#Team Jacob is the only logical choice

[personalheroin]

i am currently suffering from a sinus infection and the nyquil is kicking in but—

Jacob honestly deserved so much better than what Smelly gave him. She wrote him so beautifully that he overpowered Edward, the ‘man’ Bells was supposed to end up with. Noticing that she made Jacob more desirable and good, she tore him down. Every piece of good and love and kindness, she took from him. She took it away because Edward needed to be the one Bella ended up with.

And yet, despite Smelly tearing Jacob apart piece by piece, we still love him, team jacobs are fiercely loyal. Like a pack of wolves. We see beyond the inexcusable and unnecessary character destruction she put him through. We see the sunny Jacob that still exists within him despite the destruction the Cullens introduced to his and his family and his tribes lives. Which is why I love being team Jacob. He is loyal and kind and trustworthy and strong and gentle and endlessly caring.

Smelly never deserved Jacob as a character. She ruined him simply for the end game of white superiority. Fuck her and fuck her saga.

Why am I team Jacob?

[elizaellwrites]

Elaine is predictably unpredictable. She's a walking contradiction in many ways. For someone who's so cold to those around her, it's almost shocking for them to find out just how much she cares.

She's rather monotone in everyday situations, but never hides her easily flared temper. Once pushed, however, she is consumed by her emotions. She has no qualms with expressing her anger but never directs it at someone she doesn't consider to be deserving of it. This doesn't stop her from engaging in fights; never hesitating to throw a punch or push the boundaries during training sessions.

She fuels her combat skills with her pent-up anger, releasing any restraint she may have. Because of this, she trains rigorously and is often incredibly offensive in combat. She uses several types of blades, but the most distinctive is the Nirshorn-associated saifas sword, which appears as a normal sword until backward-facing spikes are released from their confines within the outer blade, turning the weapon's purpose from slicing to tearing. It takes an incredible amount of strength to use this barbaric weapon, and due to its large size, weight, and gruesome damage it inflicts on its victims, it is not common. In closer quarters, she uses a curved dagger, though she will often substitute this larger blade for her third weapon choice of throwing knives.

Though she is highly emotional, she is also a strategic thinker and often contributes to planning team tactics with Cameron and Jacob. At her best, this is her greatest strength as she is direct and has no restraint on her opinion or point of view. She doesn't care how she is perceived by those around her and goes through life the way she sees fit, even if she's the only one doing it.

She's latched onto her adopted mother's culture as part of her identity and wears both Wotakouran eye symbols, and a familial daeis every day. She does not know her true culture but is aware that she is not Wotakouran. Her lack of knowledge about her biological parents and her origin is disturbing and frustrating to her, as there is no way for her to discover any of it.

While she may appear mean and calloused, she never targets people without provocation. Her comments are more often than not mildly insulting, though she is definitely capable of more if she so chooses. In the end, she is driven by her deep and sheltered care for those who are close to her- even those who she does not regularly get along with (cough, Ryan, cough.) She is fiercely protective and can't stand by when someone is in need of help. This drive to protect led her to join her brother and sister in the observance program at thirteen years old- and she was definitely not interested in the opportunities to openly compete against them, most certainly not...

She can be callous like her father, caring like her mother, reckless like her brother, and logical like her sister, but Elaine is distinctive in the passion she conducts herself with- whether it's for bloodlust or not.

[mehrauli]

The wildly disproportionate attention being paid to the am*rican election vs the Bihari election is a naked confession of what democracy actually is and how it actually works. The american election has to be blasted over the entire world to legitimise liberal “democracy” in the third world and postcommunist states. The ads aren’t actually for D*nald Tr*mp or J*e B*den, they’re for democracy itself, they’re for the spectacular shared experience and the drama of it all. People follow the american election like it’s Game of Thrones and they get moral lessons out of it which are that democracy is great because the people choose the leaders and your vote matters and team Edward or team Jacob etc. Basically the same infrastructure goes into american pop culture that goes into american elections and their ridiculously high production values and the intended range of emotional effect is about the same: they want to create a demographic with brand loyalty while cutting into the market of their competitors. They’re not looking to convince each and every individual American by reasoned discussion, they’re looking to create market conditions which coerce brand loyalty.

What you don’t see from outside the country is the way every single person in the country becomes gradually weaponised into an agitated ball of neuroses, which is why the yanks on twitter are all like “check in on your american friends right now and make sure they’re alright uwu” and shit; because they’re turned into lunatics for one out of every four years arguing about something that they know is next to pointless because of gerrymandering, the electoral college, the corporate stranglehold over the media, etc. It makes a powerful psychological impression and constitutes the central ritual of the american civil cult; it’s the eucharistic rite by which they become a shared national body. The rest of us, watching in amusement or dread or “solidarity” or whatever it is we tell ourselves, knowing damn good and well that the american election has more influence over our countries than we do, internalise the fake news that the american election has anything to do with what kind of government americans want to have and one day the benefits of democracy will trickle down to us where our votes will matter like americans’ supposedly do if only we become educated and enfranchised like they are and our democracies just aren’t old enough yet but this is how they look when they get older, you can always tell the best political system because it creates decades and decades of perpetual instability in the third world; just a few more civil wars or genocides and it should be smooth sailing from then out, promise.

Indian state elections, on the other hand, are intentionally depoliticised because the aim of the Indian ruling class at this point is not to secure their hegemony but to naturalise it by calling it religion, etc, and by hiding how the sausage gets made which is through wonton violence against Muslims which doesn’t leave, and preferably doesn’t even make, regional press. The Bihar election has no greater lesson to teach the world or even the rest of India or even really Bihar, it doesn’t have the same role in global liberal ideology and isn’t produced in the same way or for the same reason.

For the american ruling class, Tr*mp created a crisis of legitimacy from which american empire has not recovered not because he was particularly evil (his body count is almost definitely the lowerst of any US president in my lifetime) but because he didn’t manage it effectively. The US elections are so spectacular because USA’s ruling class proactively needs to legitimise whoever it is they want to be in power for the next 4 years, and B*den was a particularly hard sell. While in Bihar the current power arrangement is something that’s basically consented to by every segment of the ruling class. It should be noted that Bihar doesn’t have the same kind of mass media propaganda infrastructure of an american federal election, but the reason it doesn’t have that is because it doesn’t need that because the Bihari ruling class frankly doesn’t want young social media people getting involved like we did in Hathras. And so we won’t, because the reason we’re all so involved in US elections isn’t because we as individuals all decided to be but because there was a herculean weaponisation of american capital to get us all invested, and Bihar can’t and doesn’t want to match that.

In both cases, we fool ourselves to think that what anyone is and isn’t paying attention to is a result of our organic genuine interests as people or intellectuals or whatever. The fact is we’re watching an american superhero movie instead of Rwanda Radio; either way we’re just eating up bullshit but one’s clearly more entertaining.

Democracy is a method of engineering human attention and civic engagement; it’s something that manipulates us, not something we manipulate, and that’s why people act so apparently irrational around it. It is a system that consistently produces irrational behaviour and so irrational behaviour in and around it is not a moral failing or even a personal choice; you can’t treat people like moral or rational actors in a democracy without reproducing the logic of the system in the first place.

[hopevalley]

The Real Problem with the Love Triangle

Here we are, in Season 8, and I feel like I’ve finally settled on what it is I hate about the love triangle.

I mean, there are a lot of things wrong with it. It divides the fans, it splits the attention of the scenes between two “potential” romances instead of one certain one, and, perhaps one of its biggest offenses: it’s in the spotlight due to the fact that the plotline was given to the main character.

I could talk about all of these, and I could do it all day, but let’s just look at them quickly (because I do feel there’s a bigger issue than any of these at play, here).

It divides the fans. Yikes? They clearly expected some kind of...I don’t know, Twilight-era Team Jacob/Team Edward split, but Twilight’s endgame was always painfully clear. It’s not that fans weren’t disappointed by the reality when it hit, but...I don’t think many people were...genuinely surprised by it, either. Splitting the fans of an already itty-bitty teeny-tiny fandom was maybe not the best idea, but I guess I can see why they took the risk. After so many characters left the show in S5 (Frank, Dottie, Phillip, Shane, Jack) they probably felt they had to do something drastic to keep the fans invested in the show.

It splits the screentime between two potential romances instead of one certain one. This is less yikes in some ways and moreso in others. The biggest issue with this is mostly that When Calls the Heart has limited screentime to begin with, so splitting screentime and therefore also believable development of any romance makes everything take twice as long to happen, which can either bog down the show (if they take the time to do things correctly) or everything will feel rushed (if they skip proper character development).

It’s in the spotlight. Obviously they had to do this to get attention from the fans, but I can’t help but think that a genuine love triangle for a side character/background character might have been a more appealing option story-wise. Having the focus of the triangle be on Elizabeth means that most of the fans are very invested in their choice...which is GREAT up until the point where it’s suddenly not anymore. Writing yourself into a position where approximately half of the fanbase will be disappointed, perhaps even to the loss of their viewership when things don’t go their way (this is always a risk) is...maybe not the best idea. I can’t imagine anyone would quit over a minor love triangle storyline (for example, Bill/Molly/AJ or Fiona/Kevin/Hickam). Sure, you won’t have the level of engagement in the fans that Lucas/Elizabeth/Nathan brings to the table, but I think it could be fun while also not really risking anything. Not many people would stop watching if Fiona picked Hickam over Kevin, you know?

There are other problems with the love triangle and the concept/use of it, but I think the writers at least tried to make it feel balanced. Did they succeed? Well, that’s personal opinion, so I won’t get into that, but you can tell the effort was there from the start.

So we have a love triangle. Lucas and Nathan are both vying for Elizabeth’s affection, and the crux of Season 8 is: she needs to choose one of them.

Which brings me to my thesis statement.

The problem with the love triangle is that the choice is limited to two options.

She chooses Nathan.

She chooses Lucas.

I think logically as a fan and as a writer who occasionally does enjoy trashy tropes, it’s really no surprise that one of these choices is going to be endgame. What’s annoying—what hurts the love triangle the most—is that they are also the only options presented to the audience. They are the only options Elizabeth and those around her are openly considering.

In reality, there are at least three options.

She chooses Nathan.

She chooses Lucas.

She chooses nobody/to remain single.

We all know When Calls the Heart is a romantic “period drama” so naturally the writers leaned into writing the romance. And again, we know that one of these men is endgame.

But when you’re writing something like this, a plotline that is most assuredly risking future viewership to some degree, you can’t really forget that Staying Single is equally as good an option as Lucas or Nathan.

It’s made worse with things like time skips. Elizabeth has had plenty of time to make a choice if she wanted to make one. She’s obviously not that attached to either man if she’s just going to leave them hanging like that. I think it could be argued that she’s avoided letting herself get too emotionally intimate with either of them on purpose—because she’s scared to try again after what happened to Jack, she’s afraid of having to feel like that again—but that lends credence to my thesis: if she’s not that emotionally attached, and she’s not ready to actually move forward romantically, then...Staying Single is looking like a great option.

But...not one character in the show has told her that. No one encourages it. Not Rosemary (which I sort of expect), not Bill or Henry or Florence (who all seem likely candidates), not anyone. It’s not like Elizabeth’s still heavily mourning Jack (if so, I could see her friends eagerly encouraging her past that). She seems perfectly content by herself and is seemingly doing a good job of raising her son. She doesn’t need a man. She doesn’t act like she wants one.

So why does she have to choose between TWO of them?

What could fix it? Not much at this point. Elizabeth said ages ago that she was ready to move on, or at least try, and that was followed up by all of her friends (Rosemary and Clara specifically) being extremely pushy about how she needed to find romance again. Not once were all of her fears/anxieties seriously discussed and validated.

The best they can do now is have someone close to Elizabeth point out that if she’s not ready to move on, or simply doesn’t want to get involved in a romance again, she doesn’t have to pick anyone (but should be honest with both Lucas and Nathan that she’s not looking for that kind of commitment in her life). It’s also possible that Elizabeth herself could come to this conclusion and speak it aloud to a friend like Rosemary. Just because both men are interested doesn’t mean she has to pick either of them.

I know the fans have been really frustrated at the triangle, specifically how drawn-out it’s been, but I think the reason for that is that Elizabeth’s character has been written in this...really confusing sort of way where...she’s understandably not ready to move on right after her husband has passed away, but even though she’s still in mourning the “potential suitors” get shoved down her throat (and ours) for two full seasons. We (and she, by extension) never get the idea that she could just choose to stay single. The next “logical” step is to choose a man. And that would be fine if she were like Mary Dunbar from the first season, but...she’s the main character. We should see her considering all of her choices.

And like, not to be a fun-killer, but...everything from the past few seasons makes me think she’d just be happier single. That’s the issue, too, with not giving Elizabeth “staying single” as a valid choice: we’re all kind of at a point where we all see how poor her relationship to both suitors is and we’re like, “Hey...maybe neither of them are good options for her at this point in her life.”

Certainly the ensemble-style show lately has contributed to less screentime for Elizabeth and therefore also Lucas/Elizabeth and Nathan/Elizabeth stuff, but I think this could all be fixed if...her choice wasn’t between the two of them, but between choosing to date again vs. choosing not to. She has a career. She has a child. She has a lot of friends. She doesn’t NEED a man, so I want “choosing a man” to feel like...she actually WANTS to date. She WANTS to be romanced. She WANTS physical affection/sex/to be loved and cared for in a romantic fashion.

If I felt that Elizabeth was wholly into the idea of romance and dating and finding someone to live out the rest of her life with, then I might feel good about the love triangle, and about her trying to decide which of two decent men she’d like to allow to court her first.

But because she doesn’t seem eager to court or date, we feel like she never made the decision to move on, and as a result of all of this and the writers trying to keep the love triangle balanced (which unintentionally makes her seem equally DISINTERESTED IN BOTH MEN), her relationships with both Lucas and Nathan feel flat and uninspiring. 

TL;DR? The love triangle should have been presented from the start as Nathan vs. Lucas vs. Staying Single, and then we wouldn’t be in a situation where she’s known these men for two+ years and has been ready to move on for more than one of those years, and still doesn’t feel like she knows either man well enough to choose which of them she might like to court.

If we would have started with three choices, she could have spent all of Season 6 working on eliminating one of the options (staying single, in this case) while also being open to CLOSE friendship with both Lucas and Nathan*. Then, in Season 7, she could find that while it’s flattering to have the attention of two good men, it’s emotionally draining and anxiety-inducing to feel she has to choose between them as she likes them both a great deal and doesn’t want to hurt either of them.

*I think they were sort of trying for this, but it fell flat. It would have been ideal to have Lucas and Nathan confide in Elizabeth about deeply personal/emotional things that never leave those scenes. Fears, concerns, they could have some inside jokes... In order for a love triangle that lasts a long time to work, she has to feel very close to both men...and right now she doesn’t feel close to either of them.

As an aside, the love triangle would definitely feel softer around the edges if it wasn’t pushed from Day 1 as a Thing They Were Doing. Elizabeth forming close friendships with two men without TPTB ever saying anything about romance (let alone a love triangle) would have given the characters time to feel like they’re friends first. What we got was romance shoved down our throat (à la “Elizabeth’s still in mourning because her husband seriously just died BUT ALSO LOOK AT THESE TWO NEW MEN... WHICH WILL SHE CHOOSE WHEN SHE’S READY TO MOVE ON?!”) which put too much pressure on the triangle and the characters/interactions from the get-go. It felt like they jumped from brand-new acquaintances to love interests in the span of five minutes...which is, you know...bad.

[bluerosesburnblue]

Your Jacob’s Character by @hufflepunk-asfrick and (spiritually) MC Character Challenge by @cptaincarswell (neither of whom will actually be tagged because the ship sailed on these months ago and I don’t want to clutter their notifications)

Rules: Make a collage of characters that summarize what you headcanon your MC’s brother, Jacob to be like! Tag who you want to see do this

and

Rules: Choose five characters (movie or tv show) that represent your MC/ MC’s different layers.

So uhhhhhhhhhh... here’s the thing. I was tagged in the Jacob Character Challenge by @wilhelminafujita and indirectly by @batgirl-87 a long ass time ago. I was also tagged by @batgirl-87 in the MC Character Challenge but I don’t... watch enough TV or movies to actually do that one all the way! So I’ve gone ahead and merged the two challenges into just a collage of five characters for both of them

Explanations for the choices below!

We’re going clockwise from the top of each collage

Jacob Caradoc Dwyn

Ephemer (Kingdom Hearts series)

I made a direct comparison a long time ago, but tell me if this is familiar: an overly curious boy goes missing while investigating a huge conspiracy and you spend most of the prequel mobile game he stars in hunting his ghosting ass down while he occasionally sends you vision messages

The similarities go way beyond just their roles, though. Ephemer is a big conspiracy theorist who hates not knowing things and will do whatever it takes to hunt down the truth

Most people thought he was absolutely crazy, as you do when someone tells you that they think you’re all secretly being sent into holographic simulations when you go on missions (but he was also totally right)

He’s also notoriously overconfident in combat. You meet Ephemer because he decided to take on a monster way stronger than he was and got seriously hurt. But at least he’s self-aware enough to admit it (but also... is really gung-ho about fighting things in the current arc...)

He’s a genuinely nice guy but not above needling people to get the information he wants from them

Loyal as hell to the people he cares about and protective of them. Like, he really doesn’t know your Avatar all that well but still rushes out onto a battlefield to save you and volunteers himself to go on a potentially deadly mission with you just so that you won’t have to go alone

...buuuuuuut he’s not above going off on his own without telling anyone in an attempt to keep them “safe” and then getting into serious trouble for it

Is currently having a panic attack because he was placed in charge of a gang of teenagers and has to be The Responsible One™ but clearly hates it, which is what I imagine Jacob would do if you ever made him a leader in any capacity

Messy hair and an adorable smile

Honestly it’d be easier to list the things that Jacob and Ephemer don’t have in common. I didn’t intentionally base Jacob off of him but I won’t deny that a lot of Ephemer probably influenced Jacob’s character

Sokka (Avatar the Last Airbender)

Sokka’s on here mostly due to his relationship with his little sister, Katara. Jacob’s relationship with Seren is a very strong mirror to the Southern Water Tribe siblings

He’s really smart, but because he’s also very goofy a lot of people tend to overlook just how much creativity and ingenuity he brings to the table

No, Sokka’s seriously one of the smartest members of the cast. There’s a reason they call him “the ideas guy.” He knows when to get serious and break out the logic and reason. It’s never stopped him from being a loud, boisterous goofball, though

Cursed by the universe to a lifetime of misfortune

Sokka is very loyal and protective to his younger sister, but because she’s generally more emotionally measured it comes across like she’s taking care of him. And he knows that and really loves her for it, but it just makes him want to take care of her more, since that should be his job

They bicker a lot, but in the end they’re completely inseparable

Ellie (Up)

A bit of an unorthodox choice, but Ellie really is the physical embodiment of Jacob’s excitement to travel and Hufflepuff hard-working nature in a lot of ways

Ellie has huge dreams of exploring distant lands and she goes at it with such gusto that it’s completely infectious

Some people would argue that it’s overwhelming, but Ellie doesn’t really care about their opinion. She’s doing it for her own satisfaction!

When she falls in love with Carl, her goal changes to having both of them go on the trip together in much the same way that Jacob would really prefer traveling with his precious little sister, Seren, than by himself because they’re a team

She saves up her whole life for this trip. She never once gives up on it entirely. Despite the setbacks, despite the fact that she passed away before ever even accomplishing her goal, she was always working towards that great adventure

Sherlock Holmes (Ace Attorney Series - The Great Ace Attorney/Dai Gyakuten Saiban)

I am... so glad that I didn’t make this until after the fan translation for DGS came out because hoooooooo boy does Ace Attorney Sherlock give me mad Jacob Dwyn vibes

(I was always going to make Jacob a huge Sherlock Holmes fan so this worked out way too perfectly)

Ace Attorney Sherlock is legitimately very perceptive and good at picking up on minute details, but because he’s so overzealous about his detective work he has a tendency to jump to conclusions a little too fast and usually ends up having to be redirected by his more calm partner

Once you get him on the right track, though, he’s an unstoppable crime-solving machine (with the bonus ability of being really damn good at sleight-of-hand stuff)

He’s also hugely eccentric. Would Jacob Dwyn just hang from the wall by a hook while wearing an expensive tiara for the hell of it during an investigation? Ooooooh yes

Jacob’s a lot less wildly inaccurate, though, because he does genuinely want to solve the crimes to the best of his ability

I am absolutely certain that Jacob wouldn’t hesitate to tell everyone he knows about all of the mysteries he’s solved with his sister because guys. Guys it was so cool. Yes, I am THE Jacob Dwyn of the Dwyn Detective Agency please pay attention to my cool job

Sherlock is a Good Dad and Jacob is a Good Brother. Case Closed.

Ant-Man/Scott Lang (Marvel Cinematic Universe - Ant Man)

By this point you should be seeing a pattern. Smart, creative guy who’s also pretty goofy who has a younger female character that he loves greatly

Scott, though, isn’t above doing a lot of really sneaky stuff and taking unscrupulous jobs to get to his (admittedly pretty noble) goals. He adds that slight bit of moral edge we were missing from the Jacob equation. Not much, but some

Like I just think of the scene where Scott uses a bunch of creative methods to break into Pym’s house. Methods that require a lot of knowledge of security systems and science

He also does not let the rules stop him from doing what he thinks is right. It’s how he ended up in prison in the first place

Jacob Dwyn would unironically get very excited about a “Time Heist” and you can’t convince me otherwise

Also, the snark and quips. Can’t forget that Jacob’s an incorrigible sarcastic doofus

What can I say? Scott’s undying loyalty to his daughter matches Jacob’s undying loyalty for his sister perfectly

(We are all very lucky that Jacob wants to solve crimes because he would be way too good at doing crimes)

Seren Aisling Dwyn

Saoirse (Song of the Sea)

It wouldn’t have been right to make this list without including one of the characters that inspired Jacob and Seren in the first place and Seren fit Saoirse better than Jacob fit her brother, Ben

Song of the Sea is an Irish film about the two kids of a Selkie mother and a human father, who hides their heritage from them when their mother disappears (note: Jacob and Seren’s mom does not disappear). This hidden heritage causes Saoirse a lot of physical problems (i.e. rendering her mute, making her physically grow weaker the longer she’s apart from her seal’s coat), just like Seren’s hidden Siren heritage causes her to completely fail to address her additional needs that leads to a lot of unintentional illness in her Hogwarts years

Ben and Saoirse have to try and get back home so that Saoirse can sing the Song of the Sea and sent the Fair Folk home. That’s where I got the idea for Jacob and Seren to go wandering off alone as kids and encountering a bunch of magical creatures during their adventures from

Ben totally hated Saoirse until later in the movie, which inspired Jacob hating Seren after she’s born but warming up to her in a few months

Personality-wise, Saoirse may look sweet and quiet, but she’s a huge ball of sass. It’s just easy to miss because she only conveys it in her facial expressions, which is something that Seren’s always done, too

She also doesn’t follow their grandmother’s rules well. She’ll go along with things to a point, but the second she doesn’t agree she’ll strike off on her own and get it done by herself despite how tiny she is

(A lot of younger!Seren was inspired by Saoirse)

When given the opportunity to leave with the Faeries and her mother, she chooses to stay behind with her brother and father because she loves them, and while Seren isn’t fond of either of her parents, she would stay behind for Jacob

Yew Geneolgia (Bravely Second)

Okay... look, I promise that I didn’t just base Seren off of Yew because I made her before finishing Bravely Second but...

Playing Bravely Second was an experience after making Seren

So my boy Yew Geneolgia is the youngest member of a noble and prestigious house, was never expecting to inherit it because he had an older (half-)brother so he went to magic school and ended up being, like, the smartest student there, to the point where they had to give him a secret special ranking on the school ranking system because he was tooooo smart at magic (*cough* Seren singlehandedly winning the House Cup every year *cough*)

Of course their father doesn’t want to let Yew’s brother inherit anything because he’s not a pureblood noble (and the Dwyn siblings aren’t pureblood wizards). Yew’s brother disappears hunting down a sword in order to earn his way back into the family

Yew goes hunting the sword down to try and bring his brother home and surprise surprise it’s CURSED

(The Geneolgia siblings are not a perfect match to the Dwyn siblings but there are a LOT of similar elements there)

After his brother goes missing again after finding Yew with the cursed sword, Yew decides that he’s just going to try and be his older brother by taking up his place as a swordsman despite sucking at it. In Year 4, Seren decides that everyone just wants Jacob and not her, so she starts modeling herself after him more until she can’t keep it up anymore in late Year 5

So a small, young magic nerd who’s extremely awkward in social situations whose story revolves around a missing older brother that they attempt to emulate, unsuccessfully

Also, Yew is the one making all of the Bestiary entries. He’s clearly got an interest in Zoological stuff and he’s a very good artist since he does all of the illustrations in there, too

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III (How to Train Your Dragon Series)

Hey speaking of Zoology did you know that Seren was into Magizoology and is very good at befriending creatures? It’s true!

Seren in her early years at Hogwarts is very similar to Hiccup from the first film. She’s shy, but undeniably witty and sarcastic. Her self-confidence is extremely low because she keeps getting compared to more successful family members. Her strengths come from her intelligence and being able to look at things from angles others might not, like extending empathy to creatures that most would hate

She’d never be able to hurt a dragon like Toothless come on. He’s too cute. Too sweet

As she gets older she still matches up with Hiccup, though. He finds himself being thrust into a leadership position and having to adjust, but doing so gracefully and with emotional maturity in much the same way that Seren steps up to lead the Cursed Vault crew when she needs to

You have to be pretty fearless to step up to a dragon that could bite your head off and then learn to fly on it, and when it comes down to it Seren is just as fearless in anything that is not a social interaction

I’m sorry, did I just hear SELF-SACRIFICIAL TENDENCIES? Why yes, yes I do believe that I did

And Hiccup will never, ever give up on Toothless no matter what. No matter what the dragon does (or is forced to do in the second film). Just like Seren will never give up on Jacob. No matter the cost

Ema Skye (Ace Attorney Series - Apollo Justice)

I know that Ema was in Spirit of Justice, too, but I don’t know anything about that one so I’m only covering her appearances chronologically up to Apollo Justice

I didn’t realize until watching someone’s blind playthrough of Apollo Justice recently just how much Seren was like Ema

So Ema starts off strong already as A Very Devoted Little Sister who absolutely refuses to believe that her older sister is guilty of a crime despite her sister confessing to it

(She ended up being right and her sister was blackmailed into covering it up which was honestly my default situation for the Dwyn siblings before the Portrait Vault chapter came out. Ema’s sister was being blackmailed with evidence that could implicate Ema with murder, Jacob would have been blackmailed with Seren’s safety. Which is still true, I suppose, but we’ll see how this holds up later)

She’s very passionate about forensic science in the same way that I imagine Seren can be in her own interests like Magizoology and later on the development of forensic magic

Almost a decade later, though, and Ema is... super jaded and grouchy. She’s sarcastic and kinda rude, but lights up again if you get her talking about her interests

She also doesn’t have her dream job but is instead... a detective. though Seren’s a lot more content as a detective than Ema is because she’s got Jacob and a license to do creature-related cases

But just the progression from the innocent kid to the jaded adult detective is... such a good match that I just had to put Ema in here

Katara (Avatar the Last Airbender)

And just like Jacob had Sokka, Seren gets Katara to round it off

There might be something to be said about the Southern Water Tribe siblings and the Dwyn Siblings both being linked to water as an element

I already covered a lot of this in Jacob’s section, but they have a similar dynamic

Katara is a Mom Friend extraordinaire who obsessively takes care of everyone in the group, even when it’s not her place to. A lot of them find it overbearing sometimes

While she’s generally fairly mature and level-headed, when she gets mad she gets absolutely furious and cannot be stopped until she’s satisfied

“You can’t knock me down!” is such an iconic line and very much embodies Seren’s stubbornness and determination to get back up and keep trying no matter what

She loves her brother. She’s not above criticizing him or the occasional jab, but she also knows when to give him credit for the incredibly smart things that he does. Nobody will defend him quite as hard as she will when she has to

The lovable, goofy, intelligent, protective older brother and the equally intelligent, mature, caring, stubborn younger sister. There’s no better way to describe the Dwyn Siblings than that

[insanityclause]

Of the many subtle, seemingly inconsequential but spectacular choices that director Jamie Lloyd and the creative team make in the Broadway-by-way-of-London production of Harold Pinter’s late-’70s love-triangle drama Betrayal, perhaps the best is a song that punctuates a couple of scene changes: “Enjoy the Silence,” by English electro-pop band Depeche Mode.

The haunting cover version, performed by Susanna and the Magical Orchestra, is stripped down—like the rest of the revival—so all that remains is little more than the lyrics:

“All I ever wanted/ All I ever needed/ Is here—in my arms/ Words are very unnecessary/ They can only do harm.” And let’s not forget this adultery-appropriate verse: “Vows are spoken/ To be broken/ Feelings are intense/ Words are trivial/ Pleasures remain/ So does the pain.”

Lloyd’s entire production is as refreshingly spare and unadorned as Pinter’s pause-packed prose. (Never doubt the intent of those pauses. Peter Hall, who directed many of Pinter’s plays in their premieres, once said in an interview: “It’s not at all absurd for Harold to ring up and say, ‘Page 37—cut the pause.’”) Though the story spans nine years—starting two years after the end of an affair between Jerry (Charlie Cox) and Emma (Zawe Ashton), the wife of his best friend, Robert (Tom Hiddleston), and traveling back to the deceptive duo’s clandestine first kiss—the actors undergo no hairstyle or clothing changes. Throughout, the duplicitous Emma wears a flowing blouse and high-waisted jeans in complementary shades of blue—the color of trust and loyalty.

Similarly, while the action begins in a pub and shifts to both Jerry’s and Robert’s houses, a restaurant, the lovers’ flat, and—in the most pivotal scene—a hotel room in Venice, Italy—there is virtually no set to speak of, save a turntable that helps move the characters through time.

Though projections (“two years earlier,” and so on) help guide the audience, we see the finish-to-start progression most vividly in the performances: In the first scene, thanks to the charming Cox and the stylish, just-a-touch-flirty Ashton, it’s clear why Jerry and Emma sparked. “Ever think of me?” asks Emma, clearly wanting the answer to be yes. “I don’t need to think of you,” says Jerry. “Oh?” she replies. “I don’t need to think of you,” he says, a bit softly. Because of course you don’t need to think of someone who’s become a part of you. Then we watch the pair cycle back to incomprehensible sadness (their breakup) to blissful faux domesticity (Emma decorates their flat with a tablecloth she bought while in Venice… with Robert) to drunken possibility (how their affair, and probably many others, first began).

All the while, Robert is there. This is one of Lloyd’s possibly controversial but ultimately craftiest choices. At first, you will wonder about the logic: Even though he’s standing scarecrow-still on the back wall, won’t Avengers star (and Olivier Award winner) Hiddleston—whose remarkable Broadway debut is the cause for the stage-door pandemonium and scalper mania on West 45th Street—be a bit of a distraction? Actually, no. He simply fades into the background—as Ashton does when her Emma lingers near a Robert-Jerry scene, and as Cox does when his Jerry sits up against the wall during the only Emma and Robert scene (the play’s midpoint and its dramatic peak, being the moment when Robert discovers the betrayal). By keeping every actor onstage, constantly in each other’s orbits, Lloyd has captured the greatest—and most heartbreaking—truth about infidelity: The other person is always there.

Betrayal opened Sept. 5, 2019, and runs through Dec. 8 at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre and runs through December 8. Tickets and information: betrayalonbroadway.com

[wits-writing]

Spider-Man: Far From Home (Movie Review)

Spider-Man: Far From Home, directed by Jon Watts with a screenplay by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, picks up with Peter Parker (Tom Holland) still reeling from the events of Avengers: Endgame. While that movie was widely seen enough that I’m not too worried about spoiling it, I’m still going to play it safe and give anyone reading this a spoiler warning now. Especially since I’m also going to be discussing a couple of the reveals that Far From Home has up its sleeve in its own narrative in detail.

Peter begins this movie trying to navigate what Spider-Man’s place in the world is now that he’s been through something of such cosmic importance. His efforts to take himself back to neighborhood level heroics and advancing his social life with the opportunity presented by an upcoming class summer trip to Europe get sidetracked when he’s drafted by Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson) for a new mission. He’s introduced to a new hero, Quinton Beck (Jake Gyllenhaal) later dubbed “Mysterio.” Peter’s told he needs to rise to the occasion in order to help Beck fight against the threat of Elemental monsters that followed him from his home universe on an alternate Earth. It’s up to Peter to navigate the dilemma between being the large-scale hero the world wants him to be and the personal connections he’s eager to form for himself.

[Full Review Under the Cut]

Visualization of Peter’s arc takes the form of the costumes he wears as Spider-Man. Peter’s first seen doing hero work by making a public appearance for charity. He’s wearing the Iron-Spider suit from Infinity War and Endgame during this scene, covering himself in the last thing Tony gave him before his death in the latter, demonstrating how he hasn’t been able to let go yet and the pressure to perform in the void Iron Man left behind. The main suit from Civil War and Homecoming doesn’t fit in the pattern because it barely features in Far From Home as a whole. It’s still worth mentioning as representative of what Peter wants to leave behind while he’s on his class trip, but also shows how that responsibility follows him anyway when May packs it for him without asking.

Most distant from the typical idea of Spider-Man out of any of the costumes in the movie is the all black suit Fury provides him with for the missions he’s put on in Europe. It lacks a prominent Spider-symbol and any other recognizable elements of a Spider-Man suit except the eyes. Lacking iconography demonstrates Peter bowing to demands that he be the type of hero the world’s demanding of him rather than forging his own path. As Peter rediscovers his resolve in time for the final battle of the movie, he finally gets to make a sleek Spider-Man outfit for himself. The red and black outfit he comes up with ends up as one of the best costumes the character has had in any of his big screen appearances and tying it into the culmination of Peter’s story gives it a satisfying debut.

Between the big superhero action beats of the story comes my favorite material the movie has to offer as Peter and his classmates are taken across Europe. Sequences of travel and sightseeing give the members of the returning supporting cast from Homecoming more chances to shine. My favorite of these touristy is their first stop in Venice, Italy. Since it’s the only Europe sequence before Peter has been drafted into Mysterio and Fury’s mission, he gets to enjoy himself alongside his friends for a bit. There’s an added comedic bent to the trip with the two teachers chaperoning it, Mr. Dell (J.B. Smoove) and Mr. Harrington (Martin Starr). We witness their oblivious reactions to the detours the trip is taken on by Nick Fury’s team for the sake of keeping Peter on the mission and bewilderment at all the superhero vs Elemental battles they end up coming across. While these vistas are appreciable for what they do for the down-to-earth moments of the movie, they still provide plenty for the action beats when they roll around. Seeing Spider-Man swing around the locations he travels to throughout give ample opportunities to see how he maneuvers and fights around them in signature Spidey-Style.

The time between action beats also provides expansion of the romantic subplots playing out in this movie. Peter’s attempts to tell MJ (Zendaya) how he feels about her becomes the focal point of his efforts to have a normal school trip and do normal high school things like confessing a crush. He has a clear plan in mind of how he’s going to do it, but other factors keep getting in the way even before superhero life catches up with him. He stresses over all this unaware that MJ is trying to process her own feelings, along with her suspicions about his double-life, which she ends up confirming partway through. Where past Spider-Man movies have used Peter’s love life for the sake of melodrama, Far From Home deals in a genuine portrayal of awkward teenagers who don’t know how to navigate communicating their feelings yet.

Peter’s struggle to say anything to MJ gets juxtaposed with what his best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) goes through. When Peter’s telling Ned about his plan to confess to MJ, Ned’s upset that it ruins his plan of them being “American Bachelors in Europe.” Things end up taking a turn when he’s sat next to Betty Brant (Angourie Rice) on the flight across the Atlantic and they end up in a relationship by the time the flight’s landed. Their puppy-love contrasting Peter’s awkwardness makes for the best comedy beats in the movie, especially when Ned starts acting like a relationship expert.

Mysterio ends up being the person Peter turns to when the stresses of his personal desires conflicting with superhero life becomes too much. The enigmatic hero tells him to let go of the pressure to be the next Iron Man and go after what he really wants out of life. Peter agrees and hands over equipment he was bequeathed after Tony’s death to Beck, convinced he’s more capable of being the hero the world needs going forward. However, that’s immediately followed by the shocking revelation that Mysterio is (Gasp! Shock!) evil.

Feigned surprise at the reveal aside, once Beck’s true motives are revealed he becomes a fantastic villain. Gyllenhaal gives the characters backstage persona an air of self-righteous smugness, hinted at when he first meets Peter and says he relates to the kid because “It’s not easy being the smartest one in the room.” Everything from the Elementals to his multiverse origin was the product of hologram technology he invented and the efforts of a team he assembled from fellow employees fired from Stark Industries over the years, including some that were in previous MCU movies. They want to create the hero who will fill the void left behind by the Avengers, someone who can apparently handle those threats singlehandedly. Mysterio’s illusions get played to best effect in the sequences where he uses them to mess with Peter’s head, even tying into the costume motif discussed earlier by making Peter see himself in his proto-costume to belittle him as “just a kid in a sweatsuit.” The ultimate motivating factor behind Beck’s actions comes down to why he thinks he can get away with his plan. That in a world like the MCU, where supernatural stuff happens all the time, the truth can be whatever he wants. A point of view that gets taken to its logical endpoint in the first of two jaw-dropping post-credits scenes.

Spider-Man: Far From Home continues the MCU Peter Parker’s arc of figuring out his place in the wider world of superheroes. Watts, McKenna and Sommers using the opportunity of Avengers: Endgame’s fallout to needle Peter with the necessity of figuring it out sooner rather than later makes for strong advancement for this iteration of the Webhead. The international aspect taking Peter out of his element keeps the stresses of the choice at the front of Peter’s mind since it gives him a glimpse of what being a hero for the world, rather than just the Friendly Neighborhood, might be like. The journey of Holland’s Spider-Man is likely far from over and the way it ends here leaves the audience with a promise that any continuation of this journey won’t be like anything we’ve seen before.

If you like what you’ve read here, please like/reblog or share elsewhere online, follow me on Twitter (@WC_WIT), and consider throwing some support my way at either Ko-Fi.com or Patreon.com at the extension “/witswriting”

[imkerfuffledhphm]

MC Elizabeth Cooper

Thanks to @hogwartsmysterystory​‘s profile!

IDENTITY

Name: Elizabeth Cooper Gender: Female Age: 16 Birth Date: March 23 Species: Human Blood Status: Half-Blood on a technicality. One of her paternal grandparents was a Muggle. Sexuality: Bisexual with a preference for men Alignment: Neutral Good Ethnicity: White Nationality: English Residence: London Myer Briggs Personality Type: ISFP

THE MAGE

1st Wand: 10 ½ in. aspen and dragon heartstring 2nd Wand: 11 ¼ in. hornbeam and phoenix feather Animagus: Hawk Misc Magical Abilities: Legilimens Boggart Form: Initially it was Voldemort, but after reuniting with Jacob at the end of the fifth year it turned into a masked Death Eater covered in blood that has no clear source. If it lasts long enough to remove the mask and reveal Jacob’s face underneath, her riddikulus won’t work.  Riddikulus Form: The blood turns into paint, and the robes and mask turn into a cheap Halloween costume. Amortentia: (What do they smell like?) Something faintly ? Amortentia: (What do they smell?) Her mother’s perfume, the Ravenclaw common room, butterbeer, old books Patronus: Bluebird Patronus Memory: It used to be playing with Jacob when she was little. Now it’s laughing in the Three Broomsticks with a butterbeer and all her friends. Mirror of Erised: Her family, whole and happy and as it used to be. Specialized/Favourite Spells: Flipendo, Muffliato, Depulso

APPEARANCE

Faceclaim: N/A Game Appearance: squishy baby-face cheeks that she hates Height: on the shorter side Weight: average Physique: average Eye Colour: green Hair Colour: naturally brown, though she dyes it black for her fifth year Skin Tone: pale Body Modifications: none Scarring: none Inventory: (what do they carry on them?) Wand, quill, Jason’s notebook, whatever small item(s) they found in the latest vault, various little odds and ends, probably some candy from History of Magic

ALLEGIANCES

Hogwarts House: Ravenclaw Ilvermorny House: She knows next to nothing about Ilvermorny houses beyond that they’re vastly inferior to the Hogwarts houses Affiliations/Organizations: Ravenclaw quidditch team, doesn’t have time for any other extracurriculars  Professions: She has no idea what she wants to do after she graduates and it is stressing her out. Before her fourth year she wanted to go into curse breaking like Bill–it just seemed like the natural choice for her–but getting to know Rakepick and all the ensuing trauma soured curse breaking as a career for her. She wants something safe and steady when she graduates.

HOGWARTS INFORMATION

Class Proficiencies: (OWL scores)

Astronomy: A

Charms: O

DADA: O (Whatever else she has to say about Rakepick, she was a damn good DADA teacher)

Flying: N/A (but naturally skilled)

Herbology: E

History of Magic: A (and the only reason it isn’t lower is because of Rowan)

Potions: O (only because she knew Snape wouldn’t let a lower score into his NEWTs levels and she put extra effort into her OWL)

Transfiguration: O

Electives: Care of Magical Creatures and Arithmancy. Switches Arithmancy to Divination after her OWLs. She regrets that decision.  Quidditch: Chaser Extra Curricular: She’s considered joining the Gobstones club, but she has too many curses to break. Favourite Professors: Professors Flitwick and McGonagall and Honorary Professor Khanna Least Favourite Professors: Professors Binns and Rakepick

RELATIONSHIPS

Brother: She has a… complicated relationship with Jacob. She’s spent so long hero worshiping him, and defending him, and moving heaven and earth to find him, and imagining a perfect future where everything goes back to the way it was before he disappeared, and now… Now she doesn’t know what to think. The more she learns about him, the more she’s scared everyone else was right about him. Misc Siblings: None Father: Josiah Cooper. He’s a little bumbling, but his heart’s in the right place. Elizabeth adores him. Mother: Isadora Cooper nee Fawley. She’s sharp as a tack and expects a lot from Elizabeth, which sometimes leads to friction between them, but overall they get along well. Love Interest: She took Barnaby to the ball and went on the single date with Talbot, but they decided they were better off as friends. The end of her fifth year saw an unexpected and very sudden crush emerge for Merula of all people, though that gets dashed somewhat by Merula’s attitude at the beginning of year six. She’s still determined to become friends with Merula at least, if only to help her out.  Best Friends: Rowan Khanna, Penny Haywood, and Bill Weasley Rival: Merula. She also has a playful sort of rivalry with Diego, which mostly consists of dueling and tease-flirting. Enemy: Rakepick.  Dormmates: (Who’s in your MC’s dorm with them?) Rowan Khanna, Badeea Ali, and Tulip Karasu Pets: She has a gray owl named Alfred which her parents bought her as a going away present for her first year, and from her third year onward she also has a gray tabby cat called Minnie. Minnie is named after the one, the only, Professor Minerva McGonagall, and Elizabeth was mortified when she realized she had to introduce Minnie to her namesake in the course of teaching Fang not to be scared of cats. Closest Canon Friends: Rowan, Penny, and Bill Closest MC Friends: N/A

BACKGROUND/HISTORY

Info here

PERSONALITY

Loves her friends so much

Seriously so so much

If she wasn’t a Ravenclaw, she’d have gone to Hufflepuff

Tries to be Logical and Analytical about things but still has a tendency to think with her heart and rush into danger without a second’s thought

Doesn’t like change

At all

The sixth year is proving Difficult

MISC

Here here here

[brothermarc7theatre]

“Cabaret” show #806

Seven Cabarets. As of this past Saturday, I have attended seven productions of Cabaret on my road to 1,000 shows. To say that I’m a fan of this heavy, always-timely piece would be an understatement. However, it is with full confidence and complete conviction that I can report that Selma Arts Center is the most ambitiously produced, staged, and performed production I have seen. It all stems from three specific efforts, them being from Abigail Nolte as the Emcee; director/choreographer Michael Flores; and Meg Clark as Sally Bowles. This is not to negate the impact the rest of the cast, design team, and band have--and believe me, we’ll get to them--but this production would not reach the level of theatrical integrity it does without the sterling work of these three individuals. Welcome to this review of the Kit Kat Klub; do leave your troubles outside. 

(Abigail Nolte (Emcee); Photo credit: Kyle Lowe)

From the start, the aesthetics this production delivers are remarkable, easily some of the best I have ever seen from a Selma Arts Center production. Dan Aldape’s lighting design is stunning, mood-setting, and balanced in the use of specials when called for. The lighting heightens each scene and song to a level of intrigue and commitment that makes Joe Masteroff’s script and the Kander/Ebb score even more fresh and alive than before. Erik Andersen and Nicolette C. Andersen’s scenic design is wonderful, comprised of a unit set with sliding doors and two levels, and a few chairs and set pieces down stage indicating different apartments and trains and such. The cast is dressed sexily, alluringly, and well in-tune with the aesthetic concept Mr. Flores has set. Damon Pardo’s costumes, though at times not obviously logical for the number with regards to the ensemble, certainly convey the message of what the Kit Kat Klub or the specific number is trying to communicate. Matthew Smoke’s musical direction of the Kit Kat Klub band is absolute fire, the score never losing its push and dynamic impact. And the triumph of the show begins with Ms. Nolte’s performance as the Emcee. Traditionally cast as a male-identifying actor, Ms. Nolte’s vocals are perfectly suited in the key and spirit of these iconic songs. Her back-and-forth between feminine hostess and butch narrator make her journey an endless, on-your-feet experience of trying to figure out the Emcee’s goal in all of this. However, Ms. Nolte’s performance of the Act Two heart wrenching “I Don’t Care Much” will patch up any reservations you may have seeing a female identifying actress in the role. The final scene, literally in the last moments of the show, will reveal just how much you care about this Emcee.

(Center: Meg Clark (Sally), surrounded by the Kit Kat Klub ensemble; Photo credit: Kyle Lowe)

Ms. Clark is absolutely flawless in her performance as Sally. This role, carrying with it already a heavy load of expectation, vocal demand, and sexy legacy is daunting enough. However, Ms. Clark won’t just satisfy your expectations, she will exceed them with abundance. Her leadership of “Don’t Tell Mama” and “Mein Herr” are fabulous, supported by a hardworking, precise ensemble. However, Ms. Clark’s turn at “Maybe This Time” is her best number, and rightly so. Sally’s entire back story, and eventual journey for the rest of the play, are indicated in this number, and Ms. Clark doesn’t disappoint in delivering the story and the vocal power. Her turn at the title number in Act Two is a performance worthy of a standing ovation, as she not only sings it marvelously, but acts the ever-loving snot out if it. Ms. Clark’s Sally is a fully-realized, exceptional performance which Central Valley audiences dare not miss.

(Adam Chavez (Cliff) and Meg Clark (Sally); Photo credit: Kyle Lowe)

Adam Chavez does very well as Cliff, delivering heightened moments of intrigue and risk to an otherwise dull role when engaged with other super-personalities in Masteroff’s script. His vocals don’t disappoint in his sole musical time to shine opposite Ms. Clark in the bouncy duet, “Perfectly Marvelous.” Amelia Ryan and Juan Luis Guzman are wonderful as Fraulein Schneider and Herr Schultz, respectively. Their turns at “It Couldn’t Please More” and “Married” are endearing, charming, and lovingly honest as they depict the true love that can bring together two older singles. Ms. Ryan does justice to her opening ‘So What?” and completely nails her turn at “What Would You Do?,” complete with pensive determination and grit which support her excellent timbre. Mr. Guzman excels not just in singing, but in how true and humorous his Schultz is. Without ever mugging or falling into schtick, Mr. Guzman adds so much humor and charm to Schultz that it makes his culminating goodbye scene all the more heartbreaking to watch. Casey Ballard and Joshua Plowman are standouts in their featured performances as Fraulein Kost and Ernst, respectively, by giving purpose and depth to their roles.

(Amelia Ryan (Fraulein Schneider) and Juan Luis Guzman (Herr Schultz); Photo credit: Kyle Lowe)

And then there’s the ensemble, each with moments of brilliance that one can’t help but be jealous of the fun and (appropriately) difficult work they have in this demanding production. Jacob Moon, as the “Tomorrow Belongs to Me” soloist, delivers a remarkable performance, a simply staged and brilliantly sung piece with a dance formation flanking him indicating what this song is truly praising. Nia Luchau and Alex Figueroa are hilariously delightful partners with Ms. Nolte in “Two Ladies,” executed finely with Mr. Flores’ smart and raunchy choreography. Altogether, Mr. Flores has found his niche with this Cabaret. His concept is clear, uninterrupted, and precise in its delivery and execution. If you are a Cabaret veteran like me, you will see choreography in places that you’ve never seen before. However, trust that at no point does Mr. Flores’ directorial choices or choreography placement distract from the message he and the script deliver to the audience. So now go get your tickets and go see the message for yourself. Forget your troubles. Do not miss this show.

[poweredbycoffeeandwine]

May As Well Be, Day 11: Character

The stories Cerberus fed her felt false, and she was caught in a cleverly spun, extravagant trap built to force her hand. A lot could be said about the operation, but they had always done their research well. Convincing her to help fight the ongoing Reaper threat to save innocent lives was the only way to secure her cooperation. The stark picture they skillfully painted depicting desperation and dire straits was good. Miranda knew exactly what she was doing by manipulating her; the carefully phrased tidbits she gave out at precisely the right moment demanded attention. The woman was cunning, and Tavrien still hadn't decided what her ultimate motives were.

Jacob was jaded. He reminded her so much of Garrus when they first met. Red tape and regulations didn't sit well with some people, but his heart was in the right place. Though she believed him to be mostly trustworthy, her first instinct was to test the waters slowly. No, Jacob wasn't purposefully a part of the deception, but It didn't stop the ringleaders from using him to their best advantage. He was being tossed at her to become her pseudo confidant and he didn't have a clue.

As for the Illusive Man, he justified the atrocities his organization committed as being for the betterment of the Human race. He wove lies and partial truths together with ease, and she knew with a cold certainty he believed them. Requests and questions were danced around, responses phrased so they seemed legitimate to the untrained ear, but Shepard held him at a distance. Her only logical choice was to play along, participate with the ground team until she could figure out for herself what the situation actually was.

She hated the SR2. Wouldn't call it the Normandy, that just insulted her memories and the lives of those who were lost. This ship was an impostor, much like she felt she was. Joker seemed a bit standoffish with her, too. Though she wasn't sure if it was the guilt of causing her death or giving himself the opportunity to test her authenticity. The thought bothered her more than she wanted to admit, but it was another issue she wouldn't disclose.

The whole thing would be comical, if it wasn't for the miraculously being brought back from the dead to be the savior of mankind. It just didn't sit right. Knowing she was being set up cast her in the role of prey no matter the dressings they wrapped her in.

She attended meetings, listened attentively, cataloged details away for later reflection. Careful not to give voice to her concerns, provide information or thoughts, she sat back. She observed, she plotted, and built a facade to present to the team. Miranda seemed to take this in stride. Shepard might have even said the Cerberus Operative respected her more for it; appreciated the captive, wary animal who didn't mindlessly slam against the bars looking for escape. In the back of her mind Shepard knew something had to give, and it would likely be soon.

[bioware-meta]

Companion Study: Jacob Taylor

I know, I know. Jacob Taylor? You’re writing an essay about Jacob Taylor? It’s fairly uncontroversial that he’s the least interesting of Mass Effect 2’s otherwise stellar cast. Even the Shadow Broker doesn’t seem to think he’s very valuable (if you haven’t brought him along on Lair of the Shadow Broker, the difference between the comments on him and everyone else are astonishing). But that’s why I wanted to write about him – almost no one has. But I think there’s a lot of value in analyzing why this particular character fell flat with the majority of the player base, and if you’ll bear with me for a few paragraphs, I think you’ll agree.

While doing research for this essay, I discovered that Jacob Taylor was a pretty major character in a couple of the Mass Effect books. I grappled for a bit about whether or not to consider his actions and characterization in those books in my analysis here, but ultimately decided against it. For one thing, I don’t own and haven’t read the books, and there’s only so much insight you can get out of summaries. More importantly, though, I had no idea these books existed when I played ME2, and neither did most players. A video game series that prides itself on storytelling can’t rely on external media to support its story, so I will analyze Jacob Taylor in the form that the majority of the player base experienced him.

 So, with the limits of this analysis established, let’s dive right in to the problem of Jacob Taylor. I want to briefly note what an honest-to-God shame it is that this character fell so flat. He’s one of the only people of color on Shepard’s squad, and one of the only significant black characters in the game. As a white person, it’s not my place to analyze Bioware’s issues with race in detail, but it felt important to touch on. He’s also a major contributor to fem!Shep’s lack of romance options. He’s a thoroughly unappealing option to most players anyway, but to also have him cheat on Shepard and break off their romance in ME3 is a real slap in the face to the few people who were interested. Having characters whose lives don’t revolve around the protagonist and whose romantic relationships don’t work out is an interesting idea, but it’s a problem that it only happens to female protagonists, who also have a romance option unavoidably die. M!Shep, on the other hand, can always steer their romances to happy endings. That’s a problem.

 So what caused this character to fail so utterly? To understand that, let’s take a look at what the developers were hoping to achieve with this character. We’re introduced to Jacob Taylor as a friendly face in a confusing environment, a casual and collected man who offers up the truth of the situation to Shepard out of moral conviction. That’s a decent introduction. Between that and the first few conversations Shepard has with him on the Normandy, I think we can piece together pretty clearly what Jacob’s character is supposed to be. First and foremost, he’s supposed to be a sympathetic voice. He defends Shepard against Miranda, commiserates with them over Cerberus’s spotty track record, and talks about his service with the Alliance. He’s presented as the voice of reason relative to Miranda and TIM. He’s like Shepard, working with Cerberus because he doesn’t see a better option. And that’s the second thing – he’s like Shepard. He shares a similar career path and went through a similar arc of disillusionment and frustration. He’s supposed to be relatable. Third, he’s a good soldier. He’s dutiful, professional, shows great respect for the chain of command, and a solid combatant. And finally, he’s presented as a voice of reason. He frequently advocates for the “logical” and “morally upstanding” choices. His biases show through rarely. The information he provides to Shepard about the galaxy is meant to be very reliable.

 However, this collection of traits fails to make him interesting, for a variety of reasons. Let’s examine why one at a time. He fails as a character sympathetic to Shepard primarily because he’s set up in opposition to Miranda’s fervent belief in Cerberus. The dichotomy between the two makes plenty of sense in the first mission – one pro-Cerberus, one anti. But this falls apart very quickly thereafter, because absolutely no one else you recruit likes Cerberus. The best you get is indifference from people like Zaeed and Kasumi, and far more often you get burning hatred. The deep vendettas of Jack and Tali against Cerberus burn brightly, and Jacob’s mild dislike for them fades out in comparison. This is especially bad for him because his character concept is grounded in the contrast between his reluctant partnership with Cerberus and Miranda’s conviction in their methods. It’s simply uninteresting when compared to the rivalry and outright hatred between Miranda and Jack.

 His failure as a sympathetic ear for Shepard is, surprisingly, almost completely unrelated to why he fails as a target for Shepard’s empathy. This failure boils down primarily to a failure in the writing of his one-on-one conversations. He’s given a backstory that somewhat mirror’s Shepard’s, but there’s no emotion or color attached to it. We know very little about his feelings about his time with the Corsairs, or the names of his fellow servicemen, or any of the conflicts they engaged in, or the hardships they overcame. Compare to Garrus, who talks at length about the team of vigilantes he put together and the tight scrapes he fought his way out of and the burning sense of purpose that sustained him through his ordeals. Jacob was instead written to be almost completely impassive, private, cutting off any conversation as soon as it ventures anywhere potentially emotional. This can be interesting, done correctly. The majority of the companions begin somewhat emotionally closed-off. But Jacob never opens up. The writer’s attempted to make Jacob seem professional and controlled, but instead they robbed him of interiority. This is especially apparent with his personal mission, which fails to advance any central conflict in his personality or resolve an issue that has clearly been affecting him personally. Even the climax of that mission barely brings any of his emotions or character traits into the limelight, and when Shepard tries to dig into his feelings after the mission, Jacob completely shuts down that line of inquiry, never to be reopened.

 Jacob isn’t helped by the fact that he’s also basically the most ordinary combatant to ever be a permanent member of Shepard’s squad. Mechanically, his powerset is very bland, with only Pull and Incendiary Ammo to start off with, and his unique power is functionally interchangeable with two other unique powers, simply extending the user’s shields. And within the game’s story, his abilities are just as ordinary. He’s not a vigilante sniper, a dying assassin, a genetic experiment, or a biotic engineered into the ultimate weapon. He’s just a security officer who happened to not die in the opening level. Simple competence as a combatant looks a lot less valuable when everyone else on the team was recruited because they were extraordinary. In ME1, Kaiden and Ashley had each other to bounce off of, keeping either from looking like the weakest link in a party consisting of fascinating alien experts, and by ME3 neither of them could be considered ordinary soldiers by any stretch of the imagination. But Jacob is just clearly the weakest link of ME2.

 His final and weakest central character trait, acting as a general voice of reason, actually works the best out of any of these. It simply fails to be impactful because the previous three failed so significantly that the player has no real interest in him, so his opinion is unimpactful.

 Having laid bare the flaws in Jacob’s character design, what have we learned? What was the primary factor that created such an uncompelling character, and how could he have been done better? In my opinion, the prime cause of the failure of Jacob Taylor comes from what role the writers wanted him to serve. They intended him to be Shepard’s number one, the friend and confidante that Shepard sees themself in. This was an ill-conceived idea for two reasons. First, there’s player behind the character of Shepard, and that means there is no one-size-fits-all most sympathetic best friend and supporter character. Everyone is going to see it differently. Second, this was a bad idea because there’s already a character returning from a previous game who had this effect on the majority of the player base with astonishing effectiveness, and that’s Garrus Vakarian. Other have written more and better than I could ever hope to on what makes Garrus such a great character, so I’ll leave that alone for now. Instead, let’s talk about what Jacob should have been, instead of trying to fight for Garrus’s role.

 First, I would make Jacob a true believer in Cerberus. As it was, Miranda was the only one who really backed Cerberus – for good reason, the organization was completely mistrusted by outsiders. Making Jacob a true believer would go a long way towards making the presence of the shadowy group feel more immediate, rather than confined to Miranda’s room and TIM’s video calls. This would also open up more avenues to compare and contrast him with Miranda in ways that aren’t better filled by other characters. Preserve Jacob’s general friendliness and moral conviction but put him in control of it. Make him the honey to Miranda’s vinegar, doing his best to gain Shepard’s confidence and exert Cerberus’s agenda over them. Don’t necessarily make him good at it – he’s not a spy – but put that barrier of distrust up that justifies his emotional distance from Shepard. Make him a professional – but this time, he’s not working for Shepard, he’s working on Shepard.

 Naturally, this substantially shifts the nature of his interactions with Shepard. Now Shepard has to not just assess him as a person, but try to shift his loyalties away from Cerberus, just as they must do with Miranda. Likewise, Jacob would have pressure to open up a little more, to try to earn Shepard’s trust through emotional intimacy. This allows us to maintain Jacob as a deeply private person while still letting the audience get to know him through those anecdotes and emotional drives that are so sorely missing from his actual conversations. I’d also consider moving him from the Corsairs to N7. This would shave off a bit of exposition on an element that never seemed to go anywhere, as we never directly interact with or are influenced by the Corsairs in the games. And of course, his personal mission needs to be much more grounded in his issues. We could even preserve most of the basic structure of the mission that appears in game if we provide some crucial background. Have Jacob early and often credit his father with his morality and dedication and, position his disappearance as something that Jacob blames the Alliance for. Don’t make this the inciting incident for Jacob’s defection, we should avoid reducing his morality to a product of his personal suffering, but certainly make it a bitter mark against the Alliance. This allows Jacob’s euphoria and subsequent disillusionment with his father’s survival to have a much more profound impact on his beliefs as it throws him into a crisis over whether his choices and moral compass have come from a worthwhile place – and with the previously established emotional intimacy between him and Shepard, the player can actually see this crisis, unlike in the actual game. I can see a few different trajectories that that could send his character on that could have a substantial impact on ME3, but that would basically be an essay in itself, so we’ll leave it alone for now.

 Next, make him more than just an average soldier. Give the player a reason to think he’d be a good person to have on the team. Maybe instead of being station security, he could be a military expert there to evaluate Shepard’s mental faculties once the Project is finished. Or maybe he could be positioned by TIM to watch Shepard and assassinate them if they go off the rails. The specifics don’t necessarily matter – just present him as being someone who could be taken seriously as a choice for your team when you could pick an ancient asari warrior or the greatest master thief in the galaxy instead.

 Finally, drop the only sane man angle entirely. ME2 is entirely about Shepard corralling dysfunctional superpowered idiots into a workable team. Let Jacob express strong opinions and clear biases for the player to consider and grapple with. Let some personality through the professionalism.

 Maybe you disagree with me. Maybe you think Jacob Taylor is fine as is and I’m going on a ridiculous rant. Maybe you’re right. But to me, and to many others, Jacob Taylor failed as a companion, which is a damn shame, because there was so much that could’ve been done with him instead.

[swannscroft]

Gun for Hire OC---> Far Cry 5

Elizabeth (Liz) Palmer “Fights because she can.”

Specialty:  Spy Age:  21 Birthday:  July 10th  Hair:  Blonde Eyes:  Hazel Height:  5’7” Location:  Whitetail Mountains- South of the Stone Ridge Chalet Occupation:  Former college student Backstory:   Liz grew up in Hope County and went to high school there.  She was the 2nd baseman for the Hope County Cougars softball team.  She helped them win the state championship two years in a row.  Despite her Cougars shirt, she fights with The Whitetail Militia.  She is the niece of Eli Palmer.  When she returned to her childhood home for the first time in years, she was captured by the cult. Jacob discovered her relation to Eli and used her against him

Recruitment Mission:  Help Liz blow up the speakers around the Stone Ridge Chalet. ELIMINATE all enemies/ FREE Liz/ TALK to Liz/ FOLLOW Liz/ BLOW UP the speakers (0/5) /TALK to Liz Rewards:   +600 Resistance points/ Liz Palmer added to your roster/ Carry more melee weapons

Special Abilities: MELEE EXPERT- Give her a bat and she’ll knock any Peggies out of the park. - Liz’s weapon of choice is a barbwire baseball bat with screws sticking out of it.  You’ll also be able to get a few extra melee weapons from her if yours run out.  That means more shovels and more dead Peggies. PEGGIE INTEL- Marks all locations of enemy properties on your map. - When active as one of your GFH all the locations of cult properties including; roadblocks, prisoners vans, and supply vehicles are revealed on your map for the specific region you are in.

Relationships:  

Eli- She is very close with her Uncle.  Will do anything he asks.  Even if that sometimes means not fighting if it means that she’s safe.

Wheaty- Is best friends with Wheaty.  They are always hanging out at the Wolf’s Den together and jamming to the best music.

Jess- The archer doesn’t like her.  Jess thinks that she’s just as bad as all the other Peggies.  Jess calls her ‘Jacob’s little bitch’.  The girls will get along if they share a common goal in killing cultists, but that’s about it.

Sharky- He and Liz will argue over which songs to play on the radio.  Sharky wants to play disco, while she prefers classic rock.  Despite their difference in music taste she finds Sharky very amusing.

Adelaide- She absolutely LOVES Adelaide.  Addie thinks of Liz as the daughter she never had and likes Liz better than Hurk Jr.  She and Addie will talk about which of the guys in Hope County are the hottest (and how the Seed bros are the hottest out of all of them.)

Grace- Liz really looks up to Grace and aspires to be like her.  Sometimes she’ll totally fangirl when Grace is around.  Grace finds it flattering but doesn’t see herself as a role model.

Pratt- She dated Staci Pratt for a few months in high school.  Despite their messy break up, she feels terrible that he is under Jacob’s control.

Hurk Jr- Liz totally wants to join Hurk’s Gate but he won’t let her because she isn’t named Hurk.  She told him by that logic he and his father would be the only ones that could join his cult.  

What she thinks of the Seed siblings:

Joseph- She finds his man bun creepy.  She can’t decide if he looks more like a hipster or a cowboy.  She almost accidently ended up in the cult when she was younger.  No one had told her that they were crazy.  Liz had wandered in Joseph’s compound one Sunday morning in high school.  She thought he was a youth pastor.  To her surprise Joseph was indeed not, a youth pastor.

John- Does not like John’s power of yes.  One of her worst fears is ending up in John’s bunker.  Getting her skin cut off isn’t her definition of a ‘good time’.

Jacob- Won’t really tell anyone the truth about what happened while she was with Jacob.  If you ask her about it she’ll dodge the question.  No one knows if he tortured her or something very different.  All everyone knows is that she spent a lot of time with the redhead soldier.  Jacob enjoyed knowing that he had Eli’s niece under his thumb.

Faith- Liz is actually quite fond of Faith.  She feels bad for the girl, knowing that she wasn’t the first girl controlled by Joseph.  Before Joseph had found Rachel, he had picked out Liz as one of the potential candidates for ‘Faith’.  You’ll sometimes see her chitchatting with Faith when she appears.  Liz has wandered into the bliss willingly to try to reason with Faith but the girl is too far gone.

Quotes:

In her recruitment mission- “Thanks for getting me out of that cage.  If I had been there any longer I’d be good as dead.  My name’s Liz.  I’m Eli’s niece.  My Uncle runs the militia up in these mountains.  I didn’t know shit about this Eden’s Gate nonsense before.  I had just gotten home and those fucking cultists nabbed me out on the road. Jacob was ready to write me off as weak, feed me to his judges, until he found out who I was.  He liked having me around, knowing that I was related to Eli.  He kept me in a cage and treated me like I was his pet, called me his ‘little lamb’.  I guess Jacob got tired of my big mouth.  I had outgrown my usefulness to him. He said he’d come back for me when I was nothing but bones.  I’ve gotten real sick of listening to this bastard talk.  Help me take out the speakers around here so I don’t have to listen to him anymore.”

“I’ll put in a good word with Eli for ya’, tell him you’re one of the good ones.  Look Dep, I know you got a lot of skilled people looking to help you but I’d love to fight back.  You and me, we’re gonna shove my bat so far up Jacob’s ass that he’s gonna choke on it.  See you around, Dep.

In Jacob’s region- “Why does everyone think that I fucked Jacob Seed?  I mean sure Jacob’s tall, buff, and okay whatever, he’s a hunk I’ll give him that.  But do you know how old he is?  47.  That’s fucking disgusting.  I ain’t nobody’s sugar baby.  Besides if someone told you were meat every day, you wouldn’t want to fuck them either.”

“I never got to properly thank you for getting me out of there Dep.  Eli’s really the only family I have left.  I’d do anything for him.  Even if that means doing some things that I don’t agree with.”

“I don’t think Jacob realizes that when he tells someone they are meat it has a different connotation when he says it to a woman.  It makes it sound like Jacob’s into some kinky shit.  Not that I would have firsthand experience about that.  Because... I don’t...”

“Truth is, I was really no one before I met Jacob.  I was just a dumb sorority girl.  Eden’s Gate trained me, they showed me how to fight.  Too bad all that training will be used to kill every single last one of them.”

“You’ve met Jacob in person before, right Dep?  He’s one ugly son of a bitch ain’t he?  He looks pretty good without a shirt though... like damn.  Did I just say that out loud?”

In John’s region- “I heard that John tattoos people’s chest then cuts off their skin and calls it ‘atonement’. I call being a perverted little shit.  He probably just kidnaps the pretty women so he can rip their shirts off.”

“Did I ever tell you about the time I just waltzed into Joseph’s Compound?  Yeah my dumb ass thought it was just a new church in town.  None of the warning signs in my head were going off.  I just thought ‘hey this church has tv screens for the song lyrics, that’s cool!’  I have a selfie with Joseph Seed somewhere on my phone.  I’m pretty sure I put it on my snapchat story too.”

“If no one else is gonna talk about the elephant in the room, I’m gonna say it.  All of the Seed Brothers are hot as fuck.  Too bad they’re all fucking insane.  Man it is always the crazy ones that get ya’.  Just ask all those women that went home with Ted Bundy.  You can’t.  Because you know…  They’re dead.”

In Faith’s region- “It’s not Faith’s fault that’s she’s crazy.  She wasn’t the first one to be controlled by Joseph.  There were countless girls before her who took on the name Faith.  He even sought me out at one point.  I’m just glad it was her who took the name and not me.”

“Everybody will go on and on about how great the Hope County baseball team is but they sucked ass.  It was the softball team that were the real ball players.  We won two state championships back to back.  I hit the game winning home run for one of them.  But I’m sure Sharky and Hurk will just tell you how fun it was to get hammered at the baseball games.”

“Killing all these angels, I feel just like Rick Grimes!  You don’t watch that show?  When this is all over Dep we’re sitting on my couch and binge watching every episode.  It’s going to be freaking awesome!”

[isobel-thorm]

I don't know what has or hasn't been asked for the otp ask so whatevers left answer? Also I love them

1: Whospends almost all their money on the other? John wants to splurge on Nic allthe time. Nic… is apparently more materialistic than most of the Deps I’ve seenfor this answer because most of the time she’s all “Well alright!” :D unlessthe price tag gets too steep/over like $500 for stupid shit.  She tries to treat him as much as she can tomake up for it. She thinks it’s all in vain because of the differences in justhow much money is spent compared to him, but he loves it.

2: Who sleeps in the other’s lap? Both. John just latches onto her more because he’s a touch starved mess. 

3: Who walks around the house half-naked and who yells atthem to put on some clothes? If they’re on their own and the kids are with theRyes/Sharky/etc, they’re both A-Ok with it. They figure if they’ve got it,flaunt it for themselves/each other. It’s all fun until Whitehorse comes for avisit, sees them both half naked and is very unimpressed that it was the secondtime it’s happened, at least the first time John was fully clothed and he onlyhad to be embarrassed about seeing his surrogate daughter like that.

4: Whichone tells the other not to stay up all night and which one stays up all nightanyway? More often than not, John is the one pulling all nighters, whether it’swork to look after the Resistance people he likes/ Post-Collapse population, ornightmares from the old days. Nic gets a sixth sense about it after a while andalways tries to goad him into coming to bed or trying to get him back to sleep.

5: Which one tries to make food for the other but burns itall by accident and which one tells them that it’s okay and makes them bothcookies? John cooks a lot to further prove it was not him who made the waterymac and cheese. Funnily enough, his mac and cheese comes out fine. It’s justeverything else under the sun that he cooks that isn’t. Nic doesn’t mind. Sheand the kids get some quality mac and cheese out of the deal. 

6: Which one reads OTP prompts and says “Oh that’s us!” andwhich one goes “Eh, not really”? John because he’s trying to over-romantize them. Nic’s… a little more realistic than that unless the prompts are just as realistic. Or involve shit she can take and run with. Like puppies. “Who would buy the other an animal…? (gives him a pointed smile)” “Babe we have tHREE CHILDREN, A FAMILY OF BEARS, A REGULAR MOUNTAIN LION, A BLISSED MOUNTAIN LION, A ROGUE TURKEY, TWENTY DOGS (pulls prepped running list of animals they have at the ranch out of his pocket to continue)”

7: Which one constantly wears the other’s clothes? Answered here

8: Which one spends all day running errands and which one says“You remembered [thing], right?”  Over here 

9: Which one drives the car and which one gives them directions? Here 

10: Which one does the posing while the other one draws? Johnfor the sake of the Bed Wade/3:10 to Yuma parallel that’s been around since I’vedreamt their relationship up. John’s a surprisingly good artist and sketchesNic any chance that he can get when she’s unaware because he’s still in awethat after all the shit God put him through, He still dropped her into his lifeand he needs to record it in any way he can.

11: Ifthey were about to rob a museum, which one does backflips through lasers andwhich one is strolling behind with a bag of chips? Both would be doing the gracefulparkour shit and trying to one-up each other while getting ridiculously turnedon at the same time.

12: Whichone of your OTP overdoes it on the alcohol and which one makes the other stopdrinking? John’s got a lot of shit to work through, and has narrowed hisprimary vice down to alcohol. Nic isn’t happy, but she gets it. She doesn’texactly tell him to stop like she should, but she keeps an eye on it and steps inmore so as a “last call” type thing than anything.

13: Which one likes to surprise the other with a lot of smallrandom gifts? Goes along with the money thing. John’s all about showingaffection via materialistic means. Nic doesn’t need it but doesn’t exactly mindand tries to even things out as much as she can. Him, on the other hand, keepsreminding her that he owes her his life so they’re even no matter what.

14: Which one keeps accidentally using the other’s last nameinstead of their own? Gonna go straight with fic canon here where John full onstops using “Seed” and takes “Raylan” as his last name once they’re common law married so Joseph’s prophecy of himdying could completely come true/ the Seed name can die in the miserable past/Cal and the twins won’t live with that particular shadow following them/havingpeople judging them immediately for it.

15: Which one screams about the spider andwhich one brings the spider outside? Nic’s animal/insect/living creature lovingstops at spiders and mosquitos so very much her. She shrieks about it, Johngoes to kill it to be hero. Nic makes the mistake of making a joke about himbeing the primary torturer/murderer out of the pair of them so that’s why hegets the job. He barely talks to her for a day.

16: Which one gives the other their jacket?  This a way

17: Whokeeps getting threatened by the other’s overprotective older sibling? Jacob’sdead and Joseph’s still all “Nicolette you’re John’s salvation, everything youdo from here on out is acceptable in my book”, and Nic’s an only child, so doesn’t really apply. Theclosest thing is Whitehorse stepping in as the father figure to give John theshovel talk. And he gives the shovel launcher talk- and takes John with himwhen he’s doing innocent ‘target practice’ to drive the point home. John doesn’t  look at him for a week.

18: Who’s the first one to admit they have feelings for theother? In my own canon, John’s head over heels in love with her the second sheshows up on that other side of the blast door in the Confession scene but hedoesn’t really recognize it. He kind of admits he’s got feelings months lateronce they’re a team, but she doesn’t believe him because they’re still at the begrudgingallies stage. Fast forward months later, she almost dies in the Collapse, outcomes the ‘L’ word from his mouth. It takes her even more months to realizethat oh hey, she actually loves him too.

19: Howgood would your OTP be at parenting? Heeerreee :3

20: Whichone types with perfect grammar and which one types using numbers as letters?Both are very proper about it. Aint nobody got time to look stupid when you’retrying to flirt with/impress/threaten your number one frenemy. (cough) New Phone Who Dis on AO3 (cough) 

21: Whogets attacked by a bully and who protects them? Accidental Judas or not, peopleand rogue turkeys are still constantly trying to kill John every so often.Thankfully much less so when the kids are around, but still. Nic’s the one thathas to go to everyone all “look at your life, look at your choices. And I knowI should take my own advice but I kind of love the idiot now and you all loveme so can you fucking not kill the father of my children, thanks”

22: Who makes the bad puns and who makes a pained smile everytime the other makes a pun? Nic takes after Sharky with the puns for a while.John absolutely hates it and tries to tell her until she reminds him about the  “if these walls could talk, or rather scream” line/joke/whateverthe fuck it was and that he’s got no right to talk.

23: Who comes home from work to see that the other one bought apuppy? Favorite answer so far is this way

24: Which one gives the other a piggyback ride when they’retired? Both.John’s both mortified and a little turned on that she can lift him as easily as he can her. 

25: Which one competes in some sort of activity and which onedoes the overzealous cheering? Both, though John takes the “overzealous” to a different level because he is John, after all. 

26: Who takes a selfie when the other onefalls asleep on their shoulder? John, again, same logic as the drawing thing.He needs to record as much of their time together as possible.

27: Which one would give the other amakeover if they asked? John tries to redo her wardrobe several times. Theclosest thing to a makeover Nic gets with John is talking him into letting hertrim his beard enough- mostly for maintenance than anything. She shaves off thesides of his beard a couple of times but they both kinda low key hate it.

28: Whichone owns a pet that the other is absolutely terrified of? This way

29: Which one holds the umbrella over both of them when itrains? John. Can’t have his literal savior getting sick from exposure toweather.

30: Ifyour OTP went on vacation, where would they go and what would they do? Whowould take the pictures? Last but not least

[thestoryofme13]

The Spiral

Prequel to Saving Me: The Spiral

A/N: This is still the same story but it needed a different name since it isn’t a prologue and it really isn’t the plot point of Saving Me but for the sake of everyone’ sanity both will be labeled Saving me. I just didn’t realize it was going to take on a life of its own. Also Roman will appear later but not in the prequel.

Chapter 2

Chapter 1

A/N: This is my attempt at an AU, but please look out for the warnings before each chapter, this is going to be triggering and I am going to do my best to tag all of them but I will need your help to make sure I don’t miss anything. I want you as readers to be safe. This was inspired by @ilovemygaydad and their fic Friends in Dark Places, which I highly recommend, you can see the all the chapter links and my thoughts of the story as a whole here.

This chapter and the next couple will be the backstory to give you all some background. It was going to be all one chapter but I hadn’t hit the plot point I wanted and the word count was already over 2,000.

Warnings: Swearing, intrusive thoughts, unworthy, wanting death, insecurities, anxiety, 

Summary: Someone saves Virgil when he needed it most and now he dedicates his life to trying to help others not feel alone

Pairings: Analogical later

(Flashback) Logan wasn’t a huge fan of extracurricular activities because, they could be disruptive and take away from his school work but, quiz bowl was the exception. Quiz bowl tested his knowledge on a vast majority of subjects and helped him learn new facts.  It also fulfilled his parents need for him to have “social interactions.” Two birds with one stone, what Logan hadn’t factored in was that there were some very attractive guys on his quiz bowl team, not that any of them would ever express any interest in Logan. His intellect was probably the only attention-grabbing aspect of himself, his looks were mediocre and average at best, not that he was complaining he was content with the way he looked, most days that is.

One day the impossible happened, at least Logan had deemed it impossible or possible with a very low probability. Garret one of the most attractive guys on the quiz bowl team had asked Logan out, Logan just had to tell someone! Virgil would be happy for him, right? That’s what friends were for. 

The day after Garret asked Logan out, Logan searched for Virgil in the lunch room, going to their usual spot. Virgil was already sitting staring at the unappetizing food before him, when he felt a pair of eyes on him, sure enough, his instinct was right Logan was approaching their table and he was practically vibrating with excitement, it was a nice change of pace to see Logan look so happy. Virgil thought, “Wouldn’t it be nice if I was the reason….fuck V, stop thinking like that!” after sorting out his own thoughts he returned back to the world and waited anxiously for his best friend to approach the table.

Logan was so excited that he could barely contain himself, no sooner than he sat down at the table did his mouth open to spill the news, “Garretaskedmeout!!!” Virgil chuckled, when Logan got excited he had a tendency to run his words together and forget to breathe between sentences, it was incredibly adorable, “Lo, if you could stop speaking cursive that would be helpful.” Logan blushed, he knew this was a habit of his, and he hated it, he took a deep breath in and decided to repeat himself, “Garret asked me out!” Virgil’s face fell ever so slightly, enough for an observant person to notice, but he quickly masked his pain behind a fake smile, “I’m happy for you, Logan.” It was rare that Virgil used Logan’s full name, but the nerd was too excited to connect the dots, but who could blame him. They talked for the rest of the lunch period although Virgil was hardly participating, he wanted to leave this room and hide, but he didn’t want Logan to worry; so he faked being okay and put on a happy face.

Virgil couldn’t believe it, his best friend the guy he had come to develop feelings for had been asked out by arguably one of the most attractive guys in their grade. While Virgil, didn’t want to like Logan romantically, it somehow wasn’t a choice, so upon hearing the news, it broke his heart, in a way that your first real crush could only accomplish. He wanted to be happy for his friend, but he also wanted to cry and scream that the universe was unfair. The universe had given Virgil this amazing friend and then had him develop feelings for said friend only for a cruel twist of fate to have Logan asked out by a different amazing guy, if this didn’t sum up Virgil’s life then nothing else would.

Virgil couldn’t help but worry about the idea that Garret being in Logan’s life, would mean that Logan and he would have less time to spend together, and that was a saddening thought. Unfortunately for Virgil, his worry was not unfounded. It was very little things at first and Virgil expected that; the relationship was new and exciting and desperately needed time to grow and flourish. The little things like Garret coming to sit at their table weren’t so bad, he was a great guy, Logan was truly lucky. Although Virgil could live without being the third wheel, the two boys were always so engrossed in each other that Virgil rarely spoke or was spoken to, he didn’t expect much else from two people in the “honeymoon” phase. It was still irritating.

What finally broke Virgil’s heart was that Logan and he had planned to have a movie night and Logan had canceled at the last-minute citing that Garret needed his immediate attention. Virgil wouldn’t usually be phased, sure he’d be disappointed, but it would be easily forgotten after all people forgetting or canceling plans on him was something he had become accustomed to, why should this be any different. Virgil knew better than to get excited over things, because once he was excited it would always blow up in his face, so he would always set up things with people thinking they will cancel or he’d act very indifferent to the activity in hopes that his real excitement doesn’t show through his façade. 

The difference this time was that Logan hated canceling plans, once something was planned it was his obligation to follow through, it was something Virgil admired about his nerd. This cancellation hit hard because it was not the first time Logan had canceled, but the second time! Virgil was angry, hurt, and scared of losing his best friend to this new relationship, but he would never tell Logan. 

Logan hated discussing feelings, he hated feelings in general but realized how important they were, but that didn’t mean he’d like to acknowledge them in a conversation. So, for now, Virgil just keeps all his insecurities to himself, why bother someone else with his useless thoughts.

Logan hated canceling plans and distancing himself from Virgil, it wasn’t on purpose but Garret needed him, and Logan had trouble saying no to those green eyes when they looked at him. He felt bad for canceling plans and leaving Virgil by himself at lunch some days but Garret turned Logan to mush. All logical thinking and self-control went out the window.

The canceling of plans and distance continued for about two months when Virgil had finally given up and reached his limit. He was emotionally drained, he could barely take it anymore, his best friend was barely speaking to him at this point and it was killing him.

One day in chemistry they were performing an experiment that used Hydrochloric acid when the teacher saw that Virgil was leaning in a bit too close to the beaker, “Virgil, please use the necessary precautions when dealing with this acid! If not, it may damage your skin, lungs, or if you’re really unlucky it’ll kill you.” Virgil chuckled, “My dude, death would be nice right about now.” His classmates looked horrified, all the students were at least one grade above Virgil, so they tended to avoid him. Who would want to be paired with the wicked smart underclassman? Virgil just shrugged, his sense of humor had always been dark, but there was no denying the slight truth to his remark.

One of the students looked particularly panicked, he knew that Virgil was a little odd, but he couldn’t help but feel like something was bothering the little one. Patton Jacobs was a junior and knew how scary high school could be, so he made it his mission to look out for the underclassmen. Patton had seen how Virgil usually kept to himself and he wanted to make sure that the kiddo knew that he had a support system, but he didn’t want to overwhelm him. It only took a few minutes before he had a brilliant idea, he’d leave little notes in Virgil’s locker. The only problem was that he had no clue what locker was his, so he would have to follower Virgil out of chemistry and hope he stops by his locker on his way to his next class.

Once class was out, Patton was rushing to keep pace with Virgil, “Gee, this freshman sure could run out of a room quickly! He should think about doing cross-country.” But Patton was up for the challenge, he lucked out and Virgil did happen to stop by his locker between classes, Patton made note of which locker was his, 413. Then took out a pad of electric blue post-it notes and wrote the first note, “Reason to live no. 1: PUPPIES!” Once Virgil had retrieved his books for his next class, Patton ran in and slid the note through the locker, praying to any being out there that would listen, that Virgil would find the note.

Virgil hated honors English but the good thing about it was that he could mostly zone out and Logan was in his class, while Garret was not. Obviously, they couldn’t talk in class because Virgil was pretty sure that would give Logan an aneurysm, but ever since he started dating Garret, Logan had stopped paying attention apparently his lap was more interesting than the lecture, not that Virgil was the entranced by it either, but he at least had the common decency to doodle, not text. 

Virgil hated what this relationship was doing to Logan, he seemed like a totally different person, canceling plans, texting in class, ignoring friends. Virgil would take a guess that his grades might be suffering a bit as well, but Logan was head over heels, there was very little that could free him from his enchantment.

Eventually honors English ended and Virgil was able to leave, not only this class but the entire building, school was over….well for today that is. He raced out of that classroom, not bothering to acknowledge Logan trying to get his attention, he was hurt and when that happens Virgil tended to be petty. He reached his locker and slid his headphones on from his locker, hoping that anyone who might try to talk to him would see them and think differently.

He was gathering his books for the night when a brightly colored blue piece of paper caught his eye, he reached down, this wasn’t supposed to be here. Virgil held it in his hand and read the writing, he smiled to himself for a split second then panic arose, “Who thought he needed reasons to live? Was this a joke?” He looked around for anyone who could have put the note in his locker but saw no one, he would keep this to himself, but this note would be going on the inside of his closet at home, so he could look at it when he needed it and without others judging him.

Tag list: @fandomsandanythingelse @nyxwordsmith @michealawithana  @fanfictionsideaccount @bubblycricket

[bluerosesburnblue]

An HPHM Theory: Who put the objects in the Vaults?

So we all know the drill by now, right? A curse starts up, we spend the year hunting down the Vault, we open it up, and we find a bunch of hidden objects that point us towards the next Vault. Rinse. Repeat.

But who’s leaving those objects there? It was assumed from the start that Jacob was the culprit, but there seems to be some logical inconsistencies with that

And I think Albus Dumbledore has some explaining to do

So let’s start off with why I don’t think Jacob could have placed those objects in the Vaults

First off, it’s been hinted quite a few times in recent Years that there’s an order the Vaults are intended to be opened in. We haven’t just been taking these curses as they come; whoever’s activating them each year is doing so in a deliberate manner.

The next vault. The final vault. These are numbered terms. And the objects we find in them always hint towards what we’ll need to open the very next vault that unleashes these curses

There’s a set order to them. And whoever put those objects in there was aware of that fact. So why do I think this excludes Jacob?

(Screenshots are from I-GGames on Youtube)

Our beloved Jacob’s Sibling™ seems to be pretty confident that the wand we found in the Vault of Ice was Jacob’s. Now, they could be completely wrong about their guess in the Vault of Fear that he broke it, but I’m inclined to believe them on a few points. After all, why wouldn’t they know what their own brother’s wand looked like? And it worked. Touching the broken wand to the Vault opened it. But we can’t confirm when or how it was broken

But if we assume that that’s Jacob’s wand and he needed it to open the second vault... how did it get in the first?

Canonically, Jacob was expelled mid-search, like, right after Duncan’s potion exploded and killed him while they were still working on the Forest Vault. We haven’t gotten confirmation if he eventually completed it or not, but we do have reason to doubt he would’ve been able to make it back to Hogwarts to put this stuff in there. After all, based on what we know of the Vaults, if you mess with it it unleashes its curse until someone gets in and opens the Vault, at which point the curse ends. Everyone talks about how the Vaults haven’t been messed with since Jacob’s team was hunting them. It’s unlikely that he could’ve managed to sneak back into Hogwarts, open the Vaults with no one noticing, and then left without anyone seeing him or the curses being unleashed. Even if we assume that Jacob could’ve opened the Vault and gotten in relatively quickly since he knew how to break each curse already, that still doesn’t make sense with the rumors we’ve heard of Jacob’s whereabouts

The mysterious voice claiming to be Jacob says that he’s in the Portrait Vault

Now, I don’t believe he is. Especially since they’ve been foreshadowing that this isn’t Jacob for a long time. But the writers clearly want us to believe that this is at least a possibility. But if Jacob’s trapped in the Vault, then he couldn’t have gotten his stuff into the other Vaults

Similarly, we still have Duncan’s unsubstantiated claim that there’s rumors among the faculty that Jacob’s been working on Knockturn Alley. This one also seems weird to me, though, since we meet Alistair, a shady wizard who frequents Knockturn Alley and knows Jacob pretty well

(Courtesy of BeartheCaptain on Youtube)

(and GamingVideos)

Seems pretty weird to me that someone who is known for talking to everyone on Knockturn Alley and was particularly fond of Jacob... supposedly hasn’t seen him in years and didn’t even know he was missing until the articles came out. Not that Alistair is the most trustworthy person, but it does shed doubt onto the Knockturn Alley rumor. Especially since, you know, at this point in the story we’ve gone there several times and it’s never been brought up. Jacob’s Sibling doesn’t even attempt to follow up on that one. (Seriously, I almost want them to just walk out into the street and scream “HEY DOES ANYONE KNOW WHERE MY BROTHER JACOB LASTNAME IS” and see what happens. Best case scenario is that Jacob himself runs out to clamp his hand on their mouth and drag them off because that was the dumbest thing he’s ever seen them do what is WRONG with you???)

Our other options are that Jacob joined the Cabal, as implied by, well, R’s letter:

or that he simply made himself disappear. Both of which would put him in a better position to put things into the Vaults, but neither of which are particularly likely for him to have gone to the effort to have done so. (Or he’s dead in which case, yeah, of course he couldn’t put anything in the Vaults)

So with all of this doubt on Jacob’s ability to leave the clues in the Vaults for his beloved little sibling, who did?

Let’s talk about Dumbledore’s shady ass for a second.

I didn’t start thinking of this theory until Pitts told us we were done with detention. What exactly, did he say?

That meat is for the dragon, obviously. What else would we be needing specially seasoned meat for? Rakepick’s specifically having us train to fight a dragon. There was a dragon portrait in the last Vault.

...but how would Pitts know that? He calls it Dumbledore’s detention and specifically says that Dumbledore told him to take care of Jacob’s Reckless Sibling. I think it’s extremely likely that Dumbledore told him to give us the meat when we were done. And note that of all of the possible Hogwarts detentions we could’ve gotten, we specifically got kitchen duty with the House Elves

That’s all that the House Elves seem to do for us in regards to this Vault. But, wait, what was that in the Forest Vault?

A tiny sweater. Such as one meant for a House Elf. But the House Elves are quite tangential to the whole portrait vault. All we need is spiced meat, which we could get from a ton of places that aren’t the Hogwarts Kitchens. And while a few of the Elves speak kindly about Jacob, I can’t remember any of them mentioning that he asked for favors or served detention

The only reason that the House Elves are prominent is that Dumbledore made them prominent, unless there’s some other hidden aspect to them we have yet to see. The most likely reason that the sweater is in there is because someone anticipated that Jacob’s Mid-blink Sibling would be befriending them to get the meat. The only person who could anticipate that connection is Dumbledore

Let’s move on to something that’s been bugging me for a while. In Year 5 Chapter 19, Dumbledore tells us to use Legilimency on him. Dumbledore. A known Occlumens. One skilled enough to be able to block out only the things he didn’t want us to see. And yet, we see this:

I’m sorry, what!? Wait! Hold on, sir, go back, can we talk about this!?

We don’t even know what he’s whispering or when this happened. But this line seems too deliberate to brush off. And we do know one thing from it: Dumbledore knows exactly where the Vault of Ice is. And, given how he shows up when we open the Forest Vault, I suspect he already knows were all of the Vaults are, even before Jacob’s Mind-Reading Sibling finds them. If only thanks to Jacob. After all, he and Snape were very aware of Jacob’s own Legilimency and Dumbledore has repeatedly noted that he was very interested in the boy

It’s no surprise that Dumbledore knows more than he’s telling us. He has from the start. He has a better idea of what happened to Jacob, but he won’t tell anyone. And it’s him who constantly warns us that the voice we hear in the Vaults might not be Jacob

We saw him in front of the Vault. We couldn’t discern what he was whispering.

My suspicion is that Dumbledore is the one who’s been placing all of these clues in the Vaults. Maybe what he was whispering was a spell or something to open the Vault. Maybe it was instructions to someone or something in the Vault. Regardless:

Dumbledore would easily be able to place something into the Vaults without anyone else noticing given that he’s the Headmaster

It wouldn’t be the first time he’s set something up in a hidden room in the school (looking at you, Sorceror’s/Philosopher’s Stone)

Dumbledore is the only person who could make the direct connection between the House Elves and the Vaults

Dumbledore clearly has a good reason to suspect that the voice we’re hearing either isn’t Jacob, or isn’t telling the truth

Dumbledore keeps disappearing for months at a time seriously where are you going and why?

Wouldn’t be the first time he’s intentionally set things up to manipulate a child in HP canon to try and take down a threat (though chronologically it may be the first depending on when he suspected that he’d have to train Harry to take down Voldemort. Regardless, the action is in-character)

Currently, I think it’s very likely that Dumbledore knew about at the very least the dangers the Vaults posed, but possibly also about the Cabal, too. He saw the vast potential that Jacob had and attempted to use him to neutralize the Vaults. This failed, spectacularly, and so he moved down the line to the next best choice: Jacob’s Sibling. Knowing full well about the bond between the siblings, he’s set the younger of the two up to crack the Vaults by using Jacob’s memory

His words never match his actions. He reprimands us for hunting down the Vaults and tells us to never do it again, then rewards us with House Points which subtly enforces the idea that this is a good thing he does want us to do. The one time he punishes us, it’s while there’s a witness present and also a setup to get us a key item necessary to open the next Vault

Dumbledore wants us to open the Vaults. And I think he’s made it so that Jacob’s Sibling wants to open them, too

[livingmybestfictionallife]

Oh Boy(s)

Anon Request: Is there by any chance you do Harrison? If so, could you do an Imagine where Haz is drunk and he is singing Shape Of You. You may let your imagination loose on the rest, surprise us readers with the out come 😊

A/N: So while writing this I kind of let my imagination loose a little too  much and decided to turn this request into the idea I mentioned months ago, so hopefully this works out. Possibly another part to add.

Warnings: jealous!harrison, jealous!tom, alcohol use, harrison and tom being drunk jerks, sexual implications

A/N: Also, I just want to point out that, judging by this picture, Tom (and Jacob if they’re playing teams) is horrible at beer pong.

Young and hopeful, (Y/N) decided to be a volunteer at the 2016 Comic Con, however she could not have imagined how far this act of civil service would take her. From working backstage at panels and manning the photo-op lines, she managed to find an ‘in’ with some of the celebrities her age that attended the con. When (Y/N ) learned her volunteer position received the perk of getting a behind the scenes photo-op with any actor or actors of her choice, she eagerly chose the Spider-Man: Homecoming cast. At the end of the day, when her chance came, she even managed to hit it off with a few of the actors, namely Jacob and Tony.

A few months later, after stewing in anticipation, (Y/N) received an email from Tony saying she was chosen to be a PA on the set of Spider-Man: Far From Home. During this time she had grown to be incredibly close to all of the main actors, but the person she bonded with most had to be the other PA their age, Tom’s best friend, Harrison.

When the actors were running lines and perfecting takes, Harrison and (Y/N) were doing whatever needed to be done, whether it be helpful work or coffee runs, they did it together. They roasted Tom, told jokes, distracted their actor friends one too many times, and frequently hung out outside of work as well. With how much time they spent with one another, Tom, Jacob, Zendaya, Tony, and Laura all assumed that Harrison and (Y/N) were already an item. It wasn’t until their last day in Atlanta that the rest of the group figured out that their relationship was still considered ‘platonic.’

Months rolled by and the group remained in contact with one another, but Harrison and (Y/N) remained closer than the rest, with the exception Harrison and Tom. About a month before Tom’s upcoming birthday, Harrison sent a message in the group chat that hadn’t been used in half a year, with the exclusion of Tom.

HazO🇬🇧: Trying to have a surprise birthday bash for Tom at my place. Who’s in?

JB🌺Aloha: in london?

Tony⚡: I’m in

HazO🇬🇧: Yes in LONDON!

Z✊🏾: ON his bday?

HazO🇬🇧: No in December

 Z✊🏾: Did I ask for your negativity?🙅🏽 

La-La-Laura👑: I can make it :)

Tater🍠: I can try

JB🌺Aloha: who TF is tater?

Z✊🏾: can’t be Tom. He has a quackson emoji 😂

Tater🍠: It’s (Y/N) -.- you nuke a sweet potato around Haz and Tom ONE TIME and you’re scarred for life 

JB🌺Aloha: Ohh, I forgot about the tater name.

Tater🍠: I wish everyone would...

HazO🇬🇧: So everyone’s coming??? cool!

A month and a lot of convincing later, (Y/N) managed to work out a way so that she could afford the plane ticket out of the country for Tom’s birthday. Jacob, Tony, Laura, Zendaya, and (Y/N) all stood outside Harrison’s home in the warmth of the London sun, waiting for Tom to stroll into the backyard alongside Harrison. The group lingered around a cooler, each sipping on cold beer or hard cider, chatting about their time in Atlanta, and catching up on what had been going on in one another’s lives.

Slowly, the back doors opened to reveal Tom and Harrison, bare chested and obviously buzzed, sauntering toward the group. “HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TOM” they called as he approached. Jacob passed Tom a beer and smiled.

“First legal one with all of us according to your home away from home,” he said as Tom twisted off the top of the bottle. (Y/N) continued to linger around the outside of the group and sip her drink. She had always felt slightly different from everyone else. Even though Harrison wasn’t one of the stars, he was still an actor and shared the extroverted tendencies of the rest of the group; not only that, he had known Tom and his family for years before meeting the rest of the group. (Y/N) was the newest member to join the team, and often felt as if she didn’t belong there, and so she lingered in the background and isolated herself unless she was around Harrison, Tony, or Jacob. 

Even today, (Y/N) sat along the side of the pool and kicked her legs back and forth in the water as the icy alcoholic apple taste slid down her throat. She leaned back and tried to relax as the sounds of Tony’s playlist circulated throughout the stereo system. Slowly heard faint footsteps grew closer to her and (Y/N) opened her eyes to see Tom had made his way toward where she sat alone at the edge of the pool.

“You came!” he smiled as he sat down beside her.

“You think I’d miss this?” she questioned with a laugh as Tom clinked his bottle against hers.

“I bet Harrison is excited to see you,” he said softly in a deep tone under his breath

“Why? Are you not excited to see me?” she teased and offered Tom a small smile.

“All I meant is that you and him are close, right?” Tom returned with apprehensive eyes. “He’s been blabbing about (Y/N) since we left Atlanta.” Curiosity overcame (Y/N) as she realized Tom was unaware of who he was speaking with.

“Yeah sure,” (Y/N) sighed as she pounded back the rest of her drink, and quickly noticing Tom’s level of intoxication. His eyelids looked heavy when he blinked, and (Y/N) could almost hear the fuzziness of his brain like the static of a television channel that isn’t responding. “Are you already drunk?” she asked.

“Maybe,” Tom said with a chuckle in his voice and holding a finger to his lips, signaling for her to keep quiet about it. “I mean, it’s my birthday!” Suddenly, his lighthearted tone fluctuated to irritation. “It’s my birthday and I have to watch my best friend try and get it on.” 

“It doesn’t look like he’s hitting on anyone,” (Y/N) attempted to reassure Tom as she gazed over her shoulder toward Harrison who stood beside Zendaya and Tony. 

“Not yet,” he said while finishing his drink. “Look, just...don’t tell him I was talking to you,” he rushed to add while slurring his words. “Harrison doesn’t want anyone to know that he likes (Y/N).”

“Then why did he tell you?” she asked sneakily, feeling guilty for taking advantage of Tom’s inebriation. 

“He thought I wasn’t interested.” With that he slipped into the pool and swam, underwater, to the opposite end where Jacob and Laura were practicing underwater handstands.

Since Tom was drunk, (Y/N) chose not to give their conversation much thought, but she couldn’t help remember her interactions with Harrison and Tom in Atlanta and even before that at the convention when she first befriended the group. When she first met everyone, she immediately threw herself into a roasting battle and got caught in the crossfires, inevitably being on the receiving end of Tom’s banter. As the day went on, she and Tom continued their roasts even when the others had stopped, and soon their banter was interpreted as annoyance and bickering. Harrison was convinced Tom wasn’t interested in the random girl they had just met; after all, his breakup was still moderately fresh, fame was on the horizon, and when Tom shows and interest in girls it’s normally through jokingly showing off and being kind, not by what Harrison was interpreting as him being blatantly rude to the new company.

(Y/N) always had a hunch that Harrison liked her. He would occasionally bring her favorite candy to set for a snack, he’d use his own money to buy her coffee when they went on Starbucks runs, and always seemed slightly shier around her than with anyone else. She had begun to rely on Harrison’s kindness to get her through the relentless teasing from Tom that had, in reality, been a continuation of their banter from when they first met. She didn’t have anything against Tom and knew that he could be a genuinely nice person, but he was never that way when anyone else was around. He was always standoffish and on defense when (Y/N) was involved in the group’s activities, but since the first night that Harrison disclosed to Tom that he may like (Y/N), Tom set roasting as his default when (Y/N) was around. He had to keep himself from indulging in whatever could have been for the sake of his best friend, and if being an ass is what would see Harrison happy with (Y/N), then being an ass is what he would have to do.

The sun faded behind the earth long ago. Since arriving, the group had run out of alcohol and was quickly replenished when Harry and Sam arrived at the party. Pizza fueled the young adults’ day and turned into a life source once night fell upon them. (Y/N) was pretty sure that, between Harrison and Tony, the local pizza joint had to have been called at least four times, and Harry and Sam didn’t make the food overload any better when the brought frozen, prepackaged hamburger patties to the party.

Despite trying to ignore any inclinations of either Harrison or Tom trying to make a move on her, it was nearly impossible for (Y/N) to keep her mind off of the thing causing her the most anxiety. Everything seemed to be a sign, whether it be through the chicken fights or their water rugby/basketball game, everything pointed in a million different directions. When the group decided to play chicken, Harrison chose (Y/N) to be on his team, one of the twins took Zendaya, the other chose Laura, and Tom and Jacob were a team while Tony continued to man the music. Harrison’s logic was to keep (Y/N) as close to him as possible so that, if the time was right, he could tell her how he felt. Having her on his shoulders was about as close as they could get. Tom’s logic was to be as physical as he could: fighting her would fulfill this. She was caught between support and competition as Harrison held her above the water and Tom tried to drag her off Haz’s shoulders and into the water with him.

When the sun began to set, the game changed when Tony threw a rugby ball into the pool. Z and Laura drew the line at dangerous sports, but (Y/N) had grown up playing watermelon ball with her family every summer since she was fourteen. The object of the game was very similar to the one proposed in this game: teams were divided and the object was to get the ball from one end of the pool to the other; the only difference is that when (Y/N) played it back home, a watermelon was used instead of a ball, which made the game much more difficult. Again, she was paired with Harrison, per his request. Competing alongside them was Tony and Harry while Jacob, Tom, and Sam became their opponents.

As soon as Laura threw the ball into the pool, (Y/N) took off. She dove into the water and grasped at the ball, careful not to bump heads with the other players, and swam to the bottom of the pool. Her plan was to skim the bottom, completely unnoticed until she reached the opposite end of the pool. When she finally reached the edge, she hurriedly kicked her feet only to have a pair of hands come from behind her and latch onto her hips. Frantically, she looked at the swimming trunks around her and tossed the ball toward the white shorts with blue stripes: Harrison. She turned underwater and looked for the person who had grabbed her, but they had already swam away. Once (Y/N) resurfaced, she found that her team had a turnover and Tom now had the ball. She went back under and quickly used her feet as leverage while she grabbed his ankles and pulled him back. As expected, he face planted into the water and dropped the ball, giving Harry just enough time to swoop in and rush toward their scoring end. 

Just as quickly as (Y/N) had pulled Tom, she shoved him away and swam toward their scoring end to receive Harry’s pass and dunk the ball through the small basketball hoop. From there, the physical interaction among players only escalated. Guys were able to avoid groin kicks to one another but they were really grabby with the ball and forgot one member of their competition was female until they accidentally grabbed a boob. Used to the similar physical interaction in watermelon ball, and being too incredibly competitive to let it bother her, (Y/N) took advantage of the guys perceived awkward moment after accidentally grabbing her and scored against them. It wasn’t until the end of their fourth round that (Y/N) began to notice the looks on both Harrison’s and Tom’s faces. Both exhibited excitement but while Harrison’s showed pride, Tom’s displayed thrill--the thrill of the chase. The two didn’t square off on one another until Tom forced (Y/N) under water and Harrison hurried toward them and shoved Tom under, allowing (Y/N) to swim away throw the ball to Tony and their team to score the winning point.

After the sun was completely absent from the sky, the group decided to settle down from the roughness of their afternoon, eat dinner, and play a little beer pong. Harrison and (Y/N) stood side by side as they each took their turn throwing ping-pong balls at the red solo cups that floated opposite them.  As the songs transitioned into those of Ed Sheeran’s latest album, Harrison’s excitement and confidence boosted. Without coordinating anything, Harrison and (Y/N) began to sing ‘Shape of You.’ She laughed as he hurried his drunk slurs to hit all the right words and notes during the verses, but once the chorus came on, it was like he was at a concert, screaming to hear himself over the roar of the crowd and pounding speakers.

“I’m in love with the shape of you; we push and pull like a magnet do. Although heart is falling too, I’m in love with your body. Last night you were in my room and now my bed sheets smell like you. Every day discovering something brand new; I'm in love with your body. I'm in love with your body; every day discovering something brand new. I'm in love with the shape of you!” Laughing, he took her hands and spun her around in an attempt to dance, only to find the resistance of the water to make it much more difficult than expected. Thankfully, almost everyone had joined in with Harrison’s charade, and (Y/N) was able to deny that he was doing any of this seriously rather than to be funny or because he was taken away by the heat of the moment or the liquor in their systems.

Harrison had definitely crossed her mind in the romantic way but part of her continued to debate against taking their relationship from friendship to romance. He was nice and kind and loving and she would love to be able to see where their relationship could go, but she was more than terrified of losing the friendship she had with him. It had been ages since she had someone like Harrison in her life, and being friendless was something she was too horrified to return to that she couldn’t imagine risking what she has to maybe have something else. She wasn’t greedy, she was thankful for how things were and didn’t see a need to try and have more.

“Get it, Haz!” Zendaya and Jacob laughed. (Y/N) let out a small chuckle as the faces and voices faded in and out of her buzzed analysis of the situation. She focused on their actions rather than the implications and hurried to take her turn, inevitably missing the cup and accidentally hitting Tom in the chest.

“(Y/N), quit staring at Harrison and get your head in the game,” Tom grumbled as he rubbed water over the stinging welt on his chest. Harrison rolled his eyes and gently put his hand on (Y/N)’s shoulder in a reassuring and also possessive manner. She partially melted in his touch--ready to surrender her opposing argument and be in favor of a romantic relationship--however, the other half of her felt nothing more than a platonic, if not brotherly, protection. In hopes to drown her thoughts, (Y/N) chugged one of the cups in front of her and felt a buzz return to her head.

“Come on, mate! Don’t take your anger out on her just because you suck at beer pong,” Harrison chuckled.

“She pegged me!” Tom protested.

“I’m sorry!” (Y/N) quickly interjected with a small laugh on her lips, assuming the back and forth between Harrison and Tom was playful, friendly banter.

“Let’s go Holland!” Harrison called while slipping his arms around (Y/N)’s waist and resting his chin on her shoulder. Hesitant, her heart started to flutter against her chest in both excitement and apprehension; even if she wasn’t certain on if she wanted to start a relationship with Harrison, she at least knew she wouldn’t want something to start on the account of alcohol. Tom rolled his eyes and tried to shoot at one of the four cups he and Sam had left. After missing, he huffed as Harrison leapt back, lifted (Y/N) and spun her around in the water--her back against his chest--in a drunken, victorious jest. Tom walked to the edge of the pool, hoisted himself up, and grabbed his towel.

“Is he okay?” (Y/N) asked Harrison who shrugged in return. Her eyes then flashed toward Sam who also exchanged a look of confusion. Both of the guys she was trying to get information from were even more inebriated than she was, so she swam to the edge of the pool, got out quickly, dried off, and then picked up her phone and followed Tom’s path into Harrison’s home. Slowly, she raised her hand to the door of the room the boys used to change: Harrison’s room. As she pushed the door out of it’s closed position, (Y/N) entered to see Tom hunched over on the side of the bed staring aimlessly at his phone as his thumb scrolled against the glass screen. “Tom, are you coming back out?”

“In a minute,” he grumbled. As (Y/N) closed the door and made her way closer toward him, she could see that he was staring at a now blank screen and the reflection of his face didn’t look very happy.

“Is something wrong?” she gently asked, only to have Tom rise and face her with frustration in his eyes.

“Yeah, I don’t need you to come and check up on me when I’m just trying to cool off.” (Y/N)’s nose scrunched at his words and she turned as he tried to pass her.

“Why do you try so hard to be an asshole to me?” she called him out. Tom bit anxiously at his cheek, and turned to face (Y/N) with his eyes locked on hers.

“For Harrison’s sake,” he stated firmly as he gazed intently at her. When (Y/N)’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion, Tom continued to explain in an exasperated voice, “I’m always acting like I don’t like you so Harrison doesn’t see that I actually do like you.”

“What’s the big deal with pretending not to be my friend? Harrison is your best friend and he’s one of my closet friends. He should be glad we get along!”

“Never mind,” Tom sighed while walking away. “You’re not getting it.”

“What am I not getting? You’r paranoid about Harrison knowing you’re my friend so you act like you can’t stand me! Just tell him you actually like me and that you don’t hate me, and maybe he’ll stop trying to drown you in water rugby.”

“I can’t do that to him,” Tom stated.

“Why not?” (Y/N) asked as her frustration continued to soar. Tom let out an aggravated groan and cupped (Y/N)’s face in his hands before allowing his lips to crash onto hers. Stumbling backward from the force of their bodies colliding, the pair fell on the bed, Tom’s bare chest pressed against (Y/N)’s now chillingly wet bikini top. Subconsciously, her lips opened against his, asking for more. The fluttering in her chest that rose when Harrison put her arms around her was increased to tenfold as Tom’s mouth pressed against hers. The hesitation and confusion over Harrison disappeared and everything seemed not to exist except for the moment shared between her and Tom. 

She could smell the beer on his breath as it trailed her neck but didn’t protest his touch. Even when he tugged at the strings of her top to unlace it, it was as if the rest of the world was gone. The sloppy kisses, fluttering hearts and various other products of the moment swept her away into a realm where reality ceased to exist and what was to follow seemed like a dream.

Continued Reading