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guardian-angle22 · 12 days

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Happy to present to y'all this 911LS fic list for stories related to one of my favorite episodes 3.13 Riddle of the Sphynx! I try to make these as comprehensive as possible, so if you have any you think I missed, let me know so I can add them. (I also might make edits to these posts to add more fics as they get written. If I ever do so I'll be sure to reblog the post for visibility!)

Enjoy all of our amazing fandom writers and leave them some comments & love!

[Disclaimers: • If you're an author and don't like to be tagged or linked for any reason, let me know and I'll remove the tag and make sure not to do so in the future, no questions asked. • I usually post TWs in rec lists. Due to the episode subject matter, assume all of these have a TW for discussion of addiction/drug use and possibly discussion of parent death/grief.]

◆ Chasers by @carlos-in-glasses (Words: 13.4K; Rating: E)

After 3x13 – while TK is alone with Cooper, Carlos is alone with his thoughts. Both recall times they’ve chased the next high, other men, or each other. When Carlos arrives home, TK still has something important to say – and it's something he didn’t tell Cooper.

◆ trying my best by @reyescarlos (Words: 10.3K; Rating: M)

An exploration of TK's sobriety journey from 2017 to now. Or, a season 3 coda spanning 3x08-3x13

◆ You Showed me How it feels to Truly be Seen by @ramblingdisaster73 (Words: 3K; Rating: T)

Carlos works through the events of 3x13 "The Riddle of the Sphinx".

◆ Measure of a Man by @chicgeekgirl89 (Words: 1.8K; Rating: T)

“I want to be everything you need. That I can’t be, it hurts, T.K. It feels like a failure on my part. And as much as I’m trying to accept it, it’s hard.” A 3x13 coda in which Carlos struggles with a new definition of being "enough."

◆ I'll be here all the same by @strandnreyes (Words: 4.8K; Rating: G)

“I am glad you have someone you can talk to who can maybe do a better job at fixing things,” Carlos insists before dropping his eyes to their tangled together fingers. “All I want is for you to be okay.”It’s not surprising to hear, but it hits as if it was. That really is the root of this whole thing. As much as Carlos wants to do what he can to be the person to get TK to that place, at the end of the day all he really wants is for TK to get there.“I will be.”Or, three late night conversations following the events of 3.13

◆ Trigger by comes2gusu (Words: 4.7K; Rating: T)

TK is struggling with his newly found sobriety. After being triggered at an NA meeting, Cooper takes TK for omelets

◆ this love we carry by @thevenstar (Words: 7.6K; Rating: T)

A 3x13 coda in which Carlos has a conversation with a friend, puts his heart to rest, and learns that walking away does not mean surrender.

◆ Those Pieces by @taralaurel (Words: 7.3K; Rating: M)

"I, I'm not telling you all - this - so you can fix me," TK huffs a hot breath against Carlos' chin, "or save me or really, do anything, okay?" Carlos nods against TK's forehead. TK has done a lot of things in his life to deserve the bad that has happened to him. He has no idea what good he's done to deserve Carlos. Coda to 3x13

◆ the one i want by @chaotictarlos (Words: 2K; Rating: E)

TK gets Carlos to take his shirt off.

◆ i want you to unravel me by @reyescarlos (Words: 4.2K; Rating: E)

In the aftermath of the strain that's fallen over them, TK and Carlos bridge the gap with open conversation that brings them closer together, both emotionally and physically. [3x13 coda]

◆ Just Wanna Breathe by @theoceanismyinkwell (Words: 1.9K; Rating: G)

Carlos doesn’t dare look at him for long, knowing that his eyes have always been the window to his soul, the weakest part of his body, unveiling everything in the well of truths he’s kept a lid on for years and years. His family may not be able to read him as well as he feared for the decades he was in the closet, but TK has a way of crashing into his life with a formidable gentleness and a piercing understanding that unmoors him in every possible way.And that’s precisely what TK is doing now, keeping the warmth of his palms flush against the beating of Carlos’ skin, cradling his face, forcing them both to gaze into each other’s eyes and face each other’s unspoken terrors without flinching.TK sounds like he has a lump in his throat. “I’m going to say something, and I want you to listen to me and I want you to remember it.”---Or: What happens when Carlos comes back home after TK's talk with Cooper, and the confessions that spill out after.

◆ waiting on the sidelines by @morganaspendragonss (Words: 1.5K; Rating: T)

They’d promised each other no more secrets, and while Carlos rationally knows that these aren’t exactly secrets, there’s still this grain of resentment inside of him that scratches away with every beat of his heart. It’s something he can’t let show in front of TK ever again, which is why he’s here, outside Owen's house while TK and Cooper talk in the loft.If anyone’s going to understand what he’s feeling, it’s Owen Strand.

◆ Three Weeks In by @masterroadtripper (Words: 3K; Rating: T; TW: self-harm)

It’d been three weeks since Sadie had drugged them - nineteen days since TK started a ninety-day NA sobriety program at the local Synagogue and eleven days since Carlos had met Cooper for the first time - before Carlos realized that there was something else TK wasn’t telling him.

◆ What We Need by Ehm (Words: 3.1K; Rating: T)

"You okay, bud?" Cooper startled him out of his thoughts and he let go of the spoon with a clinking noise. He straightened up, embarrassed. "Sorry, I zoned out." "I can see that," Cooper sounded vaguely amused. "You wanna talk about it?" --- Three times TK has a conversation with Cooper, and one time he talks to Carlos. Or, 3x13 and beyond from TK's point of view.

◆ Nocturne by @sanctuaryforalluniverses (Words: 735; Rating: T)

Carlos comes home. (Post-ep for 3x13)

◆ Precious Love by @rmd-writes (Words: 11.6K; Rating: M)

This is five times TK thinks he doesn’t deserve love and one time he knows he does – an exploration of TK’s relationship with love and self-worth.

◆ Inside a snow globe by @goodways (Words: 6.9K; Rating: E)

It isn’t until TK is on top, lavishing Carlos’ neck, stroking his hand up his side, that Carlos brings their faces together, barely a suggestion of a kiss between them. He holds TK’s jaw and keeps him close whilst he readies the question in his mind. He breathes out a straightforward and tempting, “fuck me,” over TK’s lips which silences the world outside their bedroom. TK’s response whenever he’s asked for this has few variations between immediate enthusiastic compliancy and the sweet reassurance he knows Carlos is dying for. The answer is always yes. - The evening after TK gets his one month sobriety chip.

◆ my home has been your heart since the day i met you by @lavendergiroux (Words: 1.8K; Rating: M)

After Carlos leaves Cooper and TK to talk, all they do is talk about him. When Carlos comes home - they are still talking about him.

◆ Deep Talks and Cuddles by raniaswritings (Words: 1.2K; Rating: T)

TK talks to Cooper and Carlos comes back home after a few hours

◆ “What are you doing?” “I don’t want you to do that.” by @irispurpurea (Words: 1.1K; Rating: T)

Fictober 2022 Day 13 and 14. Prompts: “What are you doing?” “I don’t want you to do that.” “What are you doing?” Carlos looks up to find TK frowning at him from their bedroom. “I…” Carlos holds up the blanket in his hands, unsure what else to say. He thinks it’s pretty obvious what he’s doing. Then again, tonight has proven that he can’t do anything right, apparently, when it comes to TK.

◆ "It's your shirt..." by @lavendergiroux (Words: 780; Rating: M)

TK really didn't want to talk about it, he just really needed Carlos to claim him...

◆ sunkissed face by mooshkat (Words: 1K; Rating: T)

To show his appreciation, TK decides to make Carlos breakfast.

Spec Fics Written Prior to the Episode Airing/Canon Convergence:

◆ if the darkness comes, i'll stay by @doublel27 (Words: 3.2K; Rating: T)

“I had some things to do,” TK says, his stomach twisting. “Some things?” “Carlos, I texted,” TK reminds his boyfriend, because he did. “It’s fine.” “Is it?” Carlos asks, his voice dangerously calm. or TK comes home late for the third night in one week, and he and Carlos have a necessary confrontation. A speculative fic for 3x13.

◆ Caught by @littlemissmarianna (Words: 761; Rating: G)

“Who’s that?” Carlos doesn’t answer Mitchell’s question because he doesn’t know. There’s only a handful of people he can identify from the back, and this guy isn’t on the list. He has broad shoulders, though, and nice hair and is probably good-looking. Why else would TK be staring at him so intently?

◆ In Order to Get Back to Us by reyestrand (Words: 2.2K; Rating: G)

Carlos waits up for TK when he’s late coming home and they talk about the things they’re afraid to. - a 3x13 speculation fic

◆ still comparing your past to my future by @kiras-sunshine (Words: 17.4K; Rating: T)

Something else than the wallowing feeling of uneasiness, anxiety and hurt in the bottom of his stomach. All of it seems to have a chokehold on his heart and no matter what he tries to think about, his thoughts always go back to TK, to worry that keeps mixing in with everything, and the brightness of TK’s smile, the way the corner of his mouth curled up and his eyes shone, when he smiled at someone else than him.

#911 lone star #911 lone star fic rec #fic recs #fic rec list #tarlos fic #episode: s3e13 riddle of the sphynx #fic writers are amazing and we need to hype them up #my gifs #cutting it close on finishing up this list while still on the rewatch week for it!

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absolutebl · 3 years

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This Week In BL

April 2021 Part 5

Being a highly subjective assessment of one tiny corner of the interwebs.

Ongoing Series - Thai

Close Friend Ep 2 (JaFirst) - First is a cat. No actually a cat. It was WEIRD. Cute, but creeping towards beastiality. It reminded me of that strange series out of China (@heretherebedork says Youth in the Breeze). The most amusing thing to me was that the cat used Thai formal linguistic register when of course cats would use informal rude guu mueng with EVERYONE. No cat would use pom. Don’t be ridiculous, Thailand.

Second Chance Ep 5 - still invested, things progressed for all 3 couples, in one direction or another. They cuties. I love them. Carry on.

Y-Destiny Ep 5 - the “virgin scoreboard” is gonna make the seme real hard to redeem with this pairing. If they bother. This might be a life lesson episode. What does it remind me of? Oh yes. Kids. *SHUDDER* Point of interest: did you notice Team uses ha with Mon? What a pushy flirt.

Lovely Writer Ep 10 - honestly I just love it when Poppy shows up in anything, why is he such a delightful screen presence? (Gene’s brother) Sorry, distracted. What happened in this one? Oh, ya know, stuff and things. Family drama. (It is just me or have they been giving us some long ass episodes lately?) Obligatory beach trip activated. (Result = dumb probability mathematics jokes.) Next week it looks like we have Keeping Actor’s Closeted 101. You know the Casting Couch? This is the Casting Closet.

Fish Upon The Sky Ep 4 - early stage confession, how fun. It’s not unprecedented it just usually means we are in 4 act structure, not 3, which means Fish might go more serious than I thought. Honestly? I’m losing interest mostly because I’ve gone from mild annoyance to active dislike of Pi. Happened to me with Tine too. They better redeem this obtuse tsundere uke soon or he’s not tsundere at all he’s just a jackwit.

Brothers Ep 13 fin - a kiss and the family finds out about the not-so-brotherly brothers, drama, graduation, THE END. My side-dish happy heart made thumps over Q + delivery boy, I’m sad they got so little screen time. My babies KhunKaow did get a tiny coming out sequence as such. I’m seriously considering doing myself a bootleg of just the KhunKaow plot, but that means I’d have to rewatch the whole darn series and I can’t STAND the idea. Which should give you insight into how not good this show it. Very NOT good. Must we get a season 2? Please stop now, Line.

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

HIStory 4: Close To You (Taiwan) Ep 7 - Muren is the cutest peanut and anyone who says otherwise can fight me, although they probably have to go through Licheng first. I was NOT invested in these two at the beginning, but as a couple? They own my soul. The other storyline is still the dumpster fire that I can’t decide to roast marshmallows over (knowing they’ll get tinged with eu de trash) or flee from in horror clutching my pearls and my nose. H4 continues to provide the quality psyche torture I’ve come to expect from this franchise. *sarcastic thumbs up* *** A word on seeing Boxiang show up (side dish from H3:MODC). It was an unexpected pleasure, I loved his pairing (May/December is a winner for me *glares at Method*) but I do think it was a bone from the franchise telling us that we are never getting that spin-off or reboot that people yearn for. However, how AWESOME that Licheng has someone to go to and ask about topping properly. Otherwise he’s sure to have screwed it up. (Pun intended.)

Papa & Daddy (Tailwan) Ep 1-2 - this came out of nowhere and is ADORABLE. Applies a ton of BL tropes (cheek kiss, his closet, B&W stripes, drag baby around, boop) but what IS it? More slice of gay domesticity than romance. Like 2019′s Kinou Nani Tabeta? or currently airing Close Friend. I enjoy this style, very wholesome, but I’m not sure what to call it. (Bonus points for cutie lesbians.) A bit weird to have a kid with your partner and STILL not be out to your parents. I hope they aren’t going to throw in a break up for dramatic effect.

My Lascivious Boss (Vietnam) Ep 4 - I’m really enjoying this series. It’s unabashedly queer, although there’s some problematic stuff lurking under the wig. How it ends is gonna dictate if they handled this stylishly. But hot damn the leads ZING on screen together and their crackling prank-flirting is a joy to watch.

Word of Honor (China) Ep 31-33 - moving into the home stretch. Big rescue and the band is back together (presumably for the final slaughter). Then a death! *this is my shocked face* Did I tear up? Of course I did. 4 act structure is designed for maximum pathos during the final 1/4. Did we all faint from the symbolism of the love token hair stick being gently thrust into Ah Xu’s bun? Sure we did. All that and sill I’m flagging. This is a long-arse show. Save me, Korea, with your iItsy bitsy teenie weenie...

Nobleman Ryu’s Wedding (Korea) Ep 5-6 - I am getting such strong 12th Night vibes from this. Tae Hyung is now brigadier of BL’s historical himbo brigade. (To be deployed whenever you are in need of poetry or a cut sleeve.) This show is all ridiculous charm and I LOVE it. Although, five seconds of Lee Sang is not enough Lee Sang. I had to immediately rewatch Wish You.

Gossip

Nitiman gave us an actor intro BTS teaser.

Kang In Soo (AKA Kyang Insoo) posted a cute behind the photo shoot of Nobleman Ryu’s Wedding plus a silly interview with Jang Eui Soo on his YouTube channel (you should subscribe, it’s a fun channel, his fitness regime is both insane and inspiring).

My Engineer 2 dropped a couch interview with the boys but it feels like one that was filmed a while ago (oh and no subs).

STARTING SOON: Nitiman, Love Area, Top Secret Together, Be Loved in House, & I Promised You The Moon

Nitiman (Thai) May 7, One 31. University set, moons, engineering students, enemies to lovers, adapted. - Looks to be a solid 2 Moons knock off, I’m in.

Love Area (Thai) May 8, AIS Play, 10 eps total. Restaurant set, stars Pak Chavitpong (the only good thing about Cupid Coach) and the OST is sung by Jeff Satur (Ingredients). - It’s boys in love revolving around food = my kryptonite, try to stop me from watching this probable trash.

Top Secret Together (Thai) May 14, Line TV. 5 couples, one IRL (Newyear from I Am Your King), story arcs revolve around secrets. - I’m getting fatigued by these multi-couple sampler pack dramas, but I’ll try it for Newyear’s sake.

Be Loved in House: I Do (Taiwan YES!) May 20, Viki. Office set, relationships prohibited at work by a new boss, one of the employees is determined to figure out why. Grumpy/tsundere pairing so loads of drama. - I am so flipping excited for this one. A 4th BL series from Taiwan in less than a year? That’s unprecedented. GO BABY ISLAND GO!

I Promised You the Moon (Thai) May 27, Line TV. Follow up to I Told Sunset About You with the boys now at university. - I won’t be watching this as I have yet to finish season 1.

Possibly Gameboys season 2. - Rumors are all over the place right now on this.

Next Week Looks Like This:

Some shows may be listed later than actual air date for International accessibility reasons.

Upcoming 2021 BL master post here.

Links to watch are provided when possible, ask in a comment if I missed something.

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astrodances · 3 years

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F.O.W.L. Case Files: The Unknowing Traitor

Some people have made some fantastic theories about Beakley being the traitor. I and others have speculated about it being Duckworth. And the show itself has pointed at it being Donald.

But Beakley and Duckworth, if they were it, would most certainly be in the know about it (no sleeper agent roles for them). Donald, if it’s him, wouldn’t be a sleeper agent (necessarily), just an unknowing traitor.

(Rest is under the cut!)

(Disclaimer: I know many have already speculated that Webby might be a sleeper agent for F.O.W.L. - but if that’s the case, that has yet to happen. I’m talking about Donald being an existing/current traitor.)

This is basically just gonna be a list of evidence for Donald being the traitor, in no particular order, except for the first point being my main piece of evidence (and the second one being a kinda wild sub-theory):

Donald wasn’t just the “ruse” for F.O.W.L.’s mechanical mosquito in “Challenge of the Senior Junior Woodchucks!” - he was bitten. I think he was their target.

Right after this shot near the end of the episode, and after the close-up on the mosquito, where we see that it’s a camera, the scene changes to F.O.W.L. HQ and specifically shows Gandra first, looking quite in her not-really evil scientific element. And what has Gandra made it clear she’s worked with?

Nanites (microscopic robots) and eyebuds.

What if that mosquito was more than just a camera? What if it injected Donald with some specially-made nanites that didn’t necessarily use Donald’s body’s electricity for external power (although, maybe in the finale?), but to spy on him and the family from his own eyes and maybe ears? (Whether it’s eyebud technology at work here or a different method is up for debate.) This way, F.O.W.L. was able to spy on them all a little closer from the beginning of this particular season, and know where all the Missing Mysteries were. The mosquito was just for this one trip, as they could have easily known about the Ducks going to Woodchuck Island, and they wanted to see if they found the journal.

Bonus crack theory: I was taking this one step further and thinking that, at the end of “Double-O-Duck”, when he brought them back from the lighthouse, Bradford could’ve totally injected Dewey and LP with nanites while they were still unconscious. XD

To put the icing on the above, I’d just like to point out that there’s that Donald/spying-centric episode of DT87 called ��Spies in Their Eyes”. Between the major hints coming from that title, Donald being hypnotized into being a traitor in that episode (he does look hypnotized in the top pic of this post...), and one of the main themes of it being “loose lips sink ships,” it all seems veeery suspicious.

(A side thought I just had, but speaking of sinking ships and that DT87 episode dealing with a secret sub, I just remembered that in last week’s “Life and Crimes...”, Louie “accidentally” sold the sub. Gonna keep my eye on that...)

But anywho, actually speaking of “loose lips sink ships”...

Remember the fact that Donald has that “PARTY FOWL” fanny pack?

In this post, people were saying that Donald was accidentally around F.O.W.L., either at a party, where he got this fanny pack, or in general, and the fanny pack is just a hint. I’m personally thinking (and kinda half-joking) that said party is connected to the 3 Cabs concert in Acapulco. You know how there’s that very prominent, now-suspicious moment in “The Town Where Everyone Was Nice!”, where Donald says, “You did? Why don’t I remember that?” in regards to Panchito breaking his guitar over his head, and that he apparently got a concussion from getting hit with a chair but also doesn’t remember that? Well, what if it wasn’t just a concussion?

But what if it wasn’t a concussion? What if it was F.O.W.L. messing with his memories?

I don’t have any specific reason for why they would want to erase his memories - if they did, we’ll probably find out why, when, and how tonight. (I had some ideas though when I first got this theory - maybe they needed info or something else from him, and then didn’t want him to remember being questioned or whatever; he accidentally (or even purposefully) found out something about F.O.W.L. - ooh! after the whole Papyrus of Binding incident, maybe that Bradford was F.O.W.L.? or maybe something about Webby/the clones? or something to do with why Beakley went into hiding as Scrooge’s housekeeper and all that?; maybe it was a literal “loose lips sink ships” revelation about the Spear of Selene?; after “The First Adventure!” though, I am leaning towards it having something to do with the Papyrus - if Donald didn’t re-discover that Bradford was F.O.W.L., maybe it was that F.O.W.L. was trying to use Donald to get the Papyrus again?)

Regardless of the why, if F.O.W.L. did mess with his memories, it would explain why Donald didn’t know about Beakley being a spy at the beginning of the series, but Della did.

Anyway, some more quick points of evidence for Donald being the traitor:

the bottom-right corner of this screen in F.O.W.L. HQ:

Sure does look like the houseboat at the dock, huh?

the accountant parallel here (and I’d like to re-emphasize the fact that Donald’s moment there is from the pilot)

the way Donald was acting in “Impossibin!” - Beakley was definitely suspicious, but Donald had his own questionable moments, and he seemed suspicious of Beakley up on the roof with that eye glare in a way that seemed more than just about her immediate behavior, like he does know something (which goes against my earlier points, but still)

This is very much a stretch, but at the beginning of “Golden Spear!”, Penny’s all “treacherous spy” about Della, but then the scene transitions to Donald. And in the rest of the episode, most (if not all) transitions to Donald have a line or moment before that specifically seem to reference him (like Della’s “My family is fearless!” before it goes to Donald clinging to his hammock). So, if the transitions are supposed to be about him, then this could be a very cleverly-hidden hint.

young Donald and his lyrics are against Scrooge’s wealth and all XD (just another point for being on opposite sides in the future, should the theory hold)

a very small hint, but if the nanite theory above is true, then Gyro’s whole “genetic experimentation” line in “87 Cent Solution!”, with the footage of Donald facing the traps, might have been foreshadowing?

Ok, I think that’s it. My last F.O.W.L. Case File before the end. (I had a couple more pieces of evidence for the traitor being Duckworth - he disarms Scrooge of his cane - perhaps the Action Cane? - before pushing him towards the buzzards at the Christmas party, and in his intro episode, there was that whole “fake ghost axe” thing - and some other smaller theories and parallels to make, but I think I’ve said everything important that I wanted to theorize about.)

Anyway, by this point, I’m sure some people on the east coast have seen the finale, or are watching it now, but I still have about 2 hours until midnight now, so I’m gonna keep drawing this one thing to post tomorrow while finishing my rewatch.

Let’s dewey this, people! 💜

#DuckTales #DuckTales spoilers #(again just in case)#Donald Duck #F.O.W.L.#my theories #F.O.W.L. Case Files

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kiss-my-freckle · 3 years

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8x16 Rewatch: Nicholas Obenrader

IRS storyline. Red’s friendly thief talks about someone going to Boston University. Another one going to college. Agnes will tie into their college storylines somehow. I love Red’s comment about Ressler. “Black shoes, cheap suit, flat stomach, regulation cut - don’t get me wrong, he’s bent, just not as bent as we’d like him to be.”

“Why must you always be early?” This ties in Ressler’s comment to Liz in Brothers. “Not on my watch.” Whatever happens, he’ll be early. Ressler informs the team. He knows a great deal about the Yakuza because of Mako Tanida.

Espinosa was building his golden parachute like The Director did. He takes a 10% cut from the 40% cut the crew is supposed to get. Red’s friend informs Neville. He’s boxing Espinosa just like he did Rudigger. Neville’s people have no reason to doubt Liz. He already knew she was an agent.

“She’s really good. But I think we’ll all be a lot better when this is done.” A nice hit to the note the woman from Paris left for Red. “You’re good. I’m better.” The worst has yet to come. “Liz’s mom abandoned her. She would never do the same to Agnes.” Aram has no clue why Katarina gave Liz up for adoption. She had no choice. Liz will realize this soon enough when her own child ends up in danger because Neville wants to kill her. Katarina didn’t make a mistake, Liz did.

The whole brother of Charles at the lake house reminds me of Liz’s comment about Ressler’s lake house when she spoke to Laurel Hitchin in 4x19.

Liz is so disrespectful. Anyway... Cooper sent Aram to Paris because he’s still unofficially working with Liz. Ressler last week, Aram this week. Cooper basically knew Aram would be meeting with Liz. I will blame the entire task force along with Liz for whatever happens to her and/or Agnes and/or Jennifer because they failed to arrest her and chose to work against Red instead. He’s their CI. Liz is not. Red put her on the blacklist for a reason. Panabaker put her on the wanted list for a reason.

“If I were you, I’d like the finish line.” Red’s comment is a nice kick back to his comment to Liz in Devlin’s episode, S5. “Our sprint to the finish. The bag is just out of reach now.”

I love Aram’s care for Agnes in this episode, but I laugh at Liz’s comment. “Where we live is quiet and peaceful.” A nice kickback to the scene cut in 7x13 for their War and Peace theme. Ressler's "But maybe this will help us." US being Keenler. A hearing aid that blocks out sound. Cut to Agnes' name on her passport meaning Peace. “Your daddy just always taught me to be ready for a rainy day.” This runs through The Freelancer in 8x5. “There's a number pre-programmed. You ask for Charlotte. You tell them you got caught in the rain and need to dry off.” It won’t be quiet and peaceful for long. Charlotte’s web is about to get tangled.

“I’ve done some awful things.” Liz kicking back to S3... again. “I have done... so many terrible things. I have hurt so many people."

“Whoever said crime doesn’t pay wasn’t very good at it.” When crime nearly costs Liz her daughter... she’ll understand what that truly means. It’s a dialogue that kicks back to The Ethicist in S6. “He did a cost-benefit analysis on these people, figured that the cost outweighed the benefits, and killed them because of it." Liz believes the benefit outweighs the cost. It doesn’t.

Finally, some Ressler action in a lake house.

Sikorsky’s official name is Ivan Stepanov. Red’s friend in the East. Officially, he’s SVR. Unofficially, he’s a high-ranking member of Zaslon. running black-ops around the globe. “Mobilize assets.”

Red doesn't expect Obenrader to reveal anything meaningful about Neville's organization. Obenrader knows the blowback it’ll have on his loved ones if he does. This is what Liz will have to worry about later. The blowback on her loved ones. More specifically, Jennifer and Agnes.

Whoever their inside man is, it’ll be a low-level agent like The Director’s friend in Zal Bin Hasaan’s episode. I’m expecting someone outside the task force, but close enough to tap the phone. They know Liz is using burners, so they had to tap Ressler’s. Yeah, another kickback to S3.

The task force can’t arrest Stepanov, so they’re letting Liz extract him. Because they chose to work with Liz and Ressler contacted her about Stepanov while having a tap on his phone, Neville’s own people got their hands on him first. Precisely the point. They just put Liz in the direct line of fire because Katarina was N-13 and she’s very much alive. I thought it’d be Paula who got into his line, but it was Neville’s people. Guarantee Stepanov can prove Katarina was N-13, and knows the identity of imposter Katarina. This knowing will be Liz’s downfall. He’s going to protect Red at all costs (tortured or not) because he and Red have been working on this project together for the past 30 years.

“Oh, my stars” is a common quote from Red. He used it in Lord Baltimore with Yaabari. "Let me guess, I stole something from you. A painting, jewelry.... your heart." Red’s new asset is gorgeous as hell. Priya Laghari.

“I want to be your angel.” - Red

Red pulls a fake shooting on Ressler and Park so as not to look like a CI in bed with the FBI. “Of course, a mystery is only as good as the story around it.” Red saying exactly what I’ve been saying about his real identity. It has to fit the story around it.

Alina Park is pretending to read Just Fly Away by Andrew McCarthy. “A powerful story about family secrets, first love, the limits of forgiveness, and finding your way in the world.”

“Like taking candy from a kid.” A hit to Rizal’s episode. This is where Agnes falls in, along with the dialogues about spoiling her rotten.

“You think you’re giving her a rope to hang herself. I fear you may be giving her a rope to hang all of us.” A nice hit back to 8x14. “I’m responsible for Mary Bremmer’s murder, Dembe’s torture, and I got nothing to show for it, except for another reminder that no matter how tight the noose, Reddington will always cheat the hangman." To be clear, Liz fully accepting responsibility for the murder of Mary Bremmer, so what comes to Jennifer will be on her. That whole washer necklace choking Mary through Liz’s Cyranoid. She didn’t specify that it brought her good luck, only that it brought her luck... because Tom Keen is bad luck.

A noose for Jennifer Reddington. Then Liz will have something to show for it.

Red is worried about Priya. He hired her to assassinate Neville.

He should be worried. This focal shot is a kickback to Roy Cain's episode in S7. His "knock on wood" will push back to Liz and her fate.

Purposeful stuff.

A kiss of death... like the woman from Paris kissing Red before injecting him. It also makes me think of The Apothecary, the Scotch. Just throw it in the bottle while he's gone and be done with it. While she may not kill Neville, I do think she’ll be the reason Red’s friend Ivan will survive. She’s a thief. "Items” include people. That's what Neville wants Priya to steal. She's gonna steal Ivan Stepanov. "Item" is how Red referred to Raymond’s bones in S5 and how they referred to Karakurt when he came in country in S2... items. Rakitin wasn’t worth the save.

The Stranger by Albert Gamus. The book Dembe was reading that Red starts to read. The novel is famous for its first lines: “Mother died today. Or maybe it was yesterday, I don’t know.”

"Katarina Rostova was N-13. And Katarina Rostova is dead." Ivan Stepanov speaks truth. Red is N-13 because he's Katarina. SHE has been dead for 30 years. Of all people, the person who created the archive can prove who stole it in 1990. Expect Neville to be pissed because he's been chasing the wrong woman for 30 years. Ivan can reveal it all without revealing Red's real identity.

Neville’s comment about her innocence. “But Katarina Rostova was framed. Which means I dedicated my life to the hatred of an innocent woman.” This pushes back to Red’s comment in 8x2. “Is that the story she told you? She's a victim? An innocent wrongly accused?" What Ivan will be revealing to Neville. The real Katarina Rostova was no innocent. He knows Red is Katarina and he knows he’s dead either way because he created the archive that took Neville’s family. "Do you know who I am? Because I know who you are. You're the one who created the archive that destroyed my family." He’s gonna put Liz on the chopping block. "And I asked you to fly here so I could look you in the eye and tell you: I agree... for now." Because he has no idea she’s Katarina’s daughter, which means he has no idea she’s Red’s daughter.

Full drive through the rest of the season. The first person Neville would kill... is Liz.

#Anti-Tom Keen #Anti-Keen2 #Rederina #rewatch

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marshmallowgoop · 4 years

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Brand New Animal...

So, the last few episodes of BNA: Brand New Animal dropped on Netflix Japan last week. I was initially really hyped for this anime—I devoted several hours of my life to translating and summarizing the Winter 2020 Otomedia interview concerning it—so I intended to write a lot more about the series, especially upon a wider release.

But having now seen every episode, this is another Kiznaiver and Darling in the Franxx for me. There’s a lot of potential, and I was incredibly invested at the start, but the narrative quickly goes directions and makes decisions that don’t sit well with me at all.

For those interested in BNA, my (mostly?) spoiler-free opinion is that it’s visually beautiful (especially in regards to its colors), but the story feels scattered, and there’s so little time devoted to positive interactions among the leads that their friendships fall flat. Further, speaking as a very character-oriented person, I finished this anime annoyed at the entire main cast. Their growth comes across as dissatisfying and undeserved.

Of course, it is more than worth noting that my understanding of Brand New Animal is indeed limited at this point; I don’t have much of a grasp on Japanese, there are no official English translations yet, and I watched with Japanese subtitles. (At least until episode 12. While there are thankfully subtitles available now, there weren’t when I watched, which is a huge disappointment in terms of accessibility.)

I recognize that my feelings may very well change if I have a better sense of everything that’s being said. But given what I do know, I—at least at the moment—have no desire to rewatch this series. I’m always open to requests to talk about BNA, but I don’t think I’ll be blogging much about it otherwise.

All that said, I do want to share some spoiler thoughts under the cut. As my sister noted, I am “very upset about this furry anime.”

First things first: I cannot stand Nazuna. I’m sorry. I think it’d probably be too much to say that she soured the whole show for me, but she definitely comes close.

Now, I got a (minor) degree in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, so, yes, I can’t help but wonder if my strong negative feelings are related to sexism. Would I feel so strongly if there were a man in Nazuna’s place? There’s been a lot of investigating myself these last few days, let me tell you.

Still, I can’t say I know the answers. But I do have some Thoughts that are maybe best illustrated with another anime I’ve started watching lately: My Hero Academia.

Do note that I’m only on Season 2, but there are also characters I strongly dislike so far in My Hero—characters who are arguably much worse than Nazuna, as far as their actions and behavior go. Bakugo is an angry, abusive bully, while Mineta sexually harasses women. I hate both of them, but—especially regarding Bakugo—it’s a different kind of hate than what I feel for Nazuna.

Why? Well, I won’t deny the possibility that sexism plays a role, but there’s also a profound difference in how these characters are treated by their stories. Bakugo initially gets away with his bad attitude, but upon coming to high school, he’s a pariah. He’s called out for being a jerk, time and time again. Mineta, similarly, is not adored for his actions. These aren’t nice dudes, and the narrative makes this point clear. Regarding Bakugo, I hate him, but it’s not exactly a bad kind of hate. Because I hate him, I’m rooting even harder for Deku to prove him wrong.

But what about Nazuna? She pretends to be another culture’s god, but much of BNA seems dedicated to treating her as a poor victim who was manipulated into manipulating others and needs to be rescued. While Nazuna’s situation is indeed a frightening one that I don’t at all intend to make light of, episode 6 makes abundantly clear that this girl adores masquerading as a goddess and fails to see any moral problem in tricking thousands of people into believing that she’s their savior.

And that, to me, is absolutely horrendous. Nazuna is not in kindergarten. She is not a small child still in the preoperational stage of development. She is an older teenager. I find it disconcerting to paint her as someone in a rough place who was simply desperate for love when she pointedly relishes her false godhood because it makes her feel like an idol. That is so unbelievably gross and disrespectful.

Of course, Nazuna truly doesn’t see what she’s doing as wrong, and I recognize that she is young. In the end, as I hope the Bakugo example highlights, my issues are really less about Nazuna herself and more about how she’s written and depicted. Just as there’s nothing inherently despicable about portraying a smug, selfish teenage boy in a cartoon, there’s nothing inherently despicable about portraying a smug, selfish teenage girl in another cartoon. But while Deku and Bakugo were also past friends just as Michiru and Nazuna, Deku never defends Bakugo’s awful behavior as Michiru does for Nazuna.

And that bothers me. Michiru—our protagonist and so the person viewers are pushed to empathize most with—never really seems to grasp just how disgusting Nazuna’s actions are. More importantly, neither does Nazuna herself. She’s instantly forgiven, and her dream comes true seemingly without any apology or understanding of wrong whatsoever.

Brand New Animal is filled to the brim with social commentary, but one message that stood out to me actually has nothing to do with the human/animal-human conflict. It’s instead that this cute girl never has to face the consequences of her actions because she’s cute.

I know, I know. This is some pretty over-the-top negativity. But I was so excited for this series. Especially considering the ending conflict around being “mixed” and “purebred,” I felt like BNA was an opportunity for writer Kazuki Nakashima to more thoroughly explore concepts he wanted to examine in Kill la Kill but didn’t because a talking outfit just ain’t gonna garner the same amount of sympathy as cute animal-humans. With my recent(ish) Wolf Children posting in mind, I also love that Brand New Animal ultimately pushes for diversity instead of away from it as I feel that film does, even if there are some... unfortunate implications along the way (that I don’t know if I’m personally capable of analyzing).

But 12 episodes simply couldn’t do this show justice. I’m supposed to care for a girl who calls being an animal-human a “disease” and never seems to really reconcile with how messed up that is? I’m supposed to care for a man who dismembers others in the name of “honor” and never seems to really reconcile with how messed up that is? I’m supposed to hope that two friends/lovers get back together when one is rude and dismissive towards the other for the majority of the show, and the other idolizes her and overlooks her truly terrible misdeeds?

Maybe I just don’t get it. Maybe I missed something (or a lot of things). But there is so much here that gets resolved too quickly or never receives the full exploration it deserves. As I said in the start, characters fall flat, their friendships fall flatter, and any good themes or messages that I do recognize in the series hardly impact me because the rushed development of the players soured my positive feelings for them.

I would have loved to see Michiru acknowledge that she’s in love with someone who does bad things. I would have loved a heart-to-heart where she admits this to Shirou, where he then admits that in his long life, there have been times when he’s been in the same boat. I would have loved to see Nazuna truly question her actions, where her declaration that she’s Nazuna instead of a cult leader actually means something because she’s recognized that she’s been wrong and is ready to be loved for herself, not someone she’s not. I would have loved to see a moment where Michiru expresses to Shirou that he shouldn’t control his violent tendencies for her approval but because it’s simply the right thing to do. The list goes on and on.

At the end of the day, I can admit my own garbage tastes. Bakugo is apparently the most popular My Hero character, and I don’t think I’ve seen anyone else express such a harsh opinion regarding Nazuna’s portrayal in BNA. Episode 5 of the show (with the baseball) seems to be its most adored entry, but I thought little of it. My favorite things in anime—and what I’m specifically looking forward to in Studio Trigger anime—are maybe anomalies.

But, gosh. I really wanted to love this.

#shut up goop #ramblings #negative #spoilers #bna spoilers #brand new animal #bna: brand new animal #bna #sorry for the flaming hot take but hopefully this doesn't show up in tags #just wanted to say why i wouldn't be really blogging about bna but it got out of hand

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travllingbunny · 4 years

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Quarantine tag game

Thanks for tagging me, @sometimesrosy!

ARE YOU STAYING HOME FROM WORK/SCHOOL? I am staying home but not from work, because I work at home. Not just now, I always work at home, so there hasn’t been any change in that respect. The volume of work was the same as always during the last few weeks, too. I haven’t had any new work since Friday, so I’m enjoying a few days of rest, but I don’t know if this has anything to do with Corona. A few days of rest and no work has happened before. It will give me more time to clean my apartment.

IF YOU’RE STAYING HOME, WHO IS THERE WITH YOU? My two dogs and two cats. They are probably happy that they get even more time with me than usual. I think that some people don’t consider pets real company - probably people who don’t have pets - which I find funny. They are amazing company and I never feel lonely or bored. It’s never boring with them. Taking the dogs out two times a day, having to feed the cats 6-7 times a day or however often they start mewing and asking for food (especially the kitten - the young one is just 9 months old), having to stand guard to make sure dogs don’t steal cat food :D and all the petting and displays of affection.

ARE YOU A HOMEBODY? Not really? But I’m also not not a homebody? LOL Normally, I enjoy going out and meeting people; I have salsa classes two times a week, which are really fun; I go clubbing on weekends; and my favorites are the Language Cafe type events, which used to be up to 3 times a week before the Coronavirus situation started (these are events for people to meet and practice languages, where you can just come, choose the table with the language you want to practice, introduce yourself and join the conversation). I go to concerts, film festivals, public lectures/debates etc.

But at the same time, I don’t mind staying at home, and I’ve had experience in having to stay for a week or two when I had a ton of work and tight deadlines. I talk to people a lot via phone, Viber, Whatsupp and social media, exchange memes and satirical articles about the current situation, etc. I’m online a lot, and I’m trying to finally catch up/check out some of the many TV shows, movies and books I have on my watchlist/readlist and do other stuff I never had enough time for.

AN EVENT THAT YOU WERE LOOKING FORWARD TO THAT GOT CANCELLED? I don’t think it’s been officially cancelled yet (?), but I doubt that the Tindersticks concert in early May is gonna be happening. I had already bought the ticket so I hope it gets postponed. I’ve also bought a ticket for a Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds concert in early June (it’s probably too optimistic to hope that will happen?) and a Pixies concert in early September (I don’t have to worry about that one, do I?)

WHAT MOVIES HAVE YOU WATCHED RECENTLY? Since the curfew started, I’ve watched just a few movies that happened to be on TV - which were all very different, but I wasn’t impressed by any of them (Divergent, Ironclad, and Francis Ha).

The last time I was in cinema was for the FEST film festival, which ended on 8 March, and I watched Jojo Rabbit on the closing night. I really loved it. Before that, at the same festival, I watched Apocalypse Now: The Final Cut, Blood Quantum (pretty good Canadian horror that’s a different take on the zombie epidemic genre, as it takes place in a First Nation reserve, most characters/actors are First Nation and it deals with social issues), Spanish period drama by Alejandro Amenabar Mientras dure la guerra (During the War) about the Spanish Civil War and Miguel de Inamuno’s role in the events, The Lighthouse (really good, really dark psychological horror drama that can have a bunch of interpretations) and Dead Don’t Die (Jim Jarmush’s zombie comedy with some very on-the-nose social commentary).

WHAT SHOWS ARE YOU WATCHING? The list is pretty long! Some shows I’ve been watching on TV include: Peaky Blinders (really good!), Babylon Berlin (still in season 1), Penny Dreadful (I’m almost finished - I didn’t like season 1 that much but it got much better in seasons 2 and 3), Wynonna Earp (not great but it’s just a fun show with some cool actors/characters). I'm about to finish S1 of The Witcher and I want to rewatch it immediately to figure out the timelines. I’m finishing my rewatch of The 100 and I’m going to resume my rewatch of Agents of SHIELD (hopefully I can finish it by its premiere date, 27 May). Also watching Outlander season 5, Harley Quinn, Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, need to catch up on Roswell: New Mexico, Prodigal Son and Stumptown and finish The Outsider, and have recently started The Plot Against America and Mindhunter (the latter because my best friend has recommended it). I’ve even checked out the pilot of Lucifer, which I may or may not continue soon, and I’m continuing with 12 Monkeys season 1. And I intend to check out Kingdom. Quite a mix of genres there.

WHAT MUSIC ARE YOU LISTENING TO? I haven’t listened to that much music lately as I used to, but my routine for putting myself to sleep is to turn on MTV Rocks (or the Rock Alternative radio channel) on my TV, in low volume, program the sleep function for 2 hours, and go to bed. It works like a charm. I always have trouble falling asleep in silence.

Other than that, I’ve been listening to a lot of Haelos since I first discovered them when I heard their song “Alone” in season 6 of The 100, and I’ve listened to othe songs from The 100 and Tree Adams’ soundtrack for season 3.

WHAT ARE YOU READING? Before all this, I borrowed 3 books from the American Corner library: Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and Beloved and Tea Obrecht’s The Tiger’s Wife. I’m reading The Bluest Eye at the moment, but I’m also going to finally start reading GRRM’s Fire and Blood, which I had never found time for.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING FOR SELF-CARE? The usual stuff I do - a bit of exercise, nurturing bath once a week, regular skin care. But last week, I also had to make an effort to relax and try to lower my level of stress and blood pressure, thanks to something that happened last Sunday.

Rant incoming....If you don’t want to read about my bad experience with the police and idiotic government measures, stop now.

Namely, the idiotic government of my country has imposed “measures” which are supposed to be against the spread of Coronavirus but mostly don’t make any sense - they are constantly extending curfew and changing the time of it, and have changed the times when dog owners are allowed to walk their dogs. At one point, it seemed like there was no allowed time for that in the evening or afternoon. You had to listen to the news all the time (and listening to news and the President’s speeches is one of the things that annoys me the most) to figure these things out. And the weekend before last was their first experiment in an extra-long 3 day curfew, which I wasn’t even aware of, when they actually had the police patrol and arrest people for just walking on their own (or, in one case, a young farmer in his tractor - two days after the minister of agriculture said on TV that farmers would be exempt from the curfew - they changed it). So I got manhandled, put in handcuffs and taken to the station for walking my dogs all on my own, with no one else around (which is endangering people and helping the spread of Corona - how exactly??!) where i had to sit for 2 hours while a cop was writing stuff down from the records, and about 60 other cops walked right by me, 10 of whom didn’t have masks, while 3 had but pulled them up/down, then in a police car with 3 other people they picked up - who can’t sit any further than half a meter from you as there’s not enough room, then about 1.5 hours more at the court, with a bunch of other people (and everyone was sitting right next to each other - I was the only one who was like “Nope” and stood a couple of meters away from the others), where they passed the judgment that I have to pay a fine of almost 450 EUR - the amount that’s prescribed for everyone. (And in Serbia, that’s about 1.5 of the minimum wage. I can pay my bills for 3 months from that amount.) Turns out, they arrested some 700-800 people that weekend, so I guess they’re gonna extort a lot of money from the people - if all of them are able to pay it within 15 days (which I doubt. I can withdraw the money from the bank, but I don’t think everyone can). My temperature, pulse and probably blood pressure went up immediately and took an entire week to come down - due to stress, a lot of anger and fear - I had my mask and gloves, but that was still the most close contact and exposure to a lot of other people, much more than I’ve had in weeks. I yelled and ranted and told them that they’re the ones putting others and themselves in danger of contracting Corona, and they probably knew I was right, but it makes no difference - President Vučić is either an idiot who actually thinks the virus is lurking outside in the air to jump at people, but only during the hours he decides, or, more likely, he doesn’t care, but is a wannabe dictator who likes to act self-important and playact at imposing “strict but necessary measures”.

/end rant. Sorry about that. But that’s why I bought a temperature meter and blood pressure meter, because I was having high temperature, heart palpitations and pressure in my chest, which hasn’t happened to me in a long time (I was also starting to feel PMS, which added to it and didn’t help, but is normally nowhere near as bad when I’m not stressed out) so I needed a lot of self-care last week - which included tranquilizers, but mostly trying my best to relax and feel better. And I’m finally well now and close to how I was before the whole arrest idiocy.

Tagging @jeanie205 @kizo2703 @weareagentsofnothing @turtle-paced @wolfheartgirl @theatre-steph @selflessbellamy @mytly4 @katersann @linzzmorgan100 @immortalpramheda @iishallbelieve @misskittyspuffy @marshmallow-the-vampire-slayer @justbecauseyoubelievesomething @angearia @ladyofthefrostfangs - I know some of you have already been tagged, I’m sorry if you’ve already done it but I haven’t seen it, in which case I’look for it on your blog. Sorry to everyone I didn’t tag, too.

#tagging game #quarantine #quarantine game #sorry for ranting but I had to

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talesofafangirlwithadvr · 4 years

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MAY PICKS!

WELCOME BACK TO ANOTHER MONTH OF TV/MOVIE WATCHING!

Does it feel like it was just April or that it can’t even be May and yet it is coming to an end? I get it. Quarantine is doing weird things to my head and I can’t believe how far in the year it’s been. Looking back on my picks for this month I noticed that I have seemed to escape the world through historical period shows or movies. But that isn’t the entire bulk of the month (just half of it). Without further ado, here we go!

As always..spoilers....

THE HALF OF IT

This Netflix original movie was an early watch for me during this month and it came at the right time. I was looking for a movie, rather than a TV show, and something that was contemporary and not overly serious (although, there are serious themes in this film). As it repeatedly says, “it’s not a romance” yet it has that YA/teen romance feel. (Yes, I used YA/teen in the same description.) I really loved the Elle Chu and Paul Munsky friendship. While watching the trailer, I could tell this film would be highlighting a healthy friendship as its focal point and how your other half doesn’t have to be a romantic soulmate. A lot of times, these kinds of stories can seem very repetitive, but with the new plot of Elle and Paul in love with the same girl we encounter a new kind of obstacle. I think the resolution was pretty solid for both plot lines and I liked the train scene at the end. Certain shots felt long at times. There were lots of pauses, which I didn’t 100% like. Also, the awkwardness could feel pretty cringey. Overall, it is definitely worth the watch. I liked it and would watch it again. Paul might be one of my heartthrobs of 2020. I’m always a sucker for a sweet jock with a heart of gold.

THE OFFICE LADIES

Yes, I know I’m late to the show as this podcast started last year, but better late than never and what better time than quarantine. Plus, I don’t have to wait each week for a new episode (even though know I’m catching up, so eventually...) At first, I was worried when I would have time because of not spending as much time in the car for commuting, but I found it’s really soothing to listen to as I’m cleaning. It feels like I’m in the room with Angela and Jenna and we’re all BFFs. I love how they’re best friends in real life and how close they are. They give the trivia you really can only get from two people who were on the show. They also have several guest stars from actors on the show to writers, directors and producers. One of my most recent listens had Creed Bratton in the studio with them and they talked about the Halloween episode. It was great. Listening to their podcast is really making me want to rewatch the series for the 100th time. As an uber fan, I already get all of their references, but with the new Easter eggs I can’t wait to go back and see them.

STAR WARS RISE OF SKYWALKER

Not just in honor of May the 4th, but to finish up the Star Wars watch through that I was taking with my sister. I hadn’t seen it yet and while not a die heart fan, I still wanted to see the conclusion. I liked the Force Awakens a lot, but felt eh about Last Jedi. In ways this one kind of felt like a stand alone. It had a different vibe compared to the previous two. After watching I heard there was a different director for all three movies, so that makes sense-I guess. (It’s weird they wouldn’t have kept at least one to do two of them.) It also had a kind of fan fiction feel. SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! Bringing Palpatine back reminded me of Lord Voldemort having a kid in Cursed Child. BACK FROM SPOILERS! I’m happy that Rey’s parentage/lineage was revealed because it was such a major point in this series. I loved the Rey/Finn/Poe relationship. It was great to see them in the same story line and reminded me of the original three: Luke/Han/Leia. Leia :( It was so sad, but I always knew it had to happen, due to Carrie Fischer. It didn’t make it any easier to watch. MORE SPOILERSSSSS! I knew Kylo would turn back. It was nice to see that his mom was able to spark that. I did like his fight scene. I just didn’t love the connection him and Rey have/had. LOVED the ending. I’m cool with her taking the Skywalker name and the suns shot with the force them at the end had me screaming.

OPHELIA

From one Daisy Ridley film to another. This movie just recently got added to my list when I was channel surfing. I vaguely remembered it being advertised, but it felt like a while ago. I’m a sucker for a re-telling, so I was immediately intrigued to watch it. This film was adapted from a novel by the same name. It follows Ophelia from Shakespeare’s Hamlet and gives her more of a story and character development. If you are familiar with the original, you know that Ophelia is only briefly mentioned and her character’s motives are really driven by her love for Hamlet. Even her famous death scene is very ambiguous. When this film begins, a voice-over narration by Ridley immediately brings us to her death scene and tells the audience “that there is more to the story than we think we know.” I really loved the twist and re-invention of this story through her point of view. I think Daisy Ridley was fantastic in the role. I haven’t seen her in a lot of other things, so it was great to see her here in a completely different role from Star Wars. The re-telling is very creative and very feminist. You get to see how Hamlet and Ophelia meet and then see him off to school. With this addition you can really get behind this relationship and see the mutual attraction and feelings between them. When relating back to the original, I like how they cut out scenes that Ophelia was not physically apart of and instead rely the events that happened. (Specifically with Polonius’ death.) I also enjoyed the new perspective of scenes. You really can tell that Ophelia is not mad, but it is the mask she must put on to survive. The ‘get thee to a nunnery’ scene takes on a whole different meaning now. There’s also a lot echoes to other Shakespearean plays and tropes which were fun to explore. Whether you’re a Shakespeare/Hamlet fan or not, I would definitely check this one out if you’re a fan of the time period, re-tellings or a strong female lead.

MEDICI THE MAGNIFICENT SEASON 3

I literally just finished this show this afternoon and I couldn’t wait to write about it. (Sorry if this post is pretty long, but that just shows you that you need to watch it.) I was very excited for the third and final season of Medici because I enjoyed season 2, so much. While this one might have taken me a little longer to watch, it was still a good time and I’m sad it’s over.

Watching this season I was super impressed by Daniel Sharman’s acting. He has great range as he goes from a young Lorenzo in season 2 to an adult and father and then an elderly man. I think he was convincing throughout each stage and I’m happy they kept the same actor. His make-up to help him age looked a lot more natural, compared to Richard Madden’s, in my opinion. I feel on shows like this it’s often hard seeing a jump in time (it helps with seeing the kids grow up), so when Lorenzo starts to get sick/age I at first, was like whoa, but then it was further explained (by inheriting his father’s illness, etc.)

Compared to season 2, I definitely liked the previous more. I not only enjoyed watching the more idealistic Lorenzo, but also plot-wise. In season 2 the Pazzi are the main antagonist/objective. Here in season 3 there were several obstacles/antagonists: The Pope, Riario, and Savonarola. Every time we thought there was a moment of peace...nope. Now, I get this is based on history and we need drama so you can only change so much, but I missed the Medici being at the top and being respected. I also know we covered A LOT of time. (I guess that shows you how connected I felt with them and the show.)

All of the history Easter Eggs were cool. Obviously, the Renaissance was extremely relevant, but it was cool seeing the big names like Botticelli (especially with his painting at the end, which I recognized), Da Vinci, and Michelangelo. I can’t get over how many of these famous painters were recognized by the Medici family. It just shows you how important and influential they were. Also, when Nico revealed his last name as Machiavelli. JAW DROP! This show has continually brought me back to researching (and mainly using Wikipedia). The writing at the end was accurate to what I found. Wish we had another season with the legacy to see it continue. I’m surprised I got teary eyed at the end.

WORLD ON FIRE

It may be listed last once again, this month, but it is definitely not least. The show may have finished its season a few weeks ago, but I still have two episodes left on my DVR. The last one I watched was when they were in Dunkirk and that was an intense time. I knew it was going to be, but it still didn’t prepare me. In this episode, we see many characters FINALLY meet up and join each other’s plot lines. I think that was one of my favorite parts of the episode/series. Some already knew each other, while others were meeting for the first time. While I am excited to see how it all turns out, I’m also not ready to say good-bye. Right now, I saw a potential for a season 2, but not sure if that was a fan made article or not. I’m hoping all of my favorite characters survive and get what can be considered a happier ending than what they are currently experiencing. I also hope we don’t end on too much of a cliffhanger. Either way, I’m happy I checked this show out.

RE-WATCHING

iZOMBIE

Currently I’m in the beginning of the second season. Sometime last month I felt the pull to start re-watching this show. It’s one that I have tried once or twice to watch again from the beginning, but now that it’s been finished for almost a year, it felt like time. It was a great decision, although right now there’s some character plots that are frustrating me and that I forgot about. But there’s some great brains that Liv has experienced and it was great seeing Lowell again (for as short-lived as it was). I’m excited to continue re-watching.

I DIDN’T DO IT

The re-watch for I Didn’t Do It basically began when it hit Disney Plus a few months ago. I just recently made it to season 2, which I remember enjoying more than season 1. One reason for this was because they get rid of the flashback format for each episode. I’m really early on, like episode 4, so I still have many more to go. Once I finish it I don’t know if I’ll explore a new Disney Plus show or watch another that I’ve seen before.

I also have a few things on DVR that I’m still finishing up. I haven’t watched the finale of Batwoman yet and I know it’s going to be weird now that Ruby Rose has left the show. I just finished the Flash and felt blah about the whole season, so I’m unsure if I’ll watch next season. But I am enjoying Stargirl. You can find my thoughts on the first episode here. I’m excited to see the rest of the season.

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bucksbisexual · 4 years

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AAAAAAAAAAAAAA OKAY LAST ONE OF MY OPINION POSTS HERE GOES EP12:

[breathes in]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

i’m so fucking happy with this ending

it’s such a good happy ending this is truly what the gays deserve i’m just happiness in physical form rn

i don’t even know where to start but i’ll try to make this as chronological as my brain allows me because my memory do be sucking

i’m gonna put a keep reading because this shit will get loooooong kjshfkf okay let’s do this

so.. we start with PETE EXPOSING NON(T)’S BRAT ASS!!!!!!!!!! FUCK YES THATS MY BABY THATS MY BOY!!!!!!!!!!

kao’s mom being a fucking badass and telling her BOSS how to do shit. i love her yall I LOVE HERRRRRRRR

also kao’s mom telling kao that she wasn’t the most amazing person ever was so cute because you can see kao’s light bulb turning on sjfkhsgsh please i love them

yes i will say i love x after every single one of these u can’t stop me

from the teaser i thought kao would dashi run run run to pete’s house but thankfully he took a taxi lmao

at least he didn’t run there because he had to run from pete’s house (or may i say, mansion) to the POOL my man is a whole athlete oh my god

KAO YELLING HE LOVES PETE!!!!!!!!!!! IN THE MIDDLE OF A CLOSED SPACE WITH PEOPLE IN IT!!!!!!!!!!!! AND HE DOESN’T GIVE A FUCK IF THEY HEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THATS CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT BABYYYYYYYY

also a beautiful parallel to the scene from ep1 (i noticed there’s a lot of parallels in this episode we stan character development and repeating things just so the viewers can see how consistent the couples are)

the kiss from that scene............... beautiful amazing gorgeous idk many words in english to describe how i felt while watching and how i feel about it

to that i think we cut to sunmork but i don’t remember what happened because of the kiss KJHFKSL SORRY

anygays i rlly like how this whole episode is sun being a clingy bih and mork gay panicking while trying to act like a confident gay when he knows that sun outconfidentgays him i love them lmao

okay after that i think it’s petekao having food with their parents all together and god i looooooove this scene

pete’s dad being the lgbt ally dad all of us lgbt fellas with homo/transphobic dads wish we had will never fail to make me soft i love that man pls be my dad too

also kao’s mom :-(( i love her she respected her son’s decision on not coming out until he was ready even though she already smelled it (reminds me of my mom lmao) and was always there for him even when kao didn’t say anything :-(((((((((((

petekao bickering will never get old i swear i love every time they do because that’s so..... men it makes their characters more real

i know there’s a lot (not that much because i admit this episode was kinda short?? idk maybe it’s just me) between that scene and this one but THE SQUAD EATING ALL TOGETHER AGAIN!!!!!!!! AND THEM TEASING PETEKAO!!!!!! PLEASE I LOVE THEM

pete literally not knowing how to stop the audio and broadcasting live TO THE WHOLE COUNTRY that time when he told kao he loved him through the teddy bear...... peak pete culture

the fact that ppl love them and they have a whole hashtag on twitter makes me soft because usually when someone is famous in bls the fans hate the other part of the couple but in this one??? oh no honey we stan petekao in this household hate is not allowed it’s actually prohibited illegal

okay let me backtrack a bit skjfhsjf

OH YES I FORGOT!!!! manow wanting to talk with mork was so weird when i saw the teaser for the episode but after seeing them talk i was like oooooh okay i understand

sun saying “what’s your girl saying to my boy” is probably one of my favourite lines of this drama KLHSJFLF

rain reading their lips fskjfjsf and when mork said “fuck you rain” HIS FACE SKJFHKSJSLFJ HE WAS SCARED SHITLESS but also the end of this scene was so cute i love these three

i just did a bit of skipping through the episode to try and actual make an order out of this mess and the petekao+parents thing comes now,,,,,, anygaYS

then it’s more teasing between sunmork blah blah

then MORK SPEAKING THE MF TRUTH!!!!!!!!!!!!! quoting the actual dialogue “it’s my choice to tell or not tell anyone. i should get to decide”

OUTING SOMEONE ISN’T COOL!!!!!!! IT’S NOT OKAY!!!!!!!!!!! NO LGBT PERSON WILL EVER WANT TO BE OUTED!!!!!!!!!!!!! DON’T DO THAT SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

rain had good intentions but it doesn’t mean that it was right of him to do so

okay this got serious,, sun going to rain’s bed with not one but Two pillows when barely two people fit in that bed.... oh to be that iconic and carelessly gay

back to petekao because we will never get enough of these two (which is why i’ll probably watch the our skyy episode tomorrow just to cry over these fools)

it’s so weird to see tay being like this after watching him being himself in other things like the live lunch and taynew meal date and other things i’ve randomly watched during this week to retain myself from finishing this series in a night ksfjhsfkshlks

also kao helping pete shave and pete being like do u like my moustache or should i shave it for u my lord SFHKFJ the domesticity and just the feeling of two idiots being in love i love them with my whole heart

kao staying at pete’s house because it’s both of their first days as interns and kao!!!!! he works for pete’s dad!!!!!!! pete’s dad accepted him into his company!!!!!! i love them

also the bickering between those three sjfkhs “hello im pete im from thailand” “that’s all you’ll say today” THAT WAS SO FUNNNY SKJFHSKFHSFJSFL

THE MESSAGE IN THE TEDDY BEAR !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! KAO CALLING PETE LOVE PLEASE IM GONNA CRYYYYYYYYYYYY I LOVE THESE FOOLS

okay so the squad eating together is right after this but i already talked about it ksjfhsfh next!!

idk if it’s a big time skip or a small one but guess what!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MANOW AND RAIN ARE DATING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MY STRAIGHT BABIES YES I LOVE YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUU AAAAAAAAAAAAA

manow is so pretty and rain is so cute they’re both so lucky my bisexual ass is crying

pete being “angry” at kao being so handsome,,, a mood

but also.. pete being possessive was h*t

there i said it and i don’t regret it

random but i will miss kao’s annoying ass saying “about aboyz” sjfkhsfh

pete being like “i will have to give u more love bites (ffs gmmtv just say hickies we are all at an age where we know what love bites are) so no one flirts with u” and kao being like “bitch try me” sjfhksfj i’m loving bratty kao

also that scene turned into furry kao real quick KJHDKJFSHJF

okay now it’s: mork’s birthday party time!!

rain and manow arrive first and are the cutest couple around because the two main gays haven’t arrived yet (being gay AND punctual? not possible)

sun and rain fighting in the kitchen was peak siblings culture skfhksjf

mork being ready to leave his own birthday party with a stranger who also plays pokemon go just to have a battle................ dumbass bisexual energy

said stranger is eARN FROM 2GETHER!!!!!! FILM IS IN THIS TOO!!!!!!!! first the girl who plays yuri in yyy and now film who plays earn in 2gether is here too??? damn wlw keep winning (also headcanon: theyre dating/seeing each other because LESBIANS periodt)

okay petekao arrive and wont u guess whats their present for mork,,,,,, the mf TEDDY BEAR and kao rlly says that they should use it since theyre so lip sealed lmao

rain and manow literally gave mork a present not for him but for sun im- i love these two

MORK FINALLY SAID YES TO BEING BOYFRIENDS OH MY GOD DUDE U ACTUALLY HAD ME WORRIED THERE FOR A SEC

also sun being a whole koala and being a horny bitch is so funny sfhskfjskl my man has his priorities set

their last scene is so cute :-(( poor rain will have to live with this until he moves out sjfhksjf

oh boi the ending is near hhhhhhh

kao teaching his class an equation that ends up in i < 3 u is the most kao thing i’ve ever seen

also kAO IS BOOKED AND BUSY BABYYYYYYYYYY GET THOSE COINS HONEY

pete being like “u haven’t spent enough time with me lately >:-(” was cute jhkfjs my man is needy of kao and i understand that because have u seen kao? exactly

kao teasing him with not having forgotten the cup this time and pete being his possessive self was.. splendid

every reference to something that happened with non(t) hurts but also i love how they just tease each other because they know that now their relationship is stronger than it’s ever been and that nothing and no one will come between them

the scenes they show during the last last scenes :-((( BOYFIES!!!!!!

and i love how they decided to end the show with them holding hands in public

i would explain why i do but it’s 6:26 am and i’ve been writing this for at least half an hour already and my laptop is heating up a lot and im sweating because it’s hot in here so get down on the floor pipiipipipipipipi

kdjhkdfhs sorry im not sleepy this is just my brain without a filter it’s just gay shit and a big repertoire of songs

god okay that was my opinion on the last episode of dark blue kiss...........

needless to say that i will eat every bit of content related to petekao after this because writing this i already miss them and i can’t wait to watch our skyy tomorrow idk where but i will

i really really REALLY liked this drama and it’s one of the two bl dramas (not counting the untamed) i’ve given a full 10/10 rating on mdl because it’s THAT good

everything about this drama is just.. chef’s kiss i love it i will probably rewatch it when my plan to watch is empty but it’s a pretty long list so.. hopefully i’ll ignore that and just rewatch sjkfhslf

i’ll of course watch kiss and kiss me again just for the petekao, the squad and rain scrumbs because i’m sure that the petekao compilations don’t show everything

but yeah im just.. i love this show it’s been a rlly long time since i started writing this but i’m still happy because it’s so good and truly gave us a good happy ending and i swear i cannot emphasise enough how important good happy endings in lgbt media are!!!!!!!!!!

anygays im hungry and ready to submerge myself in the dbk tags, see u all tomorrow for my our skyy petekao episode version of this,,,,,

till then, stay safe ! bYE

#dark blue kiss #dbk the series #dbk #dbk reaction

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badlydrawndrawnings · 4 years

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atwq book four thoughts

guess who somehow got a lot of free time yesterday and made the bold decision to finish reading the last atwq book? me!

guees who feels like they jinxed qwerty’s fate from the previous book of being arrested, but alive, even though i bet daniel handler planned it from the start? still me!

guess who is rather upset netflix accidentally gave a clue/spoiler on the identity of hangfire?

also me.

okay, so first off, to get something out of the way. i love this book. i really do. it had me on suspense every chapter.

theodora figured out qwerty was in vfd (...when did she figure out? not long after sharon reveal herself as a fake vfd member? or during the period she and lemony weren’t speaking to each other?), and god she really was willing to take the blame on being qwerty’s killer. did she think maybe she once again screw up, but this time there was no going back because the screw up got someone killed? after all she seem to selfishly went to break qwerty out for a good evaluation. maybe she thought if things went different, he would still be alive. and given the schism happened, vfd while not divided yet, this is like a sign on how another librarian’s death in the long, long future, will be blame on an innocent party and things go to hell again in the pursuit of justice and truth.

also, ghede and gifford also knew of the coup as well? or at least knew the sbg was doing something and they’re like let them do this shit and we can watch it’s gonna benefit us in the long run’. also, holy shit olaf name drop take two with beatrice herself! i didn’t think while knowing each other young mean they actually hanged out with one another to think they’re possibility friends. this puts the opera night even worse. beatrice must have knew olaf’s parents. with my headcanon of olaf parents being caring parents to olaf and used their connections to get their son back earlier than others, this is just awful.

getting back on track from the mess that is vfd there’s a murder on a train (agatha christie ahoy!). i admit several weeks ago i made the decision to watch snowpiercer and train to busan so i couldn’t really take the murder on the orient express shout out clearly and kept on thinking of the wild willy wonka and the chocolate factory/snow piercer theory. and zombies in south korea.

all the damn sbts kids just thought it great to share the one brain cell to be on the same train (pip and squeak just follow in their taxi; cleo and jake had to travel through time in the dilemma to catch up with them). ornette got her time to shine with her artistic/sculpting skills and there’s some light on the subject of the lost family (of course it’s a fire that took ornette’s mom life. fires seems to be a way to kill a lot of parents). i was right to call her gung-ho working with lemony, she just agreed to make fake bb statues for moxie and kellar and was like ‘oh shit the two are sharing a brain cell. hangfire could figure something is up what have i done’ and had to make something else to give to lemony. i uh..wonder if seth has a reason to draw her baseball cap all...fuzzy. just a weird question.

kellar’s sister lizzie shows up. i’m going to be honest. she has the bad luck of appearing last and under two disguises that went over my head (she sure fooled me!). i do have some thoughts that surround her and the haines family, but that needs me to re-read the last two books to make sure i’m not imagining something . will say lizzie is much younger and shorter than i thought given her first illustration. i hope maybe a re-read will make me get some new insight on her. also, hi sally murphy. i’m glad lizzie got out with maybe your help (i mean, why else would she want to high tail it out of there).

the identity of qwerty’s killer was something i should have seen coming due to how the mitchum parents are more subdue. i want to slap stew’s parents. they spend all their time bickering they only got their shit together to see how their ‘precious’ son is really a bully and killer and working with the villian under their damn noses. i almost feel sorry for them because shit stew more or less blackmail his parents into covering the crime but at the same time...this call could have been avoid if you pay attention to how your son isn’t the angel you think he is..and you two are still fighting with one another please get your priorities straight i beg you. i admit i almost want to slap stew but i don’t slap kids, and i think if i exist in the snicket world i would get murder first by him.

qwerty’s death and the fact he’s a vfd member just hurt me so bad and i’m still kind of grieving over him. for one, i felt like i should have seen qwerty being part of vfd coming. he’s a sub-librarian. while not a sub-sub-librarian, the fact is qwerty is such so damn helpful to lemony i should have seen he was just doing his best to help lemony because theodora wasn’t honestly...wasn’t doing a good job at a chaperone. but he couldn’t blow away his cover because he wasn’t supposed to interfere in the apprenticeship and honestly he was just happy to be a sub-librarian helping children find what they would love reading.

but qwerty isn’t the only death in this book. i got to copy-paste something from an old atwq post in feburary 8, something i made as a joke, because oh boy, this part is the one negative i have honestly.

he tried to pretend to be her father! i know his voice mimicry is basically akin to juni cortez’s mimicry, but this is just cruel had ellington been there.

about a week later, i made the decision to rewatch netflix asoue. now, the first time i watch season two [edit lmao i actually don’t remember if it was season two i think i hated season two so much i could have blur two and three together i got to rewatch the show again definitely. edit two: okay, i’m certain it was season two i’m 98% certain it was was a pause and read easter egg that’s why i couldn’t remember what season exactly damn easter eggs] i honestly was like ‘so they gave nero a last name. coolio. feint isn’t a surname i was expecting but this is the netflix show this probably isn’t canon to the books’.

on the rewatch, after the austere academy part two ended, i realized something is...off, with nero now. he’s mocking people. and his voice, while not mimicking them, is like...it’s like nero could have inherit mimicry from someone but it never went through. or maybe he did got it but it’s not at its full potential without the proper teaching of someone with the skill...like a father, perhaps?

so the kronk meme is playing in my mind, but it’s the edit of him saying ‘oh no, it’s all coming together’. and given patrick warburton also voice kronk, it felt more like lemony snicket decided to materialize right behind me, be an asshole, and thought it funny to do a commentary on my possible realization hangfire, in the netflix show at least, couldn’t keep his dick in his pants and bore a bastard son in an adulterous affair and ellington has a half brother in the world she doesn’t know about and i hope she never learns about.

(given barrymore feint is just a cameo of barry sonnenfeld, i guess the bullshit gene i talked about in another post regarding a theory who netflix!h is should be renamed the feint gene.)

so reading the third book, and especially this book, i kept a close eye on any mentions to ellington’s dad and hangfire’s behavior. i kept on saying in my mind ‘please don’t be who i think you are’. and bam. armstrong feint is hangfire. i feel like if netflix didn’t have the need to make an atwq reference in nero’s surname, and if i was smart enough to have the book clues smack me in the face (i feel there are clues somewhere, and hangfire dropped all pretenses and just being ‘himself’ in book two was one), i wouldn’t be so angry and upset by this reveal. i more or less got spoil and put the pieces together due to an adaptation, and i should have known better than to do a re-watch while reading atwq. i should have consider the possibility of easter eggs to atwq.

anyway, lemony snicket thought it great to kill hangfire by feeding him to a copy bombinating beast (the tadpoles!!). with ellington right freaking there. with most of his sbts friends there to witness. moxie can’t even look lemony in the eye anymore (no more best friends anymore). everything happened just like that and after finishing the book and taking a walk around the living room, i have to say hangfire is a good villain. he achieved his goal of getting the bombinating beast, even if it’s a copy. he’s a very competent villain who succeed in almost every book in some way or form. he played everyone like a puppet and was a threat that is more akin to tmwabbnh and twwhbnb’s level of villainy. kudos to you hangfire i’m impressed.

hangfire totally got it coming too. however, i do feel...hurt in his death, if only for ellington’s sake. during the walk because i realize ellington reminded me of a character from a different fandom i’m in. there’s some differences that i won’t get into (it’s...complicated for the other fandom), but they’re cut from almost the same cloth: teenage girls with shitty fathers who are using them for their own selfish goals. thoughts for ellington and her future formed faster for me than for the other atwq kids as a result:

post-canon!ellington (a few days later when she finally gets her stuff figure out), has a simple list. 1: avoiding anyone with a vfd tattoo or give shady lemon vibes -ellington split asap after she and kit broke out and have 100% certainly no one is after them, but not before stealing some things from kit, one being notes of vfd volunteers (she thinks). 2: find a new place to live. 3: figure out a new name that isn’t an anagram, because the inhumane society once they heard the news, is probably going to try to get her if they get wind she is hangfire’s daughter and possible ‘successor’. ellington wants nothing to do with the bombinating beast. she never wants to see the statue or anything similar, or hear the words again.

adult!ellington (under a fake name of course), while accepting all that happened, hasn’t forgive lemony snicket. yes, her dad was a villain. yes, she finally understand her dad isn’t the kind naturalist and man, and used her for the biggest ‘what’ event of her life that is also a very selfish goal. many times in the past though, ellington wonders if she missed any signs of her dad’s descend to who he eventually became, or if he hid it very well to where he was wearing two masks all this time, one hiding his true nature. ellington even wonders at one point, dad was going convince her to willingly work with him without the fake kidnapping and had to change his plans to something crueler.

ellington will never know for sure. this is why ellington can’t forgive lemony and will say it to face if they ever meet again. what ellington hates the most out of her father’s death is that she can never tell dad all of her feelings about his wrong doings. she can ask all the questions burning at the back of her mind, or yell her frustrations how terrible a father he is for faking his kidnapping and getting her to do his dirty work, getting her to use her loyalty of family to do things she would never do under normal circumstances. she ask questions and yells at the only photo left of armstrong feint...

and in the end, she knows he’ll never answer, and it hurts to deal with the unknown. adult!ellington doesn’t do the yelling and questioning to the photo as much. partly because she did ‘settle’ on what might be an possible answer, but mostly because the photo is pretty faded to where it’s less ‘armstrong feint’ and more ‘hangfire’. once in awhile though, she slips up like old times.

adult!ellington with her new life (she travels a lot, pays in cash most of the time, and has no set resident; she still love coffee) tends to think of the past, especially when it came to what she had with lemony snicket. did lemony like her? was she just a question in need of solving? ellington admits to possibly liking him, but it was so long ago maybe she just thinks she liked him to have a ‘positive’ memory of the boy she haven’t seen in years that she kind of wants to see again, if only to yell at him for robbing her of something important. his name lands on her radar a lot, twice from the daily punctilio. the first one was learning of lemony snicket’s crimes, and it was an accident.

the second time, she learn of his death, though she read the daily punctilio on purpose in hopes of a name drop. adult!ellington ended up finding some children’s book, and made the mistake of going to the back of it and find a photo of lemony snicket. not really though. lemony is hiding his face (ellington hates it) and she buys it to know what it’s about. it spiral to where she bought the next two books because she wants to know if the baudelaires orphans are real (and because lemony doesn’t seem the same anymore from his writings). ellington settles on real when she pulls out kit snicket’s notes she stolen and cross references names, and even travels to the locations to them to make sure. after the third book publication, the series goes on ‘hiatus’ due to the daily punctilio and their announcement. ellington doubts he’s dead, but couldn’t help attend the funeral. ellington is certain lemony snicket is alive, because she convinced she saw him at his own funeral.

#atwq #all the wrong questions #why is this night different from all other nights #ellington feint #hangfire #asoue #a series of unfortunate events #netflix asoue #asoue netflix #lemony snicket #spoilers #this is a text post

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pumpkinsadlatte · 4 years

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Meerkats

There’s no one other than the cat in the living room, though, which is only a little odd: they spend plenty of time in Penny’s room, after all. He puts the groceries up quickly, the ones that belong in the kitchen, anyway, and makes his way upstairs with the rest, the lack of noise coming from the upper floor concerning him even more. He should hear… something. Tyrian and Hazel talking, if nothing else.

Relationships: Arthur Watts/Hazel Rainart/Tyrian Callows, with a focus on Arthur and Hazel, Tyrian’s napping

Note: yes, Arthur is referred to as Penny's mother. This is not a typo. This was yoinked partially from my aus with @atlesianic. Also, speaking of atlesianic, y'all can blame this man for them watching Black Mirror, he inflicted it on me in a way that didn't make me paranoid about it anymore. The episode described is "Arkangel."

crossposted on ao3

He’d texted the others when he’d gotten home, trying to get them to come out and help with the groceries, but hadn’t gotten a response, and, frankly, could handle them himself. It’s one of their canvas grocery bags, not six or so. So it’s fine. He’s sure they’re preoccupied with the baby. Or she’s napping and their phones are on silent: not only is she responding to sounds now, but she also looks for where they’re coming from, and sometimes if a sound wakes her up, she’ll be inconsolable until she sees the source of it.

None of them have been out of the house very much since the baby had come along. Penny is just such a small, fragile little thing, none of them really trust her to be out of their sight very long, especially not with her laundry list of health concerns, and she’s still about a month too young to have any of her vaccinations yet, let alone an allergy test, so she doesn’t leave the house very much. They’ve even had trouble leaving her with Tyrian’s mother -- she mostly raised Tyrian, of course. And it’s not because they don’t trust her, never that. They just don’t want Penny out of their sight. Thankfully, she understands: she was a new parent once too, she more than understands. And Tyrian gets his protectiveness mostly from her, after all.

Tyrian and Hazel have been home with her all day, but they had desperately needed some groceries that just couldn’t wait until their usual grocery night. Tyrian had been feeling under the weather for nearly a week, and Hazel refused to leave him alone, especially with the baby, so it had fallen to Arthur to run out for groceries after work. It’s just a few things, milk, toothpaste, shampoo, disinfectant and baby wipes, other things that they hadn’t realized they were running low on, or things they didn’t quite realize how quickly they ran through them. He’s even picked up a few frozen things, though those are mostly emergency food. Between the three of them, someone usually feels up to cooking, or there would be leftovers to reheat, or Salem would visit with food or stop by and make dinner for them. Once in a while, it’ll be takeaway or delivery. Frozen food has always been such a rarity for them.

He nudges open the door, the cat loudly and immediately sounding her alarm, but it cuts off when she realizes it’s her human. She’s an efficient security system, sort of. As a supplement to the one they have , anyhow.

There’s no one else in the living room, though, which is only a little odd: they spend plenty of time in Penny’s room, after all. He puts the groceries up quickly, the ones that belong in the kitchen, anyway, and makes his way upstairs with the rest, the lack of noise coming from the upper floor concerning him even more. He should hear… something . Tyrian and Hazel talking, if nothing else. He maintains his even pace until about halfway up the stairs, where he speeds up, taking them two at a time as his anxiety heightens. He drops the grocery bag at the top, rushing for Penny’s room first. He opens the door and…

… she’s not in there. No one is. Her crib is empty.

Alright. Alright, don’t panic, there’s other rooms. The door to his office is closed, none of them would go in there anyway, not without him at home. The upstairs bathroom door is open, the light is off. He doesn’t hear any water running: presumably no one’s in any of the showers or at any of the sinks. Alright… alright, there’s… there’s still the master bedroom and its ensuite bathroom, and the den, and the entirety of downstairs, and the whole back yard. Was Hazel’s truck here when he pulled in? He can’t recall at the moment. Could they have gone somewhere? No, surely they would have texted him, or left him a note at the very least…

He rushes for the master bedroom, but a quiet sound from the den turns his head in the direction of its door as he passes, and he shoulders open the door far more roughly than he normally would.

There they are. They’re right there on the sofa. Tyrian curled up and practically melting into Hazel’s side, out cold, the fleece throw blanket off of the back of the sofa tucked tightly around him: did Hazel tuck him in when he fell asleep? Hazel’s fallen asleep as well, sitting partially up against the back of the sofa, not curled up into a ball like Tyrian. And Penny’s resting against Hazel’s chest, asleep, just like the others. The television is on, playing an episode of Black Mirror very, very quietly with the captions on, that’s why he hadn’t heard it at first. Really, he only knows what program it is because he’s seen the whole series at this point, so has Tyrian. It’s been a favorite for family rewatches for quite some time.

The worry shatters away and the doctor can just feel his heart melting. Oh, they all look so peaceful, asleep like this. And Penny just looks so tiny in Hazel’s arms. Granted, Penny is tiny, small for her age, and every member of the family looks small compared to Hazel, but neither of these points makes the sight in front of him any less endearing.

He’ll never admit it unless he’s found out, but he absolutely takes a couple of quick pictures from the door before he tucks his phone away, closes the door back over, and finishes putting things away. Laptop and bag back in his office, the last of the groceries in the closet in the master bathroom. When he doesn’t hear the others stirring, he pokes his head back into the room, just in time to see the screen crack over the credits of the next episode.

Hazel’s awake now, it seems, because he turns his head toward the door and gives Arthur a rather lazy smile, before he tosses his head toward the empty spot on his other side. He doesn’t say anything, and it’s probably better that he doesn’t: as quiet as he is, his voice is deep enough that the rumble of it in his chest would probably wake Penny if he spoke up loud enough for Arthur to hear across the room. Penny is a very good sleeper, she usually needs to be roused for night feedings, she doesn’t normally wake up on her own for them, but waking her when they don’t have to is still not a risk any of them are willing to take.

Arthur beams a little, wanders closer and settles on Hazel’s other side, to avoid jostling Tyrian and waking him up. He needs his rest too. He’s more often the one that goes running if Penny cries for any reason, and more than once, Arthur’s caught him awake and sitting in Penny’s room, just watching her sleep. Not that he isn’t equally guilty of it, though. Hazel’s the only one getting anything close to a full night’s sleep around here and even he isn’t sleeping a full eight hours. He hasn’t quite devolved into needing to watch the baby sleep to make sure she doesn’t suddenly stop breathing, start seizing, or something equally worrisome.

“Hello there, you,” he greets quietly, smiling as he sits down and settles close to Hazel’s side, resting his head on his shoulder for a brief moment before turning his head up to give Hazel a kiss. “Tyrian finally talked you into watching the family favorite?”

“Mm.”

“Enjoying yourself?”

“Mmhm.”

He chuckles, letting himself relax for just a moment before he shifts back and holds his arms up slightly, crooking his fingers in a little. “I believe it’s my turn with that baby.”

“Hmm, dunno,” Hazel chuckles, and the rumble of it shakes them both, probably Penny too, but she doesn’t wake up. “Think she’s pretty happy where she is.”

“Come now, it’s enough of a production to get Tyrian to let go of her, I don’t plan on arguing with you too.” Arthur straightens up a little bit more, carefully plucking Penny off of Hazel’s chest and bracing her against his own, sitting back and smiling down at her once he’s got them both settled. “Hello, darling…”

On the screen, there’s a woman screaming and searching frantically for what Arthur knows to be her three-year-old daughter, and he glances up at the sound of it. He feels his face shift down into something worried. Hazel shifts an arm to rest around Arthur’s shoulders. “… what’s on your mind?”

“Mm? Oh, nothing.” He’s turned his attention back to Penny, but he still looks… noticeably worried. He’s not sure if he’s hiding it well, or at all, really. “Nothing.”

“Arthur.”

Apparently he isn’t. He sighs quietly, reaches up and shuffles Penny around a little, settles her a bit more solidly in place. He decides not to tell Hazel, at the moment, about his frantic search of the house for them when he’d gotten home, and simply nods to the screen, where the screaming mother is now calm, and watching her daughter be implanted with a sort of tracking device. “This one used to be one of my favorites. But now… it’s a bit more anxiety inducing. Conceptually. You know.”

Hazel doesn’t say anything. Arthur glances at him, finds him looking expectantly down at him, waiting for him to keep going, and he does.

“… I’ve been worried about her since the first pregnancy test came back positive. … well, the third, actually, there… were a number of home tests before we went in for the blood test.” A beat. He nudges one finger against Penny’s hand, smiles a little when she grabs onto it. Even in her sleep, her grip’s surprisingly strong for an underweight little preemie whose parents are doing their damnedest to catch her up to where she needs to be and consistently falling short of the mark. “I… daresay I’m just the sort of person who’d go mad for that type of system if it existed.”

“Nah. Y’not that bad.”

Arthur manages a bit of a laugh. “… I’d say Tyrian would be too, but that’d require him to put her down and let her learn to walk enough to wander away from him without help. Though we’re all a little guilty of spoiling her like that.”

“Mm. Yeah, you are.”

“I said we .”

“Y’did.” Hazel kisses the side of the doctor’s head. “Y’re both just protective.”

“… of course. You’re right.” Penny wiggles around against her mother’s chest, and Arthur startles a little, looking down just in time to see her blink those sleepy green eyes open and yawn. “Oh, did we wake you, pretty girl?”

Penny, of course, doesn’t answer him. She’s not precisely capable of it, really. Most infants don’t even say their first word until around six months, but they can be, and often are, quite noisy in other ways at Penny’s age: they’re sort of “testing out” their voices and other sounds. Of course, some start talking earlier, some later, but a large percentage of them are at least babbling by now. Penny, however, is a very quiet baby. He isn’t entirely sure whether he should be worried about that. Tyrian doesn’t seem to be.

He distracts himself from the notion that they may be doing something catastrophically incorrect, or that there might be something wrong with Penny that they’re not seeing properly. “When’s the last time someone fed her?”

“B’fore we started watchin’ Black Mirror.”

“Specific.” He braces Penny against his chest and wiggles toward the edge of the sofa to stand up with her. “I’m going to feed her and start dinner.”

“Need some help?”

“No, no. You stay here. Tyrian’s leeching your body heat. He needs it. And the nap, honestly.”

“He’s got a blanket.”

“And he’s got you.” Once he’s gotten to his feet, Arthur leans to give Hazel a quick kiss. “I’ll come get you both when dinner’s ready.”

“Alright. Text if you need me.”

“Of course, dear.”

#Arthur Watts #hazel rainart #rwby #rwby fanfiction #pumpkin writes #modern au? polyamorous wth? human baby penny?#more likely than you think #no one should be surprised #apparently meerkats are known for sleeping in piles?

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acertaincritic · 6 years

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Various Donghua Reviews

I watched or tried to watch a whole bunch of donghua in the past few weeks, and since I see little discourse on this type of animation, I decided to compile them into a list with my short opinions attached. If you are toying with the idea of watching this or that Chinese animation, check out below for both recommendations and a couple of no-no series ^.^”

First things first, some notes. “Wuxia” is a popular genre in Chinese media, based off martial arts, and most often it strays into fantasy territory (from what I’ve seen, at least). It comes with a set of already established tropes and world building details. Think about Western fantasy - when you see elves in it, you don’t have to be told what they are. There are variations, but generally elves = pointed ears + beautiful + magical, and everybody knows that. Wuxia has similar things that do not get explained in every story, so it might feel overwhelming at first, though many translators do try to explain them in the notes. Just for the sake of those who want to know before starting watching, here’s what might make your life easier:

Cultivators - people a little like mages, except they have flying swords and generally are well-versed in martial arts. Usually their purpose is to battle evil supernatural beings. In some stories they are ageless (as in, they don’t grow old) and very hard to kill, in others it’s toned down. Above a certain level, they often train by remote meditation.

Golden Core/Core Formation - sth like the source of their power?... Not exactly, but they have to form it through training if they want to use advanced techniques. It’s situated somewhere between chest and belly, I suck at anatomy, don’t kill me.

Paper talismans - rectangular pieces of paper that are amazingly easy to toss at your enemies. Used for casting spells, easy to understand just by watching. Also if they seem to be glued to sth, then they usually serve as a seal of some kind.

Various demons/spirits/other magical beings - gosh, there’s a ton. TBH I don’t even know if some aren’t completely made-up by the authors for the sake of their stories. Generally be ready that a new demon/beast/something can jump out from every corner, and the characters are going to know what it is, while you don’t. Resentful energy seems to often be tied to them, as in, it’s what often fuels them.

All right, without further ado, here’s what I’ve tried already. The list is more or less in the order of recommendation, aka from those I liked best to those that I didn’t like at all.

Title: Mo Dao Zu Shi / The Grandmanster of Demonic Cultivation

Throughline: The supposed villain of the cultivators’ world gets reincarnated into an adult’s body 13 years after his death. Things escalate from there.

My take:

+ my entry point into donghua.

+ I was hesitant to watch because of the BL tag, but there really is no need to get scared by it. There’s plot proper, well-developed characters, both main and side, and overall this clearly is a fantasy series with a romance rather than a romance with fantasy setting.

+ beautiful art and great animation with only sparse moments when CGI looks kinda clanky.

+ wonderful music, too.

+ honestly though, I’ve been on a low when I came across it and was brought back to life. It’s been a long, long time since I fangirled over a series so much.

+ if you follow my blog you must’ve already seen about it.

+ Just give it a try, OK?

- some things in the beginning are not clearly explained and many names get tossed in at once; especially if you don’t know any Chinese, they might all sound the same. The characters also all have long black hair and bishe faces. I recommend first checking them online and memorizing at least the main casts, it really makes watching it much easier - focus on the bangs and clothes, and try to remember their names. Or you can always rewatch the beginning after you get better at recognizing who is who.

- the cut to flashbacks is confusing, as it happens at the very end of episode 2. Then episodes 3 to 14.5 take place in the past - another thing that’s not super clear and worth keeping in mind.

Title: Di Wang Gong Lue / The Emperor’s Strategy

Throughline: The Emperor and his loyal noble ally take on many problems that befall the country.

My take:

+ This is the closest series to “Mo Dao Zu Shi” I found so far, though there aren’t that many specific similarities. Only the overall ‘feel’ is similar.

+ Also tagged BL, but TBH, if I didn’t know about it before watching, I still wouldn’t know it.

+ The relationship between the two main characters is like, funny and cute at the same time.

+ Politics and fantasy intertwined.

+ Also a lot of interesting side characters, though maybe they could’ve been given more screen time.

+ great character designs and music.

- animation. It looks like anime from around the year 2000, even though the series came out in 2018.

- some flashback stuff seems really cheesy. There’s not a lot of it, thankfully.

- the first three or four episodes aren’t very engaging. I got invested around episode 5, though as you see, the beginning isn’t so terrible that you can’t wade through it.

Title: Mi Yu Xing Zhe / Uncharted Walker

Throughline: A group of people are put on a tropical island, forced to play an escape game under extreme circumstances.

My take:

+ an interesting set of characters with various backgrounds, most of them likable or at least understandable.

+ despite the setup, it’s not as bloody as many similar series. Characters can die, but they don’t die that often, which really builds tension and keeps you on the edge of the seat, because when there’s a close-to-death moment, you never know if it’s one when the character will really die or when they get rescued last-minute.

+ there is a very strong “game” feeling to this, where characters generally have to figure out how to use their resources to overcome various obstacles.

+ some psychological stuff here and there.

+ very good animation and designs.

-/+ there are borderline supernatural elements, though generally playing pretend at scientific. I personally don’t mind it, but some people might be put off or disappointed.

- it turns much more creepy in the last 3 or so episodes, to the point that it becomes more of a horror than a survival and mystery story. Even worse, the horror stuff comes in a setup that’s pretty realistic, so I have flashback ‘till this day (I don’t like horrors, and being realistic makes it much worse). TBH if I knew, I’d probably resign from watching, because as much as I enjoyed everything up until that part, the creeps aren’t worth it... However, perhaps you like horrors better than I do.

- a HUGE cliffhanger at the end. But like, HUUUUUGE HUGE.

Title: Shuangsheng Lingtan / Twin Spirit Detectives

Throughline: Twin brothers take on cases of supposed supernatural phenomena, bent on proving that they are not real - only that one of them appears to be a ghost himself...

My take:

+ interesting setup.

+ detective stuff - I have a soft spot for mysteries.

+ likable main characters and a few well-developed side characters, too.

+ animation is overall quite good.

+ has a solid arc, though with an open ending and kinda a cliffhanger about a side character at the end.

-/+ bordering on the supernatural territory again.

- horror elements, but thankfully, this time they aren’t that realistic.

- some things in the first few episodes feel rushed or not properly developed (apparently the issue is with the donghua adaptation, and the original manhua had a slower beginning).

Title: Quan Zhi Gao Shou / The King’s Avatar

Throughline: The top player of “Glory” is forced to give up his account and retire for a year. What will he do now?

My take:

+ a decent setup, though it gets old quickly.

+ a large cast of interesting character with various strengths and weaknesses and strongly-defined personalities.

+ great art style and characters’ design.

+ great animation during fights.

- the main character. Just. I’ve rarely encountered such a Gary Stue, I really wish I could see him lose for real. Like, I’m OK with him beating noobs, that’s realistic, but he doesn’t stop even after other pros come into play.

- the plot seems generally directionless so far, and gets tiring easily.

- originally I was supposed to binge-watch it with friends as a series none of us knew beforehand, but we gave up after 6 episodes and I switched it to MDZS instead. I finished it alone later, and mostly for the sake of the side characters and animation.

- it is generally watchable, but like, far from best.

This point marks the end of series I watched whole. The following are series I dropped after 5-6 episodes (which I consider a fair amount).

Title: Ling Qi / Spritpact

Throughline: A guy dies and is given an ultimatum - to pass away or become a spirit companion of a demon-battling, Korean priest.

My take:

+ setup and world building. This seems just like the kind of fantasy that fits my taste.

+ ...character design is not terrible, I guess?

+ apparently the animation gets better in season 2.

+ the demon-battling priest seems like a character archetype I might like.

+/- TBH this series wasn’t tragic, I may still go back to it one day, if I really feel like it. The idea has potential and the plot probably gets better later, I just wasn’t able to prevail until then.

- animation in the first season is kinda meh. Could be worse, but it still doesn’t please. Don’t let the marvelous poster above deceive you!

- the main character. He’s so whiny, I was unable to stand him. He’s the main reason I dropped this, and I honestly have no idea if he gets any better later.

Title: Quanzhi Fashi / Full-Time Magister

Throughline: Three months after a guy gets transported into a magic-filled alternative reality, he struggles to get into magic school to become the best mage and get a lot of money for his family.

My take:

+ setup/world building again hit a soft spot in my fantasy-loving heart.

+ ...I’ve seen some fragments from season 2, apparently animation is good there.

- I hated the MC of QZGS, but he at least had half a reason to be so unrealistically OP. This guy here... he’s a new low... Basically “How to Write a Gary Stu?” example. Like. C’mon. You can have an OP cool protagonist without making them a GS.

- despite the potentially interesting premise, this is as simplistic as it could be. The MC is ridiculed, but he turns out to be super powerful with talent for not just one, but two most rare elemental magics. He gets bullied - then he shows off how much better he is than the bully during magic exams, stunning everybody. One of the Big Bad Rich Guys tries to recruit him - he flat-out refuses in a infuriatingly arrogant manner. Etc. etc.

- Characters are as deep as a puddle during drought.

- Look, there’s a set of tropes that are generally laughed at in this type of premise, like the MC having an OP secret power, getting put down by everybody to an unrealistic degree etc. Here they are played painfully straight, and there’s nothing more to the story. Absolutely nothing, not a single interesting character or plot thread. I kept watching for so long hoping that something would turn up, but it didn’t.

- animation in season 1 is pretty bad.

That would be all for my donghua experience so far. I had many ups, though I guess some salt pits were unavoidable +_+

#mo dao zu shi #di wang gong lue #mi yu xing zhe #shuangsheng lingtan #quan zhi gao shou #ling qi #quanzhi fashi #review #opinion #recommendations #stuff

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precuredaily · 5 years

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Precure Day 102

Episode: Futari wa Precure Splash Star 04 - “Are you Kidding!? The Scenery of Spring and the Cries of Cicadas” Date watched: 18 December 2018 Original air date: 26 February 2006 Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/Gfaz8As Project info and master list of posts: http://tinyurl.com/PCDabout

Mai is worried

I’m starting to remember why Splash Star has a lower reputation than some of the other shows: the beginning is kind of slow. Mai and Saki are still developing as friends but there isn’t really any intrigue to drive the show right now, the way that there was in early FWPC. It’s exploring their interests without really getting the audience to care about them. They’re nice and all that but I feel less interested in their personal lives than the show wants me to be, and I think that’s because there’s not as strong of a driving force for me to care. If I look back at FWPC, there was a lot of uncertainty about whether the girls wanted to be heroes and we got to see them work to learn more about each other and become friends. I know I commented earlier that I liked how they cut to the chase and declared themselves first-name friends so early but maybe it’s come at the cost of the plot. I’m having trouble putting my feelings into words but there seems to be something missing from this episode.

The plot focuses on Mai being scouted by the art club for her talents, and her struggle to decide whether she wants to join or just be free to do her own thing. Mainly she doesn’t like the idea of entering contests, because she draws for herself, but she agrees to enter this one in particular. The theme is “The scenery of spring” as the title implies, and Mai isn’t sure how to implement it. She asks Saki, her brother, and both of her parents for their thoughts and everybody gives her personal answers that she doesn’t really like. Eventually Saki suggests they go into the woods and just look around for inspiration. They find a cabbage patch at the edge of a farm and decide to settle down there. Saki gets distracted by the unusual sound of cicadas chirping out of season, and goes off to investigate, while Mai sees an old lady struggling to tend to the crops on her own and goes to lend a hand. However, splitting the girls up was Karehaan’s plan, and he attacks Saki on her own to try and get the spirits back. She manages to evade him and get back to Mai’s side so they can transform and fight back. This time Karehaan summons a cicada uzainaa, which Saki questions since she thought he only controlled tree and plant life. He retorts that cicadas eat the sap from the tree so it’s a close enough connection for him. (weird flex but okay)

It does give us that little exchange though, which is great. The dramatic music stops when Saki points this out and everything.

Anyway they transform and fight the uzainaa and it’s... not much of a fight. They kick it once, get knocked back, it blows them into the trees, they recover, the spirits force jump them at it which they turn into a grappling landing, and then they throw it away and finish it off with Twin Stream Splash. I’m barely skimping on the details here. I was surprised when I went back and rewatched just how short the actual fight is. Still, I think there were some FWPC fights where they barely actually did anything before throwing the Marble Screw so I guess that’s just how it goes sometimes.

The dust settles and the pair go to check up on the old lady Mai was helping, who got knocked out in the chaos. As they do this, the art club leader Ayano comes running up and it turns out the lady is her grandmother. This cuts to the exhibition the next week or so, Saki compliments everybody’s paintings and is a little surprised Mai didn’t win. Mai comments that the winner painted some lovely portraits of sakura trees, and her picture was deemed to be nice, but not really in tune with the theme. We pan over and it’s a painting of the grandmother.

Mai admits that although she was originally going to paint the cabbage patch, she was moved, and she wound up so enraptured by the woman’s face that she didn’t draw her holding up a cabbage like she meant to. Ultimately, only Ayano really appreciates the meaning of the piece and its relevance to the theme, and she welcomes Mai to the art club. As the pair walk home, Mai admits that she was persuaded by a comment Saki made earlier when they went scouting for a place to draw: “It’s more fun to be together than alone.” Mai decided that being able to draw with friends would be more fun than drawing on her own, and so she joined despite her initial reservations. And thus the episode concludes.

Oh also there was a scene with Flappi and Choppi I want to talk about, Flappi came out and started hinting really strongly to Choppi that he liked her and she didn’t pick up on it, and everybody else just kind of stared in disbelief at her obliviousness, but chose not to spell it out. This one-sided crush is different from the always lovey-dovey antics of Mepple and Mipple and.... well it leads to some nice gags, like this, but I don’t feel like the romance element was necessary. We’ll see where it goes.

Even though it advances Mai’s character, giving her an outlet for critique of her art skills, this episode still doesn’t feel very noteworthy. Maybe that’s an unfair thing to say about a 50 episode show, they can’t all be big episodes, but it’s this early into the series and we’ve had two episodes in a row that just didn’t quite do it for me like the premiere did. If I remember right, it’s partly because Karehaan is just kind of a boring villain, and the next one, Moerumba, is more fun. The Kiryuus are the highlight of the show and we’ll get to them in due time. (hopefully by mid-January) The next episode introduces Saki to Mai’s brother, and for some reason the episode title mentions Kenta despite there being zero indication of his involvement. Obviously this is because of his crush and the love triangle this creates, but still.... it’s a bit strange. Nonetheless, look forward to that review in hopefully less than a week, I’m really bad at this.

Pink Precure Catchphrase Count: 0 Zekkouchou Nari

Miracle Drop Count: 4

#Precure #Pretty Cure #Futari wa Precure Splash Star #FWPCSS04 #PCD102

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spn-ficfanatic · 6 years

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Ghost Sickness

My Masterlist

@imaginationisgrowth: “I had an idea the other day when I was rewatching the episode yellow fever. I thought it would be interesting to see the reader get ghost sickness while they are on a case. This could be angst and fluff and you could do deanxreader , samxreader, or no pairing and just friends.

A/N: So I’ve reworked Yellow Fever. I’ve changed a few facts from the episode around to fit the story I’m telling. I’ve also tried not to stick to the episode dialogue too much to give it a fresher feeling. So don’t go in expecting the episode exactly how you know it word for word. Hopefully you’ll love it just as much though! Much love to @imaginationisgrowth who has been soooo patient and supportive while waiting over a month for me to finish this!

Words: 7900-ish Warnings: Mention of bullying and suicide, mild swearing Genre: Angst with a hint of humour Characters: Dean, Sam, Reader, Bobby. All platonic but hopefully you’ll enjoy the closeness of the characters, they will each have their own little moments with the Reader.

Your legs pounded the pavement as you ran down the path, jaws snapping at your ankles as you did. You were sweating and tears were rolling down your face, you were running out of breath, but you couldn’t stop. You knew if you did it would all be over and you refused to go out this way.

Mauled to death by a poodle? Can you fricking imagine how much crap Crowley would give you once you got to hell?

43 HOURS EARLIER

”How did it go?” you asked the guys as they stepped back into the Impala. They’d gone ahead and spoken with the coroner while you continued research from the back seat, without any success. Sam huffed out a laugh.

“Well, I held the guys heart and Dean got squirted with dead-man juice,” he reported with a grin, and you turned to see Dean still furiously wiping his face. You choked back a laugh before feigning concern.

“Oh poor Deany, are you ok?” you asked, throwing in a hint of condescension. He threw you a bitch face to rival Sam’s and you nearly burst out into laughter.

“Shaddap,” he told you simply, putting the car into gear and driving off.

“So get this,” Sam started, and you leaned forward expectantly. “Guy drops dead of a heart attack right, but nothing suggests he was even sick. Perfectly healthy heart. And given he’s just the latest of a line of them I’m steering toward something supernatural.”

You nodded in agreement, leaning back once you were sure Sam was finished.

“So. Sheriff’s office?” you asked, putting your shoes back on.

“Nuh uh, I’m going back to the room for a shower,” Dean commented, pulling a face. “A really really REALLY long shower. With bleach.”

“Guess it’s just you and me Y/N,” Sam told you with a smile, which you returned happily.

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

“Nice socks,” Sam whispered to you with a smirk as you glanced at your feet, currently sporting your Frozen socks. Olaf stared back at you with a stupid grin and you smiled.

“Thanks, I’ll get you a pair,” you replied as you sat your purse on the floor next to you. In your defence you hadn’t exactly expected the sheriff to have a “no shoe” policy in his office, otherwise you absolutely would have worn stockings, but damn if these weren’t a heck of a lot warmer!

The sheriff sat at his desk in front of you, lathering his hands in the alcohol gel sitting by his keyboard. You raised a curious eyebrow but didn’t say anything; at first glance you wouldn’t pick him for a germaphobe but you figured everyone had their thing.

“Okay. So, what can I do for uncle Sam?” he asked you both, his hands making a slapping slick noise as he rubbed them together. You tried to hide a grimace.

“Well, we're looking into the death of Frank O'Brien. We understand some of your men found his body,” Sam told him in his professional FBI voice. The sheriff nodded with a frown.

“They did. Me and Frank, we were friends. Hell, we were Gamecocks.”

A snicker escaped your lips before you could stop it, and the sheriff gave you a stern look making your cheeks blush profusely.

“That's our softball team's name. They're majestic animals. I knew Frank since high school. To be honest, I just this morning got up the strength to go see him. Frank was… He was a good man.”

“Yeah. Big heart I hear,” you told him with a wry grin, recalling Sam’s recount of being handed it at the morgue. You looked at Sam expectantly but he gave you a stern look that told you to shut up. Gawd he was no fun sometimes!

“Before he died, did you notice Frank acting strange? Maybe scared of something?” Sam pushed on.

“Oh hell, yeah. Real jumpy.”

That peaked your interest, and you leaned forward. “You know what scared him?”

“No. Wouldn't answer his phone. Finally, I sent some of my boys over to check on him, and well, you know the rest.”

As the Sheriff started to pour the alcohol gel on his hands again you and Sam shared a confused look. ‘What the hell?’ you mouthed to him, and he shrugged in reply.

“So, why the Feds give a crap? You don't really think there's a case here?” the Sheriff interrupted your exchange, continuing to rub his hands together loudly much to your annoyance.

“No, no. It's probably nothing. Just a heart attack,” Sam told him in a reassuring voice. You nodded in agreement with a smile.

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

“No way that was a heart attack,” Sam commented once you were out of earshot, walking alongside each other on the way back to the impala.

“Definitely no way. Three victims, all with those same red scratches. All went from jittery to terrified to dead within 48 hours.”

“Something scared them to death?”

“All right, so what can do that?” you asked.

“What can't? Ghosts, vampires, chupacabra? It could be a hundred things.”

You sighed in frustration. “Yeah. So, we make a list and start crossing things off.”

“Alright, who's the last person to see Frank O'Brien alive?”

You pulled your notepad out of your pocket and checked your scribbles from earlier in the day.

“Uh, his neighbour, Mark Hutchins.”

“Alright, guess we’ll pay a visit to Mark next,” Sam decided, stopping at the side of the road and preparing to cross. You looked ahead and saw a group of teens hanging out next to the Impala and were suddenly overcome with a concern you couldn’t rightly explain.

“Hang on, hang on,” you muttered, putting your hand out in front of Sam just as he was about to step onto the road. He looked around to see what had made you stop.

“What?”

You turned to face him, your back to the men on the off chance they could lip read. What? It could happen!

“I don't like the looks of those teenagers down there.”

Sam looked around and spotted the group chatting near the Impala, and before he could ask you what the problem was you were already pulling him in the other direction.

“Let's walk this way. Mark’s place is within walking distance anyway.”

You crossed the road, oblivious to the perplexed stare Sam was giving you behind your back. Looking back at the teens, he shook his head in confusion and followed you.

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

“You never mentioned you were scared of snakes Y/N…”

“GAH!” you cried with a shiver, remembering the feel of Mark’s python slithering down your leg. Sam gave you a small smirk and started to loosen his tie as you both walked toward the Impala once again.

“OK, so we got a couple of things from the guy at least. He’s a widow and a dick.”

“He was a bully in high school Sam, doesn’t still make him a dick,” you countered. You’d once confided in Sam that you’d been less than friendly yourself during your school years so for him to say that was a little hurtful, but you tried not to let it get to you. “Mark said he’d gotten better since then, cut him some slack.”

“Fair enough, I guess,” Sam replied quietly, looking at you curiously. “Hey, you OK? You seem a bit...”

“A bit what Sam?” you challenged him, knowing he’d not be stupid enough to continue that sentence. As you suspected, he decided to shut up. Wise man.

“Nothing. Let’s get to the county clerk’s office and I’ll dig up whatever I can on his wife.”

As you rounded the corner you looked around for the teens, and let out the breath you hadn’t realised you were holding when you saw they had moved on.

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

You sat in the passenger seat of the Impala, absentmindedly scratching your arm while you waited for Sam to get back . You’d not admitted it to him but you’d been feeling kind of weird for the last couple of hours. Sam was right, you’d never mentioned a fear of snakes. Because you didn’t have one. Not normally anyway. So what was it about Mark’s that had you all jittery? While you were pondering Sam returned, and the sudden jolt of the vehicle as he opened the door had you jumping.

“Hey. Any luck?” you asked, casually trying to rest your elbow on the window but missing and just kind of let your arm fall awkwardly. Sam raised an eyebrow at you but didn’t mention it.

“I'm not sure I'd call it luck. Frank's wife, Jessie, was a manic-depressive. She went off her meds back in '88 and vanished. They found her two weeks later, three towns over. Strung up in her motel room, suicide.”

“Yikes. Any chance Frank helped her along to the other side?” you asked, hopeful that this was a lead.

“No, Frank was working the swing shift when she disappeared. Airtight alibi,” he replied with a sigh, throwing the files on your lap. He turned the ignition while you carefully sat them down by your feet instead. Didn’t want to risk a paper cut.

“I checked in with Dean, he searched Frank’s place top to bottom but there was nothing. No EMF, no hex bags, no sulfur,” you told Sam with a frown, keeping a watchful eye on the speedometer. “So probably no ghosts, no witches, or demons.”

Sam grunted in annoyance. “3 down and 97 to go.”

“Yeah,” you replied quietly as your eyes stayed glued to the speed. “Sam, you’re going 25.”

He looked at you puzzled before checking the speed himself.

“And?” he asked, confused.

“The speed limit is 20.”

Sam let out an amused laugh, expecting you were joking. “Yer sure, speeds are only suggestions after all,” he told you, quoting yourself from only a month prior when it was your turn to drive.

You pursed your lips and sat back in your seat, embarrassed to say anything more. As he turned on the indicator though you let out a yelp. Sam looked at you startled, sitting in the middle of the road while he waited for the traffic to pass.

“Dude, what are you doing?” you yelped.

“That’s our hotel!”

“Making a left-hand turn into oncoming traffic? Are you suicidal?!” you practically shouted before raising a hand to your mouth shocked. Sam stared at you, genuinely concerned with your behaviour now.

“Did I just say that? That was kind of weird,” you muttered with a nervous giggle.

Just then the EMF in Sam’s pocket started whining, and as he quickly turned into the hotel you pulled your legs up over your eyes and gave a small shriek of fear. Throwing the car into park, Sam reached into his pocket and extracted the EMF reader. Pointing it toward you it shrieked loudly, but as he pulled it away it died down. One more try and your heart started racing as it shrieked again when pointed in your direction.

“Am I haunted?” you blurted out, terrified. “Am I haunted?!”

“Ummmm…” Sam trailed off.

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

“Cuz the players gonna play play play play play,” you sang, pretending to hold a mic to your mouth as you sang along to Taylor Swift. Dean hated that you liked this song but you’d caught him tapping his foot to the beat one day so you knew he was just playing the tough-guy routine. Now though you were just trying to get your mind away from the horrors around you. That tree that’s leaning a little too close to the car (what if it falls down in this wind?), the hotel sign flickering away (surely that’s a occupational health and safety concern?), and that german shepherd tied to a pole near the hotel entrance (RABIES!!).

As a hand tapped loudly on top of the car you yelped, then sighed in relief when you sat up and saw Dean’s torso at the window. You leaned over and turned the volume down, and carefully climbed out to stand with him, ignoring the hand he held out to assist you.

“Get that germy hand away from me, I know where it’s been,” you told him glumly. He looked at his hand with offense, before shrugging and nodding his head in agreement.

“So, Sam mentioned you’re having a freak out or something?” Dean asked casually, leaning against the car and trying not to look concerned. He knew how much you hated when they worried about you and didn’t want to upset you further.

“I think it’s justified,” you scoffed, holding out your arm with a look of alarm. “Look at this!”

Dean took your arm in his hands only to see you had scratched yourself raw, and pulled it closer to inspect it further.

“Geez Y/N, what are you doing?” he cried in concern.

“I’m not doing it I swear!”

You sighed and leaned against the Impala, pulling your arm away. Dean turned to greet Sam as he approached the car, and Sam handed you a box of your favourite donuts by way of a greeting. He’d been hoping to cheer you up some and grabbed them while he’d been talking on the phone, but frowned as he watched you sniff them and with a disapproving look throw them in the backseat.

“Um, ok, well, I just spoke with Bobby and you’re not gonna like it.” Sam took a deep breath before steeling himself for your reaction once he’d told you. “It’s ghost sickness.”

“Oh god no,” you replied, casting your eyes down as you let that sink in. “Oh man, that’s… I have no idea what that is actually.”

“Oh. Well ok, some cultures believe that certain spirits can infect the living with a disease, which is why they stopped displaying bodies in houses and started taking them off to funeral homes.”

“Lovely. Get to the good stuff,” you grimaced.

“Symptoms are you get anxious, then scared, then really scared, then your heart gives out. Sound familiar?”

“Yeah, but Sam, we haven't seen a ghost in week,” Dean piped up.

“Well, I doubt she caught it from a ghost. Look, once a spirit infects that first person, Ghost Sickness can spread like any sickness through a cough, a handshake, whatever. It's like the flu. Now, Frank O'Brien was the first to die, which means he was probably the first infected. Patient zero.”

“Our very own outbreak monkey.”

“Right. Get this, Frank was in Maumee over the weekend. Softball tournament. Which is where he must have infected the other two victims.”

“Were they Gamecocks?” you asked.

“Cornjerkers.”

Dean looked at you both confused by that exchange, but Sam pressed on.

“So, a ghost infected Frank. He passed it onto the other guys and then Y/N got it from his corpse.”

“Wait wait wait, I wasn’t even there! That’s not fair!” you whined.

“Well, like any sickness some people are carriers and some have natural immunities. We probably carried it to the car with us; you likely caught it from us,” Sam told you, looking apologetic.

“So now what, I have 48 hours before I go insane and my heart stops?” you asked bluntly.

“More like 24.”

“Super.”

“Yeah.”

“Well, why me? Why not you guys? I mean, you were in direct contact with the victim. Hell, Dean got splattered with spleen juice!”

“Yeah, um, you see Bobby and I have a theory about that too. Turns out all three victims shared a certain, uh, personality type. Frank was a bully. The other two victims, one was a vice principal, the other was a bouncer.”

“Okay.”

“Basically, they were all dicks.”

“So why didn’t Dean get infected?” you grumbled.

“Hey! I’m a pleasure to be around,” Dean defended himself, crossing his arms. You smirked sarcastically at him before turning back to Sam.

“So you're saying I'm a dick?”

“No, no, no. It's not just that. All three victims used fear as a weapon, and now this disease is just returning the favor. I know you’re not the same girl you were in high school, but since that played a part in Frank catching it then it might playing a part in yours too.”

“I don't scare people,” you murmured, your eyes downcast.

“All we do is scare people,” Sam countered.

“Okay, well then, you guys are dicks too.”

“Apparently, we’re not.”

You sighed in annoyance, throwing your hands in the air in defeat and you stood up from your position against the car. “Whatever. How do we stop it?”

“We gank the ghost that started all this. We do that, the disease should clear up.”

“You thinking Frank's wife?” Dean asked.

“Who knows why she killed herself, you know? Hey, what are you doing waiting out here, anyway?” Sam asked, turning his attention back to you. You looked at him sheepishly before looking up at the Hotel.

“Our room's on the fourth floor.”

Sam and Dean watched you, and shook their heads in confusion.

“It's...it’s high,” you added, raising your hand to demonstrate.

They gave you a concerned look as they glanced at each other for a moment.

“I'll see if I can move us down to the first,” Sam told you, walking back to the office. Dean smiled sadly and patted you on the shoulder before turning his attention to the files in the car.

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

Sitting at the hotel table with a book in front of you, you could barely focus on the words and kept being distracted by the clock on the wall ticking away loudly. A tickle in your throat had you coughing for a moment, and as you let your head fall to read the page in front of you you were greeted by grizzly images of people coughing up their intestines. You coughed again and felt your heart rate increase as you felt the panic start to rise.

Sparing a quick glance to the clock, you abruptly stood up and proceeded to smash it on the floor. Several times. By the time you’d finished it was in several hundred pieces, and with a satisfied grunt you headed to the fridge for a Pepsi. Sitting on the couch you gave a sigh, running your hands over your face tiredly. You sat there for about 10 minutes, nursing your drink, before the guys put their key in the door and arrived back to the room.

“Hey Y/N, we’re back,” Sam called out, watching the key as he pulled it out of the lock and put it in his pocket. He looked up when he heard Dean’s feet crunch against something on the floor. Looking around he could see what appeared to be the clock on the floor, strewn into pieces.

“Everything all right?” Dean asked cautiously.

“Oh, yeah. Just peachy. Find anything?” you snapped with a frown, taking a sip of your drink. Sam raised an eyebrow but let it go.

“Yeah, Jessie O'Brien's body was cremated, so I'm pretty sure she is not our ghost.” You watched him as he spoke, not even noticing that you were scratching your arm again.

“Hey, quit picking at that,” Dean scolded you, swatting your hand away and sitting next to you. “How you feeling?”

“Awesome. It's nice to have my head on the chopping block again. I almost forgot what that feels like,” you told them glumly, taking another sip. In the time since your last brush with death, Sam and Dean had each died once. Only makes sense that it was your turn again. “It's freaking delightful.”

“We'll keep looking,” Sam added, sitting at the table and putting his laptop down to start some more research.

That tickle came back, and you took a sip to try and get rid of it. When it didn’t you couldn’t help but let out a cough. Dean and Sam each went about their business, Dean flicking through the channels on the TV in front of him. He raised his head though when you leaned forward, unable to stop the coughing.

“You okay?” he asked you, slapping his palm against your back. When you didn’t answer, COULDN’T answer, he started to worry. “Hey, Y/N!” he shouted as it got worse, tears starting to stream down your face. “Sammy, she can’t breath!”

Sam stood up to approach you, panic in his eyes, but instead you passed him as you ran to the kitchen sink. The boys followed as you coughed into the basin, feeling a large square shape push through your esophagus and out your mouth. You cried out in relief as it did, resting your forehead against your hand which was resting on the sink. You felt a hand rub circles on your back and surmised it was Dean.

You watched as Sam reached in and pulled out the wood chip you had just expelled from your body, and raised your head to look at him confused as he looked it over. A look of wonderment spread over his face as he looked at you with renewed hope.

“We've been completely ignoring the biggest clue we have,” he said. “You!”

“What?” you cried, resting your head back onto your hand to sulk. “I don't wanna be a clue”

“The abrasions, this; the disease is trying to tell us something,” he continued excitedly, walking out to the lounge room. Dean followed him, leaving you to peel yourself up and go with.

“Tell us what, wood chips?” he asked his brother.

“Exactly.”

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

“I’m not going in there,” you exclaimed, looking up at the wood mill apprehensively.

“Cummon Y/N, live a little,” Dean told you with a grin. “You can’t hide away in the car or the hotel and let a little ghost sickness get you down.”

“Shaddup. Sam?” you asked, turning to his brother and giving your best puppy-dog expression. He grimaced in response, feeling guilty.

“Sorry Y/N, but if something’s going on inside related to all this, you being there might bring it out of the woodwork.” He paused. “No pun intended.”

You groaned, and headed to the boot. The guys watched with a mixture of worry and amusement as you pulled out a bottle of whiskey and poured it down your throat in one breath. When you came up for air you shook your head briskly, bouncing up and down to hype yourself up.

“Let's do this!” you shouted, walking with purpose toward the mill. The guys followed close behind and bumped into you when you slowed down unexpectedly.

“It’s a little spooky, isn't it?” you told them, coming to a complete stop. The brothers looked at each other from behind you, and in one motion linked their arms under yours and lifted you up so your feet dangled a few inches off the ground. You let out a squeal as they walked you toward the mill, and as you crossed the threshold they set you down.

“See? Nothing to be scared ok,” Sam told you, patting you on the back and handing you a gun.

“Oh, I'm not carrying that,” you told him, shaking your head. “It could go off. I'll man the flashlight.” You reached into his pocket and pulled it out, holding it in front of your face as you grinned at him.

“You do that,” he told you with a sigh as he and Dean lead the way into the mill. The EMF started going berserk and you all stopped to watch as Sam pulled it out. You all realised at once what it meant.

“EMF's not gonna work with me around, is it?”

“You don't say,” Dean commented wryly. “Come on.”

“Wait…” Sam said suddenly, causing you to jump. He reached down and plucked a wedding ring off the ground and carefully read the inscription inside. ‘To Frank. Love, Jessie.’ Frank O'Brien's ring.”

“What the hell was Frank doing here?” Dean wondered.

“No idea.”

Following Sam, with Dean watching your back from behind, you entered a room full of lockers. There was a loud rustling coming from inside one of them and as Sam reached out to open the door your eyes widened in horror. As a black shape sprung from the locker you screamed, spinning around to grab the nearest thing to you which happened to be Dean. You felt him arm wrap around you tightly, protectively, as you sobbed into his shirt.

“That was scary,” you told them, your voice muffled by his flannel. He ran his hand over your hair and pulled you over to sit on a chair. You sat, your face buried in your hands as you tried to calm down.

You felt his fingers on your wrist, checking your pulse, before he pulled away. “Hey, try and calm down Y/N, you'll be ok.”

“Dean,” Sam said quietly, inspecting a nearby desk. Dean gave you one last worried look before heading over to join him. You opted the listen and watch from your vantage point on the chair.

“Luther Garland,” he commented holding up an ID card. Dean shuffled some papers on the desk.

“Hey, this is uh...this is Frank's wife,” Dean commented, pointing to a drawing.

“The plot thickens,” you commented from your seat, and they turned to look at you and nod in agreement.

“Yeah, but into what?”

As Dean tried to lift the drawing from the desk it got stuck under a stapler and tore in half. Nearly immediately the machines around you whirred to life, and you tucked your knees up against your chest protectively. You all looked around, trying to figure out the cause, and your eyes landed on a figure standing in the corner of the room. You didn’t need to wait and find out who it was, and scrambled for dear life out of your chair and toward the Impala. You thought you heard Sam shout your name as you ran, and a gun shot rang out suggesting he'd shot the bastard with his salt rounds.

By the time the guys caught up with you, you were laying on the back seat of the impala, finishing off the whiskey you'd opened earlier. They watched you from outside the car, worried evident on their faces.

“Guess we got the right place,” Sam commented glumly.

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

You walked with Sam and Dean through the corridors of the nursing home, eyes darting around looking for any immediate danger. A man walking past bumped you on the shoulder, and you yelped before running to catch up with the brothers.

“This isn't gonna work. Come on, these badges are fake. What if we get busted? We could go to jail!” you told them in a panic, waving your fake ID in front of their faces.

“Y/N, shh! Calm down. Deep breath, okay?” Sam told you, placing his hand on your shoulder.

You did as he asked, closing your eyes and taking a deep breath, in and out.

“There. You feel better?”

You opened your eyes and shook your head furiously, and Sam rolled his eyes. You brought your hand up and started scratching your arm nervously.

“Just come on. Don't scratch.”

You approached an older gentleman at a table in the recreation room, and let Dean take the lead.

“Mr. Garland. Hi uh, I'm Agent Tyler. This is Agent Perry and Agent Hamilton, FBI. We'd like to ask you a few questions about your brother Luther.”

“Let me see some I.D.” Mr Garland demanded, and your heart started racing. Your eyes widened and you stared at Dean panicked.

“Certainly,” Dean replied, handing his over while you and Sam followed suit.

“Those are real, obviously. I mean, who would pretend to be an FBI agent, huh? That's just nutty,” you told him with a strained smile. The older man looked at you strangely but after inspecting your IDs handed them back without concern.

“What do you want to know?” he asked, and you let out the breath you’d been holding.

‘Uh, well...according to this, your brother Luther died of physical trauma,” Sam recounted, sitting down next to him and opening the file he’d obtained from the police station earlier. Mr. Garland scoffed in response.

“You don't agree,” Dean clarified..

“No, I don't.”

“Well, then, what would you call it?”

“Don't matter what an old man thinks,” replied Mr Garland, looking despondent.

“Mr. Garland. We're just trying to get the truth on your brother. Please,” Sam begging, hoping to get something out of the man. You were all glad when he opened up.

“Everybody was scared of Luther. They called him a monster. He was too big, too mean-looking. Just too different. Didn't matter he was the kindest man I ever knew. Didn't matter he'd never hurt no one. A lot of people failed Luther. I was one of them. I was a widower with three young 'uns. And I told myself there was nothing I could do.”

“Mr. Garland, um...do you recognize this woman?” Dean asked, taking out the drawing of Jessie and placing it on the table.

“It's Jessie O'Brien,” the older man said sadly. “Her man, Frank, killed Luther.”

“How do you know that?”

“Everybody knows. They just don't talk about it,” he shrugged. “Jessie was a receptionist at the mill. She was always real nice to Luther, and he had a crush on her. But Frank didn't like it. And when Jessie went missing, Frank was sure that Luther had done something to her. Turns out the old gal killed herself, but Frank didn't know that. They found Luther with a chain wrapped around his neck. He was dragged up and down the stretch outside that plant till he was past dead.” You looked at the wounds on your arms and felt your eyes prickle with tears, realising at last what they were.

“And O'Brien was never arrested?” Sam pressed on.

“I screamed to every cop in town. They didn't want to look into Frank. He was a pillar of the community. My brother was just the town freak.”

“You must have hated Frank O'Brien,” you spoke for the first time, so quietly they nearly didn’t hear you.

“I did for a long time, but life's too short for hate darlin’. And Frank wasn't thinking straight. His wife had vanished, he was terrified. A damn shame he had to put Luther through the same, but...that's fear. It spreads and spreads.”

“Well, thank you for speaking with us Mr Garland. I believe we have everything we need,” finished Sam, holding out his hand and shaking it as Mr Garland reciprocated.

A few minutes later you were outside, walking to the Impala and considering the information you’d just received.

“Now we know what these are, road rash. And I'm guessing Luther swallowed some wood chips when he was being dragged down that road,” you told them glumly.

“Makes sense. You're experiencing his death in slow motion,” Sam agreed with a frown.

“Yeah well, not slow enough,” said Dean. “Say we burn some bones and get her healthy yer?”

“Dean, it won't be that easy.”

“No, no, it'll be that easy, why wouldn't it be that easy?”

“Luther was road-hauled,” Sam explained. “His body was ripped to pieces. He was probably scattered all over that road. There's no way we're gonna find all the remains. We'll just have to figure something else out.

“You know what? Screw this,” you piped up suddenly, stopping in your tracks. The brothers turned to look at you with confusion.

“Screw what Y/N?” Sam asked.

“This Sam… THIS! I mean come on guys, what the hell are we doing?!”

“We're hunting a ghost,” Dean replied, as if it were the most obvious answer in the world.

“A ghost, exactly! Who does that?”

“Us,” they replied in unison.

“Us? Right. And that, that is exactly why our lives suck. I mean, come on, we hunt monsters! What the hell?! I mean, normal people, they see a monster, and they run. But not us, no, no, no, we -- we search out things that want to kill us. Yeah? Huh? Or eat us! You know who does that? Crazy people! We...are insane! You know, and then there's the bad diner food and then the skeevy motel rooms and then the truck-stop waiter with the bizarre rash. I mean, who wants this life guys? Huh? Seriously? Do you actually like being stuck in a car together eight hours a day, every single day? I don't think so! I mean, I drive too fast. Dean’s music sucks, he insists on listening to the same five albums over and over and over again, a-and I sing along. I'm annoying, I know that. And you -- you're gassy! You eat half a burrito, and you get toxic! I mean, you know what?” You toss Sam the keys, and he barely catches them as he stares at you. “You can forget it.”

Dean watched you leave with serious concern. “Whoa, Y/N. Where are you going?”

“Stay away from me, okay? Cause I am done with it. I'm done with the monsters and -- and -- and the hellhounds and the ghost sickness and the damn apocalypse. I'm out. I'm done. Quit.”

As you started running you could hear them trying to follow, but you were always the fastest of the three and pretty soon their footsteps faded from the distance. Once you were sure they were too far away to catch you, you stopped to catch your breath and leaned against a dumpster for support. That was when you heard a low growl. Turning around slowly, the sight of the poodle in front of you filled you with terror.

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

When Sam entered the hotel room you were pacing the floor, wringing your hands together anxiously. He let out a loud sigh of relief and closed the door behind him.

“Christ, I looked everywhere for you Y/N. Dean’s still driving around searching. How the hell did you get here?”

“Ran,” you told him with a shrug. “What do we do now? I got less than four hours on the clock. I'm gonna die, Sam.”

You expected a hug, you expected reassurance that they were going to fix this before that happened; you didn’t expect what came next.

“Yeah, you are,” Sam replied with a calm sigh. “You're going back.”

You looked at him puzzled. “Back?” you gulped.

“Downstairs Y/N, hell. It's about damn time, too. Truth is,” he continued, lifting his eyes to reveal a yellow glow. “You've been a real pain in my ass.”

As you leapt back with a scream he grabbed your shoulders hard and threw you against the wall behind you.

“No! You get out of my friend, you evil son of a bitch!” you ordered, somehow sounding more brave than you felt.

“No one's possessing me you moron,” Sam told you, rolling his eyes. “This is what I'm going to become. This is what I want to become. There's nothing you or Dean can do about it.”

Swiftly he brought his hands to your throat and squeezed hard. You couldn’t breath as he cut off your windpipe, and as you struggled to take a breath tears started streaming down your face. You squeezed your eyes shut but opened them quickly when you felt a hand slap your face.

“Hey, hey, hey, Y/N” Sam fretted, shaking your shoulders. “Y/N, come back to me, look at me.”

You did, and were relieved to see his eyes back to their normal colour. His hands were now resting on your shoulders, and not your neck as they were moments ago.

“You… you were choking me,” you spluttered out. He looked at you with pity, and shook his head in denial.

“No Y/N, I swear, I walked through the door and you just started freaking out. Whatever you saw and felt, it wasn’t real.”

“What’s happening to me?” you choked out a sob.

“You’re starting to hallucinate. It’s one of the final stages of the sickness,” he explained with a frown. “Come lay down, I need to call Dean.”

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

You awoke to find the older brother sitting on the couch next to you, your legs draped over his lap as he watched TV with a beer in hand. His hand rested on your hip protectively, and you let out a small smile.

“Hey,” you greeted him, forcing yourself to sit up. He looked at you wide eyed and quickly turned off the TV, holding out a hand to help you sit up.

“You’re awake, how’re you feeling?” he asked. “You know, besides the constant feeling of impending doom.”

You rolled your eyes at him, but let out a small chuckle at his attempt to lighten the mood. You refused his hand, which he expected anyway given your new-found germ phobia, but sat up and leaned against him tiredly.

“How much longer?” you asked in a monotone voice. You were so tired of being scared all the time. A crow squawked outside the window and you leapt in your seat, holding a hand to your heart.

Dean sat his hand on your lap reassuringly. “Long enough to fix it, I promise.”

“Where’s Sam?”

“Ah, he and Bobby are at the wood mill, they have a plan. It’s a good plan too, really really, really… good.”

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

“This is a terrible plan,” Bobby commented.

“Yeah, tell me about it, Sam frowned, attaching the chain to the Impala’s bumper. The ‘plan’, as it was, was to recreate Luther’s death with his ghost. Tie an enchanted chain around his neck, tie that to the Impala, and drag his ass through the mill.

Bobby wore a look of doubt on his face. “I know I said, "scare the ghost to death" but this?”

“Hey, you got a better idea, I'm listening.”

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

You had been successful in calming yourself down since the crow incident, helped immensely by Dean’s shoulder rub. So when the front door swung open you were caught completely unprepared, and as the Sheriff took a swing at Dean you were panicked when he fell to the ground like a stone. He’d pistol whipped him hard, and he was out for the count.

“Dean!” you shrieked, starting to go toward him when the Sheriff lifted the gun and pointed it directly at your head. “What are you doing?” you whimpered, holding your hands up in surrender.

“Why are you looking into Luther Garland's death?” Sheriff Britton asked. Your eyes fell on his outreached arm, his sleeve had ridden up enough to reveal the scratches on his arm which matched your own. Your eyes lit up with recognition.

“Hey, hey, you're -- you're sick. You're sick, all right? Just -- just like me, okay?” You rolled your arm around so he could clearly see your own scratches and bloodied arms. “You’ve got to relax.”

Your advice went unheeded and he punched you across the face. As you fell to the floor he kicked you three times in the gut before stepping back, and you placed a hand over your now bleeding lip and looked up to see the barrel of his gun once again pointed at you.

“Frank O'Brien was my friend,” he hissed. “So he made a mistake. So I didn't bust him. So what? And you're gonna bring me down over that?! Not a chance.”

He pulled the hammer, and just before he could pull the trigger you snapped, jumping forward and grabbing his legs to send him falling back. He lost his grip on the gun and it went flying across the room out of his reach. You half expected him to run for it, but instead he stayed on the ground holding his head in his hands.

“Shut up!” he screamed. “Get away from me!”

“Hey! You’ve got to calm down!” you told him, alarmed to see him start gripping his chest as if he was in pain.

“No no no, please no,” you muttered to yourself, running your hands through your hair. Unsure what to do to help him, knowing that this would be you in a matter of minutes.

The Sheriff let out a strangled gurgle, and as his eyes went blank he fell to the ground unmoving. You could see from where you were that he was not breathing, and it didn't take a genius to know he’d had a heart attack just like the other victims. You let out a cry and fell to the floor yourself, letting the tears fall. Dean was still out of it, and just as you lifted your legs to crawl over to him you heard Sam’s voice echo in your head.

“You're going back. It’s about damn time too. Hahahaha!”

You could hear barking in the distance, and you’d recognise those dogs anywhere. You’d died at the hands of the hellhounds a few years ago, and after the brothers brought you back you’d dreamt that sound for months afterwards.

“Hi Y/N.”

The barking stopped, in fact all noise seemed to cease, and as you slowly lifted your head you could barely believe who was in the room with you.

“S-Sarah?” you choked out.

“Wow, I’m shocked you remember my name, not like you gave a crap in high school. Not until it was too late anyway.” Sarah stood in front of you, her hip jutted out with a hand resting on it. Her neck was red raw and her eyes bloodshot, and dried blood sat under her nose.

“I-I’m s-s-s-”

“Shove your sorry up your ass Y/N, I’m dead because of you!” she snapped viciously before kicking you in the face, rolling you onto your back where you lay defeated. You gripped your chest as you felt a sharp pain, and felt sweat start to bead on your forehead.

“Your sorry means NOTHING! You know what DOES mean something? Years and years of your torture. Sticks and stones will break my bones and words will leave me scarred Y/N! Do you know what happened to my mother when she found me hanging in the shed? She lost her mind, they had to send her away. My sister lost her mother, my dad his wife. And now it’s time for me to have my revenge, an eye for an eye…”

“You – you are not real!” you cried.

“It doesn't matter, you're still gonna die. You're still gonna burn. And I get to be the one to send you there!” Sarah jumped up and down gleefully, clapping her hands together.

“Why me? Why'd I get infected?”

Sarah looked at you with pity, and knelt down on bended knee to your level. She leaned in and whispered menacingly in your ear.

“You moron. You know why. Listen to your heart.”

“Whu...?”

“Baboom,” she spat, smacking her hand on the ground next to your ear with each word. “Baboom baboom baboom baboom!”

Black spots started to float in your vision, and your chest felt like it would explode at any moment. You screamed and rolled to your side into the fetal position, certain this was it. You felt strong hands on your shoulders lifting you up, and you spared a glance to see Dean’s horrified expression staring back at you.

“Y/N! You’re ok, look at me!” he pleaded. You could see tears sitting in his eyes, threatening to fall, and you gulped down a sob.

“I’m sorry,” you managed to splutter out, and he thought you were speaking to him. Your head lolled as the pain in your chest grew to its maximum, and your breathing hitched.

“You’ve nothing to be sorry for Y/N, you’re not going anywhere. Stay with me, please.”

He took you in his lap, resting your head against his chest and holding you tightly. You felt your breathing start to slow and your limbs grow heavy. You closed your eyes, your last thoughts of Sam and Dean.

As quickly as you closed your eyes you opened them again, sitting up and taking huge gulpfuls of breath into your lungs. You coughed with the sudden oxygen intake, and realised Sam and Bobby must have smoked the ghost. Looking around you were relieved to see Sarah was gone.

“Thank fuck,” you heard Dean mutter behind you, and you felt his hand on your back rubbing circles as you tried to catch your breath. You turned to look at him and saw the relief on his face as well; his brother and Bobby had come through.

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

“So you guys road-hauled a ghost with a chain?” you asked them incredulously. You were sitting on the roof of Bobby’s car, your feet resting on the bumper, with a beer in hand.

“Iron chain etched with spell work,” Bobby confirmed proudly.

Dean took a swig of his beer. “Hmm, that's a new one.”

“It was what he was most afraid of. It was pretty brutal, though,” Sam said, almost regrettably. Luther wasn’t the bad guy here, and you could only hope he’d gone to a better place in the end.

“On the upside, I'm still alive, so uh, go team!” you say brightly, pumping a fist in the air in celebration.

“Yeah. How’re you feeling, by the way?” Sam asked, neither you or his brother had gone into much detail about what happened in the hotel room in the final hour.

You pursed your lips and took a sip of your drink. “I’m fine.”

“You sure, Y/N? 'Cause this line of work can get awful scary,” Bobby goaded playfully. You gave a small smile, loving him all the more for dispelling the tension with one sentence. You decided to play along.

“I'm fine,” you told him, hopping off the hood of the car. “You want to go hunting? I'll hunt. I'll kill anything.”

“Awwww, she's adorable,” Bobby laughed. “Anyway, I gotta get out of here. You kids drive safe.”

He patted each of the boys on the shoulder and gave you a quick hug before heading around to the driver’s side of his car.

“You too, Bobby. Hey, thanks,” you called after him, raising your beer to him. He in turn tipped his cap to you, and headed off home. You each finished off your beers and headed to the Impala, ready to head out to the next hunt.

“So uh...so, what did you see? Near the end, I mean,” Dean asked curiously.

You scoffed. “Oh, besides a cop beating my ass?” You rubbed a hand gingerly along your still sore ribs.

“Seriously,” Sam added, stopping at the passengers side door waiting for an answer.

You Sighed, and glanced behind him to see Sarah leaning against a nearby tree, watching you closely with a menacing look on her face. You cleared your throat and turned away guiltily, hoping Sam and Dean wouldn’t notice.

“Howler monkeys,” you settled on. “Whole roomful of them. Those things creep the hell out of me.”

Dean and Sam scoffed, knowing you were lying. “Right.”

“No, just the usual stuff guys,” you told them, mustering as much honesty into your voice as you could manage. “Nothing I can’t handle.”

You let out a quiet breath of relief when they both nodded, happy enough with that answer not to push further, and sat in the Impala slamming their doors behind them. You stood for a moment, hand resting on the top of the door while a light breeze blew your hair, as you braved a glance back to the tree.

Sarah was gone, but you’d never forget her.

Everything Tags: @angelsandwinchesters, @grace-for-sale, @growningupgeek, @iamnotsaneatall, @nanie5, @waywardasfudge, @ronja-uebrick

“Ghost Sickness” Tags: @oneshoeshort, @winchesterxtwo

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deepdisireslonging · 6 years

Text

Family Found Part 26: Missing

Survivor Series creeps closer, but Y/N is trying her best to keep the peace until the night of the PPV. Several parties are focused on making her job miserable and unexpected.

Warnings/Promises: wrestling violence

Word Count: 4060

Note: It’s a fun week! Super short match descriptions because there’s a lot of them and a lot more to get through. Requests and tag lists open as always. Feedback super appreciated when given. Enjoy!

Part 1: Welcome to the Team

Part 25: Trick or Treat (Evolution)

Monday Night Raw – November 5, 2018

You didn’t retaliate on Smackdown for their attempted invasion of Raw. Instead, a week later you were watching the recap of last Tuesday’s show in your office. Carmella and Asuka were to be part of the women’s team, and then Rusev on the men’s. You were just finishing watching Andrade Cien Almas beat the Miz for a team spot when Baron Corbin walked it.

“What, you didn’t watch it live last week?” he mocked. “Startin’ out as a model GM, Y/N.”

With a chuckle, you turned off the video. “I did actually. Then wanted to rewatch it while I set up the matches for tonight. By the end of Raw, both teams will have all their members and then we can start work finding the captain among them.” You sighed as Baron smugly shifted the Intercontinental title on his shoulder. “Did you want something, Baron?”

“Yeah. I know I’ve got a spot against the US Champ, Shinsuke Nakamura at Survivor Series, but I want to be that fightin’ champion everybody kept harping on. Do I have your permission to host an open challenge, oh great general manager of Raw?” He gave you a mock bow.

“Permission granted. Is right now alright with his majesty?”

He growled but nodded. “Now is great. Thanks.”

Baron Corbin leaving your office was turning into your favorite thing.

***

The open challenge was answered faster than Baron could offer it. He smirked at the stage as Seth Rollins answered the call and rushed down to the ring. They were locked in a close assault before the bell rang.

Seth was the first to lose ground. He found himself backed into a corner where Baron could attack his ribs several times before the ref’s five-count. Once they were separated, he was able to gain enough of a momentum and upper hand to have Baron scrambling to stay away from him in the ring. And out of it, though never for long as the champ played ‘keep-away’ with his own body.

It was a mistake to toss Baron towards the floor so close to a ring post. He swung back in and started punching at Seth from behind, taking back his own upper hand. He was the first to try for a series of pins, each one jumping closer to a three-count than the last. He was about to spin Seth in a Deep Six when the ref was pulled out of the ring. For several seconds, Baron waited for him to start the count before he noticed he was missing.

On the floor, Elias was debating with the ref about some trivial rule. The ref continuously tried to send him away and get back into the ring, but Elias was persistent. He was persistent long enough for Seth to catch his breath and wobble to his feet. When he noticed, he let the ref go with a thank you and stepped away from the ring.

Baron turned just in time to take a kick to the stomach, and then the canvas raced towards his face as a boot caught the back of his neck in a curb stomp. He was too addled and curled up to hear or see the count, and kicked out a second too late.

Once again, Seth was the Intercontinental Champion, and he was conflicted about the fact that Elias had helped him win. He escaped the ring before Baron could retaliate, and left for the locker room to think it over.

***

Backstage, Charly Caruso caught up with Elias. “Can you tell us why you helped Seth Rollins win the title match?”

He stopped. And smiled. “I’ve beaten Seth before. And I can do it again. I know what my strengths are, and I know when to give up on ever wanting a fair match with Baron.”

“You don’t think it’s a little… hypocritical to cost Baron the match and the title this way?”

Elias scrunched his brow. “Why, yes.” He waved away the obvious statement and continued with more truths. “I’ll have my title back soon. Because for all of Seth’s talk, he’s not willing to risk absolutely everything for the gold. He’s done too much of that already.”

***

The two following matches were for the next positions on Team Raw. The first was Ember Moon versus Mickie James. Ember was still running on her high from Evolution and was using it well except for one thing. Mickie was still running hot from her loss at Evolution.

They fought hard, but quick. Neither wanted a long, drawn-out fight for something each woman assumed was her right. Mickie for her time in the WWE, and Ember for winning the royal last week. The ref had to do his best to stay out of their way as they rushed around the ring, cornering each other and springing off the ropes. You would have been pleased to have either woman on the team. When it came down to the end, the high of an Evolution win outweighed the loss, and Ember claimed her spot with a Total Eclipse.

The second was between Mojo Rawley and Bobby Roode. They too wanted a quick match. Mojo had been fingertips away from several title opportunities and hoped that helping the men’s team win at Survivor Series would give him another one. Bobby, on the other hand, wanted the team spot for its own prestige. He’d been part of the team last year for Smackdown and wanted a double set.

It was power at full throttle down to the last seconds. Mojo had Bobby in his sights and smiled as his opponent straggled around. But it was a ruse. Bobby twisted at the last second and used a deep angle of leverage to keep Mojo’s shoulders against the canvas. He tried to show some sportsmanship by offering to help Mojo to his feet. Mojo refused in favor of rolling out of the ring and walking away on his own two feet.

***

Dr. M and Braun took their position by the backstage screen to watch the next match. It was the second and final triple-threat to determine who they would face next week for the tag team titles. At another screen, Drake Maverick and the Authors of Pain, last week’s winners, also watched the Ascension, then Titus World Wide, and finally the Revival make their way to the ring.

It was a different dichotomy of teams. All three teams had strong power tactics that worked best with quick tag exchanges. This backfired when everybody was doing the same thing as it was difficult to tire one another out. Titus thought he noticed first. He sent Apollo to trip up Konnor but missed seeing both members of the Revival entering the ring.

They quickly took control of the ring. Titus’s plan helped them by making sure Viktor had no one to tag, and also kept Apollo on the wrong side of the ring. They each pinned a man, even if only Dash Wilder was legal. Scott Dawson rushed the ref to lift their arms in victory, then rushed his partner out of the ring before the other two angry teams could recover.

***

When the show came back from commercial, Elias was awaiting his opponent for the Raw elimination team spot having given the crowd a quick private concert. Going by the surge in the arena’s Wi-Fi usage, it was going to be a viral hit. He cocked his head with a confused smile as Curt Hawkins’s music hit.

“I know what all of you are thinking,” he stated. “Curt Hawkins hasn’t won a match in forever, why should we trust him to be on the team? I’m glad you asked. I’ll tell you why. I’m going to be on the Raw Survivor Series team because the streak ends tonight when I pin Elias. And luckily for you, he was so nervous about our match that he cut his concert short. You’re welcome.”

Elias growled. If he had his way, this was going to be a short match.

Unfortunately for Curt, he did. That last little jab had irritated Elias enough that he did every debilitating move he knew. Before long, Curt was gasping for breath and crawling back into the ropes for a reprieve. He tumbled out an apology, but Elias ignored him and pulled him back into the ring. A halo powerbomb later, Elias had the team spot and Curt had another tally for his lost matches.

Jinder entered immediately afterward, flanked by Sunil and Samir Singh. He congratulated Elias on his way out of the ring. The Singhs helped Curt roll out of the other side of the ring so that it would be clear for Jinder’s entrance. Elias watched, bemused, then started to leave as Chad Gable’s music it. He eagerly went through his opening moves but was sent crashing forward.

Behind him, Baron stood to his full height and stared Elias down. They gave each other a wide birth, then went their opposite ways, which included Baron to the ring to take Chad’s place in the match.

Despite already having a match earlier in the night, Baron had Jinder on the offensive for most of the match. If he wasn’t going to be a manager, and wasn’t going to Survivor Series as a champion, then he was going to do everything he could to get into the PPV. Beating Jinder was his best chance. But Jinder had the Singhs, and they wanted to back up the man they thought deserved the spot more. For every advance he made, the brothers were there at the ropes to distract him. But it was always in view of the ref. They weren’t going to hit him. That would give Baron the spot. Their distractions almost cost Baron the match several times as Jinder used them to his advantage.

Still, despite the exhaustion and the handicap, Baron won. He smirked as he left the arena having successfully stolen his position at Survivor Series.

***

“Come in,” you said to the knocking at your door. You instantly regretted it. “What do you want, Dolph?”

He strutted into the room. “I have a proposition for you. I’ve already run it by Finn Balor, and he was agreed. I want a match with him tonight. It’s not a title match, but if I win, I get to be in the match against AJ Styles at Survivor Series.” He smiled brightly and shrugged with the self-brilliance of his plan.

You were not convinced. “What do you gain by being in that match? You can’t win both titles because the heavy-weight title belongs to Smackdown. Being in the match is going to change that-“

“I know, I know-“

“And it would be uneven. Paige and Shane would want to find someone from their roster to make it even.”

“That’s fine. Hey,” he nudged at you, “maybe Sheamus will take up that challenge.”

It took considerable effort not to react. “Do you have a point to being in this match, or is it just your usual ego?”

He held his hands up in defense and took a step back. “Here’s the thing, if I win tonight and help Finn at Survivor Series, he’s agreed to give me a title opportunity. A pre-selected open challenge. Call him, if you don’t believe me.”

You squinted at him. “Why would he need help with Styles? I have full confidence that Finn could beat him as he is.”

“You might have that confidence, but does Finn? He is going as a human after all.” He waited on bated breath.

Despite your better judgment, you agreed to the match and hoped it wasn’t a great con. “Fine. But I still don’t think you need to get involved. I’ll let Finn know about this match. You… do whatever it is you do before a match.”

***

Before the main event, there were still two matches to find out the last two women members of the Raw team. Up first was Alicia Fox versus Alexa Bliss. They started by smiling at each other good-naturedly. It was an opportunity like any other. No need to lose their heads.

Then the bell rang.

Alicia had been the captain last year, but Alexa wanted that spot this year. They expressed that vehemently by tossing each other around the ring. Out of the ring. Back into the ring. Rinse and repeat. A Twisted Bliss sealed the deal. She twisted the knife by asking if she could borrow Alicia’s captain’s gear once she had that too. Alicia screamed her out of the ring.

Nia Jax was up next against the returned Tamina. They’d had a moment at Evolution and wanted to continue it here. The ref was wise to stay out their way. Neither was used to being tossed around like a rag doll, but they enjoyed doing the same to the other woman.

Again and again, they took turns throwing the other to the canvas, desperately trying for a pin. When even that didn’t work, they took to the ropes, used one level, then two, to give them a height advantage and an extra boost from gravity. It was one such drop from Nia that caught Tamina in the chest. She was too busy fighting to breathe to kick out. Nia had the last spot on the women’s team.

All of Raw’s elimination tag teams were set.

***

True to your assumptions, Finn had no plans on actually letting Dolph into his match with Styles. He didn’t let up, didn’t let Dolph have enough room to breathe, much less fight back. To him, this was just another practice round for Survivor Series, but convincing Dolph to accept the match had been surprisingly easy once he had a good enough prize. A prize he was never going to give.

Dolph’s ego took as many hits as his body did. The coup de gras probably hurt his pride more than his chest, though his chest hurt too. He rolled to the end of the ring, trying to catch Finn’s boots before he left. He was unsuccessful and had to watch Finn’s smug face as he walked up the ramp.

“I am enough just as I am,” Finn called back. “Man or demon, this,” he held the Universal title up, “is mine. And it’s gonna be for a long time. You should do best to remember t’at.”

Dolph could do nothing but glower at him.

***

Backstage, there was pandemonium. Dean followed the commotion to several refs and trainers helping Braun out from under a pile of steel supports and chairs. The fallen monster was ignoring everybody’s questions but looked him dead in the eye.

“They got her. Shane McMahon and a bunch of Smackdown. They took Y/N.”

Dean ran his hands through his hair, fighting to take deep breaths. Everybody stilled and looked at him. He swallowed hard. “Stick to the plan. We know where she’ll be.”

***

Smackdown Live – November 6, 2018

Considering you didn’t really want to be there, you were happy to receive a warm applause. Paige and Shane walked you down to the ring for your official ‘welcome to Smackdown Live.’

“Thanks for that,” you asked once they were done. “And thanks for the shirt, though I would have preferred something a bit more…” you looked down at the blue t-shirt, “something red. But, no harm, no foul. I do have to ask, though. What exactly is the plan? Do I hang out with you guys until Survivor Series, or…?”

Shane patted your shoulder. “Don’t worry about the plan. All you have to do tonight is watch the show.”

“I do that anyway. But usually from home.”

“Well, this week you’ll be watching it here. Not here,” he rushed to add, motioning at the ring, “not in the arena. We don’t want you interfering in anything.”

You pseudo-gasped. “I would never.”

Paige sniggered and jumped in before Shane could say anything more. “Baby Girl, You’re also going to be watching the show with me. Maybe grab some coffee, have a little discussion about our shows. Manager to manager.”

This was going to be fun. “Okay then. I look forward to watching the show with such a guide. When do we start?”

She directed you to the ropes. “Right now if you’ll come this way.” Shane sat on the rope so you both could leave.

***

Her office was probably more comfortable than yours ever had been. A leather couch, her own coffee machine, and a large flat screen to watch the show on. Which you did. Together you watched as Jeff Hardy and Kofi Kingston fought for a spot on the Smackdown elimination team. Kofi won, but by then your discussion had digressed more into the wrestlers themselves than their matches.

“Right? Like, seriously, how can anyone have that much luggage?”

You huffed in agreement and fell back into the couch. “Can I ask how you guys have built up your tag teams so well? They seem very established and everybody looks super strong. How did you-“

“Easy, miss-former-journalist.” Paige laughed. “Can’t give away all our secrets.”

There was a knock at the door. Tye Dillinger entered, wearing his usual expression when R-Truth was a little confused about matches. The said man was right behind him. “Paige, Miss Y/N, I want to face Breezango at Survivor Series with my buddy… Tye Dillinger.” He slapped a hand onto Tye’s shoulder, who didn’t even flinch.

The two of you shared a look. You shrugged. “Why not?” You bit back a giggle as Tye’s eyes nearly bugged out of his head. “But I do have to tell you, Officer Fandango hasn’t been cleared to fight yet. Do you think you could fight Officer Breeze alone, but with Mr. Dillinger in your corner. I’m sure we could convince Fandango to be in Breeze’s.”

He nodded and held out his hand for you to shake. “That will be sufficient. Thank you. Tye?” He turned to face his friend. “Time to find Carmella, and to begin training.”

The two of you giggled as they left. Paige nodded. “That’s going to be a great match. Kinda wish I’d thought of it first.”

You tapped your bottom lip. “If I give you the credit, can you set up a match tonight for a coed tag team. I’ll set up a match with my group… assuming I’m there to do it. Something Like what we’ve been doing with the Mixed Match Challenge, but at Survivor Series.”

Again, Paige nodded. “I can arrange that right now.” She stood to leave and you moved to follow. “Oh, no. You can stay here. I’ll just be a minute, but in the meantime…” she poked her head out the door and waved somebody over, “you are not going to be left unattended. Sheamus.” The Irishman towered into view. “Don’t let her out of your sight. I’ll send someone to swap with you before your match.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said, looking at you. As Paige left, he joined you on the couch to watch the next match.

***

Jey Uso was just finishing pinning Aiden English, but Sheamus was getting antsy. “Where are they?” He checked his phone again.

You laughed. “Roll a crate in front of the door if you have to but don’t be late for your match on my account.”

“I can’t-“

“We’re here!” Xavier Woods ran in. He bent over, panting. “We… whew, we made it. You’re good… to go to your match. E is… was right behind me.” He gave Sheamus a thumbs up as the man left for his match.

With a sigh, you started to drag Xavier to the door. “Come on. This fridge is out of water, and I’m not going to let you pass out.”

“But Paige said-“

“We’ll pass E in the hallway and then there’ll be two of you. Come on.”

He let himself be led along.

***

Sheamus made it to Gorilla in time for his entrance. He and Cesaro met Sanity in the ring or one last fight to see who would be taking the tag titles to Survivor Series. As champions, The Bar had to advantage that if either of them was hit by the third Sanity teammate, they would win through disqualification. They were trying their best to rile up Alexander Wolfe when they should have been more focused on Killian Dain tagging in from Eric Young.

The Swiss Cyborg turned a second to late and was taken to the mat. Wolfe played his part by keeping Sheamus on the floor and far away from preventing the count. Young was grabbing the belts while the bell was still ringing, ensuring they could make a quick escape as the new champions.

***

Paige flattened her palms against one another and placed them over her lips. Beside her, Shane took a deep breath. “Let’s try this again. Where is Y/N?”

The members of the New Day frantically looked between themselves. E shrugged. “She’s not missing, exactly. She’s probably in the building…”

“Probably?” Shane burst. He caught himself and turned to face anywhere but the trio.

Paige took over, calm for the most part. “You know who else might ‘probably’ be in the building by now? All of Raw’s roster! We have to find her.”

Xavier nodded. “Yep. Agreed. Getting right on that.” They left hurriedly, leaving their managers to silently panic.

***

You weren’t lost. You knew exactly where you were.

In the ring. Wearing a bright red shirt and holding a large flag with Raw’s logo on it. And you had a mic.

“How’s your guy’s night been so far?” You couldn’t hold back a laugh. “I have to say, it’s been pretty boring on my end. It was almost like being a human token in some version of capture the flag. But once they had me, Paige and Shane didn’t know what to do with me. If their plan was to throw Raw into chaos, I didn’t hear any news reports about anything burning down. Which is exactly why I didn’t leave Seth Rollins in charge.”

Paige and Shane came running out to the ring. He was too out of breath, so Paige had to talk. “You keep talking like you’ve escaped already. Maybe the plan is to strand you here.”

“I’m not too bothered,” you said twirling the flag.

“And why…” Shane puffed, recovering, “why is that? You’ve got nowhere to run, and no one to help you.”

“Oh really?” You bit your lip to hide a giggle. “Then how did I get the flag?” Your grin bubbled over as Braun’s music sounded. The managers backed down the ramp as he came on stage. Eventually, they joined you in the ring, while he stayed on the floor. You patted Shane’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. He’s only my exit strategy. Did you really think I wouldn’t have a contingency plan for this?”

He sputtered. “No. How-”

“Did you really think a few guys were going to be enough to take out Braun? Sweeties, he let them win that little tiff.”

Paige sputtered too.

“And you guys didn’t check to see if I had my phone with me? Amateurs. Really, I’d call it stupid, but it was stupid of you guys to have the idea in the first place.” You mouthed ‘now, now’ when Paige pointed at Shane. “I’m the person you know the least about. I have no wrestling history, and I’m only been in the company for not even six months.”

“But you’re a journalist.” Shane shook his head.

He wasn’t wrong; not entirely. “I was, yeah. A journalist who had delusions of grandeur and traveling the dangerous world. And, as it turns out… I’m very good at chess.”

You distanced yourself from them and walked to the side where Braun was. Gently, you arranged the flag in the ropes as if claiming the ring.

“If you’re smart,” you continued, “you’ll take my advice and wait until Survivor Series before doing anything else. And I might, might, not retaliate more than this conversation we just had.”

Braun helped you off the apron and waved with you towards the managers. Then, as your music played, you left Smackdown Live.

Part 27: Powerhouses

Series Masterlist

Masterlist

Forever Tags: @blondekel77 @hallemichelles @laochbaineann @lavitabella87 @ramblingsofabourbondrinker @savmontreal @southsidebucky @tinyelfperson @zuni21798

WWE/Series Tags: @a-home-for-stray-stories @amballins-priestess @top-1-percent @mother-forker @neversatisfiedgirl @racheo91 @roman-reigns-princess @secretagentfangirl @thetherianthropydaily @wwe-smutfics @scuzmunkie @likeisaidwhatever @cait-kae @ramsaypants @sony-undead18 @brianaraydean @st4yingstrong @dopeybubbles @crystallizeme @jessica91073 @denise8691 @stalelight @kenyadakblalock @1dluver13xx @lauren-novak @lunatic-desert-child @littledeadrottinghood

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fireflythecinnamonjollyrancher · 3 years

Text

hello it is once again time for my end of the year wrap up. this should be... interesting

january

finally finally got to have a happy apartment experience!!!!! tried out tea drops which are dope. there was a fair amount of stress revolving around APO induction and the musical rehearsal, but we made it!!! partied hardy (the infamous tess in the washing machine incident) kelli was watching always sunny more often than not. i wore some arguably bad clothing but ya know. gays. we tried to take off my closet door (it did NOT work). the beginning of the goose saga! there was a sleet storm so kelli and i made some popcorn and watched mike birbiglia’s new special. darci, kelli and i went out to eat and then ended up in babcock playing air hockey before watching videos with kai who was on duty. PEP BAND???? some good memories formed there. dogs in the library! got bullied by my library boss to put gas in my car and i sent her a video of proof that i did it “daddy long legs” “stop. what?” “the musical” (i do love timothy) i actually practiced my instrument lol wild. WE (becky, celeste, timothy and i) WATCHED SPIRIT and got wildly drunk -- the origin of “[redacted] [redacted] who???” which is my favorite joke.

february

MORE PEP BAND im actually really glad i spent my last few college months dicking around with the band. one man drumline!!! kai made some good tiktoks in our apartment! miss hanging with them it was really fun. oh i hung out with sam and celeste watching movies “he was a boy, she was a dolphin, can i make it anymore [strangled dolphin noises]” OUR MICROWAVE HANDLE BROKE OFF while kelli was gone man that entire apartment was falling apart (hey dumbass grab from top) -- a list of things that were broken in our apartment: fridge light, front entry light, showerhead, phone. the birth of the beans insta!!!! got hit on when i was at taco bell with timothy by being accused of being trans (taco bell guy was not far off to be fair). oh the improv posters as compared to the posters i built for an organization fair. went out and got daRUNK at what appears to be wandas. really struggled with my period. cut hair with kelli n darci. MOZZ STICKS. “you still a lil bitch???” oh we did kpy pal-entines!!! where we ate good food and watched the princess bride!!! i received the plush goose. there was a possible bombing at the bank next door to where we rehearsed for band. aw i went on a tommy’s date with becky that was cute. they tried to STEAL the QUESO. disagreed with a curb and still have those scars. worked a horrible gig at the theatre. closing shifts at the library baby! middle school tours EW more library dogs! fish hooks song oh my god. drunk mash nights!!! i rewatched HAVEN and had lots of feelings. actually got drunk alone a lot which was Bad. however michael malloys birthday! watched choir concert at work lol. stats final whilst drunk!!!! becky got a piercing

march

here things go downhill rapidly. hit up the trains at least once. oh late library nights with timothy!!!! the best nights i miss hanging with him while at work. struggled with my car. went on a college sponsored adventure to a back alley farm. SCURVY FEARS. opening shifts that were lonely. oh celeste played plague and named it covid and won lol yikes. the infamous apartment cone. we stayed up long enough to see the sunrise on literally the last day in college I would ever have. that was good. I FOUND OUT KELLI HAD GLASSES im still pissed. came home indefinitely. went to st patty’s day at brookes with karrigan and that was SO much fun (this was before things seemed real) the best part of that was the irish pub owner who happened to have a son that went to my college. got my mom onto tik tok. took a gay lit class. can’t believe i took daily fckn walks around the pasture who was i. hosted virtual meetings for apo and played around with the closed captioning. that was fun. shaved my moms head lmaooo. worked on my capstone which im like super proud of? i wish i could have directed it but say law vee.

april

BAGPIPE CORPS INTERNATIONAL. virtual band wreaked havoc on my animals mental health. my grandmother would always bug me while i was working which i understand now was misplaced love but it was so irritating at the time. we had library meetings once a week or so that was vital to mental health. hosted a really fun “panel” about queer identity for my queer lit class that was able to educate a lot of people. having a capstone class with am*lia was a nightmare. watched a cirque du soleil show for free and lost my mind. wrote a comedic monologue that i suffered through. suffered through papers and projects. worked on a project with celeste and kelli and we had SUCH a good time. i hosted several jackbox nights for both apo and kpy. that was SUCH an exhausting experience. also uno and drawful with the uno group (kelli would win 100% of the time). ranted about group projects lol i struggled. OH THE MOVE OUT DEBACLE i really went off the deep end. kelli’s virtual birthday!!!!

may

we had so many good jackbox nights. academic showcase and honors convocation happened wherein i was name bronco award winner and that really wrecked me too lol. we had a sunday crew hang out for library workers. clarinet game night too! i tried so hard to build community during covid and im not altogether sure i accomplished it but ya know whatever. watsky broke the record! made my “aced it” grad cap which was so FUNNY and still is tbh. becky taught me how to do makeup. took grad pictures at an abandoned farmhouse lol OH MY GOSH BEAUX ARTS AND APO SKIT i was so proud of that night and annette said it was the best one we’d ever had. wish i had done more but we did it boys. also got VERY drunk for it lol completely redid my room. bc it was NASTY. the way i write papers is so SO funny to me. had our last capstones class and then dressed in grad outfits for our last lit meeting . graduated and got all my stuff from college finally. went shopping with timothy, had el puerto with becky (i think?). oh the infamous miller moths UGH shit is nasty. THE FORMING OF BANJO SHRIMPS occurred on may 24 2020 and that was the absolute best thing to come out of this year. started working at my dads agency which was the absolute worst thing to come out of this year. attended my first protest in cos which was good and healthy. started protesting regularly after that. my most poignant memory was laying down in front of city hall and chanting “i cant breathe” for 8 minutes.

june

it snowed???? i was angry. part of my job was reading my dad’s email and there was some WACKO shit in there. went to brookes for pride as a surprise which was cute n fun. had a horrible interaction with a client. the appearance of the bigfoot statue!!!! we had a vanilla beans hang out. there was a WILD storm that literally made my hide out in the office.

july

went on a bonkers rant about america bc fuck this place. helped mom out with homework. we had several clients get divorces which was messy. went to a Bad party where i was angry the whole time. went to the top of pikes peak with my grandma and saw many much bigfoot things. we got a GOOSE he hated us so much. oh there was a night where darci and kai came over and we hijacked kelli’s spotify and communicated that way it was SO funny. took a video of the dichotomy of man bc of my long ass leg hair and short ass head hair. shaved my head to the BONE and tried dragon fruit. GOT NIKO ON JULY 24 my sweet sweet boy lil bat looking motherfucker. got denied for life insurance for mental health reasons.

august

went back to hc for a birthday “party” and to see the band. did a lot in that weekend (stayed with timothy’s family, helped becky move, met kelli’s look-alike, saw timothy and karlie’s new house!!! had lunch with kellis family which is closest to “meet my parents” i think i’ll ever get lmao). got my prof headshots and hate every single one of them but more for self esteem reasons lol. neighbors got goats and my mom lost her marbles. got trapped in traffic on the way back from hc. niko had crackhead energy. oooooooh documented gender crisis. ma got more chickens. went to a birthday party for a high school friend and was just... so out of my element. its weird. took off my grandma’s bathroom door bc she had knee surgery. started a full time job as my grandmother’s caretaker (love working for the family business lol).

september

went to breckenridge with a friend!!!!!! spicy times lol. cleaned the cupboard. had a birf. turned 22. cas finished her drugs!!!! and felt much better. we did a charcuterie board for my birthday which was very fun. Got a mixer set!!! went to hc for homecoming and graduated!!!!! surprised celeste and hannah with a celebration party for them (it was a lot of fun). came up with my BEST joke (summa cum laude). got called tf out for my gender crisis via tarot. got the goose game!!!! played the goose game!!!!

october

applied to chicago center!!!! will now be working there for a year!!!! this was the first documentation of banjo shrimp nights. surprised my dad for boss day by working with the team to fill his office with balloons. house sat for dad’s friends. started taking showers in the dark. went to celestes and made PASTA wow got very drunk and while she slept i just explored a strangers house. voted!!!!! wow. finally (finally) started to accept that i was maybe agender. had a snow day but i couldn’t work so that was fun. had halloween with banjo shrimps where i dressed up as david rose. that was SUCH a good night. participated in ace week!!! then, dressed as radar for actual halloween and had monumental. worked a volunteer haunted house and like... actually did pretty good?? felt like a real adult!!!!

november

so many things happened in november. i finished miraculous ladybug on netflix. had another bad interaction with a client bc the customer is always wrong. shaved my head. PRESENTATION NIGHT to distract from the election lmao what a good time. had so many emotions about the election. then biden won and we lost our damn minds -- video called with celeste and becky to celebrate (with the reminder that we know that this doesn’t solve everything but it was such a huge sigh of relief). started watching the last kids on earth. made more PASTA and soup! got my GHOSTY TATTOO. kahoot night with the banjo shrimps lol. watched the supernatural finale with kelli (what good memories) rewatched 3below good shit. got the chicago job so i quit being an insurance person!!!! brooke came for thanksgiving!!!

december

i dont wanna talk about it but i finally started watching unus annus (theres an archive its not the same but it provided me wild amounts of serotonin). “call that invisible split dye”. crimmus. had a video call with people from high school i rarely if ever see. this entire month has been a fuckin blur my guys but i’m so excited for what’s next. in two days i will be in an apartment in chicago. i will be reunited with my best friend in a little under two weeks. i cannot emphasize enough how excited i am for this next chapter. so yeah. that was my year. im sure there was more memories but that’s what the sideblog is for lol

#firefly talks #yearly wrap up

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coreycorner · 7 years

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Blade Runner 2049 - CCCC1/3

I have had a long and slightly complicated relationship with Blade Runner in my life span. Before I get into reviewing Blade Runner 2049 I feel like I should tell the story of that relationship before getting into it for both of us to maybe have more clarity of my opinion.

For as long as I have lived I have known Blade Runner to be considered one of the best science fiction movies of all time, a master work, a piece of art yada yada yada. My parents owned a copy of it on VHS, I don’t really know what version it was I am assuming it was the director’s cut. When I go for my Christmas visit back home to Newfoundland I should look into it.

I remember watching it once or twice as a child and the movie obviously flew right over my head, I didn’t get it and it intimidated me at the time though I loved the world. Well I should say I didn’t love the world but I am the kind of person who loves movies that builds worlds for one to inhabit. I myself loved world building even as a small child where my parent’s basement was my world I could create and re create every day or week. After two watches or so I completely ignored the movie but the visuals and the look with the movie stayed with me forever more. More so in my dreams, if I was to tell you what my dreams looked like I would say it looked like Blade Runner but with FAR LESS smoke and more green but still very industrial. Maybe a few years before Blade Runner per say.

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Then in 1997 Blade Runner the video game came out, I fell in love with that game, if force me to list my top 10 all time favourite games I would have to list this game and if I didn’t smack me in the head and remind me of this game before my final decision because my memory can slip sometimes. I would say there are only 5 or 6 games in my life where I completely engulfed myself in it to where I literally locked myself into my room (or basement) and played only that game till I finished it (outside of going to school of course) and this game was it. The video game wasn’t a sequel or a prequel to Blade Runner it was simply a story within that world but the game got everything about the movie right. The look, the mood, the feel and even had some of the same cast.

The game allowed me to have a greater appreciation for the movie but I loved the game more because the story made more sense to me everything about it I felt like I could identify with while the original movie outside of the visuals and world I could not identify with.

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11 years later the final cut came out (well it came out 10 years later but I bought it a year or two after) and that is when I decided to give Blade Runner another shot. I remember buying it on sale and I brought it with me to work. At the time I often went to work an hour early or whichever because I am weird like that also because they had a big TV in the lounge area which was where I could sit down, relax and settle in before world. After watching the final cut once or twice I started to get why the movie was so beloved but even then I didn’t entirely get why. I thought the story was pretty simple and the only really good thing about the movie was again the world and the visuals.

4 years ago (which would be about 5 years from when I bought the final cut, fuck time flies) I watched the movie and it was then that I started to really get Blade Runner and it’s deep spiritual messages whether it was on purpose or not. Who knows you can look a anything and see what you want to see if you look at it long enough. That being said I still stand by feeling the movie is a bit over rated but it does go without saying it is the most beautiful movie ever made visually and the Ridley Scott is one of the best world building directors ever.

That is what always irked me though is most people know me for loving these kind of overly intellectual movies movies that in terms of cakes (if you haven’t read any of my reviews I often refer movies to cakes) I am a person who prefers his cakes to have little to no icing (aka special effects/action/explosions). I love movies that just give me a good story and force me to use my brain and to think about what is going on during and most importantly after the movie. A great example is a movie like Moon which I just rewatched last night. Another science fiction movie, there is very little if any action in that movie and what special effects are in that movie are there to serve the story and move plot and that is it and to me that is what special effects should do but I know I am doing more rambling than reviewing (not that that is a surprise to anyone who reads my reviews) so I will stick to my opening ramble and not go on another tangent. Long story short you would think Blade Runner and me would be a match made in heaven, buy the rings, plan the wedding, partners for life yet not really. Why?

I can’t tell you why, if I had to guess it is because I am a weird mofo, I have always been the person who goes right when everyone goes left, or vice versa. When the greater hive mind loves and movie instead of joining them I often become more skeptical try to look for flaws first. I guess that is why I call myself a real hipster before it was even a popular word (what is more hipster than that statement eh?). I guess I don’t like Blade Runner simply because so many other love it and put it on a high pedestal that to me I feel is undeserving. I do think it deserves to be remembered as a great peace of science fiction but the best all time I dunno, well I do think it is better than Star Wars in every way but I am not going to touch that wasp nest, so sir I wish to keep my head for another day.

A year later (don’t worry I will get to the review soon enough) was when I decided to drop everything going on in my life and travel around Europe to get my head straight. I was on the tail end of the trip, mentally exhausted from travel and tired of the long bus or train trips from one city to the next. I was in Glasgow Scotland and for some reason or another I felt like buying a book or two to read while I was on my train. I hoped into an old book store, the kind where the shelves are just covered with books, so many books that there are books piled on top of the shelves. I looked around for some books but I didn’t know where to start to I started with the genre that is always the starting point with me; science fiction.

It was there that I found Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? which I knew was the book Blade Runner was based on so I decided to buy that for 2 pounds as well as another book from Phillip K. Dick. Suffice to say that book became number 2 on my all time favourite book list pretty quickly. There are not very many books int he world that grab me, sadly I have never been a big book person but this one grabbed me. I had the book read within 4 hours or so (it is not that big of the book to tell you the truth) and I just loved it. I still feel like I like the book far more than the movies and the video game but I do still love the video game for what it is. That being said I totally get why it wasn’t completely adapted, I don’t think the book matches Ridley Scott’s style. The books is very much a psychedelic fast paced mystery chase between Dekkar, who he is chasing and the Blade Runner police force he works for. Its a book that makes you spend a lot of time wondering who is a replicant and who is not and what it means to be human while the movies I feel takes the look and the major theme but slows it down and where you know who is a replicant it is more about whether they are no better than human or should be treated as such. What are the differences between human and replicant if both think, live and have desire. So I guess it was true but not in tone and overall plot.

So after the book I became a closet Blade Runner fan, still feeling the movie was over rated but the world itself to be awesome.

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When I heard they were make a sequel to Blade Runner I couldn’t help but sigh and I held that attitude right up until recently and for good reason. It seems like all Hollywood ever does is sequels and reboots and felt like this movie was only really going to be a cash grab on a already established IP and will probably be a movie that looks great but just be flat out stupid. Even after the first trailer I thought wow it looks beautiful but still I was skeptical and I was dead set on not watching it simply because I have a rule for myself to not watch 3B movies (Big Budget Bullshit) unless it is a comic book movie or done by a director worth noting. Then I watched Prisoners and then Arrival and while I didn't like Arrival I respected what it tried to do and it’s look, but I really loved Prisoners and when I found out this director did Polytechnique and realized he was Canadian (I am overly patriotic, deal with it) I recently felt like I was obligated to watch it and so I did.

Blade Runner 2049 is set about 30 years since the first movie, the Tyrell corporation is no more and another company just as corrupt and god pursuing Wallace Corporation headed by Niander Wallace and his James Bond like hench woman Luv. We meet a Blade Runner named K (he has other names but I will stick to this) who is on assignment killing a rogue replicant (human like cyborgs who look and are as human as one could be without being human). K eliminates this replicant but notices something that was buried beneath a dead tree. After having it dug up it is the skeleton of Rachel from the first Blade Runner.

At first it is like meh a dead replicant from 30 years ago so what but what they soon find out is that this replicant was able to do something no other female replicant could do; give child birth. The blade runners namely K and his superior Joshi whom both work closely with the Wallace corporation wish to keep this quiet because if this got out it would cause mass hysteria and a possible war between humans and replicants and if I gathered well enough if replicants could prove that they can give birth the way humans could they would be granted the same rights as humans and would be willing to fight for them (I may be wrong about this but this is what I figured from my first watch). Joshi wants K to investigate this matter, locate Deckard if he can as well as the child if he or she is still alive. The Wallace Corporation catches wind of this and also wants to locate this child in or to attempt to mass produce more replicants and gain more power than it already has.

From here on out if I say anything else it would be heavily spoiling the movie but suffice to say K is out to find Deckard and the child and to solve the mystery as to how this child could have been born.

Lets confront the elephant in the room first, is this just a sequel to bank off another IP? Is this like every other movie like it from he last 10 years and just a icing cake that brings nothing to the table? NO

Lets make one thing clear I was as skeptical as most people as I have stated but it took 15 minutes of this movie to convince me otherwise. This movie is very much a worthy sequel and quite honestly I think it is better than the original however that is simply my opinion. One that I know most won't share but suffice to say I do feel like this is a worthy sequel and I do feel that any Blade Runner fan who was afraid to see this movie in feeling like this movie would shit all over the franchise should be rest assured this movie doesn’t, far from it.

I don’t know if there is another movie like this outside of Mad Max Fury Road that was able to catch and recreate the world built from the 80s like this movie did and Mad Max had the benefit of having the original director and creator of that world helming it, Denis I think had a great challenge because he did not build this world but suffice to say if he succeeded in anything it is recreating that world 30 years later and making you feel like you are in that world again.

I have always liked this world simply because of all the future scenarios I have seen Blade Runner to me is the most realistic and the further we get to the future and the state of the capitalist consumer environment we live in I expect Blade Runner future to be what it will look like.

The movie simply looks beautiful and stunning. The money is on the screen with this I will say that, say what you want about this movie but you can’t say anything about the special effects of this movie because they are mind blowing but as you know me these things are not entirely what I go for with the movie. The cinematography is just damn near perfect in this movie, if Roger Deakins doesn’t get a oscar for best cinematography for this or at least a nomination it will just further cement how full of shit the academy award is (well it is full of shit and notation or not I will always think it is full of shit but I think you know what I mean).

The best part of the movie to me was the characters and the sort of plot. The story and messages I do feel I need to watch the movie again a few times to full get but I felt for the first time in awhile deeply connected with the main character of K. Maybe it is because I never knew my blood parents or I have dealt with the same issues K has dealt with in his life but I do feel like K’s story arc and the story this movie presents is far more fleshed and out and better than the original Blade Runner. The original was basically a Deckard chasing down these rogue replicants that we soon come to learn are more than mere replicants and maybe should be respected as humans but it is only until the end that we (or I should say I) truly sympathized with replicants and Rachel, besides that I was mostly just objective of everyone.

This movie does a excellent job in getting you invested into the main character of K and not just him but Joshi as well (or maybe it is because I am a fan of Robin Wright and everything she does, love that her career is in a renaissance period right now). This movie not only rebuilt the world properly but did a better job building characters within it. I have read reviews of this movie saying this movie glorifies Ford saying that Ford is able to be there as old as he is but there are no older women who are given the same respect right now. While I do respect that opinion and do feel there is truth to that I would say what about Robin Wright, her role is not as big as Ford’s was but still important and she has been in two big movies this year (this and Wonder Woman) and is apart of a huge Netflix so so suffice to say I think she is doing better than Ford right now so....yeah you go Robin!

I want to say more, especially talk about the ending but it was severely spoil the movie but I do like how much like the ending and the movie itself I won't say pays homage to Blade Runner but is respectful of it. This movie doesn’t try to one up Blade Runner it doesn’t try to rehash it either like so many other movies do. Blade Runner 2049 I feel is simply a vehicle for Denis to tell his own unique story in the world of Blade Runner. It does talk about similar themes the original does but I feel does a better job in doing so, less style and panache that Ridley Scott’s movies often has but instead gives a for a lack of a better term more human feel to it all, more cerebral than Ridley Scott’s version which I felt was only really spiritual thanks to Rutger Hauer’s closing lines. Blade Runner 2049 to me is again a true sequel that simply continues the story int he same world offering you something new but not something that betrays what came before it.

This movie has already tanked at the box office like the original but I do feel like the original it is the kind of movie like most good intellectual movies and just like me with Blade Runner in general it requires time and multiple watches for one to really appreciate it and see it for what it is. It is not a watch once and got it movie, this movie will require you to take it on a few dates, buy it dinner, take her on a walk along the beach and a few coffees before you get to really see this movie. I mean I only just saw this movie once and I am already looking forward to the next date I have with this movie.

My favourite scenes in this movie was K and his interactions with his holographic love interest. Saying anything else will spoil it but K and his character reminded me of Ghost in The Shell 2′s Batou. Much of the movie reminded me of Ghost in the Shell 2 (very under rated movie) both in tone and how they treat the main character as this lonely guy looking for affection and love isn’t really getting it to the level he needs like in Ghost in The Shell 2 he is only getting affection from his pet dog and in Blade Runner 2049 he is getting it from a hologram. Again I won't go further but that relationship is what sold me the movie and kept me engrossed.

That being said it does have a few weaknesses that being I felt that the plot was still a bit weak, I only said it was good because I am comparing it to the first movie and in that comparison it is better but over all I do feel like the overall plot could have been better. I felt like Harrison Ford’s role in the movie was mostly useless, I don’t think his character really brought anything to the movie at all. Lastly I felt they sort of dropped the ball with not having enough Jered Leto’s character in the movie. He is the main villain but like Ford he is barely in it and you would think the movie or the plot movement would revolve more around his actions but not really he is simply there chewing scene chewing here and there and then walking off. It is his replicant assistant Luv who is the one who is doing the main villain work and for the most part should be considered the main villain. In a way I like that because it gives a woman a stronger part to do and I am not really a fan of Leto anyway but why have him in there if he really serves no purpose. Maybe I need to watch the shorts leading to this movie to get his role more but again Leto and Ford served little purpose if only apply their star names to the project.

While I do love the visuals and the world again like the original movie much of this movie is encompassed by the world and visuals to where sometimes I felt like ok I know this was an expensive me yes you don't need to show me how expensive it was. Do we really need to see a Atari sign there? etc etc.

Bottom line however is if you are a Blade Runner fan don fear this movie is worth watching and you will probably love it as much (maybe not as much) as the original or if anything appreciate that while it is very respectful of the original it does try to do it’s own thing and be original during a time when original Hollywood movies are few and far between. The thing that sucks is I bet the Hollywood fat cats are going to see this movie’s financial failure as a reason as to why they only stick to PG-13 sequels and reboots that rehash the same story over and over and that artsy fartsy directors should not be given full reign and budget to do what they want. That movie goers only want big boobs and explosions and if there is a sequel to this movie they will get Michael Bay to do it. God forbid that ever happens but knowing them that is their thought pattern. I do hope we get to see more movies from fellow Canadian Denis Villeneuve because his unique vision is like a breath of fresh air in a movie world locked in room full of stale recycled air. This movie was well worth watching and I have already pre ordered the movie on iTunes so I can watch it again when it comes out. Maybe I should re review it again when I get it more, till then or ever I give it CCCC1/3 on the Corey Scale.

#blade runner 2049 #denis villeneuve #Harrison Ford #ryan gosling #science fiction

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