#I really hope this is a sign he's actually important in the season

[nickelwick]

The fact I legit SCREAMED when I saw this in the teaser

like please, please let this be a sign that these two will interact more as the amazing siblings they are

[inbarfink]

So one of the cool and interesting ways ‘Steven Universe’ used to try and balance being both a series of 11-minutes episodes that each have their own satisfying emotional resolution and being an overarching story with complicated character arcs that take multiple seasons to resolve is the… I’m going to call it the ‘Not Quite Right Lesson’ episodes. Episodes where a character kinda learns a Very Important Lesson… but a more careful and retrospective look at the situation shows that what they learned is not Quite the Right Thing for them. They internalized something in that adventure which just ended up causing more Emotional Troubles for themselves farther down the line.

‘The Test’ is the most classic example. 

As a standalone thing, it’s just a sweet episode about Steven learning to accept that his caretakers are also flawed and confused and figuring this shit up as they’re going along just like he is, and then doing a nice thing for their sake.

But looking back at this episode, it is quite obviously the nadir of Steven appointing himself as the Family Therapist and repressing all of his problems so he could better help the Gems’ with theirs. Like, there have been some early warning signs for this Complex, but this episode is the one that really cemented that idea in his mind and probably the reason it took him like the Entire Rest of the Show Including a Post-Finale Season to really untangle it.

But… also, I’ve been thinking a lot about the episode right after that, ‘Future Vision’. I think it’s also a very important ‘Not Quite Right Lesson Episode’ for the character of Garnet, and to some extent, the Crystal Gems as a whole. In many ways, it is to the CGs' character arcs' what 'the Test' is to Steven's.

So in this episode, Garnet reveals to Steven the fact that she has Future Vision. She hoped that telling Steven a little bit more about herself and being honest with him will lead to a greater understanding and a greater bond between them… but it backfired. It just led Steven to become a total paranoid, terrified wreck stuck in a total existential crisis.

And it seems like the lesson Garnet learned is that… she should’ve never taken that risk at all. That it would’ve been better for everyone if she just kept Steven ignorant of the truth forever.

Extremely reinforced with the ending of the episode, where Garnet chooses to once again hide an uncomfortable truth (that he just came very close to dying again) from Steven, for the sake of his own ‘peace of mind’.

So, like, the Gems were already hiding uncomfortable truths from Steven since day one. “If you could only know what we really are” and all of that. But I think… With the actual truth of Homeworld encroaching on them more and more at this point of the story arc, this would’ve been a great time for the Gems to reconsider their attitude and actually Explain to Steven What the Hell is Going On. 

But instead, I think Garnet saw the events of ‘Future Vision’ as a reinforcement of the idea that there’s just some things Steven is Better Off Not Knowing. Actually being frank with him about Homeworld and the Diamonds and the War right there and then, that would have just overwhelmed Steven with fears and worries and would’ve ended up doing nothing but hurting him. And Garnet can’t accept that possibility, not again.

And so, Garnet, alongside Amethyst and Pearl, keep all these truths from Steven as long as possible. Only revealing bits of information when they have to. For Amethyst it’s about her emotionally-evasive attitude (also, she legit doesn’t know all of that stuff herself). For Pearl it’s about how she learned to romanticize Rose’s own fucked-up obsession with secrets. For Garnet, with her usually very direct attitude and preference for the most straightforward solutions, I think it’s very much the events of ‘Future Vision’ that were still playing in her head every time she had the choice to actually Explain something to Steven and decided not to. 

But that, indeed, was Not Quite the Right Lesson. While being bluntly and directly told by Garnet all about the Many Ways He Could Die caused Steven to go into an anxiety spiral and an existential crisis for an episode - the way the Gems have been consistently secretive and evasive with Steven ended up causing him so much more emotional grief to him in the long run. As all of these secrets ended up revealed to him in the most surprising, dramatic and traumatizing way possible.

And the secretive attitudes ended up driving a wedge between Steven and the Gems. 

Even after they promised to be more honest with him. Because the sight of Steven crying on the roof that day is one that Garnet can easily move away from. Because Garnet’s Not Quite Right Lesson was almost as difficult for her to unlearn as Steven’s own. 

But after the big confrontation at the start of the Zoo Arc, Garnet ended up being the most upfront about the Crystal Gems’ history. Almost overeager to share what she knows about the past.

I mean also, again, Amethyst just has less to tell and Pearl is hiding secrets for reasons beyond her control - but I think it’s also important to consider from the perspective of Garnet’s arc.

Because the fallout of the Pink Diamond Reveal is very much centered around Garnet (or, well, Ruby and Sapphire). That was the Truth that was hidden from her 'for her own good'. And at the end of the day, despite all the grief that unveiling that truth has caused

It has also brought them, all of them, a lot closer.

There's a reason why 'the Truth' is Garnet's Final Missing Piece in the movie. It is as central to her character arc in the series as Lesbian AngstTM grief over lost love is to Pearl.

And still, some remnants of the Trauma of 'Future Vision' remained...

After all, even the very last episode of 'Future' was centered around the Gems once again trying to hide things from Steven (at that case, their turmoil about him leaving) for his own sake

Even though it once again just caused Steven a whole lot of grief.

It's maybe notable that at the end of this episode, Garnet, once again, tells Steven what's waiting for him in his Future...

[neil-gaiman]

Hello Neil, my name is Zalean. If you have a few minutes, I wanted to tell you a little story. Not really a question and I’m not sure how to use tumblr but I wanted to say thanks so much for coming to Florida a few months back and talking with Art Spiegelman. It was my first time ever figuring out how to buy tickets for something. I lived in, middle of nowhere, Vermont for most my life and had no idea what I was doing, I had never been to anything before, nothing had made me excited enough to do the 5 hour drive. And then you just appeared 20 minutes away from where I am living now.

See, I was just starting to get to know your books and work because I fell in love with Good Omens so deeply when I discovered it during season twos release. Funny thing is, I knew of you all along without even realizing it, Stardust has been my favorite book and movie since I was a kid because it was my dad’s favorite story. Finding out my two favorite things were actually connected, I started trying to get hands on as many of your books as I could. I hadn’t read in years before finding your books. It was eye opening.

The talk event at the Dr.Phillips Center was sold out by the time I knew about it, someone had asked me if I knew of the event when they saw my Good Omens keychains my mom had made me. I called the box office because there is no harm in asking. I explained how I’m an art student at UCF and desperately wanted to be inspired and learn from you both. The customer service people were amazing and ended up calling me back to get me a seat in the orchestra pit before they were released to the public. I drove alone, I walked there alone, I sat alone, and it was worth it. I was so thankful to get a seat and grateful to my professor who was a bit jealous he didn’t know about it but let me leave class early to go because of course the art professor would be understanding for any learning opportunities in the arts. And it was truly wonderful, it seemed real and that’s what I wanted. I didn’t want a show. I just wanted to hear, in some sense, that you were like everybody else. I brought a notebook and pen for any information or story’s that I thought made a difference to my little life. The other people around were wonderful, you inspire kind people.

Like I said, I had never been to anything like this and I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know you would have signed books and I only found out because the people next to me came in late. I asked them why they brought the books after it was over and the lights turned on. They did look at me like I had three heads for a moment until they realized I didn’t know there were books to buy, they looked kinda sorry for me but they were so nice. I had never really thought about the importance of someone’s scribble before this but it’s something that proves you were there. It says “Remember when this person made you happy? Remember when they changed your life? Remember when they gave you hope? Look at this and remember.” I hope to see David Tennant and Michael Sheen to get an autograph now that I understand the meaning behind it a bit more but honestly I just love diving into everyone’s projects, the wonder you all create. Oh what fun it is to live a life full of stories!

The people that were sitting next to me let me look at their signed books and hold them. I flipped through some of the big ones, handed them back and expressed my gratitude just to be in the theater. I showed them all my little quotes I wrote down, I never want to forget why I create things and you say so much about never stopping, always creating. Then the women handed me a different book, a smaller book, but when I tried to hand it back, a bit confused, she softly placed it back in my open hands and said “I want you to have it, we have plenty and I want you to love these stories just as much as we do. It’s just starting for you, I want you to remember who started it”. The book she handed me being“The Ocean at the End of the Lane”. The first book I decided to read by you and had just finished a week before. The women had no idea she given me a signed copy of the book that made me want to read again. Your books make the world better. For such a big theater and such a big stage, I just wanted to tell you my little point of view.

The story you told about wishing you enjoyed the past more than you did, I hope you get to enjoy it now, and I hope you want to. And thank you, to you and to Terry Pratchett for creating something special. I convinced my dad to watch Good Omens with me over December break, he loved it.

I forget sometimes that everything is someone's first time, and then I read something like this and feel like I need to remember that better. I'm glad the people beside you were kind.

[fairiesdowntheroad]

SHE LOVES CONTROL — 1.

summary — Y/N takes the internet by storm,catching the eyes of all due to her performance on the track ; it just happens that she also captured a certain McLaren driver’s attention in the process.

pairing — f1 22-23 grid x fem! driver reader,love interest tbd

warnings — alludes to alcohol consumption,F-bombs here and there,some misogynistic flashbacks,race inaccuracies!!!

prologue | chapter 1 | next chapter

FROM J ⛅️ : hi everyone! we’re finally at chapter 1,let’s goooo!! i tried completing this as quick as i could for you guys — so i hope it’s alright 🌟 nothing really important this chapter,just our golden girl reaching huge milestones and forming a friendship (who knows? 🫣) with a certain someone on the grid.

lmk what you think and hope you enjoy! i wish you guys lots of love <3

BAHRAIN 23’ : SUNDAY.

P8.

Qualifying P8 overall? That was horrid for everyone’s standards….but qualifying P8 in a Williams that was considered a tractor? That was impressive.First race of the season…

First race in her entire Formula 1 career.

She was nervous,stressed,scared — a whirlwind of emotions really.There was only so much her teammate could do,trying to console her was proved useless as of now.The girl’s mind pranced all over the place,she tried — key word being tried, to slow down her heart.The Brit had taken a seat next to her,watching her lose her mind.He sighed softly,understanding how she would feel yet wanting her to put her doubts and worries to a pause.

Even if they only were acquainted for a few months,he could already read her like a book.She reminded him of himself — a particular time where he was in Toro Rosso.

“Y/N” he called out softly,placing a hand on her shoulder.The girl simply looked up at him with an indifferent expression,though he knew she was hiding all those emotions in her heart.Her hands balled up into fists on her lap,turning a shade lighter than her actual skin was a telltale sign. “You’ll be fine” he reminds her softly.

You’ll be fine.

She will be fine.

The words sinking in,she thought deep and hard about what he said.The worst case scenario would be a DNF — but there were many more races in the season to prove her worth.What if people would hate her for her performance? — people would hate her regardless of what she does ; she’s a woman to begin with.

She nodded her head slowly accepting his words.Don’t get me wrong she was still very nervous….but it couldn’t go absolutely horrid right? “I hope so.” she breathed out,nervous chuckle coming out.

“It’s your first race so I understand the nervousness..but take it easy”

Taking out her phone she scrolled through her messages one last time…only to find a message from her father.Her eyes scanned over the message — trying to hide a smile from forming.

‘Goodluck,will be watching you from the team’s garage’

Not her team though.

Putting the phone away to put on her balaclava and helmet,she quickly made herself comfortable in the car.Checking the settings one last time and doing a radio check ; she was all set to go.She manoeuvred the car out of the pit lane,taking her rightful place between the other 19 cars on the circuit.

“The goal is to maintain your position,overtake if you can but don’t be risky” her race engineer — Rowan informed her.“Copy.” she replied monotously,choosing to put her full attention on the red lights.

Only a few more seconds…and then away we go.It seemed like it would take forever for the light to go off.’You got this’ she repeated over and over again in her head….she would be okay.

3..

2…….

1.

Hitting the throttle to push as much as much as she could,she managed to maintain her position right behind her teammate.Through her side mirror she spotted the obnoxiously pink and blue Alpine trying to catch up to her.Was it Gasly’s or Ocons’s? She didn’t care at all.All she knew was to defend her spot — and playing the supporting role for her teammate.

This went on for a few more laps.She was restless ; her mind thinking of ways to solve the little problem on her hands right now.

Seeing the Alpine begin to close the gap,she pushed the pedal harder than she thought she could.Her heart pumped at undeniable speeds,feeling the adrenaline coursing through.“Gap to Gasly is 6.2 seconds.You can push,the tyres are still fresh” Rowan commented.

“Copy.” She kept her replies short and sweet,all her concentration poured into increasing the distance between her and the other cars behind her.She inched closer to her teammate,not willing to overtake for now.She would have to listen to the team’s instructions…but there was something off.

He was slowing down.

“Alex is going awfully slow” she remarked through comms with worry seeping through.She maintained her pace which caused her to be wheel-to-wheel with her teammate.His car pulled over to the side,leaving her as the only Williams car in the race.Eyebrows furrowing wirh confusement she thought of bringing it up with the team.

“Alex has been instructed to retire the car due to an engine problem—you have to push as much as you can to maintain your momentum.”

Didn’t need to tell her twice.

She said nothing,trying her best to catch up to the two orange McLarens in front of her.Getting closer,the hairs on her neck were pin straight.

“You have DRS.Overtake available”

“Copy” she hummed.Inching even closer then before,there it was.She could overtake now.She drove past by the first McLaren with ease.Oscar,the Australian McLaren driver in question was surprised there was a Williams gliding right in front of him.Sitting comfortably in P6 now,she was on a roll!

Within a few moments,she was able to strike for the overtake over the other McLaren.She was taking her rightful place as P5.

Just a little bit more.

It felt like forever,mere minutes feeling the same as a millennia for the rookie.By now,it was the final lap so she pushed as hard as she could.Passing the finish line she let out a breath of relief — she completed her first race.

“Congratulations Y/N…that is P5.”

P5…

What.The.Fuck.

“You’re joking….right? There’s no way we placed P5” she asked bluntly.She may have sounded blunt — but the girl was overjoyed.

The car was a tractor by how problematic it was during pre-season testing ; how was it in the points now? It was a relief.She laughed obnoxiously,smiling through that balaclava and helmet.

“Believe if it you want but that is a P5 on your debut.Beautiful performance from you — cannot wait to see more” Rowan congratulated her wirh a chuckle,amused at how she was seemed ro be in disbelief.The girl was laughing in joy now.It might not have been a podium like she was used to,but a P5 in a Williams was almost the equivalent of that.

She was nowhere near being satisfied ; but this would have to count for now.

She pulled her car into the garage,hopping out of the cockpit cheerfully.Taking off the balaclava and her helmet,the girl was greeted with cheers and rounds of applause from her team.She bloomed with joy — she didn’t care if her hair was sweaty and all over the place,this was where her hard work has gotten her.

Alex had made his way next to her,bringing the younger girl into a brief embrace.He was disappointed the first race of the season resulted in a DNF for himself,but he would not let that stop him from celebrating his teammate.

“Told you it would be alright” he muttered close to her so she could hear him.She simply flashed him a small smile,her heart filled with gratitude for him.The whole team embraced the two drivers to celebrate,regardless of the outcome.It was a new start.

A good one to say the least.

MCLAREN: LAP 40/57

The Brit drove comfortably in his McLaren.He was not worried about losing positions now,there was a comfortable distance between him and the car behind him.Driving without a worry,he failed to notice the Williams inching closer and closer to him.

“Lando,you need to push.The Williams is closing the gap between you two.”

What?

There was no way a Williams was behind him.Was he too slow or was the car suddenly blessed by the gods of speed? He couldn’t waste any time pondering further on that — he wouldn’t let himself lose to that tractor.

“Copy.” he replied quickly hitting the pedal to the metal.He tried his best to maintain his momentum ; but it came to no avail.The car had glided right past him in the matter of seconds.

“Was that the rookie’s car?” he asked in disbelief attempting to catch up to the woman in front of him.

“Yes — that was Y/N’s car”

“Fucking hell.”

The after party was…insane to say the least.

She didn’t exactly oppose parties — but she wasn’t entirely open to them either.The loud screams of joy,sweaty bodies colliding against each other,and the overall smell of alcohol ; she was not really pleased with the thought of parties as a whole.

Everyone in the club was celebrating the start of the season, it would be a memorable one for the books.She was only a few drinks in but ready to call it a day so she could head back to her room.

Stood next to a wasted Alex,he was rambling her ear off about something beyond her comprehension.The pair had showed up together after he convinced her to ; saying something along the lines of ‘enjoying your firsts’ which definetly gave off an entirely different message….

She was unsure of what to do with him — call a cab back to the hotel? let him have his fun? The girl was stuck pondering there and nodding mindlessly to his slurring and rambling.

“I think I’ll take him off your hands for now rookie.”

Her head shot up at the voice approaching her.She instantly knew who it was ; his British accent was hard to miss.The two were cackling at the wasted gentleman.

Greeting him with a nod,she knudged the other driver next to her so he could acknowledge the newcomer.

“LANDO! I’ve been waiting for you” Alex happily chirped,throwing himself to his fellow friend.She watched in amusement as the situation unfolded in front of her.The younger man slinging his senior’s hand around him,he walked towards the center of the party — where the other drivers sat.Their eyes scanned over to a very drunk Alex whose body was supported by the McLaren driver,and then the newbie who did not want to be here.

She flashed a friendly smile to the others as they were welcoming her with cheers.Pierre instantly had to make himself known,greeting her with a wink.She brushed it off,choosing to focus on the others.They went back to being engrossed in their own conversations — she felt out of place.Of course she did! She was a woman standing amongst sweaty and intoxicated men…definetly a position she was not to happy to be in.

Her bubble of thoughts were popped when the young man approached her once more.“Sorry about Alex,I think he’s drinking all that pain from his DNF away.” he remarked,eyes crinkling as he joked.The girl chuckled softly with him.

“He did give me a warning before hand that he was a lightweight — I was surprised it was that bad”

“Well,I would be drinking the night away too if my teammate got a P5 in a midfield car and I had to retire.”

Wow.

He was blunt.

She scrunched her nose at his comment.He smirked at her reaction,hand going over her shoulder in a friendly matter.”Speaking of drinking — you look like you haven’t been doing any of that” he pointed out,eyebrows raised as he wondered the reason for that.

“I don’t drink that much”

“It’s painfully obvious you don’t.” he snarkily commented.The girl raised her eyebrow on him,he was sassier than she expected him to be.She huffed,unsure of what to do with the man next to her.The two had interacted a couple of times through random run ins into each other at the paddock.Shy smiles had been sent to each other…he thought she was Alex’s PR Manager.

“I’m Lando by the way,even if you already knew that.”

“I know — Y/N..” she hummed nonchalantly,the boy raising an eyebrow at her response.She didn’t have any intent of coming off as cold ; she just did not know how to make herself comfortable among them.She was the outcast in her previous years of competing due to her gender — it was unusual to feel welcomed now.

She wondered in the back of her mind,did he have malicious intent or was he just nice?

Y/N was more acquainted with his teammate — Oscar,racing against each other in Formula 2.It was good for Oscar that he got a seat in a prestigious team ; she was unfortunately stuck in the bottom.Speaking of Oscar,she scanned the club to find him nowhere…weird.

“I think I’m ready to call it a night to be honest.” she confessed looking up at him.He laughed whole heartedly at her bluntness.Shaking his head,he patted her back.”By the way,you did good out there.Overtook me like it was a piece of cake” he compliments her as the party goes on.Music began blaring even louder now — bodies dancing like there was no tomorrow.

“I can’t hear you” she said loudly so he could get the message.She did hear what he wanted to say ; she just wanted to hear him say it again.He simply nodded at her,his hand moving itself to intertwine itself with hers.Feet beginning to move,he manoeuvred her out of the club.The ear damaging music slowly died down,the two standing at the entrance.

It was a quite night…contrary to the club.Her eyes scanned the man who had just dragged her out.His brown curls,the white shirt that he adorned along with ripped jeans.Her eyes had then averted to the city lights ; shining in their upmost glory.Lighting up the way for them.

“What were you saying just now?” she asked curiously,eager to hear him now that they were away from the crowd.Lando scratched his neck,his hand that was intertwined with hers untangling itself.

“You…you did a good job in the race.” he hummed softly.She perked an eyebrow as a small grin formed itself on her face,her eyes glinting with mischief.

“Don’t worry — I actually heard you the first time.” she snapped back,biting her lip to hold back another chuckle.His eyes were admiring the view in front of them.Bahrain never failed to amaze him.

“Just remember,I won’t let you by that easily next time.” he promised himself,hands sliding its way into his pockets as he stared at her.

“I’d want nothing but your best,Norris.”

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if your name is crossed out that means i was unable to tag you 🏷️

[buddiebeginz]

Fandom I'm begging you all to wait and see how the season plays out. Everything right now seems to be pointing towards Buddie and sure I could be wrong but I also think it would be the shows downfall if they didn't make Buddie happen this season and I think Tim and abc know that.

This isn't just about catering to fandom whims this is that since right before s7 they've done so much to put focus on Buddie way more than with any season before. Deliberate choices have been made that if they're not leading to Buddie can't not be seen as queerbaiting. And yes a show with queer characters can still queerbait if they're using a popular queer ship to garner attention and views. Though I don't think that's what's happening here.

The only reason I think more didn't happen with Buddie last season is because the season was short and they got renewed for s8 early. You can tell if you watch from eps 1-6 that they were leading somewhere with Buddie (they had them singing a karaoke love song ffs) but changed gears after getting renewed for s8. At the same time Tim still didn't put more development or focus on b/t so it's not that Buddie happening was shelved (as in it's never happening) it was just paused.

Also I see people spiraling about that pic Ryan posted assuming because he's in a robe and because he put "Don Diaz" on it that it's a reference to Don Juan and this means Eddie is going to be hooking up with a bunch of women. I just don't see that happening. Ryan could have easily just been making a joke or trying to mess with fandom or it could mean nothing. It could be a Godfather reference. Or it could be something like Eddie tries to hook up with a random girl and he just can't do it and then that leads to him talking to the priest. Unfortunately we aren't going to know what that pic really means until the episode airs.

I know we've all been burned by the show (and other shows) before and I get being nervous about what could happen this season. But remember that Buck was supposed to come out in s4 (this has been confirmed by Oliver) and Eddie in s5 (this has been confirmed by the the insider) and presumably that's when Buddie would have happened. Buddie has been in the works for years. The main thing stopping it before was Fox and last season it was just too short to have Buck to come out, Eddie come out, and then Buddie to happen. 10 eps was just not enough time to tell such huge important stories for the show and these characters.

I know Tim and others behind the scenes of the show have made decisions we haven't always loved and maybe it's naive of me to still have trust in them after all this time but it's not just that. I see the signs. If I had seen more effort being put into b/t last season and into promoting them as a couple and especially if I saw that happening this season I'd be a lot more skeptical about the likelihood of Buddie ever happening. But I haven't seen any of that.

This season Tim has talked about how b/t are still together but he doesn't talk about the ship like it's this important thing, he talks about it like T*mmy is just like any other person Buck has dated. Meanwhile Eddie is ALWAYS mentioned when b/t are talked about including by Tim. Networks and showrunners know how to handle these kinds of things. If they wanted to minimize the attention Buddie gets they would have done so. We know this because that's exactly what they did in past seasons while they were with Fox, particularly after Tim left. Instead though since last season they've actually been putting more attention on Buddie, Ryan, and Oliver.

Like I said I get being nervous that something we've all hoped for for a long time might not happen. I know that Buddie and Eddie coming out means more to a lot of us than just some fictional characters and a ship. I know a lot of us see ourselves in them and we also see how important and groundbreaking in a way it will be when they finally go canon. I get why the anxiety around this season is heightened probably more so than any other season before it. We've never been as close to Buddie happening as we are now and that's so exciting but also scary.

But this is why I think we need to take every bts and spoiler etc that we get from the show and people involved in it (including the journalists who review it) with a grain of salt. We just aren't going to know what each episode is about until we watch them. Even when the season starts we need to remember to let the story play out. We might see things we won't like with b/t or Eddie in 801 but there will still be 17 more eps to get through where anything could happen.

We are so lucky that 911 is still on the air with most of the original cast still there and not looking to leave. That all the people that matter Tim, Oliver, and Ryan have all spoken out in support of Buddie happening. I've shipped non canon ships before that just were never going to happen, where showrunners and actors literally made fun of the fans for even shipping it. That's not what's happening with 911. Buddie now is being treated like a legitimate possibility we just have to be patient.

[julianalvarez9]

battlefield / christian pulisic

part 1: war is on

author's note: part 2, everyone! full-on angst for this one. physically ached while writing this, hope you like it 😭

wc: 1.119 words

requested: yes, here

summary: the backstory of what went wrong between christian and you which prompted your breakup. or, how the living room where you two used to live turned into a battlefield.

"love, are you home? i've got good news!" you say while untying your shoes and letting your bag drop loudly onto the floor. you aren't always this clumsy, but you're too excited to care about being this careless with your belongings. "living room!" your boyfriend answers, and you quickly make your way to the center of the house. 

there you see christian, rather sprawled on the couch, phone in hand. only by the view you're greeted with, you can guess that he hasn't gotten home that much earlier than you, given that he's still in his training clothes, too engulfed with the mindless scrolling to actually get up and change. you drop onto the couch to hug him tightly, and he sighs contently at the newfound warmth your body brings. your voice goes a pitch up due to the exciting news you're about to tell him. "guess who has just signed the contract to become a coach in the next season of the voice!?," you announce, voice muffled by his chest. 

you notice his body stiffens at hearing the announcement, and you detach your face from his torso to look at him, see what's wrong. you don't seem to understand why the good news isn't being received with a face splitting smile, and instead, a frown has settled in your boyfriend's features. "why aren't you happy about it?" you question, and he looks at you like you had asked the dumbest thing ever. "isn't that back in the states?" he asks, confused tone clearly noticeable in his voice. "yeah, and?".

"is this your way of breaking up with me?".

you can't, for anything sacred in the world, understand what he had heard coming out of your mouth to reach that conclusion. "what? no!" you say horrified, while detaching completely from him. you're now seated at his feet, while he gets his weight onto his arms to get a straighter position to look into your eyes and see if you really meant it. "why do you want to go back to the states then? you have everything here" he questions, voice cold but his expression now had turned to be rather sad, eyes glassy at the sudden idea that you could actually be ending your four year relationship. "i need to work, christian. this is a work opportunity" you tried to reason, but it looks like your boyfriend doesn't understand, or at least he doesn’t want to hear.

christian is seated far from you now, hands going into his face to rub the frustration away.

he fails, though, when his anger seeps into his voice. "y/n, you don't need to work. i can give you anything you need, darling," he reassures, reaching into your hands to make his point across. but the ways he’s looking for contact to seemingly calm you down while trying to downplay your career only enrages you more, and you’re instead repealed by the action. “and what do you want me to do instead?" you spat, getting up to pace the room before continuing. "sit at the bridge every weekend and look pretty for you? that's what you want me to do?”. 

you don’t quite realize when or how it happened, but from one second to the other, it seemed that the living room you and christian were in at the moment, in your shared home, had turned into a battlefield: hurtful things being thrown at each other back and forth.

“fuck, no, y/n,” he shaked his head, getting on his feet to get closer to your frame. “i’m just asking you to wait until the season ends, and then we can go together,” your boyfriend tried to reason, turning his voice down to avoid the argument from escalating. “you’re clearly not hearing me," you scoffed, and gesticulating with your hands you continued to try and get him to understand why this was important, and why it couldn’t be delayed until the summer break. "is the voice we are talking about, christian. they’re not gonna wait for me".

"then it's not right for you".

your eyebrows frowned at his statement. "what do you mean by that? of course it's right for me. i've waited for this opportunity my whole life" you emphasized. in return, christian mocked, rolling his eyes, "you're only saying that because you already made up your mind". the laugh that left your lips was anything but genuine, filled with a sarcastic intonation. “i guess i did,” you reaffirmed, tears freely making their way over your cheeks now. "i guess we're done then,” he said, while taking the phone that was resting on the coffee table without giving you another look.

"don't you dare make me choose between you and my career,” you bitterly pointed out, voice cracking at the end of the sentence. he didn’t even turn around to answer. “why, because you’ll choose it over me?” christian coldly said, before leaving you alone in the living room, his stern figure, although blurry due to the tears that were clouding your vision, clearly disappearing into the kitchen. 

"hey, you're okay?" a female voice brought you back to reality. it's not the first time that you have woken up from your reminiscing of your last encounter with your -now ex- boyfriend. this time, the one in charge of bringing you back to reality is camila, who looks down at you with a sympathetic smile. 

you looked to your right and saw the woman in charge of doing your makeup for the first filming of the voice smiling widely at you, signaling at your reflection to point out you’re already done. you thanked her shyly returning the smile, although the emotion didn’t quite reach your eyes: something that had become more evident now, the happy facade seemingly breaking down once the news about your breakup reached the media a few days ago, making your phone blow up immediately. 

not one day went by without you thinking that, maybe, if you hadn't been so damn stubborn, -and if christian had been more understanding too, things could have worked out. you didn’t even get to tell him that you weren't set to be in the states for that long, and you had maintained a long distance relationship before, with all the times you had gone on tour, or he had gone away to play for chelsea. but maybe you had reached the three year itch that many couples had, the make up or break up stage that everyone seemed to fuzz over the internet. 

you didn’t think it would apply to christian and you before, but you soon realized that you might have gotten it all wrong from the start.

you nodded. "yeah, i'm fine".

part 3: the fix up

[humbledragon669]

S1E5 – The Doomsday Option Write Up P2 - Saturday (The last day of the World) from "the wiggle on" to "He was waving"

Alright, so now we have the seed of hope planted for an Aziraphale/Crowly reunion, this episode moves, pretty swiftly, through a number of plot threads that now all need to be brought together to serve as the climax for the season.

Thread number one: Madame Tracy and Shadwell, and their purpose in the storyline.

I don’t have a great deal to say about this scene, only one tiny question. Why is that Julia makes no move to hand over a “donation” to Madame Tracy?

Both Mrs. Ormerod and Mr. Scroggie (brilliant names by the way) are clearly well-prepared to be handing their money over, but not so young Julia. I don’t think it’s important, just one of those little things I wondered about when I was watching the scene back.

Thread number two: bringing the Four Horsemen together.

Couple of things to point out in the next montage sequence, including an Easter egg or two. Firstly, the immigration official has clearly become disillusioned with her job in the short time that she granted Anathema into the country.

It’s a very different interaction than the one she had with Anathema where she was actually paying attention. Even Famine seems puzzled at her lack of interest. Next up I just want to say that I really didn’t have the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse down for being tea-drinkers. Don’t get me wrong, I’m British. Tea is the foundation of civilised society as far as I’m concerned. But that’s kind of the point, isn’t it? These four characters are about to, quite happily, undo all of civilisation. Always time for a cup of tea I suppose though. And now for an Easter egg! Feels like it’s been a minute since I’ve pointed one of those out. The top scores on the arcade game next to the one that Death is playing on are all allocated to D.EATH, except for the #1 spot, which goes to T. PRATCHETT.

There is another Easter egg here for the eagle-eyed, this one of the apple variety – one of the questions on the quiz machine asks what year Apple Computers was founded in.

And the last thing about the quiz machine: the machine that displays the “GAME OVER” sign is actually not the machine that Death has been playing on:

As a little side note, once we realise that it’s Death playing on the quiz machine, we can appreciate that he has in fact been there from the beginning of the scene. I wouldn’t swear to it given the camera angles that are used, but I don’t think his bike is in the car park when War arrives. You could argue that it’s out of shot, but I’m still pretty sure she would have recognised it for what it was and known that he was already inside. Famine and Pollution too. So why aren’t they aware of his presence from the outset? Again, probably not important, and the little quiz machine interaction provides some much-needed light comedy.

Back to thread number one. I found little of interest in this scene prior to Aziraphale’s arrival from the spirit world, aside from the vapid personality of Mrs. Ormerod and the obvious dig at the validity of psychic mediums whilst using the delightfully oblivious Mr. Scroggie. What I do really enjoy about this scene is the sound editing (I know, you’re all shocked I’m picking up on sound cues…). We know that something is about to happen when a low rumble begins, enforced by some lightly flickering candles in a room with no breeze, but the real joy here is the sequence of noises, animal, human, and object, that issues from Madame Tracy’s mouth as Aziraphale takes up residence in her body. Miranda Richardson does a pretty stella job here too – this was either really fun to shoot or incredibly embarrassing. I’d lean towards the former, given she’s largely a comic actress, but managing to keep a straight face throughout the whole thing must have taken an incredible degree of self-control. I’d be quite interested to know how much free reign she was given with this, how much of it was improvised, and if she knew there was going to be extra noises added in post-production. Here’s a list of the noises that I could pick up in the sequence that takes place during Aziraphale’s possession:

Rumbling noise before Madame Tracy starts vocalising.

Madame Tracy making a low rumbling noise.

Elephant trumpeting.

The noise of something ramping up, like a turbine engine but not. No idea what this noise actually is!

Thunder (from outside the house – accompanied by lightning).

Madame Tracy’s short shout followed by very high and musical almost-screams.

Another one of those weird ramping up noises but shorter and sharper.

Panting.

Madame Tracy blowing a raspberry.

Loud singing (enforced in the soundtrack) of the William Tell overture.

Madame Tracy belching.

A little quacking noise made by Madame Tracy.

A fart (no way was I leaving this off the list), which puts a definitive stop to any other noises that are ongoing.

Pretty impressive. Those sound editors aren’t done yet though, because aside from another chaotic sound sequence for Ron’s possession, there’s still a load of work to do with the voices coming out of Madame Tracy’s mouth. I love the way they shift between her voice and Aziraphale’s during the following sequence, starting from the very first sentence that she says after the possession has completed – she starts out as Madame Tracy and finishes as Aziraphale (in German, which we were led to believe that he couldn’t speak back in 1941). There are times in this scene where both voices come out of her mouth at the same time and there are other times where Madame Tracy speaks in her own voice but in a deeper tone, and times where it’s one or the other speaking, and it’s all so seamlessly stitched together. Not to mention the fact that it never once looks like it’s not Miranda Richardson speaking – her lip movements match the words exactly. She even adapts some of Aziraphale’s mannerisms when she’s speaking as him.  It’s a really brilliantly put together scene. The sound sequences for Ron’s possession (played by none other than Johnny Vegas) are more difficult to pick out because the surrounding scene is very noisy (not that Shadwell would know anything about that, sound asleep in the unaffected boudoir) but I did manage to pick out:

Another raspberry.

A short squeal.

A line from “Moonlight Becomes You” (by Johnny Mathis, I couldn’t see any immediate Easter eggs or references from the lyrics).

A prolonged shout.

More thunder.

What sounds like a piano string or strings (from low down the keyboard) being struck.

A retching noise like someone’s about to hurl.

Something bubbling.

Howling.

Lightning.

Fireworks, used in the same way as the fart in the first sequence – to cut off all the other noises.

It feels like quite a jolt moving from all that cacophony into Madame Tracy’s peaceful kitchen. There’s one little thing that really makes me giggle in this scene:

She seems pretty blasé about the fact that there’s a blonde, slightly transparent, male figure staring back at her from the mirror. It’s only when he actually waves back at her that she reacts at all, and even then it’s pretty muted. I think most of us would have taken off screaming at that point, or pass out, but not Madame Tracy, she’s way too worldly-wise for that dramatic nonsense.

I was a little puzzled at the choice of soundtrack for Crowley’s battle against the traffic in the next scene, but then I wondered whether it was a reference to the M25 being another one of Crowley’s plans that started out so well and then ending up foundering “on the rocks on iniquity”, which appears to be a bit of a running theme throughout the show – first the misplacing of the Antichrist, again in his desperate pleas to Aziraphale for them to run away together, and in his failed rescue of the angel. This particular instance of Crowley’s well-intentioned failings would suggest that it’s a characteristic he has been prone to for a long while, and that the foundering of his plans can take anything from seconds to decades. And just for a bit of fun, a tried to get screenshots of the M25 before and after Crowley’s interference:

I also noticed that the projector Crowley uses is marked as belonging to Room 11:

Having fallen foul of my neglect in consulting Strong’s Concordance with numbers in my write ups before, I did actually remember to look this one up. According to my scant research, 11 in Strong’s Concordance represents a place of destruction or ruin. Whether this is a reference to Crowley’s original intentions for the M25, the eventual fate and purpose of the M25 in the show, or a tongue-in-cheek remark to the experience of actually driving on the M25 in real life isn’t clear. Maybe it’s a bit of all three. Or maybe it’s just a random number. Unlikely I think.

Now that Shadwell’s had a nice little snooze, he also seems to have had some sort of personality transplant. That’s the only real explanation for the impassioned attempt at protecting Madame Tracy’s dignity, right? I think we as the audience all know better, but he clearly forgets himself in the heat of his jealous moment. Interestingly, the mirror no longer appears to show Aziraphale’s reflection:

I think this might just have been a case of budgetary or time restraints rather than an intent to convey anything specific. Whatever the reason, Aziraphale doesn’t seem too upset at Shadwell for discorporating him. One question though – how does the angel know that Shadwell has referred to him as “the Southern pansy” before? As far as I can remember, he never uses that name to his face, which only really leaves the possibility that he has obtained the information from Madame Tracy, who has heard him refer to Aziraphale in that way at least once before. I find it unlikely she would have told the angel the offensive name that had been allocated to him, which suggests he has obtained the news from her own thoughts. Obviously at this point Madame Tracy is sharing the residence of her body, but it does raise an interesting question for later when Aziraphale and Crowley perform the body switch – would they be able to read the thoughts of the other without the sentience of that other being present concurrently?

Whilst we are on the topic of how people know things that they do, how does Crowley know the M25 has just combusted into a ring of infernal flames? I know we’ve had the whole “Crowley turned the M25 into a hellhole” scenario written out for us already, but that was to do with the eternal traffic jams he caused, not some sort of hidden boobie trap that would cause it to spontaneously combust. Presumably this is one of those things his demon-sense tells him has simply happened, like when Adam welcomed the Hellhound into his life.

I find the next scene with the cold caller provides an interesting overview of the way nuisance callers have evolved across the years. The basis for the call in the original book was double glazing, but we’ve moved on to ambulance chasers in the show. As a society I think it’s likely we’ve moved on even further now, from using actual real people to individually make these calls to automated recordings, but Hastur wouldn’t be able to eat them all in that case, thus denying the audience the satisfaction of the sick justice he unwittingly wreaks on the call centre staff. Got ourselves a little Easter egg here too – the message that Lisa types out on her screen (to a colleague or as a note on a casefile isn’t clear) is the title of a Queen song:

This happens to be the very song that Crowley was listening to in the Bentley on the M25. She also types that up right before she arrives his own casefile (titled “Anthony Cowwley”, which differs from the book’s “A J Cowlley”).

Shifting back to Crouch End now (this episode really does jump around a lot doesn’t it?!), can we just take a moment to gape at Aziraphale adamantly declaring that the Antichrist must be killed. The Antichrist who is a child. It really wasn’t that long ago that he was vehemently stating that he himself could never do such a thing, nor could he endorse it without suggesting that it would be for the good of Heaven’s reputation. Now though, he’s very happy to encourage a human, for whom the consequences of killing an innocent child would be dire in Heaven’s eyes, and even worse for killing the Antichrist as far as Hell is concerned, to do the deed, but this time the motivation is nothing to do with his employer; it revolves around the fate of the World. It feels like something of an oxymoron – his siding with humanity driving an incredibly inhumane act. In fairness, Shadwell follows it up with an oxymoron of his own:

So, as far as Shadwell’s concerned: witches? Kill without question. The Antichrist? Not so sure. Even if he’s going to bring about the end of the world. Sounds like he’s all good with the plan when Aziraphale tells him that he has traits associated with witches though. Good morals Shadwell, well done. Perhaps not quite as terrifying as Aziraphale’s declaration of triumph when the sergeant suggests they can use a massive antique gun to fire lumps of building materials to assassinate the Antichrist. Again I’ll point out that Adam is a child, but perhaps it wasn’t clear enough earlier on that Aziraphale also knows he’s a child.

I don’t know whether what I’m about to say describes a typically British behaviour when caught in traffic jams or not, but here goes. Anybody else find it suspect that other people aren’t either already driving down the hard shoulder or that Crowley doesn’t have a giant tail of cars following him? I’ve been in my fair share of motorway gridlocks, enough to know that once some entitled prick starts driving down the hard shoulder in attempt to assert their own self-importance over the rest of the people caught in the chaos, anybody else with delusions of grandeur will follow suit very quickly. Not for Crowley though, he’s just pottering down the escape lane under his own steam. And is it just me, or does it feel like a bit of a violation when Hastur removes Crowley’s glasses? Looks to me like Crowley feels like that as well to be fair.

He manages to get over his surprise quickly enough though, characteristically engaging his brain into full gear to try and find a solution, which he does with an interesting choice of music:

I find it interesting because it deviates from what we have come to believe is his usual taste in music. Mozart would actually seem to be more Aziraphale’s taste than Crowley’s. It’s also a pretty sedate underscore for what he’s about to do. As a side note, this piece not only doesn’t actually start from the beginning when it starts playing in the Bentley, but is also used in another one of my favourite shows – Our Flag Means Death. In that show, it’s used as background music in the final episode when Prince Ricky is strolling down the street his victory over the pirates with another naval officer. The Mozart doesn’t stick around for long though, morphing into Queen’s “I’m In Love With My Car” (no need to point out the reference with this one) as Hastur starts to lose his calm. For those who haven’t read the book, or just don’t remember this detail, there is mention of this phenomenon in the original text – the apparently common mystery that every tape or CD left in a car is doomed to become a Queen album eventually, but this little detail is left out in the show, with the audience instead being led to believe that the CD player plays mood-appropriate music instead.

The speech we get from Crowley here goes a long way to showing us how much he has come to love both humanity and modernity – he’s actually quite complimentary about humans and their ability to invent new things.

Lovely clever people, inventing cars and motorways and windscreen wipers.

He also, in a very dismissive way, puts a clear distinction between himself and Hastur with his marking of the difference between his feelings towards the 14th century and what he believes the Duke of Hell would have thought. That simple little line actually says a lot to me about how he believes he distanced himself from the other beings in Hell – it’s a clear declaration of “we are not the same”. I also find myself wondering if Crowley had little to no contact with Aziraphale during the 14th century, contributing to his dislike of the time period. We certainly never see anything of the sort – the meetings we bear witness to have a large gap between 537 and 1601, though the book and script book tells us that there was definitely a meeting in 1020, and the script would suggest that there were several (dozens of them in fact) meetings between that and the 1601 meeting.

It's interesting to hear that Hastur is concerned that he’s going to be discorporated as it confirms he’s been issued with a human body, just like Crowley, even though he doesn’t reside on Earth. I’d be interested to know if the body was issued to him in that state or whether it looks pretty run down because of Hastur’s lack of appropriate care (which would in turn suggest that both Aziraphale and Crowley have had to work towards maintaining the appearance of their own corporal beings). And whilst we’re on the subject of bodily appearances, I love the little detail that the snake component of Crowley’s eyes now fill his entire eyeball as he maniacally drives through the flames.

I have a suspicion that the size of the snake “irises” (for want of a better word) is reliant on his emotional state, but I don’t feel like I have the patience to go through the show and test the theory. And I don’t know if those little horizontal lines on Crowley’s nose were intentional here or whether that’s just a natural crease in David’s face, but they certainly strengthen the snake resemblance. As a final comment on this scene, we actually hear God telling us that Crowley really is fundamentally different from his peers – he has an imagination. Which is not so different from the idea that Aziraphale is different from his peers because he has free will, a theme that has been presenting itself, with increasing clarity, throughout the series.

Final little note for this section, and it’s about this snippet of epic:

Apparently the most amazing thing about this, according to the local bobby, isn’t the fact that the car is on fire, or that it’s just driven through a wall of fire, or that it’s still moving forward, or even that the person inside it is not only alive, but unharmed and still capable of driving. No, the most amazing thing is that the driver is waving. Gotta love the way us Brits have a way of stating simple facts to display complete amazement.

Right, this section went on for way longer than I thought it was going to so I’m going to cut it short. I was hoping to get as far as the defection of The Them from Adam, but as soon as I started watching that scene I realised I had more to say about it than I thought, so I’m going to let you go for now. As always, questions, comments, discussion – always welcome! See you next time 😊

[lemotmo]

Okay, I basically stalked that blog, sorry not sorry. The other answers you shared were nice but this is the answer. EVERYONE READ THIS ANSWER. You won't need a question synopsis, it will be very clear what they were asked. Also I got the sense from their blog that they're more of a fan of the show as a whole than a hard core shipper. They do clearly like Tommy but they're a Buck lover through and through if you scroll their blog. READ THIS ANSWER!

A. Hi anon, I have been very clear from the beginning that I will support whatever ship the show decides to go with. I have worked very hard at trying to maintain realistic expectations. The problem with your argument is that the show hasn't shown us anything you presented in your ask. The show hasn't indicated in any way that this is a long-term serious relationship for either of them. In fact I would argue that most of the dialogue Tommy has been given would actually indicate the opposite, at least where he's concerned. He has been given very little actual dialogue so I promise you they're being particular with the dialogue they are giving him. And I'm sorry, but no, the show absolutely did not tell us or insinuate in any way that Buck told Tommy to only call him Evan. Lou himself said in one of his cameos that the show won't 'allow' him to call him Buck. If you've been around for longer than season 7 not calling him Buck is usually a bad sign. All his previous partners called him Evan. It's an established pattern of indicating they don't really know him. So far, from the little we've been shown, they're sticking to that pattern. We do however have numerous canon scenes of Buck explaining why he doesn't associate with the name Evan. Going by Buck is a well established CHOICE for him. At this point, Tommy is being written as a plot device. The show hasn't given us anything more than that. Can that change? Sure, but I don't think it will change much. Tim himself said it was a nice introductory relationship for Buck and he didn't want anything heavy (I'm paraphrasing). Oliver said Buck was going to have to work for his next relationship. He said this having already filmed the beginning of Buck and Tommy (and at that point Tommy was only supposed to last 4 episodes but they got renewed and the storyline was slowed down) so I don't think Tommy is the relationship Oliver was referring to. I will once again stress, that's okay. Tommy can be important without being his forever. It doesn't make Tommy meaningless. But it is why, in the end, the cameo videos were a mistake. It's lovely that Lou wanted to talk with people, and I understand why he wanted to do them, but many of those fans have taken those headcanon conversations and tried to argue them as canon fact, like your ask did, and they simply aren't based on anything canon. I hope that doesn't sound mean because I get wanting them to be canon, but, at present time, they're not.

The last part of your ask is confusing to me, I won't lie. You just said yourself that making Eddie canonically queer wouldn't necessarily be a leap, but then you said, in the same sentence, that Ryan shouldn't refer to Eddie as ambiguous. Both of those things cannot be true at the same time. And I'm sorry but at no point, ever has Buck and Eddie's relationship been written as traditionally bro, as you put it. There are countless, professional articles as well as interviews by the actors and creators themselves stating how unique and special their relationship is. The audience knows that as well. It's why they're popular. You can't watch the show and honestly describe them as bros. If they make Eddie canon queer it is not a matter of if they'll put him with Buck. At that point it simply becomes a matter of when. And no, Josh will not be a realistic option. I adore Josh, lots of people do, but a romance between Josh and Eddie is not what anyone wants. Also I'm pretty sure Oliver would commit a crime if they gave Eddie to Josh instead of Buck, lol.

Love, love, love.

Another thoughtful and insightful answer from the anonymous blog.

Thank you for bringing this to my attention Nonny! :)

Once again I ask everyone to stay civil in comments or reblogs. No hate towards this person please. Thank you.

[ilikekidsshows]

Could I ask for your thoughts on Kuro Neko the episode as a whole? It's actually kind of my final straw, so I wanted to ask for your perspective on it.

I haven’t actually seen Kuro Neko in its entirety, and I have no intention to. This episode repels me. Everything I’ve learned about this episode has just made me want to avoid it more. I’ve read the transcript and I suffered every moment of it. I heard the first episodes of season 5 were good and thought to myself: “God, I hope season 5 doesn’t actually fix season 4 because then I’ll have to watch Kuro Neko to catch up.”

Kuro Neko is like Reflekdoll all over again, when the characters come away with the worst possible lessons. In Reflekdoll, Adrien learns that he should never try to be Ladybug and he can’t handle responsibility, while Marinette learns Cat Noir really does just goof off all the time and that’s his “role”. In Kuro Neko, Adrien and Marinette both learn the same lesson that his feelings don’t matter because Ladybug will always have more important things to worry about than his emotional state and he should just be her emotional support dispenser.

Basically, Kuro Neko has Marinette at her most self-centered in the entire show, and she’s downright selfish in it. That by itself wouldn’t be an issue if this wasn’t the retool and Marinette wasn’t Astruc’s imaginary daughter and therefore the “person” this world was made for. The thing is, the episode doesn’t have Marinette learn a lesson about valuing other people and their opinions, like any other cartoon protagonist would have in this scenario, no no no, the episode instead vindicates her.

Kuro Neko has Marinette chase away her partner with her unjustified negative attitude towards him, and she doesn’t regret it once. Instead the episode makes excuses for how she’s under so much pressure and Cat Noir should be grateful Ladybug considers him a useful tool. It’s basically the New York Special all over again. Marinette is in the wrong, but she’s under so much pressure guys, that Cat Noir should accept whatever mistreatment he receives because doing otherwise would be mean to poor Marinette.

Hot take: Marinette deserved to lose her partner in the New York Special and she deserved to lose him in Kuro Neko. Her actions directly lead to him leaving for completely justified reasons, and Marinette never apologizes. It would have been better for Adrien if he didn’t come back, so yeah, I don’t think “Marinette deserves to lose Cat Noir as a partner” is as extreme of a take as I was convinced it was when I first saw the special. Because Marinette keeps pulling this shit and never reflects or improves on her behavior.

Here’s what Kuro Neko tells me: Ladybug doesn’t actually care about Cat Noir as a person, but Cat Noir should still be grateful that he gets a spot on the team working for a leader who constantly abuses her power over him.

This fandom loves to rag on Adrien for being suicidal, because Cat Noir throwing himself in the path of an enemy’s attack to save Ladybug upsets Marinette, but, here’s the thing: LADYBUG DOES IT TOO. LADYBUG HAS PUSHED CAT NOIR INTO AN ENEMY’S WEAPON BECAUSE THAT WAS PART OF HER PLAN IN ‘BACKWARDER’ AND THE FANDOM SLEEPS ON THAT. Marinette’s plans often revolve around Cat Noir being in danger or compromised and the fandom dares to blame him for thinking his life doesn’t matter when that’s what his partner tells him with her actions constantly.

Kuro Neko is just more of that. Cat Noir quitting didn’t come from nowhere. There were warning signs of him missing fights and so on, but Marinette can’t be arsed to spare a single thought to what might be going on with her partner. She just thinks he should be happy he’s getting a break, because being a superhero is so much hard work, projecting her own thoughts and feelings onto him instead of asking. Marinette never asks when it comes to Cat Noir, she just assumes and demands.

She thinks Kuro Neko is Cat Noir, which is equal parts frustrating and hilarious when it’s paired together with her insisting time and time again that she knows Cat Noir so well in this episode. And it’s the episode where she fails to recognize him twice and misconstrues his issues to be about the fact that he can’t handle being one-sidedly in love with her. But, like, here comes the really asinine part; despite all these facts being provably incorrect, the episode still doesn’t make Marinette learn she’s incorrect. It really is Reflekdoll, but worse.

The only time Marinette apologizes in this episode is when she thinks Cat Noir was Akumatized, and it was for “not seeing how broken-hearted he was”, not for actively pushing him away. When Cat Noir comes back, she instead gives him the silent treatment until he says his justified anger at her was just “her kitty being temperamental”, invalidating his own feelings. Sure, Cat Walker, and therefore Cat Noir, heard those apologies, but Marinette doesn’t know that. Somewhere between realizing Kuro Neko isn’t Cat Noir and seeing Cat Noir again, she decided she had done nothing wrong that warranted an apology. And the thing that did it: the person she hurt coddling her through her pity party.

When Marinette realizes that Cat Noir is still missing and not Kuro Neko, in true Marinette fashion, she makes it about herself. “I must be the worst Guardian ever!” she bemoans when she should be putting together a plan. Hell, even a decision to do better by Cat Noir. But no, our solution-oriented protagonist couldn’t possibly make a plan to find and apologize to Cat Noir (maybe even do away with the “no revealing identities” rule so that this can’t happen again), she’s too busy bitching and moaning about how hard she’s having it. The only thing that gets her out of her funk is the new guy, who she thinks she’s just met, calling her faithful former partner “too emotional” and swearing servitude to her and her altar of the most important problems in the world. And the reason the episode is written like this? It’s because the writers don’t think she needs to apologize and do better in the future. Of course they’re not having her come to the conclusion that she needs to fix something, because they don’t think she does.

“You take care of everybody equally, Ladybug. Now I want to take care of you,” Cat Walker says, to absolve Ladybug of any guilt. The reality, though, is completely different. Cat Noir has always supported Ladybug. The reason he quit was because Ladybug made it abundantly clear she didn’t want or need his support anymore. And he’s made to come back to her, saying he hasn’t done enough? HE COMFORTS LADYBUG THROUGH AN EMOTIONAL BREAKDOWN AT LEAST ONCE PER SEASON. HE DOES SO FUCKING MUCH AND HE’S FORCED TO SAY HIS EMOTIONS ARE “MAKING TROUBLE” FOR LADYBUG WHILE HIS SELFISH, SELF-CENTERED PARTNER WHO DOESN’T TREAT HIM AS A PERSON GIVES HIM THE SILENT TREATMENT, ONLY FACING HIM WHEN HE MAKES LIGHT OF HIS OWN EMOTIONS SO THAT SHE DOESN’T HAVE TO APOLOGIZE FOR ACTING LIKE A JERK.

“You treat everybody equally” my ass. The day she starts treating Cat Noir like a person, then we can talk. Before that point, she’s a selfish, entitled jerk and Cat Noir deserves better.

The Fae Cat Noir Interpretation was supposed to reflect a flaw of Marinette’s, that Marinette never thinking about Cat Noir as a human being with emotions and problems was something she’d need to grow out of. Except that she doesn’t. Instead the show agrees with her and makes excuses for her. Adrien isn’t even human, he literally is made a “perfect” fae being that Marinette can treat however she wants and he will never complain and he will be in the wrong if he tries to leave.

[bismuth-209]

thoughts on the series 14 finale?

oh man. i loved this season. i really did. and for it to just end like this..

i think there's a good chance the Doctor is lying about some things because not everything adds up

like. Death times Death equals life was corny and i didn't love it but i'm willing to accept that's how it genuinely resolved. i have some doubts about the effectiveness of death by time vortex when that didn't kill him before.

but whatever. keep the option open for Sutekh 3 if you want and otherwise maintain that killed him

sure

BUT RUBY'S MUM?

okay. so. Sutekh pretty much instakilled the whole earth. i'm guessing by the scene on that other planet that it doesn't have to affect a whole planet at once but considering everyone we saw in London died pretty instantly and the tardis has landed in the UK around the 2020s a LOT i . i think Louise Miller dead as a doornail OR he's kept her alive / she managed to not die because people were,, curious about her? and in that case. i feel he would've been able to tell who she was .

they imply Ruby's bio mum is alive right? SO WHY DOESN'T HE KNOW WHO SHE IS . why does he keep the doctor and ruby alive to figure it out

other things that make NO fucking sense if Louise Miller, regular human woman, is Ruby's mum:

her walking straight and upright and all of that when dropping Ruby off as a FIFTEEN year old who probably had zero medical assistance GIVING BIRTH about 10 hours prior

her having a cape instead of like. a regular hoodie or whatever. maybe she was going through a goth phase

the doctor was THERE when she was pointing. they do like a line about "well why was she pointing at you" "she wasn't pointing at me, she was pointing at the sign" okay but like. it's not like he was invisible though

YOU KNOW WHAT WASN'T THERE IN ANY OF THE PREVIOUS SHOTS OF THE SCENE? the fucking sign!! it MATERIALISED when the doctor said it was there

there is, of course, no way for anyone, save for maybe the Doctor, who was there, to know that she "pointed at the sign" to name her baby Ruby. and the Doctor clearly didn't catch on

the snow!! the snow materializing

the song in Ruby's heart thing that the Maestro is confused by

the memory changing

the doctor crying in the opening scene to church on ruby road when he knows who the mum is, but later not crying when he doesn't know who she is

the ambulance being unable to find any relatives for Ruby even though her parents did give DNA samples in 2046 (although maybe the ambulance was looking for currently alive relatives in which case, fair)

other things that make no sense that aren't directly related to Ruby's mum situation

"the one who waits is almost here" says the maestro. yea he's on a street a couple blocks away. kinda just sitting there though

metal becoming rare and precious in a post-death world. like, i would understand if wood and wool and such were deteriorating on account of having been alive or something . but metal? why would it be difficult to find metal?? the scene slapped though

why was the time window only responsive to Ruby, as well as colonel Chidozie only responding to her

the tardis being there at the church a second time but invisible?

Sutekh letting himself be dragged along with the rope

the stuff with Mrs Flood didn't make sense either but that's forgiven on account of they didn't pretend that made sense

i really hope there's more to some of what was "resolved" this episode because this ending felt cheap and kinda like .

so i like the message of "it's actually the unimportant that are important" but it felt kinda insulting to pull that after the whole season has been saying Ruby's bio mum and Ruby were important and unique, not just like. in the minds of the Doctor and Ruby but also tangibly in the world around them, like with the snow.

the reunion scene with Ruby and Louise was adorable though. it almost made me okay with the whole thing

[burnwater13]

The Armorer speaking to Din Djarin and Paz Vizsla (out of frame) in the Mandalorian covert on Nevarro. Image from The Mandalorian, Season 1, Episode 3, The Sin. Calendar by DateWorks. Caption reads: When one chooses to walk the Way of the Mandalore, you are both hunter and prey. - The Armorer.

So who exactly was the Mand’alor? Grogu was pretty sure that he wasn’t the Mand’alor, but what about his dad? According to Bo-Katan, whoever won the Darksaber in battle was the new Mand’alor. But even though his dad had done that, she didn’t bow, or curtsey or even nod her head in his general direction. 

Then his dad had given it to her or let her keep it after that weird creature on Mandalore had attacked him and carried him away. Yes, Bo-Katan had defeated that creature, but so what. She had managed to pick up the Darksaber from the floor of the cavern. She used it as a tool to fight with, but it wasn’t like the creature was using it to fight her. 

And okay, even that transitive property of winning a fight with a person who won a fight with a person who had last handled the Darksaber was enough to make that legitimate ownership of the Darksaber, why was that even a way of becoming Mand’alor? That seemed kind of silly. The Armorer hadn’t even believed that was the proper way to become Mand’alor. If anyone was going to know, Grogu figured they would. 

But as Grogu thought back on the few interactions he’d had with the the talented beskar smith, he was pretty sure that she had never said anything about how a person actually became Mand’alor. Why was that? It seemed like a pretty important thing to know, particularly after they’d figured out that Mandalore the planet wasn’t just a glassified wasteland of a planet. 

“Buddy, the point is moot. Bo-Katan is Mand’alor because the Mandalorian people have proclaimed her to be Mand’alor. It’s as simple as that.”

Grogu hated it when his dad read his mind like he was some sort of Jedi. He knew that the people present on Mandalore had rallied around Bo-Katan because she had been the last Mand’alor and she’d led them into that battle with the Imps that no one knew were still on Mandalore. But of course, from his perspective, a lot of that happened because of his dad and the Armorer. None of it really had anything to do with the Darksaber. It was just a thing. What power did it actually have?

According to legend it had been made by Tarre Vizsla, a Jedi, who also happened to be Mandalorian. But how Mandalorian could he have been? The Jedi started training people at a very young age. It didn’t seem logical that they would have let any particular youngling maintain any sort of deep attachment to a home world when they didn’t let them maintain an attachment to their own family. Why would have Tarre Vizsla cared about them or made a lightsaber out of beskar? How would he have even gotten the beskar?

“Grogu, that was a long time ago and even Mandalorians don’t know the answers to those questions. How do you think a person should become Mand’alor?”

There was his dad again! Just butting right into his thoughts again.

“Buddy, in case you didn’t notice, you’ve been using the sign language the Sand People taught you to do all this ‘thinking out loud’. I couldn’t avoid understanding you.”

Grogu chirped a rather sharp rebuke to his dad. He could have closed his eyes and let Grogu rant in peace. But no, not his dad. Not ‘The Mandalorian, Din Djarin’. He couldn’t…

“Okay, kid. Maybe we should just head back to the ship. You seem pretty over stimulated already.”

His dad reached down to pick him up but Grogu dodged his hands quickly and reached out and grabbed the giant Mythosaur shaped lollypop that he’d been considering since they entered the candy shop that had opened right next door to the Cin Vhetin. This was the one piece of candy he wanted. He just hoped it worked.

“Grogu, I know the legend about the Mythosaur and I’m pretty sure that riding a Mythosaur shaped lollipop around New Sundari won’t make you Mand’alor. Sorry, buddy.”

Dank Farrik! His dad had figured him out. Grogu wanted to have a proper pout about that, as he’d learned Mand’alors were allowed to do that when things didn’t go perfectly their way, but that wasn’t going to happen. His dad was a Mandalorian and scooped him up, lollipop and all and went over to the proprietor of the shop. 

“Is that all the little one wants? No fire stacks or popping eggs?”

She spoke in Mando’a and Grogu was glad that he was able to keep up with her. He’d been practicing when his dad was asleep because according to Din Djarin his accent wasn’t perfect. Uff. 

“Nayc. He’s already pretty wound up about this one.”

She grinned at them both. Grogu liked her instantly. She had pretty green eyes. 

“Every one who hopes to become Mand’alor, children and adults, ask for this particular confection at least once. I’m sorry to say I have never seen it work, but there is no fault in wishing for it.”

Din Djarin sighed.

“Now, he’ll want to come here everyday to try again.”

Grogu laughed and nodded his head. He was definitely going to do that. 

“Perhaps you should ask him why he wants to be Mand’alor. Most of the children have a pretty simple reason for that wish.”

“What the heck. Grogu. Why do you want to be Mand’alor?”

Grogu signed his response as quickly as he could because he didn’t want his dad to stop him.

The Mandalorian shook his head. 

“Did you catch any of that?” 

“Not if you don’t want me to, but I will say that is a very popular sentiment among the foundlings who have returned. They would like to see the smiles and laugh lines and tears. They think that there’s no reason to hide now that they have been returned to Mandalore. Perhaps they are right.”

“Perhaps they are.”

Grogu sighed and let his dad think that was the last word they would have on the subject for the time being. As long as Din Djarin understood that someday soon he could take off that helmet and let Grogu see those brown eyes again Grogu could wait patiently. Eventually he’d ride a real Mythosaur and his dad couldn’t deny him because he’d be Mand’alor for real.

[futbol16]

Just tell her! ・ Clàudia Pina

Request: "Hey, if you're taking requests, could you maybe do an Aitana or Alexia (whoever you prefer or someone from Barca) x Reader where R joins mid season from a top European team in a shocking transfer? Really just Barca team getting to know R & devolping a relationship along the way. Please & thanks. Love your work BTW."

Hope I this turned out better than I think it did, but enjoy!

Word count: 1,5k

Your transfer from the top women’s football team in Italy to Barcelona was shocking to say the least. Fans and players collectively were surprised and confused at the news, especially after your phenomenal 2020/21 season.

The whole Barca team was astounded by your signing, but they couldn’t help but feel excited at the prospect of having you on their team. They’ve seen how good you are.

Your first training session with your new team was at the very beginning of the 2022 year and you felt good as you pulled the Barca training top over your head.

You had met the team a couple of times since you’ve signed, but they were yet to learn your reasoning for the sudden transfer. Yes, they believed that you’ve always been a Barca fan, but many of them felt like that wasn’t the full extent of your story.

 As you tie your boots you feel a nudge to your leg and you look up at the person.

“Aitana was asking you why you signed with us.” Claudia repeats the question and you look at Aitana confused.

“I’ve told you guys already, I’ve always wanted to play for Barca.”

“But is that all to it?” Aitana questions carefully and she studies your face for a second. Your expression falters at her heavy gaze. “We’re just curious and want to get to know you Y/N, but if you’re not comfortable you don’t have to.”

Taking a look at the rest of your teammates who all nod at the girl’s words and you take a deep breath, readying yourself.

“The coach didn’t like me, I was constantly benched from the bigger games. Barely brought on for the last 20 minutes.” you start explaining and suddenly the floor becomes very interesting to look at. “He said I wasn’t playing good enough, wasn’t fast enough and that he couldn’t risk bringing me on for the more important matches.”

The girls around you share a look and you feel a hand on your shoulders, Claudia smiles at you softly.

Your training session soon begins after your talk and as you near the end of it, you’re put into groups of 5, an end of session scrimmage 5vs5.

The players currently standing at the side, those who aren’t playing at the moment, watch dumbfounded as you dribble up the field with insane speed, nutmegging and outsmarting the opposing team before you cross the ball to Patri for a tap-in.

“How the fuck?” is heard from Jenni and Alexia smacks her in the arm for her use of language.

“No, but seriously, how the hell did her coach think she wasn’t good enough?” Claudia also comments and yelps as she gets smacked in the back of the head.

“Language!”

For the remaining 15 minutes of your scrimmage, the ten Barcelona players watch stunned as you manage to pull tricks on every single one of their teammates and your team eventually wins the game.

This wasn’t the first time they’ve seen you play, they've watched plenty of your games before, all of them big fans of the energy you brought with you every time you stepped foot on a pitch. But seeing your magic right in front of them was a whole different experience.

They couldn't be happier to get to call you their teammate and they’d make sure you’d never get disrespected by anyone ever again.

As the months passed by, you formed a close bond with most of the girls on the team and you were performing better than ever, Joanatan actually put you in for the majority of the games you’ve played so far.

There was one person in particular who you got extremely close with.

Claudia and yourself have been named the most iconic youngster duo at Barcelona. The two of you spent every waking moment together, becoming bus buddies not long after you joined, rooming together at away games and always reserving a seat for the other during team lunches. 

It didn’t take you long to realize your feelings for the shorter girl went beyond those you were supposed to have for a friend. 

With the Spanish already being a very affectionate bunch, you relished in the feel of Claudia’s soft skin on yours every time the girl would scoot closer to you.

Those not so subtle touches the girl sent your way wasn’t missed by your teammates who were counting down the days to when the two of you would finally admit your feelings.

Patri and Leila have already approached you on more than one occasion as they tried to convince you that your best friend did have feelings for you. You denied their claims though, you didn’t want to believe them, to have false hope. 

It wasn’t until the Barca team went to the beach on a random weekend towards the end of the season that things changed. 

You were currently wrestling with both Leila and Mapi in the sand, hair full of sand as the three of you laughed your asses off over nothing.

Claudia watches as your arms flex when you flip Leila over, her heart fluttering at how you still make sure she lands softly on the sand before you get knocked over by Mapi who laughs at the two of you.

Patri and Alexia sit on each side of her and she already knows what they’re going to say. You weren’t the only one who was constantly pestered by your friends.

“Come on, just tell her! This is becoming pathetic!” Patri exhales loudly as she throws her hands up frustratedly.

“Patri!” Alexia scolds the younger girl who just raises her hands innocently. “It’s not pathetic..you just, you have to admit it Claudia. Go up to her and be brave.”

Contrary to you, Claudia was aware of your feelings, but she didn’t know how to approach you. You were her best friend and even though she knew her feelings were reciprocated, she couldn’t help but be afraid of actually having to confess to you.

A not so gentle push to her shoulder brings her out of her thoughts and she looks at Patri confused. Her friend just nods towards where you are making your way towards the water, presumably to wash the sand off you. 

She takes this as her chance and as she stands up she’s again encouragingly nudged, this time by Alexia. She takes a deep breath when she nears the water, seeing your head reemerge from the water, she starts swimming towards you.

The giggle you let out when she finally reaches you is music to Claudia’s ears and she grins back at you before her expression becomes nervous. 

“What’s wrong Pina?” you ask concerned. She holds onto one of your shoulders as the waves seem to want to pull her under and you quickly follow by placing your arms around her waist.

She blushes at the contact and circles her own arms behind your neck as you hold her above the water. She realizes that she hasn't yet responded to your question and clears her throat.

“So uh I actually wanted to tell you something?” she starts “No, I need to tell you something. I erm..well you see..I-” she stammers nervously and you look at her, patiently waiting for her to finish.

She soon gets frustrated at not knowing how to confess and as she sighs, she momentarily closes her eyes.

You lean your forehead against hers, hoping your touch would calm her enough so she could say whatever she wanted.

Your thumbs rub circles into her skin soothingly and when she next opens her eyes she has this look in them, one that you can’t describe but it makes the butterflies go wild in your stomach.

Claudia opens her mouth again, seemingly wanting to speak again before she abruptly closes it. Her eyes bounce across your face as she stares at you before her gaze settles on your lips.

Your mouth grows dry at that and your breath hitches as she starts leaning in.

You close the distance between the two of you as your lips hug hers and the both of you sigh into the feeling of being so close.

She pulls you closer as she enjoys the softness of your lips and it’s only when you hear loud wolf whistling from the shore that you pull away and look towards your teammates.

They’re cheering, many of them have their phones out and Patri is standing with a huge grin on her face as she shows you two a thumbs up.

You giggle at the girls, pulling Claudia out of the water with you and pressing a kiss to her cheeks as the two of you get wrapped in a big towel.

[bowlingwithplanets]

Only Murders in the Building Season 3

Spoilers!!

Holy shit I did not see coming who did it until right before it was revealed!

Thoughts:

Was not a fan of the gay son and mother kissing each other on the mouth

I love Loretta with my whole heart

Loretta and Dickie were so cute!

Not only Matthew Broderick just showing up out of nowhere but Oliver FaceTiming Mel Brooks???

Theo Dimas my love

I’m so glad him and Mabel are shown to be actual friends now

Mabel understanding sign language!

God I hope they get together after Tobert goes to LA. It would make sense for it to happen in season 4. I feel like with how complicated their past was that they needed time to build up trust and a friendship before anything romantic could happen

I didn’t realize until I saw a post referencing it but Theo has showed up in episode 7 every season so far. And in the first season that was the episode he narrated

I knew Ben was talking to a cookie!

Also his sewing circle is so cute and I want one!

I’m so glad Oliver got his show and the girl, he really deserved it

The Nanny’s Lullaby was such a beautiful song and I actually added it to my favorite musical songs list

The idea that Meryl Streep could be someone who never got their shot to make it big and was hoping for any small role she could get is the most unbelievable thing in this whole show

If this show has taught me anything it’s that it’s not always who you expect

I love the recurring theme the last couple seasons of the importance of family

I was so glad when Detective Williams came back, I missed her

10/19/2023

[heartlandians]

Filling Empty Spaces (Amy/Mitch), part 234

Mitch and Amy find an unexpected connection due to absent lovers. Set around season 11->.

A/N: I didn’t have a beta for this story, so hopefully there won’t be too many grammar errors.

****

The next morning when Mitch woke up, he still felt the weight of the world and all of its worries on him, but at the same time, he could tell his heart was slightly lighter after his talk with his dad last night.

The guilt of letting him down and then choosing his own path had been something that had been holding Mitch back from reaching out to his father more.

Growing up, Mitch had always looked up to his dad and wanted to be more like him, and in some ways he still did, but he knew it had been important for him to explore other options as well, just to know for sure that it was the right path for him all along, even if it would potentially come with the price of letting people closest to him down.

Reaching out his hand so he could get his phone, Mitch already knew better than to expect a good morning text from Amy, but he was still holding out hope for maybe getting some positive update when it came to her situation.

After all, he was in better terms with Lou now and she knew he was desperate for any news.

But as his eyes adjusted to the brightness of the screen, Mitch could tell nothing had popped up besides the weather app's notification telling him it was going to be another sunny day.

As he moved the cover from top of him and let his feet hit the floor, Mitch did few light stretches, only now realizing how stiff his body had gotten from all the stress he had been under these past few days. He needed to take better care of himself, he noted.

Mitch didn't want to wake his father, so he tiptoed to the bathroom and brushed his teeth as quietly as he could. As he wiped the traces of toothpaste from the sides of his mouth, he allowed his hand to glide across the beard that had began to cover his lower face and neck.

Ever since joining the army, he had maintained a clean-shaven look. Keeping his chin bare was just something he did, without even really thinking about if it was "his style". But the stubble didn't actually look that bad.

Or maybe it was nice that it covered some of the signs of fatigue that were showing on his face?

Still, perhaps it was time to try something different?

Ditching his shaving kit for another day, Mitch stepped out of the bathroom and bee-lined toward the kitchen, still trying to keep the floorboards from creaking.

As he was about to reach the kitchen, he glanced toward the couch where he expected his dad to be sleeping, only to find it empty. Someone had definitely slept on it, but had already woken up and was up earlier than him.

"Dad...?" Mitch called out, realizing there was no use of trying to stay quiet anymore since it was obvious his dad wasn't sleeping.

When he couldn't hear him reply, Mitch began to wander around the house. There wasn't really room for his dad to hide, so Mitch was done with his search in no time.

Had he gone out? Mitch wondered.

After getting his boots on, Mitch opened the screen door and stumbled on the porch. He saw from the corner of his eye someone on his right doing something in the yard. And when his head turned toward the person, he noticed it was his dad.

It was barely 6 o'clock, but Garrett was already going through the bricks Mitch had collected together for the firepit he planned to build some time soon.

"Dad...? What are you doing?" Mitch asked, half-expecting his dad to be sleepwalking or something.

"Oh, I couldn't stop thinking about the state of this firepit", he said, clearly already working on how the bricks should be arranged. He wasn't asleep or even half-awake.

"It's... really early", Mitch pointed out the obvious, partly wondering if there was cause for concern. Was his dad's memory slowly giving up...? "I think the thing can wait. You haven't even had your breakfast."

"I know, I know", Garrett said, putting down the brick he was holding and waving his hand dismissively, "but... I was just excited."

Mitch tilted his head, listening. "Excited about what?"

"Well, just... this", Garrett said, gesturing around them, "being back in the country. It's like old times. I always had an early start back then. And so, I was thinking what you said about the safe place thing and building a legacy and whatnot... Maybe I could help you with this thing and leave my mark here, at least in some way."

Mitch had to admit he was surprised; he had not expected the speech about this ranch going over so well with his dad, especially after his father had said his piece about the legacy of Saddle Road - which had been completely justified.

But at the same time Mitch knew his dad to be a very caring person when he wanted to, so in some ways something like this shouldn't have come as a surprise to him.

"Okay. You can help", Mitch finally agreed, feeling like it probably meant a lot to his dad to be able to do something like that for his son, even if Mitch was completely capable of just doing it himself too (well, when he'd have the time, that was).

Mitch knew it wasn't about his dad doubting his skills; it was about the sentiment his dad wanted to commit to.

"But first, breakfast. And then there are couple of other things we need to do before that", Mitch laid out the plan as it looked like his dad was excited to join him to do the chores.

Garrett walked to the porch. "Alright. What's on the agenda?"

"Well, there's a fence that's bordering the neighboring ranch that needs fixing. I was thinking we could get started with that, so you can get familiar with the land and Whisky, too. And then we need to run some errands before we can make that firepit happen. Sound good?"

Garrett nodded, smiling. "Sound good, son."

****

After breakfast, Mitch introduced his dad to Whisky, and while he was happy to make acquaintance with the horse, Garrett's face lit up when he saw Maverick.

Seeing his son's horse was another thing that brought back the old times. It seemed like Maverick remembered him too as he nudged Garrett's chest and expected him to scratch his neck like he had always done in the past.

"Alright, alright", Garrett laughed and let his fingers feel Maverick's coat. The warm breath of the horse against his shirt allowed his heart to swell even more on his chest. "I'll scratch ya, don't you worry, buddy..."

Meanwhile, Mitch was getting Whisky ready for the ride and fetched his brush from the grooming kit.

"They had to put down your old friend, Tonka, late last year, you know", Garrett spoke to the horse in the stall next door, and Mitch realized he had not known about his dad's old horse passing away.

"They did...?" Mitch had to ask, even though his dad was talking to Maverick.

Garrett nodded and reached for another spot on Maverick's neck while the horse hung his head low as he relaxed.

"Yeah, I guess time turns for us all", the older man said with a wistful tone. "But I'm glad he got couple years of retirement before passing on. He deserved that... Never had a horse more hardworking than good ol' Tonka..."

"I'm sure Mr. Landry took good care of him", Mitch spoke when he didn't know what else to say.

"I know he did, otherwise I would have never sold Tonka to him."

Mitch glanced at his dad's way, and even though he couldn't really see his face under the brim of the cowboy hat, the younger man had a feeling that being here and experiencing these things was opening his dad up to being more vulnerable about everything.

It wasn't something he was used to seeing, but then again Mitch had never really seen his dad without his mom after she had had her stroke and that was when his focus was on her.

His dad had always been in a caretaker mode and now, with his mom not here and Mitch all grown up, he didn't need to keep up that front; he was just a retired cowboy, reminiscing about the old times.

"You know, you could ride Maverick today", Mitch suggested. "I could take Whisky."

Garrett looked at him. "But Maverick's your horse", he said as if Mitch was confused about that fact.

"I know, but... you two already have a bond, and I don't mind riding Whisky once in a while", Mitch figured. "It could be good to switch things up a bit sometimes."

Apparently, he was in some type of mood today, with changing the routine, Mitch thought.

But maybe that was good, to shake things up - that weren't that serious - every once in a while, in order to get used to the discomfort change could sometimes cause, so eventually that could expand into bigger leaps too.

And life was all about change, after all, so it was better to get used to it.

Garrett let his hand rub circles around Maverick's neck as he thought about it. "Okay, yeah, sure. Why not. -- How do you feel about that, bud?" he asked from the horse.

Seeing his dad like this made Mitch smile.

All of this was actually helpful with getting his mind out of worrying about Amy every second as there was not much he could do about that.

Taking care of himself had to become a priority now so when the time came for Amy to get back to them, he would be ready to help her - if needed.

He couldn't be a wreck.

****

After their brief ride to the fence, that included Mitch showing some of his land, they located the section that needed fixing. Both of them dismounted and tied their horses to a near-by tree, and while for Garrett it took some time to recover from the riding and getting down, Mitch almost immediately put on his gloves and was ready for the work.

Mitch began by clearing the area while Garrett took his time and admired the view. The younger cowboy didn't mind his dad taking it easy, because while he had asked Garrett to join him, Mitch thought he was mostly here for the company. If he did anything else, it was just extra.

More importantly, it felt like it was important for Garrett to be included.

"Funny seeing the Foothills from this angle", the older man said, admiring their snowy tops. "They look just as beautiful as ever."

Mitch smiled, nodding. "Yeah. Doesn't really get better than this."

"No. No, it doesn't", Garrett agreed, then looking how Mitch brought out his wire cutters and started taking out the damaged sections off. "So, you have the cattle business with this neighbor of yours?"

Shaking his head, Mitch thought how to summarize the whole thing. "I used to work at this ranch. The Heartland ranch."

"Oh yeah", Garrett realized then. "Jack Bartlett's farm, right? Or at least that's who used to run the ranch back when I lived here."

"Uh-huh. He's still there."

"I remember people talking about that place. It had that, uh, that horse rescuer lady, didn't it? Jack's daughter", Garrett could recall as he touched his lower lip thoughtfully. "And her husband, that young rodeo cowboy used to live there too, didn't he? Think they had couple of kids as well..."

If there had been some fleeting doubt about his dad being forgetful after Mitch had found him at the yard working on the pit, he didn't doubt it now; his dad's mind was sharp as a knife.

"I'm sure Tim would be flattered to hear you call him "young"..." Mitch laughed. "Especially because he's a grandfather now."

"Well, yeah, I suppose he's not that young anymore... Around the same age as me, probably", Garrett realized his description was probably a little off since his knowledge of the place was dated.

"But yeah, that's where Tim used to live, but not anymore. He's the one I'm in business with. Our business used to involve Jack too, but he's retired now", Mitch summed up. "Tim lives not too far from here, but Jack leases us part of his land. That's his side, this is mine", he added, gesturing both sides of the fence.

"They still rescuing horses in there?" Garrett wondered and came to lean on one of the posts.

Mitch felt both sting of sadness but also a beam of pride when he thought about Marion's legacy. "They do. Jack's daughter, Marion, died in a car accident over a decade ago, but her daughter, Amy, has continued in her footsteps."

"That's good. You can never have too many healers in this world."

Mitch nodded. "Agreed..." he said softly.

While Garrett was looking around and saw some of Heartland's horses on the other side of the fence, Mitch wondered if this could be the moment when he'd ask about something he had thought about ever since Amy's accident and again yesterday when Lou had brought it up.

"Can I ask you a question...?" Mitch began, nervously. "About you and mom."

Garrett's eyes moved toward Mitch just as he realized the post under his arm was a little bit unstable and so he tried to adjust it better. "Sure. What is it?"

Mitch moved to get the barbed wire they had brought with them.

"I know it's a delicate subject, but... I was wondering how did you felt after mom had her stroke...?"

Garrett shook the wooden post between his hands, digging it deeper into the ground, while his boots secured the ground around it.

He also listened to his son's question, wondering what Mitch expected the answer to be.

"You gotta be a little bit more specific. There were a lot of feelings involved."

"Just... I guess, when you heard she'd be using a wheelchair for the rest of her life", Mitch slimmed it down. "How did that make you feel?"

Garrett let the post go just as Mitch began to splice sections of the wire to complete the fence again.

"That's a specific question", the older man noted.

Mitch sighed a little. "Well, you asked--"

"I know, I know", Garrett said, lifting his hand up to calm his son down. "It's okay. Was just wondering if there's a reason why you wanna know. After all this time."

"There is", Mitch added, even though he still wasn't sure how much he was actually ready to talk about yet, as everything was just all over the place, but he at least wanted to work on the thoughts and feelings he had right now so maybe they'd take a different shape.

For Mitch, his dad was probably one of the only people he knew who would understand his situation better than anyone else.

Garrett studied the younger man next to him, letting him explain.

"I've been seeing someone, and she... got into an accident recently. Right now she's in a coma, and we don't know what's going to happen, but... I've had a lot of time to think about things. There's a chance she might come out of this... disabled."

"I didn't know you've been seeing someone", Garrett said right away.

"Well, yeah, I have but it's been... complicated, so I haven't been telling people about it. So, don't take it personally."

Garrett nodded thoughtfully, trying to put these two perspectives together now that he was a little bit more informed. His eyes drifted toward the Heartland horses as he went back in time.

"I can't lie, it was a shock, of course", he began then. "So many questions that were waiting for an answer. Practical things, like, would the house be suitable for her to live in. What would happen with the ranch. How would our marriage survive it all. There was this... pressure of wanting to know all the answers right away. But you never do, not until you look back. It's only now that I can fully be in peace with it all. I'm glad to say we made it work."

Mitch held the crimp tool in his hand, but had seized his work as he listened.

"Did you ever... wonder if you were equipped for that?" Mitch asked.

Garrett hummed. "No one's ever fully equipped for anything. But you learn. And so, I did. I had never cared for anyone that intensely, not even you. Your mother did most of that while I was busy running the ranch. So when the stroke happened, it was daunting, but... I knew I had to do my best - and I think I did."

"And you two made it", Mitch pointed out, seeing they had just celebrated his parents' anniversary not too long ago.

"Yeah, we did. And I'm extremely lucky I got to keep her in my life. I was close to losing her, but I'm so thankful I didn't", Garrett said, sounding profoundly relieved.

Mitch still didn't know what was going to happen with Amy, but he was hoping they'd still get to have that similar moment too.

"Our lives have changed, and so has our love, but love never stays the same, anyway. I think the best thing to come out of this all was the way we had to learn to communicate better; I needed to learn to listen and hear what she wanted", Garrett added.

"It's just amazing what you did", Mitch wanted to say.

Garrett shrugged. "It's not heroic. It's just how marriage is; for sickness and in health. And that's what it was - what it still is. She would have done the same for me."

Mitch had to shamefully admit to himself that big part of the reason why he had only invited his dad to visit, for now, was a feeling he was trying to avoid.

"And now, well, she doesn't need me as much, but that was always the goal; that she would be able to be as independent as she wants to be", Garrett continued. "The transition was difficult at times, but now everything is just... well, normal. Even the part with her having to rely on a chair to move around; it's not really something we think about that much."

"Yeah, I guess so", Mitch nodded.

"When you're in it, like very deeply in it, you can never imagine how it could just become your new normal, but it does - and it doesn't always mean it's bad. It's just different. But there can be good in it", Garrett wanted to add. "Lots and lots of good."

Mitch couldn't help but think maybe it was a good thing his mother had had that choir performance so she didn't have to be some kind of subject for his projection.

She wasn't just her disability.

It wasn't until now, with Amy's situation, that he had began to see her through that lens as he tried to navigate this situation and make sense of it.

"Well, yeah", Mitch admitted. "I guess ever since I came back home from Afghanistan, I've just felt like... I haven't been able to do enough with anything. Like I'm not enough."

"I don't think your mom ever expected you to help with her. That's why we didn't want you to know about it when it happened. We thought we'd figure it out - and we did", the older man offered him some absolution.

Mitch nodded. "I know..."

Garrett came closer and put his hand on his son's shoulder. "Whatever happens with this girl, as long as you have open ears, you're doing the most you can do. That's enough."

[thomotomo]

Hi! If you're not comfortable with this request feel free to delete it, I just thought about faker and keria being rivals 'cause they're in love with the reader, who is a streamer at t1 and also their best friend, and they're just competing to see who can impress the reader more djfjsjd.

The competition

A/N: Thank you for that request it was very fun to write (after all who wouldn't be happy to have two cute guys fighting over you aksk) I hope you'll be satisfied with this and that you'll like the "plotwist"~

You had always been a huge league of legends fan, since the beginning of the game really, and following the e-sport scene since it really started. So when T1 (well, SKT back when you started) had come up to you and asked to be one of their streamers, you clearly didn't took a long time to accept the offer.

The day you had started, your followers were ecstatic, after all you had always been a huge T1 supporter and this was just a dream come true to you. Over the years now being inside the industry and close to the players you had became friends with all the different people that had player for T1 alongside other teams but nowadays the one you were hanging out with the most was Keria, after all the two of you shared a same enjoyment for Kpop and whenever you could you would just go out to buy kpop merch together.

Unbeknownst to you, but a certain Unkillable Demon King was jealous of this friendship. He knew you for the longest time and yes, maybe he had nourished a small crush on you throughout all the years you had become friends and seeing you hang out with the young support. So he decided that tonight after your stream, the two of you would go eat hotpot. He had texted you his plan, making sure that you wouldn't get whisked away last-minute by Minseok. Naturally you had accepted his offer, after all hotpot was one of your favourite food and in this season it was always welcomed.

Later that night as you cleaned up your streaming room Sanghyeok opened the door with his usual slightly awkward smile.

"Ready? Let's go eat."

You took your backpack, chuckling at his excitement, whenever it was about eating hotpot, Faker was basically becoming as excited as a puppy. The two of you walked out of the headquarters of T1 and headed to a restaurant nearby that Sanghyeok was stopping by pretty often. The owner was always happy to see Sanghyeok and there was a private "area" where she often put him and whomever was coming for privacy. You were starving and you definitely were going to eat like a king, ordering a whole lot of food and when everything was laid out on the table you couldn't help but take a picture, posting it on Instagram and tagging Sanghyeok.

Keria, who had your notifications turned on, immediately clicked on the story and he couldn't help but feel jealousy take over his soul and he wondered if the two of you were on a date, but he quickly shook off the idea away from his head, surely if it was an actual date you wouldn't broadcast it to your whole audience.

And just like that, both Minseok and Sanghyeok were fighting for your attention and trying to impress you. There was a few times where Sanghyeok had been doing his best to impress you by displaying his cooking skills, even feeding you some whilst he was cooking. Minseok on the other hand was bringing you signed items by your favourite idols, or ticket concerts that you could attend together. A few times, on separate occasions, the both of them had been barging in during your streaming sessions, keen on showing off something to you.

"Hyung you gotta see this! I had a new idea and it works perfectly let me show you!", Minseok had promptly dragged you away from your computer, luckily for him you had just been discussing with your audience so it was fine and you weren't missing anything important.

He explained to you excitedly this new idea he had and showed it off to you. You praised him, messing up his hair in affection. And when you set back in your seat, you couldn't help but grin at your audience.

"Honestly, everyone should be scared of Keria, he's a little genius. He's going to eat everyone this year."

" (Y/N)-ah. I need you to taste this.", this time it was Sanghyeok. You turned your chair to face him, keeping an eye on the game that was happening, opening your mouth as he fed you a spoon of whatever he was cooking. Your eyes widened and your tore your gaze away from the screen as you chewed on the food.

"Wa... It's so delicious hyung! Please put some aside for me!", Sanghyeok's chest puffed up in pride due to your compliment.

As this happened one too many times the two men were "scolded" by management, effectively putting an end to the almost daily interruption in order to show off to you, to your fans' greatest sadness, after all they really enjoyed seeing players of T1's League roster stopping by your stream for random interactions.

The atmosphere in the team was kind of different now that Minseok and Sanghyeok were competing for your affections and the scrims were definitely more intense, after all both of them wanted bragging rights when seeing you.

Those days, though, it was hard for them to meet with you, training was taking all of their time. But after two weeks of not being able to see each other you were finally able to coordinate a dinner with the whole team. To the rest of the team's greatest entertainment Sanghyeok and Minseok had tried their best to look conspicuous to have a seat facing you for Sanghyeok and seating to your right was Minseok.

In the end, Keria had been the one who had accidentally discovered that you weren't single. He had been trotting over to your streaming room, you weren't streaming today but you had come up to do some work on your PC so you were there and he was eager to see you, he had brought some albums he had desperately been wanting to open but in his terms you were his "good luck charm" so he wanted to maximise his chances to pull his bias (really an excuse to spend time with you).

He thought he was hearing muffled speaking as he approached your door, but really you enjoyed speaking to yourself so it wouldn't be surprising if you were alone. Only, right after he knocked and stepped into the room he froze because, on the ground with his hair disheveled, t-shirt off and sporting a very clear blush was Sky. You didn't look much better than him and Keria couldn't even get himself to admire your pretty well built torso as you quickly put back on some clothing. It was very clear that what happened right as he entered wasn't some kind of play-fight.

"Minseok-ah!! I'm really sorry you had to see that!!", Haneul spoke first whilst passing a hand through his hair.

"Yes I'm also so sorry about this... I'm... We haven't spoke of this to anyone, could you please keep it on the down low?", your eyes were pleading him, and he completely understood after all it could get complicated if the public heard about this, not everyone was very open-minded and it would be terrible if either you or Haneul had to leave the company with a scandal like that tied to your names.

"It's... Okay hyungs. I can wait until later to come back.", Minseok's right hand was clutching his bag tightly, he was feeling really sad now and he had to get himself out of here fast.

The young man was waiting outside, chewing his lip in awkwardness, he decided it was worth sending a text to Sanghyeok, after all even though they had been "fighting" over you they were still teammates and friends. And even though he didn't want to say who you were dating, after all you had asked him to keep it low until you were ready.

Finally after a few minutes, Haneul left your streaming room, looking more put together than before and he apologised to Minseok before walking away, a small blush still present on his cheeks. Minseok shuffled inside your room, not looking the most comfortable.

"Minseok-ah, I'm once again very sorry you had to see that..."

"It's okay (Y/N)-hyung you don't have to justify yourself!", he put down the bag of albums.

"Still! I'm sorry maybe we should've spoke to the team about it but you know it is kind of still new? And we didn't want to bring any problem inside the team if it wasn't working you know..."

Minseok nodded and the two of you stood there, still in an awkward atmosphere but you tried to dismiss it by pointing to the bag he had brought.

"So... You got new albums?"

Minseok tried to look excited and he started opening them, desperate to ignoring his heartbreak.

A few days later, you and Haneul made your relationship known to the team and the staff, it seemed that you had been discussing with the management so that the situation wouldn't surprise the company if it ever got leaked to the public. As the announcement was made, Zeus, Oner and Gumayusi looked at Faker and Keria from the corner of their eyes, wondering how their teammates were going to react but the two men let nothing negative transpire and instead congratulated the both of you.

Only once the five teammates were together did they admit to the sadness they felt, though Minseok had gotten a bit more time to process his feelings and what he had stumbled upon.

Obviously they were sad, after all, they had been doing their best to impress you and get your attention but all in vain, as you had apparently been dating Haneul since the very beginning. In krder to bury the hatchet properly, Gumayusi had offered to treat them to hotpot, after all it was always guaranteed to warm both hearts and stomachs.

And so that night, they all went together to their favourite hotpot place, burying the hatchet as well as mending their broken hearts. At least they wouldn't harbor harsh feelings or jealousy towards one another if they had been successful in their confession.

[my-mt-heart]

tldr here - it was very short qa, only 30 mins no questions. norman and melissa hung out and took selfies and signed stuff with as many people as possible before security wrapped it up. neither stopped when the came out the back to their cars.

what do you want to know? you don't have to post this / you can repost it under a cut for spoilers, idc.

pros: most scene time in the first ep is of carol, who's dry wit i missed but is totally back. i like the new character, avi. beautiful scenery, love that it's supposed to be maine. the crowd cheered for carol / melissa, there wasn't like favoritism towards norman / daryl in terms of reactions. fans of all ages / genders / etc.

cons: same character development. she meets someone, she puts on a facade. i was so frustrated carol didn't just tell the truth. i didn't watch the first season out of spite but daryl's scenes.....i really felt like i was watching, like, harry potter and the walking dead. it just felt wrong.

neutral (imo-not significant but feels a little stale / like they didn't try atp): focusing on carol's loss of sophia, call backs to The Barn scene, there's a cherokee rose that symbolizes "hope."

from the qa: norman really hyped up the finale but that could just be to get people to watch. teased "bickering like an old married couple." zabel teased the photos of mel and norm shooting in paris and norman was like, "there's pictures of it on the internet" they know. when they asked melissa what she said on the radio she did an adorable bit about "i want my socks back" or something. she also implied that she's been apart of crafting where the character goes and what's important. dalton ross is very cringe, he needs everyone to know he was the guy to be at the height of the comic-con days (but he wasn't that was hardwick lol). there was a well known rick cosplayer there and people were trying to sneak photos, i think they thought he was andy fr.

plot spoilers: tldr carol befriends a guy, avi, for his plane and convinces him to fly her to france by the end of the first episode to find her daughter sophia, who was in paris with her father ed when the world ended (avi calls her out on this and everyone laughs). she plays on the loss of his son, which melissa says is "awful." i'm not positive bc i didn't watch but i think avi's place is where daryl made the radio call from to cArol but i can't be sure i could be making that up.

it was cool but also gave me this deep bit of sadness? like maybe i'm too old for this and need to move on. it was a little disorganized - they kept removing reserved seating so people kept rushing for closer seats, which left me in the middle of the front section with empty seats in either side of me? it was weird.

Thanks for the writeup! I'm really happy Melissa was so well-received. She deserves that.

Carol falling back on old habits makes me nervous because of how quickly some viewers like to demonize her (female characters are always judged more harshly than men for their flaws). I know she's desperate to get to Daryl, I love that he's her emotional drive, and I trust Melissa's performance will be nuanced, but I'll judge the writing when I get to see the scene for myself.

What is Daryl's arc in 201?

I feel like there is actually a lot of healing left to do as far as Sophia goes, so I'm glad Melissa wanted to explore that. I hope the callbacks/flashbacks with Sophia as well as with Daryl really will help Carol grow as a character. I'm confident in Melissa's storytelling abilities. She's very intuitive. Zabel on the other hand tends to put gimmicks before substance and that doesn't mesh well. If people are saying they can feel Melissa's influence in the episode, that's a good sign. AMC should keep leaning into her vision for Carol/Caryl.