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Just a Little Pretense

Jaskier and Geralt stage a fake breakup. Someone’s feelings get hurt for real.

The reverse trope series: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

AO3

“… It would be to take you off my hands!”

Geralt’s voice echoes in the ballroom, between the tall walls and the high ceiling. Everyone on the dance floor has fallen into silence. Even the band has stopped playing, their lead singer gaping with round eyes.

Jaskier blinks, impressed.

All the eyes are on the two of them. Jaskier’s back prickles with the gazes. As the fight escalated, more and more guests have stopped dancing just to eavesdrop on the witcher and the bard, the most peculiar couple in the room.

Which is just perfect. The more people witnessing their breakup, the more awkward it will be afterward, and the easier it will be to get out of this tedious party. And here Jaskier is, regretting ever having doubted his dear witcher’s ability to perform.

Who would have thought Geralt is a method actor? Drawing inspiration from a past argument is ingenious.

His old acting professor back in Oxenfurt would approve of this. The show is going swimmingly and he is pumped with adrenaline—maybe he should go back on stage one day, do a play or two.

But alas, he can muse the idea later. The show must go on.

“Really? Just like that?” Jaskier croaks, seemingly on the verge of crying. He’s not so bad himself, classically trained and everything. “Thirty years, Geralt. I followed you for thirty years, and just like that, you will kick me out of your life? Did I ever—” he breaks off with a whimper. “Did I ever mean anything to you? Or were you ready to cast me aside this whole time?”

A tear rolls down. His lips wobble. The crowd erupts in hushed murmurs and sympathetic sighs. The set-up, the build, everything has been perfect. Now the only thing left is for Geralt to break things off, and the two of them can ride into the metaphorical sunset and never see this court again.

Jaskier waits in anticipation, but his witcher opens his mouth.

And closes it.

Geralt looks as upset as he should, angry and torn and equally shocked, his golden eyes wide and his jaw clenched tight. It’s a nice picture to paint for the audience. They are supposedly having the biggest fight in their lives and his body language is very convincing.

More than convincing.

Except, it just might be … too convincing.

Wait—

Jaskier focuses on Geralt, who looks as if he wants to shrink into himself, his shoulders slumped and arms drawn in. He looks as if he’s waiting to be struck. Wait, something’s not right.

“I can’t do this.” A whisper leaves Geralt’s lips, small and achingly sad.

It’s not the line he’s supposed to say.

Geralt’s eyebrows droop ever so slightly, and there’s a flash of distress behind the molten gold. It’s gone in a second, hidden behind a façade of indifference.

The tells are subtle, near imperceivable to the untrained eye, but to Jaskier, they are clear as day—Geralt is hurt. For real.

Oh.

Fuck.

“Geralt,” Jaskier tries, instantly snapped out of his character.

And yet, there’s no reply. Geralt lowers his head, turns around, and flees the scene within one heartbeat and the next. The crowd is too eager to make way for him.

“Shit,” Jaskier curses, ready to chase after Geralt, but the Countess de Stael appears out of nowhere with a flock of maids and positively blocks him in all directions. She’s eager to lament the loss of love and companionship, and to offer Jaskier a place at her court once again. Oh, shit.

Jaskier brushes her off, all the while painfully remembering he and Geralt’s goal from the beginning—to use the breakup as an excuse to get out of this place.

Well, the plan is shit. Is it too late to notice?

Weaving through dozens of nobles is a lot more difficult when they all want to extend sympathy, and Jaskier is only placating them absent-mindedly, faking regret and heartbreak. His mind is full of his witcher, who is either brooding or spiraling over the venom he spewed earlier.

The truth is, Jaskier has long forgotten about the mountain—not because it didn’t hurt. To be shunned by Geralt, blamed for everything, and denied friendship, was the worst thing to have happened to him at the time. It’s just that Jaskier has forgiven it, so long ago and so completely.

Jaskier cannot get to their room fast enough, and when he pushes open the door, the sight of Geralt’s dejected face is a stab through the chest. The witcher is perched on the bed, somehow looking a lot smaller than he is.

Jaskier never should have come up with the stupid fake breakup thing, never should have inadvertently reopened the old wound. They healed, together. They shouldn’t be hurting anymore.

“I explained. We can leave now,” Jaskier tires, but in fairness, he doesn’t remember what he said to the Countess. “Geralt?”

The witcher himself crosses his arms, hugging his midriff and avoiding Jaskier’s gaze. “Good,” he answers curtly, shoulders still tense.

He looks angry, and when Geralt is angry, it’s most likely with himself. Oh, whatever heartbreak Jaskier acted out earlier, it’s not a match to a fraction of what he’s feeling now. It must be the one millionth time Geralt’s self-loathing has broken Jaskier’s heart, and it never gets easier, not when Jaskier caused it himself.

“Hey.” Jaskier desperately wants to wrap his arms around Geralt. So he does. He sits down on the bed and pulls his witcher into the biggest bear hug, which is returned immediately and so very tightly. “Hey, it’s okay. It’s okay. I’m sorry. I fucked up, Geralt. I’m—”

“Don’t be.” Geralt buries his nose into Jaskier’s neck and shakes his head. “I never should have said those things, Jask. I should be the one apologizing. It was wrong and untrue and I would never abandon you. You are my best friend. How can I ever? Please, believe me…”

Geralt trails off, his hands rubbing circles into Jaskier’s back. Although it’s unclear who he’s trying to soothe.

“I know. It’s okay. I know,” Jaskier murmurs, over and over again, sealing each reassurance with a kiss pressed into silver hair.

“I never meant it, Jask.”

“I know. It was fake. We were pretending.”

Geralt pulls away, golden eyes dead serious, pausing between every word. “I never meant it.”

Jaskier meets his gaze unwaveringly, with not an ounce of doubt. “I know.”

They stay there for a while, just holding each other. Geralt keeps sniffing Jaskier’s scent the same way he always does to check for injury or distress. He thinks he’s subtle, the sweet man, so Jaskier never mentions it.

Despite what an outsider might assume, Geralt is the sensitive one between the two. He’s so careful when it comes to their relationship, especially after the mountain and sometimes to his own detriment.

He’s so scared of hurting Jaskier again.

“I was an idiot for suggesting it,” Jaskier breaks the silence, nudging Geralt in the knee.

Geralt hums, lips pursed.

“Fake breakup is a terrible idea. Next time we’ll just grit our teeth and sit through the month-long party.”

Still, no smile.

“Alright, you win. Next time I won’t take you to a month-long party to start with.” Jaskier gently pats Geralt on the cheek. “For your delicate sensibilities, darling.”

Finally, finally, Geralt’s lips turn upwards, just a smidge.

“You are an idiot,” Geralt says, the crease between his brows fading. “Just…don’t make me make you cry again.”

Melting into the warmth welling up between his ribcage, Jaskier leans forward and presses a tiny kiss at his witcher’s forehead, so softly as if he’d break with any more force.

“Yes, dear.”

Being careless with Geralt’s heart is a mistake that Jaskier never wants to repeat. As he put a hand over his witcher’s languid heartbeat, Jaskier feels the soft thrumming against his palm, and realizes just how terribly he needs to guard it with the same care too. Against his frivolous self, and against the past that never seems to stop haunting them.

Because Jaskier needs this thing between them to work. If a faked breakup already seems unbearable, he shudders to imagine a real one.

A witcher’s life is already riddled with pain and sadness and could-have-beens. A poet would hate it if he added himself to the list.

---

Tagging: @wanderlust-t @rockysstupidity @flowercrown-bard @alllthequeenshorses @mothmanismyuncle @percy-jackson-is-sexy- @constantlytiredpigeon @behonesthowsmysinging @kitcatkim3 @endless-whump @rey-a-nonbinary-bisexual @llamasdumpsterfire @dapandapod @kuripon

Please feel free to tell me if you want to be removed or added to the list <3

This is a long post about Shaman King I started to write ages ago and I don’t have a good title for it

Let me tell you about Shaman King for a few minutes, okay. Because the new anime adaptation is coming in like 3 months and I’m still not ready for it. Also I started to write this post 5 years ago just because I re-read the whole thing at the time and it’s been in my drafts since then. Oops

But yeah Shaman King was the very first fandom I got into when I first had a real internet access, around 2003-2004. I was around fifteen. The manga was still going. And in retrospect, it was full of problems. Among other things:

Not enough female characters & questionable choices for most of the ones who actually have a part to play in the plot

A black character drawn with big lips (see above), and I REALLY HOPE this is gonna get fixed in the new anime ; I mean even the author stopped drawing him like that a few years ago when he did the “remix tracks” extra chapters so come on please

An imaginary native american tribe who, while pretty cool, is still imagined by a Japanese dude in 1999 soooo yeah there’s some rough corners here and there (edit: got some anon hate about that but I'm sorry, "ancient aliens" tropes always make me uncomfortable)

An art quality which gets worse and worse over time due to deadline pressures and an increasingly exhausted author

Was stopped before it could reach its natural conclusion (the author drew an actual ending years later and tbh it’s great so I’m putting this very low on the list)

So yeah. Manga from 1999. Problematic. Aged badly. It happens.

BUT.

In retrospect, most of it is such a kick in the metaphorical butt of shonen manga as a whole I can’t believe it was competing against Naruto and One Piece at some point?? Like

It’s a shonen so it plays the "dramatic and sudden power jump” game, but it uses it to reach a surprising conclusion (in the “new” ending I mean)

Most of the characters are “shamans” which means they can see ghosts and spirits, and they use them to fight, to work, or to help other people. This is a manga in which you’re gonna see a Russian shaman channeling a Vodyanoy spirit into a drum to create a torrential flood. You don’t see that in every manga

It’s stated right away that no shaman can be truely, irredeemably bad, because only good-natured people can see ghosts and spirits.

So, no matter how bad a villain may be, they must have had a good nature once even if they look like a complete bastard at the moment.

How far is the author willing to go with that concept? Pretty far

Even without talking about the main villain and how the story ends because, duh, spoilers... Like

My favorite character, who gets a full redemption arc later, cuts someone open in his first chapter

He’s one of the good guys 10 volumes later

Speaking of which the amount of gore in this manga has to be seen to be believed, Jump would never let this happen nowadays

If you’re wondering why this is in the “positive” (......?) list it’s because I was 14/15 and all kids that age crave blood and angst

The main character, Yoh, pictured above, is very laid-back, and I mean very. He listens to the in-world equivalent of Bob Marley and constantly wears big headphones. Also he wears sandals, and sometimes there’s a weed leaf drawn on his t-shirt

His parents arranged a mariage between him and a girl shaman even though they’re still teenagers, so this would have potential for High Drama - but surprisingly enough it turns out they like each other and after that he just goes around saying “this is my future wife” and she’s like “hello if you touch him I’m going to end you”

It sounds weird and it......... is, tbh, but it’s also refreshing among all the “ugh, girls, yuck” tropes that nearly all shonen mangas used to have at the time

Yoh’s main goal in life is to live with minimal effort

When his grandfather tells him he must train to participate in a shaman tournament which happens every 500 years, because the winner gets a wish granted by the Great Spirit, he decides his wish will be to make everybody’s life easy so that nobody will ever be forced to work or do shit they don’t want to do to survive anymore

Yoh Asakura is a Millenial icon don’t @ me

Speaking of which

Almost everyone in this series is broke as f█ck

Yoh owns a big house but that’s only because the price was ridiculously low since it’s the most haunted place in Tokyo and nobody else wants to live there. The house is constantly full of other characters (including enemies) who have literally nowhere else to go

The only important character who isn’t broke has money because his family is super rich but he hates all of them because they’re all bastards so it’s super awkward

Another character bought a really cool motorbike but he’s going to be in debt for the next 40 years

Also he’s a hobo

And also bi

What I’m trying to say is: relatable

Also the tournament is held by an imaginary Native American tribe. They’re also broke. All of them. The two judges who are in charge of the main characters live in a cramped appartment and often try to sell souvenirs in the street to pay the rent

I know that’s hashtag problematic but I still love them I can’t help it

Just like in most shonen mangas the hero seems to amass a big collection of Friends but since everyone is a weirdo in a way or another and comes from all over the world it looks even funnier

At some point during the tournament, the main characters have to form small groups of three in order to participate to the next part. Yoh’s team is one of the strongest teams among the ones we’ve met at this point, and is composed of 1) Yoh, a laid-back sleepy kid wearing toilet sandals 2) the aforementioned bi hobo who’s sad because his current crush is in a rival team, and 3) a thirty-something tatooed guy with no legs and an IV drip and who looks like he hasn’t slept since 1997

Oh and they all wear adds for a bath house

Because remember: everyone’s f█cking broke

Spoilers for the mid-point of the manga but I need to talk about it because it encapsulates everything I used to love in it

You’ve been warned

So

At some point the main character, Yoh, is asked to choose between staying in the tournament or resurrect his rival

This is framed as some kind of very heavy, very huge dilemma. Like oh no what will he do. Will he give up his dreams and hopes. Will You Push The Button(tm)

So the choice is presented to him

In a very dramatic way

And he immediately goes “there’s a way to save him?? YES PLEASE”

He doesn’t hesitate a single second and drops the tournament in a heartbeat to save the guy

This scene greatly contributed to make me a better person I’m not even joking at all

I love Yoh

So anyway I don’t have a proper conclusion for this

Shaman King is very flawed and its flaws need to be acknowledged to fully appreciate all the good things in it, and the “old” fandom from more than 15 years ago was a very good formative experience for me because the forum I was on (which was nuked from the face of the internet by a hacker “looking for training grounds” (his words not mine, he posted it on our frontpage a full week before he did it) in 2005, rip) was full of people who were really into criticising every little aspect of the manga but still loved it dearly

And I think that’s a healthy way to enjoy things and I think we should bring this back

Anyway

Shaman King extremely flawed but full of good things

I still can’t believe it’s back

Johannes out

JATP Analysis/Theory: Alex and Carrie

I know I need to stop but I am having way too much fun overanalysing this show. Besides I promised you all a Alex and Carrie post so here it is. So my newest theory is kind of to do with the phantoms unfinished business. All through out season 1 there has been this theme of connection, Julie’s connection to the boys, their connection to Julie’s mum, Julie’s connection to her mum, Luke’s connection to his parents etc. We also know that the phantoms have some burnt bridges, with their parents and with Bobby. Julie too also has a broken bridge between her and Carrie. I think their unfinished business is to mend all of those broken relationships and reconnect with everyone. This is where I think Alex and Carrie come in. 

I think that Alex and Carrie are going to be really important in reconnecting everyone and here is why I think that. I think you can draw alot of parallels between Alex and Carrie and I think the show producers have created these parallels because they want us to connect Alex and Carrie.

The first parallell is something I have spoken about before and I think it’s talked about alot in the fandom, but many of the characters in the show have a colour connected to them Alex and Carrie both have the same colour connected to them, pink. 

In fact its very rare to see either of these characters not wearing pink, it happens occassionally but not very often. This is interesting considering on the surface these are very different characters. 

 But the colour pink had a lot of symbolism around it and even more interesting than that, different shades of pink have different meanings. Pink is made up from two colours, Red and White. Red symbolises, passion, energy, power and sometimes agression. White symbolises purtiy, morality and innocence. Obviously these are two contradicting colours but when you put them together the passion of red is softened by the purity of the white creating a calming, romantic and gentle loving colour. The more red in the pink the more energetic the colour.  

Alex wears alot of light pink. Light pink is a much softer and calmer colour than the brighter pink that Carrie is often seen in. And that fits their individual personalities, Alex is a much calmer and softer person whereas Carrie is more engergetic and agressive. However pink is also a playful colour and I would say both characters have shown that playful side to them when Carrie performs and when Alex joined in with the dancing is one example. Pink also represents friendship, unconditional love, understanding and compassion. I think you could easily relate all of these things to Alex but you might have a harder time seeing Carrie that way. However I think from the fact that Julie used to be friends with her and that little clap at the end of Stand Tall she definitely has the capacity to be all of those things. I do think that clap at the end was the beginning of her redemption arc but that its going to take some time for her character to grow and I think Alex is going to play a big part in helping her with her journey.    

Dancing is another thing that is similar between them. The both seem to really enjoy that aspect of performing. I do think that this love of dance could be what helps them connect in season 2. Alex is always shown to enjoy Dirty Candy’s performance and has joined in with the dancing both times. But they also seem to be wound tightly and often seen as tense or stressed. I do think that they both use dance as an outlet, its their way to let loose and just be themselves without any cares. I do think this could be something they’ll bond over. 

So why is it important that Alex and Carrie make this connection? Well I personally think that out of the three boys Alex is the one that is going to be most willing to forgive Bobby. When they found out that Bobby had stolen their songs both Reggie and Luke had very specific reasons for being angry about it. Luke was angry because if he had been given credit then his parents would have known his dreams were worth chasing. Reggie was angry because if Bobby had given them credit then some of the money would have gone to their families and maybe his family wouldn’t have had their house turned into a bike shed. But Alex never gives a specific reason for being angry therefore I think he’ll be the one most likely to be willing to sit down and chat with Bobby and listen to his side of the story. I think it’ll be through Carrie that Bobby and Alex will reconnect. I spoke in another post (here if you like dot read it) about how alot of the characters have a necklace that they always wear and the symbolism behind those necklaces. Alex always wears a gold chain which as I said in that other post, chains have been a symbol of everlasting love and life since ancient times, its the circle that never ends. Gold is also a symbol of purity,  illumination, love, compassion, courage, passion, magic, and wisdom. Again all of these things are very similar to what the colour pink represents. What’s interesting to me is that even though Carrie doesn’t have a necklace that she never ever takes off she does have one that she wears more often than any others and like Alex this is a gold chain or rather two gold chains.

 Also if you look at the picture on the right where she has pink hair you can see she is wearing another necklace on top of the two gold chains. Now I’m not an expert on designer jewellery but I know there is a brand that is like known for its panther/ leopard necklaces called cartier. I’m pretty sure that’s what the other necklace is. I do think this is obviously suppose to show Carrie’s wealth, gold is also a symbol of wealth and glamour which is probably why alot of Carrie’s jewellery is gold. But it is interesting that it is a cat necklace, again in that other post I talked about cat imagery in the show and how Flynn is often seen in animal prints and has cat imagery associated with her. Cat’s in alot of cultures are guardians to the underworld and spirits. This necklace isn’t the only instance that we see Carrie with cat imagery in Edge of Great she is wearing a leopard print pale pink outfit.  

   Although there is nowhere near as much of this cat/ leopard imagery with Carrie as there is Flynn I do still think this represents that Carrie will also like Flynn will be on team phantoms at some point and like Flynn will act in a helper/ protector capacity. 

Staying on the subject of cats though there is something else I want to talk about. Like I said I think mending their relationship  with Bobby is going to be a big part of completing the phantoms unfinished business. Well I didn’t notice this until @this-is-a-name-dont-worry​ pointed it out to me but like the rest of the boys Bobby also has a necklace that he wears all the time and whch he was wearing in 1995 and 2020. 

I spent ages trying to figure out what the hell his necklace was because in most shots it just looks like a hunk of silver metal. But I finally figured it out and I’m 99% sure that its a lion. 

Sorry about the quality of the picture it’s as clear as I could get it. I’ve tried to make the features a little bit clearer by outlining them. The red dots are the eyes, the orange circle is where the nose and open mouth is and then the mane is outlined in brown. Also like Carrie and Flynn he has been seen wearing leopard print. This makes Bobby the third person to be associated with cats of some kind and what is also interesting is that all three characters are lifers. But the Lion holds a even more special symbolism. Most of the characters can be divided into being more connected to Julie/ lifers or to the Phantoms/ afterlife. For example  Willie and Caleb are very much connected to the Phantoms and the afterlife. But Flynn and Carrie are much more connected to Julie and life. However you could argue that Bobby is that one character that is very much in both worlds. He is very connected and was a big part of the phantoms lives but he was also quite a big part of Julie’s life and is very much connected to her and the living through Carrie. The interesting thing is that Lions are neither nocturnal (active at night) or diurnal (active during the day) but are sort of inbetween. Night time in many cultures is symbolic of magic and the afterlife, the haunting hour as Caleb put it. Daytime is very much the time of the living so its interesting to me that Bobby has a necklace that is the image of a animal that is part of both worlds just as he is. Also as a slight sidenote I do have a new maybe not theory but headcanon, all four boys from sunset curve each have a necklace that is unique to them and that they never take off, I like to think that they all brought the necklaces together, maybe at a stall or something and that they are a symbol of their friendship kinda like friendship bracelets but as necklaces. Still its really interesting to me that Bobby never took that necklace off. Anyway back on track I think the fact that all three of these characters have associasions with cats makes me think that each of them will be instrumental in helping the phantoms complete their unfinished business, especially as cats are often not just depicted as protectors for spirits in the afterlife but as guides. I think each of them is kind of like a roadmarker on the journey to the phantoms completing their unfinished business. 

Ok so going back to Alex and Carrie and why I think Alex will be an important part of Carrie’s character development and redemption arc. In episode 6 there is that truly iconic scene where Dirty Candy is performing and Alex ends up joining them on stage. During the dance Alex passes through Carrie twice. When Ray passed through Reggie, Reggie then formed an attatchment to Ray. The same thing happened between Julie and Luke they formed a deep connection. Obviously I do think that there were other factors than just they passed though them but I do think its significant and its for that reason that I think that Alex and Carrie will form a bond. Also from Reggie’s comment about being able to tell that Ray has a good heart and the looks on Julie and Lukes faces it seems like they can sense the other persons I don’t know personality or maybe even their soul, maybe when passing through for a moment your souls connect who knows. I think Carrie has alot of issues, clearly, but I think underneath all that she is actually more like Alex than we know, a gentle, sweet girl. I think this is something that Alex sensed and that he is going to help her get back to who she used to be and help her reconnect with Julie. I do think Carrie and Julie’s story is the same as Bobby and Luke’s/the Phantoms. I think like Bobby, Carrie has a deep rooted jealousy of Julie. I think that Carrie has a love for music and wants to be successful in the industry and she probably feels a bit like she’s in her father’s shadow and that there’s alot of pressure on her to succeed because of how successful her father is. Although she is good I do think she probably feels like she is constantly outshone by Julie and that Julie’s talent comes really easily to her. Like her father I think she was given an opportunity, I spose you could call it, by death more specifically Julie’s mum’s death. I think with Julie being unable to sing or play music Carrie was suddenly getting alot more attention but like Bobby I think she has alot of conflicted feelings about it because although she is now getting more success she is grieving for someone who has passed. It must be a very conflicting feeling and I think that is why she is so moved in Stand Tall because I do think she had a bond with Rose and just didn’t know how to deal with her dying. Also as another little detail during that scene Carrie isn’t in pink but is wearing a dress that is covered in hearts. 

I think this is suppose to symbolise how her heart is opening up. But the really interesting thing is that the hearts are coloured pink, red and blue which are the colours of the boys maybe this is an indication that the boys will be helping open her heart or that she will help open theirs to forgiveness for bobby. 

Another sign that Carrie might be getting a redemption arc is that in episode 6 again during that scene where she performs all eyes on me she is wearing a pendant of Saturn.

Saturn is symbolic of transition and transformation. I think the message here is clear that Carrie is going to go through a change. As I said I think Alex will play a big part in that. Part of the reason why I think that is because I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Carrie is wearing the Saturn pendant at the same time that Alex joins in with the dance and passes through Carrie. Also I think its significant that the song that Alex joins in with is All Eyes On Me. Again in that other post I talked about how I actually thought the song was telling the story of what happened between Bobby and the boys. Like I said Carrie and Julie’s situation I think is the same. I think just as Alex was interfering and making the dance better (because you know he made it better as fantastic as it already was) he is going to be ‘interfering’  and making Carrie and Julie’s relationship better and then as a result of that Carrie is going to help heal things with her father. 

Ok this one even I will admit is a bit of a stretch but it popped into my head so I figured I’d add in. But in episode 9 when Caleb gives the Phantoms new threads each of them have, well I’m not sure exactly what they are but lets go with brooch. I don’t know if there is any significance to Luke’s and Reggie’s because I haven’t been able to get a clear enough image of them yet but this one is Alex’s. 

 Alex has a cross and a chain that curves like a crescent. The symbol for saturn is this.   

Obviously its not the identical but I can’t help but think they look similar. The other interesting thing is that the Saturn symbol is made up of two components a cross and a scythe. Saturn is symbolic not just of change and transformation but with death, or more specifically death’s scythe. I don’t know I just thought it was interesting and if his brooch is suppose to represent the symbol for Saturn then that means that both Alex and Carrie have worn jewellery associated with Saturn. I do think that both of them will grow and change. I also think it would be really interesting to see these two getting to know each other and them bonding. I’d love to see a dance scene with them both. You know one where Carrie knows he’s there and can interact with him.  

So yeah that was my incoherrent ramblings about Alex and Carrie with a side of Bobby. Now all I need is for Netlfix to renew the show for a 2nd season already.  

for the ask about fic excerpt thing, from the three part folding mirror:

Dewey grabbed a set of Agatha Christie translations he kept on hand for when things got boring (rarely, but Beatrice got bored easily, and if you gave her a translation she sat down for a while to prove she could read it) and walked to the next aisle to shelve them. His foot snagged on something in the middle of the floor and he stumbled, hugging the books close to his chest so they didn’t fall. He turned around to see what it was, and found Kit blinking up at him with wide eyes from where she sat on the floor, a thick book open in her lap, her long red dress pooled around her on the floor. Her dress had an off-the-shoulder neckline, but most of her shoulders were covered by the matching red cape pulled around her. In the wide diamond of skin left between the cape and the top of the dress, he could see the sharp edge of something black around her collarbone, a point of the nearly-finished tattoo she’d been getting done. The red sleeves disappeared into short white gloves, with her hands folded together at the bottom of the book pages. Oh. Dewey’s heart pounded for a horrible, exhilarating moment, his mouth going dry. He swallowed once, twice, a third time.

(I love how you described kit's dress, and it feels like a lot of thought went into it. And everything about the way Kit and Dewey interacts speaks to me.)

thank you mayo!!!!!

-so dewey has agatha christie because i have been TRYING to read murder on the orient express, for like a month or so now, and i liked the first two chapters a great deal, and i'm very excited to read more of it, my brain has just been everywhere else!! i keep checking the ebook out from my library and going, 'yeah, gonna read this!' and then i had to finish this fic, and then i had to finish the peaks fic, and then poison for breakfast happened, and then i started rereading bad beginning, so like, who knows, when i will read, murder on the orient express. certainly not me, apparently.

-also, it winds up being really, really funny that he was carrying around christie books and then kit's like, 'oh hey bertrand wanted me to give you this terrible trashy murder mystery' and he has to put them in the same pile.

-would dewey's archives have agatha christie translations?? i mean, why not.

-beatrice just seems like she can be occupied by proving she can do something. and she and bertrand are still so present in everyone's lives even when they aren't there!! this is my new favorite thought about bea, that you can sit her down with a translation and she will stop doing everything else to prove she can translate it.

-SO I STRUGGLED A LOT with trying to figure out how kit and dewey were going to, initially interact in this scene? 'meet' is weird. they've met. but something about getting them together was hard to figure out. originally, when this fic was, not, 15,000-odd words, and was totally different, kit was going to come down into the archives to see dewey testing out all the spots on the floor that creaked (1, because my mental map for the snickets+denouements is like, kit and dewey are about being heard, ernest and lemony are about being understood, jacques and frank are about being seen, and 2, because it would've been a very small and cute callback (call-forward?) to babybea doing the same thing in babybea fic) (and like it kinda hurts my heart that i couldn't put it in there because, oh babybea.) but it felt like, with how i was picturing that scene, tonally it wouldn't have worked here. i just didn't think it vibed in where this was going, compared to where that idea was going.

i thought a lot about, how do i get them in the same aisle?? how do you write the weirdness of two people meeting?? people who already know each other but are being super awkward because neither of them knows how to function in a relationship??????? i was just drawing a blank on how to make it work in the scene and make it enjoyable. sometimes, the stupidest things trip you up. and then i thought, what if she's just already there, and then i thought it would be really cute if dewey literally trips over her because she got absorbed in a book. i thought it would be very kit of her to do, to get distracted by the pursuit of knowledge. and then it led to their game, so it worked out well.

-clothing descriptions, as i have said, before, are hell. haven't we all written fanfic for a million years????? didn't we all live through our own bad writing eras of block-paragraph clothing descriptions, and aren't we all haunted by the sheer volume of them we wrote in middle school??????? is it hopefully not just me???????? so when i try to describe characters and their clothing now (also buildings, rooms, anything that needs description), i try to do it, very sparingly, only what matters, whatever is necessary to say 'they're clothed and it's distinct to their style!' but not overly so, BUT what ALSO mattered in this scene is that, kit and dewey are very much Aware of each other and that they Like each other and don't want to admit it, so kit's clothing and how she wears it and how she looks are something dewey is specifically going to notice in his narration, compared to everyone else's POVs in the fic. so kit winds up with the most detailed outfit in the whole fic, and, good for her.

-mostly i did just want her in a cape, because i think capes are cool, like a floor-length cape to match the floor-length dress, and she has tattoos because of lyeekha's tattooed kit. i think "wide diamond of skin" is my favorite part in this paragraph. sometimes.......you still manage to make some chef's kiss clothing descriptions. describing patches of skin around clothing is, peak.

-kit's wearing gloves because the girl's gotta wear gloves. symbolic representation of trying to keep her hands clean/blood on her hands, ya know, as one does. mostly, though, it was because the cigarette smoke had to cling to her too, and that worked the easiest if she was wearing gloves. but i had my heart set on long sleeves, too!!! and so they are short gloves. they ruffle around the hem. (i think kit also hits hard enough that she could still leave a mark while wearing gloves, too.)

-i know i keep saying LITERALLY EVERYWHERE that kit and dewey's scene was the one that worried me the most, but it really, really did, because the way kit interacts with dewey is just so different than the way she interacts with her brothers, or her friends, or with olaf. they don't have anything to prove to each other, or want to tease each other, or commiserate about siblings, there is a contentment and a peace and a comfort the two of them find in each other (because!! again!! they hear each other!! both of them are very lonely information hunters and can come together and be heard!!!! acknowledged!!!) that was just so strange to write kit in, when she is otherwise focusing so hard on being so outwardly collected and loyal and almost severe, and with such strong kit takes out there, in the fandom, that scene stressed me out a lot, and i thought no one would like it at all. but i really need to let it go because everyone has liked it a lot, and that's, made me very happy.

Survey #368

“whatever doesn’t kill you, is gonna leave a scar”

Have you ever bought a YouTuber’s merch? My favorite shirt is the Day of the Dead design by Cloak, which is Markiplier's and jacksepticeye's clothing brand. Mom's friend/former co-worker also got me a Ninja Sex Party shirt because she knew I liked them. There are SO MANY YouTubers I wanna support by buying shirts. Do you think oatmeal tastes better when made with water or milk? Milk, 110%. Have you ever left a note in a library book? No. What time of day do you prefer to wash your hair? Morning. Has anyone ever spread lies about you? Yes. Have you ever taken a photograph with a celebrity? If so, did it turn out the way you wanted, or do you wish you could retake it? No. If you could move out of your home country permanently, would you? If so, where would you go? If it didn't mean being so very far from my family, I would love to move to Canada. Is there a celebrity that everyone else seems to love, but you find totally overrated? Why is it that you don’t like them? I legit don't know who's considered currently popular, and I especially don't know who they are as people. If you could volunteer for any charity, which one would you choose? Do you think it’s more important to help humans, or are animal and environmental charities equally important? Something relating to animals, and I think they're both equally important. Do you prefer holidays where you relax, or actually do things? I like a mix. Something chill, but you still do some stuff as a family. Do you think that after we die our spirit is still alive? Yes. Has anybody ever told you that you could be a model? Someone has mistaken me for a model in a picture I once took. It was one of the most flattering things I've ever heard, haha. Do you use different kinds of moisturizer for different body parts? ie. hand lotion for your hands, face cream for your face. Or do you just use one moisturizer for all body parts? Yes. Have you ever felt like you were someone’s rebound? No. Has anybody ever broken up with you over something really pathetic? What was it? Have you ever been dumped in a disrespectful way? (eg. through text, through a friend..) I have 100% been dumped in a very cowardly and disrespectful way; after dating Jason for nearly four years and being very serious, he broke up with me very abruptly over Facebook Messenger. His reason was valid, but at the same time, he NEVER talked to me about it. Apparently my depression was dragging him down. If he'd fucking communicated it, I would have explored new treatment options so goddamn fast. But no, he decided to snap his fingers and disappear. That's exactly WHY it was so traumatic, I think: it was so unexpected and sudden. Did you have a lot of role models as a kid? Animal enthusiasts like Steve Irwin and Jeff Corwin for sure. Do you feel like anyone looks up to you? Why or why not? God no. I'm just... not someone to aspire to be like. What was the last thing you found offensive? I'm not sure. Who is the nicest person you know? My mom. Do you feel safe in your country? I feel safe in NC, rather. Like I don't expect an atom bomb or terrorist attack or something in this obscure area. In the U.S.A. itself, sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. America is definitely not loved by every other country. Do you feel safe where you live? Not in this city, no. Have you been falsely diagnosed with something by a bad doctor? Yup. Did y'all know I apparently have ADHD? I know, shocking. Have you ever had a doctor refuse to treat you? No. Name the strangest game you’ve ever played (video game or real game): The first Silent Hill, probably. It took a lot of reading to get it. Do you know anyone who has been struck by lightning before? No. Which cartoon character would you want to keep as a pet? Does Stitch count? Or a Pokemon. Do you like marshmallows? Yes. What is your favorite flavor of candy cane? I really like the Jolly Rancher candy canes, I think they are? Have you ever fostered an animal? No. Do you still take hot showers when it’s hot out? Not as hot, but not cold except on very extreme occasions. When writing $ sign, do you draw one line through the S or two? Two. What animal have you always wanted as a pet but couldn’t have? I'm thankful that my parents were pretty open-minded to what pets I really wanted, but one I was never allowed to have was a ferret because of how messy and smelly they are. List three people you’ve had crushes on: Jason, Sara, and Sebastian were probably my biggest crushes. Have you ever thrown up from cramps? No, but god have I felt close. List three people you had a hard time forgiving. Jason, Colleen, and my dad. Who is the most spiritual person you know? Probably my sister's mother-in-law. Would you ever start a vlog? God no, I'd bore people to tears. Are your dreams coming true yet? I mean, I guess in some ways with my mental health. In my deepest depression, what I have now was a dream, even though current me is very discontent with it. Most of my dreams, though? No. Do you struggle with depression? I've been diagnosed with severe depression since 7th grade. Are you haunted by your past? A few things won't leave me alone. What medical conditions do you have? Just a lot. There are even more that are up for debate. I've talked about my diagnosed conditions enough. Do you use a Magic Bullet? No. What does your apron look like? I don’t have one. What are your favorite spicy foods? Hot Cheetos, Takis, hot wings, jalapeno pizza... Man, I love spicy food. Which do you like better: being an adult or being a kid? Being a kid. Were you excited to be a teenager on your thirteenth birthday? I had very mixed feelings. Did you feel insecure in high school? Shit, I still do. Would you ever be friends with someone who was suicidal? What the FUCK is this question? No fucking shit I would be. Someone being suicidal in no way affects who they are as a person. Who was the biggest bully in high school? I don't think there really was one. What was your favorite class in high school? Art. Would you rather have a daughter or a son? If I wanted kids, a daughter. Have you ever written to an advice columnist? No. Have you ever had a doctor not believe what you told him? Maybe? I did however have an employee at the ER the first time I went try to pry out of me that my self-mutilation was for attention, and it wasn't until I insisted about a dozen times that it wasn't that he believed me. It's odd looking back that I got REALLY attached to him during that stay, knowing now that it was absolutely horrible and extremely unhelpful for him to do that. If you’re female, would you feel uncomfortable having a male gynecologist? I would absolutely refuse to have a male one. Do you like Lisa Frank? Yeah, like can you talk about aesthetic. What gives you nightmares? Boy, I wish I could tell you, given how much I have them. Were you ever hospitalized as a child? No. Did you get senior pictures taken? No. What color is your bicycle? I don’t have one. Did you ever have to take home a fake baby in health class? No, thank fuck. Would you rather wear ivory or white on your wedding day? What color will your bridesmaids wear? I'd rather wear black. I think red will be the bridesmaids' color. Would you rather have a swimming pool or trampoline? I want a swimming pool so damn badly so I could exercise my legs without worrying about sweating, and I can stop and rest whenever I want, unlike going walking or something. I don't think my knees could handle a trampoline. Do you think babies are cute? Some, sure. But a lot, not really. Do you dream about the future a lot? Yeah. Do you think about your past a lot? Way too frequently. How good are you at living in the moment? I'm trying to get better at it. Have you ever questioned God’s existence? Yeah. Vanilla frosting or chocolate? Chocolate. What’s your favorite foreign cuisine? I've actually been exploring Italian pasta lately. I'm not a big fan of foreign food that I've tried, though. Have you ever moved to another state? No. Did you do anything productive today? No. .-. Can you say the alphabet backwards? No, actually. Do you like flowers? Of course; does anyone not? Have you ever thought you were gonna die? I didn't care if I did or didn't. What kind of mood are you in today? I was honestly really depressed through most of it. Just health stuff was really getting to me. I just woke up from what was honestly like a four-hour nap and I feel all right, I guess. What are you craving right now? I REALLY want Domino's jalapeno pizza. Is there anyone you would seriously punch right now if you had the chance? No. What is worse, physical or emotional pain? Definitely emotional. Have you ever walked in on somebody doing something… questionable? When Dad still lived with us, I think he might have been watching... you know... on TV when I came into my parents' room for something. Idk for sure though. I didn't ask, and I don't want to know. If you were to make videos on YouTube, what would they be of? Oh god, idk. I don't want to make any. What I'd have most fun with would be reptile education, but I 1.) have literally one snake, 2.) am not extremely educated on a good number of them and don't want to be misleading, and 3.) I would run outta content fast. So, leave it to Snake Discovery, haha. Posting pictures of yourself in a bathing suit on the internet - ok or not? Yes, it's okay????? If you're talking about me personally though, you won't see me dead in a bathing suit picture. Do you typically laugh when somebody falls down? No, I gasp and see if they're okay. What is the most disturbing movie you’ve ever watched? Paranormal Entity. The ending is... a lot. Your opinion of Katy Perry, please? I like a couple of her songs. If you could say anything to your Mom right now… what would it be? "Thank you for absolutely everything."

The One Engagement Ring

An Angbang Modern AU drabble as prompted by the lovely @darklord <3

Three seconds. Barely any time at all. Negligible in the greater scheme of Mairon’s life, nothing to the ever-advancing flow of the universe, miniscule, dismissible, stupid. Three seconds was all it had taken to ruin Mairon’s picture book life. Melkor would kill him.

These were the facts as Mairon had them:

1.       He’d slipped into the bathroom at the university library for a short piss and to get a minute of quiet in the constant chatter of his study group which was spiralling head-first into a discussion about the meaning of life. Even though they were anthropology graduate students with at least half the group minoring in either philosophy or sociology, this was never a good idea.

2.       When he’d been in the stall, his engagement ring had still gleamed golden on his ring finger, a constant, warm reminder of the grand day to come. Mairon had planned an autumn wedding, complete with matching tuxes, a seven-course feast and was already training Draugluin to carry the wedding rings down the aisle with Thuringwethil as his reluctant guardian. Melkor, of course, would have preferred for them to pop into Vegas and have some drunken fat Elvis proclaim them married, or better yet, simply hand in the necessary paper work on his way to the office, but Mairon was having none of that. If for one day in his life he wanted to feel special, be marvelled at and fawned over, it was going to be this day, his accursed father be damned.

3.       After completing his business, he’d slipped the ring off and into his pocket to wash his hands. He wouldn’t chance it being dulled by hard water or rough soap. Mairon always did it like this, only putting the piece of jewellery back on whenever his hands were dry and spotless, but when he’d made to retrieve it, his pocket had been empty.

4.       There’d been two other people on the bathroom with him and he couldn’t remember whether they’d ever come near him at all, but their childish faces, curly heads, and mischievous giggles could only mean one thing: freshmen.

5.       For three seconds between drying his hands and reaching for the ring, Mairon had leaned over the sink and inspected his own face. The stress of upcoming exams together with his thesis‘ due date drawing ever nearer gave him red spots along his jawline and he’d glared at them to will them away before Melkor picked him up.

Conclusion: As Mairon had been caught up in his own flaws, one or both of those bastards had sidled up to him and stolen the ring out of his pocket without him noticing. This implied many things, for example that the fatigue was getting to Mairon’s mental capacities or that those freshmen were unusually sneaky. Chiefest of all was this though: Melkor had paid half a fortune for that golden band. For Mairon to lose it, well. It would spell disaster.

Mairon glared at himself in the dirt-speckled mirror, bracing himself on the sink. Three seconds, oh he would show those impertinent, stupid, drunkard gnomes what he could do to a person in three seconds. Mairon took a deep breath and marched out of the bathroom, back to the round table his study group occupied. Eönwe and Tilion were at each other’s necks with arguments dissecting Descartes’ meditations while Osse and Uinen had their tongues down each other’s throats with disgusting slobbering noises. No studying to be done here, one of the sodden constants of Mairon’s life. He grabbed his notes and tablet and shoved them into his bagpack with more force than necessary which had Curumo look up from where he had hovered over his mess of tiny handwritten notes. He looked a little like a deer in head-lights, always lost was poor Curumo. Mairon rolled his eyes and tugged at his classmate’s sleeve.

“What?” Curumo whined, reluctant to forgo the last stretch of productivity he illusioned himself with, but he was already packing up.

“Come with me,” Mairon replied. “We’re going to hunt down some freshmen.”

After a quick text to Melkor to explain he needn’t be picked up today, Mairon dragged Curumo out of the library. The dismayed reply came seconds later, and Melkor wasn’t at all happy with the excuse of needing to tutor Curumo on their upcoming French test. Melkor and Curumo had never gotten along and if Mairon was honest with himself, he would have ditched Curumo after the first week of the first semester, but sometimes the guy proved useful. Especially because, in spite of his timid disposition, he somehow knew everyone on campus, ranging from the most introverted freshman all the way to the creepy maintenance guy who smelled like he lived in the sewers.

“What for?” Curumo asked. They crossed the student-littered yard, dodging peer-pong balls and caffeine-crazed grad students to the cafeteria where Mairon figured his best bet would be. Freshmen were always hungry, and he had a vague memory of four curly-haired heads positively camping in there at all times, claiming they needed seven meals a day to function.

“They stole something from me,” Mairon muttered, raking his hands through his hair. He’d neglected to trim it to its usual chest length and it was getting quite out of hand, tangling at the lightest breeze. Still better than what Curumo’s mother had done to him over the last holiday, short and ragged so that he looked like Jack Frost.

“What did they steal?”

“My engagement ring.”

“What?” Curumo spluttered, and almost ran into the door, but Mairon held it open in time. Under the pretence of having lunch – Mairon never had university lunch if he could help it, the stuff was vile and Melkor was a great cook if he wanted to be – they both got into line, eyes darting about for the thieves.

Mairon spotted the usual groups as he scanned the perimeter. The musical theatre kids led by a haughty grad student with a harp who had a gazillion brothers around. The nature-loving hippies who smoked too much weed for their own good and gave themselves funny names and pretended to be trees on weekends. The burly punk rockers who rode Harleys and had a kink for arson, Mairon had met their gang head Gothmog in a colloquium once, he wasn’t too bad. Even the naval engineering students who usually spent all their free time down by the beaches to test their self-crafted boats where in attendance, picking at salads and discussing hydraulics. Not a sign of those nasty burglars though.  

The guy behind the counter handed him a tray, and Mairon took it, paying with his student ID chip card before turning back towards the room, just in time to see a pair of dark, curly heads disappear through the swinging doors of the cafeteria, chips trailing after them like crumbs. Mairon dropped his food and took off after them, spitting curses. Curumo, the good dog that he was, mirrored this. They tore out of the cafeteria and down the hallway together.

“Hey,” Mairon screamed. “Hey, stop!” The two freshmen threw hasty glances over their shoulders, hollering as they ran and dodged around students, but Mairon and Curumo were faster, knew these halls better and soon enough, they had the two cornered against a row of blue lockers.

“Now,” Mairon crooned and made to advance on them, but before he could, someone interrupted him. “Now you will repent.”

“Hey, what do you want with them,” he barked and two people stepped into Mairon’s and Curumo’s way, obscuring the goblins from view. They were both jocks, broad-shouldered and bearded, and towered a head over Curumo and Mairon. He knew the blond one, Eomer, an agriculture major, from a finance class they’d both taken as an elective, but he’d never seen the other man before. He was the one who’d spoken and wore a sports shirt of a team Mairon had never heard of. A white tree was their logo and their motto was written in a strange swirl of letters that looked almost Arabic.

“Just a friendly chat,” Mairon said through gritted teeth. “Not to worry.”

“That didn’t sound so friendly to me,” the guy growled and Eomer put a hand on his shoulder, nodding. His scowl deepened and his eyes burned, staring daggers into Mairon’s.

“Weren’t you that condescending guy at the back of Accounting 101 who called everyone peasants?” he asked and Mairon sighed inwardly. One bad day to haunt him. Or well, a whole semester of bad days, but who was counting anyway? Melkor had been abroad for that time and Mairon had suffered terribly.

“Why do you even care?” Mairon asked, and Curumo put a warning hand to his arm. It wasn’t unlikely that he’d seen these two beat someone up at some frat party before, but Mairon wasn’t intimidated by such mundane things as physical violence.

“Because they’re our friends,” the second jock growled, crossing his arms over his chest. It was hard not to laugh, these fully grown men proclaiming themselves friends of two troublemakers who weren’t even legally adults yet.

“Look, guys,” Curumo said quietly. “Merry and Pippin stole something very valuable from my friend here and he is rather upset about it.”

Eomer bared his teeth, but the other guy whirled around to stare at the two thieves in question who were huddled against the lockers, but silently giggling amongst themselves.

“Is this true?” he asked, and the tone of his voice implied he knew already. Helpless or not, they probably had a reputation for mischief-making.

“Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t,” one of them said with a thick accent.

“You said it yourself,” the other added, “he is a condescending ass.”

“Boys.”

“Boromir.”

“Enough,” Mairon hissed and pushed through the two jocks and bore down on the freshmen, holding out his empty palm. “You give me back my ring or I will make your lives here a living nightmare. You can hire as many football players and wannabe wrestlers as you want, I am very good friends with the dean, I have more than enough money to bribe every professor in the state to bully you and my boyfriend will beat every last one of your bodyguards to a pulp. Is that clear?”

Merry and Pippin stared at him, their facial muscles contorting in a series of impossible expressions, torn between laughing and crying. They settled for blankness and, at last, Pippin handed over the ring. It was smudged with grease from his fingers and Mairon pulled out a linen handkerchief to polish it with.

“I’m sorry, they’re still not used to their actions having consequences,” Boromir sighed and Eomer nodded sternly.

“Whatever,” Mairon said with half a shrug and he stalked off the scene, leaving Curumo to deal with the polite formalities or whatever the situation demanded. He had his ring back, he could call Melkor to get him after all, he would get laid tonight while all these losers were busy with their parties and teenager friends and studying until their eyes bled. It was not ten minutes later that Mairon was comfortably tucked into Melkor’s Chevrolet, the heated seat warming his ass-cheeks.

“Have a nice day?” Melkor grumbled, not taking his eyes off the parking lot around them. Mairon leaned over and pressed a kiss to the corner of his beloved’s mouth.

“Nothing special,” he replied and leaned into the backrest. “Nothing special at all.” The ring glinted in the low-afternoon sun and everything was as it should be.

the killing kind

A post-canon Drarry fic. Read on AO3 here.

Harry would like one day away from the press, from being the Boy who Lived, to just be Harry. Polyjuice would work, but it's disgusting and difficult and also possibly illegal, but wizards are bad at recognizing anything non-magical, so this might work.

At least, that was his reasoning for walking into Diagon Alley with a Muggle stage prosthetic that makes his chin look completely different, a fake mustache, and his hair enchanted to be long enough to finally, finally cover his scar. He's sure that last one will wear off in an hour, but that should be enough to get an ice cream at Fortescue's and sit outside and eat it without being swarmed.

You'd think, years after Tom Riddle's death, that they'd stop caring about him. But no, they need to report every little thing he does. Harry Potter rushed through Auror training. Harry Potter quits Ministry work, possible run for Minister? Professor McGonagall had tried her best to keep his professorship at Hogwarts under lock and key, but after his first day, the papers had a tell-all. He's not sure which student it was, but they're children. He can't blame them.

The first Prophet reporter he sees, a woman with shockingly long hair he recognizes as taking photos outside a restaurant near the Burrow (preceding an article about his break-up with Ginny that made it seem like something tragic and not like school sweethearts amicably parting weeks before the photo was taken), doesn't give him a second glance. He has to force himself to walk normally past her and not rush.

It's the one thing Auror training actually taught him. People won't pay attention to you if you act like everything's fine. One art thief he'd caught in the three weeks he'd actually worked at the Ministry had just walked into places and taken paintings, not bothering to sneak or disguise himself whatsoever. They'd assumed he must have been there. Harry had felt bad taking him in, actually; he was taking better care of the paintings than the rich assholes he was taking them from.

"Was going to take one from the Malfoys next," the guy'd said. "I know apparently the wife and the kid aren't actually, you know, Death Eaters, but they sure don't need all that art, don't they?"

"Don't suppose you'd let me catch you right after you stash that one somewhere," Harry'd joked.

"Nope. Sorry, mate," he'd said, and sounded so much like Ron that Harry made idle conversation about how Animagi tended to find it pretty easy to escape from wizarding jails, and how Azkaban was much more--ethical, now that the Dementors were gone and Hermione had aggressively campaigned for prisoners' rights. (With Harry's quiet support and financial backing, remembering how haunted Sirius had looked.)

Anyway. He's getting lost in his thoughts again. It does mean he doesn't notice if there's any other reporters on the path to Fortescue's. It also means he doesn't process the words on the sign in front of him for long enough that he's getting a couple weird looks.

Aguefort's Chronomantics Romantic Novels

Books to Transport You Through Time, Space, and Dimensions!

Harry blinks at it, looks around. This is the corner where Fortescue's was--and he briefly considers hexing himself when he remembers that Florean was one of the people who disappeared, back in the war, who never came back after. Sure enough, there's a little in memorial metal plaque on the front door of the bookshop.

He swears under his breath. He should have remembered this. But no, he's stuck.

There's probably some other shop he can grab something at, right? Other than what looks like overpriced romances? There's a few sit-down restaurants, but he needs to be in and out in forty minutes, max.

He wanders aimlessly down the streets, hoping to catch a whiff of something. Churros, tacos, some sort of street cart or something. Diagon Alley's not really that type of place, but he hasn't been here in a year and a half, so maybe someone's pushing convention.

There doesn't end up being any cheap little shops on the side of the road, but fifteen minutes later, he does see a place that sells chips and has outdoor seating, and that'll have to do. When he walks in, the place is packed, but the line's moving quickly enough that he should still be fine, if he eats quickly. Worse comes to worse, he can just Apparate away when his hair starts to act up.

He gets through the line, pays, gets his chips, adds some more salt to it, and sits outside in under six minutes. (He counts. Also, he has a watch that he remembers to look at three minutes in.) Outdoor seating's a little cramped, and he can feel himself tense, shoulders higher than they should be. He lets himself sit with his back to the wall, eyes on everyone, ignoring the reminder for CONSTANT VIGILANCE in his head from old Mad-Eye, and begins to eat.

Now that he's got some food in him and he knows...well. He's pretty sure that no one's watching him from behind, he's able to look around and appreciate his surroundings, being in the world without being stared at. It's then that he realizes a few things:

1. Most of the people here have notepads next to them, quills writing notes on their own.

2. The building across the street has a sign in looping, dramatic script that reads Daily Prophet.

3. Draco fucking Malfoy is at the table next to him, and

4. He's looking right at Harry.

Harry tries to express please, for the love of God, don't make a scene with his face. Malfoy doesn't seem to pick up on it from the way he leans forward, drawing the eyes of someone nearby. Harry casts a quick Muffliato around the pair.

"Potter," Malfoy says.

"I'm just trying to grab a bite," Harry pleads.

"What, you think they wouldn't serve you if you showed up?" Malfoy asks, arching a brow at him like he's said something oh-so-intelligent. Harry wonders if cursing him is worth the attention. But Malfoy being annoying isn't enough to get him on the front page of the Prophet, probably, and Harry didn't speak at his trial for nothing.

"No," Harry says. "But sometimes someone might like to eat without everyone staring at them, yeah?"

Malfoy narrows his eyes at him. "I can understand that."

That was more than Harry'd expected. His shoulders drop a little. "Good. I'll be out of here in just a few minutes anyway." He looks back down at his chips.

"Why?" Malfoy asks.

Harry looks up at him. He hadn't exactly anticipated a conversation with Malfoy. With a glance at the Prophet next door, Harry says, "Hungry."

"I didn't mean why here, Potter, have you really not gotten any smarter since we were at school?"

"Have you really not changed since Hogwarts either?" Harry snaps, knows it's a low blow right after it's left his mouth. Malfoy's face blanches, and he turns back to his book with a pinched expression that Harry doesn't feel guilty about. Decidedly not guilty. Not even a little. His hero complex has gotten better, and he can tell Hermione that later.

One minute and fifteen seconds later, Harry caves and hands Malfoy a chip. He has to lean way too far, two of his chair legs leaving the ground, but the scrape of that means at least Malfoy glances up and he doesn't have to say anything to get his attention. Malfoy takes the chip with an expression of distaste. He doesn't seem to have any food.

"Did you come here for food and get turned away?" Harry asks, connecting a couple things in his head like those mystery boards Ron still uses at work.

Malfoy glares at him. "No, I'm sitting here because I'm fond of being by a bunch of reporters."

"You could leave," Harry says. "It doesn't look like you're chained here."

"That would be conceding, Potter," Malfoy says primly. "I don't expect you to understand."

"Alright," Harry says. "Look, I just wanted some food, the charm on my hair's wearing off soon, and I didn't mean to rub it in your face." After an awkward pause, he adds, "Also, wizards don't notice anything with Muggle prosthetics, so. You could try that."

"Is that why your chin looks like that?" Malfoy asks, horrified. "It's horrific, Potter, you're better off just taking off those glasses rather than completely destroy your appearance."

"It's temporary," Harry says, ignoring the little thrill up his spine when Malfoy almost-implies something nice about how he looks. "And I'm trying not to get looked at, git."

Malfoy gives Harry a quick up-and-down look then flicks his wand. Harry braces himself, but instead feels his hair cool a little, like a more pleasant disillusionment charm. When he glances at the shop's window, he can see it's fallen even further flat.

"Thanks," Harry says. Malfoy nods at him. "Sorry."

"What are you talking about?"

"That that happened," Harry says. "The shop thing, not the--not the hair thing."

The corner of Malfoy's mouth quirks up. "I'm used to it."

Not for the first time, Harry's struck with a quiet sense of injustice that he doesn't really know what to do with. In school, it was simple: pass his classes, defeat Riddle, and try to win the House Cup. But there's things he can't tackle quite as easily, or at least the path towards them are less clear. The right of blood over anything else in wizarding families, the existence of house elves, the way people are judged years later for what they did as a child in war.

Harry's under no illusions about Malfoy being a good person; he was still a bigoted little git in school. But he also knows he's made an attempt to do better, to be better.

"If you want," Harry says, wincing at how awkward and halting his voice sounds. "Next time the Prophet corners me, I can say something nice about you. Might change things."

"Why?" Malfoy says,  brow furrowed, the picture of distrust.

Harry shrugs. "Dunno. Seems unfair."

"You really do have a hero complex," Malfoy says despairingly. "I thought it was just a pathological need for attention, but no, you really do have to step into situations that don't need you if you have even the slightest inkling someone might be a bit upset."

"I don't have to," Harry says, rolling his eyes. "It was an offer. You know, something people do when they're trying to be nice?"

"Gryffindors," Malfoy sighs. "This is why you lot end up being Chosen Ones."

Harry wants to yell at him or just throw a hex, reporters be damned, but Malfoy's smiling slightly, and his tone was almost joking, maybe.

"At least we didn't have to live in a dungeon," Harry says, and meets Malfoy's gaze with a slight smile back.

Homecoming

Y’ALL CAN THANK TIK TOK FOR THIS ONE, I HEARD THE SONG THAT’S ITALICIZED IN A VIDEO AND I COULDN’T GET THIS IMAGINE IDEA OUT OF MY HEAD UNTIL I WROTE IT SO HERE YOU GO!

Older!Richie x Older!Reader at their high school homecoming dance!

Okay so they’re aged up in this one, they’re like 17; they’re juniors in high school. there’s the potential for a part 2 if i get any requests ;) lemme know what you think of this one, writing it was both great and fun but also tragic (as i’m painfully single and crying in the corner but we bounce)

Richie took a deep breath, and raised his shaking arm to knock on your door. You were all meeting at your house for photos, since it was your first school dance in years. It was homecoming, and although all the boys thought it was lame, somehow, you and Bev managed to convince them to go.

Sort of.

You managed to bribe Richie with candy and empty promises, and Beverly managed to convince Bill with something special. Wherever Bill and Richie went, the rest followed suit.

Not only was this YOUR first homecoming, but it was also the entire Losers club first. You’d all gone to the 8th grade dance together, all meeting at your house, where your mother’s gathered and gushed over how nice everyone looked. Your parents had never seen all of you dressed up in one room, ever since you became friends, there was never a purpose; until now.

You’d known the majority of the Losers pretty much your entire life; you’d met Richie, Eddie, and Bill in Kindergarten, and the rest was history. Henry gave you all shit constantly, and it sort of united you all. It started with Richie for having glasses and not knowing how to keep his mouth shut, Bill for his stutter that improved as you all got older, and your severe anxiety. Well, your “shyness” as you called it growing up. The Losers did a lot of speaking on your behalf, till when you got to high school, you finally found your own voice, and gained the confidence to speak your damn mind.

As your little “club” of sorts grew, you all became like a small family. Stan, Mike, even Bev. They all had your back, and you had theirs in return.

However, with Richie, it was an entirely different dynamic. Although he did it to both you and Beverly, and virtually anything female that moved, his constant flirting never really seemed to bother you. You brushed it off as if you just thought it was amusing, which it was of course, but little did your friends know your heart was absolutely burning for Richie Tozier. It had been since kindergarten.

Little did you know, his burned for you as well.

“Hey (Y/N)! You’re so hot, you must be the cause of global warming!” Richie said, a shit eating grin crossing his face as he wiggled his eyebrows.

You giggled a little bit. “Actually, it’s because there’s too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.”

Richie looked somewhat deflated, but his smirk reappeared almost immediately.

“Wow, hot AND smart? I never thought I’d find my perfect woman!” You tried to hide your blush, but Richie almost certainly caught you, but you didn’t exactly care. He wouldn’t say anything anyway, you were sure of it.

Your mom opened the door, and pulled Richie into a tight hug.

“You look so nice!” She said said as Richie walked inside, and shut the door behind him.

“Oh, t-thanks Mrs. (Y/L/N).” He looked down at his feet and readjusted his glasses nervously.

“(Y/N) should be down in a minute, she’s just finishing her makeup.” Richie nodded, and continued to stand awkwardly.

Of course he was the first one here.

Movement at the top of the stairs caught Richie’s eye, as his jaw stood open.

You slowly descended the stairs, being extra careful as to not fall on your ass in your 5 inch heels.

Richie stood speechless. As he looked on, when you finally reached the bottom, he was staring at you as if it was the first time he’d ever seen you. He was looking at you like you were the moon and the stars.

“Y-y-you look… gorgeous.” He stammered, readjusting his glasses again. A blush crept up on your cheeks as you looked up, and he was still looking at you.

“Thanks.” You said, barely above a whisper. You stood close together, so close Richie could reach out and grab your hand, and more than any other moment before, he wanted to.

A knock at the door pulled you both from your thoughts, and as Richie reached up to scratch the back of his neck out of awkwardness, you ran to grab the door.

Soon, the foyer was filled with girlish screams.

“OH MY GOD YOU LOOK AMAZING!” Bev cried, running in and squeezing you in a hug.

“THAT DRESS IS PERFECT FOR YOU!” You pulled back to get a full look at your fiery haired best friend. She was wearing an emerald green dress that brought out the light in her eyes and the red in her hair perfectly. Bill was going to absolutely melt when he saw her.

“Aw look at you Rich! All dressed up with a bow tie and everything!” Beverly reached out and adjusted his askew bow tie and grinned as he hit her hands away.

One by one, the rest of the Losers showed up, the boys admiring each other in their suits, while you and Beverly chatted in the corner about how the boys forgot how to stand and walk normally, just because they were wearing suits.

Once the parents (save for Richie and Beverly’s) had taken enough pictures, some group shots, just the girls, just the boys, smaller groups, and individuals, you were ready to pile in your mother’s mom van and head to the dance.

You sat between Richie and Stan, and rested a hand on the seat for support while you turned around to talk to Eddie, you felt a hand atop yours for just a moment. Your breath caught in your throat as you made eye contact with Richie, and smiled at him, then looked down.

For just a moment, you thought you saw him blushing as you both pulled your hands away.

The ride to school was relatively short and next thing you knew, you were all unloading from the van and entering the school gym, which was all dark except for the string lights they’d hung around the room. The DJ played a familiar song as kids piled in, you and the Losers standing along the outskirts of the dance floor, looking around with mild curiosity. Bill and Beverly had disappeared within moments, only to return a bit later, slightly disheveled. You raised your eyebrows to Bev, who just grinned.

“I’m BORED.” Richie complained, readjusting his bow tie for the 5th time in an hour.

“Shut up, Richie. You’re not dancing, of course you’re bored! Do you expect to be a wallflower the entire night?” You asked, flinging a piece of hair out of your face.

“I’d like to do a certain kind of dance with you in that janitor’s closet over there.” Richie smirked.

You rolled your eyes and tried to hide your smile, not wanting to encourage him.

“Suit yourself! Not everyone can handle the Tozier charm.”

“Tozier charm my ass! Come on, let’s dance!” Richie’s confidence melted as you grabbed his hand, and dragged him to the outer part of the dance floor, away from the wall.

“I don’t even know how to dance!” He whined.

“Neither do I! Just do whatever!” You began moving your shoulders and your hips to the beat, and Richie followed suit.

“See! You’re doing great!” You grinned, happy to finally have a dance partner.

“Your moves are pretty good, I like that swing you’ve got to your hips!” He wore his shit eating grin as he looked you up and down.

You shook your head in an attempt to conceal your blush as the song came to an end.

A slow, familiar song began playing over the speakers, and you and Richie locked eyes.

“Uh, I think I’m gonna take a, um, break for this one.” You said, running a hand through your hair.

You began to walk away when a hand grabbed yours and gently pulled you back.

It was Richie.

“No, I kinda like this one.” Richie raised his eyebrows, his hand still in yours, waiting for a response.

You looked around and saw all the couples come together and converge in the middle. There was nothing stopping you, especially not Richie, so you returned to him, wrapping your arms around his neck. You felt his hands on your waist, right above your ass.

Watching every motion in my foolish lover's game

On this endless ocean, finally lovers know no shame

Turning and returning to some secret place inside

Watching in slow motion as you turn around and say

You spun in slow circles, making eye contact with Richie every time you dared to look up. Each time you did, he offered you a sweet smile, almost as reassurance.

“I gotta be honest, Rich, I never thought you the type to want to slow dance with someone, let alone me.” You said with a small laugh. Richie made a face.

“What’re you talking about?”

“I don’t know, you’re all confident and flirty and stuff with everyone, I never expected you to be the slow dance type.”

“No, not that part. What do you mean “let alone you?”” He pulled you a little bit closer.

“I don’t know, i’m just the girl you knew from kindergarten who became one of your best friends.” Richie frowned.

“You know you’re so much more to me than that, right? Like, you’re shy and I’m not and you don’t think I see you laughing quietly at my jokes or hiding your smile behind your hair when I draw attention to you by flirting and stuff, but I actually do see you. What you don’t know is that sometimes I do those things just to see your response.” Your breath hitched in your throat, as you looked up at Richie with your sparkling (Y/E/C) eyes.

“Really?” You asked quietly, not breaking eye contact this time.

“Yeah.” He whispered back, searching your face for some sort of sign that you felt the same way.

Watching every motion in this foolish lover's game

Haunted by the notion, somewhere there's a love in flames

Turning and returning to some secret place inside

Watching in slow motion as you turn my way and say

Take my breath away

My love, take my breath away

My love, take my breath away

The song continued in the background, little known to either you or Richie. You were still processing his words, and he was internally panicking because you weren’t saying anything.

“As dorky as this may sound, you stole my heart, Richie Tozier.”

Richie just grinned.

“(Y/N), that was the best thing you ever could have said.”

Richie closed the gap and kissed you.

It was the sweetest kiss you’d ever had. It was comfortable, familiar, and most of all, long awaited, which made it feel even better.

You heard the Losers cheering in the distance, but in that moment, you were entirely focused on Richie, who stood in front of you, heart on fire.

Adam Watches the 92nd Academy Awards

The 92nd Academy Awards have come and gone. As always, there’s plenty to be happy about and plenty that’ll make you wonder what the heck the voters were thinking. I watched the ceremony and while I may say that I don’t care… I do. Those awards are a big deal. Legions of people who would’ve otherwise dismissed Parasite as some movie that requires them to read subtitles saw it because it was nominated. One of those golden statues can make a career and let’s face it, you like to hear your love for something validated by people who have even the semblance of authority on the subject.

But here’s what you may not know: most of the voters really don’t know what they’re doing. While cinematographers NOMINATE what films are up for that Best Cinematography Award, EVERYONE in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gets to vote for the winner and there’s no guarantee they’ve actually seen every nominee, know what the technical terms mean or are voting because what they saw is what they actually believe was “the best”. Once you take into account the dollars required to produce a nomination campaign, the stigma many genre films face, the prejudices against certain types of roles and/or actors, and how popularity influences votes, a win hardly means more than a bunch of people you don’t know saying they liked a movie.

If you want a better idea of which of 2019’s films were “the best”, you’re better off asking someone you know and trust, someone who can prove they’ve done their homework and aren’t just voting for their friends, the one they’ve heard is good from their kid, or got a special gift basket from. I may not be a paid professional, but I have put in the time and effort to see EVERYTHING nominated (with a few exceptions I’ll detail below). Reviews for some of these (The Irishman, Judy) are coming to the blog in a couple of days. If it were up to me the list of nominees would be different but we’ll get to that later. Without further ado, here’s who SHOULD’VE won. 

Best Visual Effects

1917 – Guillaume Rocheron, Greg Butler, and Dominic Tuohy The best special effects are the kind you don’t even notice. I couldn’t tell you where the explosions, sets, and actors in 1917 begin, and where the computer-generated imagery takes over. It’s seamless.

Best Film Editing

Parasite – Yang Jin-mo Got to hand it to Parasite for its amazing use of montage and the way it stitched its footage together. Some shots I initially thought initially were one take I realized under carefully scrutiny - and by that I mean frame-by-frame examination - were actually two melded together. The scenes showing how the Kim family infiltrate the Park’s household should be shown in film class to demonstrate how the art of montage is at its best should be done to maximum effect.

Best Costume Design

Little Women – Jacqueline Durran Funny how every single film nominated at the 92nd Academy Awards was a period piece. My vote goes to Little Women not because it was necessarily the most accurate (I couldn’t tell you what people wore in 1868) but because of the way the costumes were used. You can tell a lot about the characters from the multiple outfits they wear throughout the film - check out that purple bonnet adorned by Aunt Marsh (Meryl Streep).

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Bombshell – Kazu Hiro, Anne Morgan, and Vivian Baker I called it when I reviewed the film. The makeup used to transform John Lithgow was nothing short of incredible. It was an easy pick.

Best Cinematography

1917 – Roger Deakins I’m glad to see The Lighthouse on this list but I have to hand it to 1917. The one-shot motif adds so much to the story. Then, there are the individual shots I remember so vividly. The quiet meadow just outside of No Man’s Land, the raging inferno Schofield sees when he wakes up, the trench he must run in front of to reach the Colonel are all shots that permanently imprint themselves into your memory.

Best Production Design

1917 – Production Design: Dennis Gassner; Set Decoration: Lee Sandales Tempted to hand it to Parasite for the house they constructed for the movie but I’m give it to 1917. The trenches, the blasted landscape of No Man’s Land still haunt me. When you see the craters, it’s jarring. Then, as your eyes become adjusted, you notice the rats. Then, the chunks of bone and charred meat that have now become part of the landscape. It’s horrific.

Best Sound Mixing

Ford v Ferrari – Paul Massey, David Giammarco, and Steven A. Morrow What you remember most from Ford v Ferrari is that big race at the end. The climax wouldn’t have been the same without the sounds we heard. The roar of the engines, the clacking and grinding as the pedals are pushed and gears are switched… the air rushing by. Out of the nominees, it’s the one whose sounds I most remember.

Best Sound Editing

Ford v Ferrari – Donald Sylvester This year, the Best Sound Editing award goes hand-in-hand with the sound mixing. Obviously, the actors were never moving at the kind of speeds depicted in Ford v Ferrari but you wouldn’t be able to tell because of the foley and sound design.

Best Original Song

Stand Up from Harriet – Music and Lyrics by Joshuah Brian Campbell and Cynthia Erivo Stand Up plays during the end credits of Harriet and it perfectly caps the film. Whenever I hear its lyrics, I’m transported back to that moment. It’s the most memorable and emotional song on this list.

Best Original Score

Joker – Hildur Guðnadóttir I chose the best song for its ability to stand out. In this category, Joker wins because its music doesn’t stand out… at least not at first. While you’re watching, those notes don’t draw attention to themselves. They subconsciously build the mood, augmenting the performance by Joaquin Phoenix, the visuals, and the story. You don’t notice how much of an effect it has on you until you see isolated clips. When you do, it’s shocking.

Best Animated Short Film

Abstaining (I’ve only seen Hair Love)

Best Live Action Short Film

Abstaining

Best Documentary Short Subject

Abstaining

Best Documentary Feature

Abstaining

Best International Feature Film

Abstaining, as I’ve only seen 2 films (Pain and Glory and Parasite)

Best Animated Feature Film

I Lost My Body – Jérémy Clapin and Marc du Pontavice I Lost My Body is the most audacious and inspired of the animated films nominated. The only movie among these to be aimed at adults, it often tells its story through visuals alone but when you get to the end, you realize it’s about more than just what was on-screen.

Best Adapted Screenplay

Little Women – Greta Gerwig based on the novel by Louisa May Alcott Greta Gerwig does more than merely adapt the classic novel, she breathes new life into it, makes it her own, makes it feel wholly new and modern. This version of the film surpasses all others we’ve seen before because of the changes she’s made to the story’s structure. 

Best Original Screenplay

Knives Out – Rian Johnson What a ride Knives Out was. It’s got so many twists and turns, so many delightful characters you want to re-watch it the second it’s over so that you are no longer distracted by its central mystery and can simply step back and admire the handiwork by Rian Johnson. A sequel’s been announced and I can’t wait to see it.

Best Supporting Actress

Laura Dern – Marriage Story as Nora Fanshaw Laura Dern was also in Little Women and her two roles couldn’t be more different. Here, she’s loathsome and captivating. As soon as I saw Nora take off her shoes before she kneeled down on the couch to console Nicole, I knew there was a whole lot more to her character than what we were told. The more you see her, the more you want.

Best Supporting Actor

Al Pacino – The Irishman as Jimmy Hoffa Al Pacino has the advantage of getting A LOT of screen time as Jimmy Hoffa. The Irishman clocks in at over 3,5 hours and he isn’t in the whole movie but when he is, the seasoned performer gives us so much. At different periods of the story, you’ll feel differently about him. There’s no point comparing him to the real-life person. He takes the meaty role and makes it his own. His voice, his mannerisms, I can’t think of anyone who could’ve done it better.

Best Actress

Renée Zellweger – Judy as Judy Garland Judy was the very last movie on my list to watch, having missed it when it came to theatres. When I think back to Zellweger’s performance, I don’t see her. All I see is her character, a rich, complex person you sometimes hate, sometimes love and feel sorry for. The movie is not going to be on my “Best of” list but she is.

Best Actor

Joaquin Phoenix – Joker as Arthur Fleck / Joker To me, there was no question Joaquin Phoenix would take this one. I saw Joker three times and each time, I found something new in his performance.

Best Director

Sam Mendes – 1917 With this award, I’m awarding Sam Mendes for the craft he displayed in 1917. It’s such a visceral experience that when people asked me how it compared to Dunkirk, it felt weird to lump both together. This is coming from someone who gave both pictures a 5-star review, who put both on their respective “best of the year” lists. It’s a movie I’m going to go back to and wondering “how did they do that?!

Best Picture

Little Women – Amy Pascal It’s a tough call for me this year, partially because I loved Parasite, 1917, Joker, and others so much. I’m planning on adding those three films to my collection so I can pop them into my Blu-ray player any times I feel like it. That said, I would’ve given the Best Picture Award to Little Women. You’re so emotionally invested in this little story that telling you why with merely words is impossible. You fall in love over and over. It made me cry and every time I think back to that scene at Christmas, I tear up again. I’m choosing it because of all the things it does differently from the other films. At the end of the day, it isn’t a big story. It isn’t about people with guns, corruption, war, a turning point in history or even necessarily the biggest event in the lives of the characters but it feels like it is. That’s exactly why it’s so good. 

Disagree with my choices? I don’t blame you. What kind of idiot finds a way to leave out Marriage Story from their list? You let me know where it should’ve gone. Hopefully, commenting keep you warm until MY Best of 2019 list gets posted in the next few days.

First, numbering them is absolutely brilliant because especially where paragraphs kind of change abruptly. I just keep like saying a word before it with a little dash mark just so you can (hopefully) have some reference as to what I’m talking about, but now I can do numbers!

1. Never knew I needed this until you typed it however this is everything

2. Exactly, that is the thoughts that they have and it takes Reggie breaking down for them to finally talk to each other about it because none of them wanted to approach the situation

3. Yes, I maybe should’ve chose a better point but I was like you can tell he’s passionate and it kind of shows what I mean. Also I feel like the fact that he still hasn’t processed his death might also be a sign that it’s hard for him to change his mind (Alex doesn’t like change, and neither does Luke)

However eventually Luke is able to reconsider what he said and also sometimes admit that he might’ve been in the wrong (but not often, hmm thinking of what I can reference from the show, possibly the dance ?)

4. Yes, and if he did intervene then everyone knew that they needed to be quiet and listen (also Alex is one of the only people who Luke would possibly let change his mind and or consider the other side quicker)

5. Due to his upbringing Alex always tries to be respectful hence why he said sir to Caleb however he is a sarcastic person and has quick comebacks

6. And that loneliness only grew after the boys passed away (part of the reason why he isn’t able to get close to people in fear that they will pass as well)

7. Same here, that’s part of where my theory came from. I agree, people grieve in different ways and that could’ve been how Bobby grieved and he shouldn’t be judged for it.

8. Yes he definitely goes through their bags. I do agree with you however at the same time I wonder if the bag did stay in the garage just because at the time Bobby knew how Luke and his parents parted (possibly could be that after a while, more so after he talked to them, he gave them the bag)

9. Absolutely and Reggie kind of switches between crosswords and sudokus just because he’s interested in lots of things

10. Precisely, despite the fact that Reggie is the one who is actually afraid of heights not Alex, Reggie tried to convince Alex that he was going to climb Mount Everest. Another time Reggie tried to convince Alex that they were going coffee tasting and didn’t want to make him feel bad because all of them had toffee nut in it (Owen is allergic to toffee nut hopefully and that’s the explanation I can offer😂)

11. They can’t lie to each other at all, Alex is the best liar sometimes when talking to other people (at least in defense of the boys) and in general Luke just can’t lie

12. Luke would definitely be the person who would cut someone off for something rude that they said. (Usually after exploding and saying why exactly they are wrong, especially if someone says something bad about Alex)

13. There’s a drawing of Reggie with a cowboy hat (https://kidovna.tumblr.com/post/639425200784572416/hi-little-reggie-in-a-cowboy-hat-even-if) (oh how I hope that link will work) and now I just want to see a picture of Sunset Curve with cowboy hats because Reggie was sad and they couldn’t say no

14. Yes, alongside those songs I offer the ‘devil went down to Georgia’ (i’m basically saying it because a version of this should be this song the boys use against Caleb and it’s basically them saying that they are better than Caleb) (also because it was released at some point during the time that they were alive I believe)

15. Yes those are the only art styles that Reggie has. Sometimes he randomly has half of the picture be realistic and then the other half be like Booboo Stewart’s art (Picasso like maybe ?)

16. Reggi definitely help decorate because not only was he impatient but he wanted to eat the cake. (The shape was kind of horrendous because Alex was trying to get it to be the exact shape of the character however the cake came out fantastic)

17. Yes the boys always juggle between if they should be concerned about the fact that he’s baking or the fact that he’s baking again so happy times (once again something he did that reminds him of his parents so for a long time the boys were the only ones who got the bake goods)

18. It took me longer than it should’ve to find this link and honestly I have no clue who wrote it but it’s so good https://archiveofourown.org/works/28308108 (same for this one as well)

19. Precisely it wasn’t like he was fixing the amp and then all the sudden it started raining. He just thought that starting to fix it in the rain would be best

20. You took the words right out of my mouth, yes. Honestly Alex was another son to Emily and Mitch so the fact that he was hurting so bad made them so mad. Maybe that’s why he had his stuff because if he was kicked out then he probably wouldn’t have had time to get everything that belong to him so because of Mitch and Emily that’s how we got his stuff (if they caught the rest of the boys climbing a tree to get what belonged to Alex and honestly only provided a car they will never say) (what if they just egg the house with Emily and Mitch’s help)

21. Exactly, Alex didn’t have the courage the tell Luke for a bit and still to this day Luke has no clue that Alex spend those nights at his house. (Also occasionally that Emily and Alex would talk and Emily would give him food just to make sure that they were well fed)

22. Sunset Curve just needs more in general, any scenes for them works

23. Yes!! Sadly I don’t have the book but I did see that (sometimes you just never know with shows because they easily could’ve taken a theory that the fans had and turned it into something completely different). I’m so happy that this is confirmed, although this still does leave the potential for them to reveal her in season two maybe (not sure) (just more Rose in general is needed)

24. Thank you, yes and I get that part of the reason may be that they don’t have as much screen time and don’t have as much about them known as the boys (hence the need for past stories) however they are wonderful characters played by wonderful actors and deserve more. Also the fact that neither of them really sang in season one is my one regret. (Flynn had ‘I got the music’ however that was kind of like an alternative reality partly, and aside from a bit in ‘the other side of Hollywood’ we don’t see much dancing/singing for Willie)

Flynn just like Luke is very set in her beliefs and also would be the first person to cut someone off/explode at someone if needed. However eventually she is the first person to reconnect with Carrie. Honestly just more of both of them is needed, in any fashion.

25. He does blame himself for their death and the fact that he wasn’t there (could be part of the reason why he started therapy because he believed this for so long)

26. Honestly I want them to give Trevor more character because aside from being Carrie‘s father and stealing the songs we don’t really know a lot about him or who he is (same for Bobby as well) Agreed, I would love to see more Carrie and Trevor moments.

27. Honestly I feel like that will be how they start to process their deaths because they realize, exactly as you said, that they are not going to age however everyone else is

28. Yes, everything you just said needs to be canon. There’s no in between for Reggie song writing it’s either pure country or heavy-metal. (Once he wrote a rock-ish song for Luke but it was most so along the lines that Luke needs to let him add his country music into the set list)

29. Exactly, that is entirely my thought process as well

30. Lightsaber fights happen all the time, Ray gets concerned by the floating lightsaber but Carlos shrugs it off with ‘it’s the ghost that’s been haunting our house’ (Tia is there and is shocked)

31. Wait wait, that is brilliant. Although Reggie can do it by himself, the pictures always turn out much better when Bobby isn’t there so the last few steps of the developing process are always saved for Bobby alone. (Also once Reggie just left a picture in mix while he was soaking the film and the picture turned green, no one knows why)

32. Yes, and if for some reason a fan can’t locate Reggie, they give the stickers to Alex. also the album is not only full of pictures but the stickers that they gave him, also a drawing that a fan made of Han-solo that made Reggie cry in a good way)

33. They all cried to be honest, although Alex only cried because all of them were crying

34. Oh my yes, that is his blackmail material and he uses it well. You are absolutely right that is exactly what Luke does, (also once got stuck in a child swing set)

35. I didn’t even think about her managing it but yes that is precisely what she does and she is in charge of those photo shoots. However once during golden hour, he is the reason for that one happening (also did the same for Willie because)

36. You stole the words out of my mouth that is exactly what he did.

37. I’m just now picturing it in my head and I need this in my life (imagine Julie just bundled up and since the sleeves are long they are overflowing as well and Alex just melts).

38. Luke is such a scaredy cat although when they meet Caleb, Alex said that he would be hiding behind Luke they all knew that if it came down to it that Luke would be hide behind Alex. So obviously this sentence meant that this needed to be created

39. They have matching costumes.. what if it’s like dirty candy where each costume is in a different colour. (Luke hates them even though he once bought them matching pjs)

40. They all dance with each other, just to displeased Luke for the longest time Bobby and Alex would just waltz around the garage (we all know that Luke joined them after the first time). Also once Willie sees Alex waltzing with Julie and decides that this is the greatest thing that has ever existed (also bamboozled because Alex never told him he could dance)

41. I wasn’t thinking about these things existing at all but I now need one as well

Ok I’m going to do my best to answer this quickly because I’ve got schoolwork to do but I absolutely love responding to these and want to do this instead, so I’m just going to expand onto each point I can and I might come back and edit it later with more detail!

2. Yes! Like one day in rehearsal Reggie just seems really out of it and the guys ask what’s wrong and he basically just asks if they even really want him there or they just keep him around to spare his feelings. Prompts Bobby to make them all sit down and talk it out because clearly they all have some issues they need to get a grip on

3. Oh yeah I get what you mean, kinda like it’s hard for him to adjust to any new or different way of thinking, even something as trivial as a song they’ll play probably like one time. I think you’re right about him actually managing to change his mind - it takes him a while and he despises admitting he’s wrong but he will do it if it’s really clear he wasn’t right

4. Oh yeah I love that! Like Alex knows just how to talk to him to get him to at least start reconsidering. Alex is a good influence in that way because he ensures Luke is always looking at every perspective and considering everyone in the band rather than only himself or sticking to only his ideas (I feel like he probably gets carried away writing songs and only wanting to include what he comes up with and Alex needs to gently remind him that he’s in a band, he’s not a solo artist)

5. Yesss you’re right - I think he has surprisingly quick wit and he doesn’t like arguing because it’s so fast that he’ll sometimes say things he doesn’t mean and finds it hard to take it back

6. Yeah omg that hurts to think about - having the boys in his life made him happy and less introverted but all that was ripped away from him too when they died

8. Oh yeah actually I like that! Seeing as we see ambulance lights/police lights in Unsaid Emily it’s likely Bobby was there first to identify bodies and collect stuff, so if he didn’t know Luke’s parents were coming then he would have just taken Luke’s things and gone through it - he finds a completed Rubik’s Cube (seeing as that’s part of where this whole massive list started lmaooo) and remembers Luke fiddling with it before the sound check and even that just breaks his heart

10. Now you mention it, Reggie being afraid of heights is something I could get behind - the boys would sometimes go to theme parks and Reggie would be the one who would wait with all their bags while they were on the rollercoasters. He preferred watching them all have fun anyway, it made him feel like a proud parent. Abbcoeprke yes definitely, Alex has the same allergy as Owen so Reggie was just panicking like “we just didn’t want to risk your health!”

11. Oh yeah definitely, Alex can lie unless it’s to one of the boys; Reggie only gets away with lies (not to the boys) because he comes up with the weirdest stuff and people just think it’s Reggie being Reggie so it’s hard to tell when he’s lying; Bobby is just way too casual when he’s lying which is how they catch him out; Luke “where is your kitchen by the way?” Patterson cannot lie to save his life

12. Luke is 100% willing to just cut all ties with someone even if they’ve been perfectly nice before - if it was an honest mistake that the person is willing to learn from, Luke would still keep them at arm’s length to avoid them hurting any of his best friends again

13. Yes omg thankfully I made the link work and that’s freaking adorable (I follow that person and I love ALL their art especially Reggie, they’re so talented) and yes oh my god. Reggie has been sad for a few days, maybe because his parents are fighting, and so Luke has the idea to do something kind of like a cowboy-themed party. It’s not really a party, it’s just the four of them spending the whole day wearing cowboy costumes and line-dancing but it definitely does the job of cheering Reggie up

14. Omgggg I listened to the song and I’m amazed at how perfectly that fits!!! Wow you’re exactly right, Reggie loves that song and he loved it even more after Julie pointed out how much it related to their situation

15. Ooooh I love that like a combination of the two styles!! Definitely a bit of Picasso inspiration in there too!

16. Yes lol the shape was weird because of that and also Reggie kept picking bits off to eat (Alex kept slapping his hand away but Reggie was so excited that he couldn’t bring himself to kick him out of the kitchen completely)

17. Yes omg and now I’m just thinking about young Alex being taught to bake by his mother back when they were really close, so now that’s all he can think about when he bakes - it gives him equal amounts of comfort and stress because he’s comforted by the happy memories but sad that he’ll never have those days back. But the cookies he’s left with at the end are great so it kind of gets rid of any sadness!

18. Ooooh I’ll read that when I’ve got time!!

19. Yeah lmao like it just didn’t occur to him that it would be a terrible idea. He kinda thought that rain was relaxing in a way and just. Went for it.

20. Asjkxbskl I love that like Mitch and Emily being good responsible parents the majority of the time but someone upsets Alex?? His own parents upset him??? Ok boys it’s time for payback get in the car

21. Yesss Alex just showing up at Luke’s house whenever he needed to just to speak to Emily! And the way she would look out for him!! 🥺🥺 plus Mitch making sure he took on the role of Supportive Father Figure

23. Yes you’re so right any more Rose content will make me so happy! I’d love to see her interacting with young Julie and Carlos, or her and Bobby being friends, or her meeting Ray, or her and Victoria being supportive sisters, plus her with her band Rose and the Petal Pushers!!! Just anything to do with Rose and I’ll be happy

24. Omg yes I’d kill for more performance from both of them! I want a Flynn and Julie duet or even Flynn and Carrie, or just Flynn becoming their resident rapper so whenever they want a rap section in a song they call on her. I desperately need a Willex duet, and yesss I need Willie dancing more - we were robbed of him and Alex dancing together at the HGC so we need any dance between them tbh. Ooooh yes I totally agree like when she’s like “watch it Carrie” in the music class, she’s just very protective and loyal and I honestly love her for that. Yesss more Flynn and Carrie!!

25. Definitely, he must have suffered so much survivor’s guilt afterwards and I think it was probably a while before he went to therapy, so maybe a lot of damage had already been done

26. 100% right, Trevor needs more character development. Honestly I kinda want to see him just losing his mind trying to figure out how the boys came back, and I also want to see him somehow communicate with them, explain his point of view and apologise. It’s an idea I’m including in a fic I’m writing but it could work here too if Trevor was to become the band’s manager to help them achieve the goals he did but they never got to

27. Especially Luke!! Him realising that Julie is growing older would be really tough for him :(((

28. Lmao yes Reggie writes songs to tell the boys to do things or to get his opinion across like “this one’s called: Shut Up, Luke, Country Music Is Good, You Just Have Poor Taste” or “I present: Alex, Just Ask Willie Out Before I Do It On Your Behalf”

30. Lightsaber fights are the way Ray actually finds out the guys are ghosts. He doesn’t believe Carlos so asks Julie and then as she’s trying to talk her way out of it the fridge opens by itself (well, Luke opens it, but that’s how it looks) and Ray is just like “are you sure there’s no ghosts?” and she has to explain everything. Tía Victoria just watches in horror and won’t come back to the house for months - eventually she does come back and bonds with Alex somehow

31. Absnfoflske yes the amount of pictures Reggie has accidentally ruined because of his terrible developing methods is unreal. Bobby stopped finding it funny when Reggie started getting really upset about it and spent like a week straight perfecting the technique

32. Awww yes Alex being like a sticker messenger and fans giving the boys fanart! For Reggie it’s almost always Star Wars (a lovely Han Solo like you said omg I love it), and for the others it’s usually portraits of them (Alex was once given a jigsaw but never figured out how people knew he liked them so much bc he never really made it public???)

34. Omg YES. Other places Luke has got stuck: halfway through the railings of a fence, inside a washing machine, his foot got stuck in a toilet, he got his arm trapped in a vending machine for five hours, in a tunnel on a children’s climbing frame (that was the same day as the swing set lmao), and once inside a suit of armour (nobody ever figured out where he got the armour from - even Luke himself wasn’t really sure)

35. Oh my god oh my god oh my god Willie and Flynn photoshoots together!!!!!! With Luke and Flynn, Willie is definitely also the most photogenic (they found out because Reggie accidentally took a photo one day and everyone looked dreadful except for Willie who was practically glowing) so some days during golden hour like you said Reggie will just take the two of them down to the beach and make them do a photo shoot omgggg

37. Yes 🥺🥺 the second he sees her he just marches right up to her and hugs her (bonus points if she’s sad (about her mum or something else) and she found Alex’s jumper and put it on for comfort and she’s crying when he finds her but he calms her down just by hugging her and letting her keep the hoodie for as long as she wants it which ends up being forever)

38. Akdbsokcod yes exactly that’s freaking amazing I love it

39. Oh my god yes! Alex had multiple outfits but his favourite was pink, Reggie’s was red, Luke’s was blue, and Bobby’s was yellow (he wanted black but Alex said no because he didn’t want him to overheat while exercising like he would have done in black). And matching PJs yes omg that’s so cute. And Julie gets them all matching onesies - Reggie absolutely adores them

Here’s a genuine real actual photo of Sunset Curve in their workout gear (left to right is Reggie, Alex, Bobby, Luke)

(Could I have found a better picture? Probably. Is this a thousand times funnier and therefore worth choosing instead? Definitely.)

40. Yes totally and after that Willie insists Alex teaches him too and Alex once again resumes his position as resident dance teacher

Will and El storylines

This is a straightforward picture of how I view their development.

El

El’s main antagonist is Brenner. Brenner is the one that has caused the series we call Stranger Things to happen. Due to his cold and endless scientific curiosity, he has forever tainted their world with the Upside Down. There may never be a day where they achieve peace because of him.

Not only did Brenner take El as a newborn, not even allowing Terry to hold or touch her own baby, he stripped her of her name and raised her mostly alone in a cold laboratory. 

Although we don’t know the age at which the experiments and testing started, it is all El knew. The most warmth she’s ever had was 1 stuffed animal toy, occasionally getting a story read to her, and getting to draw 1 picture. 

After Brenner caused El to open the gate into the Upside Down, El took her fate into her own hands and escaped. She ran as hard as she could and found two safe havens. First Benny, who was killed for trying to help her, and then The Party. 

There, she continued to decide her own destiny. She put her foot down when she needed to, refusing to let Lucas and Mike inform their parents. But, she was also on her own mission. She was searching for someone, someone she didn’t even realize was associated with the boys who helped her. 

The show doesn’t delve into how she knew Will before she met the boys, but the comic illustrates she caught a glimpse of him on the other side and vice versa.

Now with the pieces all in place, El, in her own way, tries to undo her “wrongs”. She wants to help the boys to find Will. Safely. In the end, she does. At a price. For a while, she can’t be with her friends and Mike anymore. She’s lost her safe haven, but soon finds another in Hopper. 

As we know, things with Hopper aren’t all sparkles and rainbows. As time marches on, El grows more and more frustrated and she starts seeing things in Hopper she doesn’t want to see. She sees traits of Brenner and what he did to her. While Hopper is nowhere near as bad as Brenner, it’s easy to see someone who experienced as much trauma as El can see the similarities. So she ditches Hopper to find a new safe haven. 

She finds her mother. Alive. But broken. Another piece of her life broken by Brenner that may never be fixed. She can’t fix this one, at least, not right away. Instead, she tries to follow her mother’s wishes, which leads her to her third safe haven. Kali. 

Kali is just like her. They were tortured by the same man, both stolen away from their parents. They found a new family to feel safe with. But, there’s a key difference between Kali and El. Kali heart is hard as stone. She’s been hurt one too many times. Her fear and rage fuel her to be on the offence against the people who hurt her instead of the defense. El tries to follow in her footsteps, but she can’t. She doesn’t want to split up families like they did to her and Kali. 

It happens again. Brenner returns, but it’s a manifestation of Kali’s powers. El and Kali are so alike, Kali knows El’s pain and can use it against her. It’s always Brenner who is her greatest fear. Her and Kali too.

When she closed the gate, who is it that pushed her over the edge to make one last huge push? Brenner.

It always comes back to one person. Brenner. Even when he’s supposedly dead, he has affected El’s life forever. If he is still alive, I think even the big bad Mind Flayer won’t personally affect El as much as Brenner has. Even when El inevitably has to fight the Mind Flayer, I just can’t see it cutting as deep as Brenner. She can fight the Mind Flayer. It’s just a monster out to destroy her world. Brenner? His pain cuts much deeper, fighting him isn’t as easy. 

El’s foe is Brenner. 

Will

Will’s antagonist is the Upside Down, and the embodiment of the Upside Down, the Mind Flayer. Of course, he shares this antagonist with literally everyone. The difference between the others and himself is they’re on the outside looking in, and he’s on the inside looking out. If that makes sense.

Will’s story will be a little faster to write. Probably. 

Will was once a normal kid with a jacked up family. Despite this, he’s made the best of it. He has good friends. A good brother. And a very supportive caring mom. Good grades. Interesting hobbies. Although things aren’t great with his dad, I think Will was content with the life he once had. 

But, everything changed when he ran into the Demogorgon that night. He was kidnapped to an alternate dimension for a week and somehow managed to escape death right up till near the end. He was saved thanks to El’s help. 

Will comes back home, but things still aren’t the same no matter how hard he tries. He’s having visions. Nausea. Nightmares. Panic attacks. How many sleepless nights did he have? How many times did he crawl into bed with Jonathan and Joyce or vice versa? He’s 12 going on 13 year old and probably feels like a small child again. Despite all this, for a while, Will is able to gain at least a little normalcy.

As the anniversary of the events comes closer, all that normalcy is washed down the drain. The Upside Down came back for him and overtook him. “I felt it... everywhere. Everywhere...” Imagine how traumatizing that is, being unable to move as you’re overwhelmed with what looks like smoke. Possibly unable to breathe or scream. The torture didn’t end there. Every waking moment he didn’t feel right. Stuff that probably would’ve been enjoyable, like a hot bath, instills fear in him. But it’s not HIS fear, it’s someone elses. 

Then he gets thoughts. But not his thoughts, someone elses. Memories. Visions. Feelings. Everything. All belonging to someone else. Feeling it all the time, unable to stop it. It’s worse than invasion of personal space, his person is no longer his own. Something or something else is in his body. The Mind Flayer knows everything about him and uses it against the people he loves. He no longer has control over anything, not even his own voice. 

In season 2, slowly but surely, Will loses his fight against the Mind Flayer/The Upside Down. Once again, he is rescued by his mother and his brother through a painful and intense exorcism. 

El seals the deal and saves everyone by closing the gate, locking the Mind Flayer out. 

The Intersection

The part that interests me on a deeper level is not necessarily how similar El and Will are as people, which they are, but how similar their personal antagonist are. 

Brenner and The Upside Down/Mind Flayer have both changed Will and El’s lives in personal irreversible ways. Yes, Brenner is technically everyone’s enemy. So is the Mind Flayer. But who have they done the most damage to? The answer is obvious. 

Controlling. Manipulative. Forcing them to do things they don’t want to do. Knowing everything about them and using it as a weapon to cut deeper. Brenner and the Mind Flayer are big contributing factors as to why Will and El are so alike excluding their natural calm and quiet demeanor. 

The Future 

So what does this mean? Why does it matter? All of this boils down to how the cast are going to take out the two big bads. Brenner, and the Mind Flayer. I don’t think El can do both all alone and she shouldn’t have to. She has friends and family now to support her.

El is weak to Brenner, but with her powers can fight the Mind Flayer. 

Will is weak to the Mind Flayer, but Brenner has no hold over Will’s psyche.

I think both these big baddies will need the whole group to help take them down just like the previous seasons, but I also think there’s some importance for the main people affected get the final blow.

El getting to slap or punch Brenner? El getting to throw him against a wall? El getting to tell him off to his face??? I want this to happen for her. I want her to get her chance to take down her big bad, the one person who ruined her life. She deserves her moment. Kali too, I’m not sure how Kali fits into this, but a team up of her and Kali getting a few licks in? That’d be good too. 

As for Will, this place has been haunting him for years. It’s stolen years of his life and continues to bother him, his friends, and his family even still. I think Will deserves to have his winning moment as well. He’s not El. I don’t think any power he has will be able to do anything to the Mind Flayer. Not like El can. No, I want Will to be the one that crafts the ultimate plan that takes out the Mind Flayer for good. I want Will to be the brains, and for the others to use his blueprint to win. 

I always visualize it as the Mind Flayer and Will on opposite sides of a chessboard. And on Will’s chessboard, El would he his queen piece, the strongest piece on the board. Oof, that’s so cool to me. It really ties into that scene with Joyce and Will at the table for lunch and in response to Joyce’s question, he says, “Sometimes, the bad guys are smart too.” 

(note: I do think Will could help El with Brenner, but Brenner feels like more a Mike and Hopper problem for now)

The Powers

Onto the powers thing, my favorite thing to talk about. Over the last year or so, I’ve thrown out all kinds of theories about what powers Will could have and why. I probably have hundreds of posts, some serious, some not. As season 3 grows closer, I think I’ve settled on what they are. 

Clairvoyance or the power to feel ones intentions. A general sensitivity to things. A heightened sense of empathy. 

Something Upside Down related is headed towards Hawkins again? Will would be the first to feel it. 

Something supernaturally bad is happening in Hawkins? Will could point out where on a map or draw it out. 

Meets someone who seems sketchy? His gut would be able to accurately confirm or deny any suspicions. 

Need to peek into the Upside Down (or possibly other dimensions?), Will can use True Sight. 

True sight includes being immune to illusions, so Kali’s power might not work on him. 

As you can see, none of these powers are out of this out of this world crazy or bonkers. None of them conflict with El’s powers either. These are all things Will has done before and while being possessed by the Mind Flayer. Season 3 will show us exactly how much is him and how much belongs to the Mind Flayer. 

It’s also interesting to note that Joyce displayed a few of these traits too and she has nothing to do with the Mind Flayer. As season 2 has showed us with Terry, the writers are following the Montauk Project blueprint in how powers are acquired. Genetics. Trauma. And drugs. 

Whenever I speculate Will’s powers, I never think about it as, “What power can make Will just as powerful as El or stronger?” It can’t work like that. You see, El was an experiment. Day in and day out, the laboratory focused solely on making her power stronger. It’s unnatural. There is probably no other psychic more powerful than El and Kali. They are the equals in that regard, not Will and El.

When I speculate about Will’s powers, I think, “What power could Will have that would fill in gaps El doesn’t so they can be a team?” 

In season 2, El’s power revealed a huge gaping hole. She can only see the people she’s searching for or have met/seen before. So when they went to kill Ray, El did not know he had daughters and could not see them. This blindsided the gang and inevitably put a bigger target on their back. 

So what power do I think could have helped El cover he bases better? Someone who can help her not just see one person, but maybe everyone in the area she’s looking at. 

Think about what Will was doing while the Mind Flayer possessed him. It was kinda similar to El where he could remote view what was going on. But he didn’t need to know all those soldiers to see them dying. He saw the whole area, their whole trip down into the tunnels. The catch is, his vision was tied to what the Mind Flayer was seeing. The only time Will used their connection to see what he wanted to see absent of the Mind Flayer is during the search for Hopper.

So imagine this same concept applied to an El and Will team up. Will can see what El can see. She can go anywhere she wants if she knows the person she’s looking for, but Will, through her, can help see not just the one person, but everyone they’re with and their surroundings instead of a black void. A booster for El’s existing powers. 

I imagine Will is a booster. Not particularly strong on his own like any other natural psychic, but with a skill set that boosts the effectiveness of other psychics. The team buffer. 

I love the concept. I don’t think I’ve ever written about it here because I’ve been saving it for my fic you see. A fic that will take forever to write, so why not. The one time I’ve alluded to it is my Bathtub Theory.

The Ships

I just want to get this out of the way. Byler shippers? Mileven shippers? I’m not on either of your teams. My blog doesn’t exist to boost your ships. Whatever ship happens doesn’t really matter to me. At all. I’m agnostic. I’m not out to get you, but the posts I make also aren’t meant to be evidence for shipping.

I’m not crafting theories and posting about parallels because I’m trying to make Will and El compete for Mike. Or to make Will the one and only main character. Or to reduce the importance of other characters and story lines. I’m making these posts because I feel like these parallels and similarities are going to mean something for the plot against the bad guys and them as characters. 

I make Will and El comparisons to Mike sometimes not even to stress how important Mike is to them, but to show how the characters end up treating them similarly because of their circumstances. I use it as proof both of them have an extraordinary role in the group on purpose. The two oracles. The ones the group will turn to when stuff starts going down.

This willel blog? It’s a sideblog. This is where I put most of my Will and El love. My love for other characters that aren’t the Byers/Hoppers are on my main blog which I don’t really advertise because that’s what what you’re here for. This blog is compartmentalized love for two main characters out of ... however many we have now. 20. I bet many of you didn’t even know my second favorite character under Will is actually my dearest action hero son Lucas Sinclair whose story line I can’t wait to see this season. 

The only kid ship I KINDA care about is Luxmax. And that’s ok people. We don’t all need to care or love the same things, you know? That would make a boring uncreative fandom. It’s not about the ships for me. It’s not. It never has been. I made this blog because there were no Will and El blogs at the time, only ships. 

Conclusion

I love my potential siblings. I think they have a lot in common and can relate with one another in ways the others can’t. They aren’t the same people. They don’t even have the same beef with the main antagonist of the series. They don’t have the same powers. They don’t have the same life experiences. They don’t have the exact same personality. Although similar, they don’t have the same trauma. 

They’re parallels. The definition of parallel is “side by side and having the same distance continuously between them” or “a person or thing that is similar or analogous to another.” Or, analogous, “performing a similar function but having a different evolutionary origin, such as the wings of insects and birds.”

You see that? Side by side. Similar. Analogous. Not same. Carbon copy. Identical.

They’re twins. My mom and aunt are twins. They have so many similarities including their face, but are also have a huge gaping canyon between their personalities. They aren’t the same person and that’s never what I’ve pushed here.

Please understand, I love Will and El because well, I always gravitate towards stories like theirs. Two people completely unrelated and barely even know each other brought together by supernatural forces and managed to work together to take down the big bads with their friends/family. For me, it’s like found family to the extreme. I love it. I always fall for it.

I have so much fun crafting theories about their powers. I have fun coming up with fluffy or angsty headcanons about them. I have fun thinking of big family Hopper-Byers scenarios and making gifsets. This is what I enjoy personally. 

I know you guys are having your ship war, but please leave me out of it. I’m not involved. Leave my posts out of it. Ok? I’m tired of it, you know? The other day it really depressed me. I felt like all my love for Will and El was being misinterpreted as existing only to stir up ship wars. I contemplated hiding my blog for a while until my rage passed over, but at the end of the day, I don’t have the energy to be mad. I’m just sad. 

My one wish is for Will and El not to receive hate because of ships because you know what? That’s the worst possible outcome possible for season 3. They don’t deserve it. 

malamente part 2 (Branjie) - Evan

A/N: A second chapter? On an Evan fic? It’s more likely than you think! Join me in my murderess escapist fantasy that also has some light ghost action now. Meggie owns my heart for beta-ing, and shoutout to the Branjie Avengers discord for still loving me even though I disappeared into the mountains for a little while. 

Reminder to check those tags! It’s a dark one folks! find me @formercongressman. 

–

Brooke tries to start a new life.

She eats the obligatory casseroles, she boxes up Jason’s things, and she stores the two gifted copies of Chicken Soup for the Grieving Soul that she does not intend to read on the bottom row of her bookshelf.

She goes to yoga. It’s been a long time since she danced, and a long time since she’s done anything that felt good with her body. It’s not an easy thing to get back into, moving like this, but she starts to feel little openings as the muscles in her back click into place. It feels like coming home.

She bakes. Excessively. Muffins and cookies and pies stack up in her refrigerator. She attempts a souffle, and it’s surprisingly successful. Nina graciously accepts the leftovers that Brooke can’t keep. On Sunday morning she invites Nina over and they share mimosas and omelettes and homemade croissants. 

She finishes the Ibsen play. It has a wonderful ending.

But ultimately, Brooke finds that she has a lot of time on her hands, no job, and more than enough money in her bank account to have no motivation to change that. It’s not exactly good for her. She goes into her kitchen sometimes at sunset and sits on the same stool, fixates on the same spot on the tile floor, replays the thud and his voice and the crackle of his breath. She smokes a cigarette out the window until the night air is too cold to bear. She eats the rest of the fig pastries.

(She’d do it again, of course. Maybe spill some blood this time. Maybe give someone a reason to be more suspicious. At least it would give her something to do.)

About two weeks in, she starts seeing ghosts.

Okay, it’s probably not a ghost. It’s not a cohesive haunting. It’s all little things, like an inexplicably moving shadow. It’s a glass that falls and breaks for no reason. It’s creaks in the floorboards upstairs that she used to attribute to Jason stumbling around, but probably they were always there. There’s no form, nothing that carries his face, but Brooke is pretty sure he’s found his way back into the house and he’s following her around. The heat rumbles on and she flinches.

This, she tells Nina. Nina doesn’t need any more information to know why Brooke might be feeling this way. She’s committed to never telling her, but as it gets more and more unnerving to be alone in her own home, that gets all the more challenging a decision to have made. 

“You’re freaking yourself out. You need to make friends,” Nina tells her over the phone. Nina, bless her, just thinks she’s bored. “People to go out with, that kind of thing.”

“You’re my friend.”

“Most people have more than one friend, sweetheart.”

Touché .

She doesn’t want to fake her way through a grief support group, and she thinks she’s somehow managed to intimidate everyone in her yoga class before she could even introduce herself. At one point she feels like she’s really hitting it off with the Trader Joe’s cashier, but on the walk back to her car she realizes it’s probably his job to be nice to her.

Maybe she’ll adopt a cat. Jason was allergic to that, too.

Her mind drifts back to Vanessa, as it has a couple of times now. Brooke thinks that it’s possible that she might have been a ghost too, come to think of it. Vanessa is still the only person she’s told (she’s not going to spring this on the Trader Joe’s cashier) which keeps her as a constant presence at the back of Brooke’s mind. That, and she can still feel that spark on her skin where Vanessa had placed her hand. It lingers.

It’s surprisingly easy to find her. Brooke isn’t very good with computers, but the cemetery has an online calendar and there was only one other burial the same day as Jason’s. Lidia Augustina Mateo, age 95. She searches the name, finds an obituary, and then finds her name in the long list of her abuela’s surviving relatives. Vanessa Isabella Mateo.

So that’s how Brooke finds herself on Vanessa’s Facebook page. Brooke’s cursor hovers over the message button before she starts second guessing herself. Maybe this is weird. This is probably weird. But nothing is quite normal these days and Brooke needs someone to really talk to, and it feels like she’s got very little to lose.

B: Hey! Sorry if this is out of the blue or creepy, but I was wondering how you were doing the other day and thought I would ask. Let me know if you’d ever want to get drinks and catch up.

She hits send before she reads it back. It’s way too much. She throws in an addendum that doesn’t help:

B: This is Brooke, by the way. From the graveyard.

She closes her laptop and tosses it to the other end of the couch. Either she’ll respond or she won’t. She scrolls through pictures of cats at a local animal shelter on her phone, ready to accept her fate.

But an hour or so later she checks her computer, almost forgetting. And there’s a notification.

V: Oh I remember you, Brooke from the graveyard

V: I’m glad you sent this, should have gave you my number lol

V: What are you up to tonight?

So it’s really that easy. They plan to meet at a rooftop bar that’s a few blocks from Brooke’s house and Brooke swaps out her sweatpants for tailored slacks. About thirty seconds into her walk over she regrets the heels, but she grins and bears it.

When she gets there, Vanessa is sitting at a high top table, absently swinging her feet, focused intently down at her phone. Her hair falls in loose ringlets over her shoulders, and for a moment Brooke wonders if Vanessa might just be one of those people who always looks effortlessly gorgeous. She thinks this with a tinge of jealousy and a bit of awe. Vanessa tosses her hair to the side and cocks her head with a smile when she notices Brooke hovering in the entrance, and Brooke stops wondering, becomes more sure.

It’s cold so they’re inside, but Vanessa has snagged a table right by the window, so at least they have a view.

“I’m still surprised you were free tonight,” Brooke says as Vanessa pops off of her chair and kisses the air next to Brooke’s cheek.

“Oh, any excuse for drinks on a Wednesday and girl, I’m there.”

As if on cue, the waiter brings over a drink Vanessa had already ordered. It’s bright pink, with a cherry at the bottom.

“Big sweet tooth?” Brooke asks through half a smile.

“Massive,” Vanessa answers as she joyfully sips her sugary drink.

Brooke gets a Manhattan and drinks it slowly as Vanessa leans back on her chair, balancing precariously on two legs of the stool, and quizzes Brooke about her world and her life.

“So tell me about this luxury. What’s it like to be rich, white, and unemployed?”

Stories spill out of Brooke like Vanessa has just turned on the faucet. She talks about lazing the day away binging Netflix on the couch in her pajamas. She describes the thrilling panic of almost burning down her house when she fucked up and tried to bake cookies at 530 degrees instead of 350 like the recipe said. She complains about the thin girls in her yoga class who are married to tech magnates at 24 and think green juice will save their lives. Vanessa rolls her eyes, nods, is somehow absolutely enraptured. Brooke doesn’t mention the ghost. Yet.

“I think I might get a cat,” she says, and Vanessa’s face lights up.

Brooke doesn’t understand how, but she makes Vanessa laugh. Her laugh is really more of a screech, which bounces off of the tables and finds its way into every nook and cranny of the crowded bar. She draws attention, but Brooke finds she doesn’t mind.

The waiter comes back by when they both have empty glasses and ask if they’d like another drink. Brooke quickly orders another round, but Vanessa waves him off. Brooke looks at her with an arched, inquisitive eyebrow.

“Oh, I love a fancy cocktail,” Vanessa explains, “But it’s pricey, you know?”

“I’ll pay.” Brooke doesn’t hesitate. “Get whatever you like.”

She could swear Vanessa blushes as she looks at the ground, but it’s probably just the liquor. She orders another drink.

“But you, tell me about you,” Brooke says. “I don’t even know what you do.”

“I work at a dress store. Weddings, proms, that kind of thing. It’s good money, but I swear if it wasn’t for that and the girls I get to work with, I’d quit in a second.” She talks about her friends and coworkers, Silky and A’keria, and the one dress a month they work together to steal without their boss noticing. Vanessa had gotten the one from last month, the same one she wore to her abuela’s funeral. She rolls her eyes while she recounts the story of the mother-of-the-bride who insisted on trying on a teenager’s homecoming dress, and A’keria had to step in to keep Vanessa from losing her customer service cool.

It strikes Brooke how Vanessa is truly different than anyone she has ever really gotten to know, the sharpest possible contrast to the flippant wives of Jason’s coworkers and the always-collected fundraiser organizers she actually got along pretty well with. It stings, a bit, as Brooke realizes just how small her world had grown. But Vanessa is here in front of her, a dazzlingly authentic person, and Brooke’s gratitude doubles.

They get their third round of drinks, and that’s when Vanessa crosses one leg over the other, leans back, and asks, “So like, how are you doingdoing?”

Brooke is drunk enough to know exactly what she means but not quite drunk enough to be so transparent. “I thought I told you.”

“I haven’t told nobody your secret,” she says, softer, “And I’m guessing you haven’t either.”

Brooke looks around the room. She had been so focused that she hadn’t realized how much the bar had filled up, and that suddenly feels like too much. “I don’t want to talk about it here.”

“Hm. Let’s go outside, then.”

Before Brooke can protest that it’s too cold for that, Vanessa’s got her drink in her hand and a faux fur coat tossed over her shoulder, and Brooke can’t think to do anything other than throw on a jacket and follow her.

The night air doesn’t sting like she had anticipated. She’s warmed by the buzz of the alcohol she can feel vibrating just beneath her skin. Vanessa’s standing by the railing near the edge of the roof, up on her toes even in heels to peer down over the edge to the street below. Brooke joins her, shoulder to shoulder, and she focuses beyond the colorful neon of the buildings to the small dots of light from the fishing boats speckling the horizon of the lake. 

“I’m not doing well,” Brooke finally says. “I’m seeing ghosts.”

Vanessa’s eyes light up a bit. “Like what? Are you seeing figures? Cold spots? You don’t know this about me yet, but I will go full ghost hunter if I have to.”

“It’s just little things, shadows and creaks and stuff like that.”

Vanessa hums. “That’s less exciting.”

“I promise you, it’s still pretty terrifying.”

Vanessa sips her drink, and clicks her tongue in disapproval. “Sounds to me like you’re still scared of a dead man.”

“That’s… no.”

“You are. You’re living like he’s gonna get up out of that coffin and come after you again.” Vanessa sets down her drink and fixes her hair with purpose. “Listen, this shit fucks you up bad. I know this shit fucks you up bad. But like, if he’s in the ground, he’s in the ground. And you gotta live your own life, cause he’s not coming back.”

Brooke sighs. She fixates on a rooftop terrace a few blocks away, where someone is growing tomatoes and rosemary and she can’t make out what else. It feels like Vanessa has peeled back Brooke’s skin, already knows the layout of the gears turning underneath, pinpoints the problem in a heartbeat. Maybe this is just what it’s like to be vulnerable, really vulnerable. Maybe this is a vivisection.

Noticing Brooke’s silence, Vanessa speaks up again. “Sorry, this shit gets me worked up.”

“Don’t apologize. It’s–” It’s what? Indicative of a level of care no one has shown for me in a very long time ? She can’t just say that, even though it’s probably the truth. “It’s good.”

“I’m just… I’m jealous. Maybe that’s a fucked up thing to say, but I clearly have no filter here and it’s not like you’re some kind of saint. But if I was in your position, I would… Shit, I don’t know. It’s an opportunity, is what I’m saying. You just gotta figure out what you want.”

(Brooke wants to swim out to the fishing boats and see how big those lights actually are. She wants to perform internationally again, but she knows that door has probably closed. She wants to pick a sprig of rosemary from that rooftop garden and carry it around in her pocket. She wants someone to know her better than she knows herself, to love her for her, as soon as she figures out who she is now. And she wants another drink.)

One of these ideas is immediately accomplishable, so she settles on that.

“I want scotch,” Brooke answers simply.

“What?” Vanessa looks at her like she’s snapped, which maybe she has.

“Do you like scotch? There’s this bottle Jason was saving, real top shelf stuff, and he would get so pissed if I ever moved it–”

“And we’re going to smash it.”

“No, we’re going to drink it. But with the same level of spite. I live close. Come on.”

She’s drunk enough that the walk back feels like floating, even though she might stumble a bit on the uneven sidewalks. And if Vanessa pulls Brooke’s arm over her shoulder to keep her steady, she’s not complaining.

Brooke moves to pull her keys out of her pocket once they’re outside her house, and Vanessa freezes in place. Brooke unlocks the gate as she watches Vanessa’s eyes dart between the high shrubs, the columns and arches, and the fountain trickling lightly outside. 

“Oh, so she’s rich rich,” Vanessa muses.

“He was rich, I just lucked out,” is the only way she can think to answer.

“Shut up. You have a fucking fountain . In front of your house .”

“Yeah, isn’t it gaudy?”

Vanessa’s eyes narrow, and she cups her hand to catch a bit of water flowing from the fountain, and flings it at Brooke.

“Bitch!” she shrieks, because it’s cold, but can’t resist the laugh she feels bubbling up. She digs up a shred of self-awareness. “I deserved that.”

“You did.“

Brooke sits next to Vanessa on the edge of the fountain for a moment, as she traces a finger idly through the water.

“So you got all of this?” Vanessa asks, “All his money too?“ 

“Not all. But quite a bit, yes.” She had reviewed the will with their lawyer a few days ago, and was frankly shocked at how much he had left for her. Maybe he had drawn it up before he had turned so cruel. Maybe he had just been too lazy to change it. But either way, Brooke knew if she played her cards right, she was set for life. 

“Damn. You gotta me how to get into that game, girl, I could use it. Might almost be worth it to kill mine if there was any money in it.”

“That isn’t funny,” Brooke says because she feels obligated.

“You laughed.”

(Vanessa’s right.)

“Come inside, it’s freezing,” Brooke says eventually, as she almost starts shivering.

Brooke unlocks the front door and she can’t help but watch Vanessa’s expression as she gazes up at the vaulted ceilings, the modern furniture, the piece of abstract art that takes up nearly an entire wall. Brooke is proud of this space; she picked a lot of the decor out herself.

“Damn,” Vanessa breathes, and the corner of Brooke’s mouth turns up.

Brooke sets down her things, hangs Vanessa’s coat by the door, and retrieves the bottle of scotch off the high shelf of the wet bar. Jason’s father had gotten it for him as a gift when he became the CEO of the bank, and it had sat completely undisturbed for the three years since then. Twisting off the top feels like the most delicious kind of fuck you. 

“There’s no ghost in here,” Vanessa says unprompted as she settles into the large armchair in the living room that exaggerates just how small she is. “I can see how you think there’s one, being in this big empty house all by yourself, but I think you’re safe.”

“You can tell?” Brooke carefully pours a small amount of scotch into two glasses.

“Sometimes, yeah.” Vanessa’s eyes are still darting between the ceiling, the large open kitchen, and the miscellania in the glass display cases. “The energy in here is weird as hell, but you probably just need to sage it.”

“Noted,” Brooke says as she hands Vanessa a glass and settles into the couch next to her.

They clink the glasses together, a silent cheers, before finally taking a sip. It’s impossibly smooth liquor, with just a bit of bite at the end, which Brooke wholeheartedly respects. She’s no dark liquor aficionado, but she’s pretty sure it tastes like a late-summer bonfire with notes of vindication.

“I don’t know shit about scotch, but god this is fancy,” Vanessa says as she swirls the amber liquid in her glass. “Good riddance to your man.”

“Good riddance,” Brooke says quietly. She remembers briefly the other two scotch glasses from this set shattering against the wall inches from her head, and takes another sip. It’s retribution. It’s another light revenge. “And fuck him.”

“Fuck him,” Vanessa agrees. She gives Brooke the softest knowing smile, and Brooke isn’t sure if it’s the scotch or just Vanessa, but she feels some kind of warmth spread through her chest.

“You have an asshole boyfriend,” Brooke says after a moment. It’s a statement, not a question.

“You remembered that.” Also not a question. “His name is Victor.”

“How bad is it?” Brooke asks. For a second she worries it’s too far, but she waits.

Vanessa takes another sip, thinking it over. “It’s not that bad. Really, it’s not. Most days it’s good, he buys me nice things and he’s sweet.” She sighs. “But he’s got this temper, you know? And he gets jealous over stupid shit. But no, he just screams and throws shit at the wall, and I get right out of there and go wait it out at one of my girls’ places. And then he begs me to come back, and then he treats me like a queen.” Vanessa looks at the ceiling, bites her lip. “Never lasts, though.”

Brooke just nods. It sounds too familiar. Eerily familiar. Vanessa’s jaw is tight, and Brooke can see just how strong she is in that moment. She wants to scoop Vanessa out of there, this earlier version of herself, and help her get out of it before it gets worse. But she knows it’s not that simple.

“He never hits me, and god if he did, it’d be the last thing he does, I swear.”

“That’s the difference,” Brooke doesn’t realize she says out loud.

“What?”

“Jason was all of those things, plus the hitting.”

“Oh.” Vanessa looks at the ground and back up. “I’m sorry.”

“Good riddance,” Brooke echoes, shrugs, and takes another drink.

“How did you do it?”

“Do what?” Brooke’s glass clinks against the metal side table.

“If we’re getting real personal. How did you kill him? Tell me.”

Brooke sighs, takes a moment. “He was allergic to figs,” she says simply. She almost laughs at how strange an answer it is, with these words that she’s never actually formed into sentences before. “Very allergic to figs. And I baked some fig pastries, he found them in the fridge, and he didn’t check. And that was it.”

Vanessa’s jaw is actually hanging open. “Shit, that’s–”

“Complicated?”

“I was gonna say spooky as fuck, but that works too, yeah.”

“So it really just looks like an accident. It was an accident, honestly. He’s just an idiot, at the end of the day. So yeah. That’s how.”

“Damn. And now you can do whatever you want,” Vanessa says, looking frankly amazed.

“You’re not taking notes, are you?”

“No, god no, I’d be out of there before it came to that. There’s nothing that serious keeping me with him.”

Brooke almost says I said that too . But she lets it go.

Brooke wishes that she could actually do whatever she wants, but that’s complicated too, what with the ghosts-that-aren’t-ghosts creeping around her home. She’s still not sure what she wants, what she’s supposed to want, what it feels like to want for something instead of just wanting to get away.

“Say you left your boyfriend. Victor,” Brooke asks. “Say you could do whatever you want. What would you do?”

Vanessa smiles that same whole-face smile that already feels familiar. “I’d leave. I’d get in my car and drive until I found a place where I wanted to be. And I’d start over. Maybe somewhere by the water. Maybe doing something with animals. And I’d have a big kitchen and a lot of light and a garden. Yeah, that’s what I want.”

A garden. Tomatoes for homemade pico de gallo, a rainbow of bell peppers, maybe even some strawberries. Something to watch after, something to care for. She could get behind that.

Vanessa is almost down to the bottom of her glass, and Brooke notices.

“Another?” Brooke asks.

“No, I should get going actually.” She checks the time on her phone. “ Fuck , how is it already one in the morning? And I have to work tomorrow.”

“Oh, I’m sorry I kept you.” Brooke hadn’t been paying attention to the time, and barely even felt tired. “Are you all right getting home? Is that going to be safe for you?” Brooke is ready to offer her guest bedroom in a heartbeat.

“Yeah, yeah, it’s fine, he’ll be asleep anyway.” Vanessa kicks back the rest of her scotch, bats her eyes rapidly as she swallows. “And if he gets jealous later, I’ll tell him there’s nothing to worry about.”

“Right,” Brooke says without thinking.

“Because there’s nothing to worry about, right?”

And then there’s a moment. Vanessa’s gaze is locked in on her, and the seriousness of the question settles in the air. Something inside Brooke lurches, and suddenly she feels like she’s 20 and drunk at a college party, swaddled in the allure of breaking the rules and accepting an unlikely invitation. Oh .

(She could kiss her. She could lean over the arm of the couch, wrap those curls around her fingers, catch those too-expectant lips with her own. And it wouldn’t feel too out of place, because Vanessa is young and gorgeous and seems to conduct electricity. She feels it sparkling right now on the back of her neck, urging her forward, drawing her in, and fuck it she might just go for–)

Brooke’s brain catches up with her body, context and the words Vanessa had just said snap into place, and Brooke sits back two inches in her chair.

“Right,” she repeats. She stalled too long to pass it off casually. Vanessa doesn’t flinch.

“Well. Thank you for the drinks.” Vanessa smiles that same brilliant smile as she pushes her hair over her shoulder and smooths her skirt. “Let’s do this again.”

Brooke is certain she imagined it. She plays that split second back in her mind as Vanessa pulls on her coat, because there’s nothing to worry about, right ringing in her ears. But no, she had to be joking, they’re drunk, it’s late, Vanessa’s got a boyfriend and Brooke’s recently murdered husband probably hasn’t even started decomposing. There’s no way.

(She could have kissed her.)

“You’re walking?” Brooke finally manages.

“Uber.” Vanessa holds up her phone to show her the app. “Arriving soon.”

“Let me give you my number, and you can text me when you get home safe.” Brooke is feeling confused but also bold, so when Vanessa hands over her phone, she adds an emoji next to her contact name. A little black heart. Vanessa smiles when she sees it.

“Goodnight, Vanessa.”

“Goodnight, Brooke.”

Vanessa hesitates before turning to go, then stands on her tip toes and presses a kiss high on Brooke’s cheek. Could just be a goodbye. Could be something more. Brooke doesn’t know, because Vanessa has disappeared toward the car waiting in front of her home with the blinkers on before Brooke can ask any questions.

The door clicks shut. Brooke sits back down, taking the rest of the scotch in her glass like it’s a shot. She rubs the back of her neck, and looks down at her hand, half expecting the lingering sparks to come away as glitter. There’s nothing.

Vanessa texts her a simple got home safe! about twenty minutes later, and Brooke responds with another goodnight! Vanessa texts back a black heart, and Brooke stares at it for what is probably a little too long.

Brooke settles into her bed warm and drunk and spinning for too many reasons, most of which she can’t put words to. The house doesn’t creak tonight.

THE 100 my thoughts of 6.07.

Well, me, finally, calmed down and rewatched the whole episode again.

The first thing is that this episode was splendid! I loved it all from first minute to the last once, basically was glued to the screen all the time.

I enjoyed the idea of space minds, because, firstly, it allows to see character deeper and feel their intention, fears and feelings through simple objects of reality, pictures, things. It also gave us a link to ‘Inception’ movie and pointed to Freudian concept of the unconscious. Besides, it also guides us to the Eric Burn theory that each person contains ‘child’, ‘adult’, ‘parent’ personality.

It was smart to use the rain as a metaphor of Clarke swings moods, chest with the code for her secret memory, also show us her dads video and Jasper glasses inside of it.

Her mind is constructed by series of locations. The reason behind is that Clarke really changed through all of her stages in life. Each one has its own meaning for her, as she grew from a young idealistic teenage girl to a grown woman, complicated and contradictory person. She became not only leader to her people, but also a parent figure. We could equate it to the thing of becoming a real mom to a child, who needs care and protection.

Clarke character this episode, her development was really thought through.

Lets try to analyze main locations.

First, we should compare how Clarkes personalities are connected with each stage of action. Second, we ll try to have a general concept of each mind space.

1.Spaceship

This place is where all Clarke memories lies, her story. I guess its just a hard drive to the whole computer, shortly her brain. There she is represented as ‘the princess on the spaceship’ and also as Wanheda, also as The Clarke ‘Madis mother’ ( Read it that way ‘child’, ‘adult’, ‘parent’) . These three parts of her personality show us the two parts of Clark, the peaceful one, rebelious one, guilty one. It’s her three sides, which are struggling to fight each other to prevail in behavior. She still has her child hopes. She still tries to be rigidity and consistency in her solutions. She now is accepting her responsibility, drowning in a blame for her decisions.

The Clarke on the spaceship is the Clarke, who believes that there is so much more than survival and fighting for life. She appears to be the most vulnerable one. Wanheda has the power of being more dark for the purpose of the survival and life. She is the dark side of Clarke who was formed by conditions of her living. Clarke from season 5 and 6 is Clarke who is trying find a peace for herself as a human, suffering inside from two sides of her world.

The lights and the colors in this mind space are truly melancholic and blue. I feel her depression and longing for sadness through this location. Clarke at the moment does not feel right at all, she is feeling down and she is losing hope.

2. The forest

Its totally the most dark place, therefore dark lights and night forest as the symbol of loss and deprivation. Its kinda blurry here too. The ruined throne of Lexa is her pain, which hides under the layers of self-control. There she loses her hope after fake memories of Bellamy. He is still that person, who has that strength and hope for her which she seeks. He is her last pillar of energy to survive and live, as the leader of her people. Because of him shes still trying.

‘You still have hope?”

‘Were still breathing’

But after the fake memories, she doesnt see any benefit to live as someone who can look for her people. Shes already dead, why bother?

3. The fighting pits and the Mountain weather.

Sharp and bright light. The fighting pits is another symbol of her guilt, though Bellamy forgave her, she coudnt do it herself. She didnt win her war with her demons. The BloodRena represent rage, anger for herself, crawled inside Clark. The Maya is the sigh of her moral system confused, her inner guilt for what she thought she would never have done as a child on Spacekru ship.

4. The home

The place where Clark feels most safe, focused and calm. Warm,

light colors and drawings not from her memories, bur from her feelings. The most significant drawings are Ebby, Madi and Bellamy. Its her family now. There she meets Monthy, there she finds her dad alive.

Its her heart in this home.

Her last hope is to live for Madi, as Monty reminds her. To be a mother to a child she raised. I mean, obviously, Madi is the last reason, why Monty as her mind protection appears. Monty was her friend, who truly figured that sometimes good and evil are twisted, and having burden of blood hands doesnt mean ure a bad person, but still means that its the best way to live and find peace.

There she is a ‘parent’.

Anyway, this Clark destination is to forgive herself and to start create something new through the ashes, to find something beside Madi, her people and Bellamy to live for. To heal and become more balanced.

Whats about Josephine?

Her line is connected to Clarke one, as their minds are tangled.

Let me say one thing, she is really hell of sociopath. I do not hate her as a character, but I do see the motivation of her behavior.

The thing is that in Josephine minds her father is the really important figure, affecting her the most through all stages of life. His voice is everywhere, in the library(her voice from childhood memories, calling him. reading letters). Through the door. He is shouting ‘The Sanctum is mine’. This pair could be compared to Odin and Hela relationship. Same spirit there.

Her brain structure is the library, completely rationalized and sorted. She doesnt feel mercy or regret, pity or happiness, pain or pleasure. She doesnt understand human emotions, as she is not able to comprehend them fully. By all sort, she is freaking genius(knows various language, deep in biology and science, gifted for art) but by the cost of her mental disorder. In her memories she adored herself so much that she could stop drawing her first body. She doesnt know what moral is. Its a blurry concept for her.

Her moral is to provide herself the immortality on all costs. She doesnt find it right or wrong to murder, to betray, to tortue. She doesnt care about anything but about herself. Not life of a newborn baby, her friends lover, her father could prevent her from achieving the goal. Its truly frighting and dreadful. She shouldn't be in the lead at all.

Read this to insure yourself that Jo is in fact sociapath https://www.mcafee.cc/Bin/sb.html.

And she knows that. Her hidden thing is the awareness on that. She doesnt accept it at all. She is savoring it, not trying to control or to restrict herself. Its caused by the trauma of guy who kills himself , but still not completely.

I also liked the referral to the predator behavior( dialogue of J and R, when they are haunting Clark), as the main concept of Lightbourne views.Besides, they regard science as the God for them, it means the complete refusal to moral question and ethics.

Josephin: I studied all species, insects are almost fascinated me the most,...ruthless. People theyre so messy, theyre too emotional.

Josephin: You, nulls, are more than worthless, you all don have positive value. You are less the useless. U delude the bloodlines...

So on.

From Clarks side theres a lot of talking whats right or what wrong, even with ALLIE. What defines God.

Its not a coincidence that she tells Monty about the God question, overshadowing Lightbournes things. About connection of moral and real life.

‘I dont want to decide for everyone, Just for myself’

Its a good thrust that through her mind projection of Monty she still thinks:

The end does not justify the means

Murder is still murder, whatever it brings after, peace or war.

She doesnt devalues the human life. Thats why Clarke is the best leader from the start. Her moral compass is always there to remind her that leadership should be based on clean hands, true intentions to help and grow, not in dark night, but in the light of a new day.

Clark also says: ‘Theres no joy without pain’.

For me, it sums up all of her personality. Meaning - to have something good, first sacrifice. To earn happiness you should feel the real anguish. But even after the pain, you are capable of finding hope and peace. Thats why she agrees to go with Monty and fight J.

That what differs Clark from Lightbourne.

She is still in a process of defining what decisions shed like to make, what person she should be. She senses and appreciates.

Lightbournes are in stagnation there.

The last few senconds

Bellamy is just the ‘heart’ all over the place. He is back to his natural statue.

That means head and the heart in work, which, I remind you, always the best.

Thanks for reading.

All the love :)

Do you have a compilation of Taylor secret messages of all her songs?

Interestingly, reputation has no secret messages. “There will be no further explanation. There will be just reputation.”  but a funny little thing a lot of mutuals pointed out was a headline on the reputation mag vol.2 that says: 

Handwritten Lyrics reveal the truth! 

*Jump cut to the dashboard daisy drawing on the Don’t Blame Me lyrics page while I look at the camera like I am in an episode of The Office*

As for the previous albums, here is the list:

1989 (2014)

Welcome To New York: We begin our story in New York

Blank Space: There once was a girl known by everyone and no one

Style: Her heart belonged to someone who couldn’t stay

Out of the Woods: They loved each other recklessly

All You Had To Do Was Stay: They paid the price

Shake It Off: She danced to forget him

I Wish You Would: He drove past her street each night

Bad Blood: She made friends and enemies

Wildest Dreams: He only saw her in his dreams

How You Get The Girl: Then one day he came back

This Love: Timing is a funny thing

I Know Places: And everyone was watching

Clean: She lost him but she found herself and somehow that was everything

Red (2012)

State of Grace: I love you doesn’t count after goodbye

Red: SAG

Treacherous: Won’t stop till it’s over

I Knew You Were Trouble: When you saw me dancing

All Too Well: Maple Latte

22: Ashley Dianna Claire Selena

I Almost Do: Wrote this instead of calling

We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together: When I stopped caring what you thought

Stay Stay Stay: Daydreaming about real love

The Last Time: LA on your break

Holy Ground: When you came to the show in SD

Sad Beautiful Tragic: While you were on a train

The Lucky One: Wouldn’t you like to know

Everything Has Changed: Hyannis Port

Starlight: For Ethel

Begin Again: I wear heels now

Speak Now (2010)

Mine: Toby

Sparks Fly: Portland Oregon

Back to December: Tay

Speak now: You always regret what you don’t say

Dear John: Loved you from the very first day

Mean: I thought you got me

The Story of Us: CMT awards

Never Grow Up: I moved out in July

Enchanted: Adam

Better Than Revenge: You thought I would forget

Innocent: Life is full of little interruptions

Haunted: Still to this day

Last Kiss: Forever and always

Long Live: For you

Fearless (2008)

Jump Then Fall: Last summer was magical

Untouchable: We always want what we can’t reach

Forever and Always (Piano Version): I still miss who I thought he was

Come in With the Rain: I won’t admit that I wish you’d come back

Superstar & The Other Side of the Door: I’ll never tell what I was really thinking when I slammed the door

Fearless: I loved you before I met you

Fifteen: I cried while recording this

Love Story: Someday I’ll find this

Hey Stephen: Love and theft

White Horse: All I ever wanted was the truth

You Belong With me: Love is blind so you couldn’t see me

Breathe: I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry

Tell me Why: Guess I was fooled by your smile

You’re not Sorry: She can have you

The Way I Loved you: We can’t go back

Forever and Always: If you play these games we’re both going to lose

The Best Day: God bless Andrea Swift

Change: You made things change for me

Taylor Swift (2006)

Tim McGraw: Can’t tell me nothin’

Picture to Burn: Date nice boys

Teardrops on my Guitar: He will never know

A Place in This World: I found this

Cold as You: Time to let go

The Outside: You are not alone

Tied Together With a Smile: You are loved

Stay Beautiful: Shake N’ Bake

Should’ve Said no: Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam

Mary’s Song (Oh My My My): Sometimes love is forever

Our Song: Live in love

Ghostwatch: Chapter 2 [R76]

Title: Ghostwatch Chapter: 2 - Intermission Rating: M Ao3: Click here, remember to leave kudos! Summary:  Gabe, Jack and Ana plan their next episode, and employ the help of everyone's favorite cowboy.

Gabriel sat on the couch at Jack’s apartment, feet propped up on the coffee table and his laptop balanced on his knees. He worked on editing the Poltergeist House video while Ana and Jack bickered over the idea for the next episode. They were committed to posting a video a week, despite having jobs and classes to attend to. Sometimes, Gabe felt ran absolutely thin, but he loved his work. Filming and editing were two of Gabe’s passions.

He was thankful that he met the blond man from Indiana in one of his film courses. The guy stuck out like a sore thumb. Gabriel had figured he was a football player getting a creative arts credit in, but was pleasantly surprised when he found Jack was majoring in theater. He wasn’t a prodigy by any means, but Jack had an air about him that just commanded the camera. Ana was one of Jack’s best friends. Gabe was skeptic about how a finance major could be passionate about film (perhaps he bought into just a fewstereotypes), but Ana had a talent for special effects makeup, and never failed to impress him when they needed something bloody. She was the official co-host, and while not being as a commanding a presence as Jack, she gave as good as she got, and played one hell of a ghost.

He drummed his fingers on the touchpad of the laptop as the video processed. He felt good about the shots he managed to get, though this episode was strenuous to cut, edit and censor. He really needed to watch his copious use of the F-bomb in the moment. It only lead to more work later. It didn’t help that there was a giant purple phallus on the wall (that was not there when they checked the house).

Gabe sighed, scrubbing a hand over his face as he looked over his shoulder at Jack and Ana. Jack was gesticulating wildly, talking about Mothman.

“Jack, honey,” Ana said, her voice slow and pointed, like talking to a child. Gabe smirked. He knew Jack was in for it. “Mothman is from Virginia. We are in Los Angeles.”

“So?” Jack huffed, crossing his arms. He may as well have pouted his lip.

“So, we’d get more flack than praise for a California Mothman,” Gabe said. “Let the Virginians have their bug dude. You’re not fitting this ass in spandex.”

“Fine, then what’s your idea, huh?” Jack challenged.

Gabe stroked his goatee in thought, setting the laptop onto the coffee table. He got up to look at the idea board Jack had on the wall. It was covered in pictures, post-it notes, and push pins. They’d covered plenty of hauntings, alien encounters, the occasional cryptid.

“I don’t want another episode where one of us is the monster just yet,” he said. He ran his fingers over the corkboard, stopping at one of the images tacked there. “How about werewolves?” He pulled down the picture of a hulking, hairy beast.

Ana laughed, leaning back in her chair. “Gabe, werewolves? How is that not one of us dressing up?”

“Hear me out, pendejo,” he huffed. “There’s been reports of bizarre animal attacks up in Big Bear. It could be a two-part episode. The viewers eat that shit up.”

Jack steepled his fingers, leaning forward on his elbows. “Go on,” he said, drawing out the ‘o’ sounds.

“So, we take a trip up there. It gives me a chance to get some shots of the scenery and take a break from heavy editing,” Gabe said, going to sit with them around the kitchen table. “We get some exposition. Plant some footsteps, or pawsteps, or whatever.” He waved his hand. “Really set the mood and shit. Then we end on a cliffhanger.”

Ana still looked skeptical, her brow knit in thought. “Okay, but who will be the werewolf in the second part? It would be odd if one of us disappeared after being there for the first half.”

“We can get Jesse to do it. He’d barely need any makeup,” Gabe said.

“McCree? The guy that talks and dresses like he’s in a John Wayne film?” Jack asked incredulously. He leaned forward farther, encroaching on Gabe’s personal space. “The guy who is still undeclared in our junior year?”

“Can you name a better werewolf, Jackie? Or are you volunteering?” Gabe asked, leaning forward to challenge Jack in his space.

Jack elevated his chin, keeping eye contact with Gabe. He grit his teeth. He knew that Gabe was right, but he didn’t want to admit it. The editor drove him up a wall and challenged him at every corner. Sometimes he just wanted to punch that sly smirk off his face.

Gabe was relentless. He wanted Jack to know that just because he was gorgeous (come on, anyone with eyes could see that) and the head of the trio, he didn’t get final say in everything. Gabriel had dealt with plenty of his kind. While he wasn’t a jock, he was still that type of person that thought he could bat his stupid blue eyes and get people to conform to his will.

Ana sighed, rolling her eyes. “Are you two done posturing?” she asked, waving a hand in front of her nose. “It reeks of testosterone in here.”

“Once Jack stops being a diva,” Gabe said. He crossed his arms, eyes never leaving the blond.

“Me? A diva?” Jack said, clutching a hand over his heart. “I’m hurt, really.”

Gabe reached out and flicked Jack’s nose, making him scrunch up his face. The tension dissolved as quick as it arose.

They bickered more than she and Jack did. They were both so passionate and sure of themselves, it was natural for those energies to clash every so often. Ana loved how they could have a heated argument, then reset like nothing happened. Even if they were to beat the hell out of each other, they’d end up laughing it off.

Jack grunted, crossed his arms, and leaned back in his chair. Gabe took it as a victory. He poked his tongue out at Jack, who flipped him off.

“So, Jesse is our werewolf?” Ana asked.

“On one condition,” Jack said.

Gabe quirked an eyebrow. “Let me guess. So long as he dresses up as a werewolf and climbs into bed with you?”

Jack’s face reddened. “N-No! Why would you say something like that?” he stammered. “I was going to say so long as we can use his van to drive up there!”

Ana pulled a disgusted face. “Let me get this straight. You had an issue with Jesse coming, but you have no issue climbing into the back of his van. His van that smells like stale Pabst, cheap cigars, and In-n-Out?”

Jack put his hands up, the blush on his cheeks slowly dissipating, “Hey. If you want to use a ride service to get there, feel free. Sorry, Gabe, but your motorcycle and my shitty junker aren’t going to cut it.”

“Maybe if you hadn’t totaled your pickup,” Gabe grumbled under his breath.

“What was that?”

“Nothing,” Gabe said. “We leave for the forest this weekend, then.”

--

Getting Jesse on board was easy. Gabe showed up to his dorm room with a case of beer (carefully smuggled in) and a box of cigars. He knocked on the door. There was a clatter and a groan from the other side before the scruffy face of Jesse McCree peered out at him.

“Oh, hey Gabe,” he drawled. He was shirtless and clad in boxers, his cowboy hat casting his face in shadow. His eyes immediately landed on the six pack tucked under the editor’s arm. “Whatcha need this time?” he asked, opening the door to reveal his room.

It never failed to make Gabe balk. The man lived in chaos. There were clothes, beer cans, and fast food detritus everywhere. Jesse clicked his tongue, taking the beer from Gabe. “C’mon, now. You always look like yer about to implode every time ya stop by.”

“Jesse, there is a pair of underwear on the ceiling fan.”

“Oh, that there is,” Jesse said, snatching the boxers down and tossing them into the corner.

“What does your roommate think?”

“Who, Genji? Half this stuff is his,” Jesse said, kicking aside a pair of neon green boxers before plopping down on his bed. He pulled one of the cans from the plastic rings, cracking it open. He tipped the can toward Gabe. “So, what can I do for ya?”

“Well, uh…we need a werewolf for the shoot this weekend,” Gabe said, sitting beside Jesse, careful not to touch any of the stains on the sheets.

“Werewolf, huh?” Jesse stroked his beard, taking a long sip of the beer. “Dunno if a six pack a’ Blue Moon is gonna cut it.”

Gabe sighed, taking the pack of cigars out of his pocket. He threw them into Jesse’s lap. The cowboy beamed, turning the pack over in one hand. “You know me good, Reyes. You got yourselves a werewolf.”

“We also need your van.”

“Figured. Wasn’t no way Jack would have me along without my baby. How is Jackie boy doin’, anyhow?” Jesse asked, watching Gabe out of the corner of his eye.

Gabe flexed his jaw and crossed his arms. “He’s good. Still an asshole. Still stupidly good looking,” he said measuredly, unsure what Jesse was looking for.

“Sooo...you tapped that yet?”

Gabe thought he might actually combust. His face heated and he tugged his beanie down over his ears, hiding their red sheen. He glared at Jesse, who was smiling around the rim of his can.

“Fuck off,” Gabe snapped. “Jack is just an asshole friend who happens to be hot, like you.”

Jesse raised his arms and shrugged his shoulders. “I’m flattered, doll. But if you don’t, I will.”

Gabe snorted, rolling his eyes, “Jack wouldn’t touch you with a ten foot pole. It was hard enough convincing him to let you come.”

Jesse winked, crumpling the now empty can in one hand. “He just ain’t seen me lay on the charm.”

“Have at him, cowboy. I bet he shoots you down the first time you wink at him,” Gabe sneered.

“You got a bet,” Jesse said, punching Gabe in the arm. Gabe smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes.

—

The back of Jesse’s van smelled like bad decisions. The white panel van was painted with a desert mural on one side, while the other had “It’s High Noon” scrawled in towering font. The back of the van had shag carpeting that reeked, and the only seating was the front bench made of peeling red vinyl. Gabe was crammed in the back alongside Ana and their equipment. Jack was at the wheel, not trusting Jesse to get them there without a near-death experience. Jesse rode shotgun, not trusting Jack to drive his baby.

And, Gabe thought, to “lay on the charm.”

Jesse leaned close to Jack, talking in hushed tones. To Gabe’s surprise, Jack smiled and laughed.

“Gabe, you’re brooding,” Ana said, resting a hand on Gabe’s shoulder. Gabe grit his teeth, prying his eyes away from Jesse’s courting. He looked at Ana, who had one eyebrow cocked at him.

He rolled his eyes. “What? I brood. It’s what I do. When am I not brooding?”

“I can name a few instances,” she said.

Gabe held his tongue. He ran his hand across the dingy shag carpeting. He tried not to think of what was hiding in between the pieces of red fabric. He looked back at Ana. “He’s winning the bet.”

“What bet?”

Gabe cast a glance at the duo, making sure they were too busy to pay them any attention. “I bet Jesse that Jack would turn him down as soon as he even tried any of that charm shit.”

Ana rolled her eyes. “Never make a bet with that man, Gabe. He’s been gambling since he popped out of the womb.”

A sudden crooning came from the front seat. Jesse had his feet propped up on the dash, a cigar in his mouth and his head back. He belted out the lyrics to Hound Dog at the top of his lungs. Jack laughed along and tapped his fingers to the beat. Ana couldn’t help but laugh. She clapped a hand over her mouth.

Shoot me, Gabriel mouthed. He fell back onto the carpet, the film equipment prodding into his back.

“Jack, you better stop at the next scenic pull-off before Gabe melts into the shag,” Ana said over Jesse’s raucous singing.

Jack gave a thumbs-up in the rearview mirror.

When they came to a halt, Gabriel threw open the back doors, almost throwing himself over the side of the cliff that overlooked LA. He scowled at Jesse as he loped over to the edge. Gabe briefly debated pushing the cowboy off.

He decided murder wasn’t something he was prepared to go to jail for and grabbed his camera from the back of the van instead. He toyed with some of the settings before turning it on and panning across the view. If they had had more time, he would have loved to do a timelapse.

Gabe shooed McCree out of the shots, since he was supposed to be their werewolf. He got a shot of Ana leaning over the rails, looking off into the distance while her hair blew in the wind. She turned toward the camera and smiled, as though she had been caught. It made Gabe grin from ear to ear.

He panned the camera to Jack. He looked like a Boy Scout troop leader. All blond hair and blue eyes and tanned skin. He sat on the rail with his legs dangled over the side. Gabe was afraid he might fall, but the blond man had a sure grip on the rail. He leaned back on his hands and tossed Gabe a look over his shoulder. It was a cocky grin, one he was used to when they were getting into trouble.

Ana pressed into Gabe’s side and craned her head to look at the digital image projected on the camera’s screen. She smiled and pinched his side. “Your turn,” she said as she took the camera from him. Gabe shot her a glare, but didn’t argue. He disliked being on camera, but couldn’t object to making a cameo in some B-roll shots.

He leaned against the rails beside Jack. He took out a cigarette and lit it up. The smoke wraithed around his face and obscured his features. He smirked at the camera as he flicked his ashes toward Jack, who laughed and took a jab at Gabe’s shoulder. Careful not to send Jack sailing over the side, he grabbed the back of Jack’s shirt and gave him a tug. Jack lost his balance and tumbled back onto the ground. He glared up at Gabe, who was taking another drag from his cig.

Jack grabbed Gabe’s ankles and yanked them out from under him. Gabe landed on his ass with a momentous thump.

“Smoking kills!” Jack said between gasps of laughter.

“Yea, and I’ll kill you after that!” Gabe said and flicked his cigarette to the side. He grappled with jack on the ground, getting him in a headlock. Jack bit his arm, not hard enough to draw blood, but enough to make Gabe wince. “Hey, that’s dirty!” he laughed, not relenting his grip.

“Like you fight clean,” Jack said through grit teeth.

“Tell me in the best editor ever and I’ll let you go,” Gabe said, unaffected by Jack’s squirming.

Jack huffed, his hands in Gabe’s arms in an attempt to pry them off. His eyes flicked up to Ana, who was still rolling. He bit the inside of his cheek and grumbled.

“What was that, Jackie?”

“You’re the best editor…” Jack said louder.

“Ever.”

“Ever,” Jack sighed and rolled his eyes.

Gabe released Jack, earning a punch to his arm. Jack rubbed his neck and laughed through his nose. Gabe gave him a shit-eating grin and flipped him off.

Jesse leaned against the van, one leg propped up while he puffed on his cigar. He watched the two tussle with an easy grin. Jesse had competition, whether Gabe realized it or not.