#But we're reunited

[umilily]

WE'RE SO BACK!!!!

[taehyunghobi]

princess wave 🫅🏻👋🏻

[bearybutch]

love at first bite 💋🦇🩸

[areyoudoingthis]

"fishermen and pirates are nothing alike" is actually such a heartbreaking line because in his own silly way he's telling stede that he thinks they're incompatible now because they want entirely different things from life and he doesn't believe he's worth more to stede than piracy and glory so he'll just walk away first this time before stede has the chance to leave him again

[wistfulwatcher]

The Girls on the Bus | 1.04 Two Americas

[fromtheseventhhell]

Arya and Dany stans: *discuss the likelihood that they'll have a positive relationship given their parallels, foreshadowing, status as key characters, and being two of George's favorite characters*

Stansas: Is this Sansa shade?

I think it's hilarious that Stansas got mad at me for (accurately) pointing out that they accuse Arya and Dany stans of being motivated by Sansa hate simply because...we get along and like both of them lol. The idea of them getting along is about their characters and has nothing to do with Sansa. Just because they pit Dany and Arya against each other for Sansa's sake doesn't mean we're motivated by the same thing. Are there some conversations that bring up Sansa + Arya's strained relationship? Absolutely, that isn't baseless in the books considering they're written as foils and George has already said they have issues they need to work out. The "Stark sisters 4ever" fantasy they have is just that, and it's funny we never see this same energy for Arya being turned into a prop for her sister 🤔. Sisterhood didn't stop Sansa from siding with Joffrey, telling Cersei that Arya was a traitor (even though she had no idea where Arya was), or calling Arya unsatisfactory when she thought that she was dead so why are we supposed to pretend it's an all-important factor when discussing Arya's potential relationships with other characters?

[queerplatonicdiaries]

long!!! distance!!!! sucks!!!!!!

[jq37]

Descendants: The Rise of Red is kind of a bizarre movie to talk about critically because, imo, it almost doesn't make sense to talk about it in the usual terms of good vs bad or enjoyable vs not enjoyable when the way more obvious tension is finished vs unfinished.

Because, more than any other movie I've ever seen, it does *not* read as a full movie. And I don't mean in a "this movie has a cliffhanger" kind of way. The Empire Strikes Back and Across the Spiderverse fit that description. They end on big dramatic cliffhangers that point to a resolution in the third installment.

But Rise of Red just sets all this stuff up and then...ends without concluding anything. It doesn't feel like the first movie in a trilogy (or duology). It feels like the first act of a two-act musical. It very specifically reminds me of the end of the first act of Into the Woods where all the main characters sing the song Ever After about how they all fixed their problems with magic and nothing bad will ever happen to them again and then the narrator ominously says "To be continued" before the curtain drops. But in Into the Woods you know there's a second act and this movie wasn't sold as the first act of a bigger story. Like sure, it has the, "You didn't think this was the end" tag at the end like all the other movies, but those movies were complete, self-contained stories even though they had sequels. This was NOT a full story. It's half of one story.

Like, if we're supposed to take this as a full story, there are so many bizarre choices:

Why did they make sure to mention that Cinderella and Charming fell in love at the ball at the top if it wasn't meant to set up Back to the Future style, "Oh no, I accidentally got my mom banned from the ball so she's not gonna fall in love with Dad and I won't be born" shenanigans?

Why did Maddox very pointedly have that bit about "you could lose your mom completely" if that was never going to come into play? Red never did anything to endanger Bridget or endanger her own birth so it doesn't make sense as a warning in that way.

Why was there all this focus on this Carrie on prom night moment for Bridget if we LITERALLY NEVER SAW CASTLECOMING? Why dance around this moment and talk about it all cloak and dagger with no specificity if they weren't building up to some big reveal that it wasn't as straightforward as it seemed? And like, they leaned in HARD with making Bridget the nicest, sweetest, cotton candy princess as a teen so I need WAY more than, "She got pranked by known bullies she's been enduring with a smile very handily up to this point" to buy that she went from that to "murderous dictator". And even if she did become murderous, I find it insanely hard to believe that she'd include her best and only friend on the list of people she wants to suffer unless there was a betrayal. I find it INSANE that there wasn't a falling out scene at any point in this movie with how thickly they were laying on the admiration and camaraderie.

(Note: And adult Cinderella def has guilty vibes re: the Queen at orientation. Which I know I'm not imagining because it's literally spelled out in the Jr Novelization!)

Before the time travel element of the movie started, I thought they were going for something like they go to the past and realize that Bridget was bullied not by the VKs but by the spoiled royals, and Ella ends up joining in the bullying once she gets with Charming, betraying Bridget and justifying her whole "Love Ain't It" philosophy. Or Ella ditching her at the last minute to be with Charming meaning she has to deal with the monster prank alone and it was the being alone rather than the prank itself that hurt her (though that is NOT a good enough reason to go all off with their heads on your subjects). The fact that, as far as we know right now, it literally was just a relatively mild and reversible prank that caused all of this is just, such flat storytelling, you know?

But! All of this makes way more sense if this is meant to be the first act of a single contained story. And I don't wanna be all "Pepe Silvia, secret good 4th episode of Sherlock" about this but I did see this picture:

Which seems to indicate that this was written as a Part One. Which, if so, idk why they wouldn't advertise it that way but whatever. The point is, if that's the case then it means that we're potentially in bad pacing territory rather than straight up bad storytelling territory. Because this isn't a bad place to be halfway through your story:

The heroes, warned that time travel is dangerous, have gone back in time to change the heart of a brutal tyrant before she can stage a coup. They seemingly succeed in their mission and when they come home, everything is great! But then, the side effects of time travel start to catch up with them. Chloe realizes that, in breaking the vase, she prevented her mother from going to the ball and falling in love with her dad (who was conspicuously absent from the final scene btw) which means she's starting to be forgotten and erased from the timeline. And Red realizes that though this new version of her mom is as sweet and kind as the teen she once met, she's a complete stranger to her (fulfilling the Hatter's warning that she could lose her mom completely). So they have to go back in time once more to make sure the Ella and Charming fall in love again, perhaps at the cost of whatever bad thing that happened to Bridget happening again and bringing back the original version of her future self. But, now with more context of how her mom became that way, Red can now talk to her mother and persuade her to give people another chance.

Boom, that gives us time to go back and hit everything we haven't yet hit. We can pay off the time travel tropes that were set up but not explored. We can go to Castlecoming which feels so obviously set up to be the centerpiece of this story (like, come on, Back to the Future literally does the school dance thing. This is Time Travel Storytelling 101). We can actually get info about what the prank was and why it affected Bridget so completely.

(Note: This is a side thing but it really strikes me as so crazy that Bridget would so SUCH a big 180 here. Like, I know the Queen of Hearts is a silly, goofy, campy villain, but she straight up murders people and there's no way to get around that if we're taking her out of the surreal story she comes from and putting her in a (comparatively) grounded story. If I wasn't doing a betrayal plot, I would make the twist that the spell that turned Bridget into a "monster" didn't just have a physical effect, it had a mental effect and it magically twisted her personality to be the way it is now. So they broke the physical half of the curse, but neglected the other half and it's been festering the whole time, turning her as evil as she was sweet. Because like, a simple physical transformation isn't that big of a deal to have such heavy security--Bridget made cupcakes with a transformative effect and that was totally fine. I'm not saying that that's what's gonna be the case. I just think it would be an explanation that makes sense for why she changed so crazy much that makes more sense than a simple prank or even a betrayal. Her mom wasn't even evil! How did she go from zero to murder without even an evil mom to push her onto the path? But I'm super digressing right now.)

(Note #2: OK, one last thing. The trap on the book presumably would have hit the VK's and trapped them in Merlin's office regardless of what Chloe and Red did, right? That's like, net zero influence on the timeline. I genuinely can't tell if that's a straight up plot hole or set up to be like, "Oh no. Actually when she said that she was turned into a monster in front of everyone it was meant in a less literal way." Like she was just made to look bad and that was the real thing that pushed her over the edge. Like idk. It really feels like the only thing they really did that would change the timeline was get Ella banned from the dance and presumably out of the way where she couldn't hurt Bridget. OK NOW I'm done.)

Anyway, my point is that this is not how I would have structured my movie and I think this was a super weird way to go into the second era of Descendants movies, but they can still tell a complete story if that's their plan. I'm genuinely really curious to see if this pans out to be a fairly competently told story that just happens to be split over two movies or a complete fumbling of the narrative bag because it could really be either at this point and it's fascinating to me.

[lulublack90]

Prompt 7 - Lamb

@jegulus-microfic August 7, Word count 524

Previous part First Wolfstar part

They raced from Grimmauld Place to the relative safety of the park where Remus and Marcus waited. They’d no sooner hit the grass when Sirius threw off the invisibility cloak and launched himself into the air at Remus. Remus caught him with no difficulty and held him tight. 

“They came back, and I couldn’t help you,” Remus had tears dripping down his face, which he hid in Sirius’s curls. “I thought I’d lost you again,” Sirius couldn’t answer, he just shook in Remus’s arms. 

“As beautiful as this little reunion is,” Marcus interrupted them. “But I think we should make ourselves scarce in case any death eater wannabes spot us,” Collectively they nodded and, with the telltale cracks of apparation, they were gone. 

They should have reappeared where they departed from that morning, but they were slightly off. They’d landed in a field full of sheep. James stared down at the startled lamb in front of him that bleated worriedly before shooting off towards its mother. 

“Shit, I forgot I had Regulus put the protection charms back in place. We’ll have to apparate outside of them and get Regulus to take them down.” Remus huffed as he took Sirius’s hand again and disapparated with a crack, startling the sheep further. James looked at Marcus, who shrugged his shoulders and disapparated after Remus and Sirius. James followed them, not wanting to frighten the sheep further. 

Remus had his wand out when he finally found the point they’d converged at. He was jabbing it into thin air, all that was before him was more empty forest. Then James spotted a shimmer and, in a blink, an entire camp appeared, with Regulus standing opposite them, his wand in the air, mimicking Remus’s movements. 

“We got it!” Sirius said excitedly as he bounded over to his brother, hugging him closely. Regulus’s eyebrows shot up his forehead and his eyes bugged out of their sockets as he recoiled from Sirius’s embrace. 

“Stop that,” He complained, pushing fruitlessly against Sirius’s chest. 

“Sirius, the locket,” James reminded him gently. Sirius immediately dropped Regulus and plunged his hand inside his robes. Regulus glanced up at James but didn’t say anything. James took that as his way of saying thank you for getting Sirius off him. James winked at him and watched his cheeks turn pink before he turned away to look at the locket in Sirius’s hand. 

“That’s it! You actually got it!” Regulus gasped in awe as he turned the locket over in his hands. 

“Don’t sound so shocked, Reggie. You’ll give us a complex.” Sirius huffed at how his brother had responded to their feat of daring. 

“Like you haven’t already got one,” Regulus retorted absentmindedly as he began to wander away, muttering over the locket as he waved his wand in complicated movements. 

“Keep an eye on him, will you Prongs, Remus and I have pack stuff to deal with,” Sirius called to him. He nodded and followed Regulus, moving more than a few obstacles out of the other man’s way to stop him from tripping over as he did whatever it was he was doing to the locket. 

Next part

[bellysoupset]

Jonah was more than a little jittery when he finally made it to Portland's airport, Angie rubbing his arm in a rhythmic manner that was annoying more than comforting him, but he wasn't gonna tell her that.

Thank God for Lucas, Jonah nearly chuckled at the thought. It wasn't the first or even the third time he thought this in the last 20 hours and the irony wasn't lost on him. Luke was waiting for him at the end of the disembark area, but he opened his arms for a hug and it was Angie who leaped forward to jump on him.

"How are you, kiddo?" he said, his voice muffled as he swooped Angelina into a bear hug and pulled her feet off the ground. Angie's whole face turned a shade darker as she blushed bashfully, a huge smile on her face.

"Next trip you should tag along," she said, pushing his arm in a playful manner.

"I'll hold you up to that invite," Lucas' was all smiles and Jonah could see right through him, keeping Angie busy so they didn't need to rehash uncomfortable details in front of the teenager. Instead of greeting Jonah, he planted a hand on the man's nape and squeezed in a comforting way, tugging Jon closer to Luke could press a kiss on the top of his curls.

Jonah huffed, shoving his friend off by the chest and staring ahead. He had a million questions, but he didn't want to ask them in front of Angie. It wasn't that he didn't trust her, but he didn't want her knowing something he knew Leo wouldn't want to tell. His fiancé was terribly private with strangers and Angelina was still that to him.

"You're staying with Wendy, that's alright, Ange?" Luke asked, putting her luggage in the trunk of his car and piling Jonah's on top of it. Angie's eyes darted between Jonah and Luke and she frowned.

"Is Leo alright?" Her voice was careful, measured and Luke smiled at her, slamming the trunk closed.

"He'll be fine, he just needs some cuddles from your brother," he said smoothly, as if Jonah wasn't right there. Angie nodded, not looking very convinced.

"Okay... Yeah, staying at Wendy's fine, as long as I'm not imposing."

"She volunteered her couch," Lucas yawned, opening the backseat door for the girl and gesturing for her to get in, "it's bigger than mine and much comfier, otherwise you'd be staying with us."

"Aw," she pouted, getting inside, "I was looking forward to knowing Bella better, she seems so cool."

"She is," Luke sounded incredibly smug, "we're gonna have dinner together, you'll have the chance to chat- Jon, get inside, man."

Jonah wasn't sure how he was even functioning, the past twenty hours since Luke's call had been hellish, consumed by worry. He hadn't rested at all and it was definitely getting to him, he felt almost dizzy.

He was half dozing off against the window for most of the drive, switching between staring at Leo's messages - not a single new text - and listening as Luke continued to talk with Angie. College, exchanging tidbits about Europe, asking her what she wanted for dinner-

"Jon, we're here," Luke shook his knee gently and Jonah blinked, rubbing his eyes. He hadn't realized he fell asleep, but now they were inside his building's garage and Lucas was already getting his bag out of the trunk.

"You're not coming up....?"

"Nope, tell Bell we're waiting for her downstairs," Luke passed him the handle of his bag, then pulled Jonah into a sudden, but unsurprising hug, "he's alright," he lowered his voice so Angie couldn't hear from inside the car, where she had turned around in the backseat to watch them, "shaken, but he's okay. I think he just needs you."

Jonah nodded briskly and Luke let go of him.

He wasn't sure what he expected, but it certainly wasn't to hear Leo's laughter the minute he crossed the doorway. Jonah let go of his bag, shutting the front door gently and hearing as Leo giggled, "noooo, he's hot, you're just mean-"

"He looks like a very stressed rat," Bella's voice was clearly amused and Jonah walked further in, smiling as he saw they had collected half the blankets of the house and were curled up in the living room couch, Leo's head pressed to Bella's shoulder and her fingers combing through his hair as they watched House of Gucci.

"Hi?"

Leo's head snapped up so quickly he nearly hit Bella's chin, missing it by a couple inches, "Jon!" he tried to get up, but they had trapped themselves with the blankets and all he managed was to almost fall off, legs tangled.

Jonah leaped forward too, stepping over Bella's legs and nearly falling as well, pulling Leo into a tight hug. He had been so fucking worried, it was a huge relief to be able to touch him.

Leo let out a groan, his face pressed to Jonah's neck, "can't-breathe-" and Jon pulled back, cupping his face. Somehow he had thought Leo would look worse, but he looked just as fine as ever. His hair was definitely dirty, because instead of pin straight it was so wavy it had almost turned curly, and there were dark circles like bruises under his blue eyes as well as more than a stubble covering his cheeks... Other than that he looked fine.

"God-" Jonah lurched forward haphazardly, lips smashing together in a kiss that was nearly a bruise. Leo breathed out, hands coming up to cup his cheek and lips pressing against his, the tip of his nose was freezing pressed against Jonah's cheekbone, "you're alright- You're ok," Jon chanted feverishly, pulling back and studying his boyfriend's face.

Leo's eyes were overly shiny and he sniffled, but nodded and then pulled back, his whole face turning red as a cherry as they realized Bella had been directly under them, watching, completely trapped by the fact they were each stepping in one end of the blanket.

"No, don't mind me, this is cute," she said sarcastically, causing Leo to let out a watery chuckle.

"Sorry," he tried to pull back from Jonah, didn't manage when his boyfriend didn't let go, so instead Bella rolled out of the couch in the most convoluted way.

"Luke's waiting downstairs," Jonah said, cringing as he realized how dismissive he had been. Luckily this was Bella, who didn't take offense easily, and she raised a thumb up, crawling to grab her boots from under the couch.

"One of you text us later," she said, her voice coming out muffled, "or Lucas is gonna come here and I know none of you want that-" she sat down on the ground to put on her combat boots and JD appeared as well, trying to chew on the cords, "and don't worry about Angie, we got her."

"Angie's here?" Leo asked and Jonah completely ignored it, leaning in so he could press his whole face to the side of his boyfriend's, inhaling him.

"We got her, don't worry," Bella shrugged, "between Wendy and Lucas she'll be so busy she's gonna want to go home," she stood up, looking around for her purse and grabbing it, "I'm serious, text us."

"Okay," Jon mumbled and heard a small exasperated huff, before Bella's footsteps vanished down the hallway, her voice coming "no baby, you can't come with me-" as she kept JD inside and then the door shutting.

Jonah breathed out and Leo turned slightly, tilting his body back so he was able to look him in the eyes, "I'm glad you're home."

"What happened?"

Leo's brows dipped and his lips tugged on the corners, "I was hoping Luke would've spilled it all-"

"I don't wanna hear it from Luke, I wanna know it from you," Jonah scoffed and Leo nodded, then pulled him down to the messy couch.

Jonah had had time enough to come up with a thousand hypotheticals, so as he heard the ballroom class tale, he was both relieved it wasn't something worse and floored by the cheer improbability of it.

He didn't miss the way Leo's voice became squeezed and weird when he said Amelia didn't even remember him or how she had called him by his father's name. His boyfriend gulped down, looking away and hugging his knees, as if he wanted to turn himself into a little ball, "and that's it. Wendy drove me home and the guys have been keeping me company since."

Jonah sighed, "you called off work?"

"Wendy did it for me," Leo snorted, "she said she was my doctor," he pressed his chin to his knee, "I'm okay, I- I'm not okay," he corrected himself, meeting Jonah's eyes, "but I'm not as bad as they seem to think I am... I called my therapist and he suggested I go back up to twice a week instead of only once, at least for this month."

"Okay," Jon scooted closer, not able to stomach the tiny distance between them. He wanted to scoop up Leo and not let go for the next eight or nine hours.

"I keep- I keep thinking of her face, right?" the blonde picked at the skin of his fingers, "and how she- How she didn't even recognize me... I just feel so... So small-"

Jonah reached forward, grabbing Leo's hands before he could peel another layer - judging by the state of his thumb, this new habit had already been causing damage - and tugged at his wrists, forcing Leo to uncurl and fall against him.

"I was crawling up the walls when you didn't text," Jon told him, smoothing Leo's hair back gently, "and then Luke did and I just... It was like the ground fell under me. I haven't been able to even think right until now-"

"I'm sorry," Leo sniffled, tearing up all over, "I wanted to, but-"

"No," Jonah glared at him, "I'm not mad at you, I'm saying this so you understand you're not small... I'm so so sorry about Amelia. I wish none of this had ever happened to you, I wish she wasn't in this town-"

Leo nodded, wiping angrily at his eyes and brushing away the tears clinging to his lashes, so Jonah continued, "but I need you to know whatever your brain is telling you about being small or unloved- It's not true. You're my whole damn world, Leo."

That did it and Leo's face scrunched up as he started to openly cry, throwing himself over Jonah, letting out a pained sob as Jon kissed his temple and chanted quietly, over and over, "I love you, I love you, I love you."

[qroier]

my worst case scenario spiderbit reunion prediction. fun fact! the 17th would mark a full 60 days without them 🙃

[rannadylin]

Corrugated ribbing, my beloathed! It looks so nice but it's such a hassle to knit...I will say, though, that since I learned to hold each color of yarn in a different hand for two-color knitting, and do the purl stitches with the left-hand yarn, it's a much smoother process than when I first learned to do it and had to drop one yarn and pick up the other and move the yarn from front to back and back to front to alternate knits and purls and so on.

I got the chart for these gloves all ready to begin and then looked at the actual pattern notes from the prototype gloves and realized I have to first do the corrugated ribbing. Oh dear! XD And if that isn't hassle enough, we're going to top that ribbing with a Latvian Braid.

So anyway, after a few rows of this nonsense, I let myself get distracted from the two inches of ribbing I need to knit by...uh...filming the process. And then I discovered I have a video editor so I added stuff. :-D Just how much can I procrastinate actually finishing this ribbing? I'd better get back to it now!

[welcometogrouchland]

[ID: a coloured and shaded digital sketch of Luz and Lilith from the owl house. They're depicted with their designs from For the Future. Luz is tackle-hugging Lilith, ugly crying and exclaiming "I missed you so much". Lilith braces for the hug and smiles with tears also in her eyes. The background is a pale yellow colour and previous versions of the sketch can be seen at low opacity behind the full drawing. End ID]

When you see your cool aunt (actually a loser but you love her) for the first time in months and she has a badass apocalypse makeover but still somehow looks like a librarian

[a-very-sparkly-nerd]

Yo I was RIGHT?!?!

[screechingfromthevoid]

Orym growing his hair out while Dorians gone because he's not really taking care of himself makes for an EXCELLENT gay hair cutting fic

[slymanner]

I've never cried so quickly in my life til this moment.