#(which is good because their wrap-up was absolutely the weakest of the bunch)

[psqqa]

truly ted lasso gave us the best gift a show could ever give a fandom: complete lack of confirmation or denial either way

[amazildoessomethingstupid]

Chapter 82: Local Area (The Stacy Chapter)

If you were to tell me years ago that one of the best chapters in BCB would be a fucking commissioned Mike X Stacy chapter, I would’ve said “Man! How bad must the new chapters be for THAT to be the best?” haha and you’d laugh and say, “yes…”

BUT! There’s a good reason why this is a standout chapter even among some of the best of BCB, because it highlights a key thing this series of chapters does that sets it apart from the rest: it expands upon the existing characters we’ve already been introduced to, and fleshes them out.  Not by giving them some deeper character, or dark backstory, but rather by giving them a small new wrinkle for us to sink our teeth into that builds upon the pre-existing notions we’ve had.  And this chapter with Stacy is a perfect example of that idea put to practice, as it’s all centered around Mike and Stacy forced to spend a day together to study.  Which, yes. It’s a bare-bones excuse to have these two together, but credit to Taeshi even though it could’ve easily been phoned in and boring, it actually plays with the characters well and does everything it can to explore these two’s dynamic.

Including having a cute nod to one of the most early chapters and jokes in BCB by poking at the mass of love notes Mike got back in Volume 1! It’s great!

Although, I will say for the longest time I thought that was Amaya, but oh Volume 1 style.  I love you~

But seriously, the chapter really does make you care for Stacy, despite her being one of the weakest characters who’s been bummin’ around since the middle school days. Getting to see her outside of her pairing with Katie THE weakest character still bumming around since the middle school days; allows us to see the character in a different light, thus allowing her to be presented through a more favorable lens and find out things about her that we otherwise would never have known like the fact that…

SHE’S A NERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRD! Hahaha I love that bit.

But this is the exact thing I was talking about when I described adding a new wrinkle to a character to help flesh them out.  For a character like Stacy who up to this point has been nothing but a one-note background character used as a strawman example of the “mean popular girls” stereotype, giving her a guilty pleasure like playing video games is a GODSEND! It brings new context to a character that most everyone wrote off as one-note and never gave a second-glance at, and makes her more tangentially involved in the story by also having this be a connection she shares with other characters like Susan, Amaya and Abbey in a way that doesn’t feel too forced. Seriously, I can not praise this chapter enough.  It is the gold standard for what a “pointless” chapter can do, and what Taeshi can accomplish in not only crafting a great purely comedic chapter that is ACTUALLY funny, and delivers laughs to the most jaded hearts…

But also, it showcases Taeshi’s ability to expand and develop characters into being likable, enjoyable, and relatable characters in a natural and grounded way.  Without compromising the one-note basis of the character they were, and just tossing it aside like it never happened.

And this is a crucial element to the Paulo show, because Pop Quiz hotshot… There’s someone I’m forgetting isn’t there?  There’s a certain character I neglected to gush over last chapter wasn’t there? Oh I was so wrapped up with all the stuff that happened and that amazing scene in Take Heart, I forgot to talk about the Golden Girl! Well, it was a pretty busy chapter and I did not want to do my girl dirty by having my praises shuffled in among a bunch of other awesome moments.  Not when there is a chapter right here that has her biggest scene and shows exactly what makes her… The best dog in show.  The greatest girl.  My hero. My absolute favorite character in this godforsaken comic… Rachel.

[wellthebardsdead]

Tortilla trend as my fave Overwatch ships let’s go!

Symmetra & Ashe

Zero interest in participating all together. Ashe doesn’t want her makeup ruined and Satya thinks the idea of being slapped in general even with a tortilla is unpleasant. Neither want to clean up the mess afterwards.

Mei & Zarya

Zarya just play taps mei with the tortilla while giggling the whole time. Both spit out the water and break down into a proper giggle fit.

Genji & Zenyatta

They’d get as far as Genji explaining the premise of the trend and zenyatta would go into comfort mode concerned as to why his boyfriend would wish to be slapped not understanding it’s a game and won’t hurt. Zenyatta would definitely turn the tortillas into genjis dinner for the next few nights.

Genji & Angela

Genji would be giggling non stop gently tapping angela with the tortilla trying to make her laugh. Angela would severely underestimate her own strength and slap Genji into the windows startup sound. Apology Kisses and healthy salad wraps would follow.

Genji & Cole

Yes Genji has a bunch because I ship him with supportive people okay! He deserves it!

Zero hesitation. Knowing genjis reflexes Cole would be quick off the draw to strike first. Genji wouldn’t even get a chance to finish putting the water in his mouth before getting smacked with a limp flatbread and be left reeling trying to figure out what just happened and why so quickly. Cole would 100% spray out his water in a giggle fit and pepper Genji with kisses as an apology for startling him. Coles famous burritos would definitely be the following meal.

Hanzo & Cole

Hanzo definitely underestimated how ready Cole might be and would slap hard and without hesitation sending the cowboy spinning. Cole would rebound fast though and slap him back mid twirl before taking him to the ground with him. Floor kisses and giggles would absolutely follow! Cole would definitely make soft tacos with them.

Hanzo & Doomfist

Absolutely not happening. Of the two of them Hanzo would probably be the one to suggest it but fearing even the slightest chance of hurting his boyfriend akande would decline… the two have instead found fun in hiding the tortillas in random places around base.

Hanzo & Reinhardt

Reinhardt would without question be the one to suggest it wanting nothing more than to make Hanzo laugh. Hanzo would sheepishly give the weakest slap he could not wanting to even think about hurting his boyfriend to which Reinhardt would laugh and rear back like he’s going in for the kill only to instead drop the tortilla and scoop Hanzo up peppering him with kisses until the archer spits out the water in a giggle fit. Reinhardt would probably use the tortillas to make an apple and bread slice like apple Brown Betty or pocket ‘apple pies’.

Hanzo & 76

Yes he gets a bunch too the shimada brothers deserve it!!

The two are pretty aware of what the other can take and most likely wouldn’t hold back each giving one another a good slap followed by a moment of silence before both spraying out the water and laughing. 76 would most likely make the remaining tortillas into chicken and salad wraps.

Hanzo & Baptiste

Both would rather just eat the tortillas and watch a movie with some drinks. Jean loves combining Mexican and Caribbean cuisine though it often ends up a little too spicy even for Hanzos tastes. Fruity cocktails are the solution!

Hanzo & Junkrat

Junkrat would be too excited. Hanzo wouldn’t even get to sip his water before being tortillad. Definitely left the shimada reeling in stunned silence for awhile after. Nothing ratty kisses can’t fix.

Baptiste and Cole

Coles already slugged Jean once mistaking him for a talon agent when they first met, even if he thinks it’s fun he can’t bring himself to play slap his partner, it makes him remember how bad he felt after giving him such a nasty hit. Both would rather enjoy the tortillas as food instead.

Jack & Gabe

Absolutely zero hesitation. Both go in for the kill and go hard only to end up spraying each other with water and snorting with laughter. Neither feel like cooking so they probably used expired ones from the cafeteria and decided to have some fun before throwing them.

[rpg-elf-girl]

Shadows House

I have a lot of thoughts surrounding this particular show, both good & bad.

Allow me to give a quick summary for anyone who hasn't seen/read it!

Shadows House is about 'a faceless family of nobles who all live within this giant manor, the Shadows House.

When a Shadow comes of age they receive a 'Living Doll' to both serve as their face and to clean the soot they emit from their bodies.

The most important rule of the living dolls is "don't fret over trivial matters"

A task which is difficult for the ever curious doll Emiliko.

Watch this tale unfold as Emiliko & her mistress Kate navigate this ever mysterious Manor together.'

For a fan of slow burn thrillers, horror, slice of life, supernatural & mystery series' this has been an absolute blast!

It's not quite the combination of genres you'd expect from a show, but it works really well here!

In fact I was so into the anime that this is actually the first show where I broke down and read the manga!

Unfortunately there's no official English release, but at least there are some people translating the series!

As much as I'd like to go on about the manga, this post is meant to be more so about the anime so I'll (try to) leave it at that.

Though i feel obligated to warn anime onlys I'll likely refer the manga a lot in a spoiler section latter in this post I'll try to be vague but I can't guarantee anything. For anyone worried about that I'll lable it do you can read on until then.

Everything from the animation to the music was amazing & completely fit the mood of the story! I remember a couple scenes where I actually teared up because of this!

The Ending theme is an absolute banger! I've listened to that on repeat ever since I first heard it! And the Opening is also great! It's cool for it to be an instrumental, stuff like that is pretty rare! I also heard the song in the op as a motif in the music throughout the show! It really sets the right mood in each scene it's in! It's amazing for getting into each episode!

In terms of adaptation almost everything from the beginning to the end of the Debut arc was done amazingly well!

Even with the stuff they cut it still holds true to the spirit of its source.

The main important part that was cut is something that could easily be introduced latter if they decide to go for a second season, so I'm not too mad about that.

However! Everything after the debut is a bit of a different story.

There was a lot I liked about the last couple episodes but there were some parts that were immersion breaking for me.

I've been being vague up until this point l, but I'm planning on going into spoiler territory for both the anime and manga after this. So I'll make a quick spoiler free summary of my thoughts before moving onto that.

I really really loved this show but in my opinion the last 3 episodes were the weakest of them all. They went anime only for the ending. I don't mind that on it's own, but it was rushed and the writing was sloppy at times.

Now I'm not telling you to not watch the show! Most of It's really really good, and I can still see people enjoying the parts I'm talking about if they want to give the anime a try. Overall I've fallen in love with this series and I could never recommend it enough.

If what I'm saying is giving you bad vibes the manga is available and doesn't have the issues I've mentioned. You can look for a translation online, it didn't take me long to find one so don't worry too much about that.

Also! if you're an anime only who's finished the series and want to know where to pick up the Manga I'd recommend at least skiming through the beginning. I know it might not be what you're looking for but there were a bunch of small scenes that either got cut or were merged for adaptation purposes that I think are super cute & give more context to different aspects of the setting. However! Pay close attention during the "night watchers part" something important got cut .

~~~Now for spoilers!!!!~~~

I don't want to make it sound like I'm some manga purist who hates the very thought of the slightest change from the source. I'm anime only for a lot of different shows and I've always despised it when that type of manga reader reared it's ugly head.

While I'll admit some changes did bother me I won't make a fuss about the smaller stuff.

With that said!

I hinted earlier in this post that I didn't have a big problem with Robe-same being cut. That was because without them there it does make for a more complete story if they only get one season to work with.

If there is another season they can easily be introduced latter on. Like maybe Emiliko & Shaun can meet them when the Debutant class reunion is going on before they talk on the roof (or right after that) I actually think that would be the perfect time to introduce them (other than the time they were supposed to appear, but I digress)

Louise teaming up & being friendly with Kate can be explained with some dialogue changes at the first Debutant Class Reunion. Louise can say she was just trying to show off or that she just wanted to get back at Edward and that she isn't interested in helping Kate with her problems. Things can then go on as they did in the manga.

Kates being reckless & telling everything to John can be explained by her being extremely panicked when Emiliko went missing, as long as there are some lines of dialogue adressing this it's fine. Though I do wish she tried to keep some stuff a secret but couldn't because Shaun tries to interfer because he's still brainwashed, or something along those lines. It felt a bit weird after she just told Emiliko to keep that stuff between them. Still that could be explained by how panicked she was.

There are other things, but I don't want to drag the post on too long. Most of the issues can be fixed with little changes here & there.

I never had a problem with the idea of them going in an anime only direction. I just want to have a good time with the show.

Unfortunately I can't 100% vouche for the direction the show went in. There were elements that I can't excuse, even viewing it as it's own entity instead of an adaptation.

My main complaint with it is how they handled the brainwashing of Ricky & Lou. They didn't say a word when the Debutants were talking badly about Edward & even went along with a plan to go against him. It makes absolutely no sense!

Shaun freaked out when John only suggested that he didn't have to be loyal to the house. These guys were flat out rebelling against an adult! It felt like Ricky & Lou didn't have a purpose & were just there to be there.

The whole point of the coffee is to influence shadows against doing stuff like this. It makes the coffee seem pointless and the adults seem dumb for relying on it to control the kids.

I haven't even brought up the fact that both of their brainwashings were broken by something as simple as a few kind words. It straight up contradicts the rules established by both the Anime and Manga.

This becomes very apparent when you consider all the trouble John & Kate went through to free Shaun & Emiliko.

This was my biggest complaint, but I have some other issues as well.

The next big one is how they handled Edward.

1. Why on earth would he even consider kidnapping Emiliko when he had complete control of the childrens wing? Before this point he was depicted as being a lot more crafty than this. He could easily have Kate monitored or something.

2. Why didn't he use his powers to stop them like what he did to Maryrose & Rosemary when they fought back being taken to the adults wing? He's already shown off his power at this point, why not?

3. Why did he reveal his soot powers at all!? Especially while using his face in front of the kids! The whole unification thing is one of the biggest secrets of the house for good reason! There's no way he wouldn't get in huge trouble for exposing it to children!

Here are some other related questions.

Why didn't Kate, Emiliko, & John react to Edward using soot powers? They shouldn't know about unification yet so why didn't they act shocked, or say anything about it?

Is Edward being banished even an option in the Shadows House? Wouldn't the third floor lords just dispose of him rather than risk letting him leave?

How did John even get a veiled dolls outfit? Louise had to use her powers to get Kate one & she left a long time ago.

I can't think of much else at the moment, but I think you get my point.

Please don't take this as me saying that I hate the show because of these episodes. Even if I consider them the weakest of the series I still found a lot of parts to be very enjoyable!

Like I thought it was adorable When Edward was attempting to interrogate Emiliko & she kept being her sunshine self pretending to eat & falling asleep.

Barbara getting to tell off Edward for breaking the rules was great!

I loved seeing Shaun hatch the plan to get Kate into the adults wing to save Emiliko.

Seeing John (attempt to) sneak around the adults wing had me rolling!

The ending scene of Shaun, Ricky, & Lou singing gave me the chills.

(Though I wonder how they'd handle Shaun & Emiliko being brainwashed again since they already used the scenes where they're freed)

Kate & Emilico being propelled by John back to the children's wing was absolutely amazing! I found Shaun & Ricky running over to catch them to be super sweet! (Not to mention the way that scene was animated was absolutely gorgeous!)

Getting hints to what was supposed to come after the debut was nice, at least the groundwork is there in case this gets a season 2!

To (try to) wrap this all up while there were a lot of things I loved and disliked about this show I still had a really fun time watching it!

I kinda hope there's a season two just to see if they can tidy up the mess that the last few episodes created.

Regardless of whether that happens or not I came out of this with a series I absolutely adore.

Heck I could make a whole other post about the manga. (Hopefully one that's less ranty)

Anyway! I won't take any more of your time.

I hope you all have a wonderful day/night! And I hope to see you in my next post!

(Sorry if this one was a bit of a mess!)

[bitchfitch]

Warnings: Arlo being Arlo but nothing too specific.

P 1 of 2

Conall fumed on the walk home from the carnival. With his arms crossed tight over his chest as he glared ahead. He had been getting so fighty and snappy over the last few hours. Which was strange to Arlo, when the full moon wasn't influencing him, Conall was nearly impossible to get this sharp of a rise out of.

The dark of a new moon hung heavy from his broad shoulders like a cape, though it caught in the soot black of his hair like fingers. Usually Conall loved new moons, said he felt the most like himself beneath them. With no moon light to tint him with the lingering snarls of the wolf, he said he could think easier, that he felt less like a beast.

Arlo liked him most on the full moon, but again, Conall had not liked that admission.

Though it felt strange to Arlo that Conall would be so sour tonight, even if he was pretty like this. Conall had been the one to ask for them to go to the carnival, new moons were his favorite, and he had been so giddy when Arlo broke the feris wheel just enough to leave them alone at its summit for a few minutes. 

By all accounts it Should have been the perfect night for Conall, even if it was hellishly exhausting for Arlo, but here he was, sulking, and angry, and refusing to even glance at him as they made their way home. 

"What's got you all snared up, pup?" Arlo tried to sound disinterested, even tossing in Conall's least favorite nickname for good measure.

"Nothing you'd understand," Conall snapped in return, speeding up to walk ahead of Arlo as the hill came into sight just beyond the tree line. 

Arlo sighed, and with a wave of his hand he forced the world around them to shift to accommodate his need to pry. The path they were taking would now extend into infinity, the hill would always be in sight and the forest around them would look normal, but the new route could and would loop and coil around itself until Arlo got what he wanted. 

"Rude, let's try again," Arlo didn't sneer, Conall had said that the sneering was off putting, but he really wanted to, "What's got you snared up?" 

"Arlo, just Don't, not tonight. I don't feel like having to explain something simple to you right now," he growled out his words despite himself.

"Well too bad," Arlo moved to drift in front of him, not bothering with actual steps anymore now that the world around them was distorted enough to almost feel comfortable, "I didn't feel like going out to be surrounded by a bunch of iron and humans on the night I'd be at my absolute weakest, but I still did it to make you happy. The least you you could do in turn is answer my question," 

"Why aren't we moving? Did you fucking- " Conall shoved past him only to come shoulder to shoulder with him a second later, "Cut it out," he snapped, crowding into Arlo's space as he had to crane his head back to look Arlo in the eye, "I'm not playing this game with you. We're going home, and if it is Really bothering you that much, I'll tell you after I've had time to change," 

Arlo didn't answer imeaditly, he was too distracted by how nice Conall looked with his brow furrowed and rage burning in his soft brown eyes, and how the anger made such a pretty deep grey flush paint across his round face. He brushed the back of his knuckles along the slight prickle from a days worth of stubble, enjoying the way Conall's eyes scrunched shut as he tried to suppress the shivers that came from Arlo's magic arching from his touch.

"I'll make you a deal," Arlo started, his voice low as he let his hand tangle alongside the night time shadow's in Conall's hair, "Give me a kiss and I'll get you home faster than you could walk there," 

"No tricks," Conall warned, a snarl on his lips as his hands gripped Arlo by the waist and pulled them flush together. Like this Arlo could feel those intoxicating flares of anger all that much more intensely and it was all starting to go to his head.

Arlo hummed and nodded. Realistically, he knew that that wasn't a proper response, that he could squirm out of this deal as soon as he had his kiss because he never fully confirmed that there would be no tricks. There was a lingering part of that older and much crueler version of him that wanted to see how far he could push Conall in this moment. How many tricks could he pull with their barely made deal?  How far could he push his kind and normally gentle housemate before Conall lost the battle with his wolf? 

Conall was always at his prettiest when he was one with his curse, snapping and snarling, rage filled but present enough to focus all that stunning anger in whichever direction he felt like. Arlo adored when that anger turned on him. So very rarely did Conall fight him as fiercely as he did when he was more monster than man. 

He wondered if Conall would be proud of him for suppressing that part of himself as their lips met and Conall's strength, more from years of hard labor than from any curse, held him firm in place. 

Arlo licked across the seam of his lips, hoping to push his luck just a little bit. Conall could call his side of the deal complete at any moment now, and Arlo was intent on not pulling tricks, but he still wanted more than this chaste thing Conall had him trapped in. 

Conall didn't let it go a step further. He pulled away, and pressed another kiss to Arlo's cheek, reminding him that that little peck could have met the terms of their deal. 

"Take me home, Arlo," his tone was firm and forcfull, an unspoken warning lacing with the command. 

That old part of him purred in the back of his head, listening off all the tricks he could pull in a satisfying rumble that sounded all too much like Conall's growls.

Between one blink and the next they were stood in front of Conall's bedroom door. Arlo still jad his hand tangled up in Conall's hair, and Conall's hands were still holding him tight enough to bruise a more blood filled creature, but all that beautiful anger was gone. 

Conall looked him in the eye, his face unreadable in the moment before he pressed it into the crook of Arlo's neck and held him tighter. 

Arlo thought Conall's anger to be the highest form of art, but this weary hurt that seeped from him and tangled below Arlo's skin now that all of that anger had burned out was something poisonous. It had to be. Poison was the only reason Arlo's heart would hurt like this. 

Still, he wrapped his arm's around Conall's shoulders and rested his chin on top of his head. Arlo couldn't tell if that made the hurt better or worse. 

"What's got you all snared up?" Arlo repeated himself one last time. Conall had a bad habit of not telling him when something was wrong, something about being worried that Arlo would destroy the problem instead of solving it, but that habit could not stand a moment longer if it meant he was hurting this severely. 

"I... I'll tell you in a minute." 

[margridarnauds]

Scattered Thoughts on Treason: The Musical

[warning for some critical discussion]

The Cold Hard Ground: 

First song I listened to. 

God, we’re getting DARK. This is seriously a mix between a villain song and a hero song, and I’m HERE for it. 

This is the one I’m possibly most interested in, because it’s really making me wonder how they’re going to portray the plotters: Are we going to be seeing them as fanatics, or as heroes, or somewhere in-between? In this song, it looks like Catesby is a man broken by grief who turned to fanatical religion as a way of coping with his own suicidal tendencies. 

“So TAKEEEEE MEEEEEEEEEEE. You won’t BREEEEEAAAAAK meeee, it’s too late to SAAAAAAAAVVVVEEEE MEEEEEE.” 

GOD those final notes are going HARD. 

At first, I thought that it was rather scattered, musically wise, but the more I listen to it, the more I think it’s brilliant because the music comes together by the end, as Catesby seems to calcify in his convictions. 

I’ll be really curious to see how anyone but Hadley serves this, but a solid 80% of this song, at the moment, is built on his impressive performance. I’ll be really curious in knowing how the livestreams went. 

Take Things To Our Own Hands: 

Honestly, my favorite song on the album, probably one of them that I can best visualize on stage. 

WE NEED TO THINK OF A WAAAAAY TO BRING THE WHOLE SHIP DOWN.

Favorite vocal moment: When all the conspirators’ voices join one another, and then the moment at the end where it sounds almost like a church’s choir. 

I absolutely LOVE the slick folkish feel to this, paired with the driven pace, it’s like if “The Story Told” from Monte Cristo decided to go folk, I love it. It really has a feel that I don’t see many musicals going for (Hadestown being the closest, though it goes in a jazzier style than this) , and that’s something really in its favor. If the rest of the songs follow this level of quality and tone, this musical is going to be a really, really fun ride.  

Also, it’s very interesting in terms of how, even though this is the conspirators’ “Pump Me Up” song, there’s this very DARK overtone to it, which makes sense given what they’re proposing. Their voices go increasingly hard, almost into a staccato, and I wonder how much of that is diction VS them showing how hardened and increasingly radicalized the conspirators are becoming. 

That being said: “I once had influenza but now that’s all gone when things turned sour”?????????????????? I’m trying desperately to wrap my head around this lyric, it sticks out like a sore thumb.

The lyrics in this particular song are, admittedly, its weakest point: They tend to be very, very repetitive, but, in all honesty, it doesn’t really bother me - It works with that mood of the conspirators becoming radicalized. 

I know that Hadley tends to get most of the kudos for this song, but the other conspirators (Waylon Jacobs, Oliver Savile and Emmanuel Kojo) deserve MASSIVE kudos for their performances, I’m seriously going to be looking into all of them after this. 

The Day Elizabeth Died 

I started off not really caring for this song, but I’ve really warmed to it. 

I’m really curious about who the main singer in this song is supposed to be, because I feel like that will really change how I feel about the lyrics specifying that she had “An inch of makeup on her face”. If we’re supposed to view this from the perspective of a devoutly religious 17th century Catholic woman, I can understand it more than a Protestant woman, given that it really, really works with some misogynistic stereotypes about Elizabeth. 

So, the singer’s apparently Anne Vaux, which makes sense. Okay, I’ll give them this one. A little period-accurate internalized misogyny can be good for the soul. 

I LOVE Rebecca La Chance’s voice. It’s so wonderfully clear and strong, delicate, but with steel beneath it. 

There’s something almost....wistful, melancholy, and isolated about this song? It strikes a very odd balance between being sympathetic to Elizabeth (some say she died of a broken heart) while condemning her reign. 

ALSO. BEST VOCAL MOMENT ON THE ENTIRE ALBUM. “We mourned for her, she was our queen, and for 45 years, she had reigned supreme.” And then the conspirators coming on with “WE DID NOT MOOOOOURRRRN FOR HER. SHEWASOURCAPTOR.” I could, legitimately, listen to that bit alone on repeat, I’m actually obsessed with it. That odd, conflicted feeling between Elizabeth having been Queen for longer than most of England had been alive, providing a sense of stability, while also the very real persecution that English Catholics were under. This is the kind of nuance I really want to see the musical carry forward. 

Blind Faith

I don’t really know what to say except that Martha Percy’s love for Thomas Percy is juxtaposed with Thomas Percy’s feelings for Catesby. 

Literally. 

That’s the song. 

If this musical ever develops a fandom, there are going to be a hundred Catesby/Thomas fics, with James/Thomas being the darkhorse fic. 

It’s hard to judge this one, simply because it’s much more conventional love song - It sounds similar to, for example, “That Would Be Enough”, if Alexander Hamiltpn decided to blow up George III instead of join the American Revolution. It’s a TWIST on the conventional love song, but it still follows similar beats. 

But I DO love how their voices go together, the song really starts to shine when that happens. 

That last “This path was MINE to choose, he has nothing to prove”, probably is the best vocal moment. 

Overall, I don’t have MANY thoughts on this song in comparison to the others, but I can also see myself warming up to it over time. 

The Promise

“His face is quite nice” It’s VERY obvious they’re going for a queer comic relief interpretation of James, which I honestly have mixed feelings about given that he is, clearly, going to be the one that our protagonists are trying to get rid of. There’s.....something about that, a bunch of presumably straight protagonists ganging up to kill a stereotypically portrayed gay man. I know that historically, James WAS, but.....I still don’t like how stereotypical they played this one. Someone could point to Herod from JCS but, in all fairness, Herod was written in the 1970s (and, tbh, given that the central relationship in the musical is Jesus and Judas, you could argue that the entire musical is very, very homoerotic, which makes it less glaring.) This is...well, I’ll have to see how the musical deals with it. I’m willing to give it a fair shake, but they might have set themselves up for danger here. 

But Daniel Boys is, admittedly, serving this song on a silver platter. 

Really, really going into the Spoiled Child Route here. 

If it sounds like I’m disappointed with this song compared to the others, it’s because......yeah, I kind of am. Musically, it’s fine and a little catchy, lyrically, it’s fine, but that nuance I’d been seeing in the other songs goes out the window. James isn’t my favorite historical figure of all time (Bro basically set up the English Civil War), but there still HAD to be a better way to do him justice than this. 

It doesn’t hurt that, unlike the other songs, which were demonstrably TREASON, this one is very much.....a JCS/Hamilton rip-off. Like, it’s very, very blatant. 

Love the rising strings when Percy tells him that Elizabeth is dying, that sense of tension - It does remind me a little of something I heard in The Pirate Queen, but you know what? I’ll give it to them. 

Lowkey obsessed with Oliver Saville’s eyebrow raise when he says “You could save England.” 

The problem is that they’re leaning so hard into the comic route that, when James says that he’ll be a fair king, it really, really makes the Catholic nobility sound dumb as Hell to listen to him. Like “Yes, man who routinely, gleefully sings about cutting off people’s heads, I’ll listen to you!” I know they’re desperate but....come on. 

But also. THAT HIGH NOTE. Daniel Boys really put 110% in there. 

Overall, my takeaway is that this musical could either do very, very well or very, very badly, depending on how they play it. It’s hard to judge because the public only has access to 5 tracks (except for the lucky ducks who bought tickets to the stream, where they got access to 10) - It’s hard to judge a musical based off of 5 tracks, and a musical about the Gunpowder Plot with, say, a love song called “Blind Faith” almost sounds like something out of a parody, something destined to be one of those flops that go down in history. BUT, that being said, the musical has some very strong vocal performances and some really good music, when it keeps to its own mood and style instead of trying to go off of what other, more successful musicals have done. There’s some real, real promise in this musical, and I’ll be both anxious and excited to see how it all turns out (and if they ever offer a full purchase for the live recording......I’d honestly probably buy it.) It was a shame I found out about it so late in the game, because I’d have totally bought tickets to the stream if I had known earlier. 

[rocksandrobots]

Of Rocks and Robots Ch. 6 - The Beach

Saturday had come and Varian and the rest of his new friends were all crowded in Wasabi's car. Wasabi had precisely enough room to fit six people, though perhaps a bit uncomfortably. He and Varian rode in the front seat, with Varian carrying Ruddiger in his carrying cage, while Hiro, Gogo, Honey Lemon, and Fred were squished together in the back seat. The robot, Baymax, was folded up inside his battery pack and tucked away in the trunk to make room. 

Apparently today was a holiday and they were all heading to the beach. Well in truth the actual holiday was on Monday, but Americans spent the whole weekend in celebration. Said holiday was Memorial Day and was meant to honor warriors who fell in battle. However, despite this somber origin, most considered the weekend to be the official start of summer and would mark the occasion with picnics, parties, and public swimming. 

For Varian and his friends though, this was the end of spring break. Starting on Tuesday, the university they now all attended would open back up and the summer semester would begin. The thought of which sent Varian's stomach churning with butterflies. He'd never been to school before and didn't know what to expect. He was filled with anxious excitement and to calm his nerves he looked out the car window to admire the scenery.

He'd been in this strange new world for a week now but he'd had little chance to admire it. For the past five days he'd been busy studying for his entrance exams for college. Passing the 'graduation' test in particular was important for gaining admittance into the school and Varian had to do some serious cramming to prepare for it. Squeezing twelve years worth of educational knowledge into his brain in less than a week.  

Fortunately Varian was very good at memorizing facts and all his new friends were on hand to help him. On Monday, Hiro had helped him gather up the study materials he'd needed and told him what to expect. Wasabi gave him practice tests throughout the week and helped him pinpoint the areas he was weakest in. He was pretty good with math and grasped most of the science quickly, with Wasabi being on hand to fill in the gaps, but he needed help in other less familiar subjects. 

Gogo had swung by on Tuesday and spent the whole day giving Varian a crash course in Social Studies, which was a combination of history, geography, and civics. 

Varian took a special interest in America's founding and it's chosen form of government, which was unlike anything he had heard of before. They had no king nor royalty of any kind. In fact the country was founded by people who committed treason and fought a war to overthrow their ruler, and who then put into place a democracy made up of elected representatives instead. It most closely resembled the government of ancient Rome, before Julius Caesar had taken over, but was expanded upon to encompass a vast kingdom, larger than even most empires. 

Varian had already thought San Fansokyo was an impressively large city, but was completely flabbergasted to know that not only was it not the largest city in the country, it wasn't even the biggest within its own providence; and there were fifty of these states that stretched across the continent from coast to coast with similarly massive metropolises in each. 

It was mind boggling and it took him sometime to wrap his brain around the concept. And that was just the tip of the iceberg, he also had to catch up with some four hundred odd years worth of world events on top of that. But Gogo was a patient teacher and she carefully broke down everything into manageable chunks, giving him timelines, charts, and maps for him to refer back to. By the end of the day he had perhaps learned more in those eight hours spent with her than he had in his whole sixteen years. 

On Wednesday, Fred had showed up to help Varian practice for the writing portion of the tests. He would have to complete two essays on any given subject for each of the two exams. Fred himself had actually completed one of the same tests, the S.A.T, just a few months ago and knew what the graders were looking for when it came to such essays. 

Mainly, they just wanted to know if Varian could follow the basic guidelines of writing; paragraphs and sentence structure, grammar, spelling, and his overall ability to form an argument on paper. All things Varian felt pretty comfortable with, but it was nevertheless a good refresher of those basics. Essay writing and thesis statements were apparently expected of any student attending higher education and he would have to write many during the course of his studies. 

Thursday, Honey Lemon stopped by to help Varian with Language Arts. Both tests would cover reading comprehension and even more grammar. Once again Varian was pretty comfortable with those two subjects, especially given the writing practice from the day before, and so they finished pretty quickly. Even with Honey Lemon adding in extra information about various important books and plays that had been written in the past four centuries, just in case any of them made it into the reading part of the exam. Though Shakespeare was still deemed the most influential even in this modern age. A fact which disappointed Varian; he personally thought Marlowe to be superior to the bard. 

"You don't even like Romeo and Juliet?" Honey Lemon asked aghast, "But it's sooo romantic." 

"But it's sooo stupid," Varian mockingly admonished with a laugh. Which in turn made Honey Lemon give him a not-so-serious pout. 

"Look, what was stopping them from just leaving together in the first place?" Varian explained his point. 

Honey Lemon opened her mouth to retort back but just as soon closed it again; she had never considered that question before. She screwed up her mouth in thought as she searched for a better answer. 

"Weeelll, sometimes it's hard to leave the only home you've ever known. Isn't that why you want to get back to your world?" She asked him.

Varian just stared at her for a moment, thinking of an answer to give that didn't allow him to explain his past in detail. Finally he said, "I wanna get back because my dad is there. I couldn’t care less about Corona itself." 

"You don't care at all?"

"It's just a bunch of buildings." He mumbled with a shrug, then he added, more assuredly, "What matters is the people in your life." 

"I guess," She replied, "all I know is that I had a hard enough time just leaving Sacramento. Even though it's only an hour and a half away and I can still see my family whenever. I can't imagine what it's like to be lost in a whole other world." 

Varian ignored her attempts to sympathize, not because he didn't appreciate the effort, but because he was ready to move on from the conversation. Instead he shut his eyes tightly and tilted his head back, trying to recall some of the new information he had recently learned. "Sacramento; that's the capital of California, right?" 

"Yeah. But don't worry, no one actually memorizes all fifty states and their capitals. I only know like twenty or so." She admitted.

"Oh, good." Varian breathed in relief. Soon both he and Honey Lemon were just giggling, happy to relieve the tension in the room.

"Oooh, you know what? I brought my make-up bag with me!" Honey Lemon suddenly exclaimed, and just like that all previous talk about literature and writing gave away to other subjects, mostly chemistry.

Honey Lemon made her own cosmetics. It was a passion of hers to find new, safe, and 'biodegradable' chemical compounds to replace some of the more toxic stuff on the market. 

"And absolutely no animal testing." She added in all seriousness. 

She even sold her wares over the internet, shipping them to customers as they ordered them, as a means of making money on the side. 

She poured out the contents of a rather large tote bag onto the floor and walked Varian through each item, what it was for, and how she had made it. Varian listened intently and even tried some of the stuff himself. 

He found he didn’t care much for lipstick nor cakey foundation, the texture was off putting to him. He also didn’t like anything with a heavy perfume. However, he did like the eyeliner and the black fingernail polish he had previously bought. He was still fascinated by the concept of synthesized polymers. 

They were both sitting on the floor, makeup strewn everywhere, laughing over nothing in particular, when Wasabi came home from his part-time job. Honey Lemon was in the middle of applying mascara to Varian’s eyes and he was trying his best not to blink but failing at it, which only sent both of them into more fits of giggles. Meanwhile, unnoticed by them both, Ruddgier had gotten into the powered blush and was making a mess in another corner of the room.

“I thought you two were studying.” Wasabi said with a hint of annoyance to his voice. He was tired from work and none too happy to find makeup scattered about his dorm room. 

“Sorry,” Honey Lemon tried to say through her laughter, “but we finished early and I’d promise to teach Varian how to paint his nails.” Varian held up his hand to show Wasabi his newly painted nails as a way of response. 

“That’s nice.” Wasabi replied back in a sarcastic tone. “Did you also teach the raccoon how to put on foundation?” 

That’s when they both finally noticed Ruddiger. Varian got onto his pet and went to clean up the mess, effectively ending the study/make-up session. 

The next day, Wasabi gave him two final practice tests and then it was time for him to take the real thing. He met Professor Granville at the school and, alongside a few other hopeful students, took the two tests. 

The first test, the S.A.T., went smoothly, but he wouldn’t know his actual scores until his answer sheet and essay were sent off to be graded. The graduation test however was taken over the computer and it took several hours to complete with a few breaks between parts. He felt he could have finished sooner had he had the chance to take the test using a pencil and paper instead, as he found the mouse and keyboard awkward. But the positive thing about using the new technology was that he got his scores back sooner. He managed to pass all the parts, even with him just barely scraping by on the Social Studies section. His official certification would come in the mail, the professor told him, but for all intents and purposes he now had a high school diploma. 

Which was apparently a big deal in this world. Earning a diploma was considered to be something of a rite of passage. Obtaining one meant you were ready to start entering the adult world and with it you could gain full time employment or seek higher education, like college. According to his friends, he should’ve been extra proud of this accomplishment since gaining a high school diploma at his age, while not unheard of, was unusual, and he had done it in less than a week when most took years to achieve it. 

To signify just how important this was, all his new friends threw him a party at the Lucky Cat. Even Aunt Cass had pitched in and made him a special dinner. It was something called ‘sushi’ and she typically prepared it for celebrations like this one; having cooked similar dinners for both Tadashi and Hiro when they had graduated high school as well.       

Varian was appreciative of her efforts, though he didn’t quite know what to make of the food itself. The ‘sushi’ consisted mostly of rice topped with raw fish wrapped in seaweed. The taste wasn’t bad but the texture of the uncooked seafood was weird to Varian. Fortunately, not everything was raw. There were different kinds to be had and Varian was able to pick out some that he did enjoy; ones stuffed with crab, egg, or just veggies. He especially liked the ‘dessert sushi’ made with tropical fruit.

He’d just finished recalling last night, when Wasabi loudly proclaimed, “We're here!” 

There were whoops and joyous yells in response from the various passengers and Varian looked out the front windshield to see the familiar blue streak that was the ocean just up ahead. Wasabi parked the car in the designated parking lot and then they all piled out of said vehicle and made their way down to the beachfront. 

The sandy beach was tucked in between two rocky cliffs and you had to walk down a wooden stairway to get to it. As he made his way down the stairwell, Varian could look out and see the expanse of dark blue ocean and lighter blue sky go on forever. It didn't look much different from Corona's coast. What did look different were the inhabitants. Corona's coastline was usually deserted save for the ports and the occasional fishing boat off in the distance, but here the beach was a mass of half naked bodies and swarms of vacationers enjoying the summer sun. Spread out along the sandy tolls were towels, blankets, folding chairs, and umbrellas of all sizes with scantily clad people lounging upon or underneath. 

Varian tried to remember Gogo's words from a week ago, about how this was deemed normal and not to bring himself to attention by starring. But everywhere Varian looked he was met with the sight of a lovely lady's long legs or a handsome lad's toned chest. Not looking was very much like asking a small child in a pastry shop to hold their nose and ignore the sweet smells of pies and cakes surrounding them. Fortunately, he was able to keep his composure long enough for them to reach the shore and find a spot to set up camp for the day; managing not to hold his gaze for too long on any one person or thing. 

They had brought a variety of towels and folding chairs of their own, along with a large parasol and ice chest full of food and drink for the day. Varian and Wasabi had spent that morning making sandwiches for everyone; tuna fish salad, sliced cucumbers with butter, jam mixed with a spread made from ground nuts, and some sort of mystery meat called 'baloney' paired with cheese. Varian couldn't figure out if said baloney was made from ham or chicken, as it didn't really taste like either, though it also didn't taste bad per-say. They also stored small bags of crispy fried potatoes, individually wrapped miniature cakes, and bottles of some sort of fizzy drink called 'soda' in the chest as well. Varian found the carbonated sugary drink to be odd but surprisingly tasty. 

While everyone was setting up Hiro unpacked Baymax from his portable charger, the robot inflated to full size again before stepping out, and Varian released Ruddiger from his carrier. The raccoon was grateful to be let out of the small cage at last and promptly snuggled up on one of the folding chairs under the sun to catnap. Varian didn't think the leash necessary as there really wasn't any place for his pet to run off to. 

Once done with setting up, the gang then proceeded to unpack the various toys and games they had brought along as well. There was a game you played with a net, like tennis, only you used your hands to pass a 'volleyball' over said net instead of a racket and you didn't want the larger ball to touch the ground at any point. They also brought a flat discus called a 'frisbee' which you threw from person to person. Gogo had with her a flat wooden board used to ride the waves that broke along the shore. Which she let Varian and her other friends try out for themselves. 

Varian however was not very good at any of these new sports. While he was fairly athletic, capable of running, climbing, and whatnot, he had never been the best at coordination. More often than not he'd simply trip and fall in his efforts to keep up with the ball or maintain his balance on the surfboard. 

Instead Varian found himself wandering off occasionally to try and strike up conversations with new people. He'd hadn't had a lot of social interaction while growing up, especially with others his age, and he wanted some practice before he started school in a few days. Hopefully to ease the awkwardness of being dumped in a world that he knew next to nothing about. 

However every time he'd smile at a pretty girl or make eye contact with a cute boy his age, his efforts to make small talk were sabotaged by some mishap or other. Either his own clumsiness would get in the way or he'd put his foot in mouth, as the saying goes. One particularly unfortunate incident involved him getting beaned in the back of the head from a misthrown volleyball while trying to chat up a couple of vacationing teens. Fortunately, his embarrassing failures at flirting would be followed by one of his new friends trying to engage him with some other activity so he was never left alone with his awkwardness for long. 

Swimming, sand castle building, more games; like 'chicken', where you tried to push one person off another person's shoulders into the water, or 'Marco Polo' where one person had to find the others with their eyes closed, using the ancient explorer's name as a call and response, digging for seashells, and other similar actives were to be had to pass the time away. 

Finally, the sun started to hang low in the sky and they all headed back to the car. They were wet, tired and covered in sand. They tried to knock the irritating substance off their shoes and things before all squeezing back into the ill fitting vehicle in order to head back home. They all sat on towels so as not to get the seats wet and their bathing suits and cover up clothes all clung to them dripping with sea water. 

Varian sat again in the front seat, only this time Honey Lemon had asked to hold Ruddiger on the ride back. She, Gogo, Fred, and Hiro were all fast asleep in the backseat with Baymax once again tucked away in his battery case. Wasabi had the radio on in order to keep himself awake as he drove (and to drown out Honey Lemon's snoring if he was being honest). The music that filtered out of the speakers was called 'classical' music, which just meant it was mostly orchestral music from ages past. To Varian it sounded very modern and sophisticated to his ears, like chamber music played for royal courts, not the more rustic folk music he grew up on. 

Right now a gentle suite with piano and strings was playing and it along with the steady motion of the car moving was beginning to lull Varian to sleep as well. He looked out again at the houses and scenery that passed by and thought of the day's events and the fun he had had as his eyes grew heavy. This world was so much more inviting and nicer than his own, it was a shame he'd have to leave it soon, but his Dad needed him and that was that. And with that final resolve Varian drifted off to dreamland. 

[dcrkacademia]

February Wrap-Up

This is a new thing I’m going to start doing because I really enjoy discussing books and personally, I love reading these on my dash. This wasn’t a super good reading month for me since I got another job and am in the process of spinning up my own company, not to mention I started a 1500 page book halfway through February and I’m not finished yet. So, without further ado, here it is:

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman  ★★★★★ Reread. I actually read this for the first time last year but it had stuck with me. I liked it even more the second time, I caught things I hadn’t the first and I highly highly recommend taking an hour or so out of your day to read it if you haven’t yet. It’s like twenty pages, I believe. Without giving much away, it follows a woman who has some “nervous hysteria”, possibly postpartum depression, and her experience with the treatment she was prescribed. Gilman had gone through this experience herself, a solitary treatment which consisted of no form of entertainment, and wrote this story to shed light on how destructive it is. The Yellow Wallpaper served as great social commentary that led to this treatment being looked at more closely and many physicians that read her short story stopped prescribing it. It’s chilling and well worth devoting some time to.

Antigone by Sophocles  ★★★★☆ Finally! I’ve been wanting to read some of his plays for a while now and simply haven’t. I loved this, it was exciting, heart breaking, and ironic. I chose to read The Three Theban Plays in the order they were written rather than in the dramatic order. I heard that Antigone is the weakest of them anyway so I figured it was the way to go. If it’s true that it’s weaker, I’m incredibly excited to read the other two.

The Last Wish (The Witcher #.05) by Andrzej Sapkowski  ★☆☆☆☆ I wish I never picked this book up but since I did I had to make myself finish it. To clarify, this is my own opinion, I know a lot of people love this series but it was not it for me. I don’t typically read books that aren’t classics but I’m trying to get into fantasy, I want to like the genre but this was a terrible place to start. It's a bunch of short stories, most of them based on fairy tales (Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, and Snow White were the most obvious). There's nothing wrong with that part but it was done poorly and not to mention, the writing was all over the place (which may be the fault of the translation, granted). It was just the male gaze, male fantasy, that was so wrought that ruined it for me. There’d be a fight scene with a woman and her breasts are being described for absolutely no reason. Once or twice I can overlook but it was a constant in each story.  

The Old Nurse’s Story by Elizabeth Gaskell  ★★★☆☆ I enjoyed this short story a lot but I don’t have any super strong opinions on it at this time. I will probably reread it so I can get a better picture of what I think because at this point, I’m just not entirely sure. I liked how Elizabeth Gaskell was able to set the atmosphere, it was very sensory at points and she truly made it feel like a ghost story. Aside from that, I’m still developing my thoughts. Maybe when I read it again I’ll have a better, more cohesive opinion to give a better review.

[evien-stark]

✧I Need You✧ Chapter 103

After breakfast was plated, you thought maybe you could be next on the list for a quick shower. But after leaving Sam to go to the small bedroom to check in on Nat and Steve, things seemed a little… blue. You laid a hand on the doorway, looking at the both of them. “Everything okay?” 

Steve turned his head half back to look at you. “Depends on your definition of okay.” 

Very suddenly the both of them were smiling your way, Nat’s a little more curved. “If okay is finding out SHIELD’s been infected and we’ve been doing all the hard labor for a bunch of nazis that Steve supposedly died taking down… sure. We’re okay.” 

You couldn’t help a sigh. “Yeah. Just peachy, I’m sure. We made breakfast. Can’t plot a takedown revenge scenario on an empty stomach.”

Steve stood with a little stretch. “That what we’re doing?” 

Natasha was close behind. “I like the sound of that.” 

You led the way back out into the kitchen, a little shake of your head. “What else should we be doing? We can’t hide forever. Especially knowing SHIELD has gone off the rails. It starts with us, but it won’t end there.” 

Nat took a seat, a small murmur of gratitude as you set a plate down in front of her. “How’d you get wrapped up in this anyway? Seems like I was taking a little nap when that discussion occurred.” 

Steve sat down next to her. “I wouldn’t mind hearing it again.” 

Yet another sigh escaped you. “Pierce came up to the Tower with a STRIKE squad who pulled their guns on everyone. Asked me to give the both of you up. He’s altering footage, putting together a case that Steve and I got into an argument with Fury that led us to murdering him.” 

Nat scoffed. “That’s absurd. Captain America killed a government official?” 

Sam was standing with his back against the counter, arms crossed. “You guys act like the government isn’t always doing shady stuff. So what it’s Captain America and Lady Avenger- or whatever your name is supposed to be- no offense.” 

You shrugged. “None taken.” Not like it mattered.

He continued, “They want you out of the picture, you’re out. You worked for these people. I’d have to imagine you know the lengths they’d go to. What they’re capable of.” 

Natasha hung her head, eyes lowering. “Yeah…” 

You felt that blue spread, and you tried to get ahead of it. “So Pierce wants us gone. Because he’s a Hydra piece of shit. What do we do about it?” 

Steve shook his head. “He’s not working alone. Zola’s algorithm was on the Lemurian Star.” 

The pieces were starting to come together. You looked over at Nat. “That’s what Fury asked you to get?” The reason that Steve had stormed into the office the morning that had kickstarted this all. 

She nodded, chewing on a piece of toast. “Mn. Yeah- and you know who else was on the Lemurian Star? Jasper Sitwell.” 

You couldn’t help the face you made. While you’d had extremely brief meetings with the man, nothing of note, he’d always seemed like a weaselly little prick. Now you knew why. “STRIKE is babysitting the team so we’re on a little bit of radio silence, but Tony was working on cracking this. Might be faster, though. If we can get someone with access.” At this point you were beyond the point of asking yourself whether or not it was right to start kidnapping and beating for answers. It was time for a little revenge. 

Steve put his chin in his palm with a sigh. “So, the real question is how do the three most wanted people in Washington kidnap a SHIELD officer in broad daylight?” 

“What a fantastic question.” It was a little early for you to be feeling defeat. The team just needed a good plan. ...it just felt impossible to come up with one. “If I can get close to him I might be able to… uh- persuade him into helping our cause.” You’d never used the thing so blatantly like that before, but you were sure you could. If you tried hard enough. “Maybe we just wait him out? Follow him back to his house?” Taking him off the street was a no-go. Especially considering you’d need to concentrate. Nat shook her head. “Too much time lost. We have to make a move now, or this is only gonna get worse.” 

Sam spoke up from behind you, rustling around in one of his cabinets. “Sounds like you could use a little help.” 

The three of you looked up as he approached and laid down a folder with a picture on top- of him in gear alongside a few other soldiers. Steve looked up at him. “What’s this?” Sam crossed his arms. “Call it a resume.” 

Nat took hold of the picture. “Is this Bakhmala?” Then nodding at him, “The Khalid Khandil mission, that was you?” Seeming pretty impressed, which was always a good sign. Nudging Steve a little she smiled. “You didn't say he was a para-rescue.” 

As Steve looked at Sam, asking him something rather quietly, the folder sitting underneath the picture caught your eye. “Holy shit.” You brought the folder closer. “You piloted an EXO-7?” 

At this, Sam softly grinned at you. “There was a reason I was saluting in one of those little kiss-ass lines of yours.” 

You brought the folder closer and opened it, as Steve raised a brow. “I take it that’s a good thing?” 

Flipping through the pictures and documentation, you couldn’t help the shake of your head. “It means he’s fucking crazy. Anyone who signed up for these missions had a death wish. Tony was nuts for building these for the Guard. I think it was more of a joke at first, when they asked him. Jesus. I haven’t seen anything on them in a while.” And for good reason. 

Giving the Air National Guard fucking bird suits had been some top notch nonsense when it had been developed. You really did genuinely believe Tony had been fucking with them at first. But...

“Hey.” Sam spoke a little sternly, yet still smiling. “I’m standing right here, you know. And you’re one to talk.” Pointing a finger you way. “Don’t you fly around in a crazy suit of armor or something most days?”  

Nat caught a bit of her own smile. “We could use a little crazy right now.” 

After you passed the folder to Steve’s awaiting hand, he took a little glance through it and then shot a look up Sam’s way. “I thought you said you were a pilot.” Sam shook his head. “I never said pilot.” 

But, fun time over, Steve moved back to solemn pretty quickly. “I can't ask you to do this, Sam. You got out for a good reason.” 

“Dude, Captain America needs my help. There's no better reason to get back in. “ 

To this, you certainly couldn’t disagree. Whatever quarrels Sam had with the military (and you imagined they were many, and also none of your business), right now seemed like a pretty dire situation. “We’d be grateful- and lucky, I think- for your help.” Offering him a small smile of that aforementioned gratitude. 

“So…” Steve tapped the folder with his fingers. “Where can we get our hands on one of these things?” 

Sam sighed. “The last one is at Fort Meade, behind three guarded gates and a twelve-inch steel wall.”

You, Natasha, and Steve all shared a long look. Gauging. And then Nat shrugged. “Shouldn’t be a problem.” 

                                                      -----

Fort Meade had the benefit of only being about a half hour away from Sam’s location. Though the last ten or so minutes you’d abandoned his car (for now) so you could scope out the place. Using the suit here was a little too risky, so you relied on a little more low key methods to get what you needed. It was for that reason that as the four of you maneuvered past a few of those gates, and then sidled on up to the weakest point in the perimeter that Nat held the boys at bay. 

“We’ll go in. You stay here and play lookout.” 

Steve crossed his arms. “Sounds an awful lot like you’re saying you don’t need us. Just nicer.” Smiling just a little. 

You smiled back. “Your words.” 

It was better for Sam to stay back anyway, if he got caught it would really make this whole effort useless. He was the only new face in this little band that nobody was on the lookout for. And it needed to stay that way. So you accepted the offer of a hoist up the back, and then the two of you got to work. 

First order of business was activating your visor. “LUNA can you knock out the camera and security systems?” You’d tried one more time to get Tony on the phone but it had gone right to voicemail. The babysitting squad must have been getting very intense. It was better not to think about it for now. 

As the two of you backed up against a building, Natasha gave you a look with a low voice. “Any luck? Or we doing this real old school?” Which wouldn’t be a problem, but it was riskier and would take longer. Time you didn’t have. 

You waited before answering and were gifted for your patience. “I can set a sequence reset that will knock the cameras out and take the security systems offline. But I estimate the guard sitting at the control desk will get everything back up in five minutes.” 

Looking at Nat, voice hushed, “Soon as I give the signal we have five minutes.” 

“Easy.” She grinned. 

“Okay LUNA. Let’s go…” Holding your breath and wishing the both of you luck. “...now.” 

“Initiating!” 

With one gesture, you hoisted Nat up into a back window, the absolute weakest point in the compound where they were housing the EXO, and she reached back down to hoist you up. Inside there was already trouble. A couple of officers leaving a room got startled by your presence, so the both of you backed them right into the room they’d walked out of and made quick work of putting them into the floor. Quiet. 

Once done, you both sidled out, watching your corners. Though this was a stealth mission, it was a relatively easy one. And so you felt like you had to get this off your chest. “How exactly is getting a giant bird suit supposed to help us kidnap Sitwell without anyone noticing?” 

“You know, now that you’re asking…” 

An officer turned another corner hall and upon seeing you immediately drew his weapon and started yelling. With the both of you it was easy. You came in front, wrenching his wrist and disarming him of his weapon while she got up behind him and sunk her fists into the sides of his neck, a little electrical discharge in the bracers she was wearing knocking him out. 

LUNA’s voice cut through the new silence. “You have three minutes remaining!” 

“Eyes are online in three.” You relayed the information. 

Natasha nodded and the two of you took off down the next hall. Which was probably a mistake, seeing as the vault that you were looking for was guarded by two officers toting very large guns. Guns that were immediately pointed your way. She signaled, “I got the one on the right!” 

“Going left!” For no one’s benefit you said this, if only to telegraph the wrong woman to the wrong man so that when they two of you criss-crossed over in a switch, it confused them just long enough to make quick work out of them. 

Once they were messes on the floor she snapped the badge off one of their uniforms. “Alright, let’s get a look at the bird suit.” Scanning it at the access panel. 

Just as the door opened, LUNA spoke again. “One minute!” 

You nudged Nat on the shoulder. “Gotta make this quick.” 

Though you suspected there was a lot more to see, not just here- there just wasn’t enough time. Seeing weapons that were faintly familiar line the walls did put a chill down your spine, though. Retired, hopefully. Nobody was flying EXO’s anymore, so… hopefully no one was using this stuff anymore, either. But. Seeing as it was here and not destroyed… and also not officially listed anywhere… didn’t really make you feel very good. 

Natasha yanked the harness and housing off the wall with a little noise and then turned back. “Any of this stuff look familiar?” 

“Too familiar. Tony and I will have to talk about it later.” It was true, Stark Industries had sold this junk to the army once upon a time. So that technically made it theirs, but… 

Spying a briefcase with the Sonic Taser’s designation code on top of it made you go cold. So you lifted the handle and held it to your side. Natasha gave you a questioning look as the two of you tried to make a quick go for the exit. “Good stuff?” 

“Depends on who you’re asking. Illegal. And shouldn’t be here, are two other ways I’d describe it.” Which meant there was no telling how much other shit Obi had sold to them behind your backs that you just still didn’t know about. Both them and… well. Everyone else, too. 

Would the mess ever end? 

                                                     -----

Once the four of you had booked it away from the compound as fast as humanly (or otherwise) possible and made it back to the car, Sam seemed not to be able to go fast enough, rubber burning the road. After you were far enough away and it seemed like no one was chasing you, you leaned forward from the back seat. “So, I didn’t want to like… put a wrench in our plans or anything, but how’s the bird suit gonna help us exactly?” 

“It’s called a Falcon suit. You should know that. Your boyfriend made it.” Sam looked up briefly into the rear view with one of those dry looks before he put his eyes back on the road. 

“Touchy subject.” You put your hands up in a sign of defeat. “Sorry.” It was nice to know he at least respected the gear. ...you supposed. 

Sam drummed his fingers on the wheel. “I got a plan, alright? We just need the intel. Where are we intercepting this Sitwell dude?” 

Natasha lifted her phone. “Should be leaving a meeting with Senator Stern in fifteen minutes.” 

The name put an immediate sour taste in your mouth, and childish though it was, you couldn’t help the noise that escaped you. “Eugh. Let me tell you- we blow this thing open and I find out he’s on the wrong side, I’ll personally wheel a guillotine out into the village square.” 

Steve half turned, “We’ll have time for jokes later.” 

“Who said anything about joking?” Arching a brow his way. 

                                                     -----

The plan seemed like a rather simple one. Sam, the least expected of your group, would put in a spoofed call through LUNA to Sitwell after he left his little lunch-date with Stern. It would come up as Alexander Pierce, who by now, had to have been sweating his agents a little about your whereabouts. This would make Sitwell put his detail at bay so that he could take that confidential call privately. 

Sam would then instruct him to unwittingly meet Steve around the back of an alley, who would then bully him up the the top of the building, where you and Natasha were waiting- playing an earlier part of an awaiting sniper. As incentive for Sitwell to move, of course. 

You and Nat watched from the rooftop and awaited your cue, as you listened in through LUNA, the two of them talking. Once Sitwell asked the obvious question of why would I go anywhere with you and you know, not have his security shoot Sam on sight, you gave Nat the signal to level the sight laser right on Sitwell’s chest. And, shockingly, yes that was enough incentive to get him to an alleyway. 

From there you and Natasha waited for Steve to bring him up. Which he did. By basically throwing him out of the stairwell and onto the gravel of the roof where he skidded and almost fell. 

Steve, for all you knew of him, was… actually quite menacing. “Tell me about Zola's algorithm.” Advancing on Sitwell as he continued to scurry away. 

“Never heard of it.” “What were you doing on the Lemurian Star?” Backing him up almost all the way to the edge of the roof. You and Natasha took up the sidelines, arms crossed. This really could go very easily, if he’d just give up his information. But you knew it wouldn’t go down like that. Pierce had to at least have had the smarts to pick stupidly loyal men. 

Sitwell put his hands up. “I was throwing up, I get seasick.” Just as he knocked at the edge, Steve grabbed him by the shirt and held him a little close off the ledge. But Sitwell just smiled. “Is this little display meant to insinuate that you're gonna throw me off the roof? Because it's really not your style, Rogers.” 

He had Steve there. But there was a backup plan. Intimidation wasn’t working, so force would. Steve dropped his head in a little smile, letting Sitwell back down on his feet. “You’re right. It’s not.” Letting him go fully. And then nodding Natasha’s way. “It's hers.” 

Realization dawned a little too late as Natasha wheeled back her leg, aiming right in the center of Sitwell’s chest and kicked him clean off the roof. The screaming was at least a little satisfying. She crossed her arms after. “Oh, hey, will you help me with something?” Looking at you. 

You raised your brows. “What’s that?” 

“You know any Stark employees that would be a good match for Steve? I’ve been trying to get him to go on a date for a week now-” 

Steve sighed, hand to his face. “Can we- can we not do this right now? And don’t involve her.” 

You smiled. “I like being involved. I’ll see what I can do.” 

On time, Sam in his newly acquainted Falcon suit burst up through the air, carrying a very terrified Sitwell, throwing him to a heap on the roof. Once he sat up on his knees, the three of you looked down at him. Though he held his hands up, he was grinning through his pale fear. “That all you got? A little roller coaster ride? You didn’t even charge me admission.” 

God damn it. Well. There was a back up for the back up. 

Bending down, you took the lapels of his suit in your hands, lifting him up as you stood, helping him roughly onto his feet. “Last chance.” Offering in a kind sing-songy tone. 

“I can take you.” Narrowing his eyes at you. 

Looking at him- through him- seeing him in two spaces at once, you spread your palms out flat against his chest, moving doubly, seeing a weird shadow reflection of yourself in that bright space, same as you moved in reality. “You’re a little rat of a man, aren’t you? Don’t you feel ashamed? If I were you I’d be mortified. Pathetic.” 

“I-” His breathing picked up. 

“But you can still make this right. Don’t you feel like just letting it out. Don’t you just wanna tell us the truth?” Looking so deep into his eyes you thought you saw the glass around his soul shatter into pieces so suddenly. It really hadn’t taken that much pressure. 

“Please- I can’t breathe-” True enough, he’d suddenly started wheezing, and when you let go of him, he put a hand to his chest. 

Steve stepped closer. “Tell us about the algorithm.” 

He shook his head, sweating profusely. “Zola's algorithm is a- is a program- for choosing Insight’s targets.” 

Sam and Natasha closed the half circle of aggressive faces around him, painting him into a real nightmare. “What targets?” Sitwell threw his hands up. “Please! Get away!” 

“Just spit it out and this will be all over.” Trying to encourage his looser tongue. 

He swallowed hard. “Targets- you- anyone! A TV anchor in Cairo, the Undersecretary of Defense, a high school valedictorian in Iowa city. Bruce Banner, Stephen Strange, anyone who's a threat to Hydra! Now, or in the future.” Suddenly he seemed to be unable to stop talking now that the floodgates had opened. 

His picks were… interesting. You had assumed this much. Hydra- and Pierce- were out to put an end to the Avengers. To you. Your team. But… Stephen Strange… that name felt familiar. You couldn’t place it right now. Not important. 

Steve seemed suddenly puzzled. “The future? How could it know?” 

Sitwell let out an uneasy laugh, wiping his brow. “How could it not? The 21st century is a digital book. Zola taught Hydra how to read it. Your bank records, medical histories, voting patterns, e-mails, phone calls, your damn SAT scores. Zola's algorithm evaluates people's past to predict their future.” 

You couldn’t help yourself. “And then what?” Already knowing the answer. Because there was only one end to this. So that Hydra could run amok, freely. With no resistance. 

Finally, he seemed a little more clear about what had just happened, and he grew even paler. Gulping out a gasp, hand to his heart, Sitwell shook his head. “Oh my god… Pierce is gonna kill me…” 

Steve took hold of his suit jacket again, lifting him a little. “What then?!” A more in-control and icy look was leveled Steve’s way. Then yours. Then Nat’s. Then Sam’s. As if reading you your futures. “Then the Insight Helicarriers scratch people off the list. A few million at a time.” 

God damn it, Fury. I warned you. 

[darnedchild]

Everything that Kills Me

This fic is inspired by a moodboard created by @mel-loves-all for the 2018 Sherlolly Halloween, which—in turn—had started as a prompt offered by me (from the lyrics of “Counting Stars” by OneRepublic) when Mel was looking for some inspiration last year. We’ve come full circle, friends.

I’ve included a link to @mel-loves-all’s original moodboard post on Tumblr , if you’d like to leave some love there.

Sherlolly Moodboard #2  - Created by @mel-loves-all

“Original Prompt: from @darnedchild (Everything that kills me makes me feel alive)

**** @darnedchild after reading your prompt, my mind totally went towards a Sherlolly AU where Sherlock encounters a dangerous, but sexy Succubus called Molly.  Oh course it would go there. LOL!)***”

We’re going AU, obviously.  Aspects from the show up through “The Reichenbach Fall” will be included, but are not the main focus of the story so please forgive me for any liberties I’ve taken with the show canon.  Currently unbeta'd because, once again, I'm running behind.

Dreams.  Fevered, erotic, all consuming.  A woman whose beauty takes his breath away.  Sherlock doesn’t ever want to wake up.  

 Everything that Kills Me

makes me feel alive

Part 1

Sherlock maintained many bolt holes spread out across the inner (and a few of the outer) boroughs. Far more than his associates were aware of, much to the annoyance of dear brother Mycroft.

Some of the bolt holes were so rarely visited even Sherlock would occasionally forget they existed, until the time came to dig through his mind palace to find a place to shelter down for a few hours to think or rest.

One of those places was a mostly abandoned groundskeeper shed near a leaning tomb at Hamstead Cemetery in Camden.  

The location wasn’t ideal as far as basic amenities, but it was certainly quiet and out of the way enough that he normally wouldn’t be interrupted or pulled out of his thoughts. And when he’d reached the point of exhaustion, anything with a vertical surface to lay on would be good enough.

Which is how he found himself on a bare cot, in a small room containing a few forgotten pieces of lawn equipment, and only the soft light of the moon filtering through the single window to offer comfort.

He closed his eyes almost immediately.  His mind blanked in the way that only happened when he had pushed himself past the physical limitations of his body (or miscalculated his high enough to mute everything, including his thoughts), leaving him with no choice but to sleep.

Sherlock had no idea how much time had passed when an unexpected voice jolted him awake. Unexpected and almost familiar.  

“… avoided the temptation.  Do you have any idea how long it’s been since I gave in?  How hard I’ve had to work to control my urges?  My hunger?  I’m practically starving.  And here you are, when I’m at my weakest, looking so … delectable.  I could just eat you up.”

His head snapped up, and he tried to force his eyes to adjust to the darkness in the hopes of identifying the speaker.

“Would you like that, Sherlock?”

He jerked upright, his hackles rising at the sound of his name.  

A form stepped out of the shadows into the moonlight.  

Irene Alder.

As she took another step closer, he realized something seemed off about her.  Much like the barely audible difference, almost a whispered echo, in her voice; he was looking at the face and body of the Woman … but not.  Her eyes were blue, but even in the faint light he could tell they weren’t the same blue that he remembered so well.  Her lips were stained Irene’s favourite shade of red, but they weren’t the right proportion. Smaller.  Thinner.

Not a doppelganger, but close enough to be the Woman’s twin.  She would have fooled a less observant man.

“Who are you?”

“Don’t you know?” She ran her hands—tipped in long nails painted the same colour as her lips—down her body.  They paused to bunch or smooth her diaphanous gown at each dip and curve as if they were unfamiliar to her.  As if she wasn’t used to the feel of the body she wore.  

“Aren’t you pleased to see me?”  She took one more step toward him and reached out to touch the side of his face.  He shuddered at the contact.  “No?”  Her red, red lips pulled into a pout.  “That’s disappointing.”

“You are not Irene Adler,” Sherlock accused her.

She titled her head and looked down at him with a hint of curiosity in her expression.  “Is that her name?”

“Don’t pretend you didn’t know.  Why else would you have gone to the trouble of looking like this.”  He waved his hand at her.  “Although how you’ve managed to pull this off—”  He blinked as something she’d said echoed through his mind palace until it clicked into place.  “You said ‘is’.  Is, not was. How did you know she’s still alive?”

She shrugged. “I don’t, but you do.”  

The woman (but not The Woman, he was absolutely certain) slid her leg over his and settled onto his lap before he could protest.  She tried to wrap her arms around his neck and pull herself tight against his chest, but he held her off with his hands at her waist.  

“Oh, Sherlock. I know you want her; you desire this body.  Don’t fight it.  All you have to do is say yes.  Welcome me into your arms, and you can take it.  Do everything you’ve ever dreamed of to your pretty Irene.”  She leaned in to kiss him and he jerked his head away.

“What are you talking about?  Get off of me.”

She clenched her thighs along the outside of his and refused to be dislodged, but she did pull back enough to leave space between their upper bodies.    

“You want her, but she’s not the one, is she?”  She brushed a curl off of his temple.  “No, there’s another, hidden deep in your mind.”

She inhaled deeply and her eyelashes fluttered.  He would almost swear that her blue eyes flashed golden brown for less than a second.

“You’re not just trying to hide her from me, you’ve locked her away from yourself.  Except for when your heart races with desire and your cock grows firm with the lust you cannot deny.  Who is it that makes your blood burn, Sherlock?  What name is on the tip of your tongue when you spill your seed into your fist?”

Sherlock grimaced in disgust and finally succeeded in pushing her off his lap.  “Don’t be vulgar.”

There was no missing the golden flash this time.  Then she gasped in delight, “Oh, there she is.”

Her features began to blur and shift, causing Sherlock to doubt his own eyes.  Perhaps even his sanity.

Her hair lightened and grew longer.  Her face softened and grew more elfin.  The very proportions of her body changed.  And when she opened her eyes, they were the familiar soft, warm brown he recognized from the pathologist from Barts.

Molly Hooper.

God, she was lovely.

She looked down at her body, then back up at him.  “Interesting.”

Unlike the fake Irene, he couldn’t find anything that indicated that she wasn’t the real Molly Hooper.  Even her voice was Molly’s, no hint of the eerie echo from before.

But that was impossible.

Sherlock blinked several times and shook his head.  “What are you?” he rasped. 

“You can’t be real.” He shook his head again.  “I’m dreaming.  That’s the only explanation.”

She reached toward him once again, then froze when a ray of pre-dawn light stretched across the floor at her feet.  “There’s my clever boy.  That’s exactly what this is.  A dream. Just a dream.”  Her eyes cut toward the window and she frowned before turning back to him.  “Unfortunately, I won’t be able to play with you any longer.  It’s late, and you must be tired.  Close your eyes and let yourself rest.”  Her voice was almost hypnotic.  “Sleep, Sherlock.  Sleep.”

He tried to fight it, but she was right.  He was tired. So very, very tired.

The last thing he felt before he fell asleep was the hot press of Molly’s lips against his own and the warmth of her breath as she whispered in his ear, “Dream of me.”

It was mid-morning before he woke and managed to stumble back to Baker Street, only to be intercepted by John in the sitting room.  

“Jesus, Sherlock. You look like hell.  What did you do last night?”

[jadekitty777]

Who Needs Gifts When We Have Love?

Finally, after all this time, the long awaited second chapter of the Summer/Tai/Qrow mini series is up. Technically, I just ended up dropping what I planned for the original ‘ending’ (of which will become super obvious what it was when you read this). I may finish that part later, but it was hanging me up way too much and I didn’t want this series to just go on an eternal hiatus because of it. 

Rating: M

Word Count: 3,500

Pairing: Summer/Tai/Qrow

Ao3 Link: Who Needs Gifts When We Have Love?

Summary: Qrow didn't really care for the fanfare involved with birthdays, especially his own. Luckily, Summer and Tai's combined creative efforts made it much more bearable.

Qrow hated birthdays.

It came to no surprise to him that all the main ‘traditions’ tied to a birthday came from Atlas – as if the overly commercialist kingdom didn’t have enough money to fatten their prestigious family’s wallets with. There had to be cake with your name on it, an expensive dinner out, enough colorful balloons and streamers to make a person go blind – and one could definitely not forget the “perfect” gift, as if there really was such a thing or, even if there was, that it could be found every single year. It felt like a bunch of frivolous fanfare.

So, he hated birthdays. Especially his own.

Except, it wasn’t his “own” – and that made it infinitely worse because it only served as a reminder of the missing presence in his life.

Despite his misgivings though, it didn’t seem to stop Tai and Summer from breaking the rules, in their own way. They didn’t cook his favorite dinner, they cooked his second or his third. There was no cake, but plenty of cookies to go around for the next week. They never gave him anything wrapped up with a neat little bow on top, but they did ask what he wanted to do and then followed through with as many extreme measures as they were allowed.

So, his request for ‘a quiet night in’ equated to dropping Ruby and Yang off at a babysitter’s house.

Don’t get him wrong, he loved those scamps with all his heart – but some days their energy was a bit… much. So just one night away from any father-uncle responsibilities was definitely a treat. He also figured this was the only ‘gift’ his partners had planned for him.

The bouquet of sunflowers sitting on the front step to the house seemed to laugh at him and his gullibility.

He looked to the woman beside him. “Summer.”

She looked back at him, her mask of innocence doing nothing to convince him she wasn’t up to something. “Oh my! Look at this lone bouquet just sitting out here for you, completely unprecedented and without a clear reason!”

“Summer.” He repeated.

She fluttered her eyelashes at him. “You should really pick it up.”

Damn her for being pretty. “I swear, those eyes of yours are lethal weapons.”

“Was that a pun?”

For the good of his own sanity, he absolutely refused to answer that. God knows what mileage Tai would get out of it if she told him. He leant over to pick up the vase and discovered that pinned underneath it was a note. A single instruction was written on it:

Follow the trail.

He rose an eyebrow at that but it wasn’t until he opened the door that the direction became clear, as from the doorway to up the stairs was a trail of white rose petals. He imagined he knew where it was leading, but he questioned anyways, “What are you two up to?”

“Something you’ll really like.” Summer said, practically bouncing with excitement. When he only hummed uncertainly, she added, “Come on, have we ever let you down before?”

“Well, there’s a first time for everything.” He snickered as she gave a little huff, shoving him forward. Obediently, he started to follow the rose petals, hearing the door shut behind him before Summer was trotting along after him. As expected, they led to their bedroom, but instead of them ending at the bed, they continued into the bathroom.

The door was open but the light was off – yet a warm, orange glow still emitted from within, beckoning him towards it. Curiosity growing, he headed that way, setting the bouquet on the dresser as he passed by it. “Tai?” He called.

“Welcome back!” Was the returned greeting.

Qrow stopped where the trail did, right at the door’s threshold, sucking in a surprised breath.

The room had been meticulously transformed with strings of winter holiday lights carefully tacked around the walls. Candles were perched in various places, including the counter, the windowsill, and the tank top of the toilet. They emitted a gentle but familiar vanilla scent he was particular too. Tai was lounging back in their oversized tub, the water filled three-fourths up but seeming much higher with all the bubbles. And it was in that Qrow finally understood his real surprise.

Having grown up washing in cold rivers and lakes, he hadn’t had the pleasure of knowing what a warm shower was until he went to Beacon. It was even longer before he’d been introduced to a bath, but it instantly became his preferred method of bathing. Something about being able to lounge in a vat of pure warmth was so undeniably relaxing. He figured that nothing could top it until Summer learned of his fondness for them and, on a whim, imported specialty bubble bath mix from Atlas. Qrow was instantly enamored, the experience stirring something almost childlike in him as he popped the shiny spheres between his hands and made bubble beards and crowns. From that day on, he would have gladly run a bubble bath every day; but because it was both expensive and fairly hard to find a supplier, he’d limited running the bubbles for special occasions or those particularly trying days.

“So?” Tai tilted his head towards him, grinning in that excited way he got whenever he felt he was pleasing one of them. “What do you think?”

Qrow wanted to tell him he loved it. That it was the best gift either of them could have given him. But, years of poor social skills meant he still wasn’t particularly good at expressing his gratitude, which was why he waved at the candles and said, “I think this might be a bit of a fire hazard.”

Something wet and cold hit the back of his neck, making him jump. He whirled around, seeing Summer grinning at him, a pseudo-weapon aimed his way. “Don’t worry, we’ve got your semblance covered.”

“Is that a water gun?” Qrow exclaimed, only to yelp when another blast hit him right on the ass. He shot a scowl over his shoulder.

“Two water guns.” Tai winked at him. Where had he even been hiding it? “So now that you have nothing to worry about, get in here!”

“Or what?” He challenged.

The blond rose an eyebrow, his gaze sliding to the one behind him. “Summer?”

“Barrage him.” She said gleefully.

And then Qrow was being pelted from both sides by blasts of cold water. He quickly rose up his arms in a poor attempt at guarding, laughing all the while. “Alright, alright you heathens!”

The moment they let up, he reached over his shoulder to grab the back of his shirt, yanking it up and over his head. The move earned him an appreciative wolf whistle.

“Whoo! Yeah, baby!” Summer catcalled. “Take it off!”

He threw his shirt in her face.

“Ack!”

“You’re terrible.” He told her, toeing off his shoes and unfastening his belt simultaneously.

It was her turn to wink as she started to undo the ties on her corset. “Is it truly such a crime to marvel at a work of art?”

“If so, then guess you’ll just have to lock me up.” He countered, deliberately roving his eyes over her.

“Oh I’d never miss the opportunity to put you in handcuffs.”

Before he could think up a fitting comeback, a snort drew his attention behind him. Tai had propped his arms over the rim of the tub, an amused smile gracing his features as he watched them try to out flirt each other.

It hadn’t always been like this; in fact, when Summer and he first started dating, she would get so easily flustered by even his weakest of lines that she usually just spluttered her way into an embarrassed silence. Qrow had thought it was cute, so he kept up the charade, even made a bit of a game of it to see how fast he could make her go from collected to bashful. But Summer wasn’t Summer if she didn’t try to rise to a challenge – and soon enough she started to return as much as she was given. It eventually developed into somewhat of a couples’ quirk of theirs, so commonplace he usually didn’t realize when they were doing it anymore.

Having joined them later on, Tai didn’t tend to participate but at least he was never short on entertainment.

“See something you like sunshine?” Qrow asked, shimmying out of his pants.

He smirked. “Quite.”

His socks were the last thing to go. He padded over the tile, taking that first, wonderful step into the tub, sighing contently as he sunk into the water. Tai adjusted to lean against the back, holding his hands towards him, an invitation Qrow couldn’t ignore as he slid over. There was always something immensely comfortable about having the brawler’s arms wrap around him. Toned from years of training, they just seemed to completely envelope his thinner frame, the strength and security it invoked undeniable.

Which made it rather ironic that despite being built like a tree, at heart, he was the biggest softie. Qrow didn’t have to even wonder whose plan this whole set up was. When it came to romance, Summer and he had always kept things simple – she would have stopped at just the bath; but welcoming Tai to their relationship had also meant welcoming his eye for more grandiose gestures. That sometimes equated to waking up to toast cut into heart shapes or finding love notes in his pack long after he’d left for a mission. Or, in this case, petal trails, candles and mood lighting.

“Gotta say,” Qrow said, relaxing against the other. “This isn’t too shabby for a gift.”

“Gift? What gift? Are we celebrating something?” Tai replied with a tone of mock-innocence.

He rolled his eyes, kissing away the other’s teasing grin.

The door was shut, encasing them in the candle and string light’s yellow-orange glow, reflecting off the bubbles rather dazzlingly. The two of them made room, Qrow silently glad Tai had splurged for a larger tub as Summer was able to settle in easily with them.

“This is so nice.” She commented, sinking down.

A few nudges had Qrow shifting around in Tai’s arms until they were back to chest. “Want to come over here?”

She answered by sidling right up against him, tucking her head in the dip of his clavicle. She was just above the water and her hair, free from its typical rose bun, floated around her shoulders like a fan. It was tempting him to run his fingers through it, so he did.

“So, after the bath, we have a little proposition for you.” She said.

Every word ghosted along his neck, making him shudder. “Oh?”

She walked her fingers up the center of his chest, saying, “Tai and I were talking and we realized how long it’s been since we’ve had a three-way. Even longer since you’ve been in the middle.”

Qrow snorted down a laugh. “Oh, so the flowers were supposed to lead to the bed.”

Tai nipped his ear. “There are some on the bed, thank you very much.” Of course there was. He should have never doubted. “Anyways, it’s only if you feel up to it. We just don’t get this opportunity often.”

Didn’t he know it. Between full time jobs, long missions away, and two tykes that could drain the energy out of the sun, it was a miracle just to get time away for just himself – and sometimes he was too exhausted for even that. When they were desperate for a little downtime together, often, they appointed one of them to watch the kids for a time so two of them could slip away. But all three of them? He could count the instances on his own two hands – which, for a four-year relationship, was a ridiculously pathetic number.

So, with the very idea stirring arousal through him, it really wasn’t a question he had to think hard about to answer. “’Course I’m up for it. But, Gods be damned, I’m enjoying the bath first.”

They both laughed, their joy reverberating through him from either side. Summer kissed the side of his jaw. “Of course.”

~

“Why don’t you two go get comfortable while I clean up in here?” Summer offered, maneuvering carefully to wind the towel around herself without elbowing one of them.

They’d been fortunate so far that nothing had caught fire, but since luck was bound to run out, Qrow certainly wouldn’t argue putting out all the candles before they got into it. Not that there wasn’t a little foreplay in the bath anyways – it was hard to avoid, with their hands all over each other and the promise of what was to come lingering in their imaginations. Still, it felt a little unfair to have their wife do all the work. “You sure?”

“Mmhm.” She strung out her hair over the tub, a small rainfall pouring down. “It won’t take more than a few minutes. Go have fun.”

As Tai finished tousling his hair, the wet strands sticking up at odd angles, he replied, “Now that’s an offer I won’t refuse.”

It was hard to say if it was from the door he just opened or the way the blond aimed him with a hungry gaze, either way Qrow felt shivers running down his spine. “Yeah, alright.” Not about to be outdone, he turned and headed into the room, unnecessarily swaying his hips as he did so. The swift, harmless swat to his ass told him the motion did not go unnoticed. “Hey careful now. You’re about to use those goods.”

Tai chuckled. “Sorry, want me to kiss it better?”

That wasn’t a half bad idea. But as he approached their bed, he found himself distracted by a small, colorful array left in the center of his pillow. Flowers, just as promised. But not just any flowers; Dahlias. One white, one black, and one yellow, neatly tied together with a blue ribbon. It was one of the few plants he knew what they were meant to symbolize.

Qrow was not a romantic, that was as true as the sky was blue.

But once upon a time, he tried to be.

When he and Summer had first started to date, nothing had changed incredibly much about their lives – except their days were filled with a lot more kissing and sneaking away between (or sometimes during) classes for a quick romp in the dorm. They didn’t even really go out that often; since they already saw each other every day, it felt arbitrary to ‘make time’ for just each other. It was comfortable and easy. But on the anniversary of his and Summer’s first date, he had wanted to do something she’d never expect. Because somewhere along the way he’d done something stupid.

He’d fallen in love with her.

And like all idiots who fell in love, Qrow was swept away with the desire to tell her in the most memorable way possible. What better way to do that then to give his Rose a rose?

When he dragged Tai along for his ‘expert’ opinion and told him his idea, he was quickly shot down.

“What do you mean it’s a terrible idea? Roses are practically the romantic flower queen!” Qrow had argued, shoving a fistful of them right in his face.

Tai’s eyes continued to judge him over the tops of the blooms. “Buddy, if you want her to know you put exactly zero thought into this, then give her roses.”

“Well what would you do Casanova?”

He hummed, giving the shop a once over, before laser focusing on one corner of the room. “Oh, over here!”

Qrow grunted as he was dragged by his elbow to another display of flowers. They came in a variety of colors, with tall stems and petals that burst out in multiple layers. He recognized them quickly, as the tribe would collect them occasionally. The roots were thick like potato tubers and very sweet. They were useful for a kick of energy during seasons in which they didn’t have much food. He didn’t know anything beyond that. But that was why Tai was here – back where he was from, his family owned a flower shop. He had a fairly detailed knowledge on the whole ‘symbolism’ matter.

“Dahlias?” He asked.

“Yeah, they’re a wedding flower.”

His heart practically jogged a marathon. “What?! Dude! I’m not proposing!”

Tai laughed, already plucking two out from their vases. “I know, I just wanted to mess with you. But the reason they’re a wedding flower is because they stand for loyalty and commitment.” He held them towards him; a white one and a bloom so deep red, it appeared almost black. “Tie these two together with a blue ribbon and that’ll tell her you want to make this serious.”

He didn’t have to guess why the ribbon had to be blue. That was a Mistralian custom. Many that hailed from there were told the same folktale about how the sea and the sky once were colorless and sad, until they fell in love. They began to stretch, on and on, to try and reach one another. When they finally touched, making the horizon, they turned blue and from their love, they birthed the continents.

He knew now that was all utter nonsense – but the tale was practically the foundation for the culture of his people. From the fact parents still named their children after things either of the water or the sky to the very shade of their Kingdom’s symbol, blue would likely always be Mistral’s most significant color. Therefore, giving something blue to a significant other was meant to represent that they had the same unending love for them that the sky and the sea had.

So, he did what Tai suggested – and while the flowers didn’t last long, his and Summer’s relationship did, growing and thriving. Every year, he still gave the dahlia pair to her on the anniversary of their first date. They’d become so iconic, something that represented them, that she’d even had fake ones sewn to her wedding dress. Her bouquet had real ones and had been tied together with a big, blue ribbon.

They had planned to have some yellow ones strewn in with the black and white ones, but Tai had been adamantly against it, not wanting to step into their tradition like that. So, they had let it be, and settled on sunflowers instead.

It seemed something had finally changed his mind.

Qrow picked up the mini bouquet, smiling as he ghosted a thumb over the velvet soft petals. “You know, someone once told me that giving these flowers away means you want to be with them forever.”

“Oh really?” Tai loosely wound his arms around his waist. “Must have been someone pretty smart.”

He gave a thoughtful hum. “He was blond; so no, not really.”

A swift nip to his shoulder reprimanded him. “I changed my mind, you jerk. Give them back.”

“No. They’re mine.” He said holding them to his chest. He squirmed as Tai wiggled his fingers up his stomach, making a move to grab them. He slapped them. “Go away!”

“Not until I get my flowers.”

One of those hands started to tickle his side, and he burst into laughter, trying to twist away as the other came to loot him again. He pinned it. “Get your own thief! I’m – WAAH!”

Qrow’s vision swiveled around as he was suddenly hefted up like a bride and tossed onto the bed. He tried to scoot backwards and out of reach, but Tai was quicker, climbing up on top of him and pinning him down as he demanded, “Give me those flowers!”

“Never!” He proclaimed, throwing his arm up above his head. When Tai tried to stretch over him, he grabbed his shoulder, pushing him back. He was satisfied when he felt fingers only skim his elbow. “You’re gonna have to do better than th-”

The rest of his taunt was lost when Tai smashed their lips together, forcing his tongue into his mouth. Not that Qrow was complaining, eyes slipping closed as he was coaxed into returning the kiss. A moment later, they were easing up, falling into a rhythm only two people could have from doing this more times than they could count.

When they broke apart, Tai’s voice was husky and his eyes were dark, a storm of passion in those deep blue irises. “What say we see how far down your body I can get until Summer joins us?”

He was all too happy to tilt his head back and reply, “I’m all yours sunshine.”

[throwingideasatthewall]

Clone Wars      Revenge

Fun fact; I acc-         idental-ly started the wrong episode

       [So a little Spoiled]

   Didn’t make it far past the intro of          “Re-Vival,”

     [Past           “Outer Rim,”]

      Onto the actual             episode;

       [Logo Red]                   Still weakest-

      [also yeah whatever happened to      Grievous?

     Like, he complained about it being           beneath him,

      And then      we never saw him        again,

    That entire-    episode;

    As well as        Ana kin;

   That entire        dinner          scene;

      [Seriously was that only for cheap trick to     establish tension?.]      [Obi         -Wan           ]  

      Oh yeah      he straight up       murdered         a person

      [Fun.     -          little de          tail-]

       (Like yeah he murders a lot of people        but I’m pretty sure      that was a big one)

    -

  Any how,    

     ?           Aight             -      oh yeah 

return    -ing       to the abuser-

    -       

   ?    Can      Relate-          -    B-r

   He’s - basically screaming

     Also couldn’t you just set it to auto pilot -

     - and go take care of him?

      Like - I know it’s a junker

       Also-

  Oh,

   You left the person-

    Who are you found curled            -up,           Under several things-            Of garbage-             In a quite literal            labyrinth,

         In an enclosed space            ~with no way to get to you-             ~ if something goes wrong           and/or              they feel afraid

            ~Like~          Trauma is it’s own animal and venting is fucking weird

          But if you’re going to be involved-

            I don’t think throwing them in the back is the best idea-

            Like yeah

           The idea in this case is sending them to accoun-                 tability-

           With just           them-selves-

            But the difference-

           Is it just a sterile environment         with the basics they need to survive,

            And an environment that is stable and pretty            much completely in their control,

          [as much that can be allowed]

           Here there are  plenty of boxes                   (Things out of               control-)         and the vehicle is constantly moving

            No wonder        dude’s               freaking                 Out,

           [You’re                  Damn-

   [Point        being;

      Savage’s           bedside             manner;          Accoun-tability?                Pretty               bad,

                 [Like even I am most known for my                       vengeance,                         And you know it’s bad                        when I’m telling you to cut him a                      fecking break]

                     Like                          dude’s                    pathetic,

                    [Can’t help pity-                         ]                        [Enabler]

 That also makes a lot of sense

Like, yeah he’s far above the ground

         When stability-

   [Dude ate the full       tox]

 [Like dude completely bought his own        lies]

 I-  don’t know how to feel about that situation other than please take him to accountability  before he hurts him self        Please,

 ,

Yeah gaslighting will clearly help    toaster strudel,       here,

      ?            ?

    How are you supposed to do that when           you trapped him in an         en-closed           Space-

         ?

        Dude some ship contain-ers shifted and now you’re blaming him for not moving,

        (Like I get the implication that he scared and he moved it in front but we really didn’t see much to indicate that)

       Like they just moved on their     own,

    And dude did literally nothing to help his cornered brother out of the thing

    [like I’m not for enabling tox]

   But self-defense and         anticipatory           [as well as innocent until            done guilt,                   “

   Is pretty high     on my list of reserv         -ations,

         [Gen             Stick as close to              Account.                as possible,               -]

            ?

          Yeah probably a good idea           considering War zone,

            ?

           Yeah they’ve         been dead for a while and did it largely of their              own regard-                  ,

              ?

            Yeah             sucks for him,

           Coming back,

              To this

             [also you think the Flashy amulet would be telling him not to because you know the attack ,

             Green smoke

             [Time to get        gasolighten]        -          ?

    Mother-       -         He-re

   Clearly dead

   [and your      Gen clearly didn’t have medical on staff              .               Like yeah they have magic that can bring back the dead but they don’t know first aid,

         Great

 [For witches they really don’t know a lot about      herbs and      stuff

  (The Cauldron       yeah,)

    Which is weird because   mred is generally associated with physical    knowledge

   (The science       s)

   And he did a real good job,

    Like we-akest dude on the board whose job amounts to         widespread warfare           (But a pretty disastrous record in          guerilla warfare)

        And you still lost him with the late present playing in              (What was even their focuses              ?)

      Su-rvive

     Lady, there is one of you,

     Two if you count Ventress,

  Unless,

   Oh no

   Nope keep your weird       creepy re-venge        cult,

      In the past,

      ?

       -

    “Would,”

          [which is why            I didn’t get him                 myself         ]

                    [Better]

                    [For                        Every

                     One,]

        “Damage                  ed,”

     Which is why I brought            him to you              Gas-lighter                         -                   “Life,”

    Oh instead of taking into accountability

         Let’s subject him to more                 abuse;

            Some                   Thing             The past        is tox,

  Would definitely be better for him to wake up in a nice        warm place with food,

    Kenobi

   Didn’t he     just rem-ember that         now?

      Like;

     Why is there the        rattling of chains?

     (Oh yeah let’s re-introduced to          enabler to its toxic abuser;

        Like yeah           I know it’s still there            because he didn’t deal with it,

          But he’s clearly not in the head space

            [Seriously just send the bastard to accountability]

                  [empathetically]                          Gas light

                     [i’m trying not to make as many jokes about the gaslighting but that is a literal gaslight]

                     Hey isn’t that the    illusion of help,

                     [Also how is that supposed to help with the        crates?]

     Also yeah wouldn’t that piss him off more because of light, light saber the last time that occurred?

     [Like I’m not saying don’t use herbs on the guy who got injured, I’m just saying try to make it less pain...ful?

              Ok, seriously those boxes were a lot hotter to move a few seconds ago what the heck

        [it’s not major.     but it is a minor          thing?]

          .                  F-ollow

        And make the injured, toxic dous-ed-              Person run,

           (This family’s bedside manner is               fuckin awful,

             His horns?

              Seriously is no one          going to help him,

               ?

   And a graveyard

    Perfect nothing better to put your patients at ease then being surrounded by the dead women’s of the last patients

                 Great

    Guessing the surgery isn’t going to be approved by any            surgeons lately-

         ?

        Un-attainable

         ?

       Geez,

        Like some herbs could’ve done that you didn’t need to     poke him,

        Like how is that supposed to help him go to    sleep?

      ?

      That’s clearly not sleeping,

       Which is good because that’s not a           Gaslighter talent         (TALENT is used          very loosely here,)

     “Symptom”       is more           like it,

        [Like, that was         fear as he fell back and she        poked him in the face,]

Aw,

  [This was way too screwed up to be             Complete acceptance of guilt                    And healing,

               So,

              Symbolism wise,

    I’m going to have to go with more gaslighting

  Aka, pretending to fix the       issue,

      Because that’s not how it works in either a       psychological sense or            (Obvious               ly           Medical)

                                                        The witches                                                              practice                                                           pho-science

                          Not a line                              I’d thought                            I’d be uttering,

                                   But up to this point they’ve been keeping it mostly on point for gaslighting        (Sy-mbolism)

                       Here it   kinda breaks down,

                        Like, how

Unless    it’s higher point.

     But No.

    Scene         doesn’t really make       sense,

 (Like the     ani-      mation have no idea what    theo-      retically          is going on,

         Emotions,                Nada,

 Damn, herbs       Lady, herbs,

  Like,        I don’t-      Think        The      Medicals        Would          Be         Too       Happy,          With the lack           of            anesthetic              There,

       (Like             Geez-  Think dude would        ra-

      ?

  (Like that’s some       tox feckin      medical lady,)

    Also great now he’s gone unconscious from stress; hopefully you didn’t emotionally scar the bastard,

       Geez,

     Yeah I would’ve that kinda      frozen terror reaction to if that shit happen  

    “Ow!”

     Like, dude, no wonder,

    ?

    Feels wrong,

    Oh, those were his feet

    Also yeah leave your patient in a terrifying          ce-met-        ery

   I don’t think anyone could       blame       me for feeling bad for this guy at this point,

    Like lady is a bunch of malpractices wrapped in a bunch of         ‘fucking don’t’

     Terrible bedside

        Tor-ment-

         Legs

     [Honestly, surprised         dude isn’t screaming in terror, pain and agony

      [That take some serious breathing exercises]

      [excuse me if I sound a bit pho-science]           ]

      Geez

    Re-stored

   Not the      word,

   Some humor      might’ve been appreciated there

    Also yeah what about his organs and      shit?

     How.

   [i’m getting too much in the    medical.

   Just,

   This,     shouldn’t have wor      -k       -ed           -            Seriously 

   That is your reaction?

   [I was honestly expecting          his vocal cords             to be shot,]

      Like I was not expecting Lord Butter              of the Fucking Edgy

        Was expecting like a       stutter or some thing,

      [You know a gradual recovery       Period]

      Dude talking like it’s been a few months, a few years since this whole thing went down

     “ oh yes it was a very dark place.”

        Like I feel like that’s kind of cheating,

         Like,

         That shouldn’t            have fixed it,

         You just ran past a very             interesting conflict           with space magic-

         [Like I guess I don’t have to worry about his grudges              with anyone]

       -and Tal-Zin surprisingly didn’t use this make the        trauma go away button with           Ventress

            [That feels like              cheating,]

             Oh, so he has probl-e-ms                 sta-nding?

               [Like, what?

                Is the            problem?

                 ]

                 Also yeah don’t help him at all dude

           Like going on about how           im-portant he is-

                                  I mean his bed-side-

            No on second thought you stay over there, you’ll probably attempt to gaslight him otherwise,

             Anyway after that Adventure in  Malpractice and Gaslighting                    ,              Dark music,

            Just stumbles          ar-ound,

       Sur-vive

       ?

      Was that an an-swer?

       I-

     Well that went from Captain Butter I-am-       Over-it,

     To Murder,

    Pretty damn         fast,

       ,

     Also what about the male tribe,       you know where these guys came from?

    Like Ventress only screwed with a small portion of    them,

    (Like a significant portion of their offspring        , but not the whole village)

       Then that other          village?

       (The one-   on the other planet?)

     Any-way,

    Stop

 Well this just went    from one to     basket Case-       -  

[Ok where did this come from?]

  [what’s-       with the soliloquy)         ]

    -        Found

   Seriously,

    Whoa,

    Like that   anger takes time to build up,

   Don’t get me     wrong   I’m no expert on space magic;

  However this is why I have issue with magic;

                  [Specifically                         non-elemental;                         (Earth, water                         fire, air,                            And                          Lightning)

                          Because you have to be really specific about what it represents and get the side effects right

         Otherwise it’s just a reality breaking                    cheap trick,

                     Skipping past a lot of interesting    conflict and emotions,

                     [Had they done that and just started it off at   some     random           Emotional)         Plot point)

       I think I could follow              -ed it easier,              (Or at all)

        Because right now he’s just acting very inconsistently and        irrationally

  (And not the           emotional     “drank the whole bottle of          tox,”           ,The puppet shouting lines with no connection with each other, making absolutely no sense            Kind

 Like “Congrats, you’ve got the emotion        now you need the consistency,”

      (You can’t have your time skip      and        your emotional conflict too,

    They are connected    and you have to earn them,

         E-motion

   (Yeah,        people who swallowed the whole tox pill don’t tend          To be        very good at that,)

      That’s why they’re sent accountability

       So there’s no additional pressure

       (And they can go through the long relatively painful process in as much peace as possible,  should they decide            to,

      In-stead of stewing in their own      mi-sery-            -                |.  

         ?

    Heck did you find     that?

     Like he and his light saber presumably fell to the ground and will deliver to the same dump,

      (Is that Savage’s?)

        ?

          Or an        instigating abuser who has less power than literally anyone else                 (Their victims)

            Aside from the                Gen break,

              -                   Great recap

             It’s completely unnatural 

     and forced,

              [Like you could’ve had him slowly regain his memory and repeat this back,

         This being like a prime recovery arc moment

           The arc words     of recovery,

      But you rushed it

       Now, it’s non-       sense,

       [This is why    you have to take time doing things,]

         Heck it didn’t even have to be an               arc long-

           Maul runs the top of a hill,                 With Savage- cha                  s-ing,

              [Stops suddenly,]

               [Silence]

               [you get a nice cinematic shot of the sun or some of the     celestial bodies,

     [with the emotions im-plied of      someone who just came back to        life-]

��      [and is seeing the world         sentient for the first time,             ]

        “I-

          [Fumbled                   for              Words]

             I- was                   -The                      Appren-

               [Really adding               that depth of                 loss,]

                 [Savage possibly                        taking his shoulder,                     possibly emphasizing                            a new edge                          to his character,      An empathetic one,

                   “you can start anew,”

                    “C’mon let’s head back to the                      ship,”  

                       [Guide Maul back to the ship

                        [Dying sunlight]             

 For some      humor;         *Turns           Back,            Keys           hanging           off          finger,”

     “you can ride          in the front           this time             around,”

     [MIGHT BE TOO             FLUFFY]

    [Can adjust       using color scheme;         And more aggressive              tone,]

           So, yeah, that was episode              [not the side pieces]

    The first half         was         relatively good...

      Before promptly descending into        bat shit insanity        (Not in the good               way....)

      [Around the resurrection of Maul              from the           gas magic)

  From there,         The tone gets pretty thin        and intel..

     With the brief whiff           of emotion,

        That barely passes decent            on the fun scale,

          Not passing fun

         Just luke warm humor,

             Over images                  happening,

             With little (or-no                   connection)-

                ?                       [They still haven’t fixed Obi-wan’s                           eyes,                           Or his tone,                             Or his                               face,

                           Man is like an expression- less       Emotion-less doll,]

                               Competing with Anakin                                  for the youngest looking Jedi

                              [not sure if that was the point with the re-assignment      surgery/     Facial   reconstruction).      Arc

   But they really need to talk with the med Droid         that approved that       and get a       fix,

    The inability to express emotion        isn’t cute,

     (He looks        like a toy!)

     -Not Good-

     -

[dipulb3]

Review: Motorola Edge Plus is a 5G premium phone worth your consideration

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Review: Motorola Edge Plus is a 5G premium phone worth your consideration

The Motorola Edge Plus has pretty much everything you’d hope for in a premium 5G phone: A Snapdragon 865 chipset, a giant battery, an OLED screen with a high refresh rate and multiple rear cameras with heavy-duty specs. Motorola took features found on other top-of-the-line Android phones, put its own Moto spin on them and built them all into one of the most wonderful Android phones I’ve tried in a long time.

Like

Long-lasting battery so far.

Edge display.

Best cameras on any Moto phone.

Don’t Like

Verizon exclusive.

No IP rating for water resistance.

Night Vision isn’t great.

But there are two things about the phone that can impede its success. One is its chunky build and lack of IP rating for water or dust resistance. The other is that it’s sold as a Verizon exclusive in the US, which could shut out interested buyers. Considering the Edge Plus is competing in a sea of other 5G, Snapdragon 865-powered phones, it needs all the advantages it can get. Anyone in the market for such a device can afford to be picky. 

Want a screen with a higher refresh rate than 90Hz? Check out the 120Hz displays on the Galaxy S20 Plus or OnePlus 8 Pro ($999 at OnePlus). Want something that costs less than the $1,000 Motorola Edge Plus? Check out the $900 OnePlus 8 Pro (again) or the LG V60. Craving a camera that can shoot video at a higher resolution than 6K? Consider the V60 once more or any of the Galaxy S20 phones that can record 8K video. All of these phones are viable options because each offers its own mix of features, and some will appeal to you more than others.

After a week with the Motorola Edge Plus, I found it to be so much more than its spec list. The phone is absolutely charming —  it takes good photos (just not the best), has a promising long battery life (though final results from testing aren’t in yet) and has a striking design. If you’re a Verizon customer it’s worth considering when it goes on sale in May. If you’re not, there are plenty of other options to choose from including a scaled-down version of the phone called the Motorola Edge, which will be sold unlocked starting this summer.

Motorola Edge Plus’ wraparound display

It would be lazy to compare the looks of the Motorola Edge Plus to recent Samsung Galaxy phones. They have a similar design language but express it differently. The Edge Plus embraces a sleek industrial design compared to the nail-polished gloss of the Galaxy S20 and S20 Plus.

As its name suggests, what defines this phone is its 6.7-inch OLED screen that wraps around the edges of the phone nearly 90 degrees. It is gorgeous and looks even better with a 90Hz high refresh rate instead of the more common 60Hz. This means text looks sharper, and animations and scrolling are smoother. Obviously there are phones with higher refresh rate displays, such as the 144Hz screen on Nubia Red Magic 5G gaming phone, but 90Hz is no slouch. Motorola also claims it saves on battery drain. I used both 90Hz and 120Hz screens and there is less of a difference between them than, say, a 60Hz and 90Hz one.

The screen wraps halfway down each side of the Motorola Edge Plus,

Sarah Tew/CNET

When I tilt it at various angles, the edge either looks brighter or darker than the main, flat part of the display. This is especially apparent when I’m on the home screen or in Settings. It can be a bit distracting. Maybe it’s the angle of the edges, or the way the backlighting works in the bend, but I’m surprised to see this on a phone at this price. But when I’m watching a video that spills over the sides, it’s barely noticeable.

The 19.5:9 ratio screen is tall and narrow, but the shape of the phone makes it comfortable to hold. The wide aspect ratio is perfect for watching many movies that are also shot at a wide aspect ratio. I watched The Good, The Bad and The Ugly on the Edge Plus and it filled the screen perfectly.

The speakers sound good and deliver solid bass. Whether I was playing the Beastie Boys, Wu-Tang Clan, Andrew Bird, Sharon Jones or the Kronos Quartet, music sounded loud and full. If you don’t want to blast your music, there’s also a headphone jack.

There’s a fingerprint reader built into the front display. When I reviewed the Moto Z4 ($330 at Amazon), which also had an in-screen fingerprint sensor, it never seemed to work on the first try. The one on the Edge Plus works great though. It’s fast and I rarely have to scan my finger twice to unlock my phone like on the Z4.

The Motorola Edge Plus looks smooth and sleek with its waterfall display

See all photos

Good photos, solid macro camera and 6K videos

This is the best camera system I’ve used on a Motorola, but I wouldn’t say it’s the best camera system on any phone. Motorola deserves praise for what it’s accomplished with its camera hardware and processing. But it’s still a step behind Apple and Google. 

There are three cameras on the back and one on the front. The main camera has a 108-megapixel sensor that combines four pixels into one, through a process called “pixel binning.” This results in brighter 27-megapixel photos with less image noise when you shoot in medium and low light situations.

The Edge Plus captures photos with punchy colors.

Patrick Holland/CNET

The phone is capable of good HDR photos but is still a step behind computation photography from Apple and Google.

Patrick Holland/CNET

Look at the detail the Edge Plus was able to capture in Cheddar the cat’s fur.

Patrick Holland/CNET

The Edge Plus did a decent job exposing for the sign with minimal blow out of highlights from the sun.

Patrick Holland/CNET

The pixel binning works well on this phone. You can choose not to pixel bin and instead take a 108-megapixel photo, but I recommend only doing this in bright, even light. Also, the file size is huge: Expect a 25MB file instead of the 8MB one created by pixel binning. So if you’re trying to be frugal with the Edge Plus’ 256GB of storage, pixel binning is be the way to go.

Both the main camera and the 8-megapixel telephoto camera have optical image stabilization. This helped with “zoomed in” photos by reducing camera shake. Take a look below at this 3x zoom photo I took of a tree in my back yard at sunset.

This was taken at sunset with the 3x telephoto camera on the Motorola Edge Plus.

Patrick Holland/CNET

This was captured with the 3x telephoto camera.

Patrick Holland/CNET

The third rear camera has a 16-megapixel sensor with an ultrawide-angle macro lens. The macro lens allowed me to focus my photos and videos just millimeters away from my subject. In the photo below you can see the texture of the paper.

The macro mode is capable of capturing an incredible amount of details.

Patrick Holland/CNET

Not only was macro mode able to focus close, but look at the details it captured in the metal.

Patrick Holland/CNET

Portrait mode on both the front and rear cameras works well too. There’s a time-of-flight sensor on the back of the phone that gathers depth information and makes rear portrait mode photos especially gorgeous. I was impressed by how natural and accurate the portraits I took were.

The cutout between the foreground and the background is one of the most natural-looking I’ve seen from a portrait mode on any phone.

Patrick Holland/CNET

But this camera system isn’t perfect. One of its weakest features is Motorola’s Night Vision feature. Like night mode on other phones, the Edge Plus takes a series of images and combines them together for a brighter and sharper photo. The results were better than when I took a photo without Night Vision enabled, but it’s nowhere near the level of Night Mode on the iPhone 11 Pro or Night Sight on the Pixel 4.

Video capture on the Edge Plus is good too and you can record with up to a 6K resolution, but it can be better. The image quality is fine, but white balance seems off to me and colors are oversaturated. You might like that, but it’s a tad too much sometimes for me. Take a look at the video below, which includes a bunch of clips I shot in 6K. 

The Edge Plus also supports Portrait Mode video which is better than it should be. I’m honestly impressed by some of the results I got, but it’s still far from perfect. If you get this phone, it’s worth a try. And I think if I played around with it more, I could learn the kinds of environments where it works best. It only works on the rear camera, but you could use it to make cool-looking vlogs if you don’t mind filming blind.

Edge screen features and Moto Gametime

The Edge Plus runs a near stock version of Android 10 with a light dusting of features and shortcuts by Motorola. You have the usual Moto gesture controls, such as the double karate chop to turn on a flashlight and flicking your wrist to open the camera. But there are a number of new additions that take advantage of the edges of the display. One of my favorites allows you to slide your finger down the edge to pull down the notifications shade and control panel. 

There’s also a virtual pill-shaped button on the right edge that you can use to go back to the previous app or turn off the edge parts of the screen. I kept it as a last app button and found I used it quite a lot. When the phone is faced down, I liked being able to see the edges light up for notifications or to show the battery charging.

One the bottom right side of the photo you can see a button drawn with a neon blue line that can be customized and used as a shoulder button during gameplay on the Motorola Edge Plus.

Patrick Holland/CNET

Perhaps one of the coolest things you can do with that edge is have two digital shoulder buttons when using Moto Gametime. It feels like using a game controller. I customized the buttons for PUBG, for example, so the right shoulder button attacks and the left shoulder button kneels. This straight-up turns the Motorola Edge Plus into a gaming phone, albeit without the aggressive styling and light-up logo.

Top of the line Android performance

The Motorola Edge Plus supports both millimeter wave and Sub-6 5G, which help future-proof the phone for a few years as the 5G network is built out more. Verizon’s 5G service wasn’t available where I was testing the phone, but I look forward to trying it out sometime in the future.

In terms of processor performance, the Motorola Edge Plus hangs with the fastest Android phones out right now. It scored nearly identical to its Snapdragon 865 siblings the Galaxy S20 Plus and OnePlus 8 Pro.

3DMark Slingshot Unlimited

Note:

Longer bars indicate better performance

Geekbench v.5.0 single-core

Note:

Longer bars indicate better performance

Geekbench v.5.0 multicore

Note:

Longer bars indicate better performance

The Edge Plus’ 5,000-mAh battery is the same capacity as the LG V60 and the Galaxy S20 Ultra. I’m still running battery-drain tests with the phone, and will update this review in the future with the results. In daily use, it easily made it through two days for me. But if you need a recharge, the phone has 15W turbo charging as well as wireless charging and reverse wireless charging. 

Motorola Edge Plus specs compared to Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus, OnePlus 8 Pro, LG V60, Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra

Motorola Edge Plus Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus OnePlus 8 Pro LG V60 ThinQ 5G Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra Display size, resolution 6.7-inch FHD OLED 6.7-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X 6.78-inch AMOLED; 1,440×3,168 pixels 6.8-inch OLED; 2,460×1,080 pixels 6.9-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X Pixel density NA 525ppi 513ppi 395ppi 511ppi Dimensions (Inches) 6.34×2.81×0.38 in 2.9×6.37×0.30 in 6.51×2.93×0.35 in 6.67×3.06×0.35 in 2.99×6.57×0.35 in Dimensions (Millimeters) 161.1×71.4×9.6 mm 73.7×161.9×7.8mm 165×74.4×8.5 mm 169.3×77.6×8.79 mm 76.0×166.9×8.8 mm Weight (Ounces, Grams) 7.16 oz; 203g 6.56 oz; 186g 7.02 oz; 199g 7.72 oz; 218g 7.76 oz; 220g Mobile software Android 10 Android 10 Android 10 Android 10 Android 10 Camera 108-megapixel (standard), 8-megapixel (telephotos), 16-megapixel (macro/ultrawide-angle) 12-megapixel (wide-angle), 64-megapixel (telephoto), 12-megapixel (ultra-wide), time-of-flight camera 48-megapixel (standard), 48-megapixel (ultra-wide), 8-megapixel (telephoto), 5-megapixel (‘color filter’) 64-megapixel (standard), 13-megapixel (wide-angle), time-of-flight camera 108-megapixel (wide-angle), 48-megapixel (telephoto), 12-megapixel (ultra-wide), time-of-flight camera Front-facing camera 25-megapixel 10-megapixel 16-megapixel 10-megapixel (standard) 40-megapixel Video capture 6K 8K 4K 8K 8K Processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 64-bit octa-core processor (Max 2.7GHz + 2.5 GHz + 2.0 GHz) Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 64-bit octa-core processor (Max 2.7GHz + 2.5 GHz + 2.0 GHz) Storage 256GB 128GB, 512GB 128GB, 256GB 128GB 128GB, 512GB RAM 12GB 12GB 8GB, 12GB 8GB 12GB, 16GB Expandable storage No Up to 1TB No 2TB Up to 1TB Battery 5,000 mAh 4,500 mAh 4,510 mAh 5,000 mAh 5,000 mAh Fingerprint sensor In-screen In-screen In-screen In-screen In-screen Connector USB-C USB-C USB-C USB-C USB-C Headphone jack Yes No No Yes No Special features 5G enabled 5G enabled; 120Hz refresh rate; water resistant (IP68) 5G enabled; Warp Charge; reverse wireless charging; water resistant (IP68); 120Hz refresh rate 5G connectivity; water resistant (IP68); wireless charging, Fast Charging 4.0 5G enabled; 120Hz refresh rate; 100X zoom; water resistant (IP68) Price off-contract (USD) $1,000 – Verizon exclusive $1,199, $1,349 $899 (8GB RAM/128GB), $999 (12GB RAM/256GB) $800 (without Dual Screen case); $900-$950 (with) $1,399 (128GB), $1,599 (512GB)

First published on April 30.

[fic-dreamin]

Not as amazing but still pretty great Disclaimer: I read the book after I read the recent reviews so I was prepared to be disappointed. When the book first started I was struggling to hope that the plot would advance at all. However, somewhere around 40℅ I started really enjoying it and could see where the story was going. The character development was important and the stage is set for a final push(I hope just one more book) The book ended too soon for me but I do not regret reading it at all. I will definitely reread it in the future while hoping that the next book epically wraps up all these complex plotlines into one conclusion. Go to Amazon

Middle book that you will read because you liked the first three, but definitely inferior Look, there are reviewers on here with more passion then me, but I am older and went through Jordan and Martin (still) from the get go so...... Go to Amazon

Disappointing entry in a promising series. I am baffled that this book currently has a 4+ star rating. If this book was a standalone entry, I would say it was terrible (2/5). As a book 4, I would say it falls short (3/5). Go to Amazon

So disappointed after waiting such a long time I was so disappointed after finishing this book. I have three main complaints. Number one the story creeps along in at the end I felt like nothing has really happened in the book. Number two he spreads the book between three or four main plot lines which is very different than his previous writing style. It was almost as if he wanted to be George RR Martin. Finally the book and in such a random and abrupt place I kept saying to myself this can't be the end. Love the series I'll have to hook the next book is back to his usual writing style Go to Amazon

That's it? Just finished reading it, and my honest reaction was "That's it?" I actually doublechecked just to make sure I hadn't accidentally skipped a bunch of stuff. Nope. To put into context, I have loved loved loved this series, at least once it truly got off the ground, and have felt like each novel in the series built to an even more powerful crescendo than the one before. Then this one came along. No spoilers, but I feel like NOTHING HAPPENED other than getting the pieces into place for the next book. Lots of blah blah blah and slow moving around. The reference in one of the other reviews to the trajectory of the Wheel of Time series is spot on. I was hoping for more, and better. Guess I'll have to wait til the next one, and cross my fingers. Sorry BW, love your writing, but not this particular piece. Go to Amazon

Less action, more character Like all of Week's books, I couldn't put this one down. Unlike his other books, this one is less about world building and amazing moments and more about making his characters to be extremely vulnerable people. This makes them stronger from a narrative standpoint, but the book is not as action packed as his other novels. To some this may make it less enjoyable, but I personally love character-driven tales. This book, more so than the previous three, makes Kip, Gavin, Teia, and the whole host of characters struggle and grow. One of Teia's last lines to Karris, which I won't spoil here, is especially heart-breaking given who she is. The political pressures at work affect all characters in extreme ways. As with his previous work, I now can't wait for the next book. Go to Amazon

Mid-series slow-down As much as I enjoy the occasional digression, especially when written by an author with a knack for clever dialogue, there were far too many of those in this book, at the expense of advancing the plot. Lots of things occurred, but very little *happened*. The few major plot developments that did happen weren't explored—it felt like the book ended right when you're saying "finally we're getting to the good part". Disappointing. I still will continue the series, but this was the weakest entry by far. Go to Amazon

Amazing as always! Brent knocks it out of the park!!! you know how good this series is Absolutely love this series Five Stars Absolutely beautiful Five Stars Slowly towards the end Five Stars Brilliant! Must Read