#and got to pause the episode to go prepare for the fact that he was about to try it

[welcometothejianghu]

Welcome to another round of W2 Tells You What You Should See, where W2 (me) tries to sell you (you) on something you should be watching. Today's choice: きのう何食べた? / Kinou Nani Tabeta? / What Did You Eat Yesterday?

Kinou Nani Tabeta? (which I'm going to abbreviate here to NaniTabe) is a live-action adaptation of a manga with the same name, which tells the story of two middle-aged Japanese gay men as they navigate their relationship, their families, and their professional lives, all while having some good meals.

Do you want something nice? Do you want a show that's just ... nice? Not saccharine, not cloying, not reductive, but just cozy and kind? This! This is what you want. Every episode deals with some events in their lives, and then the action will pause once or twice while someone demonstrates how to make a meal. There's no real overarching plot. You just get to peek in on them every so often and see how they're doing.

...Shit, I'm just going to steal the GagaOOLala second-season synopsis, it's perfect:

Shiro Kakei and his partner, Kenji Yabuki, live a life full of some hardship but mostly happiness together, with Shiro's speciality cooking affordable and delicious dishes. As they turn 50, they begin to experience different changes, but Shiro and Kenji are still gentle with each other as they move on to a new stage in their lives.

So here I am, a middle-aged gay who cooks affordable and (mostly) delicious dishes and treats my partner gently, serving you a five-course meal of reasons that you should watch this show -- especially if you too are a middle-aged gay, in which case I'd say this goes straight from "should watch" to "unmissable."

1. Help, my face hurts from smiling too much

Prepare to get your heart warmed whether you like it or not.

Kakei Shiro, the main character, is a closeted gay attorney in his forties whose main likes are cooking and saving money. He lives with his slightly younger boyfriend, Yabuki Kenji, who is a very openly gay hairstylist. They're an incredibly unlikely couple who somehow manage to make a relationship work, kind of to their mutual surprise.

I called bullshit on the show early on: This relationship is cute, I said, but this is not the behavior of guys who have been together a decade. But as the show unfolded, it became clear that I was so wrong -- their behavior is perfect, because these middle-aged boys actually haven't been together nearly that long. In fact, once you finally get the story of how their relationship started, yeah, it explains a lot of their insecurities and awkwardnesses about one another. Combine that with how Shiro's a neurotic mess who absolutely does not want anyone to know that he's gay, while Kenji lives on eggshells for fear of rejection, and it all starts to make sense.

It helps that the two leads have incredible chemistry. Not in a horny way, mind you (the show is incredibly, and intentionally, nonsexual, but more on that later), but where they genuinely make one another smile and laugh. Nishijima Hidetoshi plays Shiro as an anxious mess who slowly learns to become at least a little more comfortable in his own queer skin. I have a t-shirt that says Oh, Honey and I want to put it on every time he does something.

Meanwhile, it would have been so easy to make Kenji a caricature, but Uchino Seiyou skips right past the stereotype and plays the behavior that the stereotype comes from. He minces his way along as Kenji so perfectly, I was surprised to find out he's married to a lady in real life. He's got to be doing an impression of someone he actually knows, because his faggotry is just too accurate.

Their relationship is far from perfect. They're capable of annoying the tar out of one another, sometimes on purpose. They keep secrets and avoid talking about feelings. They get jealous over completely irrational things. They want things the other person isn't comfortable giving. They get into petty little arguments over petty little shit.

And because of all that, it feels real.

Also, if you're one of those Jane Austen bitches who swoons every time lovers scandalously brush knuckles, well, here you go.

2. Surprisingly educational about the state of gay life in modern Japan!

This is not incidental: Like the manga, the show uses this cute food-based story to present a fairly realistic snapshot of what it's like to be a middle-aged gay couple in Japan right now.

Like the manga it's based on, the show goes out of its way to be incredibly nonsexual, to the point where Kenji and Shiro barely touch, much less kiss or even hint at getting naked together. It is very consciously and deliberately attempting to counteract the stereotype of the hypersexualized, salacious homosexual by presenting two gay men who are delightfully mundane.

It is not, however, homonormalization. There's no attempt here to make an argument that gay people are just like straight people, only with incidentally matching genitals. Every time someone falls prey to the pressure to conform to cishet gender norms, it ends badly for them. While the first-episode conflict establishes that Kenji tops, he's also the fruity hairstylist who does the housekeeping. Shiro's the straight-passing suit-and-tie guy, yet he's the one who cooks and goes grocery-shopping. They have a division of labor based on personality traits, not gender roles. In fact, their relationship as presented challenges a lot of those norms by decoupling gendered expectations from the necessities of everyday living.

(This isn't even just me getting my queer studies goo all over everything! Allow me to be a good academic and send you to two people who've done even more thinking about this than I have: the unfortunately paywalled "Queer Cooking And Dining: Expanding Queerness In Fumi Yoshinaga's What Did You Eat Yesterday?" by Katsuhiko Suganuma, and the more freely available "Queering the Palate: The Erotics and Politics of Food in Japanese Gourmet Manga" by Keiko Miyajima.)

Every so often, one of the episodes' conflicts will have to do with how gay people in Japan do not have equal rights and protections under the law. This doesn't just mean they can't get married -- not having a spouse and children actually messes with a lot of legal stuff, including inheritance and government assistance. Sometimes the show will even take a beat to have one of the characters explain to another what a certain statute says. Changing laws about same-sex partnerships even get factored into the story!

And sure, I don't know these things, but I bet a lot of straight people in Japan don't know these things either. Well, if you watch the show, now you do!

It's important that no one is ever outright shitty to Shiro or Kenji. No one calls them slurs or hate-crimes them or refuses to serve them at a business or anything like that. In fact, the majority of people they encounter are perfectly chill and even outright supportive. The most serious challenges they face are bigger than individual people being dicks. They're about systemic barriers to equality.

That said, there are still plenty of instances of individual people being dicks -- just not maliciously. In fact, most of the homophobic sentiments in the show come from the mouths of people who are otherwise supportive of Shiro and/or Kenji! These nice people seem like they're way okay with the gay ... and then they let slip that, no, they're actually not as okay with it as they think they are.

And I love that the show includes that, because I know that feeling way too well. When these things happen, our boys don't throw a righteous fit or cut the offender off completely. They just ... absorb the blow, sigh quietly, and keep going with the belief that the person in question means well. It just sucks, you know? It sucks to have to know now that your straight lady friend who thinks it's great that you're gay would be uncomfortable if her daughter were a lesbian. You're not going to stop being friends with her, and you're not even going to hold it against her, but it lives in your mind now, and you're going to add it to the I Am A Disappointment To My Parents rotation of intrusive thoughts.

Speaking of parents, Shiro's incredibly fraught relationship with his aging parents is hands-down one of the best parts of the show. They love him, he loves them, but they don't always know how to love one another. As their childless only child, Shiro finds himself having to support them in spite of a lot of hurt they've caused him because of his sexuality. He would in many ways be justified in cutting them off -- after all, many other gay people in the show no longer speak to one or both of their parents! Shiro wants to keep them in his life, though. He'll just have to learn how, for his sake and for Kenji's, to lovingly set boundaries.

This, to me, is the most important lesson a show about boring gays can teach a straight audience: There's always a background level of suck. You can be as chaste and normie and regular as you want, but you'll never be normal, because there's literally nothing you can do to erase the background level of suck.

It's easy to reduce someone else's oppression to Big Bad Events, and then to assume that the absence of these Big Bad Events means that oppression has ceased. That's like thinking there's nothing left that needs to be done about racism because the US had a Black president and you've never personally seen a cross burned on somebody's lawn. Once other people's oppression stops being Big Bad Events, it becomes Everyday Stuff You Can Ignore. And that's worse.

NaniTabe pushes back against this in two directions. The first is to show gays who are not miserable, but are instead living happy, fulfilling, and exceedingly regular lives on their own terms. The second is to give reminders that what gay-related misery they do experience largely comes not from their being gay, but from society's giving them shit for being gay. This misery doesn't destroy the happiness, but neither does the happiness make the misery go away.

By the way, this is true of any non-normative identity! The gays do not have a monopoly here. There's always going to be a level of suck when you don't inhabit an area of privilege, and it's very easy to be unaware of someone else's background level of suck when you yourself do have that privileged status! One of the best ways to become aware is to listen to stories about people unlike yourself! Hooray for empathy and learning!

3. tfw your bffs are straight-up freaks

If you're queer, and especially if you're queer and the vast majority of the people around you aren't, you know all too well that sometimes you wind up being friends with people you'd never associate with otherwise, except that you're queer and they're queer, and buddy, if you thought the queer dating pool was shallow, the queer friendship pool can sometimes be even worse.

That's how you get Kohinata and Wataru.

When I said earlier everything about how nonsexual and normie the show is, I was intentionally glossing over whatever the hell is going on with Kohinata and Wataru, the bizarre boyfriends who become Shiro and Kenji's gay besties. You know that couple where you think, I cannot imagine how this relationship works because if you were my partner I would want you stab you every minute of our lives, but it clearly does, so I'm happy for you both? Yeah, that's these two.

The elder of the pair, Kohinata, is a butch, severe man -- except when it comes to his boyfriend, the much younger and worse-behaved Wataru. Then he's reduced to a complete simp, catering to Wataru's every whim. Wataru knows that throwing a tantrum and being bratty is the way to get anything he wants from Kohinata, so he's just a little shit recreationally. He loves saying bitchy things and pointing out people's flaws, while Kohinata chides him ineffectually.

And I love how much this is totally a sex thing for them, except that when you put it in the context of an otherwise extremely PG-rated show, the kink of it flies completely under the hetero radar. Ha ha, look how generally funny these two weirdos are! While Shiro and Kenji are over here doing the thing where somebody calls their partner "master" in front of you, and you're like, I wish you wouldn't.

Their presence is great for the acknowledgment that gay people can be maladjusted freaks in a whole spectrum of ways! They also make the point that a great deal of your ability to openly be a maladjusted freak is related to your job and your level of wealth. Wataru works from home and Kohinata works with celebrities, both of which bring in high incomes and allow for way more deviance from social norms. They're in positions of privilege that allow them to be themselves, but the price of being themselves is that they're always going to stick out in a society that values harmony in sameness.

By contrast, Shiro's good-but-not-great-paying suit-and-tie job means he has to behave. Because of this, he has plenty of angst about being Not Gay Enough, through which the show reinforces time and again that not all gay existence is about barfing rainbows. You're still a valid homosexual even when you're a dull one.

So just remember: When you feel like you're not queer enough, remember that there are always worse queers out there in the world. Oh, they're not worse at being queer. They're just worse in general.

4. Itadakimasu!

This show, like the Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty and Otoko Meshi, is a food-centered show that is very dangerous to watch if you're hungry, so be prepared! Snack first!

It's also got actually followable recipes! Unlike those other food-centric shows I've done recs for, this show actually gives pretty precise measurements, lists all the ingredients, and walks you through basically the whole process. Aside from a few "add the incredibly Japanese thing I bought premade at the store" steps, Shiro's cooking methods are replicable at home.

...It is here that I should probably put up a warning for the occasional bout of very Japanese-typical and gay-man-typical fatphobia, which can be a heck of a combination. I don't think it's a dealbreaker, but you should be aware of it going in. However, I will say that the show almost always comes down on the side of positive moderation: Sometimes you need to eat like you're an aging homosexual watching your cholesterol, and sometimes it's a special occasion so you should enjoy yourself without guilt. It also never once conflates "eating healthy" with eating disappointing meals. If anything, it's mostly just being honest about what happens to your body's relationship to fried food when you hit your forties.

The other nice thing is that Shiro's not some trained chef. He makes good food, but he's a dedicated amateur at best. There's not a single super-fancy technique in anything he does. Much of the time, he's just winging it, combining techniques he knows with what he's already got in the fridge. Sometimes he uses recipes he found on the internet. Occasionally he cooks alongside other, more experienced people and learns techniques from them. Once in a blue moon he just tries a thing to see how it works. (Of course, he does have the unfair advantage of being fictional to cover for how none of his meals ever turn out bad, which, you know, must be nice.)

Sometimes you even get to see other people cook when Shiro's nowhere around! Some of them follow instructions to the letter, while others just sort of wing it with whatever's on hand. And that's okay! For a show so much about cooking, it is very unpretentious about food. The manga drives home even more strongly the point that you don't need fancy meals and a million perfect side dishes to be content. It's great if you're perfectly happy microwaving a pork bun! What matters is that it works for you and your family.

...Now can we please convince subbers everywhere to translate "Itadakimasu!" as "Itadakimasu!"? Please? I think my favorite bad choice is "Bon appetit!", which, okay, good job, you took an opportunity to teach English-speakers a non-English phrase that has no good English translation, and instead you chose to bank on their extant familiarity with a different non-English phrase that has no good English translation. Just keep it what it is. It's just something you say before you eat. It's obvious from context clues. I promise.

5. Makes you, an aging queer, feel real weird about some stuff!

Over the course of the show, Kenji and Shiro go from their early/mid 40s to pushing/over 50. Their parents age, have health scares, and even sometimes die. They deal with losing eyesight and hair alike. They get promoted. They make household budgets and purchases. They worry about saving enough for the future. They work late. They go on vacation sometimes. They wear the same clothes they wore a couple episodes ago.

However, they do all this while also wrestling with their unequal status as gay men in Japan. All their discussions about retirement are colored both by Kenji's tendency to impulse-buy ice cream and by the fact that they can't get married. The choices Shiro makes about his job rest both on his desire for a good work-life balace and a fear that his profession would react badly to his coming out. They have to make all the normal decisions expected of men their age, and then they have to make all the extra decisions to compensate for how "normal" doesn't account for gay.

To pick one issue running throughout the story: Shiro is an only child who is himself childless. This comes up fairly often, in fact, as various circumstances make him aware time and again that he's not making his parents into grandparents, and he won't someday have someone to take care of him like he does for them.

The first time the show brought this up, I thought it would be a one-and-done thing, where the conclusion of the episode got to be that Shiro learns to be happy without being a parent, the end. Nope! It isn't a constant stressor, but it never goes entirely away. Shiro is happy with his life, but he's also reminded that he's failing to live up to social standards. He doesn't want to be a dad. Or does he? No, he actually doesn't. But he also doesn't want not to be a dad, if that makes sense. He doesn't want to disappoint everyone by not having a wife and children, but at the same time, that disappointment isn't enough to force him back into the closet. But it's always going to be seen as a failure on his part.

As a middle-aged queer with no kids, yeah, I feel that hard. I don't want kids! But I also don't want to not have kids. I know I'm always going to be a little bit of a misfit in my family compared to my siblings, who are all parents now. Besides, I think about all the things I do for my parents, and all the things they did for theirs, and yeah, it kind of scares me to know I won't have that when I get older. And we're just basic-ass white people! Japan takes filial responsibility to a whole 'nother level!

So I really, really like that this show doesn't resolve that tension. Shiro has chosen what's right for him. It just also sucks sometimes. The honesty of that narrative is refreshing. Sometimes your best choice still kinda sucks. Sometimes the only way to get closure is to say, you failed me and I failed you, so we're even.

It's a frequent thing for the show to present the realities of people's lives and choices, and to say, maybe this isn't everyone's perfect solution, but it's the right decision given what the circumstances will allow, and you are still allowed to be happy despite the imperfections. It's not that you need to settle for less than perfection because you're gay -- everybody settles! Everybody makes choices and then has to live with the consequences of those choices. You'll never know if things could have been better if you'd done something different, but that doesn't stop what you have right now from being able to be pretty damn good.

I'm not going to say you must be a middle-aged queer to watch this show, because did you read the whole part earlier where I talked about how you should consume stories from experiences that are not your own? Right? Right.

I will, however, say that if you are a middle-aged queer, a lot of it's likely going to hit real close to home, and often in uncomfortable ways. I've seen a couple people say they had to take breathers after some episodes. I know I've been left chewing over a few things in the days and weeks since watching. There are definitely parts where you're laughing because you know exactly what that feels like, and if you don't laugh, you'll do something else.

But you know what? I like that. It can be nice to see people go through situations similar to yours and emerge realistically happy. It's nice to be able to laugh about things, or to know that you will laugh about them someday. The world is fundamentally hostile, but there are people who love us and watermelons are on sale this week, so instead of despair, let's have lunch together.

bonus: porn!!

I want to make it clear that the mangaka isn't some erotophobic dishrag who fetishizes gay men so long as they don't have any of that icky nasty smex. Oh no. The proof that NaniTabe's sexlessness is intentional is how Yoshinaga Fumi made six fairly explicit pornographic side stories that fill in some of the sexy gaps in the larger narrative. You can read all six volumes scanlated right here! ...though if you want to avoid spoilers, I'm going to recommend you wait to dig in until after you watch the show and/or read the actual manga to the appropriate points.

Enjoy the confirmation that Shiro is a freaky size queen (at least in theory, as is the case with maybe most freaky size queens).

Are you hungry for this show yet?

Tragically, this one's a little hard to watch. If you're in Japan (or you have a VPN that can fake it), you can see the first season on Netflix. Otherwise, the preposterously named GagaOOLala is probably your best bet. The watch order goes like this:

Season 1

the New Year's Special

the Movie

Season 2

While the two movies and the second season require a subscription, the first season is available for free. So if you want to give it a try, you've got a whole twelve episodes to see if you like it!

Maybe it'll get a third season someday? We can hope! After all, there's still much more manga left to adapt! All I know is that I'm very sad that I've run out of new installments of it to watch, and I look forward to going back and starting again from the beginning soon.

...Boy, it's funny to see behind-the-scenes shots and think, wow, they're so much snugglier in real life! That's how not-snuggly the show itself is! You think I'm joking but I'm not!

[skzhua]

Episode nine.

MASTERLIST

pairing: XO, Kitty's Min Ho x Female Reader

genre: Fluff, angst, enemies-to-lovers, slow burn, coming-of-age.

word count: 5.7k

warnings: Swearing, suggestive, jealous Min Ho, sad for some parts.

summary: Transferring to KISS was the last thing you had asked for and, yet, a certain tall boy made it seem both worse and better than you expected.

note: Bold - Korean, Italic - Over the phone

a/n: So much is happening in this one... and it's so long...

"A reason, a season, or a lifetime."

Q paused his workout for a moment. Frowning at Min Ho in confusion, he asked him to explain furthermore. As he stopped massaging his face with the face roller, he sighed.

"Every relationship fits into one of those categories. I read it in a magazine."

Q, not caring much, resumed to working out. Meanwhile, you came out of your room and sat next to Min Ho.

"The point is," he continued. "Y/N and I are starting a relationship. And looking at how things were before between us, I believe we got together for a reason."

"You needed to get laid with a chick?"

You slapped Q's arm aggressively. "What a way to talk about me when I am right here!"

"Not for that, no." Min Ho chuckled. "She showed me that there was more than just casual dating, that it could be worth it."

You laughed and he looked at you weirdly. "What?"

"I'm talking about real feelings and you are laughing?"

"No, I believe you are being sincere and it's real sweet. But it does not fit you at all." you still laughed.

His jaw clenched. "It might not have been that worth it asking you to be my girlfriend, after all."

That shut you up real quick. After a small apology, he invited you in his arms to cuddle before placing a soft peck on the top of your head. You squirmed in comfort.

"Do I have to third-wheel?" Q whined.

"Don't be like this, you have Florian." you assured but it didn't seem to do the trick.

"Yeah..."

Min Ho immediately noticed the shift in his voice. "How are things with him?"

"He's going through some stuff, but I'm here for him."

"That's good. I'm sure he's glad to have you around." you smiled warmly at him.

Having complained about third-wheeling barely two minutes ago, to Q's luck, Dae and Kitty came to join in the living room, skipping before he took her in his arms. Telling each other sweet 'good morning's, the remaining three of you grunted in annoyance.

"And now I am fifth-wheeling." Q muttered to himself.

Min Ho gave the couple the side eye. "It's too early to be this cheery."

"I am this cheery." Kitty affirmed as she and Dae went to the kitchen counter to prepare coffee for everyone. "Not only because I have the most perfect boyfriend in the world-"

"Lucky you." you said as you sat down with Min Ho behind you, rubbing your arms.

"Thank you?" he gasped, offended.

Kitty chuckled before continuing. "But it has also come to my attention that I am failing most of my classes. That means that if I don't do amazing on the finals, I will flunk out of school."

"How is this making you cheery?" you asked.

"Well, if I dwell the fact that I was considered super smart at home and here I can barely keep up, I will start sobbing."

You, on the other hand, had never been doing any better. Your aunt was proud of you for integrating the school perfectly, your uncle praised your grades in his class, you had friends, a boyfriend... This was all too good to be true. You started to doubt that it was going to last, especially with finals coming up so soon.

"We still have a week." Dae spoke. "We're going to make study plans and everyone will help you."

Min Ho shook his head. "I'm very busy and Y/N-"

"Everyone." Dae said in a stern tone. "Guys, Kitty and I are finally together. I'm not going to let her fail out of this school now."

"Well, I'm in. I'll help with chem." Q said.

You raised your hand. "I could ask my uncle for extra exercises in history." you suggested to which Kitty thanked you.

"She definitely needs to work on her Korean." Min Ho mumbled.

"What did you just call me?" Kitty asked angrily, immediately taking offense.

"Exactly." he deadpanned at her.

Dae assured her he'll be helping her with the rest. Being top student, he was the perfect tutor for her. Clinging your mugs of coffee together, you started to get ready afterwards. However, Min Ho did not let you go back to your room and grabbed you by the arm to kiss you.

"I'd love doing that, but I need to change."

He pouted but let go of you. "We can't have a moment to us in this dorm."

You could only laugh at him. You simply adored how much of a softy he was to you.

Tutoring Kitty was either easy or hard. It depended on how motivated she was and, most of the time, she was only discouraged.

"You've got 53%" you said sadly as you gave her back the sheet of paper.

Your uncle happily gave you exam practices for Kitty to study, but with this one being the fourth she did already, you were starting to feel like she was a lost cause. Plus, the library was fully packed since everyone was studying.

"Great." she grunted before dropping her head into her arms.

"It's four percent better than last time."

"And that's what's going to help me pass, yes."

She made a good point. You sprawled on your chair and sighed heavily with her. It looked as if it was the two of you who were failing. And Min Ho just had to confirm that when he sat with you with his Korean lesson books to take over Kitty's tutoring.

"Aren't you two adorable." he teased you and you stuck out your tongue at him. "I'm serious, you are cute."

"Ew." Kitty said in disgust.

"Not you. Y/N." he specified. "I believe it's time to work on your Korean now."

Kitty shook her head. "I am on the verge of dropping out myself. Give me five minutes."

He frowned before glancing at you. "I'm assuming history didn't go well."

"Nope." you chuckled. "I'm sure she'll get the hang of it... We just need to study more."

She let out a whine. "Study, study, study... this is all I've been doing today."

"Stop complaining, you asked us to help you." Min Ho said, frustrated.

He convinced her to get into studying Korean and you stayed with them, having nothing else to do. She started to get the hang of the the basics but it was still very bad. By the end of it, she was able to tell what were some verbs and such.

"Are you coming back to the dorm with me?" she asked while taking her bag to head out.

Min Ho held you by the waist as you walked. "Not today. I have prepared something very special for my girlfriend."

You looked away from him in an attempt to hide your blush. "Another surprise?"

"You can't have enough of them. Don't worry, I think you will like it a lot."

"I'll love it for sure if I'm with you."

Kitty groaned. "I think I preferred it when you were cussing each other out."

"Says the one who is too cheery when she's with Dae."

That shut her up and she parted ways with you, leaving Min Ho laughing with pride. You shook your head in disapproval.

"What? It wasn't even mean."

"Nothing. So, what's the surprise?"

He smirked. "You'll see."

You took a stroll around campus, hand in hand, and he eventually left the grounds to lead you somewhere. Just there, his chauffeur was waiting for you. You skeptically hopped in and he drove off. Being driven away when you didn't know the destination was usually a sign to run away. But you trusted Min Ho, maybe more than you should.

It wasn't even twenty minutes after that he pulled over in front of Han River. A typical date in Seoul. Getting off the car, Min Ho took your hand to help you out and you followed the trail while admiring the view.

"This is so cheesy." you laughed.

"Stop that, it's cute."

You snorted. "I'm sure you brought other girls here."

He smiled in shame. "Fair. But I didn't like any of them as much as you."

Your face became red. A couple of steps later, something popped in your mind. You grew tense and he felt it. As he halted his movements, he rubbed your shoulders while asking you what was wrong.

"What happened with Lulu?"

He gulped. "Should it matter?"

"Kind of."

He sighed and resumed to walking with you. "I went out with her the night after you literally saved my ass. We made out, sure, but I haven't talked to her since."

You nodded. "Okay, and was there anyone else?"

He shook his head violently. "I couldn't get you off my mind after I..." he paused and coughed. "Well, it doesn't matter."

You began to connect the dots. "You had a sex dream about me."

He coughed again. "No."

"So Q was right." you giggled. "How was it?"

"I did not have a sex dream about you."

"Awe, Min, don't be shy."

He looked away and you kept on laughing at him. He fastened his pace in silence. You called out for him and tried to catch up to his pace. He refused to look back at you. But once you did reach him, you were left speechless. On a picnic table, he had delicately placed candles and lights as well as some pillows for comfort. The best wasn't even that. It was the food. You spotted kimbap, japchae, tteokboki, kimchi... The amount was overwhelming.

"I'm... wow." you breathed out.

He walked up to you and hugged you from behind. "I thought we could use a night to ourselves."

You smiled widely. "This is perfect, no one has done something like this for me before."

"Expect to get more of this. Shall we?"

You sat down face to face and he helped you with serving yourself, asking what you wanted to taste first. Every single dish was delicious, you couldn't get enough of it. Min Ho watched you eat, satisfied with how the surprise turned out.

"When did you even cook this?" you asked, still having a bite of kimbap in your mouth.

"I used my chauffeur's kitchen and I missed my classes today."

Your face fell. "Min Ho..."

"It was my pleasure, darling."

You grabbed his hand and stroke it with your thumb. "I love it but I don't want you to fall behind in school because of me."

He gave you a reassuring smile. "I'm doing great in all of my classes, don't worry."

After eating, you went on with your evening stroll. Talking about everything and nothing, it eventually got to the point where he discussed about his parents with you. He understood the lifestyle of his mother but it was starting to get to him more nowadays. If there was one person he loved more than anything, it was her. So being apart from her for so long, he suffered. The relationship with his father wasn't as pleasant. He had pretty much cut off ties with him, not approving of his new way of living life after the divorce.

"Do you miss him?"

He thought for an instant. "Sometimes. But I miss the old him, not what he has become."

"I'm sorry."

He huffed. "Don't be. I'm better off without him."

A silence took over and he stopped you to observe the river. He wrapped his arms around you while you did the same around his torso.

"How did you do when they passed?"

The question took you by surprise, although it shouldn't have since you were already on topic. "I was empty inside. I lost a lot of friends who were sticking to me only for the wealth. I fought a lot with my aunt who didn't even plan on having children and she suddenly had this kid coming to live with her. It was..."

He saw you choke up on your words and brought his hands to your face to stop you from talking any more. "Hey. You don't have to tell me."

"You asked."

He chuckled. "Yeah, but it doesn't mean I wanted to make you think about it all over again and break in front of me."

You got up on your tiptoes – him being the giant he is – and you kissed him. While it was sweet and delicate at first, Min Ho took the lead quickly. Holding you tighter, he deepened the kiss, almost leaving you breathless.

"Shouldn't we get back to the dorm? Curfew is soon."

He didn't want to but you were right. You went back to the car and the driver drove you back to campus.

You didn't know whether it was you or him who started it, but both of you were needy. Walking in the dorm, you couldn't keep your hands off each other as you kept on stealing kisses every two seconds.

"Guys, we're busy here." Q deadpanned at the two of you as he pointed to Kitty with her school books.

Getting his coat off, Min Ho proceeded to help you with yours. "So are we."

Kitty groaned. "Well, don't do that here."

He gave her a look. "But you are all over Dae all the time here, yes."

You dragged him into his room before he would say another stupid thing. As soon ad the door closed, his lips were back on yours. He lost no time in helping get your vest off, both of you still in your school uniforms.

"You're so impatient." you said in-between the kisses.

"Maybe."

You found him shirtless seconds later and you stepped back to his bed. Laying you down, he topped you and started to work on your neck, sucking on your skin. He brushed your thigh gently before giving it a squeeze. You let out a gasp. You felt him smile against your skin. You brought up to your lips again and started to feel him up and you touched his abdomen. His efforts in looking his best truly paid off, you couldn't find him any hotter.

"You're so pretty." he rasped out.

"You're the pretty one."

"You're right."

You slapped him slightly and he laughed. "I think I love you."

You immediately froze. He pulled back slightly before stuttering incoherent words. You only blinked, which made Min Ho sweat. Why weren't you saying anything?

"Y/N?"

You pushed him off and placed yourself so you were laying facing one another. Putting your hand on his jaw, you stroke his cheek softly.

"I love you, too."

The first thing you saw was Min Ho's bare back. You could hear him breathe calmly as the rays of sunshine hit his skin perfectly. So... You slept in his room... Nothing too odd. You were his girlfriend, after all. You tried to get out of bed carefully to not waking him up. But it didn't work as he turned around and brought into his arms, stopping your from getting out of bed.

"Good morning." he mumbled.

"I didn't want to wake you."

"Too late." he said, stretching his arm out.

"Get ready, I'll go make you a cup of coffee."

He grinned and gave you a small kiss. "You're just too perfect, aren't you?"

You walked out of his room to let him change and freshen up and were startled when you saw Yuri sit with Kitty and Dae. You slowly went to make coffee, confused.

"Hi, Y/N." Yuri smiled at you.

"What is happening?"

"I came out to my mom, moved out of the penthouse, and here I am! Living with you!"

You perked an eyebrow at her. "You came out?"

"Yeah, it was hard, but I feel so much better."

"Oh my God, that's great! I'm so happy for you."

She smiled even more. "Thank you."

"Yuri started to help me with history. Want to join?" Kitty asked.

In the meantime of your hot beverage being ready, you sat with them and asked questions to Kitty. You were happy to see she was able to answer most of them easily.

"Timeline of the later Three Kingdoms." Yuri read out loud the memo card, laying on her back while her legs were slumped on the couch, in-between Dae and Kitty.

"890 to 936." she answered automatically.

"The first political state?" you asked in your turn.

"Gojoseon." she said in a broken Korean.

"Gojoseon." Dae corrected her and she repeated properly.

"What is happening?"

You hadn't even notice Min Ho coming out of the room and was now leaning on your seat, rubbing your shoulder softly. You put your hand on top of his and he gave you a quick smile before focusing on Yuri again.

"I moved in!" she answered happily, proceeding to sit up properly.

"What? Why?" he looked to all three of them. "Are you a throuple now?"

"No." they all answered.

"I'm gay." Yuri said and Min Ho seemed to be even more lost so she continued. "I came out to my mom, moved out of the penthouse. Scared, excited..."

"Wait." he stopped her. "You've been gay this whole time?"

"It's not a choice."

"I know, I mean..." he began to say but stopped mid-way. "So you and Dae... you were in a fake relationship?" They nodded. "So Kitty was right?"

Kitty smiled proudly. "I told you I know matchmaking."

His body tensed. "You're not mad at Dae? He lied, and lied, and lied..."

You tensed in your turn. Because you lied as well.

"I was mad." Kitty affirmed. "But then I forgave him, and Yuri, and Y/N-"

"Wow." he scoffed.

He retracted his hand from you and took a step back. You felt your heart pound as anxiety crept in, and not the kind you would feel when something good was about to happen. The kind you'd feel when something bad was coming.

"You're as trusting as my dad's third wife."

"Hey." Dae got defensive. "Kitty and I are good. Leave it alone."

"I'm not good."

The tone of his voice sent a shiver down your spine. At that point, he was ignoring your presence.

"You lied to me, too." he continued. "A lot. I wouldn't do that to a friend."

He slowly dared to glance at you and you gulped. You stood up next to him. "Min Ho..."

"Or someone I care about." he said more softly, though you could hear the pain. "I just wouldn't."

He left abruptly, shutting the door of his room harshly. Meanwhile, you felt the tears prick in your eyes. Things were just starting to be good for you, and you had to mess it all up.

"Finals." Yuri exhaled. "Makes everyone crazy."

You gave her a look but she shrugged and went back to asking Kitty questions. Feeling the need to get away from all of this, you went to get changed and left the dorm. A walk seemed to be exactly what you needed.

So why wasn't it doing anything? You felt nothing but emptiness as you walked by other students. You plugged in your earbuds to block out the outside world and spaced out, heading to nowhere precisely. You checked your phone after a while but you got nothing from Min Ho. You couldn't blame him for being mad at you, you were supposed to trust him the most. You trusted him the most. You were submerged with guilt and, as your mind came back to reality, you were standing in front of the administration of the school. You didn't even need to knock as your aunt had already opened the door of her office only from the sight of you in her window.

"Hey, I didn't know you'd stop by." she cheerfully greeted you but her smile dropped once she took in what state you were in. "Oh, dear. Come on in."

She offered you tea and even if you didn't feel like eating or drinking, you let her make a cup for you. She cleaned up her desk a little to make space and sat in front of you, waiting for you to speak.

"Can I stay over tonight?"

Her eyes softened. "Of course, anytime. Now, tell me what happened."

You took a deep breath. "I don't know. Things got complicated, I guess."

She nodded her head slowly. "I see. I won't tell you what to do but know that I'm always here for you if anything. Time will fix everything, I promise."

You huffed with a smile. "That's what they all say."

"Because it's true." she chuckled and then glanced at the clock in her office. "Your classes start soon. I'll make you a good meal for tonight."

Min Ho: I'm getting coffee with Dae. Do you want me to get you something?

You scoffed at the text. Although you were surprised he was the one to reach out first, this was not the text you thought he'd send.

Min Ho: You saw my message, I know it.

Y/N: I won't be at the dorm tonight, so no thanks.

Min Ho: Where are you?

Y/N: I'm fine.

Min Ho: I didn't ask how you were doing, idiot. I asked where you are.

Y/N: Are you still mad at me?

Min Ho: Yes..?

Y/N: Okay, then I'm not at the dorm to leave you space.

Min Ho: It's not because I'm mad that I don't worry about you. Where are you? I'm picking you up.

Y/N: Don't.

Min Ho: Please.

Y/N: It's only going to worsen things. You'll stay mad, it'll be awkward, and then we both won't be able to sleep.

Min Ho: We'll talk, I promise.

Y/N: Fine. I'm at my aunt's.

You got up from bed and went to the front door. Your uncle, still awake, watched you leave in silence.

"Be careful out there." he said before going back to reading his book.

"I will. Thank you for tonight, it was nice."

He gave you a smile and you left. You waited by the porch of your front door and saw a fancy car coming only a couple of minutes later. You went inside where Dae and Min Ho were seated, coffees in hands. Min Ho passed you an ice americano and you hummed as to thank him. The ride was, as you predicted, awkward as hell. Dae was fidgeting with the hem of his shirt in uneasiness and Min Ho was sipping on his drink every five seconds, visibly nervous.

And the walk to the dorm wasn't any better. As soon as you walked in, you announced you were going to bed. Min Ho immediately stopped you and asked Dae for some time alone with you. Finally just the two of you, you sat on the couch and he copied you.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he finally broke the silence.

You exhaled loudly. "That morning when Kitty ran away, Dae came to our room to talk with her and said it was fake. But then you opened the door, I was there, he didn't know because he left before he saw me. Then I asked Yuri about it and she begged me to keep it to myself."

He hummed. "Okay. I get it for back then because we both didn't like each other. But what about after?"

You shrugged. "It wasn't for me to tell you. I swear I just wanted to have nothing to do with all of it."

He took your hand in his. That's a good start.

"From now on, don't lie to me like this again."

You nodded and that's all it took for him to bring you into his embrace. You melted at the touch and engulfed your head in his shoulder.

"I'm sorry."

He hushed you. "It's okay. I might have overreacted."

You laughed in agreement. The rest of the evening went on smoothly. He invited you to stay with him for the night and he pulled his laptop to his bed so you could watch something together. Dae complained a few times about the volume and the giggles you would slip out every now and then. Other than that, you felt at peace. You were just content that things were back to normal, and you fell asleep soon after.

You groaned loudly as Yuri kept on blabbering about the talent show. To help Kitty get ten percent bonus on her exam, she gathered as many people as she could to do a traditional dance. That was the condition Lee put in place to boost the notes. And you were not left out of it.

"We have to help her, Y/N."

You played around with the food in your plate as another sigh left your mouth. "I don't know, Yuri."

"You'll get ten percent more, too."

You shook your head. "I already have excellent grades, I don't need bonuses."

"She's your friend."

"So is she yours, and you're already doing it. She doesn't need both of us."

She rolled her eyes at you. "The more, the better."

You then saw a guy from your English class walk to your table. Byungwon, if you remembered well. He used to go to school with you and Yuri during middle school. Apart from brief 'hi's and nods of acknowledgement, you hadn't talked to him in years.

"Can I sit here?" he smiled at you.

Yuri frowned. "Why?"

"My friends are at practice for the swimming team."

"I thought you were in the team as well." you said.

"Injured. I'm left alone."

Forming your mouth in a 'o' shape, you gestured for him to sit with you. "How have you been?"

"Great, apart from the injury. I haven't talked to you two in so long. I figured we could catch up." he beamed at you.

Yuri chuckled. "Yeah, we did draw apart with time. I figured you were living your new life well, you know? Part of the swimming team, girls all over you, good grades..."

He blushed. "You're making it seem bigger than it is. I could say the same for you two. You have quite grown well." He looked at you. "And you look great."

You felt the heat rush to your face, so you focused on your food instead, clearing your throat in the process. "You too." you mumbled.

Yuri's eyes flickered between him and you, a smirk slowly creeping on her face. She knew you used to like him, and so the opposite. Visibly, old feelings easily came back. Though she would have usually teased you about it, she rooted for your relationship with Min Ho. If anything, you were simply taken aback from Byungwon's sudden reappearance.

"You still like her." she teased the guy who instantly gulped.

"No."

You wanted to punch her just there and then. "Yuri."

She shook her head. "Or maybe not. But just so you know, she's taken now."

"I know." he said. "I simply want to catch up, that's all."

A couple of tables further from yours, Q was poorly trying to calm Min Ho down. The latter was fuming. All he could see was the sweet smile Byungwon was shooting at you and the giggles you let out with pink appearing on your cheeks. He knew you wouldn't do anything close to cheating on him, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to be worried about you leaving him for someone else. Adding the fact the two of you began your whole dynamic with hate, he was slightly worried you still had that kind of feeling towards him.

"Min Ho, they're just talking." Dae said, growing discouraged.

"I'm not jealous, I'm just saying that he doesn't need to be so close to her."

"He's only sitting next to her."

He pointed at you. "Did you see that? He offered her his drink!"

"Yeah..." Q sighed. "Not jealous."

Back to you and Yuri, she abruptly got up announcing practice for the talent show was about to start. She gave you an intense look and you knew what she was doing. It most likely was not time for practice but this was your opportunity to get away from this awkward situation.

"Right, we have to go." you coughed out.

"And I'll help you get ready for your date after." she added and your eyes grew bigger at her.

"Ah." Byungwon said, slightly disappointed. "You and Min Ho are real serious."

"They are." Yuri nodded. "Let's go. See you around!"

She crossed her arm with yours before you went out of the cafeteria. You could do nothing more but follow her lead.

"I swear I thought you were going to make him make a move on me."

She laughed. "I might not think Min Ho is the best guy to date, but I know you love him. Plus, it's not the first time I've seen Byungwon look at you like that."

"Really?"

"Yeah. But now, that means you have no choice but to participate in the fan dance with us."

You groaned in defeat. As much as you loved her for saving your ass, you also hated her.

"Hi, baby."

"Hey-"

You were cut short as Min Ho eagerly kissed you, long enough for people around to either giggle at you or make noises of disgust. It wasn't an innocent kiss either, he was going for it.

"I missed you." he said after pulling back but still holding your hand to walk with you to the auditorium.

"You saw me this morning."

"Not in front of swimmer guy."

Your eyes shut closed. "You saw that, the other day."

"Yeah." Min Ho said as a matter-of-factly. "And I did not appreciate him eyeing my girlfriend like she is some meat."

You patted his shoulder. "Awe, is my little pup possessive?"

He glared at you. "I thought we agreed on stopping with this nickname. Makes us sound like we are furries or something."

You shrugged. "I still like it. But thank Yuri, she's the one who saved me from him that day."

He kissed the top of your head. "Glad to know she's on our side. Now, how are you feeling?"

"Ashamed, depressed, and on the verge of crying."

He frowned. "I'm not sure if you are referring to your feelings towards the wait for your grades or the talent show."

"Can't it be both?"

He laughed and rubbed your hand softly with his thumb. "You'll do great, for both of them."

While he was not allowed to, Min Ho insisted profoundly in coming with you backstage. Saying he didn't want to watch the whole thing and only your performance so you could leave together in advance, he was only disappointed when you sent him back to his seat with Dae.

You walked up to Madison who was crouched next to a machine. "Hey, what are you doing?"

She squealed. "Fireworks, for my next performance."

"You perform twice?"

"Yeah, K-pop."

You rolled your eyes and gave her the fans. Of course she had to do a K-pop dance. You finished up to get ready by fixing parts of your hanbok.

"Yuri-ah."

You weren't sure what Principal Lim was doing backstage to run to her daughter, especially since they hadn't talked since Yuri moved in with you.

"I want you to come back home." she continued but Yuri only gave her the eyeroll. "I'll talk to Alex. I'll make sure you can get to know him."

"Alex?" she said in confusion. "Alex, who?"

Principle Lim froze. "Oh, I just assumed that Kitty-"

"Wait, Alex is my brother?"

And here was another drama happening right in front of you. You learned your lesson to not get involved, so you went to the other girls to ignore what was happening. It wasn't even a minute later that you were up to go on stage. You wanted to bury yourself alive from how embarrassed you were. Not because you were ashamed of your culture, but you weren't a dancer. This was, in no way, one of your strengths.

"How could you not tell me?" Yuri spoke as the performance began.

You tried your best to block them out but they weren't so quiet.

"I thought Alex was my brother and that my mom was the one who was pregnant." Kitty explained. "It wasn't until we snuck out of detention that day and went to Lee's house-"

"Wait, you've known since detention?"

You subtly shushed them and went on to your next move. They seemed to get the message and you were happily back to focusing on your dance.

"How could you hide this from me?"

You mentally cursed them out.

"It wasn't my place to-"

"To be honest?

Madison groaned. "Guys, I'm trying to focus."

This might have been one of the few times you were thankful to her. But your friends being themselves, they continued to bicker.

"I wasn't not honest, I just-"

"Lied by omission?" Yuri interrupted her again.

"You lied all semester about being with Dae on purpose, and I got past it, and now we're friends."

"We were friends." Yuri corrected her.

And with Kitty being Kitty, she clumsily stepped on her robes and tripped, knocking off the firework machine. Fire came out and the whole auditorium stood up in panic, Kitty first as the fabric of her hanbok caught on fire. She stepped back, panic across her face as she stared at the flame. You looked from afar, worried about her and unsure if you should put yourself in danger as well to help her.

You got your answer quickly when you saw your boyfriend running to her. He took his jacket off as he help her sit down on the ground, and crouched down while putting the fire out. She squirmed for a bit until there was no more flame. You observed them as he helped her relax and something seemed off to you. You weren't exactly sure what, but you knew it made you feel sick. It wasn't until Dae arrived that Min Ho went to you, hugging you tightly.

"Are you okay? You're not hurt?"

You didn't hug him back and only nodded. "I'm fine."

He placed his hands on your cheeks. "This girl is so clumsy, she could have put all of you in grave danger."

You cleared your throat. "Yeah, luckily, you saved her."

You pushed his hands away and walked further from the stage. He caught up with your pace and took your hand.

"Hey, are you sure you're good?"

You didn't know what to say. You only stared at him in silence, feeling the lump in your throat growing bigger and bigger.

Copyright © 2023 skzhua. All rights reserved.

[randomfoggytiger]

Collector's Edition: Reworking Requiem and Mulder's Return (Part II)

Ahhhh, Requiem. The episode that drove me to read fanfics after Season 8 wrapped up.

Loose chronological order below~

@amplifyme/wonderland/Lydia Bower (Tooms Gossamer)

“New year’s resolutions?”

Mulder looks over at her with one of his sidelong, appraising glances. “Do I look like the type who makes resolutions?”

“Come on, Mulder. We’re stuck in this car on New Year’s Eve on what is most assuredly a dead-end stakeout all because you’re convinced that one Herman Jiménez is preparing to escort his family to a new home somewhere in the heavens, compliments of a spaceship steered by little green men. Humor me just this once and play along. And yes, I do think you’re the type to make resolutions.”

“Well, see, that’s where you’re wrong. I don’t make resolutions at the beginning of a new year. I make promises instead.”

Pre-Requiem: There is, in fact, no Requiem-- only a stakeout, a debate, and New Years promises.

@cecilysass's Pause (Ao3)

“Mulder?” she repeats.

Very slowly he turns, allowing her to see his face for the first time.

His expression is flat, without affect. He blinks.

“Hi,” she tries again. She scrambles to stand up. “I didn’t mean to startle you. It’s just me. I’m…I’m having a rough time. I don’t have any idea what’s going on. I don’t remember what’s happened.”

He takes a step towards her, and she sees how terrible he looks. He needs a haircut and a shave. There are deep purple smudges lining the bottom of his eyes.

His eyes dart over the scene in front of him: her clothes, her hair, the half-eaten lasagna on the plate in front of her, the coffee table with no dirty dishes.

Something like fear flickers across his face.

Pre-Requiem: Scully is presumed dead for a year, only to be returned missing a chunk of her memories (and unaware she is pregnant.)

@leiascully's (Ao3) Imagine Other Worlds - Chapter 7

She can feel it. She knows there’s no medical reason she should be able to. But she knows, somehow. When she goes to see her doctor and she touches Scully’s shoulder with that expression, it isn’t difficult to gather herself. She’s been through this before.

Pre-Requiem: Not only is Scully pregnant, but her cancer is back. There is no Bellefleur, only a hope that she'll pull through.

Variations on a Requiem

Scully wondered, just for a moment, what had ever happened in Bellefleur. She hoped that Theresa Nemman no longer got nosebleeds. She hoped that Billy Miles had found some peace. Maybe nobody saw lights in the sky anymore and the tourists just enjoyed the salmon and the peace of the deep woods. She didn’t mention any of it to Mulder. He’d want to revisit their first case, sifting through the pine straw for any evidence of the ashy dust she’d found. Some things were better left alone. A town like that needed its motels, and she and Mulder were inadvertent firestarters. But she looked up across the rows of manila folders and smiled at him, and he smiled back, and the magic was still there, just like it had always been.

Pre-Requiem: Mulder and Scully live their lives gently growing older together... until a late-life pregnancy shocks their routine.

@msrafterdark's (Ao3)

Could you write something in which Scully tells Mulder she's pregnant in the afterglow?

He stares at you for a beat longer and you watch as his gaze darts back and forth across your face. To your immense shock his expression nearly crumples before you, his eyes glassy with immediate tears.

Pre-Requiem: Scully tells Mulder about her pregnancy.

I'm not sure when you're accepting prompts but can you do one where Scully has a pregnancy scare with Mulder?

“Well, I just…you told me once that you had little desire to start a family…”

“Yeah, Scully—awhile ago.”

Pre-Requiem: Scully is shocked Mulder is happy at her news.

MSR Ficmas

He looks down at the note again, the one he found on his desk after he came back from a morning financial meeting. He was already in a testy mood about their budget being further tightened, now he just feels ill.

@ Doctor appointment, 11 am. Will call. Do NOT worry.

Pre-Requiem: Mulder and Scully are married; and Mulder is panicking over Scully's latest doctor's appointment.

Ficlets (Tumblr Prompt) - Chapter 103 (Ao3)

Content with his reasoning (oh what a rarity), she relaxes, nods, her eyes immediately growing heavy as she leans against his shoulder. She’s excited to see that house tomorrow, with its beautiful deck and an office and that gorgeous master bedroom…She’s trying to keep an open mind, but her heart has already been sold.

Post Requiem/Mulder is returned early enough to make pampering little first trimester nests for Scully.

@sigritandtheelves/DarlaBlack's

Canticle (Ao3)

She wakes sobbing in his arms, saying “No, Mulder, no!” And when he tries to tell her everything is okay, she rushes to his tiny bathroom to vomit.

He pounds on the door. He calls her Dana until she unlocks it and looks at him with haunted eyes, holding a cold washcloth to her face.

“We’re taking you to the doctor,” he says.

“You can’t go near the ship,” she says. “It’s you it wants.” Then she collapses against him.

Requiem: Mulder listens to Scully's dream and flies home with her.

Ground

 It was science and mysticism and love-magic, combining like a perfect syzygy. It was the history of them, their lives, their suffering, their work, their love, emerging of some dark alchemy into a perfect future person, housed now beneath his palm. “The baby will be like Gibson,” she said: a weapon and a target and a key.

“But it’s ours,” he whispered—it was a question and a statement.

“Yes,” she said. “Only ours. Of that I’m sure.” And therefore so much more than merely weapon, target, key.

Post Requiem: Mulder is returned in the desert two months later, to revelation upon revelation.

@mldrgrl's (Ao3)

MSR 38

Skinner was already on the phone calling for an ambulance.  The gunmen hovered, giving orders to each other to give her air, get her water, find a pillow.  Marita knelt down next to Mulder and put a hand on Scully’s ankle.

“Alex,” she said.  “Find a blanket.”

Requiem: Scully passes out in the Bureau.

Resignation

Mulder had a nagging feeling about returning to Bellefleur even before he boarded the plane. It had actually started when he'd told Scully he was leaving and she was going to stay.  He expected her to put up more of a protest than she had, but it was the look on her face that gave him the first sense of foreboding - like she didn't expect to see him again.  

Requiem: Mulder, acting on a gut instinct, resigns on the plane.

Not Again: Part 1 and Not Again: Part 1 - Gone

“Sir.”  Mulder stops Skinner from turning away and squeezes his upper arm.  “What did that man, Agent Doggett, mean when he asked if it was about the baby?”

Skinner takes off his glasses to rub the bridge of his nose.  He hesitates before he hooks them back over his ears and looks Mulder directly in the eyes.  “Agent Scully used the bureau labs yesterday afternoon to run some bloodwork on herself,” he says.

Post Requiem: Scully is abducted, instead; and Mulder is forced to work alongside a task force that suspects him.

@o6666666's

au where Mulder didn't go....

He picks her up like a bride. “We’re going to the ER.”

“What, no, Mulder, you need to—your flight.”

“Ha ha,” he says. “Very funny.”

“Mulder, I’m—“

“Scully,” he tells her, jostling her around a little to get the car keys from his pocket, “shut up, will you? I’m taking you to the hospital.”

He can tell he’s moved her when she leans her head on his chest.

Requiem: Scully faints in the garage before they even leave the FBI.

Lapsed_Scholar’s Variations

“I must have fainted,” she tried, shakily. “I was feeling a little bit strange, just now. I should be fine in a moment.” Her mouth felt peculiarly clumsy around the words.

Exasperation flared across his eyes, but he kept his voice steady and gentle. “I don’t think so, honey. I had the airport staff call an ambulance. It should be here in a moment.” Honey? In public? It was apparently worse than she thought. When she found that she didn’t have the energy to call him on it, she knew it was worse than she thought.

Requiem: All the many, different ways Mulder could have been kept from Bellefleur-- from heartfelt to frustrated to comic to close shave.

@baronessblixen's (Ao3)

Fictober Day 11 Ao3 Fictober 2020 - Chapter 11

“You let him go alone?”

“No. I- um, I might have caused a slight ruckus at the airport and, um, we were asked to leave. He drove me here.”

“What kind of ruckus, Mulder?” Scully asks, amusement in her voice.

Requiem: Mulder crashes through the hospital, determined to get to Scully's side.

Fictober Day 12 Ao3 Fictober 2020 - Chapter 12

Hesitation drips from her voice. What happened to being ready? He turns his head and rests his chin on her stomach.

“Nothing is going to go wrong, Scully,” he says.

“It might.”

“It won’t.”

Post Requiem: Scully tells her mother the good news (without having Mulder halfway out to space.)

isamariposa's Bullfrogs and Jello

He smiles, and then he's so tired of this.

Requiem: Mulder is too worried to leave, so Skinner calls up Doggett to take his place.

@moonprincess92/Moonprincess92's Are you up for writing some season 7 fluff?

And as it became more and more likely that they would be shut down, Mulder knew that now all Scully had to do was ask him, and he’d walk away in an instant. He wouldn’t risk their lives for anything. 

He certainly wouldn’t risk hers.

Requiem: Mulder leaves Skinner at the airport, afraid Scully's cancer has returned.

@rationalcashew/RationalCashew's Dark is the Way; Light is the Place (Ao3)

He moved quickly to her, barely registering the note in her hand until she handed it to him. Mulder felt the blood drain from his face when he looked at it.

Take your chance. Wave and grin. So many guys just play with sin.

Underneath the typed note was something new: an incredibly detailed eye, drawn in black ink.

Devil eye.

Requiem: Mulder returns from Bellefleur, surprised and delighted at Scully's news. The two barely have time to process before they are thrown into a Deadly Sins case.

@frangipanidownunder/Frangipanidownunder's Already Special

Diana stands, pulls out a file from a drawer. Holds the Manila folder up. “This is a contact list of all the women who have been, and who will be, used as hosts for the experiment. They are all patients of the same pair of doctors. Lev and Parenti.”

There’s a sharp silence in the room. Lizzie Gill spreads her fingers flat on the desk. Scully presses a finger under her nose.

“I know about the IVF,” Diana says and Scully scrapes her chair back across the floor. The door slams behind her.

Post Requiem: Mulder was never abducted; and he and Scully tackle Per Manum and one Diana Fowley head-on.

@ghostbustermelanieking/skuls's

oregon forest

Skinner finds them. They’re somewhere in the desert, and they’re still together. They’re shivering. Scully’s teeth are chattering. Mulder is wrapped around her, his face in her neck, his fingernails digging into her back desperately. She’s gripping him just as hard, and she squints as someone shines a light into her eyes. She’s frightened all over again until she hears Skinner’s panicked voice: “Scully? Mulder?”

Relief fills her, suddenly, and she nods, a little whimper bubbling in her throat, as her head falls limply to Mulder’s shoulder.

Skinner drives them to the hospital. Mulder won’t let go of her hand. He won’t stop touching her face, her hair. He whispers it again, the things she remembers from the ship; he whispers, “I’m sorry, Scully, I’m so, so sorry.”

Requiem: Scully runs after Mulder, catching up just in time to get abducted along with him.

AU where scully finds mulder in the Arizona desert during within/without

He and Doggett seems equally stunned at the whole thing; Mulder had never really expected her to hear him. 

Within: Scully sticks to her instincts and finds Mulder in the ship.

s8's roadrunners AU where it's mulder instead of doggett

She tells him on the bus. After Doggett is finished cutting the slug out of her, because she’s shouting that it needs to be cut out and Mulder wants to do it but he can’t. His hands are shaking too badly. So he holds hers, lets her squeeze the life out of them as she screams, as the cultists pound on the bus, as Doggett pulls out the slug and shoots it. The cultists are dismayed. Mulder can see the flashing lights through the dusty window of the bus. As Doggett runs outside to deal with it all, Scully collapses woozily against his chest. He presses a quivering hand over the bloody wound at the back of her neck, and he realizes only then that she is sobbing. “It’s okay,” he whispers in frantic reassurance, pressing one hand against the wound and wrapping his free arm around her shoulders.

Roadrunners: Mulder is returned in time to rescue his partner.

@wexleresque/hellsteeth's

lost time (Ao3)

“What now?” he says, though it may be to just himself.

“I want to look at the files you set aside for me.” Scully says.

“Do you want to be alone? There might be some upsetting stuff in there. I didn’t see a lot but…you don’t end up in the x-files for just having a really great time.”

Scully shakes her head. “No, I want you to be there. You lived this through it all, too.”

Requiem: Mulder and Scully are abducted together, and returned with seven years of memories erased.

DeadAlive Switch (Ao3)

Mulder never gets the chance to beg Scully to stay in DC. She collapses on the forest floor, wakes clammy and nauseous, eyes glassy. He runs for help, yelling desperately. When he returns, she is gone, stumbling into the forest against her will. 

Requiem: Scully is abducted instead; then returned, "dead." Months after she's buried, Mulder claws her up from the ground.

stellar_dust’s (Ao3)

Threnody 01 - Divested (Ao3) and Threnody - Domani Non Viene (Ao3)

Some time later, empty of tears and drained in his soul, Mulder rose and quickly, deliberately, packed up all of his things.... As he grabbed clothes off the floor, he couldn't bear the thought of pulling his and Scully's apart, of taking hers next door and zipping them into her own suitcase, so into his they went, together.

Requiem: Scully is abducted instead. Not only is Mulder the primary suspect, but he must also grapple with his worsening brain disease and the sudden revelation of Scully's pregnancy.

Threnody - Indelible (Ao3)

With a deep breath, she got a grip on herself. All roads lead somewhere. Eventually, there will be a town, with a phone. She raised herself on shaky legs and began to walk.

Two steps later, Dana Scully disappeared.

Post Requiem: Mulder and his new partner Doggett drive up to Skyland Mountain after a ghost sighting. The ghost happens to be someone very different than he'd been expecting.

amorfati3215/Amorfati32’s (FFN)

Unnamed 1 and Unnamed 2

“We’ll find him,” replies Mulder, his smile faltering. “The Gunmen and their friends are monitoring everything. As soon as there’s any sign of him or the other abductees we’ll know.”

“That doesn’t stop me from feeling guilty.”

Requiem: Skinner, not Mulder, is dragged off to parts unknown.

@writingwell/RocketMan/Darkstryder's (xffics) Second Coming

He was weaker than he'd led them to believe. His head rolled along the seat when Bear spun the ATV around, but Scully was holding him up, trying to keep him from falling asleep.

Post Requiem: Scully and Krycek make a deal over Mulder's return.

@lotsoforangesoutside/@lotzzoforangezoutside/ lots_of_oranges_outside's

Impossibilities (Ao3)

She has half-expected Skinner to stick her with a new partner like he did to Mulder six years ago. That didn’t happen. She’s also thought her mother would freak out about her being an unwed mother and demand a wedding before her stomach starts to show; that also didn’t happen. So many things have been happening that really shouldn’t be happening; talking to her unborn babe is pretty low on the list of things she’s never imagined happening.

Post Requiem: Scully makes a wish upon a genie's ocarina.

@cauldronoflove/thegoodthebadandthenerdy's Gravity, Oh Gravity

the first thing he sees is not scully, but rather the stars. they're a comfort--they're still there and still bright and still patterned how they should be. they burn his eyes and slide down his throat like top shelf whiskey. but they don't even come close.

because the second thing he sees is scully. scully in a shirt he's had to have seen her in a thousand times, the one he thinks is green, but isn't sure because his eyes have always betrayed him. his eyes have to be betraying him. scully and-

and         and                  and

(and his heart stops beating.)

it thunders back to life as he stumbles forward, legs feeling like they've been chopped from his body and reattached in the wrong direction. 

Post Requiem: Mulder is returned as he was taken.

@onpaperfirst's Ao3, LJ) For the first sentence prompt

He’d been pushed out the back of a truck on the side of the 5, just north of Eugene, wearing a thin t-shirt and scrub pants. His tenure on the ship itself had been short. They’d all been taken to a warehouse just across the border on the outskirts of Juárez where he had proven surprisingly adept at levitation but had refused to cooperate when asked to mind read.

Post Requiem: Mulder has been abducted, and returned, by the government.

@enigmaticdrblockhead's AliveDead

Out of some sick inner desperation, his body continues on. Blood still pumping and heart still beating, by definition he is alive. Life. To him it is nothing but lying down.

His right hand almost seems stiff. Fingers are curved upward to show a gray palm. He begs for whatever they can give. He is never lucky.

Post Requiem: Skinner finds Mulder, sick and amnesic, on the street.

@pinebluffvariants/@flukemen/scienceandmysticism's

An idea: scully becomes pregnant but mulder never "dies"

They spend their time in silence, but it’s comfortable. His pupils focus easier and easier and she wheels him around the hospital grounds. He looks up at her from his wheelchair, sadly and adorably rumpled but alive, and she bends down for a kiss. Of course their first kiss in public will be far from home, one of them just this side of peril. It only strengthens her resolve to do it again.

Post Requiem: Mulder is returned two months later, aphasic.

@virtie333's (Ao3)

Dream a Little Dream - Chapter 4

While Aldrich took them on another tour, chatting away, Doggett knew Langly and Frohike were tapping into the building's security systems. Tonight, after dark, he and Byers would sneak in, with the assistance of the computer geeks in the van outside, and do a little search and rescue. 

Post Requiem: Mulder is rescued by Doggett and TLG, and the three take down the Alien Bounty Hunter and speed off to help Scully.

The Hunter

For that past week, however, the Prey had been hunting as well, and the trail had finally stopped here, in Savannah. A beautiful town, if one cared about those things. But the Hunter was single minded. He only wanted one thing. And tonight, he was about to get it.

Post Requiem: Mulder escapes, and is returned in time to save Scully and Doggett.

@suitablyaggrieved/ScullyLovesQueequeg's Ignorance

The backseat occupant made a noise of delight upon making eye contact with Mulder, and Scully steals a glance at her partner, to see a small smile on his otherwise somber features. It was gone as soon as it had arrived, however, and his eyes shift out the window again. The backseat occupant was satisfied with this outcome, and he too turned his attention to the slow moving blurs that paint the window as the car moves along the side streets.

Post Requiem: Mulder is returned a year later, and suspiciously reacclimates to his new life.

@contrivedcoincidences6/Spooky66/geektime66’s AU 5 HC

“Hello Ms. Scully, this is Amy from Holy Cross Hospital, we’ve been trying to reach you from your other numbers.”

Scully’s brows draw together. In years past she would have thought they were calling about Mulder.

“Yes?”

“A man was checked in a few days ago with no id. Today he started talking and asked for you before he fell back asleep, we were unable to get a name.”

Scully’s heart beats in her ears. She knows it’s not Mulder but she doesn’t know who else it could be. 

Post Requiem: Scully tries to move on... until Mulder is returned a year and a half later.

Thanks for reading~

Enjoy!

[1moreoffkeyanthem]

I finally did it yall I made a list of my favorite Cartmanisms bc I do in fact very much enjoy writing his out of pocket ass

“Oh speaking of,” Cartman added, “let’s just sacrifice the Insulin Bitch and the brain damaged hippie to the zaliens so the rest of us can make a run for it.”

Eric was scowling. “Only I’M allowed to make comments about you two gayasses. I say we wipe the floor with those homophobes.”

“I doubt they’ll have a vest in your size, Thumbulimia.”

“Please, I have better things to do than watch the Jew have a Post Traumatic Spider Disorder episode.”

Cartman rolled his eyes, but got up to drop a five in the Fuckwad Jar. “I hate you guys, seriously. Marj, you weren’t even in the room for the Nancy joke.” The lace trim of his robe fluttered as he sat back down, which made Stan laugh again. “What’s so funny, hippie?” There weren’t really words, honestly, but he’d try. “I just… I never want us to change, you know?” “Gay.”

Eric sung a few lines of ‘Jesus Loves The Little Children’ in a creepy horror movie voice and then sprung out from his hiding spot and started blasting on an unsuspecting youth who got too close, chasing him down the field with rarely shown athleticism.

Cartman looked incredibly bored as he clicked the magazine and snapped it back into place. “Well fuck me for being prepared.”

Cartman scoffed. “He’s not doing anything but staring up at you like he’s Sleeping Goddamn Beauty and you just kissed him out of a coma.”

“Awww, looook, you guys! They’re having a gay little hurt/comfort moment again! What, you gonna kiss it better, Kahl?”

Cartman just rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. “What the hell ever, Jimothy. Go stutter about it to someone else.”

“Okay, fucking first of all,” Kyle shot a glare at Cartman, “no one’s getting sacrificed. Literally, that’s not goddamn happening. AND we’re keeping this discussion CIVIL. It’s five in the morning and nobody’s slept very much. There’s not a single guy here who’s actually thinking straight.” “That would be because half of you are gay as balls.”

“Once again, I’m moving that we leave the hippie behind.” “Cartman, remind me to kick your ass when we’re out of here.” “Good luck on that if you fucking faint like one of those stupid goats again.”

Cartman was out of bullets, but he’d taken out a good chunk of the extraterrestrial undead. “Holy shit, Kahl, you better not die on us. Cockroach, remember? You’re a damn cockroach.”

“Aight, so anyway, what’s JewBot up to?” “Still at work. He’ll be home later. We’re gonna go out to dinner with the Tuckers.” “I didn’t ask for your life’s story, buttplug,”

“Oh JESUS CHRIST!!” Oh, great. Cartman had emerged from his cave. “Did I just walk into a stairwell orgy?”

“Fuck you, Kahl. Your recycled dildo and his weirdo wingman pulled me out of a Klance slowburn.” “WHO the FUCK is reading Voltron fanfiction in 2023?!” “Some of us are dedicated.”

Eric paused his self imposed quest to rob every taco truck in GTA and set aside his controller. “Hellllll no. The vampires don’t get my blood without paying me for it.”

“Geez, pack it up, Fiddler On The Roof.”

“Fatass, if he dies in a car accident because YOU made him freak, I WILL kill you.” “Good luck doing that with one leg and a fever, fleshlight.” But his voice softened. “Just try to chill out until he gets home, Kahl. Then you can be a terrible patient for someone who actually likes you.”

“Yeah, hippie. I wasn’t going to deal with you if something happened to your burning bush.”

A certain abrasive fuckwad leaned casually against the wall. “Oh, the Bubonic Jew didn’t tell you yet? I said he fell on the stairs, didn’t I? He just hurt his knee again, what else is new.” Stan made a noise of surprise and Cartman pointed his beef jerky at him. “By the way, I really don’t get why you get so stoked about lugging him around. He’s difficult.”

Cartman scurried off to inspect a leaf. “Woah, you guys! I think I just, like, discovered empathy!” “You’re looking at a plant.” “Plants have feelings too, Khal! Look at your photosynthesizing dildo back there!”

“Like he needs an excuse to get on his high horse about shit.” “I’ll kick your fat ass,” Kyle warned. “Good luck, tinkerbell.”

Cartman had planted himself into the passenger seat, munching away at that bag of funyuns. He glanced back. “What’s the ‘sitch, Ken-Possible?”

“Because, you pussy,” Cartman said with a false saccharine smile, “you have the biggest TikTok following from your gayass little songs.

“Yep.” Cartman said through a mouthful of eggs. “Plus, Clyde has an affair going with the town vet, Butters is a total twink, and Stanny boy has a boner for the Jew.”

Oh dear god. Cartman was NOT about to babysit the argumentative dickhole while the housekeeper worked. As much fun as he was to fight with, Kyle was a fierce opponent, and Cartman wasn’t really in the mood. He’d had a weird night. The cats had been on edge.

Oh, of goddamn course. The OTHER buttplug. It wasn’t a secret. Well, technically it was, because no one talked about it, but anyone with eyeballs could see that Stan and Kyle had a gayass little private relationship going on behind Craig’s back. Good for them, or whatever, but if the Spider ever got proof…

Cartman just rolled his eyes. “Scott, you glucose gobbling ass bitch, I’ve literally butchered two people. I know the human body, okay?”

“The fuck.” Cartman’s eyes widened. “Every single one of you dildos had better be praying that there’s no internal bleeding.”

Cartman put his hands up. “Gahdamn, you guys. Just trying to lighten the mood in this hot air balloon to Hell.”

“Ay! Hippie! The Jew had to stay for basketball so I’m here with your buttfucking homework-“

Cartman definitely wanted to rip on him for wallowing in his own sadness, but the sooner he got this loser to be a person again, the better. “No shit, asshole. Your fucking fleshlight is even more intolerable without you to hold him back. You need to come back to school.”

“Also, I’m telling your little prince of Egypt that he can come over. It’s not like he’s gonna catch your Sad Bitch Disease.”

Cartman strolled around the corner, now wearing his frilly ‘widow whose husband died under mysterious circumstances’ robe.

[bre1995]

Fellow Traveler Scenes that make me sad

Hello everyone again!! This post is going to be another lengthy one, but I hope that you enjoy <3

(Yes I know there are a lot of these moments, but these are the ones from pretty much each episode that just shatter me each time)

In episode 1 when Marcus shows up you can see the scared look on Hawks face and then when Marcus is talking about Tim. I know a lot of things went down and Hawk kept his distance, but that doesn't mean he still wasn't scared.

Episode 2 when Hawk is making Skippy write that letter. You know 99% of those words are for Tim and you can see Hawk getting emotional when saying them and when Tim stops writing you know that he realizes that those words aren't just for Mary they are for Tim and that just shatters me.

Episode 3 when Hawk goes to Tim's apartment and even though Mary and Marcus had been telling him how bad things were, Hawk witnessing it for himself completely overwhelmed him and you could see it on his face. Also, when he excuses himself to the bathroom and almost starts crying because he realizes that he will be losing his Skippy sooner than he thinks. Then later in the restaurant when Tim is singing 'Perhaps' he looks at Hawk and some of the words he's singing and the force in which he says them you know are directed at Hawk and then he gets upset when he realizes he has embarrassed Hawk.

Episode 4 When Hawk has to take the lie detector test. Him having to mentally and physically prepare himself so that he can pass. Him lying about loving Tim (which was also was the longest pause of any of the questions), but that is also one of my favorite parts because he was wearing the tie Tim got him for Christmas, but the fact that he had to lie just to be able to keep his job. Just broke my heart, but also talking to Marcus you could tell that he felt completely guilty and broke his own heart. Also, in episode 4 which I know it's in the beginning when Hawk and Tim get into that huge fight and then at the end of the episode he apologizes, but Tim isn't there, but also him saying Skip instead of Skippy. There's just something about it that I can't explain.

Episode 5 Hawk not only breaks his own heart, but Tims too when he tells Tim that he's going to ask Lucy to marry him. When Hawk says that you can SEE it on his face that he doesn't want this to be happening and doesn't want to do it, but he FEELS like it's what he has to do. Also, Tim you can tell was absolutely shattered too and I know that's why he ends up signing up for the army. In this same episode when Hawk and Tim are in the bell tower and Hawk goes "Skippy, I didn't raise my boy to be a soldier." Hawk is so sad, broken, and doesn't want this to be happening. Also, Tim's "promise you won't write." These two love each other so much and it just pains me they can't be together the way they want to.

Episode 6 when Skippy comes to the house and looks in from the trees and sees Hawk with his family. I do love Tims bond with Jackson and the conversation they had about Hawk. In that moment you can tell Tim has no resentment fully towards Hawk at all and understands how he has to love and HOW he loves.

Episode 7 I know the threesome was sloppy and everything, but the small little moments between Skippy and Hawk just make me tear up. When Tim starts rubbing Hawks back and plays with his earlobe like he's always done thats my sign of him saying "I'm here for you and I've got you." The next part in this clip is when Hawk sees Jacksons picture and fully shuts down and starts to panic. Then him starting to break down and apologizing because he feels like he can't cry and Tim tells him its ok and then thats when Hawk fully lets go. Hawks "Let me die." Literally SHATTERS my heart. Hawk is so broken and hurt and that just makes me hurt. But when he full on has the breakdown is when I lost it. You can just see all the pain and anguish on his face. He really did need Skippy. At the end of the episode even though he has no one to blame, but himself, Hawk starting to panic and freak out about Skippy leaving and saying he's free of Hawk really got to him. He felt like he lost him again forever. Then the flash to the present of Hawk at the hospital while Skippy is in the hospital bed. The fear and sadness on his face. But that kiss to the forehead in a public place just makes me tear up so, so hard. It was the first time Hawk had done something like that in a public setting.

Finally episode 8 the one that never fails to make me SOB every time. Tim telling Hawk that he woke up not knowing who he was and Hawk saying "Timothy David Laughlin, that adorable Catholic Boy from Staten Island." Tim returning from the army and reuniting with Hawk (yeah I know that's not sad, but it is special) and him almost getting his dream job. Recommended by Hawk and then skip to the naked slow dance (which is just so beautiful and emotional in itself) you see Hawk so at peace and happy then he's ever been and then Tim says they will be colleagues and see each other every day. You could immediately see the panic and fear on Hawks face. Then you get Hawk turning Tim in and then crying to Mary (rightfully so). Then going to the hospital to see baby Jackson and immediately thats when we and Tim find out why Hawk did what he did, but it doesn't make it any easier. Skip to Hawk climbing into Tim's hospital bed and holding him and Tim saying "I feel like I'm fading away. I'm disappearing a little every day." the way he says it just shatters me (I'm crying even typing it). Then eventually Hawk asking if he owns a tuxedo, them at the gala, and of course Tim's speech to Hawk. "I have loved you my whole life. I've never loved anyone, but you. You were my great, consuming love. And most people don't get one of those. I did. I have no regrets." That whole part of the speech makes me cry every time. Add on top of Hawk's kiss and Tim savoring it and then teasing Hawk like he always does. Tim wiping away Hawk's tears. Hawk telling Tim that he wants to show up for Tim, but Tim (understandably) sends him home. Even though Tim is his home. The "Hey Skippy! Promise you won't write" "I won't" being their last words to each other. My goodness let the tears roll. (Again crying while typing this). Skip to the Aids Quilt and Hawk finds Tims square and Kimberly coming up to him. Hawk trying to hide his tears and then just letting them flow with the quote "Sweetheart, he wasn't my friend. He was the man I loved." *Cue more tears from me* I know it took him until after Tim died to admit it, but I choose to believe that in that moment Tim was looking down and would be so, so proud of Hawk. I'm also glad that he has Kimberly and she's still sticking by his side. But the show ending on that note is so beautiful and heartbreaking all at the same time. I know this was another long one, but I'm so passionate about this show. Please feel free to share your favorite moments or even add to this!! I am up for conversation anytime :)

[rubywolf0201]

Thoughts on the latest episode of BUCCHIGIRI?! aka that one episode that had me off the seat!

WARNING: *SPOILERS FOR EPISODE 7*

- Episode starts off with Arajin skipping happily to his class and then soon as he enter, Komao is seen playing with him.

- Puppy boi Matakara enters into the scene not too soon but this time, there’s no hostility between him and Arajin (HOORAY!!!)

- Though as soon Arajin asked about Mahoro, Mata had to mention that she’s in the hospital with Marito. Ara immediately rushed out going past Mata. 🙂🙃

- But it’s quickly subverted after the OP that Matakara decided to tag along with Arajin and from what we can see, their relationship is almost back to normal.

- Ok we got info on why Mitsukuni is in juvie: Apparently he took down a dirty cop who is forcing his buddies to sell illegal drugs, which lands him in big trouble with the authorities for doing that, even if he did saved some of the dirty cop’s friends.

- After hearing that, Arajin had a geniune expression where he feels pity for his friend and realizes that he must’ve been through a lot.

- The hospital scene between the Jin siblings has to be the funniest. Like we see Mahoro bringing in ‘lunch’ for Marito to eat but the ‘lunch’ looks like this:

And of course, Marito is repulsed by this sight (I mean who wouldn’t be?) and makes you question who even prepares her meals considering that earlier episodes shows it to be fine?

- The moment Arajin enters into the scene, we see Mahoro’s mood immediately goes down while Marito is excited to see him.

- Marito was a tad bit cold to tell his little sister to get out (I mean I get that her cooking is….abominable but still…) and of course Mahoro is hurt by that.

- I’ll be honest with you: I had to pause at that scene because I knew something horrible is going to happen and it did. So braced myself.

- Arajin gave chase to her and this gets very cool: Not only does she wall-pin him but she dropped the most rawest lines ever:

- Arajin doesn’t seem bothered by it (?) but he seems aroused by the fact that Mahoro has kabedon’ed him.

- Marito and Arajin begin discussing with each other about the rival groups organizing a group date which changes scene where Hagure begins to tell Arajin about the group date in detail. Arajin, as always asked Hagure if Mahoro is going to be in a swimsuit to which Hagure replied yes (which is obviously a lie and that Hagure is doing it to amuse him)

- In the bathhouse, we have Matakara, Komao and Zabu discussing about the group date but that’s not what I want to pay attention to because:

HELLO?!?! HOW CAN YOU DO THIS TO ME?!?!

- Oh and Zabu is acting tsundere-ish for some reason of wanting to ‘repay’ Arajin back. Such a dork. (I do hope he and Komao gets promoted a lot more in the future)

- Back in the Tomoshibi residence, Arajin is trying to show off his muscles to which Senya question where. Oh and we have Mrs Tomoshibi gushing over her son and all that.

- Arajin then starts having daydreams of his ‘date’ with Mahoro and it’s kind of funny how he envisions both of them kissing, despite him witnessing her true character up front in the hospital.

- The day has arrived and we see Arajin heading out excitedly to go to the group date.

- Meanwhile, the businessman entered into the cat cafè/brothel (?) as usual but however, instead of asking to see the usual cat or something like that, he asked for a different one, which catches the cat cafè waiter off guard.

- When Arajin arrived, he was not amused that the whole ‘group date’ turns out to be a wrestling match!

- Yep it seems our ‘beach episode’ is a wrestling match!!

- Also, it’s kind of weird to see Hagure without his usual cap but hey at least we get to see him with a different head accessory.

- And of course, the first match is between Outa and Kenichiro. It was an intense match and it ended up with a draw because of how powerful it is.

- Also Marito has a pretty neat getup.

- Honestly, I wish I could describe everything that is happening because of how literally every one is in a WWE getup and that this whole ‘group date’ is more like a bonding session between Minato Kai and Siguma Squad.

- Arajin after witnessing everything decided to step out for a bit and wait for Mahoro but the moment she arrives she’s in a pretty modest getup and riding a camel no less. (No not the one where she rides the mechanical one like Marito’s but a literal one)

(Also, I’ll leave it to certain moots to think that if Mahoro’s getup is ok or not)

- Speaking of Mahoro, it kind of amazes me that she instantly changes out of the outfit she’s wearing into her school uniform (I have to wonder why doesn’t anyone wear casual clothes for this ‘beach episode’? Does Ichizu High even gives the weekends off?)

- I wish I could describe all of the matches but it would’ve been a mouthful and it’s basically just a filler episode.

- Mahoro fangirling over her brother will never be funny to me and you can see just how unamused Hagure looks, implying that he and everyone else at Siguma Squad are used to that kind of antics lol.

(Also Komao is like ‘WTF is happening here?’)

- Zabu is hilarious AF and the fact that he’s the only guy to wear a wrestling singlet and then he got blasted out lol.

- Anyways, Mahoro is hungry and Arajin senses that so he went outside to get food.

- From there, we see the NG Boys making yakisoba and Akutaro is there too but somehow his face is now ok except for a broken nose.

- Arajin came by and was surprised to see him and decided to inquire him about Senya but Akutaro just brush it off and says to him to have Senya answer him.

- Upon receiving the yakisoba and being dragged off by Senya, Ichiya FINALLY SPOKE!!!

- Also we finally got a good look at Matakara’s build and wow.

Dude’s built like a brick house I keep forgetting that he is 15/16 years old (I need to know his secrets to getting this big)

- Also his wrestler getup is pretty cool.

- Jabashiri also decided to join in the match to get his revenge on Matakara.

- We have nice Arajin/Matakara bonding episode in this one and you can see them gaining each other’s trust in this one.

- Though, I will say the moment Arajin slips up in distracting Marito is a big OOF!

- Again, I wish to describe more but it’ll get pretty long but all I can say is that Marito went super berserk to the point the tent fell down lol. Oh and somehow both Arajin and Matakara wins the whole match.

- Towards the end, we see all of the members from Siguma and Minato getting along. Matakara and Arajin are walking and just overall being casual.

But side note, like Mahoro, couldn’t they have bothered to make casual clothes for the guys cause how the heck do you even have time to change back into your school uniform HELLO?!

- But putting that aside, just as Matakara is seeing Arajin chasing behind Mahoro like the simp that he is, Akutaro and Ichiya are seen spying on Matakara, especially the latter what that means is a mystery but it’ll be an interesting one in next week’s episode.

[catsandpens]

Dance For You

Character: S.coups x reader

Seungcheol asks reader to dance for him

Fluff (more suggestive compared to my other work

Dance For You

It was one of the normal nights for you and Seungcheol. A night spent on the couch, enjoying each other's company. You both wanted to make the most of this night because it would be the last time you would see one other for a while.

Seungcheol is going on tour with seventeen and your schedule is just as hectic. With him being a part of one of the biggest boy groups and you being a well-known dancer/choreographer, it was bound for both of you to have very busy lives. You really didn't mind Seungcheol's absence; you were more concerned with his performance than with his absence, and he didn't mind your absence either; he was more proud of the fact that you were scheduling performances.

You noticed Seungcheol's gaze straying off somewhere else as you talked about the newest events in your life.

“Ok, what’s up” You asked, interrupting Seungcheols thoughts.

“Ahh.. Nothing” Seungcheol replies with a nervous smile.

“Come on Seungcheol, you got something on your mind , so you might as well just say it now or forever hold your peace.” You suggested with a giggle.

“Fine” Seungcheol cried in defeat.

“You’re like one of the best dancers I’ve ever known, and I know you danced for like thousands of people….” Seungcheol said as you nod, agreeing to every word he says.

“But you never dance for me.” he said with wonder.

“You’re right.” you replied with realization, slowly catching on what Seungcheol was going on about.

“So what about it?” you question the puzzled man

“I want you to dance for me.” he said in a direct voice.

You knew where this conversation was leading to but the request still put you at a pause.

“Right Now? I can’t do it right now, I have to prepare” You said in a panicked mess.

“No no no.” Seungcheol said, reassuring you.

You sighed in relief as Seungcheol laughed at your little episode. You both agreed to do your performance for him as soon as he gets back from tour, so you have as much time to plan for it.

Seungcheol was on tour, and you spent too much time looking for a song while he was gone. The tour was halfway finished by the time you chose a song, and the other half was spent learning the dance. Normally, learning a choro would take you a few days max, but you wanted to make sure everything was perfect. He deserves nothing but the best after working so hard.

The big day had arrived, and you had everything prepared, right down to the room, lighting, and clothes. Seungcheol texted you saying he'd be home about 8 p.m., allowing you time to go through everything again.

You soon hear seungcheol enter the home,as you put on your Outfit. “Hey Y/N, I’m back” Seungcheol yelled.

“Oh great, go to the room and take a seat on the couch, i'll be there in a minute.” You said

“Alright” seungcheol giggled

Seungcheol made his way to the room and made himself comfortable on the couch, staring at the chair in front of him.

*que music*

You slowly walked out the bathroom connecting to the room, heading to your position on the chair. Seungcheol's eyes were on nothing but you, watching every move you made. You began the choreography making sure to not let your nerves take over. You make eye contact with him to see if he was enjoying it and you can tell from the smirk on his face that he was loving every moment.

Your performance soon came to an end and you stood up to give a small bow to relieve yourself from the nervousness.

“That was freaking amazing!” Seungcehol said while standing up and clapping.

“ You like it?” You question him as he comes towards you with open arms.

“Of course I like it. Thank you so much.” Seungcheol said while holding close.

“ It was nothing” you scoffed.

“ Can you do it again? I want to record it and show it to the guys” Seungcheol asked with amazing attempt at puppy eyes

“Sure” you replied.

Seungcheol would not stop giving you compliments and asking you to teach him the choreography the rest of the night.

[elizabethshaw]

thoughts on "echoes"!! under the cut bc of spoilers:

this boxset absolutely came out at one of the worst possible times for me (my busiest day of the week, at a time when i have 6 different exams, a presentation and also assessments for my home uni to prepare for), and i fear it may have regnited my 8das fixation somewhat which is. not something i have time for rn lmao. we'll see how it goes i guess! anyway personal stuff over now-

i definitely enjoyed it overall! i'm still not entirely sure where i'd rank it in comparison with the other post-stranded boxsets but it was a lot of fun, and it was (as expected) a joy to hear this tardis team together again :)

i will say however that i did have one major qualm with it, which is that i felt a bit let down with how little it followed through with the emotional plotlines set up in the preceding two sets. i got the feeling when listening to "what lies inside?" and "connections" that they were very much going somewhere with this team's (particularly helen's) emotional arc, and while i won't deny there were some nice scenes with them in this set, the fact that these threads were otherwise left to one side most of the time was a disappointment. there was potential to do some really interesting character work in continuation from the events of those previous episodes and it just. didn't happen. i don't want to sound too down about it because i did still really enjoy these stories, but i think this side of things was missing a little bit for me. hm.

anyway, episode-by-episode thoughts:

birdsong

i think this was my favourite of the set. i really love audio drama that leans into more horror-adjacent aspects (even though i'm not a massive horror fan otherwise tbh), and also love it when audio drama just gets kinda fucked up with it. this story hit on both counts for me :)

love that this continued the running trend from the previous boxsets of the episode starting with eight, liv and helen just getting to be silly for a bit before the Horrors inevitably happen :D

lowkey actually love the concept of barcodes as a written language! part of me wants to try and work out how that could work now

scots pine trees... it never rains... bracken... sand... they're literally in breckland lmao

saying that it does also have the Suffocating Quietness going on so i think i'm onto something here...

when the vortex previews for this set mentioned a family member of helen's first mentioned in doom coalition being relevant to this story, i wasn't expecting it to be the grandmother she mentioned in "ship in a bottle". however it was actually really nice to have helen's relationship with her developed further, and it was woven into the story well i thought

being Normal about the scene between liv and helen at the fireside. i am being so normal about it

"i'm not sure i could do this with anyone else, you know? everything from exploring strange new worlds... to talking about my family." i'm fine. i'm fine!!!

[putting on my clown shoes] this is how liv/helen can still be canon in some form before helen inevitably dies! :))

i love how vivid this story felt to me. i always end up getting visuals in my head as i listen with any audio drama but some stories end up, for storytelling or sound design reasons, or both, creating really clear and vivid pictures in my mind and this was definitely one of those

i hope to god that when i visit home over the summer and listen to these with my mum (who loves these audios but refuses to listen to them without me, which is kind of sweet of her), my dad is not in the same room. i love him but he absolutely would be asking me to pause it every few minutes so he could identify the bird calls and then also getting really frustrated when i inevitably end up being unable to guess any of them correctly myself lol. the pains of being related to an ornithologist

big fan of the way things got increasingly more disturbing towards the end. i do think the eight-liv-helen era has been lacking in terms of properly creepy stories (this is just my personal taste tbf), so it was cool having them properly lean into that for once. i have to say though the mental image of the scout's body with all the roots forcing their way into her eyes is not going to be leaving me for a long time

also thought the sound design was really well done on this one!! you could really feel the discomfort of the silence i think

got slightly choked up at helen and liv singing to bex as she died. i might have just been in a weird mood while i was listening to it but. yeah. it did something to me

anyway had a lot of fun with this episode! it had a lot of elements that appealed to me personally, and the character work it did was nice. i look forward to listening to it again one day :)

lost hearts

m.r. james episode!! i've only ever read two of his stories (both of which are products of me knowing this episode was coming haha), but was quite excited for this one regardless because a) ghost stories! and b) he's actually got connections to a village in the area i grew up in, and as i've never actually seen/heard any stories set where i come from in my life, it was neat to have a story in my favourite show, featuring some of my favourite characters, star someone more or less from where i'm from :')

have to say though i am disappointed to have lost the unofficial "will they namedrop great livermere" bet i had going on with my mum and brother. it's such a middle-of-nowhere village (it's not on the way to anywhere, has 3 streets (one of which is named "the street" and another of which is actually a dirt track), and you invariably see more chickens there than actual people), it would have been deeply amusing to me for it to have canonically existed in the dwu

loved all the direct (and indirect) callbacks to "the red lady" in this story! it felt fitting seeing as on some levels they do share certain elements in terms of plot/setting, and was also just fun for me as that is one of my favourite stories :)

was also a big fan of how active the story felt (not sure if that's quite the right word?) - each of the characters had a clear role to play and all the main cast got something to do, it never felt hugely like any of them were being sidelined, which does happen on occasion with 3+ person tardis teams

if helen had punched someone at some point in this story i honestly wouldn't have blamed her

"he's like the museum of cairo, stuffed inside a... well, a-" "a rude, ungracious little twerp?" oh my god askdfjdsfjkds

(let her swear!!!)

i like how the story was riffing off some of the plot/vibes of m.r. james' actual short story "lost hearts" (helpfully one of the two i've read)! it gave it that nice kind of connection, without feeling overly derivative and like it was straight-out copying it

my only main issue with this episode was that robert felt kinda underdeveloped. they started off well in his opening scene with liv, but i don't think we got enough of a chance to get to know him as a person after that point and i think the story suffered for it a little. i don't think it helped either that he's not a family member helen had ever mentioned prior to this episode, so they were essentially having to start from scratch and with everything else going on in the narrative, didn't quite find the time to give him sufficient detail

loved the emotional moments that were brought out when helen got erased... "helen, she's my- she's everything i have left" ough

and the salzburg parallels?? liv attempting to fly the tardis in a desperate attempt to rescue her friends, much like helen did? this is so... it's a lot

i won't lie, it did feel a bit odd to me that they would go to such lengths to avoid actually naming the uni in this episode as cambridge. i suppose it may have been to avoid spoiling the "it's m.r. james!!!" reveal at the end, but given that i think anyone who would have guessed it was him from the setting being cambridge probably would have guessed it anyway beforehand either from the episode blurb or the fact that the episode literally starts with him reciting one of his most famous short stories, it feels a little pointless. i mean i clocked it as an m.r. james episode when the set was announced and i had never read any of his work at that point lmao. not a glaring issue or anything, but felt like a weird choice

anyway loved helen getting to geek out a bit at the end... i love her :')

i think i'm going to have to relisten to this at some point so i can fully get my head around it but i did enjoy it!

slow beasts

this was a solid ep. not my favourite story this tardis team has ever had, but i did absolutely enjoy listening to it, and thought there were a lot of really good ideas in it!

the colonialism plotline especially worked really well for me, it felt pertinent in just the right sort of way. it's not necessarily something new for dr who, but i think it was definitely a good example of how to do it well.

i think "simple, but effective" is the way i'd sum this one up tbh. not exceptional, but it knew what it was setting out to do, did it, and did it well, and i think that worked. it did admittedly feel a bit strange after two more complex/experimental sort of stories, but i don't think that's any reflection on its actual quality

"here is the psychic paper. be confident. it only works if you're confident." "but... i- i'm not confident?" me if i got asked to use the psychic paper tbh

enjoyed the use of the translation circuit in this one :) i have a lot of thoughts on it as a general thing so i always like seeing the ways it gets utilized in different stories

so! had fun with these! a couple of things that maybe could have gone better, but overall a set of three stories i had good fun with and i suspect will enjoy listening to again. fingers crossed the december boxset is with these guys again and they do a bit more with helen's emotional plotlines next time :)

[golden--doodler]

I've definitely been busy making things lately 😂

I made a behemoth of a chapter of my Bob's Burgers AU for @drawthething to go with this lovely Commission she made for me back in March which I've already yelled about several times:

This might be an unpopular opinion, but I love the episode Something Old, Something New, Something Bob Caters For You, so writing this was an absolute joy:

Bob’s day had been fantastic—by far the most wonderful, significant one he’d experienced in years. So it didn’t matter that everything went wrong in every conceivable way. So fantastic, in fact, that he gnawed on his knuckle from all the distress the day brought him. No, he didn’t want to be thinking about the best day of Cole (?) and Farrah’s lives this way. Not when they shared their special day because of what he’d created. Their excitement was contagious as they shared the news with him, and he held onto the memory of their wide smiles and waving hands. At first, he almost didn’t accept the reality of his food making connections.

However, the disaster playing out in front of them continued to be impossible to ignore. The already harsh, temperamental wind reared its vengeful head. The priest, standing as still as a statue in front of his official podium, and dressed in a respectable cream robe, was about to officiate the couple’s union. But the wind blew hats and hair without reprieve.

The priest opened his mouth, and almost everyone leaned forwards in their chairs, eager to pay attention to this moment, the moment everyone came for. He spoke, and the wind began blowing again. He spoke the first two words, and everyone caught them, but the rest got lost in the weather. Bob tilted his head, praying somehow this was someone’s poor idea of a joke. He refused to believe the reality in front of him—What’s-His-Name and Farrah had been through enough already. Now their most momentous moment had become disrupted? This wouldn’t occur without Bob helping.

He placed his hands on his knees, preparing to stand, when he noticed a familiar weight on his shoulder. Turning, he was about to tell off whoever delayed him when he realized who it was.

Linda provided him with a modest, gentle smile, making his chest ignite with the same explosive warmth that always appeared when Linda was merry. She let out a subdued, almost imperceptible laugh, which she covered with her mouth. If this had been anyone else, he would have demanded what the person had found so amusing. But with Linda, he couldn’t stop a small grin of his own forming. 

He took a moment to remember how to say what he wanted, then signed, “What’s so funny?”

She beamed again, then lifted her free hand into a casual pose. “Hey, at least I’m not the only one who can’t hear this, right? Ironic, isn’t it?”

There was something about the way her eyes crinkled at the sides and the way she had asked those rhetorical questions which broke Bob. It was clear she wasn’t making fun of the ceremony or the couple. She was just making an observation, one he needed but didn’t realize. A laugh erupted from him—obnoxious and impossible to ignore. As people began turning towards him with their judgemental stares, his face bloomed with fresh warmth.

He faced his wife again and couldn’t help but appreciate the way her catering outfit contoured to her beautiful curves as she giggled. 

“Stop making me laugh when I’m so stressed, Lin.” He took a moment to sign “Yes,” in response to her rhetorical questions, his hand bobbing up and down in harmony with his voice. He shook his head, fighting to keep his composure at bay. “I’m not—this is supposed to be serious. Farrah and the… uh… groom, they’re having an awful time, Lin. This is their wedding day, and nothing’s been going well. It’s been one disaster after another.”

Linda planted her palm on his shoulder, her eyebrows shooting up at his transparent statement. “That’s true. But I don’t think it’s a wedding they’ll forget.”

She gestured around them, pausing when she found Tina, Gene, and Louise eyeing something else rather than paying attention to the ceremony. It amazed him to discover that this wedding was entertaining everyone, despite it being a catastrophe. A geriatric couple was watching with hands over their chests and handkerchiefs dabbing at their eyes. Two women with a young child were leaning forward, anticipating the inevitable “I Do”. Their child was anticipating it too, being well-behaved for someone of that age. There was also a man who’d come by himself with someone on a video call on his phone. He was relaying the disastrous events of the wedding in a hushed, almost excited tone. Even their children were finding something to look forward to, it being the burgers Bob had prepared earlier. Then, an idea to save this wedding hit him like a thunderclap. Bob sprung from his chair, almost knocking it over in his haste. He slid his hand under a tray filled with steaming, juicy burgers that he had prepared earlier and carried them towards the seated guests.

The priest didn’t cease with trying to recite everything to officiate the couple into a marriage. But he could see Cameron and Farrah gawking at the display. 

Cameron’s jaw seemed tight and clenched, and Farrah’s head tilted in curiosity. Bob began passing out some burgers, praying the food would distract everyone from the tragedy unfolding in front of them. He was about to pass out another when Linda seized his shoulder with a ferocity he didn’t know she was capable of.

“Bob, what are you doing?”

“This can still… I can still save this, Lin. I… well… it looked as if people were enjoying some of this ceremony. I’m sure it was for the wrong reasons, though. This wedding can become one Casey and Farrah won’t forget for the right reasons.”

Linda’s eyes narrowed, and she yanked him towards her. “Look, I know how important this wedding was to you, but you got the wrong idea from what I was trying to tell you. You don’t need to fix anything, Bob. Everything will happen as it should. Everyone is having fun, despite all of this insanity happening. Besides, it doesn’t matter, anyway. I already said I doubt these two will last much longer than the Honeymoon Phase.”

She then became distracted and sighed, her cheeks becoming tinged with pink. “Aw, do you remember ours? It was…”

She shook her head, forcing herself to focus again. “No, wait, what I’m trying to say is, enjoy the moment like everyone else. You need to let this go.”

Bob didn’t realize he was shaking until Linda’s mouth opened and closed a bit, like a pufferfish. He shook his own head, his black curls flying in several directions. “I can’t let this go. You don’t get it.”

Linda’s nose became wrinkled, and air blew out of it. It was astonishing he could hear it over the wind. “What? What don’t I get, Bob?”

“This is all I have!” His voice raised an octave higher than he intended, his hands slapping together in a furious motion as he finished signing to his wife. It caught the attention of everyone, who glanced his way for a moment. Perspiration began gathering in his palms and his neck became more heated than he’d remembered it being. He held out his hands in a silent apology, and the ceremony proceeded.

He lowered his voice, blinking his eyes so no tears would fall out. The last thing he needed was to cry in a public setting. And God knows how many times he’d cried in front of Linda. “This is all I have. If Christopher and Farrah can’t be a successful couple after meeting in my restaurant, then doesn’t that mean I was right? That my restaurant is nothing more than some… some joke? Some pipe dream I thought would be worth pursuing? I’m sorry, Lin, but you… you agreed to spend the rest of your life with a failure.”

Linda pursed her lips and tilted her head farther down the field. It was one of their non-verbal methods of communication. That action to them meant they should go talk in seclusion. He held his palms out to ask her why. She snatched his arm and scrambled down the field until they were away from the ceremony and out of earshot. Not that they needed to be, because of the wind, but it was still better to be safe.

Linda locked her eyes onto his, and the urgent, heavy desire to look away seized him. But he forced himself to continue gazing into Linda’s eyes. She took a long, steady breath, and waited until he began doing so as well.

Oh. She’s trying to settle me down.

Once a slight sense of serenity began seeping into him, she began signing. She signed in the way she always did, slow and deliberate, so he could keep up with her hand movements. Linda was so experienced with sign, it seemed to be an art form for her. Her hands flew in the air as if were some kind of dance, moving in tandem with each other as if they were dedicated partners in said dance. She spoke in the same slow and deliberate fashion as well, and he couldn’t help but let his eyes wander to her rosy red lips.

“You know I almost gave up on romance before I met you?”

He blinked, the statement and its implications taking a moment to sink in. He was well aware of Linda’s past relationships, and how none of them had worked out. Hugo was the most prevalent one. However, he didn’t know she’d almost abandoned the idea of true love. This was Linda, the most hopeful romantic he’d met, the one who’d convinced him that love was possible. She convinced him in every way every day they were together. The times she stroked his hair while he was half-asleep. Whenever she offered him a glass of wine late at night when the kids had gone to bed. The times she put on a song, the sound blaring throughout the house, reverberating through the walls, and invited him to dance with her to the beat. Even if he resisted, he would always end up dancing with her, anyway. It was as if she had some power over him, some inconceivable, intangible ability to make him do things he wouldn’t if he was by himself. Believe in things he wouldn’t if he was by himself.

“It’s true. I felt as if no one understood me. Without my hearing, I thought there wouldn’t be anyone patient enough to get to know me. There were people who tried, maybe a bit too hard. But there was still something missing in our relationships. I kept searching, and when I could never find it, I wanted to stop trying. I got exhausted having to go through the same routine every time. After I’d revealed my disability, they’d have a few moments of surprise. Then they’d all ask question after question until they decided being a deaf woman’s husband wasn’t worth the trouble. They decided knowing me wasn’t worth the trouble.” Her voice got caught in her throat, and the sound made Bob feel as if a knife was slicing his heart into ribbons.

“I was preparing myself for what a future of being like Gayle would entail for me. An apartment with a bunch of cats. I tried convincing myself the idea didn’t sound too bad.” She took a sharp, heavy breath and allowed a slight smile to grace her face. “But then we had our first date.”

She exhaled a giggle, allowing herself to get caught up in the memories. Bob had to admit he was getting caught up in them, too. They were wrapping around him as if they were an embrace. “I didn’t want to tell you about my deafness, because I liked you from the moment I saw you. You had that incredible mustache, it was so handsome. You also had a look in your eyes… a look saying you had so many stories and secrets to tell and wanted to let just me in on them. I’m sure you remember how hard I tried keeping it hidden for so long. Then you found out, but your reaction differed from everyone else’s. You asked me how to say “Hello” and “Goodbye” and other things in sign language. You didn’t see me as a burden, you saw me as a person. That’s all I’ve ever wanted from someone, and you gave it to me.”

She took his hands and weaved her fingers through his. He adored the cool, delicate feeling of her skin, and wanted to savor it. “The reason I’m telling you all of this is because I want you to get this into your thick skull, Bobby: You. Are. Not. A. Failure. I don’t care how many times I need to say it. I will tell you this until you believe it. You have supported me through so much, so supporting you with the restaurant is the least I can do. I will continue to support you, even if this wedding continues to be a disaster. Even if the Ratpocalypse happens.”

“Wait, Ratpocalypse?” A smirk danced across his lips, and it was refreshing to feel some amusement again.

“It’s possible. The point is, your dream is not a joke. I’m not stuck with you. Tina, Gene, and Louise are not having awful childhoods. Remember when you fired them because you wanted them to run around and play outside? After a while, all they wanted to do was come back and work at the restaurant again. Even if they won’t admit it—well, maybe Tina would—they love working there. I love working there, too. You need to realize what you’ve accomplished rather than what you haven’t accomplished or might not. Weddings are supposed to be fun, and you’ve been giving yourself gray hairs trying to prove something you don’t have to.”

Bob’s shoulders slumped as he realized how fatigued he was. Everything Linda said was accurate. He’d been tearing himself apart trying to prove he wasn’t a failure. To prove to his father that he hadn’t made a mistake leaving the family business. To prove his children would be content with the hand he had dealt them. He was searching for external validation, something telling him everything would be all right.

However, the one person he needed, the one telling him everything would be all right, was right in front of him all along. A switch seemed to flip in his brain as he realized how powerful Linda’s validation felt. It was thrilling, and he didn’t want anyone else’s if hers felt this stupefying. It was a drug he couldn’t overdose on, and he hadn’t appreciated it until now. He leaned forward and angled his head against her shoulder, tears threatening to spill once again.

“Have I told you how much I love you?”

“You have, but I don’t mind.” Linda hummed, resting her head against Bob’s. He thought he’d find the sensation of her hearing aid against his head to be unpleasant, but he found it heartening. “I love you too. Don’t forget that, mister.”

He chortled, the noise rumbling deep in his throat. “I won’t. Thank you for this, Lin. I needed this more than I thought.”

“You don’t need to thank me. I think part of you knew all of this already. Part of you knew you’d want to keep working at the restaurant no matter what happened. I just had to remind you.” 

Bob opened his mouth to respond when he felt something heavy collapse into him. He turned, his eyes meeting his eldest daughter’s. Tina brushed her navy skirt down, and Gene and Louise soon joined her.

“Dad, everyone loves your burgers. They all tried some after Connor and Farrah said, “I Do” and kissed. They want more.” Tina bounced on her heels, her arms waving from side to side in a show of elation special to her. 

His breathing became more rapid than what he assumed was healthy. “They like it?”

Tina nodded, and Gene did a full pirouette, which Bob had to concede was remarkable, before becoming dizzy and falling on his rear.

“We tasted them too, and they’re fabulous! I don’t know how you pulled it off, you beautiful bastard.”

He groaned, but beamed at the same time. “Please don’t call me that, Gene.” 

“Congratulations on making something people like for once.” Louise said. She folded her arms across her chest, the sarcasm evident in her tone, but she was beaming too.

Linda’s hands flew in the familiar routine of her signing, “Thank you for telling us, kids. I think we should all go back now. I’m sure Connor and Farrah were too occupied to realize we left, though.”

“There’s the tiny issue of the cake still being destroyed, though.” Tina said, reminding them of Bob’s most tremendous mistake of the day. “What’re we going to tell them?”

Bob let an “Oh my God” slip.

They congregated back to the prime area where the ceremony had taken place. Chase and Farrah were conversing with some people Bob assumed were family. Once they wrapped up their discussion, they turned their scrutiny to the Belchers.

“Bob, Linda, are you two all right? You just left in the middle of us getting married.” Chase’s nose became scrunched at the memory.

“Oh, we’re all right. I… well…” Bob rubbed his hands together, and he speculated if they would become red from the force.

Linda then took a step forward. “Uh, I think it’s just about cake time, don’t you?”

Some awkward laughs slipped out of her as Bob’s hand reached towards his head. He almost yanked at his locks, a habit he couldn’t shake, when Farrah spoke up before he could do anything.

“Oh, cake sounds marvelous right now. Thank you for keeping it safe for us.” Farrah said.

He whimpered, and once Linda presented it to the public, everything developed as he foresaw. Farrah’s mascara ran as tears flew down her face.

“Everything did go wrong today. I kept telling myself it was all okay, just one thing here or there, but it’s everything, it isn’t okay. The wind blew everything everywhere. I lost my baby blanket that I was gonna give to my children!” Farrah’s distraught hands flew towards her mascara-streaked cheeks.

“Poor little baby, The Belcher Children,” Louise said.

Bob fixed his youngest daughter with a hardened stare, not having the tolerance for her comments at the moment. “Louise.”

“And now Grandma’s cake is ruined. Is this just one big omen?”

Clyde sputtered before saying, “Of course not. We’re-We’re-We’re gonna be okay.”

He stepped forward, wanting to placate his new wife, but she drifted away from him. “But what if we aren’t?”

Bob opened his mouth, preparing to intervene, but Linda beat him to it. She tapped on a microphone, and he recognized with a jolt that this was Linda’s first time speaking in public. She cleared her throat, wavering for a second before stepping onto a table. “Farrah, I’m so glad you brought that up. Look, when you first told me you were getting married after three months, I thought you were bananas in the tailpipe. I thought it was too short. You haven’t smelled each other’s farts. You haven’t been through enough bad stuff together, I thought.”

She paused, wincing, and smacked the side of her head. “Ow, sorry, hearing aid feedback. Anyway, I think my experiences made me biased and made me think you had to wait a massive amount of time to commit to someone. So many people have judged me for who I am before they got to know me and decided I wasn’t worth the time of day. I even began considering if love was just a fairytale. I wondered if I would grow old by myself, with no one who cared enough to get close. Then I met Bob, and even though we waited a lot longer to get married, I understand how it feels when you meet someone you know gets you.”

She paced along the table, gesticulating as her speech became more ardent. “But looking at you now, can I tell you something? I guarantee you two are gonna make it.”

Farrah sniffled, wiping her nose on her sleeve. “We are?”

“Yeah, you are. The way you handled everything today shows all you really care about is each other. You know what else? The cake doesn’t look great, but I bet it still tastes great. There’s no dirt in it or anything. Just pretend like you already chewed it!”

It was the most astonishing speech Bob had ever had the pleasure of witnessing. Linda ended up taking a tentative bite of the wrecked cake, and regretting it, but everything she had said replayed in his mind as if it was a record stuck on repeat.

Later, they snuck away from the reception to see the stars together, and once they were alone again, Bob brushed his lips against hers in a kiss. It was gentle at first, but had a hasty graduation in intensity and desire. During this time, no one else existed in their strange, delightful world except for them. During this time, Linda was the one thing that made sense to him, the one thing he knew he would never doubt in his life. His hands ran through her ebony strands, and her slight shivers in response rewarded him. His lips parted a bit as some shivers flew through him as well. Emotions of every kind were swirling within him as if he was stirring a bowl of curry. Some emotions he couldn’t quite place, but all of them, he wasn’t aware he could feel.

Once they separated at last, he said, breathless, “You’re incredible, Lin.”

“You are too, Bobby.”

She gave him a swift peck on the cheek, and he could feel his face warm like a furnace. He was relieved to not be putting so much stake in this wedding anymore. His wife had allowed him to enjoy the celebration and had even learned a few things herself. But when it came to learning, Bob knew he would never stop learning things from Linda.

[igglemouse]

Episode 1 ~ Sheep’s Clothing

“You didn’t bring your swords,” he said, knowing immediately who it was. He had never wanted to see her again but he had known that if he were to win over Laverne he would have to get through Violante, her dark guardian angel. “You have every reason to decapitate me and serve me as a 'rose’ to your associates.”

“A rose is useless without its thorns,” he could hear the smug smirk on her face. He had no idea what she meant by that but he did know it meant she was at least not going to chop his head off. For now.

“If you are not here to kill me then-”

“What did you think? Compared to Charlotte I mean, what did you think of her?”

“I...” he paused, wondering if this was some trick question, perhaps the answer would give her an excuse to kill him after all? She enjoyed playing with her prey. “I can’t compare the two, not really, it’s not fair-”

“She’s a little bland, isn’t she? Plain. Boring. Without the hair and magical blood thing going on with her there is nothing special about her. She’s a good kid though, worth protecting.”

“I...” he didn’t agree at all and he wanted to tell her that it was Charlotte who could not compare to Laverne. Charlotte was the boring one, she was the plain one that you could read within five minutes of meeting her, she was the one that was ultimately forgettable for him while Laverne was this complex being worth dissertation. “I don’t agree,” he dared to say, almost expecting the shwinging of a sword and a quick and decisive slice that would cut right clean through his neck.

Instead he was met with pure confusion: “You don’t agree?” 

“You plan on killing Julius Tourneau, what happens after that?” 

“Dunno, I look upon the sun one last final time and say ‘mission accomplished’ but let’s be real here, that’s a dream I’m not sure can be achieved at this point, at least not by my hands,” because she was of course scared. He knew that. Who wouldn’t be? Julius was strong, stronger than any being should be, he got in your head and manipulated your thoughts, he makes a puppet out of anyone near him. 

“Do you think he’ll ever pass down power to Tobias or Charlotte?”

“Umm, no!? Julius runs the council, runs it all really. All vampires bow to him-”

“Except you and your Roses,” Tullus pointed out, a fact that seemed more amusing than poignant to Violante. 

“Not my Roses Tummy, the whole Rose thing was Luna’s idea.”

“If I drink from Laverne will I be cured?” 

That’s when Violante really started to laugh and he knew why. That was always a lie. Well, not a lie per se but if it were true Violante would have already drained Laverne dry for a chance at humanity again. Her laughter was all the answer he needed although she did verbally confirm it. “No, no...we tried, we all did, she offered too but...no. She was given a bite of fruit that would either turn her into a plantsim or cure her of vampirism...it’s a fun rumor, though, she even believes it.” 

Fun because it lured others to Laverne which meant leading others into meeting Violante, which was usually the last being they’d see, if they would see her at all. 

He got up and prepared to leave in disgust...

Index - Next

[epickiya722]

REACTIONS TO EPISODE 23 - DEKU VS CLASS A

You know how it goes!

LAST EPISODE'S REACTIONS

I am so not prepared for this episode! 😃

That's right, Katsuki, call him out!

Whoa whoa whoa! Pause! Land Mine Blast... when can he do that?!

"You'd run away without even talking it out?" Yes! Sounds quite familiar... 👀

OH, KOJI KODAAAA!!! MY SUNSHINE!!!

Aaaaw, the flashback of Izuku and Hanta training together!!! Hanta's smile!! My heart!!

THESE KIDS ARE GONNA MAKE ME CRY!!!

Rikido using Eri though! "I won't lend you my food coloring for Eri's apple candy!"

"It's alright. Eri will be alright." NOT WITHOUT HER BIG BRO IZUKU THERE, YOU DAMN IDIOT!!!

That contraption Yaomomo made is by far the strangest ones yet and I must know how she even constructed that in her head.

A HYPNOSIS DEVICE!! How did he even know... wait, no, this is Izuku Midoriya I'm talking about. Of course, he would know.

This rabbit demon just broke the helmet... with force from his head... he headbutted the thing...

"Midoriya, let's take a shower!" THEY KEPT THE PART!!! 🤣🤣🤣 DENKI!!!

"But I sensed nothing at all." Because they're not trying to hurt you, they want you back, sweetie!

"So please... Stay away from me!" SEE WHAT YOU DID, AFO?! GOT MY GREEN SUNSHINE SEPARATING HIMSELF FROM THE PEOPLE HE CARES ABOUT!! FUCK YOU!!

Daiki Yamashita once again putting his heart into Izuku's voice. He sounds so hurt, so desperate. 😭😭😭

They're all doing a damn good job honestly, I'm very close to crying!

Here's Shoto with this giant ass ice wall!!

"Is your responsibility stopping you from shedding tears?" Yeah...

"You are our friend." Alright, Tsu got me. I'm crying now! 😭😭😭😭

Dictator... ugh that bitch.

Wait was this scene in the manga??

The kids just ran off because Izuku is important to them and that is so damn beautiful!

Look, Shoto, I know you're trying to keep him still, but... at this point you might give him hypothermia. Chill out... and I'm realizing the joke I did there.

ARE THEY PLAYING YOU SAY RUN?! THAT'S MY JAM!!!

YOU MISSED! HOW COULD YOU MISS?! HE WAS TEN FEET IN FRONT OF YOU!!

The class yelling "GO" together!!! No, folks, for real, I got tears!!

Katsuki!!! "Deku, I have things to tell you. There is something I must tell you! But right now, I'll let the guy who can withstand this speed do the talking first!"

GO, TENYA, GO!!!

THE HANDS!!! THE HANDS!!! 😭😭😭💙💙💙

"... it's those who will fight alongside him in the journey." The 2nd User gets it!! You damn right!!

"Let go." IZUKU, SHUT UP RIGHT NOW, YOUNG MAN!!

HE CRIED AT TENYA'S WORDS!!! HE CRIED!!

GAVE MY CLASS REP HIS TITLE SCREEN, HELL YES!! 💙💙💙

Oh, they put Katsuki's hero name!! NICE!!

NICE CATCH, KIRISHIMA!!! YOU GO, BOY!!

"But... I'm scared." Izuku... please...

Oh, Katsuki Bakugou walking up, I know where this is going. 👀

Ooooh, Katsuki, dude, man... you only said a single sentence and I'm crying a little harder.

He looks so soft...

"But I've always been the inferior." KATSUKI, PLEASE!!

Oh, the shots of them going from kids to teens... 😭😭😭

HE CALLED IZUKU!!! AAAAAAAAHHHH!!!

He ran to catch Izuku... I'm going to lay down after this.

Izuku just lets himself settle in Katsuki's arms... yeah, that's how I feel. DRAINED.

Okay, not the colors I had been thinking for Thirteen's real face and body.

DAAAAAMN. I did not think the barrier would be that big!!! NEZU GOT BANK FOR REAL!!!

"I wish I could return everyone's kindness." You've done enough, sweetheart.

Fuck every single one of those people who said Izuku can't come into the school THAT HE FUCKING ATTENDS!! YOU SONS OF BITCHES, HE'S BEEN PUSHING HIMSELF TO PROTECT YOU!!! FUCK YOU!

Known fact, my least favorite people on the whole series is the "civilians".

"Who is there to protect the hero?" Ochaco, you best girl for a reason! (All the girls are really.)

This episode just... I can't... it was beautiful!!

[renjibozo]

episode 7 thoughts dump (part 1/2)

(this will be referencing this post of mine and this one too)

(part 2 because this is getting too long)

ok so putting things under a cut again bc spoilers obviously <333

(edited a bit because damn i wrote this on a whim)

OK SO ! most of my predictions are. somewhat correct, if not just misplaced in the wrong areas of the episode

the episode IS centered around rei having to realize that kazuki's role in the house is difficult because he has to take care of so much (laundry, cooking, getting miri ready early and sent off to daycare) so i wasn't wrong about that

this conversation is very nice to listen to as well because the thing of kazuki taking care of almost everything if not everything in the house is finally addressed! and they talk about it! somewhat. to mixed results

and he is doing his best my god he is doing his best you're doing so great you cringefail of a man (/pos) but i'm glad that this episode pushed him to a point where he just realizes he has to help kazuki more

this minute pause spoke to me so much because he was about to yell at her but stopped himself before he could..... amazing little detail

OK. NOW. THE SCENE THAT SPAWNED THIS ENTIRE POST. there must've been some kind of falling out between rei + miri and kazuki because he was screaming "I'm... not your housekeeper!" during dinner i'm suspecting that they finally got on his nerves if they never pick up after themselves properly or just the small stuff piled up onto kazuki and he had enough despite usually not really minding the fact that he has to do most if not all of the house chores but another theory i have is that the scene with the photograph is connected and because of the stress, it leads up to him taking it out on rei and miri. i'm distraught i don't want to see this episode but i have to. mfs gonna have a sk8 episode 7 situation and i'm powerless to stop it

recalling this from the second linked post, they do have some kind of falling out!!! and it does refer to the fact that they don't pick up after themselves!!! (and that they don't try to make it easier for kazuki himself)

the other theory is wrong because the thing with his wife doesn't really come up until karin's in the picture ok no i worded that incorrectly, thank you person who replied under the post

the scene is connected! but it did start off from the start of the episode itself, and his the stress that leads up to him going on strike is just from rei and miri not appreciating what he does enough..... poor unappreciated malewife

but yeah they did end up having a sk8 episode 7 but without them actually arguing in person, kazuki just dipped and left early in the morning

he really said he's not going to be coming back home for a while and they can fend for themselves

and kazuki seems to be on a solo mission, which is probably something rei and miri knows about considering they dont look too panicked by kazuki’s absence (rei looks a little frazzled from the daunting housework chores he has to deal with)

(episode 7 trailer post) ok so the solo part is wrong, but now we do know that rei and miri know that kazuki's out of the house and rei is frazzled by the housework

the day of reckoning has arrived for one suwa rei frfr..... it only took one whole day without kazuki doing things for him to realize

kazuki was nice enough to leave notes around for him so he doesn't get TOO lost trying to prepare miri

this means that since they got miri, he hasn't been going out to fool around in the night life and is at home taking care of miri and rei..... interesting

onto the more meatier part of the episode, THE TRAUMA !!! ill go back to the fluff when we're done here <3333 let's start with rei's since it's the tamer part and since we're on the topic of rei having to experience what it's like to be the sole caretaker of the house for once

he cant cook and doesn't know which plate in the fridge is for eating

this reminds me of the very first episode where kazuki tells rei that he left food in the fridge for him that he didn't eat because it was cold

maybe because kazuki papa wants you two to have a balanced meal !!!! also the laundry left out on the couch.... did kazuki just never fold it?

he does not know her schedule At All (to be fair, so does she in some way but the point stands)

but he does have a calendar that he did not check before leaving probably out of panic

time to nitpick a little at rei's choices with good intentions (he's doing his best but these are Not It fr)

why is miri being exposed to the rain like this!!! should've taken the car i feel like because this right here

is what leads to this

poor miri got sick and rei doesn't know what to do so he immediately calls kazuki who doesn't pick up

so he thinks of an alternative,

but the medicine isn't allowed for anybody below 12 so he thinks of another alternative,

but he doesn't know where the hospital is!!! so he ends up in kyutaro's doorstep as a last resort....

[zanyana626]

Alright, so here's my thoughts on the new Helluva Boss episode! 😈🤠❄️

Everything’s tagged as #hb spoilers for those who haven't seen it yet!

Stolas & Stella confronting each other be like:

Ice King Andrealphus being the third fucking wheel, questioning why he even showed up, but staying for the literal tea

Stolas & Stella obviously hated each other from the get go, so yeah, he didn't betray no one (except maybe his daughter's trust)

COWBOY DADDY STRIKER STRIKES BACK!!! Still sad that Norman Reedus didn't return to voice him, but I kinda already had a feeling that he wouldn't return cuz 1) We didn't get to hear Striker in the S2 Trailer & I think it was confirmed that most of the cast had finished recording their lines for this season over a year ago and 2) It's understandable bc he's a busy man in the acting industry!

And besides, Ed's an awesome VA (especially with all the characters he's voiced so far in the Hellaverse), so I didn't really mind the recast!

"Um... sexy?" Yep, Stolas & the I.M.P crew know what's up! 😉

Wonder what other kinds of Blessed items/weapons exist! I want more lore content!!!

Not bad for an M&M themed episode!

Mixed thoughts on the Blitzø & Loona B-plot of the episode! The Sloth Ring making these two wait 5 years for a rabies shot appointment & the dumbass staff not getting "Bingo & Tuna's" names right was funny tho!

Also, fuck off Fish Karen! It's Hell, no one gives a shit and yet, you're fine with your illegitimate son insulting Blitzø to his face!

"How does one get their own theme song?" Striker unwillingly getting his own theme song was gold! It gave me "Gaston's Song" vibes and I love it!!! 👏🏼

Moxxie finally fighting his own battles (even if it's for something as simple as a hat), good for him!

So there are tinier Imps in Hell, now? Again, lore content pls!!!!

Striker's little bat-cave: "I'm just impressed you seem to want to suck your own dick so badly", 'nuff said! 🤣

The parallels of Stolas "messing around" with Striker while being held hostage, to the time Blitzø & Moxxie fucked with the government agents in "Truth Seekers" was good too! 👌🏼

Hope we get to see a Striker backstory cuz he reeeeally has some sort of grudge towards the Goetia family or any of the higher ranked demons! Wonder if Paimon had anything to do with that?

"Prepare for trouble & make it double!" Stella & Andrealphus's dynamic was funny, but slightly creepy (mostly on Andre's side towards his sister)

LEAVE MAH CHILD VIA OUTTA THIS!!!! Like she hasn't had enough shit to deal with already!

M&M HUNGRY FOR A LI'L PAYBACK!!!!

They said, no Country music for a battle theme, only Pop music!

The fight scene mixed with Loona fighting back at her shot appointment was funny!

Angel Dust vs. Sir Pentious callback?? Moxxie's definitely been taking notes from the spider boi!

We still haven't seen the last of Cowboy Daddy Striker!

Poor Loony, getting a "cone of shame". At least she got a lollipop for being a "good patient"? 🤷🏻‍♀️

HOW TF DID THE MEDIA FIND OUT ABOUT STOLAS GETTING ATTACKED & NEARLY KILLED???

"...He can get hurt?" Yes, Blitzø! He may be a royal demon w/phenomenal cosmic powers, but he's just as fragile and hurting on the inside, just like me & you bud (and holy weapons don't help with that fact either)!

Had to pause to look at the Stolitz texts: so they have brought up the Ozzie's incident, but apparently haven't ACTUALLY talked about it face-to-face! At least Stolas is trying to work something out & give Blitzø some space!

BLITZØ, YOU BETTER GO VISIT YOUR MAN IN THE HOSPITAL, OR SO HELP ME…!!!!!

One thing that bugged me the most is Loona not getting any lines in this episode, yet Erica still got credited?

The last episode was understandable bc Loona appeared for a few seconds in the beggining & end. But they could've at least given Loona a few lines this time around, especially given the fact that she was freaking out & didn't wanna get the shot!

Overall not exactly the best episode, but it was still alright (I just mostly missed my cowboy daddy, ok?) Hopefully, the next episode does better!!!

[eenkleinleven]

cant wait to hear your thoughts about the play!! know i am living vicariously through you and i hope your emotional recovery is going well!

Oh, I won't ever be okay again. It was great. A woman in the audience had an episode of vasovagal syncope in the first hour of the play because of the blood. She almost staggered onto the stage and they had to pause to get her medical attention. Majd got to ask "is there a doctor in the audience?" And the luckiest man alive got to get up, and say "I am". I was so tickled by that. Is this not the sort of thing doctors aspire to do?

Because my brain is rotted like wooden support beams after a decade of flooding, I thought "he's certainly going to be comfortably situated in his Andy oats for the rest of the night".

Here's some other things that struck me, though.

In no particular order:

Ramsey Nasr does a great job of capturing the fact that Jude is sort of adorable. There were moments where I was caught off guard by it and thought to myself: "ah, that's cute." In the adoption scene, when he hugs Willem, he actually like... really wrapped himself around him. Like, a real leap of a hug.

The little kisses everyone gives Jude on his head! Oh, my heart!

Hans Kesting is so good at what he does. A terrifying presence on stage. Particularly as Dr. Traylor, but there is a palpable cruelty to the way he plays Caleb. Like a housecat batting around a baby bird.

Another thing: during the car scene, he tilted the light at each rotation to make sure everyone in the audience was momentarily blinded.

Oh, god! The Greene St scene with Caleb was a real shock! The whole room was bathed in this horrible (good horrible) white light. Even I felt a little exposed.

Another "oh, god" moment was during the moment with Caleb showing up at Greene St and forcing Jude to undress and Jude calls out to Ana and asks her to take his watch. Something about that made me sob.

There was a moment where Ana was watching--I believe--Willem and Jude having sex, if memory serves. And while, you know, I could say more important things about that, the only thing that came to mind was this:

JB was so... Flamboyant. Sort of this:

I noted that they changed his dialogue to deprive me of something I thought was funny which is that they made him Syrian, which makes sense! But White JB is funnier.

They had someone other than Steven van Watermeulen playing Harold. I'll say this: highly effective. Absolute law professor energy. The long strides, pacing around the stage, the tone of voice, the expressions! All perfect. I felt the urge to prepare myself to think about the commerce clause and standing, and if that doesn't speak to his performance, then what does?

The ending of the play really got to me, because Harold walks out into the audience and looks at the stage with us before it goes dark. I wept!

I may just be a sucker for string accompaniments, but they managed to make the air thick with tension at times.

When Jude cut himself and the screens would dissolve into a bright, hazy static, I found that really immersive.

The burning scene was an interesting one for the audience. When he lit the match, people *gasped*. To see that bright light flickering, almost imperceptible, from inside of the sink as Jude recites these rapid-fire free association memories, it is just *devastating*.

I might be a softie, but it really tugged at my heartstrings to see Jude crying. I really felt for him. All throughout, really, I often found that I could only think: it's difficult, isn't it? It's difficult to know what to do, and even harder to do it.

Certain instances of the blocking (i.e. where everyone is standing on a stage) were downright electric. Moments where, say, Jude, Harold, and Brother Luke would be standing like points on a diagonal line struck me as genius. The staging of past-present was just so neat. Lots of spatial triangulation.

I forgot that Ramsey Nasr was in the opera adaptation of Death in Venice (also ITA), so the clarity of tone in his singing was unexpected, and thus, all the more beautiful.

Oh, and one last thing: in the scene where Willem dies, there's this instant where Jude is hugging him, and as he pulls away, Jude held onto his cardigan for just long enough before letting go.

[goatsandgangsters]

episode 8: hm. interesting. 

here are all the liveblogs together in one place 

I’m going to cry by the end. the only question that remains is, will they be the cathartic tears of a well-done tragedy, or will they be tears of rage because they slandered my man (NARRATOR VOICE AFTER THE FACT: IT WAS NEITHER, THEY DID NOT CRY AT ALL) 

I’m waiting for my dinner to cook rn before I start and saying it now: since the last one ended with Aleksander wounded by the Cut on his back, this episode should open with an upward shot and then younger Baghra coming into frame saying “Aleksander…” and then wideshot reveal of a young boy with his leg almost Cut clean off, soaking wet and unconscious in the snow at the side of a lake. I’m saying it now, so that if it doesn’t happen, you can all be like “oh yeah they totally should have done that” and if my some miracle this does happen, you can all take me to Atlantic City to win my fortune tonight

I’m not going to Atlantic City tonight but I should be, because I’m right

ANYWAY KAZ GIVING NIKOLAI HIS CANE. kaz giving a) a mobility device that he genuinely needs and symbolically even more b) something that is very much part of his persona that he has crafted as a way of hiding anything that would be perceived as a weakness by others, to an injured person he BARELY KNOWS. this is somehow the most strikingly intimate gesture that has ever happened, ever, at any point in the entire grishaverse. Kazolai lives!!!

I REALLY LIKE Nadia and Adrik squalling together!

am I gonna get to see Nikolai deepthroat a shadow tendril at any point in this episode or—

“Make them redraw all the maps” is a really good character-specific line, I like it

this is all happening……… very early in the episode. what, uh, what’s left? WHAT ELSE IS THERE TO DO?????

“THE WORLD DOESN’T NEED A SAINT TO PROTECT IT, IT NEEDS A MONSTER” THANK YOU!!!!! I HAVE ALWAYS MAINTAINED THAT “MAKE ME YOUR VILLAIN” SHOULD BE READ AS A PROMISE, NOT A THREAT. A PROMISE TO ALWAYS DO THE HARD THING, ALWAYS BE HATED, ALWAYS TAKE THE FALL, ALWAYS BE REVILED. BECAUSE IF HE’S NOT THERE TO BE THE VILLAIN, SOMEONE ELSE WILL NEED TO BE SCAPEGOATED

me, pausing the episode: “make me your villain” should be a promise. me, unpausing the episode: “let me be your monster” oH. SEE. WE’RE DOING THE THING I JUST SAID.

me sitting here in a state of shock because every single word coming out of Aleksander Morozova’s mouth is everything that I have ever wanted him to be allowed to say in canon. HERE IT IS. THE REAL MEAT OF DARKLINA ARGUMENTS. I have written an entire 100k AU of Ruin and Rising juST TO LET THEM HAVE ARGUMENTS LIKE THIS. this is exactly the shit I have ALWAYS WANTED canon to let him say

hold on, I need to pause for a bit. the aforementioned dinner I was cooking has been sitting next to me getting cold because I completely forgot it was here.

after the beginning of episode 6, I asked Kara point blank, how sympathetic is his death scene. and I agree with the answer that I got which was, better on his end, not as much from Alina, and I was sort of prepared to Hate That. but I will say. I liked that more than I thought I would? I am disappointed that I didn’t get Alina stabbing him and then holding him in her arms and sobbing on him while he dies, because I think that is BEAUTIFUL poignant death and frankly it’s a damn shame we aren’t going to get to see these two phenomenal actors do that.

more than that, I’m disappointed I didn’t get to hear “don’t let me be alone” or “someone to mourn me” because those two lines FUCKING DESTROY me every goddamn time. I did quietly moan “nooooo” at the “blue sky” and start to tear up. but I will say, I didn’t cry? and his death in Ruin and Rising DID make me cry. so, could have been more gutting (in a good way) than it was, but I still think it gave him a fair shake about it? mostly because every single line of pre-death dialogue is EXACTLY what I have ALWAYS WANTED and what I have written entire lengthy fics specifically to explore. so that’s my two cents. intellectually I agree with him, emotionally I should have Felt More. it all seemed a little anticlimactic. 

also disappointed that I’m not going to see Nikolai deepthroat a shadow tendril. come on, that’s a VERY necessary part of canon. (my darkolai jokes aside, it IS important though. how’s king of scars gonna…… have scars? what, are they just gonna be METAPHORICAL?)

what the fuck are we doing for the next 50 minutes?????????

I did think for a moment they were going to do the brave thing and leave Mal dead. but I am…… curious to find out what exactly is Off. bc something is Off.

the twins sitting with Nikolai and his broken little “Dominik…” W E H   :((((((((((((

so we really never put Paddy and Ben on screen at the same time, huh. I won as a Dominikolai, But At What Cost

“Once the world stops looking at her with gratitude, they’ll start to wonder if she’s outstayed her welcome” oh my god are we actually doing an “Alina is unfairly vilified despite her trying her hardest, thus causing her to realize what smart people (me) have known all along: That The Darkling Was Right” arc?

OH COME ON WE CAN’T HAVE KILLED DAVID THIS EARLY. WHAT THE FUCK. UNFAIR. but also. like. until I see a body……………. oh, no, we’re seeing Ring Designs, he’s dead. fuck. you don’t gutpunch like that for someone who’s alive. PROVE ME WRONG I HOPE, BUT.

Really thought Nikolai was about to deliver a eulogy, not a motivational speech. Give me a single, single darkolai crumb, I beg of you. Nikolai standing there keeping vigil is ALL I’M GONNA GET I GUESS

THERE’S A BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. IF YA KNOW, YA KNOW!!!!

okay but what the fuck are we doing for the next 30 minutes

SDFGHDSKGJSDFHGKJDSHG I KNOW NIKOLAI HAS SOMEONE ELSE STANDING IN FOR STURMHOND WHILE HE’S BUSY BEING KING, BUT IS THAT PERSON REALLY GONNA BE MAL? oh uNEXPECTED, that’s fun

Mal wanting to go off on a journey of self-discovery without Alina is not something I expected, but I actually like that we’re addressing…. how Mal has no existence in the narrative outside of Alina and we decided to say “what if we actually tackle that and do something with it.” never would have expected it, I’ll be honest I think it’s a good move? I do think leaving Mal dead would have been The Bravest Choice to really drive home the notions of cost and sacrifice, but this is an interesting tact to take

awwwwwww Kaz quietly looking into what happened to Inej’s brother. “MY BROTHER IS NEVER COMING BACK, YOURS STILL CAN” OH I’M IN PAIN. OH SHE PRAYS FOR JORDIE, OH. how is THAT the moment that finally got A Tear To Fall and not. you know. The Death of My Fave or The Funeral of My Fave?

ohhhhh Kaz is trying SO HARD, he is trying! so hard!

I’ve never been on Inej’s side with the “have you without armor” if I’m honest. but they both did that scene SO well. Freddy in particular really is the absolute stand-out actor this season

I CANNOT BELIEVE MAL IS THE FAKE STURMHOND. WEIRDLY I LOVE THAT?? AND INEJ IS COMING TOO?????? OKAY OKAY OKAY OKAY, THAT’S A GROUP! That is a GROUP!

I fucking love the jaunty nautical score every time we have Volkvolny things going on

I DID JUST LAUGH MY ASS OFF A MAL IN THAT COAT. he does not suit Gaudy and Camp the way nikolai does. he does not pull off that look 

oooooh Inej on the rigging oOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH MMMMMMM THAT SHOT OF INEJ ON THE RIGGING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OKAY NIKOLAI WEARING BLACK WITH THE GOLD SUNBURST TRIM IS. DO YOU HEAR THE COLLECTIVE FUCKING CHEER OF APPROVAL FROM EVERY SINGLE DARKOLAI WHO HAS EVER WRITTEN A SUN-SUMMONER-NIKOLAI FIC??????? THAT IS. OKAY!!!!!!!!!! ALRIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ……I may need to edit the, uh, graphic that I made for my Sun Summoner Nikolai AU whenever I have a solid chunk of chapters finished and can commence publication (currently it’s like 20k words, but I want to have the first five chapters fully finished before I start posting)

Wendy I am kissing you on the mouth. MY ONLY DARKOLAI CRUMB, AND IT’S FASHION.

The Apparat’s robe, however, is an abomination. it looks like a Bruins jersey.

oh he’s so fucking cute I love him, I love him, “a strong opening salvo” Paddy’s been great all season but the way he’s maneuvering through witty charm and an intellectual chess game with the apparat is His Most Nikolai Scene To Date, His Best Performance, Peak Nikolai Lantsovism, I am so proud

oh I see, it’s the wound. alas, no deepthroating required. OH I SEE. okay good, I’m glad we’re still getting some form of demon!nikolai, even if it didn’t require sucking shadow tendrils to achieve it. and so my throat goat nikolai lantsov hopes have been dashed upon the rocks—

AWWWWW THE FIGUREHEADS ARE LEANING ON EACH OTHER FOR SUPPORT

“Genya and Zoya are my escorts” I would not have used the word escort, because I am now…. in a very different place. anyway. the hair colors are wrong, but these three are giving PowerPuff Girls though obvi Zoya should be Buttercup

anyway, saying this very belatedly, but THANK GOD ALINA DIDN’T LOSE HER POWERS. you just CAN’T do that. You Cannot Do That. there is NO way to make that work and not have it be awful so I’m glad they just got rid of it

HDFJGKSDHFG HIS LITTLE WINCE GETTING WHACKED ON THE SHOULDER WITH THE THING. anyway I’m feelings about My Boy, good for him, he looks good as king. I mean, right now he looks like a doofus wearing Sankt Grigori like this and the whole getup, but. you know what I mean.

OH DO WE HAVE A PAREM ADDICT IN THE AUDIENCE, THIS LOOKS LIKE WITHDRAWAL. YEP!!!! WE DO HAVE PAREM!!!!!!

WELL THIS IS A MESSY FUCKING CORONATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OOOOOOOOOOH CUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

literally me watching all these people die: oh god this is such a political nightmare for nikolai, what a headache

ALINA CORRUPTION ARC ALINA CORRUPTION ARC ALINA CORRUPTION ARC !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hehgosghoehg oeheehehehehehehh oho oho her heh eh ehehehehehehehhe

that was an anticlimactic episode overall, but GOOD FUCKING SET UP AT THE END THERE FOR MORE!!!!!

I think overall, I’m very happy with this season? in some ways I’m disappointed because they gave me NOT ONE SINGLE THING from what I was expecting/looking forward to? but I also still liked what they gave me instead??

I should have cried though. I’m a little disappointed I didn’t cry. I wanted them to let Ben rip my heart out a little more. “Someone to mourn me” doesn’t... work if Alina’s not crying even though it’s the line that CARVES MY HEART OUT OF MY CHEST, but a “don’t let me be alone” would have set me crying just as much. I DID WANT TO CRY A LITTLE BIT, IN THE GOOD TRAGEDY WAY. and I just didn’t cry. it was still a very sympathetic death scene and I think all of his dialogue was like FINALLY! SAY THAT!!!! but. I mean. I did want a boy, brilliant, blessed with too much power, burdened by eternity. don’t let me be alone. and then he was gone. 

show death = politically and philosophically better. book death = more emotionally devastating, in a good way. trade-offs I guess???? I really did want to feel more. at least it WAS sympathetic at all, I was worried they were going to take away his right to a sympathetic death scene. but it lacked emotional oomph. 

thank fucking christ they didn’t take away Alina’s powers. you just can’t do it. there is no way. that’s the only real part of her book ending that I think CANNOT work. surprised they broke malina up though, didn’t see that one coming. but I like that Alina doesn’t..... abdicate responsibility and fuck off. it just wouldn’t have fit with this story or this version of the character 

I’m mulling it over still. I DO FUCKING NEED A SEASON 3, STAT. I think there are things that I wanted but I did not get. but there were things that I dreaded that did not happen. and there were things that I didn’t know to even want in the first place that I liked? I liked it more than season 1 by a lot, though. I think it was a lot stronger, and the storytelling itself felt sturdier. 

[wench-and-jezebel]

Dark Angel Reaction: Blah Blah Woof Woof

Jezebel (@typicalopposite) reacts [with occasional asides by Wench (@scripted-downfall)]

As we prepare to start watching:

Wench: “Okay, count at will!” Jezebel: “3 2 1 go” Wench’s video: *freezes* Wench: Wait! Jezebel: … Un-go

– – –

Ah chess

Jezebel’s video: *freezes*Wench: DAMMIT

[Poor Logan… Doesn't he know?  "Always let the [transgenic] win"  Well, I guess it's the opposite; he wants her to let him win... but oh well]

“See ya”

[The music tho]

What ya doing Lintlicker

Le gasp

Oooof, a gun.  He crazy

Buddy you don’t dismiss everyone

Pervo ☠️☠️☠️

Ooooof close call

Took you long enough to see it  [Okay, I'm sorry, but it's not that good a photo]  

[I love these three. OC, Herbal, and Sketchy are my adored.  I also love Normal anthropomorphizing the packages :)]

Ahhh another intense episode

Oh noooo!  Intense for more than just Max

Ok I’m sorry maybe it’s just me but the doctor said this very weird  [Is true.]  Like at first his tone was you may need to do it.  Then it swapped to ehhh you don’t wanna do it.  [Tis true.  Also, Logan looking at him like, "Bud, you're not convincing me not to do surgery" is kinda funny]

Uh oh busted

[OH SHIT OH FUCK Max’s line about “Look how thin she is; can you say eating disorder?” is so horrible given what I've heard about Alba’s time on set.]

The thing I don’t get. These kids escaped… what does he think is gonna happen if he catches them after all this time… they are just gonna be like. Oooop ya got me! Now I’ll work for you again  [Yeah.  Don’t forget, you haven’t met PsyOps yet]  True

[Poor Normal, acting all hurt and slighted… "She didn't come back from her morning run; imagine that. I had some high hopes for you, pal, but you just turned out to be like all the rest, didn’t you? Just a great, big, fat goose egg." cough cough, you didn’t come back and that hurt my feelings :((((]  ☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️  Looool true  [Am I wrong?  That's the vibe it's got.]  Not at all lol it really is

[Zach continues to annoy me, just btw]  OC gonnn fuck him up  [She should!!!]

Zogan pt 2  [I'm telling you; Lach]  Bruh.  Turn my brain off.  Turn it off.  I don’t wanna be here.  These aren’t the fics that Anon was asking for.

HOW IS HE DRIVING

Oh wait it actually shows the mechanisms this time… Run him over!

But also, I feel like he wouldn’t be such a natural at a handicap vehicle.  Like, just have the trainer drive.

[Normal has a bad habit of doing what he thinks is right and it not being right, btw] ☠️☠️☠️

Normal.  My Buddy.  You got lipgloss on.  [WAIT WHAT?!  PAUSE.  We'll do the midpoint reaction early; I gotta check]  Ok lol  [oh my god he does.  OH MY GOD HE DOES.  YOU'RE NOT WRONG!!!]  😂😂😂

Ooooooo imma slap a Zach

Oh, speak of the devil (Max) and she shall appear

All these people shooting at her and all of them missing; she’s not even dodging?!?!  They’re like Stormtroopers!

– – – 

Midpoint reaction: (note: from here on out — on both this episode and the next, maybe on some others too, though they’ll be labelled if so — this reaction was done on a voice call.  The conversation has been assembled after the episode as well as we could, but it’s not word-for-word!)

Jezebel: This episode’s another intense one, and very nerve-wracking, but not a lot’s really happened in this one?

Wench: I KNOW.  Like, this is really intense, but also, somehow, really slow, and, come on, writers, are you ever going to advance the plot???

Jezebel: All I’ve got right now is Lach, and I don’t want it, but it’s there.  Like, that last exchange felt like a Max/Logan scene, but they swapped Max out for Zach

Wench: EXACTLY.  And that exchange about the window being open?  Literally a parallel to the pilot.  I think that line was an exact callback, in fact, though I haven’t checked to confirm for sure.

Jezebel: Normal’s got a decently big part in this episode…

Wench: Comments for Normal Anon?

Jezebel: He’s mighty shiny lol

Wench: And favorite characters at this point?

Jezebel:  Kinda hard to say.  Before I started watching NCIS again, I was like meh: Logan was just there.  But now that I’m back hyperfixating on the show again, I love Logan even though there’s no reason to.  OC is up there, then Herbal, just because I like their bits.  And I hate that I don’t like Max because Jessica Alba is hot.

Wench: (re. OC/Herbal et al) I feel so bad for not liking/rewatching season 1 much because I’m coming to the conclusion that I really love the Jam Pony scenes.

Jezebel: Right?!?!  I loved scenes like the last episode's

Wench: Normal did not deserve that!!!

Jezebel: He really didn’t!  He’s… I’m trying to come up with a comparable character, and it’s not much working.  He’s not “I can’t stand him; he’s so horrible.”  He’s not even that bad.  He’s just a bit annoying sometimes.  But I like him at other times.  Maybe Hotch?  I would say gibbs but I know you have strong feelings against him ☠️☠️☠️  Maybe the Gibbs gibbs is supposed to be?  He’s complex! Cause normal is an ass… but not an asshole. There’s a difference ☠️  And I don’t recall another character being that dorky kinda loveable but assish too.

Wench: Yeah, that makes sense!  And I think you’re gonna get more insight into him next episode, which is why I said wait until then for the Normal Bingo.

Jezebel: Ah, I see!

Wench: Any other comments before we go on?

Jezebel: Just this, and you should put it in bold and italics or something in the reaction… THIS ONE WAS VERY SLOW

Wench: All-caps and bold it is :) 

– – –

He looks like William Shatner from Star Trek

[btw, it bears mentioning that Max is already acting suspiciously, to the point that everyone at her workplace, aside from OC and kinda Herbal, thinks she might be the murderer the Wanted posters are looking for.  She’s suspicious even before the whole transgenic scare in season 2, so, once again, why does OC try to unite everyone behind her???]

“Are you not a man- *pause* -to be taken lightly?”

“Uh...mmm...Yeah. I mean, no. Uh...uh, yeah, I most certainly am...not.”  Not a man, huh?  I see.

[Why are the car scenes with Zach, Logan, and Max so awkwarddddd (I say as if I don’t know)]

Did she say “it’s sad”?  [I think so].  Who just says “it’s sad?!?”

[SKETCHY HAVING A NORMAL-APPRECIATION MOMENT]

Poor Sketchy [His hair just looks so disheveled]

“Blah blah woof woof”  Wot?  [No clue!!  She said that earlier and I still have no clue what it means]  I’m gonna have to use that.  Well, look it up and then use it

[MAX AND LOGAN JUST KISSED??? I FORGOT THAT]

This is such a “oh, my woman just left.  Of course it’s gonna rain; I’m gonna go sit at the window” moment.  Didn’t he do that when the ex-wife left?  [Yup alksdjf]  He’s very Bella-Swan-coded.  [You’re right!!!]

The rain is making it look like he’s crying and that’s making it even sadder

[SHE’S DOING IT TOO. Little did we realize they’re both Bella Swan]

[He held onto that glass — and her hand around that glass — a bit too long]. This whole scene, like, screams “well, we aren’t really blood siblings”

You were twelve.

[This scene is so concernin-  *Zach brushes Max’s hair behind her ear* I’M SORRY?!?!  “SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED” WHO?!!?]

I love how Normal's actor realized he’d messed up his hair by brushing his hand through it, so he fixed it first

The guy in lock-up be like “Hey, I like your lipgloss” to Normal

Uh oh, something’s wrong.  What’s trainer see?  “Oh my god he’s dead”?

OH MY GOD HE’S DEAD

Did she just get a sixth sense or something?  [Apparently!!!]  There’s something not right with the force.  (Be funny if Zach looked up, too, though)

He ded

Logan didn’t really collapse; he just laid down on a table [this is only the first of two times minimum he does that this series]

[btw, there’s no way she didn’t just break her leg with that physics]

Oh, no, not again  [what is that prolonged eye contact between Max and Zach, too?!]

Oh, my god, that’s right where I passed out; this is why I can’t be a doctor.  Blood would shoot out at me and they’d be like, welp, doctor’s down

[I repeat, that photo does not even look like her]

What operating rooms are right there where you can see them from the waiting room?

I thought that was Logan; I was like, he’s cured!

[What is this doctor-patient confidentiality???  I didn’t realize all you had to do to bypass HIPAA was pull puppy-dog eyes and repeat, “Is he dying?”]  It’s ‘cause she’s pretty

“Yeah, no problem, stranger that I don’t know knows this patient; you can stay here all alone”

*Max begins a blood transfusion*  This is why you don’t just leave random people alone with patients

When Logan gets up, he needs to be like, so you care now?

HOW LONG HAVE THEY LEFT HER WITH HIM

[Wait, it’s that red balloon again alksdjf]

You couldn’t even dream him walking?

Needs to say “Bitch, I can’t walk”

He actually said it

Oh, and again: “If I can’t walk, I can’t dance”

I wonder if you donate organs, this happens.  That’d be weird

You gotta love when the writers are like, this is gonna be so sweet and cute and the best scene ever and it’s just… not.  [You’re not wrong]  Like, this is cute enough and all, but it’s also really weird

And it’s also gonna give some poor person with epilepsy a seizure

And that’s the end of the series; they die together

[They just put a blood-deprived person in general lock-up; how is she still standing?!]  Exactly!  And they didn’t even give her a bandaid; they just pulled out the needle.  And I’ve been to the hospital and gotten an IV, and they pulled out the needle, and blood went everywhere.  It’s like the scene in SPN where Dean broke his leg and then pulled out the IV and there was just nothing.  I’m like, this is a show about hunting supernatural creatures, but this is the unrealistic bit.  [This is the most unrealistic thing in this show, and the brothers fight god with a gun.]

Well, dang, they got Zach too

[I’m sorry, but that was such a teen movie way of leaving.  “Oh, I’m just gonna… toss my hair… and then jump over this wall.”]

Who licks their glasses arm like that?  Like, it’s one thing to chew on it, but Lintlicker, like… licked it

[Poor Sketchy’s still struggling.  And Normal looks beat.  But I like his jacket, btw]

[They let the stranger back in]  They were like, well, ya know what, she did a good thing; she saved him

[“He cares about you.  And I don’t mean just like a brother.”  DAMN IT STARTED THIS EARLY?]

And back to denying it.  Like, come on, you shared a blood dream.  [I can’t believe that even happened]

Right back to solving one problem and bringing up another one.

[Nasally monologue returns]  And so does her talking in circles!

— — — 

Jezebel: Well, in the second half, a lot happened!  They were like, we ain’t gonna put much in the first half because we’re gonna have to try and kill you in the second half.  Also, there’s like a ship… not unlocked, but it’s there.  They don’t want it to be there --- I don't want it to be there --- but it’s there.  Uh… I actually didn’t hate Max this episode.  Or even not-like her

Wench: I know!!! Though, admittedly, for an episode about Max, she was only in, like, three scenes

Jezebel: They could have made him collapsing a bit more dramatic, to be honest.  Like, sprawled out on the floor.  Or in his chair, still by the window.

Wench: I KNOW.  Like, I fell asleep over my homework all the time in high school/college, so he could just have been asleep; that was much less dramatic than it could/should have been.

Jezebel: And… the dream.  I’m gonna keep coming back to it.  If I had one final thought at the end of this episode, it was pinned back at that dream.  That was so weird.  But I think that’s a wrap, so.  Yeah!

– – –

Wench post-script during tagging; Kendra hasn’t been in, like, three episodes… I wonder if she’s off for good.  I know she leaves before s2, but I didn’t expect it this early!  I guess we’ll see as the episodes continue