#/ fighting + exorcising curses together back to back & talking shit the whole time

[inun4ki]

my brain is fuckin blasting

[exstasyplague]

Just wanted to say, I have loved reading you jjk analysis while I hyperfix on the fandom. I have one question that I hope you can give me some answers to. Regarding Geto, do you believe that he's earned the title of special grade like Gojo and Yuki? I fully believe that he could reach a monster level like Gojo but I also think plot didn't let him grow more. Because people call him weak for losing against Toji (someone who also beat Gojo) and he wasn't at his prime yet bit then they also say Yuta was able to easily beat him and I think while the jjk 0 was good, it didn't utilize Suguru. Because it felt like he didn't do anything for the 10 years he defected and I think it's just because 0 was made so early on. Hope this isn't a bother, I just really like how in depth you are.

hiii. thank you for your kind words <33 it's time *cracks fingers* for a little...

Analysis on Suguru Geto's Powers

first of all. let's remember together what a special grade in jujutsu kaisen means~!

— a power so unpredictable that it's labeled as a calamity

— somebody powerful enough to overthrow a country on their own.

so far so clear? great.

let's also look a bit into what suguru's abilities are.

CURSE MANIPULATION

as the name implies, he can absord curses and manipulate them according to his needs/ desires, with no limit on how many at a time.

doubting him comes easy now that we know what gojo suguru's full strength is, but back in their highschool days they were called the strongest for a good reason: they were on par. on balance. gojo's birth caused cruses to go crazy and the one with the most efficient skill against curses was geto. he was so powerful in a way because gojo caused so many curses to exist, widening his range of possibilities. beautiful parallel imo.

MARTIAL ARTS

no secret that my man can throw hands. not only does he have good curses, he can also fight alongside them/use them as a distraction since unlike most shikigami users, he goes into full offensive mode. that poor old man was DONE. you've also seen how well he handles cursed weapons in jjk 0 and in general how high his battle iq is. geto was a menace.

he beat this dude so hard his literal life flashed before his eyes. and look at how casually he does that 😭 i can't. kenjaku ain't ever gonna excude this type of MAJESTY.

even if his fight against toji wasn't as flashy as gojo's, let's not forget that he actually did have a moment where he caught fushidaddy by surprise.

considering the fact that toji is literally a battle genius, that's very much something.

*clears throat.*

anyway.

the destructible power of his curses is also insane. he killed a whole village like it was just play time, no advanced plotting needed. you can say whatever you want, but being able to act on a whim like that... this absolute freedom of choice only comes from strength.

tell me that shit's not scary af.

and let's not forget that he got deemed so dangerous by the jjk society that he got put on par with a curse and even in the jjk 0 movie 'he had to be exorcised'. you know how in the manga they talk about saving riko and how because they're the strongest it doesn't matter what aftermaths they get? yeah. that's the perks of having power, the perks of being 'the most powerful'.

geto wasn't in hiding mode after his silly spree— he was easy to find at his temple and he was sentenced to death on sight yet in 10 years no fkin sorcerer was able to kill him.

they fr knew his whereabouts.

gege also shows him in his full splendid strength through his art.

geto was more than powerful— he was a low-key beast.

his only holdback was the world in which he lived, all the anguish and misery it brought him. he started doubting himself. he started losing faith in himself as human and a sorcerer and so he sought other paths through which he could find meaning, dooming himself beyond salvation. (his cursed technique is so shitty he can't live without giving it a meaning and clinging onto a meaning, let's not forget that manga panels about the awful taste and everything).

mentally he reached stagnation and from that point...he was meant to die.

that doesn't make him weak. he definitely deserved his title and definitely was the strongest along with gojo. hope this helped

[elysianslove]

could i req a hc for kita & akaashi where their crush is secretly a jujutsu sorcerer who goes to their school to undercover and to kill the curse but they didn’t know and what if one day, she saves them from the curse? what’s their reaction towards reader? thanks!

JBBSHJDJ JJK X HQ????? GOD BLESS. thank u so much for requesting this hope you like it!! <3

kita shinsuke 

kita’s not a nosy person. he always keeps to himself and stays out of people’s business, and he’s never been the type to encourage rumors or to dwell long on what if’s and theories and conspiracies 

but even he had to admit your situation was weird 

you enroll into inarizaki mid-year, and you’re a third year like him. at first he’d just assumed you’d moved from a neighboring high school last minute, but you never attempted to participate, as if you were only here for show. next, he’d assumed it had been familial issues, but he heard nothing of that, never saw you with a sibling or a parent or a guardian. it was all too. vague for his liking

of course, this amount of interest is unbecoming of kita. it’s just. there were so many questions to you and no answers. you really, really intrigued him, and okay, maybe he thought you were really pretty, and yeah maybe he did have a small crush on you, but that was besides the point! 

the main thing is that you were just. sus. 

he realized you weren’t really causing harm though, just quietly minding your business, so he did the same, and chose to ignore any nagging at the back of his mind 

until he picks up on another weird habit of yours: staying at school until the latest hours. as involved as he was with school activities, he hadn’t heard you being a part of any club, considering how late you’d enrolled in school. but here you were, without fail, every day, by the school gates as the sun sets 

the only reason so much attention was given to you from kita was because of how peculiar your case was. it frustrated him how he knew nothing, just your name after your brief introduction to the class, and the fact that there seemed so much to you. it’s not that you were simply a private, boring person. it couldn’t be, not with how secretive everything was 

one day, on accident, he lags behind in the boys’ gymnasium, cleaning every volleyball with extra care and without noticing, the sun had set. under the assumption he was the only one in the gymnasium, after ensuring every and all equipment was in its place and clean, he grabbed the keys and started to head out. the gymnasium was quiet and dark, save for the gentle stream of moonlight and —

hm 

whatever that thing was, it did not belong in the gymnasium 

okay let’s assume kita can see curses because what is there that kita can’t do 

i don’t think he’d panic outwardly, but he definitely would freeze up and just not know what to do

it didn’t look too friendly either. or sound friendly. or smell friendly 

your appearance comes all of a sudden for him, but honestly, when you come barging in through the doors and you start battling the curse, he’s? not surprised? 

like he figured you had a secret, just — who knew it would be this? 

he’s honestly a little mesmerized with how you manage to fight it off and keep him out of harm’s way simultaneously, until you finally exorcise it

you’re breathing heavily after you’re done, since the curse had put up quite the fight against you, so kita, with his captain instincts, and with mobile feet again thankfully, comes up to you and asks if you’re okay 

you look at him bewildered like??? am i okay??? are you okay???/

you’re a little concerned how unfazed he is by the curse tbh 

after the adrenaline fades away, and you’re left standing in this dark, empty gymnasium with this really handsome guy, you finally find it within yourself to introduce yourself, telling him your name, before lifting up your hand to shake it with his, continuing, “and i’m a jujutsu sorcerer.” 

kita smiles, there’s a part of him, an itch that’s been dying to get scratched, that’s finally relieved, and he takes your hand in his, shaking it firmly and saying, “kita shinsuke; pleasure to meet you.” 

“pleasure’s all mine.” 

he walks you home, and the entire time he realizes how you’re really the furthest thing from quiet, you’re just serious when you need to be, given your occupation. you explain the whole ordeal, about the manifestation of curses spiking in this area, how you’d been assigned this mission, everything. 

it is so satisfying to him finally understanding everything. it’s like finishing a puzzle that’s taken months to complete

you admit that that had been the last curse, since you’d eliminated the source, and you’d have to leave soon 

not without his number you’re not <3 

kita’s not the type to want to show off his s/o, but once you inevitably become that, he takes every opportunity he can to watch everyone’s eyes as they see you kick ass. it’s his guilty pleasure :)

akaashi keiji 

okay this one’s a little different because your arrival at fukurodani wasn’t so sudden. yeah you’d joined later than most students, but you’ve been here since the start of the year, so akaashi wasn’t suspicious of you, since you’d never given him a reason to be

he doesn’t see you outside of school often. honestly, he doesn’t even see you in school. you don’t share classes with him, so he doesn’t know if you skip classes or not, but he’s heard that you do. you’re also never like. anywhere. it’s most that he knows of you

he just assumed you were one of those careless kids that didn’t really give a shit about school, until he started seeing you. except, it was at the weirdest times, and the weirdest locations: sometimes it’d be behind the gymnasium where he practices volleyball, or it’d be in those sketchy alleyways where he was 90% sure people sold drugs there, sometimes he’d spot you on the roof of the school. it was so

odd? 

akaashi’s a very curious person. he’s not nosy, he just has a very overactive imagination (i mean, literature department akaashi keiji? obviously) 

so all this just made him unconsciously pay more attention to you. like, he didn’t want to, he just subconsciously did. any time he’d pick you out from the crowd, he’d find his eyes following you narrowly, or anytime he heard your name, his ears would perk up. he really didn’t mean it. you just kinda fascinated him, to the point of, maybe a crush? he wouldn’t really call it that, but yeah, he guesses the symptoms are of a crush

but anyways, this school was really boring! that’s why! 

not a crush >:(

so! he’d been walking home one night, let’s say bokuto was with his family and there was no training for that day. it was winter, so the sun had set pretty early, leaving him in the paleness of the moonlight and the occasional streetlight illuminating the pathway for him. there wasn’t really anybody around, and he figured at a time like this people were either already home or still at work

until he heard a low growling noise 

he didn’t really think much of it, only stiffening up a bit

but he told himself it was his mind playing tricks on him, or something he mistook for a growl, or maybe it was a growl and it was just some dog nearby. just tried to stick to rational thinking because what else would it be?? was there option for anything else? 

until, out of nowhere, you appeared from an alley he just crossed past, and curled up against him, one arm hugging him tight, before you raised a hand to your lips and silently asked him to stay quiet 

he was

very confused 

like what the fuck 

but then you shifted, spinning around him. curiously, he twisted around with you, and

damn

what the actual fuck

so it wasn’t a dog 

the curse lunged at you, or maybe it lunged at akaashi, but you quickly kicked it away, sending it spinning, before you raised your hands up above you, ready to exorcise it, until it twisted unexpectedly and aimed at akaashi 

it made you panic, and instead of focusing on exterminating the curse, you turned your focus on protecting akaashi, who was in momentary shock. or maybe it was awe. you weren’t sure. somehow, you fought with the curse, maneuvering your way around it and moving akaashi along with you. somehow, his hand was in yours, and he was letting you shift him right and left as you attempted to fight off the curse. god, what the fuck is going on

eventually, finally, akaashi ducked behind you, and you raised your hands above you again, quickly exorcising it. he watched from under his shielding arms as the curse — exploded? vanished? evaporated? 

and without even missing a beat, you were kneeling before him, hands on his shoulders, shaking him wildly, asking is he’s okay 

it kinda made him want to laugh at how panicked you seemed in comparison to how serious and scary you’d been a second before 

akaashi finally answers that yes, he’s okay, but he demands an explanation, please, because he’s never been more confused 

you continue to walk him home, with the lame excuse of “i’m your personal bodyguard now,” and explain everything to him. he’s. kinda. really amazed? like you thought he’d get thrown off at the reality of the world you and him live in but he’s actually really fascinated, and he listens to you talk the entire time, only speaking when he has a question 

when you come to school the next day, you smile at him knowingly, waving at him and when bokuto sees him wave back with a small smile on his face, he combusts. 

akaashi sorta really likes the idea of being the only one to know your little secret. something about it is so satisfyingly intimate, and the trust it conveys? he’s really honored, you know? 

as your s/o, he gets really worried whenever you’re sent out on missions, but you always remind him that what brought you two together was you saving his ass <3

and then he’s reminded of just how proud of you and amazed he is hehe

end note; i want to write a book. :D

[sometipsygnostalgic]

adventure time wizard city liveblog

 well here we go

my last adventure time liveblog, i havent actually done one of these in MANY years... probably not since 2014

this takes place at the same time as obsidian?

DID-- DID CHOOSE GOOSE JUST DIE

DID BUFO JUST KILL CHOOSE GOOSE

yeah i know that’s bufo, they only made it enormously obvious, tsk tsk

@spaceacepearl​ joked about us seeing choose goose get sent to hell but i diDNT EXPECT IT TO HAPPEN

This music is i assume by one of the many musical artists Adam Muto listed on twitter, it rocks. It’s not as hardcore as Obsidian’s intro, but it’s suitably chill for the scene. 

“get offa my bus kid”

Those wizards in the left and far right groups appear to be new! 

OH MY GOD--

HELP?????? NEW PROFILE PIC TIME

HAHAHAHAH

THE MUSICAL CON DID ME GOOD, I DID REALLY LOUD AUDIBLE LAUGHTER

i bet hanna and co had fun making these signs

my favourite is the cat with “FAMILIARS HAVE RIGHTS”

cadorka..... wow

We’re not even four minutes into the ep and peppermint butler has already killed someone in front of a large group of witnesses

“this smells of DARK MAGIC” “yall kids know thats illegal right” peps watches the other kids nod before later joining in, LOL

i cant believe pep started the great gum wars and got killed by golb

SOMEONE has been playing Overwatch... 

i-- i still cant believe choose goose is fucking dead

how long was he stuck in hell for, or was that recent to together again after new death showed up 

i have to admit im not a big fan of spader, too perfect, and not in that funny way either. i hope they give him some characteristics that make him stand out. 

im getting flashbacks to OK KO and Owl House here...

Cadebra using music is a reference to Abracadaniel’s love of interpretetive dance in Play Date. 

“they only laugh because youre different” “i know” “SO STOP BEING DIFFERENT” oh my god it’s like talking to my own parents cadebra is actually... a LOT like me, less in her hyperactivity but more in her nonchalant enthusiasm and almost acceptance of the inevitable bullying because it means more time in people’s consciousness

ahhh - it’s quietly revealed here that she is responsible and a skilled magician, she is just bored of magic! i like that she parents abracadaniel instead of being downtrodden by his ramblings. 

PEP NO--- oh i see the problem, he hasn’t got his Bug Milk... sorry Martin Olsen fans, no Hunson today. At least we get one more Phil Face for the road! 

candy people in their natural habitat

Ahhh that’s Doctor Calidoneus! The voice actor was at the recent Distant Lands panel alongside Pep and Blaine’s actors. 

“pretty sure hes just trashcandy” - i like you, sassy antler lady

the mystery of how he gets clothes

and once again spader is proving to be the most irritating distant lands character of the lot, there is no subversion here. where is the subversion?  

NANI

what is going on here? are pep and peppermint the same person or not? im sure they must be, but there is something going on here with peppermint butler’s soul being trapped in the body of his child self who hasn’t got the same memories. 

OH, HYNDEN WALCH DID A NEW LINE yes this is what im here for, special over 

peppermint butler cursed himself... of course he did - Shado was correct!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA WHAT THE FUCK

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA WHAT THE FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK

ROCK STUDENT, BLESSED ROCK STUDENT, WAS THAT POOR GUY WHO LOOKS LIKE A JAWBREAKER

love the reference to astral plane, of course pep cant astrally project because cursed pep is still inside of him 

wow, blaine, wow

they have a crush

LITTLE DUDE! COLE SANCHEZ!

i love the dynamic between cadebra and abracadaniel, imo so far it’s the heart of the special. im not really gripped by peppermint butler’s school troubles. i imagine someone else probably will be but i want to run past that shit as far as possible. 

TRDGFYGHJH

WE

WE MADE  A PREDICTION THAT WAS JUST LIKE THIS

PEPPERMINT BUTLER GETTING TURNED INTO THE FOUR COMPONENTS OF PEPPER MINT BUTT LURE WAS IN THE WIZARD CITY PREDICTIONS ART DRAW THAT HASNT BEEN POSTED YET

ILL SHOW YOU WHEN NICK POSTS THE VIDEO and then ill tell you who made the prediction because i... think it was nick himself, insanity 

who plagiarized finn’s signature???

turns out pep really DID take over wizard city!!!!

i love this band

i understand your pain peps

you probably have a bit too much in common with your mother, and i imagine it isn’t easy being turned into a kid and not being able to do stuff that came so easy. you’re disappointing yourself! (he’s literally disappointing himself)

I’m less than halfway through the special, what the fuck. I wasn’t wrong when I said Wizard City had a lot on its plate. It’s noit that I’ve been particularly gripped up to this point, though to be fair I didn’t pause at all during the other specials barring Obsidian. 

that... that poor kid is still a rock

and then the preview happened and bufo casually revealed to the audience that, yes, he killed choose goose

i dont know whats happening with pep but it seems he needs to be exorcised of... pep. which is a shame. i hope they learn to coexist. 

i have to say the background work in this special is really good! like, really damn good. 

WH

WHAT

DID SPADER JUST DIE

IS THIS WHY PEOPLE THINK PEPBUT KILLED HIM 

oh thats right - abracadaniel is cadebra’s uncle! this must be abracadniels sister. sorry, folks, he doesn’t fuck. 

Where are they? Is this anywhere near Wizard City? It’s an unpopulated prewar wasteland. 

THESE ARE JUST HUMANS

OF COURSE SHE WANTS TO PERFORM TO MILQUETOAST HUMANS

my child

is this an art style choice or did they get the people from that one studio to make this

HANNA FINALLY GETS TO FULFIL HER DREAM OF INSERTING KANEDA INTO ADVENTURE TIME

the red jacket he wears and his head pill shape is a big kaneda reference actually, which i suppose makes sense considering he’s a rival to our protagonist, but it’s a bit on the nose

bufo killed one of his own students? but why????

“MY UNCLE’S A COP”

“no one likes a rat”

i actually really like blaine, though im confused. did their VA change halfway through the special?

HOW NATURAL, NO WASTE, IT IS AN ENDLESS CHAIN

did doctor caledonius steal the trophy,,,? 

EVIL SNAIL EVIL SNAIL

MONMSTER HUNJTER DISCOVERY NOISE, this time it’s a tetsucabra

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

I HAVE QUESTIONS

god i wish this is what this special was about, i miss adventure time

these remind me of the comics with their art style :) i wonder who designed them? the one on the right with pb and pep, in particular, very comics-y. 

fdgfhgf because he’s like 500

“pep can be kind of a jerk but he wouldn’t kill anyone”

sorry, cadebra, i have news for you

is doctor calednoius the true villain? if bufo’s out of the picture, she MUST be, 

ANTS

oh no, he might gbe stuck in wizard city :( 

HELP

the writing on the wall...

SPADER LITERALLY FUCKING DIED OH YM JESUS CHRIST

PEPPERMINT BUTLER’S OWN CULT????

THIS IS JUST OK KO NOW

okay im not surprised all the teachers at wizard city are cultists in worship of peps, maybe they killed spader and bufo because they bullied peps T_T

wait no, they thought spader had the potential, but sadly not

HE FUCKING KILLED HIMSELF

sorry, i was distracted by the pretty dope fight sequence and now the special is over????

fucking jesse, hes probably at least partly responsible for the cult nonsense

This credits art is by Maya Petersen!!!! Holy shit it’s adorable!

LRETGFDRGTFGMHGFHFG

LEAF MAN

DO YOU THINK THEY PUT HIM IN RETROSPECTIVELY

DO YOU THINK MAYA PETERSEN DREW THIS AND ADAM PUT IT IN THE EP RETROSPECTIVELY

HE LIVES

MAYBE THIS IS WHY CHOOSE GOOSE WENT TO HELL

okay, it’s over :) 

first thoughts out of the way: not a big fan of this special. it’s like watching a completely different show. it’s not got the PZSHAHH of the normal wizard city stuff and there weren’t a lot of funny jokes or even hearty moments in the thing. 

it suffers from a lack of invested character interactions, much like BMO did. there was not a single main cast member in the whole thing! and like i said before, much of peppermint butler’s character in the show is based on his very sweet relationship to his mother, princess bubblegum, so when they showed a single (hilarious) photo of them together it made me sad we didn’t get any scenes with them together. it would have STOLEN this episode. and they teased the hunson golf photo, and death!!! and jake appeared in a photo T_T last jake appearance. 

it also suffers because Peppermint Butler is clearly not himself, imo he was way more entertaining in the Together Again special, where we seem him back to his “normal” self. 

i dont think peps being a dark wizard was something to “kill off” exactly. i wonder what was going on there? was that actually peps, or was that a spirit he cursed himself with based on himself? we at least know in the future he does become a dark wizard again, and even princess :) this special didn’t answer those questions but lol. 

THE GOOD STUFF, because yes, there was a lot of good stuff! 

God, I’m with Aracle and Maya on this - I LOVE Cadebra and her relationship to Pep. I wish she was even in more of this - I would love to watch the adventures of Cadebra and Pepbut in their first year of school, like in the end credits.

That, imo, is where the heart of the special lay - Peppermint Butler’s attempts to impress himself, versus Cadebra’s self acceptance and desire to follow her dreams of being a goofy goober, no matter what other people thought of her. 

It turned out that Cadebra is a responsible student and family member. I really liked that. Her scenes with Abracadaniel were, somehow, my favourite in the entire special! 

I like that theres a lot of cool magic towards the end of this special, and a lot of HORRIFYING DEATH. It wouldn’t be adventure time if you didn’t randomly kill off child characters. Poor Spader, I hated you but damn, what a grim fate. 

I like that Bufo and Caledonius had this crush/hatred thing going on, but they were part of the same cult in the end. 

I didn’t like the giant peps scene at the end, the monster was extremely milquetoast compared to the madness we usually get in AT. Obsidian, for example, had the awesome Larvo design. Nemesis had some INSANE dark magic!!!!  I wish they drew more from that episode. 

Considering how much Steve Little appears in this special, I do feel bad for Mace (little Peps). He said he would have really benefitted from coaching, but recieved none. He had to re-record his lines 3 times! Judging from his description of events, Wizard City was a hard time for him. 

The wizard school did remind me, heavily, of both The Owl House and OK KO. Personally I was hoping AT would offer me something more insane, but I do love both of those shows, and I know Wizard City was on a really tight schedule. 

I think they should have spent less time on the school bullying plot, and skipped straight to MURDER. 

We did have a cold opening, not on par with Together Again’s at all, but damn!

I am wondering where I would put this in the watch list? I do think it should sit after Obsidian as the third special. The intro scene makes it clear this takes place at the same time as Obsidian!!!

Well, that was it, the last ep of AT for the next few years at least T_T

i think together again was the better finale, definitely. but wizard city feels pretty detached from AT for me, despite the familiar characters it tonally isn’t like the show other than the awesome brutal death scenes. I thought the last 11 minutes was easily the best in the special! Which, honestly, is how it should be, though I do wish it gripped me more. Maybe I’m just not the target audience for Wizard City? It feels like something I would find very compelling if I was a bit younger! 

[you-cant-spell-subtext-without]

I know we are all discussing the latest episode of Season 16, but I need to wrap up 11 for my own sanity (because there is a LOT to discuss in my Season 12 rewatch already), so without further ado - more rambling for you.

I’m not going to include 11x20: Don’t Call Me Shurley because I think I’d like to do an entire Chuck - arc - series.  Rob Benedict is a gift; that dad mug kills; and I love that the fan theories about Chuck spinning around this fandom for years turned out to be correct after all (WEIRD HOW THAT HAPPENS WITH CHARACTERS EH).  Moving on.

As you will recall, two recaps and many many many crackhead other posts from my corner of super hell ago, I ended the 11x18 recap with this image of Amara realizing...”something” after Dean said Cas’s name (just before she took Casifer with her), Dean/Amara unbreakable connection be damned. Speaking of unbreakable connection this post is partially the AMARA DISSERTATION.  Buckle up.

FF to 11x21: All in the Family; the boys are shooting the shit with Chuck and in the meantime, Amara is torturing Casifer.  Important to note that just recently the actual Cas was enlightened that Dean wants him to cast Lucifer out, so I presume he is a little more active at this point, and that strengthens the following hypothesis.  Look how Amara is looking at Casifer here:

And here, right before she touches him on the chest.

It’s the same look she gave Dean. She’s trying to decipher something; trying to figure something out. 

She appears to Dean in the VERY next scene, to show him how she is torturing Casifer.  But the real point is, of course, to show him how its affecting the physical form of Cas, reminding him its not just Lucifer who is suffering.  It works.  

DEAN 

Amara is – she's in my head. [Sam looks at him sharply] Hey, I didn't ask for it, okay? She just showed up. But she's showing me visions of – of Lucifer. By Lucifer, I mean Cas, and he looks like crap – like she's really doing a number on him.

***Note, yet again, despite the *connection* Amara/Dean supposedly share, all he can think about and talk about is Cas.

And Amara knows it.  That’s the realization she has in 11x18.  Dean loves Cas.  Then, in 11x21 she realizes Cas loves Dean.  So, she uses it to her own ends.  Smart girl.  

Enter Donatello (I love him), prophet of (not) the Lord.  He, Metatron, and Sam set out to rescue Casifer while Dean distracts Amara.  If we start with the presumption she now has the prior additional insight, the following snippets of dialogue hit a little different.

AMARA

This place, this world hasn't been especially easy for you. Why not at least consider my offer?

*********

DEAN

You're right. I am drawn to you. And it bothers the hell out of me, 'cause I can't control it.

AMARA

Then why fight it? What you're feeling is that I am the end of your struggle. 

***AHEM, this was not the FACE CUPPING I requested.

What keeps Dean from having it all?  What is his struggle?  It’s not the monsters or the hunting.  Dean’s repeatedly shown he loves this life; he doesn't want anything else (and the one time he did try it in Season 6, it was half-ass at best, and he left the minute Sam returned to go back to hunting).  Dean’s KEY struggle in the show is internal.  He represses his feelings, pushes his pain aside, resulting in a cycle of self-loathing and anger.  That cycle keeps him from having it all - accepting he can be loved, allowing himself to give his heart to someone else.  And at this point, Amara not only knows that someone else is Cas, she knows that Cas feels the same way.  Girl, welcome to super hell.  Take a damn seat by Sam.

11x22: We Happy Few

I’ll skim through this one so this post doesn’t completely make your eyes bleed due to the sheer length.  

The splicing with the scenes of everyone assembling different factions to form the new “line-up” needed to trap Amara is excellent. I’ve already done a short post on the brilliance of Dean heading to get Crowley and the ex-boyfriend mood of it all (Dean, of all people, telling Crowley to sober up gives me an ENTIRE head canon of the Crowley/demon!Dean unseen dynamic in Season 10).   And of COURSE Dean knows exactly what to say to convince Crowley to get on board. I also enjoy our future Sam-witch as the emissary to Rowena (”three’s a coven” would be a great tattoo, TBH).

BONUS:

I love her.

Big fight scene with Amara ensues, but this isn’t the finale so she cannot be beaten.  However, right before she mortally wounds Chuck, she does this:

[Yelling, LUCIFER charges her from behind again, but AMARA flings him hard against a support pillar across the room.]

AMARA

Goodbye, nephew.

[She banishes LUCIFER. CASTIEL slumps unconscious to the floor.]

DEAN: Cas! 

(He rushes AMARA, but she flings him away without effort.)

***She banishes Lucifer.  She could have just killed him.  Ended him entirely, and Cas along with him.  But she BANISHES LUCIFER.  Because of what she learned in the prior episode.  Because of the pain she saw in both of those idiots.

She does this for Dean.

Anyway, thank you Casifer FOR YOUR SERVICE.  I miss you already.

11x23: Alpha and Omega

There is nothing more precious than Dean sending his brother to check on GOD while he goes to check on his boyfriend:

DEAN: [Grunting]

Check on him.

SAM: [kneels next to Chuck]

Hey. Chuck?

[Dean kneels down next to Cas and puts a hand on his shoulder. Cas stirs and looks up at Dean]

CAS:

Dean.

DEAN:

Cas? Hey, is that you?

***All the heart eyes for the reunion!!

*********ALSO SHOULDERRRRRRRR

Chuck is dying, Rowena bonds with him.  Crowley is gold in this finale.  I MISS YOU MARK.  This line is NOT in the transcript/script I used, and it potentially being ad libbed makes it even better.

Dean decides to deal with the end of the world by drinking ONE beer, then deciding there is “not enough” beer and grabbing Cas for a beer (and....*feelings*) run.

DEAN:

You know what? This isn't gonna be enough. I better make a run.

[Sighs]

No reason to die sober, huh?

[to Sam]

You want to?

SAM: [frustrated] 

No!

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

DEAN:

Be right back.

SAM:

I'll stay here, find our Plan B.

DEAN:

Okay. Cas, come on.

Nothing makes me more pleased than the assumption that of COURSE Cas is coming with him.  I mean, he just got him back.  Also, Sam is frustrated because he is back in super hell, obvi ;)   

***Now we have the little “you’re our brother” bit in the Impala beer run dialogue, but to me it’s because Dean doesn’t know how else to express what he’s feeling.  Repression, people.  

The look of literal PAIN on Cas’s face at the “brother” line makes me cackle.  Misha Collins DESERVES AN EMMY; he is doing the Lord’s work with his Acting Choices here.

This little part before is what really gets me though, especially with all of the WORDS OF AFFIRMATION:

[Dean and Cas are driving in the Impala]

DEAN:

How you doing? You good?

I mean, you know, the whole Lucifer thing.

CAS:

I was just... so stupid.

DEAN:

No, no, no. It wasn't stupid.

You were right. You were right to let Lucifer ride shotgun.

Me and Sam wouldn't have done that.

CAS:

Well, it didn't work.

DEAN:

No, but it was our best shot, and you stepped up.

CAS:

I was just trying to help.

DEAN:

Well, and you do help, Cas.

***ITS JUST SO LOVELY.  Dean asking Cas how he is doing (what Cas always asks Dean); telling Cas he wasn’t stupid (throwback to Cas telling Dean he was stupid “for the right reasons”); acknowledging that Cas does HELP.  That he is important and appreciated.  THIS IS SUCH GROWTH.  I LOVE IT SO MUCH. Speak his love language, King.

Anyway, then Dean turns into a human bomb because martyr!dean gonna martyr and be “daddy’s (Chuck filling that role here) blunt little weapon” and we get -

THE DESTIEL GOODBYE. Tell me they didn’t actually go canon for the FIRST time here.  I will fight you.

LOOK at Cas watching him in the background. 

These fucking desolate eyes. I’m crying.

THEY JUST GOT EACH OTHER BACK -  

(I recognize this .gif is meh quality but I love that he turns and walks to him and Cas just GRABS him in this crushing hug)

DEAN [accepts the hug good-naturedly but then looks sad]

Okay, okay.

***”good naturedly??? ok Jensen “Acting Choices” Ackles. That is not “good nature” that is BLISS.

AND THEN THIS -

SOBS IN ENOCHIAN.

***I literally had to remind myself that the reunion hug is coming; it’s just an episode away.  I’ll make y’all feel better too; here it is - A PERFECT PARALLEL. Curse this show.

MORE OF THIS “GOOD NATURED” HUGGING PLEASE.

Anyways, back to depressing subtext.  

DEAN:

Okay, look. I want a big funeral.

All right? I'm talking epic.

Okay? Open bar, choir, Sabbath cover band, and Gary Busey reading the eulogy.

*****This scene lives in my mind rent-free as PROOF 15x20 doesn’t exist.

I can’t skip over further growth in Dean’s goodbye to Sammy.

***He’s being serious. Seasons 1-3 Dean would never have admitted this.  I was a blubbering mess at this point.

So, Dean heads to Amara, and the rest of the gang heads to the bar.

CROWLEY:

Your round, Moose.

***I would love an entire bottle episode of Crowley, Sam, Rowena, and Chuck at that bar TBH.

And then, Dean saves the day.  BUT NOT by dying and sacrificing himself, letting himself be used as a weapon of mass destruction.  No, he fixes the DAMN WORLD by connecting to Amara emotionally, and bringing her and Chuck back together, because he understands that not to be alone is what she really needs; that her own struggle is the same as his - letting in love instead of raging against it and fighting her own need for companionship.   Because that’s where ELDEST SIBLING AMARA AND Dean Winchester CONNECT.  Amara isn’t in love with Dean.  She identifies with Dean.  She sees her own feelings in him, her own pain, and that’s why she exorcises Lucifer and saves Cas - FOR Dean.  Amara’s just a Dean girl, everyone.   And we know Dean girls protect Cas at all costs.

Yup.  Amara Dean Girl Darkness Heller.  

That’s it.  That’s the dissertation.

See you in Season 12, where I will attempt to figure out the reason behind the British Men of Letters, killing Hitler, the brain melt that is Celebrating the Life of Asa Fox, the comedy of errors that is Cas playing Dean hot and cold, and the Mary Winchester of it all. 

[cultofbeatles]

beginners guide to the members of led zeppelin (kind of)

a disclaimer before anyone starts reading: we all know led zeppelin is shady as hell and we hardly ever get anything confirmed or denied around here. so some stuff is up for speculation. everything in this post are things i've read in books, heard in interviews, or got from some other source. when it comes to “facts about led zeppelin” sometimes you gotta take it with a grain of salt. but honestly it’s led zeppelin we’re talking about, anything is possible. also this is all in good fun and giggles. with that being said, let’s get started with introductions to the members themselves.

jimmy page 

james patrick page 

born on January 9, 1944 

he’s a capricorn sun, cancer moon, and scorpio rising so you just know he’s a crazy motherfucker 

was an amazing session guitarist and basically everyone wanted him 

went to art school bc he’s just talented at everything i guess 

if you didn't know already he played the guitar for Joe cocker’s ‘with a little help from my friends’

declined his first offer to join the yardbirds but later decided to join 

was the last member to leave the group

basically was the leader of led zeppelin 

was gifted a telecaster guitar by his friend jeff beck and he adored it 

and he painted a cool dragon design on it 

played on it for the first led zeppelin album 

when he was on tour one of his friends painted over his dragon design and ruined the guitar 

he produced all of led zeppelin’s albums and is responsible for the remastering of those same albums 

paid for led zeppelin’s first album to be produced with his own money

deadass would have whips and handcuffs around with him on tour for the groupies 

but was apparently an amazing lover and cared for the people he slept with

one time he got naked on a food cart thingy, put whip cream over his body, and had john bonham push him into a room with groupies in it 

has such a small and soft voice 

was fascinated in aleister crowley and his work

would collect crowely memorabilia 

even bought crowley’s boleskine house 

had a bookstore at one point so he could get books easier 

struggled with addiction to drugs for most of the seventies 

went on a liquid diet late seventies and refused to eat solid food 

he got really skinny bc of it :( 

miss pamela (one of his girlfriends/lovers) once said that jimmy cried on the phone to her over her playboy photoshoot lmaoo

once flied pamela’s pet raccoon in first class 

allegedly had a relationship with lori maddox who was about 15 years old 

laughed as two of his girlfriends were fighting each other 

was kind of constantly nervous about his and the band’s image

has amazing guitar solos and improvisation but damn sometimes they drag on foreverrrr

deadass scared the shit out of david bowie so much that he had his house exorcised and would avoid jimmy at parties 

we love demons 

zoso

he’ll never tell us what zoso means and I'm mad

had two people die in his home. one was a friend who died from a drug overdose, and the other was john bonham when he died from choking on his vomit.  

has been accused for the deaths of john bonham and robert plant’s son karac bc of that stupid “curse” rumor

deserves critiques for several things but doesn't deserve hate for that 

has been through a lot and come out pretty okay

produced his current girlfriend’s, scarlett sabet, spoken poetry vinyl 

check out scarlett’s work bc it’s amazing

would probably always be down for another led zeppelin reunion 

robert plant

robert anthony plant 

born on august 20, 1948

this is the most attractive man ever. do not argue with me. 

nicknamed percy 

wasnt jimmy’s first pick for a singer 

jerry reid suggested robert to jimmy. and when jimmy asked what he looked like jerry said, “like a greek god.”

jimmy thought something was wrong with robert when he first found him bc he was such a good singer and hadn't been signed yet 

after a practice together jimmy knew he had his singer 

he would call robert “the young guy with the powerful voice.”

he thought about leaving the band early on bc he was so nervous about being in it 

convinced john bonham to join the group bc they were the bestest of buddies 

he’s not credited on the first album bc he was still under another contract 

started song writing for the second album by jimmy’s memory 

it didn't take long for him to gain confidence and start owning the stage 

once when he was performing a dove flew in his hands 

there’s an audio of him singing john bonham happy birthday and it makes me so happy 

he would call himself a greek god 

would party with john bonham a lot 

kind of the hippy of the group 

moans moans moans and even louder moans into the microphone 

would wear women’s shirts and looked amazing in them 

nurses do it better 

not to mention his super tight jeans 

we all know his dick is huge and he’s just showing it off 

has the prettiest, fluffiest blonde hair 

and the sweetest smile 

can you tell that i find him attractive yet?

has a fear of earthquakes 

also supposedly had some sort of a relationship to an underage groupie named sable starr (14)

also has a fear of led zeppelin nowadays 

either fear or amnesia 

it’s likely that he’s the reason we’ll never get another led zeppelin reunion 

though a close friend thinks that if the show went to charity robert would probably do it 

robert loved john bonham too much to play in led zeppelin without him

and i respect that a lot 

no matter how much he’s offered for a show he turns it down every time

in 1975 he got in a severe car crash and ended up being in a wheelchair 

still went on to record zeppelin’s album 

once while recording on crutches and started to fall and jimmy apparently zoomed in to save him. robert never saw him move that fast before

his five year old son (karac) died from a sudden stomach illness while he was in america on tour

absolutely crushed him 

was deeply upset that neither jimmy page or john paul jones reached out to him during that time of his life 

john bonham was there for him though 

robert apparently never forgave them for that 

a car he was working on fell on top of him and crushed some of his ribs as well 

late seventies was not a good time for robert plant 

but he got through it all like a champ

hates stairway to heaven with a passion lmao  

one time he paid a radio station a shit ton of money just to make sure they'd never play stairway to heaven again 

almost didn't sing stairway for the 2007 reunion but ended up agreeing to it after all 

he said he breaks out in hives when he has to play that song 

he and jimmy made their own symbols. robert’s is the feather inside the circle 

in 2007 he won beard of the year 

john bonham

john bonham 

born on may 31, 1948

nickname is bonzo

oh boy, there’s a lot of stories about bonzo 

he was known as the nicest and sweetest guy ever 

unless he was drunk 

he drank a lot :/

denied jimmy’s offer to join the group and continued to deny it until robert convinced him 

once flew the starship (led zeppelin’s plane) even though he didn't have a license to 

hated touring so much 

he always missed his family 

so he drank 

he was so damn crazy when drunk that the other members would book rooms floors above where his was so he wouldn't disturb them

tore about his hotel rooms like no other 

he has a son named jason bonham who he loved a lot 

bought him a nice drum kit when he was younger 

jason is just about led zeppelin’s biggest fan next to jimmy page 

one time bonzo broke a girl’s vibrator when drunk

also punched a girl in the face when drunk once bc she waved at him 

partly responsible for the famous mud shark story where a girl was apparently fucked with a dead shark by him and zeppelin’s tour manager 

liked cars a lot 

really really loved his family. cannot stress it enough

was irked that john paul jones got out of playing shows during the christmas holiday and he didn't 

punched robert in the face once too 

him and john paul jones equals the best rhythm section ever 

jimmy would call it magic how well him and bonzo got along 

bonzo could handle anything jimmy threw at him 

he wasn't really a part of it, but he had to go to jail bc peter grant and two other dudes almost killing a man (long story omfg, but apparently the doctors had to put the dude’s eyeball back into his socket)

was there for robert when karac died 

they were really good friends 

there’s an interview with them together where bonzo is laughing at robert about his little farm 

gave good hugs apparently 

played drums like no other could and knew he was good 

but still sometimes got insecure and got upset when someone he looked up to said his drumming wasn't all that special 

his symbol is the three rings and he picked it out of a book like john paul jones did his 

he died in jimmy page’s house (not the crowley house btw)

he had to drink the equivalent of 40 shots of vodka and choked on his vomit in his sleep 

led zeppelin died on the same day 

nobody can replace john bonham 

his son filled in his role for the 2007 reunion show and did an amazing job of it. the whole show is on youtube, go check it out

john paul jones

 john richard baldwin 

born on january 3, 1946

nickname is jonesy 

was also a session guitarist like jimmy 

they had worked together before 

when he found out jimmy was forming a group he called jimmy and was basically given the spot immediately 

not only was the bassist but also the keyboardist 

and could play the recorder 

insanely talented. put some respect on his name 

he talks in italics i swear to god 

i don't have mainly crazy stories about jonesy bc he wasn't about that life 

deadass he would go on stage, perform, walk off stage and go to a whole separate hotel from the other

he would only tell one person where he was at and told them not to call unless for super urgent emergencies 

pissed peter grant off so much lmao 

wasn't really super close to anyone in the band tbh 

but bonzo was probably his greatest friend in the band 

jimmy and robert kind of leave him out in my opinion 

or they use to 

when he found out that jimmy and robert were making their own symbols instead of picking out of a book like he was he said “of course!”  and laughed 

was pretty much left out of the live aid show 

he had to squeeze himself on the stage and wasn't even able to play bass. he had to play the keyboard 

“and thank you to my friends for finally remembering my phone number” -savage as hell john paul jones 

he was one of the two people who found john bonham dead 

it’s sad to think about

is actually quite funny

he has this kind of dry humor?? idk but it’s amazing 10/10 content 

when john paul jones walks into the room interviewers break into a sweat

managed to look like a completely different person every year throughout the seventies or is it just my eyes?

has an Instagram account now go follow it for cute throwback photos lol

that’s all i really have for generic useless information about led zeppelin members for beginners. i hope it was somewhat entertaining. i'll make some more beginners stuff for led zeppelin. i will make y'all stan them lmao. i'm tagging @babygotblueeyes​ bc i know for a fact you want to get into them <3

[apparentlynotreallyfinnish]

Vlog 001

This is a rush job. I’m sorry in advance for all the typos and mistakes. I just had to do something to exorcise showering Rhett from my mind.

This was initially inspired by @galacticnocturne‘s addition to this post but as I wrote it, it kinda morphed a bit. So it’s not exactly that. 

---

“First of all, you’re gonna want to...”

“I can figure out how to shower!” Rhett snaps. It’s more for the entertainment value than from actual annoyance, but there is a bit of that too.

“Ok, fine! Fine,” Link says, smirking at Rhett from behind the see-through partition wall.

“I’m a man. I stay at hotels all the time,” Rhett adds before turning to inspect Link’s shower. He jiggles a knob and mutters, “That doesn’t do anything...” Suddenly, freezing cold water splashes onto his back, making him jump and yelp. He swallows down a curse and scrambles to adjust the temperature.

Link cackles, shaking the tripod he’s holding.

“Told you,” he says with a smug smile that is designed to make Rhett’s blood boil.

“Whatever,” Rhett mutters, looking at his own phone propped up on the famous shower window’s sill. “I bet he did that on purpose.”

Link laughs again, confirming Rhett’s suspicions. 

He pushes down the faint feeling of annoyance. It’s good content. The fans will love it. That was how he was cajoled into this whole charade in the first place.

I really think you should come and take a shower at my house. The fans would eat that shit right up. Those had been Link’s exact words. Rhett had barely put up a fight. Link had been talking about his shower for too long. It had been fun at first—the whole saga of he and his neighbor—but it was getting old and Rhett knew he wouldn’t let it go until Rhett came over. And if they could monetize that, all the better.

But now that he is actually standing inside Link’s shower, he isn’t so sure anymore. He feels strangely exposed—vulnerable. Nowadays, when they film there is always a flurry of people around them. Rhett has grown used to it. There is safety in numbers. Now there are just the two of them, all alone, in Link’s bathroom. It feels different, more intimate. And then there’s the fact that he is almost naked—apart from the speedos he’d worn—and Link is fully clothed.

“I think you should’ve stripped too,” Rhett says. He’s finally managed to get the water to turn nice and warm and ducks his head under the showerhead. “Just out of solidarity.”

“Yeah? And then I would’ve gone outside in my undies and walked up my neighbor’s driveway? Sure, Rhett. Sounds like a great plan,” Link says and shakes his head.

Rhett shrugs and rubs his chest theatrically while stretching his back. The water feels nice. If he closes his eyes, he can almost forget he’s being watched. A deep satisfied sigh slips from his lips.

“Good, yeah?” Link asks. His voice is lower than before, almost breathless. Curious to see where Link is going with this angle, Rhett peeks from under his lids. The partition separating them is getting misty and wet, hard to see through, but Rhett can still tell that Link’s stepped closer.

“You gotta do the thing,” Link continues.

“The thing?”

“The routine. My routine,” Link answers. He’s getting impatient. Rhett can see it in the way he’s balancing on the balls of his feet, swaying forwards and backwards.

Rhett chuckles. “What, like this?” He takes a bottle of conditioner and squirts a big dollop of it on his palm.

“Wait, that’s—!” Link tries to stop him but it’s too late. Rhett’s already rubbing it all over his hair. He’s making a show of it, closing his eyes and twirling his fingers in his curls. Since he’s already here, he might as well give the fans a show.

Fans. Mmhmm, yeah right... Keep telling yourself that.

Rhett ignores the small voice at the back of his mind. He’s good at ignoring that voice. A master at it by this point, after doing it for the past 30-ish years.

“Rhett, what the fuck? That was conditioner!” Link whines.

“Oh no, was it not yet time for the ner-ner?” Rhett asks mockingly, winking at his phone camera.

“This is not what we talked about. Do it properly!”

“Just an honest mistake. Let me wash it off,” Rhett says with a crooked smile. “I use this to wash my body, right?” he confirms just to annoy Link further and runs his palms down his chest.

“Rhett!” Link snaps. He sounds properly distressed but that only seems to spur Rhett on. His hands dip lower, traveling slowly over his stomach, rubbing the run-off of the conditioner into his skin. For a beat, he gets lost in it, lost in the warm flowing water and the feel of his palms against the slick skin. 

There’s a faint sound and Rhett peeks at Link from the corner of his eyes. Did Link just whimper? No, he must have heard wrong. The pipes must be making strange noises. Link’s eyes are wide and his hand is trembling. There is no way anything he’s filming right now will be usable.

Rhett continues down his legs, taking the time to thoroughly wash his thighs and calves before finally, bending all the way down to rub his toes. He doesn’t see from this angle but he knows Link is still watching him. He can feel it.

“Rhett, please... Just—” Link whispers as Rhett’s hands drag up his legs. Rhett feels warm all over. Must be the water. The fact that the warmth seems to be concentrated around his groin means nothing.

Rhett’s hands climb back up and as a joke, he lets his fingers graze his nipples. He shouldn’t be surprised to find them perked up and sensitive, but he is, and he can’t stop the small gasp that escapes him. He should feel ashamed, embarrassed, flustered. And he is. He surely he is. But somehow that just makes it better. Makes him keep touching himself like this.

Link’s gone quiet. All Rhett can hear is his breathing—heavy, ragged breathing. Rhett screws his eyes closed and lets his hands move down again. His belly is soft and still a bit slippery from the conditioner. He doesn’t mind the little bit of tummy he still has despite his new vigorous gym routine. It’s nice. Absentmindedly he wonders if Link thinks it’s nice too. Nevertheless, he rubs it appreciatingly in small circles that inch closer and closer to his waistline.

Rhett’s fingers slip under the waistband of his speedos.    

A loud slam startles him from his dreamlike state and his head whips towards Link. Link’s palm is pressed against the steam-covered glass. Rhett stares at the hand, feeling confused. Did he hit it? Link’s other hand is hanging limply on his side. The camera and the tripod are on the floor.

“Rhett,” Link murmurs and presses his forehead against the glass wall, as well. His voice is strained—he almost sounds like he’s in pain. His eyes flutter closed for a moment but then he opens them and licks his lips. His gaze is piercing. He’s staring at Rhett who is still standing under the streaming water, hand halfway down his pants. The blue of Link’s eyes shines through the misty glass and he speaks again. It’s so quiet, Rhett almost doesn’t hear it. But it’s there. The faintest of pleas. “Can I?”

The rush of power Rhett feels is almost overwhelming.

“Can you what?” he asks, voice low, and dips his hand further into his wet pants. Link’s gaze is trained on his crotch and the deeper Rhett goes the more Link’s mouth opens. He doesn’t say anything, he just pants into the glass, puffing warm air onto it, misting it further.

“How did it go? Your shower instruction. If it hides...?” Rhett coaxes.

“...expose it,” Link says the words as if he’s been enchanted.

“Aah, that’s right,” Rhett murmurs and yanks down his speedo. It’s been thoroughly drenched, so it’s tight and barely moves down. But the few inches he manages is enough. Rhett’s swollen cock bounces free and Link lets out a whimper. This time Rhett doesn’t suspect it’s the pipes. Link’s hand no longer hangs free, it’s pressed against the unmistakable bulge in his pants. 

Looking Link right in the eyes, Rhett yanks the speedo down his thighs and steps out of it, letting it hit the shower floor with a wet plop.

“And then? If it flops...?” Rhett asks swaying his hips just enough to make his dick bop slightly between his legs. Link swallows so hard, Rhett can almost see a cartoon-like ‘gulp’ written on the steam next to his flushed face.

“...lift it,” Link gasps.

“Like this?” Rhett confirms and grabs his cock, lifting it towards his stomach as he strokes it slowly. The groan that spills from his lips is drowned out not by the rushing water but Link’s needy growl.

“Mmh,” Rhett moans, keeping his hand moving. “I don’t think it’s clean enough yet. Any suggestions?”

The rush of movement startles Rhett and he almost slips. His head dips under the water and for a moment, he’s blinded by the shower. When he gets his bearings, the place where Link stood is empty, except for his jacket, that lays crumpled on the floor next to the tripod.

Link’s in the shower. Rhett’s breath catches. Link’s on his knees in the shower.

“I can help,” he says staring up at Rhett. Water is bouncing off of Rhett’s body,  raining down on Link. His blue t-shirt is slowly getting drenched. Rhett reaches for Link’s face and his knees almost buckle from the way Link lifts his chin and leans into Rhett’s touch.

“Yeah? You wanna show me how it’s done?”

“Please,” Link whimpers. Rhett takes hold of his chin and pulls his mouth open. Link’s tongue slips out of his mouth and settles against his bottom lip. He looks up at Rhett, eyes fluttering. Water running down his face is making his eyelashes stick together. He looks like he stepped right out of Rhett’s favorite porn. He looks filthy. Gorgeous. Fuckable and sweet. All at the same time. 

“So, fucking sexy,” Rhett murmurs and presses his thumb on Link’s tongue. There’s a glottal throat sound that makes Rhett’s cock twitch and his legs tremble. He rubs Link’s tongue with his finger and reaches with his other hand to snatch his glasses and sets them on the window sill. He sees the phone, realizes it’s still recording but does nothing to stop it. It’s only from the chest up after all. And he definitely will want to relive what’s about to happen.

“Show me how you work that mouth, boy.”

[tropicalfreckles]

Friends Again CH 1

Hey guys, decided I’d post this here, too! An obvious Disclaimer beforehand, B**TLEB*BES DNI MASTER LIST found here

Now then. I started writing this about two months or so ago, had the idea in my head from the first time I watched the musical. The first two chapters didn’t have anyone beta reading it, and my writing is super rusty since I haven’t posted fanfiction online in 10 years until now. Here’s the quick summary from AO3! Rating: M (for body horror mentions. other than that the content would be T for the cursing)

Warnings: Body Horror, Blood, they talk about how Lydia impaled Beej, some violence, at some point they will brush up on Beej’s child abuse from Juno (though it won’t be detailed), Bug eating, Beej pervs on the Maitlands just a little, Lot of cursing. (i’ll add more warning tags if you guys give me a heads up about anything I missed!)

Characters: Lydia Deetz, Charles Deetz, Delia Deetz, Adam Maitland, Barbara Maitland, Beetlejuice & a few OCs made for the fic along with the introduction of my demon BJ oc, Antares!

Summary:  It had been months since her face off against the ghost with the most, it ending on a very mixed note for Lydia. But, the events won't leave her dreams, and she is slowly coming to terms with her suffering from trauma because of her actions. Would it lead to her confronting them, and in turn, seeing the source of it all once more?

(fic in read more)

 Eight long months had passed since Lydia finally decided to open herself up more to her father again. Along with accepting Delia as being apart of their new, weird, happier family. Lydia definitely saw the Maitlands as part of that family with how much they've done to help her, her father and her recently made step-mother. She would've been surprised with how fast those two had gotten married after the engagement if it wasn't for the whole near death experience by angry demon thing. They figured after that life was short, especially compared to the Maitlands and got married only a few months after they finally were settled in. Unfortunately for poor Lydia, the nightmares she had after her clash with her demon ex-friend still clung to her. They started about two weeks after everything happened. It was enough time for Lydia to let things sink in about what they did and even if he deserved it, how she killed a person. They happened almost every night, then every other night, and by month four had stopped. Then the month after they started up again and even though Delia tried her hardest, she just couldn't help with Lydia's mental health deteriorating again. So she began to see a family therapist. She had to leave out some details for obvious reasons and changed the story a little, but it was only helping so much. Every time she would recount the nightmare in vivid detail to her therapist.

 'Everything around her was distorted, like it was the inside of a funhouse mirror. The colors around her varied from a mix of eerie, bright and ghoulish colors to more monotone colors blending into each other. Her heart was thumping into her chest as everyone played the part that she had given them. I'm doing the right thing, he won't stop. He's a demon so it's okay! That's all she was able to think about to justify her actions. The joy of being alive after their 'green card' marriage soon came crashing down onto the dirty recently revived Beetlejuice as he went off on one of his tangents. Going on about the mixed emotions of humans that were overwhelming him all at once. He started getting a look in his eyes, going straight to murderous thoughts just as she knew he would. Her breathing picks up as she grabs onto the broken piece of rebar from the poor taste of art that her father hands to her. She fixes her footing and screams as she plunges the make-shift weapon through the back of the demon, screaming as she used all the force she could muster. Everything becomes distorted around her after that; everyone else becoming shapeless blobs. Except for the dying Beetlejuice who stares off like he's gazing at an unknown force. In typical fashion he cracks a joke with his dying breathe. The blobs were all shocked at the action until Lydia told them why she did it. They started to move in an off-putting way to get ready to be rid of him when he would rise as the recently deceased.

Before it could play out just as it did in reality everything went black around her. Terrifying mouths appeared into the view everywhere she looked. The adrenaline that spiked when she stabbed him now was replaced from anxiety to dread as blood poured out from the mouths. Their laughter echoed with twisted and distorted voices. The blood swallowed up the demon before her. She tried to wade through the blood in vain trying to reach him as fear engulfied her.

"No... NO! Beetlejuice-!"

It's not supposed to be like this; he's supposed to go back to the netherworld, he's supposed to be okay! Everyone is supposed to be okay! She reached out, crying out his name in an attempt to save him,

"Beetlejuice!" She saw his body surface in the sea of crimson. It was carrying him further and further from her as her dress became heavier with every passing second. Blood coated her face as she kept an outstretched arm to try and grab onto him.

A cackle echoes from the darkness as a giant hand pulled him out of the blood, belonging to a woman she only was briefly introduced to. It was his mother, the head demon in charge of the more bureaucratic side of the Netherworld. Juno. His body is still, lifeless now, his hair color changed to a purpleish-blue.

" BEETLEJUICE !" She screams one last time. A giant sand worm jumps out of Juno's mouth and eats both the demon she cried out for, and herself. Then she wakes up.'

 Well, at least she would partly tell the truth. She left out a lot of key details from her nightmare when talking about it, such as marrying a centuries or millennia old demon as a green card thing to bring him back to life. About ghosts in general. Lydia had to switch many things around, along with the murder. The story changed to her having a horrible fight with an old friend who she 'stabbed him in the back'. More metaphorically than in actuality being physically. Talking about her trauma to anyone outside of the family was really difficult. Which is why she didn't see the point to seeing a therapist in the first place. Thankfully most of the facts could be turned into metaphors with some hoop jumping. She finally got the story 'straight' with her family prior to opening up. What she would tell the therapist is she betrayed a friend who had mental health problems and was threatening her family. She told them she called the cops on him and made it out that his abusive mother beat the shit out of him. Then shipped him off to military school instead of him going to juvey. The therapist took the strange nightmares she would have as a vivid imagination of her guilt of betraying someone she thought as her friend before. She wasn't even that close to him, they only spent a few days together and she was more focused on seeing her mother again. Yet killing the man is something that made her stomach turn when she thought about it again. It was different than the thrill of scaring people with him from before. Sure he was 'fine' in the sense of he was just back to square one of being a ghost and a demon again. However she still took something away from him that was bigger than she thought before. Life. Even if it did make him go crazy after being alive for less than five minutes.

 He didn't seem too bothered by it when he left following his melodramatic farewells. After feeding his scary mother to a giant sandworm of course. He seemed a little happier, even. Unfortunately she never really got true closure. Sure she gave him a small hug, even though that was a little hard because he smelled so bad. It was probably his clothes since the man looked like he never washed a thing in his life. After a two months of seeing them, her therapist suggested that maybe all she wants is closure to her traumatic experience. The therapist didn't recommend actually going to visit her 'friend' in case it would be too overwhelming for her. A phone call or something was suggested if she thought she wanted to talk to him. Tell him how much of a jerk he was before and how he took things too far. Tell him how she felt bad about the way she ended things. That was going to be complicated though for a number of reasons.

One, even if she did want to go back to the Netherworld which she definitely didn't. It was just like when she had her realization it would take possibly eternity to find her mother. What luck would she have finding Beetlejuice? Two, even though she saw him comically swing his mother's torn leg around after he took her out. What's to say she still wasn't 'existing' and back running the netherworld's social services for the dead. Or whatever it was she did. She didn't want to come face to face with that horrid woman again. She wasn't even sure if demons could die still and she had to have been a demon just like Beetlejuice. Sure she got eaten but once again she could've somehow came back. Three, her family would NEVER let her go back in there. Four was the most important though; did she even want to see him again? Could she even see him again? He certainly wouldn't want to after what happened. Even if they left on neutral terms he might be feeling a bit miffed that she stabbed him in the back. He was still a demon.

 "Feelings are stupid." Lydia groaned, flopping on top of her bed dramatically as she gave a deep sigh. She had just gotten back from another appointment and curled up on the bed.

  "I can't believe I miss when Delia would be the one 'life coaching' me. I shouldn't feel guilty for what happened; he deserved it. He was going to kill dad, possibly everyone. He tricked me into almost exorcising Barbara!" Lydia wrinkled her nose, kicking at the air with her legs as she grabbed onto her pillow then tore at it a little."That big, smelly jerk."

 She sniffled a little then buried her face into the pillow. Why should she care. He only ever cared about his powers and about himself. Even if he stood up for her and saved her from his crappy mom. Who only was there because she ran into the Netherworld and abandoned everyone. In hopes of seeing her mom again. She wasn't at fault, though; it was just a big mess.

  "Lydia sweetie, are you okay?" A concerned voice came from behind her door with a gentle knock following it.

  "Is it okay if I come in?" Lydia lifted her head from the pillow then looked to the door. She gave a one shoulder shrug.

 "Only if you want to, Barbara." She shifted, rolling onto her back as she stared up at the ceiling. Barbara phased through the door deciding she would practice on her ghostly abilities some more. Even if she still felt it a bit rude to not use the door. She walked over to the bed, then sat down on the edge of it while reaching out to gently stroke Lydia's head.

  "How was your appointment honey?" She gave the sweetest, caring smile she could muster for the young girl as Lydia blew one of her bangs out of her face.

 "Was okay, I guess; I don't know why I still have to go to these.." The goth teen closed her eyes, finding it soothing in a way to feel the cold fingers of her friend comforting her. Barbra quirked a brow at her, then stopped for a moment as she gently patted Lydia's head in response.

  "Are you still having those nightmares?" Lydia inhaled deeply before sitting up as she swung her legs around.

 "...yes." She spoke softly, just barely above a whisper as her gaze cast downwards. Barbara inched closer to her then wrapped an arm around the girl's shoulders.

  "Oh, Lydia. I know that man was awful. Yet, I understand if you feel bad for him. I still.. really do not like him. Although I hope he's found peace in whatever he is doing now, in the Netherworld. Even if I will never forgive him." A frown creased the lips of the ghostly woman as she knit her brows. "I'm just glad he left on his own at least. Only good thing he did while he was here. Besides saving you." She sighed then gave a shake of her head. Lydia looked up at her while playing with the ends of her lacy black dress.

 "I know.. he. I mean, he wasn't.. I don't know. He's a jerk, yeah, a real asshole. But, I think he did care about us, even if it was a little. Scaring people with him was fun, I just didn't.. want him to kill my dad. Even if I was mad at him. Upset. I know now dad acted the way he did because he was hurting as much as I was. He just masked his grief differently than I did. But, I hated the tantrum Beetlejuice made. I didn't want him to hurt you or Adam." Lydia gently moved her hand over Barbara's hand, eyes softening a bit. Barbara moved her hand away from Lydia, opting to gently grab her cheek.

  "You put too much on your shoulders, sweetie. You're a good kid. You were so brave.. we should've been the ones to protect you, though. Not the other way around. You know I don't hold anything against you for what happened. Adam and I should've not put our trust in Beetlejuice in the first place. What we should've done was shooed him away. But we were just so desperate. Losing everything in such a short amount of time." She moved her hand away, resting both of them now in her lap as she stared down at the floor. "Gosh. I wish I became more assertive sooner. At least now if anything like that happens again, we'll be better about it." She looked back to Lydia, giving her a comforting smile. Lydia nodded to her in response.

 "Well, you don't have to worry about me. I'm not gonna make any more deals with demons I barely know again." Lydia snorted. Barbara gave a small chuckle as she bumped her shoulder.

  "I hope you mean any deals ever again."

 "Eh, we'll see." Lydia snickered, Barbara giving her a small scowl of disapproval.

  "Lydia." Lydia laughed, then gave Barbara a hug.

 "Okay, okay. I really need a nap now." She let go then smiled up at Barbara. The woman took the hint, getting up after giving a small wave. She turned around then phased through the door once more. Lydia kicked her combat boots off her feet, then got up and walked over to the door. She locked it just for some privacy and moved back over to the bed, jumping on it. A nap.. another nightmare? Her expression soured as she stared out to the window of her bedroom. The sky was cloudy, dark grays and purples covering every bit of the bright blue endless sky. She shifted her gaze to the mirror that was on the other side of her room. Reason number four. It would be crazy. She shouldn't even try. How could she be so sure that she could even summon him if he was in the Netherworld. It would be safer to try that than going back into it. Wrapping her arms around herself, her mind was battling all the possibilities of things that could go wrong. A thought occurred to her as she remembered the handbook for the recently deceased. She still had the copy Beetlejuice gave her. Maybe there was a chapter about how to deal with a demon besides marrying them and killing them. Hopping off the bed, she ran to her dresser, digging around in the bottom one. Just as she left it; under her old clothes she never wore anymore. Taking it out, she sat on the ground then began sifting through the pages. A faint glow coming from each one.

 'This is crazy, what am I doing.' Lydia thought to herself after looking through a couple of chapters, sighing as she began to close the book. She couldn't endanger everyone. She didn't want to put them through.. hm. Hold on. Her eyes flickered as she noticed a color change in a page, big red letters spelling out the name of a new chapter. DEMONS, and how to handle them. Her fingers smoothed over the page as he brought the book into her lap once more.

  "You can summon special demons by chanting their name three times, without breaking the pattern. If your demon guide however is unhelpful, and causing more problems than you need. You can send them back by chanting their name once more. Three times, unbroken..."

 Her eyes widen as she bit her lip. If it was in this book, then it had to work, right? This was given to the recently deceased to help them after all. She thought back to after everything happened with Beetlejuice, remembering her dad now having crosses around the house even if that didn't really work when he used it before. However he had also acquired holy water and given Lydia some as a precaution. She thought it was silly, since back then she had no reason to believe Beetlejuice would come back. Now that she was faced with a new option, however. She slid the dresser drawer back in place, keeping the book tucked under her arm. She walked over to her bookshelf and pulled down a squirt gun that her dad had poured the holy water in. Would this actually work? If it didn't it probably would either piss Beetlejuice off or make him laugh at her. Or both. Either way she still liked the security of it. Maybe he'll be too entertained by her squirting him with holy water to hurt her or the others. Holding this in her hand meant that this was real. She was really going to do this. Walking over to her curtains, she closed them quickly. Lydia then went to her phone on the nightstand then picked it up. She turned the Bluetooth on, changing the volume of her music to the max. It wasn't uncommon for Lydia to listen to her music loudly some times. A good excuse to cover up whatever noise the demon would bring; the others wouldn't question it. Her dad wouldn't be home for a little while longer so she didn't need to worry about him. He was the only person who was ever bothered by her listening too loud.

 "Alright.. you can do this, Lydia. Just. Just one quick conversation can work for closure, right? Right. This isn't the dumbest thing you ever did at all. Besides summoning him the first time.." She tossed the book on the bed, then held up her squirt gun. It might not even work, so that would be good. Right? This is just an empty attempt. Whatever it took to reassure herself she wasn't going to get killed. Sitting down on the end of her bed, she stared out at the mirror. Okay. You can do this, Lydia Deetz.

 "Beetlejuice.." Everything seemed normal so far. Just the sound of her music, nothing eerie whatsoever. There was a chill however she felt against her neck, though she figured it was just her nerves.

 "Beetlejuice." A gust of wind started knocking hard at her window. It had to have been the oncoming storm. Just another coincidence. Or so she thought. Her music started to change songs at a frequent pace. Shit. This was really happening. Was he really going to come? She gripped her squirt gun, gritting her teeth. She couldn't show fear. Lydia refused to let him have the upper-hand.

 "Beetlejuice!"

[destiel-love-forever]

Season 11: What’s worth watching

This is the second of 3 installments (season 10, season 11, season 12) because I think 13 and 14 are worth watching fully **I personally LOVED season 14, I haven’t loved one that much since season 5** && plus, this way you can watch the very final season of Supernatural without being confused!

Thanks to @longkissgoodnightbatmanandtwofac for asking me to do this. I actually really enjoyed it <3

Season 10 HERE

Season 11

Ep. 1 is… eh. I feel like you have to watch it, since it introduces you to ‘The Darkness.’ 

Ep. 2 isn’t worth watching in my opinion. The angels still have Cas/torturing him for info - they say he’s not their brother because he’s always picking the Winchesters over heaven (duh… you’re just now figuring this out??). We meet the new “Death” which is pretty important - her name is Billy, and she has it out for the boys. Promises that the next time they die, she’ll be the one to reap them, and they won’t be coming back. Baby Amara is going crazy/eating souls. They do the angel needle-in-the-head brain hacking thing to Cas, but then he escapes, kills them, goes to the bunker. And Crowley steals Amara to raise as his own. 

Ep. 3 You don’t need to watch this either. Rowena is recruiting witches, Cas is at the bunker still dealing with his curse (boys helping him), they have to keep the poor guy chained up because they can’t control his curse/reactions yet. ** Cas is super adorable all cuddled up in his blanket that Dean’s always wrapping him up with. Amara is a kid now (like 9 or 10ish yo). Crowley is feeding her souls and giving her an education (basically watching hitler speeches and shit like that). Rowena cures Cas. 

The last 5 minutes are worth watching. It’s Dean/Cas. You get some adorableness with Dean cupping sick Cas’ cheek, and some happy feelings with the boys at the bunker. 

Ep. 4 is a MUST WATCH. Shot entirely from Baby’s perspective, and is just overall amazing. 

Ep. 5 I didn’t like this ep. at all. In fact, I don’t even think I watched the entire thing when the season aired. There is a little Ghostfacers reference by the couple that gets killed at the beginning, though, which is cool. Shows at the very end of the episode Amara watching Dean the whole time and she says this creepy, “Bye, Dean. I’ll see you soon.” 

Have I mentioned yet that I hate the darkness/amara? I do. I hate her. 

Ep. 6 Not worth watching either. Amara is still walking around all barefoot and creepy, eating souls. Papa Crowley is mad. Sam wants to bring Cas in to help with the Amara hunt and Dean isn’t happy about it, wants him to get a break since it’s been rough for him lately (awww). Cas has been binge watching TV (he’s watching a show that’s the equivalent of Jerry Springer or Maury, one of those “the results are in and you are the father!” shows). Dean teases him for it and Cas gives him some sass. Dean’s super worried about him. Cas tries to get himself to leave the bunker and gets a huge anxiety attack/flash-backs to when he hurt Dean under the spell, when he killed the angels, then when Dean beat him up and almost killed him when under the influence of the mark of cain, breaks down and can’t leave the bunker. Cas eventually leaves, tracks down Metatron who has been videotaping crap to see to the news. He interrogates Metatron about the darkness. Metatron breaks and tells Cas that God had to give up the only thing he had ever known in order to create the world - his sister, which is Amara. Dean & Sam show up to Crowley’s to kill Amara, Crowley tries killing Dean, Amara stops him. Dean can’t get himself to kill Amara. Amara points it out to Dean. She cups his cheek and is all creepy talking about how linked they are/how neither of them can fight their connection and it’s weird because she’s in a teenaged girls body and just… ew. Ew. Ew. EW. She says she came there to settle a score “the oldest score,” which is obviously talking about god. Oh, and Sam is getting weird visions about Luci in the cage. I know that was a lot of info, but I’m serious, the episode just isn’t worth watching in my opinion. 

Ep. 7 I have to say this is worth watching, because Donna is in it, and who doesn’t love Donna?!? Plus, it’s a good old fashioned hunt, which is so rare in this season. 

Ep. 8 Is a good one too. It’s a flashback episode, which anyone who knows me knows those are some of my fav.’s. Plus, it’s a pretty funny hunting episode. 

Ep. 9 Pretty important episode, so I’d suggest watching it. Big for plot. Amara is killing preachers left and right to piss God off. Sam is convinced talking to Lucifer will help because of his visions he’s been having, so he and Dean go to Crowley to see if they can talk with him somehow (Dean’s obvi not happy bout that). It is kind of entertaining watching Amara with the bible and trying to understand why all these people believe in him/think he’s great/yada yada. 

Ep. 10 Isn’t terrible. A continuation of a lot of the same stuff going on in 9. There’s some great Dean/Cas in this ep. so I’ll give it that. Post whump hurt comfort between the two of them is always my fav. Kind of a cool ep. bcuz it’s Luci and Sam walking through memories. A huge thing happens at the end, too. 

Ep. 11 Not that great of an ep. But it has a character that turns out to be a bit of a fan favorite, so I’d watch it for her (Eilene). Also, Lucifer/Cas is interesting. Misha does a great job there. There’s a bit of character development/insight with Dean, too. 

Ep. 12 This is a MUST SEE. Ep with Jodi, Claire, and Alex. Great dynamic to see. Plus a nice classic hunting ep. And, of course, the awkward family dinner at Jodi’s where the sex talk comes up? That’s just fantastic. Probably the best of the whole damn season. I loved it. 

Ep. 13 Honestly, this is boring as all hell. (in my opinion). I will say there’s a part where the monster shows people their deepest darkest desire, and it appears as Amara. Dean tells that to Sam and is very conflicted/hates it, and Sam points out that Amara is the sister of God, and it’s not Dean’s fault, because she picked him and now he feels these things because of her power. Says Dean can’t be blamed or judged. And he tells Dean that he believes him that Dean doesn’t actually want her, and that he wants her dead, but that Amara is controlling him. Which is like YEEEEEEEEEEEES. Because I hate Amara, AND I hate the whole Amara/Dean weird romance-esque type thing. This is literally the only plot, though. For the whole ep. They talk about this, and then Dean tells Sam Sam has to be the one to kill her when it comes to that because of the control Amara has over him, and Sam promises he’ll handle it. Save yourself 41 minutes and don’t watch it. 

Ep 14 This one is interesting. It has some time travel/Dean sent back to WWII times. Badass woman of letters in this ep that Dean gets to meet. Plus, Lucifer as king of hell is hilarious. Some decent plot going on here too. 

Ep 15 Honestly, I hated this ep. I also hate anything related to WWE and that shit too, though, so I dunno. Maybe you’d like it? It felt extremely pointless. Crowley escapes hell, goes to find a new weapon (Aaron’s rod), but Luci tricked him into thinking he escaped just so he could get ahold of the weapon. But then Crowley tricks Luci back, uses weapon against him. But then runs out of juice, and Luci is able to disappear. So. Basically. All that fucking happens is Crowley gets out of hell. 

Ep 16 This is a cool one because it involves flashbacks from when Bobby and Rufus hunted the same thing. We find out why Rufus gave Bobby that battle of Jack with the note that Jodi and Sam found in that episode from way back when, when they fought the time god. (I wanna say that was s9, but I’m honestly too lazy to look atm) 

Ep 17 This is a good one if you have time/feel like watching. Not really any plot, though. Dean takes some pills and overdoses in order to talk to Billy, and Billy mentions something called ‘The Empty’ that’s waiting for Dean when he dies. Tiny little thing mentioned there. BIG THING way later on in the series. Like… 3ish season from now? Other than that, though… eh. 

Ep 18 This one should be watched. Very plot heavy. If you feel like skipping it, you can read the paragraph below, it’s not vital to watch. Rowena is alive, explains how she survived (a magic thingy). She’s helping heal Amara. Crowley went and got the horn of Joshua for the battle against Amara, says he’ll give it to the boys if they promise to help him exorcise Luci from Cas and put him back in the cage. Luci is up in heaven terrorizing the poor angels. Has decided to become the new ruler up there. Amara attacks heaven with her dark smoke crap. Luci just giggles. Rowena is afraid of Amara/starting to fear her/regretting working with her. Rowena sends the boys a message that she’s alive, they work together to trap Luci. There is a great scene in here (starts around 26 minutes into the ep.) where Dean uses a spell to try to talk to Cas inside Luci. It’s so sad :( && Luci mocks Dean for being so upset/sad. Crowley possesses Cas’ vessel, so then all three of them are in there. There is some adorableness there when Crowley tries to tell Cas to eject Luci and Cas tells him no, but then when Crowley explains that Dean wants him to do it, Cas is like ‘oh, maybe I should then.’ Luci gains control, tries killing Amara with the horn of Joshua, doesn’t work. Like at all. She takes Luci captive and tortures. Dean and Sam agree to go find Cas and bring him home. 

Ep 19 MUST. WATCH. This is the gay hunters ep that got everyone so excited. And for good cause. Who doesn’t love seeing two manly hunters in love with each other, and who doesn’t love seeing Dean’s reaction to that?!?

Ep 20 is a must watch as well. You meet God, which is - ya know - a big fucking deal. It’s also a very entertaining/well-done ep. 

Ep 21 I’d say you have to watch this one too. Dean & Sam meeting God. Or, well, re-meeting him I suppose. There is SO. MUCH. EMOTION. In this ep too. Sam & Dean (even Luci) have so much to address when it comes to God. All of the things they’ve been put through. Their feelings of being betrayed. Abandoned. Especially Dean. Oh, my poor baby Dean. I just… he has such a hard time in this ep, but it’s a great ep. Much needed. Well done. Among other things. I could talk about this ep for a really long time, but I’ll just stop there. Oh, and a new prophet pops up, which is always great. He’s not my favorite (no one can replace Kevin) but he’s fucking hilarious, so that’s nice. 

Ep 22 Have to watch this too. If not for ALL THE PLOT, then for Luci and God going at it. Oh my. Such a great situation (And Misha did so so so well at it). Luci locked in his room listening to loud music like a pouty teenanger. God cooking pancakes and drinking coffee from ‘World’s Greatest Dad’ mug. I mean, Dean and Sam have to do a family therapy session for the two. Who doesn’t want to watch that?!? 

Ep 23 From there, ya might as well finish off the season. 

[svtskneecaps]

Blink and You’ll Miss It - Part 7

Summary: Sanha’s been a curious shit her whole life. Jackson’s always told her she’s going to get herself killed at some point. She thought that was a bunch of bull, but he might’ve actually been right. She might be in way over her head on this one.

Featuring: A bunch of bull, a lot of cursing, merciless butchering of honorifics, and other things. Essentially, it’s a Comedy of Errors: Story Version.

Warnings: Cursing. Lots and lots of it.

First ~~~ Previous ~~~ Next

Masterlist

Sanha almost slammed the door, almost turned tail and ran for it, almost lashed out. Apparently she needed to get her fight or flight instinct fixed, because she didn’t do anything except stare.

He’d noticed that the door was open, but all he’d done was turn away from her, shoulders shaking. Questions swirled through her head, but the only one that seemed applicable was “What the fuck?” and she accidentally said it in English. Apparently he understood, because his broken breathing changed to apologies.

This was so above her pay grade.

How long she stood there, she had no idea; she wasn’t timing it. She didn’t know what to do. Should she close the door and go one with her mission? She didn’t. She’d probably regret it, but she crouched down, finding a spot next to him and taking a page out of her mother’s book: rubbing circles on his back with her hand. It’d always calmed her down.

BamBam uncurled after what felt like longer than it probably was, swiping a sleeve across his face. He almost seemed scared to look at her. She wasn’t sure if now was when the conversation started. She felt like Poe Dameron, “So who talks first, you talk first? I talk first?” except the situation was completely different.

He pulled in a shaky breath, and her scrambling brain pulled back. “Why?”

“That’s not very specific.” The words dropped from her lips almost without her knowledge. Apparently it was instinct to treat everyone like Jackson when she got nervous and add a little teasing.

“Why are you helping me?” He turned slightly, still not quite facing her.

She didn’t know the answer herself. “Empathy?” The opal ring they’d picked up the hour before enhanced that. Maybe that was her issue. And now she’d die because of it. Sanha, you idiot. She didn’t know what to say. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine now.” She got to her feet and offered him a hand up. With the startled look he gave her, you’d think she was handing him the keys to her house. After a second of hesitation, he took it.

“Kay, but now you have to give me a five minute head start before you kill me,” she joked, fully expecting to not see the sunrise.

To her surprise, BamBam sighed and stared at the floor again. “That’s the other guy’s job.”

He’d hit her weakness. Her interest was piqued. She was already dead at this point; she might as well go out doing what she loved. “Other guy?”

“You wouldn’t believe it.”

“Maybe not, but I’ve got a twenty minute power point presentation all about why you should tell me anyway. Title is You Never Know Until You Try.” He snorted.

“Okay, fine.” He still didn’t look at her. “There’s another spirit, I guess that the girl summoned to help her. He stole my body with me still in it and he’s been using it.” He finally met her eyes. “I’m sorry about your friend, by the way.”

She surveyed him, a couple quick once-overs, and nodded. “I believe you.”

That obviously shocked him. “You’re not messing with me, are you?”

“Nope.” There’d been a change of plans. Forget the initial mission; she had the sneaking suspicion it wouldn’t make sense to continue with it anymore. She shook her head. “We need to leave.” Ignoring the confused look on his face, she moved to the door.

If Sanha had thought the other three were bad at moving their bodies, BamBam was worse. I twas no fault of his own, of course. He hadn’t even had the limited freedom the other kids had as semi-free roaming spirits. He probably hadn’t moved on his own in fifty years. That didn’t change the fact that he was walking like a baby giraffe, but it was cute.

They only made it to the entryway.

“Sanha!”

She cringed, hearing Jackson’s voice calling out, and turned around reluctantly.

“Get away from him, he’s dangerous; you know that!” Jackson came closer, and she backed away, instinctively moving between him and BamBam. The hurt expression on his face broke her heart, but she wasn’t sure yet.

“Yeah, well, you know me and running towards danger,” she mumbled, taking a few steps back.

“This is different now, you know this. He could kill you!”

He wouldn’t be acting this way. He never had before. Jackson would’ve noticed her actions, would’ve asked what she knew that he didn’t, would’ve done anything else but this. She slipped her phone out of her pocket and lit up the screen.

His eyes were blue.

“BamBam, get out of the building.” She kept her voice light and didn’t look away.

“I’m not going to just-”

“BamBam,” she repeated, “get out of the building.”

He didn’t argue that time. She knew he hadn’t left either, but she heard him move towards the door. She just hoped it was enough.

“Why do you trust him more than me?” Jackson’s voice asked. “Come on, I’m your best friend.”

“No; Jackson’s my best friend.” She stashed her phone back in her pocket, preparing herself. “You’re just some blue eyed dickhole.”

“They’re just contacts!”

She had to chuckle, even though she was 100% terrified. “Checkmate, fucker. Jackson oppa hates contacts. He’s scared of them getting stuck behind his eye.”

His face darkened and he rushed forward, but she was already running. She didn’t bother with vocal instructions and grabbed BamBam’s arm, pulling him along behind her. They didn’t stop running until they were through the fence, and then they just stopped there, catching their breath. Sanha slumped against the fence. BamBam just dropped.

“How’d you know?” BamBam asked after awhile.

“How’d I know what?”

“Any of it.” He rolled onto his back. “That Jackson was possessed, and that I wasn’t.”

“Easy.” She smiled. “Your eyes were blue earlier, like, aggressively blue. And then his eyes were blue in the entryway.”

“You based all of that on eyes?” He squinted at her. “You couldn’t have known what color my eyes were supposed to be.”

“Well the eyes worked for Jackson oppa. And they were only what sealed it for me with you. I had some other bits.” She bounced a little on the chain link fence, letting it rock her a little. “Like how bodies are functionally invincible when they’re not controlled by their matching spirit. A five on one fistfight shouldn’t end in the one winning. I’ll admit,” she added as an afterthought, “I didn’t really think about what it all meant until I saw you in the closet.”

“Thank you again for that.” He bowed his head a little, getting up again.

“Don’t mention it.” She flashed a cheeky peace sign, hoping to get him a little more comfortable. “It’s all in the line of duty.”

He laughed a little as they started walking. “What duty?”

“Nosing into every corner of people’s lives. That’s what my mom likes to say, anyway. My business is everyone else’s business.”

“You should print that on a business card and start a private eye service.”

Her eyes lit up. “That doesn’t sound half bad.”

He grinned at the expression of childlike glee on her face. The conversation fell away for a few steps, but it picked back up as Sanha pushed the door to her own dorm building open. “How are we going to break it to everyone else?”

“I’ll make a power point and wake everyone up in the dead of night to show them.” She rubbed her hands together. “It’s brilliant! The neighbors will hate me, the use of modern technology will confuse most of the kids, and the other two will probably actually kill me. There’s no way the plan can go wrong.”

“I thought you said two of them would kill you.”

“At this point I’m not sure I’m entirely opposed. I’m living on borrowed time~!” she sang, taking long, fluid, waltzing steps down the hall. He shook his head at her antics and trailed along behind.

Luckily for them, the kids crashed in Sanha’s dorm were out for the count. She didn’t have to explain that second. Her phone read 3:42 am, and it had been a week which had been more than eventful.

“Go ahead and crash in the room down the hall and to the right, second door,” she directed him. “Just don’t go rooting around in the stuff, okay?”

“We still don’t know what we’re doing about this,” he whispered back, indicating himself.

“i’ll deal with it when I’m lucid.” She fought back a monster yawn as she spoke. “I haven’t slept in almost 24 hours and I’ve got to figure out how to exorcise my best friend by midnight today. I’ll burn that bridge when I get to it, okay?” She wasn’t sure when she’d slipped into English, but either way the malapropism sounded better in her native tongue.

“I thought it was ‘cross that bridge’.” He frowned in confusion, also speaking English.

“There’s a whole grammar thing involved that I’ll tell you about in a couple of hours if you still want to know.”

“I’ll hold you to that.”

“Don’t worry, I love talking people’s ears off with fun tidbits. Now go to bed.”

“Sure thing mom.”

~~~~~~~

Being a lying piece of trash, Sanha didn’t actually get to sleep for another hour as she searched up how to properly exorcise a person. After coming up with thing, she’d accidentally fallen asleep out of frustration. Needless to say, she was a bit disgruntled when she woke up with her face buried in the arm of the couch.

“Took you long enough,” Jaebum teased when he saw her sit up.

“You sleep like a rock, noona.” Youngjae took his chance and ran away with it.

“Yeah well you try researching for hours.” She covered her mouth as she yawned, setting her laptop to the side before it slid off the couch. She was honestly surprised it hadn’t yet. “And then doing some work in the field too.”

“That sounds dangerous,” Mark noted. The boys were all sat on the floor in a circle around the couch. She wasn’t sure when that had happened, but it didn’t matter.

“Danger is my middle name,” she mumbled in English, moving into the kitchen space to grab a breakfast bar and check the time. She calculated she’d slept for a measly 4 hours. That was more than enough to get her through the day.

Probably.

“We just went antiques shopping.” Yugyeom jumped in. “It wasn’t dangerous.”

She bobbed her head around, singing “field trip” under her breath as she grabbed her breakfast bar.

“What time did you get back?” Jaebum asked.

Yugyeom shrugged. “Around one, I think?”

“Sanha, what did you do?”

She turned around to find Jaebum staring at her. “What d’you mean what did I do?”

“Jackson told me you only get dancey when you didn’t get sleep. What time did you get to bed?”

She shrugged. “Four or five.”

All the sane individuals in the room erupted. She made vigorous shushing noises at them. “Shut the hell up, you’ll wake the kid!”

“We’re all awake.” Jinyoung glanced around the circle.

“Oh yeah.” She hummed, closing the cabinet door. “I may have gone on a bit of a field trip and picked up a straggler.”

“She gets dramatic when she’s tired,” Youngjae stage whispered to the group. She made a face at him and took her spot on the couch again.

“I got back from antiques shopping with Yugyeom and realized that it was dumb to go in guns blazing again.” She figured it would be better to get her motivation out of the way first. “Because five on one somehow wasn’t enough, and I doubt seven on one would be enough either. We needed a new plan, and my best idea was stealth.”

“You went back on your own?!”

“I know, it was dumb, but it wasn’t the worst thing ever.”

Jaebum slapped his forehead. “This is the exact opposite thing Jackson would have wanted!”

“As it turns out, Jackson oppa makes up 90% of my impulse control.” She ignored his mutter of ‘that’s terrifying’ in favor of finishing her story. “And anyway, some good came out of it. I got some info.”

“Info like what?” Jinyoung asked.

More awake, she got down to business, opening the wrapper on her breakfast bar. “We can’t beat this guy by kicking the crap out of him. It won’t work. We have to get him out of the body.”

“Sanha, we’re missing pieces.” Jaebum’s words were muffled by the hands he had still had on his face, but she recognized his meaning.

“Oh shit, right, sorry.” Sometimes she got so caught up in the investigation she’d forget that the people she was working with didn’t have all the bits. “So as it turns out, we’re not up against a demon, it’s actually a spirit. See, it wasn’t actually BamBam in control; that’s why we couldn’t hurt him.” She explained how she’d gotten to the conclusion again and was relieved when nobody questioned her on it.

“So now we have to get the spirit out of BamBam when we get Jackson?” Yugyeom sounded more excited than all of them at the news.

“Actually, no. That there’s a bit of a story, but I actually got BamBam last night. ‘s wild how that works.” She watched as the kid’s face lit up. Ah. Her half baked hypothesis was correct. BamBam was the kid’s best friend. “Let the poor kid sleep though, he’s had a rough night.”

“Is the spirit in Jackson, then?” Mark asked.

“Good guess. Yeah, that’s what we’re working with right now. It’s going to be a little more difficult to get him back than I thought.”

“You already did research, didn’t you?” Youngjae knew her well enough to know that much.

“You bet. Exorcisms are out.” She picked up her notepad and took a bite out of her breakfast bar (finally). She covered her mouth with one had as she kept talking. “They’re just for demons; it’s all about Christ and God and the Lord’s prayer and shit. That’s not going to work for us.” She paused. “As a side note, don’t look up exorcisms at four in the morning. Spooky shit, that.”

“So are we just researching how to get spirits out of bodies now?” Mark’s fingers danced around, slightly anxiously.

“Yeah. There’s got to be a way to do it, since this dickbag managed to do it to you three. We just need to find it.”

“Language,” Jinyoung mumbled.

“Sorry.”

[kaorei-endgame]

Game of the Year 2017 #2: Divinity Original Sin 2

The first Original Sin had one of those video game “issues” that’s only really an issue if you let it be. About six hours in, you’d figured out there were about a thousand ways to crowd controlling your enemies: stuns, knockdowns, charms, fears. With the availability, and reliability, of these attacks, battles often broke down to your mages/archers CCing everything on the battlefield while your warrior dismantled them one by one. This felt exceptionally mean--sadism in video game form--and somewhat abusive of the game mechanics, but combat was so often weighed so directly against you that “cheating” by charming half an enemy squad and letting them rough each other up, or depleting half a gigantic orc boss’s health before combat even starts by teleporting a poison barrel directly onto his face, was really more about evening the odds. Original Sin is one of those games, like Final Fantasy Tactics, maybe, where there’s a billion ways to break it. Unlike Final Fantasy Tactics, you don’t feel bad about it because, from behind a still-growing pile of saves and reloads, you know the game is happy to return your cheesy, scummy tactics in kind.

This is a co-op RPG I’ve been playing with Graz for 120+ hours, according to steam, and we still haven’t finished. It is, among Dark Souls, and Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes (Fast Karate GOTY, 2015), and Resident Evil 5, one of the best co-op experiences of my life.

You can play a skeleton, who has to walk around in disguise to stop everyone from murdering them, and has no need for lock picks because they can simply use, and I quote, their “bony fingers.” The elves are not only cannibals, but they’re cannibals that absorb the memories of their meals, which is sometimes used to learn new skills and sometimes used to solve murder mysteries. Maybe forty hours into the game, I realized this “being forced to experience a living creature’s final moments every time you eat meat” was probably created as an explanation of generic fantasy elves’ earth-mother veganism.

Near the beginning of the game a black cat starts following you around. If you have the Pet Pal talent you can talk to him and he just seems like... drunk? He doesn’t really have anything to say, but he doesn’t go away. If you walk through poison he’ll follow you and get poisoned too and he only has like 50 health so you’re always frantically trying to heal him because the friendly cat who does nothing except meow at me can never die. If you keep him alive throughout the whole opening zone, which also involves keeping him away from fires and superstitious guards who will shoot him on sight, his head clears and he joins your party as a summon.

Also the whole time he’s following you around, there’s this dog who won’t talk to you since he hates cats. But the cat follows you in real time, so if you go to a distant part of the zone and then teleport back to the central hub, the cat is briefly separated from you while it paths around the map to your location, and you can get the dog’s quest to find his missing girlfriend.

There is borderline erotica at one point where, if it’s not explicitly described, the game at least puts the mind worm of “lizard man cunnilingus” in your head. And like... well...............

Also there’s another dog later who’s like an evil pet of an eviler grave robber and he refers to himself as Artax: Death Incarnate or something and after you kill him you can use your recently acquired Spirit Vision power to talk to/throw shade at his ghost, being like “...death incarnate, eh...? :) :) :) :) :)” But it’s kind of wasted because even as a ghost (dog (way of the samurai)) he still thinks he’s pretty hot shit.

There are premade characters who have different dialogue tags, most of which seem to amount to jack shit, like almost any RPG with dialogue trees, but the one I picked, Lohse, is some sort of psychic medium who spirits would just hang out in, which was fun until a really bad demon got into her. Sometimes the really bad demon makes her do things that are completely out of her control, like try to murder an elf who’s trying to help you exorcise him, and isn’t it your favorite thing when games present you with a bunch of false dialogue options?

You start Divinity 2 a political prisoner. Unlike Skyrim, where you’re bound for the chopping block and then five minutes later someone’s telling you you’re a god, Divinity sits you on its prison island for something to the tune of 30 hours (then it tells you, more or less, that you’re a god). Because you have a collar on that restricts your scary magic powers, your overconfident jailers basically let you have the run of the place. You are hemmed in just enough to feel your yoke, and much of the early doings is learning where you may and may not go, and which places, just outside of your captor’s line of sight, are okay to seek out dirty business (i.e.: steal a few valuable paintings from). 

So you poke at all the nooks and crannies of this just-right sized zone, retrieving gloves of teleportation from the stomachs of hungry lizards, helping that dog find his girlfriend, and making painstaking progress on your escape. This is a tight, interesting area, far better than any of those in the first Original Sin, where there’s not even all that much combat. You bum around with a bunch of prisoners, some of whom certain party members have vendettas against/want to murder, but most of whom are like... chill old ladies that sell you water spells and will give you a free scroll if you give them a shoulder to cry on. Eventually, you kill the mob boss (but don’t let me see you laying a finger on Butter). If you’re a really good person, you kill all the magisters--who are basically the cops of the magic world--on the way out the door.

Boy oh boy, the jump in writing/world texture/everything from the last game. The move from “aggressively generic fairy tale stuff” to “moderately generic CRPG world” doesn’t put the writing in Witcher territory or nothing, but it’s much easier to appreciate the quirks of the setting, which holds strange sidequests where you help a bunch of thousand-year-old wizards who have been cursed to for all eternity to be both 1) pigs 2) pigs who are on fire, when you aren’t dealing voice acting that seems to be literally on purpose trying to kill you.

I’m of two minds about the changes to combat. Now characters have magical/physical “armor” that acts as a Halo-style rechargeable shield, protecting character’s vitality and also making them immune to status effects. Since most enemies have as much armor as they do health, that means they’re half dead by the time they’re vulnerable to being sleeped/charmed/whatever, and so crowd control has substantially depleted in value. Which mutes some of the “controlled chaos” feel of the first game--kind of a let down--but does tacitly nudge you into trying out the rest of the game’s broad spreadsheet of abilities, such as a teleport jump for fighters that sprays fire all over the landing zone, or a summoner’s ability to conjure an Inner Demon which both terrifies her opponents AND punches enemies that come into melee range with gigantic purple mind fists (essentially, we have been given Star Platinums of our very own).

And the uncontrolled chaos, where you laugh at the idiot NPC wasting its turn casting Rain until the next NPC sprays the area with lightning bolts and stuns half your crew, where you forget that the whole room is one big oil surface before you do your flaming teleport jump and now everyone in the room is on fire, or a giant Dune worm erupts out of the ground right in the middle of your boss fight and your enemies start attacking it instead and you’re like “.....so are we friends now?” and it’s like haha, nope, they still fuckin’ hate your guts and this battle just got even stupider and twice as long, so I hope you brought healing potions.

If anything, these changes have the unique effect of making me seriously consider playing this 100+ hour monster game that requires 100% of your attention and thought processes at all time (okay so sometimes I checked in on Fire Emblem on my phone during Graz’s turns, but that’s a given) sometime before the next decade. I suspect higher difficulties return a lot of weight to crowd control abilities.

Even though I know Baldur’s Gate has co-op, I didn’t think they could make a game like this. A gigantic, fully featured co-op CRPG where the other player doesn’t have to tolerate being a henchman at best. Where you can both run around talking to whomever you want and progressing quests however you feel like, and then come back together twenty minutes later to compare notes. Where you spend 3+ hours over two days on a single battle, reviewing plays and planning out turns like a pair of football coaches, micro-managing which of you is going to “waste” their turns conscientiously teleporting a friendly, but foolhardy, NPC out of harm’s way (or turning him into a chicken) so he’ll stop trying to impale himself on the NECRO-TENTACLE FIRE that you discovered, in this very battle, spurts out of every oily blob from the void beyond space after their death. And what’s that, four turns in the fire blobs start spawning?

Moreover, though every part of Divinity seems stupid, ramshackle, and tied together with twine, it’s often one step ahead of you. Regular attacks are governed only by cooldowns, but the most powerful spells are restricted by an MP-stand-in called “source” (still, charmingly, pronounced close enough to “sauce”). A difficult resource to replenish, we rarely used source abilities early in the game. But a couple hours after it came to a head, and I started saying “you know, I’m getting a little sick of teleporting back to the giant Source juice box in the hidden basement of this lady’s house every time I want to use Black Shroud,” and was decrying how if they replenished your Source after every fight, making it a per-battle resource, the game would be much more interesting they... give you an ability that functionally does that, and combat becomes much more interesting, on the exact right timeline for me to understand what I’ve gained with this power, having been frustrated for so long by its absence.

I gave up on trying to describe this game concisely. I’m not sure there’s a way to do so, when its whole ethos is jury-rigging systems onto systems and throwing weird events at you constantly and the whole thing chugs along like it was meant to be--damn, it never even crashed until I tried to install a mod. At the strange intersection between narrative and mechanics this game presents, if you think about it, you can almost always do it. You can skip an entire hedge maze by teleporting through its portcullises. If it’d take too long to loot a chest in plain sight of its owner, you can use your Polymorph abilities to turn invisible, pick it up, and send it to the inventory of your lockpicker, waiting outside. You can go upstairs at a bordello. When you wake up, predictably, you’re naked and being robbed. Only, oops, the robbers didn’t reckon your friends would have a magical teleportation pyramid locked onto your signal. 

In the same town, this maid crying about losing her owner’s purse robs you, and if you’re sympathetic about it and give her a hug when she asks, she picks your pocket, and the only way you’d know about it is if you check your gold total after the conversation because, let’s be real, she was acting super sketch. I mean damn, the game somehow makes scrolls, the categorical worst item class in all western RPGs, worthwhile. Who wants a one-use item when you can just learn the spell forever? Until the first time you come to truly understand that a short 3-turn cooldown in “Divinity Time” could be the better part of an hour, and therefore a hundred and twenty seven gold for an Armor of Frost scroll is a small price to pay for peace of mind when The Red Prince needs an extra dose of magical armor like right now. 

And for all the ways you can bring ruin upon your enemies, all the stupid tricks and techniques that really shouldn’t work but somehow always do, the thing that actually breaks the game? The item that made us look at each other and go “we should probably never use this item again if we want to keep having fun.”

Green Tea.

Conservatively, 200+ hours of my life has gone to these games, and when this one is over, I’ll still feel like it wasn’t enough.