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orionsangel86 · 3 years

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SPN Conspiracies - Applying Logic to Chaos

Its been over 2 months now since the Supernatural finale aired. I am still so angry, hurt, and confused by it and I don’t think I will ever get closure unless someone like Andrew Dabb, or Jensen Ackles, actually opens up and gives us an explanation that makes sense.

What annoys me most right now is people trying to gaslight fans into believing that we should accept the narrative we have been given at face value: That the finale was always planned to be that way, that Destiel was never on the cards, that there was no Network interference, that the only changes made were due to covid and were minor at best.

This harmful gaslighting is FALSE.

NO ONE KNOWS THE TRUTH OF WHAT HAPPENED.

Look, I don’t agree with some of the crazier conspiracy theories. I don’t believe that there was some huge campaign among the CW Network execs to remove anything remotely gay out of homophobia. I don’t believe that the finale was changed because of some desire to make it into a Walker promo. I don’t believe that the finale was really bad on purpose in protest by Dabb for not getting to do an ending he truly wanted. I don’t believe that Dabb left us smart fans a bunch of secret messages in the finale to hint that he was on our side all along and that everything was fake.

I do, however, believe that all of these conspiracy theories have some elements in them that are plausible. At least, more plausible than the bullshit narrative mentioned above that some people are pushing in some desperate attempt to defend the Network (which imo is really strange behaviour anyway - why would anyone care about a TV network with a history of terrible behaviour?!?)

We have facts, based on information provided before the covid lockdown, which for some reason, people like Misha have since backpeddled on. So let me try to outline some of the information that makes no sense.

Below the cut I go on a deep dive into the conspiracies and statements I have heard about the SPN finale and try to make some sense of this whole fucked up situation. It gets long.

1. “Cas was never gonna be in the finale”.

False: We have many fan accounts of Misha confirming that he was filming the finale. We have video evidence of Misha confirming he was going back to film the finale after the lockdown. We have confirmation from fans in Misha M&Gs from March that he had about 5 days of filming left.

We also had fan accounts of discussions with Alex Calvert (I think) where he confirmed the final shot of the final episode was all four of them though I would LOVE if someone can find a source for this.

2. Okay, Misha was gonna be in the finale, but only as Jimmy Novak

False: I heavily side eyed Misha when he said this. But I think I can come up with a plausible explanation for it. Per above, Misha was supposed to film for 5 days. This does not align with the half a day he described of filming as Jimmy Novak. My own belief is that after Cas was cut from the finale (for whatever reason we don’t know) someone (probably Jensen Ackles) put up a fight and complained that Misha should be there for the final episode. The writers probably tried to come up with a way to bring Misha back without having to deal with Cas, and pitched the idea of Jimmy Novak being in Heaven. Misha, obviously annoyed about this, turned this stupid pitch down.

3. Destiel was never a thing, never planned, never part of Dabb’s ending. Bobo and Misha pushing the confession was the part of the season that was Wrong.

False: We have a SPN writer on record saying that Castiel’s confession was the first thing written for Season 15 when the writers returned to the writers room. If it wasn’t planned, why was it the first thing written, why does it align so well with the rest of season 15? Look I know some people either a. hate destiel and refuse to see it even if it slaps them in the face, or b. have major heteronormative goggles on, or c. are just homophobes in denial, but 15x18 fits in perfectly with the narrative of season 15. Everything Cas says, everything that happened in that scene was so in character it just works. It fit. If you just rewatch the season whilst applying some critical thinking skills and pay attention to the narrative and character arcs, trust me, the confession fits in with pretty much every other plot point, and character story in the season.

Also: We have known for a while that the network did market research into Destiel, wanting to know if it would go down well or not. They were well aware of its popularity and considering it. Where would this have come from if not pitched by the showrunner? Dabb must have at least been considering it. If you take all of Dabb era into consideration, starting with mid season 11, all the way through the season 12 build up, season 13 grief arc, and then Bobo’s Destiel break up arc in late season 14, early season 15, it is clear that there was some toing and froing on the issue of Destiel, but ultimately, I still believe that Dabb was on board. He wrote 13x01 for christs sake. No way he wasn’t taking it seriously.

4. It’s always been about the brothers. The finale just stays true to what Supernatural is all about.

*rubs temples* Fundamentally FALSE: The show has time and again reasserted the message of “Family don’t end with blood”, as well as the messages of AKF and YANA. Sam and Dean may be at the heart of the show, but a heart can’t exist without a body to support it. Without bones, and lungs, and blood, and muscles, and a BRAIN. The finale abandons the shows core messages. It forces the characters back into their season 1 characterisations and the whole thing becomes hollow and souless. But I’m not here to complain, I’m here to lay down the facts. Dean’s heaven was supposed to be surrounded by loved ones right? We know OG Charlie Bradbury was gonna be in his Heaven, we also know CAS was gonna be in there. So this idea that the finale as it currently stands was how it was meant to be is wrong. Dean was supposed to die and reunite with his found family and loved ones. This alone would have been a far better ending than the one given. Do I think this was solely a covid issue? Fuck no.

The randoms that WERE in the finale are proof alone that they could have got people in and quarantined. We also have several actors on record saying that they WOULD have quarantined for the finale had they been asked to return but they WEREN’T.

Lies have been told. Samantha Ferris and Chad Limberg have confirmed that we have been lied to about the original plans for the finale.

This alone is proof enough that there is more plausibility in some of the conspiracy theories than any bullshit narrative some people are pushing in defence of the barbaric mess of a finale we were given.

So lets address some of the conspiracy theories now:

Conspiracy No.1: The CW Network reviewed Supernatural during the covid break, and due to homophobia, refused any Destiel arc that wasn’t already filmed, shut down any potential reciprocation from Dean, and forced Dabb to change his finale.

I don’t think this is entirely what happened. But I do think it is very strange how there is a such a huge disconnect particularly in Dean’s characterisations between what had come before the lockdown, and what came after. The one fact we have here, and please someone provide a source if you can find it because I know there is one, the finale script was still going through changes up to only 2 weeks before it was filmed. We know that there was some weird editing in 15x18 (which was still in post and uncompleted before lockdown) and we know from Jensen’s own mouth that there was more to the confession scene on Dean’s side that was cut. We also know that this isn’t the first time that Destiel heavy moments have been changed in post - the prayer scene is another big scene that went through a lot of changes and Bobo fought to have his script play out the way he wanted it.

There are certain things that in my own opinions, are basically true of SPN which I have put together from years of keeping one eye on the writers room, the network, and all the various comments made. My opinion is this:

The writers room has always been split on Destiel. Some writers heavily supported making it canon, others did not care, or were against it.

The Network considered it over the course of several years, did market research, green lit it, then changed their minds, possibly several times over the course of Dabb’s era. Destiel was pitched to the Network early in Dabb era.

The crew on set were also split. Some people heavily supported it, and worked to assist the reading, whereas others did not care/did not support it. The same can be said for the editing room.

Bob Singer supported the subtextual homoeroticism, but never supported bringing it into text (this is an opinion, but I think it aligns with everything we know about him.) IMO Bob Singer also supported subtextual homoeroticism between Sam and Dean - the guy is gross is what I’m saying. He isn’t exactly a progressive person.

Fun fact - a while back our old enemy Sera Gamble went on a Twitter rant about writers rooms and the ways a script goes through changes. I don’t think this was in relation to the SPN finale wank but she basically inadvertantly confirmed that the Network can step in and make sweeping changes to a script if they want to and if they decide they don’t like the direction of a story. Sera Gamble confirmed this as a fact.

Now. I’m not saying that this is what the CW did with Destiel. I just think its very strange how pre lockdown, the last thing filmed is a heartfelt homosexual declaration of love between Dean and Cas, and we have a finale script that Misha had not seen, but knew that he was meant to film as Castiel for 5 days (5 days on set is over half of an episode as far as I know). Then all of a sudden, Covid happens, and Cas is cut from the finale completely, a desperate attempt to bring Misha back only as Jimmy Novak takes place, which Misha rightly refuses, leading to a finale which makes zero sense narratively and appears in every way completely and utterly butchered.

The only explanation provided by anyone involved is that Covid meant changes had to happen - but that covid didn’t change the actual story at all.

But this makes no sense because we know that Cas was cut from the finale. This is FACT. Do not let anyone gaslight you into thinking otherwise. Misha was preparing to quaranting to return to set as Cas post Covid, so whatever happened to cut Cas from the finale, it wasn’t Covid.

I’m gonna have to Occum’s Razor this and say that the most logical explanation here is the one that is most likely true. Someone got cold feet with the Destiel story, and to prevent any possible interpretation that included Dean reciprocating, any hints of Destiel were removed from the finale script, including Castiel’s whole appearance.

Now, this isn’t me saying I think that Dabb’s original finale was full of Destiel love confessions and a homosexual kiss or whatever, but I am asking you all to really think about it and ask yourselves WHY Cas would have been totally cut from an episode he was supposed to be in at LEAST half of?

We will probably never know the real reason Cas was cut, but he WAS cut. I’m not saying it was all homophobia, but some fuckery went down.

Conspiracy No. 2: The CW Network changed the finale to make it into a Walker promo because they only cared about raising up Jared and not Jensen and Misha as they were losing them anyway.

I don’t agree with this in terms of the finale being butchered solely to make it into a Walker promo. There are however moments in the finale that are clearly supposed to be Walker Easter Eggs and added to excite fans of Jared/Sam in particular such as Sam’s gratuitous and unnecessary topless scene, as well as the call on the “case in Austin”.

I will take this moment to say something pretty damn controversial though.

*Deep breath*

The fact is, Dean Winchester has been the “lead” character of Supernatural’s narrative for years now, with Sam often being sidelined and not given great storylines himself. Even in Season 15, right up until the finale, I myself felt bad for Sam sometimes because so much of this show has become all about Dean. Jensen Ackles is clearly the better actor when it comes to emotional story arcs, so the emotional heart of the story has most often leant on him.

So you can understand my confusion, when this is turned on its head in the final episode, to make Sam carry all the emotional weight, and have the most lines/screentime, and story resolution (even if his story resolution was just as crappy as Dean’s).

If we pretend that Destiel is not a thing, and ignore Cas’s confession, the story change in the finale from Dean focus to Sam focus is still rather suspicious. Again, I’m not saying I completely approve of or agree to the conspiracy theory that Walker influenced the butchering of the script, but I can believe that perhaps a note went down from the CW to someone like Bob Singer, to emphasise Sam/Jared more than they perhaps would normally, because the CW wanted to shine the spotlight on Jared to raise excitement for Walker.

I can also believe this note might have said something like “we wanna cater to fans of Sam/Jared the most - don’t do anything to piss them off.” but now I am getting into my own conspiracy theories so by all means dismiss this as me being bitter.

Conspiracy No.3: Dabb purposely made it bad, as a secret message to Destiel fans that he had been silenced, by layering meta clues into the episode that he knew fans would notice.

I doubt this one is true. Though some of the theories are quite compelling. The old vampire silent movie theory for instance starts off quite well, but loses me the moment it brings up Urban Dictionary slang.

Sometimes I have just had to accept that Supernatural is a bad show that is sometimes accidentally a masterpiece. However, some writers really did go That Deep with their stories - anything by Ben Edlund or Steve Yockey for instance, their episodes are meta masterpieces with a hundred different layers of beautiful subtextual storytelling and are a joy to analyse. Bobo Berens has certainly done some A+++ work especially now we KNOW that he was working hard all this time to bring Destiel to canon text (so any analysis of Destiel in the subtext in his episodes is very accurate). There have been many other key elements analysed over the years which have been confirmed true. Cas’s death in Season 12, Dean’s time as a demon in season 10, Season 11 ending in unity of dark and light, these were all plot points predicted by meta writers just by analysing the narrative. Sometimes the writers really have been very smart and they do add things to the show to aid us in our meta.

Richard Speight Jr for instance, confirmed that SPN has a visual library that the production team use to give clues and hints in the narrative. Pizza, for example, always means a lie has been told. Whenever Pizza is being eaten or even just mentioned on screen, there is dishonesty in that particular moment.

The beers also have a very specific message and the one thing I can’t let go about the finale, was that Dean was drinking El Sol beer. The beer his dad gave him, that was terrible.

El Sol has been used in the show to indicate something being wrong, a fake reality, or another lie, for the longest time. It is the beer of deception.

The fact that in the final episode of this entire show, Dean is in Heaven, supposedly at peace, and then he gets handed an El Sol beer to drink? Thats a HUGE red flag for any meta writer watching who can read SPNs visual library.

If they had given him the Margiekugel beer of family then it would make sense. Dean is in Heaven, with Bobby, his family, at peace. Margiekugel should have been the beer of choice. But nope. El Sol. Something is wrong.

I don’t know if it was Dabb, or Singer, or some disgruntled ADs and crew members who added these elements into the finale, but their very presence confirms some message of Wrongness.

I could go into a huge rant about Vampire Mimes not making sense and the very glaringly obvious symbolism of cutting out peoples tongues too, but that is high school level film analysis. It’s obvious. It means to silence someone. There is validity in interpreting this as Dabb saying he was silenced. I don’t know how true it is, but i can’t 100% dismiss it, because as I said, this is high school analysis levels of obvious subtextual storytelling.

So in summary, whilst I don’t think that Dabb intentionally went out of his way to sabotage his own script, and leave a breadtrail of secret messages for savvy fans to put together to confirm that he was silenced by an evil network into not getting what he wanted... I do think that there is validity in questioning these odd choices for the finale. Cutting out tongues? Vampire Mimes? El Sol beer?

The evidence is somewhat compelling is all I’m saying. I don’t believe the full conspiracy theories, but as I have said many times before, some fuckery went down.

So What Do I Believe?

That some fuckery went down and whatever company line they are pushing is bullshit.

I believe that the original script included Cas (since thats fact). I believe that the original script probably always had Dean dying on a vampire hunt (due to Jensen’s issues with it and in particular, his sarcastic comments about vampires in the past year or so which in hindsight are hilarious and prove he never really came to terms with Dean’s idiotic death). I believe Dabb’s original script was some less crappy version of what we got, which potentially included showing Jack rescuing Cas from the Empty and resolving the outstanding Empty plot points (potentially this was actually a 15x19 plot since Mark P commented that his final scenes were supposed to be with Jack and Cas), had Cas reunite with Dean in Heaven and had them have a discussion about Cas’s confession. I believe that there was probably a lot of back and forth over how to handle that with some people wanting Dean to obviously reciprocate and others believing they should keep it ambiguous. I believe that Dean and Cas would have reunited with Charlie Bradbury, and Bobby Singer, and possibly others (though if this was the case it must have been very early on since no one ever looped in Sam Ferris, Chad Linberg or any other Roadhouse people).

I believe that Sam’s ending probably didn’t change much, but I do feel that initially they were planning on him ending up with Eileen, because it is the only thing that narratively makes sense. Cutting Eileen and giving him a blurry wife is something I won’t ever understand and Jared’s bullshit explanations are quite clearly pulled out of his ass to appease bronly types. I believe the reunion on the bridge would have included Cas and Jack, with a final shot of all four of them together, at peace (as this aligns with Alex’s comments from around a year or so ago that the final shot was all four of them). (I also am not sure it was always supposed to be on a bridge since the foreshadowing in an earlier episode showed Dean, Cas and Sam all in the Roadhouse together).

I believe that script went through countless changes and redrafts, and not even production people or the types that some fandom people claim as their “sources” would even have seen those early scripts, since even Misha never saw it. I believe that these rumours of Dabb never having Cas in his finale and ignoring all Destiel elements likely come from people who only saw later versions, weren’t party to network discussions and felt bitter about the final scripts they did see (being the crappy butchered one that was ultimately filmed). Those “sources” are now spreading rumours to discredit Dabb.

I obviously believe Dabb is a weak ass pushover who either didn’t care enough to fight back, or gave up since he’s been stuck with fucking Bob Singer on his back for years, but I will NEVER believe he didn’t care about the DeanCas love story, because he has been one of the few writers who has championed for it for years. You can’t look back at Dabb’s episodes in earlier seasons and claim he didn’t care. Dabb was a writer whose creative ideas were beaten out of him by an unforgiving Network only concerned about where their future money was coming from. Do I think he gave up too easily? Yes. But I also have one other huge reason for not believing the bullshit about Dabb being this anti-Destiel villain.

Bobo. Because if Bobo truly believed Dabb was gonna fuck that up at the end, I don’t think he would have given us Cas’s love confession to begin with. If he had known it was gonna end like that, I think he would have reconsidered, because had Cas not confessed his love, I don’t think he would have been cut from the finale. Bobo - a gay man, would not have wanted such a horrible message for queer fans being put across in the show he worked so hard on. He started writing that confession scene the day they returned to the writers room. Dabb would have been there, would have seen what he was writing, probably discussed it with him, after all, other episodes were written with the confession in mind. No way was Dabb planning to fuck up the ending knowing what Bobo was giving us. Nope.

Something went very wrong over lockdown. Someone, somewhere up the chain of power caught wind of the confession scene in 15x18, realised that it demanded a resolution which would make Dean Winchester, their protagonist, queer, and pulled the plug. I believe this did not come from a place of homophobia, but of bad business sense.

The CW is constantly trying to win the approval and attention of the one demo group that they seem to fail at getting the most: young straight men. Supernatural was one of their only remaining shows that appeals to young straight men, and Dean Winchester is more often than not the fave character of those young straight men who project onto him. Making Dean Winchester, established Han Solo of Supernatural, queer and in love with his best friend in the finale would have come across as a betrayal to those young straight men. The CW probably feared they would lose that demo group for good, and with a show like Walker starting soon with Jared at the helm, they couldn’t take the risk.

Hence there was probably a whole bunch of back and forth script redrafts with the Network, with Dabb and Singer fighting to make a finale that would appeal to everyone. There was most likely no way that they could bring Cas back without addressing what had already been filmed, because any resolution of that plot would either a. make Dean queer, or b. address it awkwardly by having Dean reject Cas (this storyline would probably have been slammed by critics worse than the finale because it meant addressing it. It might have got the attention of LGBTQ activist groups and caused a bigger shitstorm than what we got). The best option was therefore C. Bury it and Cas, pretend it never happened. Never address it again and distract Dean with other things. Hope that Destiel fans will accept no answer from Dean as ambiguous enough to imagine a future reunion rather than shutting it down with a rejection, and still keep hold of the blissfully ignorant heteronormative straight boys so they can carry over to Walker when it starts.

I also believe (controversially probably) that there was concern that any resolution of Dean and Cas would have overshadowed network darling Jared Padalecki. If Dean and Cas had come together in the finale, with a very clearly textual homosexual reunion, then that would have been all anyone talked about. The reviewers, the critics, the audience, everyone. It would have been nothing but Dean and Cas (and look, if they did think this, they were right, Destiel trending over the US ELECTION.)

So what is the network to do, when they are losing the two stars who would get the most attention from this storyline? The one star they were holding on to and getting his own show, relegated to third place in the finale of the show where he was first on the call sheet? Nope. That’s pretty unacceptable. Even without Walker I can imagine people at all levels side eyeing the Destiel thing over the years. This IS a show about two brothers, and their relationship should be the core relationship, we can’t have one brother pushed aside in the finale to make way for a queer relationship that will get all the attention instead. It was never gonna get approved for this reason ALONE.

At the end of the day, if I look at it from a business perspective, it makes far more sense that the CW shut down Destiel, rather than “oh Dabb never cared and ruined it because he’s an idiot.” The writers cared, and had built on that story over years. But their mistake was leaving any Destiel resolution to the finale. If they had instead gone and got Dean and Cas together in early season 15, then they could have ended it in a way that satisfied everyone. Destiel wouldn’t have threatened pulling focus away from Sam and Dean, and the show could have gone out on a high.

When I lay out all the conspiracy theories, and line them up next to the cold hard facts, the conspiracy theories in some way or another, make more sense. To believe the company line, the narrative we have been fed, is to ignore your own eyes, ears, and memories pre March 2020.

All I’m asking people to do is take a look at the show, the narrative presented in the show, and the information presented above. I’m not telling you to believe what I’ve written here, half of which is just my own opinion. I’m asking you to ask yourselves if it makes sense to you. Because it sure as hell doesn’t make sense to me. I don’t think I’ll ever be satisfied.

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sweetest-honeybee · 3 years

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Down to Dust

Chapter 3

Fic Summary: Grian will have to keep the dragon egg secure for the Watchers. But, they’re not the only ones who want it. On a completely unrelated note, Mumbo will have to deal with a version of himself thats only amplified by his No Killing mindset.

Chapter Summary: Grian has a talk with one of the highest ranking Watchers.

Word Count: 1365

TW: Slight degradation

Note: Aisling’s name is pronounced “Ash-ling”

Enjoy!

———————

The egg wasn’t back. Grian spent his next morning searching once more for it and decided that it was never returned the night before. While he concluded his search on the roof of his house, he cursed to himself. It was only made worse by the glowing brooch awaiting him in his house upstairs. That alone made anxiety prick at the back of his neck. He was being summoned and he needed the egg terribly.

Scar wasn’t around, neither was Mumbo. It raised some suspicion in his mind. He could spam their communicators but that wouldn't help him in the slightest. They’d only deny it further and he didn’t have time to do what he planned to do at their bases. He was needed and needed now. Watchers hardly liked to wait.

He made his way back into his base. Upstairs, the brooch was lying on his bed expectantly. The avian sighed and pulled at his hair. What if they didn’t need the egg yet, he thought. It was a possibility but how much worse would his rank get if he couldn’t present the Mistress with her egg. At this point, even he was surprised that she considered him anything remotely important to her plan.

Grian picked up the brooch. Might as well get it over with, he supposed. He pressed his thumb into the center’s amethyst and within seconds a lilac mist surrounded his feet and climbed higher until he could no longer see his surroundings. As the mist cleared, he was met with a dark room that seemed to stretch endlessly much like The Void. Unlike The Void, however, the ceiling was littered with stars. Under his feet, a large glowing Watcher’s symbol that illuminated his face under the black cloak that conjured over his small frame. On his chest, the brooch, and behind him the hem of the cloak extended for miles.

At the front of the room was a lady that towered over him by tens of blocks- although at least twenty of these were from her floating from the floor. She was elegant and beautiful, not a blemish, stray hair, or loss thread dared to imperfect her features. Although, a crystalline veil shielded the top half of her face. It extended into a sun-like crown atop her head. To further emphasize her power, she emitted a white, milky glow over the room.

It was her Mistress, Aisling.

“Aisling,” he greeted with a nod.

“Grian,” she did as well. “We have some things to discuss.”

Grian cringed internally then swallowed thickly. “Go on then.” He gestured a polite hand towards her.

“You do understand that I know what happens to the egg at all times, yes?” she quizzed. Her eyes narrowed. “You’ve lost it. Well, it’s been stolen, I should say.”

He sighed. “You do also understand that they don’t know anything about that egg. It seems much like any other egg to them.”

“It is your job to keep it from harm until we need it. If that means you inform them of its contents, then so be it,” she spoke sternly. Aisling raised her chin. “And if you’re not up for the task, then find someone who can take care of it if you’re so irresponsible.”

The builder was at a loss for words. He opened his mouth and yet nothing escaped his lips. The only thing that he eventually squeaked out was a small, “Yes ma’am.”

“Good. I trust that you will get the egg back then. We are not the only ones who want the dragon’s egg.”

“I know,” he muttered. “You’ve said that the last four times I was here. But here we are,” he gestured around himself. “I’ve got no clue as to who you’re even talking about.”

“You are not a Watcher,” she berated. “You do not deserve any kind of details after you devastated our last mission. We cannot close the portal to HelCraft because of you.”

Grian avoided her gaze, fiddling with his sleeves. “Then why am I getting dragged into this if I’m not a Watcher.”

“The dragon laying the egg was connected to your server’s End. You are not a Watcher anymore but it was the closest we could get until Xisuma invited another Watcher to his server or that he watched the egg himself.” Aisling huffed. “I have already tried contacting him, he will not do it.”

This made Grian’s face scrunch in confusion. “That’s…odd. He usually does those kind of things for you.”

“I know but it is what it is now. Trust me, I am not any happier about it than you are. But this is-”

“But this is a once in a several million year opportunity. Yes, I know.” He rolled his eyes.

She tightened her jaw. “Right then.”

The builder looked back up. “Just tell me where it is and I’ll bring it back,” he pleaded.

“It is not time for that yet. We will not require the egg for weeks, months even. It all depends on what Mistress Bain tells us. Until then, you have one task, an easy task, and that is to keep the egg safe.” This only received another eye roll. “Also, the egg is with Mumbo. He has kept it very safe.”

Grian couldn’t help but to chuckled at that despite the conversation. Aisling hardly seemed amused. “I had a feeling,” was all he said. “It was probably in a vault, wasn’t it.”

“It was,” she replied flatly. “There is nothing funny about it. Not unless you would like me to mock your lack of adequacy.” Her eyes narrowed. “I find it quite humorous.”

This brought the builder back to his previously timid state. “No, ma’am.”

“Good. We are done here then.” She turned and began to glide away. In seconds, she drifted away in a cloud of white smoke, still glowing as she had before.

This left Grian alone in the vast Void-like room. Once the dust cleared, each star slowly dimmed until he was left only with the Watcher’s symbol below him. He peered down at the brooch on his chest. It only left him more annoyed than anything, really. Not annoyed at the Hermits by any means, but annoyed at Aisling. Really, it was a simple task, all things considered. Even for someone who wasn’t a Watcher. Maybe if he could just keep it out of reach, express to Scar especially that the egg wasn’t to be played with in a way that would get him to stop permanently, then maybe all would end well.

But, Scar wasn’t the issue, not now. Grian somehow needed to find the egg in Mumbo’s possession which, like he mentioned before, was likely in some kind of vault. Well, “it was”, as Aisling said. That meant that he removed it. The builder groaned aloud in disdain.

“Of course,” he said. He waved his hand in a figure eight in front of himself, summoning the purple mist that transported him there before.

He was left with one ability left: the slowest form of teleportation anyone could have. He missed his Sight. If he were being honest with himself, he did misuse it more times than was certainly allowed. Sight and Conjuring. They were his most useful gifts from her Mistress. But, one thing led to another and eventually, after having only been a Watcher from mid-Season 6 to late-Season 7, they lost the ability to close the portal to HelsCraft.

It was humiliating.

Soon, the mist cleared and he was home. It was already late afternoon. Time goes by differently in the Mistress’s Conference Room, he remembered. The avian looked around. Nothing changed. He went downstairs. The egg was still not returned. Now he was annoyed with Mumbo, somewhat angry even. Although he was, he couldn’t really be mad, could he. It wasn’t like Mumbo knew and the Hermits liked to play little games here and there with no ill intentions as it was.

Still, he hoped that Mumbo would either give back the egg or he could spend the rest of his days searching the redstoner’s property until he did. Accusations alone wouldn’t ever get the egg back to him. Knowing Mumbo, he had to prove that his mustached friend had it in the first place and that Scar wasn’t the culprit.

If he were being honest with himself, it was likely as easy as just telling Mumbo that he was seen stealing the egg in the first place.

#long post #hermitcraft #down to dust fic #grian #aisling down to dust

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multimetaverse · 3 years

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HSMTMTS 2x09 Review

Spring Break was a bit of an odd ep but helped move some key plots forward. Let’s dig in!

Well people can no longer claim that Portwell is one sided. We finally got Gina’s pov and she starts off the ep uncertain whether the shift in their relationship means that EJ likes her but by the end of the ep she seems sure of herself and that EJ likes her back. I liked that she didn’t try to pretend that nothing had changed or that she hadn’t noticed potential signs that EJ might like her; it always sucks when tv characters act like idiots.

Perhaps the most important reveal of this ep was that Gina has a much older estranged brother who left her and her mom many years ago. That certainly makes her backstory more tragic and is definite set up for her brother to eventually return.

The writers continue to give Portwell great tropes, capping this ep off with an airport rom-com trope that also calls back to EJ getting Gina the place ticket so she could come back in S1. Not only did Gina keep EJ’s Duke sweatshirt but she altered it to fit her better which is both sweet and bold in the assumption that it was hers to keep. Gina got her sign when not only did EJ show up to drive Gina home and take her luggage but he brought her the granola bar that she had wanted but forgot to pack. I wonder if her posting on her story that she was ubering home after her flight was cancelled was intended to see if EJ would show up since the camera focused on her posting it. Also sweet that she’s taken to calling EJ, ‘ Eej’.

EJ’s opening was good, shows a lot of his character growth from the selfish guy he was in S1 and how he’s learned to value other people which of course leads into his feelings for Gina. We got another great use of the camera as character tonight when Gina was laughing after her facetime call with EJ until she realized that the camera was on her.

Jack was a lot of fun. Though he didn’t really change Gina’s mind over anything like the ep description said he would. Seemed like Gina was largely over Ricky and wondering about EJ at the beginning and the end solidified her feelings for EJ but Jack didn’t really play a role in that, it’s not like he encouraged Gina to reach out to EJ or anything. There’s a vague sense in which Jack being nomadic linked him to Ricky’s unreliability in Gina’s eyes with her craving stability but that’s a stretch. Jack mentioned that the second most dangerous part of a plane ride is when the plane takes off, a hint to the blossoming Portwell relationship where in order to take off one or both of them has to risk a confession even though they could be turned down.

This ep might seem a bit weird in hindsight. The zoom parts probably won’t age well and five years from now people might be wondering why they had Gina hang out with a manic pixie dream boy of sorts for an ep.

The path is clear for canon Portwell in the finale with EJ being Gina’s second chance at romance and her first kiss since they clearly telegraphed it out of nowhere. I’ve been impressed with the great work the writers have been doing since 2x05 to build up Portwell as a ship but also work on Gina and EJ as individual characters; they’ve been the highlight of the season so far.

There was discourse this past week over how well or poorly Portwell has been set up. Objectively very few ships on this show get much in the way of set up or consistent writing. Redlyn and Kowie had barely any set up before getting together. Seblos had none (though in fairness that was due to Disney restrictions) and Miss Jenn and Mike Bowen didn’t have much set up either. Rini did get lots of development in S1 but that’s because they had already dated and were the main ship of the show. The show’s not really about slow burns, if Jenzzara canons in the finale they’ll count and if Rina ever got together they’d also count but neither of those ships have gotten consistent development with Mazzara not being in several eps and Gina and Ricky not even interacting for the past 3 eps.

Is Portwell a slowburn? In a sense since they did feature quite a bit in each other’s S1 plot lines and even had a fake dating plot but it is true that they were platonic and not that close in S1 so it’s a wash. There was clear set up for romantic Portwell in 1x10 with team wonderstudies and Gina staring at EJ (which interestingly enough looked more like set up for Gina to pine over EJ). I think the main problem is that even though we saw Gina and EJ hanging out in the background we didn’t get any scenes of substance between them until 2x05. It was a mistake and there should have been some scene, like EJ and Gina commiserating in 2x03 over being single on Valentine’s Day or something like that. Hell there was even that still from 2x01 of EJ and Gina looking at each other at the piano while they were in the frame between Ricky and Nini singing and having a moment which would have been good foreshadowing but that shot wasn’t in the ep.

Whether Tim just really wanted Portwell to be a surprise in 2x05 as a mid-season twist to throw the audience off of what looked like a Rini/Rina triangle or he was unsure as to whether he wanted to go with Portwell or if he just planned it out poorly we may never know. Regardless they’ve had great writing for 4 eps in a row now which puts them slightly ahead of the 3 eps in a row of development Rina got in S1. I’m sure if someone added up their screen time they’d find that Portwell has more screen time this season than Kowie and more screen time than Redlyn or Seblos got in S1.

Caswell cousins was fun and Ashlyn did in fact paint EJ’s nails.

Set up for Seblos drama next week, it’s refreshing to see Seb being jealous over Carlos flirting with other boys that’s definitely not something you see on Disney shows.

Ricky got some healing done with his mom. Enough to cover their issues? No but this is probably the best this show is capable of. There was a brief mention of therapy sandwiched between other options which sounds more like checking off a box then setting up Ricky actually going to therapy. I noticed Lynne was smiling at odd times like when she told Ricky she knew about his breakup with Nini; whether that was poor directing or acting I don’t know. Who knows if we’ll see Lynne again. As an aside still so wild that Tim named Lynne who’s been a kinda shitty mom after his own mom who he seems to be fairly close with.

Really liked You ain’t seen nothin as a song but not a fan of the Tiktok style vid. I’ll level with you wildcats, I’m too old to really get Tiktok, it just seems like a crappy version of Vine to me. Let you go was good, seemed better fitted for Joshua Bassett’s voice than some of his previous songs. A big sign that they’re not circling back to Rini for a long time for sure. Though on that note we got a bit of a hint that Ricky was Nini’s muse which may one day come back as a way to help bring them back together.

Looking Ahead:

If there’s only 3 weeks left till the Menkies, with only 2 weeks left for rehearsal due to spring break, it’s hard to see East High winning unless North High is disqualified or has to withdraw.

Lily is in a promo photo so she’s likely the unexpected facetime Ricky gets which is what I had theorized. Also makes it much more likely that she’s the party crasher Ricky re-evaluates in the finale though what Tim actually wants to do with those two I do not know.

There’s little point in bringing back the Valentine’s chocolate since there’s no real stakes. Rini are already broken up, Gina hasn’t spoken to Ricky since 2x06, and it’s not like Nini and Gina were ever close so even if they stopped talking to each other it wouldn’t really affect the show in any way.

Seems pretty likely that Second Chances refers to Gina realizing that her first try with Ricky failed but her second chance with EJ won’t and that leads to her sharing her truth and cue the Portwell confession and kiss, perhaps with an assist on EJ’s end from Mazzara. We’ve gone well past the point where Portwell can be brushed off as just a plot device to help Rina but Tim is playing with fire by getting the audience so on board with Portwell if he’s once again going to have EJ lose a girl he likes to Ricky in S3.

Gina certainly needs to talk with Ricky and I do think that happens in ep 11 or 12 and leaves them on better terms. As I mentioned last week, if Tim was smart he’d slam the door on Rina if he’s going with canon Portwell or vice versa. If he wants Rina to be a slow burn he’s really botched the writing this season, it’s been too one sided and too angsty to sustain any kind of momentum or audience interest. They haven’t even interacted for 3 eps now and not only has it not affected the show but it’s inarguably made Gina’s story line much better. Again I don’t think he’s smart enough to not try and do Portwell and then later Rina but he’s accidentally set up the Rina story line to quite easily slam the door permanently on them by having their conversation be closure for Gina who’s moved on and an apology from Ricky who never liked her back as much as Gina liked him.

Not looking forward to seeing Nini basically live out Olivia Rodrigo’s life in future seasons

Curious to see Carlos’ apology song to Seb. Ricky helping him with it is a great way to help start redeeming Ricky’s character in the audiences eye’s. According to Matt there is a bit of a Ricky/EJ rivalry this season and if it’s really happening the sleepover would be a good place to do it though I hope it’s not about Gina.

Until next week wildcats.

#HSMTMTS #Portwell #Gina Porter #EJ Caswell #Ricky Bowen #Nini Salazar-Roberts #Seblos #seb matthew-smith #HSMTMTS Reviews

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matrixaffiliate · 3 years

Text

Convene

New Story! FFN and AO3

It's been six months of stress and odd hours for one Harry Potter, which has meant any quality time with Ginny is nearly nonexistent. But closing the case and a bit of fast planning means that he can arrange for nothing but quality time with his wife.

A little steamy story for the wonderful @fairqueen2 as part of the @harryandginuary Harry and Ginuary Gift Exchange! I hope you enjoy!

Convene

Harry handed Ron the file and holstered his wand. "We're so on vacation it's not even funny. Only call if the world is about to end. I need this break."

And he did. The last six months had been chaotic, taking down a serial killer. Add to it Gin's first season as a starter and it was amazing the Potters had managed to get more than an hour together without being passed out cold on their bed, and their bed was being underutilized in the saddest way. If they managed anything, life and reality barged in before the afterglow had even begun.

"Have you told Ginny yet?" Ron took the file and tucked it in his desk drawer.

"She still doesn't know, but I'm going to pick her up right now." Harry chuckled. "You wouldn't believe how much weight I had to throw to convince Gwenog that she didn't need Gin for the first week of the off-season training.

Ron snorted, "You're full of it."

Harry chuckled, "Just don't ask questions when the Harpies' training room gets some new equipment."

Ron laughed loudly and waved Harry off as moved for the Apparition point.

Harry popped to the Harpies' office and nodded to the receptionist as he strode the familiar path towards the locker room, choosing a bit of wall to rest against as he waited for Ginny to walk out the door and hoping she wouldn't be too disappointed at not getting to go out with the team to celebrate the end of the season.

He chuckled as some of the players walked out and cat-called. He and Gin had something of a reputation among the team, and while he still felt some of the uneasiness of embarrassment, he mostly enjoyed their good-natured teasing. Then he smirked as Gin walked out and they only fueled the flames by her moving swiftly into his arms.

"Hey stranger," she pressed a light kiss to his lips and Harry followed her retreating mouth.

"I'm kidnapping you," he murmured against her before kissing her more seriously, sliding his tongue along her bottom lip before nipping her with his teeth.

"You have time for kidnapping?" She ran her fingers into the hair at the nape of his neck and pressed her curves against him.

Harry slid a hand under her shirt and up her back as he moved to kiss along her jawline. "Ron and I closed the case yesterday. I have a Portkey and packed bags at home ready to send us to that private island Fleur went on and on about last Christmas."

Ginny pulled back with wide eyes, "If you're kidding I'm going bat bogey hex you into next year."

Harry shook his head, "I told Ron not to let anyone contact us unless the world is ending and I've already cleared this with Gwenog. It's you and me and no one else for the next week on a private island resort."

Ginny's smile blossomed on her face before she pressed forward, kissing him in a fervor, her hands pushing under his shirt, her breath coming in quick gasps as she seemed intent on devouring him in the corridor. And Harry met her fervor with his own. It felt like ages since he'd held her like this, felt her fire, the way she made his blood burn and his mind push out the world.

"Get her out of here, Potter." Gwenog's voice sounded nearby.

Harry reluctantly pulled away and rested his forehead against Gin's.

"You heard the boss," Ginny grinned.

Harry pushed them off of the wall behind him and took her hand. "Let's go, the sooner we get home the sooner I can activate our Portkey."

"Don't forget your promise, Potter," Gwenog called as they moved to the Apparition point.

"What promise?" Ginny quirked an eyebrow at him.

Harry pushed his free hand in his hair. "I'll tell you later."

Ginny went to protest, but Harry turned and took them home.

"Portkey is right here," he led her to the water bottle standing next to the two suitcases near the fireplace.

"So you're not going to tell me?" Ginny laughed and took hold of her suitcase handle and held out her hand.

"We're just helping make up the difference for some new equipment for the team." Harry tried to sound confident, and Ginny laughed.

"I wondered how you'd convinced Gwenog to let me go for a week."

"She's ridiculous, you know," Harry shook his head. "She seemed to think I was being a baby about having not seen you properly in months."

"I mean, you did just plan a spur-of-the-moment vacation in one day." Ginny grabbed his hand as he picked up the water bottle.

Harry looked down at her with a quirked brow. "You didn't seem to mind when I told you."

"I never said I wasn't appreciative," Ginny pressed up and kissed his cheek. "So let's do this."

Harry kissed her lips, savoring the taste of her, then activated the Portkey.

They landed in the middle of a bungalow and Harry felt the breeze of the salt air blow the weight off of his shoulders.

Ginny hummed and moved to the bed at the far end of the bungalow. "You're a genius, you know?"

She sprawled out on the bed, kicking her shoes off and onto the floor. Harry shrugged out of his Auror robes and removed his shoes as he followed his wife. "Genius, eh?"

"Yes," she sighed and closed her eyes. "This is exactly what I needed."

Harry moved his fingers along the hem of her shirt. "Just this? Nothing more?"

It was the slightest change of her expression, one he'd learned to recognize after years together. It was the slightest uptick of the left side of her mouth combined with her shifting her face to look at him. It was all the sign he needed that they were of the same mind.

"Was there something you had in mind?" Her voice was almost bored, but her eyes sparkled up at him.

Harry shifted to align his body along hers and then slipped his hand under her shirt, tracing his fingers along her stomach. "Nothing specific, but in a general sense yes."

Ginny's eyes fluttered closed. "Does your general sense include more of this?"

Harry chuckled, "Yes, and a few other things as well." He moved his hand high enough to tease her before sliding his hand back down to her navel.

It was the slightest arch of her back, a barely-there upward tilt of her hips, combined with Ginny's hum of approval had Harry letting out a long slow breath.

Ginny blinked open her eyes again and smirked at him. "Are you going to make it at this pace?"

"I might speed things up at some point, but right now I like this pace."

Ginny reached her hand up and cupped the back of his neck, pulling him down for a kiss that was far from the teasing pace he'd originally set.

"We can speed up," she murmured against him, "We have all week for slow."

Harry moved to kiss along her jaw and her neck.

"Are you sure?" He murmured behind her ear and smirked as she arched into him.

"Damnit, Harry, take a hint!"

Ginny pulled his mouth back to hers and kissed him, plunging her tongue into his mouth before sliding the tip around his lips. Then her hands were shoving his shirt up his torso and Harry pulled away to pull it over his head. The fervor that they'd felt in the corridor returning tenfold as clothes fell away and finally they were reunited without the urgency of the past few months, without the exhaustion, without the stress, without the heaviness of knowing that reality would be waiting for them the moment they opened their eyes.

Harry kissed up Ginny's neck as he shifted his weight off of her.

"I love you," he murmured in her ear before pulling away to see the dreamy smile that he only saw in these moments. The smile that was all for him, because of him.

"I love you too," she pulled him down and kissed him, slowly, caressing.

"We should probably send for dinner," Harry spoke against her.

Ginny hummed and continued kissing him. "And I want to swim in the ocean."

Harry smirked against her, "I think I'd like to swim with you in the ocean."

"And lay on the beach?" Ginny asked as her hands slid up and down his arms and chest.

"I think I'd rather enjoy that as well." Harry shifted to lie against her, tracing her hip bone with his fingers. "As long as we work in time for some slower fun of this sort."

Ginny grinned up at him, "I was suggesting that slow would be involved in the swimming and the sunbathing."

"And you called me a genius," Harry chuckled before slanting his lips over hers again.

"Where do you think you learnt it from?" Ginny nipped at his lip. "Now go get me food."

Harry slid his hands around to hold her against his chest for a moment, breathing her in and savoring the fact that this was their next week, the two of them, together with no other cares as she tucked her head into the crook of his shoulder.

"Alright," Harry kissed the top of her head. "Dinner."

"And then more of this," Ginny shifted against him and sighed into his chest.

Harry chuckled and reluctantly untangled himself from her. "Keep that up and I'm going to completely forget about the food."

"Fine," Ginny gave him a push. "Go find me food, and don't forget the pudding."

"I'm not enough of a pudding for you?" He teased as he pulled a pair of joggers from his suitcase.

Ginny laughed sprawled out luxuriously against the pillows, her hair splayed in every direction, her body completely relaxed in a way Harry had missed over the last few months.

"Why don't you see if there's a pudding that would work with those slow plans you had?"

Harry paused mid pulling up the leg of his joggers and looked up to stare at his very alluring wife. "You really are the genius."

"Don't forget it, Potter." She blew him a kiss. "Now hurry, I'm hungry."

Harry moved to the bed to kiss her instead, sliding his hands across her chest and into her hair. "I might have to have pudding first then."

"We're on vacation, I think it's a rule to have pudding first." Ginny slid her hand along the waistband of his joggers. "Now go get me food, Potter." She gripped his bum before pushing him away.

Harry groaned but moved for the door to call for the house-elf assigned to their bungalow. With any luck, Ginny would want pudding first with every meal they had on this vacation.

#harry and ginuary #harry and ginuary gift exchange #hinny #hinny fluff #steamy fluff #romance #harry x ginny #harry potter x ginny weasley #harry potter fanfiction

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xbaepsae · 3 years

Text

the ebb and flow | part six

“You’re trying really hard not to laugh. But it’s difficult to suppress laughter when the situation calls for it. So, for probably the first time ever, you laugh in front of Jeon Jeongguk.”

[demigod!jeongguk x demigod!reader]

genre: percy jackson!au, mythology!au, demigod!au, enemies to lovers!au

word count: 2k

rating: pg-13

warnings: language, the usual character tension, a brief moment of softness??

a/n: hi it’s been quite a while since my last update. but i really hope you enjoy this chapter :) xoxo

→ series masterlist!

the fourth summer – in which there is an inspection

The last week of summer at camp is always a memorable one—be it the late nights by the beach or the insane amount of chaos that seems to ensue every year.

For example, last summer, there was a monster that managed to break through the barrier. Fortunately, everyone was able to react promptly, and the monster was sent to Tartarus; at least, that’s what you think happened. At the end of the day, you’re just happy it hasn’t happened again since then.

This summer as the new camp counselor for your cabin—after Jinyoung so graciously handed you his title before heading off to New Rome—has been an interesting one; and least to say, you’re going to miss your little legion of cabinmates. It’s been fun leading them around—to greatness, of course.

But before summer can truly end, you need to make it to your last Senior Counsel meeting of the season.

Running to the Big House, you rush into the Rec Room with hopes that you’re not the only person who’s behind schedule. You hate that the one morning you oversleep is the one morning you have somewhere to be. In the Rec Room, you notice that all of the other Head Counselors have already arrived.

“Why, y/n, thank you for joining us,” Mr. D’s mouth curves into a frown.

You wince. “Sorry for running late.”

“You’re only a few minutes late,” Chiron waves his hand. “Take your place, y/n.”

Bypassing your grumpy camp director, you take your seat in-between Park Jimin and Jung Hoseok around the dingy ping pong table. The son of Ares offers you a narrow look—probably still upset you snatched his flag from underneath his nose last week—which you return with the same enthusiasm. “Can I help you, Park?”

“Don’t mind mister grouchy-pants over there,” Hoseok suddenly speaks up. “He clearly woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.”

“Not all of us can wake up as chipper as you, Hobi,” Jimin uses the son of Apollo’s infamous nickname.

“Well, I can’t help it if the sun makes me happy.”

“Everything makes you happy. It’s quite sickening, actually.”

Quickly, you realize that this little banter could seriously get out of hand. Luckily, you’re not the only one. Chiron takes a quick look at them and clears his throat. “That’s enough you two; we only have one week left of summer.”

“And there’s much you heroes have to do,” Mr. D adds, popping the tab of his Diet Coke. “I cannot wait for you little vermin to be gone; except for you, y/n…you never seem to want to leave.”

“I would if I could,” you roll your eyes. “I guess we’ll just be stuck here together.”

“Speaking of things to do,” Chiron changes the conversation, “there is one major thing left to be done before the end of summer.”

“Are we throwing a party?” Kim Seokjin asks, hair and face looking as perfect as ever.

Chiron frowns. “No, and there better not be anything of the sort happening in Cabin Ten.”

For a moment, you swear the son of Aphrodite’s eyes are shimmering. “Of course not, unless you want to throw us a party. A party seems fun.”

“A party does seem fun,” Chiron suddenly agrees. “We haven’t had one of those in a while…”

Seokjin’s eyes grow wider. “I want huge balloons and an extravagant display table. Also, is there any way to hire a DJ? No offense, but lyre playing is so ancient.”

“That could probably be arranged…” Chiron trails off, like he’s not even aware of what he’s saying.

“Cut it with the Charmspeak, Lim Sejin.”

The son of Aphrodite’s eyes whip to Dionysus. “It’s Kim Seokjin, Mr. D.”

“Lim Sejin, Kim Seokjin—same thing,” the god of wine rolls his eyes. “But seriously kid, cut it out. We’ve got serious business to attend to.”

“Fine,” Seokjin crosses his arms. “As you were saying, Chiron?”

Chiron blinks a few times. “Oh, yes—the major thing that must be done is cabin inspection.”

The entire Senior Counsel seems to tense at that. It’s not that everyone is a total slob, but cabin inspection is so tedious. There’s a reason it’s only done once in a while. And sometimes, you do end up finding some disgusting beds. The Hermes Cabin is always questionable. You’ve never had to do cabin inspection, and you don’t plan on it.

“Are there any volunteers?” Chiron continues. “You all know two counselors need to perform the tasks.”

As Chiron says that, everyone starts to look at Kim Taehyung. When he realizes that you’re all looking at him, he begins to shake his head aggressively. “No way—I did inspection last time. Besides, I’m busy with the Pegasi—I don’t have time to check all the cabins.”

He is right—the son of Zeus does have a lot of other responsibilities. But you all looked at him first because he is just so good at taking on different tasks.

“Okay, so excluding Taehyung…any volunteers?” Chiron asks again. No one dares to look at him. “Come on, heroes. There are worse things to do here.”

While there is some truth to that statement, no one budges. But for some reason, you feel compelled to offer your service? The thought of coming into contact with stinky socks is less than ideal, but you want to prove to Chiron and Mr. D that you’re serious about being Head Counselor of your cabin. And you want to make your mother proud.

So, almost subconsciously, you raise your hand. “I’ll do it, Chiron.”

Everyone’s head swivels toward you. Surprise and interest simultaneously mares their faces. Even Mr. D looks shocked that you spoke up—his Diet Coke spilling from his hand.

“Great, y/n!” Chiron exclaims. “Anyone want to join her?”

“I’ll do it.” For the first time today, your eyes look in his direction. Jeon Jeongguk stares back at you with his signature smirk plastered onto his dumb face. “I’ll help y/n out with cabin inspection.”

Chiron hums, probably wondering why your sworn enemy is offering to assist you. “Interesting. You may join her, Jeongguk.”

“I’ll gladly take anyone else but Jeon,” you groan. “Chiron don’t make us do inspection together. Please.”

“You’ll be fine, y/n. It’s just one day of cabin inspection. It’ll be fun.” Chiron says as he moves onto the next topic, something about the dining pavilion.

“Come on, y/n,” Jeongguk taunts with a smile. “It’ll be fun.”

***

It’ll be fun, they said.

Walking towards Cabin One with your clipboard, you turn around and watch as Jeongguk slowly follows behind you. In his hand, he carries his own clipboard and pen. “Don’t do anything stupid, okay?”

“Sure, captain,” he mock salutes you, pen now hanging out of his mouth.

You roll your eyes and continue towards Zeus’s cabin. Once you’re in front of the white marble structure, you take in the columns and bronze decorations. Cabin One is the biggest of all the cabins—to reflect Zeus’s position as King of Olympus; you don’t think you’ll ever get over the robust columns and cold exterior.

“This place gives me the creeps.”

“Shut it, Jeon,” you order, knocking on the door. It opens mid-tap, revealing a smiling Taehyung. He opens the door wider, allowing you both to walk in.

“Welcome to my humble abode,” the son of Zeus says, revealing a pretty empty cabin.

You notice a few beds in the corner, but that’s about it for the furniture. In the middle of the room, boasts a rather intimidating statue of the god of thunder himself. The statue seems to stand ten feet tall, and you wonder how Taehyung can even stand to live in such a space. You voice this thought out loud, to which only seems to make the son of Zeus rumble with laughter.

“I’m just used to it, I guess. The others don’t mind either.”

Walking around the room, you can’t help but give Cabin One a perfect score—if anything, you feel like it’s almost too pristine in here. Looking over your shoulder, you notice Jeongguk giving the same score.

“Let’s move on, shall we?” you ask, not waiting for Jeongguk to give you an answer before you’re walking away.

The two of you bypass Cabin Two—which belongs to Hera herself and means no one lives there—and make your way towards Cabin Three. You allow Jeongguk to walk in front of you—since this is his place, after all—and you don’t miss the way sweat begins to bead along his brow.

“I hope for your sake, the cabin’s clean,” you remark, to which he doesn’t say anything.

“I’m sure my siblings cleaned up…” he trails off, seemingly unsure of his own words.

Jeongguk opens the door of the gray sea-shelled building and reveals a dark interior. His half-siblings are nowhere to be found, probably off doing their activities. You follow Jeongguk inside and watch as he switches the lights on. For the first time, you take in the glowing walls and the ceiling that makes the cabin appear as it’s underwater. There is also a fountain that looks like a fish in the room; and as you’re staring at the water sprouting from its mouth, you see it.

The last bed in the row is trashed—the sheets have been haphazardly thrown everywhere and clothes hang from each corner like a monster rolled through the space or something. On the floor beside the bed, there are even more clothes and random things; like miniature figurines of Hippocampi and other sea creatures.

You don’t realize it, but your mouth had dropped open. “Styx…who’s bed is that?”

Slowly, you turn to face your enemy. You expect him to be ready with a snide comment, except he seems at a loss for words. Jeongguk’s face is devoid of color and he looks absolutely horrified. You put two and two together, realizing that the trashed bed belongs to him.

“I am going to kill them,” he barely says above a whisper. For a second, you almost feel kind of bad for the son of Poseidon; then again, why should you feel bad for him? You don’t even like him. “When I asked them to clean up, I didn’t mean for them to give me all of their shit!”

You’re trying really hard not to laugh. But it’s difficult to suppress laughter when the situation calls for it. So, for probably the first time ever, you laugh in front of Jeon Jeongguk. It starts off as simple air passing between your lips, but soon morphs into something full-bellied as you feel laughter vibrate throughout your whole body.

He looks at you with wide eyes—probably thinking you’ve lost your mind—but you can’t help it. You can barely muster the words, “T-This is gold.”

As you shut your eyes, tears practically fall from them as you continue to laugh, you miss something. You miss the way Jeongguk’s wide eyes soften a bit as he continues to stare at you. The softness doesn’t last long, and you probably wouldn’t have caught it because his gaze becomes sharp in a blink, but it was there. It was real. Though he would never admit it to you.

“Shut up,” he says instead, which gradually sobers you up. “This is humiliating.”

You nod. “Oh, absolutely.” This causes Jeongguk to frown. “And I am so giving you a terrible grade for this.”

Focusing back on the task at hand, you give Cabin Three a big fat one out of five—much to the disappointment of a certain cabin member. As Jeongguk grades himself, you raise an eyebrow when he gives himself a modest score of three.

“What?” he asks, feigning ignorance.

“Three? C’mon, Jeon,” you roll your eyes. “You must see the destruction that is your bed.”

He scrunches his face. “But it’s not even my mess!”

You give him a look; one that says don’t fuck around right now. And it seems to work because Jeongguk, albeit begrudgingly, changes the three next to his cabin to a one. By the time he looks up again, you’re already halfway out the door.

“Come on, Jeon; we don’t have all day!”

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chidoroki · 3 years

Text

Okay, so this is basically a follow up post to all the thoughts I had about season 2 the night before the first ep aired. You’re welcome to read it if you wish but I’ll let you know that it’s a mess and does contain manga spoilers. If you don’t wanna that’s perfectly fine, but the main thing I rambled on about was the possible episode count for season 2 and where in the story this season will end.

I’ll try to give a short version of that post now though. I was certain that we would get 24eps for the second season when it was first announced, especially due to the large gap of time in between when S1 ended and when S2 was originally going to start. I believed that a 24ep season would end at ch101, right before the two-year time skip. But then 2020 happened. Anime series got delayed and Cloverworks also has two other series premiering this January alongside TPN. So I thought another 12ep season was reasonable. Though if they wanna split up a 24ep season and give us the second cour over the summer I’d be perfectly fine with that too. The only reason why I had trouble wrapping my head around a 12ep season was.. where in the hell were they planning to end it? I had several ideas, which I mentioned in my other post with little more detail, but ch60, ch64, and ch74 were some of my guesses. Of course I would love to see Goldy Pond animated but with a 12ep season, I had my doubts. S1 adapted 37 chapters and if S2 were to at least reach ch96 then that would be the next 59 chapters, which seemed a bit much at first. Then came the issue with starting the possible next season with the time skip and eh, the idea didn’t sit well with me?

But now, after seeing the second season’s OP and first episode, I’m honestly reconsidering my original guess of ending at ch101, even if we get 12eps. Let’s start with the OP first. While it’s completely beautiful and I already love “Identity” with all my heart and soul, a couple things really stand out, some more obvious than not.

First off, Peter appears. His debut chapter is 73.

Then we get this shot of Phil, who doesn’t show up again until ch100.

Next up is Emma’s braid & hair-clips. Along with her fantastic Goldy Pond outfit, the clips first appear in ch75. However, she receives three from Sandy: blue, yellow & green. Not only is the blue clip missing, but her hair is now braided. This style didn’t appear until ch102.

Ch102 is.. post-time skip, which surprises me? I honestly never thought we would get a glimpse of that this season. Unless it’s an error perhaps? This other shot has Emma with the two clips & braided hair, but then you would think Ray would have his scarf here too, right? Neither of them look much older either.. maybe the anime just decided to go with two clips instead of three? I dunno.

But then you have Anna’s hair which is significantly longer here... which I’m pretty sure isn’t until post-time skip? I doubt it grew that long in between the events of Goldy Pond and the Cuvitidala search, since it was only what..5? 6 months? I tried to spot her during the ch102 flashbacks but didn’t see her, so pretty sure this is post.

And then we also see Yvette wearing her goggles, which also shows up post-time skip. Well, she actually obtains them mid-time skip, because there’s flashbacks of her with them in ch102, but also one that shows her without them that happens around July/August 2046.

I’m not trying to say that just because the OP shows us some future scenes/people/changes that we’ll actually reach that far this season. It would be nice, sure, but they could just be teasing us too. I know this is a minor detail and it shouldn’t prove much of anything, but they did give us real small cameos of Michelle & Olivia in the first ending, “Zettai Zetsumei,” and yet we didn’t see them in the flashback in s1ep10.

So now I’m still on the fence a little bit. I mentioned before that I would love for Cloverworks to expand on the Cuvitidala search during the two year time skip, but would that work better at the very end of a season or at the start of one? Who knows.

Speaking of seasons, the first episode of this one? Can you believe we’re already at ch45? I knew all the action would go by at an alarming fast pace, compared to the dialogue heavy S1, but damn. And that was with some of the added anime scenes! Granted, they also heavily changed the snakes of alvapinera and took out Isabella’s scene from ch38 completely but.. yeah. Although, I’m seriously hoping they include her scene at some point in the future? Because how could you forget this wonderful woman? I’m grateful they gave us that quick glimpse of her in the OP (with her hair down still! so i thank the anime staff for that at least!) but come on.. I was really looking forward to seeing her again, darn it.

One thing I’m sure about is that we’re reaching shelter B06-32 and seeing our favorite father figure because, hello.. the shelter jackets!

Speaking of the geezer, I was also actively looking for him throughout the OP, but had no such luck. I saw some people think he appears in the above mentioned screenshot, I think? but I counted 15 heads, so I believe it’s just the GF escapees here. Why everyone else is wearing them aside from only Emma & Ray.. I have no clue, but they all look nice!

Also, that screenshot got me thinking (as if i didn’t just do a whole bunch of that again already) more about Goldy Pond at the OP itself. While the opening sequence didn’t currently give us any large hints that arc will happen anytime soon, I could see Cloverworks updating it to incorporate the many characters that have yet to make an appearance. I think these two shots could easily be changed by replacing the escapees with the GP Resistance and showing the poachers instead of the wild demons.

Not only there, but any other group shot could work out too. Of course “Identity” would stick around as the song (because it’s an absolute banger) since I don’t see any point in having it last less than 12eps? Yes I know, S1 switched up the ending songs and “Lamp” only showed up for 3eps, but shhh.

Anyways, that’s enough out of me. (also r.i.p to all the extra pages i hoped would get animated. no such luck so far because the anime seems to be flying by like hayato.)

#the promised neverland #tpn anime #chidoroki used chatter

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smndragon · 3 years

Note

Hello, I know I haven’t been following your account for too long but you’re one of my fave accounts. You really put a lot of effort and offer your resources/knowledge/time without hesitation which I feel often times other creators don’t really have the opportunity to do. Thank you for your dedication because I’ve found your posts really insightful and they’ve been really helpful in expanding my knowledge <3

I also wanted to ask if you were offering readings atm because I was really interested in receiving one from you! If not, it’s okay! <33

[ Big Six :

Sagittarius ↑, Scorpio ☀︎, Leo ☽

Virgo Venus , Capricorn Mars, Sagittarius Mercury ]

I hope you’ve been doing well and I hope both sides of your pillow is cold !!! <3

Also, Idk if you watch anime but if you could recommend one one of your faves I’d really appreciate it! :,))

If you don’t mind me asking, I was wondering how many years you’ve been studying Astro considering the amount of knowledge you have. I’ve been dabbling myself but I find it intimidating. ESP when it comes to the complexity of birth charts because of all the different variables you need to consider.

Thank you for taking your time to read my ask! I really appreciate your consideration!! <3

You had me over here looking up "what does atm mean in text" like a grandma on Google 😭😭 I really couldn't figure that out I thought of the money atm. Thank you for saying all this though! I do try to take time even if my fingers have to hurt for it. I'm glad you're learning a bit from them or opening your mind to it! Glad to be one of your favs!

An anime recommendation is probably sword art online. It's a basic but I really like it I've watched all the seasons at least 5 or 4 times. Either that or possibly is it wrong to pick up girls in a dungeon I think it was called. I haven't watched anime in a while to be honest. Learning wise and growth I believe movies like Mirai and flavours of youth on Netflix are very sentimental and leave you touched.

I've been studying only since early 2021 really maybe mid? I started by Tumblr actually, I got the app because I wanted to read more fanfic sites and explore more and I got into more astrology here. I already was interested before then for years but I never actually looked so far into it until then. I actually only learned by readings posts every day I would look up "astro observations" and just read for as long as I could. I took a few people's charts that are long dead by now to compare and analyze since I liked them so much. I learned everything here and still am. I actually recently got back into the astrology side, I took a break to read more into other things. The rest I get are based on feelings and easy searching, I'm sorry I can't really explain it too well. Most of the stuff I learned was from @d4rkpluto @saintzjenx @hillarysss and @ilyneptune I believe is somewhere there either that or it was for pile readings which they have really good ones!

It's like 5:36 in the morning I haven't slept at all but I feel great so let's do your reading! Hm, Scorpio sun, Leo moon, and Sagittarius ascendant. We have the same ascendant which makes me happy! I didn't save so a part got deleted but I saw a girl with lilies on her head immediately, like a sort of crown. It reminded me of Hans Christian Andersen because he once made a flower crown and placed it on someone's hat making them mad after finally finding it💀 this girl reminds me of a time that seems so long ago now. She smiles at nothing and laughs at air, as if she sees things no else had dared speak to. Children are walkways wonderful because they have these gifts, to see things we cant. Possibly 'imaginary' friend when you were younger, or you spent time just pleasing yourself easily.

The first sign that talks to me is the Leo moon, the Scorpio wanted to speak but the Leo was very loud. It feels so touch starved to me which ain't bad but lord both it and the Scorpio sun are. Possible manifestation abilities. They aren't strong but you're able to do it anyone is, whatever you want in life must be looked brightly at, it's okay to have dark days but return that dream and wanting image to your sun and it will become as close as true as out world allows it. The flower crown I saw makes me think there's an Innocence and purity in you that still stand today, never changing. The flowers are the manifestation of this Innocence and this need to be that ways somewhere in you. Possibly fear of expectation and somehow losing that part of you to something in the future. You shouldn't be afraid of what happens, things will change sadly, we can never change that and as people we have to accept it even if it gets dark. Unless this will deeply harm you it's time to let go. Tell that younger you or someone that they cna be free, to be a with all the friends they were with when they were younger. Ik that wasn't a full reading but that's what I got from either your Leo or Scorpio. The Leo wants your joy to be brought back, but not in the form of the fear of losing something. "I'm here" "it's okay" they held you at your darkest moments and will continue to do so. I feel they'll be there especially when you're older, telling you it's alright to let go of the life you once had. (Dark theme sorry but it is what happens to us all in the end) their home is in you, every part I see, the physical body comes out when you need her, a dirty blonde with a white plain shoulder and neck showing shirt, with a plain but modern skirt thin material. They have brown eyes, the eyes of a mother really, with a broad and flattens at the nose. A few dots on the sides of their eyes or face. Aura color is a wheat yellow.

The Scorpio sun is very wanting, jealous of being ignored at times. It wants some things so wholly it hurts. The domain of the Scorpio is a dark and warm place, sweat falls down my forehead as if I'm being boiled to a roast. I want to hold the Scorpio sun, it feels ignored by people. Scorpios are every sympathetic people deep down, they crave affection and reassurance, when not given they cna form unhealthy habits. Not to say you're suffering from this too harshly it's just your Scorpio needs to be cared for at some point, drink a cup of tea or something soothing, talk to your Scorpio and let it talk back, in the deepest parts of your mind they are there always and forever, waiting to recover with your strength and company. Aura is brown and radiant black splotches here and there. Possible placements are the neck, or left shoulder. Body is in the form of a bulked Scorpion, brown shelled. You may possibly have longer nails or well shaped ones. Been complimented on your hands or had them called small which was annoying maybe.

The last of the signs is the Sagittarius ascendant. It take the form of a human, has a long tail though, reptile like. It adores the space you allow it. It roams the chest area, pillows and blankets cover the room. The Sagittarius isn't lazy, it's just overworked they don important things for the body, they care for your muscles and heart. Making sure it has steady beats. They keep you as active as you could be. Enough to keep you healthy. The room is plain with white walls and tan yellow carpet. The Sagittarius takes chalk and writes on the walls "plans" "action" weird words to put down but they keep writing, I also them what they're doing but don't really get a reply. Nothing left here.

Characteristics: small hands well shaped nails, brown hair?, Style is kind of alt if or neutral. Hoodies, jeans, skirts occasionally, the not too extreme chokers, bracelets, slight makeup or none. Because of the Sagittarius I would like to say tall and slim, but I have that and I sure am not those💀 possibly could still work though. I think short though honestly. Sneakers. Binders and folders in school or home. Filled with ideas and things. Brown or green eyes.

Soulmate/ future relationship: (it in one now ignore or keep reading) I see you both planning stories and all kind soft things, laying down pointing to journals and books of your things. You guys don't laugh often but you do show affection in smiles, kisses, hugs, and closeness. I feel they won't fully kiss you until you age to grab their face or after the 11th date🙃

Possible zodiac influence in your life around you: Scorpio Mars, Gemini Venus, Libra

Future/health: nothing much here possible accidents involving phones be careful and lay attention, may crack or break it soon.

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leafs-lover · 4 years

Text

Because Two People Got Drunk: 2

Series Masterlist

A/N: Second installment. Let me know your thoughts or suggestions!

Summary: Fred finds out your pregnant and has a decision to make.

Warnings: Swearings, lots of it

Word Count: 1077

April 20 2021 -Fred’s POV

You get called into the management office on your off day. A little annoyed because you and your agent have made it clear no contract talks, talks were either earlier in the season or after the playoffs. Not 3 games before they are to start, you don’t need the distraction.

You arrive and see Kyle Dubas, Shanahan, the teams’ lawyer and middle aged woman you haven’t met. Kyle speaks first, “hey Fred I think you’ve met everyone except for Mrs. Dillon, she is a lawyer." Interesting you think.

“I didn’t know we had a second lawyer or that I am involved in a situation that requires 2 lawyers” you reply.

Mrs. Dillon speaks up “I don’t represent the team; I represent a separate third party I believe you know. Ms. (Y/L/N)”.

“I don’t recognize the last name, but I have met a couple girls named (Y/N). Not sure which one you are referring too.”

“You met her in mid-February at hoops, went back to her place and had sex." You stand there, 4 sets of eyes focused on you; a soft “yeah" comes out of your mouth.

She continues “well she is pregnant and you’re the father"

“Alleged father " the MLSE lawyer interjects “We don’t know if it’s his or if she is just looking for a payday"

You stand there frozen and the lawyers talk about paternity and some test. You can’t hear anything but a ringing in your ears. You stumble forward to any empty chair and take a seat. It very well could be yours, you didn’t have condom and pulled out. You did pull out right? The multiple drinks make it hard to remember that detail. With less drinks in your system you probably wouldn’t have had sex without a condom, but even with that many drinks you would have remembered to pull out. These thoughts keep running through your head. After what feels like hours (although it was likely only seconds) you pull yourself out of it, and exclaim “Pregnant, she is pregnant?”

Kyle moves to sit beside you “Yeah, about 8 weeks.”

The room falls silent waiting for you to respond. You look at Mrs. Dillon “What does she want?”

“There is a DNA test they can do by drawing blood and will take a week or so for results.”

________________________________________________________________

She doesn’t want money or anything man, just wants me to know.”

“Yeah that’s what she says now, but I’m sure down the line she’ll change her tune. You’re a millionaire, starting goaltender she'll want a payday eventually.” Auston responds opening the fridge to grab water for everyone.

Mitch looks across the island “Fuck man that is rough, what are you going to do"

“Fuck I don’t know. I mean I can do nothing, go on with my life” Fred responds taking a sip of water.

Mitch chimes in “Yeah but then this kid grows up without you around. In a few years you decide you’re ready and the kid doesn’t want you around because you abandoned him/her. Is that better? Are you capable of going on with your life, knowing you have a kid out there?”

“Yeah he’s right. You have to decide if you’re going to be a father, and if so you have to be there from the day it’s born, trying to come into its life down the line will be too hard on it” Auston says.

“Fuck I don’t know though. Like am I ready to be a dad? I don’t know what to do.”

“I don’t think it matters if you are ready. If it comes back positive you have a kid. Doesn’t matter if you’re ready there will be a person who is 50% you out there” Mitch responds.

“The lawyer mentioned she is confident I’m the father. That there is no other possibility but she suggested the DNA test just because it was a one night thing. The DNA test as she said “is for my benefit, for me to be confident it’s mine even though she is.” Both of them just stare.

“Well I guess I have to do the test and wait for the results. If it comes back as mine then I guess I’ll meet with her? The lawyer said she doesn’t want to see me unless I initiate the contact. So the ball is in my court going forward” they both nod. “Apparently she had blood work done already, and they screen for various illness birth defects. They took extra and it’s on hold, so I just have to get tested. I’m going Thursday”

“But you have until she gives birth to decide what you want to do” Auston says.

“Yeah” you respond.

“But hey maybe it’s not yours” Mitch jokes.

“I think it is. I mean we didn’t have a condom.”

“Fuck man” Auston responds.

“Hey that’s your fault!”

“Mine?” Auston questions.

“Yeah a few days before we were in Anaheim on the roadie. You met some girl at the restaurant, brought her back to the hotel. A few minutes later you knocked on my door asking for a condom.”

Auston nods remembering that night “she was hot.”

You glare at him briefly before continuing “Well that was the one in my wallet, when we got back that Friday evening I was feeling like shit. I played terrible on that trip so I went to a bar just for a couple drinks. Planned on a couple and grabbing some dinner on the way home so it didn’t cross my mind to put another one in there. Got down to the bar and saw her sitting there and she took my breath away. I just couldn’t not talk with her, and what was supposed to be one drink turned into like 8 or 9. She was so easy to talk to; she said she was on birth control. I thought I pulled out though…”

“Obviously not fast enough” Mitch says causing Auston to laugh.

_______________________________________________________________

A week and a half after that conversation you are holding an envelope. You call Auston, given that he lives in the building he is over shortly with Felix his dog. You both sit on the couch and you slide the unopened envelope to him “I couldn’t do it" he nods as your hands slide to Felix’ ears and behind petting him.

He tears the envelope open and scans the letter before looking at you. “It’s yours" is all he says.

Next Chapter

#Becausetwopeoplegottdrunkfic #Freddie Andersen #Frederik Andersen #Frederik Andersen Smut #Freddie Andersen Smut #Freddie Andersen Fic #Frederik Andersen Fic #NHL Smut #NHL Fic #fredzilla #fred andersen #fred andersen smut #Fred Andersen Fic #fred andersen x reader #freddie andersen x reader #frederik andersen x reader #because two people got drunk #my writing

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jazy3 · 3 years

Text

Thoughts on Grey’s Anatomy: 17X6

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Wow this was a tense episode! I liked this episode when I watched it, but then I went back and re-watched it and started thinking about it more deeply when my friend and I recorded our podcast and the more I thought about it the more glaring issues and omissions I caught which made me feel frustrated. Especially because I was expecting to see a bunch of things in this episode, the Mid-Season Finale, that it looks like we’ll have to wait to the Mid-Season Premiere to see and seeing as the show won’t be back for quite a while and we’ve got a long wait ahead of us is rather disappointing.

I think this episode had a great set up, but I feel like they only delivered on about half of what they promised. I think they focused a lot of screen time on scenes that could have been shortened or omitted in favour of more important or interesting scenes that I felt should have been there and were missing and they focused a lot on characters that I don’t particularly care for while at the same time shafting characters that I would have loved to have seen more of or learned more about.

I was so happy that Meredith woke up and was improving! I love the beach motif, but that storyline was starting to drag for me so I was excited to see her back in the game and being her usual self again. I loved her scenes with Tom, but I spent the whole episode expecting someone to say something to Hayes about her being awake and for Hayes to come and visit her and then the episode ended and that didn’t happen and I was so confused. I was sure we were going to get a scene with the two of them in the last ten minutes of the episode, but instead we saw her collapse and they put her on a ventilator without Jackson or Hayes ever discussing the matter or coming to visit her.

And now they can’t talk! They missed their window and I’m so pissed! The show spent ¾ of last season building up a slow burn between Meredith and Hayes which they continued in episodes two and three of Season 17. Hayes asked her out for drinks at the end of last season. They’ve established that they’re close friends. Hayes’ text in the Premiere implies that they’ve had drinks before in his office in between seasons. Hayes is the one that found her in the parking lot. He asked Maggie about her and came to talk to her when he heard she was looking for a new POA. Hayes was the one that Meredith shared her fears of dying with.

And then Meredith becomes unconscious and we don’t see Hayes for two whole episodes and then when he comes back Meredith wakes up and no one bothers to tell him and we don’t see him and Jackson or any of the other characters talk to him about? We don’t see him visit her? This makes no sense! It’s out of character and ridiculous. And here’s my question: Do Hayes and Jackson even know that Meredith woke up? They don’t seem to in this episode and yet characters like Levi know and Maggie, whose a notorious blabbermouth knows and is shouting about on a video call with Winston so presumably the whole hospital would know.

Also is Hayes heard that Meredith was looking for a POA he definitely would have heard that she was awake. They’re close friends and her sisters know that. Plus he’s the one that found her! Jackson and Meredith have been friends for years! Are you seriously telling me that no one told him? That’s ridiculous which makes me wonder if they did in fact know and they did talk about it or go visit her and we just didn’t get to see it on screen. Like there’s a deleted scene that we didn’t get to see.

Which is dumb especially when you consider what they did show us. For example, they had an entire several minute scene where Amelia and Owen operated on the kidnapper in which we learn no new information whatsoever and it does absolutely nothing to advance the personal storylines of either character. On top of that, the scenes that Owen and Amelia have preceding and following the surgery with other characters are so powerful and well done that they could have shorten the surgery scene to a few minutes or made it a montage over music and wouldn’t have changed a thing.

Amelia and Owen are clearly not getting back together at this point even though he’s on the outs with Teddy because Amelia and Link have a child together and Owen for all his faults is not going to take a father away from Scout having lost his own Dad at a young age. So the scene doesn’t do anything to advance their personal storylines other than to establish that they miss their kids, hate kidnappers, and that the world sucks. All things we already knew.

And then there’s that end scene where Carina and Andrew DeLuca, two side characters they have spent absolutely no time developing, decide to chase after a human trafficker like a couple of vigilante crime fighters on a show that’s supposed to be about surgeons. What?!?!? They could have cut or significantly shortened both those scenes and it would have given them time to show Jackson and Hayes finding out that Meredith was awake and talking about it and then Hayes going to visit her. Which would have made a lot more sense than some of the stuff that they did show us, fit with the set up we were provided, and oh hey given us actually new information and character development that was about a medical case!

I was also hoping that Meredith and Hayes were going to talk this episode because I thought there was a good set up there for them to chat, banter, discuss their feelings, and for Meredith to ask Hayes about the idea of them quarantining together at a hotel. They established in this episode that if her stats held she would need to stay in the hospital for another week before they could discharge her so it’s still possible for this to happen when the show returns I just would have liked to have seen them address it this episode and provide that set up.

So to be honest I have mixed feelings about Meredith waking up and starting to feel better only to get worse and have to be placed on a ventilator by the end of the episode. On the one hand, I read an interview saying that they chose to do this storyline to give Ellen Pompeo the opportunity to act without a mask on the beach because of some health concerns that she has with regards to asthma and so I understand why they keep having to go that route. The actor's safety must come first.

This episode was the Mid-Season Finale and it felt tense the whole way through so I expected something bad to happen at the end, but I wasn't sure what it would be. I am sad that we didn't get any new beach scenes or see Derek on the beach like I'd hoped or see Meredith chat with Hayes the way she did with other characters. I'm also discouraged by the fact that she may spend the second half of the season bedridden because that really limits the storylines they can do about her personal life.

Which may in fact be the biggest critique I have of this episode. The Mid-Season Finale and the Mid-Season Premiere are usually pretty important with regards to Meredith’s personal life and her love life in particular. By this point in the season I expected Meredith and Hayes to have confessed their feelings for one another. I was hoping to see them make plans to quarantine at a hotel together. I was expecting to see her on the beach talking to Derek and getting closer.

But no. Instead we got no Meredith and Derek scene on the beach and no Meredith and Hayes at the hospital and I am mad. I mean if you only watched this episode you would have no idea that Meredith was ever married or that her and Hayes are involved at all. We’ve gotten absolutely no movement on Meredith’s personal life in the last three episodes. None. The people that love her and are taking care of her are worried about her and want her to get better. That’s it. There’s no new information here.

Which brings me back to another issue I had with this episode which is that Hayes finally reappeared only to spend most of the episode in the background and he didn't have meaningful conversations with anyone which I felt was a waste. I was so excited to see him back on screen and then I was disappointed when he didn’t really get to do much. Meredith woke up this episode and was well enough to laugh with her sisters and have a full on gab fest with Tom, but her and Hayes didn't have a scene together. Which felt odd and out of character considering that they’ve established. It was also weird that he didn't have any kind of meaningful conversation with Jackson despite working on a case with him that was racially charged and where black girls and woman were the ones affected.

Hayes is an amazing character so for him to be MIA for two episodes and then show back up only for the show not to use his character to his full potential bothered me so much. The fact that the victims and their mothers were black factored heavily into what happened and yet Hayes, who was married to a black woman and has two biracial kids, did not have any kind of meaningful conversation about the circumstances with Jackson, a black man who used his own money to help that girl's mother.

Also can we talk about the fact that Jo tells Richard that she wants to talk about a career change that she’s considering without ever talking to Carina who is an OBGYN and Hayes whose the head of pediatric surgery? WTF? This makes literally no sense and it’s kind of making me hate Jo because it’s so dumb. Also if Levi and Jo know that Meredith is awake Jackson and Hayes must have which makes no sense because they didn’t talk about it or go see her and I am an angry ball of rage!

On top of that, Jo and Levi have had two separate conversations in which Jo has confirmed that she wants to quit surgery altogether 100% to become an OBGYN on a show that is about surgeons to the exclusion of all others. This makes no sense. There just isn’t enough story here so unless Jo is leaving at some point I don’t understand how this is going to work. The show literally wrote off a plethora of characters in the first few seasons in order to focus almost exclusively on surgeons. It was a conscious choice that the showrunners made.

Several of the show’s current showrunners and writers were a part of the show when that decision was made so it's not like they don’t know why and how that happened. Which makes this storyline all the more bonkers to me. Also, who cares? Watching Jo perform surgery is interesting. Watching her catch babies is not. Also they’ve established that Jo and Hayes are friends and that she’s rooting for him and Meredith so why is she talking to Levi, who is a surgical resident, about this instead of her friend Hayes?

I’m also not as certain that Tom is going to die as I was before. At first I thought him getting better might be a surge, but now his improvement seems more like a for sure thing. And they did the whole storyline about his roommate dying so it would be a bit anti-climactic and predictable to me to have him suddenly die. On the other hand, Meredith is the star of the show and so if she lives it's likely someone else on the show will die of this disease and Tom seems the most likely candidate right now. I think Tom will be upset, panicked, and distraught when he finds out that Meredith had to be put on a vent. I think Teddy and Maggie will have to work very hard to calm him down which gives potential for some good Teddy and Tom scenes.

My heart broke for Bailey this episode like it did last week and while I think she should have taken some time off to grieve I understand why she didn't. Bailey is a work horse, a workaholic, and she always has been. That hasn't changed and as she says if she goes home she risks infecting Tuck and Joey with COVID. She could stay in a hotel, but it would be pretty hard for her to sit around and grieve when she knows patients are dying at Grey Sloan and she can help them. I hope she finds time to grieve and process the loss properly in the second half of the season once Meredith improves and gets better.

I loved Richard’s speech to Teddy. I think he told her exactly what she needed to hear. He told her what everyone else was too afraid to tell her or didn't want to because they were mad at her for what she did. Richard speaks from experience as a recovering alcoholic whose screwed up royally in his life so I think that gave his advice weight and gravitas. Richard is right. Teddy needs to name her demons, deal with her issues, come clean, and stop feeling sorry for herself. While I'm happy that Teddy finally told Owen the truth about who Allison was to her, she neglected to mention that her and Allison were having an affair.

Which is highly relevant seeing as she starts the conversation off by telling him that she doesn't know why she cheated on him with Tom. She tells some of the truth, but not the whole truth. She needs to come all the way clean. I don't think Owen will ever look at Teddy the same way again and I honestly don't see any hope for them at this point. Hopefully they can co-parent together peacefully. Also do we really need more scenes of Owen and Teddy fighting? Come on?

The one big bright spot in this episode for me was the scenes between Maggie and Winston! I love them! They are so cute together! And since it appears that Winston has now moved to Seattle I hope to see a lot more of them going forward. I love that he brought her flowers and was exactly what she needed in that moment. Now if only we could get that kind of movement on the Meredith and Hayes front that would be great.

I was surprised to see Opal, the fake aunt from last season who turned out to be a human trafficker, return. And I'm a bit surprised that they chose to bring the human trafficking storyline back and make it a reoccurring plot. I felt that they wrapped that storyline up pretty neatly and I didn't have any real desire for it to make a comeback. Plus, that storyline centered on DeLuca as a character and since I'm not a fan the storyline didn’t really do much for me. It's sad and scary, but it doesn't leave me excited to find out what happens next.

My favourite scene and quote from this episode was when Owen finished telling the kidnapper that he was the devil's barbeque and what a complete scumbag he was only for the guy's face to droop and for him to pass out causing Owen to remark, "Bold move Bob," and for him to realize he'd now need to resuscitate and save the guy's life from a possible stroke. That made me crack up laughing! I'm not an Owen fan most of the time, but I must say he's had some great one liners the last few seasons.

As for what’s to come when the show returns in 2021, the Season 17 Premiere blew all of my past predictions out of the water so I'm fully expecting to be wrong about several things going into the second half of the season. That being said, I think Meredith will pull through. I think Tom or one of the other characters will die. I think Winston will join Grey Sloan Memorial and start working there. I hope that both Hayes and Winston get the full screen time that they deserve and that they stop focusing on characters we don’t give a damn about because they’ve spent no time developing them.

I think we'll finally get to see the Meredith and Derek embrace that we've been hoping for and I think we'll see Jackson and Jo's relationship develop more. I hope that we see Hayes come and visit Meredith while she's out and that when she gets better we see them talk. I really felt like that was missing these last three episodes. I'd also love for them to quarantine at the hotel together after she's discharged!

Until next time!

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adenei · 4 years

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Next Steps - Chapter 3

Woo hoo! Finally had a chance to return and continue this story. Full thing is on ao3

It started as a one-shot for a Platonic Rarry moment where Harry goes with Ron to pick out a ring, and they book a trip to Italy. Chapter two was of Ron asking the Granger’s permission for their daughter’s hand in marriage, and then him telling his own parents of his plan. And now, Harry and Ron reveal the news that they’re taking a holiday to Italy to Hermione and Ginny!

This is probably as some of you would call a filler chapter, but sometimes they’re necessary. Oh, and since I turned this into a multi-chap, I had to find a problem and include some angst somehow. Enjoy :)

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Surprises & Suspicions

Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny flooed back to Grimmauld place after dinner at the Burrow. Harry and Ron were finally going to surprise the girls with the trip. They were all sitting in the living room, when Harry and Ron gave each other a silent nod.

“So,” Ron cleared his throat. “We have a surprise for you.”

Hermione and Ginny both looked up at Ron in confusion. “Oh?” Hermione asked. “What kind of surprise?”

“Well, we’ve never exactly been on a proper holiday together and thought it might be fun to go somewhere,” Harry told them.

“Ginny’ll be in off season soon, and we’ve all got vacation time that needs to be used up before the end of the year, so we booked a trip to Italy!” Ron said, not bothering to hide the grin on his face.

“Really?” Hermione said excitedly. “Oh, I’ve always wanted to go!”

“That’s so cool!” Ginny agreed. “When is it for? My last match is Thursday!”

“Our portkey is scheduled to leave Saturday at 2:00.” Ron told them.

Ginny squealed with excitement, starting to chatter about packing, but Hermione excitement turned into a furrowed brow and she now had a worried look on her face.

“What’s wrong, Hermione?” Harry asked.

“It’s just that, how will I know if I can get the time off? I just started at the Ministry this summer. What if it looks bad that I’m already taking vacation time? I’ve got so many projects going on right now, too.. I don’t know if this is a good idea-”

“Hermione, I went to talk to the head of your department already. I knew that you’d probably feel this way so I cleared it to make sure you’d be set. There’s nothing to worry about,” Ron attempted to reassure her.

“You talked to my department head?” Hermione looked at him scathingly. Apparently that was the wrong thing for him to do.

“Er, Ginny, maybe we should go..” Harry said awkwardly, and they made a quick escape out of the room.

“I was just trying to be helpful, Hermione. I knew you’d be resistant, but you’ll never get the time back after the first of the year, and I knew you wouldn’t willingly take it on your own!”

“But I only just started! I’m still trying to make a name for myself within the department,” she argued.

“Would you be saying the same thing this time next year? Or would you find some other excuse not to go. C’mon Hermione, we haven’t had proper time to be able to relax. Harry and I are mid-way through training, Ginny’s got a break, surely you can take a week off of your job to take a holiday!”

“I’ve got so much work to do though!” she complained.

“You’ve got all week to get ahead! Plus, don’t you have a partner that you work with?” Ron countered.

“Yes, but Steven likes to work on things together! He won’t be happy knowing I’m taking off a whole week.”

A surge of jealousy shot through Ron. “Really? If the tables were turned and he was the one taking off, how would you feel? The same?”

“Well, no, but-”

“Exactly! He’ll get over it. Hermione, I don’t know what you want me to say. I wanted to surprise you, thought you’d be excited. Especially because I thought ahead and tried to make things easier for you. Bring the work for all I care! Unless-”

“Unless what, Ron?” Hermione asked.

“Unless you don’t want to go at all… I should have known,” Ron turned to leave the room. He should have known she wouldn’t want to. He tried to quash the feelings that it was always him or her work, but it was getting harder to ignore.

“Ron! No, wait! I-” Hermione collapsed back onto the couch realizing how much of a mess she’d just made things.

*******************

Hermione stayed in the sitting room for a while, trying to digest all of the thoughts that were flowing through her mind. She wanted to go to Italy, there was no doubt about that. She also couldn’t deny how thoughtful Ron had been to even schedule the trip. But why not wait a month or so? It was only October.

She knew the answer to that, of course. Ginny had two weeks off before she went back to train. They all knew her holiday schedule would be hard to work around, and then once January came, there wouldn’t be a break in her schedule until at least April. Even still, he should have talked to her about it first. Her work was important. She’d only been working for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement since July, and she had been paired with another new colleague, Steven, who was a transfer from a different department. Right now, they had three open cases they were consulting for with the Department of Magical Creatures, and she wasn’t sure if she could step away for a whole week and trust that the work would be done properly.

Steven was nice, and split the workload evenly with Hermione, which was a vast change from always trying to do everything herself, but he always insisted that they work together on everything. They often took working lunches, and he managed to convince her to stay late at the office a couple of times a week. Hermione appreciated the shared drive and commitment they had to the workload, and felt sorry for him since he must not have anyone to go home to at night, since he willingly spent so much time at the office.

He always seemed so disappointed when Hermione would go to lunch with Harry and Ron on certain days, or when she did leave the office on time at the end of each day. She’d tried to invite him to join them for lunch, but he always declined for some reason. She knew how upset he’d be when she said she’d be taking a full week off. I’ll just make sure all of my work is done ahead of time, Hermione resolved.

She had to take this holiday with Ron. No, not had to, she wanted to. Of course she wanted to! Their careers made it lucky if they were to spend regular evenings together, and it was a rare occasion when they had a full weekend together. Hermione had jumped right into her Ministry job only a week after graduating Hogwarts, and Ron was already established with the Aurors, so they didn’t get a relaxing summer.

Hermione got up then and made her way to their bedroom, where she found Ron laying there, despondent. She walked over and sat next to him. “I’m sorry I reacted the way that I did,” she started. “Of course I want to go. You were right, I’ve got all week to get ahead on my cases, and I’ll talk to my department head to make sure I don’t get any new cases assigned before we leave on Saturday.”

“Does that mean you’re going to go, then?” Ron asked her, his voice lacking any emotion.

“Of course it means I’m going to go! You honestly didn’t think I’d choose work over getting to spend a whole week with you?” Hermione asked him.

“Hermione, did you just hear yourself?” Ron gave her a look.

“I’m not the same as I used to be in Hogwarts. I know there are more important things in life than school and work,” she tried to defend. “Most of the time..”

“Exactly. Most of the time,” Ron said. He lifted his arm up, inviting her to lean into him, which she did with much relief. “I knew you’d put up some sort of resistance, you know.”

“I know. It’s hard to imagine just walking away from work for a full week, and not having to worry about anything. I know Steven will be upset, too..” Hermione trailed off.

“Don’t you think it’s a little odd?” Ron asked. He didn’t like to bring up her colleague because he didn’t want to seem jealous. But that didn’t stop the concern he felt whenever she’d send a note to say she was taking a working lunch at Steven’s request, or when she’d tell him that ‘Steven wants to work a little later tonight to finish this report.’

“What’s a little odd?” Hermione looked at him in question.

“That he’d be upset because you’re taking a vacation.”

“Well, we are the youngest in our department. He’s probably just looking out for me,” Hermione reasoned.

“I don’t think it’s that, Hermione,” Ron said seriously. “Are you ever the one to suggest a working lunch or staying late? I know you don’t mind them, I’m not saying that. I’m just curious.”

Hermione scrunched up her face in consideration. “Well, now that you mention it..”

Ron was silent for a moment, choosing his words carefully. “Just be careful, okay? There’s something about him that doesn’t feel right,” he said as he looked at her in concern.

The Hermione from a few years ago would have immediately argued with him that he was being ridiculous, but the Aurors had strengthened his knack to read people, and his senses were incredibly strong in that respect. “I’m always careful,” Hermione said as she snuggled into him. “I love you,” she said to him as she began thinking of what else he might have planned for their trip.

“I love you, too,” Ron said as he kissed her.

#romione #Ron Weasley #Hermione Granger

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afaimsarrowverse · 4 years

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Arrowverse: News, News, News

We got a lot of news during the Upfronts for the Arrowverse and while most of it won’t make anyone particulary happy, well, it’s the way the world is now and we have to deal with it and hope that everything will go down like this and thing won’t get worse again. So let’s do a quick recap of the most important questions.

Is it true that there won’t be any new Arrowverse Content after the first Season of „Stargirl“ finishes airing in 2020?

Yes. The CW will however transmit the „Swamp Thing“ Television Series from the DC App in Autum. As seen during „Crisis on Infinite Earths“ „Swamp Thing“ is part oft he Arrow-Multiverse and the new Multiverse after „Crisis“. However Season 1 is already available on the app and no second season has been comissioned so far. There might be hope for a second season if the first one does well on The CW, but given what went down behind the scenes during the shooting of Season 1, there would be a lot of changes involved in that second season and it’s unlikley that it would be produced by The CW alone (because, well, money).

When are the shows coming back?

In January 2021, which would normally be the mid-seaon, The CW shows are coming back. „Batwoman“ Season 2 is back on Sunday, „Black Lightning“ Season 4 is back on Monday, „The Flash“ will rule the Tuesday again – and „Superman & Lois“ will start airing right after „The Flash“.

Season 6 of „Supergirl“ and „Legends of Tomorrow“ will air late in 2021, presumable at the end of Mid-Season, meaning in about a year from now. So yes, sadly it looks like we will have to wait for a year for the new seasons for those two shows. At least. There is a slight possibilty that we might have to wait even longer for „Supergirl“, but I will come back to this later.

Why so late?

If you really have to ask this question, you should have turned on the news sometimes in the last couple of months. While it looks like the shows are coming back to filming in August, it’s too early to tell if this will actually happen. In the spirit of better save than sorry, The CW prepped for a later air date, so that if worse comes to worst they don’t have to redo their programm in the last minute. Yes, it could be argued that they could have met an Octorber or November air-date like they are aiming for with the last episodes of „Supernatural“, but right now everything needs more time and the decision is not really surprising, it’s more surprising that they elected to not hold back the finished episodes of the current seasons until Autum, like many other networks did.

And no, „Supergirl“ is not held back because the ratings are so bad (which they aren’t). Yes, everyone knew about Melissas pregnancy for quite some time and they had an elaborate plan to work around it, but this plan went to shit, because it would have involved filming the first bunch of episodes between April and June, meaning right now, so that there would have been material for October. The plan was to resume filming after Melissas pregnancy leave, which is now the earliest start date for any Season 6 covergage involving her (besides archive footage from 5.19 and the unfinished 5.20). Given that she will have a newborn at this point they might hold of filming for an even longer periode of time than originally planned. The same might be true for Danielle Panabaker by the way, don’t expect more of Caitlin or Frost than originally planned in the early stages of what is now Season 7 just because they might start filming at a later point than the would have. We might get even less of her and less scenes with body contact then we would have gotten otherwise.

So basically „Supergirl“ is held back because a new human is about to be born, which must be protected under any cercumstances and so must the mother, which is more important than any air date. Melissas is not a slave. And from the moment the lock down was announced everyone should have known that there was no way for „Supergirl“ to return before the mid-season. Given that the other shows are returning at mid-season now, it’s just logical that this show returns even later. And yes, that also means, that if the worst happens, we might not get any new episodes of „Supergirl“ before Autum 2021. It’s unlikely but not impossible.

So no more crossovers?

No. There are definite plans for a two part crossover between „Batwoman“ and „Superman & Lois“. This crossover will also involve characters from the other shows, meaning mosty Barry, maybe Sara and someone from „Supergirl“, depending on when the crossover will happen (and if „Supergirl“ is back to filming then, and if Melissa is back to filming then). There are also plans for a crossover between „The Flash“ and „Stargirl“, which is the reason why the other crossover does not happen between „The Flash“ and „Superman&Lois“, even though the two shows will air at the same night. Right now there a plans for an episode of „The Flash“ to feature „Stargirl“, and given that there might be less epsiodes than usually next season no one wanted to sacrifice two episodes of „The Flash“ for crossover stuff. There were plans for a „Batwoman“/“Supergirl“-Crossover, however given that we don’t really know when „Supergirl“ will start airing again, it’s unlikley for that to happen any time soon. It might have been replaced by the current „Batwoman“/“Superman & Lois“-Crossover, however depending on the schedule of both shows it might just be postponed for a little while and still happen in „Supergirl“ during it’s sixth season. If „Black Lightning“ is going to show up in the other shows next season is hard to tell. Keep in mind they are filming in Atlanta while the rest of the Arrowverse is Vancouver based. Maybe Grant will flash through „Black Lightning“, but given the current travel restrictions (meaning Quarantine after flight) even that is very unlikley to happen as of now.

Is „Green Arrow and the Canaries“ dead then?

No, the spin-off is „very much alive“, we were told. All the new shows were ordered on script base, because pilot season did not happen this year. However none of the backdoor pilots were picked up yet. However, given that there is no Autum programm to speak of, everything was pushed back to the mid-season which left less time slots for new shows. However The CW is still interested in „Green Arrow and the Canaries“, it might just take more time than usually for the show to take of. Maybe next summer or next autum or just a season later than planned. That does mean there is still hope for a pick up. And it’s safe to assume that until then certain Canaries and Green Hoods might show up in other Arrowverse shows.

What about Season 2 of „Stargirl“?

Given that the first episode will air in the coming days, there is no way to tell yet if there will be a second season and when it will happen and if it will be a shared child of The CW and the App like Season 1 or if it will go another way. Time will tell. We’ll have to wait and see.

What about the lost episodes of the current seasons?

So, „Batwoman“ has lost two episodes this season, „Supergirl“ made two episodes into one, and „The Flash“ lost three eps. Some parts of this episodes do exist, Episode 6.20 of „The Flash“ had even finished shooting by the time the production was halted. Now every writer’s room is task to find out what to do with its lost episodes and shot footage. Now, we don’t really know about „Batwoman“ and even less about „Supergirl“ (they might just loose most of the 5.19 and 5.20 material and change it all around completly, given that they have already cut those two episodes together into one), but in case of „The Flash“ it was stated several times that the content of those three episodes will find it’s way into Season 7 in some shape or form. Many storyline were supposed to be concluded and/or started in this 6.21 and 6.22 so the most likley outcome is that the events of this three episodes will be condensed and remixed for the first two episodes of Season 7. Archive footage of the unaired und unfinished episodes might be used in the season openers next year (so hair continuity will be „fun“). „Legends of Tomorrow“ is unfazed by all of this, because they had wrappes their season weeks ago by time the other shows were forced to shut down production.

The new seasons will be shorter?

„Legends“ and „Black Lightning“ might be around their usual lenght. „Supergirl“ is definifly going to have a shorter season. As for the others I wouldn’t expect a full 22 season for those three either. „Superman&Lois“ might aim for 13-16 eps anyway as the new kid on the block and I am not sure „Batwoman“ and „The Flash“ will be able to shoot a full season or let’s at least say I don’t think The CWs new schedule will allow them to go for a full season if they start airing in January. However, maybe the will go for it and just scrap the breaks. But I am not optimistic.

And beyond this?

Well, the upfronts will collide with some of the air dates of the shows next year, so I have no clue. Network television might be changing for good. Who can say? What we can say is that we have reason to believe that there will be at least an eight Season of „The Flash“, maybe even a ninth and tenth. There were talks with Grant going on, however they were halted. I do think „Batwoman“ is on the safe side for at least a third season and unless Warner pulls the plug or the ratings are really really bad „Superman&Lois“ will have at least a second season. „Legends“ could go on forever if the change up the cast every few years accordingly, however The CW never seemd to appreceate the show, so I am not sure what will happen beyond Season 6 there. The same goes for „Supergirl“ which depends on Melissa extending her contract, and given the baby and the current situation and the tendency of the Original Cast to run scared from this show, well let’s just say I would not want to bet on any outcome as of right now. „Black Lighting“s ratings aren’t great and Netflix has elected to go from weekly to full season with it which is also a bad sign, but The CW is not like the other networks, meaning you have to have really bad ratings and cost more than you are worth to get cancelled, so it depends on how Season 4 is doing overall. The inclusion in „Crisis“ might have bought the show another year at least. However none of this is anything else then speculation. No one nows anything of right now, so keep that in mind please.

Is there anything else we know?

Yes, we got synopsis for „Superman& Lois“ and apperantly for „Legend of Tomorrow“ Season 6., which spoils the end of the current Season but was released anyway. It sounds very wild, but seems to be legit. So, you can read up on those two upcoming seasons right now if you want to. I am going to go over those when we have the synopsis for the other shows as well, I think.

Until then, don’t miss „Legends“ in the next couple of weeks, especially not „The One were they are trapped on TV“ and maybe give „Stargirl“ a try.

#Arrowverse #News #The CW #The Flash #Supergirl #Legends of Tomorrow #Black Lightning #Batwoman #superman & lois #green arrow and the canaries

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katrinayentch · 3 years

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40 miles on the Rogue River Trail

40 miles in 2.5 days? Sure, I said. “That’s totally doable,” I said. Well, I’ve never hiked that much in my life so in retrospect it was pretty naive to assume I could backpack that much for my first thru hike ever. The most I had ever hiked prior to that was 19 miles in one day with a day-pack. And even then my feet were swelling the last 5 miles of that.

Despite the fact that I was in pain for half of this hike, and had to switch to sandals for 10 miles of it, this is one of the best backpacking trips I have ever done. The Rogue River Trail has been on my Oregon bucket list for awhile, but the logistics of transportation getting to and from the end of the trail kind of intimidated me. On top of that, there are always consistent reports on just about every kind of unideal condition you could imagine—rattlesnakes, black bears, scorching temperatures, ticks, and copious amounts of poison oak are the main concerns on this trail, which mostly runs along the length of the beautiful Rogue River in Southern Oregon (anyone ever try Rogue River Brewing?)

So what motivated me to conquer the trail otherwise? For starters, it is one of the only long-distance hikes you can do in this part of the Pacific Northwest this early in the season. A lot of backpacking in the PNW is in the mountains of course, and most of it doesn’t really melt until mid-late July. BUT that’s also when mosquitos are vicious (which I learned last summer after a group car camping trip to Crater Lake NP), so the ideal time here isn’t until August. After a short backpacking trip on the Salmon River Trail the week before, we were itching to get some more miles on our plate.

The Rogue River Trail is also one of the most popular thru hikes in Oregon. If people have been hiking this trail for years, why should those above-mentioned concerns truly hinder someone from doing it? And so, I obsessively researched for 3 weeks, spending hours reading All Trails reviews, Reddit advice, and YouTube videos of other people doing the trail. I’ve done my share of spontaneous and planned travel, and I’ve definitely learned that backpacking is not something you want to put together last-minute unless you’ve already hiked the trail you’re doing. By the time we headed off to the trail, I felt like I knew what to expect, but was still ready to be surprised by the views and the physical challenge of hiking 12+ miles/day.

*I have to give a shoutout to White Water Cowboys* for shuttling my car from the start of the trailhead to the finish. It’s otherwise a four-hour drive from one end to the other - on top of another 5 hours to Portland.

We hiked 12 miles on the first day, 17 on the second day, and 11 on the final day. The incline was pretty treacherous on the first day, and by the second day my feet were swelling so hard I had to switch to sandals - this was before my legs got close to giving up on me. Anybody got some advice for that? The third day it started to climb into the 90s, so after dunking our clothes in the creeks, we crisped up quite nicely walking through long patches of exposed trail. All the while, it was a poison oak maze - They weren’t kidding when they said there’s a lot of poison oak that never stopped, and I learned on this trip that it comes in many shapes, varieties, and textures. Yay! Somehow, still manageable to hike it without going through any true thickets. The last day, young bears stole our food from our poorly tied bear bag. I had purchased that bag literally the day before starting the trip and it wasn’t cheap! (Don’t buy Ursack. Just suck it up and get a bear can if you’re going into bear county.)

So why was this trip still incredible regardless? There were still good conditions! Thanks to dousing my clothes with Permethrin, I didn’t get a single mosquito bite along the journey. There were also 0 ticks despite there being plenty of tall grass on the trail. I’m also 5 days since this trip and haven’t had any poison oak show up on my skin. So, while it was weird to hike in long sleeves and pants on a sunny hike, it ended up being worth it to do so.

Secondly, the company both in my group and along the trail was amazing. The camaraderie and kindness of backpackers, and Oregonians in general, can be so incredible. In a COVID-era of avoiding people and maintaining big distances with half-covered faces, it was refreshing to simply say hi to people on the trail and make conversation with countless strangers. For both nights of our trip, after showing up disheveled and beaten up to a camping area and seeing it completely packed, folks came up to us to tell us they had made room for us to join them. On the last day when we lost our food, we also got gifted with more food than what we had in the first place! It felt like we were all in this together, and despite having nothing in common with some of these people, there were so many things to talk about. And of course, I feel so bonded to Andrew and Jonny after having done a few trails together now. It feels good to have people you can hike with who you also feel like they have your back—even if they hike way faster than you.

And the trail itself, of course, was beautiful. Hiking next to a giant river through a full forest on a sunny day is hard to beat. There isn’t a ton of scenery change but it’s still such an incredible trail that is so closed off from cars, that it feels like it’s really just you, the animals, and well...... all the rafters on the trail with their shade and food and beer. So I’m pencilling that in for my next Rogue River experience.

All in all, I’m so proud that I accomplished this trail despite hobbling for a lot of it. I am super open to completing another lengthy trail but on the condition that I will stop to prop up my feet every 3 miles instead of 8!

#rogue river trail #backpacking #thruhike

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yulmoldauer · 4 years

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some things are better left unsaid (Tyson Jost/Male OC): Chapter 2

part 1

Chapter 2

Summary: Mason has to deal with the events of the previous night.

Warnings: uh as you can guess if you read the first part, there’s gonna be homophobia/transphobia talked about. Otherwise, there shouldn’t be anything that needs a warning? If I’m wrong just let me know :)

Words: 2,319

Notes: I don’t think I have much! This is like a lot of flashbacks and I’m sorry but that's character building baybee!!! I promise after this it’ll be more present-based stuff. I just love the character and wish I could spew out my brain and make it understandable lol

Fuck.

That was the only thought Mason had upon waking up. The implications of the previous night hit him like a ton of bricks. His hangover was just an added bonus.

The party had been fun, obviously, but Tyson was still here. Tyson had seen his top surgery scars.

“When did you have surgery?”

Fuck, fuck, fuck. A medical degree and some knowledge on what other surgery would leave these scars would be helpful. Mason really did not want to lie, but he wasn’t sure what else he was supposed to do.

Being drunk wasn’t helping, either. In his mind, the world was ending and his career was over after the last fuck up that got him traded…

Rationally, he just burst into tears. Not a dramatic scene or anything, he just felt his eyes watering very quickly and suddenly the tears were rolling down his face.

“Oh, shit. Okay,” Tyson set the water down and hurried to his friend. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know this was- here, will you feel better if you get a shirt on?”

Mason only nodded, allowing Tyson to help him get the shirt on and pull him for a hug.

This just made Tyson think that the scars were from some shitty, traumatic event or something with extremely bad memories. Note to self: don’t fucking ask about them again was written in large letters in his brain.

He did factor in the extremely likely possibility that Mason was drunk and--as anyone with a brain knows--Mason was a hundred times more dramatic when drunk. Still, though, if he was crying, it couldn’t be a good thing.

At least Tyson had been nice enough to leave him some meds and water after forcing him to go to bed.

“You hungry?” Tyson asked softly from the doorway. “I heard you rumbling around in here, I wasn’t watching you sleep,” he clarified quickly.

“Didn’t think you were,” Mason chuckled. “No, I’m not hungry. Thank you, though. You can help yourself to whatever. You know that.”

“Yeah, I made some toast earlier. Fun birthday last night?” Tyson smiled and sat on the edge of the bed as Mason laid back against the headboard and dug the heels of his hands into his eyes.

“You could say that. Thanks, though. Seriously, I had a ton of fun.”

“Yeah, of course. I didn’t stop you from posting anything on social media, though. I dunno why you like taking videos so much.”

“Then I can save them and rewatch them later,” Mason scoffed like Tyson was an idiot. After a few more seconds Tyson moved to get up mere milliseconds before Mason started talking.

“About last night…”

He hesitated, waiting for some kind of confirmation that Tyson was willing to talk about this. There was no sense putting it off, right?

Tyson just raised his eyebrows. “The scars?”

That earned a nod and Tyson sat back down.

“They’re… shit. Okay, sorry. I never meant to lie or anything--fuck that, I never lied. I just... “

“Dude, if it’s something you don’t want to talk about, that’s fine.”

Mason groaned quietly and shook his head. “No, it’s just… I don’t know how to explain it.”

“If you wanna talk, just say it. I’m not gonna freak out or anything. If you don’t wanna, that’s okay too,” Tyson reassured gently.

Truthfully, the curiosity was killing him. It was rare that an injury happened and they didn’t share it with each other. Mason took a few more breaths before nodding. Psyching himself up.

“They’re from my top surgery.”

Silence.

More silence.

Mason officially wanted to die. He was going to have to request another team change, go through the legal battle of making sure he didn’t get outed--

“Like…?” Tyson asked quietly with raised eyebrows.

“Like I had tits and got them removed the summer before I went to college.”

That may have been a relatively vulgar way to put it, but it was true. It was the simplest and least-awkward way he could think to put it.

“Oh,” Tyson nodded a few times. “Thats--I never knew--I mean, I couldn’t, like, tell or anything…”

“Yeah, that was the point,” he sighed and took a sip of the water on the nightstand. “Noone was supposed to know or be able to tell or whatever.”

“So literally no one knows?”

“Not literally, no. My family knows, obviously.”

“But the league?”

At the defeated sigh that escaped his friend, Tyson quickly backtracked. “You don’t have to get into it, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be prying--”

“No, it’s fine. It’s just… a long story that I don’t know if you actually want to hear or if you’re just being nice.”

“Of course I wanna hear, stupid. I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t.”

Mason narrowed his eyes at the name, but it was quickly followed with a small smile.

It did take a bit to explain everything, though. How he was drafted into his previous team, everything was fine, and then someone had taken an ungodly amount of time to hit the showers at the same time Mason had been in there.

“Oh, fuck! You scared me,” Mason huffed when he heard the water turn on just across from him.

“What’cha being jumpy for?” the taller guy laughed.

“I’m not jumpy,” Mason grumbled, turning the water off quickly. He wasn’t even sure all the soap was out of his hair, but that didn’t matter. He just needed to get the hell out of there.

“Are you okay, man? You’re being weird-” the other man asked genuinely and glanced over his shoulder. This had been at the same exact time Mason had been trying to just leave as quickly as possible.

There was a few moments of silence that felt like years as the younger grabbed for a towel to cover himself up.

“Are you--?”

“Please, just forget--” Mason tried, but the guy was already turning his water off and grabbing his own towel.

“No, I’m not fucking--are you kidding me, Wright?” he nearly shouted as he stormed out of the room with Mason in tow. “Are you actually kidding me? How the hell have you gotten away with this--”

“I haven’t ‘gotten away with’ anything, you dickhead. It’s none of your business in the first place.”

“It doesn’t matter, you don’t belong here. You know they’ve got the women’s league now, right? It’s not like-”

Mason just shook his head, staring at the floor of the changing room while they were both yanking clothes on as quickly as possible. He didn’t want to hear what was coming next, all the awful shit he’d say.

It wasn’t even what he was saying that was the issue. Mason had heard just about everything at this point and had always had a pretty thick skin. It was the fact that someone he trusted--someone he’d considered family at this point--was saying it.

Didn’t he realize that it wouldn’t be like this if Mason could help it?

“Hey, what the hell is going on?” the head coach cried over them, walking into the room. He hadn’t been concerned about the loudness until it was unbearably obvious that the shouting was getting increasingly angrier and angrier. He wasn’t about to bring up the fact that Mason looked genuinely scared, as if worried about his safety.

The other guy was pissed, going off about how he’d been lied to, he’d been sharing a locker room, dressing room, and showers with a lot of unkind names, and that he wouldn’t keep playing for the team while acting like this never happened.

They ended up in the coach’s office, Mason attempting to towel dry his hair while the other blew off steam. He just didn’t want anyone to see him upset.

Once they were separated, lawyers were brought in with papers and agreements, and the head coach asked Mason if he’d like to request a trade or anything. It wasn’t like he had the option to say no, but he wasn’t exactly upset to go somewhere where he wasn’t worried about going to the bathroom without getting yelled at or beat up by a guy way bigger than himself.

He remembered to thank management before he left for working overtime, it seemed like, to figure out who would take him on such short notice and mid-season.

He was a good defenseman, sure, it just wasn’t easy on such short notice. But what the star player wants, the star player gets.

Colorado was the quickest to take the young defenseman about a year ago, and the rest was history.

“Holy shit,” Tyson murmured after a few quiet moments.

“I thought I was done. I honestly didn’t think anyone was going to pick me up, I thought my career was over. Can you fucking imagine that? Retiring at, like, 22?”

“Yeah, no, that’s… fuck, dude. I’m so sorry that happened.”

“It’s fine, I don’t even really care. I’m happier here, anyway. Especially since it’s not like you’re saying I’m a creep or a fucking… whatever.”

“Does anyone else know? In the league, I mean.”

Mason nodded. “Took a different approach when I got here. Bednar, bare minimum management, and PR knows. PR because if someone ends up outing me, I thought it would be a good idea to have some sort of plan on what to do. And medical staff always has, obviously. I think they know more about me than I do.”

Tyson nodded along, looking at his friend again after a few moments.

“You want this to stay between us, then? Or…?”

The fact that Tyson was even asking made Mason want to cry again. After being fucked over god-knows how many times when it came to being trans, Tyson was the one confirming he’d keep the secret. He wouldn’t give anyone any kind of hint unless Mason wanted him to.

“Yeah. Between us, please? I dunno, I might come out to the guys eventually, just so they know. I just… I don’t know what I’d do if they react badly--”

“They wouldn’t,” Tyson said quickly. “I promise you they wouldn’t. And even if someone did have an issue with it, they’d just fucking stay quiet. They’d be in the tiny minority.”

“I just don’t know if I can take being traded and going through everything again, Tys.”

At the wavering in Mason’s voice, Tyson reached out and squeezed his friend’s hand.

“You’re not going to get traded over stupid shit like that. Not here, at least.”

“You don’t know--”

“I mean, yeah, I don’t know a lot. But you already said that the most important people who need to know do, they’re okay with it, and it sounds like they’ve got your back. I’ve got your back, too. And if you end up telling the rest of the guys, they’ll have your back too. Even if you end up not telling them, I’m still here for you, man.”

Mason felt about eight tons of weight fall off his shoulders at that. How did he end up with such an amazing friend?

“I just can’t really come out publicly for… I dunno. A while. Ever, maybe? I don’t know.”

“That’s gotta suck. I mean, everyone’s got their shit they want to keep private but… I dunno what I’d do if I literally couldn’t talk about something.”

Especially with how amazing it would be if Mason was able to be that representation for kids like he was who want to play hockey, Tyson thought. The amount of LGBT kids and teenagers who get driven out of hockey is immense, that’s never been a secret. To see an LGBT guy do so well would be amazing, it just sucked it wasn’t possible for Mason to talk about.

And he did want to talk about it. It would suck to come out and deal with that, but if it helped other people he would do it without hesitation. That’s the kind of guy Mason had always been.

“You’re sure you’re not mad that I, like, kinda lied to you about this up until now?” Mason asked, breaking Tyson out of his train of thought.

“Lie?” Tyson furrowed his eyebrows. “Not telling someone something isn’t lying, first off. Second, its none of my fucking business unless you wanted me to know. Even then, this would be a stupid thing to get in the way of being friends with you. I know you call me an idiot all the time, but I like to think I’m not that stupid.”

“You’re definitely not,” Mason chuckled, flipping his blanket off of him and swinging his legs over the side of the bed. He shot Tyson a genuine, appreciative smile before downing the painkillers with some water. “Let me get dressed and I can drive you home, if you want. I feel bad making you wait so long,” he murmured. It was well into the afternoon, and even though Tyson constantly reassured that it was fine, he didn’t care, Mason still felt guilty.

It was very clear Mason was hungover when he and Tyson left the building and got into his car, but that was fine. It had just confused Tyson when Mason unbuckled in front of his apartment building.

That is, until he was pulled into a tight hug.

“Thank you so much,” Mason whispered. “Seriously. I… I dunno how to actually tell you how much I appreciate you being so chill.”

Tyson hugged him for a few moments before shaking his head. “It’s really not much to just… I dunno what to call it. Not be an asshole?”

Mason laughed as he let go, allowing Tyson to open the door. “You can text me if you have any questions about… anything. I don’t tell a lot of people, but the people who do know I’m pretty open with.”

“Yeah, of course. See you later, man. Go get rehydrated, okay? You look like shit.”

“Fuck you!”

#my stuff #writing #fanfiction #nhl #hockey #mens hockey #nhl imagine #nhl fanfiction #nhl fandom #colorado avalanche #Colorado Avalanche fanfic #avs #tyson jost #Tyson Jost fanfiction #hockey fanfiction #hockey fandom #mlm fanfic #m/m fiction

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ccatvalentine · 3 years

Text

murder house | pilot

introduction

Season 1 - Murder House

Episode 1 - Pilot

word count: 2,438

1978

Far above , the branches twisted like distorted limbs reaching out. The forboding tree reaching out towards you. The open gates, showcasing a gnarled, old looking- house and a young girl standing on the front lawn

CRASH! A sound crashes as someone throws a rock at the window of an abandoned house and shatters it.

Bryan jokes “Hey, Troy. You're a dork.”

“Hey, shut up. Hey, freak.” Troy insults.

On Bryan’s way to the front door, Bryan blows some kisses at Addie who stares back at him, keeping a straight face.

“Excuse me. You are going to die in there.” the mysterious girl warns.

“Shut your mouth, or we're gonna kick your ass!” Troy says,angry at the girl.

Bryan “We got bats.”

Troy moans “I hate trees!”

As they enter the house, Addie chants “You're gonna regret it. You're gonna regret it. You're gonna regret it.”

Troy “Yeah!”

Bryan “Yeah!”

The boys smash everything inside of the house with their bats.

“Troy” Bryan says he looks at the door.

“Awesome, go,” Troy forced.

“No, you go, shithead.” Bryan says, not wanting to go first.

The boys go down the stairs, not knowing the dangers that they are about to face.

“Check it out." Troy pushed.

They find a room full of jars filled with human's and animal's parts. Troy picks up a jar containing an ear and drops it. As a result, it shatters onto the ground.

“It stinks in here. It stinks like shit. You remember last summer when we get the raccoon stuck in our chimney? That's what it smells like. Let's go find it.” Troy says, disgusted.

“No, it smells bad... I'm getting out of here.” Bryan says.

Troy goes further into the room, poping his crackers, while Bryan turns around, up the stairs. Suddenly, the popping stops. Bryan stops his ascension.

"Troy? " Bryan questions.

(A bottle rolls across floor)

"Troy? Who's down there? Cut it out, Troy. Cut it out." Bryan asks again, scared.

Bryan finds Troy on the ground, his throat slashed while Troy is reaching out to him, unable to utter anything. Suddenly, Bryan turns around and sees a terrifying creature called the infantata, running in their direction.

As a result, Bryan starts screaming bloody murder as Addy simply stars back at the house.

‿︵‿︵ ‿︵‿︵ ‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵ ‿︵‿︵ ‿︵‿︵

18th July 2011

Ugh this is soooo boring, I don't know why my parents aren't divorced already, whatever, it's not like I care.

"Mommmm are we there yet?" I complain.

" We'll be there soon honey. " mom says looking at me from the mirror thing.

Vivien : The light is different out here. It's softer.

Violet : It's called smog.

Ben : You should be excited, Vi. You can stop sneaking cigarettes and just start taking deep breaths.

Violet : I need to go to the bathroom.

Ben : We're almost there.

Violet : I need to go.

Ben : Vi, it's a freeway. Really, where do you want me to pull over? Maybe the Honda next to us has a bathroom or something.

Violet : Bet if the baby had to piss , you'd find somewhere.

"Hey! Don't call me a baby!" I pouted.

Vivien : Really? Violet, I hate that word, unless I'm saying it.

Ben : I'm really glad we named you Violet, instead of our second choice. Same with you Eve.

Violet : Which was?

Vivien : Sunshine.

"lol, cringe." Violet shoots me a ' wtf' look.

Ben : It's funny. Come on, you gotta admit it's funny.

‿︵‿︵ ‿︵‿︵ ‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵ ‿︵‿︵ ‿︵‿︵

Currently, we’re at the front of our brand new house and dad is ringing the doorbell.

Ben : I love it. Don't you love it, hon? I mean, it looks even better than it did online.

Vivien : Yeah, it's interesting.

“How about you Evelyn?” Dad asks me.

“I think it’s cool and superrr creepy. :) it’s totally haunted!” I beam while Violet keeps on thinking, ‘why does my sister have to be so creepy?’

Violet : Great. So we're the Addams Family now.

Ben : Hey, crabby pants. Come here.

Vivien : What are you doing?

Ben : Isn't this place amazing?

Suddenly, I see an old looking lady open the door.

Marcy : Welcome. It's a classic L.A. Victorian. Built around 1920 by the doctor to the stars at the time. It's just fabulous. These are real Tiffany fixtures. As you can see, the previous owners really loved this place like a child. They restored everything.

‘Tiffany, in that super cool famous store I see big celebrities like Lady Gaga buy and wear???!’ I think, amazed.

Vivian: Gay?

Marcy : What do you think?

Ben : Tiffany. Wow.

Marcy : Do you cook?

Ben : Viv is a great cook. I got her cooking lessons a few years ago, and she ended up teaching the teacher a few things.

Marcy : Cooking lessons... romantic. Aren't you a psychologist?

Ben : Psychiatrist. You said something on the phone about there being a study that I could use as a home office? I'm planning on seeing patients here, so I can spend more time with the family.

‘That’s kinda cool I guess : I wont have to deal with seeing the patients every day. Privacy, at last.’ I smile, happy at the idea.

Marcy : How refreshing.

(Vivien puts her dog down, and it goes running outside the kitchen, yapping)

Vivien : Violet, honey, would you go see where Hayley we-nt? Oh, never mind. Eve, try not to trip sweetheart!

“Hey fluffy, what’s wrong?” her eyes widen (she just came up with this) “I know! It’s ghost... spooky. 😃” Whoever the ghost was, decided to prank her by tapping her on the head lightly. “ Aaahhhh!!!” she screamed while running into her mothers chest while her mother was confused. Nevertheless, she’s pulled her daughter into a hug. “Mom! This shits haunted, so cool!”

Violet was used to this, username to her sister being obsessed and fascinated with scary things. Violet signed and went up to the dog,” What are you yapping at?”

That was soooo epic! Finally, I get to feel a ghost!!😊😃😀 im watching as the loser attempts to open a random creepy door, oh she’s done it, finalllly. I see her go in a bit and peek inside while she goes down the stairs. it's dark and creepy but whatever cool I guess.

‿︵‿︵ ‿︵‿︵ ‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵ ‿︵‿︵ ‿︵‿︵

I was walking back to the living room?? area.

Vivien : This wallpaper is peeling over here. Looks like maybe there's a mural underneath it.

Marcy : The last owners probably covered it up. They were modernists. Speaking of the last owners, full disclosure requires that I tell you about what happened to them.

‘Wait?! something happenedddd???’

Vivien : Oh, God... they didn't die in here or anything, did they?

Marcy : Yes, actually, both of them. Murder-suicide. I sold them the house, too. They were just the sweetest couple. You never know, I guess.

‘omgggggg ghostsss!!!! i called it! 😉’

Ben : That explains why it's half the price of every other house in the neighborhood, I guess.

Marcy : I do have a very nice mid-century ranch, but it's in the Valley, and you're going to get a third of the house for twice the price.

Ben : Right.

Violet : Where did it happen?

Marcy : The basement.

Violet : We'll take it.

‘:) operation find ghosts!’

‿︵‿︵ ‿︵‿︵ ‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵ ‿︵‿︵ ‿︵‿︵

Ben: Come on, babe, let's go to bed. Leave that for the morning.

Vivien : I'm a little bit worried about Violet, you know, these kids here are very different. I don't know if she can handle another year of not fitting in. Same with Evelyn, her friends at her old school weren’t a great influence on her.

Ben : You mean... you can't?

Vivien : Can't believe this place doesn't freak you out a little bit. 'Cause of what happened here?

Ben : My repulsion is tempered by the fact that this house is worth four times what we paid for it, so let's not think about it.

Vivien : This is your professional advice, Doctor, just denial?

Ben : Come on, let me give you a little love. Moving here, buying this house was the exact right thing to do for us and our family. It's a good thing and we deserve some good after all the shit we've been through.

Vivien : I've got some stuff I want to... unpack down in the kitchen. I appreciate that you're trying. I'm trying, too.

Ben : Okay.

Vivien : It's just gonna take some time.

‿︵‿︵ ‿︵‿︵ ‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵ ‿︵‿︵ ‿︵‿︵

Currently, I’m at the campus of my new middle school. I see a group of bitchy-looking girls out front.

Maria : Hey! Student council passed a rule against blowing bubblegum.

Katy : yeah, you could choke on it.

‘tf okay karen.’

“I'm new, I didn't know, sorry.” i roll my eyes.

Maria : What the hell is wrong with you? People sit here, they eat here.

“You don't know me. Why are you doing this?”

Katy : Maria's grandmother died from choking on gum, she takes this pretty seriously.

Maria : Eat it... eat it or I'm gonna kick the shit out of you.

“No. What?”

Cathy : Come on, , that's enough.

Maria : No, no, no, I want to see her eat it.

“No. No.”

Maria : Eat it, eat it.

Katy : Maria, seriously, she's like 10.

Maria tries to force me to eat the gum, but I take the gum out of my mouth and place it on Maria’s head. Maria screams.

Maria : You are dead! You are dead!

‿︵‿︵ ‿︵‿︵ ‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵ ‿︵‿︵ ‿︵‿︵

Currently, I’m peaking, leaning around the corner of my sister’s door.

Tate : This one I did after my dad left. I was ten, I think.

‘Who’s this?’

Violet : Last week, first day at my new school... sucks.

‘Ouch, that looks like it hurts.’

Tate : Westfield, right? The worst. I got thrown out of there.

Violet : I hate it here. I hate everyone. All there bourgeoisy designer bullshit. East Coast was much cooler. I mean, at least we had weather.

Tate : I love it when the leaves change.

Violet : Yeah, me, too.

Tate : Why did you move here?

Violet : My dad had an affair. My mom literally caught him in the act.

‘Yeah, why don’t they divorce then????!!‘ I acidentally slipped as i had been leaning into the door to much. oof

Violet: what are you doing here? wait, were u listening in on our conversation?!

“err, maybe?”

Tate: Who’s this?

“I’m Evelyn, Violet’s better sister, epic ghost hunter😼😎“

Tate smiles lightly, violet says, “whatever, come here.” she puts me on her lap while they carry on their conversatio

Tate : That's horrible. If you love someone, you should never hurt them... never.

Violet : Right? I know. And the worst part is that six months earlier, my mom had, like, this brutal miscarriage. The baby was seven months old, and we had to have this macabre funeral. Have you ever seen a baby coffin?

Tate sits near Violet and gently touches her wrist.

Tate : I'm sorry.

Violet : Why are you seeing my dad?

Tate : Don't ask questions you already know the answer to. You're smarter than that.

Violet : Want to listen to Morrissey? He's cool and he's pissy and he hates everyone and everything.

Tate : Got any Kurt Cobain on that thing?

Ben : What are you doing in here?

I turn my head around and see dad by the door

Violet : Just listening to music, Dad.

Ben : You need to leave, Tate. I'm sorry. He shouldn't be in here, and I think you know that... please.

Tate : What's that thing you think I'm afraid of? Fear of rejection?

Ben : Stay away from him.

Violet : Dad, nothing...

Ben : You heard me!

Tate : No! Bullet, bullet, bullet!

‿︵‿︵ ‿︵‿︵ ‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵ ‿︵‿︵ ‿︵‿︵

im in the kitchen with mom eating some sweets and i see a women and a girl.

Vivien : I want you to stay out of my house. Do you understand?

Constance : Can I smoke in here?

Vivien : No. Adelaide, answer me, please.

Addie : Can I pet your dog?

Vivien : No, Adelaide, I want you to stay out of the house. I want you to stop coming in and opening things up and telling me that I'm going to die.

Ben : She said that?

Constance : She says that to everybody. Say you're sorry, Addie.

Addie : No, they did it.

Vivien : Who did it?

Addie : The twins.

Constance : Shh.

Addie : Can I... pet your dog?

Vivien : No, Adelaide, listen to me. I want you to stop coming in here without permission. Am I clear?’

I wisper to mom, ‘why does she always come in the house, i can hear her a lot.’ mom just shrugs

Ben : Vivien.

Vivien : Am I clear?

Addie : Yes.

Vivien : Thank you.

Constance : Time to go, Addie.

Ben : Hallie!

Vivien : Are you okay?

Addie : She shouldn't have done that.

Constance : Sorry about all this. You touch my kid one more time and I will break your goddamn arm.

‘awkward, now thats a TRUE karen’

‿︵‿︵ ‿︵‿︵ ‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵ ‿︵‿︵ ‿︵‿︵

im at school and this bitch is trying to fucking fight me

Violet : I'm not scared of you!

Maria : Should be!

Kids : Fight, fight, fight!

i spit

Maria: little bitch!

‿︵‿︵ ‿︵‿︵ ‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵ ‿︵‿︵ ‿︵‿︵

Vivien : Hey. Whoa. Come here. What happened to your face?

“Fell down.”

Vivien : Come here. Sit, sit, sit. Boy or girl?

“Girls. Three of em.””

Vivien : Hope they look worse than you do. You know their names?

“I'm not narking.”

Vivien : You know, we can easily move you to a different school. There are a lot of really good private schools right in this neighborhood.

“I'm not running away. I'm not scared of them. Not afraid of anything.”

Vivien : It's like that time in kindergarten, when you insisted that I bring you home from the slumber party 'cause all the other girls were sleeping without the nightlight on. I know you've gotten the short end of the stick, lately. This move, and...your dad and I haven't exactly been great to be around.

“Why don't you guys get divorced, if you're so miserable?”

Vivien : We still love each other.

“ You could've fooled me. I thought you hated each other. Well, at least you hated him. I don't blame you. He was a shithead. Sorry.”

Vivien : It's okay. He was a shithead. You know, we got a lot of history. Your dad's been through a lot, I've been through a lot. Guess we need each other. What are you scared of?

“You said I'm not scared of anything, so... what scares you?”

Vivien : Lately? Everything. Life will do that to you.

#american #american horror story #murder house #murder #ahs #fanfiction #fanfic #ff #horror #thriller #drabble #story #stories #ahs coven #ahs murd #ahs murder house #american horror story asylu #american horror story coven #american horror story murder house

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ks-caster · 4 years

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It’s Like Watching Fanfiction – An (Un)Necessarily Long Critique of The 100 Seasons 6 and 7

Ah, the familiar cry of the content-starved fan, particularly as our favorite shows descend into the depths of mischaracterization, unexpected ships, hiatus, abrupt cancellation and shock-value death endings. I’ve said it myself about so many of my shows, while wanting to spend some time watching the characters but not wanting to re-hash episodes I’ve nearly memorized: “I wish I could just watch fanfiction!”

But the further into seasons 6 and 7 I’ve gotten, the more I’ve come to realize that my dream of having new and exciting possibilities for the characters come miraculously to a screen near me wouldn’t be the pleasant experience I’d imagined.

Now, depending on the type of ending you like – hopeful but with a lot of lose ends left to your imagination, or bittersweet but more definite, you could consider either seasons 1-4 or 1-5 their own complete stories.

Both seasons 4 and 5 ended in a way that suggested an unknown but likely positive future. They could have been considered conclusions for the main characters’ developmental arcs, and while season 5 went a little off the rails in terms of offscreen character development and sudden new characters, they both stayed fairly close to the original concept: survivors living in the ruins of the apocalypse. All four (or five) seasons emphasized the importance of the found family dynamic (although those dynamics shifted radically in season 5 due to the time-skip, they remained an important source of character motivation).

But seasons 6 and 7? Those feel like I’m watching fanfiction. And I don’t love it.

A story told on a whole new planet with a new environment, culture and cast of original characters was always going to feel like an AU – it sort of is, no matter how you swing it. If that was all that had changed, then I think the story would still feel cohesive.

If it weren’t for the timey whimey bullshit.

Now, fun fact: when reading fanfiction, I love time travel stories. I haven’t posted any myself but I’ve sought out and read them voraciously, for every fandom I’m in. I love the idea of characters meeting themselves or their friends at radically different ages, plot points and levels of experience and the way that changes things for both groups. (Yes, I’m also a Whovian if that wasn’t blatantly obvious). I also love a good amnesia arc. And I DID think that the Josephine/Clarke body possession thing was pretty cool.

So why did season 6 and most* of season 7 fall as flat for me as they did?

The simple fact is that some things – and characters’ emotional dynamics are one of those things – are so much easier to get across in writing than on screen. A good actor can make us feel the character’s emotions, but unless the film goes full-on Clarke’s mind space, we can’t really know what they’re thinking in individual moments. For the most part film as a genre has ways around this, but if it’s mishandled, then the emotional beats come off all wrong. (See for reference Tony Stark’s funeral where half the actors didn’t know what was going on due to Disney’s spoiler fears.)

If you’re going to include time skips in which things have happened and character dynamics have changed, you cannot handle it wrong.

Which brings us back to seasons 6 and (so far) 7 of The 100. So far to date we’ve had all of this occur either offscreen or asynchronously enough to be confusing to an audience watching the episodes in real time:

Jordan’s entire life prior to meeting Napkru in the waking world

Octavia’s character development while living on Skyring with the Diyozas

Hope’s first 22 years of life, on Skyring and (I presume) Bardo

Echo, Hope and Gabriel living on Skyring for 5 years with Orlando

Going back a little further, we also have the season 5 timeskip, which brought us Spacekru as found family, Clarke adopting tiny!heda, and Octavia building Wonkru. Now season 5 took care to show us Wonkru flashbacks and dedicate time to show Spacekru and the Griffin family loving on each other, making inside jokes etc. But it was still incredibly jarring for the audience in a lot of ways, because at the end of the day, we’ve spent four years with the character dynamics and development doing one thing, and no amount of telling us that they’ve had 6 years to do another thing while our time with them only lasted about one year in comparison is ever going to undo the importance of “show don’t tell.”

Let’s take Bellarkers’ beef with Becho for example. (Disclaimer: Since I don’t really have a strong opinion either way on the popular Bellamy ships, I hope that I’m representing what I’ve read from other people accurately.)

I understand cognitively that Bellamy and Clarke knew each other for one year (during which they were in a lot of intense situations that really didn’t leave them the emotional space to figure out how they felt about each other outside of “I don’t want to lose this person”) and Bellamy and Echo knew each other for seven years (six of which they had plenty of low-stress time to get to know each other, grow and mature side-by-side, etc.).

But that doesn’t compute on an emotional level when I as a watcher went straight from watching Bellamy and Raven tearfully eulogizing Clarke on the ring, to him turning up with a coffee mug and a plucky attitude to rescue her the second he finds out she’s alive and in trouble. I don’t think that could compute emotionally for me without having spent the last few years watching the dynamics shift and Becho happen. And that was with the writers giving me as a watcher an episode at the end of season 4 where Bellamy stops Echo from killing herself and connects with her on an emotional level, and then one at the beginning of season 5 where we got to see the spacekru dynamics, including them being together.

So we’re watching this show, many of us for the found family character relationships (god knows it’s not for all the positive happy feeling I get from watching *checks notes* ah, yes, characters having to constantly choose who to kill off in a string of increasingly huge and horrible genocides. *Side-eyes my life choices for getting into this fandom in the first place.*) Okay, we’re watching this show for the characters, and between seasons 4 and 5, many of those dynamics radically shift offscreen. Becho is the easiest and probably most talked-about example (well, and the Blake siblings, but the radical change shown in Octavia’s character between 4 and 5 makes that at least a little easier to choke down) but there are plenty of others, take your pick.

Although it makes perfect sense for a lot to change between separated groups of people in a half dozen years, it makes a lot less sense to an audience watching week to week, particularly when the show’s limited amount of screen time was too focused on plot to really delve into those changes and let us see and understand them. That was what made me think that the show was headed into jump the shark territory in season 5, but I really wanted to know what happened to my faves (Octavia, Raven and Memori, to be specific) so I kept watching.

Our fandom’s excellent writers spent the hiatus crafting mid-time-skip vignettes and missing character moments, and I spent the hiatus reading them. And I remember thinking that it would have been great if even a quarter of this content could have been put into the show to ease the audience into the dynamic shifts – but of course they’d never have the screen time to do all of that.

Especially, coming back to the main point, since written fiction allows the audience to see inside the characters’ heads, while television (usually) does not. It’s much easier to write a scene in which, say, two characters who have known each other for 7 years show that they’ve gotten into a relationship some time before the scene, and convince the audience that their relationship is good and healthy and genuine, than it would be to produce one for TV.

And then we come to seasons 6 and 7 – the 2-part AU longfic, stuffed full of OCs, loosely connected to the “science” of the original show, and heavily reliant on memory-bending time travel as a plot device.

As season 6 airs, the audience hasn’t really had a chance to process all the radical changes from season 5, and already we have a Marper child running around furthering the plot, and Octavia walks into the Green Flash from Pirates of the Caribbean and walks back out with a personality transplant.

Meanwhile, Clarke gets an actual personality transplant, and it takes even the people closest to her a concerningly long time to notice. Now, if I’d read that in a fic, the writer might’ve taken care to remind me as a reader – particularly after a long hiatus between seasons – that with the exception of Madi none of Clarke’s friends have seen her for more than a couple of weeks in 6 years, so them not noticing for a while that she’s behaving strangely isn’t really all that strange. But on TV, I don’t get to see Gaia’s thoughts when Clarke lets Madi go to school despite the danger – Tati Gabrielle’s facial expressions can only do so much to make up the difference. Because the time spent apart was not (and really could not be, based on the structure of the show) properly acknowledged on screen, scenes like that one leave audiences floundering and pointing out bad writing.

Having watched 7x02 The Garden, I think if I went back and watched season 6 after Octavia returns from the Anomaly, her conduct – especially around Bellamy – would make a lot more sense. (That was the plan for this weekend actually – but my damn Wi-Fi conked out…) However at the time it just seemed weird and unnatural. Had it been the only example of off-screen or asynchronous character development, it would have been a lot easier to swallow. However, season 5 happened, meaning both that I was still getting used to all of the new dynamics and that I had a higher standard for Octavia’s off-screen development, because we got enough bunker flashbacks that I felt like I at least understood Blodreina.

What would have made the whole thing make a lot more sense a year ago would have been if the hair and makeup department had made an effort to make her look older, so that we could see time had passed for her. Now, Marie is 33 in real life, and so was the Octavia who figured out that up is down and got Davy Jones Locker to send her back ran out of the Anomaly, so yes, that is what an actual 33-year-old looks like, and the media has distorted my perception of age. But from an audience perspective, I saw an actress playing a 23-year-old go in, and the same actress playing the same 23-year-old come out.

Gabriel pointed out that her hair was longer, but that only accounted for a few months of time. Since she went in looking dirty, wounded and exhausted, and came out clean, healthy and energetic, she could have passed for younger before I would have thought she was older. (In fact, I want to say there was a theory circulating at that time that the Octavia who came out of the Anomaly was actually a younger version of herself, and she was missing memories because she’d never formed them. I don’t remember whose theory this was though. If you know or if it’s your content I’m referencing please feel free to let me know and I’ll edit!)

In addition, the shifting loyalties in Wonkru near the end of season 5 complicated the character situation – in season 6, the majority of Wonkru peeps (lookin’ at you, Miller and Indra) switched over to the commander’s side. While Indra didn’t really have enough screen time to express an opinion about Octavia, Miller was very clear in season 6 that she was anathema now – which although that was probably a semi-reasonable step for his character, it just felt like someone took his Bellamy-and-or-Clarke-following season 1-4 character and popped it into his season 6 costume without taking the time to address the road he took to get there.

Post-lockerAnomaly Octavia had to face and slay her demons. (Grumbles and links the interested reader to this POST from @osleyakomwonkru regarding that horseshit.) Afterwards, she shows a major shift in personality, particularly towards her brother. Because we as the audience wouldn’t see her time on skyring for about year in real time (or learn that she was ten years older and therefore a lot more mature, the chemical changes of which would account for at least some of the difference even if she couldn’t remember anything else) we had no choice but to associate her change with the slaying of Blodreina, which seemed like a ham-fisted way of forcing her a quick and slick redemption arc and prepping The Blake Siblings to go back to being ride-or-die for each other in season 7.

Raven’s season 6 personality was also radically different from her 1-5 development – while I understand her having a remaining beef with Clarke and being emotional due to Shaw’s death (RIP!) the fact that the writing in season 6 reduced her to the nagging shrew trope until they needed her to do a coding deus ex machina just added to the feeling that I was watching someone take the characters around, change them to their own preferences (even if that preference was to push some into the background and make them tools for the B-plot) and toss them into an AU story. Which I could have enjoyed more if I had been reading it and therefore seeing inside the characters’ heads – and if I hadn’t paid for the privilege with ad revenue instead of voluntary clicks of the kudos/like/reblog/comment buttons.

Another issue with time skip relationship is exposition for the lesser known characters’ backstories. Both seasons 6 and 7 have so far had dramatic character mother death reveals that were conveniently not told to their most important people specifically because the appropriate time to tell those stories would have been during the offscreen time skips. I will (grudgingly) accept Echo, an adult making a conscious (and familiar) decision to change up her personality to fit into and survive within her environment, choosing not to tell a traumatic story that reminds her of her past. (She’s my next meta – stay tuned!)

I will not in a million years, however, believe that the Clarke Griffin who I watched for four seasons be set up as the blatantly obvious “compassionate mom-friend protagonist” adopted a traumatized 6-year-old, moved into said child’s village, burned or buried the bodies of everyone who lived there, and never ever brought up the child’s dead birth parents.

No way. The ONLY reason that could have possibly been scripted in that way was because that conversation needed to be there for plot reasons and the appropriate time for it to have been had was during the 6 years they spent off screen. Similarly, while (again) I’ll buy that Echo chose not to talk about her mom’s death with Bellamy before he decided to be a dick about it, I fully believe that the timing of that conversation was only there because if it had occurred on the ring where it would have been more appropriate, the audience would have missed it.

Now, picture this: if the scene with Madi had been in a written fanfic, Clarke could have said “you didn’t lose me,” Madi could have said “I didn’t mean you,” and Clarke could have remembered Madi telling her the story of her birth mom dying in her arms. Then Clarke could have mentally made the decision that she didn’t want Madi to relive that in an attempt to empathize with her, and she makes an effort to convince her that she’s fine. In just 2 or 3 paragraphs a written story could have effectively conveyed both the exposition and the emotional beats of the scene, concluding with Clarke making a (maybe misguided but still sweet) attempt to be a good mom by not dredging that up for Madi (or something – I’m not defending the crappy and inconsistent writing of Clarke’s parenting we’ve on screen so far).

Moving right along, we had a lovely flashback montage of Hope and Dev, which was sufficient to make me (and several of the tumblrs I follow) care about Dev at least enough to be saddened by his death. However, what we didn’t get was a damn crumb of flashback showing Orlando and Anomalykru developing any kind of familial relationship between him agreeing to train them, and whatever dynamic we were supposed to pick up on at the end of that episode. I got a little protective big sister vibe from Echo and Hope but that’s it. They apparently expended their allotment of emotion-inducing flashbacks on the dead guy, and failed entirely to make me give a shit about (as it turned out) the next dead guy.

Now we’re going into an episode with Octavia on (presumably) Bardo in the promo, so I’m guessing we get to see her skyring-self link up with her return-to-Gabriel-with-clean-hair self. As least with Octavia’s jumping storyline it seems like the writers have consistently made some kind of effort to fill in the blanks.

But we’re also looking at the rest of the season where Echo, Gabriel, Hope, oh hi Jordan I forgot about you again, Diyoza, Octavia, and probably Bellamy and Hoth!Kru (AKA team let’s follow Raven onto a strange planet without putting on suits or having an exit strategy, yay!) have all experienced asynchronous development over periods of multiple years. Given the show’s track record from seasons 5 and 6, I strongly suspect that this won’t be handled any better, meaning that the final season of this show is going to try not only to resolve all the plot points, but to toss in a bunch MORE offscreen character development and hope we catch on.

Beyond character development jumps, we also have Raven and Murphy losing their seasons 1-5 development in season 6 only to have to re-learn and re-change back to who they already were in seasons 4 and 5. Murphy learned to value his spacekru family and stop putting himself first 100% of the time, and yet his arc in season 6 happened. Raven has always been involved in the big life-or-death decisions, and had her being-the-bad-guy moment in season 4 with the rationing, but as we saw in 7x03 the writers really wanted to… redo all of that for her? The girl blew up a bridge full of guys and flash-fried a 300-person army when she was 18; blood on her hands may not be fun but what’s with seasons 6 and 7 acting like it’s something new?

While I’m aware that Jason said his seasons are individual movies (don’t admit that you’re bad at continuity buddy ‘cause that’s what it sounds like) seasons 1-5 and 6&7 are clearly telling separate stories (or 1-4, 5, 6-7 if you prefer). The trouble with 6&7 is that unlike seasons 1-4 (and sort-of 5) we no longer know the characters. Every time someone sits still too long, character-development wise, plot comes along and hits the reset button, tosses them into a wormhole for a couple of years and they come back with the same face but no continuity. It was difficult enough to deal with in season 5 – between 6 and 7 I just can’t keep up. (Even writing this meta, I have to keep going back because I remembered another character who fell into this trap.)

Now if a fanfic writer had done the exact same thing – same plot, same time skips, same organization – it would have played out completely different to the readers. We could have gotten to see inside the character’s minds when they arrived back on screen, seeing things with new, older eyes. We could have had minimally invasive flashbacks to show important exposition (like the disaster that was the conversation about Madi’s mom) and verbal descriptions to point out differences like Octavia’s ten-years-older body. Additionally, the plots of seasons 6 and 7 are so different yet full of overdone callbacks to the earlier seasons – if a fan was writing their own AU story but still wanted some of the trappings of the original plot I’d get it, but on a TV show written by the same people it just feels like they ran out of ideas.

Watching seasons 6 and 7 is exactly like watching fanfiction would be – but without the written and fan-made advantages of fanfiction, they fall flat.

*I do like season 7 better than season 6 because the content of the individual episodes containing Murphy/Emori/Raven and Octavia/Diyoza/bbyHope was still enjoyable content, so 2 out of 4 I have liked so far, despite this very very long rant I’ve just written explaining why as a whole I rather hate the season overall.

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pluviophile-bookworm · 4 years

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AWAE 1x4 rewatch: thoughts and reactions

By popular demand of no more and no less than 14 people (which is quite enough to convince me), I’m back with another AWAE rewatch - reaction. Today, we’re diving into 1x4, which I don’t really remember anymore so it should be interesting to return to it after all this time. Without further ado, let’s get started:

First of all, I will never stop wondering ( especially now that I’ve seen season 3) why the first season was so dull and grey in terms of lighting. I mean, it’s almost black and white. I think I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again anyway - it was probably because the first two seasons were filmed in winter and the third one in summer, but still - there’s editing to fix that, and some editing was probably done, so it must be a creative choice. It makes some sense considering how bad Anne’s past was and how unhappy the last few days have been, at least from her point of view, but I still find it rather depressing.

Anne’s little song is so cute, and I love her singing - it’s simple and clear and it sounds just like the child Anne’s supposed to be, but it’s also kind of a reflection of what’s going through her mind - she’s still holding on to her imaginary self, Cordelia, but is now accepting herself for what she thinks she is - “strange and plain”. Well, she sure is strange, but there’s nothing wrong with that - it’s beautiful, and she’s certainly anything but plain.

Anne means well, but we all know she’s easily distracted, so I wouldn’t make a promise I couldn’t guarantee if I were her.

For once, Rachel is not really annoying me and she actually has good advice. The best part is, this is straight from the book, and I love me some accuracy to source material. Of course, it won’t be long before Anne’s back in school, and (almost) everything will have changed when she goes back.

“How awful it would be to be in service of those who neglect you or treat you unkindly”... oh gosh, Anne’s dark past is creeping into her fantasies. I don’t like this, I don’t like it at all. She does need school to distract her from her trauma.

The one time Rachel had good advice for Marilla, she isn’t going to follow it. Why do things have to be like this? This episode is depressing. I want Anne out of the house and back in school now. I don’t know why, but I do. It’s like I’m putting myself in her shoes, and, sure, what happened back at school was humiliating enough for her not to want to ever go back, but walking around a little room, stuck within its four walls, gets really depressing after some time, no matter how enjoyable it might be at first.

Yes, Matthew is a kindred spirit, and yes, he knows better than to force Anne to go back to school before she’s ready, but I bet my life he’d never want her to miss out on her education when she has so much potential and has the chance to fulfil it. Especially because he didn’t have the chance to finish his own education and he obviously regrets it.

Anne’s trauma as shown in this episode is too much for me. It should come with a trigger warning. But there is no trigger warning for Anne, and there is no escape. Not when she’s stuck at home, wallowing in her humiliation. She has to get out of there, and her imagination is just not enough anymore because it keeps going back to the worst moments of her life, and those are really bad.

I honestly love Matthew so much. He is the first true kindred spirit. He understands. He understands the most important thing - Anne is not like the others. She needs to do things at her own pace. And right now she’s just not ready to face school again. But she does need company, otherwise she’ll drive herself crazy miserable, like she’s already started to in the scene where she calls out to her imaginary friend Katie Morris. And no, I don’t think Matthew is being too soft with her - I do think, however, that Marilla is being too hard on her. But she’ll get better. We know she does.

As heartbreaking as it was to learn (in a later scene which I remembered just now from my first watch) that Anne hasn’t really been going back to school, I have to give it to her - she does a pretty good job of pretending she went and that she’s going there again.

And there it goes - first, dear little Jerry realises Anne is staying late “at school”, and then who should come by but Diana and Ruby (who is still not on the friendliest terms with Anne, but she’ll come around as soon as Anne decides to try interacting with her again). I mean, Anne must really have thought that even Diana wouldn’t care about her at all, or else it would have been really foolish to believe she wouldn’t ask after her when she didn’t come back to school for so long. Having a caring new friend spoiled Anne’s pretty little plan, didn’t it? How ironic. But it just wasn’t healthy for Anne to isolate herself so completely. And this is coming from me, an introvert who would really have liked to homeschool herself and never see another person outside of family members again after a number of humiliating moments at school. I’m old enough now to realise how detrimental total isolation can be. But Anne is not yet and she’ll have to go through a couple more traumatising moments before she finds joy in school again.

Jerry fixing up his hat and jacket before greeting Diana and Ruby and then being all confident/ sassy/ might I say even slightly flirty with his simple “Hello, ladies”... the sight of it gives me life. The shipper in me would say this is the first tiny glimpse of Derry, but the protective older sister instinct in me, who has witnessed and will never forget the events of 3x8, can only see this as a glimpse of what Jerry has always really been like until Diana’s unjust treatment broke him. He was happy. He was confident. He never thought it was above him to speak to Diana before. He never thought of himself as unworthy of respect and love. What Diana did to him, even if she didn’t mean it, broke him and we’ll never get to see him fully recovered because of some stupid people who decided to cut the series short whenever they felt like it. It’s just unfair. If not to us viewers, then at the very least to Jerry. And that should be enough. #renewawae

“Anne’s too sensitive for this world” - Well, that certainly is true, but maybe it’s actually the other way around. Maybe the world is too insensitive to her. Honestly, why?

Marilla has the face of a parent who has just found out their child has been doing something behind their back... honestly, that face is so scary when you’re the kid, I don’t even want to think about it. Now Anne will definitely be going back to school, whether she likes it or not.

Anne talking about Native names reminds me of her conversations with Ka’kwet in season 3. Yes, she might not be a Cordelia or anything fancy, but just plain Anne, but thanks to who she is, the name Anne now sounds so much more colourful and magical to me. It is not the name what makes you who you are, it is who you are that gives your name its meaning. I firmly believe in that, and I wish Anne would, too. I know she’ll realise that in due time, but it just pains me to watch her speak ill of herself because of what she’s been hearing so many awful people say throughout her life.

Melkita’ulamun. A strong and brave heart. This is what your Native name would be, Anne dearest, at least if Ka’kwet was an elder and had a say in it. And I fully agree with her.

The minister’s visit, and his words that are less than respectful to women, just have to be enough to lead her back to school. So, you can say that, in a way, he did his job well even if he’s not the most admirable kind of person.

And if the minister’s misogynist take on the Bible wasn’t enough to convince Anne that her place really is in school, then Jerry is sure to finish the job. “Boys can do anything they want”, is that what you think, Anne? Well, this boy would much rather go to school than work his butt off to provide for his family, but he’s anything but “lucky” that way. I understand Anne is traumatised by her past, but the last few days that she’s spent outside of school she’s been thinking of nobody but herself, as much as it pains me to say it. She has a lot to learn, and not just from books. Has she never thought about why she could never get a proper education and had to work instead? Jerry’s situation is no better. Well, arguably, he’s a lot better off mentally and psychologically, but Anne is only a couple years behind her peers. Jerry never even had the chance to learn the alphabet. He’s forced to be illiterate in both languages he speaks, and that is so tragic, honestly. But it is about to change, as soon as Anne realises how lucky she is and starts extending her fortune to him as her found little brother.

“I never thought that a wife is what I would be” But you will be, Anne, and not only a wife, but also one that is her husband’s intellectual equal and also “the fond object of [his] affection and desire”. But you can never be that unless you go right back to school and get a proper education, not an education in propriety. Because you can. Jerry was spot on in saying that.

Oh, great. Now Marilla has an identity crisis - an identity crisis at her age! I didn’t even know that was possible. But the minister’s words seem to have made a stronger impression on her than they have on Anne. I hope at least the conversation with Jerry, which is by far my favourite moment from this rather depressing episode, sweeps her in the right direction.

My, is that the fire at Ruby’s house? Now that will definitely shake things up. I had forgotten this episode is the mid-season mark, and the fire happens, of course, around the middle of it. It’s like a new beginning. A phoenix that will rise from the ashes of the Gillis house, changing everyone’s perception of Anne for the better, giving her her second best friend, changing Miss Gillis into the Ruby I know and love with all my heart, getting Anne to go back to school after Marilla, the minister, and Jerry didn’t quite succeed. This is a disaster, but one that was, in the grand scheme of things, for the better.

Gosh, Anne, you’re going to give poor Diana a stroke. But you look like you know what you’re doing, and that’s important.

For about a minute, the most intense minute in the lives of everybody present, everybody is worried about Anne to the point of insanity, but then she emerges from the burning house and tells everybody she’s ok - and as soon as she explains why she ran inside an empty burning house, Jerry makes sure everyone knows what Anne did and that she is a hero.

Diana, for one, thinks Anne is marvellous and brave - and I agree with her. Ruby will learn soon enough. She might not have the best attitude right now, but she will learn. She will get better.

Look at Ruby, crying like a baby about a dress, when Anne only has two of her own and is ready to lend one to a girl who doesn’t even want anything to do with her. Within a single episode, Anne has gone from the selfish one who needs to be taught a lesson in how lucky she is to have what she has, to the one who will teach the selfish one that same lesson. And I know Ruby will learn it soon, too.

“I shall never be dissuaded from my low opinion of him”. Well, a lot of opinions changed after that night. This is one of them, only it will take a little longer than most other things.

Very funny, Billy! Ruby has fallen on her face and all he can do is laugh at her dismay, even though she’s bringing him biscuits. And then we get several layers in this scene. We have Ruby, the damsel in distress, the traditional girly girl; Billy, the misogynistic, “boys are superior, girls belong in the kitchen” type of guy, perpetuating toxic masculinity; Anne, the feminist who could get the job done as well as any boy and better than some; and Gilbert, the gentleman, the embodiment of healthy masculinity. I can see why Ruby is in love with him. Who wouldn’t be? Oh, right, Anne. She’s going out of her way not to meet his eye while he’s doing his best to discreetly look at her without offending Ruby. I see the Shirbert tension is strong from the first episodes on.

“If you were a boy, it would have ended up in fisticuffs.” Oh, it will, soon enough. Billy can’t get away with his behaviour forever. There are, and always will be, enough boys who agree with Anne (not that she needs boys to fight her battles for her), and one day, one of them will snap. I can’t wait to get to that moment. I mean, I am very much an advocate for non-violence, but Billy Andrews deserves some righteous violence directed at him every once in a while.

Oh, this is it! The founding of the Story Club! The beginning of something so beautiful, it’s almost like magic. What am I saying, “almost like”? It is magic. Too bad it, too, will meet its end, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Oh, I see the minister’s words - possibly combined with Billy’s “stay in the kitchen” remarks - have finally reached Anne in the right way. She’s going back to school and the other kids are more than happy to see her. Well, most of them, anyway. I think she was right, though, and if she had gone back the day she was supposed to, she wouldn’t have been received quite so warmly. But what does it matter now? Things are looking up.

To sum up what we saw in this episode: a miserable Anne staying home from school; Anne’s PTSD acting up when she has no education to take her mind off of her horrible past; Matthew is a true kindred spirit #InMatthewWeTrust; Anne homeschools herself away from home, the way education was done in ancient times - surrounded by nature; Jerry’s first on-screen interaction with Diana (and Ruby); some thoughts on Native North American names; a misogynist minister; the tragedy of Jerry having no chance of a proper education; a fire in the Gillis house; a literal fire-forged friendship; the alignment chart of misogynist vs. feminist; the founding of the Story Club; Anne goes back to school to a warm welcome.

#anne with an e #awae #awae season 1 #jnk watches awae #anne shirley cuthbert #marilla cuthbert #matthew cuthbert #in matthew we trust #jerry baynard #rachel lynde #diana barry #ruby gillis #gilbert blythe #billy andrews #moody spurgeon

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