#already fumbled but it will at least make the story better and more interesting. but idk how likely that is esp since

[bitchthefuck1]

have you watched the pjo show?

I saw the first 2 episodes when they came out at a watch party one of my friends threw, and as soon as they ended I realized I didn't particularly care to keep going. It wasn't like, outrageously bad by any means, I just don't think it gripped me enough to want to continue, and there were enough odd adaptational choices that I thought weakened the story that I lost interest. I might have tuned back in if the changes actually built to something interesting in the later episodes, but from everything I've seen it kinda seems like they just took the teeth out of the story, which was what I was worried about.

That being said, the cast seems really great and well suited to their roles, so like, if they improve the writing and pacing in the later seasons and stop sanding down all the rough edges, I might pick it back up. But otherwise, pass.

[cherryxbooo]

okay, hear me out. I've had this idea in my head for so long and have never found anything like it.

Lando Norris falls for a FAN! She lives in England or France or Monaco, they meet somewhere that’s not the racetrack and somehow he falls in love. He knows she’s a fan so it’s hard for him to admit that he fell for her.

Just another fan

Summary: When meeting a fan in an unusual encounter Lando couldn’t help but feel attracted by her presence. The only thing stopping him? Her being his fan.

Note: first of all I couldn’t be more thankful for all the support all of you have showed me on my comeback stories and I’m very grateful for that! Thank you for your request anon, I hope this lives up to your expectations! Have fun reading!

Reader x Lando Norris

Genre: fluff/angst(ish)

I was in a frantic rush. Late for my uni lecture again. The coffee cup trembling in my hand as I weaved my way through the bustling café. Engrossed in my thoughts, I didn’t watch where I was going, and then it happened – the inevitable crash. Coffee splattered everywhere, including all over the stranger in front of me.

I froze in horror, my face turning a deep shade of scarlet. "Oh god, I-I'm so sorry!" I managed to stutter.

Lando reacted with a bewildered expression, looking down at his now-stained shirt before turning back to me.

"It's alright," he said, an amused twinkle in his eye despite his coffee-stained shirt. "Accidents happen."

I fumbled for words, trying to apologize profusely, and yet, I was struck by his casual demeanor. This guy, this person I had just spilled coffee all over, was handling the situation so much better than I was, and it was only then that I glanced at his face. My heart skipped a beat. Lando Norris. I was standing in front of Lando Norris.

Lando chuckled again, the sound rich and warm, as he watched me struggle to compose myself. "You know," he said, the smirk on his face softening to a more genuine smile, "Most people would at least recognize me before pouring coffee all over me."

"I’m… I’m so sorry," I repeated, still struggling to overcome my shock. My brain was still trying to process the fact that I was standing in front of one of my favorite drivers, and I’d just managed to make a complete fool of myself in front of him.

Lando’s smile held a hint of understanding, and he waved off my repeated apologies. "Seriously, it’s fine," he reassured, glancing down at his coffee-stained shirt. "This isn’t the worst thing that’s been spilled on me, trust me."

In spite of the situation, I found myself feeling a little relieved at his casual acceptance. The initial wave of embarrassment was beginning to recede, replaced by a more manageable feeling of awkwardness. "Still, I feel terrible," I said, trying to force a sheepish smile. "Let me at least pay for the dry cleaning, or something…"

Lando shook his head, his expression growing more amused. "Dry cleaning’s not necessary," he replied, waving off my offer. "But considering you just soaked me in coffee, perhaps you can make it up to me?"

My heart skipped a beat at his words, my stomach twisting, already thinking of the worst scenarios.“How?” I asked weakly, trying to keep my composure.

Lando leaned against the wall, his eyes flicking over me for a moment, taking in my flustered state. "Simple really," he said, a hint of a challenge in his voice. "You buy me a new coffee, we’ll sit down, and you can make it up to me by keeping me company."

My breath caught in my throat for a moment, my mind racing. Lando Norris, asking to spend time with me? It was too much to process. But there was no mistaking the gleam of interest in his eyes. He was serious.

"Oh euhm okay," I managed to stammer out, my cheeks flushing under his gaze. "Coffee. I can do that."

Lando’s smile widened, a satisfied expression on his face as he gestured for me to lead the way to the counter. As I turned, heading towards the counter to order the coffee, I could feel his eyes on me, and my heart thumped in my chest.

This was really happening. I was about to buy coffee for Lando Norris. 18-year old me wouldn’t believe this.

As we waited for our coffees, the silence between us was filled with a tension that I couldn’t quite describe. Lando seemed relaxed, but I could almost feel the energy radiating from him. I couldn’t help repeatedly glancing at him, marveling at how someone could look so good, even after having coffee spilled on them.

After getting the order, Lando led the way to a small, secluded table in the corner of the cafe. I followed, trying to hide the fact that I was a bundle of nerves. Sitting down across from each other, I clutched my coffee cup like a lifeline. The silence was tangible, broken only by the soft hum of other patrons in the cafe.

Lando took a sip of his coffee, his gaze never leaving me. After a moment, he leaned back, a hint of a smile on his lips. "So," he began, his voice soft but clear, "You’re a fan, aren’t you?"

My eyes widened at his question, and a wave of unexpected shock washed over me. I hadn’t expected him to pick up on my fan girl status so quickly. It was obvious, I guess, but I also didn’t want to invade his privacy.

"I… uh… well," I fumbled for words, my face heating up. "I am a fan, yes."

Lando chuckled, his eyes never leaving mine. "It’s okay, you don’t have to deny it." He took another sip of coffee. “I could tell the moment you realized who I was."

I fidgeted in my seat, feeling exposed under his gaze. "Was I that obvious?" I muttered, cursing myself for my lack of subtlety.

Lando leaned back in his chair, that amused smile still on his face. "Let’s just say you weren’t very discreet. Your face lit up like a Christmas tree when you realized who you were dealing with."

I couldn’t help the embarrassed laugh that escaped me. "I guess I’m not very good at hiding things, also I didn't know you would be in England this week." I admitted, trying to play it down with humor.

"No not at all.” He laughs at my comment. “And yeah I came down to visit my family for a bit." Lando added, his eyes sparkling with amusement. "And don't worry about it, it’s refreshing, actually. Most people either don’t recognize me or try to play it cool when they do. You were like a deer caught in headlights."

I let out a soft groan, burying my face in my hands. "I must have looked so ridiculous," I mumbled, my words muffled by my palms.

Lando reached out, gently pulling my hands away from my face. His touch sent a shiver down my spine. "No, it was adorable," he corrected, his voice holding a hint of sincerity beneath the humor.

I looked up at him, my face probably aflame. Was he seriously calling me adorable? "You’re just saying that," I muttered, taking a gulp of my coffee to distract myself.

Lando laughed, a sound that sent a wave of butterflies flying through my stomach. "No, I mean it," he insisted. "You didn’t try to act all cool and casual around me. You just… reacted. It was honest, and it was cute."

And soon the conversation between us started flowing.

After some time, I glanced at my watch, my eyes widening at the time. “Damn, my lectures…” I muttered, realizing I’d missed my class.

Lando, who seemed oblivious to the time as well, shot a look at my watch. “Oh, right,” he said, a hint of disappointment in his voice. “Guess we got carried away.”

I was gathering my bag and taking one last sip of coffee, my mind still swirling with questions when Lando spoke up.

"Before you leave," he said, pulling his phone out of his pocket. "I was wondering if I could get your number."

The casual request caught me off guard, but I quickly recovered. "My… my number?" I repeated, already pulling my own phone out of my bag.

Lando chuckled at my surprised expression. "Yeah, your number. You know, so we can stay in touch."

I fumbled with my phone for a moment, unlocking it and pulling up the new contact option. "Of course," I said, my mind racing. This was really happening. Lando Norris was asking for my number.

I slowly handed him my phone, watching as he tapped in his number. He handed it back to me, our fingers brushing together in a brief, electric moment.

"There," he said, a sly smile on his lips. "Now you’ve got my number, and I’ve got yours."

I looked down at my phone, seeing his contact information displayed. I couldn’t believe it. "Thanks," I said, the word feeling incredibly inadequate considering the whirlwind of emotions racing through me.

Lando pocketed his phone, his gaze never leaving me. "Don't mention it," he said, a genuine smile on his face. "It was… good talking to you. You know, despite the coffee incident."

I laughed, the nervous energy of earlier shifting into a more comfortable banter. "Yeah, sorry about that. I promise not to spill anything on you next time we meet."

Lando chuckled, running a hand through his hair. "I’ll keep that in mind. Wouldn’t want to have to start a coffee-stained shirt collection because of you."

The image of Lando with a closet full of coffee-stained shirts flashed through my mind, making me laugh again. "Trust me, that’s the last thing I want," I said, slinging my bag over my shoulder.

There was a beat of silence, both of us seeming reluctant to end the conversation. Finally, Lando spoke up. “Well, I should let you get going,” he said, his tone carrying a hint of regret. “Can’t cause you to miss another uni lecture, can I?”

I nodded, although a part of me didn’t want the conversation to end. "Yeah, you’re right," I replied, a small sigh escaping me. “I had a really nice time talking to you.”

Lando’s smile widened, a hint of satisfaction in his eyes. “I enjoyed talking to you too,” he said, a sincerity in his tone.

After bidding goodbye to each other, I pushed through the door, the cool air of the city hitting me, but I barely registered it. My mind was still reeling, replaying every moment of our conversation on a loop. As I walked away from the café, I couldn’t help but grin like an idiot.

As I walked, thinking about earlier events, my phone buzzed in my hand. I looked down to see a text message popping up on the screen. It was from Lando.

I smiled at my phone, still not believing that I met the Lando Norris who’s weirdly enough interested in me.

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yourusername Didn't skip class for a cute guy or anything 🤷🏻‍♀️

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bffuser Girl u was literally fangirling

yourusername Oh shut up you would act the same

frienduser3 Fangirling? Did we miss something?

yourusername No no don't worry nothing special

frienduser3 🤓

frienduser1 Why you always spilling coffee on people ����

yourusername Don't expose me now, I told you this information in pure trust 🥲

frienduser2 Y/N it literally happened a week ago as well

yourusername I don't like any of you 😒

Weeks flew by in a blur of texts, calls, and busy schedules. Work and uni left little room for much else. But despite the distance, Lando and I kept in touch daily.

One day, as I was buried under a mountain of notes and textbooks, my phone buzzed with a new message. Expecting another funny meme from Lando, I was surprised to see a different message.

With that decision made, the conversation shifted to practicalities. We discussed the details of my arrival, where I’d be staying, and what to expect during the race weekend. By the end of the conversation, the excitement had far outweighed any lingering doubts. The countdown to Silverstone began.

Meanwhile, Lando was caught off guard when his best friend, Max Fewtrell, came up from behind him and slapped him on the shoulder. “Oi, what’s got you grinning like that?” Max asked, raising an eyebrow.

Lando quickly composed himself, putting his phone away. “Nothing,” he said, attempting to play it cool. “Just talking to someone, that’s all.”

Max wasn’t convinced. “Is it a girl?” he pressed, a smirk on his face.

Lando cursed inwardly. Max had a knack for sniffing out stuff like this.

“Maybe,” he admitted, his voice betraying a bit of reluctance. “But it’s nothing serious.”

Max’s eyebrow shot up again. “Not serious? Then why are you smiling like a fool over some texts?”

Lando huffed, running a hand through his hair. He knew he wasn’t fooling Max with this act of aloofness.

“Fine. There is a girl. But it’s complicated.”

Max’s smirk widened. “Complicated? That’s an interesting way to put it. Why is it complicated?” he asked, leaning against the wall, obviously enjoying Lando’s discomfort.

Lando hesitated for a moment, his fingers fidgeting with the hem of his shirt. “Because… well… she’s a fan.”

Max’s expression turned a bit incredulous. “A fan? As in, a fan of yours?”

Lando nodded, a mixture of defensiveness and uncertainty in his eyes. “Yes. A fan. She was at a café where I was hanging out, and we just started talking. And now we talk all the time… but she’s a fan, and I don’t know if it’s a good idea to get involved with someone who already has an idea about who I am.”

Max’s smirk softened slightly into a thoughtful expression. “I get where you’re coming from. But just because she’s a fan doesn’t mean she likes you for the wrong reasons,” he said, a hint of reason in his tone. “And people change their perceptions. What if she gets to know the real you and falls even harder?”

Lando considered Max’s words, knowing he had a point. “I know… but what if she’s more interested in the idea of me, the driver, than who I really am?” he voiced his biggest fear.

Max shrugged, a knowing look in his eyes. “Then you’ll figure that out when you see her. If she’s serious about you, she’ll look past the whole ‘F1 driver’ thing. But if you keep worrying about what could go wrong, you’ll never find out what could go right.”

Lando sighed, torn between the possibilities and the risks. “You’re probably right,” he admitted, a hint of resignation in his voice. “Maybe I’m just overthinking it. I don’t know if I’m ready to take that gamble though.”

Max gave Lando a knowing look. “You’re already knee-deep in this mess, mate. You’ve been talking to her for weeks now, clearly you’re invested. If you wanted out, you’d have stopped talking to her ages ago.”

Lando sighed again, realizing the truth in Max’s words. He hadn’t even thought about ending things with her. “Damn it, I guess you’re right,” he conceded, frustration in his tone. “I’m already in too deep, aren’t I?”

Max chuckled, patting Lando on the back. "That’s right, mate. You’re in 'too deep' alright. You've been acting like a lovesick puppy every time you message her. It's pathetic, but also sickening cute.”

Max smirked, amused at his friend’s predicament. “Well, you’ve got your Silverstone race next week. Maybe that’s a chance for you to see how things really are when you actually meet in person. Then you’ll know if this is worth pursuing or not.”

Lando nodded, his face set in a contemplative expression. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. I’ll see how it goes when she comes to the race. If it feels off, I’ll end it. But I'm afraid it might be too late for that, I already fell for her I'm afraid.”

The day of the Silverstone Grand Prix finally arrived. I’d spent the morning getting ready, excitement and nerves bubbling up inside me. I checked my reflection one last time before grabbing my bag and heading out the door.

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frienduser1 Girl is this why you weren't present in class today?

yourusername Maybe 🤷🏻‍♀️

frienduser2 Now how did you do that then

frienduser3 You could've atleast asked me to come with you 🤔

yoursername Sorry girl was a last minute typa thing 😬

bffuser Slay girl get that man

yourusername 🤫

frienduser2 @bffuser what are you hiding?

frienduser3 Yeah I would love to know that too 🤨

bffuser 🤐

With the sun high in the sky and the sounds of the race already starting to fill the air, I made my way to the circuit, following the signs and directions to the specific spot Lando had told me to meet him.

As I walked through the gates of the Silverstone Circuit, a sense of awe washed over me. The sights, sounds, and smells of a Grand Prix weekend surrounded me, and it was all so surreal. I had watched races on TV countless times before, but being there in person was a whole different experience.

The enormity of it all sunk in, making me feel both excited and slightly overwhelmed. It was one thing to see the action on a screen, but here I was, standing in the pit lane, surrounded by teams, cars, and the buzz of the event actually happening in front of me.

I continued to wander around, taking in everything. The mechanics working on the cars, the engineers huddled around strategy screens, and the drivers walking around with their confident strides – it was all so different from my usual life.

But what intrigued me most was the thought of seeing Lando in this environment, the stark contrast between the relaxed person I'd talked to countless times and the focused, professional driver he would become once he stepped into his car for the race.

I kept checking my phone, waiting for further instructions from Lando. He'd told me which area to meet him at, but I hadn't gotten any more specific details yet. I tried to distract myself by watching the practice sessions, but my mind kept wandering back to the thought of finally seeing Lando after weeks of just talking through a screen.

The practice sessions ended, and I still hadn't received any other instructions from Lando. I started to get a bit nervous, wondering if I was in the right spot or if something had come up with him. Just when I was about to reach for my phone again, I heard a familiar voice behind me.

"Hey, you looking for me?" Lando asked, his usual carefree grin on his face, looking slightly sweaty from the heat and the practice session.

I turned around, my heart skipping a beat at the sight of him. He looked every bit the professional racer standing there in his McLaren gear, but his familiar smile instantly made me feel more at ease.

"Lando! I was starting to wonder where you were," I replied, a mix of relief and excitement in my voice.

I was momentarily caught off guard when Lando suddenly opened his arms for a hug. But I quickly recovered, returning the gesture. His embrace was warm and firm, grounding me in the moment. We stepped back after a few seconds, both of us wearing grins.

"It's good to finally see you in person again," Lando said, his eyes crinkled with genuine happiness. "I can't believe you're actually here, at the race."

I chuckled, feeling a sense of disbelief myself. "Believe me, I can't believe it either. It feels surreal, being here in Silverstone, watching the race this close. And to think, I'm here because of you," I added, a hint of teasing in my tone.

Lando chuckled at that, seemingly enjoying the banter. "Well, what can I say? I have that effect on people." His playful confidence was undeniable.

I couldn't help but roll my eyes in mock annoyance. "Oh, don't get too big for your boots, Norris. I didn't come all this way just to inflate your ego."

He feigned shock at my words, a hand going to his chest dramatically. "How dare you! Are you saying my ego isn't already inflated enough?" Lando joked, his eyes sparkling with humor.

I let out a laugh. "Oh, it's plenty inflated, trust me. But seeing you in your element does inflate it just a bit more, doesn't it?" I teased back, enjoying the easy banter between us.

After some more light-hearted banter, the moment came when Lando was called back to his team for the pre-race preparations. He looked a bit reluctant to leave our conversation, but the responsibilities of being a racer were clear.

"I have to go," he said reluctantly, the shift in his demeanor noticeable. "They need me for the pre-race stuff. I'll be back after the race though, yeah?"

I nodded, understanding the necessity of his duties. "Go on, go do your thing. I'll be here, watching the race and cheering you on." I offered him an encouraging smile.

Lando returned the smile, a flicker of gratitude and something else in his eyes. "Thanks. And remember, if I win, you owe me an extra long chat tonight. Deal?"

I laughed, shaking my head at his request. "If you win, you get an extra long chat huh? But how about this? If you win, dinner will be on me."

Lando's eyebrows raised, intrigued by my counteroffer. "Dinner, huh? You know how to motivate a guy to drive faster, don't you?"

I shrugged, my tone light and playful. "Consider it incentive to win. Loser pays for the winner's meal, deal?" I held out my hand, waiting for his response.

Lando's eyes sparkled with a mixture of excitement and challenge. He took my hand, shaking it firmly. "Deal. Loser pays for dinner after the race. I better win then."

I winked, a confident smile on my face. "Just don't get too cocky now. I might surprise you, and you'll owe me a nice dinner."

Lando chuckled, clearly enjoying the banter and the friendly competition. "Just you wait and see."

The race was a whirlwind of tension and excitement, with each lap filled with nail-biting moments and heart-stopping turns. But finally, the race ended, and Lando emerged victorious.

I watched as he crossed the finish line, his car pulling into the pit, the radio buzzing with congratulations from his team. He made his way out of the car, helmet off, a satisfied but tired expression on his face as he spotted me waiting.

He jogged over to where I was standing, the adrenaline of his win still very clearly in his eyes. "Well, look who it is," Lando said, his tone filled with satisfaction and a hint of exhaustion. "Looks like I won. That means you owe me dinner, doesn't it?"

I put on a mockingly dramatic pout, playing along. "Oh, how will I ever recover from the shame of having to pay for a rich racing driver's meal?" I dramatically clutched my chest, feigning distress.

Lando laughed, the sound rich and carefree. "Come on, don't be a sore loser. You made the bet."

I sighed, pretending to give in. "Fine, fine. Loser pays. You drove a good race, I'll give you that. But don't get used to me paying for your food."

Lando's eyes twinkled with amusement. "Oh, I won't. But I'll definitely enjoy tonight's dinner, on your dime."

As we talked, the high of his victory was still palpable, but reality set in quickly. Lando was being called to attend his media duties, giving interviews and press conferences.

"I've got to go do all the media stuff, but wait for me in my room, alright? I won't take too long," Lando said, his expression still excited but a little distracted already.

I nodded, understanding that his responsibilities as a racer came first. "No worries, I'll wait in your room. Take your time with the interviews and stuff. I'll see you later."

Lando gave me a brief smile, a mix of gratitude and impatience. "I'll be there as soon as I can. See you later."

He quickly kissed me on the cheek before being whisked away by a member of his team, leaving me behind shocked after his little action but I quickly composed myself knowing I'm in public. I started walking to find my way to his room to wait.

As I was waiting in Lando's room, I heard a knock on the door. Expecting Lando, I called out, "Come in!"

But it wasn't Lando who entered, it was his best friend Max Fewtrell. I knew Max from the times Lando had talked about him, and I was surprised to see him. He too seemed to recognize me.

Max walked in, shutting the door behind him. He gave me a friendly smile. "You must be the girl Lando's been talking about," he said, his voice warm and amiable.

I smiled back, a bit embarrassed at the fact that Lando had been talking about me to his friends. "Yeah, that's me," I replied, feeling a bit nervous in the presence of Lando's best friend.

After Max and I started talking, he casually mentioned how Lando and I had gotten quite close lately. He then added, "Funny, I never expected Lando to go for a fan like this. He was a bit hesitant at first, worried you were going to take advantage of him or something."

His words shocked me. "Wait, what do you mean? He was concerned about me being a fan?" I asked, feeling a pang of hurt and confusion.

Max nodded, the honesty in his eyes clear. "Yeah, he was. Lando didn't want to admit it, but he was scared that you were just interested in him because he's a driver, that you weren't really into him for who he truly is."

I was taken aback, feeling the sting of doubt and hurt. "I can't believe he thought that," I managed to say, my voice soft. "I've been talking to him because I genuinely like him, not because he's a racing driver."

Max sighed, his voice softening. "I think he was just cautious, you know? He gets a lot of attention from fans, and he's had some bad experiences with people pretending to be something they're not. He didn't want that with you."

I was quiet for a moment, mulling over Max's words. A part of me understood Lando's worry – I could imagine the sorts of people he'd encountered – but it still hurt to know he had doubted my intentions all this time.

Max could see the mix of emotions on my face. "Look, Lando really likes you. He does. But he was just scared, that's all. He's been burned before, and he didn't want that to happen again. He didn't want to fall for someone who was only interested in his fame, and not in him as a person."

Max's phone rang suddenly, breaking our conversation. He checked the screen. "Ah, sorry, I gotta take this," he said apologetically. "Lando should be back soon, though. Just talk to him, alright?"

I nodded, managing a small smile. "Yeah, I will. Thanks, Max."

He gave me a comforting pat on the shoulder. "Good luck," he said before exiting the room to take his call.

Now left alone again, I was left with all the thoughts and feelings stirred up by my conversation with Max. Lando was on his way back, which only added to the whirlwind of emotions I was trying to sort through.

I leaned back against the wall, my thoughts chaotic. How could Lando have doubted me? Our connection felt genuine, didn't it? Was all of it just an illusion? Did he see me like just another fan of his? The idea filled me with confusion and hurt.

The sound of the door opening caught my attention, and Lando walked in, a smile still lingering on his face, his adrenaline from winning the race still evident. But as soon as he saw me, his expression faltered, replaced by a look of concern.

"Hey," Lando said, closing the door behind him. "Is everything okay? I just ran into Max, and he said that he talked to you before I got back. You seem upset."

I looked at him, the weight of my emotions clear on my face. "Yeah, Max spoke to me before he left. He told me a few things, about you being hesitant about us because I'm a fan, about you being worried I'm not interested in you but just in your career..."

Lando's expression changed from concern to a mixture of guilt and defensiveness. "That idiot," he muttered, running a hand through his hair. "Look, I can explain..."

I crossed my arms, waiting for him to continue. "Explain, then. Was Max right? Were you really worried about me being just another fan interested in your fame and not in you?"

Lando let out a heavy sigh, sitting down on the edge of the couch. "It's not that simple," he began, his voice unusually serious. "I've had my fair share of people using me for my career. You have no idea the number of people who pretend to care just because being with a driver comes with perks. It makes you wary, okay?"

I tried to understand his point of view, but it still hurt. "I understand that you've been through stuff with others, but you know I'm not like that. I've been nothing but honest and genuine with you. How could you doubt my intentions, especially after all we've discussed and shared?"

Lando looked at me, his eyes earnest. "I know, I know that now. I was just scared, alright? I couldn't shake the feeling that maybe, just maybe, you were like the rest. It was stupid, I know, but I couldn't help how I felt."

I pursed my lips, my hurt feelings still not fully soothed. "It's not just stupid, it's hurtful. It makes me feel like you didn't trust me this whole time, like all the things we've shared and the connection we've made didn't matter."

Lando groaned, his face a picture of guilt and regret. "You're right, okay? I was an idiot. I should've trusted you from the start. I shouldn't have let my past experiences color my interactions with you. I'm sorry, really."

I sighed, his words offering some relief but not erasing all the hurt. "I want to believe you, Lando. But words are just words. How do I know you won't keep doubting me in the future? How can I trust that you truly believe I'm here for you, not your fame?"

Lando stood up, moving closer to me until he was standing right in front of me. He looked me straight in the eyes, his voice soft but firm. "I promise you, I won't doubt you again. I see now how wrong I was to question your intentions. And I realize that you are not just any fan. You're special, to me. I never should have let my own fears and insecurities cloud that."

His words were sincere, the remorse and regret clear in his eyes. But a part of me still felt hesitant. "How can I be sure, Lando? How do I know this won't happen again, that you won't second-guess me every time we have a disagreement or a bad day?"

Lando took a deep breath, gathering his thoughts before speaking. "Because, the truth is, I... I have feelings for you. Real feelings. Feelings I can't ignore or deny anymore. And the thought of losing you because I was too scared to trust is... terrifying. And I may always joke around and not take things serious but the feelings I have for you are real how cringy it may sound."

My heart skipped a beat at his words, my eyes widening in surprise. I had suspected he felt something for me, but hearing him confirm it so openly caught me off guard.

"You... you have feelings for me? Are you sure?" I asked hesitantly, not quite believing what I was hearing.

Lando nodded, his gaze unwavering. "I've never been more sure of anything. I tried to fight it, to ignore it, but I can't. I've feelings for you, and they're stronger than my own insecurities and fears. I'm sorry it took me so long to admit it, and I'm sorry for doubting you. But please, believe me. This is real for me. You're real for me."

I looked at him, searching his eyes for any sign of dishonesty. But all I saw was vulnerability, sincerity, and a deep, genuine affection. "I... I don't know what to say," I stuttered, still processing his confession.

Lando stepped closer, his hands gently resting on my arms, his touch sending a shiver down my spine. "You don't have to say anything right now," he said quietly. "Just... don't give up on me yet, okay? Let me show you that I mean what I say. Let me prove to you that I do trust you and that my feelings for you are real."

Without any more hesitation, I looked into Lando's eyes and let the truth spill out. "I have feelings for you too, Lando. I have for a while now. I never thought you'd feel the same way, so I tried to downplay my feelings, to make them seem less real than they were."

Lando's eyes widened at my confession, a mixture of surprise and relief on his face. "You do? You really do?" he asked, as if he needed to hear it more than once to believe it.

I nodded, my heart pounding in my chest. "Yes, I do," I confirmed, my voice filled with conviction. "And it makes what happened even more painful, knowing that you didn't trust me, that you thought I was just another fangirl."

Lando winced, the truth hitting him hard. "I was an idiot, I know. I should've just been honest from the start. I should've trusted my heart instead of letting my fears take over."

Lando looked at me, the guilt still evident in his eyes but mixed with hope now. "So... you forgive me?" he asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

I took a moment to consider, thinking it over. "I do," I said finally. "I understand why you acted the way you did, even if it hurt. You've been hurt before, and it's hard to trust again after that."

The tension in the room lessened, and Lando let out a sigh of relief. Then he stepped closer, his hand gently lifting my chin. "Thank you," he murmured.

I could feel my heart rate increasing as his face moved closer to mine. His gaze was intense, filled with a mix of love and relief. Finally, he broke the remaining distance between us, his lips gently touching mine in a soft, lingering kiss.

The moment our lips met, it was like a spark ignited inside me. I felt a rush of emotions, a mix of relief, joy, and a deep affection for the man in front of me. I kissed him back, pouring all of my feelings into it, wanting him to truly understand how much I cared for him.

The kiss lasted for what felt like a sweet eternity, our lips moving against each other in a tender dance that expressed all the sentiments we both felt. When we finally pulled back, we were both breathless, our foreheads touching as we shared a look that was filled with newfound understanding and love.

After our heartfelt confession and that beautiful kiss, Lando looked at me, a small smirk on his face. "You know, we make quite a pair," he joked, his thumb brushing against my cheek. "A fan and a driver... pretty unconventional, huh?"

I laughed, swatting his hand away gently. "Yeah, I guess you could say that. Just wait until the news gets out. The tabloids will have a field day."

Lando chuckled, pulling me closer to his side. "Let them talk. As long as we're happy, does it really matter what they think?"

I smiled, leaning against him, feeling the warm, solid presence of his body next to mine. "Maybe you're right," I conceded, resting my head on his shoulder. "Besides, I think I kind of like being unconventional."

Lando wrapped his arm around my waist, his chin resting on top of my head. "Good, because I'm not sure traditional would suit us anyway," he teased, nuzzling my hair affectionately.

We stood there for a moment, enjoying each other's embrace, the world outside the room seeming a little less important in this small, private moment of ours.

Just as we were basking in our shared happiness, the door suddenly burst open, startling us both. Max stood in the doorway, a cheeky grin on his face.

"Well, well, well, look who finally figured things out," he teased, his tone light and playful.

Lando groaned, rolling his eyes before grabbing one of the pillows on the couch and throwing it at Max. "You couldn't knock, could you?"

Max dodged the pillow with a laugh, holding his hands up in surrender as he backed out of the room. "Okay, I'll leave you two lovebirds alone," he said, his voice filled with amusement.

Lando and I exchanged a look, both of us shaking our heads at Max's antics. We had a feeling he would be teasing us about this for a while.

After Max exited, closing the door behind him, Lando and I were left alone once more. We both started laughing at the absurdity of the situation, shaking our heads at the antics of Max.

As our laughter subsided, Lando looked at me, his expression soft and affectionate. "I'm still glad he walked in and forced us both to admit our feelings tho," he said, pulling me closer.

I nodded, a smile playing on my lips. "Me too. Max has always been a bit of a nudge, but he means well."

Lando wrapped his arms tighter around me, his chin resting on top of my head. "He's also going to be a huge pain in our asses, you know that, right?" he said, his voice amused.

I chuckled, leaning back into his embrace. "Oh, I'm fully aware," I agreed, a hint of resignation mixed with amusement in my tone. "We'll never hear the end of it from him."

Despite the inevitable banter we'd be subjected to in the coming days from Max and undoubtedly others, we both knew that it was worth it. Being able to hold each other like this, the weight of unspoken feelings lifted, made everything else seem secondary.

We stayed there, enjoying the quiet comfort of each other's company, both knowing that our unconventional love story was just beginning.

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yourusername Crazy to think that it all started because of my clumsy self ☕️

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landonorris Never been happier with someone spilling coffee on my shirt! Love you gorgeous ❤️ by author

yourfrienduser So this is what you've been up to huh 🤔

bffuser Slay girl my bestie is a wag y'all

yourusername Girl chill 🤣

yourfrienduser2 Alright girlie I see you, I would ditch uni for that reason too 🫡

ln4youlover Is this the girl he was seen with last time?

carlando554x4ever Yeah that's her it was confirmed by Lando on his insta

formulaonemaniac4 They're so cute together!

lalalando4youx She was his fan first y'all, do you know what that means?

landosbrokennose4 It means I have a chance with Lewis Hamilton

forformula81 Yeah no chill all of you 😳

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landonorris There's nothing better then geting P1 in my home race, with the best support I could ask for!

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yourusername So so so proud of you Lan ❤️ by author

maxfewtrell Still haven't got my credit for helping

landonorris oh shush mate ����

calossainz55 Well done cabrón!

landonorris Thanks mate!

danielricciardo Yeah we have much to talk about mate

landonorris 👀

81osclvr Brb going to sleep on the highway today 🙃

lnqdformulaone They're honestly the cutest thing ever

love4ln4shoes The fact that she was his fan made me more delulu 🤭

forwarverstappen1 This isn't some kind of fanfiction girl 💀

love4ln4shoes Let a girl dream damn 🫤

The end

[starlene]

Anne of the Island Book Club: Chapter 14

Okaaaay.

Faced with Ruby's dying fears, Anne feels "it was difficult for [her] to speak to any one of the deepest thoughts of her heart" – but even so, she deals with Ruby better than I think many professional therapists or theologians would.

Maybe it's because I've always been of the socially awkward sort myself and thus I cannot understand how anyone as young as Anne here can be anything but a fumbling mess with other people, let alone in a literal life-and-death situation... but even if I disregard that knee-jerk reaction, I feel like for a 19-year-old who gets upset when people post constructive criticism in her Wattpad comments, Anne is unrealistically good with people.

We've already seen she's brilliant with children (or at least, brilliant with Davy), and now, she's also brilliant with the dying. I mean, good for Ruby, it's great that she can have this conversation and pass away peacefully – but yeah, I just kinda feel like Anne is exhibiting quite a lot more wisdom and/or people skills here than you'd expect of someone of her age.

~

I also want to say that I think the part where Anne thinks about Ruby's attitude towards life, "She had laid up her treasures on earth only; she had lived solely for the little things of life" etc., is a bit... uuuuggghhhh.

In my mind, no matter how religious you are, a 19-year-old dying of an incurable disease is a tragedy, and said dying 19-year-old feeling upset about it is not indicative of some kind of a character flaw.

Ruby expresses sorrow that she'll never get the chance to be a wife and a mother. I don't know, I'm neither religious nor do I dream of becoming either of those things myself – but I feel like having to give up your dream of having a family because you're dying at 19 is always awful, no matter whether you've been a hopeless flirt all your life or an extra pious model Christian. The narrative paints Ruby as unreasonable here, which I think is incredibly unfair.

Oh well. It is what it is; I guess some ways, this book is simply very much a product of its time.

~

Anyway, I don't think this chapter is all bad, it's just incredibly heavy-handed when it comes to delivering the moral of the story. I've always found the description of Ruby dying touching, I think "And, while light feet danced and bright eyes laughed and merry tongues chattered, there came a summons to a soul in Avonlea that might not be disregarded or evaded" is a beautiful way of putting it.

I'm from a culture where open-casket funerals are not a common thing, so a a child, and to some extent even know, Ruby in an open casket and especially Avonleans talking of the sight of her for years afterwards (!) feels macabre to me. Macabre, and just plain weird.

"Ruby Gillis was the handsomest corpse she ever laid eyes on" – who says that!! I mean, yeah, Mrs. Lynde does – but really? The handsomest corpse?? Maybe it's just a culture difference, or maybe Mrs. Lynde is overstepping some boundaries here even in the original context, but to me, that feels like such a disrespectful thing to say it's making my skin crawl.

~

In any case, I think it was an especially interesting experience to reread this chapter an adult.

As a nine-year-old, I think I just read through this thinking, uh-huh, makes sense, if you're pretty but not intelligent in life then death will fix that, yeah.

Nowadays, I vibe with Diana feeling uncomfortable at the end of the chapter. You and me both, girl. You and me both.

[fortheturnstiles]

hi kiki <3 of all my mutuals I think your opinion on a complete unknown is the one I care most about…so 🎤….?

OKAY here goes . [also thank you this ask made me smile.. you wanna hear from little ol me ? :o) hehe]

the gist is i didn't like it but i didn't really expect to like it very much so i don't really feel let down by it necessarily. I'm already really picky when it comes to biopics and i only tend to like the stuff that's either really outrageous (i.e. Ken Russell's Lizstomania, All that Jazz if that counts) or formally unconventional (i.e. I'm Not There) and the rest of the stuff that gets churned out of the major hollywood studios is a complete turn-off for me. I watched Walk the Line for the first time a few weeks ago because i thought hey why not see where this guy is coming from. and maybe being a fan of Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story prior to ever seeing Walk the Line ruined it from me but it was maybe the corniest movie ever made, or at least could possibly make about johnny cash. which theoretically should be difficult. but not for mr james mangold. Beyond the general cheesiness of the whole thing i was left wanting a lot more about how Johnny Cash fit into a larger musical scene / moment that he was apart of and the history of country music coming out of nashville in tandem with rock n roll which was just not what that movie was going for at all unfortunately.

NOTE: SOME VAGUE SPOILERS FOR THE MOVIE AHEAD IF YOU CARE ABOUT THAT SORT OF THING. medium length ramble incoming. if you want to read some slightly more concise thoughts from me on the movie here is the review i posted on letterboxd

All this is to say is i was going in with EXTREMELY LOW expectations. Other than I thought the performances would probably be really solid and they indeed were!!! Timmy was great i think he did an incredible job and his physicality and all of his mannerisms were very evocative and embodied as Bob. His voice was also pretty good and i like how his speaking voice became more unintelligible as the movie went on that made me smile. his mannerisms also changed and shifted as time went on throughout the movie which was a good choice imo since he starts out so young and malleable and then gets more jaded and hardened as becoming Famous often does to a guy. The musical performances were also better than I expected them to be but I have mixed feelings about them still.. i don't like that they chop a lot of the verses out of the songs to make them shorter. Within the movie itself the beats for a lot of the song sequences feel exactly the same and it got old very quickly, aside from the song to woody + hard rain's a-gonna fall + i'll keep it with mine scenes which i wholeheartedly enjoyed.

my main issue is i just think it makes absolutely zero sense to make such a bland and artistically unadventurous biopic about BOB FUCKING DYLAN. And i know that the timeline it takes place over is based on the book that was used as the source material but i think it ends right before stuff actually got interesting for him in terms of his turn away from acoustic folk music. and all that stuff is documented in Dont Look Back + No Direction Home so what reason do i have to watch this new movie then? i guess to see timmybob flirt with and kiss and proceed to fumble beautiful women ... most of the Strong negative feelings i have about this movie are due to the extremely flat characterizations of both sylvie(suze) and joan. I think both of their roles as creative and political/philosophical influences on Bob are minimized to the point of nearly nothingness. Sylvie does a bit of whipping bobby into shape and encouraging him to release an album of his original music but her political influence on him and his songwriting is understated or mostly to completely omitted. which bums me out. Bob and Joan's relationship is dramatized in a very strange way with them making it seem like they would have these Moments of Passion and randomly on and off just hooked up with each other and were also in the scene performing around and with each other etc but like. omits anything about bob and the baez family knowing each other . which maybe is a purposeful choice i guess maybe they didn't want to be involved but idk the whole thing makes the bob/joan relationship strung very thin and not very Involved when they certainly were Involved. to a degree. whatever i guess i dunno i think there is maybe an interesting movie that could be in there but wowwww was it just such a beat-for-beat rehash of Walk the line and all subsequent musician's-rise-to-fame biopics. and surprisingly very safe and not artistically or intellectually challenging piece of work for a man who was so famously strange and controversial and difficult to figure out that they make the climax of the movie about it. and it just goes by like a cloud of smoke . perhaps i have too much bias for the work of Todd Haynes but I truly just think I'm Not There is such a great movie about Bob Dylan the artist and the symbol/icon that there doesn't need to be anything else. and the documentary filmmaking about Bob Dylan the artist/symbol/icon as well as the Man (as much as he allowed it to be) that already exists is great. i feel so Old Man Yells at Cloud over how useless this movie is for me. I do hope that it works for some people, especially people who are new to Bob. If this can be a gateway to dylan for them that's beautiful and I am happy. but it didn't work for me

[mrfeenysmustache]

The Moon Turns the Tide

Chapter 3

Based on @crescent-dreams SessKag fest day 3prompt: Mountain

Summary: After a stroke of bad fortune, Kagome’s life is uprooted.

She is moved into an unfamiliar community where she expects life will be very different- and much more miserable- than she’d hoped. But luck, she’s learned, can turn on a dime.

Also read on: AO3

————————————————————

One day, while hiding from the chores her mother liked to make her do to keep her “grounded and humble,” Kagome found herself in her father’s personal office.

In there, he kept his account books for the estate, things he’d picked up on his travels, old, antique maps, and an assortment of books on interests too niche to keep in the main library that anyone could access.

She was not often allowed in his office, and never when he wasn’t already in there himself, as there were far too many priceless and important things to risk to a child’s clumsiness, but since she was often a very well behaved girl, she knew this was the last place they would look.

So slowly and quietly, she’d crept up to the large wooden desk on the far wall and climbed up up up into the tall, leather chair.

In the middle of the desk sat a stack of new books. New books always started in her father’s office. He read them first and then decided where they needed to go.

It looked like finally, for once, she would get to see them first.

She pulled the first one off the top and looked at the gold, embossed lettering scrolled across the deep, leather cover.

Mountain Climbing Adventures

Tilting her head in curiosity, she opened it somewhere in the middle, flipping quickly passed several pages of endless words until she found an illustration.

A man, hanging off the side of a mountain by a rope tied around his waist.

“Oh my…” she whispered to herself, turning back to the beginning to read from page one.

The idea that anyone would want to climb something so big and tall and treacherous as a mountain amazed and terrified her. She lost herself in harrowing story after harrowing story, falling rocks, fraying ropes and wild animals and all the other misfortunes this man found himself in as he spent his time climbing up to places people probably didn’t have any business going.

And though she was riveted, Kagome decided that mountain climbing was best read about in books.

At least until now.

Her first ball had been a disaster.

City manners were so different from the ones that had gotten her through in the countryside, and she fielded many snide, judgmental looks as she fumbled her way through the night.

She didn’t eat right, sip right, stand right, wave her fan right and the dances they did were entirely unknown to her.

The second ball had not been better.

The third had been worse.

Now she sat in the carriage on her way to the fourth, wishing she could choose to climb to the tippy top of a high, storm cloaked mountain with a random husband on top if it meant she didn’t have to suffer through another stuffy, snobby ball.

But alas. This was all there was.

——————————

“I’m not going to another one!” She shouted, ripping the feather out of her perfectly coiffed hair and tossing it on the floor. “I’m not going and none of you can make me! I’ll be a seamstress before I try and make these stuck up, pompous, snobbish, self important nobodies like me!”

She was being immature and she knew it. Her mother had done all she could to prepare her in such a short time but it had not been enough and now she was worse off than when she’d first arrived. Her reputation was in shambles as she was seen as a clumsy, bumbling country bumpkin trying to infiltrate their sparkling society, and she’d had enough of trying to play their games and gain any ground.

“Dearest, it wasn’t that bad!” Her mother tried to soothe, but in answer, Kagome ripped a fine, silk glove in her haste to take it off.

“AAAHHGHHH!! You see? I can’t do this! I can’t be one of them! And after spilling red wine all over the host tonight, they certainly won’t let me try anymore.”

“She said it was fine.”

“She was trying to be gracious, but anyone could see the contempt in her eyes. And besides, everyone laughed and gossiped the rest of the night. I don’t even get sympathy dances anymore!”

With a sigh, Kagome’s mother gently pushed her hands away from where they flailed behind her back to lace her dress.

As she helped her undress, she hummed softly under her breath.

Hearing her mother hum or sing had always had an instantly soothing effect on her tempers and nerves. And it worked even now, despite how disastrous the entire evening had been.

“Here’s some good news then,” she said, pushing Kagome’s dress to the floor to work on her undergarments. “We’ll be going in a few days to the mountains. Your aunt’s late husband has a distant relative out there.”

“The mountains?” She asked, and her mother hummed in confirmation.

“Yes, they have a nice cabin in a quiet community. Your aunt pays a visit a few times a year to check on her aging in-laws, and she’s bringing more etiquette books for you to study. So we’ll get out of this stuffy city, breathe some clean air, and come back better than we left. How does that sound?”

“Good,” Kagome said, mind distant as her thoughts began to turn. Etiquette books aside, being anywhere other than where she was sounded like heaven.

But her earlier thoughts about mountains returned, and an uneasy feeling settled into her soul.

[kagiura-akira]

well okay ofc I have to go ask abt debugging shirahama. one time when I was trying to 100% the mysme routes I was like “oh let me set up 707’s entry route so I can start at his branch and get the bad endings” and then I romanced him so hard in the initial days that it was literally impossible for me to get one of the bad ends

Lmaoo YES because I would LOVE TO TALK ABOUT DEBUGGING SHIRAHAMA. Also worth noting I COMPLETELY skipped through the suggested playthrough order the first time I played mysme and went straight for 707's happy ending 😂 last I was working on was Jaehee and I had just gotten her first bad ending (you skip off to be in love with Zen instead lmao) and that was 3 years ago SO I'm a little Rusty™ at the game descriptions, hence the need for refresher courses.

The first thing he noticed was that the game wasted absolutely no time in throwing him right into his objective: collecting those colored little hearts and hourglasses—though he couldn't say he fully understood what the latter was for. When he'd asked the first time he incidentally got one, the system was silent.

“System, do you have a tutorial mode?”

...

“You could at least acknowledge me,” he grumbled. He tried for at least a good 10 minutes to get the thing to answer him until it dawned on him.

“The system will now respond to ‘Jesus.’"

It really wasn't kidding, was it? Suddenly he felt a strong urge to bash his face into the apartment's granite kitchen counters.

“J... Jesus,” he muttered reluctantly.

“Assistant menu open. Please choose from the following options:

1. Open story summary

2. Check hearts/hour glass balance

3. Open CG progress menu

4. Set character profile”

���Uh, ‘open story summary’ I guess.”

The story certainly was an odd premise, albeit novel for its time. The disembodied voice explained the death of the owner of the apartment and the gist of the whole “RFA” chat, with brief descriptions of its characters. It was kind enough to offer a suggested playthrough order, but he wasn't in a state of mind to start with the male love interests, so Jaehee it was. After fumbling around with the user settings to update his name (Kyouko, for the sake of making it less jarring) and picking a preset profile picture, it was well into the afternoon when he finally opened the app. The group was active—he must have counted at least ten existing chats from earlier in the day.

Shirahama had always been cool and casual when it came to DMs or texts. Despite his otaku nature, he wasn't as “chronically online” as some of his classmates, especially Miyano or Tashiro. His plan was to introduce himself to the chat slowly for a few days—get to know them better and such so his sudden presence didn't seem like he was looming over their chat too much. They were always chatting every few hours, so it would be weird if he was suddenly online all day every day. It was already weird enough that he was using a dead person's phone. His non-pressuring strategy usually worked well enough to win over most NPCs, so he kept his strategy to play it cool, and it got him moderately positive responses. Everything was working just fine.

That is, until Day 5.

After four full days of carefully inserting himself into this group of friends, with seven more to go until the end of the route, Shirahama found himself unexpectedly in the worst case scenario.

[some-stars]

i have my askbox closed rn bc of the scam spam so @petralemaitre sent me this meme directly:

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers! Spread the self-love 💞

i have 62 to choose from but honestly i already know what my favorite 2 things i've ever written are so this will be fairly quick.

A quite unlosable game (dark angel, alec/max, alec/various): this is it! this is the favorite! it's my most beloved show of all time and i had Things to Say and it took me ten years (off and on) but i did say them! very well! i started it in 2008 so my memories are vague but i wrote it pretty much in order--the first idea i had was the almost-pubescent X5s being lectured on how their hormones were going to be manipulated. it was a science fiction story for me, before anything else, because it's a science fiction show that didn't get a chance to explore SO much of the juiciest most interesting concepts it put forth. and it was also me thinking about how the show at first fumbled, then did SO right by the eye-rollable "max goes into heat" concept. like when it comes up in the second episode it's treated completely as a joke, but when it happens again at the end of the first season--when we've bought in to the basic premise and established trust--it's treated as the terrible, sad violation that it is. so i thought, well, how could i pursue that thread further? and. so. yeah. love this story forever, best thing i ever wrote, does exactly what i wanted it to do and does it almost perfectly.

The absolute absurdity of end-series items (house of leaves): my other favorite thing i've ever written! i don't think this is quite as perfectly executed, but it's pretty close, and certainly no one else has done it better so that makes it successful by default. house of leaves is one of my favorite books of all time and i have SO many thoughts about it and all the things that it DOES. some of which the culture at large has acknowledged and much of which i've never seen anyone else talk about, the latter specifically being how rich and welcoming it is to feminist interpretations. which i could never manage to write the essay about that i wanted to, but it's all just in this fic instead.

children's work (the witcher, geraskefer): gonna cheat and put the whole series. it's kind of hard for me to love this one because i can see ALL the seams, especially in the second and third stories where i was trying so many new things as a writer and flailing around so much. but taken as a whole it's the longest single work i've ever created, and the response to it utterly blew me away. people loved this series, so so so much, it's been four years and i kind of still can't process it. this is the story that i think about when i feel like i've never had any kind of effect on the world and nothing i've ever done mattered to anyone. because this series made a lot of people very happy, and that's nice. (also i LOVE when i can come into a fandom and write something that nobody's done before. it boosts my ego like crazy. not that the concept of the fic itself is original--i lifted a LOT of the emotional beats from an extremely good SPN fic i read way back in the day--but no one had done a serious take on it in witcher fandom yet.)

felt it in my fists (teen wolf, allison/lydia): i was Deep into this show for like half of one summer, but i hated (and continue to hate) sterek so there was not a lot on offer for me. but there was femslash! idk, i just really like this story and it's special to me for reasons i can't really identify.

put on the red light (deadpool & wolverine): i don't necessarily like this MORE than my other fics in the fandom but i do feel like it's different and therefore special. it's very rare for me to write explicit high-key emotional conflict and fighting, bc it tends to give me bad anxiety, but MAN i loved writing the big screaming fight in this one. they both fully believe they're breaking up because the other one betrayed them in the most painful way imaginable, and it's awful, and i love it.

im not gonna send the meme to anyone else but if you are reading this please consider yourself tagged!

[alitgblog]

i forgot what volume we're on but THOUGHTS

first off what do you meeeaan we're getting the finale next week 😭

heart rate challenge is fun because of the costumes and dances and flirting in front of someone's partner you get to do, but god the results sucked. I don't care for the drama of Jin having the highest heart rate with Sienna and I don't care about Sienna rubbing it in MC's face. Can we move on???

Especially because literally on the other side of it, I just picked that MC would have her heart rate raised the most by Logan for fun, and that resulted in NOTHING. Maybe like one comment that flew under the radar during Logan's date, but nothing fun. I just had to hear about Sienna sticking her tongue in Jin's ear or whatever.

Speaking of Logan, he's just another victim of not enough screen time. Like Tyler, Hari, and Logan all seem great but you barely get any chance to talk to them outside of their intro episodes and then by then you're expected to have already made a decision on who to pick. At least Hari is around for a while, but I simply have not really talked to him since Casa aside from hearing how he's fumbling Hazel. And between Tyler and Logan, who in my mind are basically the same personality going only for MC, I kind of prefer Tyler because at this stage in the game, Logan needed to have put more pressure. Or have been an angel sent like Oliver idk he has some substance. Once again, just a waste of a good looking sprite.

I also miss LIs that had their own personalities. Like I think that's why the OG boys are fun at first: each of them being distinct enough but all having reasons to go for MC. But the bombshells this season all seem to kind of just be "yeah I like MC because she's confident and knows what she wants" and that's it. It feels gameplayer-y which is maybe why I'm less intrigued for their routes. Even small things like Lucas liking a girl that puts in effort vs Henrik liking a girl that tells it like it is, so then you kind of have to "compete" with the other characters even though it doesn't make a difference later on with who you pick feels like it gives the characters more dimension.

I also think this is why Bea and Claudia have such compelling routes this season compared to the male bombshells (and vs. some of the other wlw routes in other seasons). They have potential partners that could give them what they want, although we know ultimately probably not. Also why I think if Hari's storyline was more fleshed out and you got time with him, that when he comes back with Hazel, his story could be more interesting.

Also I liked Logan better with the hat on, he needed a different haircut lol.

Stop it please with the texts interrupting conversations there has GOT to be a better way

also fusebox trying to squeeze out as many gems as they can out of us with more of those "i heard gossip do you want to know?" choices 🙄

the pancake challenge is lame. it just made me miss s2 cake decorating challenge 😭

also at this stage in the game, i feel like we should've gotten Mr. and Mrs. (I can't remember if we already did that). But a fun food challenge is fine too, it's just that this one wasn't fun. Also the options all being either "do it correctly" or "fail on purpose?" was very lame and probably contributed to it being boring. Once again, make it more like the s2 cake decorating challenge or paint challenge in difficulty if you're gonna do this.

Also no one else flirting with MC at this point? the other LI's don't have a CHANCE. That's why it's called tempting fate, because it's all temptation and yet while they all claim to want MC, no one is really talking to her what a shame

How does Sienna have the energy to be this much of a hater?? I kinda wanted her to have a small redemption at the end of her time but we never got it. And plus with her being so mean, it's so hard to imagine that at one point she charmed Jin into even considering her, so I feel like for logic's sake, we should've seen some of what Jin saw in her.

And once again we fall into the same problem this season has had which is way too many things at once because what do you mean they had three SEPARATE firepit meetings to dump islanders?? Give them some room to breathe!!

But yeah for some reason a couple is getting dumped right before the recoupling. We say goodbye to my frenemy couple Emel and Oakley. I hated them at times, but I miss them so dearly. They do not deserve to leave. I think that should've gone to Sienna/Max or Liam/Bea. If anything, since it's a public vote they should've had those three couples be at the bottom and then everyone else vote on who they'd like to dump and then however the math works out it ends up being Emel/Oakley, just for realism if the game really wanted to dump them. I understand that it had to be them because there are LI's in every other couple, but that's why I think they shouldn't have this dumping here in the first place.

Then the final recoupling. I touched on this briefly already, but oh my god no one got a chance. This may be the first time since season 2 that I'm sticking with the original person I chose to couple up with the first time I played through (ok technically S5 I did end the game with Suresh but that season is special and in a bad way). And maybe it's just the way I've been playing, but it does seem like in the last few volumes, you really only get to talk to the OG boy you chose or the Casa boy you chose. But I haven't really talked to Claudia since Casa and I'm so sad about that. Haven't talked Max much either, so I thought maybe he was sticking with Sienna? Haven't talked to Hari. Haven't talked to Bea. For some reason before the final recoupling, MC had a chance to talk to THEO? I was under the impression that if you're on a Claudia route then you're not on a Theo route but I guess he was an option the whole time, which was becoming clear in the last few volumes, but I'm still in awe every time he shows up trying to talk to MC. (Side note: a well written Theo friends to lovers route is brewing in my head and I think it would've rivaled a Jake S1 route so that's a shame it doesn't play out that way). Logan also had that chance, but both of those were gem choices, so they don't count in my head.

So no Claudia and Bea? I literally wanted to scream when Claudia said she was choosing a boy 😭😭

Logan is with Bea just because she needs to escape Liam, so I understand why, but they just seem so odd to me. Especially when Oakley and Emel were right there! Should've let them stay, at least they pretend to like to each other!!

Oh but I will miss Liam actually. Unfortunately he has much more personality than Logan so that's a shame but unsurprising that the more boring person stays the longest in love island lol.

Shouldn't have to pay gems to get people to not watch Jin's girlfriend announcement

also fusebox you already got your dig at us for thinking it was gonna be a zodiac themed season, are you really doing this again?? 🤣🤣

And then Max and Sienna go home in ANOTHER dumping. I'm exhausted. They couldn't have written one more volume to spread these out?

yeah yeah and hideaway again

anyway to prevent this post from being too too long I'm going to make a second post (yet again) with my ideas for how to fix these episodes because I've been okay with most of the recent volumes but idk this one in particular, although having the same problems as before, annoyed more than the others lol

still one of the top seasons of the game imo and definitely an improvement from s7 which I still haven't finished

[angy-grrr]

If Iz/ch was in a shoujo, assuming Izuku still the protagonist, and the other options were still bkdk/tddk (heck even rody/dk), they would fall from favor quicker than they are currently, bc what usually holds them around is the shonen quota, so if you take it away, there is nothing left. Seriously, i've been a shoujo fan since childhood and even if the story doesn't always focus on my favs, they still keep some balance on the chosen pairing.

If i had to sit and read a manga where two ppl with the same face, same personality, same goals, same ideals, same struggles with no chemistry, no conflict and no proper development, knowing they're supposed to be the endgame i'd drop it in a heartbeat.

Not to mention they ended up doing what i hate most in pairings, which is this constant passiveness where everyone needs to push or be used as stepping stones for them to do anything, otherwise they'll just stand there fumbling.

literallyyyyy -I know Narut* is infamous bc of the heterosexuality mess, but I get why ppl would think its, at least, interesting; its not bad boy x bad girl with the same ideals issues etc, nor its extremely shy boy x extremely shy girl. What's interesting is, at the beginning Ochako and Deku seemed to be more different and distinct -at least it could have been extrovert x introvert, but Deku becomes way more friendly, so the only difference between them involves him being a creepy nerd from time to time, and that we discuss Ochako's repression way more than him -but 431 takes that away, so they both end up in the "oblivious x yearner". And still, this trope fits bkdk way better, with all the art and references of him looking at deku softly in secret and scared of his heart.

Theres nothing connecting them in the story, not even the things they have in common, and with Deku almost dying while reminding us of the meaning Ochako gave to his name... makes it look like they are even a little toxic, in the way that they self isolate and make the other more self sacrificial -Deku talked to her, and still she is hiding things 8 years later and passive in her personal life, and he doesnt even actually open up to anyone, including her. They didnt change each other, beyond the meaning of a nickname that actually gets tied to a terrifying scene from Katsuki's perspective.

Its childish, its forgettable, visually doesnt add anything to the table -some ppl argue Deku's design is sharper than her, and I believe thats exclusively related to him being a boy mc, honestly. And still, the face shape, eyes, etc are, literally, the same according to the author.

Ppl already were bored over her struggling with nothing but liking him, so idk how the anime onlys will take this.

[cortegiania]

The Borgias is a masterpiece, but Neil Jordan's issue was that he worried too much about making Cesare 'unlikeable'. He tried to present Cesare as a period drama hero whom we should blindly root for, with an illusion of a sob story, even though historically, Cesare was unhinged. As a result, Jordan threw almost every other character under the bus to prop up Cesare, and he had to make Cesare's misdeeds look 'justified'. In contrast, I respect how Fontana handled that aspect because he made Cesare just as off the hook and disturbing as the historical records suggest, without worrying about whether the audience would find him likeable. And yet, the audience still ended up being captivated by Mark Ryder's portrayal of the megalomaniacal Cesare. This is something that Neil Jordan failed to achieve...

Yes, I personally think that was it. It was already evident in season 1 but he could have course corrected anytime and he really didn’t. In fact, he kept pinning on Juan things that are historically/traditionally attributed to Cesare (sleeping with Sancia, killing Lucrezia’s lover, the mistreatment of Caterina Sforza, getting an STD…) and consistently making other characters either caricature villains, dangerously unhinged or too dumb to exist so that Cesare would look like the pinnacle of intelligence and virtue in comparison. Juan is a partial exception to this, but he was still dangerous to be around to the point that Lucrezia had tried to kill him herself, so his death was seen as a liberation by everyone except Rodrigo (who, in turn, was depicted as an old and ailing man who needed to leave Cesare in charge anyway).

Also, his motives to do anything at all were mostly shown to be linked to Lucrezia’s well being and safety, which, okay, I ship them too, but at least try to make it more muddled, more ambiguous? No, Neil always took the super easy way out instead. The most glaring example is the way he made it clear Lucrezia was never in love with Alfonso (another character who completely lacked charisma so that Cesare would look better in comparison) at all. How do you make an outcome tragic if there are virtually no stakes involved and no one on or off screen cares that much if Alfonso dies? How starkly difference would it have been if Alfonso had been the first one we met, annoying yes, but sassy and memorable, and Sancia had been there to grieve him?

It’s like I mentioned in the hashtags I assume you’re responding to, Neil had a vision for a two-hour Borgia movie inspired by The Family but no long term plan, which is why he fumbled a lot. And part of the mess was in having Cesare stuck in this position where he’s always on the edge of becoming a bad man but he never quite does become bad because the showrunner feared that he would lose the audience’s sympathy.

I think there could be a possible explanation in Lucrezia. She’s the most morally ambiguous, yet easy to root for, character on the show; certainly the most interesting. I can somewhat excuse Cesare’a half baked characterisation if I take Lucrezia to be the true protagonist of the show. But that’s giving Neil too much credit, imo.

I often wish the show had been written by Michael Hirst. He wrote morally grey or even straight up unlikable characters that you still would root for long before Game of Thrones made it cool. All of them had done something somewhere on the spectrum of terrible, but you still understood their angle and you felt for them once they inevitably died a horrible death.

[kattythingz]

I do think it’s interesting that Roy is the one that killed the Rockbells in 03, definitely makes things feel way more personal and perhaps a bit too close to home for winry. Brings a lot of interesting emotional and mental dilemmas to the plate, not just for winry but also ed and Al. Perhaps mustang, too. 03 is better at bringing interesting dilemmas to the plate, though!

But I don’t think it’s less compelling that it was scar in mangahood. A lot of interesting things could’ve been done there, but brotherhood was more insistent on speed running the story (seriously I’ll never forgive brotherhood for what it did to the dublith arc and Xing gang) and keeping it almost solely focused on Ed and maybe kind of Al sometimes. (Will also not forgive brotherhood for how much more watered down Al is in it)

I think it’s less scar as an individual and more scar as a role that makes it interesting, though. As an individual, he’s pretty much considered a serial killer of state alchemists at that point and that really only affects winry in the “ed is in trouble” way. So she already had reason to dislike him, then it’s just added on that he���s who killed her parents. As a role in their deaths, though, I think it’s compelling for winry to confront that her parents were killed by a patient. Someone they were trying to save. That their will and dedication to their job of treating people and keeping them alive was repaid by the person they saved killing them. While with mustang following orders to kill them does still hit the whole “they were just doing what they’re trained to do and they got killed for it”, beat, I think since winry is also training to be a type of medical professional, her confronting that if she was ever in a similar situation as her parents that it could be someone she’s saving that she’d be in danger from is an interesting narrative. To me, at least. Brotherhood just didn’t like letting things sit or putting focus on something other than ed for too long, so more interesting developments for the side cast didn’t get explored or even thought about.

But that entire scene where she wants to shoot scar but doesn’t… I’ve been thinking, right? This could’ve been a moment for her and ed to really think about their morals. Winry, face to face with the man who killed her parents who is now trying to kill ed and Al, her found family, actually pulls the trigger… and shoots ed. because Ed jumped in the way to keep winry from getting blood on her hands in line with his pacifistic morals. Scar still has his moment where he’s reminded of his big brother’s sacrifice and flees. Al’s freaking out but possibly torn between chasing scar and leaving ed to the military because they are still doing a joint mission. Ed survives, but maybe he came close to not making it and that triggered Al’s rejection reaction like what happens in the north when Ed got impaled. Winry has to confront that letting her hatred get the better of her nearly took out the family she has left other than granny. Ed could potentially question where his pacifism is actually getting him and if it’s worth it to remain on this pacifistic path if the person who gave him a leg to stand on again was the same person who was willing to shoot through him to get to someone else.

Perhaps Al is now struggling with keeping everything together while also being unable to emotionally process everything because of the nature of being a soul bound to armour. Winry is wracked with guilt, Ed’s questioning his beliefs, and Al… is stuck in the middle. Stuck not being able to fully process all the traumatizing things that have happened to him on this journey to get his body back because he’s in an unfeeling body. Stuck hanging onto the things he knows despite how those things have changed in front of him.

That’s just a thought, though.

Now that's definitely a lot more interesting than whatever fmab fumbled. I can get behind that! My main issue, and the reason I still can't like the Scar plotline over Mustang, is just how easy it all was. Like Scar is already a serial killer, a stranger, and an active threat to Ed and Al. Winry already disliked him to begin with and there's no "conflicted" feelings on that matter. The actually interesting conflict was passed up in two seconds in Briggs, and dassit. It was just... disappointing. I wasn't interested at all.

(Esp since post that Scar encounter is when Winry's character really begins to devolve back to "love interest", but that's a bear I don't feel like poking.)

Interesting thought for sure!

[humaninpogresss77]

I haven't watch the finale episode so I can't make a final post of the show; But I don feel kinda sad that these show fumble a Little because it had a very interesting plot and a very good cast with great chemistry of the leads. Wan and Kim has very good chemistry.

I fell one of the things that affect me the most is how they structured the way to tell the story.

Os weird because even if I wasn't that fond of Mawin's taking over of the entire show I feel like the show suffered a lot from the beginning.

And while more I think of it more I came to the conclusion that is because of how it was told.

For example; I really important part for me to actually connected with Kim and Dawan as a couple came when they show us the flashback, however, that was shown around episode 5 or six.

It took us all of that time to be able to actually root for them; and it was because before I was told they love each other.

Until that moment the only part of the story that was telling us anything of their development was in the dream world, that wasn't that well or explained at all; because we never really saw i Kim was connected to the dreams or that was just a manifestation of Wan's desires alone. I am aware they said that Kim shares those dreams too in episode 11 but there was never a real part of Kim's actions that told me that in the episodes before that reveal.

Before that moment I really saw them as two people that were obsessed of each other but not enough to at least made me root for them. And that was also because what was shown was that they bring the worst of each other. The weird codependency with murdering anger depression of Wan and the sacrificial mixed with the level of miscommunication that made it seem like if you look for that name in the dictionary you would see a photo of Kim in the description.

And that's not the vibe of the couple they were selling(because don't make me wrong, I am all with toxic couples in fantasy if they are sell as is) but they were selling us these lovable relationship between these two but they were telling us at the same time that they were not really that good for each other.

(It doesn't really help also that Dawan's depression was worked off screen but that's something for another post).

So I think if they show us their relationship before the canon present at the same time they were having these weird relationship, at least we could root for them to have a grasp to go back to those days.

Like queen of tears or the secret of us did.

So, with the material they gave us; I think if they gave us the flashbacks in episodes 1-3, you have the bath scene in the episodes 4-6 and the scene in the beach(plus the dream sex scene) in the 6-9 group of episodes.

These other two scenes would help to escalate their relationship in a linear matter that could help to be like a linear way.

Obviously these scenes don't have to be structured in that way, but at the moment I felt for the bath scene I was kinda thinking why these happened if we already did the beach scene in some episodes before.

Alas, the show is what it is, but that doesn't mean it couldn't be something way better.

[bearsbeetsbeskar]

Restoring the Roots (Joel Miller x Therapist! reader) Chapter 3 Preview

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2

A little sneak peak of chapter 3, basically a whole lotta reader thirsting over our grumpy old man :) As always, thank you for your support and interest with this little story of mine.

Understanding the nature of the situation, and Joel’s obvious discomfort in seeking out help, you tried to make the consultation as stress free as possible, allowing him to speak first and share his thoughts about therapy. He wasn’t as hostile or cold as you anticipated, rather he shared that sense of being lost and displaced, much like your other clients who were struggling. His southern charm supplemented that as well, with his politeness overshadowing his contention towards therapy. For a second you thought he was going to disintegrate on the spot when he realized he had cursed in front of you and apologized profusely. It was charming as hell and really fucking endearing.

You tried your best to sympathize with his concerns him and validate his feelings, but fuck it was hard to concentrate. You couldn’t stop focusing on how much room he took up on the seemingly large sofa. His broad shoulders were still concealed by his coat but you didn’t miss how he sat with his legs spread open, easily dwarfing the couch that could normally seat three people. He also spoke with his hands, you noticed. A lot. You surmised it was the nerves, but again, you could get pretty animated with your hands when talking about something that excited you. You bit the inside of your cheek as you struggled to maintain his gaze and ignore how large they were, calloused from hard labour, how thick and long his fingers were. 

By some miracle you managed to make it through the entire conversation without gawking incessantly and fumbling your words, even when it felt like your brain was functioning faster than your mouth. Your passion getting the better of you.

Despite what Tommy told you, Joel was sweet, albeit reserved, but that wasn’t very different from other first time clients you met. You appreciated his honesty and apprehension. His perception of therapy didn’t surprise you in the least, If you were being honest. It only made you more excited at the prospect of working with him, and showing him the power of equine assisted therapy. He did seem to light up when you mentioned how the therapy worked and the interactions with the horses. You took that as a good sign. If he was already an animal lover it would make the transition to working with horses in a close proximity much easier. While equine therapy was indeed effective, it was a much longer process when your clients were not used to working with horses or were downright terrified of them. 

taglist: @beskarandblasters, @pr0ximamidnight, @theewokingdead, @atinylittlepain, @prolix-yuy, @swiftispunk, @harriedandharassed, @amywritesthings, @atinylittlepain, @missgurrl, @silkiers, @jasminedragoon, @mayasopinions, @pedgeitopascal, @elegantduckturtle, @sarahhxx03, @Snow30285, @gracie7209, @stevieboyharrington, @kirsteng42, @pedrit0-pascalit0, @loquaciousferret, @axshadows, @a-sh-lyn, @dotcie, @tightjeansjavi, @dreamingofdaddydin, @pedritosdarling, @lhymer1995, @nerdreader, @suzmagine, @like-a-dirty-french-novel, @delicious-collection

Apologies if I missed anyone! I will include everyone in the full chapter posting

[magnorious]

Review: The Last Airbender Episode 1 - “Aang”

“Long ago, the four nations lived in harm-”

Lol nope. What is it with writers these days fumbling exposition? You had a template, and you botched it.

I nitpicked the heck out of Disney’s Percy Jackson because if you say you’re going to adapt a book, it’s not a very far leap in logic to hope the script might follow said book. But aside from the likes of Twilight, following the source material as it was written never happens.

Netflix had an even easier job. Netflix already had the show they were adapting in a visual medium. Netflix could have gone two ways with this: Shot-for-shot remake just with live action actors, or with an “inspired by” vibe that takes familiar characters, story beats, and themes but tries to make something new with their shameless cash grab.

So, they wanted to take a beloved children’s cartoon and make it gritty and realistic… okay. Sure. No one asked for that and it shouldn’t be embarrassing for any adult to sit down and *gasp* watch a cartoon. For kids.

The original remains amazing, top-tier storytelling, so instead of these reviews stating the obvious “original did X better, why didn’t they do it that way?” we’ll look at the show as if the original didn’t exist… unless it just goes the route of Disney and Amazon and slaps a famous IP on the title screen without making any attempt to stay true to the original just to get butts in seats.

—

We open 100 years ago in Caldera (renamed generic Capital City) with a pretty decent fight scene and special effects. The choreography is solid, the tone is way darker – and so is the lighting, I had to shut the blinds and turn my laptop brightness all the way up – and it establishes pretty quickly that this is Not Your Kids Cartoon Anymore, even if the fight is bloodless.

*Side note: That no one has a Japanese accent in the Fire Nation is… surprising? I know it’s not actual Japan, I know the original didn’t have any accents, but that they’re going for the whole “gritty realism” vibe and didn’t white-wash the cast, not giving them any accent feels like a bit of a missed opportunity. Just the adults, even. Iroh had an accent in the cartoon.

The costumes are also amazing. The original is still a feat of animation but being able to see all the ornate detail in the costumes, particularly in the Fire Nation, is fantastic. The Water Tribe costumes don’t feel quite so lived-in. The colors are still vibrant, there’s no stains, no wear. They don’t reflect the weariness of a remote village still suffering the effects of a hundred-year-long war. Zuko’s scar doesn’t feel quite as gnarly as it could be, more like a very bad bruise and not the remnants of a 3rd degree burn (but at least it’s not on the wrong side). He still has his entire eyebrow and full visibility.

Sozin is amazing, too. Right off the bat he’s shown as clever, cunning, and violent. The original was limited by Nickelodeon’s censorship, so even though it was a kids’ show and they did amazing still scaring kids without showing the violence (like a graphic depiction of Zuko getting his scar), these are firebenders, and fire burns.

… Though if you’re twelve and watching this expecting a fun adventure, watching a man get burned alive in the first 5 minutes wakes you up right quick. I heard a rumor that they wanted to fill the Game of Thrones vacuum and, yeah, they went for it.

Is there a reason they didn’t lift the original opening narration straight from the old script? It was fine! It’s iconic! This feels like a student cracked open a thesaurus for their essay just to sound smarter. Gran Gran gets to deliver it and that is an... interesting choice.

They did salvage some of the original music, and hearing Aang’s theme and the foreboding horns of the Fire Nation theme redone was ear candy, along with the Sun Warrior chant in the end credits. During Aang’s escape from Zuko’s ship, however, the score sounded uncannily like the battle music from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. 

*Side side note: One nitpick. One little nitpick, I think I’m allowed. Aang cannot fly without his staff. It’s a convenient and logical cap on his abilities and there was no reason to not keep it in.

On the one hand, opening the series with the Air Nomad genocide establishes immediately that the Fire Nation is led by an evil warmonger. On the other hand, slowly weaving in that exposition over the first few episodes, culminating with “The Storm” took what we thought was a lighthearted adventure and made it so much more. That reveal in “The Storm” still makes it one of the best episodes of the show.

Gyatso is perfect. The casting is perfect. “Gritty realism” or not, they did their homework on Gyatso. The only voice actor that left a hole not-quite filled is Iroh’s. He doesn’t quite sound like the wizened old sage, just… a guy. Through no fault of his actor’s, he’s solid, he’s just not quite Iroh.

—

While the worldbuilding is fine and all the extra additions in the beginning are entertaining… the original cartoon was limited to a cable-bound, 30-minute time slot, with commercials. They did their best to pack as much as they could within that time limit for every episode and you weren’t left wanting. It was also animated and every single frame cost money to draw. Creativity thrives in a box and not having endless Netflix money forced them to do the best with what they had.

With all this room and time to kill on Netflix it loses that tightly-woven polish. Scenes linger and add in dialogue that could have been concise and short. This show marinates, where the original was multitasking in every shot – developing the characters, the world, the story, the lore, the relationships.

In the time it took an entire animated episode, this show front-loaded all the exposition and mysteries to be slowly teased and solved through the first half of the season. We’re not left wondering how Aang survived the Air Nomad massacre. We’re not wondering why he wasn’t there, we’re not wondering who he is and slowly learning him with each episode. Curious now if the “The Storm” episode will even exist.

When Aang takes Sokka and Katara to the Southern Air Temple, neither know exactly what happened beyond that it was bad, and Aang has no clue his people have been destroyed, that it’s been 100 years. This time, the trio and the audience already have that information so the oomph of seeing the aftermath, of seeing Gyatso, doesn’t hit as hard as it should.

The themes, the personalities, the motivations of the characters so far still feel like them, even with all the extra fluff. Aang remains a reluctant chosen one, a twelve-year old with too much responsibility on his shoulders – even if he explicitly ran away after eavesdropping on Gyato’s conversation about sending him away and didn’t just happen to be gone while his home was destroyed.

Everyone except Iroh, which is a shame. He reads less as a “concerned surrogate father figure trying to raise an angsty, bratty, entitled teenager” and more “old man who’s too old for his nephew’s BS so he patronizes instead of showing any genuine support.”

About the only major element that didn’t get the love it deserves is the humor. Aang’s abrupt “will you go penguin sledding with me?” right after he wakes up is just one of many missing lines. Game of Thrones had plenty of funny characters, a show can be gritty *and* funny and he’s still twelve, he’s allowed to be a little cringey and ridiculous.

For a shameless cash grab remake that lost the original writers and took forever to finally air, this is a lot better than I expected it to be. The script isn’t perfect and there’s some lines that aren’t well-executed, but no actor phoned in their performance and visually it looks amazing. The writers did their homework and, so far, even if they refuse to make it a kids’ show, they’re still making Avatar: The Last Airbender.

[decks-writing-blog]

The Borealis: Chapter Two: Nothing Could Ever Be Easy

Chapter One

[A/N] I've finished Half-Life: Alyx now and uh… what I learned about how that game affects the canon is that it can't be edited in. But the way I did things is still the best for me. My interest in writing this wouldn't have survived the wait to finish the game and the lack of Alyx being in it also would've damaged my interest in it because she's my fav character and part of the reason I wanted to write this was more of her interacting with Gordon. Also, also, if I'd waited to write this fic, I'd have felt rushed to finish the game and that would've made it less fun. Most important of all though is that I had fun writing this fic. So I'm just gonna let this fic stand as my go at continuing the story laid out in the original games and might have a go at writing a continuation with what Alyx added if the idea seems like it'd be fun. The whole point of fanfic is fun after all, I'll write whatever's fun to me and no one can stop me.

~

By some miracle nothing disturbed them before they had to land to refuel. Foresight meant they carried their extra fuel with them. While Mori took care of refueling, Gordon patrolled the area with Alyx, going to opposite sides of their landing spot, lest Combine or anything else dangerous be about.

This much further north, it was already much colder and snow blanketed the surrounding sparse landscape in white. His boots crunched all the way to the bottom of the snowdrifts as he walked through them. None of them were too deep right now but the weight of the suit might prove to be a problem later on. Hopefully not but he’d worry about what to do about that if and when the problem raised its head. But at least with the HEV suit’s helmet up, the cold didn’t affect him much; part of Kleiner’s upgrades included making it protect against extreme temperatures too. There were limits on that of course and the power would still drain faster in said extreme temperatures but there were plenty of batteries packed in with the rest of what they’d been provided with so it shouldn’t be an issue. Or hopefully it wouldn’t anyway as the universal rule of if something could go wrong, it would eventually, still stood.

For now though, things continued to go well. Far too well as the longer nothing happened, the more the weight of its potential weighed on Gordon. After refueling, they ate, took turns stretching their legs and whatnot, before Mori took a necessary nap. Leaving Gordon and Alyx to continue to stand guard, ready for anything as nothing continued to come at them.

Where were the Combine? They should’ve been after them. … Perhaps, unable to track their exact path, they were instead sending their forces to block them in the arctic. Or perhaps they were focusing on finding the Borealis first. If they had Mossman, sucking her brains would make it easy. Damn it! They really didn’t have time to spare. They had to leave as soon as Mori was rested enough to not be at risk of crashing.

~

A hand shaking his shoulder had Gordon snapping awake and reaching for whatever gun was closest to hand. Before he could raise it though, he stopped; it was Alyx.

“Sorry to disturb your beauty rest but we’ve been spotted so uh… time to rise and shine,” she said, her voice crackling over the headset.

Taking a deep breath to steady himself the rest of the way, Gordon shifted to sit up a little straighter, giving himself a better look around. Through the side windows swirling snow and clouds could be seen, only partially obscuring the Combine’s gunships hovering around them.

“Radar says there’s six of them and they’re closing in,” Mori said, their voice betraying their fear. “What do I…” They cut of with a yelp as the whole helicopter jerked and shuddered as the Combine ships presumably opened fire.

Gordon had regretfully buckled in this time, meaning he wasted valuable time fumbling to undo it so he could get up and do… something. What, he’d figure out when he got there. Before he could though… another shudder and then the sound of the rotors, normally a constant even through the headset meant to protect against it, ground to a halt. And just like that, they were falling. Not a clean fall either but spinning around like a hellish teacup ride.

“This is bad,” Alyx said, gripping the sides of her chair. What else was there to say in such a situation?

Damn it. There wasn’t anything Gordon could do to stop it even if he knew the first thing about pulling out of a death spiral. If they were over the arctic land, going down might be a good thing if they could survive it as they might be discounted as dead, thus making it easier to reach their destination without further incident. If they were over the ocean though, they were as good as gone already.

Their spin came to an abrupt, jerking halt as they hit something solid. Ah, over land then, that was good. And they’d landed upright, only at a slight angle. Things could’ve been worse.

“Major fracture detected. Morphine administered,” chimed the HEV suit’s robotic voice, just barely audible over the ringing in Gordon’s ears. The jerk of the crash had knocked the headset off. “Seek medical assistance.”

Which of the blaring pains in his body was the ‘major fracture’ or if there was more than one was impossible to guess but it didn’t matter anyway as the morphine hit, dulling all of it. The drug also calmed his racing heart, making it easier to breath even with the tightness in his chest that indicated broken ribs. No sharp pain or coughing of blood indicating any had pierced his lungs though. He could survive this.

Lifting his head, he turned to look at Alyx, sitting across from him. She hung limp in the straps of her seat belt’s harness. Blood trickled out of the side of her mouth… not a good sign. Mori was silent up front too, also not good. Damn it all.

It’d be easier to just go ahead and reset but… Gordon’s hands fumbled at his harness. It took several tries to get it undone, during which Alyx didn’t move even a little. As soon as he was free, he crawled over sit next to to her. Reaching out a hand, he cupped her face, lifting her head.

Her eyes fluttered open. Alive… for now. “Gordon?” Her voice was weak. “Are you okay?”

He nodded even though it wasn’t true. His right leg hadn’t quite obeyed him when he’d moved over here. With enough healing goo that could be fixed but they were limited on that so he should indeed just reset. Not while she was looking at him though.

“What happened?”

Not wanting to let go of her face as his hand seemed to be the only thing keeping her head held up, he lifted his other hand to spell, “Crash.”

She blinked at it, seemingly not comprehending. “I can’t feel my feet. That’s… bad, right?” … Damn it. Well, hopefully that at least meant she wasn’t in much pain. “We’re… kinda fucked, aren’t we? We… we failed.”

“No. We’ll be okay. Wait here.” If she was indeed out of it enough that she couldn’t understand his signing didn’t matter. Before pulling away, he leaned forward to give her a gentle kiss on the forehead; a promise that she’d be okay even if he had to break the rules of time to ensure it. He then carefully he lowered her head back to her chest.

His pistol was still attached to the leg of his suit. After a quick examination, it looked to still be intact and functional. He then crawled over to the door on the side of the helicopter that was titled upwards. Because of that, it was also relatively undamaged, allowing him to open it with little issue.

The cold and snow rushed in as he pulled himself out into it. There wasn’t anything to see. It was all white swirling snow; a blizzard. Or perhaps for this part of the world, just normal snow. Regardless, he crawled all the way out into it before grabbing his pistol and lifting it to his head. An hour before now would hopefully be far enough back to prevent this.

As always whenever he reset back to a time he’d been asleep for initially, it woke him. Such made it feel almost like a nightmare, an unpleasant and horribly vivid one but less real nonetheless.

Around him, the helicopter was intact once more. The view through the windows, nothing but snow and clouds, the loud whir of the rotors, audible even through the headset. Across from him, Alyx was looking a bit bored but was blessedly fine. They were safe and in the clear. It wouldn’t last much longer but for how long it had, it was a wondrous boon.

No time to luxuriate in it any more, Gordon waved a hand, catching Alyx’s attention. “Oh, you’re awake. Good morning. Or I guess it’s not morning. I uh… don’t actually know what time it is, the sun’s not visible right now and I don’t think it even sets this far north anyway, right? Or was that down south? I don’t know. But you know what I mean. I hope you had a nice nap.”

“Thank you.” I had been the second nicest nap he’d ever had, bested only by the nap he’d had on the first leg of this journey. “Tell Mori to fly lower. There are Combine nearby.”

“Yeah, we know. But if if we fly too low, any ground forces they have will see us. We’re hoping the snow storm will shield us from whatever air patrols they might have.”

“Makes sense.” And that’s part of why having her as a companion was such a great boon. She knew a lot more about this stuff than he did. “We need to change course though, take a less direct root.”

“Hmm… Mori,” she said, switching her headset to include them in the conversation. “Gordon wants us to change course.”

“Um… well,” they replied, “Dr. Freeman, I’m sure you know what you’re talking about but… we only have so much fuel. With what we have now, we’ll barely be able to reach Mossman’s base camp. So uh… are you sure?”

“Land a distance away. We’ll walk.” Fighting the gunships on the ground was hard enough, while also flying and thus being vulnerable to being shot down too, would be much harder. Him shooting down every ship chasing them before they were shot down would be nigh on impossible. With enough tries and a lot of luck, it was technically doable but he didn’t fancy dying a hundred plus times in a row if he could help it. “Change course, please. Trust me.”

Alyx frowned at him. “Is this another one of those things like with the Advisors? Where you just know something somehow?”

The number of times his reset power had come into play in what he suggested they do was starting to add up. In fact, now that he thought about it, the only time he ever made a suggestion about what they should do was to avoid or better prepare for something one or both of them had died to. Having grown up with the world overrun by Combine, Alyx was more competent than him in navigating it. Following her lead was often the wisest course of action. The only time it wasn’t was when he knew something she didn’t thanks to time resetting upon his death.

He could try to explain away all his suggestions as instinct; he was good at fighting the Combine so he had a good sense on where they were and what kind of forces they would send. But that was bullshit, he had no idea what he was doing. He was good at faking it and to a certain degree had to be; so many people looked up to him, he couldn’t let them down. Alyx was smart though, at least as smart as Eli, if not smarter. With how long they’d been traveling together, there was no way she hadn’t noticed a pattern to when he insisted they change direction or when to prepare for an ambush. He owed it to her to at least acknowledge that much.

“Yes. If we continue as we are we’ll get shot down.”

“Okay. I trust you. Mori, Gordon’s sure. He says we’ll get shot down if we don’t change course.”

“Roger that. Changing course now. I’ll try to skirt around, take a less direct route.”

Alyx fiddled with the headset to speak just to Gordon again. “Do you care to explain more about how you know things sometimes?”

No, Gordon didn’t. And so he folded his hands on his lap.

“Because if you have some kind of Combine wire in your head telling you where their forces are, that’d be real nice to know. Especially if the reason you haven’t told anyone about it is because they can track you through it or whatever. If that is the case, I won’t tell anyone, I promise but that is information, I’d like to have. You know, since I’m here with you, trying to save the world and all.”

“They can’t track us.”

“All right, good to know. But you didn’t say it wasn’t a wire. So… is it?”

Gordon put his hands back in his lap. Perhaps it’d be wise to lie and say that that was it but… he’d never liked lying, especially not to people he cared about. So he just wasn’t going to answer. Let her assume whatever she wanted about what that meant.

~

With nothing ever being as simple or easy as one hoped, even with the end of their journey practically in sight, they were of course found and shot down several more times. A couple of them were death on impact for Gordon, far more often such was the case for just Alyx and/or Mori. After the third such instance, Gordon started shooting himself as soon as they began free falling. He had to be quick about it so Alyx wouldn’t see him lift the pistol but the chaos of the spin kept her well distracted. Still closer than he’d like but the time and heartache it saved was worth it.

He tried a few times to fight back by opening one of the doors and firing rockets out of it, far easier said than done. He did manage to bring down a couple though but never more than two before the rest brought them down too. If the helicopter had been equipped for combat it might’ve been different story but to lighten its load, extending how far it could bring them, the resistance had dismounted the gun that had once been on it to use elsewhere. Leaving him with not many options.

He had to trail and error his way into redirecting their route. He must’ve come off as insane and weird, paranoid to a fault, but both Alyx and Mori trusted him more than was likely wise. He was grateful for that though as it got them closer and closer to Mossman’s base each time without being shot down. It no doubt confirmed Alyx’s suspicions that something wasn’t normal about him too. Not ideal but better than dying over and over any more than he was already.

Eventually, finally, instead of crash landing, they came to a much more gentle stop as, their fuel supply too low to risk continuing, they landed. Technically Gordon was still fresh off a long nap. Physically he still felt that. Mentally though… not so much. It wasn’t the most often he’d died in a row, that honor still went to the Nihilanth, but it was up there for sure and the longest streak of killing himself over and over. Gunships continued to be the worst.

But as nice as it would’ve been to curl up and cry about it or scream until his throat bled, there wasn’t time. They had a mission to get to as soon as possible.

They loaded up their supplies in packs and a sled which Gordon naturally took charge of. The HEV suit enhancement to his strength wasn’t immense but it wasn’t nothing.

“We’re several miles away from Mossman’s base camp,” Alyx said as they got ready to head out. “A kinda long hike but I’m sure we can manage. Maybe anyway, you gonna be okay in that suit? It’s gotta be heavy so if we hit ice or something, it might be bad. Maybe you wanna…” She trailed off.

“Don’t worry about it.” Gordon wasn’t taking it off. It couldn’t protect him from everything but it could do a lot. His death count would likely be more than double without it. So there was almost no force in the world that could convince him to take it off.

“Okay. Let’s get moving then, I guess.”

~

The snow storm had blessedly mostly died down, leaving the air around them as they walked clear and a bit too bright. There wasn’t anything around them to see other than barren snowy tundra. The arctic was so far proving to not be as interesting as it had been in theory. At least that also meant they weren’t being harried by Combine though; Gordon had got them clear of that for a little bit longer.

They walked in silence for a while, Mori leading the way with their navigation equipment. The fast pace they set was welcome, allowing Gordon to focus on moving, helping ease the stress of death and suicide. Being given room to think wasn’t a fun activity these days, the less he did it, the better.

Alyx walked right beside him, wrapped up in cold weather gear that covered her face. “Is it because of the briefcase guy?” She asked about an hour into the walk, speaking just low enough that Mori shouldn’t be able to hear it.

Gordon turned his head to look at her.

“The guy who put you in stasis. Does he tell you things somehow? Like… there are two Advisors on the hanger roof or where to go to avoid running into Combine air patrols.”

“No.” Or at least Gordon was pretty sure the ‘briefcase guy’ had nothing to do with it. When first officially meeting him, it had seemed he might. But after declining his offer for employment and dying as a result, Gordon had reset back in the tram car hurtling through empty space. If the guy was aware anything had happened, he hadn’t indicated it. Which didn’t mean he wasn’t aware of it or even that he wasn’t responsible but if the latter in particular was the case, he’d have surely said something, right? So Gordon’s hypothesis that it was related to his having been in the middle of the resonance cascade as it happened stood, especially since he hadn’t been able to reset to before it.

“Damn. I thought I was onto something.”

Gordon shrugged, turning his gaze back on the path ahead.

“I don’t see why you can’t tell me. I mean like we’re partners, right? So why don’t you trust me enough to let me know how you sometimes just randomly know where the Combine are?”

She had a point, especially since Gordon had basically admitted he did have supernatural knowledge on the Combine’s troops. But… he didn’t want to talk or even think about it if he didn’t have to. Especially since, if he told her right now, so soon after killing himself so many times, he’d likely break down about it. They didn’t have time for that and she was depending on him to be strong. So he just didn’t answer.

~

They had to duck and hide to avoid potentially being spotted by a patrolling Combine airship three times before they crested a hill that put them in sight of Mossman’s base camp. Even from a distance it was impossible to miss the fact that the patrols guarding the area were Combine. Damn. Nothing could ever be easy, could it?

~

Next Chapter

[incesthemes]

final thoughts: supernatural season 11

all right let's do this wretched thing

i don't even know where to begin. i'm trying to weigh it against season 6 as my least favorite season, but it's difficult. season 6 was bad because it was scattered, poorly written, poorly paced, and terribly executed. but season 11... i just really hated it conceptually. it was really hard to get over the hump and ride this whole darkness thing out—there's always a limit to suspension of disbelief, and i think when you're dabbling with real-world mythologies that limit is lower than usual.

now i think there were ways they could have executed this intelligently. like my comment a few days ago about how adding this The Darkness(tm) to the story recreates judeo-christian mythology into a form closer to proto-indo-european mythology, i think if the writers had known about the PIE creation myth and actually used that to inform their writing, they could have done something really cool, and at the same time maybe return to its "all mythologies are equal" roots instead of... whatever the fuck kinda christian supremacy propaganda they were selling this season.

not to go on a tangent, but say they cast god as manus and amara as yemo, they could have actually made a statement about the interconnectedness of (IE) religions and made the story less christianity-centric through that acknowledgment of non-abrahamic religions. i mean that's the root of all these religions in the first place. i mean the leviathan is tiamat, genesis is fix-it fic of the enuma elish, etc etc you already have the PIE influences in the old testament. the roots are there they just had to be aware of them and use them creatively.

so that's deeply disappointing. they were so close and instead of making something really cool, all they did was push some agenda that the judeo-christian god is the ultimate god and yknow i really can't respect that, especially after all the work kripke era did to dismantle that bias. it feels disrespectful to the original show and i'm not very happy with it at all.

i could go on and on about this in particular because i have so many thoughts about how it could have been handled better and more respectfully, but i'll stop there because that's the gist of my argument and ideas. outside of this i guess the seasonal plot was decent? it's hard to really gauge my opinion on it because i really just did not like this season conceptually, and my thoughts are skewed against it as a result. up to now i've at least been interested in the ideas they were putting forth, and my issues have been with the technical aspects of writing. this is... a doozy.

i'll critique the amara/dean thing. because actually this is my kink. or one of them. or an aspect of it. whatever. so i should like it. the whole "i'm being forced to love someone i don't or wouldn't otherwise" is LITERALLY my kink. i go nuts over this. but um. yeah it really did nothing for me. the blank stares and nonexistent affections between them did absolutely nothing to sell me on this bond between them. actually i liked amara's side of things a lot better, i thought she really put her at least 75% of her pussy into seducing dean, and i liked the innocence with which she approached him, like it was a given that he loved her as much as she loved him. that was good. i liked that.

dean on the other hand? really did not sell this. idk if it was jensen's acting or the writing itself or what, but i felt absolutely nothing from his end. not even a hint of his internal struggle, no fight or even desire, just total absence of anything. like he turned into a wooden board whenever she was around. really disappointing actually!! because it was such a gimme to get me to like this. i'm literally hardwired to go nuts over this exact type of plot at its worst or cheesiest or most poorly executed, and they still fumbled it hard. no chemistry, no struggle, no tension, nothing. disappointing!!! i feel like i got left high and dry here.

also after the incestuous high seasons 7-10 left me with, i gotta say s11 really flopped on the brotherfucking. there was stuff here and there, but they had so many opportunities that they completely passed up on. if you're going to have sam exclaim in his fit of magic-induced despair "you were going to choose amara over me" then idk man could you give me SOMETHING to lead up to it? obviously you can get it from context clues. the qareen episode has the ending scene too. but outside of that? really not a lot of substance there. where's sam's anguish? his despair? he's about to lose his brother, the man he married in a church and then cured of demon-ness and destroyed the entire world for, to some fucking lady, and he acts so impassive over it the whole time except like. twice? okay. i don't think it would have been so disappointing if the past four seasons hadn't been about sam and dean getting married and divorced and remarried and redivorced over and over again. it went from 100 to like. 30. sooooo quick and i felt that. i felt that.

now you could have fixed THAT by paralleling amara with sam instead of chuck (????seriously????) and having dean's central emotional conflict be about choosing amara or sam (sam being a metaphor for the world, life, creation, etc). keep the tension high by making it be a front-and-center decision dean has to make. he wants to choose sam, but it's hard because his soul wants amara and he doesn't have a say in the matter. she's bewitched him and sam is fighting to take him back and dean is clinging to sam while also reaching out to amara and it's messy and painful and sam has to watch his brother be torn out of his grasp. it would be a perfect way to continue the conflicts set up by the previous seasons, it would have made the plot stronger, and it would have fixed probably all of my gripes about the dean/amara stuff i just complained about because there would have been some externalization of this struggle instead of forcing the audience to watch dean stand woodenly in place for several minutes at a time while amara monologues at him.

like come on.

okay. i'm trying to tally up the episodes i actually liked in this season so let's see. baby was good, very creative and i respect that and what it was trying to do a lot. idk if i'd say i liked thin lizzie, but i appreciated the fact that the show returned to the roots of what soullessness means as established in season 6 through len. it felt kind of insane that every soulless person turned into a volatile killing machine when we had 11 full episodes of soulless sam showing us exactly what removing a soul is supposed to do to someone. it also might be one of the first times, if not the first time? that this show has acknowledged its insane lore retcons and tried to reconcile it with current lore. so i'll give it a gold star for effort. plush was good, as always i'm a big donna fan; into the mystic was inoffensive. i LOVED don't you forget about me because i will always be jody's #1 stan forever. love hurts had the extremely psychosexual samdean moment at the end BUT it also embodies everything i hated about the amara/dean romance so that's a hard pass for me sorry. the chitters was good—had a lot of good psychosexual samdean as the emotional core of the episode and there was that insane conversation between jesse and sam in the car that drove me bonkers. definitely my fave of the whole season, probably.

so 6 episodes? yeah okay. that sounds about right for the amount of agony i was in while watching this season. checks out. okay. (clutches my head miserably)

the finale dragged on for too long. i can't even blame it because it pretty much needed all four of those episodes and i don't even think they were particularly badly written, but four episodes is a lot of episodes to tie up the season. i also think i'm biased against this because i just really did not fucking like this season, oh my god. every second longer i spent on the plot was kind of agonizing actually.

and all the brothers stuff at the end just did not make up for what the season put me through. it felt... idk not flimsy, but in comparison to what the season gave us, neither of them seemed like very active participants in any of this and so the emotional moments just didn't hit for me. i can see the development on sam's end from "i would destroy the world for you" to "ok maybe i shouldn't have done that; i'll let you die now" but i don't really agree with it given that there are still 4 seasons left in this show. if they start getting healthy about their relationship now, there isn't going to be any intrigue left, no tension left to propel them forward into unending codependency and enmeshment. "we have to change" except they can't because the narrative requires them to be psychotically, irrationally, erotically codependent because this is a show about their relationship. you have 4 seasons leading up to sam's total and complete dependency on dean only for him to become normal about him within a single season? not only does it not work like that, but it shouldn't work like that. the show has done nothing but reward them for choosing their codependency (emotionally, that is; whatever happens to the world is not their problem tbh) over everything else. to pull an about-face that hard and not even have sam break down sobbing when he thinks dean is dead is just.

well it's just.

i'm just saying. if your entire reason for living, the only thing that matters to you in the entire universe, just fucking obliterated himself, i don't think you'd be fully functional and just a tad bit sad over it. sam got half his soul ripped out of him (they are soulmates after all) and he's fine? he can walk on his own, hold a conversation, barely even cry? after all that? after dean became the foundation of his reality, after he almost killed himself because he thought dean didn't love him The Most, after he tried to make a deal with the devil to bring dean back to life, after he caused the apocalypse 2.0 because dean was a bit cranky? so he just says "this is a problem and we have to change" and it's all fixed now? ok.

i'm not saying it's 100% bad (though i certainly don't like it, and this is definitely not the reason i'm watching this show lol), but it just doesn't feel coherent with the story so far, and it doesn't have enough support for it either, especially with 4 more seasons ahead. again: if they get healthy and normal about each other now, then what in the hell are these last 4 seasons even going to be about? it really kills my motivation to keep going, i'm not gonna lie.

i didn't mean to go off on that tangent. anyway i think i'm going to be petty about this and say it's my least favorite season so far. because at least season 6 had good ideas and its issues were almost entirely with its piss-poor execution. this? just felt insulting if i can be quite honest. i worked myself up writing this but i feel more confident in my evaluation of it. from the centering of judeo-christian mythology over all others, to the lack of focus on sam and dean's relationship and their spontaneous borderline-normalcy about each other, to the total flop of what should have been the easiest goddamn plot to sell to my kinky ass, i just thoroughly did not like this season. good fucking riddance.

i'm going to read some wincest fic. wincest writers always give me what i want 💖 i'll pick a show to watch during my detox later, i haven't really thought about it since i was so focused on finishing this season before my birthday (and thank god for that too, if i'd had to watch this then i would have been miserable). anyway that's all i'll stop complaining now :)