#They're somewhere in the middle of a serious ship

[latteandjacks]

I present you, the TomzClub! (And Richard)

That's Pump's mom! We're temporally calling her Moty until we get names

Aaron, Richard and Pump's dad (Fede? Fred? Still deciding) aren't officially part of the TomzClub

[chimaerakitten]

so @darlingofdots's awesome Temeraire!universe historian post mentioned the wreck of the HMS Allegiance and I have been thinking about where it is literally all day.

Not just where as in "somewhere in the South Pacific" (because duh) but also, specifically, how deep, and therefore how the wreck would be studied.

Because a lot of archaeologically significant shipwrecks are pretty shallow, since they're the wrecks we can dive to, either on normal air scuba tanks or mixed gas. The Uluburun shipwreck off Turkey, for example, sits between 44 and 61 meters deep, which is right on the edge for air diving. The archaeologists could only be at the bottom for 20 ish minutes at a time, two times per day, with careful decompression timing as they went up to avoid the bends and not-insignificant amounts of nitrogen narcosis at the bottom. Mixed gas goes deeper, 100 meters or so for some of the more available ones. (there's a Phoenician shipwreck off the coast of Malta that's about 110 meters deep, and was excavated by technical divers) Beyond that it's just commercial divers laying oil pipelines with the super $$$ gas at depths of up to 500 meters or so. Anything deeper than that is the domain of submarines and robots.

and really, all of that ^ paragraph is just tangential set dressing that I added because I like shipwreck archaeology, because knowing the Allegiance went down in the middle of the South Pacific meant it was always going to a be a submarines-and-robots wreck. The middle of the Pacific Ocean is uh. deep. but I wanted to find out exactly how deep.

so the map from Crucible of Gold puts the sinking at a little under 50°S and a little over 121°W, which the NOAA bathymetric data viewer says is just about 3000 meters deep

Since that's an extremely boring screenshot, here's the CoG map overlayed on a bathymetric map:

It's actually on a bit of a ridge there! which is why it's at 3000 meters and not deeper.

We do find and investigate wrecks at that depth and deeper these days. The Titanic is at 3800 meters, and it has been investigated extensively (though we also have a recent pretty major news story about why thats still difficult and uh, very dangerous) The USS Samuel B Roberts was found at 6895 meters, and perhaps most relevantly, the search for Malaysa airlines flight MH370 turned up two 19th century shipwrecks at 3500+ meters deep, over 2000 kilometers off the coast of Australia.

One of those wrecks was a wooden ship from either the 1870s or 1880s, and though, being wood, it was pretty badly decayed, its cargo (coal) and metal features (anchor and water tanks) were still extant. On the Allegiance, that would also include her guns and her metal keel (which would probably be the identifying feature TBH, the keel marking her as definitely a dragon transport)

That wreck is probably the best parallel to the Allegiance in other ways, being a wooden sailing ship with a wreck not only very deep but also very remote. It also probably went down due to an explosion, just like the Allegiance. They were common on coal-carrying vessels, and the sonar images showed the cargo was scattered across the seafloor like something catastrophic happened.

The Allegiance would be more remote than its real-world parallel, but anyone looking for it would be hunting for it specifically and would be armed with probably a decent idea of where she was when she went down, seeing as there were survivors who would have been very keen to remember where they were so they could know how close they were to land. Plus, much like the Titanic (though not to the same extent) there'd probably be funding to investigate the Allegiance once found, as she had a part to play in major political turning points on at least three continents. People tend to be interested enough to throw money at that sort of thing.

So, there you have it. It would take a pretty serious effort to find her, though not an impossible one, and once found she'd be investigated by shipwreck robots, which would bring back pictures and samples of her metal remains, with organic matter being mostly absent by the time she was found.

[softspeirs]

Relief, forrrrr... a certain Major Egan? 😊

A/N: You and @blikebarbie92 both had the same idea, and I'm happy to oblige! I have something else brewing for these two coming (hopefully) later today, so here's a little precursor. If anyone else wants to send a prompt, send me something from this list!

three. afterwards.

He's trying really hard not to think about after.

Some days it's harder than others. It's especially hard on mail call days. He watches Buck's face completely transform as he devours word after word from Marge, and while he can't blame him, it makes something sour curdle in his gut.

Because where does he belong in all this? In the after?

The buzzing in between his ears to get out, get out grows louder every day, and every day he feels panic begin to brew when he thinks he might not be in this with Buck, not totally.

He doesn't want to do anything stupid, but he doesn't want to sit here for god knows how long, either.

But Buck has other things to live for. He has Marge, and he has a wedding to plan, and it makes him careful, careful in a way that Bucky can't feel.

He stopped feeling careful about this, his life, somewhere around jumping out of a plane and freezing in stillness in some German swamp.

He's not too far gone yet to recognize he's becoming hard, so he tries he best to be the person he was before. He plays cards with Crank and Murph (and no, he's not trying too hard to make up for the echo of an angry conversation that happened right before the mission from hell, though it did replay over and over in his mind as he watched Crank's ship go down that day. (Jesus Christ, Crank, it's a war! Are you flying today, or not? / Yeah. / Yes, sir.)

It helps, for a little while.

But then they're told about an escape attempt, and they're not-so-subtly threatened, and he sees Buck tense beside him, back ramrod straight at attention, only a brief glace over at Bucky like he actually thinks Bucky is going to make a run for it as they speak.

He's not that stupid, and he's not that depressed. Not yet.

Still, nothing sets a fire blazing in him like the day he comes back to find their hut completely ransacked. It's fury like he can't explain - they do this to them all the time. It shouldn't be anything new or shocking.

It's just -- his jacket is dumped on the floor, and the one thing he notices when he picks it up and dusts it off is that the half-squashed, yellowing daisy that was tucked neatly into his breast pocket is gone.

It's the straw that breaks the camel's back. He doesn't even know why he kept it, except that it started to feel like a sign, something tethering him back to who he was before, when he was just standing in a pub doorway with flowers for a pretty girl.

A girl who he stared and stared at, never daring to say anything too flirtatious in case her father was looming over her shoulder, daring any pilot to get too close.

But that day it had been just her, and him. And while he had apologized for telling her not to get too attached and apologized for getting angry because she wouldn't let him get drunk off his face after Buck went down, she had pressed a flower into his hand and a kiss to his cheek.

So he's furious, when he can't find it. There's been no promises made. He doesn't get letters, doesn't send them either, but it had been there, a reminder of the man he used to be.

And now it's gone.

"Jesus Christ, Bucky." DeMarco says, pushing past him. "What? What happened?"

Bucky realizes he's white knuckling the table in the middle of the room. "Nothing."

"Did they find something?" Benny's face is hard, urgent. "I'm serious - if you need to tell us--"

"No. Nothing. I just-- we only have a few belongings to our sorry names and they do this? Why--" He stops himself, hands on his hips. He's overreacting. He knows it. Can't help it.

How does he explain without sounding absolutely insane?

"I had something in my pocket. From someone back home. I--" He's astonished with himself when his voice cracks.

DeMarco's face falls. He doesn't crack a joke, he doesn't do anything to make Bucky feel worse than he already does.

"What is it? I'll help, we'll keep lookin'--"

And so they sit there, going over everything with a fine-toothed comb, while Buck and Frank and Crank come in too, and without more than a quiet word and sharp look from Benny, they start helping.

"There," Murphy says, dropping to one knee near Bucky's bunk, his hands cradling a small, wilted flower. It looks like nothing, like something they would have swept up with the garbage if not for Bucky's panicked energy.

The relief he feels at seeing it is overwhelming. To their credit, the other guys turn away, they don't ask him any questions, they don't ask what's wrong with him that he's getting this upset over a flower.

He takes it gently between his large palms, and imagines he can still smell its sweet scent, long gone.

To him, it's a talisman of better days that has miraculously stayed with him through all the hell he went through to get here to Stalag Luft III, and he feels a piece of him settle back into place when he places it in between pages of a battered notebook he's taken to carrying with him and keeping under his mattress at night.

Later, he'll tell Buck about it. He'll tell him about her, and how she had given him a small hope that someone might miss him, however fleeting their exchange had been.

He clears his throat, thanks his guys.

The rest of the night that relief courses through his veins like adrenaline. It makes him think maybe there is an after for him, that there's something out there that he's still fighting for, even if it's happening on the ground instead of the air.

[rappaccini]

been thinking on how peter's had a lot of love interests over the years, but only six of them most consistently stick around and impact his character. and how the big six model works for other spider-love stories too because it's a good round number that allows for love interest variety and a strong romantic character arc without overcrowding.

so peter's big six are as follows:

liz allan: the one-sided superficial first crush on a rich girl with more social capital that ultimately goes nowhere

betty brant: the first girlfriend who is working-class with whom he eventually returns to being just friends, who ends up with his friend

gwen stacy: the first love, who's his intellectual equal in the classroom and of a steady upper-middle-class (law-enforcement) background he aspires to, who dislikes his alter ego, who he can't be honest to, who dies

mj watson: the true love, who's his equal socially, who isn't the steadiest career-wise and had a hard upbringing, who knows and accepts his alter ego, who he ends up with

felicia hardy: the problematic situationship with a vigilante who isn't a good influence on him, who only cares about the alter ego

cindy moon*: the forced spidermarriage with another spider-person the universe insists he's the 'soulmate' of

[*YES, cindy hasn't been shipped with peter since the mess that was her introduction and it'll hopefully stay that way. but she makes the cut because she's a very memorable character with a very distinct dynamic with peter that's being replicated already-- particularly with miles and gwen: "look, male and female spider-people! let's force them to kiss and call them soulmates!"]

if you line them up, there's a narrative that starts to emerge.

they tend to appear in pairs with a class juxtaposition. in high school, peter is strongly driven by a desire for status and money, and his family's financial situation is precarious: he's choosing between rich (liz) or poor (betty). by going to college, he's settled on being middle-class, so while he's there he has to decide between upper-middle-class stability (gwen) or lower-middle-class authenticity and freedom (mj).

[to note: people didn't used to hate love triangles. that's why they're prominent here. and marvel used to let peter grow up, so he actually can have his love interests spread out.]

and once he's postgrad and his financial situation is kind of set, he's tempted by being a hero. felicia and cindy are contrasted with mj, not each other: does he want to use his powers selfishly and be more of an anti-hero (felicia)? does he want to lean into the mystical spiderverse that thinks he's the chosen one (cindy)?

(we know he's going to circle back to mj. aka, he's going to ultimately choose his humanity instead of his spider-powers.)

demographically, they're all white women and one asian woman (... who he has a hypersexual fling with that's immediately demonized, rejected and treated like it was never serious😬). so uh. peter's that kind of guy.

he prefers civilian girlfriends. makes sense given that he has dead gf trauma he doesn't want to repeat that might make watching her get into a fight be a bit too much. he wants his girlfriend away from the fight, somewhere safe, and he views his vigilantism as something he needs to do alone. [also, marvel used to do civilian love interests.]

the progression seems tied to peter’s age: two high school love interests, two college love interests, two postgrad post-divorce get-my-groove-back-fling love interests.

his overall romantic arc seems to be about peter finding someone who can love both sides of him and ground him, and intersects with the class issues his character constantly contends with. he's tempted by wealth and status, and then by stability and approval, or by the special perks of being a superhero, but ultimately he's a family man who wants something grounded and sincere with someone who has her own interests to pursue, the same way he does. ending up with mj goes hand-in-hand with peter figuring out his principles and embracing that he's an underdog.

at any rate, these characters are far from the only girls peter's had tension, relationships or hookups with, but these are the ones who have the most memorable personalities and the most distinct dynamics with him that have lasting impact on his stories.

tied to their staying power, the first five are also the ones who are adapted the most: if you're writing a peter-spider-man story, you're probably choosing his love interest(s) from this list. and the list tends to be condensed down even more from there (how many times have you seen peter's love interests advertised as betty-gwen-mj-felicia, or gwen-mj-felicia, or gwen-and-mj?) with each woman standing out and contrasting well against each other.

and the six— not the specific love interests, but their attributes and story functions— should be used more for other spider-people. if nothing else because it means each character can have a convenient shortlist of love interests to reference and return to, instead of a constantly-growing stack of quick relationships that never get to deepen or evolve with characters who become easy to forget.

miles

i mentioned this here, but miles's supporting cast is at its strongest when it creates original characters for him to interact with, fills them with elements of classic spider-man characters and their stories, and remixes those stories in a unique way.

so his love interests, at their best, are original characters whose qualities combine and reimagine the big six's.

for example:

katie bishop: liz allan (superficial interest in the first girl he crushes on in canon) x betty brant (first romance).

lana baumgartner: cindy moon (fellow superhero) x mj watson (dysfunctional family background; from his world)

kamala khan: betty brant (remaining friends) x liz allan (unreciprocated crush) x cindy moon (fellow superhero).

gwen stacy (65): gwen stacy (...) x cindy moon (forced spidermarriage) x liz allan (superficial attraction based on a need to gain status through a relationship with her)

barbara rodriguez: gwen stacy (classmate who's naive to his alter ego) x betty brant (goes on to date his friend).

tiana toomes: felicia hardy (initially problematic vigilante) x mj watson (family complications; the true love who balances him out and completes him).

... though there are six listed, honestly i think miles' love interest roster isn't complete yet, and there are one or two more slots left to fill. i'll circle back to that.

first, some notes of interest:

miles inverts the 2:1 civilian to superhuman ratio of peter's love interests. marvel seems to be moving away from the civilian love interest in general... and miles seems to want a partner who can come with him on adventures. he's a more social hero, and more forward-thinking. he's cool with his girlfriend getting in danger (because he hasn't been traumatized by that yet), and he doesn't like superheroing alone.

he's still in high school, yet has had a lot of love interests, which speaks to how characters age a lot slower than they used to these days... and how miles isn't as much of a loser as peter was at his age. he's less sexist and more social, and therefore he's more successful at getting girlfriends than peter was at his age.

instead of sorting the love interests based on when he met them, sort them based on why he's drawn to them: katie and barbara are his classmates. gwen and kamala are prominent heroes in their own right who he keeps getting pr-relationshipped with. lana and tiana are vigilantes from troubled backgrounds who he can influence for the better. two love interests reflect his civilian side, two reflect the hero he wants to be, two bring out both by helping miles remember why he's a hero in the first place-- because of the person he is under the mask-- and influencing him to stay true to that person.

given how editorial pr-shipping miles with gwen and kamala gives him this tendency to uh. step outside of his committed relationships to chase after the idea of dating the brand-friendly superheroes who give him more clout... miles has a recurring issue with objectifying women and treating them like accessories when he's having a crisis of confidence that he needs to work out.

specifically an issue as it pertains to gwen: all his worst instincts are externalized in how he treats gwen. he keeps ignoring when she tells him to stop flirting with him or that she'd rather be friends, has an extremely superficial interest in her mostly tied to using her as a stepping stone to success, and if they get together, he'd be stopping her from coming out. which means he's either so superficially attracted to her that he doesn't even realize she's queer... or he does know and is willingly keeping her from being her authentic self so he can have her as a trophy gf. either way it's a Bad look and he'll never conquer those flaws unless he fully moves on from her.

he's usually drawn to alternative/punkish, artsy, slightly older girls with chips on their shoulders who are more cynical than he is. he wants to fix them, and he's looking for someone to balance his more optimistic tendencies out.

demographically, miles is into white girls at the start of his arc (or when he's being written poorly), and starts branching out to date poc girls once he gains confidence and has a better understanding of himself. narratively this tracks with his overall arc about breaking away from his need to be like peter and committing to representing and protecting his community over getting white people to like him-- and the best realization of his romance arc that'll support his overall arc would be him ending up with a black girl, which we are hopefully moving towards with tiana.

he hasn't had a fridged/tragic love interest, intellectual equal, or been in a toxic dynamic yet in the comics (i mean. that's basically gwiles but no one will admit it. the confirmed toxic dynamic he's had thus far is in the games with phin mason)... raneem rashad, anyone?

anyway at this point, miles is still in high school and has had plenty of love interests. and he's a young enough character that we're just gonna have to see who lasts as more contenders are introduced.

if i had to guess,

kamala will stick around, but won't consistently be his love interest, and even when she is they won't end up together. she and miles are the two biggest New Generation Legacy Heroes and the pr shipping writes itself. but because she's too big a character in her own right and far from his corner of the marvel universe half the time, she might not be a constant adaptation. she'd either be watered down, or it would pull too much focus to explain her presence unless it's specifically a team-up or group story. and even if she does show up, we know it's a given they won't end up together. it's a solid stepping-stone romance.

gwen should have faded into history as a regrettable one-time thing. but because of spiderverse synergy that won't ever happen and the best we can hope for is a temporary relationship. because she's also got too much going on, has her own world and has Gwen Stacy Baggage attached, she’s too difficult to fit into his stories without completely compromising her character to force her into the girlfriend role. not that marvel has a problem doing that. and like kamala, being his love interest holds her back from being her own protagonist with her own stories. she should hopefully not be a constant adaptation... but the spiderverse movies are going to keep causing versions of them to at least flirt with the idea of a relationship. the horse is out of the barn re: stopping this ship from happening again, but hopefully it'll be reframed as an optional and always-temporary situation that isn't good for either of them. which can work; bad relationships can be good character development if you own that they're bad and let them end. if.

tiana (hopefully!) will stick around and make it to the endgame. she's That Great. she's an original character who won't contradict preexisting variants (unlike gwen or katie). she's too unique to be confused for another character. she's got a memorable design, cool powers, fun personality and great backstory that enhances the overall spider-man canon by making the vulture a more developed villain. and she isn't popular enough to steal his spotlight (kamala) or have better things to do elsewhere (kamala, gwen). not to mention that their relationship is the best miles has ever had. this is the girl he should end up with.

barbara might survive... or we'll just get a series of temporary civilian visions academy gfs in her image (like insomniac's hailey cooper). she's easy to adapt... but also easy to forget. and compared to the competition, we all know he's not gonna end up with her.

lana might last, but if she's readapted, she'll probably change a lot. she could step into katie's role as the initial white visions gf (... maybe the only visions gf; sorry barbara), or kamala's in adaptations where ms marvel being in miles's supporting cast would be too distracting but they still want that superhero-flirtation-to-friendship story. she could even take gwen's role as the white superhero he wants to fix and has a problematic infatuation with. it's a tossup, but lana has the range to participate in a lot of stories, and a compelling powerset and backstory that are worth exploring. another solid stepping-stone girlfriend.

katie's probably going to fade away. she has too little impact and is too easy to confuse with kate bishop, hawkeye, to be easily adaptable. no big loss.

... and we're probably due one more major love interest category to take the space katie's going to leave: a tragically villainous tech-powered girl of color, like phin mason or raneem rashad. (... or margo kess, minus the tragic villainy)

it's too early for miles's love interests to scale down from big six to a big four, three or two. the general progression seems to be white girl -> non-black poc girl -> black girl, and civilian gf -> hero gf -> troubled vigilante who becomes a superhero after falling for him. we'll just have to see who it ends up being.

(personally i'm rooting for kamala / lana / tiana to take the big three. realistically it'll be kamala / gwen / hopefully tiana.)

hopefully canon starts to standardize his love interests soon. because if he keeps getting new ones, all of them become easier to forget, and the worst relationship with the best exposure, gwiles, will rise to the top simply because she's the one that made it to the movies, which would be terrible for them both.

as for gwen...

even more complicated.

her character's even newer than miles's, and her romantic history is largely defined by having other people (men. and em jay.) push their desires on her, rather than gwen exploring her own. she's had a lot of false starts, and a lot of obviously queer tension with other women that marvel refuses to act on, but canonically she's barely dated at all and isn't motivated by romance.

gwen also sits between peter and miles in terms of love interest originality: it makes sense for gwen to initially interact with alternate versions of peter's supporting cast, because that's gwen's supporting cast too... but like miles, she should still have unique dynamics with those characters because she's not peter. and since she's gwen-65, she should eventually branch out to relationships with characters on earth-65 that 616-gwen never would have met or gotten close to.

so no, gwen should not end up with earth-65's em jay ~because every spider has their mj~. that idea implies that mj is drawn to peter's spider-powers instead of peter as a person, and that she'd have fallen for anyone who had them. it invalidates the uniqueness of peter and mj's romance by turning mj into a spider-groupie, and of gwen-65 herself (and any spider-person you're trying to shove an mj at to check a box). gwen deserves a love story that's totally new and all hers. no peter, no miles, no alternate version of a peter/miles love interest. give her someone new.

anyway so far i think we can make a case for maybe three or four of hers.

peter parker*: liz allan x gwen stacy. except in this case, he's the one with the superficial one-sided crush on her and he's the one who ends up dead.

miles morales (1610)*: cindy moon, the forced divine spidermarriage. with a bit of liz allan, for the superficiality of it all. (... and felicia, for the toxicity no one will talk about)

harry osborn: primarily betty brant (the high school sweetheart she never got to have who ultimately stays friends with her), with elements of felicia (a former vigilante) and mj (understands and accepts the alter ego)

em jay watson: yes she's an mj, but honestly? she's the gwen stacy (the first love out of high school in the same career path who hates gwen's hero alter ego) with elements of felicia hardy (she's the toxic relationship) and betty brant (going on to date one of gwen's friends)

[*gwen doesn't reciprocate their feelings, but at this point peter and miles' links to gwen are so inescapable it's a given that romantic tension will define their dynamics for the forseeable future. anytime spider-gwen is adapted, she's gonna have to deal with this shit from at least one of them. mentally i'm lumping them together because these fuckers are The Same.]

she has a few major slots left to fill... but gwen's situation isn't quite like miles and peter's. aside from having a different personality and story, she's queer and female, so her romantic arc's gonna differ.

gwen can't be in a relationship with someone on 65 who doesn't know her secret identity because it's already public there (unless there's a status quo reset that gives gwen her privacy back, she dates someone on another world, or we retcon her a high school boyfriend from her early spider-woman days). which makes her unique from peter and miles.

she hasn't seriously dated anyone who's only interested in her famous alter ego yet either. which, given ghost-spider's celebrity status on earth-65, should be an eventuality... johnny-65 or felicia-65, anyone?

gwen-65 was never a science-oriented person, doesn't share peter and miles' humanities-or-stem postgrad conflict, and already committed to music. so a science-minded love interest would result in a different dynamic because gwen wouldn't be their intellectual equal. which could be interesting.

... but if we reframe gwen's postgrad conflict to be 'musician or professional superhero'... dating another full-time vigilante is the logical next step. how about kitty-65? or spider-punk, who's both?

(... and if being torn between two worlds is literal in her being torn between '65 or 616'.... well. maybe dating another superhero who isn't peter or miles on 616 could work too...... so, cindy moon, kaine, laura kinney or anya corazon?)

she hasn't met or begun a relationship with her true love yet. if she even has one. who knows, it's not impossible that gwen will turn out to be ace (though extremely unlikely), or if she'll simply decide to remain single. after all, she isn't romantic and doesn't want a domestic family. she'd be happy on her own.

... and since this has to be stated somewhere, it's all but obvious at this point that gwen's queer. she needs to have both male and female love interests.

being in the closet, pressured into comphet and sucked into imbalanced relationships where she'd be the subservient partner (usually to a man) are currently what defines gwen's romantic life, and the roadblocks stopping her from moving on. so before she gets any further, she's gonna have to resolve those issues first. which is gonna take a while, because of spiderverse synergy throwing her at miles like a tomato at the wall to see if gwiles will stick every year and marvel's reluctance to let her be queer and leave the male gaze.

at this point gwen's love interests can be paired too. and like peter and miles, it's reflective of her romantic arc (evolving from an object of someone else's desire to a subject who chases her own), which is related to her personal one (a queer girl fighting for equality and autonomy in a universe that wants to keep those things from her). it's about gwen's level of agency, equality and reciprocity in the dynamic:

she begins with virtually no say in her relationships and no equality over her partner, who she isn't even that into. she's shoved into forced romances with more popular and powerful men that she isn't particularly attracted to but knows she's 'supposed to be with' who trap gwen in the male gaze, pressure her to live up to an ideal that makes her uncomfortable (earth-8) or kills her (earth-616), and take her away from her world (peter and miles).

she starts to deepen her relationships with people she's sincerely attracted to [who are also her world's versions of peter's supporting cast] but can't be with because of extenuating circumstances related to gwen being a superhero and them being unable to keep up with her (harry and em jay).

logically, the next threshold should be overcoming those circumstances to actually have lasting romantic relationships with people who are her equals. and the love interests should be characters unconnected to peter parker, miles morales, or their supporting casts. something new.

since gwen's all but confirmed as bi at this point, she has to date at least one woman for an extended period of time to lock that in. at least one of those threshold three love interests must be a woman.

and given how much her story revolves around dodging comphet and escaping the effects of the straight male gaze, she should never ever end up with a cishet guy. she must end up with a queer person.

and then maybe we'll find out if gwen's genuinely not interested in romance, or if she was so traumatized that she didn't realize she could be in a healthy relationship with someone she's actually attracted to and like it.

if it's the latter, then she'd better get actual closure with harry and em jay, where she can actually be in relationships with them, since she's barely dated harry and hasn't even gotten together with em jay, or at least acknowledge why ghostgoblin or gwenjay didn't work out.

and then give her 3-4ish major male and female love interests to compensate for the toxic and one-sided relationships she's had so far and never let a straight guy get his hands on her again. most of her experience being that is too depressing.

[mincedpeaches]

rvb19 liveblogging post. #rvb19 spoilers

Did Wash get a new voice actor? Why does he sound so off.

Why is Grif like this. Why is Grif's character so off. He's not really stupid, he plays it up to be lazy. Why does he seem so weirdly angry. Yelling did not make the "they're right behind me aren't they" joke any funnier Geoff.

Okay I didn't even CONSIDER that Donut would never show up. Like after the Apple Cast listing was seemingly incomplete based on already confirmed people that had recorded lines. Only to have the shot of Donut getting sliced up in a cartoon be his first and God forbid only appearance? The disrespect. If he doesn't show up later I'm rioting. Did I miss a Joel-style falling out with Donut's voice actor somewhere.

Okay actually Wash sounds fine it was just the awkward exposition dialogue earlier I guess.

479er???? Does this count as a minor freelancer cameo.

A SECOND "hes right behind me" style quip with Meta!Tucker in the case. Burnie PLEASE. Avengers came out in like 2014.

Why does Tucker!Meta talk. Why does he have an evil laugh. Remember when all the Meta did was occasionally growl and he was threatening. Remember when all they had to do was play When Your Middle Name is Danger and it would make the machinima actually tense.

The Reds overall reluctance to help the Blues both earlier in the canyon when Caboose asked them and then now leaving Caboose on the ship... I don't know. It rings a little different when its the last season and all also the whole "they say no but then they change their minds" bit has been done so many times by now. Especially if this is meant to be happening after Chorus. This isn't really a lesson they need to be learning anymore.

Over 40mins minutes in and no mention of Carolina. I am... concerned. I thought she was in a shot in the trailer. Am I crazy. If she doesn't show up I just. In what WORLD does Epsilon run five squintilion simulations and not choose to contact HER instead.

OKAY HERE IT COMES THE SARGE SACRIFICE. FOR A BLUE. IM SCARED.

Hes gonna get stabbed big time ooooh my god I can't watch.

I feel like. Okay. When rvb got serious. It didn't have to undercut itself with jokes. When Donut was shot by Wash it was 100% played straight. No quips. So why does Burnie undercut Sarge getting stabbed by having him say "well dang it".

I've paused this like five million times to say "I can't" and all variations thereof. I'm not ready for "Matt's performance".

Hand on Simmons arm. And if I lose it right now.

Very touching moments happening here with Sarge and the team I cannot complain too much or really at except when in one of my numerous pauses of the movie to fortify myself I cannot help but clasp my hands and think. Where's Donut.

And also I cannot help but think when we were about to get on Torrian for trying to kill Tucker and now its like. Welp. (Not nearly as bad as a killing to gas up your bad rvb spinoff but still. It kinda feels like this is approaching that ballpark.)

"Run away while you can. I'm coming for you." *laughs evilly* Is this supposed to be like Tuckers personality, like a Doc-O'Malley thing where the AI adapts its mannerisms to the host. Because either way its a corny ass bit that does nothing. And I kinda of hate it.

Doc is very obviously all in Wash's head which is uhhh.... not where I expected the season to go. With Wash.

Grif and Simmons standing in front of Sarge's grave, alone: Me: soooo. grimmons?

OKAY SO. IMMEDIATE PIVOT TO HEARTFELT DISCHARGE THAT I DID NOT EXPECT. OKAY. SCENE WHERE GRIF ADMITS HE DOESNT WANT TO LEAVE SIMMONS INCOMING?????

OR HE ASKED HIM TO COME WITH HIM. EVEN BETTER. HELLO.

man really great stuff here happening here but I still cant help but be like. so why isnt Donut here. is it the homophobia.

This song kinda sounds like. No. it couldn't be.

Okay over an hour and no Carolina I'm kind of feeling like when I walked into the Supernatural series finale thinking Castiel might return only to hit the point of the ten minute long wincest scene, with no Castiel in sight.

TEX RETURN???? THE PERSON WAS TEX??? NOT CAROLINA???????

All the budget went to getting Kathleen to return after her fallout with Rooster Teeth.........

Okay wait so is Doc real? He was really giving hallucination.

Wait okay drop from the sky. If this ISNT Carolina. I'm ending it.

THANK FUCKING GOD. THANK GOD.

Again I don't really know why getting to her wasn't part of Epsilon's plan but WHATEVER. whatever. do Donut next.

Also I would love love LOVE for some Carolina and Tex moments after this fight. really rooting for the Bechdel test pass.

Okay we really kill Tex again huh. Should have put that on my Bingo card.

If the AIs in Meta!Tucker are fragments of Epsilon, meaning presumably when he fragmented the Epsilon memories would be gone, how does this Sigma know about Allison =Tex = Beta.

The cone on Grif did get me lmao.

EXPLAIN TO ME THE SWORD THING WHAT. Did Meta!Tucker say "You never were?" Am I missing something. That isn't how the swords work.

DONUT ONLY GETTING A CAMEO IN A CHEERLEADING OUTFIT GAG. HELLO. WHAT AM I MISSING HERE. WHY IS DONUT NOT HERE. also simmons gay thoughts.

why does simmons get the good throwing arm bit that was DONUTS thing. im about to break into Burnie's house. where is Donut.

Chex handhold walk into the white void. I should have put Chex on my bingo card.

Okay no so Doc still definitely a hallucination. What are we doing with this Burnie.

I'm counting Carolina looking sad at the smashed capture unit as Carolina Angst. Taking what I can get here.

Carolina just ignoring Wash mentioning Doc lmao.

OKAY NO WAIT. DOC DEAD. DIED IN THE CHORUS BATTLE. WASH BEING HAUNTED BY GUILT OF DEAD DOC. Burnie recon'd the brain trauma but was like wait. hold my beer.

this sad as hell actually. damn.

also the revival of wash/doc as a ship concept like DAMN where my recollection homies at for real. Remember in Chorus trilogy when the gag was nobody gave a shit about Doc and forgot about him in the transportation cubes. I know Doc fans eating. Except for how he's, you know, dead.

North and CT appearances. THERES my minor freelancer cameos.

Man I have SO many thoughts(tm) on this scene that I cannot articulate right I need to digest it for a little bit but. Giving all this angst to Wash (instead of Carolina). The scene on the beach in s15 being better because it wasn't slanted toward Wash. Why did I think Burnie was gonna do my girl right.

Agent One appearance..... oh wow...... yay............ 😑

Grif leaving without Simmons? No. no way.

Okay im gonna. Thats not. man.

Sorry I'm gonna get hung up on this in the Grimmons way first and then the rest of it after. WHY would you have the little "come with me" only to split up after. Not that I expected Grimmons lets be real but I didn't expect a split and more importantly I didnt expect a HALF BLOOD GULCH split up. Is the ending really for SIMMONS AND CABOOSE to be 1vs1'ing in the box canyon. Season 11 they were planning to go "home" and then the ship crashed. There is long since no Command. WHAT are they going to be doing there. Burnie ANSWER me.

okay credit rolling and they really gave Meta a stupid voice so Miles could do it huh. okay. They also gave him Sigma which I did catch in the voice acting.

the one Donut line WAS Dan Godwin. Mr Godwin what was your schedule like. PLEASE. could you really not reprise your roll. COULD THEY HAVE WRITTEN YOU OUT OF THE SEASON WITH A BIT MORE RESPECT, AND DARE I SAY GRAVITAS.

shout out to the one Andy line too lmao I didnt mention that earlier.

IT WAS THE BARE NAKED LADIES. THAT SONG. I KNEW IT. thats where the other half of the budget went I guess.

okay well. Its over. I need to collect my thoughts. And make a post.

[sunny6677]

Eh okay so Siren! Kevin and Pirate! Tom was the most voted on earlier, but I'll be saving Pirate! Kevin and Siren! Tom for later./lh

WORLD 1: Siren! Kevin and Pirate! Tom.

PART 1: First Day.

(I feel kinda bad about dividing this into parts since I would have made this into a full thing normally, but I'm just so damn tired today jsndns. Again—I'm sorry./gen)

Okay sooooo before I get into the actual first universe—the explanation for this au is that Tom ended up kinda purchasing this weird ass item from a guy in a trenchcoat, which apparently has a limited time for when you can turn it back on. So each time it's turned on, you have to wait for a few days or whatever time it calculates until you can use it again. She goes to show this to Kevin, and proudly rambles about it to him (who thinks it's just some useless pile of junk). But when she ends up kinda slamming the device against the counter while exclaiming about something, the device ends up activating, and without warning, they're both transported with the device. And now for the actual story.

When they both wake up, Kevin is confused as to where the hell they are, because he suddenly finds himself laying alongside Tom in a dark creepy looking cave with a bunch of water flowing through it. Tom wonders where they are too as he freaks out—Kevin tries to check his phone but it obviously has no service and he panics more. While Tom checks the device, which now says '3 days'. Meaning they can't use it until that amount of time has passed. She informs Kevin of this, which makes him start to freak out more, and Tom tries to calm the frantic Kevin down. But she goes quiet, and suddenly asks why there's a 'rock who looks a lot like him' nearby. Kevin gets frustrated, and when Tom insists she's serious, he briefly glances—only to see something poking out of the water. Which is in fact not a rock. But seemingly a head.

Kevin freaks out because of how disturbing it looks, and when it begins to drift closer while he starts to hear the faint sound of humming, Kevin is like "OH HELL NO" so he grabs Tom by the hand and starts running away from the creature throughout the cave. A wild chase scene ensues as he frantically escapes through the narrow confines of the cave, and Tom runs behind him, but goes oddly silent the louder the humming becomes. For whatever reason, she suddenly jolts away from him—or at least tries to—but he drags her further away. Kevin runs as far as he can to the rocky part of the cave while Tom struggles in his grasp and rather calmly keeps saying for him to let go. But Kevin ends up running into something very firm, and blacks out.

When he wakes up, he finds himself not in the cave, but somewhere else completely different. Not only that, it feels pretty different since he can hear the faint sound of seagulls and ocean from outside. And the more he looks around, he starts to wonder where he is now, and starts to panic once he finds he's tied up. He notices Tom tied up from beside him as well, and tries to wake her out of his own worry—but as he tries to get out of the binding and as Tom slowly wakes, the door slams open. A long haired woman who looks a lot like Lora (it is her) comes through and starts yelling at Kevin while also trying to restrain him, and as Tom tries to get her to stop, someone else comes through with a boasting and loud voice—standing right in the middle of the doorframe.

"NOW, NOW—WHAT EVER IS GOING ON HERE?"

...and when Kevin looks to see who it is, he finds that it's a woman who looks a lot like Tom. No—lot just looks like. In fact—it IS her. Kevin goes dead quiet with wide eyes as the woman who looks like Lora begins to speak bitterly in return to Pirate! Tom, who only obliviously scolds her about following her orders, which was apparently the just keep them trapped but not to actually hurt them. Apparently, Pirate! Tom is actually the captain of this ship.

Pirate Tom notices her counterpart and Kevin are awake now though, and after briefly scolding Lora for not telling her they were awake—she proceeds to rather cockily explain that she captured them and that she's going to be using them as her captors from now on, because she's apparently captain of this ship now that the previous captain died in an accident, and thinks she has enough power to convince the queen to let her become a 'princess'. Noticing Kevin's expression, she asks if he's alright, only for him to faint yet again from panicking too much seconds later. Being a little confused, Pirate Tom decides she'll maybe untie them for now and just explain all the stuff on the ship to them. So after untying her counterpart, she scoops up Kevin in her arms, and gives her counterpart a tour around the ship.

The previous captains accident was that he apparently got a little too much control over the ship while she was his co-captain, and everyone on the ship hated it so much that she tried to do something about it, but the captain didn't exactly take that well. And she wasn't sure why, but a few hours after that, she found that he had fallen off of the ship entirely and was seemingly dead with a bottle of alcohol floating next to him. Aside from that, Pirate Tom is just sailing to search for trading ships with her crew so she can steal a bunch of gold. And after explaining a little more functions about the ship, Kevin wakes up—but is shushed by Pirate Tom before he can even make any sound and is set down. Pirate Tom tells Lora to inform them about some other details while she checks in on something else. So she leaves, and Tom kind of explains to a very confused Kevin what just happened, and because of a stupid movie she watched a while ago, she comes to the conclusion that this must be a universe traveling device. Kevin is very protestant against this since he's still in denial about the whole thing. Lora yells at them to stop whispering though, and threatens that she won't hesitate to tie them up again if they don't be quiet. So quiet, they let Lora lead them to a bunch of spare bedrooms in the lower part of the ship, and she leads them to the more crammed part of it where they would be sleeping had they not been captors.

Afterward, Lora leaves to go check on something, and in a panicked frenzy, Kevin nearly considers jumping off the ship with Tom so they can maybe escape—but Pirate Tom and a bunch of other crew members stop him, and they decide to tie up Kevin and Tom again. Pirate Tom says it's just because she doesn't wanna lose her captors, but she's clearly very worried about why Kevin just suddenly tried to end his life there. Tom has a tense but sort of heartfelt conversation with Kevin while they're tied up—saying that since things in movies always tend to work out, it should work out here. They begin to hear noise from outside though, and seeing this as an opportunity for escape since the pirates are all clearly very distracted—Tom begins to try releasing herself of the ropes. And it actually works—but the ship is moving so much she nearly gets knocked out.

Despite this, she gets up while dizzy, and without thinking she head out. Despite all the pirates clearly being out and able to see her while spearing at another pirate ship, Tom stumbles over to the wheel, and begins to drive them away from the ship rather than toward it. Lora notices her halfway and starts attempting to fight her back to the room she's supposed to be in—but Tom nearly falls overboard, and Lora starts attempting to pull her back up. And when they've finally gotten away from the ship, Pirate Tom comes over to see what all that was. She thinks it was Lora who moved the ship at first, but when it's confirmed it was her escaped counterpart, Pirate Tom seems impressed surprisingly and congratulates her for getting them a good escape. And for some reason decides to celebrate by letting Kevin and Tom free of their ropes for the rest of the night and also celebrating with a bunch of beer. Kevin escaped while this was happening, so he's just standing in the doorframe with a very shocked look on his face.

Later on after Tom discusses what the fuck just happened with Kevin, the Pirate crew all has the party Tom was talking about. During this however, Pirate Tom ends up proudly talking to Kevin about her childhood and how she became a Pirate. Apparently—she lost her parents before she could even really remember them and was in the care of an old lady named Buque, who'd always be very cruel to her and encourage her to steal from stores to get her some beer, which is why Tom is so good at stealing in the first place. But one day while she was on land at the young age of fifteen, she ended up getting into a bit of a fight with Buque and killed her by accident in the process. Enveloped with guilt, Tom ran out of her home and hid for days at the harbor. But when a Pirate ship suddenly came in, they ended up capturing her before she could run, and she was basically kidnapped. She told them of her story while she was on though, and despite many of them brushing her off or not caring much about her, she ended up proving herself during an incident in which she speared another captain of another ships head in as he was attacking their boat—earning all of the crew members respect. Kevin feels bad for Tom, even if this is a different one from his own.

On the other hand, Tom is outside just to get some fresh air and think about everything. And is actually writing on some spare papyrus paper they gave her. But she stops briefly when she starts to hear something in the water.. and sees a head slowly rising up from the waters with pink eyes beaming back at her. The same head she saw from before. Tom gets flashbacks, remembering how she all of the sudden just felt compelled to go to the thing the moment that humming sound started, but also barely remembering anything at the same time due to how blurry it all was. And she realizes that despite the ship moving, the head is still very close, indicating that it's following the ship. After a bit, Tom decides to speak awkwardly—and the thing doesn't give much of a response. In fact, it doesn't respond to her at all. The moment it begins to rise even further out of the water, Tom kinda flips out—and runs to the farther end of the ship while squealing. The head just kinda stays there, before slowly lowering back down, and seemingly vanishing into the water.

After the party, Tom and Kevin go back into their 'room' which is the main captain area. And begin to talk to eachother. Despite being very visibly panicked, Tom denies any trace of fear when Kevin asks if she's okay, and decided to brush it off. Kevin is worried, but decides to leave it alone. And they both only finally fall asleep after a few hours in cuz they can't keep their eyes open much longer.

And this marks the end of their first day AND night in this universe.

[rootingfordorks]

thanks for the tag, @beckstraordinary and @probablynottola !!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

Seven

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

42,769 (novella range, maybe? also, most of that is The Year of the Crush)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Right now, just Ted Lasso!

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

The Year of the Crush

On an Island in the Sun

Never Look Back and Say / Could Have Been Me

Not a Friend Zone (shout-out to my Rebecca/Keeley shippers!)

Hearth & Home

5. Do you respond to comments?

I try to. The last handful of months have been stressful and I haven't been responding much. Or posting much. :(

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I haven't published any fics with an angsty ending. Angst in the middle, with a happy ending, is my preferred formula for comfort reads/writes. And fanfic is about comfort for me right now.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I haven't finished the Year of the Crush yet, but its ending is going to be very happy. Though they're all happy.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Nope! The TL fandom is the best.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yes. So far I've posted one m/m smut fic, but I will add f/f to that repertoire in the next six months. (And post more m/m that I've written. And there's a possibility of a threesome.)

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Nope.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not so's I know about it. (BTW, this is me giving blanket permission to translate my fics on here or AO3 as long as you credit me by linking to AO3. I'd love to see it if you do!)

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Nope!

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

I'm bi and have ADHD, so I don't like to make decisions and have a poor memory. I'm into Ted/Trent in a way I haven't been into a pairing in years. My favorite canon ship of all time is Eleanor/Chidi from The Good Place. (And I was into Drarry for such a long time it would win if this was by minutes or words read, but I don't fuck with jkr anymore even in fandom.)

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I plotted out a Ted Lasso mystery AU, and wrote about a scene of it, and probably won't do anything else with it.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I think I'm pretty good at writing dialogue. I know I can capture growing fondness through a character's narration (or close 3rd person).

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I don't describe places or people's appearances enough. And I'm not sure how much to bring those elements in throughout a piece of writing. (My imagination is only semi-visual, and I think conversationally in words; this is a big part of 16 and 17.)

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

Haven't done it. Well, I have a faint memory of there being a notebook somewhere with a character speaking Italian... Mostly, I think it has to make sense for that character to know and be speaking the language. I'd do it in the right context.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Wrote for - Harry Potter (see above; this writing will never see the Internet)

Published/shared - Ted Lasso

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

Not a Friend Zone - Keeley musters up her courage, gets serious, and tells Rebecca she fancies her.

tagging: @trentcrimminallybeautiful ... @calicomarie11 ... @tinylilemrys ... and anyone else who wants to! (I've been at a conference and have no idea who's done this already.)

[olderthannetfic]

Heyo, anon who was thinking about writing a Murdock/mannequin fanfic and asked about crack fics. I have realized that the term "crack fic" probably doesn't really fit the premise; I guess I was thinking about "fic for a (kinda sorta) crack ship" and my brain short-circuited that into "crack fic" (oops). Your description of "strange subject matter written in a standard way" does fit my premise nicely, I guess it wouldn't really be a crack fic then. The episode that ship is from also shows later that he genuinely cared about the mannequin and is really upset when it gets broken irreversibly later, so this is more along the lines of Murdock genuinely having a thing for and a relationship/an affair with this mannequin rather than just joking about it, so yeah, the plan is: strange subject matter but non-crackish depiction.

As for the definition of crack fics: the ones I have come across have been a) "usual/standard premise but intentionally silly/wacky (humourous) writing intended to be read as silly as if one had to be on crack to write it and to take it seriously" b) "strange/silly premise and intentionally silly/wacky (humourous) writing intended to be read accordingly as if one had to be on crack to think of the mere premise of the fanfic" c) "strange/silly premise and dead-serious writing as if the plot were the most standard and regular fanfic premise to ever premise plottily," so to say.

My personal definition would probably fall somewhere between a) and b), although I'd love to find more cases of c), as that sounds the most fun to read to me. Have also come across crack fics by middle/high-school students, and by that I mean people who wrote in their author's note stuff like "lolllz i wrote this during lunch break at school with a couple of friends and they dared me to post it so here you go lmaooo" (this is paraphrasing of course, but I have stumbled across multiple crack fics that have author notes like this).

Btw have decided to give it a go, so I'd like to thank you for helping me reach that decision! I was unsure whether this idea would be too silly to write, but then remembered that no amount of silliness can stop me from making fictitious people and fictitious mannequins smooch, ha! (Also am going to look for that Care Bears fanfic, that sounds like fun, so thank you for the recommendation.)

Another btw: I am no longer thinking that Murdock's potential depiction of potential interest in guys is just a joke... Have just seen "There goes the neighbourhood" (4x10), and pretty close to the beginning, they're deciding to leave with a client and her friend/boss is staying in the room, so they're saying their goodbyes and then exiting the room, and Murdock is the last to leave, and he says, "Such a pleasure meeting you, let's do lunch!" and puts on his hat and charmingly smiles at the guy, and then the camera is on the guy who does look interested. I am deciding to categorize this interaction as "not-subtle-at-all flirty encounter," and now firmly believe that either the character was written/directed as bi/pan or bi-curious (considering how much cheek-in-tongue innuendo and humour the show has, I wouldn't be that surprised if they'd decided to subtly and not-subtly get a non-straight character past homophobic film/TV censorship of the 80s) or the actor decided to portray him as interested in guys without the studio/director/whoever-decides-stuff knowing or approving, heheh. (Or the actor just felt like flirting with or hungrily staring at handsome guys, which I also respect lol.) Let's just ignore that I gravitate toward rarepairs and that that probably means I tend to interpret stuff as romantic/sexual interest innuendo that's not actually meant/written to be interpreted as such and that most other people don't bat an eye at, and that that probably means my interpretation is total bullshit, ahem. XD

Also wanted to say thank you for letting me ramble about this specific headcanony stuff from a circa 40yo TV series and unload my silly little thoughts and probable over-interpretations into your inbox. (Holy shit, this ask got long. Sorry for that!)

--

"Crack treated seriously" is how people often talk about option C.

[reiverreturns]

hiii eivor x vili for the ship meme 😁😁

YOU KNOW I SHIP IT SO HARD.

What made you ship it?

it has literally all of my favourite tropes rolled into one:

friends to lovers

idiots in love

battle couple

girlboss and malewife (because for all his viking nonsense vili absolutely wants to be malewifed up)

parental trauma (not a shipping trope but i go feral for characters with complex relationships with their parents and this is like the jackpot on all sides)

you couldn't write a pairing that was more up my alley than these knuckleheads.

What are your favorite things about the ship?

Oh, so many things (mostly of my own making.) i could write reams about what i love about their dynamic but for brevity i'll sum it up like this - i think, at their core, eivor and vili are both deeply driven by a need for familial connection and a sense of belonging. in vili this manifests in the tension with his father and disconnect he feels with a throne he sees as disrupting or weakening his relationship with hemming. in eivor you see it in the dogged way she works for sigurd - almost everything she does is (arguably) for him and his approval, even though he doesn't always give it.

and i think when they're together you see the commonality of their experience and how they fill that need for each other. they grow up and change as people, but they never change who they are to one another. eivor doesn't really laugh and joke in the game they way she does with vili, and in my head he's also probably similarly serious away from her (there's enough context clues - the thegns not liking him has always suggested to me that vili doesn't suffer fools and can be quite rigid in his views once he makes them.) they're each other's true north, their honest home, and i truly believe that.

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

that as far as satisfying canon narratives go, eivor and vili shouldn't end up together. as much as it hurts my little shipper heart, i'm drawn to the poetry of two people in love living parallel lives but not together. becoming jarls when they're both reluctant to take the seat but growing because of it, always better for being in each other's company but knowing other people need them more than they need to be together, loving each other from afar nonetheless. maybe vili can die alone in the fuckin' middle of nowhere too just for dramatic effect. he visits rollo in francia and ends up somewhere in a field in normandy idk. i've given it as much thought as darby did to eivor's last chapter so it's canon now i guess

thank you for the ask!!

Send me a ship and I’ll answer three questions based on if I ship it or not.

[merrilark]

Welp, that's it for S2. I have mixed feelings about it. Overall, it's solid enough, but oh man is it repetitive with some serious pacing and characterization issues. The first episode and last two-threeish episodes make the season better, and I loved the finale, it's just a shame that you have to wade through so much unnecessary padding.

Overall Pros:

The animation is smooth.

The concept is interesting.

Sonic's new voice actor is fantastic! He reminds me a lot of a really pleasant blend between Jason Griffith and Jaleel White.

Love the game references (and very subtle SatAM references?)

Chaos Sonic was a breath of fresh air; he should have been a threat sooner and lasted longer

Dark!Sonic??? 👀 I suppose he'd be Prism!Sonic, but I loved that reference and the shard sound effects every time he flickered were cool.

The Prism Titan was actually terrifying to me.

Shadow finally gets more accurate characterization.

SEGA also remembered that Shadow can use his Air Shoes to hover and propel himself around space. Whoever was responsible for supervising Shadow's writing knew their stuff and really did a good job.

Knux was cool and it was nice to see Knuckles finally being portrayed as competent again.

Sonic's characterization grew on me, and I think he's really charming now.

Everything about Nine was pretty good. I enjoyed the build up with him.

Shadow and Sonic are at their peak whenever they're on screen together.

The Predator references (?) in space with Shadow were VERY good.

It was fun seeing Knux and Dread fight together.

Speaking of Knux, I loooove that Knux/Rebel is basically canon. 7 yo me shipping Knouge would be so happy.

Also I am now pretty sure I ship Sonadow. Romantically or as just platonic soulmates? Somewhere in between? I have no idea yet but I'm feeling things.

The finale almost made everything in the middle worth it.

Really good bones for a show. It has so much potential.

Overall Cons:

Spoonfeeds some things to viewers that feels unnecessary at best and a little patronizing at worst. I know this is a kids' show, but... c'mon, give the viewers a little more credit lol we don't need so many flashbacks, do we?

The pacing is terrible. There were so many moments where I kept thinking "okay, we get it" or "not this again" or "did we really need that scene?" There's a lot of good scenes but unfortunately they're all sandwiched between a lot of pointless stuff.

Too many robot fights that felt exactly the same.

Too few worlds. The concept of traveling to other universes could have been so fascinating to explore but all we got were four new ones in two whole seasons, one world of which is empty and still unexplored.

I'm not a fan of most of the characterizations. Knuckles being stupid is tired and inaccurate, Rouge has been watered down into what feels like the designated Mom Friend™ and just doesn't feel like herself at all, and I can't pinpoint exactly what it is, but Amy has lost a lot of her charm. Big is fine, but he feels like he's just there and doesn't really serve much purpose.

The Chaos Council. I can't stand any of them. I think it would have been better if New Yolk's big bad had been a retro Robotnik. These guys? I just don't care about them and I don't find them menacing in the slightest. The baby makes me homicidal.

It wasn't as glaring this season, but the number of duplicate background characters with little to nothing to distinguish them from the others was extremely distracting and took me out of the story almost every time.

I don't think I liked or cared about any of the alternates except the ones in NY. I liked Dread at first but he got annoying pretty quickly. Feels like a lot of wasted potential.

Rusty Rose exists but you mean to tell me that the Chaos Council DOESN'T robotize it's citizens??? Isn't that what she's alluding to since she's clearly not 100% a robot? I know Robotnik/Eggman roboticizing animals has already been done a lot, but that's because it's good! It's scary! It's body horror! It could totally be freshened up if they wanted.

Kind of annoying that the S2E1 emphasized the need for Sonic and Shadow to work together, actually had them say that out loud, and then... just? Kinda didn't give Shadow anything to do for another whole season? All he did was nag Sonic a bit, kick some space rocks around, and then help fight a little at the very end. Maybe I'm biased because he's my favorite, but it's a little tiring to see Shadow constantly being used in newer stuff as just a vehicle to draw a crowd because SEGA knows fans love him, yet not actually giving him anything substantial to do.

This is such a minor thing in comparison to Prime's actual issues, but I didn't like anyone's new voices except Sonic and Shadow. Although, if I'm honest, Shadow's voice sounds almost more fitting for Knuckles. It's better imo than Thornton's Shadow (also a great VA just not my taste for that particular character), but it's def more a Knuckles voice than a Shadow voice. Tails is also fine but I can't stop hearing Rainbow Dash pfff. I don't like Amy, Rouge, and Knuckles' voices at all (Knux aside; the Brooklyn accent somehow makes it better and really suits him LOL).

Anyway, I really don't know how to feel about Prime. The idea is so so good but the execution could use a lot of work. Somehow I'm still excited for S3 and looking forward to it, assuming it gets a third, so I guess that means it isn't all too bad. It's just a pity that it still hasn't seemed to find it's footing. S1 and S2 could have been trimmed and condensed down into one season easily, I think, and been a much tighter show.

[the-firebird69]

There's a large number of people in the library who think that the news is it extraordinary and useful against Trump and they're serious and he's saying there's nothing really substantially here and there really isn't so I think that they're full of crap and they are that's annoying as hell so I thought about what I could say and I was thinking about this you're absolutely sick of you and you're going and when we explain how it makes it worse cuz you tried to adjust so we're going to explain how a few different ways.

-we don't want you coming around to our neck of the woods at all and Trump is the one who told on tons of you everyday and in hundreds of ways himself and she's saying this is what we do and it's because of his nuclear stockpile and he kept on doing it and doing it trying to cause hatred and animosity between people and the max we're ready to launch they say and that's not true so this has been going on for a while with this jackass running around saying these things getting people to say them and he's trying to get money and he's trying to get equipment and we put our son's idea out there and he just started saying I'll give it in and things like that and we're saying it forces us to monitor and to give you out and it gets ready so he started yelling it I don't have time for this and while he's doing that I was giving an order to take $4,500 factories out and we do have a wall over that area we're going to continue doing this and these are huge factories each one is about two or three billion square feet yeah they're not massive but they're very big that's huge okay we are going to start producing necessities yes as promised and we're going to ship them let me have a huge outstanding order from Johnson & Johnson and from suave dial and a whole bunch of companies that we are going to start pumping that stuff out for very fast and large numbers and a lot of people are grateful and they'll see that it's actually true and they'll feel better it won't be fighting over so I was going to move it and this is going to be global we have this aggressive schedule and we're going to stick to it to continuously take area and we're going to establish more and more factories we actually use somewhere they are and we're going to continuously pull them in no but we're going to court them off for real we're working on the middle area and our son and daughter had the idea of clearing a few miles and putting the wall in and aggressively defending it and we're going to do that it's taking way too damn long and this idiot Trump is on our son 24 hours a day and we are probably not going to let him have a thing then we have to take from him and get rid of him so going to publish

Thor Freya

Olympus

Good

Hera I do have ideas on soap how they can make it. It's with regular household goods and a lot of people have them

[donut-entendre]

@rubykgrant the nature of church is that he goes solo and then goes oh FUCK I NEED MY IDIOTS

[marchtothefuckingsea]

Desert Planet - Leonard McCoy

My Masterlist

McCoy x gender-neutral reader, no usage of y/n 

Hurt/comfort and angst :) 

Word count: 3.8k

Warnings: Injury, heat exhaustion, mentions of death/reader brings up how they’re not going to make it 

Summary: Reader goes on a mission on an alien planet and gets separated from the others during a terrible storm. 

"Do you know how dangerous these freaks are?" Leonard hissed. 

"I know exactly how dangerous they are. I know what I'm dealing with, I'm on the security team for a reason, for fuck's sake." I shot back.

"I don't care. You're not going." 

"Oh, now you're trying to tell me what to do?" I suddenly stopped in the middle of the hallway, whipping my head around and narrowing my eyes at him. 

"It's dangerous and unnecessary." He said in defense. 

"Fine, then. I'll just stay here like I always do! I may as well not even be on this fucking ship!" I growled, stalking off. I pressed the lift button with more force than necessary, glaring at him as the doors slid shut. 

"It's a pretty desert-like planet." Kirk briefed me as we walked down the hall. "Not sure why they even want it." 

"They're using it as some sort of foothold to get to somewhere else, I know that for sure." 

"But where?" He sighed in frustration. Romulans were once again attempting to take control of the unforgiving planet we were about to beam down on. The Enterprise and its crew usually weren't the ones sent to deal with them, but we were the closest currently and, according to Starfleet, the situation was 'dire'. They were crawling all over the planet like ants.

“Is this many people really necessary?” I asked in concern. When we arrived at the transporter, several redshirts were already waiting for us.

The captain nodded grimly. “I have a feeling they’re not going to want to talk.”

“We’ll be beamin’ you down at a secluded place with not much traffic so you can get your bearings.” Scotty told us. I nodded unsurely, stepping onto the teleporter pad with the others. 

I glanced around cautiously as we materialized on the planet’s surface.

“You weren’t kidding.” I snorted. “What could they even use in this place?”

“They detected strong signs of some kind of metal here, not one we’ve seen before, but they obviously have a use for it.”

“And probably not a good one.” I agreed. “What’s the plan, captain?”

“We talk with them.” He shrugged.

“And if that doesn’t work?”

“Then we blast our way out and call in for back up.” He grinned cheekily. I huffed, turning away and looking around. 

“You’re going to need to be quick.” Sulu’s static voice crackled through the communications. “There’s a storm heading your way, you’ve got an hour, maybe two.” 

“I thought you said it was clear?” Kirk asked into his pin, suddenly serious.

“It was. It appeared out of nowhere. Be careful.” The static turned back into silence.

“Damn. Alright, let’s get going.”

“Shit.” I muttered under my breath, looking to my mapping device. We had ended up ‘blasting our way out’, as Kirk had put it, and we had made it out fine. Not long after we left the area though, we ran into a patrolling group of Romulans. I had managed to get separated from the group during the fight, sustaining a nasty phaser shot to my side and losing any contact with the rest of the crew as the storm rapidly approached. My mapping device did nothing.

I now wandered through what appeared to be a sort of canyon, still glancing at the small screen from time to time in the small hope that it would begin to work again. Eyeing the dark, approaching clouds wearily, I wondered what kind of storms they had here. I had been told this planet had no form of water at all, so what exactly rained from these dark clouds? I didn’t want to stick around long enough to find out. 

At least another hour had passed that I had wandered, and with the scorching heat, I grew thirstier and thirstier, sweat pouring down my neck. I stumbled on unsteady feet, most likely a sign of bloodloss. Blood trickled through my fingers as I pressed a hand to my side, leaning heavily against a large rock.  I jumped as a crackle of lightning split the air. 

“What the hell?” I muttered to myself. I stared at the sky a little longer, watching as another bright orange bolt of electricity lit the sky. My gut warned me to get out of this place, and get out now.

“Lieutenant to Enterprise.” I said into my comm. “Lieutenant to Enterprise.” I repeated. Nothing. Not even static.

I jumped when I heard an echoing crack and then the sound of something incredibly, dangerously large shifting. I looked up uncertainly before jumping back, an enormous boulder about three times my size falling right where I had been standing mere seconds ago. My eyes darted around as dozens more fell down into the giant trench I was in. The wind was howling, and it tore at my hair. I froze, my feet rooted to the ground in fear, before taking off at a sprint, running for the nearest cover I could see; even though that was several meters away.

I dodged several boulders, but I was still pelted by small, painful pebbles that were whipped up from the ground by the strong winds. I suddenly stumbled over a small boulder that must have been embedded in the ground for ages. My ankle wedged between the rock and the compacted ground, twisting it with a painful snap. I hit the ground hard, my head colliding violently with a mostly-buried rock and knocking me unconscious.

I awoke to a heavy feeling across my legs. I groaned, shifting my upper half slightly and slumping back into the ground. I struggled to keep from falling unconscious again, my head foggy and pounding. The weight across my legs only grew more and more uncomfortable as I laid there. It didn't take very long for it to become painful; then, agonizing. I shifted my upper half again, turning as much as I could to look at my legs. A strangled sound of horror and agony clawed its way up my throat at what I saw. 

A small, but heavy, boulder rested across the backs of my legs, crushing them. One of my legs had been spared–at least partially-and was only pinned between the boulder and another. I could move it slightly, and it didn't hurt too bad–at least not compared to the other–so I could guess it wasn't quite broken. Fractured, maybe. The wind still howled around me, and small pebbles still rained down, but the crashes and cracks of the gigantic boulders had, fortunately, ceased. 

I let out a quiet whine, struggling to free my leg. I sat up, a sharp pain making me gasp. I looked around bleary-eyed, realizing I was laying in a large pool of my own blood. It stained the sand around me a bright red. Somehow managing to keep upright, I placed my hands against the rock, pushing against it weakly. The pain intensified, and I fell back, panting. I tried again, sitting up and pushing against the boulder with even more force. It shifted ever so slightly, sending a lightning bolt of pain through my left, but giving me the tiniest bit of hope. 

I braced my hands against it again, pushing it with everything I had in me. It rolled off of my leg, causing the bones to shift and a dizzying rush of pain to my head. I fell back, breathing and gasping unevenly and struggling to remain conscious. I groaned, tossing my head back and forth in an attempt to distract myself from the pain. My hands grasped the sand desperately. 

A bolt of lightning followed by a distant crash made my head jerk up. I was suddenly reminded of my situation, the haze slowly clearing from my head. I struggled to scramble to my feet. I cried out as I tried to move my legs. I began to crawl towards a distant cave, my head hazy with agony. A bright crimson trail of my own blood stained the ground behind me, but it was quickly covered by the sand whipped up around my face and into my already dry mouth. 

I gasped in relief when I made it into the shelter of the cave, flopping onto the ground. I was now painfully aware that every inch of my body that hadn't been sheltered by the boulder that crushed my legs, was badly bruised from being pelted by small rocks. I moaned in pain, rolling onto my back and staring up at the red tinted rock above me. My eyes threatened to close, and sweat poured from my burning, throbbing forehead. More of my blood poured down my side and onto the sand. I blearily wondered how much blood I had left in me. Probably not enough. 

My eyes shot open when I heard talkimg coming from outside of the cave. I hastily braced myself on my elbows, listening. I couldn't make out what they were saying, but it wasn't any human language. It was most likely Romulan, I figured. 

A delayed rush of panic coursed through me at the realization, and my breathing quickened. I stayed as silent as I could, hoping they weren't coming in this direction. Luck wasn't on my side. I heard their voices slowly growing louder as they approached. 

I shoved myself back into a further corner of the cave, slapping a hand over my mouth to muffle a whimper. I managed to wedge myself behind a large rock, curling into a defensive position. Fear coursed through my veins, but there was little I could do.  It was all I could manage to stay conscious and fight back the growing feeling of nausea. 

I heard their voices grow louder and louder. They were soon standing right in front of the cave, peering in. I squeezed my eyes shut and curled into myself more, trembling. My heart pounded in my ears until it almost drowned out the sound of the aliens' conversation. I listened intently as I heard their footsteps recede and the sound of their voices grow faint. My shallow, uneven breathing didn't even allow me a sigh of relief. 

I wasn't sure how long I laid there, helplessly drifting in and out of consciousness. My entire body felt like it was burning up, but I had stopped sweating long ago. It confused my muddled brain. I was tugged back into consciousness by a faint, broken up voice. I struggled into a sitting position, as my eyes darted around in confusion. I could swear I just heard Jim's voice..

"Lieutenant? Are you there?" The light on my comm device blinked unsteadily.

"Yes. Yes I'm here." I gasped, fumbling with the button. 

"Are you injured?" The captain asked. 

"Yes."

"How bad? Anything serious?"

"I think..my leg is broke. Maybe both, I'm…I'm not sure." I wheezed. I fell back onto my side, the small device flying out of my hand and across the ground. I crawled towards it, small noises of pain escaping my throat. I clutched it in my hand, bringing it back to my face. The entire time, Jim had been speaking, though I hadn't heard a word of it.

"What?" 

"I said it's going to be a while before we can get a lock on your location and beam you up." He repeated.

"How long?" I asked worriedly.

"The storm is still pretty bad," He began to explain.

"No it isn't. It's calm down here now." I argued.

"Maybe down there, but it isn't up here. The storm is too thick for our locators to go through."

"So how long?" 

He hesitated. "It was pretty unpredictable before, you know how quick that storm rolled up on us; it's hard to give an estimate but..6, 7 hours at least. Think you can hold on that long?"

"I don't know." I said quietly. My heart dropped from my chest, and I laid limply on the ground, staring up at the rock above me. The comm fell from my hands, even as Kirk continued to speak. I didn't hear any of it.

All I knew was that I wouldn't be making it off of this planet alive.

And the last time I had spoken to McCoy was in the middle of an argument.

I released a shaky breath, my head light as I was suddenly aware of how hot I had become. My skin burned, and my insides felt like they were on broil. At the very least, the blood of the phaser wound had begun to clot, though my racing heart didn't help. I felt every bruise that littered my body. I spat out the sand in my mouth, even though there wasn't even any saliva in it. I moaned, rolling onto my side, my breathing shallow and uneven. It wasn't long before I slipped into the darkness again. 

My eyes cracked open at the sound of footsteps, rock and gravel crunching beneath them. They were quiet but clumsy, unused to walking on such terrain. The footsteps came closer. I barely had the energy to curl even more into myself and the rock I hid behind, trembling. They stopped right outside of the cave, and I heard the faint noise of metallic equipment. The Romulans were back to finish me off. I took a shaky breath, as my panicked pants caused black dots to appear in my already blurred vision. 

After the pause, the footsteps entered the cave. My breath hitched in my throat, on the verge of panic. I reached weakly for the phaser at my hip, sucking in a gasp of pain at the action. They stopped again, and I heard the metallic sound again before my own locator went off. I shrank back in surprise at the loud sound. Footsteps quickly walked over to the device that lied just on the other side of my rock. I held my breath. 

They quickly rounded the rock I had behind, shoes coming into view. A choked cry escaped my throat and I scrambled back in a panic, unable to make out whether they were friend or foe. My body shook violently as I pressed my back against the cave wall. I blinked rapidly as they crouched beside me, a hand reaching for me. I flinched away, breath hitching in my throat.

I heard a familiar voice utter a string of swears before, "Calm down sweetheart." 

I struggled to make out who it was–and where I had heard that voice before– but my body visibly sagged in relief that they were, at the very least, human. My eyes were still unable to focus, and they must have known that, because he gently cradled my face in his hands and brought his face down to mine.

"Len?" I croaked out. If I would have been able to, I would have tackled him in a hug, but I settled for bringing one of my hands up to weakly grip his. 

"It's me darlin'. I'm here." 

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." I repeated it over and over. 

"Shhh, don't worry about it. Don't talk." He told me. When he began to pull away, I squeezed his hand as hard as I could, silently begging him to stay. He frowned, releasing my hand and turning to something I couldn't make out.

My eyes had shut involuntarily, but they fluttered open when I heard the familiar beeps and whirring of a tricorder. He glanced at me worriedly. 

"I'm okay." I tiredly reassured him, beginning to drift off again. I was faintly aware of him pulling up the hem of my uniform to gain access to the phaser shot I had sustained. I gasped awake when I felt him put pressure on it. 

"Stop." I gasped, clawing at his hands. His face was pained. "Please." 

The next thing I felt was the cool barrel of a hypospray at my neck, before the pain lessened significantly. I felt his knuckles against my forehead, the frown on his face deepening. He turned away, bringing back another hypo out of his bag. I groaned in protest.

"I know darlin'. This should stop the bleeding and prevent any infection. Then I'll bandage you up." He explained calmly, though his voice was strained. I heard the soft sound of the hypo as he injected the second one. He began to clean the wound, then unwound a roll of bandages. He was gentle and precise as he wound them around my abdomen, keeping them in place with medical tape.

He pulled out a bottle of water, moving beside me and gently propping my head up in his lap. I drank the water down gratefully. He leaned down to brush his nose to mine, once again cradling my face in his hands. Even though my face burned with fever, I leaned into his warm hands contentedly.

He held me this way for a moment, before the faint sound of footsteps disturbed the howling of the wind.

"Shit." I felt him tense, automatically shifting over me protectively. I glanced up at him in confusion before I heard the footsteps, too. I immediately began to struggle in a panic. His arms held onto me tightly.

"Shhh."  He shushed me. his voice barely above a whisper. I stilled, though I trembled against him. His hand gripped mine, rubbing my knuckles with his thumb in an attempt at comforting me. We listened in silence as the footsteps receded, breathing a sigh of relief once they were no longer audible.

"Breathe, sweetheart." He told me. I let out a breath I didn't know I had been holding, my chest ached. He ducked down to speak into his comm.

"McCoy to Enterprise." Static. "McCoy to Enterprise." He repeated, sighing in frustration when there was no response. 

"How are you doing?" He asked me, his voice worried.

"I don't know." I responded hoarsely. "It doesn't hurt anymore but I still feel horrible." 

"I'm sorry sweetheart, I-" His apology was cut short as a voice crackled from his comm.

"Bones?" Jim's voice asked.

"How long before you can beam us up?" Leonard demanded. 

"At least another five hours-"

"Five hours?" He hissed. "Jim-"

"Bones, I know. I'm sorry, I told you we wouldn't be able to get a lock on your location if you-" He turned the comm off with a frustrated huff, cutting the captain off.

"I can't." I mumbled quietly, dread, regret, and a million other things washing over me as my head drooped to the side. 

"You can't what? Hey, hey don't do that. You can't what, darlin'?" His voice cracked at the end.

"I'm not going to make it." I mumbled.

"You will. We'll get you back and fix you right back up." He reassured me, his eyes not meeting mine.

"Len." I croaked, as his fingers went to my neck, checking my pulse. He had to readjust them several times before he felt something. It was faint.

"Leonard." I repeated. He stopped, his frantic gaze meeting mine.

"Stop. Please."

"No, you're going to make it." He argued.

"Just hold me. Please." I begged. I knew I wasn't going to make it long enough to be beamed aboard. This was it for me; but I could think of no better way to die than in his arms

"Don't talk like that." He demanded, but he obliged anyway, reclining back against the uncomfortable cave wall and pulling me against his chest. I was barely awake, but I pressed myself closer to him as his arms settled wrapped around me. I managed a shallow sigh as I relaxed into him, a comforting feeling of safety settling over me. My eyes fluttered shut, and I drifted off.

I moaned in protest at the insistent beeping, burrowing my head into the pillows to muffle it. Death wasn't supposed to be like this. 

My eyes cracked open, the sterile, blinding lights of the medway causing my head to throb. I turned my head to the side when I heard a groan. Leonard was slumped over in a chair next to my bedside. He began to stir, his eyes tiredly flickering open for a second before they widened in surprise. They immediately darted over to the screen that displayed my vitals, before glancing over me. 

"Hi." I mumbled, not sure what to say. He was silent, taking my hand in his and tracing my palm so carefully, as if I would break.

"I'm sorry." I began; now that I was awake and safely back on the Enterprise, he was probably furious with me.

"Don't." He said. "Don't start."

"Sorry." I apologized quietly, pulling my hand away to give him some space. I sucked in a shaky breath before bracing myself on my elbows. The pain was dulled, but still nearly unbearable. I choked back a sob.

He was immediately by my side, a hand on my chest to gently push me down. Sitting on the edge of the biobed, he sighed before starting. "We both have a lot to talk about, but for now, you need to recover. You don't need any more stress." He told me in his doctor voice. I shifted away from him uncomfortably. 

"No, I want to talk about this now. I want you, I don't want this distance. I'm sorry, it was stupid. I told you I wouldn't go, but I did. The least I could have done was tell you." 

"I know I'm too overbearing sometimes." I gave him a skeptical look and he raised his hands in defense. "Believe it or not, I do know."

"I know you worry, but it's my job, just like your job is to deal with deadly diseases sometimes."

"I know, but it's not the same thing." He sighed in frustration. 

"Yeah, at least I can see my enemy." I tried to lighten the mood. He huffed a small laugh.

"I guess that's what I get for dating a redshirt." He said finally, a ghost of a smile on his face as he stood.

"Where are you going?" 

"Nowhere darlin', nowhere."

[urdearestmom]

Bylers really believes Mike lied about his monologue because he would not believing in love at first sight on the grounds that he looked annoyed by Lucas and Argyle, who fell in love with Max and Eden instantly and i think Hello?? Maybe that's just because El wasn't around anymore and she was in danger in S4. Of course he's annoyed. His girlfriend is somewhere in the middle of nowhere and Argyle only has eyes for Eden. He wants to waste as little time as possible to save El. He has no time for it.

Sometimes the most obvious answer is the right one, anon. pretty sure Mike was annoyed at Max's existence for other reasons, not because Lucas and Dustin "fell in love at first sight". also fairly sure he looks annoyed at Argyle because he can't believe the guy is high again when they're on this mission to find El while her life is at stake ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ shit's serious, Mike wants it to be taken seriously, and he feels Argyle isn't doing that so he's rightfully irritated by it

What would really be the point in Mike lying to El about his feelings after all this? I don't know. imo THAT would definitely make him the asshole everyone's trying to make him out to be

I'd recommend blocking the hashtag so you can filter out the content you don't want to see. it's much easier for all of us if we can just stick to ourselves and ship our ships in peace

[yumark-ism]

I'm new to your blog! Do you have a timeline on here somewhere of their relationship? You write great analyses.

welcome and thank you! i haven't made a comprehensive timeline of their relationship as i am still figuring out some things, but i can write one now form the top of my head:

2016-2017: good friends, not hugely close but share a sense of humour, mark in particular really likes yuta (finds him funny, nice to be around) and it starts developing into a crush (mostly platonic but he seems to also be attracted to him physically). yuta finds mark really cute and wants to get even closer to him to. teases him a lot.

2018: same as above, but yuta has established inner circles with taeyong, winwin, jaehyun, doyoung while mark is closer with haechan, dreamies and starting to get close with jungwoo when he joins the group. yuta continues to tease mark, finds him really cute, mark's crush gets a little worse.

2019 (beginning): winwin leaves the group, yuta loses a friend he related due to their positions as the only two foreign members. mark and him get close very quickly as there is a vacancy for a close friend now. mark graduated from dream so sees them less and 127 tour starts so he's spending more time with them.

2019 (middle): yuta becomes completely enamoured with mark, not just about cuteness anymore but their share a genuine deep bond and yuta wants to spend as much time with him as he can. mark is happy to finally be so close to yuta.

2019 (summer): yuta starts developing feelings for mark, is quite vocal about how much he likes mark but in his usual jokey way. doesn't really act on it because it's not serious for him. mark's crush on yuta is pretty obvious but it hasn't developed into feelings. mark's pre occupied preparing for super m. however, yumark start going on dates outside of schedule. jungwoo leaves the group for personal reasons so mark spends even more time with yuta as he loses a close friend.

2019 (end): yuta has stronger feelings for mark as they spend more time together, go on more dates. mark makes time for yuta despite being busy with super m. they essentially become each other's person.

2020: yuta starts flirting romantically with mark, sometimes even sexual. mark's crush is suddenly aflame and he doesn't know how to hide it, often getting flustered that yuta is actually persuing him.

2020 (end): mark starts developing actual feelings for yuta, he's making it a little obvious. yuta notices and panics, puts some space between them. didn't expect mark to reciprocate.

2021 (beginning): similar to above, yuta is less touchy with mark, they are aware of each other's feelings and try to hide it when with each other but can't. mark leaves the dorm (uncomfirmed if he stayed in their dorm for the entire of dream promotions) to stay with dreamies for hot sauce promo, first time being back with dream since graduating. he is able to rekindle and strengthen those friendships. yuta focusses on his solo career.

2021 middle (may-july): analog trip, nct life, etc: yumark finally have time to spend together and they don't waste it - always together. they're still flirty but mostly just happy to be in each other's presence. the feelings are there, getting stronger but they don't act on it.

2021 august: specifically after mark's birthday, in the middle of august. something happened with yuta in his personal life (maybe he moved out the dorm? i personally don't believe this right now), or something with his family? as 127 starts preparing for their album, yuta notices that markwoo is being pushed as mark's official ship (mark's birthday, all about jungwoo), perhaps he himself was told to tone it down with mark. the 127 loverboy narrative starts, nothing is about yumark anymore. yuta himself stops touching mark how he used to. is a lot more quiet about mark when he's with him, only sometimes being vocal about him. stick together starts, and we see mark being very cling, flirty and needy with yuta while yuta sometimes looks unbothered. mark is getting ready to confess, this tension and lack of attention from yuta is driving him crazy.

2021 september-october: near the end of sept/start oct, mark confesses his feelings to yuta finally, who has been waiting for so long. it's right in the middle of sticker promos when mark posts the glasses instagram post. he's spending more time with yuta again despite mostly in schedules - he thought it was the best time. yuta finally starts showing mark affection on camera again, but very intense so often has to remind and stop himself from going too far. jungwoo realises what's going on between yumark and as mark's best friend and yuta's close friend (there perhaps was some tension between yuta and jungwoo as woo wants to be close friends with them both, although he is closer and likes mark more and yuta found it annoying- yuta has boundaries emotionally and physically.). woo realises they can't be a trio anymore, he has to give the couple their own space. he no longer accompanies them or interferes with them anymore, hanging out with mark when he is alone rather than with yuta.

now: they're in a relationship and it's still new and fragile. they're trying their best to not be too obvious and have their various ways of achieving this whilst also not completely hiding as that would be enormously draining on them and their mental health.

[naejigo]

Angst Drabble: Monochrome

Blake has never felt fear quite like this. As she sprints past the tree branches, ignoring all the cuts they gave her, ignoring the screaming of her muscles as she cut through the forest, half the mind panicking and trying to keep it together at the same time.

Weiss screamed. They were on a team mission and got separated. She don't know if Yang and Ruby are nearby. She don't know if they heard it too. She don't know if they're safe. But she does know her ears weren't playing tricks. Weiss had screamed. She's somewhere in the forest, probably hurt.

Blake has felt fear before. But the fear that gripped her when Weiss's faraway scream of sheer wrongness reached her was wholly new. It was eternal. Blake would be damned if she had frozen over another second, which lead her to this, running over to Weiss, not even knowing where she is.

But then-

With a skidding halt, Blake stops underneath an oak tree, thick snow befallen it like Everest mountain top.

Just 20 meters to her front, was Weiss.

Mangled, bleeding, motionless.

Motionless. Blake gasps and suddenly breathing was painful.

She screamed. She shrieked in anguish, in sorrow, she screamed to the unjustness of it all. Why Weiss?

She ran and slides roughly through the thick snow (mixed red, no longer pure white, just like the fallen victim). Right next to Weiss.

Blake was gonna hurl. She takes it back, the scream set nothing as dreadful as this.

She can feel her body trembling violently as she asses the gruesome... Wounds.

Weiss was losing a chunk of her stomach. Her right leg bend- twisted in a way it shouldn't have been. A long and impossibly deep gash ran down from her collarbone, circling back to the side of ribs, bones can be seen.

What Grimm; what monster had done this to her beloved?

She gathered the fragile body and into her trembling arms. Weiss felt cold. And light. So light. And impossibly limp. Blake feared the worst.

"Weiss... Oh no... No, no, no... No! It shouldn't have been like this- no! Goddamnit... Weiss..." She weeps, and she blames, and she cursed.

And then a rasp traveled through Weiss's trachea, as shattered as it sounds. Weiss was breathing.

Ears perked up and hope peaking, Blake carefully traced the woman's face, calling out her name and praying.

"Oh God, oh God, please. Baby, please. Open your eyes for me... I need you, Weiss... Please. " hot tears cascading as she pleads

A meek breath, and a pained groan followed by the scrunching of her face. Blake felt helpless knowing Weiss is feeling the pain. But she'd rather that than receiving nothing. She needs Weiss.

"Bl...ak- ungh!" The petite body of the fallen snow angel convulsed. Blake tried her best to hold her down without hurting her more. Whimpering as there was nothing else she could do. Blood was trickling like a river as it is. This is worsening it.

Soon Weiss eventually slumped back down in ragged breathing and unimaginable pain coursing through her veins and skin like active lava. Tears begin to fall helplessly as she feel her lifeline slipping.

Blake was sobbing. She was a mess. She wanted to help. She wanted to save her. But Weiss was missing a chunk of her stomach, they don't have enough fabric on them to stop the bleeding, she knew. And the blood loss has been tragic for a while now. Blake knew, she just-

Beyond the tears that blurred her amber eyes, Blake, in her helpless desperation, saw crystal clear blue eyes peeking from behind heavy eyelids. Dull and horribly wrong.

"Oh Weiss... Oh.. It wasn't- it shouldn't have been like this... Baby, no..."

With much difficulty and straining vocal muscle and pain shallowing her, Weiss croaked out;

"Blake..."

Blake gasped out more sobs which she swallowed back, "yes.. Yes, I'm here... Weiss."

Weiss's breathing was getting wet, and shallow, and... And thin. But she smiled. She tried to, her best. It was a tiny curl. Her eyes, already close to closing, winked a bit as she tried to make up the happiest expression for Blake.

"Blake..." it was tinier, slower, a slight whisper.

Blake knew what was coming. She knew what to do. For Weiss. For Weiss always.

Her lips trembled as she presses her face to Weiss's collarbone. Gritting her teeth as she tries hard to digest the truth.

She trailed her eyes back up and stare at Weiss. Her expression was one of acceptance. Blake can't help but feel defeated.

"I was thinking Weiss Belladonna would be a beautiful name... " she whispered, somewhat hopeful, fake happiness mustered with much bitterness as she croaked the words out.

Weiss let out a tiny gasp. She can't really feel her legs, or her waist anymore. The horrible pain flaring from her middle was numbing too. Oh, she knew. They both did.

Tears, this time much more lighter in feeling.

She put up all of her willpower to speak out the next words to come;

"I... I love.. That- Blake... Blake... I love you... "

Blake bit down another sob. She dip down and settles the gentlest, softest, loveliest kiss on Weiss's freezing one.

"I love you too..."

When she looked back up, Weiss's eyes were closing back. Her lips curled up more, as if happy.

Blake caught the final meek rasp that passed her beloved's lungs.

She watched, and she swore to the gods, as sun rays shine down on her face, serene and as if accepting. Blake thought she was beautiful. As always.

Blake felt numb. Strangely accepting of this, too. But deep down she knows, a part of her will never come to be, ever again.

She was no longer whole. Half her life here in her blood-soaked arms. Dead.

Blake doesn't know how long she had been there, in that position. Holding onto her beloved ever freezing body. Starring at the serene angel. But she heard voices. Shouts. Calling for her and Weiss.

"Weiss... Ruby and Yang are here... They'll find us soon... So can I... Can I just stay like this, for a while more?" She felt insane. But also heard. The wind blows but it wasn't chilly at all, in January. It felt affirming. Understood.

Blake sigh.

"I love you."

#

It was 2 years later, in Menagerie where she had once taken Weiss for a vacation. There were few retaliation but Kali and Ghira had been nothing but warm towards Weiss then.

Weiss had mention that she really love the island. Despite its lackluster and the people who do not like her. Weiss had loved the place.

And so she was laid here to rest for eternity.

Winter backed her up against Jacques when she had fought to bury her here. She remembers Weiss calling it home. And they succeed.

Ruby and Yang, were as heartbroken as ever. No more than Blake, but shattered still.

They managed. Somehow. Blake isn't nearly healed, but she's trying.

That's why she's here, right before the ship would sail back to Atlas where she will meet up with the sisters for the war that's waiting.

She put a single white lily on the tombstone, murmuring a few loving words, and left after a quick gentle kiss on the slab of stone.

Weiss Belladonna

An Angel of Which Blessed by the Gods.

###

I had some serious inspiration there omg??? This might be the best thing I've write in MONTHS.

Pick your mono angst, God knows we need more of the angst of them.

@rainbowpepper consider this a token of betterment from me because I really disliked the request I wrote you, this is way better.