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bambi-kinos · 1 month

Note

After reading your view on John's treatment of Paul, I have to ask if you also have thougts on what happend between George and Paul during and after post Beatles. We know how they both treated him as the younger brother and how he tought they were to busy being John and Paul so they failed to see him though other artist saw him etc. We can also understand how he back away from John and Yoko. But what was his problems with Paul? Paul played on more George-Beatle songs than John did and George even played on John's solo record but said he would never play in a band with Paul again. Because there still seem to that he had another issue with Paul and there still seem to be tensions between them during the Anthology. Did Paul really deserved to be treated like that by both John and George. George went on a lot about his faith and spiritual seaching but not really lived up to it all the time. He played a lot about how unhappy he was in the Beatles and being famous buthe lived large with his cars and big house etc. I'm not defending Paul, well I do, but they both treated him so badly. Why, do you have any more ideas about that. Or what other artists, like ex Wings members etc who also complained about Paul's ways. I only ever see it as jealousy.

Legit had no idea how to answer this as George's dynamic with the rest of the band is opaque to me. I put the question to the McLennon server and they provided some very good answers, they have given me permission to copypaste it all here. I hope this helps Anon.

Note: I let the others talk and then I used Discord's "reply" function liberally to @ the different paragraphs. For tumblr I have rearranged the posts so that they read in order as full conversations instead of the weird mishmash that Discord produces. When you see weird timestamps, that is why.

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Leggy「IT'S A GUNDAM 」 — Yesterday at 11:00 AM received an interesting ask from an anon, its very long so i'm just copy pasting

ask

What do we think of this? my take is basically that George resented Paul because he replaced George with John and their relationship never recovered, which snowballed into these bigger issues about George's contributions to the Beatles and his growth as an artist.

I think it was amoralto who pointed out that Paul was safer for George to attack because Paul would forgive him whereas with John that wasn't the case. and yet George was able to cut John off later so what gives?

LocalGoblin — Yesterday at 1:43 PM I think there's a lot to this dynamic that we're not privvy too. What we do know, however, are things like how during the white album sessions, Paul was constantly undermining George's suggestions. I think it was George Martin who said that. We can even see it a bit in Get Back.

On top of that, even to this day, Paul calls George his little brother in interviews. He has always viewed George as the little kid of the group and that would feel incredibly patronising and demoralising. Paul is a lot more wired that John, and I think that personality trait is just something that George stuggles with. John is the 'cool/fun parent'.

I know John also viewed George as the little kid. And I think this hurt George less because 1. John WAS that older kid/parental figure for so long. 2. You can't take what John was as seriously because he changes his mind day-to-day. 3. I think George honestly (probably) secretly respected Paul's opinion more. So Paul's remarks hurt more.

John = The deadbeat Disney dad. Paul = The more serious and caring/overbearing parent You can see how he would grow to resent Paul more. And I think he also blamed Paul for the breakup too. Or at least, how messy all of that was and all the horrible legal issues that came with it

Leggy「IT'S A GUNDAM 」 — Yesterday at 2:06 PM this one hurts. oof. when I read about the break up in excerpts I get the feeling that George thought Paul's problem was the money and the business decisions and he didn't consider (or didn't want to consider) what was driving it emotionally….after all he felt like Paul didn't consider his feelings 😬

LocalGoblin — Yesterday at 1:52 PM Anthology is interesting though. I really think George's attitude in that it partly because he needed to do it. He needed the money. I don't think he really wanted to do it. It was Paul's baby, and he also resented him for that. Hated Paul for being more comfortable financially too. Paul didn't need to do anthology. George did.

Leggy「IT'S A GUNDAM 」 — Yesterday at 1:53 PM genius, you're absolutely right

Leggy「IT'S A GUNDAM 」 — Yesterday at 2:08 PM this was also around the time that Paul's sweet new deal with Capitol became a thing, i think, because Capitol offered like a significant profit increase for Paul on Beatles royalties if he signed his next few solo albums with them. That caused a lot of upset with George and Ringo iirc, so damn :(

LocalGoblin — Yesterday at 1:55 PM (Also, Paul in a few interviews, has said that he was on good terms with John when he died - UNLIKE George. Almost rubbing it in George's face. I know he doesn't mean it. But I would be incredibly upset by that in George's position. To be constantly reminded of that.)

I think its funny that Paul is viewed as the PR savvy Beatles cause he puts his foot in his mouth all the time haha That actually might be why he's more reserved in interviews now. Sticking to a script… Who knows!

Leggy「IT'S A GUNDAM 」 — Yesterday at 2:19 PM Ha, god, probably. Paul has his moments, there's a good 80s interview where he bemoaned Frank Sinatra attributing a George song to maccalennon, but he doesn't seem to have been humbled until the Heather Mills circus.

vanessaaa0388 — Yesterday at 1:57 PM In one of the AKOM podcasts they mentioned a George quote about how he was the closest beatle to John back when it was only them 2 taking LSD… it's my personal theory than in those months he almost felt like he was finally taking over Paul's spot in John's life…I dunno, I get very competitive vibes from George. In his mind he was competing for John with Paul. At least in certain points. And I think John took advantage of that.

Leggy「IT'S A GUNDAM 」 — Yesterday at 2:20 PM Absolutely. Reminds me of, ha, Paul when he said that John was their personal Elvis. They all wanted his attention and approval. I also wonder if George was seeking a mentor somewhere and if he thought John was it since they dropped together.

vanessaaa0388 — Yesterday at 2:01 PM It's very complex, the Paul-George dynamic

Leggy「IT'S A GUNDAM 」 — Yesterday at 2:02 PM Paul is the one who's always looking for a "project" and can't turn off, being with him must have been exhausting and then you add being talked down to all the time. whereas John can be fun and turn himself off and then maybe the sting of being talked down to isn't so bad. And like we saw in Get Back when John said "we need George Harrison" because he realized George was looking for reassurance, so he could also build George up when he felt like he should.

I guess with John its more like "lots of fun with a few pointed barbs thrown in" whereas with Paul he's steamrollering you constantly and will only occasionally throw in a compliment.

maybe since Paul is more consistent, it meant more to earn his respect? or something like that, like Vanessa pointed out George was competitive for John's approval and attention.

Leggy「IT'S A GUNDAM 」 — Yesterday at 2:12 PM there's this consistent theme with George and Paul where Paul's closeness with John seems to really hurt and damage George. And its not like he could let it go easily either because Paul was also his teammate, not just John's. It was a quad act, not a double.

I think George said that being outside Lennon/Mccartney meant observing Beatlemania as a fan instead of as a bandmate. So he's getting all the trouble but very few of the benefits. And then there's the royalty issues on top of that.

Like, Paul was George's friend first, but then Paul pulped that friendship pretty much immediately when he saw John and never felt like he should do anything to fix it. And then George gets pulled into Beatlemania and then there's money problems and then Brian died.

Brian was George's big advocate I noticed, setting up a newspaper column in George's name (ghostwritten by someone else) because he wanted George to be his own brand outside the Beatles and maccalennon, so when he died a lot of that probably went down the drain too.

Leggy「IT'S A GUNDAM 」 — Yesterday at 2:23 PM George seems to have been very lonely in the Beatles but due to all this:

I guess it was easier to shift some blame onto Paul. A lot of George's spiritual journey appears to be about wanting to escape like when he sings about wanting to see God but being frustrated at how long it will take him. Its real but it also seems like he was pretty weary of life by his mid20s.

LocalGoblin — Yesterday at 2:40 PM Yeah, you're so right. John was also the other Beatle who was more spiritually inclined. He was the only one besides George who was fully committed to the India trip. (At least for a time.) This was probably something they bonded over too.

There's also that quote… I can't remember what interview it's from. But George was asked what it was like being a Beatle and he says he doesn't really know. He always felt like he was on the outside looking in on Lennon/McCartney. It must've felt like a very lonely place.

vanessaaa0388 — Yesterday at 2:40 PM I'm fascinated by J&P but I give George a lot of credit for putting up with them both for so long. I would've cut them out of my life so fast 😂

Leggy「IT'S A GUNDAM 」 — Yesterday at 4:05 PM honestly they ruined George's life in some ways!

#mclennon server #beatles meta #my meta #john lennon #paul mccartney #george harrison #the beatles #talktalktalk

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robininthelabyrinth · 10 months

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Hello it's last anon thank you for letting me give a prompt

So I really liked your pairing of LQR/WRH/Lao Nie and after seeing wwx's parents in the last episode of the donghua it got me thinking, How about WRH/WCZ/CSSR? WRH maybe saves them in yiling and they end up hitting it off (WRH might do it in the beginning just spite jfm by stealing his former best friend and crush) and the Wei family settles in nightless city, wwx grows up with the Wen heirs and wen Qing and wen Ning and that affects the events of Canon

(I wouldn't mind smut tbh if you want to include it, they're all hotties lol)

Thank you so much for letting me send a prompt 🙏😭❤️

ao3

“I don’t suppose you can help with this,” Wen Ruohan said to Lan Qiren, who had the unmitigated gall to look amused at him, as if he’d brought this disaster down on his own head or something like that. “Aren’t you supposed to be friends with that awful -”

“Cangse Sanren and I are indeed good friends,” Lan Qiren said peaceably and tonelessly, possibly just because he was trying to annoy Wen Ruohan to death. “I am therefore very familiar with the fact that there is absolutely nothing I can do to stop her from proceeding precisely as she wishes.”

That was not what Wen Ruohan wanted to hear.

“You’re her friend,” he said, deciding to focus on the important part. “Take her away.”

“You’re the sect leader of the Nightless City,” Lan Qiren rebutted. “Order her to leave.”

Wen Ruohan couldn’t do that.

Well, he could. By all rights, he ought to have done it a month ago, when Cangse Sanren had first marched into the Fire Palace and said, “Oh, this will work perfectly! I love it, you’re so thoughtful!” and started rearranging the entire place into some sort of workshop for herself, possibly involving grain storage. He’d meant to, but he’d been a bit distracted at the time – Wei Changze had wanted to know what all the machines did, and he’d had an endless number of clever ideas on how some of them could be repurposed for things other than torture, some of which had been really very intriguing.

Anyway, it wasn’t as if Wen Ruohan had time to attend torture sessions any more, not with three loudly yelling children running around all the time. Wei Wuxian might be the youngest of the lot, with both Wen Xu and Wen Chao as his elders, but he’d managed in a very short amount of time to make himself the undoubted leader of the pack and spoiled beloved youngest all at the same time. There had even been avid discussions about how they would need to bring other children over to visit in order to better socialize the children. He’d already summoned some cousins over, Wen Qing and Wen Ning, which meant that soon there would be even more children…

It was a headache, really.

Absolutely.

Wei Changze and Cangse Sanren were driving him up the wall.

They were also regular visitors in his bed, something that would very likely rapidly stop being the case if he actually kicked them out of the Nightless City.

“This one’s on you, Hanhan,” Lao Nie put in, grinning wildly at him. Now there was one that was completely unmoved by the news of Wen Ruohan’s new relationship – everyone else had reacted, whether by Jiang Fengmian’s profound embarrassment, raging jealousy, and quiet fury, Jin Guangshan very obviously trying to calculate some way of using this to his advantage, and Lan Qiren immediately going over to question his friends’ sanity – and that was pretty annoying in its own way. After all, Wen Ruohan had really only invited the two rogue cultivators into his bed in the first place as a matter of spite, a way of excising his rage when he’d heard the rumors about Lao Nie potentially taking on a third wife.

He hadn’t expected them to stay.

He hadn’t expected to want them to stay.

Which he didn’t! They were a mess, each one worse than the next – Cangse Sanren was barely human most days, like some sort of feral demonic beast that had accidentally achieved human form and continuously forgot (thanks to her prodigiously bad memory) that she was supposed to be pretending to be normal, and Wei Changze was remarkably similar to Lao Nie in the sense that he’d never taken anything seriously in his life, except for the fact that his humor was lighthearted and unleavened by the hints of trauma and tragedy that lurked behind Lao Nie’s unbridled hedonism. There wasn’t anything that he wouldn’t let slide off his shoulders, forgetting a beating as soon as it was over…Wei Changze might be a lot less vicious than Lao Nie was, but he was reckless to the extreme, in a way that made absolutely no sense. Wasn’t he supposed to be a servant? What was he doing rushing out into the field with a sword and smile and absolutely no advance planning whatsoever? Even Lao Nie wouldn’t do that!

Anyway, they were a handful.

They were maddening.

They were the most interesting thing that had happened to Wen Ruohan in years.

“Your input is not required,” Wen Ruohan informed Lao Nie, who shrugged expansively. “Unless you have something constructive to add.”

“No, no, nothing constructive, you know me, I’m not built for that…but I’m glad that you’re happy.”

Wen Ruohan stopped where he was.

“I’m not right for you,” Lao Nie said, and even though he was still smiling, same as always, there was something sharp in his eyes – the same sharpness that had caught Wen Ruohan’s interest in the first place, like a beautiful dagger that you longed to touch even though you knew its biting edge might cut. “You know, I know, even Qiren knows it…you’re happy now, and that’s good. That’s all I wanted to say.”

Wen Ruohan wanted to say something.

Preferably something cutting, something about how it was too late for Lao Nie to regret – except he didn’t think Lao Nie did regret, because Lao Nie did not live a life of regret. Lao Nie had enjoyed their time together, had been as sincere and true as he was made to be and no further. But, and maybe it was because he’d never expected to keep Wen Ruohan for very long in the first place, he’d felt little sorrow at it ending, instead feeling nothing but joy on Wen Ruohan’s behalf at seeing him happy, even if it was with another.

Wen Ruohan didn’t understand that. He’d always loved too fiercely, too well; he’d always yearned to keep that which he cared for close to him, nearby, somewhere he could protect them and keep them.

Even Lao Nie…Wen Ruohan had been enticed by Lao Nie’s ruthlessness, his bloodthirstiness, his Nie sect temper tempered with a nasty sort of cunning that had made him remarkably successful at expanding his sect’s reach in the north, and he’d been flattered at how persistent the other man was in pursuing him. It was only later, when he’d gotten used to having him around, that he had started to feel jealous…

“They’ll be good for you,” Lao Nie said. His eye twinkled. “You could use a bit of chaos in your life.”

Wen Ruohan shook his head. “I’m trying to get rid of them,” he protested, but even he didn’t believe what he was saying. “They’re a menace. Especially Cangse Sanren – do you know that she’s literally doomed? I swear, I spend all my trying keeping her from getting herself killed…”

“Don’t you enjoy defying the heavens?” Lan Qiren asked, rolling his eyes as if Wen Ruohan were missing something obvious. “I would have thought that someone carting around a heaven-sent calamity would be a perk for someone like you.”

…it rather was, wasn’t it?

“Whatever. Fine. Leave it, I’ll figure it out myself,” Wen Ruohan grumbled, then turned his narrowed eyes on the two of them. “Now for something you can help with: My children need more socialization or else they’ll genuinely think Wei Wuxian is a good example of other children. Sect Leader Lan – you’re a teacher, aren’t you…?”

“Well, yes. But –”

“What a wonderful idea!” Lao Nie clapped his hands together. “I can send my two boys to Qiren to teach, too! And we can definitely bully Fengmian and Guangshan into sending theirs. It’ll be…oh, I don’t know. A regular summer excursion!”

“In my sect?” Lan Qiren asked, arching his eyebrows. “Why me?”

“Because you’re a teacher, of course. Anyway, are you saying you don’t want Cangse Sanren to crash at your place for a few months..?”

“She’s not going anywhere,” Wen Ruohan said at once. When both of them smirked at him, he scowled. “Even if I wanted her too, she’s not. It was a statement of fact, nothing more.”

“Then perhaps we should all come visit the Nightless City instead,” Lao Nie said. “It could be like a miniature discussion conference, except limited to the Great Sects – we could go night-hunting and such while Qiren teaches the children.”

Was Lao Nie proposing an orgy? He’d better not be proposing an orgy, not if he genuinely intended to invite Jiang Fengmian and his wife or Jin Guangshan and his to attend…

“Of course, if it’s focused on the children, maybe the adults aren’t entirely necessary to invite – well, except for you, as the host, Qiren as the teacher, and me as the person who came up with the idea…”

Lao Nie was definitely proposing an orgy.

“…I’ll see what Cangse Sanren and Wei Changze have to say about it,” Wen Ruohan allowed. But only because he thought that it was something they would very much like, and he’d been completely out of ideas on what he could get a couple as notoriously disinterested in material goods as a courting gift – he hated not being capable, that’s all it was. There was no other reason than that! “We’ll see.”

“Did I agree to this?” Lan Qiren asked, frowning. “When did I agree to this –”

“You can’t say no,” Wen Ruohan said. “I’ll set Cangse Sanren on you if you do.”

“…I see that I’ve agreed to this.”

Lao Nie laughed, Lan Qiren sighed, and Wen Ruohan…

Wen Ruohan resigned himself to keeping Cangse Sanren and Wei Changze around a little longer.

Just a little.

#mdzs #wen ruohan #lan qiren #sect leader nie #cangse sanren #wei changze #my fic #my fics #posting a few of these today to finish clearing out this one word doc

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bluehourbucky · 1 year

Text

pairing: steven grant x reader

summary: steven helped you move into your new apartment you want to thank him with some homemade cookies

a/n: I got such a soft spot for steven he's the sweetest most cutest person ever

[dont know why everything is lower case sorry abt that i was already too far in to change it when i noticed]

| main | bucky | moonkinght |

________________________________________

you've been wanting to do something for your neighbour since you moved in since he had helped you carry your furniture into your apartment.

not only did he help with moving in he also went out of his way and asked if you need help with rearranging furniture or building something, you declined politely. it didn't help that steven on top being kind is also incredibly handsome and you had immediately developed a crush on him.

however you hadn't managed to say thank you yet.

you didn't know how to say thank you but you thought a batch of cookies wouldn't be a bad idea.

and a good idea it was, in case you had sugar which you didn't.

so you shamefully walk across the hall and ring stevens door, he's the only neighbour you actually met enough times to ask for stuff.

"hello!" you say when steven opens the door, he looks even more handsome since the last time you saw him. to be fair you've never seen him in his at home clothes and it's absolutely a breathtaking sight.

"'ello?. you alright?" it takes everything in you not to literally run back to your apartment.

"yeah yeah. great. so uh you have any sugar I promise to give it back?"

"sure, come on in, don't stand in the hallway, just gotta find it." steven curses himself for inviting you in as his house is a mess and he legitimately has shackles attached to his bed.

you awkwardly walk inside and only take two steps then you stop not wanting to overstep.

"oh you have a fish." its the first thing that comes to mind to fill in the silence.

"yeah that's gus. gus say hello to our guest." steven says and your heart does a little flip.

"oh so rude of me hello stevens roommate." steven let's out a laugh which makes you blush.

"here,love." steven gives you sugar and you blush even more, you assume the nickname was accidental but doesn't mean your heart knows the difference.

"thank you. bye." you quickly leave and almost stumble.

steven curses himself, he didn't mean to make you uncomfortable, the word just slipped without him thinking. he's had a crush on you since he saw you the day you moved in and now you probably think he's creepy.

after getting into your flat, you immediately start making the cookies. you really hope steven likes them you put a lot of effort into them.

you stand a few minutes in front of his door like a weirdo until you get the courage to knock again.

"hi! It's me again. here some cookies for you. I just wanted to thank you for helping me move in and for being so kind to me. okay bye." you push the cookies into steven's and try to leave but steven grabs your hand.

"wait. what if we ate them together? that's of course if you want to. and you really didn't have to I helped because I wanted to." steven still holds your hand and waits for your reply.

it's not like you're going to miss this opportunity and not with the way he's looking at you.

"sure."

you take the time to look around and really take in the sight of his apartment, the books, the aquarium - it's just so steven.

"please, feel comfortable. thank you so much for making this for me. i'm sure it took bit of your time."

"i wanted to, I hope you like them." you expectantly look at at steven while he takes his first bite.

"so?"

"best cookies I ever had." steven says and you blush.

" im sure that's not true." you shyly say.

"sure are."

at some point you and steven sit on the couch and talk, he tells you about his work at the museum some fun things you can see there and offered to give you a tour when he's not working.

somehow the time flies and suddenly it's 2am and when you see the time you jump from the couch.

"oh im so sorry for keeping you up so late! i should go."

"I didn't notice how much time passed I'm sorry for keeping you. I been rambling a lot." steven scraches the back of his neck awkwardly, and he really hadn't noticed the time he was really just enjoying his time with you.

"i guess I'll hold you to your promise for the special tour of the museum?" you smile at steven.

"of course."

the last thing steven remembers is you going to the door and now he's suddenly kissing you?

as you were about to leave steven pulls you in for a kiss, at first you're shocked, but it takes you just few seconds to return it. it starts off rough but suddenly it melts and softens as if you're kissing another person.

at first stevens hands are on your hips but as the kiss softened they are suddenly on you cheeks.

when you finally pull away you feel like you're as red as a tomato.

"sorry." steven mutters out an apology.

"its okay. that was nice." you can see that his shoulders relaxed at your words.

"uh the tour could we turn that into a date?"

"i'd love that. good night steven."

you kiss him quickly again and leave.

"good night" steven whispers to himself.

____________________________________

"you helped the worm. it is amusing." khonshu laughs.

"it was impossible to watch that. besides he just needed a little push it was going well." marc replies and puts on the suit going off into the night.

_____________________________________

[the end]

likes comments and reblogs are appreciated <3

#steven grant fluff #steven grant one shot #steven grant x reader #steven grant #moon knight x reader #moon knight

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veliseraptor · 1 year

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☕️ Golden core reveal and what it means for the two prides of Yunmeng

took a while to get to this because I needed to sit down and take a minute about it. been a bit since I got in my yunmeng shuangjie feelings but that just means it's a good time to get back in them eh

this is one of those things where I'm like...there are so many ways this could go from where it ends in canon, which is one of the things I find so fascinating about it, and why it's so interesting to pick at. because if we're talking about the side of it in canon, namely the fact that Wei Wuxian gave up his golden core for Jiang Cheng, then...that really does detonate a bomb in, particularly, Jiang Cheng's conception of a lot of things. it rearranges the way he has to perceive a whole lot of stuff from before Wei Wuxian died in a very painful way, changes the context of what he thought he understood, and specifically does that years after the fact at the point when he's had a long time to figure out how to come to terms with everything that went wrong.

in the face of tragedy, people like to make sense of it somehow, and Jiang Cheng I think spent a solid amount of time trying to make sense of what went wrong, and when, and where, and why, and came to his own conclusions about all of those things based on the information he had. and part of the way he decided to cope with it is, I think, deciding that his relationship with Wei Wuxian decayed because Wei Wuxian didn't care about him enough to stay; that ultimately Wei Wuxian cared more about the Wen, or himself, or demonic cultivation, than he did about Jiang Cheng (or Jiang Yanli). and he operates with that assumption when Wei Wuxian is dead, and he continues to operate with it when Wei Wuxian comes back.

and then he finds out that whoops! your brother loves you! so much so that he destroyed himself because he thought he had to in order to fix you! and that's, you know, a lot on its own, but it also forces a perspective shift on a tectonic level that rattles Jiang Cheng all the way to his core.

but I think he sort of comes to the conclusion, or at least somewhat the resignation, that it's too late now. things have gone too far and changed too much to mend what's broken, and I don't think he necessarily knows where to start; on the other side of things Wei Wuxian is tired and the reveal rips open some old wounds for him, too (though I think not quite as many; he's not dealing with the same perspective shift). I think he just wants to move on, not in the sense of "doesn't want a relationship anymore" but in the sense of "doesn't want to keep dwelling on the past," and he's in a position where that's easier to do, in some ways, than it is for Jiang Cheng.

I wrote in everyone else is spring bound:

“I told you,” Wei Wuxian said slowly. “It’s in the past, now. You don’t need to-”

“For you it is,” Jiang Cheng said. “For you it’s history, another life, whatever. For me it’s-” Inescapably present. There, inside me, under my heart, sustaining me. “-not.”

and that I think is part of the problem: the disjunction between a Wei Wuxian who wants to leave it behind and Jiang Cheng, who needs to process it.

none of this is to say - I hope obviously! - that there's no way for them to figure it out, or that they shouldn't, or don't want to, etc. etc. just that for all there's an idea sometimes that truth clears the air or whatever and makes it easier for them to approach each other...while that's not not true in this case I think it also in some ways presents its own new challenges.

as far as the other half of the golden core hot potato game...I go back and forth on whether it would help. I don't think Jiang Cheng would ever voluntarily or intentionally tell Wei Wuxian about his choice to sacrifice himself to the Wen; there are a lot of reasons for that but I think one of them is that to him it would feel pathetic and petty, like he was saying "see, I made my sacrifice too, so you should still love me" or something like that. if Wei Wuxian found out somehow...I don't know. I think it would be complicated and messy and painful and very fun for me to read about but I think in the long term it would depend on how Wei Wuxian reacted to that knowledge, and I can see a lot of different ways he might go with it.

wow this got long. well like I said been a while since I got in my yunmeng shuangjie feelings but I've still got em. guess I should go back to trying to finish that fic I was working on. once I can write again.

#conversating #shockingheaven #jiang cheng #wei wuxian #the sad queer cultivators show #aggressively headcanons #opinions meme #lise memes

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fulgurbugs · 5 months

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HEY GUYS I GOT AN AWESOME NEW DOLL AGAIN

today I unboxed Vampire heart drac, who I received as a christmas gift today and basically just about died from how excited i was to see her.

the first thing that struck me is how absolutely massive she is. like even though shes the same as a regular g1, the sheer size of the skirt is just crazy.

here she is before i got her back home, I am unboxing her but i can definitely see the appeal of keeping her nib. the packaging is gorgeous, and im defnitely saving the box as well to keep it in good condition just in case. the theme of this one is a kind of AU draculaura who's become the vampire queen. and i will say, it's definitely giving that.

here's her with the plastic off and then fully removed from the box. she comes with a certificate and a saddle stand

here she is front, back, and side, so you can see how incredibly detailed this doll is. i particularly love the back of her, the loose hair, the heart bat spiderweb clasp thing on the back of her head is gorge, and the trailing fabric of her shawl is lovely as well

now, for some details

the white lace is a bodysuit that goes covers her except for her hands and face, basically. the inside has a plastic/viynl clear element to help her skirt hold the giant ballgown structure. when i unboxed her she had an additional plastic piece under there, but i removed it because you could see it through the gaps.

the face! i love love love her dark makeup, and the irridescent elements shine really nicely in person. Mine also has some of the nicest looking heart bangs i've seen, theyre super symmetrical!

i also love the way the braids frame her face and then go behind her head, making an additonal heart. the designers of this draculara did not miss with a single element. the little charms on the headpiece can even dangle freely, like holy shit. I know rooted lashes on mh dolls can be controversial, but i don't think they detract anything here, especially with the dark makeup where they fit in well.

just a couple more images of her posed! i love the vibe of this draculaura, shes extremely elegant and extravagant. I will say one thing is that the saddle stand is extremely fiddly, it took a lot of kind of cramming to get her to stand well, and i was worried i was going to break it. course, all the collector dolls have saddle stands afaik, and also a waist stand i dont think would even work on her due to the sheer size of her dress, so its kind of just a non-issue, just something i thought id mention.

I had to rearrange the shelves AGAIN to figure out where to put her and her massive dress, ended up moving barto and the yamatos to the nedno shelf and using some random box as temporary risers to help josuke and envy be seen a little better (pics are kind of from a low angle but i promise they are more visible this way lol.)

here she is next to my only other g1 drac, so now i guess i have 2 in the g1 style! you can see how their different makeup looks give them totally different vibes, imo.

of course, heres the obligatory .5 shot. damn girl ur 5head

i want to say thank you so much to my friend for gifting her to me, this is maybe the best present ive gotten like ever. holy shit. hopefully the one i send back will be received simialrly, but I'm still working on it, and ill show you all pics once im sure its been received!

peace out (⊃｡•́‿•̀｡)⊃━✿✿✿✿✿✿

#dux doll tag #dux doll review #monster high #draculaura #gonna be taggin those two for orginization now i think #should probably go back and do that too...#anyways I LOVE HER I LOVE HER I LOVE HER

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billetwoes · 6 months

Text

The Boring Introductory Stuff (and the interesting...) Billet Woes Part 2

Disclaimer: This is my first attempt at fanfic. Constructive criticism is always appreciated, rudeness is not.

Word Count: 5,537

So, you had finally met your assigned guest and...so far, so good! However, he thinks that you are uneasy around him. What are you (or what is he) going to do about it?

Yep, this is the boring introductory part with lots of planning, but there's also a lot of food :D I hope you enjoy!

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

In the following days, you had prepared yourself and your place for your guest. Your contact information was stored in a secure database at the Outworld Investigation Agency, and always with consent, was given to the Clans/Agencies of future guest. In your case, you were contacted by the wife of the Shirai Ryu’s Grandmaster, Harumi, via encrypted e-mail two days after Lord Liu Kang paid you a visit. You were informed that you will be billeting one of their warriors.

As Lord Liu Kang had mentioned, it is estimated he would be staying for a month. He will be arriving in exactly one week from today and you are instructed to meet him at a specific muster point; the date, time, and address where you will be picking him up were provided in the email.

You asked if there are any allergies to food and cats that you need to be aware of, as you suddenly thought that you had nobody who be willing to look after your kitties for a month. She denied any food and cat allergies. You thanked Harumi for the information.

At work, you had requested for a few Fridays off, two of which were granted for the last two weeks,

including the Mondays for those weeks to boot. This would give you time to catch up on orders and time

for cleaning. It was a good thing that your workplace was unionized so that any vacation days taken were

paid. You used a personal time off day towards the day that you are to pick up your guest.

You are a planner and a perfectionist, even though you hate that term and tend to interpret that as a slight when being called one to your face.

The longer of your two couches can be unfolded and made into a guest bed and you had sets of clean

bedding and a down duvet ready. You also deep cleaned both the guest bathroom and your

bathroom.

You had a pad of paper in front of you and began to list all the food and toiletry items. Once that is done, you began to meal plan for 3-weeks worth of food most with simple enough recipes or one that you can quickly assemble and throw in the slow cooker or oven to do the work for you. The rest of the days you reserve for taking your guest out to good restaurants in your city with a few of your close and trusted friends, if the circumstance permits it. You didn’t know what his shift or days will look like, but you want to have Plans A-Z just to be as flexible as you can.

While you were cleaning the apartment and your Roomba was doing its daily job, the kitties were staring at you with interested and curious eyes while meowing loudly and nearly making you trip a few times. They can sense a change in your behavior and energy while moving and rearranging things and vacuuming their cat trees and dusted the cat shelves that decorated the living room walls. Luckily, you don’t have to move the kitties’ litter box, as you had the large robot kitty litter box that the girls share with no issues, and it is in your bathroom. You made a point to install a cat flap on your bedroom door and were willing to pay to replace the door if you decide to move somewhere else.

You made a Costco run for the first week of your guest’s stay with you during the weekend. Once you got home and organized the snacks and fruits in baskets and set them on the island counter in the middle of your kitchen so that they are easily accessible and put away the meats and vegetables in the fridge and freezer, which you have deep cleaned a couple days prior.

You did all this while juggling your job, pushing out orders from your small business, and looking after the kitties. Once a hard day’s work is done, you went through your nighttime rituals and hit the sack.

All night, you heard the never-ending flapping of plastic as the kitties were going in and out of the cat door and pawing at each other by pushing the plastic door repeatedly. You had wondered whether you made a mistake with that modification while resisting the urge to scream at the cats.

The day arrived when you are to pick up your guest. You are to meet outside an abandoned building in an industrial area at 4 pm. You were glad that you had the day off so that you are relatively relaxed and had lots of time to grab a coffee from Tim Horton’s. When you arrived there, you droved into a parking lot where there was a group of around 20 people with Lord Liu Kang. Also, there were two ladies. The first one wore a black trench coat with her hair in a neat ponytail and comfortable flat leather boots. She also had what looked like a sheathed katana strapped to her back. The second lady wore what looked like a black leather vest with a wide belt with pink and white garments underneath the leather vest. Her boots and fingerless leather gloves also matched the color scheme of her clothing, and her hair had small side braids that were tied up into a high ponytail.

As you parked in a stall, you and a few other billet hosts walked towards the group, some with their children, and once everybody was present, Liu Kang raised his hands to get everybody’s attention. The crowd of people shushed each other, and all turned their eyes towards the Fire God.

“Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for coming here today,” he began, “Most of all, we are grateful for your dedication to look after our warriors and protectors. You honor all of us.”

He then turned to the first lady in the trench coat and motioned to her, “This is Harumi, the co-leader of the Shirai Ryu.”

She nodded solemnly and addressed the hosts, “We are truly grateful for supporting our warriors. Your roles are of the utmost importance. As you have been informed, there is a suspicious area with a portal appearing and disappearing identified outside of your city that needs to be monitored for threats. We suspect that this portal is from Outworld, but it could be from the Netherrealm or the Chaos Realm. Constable Li Mei from the Sun Doh District of Outworld is working with us to investigate this anomaly.” She gestured towards the second lady.

The second lady stepped forward, “We suspect that one of our generals named Shao is responsible for this, as he is guilty of insurrection against our kingdom. There have been talks and rumors in our realm about a group of rebels under this general to invade your realm. I give you my word that I will not rest until all threats are neutralized.”

There were concerned and slightly panicked murmurs in among the billet hosts. You listened attentively with held breath, which you only let out now. Many people asked questions and raised concerns. Fortunately so far, this was the only one known to date and nothing of concern by way of a serious threat has arose.

Harumi stepped forward to speak, “Your willingness to aid us by opening your doors to our warriors that are strategically close to this area makes it convenient for us to respond to any emergencies. Be assured that you are far enough that you are safe. Should any of you be endangered, our warriors will protect you.”

“On behalf of Outworld, we are in your debt,” Li Mei said gratefully, “Harumi and I will not be joining you, as we have to attend to matters concerning our clan and people.”

The billet hosts, including yourself, nodded in support and expressed heartfelt gratitude for the warriors, and they returned the gesture.

“And now, we will begin assigning your warriors to you,” Liu Kang announced, “Harumi and Li Mei will separate in to two groups. Once your name is called, please step forward.

On queue, the Outworlders, who were dressed in their traditional garb grouped together behind Li Mei and the Shirai Ryu, who were dressed in t-shirts, zip up hoodies, leggings, dark washed jeans and sneakers. One by one, Harumi and Li Mei took turns calling names and people stepped forward to be paired with their guests. Greetings and handshakes were exchanged, and smaller groups began to walk away towards cars as pleasantries and excited chatter from children faded.

“Y/N,” Harumi called.

You stepped forward and walked towards her.

“Tomas,” she called turning to her left.

A tall man carrying a couple of medium sized duffel bags stepped forward. His hair was gray, which surprised you, but you did your best to keep a pleasant expression. Is that his natural hair color? The next thing you noticed was his demeanor. He wore a serious expression on his face and his piercing silver-gray eyes had an intense look. There ere a couple of scars above his left eyes and his eyebrows were shaved, at least you though they were, in such a way that made him look intimidating. The image of a rattlesnake came to mind because its top eyelids were slanted above it eyes that made them look perpetually angry and mean all the time.

“Y/N, this is Tomas,” she gestured towards the man, “also known as Smoke. He is our second in command. I trust that he is in your capable hands.”

‘Smoke’ in reference to his grayness??

“I will do my best,” you replied humbly, nodding then turning to Tomas, “Hello, Tomas.” You shook his hand.

He smiled and shook it back, “Hello Y/N. Thank you for having me.” He sounded friendly(!) which kind of threw you off guard.

“Oh, you’re welcome,” you replied, letting go.

“I will take my leave, Harumi,” He bowed respectfully.

Harumi nodded, “Stay safe, both of you.”

You both walked towards your car.

“Is this your first time in Canada?” You asked starting a conversation.

“No, it isn’t,” he replied, “I’ve been billeted before in Quebec and the Yukon. This is my first time in Alberta.”

“Welcome to Alberta! Have you eaten, by the way?” You asked him, wanting to make sure he’s comfortable.

“No, not yet” he replied.

“Would you like to go grab a bite first? We can discuss the details when we get home,” you offered, “Do you have a preference?”

“Whatever you recommend, I’d love to try the food here,” he replied happily, smiling, “Thank you!”

“Alright, then! I’ll take you to one of my favorite spots,” You started the ignition and set up Google maps and entered the address of one of your local favorites, which is a French-Scandinavian style restaurant. The Elder Gods forbid that you get lost on your way out of this deserted location and spend time driving around in circles. Though friendly enough, the mental image of a happy rattlesnake in Peter Parker’s voice made you laugh internally.

Your dinner was light-hearted enough and you kept conversations casual and asked each other surface-level questions about each other. He touched on his experiences with the Shirai Ryu and his relationship with Harumi and her husband, Grandmaster Scorpion. Turns out, he was his adopted brother.

“Oh,” you exclaimed, “That’s something!” As if your insides weren’t chaotic enough with the knowledge that he was the second-in-command, he was THE ADOPTED BROTHER of the GRANDMASTER of the Shirai Ryu. The pressure! Before your brain had time to process that, your nervous system had decided that you’re screwed.

“What’s wrong,” he asked, looking concerned, “You look scared?”

“Uh,” you laughed nervously, “Well, I guess I’m dealing with precious cargo! Ha ha! Yeah, a little.”

“Don’t be! I’m human, like you,” he reassured, “I don’t bite.”

You nodded, still laughing nervously. Your perfectionist brain, otherwise known as the brain that took over your Asian Parents after you left them, went into hyperdrive. ‘Smile!’ ‘What are you doing?! Fix your face! You are making a bad first impression!’ ‘Say something intelligent or you will make him lose face!’ ‘He’s more important than you, watch your manners!’ For those of you who had Tiger Moms, you know the PTSD that comes from that upbringing. You raised your eyebrow while rubbing your forehead to try and soothe yourself.

“Ok,” you replied, still with an incredulous smile, mentally beating yourself with a wooden stick to get yourself to calm down, “I’m sorry. I-uh, I just got…” You feel embarrassed because you probably made a fool out of yourself.

“Wow, this duck is really good!” He praised, taking another bite of his dish. It felt like he was distracting you from your chaotic thoughts by redirecting your attention towards the food, and you were grateful for it. “I can see why you like this place. What other dishes have you had?”

“Oh,” your thoughts snapped back to the present moment, “I love their cod dish, which is unfortunately a seasonal item. I often come here for brunch, especially during weekends, so I’m more familiar with that menu. I love the Oeuf en Cocotte and their Grav Lax. If time permits, I’d love to take you here again for brunch and to other hot spots!” You had forgotten how nervous you were moments ago because any mention of food and restaurants will get you excitedly talking and making recommendations.

“I’d like that very much!” He took another appreciative bite of his food.

“I’ll stop talking now and let you eat,” you muttered, “I tend to talk a lot when I’m nervous.”

The both of you ate the rest of your meals in silence. Once your empty plates were cleared, your desserts came, which was a salted caramel chocolate cheesecake with candied pecan and toffee crumble on top with crème fraiche vanilla bean ice cream on the side and a couple of macarons.

You paid for your dinners and drove home in a happy mood. Once both of you entered in your apartment, you introduced him to your kitties, and always the social butterfly, Minou immediately rushed to smell your guest for a couple of minutes before she decided that Tomas was worthy of being marked as a friend. She meowed, purred, and rubbed her body and head against his legs.

“Well, hello there!” Tomas smiled and greeted in a high voice that sounded like how someone would talk to a cute toddler, “You’re so friendly! I’m Tomas, your new friend!” Minou flopped on her back and exposed her belly in response.

Bijoux on the other hand, stood a few feet away staring at Tomas warily. When Tomas finally noticed her and went to introduce himself, Bijou took a couple of steps back and hissed.

“Bijoux,” you scolded in a stern tone, “Be nice!” You went to pick her up, but she bolted and hid in your room. “I’m sorry!”

“Don’t worry, I’m sure a stranger in her space must be uncomfortable for her,” he chuckled, “We have a few stray cats in our compound, so I’m familiar with their behaviour.”

You gave Tomas an orientation of your apartment, starting with the kitchen, showing him the food that he can help himself to and the appliances that he can freely use. Next was the living room, where you explained about the couch that you will unfold to make his bed; then you showed him the guest bathroom where there was a new set of toiletries and shower items, which he can choose not to use if he brought his own stuff; you showed him the closet outside the guest bathroom where he can access clean towels, and the laundry room beside it; finally, you briefly showed him the room that you have set up as a work shop and explained that you will be keeping this shut during times when you will be working on orders. You gestured to your bedroom, which you didn’t show because that is your space.

Finally, you lead him to the counter where you keep your keys on and where your landline is. You pulled open a drawer and pulled out a laminated envelope labeled “Emergency”.

“If you ever need it, there is money in here for emergencies,” you explained, “Do you have any questions?”

Tomas shook his head with an expression of approval, “So far, I have none! You really went out of your way to make sure that I’m looked after! I am impressed…and grateful.”

Humbled, you briefly bowed your head before responding, “Thank you, I appreciate the kind words. If you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask.”

“I will!” He was smiling. You had decided to sharply nudge your jerk brain to cut out the jerk-talk and your nervous system is still on amber alert. You breathed a sigh of relief, and Peter Parker rattlesnake is behaving like Minou and rolling in rainbow.

“Anyway, I want to discuss our schedules so that I can plan on accommodating you,” you gestured towards the dinner table, “Would you like something to drink?”

“I would like some tea please. I’ll try the triple berry please.” This you made for him, and you made yourself a chamomile tea. You offered cream, milk, sugar, honey, or Stevia, and he refused all of them.

You discussed how the both of you would be coordinating your schedules. As Lord Liu Kang had mentioned, both schedules were close enough, which makes it easier for you to accommodate him. The large group was broken into three smaller group that would be covering the morning, evening and night shifts. It was very important that all the warriors had time to rest, maintain their training, communicate with their superiors, and just as equally important, socialize and maintain relations with their hosts. It is also important for the hosts to be close by just in case they need to take the warriors to the site to do their jobs.

Tomas was assigned to the morning shift. You start work at 8:00 am and the morning shift started at 6:00 am. This means that you would have to get up at 4:00 am to make breakfast then take him to the site, which will take 20 minutes if there is no traffic, as per Google Maps on your laptop. That meant that you have to hit the sack at 8:00 am in order to get a full 8-hour’s worth of sleep. Once you dropped him off at the muster point, another host will take the entire morning group to the site, then you can head home to work on orders before driving to work. He ends his shift at 2:00 pm and you end your shift at 4:30 pm, which meant that he had to wait for you for 2 ½ hours. To complicate things, you didn’t know what the traffic situation was like driving to pick him up at the muster point.

You then asked him if he knew of any of his group mates that were being billeted in your city, and he knew of two. Tomas had proposed to have a Zoom call to see what their situation looked like with their hosts, which was arranged after he contacted them. While one of the hosts was in the same situation as you, the second host, a lovely lady named Lisa who appeared to be in her thirties, fortunately worked from home and can pick up the three warriors and, with consent, can bring them to a friend’s place that has a large space dedicated to workout. There, the three can train there until you and the other host get off work to pick them up at the friend’s place. This was a stroke of luck which lifted a heavy burden off your shoulders. All of you in the call exchanged contact information, got the address of the friend’s place, thank Lisa for the kind accommodation and hung up. One major problem solved.

You wouldn’t have any issues with making dinner once you get home, which lead to the next question of what his food preferences are. You were told by Harumi that he had no allergies, which he confirmed. He said that he had no preferences and would be happy to eat whatever you made. You also wanted to know what his typical meals were like (ie. How much protein, how much vegetables, what time he typically eats, etc.). He gave the basic information and told you not to worry about following the regimen to a tee.

You asked about his lunches and whether you needed to pack food for him, and it sounded like you did as there was no mention of any arrangements for lunch. Noted.

You also took account the time difference between Edmonton, your city, and Japan, which was 15 hours, so you worried about jet lag. Tomas explained the Shirai Ryu’s current situation with the Lin Kuei and how they are always on a state of being on red alert around the clock, and therefore must be ready to respond at any time, even if they must wake up in the ungodly hours of the morning. You made a comment about how exhausting this sounds, which he agreed saying it was an understatement. He reassured you that you didn’t need to worry about his sleep schedule, as he is able to adapt easily.

“So, you guys are pretty much more than first responders,” you said, shaking your head, “dealing with your personal feuds and protecting us at the same time. Thank you for your service! To say that we appreciate you would be an understatement.”

“Kind words, Y/N,” Tomas replied humbly, “And we likewise thank you for your service. We would be in a much more difficult position if it were not for what you do for us.”

The rest of the conversation involved tying up loose ends about your arrangements and during this time, Minou decided to jump on the table make friends with Tomas some more by exchanging head bonks and purrs for scratches and praises.

You offered Tomas more tea, which he accepted. Once this was done, you decided to set up his bed. You unfolded the couch, put on the bedding sheets, two pillows (you made sure to buy memory foam ones, and the down duvet, which had its own duvet covers.

It was an hour before you went to bed so you decided to lay out the ingredients for breakfast on the counter (save the eggs and bacon, because heaven forbid you inconvenience your guest with food poisoning!).

For his lunch, you made something quick, but made sure that it was as nutritious as hell, because, neurotic much? You cut some herbs and vegetables to be roasted with two chicken legs which you seasoned well and with olive oil and chicken rub. You threw that in the 400 F preheated oven for an hour. While that was in the oven, you made some pilaf which you flavoured with minced garlic, mushrooms and chicken stock. Once this was done, you scooped the piping hot rice into one side of a large two compartment container and washed the pot and some utensils. Once the chicken was done, you first scooped the roasted veggies on the other side, then the chicken legs on top of the rice and veggies. You set the lid on top but not fully covered to let steam escape so that it would cool down before you put the whole thing in the fridge.

Boy do you have A LOT to get used to for the next month! No more being a night owl for the next month or so, and thankfully, you had a week’s practice to sleep earlier, even though you obviously needed more than that.

You noted that Tomas was observing you with a smile. Deep down, you felt scrutinize, but pushed the feeling down, as you were most likely overthinking things.

“You are taking this far too seriously, Y/N,” he chuckled, “I can see that you enjoy cooking. I am excited to try your food, it smells great!”

Maybe it’s how you’re perceiving things. On first impression, he seemed polite and friendly; in fact you felt that he was too polite that it was making you uneasy. You were a suspicious person by nature, especially when it comes due to having been surrounded by polite people in the past that showed their true colors down the road. You didn't think that he was like this, as you have just met him and so far there were no issues, so you concluded that you were overthinking things to prevent yourself from seeing him through that lens.

You shrugged it off and replied in a nonchalant tone, “I haven’t billeted one of you guys in a while, so I need to be on my A-game. I’ve been accused of being neurotic at times, but I feel it’s justified.”

“I like your attention to details and how focused you are. I’m a little concerned, as you seem…how do I say this, uneasy,” he explained, piercing eyes staring at you.

“What do you mean?” You asked, trying to hide the fact that you are due to fighting your own internal thoughts. You made yourself continue to clean to avoid his eyes, “I’m ok.”

There was an uncomfortable pause and when you raised your head, he kept his eyes on you still.

“WILL YOU STOP STARING AT ME???” You mentally screamed at him, “YOU’RE MAKING ME UNCOMFORTABLE!!”

“What?” You asked, still scrubbing the glass dish under the running water. Being stared at and scrutinized irritates you in general, and you can feel yourself starting to head there.

“I see…,” he said gingerly, followed by another silent pause, “Anyways, who was the last person you billeted?”

Saved.

“Ashrah. She’s a doll!”

“A “doll”?”

“It’s one way of saying she’s amazing with a great personality, like, she’s a peach or she’s a gem.”

Tomas nodded, “Ah, yes, she is amazing.”

You washed the rest of your dishes and cleaned up the kitchen. Once the dish with the chicken has cooled down enough, you secured the lid and placed it the fridge after asking if that amount was enough for lunch.

“Goodness, that’s plenty!” He exclaimed, eyes brightening appreciatively.

“Good.” If you had guests, you have the quirk of cooking way more food to make sure that nobody starves to death.

After cleaning the kitchen, both of you decided to call it a night. Minou did not curl up between your legs that night like she usually does, and Bijoux was still hiding under your bed with her ears flat against her head when you tried to coax her out.

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

The next week was the week of settling into your routine. You found that getting up at 4:00 pm after being disciplined enough to sleep at 8:00 pm was no problem at all, mainly because your psyche won’t allow you to jeopardize Tomas’ mission. Negative reinforcement has usually worked when something important is involved.

The both of you went about as planned, having the first breakfast of his stay. You’ve made scrambled eggs, bacon, and banana blueberry pancakes with oats, the latter which in your opinion was ok as you normally don’t eat breakfast, let alone make it. You went overboard with the assortment of fruits, nuts, granola bars and Greek yogourt. Plus, there was an assortment of juices, milk, almond milk, oat milk, and your lactose-free milk.

You had to warn Tomas about keeping the bagels in the bread box as Bijoux, the grumpy calico, was obsessed with bagels. The two cats were kept in your workshop while you had breakfast, to their disappointment, and their miserable meows serenaded your ears, which you apologized for, assuring Tomas that you weren’t an abusive cat mom.

You cleared the table once done, reheated his lunch and packed it in an insulated lunch bag. The cats were let out once their wet food and automatic dry food feeder has been filled and had full water dishes. You drove him to the muster point.

You went about your workday and once done, you picked up Tomas from Lisa’s friends place once work was done and went home for dinner. Rinse, repeat.

The week went by smoothly with no problems (thank the gods!) and there were no complaints coming from him. Again, he remained polite and respectful.

While the weekends were more relaxing for you, as you had no work, the warriors worked 7 days a week. You hoped that they got compensated well for that, and that is also part of the reason why you always go above and beyond when you billet them.

On Sunday evening, you passed an area of the living room where Tomas was having a private phone conversation with someone; he had his back towards you.

“It has been uneventful so far, Kuai Liang. No threats yet.”

As you didn’t want to eavesdrop, you went about preparing dinner after locking the kitties in your workshop. Again, the miserable meows filled the air.

When the pot of vegetables that you had cooked in a pot filled with vegetable broth and coconut cream started to boil, you pureed the mix with your immersion blender until the pot magically turned a beautiful vibrant orange. You added more salt, sugar, cracked pepper and spices to taste until you had achieved a desired balance.

You then proceeded to make a simple apple salad with a sweet and tart citrus vinaigrette that paired well with a large pork roast that you had in the oven, and then toasted slices of sour dough with the roasted garlic and herb compound butter that you made a few days ago. There was also gravy ready made on the stove. Since it was the fall, you wanted to make something season appropriate.

Once that was done, you set the table and started to bring out the food. While you were doing so, you overheard this:

“There have been no problems with my host so far. I have been properly spoiled with home made meals…………Well, she is nice enough, but she’s too serious. Cagey. I’ve been observing her and my first impression is that she seems uneasy around me, like she’s scared of me!” This was followed by loud laughter by the person on the other line.

You stopped moving and were taken aback.

“………Actually, in fairness to her, I do remember her reaction when I mentioned being……(more laughter on the receiving end)…....no, it’s not funny!.........What?? Since when am I intimidating??.....(……….”yeah, man!”).....I also look too serious? It’s never my intent to…………..Cut it out! I do NOT look like a Russian villain!”

You kept moving and managed to finish setting the table and let slipped a silent stifled giggle. You couldn’t help but wanted to eavesdrop, even though you know you shouldn’t.

“I don’t know how to get her to be more comfortable around me,” Tomas hissed quietly, “…………Oh, really?..............That’s the thing, I’m not, though!” He let out an exasperated sigh, “You know what? I’m hanging up now!”

You decided to hang out in the kitchen and pretended to finish up.

There was a delightful exclamation of “Oooh! This looks amazing!” from where the dining table is.

“What would you like to drink?” You asked from behind the counter, opening the glass.

“Lemonade, please.”

You filled a tall glass with his juice of choice and you settled for a hot apple cider and took the glassed to the table.

“By the way, you don’t have to lock the cats in. I am fine with them roaming around,” he said reassuringly.

“I didn’t want them jumping on the counter while I’m making food, nor do I want them on the table while we’re eating, because, you know? Litter paws. Germs.”

“Fair enough. I feel bad for them, though.”

You began carving the pork roast while Tomas bowed his head and said, “Itadakimasu!”, and then helped himself to the salad and toast. All the while, you gave no indication that you overheard the conversation he was having with Kuai Liang, but in the back of your mind, you were dying to know what they were saying about you.

#tomas vrbada #tomas x reader #mortal kombat #mk1 #harumi hasashi #li mei #li mei mk #mk1 liu kang #liu kang #mk1 tomas vrbada #mk1 smoke #smoke #funny #kuai liang #mk1 kuai liang #scorpion #mk1 scorpion

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gibbearish · 7 months

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it is with a heavy heart that i must announce. the five nights at freddy's movie was really good

sorry for how much of a behemoth this post is im fnaf autism just bear with me also i can't keep my thoughts straight for the life of me so this will be a bumpy ride. as an additional note i got very lucky and had literally 0 spoilers whatsoever for this movie, i haven't even seen the trailer

so first of all: i thought all the changes they made to the plot to make it work for a movie were good decisions, altho some of them did take a minute to actually feel like good changes lmao. once i thought about em a bit more though they made sense.

one of the things i really liked was that they also did include a lot of the things i wanted them to, or more specifically things that you're like "you literally can't have a fnaf movie without these, it just wouldn't be right", like we got mike schmidt, we got fucking VANESSA??? altho she might be in the trailer so that might not be the same reveal for yall as it was for me but still. they heavily alluded to vanny? (altho that's a part i'm kinda sad abt is they didn't /actually/ include vanny, vanessa just makes an offhand comment about how she "wouldn't be much help" if she was around afton and then. comes to help anyways and doesnt have any issues? lame they shouldve had him hypnotise her and then she fought her way out to help mike and abby. or alternatively they couldve used the family restructuring to make vanny be a result of afton giving vanessa osdd-2, like thats kinda functionally what he does with the mask anyways but this would make it more obvious).

also swinging back to changes they made that i liked!! VANESSA AFTON?? like this is the one that took me a while to get used to bc it feels like such a cliche from an outside perspective but it also kind of Super Isn't considering what the original plot is? like all the family restructuring they did makes pretty good sense to me, i do think it loses a bit of the weight having michael be Just Some Guy Whose Brother Happened To Be Kidnapped By Afton Forever Ago and now coincidentally has this weird guy offering him a job as a night guard, but also the og lore. absolutely would not fit into a movie lmao. so i like that they kept the characters everyone wanted around while also rearranging it to keep the spirit of "learning about all of this for the first time through the eyes of a security guard" you get from playing the games. it's fun for people who don't know the lore because it's easy to follow and it's fun for people who /do/ know the lore because they can pull apart all the differences.

oh right back to things they included that i wanted them to. we gotttt chica's cupcake murdering people, we got FUCKING MATPAT? SAYING THE ITS JUST A THEORY LINE? SOUNDING THRILLED OFF HIS ASS TO BE THERE??? i dont like the man and his opinions vis a vis addressing nonbinary characters but. goddamn was that a funny cameo. why couldnt you include markiplier too you fucking cowards. who said that. anyways. oh we kind of tangentially have a canon name for crying child? aka garrett? like idk this one could go either way because like. yeah he's mike's younger brother that died tragically and scarred him for life, makes sense that theyd be the same character in function but also it is technically a different family so who knows.

umm what else. oh this doesnt rlly fall into either category i just really liked it, the intro sequence for all the animatronics? showing what they can /really/ do with the breaking and entering dudes?? that was such a cool sequence i really liked the whole thing honestly. chica being introduced in the kitchen and the dude finding the cupcake then looking back and it's gone? bonnie in the supply closet? foxysprint??? AND FREDDY!! THE BITE!!! in case anyones reading this before watching the movie so they know what to expect: youll know when this moment is coming and if youre watching it at home with friends i HIGHLY recommend having the "was that the bite of 87" clip ready to play right after, they WILL lose their shit. i had it queued up from the very beginning of the movie cause i was like. they can't not include it /somehow/, it's the fnaf movie there has to be A Bite. and sure enough. oh also it's not at the same time but the golden freddy reveal is really good too, they did a good job of setting it up so even if youre already aware of golden freddy conceptually you still go "oh freddy's here? i mean i guess that makes sense he's the leader and all. or wait what happened to his eye why's he only got one? oh. oh i see. ohohohohohohohoho" 100/10. also very funny that they just straight up. MURDER THE AUNT? AND SHE NEVER GETS MENTIONED AGAIN SHE JUST IS DEAD??? the kid isnt like. hey what happened to aunt jane?? i get none of them liked her and with good reason but youd think at least one of em would be like "damn she sucked but she didnt deserve that, rip jane"

oh and the springlocks of course the springlocks. like as soon as we saw aftons name in the cast list we all knew he was gonna get springlocked, it's such a cherished memory for so many of us and there's no way in hell The Fnaf Movie™ wouldnt include afton getting springlocked, they just legally can't leave that out. and they do it pretty well too like yeah if you know what's gonna happen you can see it coming way ahead of time and it's kind of a slow crawl to get there but like. idk i think it still works pretty well. i don't personally like how long the actual springlocking itself took, i think they couldve milked that a little bit less cause i was under the impression that if one springlock failed they All Would Instantaneously And Your Flesh Body Will Become Occupied By A Full Endoskeleton. but no we just get very slow rib beartrap. w/e though still cool and again the leadup to it was really good even knowing exactly how it would end, like just the really slow shuffling of the animatronics towards him? like yeah it's slow and kinda tedious but its also like. theres literally nothing you can do, youre surrounded and defenseless and theyre infinitely faster and stronger than you and now they remember that you killed them. and you just have to sit there and watch them slowly slowly get closer all while trying to talk your way out of it knowing youre fucked. 10/10 they did that part well

oh and that also falls under changes i liked, i liked that instead of "afton tries to escape intangible ghosts by getting into old decrepit suit which then fails and kills him" it was "afton was already in the suit to do murders in and has brainwashed the bots to follow him" wait omg point postponed i just realized that part is from security breach. i thought vanessa was the only thing they brought over from that i didnt even notice that they werent doing the theyre-attacking-all-adults-indiscriminately thing goddamn. omg wait and the fact that the restaurants already closed in this one, it really is just a blend of all the games huh. scott do you see how much more coherent your plot couldve been if there wasnt So much going on. anyways. back to what i was saying. instead of "afton tries to escape intangible ghosts by getting into old decrepit suit which then fails and kills him" it was "afton was already in the suit to do murders in and brainwashed the ghosts into thinking he was their friend so they would help him do murders while possessing the robots. then they get their memories back and the robots turn on him and.. i think deliberately? set off the springlocks, or were just aiming to regular kill him and the springlocks failing was a happy accident? then the robots drag him away as they keep slowly one by one collapsing into him", like the first one made a lot of sense for the game and the timeline and the second one just feels right for this too. it's still his hubris that kills him, still his springlocks, it's just in one version the hubris is "trusting his springlock design to still work after however many years" and in the other its "thinking he has conplete control over the ghosts he killed", plus the ghosts finally get a bit more direct participation in his death than in the other version lol.

one change i did not like. forced het romance. like i dunno i guess im happy for them, both of those characters have certainly earned happy endings by this point so its nice they can get something cutesy. but also. like cmon man it's vanessa and mike do we have to do this she just got stabbed stop holding her hand

oh also this change wasnt really good or bad i just thought it was funny, vanessas a full on cop now? like i get they prolly just dont wanna have two security guards or something but i mean. it wouldve been really easy to just say she was the day shift guard? thatd explain why she had more information on the bots and the place's history than him, why she's always Around, it wouldve even flowed into the vanessa afton reveal pretty well too because like. yeah obviously a guy doing murders would want his main security guard to be someone he trusts and who better than his theoretically brainwashed daughter yknow? as it was she just kinda Showed Up Knowing Stuff And Ignoring Questions and later afton's like "you were supposed to be keeping an eye on him" but like of course Mike was getting dodgy about the weirdo cop loitering nearby for no reason, thats sus as hell lmao. vs "experienced security guard here to show you the ropes" he would have a much easier time trusting that she actually did have his best interests at heart. idk it just seemed like a weird change to me lmao

ummm oh my roommate pointed out the fact that when they tried to springlock abby the suit they were aiming for looked suspiciously like circus baby and abby and baby are anagrams so thats fun. it's hard to tell though if shes intended to be a rework of elizabeth or if vanessa's filling that role now. cause like on the one hand, michael's younger sister whose name is v close to baby, on the other hand, vanessa is afton's daughter. so idk i feel like it could go either way. if abby's elizabeth i guess that negates the thing about garret maybe being crying child's name bc then theyd prolly just be keeping mike's name the same. w/e

oh my god i completely forgot when i was talking about changes to the afton springlock thing, they had him deliberately put his mask on after the other springlocks started releasing and say the "i always come back" line, i thought that was an excellent touch. like he's actively dying a horrific death and is like. no no. im not leaving this bot. this shit is going to suck ass no matter what so i might as well do all i can to ENSURE my soul gets locked in this fuckin thing, go on stab me in the brain lets do this. i will however also say that having him say "i always come back"... before he's even come back the first time? is a little bit weird, i know thats another one of the "we have to include this in the fnaf movie" things so im not mad but just in the moment it def flows a bit weird. like mf you don't even have one example of that yet much less several to be saying "always" about

OH AND THE BIGGEST ONE. THE ANIMATRONICS. theyre so good. like im so glad they went all in on that, i think they probably knew that if there was one single thing they had to get absolutely 100% right to avoid a fan uprising it was those and by god did they deliver, theyre so big and so unsettling and so fun. chica's wink at abby was the best part of the movie no questions asked. or alternatively bonnie falling over after they built the fort. like theyre all just so good. OH MY GOD OR IN CHICA'S INTRODUCTION SEQUENCE WHERE YOU CAN SEE HER JUST. SCOOTING BY THROUGH THE VENT?? THAT WAS THE FUNNIEST THING OF ALL TIME HELLO???

god. but yeah i was honestly expecting it to be a lot worse than it was. also this mike is a bad brother/dad figure. but i guess in the games he also kind of is the pinnacle of bad brother so i mean it couldve been a lot worse. theres definitely some rough parts, i mightve mentioned this already but i felt like a few of the dramatic pause things were a bit too drawn out, like i said the springlocks locking is one good example of that but another that i REALLY found slow was like. in the opening we watch a guy get turbomurdered by the swirly blade mask and it takes. way longer than i feel like was necessary. also unnecessary: a jumpcut a second from scared eyes to swirly blades to hands fumbling and repeating during that. oh another thing that was weird to me, why was mike so insistent on sleeping specifically at night? to the point of deliberately sleeping on the job? like i get he wanted to revisit the kidnapping dream but like. presumably he could dream just as well during the day, no? done his night shift then once it was up rolled out a sleeping bag for a quick powernap before heading home? idk that just felt. forced to me

more random things, i am sad we didnt get a whiff of henry emily (my fringe theory was that their twist to change it from the games was they were gonna make henry be evil, rip to that idea) or the puppet/charlie, and kinda sad they changed the kid possessing golden freddy to be a boy like. we love cassidy and her Undying Rage Towards Afton's Soul smh why would you get rid of her. also loved balloon boy, kinda wish mangle had gotten like a similar level appearance but thats w/e. oh also while i did appreciate the low gore level there were also a few times where it was a bit weird how minor the injuries the dead people had were. like this man just had his face put in a blender mask and he just has like. some forehead gashes or whatever? he should look like someone stirred up jello

anyways with that gross thought i think i am out of things to say about the movie for now. if anyone else watched it already and somehow read all of this blease tell me your thoughts

#the stuff under the cut contains major spoilers so reader beweader #this post is also gonna be rambley as hell so like. strap in #update after finishing it: it is indeed very rambley and also long as hell so see again: reader beweader #fnaf movie spoilers #five nights at freddy's movie spoilers #fnaf spoilers #five nights at freddy's spoilers #fnaf #fnaf movie #my roommate said they heard they were aiming to make 3 moves total and if i had to guess #i would say the other movies will probably hit fnaf 3 and then pizzaria simulator #obviously with some massive changes to the plot regarding timelines and just resolving general world changes #but i do feel like those encapsulate the main big points of afton's arc #aka 1) getting springlocked‚ 2) being springtrap (potentially in fazbear frights and i think that would be a really cool movie #but really the location doesnt really matter so much as the He's Been Woken Up And Is Hunting Someone #and then 3) getting his ass sent to ghost hell by henry. frankly i would be happy if they just ripped his final monologue #straight from the game and didnt even rerecord it it's just so iconic #like id want them to include security breach too somehow but. the timelines gonna get real condensed real fast then #it already would be if they include 3 isnt there like 30 years between aftons death and that one? so the part thats #originally set in 2050????? yeah thatd take some serious rearranging #hmm although i am now in my head thinking of something. abt the location not mattering as long as #springtrap wakes up and hunts someone. what if they did that /in the pizzaplex/ instead of in a horror attraction #or maybe for a horror installation there #idk im just rambling more now but i think thatd be a cool way to combine those parts #oh sorry technically that thing abt afton getting springlocked is technically a spoiler #but i mean come on we all knew that was gonna happen

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personasintro · 2 years

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i kinda see both sides.

Like from Jungkooks pov i see why it wouldnt seem like a big deal - like they did invite their SOs to things when they wouldnt know the rest of the group well. And its an overall nice thing to do, like just introducing friends to more friends.

On the other hand I get Y/N bc when she invited her SO to New Years, she asked beforehand to make sure - jk didnt. Also, it was a bigass cabin so the only thing they needed to make sure of was that everybody got there. For the camping trip, they seem like they have a lot of shit to sort out and then inviting someone last minute without asking first could have to make them rearrange things.

But also, I think Y/N acted the way she did bc jks tone may have seemed hella dismissive and by the time she said some things out of irritation, she realized she couldn’t just back down so she had to keep it up. I do kinda think she didn’t realize she was letting her feelings get to her till the end but I’m not really against it bc last camping trip jk also lowkey threw a tantrum. As long as they talk it out, I’m guessing they’ll be okay enough (and also maybe realize the sex is skewing their feelings for one another)

But also, BRAVO ON THE CHAPTER ITS SO GOOD. I LOVED THE WAY YOU WROTE JUST EVERYTHING, and personally im just itching to be inside jks head the entire chapter. You did it again Mimi 🤍.

Good point! A few, actually! Both of them let their frustration get the best of them, there are wrongs and rights in both sides. Maybe y/n asked if she could take her back then boyfriend to nye trip was because even if she knows the rest of the guys and they could be considered her friends, first of all they’re jk’s. It’s his friends group that she was brought into 🤔 idk if it’s just me but this trip is actually different than the nye one since the cabin is owned by Jin’s family, whereas the whole camping trip is more free (???). I don’t know if that makes sense but it’s simpler because if she wanted to bring someone else, she could just bring an extra tent. If you look at it from this side. But yes, to avoid any misunderstandings it’s better to ask beforehand just in case. Sorry, I’m looking into too much details haha hope I didn’t confuse anyone 😩

Thank you so much ❤️‍🔥🫶

#ask #ask: mutual help

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talenlee · 6 months

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Starting New Habits

I bought a sketchbook yesterday.

Not yesterday when you read this of course, but yesterday for me.

I bought the sketchbook at the Reject Shop. It was not a nice sketchbook. It was not an expensive sketchbook. It doesn’t have a nice cover. It doesn’t have a leather case to keep it in. It’s not like the leather cover my sister got me for my bullet journal. It cost me $3 and its brand name is ‘VISUAL ART DIARY.’

Today, I started drawing in it.

The process of writing in this blog this year has been an ongoing test of writing to a specific word limit. I used to just write whatever ‘felt good,’ and the normal size of a post was where I thought I’d delivered a good amount. I get very little feedback on my writing, but one thing I did get reasonably often was that some articles felt they ended about where they wanted them to keep going, so I set the target of a thousand words a day this year.

I don’t like the idea that I’m padding my work. Hitting 700 or 800 words and thinking I’m out of words makes me look at what I’m doing and check if I’ve missed something I meant to talk about, or if I’m saying something badly and should repivot the whole article to be about something else. There are definitely some outliers – this year has featured numerous articles in the 3,000 plus words size – but keeping to a thousand words keeps me scrutinising my work. I don’t mind that.

It’s that reflecting on myself that plays into why I got this sketchbook, and why I started to draw in it.

I mean, just reflecting on this, I was thinking about my relationship to this blog, the thing that I call doing work. I know that, for example, autoethnography, the kind of research I do, involves essentially, keeping progress diaries that you know will be shared with an audience, but then also, that that sharing with an audience will need to be to trust that it’s honest. That means I’m not just writing for a public audience (of a sorts) but I’m having to do it in a way that resists the natural fear I have of revealing too much of myself.

Just talking about process, this is an article that in my mind, is a padding article. I thought, today, the Desert Bus game jam would be running. My plan for what went up today – oh yeah, that Desert Bus game jam a few weeks ago? But my plan for today was going to be writing my post about making the game I had in mind for the Desert Bus Jam. Time stamp for any of you who might like imagining you know the order I write these things. Today, with that sapped out of me, I just didn’t have anything to write about any more. I rearranged things – I put up an article about orcs, and that means that there’s a week of articles about Magic: The Gathering transformers cards… I guess vehicles fit the bus theme?

I am surrounded by people with very different relationships to their stuff. Some of them are people who own things they never use because they don’t want to use them up or damage them. But if this is a piece of trash sketchbook, not a gift, not a nice thing. It’s just a thing I got under my own power, that doesn’t cost a lot and doesn’t need any kind of special reverent treatment.

The cover on my bullet journal is on my mind because I realise I don’t actually pull that thing out anywhere but at home. It lives on my desk, face-up. I don’t travel with it, I don’t take it to work, and when I took it to work, I didn’t pull it out at work, because it’s got this nice leather cover and the leather cover has a strap and you need to be mindful about it and where it lays. This replaces the little rubber strap the actual book has to start with, which isn’t a serious thing. My sister got me something lovely for my bullet journal, and I don’t dislike it. But having it made my bullet journal something more serious than it is, and that means I use it less for what it is.

Okay, but I got a cheap sketch pad. Why?

I need it to be cheap, so I use it.

I need the way I engage with it to be cheap, so I use it.

I need the thing to be low investment, so I use it.

I need to use it.

I need to draw a lot of bad drawings and I need them to be in something that isn’t precious and if I want to throw it out I can, because the point is not the object, the point is the practice. I need to stop hesitating from doing things because I’m trying to preserve a perfect record that makes me look good. I need to stop caring about how someone else, who isn’t me, is going to feel about how I use the things I get for myself. And it sucks to think like that.

But it matters to me, as a creator and as an advocate for creators, that we all recognise that it’s okay to make things that aren’t permanent. That nothing I make will last. That what matters is the experience of it and what I can share. Save things for use later, don’t save them for the ideal of saving them forever. Waiting forever is how things live their lives unused and eventually fall apart from the weight of time itself. It’s a great way to have a bookshelf full of tomes you never get around to read for fear of cracked spines. It’s okay instead to have junk and trash and make what you can with it because the interface of your tools is important to how you can emotionally handle creating.

It needs to make you feel okay to do what you’re doing. I know some of you need fancy sketchbooks to feel like what you’re doing is serious. I’m not telling you how to live your lives. I’m telling you how I live mine. And I started this sketchbook, making this.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

#Diary #Making

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skylights422 · 1 year

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Granda Holmes "The Naval Treaty" Mini Analysis

(Cross-posted on Dreamwidth)

Having recently been reconsumed by my old Sherlock Holmes obsession, I have been enjoying rewatching (and in a few cases, watching for the first time) the 1984 television adaptation of the story, typically referred to as 'Granada Holmes'. The third episode of the series, "The Naval Treaty", is a good episode in general. But one curiosity about it is that Holmes spends most of the episode seeming quietly Bothered by something, and it is also this episode that gives us the infamous Rose Speech - right in the middle of a client interview, which is entirely odd behavior for Holmes and seemingly spurred on by...nothing in particular. The episode itself offers no direct answer to these things, so, with my last rewatch, I made a point to keep my analysis goggles on and see if I could come up with a possible solution.

The case itself doesn't have anything about it that would obviously agitate our titular detective (there are other episodes where that's the case, and it's a lot more out in the open) - it's just a mystery revolving around how some government papers got stolen in an unusual way and trying to find where they could have gone. But there are two other points in the episode that I believe to be the culprit of The Moods:

This episode has Holmes mention twice Watson's medical practice as something that might prevent him from wanting to join him (Holmes) on cases. The first time is openly testy ("Oh, if your cases are more interesting than mine >:/"), while the second time is during a more quiet, melancholy moment. Watson had noticed Holmes being Bothered as well, and asked him if was alright. Holmes initially shrugged it off, but then made some comment about wanting Watson to come with him the next day to investigate if it won't keep him from his 'legitimate work'. There's some carry-over or call-back to the testy tone from earlier, but the actual mood has a lot less bite and is followed by a more earnest request.

The client in this episode is specifically an old friend of Watson's (not sure when they became friends though lol since Watson says he bullied the guy at school, but they only seem to hold affection for each other at present)

Now, one of the interesting things about Granada Canon, is that despite mostly trying to be as faithful to the original stories as possible, they chose to entirely write out Watson marrying, and significantly rearranged the order of the cases. The result of this is that in many of the stories where Watson, in the books, is visiting or returning from time spent with his wife, instead sees him coming back from working at his medical practice or simply a vacation. I could be wrong, but in the books I don't think Watson having a practice ever overlapped with him living with Holmes, so in Granada we get to see a little bit of what that dynamic looks like.

And in this episode, I think we see that it is a matter of some tension and insecurity, at least on Holmes' part. And I think it's because, for Holmes, the cases are his career, his passion. His professional title is Consulting Detective. And also notably, it's a job he invented, not one general society tends to understand or take seriously until they see how he works and how well he does get results. Watson, on the other hand, is a practicing medical doctor - a traditionally respected position and something that frankly should be a full time job. He never takes on any kind of title in relation to the work he does with Holmes, even though he works nearly every case with him. Holmes refers to Watson sometimes as his biographer since Watson always writes up their cases, but I can't recall at present anyways a time where Watson referred to himself as such (the closest you get is that Holmes always introduces Watson as a 'colleague', which Watson does call himself once as well, which is fairly ambiguous).

And while Holmes obviously cares about the work a lot on its own merit, he makes it clear many times in the show that having Watson accompany him makes a significant difference to him, and he clearly prefers it. This is only episode 3 of the series, but in episode 1 we had him insisting Watson join him for the case and telling his client adamantly that he'd work with both of them or neither of them, and in the second episode, we see Holmes low-key mentoring Watson in the craft of deduction; and now we see him being incredibly moody at the fact that Watson has another profession. So, I think he fears that Watson sees the cases as just a fun hobby, and isn't nearly as passionate about them (or about working together) as he is, since functionally there's not a 'reason' for him to work on the cases other than just Wanting To.

This case's client being an old friend of Watson's I think sort of passively exacerbates this insecurity. For a decent chunk of the time they know each other, Holmes considers Watson his only friend. And while Watson doesn't seem to have many close friends either, he nevertheless is the more social of the two and does have old contacts he's still fond of, and I think for Holmes it was just another reminder that Watson could, from his perspective, easily have a normal, respectable life without him at all. And for all that Holmes carries himself with great confidence, there often seems to be an underlying anxiety when it comes to his requests that Watson accompany him, so I think he worries Watson will lose interest in him eventually and want a more 'normal' life (which, there's even more evidence of that in the books, but I think in the show it's definitely still there).

In general, I feel like there's a lot to say about how Holmes and Watson sort of juggle the merging of their professional and personal lives together in Granada especially, but that would probably turn into a whole other essay. xD Case in point, though, I believe that was at the root of Holmes' moodiness this episode. And it would explain why it stays so understated unlike other times things bother him; there really wasn't anything actionable he could about it, it was just this persistent anxiety/melancholy. Because in the episode, Watson is working the case with him, he is being attentive, and Holmes doesn't have any real personal issues with Watson's other friend. So, Holmes keeps it mostly to himself, as much as I would have loved a more direct follow up on it at some point.

(The Rose Speech, placement wise then, I think was that since the interview with the client had mostly come to a close, there wasn't any other immediate distraction, and so in his more emotional mood, he fixated on the rose and philosophy. There's probably more analysis to be drawn from the exact content of his speech in the context of the episode, but that also would be a whole other essay. xD Maybe a little bit of a reach, but it's sort of neat also though that he'd specifically go to a flower while feeling insecure about his friendship with Watson, since Granada Canon especially emphasizes that Holmes generally dislikes nature/the countryside while Watson is a fan. In the book as well Watson specifically mentions the little aside being odd since Holmes normally never showed interest in 'natural things'.)

#sherlock holmes #granada holmes #granada holmes meta #sherlock holmes meta #the naval treaty

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