#I need this mystery unraveled as asap as possible

[stephaniejuhnay]

Severance 1x4 Reaction Board

[dreamkidddream]

Hiii I hope you’re well and this isn’t too late, but may I have diavolo with prompt#11 ‘Person A and Person B sleeping in the same bed and Person A keeps waking up cold because Person B has pulled all the blankets off of them.’ Please and thank you!! Have a nice day!

Hi! Hope you’re staying safe through everything! This got kinda long so hope that’s okay 🥺 reader is gender neutral!

Prompt Scenario: “Person A and Person B sleeping in the same bed and Person A keeps waking up cold because Person B has pulled all the blankets off of them.” With Diavolo!

After seeing how much of a success the retreats have been with everyone, Lord Diavolo decided to hold another one just for fun. Nothing really changed except for one minor factor that nobody was particularly happy about.

Lord Diavolo wanted to room with you. Which meant sharing the bed. Together.

Now the brothers weren’t exactly...pleased with this notion, but they could only complain and fuss so much about it, with Lucifer scowling at them with Barbatos glaring. They weren’t exactly happy about this either, but Lord Diavolo is in charge, the future king, so they have to listen whether they agreed or not.

After dinner and bidding everyone goodnight (not without some snarky remarks and sullen looks), you were lead to Lord Diavolo’s private chambers. You couldn’t lie, you were beyond nervous. You were sharing a bed with royalty, with no space separating you two. What if you drool? What if you accidentally kick him? What if you talk in your sleep and Lucifer somehow hears you and punishes you for it?

Okay that last one might be a bit of a stretch, but it’s still a possibility!

“You have nothing to worry about MC.”

“Oh- I know Barb. It’s just...I don’t want to do anything embarrassing.”

“Nonsense. It’s not well to be stressed before sleep, so try to relax. The young master seems to be very elated knowing that you haven’t rejected his offer.”

You both reached his door, looking even more regal than what you imagined.

“I believe this is where we part”, Barbatos then turned to face you, bowing. “Please keep in mind my words MC. You have nothing to fret about, as you two will just be getting a good night’s rest. I hope that will be the only thing done this evening-”

“B-BARBATOS-”

“I’m merely joking, somewhat”, he chuckled at your distress. “Goodnight MC, please call if you need my assistance.”

You told him goodnight and watched him walk away, and prepared to knock on Lord Diavolo’s door. You weren’t expecting to turn around and see him standing in the doorway, the prince grinning widely, donned in his custom pajamas that you snuck for his birthday, the mini pumpkins and figures of him dancing gleefully.

“Ah MC! I was worried you wouldn’t show up! And these pajamas still fit so wonderfully”, he cackled.

“Are you ready for tonight?”

Golden eyes glimmering with mischief, his smile turning into a smirk as he spoke.

You gulped. You could only hope that you wouldn’t regret this.

“Then let’s begin, shall we?”

-

You overreacted.

You keep forgetting that while Lucifer is so uptight, Diavolo is the complete opposite. He wanted to see the human customs of what was done at sleepovers, so you showed him pretty much the basics: pillow fights, painting his nails (where you somehow spilled on his top and he just casually went the rest of the night without it), truth or dare, gossiping, all stuff that were normal to you he seemed overjoyed doing. But you weren’t whining about it at all, seeing Lor- Diavolo, with a genuine smile on his face not worrying about his duties is valuable to you.

If someone would have told you that you would be laying in bed voluntarily with a literal demon, the future King of Hell to be exact, you would have thought they were crazy and suggested that they get help ASAP. So the sight of him breathing softly and relaxed is surreal.

This could be the perfect moment for you both, if only he didn’t keep stealing the damn covers!

Why would he need all the covers anyway? You knew that demons have a higher body temp, running hotter than yours, but obviously that didn’t stop him from being a blanket hogger! This was the fifth time you woke up because of being so cold and missing the warmth of the blankets, and you would every so often grab atleast one that you could wrap yourself in. But it seems that your efforts were futile, as he just kept grabbing at them.

You didn’t understand it. Everytime he got the blankets, he would just grasp them tightly against himself, not even covering himself with it. Maybe he’s having a nightmare? No...he kept smiling to himself, so maybe just a good dream?

You thought that was it, until he snuggled deeper into the stolen covers and you heard your name escape his mouth more than once.

Was he...dreaming of you?

Despite being kind of embarrassed and honored to be on his mind (atleast the feeling is mutual), you’re freezing. So, you decided to take a leap of faith and kill two birds with one stone. You slowly gripped the covers and slowly moved it off of him like you were doing before, and then waited for the right moment.

It shouldn’t take long, and you don’t know what time it is, but you weren’t going to miss it. As he went to grab at them again, you threw them on the other side of your body, only keeping one large enough for the both of you. The plan was to share one blanket and “mysteriously” end up in his arms, cuddling if possible. The bed was huge, so there was no way that he could get to them, unless he rolled over you to-

Oh no.

You didn’t want to be crushed to death by Diavolo! Yes, you have pictured sharing a bed with him more than once and you don’t mind doing this again in the future (minus the blanket stealing), but you didn’t want to die like this!

You cocooned yourself with the blanket as you tried to roll away when you saw his arm reaching, but it was too late.

He clenched the blanket, your body practically swaddled and dragged you to him, circling his arms around you and nestling into you. He somehow managed to unravel you and pull the blanket over you both, all the while being dead asleep (which was both fascinating and scary). He breathed a sigh of relief and mumbled something incoherently (although you did hear your name a couple of times).

Well you’re warm now, and in his arms, so you guess that this wasn’t too bad, as you could feel yourself dozing off.

You had a feeling that you would stay sleep now.

Bonus:

You felt movement underneath your head, which awoke you from your slumber. You surprisingly felt well rested, raising your head up when-

“Good morning, MC! How was your sleep? I hope I wasn’t too much of a disturbance.”

That’s right.

You’re in Diavolo’s room. You two spent the night together. And he hogged the blankets all night!

“You blanket thief! I almost froze to death because of you!”

He just chuckled at you, “Oh MC, you should know that I wouldn’t let that happen! And it seems like that wasn’t an issue, I’m keeping you nice and warm now, aren’t I?”

And you’re still in his arms, him cradling you to his chest.

Damn Dia and his handsome pecs!

You didn’t really have a rebuttal, but you didn’t have time either as you could hear Barbatos announcing through the door his presence and the shouts of Mammon and Asmo carrying with it.

You sighed, you guessed that this would have to come to an end eventually, but why so soon? It seemed like Diavolo shared the same sentiment, but he didn’t let you have time to dwell on it.

After a soft kiss to your forehead, you both got up and you left to get ready for the day and to calm the brothers down. You weren’t expecting to get held back, Diavolo leaning down to gently peck your hand, like he was your own Prince Charming.

“Thank you for being my company, MC. And I do hope that this continues to happen in the future.”

“Of course, Dia.”

Once it was just him and Barbatos, he made sure to schedule another retreat, just you and him. You make him feel as if he’s not as lonely as he’s used to.

Besides, the brothers always have you, and it’s finally his turn to be a little selfish.

[droidmom]

watched equinox on netflix and hmmm. it wasn't bad! i actually really liked a lot of it! but there were a few problems i had with it.

for starters it didn't feel like an exciting mystery to unravel once you got to a certain point? it became a lil too straightforward. some things also felt a bit too planted, which isn't a bad thing bc i get it's a mystery with lots of parts, but does make it feel less immersive.

then there were a lot of elements that could've used more attention like astrid's daugher - i like that astrid sacrificed herself willingly, but i think it would have been more impactful to either show she's doing this despite how she has to sacrifice her bond with her daughter OR doing it to protect her daughter. like the hare god takes prisoners when he doesn't get what he wants, so what if vera was at risk! idk if she could be the next ostara or anything but that's also a possibility - like why does astrid have a daughter and not a son if not to leave that open?

astrid's progression to being a willing sacrifice needed to be done better but it wasn't out of nowhere i guess? see above paragraph for more ideas but if they weren't going to utilize astrid, they could've solidified more of "ostara"'s innate attraction to the hare god. i didn't realize how important that possibly is until reading a review about the show.

i want more exploration of the cave/island/whatever astrid sees where the people are trapped. that's so cool! i got into this show because the promise of other dimensions and stuff and highkey thought it would be a thing where like, ida was still alive but had become feral on an island in another dimension with her other classmates jka;lksdjf. i'm a lil disappointed that wasn't the case, but since that was my own false idea i still want more of how it interacts with the conscious world.

tHEN of course there's the uncomfortableness of henrik's whole thing. poor ida!! but i will say something told me, while they were fUCKING, that maybe that was henrik. i was literally waiting for some tattoo on his arm to get focus as a way to be like "look! dramatic irony! astrid noticed this when she visited him so now you the viewer will get this insight too!" so whatever they did to hint at it being him WORKED on a subconscious level jkl;askljdf.

why weren't the ritual people at the island again when astrid went there? why only ida?

ANOTHER THING i was kind of expecting maybe for some reason the "you and ida aren't sisters" thing to pan out to be that .... fuck idk, time travel weirdness happened with the dimensions and it turns out astrid was ida's daughter, because then there's still the blood element and then it would give my ideas about vera more weight jal;sdkdljf. i guess this works too but what classifies someone as a daughter of the equinox???? obviously being boRN ON THE EQUINOX but where do these kids come from! did henrik just rob a hospital a couple times and give lene the kids to raise for him? how does that WORK.

ig i'm questioning more than critiquing at this point but ALSO how much did dennis know? i feel for him, he really tried, but i wonder if it was a situation where he knew what was going on and was vehemently against it (or maybe was into it from the beginning and then grew to love his girls and was like fuck this) OR did lene just show up with a baby every so often and dennis was like yeah sure let's go with it jkl;sdklfj.

anyway it's a decent show and i don't regret watching it, it's just easier to talk abt the faults than anything else usually.

last complaint is i really liked that oOOoooooSTAArA song and i want a full version right now asap please

OH AND AMELIA WAS IN LESBIAN LOVE WITH IDA YOU CAN'T CHANGE MY MIND (but seriously the way ida's friends abandoned her but then were nice to her on graduation was a bit odd.......... probs the alcohol.)

[nawaazishein]

As always I am late to the game 'cause I took 4 pages worth of notes while watching and that took forever. Ama neyse – thoughts on Sen Çal Kapımı episode 8:

Generally: 

While I spent a good part of the episode incredibly angry at a very specific person (hint: this time it is not Selin or Kaan), it turned out to be one of my favorite episodes so far, I think. The angsty hoe in me was thriving. I’ve read that people would’ve wanted more “shippy” stuff, for Eda and Serkan to make up at the end of the episode, a lot more progression in their relationship but I couldn’t disagree more. To me, there’s been incredible progress for not just our main couple… Serkan:

The main theme in this week’s episode was trust; Melo somewhat blindly trust people too easily, Ferit mistrusting Selin, but most of all Serkan no trusting literally anyone except himself.

I was very angry at Serkan Bey all throughout the episode and wanted to shoot very different things in his head than Eda… 90% of my Serkan-related notes were “I WANNA SMACK HIM SO HARD!” or “Serkan looked like he was about to combust because of rage. YES, SUFFER!” but oh well…

We learned that his trust issues are related to his past and the way his parents raised him. Alptekin says that he is to blame for this, that he raised Serkan as a “protector” and that it lead to him being like that. Serkan mentions at the end that it has nothing to do with other people, it’s just the way he was brought up. All in all, we got little snippets of where these issues come from but not a lot more than that, which honestly makes me wonder how this is related to his past. I’m gonna go so far as to say that almost all the people close to him (his mother, Engin, Pırıl, Selin) have always stood by him, no matter how badly he treated them (e.g. the way he yelled at them in the “Git!” scene), so where does trust come into play? My guess would be there is a lot more emotional trauma to be unraveled and we’ll get to know more about that in the future. Anyway, while I was incredibly angry at the, I wanna say, “blind rage” this triggered in him, how he put up his walls again and mostly how he treated Eda seemingly without an ounce of regret, I think we also saw him working through a lot internally. I’m talking about the impact being away from Eda had on him. He was constantly reminded of her, he wanted to know where she was, wanted to hear her voice, found excuses to see her. Every look he gave her in the scenes they had together spoke volumes about what was going on inside him, the turmoil, the want to apologize but not being able to. I think at this point, there’s no doubt in his mind that Serkan cannot lose her and that he loves her.

Eda:

My girl, my çiçeğim, my strong little warrior. Almost all my notes regarding Eda this epi had “YEEEESS!” written at the end because I was rooting for her so much. We get to see two sides of Eda this episode. 

On the one hand she is absolutely heartbroken by what Serkan did. She’s as hurt over Serkan seemingly reconciling with Selin, as Eda is made to believe, as she is over him questioning her integrity and loyalty. Right from the start, no matter how much she hated Serkan Bolat, she has always opened up to her mistakes and has always wanted to fix them. She values integrity a lot, and for Serkan to believe she did this even though they’ve gotten to know and understand one another understandably hurt her way more than the Selin thing ever could.

On the other hand, we get to see Eda (once again) ready to stand up for herself, no matter what. She’s ready to fight her battles with her head held high and I love that so much about her. Of course she does falter, she does get overwhelmed by her emotions and tear up, she is so deeply hurt by all of this, but she pulls through and stands her ground. I love this duality we get to see.

So far we haven’t learned a lot about Eda’s past except for that her parents died and her relationship with her grandma is on the rocks but I feel like that’s not all there is to it. I can’t put it in words but the way she carried herself throughout this, always trying to keep her composure and self-respect, has my gut feeling saying there’s more to her story than we’re anticipating. The mother figures/the girl gang/the women:

Something that stood out for me this episode was the level of support all these women showed for one another this episode. Ayfer is a wonderful guardian to her “little ones”. She always supports them unconditionall. Even though she might not agree with their choices, she gives advice and let’s them make of that what they will (e.g. her telling Melo that something about Kaan is not right), and she will always try to protect them from who is hurting them (e.g. her talk with Serkan). Aydan, as I said, is growing on me sooo much! I feel we’ve already seen so much “character development” in such a short amount of time and I love it. As we know, her son is her world and she doesn’t like Eda but nevertheless she acknowledges that her son is not perfect and what he did was wrong, which I’m not sure she would’ve done at the beginning of the contract. She tells him that this is no way to treat a woman and I especially loved that she not exclusively talked about Eda, but a little more generally, this is no way to treat anybody. I feel like, as I said before, there’s more to Serkan’s issues than we know and Aydan hints are something here, too, possibly something more in the direction of anger issues? I’m not sure but what I wanna say, this conversation didn’t seem like it was just about “That’s not how you treat a woman”. 

Oh, and the girl gang. @mnmississippi​  wonderfully said “Yes, love love love seeing strong women support each other and there were so many examples in the episode. I also appreciate that the girls have different goals and dreams but will help each other out (no one makes fun of Melo for being a dreamy romantic, the girls are fine w/ not knowing what mysterious Fifi does, Ceren doesn't make a big deal about being richer than the other girls.” and I absolutely agree. We get so see so many multi-layered and distinctive female charactes all supporting one another, no questions asked. I especially want to mention the scene in which the girls find out Kaan did it because wow, my heart… the way Melo teared up and immediately started apologizing to Eda for not realizing he did it, the way Eda didn’t hesistate for a single second and immediately went to hug her and apologized herself. I teared up myself. 

Selin:

I’ma keep this short because I cannot stand her. Yes, that means Bige is doing a great job playing a villain but oh my God, do I hate her. Her character lacks depth and intention and I don’t know what her goal is here. I’m not sure she knows, tbh. We get to hear her say things like “If she even has a little pride, she won’t come back.” about Eda and “Serkan is not a man I can spend my life with.” because apparently she loves Ferit and wants to start a life with him, but a couple of hours later she runs to pay Serkan a visit at night and sucks up to him so bad??? The stable scene physically made me cringe so hard, like, just make up for mind and life with that. Stop running after your ex and focus on your fiancé, who is an actual good egg imo. Someone on twitter said that Eda needs to “punch that hoe in the boob” and I wholeheartedly agree. Pırıl/Engin/Ceren:

It's an up and down with this love triangle for me. I thought I wanted an Engin/Pırıl ship last episodes, but this episode had some ambiguous glances between Engin/Ceren and Pırıl once again being a workaholic nightmare that I’m going back and forth on this one. We’ll see. Alptekin:

Yeah, we got a liiiittle more information about him but I’ma reserve judgement until we get to see a little more. I don’t know what to make of him this episode tbh.

Scenes I loved/that made me scream:

The scene where Serkan looks at the pictures he’d printed of them and the mug turning from red to black. I honestly needed a break after that!

Literally every scene of Seyfi being so salty towards Serkan and Leyla’s “My executioner has returned”.

Usually I don’t like obvious product placements, but if it gets me more Serkan Bolat in a shower then give me all of them!

The scene where the girls find out about Kaan and Melo starts crying. That shit was beautiful.

Eda coming up with a mindblowing concept for the project – although the drawings we saw were way more than a couple of days or even weeks worth of work, there’s no way she did that in a day or two.

Her giving him the ring and leaving. “This game is over, Serkan Bolat!” which means that everything that comes next will be real and based on feelings. Sign. Me. the. Fuck. Up. 

Random things:

Bige’s eyes… I don’t think I have ever seen eyes that blue. It’s been eight episodes but they still make my take me off guard every time I see her.

Why did Erdem move in, though? Just for comic relief because of the proximity to Fifi?

Pırıl’s legs in that pink dress were… a lot.

Hande needs to share her eyelash routine asap! And God, she looked how in that white skirt... damn

Speaking of hot, the cinematorgraphy… we got a lot of nice side-profile shots and... How is it that perky?!?! Ok damn, Bürsin.

[thebestplltheories]

PLL The Perfectionists - Season 1 Finale (and Season 1) Review

Here we go friends, season 1 of the spinoff is over and I have a lot to say. In this post I’m gonna review the finale but also season 1 in general.

Dare I say it, I think season 1 as a whole was flawless. Sure, some episodes were better than others, but no episode was down-right horrible, boring and without a purpose. All 10 episodes were great as the plot was constantly progressing. We started off with totally innocent characters, doing their best to be perfect in a high-pressure and competitive school. A person who loosely connects them is murdered and as the investigation unravels, the innocent people get pulled together by forces outside of their control. Consequently, they become best friends. Caitlin’s mother put it really well in episode 9: Caitlin got hit by a car, was dating someone who got murdered, is friends with a fugitive’s daughter and is hiding a bag of money. How did all this non-sense happen to someone who was so innocent and perfect 9 episodes ago? That’s what I love. That’s what’s entertaining for me. As Claire said, they’re trying to dig themselves out of a hole but they keep falling and the hole is getting deeper and darker. This whole plot about being almost strangers and then best friends is a plot that could have very easily been squished into the pilot, and at the time, that’s what I wanted. But now looking back, I really appreciate that they stretched this across 10 episodes. It feels organic that this friendship didn’t just happen the day after Nolan died. It happened after 10 episodes of chaos and that’s not forced. It’s realistic. So overall season 1 achieved everything a season 1 should achieve: it brought the characters together slowly over time and reinforced that bad things are going to happen to these previously perfect people.

Casting is spectacular. I’m absolutely sucked into the worlds of Caitlin, Dylan and Ava and whilst the addictive story is definitely contributing to these feelings, I need to give a shoutout to Sydney, Eli and Sofia. They’ve achieved the one thing PLL did that no other show has done for me since PLL ended: they created extremely loveable and addictive characters. Sure, I watch heaps of other shows, but there’s just something about the core cast on a PLL show that is different. 

Some quick reactions from the finale:

This whole time we were wondering what they will call this new enemy, yet it was right in front of us this whole time in the episode title! Not only was “The Professor” right in front of us, but the title literally says ‘enter’. You know... say hello to the new A. That’s essentially what the title of the episode says. Now I feel dumb for not guessing that. More thoughts on The Professor later.

"Jealous much?” was a shocker! I love Mona’s confidence. Even when Claire says “that’s not how this works”, she insists, and gets what she wants.

I’m so glad Mona is here in this show. I love the new characters and I would be watching even without Ali and Mona, but Mona just fits in so well. Like PLL, this seems to be another game, and Mona is falling back into old habits. She not only wants to win, but she wants to know who is smart enough to create such a game, and why and how such a game is created. “Dying before I find out who you are bitch!” Loved that!

Mona’s red coat... her dolls in her apartment... I appreciate that!

Blowing up the RV was unnecessary. I think they did that just to put an action shot in the promo, to attract viewers. That’s not a complaint, just an observation. 

PLL always succeeds at making the town feel like its own character. Rosewood was a town that kept attracting misery and murder, like a person. And now we have Beacon Heights; a town that demands perfection so much that you get kicked out when you fail to be perfect. 

I think the storyline with Dylan and Luke was not necessary for this finale. It’s a fantastic story that should be told, just not in a finale. I wouldn’t say it’s a filler story, but it’s definitely not central to this professor story.

As someone studying psychology, and is in their final undergraduate year, I don’t think it’ll help as much as Alison thinks it will (in terms of working out who the Professor is). She can study psychology all she wants but that doesn’t really give insight into a person’s twisted game. Anyway.

I kinda ship Mona and Mason! You could see it on Mona’s face that it was hard for her to lie to Mason like that. I guess she’s extra motivated to solve this game now so that she can go back to Mason.

Add “your lips are moving but I have no idea what you’re talking about” to Ava’s list of iconic one-liners! Everyone loves insulting Booker and I live for it. Mona’s “yes you need a makeover” comes to mind too!

I hope Booker doesn’t go away. She lost this mini game but she’s a great villain.

I hope that’s the end of the story of Ava’s father. I’m just not compelled by this one story, sorry. All I really care about is that Ava stays at BHU (because she has the money to pay). I don’t really care about her relationship with her father. Maybe this is due to the casting of the father? I don’t know, but I’m not drawn into this story like the others and I can’t pinpoint why. 

What a full circle moment, playing Poker Face in the final scene like they opened with Poker Face in the pilot! It’s a small detail but it just makes the show feel cohesive. Like a distinct beginning and end. Can’t explain it.

So season 1 is over and they STILL have not tapped into that amazing storyline they started in the pilot... “it’s exactly like you imagined it”. Surely the Professor will bring this up during the social experiment.

Beacon Guard is going to start to get annoying. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE this element that someone is always watching and listening, and that someone hijacked this system. But if they really need to find a safe spot every time they want to talk... surely the season 2 finale will be them destroying Beacon Guard!

The Professor! Wow. I’m... shook. 

With A, we were never really sure if it’s just a sick twisted game that someone is having fun with, or, if A actually chose these Liars because of a personal vendetta. But with The Professor, it is clear from day 1 that this is a game. It’s a social experiment. I fucking LOVE that idea. 

Again playing with that theme I touched on before: I love how previously innocent people are getting sucked into madness. 10 episodes ago, everyone was leading a seemingly perfect life and now they’re part of a social experiment that they’re forced participate in because they were recorded staging a crime scene and being involved in a shooting. That’s so twisted and it just really sucks to be them.

I lowkey want to cry for Ali and Mona. They went to hell and back in Rosewood and now here goes another potential 4 year mystery. Will they EVER live in peace? I mean, for the sake of this show, I hope the Professor makes this game as twisted as possible. It’s entertaining. But at the back of my mind I am crying for Ali and Mona. 

When all their phones rang/vibrated at the same time, I felt at home?? At that exact moment I had a rush of nostalgia. It’s close enough to the original series to provide that nostalgia that we all want, but it’s distinct enough to be its own show. I love this Professor storyline because I think they’ve found that perfect middle-ground.

I hope they don’t give the Professor a black hoodie, but if they really want to make this as iconic as A, they absolutely need to give this villain an outfit. 

Is the Professor a short/mini story arc? Or is this the series-defining story, like how A defined PLL? Will there be a Big Professor and Uber Professor (lack of better terms)? I’d love for this to be the series-defining story and enemy. I’m all for this social experiment. 

Did anyone notice the Professor speaking in the third person? Is that the writers hinting that there is more than one person here; the Professor AND a helper? Kinda like an A-team? Or was speaking in the third person just the way of emphasising the new name for the enemy?

So many questions about the Professor!

Tonally, this finale felt like a premiere. It raised questions rather than answered questions. It told us that there IS an enemy, rather than tell us WHO the enemy is. That’s an odd structure, but I’m totally okay with it for 2 reasons. Firstly, because I’m simply just not hungry for answers. The mystery is still new and fresh. We didn’t get our first major answer on PLL (who is original A) for 2 years. I’m not expecting an answer as to who killed Nolan within 10 episodes. Secondly, it’s fitting because the entire first season was spent establishing that friendship. That needed to happen before such an enemy was introduced. It would be awkward watching strangers get sucked into this social experiment together. Now that they’re friends and they trust each other, it’ll be more entertaining to see them respond to the Professor.

There’s so much to theorise about now! But I need to say it again: this show is suffering from a major lack of a quantity of characters. Every scene revolves around Mona, Ali, Ava, Caitlin, Dylan, Taylor, Booker and Claire. That’s literally all there is. There’s the occasional side character like Mason and Zac, but no one is really key to the mystery like Noel, Jenna, etc were in season 1 of PLL from the get-go. I like that we met Luke, and I think season 2 really needs to prioritise ASAP increasing the quantity of characters. The lack of characters makes me think that we have not met the Professor yet. It’s obviously not Mona, Ali, Ava, Caitlin or Dylan. Maybe Taylor, she was missing. That’s a theory topic. Maybe Claire. Not Zac. Maybe Mason. And my list of suspects ends there? Again, season 2 needs to increase the quantity of characters.

Now I’m just gonna sound like a broken record, but in the extremely low chances that someone at Freeform catches this post (hey, the cast reacted to Tumblr posts the other month so we know they do snoop here)... I need to say it again: it’s no secret that the ratings are low, so you’ve got a lot of work to do for season 2 to get this show the recognition it deserves. Please consider reading this post. Do not give up on this show. It has really high potential. It just needs a few tweaks in terms of promo and supply system. The low ratings do NOT correlate to low quality. 

Look at me, writing massive posts like this! I haven’t done this for a TV show since PLL ended. Only this show will get me intrigued enough to come online and talk. There’s something about the PLL universe that distinguishes it from other shows, in the best way possible!

[some-cookie-crumbz]

Crumbles’ Big Dump of Upcoming Fics

Happy New Year, everybody! I certainly hope that so far things are going well for you all. I had been meaning to make this post a while back but things got kinda… delayed. Between a lot of really painful personal tragedies – including the death of my dad – and a stressful schedule with work and school, I’ve been a little all over the place. 2017 has been, by far, the cruelest and loneliest year of my life. My dad’s death has shattered me in a lot of different ways, but it had a huge impact on my ability to write, which crippled my usual coping mechanism. He was always really invested in the original stories that I work on as well and was also so supportive of my works. It made writing – something that I have always relied on as a stress relief and outlet for my negative emotions – painful and challenging and it, in turn, made me bitter and resentful at myself and at him. I’ll make another post about where I’ve been in my own mind fully just to get it all out eventually, but for now I just want to offer up an abridged version.

Most days I didn’t – and, honestly, there are still days where I don’t – feel like myself at all. But I feel that, at this point, not writing would be a disservice to his memory.

In the last few weeks I’ve felt a bit more clarity and I’ve been able to find my voice again. I don’t want to stop writing and I have no intention of doing it. In fact, my imagination has kinda jump-started back to near-normal capacity and I have a lot of ideas I’m really excited to share. This post is about the ideas I have in mind and when I intend to upload what. I want to put myself on a schedule because I feel like setting goals for myself will be a good way to get me back in the swing of things.

In preparation for this, I’ve actually gone ahead and made myself an AO3 account – which can be found [here] - because the ideas under the “Read More” are all going to be multi-chapter projects. I’ll still make posts here on tumblr when any updates go live (and should have schedules for when each fic will be updated), I just don’t want to post full chapters here, since I tend to write long chapters. I am also adding the disclaimer here that one-shots (with some exceptions)/ requests/ and other things of that ilk will not be listed here because those have no real schedule in mind.

Ships to Expect: SasuSaku (Naruto), SoMa (Soul Eater), Hance (Voltron), and a whole mess of Kidge (Voltron) because I have no control.

The Shrink Treatment 3: Voltron (Kidge): I am almost done with this one and, surprise to no one, there’ll be one more part after that to just wrap it all up. Regardless, though, I should be able to finish this short series up before the end of the month! Release Date: January 11th/12th, 2018 Update Schedule: Once (Part 4 will hopefully be done within two weeks from whichever day I upload Part 3)

Request 5: Voltron (Kidge): Leaving this vague, because I still want it to be a surprise, but the final of a list of requests I received a few months ago! This, much like The Shrink Treatment, ended up getting away from me. I relaly loved the idea and it’s taking me a while to get it finished. Release Date: February 14th, 2018 Update Schedule: Once (Valentine’s Special)

Like Treading Water: Voltron (Kidge): Love isn’t exactly an emotion that is easy to explain or acknowledge if you aren’t actively looking for it. Little nuances will stick out as something irregular and strange, but can be easily shrugged off when a mind applies logic or sound reasoning to it. You can blind yourself to something that is so obvious to those around you simply by virtue of coming up with other explanations. This is a chronology of how each Paladin realized that Keith Kogane and Pidge Gunderson were falling for each other; including the two Paladins themselves. Note: I started working on this back in October of 2015, shortly after I watched the first season and became Voltron trash. As such, I’m currently having to re-read what I’ve written so far to assure that it falls in line with the canon of the series thus far. Release Date: February 14th, 2018 Update Schedule: Once (Valentine’s Special)

Keidge Month: Not a multi-chapter story, but I just want to say I have every intention of participating in Keidge Month in March; in fact, I’ve already started to work on some of my prompt fills. I’ll post all my prompt fills to both here and AO3, just so that people can choose to read it on whichever outlet is more comfortable for them. It’s my number one ship and it happens to take place during my birthday month, so what kind of smuck would I be to not participate? ;3c Release Date: March 1st, 2018 Update Schedule: Daily (Month Long Event)

Cherry Bomb: Naruto (SasuSaku) – After an accident in the facility that she is interning at, Sakura Haruno gains super strength and an accelerated healing element. With the help of her role model, Dr. Tsunade Senju, she learns how to control and harness this power to help protect the denizens of the city. She is thrust into stopping a plot by other humans with genetic mutations to take control of the city using intimidation and force while also trying to keep her secret identity hidden from her photo-journalist boyfriend, Sasuke Uchiha. Note: I’ve been planning this project for roughly three – Hell, almost four – years now. This is going to be my final Naruto project – excluding any requests I get – and I want it to be something really special and significant to not just anyone who reads it, but also to my own growth as a writer. Naruto has been one of the longest fandoms I’ve been in and SasuSaku was one of my first really big ships; I want this to be a final love letter worth my time to write and worth everyone’s time to read. Release Date: March 2nd, 2018 Update Schedule: Bi-Weekly

Kidge Week: Again, not a multi-chapter thing but I really needed to say I have every intention of participating in this as well! My goal is to finish as many of my prompt fills for Keidge month before the prompts for Kidge Week drop in February as possible so that I can start working on that ASAP. Release Date: April 15th, 2018 Update Schedule: Daily (Week Long Event)

Hance Month: What do you know, I had way more things to list as non-multi-chapter fics for the first half of the year than I thought! Another extended event I have every intention of participating in because I really want to produce more content for Hance. It’s really such an great, under-rated ship that deserves more love! Release Date: May 1st, 2018 Update Schedule: Daily (Month Long Event)

Lance McClain vs. The World: After getting involved with a charming young engineering student named Hunk Garrett after meeting at a bar, Lance McClain finds himself getting dragged into a series of events that seem to be ripped right out of a comic book. He is given a warning from the leader of something called “Team Voltron”; a group of Hunk’s ex-lovers and close personal friends, dedicated to determining the worthiness of Hunk’s suitors through various competitive means. Never one to back down from a challenge, Lance agrees to the terms and is forced to learn various new skills and talents in order to compete with the roster of powerful opponents he faces. Note: The fact that there aren’t more Scott Pilgrim AUs in any of the fandoms I like is really disappointing, so I decided that I’d fix that problem myself. While I’ll be following the basic formula set up by the source material, I intend to take a very different approach and keep it fresh with some ideas of my own. So if you’ve actually seen Scott Pilgrim? This’ll be of a different flavor, so don’t assume you know what I have up my sleeve. ;3 Release Date: May 10th, 2018 Update Schedule: Weekly or Bi-Weekly.

Bodyguard AU (Title TBD): Voltron (Kidge): After publically calling out the shady business practices of Galra Tech, acclaimed actor Keith Kogane finds himself the subject of both an attempted assassination and threat of blackmail. Undeterred, he feels no fear at the prospect of making an enemy of the powerful conglomerate. Worried about his safety, both physically and his privacy being violated, his agent, Allura LeAltea, calls upon the help of an old charm school friend of hers. Enter Katie Holt; renowned tech prodigy and secret hacker known as Pidge Gunderson, hired on to be Keith’s personal bodyguard. The only catch? The two must pretend to be dating to assure that Katie can tag along with him wherever he goes without cueing Galra Tech into knowing their threats have had an effect. Note: I love Bodyguard AUs. I love Fake Dating AUs. I love deviating from the expectation. On top of that, an amazing Bodyguard AU one-shot has already been written by the talented Camphalfgalra on AO3, in which Keith is the bodyguard and Pidge is his client, so I decided to flip the roles for my own version of the trope. Release Date: June 15th, 2018 Update Schedule: Weekly or Bi-Weekly

Twilight: Voltron (Kidge): One night, Matthew Holt disappeared from his room without a trace. In the time that he’d been gone, his younger sister, Katie Holt, has been frantically pushing for more action to be taken in bringing her brother home; believing he has been whisked away to the deadly mystery of the forest around their small village of Kerberos. With her brother missing, her mother’s health rocky in her grief, and her father away to help a neighboring village with a fast-spreading illness, she is struggling to maintain not only all effort to bring her brother home alive, but also keep the family farm up to its normal functionality. The Head of the Village Guard, Thace Kogane, insists that she accept the help of his two children, Keith and Allura, to assist her with the farm. Initially cold and distant, Katie slowly warms up to the duo and finds that they may be able to offer her more help in finding her brother, as well as unraveling the mysteries of the dark forest just outside the fences of their small village. Note: I basically just threw the Voltron cast into the universe of one of my own stories – The Tragedy of Helena and Jeremiah – and went with it. Pidge is a pseudo-replacement for Helena and Keith is a pseudo-replacement for Jeremiah, though they have drastically different personalities from my own characters, and as such the story goes in a much different direction. I also borrowed some elements from another project of mine - Sweet Tooth - which The Tragedy of Helena and Jeremiah is a prequel to. Release Date: August 17th, 2018 Update Schedule: Bi-Weekly or Monthly

SingleParent!AU (Title TBD): Soul Eater (SoMa): Soul Evans has been struggling with life as a single father for roughly three years now; working two jobs and odd hours to support himself and his precious daughter, Harmony. Upon the announcement of his older brother, Wes, getting married, he is begged to return home to help with preparing for the ceremony and to be his brother’s Best Man. Feeling that he’ll have better opportunities with his family’s support and more time to spend with Harmony, Soul agrees to moving back to Death City. Through fate and circumstance, Soul meets Maka Albarn, the writer of his daughter’s favorite series of children’s books and intended Maid of Honor to Liz Thompson, Wes’ fiancée, and the two get along pretty well. And, perhaps from there, more will develop between them. Note: Bodyguard, Fake Dating, and Single Parent AUs are my fucking weakness. On top of that, I really want to write something that kinda messes with the typical tropes of Single Parent AUs that I’ve read. Hopefully it’ll be a fun ride for everyone! Release Date: September 28st, 2018 Update Schedule: Bi-Weekly

[kineticallyanywhere]

“Dead or Alive” Speculative Fic

dedicated to @ladybubblegum​ for getting me to put this in words with that one truth post about needing some Cynthia in our lives asap

(I am a firm promoter of the character headcanon that Cisco Ramon can do anything. But never for himself.)

Characters: Cynthia Reynolds-19, Cisco Ramon-1

Rated: G

Summary: Jumping through worlds during a fight is a cool idea, but there is definitely a margin for error. Or: Cynthia walks into a death match expecting a death match, not conversation.

"This job was supposed to be easy." Cynthia's boots clicked on the stone floor. The rip of Velcro bounced off the bare walls, dampened only a little by the uneven surface. She paid it no heed. "Just snatch a con and get back." She pivoted on her heels as she turned to repeat her pace. Again. The Velcro crinkled as it was resealed. Again. "Con had to go make friends." Rrrrriiip  "Aw, c'mon," her cellmate said lightheartedly from where he sat against the back wall. He ran the heel of his hand over the fold of his glove again, re-fitting the Velcro. Again. "Barry has his moments." Cynthia stopped her march in front of him and turned to look down at him. He glanced up at her, his hair kept out of the way by the headband he'd made of his goggles. "You know I meant--" "Yeah, you meant me. Keep going." He made a rolling motion with his hand and leaned his head back against the wall. "Please."

Cynthia squared her stance; crossed her arms. "You -- who have clearly never been in a fist fight--" "Na-- that's not entirely true--" She steam rolled over his interruption. "--agreed to a death match, which you entered with no intent to kill your opponent, even in self defense. You haven't thrown a single serious punch." "You're welcome," he commented to the ceiling. Cynthia had to roll her eyes and swing her arms. "For wasting my time?" He bobbed his head to the side. "And, if I did try to throw something, I'd probably knock us both into space, so..." he shrugged. "You're welcome." He shot a sarcastic smile. She shook her head, exasperated. She could not, for the life of her, tell if he was aware that it had been a burst of his powers, not hers, interfering with her portal that had knocked them into the word they were now trapped in. Dropped right into a cavernous cell block. Pushed right into an empty cell that happened to be available with an energy door that happened to irritate frequencies so they couldn't stabilize a portal. This was a million times worse than the volcano planet she was planning to drop him into. 

Being in a combat trial at all was worse than the easy job she was supposed to be on. Being in this cell was so much worse than the way the trial was supposed to go: in which he just gave up and handed her her bounty because he was clearly an incompetent noodle. Hopeless for a satisfying answer, she asked, "What were you hopping of getting out of this?" He kept his head against the wall but his eyes looked down towards his lap. She waited only a moment. "Proof," he said. "That you could be some kind of hero?" "That maybe you were." Cynthia took in his costume. She remembered the kind of company he kept. "So we could get coffee? Or dinner?" she asked. If she was a villain, no way his friends would approve. He smiled a bit. "That could have worked, too," he said. She wasn't entirely sure what he meant by that, but he wasn't finished. He freed the back of his head from the stability of the wall. He talked with his hands a bit. "But-- no, it wasn't for you. I guess I was still hoping that someone with these powers could do something good with them." He ended picking at his finger nails. Cynthia wasn't sure if she should be offended. What did it matter what some random guy thought about how she used her powers? Well, okay, he wasn't quite that random. He was like her, to some extent, but that didn't make him her judge. His dumb little moral hang-up was not her problem. Still, she found herself getting defensive. "I catch criminals," she pointed out. "For cash," he countered quickly. He looked back up at her. His expression was that of defeat, but Cynthia felt accused by it. "And you'd kill for that money," he added. "I'm not killing you now."

“Because you won’t get anything out of it here. You need every way out of this situation you can get. What if I can be fed to the sharks? What if I’ve already thought of a way out of here? Though, you’re not doing a great job of convincing me to share. People don’t share if you convince them they’re an idiot. Have you considered compliments? I’m very self-conscious about my hair.”

Cynthia ignored those last two sentences. She crossed her arms again, this time a gesture of curiosity. “Have you thought of a way out?”

“Why would I want to leave? You can’t get to HR here. You’re not gonna kill me.”

“I could if you don’t tell me the way out of here.”

“Go ahead.”

They held eye contact for a long moment. Cynthia seriously considered it. She’d get out eventually. Maybe killing him would draw the attention of their captors and she’d have a chance sooner. Her hand sparked red with the anticipation of the possibility. 

Except the gaze she was holding wasn’t resigned. It was challenging. This was what he wanted, she realized. He wanted to know if she’d really kill someone in cold blood. Proof. It looked like he’d been doubting his ability to do “good” with his powers. If she killed him, then his hope was gone anyway, and he wouldn’t have to live it it. If she didn’t kill him, it would keep his hope alive. He was staking his very life around the idea that if everyone else with their powers was a bad seed, then he would be one, too; and if that was true he didn’t want to plague the multi-verse with his own existence. If she didn’t kill him, he got to live on with a new hope for himself. It was an all or nothing gamble.

And he’d walked Cynthia right into playing it out for him. Her arms relaxed at her sides. It was kind of genius.

“You’re an idiot,” was what came out of her mouth. “You, of all people, should at least be beginning to understand that choices other people make don’t dictate your own. Not even our doppelgangers.”

“It’s not just for me.” He looked back down to his hands. “I’m not the only who’s seen their powers used for terrible things.”

Cynthia didn’t know who he was talking about, but talking about them, even tangentially, was pulling out of him some kind of emotion she didn’t know how to describe. He was desperate. He was sad. Mournful, almost. Whoever he’d gotten into this fight - the moral fight, the physical fight - for, he cared about them deeply. 

Cynthia sighed heavily. This was complicated. 

This job wasn’t supposed to be complicated it was supposed to be easy. 

She needed a vacation.

In the mean time, she settled for stepping over to and sliding down the wall next to Cisco. He didn’t look up, but his shoulders did stiffen when she approached. They relaxed as she propped her elbows on her knees and crossed her ankles. “You have no idea how to get out of here, do you?” In another circumstance the words would have come out as a harsh accusation, but now it was just a tired monotone. 

He lifted his head a little bit but didn’t look towards her when he said, “I do, actually.”

She looked at him, surprised. 

“But what would you do if we got out?” It was the first time he’d asked it, but it felt like the second. 

“I’m not going to kill you,” she decided. At that he finally looked her way, eyes wide. She told him, “It’s not worth it.”

Not worth it for the money. Not worth the hassle. Not worth the personal moral knot wrapped around her own life unraveling. Not worth watching the final hope drain out of his eyes with his life. Not worth depraving the mystery person he was fighting for of someone who was part of the highest caliber of friend she had ever encountered. 

Not worth the regret of never getting to see the light smile that was dawning on his face. The unfiltered hope in his eyes as he looked at her.

She thumped his arm before it could get too huge and she reacted in a way she’d never live down. “Don’t get sappy on me,” she scolded. “How do we get out of here?”

His smile dropped into a suspicious glare. “Wait, how do I know you’re not just baiting me for an exit before you blast me?”

“What, you don’t trust me?” she teased.

“You don’t have stellar resume, to be honest, so why should I?”

“Because...” she stumbled on her thoughts for a moment before a realization hit her. “Because - and God help me - for some reason, I trust you, Cisco.”

He was quiet for a moment with his thoughts, but the suspicion left his face. Apparently she’d given the right answer, because he stood up and he didn’t try to kick her. Instead, he stepped to the corner of the cell to where the metal rim of the energy wall was embedded into the rock. 

Cynthia dropped her legs and hands to the ground as she watched. “What are you doing?” she asked.

“I’ve built something kind of like this before, to trap a speedster,” he said. He crouched down to the bottom of the metal frame so his body blocked what he was doing. “If this is anything like mine -- and, look, it is! There’s an emergency release trigger in case of an overload. I maybe can’t aim to save my life,” he swung her a self-depreciating smile, “but covering a pin sized hole at point blank? Even I can do that.”

There was a flash of blue light and then a short but excruciating screeching noise. Cynthia covered her ears as she stood up, and Cisco backed away from the energy wall, which had started fritzing. A buzzer sounded from somewhere in the mechanics of the projectors and then the wall blinked out completely. 

Cynthia and Cisco were standing next to each other in and open cell. Someone will have heard that,” Cisco said. He looked to her. “Moment of truth?”

The door was open, but, surprisingly, nothing had changed in her heart. She wasn’t going to kill him. She looked him up and down like she was thinking about it, anyway, because she knew an opportunity when she saw it. 

She got distracted quickly, though. They could see into the hallway now, and there were other energy walls dotting the walls up and down tunnel. 

“This looks like a low budget operation on Slaver’s Moon,” she said, stepping out of their cell. 

“Slaver’s Moon?” Cisco said, following. “You mean they were gonna sell us?”

“Us,” she confirmed, “and everyone else here.” She accidentally made eye contact with a blurry figure in the cell across from theirs. It was hard to tell through the barrier, but they looked Altean. A scholar, not some monster that belonged in a cage. If Cynthia had been alone, before, she would have taken this chance to make a run for it. Instead, she turned to Cisco. “If I hold off the guards, how many cells can you get open?”

He smiled. Again.

She smiled, too.

[gosatsuvns]

Weekly Update #304 - Chapter 4 Outline Done!

At long last, the "outline" for the fourth chapter of GENBA no Kizuna has finally been finished!

Once again, the main reason it took this long is because, instead of using key notes, I ended up fully writing out most of the chapter. At this point, around 70% - 80% of it are actual script, resulting in the length of the document almost reaching 40,000 words. And there is no doubt in my mind that it will break the 50,000 word mark, once everything is written out, meaning that this chapter alone would almost be a third of SHINRAI's total length.

Anyway, I can't wait to send it to Natsu and get her feedback, along with her theories. Chapter 5 will wrap up the story and unravel all the mysteries, so I'm really curious to see how the "difficulty" of finding the correct answers turns out to be.

Speaking of chapter 5, I have already started to get back to it, in order to finish it up as well, ASAP. As you might know, the outline for it had actually been completed before I even started working on chapter 4. However, now that the content of the previous chapter has been set in stone, some things need to be adjusted. What was supposed to start off the final chapter has actually been moved into the fourth one, for instance, so I already revised the beginning. But some of the case details have also changed, allowing for more possible theories and more elaborate "wrong culprit endings".

There is still a bit more to do, but this is mostly about revision and should hopefully be taken care of within just a couple of days.

Naturally, this will be my main focus during the coming week, but there are also a couple of other things that need to be taken care of. For one, the summer artwork and, of course, I still need to continue going through SHINRAI for certain reasons which I might be able to share with you at the end of the month!

This wraps up this week's progress report, so please enjoy the rest of your weekend and, until next Saturday, take care! :3