#i love when doctor who is about space capitalism <3
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space capitalism.
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I have to know what nut allergy means 🤲🏻
god i had forgotten about this one til u tagged me💀i got the idea cos of some tiktok someone made about putting ghost pepper in their food to catch whichever coworker was stealing their food and ppl in the notes were freaking out cos "wHAt iF sOMeOnE iS ALlErGiC" me and my friend luke were like "god how funny would it be if you just went in someone's fridge drank all their milk and shit yourself cos ur lactose intolerant and then blame them for trying to poison u that logic is so crazy...what if it was a destiel au"
it's really just a silly hospital au i never got around to finishing it's cringy and basic but it's funny to me so i kept it
so cas is a doctor ofc i have to reward dean somehow.
he's neurosurgeon because i did watch grey's anatomy and dr. sexy being a parody of derek shepherd who's played by patrick dempsey who also played a guy named cass who was in a polyamory with jensen ackle's character and marilyn monroe. i had to put it in
i couldnt decide if i wanted dean to be a doctor too or a nurse but i know i wanted him in peds
basically it's one sided enemies to lovers with dean having beef with cas for no reason (he's hot and this frustrates dean to no end). meanwhile cas has a crush bigger than texas on that man
maybe a competitive aspect too like derek and burke had but less animosity. i try to lean into the soap opera aspect of it as if they're in a medical drama more than a REAL HOSPITAL because it's easier than doing extensive research <3
so maybe dean is a bit more of an asshole to cas than strictly necessary and no one else gets why. cas essentially gives up on trying to have a normal conversation w/dean and thinks he really hates him so he settles to only talk to him in a professional capacity so he wont encroach on his space more than he has to
dean takes this personally. i love misunderstandings
etc etc it comes to a head when maybe something happens that really sets dean off about cas (i haven't figured what yet) and so to get back at him he nabs a cookie from his lunch (cas already established that anyone can indulge in them but dean missed the memo ig)
anyways ruh roh! his dumbass is allergic to one of the ingredients cos it came into contact with walnuts or smth idk
dean's embarrassed as hell and cas finds him all swollen and fucked up and i haven't gotten past this part but yeah i just wanted cas to stab dean with an epi-pen really
overall very mid and silly and dumb but here's an excerpt anyway:
The neurosurgeon is, in Dean's humble (but also right) opinion, the only one worthy of the term Asshole around here, with a capital A.
Well, not the only one. But still.
And it's not like Dean didn't try to get to know him! New doctor shows up, windswept hair tousled to perfection, lab coat flaring behind him like some sort of superhero, gaze focused and intense, and eyes so so blue-
Ahem. Of course Dean is going to be intrigued he's a human being! It's not like Castiel was interested anyway. Barely said three words to Dean before rushing off somewhere else, probably to bless some other coworker with his angelic ass sculpted by god. Dean tried a few times after that and still ended up with nothing more than stilted small talk. Dude made talking to a brick wall seem like a cake walk.
There was always something going on that had to cut their conversations short, and Dean thought Cas was just a shy guy at first, nothing wrong with that. But he's seen Dr. Novak easily chat with other staff for longer than two (painfully awkward) minutes. Especially Masters. God that snake just loves to hang off Novak, like that's her job instead of being a damn nurse. Even Balthazar, their own personal sleazeball of an anesthesiologist, allegedly manages to drag the uptight doctor out from time to time.
Not that Dean has been stalking them or anything. He just heard it through the grapevine like every other godforsaken rumor at this high school of a hospital. And if the grapevine happened to just be Balthazar himself bragging about their nights out in the breakroom, well that's Dean's business.
"I still say you need to give him a chance, Dean," his mammoth of a brother insisted, brushing his mane out of his face. Seriously, dude, just get a haircut. "I don't get what your problem with him is. Castiel is great! A little awkward maybe, but it really adds to his charm." Dean rolls his eyes.
"Sammy, you do realize you sound like you're trying to get me to adopt a dog that's about to be sent to the pound? It didn't work when you were eight and it won't work now. And, for your information, I've given Cas plenty of chances to talk to me. He's the one with the issue. You should be selling him all this kumbaya bullshit. And don't you have some lawsuits to prevent?"
It's Sam's turn to roll his eyes. "Whatever, Dean. If you gave up on talking to him then why the hell do you call him by a nickname?" With another flip of his mop, his brother left Dean spluttering for a reasonable answer. Which there is, of course. But Sam's long gone by the time he manages a weak "Castiel is a mouthful, okay?"
"I'll say," came an annoyingly sultry voice from behind. Without turning Dean lets out a sigh. "Can I help you, Masters?" He asks flatly, already resigning himself to an unpleasant encounter. "Oh, don't be like that, Dean," God, he can practically hear the obnoxious pout he knows she's wearing right now. "I thought we could bond over what a mouthful Clarence is!" That has him spinning around.
meg is cas' bestie she can't understand why he's hung up on dean but she supports his terrible terrible taste. and if she can manage to convince dean they're fucking in the meantime well. god forbid women do anything
the reason sam seems so invested is cos the hospital has a betting pool over if these 2 get together and when. bros tryna make bank
#asks!!#wip#supernatural#destiel#it's soooooo dumb but sometimes a fic is junk food#dean deserves to have his doctor kink well and truly fulfilled#also the patrick dempsey lore actually kills me like every time i think about i cannot believe how it's all connected...#jensen ackles poly relationship with marilyn monroe and guy named cass in blonde. years pass#dempsey moves to grey's anatomy while ackles goes on to spn both airing in 2005.#dean is secretly into a show clearly parodying grey's anatomy. dr. sexy is definitely based off of dempsey's mcdreamy and is dean's fav#s4 of spn castiel is introduced. dean calls him cas.#14x12 has cas dressed as a doctor. 15x15 has cas talking to a pastor that played dr. sexy who tells him being gay is cool. what the fuck.
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psst hi I am a huge fan of sstl, like it's probably the greatest fiction experience I've ever experienced, but I've never listened to any other works like it! would you recommend other works Ishani's been part of, or do you have any recommendations in general for, I guess, narrative fiction audio?
Oh for sure. Idk what exactly made you pick up ssttl or what about it struck a chord so for now I'm only gonna throw like 3 or 4 things out here based on vibe or plot similarities to ssttl and my personal preferences. If you wanna tell me more about what you're into I can try give you a wider range of recs.
First up, The Strange Case of Starship Iris.
If you picked up ssttl because it's sci-fi with lead characters of colour and queer rep, or because of how its futuristic in a way that feels believably fucked over by capitalism and yet still has a gentleness and hopefulness to it, or because you like character driven narrative then for sure give this a try.
It's also the reason I knew Ishani Kanetkar's name and knowing her name is why I immediately moved ssttl to the top of my "to listen to" list. The shows concept was cool enough to grab my attention but reading Ishani Kanetkar was in the leading role made me give it immediately. I haven't listened to all of the good doctor's work but I have noticed two things: 1, she is a fantastic VA. And 2, projects she's had a significant role in usually have a really cool concept behind them. She either has fantastic tastes, incredible luck, or both. Obviously read descriptions and see if something is to your taste before listening but like, no reason not to look up her other work and use it as a launch pad.
Back the tscosi rec. The story begins by following the harrowing day of biologist Violet Liu as her research vessel falls apart around her after an explosion. Against all odds someone is there to rescue her, captain Kay Grisham picks up her distress call, and the rescue comences. The rest of the season follows the fall out of that tragic explosion and heroic rescue.
The show is ongoing, currently has 2 complete seasons out with a 3rd (and I believe final) season to come.
Rec 2: Girl In Space
A funny and resourceful scientist lady, living alone in space, talking to her recorder logs and her ships glitchy AI (who may or may not have or be developing sentience), and one day being very surprised when suddenly she has a human person to talk to instead. Sound familiar?
The plot is actually very different though. Our girl X lives on a space station that can never return home and her whole existence is as much of a mystery as what exactly her mission is supposed to be. The soundscaping on this show combined with Sarah Rhea Werner's (and the rest of the casts) acting is absolutely amazing.
There is currently 1 season fully released and the second season is apparently due out this year. In reccing this I may have accidentally begun a relisten.
Rec 3: Wolf 359
This one is actually complete if that means anything to you. Figured I'd drop one in since the other two have been ongoing. Its a big one, over 60 episodes plus a ton of bonus episodes.
Wolf 359 follows the crew of the u.s.s haphaestus an isolated little research vessel orbiting a star designated Wolf 359. It starts out goofy and like there isn't gonna be much plot, this is a cunning ruse to lull you into a false sense of security before hurtling you into an emotional roller coaster that will make you fear for, cry for, laugh with, and grow to love the rag tag crew. The characters are very compelling in that they are allowed to be flawed, some to the point that they are unlikeable, but in that good way that means you're connected with the story and wanna see them get their comeuppance, not that they're badly written and make you wanna stop listening kinda way.
Also like half the cast is voiced by the writer Zach Valenti, and even telling you that, if you check the show out there are gonna be episodes where if you hear the credits list and go "wait, he was that many people!?" Amazing VA abilities.
Rec the fourth, The Penumbra Podcast.
TTP has two story lines and you can listen to one without ever touching the other but Imma rec both here because there is a reason this podcast as a whole makes so many rec lists for anyone looking to get into audiodrama series. Both storylines have very different vibes and approaches, but both deal overall subtly deal with what it is like growing as a person, how rewarding it can be, but also acknowledging how fucking hard that can be.
Story line one, the Juno Steel universe, aka the Junoverse. This is a sci-fi story with a film-noir aesthetic. It follows the titular, character private detective Juno Steel a dame with a chip on his shoulder nearly as deep as a skyscraper is tall, and the cases they take in Hyperion City, a mega colony on a futuristic Mars. There is an overarching plot even as we go from case to case until eventually we move beyond that format.
The second story line is Tales from the Second Citadel. Set in a post apocalyptic high fantasy setting, the Second Citadel. This story follows the intersecting tales of several of the kingdoms knights (and a few not knights too). One of the knights will sound very familiar, Sir Damien voiced by Matthew Zahnzinger who also voices Mikail Reza in ssttl. In a truly hilarious turn of events Sir Damien also has a life changing (romantic) encounter with a scale covered non human entity.
Both story lines are highly character driven and contain a lot of heart. They also both feature a cast that is diverse in terms of race, sexuality, and gender.
As I said if you tell me more about what you liked about ssttl or why you chose to listen to it I'd be happy to give some more refined recs. All of these save for the second citadel portion of tpp involve space stuff but if you're open to more supernatural or just more terrestrial sci fi I definitely have more options you could consider.
If you ever wanna shout about ssttl or any of these shows if you end up listening to any well then you know where to find me.
Oh left field bonus rec because I just got a note about a post I made about it, Where the Stars Fell.
Unkillable lady scientist specialising in cryptid studies moves to the strange little town of Jerusalem Oregon. Becomes roommates with a reclusive author. They get along much like oil and water, it is all very gay.
I am typically a little turned off by shows with so many religious references but this one manages to be religious in the way that Good Omens is religious. That is, it's not preaching religion, its just using characters and concepts people may be familiar with from Christianity and using them to tell a funky little supernatural story with naturally high stakes grounded by very human characters. (human in the sense that they are emotional and flawed and brilliant).
It just finished its first season a couple of month ago so everyone is waiting for season 2, myself included.
#chirping wren#podcasts#audio dramas#hope at least one of these becomes a good listening experience for ya anon#cannot reiterate enough that you're welcome to come yell about any or all of them here plus any other cool ones you find yourself#ssttl#tscosi#girl in space#wolf 359#the penumbra podcast#wtsf
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3, 4, 5, 7, 8 for the dw ask!! you dont have to do all of em i just like options :]
Thanks for the ask!
3. What’s your least-favorite moment with your favorite doctor? Ah yes, favourite Doctor. The ubiquitous question in the fandom that is nevertheless rather hard to answer. Because making choices is hard, I'm going to refer to both the Fourth (my first Doctor, and the one who I usually mention in response to this question) and the Eighth (lives in my head rent-free at all times) Doctors as my favourite. With that being said, it is hard to recall a really unpleasant moment with the Fourth Doctor, besides some uncomfortable moments in I believe Talons of Weng-Chiang regarding imperialism. The Eighth Doctor moment that I really dislike is when he's being outright mean to Charley in Scherzo. I love Scherzo to bits, but I don't enjoy listening to the Doctor when he's like that.
4. Who’s wardrobe would you steal? Early Eight. His scruffy Edwardian gentleman vibes are excellent. I'm definitely a big fan of velvet coats and lots of pockets. I think the Doctors all have excellent fashion sense, although I don't have the confidence to pull off some of them.
5. If you had to take the form of one non-humanoid alien permanently, which one would you chose? This is probably a copout answer, but Whifferdill. Whifferdills are shapeshifters who appear mostly in the comics. Frobisher, the Sixth Doctor's companion, spends his time LARPing as a talking penguin.
7. Which doctor is not necessarily your favorite but is the doctor you’d most like to travel with or the doctor you think you’d get along the best with? I think Series 10 Twelve would be fun. We could dismantle capitalism together. I also like the relatively chill relationship he has with Missy. The two of them would be fun to hang out with.
8. Which villain actually scares you the most? The recurring Doctor Who villains usually aren't that scary, but the Cybermen in Spare Parts are. I can't recommend that audio enough. The only times I can recall being properly scared while watching Doctor Who are as a child watching a couple of Classic stories. Eldrad Hand of Fear isn't particularly frightening himself, but the threat of nuclear meltdown definitely is. Wirrn Ark in Space is pretty scary conceptually (giant space insect eats you from the inside out while you go feral and kill your friends), but the Wirrn is made out of bubble wrap. Classic Who my beloved. There's probably a couple of audios I'm forgetting. Big Finish is a bit better at doing scary stuff, since they don't have as many restrictions and aren't bogged down by silly effects. Hmm. Horror in Doctor Who might be an interesting topic to write more about.
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i rewatched the episode of doctor who where i got my pfp from and the rest of season 1 (mostly) and oh my god. oh my god they did her so dirty. readmore so people don’t have to listen to my EXTREMELY LONG rant about why I hate the new era because if you enjoy it please don’t let me stop you lmao
prefacing this with “I hope season 2 is better” but
I can’t believe the first female doctor has to deal with shitty chris chibnall writing including the most ooc, centrist takes and a middle aged white man taking all the good moments. why did they pick an ensemble cast if they don’t know how to write an ensemble cast.
doctor who has done it just fine before!! I mean, the end of season 1 had that lovely run of episodes with a triad two companions + one very good episode with 3 (boomtown!), and much of 11′s run had 2 companions, and they added River Song to the mix and pulled it off (I mean, debatably, but none of the characters were shafted), and hell even 12 and Bill and Nardole with bonus Missy was 3 companions done well. Or in 10′s run, the eps where all the companions met up. Or the episode with Rose & Sarah Jane & K-9, if you count K-9 as a companion.
But no they had to do it poorly for Jodie Whittaker. I’m sorry but after watching season 1, I couldn’t tell you what Ryan’s personality is besides “I’m only disabled when the writers remember me but I don’t let that stop me” and “I’m bad with kids.” Or what Yaz’s personality is besides “caring and not like other cops.” I don’t need to ask that question for Graham, because it feels more like his show than the Doctor’s.
It feels like all the focus is on Graham’s plotline, and on the monster of the week. I don’t care about Graham. And I don’t care about the monster of the week. I care about the Doctor, and interpersonal relationships between companions + the Doctor. I’m getting none of that. No little moments between the Doctor and anybody. I really, really want to like the companions- I’ve liked every other companion, to varying degrees- but I just don’t know 13′s companions.
And I could go into detail about why the Doctor is out of character.
And I will! I will go into detail!
Why did they make her centrist! Kerblam fucking sucked! So much for “Sleep no more” and “Oxygen” and all the other subtle and not-so-subtle critiques of capitalism. No, space Amazon is great and the systems aren’t an issue! Capitalism wins yet again!
Also, the episode Rosa was like, critically acclaimed, but it gives no agency to the character it’s about. They hold her damn hand like she’s a butterfly they can’t step on when time has rarely been that fragile. Shakespeare and Dickens were fine learning about all manner of extraterrestrial things, but Rosa Parks can’t know a racist from the future came to stop progress?
Can we talk about the Doctor going from punching a racist out of rage to barely reacting when people are racist as hell to two of her companions. And why the hell did she not just zap the future-racist into the future? I cannot see the Doctor in previous seasons just letting him do things??
And I’m sorry, I get that the Doctor is a pacifist, but seeing a giant spider suffocating to death and not wanting it to be mercy killed? After 11 almost lobotomizing a star whale, after 12 giving Clara the choice to kill the moon baby or Bill the choice to kill the thing in the thames? No.
It’s like Chibnall read the “rules” of the Doctor (no guns, etc.) and didn’t think about the reasons behind them. She doesn’t like guns because she’s a soldier with fucking PTSD you dingus, and she doesn’t want to become cruel or cowardly. Letting something die slowly is fucking cruel.
Outside of my hatred for their misunderstanding of her pacifism. Oh my god, sorry, but the gang’s reasoning for wanting to join up- Graham was like “I’m running from my grief” and she didn’t even question it. Why would she not give ANY pushback?? She knows grief, she knows how bad it is to bottle it up and not feel it. Why would she enable his unhealthy coping mechanisms when she’s clearly capable of recognizing them as unhealthy?
With Yaz & Ryan and Graham, I feel like each of their personal lives just gets a one-off episode instead of being continually references. Demons of the Punjab for Yaz, Resolution for Ryan. Every episode for Graham actually, he’s the only one in the whole series who gets the consideration of being a real character. I’m mad at him because of that.
My god I hope Doctor Who feels like Doctor Who again when RTD comes back
#doctor who#i did miss writing things in the tags#it's a good system. it's underrated#i left tumblr but where else am i going to post fandom rants#i want to eat chris chibnall. in fact i am going to.
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rereading hall of shame (and easter eggs)
"the" damwon guild (skull emoji)
scout "resets" on the rift. i'm 99% sure that was supposed to be "rests". haha funny reset joke though
"Even if the sensors somehow missed it, I would have." this kind of works in context but it sounds fucking goofy
"I hated the idea of being like Viper, screaming myself awake every night." but he doesnt,,,,,,,,, he doesnt sleep at,,,,,,,,,, [look. i hadn't figured out Viper's Deal back then.]
"even Viper has a tear trailing down his cheek" dude... viper rly was supposed to be this stoic ass motherfucker wasn't he... and now he just has Trauma lmfao crazy how the world works
"Scout does the math on his fingers. “I think that checks out.”" DUDE THATS LIKE 10 APHELIOSES (wait actually i think this was an intentional reference bc i did the calculation on how much of an aphelios that was)
keria picks up guma's call with his words slurred from sleep or something but then he later says he was still awake?? cant tell if this is a consistency thing
“It’s telling me that 2022 is our year,” no,,,,, no it is not,,,,,
noctum is not black. it's silvery blue. thank u aryasage for finding my clownery as usual. listen,,, it's a METAPHOR GUYS,,,,, YEAH,,, PLANNED
"I dropped out of high school, so give me a break." so did faker jojo you ain't special
"“Holy fuck,” Razork says the second he finishes. Danny’s heart skips a beat as he waits for him to finish. The jungler runs his hand through his hair again. “That’s exactly what I was thinking of.”" there's an alternate scene where he says "that's exactly not what i was thinking of" or something, the more u know
Humanoid's TF ult cooldown will become a bit of an aneurysm causer for me later down the line.
I was gonna do regional differences (with koreans saying "void wastes" and north americans saying "void wilds") but I forgot about that so
in giafbot, there's a line where the only thing on it is the letter i and a quotation mark. and a period. i hate it.
I."
"his body wreathed in shadows as he flies through the halls" fucking coward say he's flying through the walls
how fast did they get the fucking statues for the tsm memorial? that shit takes time! unless they had them sitting around Just in Case???
when texting guma, oner capitalizes faker's name but not keria's, and that is OUT OF CHARACTER ASF. NO WAY HE CAPITALIZES FAKER
grounded guma is allowed to have zeus as a chaperone. imagine asking someone younger than you to chaperone you just to get food
guma: hates damwon for losing msi and worlds 2-3
also guma: does the same thing [PAIN]
"That was supposed to be me, Gumayusi finally manages to think above the noise." faker has to think this about keria getting skewered too!
"“What were you thinking?” He squawks," u fool. u absolute buffoon. u do not capitalize that h.
btw sboualh's on-crack summary style is incredible i love it (pats own back)
"despite being fired by someone who has a grand total of half an arm" this is projection
"(btw remember when i said it wasn't T1's year?? guma and keria heard me talking shit)" [PAIN]
the fact I did actual MATH to come up with guma's score... couldn't tell you what it was though
...so did I not have a consistent way of indicating people were talking through their communicators? k great I hate it
I fucking forgot that TSM and DIG headquarters are next to each other didn't I
spica and bjergsen were really about to break the summoner's code just to kill neo for disrespecting their bro
why are there weird spaces between italics and stuff I hate that
referring to spica as ming confused the shit out of me because yes that's his name but also like. rng ming exists. my brain nearly exploded on that reread.
the tone shift in chapter 2 of eticmealloyr kills me,,, we're doing this quiet night reflection and then BOOM IMPACT SHATTERING TACTICALS LEG
"But Biofrost spent way too long expecting to be a doctor to not at least learn a bit of healing magic." IS THIS A FUCKING ASIAN UPBRINGING JOKE I CANTTT
spica's interaction with bb is the same as meiko's with viper and im gonna die mad about that
I DID A DOUBLE SPACE NAH
I almost asked why the TSM squad had to walk out to the teleportation circle instead of driving before I remembered spica's tweets as he learned to drive...
spica's beliefs about death are very asian but idk if that makes sense in-universe
I say a whole army of Summoners attends perkz's wedding but i made the guest list and boy was that an exaggeration
...danny should not be fighting rn
DOUBLE PERIOD WHEN CAT MEIKO IS HOLDING ON,,, I HATE THIS TOWN
why the fuck did I hyphenate mid-laner only once
does faker laugh at berserker being humble because he's used to having the cockiest ad carry in the world...
I like how I capitalize JackeyLove's name right but not Showmaker's. It's not happening. I do what I want. For example I capitalize BeryL properly because the man is a massive L
doublelift rly had to be SOOOO VAGUE
....showmaker's R cooldown is even shorter than humanoid's holy shit (then again he's a world champion so it's fine guys haha it's fiiiine)
"What's with this guy and answering questions with more questions." That should be a question mark... unless it's a bad haha funnie about purposefully NOT making it a question???
I'm pretty sure both meiko and spica have questioned viper's pronoun game with the same phrase. haha parallels guys! haha yeah!
when healing deft, keria tells him to stfu like twice in one minute
deokdam inviting viper to the festival sounds... sus.
I had to do it to make it seem serious, but it doesn't change the fact that ale types in complete sentences for the emergency alert
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The Next Generation
Just how gay are they?
PICARD
PROPERTY OF Q <3 - He and Q desperately need to bang. In TNG he made the prime directive into his own personal god complex, so he needs to get topped by an omnipotent being to get put in his place. Also every woman he dated deserved better.
RIKER
DOWN TO 'BONE - I don't think it's possible to be straight after wearing this outfit. And Riker is just overall so horny that I don't think he cares about gender. Him and Deanna are canonically polyamorous, so I think he'd make sure that other men were involved in some of their Jamaharon. Also I think Troi/Worf/Riker would've been a solid throuple.
DATA
THEATRIC GAY - If he wasn't gay before he started performing Shakespeare and his cat poetry, he definitely was after. And his het relationships went very poorly; the only woman he slept with was a lesbian. Besides, him and Geordi are clearly and tenderly in LOVE.
WORF
BLOOD BROTHER - Very strong evidence for bisexual. He has the tendency for the warriors bond, which is such a classic homoerotic theme. And I mean, he had a bisexual bob for YEARS. Plus - no straight person could ever be capable of marrying Jadzia.
GEORDI
DATASEXUAL - Disaster gay. His romantic interactions with women are a stone cold atrocity. He was just trying not to think about his feelings for Data. The costume designer made that visor specifically so we couldn't see Geordi making eyes at his android boyfriend in every scene.
CRUSHER
DOCTOR FEMME - Her romantic history reeks of a woman who can't accept how gay she is yet. She only dates dudes if they are weird fucked up aliens. The way she just SHUT DOWN after Odan was transferred to a Trill woman, and the tension she had with that dyke doctor that fixed Worfs spine...babe that's internalized homophobia. And remember this leotard stretching scene?? Case closed.
TROI
(using that same scene bc jesus christ)
STRETCHES BOTH WAYS - Like I said with Riker, she's definitely polyam. Her and Tasha were *this* close to kissing in the Naked Now. Plus with her mommy issues, she didn't have a chance of being straight. And that aforementioned leotard scene?? Her flowy dress uniform?? What a bisexual goddess.
WESLEY
GAY SWEATER-CURIOUS - He absolutely had a crush on Geordi and Data at one point bc he didn't hang out with other kids. But then he went to the academy and started crushing on the other boys in Nova Squadron. And when he just up and left everything to go beyond space and time with some guy in a silver jumpsuit??? Queer with a capital Q. (And don't forget how he shared one of his gay little sweaters with a fellow cadet ;))
TASHA
LESBIONIC - An honorable mention, since she was there for such a short time. What a wonderful little lesbian, so sad we were only graced with her beautiful face for 1 season. She was the only one to pull off that early TNG jumpsuit, and that's gay.
GUINAN
DIVINE ENTITY - She is God and therefore her being is beyond any mortal comprehension.
(But yeah she's kissed a lady).
#i rediscovered this post typed in notes on ny phone#past spencer was touched by gods divination apparently#its time to spread the good word#st tng#the next generation#star trek#picard#deanna troi#william riker#data#geordi la forge#beverly crusher#tasha yar#guinan#worf#wesley crusher
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I got seven different asks about the College AU so here are some headcanons I have about them! (imagine aiura is in the picture I couldn’t find a good one with all of them)
I definitely didn’t mean to make this so long but I can’t help it I love them all so much<3
~~~~~~~~♡~~~~~~~~~~♡~~~~~~~~~~♡~~~~~~~~
Saiki Kusuo
→ marine!!!biology!!!major!!!!!!!!
→ doesn’t need to study but he still does bc he finds marine life so fascinating
→ read all of his textbooks on the first day bc he was so excited eeeek
→ always wears his germanium ring in class so he can stay hashtag focused
→ him and aiura have to bail toritsuka(didn’t go to college) out of jail once a month
→ speaking of aiura, she somehow has convinced him to go on a date on five different occasions
→ i think after high-school he realised he didn’t mind a kind of casual not-relationship with her
→ lets her hug him to greet him and sometimes he hugs back bc college boys stare a lot and he is just worried for her okay?
→ maybe I’m just projecting bc I kin aiura
→ does not go to parties unless he absolutely has to
→ if he does go to a party he’ll drink something quietly in a corner, just watching the crowd
→ a perv laced Teruhashi’s drink and almost lured her up the stairs so of fucking course Kusuo sprinted to help her, holding her on the way home bc men are drawn to her like bees to honey
→ she didn’t let him live it down ever
→ he rented a studio apartment and keeps it super clean, minimum clutter but enough to look lived in
→ cooks amazing food that Nendo smells from upstairs and next thing you know, they’re all bringing chairs to Kusuo’s apartment and have dinner
→ nothing excuses the fact he makes at least eight servings every time–
→ such a dad to everyone honestly
→ usually studies at a library or teleports back home if there’s a big test
→ mrs. saiki was banned from visiting every two days but she still ends up there somehow
→ not that he minds bc he’s the biggest mama’s boy ever
→ probably graduates a year early
→ doesn’t move away even though he got a job at the aquarium at the other side of the city help–
Kaidou Shun
→ fine arts major you can NOT change my mind
→ doesn’t do good in theoretical subjects but mans can draw some good bowls of fruit
→ wears those stained from the paints t-shirts all the time bc ‘no they’re not dirty it’s art!’
→ him and aren have small designated spaces in their apartment so they can focus on their hobbies/studying
→ his corner at the living room has newspapers on the floor to protect it from the splattering paint, some canvases propped up on the wall and a lot of unfinished projects
→ hides all of them when Nendou comes over
→ can not cook or clean to save his life
→ so he calls his mum to help clean up when Aren is at work
→ got over his 8th grader syndrome at some point
→ still wears red bandages bc he’s edgy
→ volunteers at the neighborhood exhibit centre
→ got asked to showcase his own works for a night and hasn’t shut up about it since
→ goes to yumehara for relationship advice and braids her hair as a thank you
→ couples sleepovers with Yumehara and Teruhashi (yes they’re dating shut up)
→ always makes something for Aren at special occasions (birthdays, anniversaries etc)
→ at first he went back home every saturday bc he missed his family :(
→ Aren helps him get over it though!!!!
Nendou Riki
→ got in on a sports scholarship
→ we already know he couldn’t be accepted in a college otherwise
→ in the chiropractic major bc he wants to be one of those athlete doctors
→ has failed way too many exams and classes
→ Hairo helps him so much though!!!
→ the last one in the group to graduate but somehow gets a job first (excluding Saiki)
→ him and hairo get up at 5 am for jogging or to hit the gym
→ and then he goes and gets noodles bc ‘if noodles aren’t for breakfast why do shops open at 6 am?’
→ hasn’t stepped foot in class in months
→ he gets decent grades after failing the first semester and it’s totally not Saiki’s doing
→ he ends up signing up for way too many clubs
→ attends all of the meetings and has so many friends through them
→ I would be his friend too in college honestly
→ a fraternity wanted to get him bc he’s so good at sports
→ he declined bc he does not understand how fraternities even work
→ is the life of EVERY SINGLE PARTY change my mind you can’t
→ whatever you do don’t imagine nendo surprising his boyfriend with flowers after every practice
→ *dies cutely*
Kuboyasu Aren
→ SOCIOLOGY MAJOR
→ idk I just think he would enjoy Marx’s Capital
→ debate club? hell yeah
→ gets in philosophical conversations at the school yard for HOURS
→ kaidou has to drag him away
→ only shops at thrift stores and makes coffee at home bc “capitalism is not accepted in this household”
→ rides his motorcycle to college even though he lives five minutes away
→ grew his hair out in a mullet again and he looks *chef’s kiss*
→ thought he would be moving too fast if he asked Kaidou to rent an apartment together
→ aiura convinced him it was fine
→ cooks kaidou’s favorite foods every day
→ participates in student rallies, human rights protests etc etc
→ comes home with bruises and kaidou thinks he looks so hot but still yells at him
→ Aren’s favorite place to study is his balcony or at a coffee shop
→ always with kaidou! cute boyfriends who do everything together!!
→ gets so drunk when they go out
→ drunk karaoke with kokomi yes yes yes
Hairo Kineshi
→ did someone say Athletic Training?
→ does every single sport and is amazing at it
→ will cheer for his bf if they have a game at the same time though
→ it was his idea to move in together bc ‘hey we’ve been dating for three years now might as well’
→ volunteers at a nearby elementary as a coach for the kids
→ SO GOOD WITH KIDS
→ wants to be a P.E. Teacher and he’s going to be great at it
→ does everything he can at campus
→ helping random clubs, making posters, cleaning up the hallways, helping the cheer squad with their new routine
→ dances ballet as a hobby even though he’s so good at it that he could be a professional
→ makes everything a competition with Nendo so they never get bored
→ once made everyone get up to jog with them and they ended up sleeping on random benches while Hairo and Nendo were halfway across town
→ will punch someone if he sees them catcalling a girl
→ doesn’t drink at all and eats super healthy
→ designated driver for the group’s outings downtown
Aiura Mikoto
→ THEATER MAJOR
→ is so good at stage acting it’s unreal
→ lands the lead role almost every time
→ is also an amazing singer so she gets great roles in musicals as well
→ doesn’t have to get a job bc she gets all her money from doing readings on campus
→ gets coffees and pastries from all the coffee shops around campus and sits Kusuo down so he can taste them
→ they have a little taste-testing date in his apartment until they decide none of them are as good as the ones at Cafe Mami
→ she totally doesn’t make him teleport there every morning and he totally doesn’t listen to her
→ moved in with chiyo bc they wanted a nice place that they couldn’t afford on their own
→ teruhashi told them to move in with her but they already loved their little place
→ aiura’s bedroom is the most comfortable and cozy room ever
→ their apartment is also the hang out spot for the group bc it’s just so homey
→ hangs out with her theatre group a lot, especially after class
→ they can’t compare to her friends though:(
→ everyone goes to her when they’re worried and she loves it bc she’s the mummy of the group
→ she makes everyone coffee and their comfort food before big exams:)
Yumehara Chiyo
→ psychology major one thousand percent
→ you know how they say that people choose psychology bc they don’t know what major they want?
→ that’s exactly what happened except she fell in love with it immediately
→ such a good student!!!
→ always does her assignments on time and still manages to have a social life
→ teruhashi asked her out at the end of their first semester and that’s the first time chiyo missed a deadline
→ practically lives with teruhashi, insisting it’s just to leave aiura alone
→ she’s just IN LOVE OKAY?????
→ would want to be a sorority girl at first
→ changed her mind when she realized how much shit they all talked
→ her and kaidou drink wine and talk about their relationships and studies
→ she’s so sleep deprived it’s unreal
→ she doesn’t need sleep anymore though
→ coffee is her best friend
→ makes asks Aiura for readings twice a week
→ brings all her psychology friends home and they analyze their textbooks
→ once she got the hang of it, she decided to examine Kusuo
→ she told him he needs actual medical evaluation
→ he almost threw her out the window when she offered some Xanax for his nerves
→ chiyo is a neat freak one hundred percent
→ hates when Aiura throws everything on the floor, but she loves cleaning
→ opens her own office after school
Teruhashi Kokomi
→ PRE-MED
→ lesbian doctor :)
→ just wanted to get away from her perv brother at first
→ she always wanted to be a doctor though, preferably a neurosurgeon
→ she’s super duper smart and hates when she gets good grades bc of her good looks:(
→ makes it her goal to show her professors that she’s more than a beautiful girl
→ hasn’t failed a single exam
→ helps everyone with their studies even though she’s drowning in work
→ drops the perfect girl image at college and decides she should try and aim for something normal
→ gets invited to every single party
→ in a knitting club bc it would get disbanded without one more member
→ knits!!!matching!!!sweaters!!!for all of her friends!!!
→ asked Chiyopipi out while drunk
→ never regretted it though
→ her and aren get so drunk when they go out with the group
→ it’s honestly unreal how much they can drink before passing out
→ has to get carried home
→ wakes up after getting drunk and runs to her class before remembering it’s Sunday
→ her penthouse has the perfect view of the sunset and sunrise and is all she could ask for in life
→ does get lonely so she’s practically living with Chiyo and Aiura
→ once she realized she didn’t like boys she made it her goal to get Saiki and Aiura together
→ people wonder how she has so much time to play matchmaker and volunteer while she’s in premed
→ does her internship at a hospital
→ ends up working there as a neurosurgeon after her Doctorate degree
~~~~~~~~♡~~~~~~~~~~♡~~~~~~~~~~♡~~~~~~~~
#saiki kusuo no ψ nan#tdlosk#saiki k no psi nan#saiki kusuo#nendou saiki k#nendou riki#kaidou headcanons#kaidou shun#kaidou x aren#saiki k headcanons#teruhashi#teruhashi kokomi#aiura mikoto#yumehara chiyo#nendou x hairo#hairo kineshi#aren x shun#aren kuboyasu#saiki k#Kusuo#college au#anime headcanons#anime fluff#the disastrous life of saiki k.#tdlosk headcanons
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ugliest, strangest, and most magnificent | p.parker
➭ headcanon
summary: the avengers and their handwriting
pairing: peter parker x avenger!reader
warnings: language, mention of suicide letter, pure chaos and crack
a/n: none of these are canon, i’m just having too much fun. but i promise i’m still working on a proper fic lol enjoy x
hc masterlist
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right off the bat, peter’s handwriting is awful. let’s not kid ourselves, that boy is a genius and could not care less about how his notes look like. it’s like he has taken on a very personal quest to compete with every doctor in the country to see who can be the most incoherent. it’s scary
it’s so bad that no one even asks peter for his class notes anymore because, well, for one thing, that boy barely attends classes, and for another, trying to make out what it says will blind you and permeate your eyelids
it is worse than staring death in the face (source: “still horrified and sad” loki)
y/n is probably the only person who can read peter’s medical shorthand. she has absolutely zero (0) problems reading it and the avengers are BAFFLED
she can pick up peter’s notebooks and read them aloud like they’re typed in double spaced 12 pt. times new roman
no she will not explain how or why
this one time, peter helped morgan make really ~extravagant~ christmas cards with glitter and fake snow (it was GREAT) but since she’s like 4 and can’t write, he wrote sweet little words inside the cards for her and then gave it to tony and steve
tony, with tears in his eyes: “this is beautiful, thank you. i’ve never seen anything more beautiful”
steve, whispering: “your eyes are burning too, right?” “i can’t even tell if it’s nonsensical symbols or witchcraft???”
tony’s handwriting is surprisingly neat? like, actually…quite nice
no one really knows why, but he has this thing where the letters just have to be the same size, on a straight line, and tilting at the same angle otherwise he will have a nervous breakdown and fight you in the nearest parking lot (as you do when being confronted with any inconvenience as a grown adult and avenger)
but because that is too stressful, tony barely writes down anything. ever. he just tells F.R.I.D.A.Y. to set a reminder and calls it a day. last time he picked up a pen was in 2009 and that was just because he couldn’t reach an itching spot on his back
the one time he does write something down though, hell breaks loose
“wait is tony holding a pen?” “tony are you writing? am i seeing things? are you ok—are you dying?? let me get the others DON’T MOVE” *distant crashing sound* “gUYS—”
two seconds later, everyone is huddled around tony, straining their necks, and trying to get a glimpse at his little piece of paper
“what do you think it is? a love letter?” “maybe a heartfelt complaint” “probably a plan for world domination” “he’s got those on flash drives, it’s a suicide note” “it’s a grocery list. fuck you guys”
thor has the handwriting of a little child
it’s precious. it makes all his letters and postcards from Out Of Space™️ look like they were written using the comic sans font. he also adds an excessive amount of stardust. it’s wonderful
steve’s handwriting is your typical average jo. he’s an ~artist~ and he is american so he mainly writes in capital letters because he thinks it’s Patriotic and Aesthetically Pleasing
he’s also the only one who will pick up the newspaper in the morning, but it’s mainly because of the crossword puzzles because!! boy oh boy!! he LOVES them!!
he thinks they are SPLENDID and MIND STIMULATING and even though he does have the brains for it, sometimes there are gaps that he just can’t fill, so he writes down anything in fat capital block letters and casually thrusts it in other people’s faces
then he runs off so no one can see his actual answers like cardi b being a jeopardy star
bucky barnes has the handwriting of a founding father
the others find out about this because y/n had asked him to write down a recipe for her since she had broken her arm, so he did, but she just never had the chance to look at it
until one day, y/n whips out that recipe out in the kitchen and peter is standing behind her
“is that……the constitution??”
it’s not, but bucky really got into calligraphy when he was in wakanda. at first, he only did it for fun during his free time with the goats
but now he feels confident in his cursive and doesn’t see why he shouldn’t use it daily
and the more bucky practices, the more he ~dresses up~ his letters
so what starts out as readable-to-the-average-person cursive turns into what looks like 9 loops and random swirls of hell
he LOVES it
and the avengers can tell that he loves it so they keep making up excuses for him to write out stuff for them just to see the little glint in his eyes
“bucky, can you sign this for me?” “why?” “no reason” “peter, i’m not your legal guardian? aunt may has to sign this” “just write down her name” “what??” “i can see you want to. just do it” *proceeds to happily forge signature*
it doesn’t even matter that everyone kinda struggles to read bucky’s pretentious cursive. it’s beautiful. and if you squint really hard, you’ll get the gist
“y/n, bucky left me a sticky note that just says punk. do you know why?” “does it matter? it looks like a prop from a period drama. frame it”
the only person who’s not impressed by bucky’s handwriting is tony alias mr. practical
tony needs everyone to fill out some forms and while handing them out, he looks bucky directly in the eyes to say “and make sure us peasants can read it”
but one day, when tony’s sick and stuck in his room, peter and y/n have the idea to make a little card for tony to wish him a speedy recovery and everyone has to sign it and write a little message
so that’s how tony ends up with the ugliest, strangest, and most magnificent card the world has ever seen. ~handmade~ by the avengers
there’s stardust, and glitter, and neon paint, and a clash of 20 very distinctive and one-of-a-kind handwritings
tony tries to brush it off, but to this day it may or may not still be on his night stand at all times so he can look at it every night before going to bed <3
* * *
am i going to make a series out of this even tho no one asked for it? yes. yes, i am. i hope you guys like reading them just as much as i like writing them bc i’m not going to stop lol thanks for reading! stay hydrated <3
#peter parker#peter parker x reader#peter parker x avenger!reader#avengers#steve rogers#tony stark#bucky barnes#peter parker x y/n#peter parker headcanon#steve rogers headcanon#tony stark headcanon#bucky barnes headcanon#headcanon#marvel#mcu#peter parker fanfiction#peter parker fandom#avenger!reader#thor#thor headcanon#avengers crack#marvel headcanons#mcu headcanons
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When Sorrows Come reactions
Spoilers: I did not get bingo.
25 squares, from left to right, top to bottom:
1. Malvic appears at the wedding
2. Sylvester attends the wedding
3. The High King or Queen gets elfshot
4. One of Tybalt's enemies from the short stories appears
5. Hope chests are relevant
6. Something is revealed about the False Queen
7. There's at least 3 Firstborn at the wedding
8. Someone calls Toby a kingbreaker
9. Dianda punches someone important
10. Toby drinks someone else's blood
11. August attends the wedding
12. Hirsent crashes the wedding
13. [Free space] Toby's dress gets blood on it
14. One of Tybalt's friends from the short stories appears
15. Eira is behind the trouble
16. Gillian attends the wedding
17. Lore about the Torquill family
18. Quentin's identity gets revealed
19. Sylvester doesn't attend the wedding
20. Someone mistakes Sylvester for Simon
21. Raysel's plotline moves forward
22. Toby learns about Tybalt's short story past
23. Someone gets elfshot for the second or third time
24. Toby insults nobility we haven't seen before
25. Lore about the Sollys family
Date: April 11, 2015, roughly 6 months after A Killing Frost. No mischief occurred around Christmas 2014.
Are nobles seriously inviting the kingbreaker in order to make contact with her mother who she pissed off during the divorce? Have they been paying attention at all?
Technically, Toby has never committed treason. She definitely didn’t commit treason against Rhys because she never swore loyalty to him.
I think this is the first book that introduced Simon ahead of Sylvester and described Sylvester as Simon’s brother as opposed to the other way around. Sylvester is still on thin ice, by the way. There’s a reason I have both “Sylvester attends the wedding” and “Sylvester doesn’t attend the wedding” on the bingo card.
The Luidaeg denied Sylvester’s request to wake Raysel up - why? Did she want to get the wedding out of the way before Raysel’s trial and October’s next rolling emergency?
Yes, the Quentin problem when getting married at the High King’s knowe. Don’t change his appearance and everyone knows where the Crown Prince is fostered. Do change his appearance and everyone in Toby’s party now knows who the Crown Prince is.
“Dean Lorden is probably technically my brother now” woot.
Toby is voluntarily eating and drinking! After so many books of having food forced of her because she keeps forgetting to do so.
Confirmation that Toby officially owns her place and Luna can’t get Sylvester to reverse that decision.
Dean kissing a strange boy -> ah, they went with changing Quentin’s appearance and bloodline. And they went to the Luidaeg for it. Banshee, huh?
Poor Dean. Toby’s approval means something to him. And Toby continues to eat, good for her.
Yes, I too would love to know more about Sylvester’s Dark Years. Sylvester POV, when?
Dean has now officially heard that Oberon is back, and isn’t reacting. I have to assume the Lordens know the details behind how they broke August’s curse.
Oh Quentin, I love you.
Dean still thinks the Merrow descend from only Titania, but Pete confirmed in The Unkindest Tide that Oberon is her father.
Dean does not understand the value of landlines. Kids these days...
I had not considered that Toby and Tybalt’s wedding would be a historic event.
Surprise wedding date! It really couldn’t have been any other way.
Yes, who would have told Sylvester about the date?
Yep, calling Bridget and Etienne is the best option. And Etienne knows May didn’t tell Toby the date, interesting.
Dammit, Sylvester. I can’t cross that square off yet, he might redeem himself. And Etienne talking sense into Toby!
Did the fae make their kingdoms based on state borders? The West at least was based on SCA kingdoms and principalities. I wonder if Highmountain has a new Crown yet.
Good to know that Oberon can go where ever he wants in Faerie. He could probably bring Riordan back if he wanted to. Is Danny not coming? I can’t say I blame him.
Jazz knows about Oberon too.
I do hope August shows up at the wedding, it’s on my bingo card.
Huh, I knew that Ash and Oak aka New York was a place without fae these days, but I assumed some purebloods and changelings could still live there. Uncomfortably, perhaps, and maybe you couldn’t anchor a knowe there anymore, but I didn’t think it was actively hostile to every fae.
Hey, is that Lowri and Nolan? Nolan’s on guard duty, interesting.
Yes, the Ludiaeg could have married you at any time. Should have thought of that before everyone started offering you their knowe for the wedding.
Oh good they’re bringing Walther.
Makes sense Arden can’t come but she is sending Nolan. Nolan definitely is enjoying life these days.
Confirmation that Madden’s boyfriend is human and doesn’t know about the fae.
“I can go order her to arrest herself, if you’d like” Love it.
I have to assume the Tuatha Express is faster than air travel and not as tiring for the people who aren’t opening portals.
Nessa, the Gwragedd Annwn, a new species. As pretty as the Daoine Sidhe are to a nearly human Toby, wow.
And... she thinks the Luidaeg is Toby? I hope this isn’t a calculated insult. I know Quentin grew up with some bigoted people but this is deliberate.
And Oberon is apparently Tybalt?? What is going on her?
Kerry! We haven’t seen you since A Local Habitation. ‘There are no bad Dayes in this week” aww. I love you, Kerry.
Beacon’s Home is actually a Kingdom and not a Selkie-now-Roane holding? Cool.
It seems important that the Maples vs Ash and Oak decision was happening right before/during the American Revolution but I don’t know why yet.
“The ducal consorts are Daoine Sidhe”, yep both of them.
“Sweet Titania, I love that woman [Dianda Lorden]” Still waiting for Toby’s bisexual awakening.
The Luidaeg confirms the Gwragedd Annwn are Black Annie’s descendant line.
Quentin confirms something’s wrong with Nessa, maybe she isn’t like this at all.
Whee, slightly more Stacy weirdness. I think Barrow Wights would be descended from Maeve, her illusions shouldn’t be better than Toby’s.
Tybalt is apparently descended from both Oberon and the Luidaeg, if his line comes from the Cait Sidhe Malvic sired with his Roane lover.
Confirmation that the Luidaeg can see the future, at least some of the time.
At least Aethlin and Maida seem happy to see Toby.
Maida doesn’t recognize Cass’s bloodline - interesting.
“Um, my boss is Queen Windermere, and my [human] graduate advisor is Professor Weinstein, and my parents are Mitch and Stacy Brown” Cass I love you.
Oh, Nessa isn’t Nessa.
Not!Nessa, holding Toby at knifepoint is not the detergent you think it is.
Toby has a new knife now, sweet. Not!Nessa is a Doppelganger, we haven’t seen one of those in several years. The one in Rosemary and Rue, who wasn’t Gillian?
“Archers,” “I was right about that?”
Perhaps Toby shouldn’t be the one giving orders to open portals, but Aethlin clearly isn’t doing it.
“I punched it in the face” Why do I have the feeling that’s going to solve a lot of problems in this book? And hey, this isn’t a Firstborn or Queen, so Toby got her wish of punching more punchable people.
“You don’t have the authority to order an arrest in my knowe.” Well, maybe you should give her that authority, High King of the Westlands who was almost assassinated.
“Purebloods forgot things, quickly, when they can’t see them anymore” Interesting.
“And even in a backwater Ducky run by a politically unambitious man” Shadowed Hills predates the Mists, Sylvester really just went as far as he could. Or maybe settled there once Amandine built her tower.
“Is he going to try to stab me? Is he better at stabbing than the last batch was at shooting arrows”? I love you Raj. I wonder if the local King of Cats will make an appearance.
Ah fuck, first dead body.
Toby having the most sense in this scene, I love it.
Did Aethlin basically make Toby a hero of the Westlands as well? “Our visiting hero”
Aethlin is not showing up well in dealing with security, nor are his guards.
“People who put deadly traps on doorknobs often forget the obvious, which is that it’s a good idea to lock doors.”
Three dead bodies? RIP Aethlin’s guards.
Only two dead bodies so far. Once Broken Faith had 4, I believe, but we’re only a third done. Good job on not dying, Caitir.
Gordon, hello. I thought the reference to ALH in the “books to re-read” was about the nighthaunts but didn’t expect to see her.
Looks like neither Nessa nor Honey are dead.
This poor Ellyllon doctor, welcome to Toby’s world.
Ah fuck, Tybalt’s elf-shot again.
Good thing Caitir’s a Candela. Thank you, Raj.
Jazz is apparently betting that Toby’s getting elfshot before/during the wedding, this is a girl after my own heart. As is May.
Walther has a fan, I love it.
The Bridge Trolls can search for clues if they want, I guess. We don’t need to worry about people messing with the crime scene anymore.
Toby’s sweet talking the knowe, that didn’t take long.
Toby, Quentin is never going to leave you behind even when he’s knighted and moves back home. He would sooner move the capital to SF.
Evening got her hooks into Aethlin back in 1906, huh?
“I am the breaker of the unbreakable” Yes you are, Toby.
Black Annis was originally named Ismere? I love the lore we’re getting in this book.
There are rumors that Quentin is Toby’s squire, probably started after OBF. The Beacon’s Home Selkies knew about him, after all.
All the Maeve descendant lines with dead Firstborn imprint on the Luidaeg, this is so cute.
So many reasons why Tybalt shouldn’t go looking for Toby as she walks up. Tybalt’s back!
Nolan is great, I love him. Aethlin’s reassuring Nessa, glad to see it.
How does Fiac know enough about Simon and Amandine’s marriage to have negative feelings about it? It sounds like he was around them to notice it.
The Doppelganger isn’t bringing the Revolution, what a pity.
Fuck, she can’t kill Aethlin now. Damn.
This is exactly the scene I wanted to see with a different Daoine Sidhe, but fine. The guards need more training.
Eira killed other seers than the Roane, did she? Did she want there to be no one who could guess her plans?
Toby thinks Maida is upset with her, while I think Maida thinks Toby is the only one she can trust.
Why do none of the Daoine Sidhe save Simon specialize in blood magic? They all suck at it.
“We need to interview your entire staff, and by ‘we’ I mean ‘you’, and by ‘you’ I mean ‘someone you trust’“ Toby’s got this under control.
“I’m sorry, was that disrespectful? I meant fuck you, Your Majesty.” Quentin is not holding back. Chelsea and Raj are literally eating popcorn while watching this. Despite what Toby thinks, she has a court of teenagers.
I wonder what the series would have been like if Penny was sent to Shadowed Hills with Quentin.
I’m glad Quentin got the chance to yell at his father, he needed it. Look, family drama that isn’t related to Toby!
Walther: “I carry the base ingredients [of elfshot] whenever I travel with Sir Daye.” I would too, Walther.
...Are the rest of Stacy’s kids also Seers?
Oberon exists to be more than background, apparently.
Confirmation that the Luidaeg is a century older than Eira! And the Luidaeg will know if she wakes up.
Yes, Toby gets her own court with all her squires and also brothers. Quentin, Raj, one day Chelsea, Peter if he can convince Toby to do it. She has two Seers, an alchemist and her favorite aunts and family in Saltmist.
So the Summerlands have suns as well as moons.
Oh hey, Julie, I thought you died off screen. We haven't heard from you in several books. They’re getting the band back toge- the High King got poisoned?!
“For example, it would be really unreasonable of him to die right now, thanks.”
“If this is where you want to suddenly remember the High King’s evil grand vizier who you just forgot to tell us about until now, that would be great.”
I thought Maida’s father was still alive?
Aethlin has survived his third assassination attempt in the past 24 hours, sweet.
Why did the Librarian call Fiac the Seneschal? He’s the Court Seer.
Oh, so Toby did settle her debts with Mag about her mom’s biography.
We’ve met Tybalt the Torquill family historian, now meet Yenay Ng, the Tybalt historian.
OK, I... didn’t see that coming.
I approve of Toby punching former King Shallcross in the nose. She should punch more nobles on screen.
Huh, I guess that’s where Eira was before she showed up in the Mists.
Is this guy Dawn’s father? The timelines sorta fit.
Aethlin has managed to not get poisoned or stabbed again, good for him.
Of course they enchanted the wedding dress to not get covered in blood. Good thing my ‘free’ space on the bingo card was “Toby’s dress gets blood on it” which was technically fulfilled with the first dress.
I assumed “wine-colored” meant white until it was described in more detail. I approve of dressing the wedding party in red - it will hide the blood.
Sylvester?!? Nope, Simon.
Aww, Simon gets to walk his daughter to the altar. He gets to see his daughter married!
“Then go. Get married. Be happy. You’ve earned it.”
And the wedding is finally on! The local Cait Sidhe are here! Surprise appearance by August!
“As did the man who looked heart-stoppingly like Simon Torquill, but absolutely wasn’t” Oh Sylvester, you made it after all.
I think this is the first time Sylvester’s been referred to in terms of Simon rather than the other way around.
Whoops, more assassins.
I see you, Simon, using your blood to fuel your transformation spells, just like your daughter. Followed immediately by Sylvester charging into battle. And Oberon continues to be background scenery.
Another guard’s death - 3 now? Maybe more?
“Now I have a longbow, motherfuckers, ho, ho, ho” Love you, May.
Badly attempted jailbreak is a bust. Toby’s dress remains pristine.
Surprise appearance by Gillian! I assume August tackled her to the ground when the arrows started flying.
Wedding is complete! Reception go!
I assume Etienne was instrumental in getting Sylvester to the wedding, not only physically but also by yelling at him about what an idiot he was.
Etienne is a little younger than Tybalt, good to know.
They’re going to Disney world without the kids, neat. Surprise August again! Good to know Helen’s seeing a therapist.
Galen has a crush on Poppy. I love this man that we will probably never see again.
Why is Simon a Count again? Shouldn’t he also be Duke Lorden? Does he get a lower title because he’s the second husband, like a courtesy title? Also, glad to see him and August being Lordens.
She hugged him!
Oh hey Sylvester. You could have started with “You make a beautiful bride” and avoided a shitton of trouble. You made it all about yourself. It’s better than if you didn’t attend at all, but man, Sylvester. You disappointed Toby and me.
“Once and future King of Cats”
She accepts the Lorden boys as her brothers!
What does Cliff think of Gilly spending so much time at Half Moon Bay? Does he think she’s in a cult?
Aw, May and Jazz are going to get married!
Oh hey Pete. Only two Firstborn at the wedding, can’t mark that one off. Nice blessing!
That cake sounds super delicious. Fuck, did Oberon give his knife to Toby and then not take it back? Toby has a replacement for her iron knife now?
Oh hi, Gilly. Your mother’s really excited to have you here. I love Quentin egging Toby into eating the cake. “Quentin pressed a fork into my hand, trying to urge me to get on with it.”
And the final blessing comes from Aethlin. He has got to do something to thank her for all her help in stopping the assassination attempts.
Afterthoughts: I am sad none of Tybalt’s friends and family from London/Europe attended. Morane was alive as of 1911, with no word on the others. Hermeline, if she’s still ruling in the Court of Fogbound Cats, has been ruling for nearly three hundred years.
On the other hand, we got a ton of Toby feels and secondary characters. Love the reactions of the Teen Squad.
What a good and heartwarming book.
Spots crossed off:
2. Sylvester attends the wedding
8. Someone calls Toby a kingbreaker
10. Toby drinks someone else's blood
11. August attends the wedding
13. [Free space] Toby's dress gets blood on it
16. Gillian attends the wedding
18. Quentin's identity gets revealed
22. Toby learns about Tybalt's short story past
23. Someone gets elfshot for the second or third time
24. Toby insults nobility we haven't seen before
25. Lore about the Sollys family
Spots not crossed off:
1. Malvic appears at the wedding
3. The High King or Queen gets elfshot
4. One of Tybalt's enemies from the short stories appears
5. Hope chests are relevant
6. Something is revealed about the False Queen
7. There's at least 3 Firstborn at the wedding
9. Dianda punches someone important
12. Hirsent crashes the wedding
14. One of Tybalt's friends from the short stories appears
15. Eira is behind the trouble
17. Lore about the Torquill family
19. Sylvester doesn't attend the wedding
20. Someone mistakes Sylvester for Simon
21. Raysel's plotline moves forward
I should note some of these are rather literal - Eira caused trouble in the back story but she wasn’t active in the main story like she was in both The Unkindest Tide (telling Torin to stop the restoration of the Roane) and A Killing Frost (taunting Toby).
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Bend and Not Break - Ch 2: A Mission
Read here on AO3 :3
Monomon hurried as fast as she could possibly float to the palace, dodging various bugs and leaving the archive in a state of chaos. She didn’t even have time to tell anyone what was happening, just that she needed to leave and leave now. The messenger bug had delivered a letter with only a few sentences that stirred her into motion and sent her moving.
[Assassination attempt. Quirrel has been poisoned. Please hurry. - Ghost]
Poisoned? She figured they would tell her more details once she arrived, but it must have been serious. Pillbugs were notoriously resistant to toxins, at least, she knew that. She had to know since she worked with dangerous chemicals and suddenly had a baby isopod to care for. If it was public knowledge or not, she wasn’t so sure.
So either assassins figured out something strong enough to threaten the life of a pillbug, or they didn’t know and used something that her son could eventually beat on his own. She wouldn’t know until she found out.
Luckily when she arrived, the guard have known her long enough to just let her pass. The palace itself was in a state of lock-down, but she was so recognizable that she got through fast enough. To be honest, if they stopped her in any way, she wouldn’t hesitate to throw said guard around to make a path herself. The bedroom door was currently being guarded by Cloth and Ogrim, who gave her pained looks as they let her inside. They were Quirrel’s friends, and she was comforted slightly to know that they too were worried.
The atmosphere of the room was tense and thick. It was silent, save for the labored wheezing breaths of her son as he struggled to take in enough air. Ghost was sitting next to the nest, holding his trembling hand in theirs, occasionally reaching their head down to nuzzle his mask-less face. Another hand was being used to refresh a cooling enchantment on a wad of cloth, applying it to his head to hopefully bring their spouse a bit of relief. Quirrel looked to be in a bad way, trembling uncontrollably as Ghost did their best to try and soothe him, but it didn’t seem to be working. They finally turned their head after a while to look at her. She wasn’t all that shocked to see tears in the corners of their eyes, dripping long enough to leave long dark streaks on their face.
“Monomon…” Their ‘voice’ was desperate and afraid. “I don’t know what to do.”
She swallowed down a spike of emotion. It would not help here to suddenly lose herself to the rage and despair she felt at seeing her son in such a terrible state. “What happened?”
“There was an attempt on our lives. The ones involved are in the dungeon, but they had poisoned nails. One of them managed to cut him, here.” They moved a cover out of the way to reveal his bandaged side. The bandage was stained blue and faint hints of yellow. Already Monomon’s mind was racing through what could possibly match both the symptoms and the color.
“They managed to harm some civilians, none of the ones that were cut with the nails survived.”
“I see.” Her voice was soft. “Did you bring in any doctors?”
They shook their head. “No, I cannot trust any to try and not finish the job until the Knights have finished investigating.”
“A wise choice.” She floated over to lay a tentacle on the side of her son’s head. It was burning with fever and she winced. “Has he woken up at all?”
Another head shake in response.
Quirrel turned their head towards the tentacle on his head and mumbled something incoherent. She remembered the times when he had gotten sick before, when he was still so very small and fragile. She figured it was due to him being abandoned, and not getting the best start in life. She had carried him around in a makeshift pouch so that he would always know that he wasn’t going to be abandoned again. The times she sat up all night to apply a cool cloth to his head or fed him broth a teaspoon at a time drifted through her mind as she regarded her adult son, currently suffering. He made a sickly wheeze as she reached down her face to tenderly kiss his burning forehead.
She didn't know if he was aware or not, if he could tell he was surrounded by people that loved him, but she hoped he did.
“How much do you know about pillbug biology?”
Ghost seemed startled by the question. “Quite a bit, I would figure? He loves to lecture.”
“I know, but did he tell you about the resistances pillbugs have to toxins?”
They shook their head, looking back at their ill spouse with surprise.
Monomon knew that Ghost did not want or need a lecture right now, so she’ll keep it short and sweet. “Pillbugs are remarkably resistant to most things that would poison any other bug. Heavy metals, deadly plants, and even pollution. They have evolved to eek out nutrition from even the most terrible of sources and thrive where others can’t.”
“Does that mean he will be okay?” There was hope in that voice, and Monomon did her best to answer in a way to not completely squash it.
“It means that the odds are in his favor. He may come out of this by himself, but the chances increase dramatically if we somehow got a hold of a countermeasure, an antidote per-say. It will at least ease his pain.”
“How do you find such a thing? I don’t think the prisoners will want to talk.”
“Don’t worry, I have my ways. I will just need space for a lab an-”
“Whatever you want you will get.” They interrupted her. “Talk to Xena and Tiso, they are in the dungeons.”
“Good, then let us not waste any time.” She took one last moment to tuck in Quirrel a little more and try to make him more comfortable. It hurt her so much to see this, and she wanted nothing more to do that to stay here and care for him like she did so long ago. But, she had a job to do and a job that needed to be done quickly.
She turned and left, heading to the dungeons. The last thing she saw as the bedroom door shut was Ghost leaning back in to nuzzle Quirrel, practically climbing into the nest to hold him. She didn’t know of anyone safer for him to be around than his spouse, so with a renewed sense of hope and determination, she floated down the stairs. She had a job to do.
------
Quirrel didn't quite know what was happening. He had been with...someone, doing something out in the Capital. It was something important, at least, he thought it was. There were flashes of steel and colors and sounds and then a deep sickening pain before it went all black.
It had hurt. It felt like his lungs and heart were being squeezed in an iron fist. Thoughts became fractures of pain that kept shooting up to heights he didn’t think possible. Just when he thought he couldn’t stand it anymore, he had found himself somewhere else. He could feel and not feel, his numb body standing in the Fog Canyon and wondered how he got here.
Swatches of red streamed in through the mist to illuminate a facsimile of the Archives. He was standing outside of it, parts of the building floating off and smudging together. He couldn’t stare at it too long without getting a headache. He couldn’t even read the sign, the letters sliding together and twisting as he puzzled this development. There was a distinct lack of oomas and uomas, which tipped him off that something was very wrong.
He just couldn’t put a finger on it.
He would have been afraid, but there was something out there that seemed to give him strength. It was warm and heavy and he wore the feeling around him like a cloak on a cold day. It bolstered his spirit and he felt like he could face anything.
It was a strange sensation, it felt like there was a room full of people that were invisible. He tried to think on who they were, but he got only fragments of feelings and pictures that didn’t quite fit together. He figured it was best to not dwell on it, there was bound to be someone around that could help him.
He decided to just go inside. There was someone there that he knew that could tell him what was going on. He couldn’t think of the name, but he knew it was soft and green and filled him up with love. Again, faint feelings tickled the back of his mind, but he couldn’t figure out how to process it all. He approached the doors, which opened for him, and he walked inside.
The doors shut behind him and smudged together, fading off into nothing.
------
It sucked being in prison. The cricket leaned back on the stone wall in his cell, occasionally glancing at their missing arm. It stung and ached, and none of the guard or knights gave them anything for the pain. It wasn’t like he expected any, with the kingdom being lead by a monster and a traitor. By now it would just be the monster, he didn’t suspect the traitor would still be alive by now. Good riddance.
He didn’t quite know how long he was down here in his cell. Hours? He didn’t know. He was given water once and that was that, so it was impossible to hash out a timeline from that alone.
The door to the dungeons creaked open, and he couldn’t bring himself to care. It was probably time for him to die now. He knew what he was getting into when he volunteered for the mission. He just hoped that his death wouldn’t be in vain, and that his fellow bugs were closer to freedom.
His musings were interrupted when quiet footsteps approached his cell. What arrived was something he very much did not want to see.
Hollow the Kind, the sibling of the god king, stared at him with its one eye. It was deathly silent and its body was still as a statue. It was also a monster to him, the failed remnants of the previous god king’s folly. A vessel that was supposed to be completely hollow to hold the wrath of an angry goddess within that ultimately failed. It was dangerous and rarely that far away from its sibling, and for that reason he felt a pit of fear bloom in his chest. It continued to stare, narrowing its eye that seemed to look deep within his mind and soul, and he didn’t like that.
“The hell are you doing here? Here to finally kill me?”
The creature did not respond.
He was about to say something else when the vessel pulled out a key and opened the cell door. He knew he wouldn’t be able to escape, the vessel is fast and he doubted he’d get far. He still was going to make things hard on it though. Just when he was about to thrash around, it moved with frightening speed and grabbed him by the neck.
He gasped and tried to flail about, but with shackles on his legs and arm, he didn’t succeed in doing much. The prosthetic arm the creature had was hard and cold and he could feel the power in the mechanism. He couldn’t fight the grip as it pulled up to its full, terrifying height. It began to walk, and he was powerless to resist. He was being carried down a hall and it stopped in front of the door.
While Hollow was busy, Monomon was at work. She hummed to herself as she busied herself with her tools. Syringes, some vials of various components, and other odds and ends crowded the table. In a box on the floor held the nails of the assassins, now sterilized and deemed safe. The dried poison on the blades however, had been carefully extracted and reconstituted in another vial. She had taken the time to study it as her guest got ready to arrive. It was quite interesting, it was quite complex and she had trouble pin pointing the exact compounds. She could at least recognize a neurotoxin when she saw one and once again had to squash down her anger.
It was time for science.
The door to her makeshift lab opened and she turned her head just in time to see Hollow drag one of the prisoners inside. Actually, it was more like how one would scruff an unruly frog, as Hollow held him by the back of his neck so he had no chance of escape. “Let me go, you monster!” He shrieked, his single arm and pair of legs waving in the air and gaining no traction.
Hollow ignored them and all but threw the prisoner into the specially prepared chair. It was a padded chair on a swivel, with a thick metal bar on the end where someone’s legs would sit. Both that and the arms of the chair held several straps, and Hollow made quick work of immobilizing the prisoner. He grunted and wiggled against the straps, but to no avail.
“Wonderful!” Monomon clasped two of her tentacles together. “Thank you, Hollow dear, for bringing me the first of my very special guests!”
Hollow bowed his head to her politely. <”I will be outside”>, they signed.
“That won’t be necessary. There isn’t a single thing this worm can do to me,” She cheerfully responded. “This may take a while, why don’t you go up and check on your sibling? They could use a friendly face right now. Someone else can watch the prisoners for now.”
They glanced at the cricket strapped to the chair and seemed To mull over the suggestion in their head. Finally, they nodded and stepped out of the room, shutting the door behind them. The prisoner watched them leave and turned back to Monomon with a sneer.
“So, you’re going to torture me? Make me talk? Good luck, I’m not saying anything.” He huffed, having the audacity to sound bored.
“Oh no, torture has never been a suitable method of information extraction,” She informed him as she prepared a syringe. “This however, is science, pure and simple. If you don’t want to tell me what was in that poison and how to counter act it, then I’ll just have to figure it out myself. You get to be the very first volunteer to help me find that out! Isn’t that exciting?”
“You’re insane.” The cricket watched in dawning horror as she dipped the needle into the vial of poison, drawing a minuscule amount. “Why do you want to even save a traitor? He’s tainted by the monster! He’ll bring us down to ruin just like any other god and their allies!”
“Because, my dear boy.” She tapped the syringe to expel any bubbles in the glass. “That traitor, that you so call him, is my son.”
The seemed to throw the prisoner for a loop, and his mandibles that weren’t broken were open in shock.
She floated over, grabbing a little pad of cloth and alcohol, and began to clean the joint in his remaining arm where the chitin was the thinnest. It would not due to skip on protocol. “Oh yes, you and your ilk thought you were clever, trying to poison a bug that used to eat arsenic to freak out my students. You won’t be able to kill him this way, but he is suffering, and I do not like to see my son in pain.”
“Wait...wait!” The cricket tried to wiggle, but was helpless to resist as he watched the syringe come closer and closer to his arm.
“This was never to get you to talk.” She didn’t pause, plunging in the syringe and injecting it’s contents. “Like I said before, torture is useless. Science however, doesn’t lie, and I will get my answers, one way or another.”
His screams were wonderful as she pulled out some paper to take notes. What a fascinating reaction! She wondered what would happen if she added just a teeny bit of acid to the next injection.
You know, for science.
------
Tiso lounged in his chair, not bothered at all by the faint screaming that echoed through the dungeon. The person who was sitting directly in front of him, however, was very much bothered. The ladybug gulped audibly as they tested the ropes trying them to the chair. Tiso didn’t make things much better, humming to himself as he filled out some paperwork. He sat in silence with only the screams and the sound of quills on paper filling the cramped interrogation room.
“Wha…” The ladybug broke the silence, eyes wide. “What is that?!?”
“Monomon having fun.” He checked a few more boxes on the sheet.
“...The Teacher?”
“Yeah? Ya know, science lady?” Tiso gestured with the end of his quill. “Sounds like a lot of science is going on right now.”
“Am I…”
“Going to see her? Maybe.” Tiso leaned back and put his boots up on the table. “I doubt she’ll find what she’s lookin’ for with just one subject. She’s gonna need a few more for sure.”
“That’s crazy!” The ladybug switched from fear to anger. “You can’t do that to bugs! It’s evil!”
“You think that’s evil? Lemme tell you what’s evil. Evil is tryin’ to kill the two bugs who have done nothing except fix this broken fuckin’ kingdom.” Tiso leaned forward with a sneer. “You were there, you remembered how it was. The living dead roaming the streets, broken everything, a literal fuckin’ apocalypse. And they fixed it.”
“We’re trying to protect you all!” She scowled in return. “You were also there. You saw what happens when gods are in charge! How do we defend ourselves if our beloved ‘King’ were to suddenly decide to make our lives miserable just for fun? Or kill us all?”
“Because, they have friends, and family.” Tiso replied, leaning back again. “They are constantly reminded about how precious life is and how each action can impact them. The biggest one, being their spouse, that you lot tried to kill. And what do you think happens, when a god no longer has any ties to mortals anymore?”
The ladybug blinked.
“Yeah, I may not be the sharpest hammer in the tool box, but even I knew that!” Tiso huffed, feeling clever. “So you fucked up. I mean, colossally fucked up. If there was a book about the biggest fuck ups in history, you all would be on front page. “
She was silent.
“So here’s what you gottah do. You gottah fix this. You gottah tell me what you did, who told you to do it, and who else was in on it. You need to tell me everything. I can’t promise you anything except that I won’t give you to Monomon, but if you even wanna redeem yourself in the slightest, you’ll talk. And hurry the hell up, I got girlfriends to smooch.”
She took a deep breath and began to talk.
#hollow knight#fanfiction#my writing#terra lumina#king quirrel#king ghost#ghost/quirrel#tiso#tiso/cloth/myla#ogrim#cloth#monomon the teacher#monomom#needles#mad science#hollow#bend and not break#monomon does a science and nobody is happy but her#royalty au#tiso is himbo
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i know you listen to a lot of podcasts and ive found some of my favourites from hearing you talk about them! do you have any favourites?
under the cut! my top 10 podcasts at the moment:
Alice Isn’t Dead
Genre: horror, thriller, drama, Lovecraftian, Americana
Episode count: 30 (completed)
Description: A truck driver searches across America for the wife she had long assumed was dead. In the course of her search, she will encounter not-quite-human serial murderers, towns literally lost in time, and a conspiracy that goes way beyond one missing woman.
Thoughts: This podcast is, to me at least, completely flawless in every way. I would consider myself a person that listens to a lot of horror podcasts, but Alice Isn’t Dead takes the cake for its depictions of liminal middle America, the horror that is capitalism, and the most tender, realistic depiction of lesbians in any podcast. Anything else I could say would spoil it and for this, I don’t want to spoil it because I want every person alive that can stomach horror to listen to this.
Archive 81
Genre: horror, comedy, sci-fi, Lovecraftian
Episode count: 35 (ongoing)
Description: Archive 81 is a found footage horror podcast about ritual, stories, and sound.
Thoughts: The latest podcast I’ve tried, and it’s definitely one that grows on you. The audio mixing is some of the best I’ve heard in any podcast, and every bump and scratch and hum of frequency weaves to form moments that are truly and viscerally gory. Season 3 and Left of The Dial are my favorites because again, I love Americana horror, and anything that involves family!
Artificial Ghost Radio
Genre: non-fiction, discussion, comedy
Episode count: 75 (ongoing)
Description: Our Sisyphean music recommendation challenge with hosts Miles (he/him) and Jupiter (she/they) challenge each other to find songs based on arbitrary themes and to spin the WHEEL OF DISCORD to talk about a random song from their library! They can be found on twitter @artghostpod.
Thoughts: Gotta plug my own podcast! We’re still small, but the people I’ve met from doing AGR has made my life richer and fuller, even through the ups and downs. I recommend starting with #58: Songs about Aliens ft. our friend Liz (@thescaryjokes)!
EOS 10
Genre: medical drama, comedy, sci-fi
Episode count: 34 (ongoing)
Description: Doctors in space, a deposed alien prince, a super gay space pirate and a fiery nurse who'll help you win your bar fight. Thoughts: It’s been a hot minute since I listened, but as someone that inherently loves things like Star Trek and procedural comedies, EOS 10 is a quick and hilarious listen! Fair warning some of the earlier stuff is a little bit ignorant when it comes to their LGBT characters, but it gets a lot better over time.
King Falls AM
Genre: horror, comedy, Lovecraftian
Episode count: 100 (ongoing)
Description: King Falls AM centers on a lonely little mountain town's late-night AM talk radio show and its paranormal, peculiar happenings and inhabitants
Thoughts: I’m a bit behind, but again, gotta love some Alpine American horror! King Falls AM perfectly captures the feeling and sound of listening to a small late night radio show with two bros, but it really goes from typical dude dialogue to heart wrenching found family alien conspiracy real quick. Same as EOS 10, fair warning for some ignorant language and LGBT stereotypes, but they address it and it gets better as it progresses.
Not Another D&D Podcast
Genre: actual play Dungeons and Dragons, TTRPG, comedy
Episode count: 128 (ongoing)
Description: Welcome to the campaign after the campaign! Three unlikely adventurers attempt to right the wrongs caused by a party of legendary heroes who screwed up the world while trying to save it.
Thoughts: I’m only like 40 episodes in because they’re thick, meaty ‘sodes, but god is NADDPOD fucking hilarious. I’ve tried a fair few TTRPG shows, but the chemistry and care that the cast has together is unmatched by others in the genre. I’m a complete sucker for shows that are so funny and so tragic in equal measures, and the entire concept of a D&D game set after the world has been so drastically changed by a different D&D game is so unique!
The Faculty of Horror
Genre: non-fiction, horror, philosophy, sociology, feminism
Episode count: 86 (ongoing)
Description: Tackling all things horror with a slash of analysis and research, horror journalists and occasional academics Andrea Subissati and Alexandra West are your hosts for brain-plumping discussions on all things that go bump in the night.
Thoughts: A little non-fiction in this list of fiction podcasts! The Faculty of Horror is a concise and educated intersectional feminist podcast, and it’s a breath of fresh air to listen to anyone that isn’t a cishet white guy talk about horror. I highly recommend the episode on Cabin in The Woods or Jennifer’s Body!
The Magnus Archives
Genre: horror, office comedy
Episode count: 180 (ongoing)
Description: The Magnus Archives is a weekly horror fiction anthology podcast examining what lurks in the archives of the Magnus Institute, an organization dedicated to researching the esoteric and the weird. Join new head archivist Jonathan Sims as he attempts to bring a seemingly neglected collection of supernatural statements up to date, converting them to audio and supplementing them with follow-up work from his small but dedicated team.
Thoughts: TMA is, similarly to A81, a bit of a slow burn to get into, but I think once you listen to a few episodes you’ll know if you want to continue. It’s a pretty standard prompt for a narrative, but the sheer amount of individual short horror stories they’ve managed to write is insane! And I love the slow break down between recording statements and the stuff happening within the archives. Also one of the best redemption stories in a character that starts off as such a grumpy fuck!
The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: sci-fi, neo-noir, romance, comedy, found family, magic, medieval fantasy, adventure, mystery
Episode count: 75 (ongoing)
Description: At the Penumbra, you might follow Juno Steel, a brooding, sharp-witted private eye on Mars, as he tangles with an elusive homme fatale, tracks dangerous artifacts of an ancient alien civilization, and faces his three greatest fears: heights, blood, and relationships. Or you might enter the world of the Second Citadel, where the merciless Sir Caroline must corral a team of emotionally distraught all-male knights to defend their city against mind-manipulating monsters...even the ones they’ve fallen in love with.
Thoughts: On god TPP was a life changing podcast for me. Having creators that are genuinely concerned with accurately representing minorities with care and dedication makes me feel spoiled when I try listen to anything else. The two main universes are so different with their own set of histories and cultures, but I love them both so completely. If you want LGBT+ representation, this is the seminal podcast for everything non-binary, trans, queer, and people that aren’t afraid to change and have that change be known! I haven’t listened to another podcast that actually depicts transitioning like they do, absolute king shit.
Wolf 359
Genre: space drama, comedy, action
Episode count: 61 (completed)
Description: WOLF 359 is a radio drama in the tradition of Golden Age of Radio shows. Set on board the U.S.S. Hephaestus space station, the dysfunctional crew deals with daily life-or-death emergencies, while searching for signs of alien life and discovering there might be more to their mission than they thought
Thoughts: Wolf 359 is like if you fell down the stairs and at the bottom of the stairs was a bear trap, and then after you step in the bear trap someone helps you take off that beartrap, but then they kick you in the nuts. Just replace physical pain with emotional pain. It can be so funny but also so fucking stressful and sad – w359 isn’t afraid to kill its darlings, and it will break your heart but you will still say thank you.
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Top 10 CSatM Episodes (2/2)
See part 1 here
As a few paragraphs and pictures for 10 episodes in a row makes a rather long, unruly beast of a post!
The second half of my personal preferred picks for a Top 10, though the order they’re being listed in doesn’t correspond to my favour, but the order how I watch them on my DVDs. I still suggest you read the first half of the list before this one, all the same~
Spoilers below the cut, be warned! ✂
Crater 101
So this ep is pretty much a sequel to Lunarville 7, and is followed up with Dangerous Rendezvous. Neither of those made the cut of my list though, and even isolated from those it makes a solid story. The most Space-y of all the episodes and a visual treat, cause while we mostly stuck to the stark accommodations of Lunarville 7 in that episode, here we see the grey grimy gloom of the outside of the Moon, and the sharp, delightful contrast of the Mysteron’s fantastic plastic Complex. Here, vivid marbled colours and flashing lights join inorganic shapes that suggest something of the Mysteron’s nature, but as always, nothing conclusive.
Moving away from the lovely Aesthetics, this is also a strong one for characterisation. We get some sweet interactions with The Lads and for this episode only, the Best Female Character in the whole show. Linda Nolan is the controller of Lunarville 6, a smart, capable woman who had her own cool space mission referenced and in fact critical to the plot. She is also relatable in that she catches feelings for Scarlet, so while she’s barking up the wrong tree I still have nothing but respect for her, hehee.
Eerie, tense, interesting and still somewhat funny, this is another episode that eeks into an even higher ranking list than 10, I could comfortably put it in 5 and mmmaybe 3. Though I’m not gonna be able to say definitively as the best episodes all bring something different to the table, and this may just be the strongest in the uniqueness regard.
Fire at Rig 15
I get the feeling this may be an unorthodox choice, somehow? But yeah, I just really enjoy it. It’s not a funny episode, but it is rather exciting, and contains some lovely new music and a sweet scene at the end. The Mysteron’s plot is pretty simple, but should it succeed, devastating as it would be crippling Spectrum’s operations by removing the unique type of fuel all the craft uses.
In a way, it’s kind of like a dark mirror to a typical Thunderbirds setup; whereas in that show the initial fire would be more likely to be accidental or just maybe some ne’er do well like the Hood, this time it’s as simple as the Mysterons reopening the master valve. When traditional firefighters would eventually retreat to make room for International Rescue, here Spectrum themselves have a rather passive role as a professional rolls in. And of course, said man finds himself very, very dead due to further Mysteron interference (see picture), with Black seemingly hypnotising the poor bloke into standing too close to the explosion.
From there his duplicate half buries his original corpse and later receives direct instructions from Black to suicide bomb the nearby refinery, and it’s en route to this is where the thrilling car chase takes place! Scarlet saves the refinery but the whole SPV he was driving is completely ablaze at the end of it. Like my thoughts on Point 783, I really appreciate the human touch to the last scene, with soft music as arrangements are made for Scarlet to recover from the horrible state we’re spared of seeing. Seeing how his ability to recover from death is one of the cornerstones of the whole premise, I love it when we’re allowed a bit more insight into what the other Spectrum personnel do in the situations, in this case White specifically instructing Dr Fawn to make sure Scarlet is comfortable as the process takes place.
Treble Cross
A notable and unique spin of an episode, where a rather routine Mysteron threat takes quite the turn when their assassinated target is brought back to life! It seems by the 2060′s we’ll have cool machinery to do CPR for a couple of hours as well as doctors ready to play god when they happen to drive by the car crash scene, heheh
Seriously though, this is a really fresh premise, that the villains who have been using doppelgangers for their devious schemes get the tables turned. This time the duplicate gets perma-killed while the original Major Gravener willingly participates in an undercover mission to help draw Captain Black into a trap at last... However, an easily overlooked factor in the driver who was also killed had been duplicated offscreen, so even with this amazing chance Spectrum can’t catch Black. But the World Capital, Futura City, is saved and Spectrum find the Mysterons themselves can’t tell their own copies from the original person, so it’s all in all a net gain!
Also this episode contains the World’s Happiest Clock, so that’s a neat plus.
Flight 104
We start this story on the incredible note of Captain Blue singing in the shower of the Hotel room he shares with Captain Scarlet. Scarlet then orders them both room service for some lunch. And if that sounds like the start of a fanfic plot, it may well be, but it’s also literally right there in the episode, baybee!
Charmingly domestic opening aside, I love this whole shebang. Again it’s the usual Mysterons threatening of an individual who Spectrum are bodyguarding, but the way both our heroes and villains go about this is different from the norm. Scarlet and Blue are trying to avoid drawing attention, so they spend the whole episode in normal clothes (Blue spending 1/3 of this in that comfy bathrobe!), and don’t have their comms. What’s more, they get a pair of reporters suspicious, and the two trail them looking for a Big Scoop.
When I was first watching this, I was expecting the journalists to get killed by Black to be the Mysteron Pawns, but no! They’re both fine from the start to the end! Then we find Black doing ....something.... to the Flight Crew of the titular Flight 104, but they aren’t killed either, just drugged. Instead, the Mysterons remotely pilot the plane on a slow collision course with the Alps, but are undone when an Electrical Plant interferes with their control.
As breaking into the pilot cabin had the side effect of jamming the landing gear, the plane has to crash land at the airport, but almost everyone being unharmed makes this one of the most gentle episodes of the lot... of course, Scarlet himself is still heavily implied to have been killed from the crash, but even his injuries seem pretty minor this time. And yet, it’s not lacking in excitement, as the tension of Spectrum trying to communicate with the two without their Comms and the inability to override the Mysteron’s control until that pre-established Electrical weakness kicks in holds for a while.
Inferno
Those who know of me from Thunderbirds are Go (the 2015 TV series) discussion are likely to know how much I love the episode from Season 1, Tunnels of Time. It heavily features my favourite ship in that show as they explore an ancient South American Temple which is full of peril. The temple is destroyed by the end of the episode.
So anyway, Inferno features my favourite ship in this show as they explore an ancient South American Temple which is full of peril, and tragically the temple is destroyed by the end of the episode! Heheeheheee~
Ok seriously though, eerie parallels aside this is another utterly beautiful instalment, with set design and lighting that really blows other episodes out of the proverbial water. And the pyrotechnic team clearly had fun with the seemingly unending explosions at the end of the adventure. An all-around visual feast!
Main plot is relatively simple, like in White as Snow, the Mysterons kill a Satellite and its crew and steer the reconstructed version towards their target of the week. Unlike WaS, they succeed in the end, a reminder that they’re still not to be underestimated. No human lives are lost, but the important complex and more tragically, the 800 year old temple that’s otherwise intact, get bombed to smithereens. Something something additional cost of warfare on Culture and History.
But while this is the end of my personal Top 10 list, it’s not all bad, because the Scarlet and Blue antics in the temple are utterly lovely and [chef finger kiss] splendid cinema~!
That about wraps up this Two-part post of mine! Picking 10 out of 32 is easier than 10 out of 100, but it’s still tricky as most of the episodes are very good, with only a few I’d promptly write off as a candidate for the list. And in some ways I wonder if I went about this the right way, some eps I only saw once and might feel strong enough to pip one’a the ones I did choose.
I have been rewatching each of the eps covered, and a few that didn’t make it, but my initial choice was made looking at the full list and letting my gut grab a few, having to think over more as the slots filled. Some fan favourites like Lunarville 7 came close, but I hope I’ve been able to clearly convey what it is about this selection that gave them the edge ;3
I will write further posts on Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons in the future, but after this mammoth and also the Notable Episodes list I’d quite like to enjoy it for a while without thinking about points to talk about, haha
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Quarters. | 8
☼1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8
prompt: Sitting here, patching myself up. Crying over what's left, 'cause without you I ain't shit, but no pressure guess I gotta learn my lesson. Sorry — 6LACK
pairing: Jungkook x reader
warnings/au: dysfunctional relationship with a capital D, family drama, humor(i try), temptations, drug usage, relapsing, hoeing, mentions and accusations of infidelity, jk has baby-fever for two seconds if you squint,, bloody, 18+ for heavy scenes, fluff, angst, this is purely fiction please do not read if you are sensitive or easily triggered boxer!au, iceskater!au.
authors note: omg FINALLY💜🐰 this chapter really took everything I had lol, like always, this part is a little out there, their relationship gets tested and they’re forced to grow. Will edit later. enjoy!
It’s so early in the morning, the sun is just now rising—the beauty does nothing for your anxiety though.
You told Jungkook that he needs to rest, he needs to take it easy and clear his mind before he walks into that hospital. The last thing you need is a stressed Jungkook behind the wheel, he’s way too unpredictable when he’s upset. After a few minutes of going back and forth, he gave up and let you drive him—in his car. This is a privilege. He doesn’t let anyone drive his car, not his best friends, not even you. He says, no one knows how to handle her like I do.
It always makes you laugh when he says that.
Jungkook glances at you as you take a turn at a questionable speed. He’s definitely driving back home.
You look around the crowded parking lot and pull into a visitor's parking space, squeezing between the white lines surprisingly well.
“That was a long drive,” You pull the key out of the ignition and turn your head to look at him, “but we made it.”
Jungkook doesn’t turn to look at you, rather, he takes a deep breath and his eyes shut before he drags his hands down his face. “I’m gonna warn you now, I’m going off on him if he gives me some shit excuse as to why he decided to leave me out of the loop on this.”
“Jungkook, please don’t do that. Stay calm, for your mother's sake and mine, I’m nervous.” You sigh, trying to grasp the fact that you’re about to meet his family for the first time. You open your door and slide out, naturally, you assumed he was doing the same thing. When you drop the keys into your purse and close the door, he still in the passenger's seat, head in his hands.
“Jungkook.” You stomp around the vehicle and open his door. “Come on, we need to go inside,”
He sighs, heavy black boots landing on the pavement when he gets out of the car, stretching his legs in the hugging black jeans. When he closes the door, he bends down to look at himself in the window, hair still a little wet.
“You look good with messy hair, don’t fix it too much,” You smile, trying to lighten the mood, he smiles a little but he’s back to that grave face in just a few seconds. His silver necklace is a nice touch to his outfit you notice, he paired it with his hooped earrings and you think it looks really charming.
You haven’t been to a hospital in a while. Nurses with bright colored scrubs come to and from the nurse's station, visitors pace around the gift shop, hoping to find the perfect for their loved one. When you two get signed in as visitors, your eyes wander to the couple at the sliding doors, the woman is in a wheelchair holding her baby and the man is trying to help in any way possible, the nurse gazes at him fondly. She knows he’s trying hard.
“Here you go, she’s in room 202A,” The nurse hands you the sticky tags to and points you in the right direction. Jungkook breathes in, looking like the antiseptic and sterile environment makes him dizzy.
“Should I get her a gift?” Your eyes follow the family walking out of the gift shop with get well balloons and teddy bears.
“You can, she’d like that,” He follows you into the gift shop and you go straight to the bunnies in the corner. After sorting through the stuffed animals, you pick the little pink one in the back. Now that you see the bunny, it’s only right to get her a balloon and some flowers.
“Hi there,” She cashier greets you, taking your items to ring them up, “great choices.”
“Thanks,” You smile, proud that this random lady approves of your gifts.
It’s not long before you’re leaving the shop to finally meet see her, to finally meet his family. Does Jungkook have her eyes? The cute sun rays at the corner of his eyes when he laughs, does he get that from her? These questions swarm your mind when Jungkook's hand grips the doorknob, just seconds away from opening another part of his world to you.
“Knock, knock,” He opens the door and the brightest smile came to his face when he sees the woman on the bed. He beckons you to follow and you just know you must have the most awkward smile on your face.
“Jungkook! Oh my gosh, I didn’t know you were coming!”
She looks at him like he’s a puppy – as if he’s the epitome of love and innocence.
He runs to give her a hug, eyes squeezing shut, relieved that she’s in one piece and smiling that life-saving smile. “I’m glad you’re okay mom,” He sighs, standing back and reaching for you to shuffle you towards his mother, “this is Y/n, my girlfriend.”
“Hi, it’s nice to meet you,” You smile, holding your gifts out to her, “this is for you, I hope you like it.”
“Aw, thank you, honey,” She takes the bunny with bright eyes and you sit the flowers on the stand beside her bed, “I’m so glad he brought you to meet me. I hate that we’re meeting under these circumstances though.”
“Jooe called me last night, scared me half to death,” Jungkook takes a seat in the recliner beside her and you sit in the little cushioned bench near the window, “are you okay?”
“I’m as good as can be expected, I guess,” She continues to talk to Jungkook and just observe them, admiring their similarities—you note that she looks very young, “I felt terrible yesterday. The doctors told me that I got here right on time, the appendix was badly ruptured, it felt like cramps from hell.”
“Where’s Kev and Jooe?” Jungkook says her husband's name differently than his little sisters.
“She was getting restless, he took her to get something from the cafeteria. Something tells me you’re not too happy with him, and my intuition never lies so what’s the problem?”
“Mom, I got the call that you were in the hospital from Jooe. Why didn’t he call me? Why does she have a phone, by the way? She’s 6.”
“I know, she told me.” She lets out a sigh, knowing where Jungkook is going. “It’s an emergency cellphone app on her tablet, it’s not an actual phone.”
He dismisses the information to return to his original topic. “I shouldn’t have gotten a call that you were in the hospital from her. Kev, your husband, should have let me know.”
“Jungkook, he was stressed out, okay? He was trying to make sure I was okay so his attention was a little divided, don’t be too hard on him.”
“He did it on purpose, he’s always tried to keep me out of the loop when it comes to you. I’m fucking tired of it-”
“Kookie!”
A high-pitched voice squeals from an adorable little girl with two long jet-black pigtails atop her head. She runs from the man once holding her hand to jump into Jungkook’s arms. It’s evident in his mother's eyes that her heart is melting at the sight.
“It’s good to see you too, Jooe,” He giggles, pulling back to get a good look at her, “Hey, I want you to meet someone.”
You squirm anxiously, for some reason wanting her more than anyone else approval.
“She’s really special to me,” When she adjusts to sit in his lap, she finally looks at you. He leans to whisper in her ear, “say hi.” He moves her to fully face you, making both of your eyes go wide at meeting each other.
“Hi,” She shyly waves, back leaning into Jungkook to seek comfort.
“Hi, I’m Y/n,” You wave, “you’re so pretty, you look just like your mom.”
She blushes, hands grabbing at her yellow sun-dress instinctively. “Thank you, you’re really pretty too.” She cracks a bright smile and her attention goes to her mother when she starts asking her about what she ate for breakfast.
“Jungkook, I didn’t think you’d be able to make it,” Kev finally speaks and the sparkle in Jungkook’s eyes fades instantly.
“Well, here I am.” Jungkook shoots back, eyes menacing and dark within a matter of seconds.
“Um, hello,” You stand up to greet who you assume if ‘Kev,’ hand extended and he takes it in a friendly manner, “I’m Y/n, you’re Kevin, right? It’s nice to meet you, I’m Jungkook’s-”
“You must be his better half,” You nod, scooting back to sit down, “a pleasure to meet you, sweetheart.”
A million-dollar pearly smile, business clothes on, hair slicked back like that of a TV-doctors—he seems really kind, you can’t see why Jungkook would have such a problem with him. It’s hard to sit here knowing he’s the reason Jungkook wasn’t invited to his step-brother's wedding. The reason he called you drunk as hell because he was so hurt—this guy did that to him.
“Has the doctor been in to talk to you? I have a call to jump on but I want to be with you to see what she says.”
“Don’t worry about it, honey, take your call, I know you’re pressed for time,” She sighs in relief, “I’m just glad Jungkook is here, I feel better just from seeing his face,” She reaches for his hand and a spark of pride comes to him, “it’s been too long.”
He knows and guilt eats him up for that more than she knows.
“Well, you know Jungkook, he’s got a busy life, doesn't have too much time for stuff like this,” He laughs a little, eyes landing on you for a moment, “I’m sure you get that, don’t you hon?”
He’s looking at you and you turn a little pale. You look at Jungkook, and then open your mouth to utter out something, “Well, um, no I-...”
“Kev, leave the girl alone,” Jungkook’s mom intervenes, noticing how flustered you looked.
“I can’t make time for shit that I don’t even know is happening,” Now it’s Jungkook’s turn to laugh, but not out of genuine amusement, he’s doing it to stay calm, “What do you expect? You don’t tell me shit.”
“All you have to do it ask,” Kevin stands next to his wife, opening up his phone to absentmindedly tap the screen.
“That’s bullshit...” Jungkook let one too many words slip before thinking of the child in his lap who’s more focused on his phone than anything. The two of them make you feel uneasy, it’s like one wrong word from either of them would start a brawl.
“No!” Jooe exclaims, sliding off of Jungkook’s lap, “I left my sweater in the cafeteria! I have to go get it before someone takes it!” Distress befalls her and now the whole room's attention is on her.
“Jooe, I told you to make sure you kept it wrapped around your waist,” Kev doesn’t look like he wants to go but he grudgingly stands to his feet. “Come on,”
“Do you want me to take her? I was going to get coffee anyway, I can help her look for it.” You look at Jooe with a sweet smile.
“Oh, are you sure? I mean, as long as you don’t mind I fine with it,” It’s almost like you answered his prayer because he fell back into a chair with a sigh of relief.
“Of course I don’t mind,” You stand up, holding out your hand, “is it okay if I go with you, Jooe?” She nods, taking your hand without hesitation. Jungkook looks in awe as you seem to already be a favorite of his little sisters—he’s never seen you interact with children, but it warms his heart.
“We’ll be back everyone,”
You wave to the room as you go on a mission to find the missing sweater. As soon as the door closed, Jungkook’s mom smirks at him.
“What? You’re giving me a weird look.”
“She’s so sweet Jungkook, oh my gosh. I’m so glad you brought her, I’ve never met one of your girlfriends before, she must really be something. Look, Kev,” She points to the flowers and the bunny in bed next to her, “she brought me these cute gifts.”
“That’s sweet,” He looks up from his phone, then at Jungkook, “you better hang on to her.”
“That’s what I’m doing,” Jungkook scoffs. “So all l I have to do is ask, you expect me to have to beg for information on my own mother?”
“We live in different city’s and sometimes it’s easy to handle things and let you know after everything's said and done.” He reasons, eyes going to his cellphone in an attempt to exit the conversation peacefully. To both his mother and Kev’s surprise, he leaves it at that—not cussing, not lashing out, he just sinks back into his seat, expression unreadable. Jungkook remembered that you asked him not to lash out, and he’s so tempted to, but he’s gotta keep things under control for you.
You must have made a difference in him because this isn’t the Jungkook they’re used to.
* * *
“What color is it, Jooe?”
You and this bubbly little girl are holding hands and walking into the cafeteria. “Sky blue, it’s my favorite, what if someone took it...” concern coats her tone, it makes you a thousand times more determined to find it.
“Don’t worry, we’ll find it, you’re with a professional sweater detective Jooe,” You give her hand a reassuring squeeze and draw a little smile from her. It only takes a few questions to get her to retrace her steps. She finally finds the table she sat at while her dad ordered her fold and it was right there. It’s just a sweater, but she’s so happy.
”I told you we’d find it,” You’re relieved she found it, now you can get your coffee, “I’m just gonna get some coffee, then we can go back up to the room.” You lead her to stand by you when you walk up to the counter. A protective arm around her shoulders as you order two small lattes. They come out quickly and she begs you to carry Jungkook’s, you’re afraid she’ll drop it, but you give her a chance.
“Okay, but be careful,” She walks right beside you, both hands tight on the disposable cup, you open the door for her to walk in and she beams.
“We found it,” She walks up to Jungkook, handing him the cup, “and we brought you coffee.”
“Thank you guys,” He looks up at you, his eyes sparkling.
“I’ll be right back, I have to make a phone call,” You look to Jungkook to reassure him that everything is okay. But you got a text from your older sister Layla. Call me. She rarely reached out like this so you decided to give her a call, hoping nothing was wrong
“Hello,”
“Hey, Y/n, how are you?”
“I’m fine, what’s wrong? You texted me to call, what’s going on?”
She sighs, “I need a favor,”
“What is it?”
“I need someone to watch Lily, I’m in your part of town and I have to go see her dad.”
“Layla,” You message your temples, “I’m not in town and I don’t know if I can watch a baby right now, I’m with my b-”
“Please Y/n, I can’t call mom, you know how she is with him,”
“Okay, okay,” You cut her off, looking down at your watch to see if you can make it home before 11, “I can get home around 11, bring her by 11:30.”
“Thank you! Thank you, I’ll see you then little sis,” She sounds relieved, and even though this wasn’t apart of your plans, you do feel good about helping her out. You type up a quick message to tell Jungkook that your visit has to be cut short. Hoping he sees it, you walk back into the room and give his family a kind smile.
“I’m sorry to cut the visit short, but I have a little situation that came up with my sister’s baby, so I’m gonna have to go,” Jungkook stands up, sitting Jooe where he once sat with her tablet and promptly kissing her forehead and telling her he’ll see her soon.
“Oh, we understand Y/n, I’m just glad I was able to meet you,” His mom reaches to give you a hug goodbye, she whispers, “take care of him for me.”
“I will,” You notice that Kev had stepped out so you weren’t able to say goodbye to him, and you have a feeling Jungkook is glad.
“I love you mom, call me if anything changes,” His mom kisses his cheek, relishing in the rare affection she gets to show her son.
His family loves him.
When you get to the car, you can see relief overtake his body, knowing his mother is in good health. This time he drives, and now he gets to assist you with your family situation.
“So, what’s up with your sister?”
“She needs me to watch her baby,” You lean against the window, pressing your temples, “she’s having baby-daddy issues, but she won’t say it,”
“Hm,” He nods, knowing how that can be according to some of his friends, “how old is the baby?”
“She’s five months or six months old, something like that, I was supposed to go out to help Rosie pack for her new apartment but I guess I’ll have to get there later,” and you were really looking forward to that.
“Oh, she’s a young baby,”
You can’t help but giggle, “Aren’t they all,”
“Yeah, but I mean like, she still needs her mothers milk and she probably is just- I don’t know, small?” In the midst of him explaining the difference between a baby and a young-baby, your eyes flutter shut and you fall straight to sleep. The gentle hum of the engine lulled you to sleep. When he looked over, a grin came to his face—even thought you fell asleep in the middle of his talking, he loves you.
For some reason, you’re stressed.
“Jungkook, you don’t have to stay,” You told him that a hundred times, telling him he was supposed to be conditioning today but he insisted, “I got this.”
“I don’t have to go until late,” He’s laying on your couch, a black tee-shirt on, showing his beautiful arms and the tattoos that graced them. He’s drawing one for one of Yoongi’s clients tonight. Yoongi has his own tattoo shop, where it smells like weed and you’re sure drug deals happen in the back. You want to go lay with him, but instead, you're in the kitchen trying to clean your stress away on the stainless steel. “I’ll stay for a while, you went with me this morning,”
“Just know that you don’t have to,” You mumble, that’s when you hear the doorbell ring, “she’s here.” When you yank the gloves off, you go to the door and take a breath before opening it.
“Hi, Y/n,” Layla walks right in, giving you a big hug.
“Hey,” You smile, eyes filling with adoration when you see your niece in the car seat, “hi Lily,” You lead Layla to sit the car seat on the couch where Jungkook was waiting to be introduced.
“Layla, Jungkook,” You gesture to him, “Jungkook, Layla.”
“Hi,” He flashes a sweet smile, “nice to meet you.”
“Oh hello, nice to meet you too, “ She nudges your arm, giving you gossiping-girlfriend eyes. “Y/n didn’t tell me you were so handsome,”
“Yeah, well, must’ve slipped my mind,” You laugh, the most in-genuine laugh he’s ever heard, “did you bring her a few changes of clothes? Bottles? Formula?”
“Are you her mom, or am I?” She laughs, handing you the baby bag. “Everything’s in there, she should be hungry in a few minutes.”
“Okay, will you be back to get here tonight? I have plans tonight so-”
“Yeah, before 7,” She’s headed to the front door, “thanks so much for watching her.”
The door closes, and just as quick, Lily starts to cry.
“She’s crying,” Jungkook moves closer to her pink car seat, hesitantly moving her seat to look at her increasingly red face. “do you want me to-”
You rush over to pick her up, “It’s okay Lily,” cradling her against you, “Auntie Y/n is watching you while mommy takes care of some business,” You walk around, rocking her a little, then you remember she’s probably just hungry. His eyes are wide, watching you hold the little girl to cry to calm her
“Jungkook,” He shakes out of his daze and looks at you, “can you warm her a bottle? Just run it under hot water for a minute or so,” You point to the baby bag and take a seat on the couch. He gets up promptly, finding the bottle easily and taking it to the kitchen.
He dries the bottle and brings it to you, “Thanks,” You sit her up, her curly brown hair a little smashed on one side but still cute. When you bring it to her lips, her crying ceases and you breathe in relief, Jungkook sits beside you, leaning on your shoulder and watching the TV.
“Hopefully she’ll nap after this,” Her big brown eyes look from you to Jungkook every few seconds, “look at her hair, it’s so curly,”
“Yeah, it is,” He smiles, looking down at your niece, “she’s adorable,”
It’s not long before she finishes her bottle, you burp her and put her back in the seat so she can nap. Surprisingly, she doesn’t fuss, and you leave her and Jungkook on the couch so you can go to the table to finish the essay that you forgot you had.
He’s awoken by a cry. In his many years with Jooe when she was a baby, he often woke up to cries. He groggily opens his eyes and shoots up to see what was wrong with Lily and to see where you went.
“Hey,” He reaches down the lift her small body into his completely contrasting hands, “it’s okay, don’t cry, shh,” Naturally, he bounces her gently, feeling bad for her inability to express her sorrow, “what’s wrong Lily-” That’s when it hits him, “Oh,” He sighs, “I would cry too.”
With her in one arm, he grabs her baby bag, dragging it across the couch. Once he finds the changing mat, he lays it out and lays her on it. He doesn’t think he’s ever seen a baby turn so red, she looks like she’ll set the house on fire if he doesn’t hurry up.
“I know, I’m sorry,” He takes out the diapers, wipes, and gloves, “I haven’t changed a baby in years, give me a break,”
After dodging her kicks to his hands and relieving her of the dirty diaper, she’s cleaned up and the color is coming back to her face.
“Damn,” He triple-bags the diaper and gloves and takes it to the trash with her in his other arm, “I think I did a pretty good job, what do you think?” He smiles, proud of himself for being an ideal babysitter in his eyes, even though she’s still crying a little bit.
“Where is your aunt?” He drops the bag in the trash and then looks around for you. When he finds you, your head is on your textbook and your computer screen was black, you fell asleep doing work. He’s found you like this many times after skate practice, cramming for assignments that you procrastinated on.
“Let’s let her sleep for a little bit,” Resisting the urge to wake you, opting for taking Lily to the couch so she could chill in her seat. He turns on his game counsel that he left over here and makes himself busy.
Lily was quiet for the most part after he gave her a pacifier and she found a dangling thing on her seat—she’s good now.
Suddenly, you feel paper stick to your face and your eyes fluttered open.
“Jungkook?” You shoot up, wiping your face and looking around. “How long was I asleep?” You quickly walk over to the living room, looking at your boyfriend and your niece having a fine time without you.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to fall asleep,” You sigh, taking a seat between Jungkook and Lily in her seat, “I was trying to write my paper.”
“You’re fine, I changed her and everything,” His eyes are still glued to the TV and you grin.
“Wow, thanks. You’re a good babysitter,” You sigh, dropping your hand into her seat and she grabs one of your fingers, “I guess I should order some takeout, what do you want? Pizza?”
“I wish I could stay baby,” He leans back and sighs, “but I gotta go, Yoongi’s expecting me at the shop, he wants me to finish up a sketch for a client of his.”
“Oh, then I’ll just make something for me,” Your eyes follow him as he gets up, grabbing his keys and scrolling through his phone for a moment, “hopefully Layla will pick her up on time so I can head to Rosie’s,”
“Yeah,” He gently rubs Lily’s little cheek, his hair dangle over her when he leans down to smile at her, “bye Lily, be good for your aunt, okay?”
You giggle. “I didn’t know you were such a softy for babies,”
“She’s cute, kinda makes me want one,” Your expression must’ve looked shocked because he quickly covered himself, “I’m joking, I’m not daddy-material, I can babysit, but my own kid? I don’t think so, we’re both a little too messed up for that,” He just laughs.
“Yeah,” You nervously let out the breath that you unconsciously held. He can’t blame you for your reaction, you’re both young with lives that just don’t work well with stability. And you love Jungkook and he loves you, but jokes like that are merely just that, jokes.
“I’ll see you later,” He leans down to give you a kiss, pressing your lips with a grin.
“Okay,” You withdraw, your smile fading a little but he doesn’t notice. When he leaves, your eyes linger on the door and you swallow.
You have an aversion to a lot of places he goes, but you have a special dislike for Yoongi’s tattoo shop.
“Lily,” You look at her and sigh, “I guess it’s just you and me.” You switch on some random TV show and sit back, you just hope her mom isn’t late this time.
When he pulls up to the shop, his usual parking space in the back being there just as he expected, he sees Yoongi talking to some girl at the back door. She’s a frail little thing, hair bleached as white at humanly possible, mascara heavy even from this distance, and tattoos covering her legs under fishnet-stockings and very short shorts. He watches as Yoongi talks to her, he looks upset, brows furrowed even under his hair covering them.
Her eyes are dark and whatever she’s saying is making Yoongi place his hands over his face. She looks like she might be defending herself. After a few seconds, she shows him her middle finger and storms to her car. Pulling out at an ungodly speed. He kindly flips her off and eyes her until she’s out of sight, that’s Yoongi.
Jungkook finally decides to get out of the car and Yoongi leans against the back door, waiting for him to walk over.
“Hyung,” He grabs his art bag and locks his car, letting it beep twice before leaving it, “sorry I’m a little late,”
“You’re fine,” Yoongi sighs, tired eyes gaining a little bit of life when he sees Jungkook, “I’m sure you saw the shit I just had to deal with.” Yoongi opens the door so they can both head inside the well-kept shop, the door shutting behind them.
“I wasn’t gonna mention it,” But he was admittedly curious, “but who was that,”
“A pain in the ass,” An artist he hired about a month ago, she’s got talent but she’s a complete mess, “she was selling dope out of the shop, drawing junkies back here at all times of the day. I’m not letting her fuck up my business, I had to fire her.”
“That’s tough,” Jungkook nods, clearing his throat when he takes a seat at his normal spot in Yoongi’s backroom slash office. “So, the sketch is rough, I’ll refine it and you can tell me if you want to add anything. Who is it for again?”
“Agh,” Yoongi groans, now deciding to reveal the truth, “I was going to keep it a secret until the last second, but I guess I’ll tell you.”
Jungkook furrows a brow, “Tell me what?”
“It’s for Jimin, he wanted a new tattoo but he wanted the design to be a surprise,” Yoongi shows Jungkook to the area he can sketch at while Yoongi cleans up his needles and wipes off the table, “I told him I’d have it drawn up by my best artist,” He looks at Jungkook, “that’s you.”
“Seriously? In that case, I know exactly how I should finish it, he told me of a tattoo he was looking at not too long ago,” Jungkook smiles, glad he knows the person who’s going to have this tattoo, “it’s small, I imagined it going on the biceps or the ribs maybe? Not sure yet,” He sets up his tools to start finishing the design.
The shop is bustling with clients, artists, like always. Yoongi pretty popular with the underground scene, the punks and rejects seem to gravitate to this place. Including himself. He pops in his earbuds because of the loud conversations going on in the front.
Without him noticing at first, Yoongi slips out the back door.
After an hour or so, Mingyu, one of the artists walks in and Jungkook takes out an earbud to greet him. He’s got more tattoos than Jungkook and his hair is electric blue and he used to drag Jungkook into all types of stupid stuff. He’s been close to puking out his organs on several occasions—they laughed a lot about it but he never smoked with him after that.
“Kook, long time no see,” He leans in the door frame, “I saw you at the match last night, you’re always the talk of the night on Tuesday Night Brawls, congrats on your win.”
“Thanks,” Jungkook pushes his hair back, propping his arm on the desk to look at him, “I didn’t see you,”
“I had some activities to attend to so I had to leave early,” Mingyu’s activities probably entailed a female going to who knows where to do who knows what, “I heard you went to Jimin’s for a little party, any fun stories? I didn’t see many groupies with you guys,”
“Man, I don’t do that shit anymore,” Jungkook goes back to the drawing, “I’m kind of in a relationship,”
“Oh, me too,” He giggles to himself, “but we like to keep it open, it’s not exclusive, ”
“Mine is,” Jungkook affirms, this bias towards one individual catching Mingyu off guard.
“Aw, someones softened up,” Mingyu nods, “then I guess you probably don’t want to go to Milo’s Club, I have a friend there who’ll hook us up if you know what I mean.”
Milo’s is the spot for avid clubbers of any rank, potheads, college kids—anyone and everyone looking for a good time.
“Ah, I don’t know,” Jungkook shrugs, “maybe,”
“Well, some of us are headed over there when we close up shop in about 30 minutes, if you change your mind feel free to join us,”
Tempting.
Going out wouldn’t hurt, you’ll be at your girlfriend's house so he’d be going home alone anyway, he reasons with himself. As long as he doesn’t get carried away, he can indulge a little bit, can’t he? Yeah, he was just going out like he used to, nothing bad about that.
Layla finally came to get Lily and just as soon as she came you went to the grocery store to get a dessert to bring, you were feeling a little peckish. When you knock on the door, you can hear Rosie’s footsteps approach the door.
“Hey girl,” Rosie smiles, pulling you in with a relieved sigh, “oh, you brought food?” She peaks into the bag that you take to the kitchen.
“Yup, cheesecake,” You walk into the apartment and see Yuna, and Harmony here to help as well, “thought it’d be nice to have something indulgent.”
“Thank you Y/n,” Yuna speaks up from her wrapping a vase in bubble-wrap, “Rosie is working us to death, we need a reward.”
“I’m sure she is,” You laugh at Rosie defending herself as you open the cheesecake and take out paper plates and forks, “sorry I’m a little late, I was babysitting for a little bit.”
“Aw,” Harmony speaks from her comfortable spot sprawled on the couch, “who’s baby?”
“My sister’s, she needed to meet with her boyfriend, they had to sort some stuff out,” You put generous portions on each plate and brought them with you to the living room, “he’s being stupid.”
“That sucks,” Rosie looks u from her cheesecake, “is it custody thing?”
“I don’t even know, she won’t say,” You find yourself scooping a piece of cheesecake into your mouth, “Oh, I also met Jungkook’s family this morning.”
“How did that go?”
“It was fine,” You sigh, “his little sister called him last night, told him their mom’s appendix had ruptured, and you know him he got super worried and I did too. He doesn’t have a good relationship with his stepdad, they don’t see eye-to-eye on anything. But I think it went okay, his mom and his little sister seemed to like me, the stepdad too.”
“That’s good, I know you were worried about him letting you in on his family life,”
“Yeah, he even helped me babysit for a little while,” You smile at the thought, “it was really cute.”
“Oh my gosh,” Yuna giggles, “tattooed, earrings, leather boots, and ripped jeans Jungkook with a baby? How cute,” Everyone makes a mental picture of it and their hearts melt, “he seems like the type now that I think about it.”
“I fell asleep and when I woke up, he had changed her and they were on the couch together,” You smile at the thought, “it was sweet. He was talking about how cute she was, he said she made him want one.”
“You’re lucky,” Harmony looks up from her phone, “my ex couldn’t take care of a cactus, let alone a baby.”
“It’s silly, but there’s this thing I have where-...Well, you guys know the stuff I went through with my birth mom, she was a mess. And when she tried to get me back when I was in elementary school, it was a nightmare. Jungkook didn’t have it easy growing up either, it just makes sense that he’d say we’re both too messed up for a kid,” You sigh, “we’re both scarred by our parents. But I still don’t know why he’d say that...”
The three of them give you an odd look, “Say what? That you’re both too messed up for a kid?”
“Yeah,” You frown “why would he say he wanted on if that’s how he felt about us?”
“He was just being funny and obviously flirting with you,” Rosie shakes her head, “most girls would find that charming,”
“He said he was joking,” You reveal, “but damn, I’m not that messed up...”
“You mean you two have never talked about kids before, not even out of fun as a couple?”
“Well,” You rub your arm, embarrassed that they all think your reaction is ridiculous, “no...Is that a normal thing?”
You’re being ridiculous—is that what they all thought?
“Uh, yeah, Y/n,” Yuna takes everyone's empty plates to the kitchen, “chill, he was just being a guy. Maybe you can talk to him about it-”
“No, it’s not that deep,” You reason, “he went to Yoongi’s shop tonight, where all his up-to-no-good friends are...The people there do a lot of crazy stuff, there’s always some drama. That’s what I hear at least, I’ve never even been there.”
“Yeah,” Rosie chimes in, “but You trust Jungkook,” you assumed it was a question so you nod, “so chill out, and wrap these spatulas. I have to get half of this done before I pick my parents up from the airport in the morning, my mom will go neat-freak if she’s the one helping me.” She laughs, handing you the rags to wrap it in.
You should trust him.
So why don’t you?
The music is so loud, it almost hurts—but it’s so familiar, he knows the blaring speakers well. All the smells, the people wearing close to nothing just to get a fleeting moment of attention. He was once a happy giver of that attention. Hell, it was happily given to him at one point. As soon as they walked in, Mingyu was whisked away by a beautiful girl and he dragged Jungkook with him.
“Aren’t you glad you joined us?”
Mingyu simpers, throwing back his second shot before his lips were pulled to the girl's mouth. Her lips were so pink, they were big too and he wondered if they were real. Jungkook just watched, his shot still untouched until he felt the need to down it like his life depended on it and walk-off. The other guys who decided to join were off at the bar and Yoongi went off to a personal room.
Jungkook was standing up against a corner, arms crossed and eyes surveying the room. Unbeknownst to him, there was a girl watching him from the dance floor. She was wearing a skin-tight sequin-covered dress that the lights hit, her eyes were set on a target and she was planning her attack.
After a few minutes, Mingyu signals Jungkook to follow him into one of the personal rooms, where the magic happens. The purple lights from the ceiling illuminate the room in the dreamiest ways, the leather booths surrounding the room are shiny and comfortable when they sit.
“San,” Mingyu greets him, taking a seat with that girl still under his arm, “what’d you have for me tonight?”
“The usual. I didn’t know you were bringing a friend,” He looks at Jungkook, surprised to see him here without Jimin, “good to see you, Jungkook. What’ll you be having?”
“Depends,” Jungkook takes a seat across from Mingyu, “I might pass.”
“Oh, come on,” Mingyu removes his hand from the girl's thigh to grab his wallet, tossing him a joint and a lighter, “here, take this and then see how you feel. As for me, San, I’ll take the usual, one for my lady-friend too.”
Jungkook stares down at the thing in his lap, taking it in his hand and using his other to light it. This is harmless, he mentally counsels himself with a deep inhale and slow exhale.
It’s not long before his head is floating and his body is slowly dissipating into thin air. His eyes are half-lidded and he feels good, relaxed, but deep inside there’s a quiet longing—he pushes it down in favor of another puff. Through blurred eyes, he watches Mingyu and the girl take something, he doesn’t know what.
“Now, you know what you want?” San speaks up, standing as if he just came back from somewhere. “It’s on the house, call it a favor for an old friend.”
Jungkook laughs a little bit, seeing that he’s already feeling like he did in high school, sneaking off into clubs to do this. “Give me something mild, I can’t go too crazy,”
“I know just the thing,” While San is going through a case, Jungkook is leaning on his knees, watching to make sure whatever he’s about to take isn’t some heavy-hitter kind of stuff. He pops the pill and sits back to let it take full effect. 30 minutes until euphoria, that’s what he used to say in his mind before consuming this stuff because that’s how long it normally took for hin to really feel it.
Mingyu whispers something to the girl, she tugs down her dress and scurries out of the room with a giddy smile.
He’s teetering on the edge. So close, too close. The joint he had is still sending vapors in the air from the ashtray, he picks it up and finishes it.
Warm, and a little dazed, his eyes follow Mingyu who’s giving San a wad of cash before the drug dealer runs off. Mingyu’s little friend came back but Jungkook doesn’t register the people she brought with her, he’s high in the clouds right now while scrolling through his phone, wondering what you’re doing. Something smells really good all of a sudden, like flowers soaked in spices. He looks up from the phone and there’s a woman standing in front of him, he furrows his brows.
“Hi,” She’s standing in front of him, that same girl with the sequin dress and long brown hair, “I’m Kendall, you’re Jungkook right?”
“Yeah,” He stares her down and she takes a seat next to him.
“I hear you’re a boxer,” She’s giving him her full attention, “I bet you’re good,” She puts her hand on his thigh, feeling nothing but hard muscle and she shivers when his legs spread out comfortably.
“I’m okay,” His bland answer doesn’t please her, she places her hand on his shoulders to feel how loose they've become.
“Mh, I can tell you’re more than okay,” She giggles, face getting closer to his. It’s evident that he took something, his pupils are huge and his hand's borderline tremble when she gets close. “your arms look so strong, and your tattoos are so-”
“What do you want?” He deadpans, his body feeling jittery and warm from the effects of the crushed pill.
“Well, I thought we could have a good time,” She boldly moves to sit on his lap, her thighs warm but not right, not yours. “you look like you could use one.”
“I- I can’t,” He pulls her arms from around his neck and pushes her off, causing her to frown.
“What? You have a girlfriend or something?”
“Yeah,” He leans back once again, legs spread and now irritated that you’re not here for him to sink his finger in, “I’m not fucking that up.”
“You have a wife and kids too?” She bites back.
He rubs the back of his neck, he’s sweating. “No, but-”
“Then I don’t see a problem,” She kisses him without warning and he doesn’t react quick enough to push her away. There’s a smirk on her face when she pulls back and his doe-eyes lose a bit of their sparkle, “no ring, no rules. That’s how I see it.”
“Don’t,” He pushes his hair back, mind reeling with the need to cuff himself to something so he can’t move. He wipes his mouth, “I can’t mess up what I have because of some whore-”
“Call me what you will,” She cups his jaw with a smile, “but you can’t take lover’s speed without a lover, loosen up.”
* * *
“I think we’re all finished up for tonight girls, thanks for helping me out,” It’s been a few hours and you guys were more focused on the reality TV show than parking the silverware, but you got it done.
“No problem, Ro,” You look down at your phone, it’s getting late.
“Are you sleeping over, Y/n?”
“Um, I can, it is getting kind of late,” You got up to go to the bathroom and the three of them went straight to their phones.
From the couch, Yuna’s eyes go wide and she shows Rosie her phone. Harmony grabs the phone so she can see why they’re looking like they’ve seen a ghost, “Oh my God, is that-” She whispers, “Is that Jungkook?...Does Y/n know-”
“Do I know what?” You walk out of the bathroom, brows furrowing when you hear them trying to be hush-hush. “Why are you guys looking like that?”
“Have you seen Sean’s story?”
“No,” You frown, “what happened?” You quickly grab Yuna’s phone to see what she’s talking about. At first, you don’t know what you’re looking at until you see it.
It’s a group photo and Jungkook’s in the back, he’s in the back with some girl smothering his face with her own.
“When was this posted?” You ask calmly, biting your lip to keep from throwing the phone out of the window
“20 minutes ago,” Yuna answers, “at Milo’s.”
“Okay,” You give the phone back to Yuna and you grab your keys.
“Y/n, what are you doing?”
“I’m going to that club.”
Rosie stands up with you, “Hold up, we’re going with you.” You tie your converse and the three of them follow you on your hunt.
Don’t do this to me Jungkook,
don’t do this to me.
* * *
“My bitch told me you threw her out, Min, what the fuck?”
“Your bitch was selling coke in my shop, I had to let her go,” Yoongi stands up, “you told me she was good for a job but she was bringing crackheads to my shop.”
“You told me you’d give her a job, you’re telling me you just fired her? Why didn’t you give her a chance? You used to sell-”
“Yeah, I used to. But I don’t anymore.” Yoongi leaves the room.
Meanwhile, Jungkook’s on the other side of the club with a loud group of guys, downing shots like he’s back in college.
“Jungkook,” Yoongi grabs his arm, and his pupils are blown, his cheeks are red, “I’m heading out, can you drive yourself home?”
“Yeah, I’ll be okay,” Jungkook gives him a reassuring look, “I’m good, Hyung, I’m so good.”
“What did you take?” Yoongi looks at him for a moment, not trusting Jungkook to go anywhere himself, “Hey, call yourself a driver, okay?” Yoongi pats his back before leaving the stuffy place.
When he walks out the front door, he could have sworn he saw you pass him with a group of girls. If that’s true, then Jungkook’s in for a world of trouble.
This environment is foreign to you, you’ve been in it before but it’s always been too much, too loud. Your outfit doesn’t help you blend in at all, your gray converse, shorts, and t-shirt are quite contrasting to what the other girls are wearing. Your body is shaking, the people who are shooting you weird looks don’t matter to you, you need to see him.
“There he is,” Harmony points to the corner where Jungkook is leaned up against, he looks like a train-wreck. His hair is so disheveled and he looks jittery, anxious, but he’s smiling. How did he manage to do that to himself in just a few hours, “if you need back up, we’ll be over here.”
You nod, putting your best foot forward to walk a clear path towards him.
Only when you tap his shoulder from behind does he turn around to look at you. The high, the clouds are evaporating and he’s starting to feel the sweat on his brow, I’m sweating? For a moment he thinks you’re a hallucination, there’s no way you’re actually here.
He reaches out to touch you but you slap his hand away. That’s definitely you.
“Y/n,” He rubs the back of his neck, “what are you doing here?”
“Is this what you do when you leave? You come here to cheat on me and do drugs,” You bite your lip, when he just stares at you with dark eyes, “answer me.”
“What’re you talking about?-” You shove your phone into his chest.
“What do you call that, Jungkook? She’s all over you!” Tears start to prick at your eyes but you push it down, you try to. “What are you trying to do to me?”
He stares down at the phone, his chest tingling and heart aching at the sight. It was taken moments before he got up and left, she got on him but he willed himself to leave her. He was out of it, couldn’t really remember any details. “I took something, and I’m not-...” He gives you back your phone, dragging his hands down his face. “I wouldn’t cheat on you, I didn’t-”
“Don’t fucking lie to me!” You yell but the music is so loud, it sounds like you’re speaking at a normal volume. “After everything I’ve done for you, after everything we’ve been through, I can’t believe you would do this to me,”
“Hey, hey, what’s going on?” Some guy with electric blue hair barges into your conversation. “What’s wrong, baby girl?”
You look at him, judging by his looks alone and the way he physically sides with Jungkook, you can piece together that they know each other.
“Um, was I talking to you?” You snap, looking at him as if he just grew a second head.
“No, but you look like you’re giving my friend here a hard time. I’d appreciate it if you calmed the fuck down, no one likes a-”
“And I’d appreciate it if you’d mind your own business. I’m his girlfriend, who the fuck are you?”
Mingyu cracks a nervous smile, “Oh shit,” He looks at Jungkook who’s finding it hard to stay still, “so, you’re the exclusive. I’m sorry, I may have set him up with a playmate for the night, but can you blame me? You obviously weren’t gonna join him,” He shrugs, “he just wanted to have a good time.”
“Y/n, I took ecstasy, I smoked a little bit, ok? That’s it, I didn’t do anything with that girl,” Jungkook glares at Mingyu, ”she kept coming on to me but it didn’t go anywhere-”
“You’re high, you don’t know where it went.” You turn his face to see red lipstick spotting his skin, “Look at your neck, it went somewhere...”
His hand comes goes there and he remembers the forced kiss before he ran out of the private room.
“Y/n, please it’s not what it looks like,” He let’s out a grown of frustration, grabbing your wrist, “let’s talk about this somewhere else.”
“No,” You pull away, “don’t touch me,” He grabs continues to pull you towards the direction of the bathroom, “Let go! Let go of me-”
You jerk away and mistakenly bump into a fast-walking individual, he was trying to get Jungkook. Oops.
“Tell Yoongi that’s what it costs,” that’s what you hear and then the guy runs off.
When you hear a scream, it seems like the whole club stops and people start backing away.
Why are they screaming?
Only when you feel the wetness dripping down your knee do you realize why they were all looking at you. You stumble, placing your hand on your thigh when Rosie comes running up to you with tears in her eyes, her hands are trembling. “Y/n, oh my God-”
When you look up, Jungkook is shouting so loud that you can hear the strain in his voice and he’s running. There’s blood all over your leg, your leg is shaking.
“We need to put pressure,” One of the girls takes off her flannel and ties it around your leg, “give me a belt, somebody!”
Some random guy gives her a belt and she wraps it around your leg tight. “Y/n, we’ll take you to the emergency room down the road, we need to get you out of here,” Rosie tries to help you to your feet but you wince, “can you stand? Harmony, help me!”
“Yeah, I think I can- Ouch!” You cry-out when they pull you up a little too fast, “wait, stop! That hurts-”
When they finish, Yuna and Harmony pull your arms to wrap around their shoulders, they look like their struggling. Jungkook suddenly breaks through the crowd of people, hair sweaty and eyes frantically scanning over you. He wants to throw up, but he can’t right now.
“Give her to me,” Jungkook extends out his arms so he can take you from the girls but Rosie guards you from him with her whole body, “what the fuck? Move,”
“Haven’t you done enough?” She frowns. “We can handle this, why don’t you-”
“Come off it! I’m not about to let you three fucking drag her out of here like this, she’s gonna bleed by the time you get to the fucking door!” He moves Rosie out of the way, “Let me carry her.” Neither of the girls argue when he grabs you from them and lifts you into his arms.
In a matter of seconds, you’re outside and the cool air makes you cringe, holding Jungkook’s shirt tighter in your fist. “You okay?” He whispers, glancing down at you when you give a weak nod.
Yoongi was outside at his car talking and his heart sinks into his stomach when he sees your bloodied leg in Jungkook’s arms. Among the other people leaving the club, you and Jungkook were the last people he thought he’d see.
“What the fuck happened in there?”
“Some guy was trying to stab me but she got in the way,” Jungkook explains in a panicked tone, “he said to tell you this is what it costs,” When Rosie opens his back seat door, he eases you to lay on the leather seats and gets back there with you.
“We’re taking her to the emergency room,” Rosie answers before closing the front-seats door and cranking the car up.
“Son of a bitch,” Yoongi pulls out his keys and gets in his car. That’s all he says before pulling out of the parking way faster than he should have.
Jungkook is sitting where your legs are so he can keep it propped up, “You’ll be okay,” He pants, the effects of the drug still running it’s course in his system, “does it hurt a lot?”
You nod, stomach-turning at the smell of your own blood. You mumble, “I feel like I’m gonna throw up...”
He looks down at his hands, tattoos now colored red from your blood. “Me too...”
Jungkook and Rosie brought you inside while the girls waited in the car.
“Excuse me,” Rosie goes to the front desk and Jungkook goes is walking not far behind her, “my friend was just stabbed, does she need to sign in or something? She’s bleeding a lot-”
As soon as Jungkook came into their line of vision, the sight of your bloodied leg kicks them into an urgency.
“Bring her here,” A woman with lilac scrubs says something to a few people before she’s walking Jungkook to the back and directing him to a room, “sit her there, miss, do you feel dizzy at all?”
Jungkook hesitantly lays you on the little bed and two more people come into the room, both dressed in scrubs—he’s asked to step back.
“Just a little,” You bite your lip when they start removing what was covering your wound, it looked as bad as it felt, or maybe it’s just really bloody. They start taking wiping your thigh of the blood that covered it. You look away, not wanting to see the damage.
“Sir?” A woman finally gets his attention after the third time calling him, when he looks at her, his eyes are a dead give away. That, and the smell of marijuana and liquor on him. “Have you taken anything tonight? You don’t look so good,”
He disregards her question with a question of his own, “...Wh- where’s the bathroom?”
“Down the hall to your left, but-”
He runs out of the room before she can say anymore and he passes Rosie on his way there.
He bursts inside and locks himself in a stall. Immediately, he falls to his knees and painfully expels whatever he had consumed tonight into the toilet.
His throat burns and his heart is pounding.
This was always the worst part.
*
*
*
“So, how long will I need the crutches?” You look at your now-useless leg. “I’m an ice skater, I have competitions to prepare for, and-”
“Two weeks at the very least, but I would recommend no strenuous activity for a month at the least. With how close the wound was to the artery, you’re lucky it’s not longer.” The nurse smiles, probably thinking she was lightening the mood.
It’s just and the nurse, Rosie ran to the restroom and Jungkook hasn’t come back since he brought you here.
“So,” Rosie walks inside, “how long are you on the crutches?”
“Two weeks,” You frown, staring at them from the corner of your eyes, “this would happen to me, wouldn’t it?”
“It could have been anybody,” Rosie sighs, “I’m just glad you’re okay.”
“Miss, you have a visitor by the name of Min Yoongi, do you want to see him?”
You nod
After a few moments, she opens the door and Yoongi walks in.
“Y/n,” Yoongi comes to your side, guilt eating him up that he was the cause for this. “I’m sorry this shit had to happen to you, I don’t-”
“It’s not you’re fault, okay? Don’t beat yourself up about it, I shouldn’t have been there...”
“Did Jungkook leave?”
“He ran to the bathroom earlier, I haven’t seen him since,” Rosie says that with a bite in her tone, and soon enough he’s walking inside the room, “that’s probably for the best, he’s the last person you need right now.”
Get it together.
He cupped water in his hands, swished it in his mouth and spit it out. When his eyes meet the mirror, he wanted to slam into it, shatter into a thousand pieces for bearing his face. He does his best to wipe the blood from his arms and hands with soap water and a napkin. He also wipes the lipstick from his neck, scrubbing at it unnecessarily hard until its gone. Nausea has faded enough for him to stand up and face you. But the thought alone makes him want to disappear. He can’t stay in this bathroom forever, even if that’s what his mind is telling him to do.
“Miss,” the door opens again, “The man from earlier, he said he’s your boyfriend, he wants to see you, are you alright with that?” you hesitate for a moment when you look at Rosie who’s sitting in the chair next to you, you nod.
The woman leaves for a moment and Jungkook walks in, he searches for you as soon as he walks in. He doesn’t acknowledge Yoongi or Rosie. He walks to your bedside and looks at the white bandage wrapped around your thigh.
“What did they say?” He’s not as pale as he was but his eyes are a little red. “Are you okay?”
“She’ll be on crutches for two weeks, but she can’t skate for at least a month,” She turns to Jungkook, “the wound was close to the artery, an inch difference and she would’ve bled out, no thanks to you.”
Silence befalls the room and even though she said that to make Jungkook wake up, Yoongi is the one who feels so bad about it. “I have to go, guys,” Yoongi suddenly speaks up, “feel better, Y/n, I’m sorry about all of this,” It’s not his fault, you remind him of that before he leaves.
“We just need your insurance,” The nurse comes back with a wheelchair within seconds, “the pharmacy you’d like your medicine sent to and you’re all set to go,” She helps you into the chair and rolls you out.
As they check you out, Rosie looks down at her phone, it’s almost two in the morning. You notice she looks tired as you hand them your insurance card, and she still has to pick up her parents in the morning, you don’t feel right keeping her here.
“Ro, go home,” You gently grasp her hand, “you have to pick up your parents in the morning, it’s getting late.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m fine, thank you for everything, tell the girls I’ll call in the morning,” You know it takes everything in her not to stay but she knows it’s late and even if you’re both pissed at him, he can at least take you home. You get her to agree and you’re left with Jungkook and the nurse as they take you to his car.
“Are you okay, hon?” The nurse asks softly as Jungkook watches her help you into the passengers seat. You know what she means by that. You know how this probably looks to her, it doesn’t look like you’re in a good situation. But you reassure her that he’s going to take you home.
When he gets in the driver's seat and the nurse is back inside the ER, you can feel him staring at you. He swallows, hands gripping the wheel incredibly tight, “Look, I’m sorry this happened, I-”
“Take me home,” You cut him off, looking out of the window with the crutches at your side, “just take me home...”
The drive is quiet. Painfully quiet for him. He pulls into his normal parking space and when he gets out, he comes to your side.
“Let me help you,”
That’s the first thing he says to you, hand extended as if you’d actually take it. You’re not skilled with crutches, you shouldn’t have been so persistent on getting and going to the door without his help, but you were.
“I don’t want your help,” You mumble, hobbling inside after he opened the door with his key. He flips on the light and you sit on the couch to try to kick your shoes off, “you should go home,”
“Y/n, please,” He closes the door behind him, “I know what you saw, I know it looked bad but I didn’t cheat on you.”
“Yeah, but you let some slut put her hands on you,” You forget trying to take off your shoes and you use your crutches to try to get to your room, “y’know, if you wanted to break up with me you could’ve just said it. If I’m not enough for you, you should have just told me.”
“You know you’re enough for me, don’t even talk like that. I don’t want to break up, why the fuck would I want that?” He follows you into your bedroom, easily catching up because you can’t get anywhere fast now.
“I wasn’t thinking straight, but my mind was clear enough to know we didn’t have sex,” He’s in your face, “I’m sorry that it looked that way, okay? Is that what you want to hear?”
“No, don’t tell me what you think I want to hear,” You sit on your bed, again trying to kick-off your shoes but failing miserably, “just leave me alone.”
“You can’t even take your own fucking shoes off, you need help,“ He kneels down and you don’t fight when he takes them off for you, “don’t you trust me?”
You scoff, grabbing your crutches and trekking to your bathroom to get away from him, “Why should I,” You attempt to close the door but he stands in the doorway, “let go of the door.”
“No,” He’s getting upset now, you can feel it in the way each word leaves his mouth like a curse, “stop walking away! I fucking love you, that’s why you should trust me.”
“Wow, with a reason like that,” You let out a sarcastic laugh, standing in your bathrooms doorway. “I guess I should forget everything that happened tonight, huh?”
He rubs his temples, the headaches he’s had from an hour ago now acting up. “You know what? If you didn’t have trust issues, you could see that I’m telling you the truth, I swear to god I didn’t do anything.”
“I know I have trust issues,” You’re sick of standing in the bathroom, “after all the times I’ve been screwed over, you’ve given me plenty of reasons not to trust people.” You move past him, bumping into his shoulder.
“Hey,” He tries to grab you but hobble away from him and towards your bed, “would you stop walking away?! I’m trying to talk to you!” When he sees that you’re close enough to your bed, he takes the crutches from you and sits them on the floor behind him.
“What the hell?-” Your mouth hangs open in shock as you grapple to hold on to him so you don’t fall. “Why would you do that!”
“That was the only way I could stop you from walking away.” He towers above you, height and large frame reminding you that he can overpower you easily. “Don’t you see I’m being honest? Tell me why you’re acting like this.”
“You know I was hurt in my last relationship. Do I really have to spell it out for you? I dated for months before I realized I was being played. I couldn’t see what was happening right in front of my face, do you know how that felt? I felt so stupid,” You squeeze his arms, “I swore I’d never let anyone make me feel that way again.”
He breathes in and out, trying not to fall apart at your teary confession, he chants in his mind, don’t cry, don’t cry.
“I can’t go through that again, I love you...” You hold on to him, leg throbbing and tears falling down your cheeks in single drops, “Don’t make me look stupid for loving you.”
That hurt.
“I won’t,” he wishes he had stayed home—he wishes he would have stayed with you. “I won’t, I promise I won’t.”
You gasp when his hands cup your face and he kisses you, open mouth sealing over yours without warning. You fall victim to this every time, you try to listen to the voice in your head that tells you to push him away, but how could you? You grab at his wrists to keep your self grounded and he holds you tighter, making you breathe nothing but him. His mouth goes bone dry and he feels sweat dripping down his back, he’s burning up and his heart is beating out of his chest.
“Jungkook,” You manage to breathe out, and you plop down on the bed, “you’re sweating like crazy.”
“I’m sorry, I feel like I’m gonna pass out,” Suddenly, he rips off his shirt and tosses it somewhere, now revealing the sheen of sweat that’s been under his shirt.
“Are you okay?...What you took, have you ever taken it before?...” Worry shakes your voice.
“Yeah, this used to happen sometimes, give me a second,” He disappears into the bathroom and you hear the water turn on. Somehow, you managed to stumble over to the bathroom with the help of the wall. Jungkook is standing at the shower, the water on cold as he dunks his upper body under it with a groan of relief.
You watch as he grabs a towel from the rack and dries his face and hair. You watch as he dries the water off his body, face still red but he looks better.
“I’m sorry, this is one of the reasons I stopped using that shit,” He sits the towel on the counter, heavy ids landing on your frame in the doorway. For the first time, he sees the bandage on your leg in his right mind and it pains him.
Noticing that you weren’t using the crutches he threw away earlier, he comes to your aid. “Your leg, don’t stand with it like that, you need to have it propped up,” For the second time tonight, he picks you up and carries you to you out of the bathroom. “It must hurt.”
“It does,” You hesitantly unwrap your arms from his neck and he lays you down, “it hurts a lot.” With expectant eyes, you watch him circle around your bed to get to your drawers. He pulls out a shirt and some shorts, sitting them besides you.
“I’m sorry,” He mutters, handing you the shirt so you can put it on while he helps replace your bloodied ones, “I wish he would have stabbed me, I fucking deserved it, not you.” He’s absolutely right.
His hand rests on the bandage and he looks up at you, eyes so tired. Reaching over you, he takes one of your pillows and props it under your leg, making sure it's elevated at a comfortable angle. He sits on the edge of the bed, one arm across your body, his eyes shutting when he presses his forehead to yours. Desperately, he kisses you again. His damp hair dangles on your forehead and his necklace drapes over your neck the more he leans down, its cool on your skin. His warm body engulfs you, his sheer heaviness making you weak. He has a special ability to surround your senses and drown you in his energy, and you sink happily.
“I’m sorry,” He whispers, “I hate that we always end up like this, I shouldn’t put us through this...” Brushing your hair away from your face, he leans, in his nose a tinge red and his eyes teary, “but when I’m with you-...When I have you, I don’t have to see myself anymore and it feels right. I hate myself without...” Tears stream down his cheeks and a few drop on your cheeks. His chest heaves against you when he shakily breathes in. He drops his head in your chest like a child and starts to cry.
“Jungkook,” You run your fingers through his hair and your eyes get misty when a pained whine leaves his mouth.
“I-” he hiccups against your t-shirt. “I’m sorry that this is what it cost to love me, but I’m not shit without you. I’m nothing with you...”
Sitting here, patching myself up, crying over what's left, 'cause without you I ain't shit, but no pressure. Guess I gotta learn my lesson.
#Jungkook boxer!au#jungkook scenarios#jungkook fluff#jungkook angst#jungkook smut#jungkook fanfic#bts smut#bts fluff#bts angst#bts boxer!au#jungkook x you#jungkook x reader#iceskater!au#quarters#bts imagines#bts scenarios
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June 17: 1x23 The Omega Glory
Watched the very uneven episode “The Omega Glory” today. Upon some reflection.. I think I have seen it? But I think my last rewatch ended abruptly after “By Any Other Name” so it might have been some time ago.
Anyway, it was... something. Decent, I might even say good, until the last 10-15 minutes and then it just went off a cliff? That’s how I’d summarize it.
Sulu, my beloved. I’ve missed you.
Kirk knows where all the ships are. I mean, obviously, but I love to hear it.
Phasers on heavy stun huh?
It’s so weird to be on a different ship. That looks like the same ship. It’s so empty and haunted looking.
With creepy crystal remains of bodies everywhere.
“These white crystals... are the crew.”
Something was thirsty!! Perhaps... a water vampire? Perhaps... a former McCoy girlfriend?
(Honestly having watched the whole ep...they could have expanded this intro longer. It was creepy and mysterious. Then cut the last act.)
Oh no, they’ve been infected and now must quarantine. Sort of. I guess.
...Oh no, is this Vietnam? Again?
“Our old enemy, Vietnam.”
My mother suggested the disease might be communism and I don’t think that metaphor tracks through the whole episode but you know what.. anything’s possible.
I don’t like this whole “you can’t leave the planet or you’ll get sick and die” thing. Too familiar.
"I may never be able to leave this planet but I have a worse problem: a colleague may be breaking a rule."
Says the man who has frequently violated a directive that has never been referred to as Prime before.
Kirk is getting very mumbly. That’s his serious voice.... bu it’s also his Denny Crane voice lol.
Like bio warfare in the 90s? TOS really thought the 90s was going to be the dark ages, didn’t it?
Only 90s kids remember...
Spock bursting in with a wounded man, just bringing the drama, as he does.
He’s not even listening to McCoy. Rude.
Spock absolutely 100% would have killed Captain Tracey on instinct as soon as Kirk is threatened.
Sulu’s in command? I love Captain Sulu but where is Scotty?
Kirk is so good. Clever, strong, smart. Knows all the regulations.
Tracey’s so dumb. “They’ve eradicated disease and live for hundreds of years!” Man, have you considered that they are...aliens? And their life spans are simply.... naturally longer than human life spans? And even if you could isolate the serum, it might not work on humans?
And his master plan is to isolate their immunity and bottle it for profit. It’s our old enemy... capitalism and the exploitation of intellectual property.
A fight scene!
“The pointy-eared one stays.”
Another fight scene!
Spock is watching all of this, and you know what, I feel like he’s not upset about it. It’s just like Pre-Reform Vulcan. Perhaps some... Amok Time flashbacks? “Damn, I wish that was me.”
Peanut gallery Spock.
“I wish you could teach me that.” / “I have tried.” Omg where is my scene of Spock trying to teach Kirk the nerve pinch?
And then that look Kirk gives him.
I don’t get the point of this scene but it amuses me that as soon as McCoy sees the pretty girl, he feels better.
A post-apocalyptic alien world... a very interesting concept. Like you could do a lot with that idea imo.
“That’s our worship word [freedom too.” Umm.... questionable.
Damn bitch, that was cold. Just knocking him out like that.
Damn yankee.
...Yankee and Communist dammit.
McCoy’s not even surprised to see Kirk and Spock out of jail.
Nature created a natural counterbalance to the biological disease. Where is OUR natural counterbalance, I ask?
McCoy sounds extra Southern rn. It’s all the stress.
I really don’t think Shatner gets enough credit for his subtlety. His face when McCoy explains the whole situation...
Oh he's mad now. "You've hurt Spock for nothing! Oh yeah and also killed thousands but MOSTLY THE SPOCK THING!”
Whereas Tracey really doesn’t seem to care about anything but war for its own sake. He knows now that his master plan for immortality was nothing the whole time...but he still needs to call those Yangs.
In other words, another once-reputable figure of authority now gone mad.
Kirk’s voice is so casual when he’s talking to Uhura and Sulu, you feel like he’s gotta have something up his sleeve. He can never hide when he’s really upset about something.
...Apparently what he had up his sleeve was his crew knowing regulations and then another full body tackle. Fight scene 3!
"My need for attention is vital.” Same, Spock.
This is a very attenuated and unbelievable connection Kirk is making but he’s Kirk so I’ll assume it makes sense that he’s putting it all together so fast.
Alternate Universe: Vietnam canon-divergence lol.
For anyone keeping track, this is right about the point where the episode goes off the rails.
YOU’RE A ROMANTIC, JIM. Well he’s right about that at least and he should say it.
Oh no, an American flag.
Cloud William, chief and the son of chiefs. That’s continuity of government for you.
(Also pretty hilarious that this society is supposedly So American with our exact flag and Constitution and everything... but they’re not a democracy.)
I really don’t want to believe that “under God” is still in the pledge 200 years from now.
"You're confusing the stars with heaven." Kirk thinks he's being called an angel.
The absolute mishmash of meaningless, referent-free words here. America. Native Americans. Communists. The flag, the Constitution. God. Angels. Devils. What???
Like how can they both be flag worshippers AND...believers in God? Who is their God? Alien George Washington?
So rude to call Spock Kirk’s “servant.” That’s his space husband!
Is that a literal picture of Spock as a demon in their.. Bible?
I can’t even follow this anymore.
“You command him.” I mean...yes, that’s how the military works.
“He has no heart.” Wow, rude.
“His heart is different!” I stan one (1) Southern Doctor.
I feel like Spock is just... not having this at all. His face loos like he’s thinking what I’m thinking.
Oh no is that the CONSTITUTION??!
“Kill his servant” wow Tracey is obsessed with Spock, isn’t he? I guess everyone in the Fleet knows about them and their special relationship.
Spock is even amused by the knife at his throat. His eyes say "I am distressed--but fascinated!"
A FOURTH fight scene? And here I thought Kirk was going to recite the Constitution.
“I’m open to suggestions.” He’s just as worried about Kirk as McCoy is, bu the doesn’t show it.
...Yep, he’s being telepathic again. Not really in line with his usual telepathy but okay. Alien magic is flexible.
Okay I have a JD and I can confidently say there is nothing about good defeating evil in the Constitution.
And now this alien guy is immediately ready to make himself a “slave.” That seems problematic. What happened to the holy word “Freedom”?
Wow, Kirk's in a bad mood. "You can't pronounce your own holy words worth shit."
“This is only for the eyes of a Chief,” he says and Kirk just pushes him away.
Spock literally turns Tracey around for Kirk’s big final speech like “Listen up, bitch, my boyfriend’s talking.”
Is this the 4th of July episode?? Feels like there should be canons and fireworks going off behind him rn.
Idk, the words of the Constitution can't be so unique and unprecedented if a WHOLE OTHER ALIEN CIVILIZATION just came up with them, too, on their own, like monkeys typing Hamlet. (Given the timelines here... they probably did it first too lol.)
"Liberty and freedom need to be more than just words." Like what does that even mean in this context? Sounds nice but it’s very hard to put into the context of all the rest of this.
“And uh be nice to the Kohms,” after most of them (?) were probably just killed.
I really was into this until the last 10-15 minutes and I think there were under-explored concepts that could have taken the fever dream of whatever that bizarre-o fever dream at the end was. The abandoned ship. The leftovers of bio warfare. The whole weird and under-explained concept of immunity. The tragedy that so much was destroyed,, including but not limited to the whole Exeter crew, for no reason. What happened to Tracey to so destroy him--was it just greed? What about the “Prime” Directive? Is it important or not. They just leave at the end after (as Spock pointed out) doing quite a bit of their own meddling, even though meddling is allegedly the worst. Also, we know almost nothing about the Kohms at all. The “American” society clearly wasn’t democratic. Were the Kohms literally Communist?
I’m willing to accept a certain degree of alternate Earth scenarios--like Miri (though imo that was not a necessary component of that story) or Bread and Circuses, but this was too much. TOO unbelievable. And frankly unnecessary. You could do an allegory for alternate-Vietnam, and it would be just as clear but even more effective. There wouldn’t be any distraction in the form of “what the fuck is that flag doing here?”
There is a potentially incendiary concept here, which is the same one I thought of reading about actual COG plans--certain aspects of the Yanks’ culture survives, but with absolutely no meaning attached. They have a Constitution but they mispronounce all the words. They have this tattered flag but it has no other meaning. They’ve turned the symbols of the government into a religion, but they don’t practice any of the civil aspects of it--they have chiefs, not democratically appointed leaders, for example. Like, COG asks “what IS the country, and how do you make sure the country endures no matter what?” This was an opportunity to show the worst of that: the country continues to exist as symbology only--incredibly strong symbology, but only that--and all of the actual values that were supposed to be stored with that symbology have disappeared. Similarly, their hatred of their enemies endures. It’s lauded in the ep as their attempt to get “their land” back but what if it’s just war for its own sake, as Tracey seems to be engaging in? To tell that story, especially in the 60s, against the backdrop of Vietnam, and with the references to bio warfare and nuclear warfare, could be powerful. And I know TOS can work in metaphor and comparison. It doesn’t need to bring out a literal fucking flag.
Honestly, it was like they had one good, classic, sci fi story but it didn't fill 52 minutes so they tacked on the American Pride 4th of July Propaganda Extravaganza at the end.
It really felt like the lesson was “America good” lol.
I liked the concept of the post apocalyptic society in the aftermath of bio warfare as a cautionary tale for 1960s America, and I'd be up for crazed snake oil salesman Starfleet Captain (or...whatever his rank was) if it were a bit better explained. But the rest of it....
It also... could have been kinda incendiary with the idea that the Constitution and flag are religious symbols... I mean some people do treat them that way and I've always found that, first, blasphemous, and second, bizarre in such a hyper-Christian country. But I feel like instead of digging ito that, they just tempered it with "But also they're Christian, as you can tell by their drawing of devil!Spock, for some reason."
Idk, this story could have been complete with out the whole weird “Vietnam AU” back story or alternately it could have been a biting commentary about what defines America, and about whether or not our symbols might be more enduring--or even more important to people today??--than the laudable but more complex and difficult ideals that underpin the country’s founding. Are the words of the Constitution just gobbledy gook? They are if you don’t live by them, and America has always struggled to do that. It definitely would struggle even more in the aftermath of an apocalypse.
...I’m more annoyed now, thinking about the possible sci fi story that could have been...
Anyway next is an ep I’m fairly sure I haven’t seen, so that should be fun.
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What is the Multiverse? Five Must-See Alternate Timeline TV Episodes to Watch After ‘Loki’
Look, I get it — multiverse storytelling can be confusing. Marvel’s Loki streaming series is only the latest in a long line of stories that plays fast and loose with the idea of multiple or parallel timelines. Loki follows the God of Mischief (Tom Hiddleston) after he gets involved with the Time Variance Authority, or the TVA, as they try to correct problems in individual timelines. This provides us a chance to see lots of variant Lokis (including our favorite chompy green boy) and opens up opportunities for a lot of zany storytelling that doesn’t necessarily have to impact the primary timeline.
The idea of multiple universes existing at the same time isn’t anything new. Some of the earliest examples date back to Norse mythology, which divided existence into nine worlds. DC Comics first introduced the idea of the DC multiverse in its comics in All Star Comics #3 in 1940, and Marvel later followed suit, starting with their What if? series in the 1970s. While the concept of parallel universes might feel a little daunting to contemplate on your own, these five television episodes will help you understand the magic of the multiverse.
“The Parallel” — The Twilight Zone
When it comes to television that changed the way we think, Rod Serling‘s The Twilight Zone is the forebear of them all. The original series ran from 1959 to 1964 and contained stories from science fiction greats like Ray Bradbury (Farhenheit 451) and Richard Matheson (I Am Legend). Each episode in the anthology series told a different short story, most with the intent of exploring some political or social allegory.
In 1963’s “The Parallel”, Major Robert Gaines (Steve Forrest) is orbiting earth in his space capsule when he suddenly blacks out and wakes up on Earth with no memory of how he got there. He’s uninjured, but the world he’s arrived in doesn’t quite match the one he left. His daughter suspects he’s someone else, his house suddenly has a white picket fence that his wife swears has always been there, and everyone keeps calling him Colonel, which matches his uniform but not his memories. He’s a little shaken until he comes to the conclusion that he’s in a parallel universe, and then takes steps to get back to his own timeline.
“The Parallel” marks the first instance of multiverse storytelling on TV. It doesn’t do anything particularly groundbreaking and is a middle-of-the-road The Twilight Zone episode, but it’s the first, which means it paved the way for everyone else to tell TV stories about parallel universes and doppelgangers.
“Mirror Mirror”/”Crossover” — Star Trek/Star Trek Deep Space Nine
Did I say doppelgangers? If there’s one franchise that has capitalized on the potential fun of meeting your alternate self, it’s Star Trek. In the “Mirror Mirror” episode of the original series, a teleporter mishap sends Kirk, McCoy, Scotty, and Uhura to a parallel dimension where everything is reversed. The Federation has become an evil Empire, Kirk is a tyrant, and Spock has a goatee (that’s how you know he’s evil). The episode started several tropes about doppelgangers (including the whole goatee thing), and paved the way for future Star Trek iterations to really go wild with the Mirror Universe.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine explored the Mirror Universe more than any other Star Trek series, with stories taking place there over five different episodes. The first of these, “Crossover,” is the most important and sets the stage for the later mirror episodes. In “Crossover,” Major Kira (Nana Visitor) and Doctor Bashir (Alexander Siddig) have an accident inside of the wormhole near the planet Bajor, sending them to the Mirror Universe. It’s been decades since Kirk and co. crossed over, but things are still pretty backwards in the Mirrorverse. Instead of the Federation, there’s a coalition between the Klingons, Cardassians, and Bajorans. Terrans (a fancy word for Earthlings) have been enslaved. The space station Deep Space Nine is instead a mining operation, run by the alternate Kira, the Intendant.
There are few things in the world as enjoyable as watching Visitor play her double role. The entire cast really gets to go for it with their Mirrorverse personas, and you can tell they’re having a blast. The Mirror Universe in Deep Space Nine gave the actors a chance to explore their characters in new ways, and it provided more insight into their individual pathos. Sure, the Mirrorverse versions were the “evil” versions of themselves, but there were still versions of themselves. Kira is a strong leader with a dry sense of humor, regardless of whether she’s the former Bajoran freedom fighter or the Intendant. “Crossover” set up the following four Deep Space Nine Mirror episodes, including episodes where Captain Sisko (Avery Brooks) must pretend to be his doppelganger and deal with the fact that his dead wife is still very alive in the parallel universe. Some of the episodes are silly fun, and some are a bit more heady, but they all get to explore sides of these characters that we’ve never seen before.
“Remedial Chaos Theory” — Community
The NBC sitcom Community frequently made its own riffs on popular tropes, and it had an utter field day with parallel universes. In the season 3 episode, “Remedial Chaos Theory,” viewers are treated to seeing six different ways the same evening could have played out. The friends, who met in a Spanish study group at their community college, are all celebrating Troy (Donald Glover) and Abed (Danny Pudi) moving into a new apartment. When the pizza arrives, group leader Jeff (Joel McHale) suggests they roll dice to see who has to go get the pizza. Abed, who is sensitive to tropes, points out that Jeff is creating new timelines by introducing chance, and then we get to see each of them play out.
What “Remedial Chaos Theory” does is brilliant. It’s a bottle episode, all set in one location with no visible impact on the overall plot. However, by seeing how the situations change each time a single character is removed from the group dynamic, we’re able to learn so much more about the group as a whole. The episode gives us insight into the characters and their relationships by changing up the formula just a pinch and removing one element. In the Darkest Timeline, which leaves Pierce (Chevy Chase) dead and severely maims the rest of the group, it’s revealed that things fall apart without Troy in the mix. At the end of the episode, the prime timeline continues and it’s Jeff who has to go get the pizza. This ends up being the most positive of the timelines, which means maybe the group is better off without Jeff at all. It’s a great piece of character storytelling and even ends with the Darkest Timeline versions of Troy and Abed making felt goatees for themselves before declaring they are Evil Troy and Evil Abed.
“Rixty Minutes” – Rick and Morty
Community showrunner Dan Harmon clearly has a love for stories involving parallel timelines, so it’s no surprise that he expanded on those ideas in Rick and Morty, the adult animated series he developed with Justin Roiland. Rick and Morty is a kind of Back to the Future for twisted adults; it follows the adventures of alcoholic mad scientist Rick Sanchez (Roiland) and his hapless grandson Morty Smith (also Roiland) as they travel through space and time. In the first season episode “Rixty Minutes,” Rick introduces the entire Smith family to the many parallel timelines that exist. He and Morty watch Interdimensional Cable in the A plot, which gives Roiland a chance for lots of fun improvisational gags, but the B plot is more interesting. In order to enjoy his cable watching, Rick gives Morty’s parents and sister a helmet that will let them see through the eyes of some of their alternate selves.
Jerry (Chris Parnell) finds a version of himself that’s a huge Hollywood player who parties with Johnny Depp. Beth (Sarah Chalke) finds a reality where she’s not a horse surgeon, but a human surgeon, like she always wanted. Their teenage daughter Summer (Spencer Grammar) discovers that she was an unplanned pregnancy and that her parents argued about whether or not to get an abortion. In the parallel universes, she either doesn’t exist or her life is hopelessly boring. This leads to a pretty massive existential crisis, but she’s stopped by Morty, who has already had his fair share of timey-wimey weirdness.
Morty takes Summer upstairs and shows her two dirt mounds in the backyard. He explains that he’s not the Morty from this timeline, and that he and Rick had to come here after things in their timeline got too bad. The Rick and Morty in this timeline had just died, so they slipped in unnoticed. Then, Morty gives Summer a bit of advice that shows he’s beginning to grow up a bit on his madcap adventures.
“Nobody exists on purpose. Nobody belongs anywhere. Everybody’s gonna die. Come watch TV?” he pleads.
The episode ends with the entire Smith family realizing that dwelling on possible alternate realities will only ever cause problems. It’s a testament to living in the here and now, and is one of the series’ most emotionally resounding moments.
There are dozens of shows with multiverse stories out there, from ’90s sci-fi staple Sliders to the later seasons of Supernatural. These five, however, helped expand upon the trope as a whole, and are worth checking out to improve your pop culture savvy. That, and they’re just a lot of fun.
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