#btw the episodes that these are from are in the image description!

[foxgonyoom]

Lessons we learned in LMK Season 4:

Episode 1:

Be afraid.

Episode 2:

If your friends get sucked into a nightmare scroll, you should jump in it too.

Episode 3:

If there’s a ghost, don’t fight him. Words are much more effective at making him cry.

Episode 4:

Feeding customers is more important than escaping an angry mob.

Episode 5:

“What are you Thor, the God of Hammers?!”

Episode 6:

Cats are more reliable for bringing your friend back to their senses than motivational speeches.

Episode 7:

We’re pretty good at faking it til we making it so you better start TAKING IT SON!

Episode 8:

Shit’s complicated

Episode 9:

Fuck up that lion man!

Episode 10:

When all else fails, return to monke.

[gaycrittercentral]

They're done!! also fuck you tumblr how dare you eat ALL THE INFO I JUST PUT IN HERE AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

sigh. Anyhow here they are!! My first stab at drawing the seven heavenly virtues AU, which was actually going to be a set of references for a different drawing of them, but then I ended up coloring these instead. Lmao I'll finish the other drawing another time. All that's missing here is Max drooling over them all fjkdsljgslk;fhsh

Also, my handwriting fuckin' sucks so feel free to check the alt text/image description if you need a translation! Anyhow I'm boutta ramble about them a LOT so the rest is under the cut hehe

I'll be the first to say that color is not my strong suit, or at least that I'm not confident in my color choices, but I'm honestly pretty happy with how most of these turned out! probably my favorites are Chastity, Patience and Kindness, just because they get to be a bit unique (and also because conceptually I like them a lot hehe). I almost feel bad giving my favorite color to Diligence bc he's a loser, but whatever, somebody had to get it and he fit the vibe best lmao. Also, funnily enough, he and Temperance are the only ones who ended up having the same hue as their vice counterparts! Weird, huh? Oh actually there's Humility and pikaflute's Pride, they're both indigo teehee. But yeah, I wanted to match colors with the vibe of each virtue, so it didn't end up being a one to one thing with the vices.

Btw I kinda based Patience on that one episode of the cartoon where Sam passed out for fifteen years and woke up a monk, lol. But also I just reeeeally wanted to put him in that bathrobe, also from the cartoon, because um. Well. um. open bathrobe Sam....I don't even like men but like.......

Also there's a roll of toilet paper behind Humility because he's locked in the bathroom, poor baby. Oh and it didn't come out all that clear but that's a trowel Kindness has in his hand, he's helping with about a million things at once fjkdlsgjdlskh. I'm love him

Oh and tbh while I like most everybody, I really think I need to give sin Sam a more original design. Like, let's be honest, if he had some five o' clock shadow, no hat, and his tie back, then he's just noir Sam. And that's great I guess because we all know noir Sam was hot, but like, I don't wanna just ride his coattails. For that matter, if anybody has ideas for potential redesign elements, I'd be interested in hearing them! Can't promise I'll go with them because I'm horrifically picky but I'd love to hear anyhow hhhhfkdlsjfldshfs

ummm and that's it I can't think of anything else to say and I've kept myself up entirely too late doing this so hope y'all enjoy byeeeeee

[snoftshell-snurtle]

btw did you know that one the internet archive you can watch the entirety of TMNT 87 for free? like, genuinely legally for free.

happy watching :D

[image description:

Screenshot from the TMNT 1987 episode "Leonardo, the renaissance turtle". Leonardo and April look up at Raphael and Michelangelo's faces on a big screen.

end ID]

[kerubimcrepin]

Live-read: Trying to understand the Aux Tresors novels without actually reading the novels in question.

This is the last, and the most borderline-experimental and cringe-flop part of the reading break #1, because in this post, I will be discussing the five novels based on the show.

Without actually reading them.

Nobody has seemingly ever scanned or copied them, and I don't have the ability to buy them. If you're French, or a rich person, perhaps you could get your hands on them and tell me how wrong I am, but until then, let's speculate.

You can find the... (sighs deep as fuck) Plot Summaries on Otakia. Everything I will discuss here comes from Otakia. You can find the books somewhere else. Perhaps Amazon, probably some other site too... Because as far as I remember, Ankama's literal official shop only has one of the five.

Roman Kerubim (Dofus) Tome 1 : Le ciel sur la tête

>Read about it here

To regurgitate a bit of info from Otakia: just like the Wakfu novels, which apparently also exist, these five novels are kind of like... a bonus episode in a written form, following the structure of the show.

When grabbing quotes from Otakia I will be putting them into a translator and then screenshotting, so that you can quickly read them, and so that I don't have to copy things.

But I won't be copying the descriptions or summaries of the books, just the bits I'd like to elaborate on. You can read them yourself there.

To reference that one meme: Why didn't he start thinking about his dead parents? Is he stupid?

OKAY, I really didn't expect this post to go anywhere, but it's funny that even in Dofus times, Porkass people were known to eat Twelvians.

You will never fucking guess with what nation Bonta of the Waven era, is involved in a seemingly mutually cannibalistic war with.

Roman Kerubim (Dofus) Tome 2 : Une étoile pour le shérif

>Read about it here

I want to thank whoever runs Otakia for uploading this image specifically. Thank you Monsieur/Madame Otakia.

You may notice that, I will be upscaling all the images I bring here from the Otakia articles. The reason for this is that I am a normal and sane person, and need to look at it in a crispier way.

As you may remember, Kerubim already said that he used to be a sheriff in episode 16, West of Astrub.

The writer of this article will literally be like "the book gives you candy, sucks your dick clean and dry, cleans up your home, and then it gives you a hundred dollars, so I didn't like it."

I wish Kerubim would be a fucking loser and a menace more often.

In the Judgement of The Twelve episode, Kerubim and Bashi had already mentioned meething each other many times as young adults, and having stories about it, so it's nice to see this factoid utilized for more than 2 episodes, if only in a book.

Also, yet again, Kerubim literally doing his job and Bashi being fucking insane and hating him for it, despite doing far worse things.

Roman Kerubim (Dofus) Tome 3 : Panique à Astrub

>Read about it here

Indie is insane for this btw.

Joris canonically eats burgers and YES reading this article a while back is the reason I put burgers into my Joris fanart.

You can see full art on my general artblog @atcham-crepin. Yeah, my blog naming scheme is very creative, I know.

I just think his refined ass eating burgers is funny, even though in canon he is only depicted doing this as a kid.

Roman Kerubim (Dofus) Tome 4 : Le décapiteur de soiffard

>Read about it here

Including the cover art because it is very nice, and to draw your attention to THE best novel none of us will ever get to fucking read.

My dream Joris & Simone story, and I can't even read it. Smh.

List of things I love about this:

Joris stealing stuff.

Joris stealing stuff.

Joris stealing stuff.

Simone being a leader.

Kerubim, as we had seen in the past episodes, literally the type to text something like "I am not long for this world.... tell my family I love them." over a tummy ache. I hate this man so much it's unreal.

Of Course he sent them on a wild goose chase over some random bullshit.

Simone and Joris @ Kerubim at the end of this book:

Roman Kerubim (Dofus) Tome 5 : Tous en piste

>Read about it here

I will be real, I don't think any living being can tame that fucking beast.

These books are just treating us with characters in outfits we hadn't seen them in, in the show. It would be... a better world, if these books were episodes instead.

Also, want to yet again remind you that I am upscaling the shit out of these images. Because I'm normal. But at times the results can be wonky.

The World of Twelve has never seen, and will never see again, a couple more toxic than them. Sad!

Unlike the Simone & Joris book, I yet again don't have much to say, but, I'm sure I would, had the books been available to me.

This brings me to a close with the first reading break. After this post, I will resume liveblogging about the show. But I do have ideas of what the next reading break entail, and I think they're rather fun! Like "trying to read Dofus manga without reading Dofus manga" or "reviewing Dofus Aux Tresors merch without buying Dofus Aux Tresors Merch", or, perhaps, "scrying on a crystal ball to read Tot Ankama's thoughts."

...Yeah. Only the last one is a joke.

[gemwolfz]

good morning chat (<- it's 12:30 pm) its time for a GEM FROG WATCHPOST (instead of putting it in the bg while i draw because ive accepted i cant draw and read at the same time)

btw my very legal straming site doesnt have episode descriptions and no way im remembering an episode thats been mentioned by number so i have no idea what im getting into. also im setting a timer to truly see how long my autistic ass can stretch a 15 minute episode. ok lets get started :)

okay first of all intro i havent seen yet lets GOOOO. PURURU SIGHTING IN THERE HEY GIRL!! i actually need to watch some eps with pururu in em btw. like hey show her to me. anyway good intro lots of guys spotted :)

^ CATEGORY 5 DORORO EVENT HI. experiencing the horrors as usual i see

i see so this is what we're doing today huh. do you intend to rip my heart out.

im sorry they have a fucking invasion planning chore wheel? thats really funny

OH IT'S THIS ONE HUH. THIS IS WHAT WE'RE DOING HUH (lovingly)

wcdonalds btw. sorry sorry wcdonalds cracks me up every time in any show

^^ his ass did NOT process what was just said!!!

he had it right the first several times cmon man.

hes taking this in stride huh. even in category 5 THE LORE situations the silly grind doesnt stop

why is zeroro resonance so fucking stupid btw. sorry man.

screenshot that speaks for itself man

somehow i dont think "my alien ninja partner is in serious trouble i need to leave immediately" will be counted as an excused absence by your teachers but after scaling a building in a single leap i dont think anybodys gonna question you. i love you koyuki

[this image set broke in the editor but it included keroro and tamama calling zeroro SO MEAN for not explaining his plan to them] frankly i respect keroros unwillingness to treat situations with the proper gravity because i do the same thing king

his ass does not care

he changed his mind something is terribly wrong

okay lets be real here the platoon would NOT have found him there. if he hadn't been able to contact koyuki he'd have been fucked. badly. something something being saved again by the person who showed you the warmth and beauty the planet has to offer

literally yeah the fate of the planet is held by natsumi being able to throw frogs like splat balls. pov youre giroro and the number one person standing between you guys and invasion is decidedly the girl who is constantly personally stopping you from blowing shit up. this is a personal attack

important and relevant but also im sorry "brat" is incredibly funny word choice coming from tamama

no reaction i can put into words. btw this episode is labelled as a filler episode. just so you know. i just think thats funny. haha so silly

aye.......................................... i would be using more reaction images but i have to prioritize screenshots. anyway god.

they were holding their fucking BREATH. his ass could have died!! badly!!! their deep sigh of relief is not as visible as i'd have hoped but you know. you feel me.

there are reactions i am making that are sound effects i cannot put into words sorry. im better at posting silly nonsense im sure you understand. hell, post horse staring at the ocean MAN again

he goes "i'm sorry about that, everyone!" as if it was fucking nothing. DUDE. This is why you caught that trauma-eating brain parasite because you just act like shit was NOTHING DUDE...

........yea...........................

NO EYECATCH OR ANYTHING? YOURE JUST GONNA TAKE US TO THE NEXT EPISODE? OKAY. OKAY THATS FINE. THAT'S FINE.

gem conclusion:

anyway i spent an hour watching this ten minute episode. sorry for maybe a weak reaction post i need to stir this episode in my head like a soup. thank you plates for your recommendation. join me in the rbs later as i may watch episode B and experience whatever tonal whiplash this episode came with

[beardedhandstoadshark]

What is the strangest Ads have you ever seen?

Oh boy, let me tell you of a little ad campaign that gave tiny me actual nightmares :)

So, as a kid, I watched a lot of Nickelodeon; be it Drake & Josh, Fairly Odd Parents, iCarly, you name it- but the show I watched most of all was SpongeBob. No joke, I LOVED this funky sponge lad and his friends, to the point you could give me a description of a single scene and I‘d know what episode you were talking about. Part of that was probably because of the schedule- airing both right after I always came home and as the last show before the movies at 20:15, so I was able to catch pretty much every episode.

Only one evening, when the pre-movie episode started airing, the portrait guy did his iconic "OHHHH“, and the camera went underwater to kick off the song with everyone’s favorite sponge slamming the door open to greet a new day-

He wasn’t there.

The scene froze.

Silence.

Only broken when a single message finally flashed across the screen:

"SPONGEBOB IS GONE.“

Cut to the…studio? And a guy reports that SpongeBob is missing from Nickelodeon, they’re searching for him and need help, a website was launched for viewers to send clues and sightings in because no one knows what happened, where is he, who did this, what’s going on- and then the usual program continued without change.

Except there was change, because SpongeBob was gone. Everywhere. Wherever SpongeBob would normally be in those in-between commercial breaks, the program previews, even the icons on the Nick website, everywhere he‘s ever been- he was blackened out. Only an empty silhouette remained. Because SpongeBob wasn’t there.

SpongeBob was gone.

So when the time finally came for his episodes to air, they didn’t. Instead, It‘d cut back to the studio, and the guy would say that he was still missing, but people sent in clues from the website (that was actually real btw) and they’d show it over the course of the weeks. I watched that program exactly once, and they showed three things. A letter asking SpongeBob to please come back because everyone misses him, a photoshopped image of the sponges’ silhouette jumping up in front of a sunset beach. But do you wanna know what the last thing they showed was?

A minute long video of someone desperately running for their life through thick foliage blocking all their view with the only sounds audible being the rustling branches, their labored panting, and an ominous distorted laughter howling with the wind.

And then the dude went like "wow thank you for the clues :D could that really be SpongeBob? We don’t know and he’s still missing! See ya tomorrow!“ and I had to go to sleep. I could not go to sleep. Like. Sir. SIR. Is SpongeBob getting hunted? IS HE HUNTING SOMEONE!? HELLO!??? WHATS GOING ON!??

Yea. So this went on for a while, every day SpongeBob was still missing and they played that program showing off a bunch of the things that were sent in.

Until they randomly announced that he was found and everything turned to normal again from one moment to the next. Turns out was at the frickin Nickland section of Moviepark this entire time. Bruh.

And this whoooole thing, was an ad campaign. Not for said Nickland like I thought back the time, cuz that would’ve at least made somewhat sense.

Nope, it was for one. Single. SpongeBob episode.

All of this.

For the episode where SpongeBob falls off a random cliff gets amnesia and becomes mayor of some random city for a day.

Bruh.

[azzydoesstuff]

okay, very hot take maybe perhaps possibly: image descriptions... are not very good at what they're meant to do.

i mean, it's not like there's a better alternative, but like

there is so much context and information lost by explaining an image through text/speech

it's like trying to explain a funny scenario that happened earlier to your friend who wasn't there to see it. the whole time it's gonna be awkward because yes, they're going to know what happened, but the entire funny part of the scenario is gone because you had to be there and they're just hearing what happened without experiencing it for themselves

you know what i mean??

it's not very useful

if the image is a meme, there's not really a point in describing it to blind people because it's not going to be very funny for them. it gives them the contents of the image, but a lot of the oomph of the image is gone

i don't know how to explain it but like

you get what i mean right???

like, try watching a tv episode but you don't see any of it and it's just your friend describing it to you the whole time

it's not the same as actually seeing the episode!

so image descriptions are just

not effective

like, at all, really

like, if the post includes an image at some point which has crucial information that will provide context and be important for the rest of the text in the post, it makes sense to at least describe it so the post makes sense to someone who can't see the image

but the entire point of an image is that it essentially allows you to see a moment, place or event without having to see it in person

a description of said moment, place or event is the closest equivalent for blind people

but like

it defeats the entire point of using an image, so...

i think what i'm trying to say here is

if you're blind... what are you doin' on social media?????

genuinely, i'm not being rude or anything, like, can an actual irl blind person gimme an answer? like, what you doing on here??? pretty much all social media content is either images or videos and require eyesight to fully enjoy, so do you, like... get any enjoyment from being on here???

apart from contacting people you know irl and things like that, what do you even do on the internet???

i'm honestly quite curious

(don't wanna offend anyone btw feel free to keep using IDs if you wanna)

[paper-gold-theories]

Villainous Headcanon/Observation: Flug’s Family is the Podemos Bailar

(Note: I do not believe GoldHeart and Flug are brothers.)

I made this theory based on observations from the show, things I read in Flug’s Wiki, the Podemos Bailar Website, the Men Without Hats: Safety Dance Lyrics and the decoded puzzles in the Villainous Colouring Book, and Flug’s Research Book and Dem’s Diary [spoilers btw if you haven’t read.]

Flug is part of the family in the Podemos Bailar family.

(Note: I headcanon that the Podemos Bailar is they type of wealthy organisation [a franchised Dance Studio] backed up and run by a successful and wealthy family but their business also doubles as a front for their secret underground organisation [Men Without Hats])

It is mentioned in the decoded messages from the Villainous Colouring Book (original source in Spanish in the link above)

- a dancing agent trapped between pages its up to you to look for alternatives

- black hat watches his minions carefully all the time but there is one of the three who watches more than the other two

[Google Translate]

I feel like both descriptions refers to Flug. I headcanon, BlackHat watches over Flug because he knows too much information about his past. The reason that he was able to get so much information is because he was originally in the Podemos Bailar family before he became a Villain, whose purpose is to find as much research on BlackHat in order to take him down. (e.g. How did Flug get the photo of BlackHat and his 2 associates? He must have done some extensive research and have access to difficult to attain sources).

As shown in the image in Episode 3 and in Flug’s Wiki, it was mentioned by Alan in a stream that Flug cannot dance and that he only did so in school dances because his mother forced him to. (see Flug’s Relationship with his Mother below for reference)

In the Podemos Bailar website (see source link above) the header message states that:

[Google Translate]

Everyone Dance Safe!

We are experts in safe dance, we specialize in the art of rendering all kinds of tributes to all types of dances and dances that have been around for years so that no matter what kind of dance you want to dance, you can do it safely. The catalog we offer covers styles from Ballet to the iconic "Dance without a Hat."

The name Men Without Hats and the summary in their header "Everyone Dance Safe", "We are experts in safe dance" and “no matter what kind of dance you want to dance, you can do it safely” reminds me of this song “The Safety Dance” sang by a band with the same name Men Without Hats.

Alan and Diego also briefly referenced the Men Without Hats: The Safety Dance a few times (Source: [1],[2])

My Theory is that Flug cannot do the “Safety Dance”, which is like an inntiation ceremony to be accepted into the family, so he got left behind and treated like an outcast or scapegoat in the family, while his brother who was able to be initiated into the family was treated like the golden child who could do no wrong.

(Lyrics: We can dance if we want to,

We can leave your friends behind,

‘Cause your friends don't dance,

And if they don't dance

Well, they're no friends of mine)

He still had to contribute to helping his family and had to do jobs such as doing research on Black Hat, his past, and Black Hat Organisation. His family’s teachings makes him initially have a negative view towards BlackHat and Villains in general, however, he does not have the same hatred for Black Hat, unlike the rest of his family, but he still does his job because it is his duty and in order to please his family. Instead, he develops an interest and fascination for BlackHat and Black Hat Organisation in general.

Flug’s Relationship with his Father

His father doesn’t know how to deal with Flug, so he just focuses on his brother. His father’s emotional distance might have contributed to Flug’s social awkwardness in interacting with people. (Source from Flug’s Wiki)

[Things I imagine Flug’s father probably saying to Flug]

“Sometimes the best thing you can do to help is step aside. Let your brother or the rest of the family deal with this.”

(Lyrics: Say, we can act if we want to

If we don't, nobody will

And you can act real rude and totally removed

And I can act like an imbecile)

Flug’s Relationship with his Mother

Flug is closest to his mother because she is the only one in the family who tries to include him in their activities. She also probably give him his nickname “Fluggy” due to his love of planes. However, she still favours his brother over her and treats him better. Flug’s mother, I believe she is someone who likes planning, organisation, order and discipline. She is quite strict and controlling towards Flug and often quick to punish him if he makes a mistake or steps out of line. (Evidence as shown in the photo in Episode 3, when Flug has a nightmare of reassuring his mother that he will behave and Flug only going to dances because his mother forced him to).

Flug is also quick to note that his brother does not get the same treatment as him and often coddled by his mother. Flug might have gotten his love for planning, order and discipline from his mother and his anxiety and stress when things go according to plan from the punishments he gets from her. (See Images and more Evidences in Episode 1)

[Things I imagine Flug’s mother saying to Flug:]

- “I know you can’t dance, but at least try to make an effort, to contribute to this family (Flug’s mother on Flug not wanting to dance at the school dance because he knows he will mess up)

-“Why can’t you be more like your brother.”

(Lyrics: And say, we can dance, we can dance

Everything's out of control)

Flug’s Relationship with his Brother

Flug and his brother have a scapegoat and golden child relationship.

His brother pulls an endless series of cruel and scary pranks and jokes on him which probably have gone too far most of the time. This causes him do develop emotional anxiety and his fear of the supernatural. (Images and more evidence from Episode 2)

Flug’s brother, the golden child, does these awful pranks because he identifies with their narcissistic parents, or has a narcissistic side himself, and joined in the abuse directed towards Flug, the scapegoat. This is obviously no basis for a healthy relationship, but their narcissistic parents will do nothing to bridge this gap. In fact, they will likely encourage rivalry and hostility, amongst the brothers as a means to control their children.

(Lyrics: We've got all your life and mine

As long as we abuse it, never gonna lose it

Everything'll work out right)

Flug’s brother is often favoured by his parents, he gets praise and recognition for putting in minimal effort and producing subpar results while Flug has to work twice as hard and still never gets the recognition he deserves, even after he does a good job. This is why he is desperately wants recognition from BlackHat because he rarely gets praise from anyone and if gets a complement from someone who is the best of the best amongst the Villains and a guy who rarely praises people for their work, he knows he is doing a good job. (Evidence in Episode 1, Flug’s dream was to get recognition from his boss for doing a good job)

The Embarrassing Sandwich Incident

The last straw was the embarrassing sandwich incident. It is mentioned in Flug’s Wiki that he is scared of sandwiches due to an embarrassing incident that happened in the past.

This is my headcanon of what happened:

His brother pulled a prank on him by filling the sandwich he brought to school for lunch with glue. (Note: I believe the white-yellowish substance in the sandwich Flug imagined up was not mayonnaise) Flug unfortunate didn’t know until he took a bite of it. He was fortunate to realise it was glue and not swallow it and suffocate, but was unable to spit out the sandwich because the glue has sealed his mouth shut.

The other students who saw him struggle to spit out the bite of sandwich before chocking to death laughed at his misfortune and embarrassment instead of trying to help him, before he used one of his inventions to take the sandwich out of his mouth without cutting his mouth open.

When his parents found out about what happened, they sided with his brother saying that he was just “joking around”, even though the incident nearly killed him and that it was Flug’s fault for being dumb enough to think that glue was mayonnaise.

————

Realisation

Flug then came to a realisation that no matter how hard he tries or what he does, he will never please his family. He will forever be seen in the eyes of his family as a failure and a scapegoat because he cannot “dance” unlike his brother and they will always choose him before Fug.

So he decides to leave, cut ties with his family, forge a new identity and pursue his dream of of getting a pilot’s license.

(Lyrics: Say, we can go where we want to

A place where they will never find

And we can act like we come from out of this world

Leave the real one far behind)

(Note: Flug was in a middle school age at the time, so this was before he wanted to be a Villain and went to Black Hat Institute)

[yourfaviskillingit]

your fav shouko komi from komi can’t communicate is autistic!

note: she canonically has severe social anxiety btw! the show is about her trying to overcome it and make friends! i’m only on episode 4 i believe and it isn’t a perfect representation but the show is really sweet and heartwarming and as someone with severe social anxiety i like it ^^ i would recommend this show, especially to others with anxiety. please don’t use this as a learning tool tho if you want to understand anxiety, please talk to people who actually have it and consult reliable medical sources.

[image description: there is a photo of komi from komi can’t communicate over the autistic flag. komi is a high school girl with light skin and long straight purple hair. she is very tall and has a slim body that is noticeably an “hour glass” shape. she is wearing a school uniform that has a purple uniform jacket a dark red skirt and a stripped bow with both colors. she wears long tights and brown loafers. the autistic flag is a yellow flag with an infinity sign in a rainbow gradient.]

[the-sixxth-sinner]

Aviable on AO3

Fandom(s): Mötley Crüe

Characters, ships: Nikki Sixx, Vince Neil / ✨v i n i k k i✨

Word count: 6.4k

Rating: 18+ / A-O

Warnings: sex work; internalized homophobia/homophobic slurs; oh yeah, this has a lot of gay smut btw

Summary: 19-year-old West Hollywood playboy Frankie Feranna - or Nikki Sixx, as he presents himself to the general public- is so confident in his heterosexuality that he decided it would be a good idea to offer his services to anyone, as long as they'll pay him. It's not gay if it's only for business, right? That's what Nikki would tell himself until he's approached by Vince, a pretty, sassy, (and horny) fast-food chain worker, who'll make him not only rethink his business methods but also his attraction to the same sex.

A/N: Inspired by the Crüe song Sumthin’ for Nuthin’. This is the first episode of hopefully a series (I’m thinking of 7-10 parts) of self-conclusive tales about the various encounters of gigolo!Nikki in his teenage/ya years. The events are not supposed to be in chronological order but are all set in the late 70s/early 80s, so expect different ages/descriptions of the protagonist in other episodes from this series.

Very special thanks go to the Vinikki Expert™ @arnold-layne for reading this and giving me the motivation that i needed to keep going until I finished it <3

-----------------------------------------------------------------

It was a hot summer’s night, and Nikki had just finished quite the challenging shift at work. Who would’ve guessed that bitch was into that kinky stuff? Sexual frustration really does a number on people’s sanity, he thought, while he carefreely skipped to the next turn of a dimly lit street, but he considered it a job well done, and the generous tip that was given him was the proof of it. The trash scattered around and the police sirens going off in the distance didn’t seem to affect Nikki’s mood: getting some food was the only objective in his mind, and the sleazy diner at the end of the road looked like a five-star restaurant at that moment of the night. Nikki’s eyes lit up at the sight of the sign still flipped on “open” and sped up the pace: he was starving.

He pushed the glass door and entered. It was empty, except for two bored-looking employees - some blond surfer dude and a brunette Latina - chatting behind the counter, and KISS blasting Detroit Rock City through the speakers. He greeted the waiters, sat down at one of the front tables, and skimmed the menu.

“...What about him, huh?” She asked her colleague, nodding towards the boy who just entered, keeping a low tone trying to not let their new customer hear them. “He’s kinda cute!”

The boy looked in the direction she was pointing at. God, more like drop-dead gorgeous. Six feet tall, chiseled jawline, copper brown hair to his shoulders, lips that only a god of love would have. The flickering colored neon lights reflecting on his face gave him an almost otherworldly aspect. He traced the young man’s profile with his gaze, wishing for that image to be engraved on his mind forever, hoping he would never forget it, while butterflies were growing in his stomach and his heart started pounding faster in his chest. He had never believed in love at first sight, but he was willing to admit he was mistaken this time.

“Well… he is cute.” The blond exhaled.

“Wait, isn’t that the new gigolo of the area? I saw him the other day with Rosie! And Olivia told me she’s seen his ad in The Recycler saying that he swings both ways.” The girl grinned. “You wanna talk to him?”

That question snapped him out of his thoughts: “Huh? No!” He responded, completely flushed.

“Oh, come on, Vince! When was the last time you turned down a chance to get laid?” She nagged him with the elbow.

“Lola!“ Vince grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her behind the kitchen doors.

“What, am I wrong?” She laughed, pushing him back.

Her colleague closed the doors. “I mean, no, but you can’t just say that!”

It’s been a while since Vince had some good sex. He used to get a lot of pussy from being the frontman of the local rock band, and he used to get a lot of dick when he’d pay rounds for all the guys at the gay club, but things weren’t going as well lately. Singing covers was becoming boring, so he tended to not show up at every gig, and just recently he had to cut his expenses for all his vices of the weekend because he found it hard to reach the end of the month.

However, that wasn’t a good enough excuse for her to freak out in front of some random guy who happened to be Vince’s current crush.

“Oops, I got carried away.” She giggled. “But you should go have a chat with him, chico.“

Vince peeked at the guy through the chink of the door, assorted in the menu. He sighed, flustered. “I can’t, dude, I just can’t...”

“Yes, you can!”

“Are you even sure he is bisexual, anyway?” Vince inquired.

“Yes!” Lola exclaimed, convinced.

“Well, what if he’s not? What if you’re confusing him with someone else?”

“It is him!”

“But how can you be so certain?!”

“Everybody I know told me, and my eyes work very well, too! He even has the ad in the paper, I’m telling you. How do you not know it’s him?”

In the meantime, Nikki approached the counter, squinting his eyes and straining his ears to try and understand what they were talking about over the blaring music. Were they talking about him? They ran away as soon as he walked in, so it didn’t seem like such a far-fetched idea. Hah, maybe he got jealous. Nikki snickered to himself. Couldn’t guarantee that he wouldn’t have laid a finger on her, especially if it’d involve good money.

“Uh…” Nikki cleared his voice. “Excuse me?”

“Oh, fuck.” Vince groaned, shaking his head. “I’m not goin’ out there.”

Lola put her hands on her hips and raised both her thick, black eyebrows at him in disappointment.

Vince rolled his eyes and exhaled loudly, throwing his head back. “Don’t look at me like that, Lola! I will die in front of him!” He lamented.

“Ugh, you’re sooo dramatic, Vinnie!”

“I’m not!”

“Yes, you are!” She pointed her finger at him. “And you should cut your crap before we lose that customer,” the girl pushed him against the door, “or else I will lock you in the freezer!”

“Oh, c’mon, again?!”

“Yeah, and it won’t be an accident this time!” Lola shoved Vince with one last effort through the threshold and closed the kitchen behind him. “Come back when you have the ordination, then we can talk!”

The surfer tumbled out of the staff-only area accompanied by the loud thwack of the doors, brushing his shirt with his hands and adjusting his cap, mumbling under his breath: “Ow, fuckin’ bruja… Hi, welcome!” His tone completely shifted and a 32-toothed smile decorated his face in the same sentence as soon as he saw the young ginger waiting in front of the bar.

Nikki smiled back politely. “Is… Everything okay?” He nodded vaguely in the cooking area’s direction.

Vince snorted. “Yeah, no big deal. Women, am I right?” He shrugged theatrically, raising his arms slowly to then lowering them with a sonorous puff of his hands when he made them fall along his hips.

“Yeah, I could tell ya a thing or two about that.” The ginger giggled, thinking about that night’s client. “Never met a normal one in my life!”

“Seriously! You should hear her sometimes… Anyway, what can I get you?”

He is... Pretty. Nikki never thought he’d say that about a man, but this boy’s beauty blew him away. His job required flexibility -money is money, he kept telling himself-, but he was sure the same sex did not attract him. Or at least he never questioned it, not until this guy here came into his life without being invited, with his warm skin tone and soft, kissable lips. He had the uniform’s shirt loosely unbuttoned and was wearing a reversed cap on his wavy, soft, bleach blond hair, which arrived a few inches under his shoulders. He looked rough due to sleep deprivation and the job he had, but if anything, that's what made him more attractive to Nikki, and what caused him to feel a new warm sensation rising from his stomach to his cheeks, then down to his legs, making them feel like jelly.

The waiter took Nikki’s ordination, asking him about extra sauces and drinks in the most cordial tone he ever heard from a fast-food chain employee, looking at him with his hand on his cheek and sparkly hazel eyes. Nikki ended up taking the greasiest, most expensive cheeseburger they had, not even bothering to tell the employee to not put pickles inside it even though he hated them with a passion.

“It’ll take me a sec for your drinks, so you can wait here before taking a seat.”

“Uh-huh, sure.” Nikki nodded. He was blinded by hunger and too distracted by ogling the dude’s ass when he skipped away to worry about it. He just hoped he didn’t make the boy feel too uncomfortable as soon as he turned around and realized he was staring at him.

Vince occupied himself with the drinks machine. His heart was still pounding in his chest, and he was starting to sweat, worried that the cups would slip from his grip and not only make a fool of himself in front of the guy he was crushing on but also make a mess he’d have to clean up, which wasn’t exactly one of his favorite tasks in there. The young man took a deep breath, dried his palms on a towel while listening to Lust for Life on the radio, collected the cups, and handed them to the customer.

“Coke and smoothie for you, sir”, Vince announced with a smile.

The ginger looked up at him and smiled back. “Thank you.” The lights hit his green eyes, which made them sparkle like the Californian sea during the golden hours. He watched the customer cross the room to reach his seat attentively, observing his long legs and fluent walk. His stout build contrasted with the grace and agility in his movements.

While tapping his foot to the beat of the music, Vince glanced over what the ginger scribbled down on his notebook. Phone numbers? That reminded him of Lola mentioning his… advertisement. What exactly did she mean by that? What exactly was this guy’s business? He was not, without a doubt, a door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman. But I’m sure he could suck me off just as well as one of those things... Vince reflected while staring at the boy mindlessly playing with the straw of the smoothie with his tongue, too preoccupied with doing his own thing to notice how outrageously erotic that looked. Vince shook his head, feeling almost ashamed of himself for having that thought, only to turn around and disappear behind the kitchen doors, with Iggy Pop jamming on the chorus in his ears.

“He wants the super double McSlap-in-the-face or whatever, I can’t remember, you know the one. The most expensive thing we have.” He communicated to his colleague as soon as he walked in.

“Roger that!” Lola immediately flipped patties on the hot slab.

“So,” the waitress opened, “How did it go?”

Vince threw some bacon slices on the grill to help her. “Terrible” he sighed, “Horrible. I’m dead inside.”

Lola sneered.

“What?”

“I see you’re alive and well, chico.”

“Appearances are often deceiving, chica.”

“I’ve watched you from here. You handled that well. And yes, that means I heard you making fun of me, but I’ll go past that, because you men have a weird way of bonding over slagging women, and right then, you needed to bond with that man.”

“How… considerate of you... I guess.” Vince commented while arranging the first half of the ingredients between the burger buns.

“Yep. Count yourself lucky.”

A brief pause, only interrupted by Vince humming the song that was playing in the other room.

“I think I caught him staring at my ass, though.” He noted, after a while.

Lola stopped what she was doing, turned her head slowly to his co-worker. “Chico.”

“Huh?”

“Don’t play dumb! Don’t you understand? He’s already yours!”

“Oh my God, Lola, we just talked about this…” Flirting was never a problem for Vince when the time and place were right, which was usually a wild night out when everyone was drunk and horny. This was some dude at the restaurant he worked at who just wanted to have something to eat before going home.

“I know, and I’m sure he is the one!”

“Yeah, but I am not!”

“Just trust me! Don’t you trust me?”

“I mean… Of course, but…”

“Listen, I saw the way you look at him. I could never forgive myself if I didn’t even try to help you hook up with that guy. You can end your shift early. I don’t care. Just go get his ass now, or die trying. Okay?”

Her employee took a moment to reflect. “I can end early? Are you sure?”

“Mm-hmm. Right when you two walk out that door together, you are free. It looks like I won’t have much business at this hour anyway. I can manage alone. How’s that sound?”

Another pause.

“Fuck… You sold me. Just give me a moment for a cigarette, though. I need to think about it.”

“Sure. Just don’t run away, okay?”

“Hah, I won’t. I’m too scared of you to pull that shit! Thank you, Lola.” He was already on the other side of the door that led to the back of the building.

“You owe me one, chico!” Lola shouted in the hallway, where Vince already disappeared.

The opening of the kitchen doors interrupted Nikki’s frenetic writing in his doodle-filled notebook.

“Here you are, sir!” The waitress walked out of the counter with the tray in hand and greeted Nikki with the brightest smile. She had long black hair collected in a braid, chocolate skin, and voluptuous curves.

“Oh, thank you, miss.” Nikki smiled back, genuinely grateful for finally having something to bite on.

“I heard you argued with… him, before.” He chimed in before the lady walked away from him. Maybe I can make some extra cash tonight.

The tired waitress turned her head. “I beg your pardon?”

“I heard you and the guy fighting before.” Nikki reiterated as he dissected the burger to find the pickles and take them off of it. “Is everything good?”

“Hm, yeah, he’s fussy sometimes, but nothing I can’t handle.”

“Are you two… Together?” Nikki stressed the last word slowly, leaning forward, fixing his eyes on hers.

“Uh…” She stopped, completely spun toward him, confused. “I don’t think that’s for you to know, sir.”

“Oh, hah. Well… That’s fair.” Come on, Nikki, recover. He placed the elbows on the table, leaning even more forward. “Just... know that if you want to release… Some tension, I can be your man… for a reasonable price.” His talk was slow, smooth, alluring.

“So you’re the new gigolo in town? I know I’ve seen your face somewhere. Frankie, right?”

Surprised, Nikki raised his head slowly, wandering with his eyes, reflecting on what to say next. “Uh… Nikki. I guess word travels faster than I anticipated, but if anything it’s good for my business”. He pulled out a small flask from his pocket and poured the liquid into his glass of Coke. “But please, gigolo sounds so cold. Call me a… teacher’s pest.” He glanced again at the waitress, showing off his most charismatic smile and a wink.

She left out a chuckle. "Spare your flirting tactics with me, I'm not interested." Not only in your services, but men in general, she wanted to add.

"Oh, come on, darling." He tilted his head, smiling, leaning back on the leather couch, extending his arm on top of it, and crossing his legs under the table. "I can give you a first-time discount!"

She was already on her way back to the employees-only area. "It'll be $7.89. Enjoy your meal!" Lola replied, without turning, pushing the doors to disappear behind them.

“But wait! …Ah, damn.” Nikki shrugged. Oh well, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. While consuming his fierce meal, the boy thought about the male waiter, whose memory gave him flutters in his chest that he wasn’t sure wanted to acknowledge, and humored, far back in his mind, even if for a fraction of a moment, the idea of actually trying his luck with him.

Meanwhile, Vince was able to clear his thoughts and decided to just go for it. Better regret something you did rather than something you didn’t, he said to himself while taking a swig - one-third of a bottle - of the alcohol he had in his bag. Such things necessitate bravery, but not the kind that gets you into fights - that’s easy. This was bravery in the face of rejection, and Vince couldn’t have done it sober.

Van Halen’s new single was blaring through the speakers of the dining hall.

“Hey, dude.” Vince tried to get the boy's attention as he walked outside the counter.

Nikki raised his head and nodded. “I only have twenty, but you guys can keep the change...”

“Don’t sweat it. It’s on the house.” Vince interrupted him. I hope it's okay with Lola.

“What...”

Vince shook his head and puffed away his tension. This was his opportunity. "Listen, man." He sat down in front of Nikki, looking him in the eyes, "I have to ask you a weird question just so I can prove my co-worker wrong. A bet, if you will. She says… She says you're the guy from West Hollywood who's getting paid for sex with the ad in The Recycler. Dudes, chicks, everything in between… As long as it's a good price. Is it true?" Vince had nothing to lose and everything to gain: he just had to give it a shot.

Nikki blinked, hesitant. "Maybe." A temporary pause. "Is… anyone interested?"

Vince slapped a fifty-dollar bill on the table. "Maybe."

Nikki’s brow furrowed. Okay, he didn’t expect that. He knew a guy would’ve eventually come at him - that’s what he advertised - he just thought that day would've taken way longer to come.

“What… Do you mean?” Nikki understood very well what that meant, he just wasn’t able to process it, still.

"Let's cut to the chase, okay? You have something I want, and I can pay you for that. We don't have to meet again if you don't want to, just… Can I have you for tonight?" His voice was deep, vibrating with desire.

Nikki’s breath was suspended in his throat. This would've been his first time with a guy. There’s always a first time for everything, after all… But it didn’t have to be. He could’ve just run away with the fucker’s money, too.

Vince added another fifty bucks. The pressure was rising, both in his blood and inside his pants now. "Please."

Nikki looked at the money, at the young man who was soliciting him, then at the money again. He would've already accepted - free dinner and extra cash? Hell yeah!-, but he just wanted to see how far he could push his luck. "Add another fifty and I'm yours." He replied defiantly, leaning on his back, crossing his arms.

Vince narrowed his eyes, baring his teeth. "You snake..." He was all about getting into the gigolo's business no matter what, but his wallet begged to differ.

"Them's the rules."

A pause.

"A hundred or nothing."

"Fifty."

"Ten."

"Forty-five."

"Fifteen."

"Thirty."

"Oh, just take my money already!" Vince rolled his eyes, adding the thirty dollars to the total amount.

"You've got yourself a deal", Nikki smirked as he reached for the money with his hand.

Vince blocked him and took the cash off the table. "Uh-uh", he said, waving his index finger in front of the ginger's face. "Don’t play with fire. You think you get to run away with my money?" The blond got up and grabbed the other by the wrist. “Follow me”.

The service door closed behind Vince's back while he was pushing Nikki out into the filthy alley, among the trash bags and rats. He grabbed Nikki by the waist, then got on his toes to meet his lips with his own. Nikki was surprised but didn't fight it, slowly opening his mouth to let Vince's tongue taste his, in a breathtaking, impetuous kiss filled with pure lust. It's fine, the gigolo kept repeating to himself in his head, just pretend it's a girl. Vince groaned in Nikki's mouth, glad to finally satisfy his craving, to be himself.

Nikki had to step back to catch his breath, and looked at Vince in the eyes, glistening under the cold white neon light. He was met with a worried, almost scared expression that didn’t require any clarification. Nikki moved his gaze down on Vince's lips, smirking, and started biting and sucking on them, pulling him closer by grabbing his hips. Pretend he's a girl. His one-night lover relaxed in Nikki's kiss, smiling back, grinding against him, and slowly pushing him towards the dumpster. He frantically untucked Nikki's shirt to run his fingers on his bare skin, to which Nikki shivered at each stroke, without letting go of his lips for one second, in a crescendo of intensity and synchronized heartbeats.

Vince finally detached himself from Nikki’s mouth, to kiss, lick, bite, and suck on his neck, leaving teeth marks on the soft olive skin, drowning in his alluring danger-flavored scent. Nikki jumped in surprise. His eyes rolled back, a moan left his mouth, feeling more aroused than he’d ever been in his life. He surrendered himself completely to Vince, who in the meantime unzipped Nikki’s jeans and slipped his frantic hands inside them. He’s a girl, he’s a girl, he’s a girl…

“Get on your knees, pretty boy”, Nikki whispered in-between heavy breaths. He couldn’t take it any longer. He couldn’t pretend anymore. All he ever wanted at that moment was to be sucked off by the man who was in front of him and no one else. He would have had an existential crisis, questioning his sexuality and wondering where it all went wrong, where and when the line between business and pleasure became so blurry if he hadn’t been so damn horny about crossing that threshold that he couldn’t think at all. Nikki didn’t care; he’d just have to deal with it later.

Vince immediately obliged, suddenly feeling weak in his legs, as if he was under a spell cast by Nikki’s bewitchingly deep, husky voice. He pulled down Nikki’s pants and took his time to feast his eyes on what was revealed. He only said, “Holy shit...” in a soft voice.

Vince raised his head towards Nikki, who was surprisingly shy for a guy whose profession is being a playboy, with his red cheeks and stiff posture and nervous lip biting.

“Something wrong, bad boy?” Vince provoked playfully, head tilted to the side. He loved when he could make boys like Nikki break down their facade of cockiness.

Nikki couldn’t think straight. “I uh… sorry, I just…” Maybe we shouldn’t do this, he wanted to tell him, but his brain wasn’t capable of forming any words. What was he afraid of, judgment? Of whom, others? As if it was ever a problem for him his whole life. Judgment of the other fellow man, for his… performance? The guy in front of him on his knees, eager to get a dick in his mouth, didn’t seem to mind.

Nikki was visibly flustered now, his hands on his face, he didn’t know what to respond. He took another deep breath and decided to tell the truth. Not all of it, but his client needed to understand what they were getting themselves into. “I dunno man, I… this is my first time with a guy, y’know.” he blurted out eventually.

“Oh yeah? What an honor!” Vince’s eyes widened. His tone was too enthusiastic, to the limits of being fake. Condescending, even.

Nikki had to restrain himself to punch the twink in the face.

This was a mistake.

“Ha, figured you’d be happy to know that.” He replied, dry, raising an eyebrow. Nikki wasn’t sure how to feel in that situation: blondie here was testing his patience, but his sass intrigued him in such a manner that now he felt compelled to fuck him senseless to teach him a lesson. Well, I changed my tune fast, Nikki thought to himself.

The client got up, laid a hand on Nikki’s pounding chest. “There’s a first time for everything.” He sounded oddly understanding, which was reassuring. “Just… try to relax, okay?”

Nikki rested his wrists on the pelmet’s lid behind him after arching his back. He nodded. “Okay.”

As he kneeled again, his part-time lover’s fingers traced through his stomach, making Nikki’s skin crawl most enticingly.

There was something special about this guy…

The blond spat on his hand and started jerking Nikki off. He was already almost rock hard. He went with gentle, long strokes from base to tip, brushing his lips and tongue against it, teasing him, looking up to see his blissful expression with the eyes closed, the lips slightly apart and the head thrown back. Vince stripped him down even further and caressing his thighs and groin, trying to calm him down more, which kind of worked. Vince continued with slow and wide licks, up and down, up and down, covering Nikki’s cock in his saliva, feeling the warmth increasing. Nikki was a panting and groaning mess, clearly trying to hold himself back. Vince was running out of patience too, feeling his trousers getting so tight he had to untie them, so he just put Nikki’s dick in his mouth. Carefully but steadily, the blond sucked from the tip and slid forward on the shaft, in an up and down motion. He could feel the grip on his hair getting stricter and hear the groans getting louder, turning him on even more, if that was possible.

“Does it feel good?” Vince wanted to know.

Nikki’s mind was still having some difficulties registering what was happening, although he couldn’t deny he was enjoying it. He nodded. “Keep going.”

The blond responded by accelerating the rhythm, touching himself in the meantime. He took short pauses to catch his breath from time to time, to then go back to Nikki, who was twitching inside his throat, unable to say anything other than “Oh fuck… Goddammit… Fucking hell, you’re good…” in between pants and gasps. Vince went down on him even harder, stroking and licking until Nikki muttered, “Fuck, I think I’m...” and came into his mouth a second later with another loud groan, nearly choking Vince. He withdrew from Nikki in a coughing fit, with cum drooling all over his chin.

“Hijo de puta! You could’ve at least told me, y’know!” The smirk that developed on Vince’s face betrayed the rage that filled his gruff voice.

“My bad.” Nikki apologized in between quick breaths, his legs trembling, “I didn’t expect it to come that fast, either...”. It wasn’t really out of empathy, but embarrassment for not being able to last longer. Plus, it was always better to keep the client on his good side. He still had to get paid, after all. Nikki rarely genuinely cared for any impact his actions - voluntary or not - had in other people’s lives; this time, he was sure, was not one of the unusual occasions.

Vince got up on his feet, cleaned his face with his arm, and licked his cum-filled fingers. “It’s okay.” He approached near and looked up at the ginger. “Kinda adds to the thrill.” His lips touched Nikki’s once again in a sloppy kiss, while his hands reached into his back pocket to slide the dollar bills into Nikki’s hand, who swiftly slid them inside his jeans.

Nikki lifted Vince’s chin in between his thumb and index finger, pushing his weight against him to get even closer, groaning, tasting himself on Vince’s tongue. Girls would sometimes make out with him right after they sucked him off (just like he kissed the girls right after he went down on them), so he was used to it. He found it kind of hot, even: nothing like letting your partner know their flavor.

Vince’s breaths harmonized with Nikki’s in sharp inhales that extruded desire and an almost animalistic instinct of hunger for each other. He tried to wrap his leg around Nikki’s, trying to reach the dumpster’s edge behind them for more balance, to which the other responded by wrapping his arm around his lower back to lift him. That’s when Vince let out a moan of ecstasy in Nikki’s mouth, feeling once again the blood rushing down his crotch.

Nikki loosened the grip on his lover’s jaw to fumble around his chest, finding a way down to the last button of the grease-covered shirt to undo it and slowly crawl his fingers on the naked skin, refusing to break the kiss. It was small comfort in that scenario, which was yet fresh and unfamiliar to him.

Vince grabbed Nikki’s hand and guided it to go lower, inviting him to feel the heat that was rising under his clothes.

“Oh, sorry.” the blond whispered, “Do I need to pay extra for that?”

Nikki moved away at the same time to look him in the eyes, his lips parted, the eyelids half-closed, his cheeks flushed. “Don’t worry.” He breathed, touching the other’s lips with his, “This one’s on the house.”

Nikki figured it wasn’t the first time he jerked someone off (even though that someone had always been himself by far), so it shouldn’t have been that difficult, right?

Slowly, he stroked, feeling the warmth of the shaft from tip to base, observing the blond’s reaction to his touch, who gave out a soft whimper burying his face in his lover’s collarbone, pressing his lips against his neck, grinding against his body.

The ginger pressed his lips against blondie’s ear, inebriated by the smell of sea salt and cigarettes of his hair. “You like that?”

His delightfully raspy and lascivious voice, so muffled and close, traveled through Vince’s body, generating a shiver going down from his shoulders and neck, through his spine. That pulse of involuntary energy made Vince inhale sharply and squeeze Nikki’s hand.

“Yes. Yes, continue.” Vince murmured, his cheek resting on his neck.

Nikki adjusted his wrist for a better grip, raising the speed slowly. He went on with the motion, feeling his client twitching every time he passed his thumb over the moist tip. Pants and grunts spilled from both mouths as the intensity of the moment increased, praising and reaching for each other’s lips to bite on.

Vince felt like he was about to cum in his hand, sensing the familiar tingling running down from his head to his legs and getting ready for that sweet release. When all of a sudden, his eyes opened wide, a lucid thought crossed his mind: If I ruin another uniform, she’s gonna kick my ass!

The blond detached himself from the ginger, grabbed him by the hair, and pushed him down, shoving his throbbing cock down the boy’s throat, cumming in his mouth.

Nikki tasted dick before he could even register it in his brain. He spat out the load, coughing and rubbing his tongue, sure that he gulped some of it too. He dropped to his knees for the shock, glancing up at the guy who outplayed him with a flabbergasted, betrayed look. What the fuck was that about?! Nikki wanted to ask, but he could only mimic the first three words.

“What? Don’t give me that look. You did the same to me!” Vince giggled like a child who pulled a prank on his classmate.

“Not… even… a warning?”

“Yeah, I kinda forgot about that. Sorry.” Vince shrugged, delivering his best shit-eating grin while offering his hand to the ginger.

Nikki grudgingly accepted the help, shooting a scornful glare at the blond. “I know you’re not fucking sorry, you dirty fucking faggot--” he breathed through his teeth as he rose to his feet and drew their bodies closer together. The disparaging tone he used contradicted the smile he bore with the words.

Vince’s knuckles hit the gigolo’s jaw before he could finish talking. “Bit ironic of you to say, when your mouth is still dirty of my cum, don’t you think?” he retorted with a sneer, staring at the face of anger, tilting his head provocatively.

Nikki scoffed, stroking his chin. The punch wasn't that strong, but the little bastard got to the spot where even a baby could make it hurt. “Touché. Guess I won’t beat your ass tonight.”

“You can kiss it if you want to.” Vince dragged a cigarette out of the packet with his lips, without batting an eye. “Do you have a light?”

Nikki and Vince stood beside each other under the flicker of the service door light, surrounded by the smell of gone-off frying oil, the smoke from their cigarettes. The only sound to be heard were cars speeding by in the distance.

“Hey, so, uh… Was… Was it good for you?” Nikki broke the silence.

At that question, Vince arched his eyebrows and exhaled, making the cigarette smoke exit through his nostrils faster, creating two gray lines of vapor in front of them that dissipated in the air, like fog out of season. So this was his first time, huh? That explained his hesitancy to accept his solicitation. But why choose to offer your services to everyone and not just women? Did he really need the money, or was his “work” merely a front to meet more dudes to sleep with? Maybe both? Vince didn’t know, but as much as he wanted to have those doubts cleared, he set them aside and responded to the question earnestly.

“It was fuckin’ great.” He sighed, looking his lover of the hour in the eyes. “You were great.” A hint of a smile in his expression as he added the second part, his voice growing faint at the end of the phrase, leaving the words suspended.

“Oh,” Nikki felt his face turning red as those words exited the blond’s mouth, making him turn his gaze to the ground. “I, uh…” He flickered the cigarette to make the accumulated ash fall on the ground. A tight-lipped smile formed across his face, curved askew on his left cheek, creating two creases on his skin at the angle of his lips. “Thanks.” He uttered in the end, raising his head and bringing the cigarette to his mouth. ���It was good for me, too.” Another sentence left floating in the smoky air.

They got quiet for a moment, kicking pebbles or junk lying around. Sometimes one would glance at the other, attempting to meet his gaze, just to deflect it and pretend it wasn't intentional.

“Sorry about earlier,” Nikki murmured hastily, breathing smoke.

“What?”

Nikki swallowed, then cleared his voice. “I said… I’m sorry.” Another puff of the cigarette. “About the faggot thing. I shouldn’t have said that.”

“I know, it just felt good to hear it twice.” Vince accompanied that response with a 32-toothed smug smile.

Nikki rolled his eyes, wondering why he still hadn’t beaten the tan out of the twerp yet. He already let him ruin the major selling point of his merchandise, now he could take the piss off him too?

The blond returned serious and raised his shoulders. “It’s whatever, man. I’m used to it.” He had to learn to fend for himself in places where people like him should’ve been safe. A pretty, self-absorbed and sexually confused asshole wasn’t the worst person Vince had to give the right hook to. He inhaled some more nicotine.

The ginger imitated him, touching the bruise that was already swollen. “It fucking hurts, by the way.”

“Good. That means we’re even.”

“No hard feelings?” Nikki turned towards him in search of forgiveness.

Only inside my pants… “No hard feelings.” Vince nodded, meeting his gaze back.

They went silent again.

Vince caught the gigolo looking up, where the clouds were lazily passing by the crescent moon, peering behind the city skyline.

“Wow…” the ginger murmured under a puff of smoke.

“Hm? What is it?”

Nikki looked at him and nodded at the sky. “The moon looks so cool tonight.”

Vince raised an eyebrow. Where did this sentimentalism come out of, after having paid for sex among the garbage bins outside his workplace, of all scenarios? He looked in the same direction as the lad he was still sharing a smoke with. Vince never really stopped to look for the poetry behind his surroundings, he usually left that sappy shit to girls, but he had to admit the sky had its charm that night. The clouds now had moved away completely and left the moon dominating the pitch-black atmosphere.

“You can see it even better at sea.” Vince puffed his cigarette one last time before throwing it away. “Have you ever been there?”

Nikki shook his head and chucked away his cigarette in turn. “Not yet. Since I moved to LA, anyway.”

“Oh, you don’t know what you’re missing. Hot chicks everywhere, all year-’round.” The surfer chuckled, which made the ginger smile along.

A conversation about nothing under the stars later, Nikki let out a yawn. “Well, I better fuck off now.” He chuckled in a hoarse voice. “It's getting late."

“Yeah, I should get back in, too”, Vince replied. A wave of melancholy washed over him, as it often did when he had to part ways with a one-night stand, especially as good as this. But he had long accepted to treasure those moments, not remember the people he made those memories with, or hope he could ever see them again. He turned on his heels before that feeling had the chance to sink in any deeper.

“Wait! I… I almost forgot.” Nikki grabbed the blond by the arm. "I don't even know your name." He never had the desire to learn the names of his flings or clients, yet that information felt like the most indispensable thing in the world.

Vince turned around. The ginger's eyes were glistening. "Vince. What's yours?"

“I’m Nikki.” He pulled out his notebook from the back pocket, scribbled something on a blank page, and handed it to Vince. “Call me?” You’ll never know that this guy could become a patron. Nikki hoped that was the case, but for reasons beyond business, despite what he kept telling himself.

Vince examined the phone number scribbled on the piece of paper. His lips shaped into a smile. “You can count on it.”

The gigolo grabbed Vince by his collar and pushed their lips together, kissing him until both of them ran out of breath. “It was a pleasure to meet you, Vince.”

The blond blushed like a schoolboy as he heard his name pronounced by him. “Yeah, it was nice for me too… Nikki.” His voice rose three octaves as he uttered the phrase, which Nikki must have noticed, judging by the grin on his face, making matters even worse.

“Anytime you want... you know you can have me”, Nikki whispered in Vince’s ear. He took a few steps back while maintaining eye contact before turning away and disappearing into the shadows.

Nikki collapsed on his bed, his mind running through the events of that night, which felt like a fever dream. Was it worth it? A voice in his head kept asking him. After meeting Vince, Nikki thought that it was.

[marlborodean]

here’s my analysis of a 14-yr-old supernatural episode

so remember that episode where sam fucked a werewolf? because he related to her unwilling monstrosity? well that episode is actually just about dean starting to come to grips with his childhood and his sexuality.

if you ship w/ncest do not interact. this post is not anti-sam either btw. 

content warning: discussions of childhood trauma, internalized homophobia, guns, killing. 

does include some images with Image Descriptions following them.

[ID: An over-the-shoulder close-up shot from the episode, focused on Madison, the werewolf, as she cries. Dean is standing behind her. They are both looking at Sam, whose shoulder is on the edge of the frame. End ID.]

Brief episode recap just in case u don’t remember. This ep is 2x17 “Heart.” Sam and Dean are hunting a werewolf. They discover that the woman they interviewed, Madison, is a werewolf (not THEE werewolf, but one of them). Sam develops a lil crush on her <3 I wrote the majority of this after watching it for the first time in almost SIX years, so i was just vibing the whole time UNTIL the last shot changed it all for me. So let me explain!

Three important points that i will refer back to:

1. The episode begins with Dean being excited to hunt a werewolf because "what about a human by day, a freak animal killing machine by moonlight don't you understand? I mean, werewolves are badass. We haven't seen one since we were kids."

2. Then the episode centers on Sam and his relationship with the werewolf woman and his own monstrosity: "[Dean: Sam, she's a monster and you're feeling sorry for her?] Maybe I understand her."

3. BUT THEN the last shot of the episode is of Dean crying as music plays (see below for the specific lyrics) and then Dean jumps at the sound of the gunshot. That's it! That's the end of the episode!

[ID: For all three screencaps, Dean is looking torturously sad. Each one is zoomed a little bit closer to his face than the last. In the last image, Dean sheds a single man tear. The captioned lyrics for the first one say "Relax, child, you were there." The second says "but only didn't realize" and the third says "and you were scared." End ID]

Even though the story is supposed to be about Sam and his monstrosity, and partly about his relationship w/romance since this is the first person he’s slept with since Jess died (at least with what is shown on screen)...the Dean Sandwich tells us otherwise. We're supposed to be taking away something about DEAN here. Like, that's the whole purpose behind the last shot focusing solely on Dean instead of Sam who is AT THAT MOMENT, KILLING THE GIRL HE HAS FEELINGS FOR. It's literally a heartbreaking, devastating, super traumatic thing for Sam to be going through, but instead we're watching Dean as a single tear slides down his face lmao. It's because this episode is about DEAN, and furthering his story.

Let’s not queer this just yet. The death of the werewolf is about/representing his loss of innocence. It's a violent disconnect from his childhood. Point # 1 shows that he is fascinated by werewolves because since he was a kid he thought they were badass, not to mention all the werewolf films he references throughout. Then, through the music lyrics over that last scene, they mirror that theme of childhood. They’ve done this before, having the diegetic music directly reference what the characters are going through. No different here: Dean is the child they’re referring to.

I have to reiterate that that's the last thing we hear before the gunshot cuts the music short and then the cut to black. "You were scared" is the last thing we hear before the gunshot, as Dean cries. ALSO I have to reiterate that Dean was looking forward to killing a werewolf and shooting it himself. So it's super fascinating that, not only is Sam the one that kills the werewolf, WE DON’T EVEN SEE IT HAPPEN.

[ID: A medium-close shot of Dean as he looks at Sam, who takes up the right half of the frame. The caption says, “Sammy, I got this one. I’ll do it.” End ID.]

Am i gonna have to say this now? The werewolf is a metaphor, okay? It's a metaphor for his innocence, which is long-dead, forever doomed. I mean, a lot of kids love werewolves because they ARE badass! It's a classic monster that anyone could easily obsess over, and with Dean's childhood it must've seemed even cooler, knowing they're real and having the power to kill this "mythical" beast. So the way he's looking forward to killing one is the way a child imagines themselves as a hero.

But what happens instead is a tragic mercy killing. It's flipping his fantasy completely on its head, and it makes Dean realize that.....his fantasies are just fantasies. They aren't real, never would be. There's nothing heroic about killing this werewolf. It's tragic as hell. When he offers to kill her himself, it's just to relieve Sam's burden, but he's reluctant still. Because, as he keeps saying, he doesn't want to be a hunter! He doesn't want this life! He's tired of killing! And that's also what he's mourning as he cries and startles at the gunshot. His fantasies will never be real and his childhood could never have been normal and he never got a chance to be a kid because being a hunter was thrust on him at such a young age. And now it feels inescapable.

[ID: A gif of the slow zoom on Dean’s face as the single tears slips down his cheek. He jumps at the gunshot, then blinks and his lip wobbles. End ID.]

So now we can queer it :-) Of course all monster stories can be easily queered, but werewolves are popularly queered. The first example that comes to mind is An American Werewolf in London (1981) isn’t an overtly queer film (though it is Jewish!) but it’s definitely read that way by a lot of people!! Anyway the film was directed by John Landis which JUST SO HAPPENS to be the pseudonym Dean goes by in this episode. hmm. (Also, interestingly, the BTVS ep where the first gay character comes out references this film too)

[ID: Sam and Dean are standing close to each other. Sam is in the foreground, not in focus. Dean, behind him, says, “Landis. And Detective Dante.” End ID.]

There’s this essay about the queer werewolf that you can read here (and they also talk about fandom in it! very fascinating), where they say in the intro: “the werewolf seems an obvious choice as a queer monster with its identity-disrupting hybridity, as well as its atavistic, and, thus, disallowable sexuality.” A lot like Kristeva’s theory of the abject body! which is popular in queer theory. 

This episode is then queering Sam—his attraction to the werewolf makes him abject—but it also queers Dean thru the way his attitude towards the werewolf transforms (get it?) throughout the ep. His desire and eagerness to kill the werewolves is obviously ingrained in him from John’s parenting. Consider what he said in 2x03 “Bloodlust”: “And the way he raised us, to hate those things—and man, I hate them, I do.” In conjunction with the monsters in the show being seen as queer allegories (the gorgon, as an example of an explicit comparison), Dean’s excitement to kill the werewolf can be read as internalized homophobia and repressing any of his own feelings. 

Remember, though, right before that line in “Bloodlust,” he also said, “What if we killed things that didn’t deserve killing?” He’s really beginning to question whether all monsters are bad, and what it means to kill them. Is he also questioning what he believes of queer people? What John believed of queer people? The loss of innocence and queering both slot together through that final shot, imo: he’s crying because he realizes his fantasies aren’t real, but he’s also mourning the fact that he never could have had the chance to grow up without John’s control, and now it’s forever tainted his worldview. What else could he have been without that? (The answer is evident in 4x17 “It’s a Terrible Life.”)

Dean was taught to hate queer people but he doesn't want to. He wants to get out of the life but it feels inescapable. He wants to kill a werewolf and then when he has the chance, he doesn't want to. He actually cries as it's killed. It scares him, having to confront that what he thought he knew was wrong, but he knows all the same that he’ll never have the chance to have grown up without that. 

[gremlingalaxy]

Wow would you look at that, I remembered I have social media that I can post my art to, guess it must be a blue moon tonight.

Sarcastic joking at my own expense aside, this was my entry for the RQ fanart contest. It didn't make it to the finalist/voting round (pssst btw you should go vote on the ones that did) but I'm still quite proud of it so I figured I might as well share it here anyways. I did my piece for the prompt MAG119 specifically, that's the episode 'Stranger & Stranger'.

Please click the image for better quality cuz tumblr is a shit and tanks it so hard.

[Image Description: It's a dark room, with a reddish undertone to the shadows. There are three spotlights. One red, coming from the upper right corner, one blue, coming from the upper left corner, and one green, coming from above and the center of the canvas. There's also the impression of a fog or smoke rolling along the bottom of the canvas.

In the foreground is Tim, standing with his back to the viewer. He is wearing a dark green hoodie and jeans. The sleeves of his hoodie are pushed up to his elbows, revealing worm scars along his lower arms and hands. His right hand is clenched into a fist and in his left he holds a remote detonator. He has an undercut and the longer parts of his hair are messy and tousled. He is mostly in shadow because the light source (the red spotlight) is in front of him, between him and Nikola. Along the edges of his figure there are sharp, bright red highlights. The lighting also puts more emphasis on the hand that holds the detonator.

In front of him stands Nikola, wearing clothes reminiscent of an old-fashioned circus ringmaster. She is far taller than she has any right to be. All of her joints are that of intricate wooden dolls, but her "skin" has the pale hue of a typical plastic clothing store mannequin. She has black hair underneath her top hat. She has a static smile plastered on her face, giving us a full plastic toothed grin. Her "lips" are painted red. Her eyes are black, almost void-like, with a small pinprick of a pupil in each eye looking down at Tim. There are heart-shaped dark red marks on her cheeks that appear to be bleeding. Her entire form is slightly distorted by a repetition of her lineart in red, blue, and green.

At the bottom of the canvas, centered in the middle, roughly on Tim's hips, is a line of text that reads "So come and take it." This is a line from the episode Stranger & Stranger. The text is mildly distorted by the green static-y effect of the Beholding, which is what let Tim come back to his senses and is carrying him through this moment.

End Image Description.]

[florrickandassociates]

TGF Thoughts: 5x04- And the clerk had a firm...

You can tell I’m enjoying this season when episodes air on Thursdays and I’ve written a recap by Friday night. More under the cut, as always. 

I woke up very early on Thursday morning and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I decided to just watch this episode on my phone (I write these on rewatch). I’m sure the show was hoping that the upside-down clips of fake!Love Island would be disorienting, but wow, did this work on me. Between the lack of sleep and how plausible it would’ve been for me to accidentally have my phone upside-down with rotation lock on... I truly thought it was an ad for Love Island and also had to pause the episode to check my phone settings. Good job, show!

It turns out, however, that Carmen is doing a headstand and watching reality TV on her laptop. Very happy to see Carmen at home. It would be easy for the show to have her just be a mysterious presence at the firm, so even seeing her do perfectly normal things is a good reminder that she is a whole person and not just Associate Who Will Defend Anyone.  

(I wouldn’t have expected Carmen to enjoy reality tv, but then again, I love Big Brother so...)

Carmen lives in a studio that doesn’t look like it is brand new!!! I’m ridiculously excited to see an apartment that actually looks like a place someone fresh out of law school might live. I’d believe it if Carmen lived in a studio in a luxury building or a one-bed on the salary she’s surely making at RL, but it’s very refreshing to see a character who isn’t super-wealthy on this show that tends to be about, well, very wealthy people.  

Carmen is smarter than every other character on this show and on most TV shows: instead of opening the door without taking any precautions, she puts the chain on first. Remember how people used to just show up at Alicia’s door when she was the governor’s wife, and she’d always just open the door and look surprised?  

Charles Lester is at Carmen’s door even though it’s nearly midnight. She tries to get him to leave, but he insists on staying. She closes the door to undo the chain, and uses the privacy of the closed door to grab a makeshift weapon, just in case.

Carmen explains her apartment by saying, “student loans.” So she doesn’t come from (excessive) money. (Or she was cut off by her family, but I feel like the early character description of Carmen said something about her family not having money.)  

Lester has something very important to tell Carmen, but all his notes are on different scraps of paper and, even though he says his information is time sensitive, he takes his time looking for the right piece of paper.

He says Carmen can’t say she heard the info from him, blah blah. He’s there to share that in ten minutes, someone at the firm is going to be searched by the FBI. This info comes, of course, from Rivi.  

Do we think Lester has to reference his notes to remember that the FBI is searching a name partner of Carmen’s firm? Or do we think he’s fucking with her? I think the latter.

Carmen was doing exercises to help with migraines, btw.  

Carmen calls Diane to tip her off. Diane and Kurt are already asleep, but luckily, Diane has her phone on full volume and takes the call. She’s not happy about it and asks if it can wait until tomorrow. Asks is the wrong word—she instructs the caller to hang up if it can wait.  

Even though Carmen can’t say where she got the information, Diane knows it must be from Rivi. Seems obvious enough.

Kurt gets out of bed and starts locking up guns and getting to work; Diane calls Liz. Liz is in bed with a guy we’ve never seen before and she does not really want to talk.  

Liz notes that the info also could’ve come from Wolfe-Coleman, since Carmen is “tangled up with some rough characters.”  

I’m sorry, fake Netflix CEO man... WHY ARE YOU STILL TRYING TO KISS AND PLAY WITH LIZ WHEN SHE IS ON THE PHONE TALKING ABOUT PURGING FILES AND THE FBI????  

I don’t even hold this against the character. This is one of those things the writers of this show LOVE doing to heighten tension. They think people behave like this in real life and that it’s funny to have a million competing priorities at once, so they insist on doing things like this. In reality, I would be concerned about any person who did not hear “FBI” and go, “um, what the hell is happening? I should stop trying to fuck rn.”  

Kurt starts burning papers. Is no one going to point out that maybe being on the phone (after you KNOW you’ve had NSA issues) talking about tips from powerful criminals and asking questions that are pretty clearly about document destruction... is a bad strategy?  

Dude, why are you STILL GOING after Liz clearly tells you to stop!? Do you want me to hate you?!  

Liz adds Jay to the call. He is asleep and also his hallucination from the premiere is (sadly) back. I still don’t get what they’re going for with this, so I’ll just be happy that (1) there is only one hallucination this time and (2) it’s only on screen for a minute.  

This dude is really chanting “Let me see ‘em!” at Liz while she is on a frantic work call! This is how we are introduced to him! This is not funny! If this weren’t being played for laughs/to raise the stakes by having a lot going on I would be calling this man misogynistic!

Liz remembers that Diane has full boxes of files! They spill onto the floor as she tries to hide them! Drama!  

And then the FBI arrives, so Diane asks Liz to take her 9 am with Wackner

The FBI enters, accompanied by... Nancy Crozier! Nancy is now an AUSA for some reason!

Nancy has graduated from “just a girl from Michigan” to using her pregnancy for dramatic effect. I guess she’s aged into being Patti Nyholm, or something. (I would LOVE to see Patti Nyholm show up on TGF.)  

I know the client files are top of mind for Diane, but isn’t it kind of obvious that the FBI would be there about Kurt, given that the FBI was talking to Kurt days earlier?  

9 mins in is early for credits!! (This first act flies, too—did not feel like 9 minutes.)  

I say this once an episode, but isn’t it so fun to see all the characters from season one of TGW pop up in season five of TGF?  

Liz sees her new man, Del Cooper, in reception. He’s a client. They try to be professional with each other. Liz remembers Diane’s 9 am with Wackner and asks the receptionist to tell her when he arrives. She dismissively says it’s “Some judge guy.” Wackner is, of course, already there and watching the interaction with interest. He uses this as an opportunity to “look for the restroom,” observe Liz meeting with someone else, and walk down to the associate floor.

He asks associate Leah (we’ve definitely seen her several times before) where he’s supposed to go for the staff meeting. She asks if he means the partner meeting or the associate one—he wants whichever is more interesting. She says she only knows about the associate meeting, and so he tags along.

Leah and Lucy (the associate from last week; Michael Boatman’s daughter) talk and assume that Wackner is from STR Laurie and thus in charge of the fate of their careers.  

The associate meeting is fairly small—Leah refers to it as their “daily” so I wonder if it’s more like a team meeting than a meeting of all the associates.  

The COTW is about a comedian who isn’t always PC. FakeNetflix is getting a lot of Twitter pushback.  

“Ah, so you’re worried about being cancelled,” Liz notes. “Don’t say the ‘C’ word,” Del jokes. Then he asks the firm to do a sensitivity read of the comedian’s act.

Liz asks why them. David doesn’t get why she’s asking, though obviously Liz knows he won’t be offended by her question since they have a relationship outside of work. Del thinks that RL is the right firm for this task because they are a black firm, and also because this can be an audition for the rest of their legal business.  

This seems like it is better for a PR firm or image consultant? Not a law firm? But sure.  

Diane explains the whole January 6th situation to Liz. Liz immediately understands that if Kurt is in trouble, Diane is the one representing him. Because Kurt is Kurt, I’m willing to accept the “spouses-representing-each-other" trope here. But let the record reflect that, as always on this show, it is a TERRIBLE idea to have your spouse represent you! Just pick someone outside of the firm! JUST PICK ELSBETH, KURT.

Diane asks how her 9 am went; David Lee interrupts to ask Liz why she is being so casual with Del. “David, I am on the phone,” Liz responds. I love that she doesn’t really answer him.  

Leah and Lucy try to turn the associate meeting into a showcase of how great they are; the other associates catch on quickly and all are happy to answer Wackner’s questions. He wants to understand jury trials.

Nancy’s pregnancy act does not work on Judge Farley, yet she keeps it up anyway. Court doesn’t go well for Diane, but it also doesn’t go well for Nancy.

Some of these interactions remind me a little too much of Peter’s trial at the end of TGW, like this one where Nancy goes to Diane with information about Kurt.

Leah gets off the elevator as Diane and Nancy talk, and to Diane’s surprise, Wackner is shadowing Leah! She takes a moment to look surprised before we return to the scene with Nancy.

I like all the little interactions within this Wackner plot. Diane asking Liz to meet with Wackner both connects Wackner to Liz AND shows that Diane would turn to Liz for back-up, and having Wackner/Leah run into Diane in court is a good reminder that even though Diane is dealing with a pressing issue, Wackner hasn’t just disappeared.  

Diane encourages Kurt to talk. She wants to know if he’s not telling her something because she’s his wife or because she’s his lawyer. This is maybe why you don’t hire your wife as your lawyer.  

Kurt says it’s because of politics—Diane doesn’t like that, since this is one issue where their politics should be shared.  

“Diane, this works between us because we don’t let our political judgements overwhelm our respect for each other,” Kurt explains. But... is that relevant to this particular issue?  

Diane asks the same question, essentially, noting that January 6th changed “everything” for her and she can’t treat this like a “chess game” anymore. Kurt wants to know what she’s calling a chess game. She says their marriage is the one thing that’s not a game.  

On one level I understand exactly what Diane is saying and on another level I have no clue what this dialogue actually means. She can’t treat things like a game anymore, but also their marriage is the only thing that isn’t a game? So does that mean she can treat everything else like a game, then? I think what she’s trying to say is that the time for seeing political disagreements as a calm and rational game of strategy is over, and that she values her marriage and won’t play around with it.  

Kurt tells her what he burned—a list of people in his little group. He says he’d protect them just like he’d protect Diane’s book group friends. Oh, wow, I was not EVER expecting to hear about that arc again! This is a pretty perfect time to mention it, though, since Kurt DID protect book group for the exact same reason he’s protecting the members of his club.  

Other than “winning over a new client is important,” I have no idea why Liz and David Lee would gather together a group of partners to do the sensitivity read. I don’t know who IS the appropriate person to do the sensitivity read, given that this is a law firm, but I know this is a bad call.

Oh, they are going to go through line by line dissecting each joke in a group. They get through one joke before Madeline notes that the comedian is “objectifying black men.” A black male partner says he doesn’t mind. Madeline says that doesn’t matter because the joke is racially insensitive.  

Overlapping chatter ensues, and the partners try to make changes to the comedian’s jokes, like substituting Norwegian for Nigerian. This... is not what law firms do. The joke isn’t funny with the substitution, but it also wasn’t funny before. It was low hanging fruit and the correct answer is to just cut it entirely. (Also, if you’re a comedian and all your jokes are about common stereotypes of groups to which you do not belong, you are probably not a very funny comedian!)

Diane has Jay do some more investigating. Jay looks up when Diane says, “ringleader of the insurrectionists,” and Diane is just like, “I know.” Then Carmen walks in.

Diane congratulates Carmen on “hitting the ground running” and then asks again how she knew about the warrant. Diane says she’s covered by the same attorney-client privilege, so Carmen should be able to share. Carmen notes the warrant was actually about Kurt, which does not answer Diane’s question. “So this came from Rivi?” Diane asks. Carmen says she can’t confirm.

“Carmen. You have been here three weeks. You have two clients: Wolfe-Coleman and Oscar Rivi. It’s one or the other!” Diane notes. Yep. I love that they didn’t forget that this isn’t much of a mystery. It’s more about principle than anything. If Diane knows it’s one of two sources and needs more information, I’m sure Jay can figure it out.  

Carmen knows she’s stuck, so she asks if she can make a phone call. “I think that would be smart,” Diane says.  

I’ve noticed that Liz and Diane are both being quite firm with others this season—and I like it. They're spending more time with lower-level characters, and both Diane and Liz have reasons to be more curt this year. Diane is under a lot of stress and it’s showing in all of her interactions; Liz is making a point of seeming in control to establish herself as the leader of the firm.  

Then Marissa walks in. “What is going on with your crazy court judge?” Diane asks. “My?” Marissa asks. “Marissa, I am in no mood for defensiveness,” Diane insists. She mentions Wackner missing his meeting and shadowing Leah. That’s news to Marissa.  

Marissa heads to Wackner’s court to figure out what’s going on.

Wackner is now experimenting with juries. This is interesting to me—I'd wondered before how smart it was to just have Wackner make all the rulings, so exploring the idea of having a jury shows he’s thinking about that, too. Also, it’s another sign that Wackner wants his court to have many of the same structures as a real courtroom. There are still judges, juries, witnesses, trials—he's starting something new, but it feels more like he’s testing out improvements for an imperfect system. I wonder if his end goal would be to set up separate courts, or if he’s more interested in shaping laws/reforming the system? Surely Wackner has ambitions of scaling up whatever conclusions he comes to. So what are they?  

The reason for the juries is that the associates told him that juries are racially biased, so he’s trying to correct it. He also explains how he ended up shadowing Leah, and advises Marissa to go exploring whenever she’s kept waiting. (I have a feeling Marissa doesn’t need to be told this, but then, that’s why she’s Wackner’s “muse.”)  

Marissa notes that Wackner’s court is looking nicer—there must be money coming in from somewhere new. Wackner confirms there’s been a sympathetic donor.

Wackner is dealing with a case about NFT fraud. Marissa says she doesn’t know what that is. I’m going to assume that Marissa is using Wackner’s strategies against him (she had just accused him of playing dumb to get others to talk) because I cannot believe that Marissa, who always knows random facts, ESPECIALLY ones that involve weird corners of the internet, would not know what an NFT is.  

Marissa hears the case is about $4 million, and she’s shocked because this raises the stakes a little more than even she is comfortable with. Wackner has a signed and notarized document saying that both sides will honor the verdict. It is, as Marissa points out, notarized in 9 ¾ court by Wackner about a fictional case. “About a fictional crime,” Wackner adds on.  

I’m a little surprised this is all these writers had to say about NFTs! Maybe they knew that by the time this aired, the actual topic would feel dated.  

Mandy Patinkin is just SO GOOD as Wackner! I’m watching a fictional show about a fictional crime in a fictional court and even I am starting to believe in his ludicrous court!  

Wackner’s jury selection process involves catching potential jurors in traps, like pretending to know the national anthem when they don’t. Smart. Probably super problematic if you think about it too hard and put it in the wrong people’s hands and people start to know the system. But smart, for now.  

Diane is now in the sensitivity read meeting, for reasons passing understanding. They are still talking about the first joke. Jay calls Liz out of the meeting and notes that everyone in the room is old and no one is funny. “I’m funny!” Liz argues. Diane tries to leave the meeting, and Liz tells Diane Jay’s idea about needing younger people. “Oh god yes,” Diane agrees. I’m glad she sees it and a little alarmed that Liz doesn’t! I feel like they should’ve sent the tape to everyone interested in participating, then asked them to write up (separately) anything they found questionable or offensive, and gone from there, ending with a close review of anything that wasn’t previously flagged. If you debate every single line for hours you’re going to get nowhere.

I don’t know why Liz is so concerned that Jay thinks she’s not funny? But she is.

Diane asks Liz to join her meeting with Carmen and Lester. This is a scene I’ve been waiting for! Diane and Liz are both there and so the scene FEELS important. The plot advances. And, most importantly, they address why Carmen is staying at RL!

Lester reiterates that Carmen is super important to Rivi, so if Carmen says she can’t share info, then she can’t share info. Liz and Diane do not accept this. “I am a name partner. Carmen is a first-year associate,” Liz says. “Now, Carmen is free to resign and hang her shingle wherever she’d like. She can even go and work for you. That is up to her. But while she is here, she is subject to the rules and the mentoring of this firm.”

Lester tries to take Carmen out of the meeting. Liz and Diane won’t let him: They need to know if Carmen is staying with the firm, now.  

“You have a lot to learn, Carmen. And you can only do that here,” Diane pitches. I don’t think that’s exactly true, but it’s not untrue.

Here is a question I have about Carmen: she is WILLING to represent drug dealers and rapists. Does she WANT to? She chooses RL, so I’m guessing her interests lie in big law and not in aiding criminals.  

Lester leaves, but not before saying Kurt is about to get a grand jury summons. Diane gets one too. It’s not the usual guy! Too bad.

A bigger group is now deciding on if jokes are offensive or not, and they’re doing so with paddles that are red on one side (offensive) and green on the other (funny). I’m sure this is going to go well.

The group sees the replacement jokes and they are confused. Marissa wants to see the original joke. Julius shows the room, and everyone laughs. The joke is funny—and offensive. Someone from the mail room notes that he would be the butt of this joke, but he finds it funny, so he thinks the comedian should be able to continue with her set.  

Here is where I think I fall on this: Get sensitivity reads to get ahead of any huge issues (like, don’t be Pepsi with the ad with whichever Jenner it was who solved racism). Be aware of the potential issues. Let viewers decide what is and isn’t offensive, and make informed decisions rather than arbitrary rules about what content to show. You’ll KNOW if you are indulging the tendencies of someone with a history of making the same type of problematic jokes (for example, maybe if you are reviewing something by Tina Fey and she tries to write another edgy plot where racial stereotypes are the punchline, you advise her to not do that because, I mean, why WERE there so many episodes of 30 Rock that involved blackface??). You’ll KNOW if you are giving a platform to someone who is actively trying to spread misinformation and be cruel to others. Someone’s going to be offended by everything, and it may be a huge deal and it may not be. IMO, it doesn’t really matter that I can’t make an exact set of rules about what is/isn’t smart to air. I don’t think anyone—not networks, not creators, and not audiences—would benefit from that. Lawyers might, though, for all the billable hours...

“You can’t tell a joke without offending someone,” Jay notes. I do not think this is true! Puns don’t offend anyone!  

David Lee’s counter-example to Jay’s point is Gilbert & Sullivan. Of course it is.

As always, the argument devolves into overlapping chatter. These episodes exhaust me. At least this episode has some fun with the topic of the week and seems to have more of a point of view than some of the past episodes where the only conclusion is, “Wow! Controversy is controversial!”

Marissa ends up in the mail room with Jay and one of the mailroom guys (captions say his name is Jimmy). They are mocking the partner’s ideas of comedy. Jay and Jimmy agree that the best comedy is mean. But, Jay says, now it feels like you need “a permission slip to tell a joke.” Is... this true? This feels like one of those things people who would never actually get “cancelled” worry about because their fear overtakes their ability to understand what really gets someone cancelled.  

Then again, this episode was written by professional writers who would absolutely know better than I am if people are really hesitant to tell jokes.  

Jimmy has started making literal permission slips to allow people to tell jokes about specific groups. Jay and Marissa are down.  

Jay asks Jimmy to make a card for something so inappropriate he wouldn’t joke about it... and Jimmy prints a card that says Greta Thunberg. No one wants to joke about that.

And you know why this joke lands well for me? Part of it is that the vibe of this scene is very fun and laid back. But mostly it’s because Younger tried to make a Greta Thunberg joke this season, and it was quite possibly the worst, most embarrassing thing I’ve seen a TV show do in ages. It wasn’t funny, just mean, over the top, lazy, and never-ending. (Poor Younger. That show had an awful final season.)  

Liz is still worried she’s not funny. She asks Del if she’s funny and mentions Jay’s comment. He says she’s funny, but she’s not convinced he’s being honest. He points out this is a discussion no one will win. Del ends up accidentally saying “I love you” to Liz, which is a big deal for a relationship we’ve seen for all of two seconds. Liz says they don’t have to talk about it, but Del insists on explaining that he meant “affection,” not love. I’m glad they’re talking about this.

“Then maybe we should get married,” Liz says as seriously as possible. She stares at Del and smiles. He laughs and admits that was funny. It was VERY funny!  

Grand jury time! Yet Another Ham Sandwich: The Sequel: The Musical: The Series. (Am I funny? Pls tell me I’m funny and hip with the teens!)  

It’s Diane’s turn first. She does well, but there’s not much to say when Nancy plays the recording of Diane phoning the FBI with the rioter’s name. I did not need the clip from last episode in here. Diane is calm in court, but rushes to tell Kurt immediately. Nancy predicted Diane would do that, so she calls in Kurt before Diane has a chance to warn him.

So, wait, Kurt thought all of this was just a COINCIDENCE? Diane didn’t tell him earlier?! I don’t love this choice, but okay.  

Liz finds a joke permission slip on her desk. Julius has one too. “Did you use it?” Liz asks. Julius doesn’t understand what that even means. Then they trade clothes, because Liz does want to tell a joke about white girl clothes.

Julius suspects the cards are a way to make fun of the partners for being unfunny. The associates are also chatting about the cards, having lots of fun, so it’s clearly not about the partners.

I think now is an appropriate time to mention that TGW and TGF have both been consistently hilarious shows and have been on the air for a combined twelve years. Neither rely on the types of jokes that these cards permit. This is a kind of interesting thought experiment, but... doesn’t it say something that the shows never use these jokes as crutches and still manage to be funny? This is what I meant earlier about people being afraid of cancel culture when they’re not actually really at risk of coming under fire. These writers know how to write things that are funny. They know how to make comedy out of absurdity and subverting expectations. And yet they’re worried about how to have jokes that aren’t mean? Really?

The first laugh out loud funny TGW moment that comes to mind right now is the episode that ends with that obnoxious talk show guy trying to out Diane as a lesbian. That joke deals with identity. But it still holds up 12 years later, because the joke isn’t that Diane could be gay... the joke is that Diane DOES NOT GIVE A SHIT what this pest is saying about her on TV, and so she laughs. And because the tension of the talk show guy’s BIG DRAMATIC REVEAL is cut with Diane’s dynamic, loud laugh, we laugh with her! I’m not really sure what I'm trying to illustrate with this example. I’m just noting that you can be topical, funny, and entirely appropriate at the same time... and these writers are great at finding that balance.

HR starts, like, texting (they TEXT Marissa!!!) employees about the joke permission slips? It’s so bizarrely done that I thought this was going to be a prank.  

Jay decides they won’t go to HR, and Jimmy decides they’ll delay. Why wouldn’t HR just come down and take away the cards?

For this week’s dose of Wackner Wackiness, witnesses will be fully costumed, and it goes without saying that the costumes will be as over the top as possible.

David Cord is the mysterious donor. Marissa spots him and instantly puts the pieces together. Cord explains he met Wackner on the elevator. I can’t say enough how much I like that this season has a lot of moving pieces that feel like part of a whole. Cord showed up as part of a case that caused internal debate at the firm and had a thematic parallel to an ongoing plot, then crossed over into Wackner’s plot once he was established as a character!  

Cord says he’s interested in “disrupting things” so he’s interested in Wackner. I did not need the still photo of where they founded HP that’s used to illustrate humble beginnings, I guess.

Nancy mentions Kurt’s unfortunate last name—she so would. Kurt takes the fifth. Was this thing about needing a reason to take the fifth true in the earlier seasons and just not mentioned? Didn’t Kalinda and Will use this strategy?

Nancy, obviously, plays the recording of Diane reporting the rioter. Kurt conceals his reaction for the grand jury, but he’s pissed.  

Diane tries to apologize and Kurt asks for another lawyer. This is the right move. I can’t be all that sad.

The partners have collected all the cards and are trying to do damage control with HR. (Interestingly, there are certain topics the cards we see don’t touch on. Like, where’s the rape joke card? Aren’t rape jokes what we usually talk about when we talk about comedians getting cancelled? And where are the jokes about minority groups (aside from little people, referred to using the PC name instead of the names that would probably be used in most offensive jokes about little people) not represented in the TGF cast? I find this little bit of self-censorship quite notable, especially given that the writers seem to be arguing in favor of not regulating humor. These omissions, which MUST be intentional, tell me the writers do have their own lines they won’t cross...)  

(My larger point there, and where this funny-but-unnecessary subplot fails for me, is that this whole episode feels like a bit of a panic over cancel culture and winds up being a strawman argument. I don’t disagree with the conclusions the writers come to and I do find some of these scenes funny. But at the same time, I don’t think Cancel Culture is actually about coming after every single joke that makes fun of any person or group (if we must do a cancel culture plot, why not do one about someone who is an odious person and yet still has a following even after they’ve been “cancelled”). And I don’t think that showing HR as a very stern, strict, humorless body is helpful. I’m getting ahead of myself, but all that accomplishes is having Liz win on a point that pretty much everyone can agree on, because no one is actually as humorless as STRL’s HR department! Humor has so many gray areas and if you try to make it black and white, obviously the side that’s saying YOU CANNOT MAKE JOKES ABOUT ANYTHING is going to be the one that is wrong.  

I did just remember that all of these writers have probably dealt with unfun and strict standards & practices departments, and I like the way HR is portrayed more if I try to imagine them as Standards & Practices.

Liz decides she is going to see HR so she’s seen as an authority figure, not someone subversive. But first, Liz has to meet with Del and the comedian.

Wackner and Cord are in Diane’s office. Diane’s skeptical of their alliance. She also points out that it is corrupt for Wackner to be financed by Cord and decide on Cord’s cases. This is true. Cord says he has no vested interest in any of the cases. And Wackner says he’s the “most untouchable man on earth” and quotes a song again. Yet another example of how this court only works if Wackner is in charge.

The comedy meeting does not go well. David Lee is already trying to pitch their other servicces. The comedian finds the censored version hilarious in how terrible it is, and then she starts making fun of it, loudly, and for way too long.  

David thinks it went poorly; Liz isn’t concerned. David is all, “you failed” and Liz asks him to cool it and notes that David isn’t the highest-ranking person at STRL, so he should “stop the shit” and work with her. She’s already sounding more like a boss.  

Julius complements her on being “Boseman-like,” which is true (though I wish she didn’t need to be compared to her ex-husband). “I know,” Liz says quietly, likely because she hates that Adrian is still influencing her this much.  

Del joins Wackner and Cord in the elevator, and this isn’t the end of the episode but I’m going to pretend it is so all the episodes can end on elevators this year. It’s close enough.

Kurt’s new lawyer is Julius. Ah, yes, choose the corrupt judge Trump pardoned who works at your wife’s firm to represent you. Seems smart.  

Liz walks past Diane’s office and the camera follows her up to HR. She tries to get HR to understand humor. They do not. And that’s the episode.

So, a few thoughts to conclude. First, I went into this recap thinking I’d have a lot more to say about cancel culture and the way this episode handled the debate. But I ended up liking this plot—and this episode-- more the second time around. I still don’t think this episode said anything groundbreaking about cancel culture, because I don’t think it actually engaged with the topic beyond the surface. As I noted earlier, coming to the conclusion that jokes should be allowed because we’re all human isn’t really a resolution the real topic. What about accountability? What about allowing for some jokes to be too far without taking the teeth out of every joke? What about the way people panic over cancel culture when they’re not being canceled (this episode felt a little bit like a panic over cancel culture, which is why I reacted negatively to it the first time through) or about how cancellation doesn’t always stick or have meaning? There is SOMETHING to explore here, but I don’t think this episode found that something.  

Second, because I didn’t find a way to work it in above... is it me, or is it actually HELPING the show to not have Adrian or Lucca around!? This season feels so much more focused than the past several, and I think it might be because the writers (who are, as always, very good at adapting to curveballs) had to restructure the show. Lucca always had her own subplots that were separate from everything else, and Adrian’s charisma tended to overpower others’ presence (especially Liz’s) whenever he was in the room. It didn’t help that the writers seemed to LOVE writing Adrian plots, even if it meant neglecting others.  

Don’t get me wrong—I love Adrian and Lucca both. But there’s something to be said for a tighter show with three main interconnected pieces (Liz/firm drama, Diane/FBI and Kurt, Marissa/Wackner’s court) that carry over from episode to episode. Like the titles of the season, these episodes build on each other.  

Also, there’s the right amount of every character this season. David Lee is used sparingly; Jay and Julius are supporting players who sometimes get the spotlight; Wackner is a huge presence but his plot feels like part of the show; Carmen feels important but isn’t being given screentime for the sake of screentime; Liz is finally the type of lead she should’ve been from the start; Marissa has nicely grown into a role closer to leading than supporting; Diane remains a clear lead.  

5x05 next week!!! I am expecting some Hitting the Fan level quality and at least one fan-service-y reference. (Not really, but wouldn’t it be fun?)  

[thegirl20]

For me the moment before she screams yen’s name is so much worse because when she says it then she sounds completely broken. That hurts so much more.

Btw I love, love, love your latest story! If only it could’ve happened like that in the actual episode. Truly amazing writing on your part. Especially when tissaia was defending yennefer from he who must not be named

Broken is definitely the description that comes to mind of her on that battlefield. She's dirty, her hair is loose, her clothes are dishevelled, she's visibly and audibly emotional - every single image we had built up of Tissaia over the course of season 1 is shattered. Losing Yennefer has broken her.

I'm glad you liked the latest wee ficlet. This has been a good exercise to get out my silly wee ideas about how scenes could have gone differently. 😊

[littlx-songbxrd]

Ok I meant to answer you're question about what I thought of the show ages ago but I forgot.

I LOVED IT OMGGGG! I got so many kitty vibes from Wilhelm and Simon! The touching! The softness! It's those vibes exactly! I want that energy in TWP.

COMRADE SIMON!! We stan! That speech he made at the very beginning about the differences in attitudes towards "tax evasion" vs. "Welfare fraud." Legend behavior.

Sara!!!! My girl!!!!!! An autistic/adhd character PLAYED BY AN AUTISTIC ACTRESS!!!! THIS IS SO HUGE!!! I would die for my problematic queen. I made an entire post on her but the gist is, I get where she's coming from and understand why she feels the way she feels but dear God girl make better choices and stay the hell away from August.

Speaking of.... I wanna run August over several times. Vroom vroom motherfucker. The fact that he

- filmed MINORS HAVING SEX AND TGE POSTED IT ONLINE

-kissed Sara behind Felice's back when they were still dating WITHOUT HER CONSENT BTW

- Wanted to blame Simon for the drugs because he knew it would be easy because Simon's family is lower class and doesnt have the same social standing as one of the "members of the society"

- Also it didn't escape my notice that the cult like faternety type group with all the rich, mainly white boys is called The Society. This shows commentary on class is vv interesting. Especially the little things like two girls just randomly advocating for THE DEATH PENALTY. The rich people audacity.

-Anyways back to August, when he tried to excuse his actions with Wilhelm and get all teary like no bitch you can't manipulate your way out of this one. And again with Sara! When he said "Wilhelm has everything" I wanted to scream! Like he's fucking closeted and clearly suffering from panic attacks and extreme anxiety you moron.

-Anyways!! I also think that Wilhem might be autistic because he just feels autistic. Like the vibes are there.

- The girl group is so sweet? And to have the popular girl be a Black girl who isn't "stereotypically attractive" with a more medium sized body and bad acne. As someone who has really bad skin I needed that. Felice is kinda awesome imo.

Let me see what else??

-Simon and his mom speaking Spanish consistently throughout the show. It sounded pretty natural to me? But I'm not a native speaker. (Or even fluent honestly lol.)

- Simon and Wilhelm are honestly so adorable and in love and it made my heart ache. (I am so touch starved I swear..)

-My only main beef is the outing plotline and the show using an outdated medical term for Sara, aspergers. It's literally just autism. Also it's kind of offensive because Hans Asperger was a n*zi who literally killed autistic children because they weren't useful to capitalism. SOOOO yeah.

As for the outing plotline, I feel like the cishets have like three plotlines that they use for queer stories. Outing/coming out, one of them dies, or one if them bullies the other until they both fall in love. It's tired.

But overall I really loved it.

HI SORRY I HADNT REPLIED

I wanted to correctly talk to you about this series so I logged in through my computer to make it easier for me :D

LOOK AT THIS POINT IVE RELATED THEM TO LITERALLY EVERY COMFORT SHIP I HAVE LIKE. I've compared this to kitty, I've compared this to Thomastair, I've compared this to my friends to ocs who she has obsessed me with (youd actually like them if you liked this tbh) IVE COMPARED ME TO MY OCS

BUT AT THE END OF THE DAY I JUST LOVE THEM

IF KITTY DOESNT HAVE THIS ENERGY IN TWP WHAT WAS THE POINT

what was the point cc??

S I M O N

OH GOD WHEN HE SAID THAT I WENT OMG YEAH

new favorite character

Great

SHES PLAYED BY AN AUTISTIC ACTRESS?? Sorry I hadn't known! Haven't actually gotten to obsessively look at the cast I've been trying to get over the last episode BUT THATS SO COOL. SARA IS AMAZING AND I ADORE HER. I'll read your post after this! But of course STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM AUGUST GIRL PLEASE

Tbh I understood where she was coming from with everything with Simons image falling apart and her having to suffer when she had just started having friends , just after finding he had been lying to her. But love, AUGUST?

A U G U S T ???

WHO JUST FOUND OUT OUTED YOUR BROTHER

Also random and stealing this from @marzzinaa i totally hc Sara as a demi girl for some reason

Im kinda sad we didnt see her speak spanish as much we did simon :(

But oh well I LOVE HER AND YEAH STAY AWAY FROM AUGUST GOD

FAE WE RUN HIM OVER TOGETHER BROOM BROOM

You already said it all, I just agree

Ok I'll bring a machete you bring whatever you wish and we kill him sound good?

ALSO YEAH I TOTALLY NOTICED HOW THE ECONOMIC DINAMICS CAME INTO PLAY AND HOW IT BASICALLY LET YOU KNOW HOW THE PRIVILEGED ELITES COULD GET AWAY WITH ANYTHING

meanwhile they wanted to pass off to Simon who came from a lower class family the blame

Also I'd like to mention how that would also play into the stereotype latinos are all drug dealers

Which I love how they didnt make his dead beat alcoholic man the latino parent, when I first read the description I thought they might do that, but im so glad they didnt

I think it might have been a comentary idk i liked that they DIDNT make the poc parent the dead beat

THE FRIEND GROUP WAS SO COOL AND I LOVED ALL OF THEM AND YES FELICE WAS JUST <3

I love how they didnt make her stereotypically perfect AND YES MID SIZED REP WAS AMAZING TO SEE

Also im so glad you got to see that represented!!

So I am a native speaker and him talking to his mom MADE ME CRY

it was WONDERFUL I WANT MORE OF IT

pls most her phrases reminded me to my own mom

Autistic wilhelm you say?? omg tell me more (if you want)

Oh thats awful, well I'll just refer to Sara as autistic and hope the showrunners fix that next season because if they dont-

Yikes

Oh yeah, thats valid critisism. But in my opinion they actually wrote it pretty well so I wont really be complaining about an overall media problem with queer stories rn. If so I'll be here all day. But yeah its an overall problem but it wasnt done bad in my opinion so!

I'll shut up, for now

IM SO GLAD YOU LIKED IT FEEL FREE TO KEEP TALKING ABOUT IT WITH ME PLS ITS MY OBSESSION NOW IM GONNA BE ANNOYING ABOUT IT ALL MONTH

[wwy009sideblog]

What happened in the last episode? Any interesting stuff?

I don't know how to describe the episode... So much happened in the episode, yet nothing happened; the main plot barely moved.😂(With only 2 episodes left!!!)

Now the things happened in this episode, I am keeping it very short(not in sequence):

1. Kirinmaru and Sesshomaru are still fighting. It still seems Sesshomaru is trying to make Kirinmaru realize something. The next episode(Ep 47) is titled "Father and Daughter", so probably the fight should end by the next episode. Or at least both father(Kirimaru) and daughter(Rion) will realize something.

2. Riku realized something about Rion, but Rion took him away comically before he could say anything. (Probably Rion is a half-demon, idk, that’s Rion saying shut up btw.)

3. The OG group has temporarily trapped the butterfly near Mt.Musubi. Again, it seems the mountain(a preggo lady holding her belly) seems very important. Again one more mystery... 🙄

4. Setsuna and Moroha went to the place where Rion is T-posing. 

She attacks both of them with colorful thread of fate. They were basically dodging the threads(they weren’t able to cut it). Then Setsuna realizes that the correct thread(the one connected to Rion) needs to be cut.

Every time the correct thread got severed, they heard Rion’s voice(heart) complaining about her father, lol. I guess this will continue until the next episode cause Rion ain’t listening to Setsuna and Moroha.

5. After Riku got kidnapped, Towa and Kirin were fighting in a place that looks like a library(Yup it’s inside the butterfly). 

It seems Kirin Sensei has started thinking of himself as Rion’s real father. He is trying to create a new history where Rion will be the new ruler of the world.(Cause in the history books, demons are only mentioned in fairytales, so he was devasted and wanted to teach humans new history. It is confusing; trust me T.T)

To be honest, his writing(in the series) is hella confusing, but I guess we will understand Kirinmaru via him. 

Towa calls him out on his B.S and says something( Psst..That he is not the father but just a right arm) that hits his nerves:

He zaps out Towa’s demonic power using the Zanseiken. Then there was a whole fight sequence, where of course, Towa had to dodge, and they talked about humans. Short description of the convo:

Kirin: Rion doesn’t like everything about humans, you have seen ugly side of humanity yada yada we demons were chased from our usual homes and were made to feel inferior

Towa: There good humans and bad humans. Similarly there are good demons and bad demons.

Kirin: You are a bad half-demon.

Dun dun dun episode ends at Kirin Sensei saying,“Good bye Higurashi-san”.(Well Riku will save her, I guess)

The whole change of Kirin sensei from “I like humans” to him complaining about humans just seems like the story showing us Kirinmaru’s change. Well, at least I am seeing it this way.

Anywho now the thing I personally found interesting is how Towa looks after her demonic energy got absorbed.

Her hair turned black, it’s short and her eye color changed as well. Ignoring the red streaks this is how Towa should look in her human version:

But in her human version not only does her hair color change but her hair grows:

Same goes for Setsuna her hair also grows in her supposed human night:

And I can't add the image, but there was a snow demon who sensed a weak demonic energy of Setsuna. (on her human night)

So the thing is, should we even call the twins human night "human"? Both the girls grow their hair(which didn't happen with Inuyasha), and a demon sensed one of the twin's weak demonic energy.