#THRILLED to see you’re enjoying it too it’s the exact kind of story and character work i would have expected you to enjoy :D

[un-pearable]

ok. i was like 99.9999999999 % confident they werent going to actually follow through on that but there is still the 0.00000000001% chance they would and . i was. that was very shockgin.

mHM!!!!!!!!!

[margarethx]

I don’t know why so many people assume that popularity of a ship or a character has anything to do with their quality. Or that “being more popular” automatically makes a fictional couple/person better than others. Like... sure. Some things get more recognizable and loved, because they’re just that good. But very often the number of fans has absolutely nothing to do with: “how interesting this character is?” or “how great is the chemistry between these two people?”. Sometimes things just... are popular.

That’s why I don’t understand it when other people try to criticize Sambucky for having a smaller fandom and acting like no one cares about them, because there are some different ships with more fans. Of course there are. Obviously. But these other ships were going to win this nonexistent competition from the start. We all understand why Sambucky doesn’t have more fans, more stories on Ao3, more art. (If you say you don’t know “why”, you’re either: very young, very dumb, or straight up lying.) And it has nothing to do with how much potential their relationship has.

Sambucky is not some new ship that came out ouf nowhere in March 2021, but no one thought about them before, because they were not interesting enough to get the attention. People liked them way before tfatws started. It’s been gaining fans and momentum since 2014 (looking from the MCU perspective), just more slowly, since not everyone is capable of seeing them together.

Because it doesn’t matter how dramatic yet hilarious their first meeting is from the perspective of their show. Or how thrilling it is that Sam was looking for Bucky for almost two years. Or how they jumped into joking, teasing, and protecting each other in Civil War even though they only just started fighting on the same side. Or how they are constantly put in the same scenes even when there is no reason for it. It doesn’t matter how much they touch each other, look at each other, care for each other. Or how close they are compared to many other, more loved duos in the MCU. Or how great the chemistry is between both actors and their characters. Or how multiple people involved in production said that what they have is definitely “love” (no matter how you define it).

Many people will still look at all that and don’t even consider them a possibity. And say that they are more like brothers/besties. And that Sam is obviously straight. Or that Sam is not that interesting. And that “we cannot ignore the importance of platonic male friendships” as if the whole MCU hasn’t been built at that exact type of a relationship. Sam and Bucky could literally kiss on screen and confess their love and many fans would still complain that they would prefer Bucky to be with someone else. Or that it was forced and didn’t feel natural, so they still won’t ship them after all.

People who actually like Sambucky already know all of that. They’ve known for years. It’s everyone else that pretends like “Sam and Bucky don’t have a big fandom, because they are not an interesting couple and fans just don’t see that kind of relationship for them, sorry”.

And finally...

Would I want to see the Sambucky and Sam Wilson tags filled with more beautiful art and interesting stories? Sure. Of course. But do I want Sambucky to have more fans just to be a better competition for more popular ships? No. What would be the point of that?  So I can brag about it in debates with some morons on Twitter? “Well, my ship has more fans than yours, so I’m cooler and I win?” That’d be so dumb ;-; Even if many people really act like that’s a valid argument to make.

Also... Bigger fandoms don’t necessarily mean “better content” or “nicer people”. From what I’ve seen they’re just the same as smaller ones (in some cases) or just so much worse (in most cases). Because larger groups of people statistically attract more weirdos and bigots. Or more children - who may have good intentions, but can still act badly, because they’re too young to fully understand what they’re doing and saying.

Naturally, at the end of the day I want to see more fans realizing how good Sam and Bucky’s relationship is and enjoying it just as I do, but that’s it. I don’t want to have my favourite ship winning the first place in some popularity contest that other people made up in their minds, just to later share the fandom with a bunch of assholes who harass people for liking some less popular couples. I have different priorities.

[heretherebedork]

Piggybacking off that anon who was talking about how Dan could help and make the guys realize not all cops are bad… I don’t think Nuchie is gonna go down a route like that, which would be very problematic. I’m not Thai so I can’t speak to the complexity of their own issues with cops, but doing research it seems the cops their are and are known to be wildly corrupt… as cops are want to do pretty much everywhere. I think the Dan situation will most likely be an issue where Dan was young an idealistic and when he joined up realized how bad the system was and that’s what spurred him on to become unar. But a “not all cops” approach is not helpful or beneficial and i would extremely disappointed if the show did something like that. I’m sure the show can’t go to far in its critique because of censorship, but Manner of Death for instances handled it pretty well making the cops completely incompetent and corrupt (side not Tul was actually really excited about the social critique of MOD! I love that man). I’m personally not thrilled about Dan being a cop but I also trust the show and what it’s been doing and handling the issues it’s brought up. Especially for a gmmtv show. I feel like even with censorship there will hopefully be a way for the to critique cops without having the characters look at Dan and come to the conclusion “hu, well not all cops are bad.” I won’t get into acab here cause that’s another essay, but if you join a corrupt organization and stay, guess what? You are bad even if you don’t do anything corrupt you’re still witnessing it an upholding a corrupt organization.

I understand why they did it, since they are trying to protest against a military dictatorship and putting all your eggs in the same anti-government basket can be a very good way to get your show taken off the air and censored if you go too far.

But I also see why they might do it as a fascinating character. Dan is a cop who's also a protestor, who's also against the exact people he works for, who tries to show them what the government and what the people he works with are doing wrong as well. He's a dichotomy that is very hard to pull off and I'm looking forward to seeing the explanation, even if it's likely not going to be what people want to see.

I did enjoy the way MOD did the police line but they also showed corruption while also having a good cop who ended up helping change the police from within to an extent. And that's exactly what I expect Not Me to do, honestly.

Dan is a cop who sees what the cops and the government are doing wrong. He's someone who likely became a police officer in the hopes of helping support justice and has learned that fighting them directly from within isn't working (that's why he's also UNAR) but still isn't willing to give up on also trying to create larger style change.

Is it ideal? No. Is it what you do to try to show the idea that change is needed while still showing the government that you support them, as you need to, and believe that they can be better? Yes.

I doubt that the conclusion they'll reach is 'not all cops are bad' so much as 'the change we need to make comes from the inside' which is kind of what I expect now? Which is different and, yes, problematic as well but frankly I respect ANY criticism from ANYONE in a dictatorship, no matter how they have to phrase it or how carefully they have to wiggle it in.

I believe in the message that Not Me is trying to give us, no matter what it is, and that they will bring us everything they can and as clearly as they can and that anything they have to say or censor they will do with the upmost respect to the story and the message.

Hoo boy, y'all, I love Not Me but I as not fully prepared for the politics! I am doing my best, so please be forgiving.

[hello-everyfandom]

“You’ll get frown lines if you continue that,”

Warnings: Light making out/Light smut (very very very light)

Pairing: Draco Malfoy x Hufflepuff!Reader

Words: 2.5k

Summary: Draco’s Hufflepuff girlfriend is nothing but a delight and the exact opposite of him.

(I really really tried. I hope Draco’s character isn’t too ooc, but I thought it’d be so sweet to see cold stone Draco with a soft, cute girlfriend)

One of the things Draco loved most about you was your extreme compassion and empathy. You were, undoubtedly, one of the sweetest people at Hogwarts. Not just to your own house, but all, even Slytherins. Perhaps that is what drew him to you, your innate ability to look past house stereotypes and befriend even the snarkiest of Slytherins. If you were to see Draco and his lovely girlfriend walking the corridors, hand in hand, you’d assume they were holding hands accidentally. Your face always had a beaming, positive smile placed on it. You waved and greeted your friends kindly and exuded an aura of friendliness. Draco, however, was the exact opposite. He scowled, maybe not on purpose, but sneered at the poor souls who happen to look at him. You were light, he was dark. Not that you minded. Whenever you caught him in a glare, you’d squeeze his hand and softly tug.

“You’ll get frown lines if you continue that,” 

Draco looked down at your smiling face and couldn’t help but send a small smile back, “And what is ‘that?’” he asked.

“This,” you pointed to your face and pulled an exaggerated scowl, pushing your eyebrows together and pointed the corner of your lips down, “See? Unattractive,”

Draco chuckled softly under his breath and tugged his bag closer on his shoulder, “So now you think I’m unattractive?” 

“No no, darling, not at all. I’m calling your face unattractive,” you leaned closer to him, inhaling his sweet cologne before waving at another friend in the corridor.

“My face is unattractive?” Draco said, feigning hurt.

“Oh, you know what I mean,” you laughed and slapped his arm gently. “But, would it kill you to smile a little?” You reached you and tried to drag his cheek up with your finger to form a smile.

“I smile when I’m with you, that’s enough smiling for my life.”

“Draco, while that is quite adorable and does, in fact, flutter my heart, I mean smiling and saying hello to people, maybe greeting your friends in a nicer way?”

Draco stopped walking and pulled you into a more secluded part of the corridors where you were visible but not quite as seen. His eyes were playful and a smirk printed itself on his lips. Draco’s eyes were mesmerizing, you nearly forgot what you were talking about before raising your eyebrows,

“I don’t have to speak sweetly to anyone but you,” Draco bent his head and placed a peck on your lips. You rolled your eyes with a grin on your face, giving him another small kiss and spun sharply on your heel. “Where are you going?” he called, holding the strap of his bag.

“I’m going to Herbology. See you later, handsome!” 

Draco’s cheeks flushed a light pink as he watched you skip down the hall, giving nods and small ‘hellos’ to the people around you who were making their way to class. Draco shook his head to rid himself of the embarrassing colour that fully displayed his love for you and paced to his next class. 

By the time supper had come around, Draco searched the Great Hall for you. Usually, you were perched on the Hufflepuff bench, chatting happily away with your friends and even turning to talk to some of the Gryffindor’s behind you. However, you were nowhere to be seen. Dinner had started and Draco tapped his foot anxiously. It was only until you had run into the Great Hall, screeching to a stop and searched wildly until you found Draco’s blonde hair amidst the sea of students. You sighed in relief and started towards his table. Draco’s eyes widened as you reached him, pressing a kiss to his cheek and sitting next to him, and across from Pansy.

“Pardon me, I don’t believe you are a Slytherin, are you?” he jokingly whispered in your ear as you started to scoop helpings of food onto your plate.

“Slytherin Blitherin,” you waved your hand, “ ‘s it so wrong to want to sit with my boyfriend?” Your boyfriend shrugged and handed you a roll of bread before asking,

“Where were you anyway? Fighting demons? No, too mean. Were you making daisy chains with the house elves?” His elbow prodded you softly.

“What? No, but actually, thank you for reminding me. I need to have a little visit to the house-elves soon, they really are quite sweet. You really should come with me Draco, they really enjoy stories and absolutely are thrilled if you sit with them for a bit. But, I just woke up too late from a nap, thas’ all.” You smiled and sipped from the goblet in front of you.

“Of course you did,” Draco rolled his eyes and settled into his dinner bench, feeling happy you were beside him.

“Pansy, by the way,” Pansy’s back straightened, she didn’t hate you but she didn’t particularly like you either, nevertheless you continued, “My mother sent me a bottle of that muggle nail polish I told you about. It’s quite cute, I could do your nails later if you’d like,” You offered kindly. Pansy’s eyes widened as she glanced from you to Draco, he shrugged.

“It’s a muggle thing?” Pansy asked curiously,

“Oh yes, but it’s so much easier than doing it with spells, surprisingly. I think it’s quite genius actually, I did mine yesterday night.” you flashed Pansy your fingernails that were delicately painted a light shade of blue. Draco studied you as you began to converse energetically with Pansy, your yellow tie laid nicely on your chest whilst your hair was messily pulled back. He couldn’t help but fall further in love with you as you laughed and even spoke to Blaise a bit about the quidditch teams you were interested in. You were just so simply kind and generous that he even felt a bit guilty. He was worried he would scare you off or even worse, transform your kindness and friendliness to something cold and more like him. However, you seemed to be unchanged and remained the same front the first day he met you. 

“Draco?” His focus was blinked out of his eyes as you peered at you,

“Yes?”

“Is there something on my face?” You ask, wiping your lips insecurely.

“Only beauty,” Draco said. The moment he uttered those words, he regretted it immediately. Blaise howled with laughter whilst Pansy began to tease him. He scowled at them and sent his friends dirty daggers. You beamed at him with a delighted gleam in your eye, 

“Aw, Draco. You’re so sweet, isn’t he sweet?” you turned to Blaise after pressing a quick kiss on Draco’s cheek.

“Oh, the sweetest.” Blaise cooed sarcastically whilst catching his breath. Underneath the table, you squeeze Draco’s hand reassuringly and leaning your head on his shoulder. Draco would never admit this to anyone, except maybe you, but he was changing. He didn’t push first years, nor spend his free periods mocking the stutters and stance of the third years. In fact, he can’t even pin the last snarky comment he made towards Potter.

“Malfoy, maybe you should rethink having a blood traitor sit at our table. It’s quite despicable if you ask me, disgusting even,” A hateful voice sounded from behind you. A few Slytherin boys who you had sadly not friended yet sneered at you. Before Draco could respond angrily and tell him to piss right the fuck off, you chimed up.

“You’re Earl Elmer, right?” You turned and rummaged through your school bag frantically before removing a crumbled piece of parchment and smoothing it down on the table. “‘m sorry if it’s a little torn, I overheard you in Charms the other day. You said you were having trouble, so I took some extra notes for you. I hope they help.” The boy looked nervously at his friends and glared at the parchment before scoffing leaving the Great Hall. You frowned, “I know it’s a little crumpled, but I didn’t think it was that bad,”

Your boyfriend rolled his eyes and rubbed your shoulders comfortingly, “He’s a bloody twat, don’t bother with Elmer.” 

“I don’t want him to be upset. If I made him angry or something of the sort I’d be gutted.”

“You’re too kind sometimes,” Draco mumbled over the chatter of the Great Hall, “you barely notice when someone’s being a right arse to you.”

“I think he has the potential to be actually quite kind,”

“Don’t count on it. Now, eat your dessert or you’ll be cranky later.” You sniffed before nodding and reaching for a cup of pudding. Draco’s heart thumped, even after being treated awfully, you still went out of your way to be kindhearted to someone. You were too good for him, and he knew it.

“If you want me to, I’ll hex him,” Pansy offered, biting into her cupcake. 

“That’s nice, Pansy, but I think I’ll pass.” You said, leaning on Draco’s shoulder again, humming contently.

In your room, you laid on your stomach with your textbook. You groaned loudly making Draco look up from his spot on your bed. 

“What’s the matter?” He asked, pulling you lay back so your back was on his chest.

“I hate Transfiguration,” you grumbled, “I can barely make out the words anymore.”

“Oh? Hate? I wasn’t sure that word was in your dictionary,” Draco teased, combing his fingers through your hair.

“It’s not, maybe I’ve been spending too much time with you,” you teased back.

“Maybe,” he bent his neck to kiss your cheek, “Transfiguration can’t be that hard.” 

“It is, you don’t even understand, my brain is exhausted, it’s simply too hard,” you said dramatically,

“I’m in your class, Love.”

“But still! You’re a smarty smarty pants. And I’m just a dumb dumb.”

“You’re a Prefect,” He pointed out. “And, not to mention, one of the smartest witches in our year.”

“You know what, you are the loveliest boyfriend ever,” you switched positions so you were in his lap and cradled his face. You pecked kisses on his face affectionately, his hands sliding on your hips and down your thighs. 

“What’s with all the kisses?” Draco wasn’t complaining, but he didn’t want to turn your head from studying either. 

“You just look so cute sitting there, I couldn’t help it. Thought you deserved some kisses!” you smiled and kissed his neck lightly and then locking your lips with his. Everything about your kisses made his head swoon, he forgot about the war, the darkness his family that engulfed his family and even his own battles with anxiety and sadness. He melted instantly into your touch, moving his hands tentatively to hug your waist. You tasted of berries and the muggle chapstick you insisted on wearing in the winters to prevent chapped lips. You felt his hands wander softly, almost scared as you nipped at his bottom lip leaving him breathless. For someone so sweet, you kissed like a woman on a mission. Your hips slowly grinding into his and the top buttons of his shirt coming undone. His lips trailed down your neck and above your collar bone, focusing on the soft skin that begged him to bite. Draco felt as though his heart would plummet into the ground as you pulled your shirt off. 

“I-” he stuttered,

“Yes?” You asked innocently,

Draco raised so he was leaning on his elbows whilst you straddled him. Your fingers quicker to unbutton his shirt, as he ran his fingers through your hair, gripping it softly. You moaned as he slipped his tongue in your mouth. A sudden knock at the door made you bolt upright. Your hair a mess from Draco’s pulling and your lips swollen from Draco’s kisses. You gasped, realizing your shirt had been thrown across the room and Draco’s was mostly unbuttoned. Draco whined at the lack of contact but you shot him a warning look before shoving a sweater over your head. You swung open the door looking for who had knocked only to lower your eyes and see a young Hufflepuff from first year.

“I’m sorry to interrupt!” She squeaked, “I just had a, uh, a question on my Transfiguration homework but I can go,” as she turned you caught her shoulder and sent her a soft look,

“No worries! Transfiguration can be tricky, can’t it?” You looked over your shoulder at Draco who looked up at the ceiling with annoyance, tapped his wrist to signal to hurry up. Obviously, he wanted to get back to kissing his gentle girlfriend. You shooshed him and twirled to speak to the Hufflepuff, “Maisie, right?” She nodded, “Will you just hold on one second, then my brain and my skills are all yours.”

You closed the door and rushed around your dorm, throwing clothes into your chest and frantically tidying up. Draco watched amused, legs stretched out on the bed with his arms under his head and his back against the headboard.

“Can’t you just tell her to bugger off?” he asked, motioning for you to come closer,

“Absolutely not. One, that’s rude. And two, it may seem foreign to you, but I do actually want to help her.”

“But we were... doing stuff,” Draco whined, it was unlike his character to beg but he had just gotten a taste of you and was starving for more.

“Were we?” You joked and pointed at his shirt, “You better button-up, buttercup!” Draco grumbled and complied as you threw the door open. 

“Come in, come in!” You motioned her forwards, she stepped cautiously into your dorm, observing the nice moss plants you had hanging as well as the cozy rug you had placed on the floor. Her eyes wandered to Draco’s figure and instantly froze in fear,

“If-if you have guests, Y/N, I can always come later,” She stuttered, fiddling with her textbook.

“What him? Don’t worry, he’s nothing but a big ole bloke who just so happens to be dating me. Plus, what are Prefects for? Now, take a seat, you can sit on the bed or on the desk,”

Draco sent her a glare making her respond quickly, “I’ll sit at the desk.” You mentally scolded Draco before helping your first-year friend with her homework.

As you bid her goodbye after helping her with her homework and sending her off with a lolly, you shut the door and sighed with happiness. Draco’s arms opened, motioning for you to fall into them and lay comfortably on his chest.

“I’m so happy,” you mumbled into his shirt,

“Is that so?”

“I love helping people,”

“I noticed.” Draco rubbed soothing circles on your back,

“‘m tired,” you yawned.

“How is it that you have so much energy to help people and care for them when you’re just a small little thing?” Draco’s voice was low, nearly lulling you to sleep. He truly was amazed at your capabilities to be so good-hearted and pure.

“I love helping people,” your eyes drooped, “just as much as I love you,”

“I love you as well,” Draco soothingly petted your hair and placed a kiss on your forehead, allowing you to drift into a lovely and blissful sleep.

[ramblings-of-a-mad-cat]

(sees another fandom that I can ask you about and cheers) Orphan Black! Thoughts? I don't know Dr Who but Tatiana is one of my favorite actors period.

Anon you are so sweet! I'm always happy to chat about fandoms and characters and whatnot, and I will never not appreciate the majesty of Tatiana's acting. That is one of the greatest parts of the show hands down.

Orphan Black, to me, is a show that had incredible potential, but didn't really live up to the excitement it created. (Loooong post ahead.)

The thing is, Orphan Black builds a chilling mystery and background, the world it gradually creates as it goes for about the first two seasons, got be very invested and made me wonder a lot about where it was going to go and what the answers were. The setup is brilliant, right from the start with that iconic cold open of Beth's suicide. The unknown is what really helped this show get as thrilling as it was, because the actual answers behind the unknown were kind of hit and miss, and it seemed like far too often, the show just wasn't interested in telling it's story. Hijinks where the clones impersonate each other in slice of life events? That's fun at first and it really works well as they're still getting to know each other. But after a while, it gets tedious, and it seems like the show would rather fuck around and have dance parties (seriously, that scene was such a #BigLippedAlligatorMoment) than focus on the story and the threat that the sisters are facing. Virtually all of Allison's plotlines are like this, they feel like they belong in a different show, and for some reason the writers insisted on giving her one of these storylines like, every season. After Allison passively murders her own friend out of suspecting that she's spying on her, I just don't feel like an arc about her running for some PTA office position even matters. It doesn't feel right.

Speaking of that, here's another example: Donnie. Why did the end of the first season suggest that he was this secret mastermind working for Leekie? The whole idea just deflates in Season 2 and doesn't really go anywhere. He just goes back to being the bumbling sweetheart he was before. Why even have him be the spy? Maybe it should have been Ainsley. Do you want to know the exact moment that I think Orphan Black went wrong? Like, the specific scene? When Leekie was killed off. The character who had thus far been the Big Bad, gets taken out in the stupidest possible way, a literal accident on Donnie's part, and it's even played for laughs. After that point, the show really struggled to regain it's footing, though I don't think it completely went off the rails until about Season 4, and it was still generally hit or miss. Like, some stuff was really good. The introduction of the Castor clones, the development of Rachel's character (I'll get to her, trust me.) and the reveal of Kendall Malone. But it seemed like so much else was just forgotten or otherwise not resolved. Whatever happened to Cal? Sure, the show wanted to focus on the sisters...but Kira deserves to know her father if she wants to. That's just one example. It's a crying shame because this show is sometimes incredible. The metaphor that I always use for situations like this, is a card game. The show has all the right cards in its hand, they're just not being played.

The two strongest characters, at least to me, were Rachel and Helena. One of these characters was superbly written and went through a devastating arc. The other was Helena. We need to talk about her. In Season 1, she really cemented herself as a memorable presence with her trademark accent, her scars, her whole damn personality (again, hats off to Tatiana) and of course, that iconic screechy theme music that accompanied her. Which at first made us jump, but eventually made us cheer. I adored Helena, and I loved the development of her relationship with Sarah. Who went from shooting her in Season 1, to being deadset on rescuring her in Season 3, being furious with Siobhan for betraying her. (This is unrelated but Siobhan has the same " twist villain fakeout" at the end of Season 1 that Donnie does, and it's quite frustrating.) And yet, I swear, the writers just didn't know what to do with Helena half the time. They put her on a bus for long stretches, including one point where she just up and leaves Allison's house in Season 4, for no given reason. And the characters just kind of...don't care. The same thing happens when she gets arrested. No one cares to try and find Helena, even though she's unstable and often a danger to those around her. Even though she's by herself with no real ability to function in society. Even though she's pregnant. There is no excuse for this, and no Sarah, that "I'm sorry, I avoided you" scene in Season 5 is not going to cut it. It's such an afterthought.

I'm being rather critical, but I hope you can tell that this is from a point of passion. I genuinely enjoyed this show and getting to watch it. Just that sometimes it didn't feel like the show cared that I was watching. However, this was not true whenever Rachel was onscreen. Look, I'm a Merula Snyde stan, so you can probably already guess how I feel about Rachel. Despite her crimes, despite her constant slipping back the dark side, I felt so bad for Rachel at the end of it all. That scene with Kira really sums it up. "Who hurt you?" "All of them." And no scene is more intense than when she stabs out the eye cam. Like, I'm sorry, I pitied Rachel pretty much from Season 2 on. Her parents were horrible to her, and I'm supposed to think Ethan is the good guy here? He kills himself in front of his own daughter, telling her that she doesn't deserve him. And then Sarah shoots a pencil through her eye, causing brain damage and requiring a long recovery. I'm not saying that Sarah was wrong to do what she did, just that if I were in her shoes, I'd still feel a degree of guilt for Rachel's condition. In the end, I'm devastated that she was barred from Clone Club, when she made the right decision at the point it mattered. But there's just too much history there, and Sarah won't ever forgive her. (Though again, I do feel as though there's blame to share.) Rachel is my favorite character and I never expected her to be. But she's just so complex. Side note: "Enjoy your oophorectomy" is so damn quotable. I don't know why but I love that line.

So, Rachel's my favorite. Who's my least favorite? It might surprise you. It's Delphine. I'm sorry, but I just...I couldn't get on board with C*phine. Not after Season 3. I was waiting for the point that the show would push to finally redeem Delphine for her turncoat role, for all of the hell that she put Cosima through. By Season 5 though? I realized that as far as the writers were concerned? She already was redeemed. Even though she did nothing to earn it, except be presumed dead by Cosima. The way she treats Cosima in Season 3 is actually disgusting. Her reasoning for breaking up with Cosima is circular. She has to love "all the clones" in order to be with Cosima, and the way to do that is to take over Rachel's job, which means they can't date anymore? I'm not the only one who thought that didn't make sense, right? Oh and let's talk about how she stalks Cosima's date, breaks into her house, and threatens her life. Red. Flags. Cosima even says the line, "If you're not going to be with me, just let me go." I'm sorry, that should not be something she has to beg for. Delphine's behavior made me want her to stay far, far away from Cosima. Who is, incidentally, a sweetie and I absolutely adore her. I legit have trouble remembering that Tatiana's playing her because she just looks and acts so different. That said, even though I immensely disliked Delphine, I am so very glad that they made one of the clones gay. Just like I'm glad that they made one of them trans. (Though...Tony wasn't handled especially well.)

In general, I do think the earlier seasons were stronger. The Brightborn arc, while interesting, didn't really contribute much to the overarching narrative. We got the backstory on Beth's suicide and finally learned the truth about her, I suppose. Still, even though Beth is one of my favorite of the clones, and I never expected her to be either...I feel like the actual reason given for why she took her own life was rather illogical. She apparently did it because the investigation was putting the clones in danger of another Helsinki. Okay, but just because Evie Cho says you should off yourself, doesn't mean you have to. You could just, like...stop investigating. And if you die under mysterious circumstances without explaining anything to the sisters, they're not going to be put off from the investigation. They're going to look into this even more, because they don't know why they're not supposed to. The reveal that she and Art fell in love toward the end adds an extra gut punch, but it also doesn't make sense because wouldn't Art have referenced it during the period that he thought Sarah was Beth? On the other hand, Season 4 also introduced MK. And I have such a soft spot for her. I adore that sheep-masked sweetie. Everyone always asks "Which clone would you date" (because fandoms can think of nothing else I guess) and I never see anyone give any love to MK. Her death absolutely tore me apart. I am glad Siobhan avenged her even if she went down at the same time. Side note, her last word being the affectionate "Chickens..." Broke me.

Season 5 was a strange beast. In general, it seemed like we were finally getting some answers to the questions that were hanging over us. Exploring the deep mythos. But then they kind of turned it around and made it just be a Wizard of Oz style fraud twist. Westmoreland isn't really inhumanly old, he's a charlatan. I don't know why that was necessary in a science fictional show. I've seen the interviews and I get what they were going for, it just feels like it would have been cooler and far creepier if he was actually that old. The puppet master pulling the strings the whole time. We also finally get some answers for Kira's superhuman healing abilities (though we never learn how she's telepathically connected to the clones) and I'm loving it, but the trouble is, it's inconsistent. Ethan "Why is this guy so popular, he's an asshole" Duncan told Rachel specifically that Sarah being able to have children was a fluke, that the clones were "barren by design." I don't know, the whole concept of Revival and of the "magical island" was really foreboding and tied in with the earlier references to The Island of Doctor Moreau. Especially that song about "Revival's Children" just...the shudders, man. But just having it be a regular old scam is...a letdown. I know it may be more realistic, but I don't always need realism in my scifi. The finale is interesting, in that it's mostly an epilogue. I'm glad the clones (sans Rachel) got to live happily ever after, but there are two gut punches right at the end that are total nitpicks but they bother me. Helena naming her kids after Art and Donnie? And writing a memoir that she names "Orphan Black?" Those two tropes can go die in a hole. They can enjoy an oophorectomy, because I'm so sick of them.

The potential of Orphan Black was practically infinite. The results of Orphan Black fell frustratingly short.

[gamebunny-advance]

The Thrilling Continuation~

@kujo-supernova​

As to not clog the dashes with increasingly long posts of anyone who has to put up with this, I started a new post~

[Original response here]

K, I agree with 95% of what you said, so I don't feel the need to go over it point by point. Even the stuff I don't agree with I’m not going to really address  because it's irrelevant to the argument I’m trying to make. This isn't even an argument about each other's opinions anymore so much as I'm just commenting on the fandom at large now. So basically everything I'm about to say is not really directed at you (except for the last part), and is more directed at this fictional straw man of the fandom that probably doesn't exist, but I'm gonna attack anyway because it helps illustrate my thought process.

But thanks for reading anyway if you do~

I don't take issue with the fandom because I'm trying to defend Kliff or say that anyone else is 100% in the wrong here. This is a story about flawed individuals that make bad decisions. It's multi-layered and complex, and that's why I love this game so much.

My issue is largely with how the fandom in general is hypocritical in the way they treat Kliff because they see him as *more* "wrong" than he actually is, but my goal is not to prove that he was in the “right”.

Yeah, B2J (mostly Mayday) did get to learn from the experience that they were wrong because they're the protagonists: the purpose of their story is to learn that lesson. Kliff exists to be Mayday's "shadow". He represents an extreme that Mayday could have become had she not realized that taking over NSR isn't the solution to her problem. But as the true antagonist, Kliff literally *can't* come to that same realization: it would be redundant. And that's fine. For the purposes of the story that it wanted to tell, Kliff getting a resolution was not necessary, even if it leaves him in a bad spot with the other characters.

But that story is done and now fandom gets to write new ones. He still has a lot of character that can be explored: Now that rock is back in the city, what will he do? Why is rock specifically so important to him? Why does he know so much about every artist in the city? Why does he look so much younger than he actually is? *cough*becausehe'savampire*cough*

But largely the fandom doesn't seem interested in exploring any of that and more than just a handful of people seem to outwardly reject the idea of writing him as even *capable* of the kind of growth that B2J went through.

I brought up DJSS specifically as a counterargument to Kliff because he is THE scummiest person in the cast for all the reasons you said and more, but he is still one of the most popular characters because he has a cool design and a sexy voice, and maybe some people see him as a "sad boi" and want to coddle him. I am also one of those people for all 3 1/2 of those reasons, but I don't believe that you need to think that a character is a good person to justify liking them. There's a lot of reasons to like a morally gray or even morally black character, and agreeing with their actions/opinions doesn't need to be one of them.

I just think it's hypocritical to excuse one character for their flaws and not another with similar ones. Like there's some nuance to it that can change what makes something okay in one context and not okay in another, but I think the comparison between DJSS and Kliff is apt.

In my opinion their shared flaw is being egocentric. They are both willing to sacrifice the health and happiness of others for their own agendas. They express it in different ways, but it all comes from the same place: They think that what they're trying to achieve is more important than the feelings/condition of others.

DJSS seriously does not give a damn about anyone other than himself and he doesn't even have the courtesy to try and hide it. Even after his district is restored, he's still the same asshole he always was. He STILL calls B2J "Plutonians" (and I don't count him saying that "they aren't so bad after all" as "change", because even as a professor he was capable of expressing backhanded gratitude) and his reason for playing music is STILL "self-importance". He is in the same place that he started and will probably continue to abuse his district over his sense of ego unless Tatiana or someone else finally forces him not to. And everyone either accepts that or disregards it because that's just who he is. And again, that's fine, but I find it hypocritical.

Like I feel like many people's problems with Kliff is that they're not interested in exploring his character beyond what has been presented in the text. And that's fine too. It is perfectly valid to enjoy the game as it is and not want to explore it beyond that, but if having such a small scope of a game's themes and characters causes you to get "bugged" when someone presents a different interpretation, then it might be beneficial to look at another reading.

For example, let's go back to the satellite argument. My point about the satellite being "symbolic" was to disprove "murderous intent". His motivations for dropping it are totally separate. You say that you still think his motivation is being fueled by bitterness over Tatiana leaving rock. Your exact words: "I still think part of it was done out of spiteness for Tatiana leaving rock", but I feel like that's a very surface level reading.

In my opinion, rock is just the window dressing to the core of his actual problem: he feels like he's not getting back what he gave. He drops the satellite after her response to this question: "Did my loyalty mean nothing to you?" Which was, "I don't give a damn about you. I owe you nothing." which I think is far from a trivial response.

In any relationship, even a non-romantic one like this, it hurts knowing that the other person isn't as invested in it as you are. Even more so if they were to flat out say, "I don't give a damn about you." Like, can you imagine being told by your favorite content creator that they hated you to your face after you've done everything you could do to support them as a fan? Would most people react calmly to that in the heat of the moment?

Like we don't know the extent that Kliff was involved in Tatiana's life, but Tatiana never implies that he's lying about supporting her after the Goolings disbanded. Their relationship couldn't have been completely parasocial because she immediately recognizes him and addresses him by name when she sees him, and her being Kul Fyra isn't common or easy to obtain knowledge, so he must have been close to her to even know that. We know what he may have been willing to do for her given how much he helps B2J, and had Tatiana been upfront about her feelings with Kliff in the past, then I don't think he would have even bothered to give his sob story because he would have known that she wouldn't be receptive to it.

What I'm getting at is that "abandoning rock" isn't the actual reason he felt hurt enough to want to retaliate. It was likely more about "abandoning him" than it is a loyalty to any particular genre.

Even with this reading of his motivation, I don't think he was justified in doing what he did. Tatiana was totally right in calling him out, even if she was harsh about it, because in the end it doesn't matter how much he might have done for her if she didn't want it to begin with. He should have just walked away and accepted that she wasn't the person he thought she was, but people don't always do the right or rational thing, especially if they're caught up in the heat of their emotions and I think that's a relatable emotion worthy of discussion and dissection, even if it's not positive.

Will reading any of that change your mind? Probably not, but it's another perspective, and that's really all I want to offer.

Saying you're okay with someone liking something that you don't, isn't the same as understanding it, and that's what I want to change. I don't need anyone to agree with me, I wouldn’t start these discussions with strangers if I did. My end goal is to get you to understand where I'm coming from, and I think you're just *barely* missing my point. Hopefully I’m understanding your points too, but maybe I’m wrong about you’re getting at as well. UoU

[neednothavehappenedtobetrue]

okay. this is a post about a new character, who is a person in the same 'verse as the main one for Robert and Isabelle, sci-fi and spaceships. she is a pastor in the one specific "limits on technology" religion I made up, but also, she is very cool. she does not live on their main terraformed colony, she lives in another colony with some definite cultural differences.

I am mostly posting this for my own future reference. there are definitely people who will enjoy Gwendolyn a lot, even with the extensive trigger tag situation here, but I think "a short story that has space for more nuance" would be a better venue for her than "my thoughts from Skype at 4AM"

if you do decide to read this, check the tags first, please

shoutout to @anonymus-maximus-er for being my thought partner on this.

but as I understand it now, there are, like , degrees of Intensity in Church Of Man

like, even their chillest followers are kind of intense about it because it's hard to be real, real chill about "god said we were only allowed to use these specific fifteen technologies" or whatever the exact rules are

but as far as incubators go, Aimee's community, the one you saw, would definitely have been like "well, too bad God wants that baby to die" and there are some other communities which would be more like "okay, probably make sure your baby does not die, do what you've gotta do there, but don't come back and talk to us afterwards"

and also for sure there are communities like "do literally whatever you have to do to make sure your baby does not die, we will be here with whole-made casseroles when you're home again"

and like, could some of those kids have benefitted from subsequent quality-of-life stuff they didn't get? probably, yes

to varying degrees

but hopefully Aimee finds a nice community where she can be like "this is so important to me but my babies and I experienced a bunch of technology in order to not die and we got excommunicated."

and they're like "wow that sounds like a lot of Not Your Fault would you like some whole-made casseroles and toddler clothes?"

and she's like "I got excommunicated" and they're like "did you know, perhaps you didn't, that there is no Central Authority for every Church Of Man church in the galaxy? there for sure is not! the people from New Maryland often pretend they are, but we didn't vote for them! your old pastor is just not at all the boss of us, is the thing"

that is the future epilogue I want for Aimee

I feel like the Tau Ceti Church of Man community is small and some people think they're weird, but they're nice neighbors. their pastor is a woman named Gwendolyn or something who is just constantly mad about Richard Brinton That Fucking Asshole

she has never called him any of those words because of decorum, she has just spent a lot of time talking to new people like "wow you seem very traumatized did you know he is not the boss of us?"

"we don't have a pope!"

"we've tried to have a council a few times, but it's logistically complicated"

"every church is supposed to make its own rules in accordance with the texts"

"yes, I have read every single one of his missives to the world, I know which bits of the Texts you probably have memorized, here are some bits I like a lot"

Gwendolyn has some opinions

like, churches are supposed to set their own rules about "necessary" technologies and she has quietly labeled almost all life-saving medical technology "necessary"

meanwhile, Brinton thinks it's necessary for him to have access to telecommunications equipment to he can send his editorials all over the galaxy, so people can be Educated

huh

of course, he does not actually physically touch the telecommunications equipment, he keeps like four people who know how to use it around so they can spread his word, but also, huh

the thing about Gwendolyn is that she has spent a long time watching traumatized New Marylanders join her community, many of them quite young and quite traumatized

also, she was never a New Marylander, she is fourth-generation Tau Ceti, which, crucially

means that her first set of principles is "Church Stuff, Misc" and her second set of principles, right there after the first is "you're not the boss of me"

even if somebody could point to actual scripture that said they were the boss of her, she would have some trouble with it, but some dude! who cannot point to anything at all! no justification whatsoever! nothing in the texts even a little bit! keeps trying to be the boss of her! and also keeps traumatizing all of the people in his community pretty badly! and making everyone else look like jerks!

"I'm more conservative than you, therefore, I am the boss of you"

NOPE

not for Gwendolyn

Gwendolyn votes in every local election and votes for her Senator, who she has met and quite likes. she occasionally goes to protests when the local government does some dipshit thing, but the Tau Ceti local government is pretty well-behaved because if it's not the citizenry will absolutely be like "fuck you, you're not the boss of me" at its government

she has some Very Big Opinions about debtor employment. she's not thrilled about the like, severity of the gang situation in her city, but she doesn't have a lot of optimism that the Government is gonna fix it, so she does community groups instead

also, in recognition of the fact that she can't just throw these traumatized New Marylanders right off into the personal autonomy deep end she is like "okay, if you need someone to tell you what to do sometimes, I will be the temporary boss of you until you are ready to be the boss of you"

she does not Love that aspect of her job, but sometimes you gotta

you can't bring people from "obedience all the time" to "you must make every choice in your life with no backup" overnight, they'll just collapse in on themselves or become targets for worse people

so she does the thing

she and Brinton have a <very> passive aggressive correspondence going as church leaders

there are many many long letters back and forth

they are very polite and also, if any of them are preserved, historians will find them fascinating

"wow these people just fucking loathed each other"

Anonymus, 5:05 AM

your obedient servant, A. Burr

5:05 AM

if they did not live on separate planets, legitimately maybe

like, if she could get to Brinton's house on a horse to yell at him in person, she would have by now

she didn't swear a lot in real life, but sometimes she wanted to

she got real good at saying "that man" or "sugar" or "nonsense" in A Tone, but you could tell

I can't decide if she has a husband or a wife

Aimee's church definitely thinks gay people are Modern and therefore Wrong, but like

I feel like probably their specific religious texts don't even have that much on being nice to people? like, there's definitely a few pages on like "kindness is an ancient value, we hold fast to ancient values, these are them"

but it's like 70% Rules Minutiae

it's also not a super long book

so everybody has very different opinions about how to interpret the Rules Minutiae in light of the 30% of the book that's like "here are our actual values"

"modesty" and "fidelity" are both in the Ancient Values bits for sure

and I feel like different denominations went in different directions on the "modesty" and "fidelity" implications of "gay people"

no, I've decided, Gwendolyn definitely has a wife

show her in the actual rules where she can't have a wife

yes, fidelity, that thing she has with her wife

Anonymus, 5:13 AM

can the wife be a very proper rebbetzin?

organises all the casserole chains

5:14 AM

yes, she can definitely organize all of the casserole chains

5:18 AM

right

Gwendolyn's wife's name is Tara and she came from an Earth Church of Man community where they were like "technically it's not illegal for you to be gay, but, like, ehhhh? we'd rather you didn't and also you definitely cannot have children if you're gay"

5:20 AM

and she got to Tau Ceti and met Gwendolyn who even in college was like "show me in the texts where it says I cannot have a wife."

"show me."

Anonymus, 5:21 AM

sounds like excellent breeding ground for Very Textually and Theologically Conversant, but not actually a religious authority

5:21 AM

the thing is, Tau Ceti is Bad At Authority

if they had a motto on their coins it would just be "you're not the boss of me" but maybe in Latin

but maybe not even in Latin because people who know Latin often think they are the boss of you

Anonymus, 5:22 AM

WHO MADE U KING

5:22 AM

for real

I think there is a dude who is technically the "boss" of Gwendolyn and they take turns giving the sermons and calibrating which parishoners they support based on like, communication styles in a way that often ends up with just all of the women and queer folks being Gwendolyn's people

she is smarter than him, he handles all of the Local Politics things that require you not to go "EXCUSE me, where is the LAW ABOUT THAT"

Anonymus, 5:24 AM

different type of smart

5:24 AM

if he ever tried to pull rank on her, she would either be so startled that it would work or she would unhinge her jaw and eat him

so he's never tried

he doesn't want to! very few people on Tau Ceti even want to be in charge, both because it's like herding cats who will hate you if they catch you herding them and because the finely honed distrust of authority doesn't go away when you become authority

Anonymus, 5:26 AM

"I'm pretty sure I'm up to some bullshit"

5:27 AM

yeah, Gwendolyn spends a lot of time with these sad transplants from other communities, nearly all of them women (because for SOME REASON women tend to get excommunicated WAY MORE OFTEN. HUH. are there ADDITIONAL RULES for WOMEN? I DON'T SEE ANY)

and they're like "please I am so sad and scared just tell me what to do"

and she wants to be like "I am not the boss of you, you have to be the boss of you" but they often are not ready for that, so she just tries to get a sense of what they want to do or what might be healthiest for them and tells them her strong recommendation is that they do that thing

everyone in her community knows she is passionate and can get fired up about some of this stuff, she doesn't hide that, but also, there are some conversations she (a only has with her wife and also (b has had with her wife a number of times

they are basically "our community is like 55% traumatized exiles from other communities and like 30% traumatized people from This One Dude's Community specifically. he traumatizes women and girls and girls he calls women and gay people and parents with sick babies!"

"we have so so many people we take care of now who are so so shaken and traumatized and sad"

"and we only get the people who don't leave the faith entirely!"

"it's not fair! it's not fair that he gets to do that! it's not fair!"

because when you carry the faces of like twenty good people all traumatized by the same garbage person and all you can do is try to take care of them and send passive-aggressive letters, sometimes it sucks!

if they lived on the same planet and she could get there on a horse, she would have done something ill-advised by now. yelled, certainly

but then again, if she had been born on New Maryland she would be a super different person and if he had been born on Tau Ceti there would have been a hard upper limit on how much he could get anyone to listen to him

like, bad bullshit happens on Tau Ceti, but the first time he married a fourteen-year-old girl off to her rapist, his neighbors would have set him on fire

church of man neighbors, regular neighbors, possibly neighbors who are criminals, just all the neighbors

5:37 AM

so her wife listens to her cry and reads over her letters to Brinton to make sure she doesn't actually say anything Too Impolitic (I think her boss also reads them, but he's less invested)

and her wife has these new folks over for dinner and helps them find clothes for their kids and adapt their modesty rules to the thing where it's like, as hot as it is possible to be in Tau Ceti

5:38 AM

like, most of the summer it's like 120 degrees, on a brisk day in December it drops into like, the low nineties

5:39 AM

sometimes people from other communities are like "we do modesty more modestly than they do" and they have to be like "okay, your choices are us dressing this way or us using air conditioning, because people do die in real life of heatstroke sometimes, that is a thing that can kill you"

also, even before Gwendolyn came along, her previous pastor was definitely like "we're gonna make electric fans permissible. we're just... heatstroke sure does kill you in real life"

"particularly in Modest Dress"

she liked him. they had meetings like twice a month when she was young because she had A Lot of questions and her parents were less invested in the answers than she was

when she was like twelve, he was like "maybe they'll give you my job one day" and she was like "I don't want your job! you're the boss of people!" and he was like "they very much would not give you my job if you wanted my job, kiddo"

(even 50% of the organized crime leaders on Tau Ceti are like "hey, I'm not the boss of anybody, I'm just a guy you don't want to fuck with because of all of the friends that I have got"

"I am not the boss of you, but I do have this gun")

5:49 AM

final thought on Gwendolyn: she had a real hard time when Robert Thompson died, because that dude thought her faith was a good reason to murder a husband and father.

and like, that dude is a fucking asshole, obviously, but it's hard

and then Brinton puts out an editorial about it and it is the only time Gwendolyn and Tara's children ever hear one of their mothers swear

because she is usually super meticulous about that

but also, sometimes

there is a limit

she makes several attempts before she writes him her next letter and the subtext of the entire letter is just "fuck you SO much, I do not generally believe in Hell, however, I will make an exception"

there is a limit! a man is dead and his wife and daughter are grieving and then a dude who everyone thinks is, like, the pope of her puts out some bullshit like "of course we don't do hate crimes but also that dude who got murdered deserved it" bullshit

there is a limit she is past it!

5:53 AM

also, they have seven adopted kids

[denimbex1986]

“You guys were gonna be the first MCU show...it ended up being WandaVision...Did you guys follow that show? Did you follow that hype? Was there any part of you that was like ‘Damn, we gotta follow that now’?”

Anthony: “Not at all. Our show is very different. I think it was great that WandaVision actually went first because it set up the audience’s ideas of what this Marvel Cinematic Universe is going be on the streamer. It’s very different because WandaVision was a completely different idea of a Marvel show. So, you know, it was great that they went first, but our show is so different; Sebastian and I are very different than Elizabeth and Paul.”

Kari: “The bar is high, obviously. I’m thrilled for them that it was so - such a success - and it’s such a creative show. So, what is terrific is ours is completely different. As is true of MCU and certainly at Marvel, is they really come at every project with its own unique DNA. And so, there’s no rules, I guess is the way to put it, - and that’s - that’s very empowering.” 

Malcolm: “Anthony Mackie said the other day when we was doing a group thing - and he was like ‘Well all I know is we’re not the ones that are gonna ruin Marvel.’ I don’t know about them other shows, but hopefully we will honor the momentum that WandaVision got for us, but - yeah - it is - I’m stressed.”

“...The Falcon and The Winter Soldier obviously is a little more conventional when it comes to the tone of the past MCU adventures that we’ve seen. How would you guys describe the target zone that you chased?”

Malcom: “It was - what Marvel had before I ever walked through the door was that concept of a buddy two-hander. There’s an array of tones within that genre, if that’s what that is, that you can pick from. And, where we settled was somewhere like, on the comedic end is ‘Rush Hour’ and ‘Ride Along’, right? And we wanted to be more on the dramatic end. And what we found was ‘Lethal Weapon’ and ‘48 Hrs’ in particular dealt with really, very real issues of those times. ‘48 Hrs’ dealt with race, ‘Lethal Weapon’ dealt with the Vietnam War - people don’t even really think about that. It - that genre allows you tackle real issues, while keeping the journey fun.”

“The series opens with a crazy, high-flying sequence...what can you say about filming that opening?”

Kari: “I did a lot of research and wanted to have it very experiential so it really felt like we were flying. Cameras were clipped all over them; on their helmets, and their feet and in their hands. So we did that, and we hired an amazing team who, you know, did many jumps to get all of the - the flight sequence stuff. Obviously rigorous planning because of the danger factor, and there’s a story to it so certain action has to happen, and it has to happen while you’re dropping at, you know, 500 miles an hour, or whatever it is, you know, from a plane. So there was a lot of very detailed, minutia planning that goes in it.”

“Anthony, did you get to do anything new stunt-wise for that? Like, did you Tom Cruise at all for that scene?”

Anthony: “I always do all the flying stuff because it’s just me on a jerry rig looking left, looking right and then they paint me in. So, I always do all the flying stuff and, you know, Sebastian and I had a nice roll in the hay for the ending part of it.” (laughs)

Sebastian: “Yes.”

“Bucky goes on a date in the premiere, and he does say something along the lines of like ‘I haven’t danced since 1943′...I think we all know what that means. Bucky’s a little thirsty these days.  Are we; are we going to see him get - “

Sebastian: “Bucky’s a little rusty.” (Anthony laughs)

“Bucky’s a little thirsty.”

Sebastian: “Those knees are, you know, making sounds once, you know, when he gets on - ”

Anthony: “Bucky’s achin’ for some bacon!” (Sebastian laughs)

“...I know you can’t spoil too much, but are we going to see him get that kind of action in the series?”

Sebastian: “Yeah, I mean, of course like both of these guys get their strengths, and their weaknesses actually. Like, I feel like they’re featured pretty well in the series and I think they compliment each other well in terms of those action sequences, as you’re going to keep seeing it, you know.”

“Anthony, both Kevin Feige and Macolm Spellman have said that the show is going to explore race and identity in America, probably more than past MCU projects. How would you describe the show’s approach?”

Anthony: “One of the big things about Marvel, and one thing that I really enjoy about being part of the MCU, is it’s always very timely. The stories, the characters, their obstacles; they always turn out to be very timely, and there’s nothing different with this show. This show deals with a lot of baggage that we harbor as Americans and with the idea of these characters moving forward post-blip. We’re living kind of in a post-blip society now because after COVID, we’re gonna have to learn what our new normal is. Just like in the MCU, once we came back from the blip after five years, everyone has to figure out what their new normal is. So it’s the exact same thing, and it makes the show very timely; dealing with - you know - economic structure, race and the idea of not only being an American, but being a human.”

Kari: “This is a conversation that’s a very important conversation to be having all the time, but in particular, it’s really bubbled to the fore in the last year. What does it mean for a black man to pick up such an iconic white symbol? What does that mean for the character? It’s a real exploration of what we have traditionally laid into this iconic red, white and blue of it - and now we are taking it down another road, and we’re really exploring what that is. And we don’t necessarily want to give answer; I mean, I think it’s also really important to provoke discussion. So it’s - nothing is tied up in tidy, neat;little bows. The notion is to say, this needs to always be discussed and continually be embraced.”

Malcolm: “It was inescapable. I always tip my hat to ‘Black Panther’ which made it possible, because ‘Black Panther’ proved Marvel fans would go on a ride with heroes that don’t look like heroes have looked in the past. And, you know, the Killmonger speech - we had that printed up and put on the wall. The hashtag Killmongerwasright, because we felt like that was just out jumping off point for this one.  T’Challa is African, which is different from being African-American, and TChalla - RIP to the great Chadwick, like I said he made all this possible - was a King. Sam is a black man, and not only is he a black man, he is a black man from the south. And we knew that the stars and stripes, that symbol in his hand, doesn’t mean the same thing it does in Steve’s hand. And in fact, we wanted to just lean into the fact, like, give Sam a backstory, including a family with strong opinions about it, so that the audience would understand why he doesn’t take that mantle on; that he doesn’t see it as even being appropriate, ‘cos it just means something else. You can’t hide from it and we would’ve been making fake show if we tried to.”

[marvella15]

Astaire & Rogers Rewatch Part 3: Roberta

• The Gay Divorcee was a smash hit, raking in almost $600k in profit for RKO during the Depression. It was also nominated for Best Picture. So then why are Astaire and Rogers not the headliners for Roberta? No clue. 

• As dumb as that decision was and is, in some ways, it makes their parts even more enjoyable. As the secondary pair, they don’t have to deal with misunderstandings and contrived plot devices keeping them apart or interfering with the development of their relationship. From the moment they’re on screen together, they’re a pair. 

• Their romance in Roberta is of two teenage sweethearts reuniting as adults and instantly falling back in step and in love with one another. The warmth and friendliness of their relationship, which I believe mirrors the true relationship between Astaire and Rogers in many ways, is one of the main reasons I adore this film. There are several scenes/moments where they seem to be themselves and it works perfectly.

• Our characters/actors: Huck (Fred Astaire), Lizzie (Ginger Rogers), John (Randolph Scott), Stephanie (Irene Dunne).

• Love their names in this film: Huck (short for Huckleberry) and Liz. A vast improvement, especially for Rogers who has so far been Honey and Mimi. 

• Of course for plot reasons Huck’s teenage sweetheart will be in the exact same place he ends up. But it’s worth noting that he requests for John to ask his aunt about Lizzie. He intends to look her up himself. 

• Could John be a himbo?? He’s handsome, kinda dumb, but very kind. 

• I like how Liz, in her alter ego as a Polish countess, continues throwing a tantrum even though John pushes her to the couch twice. Rogers doesn’t get enough credit for her slapstick abilities. She also somehow makes the word “orchestra” seem very suggestive.

• Love how Huck slides in towards the elevator in his hast to meet Lizzie again. She’s not mad to see him either, only worried he’ll blow her cover. Which he immediately almost does. 

• A snarky reunion: 

Liz, as the Countess: “Huck is for Huckleberry, n’est-ce pas?”

Huck: “Uhh yes, a couple of n’est-ce pas.”

• His face at being called a piccolo player is only bested by Liz’s barely concealed glee at Huck being demoted this way. In their first interaction, he calls her babe, toots, and playfully bites her hand and she puffs smoke right in his face. I love it. 

Not for nothing, later in the film he will also call John babe and toots. Huck is an equal opportunity complimenter. 

• Their relationship is established immediately as he celebrates her success and beauty. There’s no rivalry or obstacles between them, not even her stage name. While she is careful to remove her hand from between his when their private moment is interrupted, she doesn’t mind it being known she’s going off somewhere with him. 

• Irene Dunne has a fine singing voice but it’s just not what I came to this movie to hear. 

• Huck’s face as he watches Liz sing is adorable. Maybe a tad overdone but incredibly sweet. 

(gif credit @themaladjustedjester​)

• It’s a bit irritating that Rogers is forced to sing and speak in her fake Polish accent for most of the film but dang she does an amazing job with this song. It’s a full-body performance and she does it with gusto. 

• I adore the way Astaire tosses the baton over his shoulder as soon as she comes to sit with him. He’s just like, don’t need that anymore. 

• So cute as they reminisce about their younger years: 

Liz: “You know I think I was in love with you then, Huck.” 

Huck: “I know you were.”

Liz, mildly offended: “Youuuu.”

Huck: “Meeee. And what’s more, I was madly in love with you.”

• Their entire exchange is funny and wonderful. The teasing, the flirting, the declaration of past love for one another that is obviously still true. How he punctuates certain moments with a bit of tap for emphasis. They smile naturally and it feels like two friends talking. This could be AU Fred and Ginger’s real-life story and I would believe it. 

• Talking about how she won a beauty contest:

Liz: “Well, you won it for me. How did you get all the men from the overall factory to vote for me?”

Huck, very pleased with himself: “That was easy. I showed them a picture of Lillian Russell.”

Liz, incensed: “Lillian Russell? Well what was the matter with my picture?���

Huck: “Well if you must know, we got a lot of votes from the farmers with a picture of a prize heifer.”

Liz, about to playfully sock him: “Oh youuuu.”

• “I’ll Be Hard to Handle” is a special dance for many reasons including that the taps were not dubbed over later. Since they used the original sound, we can hear both Astaire and Rogers giggling and whooping throughout the dance. 

Usually, Astaire recorded the taps in post-production since the sound could not pick them up very well during filming. Hermes Pan, Astaire’s choreography partner, often recorded Rogers’ taps since she was typically off filming a different movie by then.

• Astaire often gets a lot of the credit for their dancing because he worked tirelessly on the choreography. Rogers was often away filming non-musical roles while he did this. She was in three other films in 1935 alone, in addition to both Roberta and Top Hat with Astaire. But she put in a lot of hard work too. While filming those other roles, she learned the choreography from Pan so when she showed up for the six weeks of rehearsal, she was prepared. 

• And somehow this number feels perfectly spontaneous. At the start, as he pulls her in, she looks at him flirtatiously and it’s not acting. She waits for him to come spin them around and of course it’s part of the choreography but it’s a lovely feeling of anticipation all the same. Several times they appear lost in their own world, dancing for one another. They also seem to be talking to one another quietly throughout most of the dance. Like before in their films, you can see the acting start and stop pretty clearly. 

• When one of them does a little extra dance, the other watches in true appreciation and delight. Again, not acting. Most instances where they make eye contact they look very pleased with themselves. This is the closest we’ll ever get to seeing what Astaire and Rogers were like in rehearsals, complete with the in-joke bugle call. 

• To understand better the moments of reality vs. acting, just look at the sequence where they challenge each other and argue using different dance steps. All acting. Then look at their faces immediately after this sequence ends and they enter the final moments of the dance. All them. 

Side note: don’t miss how Astaire claps his hands together to make the smacking noise when she slaps him.

• While watching a private fashion show, John and Huck dislike a gorgeous black satin gown that’s low cut and with an almost completely open back because they think it’s too revealing. But later Rogers is going to wear almost this same gown and will look marvelous in it during the “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” dance. 

• After selecting a new gown, Liz teases Huck that “tall, handsome gentleman with large bank accounts will be asking for my telephone number. And getting it.” He replies, “And won’t they be surprised when I answer?”

• Upon hearing that John’s terrible ex, who has just arrived to undump him now that he’s rich and famous, will be leaving on Saturday, Huck departs with this line: “Goodbye, John. I’ll see you Sunday.”

• Irene Dunne definitely enjoys her few seconds of being spun around with Astaire. But who wouldn’t?

• Huck’s line to Sophie, “Gee, darling, you look terrible,” is such a burn and I love it.

• Another thing I have a soft spot for is Astaire’s piano playing. It’s energetic and fun and he doesn’t do it nearly enough imo. 

• Astaire sings 3 songs (I’m not counting the fashion show “song”) in Roberta but they all have that very conversational style that suits him. And in fact both “I Won’t Dance” and “Lovely to Look At” are duets framed as a conversation with Rogers. My favorite part of “I Won’t Dance” is this exchange:

Astaire: “You know what? You’re lovely.”

Rogers: “And so what? I’m lovely.”

Astaire: “But oh what you do to me.”

• I also have to mention the little callback to “The Continental” as well as the strange rhyme of “for heaven rest us, I’m not asbestos”??

• Notice how this solo routine for Astaire is not interrupted by any cuts to his face or feet like previously solos? He got his way with the camera work.

• “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” is a lovely song that I don’t necessarily want Irene Dunne to sing, not when Ginger Rogers is in the same film. 

• Rogers’ acting when Huck talks rhetorically about wanting to marry Liz is fabulous. First, she has to be incensed at the mention of a “Liz” when publicly she’s still known as the Countess. Then she’s flustered that he’s just admitted he wants to marry her. And then she glares at him when he takes up the joke and describes his fiance-to-be as “simple” with “big feet.” And all of that happens in about three seconds. The way she sharply looks him up and down always makes me snicker.  

• This lengthy fashion show is something else I usually skip. Was there a line of gowns that were sold as movie tie-in merchandise? I highly doubt it. But why else is this so long??

• When Astaire sings the lyrics “and heaven to kiss,” his voice drops and Rogers glances at him. Huck and Liz have most certainly been kissing off screen. 

• Absolutely love how the lyrics of “Lovely to Look At” change for Astaire and Rogers. Instead of a “most impossible scheme come true, imagine finding a dream like you,” Rogers sings that he is her “most impossible dream come true, imagine finding a boy like you.” She takes his arm and on the lyrics “it’s thrilling to hold you terribly tight,” he squeezes her hand. 

• Their dance, set to “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes,” is slow and stunning, one of the most beautiful they created. It’s full of soft looks between them. Rogers spends most of the beginning gazing at him lovingly. Not to be outdone, Astaire does the same when she’s turned away or not looking at him. He also has a small, private smile soon after they begin. It’s lovely. 

• The duet is romantic and yet they don’t embrace fully until about a minute in. Instead, they hover near one another, faces angling together, small touches here and there. Holding fingertips for a particular move. His fingers briefly touch her ribs when she places his hand there for a beat. It’s a dance of deep partnership and love, not courtship. Neither needs to woo the other. 

• And when they do embrace, he holds her close for a prolonged moment before moving into the next step. As he does, that private smile sneaks out again. 

• The sudden dip is another example of Rogers trusting Astaire. She looks magnificent in the pose too. They both do.

• She lays her head on his shoulder, his hand resting gently on her hair, and her arm is around him. It’s a very intimate pose, made even more so by how he tilts his head towards her and his lips are very close to her brow. And there again, that smile. 

• When the music becomes playful, Rogers glances over her shoulder at him and finds his eyes are already on her. Both of their faces soften. 

• And ending a sumptuous dance with a backwards leap up three stairs. Super casual. They walk off the way they began, their arms linked. 

• Speaking of casual, Huck and Liz get engaged in the most laid back way ever. Perfect for them.

• I have always loved Stephanie’s expression when she realizes just how dumb (but sweet) John is. 

• The reprise of “I Won’t Dance” ends the film. Newly engaged but still in the same clothes they just performed a slow, romantic duet in, Astaire and Rogers perform a much more energetic dance. She makes her dress work for her superbly. The way they dance is very like “I’ll Be Hard to Handle,” which shows that this celebratory number is Huck and Liz, not the bandleader and the Countess performing for a crowd. And the choice of song is fitting since in the lyrics he said he couldn’t dance with her for fear he’d fall in love with her. But now they have danced quite intimately and they’re engaged. Might as well keeping dancing together. 

• Soooo another film finished! We’re getting into some of the best ones now. Up next: Top Hat.

• Also if fanfiction is your thing, here’s a very sweet one for this film. 

[sazandorable]

things I wanna see in ace fanworks!

It’s Ace Week!

And there’s huge variety among the aspec community (spectrum! that’s what it means!), so here’s a post about a variety of things I’d love to see more in fanworks involving asexual characters!

(I’m especially thinking of Jon from The Magnus Archives and Zolf from Rusty Quill Gaming, but this should easily apply across fandoms!)

I’ll try not to repeat it every line but: blanket disclaimer that this is very much a “what I feel, what I want, me, personally” post. Others (including other asexual people) might feel differently, and that’s perfectly okay. That’s kind of the point of this post! This is absolutely not a “here’s the one correct way to write all ace characters that all ace people will enjoy and agree with” Rules post — on the contrary, this is partly in reaction to seeing other people say that they dislike seeing, or don’t dare create, things that I, personally… desperately want to see, actually.

CW: this post will contain references to many common sources of trauma for asexual people, such as aphobia, partner abuse and rape, as well as sex (in general and sometimes in specifics) and asexual people having sex.

So! I, personally, love and would love to see more...

Fanworks by all sorts of asexual creators

No matter what your specific experience is, it is important, and your getting to create and share art about it is important, and you deserve to get that, and there are people interested in seeing it. And the same is true for all the other aces with different experiences, too.

Variety! Room for all of us! Share your experience happily, and let other aces happily share theirs!

Fanworks by allosexual creators

I’m so happy you’re interested in asexuality and in depicting it! I do want my experience to be normalised and seen as a normal thing that anyone can find interesting and relatable, even allosexual people. If you don’t mean to be an asshole about it, if you’re generally interested in exploring asexuality and you’re doing it from the heart, thinking of asexual people as people — then I want to see it, and I want you to be able to give a try to creating or consuming whatever you want, and I do not want you to be attacked for doing it.

Of course, you might still unwittingly fuck up, and people might still get hurt, and truly hurtful things should still be pointed out in order to be improved on; but I want us as a community to help creators up instead of shouting down, and I hope you continue putting thought into creating fanworks involving ace characters.

Keep reading for some tips and suggestions of things to think about, to keep in mind and to look into to improve your representing of us and our experience of it!

Extremely specific, different, kinda weird, niche, Problematic™ content, from creators of any identity (including questioning!), who are wary about sharing it because they think that there’s no audience for it, or that they’re not allowed, or that it’s a bad and evil way to represent asexuality

I want to see that, I’d be thrilled if you did it, I hope you do it, and I want a fandom environment in which you can do that safely because you deserve to. Of course, make sure to provide good tagging and CW!

Awareness that asexuality is a wide varying spectrum of experiences and there is no One Correct or More Valid Way to depict it

Awareness that even people with the same identity, label and life experiences might want to create or consume different things

Permission for everyone to create whatever they like, so long as it’s just done earnestly

No shaming, gatekeeping, accusations of fetishising, etc.

There are newbie writers who will never learn if they’re scared away from trying; there are people who haven’t yet figured out that they are in fact ace and never will if they’re not allowed to explore it safely; there are ace people who consume ace content to feel good about themselves; there are ace people who create ace fic in order to explore complicated, hard, unpleasant experiences and feelings; there are ace people whose experiences do not match stereotypical narratives I’ve most seen brandished around, and those people are just as ace and just as allowed to create and consume whatever they want; I do not want to foster a fandom environment in which people must out themselves and offer up their experience to scrutiny in order to be “allowed” to write certain topics; etc., etc.

Over the past two years, I’ve regularly seen a lot of yelling along the lines of “this work includes x and not x because this character is ace!” or “this fic I just read is the only valid ace fic” or “oh my god everyone look at this, this is the perfect ace fic”. A lot of it comes from a place of defensiveness and/or pride, ace people happy and proud to share something that was, finally, pinning down their experience. That’s awesome! ... For them. There are plenty of other asexual people who don’t relate to or enjoy those narratives — in fact, all the ones I’m thinking of squicked me hard, despite being made by ace creators and accurate to (an) ace experience, and I would be really unhappy if all ace fanworks was like those. Meanwhile, plenty of stuff I enjoy gets accusations of being fetishising.

So it would do a world of wonder for me and my experience of ace fanworks if those things could be internalised by the fandom as a whole!

Clear distinction between “being asexual” and “not interested in sex”, ”sex-repulsed” or “not having sex”

Those can and often do overlap, but the word “asexual” just means “experiencing little or no sexual attraction”!

In fanworks about an ace character, the two are generally linked and the reason a character doesn’t want to have sex tends to be that they’re ace, but the shorthand and immediate assumption that “being ace” automatically and always means “never having sex” or “hating the concept of sex” always feels a little weird to me.

This goes both ways — even if your aspec character is very sexually active and enjoys it, or if they’re demisexual and currently experiencing attraction to their partner, etc. — they’re still a person who experiences little to no sexual attraction in their daily life, they’re still aspec in a way that can be depicted and that I can be made to feel.

On AO3, widespread use of the tag “Canon Asexual Character”…

There are different views on the “correct” way to use that tag, in part because… what's the point of it? Should we use it in every single fic in which the Archivist appears, because he happens to be ace in the canon, even if it doesn’t come up in the fic?

IMO, it is helpful — it indicates to me that the author wrote their story with that character’s asexuality in mind, and it informed their writing of that character. Personally, I use it on fics where it feels “relevant” even if it doesn’t come up, such as a fic from Martin’s POV about Jon not being very touchy-feely (even though it doesn’t specify that that is because Jon is ace), but not a fic from Jon’s POV in which they’re happily living together but it’s not about the physical specifics of their relationship (even though in my head that relationship is non-sexual, but I could have written this specific fic the exact same way if Jon wasn’t ace).

The use or non-use of the tag can also simply help distinguish fanworks that were created and posted before that revelation, and did not depict that character as ace because the creator genuinely wasn’t aware of it.

… but also more detail than that, for instance: tagging the “shade of ace” the character is written as

A few examples:

#aroace Jon

#demisexual biromantic Jon

#greysexual nonbinary Jon

#sexually active kinky asexual Jon

#sex-positive low-libido Jon

#touch-averse Jon

#sex-uninterested ace demiromo Jon in happy QPR with Martin

#sex-repulsed sub Jon gets creative

#aspec Jon experiences sexual attraction for the first time and it’s for freaking Elias of all people oh God oh no

etc., etc.

Those are VERY different things! There’s some I’d be delighted to read, some I’m not interested in, and some that would actively squick me personally for personal reasons but I can think of some friends of mine that would be super happy to see it.

If you don’t know or aren’t sure of the exact terms, or if you wrote a relatively broad scenario and want to let people project any labels on it, you can also just describe what the situation is or how you depicted your character relating to things. That’s still very helpful. For instance:

#Jon doesn’t like kissing but cuddles good

#the struggle of NOT liking touching but craving intimacy

#Jon and Tim pointing at each other like spiderman meme, same hat?? how??

#Daisy and Basira have no idea how to explain their relationship and it’s none of your business

#Zolf is just tired and wants people to stop prying into his love life

etc., etc.

More awareness that there’s plenty of stuff about the ace experience that, while very common, can be squicky or even traumatic, and more tagging/warning about that

Here’s some other things that are common to the ace experience and commonly depicted in fanworks involving ace characters, and that can be genuinely upsetting and potentially triggering and traumatic, whether or not an ace person has encountered it in their own life (lots of CWs in this list, obviously):

encountering aphobia, even clueless and well-meaning

having internalised aphobia, aphobic thoughts, self-hatred, feeling broken or strange

social pressure to have sex or relationships, people being invasive or judgy about others’ love life, feeling disconnected from allo people

trying things out just to see

having sex

enjoying sex

forcing themself to have sex

referring to past sexual experiences as something that they didn’t enjoy

being emotionally pressured into having sex

wanting to please their partner despite not desiring sex

feeling an obligation to satisfy their partner

the prospect of romantic rejection for their asexuality

the idea that they must earn love

the idea that getting their boundaries respected is something exceptional and rare and an incredible sacrifice from their partner

being sexualised by someone else or the object of someone’s fantasies

wanting sex or experiencing sexual attraction for the first time

etc., etc.

Two concepts here that are both simultaneously true: 1) those are indeed very common to the real life experience of ace people, 2) it is possible to depict the ace experience without tackling any of that.

Of course, you can have all that! You can create content about that! That’s very relatable for a lot of people, and that last one, for instance, can in fact be an accurate and important depiction of demisexuality. But it’s also not a given that a fictional work about asexuality will/should depict it, and not a given that all ace people looking for ace content will want to see any item from that list. So please, give content warnings for all that, too.

It would be a tremendous help in curating and improving my experience if this could become a widespread habit — I have lost count of the amount of fics tagged as fluffy that I had to backbutton out because they suddenly threw in something really depressing that I, personally, didn’t want to see happen to a character I project on (while other readers found catharsis, validation and kinship in seeing their experience represented accurately!).

If it does come up, tags about what comes up

Beyond the content warnings for clearly traumatic stuff, is there “#Discussion of asexuality”? Is it “#Coming out as asexual”, or “#Jon discovers the existence of asexuality”? Is there “#Acephobia” (“#Accidental”? “#Casual”? “#Internalised”?)? Is there “#Explanation of asexuality to a clueless partner”, or “#Jon’s partner tells him about asexuality”? Is there “#Relationship negotiation”?

Since, again, not all aces have the same experience, odds are that some people will JUMP happily on content depicting a specific experience which they relate to... and inversely: again, there’s some of that which I personally do not relate to and actively do not want to read.

Detailed tagging is a huge help for me to figure out if a fic about asexuality is going to squick me and make me sad for the evening because ah I am weird after all even amongst my brethren, or if it’s going to be, finally, my heart’s desire, what I’ve been craving for, and make my entire week. (Sidenote, thanks to good tagging I did find the perfect QPR fic I’d been yearning to read last week and I’m still thinking about it right now and so, so, so happy.)

Making it clear when an ace character is going to be having sex — beyond just the ship tag and rating

Reminder that a fic rating alone does not necessarily mean sex! A fic tagged just “#JonMartin” and rated Explicit could have them in a relationship and then an explicitly detailed scene in which Jon dies a excruciatingly gruesome death, or a graphic scene of Martin having some solo fun, or even another character, or a sex scene between another tagged ship.

With smut involving an ace character as with everything else, there are lots of us that do want to see it (for a wide variety of reasons), and obviously there are lots of us that desperately want to avoid it (but might be in the Explicit tag looking for smut involving other ships, or horror or whump content, etc.) — please help us know whether to click or not click!

The normalisation of not expecting/forcing anyone to do things they don’t actively want to do

There’s a relatively common thing in heartwarming ace fic where the ace character is surprised that their allo partner is fine with dating without having sex and the partner goes, “I love you, of course I’m fine with that” and the ace character is all oh, oh, oh I am loved and respected, did not expect that. Or an allo character saying “That’s fine, I don’t make you do anything you don’t want to do,” or “I don’t want to do anything unless you’re into it!”

And I see how it sounds nice and romantic. It probably is to many people. But it can also be extremely sinister and anxiety-inducing in its implications: what if the partner didn’t love the ace character quite that much? What did the ace character expect? If this is amazing and rare, then what was the baseline expectation? If this ace character has dated before, what were their past relationships like, for this to be surprising?

I end up running into it more in fluffy fanworks about asexuality than in fanworks that aren’t. Again — you can absolutely do that, but please tag/warn for it; even if it’s just in passing, in fluff fic it’s really not something I expect from the genre. Even though I might sometimes be specifically in the mood to read an exploration of that, in dark fic or in hurt/comfort fic!

And now for more specific stuff I wanna see in stories:

This last bit is intended as both an encouragement for people who want to create these things and think there’s no audience (there is!!), and as a box of ideas for people who have no idea how to depict the asexuality of characters but want to :3 Again, this is not in any way a statement that these are The Only Correct Way, or even things that all aspec people want to see, nor is it a diss at people who create, consume or want the exact opposite of these things — for that matter, some of the items on this list are mutually exclusive. It’s just my own tastes and literally just stuff I personally would love to see (more).

Ace character being single, happy to be single, and happily ace

Asexuality being written in but a complete non-issue, not discussed, not brought up, not even to reassure the ace character that It Is Fine

Ace character being flippant and snarky about their asexuality, making jokes and memes about it

Ace character not caring about other people’s perception of them at all

Ace character feeling only pride and happiness and comfort about that label

More than one ace character! Extra love for them having some similarities and also some differences!

Intersectionality: ace character being also aro, trans, nonbinary, bi or pan, polyamorous, kinky, a drag queen, a dom or sub, neurodivergent, disabled, non-white, … ; asexuality being just one part of their identity

Asexuality being queer and belonging to the LGBT+ community in itself; a character being cis, aro or heteroromantic, and ace, and “counting” as “queer enough”

Flirty ace character

Confident, self-comfortable ace character

Ace character considering their specific experience to be perfectly normal and not unique, if not typical

Ace character enjoying something that is commonly considered to be sexy or sexual, but it isn’t for them — such as wearing makeup or lingerie, going clubbing, pole-dancing, massages…

Ace character happily dating someone who is not aspec

I like the thought that it’s possible! I personally like this more than I like fanworks about two aspec people dating. I like it when the ace character is happy to adapt to their allo partner’s requirements and I like it when the allo character is happy to adapt to their ace partner’s requirements and I like it when there are things that just do not match perfectly and that doesn’t put an end to the relationship.

Ace character having a lot of experience dating

Partner(s) already knowing about asexuality and not needing to have it explained to them

Partners just being like “*shrug* okay”, without making it a big deal that they’re “giving up” sexual intercourse

Ace character crushing and getting flustered over physical but non-sexual aspects of their love interest’s looks

Big strong hands, nice jaw, strong nose, long eyelashes, lovely profile, silky hair, lovely eye-colour, delicate wrists, muscles, long legs, collar bone, shoulder blades, squishy stomach, peek of bellybutton, freckles, moles, scars, …

Ace character daydreaming about their love interest in ways that involve zero physical attraction, thoughts about how pretty or handsome they are, or desire to touch them

Jon pining for Martin and just wanting to talk with him, have tea with him, hang out with him… not seeing how Tim is good-looking but being attracted to his humour and nerdiness… missing his relationship with Georgie because it felt nice to cook together and share clothes and watch the telly together… Zolf missing Hamid’s fiery passion or Wilde’s awful puns… being attracted to Cel’s liveliness and inventiveness… being charmed by Azu’s emotional intelligence or her unwavering certainty in her faith…

Smut involving an ace character

No shaming of fellow real living people about that

Not going to go into it again because plenty of us have been talking about that in this fandom for two years now — bottom line is there do exist plenty of asexual people that 1) do have sex IRL, 2) do want to consume smut, can we please, as a community, move past the “this is not smut because this character is ace!” passive-aggressive attacks already. (“I depict this character as not having sex because he’s ace and I’m ace and it makes me happy” is fine! Just don’t imply that that’s the only way to be ace and that other people are wrong to want something else.)

Ace character enjoying sex

Ace character being completely neutral about having or not having sex

Ace character disliking sex in the same way they dislike, idk, coffee. No, absolutely not, thank you, no concession, not for me, but also it’s nothing traumatic or moral or uncomfortable.

Sex being just a thing, not a big deal, having or not having it not being all that important

Ace character enjoying the concept of sex, abstractly. Ace character consuming porn, writing porn, being fine discussing sex with friends, having a dirty mind — just not wanting to be involved in it

Ace character having fantasies that disturb them

Ace character feeling arousal and being just *shrug* about it, not particularly disgusted, just uninterested

Arousal, libido, or masturbation as something different and separate from sexual attraction and desire to sleep with someone or to be touched

Ace character being kinky af

Ace character having multiple partners and different sorts of relationships with each!

Open relationships

Non-sexual romantic relationships

Queerplatonic relationships

COMMITTED!!! NON-SEXUAL AND NON-ROMANTIC!!! PARTNERSHIPS!!! AAAAAA [sobbing emoji]

Non-sexual physical intimacy

Hand-holding! Playing footsie! Cuddles! Hugging! Kissing! Super heavy making out and getting aroused but no sex! Sharing a bed! Lying on top of each other! Bathing or showering together! Giving each other a haircut or a shave! Massages! Non-sexual nudity!

Non-physical intimacy

Committed couple having separate beds/rooms! Getting married! Being in love and not kissing or touching! Loving long-distance relationships! QPR! Affection and closeness expressed through speech, gifts, services, time, shared activities — wearing each other’s clothes, cooking together, long emotional conversations, trust and secrets, love letters, post-it notes, “thought of you” gifts, celebrating anniversaries with a candle-lit dinner, co-parenting...!

Sexual situations with no touching

(CW bit detailed:)

Sexting, cybersex, phone sex, dirty talking, reading or watching porn (alone or together), consensual voyeurism like watching their partner masturbate or have sex with someone else, kink using toys and accessories or scenes but with no actual touching, …

Romanticised consent and boundaries

An asexual character being super firm about what they do not want and their allo partner being thrilled about that trust and communication!! An allosexual partner trusting their asexual partner about what they want without infantilising them or doubting their capacity to establish their boundaries! “Wait, you always say you don’t like [x]?” “Yes, but I feel like it right now, as I assumed would be pretty clear from the fact that I am doing [x] right now :w” “Hey, just checking, sue me :w” “Yes, thank you :w”

Specific boundaries

Cheek kisses but no lip kisses, no PDA, not having sex where they’re also going to sleep, needing a shower immediately after sex, lights off only, …

(CW more detailed:)

… not caring about feeling or seeing their partner’s hard-on but not wanting to do anything about it, penetration but no oral, bottoming but not topping, giving a blowjob but not having their head held, being fine with extreme acts but not liking fluids, pet names but no dirty talk, dirty talk but no pet names, happy to pleasure their partner but not wanting to be touched, not wanting to come, being only into sex as part of extreme kink but not interested in vanilla sex, …

Shifting boundaries and consent

Ace character likes kissing or cuddles but only on their terms — they will come give their partner a kiss sometimes but bristle at being touched. Today is not a kissing day. Today this ace character is a bit down and would like a lot of physical affection and cuddling. Certain areas are off-limits for touching because this ace character is sensitive on their thighs, ticklish in their ribs, self-conscious about their scars. This ace character considers their chest non-sexual so that’s fine but do not pat their butt.

Today, exceptionally, this ace character is horny and feels like banging. Ace character feels like banging sometimes but is not in the mood right now, bye. Ace character feels like banging from eight to nine pm every second Thursday of the month, catch it or miss it. Couple shares a shower every morning and it’s never meant to be a sexual thing, but today the ace one is getting aroused and hey, you know what, they’d like to get off right now. This massage is fantastic but it’s getting overwhelming, so they ask to stop (but it was great!). Ace character is intrigued about this particular scenario/position/kink and wants to try it out, they do, it’s perfectly nice, but hmm, once was enough, they’re not interested in doing it again. Ace character sexts their partner all day but by the time their partner has got home, undressed and prepared and pulled out the strap, they’ve lost interest.

♠♥ Thank you for reading all this! Hope this inspires people so I get more stuff that makes me happy! ♥♠

[bookandcover]

[Note: This post was primarily written in August/September 2020.]

This book was recently recommended to me by friends, and I read it in three days. I was immediately drawn into the energy and structure of the book, with its genre-defying blend of personal memoir and academic research, and I found it difficult to put down. I also appreciate seeing Iowa City through Machado’s eyes (her appearing housemates like familiar characters), as the events of the book occur during Machado’s years in the MFA program. There’s a thrill to this novel (echoing the horror genre Machado loves), but also a deep introspection—each short section of the book reads more like a prose poem than any other genre (packed with imagery, carefully craft syntax, and moments of parallelism and thematic resonance through repetition and reference). Many of the short sections made me pause, stopping to re-read and to process, but they also catapulted me into the next section, pulling me forward less through a drive to follow plot than through a need to trace themes and draw connections.

The concept of this book is inherently both clever and necessary. Machado uses tropes (literary, artistic, historical) to reframe and re-examine her experiences in the Dream House (a physical symbol she uses to encapsulate her time/identity while in an abusive relationship). The different tropes Machado draws on range in type from highly intellectual to brimming with pop culture relevance. As a young(?), literary reader, I enjoyed this a lot. It felt like I was repeatedly contextualizing Machado’s experiences within frameworks I relate to. Although, admittedly, I didn’t relate to each and every one, there were still so many frameworks that “rang true” to me. Machado’s work comes out of a highly-researched, academic space as well (blending this with the deeply felt, personal and passionate aspects of her experience), and I found myself Googling more words and concepts than I normally do when I’m reading. The framework/project of this memoir did, for me, one the things I attribute to the strongest writing: using intellectual framing not as an exercise in intellectualism, but as a necessary tool, a stopgap measure at the place where language fails. I generally recoil from books that I see as using cleverness (tools, structures) that exist because they are clever, because they show off and flex the writer’s intellect and craft skills. If these tools are not justified—by the content, by the real emotional space they create—I’m inclined to dismiss them as posturing. You can be the cleverest person in the world, but if you’re being clever for the sake of being clever, that is a thin, temporary success—glittery, eye-catching, and, ultimately, vapid.

Machado’s framework/project, on the other hand, is born of necessity—of the real, emotional need to try to understand and express the impossible to understand or express. By approaching her topic again and again through these different academic and popular lenses, she recreates the experience of furious problem-solving and unrest, repeated attempts to solve a problem with every tool able to her, and repeated failures. She, herself, explicitly addresses this within the book, characterizing the experience of abuse as something the exists beyond language, beyond attempts to communicate it. I was particularly moved by her description of Dream House as Half Credit, in which she explained the technique she’d learned as a young student of writing down everything she knew that was relevant to a problem on a test when she did not know the correct, exact answer. This book is that kind of attempt, an attempt to catalogue and to circle around, to get repeatedly close to capturing the truth, while acknowledging that this kind of truth must escape her. “Let it never be said that I didn’t try,” Machado writes.

In addition to this book’s framework/project being a genuine attempt to capture the impossible-to-capture, it also feels like the real instinct of someone who is trying to understand themselves in the face of something that they could never imagine would happen to them. When faced with the fact that she endured and accepted her abuse over a significant period of time, Machado is baffled. So many of us must think to ourselves, when reading or hearing about abuse, “I would have walked away if this were my relationship” and Machado, too, had thought this. And yet, in the real situation, she didn’t. And how can she understand this? How can she show us, her readers, that we do not fully understand abuse if we do not acknowledge that we’re changed utterly while within it and that all our promises to and assumptions about ourselves become void? By going through the frameworks and tropes that Machado knows and loves—from literature, to philosophy, to film, to popular culture—that have shaped her and her thinking, she is trying to understand “the dream house” within other frameworks that she can hold onto, frameworks that make sense and that do not sink like quick sand.

Another dimension in which the experience of Machado’s abuse resists her attempts at comprehension and explanation is the absence of other writing on the subject. This is one of the central projects of the book: to collect the existing literature on domestic abuse within female-female partnerships and organize that information into one volume. Machado is repeatedly baffled by how limited this information is, and by the stereotyping and assumptions that override important accounts of abuse. She addresses the rampant idealization of female-female relationships, often prevalent within the queer community, that uphold female-centric spaces as safe ones, that categorize abuse as a male-on-female issue. Our stereotype of abuse is male-on-female for many reasons tied to a long history of systematic sexism and the very real dangers of domestic abuse perpetuated by men and targeting their wives and girlfriends. This stereotype is far from the full picture, but it’s somehow a stereotype so loud that it drowns out other types of abuse. Our image of the abuser and our image of the abused—both are firm and clear in our minds. And, so, when the people involved do not fit these pre-made images, abuse is harder to spot and harder to understand. This stereotype overlooks the overwhelming aspects of abuse that are psychological and focuses on the physical: surely a larger/stronger man is abusing a smaller/weaker woman. Surely two women, both loving/delicate/gentle (and all the strange, sexist things we (through deeply-ingrained systemic sexism) assume women to be), cannot be experiencing domestic abuse within their relationship.

There are many positive and loving female-female relationships. There are probably some (true and valid) reasons these utopian stereotypes around female-female relationships exist. There are reasons why idealization of these relationships would continue within the queer community, uplifting relationships that have not been given sufficient representation and that have been judged and condemned historically and still are by many today. But the silence around this topic, like so many silences, is harmful, as Machado experiences. Without resources, without references, with her own assumptions about female-female relationships as a bisexual woman, Machado struggles to understand and later to explain the abuse she experiences. This book also holds onto the project of raising awareness, of revealing both the personal experiences of one woman and the larger social context of female-on-female abuse, and hopefully this is a book that could help other women facing similar situations. The happy ending of Machado’s story is certainly alive with hope, although of a crazy, boundless kind—in a “truth is stranger than fiction” plot twist that had me gasping aloud in disbelief, Machado winds up very happily married to Val, the woman who her abusive ex also dated (the two met through the abusive “woman in the dream house”). While Machado never strays into moralizing or advising, her book is a powerful act of self-catharsis...and in vulnerability offers comfort to others. 

[babygirlwolverine]

I'm sorry to drop this in your askbox but I'm feeling pessimistic and trying to be realistic at the same time (and I need someone I can talk to about this): I feel like we all are in denial and trying to make some kind of sense to this mess when we should simply accept that the ending was just shitty and be happy that, at least, we've got Cas's confession. As much as it's a burry your gay trope, even if Dean did reciprocate Cas's feelings in 15x18, I'm pretty sure the 2 next episodes wouldn't have been different from what they gave us because Jensen said he hated the ending from the start, not because he is a heller (I'm not saying he isn't, because HE IS) but because of the way they ended Dean/the show. Still, I'm pretty sure Misha and Jensen knew how the love confession was important and did everything they could to make it as romantic as possible, which I'll be forever grateful ❤️ Also I wanted to thank you for the fics you write, they always melt my heart 😭

Hi there nonnie. First of all, I want you to know you don’t have to apologize for dropping this in my askkbox. You have absolutely nothing to be sorry for, okay? I’m here for you- to listen and to talk. Secondly, I want to thank you for reaching out, and for choosing to pick me to reach out to. I know these kinda of struggles can be hard to deal with, and so you’re so brave for sending this message, and I’m just really grateful that you chose to open up to me. Thank you for trusting me.

Thirdly, let me start by saying you are not alone. And I don’t mean that in the placating way. I mean it literally. So many fans, including myself, have been struggling with the same feelings and thoughts you described. Your feelings and thoughts are valid. I understand what you’re feeling, because I have felt the exact same way. After the finale aired, I was so gut wrenchingly broken that I couldn’t enjoy the rest of my vacation. I stopped eating and sleeping because I was feeling so depressed about how things ended. And even now, I still can’t accept the ending. I don’t think I ever will.

And if you can’t accept the ending, then that’s okay, too. Myself, along with many others I know, are simply ignoring 15x20. It’s okay if you never want to watch the finale again. It’s okay if you never want to reblog any gifsets from the finale or write or read any fics associated with it.

Do i think a lot of us are in denial? Yeah, I do. I think there are people grasping at straws to find ways to make it better. And you know what? That’s okay too. The biggest thing to remember is everyone copes and reacts differently. That’s the beauty of humans. How I react may be different than you, which may be different from the majority of fans. And that’s okay. It’s all okay. We are allowed to grieve. We’re allowed to desperately clutch at small hopes as we move through the grieving process.

Was the ending shitty? Hell yes it was. Have I started to accept that? Yeah. Have other people accepted that? Maybe yes, maybe no. Like I said, everyone processes things at different speeds and reacts in their own way. So if you’re ready to move on and try and be happy with Cas’ confession and to focus your energy on that, then do that. You have every right to. You’re allowed to be happy about that moment and to find happiness in Cas’ confession. Don’t let anyone tell you any differently. Find your happiness and don’t let anyone take it from you.

Some people will adamantly say it wasn’t a bury your gays trope. Some people will go to their grave swearing it is. Do I think it was? Yeah, I agree with your thoughts on the matter. I definitely feel like it was a bury the gays trope, but I don’t think Misha intended for it to be that way. Maybe that’s just hopeful innocence, or maybe he was so excited to give us this moment that he didn’t really see the negative connotation that could come out of it. And I think that’s okay, to want to focus on the happiness and freeing moment and to be thrilled to see Cas’ acceptance and journey to opening up and expressing his truest self. 

You’re probably right in saying that even if Dean did reciprocate on screen, it might not have changed the ending. Maybe it would have. We’ll never know because we’re not the writers or producers or creators. Would it have been fulfilling to see Dean say it back? God yes. Would it have changed Dean’s story and his ending? I don’t know. I can definitely see why Jensen didn’t like the ending, especially when he put his heart and soul into this character and he wanted to see justice and a well-deserved ending for the character he’s held close to his heart for 15 years. 

I completely and utterly agree with you that Misha and Jensen must have known how important that love confession scene was to us. Everything they’ve said in interviews and the way they acted on screen screams it in big bold capitals letters to me. They gave that scene their all- they tapped into emotions and drained themselves in unimaginable ways to give us the scene they wanted to express. I’m 110% convinced they had private conversations about the scene prior to shooting, after shooting, prior to airing, and after it aired. This scene meant a lot to them, and it meant a lot to us, and they knew that. They poured their heart and souls into that confession- they wanted us to know the explicit romantic implications. I am totally with you in being forever grateful to Jensen and Mish for what they did for us in that scene ❤️

Lastly, wow, thank you for your sweet words about my fics! I’m so grateful and honored my fics can melt your heart! 🥺😭 sometimes it can feel like I’m writing into the void and that no one cares, so just hearing you say you like my fics means the absolute world to me! Thank you so much! ❤️ I’ve honestly found my writing zone here with destiel. I’ve written fics since I was about 15 (9 years ago now) but I’d never really been dedicated to writing a certain ship or fandom. I’d write a few things for something and then move on. I’ve never connected with a ship like I have with destiel. I’ve never wanted to write so much and been so inspired to write for a ship until I found destiel. And I’m so glad I did. It’s been such a pleasure and such an honor to write and post my destiel fics, and I can promise you I have no plans of stopping writing for Dean and Cas anytime soon! 💙💚

[edharrisdaily]

'Westworld' Star Ed Harris on His Twist-Filled Season 3 Storyline: "It Was Hard to Enjoy"

The Hollywood Reporter picks the occasional Man in Black's brain about why he wasn't always thrilled with his character's direction in the HBO drama: "I wasn't the happiest camper."

What is the nature of the Man in Black's reality? It's a question at the heart of HBO's Westworld, and one that Ed Harris' William does not have the clearest answer for — a fact that frustrates the dark-hearted gunslinger, just as it does the man tasked with bringing the character to life.

In "Decoherence," season three's sixth installment, Harris' host-hunting antihero stands front and center — both for the audience, as well as for himself, as he embarks on a virtual therapy-induced internal battle against various versions of his own reflection: Jimmi Simpson's young William, an even younger version of the character played by Zayd Kiszonak, as well as returning James Delos actor Peter Mullan playing the role of veritable group therapy leader. Along for the ride: three different "Men in Black," all played by Harris: William in a tuxedo, meant to embody the version of the man who presents himself to the world at large; William in Western attire, meant to embody the ruthless killer who stalked the park for so many years; and William now, all in white, a psychiatric patient forced to reckon with his own past.

How does William choose to reckon with it? The exact same way he usually does: with violence, and a whole lot of it. The Man in White kills all versions of himself, Man in Black included, and wakes up to Jeffrey Wright's Bernard and Luke Hemsworth's Stubbs standing overhead. The newly woke William returns to reality with an epiphany about himself: he's "the good guy."

What does that mean, exactly? The revelation will bear out in the episodes ahead, with some further light shed in the following conversation between The Hollywood Reporter and the man behind the Man in Black himself: Ed Harris, speaking candidly about his frustrations over his character's arc in season three, and how he allowed his own personal feelings to fuel his work as the character.

What kinds of conversations did you have with Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy about what was in store for the Man in Black this year?

I just was kind of curious as to what was going to happen and what was going on. And I really didn't get much input. It was pretty much revealed episode by episode what was going on with him, and I certainly didn't know how the season ended. I wish I had a better answer. First of all, I really enjoyed playing the Man in Black, right? Then all of the sudden, he's the Man in White. So I wasn't the happiest camper to tell you the truth, because I really enjoyed the part I was playing, and I was hoping that he, the Man in Black, would continue to somehow be prevalent in the story. And when I realized that was no longer the case, I had to just readjust my whole head and get into what was going on with William in this place that he has found himself, trapped in this facility, being tested, and whatever is going on with him.

You get to play the Man in Black again, but in this limited virtual reality capacity — as well as the "philanthropist" version of William, too.

Right. I'd had the experience of A, playing the corporate guy in his tuxedo in a number of scenes, where now he's the man. And obviously the Man in Black, I'd been used to playing him. Young William, obviously, I wasn't playing, and then there's [the Man in White], who is under the control of the facility. The costume [helped]. Once you put the tuxedo on, you're that guy. Once you have your Man in Black suit, you're in that guy. When you're the guy in the white, then you're in a whole other situation. You're shooting one of these guys at a time, and you're just focused on that particular aspect of his character. So I mean, it took a little while and a lot of costume changes… but it was pretty interesting, I got to say.

What did you discover about William, as you started digging into this new take on the character?

I mean, he's been so deprived of any sense of freedom, that I think he's really just trying to survive. I mean, when they put that ... whatever it is they do, put him in a straight jacket, they strap him in his chair, I mean, what choice does he have other than to let him stay in place? And once they do, he's trying to evaluate what the hell is going on with him and who's doing what to who, et cetera, and who's in control, and what's happening at Delos, and all that kind of thing. And so, it's just a lot of questions that he has more than anything. You know? His state of mind is like… he's all over the place. He's going crazy. He's wondering if he's still who he is. He doesn't know if he's a host or not. He's totally at the whim of the powers that be at the moment.

It's jarring to see him so powerless. Not that he wasn't powerless at points in season two, but this is a different level. It must have been jarring to play, too.

Yeah, it was. It was jarring. To tell you the truth, it was hard to enjoy.

I'm sure.

In other words, I didn't like it. I still don't. But that's my problem.

What you're going through as an actor playing the character, it's emotionally similar to what's happening with the character.

Definitely. I definitely allowed my own feelings about it to influence what I was doing. (Laughs.) I mean, I still enjoyed working on it! I still enjoyed working on the show. It was just a whole different way of enjoying it, you know? I got to say, it was a little bit aggravating.

What do you think it means when William says he's "the good guy" now?

I think what he means and what he's feeling is, if he ever gets out of here, if he ever can assume control of his own destiny on some level, then what he's after is to rectify this whole situation. In other words, he understands what has happened, and he faults himself for most of it. I mean, it's his fault, this whole world that he helped create is now blown up, and who knows where it's going? He's not sure quite what's happening outside in the world, but I think he feels determined and has set his mind on trying to do some justice here. In that sense, I think he feels he's the good guy.

[blodreina-noumou]

The 100 7x03 - The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

The Good

Memori continues to delight and visually satisfy. I just love everything about them. They look so good in their Prime outfits. Their banter is always so adorable (“didn’t pay attention, huh?” “yeah, don’t ruin my rep,”) and there are truly the most ride-or-die pairing on the entire show. Pretty much all of my favorite moments from this episode came from them. The flirting on the bed, including Raven walking in (b/c that’s always been hilarious and always will be,) the way John supported Emori throughout as she got sicker and sicker - I just love them so much. I don’t think my heart has pounded nearly so much this season as it did when Emori was struggling with the core, and Murphy was anxiously keeping time for her.

Raven got a storyline. Yay. Aha.

Unpopular opinion, but I am really digging the Claia vibes in a big way.

Also continue to enjoy Indra’s role as the “too old for this shit” veteran who’s desperately trying to keep her idealistic daughters (b/c she’s clearly adopted Clarke now, too,) from ruining everything with their emotional speeches and appeals.

The Bad

Raven’s storyline was hard to watch. I’ve never agreed with the idea that she was on a moral high horse, or only saw things in black and white. I’ve always seen that as an incorrect fandom interpretation, so it was weird to see it happen so explicitly and violently in a storyline for her. She already did some version of this with Floukru back in s4, remember? She was in charge of rationing, and she had to be the bad guy, and then Murphy stole the medicine and she realized that things weren’t as simple as she was trying to force them to be. This was the exact same storyline but with much higher stakes for Raven directly, and I’m just...tired of seeing Raven in physical pain. There are more ways to inflict suffering on someone than torturing and/or beating the shit out of them.

Raven’s line about: “Go do what you’re good at and be Emori’s moral anchor,” was weird. I always kind of thought of it as the other way around. Or, that, at the very least, that Emori and Murphy are each other’s moral anchors. Idk, it just landed weird on me. There was a lot about this episode that landed weird on me.

Somebody at Sanctum should’ve mentioned AnomalyKru by now. Indra, Gaia, and Niylah (where is she???) should be wondering where Octavia is. Clarke, Murphy, Raven, and Emori should all be wondering where Bellamy and Echo are. Somebody should’ve noticed that Gabriel/Xavier is missing. The fact that nobody at Sanctum has mentioned anything about their missing friends is just getting more and more awkward.

Also, side note, how is this timing going to line up? Octavia ran into the Anomaly, then popped back out, seconds later, ten years older. If several days have passed on Sanctum, doesn’t that mean that AnomalyKru is dead by now? I’m assuming everyone will line up together eventually, somehow. We don’t know exactly how time on Bardo works in relation to Sanctum yet, and I think that’s the key to figuring out how the timing is all going to work out. Or it will be confusing forever. We’ll see.

The Ugly

This was a filler episode. Blatantly. And the character development that happened didn’t feel meaningful or fresh enough to justify it.

There is too much happening in this show right now. Way too much. And I only care about a fraction of it. Throwing in the problem with the reactor melting down this episode felt especially unnecessary in light of ALL the other conflict. It felt very contrived, all just to give Raven a storyline where she’s responsible for some deaths, with Murphy and Emori involved as supporting characters/to contradict her questionable morals. I enjoyed having those characters on screen, a lot, but I would’ve enjoyed it more if this vignette had more impact on the greater story. I suppose we’ll see how it plays out, now that Raven has a new enemy.

I don’t care about Sheidheda. Nothing about him thus far has made me give even the tiniest shit about him. He should’ve died for good last season. I’m assuming he’s a big part of the backdoor pilot, which is why he’s still around. I’m not thrilled.

Regardless, with so much going on, these episodes are starting to feel like a slog, and the story is really dragging, especiallly compared to s6 and s5. This show really has a pacing problem imo - it’s either rushed or plodding. Very little inbetween. I care a lot more about the mystery of the Anomaly and what happened to the Blakes than I do anything that’s happening at Sanctum.

It was a pretty meh episode for me. Definitely underwhelming, in light of how much I enjoyed last week. But things can only pick up from here...right?

[fraink5-writes]

From Darkness Into the Lantern Light - Chapter 8

Is there a more exciting way to start the best month of the year than with a heartfelt conversation between two fictional characters?

Thanks to @leio13 for her innumerable contributions!

Summary: Once upon a time, there was a cold-hearted queen. Although the Tsaritsa, as she was called, possessed her own divinity, she coveted the powers of the other Archons. Aiming to steal the Geo Archon’s gnosis, she sent her strongest warriors to Liyue Harbor. But just when Rex Lapis was almost defeated, he escaped to another vessel, that of a powerless baby, and was swept away to a hidden tower for his protection.

Many years after the great fight, the young and ambitious Harbinger, Childe, arrives in Liyue to grant the Tsaritsa’s desire, but, on his search for the Geo Archon’s gnosis, he ends up tangled in a mysterious man’s dreams to see Liyue Harbor’s Lantern Rite.

This chapter can also be found on Ao3 here. Without further ado, please enjoy!

The sky glowed bright orange, not unlike Childe's hair, when Childe's eyes cracked open. With a lingering hazy look upon his face, he gazed up. "Zhongli?" he asked in a mumbled whisper.

"Did you sleep well? Are you feeling better?" Zhongli smiled.

Childe nodded. "I had the strangest dream…"

Zhongli could not suppress his sigh. As long as Childe believed that what happened was a dream, Zhongli's secret was essentially safe.

"It wasn't a dream, was it?" Before Zhongli had realized, Childe's eyes had returned to their usual keenness.

Zhongli conceded with a shake of his head.

"I knew it," Childe declared while sitting up. “But don’t worry; I won’t ask about it—as per contract.”

“It’s all right.” Zhongli fidgeted with his ponytail. “It would be better if I told you myself than let it fester wildly in your imagination.”

“Good plan.” Childe smirked. He scooted next to Zhongli, crossed his legs close to his chest, and leaned his chin on his hands as though eager to hear a story.

Zhongli inhaled. This was the consequence of his actions. The price was only fair. Childe had risked his life to keep Zhongli from danger; as such, it was only natural that Zhongli put himself at risk by revealing his secret as repayment. He exhaled. “As you saw, my hair has the power to heal injuries. When I use it, it glows just like this.” Zhongli held out his now-amber hair for Childe to see.

“Woah…” Childe’s voice came out as barely a whisper. “Does it… does it do anything else?”

“Anything else? Not as far as I know.”

“How long has it been like this…?”

“As long as I can remember.” Zhongli twirled a few tiny strands of hair that he had hidden behind his ear. “When it’s cut, it loses its power and doesn’t grow back. That’s why my mother hid me away in that tower, and I never left. If someone were to find out about its power, they would try to take it for themselves. Such a power needs to be protected.”

“But now you’re old enough to leave on your own.” Childe gazed sympathetically as he reassured Zhongli. “You’ve spent all that time training to protect yourself.”

“Yes, I suppose you’re right.” Zhongli was at a loss; he didn’t know what kind of reaction he would receive—he had never even planned on telling anyone. Yet Childe’s composure put him at ease—if only a little.

“Come on. Like I said earlier, don’t worry. What could happen with the two of us?” Childe’s confident grin mellowed into a small grin. “I appreciate that you told me this.”

“I didn’t think it would be possible to keep that secret much longer.”

“Right? It’s only been two days, but it’d be hard to say we’re strangers at this point. Well, I consider anyone willing to fight with me a friend—which makes you, by definition, a friend!”

“Is that so? A very odd definition of friends, especially since we don’t properly know each other’s names.”

“Ahaha…” Childe scratched his head while laughing weakly. “So that wasn’t a dream either…”

“No.”

“Are you mad?”

“Not particularly. But I am curious as to why you chose to lie.” This was true. As their contract essentially stipulated that they remain strangers, he couldn’t expect Childe to follow the same code of personal conduct. However, he couldn’t help but agree that he and Childe had, in fact, surpassed the status of strangers, so, accordingly, he was curious about Childe’s real name.

“Don’t take it personally! I didn’t just lie to you; I stopped using the other name a long time ago.”

Zhongli and Childe stared in silence as Zhongli tried to repress his curiosity. Childe's face, as usual, was illegible, but rather than a fake smile, his mask was solemn.

"Alright, I'll tell you." Childe sighed. "Because I think you have a good point about the names." Breaking eye contact, he leaned back. "Ajax. That's the name my father gave me."

"'Ajax'… That's a nice name. Certainly not one to be ashamed of."

Childe chuckled with a shake of his head. "Don't misunderstand—it's a noble name. The original Ajax was a great hero and adventurer." As Childe explained, Zhongli thought he glimpsed a flash of light in his eyes.  Zhongli wished to grab hold of it and draw it out, but it quickly vanished into a shadow. "Such a proud name shouldn't be tarnished. That's why I left it behind when I started down this path." Childe laughed hollowly. "So that's it."

That's it? The empty conclusion brought a brief frown to Zhongli's face, but he was quick to push it aside on his search for Childe's light. "I want to know more about Ajax."

"Ajax?" It was a promising start as Childe smiled again. "Where to begin… As a great hero in Teyvat, he has many stories—" But the attempt ended in failure.

"No, the other Ajax."

"The other Ajax?" Childe blinked. "Are you sure? It's not a very good story. Boring at best, a downer at worst."

"I don't mind. I enjoy reading non-fiction." Frankly, Zhongli did not care about drama or excitement; he preferred facts about the world around him, and, in this case, he wanted to know how the man besides him came to be the way he was.

"Suit yourself." Childe sighed. "I'll do you a favor and skip all the boring parts though. One day, when Ajax was fourteen, he was walking through the woods. All of the sudden, some scary wolves appeared!" He paused for dramatic effect then continued miming the story with his hands. "Their claws marred the snow's face with dirt—and their fangs! Their fangs were dripping with blood! Powerless against the ferocious pack, Ajax turned and fled. He jumped over logs and ducked under branches, but alas! He was not careful enough as he went tumbling into a deep, deep hole! And, unfortunately, Ajax never quite made it out of there. The end."

Zhongli clapped. "That was a compelling story, but it was missing one crucial part." As emphatic a storyteller as Childe was, his story had a glaring hole. But it was such a dark and ominous gap that Zhongli dared not explore deeper. Its contents were locked deep in Childe's heart, where they should remain undisturbed. "The beginning."

"You really want to hear that?"

"Of course, the beginning is essential for getting to know the characters."

Childe raised an eyebrow. "Fine." Despite his reluctance, a grin sprouted on Childe's face as soon as he started speaking. "There once was a boy named Ajax, who lived in Snezhnaya, where it's so cold that if you stop moving, you freeze to death. He was named Ajax by his father after the great hero, and this fact brought much pride to the boy who loved ice fishing."

"Ice fishing?"

"Yeah, it's a little different than regular fishing." Childe mimed casting a fishing line into the water. "Once you've found your spot on the ice, you drill a small hole—a fish-sized hole—lower your bait, and then wait. Wait, wait, wait. If you feel a tug, you've got one! Sometimes it never happens, and that's fine too."

"How inefficient.”

Childe laughed. "Well, the fish aren't important. What's important is what you do while waiting. For example, you can sit down next to each other and tell stories, just like we are. That was Ajax's favorite part, listening to his father's stories. Thrilling adventure stories of renowned heroes and many from his father’s own youth. To little Ajax, his father was the greatest hero. As Ajax listened to these stories, hooked on every word, he dreamed of his own adventures, ones that would impress even the heroes he admired."

Just like little Ajax probably felt listening to his father, Zhongli was enamored by Childe’s storytelling, but, on the contrary, the details felt like the least important thing. He was mesmerized by Childe’s hopeful gestures, excited tone, and his eyes, which dazzled like the surface of the ocean on a cloudless day. They exuded an unfamiliar warmth, drawing Zhongli closer.

“Ah! How could I forget?” Childe suddenly exclaimed. “I should introduce the other major characters.”

Zhongli tilted his head.

“You see, besides his loving parents, Ajax has many wonderful siblings—five, to be exact! Two older and three younger: Teucer, Tonia, and Anthon. They are his world. Let’s see. Teucer is still so young, so he loves toys, and, among those, his favorite one is ‘Mr. Cyclops.’ I just defeated four of them back there, you know. Anyway, to Teucer…” As Childe described Ajax’s family, a subtle but persistent upturned curl played at his lips. His words fell softly like a blanket enveloping the characters. His faraway gaze reflected a fathomless affection, and, after an indefinite time, when they finally turned steadily towards Zhongli, he nearly melted. “How was that? Are you satisfied?”

Zhongli nodded. “Almost. However, I think I prefer Ajax.”

“Huh?” Childe’s head turned. “But you don’t even know him.”

“That’s not true. I just met him, and I’ve learned so much from your stories. He’s much more genuine.”

“If you think so, I’m glad.” Although Childe smiled, his eyes were dull with sorrow.

“It’s not too late. To be the hero in Ajax’s dreams, to be the person Anthon, Teucer and Tonia believe you to be.” Zhongli reached out his hand, his fingers lightly brushing Childe’s cheek. “I know that Ajax didn’t die in that forest. May I call you that, Ajax?”

Childe nodded, gently intertwining their fingers.

***

Ajax could feel heat building up under Zhongli’s hand on his cheek. He glanced side-to-side. Since when was it so dark? He had been so caught up in stories of the past that he forgot about the passage of time. He stood up. “I didn’t realize it was so late. You must be hungry. I’ll go get something to eat.” He quickly turned around.

“Thank you.”

Ajax paused. “You don’t know how to start a fire, do you?”

“I may have read about it in a book.”

“Alright, let me show you real quickly.” Ajax scrambled to create a fire pit. Then he carved his drill and board in order to create the beginnings of a fire. “The goal is to create enough friction in order to get sparks.” When he created enough coals by turning the drill, he lightly blew on them to encourage a flame before putting them in the pit. After a sizable fire had started, Ajax stood with his arms akimbo. “See? Just like that.” Zhongli stared wordlessly, his mouth slightly agape. Of course, Ajax knew that it was a terrible demonstration, but he wanted to leave quickly. “I’ll be back soon, okay? I don’t expect any trouble, but if anything happens, you can hold your own.”

Zhongli scooted closer to the fire. “I’ll be fine here. Good luck out there, Ajax.”

Ajax’s heart thudded. He nodded brusquely before taking off. Running away from a fight was the response of a coward, but this was different. He needed to be alone to think and catch his breath.

Ajax, Ajax, Ajax. Ajax’s heart beat rhythmically to the repeated echo of his name. It had been years since anyone had called him that, except his family (and even then, he rarely had the opportunity to see them.) The sound of it bounced around his brain with such trepidation, such joy.

Was it okay for Childe to have told Zhongli all that? His name, his past and his family were his greatest secrets that he held closest to his heart. Not even his fellow harbingers knew about Ajax.

But Zhongli was different. He wasn’t calculating or malicious. Although justifiably paranoid, Zhongli lived earnestly and put a lot of trust into his principles and into others. Childe had given up on living like that, but he wanted to be worthy of Zhongli’s trust. 

Childe scoffed. Perhaps telling Zhongli about Ajax was another act of deception, for it was too late for Childe to return to how Ajax once was. He was a member of the Fatui. He operated through manipulation and murder. Even as he guided Zhongli to Liyue Harbor, the true intentions of his trip had always been to steal the power from Rex Lapis. At his core, nothing remained that was worth trusting.

When Zhongli dropped his paranoid guard, he was in fact too trusting. That fact had not left Ajax’s mind since Zhongli befriended the Crux Fleet. Although such a weakness was objectively exploitable, Ajax found it to have the opposite effect as well: it was endearing. It was an earnest, inadvertent manipulation that transformed Childe from a weapon to a shield. Maybe because Zhongli had not felt the cutting edge of Childe’s blade, he believed in Ajax. In return, Ajax would protect him. If Zhongli were the only person who believed, Ajax would become a hero like those of stories for him alone.

At least until Liyue Harbor. At Liyue Harbor, no matter what happened, Childe would have to confront all that had led up to that point. At Liyue Harbor, it would all end.

After Ajax had gathered a decent amount of berries and sunsettias, he was met with the issue of the main course. His only two blades were impractical for hunting if he chanced upon a bird or boar, but fruit would not suffice as a meal. He circled around the pool at the earlier battlefield until he spotted a shielded mitachurl sitting against a stone wall. Although there was no fire, it was unlikely that a hilichurl would make camp without a meal. Ajax crept closer, sure enough there were two more hilichurls and a boar carcass. Perfect. After clearing out the hilichurls, the meat was Childe’s for the taking.

Childe charged at large hilichurl. It jumped up, erecting its sturdy shield. With no way to deal with the shield, Childe danced in circles around the beast, swiping continually with his blade. An arrow grazed the side of his head. Aside from a few strands of hair, it was probably nothing to worry about. His thoughts returned to his main target: the mitachurl. On the next opening, he jammed a dagger into its back. Seeing their strongest member stagger, the samachurl frantically waved its oversized wand a few times before scrambling up the cliff and away. The hilichurl with a crossbow fired several directionless shots, but it too dropped its weapon as Childe slowly approached. Childe waited, daggers in hand. Finally, it turned, running after the samachurl. 

Ajax sighed as he inspected the dead boar. He and Zhongli would not need so much meat. Besides, he didn’t want to be the one to show Zhongli his first animal butchering. So he decided to carve out a piece there and carry it back to their fire. The hilichurls could enjoy the rest if they ever returned.

Crunch.

Ajax peered at the ground below his foot. There laid a red mask, broken in two. It must have been knocked by that arrow. He sighed. Despite never wearing it properly, Childe had always been fond of that mask, but he couldn’t possibly fix it—not in his current situation, at least. He stuffed the two pieces into one of his pockets. Then he hurried back to Zhongli, picking up some mint for flavor.

“Welcome back, Ajax.” Zhongli warmly greeted Ajax upon his return.

“Sorry for the delay.” Ajax sat by the fire and prepared for phase two: the actual cooking.

“It’s no problem. It looks like you brought back plenty. Do you need any help?”

“Nope. Just sit back and relax. I don’t think I mentioned this, but Ajax is also a talented chef, you know.”

“Is there anything he isn’t?”

“A good diplomat, for one. Unless you count being atop everyone’s wanted list.”

Zhongli’s laugh brushed past Ajax’s ears like a warm breeze. “Well, I’m looking forward to whatever you make.”

Ajax impulsively looked away, blush creeping on his face. “It’ll be ready soon. In the meanwhile, if you’re hungry, you can eat the fruit; they don’t need to be cooked.” For the remainder of the cooking time, Ajax focused keenly on the roasting beef.

When the beef was nicely cooked, he seasoned it with a bit of mint then handed a portion to Zhongli. “Enjoy!”

“Thank you.”

Before he could even think about eating, Ajax watched intently for Zhongli’s reaction as he bit in. Widening eyes, curled lips and a swift second bite—even without words, Ajax knew he had succeeded. His chest swelled with pride. Nevertheless, he couldn’t help himself. “How is it?” He asked. 

Zhongli daintily patted his lips clean before responding. “It’s delicious.”

Ajax beamed. “What did I tell you?” Only when he was full on compliments did he take his first bite.

“Ajax.” Zhongli lowered the sunsettia he was eating. “Concerning tomorrow…”

“I know, I know. Tomorrow’s the Lantern Rite, right?”

“Yes. Of course, you know this route better than I, but…”

“Don’t worry! We’ll definitely make it on time. But we should leave early, at dawn. I want to show you all Liyue Harbor has to offer.”

“Okay.” Zhongli sighed. “What a relief.” After finishing the sunsettia, he stood up. “It would be good to get some rest soon.”

“Yeah, about that, we should sleep in shifts. Unpleasant types flock around ruins. Sorry that I can’t provide anywhere better to rest for the night.”

“Don’t say that. You’ve already done so much.” Zhongli covered a yawn with his hand.

“Why don’t you go on and sleep first? I already got plenty of rest earlier.”

“Then I will. Thank you.” A meter away, Zhongli lay down on the grass, his back to the fire. “Goodnight, Ajax.”

“Goodnight.” So soft, Ajax’s whisper probably never reached Zhongli’s ears. As he finished off the remaining food, unwilling to make waste, he watched the rhythmic rise and fall of Zhongli’s shoulder blades. How peaceful. How could he, a man who had more at risk than Childe, trust the man at his back so blindly?

Ajax put out the fire to deter any potential visitors then he crept closer to Zhongli. When he was certain Zhongli was sleeping, he picked up a few silky strands of hair and brought them to his lips. How strange to think that this hair was the string of fate which drew them together, that it was the source of their problems.

I’m sorry, Zhongli, about our contract.

[sambergscott]

i’m gomez you’re morticia i feel so happy when i’m witcha (the addams family wedding rap origin story)

written for @outofinspo for the @b99fandomevents Fall 2019 Fic Exchange. you gave me the prompt of a couple’s halloween costume and this is not... quite that but still i hope you enjoy :)

also shoutout to @amyscascadingtabs for helping me!! 

(set a few months after Amy joins the nine-nine)

Jake prides himself on being the self-confessed best detective in the Nine-Nine. His arrest numbers are off the charts. He holds the precinct record for quickest time to get a signed confession out of someone. And just last week he beat Rosa at an intense final showdown of rollerchair derby. Yet for some reason he can’t figure out what Santiago is planning on wearing to Boyle’s Halloween party.

T-minus two hours to go and it’s driving him a little crazy.

“Sexy librarian?” He guesses, scrolling through a Google Image search of ladies Halloween costumes. “Sexy superhero? Sexy zombie cheerleader?”

She rolls her eyes. “Not every Halloween costume has to be sexy, Peralta.”

“The good ones do,” he says with a wink.

“Gross.” She throws her pen at him.

“I guess your costume is just gonna be super lame, Santiago,” he goads, knowing it will get a reaction out of her. She’s so competitive, it’s practically in her DNA to rise to a challenge.

“Your costume will be the costume that is lame,” she fires back. So predictable. And so adorable.

“Sick burn,” he teases. “Anyway my costume is dope.”

“Are you going as yourself? Because that’s terrifying.”

“Ha-ha,” he deadpans, throwing back her pen. He misses her head by a inch. “I’ll have you know, detective, I’m going as a super awesome movie character that you’ll never be able to guess-.”

Right off of the bat, she says John McClane.

Which, to be fair, is a pretty good shout. He has mentioned John McClane being his hero pretty much every day since the day they met. But, alas, he went as John McClane last year. And Jake Peralta is no outfit repeater. Not on Halloween. 

“007?”

“Nope.” He grins. “Last guess.”

She drums her fingers on her desk and bites her lip as she flicks through a mental rolodex of iconic movie characters. It’s kind of distracting how hot she looks biting her lip like that and he’s totally not listening when she speaks again. She rounds their desks and has to wave her hand directly in front of his face to snap him out of it.

“Sorry.” He blushes wildly. He’s been having a lot of those thoughts lately. About how pretty her hair looks when she wears it down. About how good she looks when she wears semi-decent clothes to Shaw’s instead of her usual grey pantsuits. About how much he loves making her laugh. Sometimes he thinks he’s developing a crush on her but then he remembers she’s his annoying, nerdy partner and thoroughly quashes any thoughts of liking her romantic-stylez. “What were you saying?”

“Superman,” she responds. “My final guess is Superman.”

He makes a loud buzzer noise. “While I am thrilled that you think I could save the planet, detective, you are incorrect. Again. I thought you were supposed to be the smart out of the two of us!”

“I am smart.”

“Not smart enough,” he retorts. “Clearly.”

“Hey, it’s hard! You like a lot of movies! And, besides, you’ve been guessing all morning and you’ve still yet to get mine.” She smiles smugly, folding her arms across her chest.

“OK,” he responds, rubbing his hands together eagerly. “Gimme another clue.”

“I am also going as a movie character.”

“Holly Gennaro!” He guesses immediately.

She rolls her eyes. “No. Stop being so obsessed with Die Hard.”

“I’m not obsessed with Die Hard, I just know all the words and have seen all of them a thousand times.”

“Sounds pretty obsessed to me,” she nudges his shoulder. “Die Hard’s not the only movie out there, you know. There are other movies. Better movies.”

He gasps and recoils like Scully when he poured hot coffee all over himself. “Take that back! Die Hard is the greatest movie of all time!”

“Wrong. Ignorant and wrong. The Lion King’s a great movie.”

“Never seen it.” He shrugs.

“You’ve never seen The Lion King? But it’s a classic. We watched it all the time when I was a kid.”

“I was alone a lot,” he explains, “single mom who worked, absentee father. I just watched sports and Die Hard.”

“Oh,” she whispers, making this sad, frowny face. “Wanna watch it together some time?”

“Uh, ye, yeah,” he stutters, a little taken aback at the invitation. He thought she found him childish and annoying.

“I still think you’re annoying,” she says as she returns to her desk, like she can read his mind.

“Ditto,” he grins.

++

He’s the first one to arrive.

While he normally insists on showing up at crime scenes/morning briefings/family events fashionably late, this time Boyle specifically asked him to come early and it’s his duty as The Best Friend™️ to resolve all Rosa-is-coming-to-his-party-related meltdowns.

“Smell my breath,” Boyle demands, getting real close.

“OK. Personal space, Charles. We talked about this, remember?”

“Of course,” he nods, taking a few steps back. “I just don’t want Rosa to think I have bad breath when we make out.”

Jake grimaces, relieved when there’s a knock at the door. “I’ll get it,” he excuses himself before Boyle sticks his mouth in front of his face again.

He opens the door and stares at the other early bird in silence.

It’s Amy. Of course it’s Amy. She’s always early. Even after drinks at Shaw’s, hungover, she’ll get to work forty-five minutes before she has to. It’s not surprising that she’s early, it’s what she’s wearing that has him speechless.

In a long black dress with a long black wig, she is unmistakably Morticia Addams. Not as iconic as Holly Gennaro, he has to admit, but still. She’s rocking it.

The only issue?

He’s dressed as Gomez, the patriarch of the Addams family, Morticia’s husband.

They’re matching.

They’re wearing matching Halloween costumes!

Amy blushes beneath her heavy make-up. “Um. Nice suit.”

“Nice dress,” he responds, equally flustered.

“This is weird, right?” They say at the exact same time before dissolving into giggles.

Jake scratches the back of his neck awkwardly. “I guess we’ve been spending a lot of time together the last few months. I must have telepathically given you the idea.”

“Unless I thought of it first.” She raises one eyebrow, challenging him. Before he can come up with response, Boyle appears behind them, incredibly excited about their accidental costume situation.

“It’s nothing,” Jake brushes it off.

“Yeah,” Amy agrees, still standing in the doorway. “The Addams Family are just popular Halloween costumes. That’s all.”

“It definitely means something,” he insinuates in his super high-pitched, annoying insinuating voice. “It means that you’re soulmates.”

Jake rolls his eyes. First the wedding bells comment on Amy’s first day, then the constant questions about whether she’s seeing anyone, now this. He gets that his best friend is just trying to be a good wingman or whatever but it’s A Lot. Even if he did like Amy, nothing would ever happen because she’s obviously uncomfortable about the whole thing. She is the most professional person he’s ever met and would never do anything to jeopardise her integrity at work, especially not something as scandalous as a workplace romance!

Not that anything would ever happen anyway. They’re just friends. Co-workers. Portners. He doesn’t even like her in a romantical way.

Sometimes, for example later in the evening when she steals his last slice of pizza, he doesn’t like her at all.

But then he tells a dumb joke and she’s the only one in Charles’ ex-wife’s, new boyfriend’s basement who laughs and he thinks that maybe Charles is right. Maybe he does have a crush on her. A little one. Tiny.

Not that it matters anyway. Someone like Amy would never date someone like him. They’re just too different. He’s the Gomez to her Morticia, the Detective Peralta to her Detective Santiago, and that’s all it’s ever going to be.

(Eight years later, it’s only fitting that they end their wedding day with him performing his Addams Family themed wedding vows rap in just his boxers. There’s no beat boxer and he’s horribly out of time and he’s forgotten most of the lyrics, but it’s perfect. And Charles was right after all -- they are soulmates, just like Gomez and Morticia).