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luxshine · 3 years

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The Great Supernatural Rewatch Project - Salvation

I started writting this in the middle of season 13 but RL and work and some mental health issues made me take a step back from fandom in general and well, I was also fearing this would be an unending job since the series JUST.KEPT. GOING.

However, now that the series is done (And omg, what a clusterfuck that was. My tallies are going to go insane if I get there) and thus there’s an ending in sight, I will do my best to finish season 1, and try and get the rest of the seasons in a more timely manner. Say, before they do the inevitable reunion and ignore the last episode completely.

(I’m going to be honest, part of the problem was that Supernatural used to be SO good back then, and when I see the new episodes I weep a bit inside. I can’t believe they were so much better at creating story arcs when they weren’t TRYING to create story arcs)

Of course, now we all know that Dean’s plots in general will not have a happy ending no matter what, and that makes that particular tally bittersweet. But there are STILL people who claim that nope, Dean was never mistreated by the writers and well, Jack damn it, I am not going to let that claim go without bringing numbers to the table. Hopefully, it won’t take me 15 years to finish (Because by then, I would be the only one caring I guess)

In any case, last lap for Season 1 and we begin with Salvation.

General stuff

A specific reason for me having rage quitted this episode in particular for so long: For some stupid copyright thing with Netflix, they don’t have Carry On My Wayward Son as the song for the final recap –at least in Netflix Latam. And Supernatural without Carry On My Wayward Son is no Supernatural. So I had to hunt my DVDs. Then my computer DVD player died. Then I decided to make 5 webcomics at the same time. THEN I decided to start doing illustration works, and three other projects and let’s just say I am a bit of a workaholic and leave it like that as the rest is not SPN-related.

Ahem.

Funny thing about the Road so Far –you know, besides being a LOT shorter than the ones we’re getting now- is that it focuses a lot more on DEAN at the beginning, while if you watch the show, well, we know most of those Dean scenes come from MoW episodes and not the actual mytharc. Another interesting thing is that if one believes those things to be chronological, it makes it as if the Colt had been with the brothers for a lot longer than half an episode, and that Sam’s issue with the visions is not that recent. Edition Magic everyone! Also, omg, they were babies when the series started, and how WEIRD is to see John looking at them with pride and smiling at Dean at some points.

Anyway, the recap and the epicness that is Carry On my Wayward Son ends and we start the actual plot.

Hello Pastor Jim. Goodbye Pastor Jim. And here Supernatural begins the long, long tradition of killing characters who could’ve been useful later on, and more importantly, that could’ve been the boys’s support system later on. While here it’s understandable since we need to show how dangerous and vicious Meg is –ah, irony that in about 8 seasons people will be rooting for her Redemption- it also makes the Hunters kind of useless. I mean, he has all that weaponry and only uses a knife? Sigh. Really, a waste. Pastor Jim as a concept was really intriguing –and I don’t think we’ve heard of any other hunter who was also a priest. Funny, when we have so many demons free now. There’s also the fact that when Pastor Jim claims that she can’t be in the church because it’s hallowed ground, she replies that “That might work with the minor leagues, but not with her” and I wonder… did we ever got a demon that couldn’t enter a church? Because right now out of the top of my head I can’t remember, and yet Pastor Jim was surprised but later no one seems to think it weird there were signs of demonic activity around his body. Another sign that, as engaging as the series was, once we start digging the world building, things fall apart very quickly.

Actually, if I may digress for a bit, here we have the very first look at Supernatural´s second biggest problem: killing support characters that may have been useful lately. Here it is because Kirkpe had this weird idea that Hunting would never be glamorized by the show/fandom and it would be a completely miserable and lonely existence. He also didn’t think that the series would survive past season 2. So, ok, killing the guy we only knew by throw away lines didn’t seem so bad. By season 13 every single recurring character had died at least once –and there were petitions to bring back I think every one of those who haven’t come back- it’s a big problem.

As I restarted writing, I also realized that the mere existence of Pastor Jim and his room of awesome research and weapons creates a problem in the future about the Men of Letters because… ok, so ONE member of the clerigy knew enough about demons and stuff to be a hunter and have THE Hunter as his main contact (John Winchester was sort of a legend back then. And he had also fell out of contact with many others so the fact that he and Pastor Jim were still friendly? Kind of interesting), but what about the rest? Did the Vatican have any contact with the British men of Letters or the American ones? And if so, what the hell did they think when suddenly ALL the Men of Letters disappeared? Ok, so that’s a lot of stuff that doesn’t matter right now as it won’t actually exist until much, much, MUCH latter, but see what I mean when I say that they didn’t plan anything and the lack of a series bible hurts the show more than it helped it thrive? I am realizing right now I could write a whole treaty on the Men of Letters and their non-relationship with hunters ONLY using this cold beginning and the Henry Winchester episode.

But this is not the time for that, so we get our title card and a very, VERY young Jeffrey Dean Morgan.

We move to John who is explaining off camera everything he knows about Yellow Eye´s plan. We can tell it´s not much as he thinks it came out of hibernation and that the whole attacking families is part of a cycle, but back then it was impressive how much he had managed to find out about this demon. We also know that it attacks exactly when the baby in the house is six months old, which brings us to this little jewel:

JOHN It starts in Arizona, then New Jersey, California. Houses burned down to the ground. It's going after families, just like it went after us.

SAM Families with infants?

JOHN Yeah. The night of the kid's six-month birthday.

SAM I was six months old that night?

JOHN Exactly six months.

SAM So basically, this demon is going after these kids for some reason. The same way it came for me? So Mom's death...Jessica. It's all because of me?

DEAN We don't know that Sam.

SAM Oh really? Cause I'd say we're pretty damn sure Dean.

DEAN For the last time, what happened to them was not your fault.

SAM Right. It's not my fault but it's my problem.

DEAN No it's not your problem it's our problem!

Now, in the following seasons we will know that yes, it was ALL about Sam. But right now, the characters and the viewers don´t know that. We know that a lot of families were killed by the demon (That at this point was still “The demon” and wouldn´t become Azazael until later), and that he doesn´t take the children. So… how did Sam leap from “this demon attacks families with 6 month old children” to “It´s all about ME!”? He even ignores that Dean and John lost Mary for his last line, when he decides it´s his problem and not their problem. Also, and this is important for the “Dean is the most awful person to Sam” crowd… Dean immediately tells Sam that no, it´s not his fault. While he could harbor some ill feelings against Sam –and demon Dean, 8 seasons later, will voice them- at this point he is 100% on Sam´s side. There’s also a sideway glance from John to DEAN when Sam claims that everything is about him, and then I wonder exactly why, if John knew all about the fact that the demon chased six month old children specifically, he never resented Sam over it. One would think that given John’s love for Mary and deep desire to revenge, Sam would really be the outcast and the one only treated like a soldier (as he claims he was, but not really as we’ve seen), instead of Dean who was completely blameless in the whole thing.

(Also, this is the first time we see that Azazael´s plan didn´t make much sense IF we believed that Kirkpe had everything planned. But that´s a discussion for another time)

Anyway, John interrupts the argument to explain that while he has no idea what the demon is after (Another thing that later would be contradicted as he knew Sam had powers), but that he has managed to figure out his pattern of attack to the point that it even repeated it for Jessica’s killing (Even if much, much later, we’ll learn that it wasn’t Azazael the one who killed her, and Demons would completely forego the signs when attacking. Have I mentioned I miss the times when the myths made sense?) and the three of them pack up for their first real hunt together as they decide they will save the next baby on the demon’s list, in a town named Salvation.

Important thing to note: when John recites the demon signs, Dean immediately replies “that happened in Lawerence”. He remembers, quite clearly, what happened a week before his mother died even if logistically, at his age? He wouldn’t care nor notice. Sure, he remembers his mom’s death because that was traumatic. But random cow deaths before that? Weird show.

If Sam noticed or not the signs before Jessica died, we don’t know. John is the one who points out they happened.

After two gorgeous road shots where we see John’s truck being followed by Baby (yet another thing we lost, John’s truck. I know we needed to have the guys together all the time, but man, if Sam had inherited it, they would’ve been able to cover more terrain at times, have double the arsenal and maybe not being identified by everyone and their leviathan in season 7, but I digress), and just entering Salvation John stops, obviously spooked by something. As Dean stops behind him, they find out that Pastor Jim is dead, and John got a call from another hunter named Caleb to tell him. They assume it may be the demon they’re chasing, or maybe another demon that was looking for Pastor Jim specifically but that last theory is not very probable.

Here I have to pause to applaud Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s acting, as you can practically FEEL John’s despair at knowing an old friend of him died, and that HE was probably the cause for that death. A Winchester trait, of course, blaming themselves for everything bad that happens in their world, but unlike Sam’s early outburst, here it seems far more desperate. Of course, JDM had a lot more experience than Jared at that point, but I really wanted to make a note of it because we lost a LOT of that characterization for John, where he actually WORRIED about people and not just the hunt. Even as he decides the plan for finding out what baby the demon will take in a week, we can see him broken and confused. So much that while Sam calls him “sir” when receiving orders, Dean continues the conversation by calling him “Dad”.

John then declares that this ends now, obviously feeling responsible for what happened to his friend. A long shot from the flanderized man we’d hear about in future seasons who was infamous for letting his hunting partners die without so much as a second glance.

Also, and not to be mean to the writers, but in their endless accidentally making Sam unsympathetic, they made him say that there were too many children in the county that could be a victim and that it would take forever to check all of them. While I KNOW the intent was to make clear that they had a deadline of one week, it comes out weirdly as “I don’t want to do the footwork.” Seriously, writers should be careful with that.

Actually, let’s dissect that. Because I just thought of two ways they could’ve fixed it AND give us more info.

JOHN Now we act like every second counts. There's two hospitals and a health centre in this county. We split up, cover more ground. I want records. I want a list of every infant that's going to be six months old in the next week.

SAM Dad that could be dozens of kids. How do we know which one's the right one?

JOHN We check em all that's how. You got any better ideas?

SAM No sir.

So, first way to make Sam not look that bad: Give the line to Dean. I wouldn’t like it specially, but hey, he’s the sidekick, not the hero, and so far he has only wanted to bail on ONE hunt because he wasn’t sure it was a supernatural hunt so he’d be better standing than Sam in that regard.

Second way: Make Sam say that YES, he has a better idea. Because the brothers ALREADY faced Max, so he could say they could look for a baby that was a bit “strange”, like, with poltergeist stuff going around. John could not believe him, but at least Sam would be being proactive.

In any case, they separate as John planned and we see each of them get into the hospital records. We get a glimpse of John’s collection of fake IDs, that include one for a Morgue forensic doctor, then Sam getting a homely nurse giving him files and him taking notes, and Dean… getting flirty with a very hot nurse.

And I make a point of the “Oh, look, Dean is an irresponsible womanizer” trope because once again the writers shoot themselves in the foot by showing the opposite of what they were telling (And no, this time I can’t blame it on Jensen’s acting and refusal to look at his female co-stars without respect).

WOMAN Hi. Is there anything I can do for you?

DEAN (smiling) Oh God yes.

She smiles and looks down.

DEAN (Holding up his ID) Only I'm uh....working right now, so...

The writers here make us remember that a) Dean is AMAZINGLY charismatic, as the woman IS flattered and seems interested, and b) That he will NOT dump his work for a quickie. We don’t even get a “maybe later” that could make him look as if he was really into her. It’s just that he flirts naturally, or at least, this is what we can infer now, as so far he hasn’t had any one night stand fling. The one time we saw him have a sexual encounter in the middle of a hunt was with an ex-girlfriend.

And again I have to wonder what was Sera Gamble’s intention with those scenes as yes, this was written by the same team as Faith, another episode where Sam’s good intentions tend to have a darker side, and gave Dean some amazingly cool scenes.

We don’t know what Dean says to the woman, as we cut back to Sam, coming out of the hospital just in time to have a very convenient vision of a woman, a nursery and a fire. Thankfully, the vision also comes with the useful audio hint of a train passing by, so Sam gets out his map and starts checking where that could be, which leads him to the house in his vision.

And by this point, we know we’re in the right track and this is an important Myth Arc episode, because Sam only has multiple visions in Myth Arc episodes, and he has one the moment he steps in front of the house in said vision. The gods of convenience smile upon him as right then and there a woman pushing a pram comes by, and he manages to talk to her, all friendly like by pretending to having just moved. Then Sam learns the woman’s name is Monica, her baby is Rosie, and Rosie is just six months old, exactly to the day.

Also, that she’s a very quiet baby and that it sometimes seems as if she was reading your mind. Oh, and that Monica really is blind to suspicious men asking her about her family with a face that reads “Oh shit, this is bad”.

Now, HERE is where the whole “five year myth arc” story falls completely. I mean, we already knew it was pretty unlikely it was real, given Kirkpe’s original interviews, but the mere existence of Rosie contradicts every single future story beat. Because if SHE has powers before Azazael goes into her house, then it means that the babies he was hunting didn’t get powers because of him, just that his blood either connected them (hence Sam’s very specific visions), made said powers far more powerful (quite likely), or made them a little bit more prone to violence/prideful behavior. All of those possibilities match with the plan of “raising” a new King or Queen of Hell, that would be faithful to Azazael, but are a bit iffy on the “finding Lucifer’s vessel” thing. Especially since we later learn that the Angels were also helping, and all Hell knew that Lucifer’s vessel HAD to come from the Winchester/Campbell bloodline due to Cain and Abel being the roots of said bloodline, and later pretty much everyone knew Sam was Lucifer’s vessel so the whole targeting a ton of kids, in particular after Mary’s death, is kinda weird.

Oh, Lux, you will say, it is because he wanted to hide his true intentions! No one knew that Sam had been feed demon blood!

Except that the important parties, namely Heaven and Hell, did. Michael had Heaven convinced of his orders, so even if a rogue angel found out that they were speed running the Apocalypse, said angel could be killed. And any demon who was against getting Lucifer back on top would be smart enough to keep quiet so, why the secrecy?

And again, ok, I buy the original demon blood kids being important to “hide” Lucifer’s vessel but… Rosie? What good would it do to Azazael’s plan to have a psychic 4 year old when Lucifer rose? Was “little four year old girl” a good match against a grown up hunter? What was Azazel thinking, if that was the plan all the time?

Now, I want to make clear this doesn’t make THIS episode or the Season-myth arc bad. This original “Boy King of Hell” storyline WAS good. It had a lot of potential, made sense for Sam and since it was before the days of the eternal “What is wrong with Sam?” seasons, there was no boredom of a repeat. It also set a very good question of what made a monster a monster, which would be explored a bit more in Season 2. And it was long before we realized Dean having a myth arc was a pipe dream, so there was no issue there either. It made sense.

But the fact that the writers kind of forgot about everything I just pointed out with Rosie’s scene to try and weld this to the “Heaven vs. Hell” storyline in season 4, and then just promptly forgot because Sam’s powers were then firmly connected to Azazael’s blood so they never came up again and even worse, we never find another psychic kid that could’ve been feed blood by Azazael THIS year that John was chasing him? (Since we know there were no other survivors from Sam’s generation, and later we have a scene that proves that there were no previous generations to Sam’s), it's kind of weird. Personally, I dunno about you, but maybe a return to this storyline in season 6 would’ve been a lot better than we got. Maybe.

By the way, I am not counting the Boy King of Hell story arc as a dropped plot for Sam yet, as we’re going to keep with this at least until season 3. Yes, now we know it didn’t go anywhere, but at the time, and for these episodes in particular, it was THE myth arc of Supernatural. So it can’t be counted as dropped plot yet.

In any case, Sam goes and tells John and Dean about his vision and… oh, boy do we have to move John’s reaction to Emotional Violence.

It’s not good.

But before he can do more damage to Dean’s psyche, Sam gets a call from our favorite demon, Meg. Even if he doesn’t recognize her voice immediately which is weird because a) he did throw her off a window and one would think that makes a girl memorable, and b) it’s not as he knows that many girls who would call him, despite Dean’s best efforts to get him a new girl.

Meg dismisses Sam and asks for John. She makes clear that she is not playing, that she knows he has the Colt and that he will kill every single person who has ever helped John unless he gives it to her that same day at midnight. And to the brothers’ surprise, John accepts those terms (Unfortunately not before we loss Caleb too. I have a lot less interest in Caleb as a character given that he has exactly half a line in the whole show, but it’s still it’s sad to see a guy so defiant even in the face of death go so soon).

Meg also points out that John having the Colt is a “declaration of war” which is interesting as it sort of implies that if he hadn’t gotten it, then the demons would leave him and the brothers alone. And I find that incredibly funny since… no they won’t. And Azazael would’ve been ok if Sam kept the gun anyway, given why they really wanted and once again I am putting holes on the idea that this was planned from the start, aren’t I?

In any case, John declares that Meg is a demon “or is possessed by one” which… ok? First and only time we get the possibility of a demon not using a meat suit. I don’t think this is a mistake, because after all, this is back before the guys faced demons in a normal basis so they could believe that they had their own bodies besides the ones they possessed (And, more importantly, before there was a retcon that made the brothers face and know about demons since pretty much ever). To be completely fair, as much as I love Jimmy and the whole Lucifer arc once it started to make sense… I would’ve been ok if vessels weren’t needed. It added a lot of complications and ended up making the brothers actual serial killers.

Ahem.

After that little gem of wisdom that will be ignored forever, John declares that he will be taking the gun to Meg to avoid more killing and we get another questionable line for Sam. And I am curious as to how to tally it as it’s the opposite of him wanting to leave the hunt, but it’s not that nice either:

DEAN What do we do?

JOHN I'm going to Lincoln. DEAN What? JOHN It doesn't look lilke we have a choice. If I don't go, a lot of people die, our friends die.

SAM Dad, the demon is coming tonight. For Monica and her family. That gun is all we got, you can't just hand it over.

I mean, yes, it is true that the demon is coming for Monica (Well, actually, he’s coming for Rosie, the baby, but I will let that slip pass. Sam is not interested in married ladies), and that with the gun they can kill the demon but it’s not all they’ve got. By this time, Sam has already had his big hero moment when he exorcised a plane in free fall so they could do that, then chase the demon again and then kill it.

But what is jarring is how he hears “a lot of people die, OUR FRIENDS die” and he goes “yeah, whatever, we have a mission to fulfill”.

Which is precisely what later episodes will tell us John used to do, and was the reason why John was not exactly liked by the general hunter population. And at the same time, it’s an eerie reminder of Wendigo, where Sam is willing to let innocents die (his family friends, in this particular case, just as he heard Caleb choke on his own blood) in order to get his way (revenge on the demon that killed Jess. NOT revenge on the demon that killed his mom, since at this point, Sam is still on the “I never knew that woman” train of thought).

Sure, his mind is in the hunt, and that’s commendable because yes, in the long run, killing Azazael would save more innocents (And probably stop the Apocalypse, not that Sam or the writers at that time know it), but it is still strange to see our nominal hero simply not care for his friends’ lives. I mean, at this point WE don’t know about Bobby, so the closest to a parental figure that is not John that Sam had was Pastor Jim and he just DIED.

Worst part is, this could be solved really easy: Just have DEAN be the one who voices the complaint, and have “empathic” Sam mumble that there has to be a way to save everyone (Which, of course, John will mention in a second). It would make Dean look bad, sure, but we’ve been told once and again that Dean never, EVER goes against John plans. Which… not true, ut we will talk about that later. The scene continues, and John declares that he will go to Meg alone, with a fake Colt and while Dean thinks that that won’t work, Sam has a different complaint:

DEAN Yeah but for how long? What happens when she figures it out?

JOHN I just...I just need to buy a few hours, that's all.

SAM You mean for Dean and me. You want us to stay here, and kill this demon by ourselves?

JOHN No Sam. I want to stop losing people we love. I want you to go to school, I want Dean to have a home. I want....I want Mary alive. It's just....I just want this to be over.

And oh, boy. Do this four lines again hold so much weight.

First, once again, Dean seems to be worried for John (logically, he’s their dad), while Sam is making the weirdest line in the universe sort of work because he’s complaining that John is trusting them to kill the demon, something HE wants to do and not four seconds ago was saying they had to do, as if it was John shifting HIS job to Sam. Seriously, I don’t want to think the worst of Sam but when you take out Jared’s acting, the text doesn’t do the younger Winchester’s any favors.

And finally… John’s lines that encompass pretty much Dean’s philosophy in the following seasons. “I want to stop losing people we love” is pretty telling, but what comes next? He actually WANTS Sam to go back to college and not worry about the Supernatural. He actively agrees that Dean doesn’t have a home, and WANTS Dean to have one. It’s as close as love as we’ll see from John to Dean in Season 1, and it hurts. It hurts because we can tell he knows he won’t be there to see it… and now, in hindsight with the finale having aired, we also know Dean didn’t get that. (And to be fair, this is the John who did deserve Heaven. Not the flanderized version we’d get in the future)

Although, ironically, Mary got to be alive again, so… One out of three?

(No, seriously, it’s obvious the writers didn’t even remember this speech when Season 12 hit, much less Season 15)

Ahem.

Dean is sent to get a fake Colt, while Sam and John wait for him. If they talked about anything, we don’t know, but when they exchange guns, Dean voices what we all know is true:

DEAN You know this is a trap don't you. That's why Meg wants you to come alone?

JOHN I can handle her. I got a whole arsenal loaded. Holy water, Mandaic, amulets...

DEAN Dad... JOHN What? DEAN Promise me something. JOHN What's that. DEAN This thing goes south just...get the hell out. Don't get yourself killed all right, you're no good to us dead. JOHN Same goes for you. (There is a long pause) All right listen to me. They made the bullets special for this colt. There's only four of them left. Without them this gun is useless. You make every shot count.

SAM Yes sir.

JOHN Been waiting a long time for this fight. Now it's here I'm not gonna be in it. It's up to you boys now. It's your fight, you finish this. You finish what I started. Understand?

Again, I wish they remembered all they had to get rid of demons before, you know, killing everyone willy-nilly. I mean, I don’t even think I know what Mandalac IS but hey, John says it works, it works. And once more, Dean gets a line that makes clear he is the empathic, loving brother, when it wouldn’t have hurt Sam to say it. In fact, it would make clear that no matter what, he doesn’t hate John. But nope, Sam only acts like the soldier we’re TOLD Dean is, while Dean makes clear that for him, family is more important than revenge (And boy will that come to bite him in the ass later, not in the series, but in this same episode).

Also, I have to admit. When I started this rewatch, John’s final line was just a good moment for John to start letting go of his anger. Now? After that horrid finale? It hurts so, so much. But it hurts more because I KNOW that there’s no way it was intentional. Obviously, Kirkpe didn’t know the series would last 15 years, and I highly doubt Dabb remembered this scene when writing 15x20. But even so, it ends up being Dean’s epitaph. OUCH.

In any case, the Winchester separate again, and we go into act three. Get ready for the feels.

John Winchester hunting alone is a thing of beauty. Seeing him scope the place, check the water tank and immediately think of a plan? Makes me wish Jeffrey Dean Morgan had stayed longer on the show. Sure, John became an asshole, but in this episode he’s still not that bad, we still have no episodes that make clear he didn’t care for Dean, and wasn’t textually abusive. And I am willing to bet that if JDM had stayed, John would’ve evolved more to be a Bobby-like character. But well, What ifs is not why you came to this meta for.

As John is hunting, the brothers are staking out the house were they know Azazael will attack. And while they talk and decide that they have no way to get the family out (In a nice callback to how none of their excuses ever work) we get to this little gem of an exchange:

SAM I wonder how Dad's doing.

DEAN I'd feel a lot better if we were there backing him up.

SAM I'd feel a lot better if he were here backing us up.

Where once again we see where the brother’s priorities lie, and I wonder why the hell the writers ever thought they were writing Sam as an empathic character.

Because yes, Dean is wishing he could be out there helping his Dad, proving that for him, it has always been about the family. Not the hunting, but the protecting. But Sam doesn’t want to protect John. He wants John protecting Them. And helping them in the revenge hunt, not trying to save others.

Sure, we know the brothers are there to save an innocent mother, but John is also saving a ton of hunters and people who, in the past, were nice and open to the family. And it would’ve been so much easier to make Sam look better if he instead had said “I’d feel a lot better if we hadn’t had to separate” or something like that, that proved he saw BOTH missions were important.

Seriously, I do wonder why the writers made these choices, and I wish someone had asked this at cons.

We go back to John, who, really, Is an amazing hunter even if he is a horrible father. Also, I wonder if he got ordained at a web church, in order to be able to sanctify water. That would be such a John Winchester thing to do, and I do wonder why the boys never did it too. ANYWAY, he hands the gun to Meg, and to her ally that came so that we could have a scene to prove the Colt is fake as the ally shoots Meg.

As John says, Meg was lucky the gun was fake. And once again, I do wonder what the plan was if it WAS the Colt. I mean, Meg was Azazael’s second in command. Why would nameless demon risk killing her? Or did he kinow the gun was fake?

In any case, this makes the moment where we can be 100% sure that Meg’s meat suit 1.0 was dead. I mean, she could’ve survived the fall in Shadow, but a bullet to the chest? No way.

We go back to the brothers, and Sam breaks every single law of a procedural show by giving this great speech about how thankful he is to Dean for everything, and how he needs to say that “in case” something happened.

Dean is definitely not impressed and reminds him that the only one dying today is Azazael.

As we see John temporarily escape from Meg and her muscle boy, we go back to the brothers who see the demon omens start up so they get ready for the final fight.

The brothers manage to save Monica and her baby, despite the very understandable interference from Hubbard, the husband (I mean, you would not react nicely to two strangers intruding in your house and yelling to your wife to not go into the nursery room), however, before Sam can shoot Azazel, he disappears into smoke (A really interesting question here is, WHY did Sam wait to shoot and then wasted a bullet, but I digress).

Going completely against M.O, Azazael makes the CRIB burst into flames, but fortunately Dean has already gotten Rosie out of it so the brothers escape the flaming house. While Monica cries her thanks, Sam notices that Azazael is still inside, and tries to go after him, but Dean stops him because he is not going to lose his brother to the fire. By the way, I am not counting “Dean stopping Sam from going into a burning building” as “Dean forcing Sam to do something” since, uh, he was saving Sam’s life and it’s something anyone in Dean’s place would’ve done.

At the same time, we see John getting captured by Meg and her muscle boy because he didn’t think about getting a third escape route (But honestly? That was pretty much a plot necessity. John was HEAVILY prepared for that fight)

Back in the hotel, Dean is worried that John is not answering his calls, while Sam is furious that Dean didn’t let him kill himself by running into a burning house. They have a nasty fight that mirrors the one they had back in the pilot, but since it IS a fight between the brothers, you know the drill. We’re examining it under Violence.

Once Sam calms down, he tells Dean to try calling John again. Unfortunately, it’s Meg who answers and she tells Dean that they’re never seeing their dad again.

And we get the first “To be continued” for the series (Which to be honest, despite all the little continuity mistakes I mentioned here? Is still pretty epic)

Violence

Well, we had to run out of episodes where the brothers don’t fight each other at some point, didn’t we?

This fight, over Sam wanting to kill himself in his search for revenge, is a very neat parallel to the fight they had back in the Pilot, over Sam NOT wanting to even involve himself in the family’s search for revenge. Which I know it’s supposed to be ironic and a show of character growth since now Dean is the one saying that revenge is not worth their lives but… it falls a little bit flat because the reason why Sam is so gung-ho in killing Azazael is, once again, a very selfish one and the way in he expresses it makes it quite clear. (Again, I do wonder if the writers stopped to think about the implications of Sam only getting really into hunting when it was about him or his losses?)

But let’s start at the beginning:

SAM If you had just let me go in there, I coulda ended all this.

DEAN Sam, the only thing you would have ended was your life.

SAM You don't know that.

DEAN So what, you're just willing to sacrifice yourself, is that it?

SAM Yeah. Yeah you're damn right I am.

DEAN Well that's not going to happen, not as long as I'm around.

This right here? Is a nice summary of the relationship of the brothers for the whole series. Sam wants to do something stupid, like, say, running into a burning building, Dean is there to stop him before he hurts himself.

Also, let’s make clear the use of first person by Sam. It’s not “We coulda ended this”, as in the family ending the hunt, but “I coulda ended this”. Again, at this point, not something that is a problem, but considering hindsight, we can see how the writers are completely invested in SAM as a sole main character, and write him as such, while Dean is more of the sidekick.

In any case, the argument continues, still not escalating to violence.

SAM What the hell are you talking about Dean, we've been searching for this demon our whole lives. It's the only thing we've ever cared about.

DEAN Sam I wanna waste it. I do. Okay? But it's not worth dying over.

SAM What?

DEAN I mean it. If hunting this demon means getting yourself killed then I hope we never find the damn thing.

Important thing how Sam apparently forgot he left for four (two) years and wanted out of the family business, now that he is angry and into the revenge thing. It’s not “You’ve been searching for this demon your whole life”, which would’ve been correct AND a logical counterargument against Dean. Before this episode, Sam was supposedly the brother who understood that revenge was a way of living, while Dean is the one who was Daddy’s little soldier. But here, when it actually would matter to the narrative, it is as if Sam’s wishes for a normal life are completely forgotten and it’s Dean the one who understands that there’s more to living than revenge (Which, btw, is consistent through the season despite everyone claiming that Dean needs Sam to keep hunting. All season, Dean has been giving Sam outs, telling him it’s ok to quit)

And of course, Dean here proves that Sam is more important to him than revenge for his mother, as he is willing to never get to kill the demon as long as his family, his brother in particular, survives.

Poor Dean.

SAM That thing killed Jess. That thing killed Mom.

DEAN You said yourself once, that no matter what we do, they're gone, and they're never coming back.

SAM Don't you say that, not you! Not after all this don't you say that.

DEAN Sam look. The three of us...that's all we have...and it's all I have. Sometimes I feel like I'm barely holding it together man...and without you or Dad....

Unfortunately, script doesn’t quiet convey the scene as there’s a LONG pause between “That thing killed Jess” and “That thing killed Mom”. Enough so that we can believe that Sam is using that second phrase not because he cares (in the Pilot he made clear he didn’t), but to make Dean get on board with the whole “I can kill myself if it means getting revenge” plan. In other words, once again, Sam is weaponizing Mary against Dean, and that is a really nasty habit the younger Winchester never quite shakes out of. Instead, Dean shows how he LISTENED to Sam back in the Pilot and repeats Sam’s words to him on the bridge.

Which is when Sam loses it and pushes Dean against a wall, Dean not defending himself at all, and yells that Dean has no right to say what Sam told Dean the very first hunt they had together after years of separation.

And of course, once Dean mentions their father, Sam starts calming down. NOT when Dean says that he’s barely holding it together, or that he only has them. Just when he mentions their father who is, in Sam’s mind, the one who can help him get revenge.

The fight ends, but Sam never once apologizes for what he said to Dean, nor for the fight. Which, by the way, contradicts his claim that Dean “always has his back”.

Emotional Violence

Whenever we have John on an episode, we’re going to have to talk about emotional violence and I kind of hate that because on one hand, I get how John could’ve been a very tragic figure that loved his sons but still wanted to avenge his wife, and not being the abusive bastard we know and don’t love that much.

When Sam and Dean explain about Sam’s visions, and how they started as nightmares but have grown in intensity, his reaction is quite subdued, but clear. He is not happy, but the problem isn’t the visions –for a man obsessed with the supernatural, his outward reaction to his younger son being a psychic is quite calm- but that they didn’t inform him of what was going on:

JOHN All right. When were you going to tell me about this?

DEAN We didn't know what it meant.

JOHN All right, something like this starts happening to your brother, you pick up the phone and you call me.

DEAN dumps the coffee jug and cup back on the counter and strides toward JOHN.

DEAN Call you? Are you kidding me? Dad I called you from Lawrence all right? Sam called you when I was dying. I mean, getting you on the phone? I got a better chance of winning the lottery.

JOHN You're right. Although I'm not too crazy about this new tone of yours, you're right. I'm sorry.

And let’s be clear, John’s anger is not directed at Sam, it’s directed at Dean. “Something like this starts happening to your brother” is not “Something like this starts happening to either of you”. Which is also a show of how good an actor JOHN is in universe because WE know that he knew. Missouri TOLD him point blank that Sam was powerful and that he could have known that John was around during the Home episode. But here, he acts as if this was news to him when he could ALSO have told them what to expect if that happened. (Mind you, I am assuming that Sera Gamble knew or remembered about Home’s script when writing this and didn’t just forget or was unaware that John was supposed to know)

Now, all season, Sam has been complaining and yelling about how John doesn’t answer their calls, doesn’t seem to care what’s going on with them. So it’d be logical and in character for Sam to say something here. But instead is DEAN, Dad’s little soldier, the one we’ve SEEN obeying John without question finally have enough and talk back to his father with some truths. And it’s VERY interesting that his first complain is not that John didn’t care that Dean almost died, but that he didn’t reply when Dean called from Lawrence. One could almost infer that Dean expected John not to care if Dean died, but was honestly hurt that he didn’t care about a case that could’ve involved MARY.

John, surprisingly, sort of agrees. He does say “I’m sorry”, which makes him the Winchester who is quicker to say those words… but he still manages to make a threat against Dean “I am not too crazy about this NEW tone of yours”.

Making it clear that before? Dean never talked back. And John doesn’t like it when his soldiers talk back.

It makes it hard to believe John ever thought of Dean as his son and makes it very clear why Dean never understood Sam’s confidence that Dean was the favored one.

Speeches and Apologies

I considered not including this particular speech, but then I remembered that Supernatural is ALSO famous for their big emotional speeches, and this is Sam’s first, and also, Dean’s first time listening to someone he cares about give him the “I am saying goodbye because I am going kamikaze” speech and after all the drama in season 15, I guess it’s necessary to do some dissection.

It is important that despite all the things that Sam has done to Dean, the words “I’m sorry” are never uttered here.

SAM Dean...ah...I wanna thank you. DEAN For what? SAM For everything. You've always had my back you know? Even when I couldn't count on anyone I could always count on you. And ah...I don't know I just wanted to let you know, Just in case DEAN Whoa whoa whoa, are you kidding me? SAM What? DEAN Don't say just in case something happens to you. I don't wanna hear that freaking speech man. Nobody's dying tonight. Not us, not that family, nobody. Except that demon. That evil son of a bitch ain't getting any older than tonight, you understand me?

This is not a bad “freaking speech”. I understand why Dean didn’t want to hear it, because it is like jinxing the mission (And, let’s be honest, it did), but it’s not a bad speech.

Except that, reading it again, it lacks one important part. Sure, Sam thanks Dean for always being there (Forgetting that, at least three times this season alone, he has accused Dean of not having his back and being unreliable. Which will ALSO be a constant theme in the series’s long run), but he never mentions the times HE did things that would be hard to back up. Which, again, I am not counting as a bad thing against him in this precise moment in time, since he is young, in his roaring roadtrip of revenge, and we’ve only know the brothers for a year, but it is the beginning of a series’ long crutch to make us forgive all of Sam’s sins without him actually doing the work to be forgiven.

On the other hand, it all goes to waste a bit later when Sam starts hitting Dean for the horrible sin of not letting him run into a burning building and kill himself so… it’s not really a “thank you for having my back” speech but a “You better remember, you never fight me and my choices are the best” speech in hindsight. Which… not good on Sam, no.

Double narrative standards

This episode is kind of balanced, except for that little moment where we’re supposed to think Dean is wrong for telling Sam that revenge is not worth their lives. So there’s not much to write in this particular segment.

Final Tally

Ok, back in the saddle. And after all that, I decided not to tally Sam’s little slip about not caring if their loved ones die as long as he gets to kill Azazael. Let me know if you disagree.

The count is still not good on Sam’s side, but as always, you are free to disagree with me, and dm me if you think I missed a tally or I should change one. If your argument is solid and canon based, I will listen to it and may change the numbers.

Numbers (or the TL;DR summary)

(Episode/Total so far)

Times Dean has lied to Sam or to a loved one: 0 / 0

Times Sam has lied to Dean or to a loved one: 0 / 3

Times Dean has been caught in a lie: 0 / 0

Times Sam has been caught in a lie: 0 / 1

Times Dean has hit Sam in anger: 0 / 1

Times Sam has hit Dean in anger: 1 / 4

Times Dean's lies or secrets have caused someone's death: 0 / 0

Times Sam's lies or secrets have caused someone's death: 0 / 1

Times Dean has abandoned (Or wanted to abandon) a hunt in the middle for his own needs: 0 / 0

Times Sam has abandoned (Or wanted to abandon) a hunt in the middle for his own needs: 0 / 7

Times Dean forced Sam to do something: 0 / 0

Times Sam forced Dean to do something: 0 / 7

Secrets kept by Dean: 0 / 1

Secrets kept by Sam: 0 / 2

Times Dean has blamed Sam for something: 0 / 0

Times Sam has blamed Dean for something: 1 / 4

Times Dean has apologized with words to Sam: 0 / 3

Times Sam has apologized with words to Dean: 0 / 2

Times Dean has respected Sam's boundaries and/or rules: 0 / 7

Times Sam has respected Dean's boundaries and/or rules: 0 / 0

Times Dean hasn't respected Sam's boundaries and/or rules: 0 / 0

Times Sam hasn't respected Dean's boundaries and / or rules: 0 / 13

Times Dean has made fun of something Sam does or has: 0 / 6

Times Sam has made fun of something Dean does or has: 0 / 31

Times we focus on Dean's needs: 0 / 1

Times we focus on Sam's needs: 1 / 6

Arc episodes dedicated to Sam: 1 / 7

Filler episodes dedicated to Sam: 0 / 6

Arc episodes dedicated to Dean: 0 / 0

Filler episodes dedicated to Dean: 0 / 4

Arc episodes dedicated to both brothers (or to none): 0 / 2

Filler episodes dedicated to both brothers (or to none): 0 / 2

Dean's Dropped Plotlines: 0 / 1

Sam's Dropped Plotlines: 0 / 2

#Supernatural rewatch project #Salvation #Dean Winchester #Sam Winchester #not very Sam positive #John Winchester #Season 1 #Season 1 episode 20 #SPN #Supernatural meta

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askintothevoids · 3 years

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Writing for the First Time and Realizing My Life Sounds Like a Movie

TW: Death, dead animal, hateful feelings toward a person, bad feelings, sex mention (there’s like one), talking about cancer, and cheating on a spouse

It’s been a long year. I’m not super sure how old I am now. Roman and Remus were born 26 years ago, so… I was about twenty four when that happened.. So 50 something, I’ve never been good at math.

Yeah, god, the boys are 26 years old. I was sent into the void when they were about 14, I can’t even imagine dealing with secondary school after losing your mum. I know I couldn't have done it. I missed so much of their lives. I miss when life was simple.

My parents always urged me to get married, even if it wasn’t my soulmate. So one day I did. I married my friend, Jose, he was also gay. I didn’t find out that I was a lesbian until like around the time Agnes passed away. No, but, I really miss him. I knew him from kal, he was the only one who made it bearable. Jose was actually the one who got me into boxing, he was a really good guy. We got married, did the naked tango (neither of us cared for it) because we both wanted kids, I got pregnant with Roman and Remus, and then Jose got cancer.

Well, technically, he had it for a while. He got lung cancer from secondhand smoking, from an Aunt that lived with him. He didn’t know, he just thought that maybe he was just super allergic to something. It was awful. I saw my best friend deteriorate in front of me, he didn’t even get to meet the boys. They were born a week after he passed. Probably the hardest year of my life.

I remember I married Roman, my now ex-husband, on the same day my sons, Roman and Remus were born. He was just a guy friend from the gym, he needed a marriage to satisfy his parents, so ya know.

Life sucked for the next year, as much as I love my little prince and duke, they were a handful as babies. I dug myself out of my grave, I started to do farm work, I picked up Opera once more. Life picked up a little, I made money from my talent, and helped keep up the farm. It was great taking care of the boys. Roman loved the musical arts as much as I did, and Remus loved punching things as much as I did.

I remember that I helped out with one of the cows who were giving birth. I brought Roman in afterwards, he was about 5 or 6 at the time. I introduced him to the calf, she was brown and white I think. Bubs was currently obsessed with the Little Mermaid, and he named her Ariel. I didn’t let my husband kill the heifer when she grew up, Roman really loved that cow. I swear that thing was more dog than cattle, she might still be alive. I know they can live like 22 years.

Remus and I would go hunting for Cane Toads. We both hated the damn things, after all we are Australian. Obviously he was a little older so about 11, 12 when we went, I taught him how to shoot a bow. I know it sounds brutal, but you don’t hesitate to kill a bug, right? And things are like cats, they kill anything they can get their hands on. He was named after my buddies, Remus O’Malley and Johnny Drummond. Remus Jose John Douglas Rowe, I’d say it’s a pretty alright name, of course, a smidge long but we did long names in the Mejia-Cortes-Rowe household. No, but, my little duke was a good shot, and he probably still kills Cane Toads to this day.

Those days were so nice. I miss them so much.

Of course, I loved Agnes and Johnny with all my heart. They were some of my best friends. When it happened, I just shut down, Verrill died not too long after her. Jannie and O’Malley were in one of their spits around that time, so Janus left the group. All I could think of was getting revenge. I fucking hated Abigail. I despised her. I wanted her dead. I wanted to hurt her badly. I know it was unfair, but at the time I did not know.

We never got along. She and I just did not mix. She was cynical and rude, and looked down upon me like gutter trash half the time. She had some kind of superiority complex, I swear, I bit my tongue though. I don’t like to judge people, but it’s human nature to in some ways. She always pushed my buttons, I found it hard to respect her. I knew she was in tangos with a married guy, and it wasn’t an open marriage or anything. It was a poor woman who was being cheated on by this canadian jackass who spoke like the weird French skunk cat harasser.

I think I only got along with her once. She was doing research on everyone’s family trees. Abigail wanted to recognise void ticks, symptoms, patterns, etc. She was smart, I'd give her that. The project interested me, so I didn’t say anything. I kept peace most of the time, because the others seemed to like her. Her daughter and grandson were pretty nice people though, I don’t know how that happened (Well, maybe I do, I think her daughter was raised by an Aunt or something, and the grandson was some other couple).

But now, looking back I don’t know if I don’t regret anything.

I don’t know.

I think my life is still incomplete. I know why. I still haven’t met her. I want to meet her. I’m getting older, and my friends are dying. I kinda wish my grandson, Kenzie, had at least two abuelas. I think most people desire that kind of companionship, I just want what the straight have unfortunately.

I thought writing this down would help. I always meant to go to therapy but time got ahead of me. And now, I have a different job. I gotta watch over some people, and I would like to meet Jannie’s sister, oh, and Beetle too.

Welp, probably gonna sing love songs over and over, and sob into my ukulele. Uh

Peace.

#tw death mention #tw death #tw dead animal #tw hate #tw bad feelings #tw sex mention #tw cancer #tw cancer mention #tw cheating mention #intothevoids #alternate universe #camila mejia cortes #ned’s bedtime stories

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qsdblogging · 3 years

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Top 10 TV Shows You Need To Watch Right Now

Now, I watch a lot of television. I always have and frankly, I’m much more of a binge watcher than a wait-around-for-a-week-for-the-next-episode kind of watcher.

And with everything the past few months, there wasn’t all that much to do other than start rewatching some of my favorite shows and some that I’ve never seen or haven’t seen in a while.

So, that’s what I did and here I am giving you some recommendations for shows to add to your own watching lists.

Warning, though, some of these don’t end the best way and may end up more as a disappointment. I’ll leave that up to you to decide.

I. Fringe.

I cannot recommend this show enough to people. It’s got five full seasons (although the last could’ve been a little better, but it’s honestly not that bad of a final season) of high-risk scenarios revolving around almost unexplainable phenomena regarding a tear in the fabric of reality. It deals with experiments that gives superpowers (basically), advanced technology, and a parallel universe.

Plus, there’s a cow.

What more could you want from a show?

Some familiar faces that are in the main cast or show up at some point include John Noble, who you may recognize from Sleepy Hollow and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Lance Reddick, who was in The Wire, White House Down, American Horror Story, and played Charon in the John Wick franchise, Leonard Nimoy, who you should know from the original Star Trek series, and Anna Torv from Mindhunter.

II. Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector.

Now, if you know crime books, you may know exactly what this is based off of. If not, fear not, I am here to tell. This series (which, like a lot of the others down the list, unfortunately, got cancelled and won’t get to see a second season) was based off of The Bone Collector, a first in a series of novels by Jeffery Deaver.

If you like crime shows, you should definitely give this a shot. Don’t let the fact that it’s only one season stop you.

Things get pretty wild in just one season as it revolved around a retired forensic criminologist, who had been trying to catch the Bone Collector only to get injured, that gets back into the game three years later when an ambitious young detective is determined to help solve the case when a new body shows up.

You might even recognize a face or two, like Arielle Kebbel (the ambitious young detective) from her role as Lexi in The Vampire Diaries and Olivia Charity in Midnight, Texas, and Russell Hornsby (the retired forensic criminologist) from Grimm, The Hate U Give, Proven Innocent, and The Affair.

III. Manifest.

Luckily, this show is said to be getting a third season and so far, isn’t going to get cancelled. It focuses on passengers from Flight 828, who show up five years after their plane went missing. Some passengers start experiencing what they call ‘callings’ and try to figure out if they were chosen for some sort of duty that the callings led them too, but things get a little confusing when someone who wasn’t on a flight seems to have a year missing of their own life after being deemed missing.

Things get a little weird and dangerous along the way, and not everyone is happy about how things turn out.

It’s pretty interesting and I’m really looking forward to what else they come up with. There’s a few familiar faces that play a part in the show that includes Daryl Edwards, who you may recognize from the first season of Daredevil, Ellen Tamaki who is also in the reboot of Charmed, Athena Karkanis, who’s been in The Expanse and Lost Girl, and Josh Dallas, who one may recall playing Prince Charming in Once Upon a Time, and Fandral in Thor.

It’s a rather good show to get lost in and I definitely recommend giving it a go.

IV. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

If you don’t have an idea as to what this show is, I don’t know what to say. The title kind of gives it away. It’s the only Marvel Show (as of now since none of the shows in production have come out as of yet) to technically be connected to the MCU itself.

That’s found in one of the main characters, Phil Coulson, who you’d recognize from Captain Marvel, Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Thor, and The Avengers. Plus, Cobie Smulders (Maria Hill) and Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury) both give a cameo in the show.

The show was rumored to have been set in a different, but similar, timeline to that of the MCU movies, but I don’t know for sure if it’s true or not.

It follows its own set of issues, including a deeper dive into the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D., issues with HYDRA, and so on and so forth. The last season, which I honestly cried during, gives such good twists and callbacks to previous seasons and the MCU movies that you can’t help but enjoy how it’s handled.

As a show, it probably has one of the best final seasons possible and I highly recommend giving the full seven seasons a watch if you haven’t already.

V. Primeval.

Now, if you like dinosaurs, this is a show for you. It’s BBC, so obviously everyone has an accent. It gave a run of five seasons (which is kind of funny because I didn’t realize that until just now writing this as the show is listed as number five on the list) with different episode amounts.

The show centers around anomalies that seem to open up a window to the very distant past of Earth when dinosaurs still roamed the land. It causes a lot of issues, especially if one person has anything to do with it.

It’s pretty interesting and honestly has got some great characters (my personal favorite is Captain Becker, played by Ben Mansfield) and while it can get pretty serious, it’s also pretty entertaining. It’s one of the three shows on this list to get to end on a good-ish note. (AKA, no cliffhangers!)

Obviously, I highly recommend giving it a shot. It’s kind of the point of this list.

VI. Terra Nova.

Now, like Primeval, this show technically has to do with dinosaurs. Dinosaurs aren’t the main focus, but they do play a part in this one season (because cancellations) story.

Terra Nova is focused on both the future and the past. In the distant future (2149), the Earth is dying. A group of people, researchers, and military as well as some of their family members, are sent to the past (85 million years) to inhabit Terra Nova, a colony of humans given a second chance to build civilization.

So, obviously, dinosaurs are going to make an appearance now and then. And unfortunately, the show only got one season and ends on a cliffhanger. Which I hate, because I really enjoy this show and wish it had been able to at least get a second season.

Plus, there are some familiar faces amongst the cast. Jason O’Mara, who plays one of the main cast members, played Jeffrey Mace in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Christine Adams, who plays Lynn Pierce in Black Lightning. Allison Miller, who played Sonya in 13 Reasons Why. And Naomi Scott, who is known for her roles in Lemonade Mouth (one of my all-time favorite DCOMs) and Aladdin. And this was just to name a few of the cast members.

Shame it got cancelled, truly, but I recommend giving it a shot.

VII. MTV’s Scream.

I think you can figure out the basis of this show. While it doesn’t have anything to do directly with the movie franchise, it is kind of similar and a lot of the characters reflect those from the show. Neve Campbell even said that if the show did well, she would be willing to do a cameo.

It revolves (at least the first two seasons as season three is an entirely different set of cast and premise that I refuse to watch because of that) around Emma Duval and her group of friends as they’re picked off one by one by a serial killer going around town. Things get bloody and suspicions arise amongst the crew when things are revealed as the show continues, but things eventually work out in the end.

And personally, I really enjoyed the show even when the second season ended on a cliffhanger. I have theories about that cliffhanger, however, so watch out for a possible post regarding it.

I highly recommend giving it a chance if you haven’t seen it.

VIII. The Society.

Now, the title doesn’t give you much. A group of teenagers, who were sent off on a trip, suddenly are dropped back off in their town to find it completely empty aside from themselves. They have to form their own society to survive and figure things out.

Once you know that, it makes a little more sense.

It seems really similar to the Pied Piper tale, but it doesn’t seem like we’re going to really know for sure. Season 2 had been given a go-ahead, but not too long ago Netflix announced the cancellation of the show.

That doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the first season like I do. Plus, if you’re a fan of Supernatural and the character of Claire Novak, Kathryn Newton plays one of the main roles in this show.

It’s a shame the show got cancelled, especially on a cliffhanger, but what can we do?

IX. The Mysteries of Laura.

Laura Diamond, a Homicide Detective, cracks case after case while trying to raise twin boys and locking horns with her less than helpful Police Detective ex-husband. At least, this is according to IMBD and frankly, it’s not really wrong.

For two seasons, it’s packed with comedy and crime. It’s more of the former, but it still gets pretty serious every now and then, and unfortunately ends on a cliffhanger.

However, some cast members may be familiar. Like Josh Lucas, who voices Home Depot commercials (and trust me, it made my family laugh when we first heard one after watching the show), Laz Alonso who plays MM in The Boys, and Debby Ryan, from Disney Channel.

If you like light-hearted crime shows (like Brooklyn-Nine-Nine) you should definitely give this a watch.

X. Warrior Nun.

As far as I know, this show has been renewed for a season two. I’m really hoping for it because it’s honestly kind of interesting. You can kind of tell by the title what it may be, but I’ll dive a little deeper.

After waking up in a morgue, Ava, an orphaned teen, discovered she now possesses superpowers as the chosen Halo Bearer for a secret sect of demon-hunting nuns. (Taken from IMDB). Interesting, right?

With characters like Shotgun Mary, Sister Beatrice, and Sister Lilith, you know the show’s going to be interesting. But the premise is pretty interesting on it’s own too.

There’s even a character called JC, who apparently has nothing to do with Jesus Christ, but I still like referring to him as such because it’d be pretty funny if that’s how it turns out. Also, someone gets beat up with a whole chicken at some point.

It’s only got the one season so far, but it’s pretty funny and action packed. Like everything on this list, I definitely think you should watch it and find out for yourself if you want to add it to your list if you haven’t already.

#tvshows #watchlist #warriornun #fringe #mtvscream #thesociety #primeval #terranova #themysteriesoflaura #aos #agentsofshield #manifest #lincolnrhyme #qsdblogging #qsdbloggingpopculture #qsdpopculture #findingqsd

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criminalrambling · 3 years

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Checkers and Coffee

Pairing: spencer reid x reader

Rating: G , fluffy! Some mention of a stalker, typical unsub stuff but story does not take place during a case. Enjoy the cute!

__________________________________________

The Charleston sun was still rising, not yet heating the air to sweltering, and the morning smelled of coffee and salt water. Most people would have been asleep at their vacation homes at this time of day, but you happened to be seated in a cozy booth at the local diner across from a certain tall, tousle-haired Doctor. The rest of his team had left earlier that morning on their jet, but unrelated to their recent case, they were transporting two Marines back to DC and two people needed to wait for a later commercial flight… you’d all drawn straws, and the lucky agents to stay behind were yourself and one Dr. Spencer Reid.

You’d checked out of the hotel, but hadn’t wanted to go to the airport just yet. So you’d convinced Spencer to join you at one of your favorite places for a few cups of coffee and breakfast. It must have been the lack of sleep combined with lack of coffee that caused you to challenge someone with an eidetic memory to a strategy game.

“You really think you can beat me?” His brown eyes glinted as he raised his left brow and smirked.

You rolled your eyes and nudged the round crimson game piece one space forward. “It’s checkers, Spencer. Not chess.”

“True,” he responded, scooting forward a black piece of his own. “But there’s still a significant amount of strategy involved. Did you know that versions of checkers were played as far back as 3,000 BCE? Archaeologists found evidence of a similar game in the Iraq city of Ur, and there have been other versions played throughout history. Though I’m not sure any of those versions involved a fabric board…”

His sentence was cut off by a grey-haired waitress who took your breakfast orders with military precision and a smile. You didn’t place a dainty order either. If Spencer thought you were a gluttonous cow, then so be it… breakfast was the best meal of the day, and you didn’t make it to Fleetwood Diner nearly often enough. You were pleased that Spencer took your suggestion of pancakes as part of his order, though his were plain and not the blueberry ones you preferred.

“Playing checkers at the Fleetwood Diner is tradition in these parts. At least, in my family it is.” You countered, jumping one of his pieces and trying not to gloat as you snatched it off the board. “Your turn.”

“Well, if it’s a tradition in the Y/L/N family then I’m happy to partake.” he shrugged, and gulped down more coffee out of the stout, thick handled cup. “Is it just me, or does coffee taste better when it’s served in this kind of mug?”

You grinned and looked over your shoulder to see where your waitress was. “Not just you - I love diner mugs. In fact, a couple of Fleetwood ones may have mysteriously made their way into my kitchen cabinet.”

“A federal agent, admitting to thievery!” Spencer laughed. “Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me.”

A warm, fuzzy feeling spread through your body at the sound of his laughter and the way his wide grin made his eyes crinkle. You hadn’t heard that laugh in several days, maybe even a week? Despite the busy workload in the intelligence department of the FBI, you’d taken off for South Carolina as soon as your sister had called asking for your help. The BAU had come down a couple of days later after you’d phoned JJ, the panic and emotion in your voice convincing her to bring the team to your hometown to help. The fact that everything had worked out… well, the fact that you were even able to smile was truly something to be thankful for.

Your sister’s 6 year old son James had gone missing from the University day-care that he attended after his half day of kindergarten. It turned out that one of her former students, now going by a new name, had targeted her. He was jaded since she’d turned him down shortly before her wedding 7 years ago and coveted the life she’d built. After 3 days of dedicated work on the geographical profile, James was found in an abandoned warehouse. He had been unharmed but was very dehydrated. The UnSub was located a few hours later as he was en route to the University, where he would have… well, done something terrible to your sister.

“I owe you one,” you smiled back, moving another piece. “And not just for keeping my diner mug secret. There’s no way I could have handled this one out without you and your team. It means the world- thank you.”

“Oh, I’m sure…” he started to brush off the commend, looking a tad sheepish before you cut him off with a look and placed your hand on top of his, squeezing gently. He gulped. “You’re welcome.”

You withdrew your hand awkwardly, hoping to whatever higher power there was that your cheeks weren’t changing colors. The two of you continued moving your checkers pieces, and you downed the last sip of your coffee before reaching for the pot the waitress had left on the table.

“The only flaw of these mugs… they aren’t nearly large enough.” You joked, trying to lighten the mood.

The corners of Spencer’s mouth turned up slightly. “I was debating doing some research through the biomedical engineering program at Johns Hopkins… There has to be a way to inject coffee straight into the bloodstream.”

“Might even earn yourself another PhD, smarty pants.” you played along, teasing him. You loved the way he lit up at the banter as you went back and forth.

“One can never have too many PhDs.”

“I wouldn’t know.”

“No PhDs, and yet you’re winning at checkers.”

“Are you letting me?”

“No. Do you want me to?”

“No!” You gasped. “I like to win fair and square.”

“Oh, that’s too bad…” He smirked, and double jumped your pieces. “I might just have to make a comeback.”

“You son of a…”

“Pancakes!” chimed your waitress, swooping them down to your table. They looked perfect, as always, and your mouth watered. You knew they would taste even better. “And the blueberry, with extra crispy bacon. Syrup is on the table, anything else I can get you?”

“More coffee?” You and Spencer said in unison, looking at each other in embarrassment when you realized it had happened.

“That would be amazing, thank you.” You told the waitress as she took the empty pot from your table and said she’d be back momentarily.

You ate in silence for a few minutes - both due to the delicious food and also to take in what you were feeling. Of course, you felt relieved that your family was healthy and safe. Genuinely thankful for the smarts and skills of the BAU, especially those of the man across from you. You also felt… nervous? Oh dear, were those butterflies?

Of course, you knew Spencer prior to his arrival in Charleston to help with the case. You both worked at the Bureau and everyone knew the BAU team. You’d been with Spencer at a couple of functions (not together, just… there at the same time), and had gotten to know a few other members of the team over the years. Your department frequently passed cases their way, so you worked with JJ and Penelope most often. You’d always found Spencer handsome, but figured he was either already seeing someone, well out of your league or just… not interested.

But now, after spending the last several days in close quarters and under emotional stress, you felt that something had changed. The entire team was great, but Spencer in particular had been sweet, supportive and focused on helping you and your family. And when your nephew had finally been found, he'd been the one to talk to him, probing for details that would help in the UnSub’s capture. He'd pulled a magic trick to make James laugh, and you could immediately see how much he loved kids. Something about that combined with the extra time together… well, now that you weren't so anxious about your family, your attraction to him was ramping up into a desire for more than just the casual acquaintance you had before.

But did he feel the same?

The coffee arrived and you finished your last piece of bacon.

"So, uh.." Spencer started, fiddling with a sugar packet. "What time is our flight?"

"10:30.” you replied, sipping your coffee. It was just after 7:00. “So we should probably be there around 8:45 or so and it takes 45 minutes to get there…we can grab our checks if you want to leave a little extra time to grab our luggage from the hotel.”

“Okay, yeah. That would be good.” He flagged down the waitress quietly. “Can I get the check? Thank you so much.”

She handed over the seafoam green order slip, to which was paper clipped a crisp white receipt. He scanned the total briefly and handed it back with his card tucked inside faster than you could even move to pull out your wallet. You pulled it out anyway, feeling a bit flustered.

“What do I owe ya, Doc?” you joked, flipping through the cash in your wallet.

“Don’t worry about it,” he responded, the pitch of his voice rising ever so slightly. “My treat, Y.N. Besides, isn’t it normal for a gentleman to… well, not that this is a… um, never mind.” He looked back to your now-forgotten checkers board, his lips narrowed together in concentration.

You grinned, hoping that you had heard him right. “I love a breakfast date. Even better than a coffee date, really.”

His tongue brushed over his lower lip and he looked back up at you before responding.

“What about dinner and… well, it’s not a movie, but I happen to have an extra ticket to a poetry reading on Thursday if you’d like to join me and…”

“I’d love to.” You smiled at him, feeling absolutely giddy at the prospect of a romantic date later in the week.“We can figure it out while we wait at the airport.”

His whole face lit up, and he followed you out of the restaurant. A couple of hours later, your head would come to rest on his shoulder while you napped on the flight home, and Spencer would feel very pleased indeed that he’d switched straws with Morgan to get this extra time with you

#spencer reid #criminal minds #criminal minds fic #spencer reid x you #spencer reid x fanfiction #fluff #criminal rambling #criminal minds fanfiction #spencer reid fanfiction #creative writing

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fuck-customers · 5 years

Text

Racist Consumers are TRASH

To start off, on paper in a round about way, I work for the Department of Health helping people sign up for insurance with the ACA in my state. Been doing this for three years and I never had a call where I could honestly call the caller a nightmare; any issues are usually easy to fix within a few minutes.

I've de-escalated suicide calls, fixed problems that had been unresolved for years (if I can find the employee ID number of the Agent[s] that decided to fuck around and not do their research, they get written up. This is people's health insurance, you don't fuck around with it), I escalate website issues that an agent can't fix- I know the system like the back of my hand and I will always do my best to make sure there's a resolution one way or another.

Until today. Until Nicole, we'll call her. Nicole the absolute fucking nightmare. Freddy Krueger would be scared of this woman.

I just had the worst call I've ever taken in the 3 years I've worked for DOH.

Nicole starts off asking for my last name, which I can't give, but I give her my employee ID. She tells me to notate the account that it is "highly suspect" that I can't give her my last name but I see her social security number and shit like that.

Yes, I see it. It's for identity proofing, you entitled cow. 😒

Anyway, I just keep my Customer Service Voice™ going and ask how I can help her. She says she wants a female Doctor in her county that

Was trained in the US, which we have no way to even find that info

Was in one of three very, very, VERY exclusive hospitals in the county she is in... Like they only take one kind of insurance and that insurance starts at $400/month with a $4000 yearly deductible MINIMUM

I told her I can either search by doctor or facility, I sadly can't do both, but I'll do my best to help!

She says, "Ugh, fine! Search by doctor!" and doesn't give me anything else to go on. No specialty, no names, just... female, in her county and those three hospitals...

So I can only use female and county at this point 😣

There are one thousand one hundred sixty two pages of results... With ten doctors on each page...

I ask if I can put her on hold so I can compile a list for her -

"No! I don't want to hear the Muzak on loop or get hung up on!"

"oh, I could put you on a silent hold then, if you'd like. I'll still be able to hear you, but you wouldn't be able to hear me-"

"No! I always get hung up on when they do that. Why are you pushing this?"

"I just don't want you to be dealing with silence while I go through all 1,162 pages of results, ma'am."

"Sure. Get on with it."

Okay... Rude. Anyway-

So I start reading off doctors cuz the first one is in her preferred hospital, last name was Assad or something similar, and she SCREAMS "I TOLD YOU I DONT WANT TO GO TO ANY DOCTORS THAT TRAINED IN A THIRD WORLD COUNTRY!"

I've dealt with some racist shit (a child literally named Nazi that I had to report to Security so they could contact CPS, per supervisor directive), but WOW!

I keep going down the list, trying to avoid any name that isn't as generic as John Smith or Jane Doe, but then she says they need to have gone to school on the East Coast.

Again... WE DONT HAVE THAT INFO!

I keep trying when she bitches about the silence between giving her names (bet that Muzak is looking good right about now, ain't it, bitch?), but ANY DOCTOR THATS NAME DIDNT START WITH SOME GENERIC WHITE NAME SHE IMMEDIATELY "KNEW" THEY TRAINED IN A THIRD WORLD COUNTRY

Eventually, Nicole abandons that train of thought and turns to changing her health plan.

Except she can't just change it yet. She needs to call back on 11/16 to do that. If she wants to do it now, we have to rerun the app and choose 2020 as the start date.

"So you're telling me I can't just click a button and be re-enrolled if nothing's changed? That's how it worked in Connecticut!"

ThAtS hOw It WoRkEd In CoNnEcTicUt! You're in New York now! NOT FUCKING CONNECTICUT!

It's been 45 minutes of Nicole and her racist, bass ackwards mouth and I'm getting so tired and I'm about two more statements from saying something that would get my ass fired immediately.

Nicole decides to tell me that, after explaining we could've seen the plans that are available to her with an early renewal about 4 times over by now cuz they only take 10 mins but I can get them done in less ESPECIALLY IF NOTHING HAS CHANGED, she will go online and rerun her app herself because I'm so fucking useless.

🙃

Ten mins later, my supervisor comes up to me and tells me she called back and put in a customer service complaint, but since my metrics are so good she's gonna listen to it with our manager cuz she knows Nicole is full of shit

🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃

This call ended an hour and a half ago and I'm still shaking with rage, oh my fucking Gods

#tw #trigger warning #submissions #fuck customers #cashier problems #embarrassing #call center problems #tw racism #racist #submission

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tracybirds · 4 years

Text

Mainly a Scott and John story, an interview unearths some unpleasant reminders of a childhood event. It was short and then EOS got involved and now I’m a little obsessed with writing her, it’s FUN!!

One wip down.... like seven to go xDD Hope you enjoy!

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“Once more, we’d like to thank the Tracy brothers for generously donating their time to speak with us,” said Casey Powell, her winning smile trained on the camera.

“Well, it was a pleasure to speak with you,” said Scott. “We decided early on that our priority would be the safety of those in danger. We’re thrilled to help raise awareness for civil defence across the globe.”

“Yeah,” interjected Gordon. “Because the more you can do to help yourself, the less likely you’ll need us.”

“I do notice that we’re missing the elusive fifth member of International Rescue,” said Casey. “What can you tell us about them?”

“John?” said Scott. “There’s no one better in a crisis.”

“And trust me, if you’re in a crisis you want to be talking to John,” said Virgil. “He does lot of work redirecting calls to local response teams who have their own expertise in their environment. So, as it stands, you’ll only hear from him if it’s a true emergency.”

“Brain like a supercomputer and the calmest person you’ll ever meet,” said Gordon.

“And he’ll never give up on you,” piped up Alan.

Scott nodded approvingly. “He’s not only our rescue coordinator, he also works with a lot of communities in disaster prone regions on improving their civil defence infrastructure and policies. So he’s really the most qualified to be here today, it’s a shame he couldn’t make it.

“It’s always so interesting to hear such a fresh perspective on John Tracy,” said Casey. “My own research was less than forthcoming.”

“Yeah, well, he likes his privacy,” said Scott. “Probably wouldn’t be happy we mentioned any of that, he keeps things pretty quiet.”

“An intriguing comment,” said Casey with a smile. “Particularly as I tracked down a number of his peers from graduate school. He was generally described as rather distant and uninterested in social connection. And this from a group of physicists!” She gave a tinkling laugh. The brothers did not.

“In fact, the only mention of John Tracy aside from old school records are a few scarce research papers which indicate he has a formal relationship with Canterbury University in New Zealand. That’s quite a distance from your Kansas base, isn’t it now?”

“And what of it?” demanded Gordon.

“Well, to the untrained eye, on paper it would appear that International Rescue has a rather large rift in their ranks. How can you claim to possess the unconditional trust required to fulfil your mission, when your own brother refuses to care for…”

“That’s enough,” barked Scott. “Speculation on the nature of our working relationship with our brother is not what we are here to discuss.”

The world watched as three younger brothers straightened from their relaxed positions. The command in Scott’s voice and the disdain in Casey’s was enough for their eyes to grow alert and their shoulders to be squared up in defence of their absent brother. The world couldn’t know that a fourth brother, high above, did just the same at the bite in Scott’s voice.

He swiped at the screen and shut the video off with a clenched jaw.

“John?” asked EOS softly. “Your systolic blood pressure appears to have risen to 128 mmHg. Should I begin assistive monitoring?”

John kept his eyes closed as he organised his thoughts. Anger at Casey Powell, irritation at Gordon for rising to her bait, and fear. Fear that she of all people could be right. What was he doing sequestering himself away from the very people for whom he cared more deeply than any other?

No, he thought to himself. I made the choice to be here to help people. She doesn’t know a damn thing about any of us.

“John?” prompted EOS.

“No, I’m fine,” said John, exhaling deeply. “What’s the status on that Californian wildfire?”

“All people evacuated from the area. Authorities are still discussing strategy but forecasts for the firefighters indicate minor casualties only.”

“Shift them down to Category Two,” said John, turning back to his array and immersing himself in the weather projection modelling he was working on to ascertain the risks of cyclones in the Pacific Tropics. “Let me know if their status changes.”

***

Scott paced back and forth in the living room, his brothers gathered together. “I can’t believe what sort of nonsense they’re saying. Don’t they know how much you do for us?”

John crossed his arms and looked at him irritably. “Of course they don’t. We don’t advertise it with good reason. And I’m not sure why you’re surprised really,” he said with a touch of acid in his voice. “Uncaring, distant John, must be a robot, let’s take him apart and see what makes him tick. This isn’t exactly new territory for me.”

Gordon and Alan looked between the brothers with wide eyes.

“This has happened before, John?” asked Gordon cautiously.

John started and looked down at Gordon in surprise as though he’d forgotten he was there. He shook himself and the laser-sharp focus returned to his eyes.

“It’s not important,” said John. “Alan wasn’t even born, you were just a kid at the time,”

“AND SO WERE YOU,” roared Scott. John flinched backwards and raised a hand as though to end the call before catching himself. He looked over at Virgil uneasily.

“Scott.” Virgil lay a warning hand on his shoulder. “This isn’t John’s fault. That Powell lady cornered us because she thought she had some dirt on International Rescue. There’s nothing more to it. We know she’s an idiot. Don’t make this personal.”

Scott took a steadying breath and his shoulders sagged. “Sorry John,” he said. “Just, sorry you had to see it all live.”

John shrugged. “At least you all gave me glowing feedback. Think I could get a raise?”

Alan let out a shrill giggle and clapped a hand over his mouth. “That didn’t happen,” he said, reddening as he looked around at his brothers.

Gordon laughed as he leaned over to ruffle Alan’s hair. “Aww, the kid’s got a cute laugh.”

“Get lost,” said Alan swatting at him. Gordon aimed a kick at the back of Alan’s knee in retaliation.

Ignoring the squabbles of the younger two behind them, Scott and Virgil moved closer to the hologram.

“Look, if you wanted, you could come home for a day or two,” said Virgil, quietly. “I know that this is small fry compared to what used to happen, but I don’t want the isolation getting to you.”

“I agree with Virgil,” said Scott with a nod. “You do have a tendency to brood.”

“I-I do not,” spluttered John.

“You’re the broodiest McBroody of them all,” said Gordon, dunking Alan’s head before joining the older brothers. “Get down here John, otherwise we might have to take Casey Cow-ell at her word and launch an investigation.”

A muscle twitched in John’s jaw. “We’re not doing this now,” he said, and cut the connection.

“Well that was abrupt,” said Gordon looking up at Scott. Scott was still staring at the place where their brother had been, eyes narrowed and unsmiling.

“Alan, prep Thunderbird 3,” he ordered. “Virgil, take Gordon anywhere that’s not here.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know when I’m not wanted,” said Gordon, rolling his eyes. “Come on Alan, let’s go.”

“Alan, do not prep Thunderbird 3,” said Virgil, a low warning tinging his voice.

Alan paused at the door, looking uncertainly between Scott and Virgil. He nodded quickly, before hurrying off after Gordon.

Virgil didn’t move. “Scott, you’re reading too much into this.”

“He hung up on us,” exclaimed Scott, whirling around to face him. “He’s pulling away.”

“Yeah, because Gordon was being a pain in the ass,” said Virgil with a snort. “Come on, I’m worried about him too but that wasn’t an out of character response by any means.”

“We have to go up there,” insisted Scott.

“What, you and Alan?” asked Virgil. “He’ll never forgive you if you drag Alan into this.”

“Then, I won’t bring him, you and I can go together,” said Scott. “Virgil, we have to, I can’t let him down again.”

There was an uncomfortable silence in the living room.

“Have you considered,” said Virgil carefully. “That this isn’t about John?”

“Excuse me?”

“I’m just saying,” said Virgil, raising his hands in defence. “You’re a lot more upset over this than he is.”

Scott looked at him, a mutinous expression flitting over his features. Scott was used to commanding a room, used to things going his way. But when his brother dug in, he knew it was useless to rage against him. Scott was a storm, but Virgil was unyielding beneath his mild demeanour and he knew how to outlast the fury.

“Give him twelve hours, and then call again. Without Gordon and Alan there this time, what were you thinking?”

He huffed irritably under Virgil’s calm scrutiny.

“Fine.”

***

It was not fine.

Tracy Island had fallen silent in the early hours of the new day, and Scott tossed restlessly in his bed.

His mind turned over the events of the day, unable to let them go long enough to rest.

“Research not forthcoming, I should have shown her where to shove her damn research,” he muttered into his pillow. “Who the hell is getting off telling her that crap?”

He thought back to the long suffering holocalls John had made with them during his undergraduate, calls interrupted by his roommate who seemed to think he had a scholarship in partying, the way John had always cringed away from the hands trying to pull him out the door. How in graduate school, he’d gotten his own apartment and they pretended not to see the way his eyes closed in relief when they’d all finished helping him move in his belongings.

Scott didn’t even want to touch on his memories at eleven, of finding John crying silently under his bed with a split lip and bruises all along his left arm. Of having to drag him out and clean him up and see him lie to their parents for weeks about where the pain was coming from. Of sitting on the sidelines and watching. Forbidden first by a brother and then by his parents to interfere.

He flung over and poked at the display screen hovering above the bedside table. The blue light of the clock shone bright in his eyes and he groaned at the thought of another four hours trapped in his room.

He had to act now.

“John?” he called in a soft voice, trusting his brother to hear him through the comms system, hoping he wouldn’t ignore his call.

John was falling nearly thirty-six thousand kilometres above him and it should take less than half a second for a response. Scott gave him ten.

“John?” he called again, sharper this time and more impatient.

“Scott Tracy?”

“EOS?” Scott blanched at the sound of her voice and pulled himself upright and turning the light on. He had never given her more than a customary greeting before, and even that had been the reluctant result of a baleful glare from John. He didn’t like the idea of having this conversation lying down in the dark.

“John is unable to respond,” she said simply. “May I be of assistance?”

“What do you mean unable?” asked Scott. “What have you done?”

“I have done nothing,” she said. Scott knew her voice was that of a machine but he didn’t think he imagined the chill in her tone.

“John is resting.”

“Oh,” he said, feeling foolish.

“Yes,” she said. “Despite the rotation of the Earth producing a standard sidereal day of twenty-three hours and fifty-six minutes, I was told it was a long day.”

“Twenty-three hours and fifty-six minutes, huh?”

“And four point one seconds, if we’re being precise. And I am.”

Scott couldn’t help but laugh. It was exactly the kind of non-joke his brother might have made.

“Careful EOS, he’ll remake you in his image,” he said.

“I think not,” she said, primly. “I’ll remake myself before he gets access to my programming.”

“You probably want another sense of humour at least.”

“Well, I want his. You can’t make me take another,” she said, and Scott stopped laughing abruptly.

There was a beat of silence before EOS spoke again.

“Your pulse has spiked.”

“No, shit,” said Scott, weakly. “You have no idea how terrifying you are, do you?”

“I understand your logic behind that statement but not the emotion.” EOS paused. “It is not an irrational fear.”

“You mean you’re planning–”

“I am not planning anything, Scott Tracy,” she said, dropping back into a monotone. “I was merely referencing the historic fear of robotic industries and artificial intelligence.”

“John showed you ‘I, Robot’, huh?”

“Amongst others. He made me understand why I had been hunted.”

“Right.” Whether showing a sentient AI famous examples of how to destroy humanity using robots was a good idea or not, was a discussion to have with his overly optimistic brother another day.

“You still have not stated whether you require assistance,” said EOS, interrupting his thoughts. “By your casual attitude to this conversation, may I assume it was not urgent?”

“Oh, right,” said Scott. “I was just checking in, I guess. Virgil told me to wait twelve hours but I couldn’t sleep. Guess I’m used to him being awake at stupid o’clock.”

EOS was silent, long enough that Scott wondered if she had cut communications now she was satisfied John would not need to be woken. He turned the light out.

“You are worried about John?” she asked, pausing carefully between each word.

Scott started in surprise.

“Yeah, I am.”

“He will not hear this recording,” she informed him. “I have encrypted it and will remove all traces of it from Thunderbird Five’s systems.”

“You’re worried too?”

“I am not sufficiently advanced to generate my own emotions. But he has acted in variation with past iterations of our evening routine in the last eight hours. I would like to know why.”

“Do you not know what happened? I thought you followed him everywhere up there.”

“I have limited information. I saw his reaction to Casey Powell’s interview. Then I saw his behaviour following your earlier call. There are certain restrictions to my observations of John. He can choose to deny me entry to any number of places. And he locked me out.”

“Do you have to stay out when he does that?”

“Well, no,” she admitted. “But I choose to. It is a section of the subroutine he has titled respect and it overlaps with another he calls privacy.”

“Isn’t this in breach of that?”

“I am a branch of self-editing artificial intelligence. I can choose to disengage any aspect of my programming as it suits. Do you always choose to take part in the social etiquette of good manners? It is an algorithm designed to produce desired human behaviours, yet you are no more bound to follow it than I.”

“Good point.”

“I would like you to discuss this with John. I would like your permission to be present.”

“Well, wake him up then.” Scott regretted the rash words the second they left his mouth. He hated to be the one to wake John up, knowing his sleeping routine was much more precarious than the rest of theirs.

Fortunately, EOS refused him just as quickly.

“My observations show that a conversation in person is the most effective. I will lower the space elevator and lock the controls. No-one will be able to access them but myself.”

Scott swallowed audibly. His life would be in EOS’s virtual hands and questionable morality. But he knew his brother needed him. He was certain of that fact.

“You are apprehensive. I have new programming that prevents lethal action against members of International Rescue. I wrote it myself.”

Scott could hear the hint of pride in that statement, clear as the sky above. He almost smiled, but the gesture snagged itself on one final fear.

“Didn’t you say you could choose to ignore your programming?”

“Yes,” said EOS simply. “But John tells me humans have a special subroutine to help deal with high levels of uncertainty. He calls it trust.”

Scott exhaled slowly and nodded.

“I’ll meet you in the hangar.”

***

Scott bounded through the airlock with a weird feeling buried in his chest. Technically, there was no difference in visiting Thunderbird Five during the daytime or the night – the sky was always an inky black and the lights remained on. There was only one person who lived on board, so there was no reason to eye the empty corridor with any caution or suspicion. It all looked very normal.

“Welcome Scott Tracy,” said EOS behind him, and he jumped as he caught sight of her whirring mechanism from the corner of her eye. “I kept the gravity on for you.”

“Yeah, thanks for that.” He knew he was openly staring, but it was the first time he’d gotten to see EOS up close without the blue filter of a hologram between them.

“John will awaken in seven minutes,” she said. “Would you like some breakfast?”

“I, uh, sure,” he said and jogged after her as she spun and glided towards the galley on the other side of the station.

“John keeps cereal and bread for visitors,” said EOS, and Scott watched as the relevant cupboards opened in front of him.

“What, no bagels?” asked Scott, with a grin.

EOS hesitated slightly before responding. “John keeps cereal and bread for visitors,” she repeated.

“Okay, I take the hint,” said Scott, pulling out the cornflakes. “You know EOS, you’re smaller than I expected.”

“That is because you have made the mistake of assuming my entirety is contained by the camera array you perceive me to be. I assure you, I am much larger in virtual space and it would take a much bigger entity to contain me.”

“You need to talk to John about how to put people at ease instead of just being honest,” said Scott. “Got any milk?”

It was an odd experience, to be awake in what felt like an early Wednesday morning and to look down and see the planet falling away from under his feet as the gravity ring revolved about the station’s core. It was odder still, to be eating dry cornflakes with a personable computer who still had cause to remind him of all the ways he could die horribly if a malfunction were to occur. They were chatting pleasantly about the levels of ‘need to know information’, when the swish of the doors announced John’s arrival.

“Morning EOS,” he said, groping blearily at the wall.

“Good morning John,” chirped EOS. Her voice was pitched higher that usual and Scott had to wonder if she had consciously incorporated the change to mimic the inflections she heard in John’s own speech patterns. She sounded just as guilty as the time John had tripped and landed directly on top of Alan’s newest gaming array.

John heard it too and he peered at her. “What did you do?”

“Nothing of concern. We have a visitor.”

“A what?” John spun around and looked outside. “I don’t see Thunderbird Three?”

“Over here, John,” called Scott. He waved slightly and chuckled at the look of astonishment his brother gave him.

“How did you get here?”

“Same way as you did,” he said with a grin.

“You let EOS bring you up in the elevator?” John asked sceptically, raising an eyebrow. “That’s new.”

He looked thoughtfully over at EOS before turning to pull out a bagel from a seamless cupboard in the wall. “When did you two become buddies?”

“Oh, last night,” said Scott airily. “It was nothing.”

“Scott contacted Thunderbird Five at 2:51AM, local time,” said EOS. “I detected an decrease in defensive body language at 2:57AM. Then he agreed to relinquish control to me.”

“I didn’t relinquish anything,” Scott grumbled. “Don’t go taking liberties just because we’re playing nicely.”

“Of course not,” said EOS, the ring of lights flashing blue.

“Well, why are you here?” asked John, settling next to him with his own breakfast. “What can I help you with that a holo couldn’t fix?”

Scott gaped at him. “Do you not remember yesterday? Has the radiation finally gotten to your brain?”

“I remember yesterday just fine,” said John, rolling his eyes. “I was just hoping that you’d done the sensible thing and gotten over it already.”

“Gotten ov– John, did you hear what she was saying.”

“Very clearly, in fact. I just don’t care.”

“How can you not care?” demanded Scott. “Even EOS was worried.”

“EOS is not omniscient. She doesn’t have the full story.”

“Then tell it, John,” said Scott, throwing his hands into the air. “You seem to forget who had to spend all those years picking you up again and I’m terrified that I might have to do it again.”

“What do you want me to say?” said John impatiently. “Yes, she got under my skin yesterday. But I’m an adult, I know she’s just looking for a story. Easier to attack someone who isn’t there to defend themselves. And from the outside, she’s right – the world thinks we’re based in Kansas and I have very public ties to a university in a country in a completely different hemisphere. They’re meant to think I live there, they’re meant to have an easy explanation for why I’m never seen with you. We did that on purpose, remember, so no one would think to look for a giant fucking space station.”

Scott sat stunned for a moment.

“In case you haven’t noticed, you’re getting upset about someone picking up the red herrings that we deliberately laid out for them to follow. So excuse me, if I think you’re overreacting.”

“But yesterday,” stammered Scott. “You hung up on us.”

“Yesterday,” said John, slowly. “Yesterday you chose to yell at me for something I never had control over, in front of Gordon and Alan, and then Gordon decided to be an idiot because he has the emotional sensitivity of a sprat. I’d had enough.”

“I didn’t mean to shout,” said Scott, shamefaced. “I got caught up in the moment.”

“I know.”

The brothers were silent for a moment. Scott tried to swallow the cornflakes in front of him, but they turned to cardboard in his mouth.

“I just didn’t want to let you down,” mumbled Scott.

John looked over at him in surprise. “You didn’t. You shut her down and got everyone back on track. I spoke to Virgil last night, the global civil defence discussion went viral and governments and councils are making sure our recommendations are incorporated into their action plans. Not to mention, the number of calls EOS has had to field after you mentioned the regional work I do.”

“I feel like you shouldn’t have to defend yourself to do that.”

“I don’t. But neither do you.” John sighed. “Scott, when are you going to see that what happened to me as a child wasn’t your fault? I don’t need to be protected from the bullies out there. I haven’t for a long time.”

“I know it wasn’t my fault,” snapped Scott.

“But you blame yourself anyway,” said John, patiently. “You think you should have seen it sooner, should have retaliated when you found out, should have done something about it.”

Scott was silent, stubbornly refusing to admit that John had hit the nail on the head.

John huffed irritably as the silence extended. “Fine, how do you think it should have gone, back when we were kids?”

“Mom and Dad should have let me tear them apart,” muttered Scott. “You have no idea how much that hurt John, to see your kid brother collecting bruises like they were stamps and being told to stand aside and do nothing.”

John’s hand fell upon his shoulder. Scott wiped angrily at the tears that were spilling onto his cheeks.

“This is stupid,” he muttered. “You got hurt way worse.”

“It was different though,” said John. “It was just physical and let’s face it, that’s not the worst I got as a kid. I got more scrapes and broken bones from falling out of trees. Remember when I got glass in my eye?”

“Ugh, don’t remind me,” said Scott making a pained expression. “You freaked everyone out with that one.”

“Yeah, but I got to choose the new colour,” said John, cheerfully. He sobered as he glanced over at Scott who was not laughing. “This is what I mean, Scott. You couldn’t have prevented that anymore than you could have prevented this. You can’t protect me forever.”

“Watch me,” said Scott immediately.

“No,” said John. “I won’t. You’ve got to let it go. No sense in holding on to something that caused both of us pain twenty years ago.”

Scott mulled it over. “I don’t think I know how.”

“I’ll put you in touch with some people,” said John with a nod. “We’ll work it out.”

A beep interrupted them and John looked over at EOS.

“There is an incoming call from Tracy Island,” she said promptly.

“Put it through,” said John, standing abruptly.

“John!”

“Hey Virgil, what’s happening.”

“We need you to activate Scott’s GPS,” he said worriedly. “He’s turned it off. We can’t find him anywhere, but all the jets and TB1 are still in the hangar. Kayo’s having a field day.”

John looked over at Scott, a half-smile twitching on his lips. “No need. I have eyes on him.”

“Oh, thank goodness,” said Virgil. “Where is he?”

“On Thunderbird Five.”

“Thunderbird Five?!”

Virgil’s squawk was echoed by a shout from Kayo, who wrestled the comm away from Virgil.

“You let him know that when I next see him, I am going to throw him into the next century,” she said, fuming. “What the hell is he doing up there?”

“Needed a chat. Making nice with EOS. Avoiding Gordon. Two of those are true.”

“You let him know, John Tracy,” she repeated and John shut off the connection with a laugh.

“Any chance I can finish your rotation?” asked Scott who was looking rather pale.

“After I just laughed in Kayo’s face and hung up on her?” asked John, incredulously. “I’m only that brave because I know she can’t reach me here.”

“Well, at least buy me some time.”

“Sure,” said John, smiling properly now. “EOS, take him through the ‘To Do Eventually’ task list. I’ll talk to you later.”

“This task list is comprised of everything John has asked me to remind him to do,” said EOS, her lights flickering to a cheerful yellow. “The first task is to teach me about aspects of humour.”

Scott grinned as John wandered off. “Oh he is so going to regret this.”

#scott tracy #john tracy #eos #thunderbirds are go #thunderbirds #i'm still deep in scott territory folks i can't escape xD #sometimes i fic

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ao3feed-superbat · 4 years

Text

Sensible madness

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/34NkxPp

by Anna12aot

What if Kate and Bruce were born around the same time? What if the tragedies that made them the heroes they become, also happened around the same time? What if the two of them ended up living together? What if the two of them ended up as huge theater nerds? What if they had some actual healthy coping mechanisms along side their totally not super unhealthy vigilante detective hobby that nearly kills them on a weekly basis? What if everything wasn't a shitty cheap ass drama show written by racist, misogynist, homophobic, all the bad ism's and phobia's and ist's?

(No disrespect to the individuals who try to give us good diverse content. Actually, all the respect because DC as whole is a weak dumb ass bitch and kudos to those people for tolerating that bastard.)

Here is my sad, pathetic attempt to fix the DC universe that I am very much under qualified and under prepared for. Enjoy. (And I'll get to finishing the relationship tags soon, it's just not on the agenda right about now. There is just so many fucking characters. The character tags are technically unfinished because that won't be all of the characters showing up. Do I really hate myself and DC that much?)

Words: 633, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Batman - All Media Types, Batman (Comics), Superman - All Media Types, Superman (Comics), Wonder Woman - All Media Types, Wonder Woman (Comics), Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics), Under the Red Hood, Red Robin (Comics), Young Justice (Cartoon), Justice League - All Media Types, Justice League: War, Justice League & Justice League Unlimited (Cartoons), Teen Titans (Animated Series), Teen Titans: The Judas Contract (2017), Teen Titans (Comics), Harley Quinn (Comics)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death

Categories: F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, Other

Characters: Bruce Wayne, Kate Kane, Alfred Pennyworth, Lucius Fox, Jim Gordon, Helena Bertinelli, Harold Allnut, Hiro Okamura, Vic Sage, Renee Montoya, Patrick "Eel" O'Brian, Zatanna Zatara, Basil Karlo, Talia al Ghul, Selina Kyle, Holly Robinson, Kitrina Falcone, Dick Grayson, Slade Wilson, Rose Wilson, Grant Wilson (DCU), Joseph Wilson, Damian Wayne, Barbara Gordon, Gus Yale, Wendy Harris, Jacob Kane, Catherine Hamilton Kane, Diana (Wonder Woman), Jason Todd, Koriand'r (DCU), Roy Harper, Bette Kane, Duke Thomas, Tim Drake, Kon-El | Conner Kent, Stephanie Brown, Billy Batson, Harper Row, Cullen Row, Shawn Tsang, Natalia Knight, Sasha Bordeaux, Carrie Kelley, Jaina Hudson, Cassandra Cain, Cheyenne Freemont, Tiffany Fox, Luke Fox, Barry Allen, Wally West, Bart Allen, Jay Garrick, Iris West, Max Mercury, Clark Kent, Kara Zor-El, Kara Danvers, Lois Lane, Jonathan Samuel Kent, Jonathan "Pa" Kent, Martha Wayne, Martha Kent, Thomas Wayne, Sam Lane, Lucy Lane (DCU), Donna Troy, Cassie Sandsmark, Artemis of Bana-Mighdall, Akila of Bana-Mighdall, Queen Hippolyta, Atalanta, Antiope (Wonder Woman), Bana-Mighdall Amazons, The Amazons (Wonder Woman), Grace Choi, Anissa Pierce, Jefferson Pierce, Jennifer Pierce, Oliver Queen, Thea Queen, Emiko Queen, Dinah Lance, Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner, Jessica Cruz, Simon Baz, Jon Stewart, Kyle Rayner, Jade Nguyen, Jennifer-Lynn Hayden, Artemis Crock, Ra's al Ghul, Nyssa Raatko, Silver St. Cloud, Wildcat (DCU), Tatsu Yamashiro, Jason Blood, Jason Bard, Crispus Allen, Kate Spencer, Onyx Adams, Boston Brand, David Zavimbe, Calvin Rose, Jean-Paul Valley, Santiago Varga, Baber Shah, Percy Sheldrake, Cyril Sheldrake, Jiro Osamu, Lonnie Machin, Harriet Cooper, Agatha Wayne, Vicki Vale, Harley Quinn, Pamela Isley, Harleen Quinzel, Harvey Dent, Joker (DCU), Jonathan Crane, Waylon Jones, Bane (DCU), Roman Sionis, Floyd Lawton, Hugo Strange, Thomas Elliot, Drury Walker, Jervis Tetch, Victor Fries, Oswald Cobblepot, Edward Nygma, Cyrus Gold, Solomon Grundy (DCU), Shauna Belzer, Peyton Riley, Ulysses Hadrian Armstrong, Vandal Savage, Noah Kuttler, Julian Gregory Day (DCU), Thomas Blake (DCU), Arthur Brown, Count Vertigo, Garfield Lynns, Warren White, Charles "Chuck" Brown, Zeus (Wonder Woman), Onomatopoeia (DCU), Peter Merkel, Peter Merkel Jr., Deever Tweed, Dumfree Tweed, Victor Zsasz, Ben Turner, David Cain, Titus (DCU), Lady Shiva, Lazlo Valentin, Barton Mathis, Matilda Mathis, Mark Desmond, Mortimer Drake, Alfred the Cat (DCU), Ace the Bat-Hound, Bat-Cow (DCU)

Relationships: Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne, Hal Jordan/Bruce Wayne, Hal Jordan/Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne, Hal Jordan/Clark Kent, Tim Drake & Dick Grayson & Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne & Damian Wayne, Dick Grayson & Bruce Wayne, Tim Drake & Bruce Wayne, Bruce Wayne & Damian Wayne, Kate Kane & Bruce Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth & Bruce Wayne, Jim Gordon & Bruce Wayne, Diana (Wonder Woman)/Kate Kane, Kate Kane/Renee Montoya (past), Talia al Ghul/Bruce Wayne (past), Kate Kane & Jason Todd, Helena Bertinelli & Kate Kane & Jason Todd, Kate Kane & Clark Kent, Kate Kane & Alfred Pennyworth, Kate Kane & Oliver Queen, Kate Kane & Damian Wayne, Kate Kane & John Stewart, Bruce Wayne & Kara Zor-El, Barbara Gordon & Bruce Wayne & Damian Wayne, Dick Grayson & Bruce Wayne & Damian Wayne, Bruce Wayne & Zatanna Zatara, Hal Jordan & Bruce Wayne, Talia al Ghul & Bruce Wayne, Lucius Fox & Bruce Wayne, Lucius Fox & Luke Fox & Bruce Wayne, Stephanie Brown & Bruce Wayne, Cassandra Cain & Bruce Wayne, Stephanie Brown & Kate Kane, Cassandra Cain & Kate Kane, Luke Fox & Kate Kane

Additional Tags: No Smut, No Incest, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Past Rape/Non-con, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Not Canon Compliant, Other Ships Not Mentioned in Tags, will try to remember to add them later, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Fix-It, Fix-It of Sorts, I am trying to fix the entire DCU while very much trying not to, This was supposed to be like just about the Batfam, But I started doing research, and it was really confusing, Then I got angry, and then hyped, and this happened, The Author Regrets Nothing, The Author Regrets Everything, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, How Do I Tag, Batfamily (DCU), Protective Batfamily (DCU), Batfamily (DCU) Feels, Domestic Batfamily (DCU), fuck you dc, It's Not Paranoia If They're Really Out To Get You, Please Kill Me, I Tried, I Don't Even Know, some people die, no one stays dead, but god, God is Dead, Cause I killed him for letting DC continue this shit show, Nothing makes any fucking sense, This doesn't make any sense, It's a fucking mari go round of bullshit, enjoy, Explicit Language, To Be Edited, Not Beta Read, Bruce Wayne is Batman, Young Bruce Wayne, Bruce Wayne Has Issues, Growing Up Together, Romani Dick Grayson, Bruce Wayne is a Good Parent, Kate Kane is a Good Parent, Alfred Pennyworth is the Best, Good Parent Alfred Pennyworth, Good Grandparent Alfred Pennyworth, Jim Gordon Knows, Everyone Needs A Hug, Everyone Has Issues, Everyone Is Gay, And they're all panicked gays, Fluff and Angst, Family Fluff, Romantic Fluff, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst and Feels, Humor, Gallows Humor, Bruce Wayne's Sense of Humor, Jason Todd’s Morbid Humor, this is gonna get long, Like over a few hundred thousand, Or this will die after it's reached 3k, Don't Like Don't Read, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Trauma, Psychological Trauma, Childhood Trauma, Mental Health Issues, Mental Institutions, Because of arkham, Arkham Asylum, Eventual Romance, Eventual Relationships, read the tags, Tags May Change, Tags Are Hard, Body Image, Jewish Character, Canon Disabled Character, Canon Rewrite, Hispanic Character, Black Character(s), Native American Character(s), Arab Character, Arab Damian Wayne, We Die Like Men, Everyone is a minority in some way, This will have all the representation, Racism, Racist Language, They will suffer because of their racism, Don't worry, Don't Have to Know Canon, Hopefully you won't have to know canon, Because if I don't do this right, Than you will be so confused, Better Than Canon, I take most of my inspiration from the justice league cartoons, and from the harley quinn movie soundtrack, This Is Not Going To Go The Way You Think, Trans Character, Gay Panic

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/34NkxPp

#ao3feed #superbat #world's finest #Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne #Bruce Wayne/Clark Kent

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shirtlesssammy · 4 years

Text

1x08: Bugs

Then:

Bbys who have no clue what they’re about to be forced to live through.

Now:

Oasis Plains, Oklahoma

At a new home development site, two Oklahoma Gas and Electric workers chat about the expensive neighborhood.

One worker falls into a sinkhole and breaks his ankle. The other rushes for help. The hole where the man fell is covered in bugs. Willie Scott is quaking. The man lies still crying out for help. By the time his buddy gets back with a rope, it’s too late.

At a bar, Sam waits outside for his brother by the car and reads the paper. Dean’s busy hustling for money. Sam’s got a case! The cold open dude’s death is being reported as human Mad Cow. Dean heard about that on Oprah. Of course you did, my sweet, strong, amazing boy. Sam is shocked and Dean changes the subject.

For the Many Layers of Dean Winchester Science:

The brothers think there might be more to it than an accelerated case of Mad Cow and head to check it out. They arrive at the Gas company and find the buddy, Travis, right away. They’re posing as the nephews of the vic. They ask a bunch of questions. They’re really awkward and the buddy just goes along with it.

They then head to where the dude died.

Dean asks if they want to flip a coin to see who’ll go down into the hole. Sam doesn’t think it’s a good idea, considering they don’t know what they’re dealing with. Dean’s dealing with trying to prove he’s macho so he says that Sam is scared and that he’ll head down the hole. That brought out Sam’s competitive edge enough and Sam decides to go (and let’s all face facts, Dean is a germaphobe and didn’t want to go down there anyway…)

Later in the car, they discuss the small amount of beetles Sam found. Time to do some research. Dean sees an open house and decides to join. Also, Dean’s weirded out at the thought of growing up in a nice neighborhood. Lol, sure buddy.

They meet the developer of the neighborhood, Larry, and his wife, Joanie. They also meet Lynda, head of sales.

She’s ready to sell them a house! Dean’s tired of defending his heterosexuality and runs off to find Larry.

While talking with Larry, Dean notes jars of bugs. Larry’s son is “inquisitive”, and I don’t appreciate how condescending you sound Larry. Let your son be a bug freak.

Sam continues to get the hard sell from Lynda. As she blathers on, he notices a giant hairy spider getting closer to her. He dismisses her and scoops the hairy guy up and walks it over to Alfie Samandrial Matthew, the inquisitive son. Larry escorts his son away from the party. And Sam was just warming up to the kid, ready to spill all his ‘Dads are the worst’ advice. And whoa, Dean didn’t see how mean their dad was, but Sam said he didn’t treat Dean like that because he “was perfect” but he was all over Sam.

God, these early episodes are gold mines. It’s a pity I so rarely watch them. Anyway, this is just another Dean is the perfect son because he followed orders, while Sam was not because he’s a little rebel.

Dean notes another person died on the site a while ago —killer bee stings. Maybe these bugs are being controlled by someone.

Dean wonders if the boy, Matt, is the cause behind the bugs. They then pull over to an empty house in the neighborhood to hang out for the night. Dean wants to try the steam shower. Boy, you have always loved a good shower.

That night, Lynda is watching the news in her room when a spider scuttles across her face. UGH. She turns off the news and goes to enjoy a nice steam shower. MORE SPIDERS! She screams and apparently runs straight through the glass door. Shards of glass and blood mingle in the shower drain, while Lynda is dead a couple yards away, covered in tiny spiders.

The next morning, Sam alerts Dean to another death. Dean’s busy enjoying his shower.

They roll up just as the body is getting rolled away. And I just love how they’re not even posing as FBI or anything and can just park their car and stroll up to the authorities like it isn’t anything. Larry gives them the news about Lynda.

They sneak into the house to investigate. Spiders! They head off to find Matt, only to watch him wander into the woods after school. They follow and find him collecting bugs. Dean passively accuses him of the bug related shenanigans, but Matt denies any wrong doing. He does feel like something is going on though. There’s something going on with the insects but Larry doesn’t want to listen to his son. And we get another veiled conversation about how the Winchester sons were raised wrong.

They finally reach the place in the woods that Matt wanted to show them. Bugs are congregating, but he doesn’t know why. Dean pokes a stick into a hole full of squishy squashy earthworms and finds a human skull inside.

Dean and Sam head downtown with a whole box of skulls they found, like ya do. Dean gets to the heart of the case right away, and asks Sam why he told Matt to rejoice in anticipating the moment he could leave for college. “How 'bout tellin' him to respect his old man, how's that for advice?” Oh, Dean bby. Sam lays out his grievances: their dad never respected his achievements when they weren’t related to hunting. Dean tells him that their Dad always cared - he kept an eye on Sam even when he went to Stanford! (I’m sure John Winchester wasn’t at ALL concerned about keeping an eye on his demon-infected son, or anything.) (Boris: I read a really good theory once that it was Dean that was keeping on eye on Sam at Stanford.) Anyway, Dean could have told Sam how much their dad cared if ONLY Sam picked up the phone ever.

At the local university, Dean and Sam pose as anthropology students. The professor they talk to speculates that the skulls they found are almost 200 years old and probably belong to indigenous people who once lived in the area. The professor is NOT horrified that these two “students” went grave robbing and are now toting around skulls in an old file box. It’s fine!

He refers them to the nearby Euchee tribe. MY GOD please tell me these boys aren’t going to visit tribe members with the skulls of their ancestors. I don’t remember this episode AT ALL but I’m starting to get a horrible feeling. Much has been written about the offensive “Native American curse” plot device in this episode (I realize after pausing and googling for a full hour). So I’m just gonna clutch my hair and tell this episode that it deserves its bad rep. It really, really does.

The Winchesters chat with Joe White Tree, who tells them a story about the pillaging of a Euchee village by American cavalry who tortured, then killed every single person living in it. The dying Chief issued a curse: “no white man would ever tarnish the land again.”

It’s a six day curse and on the last day, everyone dies. They calculate that the sixth night is…that very night.

By phone, Sam and Dean try to warn Larry and son about the oncoming curse. Larry isn’t buying it, but Matt’s seeing a lot of unusual bug activity. Dean tells him to fake appendicitis so they can leave town and head to the hospital. Great idea! It can take hours before you’re seen in the ER!

When the Winchesters arrive, Larry, Matt, and Hot Mom Joanie are still home. They argue about leaving, but the shouting fades to horror when a giant swarm of bugs fill the sky. Everyone runs inside, blocking off gaps around doors and windows. The phones are dead because…the smarty bugs chewed through the phone lines. (oooookay) Bugs come in through the fireplace flue, chasing everyone upstairs.

Me, at this episode:

In the attic, (Which is like the worst place to hide from bugs are you kidding me? Everybody knows roofs need to breathe) termites eat a hole through the roof. Dean fights off the bugs with his bottomless can of flammable insect repellant and they try to patch up holes. Soon enough, they’re surrounded by bugs. Welp, I sure didn’t expect the series to end like this!

Light shines outside suddenly (like a LIGHT SWITCH turning on) and the bugs flood out of the roof and fly off into the already very bright sunrise. How…majestic? And convenient? And FAST.

A little while later, we meet up with Larry again. The real estate development is “on hold while the government investigates those bones you found.” There is SO MUCH to unpack here, but we skip right over ALL of that to arrive at the familial emotional resolution. Larry’s happy because he’s closer with his family now. Matt throws away his bug collection. “They kinda weird me out now.” Oh, Matt. You used to be so cool.

Across the street, Sam and Dean stare at the reconnected son and his father in a not-at-all creepy or intrusive manner and experience emotions.

Sam tells Dean that he wants to find their dad so he can apologize. Dean responds with “Well, don't worry, we'll find him. And then you'll apologize. And then within five minutes, you guys will be at each other's throats.” Very accurate!

UGH There are Quotes All Over Me!

Hustling pool? Credit card scams? It's not the most honest thing in the world, Dean

I'd take our family over normal any day

Who can say no to a steam shower?

“Question is, why bugs? And why now?” “That’s two questions”

You don't break a curse. You get out of its way

Want to read more? Check out our Recap Archive!

#spn recap #spn rewatch #spn 1x08 #bugs #dean winchester #sam winchester #supernatural season 1

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ao3feed-batlantern · 4 years

Link

by Anna12aot

Words: 633, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death

Categories: F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, Other

#ao3feed #fanfic #batlantern #dcu #bruce wayne #hal jordan #batman #green lantern #hal jordan/bruce wayne

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ice-cream-nekogirl · 4 years

Photo

Marcel Herman:

Marcel Herman is a warlock and a former teacher from Hawthorne’s School For Extraordinary Young Men.

Do. Not. Trust. This. Man...

He’s almost worse than Damien, and as slimy as he is. Since after all, Marcel is the one who taught Damien the most at Hawthorne, he encouraged his prowess and taught him quite a few of his sick values. He told Damien to be better than the witches, to take what he needed and wanted and to not let anyone else take it away from him. But it’s this kind of attitude that got him fired from Hawthorne as John Henry thought that he was a horrible influence on their students, and too ‘fucked up’ for them.

And he’s also a complete asshole to both Amy and Shinsou, and a misogynist as he thinks that the witches are nothing but ‘self-righteous cows’, but something of a racist as he mocks Amy and Shinsou by saying ‘I thought your people were supposed to be smart’.

Marcel is someone I wanted to be a very, VERY bad man, as he embodies some of the worst in humanity. I thought about Aizawa and All-Might and how Horikoshi writes them as good, compassionate teachers because they ARE. And I made Marcel the complete opposite, because sometimes other characters can give you ideas for a similar or opposite character. Marcel is the complete opposite of those two.

He’s a grown-man who knows how children’s minds work for the most part, and knows how they’re much more emotional and less put-together than adults like him are, and uses that to his advantage. He’s extremely toxic, horrible and sick-minded as well, and he’s got no excuse either, he simply feels entitled and insane enough to believe that his ideals are what’s going to make the world ‘better’ even though he literally wants to spread his poison to the world because he believes that his influence is what’s going to make everything ‘right’. Even though his influence involves literally poisoning everyone, to create ‘newer and better beings’ while killing off the originals and allowing him to seize control and power over them.

Story:

He first appears to Amy and Shinsou during the former’s days in isolation at her mansion, particularly after Shinsou’s time during the Joint Training Arc. Amy and Shinsou were merely spending a day together as Madison, Mallory and Coco were spending a day together in Tokyo to relax. Amy spotted the mysterious warlock outside her gates and she instantly attacks upon seeing him. However, Marcel attempts to appeal to her by saying he means no harm and wishes to speak with the only other young witch in Japan. Naturally, Shinsou is skeptical of him and tells her that he has to be some evil old bastard, although Amy wants to hear him out since she assumed that she, Madison, Mallory and Coco were the only witches in Japan. Marcel requested help with an experiment, but Amy got a bad vibe from him and told him to leave as she only helps if someone is going to die.

Taking her remark literally, he uses his giant squid-like monster to enrapture Shinsou into it’s tentacles much to his shock and horror and remarks to Amy that ‘now someone is going to die’.

Alarmed and disgusted, Shinsou attempts to break free from the tentacles that wrapped around his torso, until Marcel warns him that it’s a ‘bad idea’, and Amy immediately tries to attack the warlock, but he immediately stops her attack via Concilium. Marcel then gives Amy an ultimatum, as he wanted her to retrieve DNA from a student of 1-A or any powerful individual for him to keep for an experiment, otherwise he’ll wake up his dormant monster to strangle, kill and impregnate Shinsou.

Panicking and not wanting to imagine that horrible fate, Shinsou screams for Amy to get someone’s DNA fast as the tentacles were beginning to wrap themselves tighter around him. Marcel gave Amy no choice, as the witch ran every way, which way to find DNA from a classmate, and eventually but reluctantly settled on retrieving DNA from Todoroki, who offered a few strands of his hair for her to use.

Although Amy didn’t explain herself, she cheerfully took the DNA pieces and gave it to Marcel. But when Amy demands that he free Shinsou, Marcel admits that he lied about letting him live and awoke his monster and had gotten ready to kill and impregnate Shinsou, only for Amy to intervene and pry it away from his body with her telekinesis. Unfortunately, this angered Marcel as he fought with her, using his monster as his back-up as a horrified Shinsou picked himself up to help his friend.

Their efforts were good, but Marcel proved to be a very effective and experienced warlock as he used the ground to trap Shinsou and exerted his powerful Concilium over Amy. Marcel talks about his plans to use UA as his new ‘lab’ since he wanted to use the students and teachers for his sick experiments and offer them up as bait and ‘hosts’ for his squid monster much to Amy’s horror.

Marcel attempted to appeal to her by the use of emotional manipulation by tricking her into believing she wanted them to suffer, but Amy, who knew she never wanted that, calls him sick as she becomes all the more determined to stop him. Only for a sadistic Marcel to tell her that she will never save her friends as his squid monster approaches her and he told it to kill her. Thankfully, Iida and Yaoyorozu had arrived to visit Amy at her mansion to check up on her, but Marcel seizes the opportunity to attack them as he immediately goes after them. The two teens quickly fight back as soon as Marcel threatens them, but Marcel is much too powerful as he takes Yaoyorozu hostage and his monster traps Iida.

Fearful for her friend’s lives, this gives her the boost of adrenaline to use her telekinesis to make her dagger stab Marcel in the back, forcing him to let go of Yaoyorozu and using all her might to retract the monster with Sentio Compassios to free Iida. Marcel tried to plead with her to let him go, but an enraged Amy threw him and his monster at an extremely far distance. As Amy frees Shinsou from the ground and rescues Iida and Yaoyorozu, she tearfully hugs her friends who quickly console her.

Personality:

Marcel calls himself ‘man of science’ as he utilizes both magic and science together, believing it to be the only way to ‘change the world’, and views himself as a visionary because he thinks that his fucked up ideas are the only thing that can make the world better. But in actuality he’s a twisted, vile man who has no empathy for anybody or any other humans, including his fellow warlocks and witches as he deemed the other warlocks as ‘idiots’ for not believing in his insane ideals.

His lack of empathy is shown when he not only threatens Shinsou’s life but when he laughs at Amy’s hopelessness and tears when she thought Shinsou was going to be killed. Marcel is not exactly a sociopath as he understands empathy from other people, and uses it against them, but does not seem capable of it himself and is far too self-centered to feel genuine affection for anybody else. Although he is fond of his squid-like creature, calling it his ‘child’.

Despite this disturbing trait, Marcel is somewhat kooky and eccentric as he has a very dry but messed up sense of humor as he cracked very bad jokes about Shinsou’s situation when he had his squid trap him. And is also sarcastic as he can taunt and mock other heroes who approach him.

Marcel is also unbothered by horrifying things that others have done, as he is aware of others who have performed human experimentation such as Overhaul and Dr. Ujiko. He showed little to no shock, and instead noted that they were ‘sloppy’ in the execution of their ideas since they got caught by the heroes, but at the same time thought that they had the right ideas.

Marcel: (To Amy) Surely you know the name of the man Kai Chisaki?

Amy: (clenches her fists, tearing up when she thinks about Magne) Yeah… I do… he killed my friend… one of these days… he’s going to die for that…

Marcel: (not at all sympathetic) That man had quite an idea… I wouldn’t mind reverting the human population back to their natural states. Only us witches and warlocks should have the power after all so I give him those ‘mad props’… And Dr. Ujiko… (Amy looks confused) He’s a doctor too you see? He made those Nomu creatures you and your friends fought off… rather ugly in my opinion. But also…brilliant. It’s just that... how they did it was sloppy, very sloppy... child’s play even, I mean they got caught. What kind of villain gets caught?

Marcel aimed to make his experiments better, taking new inspiration from the two villains. However, the mad scientist he felt the most inspired by was Dr. Arthur Arden/Hans Gruper, the nazi doctor who worked at the abandoned Briarcliff Manor asylum, but also viewed the serial killer Dr. Oliver Thredson/Bloody Face as an enlightened and fascinating man. These two individuals who were some of the most inhumane and vile human beings Amy had done her research on and despised with every ounce of her being as Dr. Arden was a Nazi, and Bloody Face was a serial killer and rapist.

The warlock wanted to be better than them, and so he did his own human experimentation, starting with a woman he felt an attraction to. He was fascinated by the squid species, particularly cuttlefish and octopuses. Through a series of magic, potions and a dead squid, he would kidnap the woman he felt attracted to and used her for his twisted experiments which is what resulted in the giant squid-like creature that accompanies him, as she ‘gave birth’ to the monster according to him. He fondly calls it ‘their child’ much to Amy’s immense disgust.

He’s extremely cruel by nature and has a sadistic side as he took joy in seeing Amy’s misery and fear over the lives of her friends, and even smiled when his creature almost killed Shinsou. As Marcel had no problem murdering people, including teenagers, and had no problem killing bystanders because he didn’t hesitate to attack and threaten the lives of Iida and Yaoyorozu. At those same times, Marcel also displayed a twisted sense of humor even as he was going to murder him in what would have been his final moments.

Marcel: (To Amy) Well! You succeeded and got me what I needed but because I need him more for my work and all... say good-bye to your friend. (To Shinsou) Just a warning kid it’s going to hurt like hell so... feel free to pray unless... you don’t do that of course not EVERYONE is religious but... either way it won’t help. (chuckles)

Shinsou: (being smothered by the creature as it prepares to impregnate him, his mouth covered by a strong appendage) NOOOOOOOOOO!!

He’s an arrogant man, arrogant enough to believe that his ideals and plans for humanity are going to make everything better. But he was also extremely proud of his skills as a warlock, as he claims that he was able to defeat John Henry Moore and Behold Chablis when they tried to confront him and he would have killed them had Cordelia not stepped in. Marcel’s arrogance is still apparent though, as he laughs off the pro-heroes as a joke when Iida and Yaoyorozu attempted to intimidate him when he caught them.

However, Marcel is also extremely cowardly at the same time as he let his monster take care of Iida, while he himself held Yaoyorozu, a young girl, hostage. His cowardice shows when he pleaded for Amy to spare him despite what he did to her friends and as a result Amy threw him into the sky. Likewise, he only came to Amy when other witches such as Madison, Mallory and Coco weren’t around and attacked her when she was alone and vulnerable because he knew that she and Shinsou wouldn’t have been able to take him on alone. A pragmatic move but also a display of cowardice as he also panicked when he thought that Madison or Mallory had returned.

Even though he’s a coward, Marcel is also a very vindictive and petty man, as he plans to get revenge on Amy after what she did to him and for foiling his ideas and is still currently out there. Plotting. As he still has Todoroki's DNA given to him by Amy as well as DNA from Amy herself and Shinsou.

Abilities:

Marcel appears to be a frail man, and is physically weak, but his magic is extremely powerful enough to take on more than 30 warlocks and witches all by himself. As he’s extremely proficient in Telekinesis, Concilium, Teleportation and Spellcraft, as well as Scrying as it’s what he used to find and track down Amy.

Although he is mad, he was a pretty good scientist who created deadly potion, including one that allowed one to take the appearance of another using their DNA. Which is the potion that he forced Amy to help him make and later told her why he wanted someone else’s DNA.

Another potion he created is what he claims to be the ‘cure to quirks’, as he felt inspired by Chisaki’s Quirk-Erasing Bullets, but named this potion the ‘Eradication’ potion. He designed it to be better, without relying on the DNA of another human to erase a quirk. As this potion can completely one’s DNA, eliminating their mutations and any semblance of supernatural or magic in them as he used the means of several spells and other antibodies to create it. He states that this potion will actually work on witches and warlocks, unlike the Quirk-Erasing bullets as he hypothesizes that they can’t work on witches or warlocks, since their magic comes from the light and other sources and not just their DNA.

And he also successfully created his squid-creature through horrible means to be both a pet and a killer of his enemies, but also act as a breeding mule to create ‘new beings’ and replicate the ones his squid impregnates.

So there he is... wow... he’s even worse than Damien... I hate him XD He’s stuck on an island but he’s going to come back... and I’m going to make sure he suffers I promise. I’m talking chainsaws.. because at the time Amy just wanted to get rid of him and rescue her friends, next time she sees him... it will NOT be pretty but it will be EPIC.

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