#I don’t think it’s J because it would add nothing to the plot

[katisbadatnames]

N killed Nori (shocker)

I used to think it was N who killed Nori because “lol angst” but now I have an ACTUAL REASON YIPPEE

I think it was both N and V (mostly N but I’m using V as a back up)

I think V was involved due to the fact that Nori keeps drawing her, referencing her, etc

She could’ve started fighting nori but got incapacitated by nori’s solver powers, or nori could’ve somehow gotten away, but then N snuck up on her and got her with his tail

I still believe it was N for the most part due to the fact that Nori was killed by nanite acid. Aka tails

we see N use his tail way more than the other drones, it’s like his go to? Usually when close ranged, instead of using a sword or something.

(These were the first two examples I thought of, taken from ep 1&2 respectively)

the others don’t really use their tails from what I’ve seen (other than J using it to point at N, does that count?)

so yeah that’s a reason why I think n killed nori

i doubt Uzi will care too much tbh, especially now that Nori is alive

[ctubbolvr]

Heyoooo so could u spoil the rest (so far) of cs for me plssss. Like I would read it but I feel like it would ruin the entire fic for me because I'd have to force myself to and that's not fun -.-

Ended at the scene where Ranboo goes to Fundy's flat and Fundy's like "Hey! Here's your tragic backstory!" And Ranboo's like "oh fuck *has a breakdown*"

This is also me giving u a chance to yap about cs so add as many details, hcs and personal opinions as you'd like, :)

my time to shine :D

i’m probably just going to give out the main plot points that happened then on, just because if i said every little thing that happens we would be here literally all day because towards the end the chapters get very long so!

if you don’t want spoilers for cs, look away !!!!

okay, the main chapters to talk about are chapter 28 and 30 the rest are less plot driven and more just fillers, almost. lots happen, but not much to talk about like the big two !

28:

the chapter starts out with ranboo talking to dream about photography and shit, nothing out of the ordinary, and it’s pretty short! at least that scene is. and then he and tubbo have plans to go to a diner later in the evening, and while ranboo is finding clothes, he spots a skirt that he thinks is niki’s. he considers wearing it, which makes the chapter mostly about identity + gay shit ! (more on identity later, not just this bit) and he tells niki he thinks it got mixed up in his closet, and then asks about pronouns and niki is revealed to go by she/xe, and she lends ranboo a skirt to wear and he kind of loves it. it’s a very sweet scene :) and then he goes to pick up tubbo and tubbo’s kind of first reaction is to tell him he looks pretty, which ranboo says he’s not used to, and tubbo says he’ll make sure he’s used to it (i fucking hate gay people /j) then, they go to the diner, order food, have some banter, and tubbo has, in his words, a “realization”, which is probably when he realized he’s gay for ranboo! and he calls ranboo pretty again. the 2nd time that night. and ranboo says some gay stuff about how pretty tubbo looks to himself, as well, because of course he would. and they go to the train tracks nearby, and ranboo explains the whole memory loss thing to tubbo. dream calls him, and tubbo asks him not to answer. so, ranboo doesn’t. and then you have my personal favorite scene of the entire fic i’ve had multiple emotional breakdowns about.

when the sunsets, tubbo points it out, and ranboo comments that it’s pretty.

and here’s the line that literally gets me crying all the fucking time; “beside him, the sun says, “so are you.”” he drives him back home and tubbo falls asleep in the car.

ranboo goes home and proceeds to take a quiz. “do i have feelings for my best friend?” which sends him to find out about being aromantic, and being queerplatonic. that’s the second part of the identity part of the chapter. ranboo realizes he’s aro :) that was the part i knew you’d love lmao

and now, the storm, because that was the calm.

in chapter 30, it is new years. around 2-3 in the morning, can’t remember, and ranboo is still awake. dream shows up at his door, and tells him they’re going somewhere. ranboo doesn’t question it (maybe because it’s so early) and puts out food for springerle and grabs the necessities. they drive to a hotel, and dream tells him not to worry about paying because he never told him they’d be going there.

dream leaves ranboo alone in the hotel room for HOURS, which has ranboo panicking the whole time, thinking he could be dead, and having an emotional breakdown when dream gets back. he gets comforted, they play some video games, and then they’re on the road

dream is driving, and he tells ranboo to go to sleep because it’ll be a really long drive and they’re stuck in traffic. ranboo has nothing better to do, so he closes his eyes. there’s also a storm.

it’s very creepy. there are voices, beckoning him to come and saying things like “we have your parents” “we have god” “come join us” and ranboo immediately wakes up in fear. dream tells him to go back to sleep. and he does. and the voices don’t stop. they never do. they keep mentioning god, especially, which will make more sense in a moment! he feels hands on him, tugging him down. they also say “come down here we don’t love you nowhere does” and it’s all very eerie. ranboo wakes up once more, to dream asking what he’s dreaming about because he’s muttering about smoke, and there are scratches on his arms. dream insists on him sleeping to “get more information”

this time, they’re still talking about how they have god. they have his entire life. they have his future lover. his future life. how they stole his smoke, his voice, his music— the stars — and ranboo, in his dream, is screaming back and saying he doesn’t want to go.

“YOU ARE A COMET” and they mention stars, and black holes (more on that) and let sleeping comets die (foreshadowing)

and ranboo is freaking out in his dream, begging for it to stop, and it doesn’t. and it describes tubbo, mentions the diner and smoke and brown hair. the hands are still on him, pulling him down.

there’s a black hole. a lid over it, closing the iris of an eye. which takes him to “THAT WAS NEVER MY NAME” all of the writing that is supposed to be a voice is frantic and mostly misspelled and some are in all caps (usually ranboo, but the voices too) “GOD IS AN IRIS” and he is wondering where fundy is

and he can’t breathe and they’re calling him a rabbit, a baby comet, an iris

he has blood underneath his fingernails when he wakes up, and dream asks him what he saw.

dream swerves and ranboo hits his head on the dashboard . ranboo feels like he’s going insane. dream is holding the collar of his shirt tightly.

and this is where all hell breaks loose.

ranboo says there was a black hole and he thinks he killed it. dream swerves and ranboo hits his head against the window. he says something like “not again, we’re not doing this again.” ranboo doesn’t remember having this happen before.

dream starts screaming about how he should forget. he always forgets. that he’s still dreaming about the black hole. ranboo says it needs him. dream continues screaming.

then, ranboo says; “it’s god, isn’t it? that’s me. i’m… i’m god.”

dream slams his head against the dashboard. he yells, “NO! you aren’t god. do you understand me? you aren’t god. you’re some delusional fucking kid. and you need me. you’re nothing without me.”

and then, dream says “do you think you’re getting out of this alive?”

he slams his head against the dashboard AGAIN. he’s screaming about how he (ranboo) should’ve stayed in the mental hospital.

ranboo thinks that no one will see him or dream ever again. he calls it “one of the best days in history”

dream rambles about it was “supposed to be tommy” and that his family ruined it.

dream mentions tubbo and how he would’ve hated ranboo. ranboo whispers “we were gonna get married.” “what?” “he called me pretty.”

we’re given the information that when ranboo was 15, with a new name and no family, on withdrawal from anti psychotics, he had been walking for days straight with nowhere to go, reaching an overpass, he caused a collision of cars. one unconscious, and one wide awake. dream was awake. he almost killed him. if only it worked.

and how dream bought him his first camera and how they’d meet in a park. how he left for a while and ranboo was waiting for him.

dream says no one will go looking for him.

dream swerves and ranboo unbuckles his seatbelt to slam on the breaks, because he is going to try and kill both dream and himself so neither of them get out of this alive.

when the car stops spinning, ranboo grabs something smaller than a gun from the glovebox, while dream gets out of the car. he drops the gun on accident. he feels something cut him.

dream has a fistful of his hair, a switchblade, and is holding him down against the pavement. ranboo passes out.

three days go by, where he’s asleep. he wakes up to being all bandaged up.

he’s confused. he has a text from tubbo saying “EXCITED 2 C U”

he won’t see him. but he also has a multitude of texts from dream. i won’t go much into detail, but the overall message is; “you made me kill myself and i wanted you to live with that guilt.”

he has a breakdown, of course, because telling an anxiety ridden psychotic 17 year old that he’s the reason you killed yourself probably isn’t the best way to do things!!!!

he goes to sapnap and george after his little breakdown, and they tell him he’s not dead at all. he’s in jail.

but, regardless, here’s the whole parallel i told u you’d fucking hate ^___^ “and he wants dream to hug him again, and he wants dream back so badly, he needs dream back he needs him he needs him why did he leave him—“ “ranboo loved dream. dream was his boss, and dream was his tutor, and dream was his friend, and dream was everything he had, and now he’s gone”

he goes to a park and it’s basically midnight, or at least VERY late. tubbo calls him. he doesn’t know what he’s saying. he doesn’t hear anything.

eventually, though, he hears him ask for him to say something because ranboo hasn’t said a word since he picked up. and the only words he can muster up is “‘m a white dwarf.” and of course, tubbo is pretty confused. he’s also drunk, so. (a white dwarf is a dead/dying star…)

he goes back to his apartment, and the last thing it says in the chapter is;

“in the quiet of his bedroom, body and mind equally broken, ranboo beloved becomes a black dwarf.” (black dwarfs are theoretically white dwarfs minus the light and heat if i remember right)

[ellesliterarycorner]

Tips for Overwriters

My friends, we are now living in a post-Thanksgiving world. That means it is now OFFICIALLY socially acceptable to play Christmas music!! I have never been more excited. Unfortunately, today’s post is not about writing Christmas music even though that would probably be more interesting. Today’s post is tips for all of you overwriters out there! I am a proud member of your ranks, and I’ve definitely been working on how to be more concise lately, in both my creative writing and the writing I do for school. Some people definitely think that having a high word count somehow correlates to the quality of your story but a boring, drawn out story is just as bad a short, rushed one. You have to find the sweet spot in between. So, here are a few tips that have helped me with overwriting!

But That’s My Favorite Scene

I wish I could say that I do not get emotionally attached to scenes that I really like, but that, dear reader, would be an incredibly blatant lie. I get very emotionally attached to my favorite scenes, especially those little scenes that come to me in the middle of the night or feature my two favorite side characters. Unfortunately, my favorite scenes are not always the most necessary scenes. When you’re going through a second or third draft, sometimes you have to recognize that your favorite scene is really not at all relevant to the plot. That’s what I personally think of when I hear the phrase: “kill your darlings.” To me, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to kill your favorite character. It means more that you need to delete or get rid of things that are not relevant to the story but you as an author really like. BUT, when we say delete, we never actually mean delete. Always keep a copy of every scene or chapter that you might delete from your manuscript. You never know when it may come in handy, or if it might bring you joy to reread it later!

Keeping It Concise

As someone who loves writing the longest sentences known to man, I am not known for my concision. A lot of times, concision is key in writing. Sometimes, this means tightening up your sentences, and other times this means getting rid of filler worlds. Filler words don’t add anything to your narrative, and often, sentences with them could also be tightened for clarity. Some common filler words are: really, very, just, began, started, sudden, stuff, thing, see, look, hear, wonder, feel, and think. If you see that word in a sentence, it’s normally a signal that the sentence can be rewritten using much more clear language to make an overall more concise and strong sentence. When you’re trying to make things more concise, I would look out for overly descriptive sentences. Obviously, we want a clear description of whatever is happening in your story, but one of my biggest issues with Sarah J. Maas’s writing (I know I always find a way to bring her up) is that she will use four adjectives to describe something, but all of those words mean the same thing. If I describe something as the crisp, frosty, cool, winter air, that tells you absolutely nothing. Those words pretty much mean the same thing. You could have said the crisp winter air for a much more clear and concise sentence that will also decrease your word count a little. 

The Death of Passive Voice

This reminds me of freshman year English class. I literally didn’t know what passive voice was until freshman year, but now I consider myself a little bit of an expert. Passive voice relates to the previous tip because most sentences using passive voice can be rewritten using stronger or more descriptive words. Here’s a little example. Princess Sarah was driven to the castle. Okay, that’s a fine sentence. It’s grammatically correct, but it leaves a little lacking. Who’s driving Princess Sarah, for example? Let’s rewrite the sentence. The Captain of the Guard drove Princess Sarah to the castle. Ooh, okay, that simple wording change gives us so much more description. We now know who is driving Princess Sarah to the castle which probably saves us some unnecessary words later. If you’re having trouble identifying passive voice, I always say that if you can add “by zombies” to the end of the sentence and have it make sense, then it’s normally passive voice. Princess Sarah was driven to the castle by zombies. Further confirmation, that that sentence is passive voice and needs a little rewriting! Also, most of the time, rewriting a sentence written in passive voice decreases the word count. The example I gave didn’t, but normally it does lol. 

Whipping Out That SAT Vocab

Normally, I don’t mind a little bit of purple prose. Some of my favorite books have  flowery descriptions and beautiful sentences, but those descriptions and sentences serve a set purpose in the story and are pretty necessary to the narrative. Most of the books I have struggled to read or DNF’d this year have had the worst purple prose in the world. Kinda like a lot of writers think high word count=high quality, I think that a some writers think that pretty, purple prose=high quality. I’m here to say that in my humble opinion having description for no reason does not make your book the next Great American novel. It just makes it annoying. You don’t have to use thesaurus.com for every single sentence in your book. It’s probably better if you don’t. Having those super academic sounding words along with long descriptions definitely contributes to overwriting, and cutting things down and using more common descriptions will help you cut down on word count. 

[wawamouse]

Oz Rewatch 3: S4E16: Famous Last Words

Plotlines

Hill is framed for using, Supreme Allah tells Hill to kill Redding; Hill double crosses Supreme and kills him by allergic reaction;

Colonel’s daughter comes to visit; at Redding’s behest, he tries to kill Morales in the elevator; Morales kills him instead

Cloutier resigns from his church; the prisoners turns on him; Mukada advises Cloutier to get on their level; they brick him into the wall

Hughes declares the Republic of Huhru in Solitary and gets himself killed

Glynn wants to resign; Floria secretly crumples up the letter

McManus loses the final basketball game; Omar keeps bugging McManus; McManus appears on Up Your Ante; Omar and Chico start a fight; Pablo Calderon gets shoved into the TV; Omar freaks out and beats McManus and is placed in Solitary

With Beecher’s parole coming up, Schillinger tries to cause trouble; Said and the Muslims try to make sure that nothing happens; Beecher dreams his release on parole; Said stabs Schillinger and Robson in the library

Bomb plot; kitchen explodes

Sister: (sigh) He was too attractive for this show anyway...

Me: Everyone’s meeting with their lawyer in the visiting room today… Sister: They’re having a convention at the Marriott so they thought they'd swing by.

Sister: Why’s he so tan? Me: ...Probably because they don’t actually live here.

Sister: Hmm… Well, since Egg Man is dead, guess he can be the new eye candy. They keep sending them all away, though, so I bet he’s going to die soon anyway…

Sister: Tendeth? That’s what [Sister] does. Adds an -eth on the end of words!

Sister: (gasp) The cast of monte carlo…. The cask of… amontadillo… What is it? The cast… the cask… of amonte… amontypython?

Sister: Going to start saying this when anyone tries to talk to me on the toilet.

Sister: (perks up) Oh, are we going to end Solitary confinement? (pause) Nah… He doesn’t have the brain power to make that connection… He just wants the delusions to end so he can stick him back in Solitary.

Sister: Not this again. [Sister] doesn’t want to watch this…

Sister: Yeah, he killed like four people! Me: He didn’t kill anyone. Sister: The guy in the TV? Me: Oh right. Well, before, though. He just stabbed McManus, he didn’t kill anyone. Sister: He stabbed your guy, too! Me: (laughing) Oh yeah… He didn’t stab anyone else, though. Just McManus. He attacked the reporter guy but didn’t stab him. Sister: (pained sigh) You have selective memory just because you find him amusing… He’s like a troublesome little dinosaur to me. Gotta keep my eye on him…

Sister: I can’t even remember it and I’ve been watching this every Saturday for months...

Sister: (suddenly turning to me) Question for the community: why hasn’t anyone noticed yet that the church guy is missing?

Sister: He’s not out?! Oughhhhhhhhhhhhhhh….

Sister: You know, when they say they’re hardened criminals, you don’t expect them to have, like, turtle plates… The hacks die so easily… It’s because they don’t have osteoderms like the prisoners… The doctor’s going to do another unethical medical trial and discover all the prisoners are turtle people.

Sister: Um.. they don’t really believe in you, though. They got, like, weak minds… And you constantly bamboozle them…

Sister: So embarrassing…. No boom?

Stray Thoughts

Prisoner named Hardin who works bedpans

Penis count: 1

Old man butt: 1

Sister was suspicious of Tobias’s entire release sequence due to how ominous she found the outdoors; she kept thinking Beecher would get killed

The J&B whiskey bottle looks pretty much exactly like Chinese black vinegar bottles which makes it funny to see characters like Glynn with the bottle on their desk

Spotted another Chico lip lick during the scene they finally get HBO in Oz lol

[a-dumb-sarcastic-bisexual]

So I rewatched TMNT 2012 cause my brain is fully committed to being obsessed with TMNT and here are my thoughts:

Thankfully it has knocked me out of my month-long writer's block but before I start writing headcanons again (for either series) I want to put my hot takes out there 

I don’t hate April 

Do I love her? Absolutely not

She’s annoying and impulsive and arrogant and selfish and she can be incredibly one-dimensional at times 

But so is the rest of the group

She’s not my favorite character but she’s not my least favorite either 

She’s just a teenage girl written by old men so it’s not surprising that a lot of people find her unrealistic 

I fucking hate Casey Jones/j 

I want to strangle him but I also want to hug him 

I want to punch him and sew little pockets into my clothes so I can take him with me everywhere 

He’s so stupid and my favorite character 

I like Donnie but I skip most scenes with him and April 

I chose to ignore the stalker plot-line 

In my mind, it’s nonexistent and adds nothing to the story 

I treat the whole Karai/Leo thing with the same energy 

Because why the fuck did the writers think that was a good idea 

Every single relationship was poorly written 

April is an aro/ace queen and I will accept no arguments 

They should have kept Karai and Leo’s relationship purely platonic 

I would have loved to see her become sort of a mentor to Leo but all we got was a disgusting love story that went nowhere and added nothing to the plot 

I think we should swap out every “my love interest is actually my sibling?!” plotline with a “my rival/enemy/mentor is actually my sibling?! Fuck yeah!” plotline 

Shini and Karai had the most chemistry and I wouldn’t be surprised if they were secretly dating 

I lowkey ship Casey with everyone except the girls 

But I mainly ship him with Donnie… Don't judge me I love enemies to lovers 

Leo is a trans woman, Donnie is nonbinary and uses he/they pronouns, and Mikey and Raph are gender-fluid (no I will not elaborate)

I’m fully convinced that every single person who claimed Raph Donnie and Leo were terrible brothers are only a children 

If I see one more person edit depicting Mikey as this helpless victim while the others are these evil abusers I will rip my hair out 

Are there moments when Leo/Donnie/Raph hit Mikey when it is unnecessary? Yes

Are there moments when they ignore him when he brings up a good point? Totally

Could I make a 30-minute compilation of the boys insulting Mikey’s intelligence? Absolutely 

But I can’t bring up all of that without mentioning the hundreds of times when Mikey is being an asshole

He’ll make fun of Donnie or tease Leo or mess with Raph 

Because that’s what siblings do!! (especially younger siblings)

They shove and they tussle and they poke fun

Some of my siblings show affection in a very similar way to Raph (they’re not great with words but they show their love with their actions) so when I see people write shit like “Raph is a terrible brother” it frustrates me to tears 

I have this memory that I will always cherish of my older step brothers and sister dragging me into a wresting match that ended with me at the bottom of a dog pile 

And I almost cried not because I was in pain but because it was something I had watched them do when I was younger and never participated in because it felt like a “sibling thing”

And they knew this and I knew they were telling me in their own way that no matter what anyone says I’m their little sibling 

Splinter is a fantastic master but a terrible father (no I will not take criticism on this take) 

I wanted to turn off my laptop every time Shredder came back 

Like don’t get me wrong I love a recurring villain as much as the next enby 

But he’s so one-dimensional that I tuned him out after season 3 

Now I will be rating all the seasons 

Season 1: 8/10 

In my personal opinion, it’s good 

Not outstanding but it’s a good foundation 

Season 2: 9/10 

I loved this season 

I honestly loved the whole conflict between April and the boys 

And it introduced my baby/rat bastard 

Season 3: ♾️/10 

My favorite season out of all of them 

I wish they stayed at the farmhouse 

Everyone seemed happier there 

‘Race with the Demon’ is my favorite episode 

‘In dreams’ is my second favorite 

Season 4: 7/10 

I fell in love with fugitoid 

Also, this might seems stupid but half of my enjoyment of this season could be credited to the voice actors 

And I also recognized a lot of them so it turned into a fun little game of where’s waldo 

I would be listening to an episode and go “doctor who?” “Godbrand??” “Andrias?!” “CASSANDRA JONES!!” 

I loved the fact that Karai and Shini were trying to build their own foot clan and make it honorable and I wish they talked about it more

I like Apri’s corruption arc but I feel like they completely swept Donnie’s death under the rug

Like they immediately forgave April even though they watched as she pulled Donnie apart molecule by molecule 

Season 5: 0/10 

Throw this dumpster fire away 

God I hated this season 

It felt so random

There was no rhyme or reason 

It just feels like they shoved half bakes ideas into a season and expected us to like it 

It made my viewing experience incredibly bittersweet

Cause I just watched season after season of amazing episodes to end it with this charcuterie board of half-baked ideas

[destinygoldenstar]

My Pretty Cure Season Tier List

Futari Wa: I don’t actually have strong opinions or memories on the classics, but I more appreciation for the first seasons existence than its actual plot. I also appreciate the bond of the two leads here. I’m not one to demand duo teams, as that could either mean more character development or more filler, but when done well it’s done well.

Max Heart: I don’t like the sequels. They’re so pointless. I’m not saying a sequel season can never be done well, but Pretty Cure has not been able to at all, to the point where I do not miss it. It’s not lower because there’s nothing I remember of it that infuriated me.

Splash Star: I don’t actually have good memory of this. But if I did I feel like it would be higher.

Yes 5: Okay so there’s nothing I have to say here. I think this is THE average Pretty Cure season. The highs are high. The lows are low. No more. No less.

GoGo: Again, a mistake. I wish the GoGo designs were the original Cure designs, and that is the ONLY thing this season is worth.

Fresh: …okay look, it’s good. But I think it’s overrated. There is ONE thing in this season I find truly exceptional and that’s the villains. Eas’s redemption arc speaks for itself as the most iconic story arcs in PreCure history, and the generals are both funny and menacing with actually evil plans. And the world building of the villain faction is compelling. But other than the villains, there is so little here that speaks to me. I didn’t care for this lamb baby or these attacks, and the Cures are… fine, if a little selfish. Now, I don’t mind selfish heroes, but they need to be done well and there’s some great examples. These girls are fine, but I think Sword, Moonlight, and Princess are far more memorable examples. But I do give credit for the burnout chapter, that REALLY needs to be done more often in this franchise.

Heartcatch: I mean what do you want me to say?! This is the most popular season and it has every right to be. There’s nothing else I could add.

Suite: This is the worst duo team. I don’t like these two. I don’t like the cat. I don’t like the villains. But there’s also Otokoji and Ako.

Smile: Bias. BUT even without that, I love this season to bits. When people talk about this season they often say ‘it’s fun’, which is true. But I think this season deserves a lot more credit for its character building, creative shenanigans, and messages on personal happiness. This season has some of the best of the franchise in this regard. The plot is very paper thin and stretched out enough to snap in two, LITERALLY, but when the show is making me THIS engaged in its charm and emotions, I could care less. This is the ONLY season I can safely state that all the filler is acceptable, because it is a blast. You will never get episodes like this in any other season. I could go on. But good gosh don’t watch the dub. I tried introducing the show to my friends, they chose the dub instead of the original, and they told me the show was bad. Saban should be sued for that. /j

DokiDoki: I dont think this season is that bad. Sure it has problems like Aguri who is… the staple of bad Cure characters. But I like how little filler this season has and how many characters are allowed to be fleshed out to sell a theme-again, minus one person.

Happiness Charge: Hime is the only good thing. Change my mind.

Go Princess: I think this season has the best cinematics of any Pretty Cure season. You all know it’s good. I don’t need to tell you why.

Mahou Tsukai: This is the gay season. I don’t remember a lot besides that. I think the world was pretty wasted all things considered, and the only content I get from this is the bear and the gays.

KiraKira: This is mediocre. I love the character designs. I love the art style. I love the cat and dog gay episode. But that’s about it. The plot is a mess and all over the place, where stuff just kinda happens with no build up, and there’s little substance with the characters besides the cat and dog. It’s a waste of a great art style if you ask me, so this annoys be beyond repair. The lack of combat doesn’t help. The underused MC doesn’t help. The pacing doesn’t help. Promoting junk food doesn’t help. BUT I will say this: thanks to a certain OTHER season, I have come to appreciate KiraKira a whole lot more and some of its elements. It made me realize that while it’s not good, it could have been so much worse.

Hugtto: I am frustrated. I like the season. I do. There’s stuff I love here. But it is these LITTLE details that butcher the S tier for it. There’s some odd pacing choices. Awakening two Cures with completely different personalities and story arcs at once is not my preferred awakening arc. The cameos fusing with the story. Shipping the MC with the villain and not being concrete about the idea that he was toxic and she dumped him in the future and Homare is the dad. There’s also s lot of sexual content here… I am asexual. This is completely a me problem. I’m sure someone out there has a baby making kink that will love this. Again, there’s stuff I love here that the season does exceptionally, and I wish I could give it S tier. I can’t though.

Star Twinkle: First off, this season gets too much hate. There is value here. The biggest problems are the dark themes of genocide being brushed off casually, and THAT ENDING IS AWFUL, I’m story. And yeah, you could complain about Hikaru being a… lackluster MC in terms of a story arc, but I thought she was fine personality wise. I prefer a flawed MC than a perfect one. But at the same time she isn’t exactly a good character either, as her dynamic with Lala is the highlight here. But honestly I can’t put this season in D tier because it’s just so charming. This season is a huge inspiration for my fan made season, Sketched Artistry Pretty Cure (on Ao3), even though I would make that until two years after Star Twinkle ended. I don’t know, I think I just don’t trust Toei with art theme seasons /genocide backstories so I just do it myself.

Healin Good: Earth is the worst part. That’s it. The rest slaps. I love this season when it’s not focused on Cure Earth, and I love the character building and having such a relevant message at the time. It also has one of the best rivalries in the franchise and Nodoka, my favorite PreCure.

Tropical Rouge: It’s charming. It doesn’t take itself seriously and that’s admirable. Laura is also great. But I think the season has several tonal issues to the point where the comedy is hit or miss with me. Don’t bother with the drama! Just embrace the humor! That’s all I needed. This is trying so hard to be Smile but it’s not Smile. I know there are people who love this season though so… I am sorry.

Disaster Party: So this nickname is actually one my gf came up with. (Trying to introduce her to the series). And I’ve been using it ever since. This, so far, is the ONLY PreCure season I have downright HATED. Yeah. I hated this season. There was nothing that worked for me. Not the designs, not the world building, not the lack of cooking in A COOKING SHOW, not the narrator ruining the moments, not the joke of a redemption arc, not the jokes, not the promotion of junk food, not the worst MC of the entire franchise, not the bad gay rep, not the time traveling, not the filler, not the characters sitting around doing nothing the entire story, not the magical girls being downright useless, not the toxic positivity that is harmful to its audience. There was NOTHING that I liked here. I kind of wish the characters here were unlikeable as I’ll get out, because then I would feel something for them. Not no. They’re all boring. I feel nothing towards them. If you like this season, good for you. I wouldn’t understand. It doesn’t even deserve D tier, cause D tier is just for mediocre seasons. It gets its own tier. Congratulations.

Hirogaru Sky: there’s no picture here, and it’s still airing, so my opinion will definitely change. But for now if you want to know… I would be struggling between A and S tier. I like the season a lot so far. Its highs are so high right now that it ALMOST makes me forgive Delicious Party’s existence. But it’s still airing. I also think the pig villain is overused, but I think it’s because they’re doing a Sailor Moon thing, so maybe it’ll be worth it. There’s also the issue of the spacing between Cure awakenings. I’m not a fan of it. I think it’s fine to have a few episodes in the middle, but Delicious Party was really pushing my tolerance for that, and it’s worse here. Right now, we don’t even have Butterfly. We are 13 episodes in! You’d think all the Cures would be here by now. I would excuse it if Butterfly was the sixth ranger, as that’s expected, but no. She’s not. Those are my only problems so far. Everything else about this season is phenomenal, and I hope it stays that way.

[tonkivideo]

Spamton rivals of aether

#SPAMTON RIVALS OF AETHER PLUS#

Granted he needed that time as a gym leader as long standing humbling exercise so it wasn't a bad call at all. By the time of Sun and Moon/USUM he has ditched the gym to become battle facility which ultimately given his status as a former champion ends up being a much more fitting role. So like you have Blue who becomes gym leader and also helps his grandpa with his research by still be a roaming trainer (much to the frustration of anyone trying to challenge his gym). Pokemon Sword and Shield is one of the only main games that really puts emphasis on the rivals' alternate careers paths as part of the plot outside of the gen 5 games. Being a roaming trainer is still just as valid of a career path as other routes given the way the Pokemon world works, it's just not as solid of a career path as say gym leader or research assistant. Hi there actually, it's the norm typically for the rivals to have something to do, even if it's just continuing being a roaming trainers. ADWD has plenty to say about how much he hates death by fire. He’s not going to fall in love with the woman who murdered his brother, especially by burning him alive. Arianne and the Dornish are definitely not going to take it lying down, and neither is Jon. History is written by the winners, and no one’s going to miss that it’s a lot more convenient for Dany if the boy with a stronger claim than her turns out to have been fake all along. That’s definitely going to be her perception of it, but once she reaches Westeros we won’t have to rely on only her POV of her actions. Him being proved fake would just make this plotline a weird, unnecessary digression on Dany’s journey to being the righteous and true queen, his death just another #girlboss moment for her. The mystery of his identity isn’t his main narrative, and all of his significance to the story and to multiple other characters is removed if he’s proved to not be Aegon VI. I don’t think it’s going to matter if Aegon is fake or not, and we might never find out either way. If a relationship between Jon and Dany was truly all that GRRM has been building up to, then there would have been no need for R+L=J - it adds nothing to that storyline, it doesn’t even make it a forbidden romance, because aunt-nephew is hardly the worst incest the Targaryens have engaged in. But these interactions, a conflict and eventual friendship/brotherhood between them, would all be a lot more layered than jonerice can really offer.

#SPAMTON RIVALS OF AETHER PLUS#

Personally, it will be hard to get past the fact that Jon is the direct result of Rhaegar dishonouring Elia, plus that the Kingsguard who should have been protecting her were all stationed in Dorne, guarding Jon’s mother (in whatever capacity). They’re definitely going to come into conflict first - politically, Jon will likely be in a position of power in the North by the time they meet, maybe as the KitN through Robb’s will or regent for Rickon, and probably will fight for Northern independence, while Aegon is fighting to be king of the Seven Kingdoms, not 6.

[akirameta84]

Saiki K. - A list of Never-Adapted Chapters

As stated, a list and brief kinda long summery of the chapters never adapted into the anime. Only a few have good reasons aside from time though. (Also a list of reasons for anime only viewers to give the manga a read *cough*)

Warning: I spoil every single one of these chapters. So if you’re lazy and only want to read the non adapted chapters, go ahead and just read the chapter number/name, and avoid the summery. You will be missing a HUGE amount of unadapted scenes if you don’t read the whole manga though, which are present in nearly every chapter, adapted or not. They were likely cut for time like a lot of the chapters, but many add depth and important character development, and actually explain certain dynamics between characters present that were glossed over in the anime.

Reblogs appreciated...this took me so long qwq

Under the cut for sheer length

Chapter 0.1 “Telepathy”: A chapter mainly detailing info about Saiki’s telepathic abilities, and the plot revolves around him stopping his class from believing Nendo stole everybody's wallets.

Chapter 0.2 “Telekinesis”:  A chapter mainly detailing info about Saiki’s telekinetic abilities, and the plot revolves around Nendo “saving” him from being bullied, and him realizing that Nendo actually isn’t a delinquent, and is a good friend. Interestingly, Saiki is able to hear Nendo’s thoughts during this chapter, in which he is internally telling Saiki to run away while he takes the attack from the bullies.

Chapter 0.4 “Precognition”:  A chapter mainly detailing info about Saiki’s precognitive abilities (are you noticing a theme among the volume zero chapters?), and the plot revolves around him receiving a precognition about Nendo’s supposed funeral. Saiki follows Nendo around all day as they hang out in preparation of his date, and it’s (obviously) revealed the girl did it as a dare. Saiki uses his teleportation to apport a bowling ball Nendo had bought with the girl’s phone, and sends a message telling Nendo that she was simply busy and had to miss the date. The two go to Nendo’s house and it’s revealed the memorial was for Nendo’s already deceased dad, not him.

Chapter 0.5 “Teleportation”: A chapter mainly detailing info about Saiki’s ability to teleport/apport, and the plot revolves around Chouno attempting a magic show with a new assistant, after firing Ike-san (still homeless at the time) for making mistakes. His assistant, however, is purposely sabotaging him. Part way through, Ike-san shows up and thinks about how he should’ve been a better assistant, and his makeover is revealed. Near the end of the show a trick is attempted to where Chouno’s assistant is meant to teleport out of a box, but of course she does nothing. It is noticed that her and Ike-san have swapped places, due to Saiki apporting the two of them, and Chouno and Ike-san reunite.

Chapter 0.6 “Clairvoyance”:  A chapter mainly detailing info about Saiki’s clairvoyant abilities, and the plot revolves around Kaido accidently spotting Saiki teleporting from a distance, and trying to find out who it was. Unfortunately, the drawing he is using to ask around for the “Trickster” looks nothing like Saiki. At the end of the chapter, Saiki appears before Kaido with the face of his crude drawing, and teleports out, to appease him. (Interesting tidbit about this chapter is that the mysterious stranger from the birthday arc appears in the class while Saiki uses his clairvoyance to watch Kaido. He also appears in the background of chapter 41 (the telepathy silencer movie chapter), but not in the anime equivalent.) 

Chapter 0.7 “Astral Projection”:  A chapter mainly detailing info about Saiki’s ability to astral project, and the plot revolves around Saiki using telekinesis to deflect a stray baseball from hitting him, but it instead hits Nendo, subsequently knocking him out right before he was due to play in a baseball game. Thus, Saiki uses astral projection to take over Nendo’s body and play in the baseball game for him.

Chapter 8 “ Fighting for a RePSIval!”: Saiki and Nendo end up stopping a failing musician from jumping off a roof due to his enormous debt. Nendo gets the idea to help the man gain money by selling the CDS of his music he had ordered in bulk, which were the result of the debt, due to them not selling. He performs live in the park, and Saiki accidently uses his telepathy to project the song to everyone in the are, causing them to believe it became stuck in their heads due to how good it was. 

Chapter 00 “Special One-Shot: The DiPSIster of Psychic Saiki Kusuo”: This chapter falls in-between 8 and 9. It is a collection of oneshots set in a slightly different universe (likely a pilot or a very early storyline) in which it details information over several of Saiki’s powers, much like Volume 0.

Chapter 32 “ExPSIbition! Jump Festa”: Saiki goes out to Jump Festa to purchase merchandise due to an errand from his mom. There he meets Kaido, and the whole chapter’s gag is subtle advertisement for Jump Festa. The pair run into a crying child, who had lost his mom. He smartly refuses to go with Kaido to a help desk due to stranger danger, but Kaido comes back in his cosplay and since the kid vaguely recognizes him after he “proves” he really is that character (with Saiki’s help), the kid is returned to his mom.

Chapter 73 “PubliPSIzing the Popularity Contest Results!“: Saiki ends up in an alternate universe to where people’s popularity is shifted. (The chapter is based on the popularity poll that was held, hence that being the joke). Saiki is the most popular in this world, and he is bombarded with people until he hides away in the bathroom and transforms into Kuriko. This allows the original world’s Saiki to return, and he briefly explains why the world is this way, before sending Saiki, as Kuriko, back.

Chapter 88 “Press Play! A "Making Of" PSItory”: Saiki finishes watching a movie, and he remarks about how he loved it due to the quality of the acting and would like to visit the place it was filmed. Shortly after, he teleports to the location while returning the movie. He then decides to use his psychometry to see how the movie was filmed, and slowly it is revealed that the actors themselves were quite bad, especially the child star who Saiki believed to be a very good actor. The reason the movie was so good is revealed to be because the scenes in the movie were filmed as a supposed to be “behind the scenes”, and those were put in place instead of the actual filmed scenes.

Chapter 95 “The PSInnacle of the Golden Age of Heroes! A Fun Party Game”: Kaidou, Nendo, and Kuboyasu visit Saiki’s house the same day the game “J-Stars Victory Vs” was supposed to be arriving for him. A package arrives at the door, but instead of J-Stars, it is “C-Heroes Vale Tudo Battle”, a ripoff game by Saiki’s dad’s manga company. Kaido, Nendo, and Kuboyasu are all enamored by the game and reveal that they love Cognac, the magazine the game is for, and they all play the game. At the end of the chapter, the actual wanted game arrives, and the trio are just as excited and want to play that instead.

Chapter 102 “The Achromatic InviPSIble Boy”: (My personal favorite chapter) Saiki turns himself invisible to avoid running into his friends on the way to school, and winds up inside an empty storage room in order to wait for his invisibility to wear off. Unfortunately, a group of girls decided to use this room to change due to the peeping tom that’s been rumored around the campus. He hides by gripping onto the ceiling and waiting for them to leave, but when his invisibility is about to wear off the girls have still not left. After some time spent dodging and hiding, the door is opened by Saiki, revealing the actual peeping tom. The girls chase after him and Saiki uses the opportunity to escape.

Chapter 118 “The DiPSIster of the Rental Video Store”: Saiki, due to being bored, decides to go to a rental movie store to rent a movie to watch. Unfortunately, the current cashier is one that Saiki doesn’t favor very much, because she is high on his list for potential spoilers, but he remarks that at least the manager, a man who has seen nearly every movie, isn’t there. But (lmao), the manager switches positions with the cashier shortly after. Saiki then runs into Takahashi, who is purchasing pornography. In exchange for not telling the school about this, Saiki asks Takahashi to check out his movies for him. Takahashi gets caught like the dumbass he is and the plan is ruined.

Chapter 133 “An ExPSIlent Wife and Mother!? Mom's Class Reunion”: Saiki starts the chapter off by explaining how his mother is scatterbrained, and showing examples of it. Kurumi than remarks that she is going to her class reunion, which is being held in the city near her this year instead of way out in the country, meaning she can attend. When she arrives she starts getting reintroduced to her classmates who she hasn’t seen in 20 years, and talking about how different they are. Only one of the attendees, however, is actually from her class, and he reveals that the whole event is a plan to get closer to Kurumi, in order to use her for her eldest son’s wealth. Saiki, who had come to watch after having a bad feeling about the event, follows him into the bathroom and threatens him to stay away from his mom. Before he can finish, Kurumi accidently stumbles into the men’s bathroom, and her former classmate claims that her youngest son had attacked him unprovoked. Kurumi attacks the man, claiming her son would never do such a thing.

Chapter 134 “Kaidou and Kuboyasu's PSIpicions”: (The BEST Chapter) Kaidou and Kuboyasu are talking near their lockers about how neither of them got any chocolate for valentines day, and the conversation strays off to talking about Hairo. The two remark that they never see him talking to or dating girls, despite his popularity, and joke that he must be gay. The two are later found following Hairo, and bring up incidents that add to their growing suspicion. They soon find Hairo talking to Nendo, and begging the latter to join his club, stating that it has to be him. The conversation is normal, but Kaidou and Kuboyasu keep mistaking parts of it as being dirty. They watch Nendo and Hairo have a sumo match, and confront him after it, stating that it’s fine if he his gay, they were just curious. Hairo laughs it off and says he isn’t, but after another risque seeming scene (including an omake where Hairo and Nendo remark about keeping their relationship secret and how Hairo is willing to come out for him 🤔 ) the duo agree to stop thinking about it.

Chapter 165 “Train DiPSIster”: Saiki decides to take the train to a coffee shop 30 minutes away from his house instead of teleporting, claiming coffee jelly tastes much more satisfying if there is effort put into travelling there...though he does plan to teleport home. He explains how annoying train rides are for him, due to his telepathy, and how if someone playing music loudly is annoying for you, how much worse it is to listen everyone complain about said music. Over the course of the trip, Saiki begins to get anxious due to the crowds and his telepathy, and is relieved when several people get off. Unfortunately, he receives a precognition about the train stopping, and ends up saving a man from jumping in front of the train. Saiki winds up teleporting to the coffee shop. 

Chapters 176 & 177 “PSIolving the Biggest Riddle!”: Saiki shrinks himself to retrieve his mother’s wedding band that had fallen down a drain, and when he jumps down, he remarks that the sink had become essentially 80 meters tall due to his height. He lays down in his bed afterwards, deciding to take a nap while he returns to normal size. When he wakes up however, he is much taller than normal. Due to the fact his body keeps growing, to avoid destroying the house anymore, Saiki teleports away to an island to hide, but he realizes that he teleported to an island closer to land due to his height throwing off his teleport. He hides under the water to avoid being caught, but ends up having to teleport away to avoid being seen. He accidently ends up on land, and nearby is a tribe of people, who are speaking a strange language. Before they approach him, Saiki ducks into his shirt, remarking that he feels embarrassed and is at a loss. He ends up floating and crashes to the ground once he reaches a certain height. It eventually clicks and he returns home, normal size. He had realized that his growing and shrinking powers were the same, but growing happened slowly, and shrinking happened quickly, hence why he would return to normal size slowly. The cause of this issue? The off comment he made about the sink “Becoming 80 meters tall.”

Chapter 201 “A Miraculous InvenPSIon”: Saiki notices his dad using a tablet and asks him what it his, to which Kunihara explains. Once he remembers he has work, Kunihara runs off, but not before offering his old tablet to Saiki, saying he can use it to read books and buy things. A little while later, Saiki is amazed by the tablet. He remarks about the shopping sites he an use to buy not only physical copies of books on, but digital ones as well. He keeps thinking about how amazing the online shopping sites and recommendations are, meanwhile he performs basically the same exact thing to his mom, when she requests he go out and buy groceries, as he instantly apports them for her, and also added foil because he had a precognition about her running out. While searching for appliances, he stumbles on the coffee jelly maker he owns, and finds out it has shitty reviews, but everyone recommends a newer model. He looks for the cheapest price of it, and finds an ad claiming to sell it for 100 yen. However, he falls for the trick of a ridiculous shipping fee, and his father laughs and remarks how just like his mother, he got scammed. Angry, Saiki teleports to the factory and threatens them into giving him the model for 100 yen, claiming that he doesn’t have to pay the shipping fee if he picks it up himself.

Chapter 229 “No Need for Bath Salts! Taking a Dip in the PSIcret Hot Spring”: Saiki decides to take a visit to a secluded hot springs in the mountains to relax himself, but unfortunately two strangers decided to hike there at the very same time. He cannot just teleport or walk away, since he didn’t bring his clothes with him, having teleported there to begin with. To make them leave, he decides to heat the hot spring up, so that the two men get overheated and decic to leave. One of the men, however, decides to try and stay in the water that is slowly gaining heat, in order to outlast Saiki. The man eventually gets out and faints, and to avoid having to help them, Saiki feigns having fainted from the heat as well, causing the two men to leave on their own.

Chapter 243 ″Welcome to PSIberspace”: Saiki’s dad has a new VR headset, and while he has to leave for work he offers it to Saiki to play with. Saiki is enamored by the horror game his dad was playing, being that it’s able to surprise him. The jump scares, however, cause him to accidently use his telekinesis, which is actually blowing stuff up at his dad’s workplace, instead of his house. 

Chapter 245 “Trending on a Streaming PSIte”: Kaidou, Nendo, Kuboyasu, and Saiki are all hanging out, and Kaidou mentions he has a camera and wants to become a youtuber (Yotubo-er is what it’s called). At a café, the group suggests video ideas, such as Teruhashi. In order to prevent this plan, however, Saiki uses telekinesis to stab french fries into their eyes when Teruhashi ends up walking by the café. On the walk home, however, Saiki receives a premonition  about all the video ideas they suggested becoming popular, including one of him using his abilities on the french fries. He obtains the camera from Kaidou and deletes the footage, which had been recording due to the camera being on the entire time.

Chapter 255 “APSIsting In Mediating A Long-Term Marriage!”: Saiki and his parents go to visit his grandparent’s, only to learn the pair is fighting, and his grandmother would like a divorce. The start of the entire fight is revealed to be because Kumagoro left the toilet seat up, and Kumi explains how she’s had to put the seat down for 40 years. The reason she was so adamant to divorce as well was because Kuusuke had pushed her to it. Kumi gets ready to leave the house, especially after Kumagoro purposely leaves the lid up one last time. Saiki stops her and tells her to put down the lid one more time, only for the words ‘I’m Sorry’ to be written on it. The fight is resolved.

Chapter 264 “Please Go Watch the Live ActPSIon Movie!”: A manga Saiki reads is getting a live action movie, and he is particularly upset about it. His dad happens to be the editor for the manga, and takes him to the filming set to change his mind. (By the way, this is the best chapter for showcasing Kunihara’s shittiness as a father. He physically attacks his son several times. Missing, of course, but he still actively attacks him. Kunihara is a horrible person, let alone father.) Saiki views the set and is perturbed by the actor choices, specifically Makoto as the lead character. He is even more upset to learn that the movie features an original character (like a badly written wattpad fanfiction), and that the end of the movie even features the death of the main character, and Kunihara explains that it differs from the manga greatly. He explains to his son that the changes make the movie better, and Saiki ends up agreeing after he winds up viewing the actual live-action movie.

[byuntrash101]

Betcha, you're gonna be mine

Pairing: Idol!Baekhyun x You

Genre: Idol!AU, smut 🖤

Tags: mild dom/sub dynamics, deepthroat, some dirty talk, a little plot (not much)

Raiting: 18+

Word count: 3.4k

Summary: Working at KBS is fun and exciting especially when EXO-CBX is having their debut stage here.

General Masterlist

Tag list: @lovebuginlove @ohh-baekhyun @bobohumyonlyboo @smolbeanmika @making-me-blush @wooya1224 @yixing-jaehyun @baekklove @lalalala-lav @deligxt @xofanfics @byunsugar @dixnysustae @to-all-the-stories-i-love @artisticcgroove @myexoobsession​

A/N: the inspo for this comes from this gif right here. If you wanna be tagged plase tell me I well gladly add you. Plus feedback is greatly appreciated ^^ my asks are ALWAYS open💖!!

Betcha, you’re gonna be mine

You’re heading to the studio, it’s a regular Wednesday to you. Regular as could be as you ride your bike to the studio, just like you do every day. It’s nice and sunny out, still a bit chilly like it should be, it was early in the morning and spring was just starting.

You park your bike just outside and go through the glass doors of the KBS building. You greet your colleagues and smile. Everyone looks excited and just a tiny bit nervous today. Because today isn't so usual after all... EXO-CBX are doing their debut stage today.

Everybody is excited to see EXO because they are always funny and professional, without mentioning great performers. Basically they are a joy to have a on the set.

You, too, are kind of excited. But for you it’s usual since it’s a brand-new exciting job.

As a sound engineer, you know exactly what to do before the idols come in. You get the mics ready and pair them, check the sync with the monitors, make sure the mixing programs runs smoothly… You are so focussed on the job that you don't even notice Minlee, your best friend, creeping up beside you.

“Hey y/n, Chen Baek Xi is at hair and makeup” she says with a bright smile which doesn't keep you from jumping at the sudden outburst from your colleague.

“Awesome," you answer, holding your chest still slightly in shock. "The mics are ready”.

At this moment, the celebrity trio comes from hair and makeup. Still pretty focused on the monitors you don't pay much attention to them as you pass the three mics to Minlee.

“They’re there please mic them” you hand the mics without even looking at her because you spot something weird on the mixing program and you’re already trying to fix it.

Minlee gives you a nod and goes on her way. She approaches Baekhyun and smiles, presenting the mics. He lifts his gaze and recognizes her.

“Hey! Minlee!” he says smiling. Minlee giggles.

“Hi, she says, I have to mic you please turn around.”

He does as she says. His gaze sweeps the room, he nods and smiles at the familiar faces. Then, his eyes land on you. His smile fades away as his eyebrow lifts to let appear an intrigued look.

“Hum, Minlee, who’s this?”

“Huh?" She turns around to see you still occupied with the program. "Oh, it’s Y/N. She started working here around 2 months ago.”

“Huh, OK.” He says nothing more. But from this moment he is incapable of letting go of the thought of you. He observes you as you are busy on the computer. You don’t even notice his piercing eyes on you. An sly smirk progressively curling up his lips.

Baekhyun is not the timid kind. There’s a reason why he got as far and as quickly as he did in his career. Of course, talent and hard work was a big part of it. But Baekhyun’s secret was knowing exactly what he wanted and never missing the chance to cease the opportunity. 

And at the exact second, he laid eyes on you, you became exactly what he wanted. And the opportunity was right now.

As soon as he was done with Minlee and the mics he stepped down the stage and walked nonchalantly to where you were sitting now since being crunched over the monitor wasn't exactly the best thing for your spine. He stood just right in front of you.

“Hi” he simply says, flashing his charming smile.

Your eyes slowly leave the computer to meet his eyes. Dressed in this expensive suit, hands in his pockets, red shiny hair perfectly sitting on top of his head, smiling and looking down at you. You looked at him in awe. He chuckled, satisfied his entrance had the desired effect.

“You are new here, right?” he smiled again, being even more ravishingly handsome, which you really thought wasn’t possible.

You quickly regain your composure by slightly shaking your head, smiling back politely at him.

“Yes, I just started a few months ago”, you replied as you got up. Thinking that somehow the sitting position puts you at a disadvantage… But how wrong you were… because now you stood right in front of him. Dangerously close. Despite not being the tallest, he was still a good bit taller than you which you didn’t expect. You tried holding your chin up and looking indifferent, trying to ignore the frenetic thumping of your distraught heart. But that was nearly impossible.

“Oh, you did” he said slowly as he took a step in your direction, closing in the distance between the two of you. Out of instinct you tried stepping back but your calves were already pressed up against the chair you were sitting on a few seconds ago. He was so close that you were scared he was going to feel the heat burning in your cheeks. He smiled, flashing his glistening teeth.

“Yeah, I was just thinking that I never saw you before. And there’s no way I would have missed a beautiful face like yours” He said tucking a strand of hair behind your ear. Feeling is fingers against your skin sent a shiver down your spine, making you weak in the knees. You couldn’t get your eyes off him, his presence was so alluring. The way his eyes pierced right into yours, the way his lips curled up in a flirty half smile, the way his deep honey voice sunk into your very being.

It felt like the world stopped. Time frozen still as you locked eyes with him.

Like there was nobody else around. Nobody else to see when he inched his lips closer to yours as his warm breath tickled your cheeks.

“Baekhyun!” Jongdae shouted from across the stage. Suddenly you were brought back to reality. Baekhyun closed his eyes and tilted his head slowly, pinching his lips. Looking annoyed he turned around and took the stares back to the stage.

You shook your head trying to collect your thoughts. You reached for your water bottled and gulped it down to cool you off. It worked to some extend and you were able to focus on the recording.

Right after CBX proceeded with the prerecorded stage for the music show of the evening. The whole time you couldn’t keep your eyes off Baekhyun as he was singing, dancing and of course flirting with the camera. No doubt, he was good, very good!

As soon as the performance was over Minlee took your headset off and smiled at you.

“Y/N, did I have a stroke, or did I saw you and Baekhyun flirting right before the recording?” you almost choked on your saliva.

“N-no, we were j-just talking” you stuttered. Minlee sighed.

“Y/n, you should go for it.” You almost choked, again.

“What are you saying Minlee?”

“Maybe this opportunity won’t present itself again y/n!”

“But…” you couldn’t finish your sentence that Minlee took you by the arm.

“Alright let’s get their mics” she pulled you to the three idols. Minlee rushed to Minsoek and Jongdae.

“Can you take care of Baekhyun please Y/N?”

“Y-yeah” you whispered almost. You walked to Baekhyun.

“So, you gonna take care of me? Huh?” he said lifting his arms and an evil smirk on his face.

“yes” you replied as simply as possible. He let out a soft chuckle.

“I can’t wait” he said licking his lips and making sure his eyes were locked onto yours.

You procced to wrap yours hands around his waist and untangling the wires. Your hands going up to his ears and unhooking the mic. The whole time Baekhyun didn’t even blink once. Like he was trying to memorize every detail of your face.

Your job done you were about to swiftly escape Baekhyun’s hypnosis, but he caught your wrist and pulled you in closer. Whispering in your ear.

“Let’s not lie to each other and continue what we were doing in my dressing room.”

You were about to politely decline but he interrupted.

“You can’t lie to me y/n” he then let go of your wrist and left the set. Your eyes followed him until he disappeared in the hallway. Hearing your name being whispered like this gave you chills and sent the butterflies in your stomach flying around. You didn’t even know how he came to know your name, but you didn’t care.

You brought your fingers to your lips. What should you do? Baekhyun was right… you … wanted him. But this kind of … meeting was a first for you, you were always a good girl. Never once in your life you thought you would be able to do that but… you addressed a puzzle faced to Minlee. To which she responded with an excited smile. She gives you a hand gesture to urge you to follow him.

“Well fuck it” you thought, and you proceeded to also disappear in that very same hallway.

Once in front of the door you knocked carefully. The door opened right away. He was there, standing right in front of you. He had taken his blazer off, his tight white shirt was letting you see how broad his shoulders actually were.

“Ah, y/n, you almost made me wait.” He motioned to invite you in. So you did and closed the door behind you. 

The room had no windows, the only light source came from the vanity mirror. The atmosphere was intimate… Suddenly you realized what your visit here implicates. You feel your heart jump up in your throat and your stomach sink to your feet. 

He walked slowly towards you. Soon, your back was pressed against the cold wooden door. Except this time, Baekhyun placed his hand on the door, near your head. His face was getting dangerously close to yours.

“You really are pretty,” he softly whispered, analyzing your face once again. His breath tickled your cheek.

“T-thank you,” you stupidly replied, unable to think of anything else.

You could feel the heat radiating from his body. His lips were so close yet so far.

“Can I kiss you?” he asked, tilting his head, like he wasn’t going to wait for your answer, but he did nonetheless. You nodded slowly unable to speak, your eyes fluttering between his lips and his unwavering dark orbs.

Finally, the last millimeter was no more, your lips met. You felt his free hand wrap around your waist and pulling you even closer. His breath was getting irregular as the kiss got deeper. His tongue and yours dancing with each other.

His lips drifted to your neck as he trailed his way to your collarbone. Nibbling on your skin and leaving his mark. His hands passed underneath your shirt making their way to your breasts. You gasped for air. Baekhyun’s hands were roaming your body like they were familiar with it, like he knew by heart every mole, every birthmark, every freckle, every sensitive spot. He knew exactly what to do.

Soon, lust clouded your judgment,making all your worries and your bashfulness vanish. You started to become more daring and started to unbutton his shirt. Baekhyun smiled at your newfound confidence. He helped you with your quest, taking the shirt off his broad chest and  sending it across the room. For a brief second your eyes landed on his perfectly sculpted body. He took your breath away with every glance at his smooth skin.

He lifted your own shirt over your head. Kissing your neck, he unhooked your bra with a dexterous and swift movement.

He took a step back to admire your details. You felt his gaze burn into your body, exploring you. You should have felt embarrassment, but strangely you didn’t. 

You, too, took the time to look at him. Now you could clearly see how broad his chest and shoulders were. His silky skin still glistened from performing under the heat of the spotlight earlier. He was lean and his abs were toned. His body was close to perfection. No, it was pure perfection, along with the rest of it. You exhaled deeply.

He licked and bit his lip. His breath was still a little short but he looked hungry, ferocious...

“Take the rest of your clothes off for me baby” his soft honey like voice contracted with the commanding tone. You felt your cheeks getting warmer as you unzipped your pants. Slowly you rolled the denim off your skin. Revealing the black lace underwear you decided to wear this morning.

Baekhyun brought his fingers to his mouth, playfully flicking his tongue at his fingertips.

“That too” he motioned with his chin to your underwear. You slowly took it off too. Being completely exposed like this to him. Showing yourself so vulnerable in front of him. All of that... It pleased Baekhyun. Greatly. A mischievous smirk stretched his lips.

“Get on your knees baby” he said quietly but firmly, hand on his growing bulge. You did as he said. He pulled a chair from underneath the vanity and sat on it, whipping out his member. You bit your lips witnessing such a lustful sight. Arousal building up in between your legs.

“Come here baby girl” he called you. You crawled to him, still on your knees. He licked his lips and smiled looking down on you, revealing his pearly teeth.

“Good girl” he whispered as you reached him. He brushed his thumb on your lips before pushing it in between your teeth. You playfully opened your mouth and started to lick the tip of his fingers. He let out a satisfied chuckle.

“Come on baby girl don’t make me beg for it” he said pointing at his bulging member. You nodded and approached closer.

His dick was red, slightly twitching from all the teasing and kissing, obviously longing to be touched. You carefully wrapped both your hands at the base. You approached your lips slowly and took a look at Baekhyun. He had a pained look on his face, eyes fixed on your mouth, eyebrows deeply knitted. Clearly those were the longest seconds of his life. You kissed the pearly tip that was already oozing precum. A small string linked your lips and his tip. You licked it all off. The salty taste filled your head. He was biting his bottom lip and holding in his breath, looking down on you and stroking your hair gently.

You took him passed your lips. He let out a muffled groan throwing his head back, his eyes tightly shut. You continued to swallow him till you felt him tickling the back of your throat. With slightly teary eyes you slowly moved your head back. We repeated the same movements, making him languish for more. He chuckled.

“You like to tease me, huh?” you looked up at him. He was smiling, but almost in a threatening way. He looked impatient, hungry, reckless.

“Don’t tease me too much, okay baby?” he said, ever so slightly, thrusting his hips, forcing open your mouth. He twirled your hair around his fingers firmly holding it, pulling it with just enough force to coerce you. The heated sting on your scalp made you meekly moan.

“You’re a good girl right?” he growled in a whisper. His dominant behavior lighted a fire inside you and you started sucking him vigorously. He sighed in pleasure.

“Yes baby girl, you know how I like it, right?”

Encouraged by his deep moans you gave him your everything. Forcing his girthy length even past the back of your throat and stroking with both your hands the parts you couldn’t reach with your mouth. Baekhyun groaned loudly, biting lip. You liked the effect you had on him.

“Hmmm. S-Slow down baby, I might c-cum.” He said a painful look on his face, his lips swollen and red from trying to restrain himself.

You felt him throb in your mouth and pulling your hair to force your tongue off his cock. You looked at him, his face was flushed, his bangs were stuck to his forehead with sweat.

“You don’t want the fun to end here, right baby?” he said out of breath. You shook your head. He got up and took off his pants and underwear.

“Sit there, baby,” he said, pushing to the side the empty plastic coffee cups, makeup palettes and brushes. You placed your butt on the cold wood of the vanity. Legs crossed. Baekhyun approached you, he swept his hair back, slightly soppy.

He admired the curves of your body once more. One hand stroking his cock, he looked at you with a menacing evil glint, shooting a shot of electricity down your spine.

“Tell me what you want baby girl” he said in a rough, husky voice. You smiled teasingly, pulling your lips in a half smirk. You spread your legs slowly, provoking him. Revealing your sopping and quivering center.

“I want you inside of me Baekhyun” you said in a pleading tone. “I’m all wet and ready for you”. Baekhyun chuckled.

“Good girl”

Baekhyun took a step closer and playfully rubbed himself against your folds. You let out a small whimper. Baekhyun looked at you right in the eyes and smiled as he slipped into you. This time you couldn’t help but to moan loudly, sighing in pleasure as you felt his warmth inside you.

He started out slowly but quickly picked up the pace. You felt the pleasure radiating in your entire body. This full feeling soon clouded your head and you couldn’t think about anything else, malong your mind completely blank.

“You like that baby girl?” he asked looking at you.

“I love it. You feel so good inside me” you whined in pleasure. Your hands desperately searching for some kind of grip to hold you in place as Baekhyun slammed his hips into you forcefully. Making your messy hair jump to the rhythm of your skin clashing.

“Yes baby” he said in a groan.

You could feel yourself coming closer and closer to your release. Your breath was hectic as tension started building in your legs and you threw your head back in a lingering moan, trying your best not to be too loud.

You lifted your head back to look at Baekhyun. Him, too, seemed close. His hair was damped, droplets of sweat forming shiny wet paths on his broad chest. His expression was rough, his eyebrows were frowned and his jaw slightly pushed to the front.

Baekhuyn notices your legs shaking.

“Y/N are you gonna cum?” he said in one short breath. You nodded. He smiled devilishly before laying his hand on your throbbing center and circling your clit with his thumb.

As soon as you felt his fingers on you, you knew your orgasm was closer than ever, goosebumps running across your body, your legs shaking irreplaceably.

“What’s my name baby? I want you to say my name when you cum” Baekhyun said in a low husky voice, half groaning, half moaning.

Hearing his hoarse voice combined with his skilled fingers and rough trusting was enough to send you over the edge.

“Baekhyun!” You shouted planting your nails in the wood of the vanity. Your entire body shaking, giving in to the pleasure he was gifting you. You closed your eyes shut as your walls clenched around Baekhyun's thick length, desperately twitching in a powerful and long-lasting orgasm. The sensation spreading to your entire body, it was a first for you. Still cumming you managed to open one eye to look at Baekhyun.

His face was bright red, droplets of sweat dripping alongside his ears. His expression was rough, wild. His eyebrows deeply furrowed, and his mouth half opened, inhaling and exhaling rapidly. His thrusts were stronger than ever. Finally, you felt him release.

“Oh baby” he said in a low moaning voice, his nails digging into the side of your thighs. He delivered long ropes of thick and sticky cum inside you.

He started to move slower and slower. Before pulling himself out. Drenched and out of breath he looked at you still dazed and laying on the vanity. He was smiling happily, almost innocently, turning into a completely different person than the one that was relentlessly fucking you seconds before that.

“Y/N, I can’t wait for our next comeback.” You looked at him, he was a mess -a beautiful one at that-, and you too probably.

“Me neither”. You said smiling too.

General Masterlist

[astradrifting]

This is kind of inspired by this recent ask I sent to @esther-dot about Jon’s characterisation and Jonsa shippers’ apparent disregard for it, because it made me think of another part of Jon’s characterisation that is really integral to who he is. Mainly, that Jon really loves his brothers. Especially Robb. His rival and best friend and constant companion. Jon envies him, competes with him, buried a formative traumatic memory where he was deeply hurt by him... but ultimately loves him. Complex relationships with his brothers, both the Starks and his Night’s Watch brothers, are a running theme in Jon’s chapters.

Speaking of Jon’s brothers...

Aegon VI and Robb have a lot of potential parallels, actually. The “Young” moniker, red-haired counselors who are also their parents, trained to be the heir to a great kingdom from a young age, the barely younger half-brother Jon borne of their father’s dishonour of their mother… one that they might both have a good relationship with despite that?

The show tried to play with Jon ‘accepting’ his Targaryen lineage through the jonerice romance, very unconvincingly because it was simultaneously undermining it at every opportunity, in what was maybe a half-assed attempt at Pol!Jon (”They’ll all come to see you for what you are” isn’t anything but a threat in all contexts).

Jon will ultimately choose the Starks over everything else, that’s not really a question. But if Jon were to genuinely connect with another Targaryen, it’d likely be easier for him to find kinship with a half-brother than with an aunt - he has a basis for positive relationships with trueborn half-brothers, while the only aunt figure he’s ever known about is a) long dead and b) actually his mother. I think it’d both make more sense and be more compelling for GRRM to leverage Jon’s existing complex relationships with brotherhood by having him interact with and build a relationship with Aegon, than a rushed and out-of-character romance with Dany. 

Jon also is already primed to believe that Aegon is the real deal, that he was saved as a baby, because he’s already done the exact same thing himself - he swapped out a baby of royal blood who was in danger for a common-born boy, and then sent him halfway across the world for safety (side note: if Septa Lemore is Ashara, and if the baby was actually Ashara’s son as theorised here by @agentrouka-blog, that would just strengthen the parallel, because it would be his body double’s mother caring for him, as Gilly has to do for Mance’s son).

They’re definitely going to come into conflict first - politically, Jon will likely be in a position of power in the North by the time they meet, maybe as the KitN through Robb’s will or regent for Rickon, and probably will fight for Northern independence, while Aegon is fighting to be king of the Seven Kingdoms, not 6. Personally, it will be hard to get past the fact that Jon is the direct result of Rhaegar dishonouring Elia, plus that the Kingsguard who should have been protecting her were all stationed in Dorne, guarding Jon’s mother (in whatever capacity). But these interactions, a conflict and eventual friendship/brotherhood between them, would all be a lot more layered than jonerice can really offer. If a relationship between Jon and Dany was truly all that GRRM has been building up to, then there would have been no need for R+L=J - it adds nothing to that storyline, it doesn’t even make it a forbidden romance, because aunt-nephew is hardly the worst incest the Targaryens have engaged in.

It’s almost inevitable that Da*nerys is going to kill Aegon VI/Young Griff in the books, likely by burning him with dragonfire, in the Second Dance of the Dragons. The weird Dragonpit meeting in the show was very contrived, but it does make sense for Dany to meet the ruler on the Iron Throne at least once in a semi-peaceful context. In the show, she used her dragons only to intimidate Cersei, but she didn’t have a personal grievance with her. Aegon is in much more danger during such a meeting. After all she will think he is a pretender, and she doesn’t much care for the rules of safe conduct, as she showed to the envoys from Yunkai.

Dany shrugged, and said, "Dracarys."

The dragons answered. Rhaegal hissed and smoked, Viserion snapped, and Drogon spat swirling red-black flame. It touched the drape of Grazdan's tokar, and the silk caught in half a heartbeat. 

[...]

"You swore I should have safe conduct!" the Yunkish envoy wailed.

"Do all the Yunkai'i whine so over a singed tokar? I shall buy you a new one... if you deliver up your slaves within three days. Elsewise, Drogon shall give you a warmer kiss." She wrinkled her nose. "You've soiled yourself. Take your gold and go, and see that the Wise Masters hear my message."

(ASOS, Dany IV)

"Ah, there is the thorn in the bower, my queen," said Hizdahr zo Loraq. "Sad to say, Yunkai has no faith in your promises. They keep plucking the same string on the harp, about some envoy that your dragons set on fire."

"Only his tokar was burned," said Dany scornfully.

(ADWD, Dany VI)

So Dany will burn the Blackfyre pretender, and everyone will be happy and cheer to see the rightful queen, the last Targaryen, Slayer of Lies, Breaker of Chains, Insert-The-Million-Other-Titles-Here. Right?

Except how would she prove that he’s an imposter? She can’t exactly roll up with an Alt Shift X video pointing out that Illyrio has said some weird things about Aegon. Is Varys going to have an attack of remorse and explain his whole plot, complete with Blackfyre family tree? Or maybe she’ll explain that she went on a vision quest in Qarth and Aegon totally matches up with the vague symbolism that a bunch of drugged up warlocks told her before she set them on fire?

I don’t think it’s going to matter if Aegon is fake or not, and we might never find out either way. The mystery of his identity isn’t his main narrative, and all of his significance to the story and to multiple other characters is removed if he’s proved to not be Aegon VI. Him being proved fake would just make this plotline a weird, unnecessary digression on Dany’s journey to being the righteous and true queen, his death just another #girlboss moment for her. That’s definitely going to be her perception of it, but once she reaches Westeros we won’t have to rely on only her POV of her actions. History is written by the winners, and no one’s going to miss that it’s a lot more convenient for Dany if the boy with a stronger claim than her turns out to have been fake all along. Arianne and the Dornish are definitely not going to take it lying down, and neither is Jon. He’s not going to fall in love with the woman who murdered his brother, especially by burning him alive. ADWD has plenty to say about how much he hates death by fire.

“Men say that freezing to death is almost peaceful. Fire, though … do you see the candle, Gilly?”

She looked at the flame. “Yes.”

“Touch it. Put your hand over the flame.”

Her big brown eyes grew bigger still. She did not move.

“Do it.” Kill the boy. “Now.”

Trembling, the girl reached out her hand, held it well above the flickering candle flame.

“Down. Let it kiss you.”

Gilly lowered her hand. An inch. Another. When the flame licked her flesh, she snatched her hand back and began to sob.

“Fire is a cruel way to die. Dalla died to give this child life, but you have nourished him, cherished him. You saved your own boy from the ice. Now save hers from the fire.”

(ADWD, Jon II)

Funnily enough, the same fire as a kiss imagery from Dany burning the envoy’s tokar appeared there too, also used as a threat. 

If he is not a kinslayer, he is the next best thing. [...] What sort of man can stand by idly and watch his own brother being burned alive?

(ADWD, Jon IX)

So Aegon’s death is not going to be a triumphant victory for Dany, after which everyone proclaims her the true queen. It’s likely to just solidify opposition to her, from every corner of Westeros. If it happens during a summit or negotiation, it’d be even more of a tragic parallel to Robb and the Red Wedding; the young king murdered off of the battlefield, at an event where he was promised safe conduct. Featuring Dany in the role of Roose Bolton and Tywin Lannister. Tywin’s already died a very undignified death, and Roose Bolton looks to be on his way too.

I think the tragedy of Aegon’s death would also hit harder if we see it through Jon, as a main POV, or at least the aftermath of it. Jon was integral at the Dragonpit meeting after all, and probably would be at a peace summit or negotiation between the leaders of Westeros and the invading force.

In ASOS, there’s a curious lack of Jon’s reaction to Robb’s death. We see his initial reaction to Bran and Rickon’s supposed deaths when he gets back to Castle Black, but he doesn’t even know about Robb’s death until Stannis arrives to defeat the wildlings, and we’re not shown the moment he’s told about it. He barely even thinks about it, not even a mention until he meets with Stannis on top of the Wall:

“Your brother was the rightful Lord of Winterfell. If he had stayed home and done his duty, instead of crowning himself and riding off to conquer the riverlands, he might be alive today. Be that as it may. You are not Robb, no more than I am Robert.”

The harsh words had blown away whatever sympathy Jon might have had for Stannis. “I loved my brother,” he said.

(ASOS, Jon XI)

And that’s literally all we get that is specifically about Robb’s death - the rest of Jon’s chapters, his guilt and grief is about the loss of all his siblings, and the idea of stealing Winterfell from them. It doesn’t really make sense for him to not think about it at all, considering how close they were. This reminds me of how he has a non-reaction to Sansa’s marriage to Tyrion as well, as talked about in this post by @agentrouka-blog. Part of this could be Jon’s tendency towards denial and suppression of all his feelings, but it also points to GRRM explicitly obscuring his reaction - perhaps because he’s going to explore it in the wake of another brother dying a very similar death? One that this time he’ll be there to witness?

[my-sherlock221b]

Supernatural Rewatch Ramblings: Bloodlust

2020-21 has been a huge transformative time for many of us. Whether we wanted it or not, we have been forced to stop, switch gears, rethink, reflect, let go, make new priorities, discover who we really are and who we want to be in the face of adversity.

One of those transformations for me has been giving up on control and finding a way to surrender to the power of the universe. Another has been to not let perfection be the enemy of good.

You may well wonder---What does all this have to do with the Bloodlust rewatch and review??!

Probably nothing LOL except for the fact that I still have to write up my review on Bloody Mary and have been unable to write for various reasons. And then because the Bloody Mary review was still incomplete I could not write about the next one etc etc etc.

So when we watched Bloodlust two days ago in the continuing re-watch, I decided that I am going to re-start the review, and from exactly where I am right now!

If time and life permits I might fill in the gaps later. If not, well, life is unpredictable and weird and we keep calm as it carries on….Thank you for coming to my Philosophy talk….:)

Read below for the Boodlust  review, Season 2 episode 3 and look out for the post from @soulmates-for-real​ on this rewatch too!! 

The opening scene is the perfect switch and bait because we as an audience have been trained to latch on to types and identities and representations.

Woman in white night gown screaming and running--victim

Person who brutally beheads her—villain.

A few minutes into the episode we realize that we were wrong.

A good few minutes later we realize that we were wrong about being wrong.]

Haha.

We are idjits, swept away on the eddies and currents of this masterfully written and directed episode. Thank you Sera Gamble and Robert Singer!

The acting and the mesmerizing beauty of the two leads is worthy of an entire essay of its own but in order to have a life and finish this review I shall only say this—Oh my goodness HOW gorgeous is Jensen Ackles?!!

It is sometimes impossible to look at him in this episode because my eyes didn’t know where to land! That perfect face? The lips? Those eyes?? The quirk of the eyebrows? Those micro expressions that are constantly weaving across his face? The smile? The way his lips move when he talks?? His hair? The Samulet?

And then the shot pans out and includes his hand and the ring and honestly it’s a miracle I could follow the plot at all.

So the images I am going to include in this review, much as I love Sam Winchester and Jared Padalecki, are all of Dean Winchester. It’s a criminal waste to not do so when the man is just an ode to perfection.

*

Sheila O’Malley’s review of this episode is in itself a work of art and a thing of beauty so I will direct you most enthusiastically towards it and only add here my little pennyworth bits. Do click on this link but be prepared to sink into a one hour read which will make you feel like you were dropped into the episode itself.

https://www.sheilaomalley.com/?p=87187

Here is a quote from her review which is so insightful.

These are the details that a director like Robert Singer never misses, and at this point his relationship with Ackles and Padalecki would be almost telepathic (it’s probably 100% telepathic now). He has said before that he and Kripke were such a good team because Kripke’s primary concern is Plot/Gore/Horror and Singer’s primary concern is Character/Relationship. And they both end up in the same place. It’s a good mix. If Singer were also Plot/Gore/Horror focused, we wouldn’t have the depth of relationship which is the real point of the show, its real hook.

*

For a much briefer and far less technically adept and analytical review, read on here!

*

The opening of this episode shows us the Impala from every possible angle. Gleaming, gorgeous, road -worthy. This is mirrored by Dean. He is also gleaming, gorgeous and roadworthy. He is in a happy mood that not even Sam’s little brother snitty comments can deflate.

Here is the soundtrack of this episode for those who are interested.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0835248/soundtrack

Here is some random but fun trivia:

Dean tells Sam in one scene "If it's     Supernatural, we kill it." One of the rare times the title of the     show is actually spoken in the dialogue.

This is the first episode where Sam began parting his     hair down the middle, the hairstyle he'd keep the rest of the series.

( I didn’t like his hair too much in this episode honestly but then again I could barely see anyone beyond Dean :D)

During the filming of this episode Jared injured his     hand when he fell badly during a stunt. He thought it was merely sprained     and went straight into filming the next episode without having it checked.     But it got more and more painful and finally he went to the doctor and     discovered that his hand was, in fact, broken. Because he had already     begun filming, he couldn't bandage the hand until filming for that episode     was finished. The writers ended up writing in an accident for Sam and his     line "I think she broke my hand" to explain the fact that for     the following few episodes he would be wearing a cast.

When Dean kills a vampire, blood is sprayed on his     face, mostly on his right cheek. In the next shot the pattern is     different, and notably the right cheek is almost clean. Furthermore, his     mouth was agape when he made the kill, risking the blood getting into his     mouth and turning him into a vampire. While the brothers didn't yet know     how a vampire is made at that point, Gordon did and should have been     alarmed that Dean might have gotten some of the blood in his mouth.

*

A random behind the scene shot from the episode:

Guess who she is? Apparently this is Jensen’s sister in a super brief role in Bloodlust!

* 

On to the review, or rather some of my thoughts during the re-watch.

The first scene with the Sheriff they are interrogating him about the cattle mutilations is hilarious. The way they bluff their way into the morgue is hilarious. Dean always leading and Sam following.

Random trivia: When Dean enters the morgue with Sam and sees the name tag of "J Manners", it has been thought the name was to honor Jeffrey Dean Morgan and series producer Kim Manners. Dean guesses "John" - Jeffrey's character name - and the intern corrects with "Jeff"

*

It a testament to the way Supernatural has trained its audience that we barely blink when they pull out a decapitated head in the morgue, squabble over who is more chicken, dig into the mouth and eventually discover vampire fangs.

Yes, of course they do.

*

Next scene: Two hot guys walk into a bar…..

…….where the adorable Benny, who is not Benny in this episode but a random dude ( spoilers—later we find out the dude is a vampire), gives them directions/ mis- directions to a possible vampire nest.

We see the first glimpse of Gordon Walker, amazingly played by Sterling K. Brown, and making us worry about and dislike him almost right away. The way he is shown with the light and shade bars on his face from the window blinds is so menacing.

The next few scenes continue to build that sense of unease where the Winchester brothers, apparently telepathically, decide to double back and catch him following them, then he shows them his car and his weapons, where he references their dad and then refuses their offer for help.

The scene where he shows them his car is like a painting. (The car by the way is just as inconspicuous as the Impala –which is to say NOT AT ALL!! How do these people stay below the radar of the regular law enforcement is a mystery….).

The dust highlighting the rays of light, the two brothers on one side of the car and Gordon at the other, it’s all so consciously set up for a few seconds worth of screen time. Impressive!

Next comes a truly brutal kill, at Dean’s hands, which we don’t even see except as a spray of blood on his face. Poetic! But it is Dean’s expression that makes my stomach clench. His eyes are dead and he is somewhere deep that even Sam can’t reach, as we can see from the distress on Sam’s face.

Gordon of course is all chipper and full of bonhomie and offers to buy them drinks.

That following scene is the one which gives Wincest brother-wives vibes like 100%.

*

Sam plays the role of the disgruntled ‘wife’ to perfection. No one but hubby is allowed to use the nickname. He hates the male bonding going on with Gordon and the more Gordon seems to slip into Dean’s inner circle, the more uncomfortable Sam gets, until he finally decides that he just cannot physically be there any more.

Dean’s smug expression when Sam tells Gordon off for calling him Sammy, his instant worry at Sam going back alone, his hand raised in exasperation to convey to Gordon—look what I have to put up with-- the tossing of the keys to his car----it is all a symphony of Dean playing his part in the brother-wives orchestra.

The last line?! ‘Remind me to beat the buzzkill out of you later.’ And Sam’s expression at that? That’s exactly the way a bullying /abusive husband would react to a nagging wife who doesn’t like his toxic friends and wonders how he can be so blind as to not see them for the bad influence they clearly are.

( Bad Dean!!!)

Sam goes back to the motel and does his due diligence by checking with Ellen, gets kidnapped by vampires, released and on his return is disgusted to find Gordon inside their motel room.

*

The next scene is where Dean erupts, having clearly had enough of the shifting power dynamics between them over the evening. Sam has been silently judging him since the kill and Gordon has managed to ‘other’ Sam and make Dean feel validated in his own bloodlust as a hunter.

Dean clocks Sam one.

Wow. I did not see that coming. And what shocked me at this re- watch is that Sam just takes it.

Like an abused wife, he just takes it. Not only that, sometime later in the episode he tells Dean to hit him again if it is going to make him feel better.

NO Sam! NO!!! This is NOT healthy and this is NOT the way to deal….ugh. Sigh.

*

Then the second half of the episode swings in and the moral dilemma they face becomes clear when the victim and villain switch roles and Dean is shook enough to question his dad’s judgement!

Dean is still kind of trying to give Gordon the benefit of the doubt even though he sees him literally torturing the vampire. But of course all bets are off the instant he touches Sam. Dean pulls his gun on him. I was surprised that he didn’t shoot him just on principle later simply because he hurt Sam even if it was a small cut.

That is Dean’s definition of monsters-- Anything that hurts Sam. 😊

*

We don’t know it at this time, and spoilers ahead, but maybe Dean has been so annoyed and violent with Sam at the idea that he is standing up for MONSTERS is because he might also be one….and the way he looks at the end when he realizes that his whole life’s philosophy has been upended.

There are the details about the vampires who drink cattle blood so they don’t harm humans and therefore want to be treated as the good guys. Of course it is all about the inherent struggle between who you are and what you do—something that shows up hugely magnified in the later seasons when Sam is struggling with his own demon blood addiction and the knowledge of the demon blood inside him.

He needs desperately to believe in this as the utmost foundation stone of his life and its purpose—what you DO is more important than what you ARE!

So even if you are a monster, if you don’t behave like one—that is your redemption.

But it’s not just anybody whose faith he wants in his struggle to prove to himself that he is not a monster. He needs it from Dean.

Remember the dialogue from the panic room “Don’t you say that to me. Don’t YOU say that to me.”

And the fake voicemail set up by Zachariah exploits this at the time of the breaking of the last seal.

*

Of course he doesn’t know any of this yet, but that’s Sam fucking Winchester for you –always purer and better than his circumstances allow. Always struggling to do better, be better.😍

*

It is fascinating how the visuals and the roles these two play are of rugged handsome men, badass heroes-- Dean of course super macho role playing all the time. But there are so many layers upon layers and honestly if it wasn’t for Jared and Jensen’s fine nuanced and impeccable acting adding depth to the characters, the show would not have held our interest for this long.

We are shown Sam as the brains with his lore and research, but then in the very next episode (Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things), we see Dean connect dots faster than Sherlock Holmes.

Dean is shown as the instinctively violent one with the gun under his pillow, trigger happy, and in this episode even that brutal kill of the vampire on the docks. But then please remember the way Sam kills Gordon finally. Or the insane way he bites himself to get blood for drawing sigils. Or the way he just simply shoots the crossroads demon point blank!

We see Sam as the soft hearted one and he does rescue kids once in a while, but he is never shown to bond with them even a fraction of the way Dean does—so effortlessly. Also the ladies of course, all of whom have a soft spot for Dean. The exceptions being Sarah and Madison, both of whom completely ignored Dean. Oh and that doctor from Sex and Violence.

Dean has had his share of bad dates of course with Cassie, the woman who gave birth to his magical superfast growing daughter ( who was killed by Sam), and the whole Lisa arc, but somehow we are shown Sam as the one who is invested in relationships. Hello?! Sam was planning to marry Jessica without having told her a thing about his life while Dean told Cassie the secret as soon as he thought he was in love and wanted a relationship.

So anyway, just to say that a rewatch is so brilliant because we know more about them at this point than they do and the character arc is such a thing of beauty to see unfolding!

*

That last scene where Dean is in a thoughtful frame of mind, the sun is rising overhead ( as a metaphor for him seeing the light, maybe?)--that insanely gorgeous shot of Dean with the ring of fire and light and his absolutely perfect face in a close up…sigh.

Then he thanks Sam for pushing him to see this grey area and for the first time in that episode Sam finally smiles.

His big brother is back with him.

And then he commits to Dean too. Ah…how it warms my heart to hear this dialogue!

 DEAN I wish we never took this job. It's jacked everything up.

SAM What do you mean?

DEAN Think about all the hunts we went on, Sammy, our whole lives.

SAM Okay.

DEAN What if we killed things that didn't deserve killing? You know? I mean, the way Dad raised us...

SAM Dean, after what happened to Mom, Dad did the best he could.

DEAN I know he did. But the man wasn't perfect. And the way he raised us, to hate those things; and man, I hate 'em. I do. When I killed that vampire at the mill I didn't even think about it; hell, I even enjoyed it.

SAM You didn't kill Lenore.

DEAN No, but every instinct told me to. I was gonna kill her. I was gonna kill 'em all.

SAM Yeah, Dean, but you didn't. And that's what matters.

DEAN Yeah. Well, 'cause you're a pain in my ass.

SAM Guess I might have to stick around to be a pain in the ass, then.

DEAN Thanks.

SAM Don't mention it.

Transcript here http://www.supernaturalwiki.com/index.php?title=2.03_Bloodlust_%28transcript%29

 Guess Sam does stick around for the next 15 years to be a pain in the ass 😊

Some quotes from the writers about this episode: 

·  "The episode was really about what Dean would become if he didn't watch out: that Gordon was Dean in ten years if Sam didn't ask the difficult questions and keep him from getting too militant." - Executive story editor Sera Gamble

· "We set out to create a monster episode where you weren't entirely sure whether these monsters should be killed." - Eric Kripke

· "For me, the show is at its best when the supernatural story reveals something new about the brothers, or forces them to change in some way. Sam and Dean's realization that they've basically been raised as 'monster racists' was really meaty stuff. Exploring these characters' flaws is just as important as showcasing their heroism - these are the things that make them human, that make us invest in them." - Raelle Tucker

Check out this site for more amazing trivia and stuff

http://www.jonescave.com/supernatural/Episode/Episode.php?s=2&e=3#PopCulture

I have already finished watching the next episode ‘Children’s Shouldn’t play with Dead Things’….so let’s hope I get around to writing a review sometime soon !

[crescentsteel]

Just Friends - Part 6

plot: fubu set up with Kuroo , model fem reader warnings: a bit spicy at the end word count: 6.7k 

A.N:

I’m putting a short pause on this series. because it’s October: 1) kinktober; 2) Halloween drabbles

next part will be j u i c y

I listen to Erutan while writing

THANK YOU SO MUCH to those who leave wonderful comments in the chapters. I always read them and get silly happy

Lmk if you want to be part of the taglist

I accidentally deleted this chapter. I hate myself

Part 5 | Part 7 |  m.list 

Your eyes alternate among the four men who are blathering in front of you. You’ve been in events like this before, so interacting with guests isn’t a problem for you. But this. This is mayhem. Much of what they’re saying doesn’t make sense to you. You’re pretty sure that they introduced themselves, but their names didn’t stick because one would interrupt the other before they’re even comprehensible.

Despite them towering over you (except for the orange-haired guy who’s a tad shorter than the rest), they seem like boys squabbling over who gets to talk to the pretty girl first. You had to press your lips together as a disguise of a civil smile, but in reality, you’re stifling a laugh from leaking out. It would be rude since they’re guests as well.

The laugh stuck in your throat instantly evaporates when you see a familiar figure approaching, a figure you know all too well. You try to get a clearer picture, but he turns to the blonde-haired guy, only revealing his side and back profile to you.

You lose awareness of the other four from before. Your eyes are solely focused on him, waiting for him to face you so you can confirm that you aren’t daydreaming. Before you left Japan, it was frequent that you saw him in certain places you go, but it was just actually your brain conjuring his images to fill in the void you felt.

Being out of the country, the daydreams stopped. And now that you’re back, right on your 1st day in Japan, you’re back to seeing illusions? That can’t be. It’s been months for Christ’s sake. You’ve moved on. Maybe it was just someone with the same build, or ..

“I’m so sorry about th-”

Or it really was him.

You definitely aren’t hallucinating. But damn. You aren’t prepared for Kuroo to appear before you, and more so, you aren’t prepared for how he’s looking exceptionally good tonight. He’s donning a formal black suit with a red tie which you haven’t seen him in before. It was always shirt and pants. In his graduation party, it was just long sleeve polo in navy blue and black denim that he wore. You didn’t think much of it. You thought ruggedness was part of his charm. But no. This refined ensemble also suits him. It suits him too damn well.

You can’t believe it. It’s been months and yet, the sexual pull he has on you is still intact.

“Sorry about them.” He says with the signature mischievous grin he has.

‘What the hell are you doing here?’ was what you want to say, but you’re on official business. You peek at the four boys, and just as you thought, they’re staring.

You give your rehearsed smile and bow. This is not the time and place for a reunion. You pray that he gets the drift.

Of course, he doesn’t. You become alarmed when he advances directly face to face with you. You take a step back to provide enough space between you two. You can’t have him too close. However, he still catches up. Before you can even react, his hand is already in your hair as his fingers tuck the strands behind your earlobe.

“How’re you, kitten?”

The feel of his skin directly on yours, despite being the lightest of touch, stirs something wistful in you. It gives you unwanted and unnecessary recollections of his graduation party.

You scold yourself mentally. Like you told yourself a while ago, this is not the time and place. When you look around, you see that the blonde and black and white guy was gaping in shock while the remaining two look puzzled.

He hasn’t changed. Still an expert on taking advantage of a situation to make you lose composure. Does he think that you’re going to let him do as he pleases?

Hell no.

You give your best goody-girl impression and beam at him.

“I’m sorry. Who are you?” You say in perfect English, your pitch higher than your usual talking voice. “You must be mistaking me for someone else.”  You add. Kuroo’s brows raise at your trivial retort. You peek at the boys to see their reactions. It was priceless.

The blonde guy is slouching, his face buried on the shoulder of the orange boy while his own shoulders are shaking. Orange boy is shushing him. The black and white guy doesn’t bother hiding his boisterous laughing. The black-haired stern guy looks repulsively at Kuroo.

You can’t tell if they understood the whole phrase, but the ‘who are you’ is basic. You’re sure they got that one at least. You turn your eyes to him again and purse your lips to the side. You tilt your head a bit and flutter your eyes in a demure manner.

He grits his teeth as he shoots daggers at the four. “Scram now. Before I report you to your manager.”

“Introduce yourself okay, Kuroo?” Black and white calls out and laughs while walking away. The blonde guy joins him, letting out his suppressed laughter while hitting black and white’s back.

After they’re out of sight, Kuroo’s attention is on you again. His irritation is gone and is replaced with amusement that twinkled in his eyes.

“I didn’t know you spoke English.”

You look down and drop the doe-eyed act. In just one blink, your eyes are sharp and your lips curled into a corner. You cross your arms before meeting his gaze.

“Since childhood actually.” You say proudly with your normal voice. Then, you dive straight to the point. “What are you doing here, Kuroo?”

“I’m working. What’re you doing here, y.n.?”

“I’m working.”

He doesn’t say anything, but the devilish smirk on his face doesn’t leave his face while his eyes are glued on to you. You don’t falter. You hold his gaze with the same daunting expression. Just like before, you always find yourself wanting to topple his presumptuousness. You don’t back down. You’re always ready for whatever remark he’s going to throw at you.

But instead, you’re met with a change in his demeanor. His face softens up - his eyes glint with yearning while his previous smirk dwindles down to something that looks equally sad and glad at the same time.

You’re ready for anything, but this. You didn’t think you’d see him again, but you’ve held up well. You will not let yourself get carried away with Kuroo’s musings, be that sexually or emotionally. So you look away, breaking the spell that held you both captive. You clear your throat before speaking.

“Let’s do what we should be doing here then. See you around.” You try to dismiss yourself from the situation as quickly as you can, but your attempt to walk past him is useless. One pace and he’s already blocking your way entirely.

“Why the rush?” Something about the way he dominates the space in front of you tells you that you won’t escape.

“We’re both working right now.”

“Dinner after this, then?”

You let out a defeated sigh. “You’re not going to give up, are you?”

“Not a chance.” His eyes are gleaming in success when he hands you his phone, just like he did that morning after you had sex the first time. You know that he’s thinking the same. You share the same meaningful gaze at how familiar this scenario is.

You shake your head while typing the number you just got this afternoon.

–

You sit across Kuroo at the coffee shop he took you to.

“What’s this about, Kuroo?”

“What? Can’t I invite an old friend to dinner?

“Mmmhmm.” You browse at the menu and decide which tea you’ll have. You can’t have caffeine right now. You need to be able to sleep after this very long day.

“You look good, y.n.”

You scoff at the comment. Is this his attempt of a small talk?

“Tell me something I don’t know,” you sneer while still browsing.

“Oya? Let’s see then hmm.” You feel the table vibrate as he taps it with his fingers.

“It was shitty the way you left.” The tapping stops in unison with how you feel your heart skip a beat.

Your eyes snap up from the menu. His one arm is on the table while his hand rests on his chin, his eyes piercing yours with a serious intensity you’ve never seen before. Are you ready for this conversation? You still don’t want to tell him what really happened then. You might not feel the same anymore, but it still doesn’t sit well with you. It was your own naivety that got you in that situation. After a while in the US, it registered to you that you did not have any right to be angry at him. He hurt you, yes, but it wasn’t his fault. He didn’t even owe you an explanation for that night. He could have sex with anyone he wanted without letting you know. Your inexperience led you to believe that you two had some kind of exclusivity.

But you can’t have him know that. You both have nothing to gain from letting him know. He’d probably laugh at you, or worse, feel bad about it. Despite your relationship, you know he’s a good person. He might feel obligated to do something about it. You don’t want that. You don’t need that.

“Are you ready to order?”

The waiter came at the right time. Your thoughts were about to go somewhere bleak. You smile at the waiter.

“Green tea, please.”

Kuroo doesn’t move and lazily tells the waiter, “Whatever she’s having.”

You face Kuroo again, ready to answer him this time.

“Sorry about that. I didn’t want to make a big deal of it. I tried to tell you at the bar, but…”

Unpleasant memories surges in your head. You shake your head to chase them away. “I wasn’t feeling very well suddenly. Then I just got busy the following days. I had to process a lot of papers. Next thing I knew was I was about to leave.”

You hope the lies sounded real to him. You didn’t need to process papers. Your visa and passport are ready. You’ve always flown to other countries, courtesy of your family trips. The miserable truth was that you were wallowing in misery in your apartment.

“But I did try again, right? I mean I asked to meet up before I left.” You add casually, a tad cheerier than your earlier tone.

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why did you leave?”

‘Because of you.’ That answer is still crystal to you, but of course, he’ll never know that. “Modeling,” was your answer instead.

His brows knit together in confusion.

“I thought you didn’t like it. Weren’t you doing it only cause you’re cut out for it?”

What. You told him that? You don’t remember doing so, yet he did. You think fast, racking your brain for something believable to back up your lie.

“I wanted to know what would happen if I actually tried.”

He just keeps staring at you as if he knows something you don’t, his eyes searching for any trace of doubt in what you just said. But you just meet his stare firmly, refusing to lose ground.

“Is it worth it?” It shouldn’t be a strange question, but the way he said it is. You must’ve imagined it, but it sounded like it quelled an inkling of loneliness. Perhaps you’re getting tired and projecting the feelings you had at him.

“It is.” The only truth you’ve stated in this coffee shop. You still saw modeling just as a job, yet you presently enjoy the hustle and bustle of making a name for yourself. But back then, it was what you hopelessly clung on to so your head isn’t full of him. It diverted your thoughts from Kuroo until you no longer thought about him, until the feelings faded.

“But enough about me. What happened to you after graduation?” You shift the subject to him so you’ll have to stop talking.

He removes his arm from the table and sits up straight. He takes his wallet out and hands you a calling card that read:

Japan Volleyball Association, Sports Promotion Division

You stare at it with amazement as you read it once again in your head. Holding the same expression, you gape at him.

“You don’t have to look so impressed, y.n.” He says that but he’s grinning too wide.

“It’s just I-I. Uh. Wow.” You struggle for the right words to say. You don’t know how to express the happiness you feel for him. You couldn’t think of a better career for him. He was so determined at university, to the point that he dropped out of its volleyball team. Yet, his laptop background was a volleyball stadium. He’s also kept his volleyball jerseys. You know because you once rummaged through his drawer to look for a shirt you can borrow. He worked hard and in the end, he was able to keep volleyball in his life in his own way.

You don’t have any passion for anything and you never had to work hard for anything. Witnessing someone strive at something and succeed, especially Kuroo who you were with at the last steps before his success, you can’t be anything but happy and proud.

Unhesitantly, you get up from your seat and sit beside him. You loop your arms arounds his neck and haul him in a congenial hug. You couldn't resist it. You had to do something to let out how you feel.

Before Kuroo can even react, you let go. Your arms drape until it is only your hands that are touching his shoulders.

“That’s great to hear! You’re perfect for it.”

He’s once again immersed in the marvel your orbs hold. Your smile reaches your eyes, and what a vision it is. He witnesses it again, how you truly value his accomplishment. You’re an international model, but you never showed this much enthusiasm when you talked about your career. Compared to yours, his job seems mundane. Yet, you celebrate it like it’s a really wonderful thing.

Rather than saying anything, he pulls you back to his embrace, wanting to feel your body against him for the second time. You gasp at his action, but he doesn’t let go yet. Only now does he become aware that he missed you this fucking much.

“Glad to have you back, y.n.” No haughtiness, no games, only sincerity. He can feel your uneven breathing and your chest beating wildly. Suddenly, he’s conscious of how good you feel like this, how you seem so perfect enveloped in his own body, how you should belong to him.

He releases you and looks straight at you, your eyes mirroring the yearning on his own.

“Let’s take this somewhere private,” he says softly. You lower your eyes. But before you do, he catches the pained glimmer in them. You push him lightly away, effectively breaking the contact.

“I can’t,” you say sternly, which winds him up.

“Why? Are you dating someone?”

“No. I just,” you suspire before carrying on, “ don’t want to go back to what we were, Kuroo.”

“And what were we exactly, y.n.?”

That’s when you return your gaze at him, but no remains of the sad glints he saw previously. He waits for your answer to the question he’s been asking in his head before you left.

A dry smile forms in your lips.

“Fuck buddies is how they call it.”

So that’s all it was to you. Can’t say he’s surprised. Disappointed, but not surprised. He wished it was something more.

“But I think that we did become friends at some point, you know,” you add, which gives him a sliver of hope. 

“And what are we now?” he presses on.

He sees weariness setting in your pretty face. As much as he wants to keep the conversation going, you look like you should be taking off already.

“You okay?” he asks.

You cover your mouth as you yawn, then proceed to rub your eyes, smearing your eye make up a bit. “Sorry, I just flew in this morning.”

“Let’s go then.” He calls the waiter and asks for the bill.

“I’ll drive you home. You still live there?” He asks, referring to your old place at Roppongi Hills.

“Yes, but I don’t have my car yet. I’ll just take a cab.”

He smirks at the misunderstanding. “What I meant is I’ll drive you home with my car.”

“Tch,” you say, but you smile softly. “To Roppongi Hills then,” you add.

He hands the bill to the waiter and doesn’t wait for his change. He gets up to which you follow. “This way, maam,” he says mockingly while leading you to his car.

He let you rest on the way. Your eyes were closed the whole time. You must be really worn out, so he just focused on driving. But the whole ride was only short. In no time, he’s already at the parking area of your place. He stares at you for a while, just taking in your presence, savoring the idea that you’re really back.

He leans in a bit to caress your cheeks. So soft and warm.

His eyes trail to your lips, which is not the best thing to do at the moment. It just fueled his hunger to claim that luscious mouth so he can taste you again. What he’d give to feel you melt in his arms again.

He lets out a harsh breath at where his thoughts are taking him. He wakes you up before he loses control.

You blink a few times and compose yourself rapidly. You unbuckle the seatbelt, but do not move after.

“I think it’d be cool if we stay like this. No sex. Friends without the benefits. Just friends.” Even though you aren’t looking at him, he knows how serious you are. 

“Yea, yea. I kinda got that already. I’m not an idiot.”

“Really? I beg to differ most of the time.” The short nap seems to have gotten some of your sassiness back.

“Well this idiot just gave you a ride home. Be a little grateful?”

“Aww. Did I finally tick you off?” you taunt teasingly, to which he mischievous grins at.

“Of course not. If anything, I’d love to accompany you to your room since you’re too tired. As a friend and all that jazz.”

You smile sarcastically and roll your eyes. “Goodnight, Kuroo.” You open the door and hurriedly step out. He immediately opens the window and yells.

“Night, kitten!” which echoes at the parking lot.

You don’t look back, but you flash your middle finger as a response while you keep walking.

He’s bawling at his seat. You’re not a person who curses. Doing so cracked him up even more. The both of you still enjoy trying to get under each other’s skin. And he’s won tonight’s round. Jesus Christ, you’re really something. When was the last time he laughed like this?

Just friends? He snickers to himself. Fuck that shit.

–

Your encounter with Kuroo somehow put you at ease. You won’t deny that something is still there. You definitely felt it, but it wasn’t as chaotic and messy as it was before. You believe they’re just tailends of the past, and now that you made it clear to Kuroo that it’s not going to be the same as before, you can have some peace of mind. All the times you both said you’re just friends, now you can actually say that without pretense.

You like Kuroo. He’s cool and you two share the same humor. With the recent lack of communication and absence of sex, you’re sure that your feelings will completely go away very soon.

But aside from him, you also want to reconnect with another friend.

You press the doorbell on Kenma’s new home the second time. What is he doing? He said he was home. You get your phone to call him, but the door opens all of a sudden. Instead of Kenma, it’s the 6’2 counterpart of the duo.

“Why are you here?”

“Why are you here?”

You two utter the same words the same time, which earns a raised eyebrow from you and a smirk from him.

If he’s here, then you’re at the right place. But why did he have to be here? You want to talk to Kenma alone. You don’t mind Kuroo, but there are things that only you and Kenma know about.

“I think I’m allowed to be at my friend’s house.” He said.

“You’re not his only friend, you know.”

Your peripheral sees something shuffle at a distance behind him. “Let her in, Kuroo.” You hear the familiar nonchalant voice. He looks at where the voice is coming from.

“Haa? I thought it was just us today.” Even though he says that, there’s a knowing tug in his lips.

“Huh? You’re the one who came here all of a sudden.”

Kenma’s annoyed voice reached your ears. You use your fist to cover your mouth from laughing, to which Kuroo pouts at.

“If you’d excuse me then.” You say teasingly while you let yourself in.

Kenma waves languidly at you with a warm smile, as warm as Kenma can possibly be. He still looks the same, except that his hair is longer now and the black roots are more prominent. He’s still wearing the regular baggy clothes, but something about his eyes seem keener.

“Heeey. How are you?” All the saltiness with Kuroo is gone, replaced by amiability exclusively for Kenma.

“All good. My channel and company are doing well recently so I moved out.”

You squint your eyes a bit. Did you hear him correctly? His channel and company?

“Sorry, I don’t quite get it. What do you mean?” He frowns, also looking confused as to why you’re confused.

“You didn’t know? He already founded his company before you left. He also has shit ton of viewers on his gaming channel. Pfft. You really call yourself a friend?”

You ignore Kuroo’s side comment. All you can think about is why you didn’t know the information he just said. You thought Kenma was just a regular student who comes over to play sometimes. Not only that, he’s nothing like the CEOs you’ve met. And he’s as young as you are!

The other night it was Kuroo, now it was Kenma’s turn to amaze you.

And just like with Kuroo, you don’t hesitate to give him the congratulatory hug as well. It’s so gratifying to know that these two you consider friends are successful in pursuing their passion.

Kuroo is a bit shocked at your gesture. He didn’t know that you two were that close for you to hug him like that. Still, he finds it nice that you and his childhood best friend get along swimmingly well. Kenma always had this aversion to people in general. He doesn’t speak much and usually won’t talk until spoken to. More specially, he’s not any good at physical affection.

So naturally, Kenma’s stunned as well. Kenma’s eyes fly to him for a few seconds, but looks down before he can figure out what Kenma was thinking. But he can imagine Kenma awkwardly pushing you away while looking uncomfortable. He already has a plan. He’ll mockingly offer you a consolation hug with open arms since Kenma will refuse to let you. He can’t wait to see you riled up.

Only to be taken by complete surprise when Kenma puts a light hand on your back while patting your head. For someone like Kenma, this is already more than just a friendly hug. What the? And to deliver the finishing blow, Kenma has this almost affectionate smile while doing those.

Goddammit.

Kuroo was feeling fuzzy earlier, but now he’s stumped and irritated at the scene taking place. Kenma never motherfucking ever hugged someone, let alone a girl. A smoking hot girl who, ironically, he’s pining after. Is something between you and Kenma that he doesn’t know about? You seem to share a deeper bond that he’s not aware of.

He’s counting the seconds in his head. When the hell are you two gonna stop this mushy touchy session?

He exhales when you finally broke off from the seemingly not ending contact.

“Wow! And I thought I was rich.” You say jokingly.

“You still are, y.n. By a lot more.”

You ignore Kenma’s last remark and let your eyes travel at his new home. Kuroo can tell what you’re thinking. He thought the same at first. It was big and homey, but a little too humble for his pay grade.

“When did you move?”

“Two days ago.”

“You should’ve told me. I could’ve hooked you up to other options.” Yep. You do share a similar opinion.

“Like Roppongi Hills?”

You look at Kenma inquisitively. “Hmm. Yeah! That’s actually where I live.”

“Kuroo told me the same thing. I wonder why.”

You and Kenma look at him simultaneously. “What? It was cool. You should see her unit. It screams ‘I’m hella loaded’.”

“Maybe I should. Can I drop by some time, y.n?”

Tsk tsk. Unfortunately for Kenma, you’re way too uptight about the privacy of your home. He practically had to force himself in. And he only stayed less than 10 minutes cause you were so uncomfortable and on the edge the whole time.

“Sure! Tell me when. I just finished unpacking my stuff.”

What.the.actual.fuck. Are you shitting him right now? With him, you were all ‘JuSt a PeeK oK?’ but with Kenma, you might as well throw a freakin tea party when he visits.

“Oy, y.n. Why is it okay with Kenma but you couldn’t wait to kick me out when I was there?”

“Uhh.. Ermm.” Your eyes drift around the room, obviously thinking of an excuse. It better be a good one because this is bullshit to him.

“I’m just kidding. I like this best. I don’t need the fancy stuff.” Kenma blurts out.

That made him snap out of it. He let out a deep breath to calm himself down. You laugh nervously but still avoid any eye contact. He turns to Kenma and finds a subtle grin on his friend’s face. It was nothing worth noticing, it only looks like a lazy smile, to a normal person that is. But he has known Kenma since childhood. That was far from a subtle grin. That was the grin of a plan being executed well.

He never told the guy what was going on between you two back then. And even before something beyond than sexual relations took place, you left, so he didn’t see the point in telling Kenma. But of course the former brain of Nekoma isn’t just for games. He has already been figured out even without saying anything.

And just now, he was being played at. Kenma was deliberately baiting him until he does something out of jealousy that could possibly advance his relationship with you. He’s almost touched at the idea, but it’s too twisted for his taste.

He moves to where Kenma is and heavily puts an arm around him.

“Ayt. Scrutinize his house all you want. We’re movin to his game room.” He drags Kenma before you could react. He strides longer to create some distance between them and you.

When you’re out of earshot, he speaks in a piped down voice.

“Since when did you know?”

“Even before you did.” They’ll have a discussion for that later, but he needs to get to his point before you catch up.

“You don’t have to do anything. I can handle this.”

Kenma gives him a disagreeing look. “This has been going on for too long. It’s getting painful to look at you two.” Since they no longer spend as much time together, he sometimes forgets that Kenma is frighteningly intuitive.

“Heh. Don’t worry about it.” He already made up his mind about it the other night. He’s just going to verbalize it for his friend to hear.

“She will be mine.”

–

Work has increased more than you’ve expected. Because of your international experience, you’ve been getting more and more offers. There were days that you’ve been in two to three shoots in a day. That didn’t happen when you were in the US. Yes, you like being busy, but it’s beginning to be too much.

It’d be weird to say that you crave for a work-life balance, since you don’t really have that much of a life. Whenever you’re free, you try to get together with Kenma and Kuroo, but Kenma’s almost never free these days. Because of it, you develop a certain appreciation for Kuroo because in contrast, he always takes up your invites. Though they’re nothing big, just casual dinner, casual chat, and then he’d drive you home. Still, it was some sort of break from work. Kuroo’s become your go-to breather when things get hectic.

At first, you’re a bit wary to spend too much time alone with him. He’s Kuroo Tetsurou, your scheming ex-fuck buddy. He might pull something similar to what he did in the coffee shop, so you’re always on guard. But so far, he’s been behaving. The conversations you usually share are work-related and the times you spent in American and him in Japan. That’s all. He barely even touches you, so you feel stupid for being so cautious.

K.O

The videogame prompt brought you back to the present. You realize you were only absent-mindedly pressing the buttons while your mind was floating ingame.

“Are you even trying, y.n.? You suck more than usual today.”

“Ha ha.” You laugh monotonously at Kuroo’s insult. You put down the controller and leaned back. You stare blankly at the ceiling. “Work’s turned me into a noob.”

You feel him shift his weight in the soft cushion, so you look at him. He puts an arm on the backrest of the couch and pulls in his left leg so he can face you. He’s wearing a loose black muscle tee that did its job perfectly. You see his toned biceps stretched out. You’ve almost forgotten how immaculate he looks underneath that suit he’s always wearing. The outline of his toned chest is also more prominent because of the thin fabric. What about his thighs? They must be as glorious as the last time you straddled him.

What are you doing? Were you seriously gawking at him just now? Your eyes almost dropped down to his lower half if you had not caught yourself. Did he notice? You pray to whoever’s in charge out there that he doesn’t. You won’t hear the end of it if he did.

You focus on his face instead, but it doesn’t help. Your mind can’t stop thinking how ridiculously sexy of a man he is. That’s saying something since you’ve worked with international male models.

God, the lack of sex for almost a year must be hitting you only now.

“That’s just an excuse.”

“What?!” You flip from your seat. Did you say that out loud unconsciously? You’re tired, but you won’t slip up like that.

Kuroo grins from ear to ear. How could he not notice? You didn’t even try to be discreet about it. He’s sure you were thinking of something sexual based on your agitated reaction. And also, it’s still engraved on his mind how you look when you’re horny. Although, it wasn’t explicit, you gave him that look. You want him.

Oh man, he’s tempted to do something about it. Very tempted. He’s willing to bet his car that if he made his move now, you’d actually let him. He just needs to get rid of the tiny space separating you two and he can touch you, feel your softness, trace the silkiness of your skin with his hands, and … ah no. He shouldn’t. He can’t lose control now. He’s been playing nice and keeping his hands to himself for a while, and he’ll keep doing so until you completely put down the walls you’ve held up against him. He can’t lose sight of his true goal, and that is for you to want him beyond sex. If he fucks you now, that might be jeopardized. No can do. He needs you to know that to him, you’re more than just a bed warmer, than just a friend.

Rather than teasing you for being so worked up, he comments on your disarrayed state.

“Work’s really whacked your brain, huh?”

You stay still for a few seconds, then groans harshly. You put your hands on your face and squeal, probably your way of releasing some pent-up stress.

“Yes! God, they just keep on coming. And I just want to relax you know. Like come on. Give me a break! I only have one body. And yes I get it that it’s up to me if I accept the job. But then it’d be a waste to refuse since I’m only starting to be known here. Can they at least not have the same schedule?”

He stares at you having your monologue and starts to feel bad for you. You never had this kind of episode even at your busiest days in university. You had good time management, but now you really are a wreck. No wonder you were carelessly eyeing him a while ago. You’re too drained to keep yourself in check. It was good to know though, that deep inside you still desire him, despite the no-sex barrier you established. Still, it troubles him to see you like this.

“Turn around,” he tells you.

“Um. Why?”

“Just do it. I’m doing you a favor, mkay?”

You glance at him doubtfully, like he’s planning to do something shady. This he laughs at.

“I’ll just give you a back massage. It’s the least I could do.”

Your eyes gleam at what he just said. “Wow. Who knew you were this thoughtful?”

“Shut up and turn around.” You comply.

“Hmm. You should take off your shirt.”

You fiercely look at him from the instruction he just gave, verifying that he is indeed going to do something suspicious. “Say what now?”

He replies with a haughty smirk, “I’ve seen you without anything, y.n. Seeing you in your bra doesn’t mean shit.”

You were about to flip. But he has a point. Also, the massage will feel better without your shirt. You sigh as you pull up the white shirt you were wearing. You slouch to cover your front. You do have your bra on and it’s nothing he hasn’t seen before, but still. You feel exposed.

‘This is a bad idea,’ you thought.

Kuroo thinks so too. Seeing your bare flesh like this makes him want to put into actions what he was just fantasizing earlier. He shouldn’t have suggested it.

To shake it off, he shook his hands in the air, literally, before placing a firm grip on your shoulders. You tense up at the contact, making your shoulders more stiff than they already are.

“Can you fucking relax?” he snaps. But he meant that to himself more than you. You still heed his direction anyway. When he feels you loosen up, he kneads the tautness in your muscles. Your eyes closed shut as he works on your shoulders for a bit.

“Mmmm,” you groan in relief.

He moves his hands on your arms, applying just the right amount of pressure to alleviate the tension in your body. You sat up straight when he found the rhythm and motion you liked. He tries to focus, but he constantly betrays himself. The plumpness of your chest is now for his viewing pleasure. That and your slightly parted lips and closed eyes aren’t helping the budding arousal in his shorts.

He accidentally squeezes harder which makes you throw your head back and,

“Ahhhhh”

At that moment, he can confidently attest that this is what hell is. Pure fucking torture.

He stops massaging your arms and pushes to make you slouch again. But he unknowingly does it a bit forcefully from the testosterone coursing in his body.

“Heey!”

“My bad,” he says coldly.

He continues on to your back, but does it more gently this time. He might hurt you if he’s not mindful of his strength.

From the absence of the sinful scenery, he thought he was finally safe from the lust about to rage in him. But you provided a different temptation this time. Your uneven breathing is loud enough for him to hear. Your tiny moans tainted the air, filling his head of images of you under him, writhing in a different kind of pleasure, one that will wrench out a louder, wilder moan.

“Harder, Kuroo”

His dick follows obediently. He feels his restraint ebbing away at every passing second. Damn it. He’s glad you’re enjoying this, but why the fuck does he need to suffer for it. Nuh uh. You need to have a taste of what he’s having as well.

He pulls you so your back is against him, your head resting on his chest. No complaints were heard from you. You probably thought he’s still massaging you. Well, he is, but with some extra service.

His hands move to your nape. He gives it gentle strokes with his thumb.

“That feels good,” you whisper.

“Does it now?” he answers with his voice a bit deeper than usual.

He replaces his thumbs with his middle fingers. Instead of rubbing, he slowly trails both fingers up to the back of your ears. Your reaction is immediate. You gasp as your body suddenly braces up. But he expected it. He knows those were your sensitive spots.

“Didn’t I say relax? I’m going to massage your head now.”

You abide quickly and lose the stiffness. You probably thought you just misunderstood the gesture.

He proceeds to rub your forehead with his fingers while his thumbs circles the back of your head. After a while, he caresses the sides of your face down to your neck. He does it like it’s part of the massage, until he’s delicately stroking you more than actually massaging. You remain still, but with every stroke, he feels your body getting warm. He also sees the goosebumps in your skin.

Oh yea. Precisely as he wanted.

He won’t do anything further than this, but he still has to add that cherry on top of his little seduction game.

His left hand stays on your neck while his right hand cards your hair through his fingertips. And exactly how he remembers you liking it, he fists his hand and tugs your hair.

“Hnnnnn” It was clear and crisp to him. That moan is the carnal kind that he’s been wanting to get out from your pretty mouth.

You should be yelling at him, telling him off, but you got so lost in it. Somewhere through it, you figured out that it was no longer a harmless massage. But it felt good. You couldn’t stop him. You reasoned with yourself that it was okay since technically, it’s still nothing. You aren’t even touching him, so you let yourself feel what small pleasure you could attain from it.

But the way he pulled your hair, it stirred up something in you that you’ve been suppressing arduously. And right now, at this moment, you’re willing to throw away your ‘just friends’ nonsense that you, yourself set up.

You’re about to face him when a loud thud catches both of your attention.

It’s Kenma who dropped his Switch on the floor while gawping at you and Kuroo. It clicks in your head how you two looked. You, on your bra, pressed against him with his hand on your hair.

Instantaneously, you move away from him and take your shirt to cover yourself with it. Your short-circuiting brain overlooks the fact that you should put it on rather than shielding yourself with it.

A blushing Kenma picks up his console from the floor.

“You shouldn’t have invited me if you had other plans” grumbling while heading for the door.

Part 5 | Part 7 |  m.list

[lovely-necromancy]

A Cure for Insomnia CH. 10

Even with the fatigue you felt after your laughing tic, you couldn't go to sleep at all last night. Which isn't a big deal, after all you are a chronic insomniac who has had an on off sleep schedule this week.

After twelve fifty-two hit and you still weren't tired or even close to doing your tired tics you did the only thing you could think to do on this technical Saturday morning. You started on your weekly tidy of the house. Bless whatever powers at be that you ended up in this cottage outside of town rather than an apartment unit surrounded by neighbors. The amount of complaints you would've gotten would have surely gotten you evicted.

It's not like you could stop this behavior, well you could but if you start doing nothing when you have spurts of insomnia you'll get lazier when you need to be productive. Banking on the fact that you'll just do it when you have insomnia. It happened all the time when you were in school, and while that worked for a while it wasn't a healthy way to cope with your sleep disorder.

You've found doing productive things or anything you would do when the sun was up typically helps you regulate you circadian rhythm faster than it ever did when you just laid in bed praying for sleep to take you.

It isn't at all surprising when you finish your chores around two forty that morning. With nothing better to do and not being at all in the mood to do any attempt at art or reading. You decide to settle in to watch a movie. It starts with scrolling through Netflix and seeing Coraline, then that turns into Paranorman, which turned into Corpse Bride, several episodes of the old Twilight Zone.

By the time you were finished with the fourth episode it was already one in the afternoon. You really needed to start baking if you wanted fresh cookies for the movie tonight. Setting up your monster movie hard drive to play a movie for background noise you set out on baking.

It's a super simple recipe you started using back in high school but it's always a hit at parties. Maybe it's because you fold candies, chocolates, nuts, or whatever topping into each cookie individually. You can't say for sure but everyone loves them, and you think that's nice.

Creaming butter while the sounds of a woman screaming in agony as a zombie eats her lower intestine seems very much on point for you. However, you soon find yourself drowning out the movie as you hyper focus on the mixing of ingredients. You tripled the recipe, hoping to make a mixture of mini sugar cookies, mini chocolate chip cookies, and mini mini M&M cookies. If you had thought about it more you might have grabbed a jar of maraschino cherries to add them to the mix. Although you think three batches of mini cookies might be a little excessive so four may have been overkill.

'Oh well, no turning back now.' you think preheating the oven for four hundred degrees and roll tiny half inch dough balls while you wait.

After about fifteen minutes you assume the oven is hot enough to start baking. You line the first tray up all with sugar cookies. You only get two thirds of the bowl down on that tray. It was your biggest one too. Setting a timer for ten minutes so you could turn the cookies to let them bake for another three after that, you turn your attention to folding a handful of chocolate chips into the next bowl's dough balls. Placing the new chocolate chip dough into the bowl holding the rest of the sugar cookie dough as you go. You nearly finish that when the timer goes off to spin the tray. Honestly at this rate all your dough will be ready before you even have one bowl down. You hope you can finish baking in time for the movie.

It's five o' two by the time you put the last batch in the oven. You've been cleaning as the cookies baked and now your kitchen is nearly clean once more. Just a few more dishes to do after that batch comes out and you pack up the cookies.

Letting the most recent batch have a chance to cool you start placing all the cookies in your three largest containers. You'll need to grab a fourth container for the last of the cookies, but all the cool cookies are now ready for transport.

And with how early in the evening it is you should eat something now so you can have some room for snacks later. Time to finish off that pizza. Taking a slice out to the bins and placing it neatly on the ground for Chonk, whenever it is he decides to come and claim it, you turn back around to finish baking and get your dinner. After pulling the cookies out and setting them to cool you reheat your dinner for tonight.

Sitting down, plate in hand, you're just able to catch the shift into the next movie. Teen Wolf 1985 starring Micheal J. Foxx. Not a scary movie by any means but you keep it in the storage drive for rainy days. And even though today isn't raining you think it'll be a good watch.

You can not believe how utterly painful that was to have just watched. It was so average that it might as well not had the werewolf aspect at all! The acting was average, makeup was ok for the time, but the writing was just the worst. And the ending basket ball scene? It felt like a cheesy early 2000s Disney Channel original movie. You're pretty sure if you combined several Disney movies you'd have that exact plot. Hell Don't Look Under the Bed was scarier than that, and it was a better story too.

Checking the time you see you have about the average length of a Disney Channel movie before you have to leave. Good because you really want to watch Don't Look Under the Bed now. Switching over to your Disney+ account you find said movie and rush to put everything up as it runs through the beginning credits. With cookies packed away and the containers stacked and ready you plop back on your couch to immerse yourself in the early 2000s “horror”.

Just as the hand comes from under the bench to caress Fran a knock rings through your home, effectively startling you. Your eyes shift over to your front door, it's nearly eight thirty on a Saturday who or what is all this far out? Getting up from the couch you make your way over to your door, unlike every horror movie you have your phone and contacts pulled up and ready to dial. Phone behind your back and thumb hovering over Hollis' contact you open the door. Where three figures greet you.

Tim stands in front of the other two, dressed in dark jeans a gray tank top and red flannel with the sleeves rolled up past his elbows. Brian stands behind him and to his right, he's wearing regular jeans and an olive v-neck. Jesus fucking Christ is it 2012 and no one told you? Toby off to Tim's left is in black jeans a black t-shirt with a green short sleeve button up that has a little alien head pattern. Well, they don't look like they're here to murder you with an ax, so you move the hand from behind your back and let it rest by your side.

Missing the two tense gazes as you move the appendage.

“...Um, hi?” what would normal people do in this situation? Was this even a normal situation to find yourself in, what with three men you've just met at your front door.

Tim seems to be looking for his words, he must be out of his element as well. On the other hand Brian seems content to let Tim flounder around for a bit, all the while Toby wrings his hands together. You can't tell if it's from nerves or his tics.

“Hey..uh, so you mentioned Saturday Dead. But we're new so..and we..” Tim is even worse with human interaction than you are.

“We were wondering if 'stop it' if you wanted to ride with us and give us directions.”

Oh that makes sense.

“Yea sure thing, c'mon in. I'll go get ready.”  You give the men some space to enter your home. Then lead them to your living room,

“Make yourselves comfy.” you say as you leave them to change.

Once in your room you lock the door, although you believe you have a good reading on Toby to not be the type you can't be too safe around new men.  You opt to change into the first shirt you grab from your closet, black t-shirt with several flatwoods monsters on it along with the phrase 'squad goals' and a pair a black joggers. Perfectly comfy for a chill movie night at the crypt.

“That was fast.” is the first thing you hear when you reenter the living room.

Toby had no problems making himself comfortable in your home, since he is sitting on the couch, seemingly watching the movie with your fidget cube in hand. Brian and Tim, on the other hand, were leaning on the wall separating the living room and kitchen.

“What d'you mean?” you asked Tim confused, tilting your head to the side.

“Well, uh” he seems embarrassed by this for some reason, “women normally take a long time changing is all.” Ooooooh now you get it he's a misogynist.

The room goes quiet with Tim's stupid opinion. Toby ceases all fidgeting, Brian however looks as though he's a cat that caught a canary. He must enjoy the pain and embarrassment of others, the dick.

“Mmmh I don't think that's true,” you'll let this one slide but Tim's on thin ice, “Anyway I'm not a woman. I'm trans agender.” Tim has the decency to look embarrassed for stuffing his foot into his mouth. But it isn't really his fault you never mentioned your pronouns or lack of gender to him, and you mix and match your masculine and feminine days. Understandably you won't blame him for not knowing your pronouns but that misogynistic comment will still be marked as a red flag.

“I am so sorry.” and he truly does sound sorry for the slip up.

You shake your head and shoo away his apology, “It's good, you didn't know.”

“We ready to go?” you ask looking around the room. Tim and Toby nod, the younger man moving off the couch to stand with you all when Brian speaks up.

“Actually, Toby don't you have to use the restroom?” Said man pauses on his way over to your little group, “No.” voice laced with confusion and irritation.

Tim jumps in with a stern, “I really think you should.” Toby cuts his eyes at Tim and Brian.

As weird as it is for one grown man to tell another to go to the bathroom, let alone two grown men, you quickly remember Toby's CIPA.

“Dude the drive itself is gonna be nearly an hour plus the two hour movie. The Cryptonomica only has one bathroom and like thirty people will be there tonight.” You assumed you'd also get a glare for insisting on the matter. But you only get Toby's furrowed brow in response and he looks uncomfortable right now, not intimidating. He's probably embarrassed that his new acquaintance...friend? Is also present for the topic of his bathroom habits.

With another glare to Tim and Brian, Toby pushes past you and down the hallway. Normally this would leave you in an awkward situation but thankfully you have escape tasks!

Marching over to the entertainment center you turn off the TV. Spotting your fidget cube on the table where Toby left it, you decide to pocket it just in case he'd want to use it for the movie.

A loud thud startles you and you look up to see Tim picking up a few books that fell from the bookshelf.

'Weird...' you think as you watch him place them back onto the shelf they fell from.

“A...sorry.” as he places them back you notice one side of the shelf is tilted downwards. It must've just lost that little nub that holds the shelf up in that corner. You probably have a few spares floating around in one of your trinket holders.

You give Tim a small 'it's fine' as you pass him on your way to the kitchen. Cookies all set on the counter you go over to your fridge and grab the popcorn bag off the top. Opening the fridge and retrieving the Surge for Kirby you are all set on your snacks for tonight.

Placing the Surge and popcorn on top of your cookie containers you go back to the living room to join the boys in waiting for Toby. Who is already coming out of the bathroom, drying his hands on his jeans....He knows you had a towel for that right?

“We should be good to leave now.” Brian says turning from Toby to you.

“Ok yea, after you guys.” you side stepped  back into the kitchen doorway to let the men pass you.

“Want some help?” Toby asked as he walked closer. And as much as you wanted to say no you had it, you really didn't want to drop the Surge and have a big mess everywhere.

Nodding to him, thinking he was just going to take the things at the top or even the top container with them. Toby reaches out and barely brushes your hands at the bottom before taking the entire load into his own arms.

It felt like someone rubbed sandpaper across your knuckles and fingers where his hands touched. The burning sensation persisted even long after his hands had moved away.

It's the first time you've gotten bad vibes from Toby's touch. He's probably in a bad mood, his touch hasn't held much intention before but this hurts. Or you could totally be reading too much into this with too little sleep and you just aren't having a tactile day. You never have tactile days really just small windows where if someone is lucky they can squeeze a pat on the shoulder or a high five out of you.

“Hey, that's not helping.” you call out following the men out of your home.

“It's not?” he asks, “Then what is it?” why's he have to sound so smug about this.

“Condescending.” Toby blinks in surprise at the no nonsense tone of your voice.

You weren't harsh with your words...at least you don't think so. You were just stern in how you said them, wanting to get your point across.

Turning from the men you lock your door and check twice to make sure. When you turn back to face them you grab the top two containers of cookies, and subsequently the popcorn and Surge laying atop it, from Toby.

“This is helping. I could do this much at least.” Toby nods dumbly as you pass them and make your way to the cars.

“We can take ours, we'll drive you back.” Tim says unlocking their little sedan.

That seems fine, after all if you ended up wanting to stay later Kirby would totally let you crash on the couch in the basement and take you home in the morning. Or whenever he woke up tomorrow. And that way you wouldn't be keeping the boys too late. It is their first Saturday Night Dead and first time meeting most of the young adults in town. The night was bound to get draining.

You agree and hop into the back seat on the driver's side, Toby sliding in from the opposite side, leaving Brian to take the passenger seat and Tim to drive. You and Toby place the cookies in the middle seat and you thank him for his help. He quickly nods and looks out the window, knee starting to bounce slightly.

“Where am I going?” Tim asked as you all got buckled in.

“Ok, so we can either drive all the way through town or drive through the forest and across the river.”

“Which is faster?” Brian chimes in as Tim bristles.

“Forest.” You do catch Tim's reflection rolling his eyes at your reply.

To be fair with this group you wouldn't chance getting stuck in the forest on your way to a horror movie night. Like that's kind of a horror movie cliché right there. You and Toby are young enough that you're sure someone would mistake you two for late teens, in fact you know it's happened to you several times in the past week alone. While you're fine going into the forest at night by yourself it's only because horror movies don't center around one person dying in a forest by some ancient entity.

'But they do start that way.' that thought almost makes you want to cut back on your nightly hikes, unfortunately you have no other coping mechanisms for your insomnia other than hiking or driving. So you'll ignore that thought for now.

The car is quiet as everyone waits for someone to respond. Toby's knee bouncing is more obvious as it begins to jostle the car. He's also staring down at his hands, still red from his picking yesterday, wringing them together. Clearly the stationary car is getting to him, he breaks the silence.

“Will someone fucking say something?”

“Sorry,” you say gently to him, “Yea we can just go through town. Tim do you know where Whistle's Auto is?”

“Uh yea,” you catch his quick glance towards Toby in the rear view mirror.

“Cool just head in that direction and keep on Highland Street.”

That's all you had to say before Tim was shifting gears and driving off. You notice quickly that he's a faster driver than Toby was. It's yet to be seen if that should make you uneasy, you'll have to see how well he breaks.

When you guys had made it through town and Tim came to a stop in front of a sign proudly stating 'Welcome to the Cryptonomica' they were understandably concerned by the lack of a building or any other cars. You get out of the car and grab two of the cookie containers, when you made a grab for the other two and the snacks on top Toby kept them out of your reach and exited the car as well.

“So where is...everything?”

“Oh we have to hike. The shop's further in the forest.” you say as you walk on past Tim.

“You said people were gonna be here.” Brian chimes in.

Right this now looks like you have dragged them to a parking lot in the middle of no where in a small town that they don't really know people in. Great going YN. Way to look like the bait for a weird cult looking for sacrifices.

“Yea the Hornets. They're the local “biker” gang.” the stunt group probably had the dirt bikes out today, it was nice enough for it.

Understandably the men hesitated before following you. Toby was the one who quickly caught up with you, perks of longer legs, and matched your speed to the shop. It didn't even take five minutes before you saw the shop and a few Hornets out front smoking or just plain loitering.

A chorus of “YN!” “Hey we missed you last week.” “Yo, did you hear..” rang through as you greeted the group. Upon seeing the containers of cookies the chorus was replaced with cheers and you were given excited praise as they made way for the four of you to be let in. So embarrassing, you flush under the praise getting a little energy boost from it as well. Your mood however changes when you lock eyes with the person running the booth tonight. Keith Warren, second in command and assistant manager of the Hornets. Despite having no beef and all the same friends you two have never clicked. It's almost your thing to be completely rude to each other when you do interact.

“Warren.”

“LN” his disdain is clear too, “Ten dollars bucket.” he hadn't even looked at you the jerk!

“Forty tonight, brought friends.” you placed the containers you had on the table as you dug the money from your wallet to pay for you all.

Keith does look up at that, literally the only time more locals come in is during Halloween when they want to get into the spooky season. So he's surprised to see three new faces attending Saturday Night Dead.

“Hey there, name's Keith.” you roll your eyes as he introduces himself to the group, you'll just slip away now since you already paid.

“Rude!” Kieth calls out, “Small talk!” you respond. You vaguely hear the rest of the introductions and Keith waving off the guys when they try to pay again. Oh maybe you should have actually told them you'd pay for their tickets, you thought it was obvious you invited them and they even drove you here. It's just polite that you cover their tickets this week.

Soon Toby is back by your side, you have a feeling you won't be able to loose him tonight if you tried, as you walk through the shop and towards the trap door in the back. The trap door that leads to the panic room converted into movie theater on Saturdays. Once you get down you bee line for the table in the back that is already half filled with snacks and some sodas. With Toby still following you he copies your moves of opening the containers and placing them on the table. You take the Surge and popcorn away from Toby, throwing the popcorn over in the direction of your corner seat and bring the Surge over to the man working on the white screen set up.

“Present.” Kirby pays no mind to you as he struggles with the screen. So you wait silently for him to just kick the thing and move on. Like clockwork Kirby kicks the bottom cover and the rest unravels perfectly.

“I need to replace this.” he says, just like he does every week.

“Oooh thank you.” he grabs the battery acid marketed as a beverage and spirits off. Weird guy.

“That's Kirby, he runs this place. Normally very chill but between the Picnic and movie night he ….just needs a break.” it's the nicest way you can put it. Toby just nods and scans the room wringing his hands together uncomfortably. You've noticed he hasn't ticced once since leaving the car, maybe he's suppressing them despite how anxious he clearly is.

Doing your own scan of the room you see that Tim and Brian haven't made their way in yet, Keith probably talking their ears off. Better them than you, you suppose. You're about to ask Toby if he wants to find them when the local power couple walks in.

“Party starting soon my dudes sit tight!” Jake announces as he and Hollis walk in to take their usual seats.

“Op spoke too soon babe, YN's here.” Hollis let out a chuckle when you rolled your eyes.

“Came without a soap box, hope cookies are suitable.”

And both are already grabbing a few of your mini cookies before they've even sat down. You really are glad you made them. Remembering Toby's with you, you introduce him to your friends.

“Tobais these are my friends Jake,” the blonde smiles warmly, “and Hollis.” They cover their mouth and toss a peace sign up as their mouth is still full. “And this is my friend Tobais.” he raises a hand to greet them.

“Hey, you're the new guy over at Auto right? You fixed Katrina's bike up quicker than Lewis ever does.” When Toby nods Hollis continues, “Man she's been saying how much smoother it rides now. Think I can stop by this week and get you to take a look at mine?”

“Yea, that should be fine.” and with that the two began to talk shop, literally. They just started talking about Hollis' bike. Normally all the Hornets do their own maintenance on their bikes but their motorcycles still need inspections and what not. This is really working out for you, your friends all getting along.

Thankfully it seems the topic calms Toby down a little, and you can see a head twitch or two make it's appearance as the two speak. Hollis being the chill person they are, and being used to your own brand of tics, makes no comment or acknowledgment of his tics.

Jake pulls you into a conversation about plans for a hang out at H2Woah that was fun, later after all the picnicing was done. Said he wanted to try surfing in the wave pool, you aren't sure about it but you agreed you'd teach him at least the basics of surfing if he taught you how to snow board. Didn't take much for the deal to be sealed.

Tim and Brian finally made their way down to the basement and you raised a hand so they could find you and Toby. Really it wouldn't have been too difficult but with everyone starting to pack in you didn't want anyone to be out of the group. Introductions had been made and everyone took to their seats.

You were already in the corner opening your popcorn when Toby sat down on your left blocking you from the rest of the room. Thinking on it if Toby wanted to eat he'd probably be too self conscious of his scar to take his mask off.

“Hey...actually would you mind if we switched?” he just gave you a lazy look before standing up and letting you scoot into his previous spot before sitting down in your spot. This way you could in theory block the view of his scar later.

You notice how his eyes dart in the room, despite Brian and Tim being just behind you two Toby still seemed on edge in the space. He has looked a bit uncomfortable all night, maybe that's why he was sticking to your side. You're way less outgoing than Brian is and Tim seems content to let him do his own thing. You feel bad, like you pressured him into coming and now he's paying for it. Toby looks a few minutes away from ripping the skin around his nails off again and you don't want a repeat of that.

“Here.” you whisper as the lights go off, handing Toby the cube from your pocket.

It's a quiet moment between you two as the trailers of the DVD play out and Toby focuses in on the cube. You note how he gravitates to the marble and joystick sides the most, always moving his thumb across each in a counterclockwise motion before reversing for a beat. Counter counter switch counter counter switch counter counter counter switch.

Once he found his rhythm with the toy you see tension leave his shoulders a little. Is he even able to feel the tension in his muscles?

You shift focus to the screen as the opening credits play out. And if you weren't sitting so close to Toby you'd missed the clucking sound coming from him. Knowing he'd get more anxious about his tics in this “quiet” setting you opt to ignore them and focus on the movie. After all the more relaxed he is the less likely he is to tic meaning the less anxious he is and more he can enjoy himself tonight.

About a third of the way through the movie you catch Toby sliding his mask off one ear, letting it shield his scarred cheek, and grabbing a handful of popcorn. You can't hide the giddy grin on your face from the action. To say you were worried about Toby not enjoying tonight was an understatement. But he had to have felt some comfort to slide his mask off in public, right? Your reassurance comes in the form of another handful of popcorn, as Toby pays no mind to you and only to the demon currently dancing on the screen.

With a terrible movie playing and a less anxious friend at your side you settle down a bit more yourself. Barely noticing when your head falls on Toby's shoulder as you slip into unconsciousness.

You wake up to the roaring of Kirby's snores and popcorn in your hair. A typical Sunday morning for you since arriving in Kepler.

[partywithponies]

hi! i've only ever seen the bbc version of father brown and i've never read the books (i know, i'm so sorry), but i'm super curious about the different versions of father brown and you seem like an expert on each adaptation, so i was wondering if you'd be willing to give me a rundown of sorts on each version/series? i know it's a lot to ask and i may be opening the floodgates here, but there's not a ton of info online elsewhere and i'd love to learn more! thanks either way. ciao!

OH BOY YOU’VE COME TO THE RIGHT PLACE ANON

OKAY SO

As briefly as possible:

The books:

Proof people who complain about the BBC show being “too political” don’t actually know the books at all

Father Brown straight up calls capitalism “evil” and “heresy”

Chesterton says that millionaires dying isn’t a tragedy

Inspector Valentin betrayed us and broke my heart, ACAB I guess

Since every police officer he befriends lets him down in some way, Father Brown’s only real friend is Flambeau, who he goes absolutely everywhere with. They only go on holiday with each other. They’ve been all over the world with each other. I love they

Book Father Brown pretty much never does his goddamn job. We literally never in all the books see him giving mass or taking confession. The closest we get is when he gives an impromptu sermon after seemingly coming back from the dead, where he literally only says "You silly, silly people. God bless you all and give you more sense." then runs away to send a telegram. Useless priest. I love him. 

Book Flambeau is. Incredible. Amazing. Iconic. None of the adaptations have been able to fully capture book Flambeau’s true energy, for he is a walking contradiction who contains multitudes. If all the onscreen Flambeaus fused into one being, THEN you’d have something vaguely resembling book Flambeau.

Book Flambeau is MASSIVE. He’s at least 6′4, he’s broad shouldered, has huge hands, and his super buff. He can just. Pick people up and throw them. He can knock people unconscious with one punch. He fills doorways when he stands in them. He terrifies most people just by drawing himself up to his full height. He also has a very short temper and a very short patience. 

He’s very agile and athletic and can move silently, despite his size. He’s also a master of disguise, somehow. (Explain, Chesterton. Explain. Is everyone in this universe apart from Father Brown, Flambeau, and arguably Valentin massively stupid? Actually don’t answer that I’ve read these books)

Book Flambeau has a habit of flinging people full-bodily down flights of stairs when they anger him or threaten him or Father Brown. Book Flambeau also carries a walking cane with him literally everywhere that has a sword concealed in the handle, plus book Flambeau insists on taking pistols on holiday with him, even when he was just going for a peaceful fishing holiday in the Norfolk Broads. King. 

(Which all makes it so iconic that Father Brown, described as tiny and meek and sensitive, saw this man when he was still a hardened criminal on top of all this and said “THIS ONE I LIKE THIS ONE. I JUST THINK HE’S NEAT” and went off on a jolly through London with him.)

Flambeau’s past is extremely mysterious. We no nothing about his family or his childhood or where he’s from or why he turned to crime. We know he used to be a soldier, and a part of him misses it. We know he used to fight duels semi-regularly, and liked them to be fought the very next morning after they were organised. We know he always used to make sure to visit the dentist on time, even when he was a hardened criminal. (King of good teeth.)  We know he was in a gang at some point. We know he was a student at some point. We don’t know what he studied, but we know he knew Leonard Quinton in “wild student days in Paris”  ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°). This is literally all we know about his past before he met Father Brown. The man is a riddle wrapped in an enigma. (That’s why Flambeau is so big. He’s full of secrets)

(Fun fact: in the book universe Flambeau is famous and popular in America, so you could say that in universe Flambeau is America’s Favourite Fighting Frenchman.)

Flambeau also loves cats and children, believes in fairies, likes pointing out rocks that look like dragons, and likes giggling and mucking about on the beach with Father Brown.  A baby.

One time Father Brown called Flambeau “full of good and pure thoughts”, but I don���t think that’s quite true, Father. I think Father Brown just has endless faith in Flambeau.

Another thing I think is really neat is that it would’ve been so easy to have Father Brown be the genius and Flambeau his dumb muscle sidekick but that’s not the case at all! They’re both geniuses and they’re both each other’s sidekick, and in fact it’s Flambeau who’s the famous professional private detective, Father Brown is just an amateur. Father Brown is often defined by his connection to Flambeau rather than vice versa, both in the text (the text will frequently refer to them as something along the lines of “Flambeau and his friend the priest”, and on two separate occasions a long list of Flambeau’s possessions is ended with “and a priest”), and in universe (Father Brown himself is massively famous in America in universe largely because of “his long connection to Flambeau). I don’t know I just think it’s neat. 

One time a man threatened Father Brown with a gun and Flambeau just beat him unconscious and then Father Brown and Flambeau just drove away and left him unconscious on the path. It was awesome.

(I’m sorry I rambled about Flambeau for so many words I just. Really really like Flambeau you guys. Father Brown and Flambeau are like two separate crime drama character tropes, the hard boiled cynical P.I. and the cosy eccentric amateur detective, but together as a double act, and I just think that’s really cool.)

Father Brown himself is if anything even more mysterious. He’s just “Father J. Brown, formerly of Cobhole in Essex, currently London”, and he’s “Flambeau’s friend”, and that’s all. That’s all he needs to be.

I also really really love Father Brown himself. I love that he’s allowed to be cheerful and optimistic and childish without any of this making him less clever, and in fact he’s shown time and time again to be cleverer than grumpy cynics who are scornful of childish things. Like, the whole giggling childlike thing isn’t even some kind of act, he’s a genius who understands true human nature, and he also really really likes puppet shows and building sandcastles who telling fairy stories, he really does get a “childish pleasure” from seeing Flambeau swing his sword-stick, and he really does have “strong personal interest in tomfoolery”. I love him.

I must share my favourite book quote about Father Brown himself: “But neither of them is very like the real Father Brown, who is not broken at all; but goes stumping with his stout umbrella through life, liking most of the people in it; accepting the world as his companion, but never as his judge.” uwu uwu uwu I’m cry.

Chesterton just subverts all the expectations character wise, the cheerful bumbling priest is a genius, the violent criminal is a true hero, the noble police officer is a corrupt self-serving murderer. It’s great. We stan. 10000000/10

(I’m not very good at being brief, am I?)

Father Brown, Detective (1934):

The first movie! It’s completely ridiculous. I love it a lot.

It was released just at the start of Hays Code, which, among other things, stated that crime and immorality should not be glorified or glamourised, and all crime and immorality must be seen to be punished by the end of the film. In practice in the case of this film, this means two things:

Paul Lukas!Flambeau is the only Flambeau to actually go to prison (and stay there).

He’s by far the Flambeau who deserves it the least. Lukas!Flambeau never hurt a soul. He just wanted to be loved. #FreeMyBoyHercule

Okay but in all seriousness. There’s a reason I call Paul Lukas!Flambeau “Himbo Flambeau”. Where other Flambeaus are violent or dangerous or geniuses, Lukas!Flambeau is just a big dumb idiot who respects women and has a great sense of humour and writes all his letters in the third person like Elmo for some reason. I would die for him.

At one point Flambeau in disguise is talking to the police, and when the police criticise Flambeau, disguised Flambeau says “Oh but I assure! I have read many things about this Flambeau! He is a fearless, handsome fellow!” The absolute idiot. I adore him with my whole heart.

The film is set in London, like the books, but an idealised Hollywood version of London, i.e., almost entirely unlike London.

Walter Connolly!Father Brown is also entirely lacking in braincells. Look at these two idiot men:

I love them.

Oh oh! And the most important thing, the thing that carries over into most other adaptations? NEW ORIGINAL CHARACTERS!!

This movie invents a few characters that weren’t in the books, but the most important ones are Mrs Boggs:

She doesn’t really add much to the plot but she’s funny and I love her so I’ll forgive it. 

She’s Father Brown’s housekeeper, she’s basically just the fussing maternal female character archetype who fusses around in the background, but she does it well and plays it with charm so I’ll allow it.

(Honestly this whole film is just. Not *technically* good or original, but just so charming and with so much heart that I unironically adore it.)

She tries to make Father Brown drink his milk because it’s good for him even though he doesn’t like it, and keeps checking back in on him to make sure he’s drunk it, it’s literally like a mother and her small child.

She objects to policemen in the presbytery because of their “big muddy boots on the carpet” but is fine with just letting Flambeau in whenever despite the prevailing rumour in London being that Flambeau killed a man. We stan a queen of having priorities. 

When Inspector Valentine summons Father Brown to the station, Mrs Boggs pops up in the background, assumes Father Brown’s being arrested, and says “Oh dear, I knew it!” and it makes me giggle like an idiot every time.

The other, more important original character invented for this movie is my girl Evelyn Fischer:

I love her, I would die for her, she’s flawless.

She’s basically your typical bored and rebellious young aristocrat, but she has a chaotic streak that I adore.

She sneaks out of her family’s mansion to go to a seedy underground club/illegal gambling ring in Soho (I mean I assume it’s Soho, a seedy part of London in that general vicinity, at least. I’m not about to get bogged down trying to understand the geography of London according to Hollywood), flirts with a bunch of strangers for fun, then when the police raid the place and everyone else is panicking she stands stock still, cheerfully says “Oh goody, I shall probably get my name in the papers!” and has to be physically dragged out of the building by Flambeau.

Later on Flambeau breaks into her bedroom in the middle of the night and she’s just very calmly like “What are you doing?”, and even when she finds out it’s Flambeau, a man widely believed to be dangerous and violent, instead of being scared, she calls him an idiot right to his face.

She forms the third part of the main trio of the movie with Father Brown and Flambeau (RIP to Valentine, demoted to tertiary character in a loose adaptation of the one (1) story where he was the main character lol) and together the three of them share a single braincell and have to take turns with it, while Mrs Boggs fusses in the background at the trio’s increasingly bonkers decisions. 

The movie ends with Father Brown and Evelyn sharing an emotional farewell with Flambeau through the window of a police car and promising to look after each other until Flambeau’s released, wow poly rights.

The Adventures of Father Brown (1945):

The adaptation there’s the least amount of information about, but I’ve done my best to find everything I can find on it.

An American radio show made towards the end of wartime, it’s a bit of an odd one, and believe me Father Brown adaptations have gone some odd places.

Only two episodes survive, or at least if more do survive then whoever has them is being very selfish and hoarding them to themselves because only two episodes are publicly available anywhere, and the audio quality of those is a bit dodge. (Though that is to be expected, they do appear to be home recordings, from 1945. Honestly we should be grateful to even have two full episodes.)

If the actors I’ve found are the right people, this show featured by far the youngest Father Brown and Flambeau, at the start of the show the actor playing Father Brown was only 36 and the actor playing Flambeau was only 27. They’re BABIES. (Honestly I’d like to see more age variation in Father Brown adaptations, as I have extensively rambled about before, the characters have literally no canon ages in the books, I think people ought to be a little more imaginative instead of always building on the adaptations that came before, even if it is really cool to see traces of all the previous adaptations in each new one that comes along. It’s something I haven’t noticed as much in adaptations of other golden age detective novels, but the Father Brown adaptations do seem to be stuck in some kind of game of “yes, AND” with each other. I would REALLY like to see an adaptation where Flambeau is older than Father Brown though, it's just something we've never had before despite there being literally nothing in the books to suggest this can't be the case, and I just think it'd be neat.)

This show is really really painfully American, in a real old fashioned "golly gee whizz mister" kind of way, to the point it almost feels like a parody, and I honestly find it kind of endearing.

Even Flambeau frequently slips into a very American accent to the point that my affectionate nickname for him is "The All-American Flambeau", and it's great. He's great.

Honestly I could accept the accents and the slang, for some reason the only thing that really threw me was Father Brown referring to money in cents and nickels.

Needless to say, this adaptation is not set in London. It is instead set in Generic Unspecified Smalltown USA. It's fine. This is fine. I already have so many films and shows set in London, I can swallow my London pride and let America have this.

It's hard to get a real grasp on characters from just two episodes, but I like this Father Brown and Flambeau, even if they are a little overly serious, and even if Flambeau doesn't really do much. He may be a bit serious and a bit useless but All-American Flambeau stays up late anxiously waiting for Father Brown to get home safely and it's very sweet. What a good boy.

All-American Flambeau also carries handcuffs around with him for some reason? But no weapons? Why is All-American Flambeau one of the few Flambeaus not to have a gun? Oh well, he's still sweet.

The 1945 radio show also gives us some original characters, but they're very much side characters and not part of the main plot and it's very hard to get a good grasp on a character from just a few minutes of audio from just two episodes but here's what I could gather:

Nora is another fussing housekeeper! She seems younger and less maternal than Mrs Boggs, but I don't know if that's just because the whole cast was on the younger side. (Could the radio station not find anyone over the age of 40? Were they in short supply in 1945 or something? Ah well.) She seems dedicated to helping Father Brown get some peace and quiet that he never goddamn gets because someone always goes and gets themselves murdered. In both surviving episodes a knock at the door disturbs Father Brown’s rest, Nora opens it professionally, sees it's Flambeau, and immediately drops the professionalism and is immediately like "oh it's only you", so I can only assume every episode started this way. I do hope so.

Father Peter is a junior priest who answers to Father Brown and takes over his duties on his days off. He's implied by the dialogue to be considerably younger than Father Brown, Nora, and Flambeau, but if their actors are anything to go by then they're not that old themselves, and though Father Brown seems to talk to Father Peter like he's a literal child, he is still a priest so I very much doubt that's the case. He seems sweet and harmless, but he's only in one of the surviving episodes and only in that towards the end and mentioned briefly at the start, so it's hard to judge completely. It's highly unlikely that the reason he's not even mentioned in the later surviving episode is because he turned out to secretly be an evil murderer, but, this being a Father Brown adaptation, not entirely unfounded. (But no, he's probably just a sweet boy who exists to have exposition delivered to him.)

Father Brown/The Detective (1954):

The Alec Guinness movie! The one haters of any of the other adaptations complain that adaptation isn't more like, but in my humble opinion, actually the worst adaptation.

Like, I don't hate it! The cast is mostly stellar actors and if I just saw it as a movie on its own, it'd probably be fine. But as a Father Brown adaptation watched in context of the books and the other adaptations, it has a few issues imo.

Most glaringly it has Tone Issues. This film cannot decide if it's a comedy or not. The original posters certainly marketed it as one (see above) and half the cast are noted comic actors who were famous at the time for comedy, goddamn SID JAMES is in it, but the entire third act is played painfully straight, half the cast is mugging for the camera and trying way too hard to be funny while the other cast is giving extremely serious and subtle performances, like. I have no problem with a Father Brown adaptation being played for laughs, and I have no problem with a Father Brown adaptation being played for drama, both can work beautifully, but just PICK ONE, PLEASE

All of my other gripes with the film are very petty and nitpicky, this film calls Father Brown and Flambeau "Ignatius Brown" and "Gustav Flambeau" even though Father Brown has the canon first initial "J" and Flambeau has the canon first name "Hercule", and I hate it a lot. "Ignatius and Gustav" is the second worst thing any Father Brown adaptation has ever done to me.

My other petty nitpick with the movie is that it makes Flambeau literal nobility. The man is a duke. In my opinion Flambeau should always either have a completely mysterious past or be a nobody who came from nothing, someone who grew up with land and title and many servants and a family coat of arms, living in a whole entire castle with his family name and coat of arms engraved into the side of it, growing up and stealing from people, is a whole lot less sympathetic in my opinion. Like to be fair his parents are dead which is sad I guess and his castle has seen better days, but dude. You still own a castle. People who live in castles do not get to lecture other people about materialism.

THAT SAID, Peter Finch is still the best thing about the movie. I love all Flambeaus dearly, even the ones that are little bitches. He’s a bit of an emo “oh woe is me” sadboy, but he’s very charming, and actually good at disguises and being undercover, get dunked on Lukas!Flambeau.

Guinness!Brown likes to feed ducks and Flambeau calls him “the angel with the flaming umbrella”, which makes my inner Good Omens fan who loves finding parallels between Aziraphale & Crowley and Father Brown & Flambeau go 👀

There is one really good scene, in the Paris Catacombs. And by “good” I mean “really really bafflingly gay”:

I truly, truly do not understand how this scene was written, directed, acted, filmed, and edited without ANYONE saying “hey lads does this seem a bit gay to you?”

Father Brown, literally lying on top of Flambeau and pinning him to the ground, whispering: “I would like to set you free.” Flambeau, softly, gently smiling while his face is literal inches away from Father Brown, who is still pinning him to the ground: “Ah, now I begin to understand what you are.”

What the fuck, you guys. What the entire fuck. This scene keeps me up at night.

ANYWAY

This film is also not set in London. It is instead mostly set in a rural English village, and partially in Paris and partially in rural France. Paris is fun but I miss London.

This film also has some original characters. I should probably talk about them. 

This is Lady Warren:

She’s Father Brown’s friend, and she’s a Lady, and that’s all I can really tell you.

She’s very well-mannered and dignified and sophisticated.

She gives me the vibe that she exists solely because the writers decided they needed a female character but then remembered at the last minute they had no idea how to write women, so as a result she is almost entirely irrelevant to the plot. I don’t want to say I don’t like her, because she’s done nothing wrong and it’s not her fault, but like. Why is she here? Poor thing, she deserved to be plot-relevant, really.

She lives in a big mansion and owns some very nice things, and she gets annoyed when she invites Father Brown to lunch but he just stares blankly into space thinking about Flambeau the whole time. (Mood honestly FB. Me too.) 

She flirts a bit with Flambeau in one very pointless scene that came the hell out of nowhere, went nowhere, and was never mentioned again. It was like the writers realised how gay the previous Flambeau scene was and suddenly tried to convince me this man is a hetero. Nice try, writers. You can’t fool me that easily.

The other main original character is Bert:

Alright, own up, whose bright idea was it to put Sid James in a Father Brown movie?

Bert is a smalltime criminal who’s a friend of Father Brown, who Father Brown protects from the police, but tries to convince to get on the straight and narrow by getting him as a job as Lady Warren’s chauffer. 

This is would be fine, were it not for the fact he’s played by Sid James, who only knows how to play Sid James, and is just Sid Jamesing it up in every scene. I don’t have anything against Sid James. I like my fair share of Carry On films. But Sid James does not belong in Father Brown and I want to fight whoever decided he did.

Father Brown (1974):

LADS LADS LADS! It’s time for the first TV show, and it’s time for my favourite boys:

Oh! OH! How I love Kenneth More!Brown and Dennis Burgess!Flambeau. They’re just. So cute. My two special boys.

Not only that, but LADS! We’re finally back in London!

A gritty, dirty, London in the 1930s no less, with cool London buses and political unrest and grimy pubs and the constant threat of world war. Alexa this is so cool play London Calling.

In one episode Flambeau gets verbally abused by an anti-immigration right-wing zealot. :( My poor boy. :( 

(But it’s okay, shortly after Father Brown witnesses this, the racist shows up dead in exactly the place Father Brown earlier said would be a good place to commit a murder. Now I’m not accusing Father Brown of murder, BUT)

This show made the bold but valid decision to skip Flambeau’s redemption arc and start the show when Flambeau is already a seasoned and respected private detective who’s lived in London and been Father Brown’s closest friend for many years. As a result this Father Brown and Flambeau are ridiculously domestic with each other. Look at this peak Old Married Couple energy:

Oh! I just love them.

I would love to know how Burgess!Flambeau’s redemption went down though, because Burgess!Flambeau is BY FAR the least repentant of all the reformed Flambeaus. He proudly boasts about his crimes, he still believes he “deserved to succeed”, he still proudly talks about how “daring and outrageous” he was, which begs the question of why did he stop at all? Literally the only explanation I can think of is that he’s literally only doing this for Father Brown’s sake, which. uwu

Oh GOD I love Burgess!Flambeau. Obviously I love all Flambeaus a lot, and choosing a favourite feels like choosing a favourite child, but let’s just say: if the Flambeaus WERE my children, Burgess!Flambeau would be quite spoilt. My ~ Daring And Outrageous ~ boy.

More!Brown and Burgess!Flambeau are both really really socially awkward, uncomfortable in crowds, and nervously say “oh dear” a lot. They really are ridiculously cute.

They also only giggle and joke and act silly when they’re together, when they’re apart they’re both sort of sad and quiet and withdrawn. (This makes episodes Flambeau isn’t in a bit harder to watch because Father Brown is just kind of lost and lonely without his emotional support Frenchman, with three notable exceptions: that time Father Brown infodumped about the mating habits of whales at the Father Superior for a solid minute, that time Father Brown met a dog and reacted with unrestrained delight, and that time someone mentioned former criminals in passing and Father Brown’s whole face lit up and he started gushing about how Flambeau was living in London now and doing very well as a private detective, completely unprompted.)

This show also brought back book!Brown and Flambeau’s habit of always going on holiday together! Wonderful! We love to see it!

This show is also the first time in the entire Father Brown franchise where gay people are overtly acknowledged to exist! And Father Brown is non-judgemental! A roman catholic priest written in the 1970s and living in the 1930s who canonically isn’t homophobic! I have no choice but to stan forever!

You remember what I said about liking to point out Good Omens parallels? WELL

Kenneth More!Father Brown and Dennis Burgess!Flambeau both live in London

Burgess!Flambeau lives in a brightly lit, pale walled, airy and spacious, modern (for the time) London apartment, while More!Brown prefers gothic architecture and lives in an old, grey, cramped, stone building absolutely full floor to ceiling with books

They go out for intimate candlelit dinners for two at very fancy London restaurants 

Desperate people come to Flambeau because he “knows the game on both sides of the fence”

Father Brown responds with a quiet and miserable “oh dear” when asked to actually do his job instead of just watching plays and drinking wine

Father Brown calls Flambeau “my dear” at times and it personally kills me

I mean. I’m just saying.  👀

Now, isn’t there a third important character in the books? 

Oh yes of course:

HIM! THE BASTARD MAN! INSPECTOR VALENTIN HIMSELF!

(Nobody understands him! IT’S NOT! EVIL!)

This show is the literally only adaptation to include the Valentin betrayal and I’m not gonna lie. It’s a very difficult episode to sit through, it’s far darker and grimmer and more depressing than you would ever expect from Father Brown, but my god it’s done so well. Especially considering the teeny tiny budget they clearly had, only four sets are used the entire episode and the whole thing takes place inside Valentin’s house, but even that adds a certain claustrophobic atmosphere and just. It’s done so well.

I think the entire budget went on gore effects because the decapitated heads in this episode are disturbingly realistic for the time the show was made and genuinely grim to look at. Not to mention the intense downer ending.  Not to mention this was THE FINAL EPISODE OF THE SHOW

THE INTENSE DOWNER ENDING OF THIS EPISODE IS HOW THE WHOLE SHOW ENDED

God it hurts so much but I lowkey love it. 

Father Brown Stories (1984):

The second radio series, and the first BBC adaptation! 

Thrilling times for fans of actors being the right nationality for their characters, because after previously being played by a Hungarian, an American, an Englishman, and a Welshman, Flambeau is finally being played by a Frenchman, Olivier Pierre!

Father Brown himself is played by Andrew Sachs, Manuel himself. 

Not gonna lie. It’s kind of hard to figure out how to explain the radio show.

We’re? Maybe back in London? Honestly it’s really unclear.

Pierre!Flambeau is kind of adorable. He’s described as looking like book!Flambeau physically, huge and buff and terrifying, but he has literally none of the temper or predisposition to violence. 

Pierre!Flambeau doesn’t speak very good English at all, and oftentimes will react with “...What?” when he hears a strange English idiom or turn of phrase.

One time he says “Perhaps we should.. push on? SEE HOW I AM MASTERING YOUR ENGLISH IDIOMS” and it’s the cutest thing that’s ever happened.

To try and get better at understanding both the English language and the English people, Flambeau starts obsessively reading Alice in Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass, massive giant adorable boy.

One time Father Brown gets complimented of being academically minded and well read, and then asked if Flambeau is also a keen reader, and when Flambeau tries to say no, Father Brown interrupts and proudly and earnestly says “Oh yes! Monsieur Flambeau is one of our top Lewis Carroll scholars!”, it’s honestly adorable.

This adaptation finally uses “John” as Father Brown’s first name, as it should always have been! I love it!

This series said FUCK Father Brown having a mysterious past and no former friends or relatives! Now he has siblings, and friends who knew him before he was a priest who still call him “John”!

Father Brown himself speaks in a very sweet and soft and wavering way that makes my heart melt.

Sadly and unfortunately, I have to acknowledge the final episode of the show, which is the top worst thing any Father Brown adaptation has ever done to me.

It’s. It’s a crossover. With Sherlock Holmes. Actual goddamn Sherlock Holmes is in it. I hate it. I hate it so much. “Elementary, my dear Flambeau” shut the hell up, if this Flambeau won’t fling you down a flight of stairs then I will.

I deliberately avoided all Holmes-related media for THREE YEARS only for the awful man to spring up on me in Father Brown?? How could you do this to me???

I’m going to yeet myself into the sun, bye everyone.

(On the plus side, the Sherlock Holmes episode does have one of Father Brown’s parishioners recognise Flambeau as “a close friend of Father Brown and a frequent visitor to his room”  ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°), so that’s nice I suppose. I’ll still never forgive the writers of this show for putting me through this.)

Father Brown (2013):

YOU ARE HERE.

I kind of see the current TV series as a culmination of all the adaptations that’ve come before? I can definitely see echoes of all of them in it.

And it’s great! I really really love it. I love it a lot. 

I think about it daily.

My one and only complaint I would have is that Flambeau isn’t in it enough. Not just because he’s my favourite, though I’d obviously not be fooling anyone who’s read all this if I said he isn’t.

And it’s not that I don’t love the show as it is, and find the one Flambeau episode a series always something really special, so I don’t know what I’d have the writers do, exactly. 

But it’s just. In literally every other version of Father Brown, Flambeau is the second most important character and the second main protagonist, and to have him in this show so little that some fans or reviewers call him a “minor character” and others call him a “recurring villain”, though I myself don’t see him either of those ways of course because he’s still Flambeau, it’s just kinda sad and painful, y’know?

I don’t know. Maybe I’m just being silly.

Hopefully he’s a regular in at least the final season of the show. If I don’t get my favourite partners in crime solving I’m rioting. 

Anyway that’s my “””brief””” rundown on all the main versions of Father Brown!! I hope you liked it!!

[amazingphanisnotonfire-imagines]

Sweet Pea//i can't get her off of my brain

Request: Can I request a Sweet Pea/Reader with the song If U Seek Amy by Britney Spears, i can't think of anything plot wise but probably something to do with a party, maybe smut if you're up for it?

hey! enemies to lovers! i repeat, enemies to lovers! is that surprise though? do i know any other tropes? yes. am i going to use them in my writing? no. i hope you like it!! and have a great day everybody!! 

You’re not sure whose party this is. Rebecca’s, Ruby’s? No, it definitely begins with a J. Juliet? Nope. Jade! It’s Jade’s party. It was Juliet’s last night. Although you’re not sure how you can have two separate parties in the same house. Juliet and Jade being twins, they have to share everything, but their parties are separate, or at least thats what they tell people. Most of the time however, they blend into one. 

Its very rare that they have an empty house, but when they do they have weekend long parties. Both insisting that they’re nothing alike. But they both involve a copious amounts of alcohol, loud music, and drama. 

A flash of dark purple hair rushes past you as you walk through the front door and Jade sends you a quick wave and smile as she passes, she’s quickly followed by Juliet, with her pastel purple hair knotted in a braid and almost hitting you in the face as she chases her sister into the kitchen. 

“Give me that back. Its mine!” Juliet shouts angrily. You hear Jade laugh loudly over the music and then they’re both arguing. 

“If you wanted it, you shouldn’t have left it.” Jade replies, her voice teasing as she ignores her sisters tone. 

You’ve known them since you were a kid, and they’ve always argued like this. When it was their birthday, you had to bring the exact same present for both of them otherwise all hell would break lose. Even the box had to be identical.

“You don’t even drink. What do you want with vodka.” 

“I want to annoy you.” She shrugs. 

“Fuck off.” She snatches the bottle back and Jade pouts at her. 

“Someone’s touchy. Have you and Rebecca had a lovers quarrel?” 

“Shut up.” She huffs before storming off. She’s clutching the bottle tight to her chest when she passes you, her head hung low as she stares at the cream carpet and your eyes follow her as she makes her way through the large group of teenagers stood in the living room. 

You feel an arm around your shoulder making you look beside you, and you’re greeted with a very happy Jade. 

“Is she okay?” You ask, pointing in the direction that Juliet slumped off to.

“Yeah.” She glances towards the stairs and you see a slightly worried expression replace her smile. “Her and Rebecca had a very minor argument before the party about something idiotic and she’s been in a foul mood ever since.” 

“Oh.” 

“Anyway.” She changes the subject, the smile reappearing on her face and she greets a few people walking through the door. “Lets get drunk!” 

“You don’t drink.” You laugh, letting her lead you to the kitchen. 

“But you do though, so you’re drinking for the both of us. So, get this down you.” She hands you a shot of something bright red that burns when you drink it and tastes like a mix of fire and soil. “And this.” She shoves another one in your hand and you grimace, but down it anyway. “And take this for the road.” She gives you a red cup with an undisclosed liquid in it and pats you on the back. “I’m gonna go see if Juliet has stopped moping, but I’ll talk to you later.” 

“Have fun.” The two of you walk out of the kitchen and into the crowded living room. In the five minutes you’ve been in the drinking, there seems to be at least twenty more people just in the living room alone and you grimace as you watch the people dance and spill their drinks. 

You honestly have no idea how Jade and Juliet manage to clean up after their parties, and you’re even more confused as to how their parents haven’t found out yet. There’s been a few times where you’ve fallen asleep on the floor (or in the bath) and when you’ve woken up, the house has been spotless. 

Jade walks up the stairs, pushing past the couple’s making out before she disappears. And you’re left standing in the middle of the makeshift dance floor (the lighter patch of the carpet thats usually covered by a very expensive rug) trying to find your friends. 

You instead find Sweet Pea, looking smug as ever while he talks to some girl from your English class. The school year is coming to a close and graduation is looming. For some people, that means studying as hard as they can, getting ready for college and trying to cling on to the last bits of high school before they go off into the big wide world. 

For Sweet Pea however, he’s clinging onto something but its certainly not memories. He’s hooked up with somebody different at every single party you’ve been in the past month, and rumors are spread around the school like wildfire. 

People that have been to several parties in one night have seen him at every single one of them, all with somebody different. And it leaves you wondering what he says to these girls that gets them into bed so quickly or if he just doesn’t last that long when he actually gets to it. You’re favourite theory being the latter. 

He looks away from the girl he’s taking to, feeling eyes on him and before you can look away, the two of you make eye contact. A smirk takes over his appearance and you send him a disgusted stare when he winks at you before going back to flirting. 

The origin behind yours and Sweet Pea’s hatred for each other is unknown to everyone, even the two of you yourselves. But its notorious around Riverdale High. You don’t like him, he doesn’t like you. Its been that way since the serpents started, and even though the hatred between the two sides has long been over, you and Sweet Pea still can’t stand to be in the same room as each other. 

You find him cocky, arrogant and annoying. He finds you stubborn, irritating and very petty. When the two of you are in the same room you can bet that within two minutes there’s going to be an argument. Usually because you like to wind each other up, despite claiming to hate talking to each other. 

If there’s an opportunity to annoy one of you, the others going to take it, no matter the situation. Which has grown increasingly irritating to your friends when they can’t get through a conversation without being interrupted by Sweet Pea throwing something at you or you continuously flicking him in the head until he gets annoyed. And then it ends in name calling until one of you goes to far and the other storms off.  

You pull your gaze away from the tall serpent, now swapping spit with a blonde  and find Betty instead, sat on the sofa with a frown on her face while she holds a full bottle of beer. 

“Hey.” You don’t mean to startle her, but with the volume of the music only getting louder as you approach her, you have to practically shout. She jumps, seemingly being pulled from her thoughts and sends you a small smile as she watches you sit down. “Are you okay?” You lean in, until you’re practically shouting in her ear. It takes a few seconds for her to realize what you’ve said, but when she does she just shrugs and slumps back into the soft furniture. 

“I’m not really in the partying mood.” She replies and you send her a sympathetic smile. 

“Whats up.” 

“Boy trouble.” She huffs and looks out into the crowd. You follow her gaze until you find Jughead leaning against a wall, a drink in his hand as he watches Archie and Veronica dance. 

Large grins are on all of their faces and Betty lets out a deep sigh. The only problem is, you don’t know why one she’s referring to so you have no way to cheer her up. 

Betty’s relationship with Jughead and Archie is almost as complicated as yours and Sweet Pea-Wait. No, thats not right because you and Sweet Pea have the complete opposite of a relationship. You have an, un-relationship. Or, whatever. 

You shake your head, willing that thought and any other like it out of your brain forever, before looking back at Betty and hoping the right words to say will come to you soon. 

“Its okay.” You place a gentle hand on hers and she looks down at it. “I get it. Boys are complicated. But you are far better than any Riverdale High boy. Just think, you’ll be at college in a few months and you’ll have your pick of all the highly educated men that know what to do and how to treat you right.” You nudge her gently and a soft smile twitches at her lips. 

“I suppose so yeah.” She shrugs. 

“But tonight, we’re high schoolers. And do you know what high schoolers do at parties?” 

“What?” 

“They drink and make bad decision that they regret in the morning! So drink that and lets dance.” You say, pushing the bottle towards her. She rolls her eyes, but you can tell she’s suppressing a smile as she takes her first sip. “To peer pressure.” You bump your cup against her bottle before taking a drink. 

“Y/n!” Willow shouts from across the room gaining yours and Betty’s attention. Her red hair bounces as she pushes excitedly through the crowd and by the time she makes it to where you’re stood there’s a bright smile lighting up her entire face. She hugs you and then Betty, complimenting both of your outfits before finally remembering why she came over in the first place. “Have you seen Amy tonight?” 

“Nope.” You shake your head. “But I have only been in here and the kitchen so she could be anywhere.” 

“Damn.” She sighs. 

“She could be in the bathroom.” Betty suggests.

“Or smoking up outside.” You add and she ponders the idea for a minute before nodding. 

“Yeah.” She nods. “Probably. I’ll see you around.” She waves at the two of you before wandering through the house and disappearing out the patio doors. 

“Come on Cooper.” You grab the blondes hand, pulling her off the couch and into the sweaty group of people. She follows reluctantly, keeping her head down as she tries her best not to bump into anybody. 

“Baby, it wasn’t like that.” A guy you pass says desperately to his girlfriend who’s stood with her arms crossed over her chest and a scowl stuck on her face. 

“What is ‘does she take a piece of lime for the drink that I’mma buy her’ mean?” She replies impatiently and you and Betty stop a few feet away from them, wanting to hear more of whatever this conversation is. 

“I was talking about you.” 

“You were talking about me?” She repeats and you and Betty share a look, both of you knowing where this is going. When your question is repeated, you’re in a big trouble. “I have a citrus allergy, you know this.” She shouts and storms off leaving the guy alone and you and Betty holding in laughter. 

“See, we haven’t even started dancing yet and you’re already cheered up.” 

“True.” She shrugs. The song changes to something even more upbeat and the two of you start dancing (jumping around). 

Halfway through though you get distracted by a familiar serpent, passing you and a wicked smile takes over your face. 

You stick your foot out while dancing and the next thing you know Sweet Pea stumbles, spilling his drink over himself and a few other people. You stifle a laugh while he apologizes to the people around him and Betty sends you a disapproving look. 

“What the fuck!” He shouts and looks around, his eyes instantly settling on you and a deep scowl takes over his face. A few people around you stop dancing to watch what is happening, all waiting for the inevitable argument thats about to break out. You however, are unaffected. You just look at him, a sweet smile plastered on your face while you watch him dab at his t-shirt. 

“Oops.” You mumble, looking him up and down as he mutters curse words under his breath. Betty moves closer to you, a part of her worrying that an actual fight is about to break out, and you notice that even Jughead, Archie and Veronica have shuffled a little closer to the three of you. 

Betty exchanges awkward glances with Jughead and Archie before looking down at the floor, and you and Sweet Pea continue the small staring contest you’ve found yourselves in. 

He gives up first, looking down at his now stained shirt and you smirk triumphantly. “I hate you.” He mutters before shoving past you, making sure to bump your shoulder. 

“It was nice bumping in to you Pea.” You tease, watching him storm off and he flips you off over his shoulder. 

“You guys are actually ridiculous.” Betty shakes her head at you. People start dancing again, the moment seeming to have been forgotten already and you just shrug at her. 

Amy rushes past you a second later, distracting you from dancing and your eyes follow her as she runs further away. 

“I found Amy!” You say to nobody in particular making Betty laugh. 

“What do you think Willow wanted Amy for?” She asks and you send her a look. 

“What everybody wants Amy for.” 

“Se-” 

“Weed.” You interrupt, before looking at her confused. “Where you about to say sex?” 

“What? No.” She says quickly and you furrow your eyebrows in confusion. “Did she look upset to you?” She’s changed the subject and you look in the direction she ran off to. 

“I mean maybe. I dunno. Is Willow around?” You ask and the two of you crane your necks to look around. You spot Willow stood by the patio doors. Her arms are wrapped around her, and she’s crying a little. You frown before slowly pushing through the stumbling teens “Are you coming?” You ask Betty, but she’s too distracted staring at Jughead. You sigh, and grab her shoulder, turning her to face you. “I think its clear who you want. Archie may have been the boy next door you had a crush on, but Jughead was your first love. Go talk to him, those college guys can wait.” 

“Are you sure?” She asks, looking at you quickly and you roll your eyes at her. 

“Yes. He looks a little lonely to be honest. If you know what you want, you should go for it.” 

“Maybe you should take your own advice.” She replies and glances at Sweet Pea sulking in the corner. 

“What are you talking about?” You frown. 

“Nothing.” She shakes her head. “Go see whats wrong with Willow.” 

“Have fun!” You smile, she nods before taking a deep breath and slowly approaching Jughead. When you get to the patio doors, Willow is no where to be seen and you let out a frustrated sigh. 

Why do high school parties always have to filled with angst and drama? Why can’t they be light, fun, easy? Why is there always something? Speaking of something...

“Sweet Pea.” You take a deep breath and turn around to face the very angry boy. 

“Y/n.” He says through gritted teeth as he clenches his beer bottle. 

“To what do I owe this pleasure.” You ask, really not caring about the situation. 

You want to know if Amy is okay, when she comes to parties she’s usually in high demand due to the stuff she brings with her, but sometimes that makes her a target. And if you’ve lost her, and now also a very upset Willow, you’re screwed. 

“The pleasure is all mine.” He smirks, looking you up and down. He’s back to his usual self and that only means one thing, he’s planning something. 

“You’re disgusting. Do you know that?” You huff. 

“Yep. You tell me at least once a day.”

“And yet you never listen.” You sigh and lazily pick at your nails. When you don’t get a reply you look back at him to see him watching a game of beer pong. 

“Sorry, what did you say?” He says, suddenly remembering what he was doing. 

“You’re an ass.”

“You also tell me that every day.” 

“I know. It’s a very tedious job but someone has to do it.” You send him a sarcastic smile and go back to looking around the crowded room. 

“What are you looking for? A life?” 

“Wow, I’m so hurt. Seriously what year is this and how old are you?” You roll your eyes. “And if you must know, I’m looking for Amy and/or Willow.” 

“Why?” His face lights up as he also looks around the dark room and you have to admit you’re glad he’s decided to help you. His height certainly gives him an advantage, and if anything does happen, you can just leave him to deal with it while you run away. 

You watch him look around, the way his jaw tightens and the muscles in his neck tense when he thinks he see’s her...oh god. What the hell had Jade given you? 

Your eyes widen as you try to ignore your drunken thoughts and Sweet Pea looks back at you confused as he waves his hand in front of your face. 

“Are you involved in the devils lettuce?” 

“The devils lettuce? Did you seriously just say that?” You snort, whatever lapse of judgement you’ve just had, has definitely passed. 

“Yes, I did. And I’m standing by it.” He huffs, moving to lean against the wall beside you. 

“Well, no. I’m looking for Amy because she looked upset. Willow was looking for her earlier but twenty minutes after they found each other, Amy stormed past me and then Willow was crying.” 

“What’s this got to do with you?” He asks rudely and you send him an annoyed look. 

“They’re my friends. I do have them things you know.” 

“Yeah, yeah. I know. It surprises me really.” He nods along. “Well, Amy told me that she’s going to meet me.” He says and your eyes widen as you turn to look at him. 

“Are you actually about to useful for once in your life?” You say, you’re tone becoming happier as he looks at you smugly. His smirk falters a little when the thought of you being cute crosses his mind, but he just does the same thing he does every time he has a thought like that. He locks it in a box in his brain and shoves it as far away as possible. “Where are you-” 

“I don’t know where or when.” He says and you huff loudly at him, punching him in the arm. “I’ve seen her once or twice around here though and I think she knows my face. I dunno, the person I used to get the dev-that stuff from, got caught and so he had to stop doing it.” 

“Was it Fangs?” 

“It wasn’t Fangs.” 

“It was Fangs wasn’t it?” 

“Yeah...it was Fangs.” He finally admits. 

“And it was Jughead that caught him wasn’t it?” 

“It wasn’t Jughead.” 

“It was Jughead wasn’t it?” 

“Yes fine! It was Jughead.” He huffs making you giggle. The two of you look at each other, a begrudging smile playing on his lips as he watches you laugh. The changing lights dance across your skin and he feels himself getting lost watching you. 

“Its hard to see with all the people standing in my way.” You mutter. “You’re a giant. Have another look.” You interrupt his thoughts and he feels his cheeks heat up at the fact that he was was looking at you like that. “Come on.” You grab his arm and lead him towards the stairs. He looks at your fingers wrapped around his arm and his mind blanks. 

It seems whatever he’s been drinking was stronger than he thought. 

“Wait.” You stop suddenly making him walk right into you. You feel yourself fall but he grabs you just in time, steadying you before the two of you jump away from each other. 

“I found them.” You point to the red head and black haired girls sat on the fourth step making out. “Well, that was short lived.” 

“At least they’re happy.” He shrugs. 

“Very happy it looks like.” You agree, the two of you watch as the kiss gets more heated and then suddenly you feel like you’re intruding. Both of you turn around and make you’re way toward the kitchen, both in desperate need of a drink, maybe not as strong as your others. 

“Damn.” Sweet Pea sighs dramatically as he leans against the counter. You don’t acknowledge him, instead pouring two drink out and handing him one. “I said damn.” He repeats and you suddenly remember why you don’t like hanging out with him. 

“What?” 

“I’m not gonna get any tonight.” 

“How awful. I’m sure your parts can take a day off.” You glance down and he rolls his eyes at you. 

“No, not that.” He shakes his head. “Thats fine, and it never takes a day off.” 

“Thats gross.” 

“I’m talking about weed. If Amy’s busy, where am I gonna get it?” 

“I dunno.” You shrug, now very bored of this conversation. 

“You can get it wherever you like as long as you do it outside.” Jade interrupts, saving you from a very tedious chat with someone that annoys you more and more with each passing second. Or at least thats what you’re trying to tell yourself. Because the five minutes you spent not arguing and actually helping each other, was actually quite pleasant. 

“Of course.” He says. She looks between the two of you and a knowing smile settles on her lips. Her and Sweet Pea seem to have a silent conversation while you just stand and stare at them confused. 

“How was Juliet?” You ask and Sweet Pea lets out a soft breath. 

“She fine. More than fine actually, when I found her she was already making out with Rebecca.” 

“Ohhhh.” You laugh. 

“What about you two. Have you been up to anything exciting?” 

“We watched two girls make out.” Sweet Pea shrugs, not realizing the implications and you and Jade just stare at him. “Not like that.” He blushes. 

“Willow and Amy.” You say, deciding to help him out of the hole he’s dug himself. 

“Ohhh. Aw. Thats cute.” 

“Yeah I know right.” You nod. “I think its been something thats coming for a while though.”

“What is it with everybody boning at my parties.” She wonders. 

“I think it shows how good your parties are. How many people hook up at Juliet’s?” 

“Very true.” She agrees. “Speaking of boning. You’s two seem oddly close.” She looks between the two of you and Sweet Pea and you both look at her disgusted. 

“We were both looking for Amy.” You defend yourself. The tone in your voice makes Sweet Pea’s chest ache. He no longer wants to talk to you, or anyone really, so he stays silent, trying his hardest to blend into the kitchen cabinets and figure out why he’s feeling all of these things all of a sudden. 

He’s been in the same room as you countless of times before, some would say too many times. And all of those times he’s wanted to kill you, but as cheesy as it sounds, the way you said that killed him a little and he can’t quite understand why. 

“Sure you were.” She teases. 

“Shut up.” You grumble.

“Jade, somebody’s thrown up in Aunt Vera’s vase.” Juliet rushes into the kitchen. Jade huffs loudly, placing her drink on the counter before following her sister out, leaving you and Sweet Pea in silence. 

You hum along to the Britney song playing, awkwardly looking around and trying your hardest to think of something to say that isn’t insulting. You haven’t quite realized why you don’t want to insult him yet, but when you try and thing of anything nice to say, you’re mind goes blank. 

He does look good though, even if his t-shirt is stained. And now you feel a little bad about doing that. His hair isn’t styled meticulously like it usually is. Its more hurried, less effort in it but you think he suits it more. He still has the curl at the front and you have a need to brush it away. 

nope. nope. this is not happening. nope.

“So...” You trail off, your lips forming a pout while you stare at the tiles on the floor. 

You can feel him watching you, and a blush creeps up his neck. He’s waiting for you to do something, say something, anything. But nothing happens. There’s no big, magical moment that you’re both apparently desperate for. You just stew in silence, letting the awkwardness fill the room until its almost unbearable.   

“I’m gonna look for Betty.” 

“I’m gonna go find Fangs.” 

Both of you say at the same time and rush out of the room, heading in different directions in search of anyone to talk to. 

You find Betty pretty quickly, but she’s sat on Jughead’s lap making out with him so thats a bust. Jade is busy cleaning vomit up with Juliet and Rebecca  and as much as you’re want a distraction, you’re not that desperate. Willow and Amy have just walked up the stairs so they’ll probably be locked in a bathroom or bedroom somewhere in the next five minutes. 

You’re only option is Veronica and Archie. And to your surprise, they’re not dry humping. They seem to be having an actual conversation. 

“Hey.” 

“Hey.” They reply in sync. It creeps you out but you push past it, sitting down beside them. 

“Have you seen Amy tonight?” Archie asks quickly and you nod your head, not really paying attention to what he’s just said. Its only after a few seconds do you realize whats he’s said that you look at him confused. It seems Archie Andrews is not the boy next door everyone seems to love.

“I have.” You nod. “But any dealings are cancelled for the time being. She’s busy.” 

“Doing what?” 

“Willow.” 

“Ohhhh.”

“What dealings? What are you two on about?” Veronica asks, only now joining in the conversation. She spaced out after saying hi, staring at the lights as they bounce around the room. 

“Nothing V.” You laugh, making eye contact with Archie. “What have you guys been doing?” 

“Drinkinggggg!” She cheers excitedly, lifting her cup up. Liquid spills out the side of it, landing on her shoe and the next thing you know she’s crying uncontrollably. 

“Some of us more than others.” Archie adds. “Come on Ronnie. Lets get you home.” He picks her up easily and she laughs loudly while flopping backwards in his arms. 

Soon its just you, sat on the sofa with half of your drink and nobody to talk to. A part of you kind of wants Sweet Pea back and you suddenly find yourself looking for him in the crowd. 

From across the room, he’s doing exactly the same thing, and when the two of you make eye contact, you find yourself smiling. 

“Why the hell did you do that?” You mumble quietly as you quickly look away. “Oh god, he’s coming over now. Fuc-Hi Sweet Pea.” 

“Er-hi.” He’s nervous. None of the usual confidence he has is in sight. He’s stood in front of you awkwardly, with his hands in his pockets while he thinks of what to say. “Bye.” He says quickly and turns around, whispering curses to himself while he moves through the crowd. 

Okay, maybe being alone isn’t so bad. That was weird. Really weird and you don’t like it. You need it to go back to normal, so you decide to follow him. Managing to catch him just before he goes back into the kitchen. 

“Pea!” You grab his arm, spinning him around. He looks slightly startled and you find yourself staring at him confused, its an unfamiliar expression on him and you feel an unfamiliar feeling stirring in your stomach. “It seems those five minutes we spend helping each other has fucked up our dynamic and I can’t stand it anymore. So I’m giving you permission to insult me.” You know you sound insane, but maybe its something you need. 

“I don’t want to insult you Y/n.” 

“What?” Your jaw drops as you stare at him in utter shock. “Why the hell not? I have plenty of things to insult.” 

“Because I don’t feel like it.” He shakes his head.

“There’s got to be something that you don’t like. What if I start?” You suggest. He just stares at you, eyebrows raised and arms crossed. 

“Why are you doing this?” 

“Because this.” You motion between the two of you. “Us being awkward and weird around each other. Its not normal. We insult and upset and sometimes cause physical pain. Thats our thing. But not knowing how to talk to each other isn’t. And not wanting to say awful things to each other, certainly isn’t. The world doesn’t feel right if we’re not verbally abusing each other.” 

“Have you just made a romantic speech about hating each other?” 

“Yes. And I’d do it all again...for you Sweet Pea.” You say, a smile twitching at the corners of your mouth while you wait for a response. 

“I have been wanting an excuse to tell you that your hair look absolutely awful tonight.” He mumbles making you grin. You move to hug him, but catch yourself in time. Sweet Pea looks at you weirdly and you send him a forced smile, trying to laugh it off. 

“So, where’s the blonde you were sucking face with earlier?” You look around. 

“I dunno.” He shrugs. “Why? Are you jealous?” 

“Yes.” You deadpan. “I’m just so desperate for you that I get jealous of any other girl that so much as looks at you. 

“Aw, babe.” He teases. And odd feeling washes over you when he says babe, a mix of butterflies and breathlessness. “You should have told me sooner. There’s plenty of Sweet Pea to go around.” 

“Have I told you today that you’re disgusting?” 

“Yes, you have in fact.”

“And yet you still don’t do anything about it?” 

“Love me or hate me, its not my fault everyone wants me.” He shrugs and you roll your eyes.

“Please. The only people that want you are either moronic or desperate.”

“Ohhhh, so that explains why you’re constantly flirting with me.” He says cheekily and you look at him offended. 

“I would honestly rather flirt with Reggie than you.”

“Ouch. You’d really chose Mantle over me?” He asks. 

“Definitely.” You nod confidently. 

“Well, thats good because look who’s coming over. Hey Mantle!” He shouts over the music, waving his arms around and your eyes widen when you quickly look around. Reggie is slowly making his way towards the two of you.

“What do you want Sweet Pea?”

“Y/n was just telling me how much she likes you.” Sweet Pea replies and you send him a death glare. He glances at you, sending you a quick wink before looking back him.

“Oh, really?” Reggie asks and turns to look at you. 

“I-”

“Yes. She would not shut up about you. Just constantly, Reggie this, Reggie the-ow! Anyway, gotta go.” Despite hitting him as hard as you could, he seemed relatively unaffected by it, instead walking away and leaving you alone with Reggie.

“So, you like me huh?” 

Yep, Sweet Pea definitely won this round. 

After half an hour of small talk with Reggie, you finally managed to get away. Sending him to get you a drink so you could slip off and hide upstairs for a bit so he could find somebody else. 

You’ve decided to sit in the spare room for a bit. Your thoughts about Sweet Pea are going a million miles a minute in your head and so you need some time to think. To figure out where they’ve come from all of a sudden. Or maybe you’ve been thinking them for a while and you just haven’t paid much attention until now. Until you saw that he could actually be nice, and that you wanted to see more. 

Ever since Sweet Pea left you alone with Mantle, he’s been thinking about you. About the way you look at him when you’re annoyed, or your smile when he says something funny. Or the look you get when you’re about to insult him. You always look so pleased with yourself.

He remembers the way you looked at him when you thought he knew where Amy was, and he remembered the way his chest hurt when he couldn’t help you. 

He then remembers that you gave him a speech as to why the two of you need to insult each other. In a very sad way, its the most romantic thing anybody has ever done for him. 

But he wants more. He wants real moments with you that aren’t just filled with childish name calling and shoving. He wants sweet nicknames, and story sharing and getting to know more about you. But when he thinks about, he knows a lot. He knows you’re favourite film, you’re favourite band. He knows the reason you don’t like that one song from them and why you’re favourite is your favourite. Your memories behind you’re favourite place in Riverdale and he wants to take you there and add to them and oh

He’s the worst. He left you alone with Mantle of all people. He doesn’t mind Reggie now, but he knows what he’s like. And he knows he can get practically anybody in bed. 

“Have you seen Y/n?” He doesn’t care that he’s interrupting Betty and Jughead. He doesn’t even register the way they’re looking at him, annoyed expressions mirroring each other. He’s too busy looking around the dark and busy room, scanning the crowd for you. They shift slightly to look at him properly and a knowing smile appears on each of their lips. 

“Can’t get her off your brain huh?” Jughead teases. 

“Shut up and just tell me if you’ve seen her.” He snaps. 

“She went upstairs.” Jade chimes in as she passes and Sweet Pea sends her a thankful smile as he hurries past her. 

He takes the steps two at a time, narrowly avoiding kicking people in the head and just as he’s about to search every single room, scaring himself in the process when he interrupts couples, he see’s you walking out of one of the rooms. 

“Sweet Pea. Hi.” You say startled. “Thanks for leaving with Reggie by the way.” You grumble angrily. “For twenty minutes he talked about football and girls he’s hooked up with.” 

“Shut up.” He shushes and you stare at him offended. 

“Excuse me?” 

“Y/n. I hate you.” 

“Thanks?” 

“Or at least I thought I did. I thought I hated you more than I hate peas and rich people.” 

“You hate peas?” 

“Yeah.” He nods his head. “Thats not really the point I’m trying to make though.” 

“Sorry.” 

“I thought I hated you, and maybe I did for a bit. But then I think somewhere my hate got confused with a different emotion and I found myself looking forward to seeing you. Even if it was to insult you. And then tonight, we were nice to each other for the first time ever and even though it was only for five minutes, I liked it. Despite how weird and awkward it was. And I want more. I want more of it until it stops being weird and awkward and its just us. Being nice. I want to hate you less Y/n.” 

“I think what you just said was nice.” You say unsure, trying to figure out what exactly he’s trying to say. “But either way I have a need to kiss you so I’m going to do that okay?” 

“Okay.” He nods eagerly and within seconds your lips are on his, your body pushing him into a door as your fingers tangle in his hair. His hands grip your waist tight as he kisses back with just as much desperation.

You pull away first, breathless and panting and he’s looking at like you’re the only person he sees. But the sweet look is soon replaced by his smug smile and you know whats coming next. 

“I thought you’d rather choose Reggie over me.” He teases making you roll your eyes playfully. 

“Yeah, well I guess I’m moronic.” You shrug and his smile grows. 

“You’re only just figuring this out no-” He’s interrupted by you kissing him again. And he figures that whatever insult he had, can wait until afterwards. 

[popculturebuffet]

Goof Week: House of Mouse: Super Goof or Wish I Could Fly Like Super Goof (Patreon Review for WeirdKev27)

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Hello all you happy gorshers and welcome back to Goof Week, my week long celebration of Goofy’s 89th Birthday. And today I take my once a month trip down to the house of mouse as part of my patron kev’s yearlong celebration of the show’s 20th anniversary. And since I had this theme week in mind I asked him if it’d be okay if he strictly randomized goofy episodes, he said yes and here we are. 

Luck was on my side as I got what I remembered was one of my faviorite episodes of the show. But before I can get if it lived up to the hype or not a brief word on Super Goof. 

Super Goof is actually from the comics, first debuting in a story where Goofy thought he had super powers and fought the Phantom Blot in a cowboy hat. 

This concept was a hit so in 1965 Goofy was made a superhero for real with Super Goof #1. This dosen’t suprise me: this was the height of the silver age: The Lee and Kirby age of Marvel was in full swing and DC was still doing gangbusters. So there was market for a superhero spoof comic starring one of Disney’s best and brightest characters, who was given a bunch of super peanuts called super goobers to give him superman powers.  What DOES surprise me is the series lasted 74 issues from 65-84. And what’s more insane and wonderful? It didn’t get canceled because of low sales or anything. That was simply when Gold Key shut down... and Gold Key was FOUNDED three years before it meaning this book lasted the company’s ENTIRE lifespan. I’ll say that again, a book about goofy eating peanuts that started because of a story where goofy thought he was a superhero and fought a cowboy phantom blot, lasted 74 issues and only ended because the publisher shut down. That... is one of the most amazing things I have ever heard in my life. I’m genuinely impressed... this isn’t even a bad concept, I likes it and wish Disney would give it a full series. Farmer could do wonders with it. I’m just amazed that this odball little comic took off like it did. And as one final fun fact much like Superman, Super Goof set off the trend of Disney’s classic characters becoming heroes, with Donald’s own Papernik/Duck Avenger following in his footsteps. I REALLY want a Disney Superhero Verse in animatoin now, I know there was a mini series like that. And I will have to visit these comics at some point I just simply didn’t have room in the week with a movie review tomorrow. . 

So with all that out of the way how does Super Goof do on screen and does the episode hold up? Join me under the cut to find out. 

As usual for HOM I’ll be doing the shorts and overarching story seperate soooo

How To To Take Care of Your Yard:

Look anyone whose read my stuff or even just my goofy shorts special  will know how much I love the How To Shorts and how this series is responsible. This admittedly isn’t one of the BEST of them.. but it’s still fun to watch. Even a forgettable How To Short is still GOOD. It’s abotu Goofy taking care of his yard over the four seasons and has some decent gags but nothing really standout.  I Honestly DO wish I had more to say but this one’s just okay and it woudln’t stick out as much if both the wraparound and the other short weren’t so spectacular. Speaking of which. 

Locksmiths: This is one of the few shorts I VIVIDLY remembered from childhood and for damn good reason. This is THE best short i’ve seen so far for House of Mouse this year and for good reason. The premise is simple enough: The Golden Trio are locksmiths.. who end up getting locked inside their own office just after Minnie calls with something urgent to tell them. 

The results are comic gold, with the standout bits being Goofy’s keys which is just such a wonderful hurricane of puns with some great visual gags to start it off that I can’t help but love it

There’s TONS of other good stuff too: The boys fishing for the key, Mickey opening a ton of doors in a sequence MST3K would be proud of and the finale with the boys falling out the office. This is a true , hilarious classic and my words can’t really do it justice. Seek this one out on it’s own or in the episode you will not regret it. A true classic for Disney Shorts period. 

Super Goof:

So onto the main story. Goofy asks Clarabelle out and she’s not only incredibly receptive but simply asks to check her schedule.. which he interprets as no.  I would make a joke here but i’ts clear from previous episodes HOM goofy has Low Self Esteem: he was utterly crushed not having a valentine and by his friends all wishing he could be less Goofy. So him overreacting like this is in character and comes off as endearing: it’s not that he thinks so low of her he’d think sh’ed pull something like this.. it’s that he’s so doubtful of someone liking him for who he is deep down he self sabotages something I can PAINFULLY relate to as that’s one of my biggest personal issues hands down. 

So outside presumably on break...

Not THAT kind of break. Though since I bring it up: they both were wrong. They WERE on a break, and it was wrong of tweedle dee and tweedle dum there to keep needling it ESPECIALLY since their the ones who TOLD HIM to hide his sleeping with the waitress and took NO responsibility for that. Rachel treating it like an affair constantly when she’s the one who wanted space and didn’t give him any paramerters for said is fucking terrible. It’s telling that in the reunion trailer everyone but Matthew LeBlanc, who was clearly just having some fun agreed they were.  That being said Ross still slept with someone five seconds after being on said break, still listneed to the two of them on hiding it when it was a bad idea, and STILL caused said break by being a clingy asshole to such a degree even his previous history of being cheated on does not justify or excuse how badly he treated Rachel. What i’m saying is they both sucked, and thus deserved each other, and by the end NEITHER was remotely likeable, with both having done terrible things both in said will they or won’t they hellscape and outside it, with Ross dating a student and Rachel dating her assistant. 

Anyways after that thing I clearly needed to get off my chest, we get a narration informing us a METEOR IS COMING and it strikes the peanuts Goofy’s depression snacking on, as a result he becomes SUPER GOOF! And after a display of his powers with various disney characters (finding Gepetto and Pinocchio in a whale, saving the dalmations from cruella , lifting the giant from the littlest tailor) and finds he has a narrator. No really Goofy notices and is not happy about it despite all superheros having one. I mean he’s not wrong, look what the X-Men’s did to  Cyclops:

But regardless he has him and Goofy flies through the air with the quickest of ease through the house of mouse impressing everyone who has no idea he’s goofy. This gag is a carry over from the comics and a transparent parody of the superman clark kent thing. But it works because Goofy still uses his name in costume, still has his hat and really changes nothing about his appearance. It’s simple but sometimes you just need a very simple gag to work and overxplaning it spoils the whole thing. Trust me I know as a certified experinced fuck up. 

So after the first cartoon Super Goofy guest stars, and we get some neat gags with the disney movie characters, though my faviorite is Peter Pan’s reactoin of “He Can fly he can fly he can fly, big deal. Anyone can do that”. It’s both perfectly in character and utterly hilarious. 

Goofy however starts to feel disheartneed as everyone compliments him.. and Minnie says he’s better than a regular goofy as do the others minus Mickey because he’s a good egg. And Clarabelle but he misinertperts her like of super goof as her liking him better as that. 

So fed up with everyone liking him better, Goofy throws away the peanuts, which he kept in his hat.. though one did fall in his waiter’s uniform. Remember that. The narrator questions if this is really the end and what if there’s peril but Goofy’s stubbornly instiant he won’t do it no matter what. 

Cue the what: another MUCH LARGER metor heading straight for Mainstreet

Goofy refuses to summon super goof despite the danger... Mickey has an apt response for him

This is the one scene I don’t really like: Goofy has a righ tto be upset they all prefer someone who just showed up hours ago over him, especially beceause it IS him, to the point Daisy was upset she got a picture of goofy instead of super goofy because J Jonah Jameson’s not going to pay for pictures of his next door neighbor. But Mickey has a right to not want to die horribly in a cataclysm of fire. 

So Goofy mopes off like his son to go save the world, fine whatever. Only as is cartoon law, the trash has been picked up meaning he dosen’t have any goobers.. except the CHEKOVS GOOBER. With it he chews it, flies up and has a truly impressive display holding it back while it’s just over clarabelle before dispoising of it. he hits on her in super form but she says she already has  date with regular goofy. Goofy’s confidence is restored, he’s probably getting laid tonight and we close on a Mike add for a school for Goofy’s. How much is tution.. asking for a me. 

Final Thoughts: This wraparound was great, a few small flaws but it has a great, engaging charcter driven story with some delightfully silly jokes that are right up my ally. It’s easy to see besides my love of superheroes why this one stood out to me: It’s funny, heartwrenching and stars one of my faviorite character.

The shorts are also good, one that’s okay , a bit too long but not bad, and one that’s an utter masterpiece. In fact the only reason the first short feels so long is you really want to get back to the main plot fast,  and that’s not a bad problem to have. This was an excellen tepisode and I recommend seeing it out. 

Before I get to my whole patreon speil, i’d like to say that House of Mouse STILL is not avaliable on Disney+ for reasons that haven’t been made clear. As such it’s on my Not Streaming List, a list I keep and update reguarly of shows that SHOULD be streaming on a particular service and have no clear reason NOT to be such as musical rights issues like the ones likely keeping shows like Drew Carrey, Northern Exposure and Murphy Brown off streaming. So check that out if your curious, link is on my main page and hit me up if you have any suggestoins for it. 

So thank you for reading and if you liked this review give it a like and consider joining my patreon at patreon.com/popculturebuffet. As a patron you’d get access to exclusive reviews, the patreon’s discord and to pick a short each time I do one of these shortstaculars. Donald’s comnig next month and the deadline is in only a few days to join up for said month so the clock is ticking. Even a dollar a month helps me reach my stretch goals so please i fyou can sign up today and if not, I understand and i’ll see you at the next rainbow