#at which point he doubles down and Luke just fights with him instead of throwing him in the dungeon

[simplynotcapable]

write the essay - or a summary 👀

OKAY OKAY LISTEN i babbled a lot here and mostly wrote word vomit instead of an actual argument but i'm 99% sure i got the point i was trying to make across so here we go

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one of the reasons you will never convince me that aegon does not love his family, that you will never manage to swing me that show!aegon's motivations have nothing to do with keeping his family safe--is the dinner scene.

because aegon--lazy, drunken, snarky aegon--takes one look at lucerys going for his brother, and he puts him down.

the aegon that we've seen mocking jace and harassing baela, the aegon who tearfully expresses to his mother that he "can never do enough", who bullied aemond as a child--we have not, at this point, seen anything between the oldest two green brothers that hints at any kind of real positive relationship!--could maybe be expected to trip luke. shove him. hit him. letting him run past (once again defending his brother, shout out lucerys the original ride or die) without doing anything at all would honestly also not be surprising.

but aegon doesn't do any of these things. he doesn't just trip luke, or shove him other, or get one solid thwack. he doesn't stay idle, sitting down and soaking up the chaos.

he smashes him into the table and he pins him down. he holds him there. he leans in close, and you can see his mouth go tight because aegon is honestly not much bigger than luke and we know he's more than a bit drunk and holding down a thrashing, pissed off fourteen year old boy isn't exactly a cake walk; they don't linger on it, but he leans in so close that it seems to me he's probably saying something to luke, and we have no idea what that is but! but!

this is how i know aegon loves aemond. this is why you will not ever be able to convince me he doesn't.

this is the boy who cut out his brother's eye. this is the boy who maimed his brother and wasn't punished. this is the boy who mocks him for it still, and aegon was not there the first time, but he's here now, and luke doesn't even make it all the way out of his chair.

and, sure, you can make the argument that it's just aegon being pissed off at the strong boys and joining in on the fight because he's a chaotic douchebag, and maybe you're right! maybe that's part of it!

but i genuinely believe that it's more a testament to aegon's idea of love. because, moving past the dinner scene, moving into the book events of the dance--how, exactly, does aegon show his affection? through actions. through the specific cruelties that he chooses. he slaughters every rat catcher in the city for jaehaerys and jaehaera and helaena; he orders statues built of his dead little brothers; he strips rhaenyra's queenhood in honor of his wife and his mother; when aemond returns from storm's end, he throws him a feast--which, to go on a brief tangent, maybe unpopular opinion, but I do see that just as much a genuine show of affection/support to aemond as it is a backhanded, cruel slap to rhaenyra's face. like the feast is very much perceieved as a "hey, we struck the first blow and killed your bastard son, fuck you" sort of move, and it is, don't get me wrong, aegon is 100% sending that message. but he's also...i mean, look, even people on their side are going to chafe at kinslaying because that's just such a deep sort of sin in their universe, but aegon is doubling down on aemond's side instead of distancing himself from him--which, by all rights, would have made more sense to do after aemond not only starts a civil war but kicks it off with a war crime! he throws a feast, he celebrates, he basically looks the realm in the eye and says "call him kinslayer, call him a monster, call him a beast, but i will put laurels on his head and a kiss to his brow and call him brother even with the blood on his hands"

tell me what that is if not a twisted, demented, fucked up version of "i love you."

love, to aegon, is action; love is protecting someone, and protection requires violence, and so love is violence. blame this belief on alicent and otto's methods of raising a prince to become a king, but that's the fact the way i see it. aegon shows his love through action and through violence because that's what he thinks love is.

aegon is willing to put hands on luke in front of rhaenyra, who he's been raised to believe will kill him for any slight thing; in front of daemon, who he's been raised to fear murdering him and his brothers. in front of his mother, who he knows will be furious that he and aemond are picking fights at a dinner that is so very close to bringing peace between the factions and who he is constantly trying to win some sort of pride/affection from to no avail. he does this because he loves aemond. because he loves his family. because, despite everything else, aegon does genuinely see his family as his responsibility. he sees them as his to protect, even if he does a shitty job at it.

aegon does not like aemond. he does not like helaena. he certainly does not like himself. but he becomes king for his brothers, for his sister, for his children; his motivations are rooted in family and what it means to him.

and i, for one, get more about aegon's character and his motivations from this four second snippet in a scene that doesn't even revole around him than i do from most of the other scenes he has in the season

and a reminder to all: i am team black, aegon ii targaryen is a rapist and a usurper who should not be king under any circumstances--but, like all of these very pretty and stupid war criminals, i find him fascinating as a character.

[anxiouspotatorants]

About that medieval fantasy AU for underdog quartet... I have ideas:

- Rory is the bastard daughter of an excommunicated princess (Lorelai). Lorelai ran away to a neighbouring kingdom to not get punished/lose Rory, and she raised Rory as a commoner (a commoner who is more literate than some great scholars in her country, yeah, but still). Christopher’s parents put a curse on her so that if she ever sets foot back in the kingdom the whole land will descend into magical chaos. The AU might start with her and Lorelai already having entered the kingdom again (Kingdom of Hartford?) and trying to find a way to break the curse and reunite with their family.

- Paris is a high ranking lady within the kingdom. She wants to take her lands to new hights and make the history books as the greatest lady they ever had, and has therefore set out on a solo journey to learn as much as she can about the kingdom and how to best run it. She’s loaded with gold, quills and self defense taught by her local knights.

- Lane is a commoner who ran away from home to join a troupe as a musician. Some outside conflict separated her from the troupe and now she’s wandering as a lone bard in search of her band of brothers or her mother’s house (whichever she finds first as she misses both dearly). She has no magic or fighting skills, but she’s good at stealth and catching gossip.

- Jess is a rogue wizard who’s never really belonged anywhere. His mother dragged him from village to village with little ability to plant roots, and eventually left him with her long lost brother before joining a travelling merchant on his route. Jess quickly left his uncle’s care and has travelled on his own, stealing to survive and sticking to himself. He’s seen the instability of sell-sword groups and criminal collectives, and frankly doesn’t trust anyone enough to share a bonfire with them.

- Approximately thirty seconds after Lorelai and Rory set foot back in the Kingdom of Hartford the curse sets in. This signals their return to both Emily and Richard and Christopher’s parents, who both send troops and notices to find and collect them. Lorelai and Rory are thus on the run across the kingdom trying to find a way to break the curse before the soldiers find (and possibly kill) them. At one point they end up in a village called Stars Hollow and seek refuge in Luke’s tavern. But they are spotted by a group of soldiers hired by Emily and Richard, and Lorelai gets caught but manages to help Rory escape. They assumed that the soldiers were from Chris’ side of the family, as their soldiers are more prevalent and up front.

- Like I said both sets of grandparents seek out the Lorelais, but in slightly different ways for very different reasons. The Haydens want to imprison the Lorelais and possibly execute Rory for the crime of cursing the land (a curse that they made but that’s not relevant!). They’re the ones who make wanted posters and dispatch troops all over the land. Rumours and legends spread about the bastard princess who has cursed the kingdom with her return. Emily and Richard, on the other hand, want their daughter back (partly because they do love her and partly because she’s their only heir) and want to find a less violent way to break the curse. They don’t announce their hunt for the Lorelais out of fear of starting conflict with the Haydens, but dispatch undercover groups and sellswords to find and bring back the long lost princesses.

- Alone and afraid, Rory returns to Luke’s tavern and hides there for a while. One day both Paris and Lane make their way to the tavern — Paris in schedule for her educational roadtrip, Lane finally finding her home village and preparing to reunite with her mother. They end up talking and bickering downstairs while a shadowy figure sneaks by them and up to Luke’s quarters. Jess was just supposed to steal some food and pay in gold he found in a dead dragon’s den, but instead he finds a blue eyed stranger. Rory thinks she’s caught and runs downstairs. Jess is curious and follows, breaking his stealth from Luke. Rory crashes into Paris who starts interrogating Luke about the tavern being a secret whorehouse, and the five are descending into verbal chaos before Rory spots Hayden guards and hides behind the cupboards. Lane picks up on the danger and makes an impromptu distraction with Paris while Jess sneaks her out the back. Once outside he asks Rory what’s going on, and he’s soon followed by Paris and Lane. Rory brings up a cover about being cursed by someone and the soldiers hunting her in relation to said curse. The other three buy the story and decide to join her on a quest to cure her.

- It honestly takes so little time before Rory breaks and explains that she isn’t cursed but rather is the curse. Paris is angry at the lie, but little else changes but the motivation to help Rory. Jess goes from «I’m bored and directionless» to «I really like this girl and could finally do something that matters». Lane goes from «I’m procrastinating on facing my mother» to «I’m helping my new friend and have a new chance at adventure (and still procrastinating on my mother)». Paris goes from «This could be relevant for my future occupation» to «This could be even more relevant to my future occupation, also I have a friend now».

- Paris gives Rory the cover of one of her stewardesses, but most of the time the four travel by foot or bought horses as unknowns. Jess does scouting and trap laying for threats while the girls alternate on getting food. 

- When it comes to gathering information, Lane and Paris are the best at gathering intel from other people - Lane through gossip and Paris through interrogation. Jess is great at breaking and entering and stealing important texts for research, and him and Rory are the best at deciphering the texts (much to Paris’ frustration). 

- The key to breaking the curse could be something like “when substance stronger than blood is spilled for the unworthy”. Rory actually gets found by Emily and Richard before they can break the curse and there is a short period where the four are separated and Rory thinks maybe the lands will have to live with the curse unless she sacrifices herself. Then Lane overhears a plot to assassinate her and warns Jess and Paris. The three storm in just in time to warn king Richard and queen Emily, but the accusation of two commoners and a lady against the royal Haydens is obviously considered a crime. They declare to strip Paris of her title and are about to execute Jess and Lane when Rory steps in and stops the axe. She gets deep cuts in her hands and bleeds. It is revealed that her choosing to spill her own blood - which becomes the symbolic substance of her love for them - for commoners (who royals deem “unworthy”) is what breaks the curse. 

- So the happy ending: Paris gets her title back and she, Jess and Lane are pronounced heroes of the kingdom. The Haydens apologize for the curse and get no consequences because that would mean a war declaration and oh boy do we not have time for that. Rory is legitimized and becomes next in line after her mother. 

- Lane gets the title of “royal bard” and returns to Stars Hollow to finally face her mother. Mrs Kim must admit that she is proud of her daughter but has most of all missed her, and after the mandatory bickering the two reconcile. She has also reunited with the troupe at some point before the climax, and they are now a full troupe with tight connections to the crown. 

- In addition to her title and hero-status, Paris gets a place in court. She makes mentors of the king’s advisers and now works to become a royal adviser to both Lorelais.

- Jess is offered knighthood but declines. He tells Rory that he needs to go on a journey of his own and leaves. He returns to Stars Hollow and Luke, and gives Luke a whole chest of gold and the title to Lord of Stars Hollow (courtesy of princess Lorelai). He goes dark for some months, then appears at night in the castle on Rory’s window-ledge. They talk for hours until the sun rises and then agree to make Jess an official scout for the kingdom, travelling around and figuring out the magic and creatures of the land. 

- Rory’s first move after the reunification of her family is to get to know her estranged relatives and upgrade her education through the royal masters. After Jess returns she convinces her mother and grandparents to let her join Jess as an ambassador for the kingdom. She uses Paris’ argument of wanting to truly know the country she is supposed to rule one day, and the whole band gets back together for new quests.

[slut4barzy]

sweethearts at the rodeo

jack hughes / new jersey devils

( synopsis : hughes get his heart broken for the second time  )

in dudley, texas only one thing holds importance to the youth in the spring time, and that was the sweethearts of the rodeo dance. every year when the rodeo comes to town theres always a special little dance held for people ages thirteen to twenty to come and have some good clean fun (as the parents like to think). for four years jack has been going to the dance, but tonight this would be his first year going without you. 

originally he was going to break his streak and not go. out of fear that he'd see you with someone else, and that would break his heart. but his mom pleaded, begged, and bribed him to take his sister since she was now of age and every girl's first sweetheart dance was like a coming of age in dudley. so eventually he gave in and went in the hopes that he'd see you there all miserable and alone just like he was.

"oh look theres yn!" savannah points out the second the two passed through the double doors of the town’s rec center. “she looks so pretty. let’s say hi!”

there you stood exactly like he didn’t want to see you, all smiley and under the arm of cory wormwood, a kid on his team that he didn’t like so much. savannah tugs on her brother's hand ready to drag them over to where you stood but jack stood firm, "i'm not going over there sav." 

huffing she stops and throws him an annoyed look. "are you going to cry again? can you just be cool and say hi. i miss her, and i want her to see how pretty my dress turned out.” he takes his hand out of his sisters hold and crosses his arms over his chest, “you can go see her but i’m not.”

savannah rolls her eyes, scoffing, “you’re such a pissbaby. i’ll be right back.” but she couldn’t make it far because while they were bickering you spotted them and were walking right over. savannah gives him a side eye with a little smirk playing on her lips, “can’t run away now, huh lover boy?” she elbows him and in return he elbows her back harder. “shut up,” he mumbles. 

“savannah! i was wondering when you were going to get here.” The two girls engulfed each other as if they haven’t seen each other in forever, which was the truth, because in their terms five months felt like an eternity. “god you look so cute. is that eyeliner you did?” savannah nodded, “ma let me do just for tonight. i tried the technique you showed me.” 

savannah always looked up to you. not only were you the only girl close to her age that she can talk to when she lives in a house with three rowdy older brothers, but she admires everything about you from the way you act to the clothes you wear. sometimes jack would joke and tell you to watch out before she ends up stealing your identity but you didn’t care. to you savannah was the doting younger sister that you never had. 

“i can tell.” you pick at her baby blue dress, “and your dress! I think you won miss. sweetheart tonight sav.” savannah squeals making jack roll his eyes. “don’t flatter her.” “oh shut up!” savannah interjects.

for the first time tonight you focus your attention to jack. making a face you reply, “why not. with the way your mom was able make a miracle out of an old curtain she just has to win.”  

playfully you swat savannah’s shoulder, “your mom made you take this bozo as a date. luke would’ve been better.” she shrugs, “lukes’ date is hannah denver and with quinn away i had no choice.” 

“ah,” you respond. “lucky for you i heard a little eight grade boy has been dying to ask you for a dance but he’s just too shy to ask. so i promised i’d do it for him, of course, only if your date doesn’t mind.” savannah gasps her eyes widening looking at jack for approval. he nods of course not wanting to ruin her night.  

“who is it?” “billy ryan,” you reply subtly pointing your head towards the direction of the stage. “he’s standing by the stage.” savannah squeals again planting a kiss on your cheek, “i’ll see you two later.” then off she zoom to have her first of many sweetheart dance and leaving two ex lovers alone. 

the band stops and soon the first couple of cords to the byrds you ain’t goin’ nowhere begins to play. you clear your throat trying to get the attention of the boy who was staring down at his shows like it was the most interesting thing of the night. he looks up, “what?” 

“you’re not going to ask me to dance? you know this is my favorite song.”

he clears his throat, “would you like to dance yn?” you shrug with a soft smile, “one wouldn’t hurt.” 

as jack whisked you off to the middle of the dance floor and as you were pressed against him, for a second everything almost felt right again. as if you were still his. 

"you look really pretty tonight." you lifts your head from where it was resting on his shoulder and looked him square in his eyes. he didn't know if it was his imagination or the lighting, but you were glowing. a sweet smiles plays on your lips, "really?"

he nods, "mhm." 

"thank you. you know you're the fifth boy to tell me so. i must look like a goddess of something."

you rest your head back on his shoulder. maybe it was because of the closeness of you that made him lose himself but he decided to blurt out what was right on his mind.

"we should get back together, you and me. i miss you."

"now hughes you know we can't get back together."

he frowns not liking your answer one bit. was this the same yn that cried the day you broke up with him?

"why not?"

"because i don't want to."

you sigh, "don't take this harshly but i can't go back to dating you. of course what we had was special, but i can’t deal with all the crying and fighting that we did. and don’t get me started on the other girls."

you giggle in what jack thought was a poor attempt to lighten up the mood "plus i like being single. who knew that so many boys were interested in me now that i didn't have hughes's girl stuck to my forehead."

you felt him go stiff and stopped your swaying. placing a hand on his cheek you said, "the offer to be friends is still on the table. you're always welcome by our house for dinner mama said so. even daddy misses you. he says that for once the teams not playing like dog shit this season and wants to let you know you're doing great."

you frown not liking the way he was letting you ramble on. "please say something jack."

he clears his throat, "yeah i-i'll stop by one day. " he stammers. smiling you say, "i'll always love you jack. you were my first love. we’ve been together for five years, and five years is a long time for teenagers to date just one person.”

"yo, yn!" it was cory. the two turned back and saw him standing by the drink table with two of his friends and his bow tie undone from the sloppy smile jack knew he was tipsy.

cory whistled and waved her over, “are you here with me tonight or hughes?” you giggles up putting up your hand, “gimme five minutes okay.” 

“make it two” he retorts

“three?” she calls back. “deal!”

you turns back with a huge smile on your face. a pang goes off in his heart cause he knows from now on that smile will never be for him. “i should go now, but i’ll defiantly give you a call about dinner at my house.”

then she stops herself, “unless i forget. then you should give me a call instead.” 

“with your memory i’ll give you a call.”

 “how about-”

 “i won’t forget. i promise.” 

“perfect.” rising on the toes of her heels she plants a quick kiss on his cheek. “i’ll see you around hughes.”

and as she bounced back to cory and into his arms jack would be lying if he said tears didn’t start brimming his eyes. 

( SEA SAYS 🧚🏾‍♂️ )

don’t you love the way I keep popping up and disappearing? can we just talk about my consistency. i realized i haven’t posted an actual story since march, yum, but you all understand. this isn’t my official coming  back because with the spring semester coming up i might just disappear again. as always sorry for any mistakes and i hope you like it.

aren’t you glad hockeys back!

[angelthefirst1]

Beth repeats everywhere.

Okay so I'm back and excited about the upcoming episodes and while bummed we didn't see Beth in 1016. I am super excited about where this is heading...

Even the title names are in your face Bethyl at this point, I mean... Home sweet home?

If the spoilers are accurate-it's actually a good thing...

*Ducks for cover (please don't throw things at me) 🥴🤕

So after a long but very needed break (The world falling apart kinda made analyzing TWD seem very unimportant) I have decided to climb out of my cave to weigh in on the current spoilers that have everyone acting like they just sat on a cactus. 🌵

If correct, these spoilers confirm to me that Beth is just about to be reintroduced and also confirm what i have been saying about how the story is told in TWD for years.

Season 9 and 10 especially has been repeating, major Beth season 4 and 5 plot. And, there is a reason it's getting more and more blatant. It's coming to a head...

We've seen Beth's story on repeat using other characters to remind us of the past, and show us the future to a degree too.

It's called predicative programming, showing a shadow of what's coming before it actually does.

So this Leah...even if she is "real" (more on this a little later) IS BETH showing aspects of the past to subconsciously remind us of past Beth, and aspects of what's to come for future Beth.

On the topic of what's real and what's not, there is a very good case to be made, that this is all in Mr Dixon's (And ultimately Rick's) head.

A bit further on I will go through some of the blatant repeats in the story to remind you just how 'in your face' the repeats from season 4/5 have become in season 9,10.

But first I want to talk through what I think is most likely happening with these potential spoilers.

I see a few possibilities out of this, but none of them are actually bad.

Scenario 1. Leah is real and her and Daryl have a relationship in that cabin.

Why isn't this bad?

This maybe a difficult concept for some to grasp as they see all the characters separately, but...the writers make the characters all one, by moving them in and out of repeating rolls.

So as I stated above, Leah is a Beth fill in and the reason we most likely won't actually see a full Leah and Daryl love scene on screen, is because it's shadowing the real love scene to come which will be with the main fulfillment, Beth.

Leah is the shadow reminding us of Alone and Still, but Daryl's memory, desire and hope are all about Beth, not Leah.

I mean come on... A Cabin? A Dog? Them not getting along to start but then hints of romance? They eat together? She leaves and is never mentioned until years later? and a note? In your face Bethyl.

And this leads into scenario number two...

I've often wondered if all these characters actually originate out of the 'real' Rick's mind (yes i know the comics don't end that way, but that doesn't mean the TV show isn't going down that road potentially)

While unconscious in his hospital bed, the character of Rick comes alive in his mind.

Some might not like this concept, but It does make sense of the constant repeats in story. Which can be likened to a dream state and inception.

If we have been in the character Rick's mind all this time, then once Rick's character "left" in the helicopter season 9, it became "Daryl's" mind we entered (He became the last man standing) and that's when the story shifted and became extremely Beth heavy.

We possibly entered into Daryl's subconscious instead of Rick's and instantly started getting HUGE Beth symbolism.

Why would Daryl's mind/subconscious be showing him in an almost identical setting to what we saw him and Beth in season 4, in Still and Alone but with someone else instead?

Because it seems he has suppressed her memory as much as possible to cope (Leah not being mentioned all this time is another clue that this is actually about Beth), but it's building and building to a climax, which should soon end in the truth exploding from his subconscious and finally revealing that Daryl loved and desires Beth.

Rick's story started and ended with "finding his family"-that was his repeating story.

And until he left and handed the reins over to "Daryl's mind" we were never going to access Daryl's subconscious enough for the truth about Beth to be revealed.

As soon as it becomes Daryl's characters mind in control, we immediately start seeing major Beth repeats beginning.

I'm going back over some major repeats from 9/10 to show you how obvious the repeating story has become.

This became long and it's only the really obvious stuff that I'll cover, there is way more that could be included, and it will become extremely obvious by the time we reach the end, that this IS Beth’s story, just remixed.

Further down i will also explain scenario number 3.

Repeats: Starting with season 9

As soon as Rick's helicopter files away over a barn (which is very similar to the barn Daryl weeps over Beth next to)

We see Magna who has been a major Beth fill-in with her blond hair and prison tattoo, and in a relationship with a dark haired archer.

We then meet grown up Judith with her braid and sheriffs hat.

We first see Daryl in season 9, as he comes across Carol and Henry in the woods

And he suddenly has a dog.

The camp site is a repeat of Beth and Daryl's "Suck-ass camp" from Still.

But having Dog there shows Daryl's desire to have Beth there. He desperately wanted to get her that dog in Alone.

Daryl kills a snake in suck-ass camp number 2 (it’s black and hanging around his neck)

Just like in Still...

Carol asks Daryl to take Henry to Hilltop because he wants to learn blacksmithing.

Daryl says he doesn't want to babysit. Repeating the sarcastic line Beth says to Daryl about being her chaperone.

Beth going to get something she wants (get alcohol)

Is Henry going to learn at the Hilltop blacksmith. In both cases Daryl does go with them even tho he initially protests.

Before they leave Henry hurts his ankle in a trap and Daryl provides an ointment to help it heal, a repeat of Beth's ankle in Alone and Daryl bandaging it for her.

Soon after we see Jesus get killed in a dark misty graveyard, Daryl's the one to immediately kill Jesus's murder. This was a combination of the Alone graveyard and Beth/Dawn at Grady.

We then see Henry get drunk on moonshine at Hilltop, and when Gage says they should have some more fun, his idea of fun is showing disrespect to the dead walker they trap in a pit. Henry kills it- just like Beth killing the walker in Still that Daryl was "having fun with".

Because of the moonshine Henry gets stuck in the cell block with Lydia (think Daryl saying "home sweet home") and in Still and Beth says "if we are going to be trapped (prisoners) again, might as well make the best of it".

We find out Lydia was abused like Daryl, and Henry keeps saying Lydia is a good person. Just like Beth and Daryl.

Henry and Lydia are young Beth and Daryl, who bond during this time in the cell block, they get separated due to the prisoner exchange with Alden and Luke.

The introduction of Alpha (An evil twisted Beth) who looks like she is dead. Same with Beta being Daryl with his double knives and who would follow Alpha anywhere. Their roles are reserved in that he is the musical one with a singing career and has released albums (sounds familiar to Emily right?).

Alpha is referred to as Mother by Lydia, and the whisperers refer to themselves as a pack (symbolic of wolf's) which is fulfillment of the song at the end of Still about 'Mother being absent' and a 'party when the Wolf comes home'.

We see the prisoner exchange (Luke and Alden for Lydia) from a nomad group and a fixed community. A repeat of Grady

We then see a Henry, Lydia rescue mission from Connie and Daryl in a building with a elevator shaft that Daryl pushes Beta into (Grady) repeating Beth pushing the officer down the elevator.

As Daryl and Beta fight, Daryl stabs him where Beth stabs Dawn.

Beta keeps yelling at Daryl "Where is she?" Daryl then stabs Beta in the same spot as Beth stabs Dawn. Repeating Daryl's desperate search for Beth from season 5 and how it ends.

Just before Beta gets pushed into the elevator he says "All I want is the girl", referring to Lydia but it shows Daryl's subconscious desire when going to Grady was just wanting the girl too (Beth).

The song at the beginning of 914 when pregnant Michonne is looking for Rick, is about dream catchers and dreaming. Which could be a hint at this being a dream state.

The episode also repeats the theme from the Grove, messed up children (Lizzy) willing and even happy about killing (Mica). The episode focuses on children killing dear just like The Grove and Josalin teaches them they must be strong, not weak just like Carol taught the kids in season 4. The timeline in this episode includes Henry getting his leg patched up at Alexandria with Lydia (another repeat of Beth's ankle injury) which would have happened around the same time as the events in the Grove.

We see Miles and Hilda running from walkers through the woods, him wearing plaid and her a cardigan just like Beth and Daryl in Still/Alone

They just happen to come across somewhere safe (Hilltop) but that eventually leads to her being scalped and Miles gets his face turned into a whisperer mask so he effectively ends up "walking around like a dead man" which is a reminder of what Len says to Daryl in season 4 referring to Daryl being miserable due to losing Beth.

Connie and Kelly fight about Connie not saying goodbye when she leaves with Daryl to rescue Henry. A reminder of  Beth and Daryl's conversation about not saying goodbye at the prison.

When next we see Beta and Daryl realises he survived being pushed into the elevator shaft.

Beta says to Daryl "You just had to give me the girl, no one else had to die, now that deal is done".

Same theme and mentality of Daryl when planning to rescue Beth from Grady.

He wanted everyone to go home and no one to die so he rejected Rick's plan of quietly slitting everyone's throats and hoped for a peaceful trade . But once Beth was lost to him, that deal was done and he instantly opens fire on Dawn.

The whisperers then kill Henry and the other's by quietly sneaking into Kingdom, taking them, and eventually slitting their throats and cutting their heads off.

All because they couldn't get Lydia back. The tactics were reversed. And in both situations the main Dr was not killed (Edwards and Siddiq)

Henry is killed and Lydia is miserable enough to almost commit suicide while the group is traveling through a snow storm from Kingdom to Alexandria. This is a repeat and reverse of the group traveling from Alexander in a heat wave and drought while Daryl was miserable.

Season 10

We see Siddiq keep having flashbacks about those that were killed at the fair.

Negan in prison at Alexandria is a repeat of Beth as a prisoner in Grady.

In 10.02 (1010) we get Alpha and Beta's back story from 7 years earlier. They are both in a addiction treatment Facility with hallways reminiscent of Grady, Beta has written on the walls 'Why am I STILL ALONE'. hint much?

Alpha tells Beta that she doesn't die easily. A repeat of Beth telling Daryl that even tho he looks at her like just another dead girl, she isn't.

Alpha starts singing/humming when she hears Beta humming and he tells her to stop singing and never do it again. Repeating Daryl yelling at/mocking Beth about her singing in Still, and a reverse of Alone when he tells her to keep on singing.

Beta asks for Alpha's name and she responds with "The dead don't have names". Reinforcing the theme from Still of Beth telling Daryl that she knows he sees her as just another dead girl, and that's why he's afraid to get too close to her.

We see the introduction of the whisperer sisters (twisted versions of Maggie and Beth from season 4/5) one of which-a blond, has just lost a baby (Beth and Judith) and she eventually dies.

Beta and Alpha talk about what the dead feel, Alpha says "nothing" repeating Beth yelling at Daryl "Do you feel anything?"

Later we find out Beta's brother was being treated in that facility for addiction, repeating Daryl telling Beth about Merle and how he was always high. Alpha is the one to kill Beta's brother, repeating Beth telling Daryl "You got away from it" meaning Merle and his influence, and Beth's insistence on him staying who he is, kept him from becoming his brother.

The very next scene is current time and shows Beta telling Alpha (Just after the satellite hits) that he saw smoke at the boarder. Insinuating the fire from the satellite also represents the fire from the cabin in Still which was also right after Beth and Daryl's talk about Merle and how he got away from him.

Alpha and Beta then interlock fingers just like Beth and Daryl in Alone.

The Whisperer sisters also have a conversation about how Alpha killed Lydia (which she lied about) and Alpha told them that she didn't shed one tear when Lydia died. One of the whisperer sisters says "She is Alpha, she doesn't cry."  repeating Beth's "I don't cry anymore Daryl".

Beta finds out Alpha lied about Lydia being dead and yells at her "she is never coming back, she is GONE! Alpha." Repeating Daryl and Rick's conversation about Beth being just gone.

The beginning of 1003 shows Alexandria get wave after wave of walkers because of the fire from the Satellite (Sill cabin) which is a repeat of the walkers being drawn to the cabin while Beth and Daryl are still watching it burn. 413 opens with Maggie, Sasha and Bob fighting waves of walkers in the fog, and the Grove episode which happened on the same timeline showed burned walkers coming to the cabin Carol, Ty and the girls were in.

It's repeating that era.

The fighters at Alexandria are exhausted and Gabriel tells Aaron he has to use Negan to fight because they are low on fighters, he says pointing to Negan then Aaron "Peanut butter meet jelly" repeating the peanut butter Beth eats in Alone and Jelly Daryl eats.

Carol, Daryl and Michonne stay the night at Barnett academy home of the foxhound. Repeating the dog theme from Alone.

The description of the episode says "The group stays at the academy but Carol falls into a trap." Once again Repeating the Alone/foot trap/dog/Grady/trap theme.

Carol calls for Daryl to help her once she steps in the trap.

This trap causes Carol to fall and hurt her arm badly repeating Beth's arm injury from season 5 when she wakes up with her arm in a cast.

Rosita and Eugene have an argument about how he loves her, and he says that he wished she would would re-zone him into love town, and hoped she'd changed her mind. (Changed your mind? Love? Yeah not spelling this one out for you)

This same episode Carol "wakes up" smiling but actually dreaming of domestic bliss with Daryl preparing her food, they have run out of jam/jelly. Probably because Daryl ate it all lol (once again Alone on repeat)

1006 Carol and Daryl go looking for Negan (the missing prisoner) a repeat of consumed 506 with Daryl and Carol searching for Beth.

At the same time we see a focus on the doctors/medical ward of Alexandria due to the contaminated water making everyone sick. A reminder of Grady.

We also have Eugene on the radio broadcasting to try and reach a new community, which eventually leads to him and the others in 1016 ending up at the end of the train tracks with train cars and the meeting of a new group.

Which is repeating terminus, who were broadcasting on the radio too.

He is on a mission to meet the new potential love of his life (Stephanie) at the same time Daryl and Carol are out on their search for the missing prisoner.

We see the whisperer doctor (Dante) plant himself into Alexandria and he eventually kills the second doctor (Siddiq) repeating but twisting the Grady story of Dr Edwards using Beth to kill the new doctor that comes into Grady.

Before he kills Siddiq however, Dante uses poison and kill another whisperer who gets put in the jail cell at Alexandria, he then blames the mistaken medication that killed the whisperer on Siddiq. Repeating Dr Edwards poisoning the new Dr that came into Grady while blaming Beth.

Lydia runs away from Alexandria during the time Dante kills Siddiq.

While Lydia (the girl) is missing and no one knows where she is, father Gabriel oversees Siddiqs funeral. Repeating Ty's funeral from season 5 while no one knew what became of Beth. The funeral scene emphasizes the sprinkling of dirt into the grave just like we saw with Ty.

Next we see a father Gabriel watching a video log of Dante when he first arrived at Alexandria

repeating the groups from seasons 4/5 arriving at Alexandria and doing video logs with Diana.

Aaron and Gracie are seen taking about vehicle registration plates and the different states, repeating Aaron and Eric's obsession with collecting them all in season 4/5

While searching for Alpha, Carol almost steps in an animal trap and Daryl saves her. Another repeat of Beth's animal trap.

Soon after the animal trap, Carol then runs after Alpha leading the group into a trap in the cave, repeating her running into the trap at Grady and being hit by the car and the leading of the group to Grady.

While in the cave we see a bird cage, like we see in Beth's cell back at the prison, the bird cage representing her at Grady.

Carol is rash wanting revenge and stupidly drops the explosive causing the group to think Connie and Magna are dead. Beth at Grady rashly stabs Dawn, causing the group to think she is dead.

We next see a depiction of resurrection when Beta comes out the grave while sneaking into Alexandria.

Daryl and Alpha fight, Alpha after fighting with Daryl wakes up from passing out, she is reborn stronger.

Eugene takes to Rosita about the probability of never seeing Father Gabriel and the others from Alexandria again because Alpha's horde is coming to Hilltop. Rosita tells Eugene to stop, repeating Beth and Daryl's argument in Still about never seeing Maggie again and Beth yelling at him to stop.

Eugene and Rosita then share some alcohol (moonshine) depicting Beth and Daryl doing the same.

Rosita tells Eugene he has no romantic game which we all know applies to Daryl too.

Before the fight/fire at Hilltop, Daryl tells Judith that he is afraid a little bit. With Beth he wouldn't admit he was afraid of losing people, he cared about.

We then see Hilltop get drenched in a clear flammable liquid (tree sap) and set on fire (The Hilltop fire represents the cabin Daryl and Beth Burn)

The episode with Virgil and Michonne is fascinating and aspects in it, could well be repeated with Daryl and Leah. This episode could be a foreshadow of: Scenario number 3. It's in part a hallucination.

In the Virgil/Michonne episode we see Michonne get drugged and she sees what the past would have been like if she'd chosen a different road. She describes what she saw in her hallucinations to Virgil, as losing her family and that it was Hell to see.

Virgil has taken the drugged tea before and he describes it as heaven because it reunited him with his family and he hoped it would do that for her. After coming out of the hallucination, Michonne spares Virgil's life and that act, ends up leading her to Rick's boots

And the phone with the picture of her and Judith on it.

The end of the episode ends in Michonne going to "Find him."

So the theme at play is: a Hallucination, then having mercy could lead to clue of a lost loved one finding the other. Interesting...

The note Daryl apparently leaves Leah says "Find me".

If Daryl is in some kind of drugged state during this episode, it could combine his immediate situation (Leah actually being there) and his memory and desire of Beth in a similar setting (Alone). If this scenario plays out Leah could take something of Daryl's and the follow on effect may well lead Beth to a clue about Daryl, leading to her finding him.

Just putting this idea out there as the hallucination theme is reinforced in season 10 with Siddiq and in the very next episode when Carol hallucinates Alpha, just after Alpha has been killed. Princess also mentions not being sure if she is hallucinating or not when she meets Eugene, Ezekiel and Yumiko, and wonders if they are real. And Beta hallucinates the walkers all looking to him and saying "this is the end of the world".

So the Leah events maybe half true, half hallucination and this might be what leads to a clue and eventual reunion just as we assume Michonne's clues will eventually lead to a reunion with Rick.

After this episode the repeats in Bethyl themes get even more obvious.  

Beta takes Alpha's head and goes off on his own to listen to music (Emily's song, a love song with lyrics about going to Hell to find your missing girl) Beta makes a mask of half her face. She's with him even when she's gone.

The last words Beta says to Alpha are "Thank you, I see now, thank you". Repeating the thank you note and how she taught Daryl to believe there are still good people.

Eugene's group going into the city and then on to meet the new group at the train yard, is a mix of the group traveling to Atlanta to get Beth and also traveling to Terminus. Both times at the train tracks with train cars and the group ends up surrounded and with weapons pointed at them.

The hospital location in 1015 and 16 or "Tower" as they call it, and what happens especially with Judith and Daryl, is in my opinion the biggest clue we are close to her return.

The hospital is in your face Grady and it's meant to remind you of that time.

In the hospital we see Lydia patting cats

A reminder of the claimers and Joe the claimer leader asking Daryl if he was a cat person, just after losing Beth at the funeral home, but before Grady.

Lydia has just lost Henry, repeating that time. Also if you recall in season 4 just before the Daryl meets the Claimers, Michonne and Rick were separated he was injured and she eventually finds a clue to him and Carl. Michonne is currently looking for Rick again due to the clues she finds with Virgil.

Luke is working on fixing up a speaker system to play music. Music/Beth inside the hospital.

Outside the hospital, in the woods Judith finds Daryl and tells him she doesn't like it inside it smells like cat pee (another reminder of the claimers era) she then tells Daryl she wants to learn what he does.

Just like Beth learning to track, we even get Judith tracking and identifying what she tracks as a walker while Daryl looks on proudly.

The group's whole plan for 1016 is to safely get "The music" speaker system out of the tower/hospital, to lead the huge horde of walkers surrounds them away.

Exactly what we didn't get to see in the aftermath of Grady. Getting Beth (music) out of the hospital.

Carol putting the knife up her sleeve is repeating Beth putting the scissors in her cast.

Carol ends up getting her revenge without getting killed (Unlike Beth with Dawn) but ultimately it's Negan and Daryl that do the revenge killing for Carol and Beth. Carol says to Negan regarding killing Alpha" What took you so long", where as Daryl's reaction was instantaneous, in a split second and he had put a bullet in Dawn's head.

We also see Negan go down the elevator shaft with a rope, just like Beth did.

The music they play to get the walkers away from the hospital is "Burning down the house", another repeat of the Still cabin.

When Negan comes across Beta, Beta runs at him immediately to kill him. Pushing him down he pulls out his knife and is about to kill Negan as he say "For Alpha". Beta Repeating Daryl's instant revenge on Dawn.

The title of 1016 is A Certain Doom, which is actually what Coda should have been called, considering this episode actually went to plan (mostly) for our group. Hardly anyone dies, only Beatrice from Oceanside and they get rid of Beta and Alpha's horde.

Beta dies as Daryl kills him before he can kill Negan. As Beta dies we see Alpha flashbacks of her telling him, he is not broken, that they love nothing, fear nothing, feel nothing and it makes them free. This is the exact opposite of what Beth taught Daryl. She called him out on being afraid of feeling and loving/caring about others.

Season 9 and 10 culminates with Lydia (Daryl) saving Carol (Beth) from certain death, by not letting her go over the cliff with all the walkers.

And standing on the edge of the cliff watching the horde fall down-along with Alpha's mask, Lydia and Carol interlink hands, just like Daryl and Beth in front of the grave. The Grave Beth and Daryl stand in front of says Father, while Lydia and Carol are looking at the end of Mother (Alpha)

Hopefully soon we get to see the original version of all this, and not just a repeated shadow of Daryl unknowingly doing something that helped Beth survive in the aftermath of Grady.

The upcoming episodes have me itching to see, I'm already seeing more repeats from Alone, Coda and 510 to name a few.

Beth is absolutely spilling out of the story right now through all these parallels, I haven't even covered them all here but just the main standouts of season 9 and 10.

So no matter what happens with this Leah character, Beth is still coming back and it's going to be massive

[cynthiaandsamus]

Custom Toonami Block Week 73 Rundown

Code Geass: Lelouch and co. are still stuck in China and Xingke’s flipping out because the Chinese assholes are gonna kill the Empress and go with someone less problematic for their political marriage to Britannia’s creepily overaged prince. However Lelouch pulls out a Knightmare that’s basically the Twink version of the Gawain and busts everyone up as well as pulling a Father Cornello on them and letting the people know they’re all elitst 1% assholes that don’t care about them, which I suspect all countries probably know about their leaders but it sucks to hear it in a recording so riots show up all over China and CC Geass Flashes Anya to take her out so Britannia has to back out because the Chinese Hierarchy are now the least popular people in the world. So Xingke gets to be with his Empress and joins the Black Knights but Dietard wants the Empress to marry someone on their side so they can basically do the asshole move Britannia just tried to do but for them. All the girls are like ‘hey no’ and Lelouch is like “Oh hey Tamaki buddy, let’s go talk and get me the fuck out of here” so before Lelouch actually has to give Tamaki more lines and elevate him beyond the Black Knight’s Yamacha Shirley calls and Lelouch just straight up asks Shirley about love in a weirdly forced series of circumstance. But Shirley’s like “Yeah don’t fuck with love, don’t you love anyone?” and Lelouch is like “Yeah I do, Nunally!” and I don’t think that’s at all what Shirley meant but it does mean Lelouch sees that fighting for something beyond politics is powerful and agrees to not marry off the twelve year old girl, so that’s good. Lelouch decides to return home while they hunt down the Geass cult which is in China for some reason despite that being one of the like two places on earth Britannia doesn’t control and the Geass Cult largely being a Britannian affair. Meanwhile Sayoko is basically a Lelouch Vtuber at this point with her insanely accurate Lupin III mask of Lelouch and kisses Shirley so Shirley’s a little bit more gay than she was before and is not sure how to feel about that. When she’s about to tell the real Lelouch he kisses like a girl, Anya and Gino show up because we’re retreading the whole ‘sleeping with the enemy at school’ thing from the first season except with way less interesting enemies. Also the preview for the next episode is Lelouch dramatically talking about enemies finding out he’s Zero overtop footage of Shirley and Milly absolutely naked in a batthouse scene so I think we know what kind of episode that’ll be.

Inuyasha: The Panther Demon filler concludes with everyone meeting at the site where the Panther Master is being revived behind a strong barrier, if only someone just got a barrier upgrade to their sword, oh wait. But yeah everyone manages to free the hostages so even though Kagome’s jewel shards revives the Panther Master he’s still a zombie without a sacrifice which is weird since Naraku managed to completely revive the Band of Seven with one jewel shard each from skeletons and the Panther Lord has three shards so idk the rules here but yeah he steals the souls of his own men to revive and is Wind Scar Proof because he just is. It’s pretty cool to see him shooting his claws and lightning and shit but he’s too big and slow for it to be much of an interesting fight. Sesshomaru’s about to go full demon which would be interesting since we haven’t seen his full demon form since he lost his arm but in a neat bit of character development, Tenseiga calms his rage and tells him to use it instead. You get the feeling Sesshomaru only goes full demon when he flies off the handle and forgets about speed and strategy so him opting to not repeat the mistake he made against Inuyasha is pretty cool. Anyway Tenseiga heals the souls of the Panther Demons and drains their energy from the lord so he’s back to Zombie Cat Man which Inuyasha can Wind Scar because that’s what happens to villains on this show, all Wind Scars all the time. The Panthers don’t wanna fight anymore since their boss just killed them and tell Inuyasha to tell Sesshomaru the feud is over and they’re going back to the West. Honestly this is basically the same backstory they gave Kirinmaru in Yashahime so it’s funny for them to say they’re going back to the same place Kirinmaru is from, wonder if it’ll ever come up in Yashahime since most filler seems canon there.

Yu Yu Hakusho: Yusuke and Kuwabara continue the assault on Tarukane’s compound and basically plow through the lower demons easy since they’ve been fighting minor deities up to this point. It’s always pretty cool in Shonen to just have a few rounds to show how much power creep the heroes have had where certain things just don’t bother them anymore. Toguro murders a Chimera which has an oddly similar backstory to Nina from FMA and he seems really bummed about it but he’s like “Hey we’re both monsters made by humans telling us to do shit, so sorry for killing you bro”. And Tarukane basically sees Toguro is the next boss and is like “Yup time to scam some people off of this” and he sets up a betting ring for how far Yusuke and Co will get into his compound. This is kinda neat because it puts Tarukane in the weird position of betting against his own guards and hoping Yusuke will make it all the way to Toguro and then lose after everyone else has seen how awesome Yusuke is and bets on him. And funnily enough Sakyo’s in on the betting and he’s watched anime before so he knows to bet on the plucky teenagers with weird powers. So yeah Yusuke and Kuwabara finish plowing through the demons while Hiei kinda stalks them and remembers getting his eye surgery and wanting to help his sister but it’s kind of against spirit world rules for demons to just go plow through humans even if they’re scumbag humans so now Yusuke and Kuwabara have to go fight the Triad of boss demons Toguro has under him before Hiei busts in and just murders everyone for kidnapping his bird-loving jewel-crying little flower of a sister.

Fate Zero: So Kiritsugu can break Kayneth’s Terminator 2 Gaara defenses with rib bullets that just say ‘no’ to using magic and fucks his arrogant ass up. Saber and Lancer do some combo shenanigans to stab Caster right in the book and disrupt all his hentai tentacle demons but the book heals so idk why he can’t just make more. Kirei fucks up Maiya and Iris but didn’t double tap Maiya and DID double tap iris but she’s got Saber’s bullshit healing scabbard on her which no one knows about so Saber’s like “uhhh why are you healing” and Iris can’t tell her so she’s basically “Uhh internet?” Lancer comes in to save Kayneth’s worthless ass and tells Kiritsugu to stop being a dick to Saber because she’s pretty dope. But as usual for an early Fate encounter, no one dies and nothing of terrible consequence happens despite it being teased a couple times. I’ve noticed a trend with Fate that it really doesn’t like killing characters early so you’re basically guaranteed to have the first 2-3 major battles have a zero net gain/loss. Rider in UBW was probably the subversion to that since it happened crazy fast and anticlimactic but even that wasn’t till like ten episodes in.

Konosuba: So we finally meet Wiz the big booby Lich and Kazuma learns a new skill, both fun things. Also the gang gets a house to stay in after escapades with an army of haunted dolls and the most “I need to pee” in a horror setting since Corpse Party. But yeah, good progress this time honestly, the living in a stable gag was getting kind of old so Kazuma’s a bit stronger now and they have a home base so that’s pretty cool. Also Wiz is a Demon General or some shit but no one cares cause there ain’t no money in murdering busty zombie waifus.

Sailor Moon Crystal: So turns out Minako is Princess Serenity, except everyone who knows anything about Sailor Moon or indeed plot structure knows Sailor Moon is Princess Serenity, that’s like the Luke I Am Your Father of this series. But still turns out Minako has been guiding everyone with the power of video games but also thinks the power of friendship sucks and she’s gotta go do everything alone. This makes things super awkward because Mamoru’s pretty sure he was in love with the Princess but likes Usagi, now instead of running with this interesting thread of a reincarnation falling in love with someone new we’re gonna do the reveal that Usagi’s the princess and the whole ‘till death do us part’ part of marriage was just a metaphor and you’re stuck with one person no matter how many times you reincarnate. But yeah, Minako fights the bad guy on top of the tower but he has Naraku’s Barrier now and Minako doesn’t have the Red Tessaiga upgrade yet so she needs the power of friendship but this barrier is friendship-proof and this fight is basically a bunch of kids on the playground making up increasingly stupid powers that negate the other powers the other guy just made up. Anyway Tuxedo Mask shows up and is like “Holy shit Sailor Moon I love when you kiss me and kick ass, go get em sweetie I’ll hold your flower” and they kiss and Usagi has learned that if she just pretends she got this the power of her confidence will beat the bad guy. Unfortunately she does not got this and Tuxedo Mask has to pull a Piccolo and throw himself in front of the blast.

Durarara!!:  So now that we’ve had our climax for the arc we have a six month timeskip and everyone’s just kinda living life, Mika and Seiji are being clinically insane together, there’s cops harassing Celty to the point of mental breakdown (normal cop stuff) Shinra’s dad’s in town, Namie’s become Izaya’s secretary for blackmail shit, you know, normal stuff. Also there’s a katana-wielding maniac going around slashing people and Anri’s being bullied and sexually harassed to the point of mental collapse, normal stuff.

[omnivorousshipper]

2 times Owen tried flirting at Roman + 2 times Roman tried flirting at Owen+ 1 time they’re both flirting at each other (with Deckard and Hattie making faces in the background)

Aww! This is going to be amazing!

Owen

1.

Tilting his head to the side, Owen wasn't sure what about Pearce that intrigued him.

Owen chocked it up to the way Roman laughed and made corny jokes. Owen didn't always go for people who took themselves too seriously

The problem was, Owen didn't know how to approach Roman. Whenever he got close to the other man, Owen could see the raw fear in him, which made Owen roll his eyes. Didn't anyone tell Roman not to show fear to a predator? They can smell fear

Not knowing what else to do, Owen tried to make Roman more comfortable around him by getting him used to Owen's presence. It didn't seem to be working though

Stopping in the garage of Nowhere, Owen saw Roman working on his car, alone. Making sure to make noise as he approached, Owen saw the wary look Roman sent him

"It's looking good." Owen says, nodding towards the car. Roman is still as stiff as a board as he watches Owen circle the car

"Yeah. My pride and joy."

"You're doing an amazing job customizing it."

"Thanks."

Roman's words were short and clipped. He tried not to show any emotion, in fear of Owen using it against him

"I wonder what else you could use your hands for." Owen purred at him, but could see that it was lost on Roman, who didn't seem to quite get Owen's double meaning

"Dunno. If Little Nobody doesn't throw a fit, I'll gladly fix up another car." Roman says plainly, too scared of Owen and the way he rolls his eyes and seems to stomp away. Roman just sighs in relief when he leaves

2.

The next time Owen tries to seriously flirt with Roman, he might have timed it a bit badly. Maybe when they just got saved from being almost killed by the bad guys is not quite the time to try

It's not like anyone told Owen that.

He's flirted with plenty of people after a near death experience

So, when he finds Roman cleaning blood off his hands, Owen doesn't notice that they're shaking

"Hey."

Roman nearly jumps a foot in the air and whips his head around to stare at Owen wide eyed

"What?"

"You were amazing out there today." Owen says, flashing a smile at Roman. "The way you smashed that guy's head in, or when you broke that other guy's arm without trying..."

Owen trailed off, seeing the horror on Roman's face

Was it something he said?

Suddenly, Roman's turning away from him, puking

Taking a step back, Owen really doesn't know what happened. He was just complimenting Roman's fighting

What he doesn't know is that Roman can still hear those guys bones cracking and the blood caked onto his skin is still present. It feels like it'll never leave

Owen's words just brings all those thoughts to a forefront and makes Roman sick.

Be doesn't notice when Owen leaves

Roman

1.

It may or may not take Roman weeks and a knock upside the head by Ramsey to realize what Owen had been trying to do

He's more than a tiny bit embarrassed by not picking up on the signs. Roman’s usually the flirtiest guys around.

So, he resolves to try his hand at flirting back, even though he has a feeling Owen gave up on him a while ago

The next time the Shaws are helping the crew with a mission, Roman tries to talk with Owen, but he’s the one in charge of planning their mission, so he's focused

"So, what are you doing?" Roman asks hesitantly

"Figuring out how to break in without all fifty guards seeing us." Owen answers a bit testify. He doesn't like talking to people while he plans. He needs to focus and people just distract him, even if Roman is handsome, Owen can't work with him at the moment

"Have you done something like this before?"

Owrn gives terse answers, his patience slowly waning. Seeing Hattie, he waves at her and make a small gesture towards Roman and a small grimace. Owen doesn't necessarily want him gone, but he can't focus

Hattie easily glares at Roman to get lost and takes guard over Owen as he works

Roman retreats with his tail tucked between his legs. He just wanted to talk to Owen and get to know him

2.

The next time, Roman really should have read the room. That's completely on him

It was hard to find Owen alone when he did missions with them. He was always with either his brother or sister or both. And since Roman learned his lesson not to interrupt Owen's planning time, there was almost no time that Owen was alone

So, he takes a chance.

He chose... poorly

He sees Owen laying on a couch in one to Nowhere's lounges, while Deckard and Luke are cuddling on another one opposite of Owen

Coming up behind Owen, Roman leans over and sees what he's reading. Roman thinks it's Russian, but he's not entirely sure

"That's pretty impressive. Are you fluent?" Roman asks

"I'm fluent in a lot of languages." Owen nods, looking down at the book again

"Are you fluent in any of the languages of love?" Roman asks, giving Owen a smirk that he doesn't see. What Roman doesn't notice is how both Luke and Deckard straighten, eyes zeroing in on Roman

"Yes, French and Italian are considered one of the romance languages." Owen answers, flipping a page

"What I meant was-"

"Pearce."

Roman jerks his head up and stares at Luke, who's slowly getting to his feet and keeping his eyes trained on Roman

"What?" Roman asks, nervous of the look Luke is sending him. He watches as Deckard stands from where he had been sitting to sit next to Owen, cuddling with him instead

"Don't you have work to do? I'm sure Nobody needs you help doing something."

Roman wants to tell Luke off, but even he knows not to question that look of pure murder in Luke's eyes. So, Roman turns tail and runs. He doesn't see the way Luke sits on Owen's other side, squishing him between both him and Deckard for safety

Roman and Owen

+1

They're at a BBQ in Dom’s backyard and Roman can't keep his eyes off Owen. The man looks gorgeous in a tank top and his longer hair flying in the soft breeze

Tej keeps elbowing him, and Ramsey keeps giving him words of encouragement. Brian threatens to throw grapes into Roman's mouth if he doesn't stop staring with his jaw on the floor at Owen. Letty hands him an extra plate of food, saying "it'll keep him interested for at least a few minutes. It's up to you at that point."

And it's Dom who actually shoves Roman towards Owen

Glaring back at the man, Roman heads over to Owen, who seems to be sharing a duet with Luke's daughter, Sam

"I've got friends on the other side!" They sung, and Roman stopped dead in his tracks as he listened to the two of them sing.

Owen was amazing

Waiting until they stopped, Roman walked up to Owen as Sam slid off his lap towards Deckard. Clearing his throat, Roman offered the plate of food and saw the looks of excitement on Owen's face

"Thought you'd like something to eat." Roman said a bit lamely. Nonetheless, Owen smiled at him and gestured to the empty seat next to him. "You know, you sing really well."

Owen blinked at him, and his face split in two with his grin

"Really?"

"Yeah." Roman smiled back. "It's like listening to an angel sing."

"Oh? Is there anything else about me that's angelic?" Owen purrs, leaning towards Roman

"Let me count the ways." Roman smirks back

About time!

As they keep going, neither see the disgusted looks Hattie and Deckard throw at them, nor how Sam giggles and keeps poking her dad when he keeps denying that Owen and Roman make a cute couple

Thanks friend! This was a really fun one to do!!

[athingthatwantsvirginia]

California’s Living Dead

PART TWENTY-ONE OF THE DO YOU SEE HER FACE? SERIES

Pairing: Jess Mariano x Original Character (Ella Stevens)

Warnings: some smoking, a bit more angst here fellas, plentiful pop culture references, the original post of this got deleted somehow so I’m reposting it sorry guys idk anything about tumblr or anything really

Word Count: 4.6K

Summary: Half a year passes for Ella and Jess.

The key zipped back and forth across the chain of Ella’s necklace, clutched in her shaky hands. Cloudy afternoon light shone down on her, gray and gloomy. Cool, humid breezes blew past her, and she knew a thunderstorm was coming. As she trudged into the diner, she made a pointed effort to stare down at her converse. A Sunday afternoon lull left the place less crowded than it would have been were she scheduled for the morning. Instead, she had woken up with a headache and an urge to call Luke’s, but decided against it. She knew Jess wouldn’t be able to hide the cut on his cheek or the bruising on his jaw from his uncle. If anyone picked up, it was bound to be in the middle of an argument, and she didn’t need any more reason to bite her nails until they bled.

Slipping behind the counter, she noticed the way Luke’s eyes widened at the sight of her. As though he hadn’t been expecting her to show up. Salty air hung around them as Caesar fried up some burgers in the back, a sizzling hiss in everyones’ ears. Tying her apron around her hips, she frowned at him and furrowed her brows.

“Something wrong?” she asked flatly.

“Did you know about Jess?” Luke crossed his arms over his chest, tilting his head at her.

Ella shrugged, unsure of whether the cat had yet been fully let out of the bag. “What about him?”

Sighing heavily, Luke brushed past her and gestured for her to follow him into the stock room. Rolling her eyes at his dramatics, she went with him. Apparently it couldn’t just be another day at the office. She wondered in the back of her mind where Jess was, but knew it was more than likely he was off somewhere with his nose back in Dead Souls, or escaping with another shift at Walmart. Biding time before he had to let Luke know what happened.

“I’m not stupid, Ella,” Luke said.

Nodding slowly, Ella bit the inside of her cheek and cast her eyes back down to her shoes. “I know. I know you’re not. Look, I didn’t know about school. He only told me last night, alright?”

“And did he tell you where he was planning on going?”

Immediately, she turned her head up to face him again. “What do you mean?”

“This morning, I got a call from Kyle’s parents, about Jess and Dean tearing up their place-”

“Dean sucker-punched him,” Ella interjected.

Luke rolled his eyes. “Nice excuse. I had to write the kid’s father a check! And Jess didn’t even apologize. Instead, he let me know he’s not graduating, and he’s not going back! And we had an agreement!”

Again, she nodded slowly, fiddling with her necklace. “I know. So...you kicked him out?”

“Not exactly. We hadn’t really talked it out all the way. I went out to get some stock, and an hour later, I come back and he’s just gone!” Luke exclaimed, exasperated.

“What do you mean gone?”

“All his stuff, I mean everything he could fit in that nasty duffel of his, he took it. No message, nothing!” Luke watched Ella’s expression fall and the color drain from her cheeks, and he immediately regretted letting all the information slip out in an angry rant the way he had.

Searching the room to focus on anything but Luke’s face, she shook her head to herself, attempting to conceal the way her stomach began doing anxious flips. No message, nothing. Overnight. Gone. “Well...did you know his dad was here? Would he try to go after him?”

Luke sighed again. “Yeah. I told him not to go near Jess, but-”

“You knew before Jess? You didn’t tell him his dad was here?” Ella interrupted, her voice growing tense.

“Look, Ella, it’s more complicated than that. I saw him here last Wednesday. I found his hotel, told him it’d be better to stay away. The guy’s a nobody-”

“Yeah, well, he’s a nobody Jess has been waiting to meet his whole life!” In all her time knowing Luke, Ella had never yelled at him. Not that he was a stranger to her temper. He’d seen it directed at rude customers, mainly Taylor, many times. But never had he faced the fire in her eyes, or the crestfallen look she had. She swallowed thickly. “Jesus. I mean...last night he seemed upset, but not enough to think his father was worth going after. Fuck!”

Soon, she was mostly speaking to herself, pinching the bridge of her nose. Luke softened his gaze and ran his nervous palms over his flannel. He brought a hand to Ella’s shoulder so she would meet his eyes again.

“Ella, Jess is an adult. He has to make his own choices. I know it’s frustrating-”

She scoffed bitterly. “That’s one word for it.”

“But there’s nothing we can do. We have to just...let him go.”

Teeth clenching down on the inside of her cheek so hard she could taste coppery blood, Ella shook her head again. “Serves me right.”

“Wait here,” Luke said tiredly, disappearing back into the main room.

Confusion painted Ella’s features for more reasons than one. A cold stone of sadness sat heavily in her stomach. It was a fight. A fight she thought they would apologize to each other for eventually, and then get past. She’d truly thought Luke would find a way to let Jess stay, or at least to look after him while he floated around in his new high school dropout reality. Instead, Jess had taken it into his own hands. Cut and run. But she had to give him credit; it was the most decisive move she’d ever seen him make. Worry flooded her mind. Jess was tough, but tough enough to brave the world alone? With a father he knew nothing about? How bad was the guy anyway? Leaving his son when an infant certainly didn’t inspire a lot of confidence in his character. Tears stung in her eyes, but she shook them off as Luke returned.

“He, uh…” Luke began, holding a worn book and a CD out to her, “This had a little sticky note on it. Just said ‘Ella.’ I’m gonna assume they’re yours, I know you guys share...everything.”

As soon as she took them in her hands, Luke left the room, figuring she would need a moment. With the look she had on her face, he doubted she would be back to work for the rest of the day. Her heart skipped when she saw the CD: Turn on the Bright Lights by Interpol. She tried to stop the way her jaw tensed with anger, and her stomach swirled with nostalgia. The book was hers. The last one she had loaned him. She still had one of his Faulkners sitting on her nightstand, halfway finished. Apparently, he wasn’t eager to have it back. Flipping through her beloved copy of To the Lighthouse (she knew it was cliché, but she always considered it Woolf’s best work), she noticed how his notes stopped with only twenty pages left. She was about ready to throw the book across the room, seeing the inconsequential comments and questions he’d written, when she saw a block of his spiky handwriting on the last page:

Eleanor,

I won’t get a chance to finish, but I really liked this. I remember once you told me it was your favorite book of all time, and I have to admit I didn’t think it would live up to the hype. But it did. Lily Briscoe reminds me of you. A badass artist who doesn’t need anyone. I figured you would want this back, since you love it so much.

-Jess

Blowing out a furious breath, Ella blinked back tears for a second time and focused on the anger brewing within her. It was easier than the sadness. She refused to have her heart broken over him. Love didn’t exist. Why be surprised when the universe proves it again and again? Ignoring Luke’s questioning looks, she went out and shoved the CD and book into her bag by the door. The rest of her shift, she spoke in clipped tones and tugged in annoyance at the loose strands of her hair. And Luke decided it was better. They could both be miserable, silently, together.

.   .   .

A late June morning found Ella back behind the counter, filling coffee cups and twirling around on her sore feet once again. Over the summer, she worked doubles whenever was humanly possible and spent her off nights sketching in the corner table. She tried to keep Jess from her mind, and though it was difficult while spending so much time at Luke’s, a stubbornness in her refused to let her relent. Though Jess was related to Luke by blood, Ella had worked there and been there for so much longer than Jess ever had. Him leaving wasn’t going to destroy her home away from home. She simply wouldn’t let it.

Lorelai and Rory were off on their European backpacking trip, and Lane was toiling away at Bible camp. Pathetic as it was, Ella simply didn’t have anyone to hang out with. She’d always only had a few close friends. Had Jess still been there, she could only imagine what they would spend their time doing. Curled together on his twin bed reading, or arguing about what they were reading, playing cards in her room with Jeff Buckley on the record player, making out to Interpol albums, lunches at the lake, shifts together day in and day out. There had been plans. But she shook them from her brain and got back to work, blowing loose locks away from her face and yelling orders back to Caesar as they came in. Luke was on register, trademark scowl on full display. Soon, he would be away on a cruise with Nicole. Ella hoped it would lift his mood at least a little.

Though, it was a hypocritical thought. She certainly hadn’t been a ray of sunshine the past few weeks, even on her best days, even at graduation. For her speech, she’d read an Anne Sexton poem and connected it to life. She’d looked out at the crowd to see Lane, but not Rory. And not Jess. Her father had cried a little in pride, which surprised her, made her remember the man he had once been. Fiona had cheered and brought her flowers. Adam had smiled and given her a big hug afterwards. But, as much as she tried to revel in the relief and the happiness which surrounded her, there were pieces missing. Big pieces nothing could make up for. Not Jess, even. Her mother. The anniversary of her death had come and gone, and Ella couldn’t believe how long it had been. Time seemed so warped by death. Some days, she felt like she had seen her mother just yesterday. Other days, she thought it odd she had ever had a mother at all. Even Luke and Lorelai had come to watch her speech and cheer her on, but her own mother simply wasn’t there. She’d done her best the whole day to maintain a plastic smile, but that night, she sobbed quietly to Billie Holliday and sketched skeletons.

For just a moment, she took a breath. All the coffees were refilled, the orders were taken. She had no compulsory small talk left to make. She put the pot in the machine and began making a new batch. Leaning against the back counter, she crossed her arms over her chest and sighed. Across the street in the town square, they were setting up for some new, random festival. She could imagine Jess at her side, complaining about all the expensive, meaningless fanfare. A grinch who had been absent at prom, where she stood as a third wheel to Lane and Dave. The phone broke her out of her thoughts, and she went to answer it, but Luke beat her to the receiver.

“Luke’s,” he said flatly. But Ella watched his weary eyes widen in surprise. “Jess? Where are you?”

Instantly, Ella’s heart felt as though it would leap right out of her chest. She went over to stand near Luke, expression questioning. “Is that really Jess?” she asked in a whisper.

He glanced up at her but didn’t answer. “Really? Is he making you pay rent?...Well, be sure to never tell Liz that…”

Ella watched in excruciating anticipation, hearing snippets of the conversation, fragments she couldn’t exactly string together in a narrative. Was it really him? Over a month without a call, and she was beginning to think she would never hear his voice again.

Suddenly, Luke threw another glance Ella’s way, this time anxious. “Yeah, she did…”

“Give me the phone,” Ella said, holding her hand out.

“One second,” Luke muttered, then put his hand over the mouthpiece. “I don’t know if he-”

“I don’t care.” She hadn’t expected grabbing the phone from Luke to be so easy, but perhaps he was too surprised at her sudden movement to resist. Ella paid no mind to the curious eyes of onlookers as she began speaking in hushed, angry tones. “Jess?”

There was a beat of silence.

“I know it’s you, jackass. Where the hell are you?” she demanded.

Jess sighed heavily over the line. “Venice. I’m staying with my dad.”

“Really?” she asked, eyes narrowing. “That guy who walked right out of your life, twice now, without a second thought?”

“Look, Eleanor, it’s-”

“Don’t ‘Eleanor’ me,” she warned, shaking her head. “Actually, y’know what? I don’t care. I don’t give a fuck where you are. All I need you to do is let me know you’re alive. I don’t care how you are, who you’re with, anything. You just need to let me know, every once in a while, that you didn’t starve or end up lying in a ditch somewhere. Be a decent fucking human being, and let the girl with the dead mom know you’re alive.”

“Okay, I-”

“Glad we could sort that out,” she bit out, her tone absolutely venomous. Before he could say anything more, she shoved the phone back into Luke’s hands, and retreated into the stock room. For the rest of the day, Luke let her tear open the cardboard box shipments with an Exacto knife, her face with an ever-present flush as she worked.

.   .   .

Sat up in bed, Ella sketched the same rose over and over. She was reminded of Georgia O’Keefe, painting her door time and again. Mid-August breeze blew in for her open window, and her back leaned against the purple mural of a goddess she’d taken nearly two months to complete. Her eyes were heavier than they usually would be for eleven o’clock on a Friday. She’d finally completed her first week of classes. And it seemed about as tiring as high school had been. All her classes were interesting, and the radio played some pretty-sounding oldies during her drive back and forth from Hartford, but she was already dreading four more years of drudgery. What was the point of working so hard in high school just to have to go through the whole ordeal again?

Existentialist train of thought aside, she tried to let it fade from her mind, focusing only on her drawing. And the Stevies Nicks record playing. Without realizing it, she sang along with the words in hushed tones under her breath. Her damp waves fell over her shoulder, a comforting smell from her lavender shampoo. She’d wanted to shower in the morning, bright and early before she had to drive to math class. But it was also Adam’s first week of high school, and he’d taken much longer than necessary. Most of the time, they got along pretty well, bonding over a shared inclination towards campy ‘80s movies. But the mornings were an exception to the rule they could always count on. Admittedly, it was often Ella’s own fault. She had the tendency to morph into a grouchy monster right after waking.

She breathed a slow sigh as the phone began to ring, rubbing at her eyes with the heels of her hands. Tossing her sketchbook to the side, she picked it up. “Hello?”

“Hey, Eleanor.” Jess’s voice sounded much the same. It was odd to imagine him all the way across the country, a leather jacket city boy on a hot California beach.

“Still alive, I take it?” she asked.

“No, it’s Night of the Living Dead on the West Coast. Haven’t you seen it on the news?” he quipped.

Rolling her eyes, she let out another small sigh. “Goodbye.”

“Wait, Elle, I know you’re mad-”

She hung up before he could finish the sentence.

.   .   .

Eighteen years old. She was a legal adult but she didn’t quite believe it. Fiddling with her necklace, she laid on her huge mattress and stared up at the ceiling. There was a yellowed water stain on the popcorned white surface. Once in a blue moon, it would leak. The day brought torrential thunderstorms, perfect for a birthday, and she thought she may have felt a few droplets on her already-wet cheeks.

Fiona was trying; she really was. She always did. She’d made a cake and they’d sung her the song. But it simply wouldn’t be enjoyable until she got out of the house. Celebrating with her family just made her feel like she was in an episode of The Twilight Zone where they’d recast her mother. She was still attempting to make peace with Fiona, though. And if it made her stepmother happy, she was willing to endure an awkward hour of dinner.

She hadn’t allowed herself to start crying until she got in her room, saw the picture of her grandmother holding her mother as a baby in the old frame on her desk. So many dead women. And here she was, always getting older. Pearl Jam spun on the record player, but it did little to lift her spirits. She was examining the set of faux-ruby earrings Fiona and her father had given her, still in their small cardboard box, thinking about how red really wasn’t her color, when the phone ran. Sniffing harshly, she wiped at her cheeks though no one over the receiver would see her.

“Hello?”

“Happy eighteen, Stevens,” Jess’s voice spoke, making her immediately grimace. Almost exactly one year since they’d first kissed. “You go out to legally buy your porn and cigarettes yet?”

“Fuck off, Jess,” she murmured tiredly, shaking her head.

“Look, I just wanted to make sure you were okay, since-”

“Goodbye,” she deadpanned, slamming the phone down and flopping back heavily against her pillows.

.   .   .

Her history textbook was still open on her desk, and moonlight streamed into her small room. A long evening of studying had seen her call it quits right in the middle of a chapter. She’d collapsed in bed dressed in her jeans and thick sweater, chilled even inside from the October draught. A throb pulsed behind her eyes for what felt like forever before she finally drifted off to sleep. Her eyes were hot inside her skull, achy and dry, when the phone’s ring split through the silence of the night. Clearing her throat, she rolled over in the darkness.

“Hello?” she said groggily.

“Jeez, I thought you laid off the smokes.”

She rolled her eyes at the sound of Jess’s voice, she cleared her throat again and sat up against the mural. “Shut up, jackass, you woke me up.”

“Sorry about that.”

“Still alive?” she asked.

“Seems that way,” he said. It pained her to hear the smirk on his face.

“Well, that’s the goal,” she snarked in a clipped tone before hanging up. As she tried to drift back into dreams, she fiddled with her necklace, tossed and turned.

.   .   .

She chewed on her eraser, brows furrowed as she read over the same sentence in Paradise Lost for what felt like the millionth time. Mostly, she’d been having fun in her English class. But biblical themes had never been her forté, and a poem which spent so much time recounting the story of Adam and Eve made her want to do nothing but roll her eyes. Her mother had been Christian, though they never went to Church. And she’d heard her father occasionally refer to God or say her mother was in Heaven. But if Ella wasn’t going to believe in luck or love, she certainly wasn’t going to believe in any higher power. None of the religions she’d ever encountered or read about struck her fancy even a little.

The phone rang, and it was almost a welcome break, despite such a sudden interruption. Blinking the dryness from her eyes, she got up from her desk and tucked her hair, falling into her field of vision as she read, behind her ears. She sat cross-legged in the center of her mattress as she picked up, wrapping the phone cord around her fingers absently as she answered.

“Hello?”

“Hi,” Jess answered simply.

She furrowed her brows, glanced over at her small bedside clock. Only four in the afternoon. As much as she wanted to snap angrily and immediately hang up as she had for the past five months, the change in pattern piqued her curiosity too much. And there was something in his voice which felt off to her. “Little early for you, isn't it, Mariano? It should barely be afternoon there.”

“Oh, we’re talking now?” he asked pointedly.

“Gotta keep you on your toes, jackass,” she said, rolling her eyes. “But, fuck it. I’ll go. Leave you to your new dazzling West Coast existence.”

He sighed heavily. “Fine. Sorry. I’m just sick. I thought about going to work but then my Exorcist reenactment got in the way. Something I ate.”

“Hm. California food not exactly up to Connecticut health codes?” she asked.

Jess scoffed. “Like Connecticut can talk. Al’s Pancake World much?”

Ella snorted a chuckle. “Fair enough.” Then, after a moment: “Well, just make sure to drink water. You never drink enough water when you’re sick. Rookie mistake.”

“You’re not exactly one to talk,” he countered.

“What does that mean?” she asked in mock offense.

His tone was joking, but almost nostalgic. “Do you not remember the time you had laryngitis? You tried to come to work! Luke made me drag you upstairs the minute he saw you.”

“I still could’ve been on dish pit or something,” she said defensively. “Besides, that day I finally got you to watch Silence of the Lambs. Not exactly a waste of time.”

“That was a good movie.”

“Good book, too. But the movie was better.”

“Blasphemy!” Jess gasped.

Ella laughed quietly, but was suddenly acutely aware of the distance between them. He wasn’t a two-minute walk away. And she wouldn’t see him on her shift the following day. She cleared her throat awkwardly. “Well, I should go. Gotta finish this section of Paradise Lost.”

“You don’t sound too happy about it,” Jess quipped. She’d said the title in an agitated mutter.

“It’s excruciating.”

“Huh. Thought you’d go crazy for college poetry, even seventeenth-century religious stuff.”

Ella scoffed doubtfully. “Milton couldn’t hold a candle to Dickinson.”

“Strong words,” he said.

“Well, that’s the best kind,” she smirked, then bit the inside of her cheek to stop herself. “Anyway...feel better, Jess.”

“Thanks.”

.   .   .

Lights of red, green, and yellow flashed outside her window, hanging from the gutters of the small blue house. Icy, crunchy snow caked the Connecticut roads, new flurries coming down in sheets. Joni Mitchell’s “River” crooned from the record player, and Ella was warm beneath her blankets. Pencil in her hand, she underlined and boxed in phrases from her new copy of Adrienne Rich poems. She and Rory, back from Yale, had been to the bookstore the day after Christmas, when everything was marked down to clearance. She missed those lazy days together with her old friends.

Breathing the lavender scent of her candles, she felt content but dreaded the end of the holiday break. Rory would leave again, and Ella would have to go back to the monotony of college life. At least, now, Lane had quit her Christian college upon her mother’s discovery of her secret life. She was looking for a place to live with her band, and Ella was glad she’d have her friend still near her, living on her own terms. Ella didn’t hate Mrs. Kim, but knew Lane would never be truly happy unless she was out from under her mother’s thumb.

The phone sounded over the music, and Ella knew who it would be before she picked it up. Jess had been calling more often lately, ever since he’d gotten over his food poisoning. He told her he’d never eat another piece of sushi again. She didn’t exactly know the reason for the increase. Perhaps he finally got a cell phone, could call her wherever he was. If he had, she could only imagine the struggle it must have been for him. He was definitely on Luke’s side of the handheld phone debate. Somehow, a shift had occurred. Small. But it had happened. Though their conversations weren’t exactly substantive, she felt a little less upset each time they spoke, anger slowly cooling after all their time apart. The pleasant memories were coming back to her more easily, as soon as she let him get a few words in. She still couldn’t help feeling betrayed, but at least he kept up his end of the deal. He barely went more than two weeks anymore without letting her know he was still on the face of the Earth.

She sighed softly. “Hello?”

“Hey, Eleanor,” he said. “Has all the noise, noise, noise finally ceased?”

She shook her head. “Mostly. Luke was in an even worse mood than he usually is on Christmas. The divorce and all.”

Jess snorted a laugh. “My god, I’m glad that whole bizarro thing is over.”

“You haven’t been here. You don’t know the half of it,” she smirked, thinking back to Luke’s odd marriage to his lawyer. The back and forth, to divorce or not to divorce, made everyone who was watching dizzy. She heard Jess inhale sharply, familiar to ear. “Are you smoking?”

“Who are you? Nancy Drew?” he shot back.

“I asked you first.”

“Depends. Have you been biting your nails?”

Ella scoffed self-consciously. “Those two habits are not comparable at all. But touché.” She cast a glance out the window when the branches of the oak tree scraped up against the pane. “Jesus. It won’t stop snowing here.”

“Yeah. Here, too,” he said off-handedly.

Brows furrowing, Ella let a confused chuckle escape her lips. “In Venice Beach? Climate change is hitting pretty hard out there, huh?”

A pause sounded over the receiver, a slight crackling in between them.

“Actually...I’m in New York.”

She hesitated, blinking twice to process the information before she spoke again. “Oh.”

“Yeah. Things uh...things didn’t work out with Jimmy,” he admitted sheepishly.

Blowing out a long breath, she bit the inside of her cheek. “Jesus, Jess, I’m sorry.”

“You can say it.”

“Excuse me?”

“You told me so.”

Shaking her head to herself again, Ella rolled the phone cord in her fingertips. “I’m not gonna say that. I just...I want you to have what you want. I don’t...I don’t want other people to fuck things up for you.”

He chuckled bitterly. “Yeah, well, I think I do a pretty good job of fucking things up on my own.”

“Jess-”

“Look, I gotta go. Work and stuff. So, yeah, still alive,” he said hastily.

“Okay. Just...be safe. Don’t get mugged or kidnapped or anything.”

Jess laughed again softly, more genuine this time. “I’ll try, Stevens. Don’t worry.”

[beesmygod]

this is what riverdale is about (part 6)

part 1

part 2

part 3

part 4

part 5

and now...we come to the end of our journey...the final 4 episodes of the season. who killed jason blossom? you forgot that’s what we were doing, huh. you  were way too distracted by sex archie and the jughead/betty relationship (called ‘bughead’ in universe). 

i have a friend who has been watching riverdale because i have basically tricked him into doing so and frankly, what i am typing here was and is only the surface of this show’s nonsense. as he watched episodes, he reminds me of all the completely bananas shit that this show throws at you literally every second it is on screen and honestly its a relief to know that, as much as i can try to just give you some basic facts, watching the show itself is still a totally different transcendent experience. its really the only show of its kind; shamelessly stupid but unaware of it while openly delighting in all the silliest cliches presented as straight faced as possible. if these write up do anything for you at all, please, please. watch the show. you will be shocked at how much more there is to discover.

images are from the riverdale wiki

---

SEASON 1 (PART 4): 

the lost weekend: this is the one with a very special guest star in it: molly ringwald as archie’s mom! she and fred (luke perry) have been separated for some amount of time for an unknown reason. yay she’s so cute! i love her. oh uh, also they’re getting a divorce. the papers are going through. archie gets the bad news in the middle of a gaming sesh with jughead.

meanwhile, veronica meets with her dad’s lawyer (whose name is paul sowerberry?? he never shows up again despite his unbelievably silly name) and tells him she’s not giving him a good statement as to her father’s character to help him get a lesser sentence. “fuck you dad!” is the general sentiment before she stomps out to go to school.

oh man there’s a weird aspect of this show that i have neglected to mention. this isn’t something i’ve ever experienced in school so it was totally foreign and weird to me but the students have their own lounge that they mingle and talk in...at...some point during the school day?? jughead’s opening monologue of this episode makes great pains to talk about how every moment of their lives are scheduled from 8am to 3pm but there’s apparently plenty of sittin’ time where they can just laze about this random room talking about crimes they have or are going to commit. a great deal of talking happens in this room when usually you’d have to like, sneak a convo while getting shit out of your locker between classes. i dunno, it’s weird. this is where archie tells veronica about clifford blossom sending her dad to jail so he can jack the land everyone is fighting over.

archie and betty make plans to celebrate jugheads birthday by taking him to the movies, which i feel like is in poor taste given his movie house was just destroyed but whatever. with betty coming along it’ll be just like the three muskateers! betty replies “AcTuAlLy ThErE wErE fOuR mUsKeTeErS” and somehow he doesn’t beat her to death with his bookbag right there and then. betty then doubles down on the bad words flowing out of her mouth and proposes they hold a surprise party for jughead since, according to his dad, he’s never had one. i have no idea what would compel her to think he would want this. even i know he doesn’t want this and i only know him through a tv screen. on top of this she goes out of her way to invite his deadbeat alcoholic dad multiple times. i thought she was supposed to be the smart, observant nancy drew type but like...what the fuck betty. jughead does, in fact, get pretty pissed at archie just for telling his girlfriend that he even has a birthday. presumably instead of telling him he emerged fully formed from the leader of the black parade’s forehead.

after finding out from some files that her dad was receiving money monthly from clifford blossom for some unspecified reason before the arrest, veronica challenges cheryl to a dance off and wins. unfortunately, veronica cant come forward with what she knows because it would make it look like her dad put a hit out on jason in retaliation. dance off to relieve the pain.

jughead fucking hates his party and makes sure everyone knows it. this is something NORMAL people do and he is NOT normal!!! he leaves the party in a huff when cheryl shows up to get her dance off revenge by ruining the party by inviting the whole school. this is the episode where he does his famous “im a weirdo, i have a hat” speech, which is deliciously dumb. they get in a fight, while jughead’s dad talks to kevin’s boyfriend (who you will remember is a member of his gang he assigned to keep tabs on the progress of the teens looking into the whole land plot mess) while betty’s mom secretly listens in?!

cheryl activates chaos mode and locks everyone in the house so they can play a game called “secrets and sins” which is really just an excuse for her to ask everyone horrible questions to make them feel bad. veronica accuses cheryl of fucking her brother, dilton doiley tells everyone about grundy’s statutory rape of archie andrews and chuck tells everyone about dark mode betty drugging him for an impromptu bdsm session which causes jughead to go apeshit and try to throw a weak little baby punch. jughead’s dad, as the only adult who for some reason let all this happen, finally throws everyone out and tells them to go home.

archie and veronica sleep together, by which i mean, next to each other in the same room. veronica testifies on her father’s behalf and discloses to betty the link between jugheads dad and the serpents and her dad’s land plot dreams. molly ringwald appears for 20 seconds.

INHALES. OKAY.

to riverdale and back again: its homecoming babey! archie’s very supportive mother has a nice talk with him. :) veronica founds out that her dad only has to serve “a few more months” in prison for his various white collar crimes, further proof that riverdale takes place in america. jughead and his dad have a nice normal breakfast while fp sweats and asks him “hey uh, how come uh you’re writing about the uhhhh murder and investigating it and stuff” like a normal dad would. archie and veronica tentatively agree to start going out. 

penelopy blossom brings polly (betty’s pregnant sister, remember her? i didn’t) a strawberry milkshake in the most ominous way possible. veronica plans to sneakily find out if jughead’s dad is helping her own and for what purpose, ultimately. jughead accepts and invite to betty’s house for dinner, not knowing her mom is going to grill the shit out of him and his dad over the whole kid murder thing.

polly finds the ring jason proposed to her with back in penelope’s room while snooping, and has no idea how it wound up back in the hands of his mother. according to penelope, jason threw it in their face when he renounced his lineage, then gives her another milkshake.

the cooper family event is disrupted when betty, wise to her mother’s horseshit, invites her estranged dad to dinner too. all hell breaks loose when the subject of homecoming comes up and fp reveals that while alice and hal were crowned homecoming king and queen, they got in a knockout, drag-out fight backstage. alice flips out before he can reveal what it was about and betty and jughead flee for the dance. meanwhile archie and veronica try, and fail, to find something incriminating in fp’s trailer.

cheryl discovers the milkshakes are DRUGGED and polly is going to sleep through homecoming. she informs her parents that she has disposed of the ring (evidence) and they dont have to worry about it anymore. you can see where this is going.

jughead’s dad drops a bomb on him right before homecoming that they’re going to move to toledo to meet up with jughead’s mom and baby sister. jughead hates this bc he just got used to betty and he wants to write his murder book.

archie and veronica sing a truly terrible cover of “kids in america” that has to be seen to be believed.

meanwhile, sherrif keller tears up fp’s house with a search warrant and finds the gun that was used to kill jason blossom. WHAAAA??? BUT ARCHIE AND VERONICA JUST SEARCHED IT??? how could this happen.....jughead finds out about the web of deception weaved by the friends and tells them all to fuck off so he can go to toledo with his family. jughead literally turns around and is informed that his dad was just arrested for murder. his life is so hilariously bad.

the sheriff sucks so bad at his job because he tells his gay son everything who then spills the beans to archie and co (sans jughead) who learn that fp is being framed, because they already tossed the place before.

cheryl has the ring. at this point none of these things mean anything.

i cant believe i still have two more of these. i’m going to have to split this post after this one.

anatomy of a murder: as it turns out, archie discovers, information you discover during a breaking and entering won’t hold up in court. oops. meanwhile fp inexplicably confesses to kidnapping jason after his fake drowning at sweetwater river so he could use him as ransom after discovering he heir to all that sweet maple syrup money. according to fp, jason nearly escaped so they cut their losses and blasted a hole in him. he also confesses to torching the car and stealing the sheriff's files (which we, the audience, know hal cooper did, not fp). well. that’s that, i guess.

betty’s dad comes back to the family home to destroy the murderboard evidence all like “whoo hoo! fp took a bullet for me!” hal’s concern and his reason for stealing the files in the first place, as it turns out, was because the feud between the coopers and the blossoms is more complicated than we thought. the coopers WERE blossoms, until grand-pappy was murdered, so they packed their shit and left with a new name. so that makes polly and jason related. cool!

fp apparently used his his last phone call to call kevin’s boyfriend who, after some pressing by the gang, admits that while he didnt see fp pull the trigger, he did help him put jason’s body in a freezer. this tip leads them to the corpse of a serpent who had a sack of money in a monogrammed dufflebag with the initials “h.l.” (hiram lodge). this is a comically dumb move for a crime boss to make. it is shockingly stupid.

joaquin tells kevin about a secret stash he and fp set up before he bounces from town forever because riverdale sucks. in the stash is jason’s jacket. everyone puzzles over what it means until betty, noted brain genius checks the pockets. in it they find a usb drive.

they sit down and watch the usb and react like they’re watching a sad documentary and not a snuff film. betty calls CHERYL OF ALL PEOPLE and tells her what they just saw on the usb. cheryl, queen of chaos, confronts her dad and tells him that everyone knows what he did.

it turns out the video depicts jason tied up in the basement of the whyte wyrm, there the dead serpent watches over him. clifford blossom walks in and blows a hole in his kid. fp confessed to protect jughead, who was threatened by cliff as the heat poured on.

clifford dies surrounded by his greatest love, maple syrup, by hanging himself in the syrup barn. lol

the sweet hereafter: how the fuck is there another episode of this? they solved the murder, what else could there possibly be to do. wtf. anyway.

the cops find hella drugs in the maple barn after clifford’s death. the assumed story is that jason learned about his dad’s heroin smuggling business and threatened to tell the cops on his dad which lead to his abduction, and eventual death. i guess the polly thing is in here too somehow. not important i guess. the lodges prepare for hiram’s arrival. betty and archie are going to be honored by the mayor for cracking the case at the 75th annual jubilee (wtf). hermoine attempts to buy fred out of the project now that the cops are cracking down on the serpents and making them the face of the construction company is now a very bad look.

betty tries to write an article for the town paper about fp being innocent but her parents wont publish it, citing it as a conflict of interest given she’s smooching the subject’s son. jughead FINALLY JUT NOW gets a social worker who realizes that fred has a dui and is not fit to care for a kid. he has to transfer to a new school district...SOUTHSIDE HIGH SCHOOL!!!

cheryl apologizes for throwing hands at jughead in a previous ep and gives him her iconic spider brooch. i am only bringing this up because she says, specifically, that selling it will net him a good amount of hamburgers and “s t-shirts” for years. why is she the only one who notices he only wears one kind of shirt. betty’s article getting published in the school paper leads to the above retaliation.

veronica’s mom honest to god asks her to sexually manipulate archie into convincing his dad to sell the project to her.

betty’s mom, after a confrontation, tells betty abt the fight she and her dad had on homecoming night when they were high schoolers. turns out...alice was pregnant. she gave the baby up for adoption after she went to the sisters of quiet mercy, like she did with polly, even though hal wanted an abortion. betty immediately tells all her friends this shit.

jughead transfers to the new high and flourishes. turns out they’re all baby gangsters there so they look at him and his dad as kings to be admired. when the archie group heads off to go rescue him, it turns out they dont need to do anything. but now that theyre all conveniently together, veronica gets a txt from cheryl saying she’s going to go be with jason....

they rush to the river where cheryl is having her ophelia meltdown in his stupid little river boat dress where she punches through the ice until she falls through. theres no way to describe how silly this scene is unless you see it so i won’t try but its so melodramatic and cheesy that youre going to be amazed that it got through the writing team at all. archie saves her by punching through the ice the other way. from under the ice. you will soon find, that all of archie’s solutions are to punch things.

betty does a speech at the jubilee that convinces fred not to sell. a nice ending for him.

meanwhile cheryl burns her fucking house down for a lark. just for the drama of it all. 

the same night, jughead and betty start to fuck, as do veronica and archie. not int he same room, like totally separately. but jughead is interrupted by the serpents and a dog named hotdog, who give him a jacket of his own so he can join the team. betty is scandalized.

archie goes to meet his father for a breakfast at pop’s chocklit shoppe for a serious talk. but while he’s int he bathroom, a man with a gun is holding up the chocklit shoppe. he demands fred’s wallet, then pops a hole in him and runs off.

and that.........is where this season......ends.

---

thank you for joining me for season 1 of this shitshow. i love this shitty show. if you loved reading about it, or were mortified by whatever the fuck happened here, then you should watch it as well.

i never pass up an opportunity to shill myself, so if you like what i write, drop me a buck or two at my patreon. i do more writing like this, but also i mostly make comics, so make sure to read the page when you’re signing up so you know what you’re getting!

i WILL return...with season...2!

https://www.patreon.com/aghoststory

[hazyheel]

WWE Clash of Champions 2019 Review

This show didn’t particularly impress me from the beginning, but as it went on I actually really got on board with it. There were a lot of good matches on this show, and two great ones that really kicked the show up a notch. WWE really does have the talent to do well in this wrestling landscape, and I think that this is one of the stronger shows throughout the year. A lot of people impressed me more than I expected, and it wound up being pretty damn good. Here is my full review of the show.

Drew Gulak vs. Humberto Carrillo vs. Lince Dorado for the WWE Cruiserweight Championship: Gulak started with a huge shotgun dropkick to Carrillo right away, but Carrillo and Dorado quickly opted to team up to take him down. Dorado quickly took control with a suicide dive, followed by a flying rana, only for Gualk to take him out. Carrillo tried to fly against Gulak as well, but Gulak picked him out of the air and started to work over his shoulder. Carrillo fought back, only for Dorado to run back in with a flying crossbody to Carrillo for a near fall. Gulak then threw Carrillo out of the ring and started to work over Dorado’s ribs. At one point, Carrillo gave Dorado a suicide dive as he was sitting on Gulak’s shoulders. Another point saw Gulak attempt to counter a moonsault with a double kick to the face, but Carrillo landed on his feet and locked in a modified sharpshooter. Dorado then locked in a standing crossface on Carrillo, which forced him to break the sharpshooter, until Gulak grabbed Dorado and threw him into Carrillo. The three then all dueled to a stalemate, with everyone landing a huge hit. We then saw Gulak try for a superplex on Carrillo, but Dorado ran at him, so Gulak launched him up for a dropkick onto Carrillo. Dorado then nailed a super rana to Carrillo, but missed the Shooting Star Press on the follow up. Carrillo then nailed a disaster kick and an Aztec press. He almost got the pin, but Gulak threw Carrillo into the post and got the pin instead. 

Grade: B+. This was a bit sloppy at first, but it got better as it went on. The best parts of this match was when everyone was desperately swinging at everyone else. I loved the suicide dive spot, as well as the super rana. It looked awesome, and really brought the match alive. I think that having Gulak get the win here was good, but the story between Dorado and Carrillo was far from over. But Gulak looked great as he always does, and although this was Dorado’s biggest stage yet, he did great. Really good stuff here and an energetic way to kick of the show. 

AJ Styles vs. Cedric Alexander for the WWE United States Championship: I have no idea why this is on the pre show, but I don’t mind. Before the match, Styles sent Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows to the back. Also, the ref held the belt upside dwn when he held it up. Alexander started things off with a michinoku driver as Styles charged him for a near fall, and followed up with a tope con hilo and a neuralizer for another near fall. Alexander tried to follow things up with a springboard lariat, but Styles swept his feet. Styles then gave Alexander a brutal brainbuster on the apron, and then a Styles Clash on the floor. He went to pin Alexander, but he pulled Alexander up at 2. He then nailed a yoshigaroshi and slowed the match down. Styles then locked in the Calf Crusher, but Alexander quickly made it to the rope. The two continued to go at it fast and furiously, with Alexander nailing a slingshot flatliner for a near fall, but Styles then nailed a Phenomenal Forearm, followed by another Styles Clash for the win.

After the match, Gallows and Anderson continued the beatdown a bit. 

Grade: B+. This was a hell of a sprint. They destroyed each other for a good 7 or 8 minutes before the match ended, and while I think this was a fast paced match that was a great way to get the crowd energized, it wasn’t quite great. There wasn’t a lot of back and forth, this was really just glorified squash with some big moves from Alexander thrown in there. They can do better, but this was pretty damn good on its own.

Braun Strowman & Seth Rollins vs. Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode for the Raw Tag Team Championships: Roode and Strowman started things up, with the heels desperately strategizing a way to take Strowman down, which wound up being Ziggler trying to choke him out. Strowman took him down with ease, and the faces took firm control, until Rollins was tagged in and ate a DDT from Ziggler on the outside. The heels then worked over Rollins with various cheapshots and strikes. At one point, Rollins nearly got the hot tag to Strowman, but Ziggler hopped on his back for a sleeper hold, but Rollins powered him up into a Falcon’s Arrow, and got the hot tag to Stromwan. It took a second, but the heels then started to take the fight to Strowman with a superkick, only for Rollins to tag back in and fly around the ring like no other, including a great suicide dive to Ziggler. Roode and Rollins were in the middle of the ring, and as Roode went for a Glorious DDT, Strowman ran in and tried to take him out with a shoulder tackle, but Ziggler ran in his way and got taken out. That gave Roode enough time to pin Rollins and win the tag team championships.

Grade: B-. This match was mostly an angle for later on in the show. I thought that Rollins was quite the highlight in this match, the way he flew around and took everyone out towards the end, but I don’t think it was enough to save the match. But this was the right outcome, and it did give some momentum to the main event. Good for Ziggler and Roode, I hope they have a good title reign. 

Strowman interview: he blamed Rollins for losing the Tag titles, and said that his losing streak will continue in the main event. 

Becky Lynch Interview: Lynch said that Banks was great in the past, but she doesn’t think she is anymore. Lynch said that she was scratching and clawing her way to the top, while the only thing that Banks did was dye her hair. 

Bayley vs. Charlotte Flair for the Smackdown Women’s Championship: the match started out with a hard thrust kick, and completely dominated the early going of the match. Charlotte targeted Bayley’s knee heavily, but couldn’t lock in the Figure Four at all. But the finissh came out of nowhere, with Bayley unhooking the bottom turnbuckle and throwing Charlotte’s face into it, and then rolling her up for the win. 

Grade: C-. This match had a lot of promise, as Flair was laying into Bayley in an awesome way. But the finish was way too out of nowhere, and the match wasn’t long enough to be any better than this. Good stuff for how long it lasted, but if Bayley had gotten in some more offense it would’ve been better. 

New Day vs. The Revival for the Smackdown Tag Team Championships: Xavier Woods and Dash Wilder started the match, and the Revival immediately worked over Woods’ knee, but Woods tagged out to Big E. As Big E was beating on Wilder, Scott Dawson pulled Woods off the apron, distracting Big E enough to allow Dawson to hit a flying clothesline. Big E was then beaten down by the Revival as Woods was basically unconscious on the outside. Big E fought back a bit, before giving the tag to Woods, who cleaned house on Dawson. As he went for a pinfall, Wilder kicked Woods in the knee to break it up. Big E then ran in and tried for the spear through the ropes, but Wilder avoided it. Wilder then went for a suicide dive, but Big E caught him, only for him to slip out anyway and then hitting the Shatter Machine. They got back in the ring, and chop blocked  Woods’ knee before nailing him with a Shatter Machine. Instead of pinning him, Dawson locked in a kneebar, and although Woods nearly made it to the ropes, he tapped out and the Revival won the belts.

After the match, the Revival cut a promo about how they have brought prestige back to the belts, and crapped on the New Day. 

Grade: B. This was a good match with a lot of nice psychology. I loved the attack on Woods’ leg. They worked together as a team and systematically dismantled the champions. It was really fun to watch, just some good old fashion psychological action. They were awesome heels and they destroyed Woods and Big E slowly. This was a very impressive tag match and was pretty good. 

Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross Interview: Cross talked about how this match isn’t Rose bullying them, its about retaining their championships. A bomb mic then came into the shot, showing that R Truth was the one holding it. A bunch of wrestlers chased him out.

Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross vs. Fire & Desire for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship: Cross and Rose started things out, with Cross mocking Rose. Deville was quickly tagged in, but the champions still had control as Bliss tagged in. Bliss then beat down Rose as the 24/7 division ran down through the match. Bliss tried to pin Truth during the match, but he got away. Then the match just continued, so that was awesome. I love that just no one cared. Either way, after that distraction, Deville came in and worked over the leg and ribs of Bliss for a while, until Cross got the hot tag. Cross destroyed Deville a bit, which was awesome, before hitting a flying crossbody for a near fall. She tagged Bliss, but as she did, Rose pulled Cross out of the ring and Deville pulled Bliss off the top, allowing Fire and Desire to hit a leg sweep and high knee combo on Bliss, but Cross broke it up. Cross then tagged in, and hit Deville off the apron, dodged a knee from Rose, before hiting a hangman’s neckbreaker on Rose for the win.

Grade: C+. Almost a B-, but I don’t think the fun closing stretch inched it on the positive side. The match was largely pretty boring other than that finish, which was exciting. The finish was good, Cross needed to pin Rose for the sake of the story. I don’t think that the 24/7 stuff was necessary, and I wish it didn’t happen. Treat the division with some respect, jeez. 

Shinsuke Nakamura vs. The Miz for the WWE Intercontinental Championship: before the match, Sami Zayn came out and said that the crowd was incredibly disrespectful for cheering when Undertaker chokeslammed him on Smackdown. He sustained a neck injury, but it didn’t matter, because Nakamura was gonna destroy the Miz tonight. As the match began, Zayn yelled about Shinsuke during the match into the mic, and just heeled on the Miz and Charlotte. After Zayn shut up, the match started to pick up a bit, with Miz beating down Nakamura and throwing Zayn’s mic. Zayn then distracted Miz a bit, allowing Nakamura to nail a single leg dropkick to the face and take control. While Nakamura didn’t have a limb focus in the match, he did destroy Miz with strikes, while Miz tried to target the legs. At one point, Nakamura locked in an armbar, but Miz stacked him up and nailed a DDT for a near fall. The two continued to fight, and Nakamura nailed the sliding German, but Miz picked the leg and started to attack the leg. As Miz looked for the Skull Crushing Finale, Zayn distracted him, and Nakamura nailed him with a knee to the back of the head, but Miz still kicked out. MIz was then able to counter a Kinshasa into a Skull Crushing Finale, but as he made the pin, Zayn distracted the ref. Miz then chased Zayn around the ring, only for Nakamura to catch him with a kick, and then nailing the Kinshasa for the win. 

Grade: B. This was a pretty good match. Nakamura sold really well, and the crowd was super into the Miz during this match. There was a lot of good looking striking, and this match kinda had shades of the old Shinsuke. He hasn’t felt the same since his heel turn, but I think that he is looking good now. Zayn was a perfectly annoying manager, but Miz throwing his mic away was the best thing that could’ve happened. I think this is a money pairing, and it worked really well. Good stuff here, the start of a very good run with the IC championship.

Becky Lynch vs. Sasha Banks for the Raw Women’s Championship: The match started out with Becky in control, and the two quickly fought down to the mat. Banks retreated to the outside, but Lynch followed her out with a baseball slide. However, Banks nailed control by going for the hair, and started to nail her with knees and strikes to the face. Neither woman was able to get their signature offense, as they know each other very well. At one point, Banks went for a splash off the top, but Lynch countered with a dropkick as she came down. Lynch then fired up and started to destroy Banks with lariats and kicks, ending with the Bexploder. She then went for a flying clothesline, but Banks picked the arm beautifully as she did, transition into the Bank Statement. Lynch quickly fought out and nailed another Bexploder, followed by a leg drop for a near fall. As the match continued to roll on, Banks took control with a meteora for a near fall, and the two jockeyed for position on the mat, with Lynch being able to reverse a kickout into the disarmer for a quick submission sequence. Becky then started to stomp on Banks in the corner, but Banks trapped her leg in the ropes and gave her a backstabber, before pulling her to the middle and hitting another to transition into a Bank Statement. Lynch then desperately tried to get to the ropes, eventually rolling up Banks and forcing her to roll out. Banks then grabbed a pair of chairs, throwing one in and nailing Lynch with a chairshot to the gut while the ref was distracted, followed by a shining wizard for a near fall. Sasha tried to hit Becky with the chair again, but the ref grabbed it. Lynch then tried to hit Banks with it, but Banks dodged and Lynch hit the ref. Lynch then unloaded on Banks a bit, and the two brawled into the crowd. At one point, Lynch locked in a Disarmer through the railing, which Banks fought out of by puling Lynch’s hair. The two then fought around the concessions area before fighting back towards the ring. As they got back in the ring, Banks had control. She tried to nail Lynch with a chair, but Lynch grabbed it and nailed Banks a bit. Lynch then locked in the disarmer through a chair, and Banks screamed in an attempt to get help, and a couple more refs ran down to stop that attack. The refs then gave Lynch her belt and told her to leave, so Banks won by DQ. 

Grade: A-. This match was just as good as I thought it would be. They layed into each other and had a hectic brawl that was awesome to watch. I thought that the finish was a little annoying, but the rest of the match was great. I thought the grappling was really good here. They are fluid technical wrestlers that made for exciting sequences. Great stuff here, just as good as I’d hoped. But the thing is, I still know they can do better. So I’m happy to see this feud continue. 

Kofi Kingston vs. Randy Orton for the WWE Championship: The started out with a slow feeling out process, where they grappled a bit with each other, with Orton coming out on top with his superior strength. Orton did quickly retreat to the outside after a forearm from Kingston, looking like it threw him for a loop. When he got back in the ring, Orton got a bit more aggressive with chops to the chest and shots to the face. The two then brawled around the ring after Orton launched Kingston off the apron and into the barricade. He then gave Kingston a vertical suplex over the barricade, and continued to beat him down back in the ring. Kingston eventually fought back and started to pick up the pace of the match, but Orton caught him out of a Trouble in Paradise for a backbreaker, but only got a near fall out of it. The two then started to pick up the pace once again with Kofi slipping out of a superplex only to eat a powerslam for a near fall. Orton then went for an RKO, but Kingston countered with a rollup, only for Orton to nail it right afterwards, with Kingston getting his foot on the ropes! Orton then went for the punt, but Kingston dodged it and then hit the Trouble in Paradise for the win!

Grade: B+. This was a shockingly good match, really pushing Kingston as the underdog and doing it well. Every comeback that he made was exciting, and Orton played his heel personality perfectly. The moves were snappy and good looking, and they worked really really well together. I doubt they will be able to top this match if they end up going to Hell in a Cell. This was far better than it had any right to be, but I’m glad it was. 

Street Profits Backstage: They put over the Kingston, tomorrow night’s Raw, and they made a punch of Lion King and sex jokes. King Booker then joined them, and he put over the King of the Ring tournament. Angelo Dawkins then asked Booker to knight him so that he can get girls. King Booker then yelled at both of them, and hit his lines. 

Roman Reigns vs. Rowan in a no disqualification match: Reigns attacked as Rowan entered the ring and showered him with punches, only for Rowan to destroy him right as he was able to get some momentum. Rowan beat Reigns around ringside, before Reigns shoved him into the stairs. Reigns then grabbed a kendo stick, but Rowan nailed him with the steel steps and beat him throughout the stands. Rowan beat him down amongst the booing fans, mostly with a trash can, before they fought back to ringside. Reigns then tried to put Rowna through an announce table, but Rowan destroyed him with a tackle as he was setting it up. The two fought back into the ring where Rowan continued to keep the advantage, and the brawl continued to get wilder and wilder. At one point, Rowan gave Reigns an Iron Claw through the announce table, and beat him with the ring bell as they entered the crowd again. As Reigns started to fight back, Rowan once again gave Reigns an Iron Claw through the a table, and then dumped him on the stage. He then grabbed the camera jibb, but Reings nailed him with a wrench or something, and pushed the jib into Rowan instead, followed by a superman punch. He went for a spear down the ramp, but Harper showed back up to wreck Reigns with a boot to the face! They then went back in the ring, and Harper gave Reigns a discus lariat, followed by an Iron Claw from Rowan for the win.

Grade: B. Harper is back! This was actually a pretty fun match with a shocking finish. Rowan looked really good even before Harper showed up, so needing the help didn’t really hurt him in any way. Rowan has gotta be in for something big from here. I mean, unless he is about to do a heel on heel feud with Daniel Bryan, he is probably gonna feud with Kofi for the WWE championship. This is easily the biggest win of his career, and I’m genuinely looking forward to where this goes next. But other than that this was a pretty fun brawl. 

Seth Rollins Interview: Rollins said that Strowman had a hand in losing the tag titles, but this is not about them anymore. He then said that he slayed the beast at Summerslam, and now he will slay a monster. Cool line.

Seth Rollins vs. Braun Strowman for the WWE Universal Championship: Strowman started things off with a series of huge shoulder tackles, and tried for the powerslam early on, only for Rollins to slid out and attack the knee. Rollins was able to put Strowman down with three superkicks to the face and then a frog splash, but Rollins kicked out before one was even counted. Rollins tried for the stomp, but Strowman caught him and started to ragdoll the champ around. Rollins then started to fire back with a series of flying knees, but Strowman caught him out of it and hit a huge clubbing blow to his chest. He rolled to the outside, where Strowman started to run him down a few times, until Rollins dodged him and sent him careening over the announce table. Rollins waited for Strowman to get up, and nailed a pair of suicide dives that put Stromwan through a table. Rollins went for another, but Strowman caught him, only for Rollins to slip out and send him into the steps. He followed up with a superkick that put Strowman on the announce table, but Strowman followed him to the top rope. Rollins tried for a superplex, but Strowman pushed him off the top and nailed a goddamn splash for a near fall! Strowman hurt his knee in the fall, but it only really mattered in making the pin.  He tried for the running powerslam again, but Rollins locked in a sleeper hold. Strowman was lowered to a knee, and nearly passed out, but he fired back up and threw Rollins over his shoulder, but Rollins nailed a knee right afterwards. Strowman kicked out at 1! Rollins hit another, and Strowman kicked out at 2! Rollins hit a third, and Strowman got the shoulder up at the very last second! Rollins tried for a fourth, but Stromwan caught him. He tried for a running powerslam, but the injured knee gave out, allowing Rollins to hit the Pedigree out of nowhere, followed by another stomp for the win. 

As Rollins posed with the belt at the top of the ramp, the Fiend met him there. The lights flashed a bit as he hit Sister Abigail and then we saw him choke Rollins out with the mandible claw. 

Grade: A-. This was another match that was way better than I thought it would be! Strowman really stepped up and was awesome in this match. Even though he had three finisher kickouts, doing that not only protected him but it put over Rollins more. Rollins played a great underdog, and sold everything beautifully. He pulled everything out of the bag and delivered a great match and a great main event. The splash from Strowman deserves a mention as well, as Strowman looked nervous as hell, but he still did it and it was a great moment. Strowman looked strong in defeat, and Rollins looked like gold in victory. And the Fiend attack afterwards was the perfect attack that it should have been. I can’t wait for that story to start up. Just great stuff from both guys and really good booking too. Match of the night.

Grade: B

Predictions: 7/11, because Sasha did technically win. 

Pros: Triple Threat; US Championship; new day vs. revival; IC championship; Raw Women’s Championship; WWE Championship; no dq; main event

Cons: smackdown women’s Championship

[linearao3]

Two porn prompts, pick whichever you prefer: 1. Kohelet, Han comes home from prison, and he and Leia celebrate. 2. Canon AU Dark Rey and Jedi Ben Solo; a good boy meets a dangerous lady. 3. Okay, this just came to me. Kohelet AU, Ben Solo never becomes estranged from his family, so he’s a very troubled, intense scholar dealing with his attraction to his rival’s activist protege Rey.

Okay, I did technically get another prompt before this one, and I will answer that, and maybe 1. and 3. from this one besides, but I did after all get into this whole “writing fanfic” mess because I wanted to see the idiots with the laser swords kiss so (with a warning for the combination of extremely dubious consent and enthusiastic participation which is presumably unique to fiction):

The way she uses the Force is terrifying.  The Force is with Ben, in the sense that he feels it by him, all the time; he reaches out and the Force is there.  But the Force is with her in an entirely different way; it’s not a tool Lady Ren uses or an ally she calls on but an armor, an exoskeleton, an extension of herself.  It’s her will, he recognizes, her mad determination that bends the weave of the universe around her.

“Even at your age, your uncle would have had me on my knees by now,” she tells him.  And it’s probably true.  He’s not as good as Uncle Luke, not as skilled, or smiling, or serene.  But what do they want from him; he’s — be who and where you are; it doesn’t matter what someone else might have done.  Only you are yourself, in this moment.  And he’s holding his own, against Snoke’s protégée; he’s fought her to a stand-still among the stones of this eerie planet with its blue sun distant in the sky, keeping her occupied as the Resistance evacuates behind him.  She’s fast and light and has the advantage of the treacherously balanced rocks; his size is against him on this ground, and the Force swirls dizzyingly around him; every step seems haunted by the possibility that he has put his foot in the wrong place, his guard in the wrong quarter, his trust in the wrong side. 

But if she has will, he has faith.  He’s seen the power of the Light, and even if he dies here, it will not desert him. 

He lunges low, at her legs.  She leaps up, and slashes down at his extended arm.  They both have to fall back, bracing themselves against boulders.  The wind blows her hair into her face.  The wisps of it seem incongruously soft.

He gets his footing back before she does, and goes on the attack, trying to keep his strokes controlled and efficient  She smiles at him as she dodges and parries.  "You could have me on my knees too, you know,” she says, and pushes an image into his mind, at the same time that she sets the Force twitching under his feet, and he stumbles on the rocks.

He falls, hard, on a small flat patch, his blue blade skipping from his hand and going dead.  She’s going to kill him.  It’s all right.  His parents must be leaving now, the heart of the Resistance with them.  He hears her foot hit the stone above him, and tries to rise from his knees and call his saber, but he knows it has to come, the heat and the pain of the blow, but he’s done what he could, and the Light will not abandon him — there is no death; there is only the Force.  I am one with the Force and —

The heat comes, but only heat, only a little.  She’s stopped her blade centimeters from his neck.  It drones beside his ear.  She pushes the image into his head again, and holds it there, so that he has to take in other things than the obvious (the obscenity, the wicked way she smiles) — he’s not himself, in the picture she shows him.  That’s his nose, his hair, his hand that’s tight on her head, but his clothes, the way he stands — he looks — Dark.  Dangerous.

Ben knows what he is.  He’s strong.  He’s large, and a little awkward.  He’s the servant of the Light.  And above all he is trying.  Trying to his family’s patience.  Trying to be at peace.  He’s not — that.  That man in her mind has no peace.

“Peace is a lie,” she breathes in his ear, over the hot hum of her weapon.  And when the Dark used to whisper to him at night, it had told him that, over and over, but it had seemed to mean something different — that the Light was only a delusion the weak cling to, that the world was harsh and cold, ready to kill him if he didn’t strike first.  When the Dark speaks in her voice, it means something else entirely.  "There is only passion.“

Her gloved hand is small, but it cups his chin perfectly, drawing his face up.  Her grip is warm and her weapon is still at his throat.  "Have you ever been kissed, Jedi?”  She sounds curious.  Excited.  He has pressed his face against someone’s, he thinks, some time, maybe, but whatever she’s about to do to him, no one has ever done it before.  Something terrible is happening to his blood.  He shakes his head, and her thumb rubs his skin, just grazing his lip.

And then her mouth crushes his, opens his, and no one has ever done anything like this to him before.  She smells like sweat and tastes like hot metal, like catastrophic atmospheric reentry.  Her black leather glove caresses his throat, and reaches lower, into his robe and under his shirt.  He closes his eyes and tries to call for the Light.  Her fingers find his nipple, and stroke.  She is an emergency, and he is not prepared.

“You stumble because you hold yourself back.  Because you worship control.”  She kisses him again.  "But your heart is violent.  I can feel it.“  He’s sure she can feel it, the way it pounds beneath her hand.  She pinches his nipple, lightly; she hurting him; he’s hurt; he’s hard as stone and mindless with shocking pleasure, twisting so wildly under her hands he almost cuts his own throat on her saber.

She laughs and draws away from him, raising her blade, dragging his collar up, and she’s only been toying with him; now she’ll kill him.  The last of the Skywalkers, and he’s going to die whimpering, cock stiff for the touch of Snoke’s apprentice.  She slashes, hard, and he feels cold air on his stomach; she’s cut his clothes open.

Her black boot lashes out, the heavy heel against his shoulder, throwing him on his back in the dirt.  "Show me your heart, Jedi.”  But it’s not his heart she’s looking at as she stands over him.  Her weapon is deactivated and fastened to her belt in one gesture; without its red blaze she looks more human.  Younger.  But there’s a lurid glow in her gaze as she rakes his bare chest with her eyes and lingers appraisingly on his the point of his humiliation, his loss of self-control.

She puts her boot on him again, not on his shoulder but at his neck, the toe just beneath the bulge in his throat, and presses down.  He fights for air and she laughs.  It reassures him, oddly.  This is the cruelty of the Dark.  He closes his eyes.  There is no death; there is only — 

She takes her foot off him, and watches him gasp.  That look of curiosity — he closes his eyes again.  "Don’t play with your food.“

“How well do you take orders, Jedi?”  Her voice is very close; he can feel her breath on his ear.  "Because I take them very badly.“  Her hand closes over his cock so suddenly and cruelly that he almost howls.  She strokes him roughly; the muscles in his stomach spasm and he almost doubles up, knees to chest, but she slams his shoulders back into the dirt with the Force.  He can’t even call it pleasure, what he’s feeling; it’s just too much.  He gasps, rolling his head.  "Shhh, shhhh,” she soothes him, and slows her hand.  Something soft and strong closes around his thigh.  She’s straddled his bent leg, holding it between her knees.  As her keeps moving, she shifts herself down and back and begins to rub against him.  

“I’ll play with you if I want,” she says, between her teeth.  "Play with you, eat you, drag you back to Master Snoke a come-stained mess with the taste of me on your pretty lips.“  

He tries.  He tries so hard, not to imagine how she might taste (like salt, like blood, like an emergency), not to push his leg up closer against her, not to thrust his cock into her hand.  He tries: there is emotion, but there is peace — but it’s such a pale, dry word, emotion, nothing to do with the burning in his blood, nothing to do with the maddening softness of her hand through his pants, and the closest thing he has to peace is the idea that he could fill her up, fit inside her like a missing piece.  

He’d taken pretty for an insult, but she takes her hand off him to plant both palms beside his head and kiss him with vicious thoroughness.  "Never been kissed,” she mutters against his mouth.  "Never been fucked.“  She slides down his lap, grinds herself directly against his hardness as she kisses him again.  "You’re obscene.”  Distantly, he’s baffled; he’s not the one who had an opportunity to kill an enemy and chose to rut in the dirt instead.  But her mouth closes around his ear, warm and wet, so the thought is very far away.  She sucks and tongues his ear and he writhes underneath the urgent press of her hips, and then she pushes another picture into his mind.

She’s naked, on a high throne, and he half-kneels before her, ominous and angular in black.  He lifts a heavy, black-gloved hand — the way her eyes linger on that hand — and twitches her legs apart with the Force.

“Not me,” he gasps.  "That’s not me.“

She takes his face in her hands.  "But it could be,” she says.  "Ben, you could be — we could — fuck, Ben — “

She reaches down to undo his pants, and he should be alarmed, but instead his foremost thought is, she knows my name.  Of course she does; he’s not Uncle Luke, but of course Lady Ren, Snoke’s apprentice, would know his name.  But it pulls at something in him, and even as her fingers pull his straining, weeping cock out of his pants, he lifts his hand to her cheek.

She jerks away, and rises off him slightly.  She yanks off her gloves, digs her fingers into the seam of her trousers, and tears.  Her bare hand on his naked cock is another shock, but it’s dulled by what he knows is coming: she’s so wet he feels her dripping down him even before she sinks down and he chokes on nothing.  Her head lolls backwards and the sound she makes, aching and wounded, deep in her throat, makes his back arch and his hips pump.

“Yes,” she sighs.  "Show me.“  She circles her hips.  "You have no control.  You don’t need control.  You’re better than control.”

Another picture.  He has her against the wall, his hands pinning hers, his cock thrusting cruelly and fast.   Violent.  And she’s moaning, mewling, welcoming it.

“We’d never take orders again, Ben.”  She leans forward.  Her breasts are hidden behind the heavy padding of her clothes, but her shoulders press them towards his mouth anyway.  Like she can’t help it, like she wants to offer herself to him.  "You’re so strong,“ she sighs, and her hands run over his arms.  "So strong.  But you’d be stronger in the Dark.”

He reaches for her face again.  It’s such a fine face, sharp and cleanly lined, and her cheeks are pink and her mouth is rosy and her hair is soft and he wants to touch her.  But she jerks her head away again.

“The Light is a lie,” she says.  "Come with me, Ben.  Let me show you.“

But the Light is not a lie.  It’s the brief frustration of his desire that sharpens his mind.  Ben has seen the power of the Light, has felt it come to save him when he thought dark dreams would eat him alive.  And so he pushes a picture into her mind.

She jerks back, but he puts his hands on her hips and pulls her against him.  "You’re afraid,” he says.  "Don’t be afraid.“

“I’m not,” she snarls, and rides him harder, as if that would prove it.  And it feels so good, how tightly she squeezes him as she drags herself up and down his length; he lets it feel good, focuses on the pure pleasure of it, the beauty of her body, even obscured by clothing meant for war.  He smiles up at her, and she falters.  He encourages her with his hands, helping her keep the pace.  He shows her the picture again.

“You are.”  It’s hard to talk, but he keeps his voice low and warm.  "But you shouldn’t be.“

Her body curves with his, but it’s only his motion that’s keeping them going, now.  Her eyes are closed, and tears are glimmering in her lashes.

“The Light is not a lie.”  She knows his name, and he knows hers.  "Rey.  The Light is waiting for you.“

One more time, he shows her the picture: her head against his chest.  Her eyes closed, lips parted.  His arm around her, embracing and gentle.  His hand moving softly in her hair.  The kiss he drops on her sleeping head.

The tears run down her cheeks.  "No one — no one — waits for — ”

His voice is full of strain; she’s tighter and tighter on him, and her hips are jerking, and he wants so badly to give her everything and watch her take it.  "I do.  I will.  Rey.“ 

She spasms, twisting and sobbing, and he brings his hands up to her waist, pulling her down against his chest, and then runs his hands down, stroking and squeezing her gorgeous ass.  The feel of it in his palms, luxuriously soft and stunningly strong, makes his cock twitch, and he braces his feet and thrusts hard up into her, pouring hot spurts of come into her body in time with her cries.

He feels like his orgasm will never end, but when it does he doesn’t let her go.  She pushes with her hands, and then with the Force, but he holds her.

"Just a minute,” he tells her softly.  "Just a minute.  Just until you stop crying.“  Because her tears are shaking her; if she tried to stand she would fall.  He strokes her back, through the quilting of her jacket.  "You don’t have to leave.” Sleep filters into his voice as he feels her sobs slow.  "You don’t have to stay.  Either way, I’ll wait for you.“

By the time her tears dry, they’re both asleep, alone together in the dust as the far away blue sun begins to set.

[imamotherfuckingstar-lord]

The Five Times Steve Rogers said No & the One Time He Said Yes

Steve Rogers x READER

A/N: Commission for the patent and wonderful @xlemon-limex

Summary: Tony thinks Steve has the hots for you, he isn’t totally wrong.

Deny #1

Tony was going over some intel, standing in the front of the conference room, while Steve sat across from you - trying his best to gain your attention, but you were too focused on Stark. You listened to all the information he was giving, leaned forward to take a closer look at the hologram he brought up and smirked at Nat, who called dibs on the mission.

“I’d like to go to,” you announced and Tony smirked.

“That’s all fine, but unless we can pry Roger’s eye from you, we might not have a leader for this one,” he bellowed out, staring right at the Captain.

Steve stirred in his seat and frowned up at Tony. “I wasn’t staring at her.”

“Uh, yeah you were,” Tony scoffed, giving you a wink. “I mean, she is pretty cute.”

“That’s enough and I wasn’t staring at her,” Steve scolded, getting up from his seat. “Are we done here?”

Holding back a smile, you looked to Tony, who held up his hands. “At ease soldier, we’re all done here.”

Steve was the first to leave the conference room, followed by Sam. When they were out of sight, you glared at Tony. “You really love pushing his buttons, don’t you?”

“It’s what I do best,” Tony grinned, nodding to Nat. “Romanoff and I have this theory, see, we think Cap has the hots for you.”

“As if.” You rolled my eyes and got up, making your way to the door. “I gotta go work out with the fellas. You two cool your jets.”

You left the room and exhaled deeply.

Stark wasn’t too far off, Steve indeed had the hots for you, because you were most certainly his girlfriend of six months. How the two of you manage to keep that a secret from the others was a damn miracle, but you both knew the time to tell everyone was drawing closer as Stark’s suspicious started to gain some heat.

Deny #2

The bar was packed for a Tuesday night and you wondered why you all had to go out when Tony kept a perfectly stocked bar back at the Tower. Something about team bonding, as if fighting alongside each other wasn’t enough bonding. Easing away from the bar with two pitchers of beers, you glanced around and found your band of misfits at the pool table. Steve caught your eye and he waved you over and you smiled, making your way through the crowd. You pushed, politely, until you managed to get to the pool table.

“Took you long enough,” Clint grumbled, beelining to you.

“My bad,” you replied, handing over the pitchers to him. “Who is up?”

“Point Break,” Tony nodded to Thor, who looked odd in his civilian Earth clothes. “Next game we got doubles.”

“Fun,” you echoed, looking to Nat. “Partners?”

“Of course,” she answered swiftly, nudging Sam in the ribs. “I want to beat this one.”

Before he could respond to the redhead’s flirtation, his eyes flew to someone next to you. Your head turned slightly, coming face to face with a rather attractive man, who was asking if you’d something.

“Excuse me?”

“A drink,” he smiled, flashing his pearly whites. “Can I get you a drink?”

You laughed nervously and said no. “Thank you, though.”

“Come one,” he grinned, his hand squeezing your shoulder. “Just one drink.”

Jaw clenched, you moved away from his touch. “I’m good.”

He stood his ground and asked again. “Listen, one drink to show you how witty and charming I am. Don’t like me after one drink, then we part ways.”

You gazed around to your group of friends, who were all watching with intense eyes, waiting for you to make a move. “I don’t think-.”

“She said no.” Steve spoke up, walking away from the pool table to stand next to you. “She said no, so you can leave now.”

The man sized Steve up and chuckled. “She has a mouth, doesn’t she?”

All bets were off then, you lunged toward the man, but Steve got to him first. He had a fistful of the guy’s collar and the others were telling Steve to get him the hell out of here. You watched with amusement as Steve practically carried the man out the bar, coming back a few seconds later. He gave you an apologetic look, to which you just waved a hand, letting him know it was okay.

“Well, well, well,” Tony started up from the pool table, cue in hand. “Look who came to the rescue.”

“Not now, Tony,” Steve grumbled, walking over to Clint for a refill of beer.

You side eyed Tony and gave him a warning stare, but he just shrugged. “I’m just calling it as I see it.”

“Steve was just coming to my defense,” you explained, ignoring Tony’s shit eating smile. “I didn’t see anyone of you stepping up.”

“Well, we figured you had it,” Clint piped up, taking a drink from his mug.

“Nonetheless,” you scoffed teasingly, giving Steve a soft smile. “Thank you, Steve.”

He glanced your way and held back a smile. “No problem.”

Later that night, when a soft knock from my door, you knew it was him. He walked in and quickly apologized for being all alpha male.

“Babe, it’s okay,” you laughed, beckoning him over to the bed. Throwing back the covers, you patted the empty spot next to you. He blushed, but turned around to lock the door before making his way to the bed. He slipped under the covers and sighed when his back touched the mattress. You leaned against the headboard and started playing with his hair, watching as he closed his eyes.

“We have to tell them eventually,” he said quietly.

“I know, but I wanna enjoy the privacy while we have it.”

“Me too, but it would be nice to get Tony stop teasing me.”

You smiled and leaned down to press a kiss onto his forehead. “It’s pretty funny though.”

Deny #3

The quinjet was relatively quiet as you took a seat next to Steve, letting out a loud yawn. Natasha, who was standing across from the two of you, smiled and asked if you were tired.

“Like hell,” you proclaimed, yawning again. “How long until we’re home?”

“About an hour,” Tony called out from the cockpit, where he was chatting away with Clint.

“Too long,” you whined, eyes falling heavy. “I have to sleep...”

Nat laughed and shook her head when you promptly fell asleep, head slumping over to Steve’s shoulders. He chuckled, but his smile faded when he realized his teammate was staring.

“Should I move her?”

“No,” Natasha answered, pushing away from the wall. “Let her sleep.”

He nodded, grinning down at you when Nat stepped away.

It freeing to him to have you so close and Steve savored the moment, daring to reach down for your hand and placing it on his thigh. There were reasons why the two of you wanted to keep things low profile, but being able to touch each other while on a mission, made those reasons seem ridiculous.

“Don’t you look a tad bit happy there, Cap.”

Steve groaned and glanced over to were Tony stood, a smirk on his lips.

“She fell asleep.”

“I see that, I have eyes,” Tony remarked, walking over to Steve. “I just wanted to make sure you weren’t getting a little frisky, Rogers.”

“I’m not you, Tony,” Steve barked back and Tony laughed.

“That you are not. Let her sleep, she kicked ass today.”

“She did,” Steve agreed.

Stark walked away, saying something about Steve being so obvious, but he paid no attention. Instead he looked down at you and chuckled.

“You can open your eyes now.”

“How did you know,” you pouted, peeking open an eye.

Steve shook his head and reached down for you hand to squeeze it. “I know you too well”

Deny #4

“So, his name is Luke and he’s really cute.”

“Nat,” you warned, looking up from your tablet. She gave you a pouty face and you laughed. “No.”

“Luke is the total package,” she said in a fake Valley girl voice. “Come on, you haven’t been on a date in nearly 7 months.”

“Okay, weirdo,” you snorted, putting the tablet down. “Can we not do this right now?”

“Do what?”

Sam walked into the kitchen, Steve, and Tony trailing behind him. “What are we not doing?”

You gave Steve a quick eye roll and he smiled before wandering over to the fridge.

Natasha explained how she wanted to hook you up with Luke, a SHIELD agent. Tony pointed a finger at you and grinned.

“Oh, you need to get laid.”

“You have no idea what I need,” you retorted, sending Nat a death stare. “See what you started.”

“Hey,” she frowned, crossing her arms against her chest. “I just think you two would be cute together, he’s a really nice guy. Maria tells me he’s super smart, you like super smart, yeah?”

“Just drop it,” you begged.

“Isn’t he the one with the bad temper,” he piped up, pouring himself a cup of water.

Nat turned her head to Steve. “How would you know that?”

He shrugged and looked to Sam for support. “Didn’t we hear that from that guy?”

Sam nodded and snapped his fingers. “Yeah, that one dude from HR. Said something about him being hot headed.”

Smiling down at the tablet, you pretended to be invested in the report Hill had sent earlier. “See, Nat, I’m good.”

“Look at Cap,” Tony snorted, grabbing his mug off the counter. “So jealous he had to make up lies about some random guy.”

“I’m just looking out for my friend,” he shrugged nonchalantly, moving toward the door. He glanced your way and nodded. “You’re welcome.”

“Thanks, Steve.”

“OH, you are so full of shit,” Tony called out, following him out the door. “Just because you can’t have – “

“TONY.”

You laughed at the pair’s bickering, ignoring Natasha’s eyes on you until Sam asked if she wanted to grab breakfast together. She asked if you’d like to join, you declined with the excuse about writing up some reports. The two left and once they were gone, you chuckled.

“Sorry, Luke.”

Deny #5

Tony was staring at Steve, he could feel the man’s gaze on him. He tried to ignore his friend, focusing on the task on hand – dinner for the group. Steve had volunteered and Tony said he’d help. The two of them worked quietly for a bit, Tony chopping the tomatoes for the pasta and Steve straining said pasta, until the former sighed.

“Just confess, Rogers.”

Steve turned off the sink sauce and looked at his friend. “What am I confessing?”

Tony smirked. “That you have the hots for you know who.”

“Tony, I am flattered, but you are not my type.”

The two men laughed, but Tony wasn’t going to let up. “I mean, for fuck’s sake, you could be getting some if you wanted to. I’m sure she feels – “

“Listen, Tony,” Steve interrupted, turning his entire body to face the man. He inhaled deeply and sighed. “I don’t have the hots for anyone, okay? I’m just trying to get by.”

Tony studied Steve’s face for a long minute and Steve knew he wasn’t done for good, but he just smiled and shrugged. “Fine, denial is bad for your health, Cap.”

Confession #1

You ran alongside Steve, dodging bullets behind his shield and doing what he did best – taking down bad guys. You were all in Turkey, taking down a Hydra hide out, one agent at a time. Tony had decided to split everyone into pairs, smirking when Steve and you somehow ended up together. The two of you pretended to be annoyed, but when he wasn’t looking, you smiled at each other.

The couple that fought bad dudes together, stayed together.

The two of you fought side by side, until every agent was down, or so you thought.

You stood still, trying to catch your breath as Steve spoke over his comm.

“Tony wants us back at the jet,” he said, nodding for you to lead the way.

“Okay,” you huffed out, moving ahead of him.

He watched for a second until something caught in his eye and suddenly he was in front of you, pulling you down as bullets came flying in your direction. Steve yelled for you to stay down as he made his way to the shooter, knocking him down in a flash.

“You okay?”

“Yeah,” you smiled, standing up from the ground. “I’m good.”

….

“So that was fun,” Clint grumbled, collapsing on the floor of the quinjet.

“We’re all here, so yeah, it was fun,” Nat smiled, settling next to the archer. She looked at you and nodded. “Heard you almost bit it.”

“I did not,” you snapped back, moving to the center of the jet.

“Yeah, because Cappy over there saved her ass,” Tony explained, giving you a little wink.

“Oh, so you saw that too,” Sam teased. “I got an aerial view.”

“Cut it out,” Steve warned, making his way to my side. “We’re lucky we all made it out alive.”

“So now that you saved her from death, are you gonna ask her out?”

Your eyes snapped over to Clint. “Not you too.”

He laughed and shrugged. “It’s pretty obvious.”

“What is?”

“That Steve wants to jump your bones,” Sam chimed in, much to his friend’s dismay.

“Are you seriously jumping in on this, Samuel?”

“Don’t call me that,” he groaned, leaning himself against the wall

Tony laughed and you turned to him. “You keep starting this shit.”

“I’m only calling it as I see it,” Tony held up his hands and you sighed, looking to Steve.

His eyes were fixated on Stark and he took a deep breath just as the entire group started to throw in their two cents about Steve having the hots for you. You started to say something, but before you could get a word in, his mouth was against yours. His lips were warm and soft, and you couldn’t help but moan a little, fingers swirling into his locks. All the teasing stopped and a silence fell over the group just as Steve pressed another kiss onto your lips before pulling away.

“What the hell just happened,” Tony asked, gazing to his friends. “Did they just kiss?”

“I believe that was more than a kiss,” Natasha explained, her eyes going back and forth between Steve and you.

“You all are world class idiots,” you declared, resting a hand on Steve’s shoulders. Gazing over at him, you grinned. “Do you want to tell them, babe?”

“Did she just call him babe?”

Clint shook his head and Tony echoed the question.

“Well,” Steve said, bringing his arm around your waist. “We’ve been dating for six months now.”

It took about 30 seconds to register and when it did, the whole team exploded in “I knew its” and “Why the hell didn’t you two say anything?” until Steve told everyone to calm down.

“We wanted to wait,” he explained, bringing you closer to him. “But now that you all know, I need one thing from you all.”

“Anything,” Natasha said, giving me a soft smile.

“The teasing has got to stop,” Steve said, looking directly at Tony. “You got it?”

You smiled at your boyfriend’s diplomatic proposal and waited for the inevitable answer.

“Yeah,” Tony smirked, running a hand through his beard. “The fun's just started, Cap.”

Forever tags

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[hyunnielix]

Enemies II

Part Two For Enemies

Your training regime has been rigorous, doubling your lessons with not only your coach but with Luke as well, what happens when you let the sexual tension between the two of you get the better of you?

Requested: Yes, for the anon that asked if I was doing a part 2 

Pairing: Luke x Y/N

Warnings: Angst, Fluff, Coach!Luke, Flirting, Boxing!AU

Word Count: 1.5k

“So it’s all a reputation thing, this whole demeanour,” You scoffed, unfolding your arms and gesturing with your hands towards his lanky body.

You planted your feet securely on the maroon foam flooring of the ring, preparing yourself for the next round of torture whilst protecting your face.

“Yes, and you want to know why? because it sells.” He lectured you while his guard was down, tilting his head to the side obviously unimpressed with your obliviousness.

“Do you have any evidence of that or did it come straight from Calum’s mouth?” You retorted, laughing to yourself before bouncing onto the toes of your feet ready for the oncoming jabs as he straightened his arms, holding the boxing pads steadier.

“Did you listen to a word I said before?” The blonde exclaimed, desperation surfacing in his baby blue eyes that usually twinkled with cheekiness.

Snapping out of the trance you rolled your eyes at him, frustrating the poor boy even more with your uncooperativeness during the current lesson.

“It just sounds like something he’d say.” You defended yourself, smirking at the annoyance on his face while you threw a punch unexpectedly to the white spot marked on the pad.

“You seem to be good at that,” He stated coolly, swiping his right hand over your head as you ducked down avoiding the hit.

“Good at what?” You asked, pausing at his comment slightly before aiming for his face out of pure spite.

“That,” He explained. “You use that aspect to throw your opponent’s off,” He continued trying to explain what you were doing right.

“You just need to improve a bit more I’ll show you, hang on.” He spoke ripping the laces off the velcro pad straps while stepping towards you.

Your face contorted with even more bewilderment at his statement, you were still adjusting to being told what to do and how to improve without giving a smartass remark back. Some would say your ego was a problem.

“Oh come on, it’s not like you’ve never been touched by a guy before,” He chuckled while invading your personal space, his breath fanning across your face as he gazed down at you testing your patience with him.

“I just don’t think it’s very necessary-,” You let out a small squeak as his ice cold fingers brushed against your midriff moving your waist to face his body whilst he took a hold of your left fist bringing it up to his face.

“For example, this would be predictable,” He motioned your hand back and forth stopping it before just it hit his face explaining the movements nodding religiously as you intently watched.��

“However, this-,” He instructed smartly moving his left leg behind yours while throwing a right jab at your face took you off guard.

Leaning backwards so his fist wouldn’t collide with your face your small frame fell backward on the rings plush floor tripping over his leg as he sneakily planned.

“Is unpredictable, you must always use this against your enemies especially if your weight isn’t enough to hold against them.” He scolded, smiling down at your exhausted body sprawled across the floor, your resting bitch face explained your current mood towards the giraffe-like boy as he held his hand out for you to take.

After hauling you up, he began circling around your body examining your fighting stance.

“You have to use your speed and power to bring them down,” He reminded you, quickly sliding his leg underneath yours, however, you stepped forward out of the trap and spun on your heel facing him.

Without hesitation, you grasped onto his broad shoulders while kneeing him in the stomach unfortunately to your disadvantage he caught your leg ultimately unbalancing you until you fell to the floor yet again.

“Then you attack, hesitating and adapting to your opponent’s fighting techniques is what you don’t want to do,” He chuckled while chewing on his jet black lip ring, it was almost like he was mocking you.

“You must observe their fighting technique not adapt to it, I got it.” You replied, getting up off the floor yourself this time and dusting the remnants off your neon pink and black sports bra.

You weren’t going to lie, the theory was your strong suit the actual fighting aspect, however, you still needed improvement on which you wouldn’t verbally confess even if it killed you.

“Let's start sparring then,” He commented, fixing on his used white gloves the ear-piercing noise of the adjusting velcro made your head reel, the headache you had gained during the training didn’t help.

“Wait, that wasn’t it?” You exclaimed letting out a loud moan hunching your back over dramatically which made a laugh erupt from Luke, his dimples shown prominently in his left cheek. Your suffering was definitely his enjoyment.

“We’ve been at this for two hours I need a break,” You decided, clambering underneath the maroon ropes and jumping off the edge of the arena onto the grey carpeted floor.

“Top athletes are constantly working hard and in the end, it delivers results,” He stated matter-of-factly following closely behind you as you made your way towards the paint-chipped bench that was placed outside of the locker room.

“You’re a bit hard on your friends now aren't you?” You panted, lowering your exhausted body onto the bench as you side-eyed the boy.

“You classify yourself as one of my friends? what happened to ever being enemies,” He wickedly smirked whilst his brows furrowed, you tried to prevent your lips from upturning into a small smile.

“Or am I just breaking down your tough girl image.” He sarcastically spoke, shrugging his unnaturally broad shoulders whilst awaiting a reply.

You brushed your palms against the fabric of your charcoal Adidas tights, wiping the sweat off them while conjuring a reply to the confronting statement.

“I guessed someone had to take the role of it since you don't have any,” You reciprocated, removing your gaze from the unbelievable attractive boy and focusing it on the grey carpet in front of you.

“Well, contrary to popular belief I do have friends,” He scoffed, you had obviously hit a nerve that would prove to be a weakness and leverage was important.

“Michael doesn’t like this y’know,” You half-heartedly laughed trying to change the subject, you eventually caught your breath as you leant your head back on the wall the small talk always relaxed you.

“Michaels always hated me.” Luke smiled bitter-sweetly, copying your movements, you could feel his gaze burning into the side of your face.

“It’s no surprise why,” You murmured, rolling your eyes irritatedly hoping Luke would get the message about how you currently viewed the topic.

“Man, do you ever give me a break?” He giggled, voice cracking while revealing his adorable dimple yet again.

You could tell he was trying to make the conversation more lighthearted but you were stubborn, constantly pushing your point across.

“It’s hard to trust someone when their whole persona is a lie,” You commented, crossing one leg over the other whilst taking off the blood red boxing gloves you donned throughout the lesson.

“You’re kind of being a hypocrite, telling me I shouldn’t have one and then you doing the exact same thing,” He retaliated, crossing his muscular arms over his chest and huffing blowing his messy blonde hair out of his face.

“I do it so I don’t get hurt, unlike you who does it for the money,” You let your mouth run yet again, only stating the cold hard truth.

He exhaled sharply, removing his eyes from you before replying equally as cold.

“Come on we’re done here.” He hummed, visibly trying to prevent the annoyance on his face as he stood up abruptly, passing you.

Trailing behind the six foot four boy you entered the dark and damp locker rooms that weirdly resembled the smell of wet dog.

“How much will that be?” You asked, splitting off into the side of the room where your locker was placed cursing in the process as you nearly slipped on the dirty puddles of water on the tiled floor.

“It’s on the house, I’m trying to prove something,” He replied, his Aussie twang making you scoff and roll your eyes while placing your hand on the metal hatch of your named locker.

You twisted the small black lock that hung off it listening intently to the constant clicking.

“You need to get a better coach, you have potential,” He rambled on, not listening to half of the gibberish coming out of his mouth you angrily shoved your boxing gear into the tiny cabinet.

“Like I didn’t already know that,” You sassily replied while snapping your fingers for the extra effect, you could hear his obnoxiously contagious laughter from behind the other lockers.

You weren’t supposed to soften up, but you had to admit you had a thing for bad boys who were too attractive for their own good.

“I have a mate who could help, his name is Ashton,” He commented, emerging from behind the lockers whilst airing out the Nike shirt he wore advancing closer towards you.

You slammed the metal locker door shut, leaning back onto it with one foot perched comfortably upright as you noticeably admired his sky coloured eyes.

“Right well how about instead of-,” You were cut off as he placed his surprisingly soft hands on the underside of your jaw, his rough lips coming in contact with yours throwing your morals off completely.

Nearly falling due to the unbalance of your feet, he trailed his arms down your torso sneaking them around your small waist. 

His lip ring contrasted coolly against your lips, cheekily you swiped your tongue across it making him smile into the kiss.

“Where the hell did that come from?” You asked, catching your breath while you tried to come to grips with what just happened.

“You were drooling over me the whole lesson, I decided to do something about it,” he remarked, a stupid grin plastered on his gorgeously attractive face.

“Shut it, Hemmings.”

[cashtonwoah-blog]

Ashton Irwin|Calum Hood//Forgetting Kira

Pairing: You (Y/N) , Calum Hood and Ashton Irwin.

Word count: 3.5k

PART 1

“Yeah” Y/N giggled. “I’m just Y/N” She said, trying to ease the pain in her chest. It felt horrible to look at an attractive man and know he’s disappointed that you’re you. It felt even worse realising that he had just touched your moist sweaty fringe, Y/N cheeks flushed.

“Yeah, you said” Ashton chuckled, making Y/N blush even more. “Don’t sweat it” He smirked.

Sweat it? why had he chosen that word thought Y/n, was he trying to allude to the fact that his large hands were wet due to her stupid wig sweat.  “Anyway” Y/n muttered, shaking the thought of her body fluids clamping the gorgeous Ashton’s hands.  She hadn’t taken the time to notice how attractive he was, because she was still semi paralysed from him catching her without her wig on. He was beautiful with his brunette hair that seem to twirl at the end and broad shoulders.

“So are you excited to meet Kira?” She asked, dreading the words as soon as they had slipped from her parted lips. Kira always had away of stealing her moment, even if it was just a simple conversation with a cute boy.

“Yes! I’m pumped, what about you? Wait why are you here?” Ashton asked, starring at Y/n perplexed. “What?”  Y/n questioned. Ashton had shifted his gaze from Y/n to the vending machine. “Sorry, I just meant” He paused, seeming slightly embarrassed by what he had just said. “I just meant, you’re her stunt double” Ashton revealed, leaving Y/n stomped. “So how come you’re here?” He asked, not breaking eye contact with a pack of skittles.

It felt like a century had past before Y/n replied, it was one of those moments when your mouth had moved, and words were spoken before she could even process them. She hadn’t meet cute boy in ages; she was in too deep.

“Me and Kira have been best friends since the beginning of the show, I go everywhere with her” Y/n smiled.

 Chapter 2:  Assigning Allies

 “Mona! Mona!” Y/n called as she came running into her dressing room, wig in hand. “What?” Mona asked, her clipboard whipping around before even she could turn.

“Kira!” Mona shouted, shocked to see Y/n standing at the door without her wig on.

“I met a boy and you’re going to help me” Y/n demanded.

“huh?” Mona was confused, she had just finished eating her lunch and was about to set out to look for Y/n to tell her the clients had arrived. “I met-“Before Y/n could finish her sentence, she heard Kira’s name being called.

“Kira!” It was her manager Tony running around franticly calling her. Y/n slammed the dressing room door shut locking it, knowing she’d be in big trouble if he saw her moving about without her wig. “Kira” He called, knocking on the door. “Why is this door locked?!” He asked, clearly annoyed by the circumstances.

Mona thinking quickly turned on the shower in the ensuite. “I’m showering” Y/n yelled from inside the room. “Come back later” She stated, hearing Tony sigh before proceeding to walk away. “Are you insane?!” Mona yelled, throwing her clipboard down. “You could get us all fired” She said furiously.

“Look” Y/n sighed, as she slumped her body on a sofa chair. “I wanted a break and I didn’t think anyone would be in the room since-“

“Someone saw you?!” Mona asked, her voice sounding more and more pissed off by the second. “Yes, but-“

“Okay, we need to secure the building. Maybe we can convince him you dyed your hair or convince the public he is mentally deranged-“

“Mona! It’s handled” Y/n had got up from the sofa chair and at this moment she was currently shaking Mona in her arms.

“What do you mean?” Mona asked after the shaking had stopped. “He doesn’t know, I introduced myself as Y/n” Y/n informed her. “Oh, and he thought you were wearing her outfit just for shits and giggles?” She asked sarcastically.  “Of course not, I told him I was Kira stunt double” Y/n said, sitting back down in the sofa chair.

“And he just bought that?”

“Yes” Y/n stated, beginning to play with her fingernails.

“He’s clearly not the smartest” Mona sighed, placing herself on the arm chair of Y/n’s sofa. “Yeah” Y/n sighed in relief.

“So” Mona uttered, placing a hand on Y/n’s arm. “Tell me about this dumb boy you like” Mona joked, as they both giggled.

  Y/n couldn’t believe she had managed to convince Mona to go along with this crazy scheme. She was finally out in public with her messy dirty blonde hair and muddy eyes. She was wearing a crispy white blouse and smart trousers heading to Ashton’s dressing room. “Before I forget” Mona muttered, proceeding to hand Y/n a clip board. “Thank” Y/n muttered. They were standing outside the dressing room door, starring at the sign that said 5 seconds of summer. Y/n hand was shaking as she held it out to knock, all she could think about was how badly Tony was going to kill her.

What if Ashton hadn’t bought her stupid lie?

What if her career was over?

She knocked loudly three times before anyone answered the door, she wondered if she had made a mistake and Ashton taking so long to answer was a sign that she shouldn’t have come there. When the door finally opened, Y/n was relieved that was until the man behind the door was revealed to be a blonde boy.

“Hello?” The boy answered, checking Mona and Y/n out in complete confusion. “Can I help you?” He asked.

“We’re apart of Kira’s team” Mona replied, pushing the tall blonde boy aside as he starred at her in complete amazement. “We’re just going over the rules and regulations for yours and Kira’s safety before you meet her” She expanded. Y/n followed her suit only to be stopped short at the sight of two other boys and Ashton. She wanted to jump in joy that her plan to see him again had worked, but instead she choose to look at the blonde boy who still hadn’t recovered from Mona’s push.

“Kira is a private person” Mona explained, to the dark-haired boy fiddling with a guitar and the other blonde in snapback. The looked completely dumbfounded at how a petite black girl had forced her way into the dressing room.

 “So it’s really happening?” The blonde boy in a snapback proclaimed. “We’re going to meet Kira!” He said excitedly.

“Uh yes sir” Mona replied, shooting me a look as if to say are all these lads slow. “I’m Mona, Kira’s assistant and this is-“ She gestured towards me. “Y/n” Her and Ashton spoke at the same time. This was the first Ashton had noticed her since she entered the room, as he had been sat at the back on his phone when they entered.

“So what we doing Y/n?” He said smiling as he placed his phone down on the table beside him. “You know each other?” The blonde boy who had answered the door asked, as he sat down on a sofa chair joining the dark-haired boy and other blonde.  Y/n noticed that all the boys’ eyes were on her inspecting her almost like she was lice.

“Yeah, we met in the breakroom” He explained. “I’m Ashton by the way” He said, waving at Mona.

Mona smirked, before muttering “Dumb boy” under her breath. “What was that?” The dark hair boy asked in confusion. “Oh sorry, I just haven’t heard that name before… is it Greek?”

“Greek?” The dark hair boy asked, wondering about the petite girls braincells.

“Greek?!” The two blonde boys chuckled.

Mona cheeks turned rosy. “No” Ashton smiled, shaking his head in amusement.

“I’m Calum” The midnight hair boy said, trying to hush the two boys who’s laughs had now turned to sniggering. “The idiot in the blue shirt is Luke” He said pointing at the boy in the sofa chair. “And this is Michael” gesturing to the snapback wearing blonde beside him.  “So where do we start?” He asked enthusiastic. “The sooner I can meet Kira the better” Calum said eagerly, placing the guitar on the sofa.

“Great” Mona clapped. “We just have small survey for you to take, takes ten minutes tops” She briefed, “So we split up in twos, Calum with me and Ashton with Y/n” She ordered. “You two can wait” She said, shooting Michael and Luke dirty looks.

Y/n wondered over to Ashton sitting herself across from him “So did you miss me?” She flirted, she didn’t know how she had become so confident but today she was breaking all the rules. “What” Ashton giggled. “I only saw you couple minutes ago” He grinned.

“right” Y/n smiled nervously.

“So what’s the first question?” He asked.

“What’s the first thing you notice in an individual?” She asked.

“What?”

“Kira cares a lot about how people view her” She explained.

“Right.. well, I’d guess I would say their body language”

“Their body language?” Y/n intrigued.

“stance can say a lot about a person” He said. “Like if a person stands legs shoulder width apart, than they’re showing the world they’re ready for anything.” He leaned across the table closer to her. “If her heads tilts slightly down, it shows she’s vulnerable” Y/n head coward into her blouse. “If stares at you wide eyed she wants to know” Y/n eyes beamed at Ashton, as her body leaned towards him. “ If She plays footsie, then she likes you” Y/n ran her heels up Ashton’s thigh.  

Ashton leaned back into his chair “Are you okay?” He asked, moving his foot back. “Do you need more leg room?” He said as he shifted his chair.

“Sorry” Y/n cleared her throat, moving her chair back as well.

“Anyway, my point is Kira embodies all of these things and that’s all I am man could ask for in a woman.” Ashton said, he gazed at his phone in a trance which Y/n knew too well.

Kira’s love trance.

“Kira is just so unique” Ashton daydreamed. “It must be so hard to be her stunt double, I don’t think anyone can be Kira other than Kira” Ashton said, making Y/n burn with envy.

“Well I was only her stunt double for the live action trailer” She clarified. “There rest of the show is animated” She said, bitterly.  Ashton words had flared up all Y/ns old insecurities of never being good enough as herself.

“Right” He amused. “So how were you and her friends since the start of the show?” He asked confused.

Y/n knew she had messed up. “She was the stunt double that the animator drew Kira’s fighting moves from” Mona had been eavesdropping on the conversations and saving Y/n.

Y/n made the mental note to thank Mona for an eternity after this was over. “You’re Kira’s stunt double” Calum said amazed by this new-found information. “Do you know if she still has the dreamers necklace from the dream catcher world?” Calum asked, curiously.

He had jump over the sofa to be closer to Y/n as she answered, he reminded her of nosy kid. “Forget that” announced Michael, turning himself over to face her to. “Do have any news about season two? Is Rob getting out of galactic prison?” He asked.

“Is the Sirius universe really gone?”

“That necklace it was important to Kira, she would have kept it” Calum stated.

“are moon rocks really poisonous?”

“The necklace had special power..”

“Is the mars queen coming back?” Michael asked.

In the middle of being over bombarded with questions, Y/n remembered how it felt to be Kira and she hated it. She looked at Luke wondering why he had remained silent in all this.

It was as if Luke had read her mind.

“I’m not a huge fan, I mean I’ll watch it but I don’t need to talk about everyday” Luke said.

“No one cares Luke!” Michael shouted, slapping the back of Luke’s head.

“Don’t waste her time” Calum stated, still waiting for Y/n to speak.

“I think it’s time for your meeting with Kira” Y/n broadcasted.

“But me and Luke haven’t been surveyed yet” Michael declared.

“And you only asked me one question” informed Ashton.

“There’s only one question on the survey” Y/n lied.

“Really?”

“What is it?” asked Luke.

Mona and Y/n spoke at the same time. “What’s the first thing you see in a person?..”

“What does privacy mean to you?”

“It’s what?” Asked Michael.

The girls asked each other’s questions instead.

“huh?” Calum mumbled.

“We need to rework our survey” Mona said grabbing Y/n. “Kira will be out soon” She said, dragging Y/ns body out of the room.

 Chapter 3: Kira’s illusion

“You’re kidding right? You’re smoking” Ashton proclaimed, taking chug of his beer. Y/n smiled uneasily, Ashton obsession with Kira had been bittersweet. One hand she loved that he liked her, but on the other hand she couldn’t help but keep reminding herself that he loved Kira not her.

Her, Ashton, Luke and Calum had decided to go for drinks at Luke’s apartment after the fan meeting. Luke had staggered into his bedroom after couple shots saying hushed ‘goodnight’ a mere two hours ago.  Y/n had grown to like the boys, particularly Ashton and after Michael invited her over she swung at the opportunity.

On the other side of the coffee table, Calum whispered something into Michael ear which the blonde boy rolled his eyes at. “Do you still have the wet dreams necklace from the nightmare planet?” Michael sighed.

“The dreamer’s necklace” Calum corrected, his face quickly turning after meeting Y/n eyes.

“Whatever” Michael mouthed. “Do you have it?” He asked.

“The show is animated” Y/n further illustrated, it seemed that after the live-action trailer a couple months ago people had completely lost the plot of the series.

Michael glared at Calum, who was now burying himself in Luke’s fluffy white pillows. “But..” Calum blurted out, as he sat up again. “I read an article that there was replica made because Adam Davies loved the idea of it so much” Calum clarified.

Y/n took a sip of her white wine spritzer. “I guess, anyway” she waved her hand dismissing Calum. “I love your new song blindfold me, is there a personal inspiration behind it?” She asked, scanning Ashton for a reaction. “a muse perhaps?” She beamed, taking another sip.

“Actually..” Calum began to talk.

“I want to hear from Ashton” Kira slurred, making her drunkenness obvious. “You know” She hiccupped.  “since the track really capture his essences” She stumbled.

“But Calum wrote it” Michael huffed.

“Did he write it with Ashton in mind” Y/n said, not breaking eye contact with Ashton. Ashton giggled as the two other boys rolled their eyes.

“I’m going for a smoke” Calum told them, as he stood up to leave. “I think I’ll join you” Michael muttered, leaving Ashton and Y/n alone.

“Would like to go out sometime?” Ashton asked once the two where alone.

“Yes!” Y/n cheered throwing her hands in the air. “I mean that’s sounds good” Y/n quickly regained her composure trying to act as nonchalant has she possibly could. “Great” Ashton grinned, “I really like you Kira” He confessed.

Y/n sighed, turning herself away from Ashton. “I mean it Kira” He said, his hand reaching out and grazing her thigh. “I know you probably hear this all the time, but I’ve never met a girl like you. You’re so beautiful and badass” He professed, continuing to stroke her thigh.

“You know I’m not my character, right?” Y/n questioned.

“I know” Ashton giggled. “It’s just that you remind me of her so much. I’m sure the writer must of based her on you” He flirted. Y/n knew that she had heard those words from countless guys before, but her heart fluttered when Ashton said it. Maybe Kira hadn’t stole anything from her? Maybe she was Kira? Maybe Adam had written the character with her in mind. She wanted to say that and show Ashton all the inner workings of her badass personality, but instead…

“The most badass thing I ever did was steal a crayon” Y/n spilled.

“What?!” Ashton sniggered. “You’re telling me as the girl that slays ten-foot-tall snakes every week, the most badass moment of your entire existence is stealing a tiny Crayola crayon” He chortled, choking on his beer as he laughed.

“I had sheltered childhood” She admitted.

“Oh no Kira, you’ve let me down” He giggled. Y/n felt slightly disappointed even if Ashton was joking. She was embarrassed that she had talked about stealing crayon rather than the first time she held a snake, but she didn’t want to admit that one of the two options had made cry in guilt for weeks.

“What about you then?” Kira asked as she fingered her skirt. “What’s the most badass thing you have done?”

“Well I’m not sure how I’m going to top you stealing a crayon” Ashton kidded. “I don’t know” He sighed. “When I was a kid we lived next to this motor cyclist gang leader..” He began.

“Oooh” Y/n jeered.

“Yeah it was pretty cool” He added. “We used to have like whistle battles”

“Wait” Y/n giggled. “Your badass moment is living next to motor cyclist?” She asked.

“Gang leader” Ashton corrected smiling.

“Or is it whistle battles?” Y/n clowned, nudging Ashton’s arm slightly as the both laughed heartedly.

“Hey! Whistle battles are awesome” Ashton defended.

“I wouldn’t know” Y/n admitted, “I don’t know how to whistle” She confessed.

“Seriously?”

“Yeah”

“How?” Ashton inquired.

“I guess I was never taught” Y/n professed.

“Okay, so you go like this” Ashton instructed, parting his lips in an ‘O’ shape. “Then you just” His lips twitched slightly as the whistle tone came out.

“I’ll try” Y/n followed his instructions, but all that came out was a muffled almost inaudible breathy noise.

“I can’t do it” She sighed.

“Come on” Ashton lifted her chin up. “Try again” He said, once again showing Y/n how it was performed. Only this time Ashton whistle a whole tune and Y/n just puffed.

“Ugh” She groaned. “I guess I’ll keep practicing”

“Practice makes perfect” They both giggled. Y/n looked at her empty wine glass sighing in content.

“I guess I should get going” Y/n said, getting up. “ Its getting quite late” She explained.

“Right, let me give you my number” Standing up as well.

“Here” Y/n passed her phone over to him as she scanned the room. Beer cans, half drank glasses and an empty wine bottle, Luke would surely have to do some cleaning tomorrow she thought.

“There you go” Ashton passed her phone to her. “I’ll text you tomorrow to schedule our date” He said, walking her to the door.

“Looking forward to it”

“Goodnight” Ashton said, kissing her cheek before opening the door.

“Goodnight” Y/n replied, her whole face beaming.

“Leaving so soon?” Calum asked, as he leant against the garage door smoking.

“Yeah, it’s getting late” Y/n informed, feeling her eyes get heavy. Stepping outside had made the alcohol hit her faster and Y/n could feel the warm embrace of tipsiness engulfing her.

“How you are getting home?” Michael asked from the paved path he was sat on.

“Shit” Y/n muttered. “Fuck” She cussed more loudly this time, as she placed her palm against her forehead as though the question had knocked her.

The boys laughed between themselves. “We’ll order you an uber” Calum stated.

 Mona stared at Y/n in complete heartbreak like she was a sad little puppy that had just fallen in front of her.

“What?!” Y/n asked, completely fed up with the pity looks.

“It’s just that you never spoke about you” Mona informed.

“We flirted, he taught me how to whistle and I told him how I stole a crayon” Y/n defended.

“He taught you how to whistle for ten seconds hun, not to mention you still can’t whistle” Mona said sadly.

“But..”

“Y/n.. you told him how you stole a crayon, not some deep profound secret” Mona retaliated.

“We haven’t had our first date yet, I’m not telling him my secrets” Y/n explained, defensively.

“That’s another thing, you told him as Kira and the first he did after you mention something real about you is bring up Kira” Mona informed.

“I am Kira!”

“But you don’t want to be” Mona said. “Isn’t that why you took interested in this boy in the first place, because he saw you as Y/n?” She probed.

“And he still does” Y/n lied.

“Are you sure? Because it sounds like he has just won himself a date with Kira” Mona poked.

The illusion was shattered, the dream of Ashton and Y/n was gone, and she was hurt broken. Tears filled Y/n’s eyes, but she would not all Mona to see them.

“What do I do?” She pleaded.

“You need to bring Y/n to the date” Mona explained, smirking at Y/n’s face through the lens.

Masterlist

[neoduskcomics]

Star Wars: The Last Jedi Review (FULL SPOILERS)

LAST JEDI SPOILERS

Bottom line, I saw The Last Jedi (twice now) and I think overall it's a pretty good movie but it also has a lot of glaring problems. I'm just gonna make a list of things I didn't like, things I liked, and criticisms of the movie that I think don't make sense.

This is going to be long and verbose, and no one's gonna wanna read it. So, here we go.

Things I didn't like:

- Poe and Finn's story lines are totally contrived. If the vice admiral had just told literally anyone her plan, none of that stuff with the code breaker and mutiny and all that would've happened, and the rebels wouldn't have been decimated. We could've shaved off like forty minutes of the movie.

- Finn, my favorite character from Episode VII, has almost no role in this story. Yes, he's on screen most of the time, but he's mainly a bystander, running around as people lecture him about the greater good and who he's supposed to be. In TFA, he was such an important character, providing Rey with the first positive relationship in her life and adding an element of humanity and relatability to the cast. His story is basically him listening to people talk, and then he does this grand gesture of almost killing himself, which quite frankly would've been really dumb when the movie did so little for his character to earn such a dramatic development in the plot. Also, why the hell weren't Finn and Poe just put together in this film. Rose was okay, I guess, but come ON. Finn and Poe.

- I don't know if this is controversial, because I haven't seen anyone talk about it, but I was very disappointed that the movie just ends up with Rey and Kylo Ren on the same sides as before. Rey felt like she was really earnestly making a connection with Ren and she was really earnestly tempted by the dark side. I don't think it's unbelievable that she wouldn't turn, but it does feel like she was put on the spot to make a decision between light and dark at the last possible second. I would've liked to have seen her actually give in to Kylo Ren to set up a major conflict for the next film, or maybe even just her and Ren forge a new path together and leave both the First Order and Resistance behind. There was a LOT of build up to the connection between them, and seeing it thrown away so quickly felt very dissatisfying. This is something, though, that I think I can probably get over as time goes on, and plus I don't know what they're gonna do in the next movie. We'll see.

- The casino world was meh. Rose was nice but kinda meh. A lot of the humor was meh. A lot of the pacing was meh. A lot of the in-between-adventure stuff was meh. Some of the character arcs were meh. Phasma was meh.

Things I liked:

- Luke actually gets a freaking character arc in this movie that is meaningful and plays off of the expectations of the fans. He is not just another Master Kenobi or Master Yoda. He feels like a real human being who is flawed but also self-aware. He is stubborn and dogmatic, but also introspective and morally fibrous. He is wracked with guilt, but uses it as a stepping stone to overcome a new weakness and become stronger and happier for it.

- Luke, Rey and Kylo Ren's relationships all have great execution in this film. Their scenes together are dramatic, emotional, relatable and just plain good storytelling. You identify with all of these characters, and seeing them play off of one another lets you learn more and more about who they are, how they see each other, how they see themselves, and how that all changes throughout the film as a result of those interactions. It just plain works.

- We get some beautiful and much-needed fleshing out for Kylo Ren and Rey. Ren feels smothered and weighed down by the past, his mentors and his insecurities. He's trying desperately to overcome his weaknesses, kill off what gets in his way, and become his own man. Rey is struggling with a deeply set fear that she is alone, that she has no real family, and that she doesn't have a place set before her in the galaxy. They are struggling with opposite problems, and yet find common ground to connect over. Ren is a fantastic villain by the end of this film and Rey finally feels like a real, developed individual.

- The action was great. The visuals were great. Yoda was great. The performances were great. The drama was great. The themes were great. Some of the character arcs were great. The way the Force is explained and portrayed was great.

Criticisms that I kind of understand, but I think miss the point:

- "Luke acted completely out of character in this movie." Luke is a human being. He has flaws. He can change and experience new things and have new failures and get new lessons. He is not a pinnacle of benevolence, patience and wisdom. He demonstrates impatience, lapses in judgment and anger/hatred in every single movie. Luke becoming grumpy or considering killing Kylo Ren does not undo him as a good person. Him going through with killing Kylo Ren or refusing to learn anything/help anyone by the end of the film would have made him a bad person. He stews, reflects, learns and grows and it's a great part of the film.

- "Being able to smash through ships with hyperspace is dumb/you shouldn't be able to do it/why doesn't everyone just do it." A) It's Star Wars. B) It's Star Wars. C) Because it means someone commits suicide, you lose a gigantic probably really important and expensive ship in the process that you could've used for many years for other things, and now that there's a precedent for it, people will probably stop it before it happens again. It only worked this time because it'd never been done before and the First Order just didn't get what they were doing until it was too late. And if your complaint is that nobody thought of it before, then...your criticism is that this movie came up with a new idea? Not buying it.

- "Rey should've been related to someone important." Luke's related to someone important. Ben's related to someone important. How many of these characters need to be related to each other? Yes, there was build up that Rey had some important backstory, and then you find out she doesn't. That's the point. The film plays off of your expectations and does so in favor of making Rey confront what is to her a terrifying truth: as Kylo Ren puts it, she's a nobody and she has no place in this story. It's a legitimate insecurity that she has that she has to overcome. It's a far more interesting direction for the character than simply revealing that she's Kylo Ren's cousin or Kenobi's granddaughter or something. It's something new to the series and it makes sense both for the story and the character.

- "Snoke never got a backstory." Yeah, he didn't, and I get it. It's kind of annoying. But, you know, the Emperor never had a backstory until the prequels. Like the Emperor, Snoke was just a big, evil figure who was super important and had a lot of build-up, but ultimately was just a plot device for the character(s) to overcome (still like the Emperor). Yeah, we don't know how he seduced Ben, but we also don't know how the Emperor seduced Anakin (again, until the prequels happened). Not saying I loved this part of the movie, but it's, you know, nothing Star Wars fans should be unfamiliar with. And don't tell me there was tons of build-up for his backstory. Fans created that hype themselves. It was never even hinted at in the movies that we'd ever get elaboration on who exactly Snoke is.

This film is not perfect. But it's not terrible either. I get it if people think it's bad--I also think many parts of it are bad. But I don't get it when people say it's, like, the worst thing to happen to Star Wars ever. I think a lot of that hatred simply comes from the fact that Star Wars has been around so long, and has become so important to so many people, that it's become a bit of a double-edged sword. People love Star Wars, and they build a very personal attachment to it. But that also means that when Star Wars does something they disagree with or that doesn't align with how they personally interpret or connect to its story, they get really upset or sad or disappointed or like the world is ending. And I get it. I love Star Wars a lot, too.

But, come on, guys. Star Wars is a fantasy epic about space samurai flying around throwing lasers at each other. It's about drama and evil and good and relationships and magic and story, yes, but it's primarily, to me, about joy. I think a lot of people are letting their positive feelings for Star Wars become something ugly and mean, like Anakin turning to the dark side because of how intensely he loved his mother or Padme. There's a lot to dislike in this movie, but I think there's also a lot to love. Whatever your opinions, a lot of love clearly went into the making of this film, and for me, even if we're inclined to hold onto the hatred, we should make an effort to embrace the love instead.

Because, you know what, it's not about fighting what you hate. It's about protecting what you love.

[wazafam]

Rory and Jess might be the most controversial relationship in Gilmore Girls - some fans love Jess's intelligence and bad boy ways, and others think that he was just flat-out terrible for Rory and should have been ditched on the double. He remains controversial right through to the Year In The Life revival, where he reappears and makes fans wonder if he's still in love with Rory, and with good reason.

RELATED: Gilmore Girls: 10 Most Confusing Things About Rory

At the end of the day, Rory and Jess were incredibly important to each other, and they always will be - and that's something that any fan of the couple can get behind. From his time as a reluctant and angry teen to a successful author, Rory and Jess will always be there for each other, and fans of the couple will love these episodes.

Updated May 7, 2020, by Rose Moore: Fans are still hoping that a second season of Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life could be forthcoming - and while there are no official plans, there are some hints that a sequel is on the way. If it does, a huge hope for Rory and Jess fans is that there will be more between the two as adults, as they were only given a few scenes in the revival, and those scenes suggested that Jess still has some feelings for his high school sweetheart. In the meantime, though, there are some great episodes for fans of the couple to rewatch. 

15 The Bracebridge Dinner (S2 Ep10)

This isn't the first time that Rory meets Jess, but it's the time that really points toward what is waiting for them... and for her and Dean. In this episode, Lorelai has a huge dinner planned, which is canceled because of a snowstorm. She ends up inviting the townspeople to the event instead (seeing as everything is already arranged), and when the dinner ends in a sleigh ride, Rory ends up sharing a carriage with Jess. It's romantic enough there, but Jess pushes Rory to really think about her relationship with Dean - and everyone knows what is coming.

14 A Tisket, A Tasket (S2, Ep 13)

Stars Hollow has all kinds of ridiculous and adorable traditions, and this episode focuses on one of them - the picnic basket auction. Here, Jess decides to outbid Dean for Rory's basket, although tradition would dictate that Rory's beau take the honor. It stokes the resentment between Jess and Dean, for one thing, but it also creates space for Rory and Jess to spend some time together, and realize just how much they have in common.

13 There's The Rub (S2, Ep16)

Jess proves his literary chops in this episode, where Rory tells Dean that she wants to spend time alone, only for him to catch her with Jess and Paris. Of course, she originally did want to spend that time by herself, and she didn't invite either Paris or Jess over, they just kind of (individually) showed up. But it's a great one for Jess fans, as it shows that he has the ability to connect with Rory and Paris on an intellectual level - something that Dean fails to do.

12 Teach Me Tonight (S2, Ep19)

Despite Jess's intelligence, he struggles with schoolwork (out of boredom and a lack of motivation, largely). Luke, however, thinks that he needs tutoring, and this is where Rory comes in. Of course, their 'tutoring' really just gives them more time together, a deeper connection, and pushes Rory to realize how much she cares.

RELATED: Gilmore Girls: The 5 Most (& 5 Least) Realistic Storylines

This is especially clear in 'Teach Me Tonight', when they go for a drive together, and Rory wants to keep driving rather than going back to study. Of course, every fan knows how badly that goes, when they end up in an accident.

11 Lorelai's Graduation Day (S2, Ep21)

Some of the best episodes for Rory and Jess are some of the worst for Rory and Lorelai - and this is definitely one of the worst for that, as Rory misses her mother's graduation because she's playing hooky with Jess in NYC. Of course, as much as this was a terrible-daughter moment, it was a seriously romantic day for Jess and Rory, as they wander Manhattan and flirt all day.

10 I Can't Get Started (S2, Ep22)

This is one of the big ones for Rory/Jess fans - as after a whole lot of build up, the two finally kiss! Of course, it's not quite as romantic as it should be, given that the kiss comes at Sookie's wedding, which Rory is attending with Dean. However, when Jess asks to come back to Stars Hollow, and then this happens, everyone knows that Rory and Dean are on their last legs.

9 Eight O Clock At The Oasis (S3, Ep5)

Dean and Rory are still together at this point, but it's obvious that they are on the way out, and that Rory and Jess are going to be the next cute couple of Stars Hollow. The episodes in between their kiss at Sookie's wedding and them actually getting together are packed with great moments of chemistry, but this is a particularly noteworthy one. Rory gets caught dealing with a broken sprinkler, and Jess ends up coming by to fix it... but, as they stand together soaking wet, Rory tells him that Dean is on the way to help her himself. Showing remarkable consideration for their relationship, Jess turns the sprinkler back on, and walks away... leaving Rory (and fans) gazing after him.

8 Let The Games Begin (S3, Ep8)

It's taken far too many episodes since that first kiss at Sookie's wedding, but Rory and Jess are now together - and they are absolutely adorable. Between dealing with Luke and Lorelai's reactions to their own first moments as a couple, this is a thoroughly heartwarming episode... even if it does have its moments of awkward teen love. Still, at this point, everything is exciting and new for the two of them, and it's a great episode to revisit that new love feeling.

7 Face Off (S3, Ep15)

This may not be a favorite, because most of the episode is spent with Jesse not treating Rory wonderfully, but it is an important one - and has a great ending. The focus of the episode is Rory and her inability to call Jess to make plans, but her fury with his casual 'maybe we'll do something' attitude that ends up with her home alone.

RELATED: Gilmore Girls: The Main Characters, Ranked Worst To Best Character Arc

Throw in some Dean-with-a-new-girlfriend, and it seems like Rory and Jess are on the rocks... until he shows her how much he cares, and they get a sweet moment in the end.

6 Happy Birthday Baby (S3, Ep 18)

Having worked out their issues from Face Off, by this point in the series, Rory and Jess are happily, totally in love. Their relationship is often complicated, with as much time spent apart as together (far more time spent apart, in fact), but this is an episode that really shows how good they were. In it, Rory is making plans for university, and Jess is being 100% supportive. He is planning how they will stay in touch, thinking about visits, and showing her that he has every faith that they will stay together after she has gone to Yale. It's just a shame that this didn't actually happen.

5 Nag Hammadi is Where They Found the Gnostic Gospels (S4, Ep13)

Another slightly sad episode for Jess and Rory, as they've broken up at this point - but again, a big one. This is the episode where Jess, after all his time with Rory, and then his time apart from Rory (and his horrifying exit from Stars Hollow), finally tells her that he loves her. Sure, he then drives off, and this is after a day of running around avoid each other, but it's still a big moment.

4 Last Week Fights, This Week Tights (S4, Ep 21)

Rory and Jess may not actually get back together in the original series, but this is a moment that they could have done - and some might argue that they should have! Jess, after being away for quite some time, is back for his Mom's wedding - and he has started to grow up. This is also a great episode for Jess and Luke, as Jess acknowledges everything Luke did, and really thanks him for it. It also could have been a great one for Jess and Rory, as Jess heads to Yale and asks Rory to come back to New York with him. There's no way of knowing if they may have worked out had she taken him up on the offer, though, because she turns him down.

3 Let Me Hear Your Balalaikas Ringing Out (S6, Ep8)

This isn't the most romantic episode for Jess and Rory, but it's one that shows just how their relationship grows (and gives every reunion fan hope for the two of them!). At this point, Rory has dropped out of Yale and is living with her grandparents and not talking to her mother, so when Jess returns to see her, he is understandably surprised. And when she learns that he has written a book and generally got his life together, she starts to question her own choices. In many ways, it's Jess, and the moment that he calls her out on her current situation, that gets Rory to head back home and get back to what she really wants. What fan doesn't love Jess for that?

2 The Real Paul Anka (S6 Ep 18)

True Rory and Jess fans are still hoping for a second revival and a chance for these two crazy kids, but in the original series, this is the last big Rory and Jess moment - and it's a doozy. In 'The Real Paul Anka', Rory is still furious with Logan for sleeping around when they were broken up, and when he heads out with the Life and Death Brigade, she heads out to Jess's publishing house event. Unsurprisingly, they have all kinds of chemistry, and when Jess asks if everything is 'fixed' and she says it is, he kisses her! Which would be amazing, except of course, she is cheating on Logan, and gets upset and confesses everything. Poor Jess... but what a final kiss!

1 A Year In The Life: Summer

By the revival, it seems that Rory and Jess are almost completely out of each other's lives - Rory is dating someone else (who she routinely forgets about) and having an affair with Logan in London, but when Jess comes back to town in the summer, there's still chemistry between them. They also still make perfect sense together. Jess is now matured, and is still helping inspire Rory, as he is the one who plants the idea of writing a book in her head. At the end of the revival, Jess tells Luke that he's completely over Rory, of course, but the way he looks at her says otherwise.

NEXT: Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life: 10 Questions Fans Still Have About The Characters

Gilmore Girls: 15 Best Episodes To Rewatch If You Miss Rory and Jess from https://ift.tt/2WJkvVi

[kyluxtrashpit]

Okay so now for the real post. I was prepared to write this whole big thing about the kylux fandom and why I’m staying despite some things and such but honestly the movie was pretty good? As some of you know, I was fucking TERRIFIED I’d have to leave the ship (also shoutout to those who helped calm me down; you know who you are <3). I have some quibbles, which I’ll get into below, but overall it was pleasantly surprising. FYI this post of full of spoilers and please remember I spoiled myself on a good amount of it before going in. I’m also very happy I did

And also… this was all 100% in line with the headcanons I already had for kylux? I’ve seen a lot of people freaking out and jumping ship and saying we need to completely reimagine the characters, which, sure, if you want to, go nuts, but idk I didn’t personally get anything like that? Snoke pitting them against each other, because you know if he talked shit about Hux to Kylo, he’s definitely doing it the other way around too. And yes, Kylo does attack Hux, but Hux was also about to kill him before he woke up, even if Kylo doesn’t know that, so we’re in exactly the same place as before. I could talk a lot about why their characterizations are exactly in line with the way I saw and wrote them before and why Kylo taking on the mantle of Supreme Leader does not mean Hux is inferior to him in practice in any way, shape, or form, but this post is way too fucking long already so I’ll save it for another day

Instead, here’s a list of Thoughts in no particular order:

Kylo was fucking PHENOMENAL. This. This is what I wanted. My boy being unstable as fuck and making terrible split-second impulse decisions and getting himself in way over his head. He’s going to regret taking the throne in like 3 days. Guaranteed. He’s made the biggest mistake of his life and he doesn’t even know it yet because he has no idea what he actually wants, just saw an opportunity and went ‘oh shit… the throne is empty… wait. I know how to sit?? I could sit on it??? YES THIS IS A GREAT IDEA I’M THE NEW LEADER FUCK YES’. I fucking love my disaster boy. I love him so much I can’t even articulate it

Also like… Rey shows him one small moment of kindness and he’s immediately like ‘someone was nice to me??? okay cool this is all it took to convince me to kill my abusive mentor for the last better part of a decade who’s been in my head for almost my entire life just because of that’ and like… that is both the most Kylo thing I’ve ever seen and the biggest mood I’ve ever had. This is why we always wrote Hux capable of manipulating him and why Snoke was able to manipulate him; Kylo aches for positive attention from literally anyone

“I want every gun we have to fire on that man” JFC HONEY NO. But on a more serious note, the second the mask comes off, all of his control is gone. He’s trying so hard to assert his dominance and power over everyone he encounters because he thinks that will make him feel better, that it’s what he wants, but he’s so fucking out of control and out of his depth that it just utterly falls flat, just like in tfa after the mask came off. He can Force choke and throw people all he wants, literally no one is fooled. He has no idea what he’s doing and it’s staggeringly obvious

I also really liked seeing baby Ben, even for just like 10 seconds

Literally the only Kylo thing I did not like were his pants. Like goddamn boy, that waist is way too high. No wonder your temper is so finicky. I’d be angry too if I was wearing uncomfortable, excessively high-waisted pants all the time

I, too, did not like the dumb humour with Hux (see: the entire opening bit. Like literally all of it; Poe should not have been able to pull that off and Hux is not that stupid) but I also still see the Hux I’ve come to love in there. The snark, pulling a gun without hesitation on Kylo for the double tap but being smart enough to hide it when he wakes up, the entire command shuttle bit (except the Force throw – that was unnecessary), and especially that glare of absolute rage and hatred at Kylo once he turns away inside the base on Crait. I’m okay with tired disaster Hux and you can tell he’s already planning a coup. The army seems to still be under his control anyway; he just needs to wait until Kylo finishes digging his own grave and then give him that extra push into it

That said, I’m really glad we got to see Hux bitch slap someone, even if I wish it hadn’t been Finn

Rose was the other highlight of the movie right up until the kiss with Finn. I loved their interactions but the unnecessary heterosexuality was just… no. And then the bit at the end that definitely looked towards a love triangle? *loud gagging noises* no, fuck that shit. Literally everything else with her was absolutely amazing though, especially the Canto Bight stuff

Finn felt… off somehow? I can’t explain why, but he just felt like a weaker character here. Finn was really compelling in tfa and I really wanted more with him and to learn more about him, but I feel like he didn’t do much? The fight with Phasma was a little underwhelming (also she deserved to go out more impressively than that) and most of the other stuff was someone else instigating and him just going along. He seemed… too passive, maybe? I can’t put my finger on what was off, but I didn’t like it and I’m a little let down there. I also really wanted him to be Force-sensitive and really felt he was built up to be. How else was he the only person to ever break FO conditioning?

Poe was also… not how I imagined? I always saw him as the ‘calm pal’ kinda guy but I guess he’s a little more jumped up than I expected. Not a gripe, per se, but just surprising. They also very much did demote him from main character status, which is kinda sad

Admiral Holdo was a fucking boss and I love her. So was Leia for most of it (expect what was with that space scene?). Fuck yeah powerful older women. I need so much more immediately. However, I also wish Leia had gotten more time and it also saddens me that she’s now lost her entire family. Yes, she has the Resistance, and Poe and Rey and Finn, but she has no one from her past. Literally no one. Leia had already lost so much coming into this trilogy and it’s absolutely tragic that all she did was lose more. Leia deserved better, but with Carrie gone, we know Leia won’t be getting it in 9

DJ WAS FANTASTIC. I did not see that coming. And I hope we never see him again because it would ruin the purpose of his character

I liked most of Rey’s arc. I wasn’t sure about the Force bond (I knew about it beforehand) but it ended up working for me and was actually really cool. I still do not ship r*ylo at all (it’s just not for me, ship what you want), but their interactions are intriguing and I can understand why things played out how they did. Rey wanted help for the rebellion and a teacher. She thought that was Luke, but it wasn’t, and then she thought that was Kylo, but it wasn’t. I think she just needs to realize that maybe it’s up to her to be the one to help the rebellion. She’s figured out most of the Force on her own already; I don’t think she needs a teacher. Although the jealous look towards Finn and Rose was just awful. I’m also very concerned for her arc in 9 because I swear if they make it all about trying to save Kylo, I’d be fucking pissed. She’s her own character. She doesn’t exist to help him

I’m also… not sure I buy Rey being a nobody? It’s either a lie or just bad writing to lead up to it. Because in tfa, it’s always ‘who’s the girl?’, ‘what girl?’, etc. I also always got the feeling that Kylo knew who she was, somehow? And why did the Skywalker family lightsaber choose her over Kylo? Why does she have the same amount of power as Kylo if there’s no relation whatsoever? How are her parents buried on Jakku if she saw a ship flying away? I just feel like it was built up to lead elsewhere and then it didn’t. Then again, it is possible Kylo is lying or only thinks he knows, but idk. It’s not that I hate the idea of her being a nobody, but the execution of it was tremendously clumsy

As for Luke… I don’t know. Luke has never been the kind of person to attack first. He is a gentle flower. The entire point of him is his idealism, his hope, his kindness. Even if it was in a moment of instinct, of fear, I don’t think he’d pull a lightsaber first on anyone, especially a family member, no matter how much Dark was in him. Luke saw the Light in Darth Vader, of all people. That it was stressed to be an accident and for Luke to realize he’d fucked up big helped, but I still don’t know if I buy it. I understand bringing flaws to Luke, but I don’t think these were the right flaws to bring. I… don’t know. I haven’t decided how I feel about this yet. And also his death was just odd? What killed him? Was the implication that Force-projecting that far is too hard? Idk, it was really strange and I didn’t get it. I need to think on how I feel about it. Also ‘see you around, kid’ was a pretty dumb last line. Even though I’m pretty sure it was more a promise/threat than anything else. He’s going to be haunting the shit out of everyone

I really liked the crystal foxes. I want 10 of them immediately. However, I have no strong feelings one way or the other on the porgs

THE FUCKING IRON. Jfc I was like ‘omfg that ship looks like an iron, that’s so ridiculous’ AND THEN IT WASN’T A SHIP, IT WAS JUST AN IRON. It was inordinately funny to me. I lost my shit and my friend gave me a dubious look

I wish we’d seen the KOR and I really, really hope we do in 9. Come on, JJ, I believe in you. Let me see the rest of the disaster children in action

Yoda’s cameo was kinda dumb and unnecessary. I know that was supposed to be the moment that changed Luke’s mind but… ehhh. I could’ve done without

The bit at the end with the random kid was also stupid and I wish they’d cut it

Now the biggest thing is… where the fuck are they going with 9? The Resistance is 10 people in the Falcon, the Order is being run by a guy who has absolutely no fucking clue what he’s doing and a second in command that is ready to murder the shit out of him the second he gets the chance. Leia probably won’t be there, so the OT trio is gone. This movie was also weird because it was like… the span of a day and a half? At most? It’s a really strange timeline to go with imo and it’s going to make 9 hard. I’m scared Rey will become an accessory to Kylo’s story (which is most likely going to end up as an even more ham-fisted redemption arc than it would’ve been if it had started in 8). Like no one is in a powerful place. If there were 2 more movies coming, I think it would work, but with only 1? Ehhhh, idk. I have faith in JJ but in some ways he’s been written into a corner, I think. We’ll have to see, I guess