#I think we might get his story of him being a good agent who breaks the rules

[fishybehavior]

Does anyone else find it odd that the manager of the department of reassignment was arresting a fugitive nindroid??

I think someone was trying to show their hand

Or jay used to be field agent and got dragged into this (maybe he owed agents Allen and/or Underwood a favor)

[siconetribal]

Beyond the Bookshelves (3)

Pairing: Loki x Reader

Warnings: Obnoxious coworkers, what is the proper ettiquette when emailing princes, teasing Captain

Summary: You're a Resource Management Specialist at S.H.I.E.L.D. normally referred to as “The Librarian”. You've been assigned the nightmarish task of digitizing all the physical resources currently owned by the agency, with a few new computers and one extra helper.

A/N: Please comment/like/reblog. If you'd like to be tagged moving forward, please let me know!

The lovely banners used in this fic are from @cafekitsune.

If you’re new to the story, please check out the master post for the rest of the chapters.

The meeting was as boring as the fallen prince expected it to be, but he hardly showed his disdain for his time being wasted. Cabinet meetings and audiences with nobility and dignitaries were expected and mandatory for royals. In his opinion, a majority of them were hardly worth the time and could be easily sorted out with logic, but politics hardly worked that way. It was fickle, changing at the whim of whomever is more powerful. And though at times it was fun to see how the spoiled nobles would squabble over the most ridiculous things, the majority of it was always dull.

To think I once found such a thing mesmerizing as a young boy, wanting to follow my father everywhere and prove myself useful to him. A moment to shine, to step out of the immense shadow casted by my brother. The corners of his lips tugged downwards at the miasma of memories that began to stir. He knew the ledge was a precarious one and a single thought could have him plummeting to the depths and ensnare him.

“Do you have any questions?” The agent looked at the members of the group one by one, hesitating and nearly jumping over Loki to avoid eye contact.

“Agent Pruyn, was it?” He watched the man who was addressing them flinch at the call of his name. “Would it not be wiser for me to be the one who distracts them? I am able to change my image to look like anyone. I would merely need some footage of the person I am to imitate to better play the role. You will also be able to monitor my movements since I will be in the banquet hall as opposed to behind the scenes searching through the office.” Minimal footage of me in questionable places is best. Who knows what someone might do as an act of vengeance. 

“No, this is the best plan of action. Hawkeye is better suited for that portion of the mission and needs support while Black Widow distracts the target.” Agent Pruyn cleared his throat. The lack of negative reaction from the others seemed to embolden him a little bit. “Also, are you implying that she can't handle it? Black Widow is the best undercover agent we have. She's successfully infiltrated hundreds of places while you've only failed at discretion.” He scoffed. 

There it was. The bias and condescending tone, the twisting of his words, and the lack of support. Such insolence made his blood boil to the point of physically punishing the fool, but he kept his reactions in check with a blank expression. Silently, he changed the way they perceived him to look identical to the infamous fiery haired operative who was sitting with them. Everyone in the room stared at him in wide eyed shock, looking at him and her to see if there was a difference. 

“Well isn't that a neat little trick.” Natasha was the first to break the silence. “Certainly beats needing to put on that holographic skin.” She leaned in closer, trying to find some flaw.

“Stare all you like, you won’t be able to tell the difference unless I let you.” He said in her voice.

“If he’s so good at keeping up an appearance, why not just swap them? Nat and I are equally able to get in and out without issues if there’s a good enough diversion.” Clint shrugged, though he was impressed at how perfectly Loki copied her.

“I don’t have an issue with that change, I’m the one who can break into the computer system they have. It’s better if I’m with Clint.” Natasha agreed, Loki shifting back to himself.

“So, we’re in agreement. I will be the one to keep the group busy and the both of you will gather the necessary information. As I stated, I’ll require footage and data on the individual I’ll be impersonating.” He turned his attention back to Agent Pruyn who seemed rather cross with the change to his plan but said nothing since the other two Avengers were agreeing with Loki.

“We’ll need to adjust the timeline of the operation then. Everything was set up for this plan, we’ll need to adjust and see if there’s another gathering we can infiltrate.” 

“You say this person of interest has possible ties to this Hydra organization, correct? Why don’t we get ourselves invited to his home or wherever you think he is housing the necessary information? Why must we wait for some large gathering outside somewhere else?” Loki questioned. 

“We can’t just waltz into his home unannounced.” Agent Pruyn scoffed. “Do you think he just calls people over for tea time? This isn’t one of your royal games, Loki.” The condescending tone was back once more with a sense of triumph. This was hardly enough to anger the prince, but he was not so lenient to let it slide for a second time.

“Who said anything about tea?” He looked at the agent with raised eyebrows. “I wasn’t aware you had the time for such frivolous plans. I must disappoint you, my plans do not allot time for such.” Agent Pruyn grit his teeth and glared at the insouciant attitude the Asgardian was speaking with to him. A few of the other members of the meeting snickered at the calm retort, looking away to avoid the ire of the presenter. “This target has questionable connections and has a proclivity to feign a charitable appearance through auctions. We need to approach him as someone equally shady who wishes to either wash their hands of some item or trade an item to someone else and obtain the money under the guise of donating to said charity. We simply need to choose someone from his connections or create someone completely new.”

“That,” Natasha was the first to speak, coincidentally cutting Pruyn off, “is an excellent idea. If we came as someone new, trying to make a name for themself, they’ll be more likely to accept us if we come with an item of great value. Loki can play the part of the client and I can easily play the part of his assistant as needed to keep up the facade. Once we’re invited in, I can get Clint inside and we can get the information we need while the auction is going on.”

“Until the auction takes place, we can build a relationship with him and others. We can record all the conversations and pick up on any codes they use to discuss the secret dealings!” A female agent chimed in soon after, realizing an extra benefit to this plan.

“This makes it a much longer plan than anticipated though, we’ll have to resubmit the plan to our lead agent and to Director Fury.” A male agent pointed out.

“Sounds like it’s a necessary delay if it’s going to be more fruitful than the original operation. I guess Thor wasn’t exaggerating when he boasted about how strategic you are.” Clint slightly nodded his head in approval. “Redraft the plan and submit it, we’ll see what Fury says before moving forward.”

“We’ll schedule our next meeting after that.” Natasha nodded, standing from her seat. The others followed her actions and the meeting came to an end with a very irate Pruyn glaring at the back of Loki’s head. A small smirk of satisfaction tugged at the Asgardians lips as he walked down the halls, feeling lighter at proving himself as worthy to be on the team.

Y/N stared at the screen of her computer, willing it to fill the empty body of the email that was addressed to the two Avengers she was allowed to work with. Glancing at the time, she groaned audibly and turned her chair around so her back was to the screen.

Three hours, I’ve been staring at this blasted computer screen for three hours! Why do I need to message them!? Wasn’t Agent Hill supposed to coordinate this? Why is everything suddenly dumped on me from start to finish? This is ridiculous! Next they’ll want me to manage their schedules and make sure they have time to complete their missions and assist in my never ending task! I am not some over glorified secretary, I am the head of the Resource Management department, the director of it! I attend all the ridiculous morning meetings, check-ins, and any other waste of time meeting that could have easily been an email instead while managing all centers that contain our resources, digital and physical! She pushed herself out of the chair and paced in the space she had behind the desk. “When am I supposed to even meet with them when both are due to be deployed this week!” She threw her hands in the air as she shouted into the empty office. Defeated, she slumped back into her seat and turned to face the computer once more. 

She did not want to wait until their return, she needed it done now so that while they were gone she could have the computers and scanners set up and be ready to start as soon as they returned. Straightening up her posture, she pulled the keyboard forward and quickly began to type a brief email stating she was approached by Agent Hill and wanted to set up a short meeting in person to introduce herself and better understand how to properly utilize their assistance and time. She also added that the both of them are available tomorrow after lunch for a brief period of time. Rereading her email over and over again, she made sure there was no error before finally hitting the send. Now she had to wait for a response. Thankfully, the chime signaling the door opening was a great distraction, letting her escape the panic while waiting for a response.

“Good afternoon, how may I help you?” She happily greeted the person as she stepped out of her office. “Oh, Captain Rogers, how are you?”

“Good afternoon Y/N, I’m doing well. How are you doing?” He smiled, giving her a slight nod.

“Could do with less work, but that’s not going to change anytime soon.” She tiredly chuckled.

“I don’t know how you handle your work at all. I wouldn’t know the first thing to do with a fourth of what’s here. They’ve got the right gal for the job here.” He patted her on the back. “Which is an expertise I’ll be needing at the moment. I’ll be going out on a mission with Thor and Tony to a fairly remote area with indigenous people. Thor will be a great asset with his AllSpeak, but I’d like to get some insight on the culture.”

“Oh, so no “An American Girl” books this time around? Or  the “Hardy Boys”?” She curled her lips inward to keep from laughing as she watched the famous Captain America clear his throat and turn away to hide the hints of a blush that were creeping up onto his cheeks.

“No, not this time. But maybe when I come back you can suggest something for me to read?”

“I would love to, I’ll think up a small list and let you see which you’d like to start with. So, back to your mission, where are you going and do you know the group you’ll be interacting with?” She clapped and rubbed her hands together, eager to be of assistance. “Let’s head to the front desk while you tell me so I can pull up what we have for you.” Nodding his head, he delved into the details of the mission that were necessary, Y/N never asking for more information than necessary as she pulled up anything relevant and jotted it down on a sheet of paper. “Ok, follow me!” She walked back around just as the chime signaled someone else coming in. “Good afternoon, if you need my assistance I will be with you shortly. Please wait at the desk.” She turned to smile at the newcomer only to see the raven haired prince. Oh, good thing I put the book on the table already. “Follow me, Captain Rogers.”

“Y/N, you can just call me Steve. I think we’ve known each other long enough to drop formalities.”

“Captain Rogers, so bold and scandalous!” She gasped. “What would your fangirls think?!”

“Please don’t remind me of those.” He sighed heavily and gave her a stern look. “And I insist you call me Steve, we’re friends.” He flashed her that famous hero smile.

“Alright, alright, Steve it is.” She turned into an aisle and began to skim the codes, pulling out books which were taken from her by the gentleman super soldier beside her. Once everything was pulled, the two went to the nearest table.

“This is great, thank you, Y/N.”

“Anytime Capt-,” she stopped at the pointed look he gave her. “Steve. If you need anything, just give a holler. I’ll come help you.”

“We’re in the library, I don’t think hollering is a good idea.” He chuckled.

“Who’s going to stop us, the librarian? Oh wait, that’s me!” She grinned, earning an eye roll from him before he turned his attention to the books he had as she made her way back to the front desk.

Tags: @vbecker10 @huntress-artemiss@softestqueeen @thegodofnotknowing @princess-ofthe-pages @firedrakegirl@rcailleachcola @cabingrlandrandomcrap @lotrefcp @lwtannie @kats72 @jainaeatsstars @mssjsg7 @tom-hlover @kneelingformyloki

[decadentpostnachos-evil-twin]

Tamlin was a double agent to the king of Hybren. Please re read that bit again .

Let's unpack :)

Because I did read it again, and guess what? My opinion hasn't changed.

As we all know, Tamlin allied himself with Hybern in acomaf. Refreshing your memory on why he did that:

Feyre went to the Night Court in maf. Then sent a letter to Tamlin, who most likely still thought her illiterate at that time. So Tamlin went to get her back, not necessarily for his own interest and gain, but because he was genuinely in love with her, and might I remind you, Rhysand hasn't done much to look like a good guy in front of quite literally anyone outside of his Inner Circle. Tamlin was concerned for Feyre's safety and desperate enough to bargain with Hybern to get her back from the man who's known for his cruelty throughout all of Prythian. The same guy who served under Amarantha, tormented Feyre for his own amusement under the Mountain and sends chopped-off heads in favour of postcards, just to name a few. Tamlin thought Rhysand bad enough that he'd take a bargain with Hybern just to free Feyre from his clutches.

He admits to his attempts at trying to find a way to break said bargain after, as you can see in the text above.

Furthermore, Tamlin's alliance with Hybern had definite advances for Prythian, seen as he could provide intel on Hybern, which is vital in a war.

This right up there was the High Lord's meeting. Where, I'm gonna repeat myself to really drive that point home, Tamlin provided insider information on Hybern. Who else could have done that? Right, nobody.

This right here is Tamlin saving Feyre's ass. Just putting that out there. And risking his life going against the King of Hybern in the open. Did Rhysand do that under Amarantha? Break his "cover" to help Feyre out? I don't think so.

And last but not least, Tamlin joining the final battle:

And bringing Beron with him, might I add. Oh, and what's this? Another crumb of information Tamlin might have given?

The chance that it was him is 50/50 on that, but I'm still putting it here.

Summary:

In acomaf, Feyre was presumably abducted by Rhysand who is the villain of the story to quite literally everyone except for six people (himself included) at that point and really doesn't put any effort into redeeming that. So what does Tamlin, concerned lover do to help her? Well, first he goes to the Day Court, hoping for help to break the bargain Rhysand struck with Feyre. But that doesn't work out fast enough, and thinking Feyre might live in constant agony, he grasps for straws and turns to the only person he knows could break the bargain: The King of Hybern.

So this alliance came to be for the sole purpose of saving and protecting Feyre. He planned to break it off after. As we know, that did not work out, but Tamlin used it to his advantage by collecting information and providing the other High Lords with it.

Then he risks his life to save Feyre.

And then, he comes to their aid in the battle too, bringing the human army and Beron with him.

And then he saves Rhysand's life in the end. Literally.

So yes, Tamlin was a double agent. But no, he was not a double agent for Hybern. Not when he worked against them in favor of Prythian.

And last but not least:

Rhysand was a "double agent" too, under Amarantha. The difference being that he commited several atrocities during her fifty-year-rule.

Tamlin's ambivalence was helpful in the war against Hybern, possibly even vital. He served a purpose.

Rhysand? He did it for no further reason than to protect a city that had been hidden from everyone for millenia before. A city that did not need more protection, as opposed to the rest of his court. So him playing whore for Amarantha served no purpose. Literally none. Other than giving him an opportunity to play the martyr, maybe.

In conclusion, I would therefore recommend that you read it again. :)

[cineflections]

You know, if there was one manga that would be adapted to live action and succeed, I never would have guessed it to be this one.

I'm ofc talking about the One Piece Live Action on Netflix

A whole day binge right after release, I was READY, and thankfully, I was not disappointed. There are cuts and streamlining of the story, characters coming in earlier than in the manga/anime, and some of the emotional bits don't hit as hard as in the original. Still, I can feel the love the production team has of One Piece. The characters are goofy and lovable, but they are also serious and straight-faced.

One thing that I noticed throughout was the constant close up to faces and sometimes straight on, as if almost breaking the 4th wall. The very first scene with Luffy is like this, but there he DOES look into the camera directly, but the pov of the camera is revealed to be a newsbird. It's like a statement that they know this is a silly pirate romp, they know that some people will not take this seriously, but they will not do 4th wall breaks silly, but in-universe silly. Does that make sense?

I laughed at several points in the show, big and wide smile on my face and pointing at the screen several times...

But I do wonder how much of my laugh was on the show's on merit or if I was only calling back on the the source material. At times I did feel the straw hat crew not being as iconic as in the manga/anime. The extreme reactions, the over the top noises and actions, at the same time I realize that real people generally don't act like that.

I appreciate the show runners attention to details. Putting stuff in to tease future arcs, adapting some cover stories, some of the complete unhinged behaviors of characters (Garp I'm looking at you!).

This show adapted Romance Dawn, orange town, syrup village, baratie, and arlong park.

There are so many moments that are almost scene by scene taken from the manga. Luffy in the barrel and meeting Koby. Alvida with her giant spike club. We got to see some pre-captured Zoro moments (particularly him killing a baroque works agent!), Nami being a sneak.

Then we meet the one and only clown Buggy! They hammed him up, they made him a showman and a real clown (with a real bulgy nose as well, props!). I loved Buggy. Goddamn what a show stealer. Excellent casting, his devil fruit was show cased so well and it looked good!

Usopp's introduction is the most changed. The kids are gone and the Black Cat pirates never call in the entire crew or Jango. Instead of the fight on the slope by the beach it's instead in Kaya's house from which they cannot escape. The actor for Kuro nailing the mannerism and hand movements, altho his "teleporting" looks a bit wonky.

With Baratie we are finally introduced to Sanji! Who's British now 😆. And Mihawk's introduction tho! Badass and just so over the top and goofy. I love him so much! This is where we got the biggest change where we instead get Arlong and crew coming in smashing the place up (a tiny bit). Arlong may not be as tall as he should be but I love the practical approach instead of CGI, which means he actually feels present! All the fishmen we see are guys in costume and prosthetics!

Arlong Park felt a bit more rushed than the earlier parts, but I do think they nailed *that* scene tho.

If the bar for live action adaptation was below the ground, I would say now there's a new bar, which is on the ground 😅. I think it's a solid show but it might be my bias talking. I do have some gripes tho.

One thing that was constant in East Blue Saga was how much village people hate or are scared of pirates. I think they got the marines right, and the pirates, but they failed to really have the village people be a character in their own right. In the manga and anime the villagers are mostly a monolith who will think and act alike in situations and be part of the happenings either by watching or fighting. We got just about none of it here, except a mention in Arlong Park. They did some really good and cool world building with lots of people populating the sets in the background - but that's it, they're just extras to fill out the screen. There are ofc a few exceptions but I felt it was not enough.

I wish they had Luffy be more agile when using his gum-gum powers. Whenever he springs a pistol or a whip is stands in place, which I found boring (and they did so well with Zoro's fights!). I do think the explanation is that they decided for Luffy to be coming into his powers as we go. That we will learn with him all the things he can do (him not knowing he can blow himself up like a balloon proves this). I hope that in season 2 (please netflix!) they show the growth in his fighting!

But to end this long post. I just wanna say how much I fucking love the dude playing Mihawk. Goddamn he's so fun. MVP.

For the straw hats, I would say that Usopp feels the closest to manga version, and Luffy feels the most distant from it. But I don't dislike this, and I think the actor for Luffy has so much potential to really make the role his own.

It will never be "just like" the manga and anime, but that's ok! It's a new adaptation (in live action) made by people you can tell loves the source material and really really tried to make it work! I respect that, and I respect this show. Please watch it on Netflix! It's a fun and silly time, just like it should be!

[thef155]

Note: this was posted prior to the LH->Ferrari news

I really, really hope the rumors that Carlos might have only a short-term contract extension (i.e. until the end of 2025) are true. That may be a blow to his pride, and I feel for him deeply, but breaking away from Ferrari by 2026 would be the absolute best thing for him.

If you don’t know, Carlos and Charles are both currently contracted to Ferrari until the end of 2024, and both are now currently in talks for extensions. According to La Gazetta (grain of salt required), Charles is taking a five year extension to 2029 (whyyyy Charles? why do that to yourself?). Meanwhile, Carlos has asked for a 2-year extension, but Ferrari reportedly only want to offer him 1 year for now. Carlos potentially becoming a free agent for 2026 is very significant because that's the start of the next regulations era in F1; a new formula and new rules come into play, ushering in new engines and new cars and opening up the field for new contenders. It’s also when Audi will be stepping onto the grid as they take over at Sauber (currently Alfa Romeo). Importantly, Audi have been long-rumored to be interested in Carlos as the driver they want to sign and build their new team around.

I'm not going to delve into how much Ferrari has treated Carlos like shit, because we all know that story, and none of us are actually surprised to see the team undervalue the man who keeps them afloat when all else fails and gives them their only win in a season. I don't think Ferrari ever expected Carlos to be so competitive and push il Predestinado the way he has, and now it's bit awkward for them. But the fact is that Ferrari have now gone all in on Charles with this 5-year deal, and now they have no choice but to make every other decision around that. It makes sense that they would offer just a 1-year extension if Carlos is asking for 2 years because they know a 2-year contract would be no more meaningful than a 1-year if other teams are seriously interested in Carlos. If Audi (or McLaren, if Lando leaves) really want to get Carlos for 2026, they will have no qualms about swooping in during the 2025 silly season to buy Ferrari out of Carlos’s last contract year. They know what they have with Carlos even if they aren't going to publicly recognize it, so it's in Ferrari’s best interest to keep their options open for shopping if they don’t want to risk being caught out dry in 2026.

But let’s forget all that and talk about the most interesting part of all this to me: that Carlos asked for something as short as a 2-year extension. He knows Charles is getting 5 years, so why?

This tells me that Carlos has finally begun to lose faith that Ferrari is the best place for him. That’s a pretty damn big deal, because—although this gets overshadowed by Charles’s love story with the Scuderia—Carlos’s passion for Ferrari and the Tifosi is no small thing. I think he smiled bigger on the third step of the podium at Monza than he did at Silverstone for his maiden win. Winning a WDC with Ferrari is (or was) his life’s dream.

But maybe 2023–his best year ever—is what Carlos needed to stop ignoring the writings on the wall. Maybe he’s starting to admit to himself that he’s never going to get the support (or competence) he needs from Ferrari to achieve his dreams. Maybe he's understanding that he's found success not because of Ferrari, but in spite of them.

Carlos is too good to be a No. 2 driver. We know it, Ferrari definitely knows it (and that’s their problem), and—most importantly—Carlos knows it. Ferrari can go ahead and search for someone this talented who's also willing to roll over and be their next Rubens Barrichello. Because it sure as hell won’t be Carlos Sainz, Jr.

[igotanidea]

Be careful who you bring home: Morpheus x OC PART 2

You asked for it and I promised to write, so enjoy a little preview of part 2 to this story.

I got a feeling this will not end here.

Special dedication goes to @mypsychoticlove who accused me of teasing :D

“You seem distracted today.”

“Distracted?” I scoffed in denial “you think. I am completely focused.”

“Mhm, sure” Raynor clicked her pen and wrote something down

“Oh, come on, doctor.” I throw my hands in the air in utter annoyance “is that what they teach you in your psychology school? How to make a patient impatient? Pun intended.”

“If you have something to say now would be a good time”

“Fine” apparently crossing my arms was not a good enough sign of my internal thought “I think this is a complete waste of time. What do I have to do to get clearance and get back on field?”

“The same thing as everyone else. Talk. “

“I believe we are talking?” slight tilt of head was indication of irony, but Raynor either didn’t catch that or decided to ignore me, one way or another her watchful gaze was becoming a bit intimidating “Oh, give me a break” I surrendered and looked down first.

“ I heard from a good source that you got yourself a pet lately.”

“What?” well that was a surprise “Who told you?!”

“So it’s true?” well played, doctor, I fell right into your trap.

“No. Of course not. It was just a stray cat. Nothing permanent. My niece insisted on taking him home.”

“I see.”

“And?”

“And what?”

“I don’t know. It’s your office, I’m your patient. Is I see all you can say now?”

“It’s your time, agent. Your chance to talk to me, not the other way round.”

“Ok” I nodded my head, pondering “Can I ask you a question, then?"

“That’s unusual, but go on.”

“Who the fu….”

“Language, agent!”

“Who the fuck told you about me taking home an animal?” Screw the language. I’m already on the psychologist’s couch and apparently her job is to fix me so let her do that fully.

“I already told you, it does not matter.”

“It matters to me!”

“So you can find that person and do what?”

“Have a little conversation how rude it is to talk about other people behind their backs.”

“Conversation, hmm? Like you had a conversation with Barton?”

“That was different. We were at training!”

“Of course you were. You know, maybe getting an animal is a bad idea for you after all. You would kill the poor being within two days time.”

“You wanna bet on that, doc?” I knew what she was playing now. The inverted logic was quite popular technique and I knew it well enough from SHIELD interrogations, being the one who used it.

“Yes, in fact I do. “

***

„I’m telling you, boss….”

„This discussion is over, Matthew.”

“But I think….”

“Enough of it. I am not going back to cat form.”

“Well I think it’s worth a shot.” Third voice, far more cheerful than the previous two, came into the discussion

“sister” Dream sighed heavily, feeling like she might want to push him into doing something he would not like.

“hello, brother” she grinned “I heard about your little adventure.”

“Who told you?!” the younger endless raised his gaze and eyed Matthew with a warning

“Doesn’t matter. What matters is that you get to see human interacting with animals. This should have been good to you. Most of them become more … gentle with pets.”

“I don’t see where you are going with this, sister.”

“Oh, you are a terrible liar, Dream. You know exactly what point I’m trying to make here. You need to explore more of the world in your cat form.”

“no.”

“you are taking this way too serious. Come on, Dream. Live a little. Life is full of surprises and you don’t have to be moody and sulking all the time. Come on” she nudged her brother’s arm “I’m telling you….” She flashed a smile again

“You two are unbearable.” He muttered

“So, think about it” Death took his arm and forced him to start walking with her “if you do, we won’t have to have this talk again. Doesn’t that sound good.”

“It does.”

“Why do I feel there’s a but coming?”

“But I don’t believe you would not talk about it again.”

“come on, boss, we promise, don’t we, Lady Death. And who knows, maybe you will enjoy this so much that…..”

“Enough, Matthew” Morpheus stopped abruptly and his Raven, who was flying close behind nearly bumped into his back. “I shall not listen to my subject.”

“Well that was painful. Remember who helped you get out of hell, boss.”

“That I do. But is does not give you any power, whatsoever.”

“Oh, for Christ’s sake, Dream. Why can’t you just listen to your friend?” Death asked shaking her head in disbelief over her brother’s stubbornness. He already opened his mouth to interrupt her train of thoughts, but she was quick to continue “yes, Dream, a friend, but we all know you are in denial. However, if you cannot bear the thought of listening to Matthew, how about you listen to me, hm? I’m older, wiser and more experienced with humanity. Oh, and did I mention, older? “

“Twice.”

“That’s good enough of an argument” she shrugged “you want to bet you will like it, Dream?”

“I made a bet with you once” he reminded, his voice turning lower than usual.

“And you loved and still do love every second of it” she raised her hands stopping him from talking again “even if you will never admit it. So, how’s its gonna be?”

***

The second I left Raynor’s office I started to regret making that bet. Damn my stubbornness and tendency to prove people wrong. Some may say that was a bit of a masochism and ironically the source of this self-torture was my psychologist. Ha, ha, ha, laughing hard. In case you didn’t catch that it was high and thick irony. Now, I had to get myself a pet and take care of it for a while without making any part of this relationship go crazy. But how the hell am I supposed to do that. In my life I did not have much experience with the animals, blame the line of work. SHIELD was not really a pet-friendly environment. Ok, fine, there were some rumors about Fury and some cat named Goose but a cosmic being cannot be counted as a home pet. Maybe we should rank Spider-man or Ant-man as ones. But seriously, cats and dogs and even hamsters or parrots I knew were messy, loud and joyful animals, none of this trait appealing to me. The cat Jemma found yesterday was seemingly different but it’s not like I can summon him to me again.

“Shit!” I muttered to myself or at least I thought so.

“Look who’s here!” a familiar face came into my view.

“Oh, hello, Sam. Wonderful to see you, falcon” I grinned, sudden animal though coming into my head.

“Is it? “ he frowned and took a step back “I hate it when you smile like that.”

“Like what” I took a step forward, ready to make a dance.

“Like crazy. Seems like Raynor is failing on her job again. The same was with Buck.”

“One soul gazing exercise and you call him by nickname?” my raised eyebrows made Sam realize he made a mistake and said too much “what’s next? Gossiping about girls?”

“Actually….”

“you know what, I don’t want to know. What are you doing here, Sam?”

“What do you mean, it’s a park. Everyone can walk in the park.” Suddenly he became a bit defensive

“Mhm, right, sure. But what I found suspicious is that you live on the other side of the city and you have three others park nearby, so why this one?”

“I like this one.”

“Since when?” I insisted

“Since one of my friends lives here.”

“Sam…..”

“What?”

“Why are you spying on me?”

“What?” he shrieked and then coughed and then scoffed “Why would I do that?”

“You just affirmed it.”

“I did not……”

“Cut the crap, Sam. Tell me ….. oh, wait” sudden realization dawned on me “it was you. Shit, Sam.”

“You are not making any sense, agent.”

“what happened to friend?” I mocked “I’m going to ask you one question. Did. You. Tell. Raynor. About . The cat. I. Took. Home?” Since I made every word a sentence it was my chance to take a step closer toward him with every other one. Now I was standing impossibly close to him, looking straight into his eyes with my most intimidating look.

“Damn! You act like Buck, ekhem I mean Barnes now. Is that what they teach you to become and agent?”

“Well I learned it in the process, yes. That’s something you could use as well. Now, answer the question.”

“Fine, fine! I told her, but only because I’m worried about you, ok? I mean how would you react upon seeing someone you care about running around a park and taking stray cats home?”

“That is not what happened!”

“I did not say that was what happened. But it might. In the future. If we don’t act now.”

“Sam…” I rubbed my forehead in disbelief.

“What? I am worried about you, really. And I do want to help you. Missions without you are not the same. I miss your sarcasm and teaming up.”

“You know I appreciate it, really do. But why didn’t you come to me in the first place?”

“Would you listen?”

“Hmmm” I wondered about the answer “Probably not, but….” There was something on my right, a small, black, furry shape. It could not be……

“What is it?” Sam followed my gaze.

“It’s nothing. And I’m fine. I gotta go Sam. See you soon” I walked away from my friend trying to test a crazy theory.

“This girl is crazy.” Sam muttered to himself, shaking head.

***

Third person POV

“Oh no, it’s him again” she thought upon spotting a familiar figure.

 “Oh no, it’s her again” meowpheus thought at the same moment.

Dream should have known better, because where else could have they spotted the girl once more if not in the park that was nearest to her apartment. As for her, she couldn’t have known that, but her park was the only place Morpheus knew so far so the chances of meeting again was 100%.

As their gazes met, she knew there was something different about this animal, however not sure what. But the way he was moving around like he owned the place, the way he was avoiding people and, god forbid, kids, but not hiding was not a typical animal behavior. It was more humane.

“Are you stalking me?” she whispered in his direction.

Do you think yourself so special? You are just a human.  

***

I am going crazy. I hear a cat talking to me. Yes, I’m mental. Maybe if it was the first time I would let it pass, blaming the stress, anxiety, lack of sleep and hundreds different reasons, but it was happening again. Maybe I was dealing with some demon. Or even the devil himself. Or a familiar of some witch…..

Not quite so much.

“Ah!”  I almost jumped because of that little inside voice. Girl, get yourself together! You are an agent. You though criminals, villains and aliens and now a cat makes you doubt yourself?

Are you scared?

“What? No!” I scoffed. It was an instinctive answer, but what seemed natural to me was not like that from other people view. Of course they did not hear the cat so in their opinion I was talking to myself. To make it just a bit better I quickly put out my phone pretending I was talking thought the headset but they were still gazing at me suspiciously. Ok, now I gotta get out of this place. I rushed towards the gate, steady but quickly in my best intention to get home, but the cat followed me like a shadow.

Wait.

Just ignore him.

I think we can both use each other’s help.

A cat’s help. Right. Keep walking.

Wait!

Now he was not just talking, he was commanding and I was forced to stop and turn around since sudden darkness and coldness crept inside me. I was looking at the cat and he clearly was looking at me.

You are troubled. Now I remember your dreams.

I’m sorry, what now?

I know you.

That was not creepy at all.

And I hold power over your sleeping hours, so you will listen to me.

I raised an eyebrow in mocking expression and crouched next to him.

“You are a cat. How can you possibly command me this way?” I whispered “if anything it’s the other way round. I could do anything to you.”

You would not dare touching me.

“Really? Let’s see about that” I reached for him and before he could break away I was already holding him close “not so combative, now, are you?” I teased.

Put me down, immediately!

“Let me think about it…. No. Now I am in control. And I will not let go until you explain yourself. Who the hell are you, because you are not an animal?”

I do not need to…..

“I think you do ….From what I remember you are not a great fan of being embellished. You remember my niece? Wonderful girl. She loves pink and she loves glitter . And so it happens I can call her anytime and invite her in….”

Stop it

“did I mention she loves animals?’

Stop it!

“Explain. Actually, don’t. Not here. Let’s get to my apartment and then we’ll….. um, talk, I guess.

If only the poor girl knew who she was taking home……

 

 @somest1 @pinksirensong

[br1ghtestlight]

getting war flashbacks to the bobs burgers fanfic where louise is doing math homework in the restaurant when nobody else is around and then bob has a heart attack </3 that shit was TRAUMATIZING

love linda shouting four whenever there's a math problem or anything related to numbers. best recurring joke. FOUR!!!!

you can do it gene :D also im so bad at math I 100% would not be able to help either. dumbass rep family

bob trying to help gene with his homework is cute. even if he is Not very good at it. he wants to be an involved dad :(

gene im not gonna lie that math question has gotta be fucking with you. rhat is not a real question. i could NEVER do that not if i was given 100 hours that shit is fake

see this is where when I was in math class i would just write a random number and move on bcuz im never gonna figure it out anyway im not gonna waste time. so that's my advice gene. just Give Up

he says "maybe your mom or tina could get you started" because they're older but I genuinely think louise has a better chance of helping bcuz she is so smart. if she'd WANT to help is another question entirely

because I'm stuck in a safe 😐

AND THEN HE BLINDFOLDED ME ON THE WAY HERE??? HE BLINDFOLDED YOU??????

teddy I think his guy is gonna murder you im gonna be so real right now

unfortunately im kinda following teddy's logic now like. it isnt like fischoeder isn't doing this type of shit everyday just for fun. rich guys are just like that BUT getting their money is nice

"gene was doing homework?? that's new"

WE'RE NOT ALL ECONOMICALLY COMFORTABLE LIKE YOU ARE

"Why did you tell me the whole long story about the sandwich in the drawer if you're running out of battery LOCKED IN A SAFE??" "Context!!!!"

also bob and teddy have such great comedic chemistry lmao they bounce off each other so naturally

louise isn't lying she Does have a certain set of skills 😭 if anyone could find him it WOULD be her the lockpicking genius nine year old supervillain

miss you. see you soon. gotta go!!

has he gotten a new cellphone since that MIDDLE OF THE DAY AND YOUR PHONE IS AT 23% argument or is it that same shitty 2008 blackberry phone that dies almost immediately lmfao

bob is a real one for doing this bullshit for teddy he did NOT have to. they're ride or die fr

I'm not entirely unconvinced that gerald isnt a serial killer but thats okay <3 men can have hobbies

also I'm choosing to believe this gerald is the same one from the taxes/weed cookie episode even though it ABSOLUTELY is not bcuz i think that would be funny. by day he's a regular tax agent by night he is a creepy rich kidnapper who pulls mind games on all his handymen

OH I FORGOT THE SUBPLOT FOR THIS EPISODE IS ABOUT SPORTS PEOPLE why did they do the whole thing with gene's homework then.... are they connected. what is the gameplan

WE PICK A NEW LOVER FOR MOM

i love how bob is apparently the only thing keeping his family from going completely off the fucking rails like. he's the only thing standing between his family and their restaurant burning down with everyone inside fr

your dad never loved that dream :/ because he's a hater :/ AND SO JEALOUS :/

you're not gonna break the world record. another hater. STOP THAT

I might be having a panic attack 💔 I CANT TELL BECAUSE IVE NEVER HAD ONE BEFORE OR IM ALWAYS HAVING ONE soo real teddy

WE LOST HIM 😭😭💔

aww I love them all wearing their lil aprons <3 (crappy photo of my tablet bcuz the app im using to watch this episode doesn't allow screenshots)

SAY SOMETHING SMART LIKE UHH HOW WOULD YOU FLIP A GIANT BURGER. OH GOD THEY DIDNT MAKE THE GIANT BURGER DID THEY. WHO WOULD EVEN AGREE TO EAT THAT. AN OVER FOURTY CO-ED BASKETBALL TEAM. REALLY 😯

sorry this episode has so many good ooc quotes FJDMDJSKSKKM

gene STOP calling him father

bob is being like a whole ass detective meanwhile linda and the kids are currently making The Worst Decisions Ever

h jon benjiman is doing such a good job voicing bob in this episode idk it has so much personality and sounds natural. or it's always like this and im just now appreciating it but either way A+ work

cute bob and teddy moment ❤️❤️

(ignore the awful camera quality. nothing I can do there) also love the fact that teddy can easily lift up and manhandle bob. Good to know

there's so much going on w/ this gerald guy I dont even know WHERE to begin. what a guy. wow

this is so cute and sweet im so happy!!! YOU DOUBLE FAKE WALLED HIM :D YOU SMART SMARTIE. YOURE A GENIUS BOB

"I knew I asked the right person to come help me. Yeah. Mort wouldn't answer."

"What? You called Mort first?"

"No..."

HE ASKED MORT???? LMFAO big win for tedmort shippers. I fucking guess

MORT NEVER DOUBLE FAKE WALLED ANYONE why is bob like genuinely jealous of mort and teddy right now 😭 chill out man you've got a wife at home

"let's just say it's twelve" FINALLY bob follows my very smart advice when it comes to math homework smh

ALSO THIS IS TECHNICALLY THE FIRST TIME WE'VE SEEN THEM EATING BOBS BURGERS FOR DINNER OR IN GENERAL!!! I mean it's a giant hamburger loaf but it technically was served at bob's burgers so it counts

GIANT FRENCH FRIES

aww this episode was so fun and cute!! I love the more adventure-y type episodes where they explore a new location so this episode was great and very stressful lmao. also very funny. I love bob and teddy's dynamic/back and forth throughout the episode and the weird mort mention at the end felt like they were soft launching his and teddy's relationship even though I KNOW they aren't actually. mort could replace kathleen if we believe. very solid 8/10 episode :)

[mdhwrites]

Jumbled Thoughts: Romantic Rivals With Spy x Family

"What do you mean you love him!? You may be best girl, the tsundere and the one who spends 90% of your screentime with him but I'm in love... With..." "You want to go get a drink as a consolation prize?" "Yes please." And then I'm going to poison her drink so he can be all mine!

A lot of good, long term romance works have what can easily be identified as the romantic rival, regardless of how actually effective those rivals are. A character essentially designed to be an obstacle between the main couple and true love. There's a lot of forms this can take and luckily, anime has given us two great examples recently with Spy x Family's Yuri and Nightfall... But first let's get a few things out of the way.

Despite my bit at the beginning, a romantic rival actually doesn't need to be a direct competitor. Quintessential Quintuplets' romantic rival is the 5 girls' father and it'd be real creepy if he was actually trying to bang him.

"SIS!"

We'll... We'll get to that. No, instead the point of a romantic rival is simply to be someone who has to lose if the main couple ends up getting together. Their happiness and desires are essentially impossible if the main couple's happiness is achieved. That's why they're a rival since there can only be one winner. The most direct way to do this is with someone else who loves one of the two MCs but it can take on a lot of forms.

Secondly: For them to be a rival, they do actually need and investment in the potential of the two MCs being together. The best rivals are likely going to relish in destroying what might have been just as much as they'll enjoy either capturing the one they love or dooming them to misery. For their role to function though, they can't be unaware of what they're doing. Otherwise, they fall more into cruel twists of fate or comedic interventions depending on the severity of the moment and the tone it's portrayed with. Like Joe from Big Time Rush moving for her work isn't because her agent is a romantic rival, whoever they are doesn't care about the romance going on, it's just business. One that tragically breaks up the head of the band and her.

We did get one hell of a song out of it though. (Yes, I loved this show as a teenager and still think their music slaps incredibly hard. Also, I'm linking this video because it portrays more what happened but I do think the 2020 acoustic version done during lockdown is better.)

Another thing necessary for the character to be a rival though is that they are inherently a bad option. While one could call all the girls in your typical harem romance rivals to each other, it's better to call them contestants. They all have a real, viable case for taking that spot of best girl/boy, both in the hearts of our MC and of the audience. You are supposed to be okay with any of them getting with the main character. They are simply a competing ensemble.

A romantic rival is a villain. Even when not explicitly portrayed as one, you're supposed to want them to lose. They VERY rarely are real people besides maybe a sob story but that's not really the point of them. Romantic rivals are meant to elevate something into soap opera levels of drama, not for a nuanced discussion of love. A way to heighten the stakes and force the cutesy, potentially eternal lovey dovey elements of a work into what will be an even more satisfying conclusion.

Or for some EXTREMELY funny jokes. Speaking of, let's get into Spy x Family.

Nightfall versus Yor.

Yuri versus Loid.

Or, er... Well, see, why these two are so useful is that we actually have an incredible romantic rival and one that mostly entirely falls flat on his face in the role and is arguably the worst element of the show to me. As such, let's start with him: Yuri. Yor's baby brother.

He is a member of the secret police, the best at what he does despite such a young age and has a sister complex. Like... 80% of his character is sister complex. 19% more of that is screaming about his sister and then 1% of him makes you remember "RIGHT! This guy actually claims to be a functional human being!" Yuri's inability to actually function as a person is one of his biggest flaws because that single minded obsession makes it hard for him to really have more than a handful of jokes, all of which just increasingly become more stale (at least for me) as the show went on. That's a real shame too because as a rival to Loid, he's actually about as good as you could ask for.

See, while I have problems with Yuri, his failure in this role actually has a lot more to do with Loid than himself. A rival is meant to push the couple out of their comfort zone, potentially make them fuck up and do something that will upset the other, or challenge some aspect of a person's love for their partner. Loid... Doesn't have any of these traits. His whole gimmick is being the man with a thousand faces. To have so many layers, you'll have cried an ocean by the time you get to the core of this onion. That also means he has no comfort zone to push him out of, only fuck ups because of himself and...

Well actually, this is the one way I think Yuri does screw up as a potential rival to Loid. He makes big declarations about whether or not Yor and Loid's love is real but his love isn't real either. He doesn't actually know his sister. He doesn't engage with her genuinely, just like Loid doesn't. He has this nostalgic, permanent image that would take literally seeing his sister kill a loyal citizen to the country in order to even crack. That's not actually more genuine than Loid using her like he does. The only difference is that one will never ask Yor of anything and want to stay by her side while the other will only stay until the job is done. It'd be much more effective, in this role, for Yuri to genuinely know his sister and be able to call things out because of the genuine care versus Loid's artificial care.

Otherwise, what Yuri really does is be a reminder of the world these characters exist in. Someone who genuinely can NEVER find out the secret between the main couple, that they're not married nor actually in love, or else Loid is a dead man and Operation Strix is over. That's because Loid is an enemy of the state so while Yuri would lock him up for the wrong reasons, he is still one of the few people who could actually cause trouble if only he knew the truth. Too bad Yuri has been a spy for like an entire decade less than Loid and so Loid can run circles around him also making this tension somewhat tenuous at best.

He is only a threat in essentially the same way anyone is. In that he cannot know the secret. That is the exact opposite of Nightfall, Yor's rival.

Nightfall is a fellow spy from Loid's agency. She actually was a pupil of Loid's and mistook being told you can't have emotions on a mission to mean she must deaden all emotions. She is also a super spy on a similar level to Loid, making her the idea working partner for him.

But that lack of emotions is also why she can never be Loid's romantic partner. Yor is a bundle of energy and a precious cinnamon roll who wears her heart on her sleeve and couldn't help but be earnest even if she tried not to be. She is exactly the sort of warm, open person that Loid needs to ever make him consider retirement. To peel back the layers so that he can one day be himself instead of one of the many faces that he has. She will only ever love Loid... Not Loid's job or codename: Twilight.

Immediately we have the reason why these two contrast and why you will never root for Nightfall. Nightfall loves Twilight. Loves the image and ideal of Loid as this unstoppable super spy who she could essentially conquer the world with. Who she could help alleviate the woes of before they both get back to work. She'd be devoted but to all the wrong needs of Twilight. We even know she has the skills with which to do it, something Yor very clearly lacks as putting her in the kitchen is a surefire way to attempt mass genocide.

Not to say Yor is incapable of challenging Nightfall in a more practical way like how Loid entirely destroys Yuri. Yor is still superhuman in her physical capabilities which is why despite how clumsy and dumb she can be, she's still a very capable assassin. It's just that being an assassin is essentially all she's good at, besides empathy that is. Yor's care runs deep, just like how deep the tennis ball she sent into God only knows where is or the ball she played with Anya with when she did her own signature shot. Since Nightfall can't convince Loid to drop Yor due to her wifely duties, she does only have this and one other tactic to use against Yor and here she fails ENTIRELY.

The other one she's a lot better at. See, in her eyes, Yor is a bad wife. Yuri thinks the same about Loid but as a bad husband. Unfortunately for our cinnamon roll, she does not have Loid's confidence or the homely skills to back that up and so questions about her capabilities, especially with a smooth motherfucker like Twilight, shake her to her core. Luckily, she has the empathy and care that helps with Anya and makes her not just a good wife but what is even more important here: A good mom.

Here is where we get Yuri's last failing. See, a good romantic rival should be like any good villain. They oppose not only the couple but the whole premise and theme of the show. Yuri and Nightfall both do actually attack the themes to some extent by asking for stagnation and pulling the two back to their past where they will be trapped in the violence they have known all their lives. This is attacking the Spy part of the title. Only one of them actually says anything about the Family part of it though.

The most disappointing moment of the entire series for me was when Yuri finally interacted with Anya, Loid and Yor's adopted daughter, and hated her. Now, admittedly, his goal of arresting and killing Loid would pretty much certainly mean Anya's death too since she was adopted by Loid. Best case scenario for Anya if Yuri wins is going back to the orphanage but... That's the same case for if the operation that brought these three together fails in anyway. He adds nothing new with this that the base premise of this being a sham family doesn't already add.

Meanwhile, Nightfall knows from go about the operation and her opposition to Yor is specifically so that she can take the place of Loid's wife for the operation. This introduces two new elements that very, VERY few other characters can so directly. The first is that if Nightfall wins, it dooms Anya. Her desire to keep Loid as Twilight, rather than as himself, means that the warmth that Yor and Anya are forcing out of him will likely shrivel back up and die so that when the operation fails, Anya will go back to an orphanage and the family will end.

You also might have noticed that I said WHEN the operation fails, not if. While we haven't gotten it in the anime directly, we know a lot of Loid's methods for getting Anya to succeed fail and Anya at least likes Loid enough to try. Yor has made monumentally better strides in getting Anya to listen, be better and try harder than Loid ever has because, well... Anya is six. She doesn't need a cold, calculating spy, she needs parents and Yor's earnest and honesty makes her a great parent who is constantly trying to do the best for her child. From the brief glimpses we get of what Nightfall would try to employ as a parent, we have good reason to assume she'd fail just as hard as Loid has and so either Anya would run away, happy to be away from a family that no longer has Yor's warmth and has a slowly deadening Loid, or she'd be sent away once the stress and pain of that environment crushed her.

It is a unique threat that quite only someone from Loid's agency can present and it's a much more interesting reason to hate Nightfall and want to see her fail than Yuri just hating Anya regardless because he sees her as an extension of the sister stealer. It makes her a genuine villain that the regular populace can't replicate. It also allows her more dynamism as she'll do whatever she has to to gain the place of Loid's wife, even act kind to Anya, until finally she no longer needs to. She's a spy after all and this is her mission.

There's one other element here though I want to give a shout out for that is actually easy to overlook for romantic rivals: I want Yor, Twilight and Nightfall to be in a polycule. For Loid and Nightfall to finally have a real conversation and fix the lesson that has poisoned Nightfall so thoroughly. For Yor's kindness to help Nightfall see herself as a real person and not a slave to her image of Twilight. Hell, I even do want to see Nightfall be able to help shore up Yor's skill weaknesses and give Loid someone who can 100% understand his worldview, even as they both fight against keeping up those barriers. Nightfall is mostly a joke, mostly played for comedy but her genuine care for Loid, and how much it devastates her to fail, makes her into a more complex, sympathetic villain who you don't want to see be splattered on the pavement.

I... Well, I won't say Yuri is such a bad character that I want him literally dead but if he got shipped over to this world's version of America for the rest of his life, I would not miss his presence. He is a creep, a man child and quite frankly the best ending for him is probably to literally never be able to see his sister again so as to grow up as a person. Even that implies I even care enough to want to see him grow though as two seasons in, I don't really care. He has ONE truly great sequence that shows his potential and even it shows his critical flaw as a romantic rival: It has literally nothing to do with Loid or Yor. He is only an interesting character outside of the context of those two.

And for a narrative role who's whole job is to complicate and add excitement to the context of the main couple, that makes him a complete failure. So for as great as yuri is in most contexts, make sure you don't write the character Yuri if you're trying to make a good romantic rival. Not unless you wish for night to fall on your story and leave it in the dark.

======+++++======

It's kind of fun how much romance anime I've watched in the like past six months. It's still only three series, Kaguya, Quintessential Quintuplets, and Spy x Family (the last of which is SO many genres) but it did help me have some actual examples when I finally sat down and wrote this. Also, I'm currently poking at theoretically going back to my roots and writing a harem story, though also keeping it PG-13 like my current stylings so honestly, have any anime recommendations for me?

Also, this is probably another Jumbled Thoughts post that goes too much into the example, even if highlighting how Nightfall is a good contrast to Yor is so important to understanding what a good romantic rival looks like.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[duhragonball]

Neon Genesis Evangelion 21

NERV Origins: The Clownshoes Abduction

Okay, so this one is kind of confusing, because it flashes back and forth a lot. Let's go over the present-day stuff first and then we'll cover the scenes from the past.

Admiral Clownshoes gets abducted right under NERV's nose. I gave him a silly name because I couldn't be bothered to look up his actual name, but to be clear, he's the second-in-command of NERV, after Gendo Ikari himself. So it's kind of amazing that he could get kidnapped like this, although it's also kind of stupid, because this guy has done fuck-all since the story started. Gendo's the mastermind of NERV and the Evangelions and everything else that goes on here. Misato and Ritsuko pretty much handle all of the logistics and combat stuff. All the "Vice Commander" ever does is stand beside Gendo and make wry observations to him. I don't get the sense that he has any real purpose in the organization. I named him "Clownshoes" for a reason.

Anyway, NERV Intelligence suspects Kaji Ryoji, who was recently kicked out of NERV for being a double agent working for the Japanese Interior Department. Since Misato is known to be his lover, they hold her in a detention cell just in case she's an accomplice.

Regardless of Kaji's role in the abduction, the ones who wanted Clownshows are SEELE. I was starting to get the impression that SEELE was the name of the committee of grumpy old men who talk to Gendo Ikari whenever things go wrong. But apparently SEELE is another, even more mysterious group of dipshits behind the committee of grumpy old men. They wanted to talk to Clownshoes directly, without Gendo in the room, so they staged this abduction to make it happen.

Near the end of the episode, Kaji shows up to rescue Clownshoes. Clownshoes warns him that he might get killed for this, and Kaji says that he just wants to get closer to the truth. Uh... how does this help, exactly?

Like, I really don't get it. SEELE wanted something from Clownshoes, but we never actually find out what it is. They're mad about Eva Unit 01 absorbing an S2 from that Angel it ate a couple of episodes back. Now they think it's become a god, and they've lost confidence in Gendo. But what's Clownshoes supposed to do about that exactly?

And how is Kaji connected to any of this? I think the idea here is that NERV or SEELE set him up to take the fall for the kidnapping. The fact that he's rescuing Clownshoes seems to suggest that he wasn't the one who kidnapped him, except no, Kaji's been playing one side against the other the whole time. He's totally the kind of character who would kidnap a guy to spite NERV and then free him to spite SEELE. I'm not saying that's how it went down, but this episode doesn't really make it clear to me that he didn't abduct Clownshoes.

Somebody eventually catches up to Kaji near one of those slow-moving ventilation fans, like the one that stymied Goku in Dragon Ball GT. Yes, I'm still mad about that, by the way. He asks some unseen character what took so long, and then there's a gunshot sound and I guess that means he's dead. Well, good. Kaji sucked and I hated him. Rest in piss, you smug womanizing prick.

By now, Misato's been released, and she's pretty sure that means Kaji has already been killed, but then she gets a voicemail from him, and he says his goodbyes. Also he asks her to tend his watermelon garden for him. Man, fuck your watermelons, Kaji. Nobody's got time for that shit.

Misao breaks down and sobs over the dinner table, while Shinji hears her from the bedroom and covers his head with a pillow to drown out the crying. He doesn't know what to say to comfort her, but he does understand what she's going through.

All right, I think that does it for 2015, so let's look at the flashback stuff.

In 1999, Professor Clownshoes is tasked with mentoring a promising young student named Yui Ikari. She looks... familiar. Oh dammit...

Soon after, Clownshoes made the acquaintance of Gendo....... Rokubungi. He and Yui eventually start dating, and the next time Clownshoes meets him is after Second Impact, on a research mission in what's left of Antarctica. There, Gendo informs him that he and Yui have married, and he took her last name.

Eventually, a man named Keel, working for the SEELE organization starts the whole cover story about Second Impact being caused by a meteor strike. Clownshoes knows better, that it was caused by a "Giant Man", Adam, the First Angel. He eventually figures out that Gendo Ikari and SEELE knew Second Impact was going to happen. That's why Gendo left Antarctica right before it happened. He had been working with Misato's dad's research time, and I guess they discovered Adam and Gendo left them to take the fall.

Clownshoes threatened to expose the conspiracy, but Gendo showed him something first: An underground expanse, that "someone else" excavated. I don't know what that's supposed to mean, but this is the space where the NERV base is located in 2015. SEELE and the Ikari's established a research facility here, and I guess that's what convinced Clownshoes to go along with their secrets? I don't get it.

One day in 2004, Yui was working on some sort of experiment, and she brought their son Shinji to work so he could see it. Over there on the left is Ritsuko Akagi's mother. We'll get to her in a moment.

Clownshoes didn't approve of Shinji's presence in the lab, but Yui wanted him to see her experiment, to show him how bright the future would be. Those were literally her last words, as she died shortly after saying them.

So this is where that rumor started about Gendo killing his wife. She died in an accident of some sort, but it's hard not to imagine Gendo being at least partially responsible, since he's the driving force behind everything that went on in this place.

But Gendo was cleared of any wrongdoing, and soon after her death he started working on the Human Instrumentality Project.

However, it's still possible that Gendo had something to do with it. Even if he didn't directly sabotage Yui's work, he might have manipulated Dr. Akagi into doing it for him. That's because Akagi had a thing for him, and when Yui died, she admits to herself that she had hoped it would happen. Not long after, she and Gendo make out in the lab...

And Akagi's daughter, Ritsuko sees them going at it. This is like her first day on the job, and she sees the director porking her mom. Wild.

Not long after, Gendo starts bringing some other kid to work, and he explains that he's decided to care for the daughter of some acquaintance, which is totally the sort of thing a genuine hyu-mon person with real organs would say out loud. He introduces her as Rei Ayanami and... oh fuck we're really doing this. Akagi even notices the resemblance right away, so it's not a coincidence.

One night, Akagi sees Rei wandering around by herself, and Rei calls her an old hag. Akagi warns her that she'll get in trouble with Gendo, and she says he's the one who always calls Akagi a useless old hag. Akagi snaps and murders Rei in a fit of rage. Uh... okay?

When Akagi comes to her senses, she apparently throws herself over the safety railing, dying among the three supercomputers she just finished building. Soon after this, Keel reorganizes this thing into the NERV Agency.

And yeah, I think that's everything.

So if Rei isn't some sort of clone of Shinji's dead mother, this show is working very hard to fool me into thinking so. I mean, the resemblence of Rei to Yui aside, we see Li'l Rei get strangled to death in the past. So how is Rei alive in the present? If she's a clone, it stands to reason Gendo has a few spares.

I don't know the why of it. Maybe he just desperately wants his wife back, so he's waiting for one of the clones to grow up so they can get married. Or he thinks he can resurrect Yui but he needs a Rei to serve as a vessel for her disembodied consciousness. Maybe Yui's mind is trapped inside Eva Unit 00 the way Shinji was stuck in Unit 01 recently. Or maybe Gendo just wanted a loyal follower, and he only used Yui's genes because he had a sample handy.

For my part, the Yui-Rei connection is the only part of this that actually matters to me in this episode. Kaji's death is irrelevant. I'm glad he's dead. All the stuff with Ritsuko and her mom was dumb. Like, aside from killing Rei and then herself, all Dr. Akagi did was talk about the supercomputers she named after the Three Wise Men, and how she modeled them after three aspects of her personality. It's just a callback to Episode 12, with nothing else added.

And the whole story seemed to be centered around Clownshoes, except he never actually said or did anything to justify all this attention. I don't know why he threw in with Gendo in the 2000s, or why he's in such a high position in NERV today, or what SEELE expects him to do, or what he's actually going to do instead. Kaji freed him like it was some bold play to tip the balance of this story, but I can't see how. Well, there's still five episodes to go, so maybe they're building up to that.

Oh, right, one other complaint: I was really hoping to find out about the Second Angel. Remember? Adam's the First Angel, the one who exploded and caused Second Impact. The first time we see an Angel in this show, it's called the Third Angel. So what happened to the Second Angel, who would have appeared somewhere in between? I just assumed a flashback episode would have touched on that. Oh well.

[emperorsfoot]

Oh! You are the author of the fic I keep refreshing my marked for you page for instead of studying for an exam that can make my school longer!

I love omega Kon, and I absolutely adore your omega Kon. I think a lot of omegaverse have a tendency to feminize the omegas and your Kon and in general your omegas don't fall to that. I also feel like instinct/we-are-sentient-human-beings-we-can-think is apropriatly balanced in your fic.

Oh and I am so ready for the "We accidentally bonded" reveal. I think we are very close with Kon in the closet-nest now. I feel it is gonna be trigering to Clark. (Oh will Lex realize? How will he react? Why do I feel like he wanted to break the chain but the moment he perceived as the chain being established he went full berserk instead of trying to repair the relationship as much as he can. Does he actually care about Kon as his pup, or did I just get that because I am hungry for good dad Lex.)

And the Batman knew Clark had a pup and that he left the pup with Lex reveal. How will Clark react to one of his biggest and most well hidden insecurities being known by Bruce. Will he freak out? How will he react once he realizes that if Bruce knew, he didn't care-well, didn't care is the wrong word, that it didn't change how he felt about Clark?

Also the Kon wants to court Tim reveal. My god how will Tim, who has been keeping himself back(as much as he can) because Kon has an alpha, react to being said alpha. How will Kon, whom has been falling for both of Tim's identities even with both trying to keep themselves in check react to both his crushes starting to recipricate.

And then the reveal of Tim Drake is Robin. Will Kon be mortified (yes), will he realize both started acting more into him once Robin learned he liked Drake.

Or Tim is Robin can be revealed before Kon likes Drake. In that case would Kon think that every single drop of kindness he received from Drake, everything that made him have a crush, was because they were mated? Oh boy, you can get a whole 'nother series from that.

Man there are a lot of reveals I am so excited for! It is like identity porn×500.

I am also so excited in a fake-science way. I just love world building and science, I adore stories where 'magic' is seen as science and there is innovation and-(I cut 3 paragraphs of me rambling about how electricity is magic, from here. It ended with "WE HAVE MAGİC ROCKS(magnets)!!!!")

I am always interested in how people handle omegaverse, like whether they use some out there smell like vanillia or pinapple, softer smells like hay and chlor or just alpha/omega that is just slightly different for everyone which I think is more realistic and I have loved how you handled all of that. I kinda wanna hear more about the chemistry+biology behind the mating like

I am very excited-in the fake-science way-for the discussion about the potency of the bite(between Tim and Kon). Unless I imagined it, the amount of veins/longevity of the bite was longer then what that size of a bite waranted. I know it might just be something like the adrenalin of the fight but I dunno, I like "we aperantly are very compatible" stuff, I think that registers in my brain as soulmates in a biological sense even though that doesn't make sense.

And of course Kryptonians or any alien adds another level, weird alien biology is a good tag. And how you handled Kryptonians was also great, i just adored the difference between the nests.

(I have this multiverse Au where a more advenced "human" civilization created kryptonians+others as weapons and then got eredicted and the humanity on earth is like the left overs/exiled ones. And that's why Kryptonians have a fricking kill switch and are human looking. Now if I was creating a species as a wepon I would like to keep them from multiplying with my species and in an omegaverse setting turning which subgender triggers the mating cycle would be a great way)

Also would getting a tranquilizer agent, say one that is airborn, automatically dispensed into the room then get someone to seperate the pair work for the heat triggers rut/rut triggers heat situation. But I guess kryptonians and humans would need different doses/stuff and whoever is awake would fight against someone trying to take their mate away. Maybe an internal insuling pump like thing? I mean, if you do it like once every 6 years to just get a child a small surgery would be fine for me. Or maybe like one of those autometic tranq guns, in that case you can deliever different doses/shit as well. And I mean, either the needle would need kryptonite or they need to be under red sun lamps for a longish while but I think the second one would work if both sides are willing participents.

Having said that, there is also the fact that the mating "bite" between Tim and Kon triggered a kinda heat and rut and I think it would have turned into a real one if they spent it together. So like is that a one time/just got mated thing or like will the same thing happen every time they bite, if it is a mated thing can they like triger it again and again by just leting someone erase the mark and mating again or did they lose their chance (would the same heat triggers rut/rut triggers heat cycle happen). And how did Lex and Clark missed this in their research?

Oh and the reveal of Kon (probably)being able to have children, like, I think he internalized that he can't have children (that he can't give pups to his alpha) but nope, there is nothing wrong with him actually, he just took after his carrier. (I mean if I was him, a hybrid whom is not having a cycle like I think I am supposed to, I would assume I was infertile. Also holy fuck Lex, I know you wanted to keep how he was concieved from Kon but like talk to your child, like "Kryptonians don't get heats regularly, in Krypton a rut triggers a heat, so we triggered mine to have you" wouldn't even be a lie and I personally wouldn't assume rape from that and I am sure Kon never spoke about how he thought he was infertile to fucking Lex Luthor but sex ed my man, you have to give the speach before they ask for it, wtf?)

And also Kon's life is gonna change so bad man. Like, my guy was the heir to Lex corp, he is smart enough to be, clearly, and now? Man, there needs to be a way to get him Lex corp, like, Tim that would make a great courting gift. I just can't find a way, like, Lex probably haven't updated his will, so like... throw him permanantly in jail, like he raped an omega, force mated him, kidnaped said omega, force mated him again, kidnaped(?)his son and like That should be more them enough to throw him into jail right? Ugh, that's the one part I am not ready for.

At this point I just want fluffy nest cuddles man...

(Sorry I rambled A LOT. I am just so fricking excited, also wanna avoid studying for that exam, also english is not my first language, in general sorry)

😳

I am overwhelmed

Here. Have Clark cuddling Conner in the nest, drawn by me

[asoiaf-source]

I was interested in seeing visually, just how much of the series has been dedicated to each House and Character story lines.

First I just did a basic pie chart of all the POV characters, including the Prologue / Epilogue chapters. These are all in order from their words on the page in the story so far. I greyed out deceased characters, but the other colors used are random. I combine the characters with 4 or less chapters just to make it more readable, so the top 14 characters and Others. The Others are listed in the side chart in black.

Now I broke up the POVs into their Houses to get a sense of how much of the story is being dedicated to each House, at least by members of that House and those associated with them.

First off, I put Jon into the Nights Watch, otherwise the Stark category would be too dominate (if you add it to the Starks it is nearly half the pie), and of course since his storyline is unique to him and his potential ‘parentage’ revel later, I thought it best to separate to clearly define his and the Others storyline. Also put the Targaryen block next to him (for those who like to think of him as a Targaryen) as you can visually see the two combine nearly equal the Starks and Lannister Houses, clearly the three dominate families whom ASOIAF is revolving around.

Also The Starks and Greyjoy are connecting more, and Baratheon and Lannisters have associations (Brienne might join Jaime), and Martell and Targaryens might team up.

This is the House break downs.

Clearly House Stark is dominate with so many POVs. I added Merrett Frey here as that chapter is most about Lady Stoneheart (Catelyn). I pull out the wedge to differentiate the weaker connection to the whole.

Obviously Jon dominates the Nights Watch storyline, with Sam as main support. Most of the prologues / epilogues are also set around the wall.  I added Pate here, he was the only ‘loose’ POV, but since his character will most likely be interreacting with Sam, I added it here. I don’t think it throws off the numbers too much, I just couldn’t justify putting him in the Martell house as Oldtown is technically in The Reach, and the Tyrells have no POVs so no real House representation to speak of, perhaps once we get more info I’ll move him to another block later. Besides, Pate is probably an FM agent, so yeah, he is a wildcard.

Clearly Daenerys is the main Targayen representation in the story, I added Connington here too, pulled out at bit as his story line is so far separated, but he is still representing Targaryen interests through Aegon.

House Lannister is mostly Tyrion, but he had a POV from the beginning, GRRM did a lot of catching up with Cersei and Jaime in the latter books, they are about equal, interesting that combine they nearly match Tyrion, the most written about character in the series.

House Greyjoy is a nice representation of family, mostly Theon, but his sister and Uncles are given a good portion and sure to have more impact in the final books.

House Baratheon might seem a little bigger as I decided to add Brienne to this group. She doesn’t spend as much time with Renly, but she did start off there, and even though she is working to fulfill her oath to Catelyn and Jaime, I just couldn’t put he into the Stark camp firmly just yet. Perhaps once she actually meets with and joins one of the Starks (most likely one of the girls), but her journey since has been more neutral / free agent and she could end up with another group entirely (Jaime) if her encounter with Lady Stoneheart goes badly.

House Martell, last family on the board. They were late additions to the story with only 4-2 chapters each, but this will surely increase as their plans start to upset the balance in the South. Two of their initial character POVs were also killed off early, so I don’t expect an easy survival rate for those from Dorne.

Well, I had fun looking at the House breakdowns, would you have made a different choice? Drawing any conclusions? Any other breakdown ideas? 

I thought about adding the released chapters info, but wasn’t sure if it should be included as it is not ‘official’ material.

[nonokoko13]

SXF MISSION 80

Woah, long time I didn't make a review. Hope you're all doing fine while I half disappeared.

Making a brief summary of this chapter. We got:

Yor and the dangers of being drunk while managing a fake marriage because drama is needed.

Worst/Best timing yet to this day, depends on your view. I have faith in Yuri that he'll surpass himself in another occasion and break some best/worst timing record, including breaking in someone's property ofc.

Yuri worrying about Yor doesn't have hobbies. This is, in fact, not a secret to anyone. It's public domain. No need to be a secret agent to get your hands over this information.

Also, it was a matter of time the idea of cheating was brought up by someone, my bet was in Yuri or Fiona so yay. Plus fake rumors of cheating? That's some good ol' juicy reason to indulge one fave characters in angst, hurt/comfort. Any damaging gossip is, really. Fanfic material right there. 10/10

And finally.

Shit got real. Humorous situation escalated for real this time 100% real no bait more news on our web www-

It's serious, but to me it was all giggles and happy noises because I've been waiting for Twilight VS Lieutenant Briar since Yuri's introduction and Endo is finally letting me have some crumbs.

These are some predictions for the future:

Fiona and Yuri finally meet. However, Yuri thinks Fiona is Loid's mistress from work and Fiona might be tempted to play along his suspicions, ultimately refraining herself because it would endanger Twilight/the Operation Stryx and she knows better than jeopardizing her efforts and others lives for some brief petty entertainment. I mean I hope she is above that God please girl I'm not telling you to raise our expectations just don't dig another basement in your obsession-

New short chapter of Becky and Anya on the zoo. Probably short but sweet and wholesome. Maybe on the middle of this arc or right after it and Lord know we'll thank that

The mole is a new character. Frankie can't be because it's stated the mole worked for WISE while Frankie is a third party who cooperates with Twilight and only with Nightfall due their connection.

Speaking of new characters, the girl behind Yuri seems too detailed despite being a background character.

Perhaps it's my love for women or my need of more badass ladies and I'm overthinking here but she may be relevant later on and honestly it would be cool to get another SSS frequent character. Love the detail in her earrings btw.

Will she be Yuri's friend? Will she meet a tragic fate as yet another cool design forever forgotten? Another Fiona situation is in our hands? God let that last prediction live down, one is enough.

At some point Endo will reconnect this chapter plot to the story and Loid, with Yor's words still haunting him, will try to spend more time with Yor. Bonus point if it's right the day Yor has a mission and this backfires on her majestically

Following the previous premise, Yor tries to dissuade Loid on following her by saying something along the lines "I don't want to spend time together right now (or else you'll find I'm an assassin!)"

And Loid understands it as "I don't want to spend time together right now (because I'm still mad at you and the damage is already done. Nothing can be fixed at this point. I'm holding this gripe forever.)", furthering causing Loid brain damage by all the gymnastics this man does

Leading to a situation where Loid either backs up for now and lets Yor alone but compensates her later OR Loid keeps trying to please Yor in some way, decreasing her chances of sneaking and finishing the job, which makes Loid think his attempts are deepening more the problem that never really existed. A loop where both suffer by the other suffering until a miracle happens [read: Anya or convenient excuse] and she's free to go slay

Anyway that's all for today. Sorry for not taking the summary seriously I'm in Goofy mood®. What do you think about this arc?

[danwhobrowses]

One Piece Chapter 1080 - Initial Thoughts

And we're back

After last chapter threw more gas into the fire we are back for more One Piece, which means more gas is going to be added to the fire again

Egghead is crazy, but we've yet to have the incident, so what is the boiling point?

Spoilers for the Chapter, Support the Official Release too

A cover request page of Kawamatsu and Hiyori was neat, but I do reiterate I'd like to see a post-Wano cover story

Well we're blueballed from Egghead again and catching up with the Koby situation

Koby's already busted himself out!

And the Cross Guild have a high ranking bounty on him, they seem to rank by stars (stars = treasure chests ~ 100 million), must've been taking notes from Dressrosa

Given how they say Captains are usually 1 Star, I'd guess the Cross Guild know that Koby is a part of SWORD as a Rear Admiral

The...the island just talked???

Did someone steal Pica's fruit or something?

It's Pizarro, and he wants Koby alive

Ah I see, Koby's been freeing the other prisoners (they were called slaves so I guess they were all put to work like Kaido did) in the process

So Pizarro has the Island Island Fruit, it's still concerning that Shiryu is here too, given his stealth proficiency

Vasco Shot is here, with the Glug Glug or Liquor Liquor fruit, which makes him a liquor man - Zoro will feel personally attacked that he never knew such a fruit existed

Vasco wants to burn down the place, but Pizarro reminds him that they just fixed up Rocky Port - still a wild mystery

And Sanjuan Wolf just has the regular Giant Giant Fruit, kinda feel like he and Burgess got the bad hand

As Koby is being chased he's flashed back to when he was brought to Fullalead

Blackbeard wants to make the island a sovereign state recognized by the WG

Teach must be thinking about how Australia came to be, since it too was a country of criminals (due to the British Empire sending their criminals there)

He also reveals he's from SWORD, which brings Aokiji into exposition

SWORD members are like rogues, they both and are not Navy members, they don't have the red tape and so go after the Yonko but in exchange the Navy would also attack them

However, while the WG wouldn't bargain for a SWORD agent, Blackbeard insists that since Koby is a 'hero' they will be more likely to play ball, and he's kinda right

Koby didn't escape alone either, Perona was there with the clutch, releasing him in exchange for freeing Moria

Marines are here! Aw Koby he's flustered by needing to be saved

A big dude is cleaning house, and when he gets beheaded he just gets back up, a clay fruit maybe?

There's also a whip girl who is commanding buildings to move

Like between Doll and this woman I feel like Oda's suppressing some kinks

Our whip girl is Kujaku, granddaughter of Vice Admiral Tsuru, she has the Whip Whip fruit that makes her a 'Taming human'

Koby is cornered, but the gunfire turns to flowers

That's Vegapunk's creation we saw in the cover story!

Hibari for the save, and the sniper rifle

She has the same stocking/jeans combo as proto-Nami

Ah so big cap Prince Grus has the Clay Clay Fruit, making clay golems as a force

They've been manipulating the terrain to pin down the enemies, it's curious though that Pizarro hasn't jumped into action, since he can feel it all

Tashigi went with SWORD to save Koby, good to see her but shame she won't be in Egghead :/

Here comes Garp though

Did...did the Navy copy the Coup de Burst?

Garp exuding All Might energy, a Galaxy Punch wipes out the whole area with Conqueror's Haki

Oda, my dude, my man, my bro, my lord...we just came back from a break what do you mean break next week????

It's been a big month for Conqueror's Haki at least. Now I am curious though how Garp and Shanks' haki compare, because we've had similar feats of strength back to back.

What's concerning right now though is that Blackbeard's main captains didn't get involved; we've got a lot of marines now faced with Blackbeard's captains, Koby's likely gonna have to free Moria in this to maintain his bargain with Perona too. I am concerned, it's the early flex that makes you feel too comfortable. Still, seeing all of SWORD's skills are cool, I kinda hope Tashigi gets a chance to shine if we remain here but I also do worry for her the most because of prior treatment.

We got confirmation on all the BB fruits now, kinda...we know Lafitte has a fruit we just don't know what exactly it is, I'm curious how they'd match against the Straw Hats too, Pizarro's isn't really one you can easily fight, even though he'd make quite a big target. Blackbeard's plan to be a king is interesting too, I mean he's a Yonko right now is he trying to build a pirate empire like Crocodile and Kaido was with Utopia and New Onigashima? Or is this just another one of his 4D Chess plans?

I am more certain now too that Aokiji is the one who rolled up to Egghead, the only one other than him unaccounted for in present time is Lafitte and Devon and they do seem to come in groups. His explanation of SWORD does show that he knew of it, but we still can't rule out that he's a part of it too.

The break after the last break does sting I must admit, but maybe Oda is cooking something big again, we've got so many moving pieces still and with SWORD vs Fullalead added in it's all gonna have to blend together eventually.

The pieces are there, Oda's just gonna connect the dots on his own time.

[moviemunchies]

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a Mission Impossible movie; I’ve watched the first, second, and sixth. The movies come in and out of Netflix and Hulu, so sooner or later I’ll get to them all.

Oh, hey, J.J. Abrams directed this movie!

Our protagonist, Ethan, has a fairly stable life right now, and he’s engaged to a nurse named Julia, and everyone’s happy! Except then Ethan is abruptly pulled into a rescue operation to save his protege at the IMF, Lindsay Farris, who was sent to spy on an international arms deal named Davian. They do get Farris out, but a detonator implanted in her head goes off, killing her and any possible intel. To finish her mission, Ethan and his team capture Davian, discovering that he’s after something called the Rabbit’s Foot, but shortly after learning (from a message left by Farris) that Davian had a mole within the IMF, Davian escapes. He and his henchmen kidnap Julia and force Ethan to steal the Rabbit’s Foot, or else he’ll kill Julia in 48 hours.

I’ve decided that I can’t watch these movies too close to each other. Ethan is always on the run from his superiors, and always being pushed to his limits. I’m sorry, but it can get repetitive if I watched these one after the other. I would only get exhausted. It’s great that these movies are willing to go all-in on the action and the stakes; I just think you’d get numbed to it if you dealt with them in a row in a short period of time.

The biggest problem with this film is that Abrams often doesn’t show us some of the coolest parts of the story. Ethan is given a deadline of forty-eight hours to grab the Rabbit’s Foot, but the movie skips around without telling us how long he’s got left (through dialogue) until it’s only a couple of hours. And then skipping ahead to less than that. And THEN not showing us the actual heist itself. That’s a cop out! I want to know how, in a matter of minutes, Ethan breaks into a heavily-guarded facility to steal the Rabbit’s Foot and only barely escape! Isn’t that the entire point of a Mission Impossible movie?

Also pretty egregious is the final battle–when Ethan and Davian finally duke it out. Spoiler alert, Ethan wins (which you knew because Tom Cruise is in four more Mission Impossible movies after this). The way that he wins, after a brutal battle, is not due to anything he did, but a total coincidence that neither character had much control over, making it seem pretty cheap. There’s also a resolution to a problem that I don't think would have worked–and reminds me that J.J. Abrams often works on a vague understanding of how science works.

Worst, though, is that we don’t have a clue what the Rabbit’s Foot actually is. It’s as generic a McGuffin as they come because of it. One character theorizes what it might be, but no one ever says. And yes, it could be any generic doomsday bioweapon and the Plot wouldn’t change; still, I think it’s likely that, given what I know of J.J. Abrams in 2023, he didn’t want to do the work to have a clue what to do with it. I don’t know, and he never did, either.

Ethan’s team is underdeveloped, though that’s pretty par for the course at this point. I believe that the next movie is when team members other than Luther have personalities developed enough to care about. It’s a little disappointing though because it’s a great cast.

The action that we do see is very good. The fight scenes are all exciting to watch, there’s a great chase scene, and the scene where Ethan rescues Ferris is a pretty awesome showcase as to what type of agents they are and how effective they are in the field. Tom Cruise does really good action scenes, and watching the film you can tell why they keep Ethan around even if they keep disavowing him–he’s really good at his job!

Ethan also isn’t stupid, which is better than a lot of action heroes. When his team points out that they can’t just hand the Rabbit’s Foot to Davian, he explains, rather frustratedly, that he knows that, he’s planning on tagging it with a tracker before they do that so that they have a chance to get it back right after the handoff. I think that there’s a lot of action movie protagonists who would not even consider something like that, being too overwhelmed with emotion to do anything but fulfill the villains’ demands.

Davian’s a fun villain? In an understated way. He’s not the greatest of the great, but he is interesting in that he almost never loses his cool. In these movies, spies are able to buy time and leverage by talking, and Davian always shuts down Ethan by not giving a crap about whatever he’s talking about. I appreciate that. Philip Seymour Hoffman does well in this role.

So this movie’s fine. It’s fun, though there are a few very notable problems in the film’s execution. It’s good, but those problems are holding it back from being an excellent movie. I understand that some of that is perhaps time constraints. Still, I think that you can have fun watching this one if you need a loud, action-packed movie. It’s not a must-see, though, and there are other movies in the series that are more worth your time.

[talkingtea]

I just caught up with 6 days of your posts😮‍💨

I saw a few posts from some nonnies saying that 2018 was a turning point for Candice and Grant. I too absolutely believe they had something back then when that GG photo was taken. We all just knew that she was on her game- all bout her business and figured she was the one who put the breaks on any budding relationship. We all figured Grant was the one trying to make it happen, he was notorious for all the models and actresses he would follow. (mostly bikini and there were lots of Black ladies on that list). Looking back now, no matter who suggested it first, I think Candice went in harder than Grant did. I thought Grant paid picked La to be some spiteful rebound after being told to cool it. Now I think maybe Candice and Grant came to an impasse- probably from their team or family or friends and that’s when the great la love story began. Seeing all the shit their pr teams have tolerated from them (and pushed in certain cases) I feel like I want to double down on that theory. Grant and Candice were young, still newish to the industry and shipped to out the country for dawn near a year to work. The og folks remember they would hang out with each other outside of work from time to time. Grant was still with his ex but there was gossip saying that he was jealous of her career. (Doesn’t that sound just like someone recent? ) They saw each other day in day out for months, had nothing else to do up there, were outside of their social circles mostly, and had natural chemstry. They definitely had something. Betcha those agents or teams by their side were like “idk if this is the best look for you…” when the rumors started. WB/CW being as biased as they are to people of the global majority they probably had their people talk to Grant and Candice’s people. So I bet Candice said “fuck it, let’s do this” and went in deep and Grant pulled back then and said “ let’s rethink this”. That is hard to manage, and that might have festered into the woman we see now. Working with an ex for 9 years, watching him play house with someone he’s not into, but still asking for unscripted kisses to make the scene work, still cares enough to check who’s following you but not enough to stand up and protect you (just for the ‘wife’ or work). This is her lesson to learn her path that started back when she was casted. I have faith that she will get out safely from fuckboy but that road to her career recovery will be long and rough. I also stand by my prediction that Grant will not leave her alone, at least not now. He may withdraw and look like has not contact (same with her) but that won’t last but a year or two. He is not good for her but who knows how he’ll be in a couple of years. I know she will be in a better place, but she is showing now that she will go back and back until she doesn’t want to. So I expect a divorced Grant to check in on her in the future. Apologies for the word dump.

☕️☕️☕️

[fezwearingjellybananas]

Director’s cut for the Speedster Siblings series? 👀

I did have fun writing Speedster Siblings, I think that's why it so very quickly went from a single fic to get the idea out to "oh no I've written another one". As I said in the opening note, it happened because I was reading your excellent reaching up to touch the sky (this is a fic rec for everyone else) while writing Gone in a Flash and a brief "this would be so different if Barry had a Morgan" thought (which was only added to by those other conversations we had post posting Gone in a Flash). And I couldn't add a Jesse to that fic because, much as Gone in a Flash Barry absolutely needed to not be so alone, I think things only went that way for him because he was alone.

Although it has the same set up of Eobard adopting Barry (this time alongside Wally, and with Jesse already adopted by the real Harrison Wells before Eobard killed him), there weren't actually any points in writing where the thought process was how would Gone in a Flash change if Barry wasn't alone, I think that's an entirely different story, and I think that's influenced by Eobard in Speedster Siblings when Jesse, Wally, and Barry are young he actually bothers to act the part of a good father.

He isn't one, of course, because good fathers don't make plans to betray their children, but he acts the part. I think Eobard Thawne wants love, and in Speedster Siblings, at the start, he actually has it, but he's so convinced he can never keep it he throws it away and then the rest is him realising no what he had before was better and wanting it back, but even right to the end he doesn't want to acknowledge it was his fault, he doesn't regret what he's done, just regrets what he's lost.

I think throughout the entire series, Eobard is acting a part when it comes to being a father, he's not really thinking of anyone other than himself, which is why there's so much almost missing? There's a handful of points of view from Barry and Jesse (the Crisis fic was actually meant to open with Wally's, but when I sat down to write it felt better ending with Barry, and Wally got most of it off his chest yelling at Eobard earlier on), but pretty much everything that isn't about Eobard Thawne is glossed over. Joe dies in this series and it's a fleeting mention because why would Eobard care about that, he's Wally's dad. Series 2 and series 3 are completely different in this series, there's no Singularity at the end of s1 because the trio just send Eobard home, Hunter Zoloman is the FBI agent from Earth-1 sent to investigate Harrison Wells' disappearance who ends up giving himself powers and becoming Zoom to push Wally to being a better hero (possibly still briefly kidnapping Jesse and definitely still breaking Barry's back to motivate Wally) because Wally deserves better than being in the shadow as Kid Flash instead of equally the Flash (ignoring Barry doesn't think of Wally and Jesse as his sidekicks, just his little siblings he's always going to protect, and both Wally and Jesse think of themselves as Barry's sidekicks because he's their big brother and they love him, Jesse just goes by Jesse Quick because she's not being Flash Girl or something). Barry travels to Earth-2 still, only it's just the one with the real Jay Garrick, the one the show called Earth-3, there's no Earth-2 as the show had it, there's no Harry because Jesse's on Earth-1 and I do not think it is possible to have Harry and not have him as her father, especially in s2 being Jesse's father so important to his character

And series 3, Savitar closer to the comic one, he's not a Barry, he's Jesse's villain like Eobard was Barry's and Zoom was Wally's, this is where Jesse finds out about her parents being Johnny Quick and Liberty Bell, Jesse might even start going by Liberty Bell (it's a little more of a secret identity than Jesse Quick, and there is a slightly bitter taste left by the first person to call her Jesse Quick was Eobard), Wally might become the Flash instead of Kid Flash, but Eobard wasn't there, barring his brief jaunts back to start weaseling his way back into their lives by acting as a "guardian angel" on occasions, so none of this came up (and those trips back are what first clock the Renegades onto him)

There is just so much extra that did not make it into this series because Eobard Thawne is a self-centered prick, but it also means Eobard's entire story ends up being this tiny snapshot in Barry, Wally, and Jesse's lives, there's so much other than him in there, and that's good for them in the long run. They're always going to have conflicted feelings about him because he was their dad and they did love him and part of them did want him to mean it, they did want to be able to love him again, but Eobard ruined the chances of that the night he put that yellow suit back on in the very first fic.

Thank you!

[Ask]