling wind bow, and he at least has the appropriate status resistance. It’s possible that there’s cheese strats you can do with Hawk’s stun, though. I feel like that’d only be relevant in mHMC though, not eHMC.

I probably won’t build him up, since that’d take a lot of resources that I don’t have, but I’m glad he’s getting the buff.

I had a feeling Lin You was gonna be the mystery third mana spiral unit, but I’m still kinda salty that Sylas continues to be on the back-burner, lol. He desperately needs any sort of buff. Maybe we’ll get another round of wind mana spirals next month, if they release wind Agito next.

I wasn’t really sure what they would do with her kit, since she’s already a pretty solid unit all around. I honestly thought they might make her S2′s heal effect the entire team to help her sub in for Wedding Elly in HMC, but it looks like they decided to make her more like Ezelith. Which makes a lot of sense, honestly. She has a crit rate passive, her themed wyrmprint gives crit rate, and the dragon that’s basically paired with her gives crit damage. She’s not exactly the same as Ezelith, though, since her buffs are more about her building up to a 50% or so crit rate for most of the fight, compared to Ezelith getting 100% crit rate in short bursts. I think it fits the axe play-style nicely, though.

I was kinda worried at first that it might be really hard for her to keep up her combo count, since axes are kinda slow in general, but then I saw that they’re also giving her a combo time ability like Valerio and Mitsuba, lol. That’s one way to make it more feasible to maintain high combo counts on slower units.

The change in her abilities is probably the biggest deal out of her mana spiral, but I’m curious to see the full details on how her S1 changes her next three force strikes. It’d be nice if the cyclones are multi-hit attacks that help her rack up her combo count quickly.

I’m not entirely sure how much this will help her break back into HMC, since her buffs are purely about her personal DPS, and she still doesn’t have the team utility that Wedding Elly does, but it at least makes her an even better unit for general content. Maybe she’ll suffer a bit from also not having anything related to poison in her kit, but honestly we need more DPS units who aren’t wrapped up in status afflictions to achieve their full potential.

I think she has a lot of potential to be a great DPS unit for wind Agito when that comes out, though, for basically the same reason as why Ezelith is a core DPS unit against Volk.

I don’t think I’m very interested in investing in her mana spiral since I have like no testaments at the moment and I already main Noelle in HMC, but at the very least it looks like she’ll probably benefit most from using Long Long now, which is nice for me since he’s my only strength-based 5-star wind dragon that I have max unbound, lol.

If there’s any unit out of these three that I might actually invest in, it’s probably Su Fang, and that’s mostly just because I really like him as a character. In the long run I should probably save my resources for other 70MC characters, but at least on paper I think his mana spiral might make him a really strong unit.

I was kinda hoping they’d give him more of a crit-based kit, but I can see why they didn’t, since they chose to do that with Lin You instead. It’s still a little bit lame to see him get the poison treatment, but realistically I think he’ll benefit a lot from it.

I had a feeling they’d give him poison punisher on his S1, if they went this route, but I didn’t expect them to basically give him the Delphi treatment by having his S2 give a poison effect to his next force strike. I imagine that unlike Delphi his poison mods are going to be normal, though, since he’s a normal DPS unit outside of that.

In general his S2 got a pretty big buff, which I’m glad to see. They bumped the strength buff from 25% to 30%, while also increasing the duration from 10 seconds to 15 seconds, which I think is a fairly sizeable increase to his damage across the board. Though some of that time will probably be spent by you using a force strike to inflict poison. But it still seems like a pretty big improvement.

I’m curious to see if they’re gonna buff the damage mods on his S1, since they’re pretty low, or if they’ll be kept the same, and the poison punisher damage mods will be the main buff.

Since he’s just a welfare 4-star unit his abilities didn’t get changed much, but there’s a lot to be said for his skill damage passive going from 20% to 35%. I mean, that ended up being one of the core reasons why Xania became a meta flame unit. So I think he might end up being the dark horse of this batch.

I’m not sure if this will help him break into the HMC meta because of the recurring issue of raw DPS units not having the utility that Wedding Elly brings, but he might end up being a really good poison enabler for poison comps. Hopefully.

I think he also has a lot of potential in wind Agito, for basically the same reasons as Lin You. It’s a long shot, but I really hope that the phase 2 form of the wind Agito boss is classified as a Therion, like Volk, so Su Fang can take advantage of his Therion’s Bane ability getting buffed to 35%. That might really swing things in his favour, but even if it ends up being a dead ability, I think he might still be good for that fight. At the very least, his crit rate coability would probably sync nicely with Lin You’s new play-style.

There’s a pretty high chance that I’ll 70MC him as soon as I have the materials for it, but I at least want to wait and see how his mana spiral compares to Hawk and Lin You, in the long run. It might just not be worth the investment. I really want him to be good, though.

Even though I mostly just want Sylas to finally get a buff, it’d also be a shame if they skip over Ku Hai, since he got introduced along with Lin You and Su Fang, and he also has a pretty lopsided kit. If he got more reliable sources of crit rate I think he could be really good. This event also introduced Xiao Lei but she’s from a different element altogether so it’s not a surprise that they’re skipping her for now.

But on a related note, since we’re getting mana spirals for Su Fang and Lin You to go along with this event rerun that’s coming up, I have a feeling that instead of us getting a new wind banner, they might just rerun the Lin You banner and put Hawk on rate-up along with it. It’d be a nice way to showcase their new mana spiral upgrades. And tbh we don’t really need an entirely new wind banner at the moment, since we got the Kirsty and Joachim one really recently. Maybe we’ll get an additional new banner for a different element along with a banner rerun, though.

Also, I think we’re still expecting mana spirals for 3-star shadow units at the end of this month. I’m curious to see how that goes, but I feel like it’s going to be too little too late. They already gave mana spirals to just about every shadow 5-star, and the meta for both HJP and Kai Yan have had time to solidify, so 3-star units aren’t really going to have much of a chance to meaningfully compete against that. I feel like they’re basically all just going to be budget options for existing 5-star units, and they’ll only be worth investing in if you either don’t have those 5-stars, or you really like some of the 3-stars as characters.

I still hope they’re planning to give mana spirals to 4-star shadow units like Norwin, though. At this point he’s probably never gonna be as good as Nefaria, but I just want him to be viable in endgame content, lol.

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What weird food combinations do you enjoy? I’m willing to experiment mayonnaise with most food. I also dip my fries in hot fudge sundae and because I’m Filipino I have to have my fried chicken paired with banana ketchup. Where do you get your news? Usually from the Twitter and Facebook handles of my go-to news outlets. My dad is also the only one who turns on the TV in the dining area so whenever he’s home and watches the evening news I get to hear the reports as well. What social stigma does society need to get over? HIV/AIDS, dating or marrying the same sex, tattoos... even breastfeeding is a fucking stigma lmao. So many people are babies. What is the best/worst prank that you've played on someone? I hate being the victim of pranks so I never pull them on anyone. What was the last photo you took? My dog jumping up to ask for food last night.

What makes you roll your eyes every time you hear it? Lately our president has been wanting to give nightly addresses on TV every midnight so when I hear another announcement from the government I just roll my eyes because I know it’s gonna be another hour-long speech that not only has absolutely zero substance to it, but made everyone unnecessarily stay up that late. What are you currently worried about? I’m worried about my remaining academic requirements. With the suspension of online classes and the lockdown being extended until April 30 (which is virtually the end of the semester), I have no idea what’s gonna become of our academic calendar and my grades – and the status of my graduation.

A notable school in the country already mass-promoted (read: passed) all their students and is planning to give tuition fee refunds since only two months of the sem were used. It’s honestly the most responsible thing to do for now and I hope all other universities follow suit.

Do you think aliens exist? I believe we aren’t the only ones alive out here but I also don’t think they look like the creatures books or movies have made them out to be. What mythical creature do you wish actually existed? Meh, was never a fan of anything mythical/mythological. What are you interested in that most people aren't? Pro wrestling. In my 15 years of being a fan I’ve only found literally a handful of people (at least who are also Filipino) who shared the same passion or amount of interest as I have. It’s just never been a popular topic or fanbase here so I never get to bring it up – and I’m afraid to bring it up because people seem to judge anyone still into wrestling these days. What's the most ridiculous thing you have bought? My most pointless purchase was a pink bar of soap with lettering that says “Gay Bar.” It’s a novelty item at best and I never needed to buy it, but I had money that day so I did and now it’s gathering dust in one of my drawers. What sounds hit you with major nostalgia every time you hear them? The PS1 start-up noise is a big candidate. If given the oppurtunity to open a museum, what kind would you create? They have museums about everything now, so I think it’d be a good idea to turn to my roots and make an ancestral house instead and have it in our home province. My family has a rich history and it’d be a waste if we allowed ourselves to forget. When was the last time you immediately regretted what you said? I think last night? We were having pork belly bought from outside for dinner and I was talking about how good it tasted and that it was the best thing I’ve had in a while. I forgot my dad has been cooking us a different meal every single day since the quarantine started and they all have tasted amazing as well. After I realized what I said I felt like shit and immediately downplayed the pork belly so that he didn’t feel left out. What's the silliest thing you've seen someone get upset about? My mom is a champion of this list lmao, there’s so much stupid shit she’s thrown a fit over. The most ridiculous one happened last year when my sister sprained her ankle and my mom would not help her walk around and even walked faster than the rest of us. It was like she was purposely leaving us behind, which confused and pissed me off. Anyway I was left assisting Nina as she hobbled on. Eventually I caught up to my mom and asked her to slow down and to be with us and to help my sister walk. Apparently it was enough to piss her off and the whole ride home she was yelling at me and legitimately sobbing about how humiliated she was when I called her out because she thinks people overheard and are judging her for it. I mean if you’re afraid of getting judged isn’t that proof you know you did something shitty?

The sermon also turned personal and she started screaming about how I was a horrible daughter and that I’ve never done anything right, and that I was a disappointment, and that I was straying further from God everyday and she could see the horns growing on my head. How’s that for abusive? What was the best thing that happened to you today? I finally finished the level I’ve been stuck on in Mario Kart 8 and now I’m officially done with the game. I’ve never finished any video game before so it feels pretty bitching!!!!!!!!! Do you consider yourself a good cook? I don’t even consider myself a cook. What's the dumbest thing someone has argued with you about? ^ The thing I just talked about, even though it wasn’t technically an argument because my mom didn’t let me talk throughout.

The next dumbest thing I could think of is probably when my grown-ass aunt fought me back when I was 13 on whether Beyoncé lip-syncs or not. It was a random family discussion and I was just talking about how much I like Beyoncé and she not only stole my thunder by picking a fight with me, but she also made me feel bad about something I loved lol. She was so insistent that she lip-syncs and was so hungry for an argument, I didn’t understand why?????? so I just dropped it and rolled my eyes at my dad. IT’S SO DUMB RIGHT What did you google last? Information I needed for an article I’m currently writing. What fashion trend makes you cringe or laugh everytime you see it? Skirts paired with either denim jeans or leggings, and short vests. All the Disney stars wore them and it was the epitome of fashion for us at the time aaaahhhhhhahahahahaha. What's your favorite holiday movie? LOVE ACTUALLY. For sure. I’d also say It’s A Wonderful Life but it has some very low points that ruins the Christmas-yness for me. How ambitious are you? I’m pretty ambitious and also a bit of a perfectionist, but I’m also aware of my limits and I don’t always jump onto tasks feeling confident. I know what I’m capable of so if I’m faced with something I know other people can be better at, I’ll consciously be less ambitious at it cos I usually let my insecurity get in the way. What was the biggest realization you have had about yourself? As someone who’s always thrived on being an introvert, the last few months and years have taught me that I CAN talk to people if I have to? And they’re not scary? I had little hope for myself prior to my internship - but it ended up being fun and I met a lot of awesome new people. I also never thought I’d get to write articles solely because I hate interviewing people - but my sources have all been nothing but nice to me. I guess what I’m trying to say is I’ve always doubted my ability to talk to people and dive in to unfamiliar scenarios, but when I do either it’s always turned out to be great experiences for me.

What topic could you spend forever talking about? If we’re going for what’s been the most recent hot topic, it would be the government’s incompetence in dealing with COVID-19 so far. Which way should toilet paper hang, over or under? Over. What word is a lot of fun to say? I dunno. I don’t think of words in terms of how fun they are to say. Maybe curse words? HAHAHA If you didn't have to sleep, what would you do with the extra time? Assuming the internet is nothing to worry about, I’d watch all the series I’ve long planned on watching but can’t because Netflix does a big pull on the entire household’s connection. Are you usually early or late? Early or on time. There is no ‘late’ for me. What do you wish you knew more about? The future. Not knowing the answers to it is so irritating/boring to me. What is the most annoying question you've been asked? Asking if I go to rallies/am an activist/am part of the NPA just because of the school I come from. None of those things are bad at all, but I’ve always been annoyed at the stereotyping. How different was your life 1 year ago? I wasn’t graduating yet then. And I was OUTSIDE MOST DAYS because there wasn’t any fucking virus. What movie title best describes your life? Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, except I literally have to be stuck at home. What was the last lie you told? Telling my groupmates I had some family stuff at home to fix before getting started on our group project, but really I had to take a bath first because I wanted to feel fresh while working. It’s a minor lie, but it still made me feel bad. What type of music do you listen to? It’s usually varied but my go-to genres are indie pop, electropop, alternative rock, punk rock, *some* indie, R&B, and pop.

Are you a good listener? Yeah, it’s why I prefer to be one than a talker. What is your favorite milkshake flavor? Cookies and cream or some peanut butter/chocolate concoction. Do you think you're brave? I can be. Just not about everything. What are you most grateful for in your life? The relatively comfortable life we live considering where we live. And that covers everything from the food we eat, the schools we’ve been sent to, where we get to travel (or the fact that we can travel at all), etc.

What was the worst phase in your life? My rebellious, no-one-understands-me, angsty teen phase when I was 12-13 and my time readjusting in college when I was 18-19. What is a relationship deal breaker for you? Verbal abuse. What are some things that give you complete peace of mind? Staying in coffee shops, driving at midnight, views of the skyline at night, staying on the rooftop at night and being under the stars... I just like a lot of things about the night. Would you like to explore another planet? Yesssssss. Who was your favorite cartoon character as a child? Spongebob. Cosmo from The Fairly Oddparents comes at a close second. What would you do if you were the president of your own country? Right now? I’d assure people everything was being taken care of – mass testing, support for doctors, provision of PPEs and free transportation for frontliners, making all the senators (who are all expectedly not doing anything, save for one) work their asses off, put part of the P275B fund to assist middle- and lower-class people who can’t  – instead of imposing shoot-to-kill orders for the military to anyone criticizing the government or rambling about absolutely fucking nothing in nation addresses.

Well season finales usually have some emotional moments but I don't know... maybe that line was taken from a hallucination? and then they deadass added it to bait. It would be a dirty move even for them but we'll see.

I don’t know because as some people stated, the line isn’t an accusation against Clarke. It’s more… confusion. It’s as much showing how she cares about him (calling him every day for 2199 days) and how much he feels she doesn’t (leaving him to die in the pits). For example the Blodreina projection was accusing Clarke of “giving up” on Octavia (and Bellamy) totally. It was not something that seemed conflicted about Clarke’s actions and feelings, it was full on something accusing her and hating her. All of Clarke’s thoughts, guilt and self-hatred coming from the mouth of someone she thinks hates her. I mean, we complain about a Bellarke talk missing so far, but I’d also say a Clarke/Octavia talk has been missing ever since ep11. They’ve just reunited after the whole Blodreina vs Wanheda thing, and it needed a convo to deal with it and… kinda bury the hatchet. The fact that it didn’t happen make their relationship lack of something. The point of showing Octavia in Clarke’s mindspace was to highlight her guilt regarding Octavia. But… then they didn’t address it when new!Octavia and Clarke came face to face? *sigh*I mean, are we supposed to be surprised? This show is always alwayyyys about the plot before the characters. It’s plot driven (and I hate it because so many times the characters would need to talk about things, but they don’t!). That’s why I do believe Bellarke will happen, because they’re the characters/relationship that consistently EXISTS with the plot. It is the relationship that evolves and breathes with the story as it goes- as Jroth said, “the spine” of the show. The season where all of this lacked was s5 and yet again, you could argue that it existed, just not in the way we wanted it to exist. And maybe it was natural for Clarke and Bellamy not to work in sync after six years of being apart- the problem is that it would have been more obvious/more understandable if the timejump had been more significant (again, FLASHBACKS, they coulda stole the Arrow formula and gave us glimpses of the past six years during the entire season). I will forever say that, given what they did with it, the end of s4/the time jump and s5 didn’t need to exist. You could erase them of the show, it wouldn’t change a thing. S5 didn’t move anything forward, it wasn’t new, it wasn’t original. Even the Eligius crew that could have changed the dynamic of the group today well… it didn’t, because Diyoza wasn’t part of the group during the season and now she’s dead apparently and we have no explanation and no real “justification” for that either (hence why people think she’ll come back and she’d better otherwise it would be a shitty end to an awesome character tbh). And Shaw died too. So, Eligius didn’t change shit, all the serial killers are in cryo and god knows when they’ll talk about this elephant in the room, ya kno. I think I lost myself. But to me s6 just confirmed how unnecessary and useless s5 was. If I were Jroth I woulda put everyone on a spaceship at the end of s4 and made them leave Earth at that moment. And then maybe have Monty and Harper sacrifice themselves to give birth to Jordan and help the ship go to Eligius. It’s like Jroth found an awesome - better than the 6 years time jump - idea (a new planet), one year too late, so he re-made the whole space thing just to put it in his show, like lmao. Anyway, back to Bellarke-There is a formula with them too. S6 was kinda different because they weren’t physically separated and we did see the lengths Bellamy was willing to go to save Clarke. But again, I have to agree with everyone saying that it was not enough. For all we know, Clarke could HEAR what Bellamy was doing/sharing with Josephine during ep9 and 10. So huh, why wasn’t this addressed? I get the “oh but they have to survive first!” thing, but-… that’s how you pull a cheap trick to delay something that is glaringly obvious. You don’t make Bellamy BEG for Clarke to survive, say he NEEDS her and that he’s NOT gonna let her go, and just be like “oh well they’ll talk about this once they saved their friends”. It’s the same bullshit they’ve been pulling since s4. Like okay before that, the delay was natural. She was with Finn, they were separated by MW, then they reunited but Clarke had just lost Finn and felt too guilty to “settle”. Then there was Lxa and Clarke’s grief. But-… even at the end of s4 it didn’t make sense to address what was already HUGE (excuse me, the List???). But then they separated them for 6 years. And s5 Bellarke had their issues that they didn’t talk about until 6x01 (and idk if anyone thinks this is over, because it SHOULDN’T). How is that normal? Years in the making things (Clarke calling Bellamy every day - EVERY; DAY - for six years) that weren’t addressed because “oh but the plot!” (and a shitty plot on top of that, s5 really sucked tbh). Thing is, if they ever address it, it’ll mend Bellarke so much that there is no escape to canon. So they FORCE them not to address it. And sometimes it’s so obvious that it’s embarrassing. Bellamy not addressing the fact that he put the Flame in Madi’s head? Not natural. Bellamy not responding to Clarke’s apologies on 6x04? Not natural. Bellarke not talking about how Clarke felt when SOMEONE at least was fighting for her when she, herself, in her own mindspace, was so sure that everyone had given up on her? Not natural. I mean, there are a lot of stuff that aren’t addressed as a whole. “For Monty” and all is nice, but the fact that Spa/cekru never explicitely talked about losing TWO members of their “family” is what makes this dynamic even LESS believable. The fact that Abby didn’t notice that her daughter was dead and that her reaction was not explored until right before her death is very telling too. And will Clarke even be ALLOWED to grieve for her mother? Her LAST parent, who got snatched by the same people who tried to kill HER and are torturing her daughter? Every time I think it gets better, it doesn’t, because ultimately, the plot ALWAYS takes over. They keep making Bellarke’s actions for each other more and more significant. But they never make the characters talk about it properly, so it’s just stalling at this point. Just like Bleggo and how INCONSISTENT it is (helloooo same than Bellarke, will they EVER address the lies that lie as a foundation of this relationship???? How DIFFERENT their philosophies are? Why put it in the show if you’re not gonna address it ffs??) is lazy stalling too. “Oh but look Bellamy has a girlfriend even tho we haven’t given them any scene together since ep4!!!” UGH. It’s just ridiculous, I’m gonna be honest, it’s frustrating how it’s handled. I love Bellarke when it’s intense, but the way the writers constantly drop the ball when it gets just THERE, is too obvious.  And it’s so lazily done. And it’s just to have the show going. And I mean, even if Bellarke is meant to be an ENDGAME couple, at some point, it won’t even make sense if that happens, because HOW LONG can they circle around this until it doesn’t mean anything anymore? How long can they do that until it’s just a tired receipe that won’t work at all anymore? It’s been three seasons already, three seasons of back and forth. To me, yeah, it really started going to this “exclusive Bellarke” place from s4 and going, and it’s already a lot. When I say I NEED BELLARKE TO TALK, it’s not “yeh you called me for six years every day let’s just joke about it lel”, it’s TALK. But as I said at the end of s5, talking would mean canon. There is no way around it. If Bellarke were to explore everything they do for each other and WHY, they’d be canon in the same breath. So the writers force them apart, over and over again. We’ll see in the finale, really. I can’t fathom a finale where the two leads don’t interact. And really, if they pull some space separation bullshit again at the end of the season, I might really drop the show. Because 1) it would be three seasons in a row where they do this and… no 2) it would be LAZY like they don’t have other ideas?? 3) I hate it. To me it’s contrary to the idea of the show. They’re NOT supposed to go to space, they’re supposed to find a place on the ground to settle. I was already super mad at the end of s4 where it happened. I was ANGRY that they left Earth at the end of s5. If they do it again with Sanctum/Alpha I might just-… what would be the point of the show anymore, huh? I really hope this quote “you called me every day” and all, was NOT added as bait. Because they’ve never done this and it would be really, a dirty move. They KNOW the radio calls talk (+ left to die in the fighting pits, coming from Bellamy) are two IMMENSELY important talks Bellamy and Clarke need to have. If they just teased it to bait us, then yes, it’s more than dirty, it’s shitty and I don’t want to relay on/trust the kind of people who would do that.

alright im about to watch 5.03 of merlin for the 2nd time ever

because if i dont do it now i may NEVER GET ANOTHER CHANCE

but first i wanna get out of the way that i thought merlin convincing arthur to keep the ban on magic in 5.05 because he was trying to thwart ~*~destiny~*~ or whatever is the laziest writing ever, it’s unsatisfying for the audience, it renders the rest of the last season utterly pointless, it’s unfair to merlin and arthur, and the tonal shift of the show from farting trolls in season 2 to full greek tragedy in season 5 was completely unwarranted and i feel TRICKED as a human person because i expected the end to be bittersweet and make me sad, not table-flipping angry, and i do not at all have high hopes for the finale

but i can ignore something having a “bad last five minutes” i did it for life is strange and final fantasy 13-2 i will do it for merlin but honestly 

speaking on 5.03, after it was over the first time i was like “i can never write my fanfic now because nothing i ever do will be as good as that” but i’m really relieved in that way that that was apparently the last good episode of merlin because now i can continue my work in peace and maybe hopefully even actually finish it

okay commence the liveblog:

love that arthur and merlin are down to just jump off their horses whenever random women start screaming in the distance. season 5 could have been so good, they’re so much more grown up and in sync with one another, i absolutely LOVE their #vibe

it was interesting to me also that arthur DEMANDED a fair trial for this woman despite her being accused of sorcery. god, he was SO CLOSE?? that hatred of magic just can’t really take root in him especially with uther gone...arthur may be an asshole in the early seasons, and he may be quick to anger and quick to lash out in that anger, but it’s just not in him to be cruel, especially needlessly

EVEN THIS LADY IS LIKE “u showed kindness and compassion” arthur is a Good Boy deep down he is he IS he didn’t care a bit about that horn she gave him but still politely said it was beautiful

although lmao the way his face changed when she said it was magic...that’s the STUFF

lowkey losing it at athony head in the credits. i was looking to see if he’d be in the s5 ones since he’s dead and didn’t see him in 5.01 or 5.02 so when i DID see him in 5.03 i was like haha no way did they pay to put him in here i guess i just missed him the first couple of times BUT I WAS WRONG

like, in buffy, they spend an entire episode trying to decide whether or not to necromance their mom or whatever and she doesnt actually APPEAR IN THE EP they never SEE her i thought this would be an episode ABOUT uther i didn’t think uther would be IN it

love that from the get-go arthur’s face screams “i am thinking about making a terrible mistake” and merlin’s face is like “he is thinking about making a terrible mistake”

i’m quite proud of merlin in s5 actually. bad writing aside he uses multiple braincells many times per episode. it’s a vast improvement. same energy as clary from shadowhunters right down to getting shafted in his final season

ive said it before and ill say it again gwen looks SOOO GOOOOD as queen

if this is the anniversary of uther’s death then (if you go by 1 season = 1 year) arthur just turned 30...it’s been nine years and change since merlin met him, and by the end of season 5 it will have been an entire decade

in an otherwise increddibly heavy episode arthur panicking and throwing all the apples out of the bowl so he could cover the horn with it is absolutely priceless. season 5 if nothing else has really hammered home for me what a TERRIBLE liar arthur is - merlin got good at it fast out of necessity but arthur can’t hold a poker face to save his LIFE. “leave it.” “why??” “because i’m telling you to and i’m the king of camelot” buddy......

we were ROBBED. if there had ever been a day where arthur came to accept merlin’s magic but still had to help merlin hide it there could have been an entire episode of arthur nearly blowing merlin’s cover because he’s a nervous nelly and at the end he goes “i cant believe you have had to do this 24/7 for YEARS without a single friend to help you” and merlin goes “well now i have you” anyway.

i love also that repeatedly when arthur goes to do something scary by himself he also brings merlin. they LITERALLY are two halves of a whole

“you’re threatening me with a spoon??” i can’t tell you about the unfortunate fanfics i have seen involving The Spoon. i shall also not mention the ones involving The Glove. we will not speak of it

I CANNOT BELIEVE STONEHENGE IS IIN MERLIN. i got so agitated i did not pay one bit of attention to the conversation following its reveal and me and cathy and had to rewind so i could listen properly

my hate-on for stonehenge goes thusly: stonehenge apocalypse, starring misha collins, is @callowyn‘s favorite movie. i have seen it 45 times. i hate it nearly as much as she loves it. it’s an age-old battle

merlin is so intense when he looks for signs in arthur that he DOESN’T totally hate magic...arthur using magic to see his dad again is one of those signs. he’s willing to turn to it in desperation - maybe he’d be willing in less desperate times too

“my father was taken from me before his time” i mean...he was practically in a coma. so like. he wasn’t

love that when arthur mentions merlins dad ONCE he immediately looks like he’s about to cry. mood. i also want to cry every time i think about merlins dad

up until the moment i laid eyes on uther i was SURE they werent actually gonna do it. i came into this thinking it was a FLASHBACK EP

for the record (and believe me i NEVER thought i’d say this) even though i waited and waited for his demise and cheered when he was gona for good...i really missed uther in season 4. at least with uther you know what you’re getting. agravaine (his replacement as “evil guy who keeps us from being able to solve our problems too easily”) was a slimy cowardly CREEP. and in season 5 i WISH things were as simple as “work around uther’s pigheaded unreasonableness”

for a hot second i really thought uther and arthur would have a nice conversation where they reconciled or said something heartwarming. i was worried about an uther redemption arc - this guy is responsible for the genocide of magic users, he doesn’t deserve redemption - but this show said NOT TODAY and they said it QUICK

WE

ARE

SO

BLESSED

i have A LOT of issues with season 5 but JESUS FUCKING CHRIST THIS WAS DADDY ISSUES 2.0 BROUGHT BACK FROM THE DEAD

repressed trauma returns: harder better faster stronger!! that’s the STUFF

was i not just speaking the other day on my fanfic ask meme about how i love emotionally intense stuff? this is IT babey

uther’s such a bad father! he’s with his only child again for the last time in ever and all he does is tear him a new one! this is why arthur’s such a fucked-up human being (morgana too) 

i’m THRILLED we got to revisit this. his eyes get bigger and bigger and he starts fucking stammering and by the time uther’s done calling him weak and a failure he looks ready to CRY. i was HOLLERING. i still couldnt believe uther was even HERE and not only is he HERE he’s a WRECKING BALL

“this CAN’T be the last time i’ll ever see you” oh buddy you’re gonna wish it was

and he looks back, as he leaves. of COURSE he does. just like lot’s wife. so it goes.

you know how at the end of every supernatural episode sam and dean debrief and talk about their feelings in the car? for merlin and arthur it’s almost always done around a campfire at night - sometimes in arthur’s chambers or other places, but usually out here in the wilderness where it’s just the two of them. i’m...really going to miss it, when it’s gone.

“my father doesn’t approve of the way i’ve chosen to rule his kingdom” “you mean YOUR kingdom”

you know i don’t think i really got...like, fundamentally, on a deep level...that merlin fucking HATES uther

i’ve seen him save uther’s miserable life so many fucking times that i thought for merlin it was kind of the way it was with gwen - he feels nothing for him, but he looks after him for arthur’s sake (or as i came to understand later because he’s professor x about the whole thing)

but the way his expression got SO UGLY when arthur revealed that uther just shit-talked him the entire time...holy fuck

between that & some other stuff that happens later it really paints a clearer picture of like...uther’s dead so merlin doesn't have to hold back anymore and he FUCKING HATES HIM?? like obviously he SHOULD bu i just never SAW it before this. merlin LOATHES him. it’s INCREDIBLE to witness when he bore it so silently for so long. maybe even merlin didn’t realize just how much he hated him until now

and not to get too real here but if youve ever been friends with someone who had an abusive/toxic parent or was in an abusive/toxic relationship and you watch them feeling like shit after and they start making excuses for that asshole like “oh yeah he’s right about x” and you just want to find this horrible person and THROTTLE THEM that emotion is like ALL OVER merlin’s face rn. i didn’t actually seriously "”ship”” merlin and arthur until late season 4/early season 5 (i didnt like dislike it i just wasnt actively bothered by a lack of it) and what changed was this vibe. merlin wants to kill uther all over again just because he made arthur feel this way. he’s so fuckijng PROTECTIVE

and he still almost manages to drag a smile out of him via roasting, god bless these 2

ok so i didnt believe this show would actually DO THAT re: putting uther himself in this ep but i was doubly shocked by the fact that he HITCHED A RIDE AND GOT OUT

me shrieking during this entire poltergeist sequence: OH MY GOD OH MY GOD IT’S REALLY HIM?? HOLY FUCK HE IS LITERALLY HAUNTING ARTHUR I CAN’T BELIEVE THEY’RE DOING THIS I CAN’T BELIEVE THEY’RE GIVING US THIS etc etc etc

actually most of that was probably muffled nonsense because i was yelling with both hands over my mouth

percival’s the realest motherfucker on this whole show. dude survives a murder attempt in which he got an AXE lobbed at him by the fucking GHOST of a power-mad genocidal king and he’s like: yeah idk i guess it fell

there was thunder in the bg for this WHOLE ep and i’m Big into it

absolutely CACKLING at the bit where merlin has to ask arthur if he looked back at uther’s spirit. it’s one of those nice big heavy questions - so heavy, in fact, that arthur can’t answer, can’t even LOOK at merlin, either because he’s ashamed or because he’s bugging out or both. you thought this shit was over? it’s never over! daddy issues are a lifelong ride, pal! arthur’s just get to haunt him literally this time. god it’s so fucking good

can i just say? merlin reads that damning silence reeeal well. and it’s a big, heavy thing to know about arthur - but then again he knows all the big heavy things about arthur

the score for this episode is really good too...very suspenseful and good, adds a lot to the atmosphere, keeps it from getting too slow

there’s a hint of merlin’s absolute HATRED of uther in this conversation again - the way his face tightens when he says “uther would do anything to protect his legacy and that makes him dangerous, who knows what he’s capable of now”

and arthur dismisses him because he can’t hear this but merlin almost refuses to leave - and when he DOES leave, he doesn’t take his eyes off arthur for one fucking second. he stares him down all the way out of the room. i don’t think it’s because he’s angry with arthur, per se - he’s angry with uther, and he knows uther in a way arthur never can or will, as someone ruthless who will kill without warning or remorse. he’s afraid of uther and he’s trying to get arthur to be afraid of uther too before it’s too late and LSDKFJGHSLDFJH

if you’re thinking “thats a lot to interpret from one look” yes it is but i’m right. IT’S A BIG, HEAVY LOOK. NICE AND LOADED. love unpacking all of that

i cant believe this dude tried to KILL GWEN like he really is coming after everything that makes arthur happy. im so glad it was merlin that saved her. i really do think merlin is her best friend

multiple times in this serious arthur fidgets when he’s nervous or thinking, usually with his hands near his mouth. i am endeared to him. my poor boy

“i always knew my father could be cruel but why would he do this to gwen when he knows i love her” BECAUSE HE’S CRUEL

merlin knows. merlin knows his cruelty much better than arthur. boy does he know. i’m dying. it’s fine

love that at this part of the ep we slide seamlessly into the “merlin and arthur are both scared shitless” section which was truly one of my favorite things about the s4 opener. they’re both so fucking jumpy and giving each other shit about being frightened and continuing to be frightened anyway. the DELICIOUS IRONY of arthur finally being scared of uther in the way merlin has been scared of uther for Y E A R S oh my god it’s so GOOD

do also love the entire silent conversation they have when deciding what to do about the door. this is what i mean by their upgraded vibe.l in the early seasons merlin wouldn’t have understood and his lack of understanding would have been played for laughs. now they’re totally in sync

here’s the thing, gaius could have made this magic “able to see uther’s ghost” potion for just arthur and he didn’t. he made it for both of them. everything arthur does merlin does. they’re partners in all things. they’re COMPANIONS. and this is why i finally now Ship It. tragic.

you know this is a kind of weird comparison but late seasons arthur reminds me JUST a bit of gwaine. he complains so much less that he sort of has that same “roll with whatever” vibe to him. pretend to faint so you can steal some guy’s dagger? why not. take this foul potion that may kill us? sure, let’s do it. come what may he’s not really fussed. much more unflappable

until he starts getting spooked again LMFAO 

we do love a good pair of spooked dumbasses. this is charming and entertaining.

leon HAD to know they were lying about poetry. he probably thought they were having.......a tryst,

love also that even in this very dire moment merlin does NOT miss the chance to have some fun at arthur’s expense. that’s true friendship

i got jumpscared three separate times during this ep and one of them was when uther was glaring down merlin and arthur in the hallway after leon left

arthur didn’t jump but he did go hunting after him and to his credit he does not look scared. he looks like a man who is trying to deal with his business and get his shit together

merlin made that FACE again when arthur expressed sadness at hunting his own father because all he ever wanted to DO was make him proud

honestly it’s like since he can’t shit-talk uther he just sings arthur’s praises instead like this here is a guy who is just barely holding his tongue about how fuckin pissed he is. i cant believe it

splitting up was the WORST idea. have they not seen scooby doo??

love that when merlin gets cornered by uther’s ghost and gets scared he yells for arthur and when arthur gets scared because his torch blows out he yells for merlin. you fools, why did you SPLIT UP

uther locks arthur in the room with him, which is already some top tier content, but doubly good? it’s the same room in which arthur nearly ran him through in 2.08. don’t think i didn’t notice. i did notice. i was shrieking into my hands.

seriously this is a pretty calm liveblog but the first time i watched this ep my face was like this the whole time: O O

just kept going “HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK OH MY GOD” over and over. it was greeat

“arthur your fatal flaw is that you put too much trust in other people” do you think arthur, who now has a complex about people betraying him, ever forgot that for one second in his entire life afterward? me neither

speaking of 2.08 arthur dropped some FACTS “your hatred comes from fear” i'm sure they didn’t do it on purpose but #throwbacks

i’m fully experiencing human emotion. “i’m not you, i can’t rule like you did” he’s trying SO HARD to fight his way out of that bullshit

also lmao arthur like “then you’ll have to kill me” and uther like “yeah okay” arthur didn’t KNOW how this man was this could have been SUCH a good awakening

AND NOW IT’S TIME

FOR MY FAVORITE PART OF THIS EPISODE

when i say merlin hates uther. WHEN I SAY MERLIN H A T E S UTHER

HIS LINE HERE. ok. “get away from him, uther. you’ve caused enough harm” he’s furious! he’s GROWLING! 

“you are just a serving boy” “i am much more than that” listen. human words cannot express the emotion that ran through me. when they said “we’re gonna bring back anthony head as uther” i doubted. when they said “he’s gonna be the bad guy and reopen all of arthur’s old wounds” i doubted. when they said “he’s still here LITERALLY haunting arthur who now has to HUNT HIM” I DOUBTED. i didn’t believe they’d do any of it until it was happening on my screen. but ONE LOOK at merlins face made a MOTHERFUCKING BELIEVER out of me. i knew exactly what he was about to do. pretty sure i gasped “NO” in astonishment

AND HE DID THAT

HE👏

DID👏

THAT👏

NOT ONLY. DID I SHRIEK ALOUD. FULL SCREAM. WHEN IT HAPPENED THE FIRST TIME. BUT JUST NOW. WHEN I WATCHED HIM DO IT AGAIN. MORE SCREAMING.

how LONG do you think merlin had ACHED to do that

to show himself to uther for what he was, what he REALLY WAS, someone to be reckoned with instead of someone to be overlookedd, without fear of consequences

i can’t even like

like just imagine the triple rush of 1. satisfaction 2. rage 3. lingering habitual terror

i think at this moment merlin was closer to and more like morgana than he had ever been and maybe ever will be again. because the two of them have so much in common but one thing i didn’t really clock until now is how much they both hate uther

it’s so good. uther is SHOCKED and DISMAYED and this is like merlin’s old fear come back from death too (getting found out by uther) while at the same time being a dream come true (getting to tell uther what he really thinks, who he really is - “i was BORN with it!”) he’s so ANGRY! he is LIVID!)

he’s also really SATISFIED like “even while you were king there was magic at the heart of camelot” GOD how long has he been WAITING for this and not even realized it

and like then uther starts spewing his hateful bullshit and stalking forward with the intent to kill and my guy merlin who should be terrified STANDS HIS MOTHERFUCKING GROUND and says right over him “you’re wrong, you’re wrong” for thirty beautiful seconds merlin really got to be free. i know i will keep comparing things to 2.08 until i die but it’s just like when arthur was almost ready to kill uther in cold blood because for one perfect, brilliant moment he really and truly saw clearly the world as it was. i really love these moments...the strength of their respective convictions is so gratifying

merlin yeeting uther through a door is also gratifying although i have no idea what he hoped to accomplish by following without waking arthur first

i. LOVE. that the camera lingered a little on the spears or whatever after merlin walked by them. nice little foreshadowing moment

THOSE SPEARS GOT AWFULLY CLOSE BUT IM PRETTY SURE UTHER MISSED ON PURPOSE BECAUSE HE WANTED TO TAKE HIS TIME. HIS MISTAKE

okay merlin spent the better part of a lifetime dreading uther’s death sentence and here’s uther stalking down a hallway sword pointed at his chest and certain death is IMMINENT and what does merlin’s face look like?

arthur comes in with the rescue and INSTANTLY his expression changes to?

IT’S BETTER IN MOTION BUT HE LOOKS READY TO CRY

my immediate thought: oh jesus what if uther outs him

i knew he wouldnt bc of spoilers but i would bet a benjamin that that was merlin’s first thought too

tbh. i wish he had.

i kind of wonder if merlin doesn’t wish the same thing. like yes being outed like that is terribly violating and he’s terrified of telling arthur obviously or he would have already but at the same time there would be so much relief once it was finally out. no more secret-keeping. no more burden

i mean, if you go back and watch it, dude’s straight up shaking. he’s trembling all over. he’s losing it. that last teary glance they exchanged.......

uther was two SYLLABLES away from blowing the whole thing

and in a better happier canon where arthur knows and was waiting for merlin to tell him this is like double angst because uther wouldve ben blowing something for them both

i like arthurs followup of realizing that he’ll never be able to please uther (step 1 of breaking away from the cycle of abuse) but for the LIFE OF ME

i will NEVER be able to understand why they segued into this GLOVE THING

i’m not talking about the glove thing

i will say however that by the end of this episode i was so hysterical i had to get up and get water and pace around my kitchen for ten minutes fanning my own face

and that’s it. that’s the second-best episode of merlin and the last good episode there ever was