#but I think the team does have a solid introduction

[inkblackorchid]

Ok but this is such juicy interpersonal conflict. This is mwah, chef's kiss. The questions this introduces. Was Dragan the only duellist of note who was forced to lose against Jack on purpose or was there a whole slew of them? How many people did Jack actually beat legitimately before the Fortune Cup? How much more other than the PR stuff was fabricated for Jack's image?

Also, this is an absolutely unacceptable blow to Jack's pride—his expression in the fourth screenshot here really says it all. This is such a good way to call back to season 1 Jack and really get him invested in this match. I love this choice.

[limerlove]

THE FIRST BITE!

pairing. rugby player!abby x fem!reader x rugby player!vi

the introduction. abby anderson, the co-captain of the legends. the thickest, strongest girl around and she sure does pull like it. then there’s vi, tragically pathetic unable to get a girlfriend vi, a co-captain with some of the past game in the pitch but can’t find any to save her life off the field. or will misfortune of missing keys bring the luck directly to her?

the two have done nothing but compete against each other from the day they were born. abby has been a big girl from a young age, taller than most, it didn’t take much for her to bulk up. her biceps bigger than the largest dumbells in the gym, thighs and legs strong enough to kill a man. it’s what made her a dominant force on the field. she’s a bull you’ll try like hell to doze over, but the task is nearly impossible.

then there’s violet.

she’s not as big or strong, but she’s quick. she relies on it for every match. gliding on the pitch like a leopard. it’s because of her sheer speed that the team has won so frequently. violet is also the painful thorn in abby’s side, why she isn’t the sole captain but co-captains. the best of the best coach sev says, the yin and yang of professional rugby.

abby isn’t too sure of it but she’s in it to win and for that it’s the only reason why a bond is forged between them. the hatred they have for each other becomes kinship, hours on the field bringing out the best in each other only makes them win and win, and fucking win. the surrounding districts wanting to know coach sev’s secret.

it’s friendship.

two weeks from the quarter finals, the pair decides to blow off steam and that’s when the real competition between them thrives. until recently, abby had been happily taken, violet didn’t have to compete with the beefcake. even if she’d never admit it, abby makes her feel insecure. she’s smart, kind, and seriously ripped.

the amount of girls she turns town in one night at the local bar, seraphites, makes her wanna shrivel into a ball until all she feels is the a black hole swallowing her essence whole.

but now abby is single and god, vi will cry into her pillow if another girl she thinks is pretty leaves home with abby.

“don’t feel so bad. most wouldn’t last this long with me around.”

“yeah, i feel so grateful to still be here.”

abby chuckles as she playfully punches at vi’s shoulder.

“i’ll throw you a solid tonight then, the after party after quarter finals, i won’t munch all night and you know how hard that is for me.” abby playfully pouts.

“oh, really? how pitiful. that’s actually worse than competing with you. a sympathy thrown one night stand.”

abby harmlessly puts her hands up, taking a sip from her chilled beer. immediately, the bartender starts chatting up with her and abby starts being abby. it infuriates her how little the broad blonde has to try. she slips into this girl every damn gay girl in town eats up like a midnight snack.

each time, she starts it off slow. easy. throwing a compliment your way, if that bite into the bait, they always touch her hand, her arm, or stroke the vein protruding from her bicep. abby shamelessly flirts until they’re giggling, nearly putty in her hands.

a couple hours later, the two of them are leaving but vi is walking home alone while abby is entering a cab with the breathtaking bartender who’s shift has just conveniently ended.

it’s the only night she’s thankful abby left. it’s then she realizes as she attempts to get in her shared apartment with blondie that she’s keyless and no way to get into her apartment. the office is closed and she is so severely fucked.

vi doesn’t realize that’s she just sitting there like an idiot staring until a stranger’s voice pulls her out of it.

“any luck with your mind warping powers or are you keyless?”

vi jumps at the voice, locking eyes with the most gorgeous person she’s ever seen in her life. it doesn’t help you are wearing the shortest skirt she’s ever seen, cleavage spilling out of your top and she admires the white sheer top you’re wearing.

she feels a tad breathless.

that has nothing to with you.

just her predicament.

totally.

“do you have a roommate to call?”

vi comes to it and she murmurs and soft yeah, trying to not make eye contact with the goddess she somehow has managed to embarrass herself over.

quickly, she dials abby’s number, waiting for her to pick up not, once, not twice, but three times. damn fucker is munching right now, vi swears to herself.

but she didn’t say it to herself, she said it out loud where the girl of dreams is giggling as she speed texts abby, trying to evoke a response from her.

“indisposed and munching?” you ask, you’re smirking and vi is blushing.

“yeah, her favorite extra curricular activity and she does it exceedingly fast.”

“is it yours too?”

shit.

oh my fucking shit.

are you hitting on her?

no. that’s not humanly possible for someone like you to be hitting on someone as tragic as her. vi’s convinced it’s just because abby isn’t here. that’s all. her cockblocking stunner of a best friend isn’t here to make her life sufferable but the way you’re eyeing her up like a hot piece of meat should make her feel slightly objectified if you she wasn’t doing the exact same thing.

“right girl, right munch.”

it’s the dumbest thing vi’s ever said but you laugh. offering her a spot on your couch and she’s eternally grateful for. you even have a pair of shorts and a spare t-shirt that she can sleep in. she’s eternally grateful she doesn’t have to sit outside her apartment alone for god knows how long waiting for abby to be done with her seven course meal.

violet planned to actually sleep but then you play a vinyl record on the turntable and it just so happens to be vi’s favorite and she can’t stop telling about every song on the record. she’s so animated as she talks, her powder hues vibrant as she goes into the lyrics she loves the most, what songs made her cry first listen and the songs that still make her cry to this day.

you’re looking at her the way vi’s always wanted to be look at. before either of you know it, four albums later, it’s nearly four in the morning and you’re leaning in close to her, so much so vi isn’t sure she can even breath. a vibrant pink strand gets twirled around your finger.

“know about all your favorite albums but not a name to the pretty face.”

“violet. or vi. whatever you prefer.” vi struggles to breathe even further as your lips ghost over hers.

“what do you prefer?”

“violet.”

you take a pause, licking your lips, slightly crazing violet’s lips. she looks a like a deer in headlight, terrified to make the first move but you like how shy she is, how she voices the thoughts she isn’t meant to. there’s a sweetness you want to sink your teeth into like cotton candy.

“violet it is then.”

putting her out of her own misery, your soft lips mold with hers and you’re dominant from the start. placing a delicate hand on her throat, claiming her with your tongue as you devour her whole. it’s hot and heavy. the clashing of teeth, the pulls at her pink hair, and violet can’t help but bring you closer to her.

still wearing this insufferably short skirt, vi smooths her touch over your soft thighs beneath the fabric. the two of you getting lost in each other until it’s all abruptly stops. she’s funneling her under the hem of your shirt, playing with the buttons until she absentmindedly plucks one open.

“fuck—” you curse, trying to maintain your compose but violet plucks another button and your perfect tits spill out of the material.

“yeah?” violet smirks, not being nearly as innocent as she appears.

“time to put that extra curricular to use then. let’s see how munch of a munch you can be.”

rayray’s nonsense. UM HI IDEK KNOW WHAT THE FUCK THIS IS. um. yeah. abby x vi are my favs and i'm forcing this on everyone but i also fuck with it??? idek. this is a crazy midnight kinda post, spur of the moment if you will. gonna try not to get tew in my head 'bout this. that's for future me to deal with BUT ALSO DO WE FUCK WITH IT???? only time will tell. ALRIGHT. let me work on this mega long vi fic i got going on .... byeeeeee ♡

[judgeanon]

So About That BATGIRL #1...

I put this review up in another site, but since folks here on Tumblr seem to be realizing I have a lot of Thoughts about Lady Shiva, I figured I'd transplant it here. So here's how I feel about it. The short of it is that I think it's a strong start with a few small quibbles because I'm not sure how much of Shiva's writing is her being intentionally OOC and how much is Brombal trying to humanize her.

The long is here:

Now, one of Shiva's main issues as a character ever since they finally split her from the League of Assassins (God bless you Bryan Hill) is that, instead, writers have stapled her to Cass. Literally every major Shiva appearance since 2017 has involved Cass in some way. That is a problem not so much for Cass, who gets to have her own stories and series with and without the Batfam (although mostly with), but for Shiva, who doesn't get nearly as much exposure as her daughter. If there's a Shiva comic coming out, odds are it's gonna have something to do with Cass. Well, except for the other Shiva comic coming out this month that's gonna suck shit.

But at the same time, I don't think that means nobody should ever do another Shiva/Cass story, because I still feel like that's rich soil that nobody has had the time, space or desire to really commit to mining. Hill in Outsiders was writing a whole ensemble cast and couldn't linger too long on them. Writers like Grayson and Cloonan/Conrad both teased Shiva trying to reconcile with Cass but never took it anyhwere. A Shiva/Cass story can still be compelling and interesting as long as the writer is willing and able to Actually Write It.

So when literally the first panel of this new issue is Shiva addressing Cass and their relationship directly, I'm already perked up. Right from the get go, you can tell that Tate Brombal is absolutely here to tell a story about these two women and pretty much nothing else, and also that Tak Miyazawa and Mike Spicer are a killer art team. I adore how hard Tak's figures look without (usually) being stiff, thanks to some solid body language and expressions. And Spicer's colors have a cool kind of dark-but-vivid look. The last leg of the issue, with everything illuminated by fire, is especially cool.

Going back to the opening, it's curous how despite this being an issue #1, there's very little in the way of character introductions or set up. There's no slow burn here, no lengthy creeping intro like previous Shiva/Cass stories. And while I can't help but feel that it must be a little awkward for readers unfamiliar with them or their current situation, I think it also accurately reflects one of my favorite parts of the comic, which is Cass' being just absolutely fucking DONE with her mom.

After years of hyper dramatic standoffs and tearful moments of cheap heartbreak, it's fun to see a Cass who has no time for her mother, who's not interested in what she's got going on, and who's confident enough in herself to even be a little shit about it. It's fun and refreshing and fits Cass very nicely.

That not-quite-breakneck but still fast pace keeps up when the Unburied show up after just a few pages of setup and you know, in a couple of interviews, Brombal mentioned being influenced by Daredevil. And this is the page that made me go "Ah, yeah, that tracks." 'cause brother, those are some MILLER-ass ninjas.

Why Shiva fears these guys or thinks Cass can't handle them is not yet explained, but her desperation to keep Cass around does lead to a small but very meaning-heavy moment: the first punch in this series is not thrown into the face of the new enemies, but it's Cass decking her mom in the face and Shiva loving it.

It's an excellent touch and a perfect mission statement about the series. I love it as much as I love the ensuing fight, full of cool moves in big and small panels, but the most fun thing to me is how it's choreographed as Cass fighting her mom almost as much as she's fighting the Unburied. And on top of being a great fight, it ends with a small nod to QUESTION #1 or the 'Tec '88 Annual, in case I was somehow not sold enough already.

And while I still love Cass being so willing to call Shiva out on her lies, it does bring up one of the small gripes I have with this issue: I don't like it when Shiva lies constantly. I think she's best when she's strong and confident enough to not need to lie, when she just lays everything out on the table the way this comic is almost doing. It's good for Cass, as it keeps showing her as someone who has grown to understand her mother, who sees Shiva for who she is and what she does. And it does set up a slightly heartwarming scene at the end.

Of course, that's personal preferrence, and I'm not gonna say this is a bad comic because it doesn't follow my own idea of what works best for Shiva, especially since it's clear that Brombal is writing her with a lot of intention here. But that leads to the other big-ish issue I have with this issue: it's a bit hard to tell, from this story alone, how much of these moments are Brombal building his own personal version of Shiva and how much of it is Shiva, in-universe, acting out of character for the sake of some hidden scheme. After all, Cass points out that twice in the issue Shiva backs down, first from a moral fight and then from an actual fight.

So it's possible that even the constant lying is Shiva playing a role in favor of a grander scheme which will be revealed in later issues. Which, fair enough, I'm willing to see where it goes. But that second moment of yielding does lead to what's maybe my biggest problem with BATGIRL #1, and it's the Unburied themselves.

There's nothing in that initial fight with the Unburied that suggests Shiva and Cass would've had trouble dealing with them. Hell, there's very little to suggest even one of them would've had trouble with them. Now, I'm not suggesting that this issue should've started with the titular character and her mom getting their asses handed to them. But it feels like there's just not enough to these new enemies yet to justify the escape. Ninjas show up, Cass and Shiva beat them without getting hit once, more Ninjas show up and Shiva self-defenestrates herself.

Again, entirely possible that Shiva has something up her sleeve here, and issue #2 did promise to show us the main villain behind them, but as it stands it leaves me with this weird mix of not quite intrigue, not quite disappointment. It's just odd. They could've had, I dunno, a bomb set in the building or some other reason for Shiva to exit the venue like that.

Speaking of odd things, however, I did NOT expect to be reading a comic that brings up Shiva's cult from Puckett/Scott's BATGIRL #25. It's an "Order of Shiva" now though, with chapters and temples and stuff. Which is a bit of a change, since back in #25 they came off more like a gang of fanboys than an order of servants or anything like that. And after being summarily disposed by Shiva in that same issue, they were never really explored again.

So this is Brombal not just bringing back a bit of old lore, but also shifting it slightly, turning it into a more organized group... and then summarily disposing of them one panel later.

Also, I don't know what it is but I *LOVE* this panel. Shiva's face, her "wut" pose, the O.O, it's just... beautiful.

Anyway, once they're in the temple for the last bit of the issue, I start to see a bit more of what Brombal's doing. Like Gail Simone and Bryan Hill, Brombal seems to want to soften Shiva up a little, to make it clear that deep inside, she does have at least a bit of a heart, or enough of it to feel sadness at the wasteful death of people she may feel like she owes something to. Compare it to BIRDS OF PREY #62 for example:

This one is not quite as dramatic or vulnerable, but it's clear that Brombal wants to write Shiva with a slightly more human heart. Which, again, I'm not opposed to but I don't think it's the best thing you can do with her. I prefer Shiva being more detached in regards to death, like the most she'll do is see it as a waste but she's not gonna get emotional about it, she's going to be way more matter-of-fact. Death happens and such. But I think that kind of aloofness often gets interpreted as monstrous disdain for life by writers trying to make Shiva into a villain, and if I had to choose between what Brombal's doing and what, well, what Tom King's probably gonna be doing in a few weeks, I'll take this anytime.

Anyway, I also didn't expect to see the apprentice from BATGIRL #26, having apparently gotten a promotion somewhere in the last 20 years. Good for him! Less good for him is the shitload of arrows he eats two pages later but oh well.

The last couple of pages lead to a nice moment of sheer badassery for both Shiva and Cass and one last showcase of Miyazawa and Spicer's glorious team effort. Those two work really well together and I'm excited to see more of them in future issues. And while we're at it, I gotta give props to Miyazawa for being one of maybe two artists to draw a visibly older Lady Shiva.

His version isn't just aged but hardened by that age, looking stern and determined without having to rely on gritted teeth or angry looks. And on top of all that, he still finds more than enough moments to give her the kind of cocky smiles that bring out the more playful side of Shiva that some stories tend to either gloss over or turn into outright sadism.

Man... I just love to see that momma smile.

Other than that, there's a couple of minor quibbles I have with the issue. There's a funny moment where Cass pulls a Batman on her own mother (who charmingly acknowledges Bruce's influence) but it's undercut by Cass poofing back into existence on the next page. And there's also the weird, almost surreal emptiness of the city around them. Even after a building explodes, there's literally nobody on the streets other than Shiva and Cass.

On one hand, it speaks to the intentions of this run. This is VERY much a two-woman show so far, with no room for much else. But it's still glaring enough to be distracting.

However, it's that intentionality that ultimately wins me over. Even with all my personal little issues with Shiva's characterization, it's obvious from the start that this is a writer who is genuinely trying to write her as a character, who is ready to engage with her and with her relation with Cass on a deeper level than just hero and villain, or good daughter and evil mom.

Brombal, Miyazawa & Spicer have put some meat on the grill, and although I don't think the biggest pieces are there yet... I'm ready to let them cook.

[pro-cycling-primers]

🚴‍♀️🚴‍♂️ So, you're interested in starting watching cycling in 2025 (I hope), but have no idea where to start? 🚴‍♂️🚴‍♀️

Before the start of the road cycling season this year, I thought I'd post some information for people completely new to the sport. You might have seen some Tumblr posts going crazy about men and women in tight lycra, or watched a bit of the Tour de France on TV once, or maybe this post found you some other way! Let's get to it.

When does it happen?

Cycling doesn't have a set timetable nor are races only at weekends. It's mostly the same each year, but there have been some changes over the hundred-plus years professional cycling has been around.

The WorldTour (highest level of pro cycling, more about that in a later post) season lasts officially from January until October, with the full women's calendar for 2025 looking like this:

And the men's like this:

Don't try to watch all of them. Or do, I'm just a Tumblr blogger hoping more people get interested in this great sport 🤷

Okay then, which races should I watch?

The answers to this are many and varied; every list of 'best races to watch' will have at least one cycling fan clamouring 'But HOW could you ignore [x]!?'

In terms of basic introduction to the sport, I think this would give a solid season-wide grounding:

Five one-day races have mostly arbitrarily been declared The Monuments: Milano-Sanremo, Paris-Roubaix, de Ronde van Vlaanderen, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and Il Lombardia. (A more detailed post about these will be coming later in the season). All but Lombardia have men's and women's versions, with Milano-Sanremo Donne running for the first time in 2025, though Trofeo Alfredo Binda is a more well-established women's race in a similar region at a similar time.

Each has its own quirks, history, and favour different kinds of riders. The big names (except the pure stage racers) will be there.

I'd also recommend one of the early-season one-week stage races, Paris-Nice or Tirreno-Adriatico. They run at the same time, for one week in March, and present the first opportunity for the top stage racers to stretch their legs (another post about different types of riders will come). On the women's side, Itzulia Women or Tour de Suisse.

One of the Grand Tours is in my view, essential: Giro d'Italia, Vuelta a España, or the big one, the Tour de France

If you want, you can disregard this entire section and just watch the Tour. It's the biggest race there is, the most-covered, and teams bring their best riders in their best shape. It's a massive cultural event. If you take nothing from this post other than following a little closer in July, then it has been a success in my book.

How can I watch cycling?

Cycling has a serious lack of easily accessible coverage. Every race organiser has different TV rights arrangements, varying MASSIVELY from country to country, with some having free-to-air coverage of most races on national television but some having no option other than the paid services Discovery+ and Eurosport.

For an international suggestion there is a lovely site: tiz [dash] cycling [dot] io has free (!) livestreams of every race you could feasibly ever want to watch, and a back catalogue covering most of the last decade +

5-15 minute highlight videos from YouTube channels such as Eurosport, FloBikes etc. are also available a few hours after a race finishes! The Tour de France has its own channel with decent highlights and interviews.

See you later in the season!

[wyvernspirit]

So after watching all of Jentry Chau Vs The Underworld in the past 2 days I've quite a bit to say

This show needed to be two seasons long, I feel half my critiques would probably not exist if it got the runtime it deserved

Kit had the most interesting character arc and was done the most dirty of everyone by the lack of runtime later in the season and also the characters around him??? Can everyone stop treating Kit like shit for two seconds please??

I at multiple points went "God this feels like arcane levels of Greek tragedy" so it has that going for it

If it has ended as a season 1 on episode 9 (I think? The episode where she's out on the field and Cheng revived his daughter then the portals are opened) it could have been a really solid set up for a season 2, but unfortunately the next final episodes feel incredibly jam-packed and rushed with no room to breathe

The music and fight scenes were arguably the best part of the show, there was some really interesting "camera" work too

I didn't like how Michael basically played with 3 girls feelings for the whole show, particularly sorry to girl from the last episode who doesn't even get a name as far as I can tell

(also the way he went "and Kit did you love him too??" as some kind of snap back to Jentry like HE DIDNT LITERALLY JUST DIE MICHAEL CAN YOU STFU FOR TWO SECONDS NOT THE TIME)

Michael kinda just sucked? Like I wanted to like him but he's very meh to me and I'm sorry but the reveal of him actually being really bad at the flute just, threw me off completely especially because instruments are expensive!! He didn't buy it on a whim, the whole thing is he's supposed to have this deep passion for music but like it's not really reflected at all?? There's not even any conversations between him and Jentry about music outside band tryouts

And him having powers I guess could have been set up for a season 2 but we end this season really conclusively? All the plot threads and character arcs wrapped up. Like if anything I could see a spin off with him maybe but- like I don't want one, I just could see that happening

Actually to go back a paragraph for a second, that's something the show does a few times where it drops these very sudden interests of the characters and pretends they had them all along?? Like Jentry and baton twirling, like come on wouldn't it have made more sense if she got sought out by the school dance team or something?? Or just have her main spirit fighting weapon be a baton!! Show her having genuine interest in that aspect of spirit fighting and then have it reflect later in school? Like why did these girls see a video of Jentry dancing and go "Hey she could probably baton twirl!" that makes no sense!

The animation was really great! More than that even, I love the art style and art direction this show has, it really gave me some major inspiration! I want to draw some fanart really badly!!

Okay this a major IN MY OPINION, low-key I think the show might have been more interesting if it was just set in Seoul for the whole time, I preferred Jentrys friends there, I much preferred the environments and the colours the art direction had in the setting of Seoul

I didn't really care for Texas in the show and It made the feelings of her later questioning if she should return or not be hollow to me the viewer, because I was like OF COURSE SHE SHOULD

Stella is a character I have complicated feelings on! I really did not care for the minuet of Michael's introduction at school her getting weighed down as just "the girlfriend" character and how Jentry wasn't allowed form a meaningful connection to her until after Michael and her broke up, hell Stella basically gets forgotten by the plot until the last 4ish episodes, and IN THOSE she's a REALLY fun and strong character! I love how she started learning seals and was such a a big part of them winning that final fight at the school, which frankly I don't think she gets enough credit for

And while I find her blushing at Jentrys other friend cute it just makes me sigh because now I realize the show totally could have just done a "Fuck the boys" Jentry x Stella ship and I would have been totally down

Actually low-key I think my ideal is Kit and their Girlfriend Jentry and Jentrys Girlfriend Stella ((and I guess maybe Stella's boyfriend Michael if he got written better, but meh don't expect me to include him in the polycule if I ever write Fics/draw art for this show))

Also speaking of Kit god I would love them to be genderfluid or I guess it to be acknowledged? As queer and not just, because their a skin walker. Like you can read them that way because of them being a skin walker demon but like if it was acknowledged in the show after making Jentry's skin he experimented a little with how he looked as Kit and his sense of fashion and style!!

Idk I would have loved it, I have some strong feelings on how this show had hints of queerness but never actually acknowledged that queerness besides I guess Jentrys fake parents being like "So do you have a boyfriend?? ..or a girlfriend??" Which I mean, I guess, diversity win the cat spirits pretending to be your dead parents don't care if your gay!

I was very invested in the mysteries of the Chau family for the whole run I just wish that they had time to breathe, we went from one revelation to the next and each one hit just that little bit less because there was no down time given between them.

Okay overall though, it's going to be rotating in my mind like a microwave for the next two weeks I can tell

I don't know if it's strong enough to stick around as a major fixation but maybe a minor one where I occasionally get drawn back over the characters who had so much potential to me

I'd say a solid like 8/10

Yeah I know I just did all that whining and complaining

But I did genuinely enjoy most of the viewing experience and the ideas behind it

It was good, I think other people should give it a try, it deserves a lot more love and attention for sure

[whynot-tryit]

Angel of Small Death: Chapter 1

John Price x female! reader

Summary: Laswell convinces Price to hire a team medic. You spend your first day meeting each one of the men and you take an instant liking to the captain, and he does so too.

Word count: 5,528

Warnings: inaccurate medical stuff, mentions of blood, insomnia, body parts, body touching, lmk if there’s anything I should add.

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

“John, in the past six months your team alone has made up almost forty percent of overall med bay visits. I’m not saying your team isn’t fit, I just think you should hire a team medic.” 

This isn’t the first time the idea has been brought up to Price during his and Laswell’s debriefings in his office. His hands run over his face, racking through his mutton chops before laying them down on his desk with a grunt of annoyance. “I know you guys can take care of yourselves on base and out there on the field but come on John, you guys need someone. You need someone to help you.”

Price wasn’t fond of asking for help but it was starting to get on his nerves with how much Laswell was bringing this up. “I already said no, Laswell.” His annoyance makes his words come out gruffier than usual. Laswell rolls her eyes and rests her back against the chair posted on the other side of his desk. “How about I choose for you? If you hate them then you’ll never hear me talk about it again.” 

The sigh that rolls through Price’s chest is the only sound that radiates through the small room for a couple seconds. He hasn’t had the time to finish the mountain of paperwork on his desk along with the daily training regime for the team, along with all the meetings he’s been dragging his feet to day in and day out. Maybe some help would be nice. Did that mean he was unfit in his role? His eyes come up from the papers on his desk to Laswell’s. Her eyes seem to read his mind and her eyes get softer trying to voice her thoughts.

He was good at his job, getting help wouldn’t be a bad thing, he deserved it. The bags under his eyes and stiff shoulders were a tell tale sign of how much he worked, an extra set of hands wouldn’t be the worst thing. 

“Fine. You pick ‘em.” 

..............................

You were an experienced medic, having been stationed in multiple locations, saved a multitude of civilians and soldiers. You were proud of your work. Moving around so much, feeling like you were being tugged in one direction to the other was getting quite exhausting. Once the rumor of a job opening as a team medic passed through your small base you hesitated for a small moment, you had no idea what team, where, but you knew it would be good to get some fresh air and maybe to have a new place to find stable ground for a foreseeable amount of time. It took months of rigorous interviews and paperwork but they chose you. Laswell, chose you. You had asked her why the captain of the team didn’t pick you, asking why they weren’t present for any of the interviews if you were going to be working with them. She had only hinted that they seemed to be a close friend of hers who needed the extra hand and didn’t have the time to pick someone themselves, so she was doing them a solid.

You had always liked the idea of helping someone, that's why the idea of being a medic, a doctor, was one you had had since you were a child. One that you worked very hard to make a reality, so the thought that whoever it was that you were going to work for really needed you made you even sounder in the idea of taking the new opportunity. 

Duffel bags are still packed and laying on the floor of your new living quarters, hands on your hips and eyes trailing around the four walls, all the way to the small bed and desk. This would have to do. Since the process of getting here had taken so long you wanted to jump right into introductions. You hadn’t heard a single thing about the team, 141. Cute name, you thought.

Unpacking and making the room somewhat livable for your needs was going to have to wait, changing into your scrubs and grabbing the four manilla folders you made your way to the medical wing on base. Laswell had helped you set up one on one meetings with the team so you could go over their medical files. Military medics, especially ones who didn’t work with the team directly and personally were always known to look over things and forget to file symptoms and problems properly so you wanted to make sure you went over some things. You wanted to do your job properly. 

First up was Kyle Garrick. 

As you walked towards the curtain which separated your little appointment room for your little meet and greets you noticed the feet underneath the small sliver of space made by the floor and the bottom of the curtain. He’s early, 15 minutes early to be exact. That earns a check in your book.

You take a deep breath to calm your nerves and reach out a hand to pull the curtain to the side and take a quick step inside before pulling it back to its place behind you. “You must be Kyle.”

“Yes ma’am.” 

You greet the soldier with a kind smile, moving to place the folders in your arm on the small side table in the corner before pulling out the rolling stool from underneath and taking a seat, scooting yourself a little closer to the cot located in the middle of the room, closer to Kyle who is seated right on top. 

“You don’t have to call me ma’am, makes me feel older than what I really am.” You say with a small chuckle. He doesn’t seem to be much older than you, a little younger than the other members in 141, you presume. Your eyes make their way from his eyes down to his shoulders, then to his arms, hands interlocked in his lap, all the way down to his legs and feet. “You can call me Gaz then, that's what everyone calls me around here anyway.” You file the nickname into the back of your mind. 

You splutter out a greeting, a more friend like one at least, your name and medic title. “I already went through your medical history and you seem to be pretty healthy or at least your file is a lot lighter than some I’ve seen.” You mentally flinch when you realize that it might come off as you think he’s inexperienced in his field, new to the military, although his age hints at him being quite the opposite. But Gaz smiles, “Means I’m good at my job. Don’t get hurt too often, at least I try not to.” Oh thank God, you think, he didn’t take it that way.

“Well then, I guess me and you are gonna get along just fine then.” You chuckle. “Is there anything you wanna tell me though? Anything like trouble sleeping? Appetite problems? Joint Pain? It doesn't seem like you’ve complained about anything, ever. At least according to your records.”

A deep hum can be heard coming from his chest as he seems to run through his own mind, trying to come up with anything he would deem reasonable enough to complain about, at least to a doctor. As he’s doing so you take note of his clothes, the medical wing is set up like most hospitals, AC blasting, it’s cold, sure, but not enough to be bundled up for. Your eyes focus on his shoes, more specifically his socks, they’re not the military issued kind. They seem to be wool socks, which is odd, not something you see that often. Maybe his feet get cold, at least to a level that he takes an extra precaution to keep them warm. 

While you’re finishing reeling in your thoughts after noticing your observation, Gaz finally finishes rummaging through his mind for anything to tell. “I don’t have anything I think is worth complaining to you, Doc. I mean if complaining about the food on base to you can actually change anything then that's about it.” A deep chuckle makes its way out of his throat. You smile.

“Can I see your fingers?”

The odd question makes Gaz raise a brow but he pulls his hands from his lap and lays them out to the space between you and him, palms up. You take a soft hold of his fingers, wrapping yours around them almost like you would grip onto a handle of something. They’re oddly cold. You take note of it in your mind and move his hand to be palm down so you can take a look at his fingernails, softly running your thumbs over them.

Gaz stays silent, watching you as you bring them level to your eyes as you take note of the very subtle vertical lines that run through his nails. You let a slight hum almost like an aha moment and Gaz is very confused. “What is it?” The question comes out with a slightly worried tone. 

“Do you get cold easily, Gaz?” 

“I don’t think I get any colder than the average guy, why?” 

You finally drop the hold you had on his hands and scoot to the desk, opening a drawer to quickly take a pair of gloves out and slip them on before scooting back to your previous position near him.

“You wear wool socks, which aren't really military issued so I’m guessing your feet get cold easily and your fingers too. Your fingernails also show symptoms of an iron deficiency. Is it alright if I check your eyes and gums?” You always try to explain the best way you can, talking slower than you normally would- trying to come off as understanding as possible. He gives you a nod of approval before shifting closer to the edge of the bed so you can do your little investigation. 

You take a hold of his face, placing your thumbs underneath his eyes before pulling down his water line to get a good look underneath. The spot is oddly void of red, a classic sign of anemia. You move on to do the same with his mouth, pulling on his bottom lip to look at his gums which are a pale pink- not the exact color that they should be.. 

Retracting your hands and pulling the gloves off you scoot to the manilla folder, pulling out a pen from your scrub pocket to jot some things down. “I think you’re anemic, an iron deficiency, nothing too serious since it doesn’t seem to affect your work but I’m gonna order a blood test to confirm and to see if it’s just a dietary issue or if you need a supplement to get you to normal.”

Gaz is kind of taken aback. He felt fine, or at least he thought he did. Sure, his feet and hands got cold but he had trekked through waist high levels of snow and water. The soldier thinks of how he gets winded when moving from one sparring match to the next. Was that what that was? “You got that because of my socks?” 

Shit, you’re good. 

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

Next was Johnny MacTavish, or “soap” at least that's what the red mess -doctor handwriting, right next to his real name on his file read. You had stayed in the curtain enclosed room after Gaz had left, writing out a referral for the blood test you had mentioned when you heard the slight squeaking of boots on the shiny floors headed right your way before they stopped right on the other side of the curtain. You looked up right as they were pulled aside and a friendly face greeted you, and a mohawk- which surprised you. 

“You must be the new Doc, names Soap.” He greets you and steps inside, extending a hand to shake yours. You take it, giving him a light shake before introducing yourself and directing him to sit on the cot. Soap’s introduction didn’t seem rushed yet happened all before you could even stand up from your seat. It somehow exuded this confident aura off him, which somehow in your mind explains the haircut for you. 

“I see here that you're a demolition expert?” To be frank, when you had read that in his file while going over all the men’s information, and seen all his med bay visits you knew he would be the one that would take up most of your time. You had seen first hand the aftermath of the explosions his people have dealt with. On enemies and on your very own. The thought and images are quickly pushed to the back of your mind. 

“Yes ma’am.” He laughs, it's deeper and louder than Gaz’s. “You are the second person to call me ma’am today, please just call me anything else.” 

“My bad, Sorry, Doc.” He raises his hands in a mock surrender. “I’m guessing you also know that your file says that you frequently find yourself in the medical wing.” Soap winces, a hand coming to rub the back of the neck. “Yeah, sorry about that. Kind of comes with the job. But, hey! We’ve got you now, so no worries.” 

Yep, you had your work cut out for you on this one. “I guess you do, can’t wait to see what you get yourself into that I have to bandage you up for.” 

Soap enjoys your replies, the banter settles nice under his skin. His smile doesn’t seem to fade, maybe slightly but never fully gone. “I’m guessing that since you’ve been at this a couple years you know about the annual hearing tests you should be taking.” 

His smile drops instantly. “What.”

“You did know that all personnel that deal with explosives regularly are supposed to be given a hearing test once a year while for others it’s every 3, right?” 

A laugh bubbles up in your chest, past your rib cage right near your spine as you watch him gape at you- like he’s grappling to find the words that he clearly doesn’t have. “I’m pulling your leg, your file doesn’t have anything on them either so I'm guessing you never had them.” Soap lets out a sigh before shrugging, flashing you a sheepish smile. 

You chuckle, “Alright, I’m gonna have you do one for me and let's just hope to God you’re not deaf yet.” That earns a chuckle from him, again. He was a lot more talkative than Gaz yet around the same level of openness. Thank god it seems like you got a good team, no weirdos so far. 

“Can I ask you one thing, lass?” Your eyes dart up from your folder where you were jotting down your notes. “Yeah, of course.”

“How fast does hair that's been burned off, by let's say- an explosion- take to grow back?”

Oh boy.

………………………………..

It had taken a while to finish up with Soap, he had too many questions for his own good. But the interaction puts a smile on your face at the thought. Your next patient was already waiting outside, Soap greets him right on the other side of the curtain before he comes in.

“You must be Ghost.” 

You had heard of him before, small whispers of a skull masked man who never showed his face. To be honest with yourself, it wasn’t quite unfamiliar to have a soldier that preferred to cover their face most times, so the thought of it that wasn’t unsettling to you in the least. Even as his huge frame slips past the curtain before moving to the other side of the room, or at least to the other side of the bed. You suppress a frown, he’s purposely distancing himself from you- normal in his case, you try to tell yourself. There's a long moment of silence where you’re at least expecting him to somewhat introduce himself but it doesn’t come. Alright then.

You introduce yourself instead, trying to get rid of the silence. “Did you know that most of your files are almost completely redacted?” His eyes finally meet yours after making their way across the room. “Yeah, I know.” 

There's silence again, this isn’t gonna be easy.

Ever since you were a kid you had always been able to read people, their eyes, their hands, the way they walked. You look at his eyes and the skin around them, at least the small amount you could see through the baklava he wore. They move down to his neck and shoulders, they’re stiff- almost painfully so. Then onto his crossed arms. 

“So, how often do you get nightmares?”

Even Though you can’t see his face you know he’s surprised. “Excuse me?”

You give him a soft smile, “Your eyelids are kind of droopy, you have serious under eye bags, both indicative of an inadequate sleep schedule and your right shoulder is higher than your right even though you're standing straight which tells me you sleep on your side very often. It's actually an effect from what we call a sleeping soldier position. You lay on your side, one arm under your head and the other most likely holding onto some kind of weapon.”

He doesn’t answer straight away, it almost seems like he’s sizing you up. Trying to guess if you’re serious, if you’re being condescending in some way but Ghost can’t seem to find anything behind your eyes except kindness. It almost scares him more than what he was expecting. You know you're right, you’ve worked with dozens of cases of PTSD, diagnosing it and treating it. “What have you tried in order to help?” 

You almost think he’s not going to answer you, that he’s just going to storm out of the room and somehow you’d lose your job before you even got the chance to do anything about it.

 “I don't know how to fix it.” It’s a quiet, muttered reply. You almost miss it. 

Ghost feels like he’s out of his comfort zone, sure soldiers had nightmares and maybe he had had them when on a mission, sleeping just a few feet away from his teammates but you were new and somehow could see through him. “Does your captain know?” You hoped the answer was yes because then it meant you wouldn’t have to tell his superiors about his personal problems and you could just help him without anyone having to know and judge him which is what you guess is making him uneasy. “Price knows.” You nod- they seem to be the closest in age on the team so you guess they’ve known each other for at least a decent amount of time, knowing things about each other that only a close friend would. “Then I can help, I don’t have to tell the captain unless he asks and neither do you.” 

“No drugs.” Ghost had lost hope on ever truly resolving his problems when he lied awake at night thinking about it. Drugs would be written down, stored and used against him. He’ll be seen as an unstable soldier- a sick man. 

“I can do that.” You offer him a small smile, at least you’re getting somewhere- doing your job.

Soap might not be the one to worry about, you thought.

—----------------------

You let out a quiet sign to yourself, the back to back meetings have had you cramped inside the room for hours. The team seems to be a good one, funny and kind, thank god. The last meeting was with the captain. You were nervous even though he had hand picked the three men you had met earlier so he couldn’t be too far off in comparison. But the thought that you were going to be working with him and he hadn't been involved in choosing you was gnawing at you. If he hated you or thought he didn’t need you he could have your bags packed in an hour tops. You try to take a deep breath, he couldn’t be that mean- none of the boys seemed to warn you about him so that means he had to be nice or else they would complain about him somehow. 

The thoughts in your mind seem to be clouding your senses, you barely hear the steps coming towards the curtain and how they come to a halt right before the fabric is slowly pushed to the side. 

Still lost in your thoughts and sitting in the stool, it seems like you’ve been glued to the whole day at the desk that's been housing all the manilla folders, referrals, and notes you’ve been working with for hours on end- you don’t hear the steps get closer and the figure who they belong to standing just slightly past the threshold. Price knows he should probably make himself known, maybe clear his throat or rustle the curtains so you know he’s here. 

He plans to, or at least that's what he tells himself, he can’t help taking your form in, your back to him- legs crossed, seated, elbow resting on the desk, chin in your hand. He gulps, he hasn’t seen your face but somehow he knows that you’re beautiful. He would bet money on it without you even having to turn around. Surprisingly, it's the very gulp that makes him let out a small cough that finally has you turning your head to face him. A part of him wants to back out of the room and call Laswell, curse her out for this idea of hers but that thought seems to slip out of his mind as your eyes meet his. 

You’re quick to stand up, wiping your hands off on your thighs before reaching one out for a greeting. “Shit, so sorry. I didn’t even hear you come in. You must be the captain.” Price takes your hand but his eyes don’t leave your face- that smile that he can already feel is going to get him in a load of trouble and gives you his own. “It’s alright, love.” You try to hide the sharp inhale you seemed to have involuntarily made when the name hits your ears. 

His hands are calloused, not in a way that scratches you but feels sturdy, warm, somewhat comforting. The grasp he has of your hand lasts a little longer than what anyone would deem normal and you stutter out a soft command for him to take a seat on the cot. 

Price does as you say and lets go of your hand before taking a seat, interlocking his hands in his lap. You take the time to turn and rearrange your papers, trying to get your breathing under control, of course no one mentioned he's handsome. Fuck.

“I hope my men haven’t given you a hard time so far.” You finally turn around after hearing his voice, it matches his face- handsome, charming. “ No, they're nicer than I expected.” That makes Price raise a brow, questioning what you mean by that and you catch on. “Gaz doesn’t like talking so much, Ghost is an enigma of his own, and well soap is one hell of a character.” You chuckle while taking a seat on the stool once again and scooting over til you’re a few feet away from him.

To be completely honest, Price had almost forgotten about the deal he made with Laswell. She had come by to drop your file at his desk- for him to look over- but in reality, he had forgotten. He feels what he thinks is guilt eating at him in his chest. He had been adamant for so long on not needing a team medic, that they were a waste of time and money- yet here you were, nice, beautiful and he didn’t hate you one bit. 

“Well, Gaz is called Gaz for that very reason and well Simon is Simon, and soap- well he’s most likely the reason you’re here.” Soap had been the sole reason for 141’s increased med bay visits which is what had tipped off Laswell to initiate the month long debate of hiring someone. 

“I’m glad you did, it doesn’t seem like you guys have been keeping up with protocol.” 

“What do you mean, love?” Concern is laced into his words, the thought of his men not getting adequate help makes the knot in his chest grow tighter. 

“I’m having Gaz checked for anemia since he’s got some of the tell tale signs. Soap hasn’t had a hearing test in over five years and Ghost has a severe case of insomnia.” You know that not a lot of teams have the opportunity to have a team medic, often resorting to rotating med bay doctors who aren't very keen on prevention and treating for mundane things. The look of guilt spread across the captain's face, his brows furrowing and lips taut. “It’s not your fault, I’m here now so I’ll be taking care of you guys and I’ll be trying my best, captain.” 

Your words seem to settle the man down but you can tell he still seems anxious over his men. You place your hands on your knees, “Let’s worry about you right now.” You offer him a kind smile before standing up from your seat and taking a few steps forward before coming to a complete stop when you're standing right in between his spread knees. Your hands are held up a few inches from his face, silently asking for permission. Price pushes the feeling of apprehension to the back of his mind before tilting his chin slightly up, granting you to do so. 

“Any past surgeries I should know about Captain?” The tips of your fingers press into the skin right below his ears, feeling the tension underneath while you slowly make your way down his neck, dotting your fingers into his hair clad skin. 

“No.” You don’t know if it's in your head but his reply almost comes out as a whisper, your fingers run back up his neck applying pressure directly under his jaw on both sides of his esophagus. You hesitate for a moment when you don’t feel the usual clump of cells that should be there. You spare a glance at his eyes, taking a second too long to remember the shade of blue you find yourself trying to jot down in your mind. “You sure about that?” Your voice sounds softer, closer to the whisper he seemed to have let out before.

You slowly remove your hands from Price’s head and reach for the pen in your scrub pocket and turn to write something in your manilla folder that's laid out on the desk. “I think I would remember going under the knife, love.” 

A small smile graces your lips while you finish writing your notes, scooting back to him. “Well Captain, I’m sorry to break the news to you but you don’t have tonsils.” You try to keep a straight face looking at the man sitting on the medical wings cot, barely a foot away. Your knees brushing up against his. “What does that mean?” You hear what sounds like a hesitation of concern laced in his voice and it almost makes you break the stoic look you’re trying to maintain. 

“Either someone drugged you and ripped them out of your throat in your sleep or you had them removed when you were a kid and you didn’t remember and no one ever bothered to check or write it down. I'm gonna go with the ladder so you can sleep better at night.” You let out a little chuckle at your imaginative story to pull his leg. Before Price seems to catch onto your joke you ask a follow up question. “Do you smoke?” 

“Does that matter?” He looked like the type to smoke, maybe not exactly a cigarette but maybe a cigar, your eyes flash down to his hands and look at his fingers which are laid out on his knees. Yep, he looks like the type to smoke cigars. Your eyes come back up to meet his.

 “Cigars?” 

Price doesn’t have to answer your question, the look on his face alone answers for you. Before the words reach your ears you’re already back to writing some notes in the folder. Sparing a glance back at the man you notice how out of place he looks. His dark clothes stand out against the pristine whiteness of the blanket laid out on the medical bed, and the slightly off white colors of the walls, the freshly mopped shiny floors. You have the sudden urge to comfort him even though he’s not here for any actual type of medical treatment. 

You can see the questions brewing underneath his lips and behind his eyes. Turning your body back to face him, inching your stool a little closer til your knees are almost back to pressing against his. 

“If you got your tonsils removed as a child you have a slightly increased risk of upper respiratory infection and you smoking- even if it’s an occasional cigar increases that risk even more.” You try to show some sense of empathy through your eyes while they meet his. A sense of understanding seems to cross his face from your words and it causes a warm smile to find its way on your face. 

“It's not that big of a deal but since it’s now in my job description to make sure you and your men are as healthy as can be I just want to make a note of it in case of anything.” 

“Alright, love.” 

The gruffness in his voice makes you fight back a shiver. “Do you not like doctors, Captain?” His eyes wander around the room, taking note of the fluorescent lights and sketchy wallpaper with a not too fond look on his face. “Not exactly, just not fond of the medical wing itself.” You nod, “yeah I can agree with you on that, not exactly friendly.” John smiles, it's small but something and you feel a tightness in your chest just from the sight of it. “Well since I’m your doctor now we can always just meet in your office instead of here, as long as I can just bring my supplies when needed.” 

Price doesn’t understand why you’re trying to be so understanding, so comforting. It’s strange, out of the ordinary for the man, especially in his line of work. His eyes rack your face, down to your hands where you’re fiddling with your fingers. “I’m here to help you Captain, that's it.” You can tell he’s thinking, trying to take you in- read you. 

Price decides he likes it, likes you.

“You gonna cook me dinner too, love?” He chuckles. You let a small laugh slip past your lips. “Ask Laswell to see if you can upgrade to the doctor deluxe package and maybe I will.” You’re enjoying this, and judging by Price's reaction he seems to be enjoying himself too. 

“Deluxe package?” 

“Yeah, cooked meals, back massages, the whole nine, Captain.”

“Sounds like a dream if you tell me, love.” 

You both break out into a chorus of light laughter and quiet chuckles. The room doesn’t seem so small and suffocating like you had thought a mere thirty minutes ago and that pit in your stomach has seemed to all but dissipate. You finish going over some more of his medical records, confirming some information and filling in some gaps before you realize that it's been over an hour and the day is coming to a close. It doesn’t even hit you until Price brings it to your attention by looking down at his watch. 

“I’m so sorry, I’ve probably kept you here for longer than you planned.” You say with an apologetic smile, nervousness etched into your words. “It’s alright, love.” 

The boys were most likely waiting for him in his office for the past twenty minutes but he didn’t have the heart to tell you. Your eyes seemed to have glued him to the cot and your voice lulling him into a daze. Maybe having you around wasn’t so bad after all.

He stands- you follow him. “Well, it was nice meeting you, captain.” You hadn’t had time to take him in when he first came into the room. He’s tall, wide shoulders, tapered waist, and a nice strong set of thighs you have to force your eyes off of. 

“John.” You raise a brow, lost in thought from seeing him in his full form. “You can call me John.” His smile is warm and it's almost like the warmth of it radiates onto you and you feel a rush of heat crawl up your neck. 

“Okay, John.” 

“It was nice meeting you, love.” Price gives you one last kind smile, the crows feet along the edges of his eyes come out at the gesture as he walks towards the curtain before pushing it aside and stepping out. The curtains don't go back to their previous place. You watch him as he walks away until he’s out of eyesight and you finally feel like you can catch your breath. Fuck, your captain is hot. 

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

Taglist: @sharkiestory

[imthepunchlord]

How would you rewrite Chloe’s arc in Season 2?

So, personally, I would've just gone ahead and redeemed her. There are various reasons to do so.

She's strongly color coded for Bee, suggesting she would get it. It would be weird if she didn't (shame they didn't do the same to Nino, especially learning that Peafowl wasn't even lost originally, it was added to Volpina last minute).

There were promos and building up confirming she was going to be a hero, and implications that she was going to be part of a team and working with the heroes.

And with the introduction of Lila, and the implication that she was going to be a new antagonist, you didn't need two mean girls to be against Marinette. Much less sorta 3 with Kagami who dabbles in the mean girl trope. Only exception is to have multiple mean girls is to have them face off against other characters than just Marinette, but they're set on that so there should be some sort of change.

Chloe getting a redemption and being a hero is a natural go to.

So Chloe's redemption, I believe, should start off with a loss of power. Something that will humble her for she cannot continue as she is.

And as I've talked about using Lila to push the agenda of Chloe's redemption before, let's talk about another option: using Audrey herself.

Audrey easily could've been another means of pushing the Chloe redemption agenda. She could've been a solid foil to Chloe, by being mean and ruthless, but she's actually hard working, dedicated, and lives with integrity for her career. Things Chloe is not.

And excited to have her mom here, as this is love not freely given, making Chloe want it, it's dashed when Audrey is unimpressed and unhappy with Chloe and how she is.

For not only does Chloe not do her own work and lives live in leisure laziness, living off her parents hard earned money (at least in Audrey's case), but having the audacity to steal another inspiring designer's design and hire an designer to copy it at a competition that Gabriel Agreste hosted (Audrey's never been so embarrassed), Audrey is here to give her entitled daughter a reality check.

She cuts Chloe off on all of her enjoyments.

Sabrina is banned from the hotel. The butler is expected to go over Chloe's work to make sure it is hers and not Sabrina's.

Chloe is expected to get a part time job. She wants to spend money, she needs to spend her own. She'll get the rest of her saved funds at 18.

And, Chloe is to get involved in the fashion industry. If she's going to tarnish it with her laziness and arrogance, she's going to work to make up for it. Specifically, she is going to approach the girl she stole from and make up for her actions.

And at first, it's all terrible for Chloe.

Homework is hard. It's bad enough that Chloe has to stay after school to get a mentorship by the teachers (as no student wants to mentor her, except for Sabrina, who isn't allowed near her, and Adrien but he's busy). At first, Chloe did discover that she could trick Bustier into doing her own homework for her, but Audrey caught on quick and mean Mendeleiev took over.

The part time job was impossible. Chloe kept getting fired. But it wasn't her fault!

Most customers were beneath her service!

They couldn't expect her to touch out of season clothes!

She had to leave work early because she got dirt under her nails. A clear emergency.

There was no way she was going to wear a hairnet, that was going to ruin her hair.

Chloe was just starting to think her mother would let it go when Audrey put her foot down and had Chloe work for her own company, and Chloe was not allowed to quit or be fired, and was to do the work or else she wouldn't be allowed in her own suite. She would have to sleep on the second floor suites.

The threat was scary enough for Chloe to suck it up.

And the worse one... Chloe needed to go and make it up to Marinette. Chloe dragged her feet on this so much that Audrey dragged Chloe there, apologized to Marinette first, then pressured Chloe to apologize. She told Marinette that Chloe here was to work for her and make up for her dishonesty. When Marinette tried to back out and say it's fine, Audrey insisted.

And so Chloe become Marinette's assistant. She would model for her. She would go fetch materials Marinette needed or help carry things when Marinette went out shopping.

It was weird for both girls and neither of them liked it.

But under Audrey's critical eye, Chloe kept up with all these awful changes to her life, but at some point, there was a shift.

Chloe was able to solve a problem without Mendeleiev's guidance. She did it on her own. She... actually felt proud of that. She wondered what else she could solve without the teacher... Oh! And she'll have to show this off to Adrien and Sabrina tomorrow!

At her part time job, Chloe got her first paycheck. And that felt really good. Money she earned herself. This was hers. Not her father's. Not her mother's. This was Chloe's own money. She was so happy that she, weirdly, didn't feel like spending it. She wanted to hold onto it.

And, extra weirdly, she and Marinette are... talking. They're discussing the big name fashion designers and their thoughts on them. They share their criticisms, or the ideas of what they would like to see. Chloe is even sharing her own thoughts on what Marinette creates and Marinette listens and considers it. And Marinette has actually crafted attire and accessories with Chloe in mind, something that is just gifted away, no strings attached, given from someone that doesn't love her unconditionally like her father does. It kinda... felt like it mattered more. Daddy gifts her items so freely that many of those items she just throws away, but anything Marinette gives doesn't feel like that.

Gosh, who knew Marinette had actual tastes? And she didn't quite mind being around her.

Chloe had to wonder what was the world coming to?

Chloe though did still keep her mean streak. Anyone that irritated her or when she bored, she would pick on. Though when Marinette said soemthing, she backed off a lot more than before. She reasoned it's because technically her 2nd boss. But it did make her annoyed. And Cesaire's smug face added to it.

But one day, Lila starts to mess with Marinette and without thinking, Chloe intervened, roasting Lila while she had the chance. It ended poorly as Lila became an akuma and came after her, but Ladybug offered Chloe a lot of praise, much to her glee. And then, Ladybug presented Chloe with a little box.

A box that evidently held the Bee Miraculous.

"Honestly, you're more wasp than a bee," Ladybug said, the box still in hand.

"Excuse me!?" Chloe gasped in full offense.

Ladybug continued, "But I think you're on the way of becoming one. And maybe Pollen will help you get there."

The box was set in her hand, opening on it's own, and in a flash of light and a warming greeting from a little bee thing, dawned the day Queen Bee arose to work with the heroes, bringing her own mean sting to the team.

[ihaveforgortoomany]

Theorising 2.8: Paradise Regrained with new info from the PV and livestream

And the Wheel is the Key Theory

(CN spoilers for 2.6, 2.7 in bound! Not Global Friendly)

This part will focus on main story lore and implications - I will look at the playables later.

Ok: new Manus Apostle Im assuming speaking to Ms Grace, wonder who is the traitor she seems to be referring to. Right now, we know there is a Foundation spy in the Manus, and a Manus spy in the Foundation. And currently alot of speculation surrouding Ms Grace is that she is Moth working for the Foundation, so maybe the Apostle is referring to Ms Grace herself and asking why would you serve the Foundation still after everything, or making a grand statement about the Manus mole, or even referring to the Zeno traitors under Igor?

We know form 2.4 Ms Grace when she's in power carries a level of confidence and smirking, however I think this shot alone shows she is potentially below or serves under this lady .

It seems this is the "next time" Sophia refers to back in 1.9, the showdown between her and Sonetto. Her question about her "purpose" then: referring to how she blindly follows the Foundation or blindly follows Vertin without any second thought. My hope is that this patch will drive into Sonetto's unwavering loyalty and begin to completely break it down, either way I would love to see these two finally face off in a battle (maybe another Sophia boss battle?)

Alr briefly talking about the playables here. So it seems at some point the Zeno traitors managed to kidnapp Ulrich at some point, Im assuming the person holding Ulrich is Poltemy, note the brown coat and black gloves. In the next shot shes just holding his head, in the same helicopter and now accompanied by Buddy Fairchild whose not in frame for this screenshot - does this seem she bretrays Igor early on in the patch and teams up with Ulrich and Buddy? Im interested in what role both her and the Zeno soliders with Igor will play in the revival ritual.

Wondering why exactly Ulrich is the one being kidnapped? Is it related to his experiments and project he was doing in 2.4?

Next bit: Seems to be either a member of Naukita's team being taken by whatever Manus influence is present on the continent, or this is a Zeno member being taken. Why Zeno? Moldir's I2 reminds me of this outfit so I speculate this is a Zeno member - then again hard to say.

Ok onto the good shit.

This is definitely Vertin screaming, full on panic "shits gone down" screaming. Reminder that Vertin is the most expressive when someone she cares about is in real danger so I predict either one or multiple of these things:

Screaming because Arcana is getting revived and someone is being used as a sacrificed

Either this is Urd/ Dores or Sonetto in serious danger

Or a Third Thing I will theorise in a bit in this post.

This must be some serious shit for Vertin to be screaming, like there has not been an insistence prior to this has she ever screamed like this before.

Oh my god this animation was FIRE. The way the disciples are sacrificing themselves into this pit, the water, the rising and then this haunting shot DAMNNN.

This is way better than her intial introduction all the way back from the game teasers holy.

Back to Urd, first shot the hand shes holding is moving, I would like to think this is Vertin finally seeing Urd for the first time and maybe finally getting the chance to speak, and communicating through touch since Urd can't see. Alternatively this might be a flashblack since the clothes Urd is having is not the same from the trailer, overall hard to pinpoint where or when this is happening.

The last shot - theory time!

The Wheel is the Key

This final shot shows a giant hand (maybe this hand and the face behind the Apostle is the "Mother Spirit" Naukita refers to?) and in front is a woman next to a spinning wheel. What wheel you say?

OUR wheel. Yet in the shot and in the chapter poster the wheel is broken and the golden thread tied to it is broken and on the floor. Notably the woman next to it, I believe is Urd, not Ms Grace or Arcana. Not Ms Grace since she's not wearing the bonnet, not Arcana because as we saw she already was putting the head spike on, and if you look closely the woman has the two hair bangs in front and the colour tinge Vertin's hair has ; and that when the pv ends Vertin says "mum" (not "mother", but "mum": its also softer, maybe this is the moment they meet?).

Ok theory time - The wheel from our suitcase that enables us to summon characters through the lake is the wheel used for summoning Arcana potentially. This is likely separate from the final object the Manus need for the ritual so for now I will treat them separately.

Going back to Arcana's revival animation, note that she emerges from a lake first - all our playable characters emerge from the lake as well, if we remember how Sonetto was summoned by the wheel in the Prologue.

Alright onto the three thing I think Vertin is screaming about - the suitcase potentially being invaded and the wheel being forcibly removed from the suitcase - also wouldn't it be cool if after that scene, our ability to summon characters become blocked until we clear the next stage?

Maybe this is the aftermath of summoning Arcana, the wheel is broken and Urd stands alone at the sight of the wheel.

Theory summary: The wheel is a key component to summoning Arcana, our ability to summon characters regardless of era will enable the Manus to summon her into a much stronger form.

[kino-der-joon]

Something i’ve been thinking about recently is, isn’t it kind of weird how (ultimis) Richtofen gets all the credit for being the evil scientist who tortures people and experiments on human subjects, when everyone else at 935 was also doing that or was at least complacent? Like, Maxis is arguably worse than Richtofen because he was the one ordering him (and possibly other researchers) to experiment on POWs 935 had access to. And then there’s Groph and Schuster literally killing people for him, so like… 😭 It just feels kind of unfair because pretty much everyone involved in G935 was evil in some way…..

(This possibly also applies to Primis, but I honestly don’t recall if Maxis and co were doing human experiments in that universe, so…)

💫 Hello, hello, welcome in!! I have a small idea as to why we mainly point to Ultimis Richtofen for all the torture and bloodshed, but you’re absolutely right!! ✨

💫 I have a feeling that the reason we credit Richtofen directly is two fold. Firstly, he’s the only one out of all of our morally wrong Group 935 cast that we play as- Even his original character introduction was a warning of how dangerous of a man he is. Because we only really know him, it’s easy to put a name to the shame. But secondly, the lore for our favourite convoluted pastime is hidden all around the maps, behind Easter Eggs that we’ll never solve on our own or things we didn’t know we could shoot at. Richtofen is loud and proud about his love of bloodshed, so he’s a very easy target for blame!! ✨

💫 But, you are right! Dr. Maxis founded Group 935 after the discovery of Element 115 and aimed to “improve the human condition.” With a goal so great, it makes sense that scientists of the time would jump at the chance to get involved! However, the problem lies in how broad that goal is. By the time they signed up, it was already too late, what with the operation manual and the cyanide pills. Many probably felt cornered, like they couldn’t back out. But, that still makes them at the very least complicit. Opening up this whole conversation really cracks open a huge can of worms when you really think about it:

‘Do the ends justify the means?’

‘How far is too far?’

‘Even if they felt conflicted, they still took part, so what does that say about them?’

‘What are the real world examples of this and how do they compare?’

💫 While all of those questions are each a doozy on their own, they aren’t the kind of questions I want to delve too deep into on this silly little blog, but they are good for thought that I’ll throw out there!! I also believe that Dr. Maxis, Dr. Schuster and Dr. Groph’s actions all can be a commentary on power and how our actions are shaped by those who have it- Again, just a little something to think about! ✨

💫 As for Primis, his past in regards to Maxis are less dark, thankfully! He was a scientist and a solider, simply put. Dr. Maxis was studying ancient staffs and put Richtofen in charge of remaking them for the war effort, from my understanding. Then, when digging in Northern France, Richtofen’s team accidentally unearthed the zombie hoard, and so the cycle begins! ✨

✨ Thank you so much for your observation, and thank you for sharing !! ✨

✨ NEXT!! > ⭐️

[nostromo13]

I wish they hadn't killed Ian Doyle off. I wish they put him through trial, instead.

He had this whole illegal empire that we barely see in action. We so rarely get to see 'Valhalla'. Credit due - they do a good enough job at building up this big, powerful man through his stalking Emily. He acts initially as this invisible force taking out her friends one by one, so he feels unstoppable, so we only ever know a Doyle that's about revenge. And I think that makes him scarier. But s7 ep1, especially the interview room scene where he sees Emily as she is on the job (an intimate side to her he's never seen before and he's so curious), he goes from this big presence to just another perp in a wee FBI interrogation room. I wanted more of his curiosity, maybe. More of 'so this is the woman I wanted to marry' energy. Instead, the threat he poses is just gone in this scene. It would have so nicely paired the introduction to the grotesque man we meet in this scene who took away a woman's right to choose and what's more strapped her down for 9, sorry, 7 months.

With the limited background we get to see versus all we learn by being told, it makes it feel quick and easy everything Ian ever did. So when his death comes equally quick and easy on the airstrip, it's just like, "Oh, okay. Time for the next scene."

There's no grieving of the secret that she's kept for so long. I know it's a pretty well-known thing that Emily's trauma from Doyle isn't really acknowledged. Lauren gets swept under the rug. She was a gun runner, sure, a woman who probably did illegal stuff that would be unbecoming of the woman behind the mask, but Lauren deserved her moment and not just the little blip of a scene she gets in s6 ep18 and a blacked out file in a BAU drawyer.

If court had happened, we could have had Ian's past unpeeled more slowly. It could have made his presence in Emily's life more solid instead of season 6 Emily in a wig (a great look) and more feeling of the 31 year old Emily who actually handled Ian Doyle.

We could have gotten to know Lauren way more.

Maybe it would have crumbled the mysterious side to Emily, seeing her relive it all and willingly expose herself in court, but in practice I think we could have seen a reconciliation between Lauren and Emily and that that would have been even more powerful than the woman who herself tries to brush her alter ego away with 'Lauren Reynolds is dead'. I think Lauren was such a delicious and underutilised character. It would have allowed the viewing of an Emily from a time before she knew a family and a soft experience like the BAU. Doyle era Emily was so young yet outwardly appeared so steady. A young woman whose background is entirely an ambasador mum and dad, their world of political tactics, and the tenuous trust of her team with Sean, Clyde, Tsia & Jeremy. The woman who - as far as we are presented- has only known their world, and despite all of it is still such a well-rounded, good-hearted individual.

However, i can't say all of this without acknowledging what we do get. I know part of the beauty of Emily Prentiss' character (and Padget Brewster's acting) is how she tries so hard to stuff it down. We see so little on the surface, and the effect comes from the fact that we know there is so much more going on below the surface. The little shaken-ness we do see from her is just the tip of the iceberg, and you see in that how deeply she must feel it. The more Emily Prentiss holds back, the more you can count on that she is hurting.

Emily deserved a moment to break down after Doyle. She deserved to scream and cry and get held as she does so by Dad-vid Rossi or literally any or all of the team. (I single out David not just because he is team parent, but also because he thought he knew one of her biggest vulnerabilities through Demonology, so I can only imagine how much his heart broke when he realised she was carrying even more.)

This is a long post so the tldr of this is I would have loved a court case where Lauren Reynolds comes out to play, and she gets her moment through Emily on the stand. Though we get a great picture of it already, it only scratched the surface potential.

[cineflections]

You know, if there was one manga that would be adapted to live action and succeed, I never would have guessed it to be this one.

I'm ofc talking about the One Piece Live Action on Netflix

A whole day binge right after release, I was READY, and thankfully, I was not disappointed. There are cuts and streamlining of the story, characters coming in earlier than in the manga/anime, and some of the emotional bits don't hit as hard as in the original. Still, I can feel the love the production team has of One Piece. The characters are goofy and lovable, but they are also serious and straight-faced.

One thing that I noticed throughout was the constant close up to faces and sometimes straight on, as if almost breaking the 4th wall. The very first scene with Luffy is like this, but there he DOES look into the camera directly, but the pov of the camera is revealed to be a newsbird. It's like a statement that they know this is a silly pirate romp, they know that some people will not take this seriously, but they will not do 4th wall breaks silly, but in-universe silly. Does that make sense?

I laughed at several points in the show, big and wide smile on my face and pointing at the screen several times...

But I do wonder how much of my laugh was on the show's on merit or if I was only calling back on the the source material. At times I did feel the straw hat crew not being as iconic as in the manga/anime. The extreme reactions, the over the top noises and actions, at the same time I realize that real people generally don't act like that.

I appreciate the show runners attention to details. Putting stuff in to tease future arcs, adapting some cover stories, some of the complete unhinged behaviors of characters (Garp I'm looking at you!).

This show adapted Romance Dawn, orange town, syrup village, baratie, and arlong park.

There are so many moments that are almost scene by scene taken from the manga. Luffy in the barrel and meeting Koby. Alvida with her giant spike club. We got to see some pre-captured Zoro moments (particularly him killing a baroque works agent!), Nami being a sneak.

Then we meet the one and only clown Buggy! They hammed him up, they made him a showman and a real clown (with a real bulgy nose as well, props!). I loved Buggy. Goddamn what a show stealer. Excellent casting, his devil fruit was show cased so well and it looked good!

Usopp's introduction is the most changed. The kids are gone and the Black Cat pirates never call in the entire crew or Jango. Instead of the fight on the slope by the beach it's instead in Kaya's house from which they cannot escape. The actor for Kuro nailing the mannerism and hand movements, altho his "teleporting" looks a bit wonky.

With Baratie we are finally introduced to Sanji! Who's British now 😆. And Mihawk's introduction tho! Badass and just so over the top and goofy. I love him so much! This is where we got the biggest change where we instead get Arlong and crew coming in smashing the place up (a tiny bit). Arlong may not be as tall as he should be but I love the practical approach instead of CGI, which means he actually feels present! All the fishmen we see are guys in costume and prosthetics!

Arlong Park felt a bit more rushed than the earlier parts, but I do think they nailed *that* scene tho.

If the bar for live action adaptation was below the ground, I would say now there's a new bar, which is on the ground 😅. I think it's a solid show but it might be my bias talking. I do have some gripes tho.

One thing that was constant in East Blue Saga was how much village people hate or are scared of pirates. I think they got the marines right, and the pirates, but they failed to really have the village people be a character in their own right. In the manga and anime the villagers are mostly a monolith who will think and act alike in situations and be part of the happenings either by watching or fighting. We got just about none of it here, except a mention in Arlong Park. They did some really good and cool world building with lots of people populating the sets in the background - but that's it, they're just extras to fill out the screen. There are ofc a few exceptions but I felt it was not enough.

I wish they had Luffy be more agile when using his gum-gum powers. Whenever he springs a pistol or a whip is stands in place, which I found boring (and they did so well with Zoro's fights!). I do think the explanation is that they decided for Luffy to be coming into his powers as we go. That we will learn with him all the things he can do (him not knowing he can blow himself up like a balloon proves this). I hope that in season 2 (please netflix!) they show the growth in his fighting!

But to end this long post. I just wanna say how much I fucking love the dude playing Mihawk. Goddamn he's so fun. MVP.

For the straw hats, I would say that Usopp feels the closest to manga version, and Luffy feels the most distant from it. But I don't dislike this, and I think the actor for Luffy has so much potential to really make the role his own.

It will never be "just like" the manga and anime, but that's ok! It's a new adaptation (in live action) made by people you can tell loves the source material and really really tried to make it work! I respect that, and I respect this show. Please watch it on Netflix! It's a fun and silly time, just like it should be!

[stripedstarsblueflags]

i didn't win the wheel: episode 6

would you believe me if i said i thought i was ready for how depressed doing this series was going to make me, but i was wrong? i am stupid. i am actually stupid.

Logan (in the most deadpan, empty, listless voice I have ever heard and I've worked with middle schoolers): "We will be playing a mini football– foosball– ah, game... and first to five– whoever wins–"

[he looks up at Alex, then points to the camera]

Logan the Game Show Host: "⭐⭐ Gets to spin that wheel ⭐⭐"

jesus christ, i remember starting this series, first rewatching it all, and realizing that i could literally watch everything drain out of logan episode by episode. i just.. legitimately forgot how quickly that happens. how few episodes there are. let me TRY to find something good... anyways, The Bit is back. at this point in the show logan is doing pretty much all the introductions, so alex has very much settled into his role of "can i play with this while you're talking? okay thanks :)". logan actually tries to direct his attention to the camera more than once as he's introducing it, because alex is just fidgeting away... but it's not restless or hyperactive or excited. it's like he's matching logan's energy. logan is dejected, lifeless, bored; alex is an absolute mirror right in the very introduction of the video which, um, not a good look if you're the editor. and then logan does his little thing and looks right at alex, even as he's moving away, and then *all of the sudden* there's this brilliant smile and he's actually laughing... and alex, who at first only laughs a little (because logan's dark cloud is raining on them both today) meets logan's eyes and hears the laugh and THEN his sunshine is back. look at how quickly he glances from logan back to the camera... it's like he's just unexpectedly been given his cue. oh! look at that! this is actually fun?? we're having fun?? listen to him i think we're having fun!

sorry to dash your hopes, alex. after the one glint of laughter, logan is immediately locked in, i mean look at him he's practically gritting his teeth. meanwhile alex isn't quite having fun– he's losing by a lot– but he's trying to sort of jumpstart some fun anyway. the whole time he's making his little noises like "aaaAAA!" or "oooOOoo" that don't really mean anything, but it's kind of like when you're trying to get your dog to do something it doesn't want to do... you put all the emphasis in your voice and pretend that the bath or whatever is actually THE BEST PLACE EVER and SUPER SUPER FUN just to get the task over with. to get participation. and logan is... well, he's participating in the game, but he's not participating in alex's game. and alex seems awkward and alone and like he's trying too hard, because he is. because he's expecting a little bit of banter, a little bit of anything from logan's side that he can sort of coax into something eventually, because if anyone can bring logan out of his shell it's alex. but right now he's left with nothing. logan's doing what he's told. he happens to be alongside alex. that's all alex is getting.

ugh, thank god that's over. we're warming up a little! only took the most painful game of foosball i've ever secondhand experienced. alex spent the whole time losing, but not only did he not really lock in, he also didn't stop talking for more than five seconds for, like, the whole game. "what team are you, by the way?" straight up asking useless questions just to get something. i said earlier that alex's exuberance comes out extra when he's around logan– subconsciously or consciously– but this is a very solid, definitive example of what it looks like when it's intentional. he's nearly embarrassing himself. he sounds like an absolute goofball because he's trying so hard to bring the energy up. because they've done this before, they've played together, they've connected, they've had fun, why can't it be like before? why can't they find their own little world away from all the shitshow around them just for three minutes like they used to? he's trying too hard and he doesn't really know how and it shows.

but look, we got that little win celebration. FINALLY. some emotion!! never mind the fact that there's literally no eye contact... hmm, wonder how alex will react to this?

[Logan is declared the winner, cute little transition graphic]

Alex: "Disgusting defeat..."

Logan: "5 - 1... I'll give it to you, I had a little practice trial before–"

Alex: "To be honest with you, I don't think it owuld have made a difference."

Logan: "A little..." (cuts himself off because he's laughing)

aaaaahhhhh that's refreshing. okay. you know what this reminds me of? episode two. "you're a lot better at golf than me, so i expect you to do well." neither of them approach these challenges with the arrogant, hyperbolic confidence of carlos and charles (which is always hilarious and adorable between those two but anyways) but they're generally pretty confident. competitive, like all drivers. i have yet to see a put down from one to the other stronger than the infamous wink of episode one but i can only count two instances where they're putting themselves down. logan did it first when alex was getting distracted by his own anxiety. and here alex does it. why? because he spent the whole damn game trying to break the ice and WHEN DID IT BREAK? at the win. at the hands-in-the-air, the cheering, the laughter. so now he's going to go after that feeling like he's cracked the case. he exaggerates not only his own defeat but also apparently his skill level? logan tries to sort of put them on an even plane and alex is like hell no i ain't messin with this self confidence moment. he's found some momentum, he's running with it, he's not going to drop it now. still fidgety but now turned almost all the way in to face logan. no eye contact, but not gazing all over the place either, he's listening. he's listening carefully. knowing the moves to make. and you know what?

Logan: "I mean you did score an oggie to lose, little own-goal.. but, uh–"

Alex (laughing): "Oggie..."

Logan: "Little oggie, oggie..."

(Alex is still laughing)

Logan: "But you know the deal. That means... I get to spin that wheel–"

(he and Alex immediately start laughing before he can completely round off the sentence)

it fucking works. it did take me a while to figure out what oggie meant because i'm culturally inept and even more so when it comes to anything to do with sport. anyway, it's a silly word, and alex has such a low threshold for what he finds funny (even LOWER if it's said by logan) that he can't help but laugh and repeat it to himself, and then because he's laughing logan goes ahead and repeats it again. looking over at him to catch the smile on his face. and of course alex can't even hold the eye contact because now he's flustered, because he wasn't ready for happy logan today and he doesn't know how to play it cool at the best of times... also standing that stiff with his hand on his hip so he can continue to face like 80% towards logan? is not playing it cool? logan smiles and alex remembers how head over heels he is. love to see it.

Logan: "So. Let's get into it."

Alex (frat boy Logan voice): "boom. spin that wheel babyyy"

(brief moment where he clearly has no idea what he just said)

Alex (normal voice): "What?"

(surprised and hysterical burst of laughter)

first of all, alex leaning into logan (while logan puts his own hand on his hip to make room) and putting his chin in his hand is fucking adorable. alex in general is adorable but can you imagine him acting this way with literally anybody else? even george? think about it the answer is no. moving on:

sometimes alex reaches the point of his silliness where nothing he says makes sense, even to his own ears. on team torque logan is obviously pretty used to the glittery moments of nonsense, but this is so random and so stupid that logan's laugh sounds like he was very much caught off guard, and then alex is laughing at himself and they're both cracking up and they have to visibly switch gears to focus on the wheel as it gets to a prize. because after all this they've finally gotten to ✨their space✨ and it's surprising because neither of them thought that was going to happen today! and it's a relief! but it's at the end of the activity. and we've gotten to a point where ✨their space✨ can only exist in little bubbles, little pre-designed staged moments when they're not in real life anymore they're just in a video. and then the video ends and real life is back and how are they supposed to keep pretending like the world isn't falling apart for one of them? how is that space sustainable in the real world?

so basically alex had to jump through eight and a half hoops to get to this point and it's over as soon as it's begun. because he doesn't get to have this part of logan in a way that he can keep. that part is off-limits to him, closed off by the neglect and the depression and the constant self-deprecation that is unspoken but visible from a mile away. logan's losing f1, he's losing his seat, he's losing his team, and alex isn't even comprehending that he's losing logan. he's not giving up his prompting or joking even when it gets awkward, even when logan might even consciously be shutting him out, because he's not willing to except that this is ending prematurely. "it ain't over til it's over" well alex fucking needs that. he needs every last second of logan he can get before they're torn apart and he doesn't want to spend those seconds looking at him between iron bars but that's what it feels like. because logan isn't allowed to have happiness and alex isn't allowed to have logan.

fucking hell

episode 7

[natequarter]

my assessment of the series of classic who i've just watched, because i'm bored:

season 7: probably my favourite, actually! favourite serial was inferno. i genuinely don't have a least favourite serial. my only serious complaints are that 1) all of the seven-parters could've done with being maybe one episode shorter, 2) liz doesn't have an exit, and 3) liz is a fairly strong-minded character, but when she does bring up feminism or otherwise try to go out and do stuff, every single man around her patronises her immensely. but those first two are relatively superficial. three, liz and the brigadier work together wonderfully as a team, and all of the storylines are engaging - malcolm hulke and his handling of non-human sapient species, notably the silurians, are always a delight. 9/10

season 8: ah, the master. how could you not enjoy season 8? favourite serial was the daemons. least favourite serial was the claws of axos. the horrendously racist subplot in terror of the autons is weirdly mismatched with the subplot concerning the chinese ambassadors in the mind of evil. the series has a handful of dodgy or outright racist plot elements - constructs of savagery and terra nullius, to name just a few - but it also introduces three very engaging characters (the master, jo, and yates), continues season 7's effective character work with the doctor and the brigadier, and features some very good villains. jo is simply an angel, and she shines no matter the serial. perhaps fittingly, 8/10

season 9: enjoyable, but nowhere near the peak of pertwee's era. favourite serial was the time monster. least favourite serial was the mutants. jo is an exceptional character by classic who standards in that i can't think of any serial which seriously mangles her characterisation. the mutants was still a waste of three hours of my life, though. as with the last two series, it's beautifully political - this is one of the highlights of the pertwee era, how overtly political (and depressingly relevant) it is. it rarely feels forced (forced, unsubtle, and blatant are three different things), and even the worst of its serials at least manages to get some sort of overt and unsubtle leftist message in there. it even managed the best dalek story of the pertwee era, not that that's saying much. 7/10

season 10: very solid all round. favourite serial was the green death. least favourite serial was planet of the daleks. it's hard to pick a favourite here! jo continues to shine, malcolm hulke continues his fascination with fascism, the cold war, and reptiles, the writing is still ridiculously blatant in its political messaging. even planet of the daleks manages some fun worldbuilding, though the actual plot is crap, and the three doctors is just plain fun, from benton just accepting the tardis and the doctor's science-defying weirdness to the brigadier being unable to conceive of anything more distant and strange than norfolk. we get a late appearance from patrick troughton, an early appearance from ian marter, and sadly the last appearance from roger delgado. the green death may be my favourite companion exit in all of classic who; certainly it's one of the highlights, even if jo's environmentalist passion does come out of nowhere. the very last scenes are well-known, but the opening of the green death beautifully establishes jo's exit long before the doctor's sulking arrives. 8/10

season 11: i liked this a lot more than i thought i would, given that it, like season 7, is a bit out of place amongst three's series. favourite serial was invasion of the dinosaurs. least favourite serial was death to the daleks. we see the return (well, the continuation, really) of classic who's uncomfortable unquestioned racism, as well as yates' odd sort of character arc. in this series we return to peladon; we return, regrettably, to the daleks; we even return to metebelis three to see off the third doctor. the time warrior is a great introduction to one of the most average companions the show has ever come up with, sarah jane smith. i'll be honest, i missed jo. if you ask me, of the pertwee era's three recurring women, sarah gets the short end of the stick - all three of them get their opportunity to scream and provide stage directions, but death to the daleks is less character assassination and more taking character out back and shooting it in the head. it's the embarrassing culmination of all of classic who's worst tendencies when it comes to female characters. it's a fucking terrible end to a trio of not especially good in the first place dalek serials. this and sarah's post-season 11 characterisation as a whole are just embarrassing, because the rest of season 11 does a great job of selling sarah as a distinct and interesting character. invasion of the dinosaurs is one of my all-time favourite serials, and planet of the spiders is a touching albeit racist and messy sendoff for the third doctor. i miss my velvety boyfriend already. 8/10

season 12: it's a great series, but it's just not me. favourite serial was robot. least favourite serial was the sontaran experiment. sorry, were you expecting me to pick genesis of the daleks as my favourite? i nearly did! it's a good serial! but robot is just so good as an opening story. season 12 is a fantastic debut for the fourth doctor, and i love the doctor, sarah, and harry as a team. most of the serials are engaging, the sontaran experiment notwithstanding, even if revenge of the cybermen did give me earthshock flashbacks (premonitions?). as a fourth doctor era companion (not to be confused with the third doctor era), sarah works best with someone to bounce off - in this case, harry. a complete clown of a character, but a great foil for sarah and the doctor and an amusing breakaway from three's generally intelligent albeit not genius soldiers. harry is clever, but he's tragically blinded by genre and not, in fact, a soldier - he's a doctor. the only real downside to this series is that sarah's character begins to go permanently off the rails. this isn't always bad, she's just written differently to how she starts off, less of a confident and extremely fucking nosy character and more likely to, er, get hypnotised. on the bright side: four!!!!! my husband has returned from the war. 7/10

season 13: widely regarded as one of the best classic who series, but again, not really for me. favourite serial was the seeds of doom. least favourite serial was planet of evil. none of the serials were bad, seeds of doom was just so much fun. sarah doesn't really click as a solo companion, but elisabeth sladen really comes into her own in the role here, even if harry's exit fucking sucks. most of the serials are very engaging and well-plotted, and you can see why pyramids of mars has lived on, even if you cannot see why on earth anyone would bring back sutekh. sarah really loses her original characterisation in favour of a very different personality - much more childish, in a good way, and often a lot more in sync with the doctor. (just to save time: HE IS NOT DEAD.) i still miss harry. i still think he should have stayed on for the entire series. but hey, what can you do? 7/10

season 14: just a really weird experience all round. favourite serial was the robots of death. least favourite serial was the talons of weng-chiang. i want to strangle robot holmes. i hate the talons of weng-chiang. it has practically no redeeming factors. it's racist. it's boring. it's six parts. who came up with this? thank god the rest of the series, then, is a bit better. both of chris boucher's serials are really engaging scifi, albeit riddled with the same racism that all of leela's serials are - you know, the classic unquestioned racist biases of classic who. leela is a good character, though, when written well, and the face of evil is a great introduction. the deadly assassin, for all its oddity, is a really fun serial, and tom baker manages to pull off an entire serial without a companion. sarah's serials are... um. the masque of mandragora is a lovely serial in its own right, very atmospheric and beautifully costumed. on the other hand, its handling of faith and superstition vs science and rationality... uh, sucks, in a way last seen in the time warrior. must we make our 'early modern' scientific character enlightened and virtuous and our 'medieval' character superstitious and backwards? i guess we must. okay then. can we not? the hand of fear is a stunningly mediocre exit for sarah, and simply doesn't set up her leaving anyway near as well as it should have been. i like this version of sarah, but i still much prefer her introduction in season 11. honestly, i think sarah might have been better served by having the masque of mandragora as her last serial, with the hand of fear before it. 6/10

[thethirdromana]

In honour of Doctor Who's 60th birthday, here are 60* things that I like about less popular** Doctor Who stories.

(*in multiple posts because I'm falling foul of the character limit)

(**IMDB rating of less than 7/10)

1. Susan is great in The Sensorites. She's at her absolute best in stories like this where she gets to be genuinely a bit alien and a bit weird.

2. "So," said someone at the BBC, "we're going to produce an allegory for different political systems, using insects. Choreographed by a mime artist. On a budget of about £2.50." The Web Planet might not entirely have succeeded, but my god, you have to love that they tried.

3. They introduced Jamie, the best companion, in The Highlanders! How is does this have less than a 7/10 rating, what is wrong with you people. It's Jamie.

4. I applaud the utter bonkersness of The Underwater Menace, and Patrick Troughton really gives it socks.

5. The Wheel in Space is proper 60s sci-fi: Servo-Robots, x-ray lasers, radio beams! I can practically smell Penguin mass-market paperbacks thinking about it. And with the introduction of Zoe, it completes my all-time favourite TARDIS team.

6. The Dominators contains the Quarks, who are adorable. They weren't supposed to be, but it doesn't matter.

7. Zoe is still relatively new to the TARDIS, but she has heaps to do in The Krotons. Nice having a female companion who's written as smart and capable.

8. We have entered the 70s, so with Colony in Space, we get Social Issues. Especially an Evil Mining Corporation, which are always fun.

9. More Social Issues in The Mutants, but this time they're paired with big sci-fi ideas. Ancient tablets! Strange life cycles! Love how much is going on here.

10. The Time Monster is like the Eurovision of Doctor Who. Deeply silly, but what would Doctor Who be without silliness? I'm sorry about Jo's coccyx too.

11. I love that they returned to Peladon in The Monster of Peladon, especially with the 50-year time jump. I'd like to see that kind of follow-up more often.

12. Is it not cool to love K9 any more? Well, I like my Doctor Who with a dose of silliness, and The Invisible Enemy delivered that. Every time traveller needs a robot dog.

13. The design of the Seers in Underworld is excellent, I love a brass dome.

14. Doctor Who doesn't have enough giant squidmonsters looming on the horizons. I'm glad the The Power of Kroll does something to address the deficit.

15. The Creature from the Pit gave us the line "a teaspoon and an open mind", and I appreciate it for that at least.

16. Romana wears one of her best of many splendid outfits in The Horns of Nimon.

17. I liked all the arch dialogue between the Doctor, Enlightenment and Persuasion in Four to Doomsday.

18. Heathrow airport is an underrated setting. I also appreciate how Time-Flight prominently features Concorde, making it far more 80s than they could ever have planned.

19. I don't intend this to be damning with faint praise (even though it probably sounds like it) but my favourite thing about Arc of Infinity is that we get a little jaunt through 80s Amsterdam. I do love a tram.

20. Babyfaced Martin Clunes doing his spoiled princeling thing in Snakedance is enjoyably disconcerting.

21. Terminus is tense and scary and bleak. Another one that I'd expected to be more highly rated.

22. Warriors of the Deep gives us a very solid base under siege. Silurians + Cold War is a winning combination.

23. Landing in a modern village doing a historical re-enactment in The Awakening is a witty touch.

24. I can’t say I enjoyed the idea of the Doctor’s violent moods in The Twin Dilemma, but I have to commend it as a punchy way to introduce the new regeneration.

25. The Mark of the Rani should surely get some love just for introducing the Rani: camp, delightful, iconic.

26. Herbert turning out to be HG Wells in Timelash is a lovely twist and handled well.

27. The Trial of a Time Lord is so grand and ambitious. If the show hadn't been struggling in general at this point, it would be among the all-time greats.

28. With its colour-coded gangs and faux-urban slang, Paradise Towers is gloriously of its time in a way that currently feels quite naff, but that I suspect will be fascinating to revisit in about 30 years.  

29. Delta and the Bannermen is action-packed and has one of the best titles in 80s Who.

30. Possibly the most terrifying moment in all of Doctor Who is Kane's face melting in Dragonfire. This series is nothing if it doesn't send children running for safety behind the sofa.

31. Got to love it when Who gets aggressively anti-Thatcher, and they never did it more than in The Happiness Patrol.

[stardustizuku]

Part 4: The New Team

The first moment I said “This is bad” at Miraculous Ladybug...the first moment I realized this was going downhill – was when they introduced …Sighs, Rena Rouge.

(To be fair, it started with Lila and her weird necklace but that could have just been fixed easily)

I knew the moment Rena came that this was gonna get bad. I felt it in my bones that THIS was the sign of something insidious and awful boiling in the back of the show. This character marks the beginning of everything downhill in the show - it’s a glaring reminder of how awful the writing in this show is.

Don’t get me wrong I love Alya. I love the character design of Rena and I don’t think that - in a vacuum - her existing is bad. But her appearance signified that something far worse happened behind the scenes.

They were trying to add more heroes.

As I’ve stated in Part 2, where we talk about the Love Square, there is a very delicate balance between Chat and Ladybug’s dynamic. And throughout Season 1, which is meant to be the introduction to the series, we are given no indication that it will focus on anything else. There was more than enough drama with just those two superheroes to last you a very solid arc. But that arc never got developed neither as forefront, nor backstage, as far as seasons 1-3 is concerned.

Again, because the writers are idiots, who believe that developing the story might lead the Love Square to be concluded, which means having the creativity to develop it beyond what the 1 minute trailer told them to do.

So? What do we do? How do we develop this story further, without bringing in the complexities of its own premise?

Easy, you add useless heroes and McGuffins to sell more toys. They add nothing in terms of narrative cohesion, character development, or character relationships.

Like, Season 2 was 25 episodes long. And in those 25 episodes, it introduced a grand total of 3 potential superheroes. Of what are now

11 SUPERHEROES.

By the end of Season 2, a little less than halfway through the currently aired episodes in the USA, we had…3/11 of the entire team.

A team, by the way, that slowly took the emphasis away from what we were even watching this show, to begin with: The Love Square. Ladybug and Chat.

They were the core of the story. And the blatant addition of a new team, proved to me nothing more than a desperate attempt to distance themselves from it. For what reason? Either a lack of confidence in developing their main characters, or plain incompetence to detect what your show even is about.

As I stated in Part 3, in regard of theme, there’s nothing of the sorts connecting ANY of these superheroes together.

The new heroes have different powers – with absurd power balances.

The most powerful superheroes are supposed to be Cht and Laadybug, but I would argue that time travel is a biiiiit more powerful. Like, Garbiel could very easily time travel to save Emily or steal the miraculous before they're given to Chat and Ladybug. But sure. Whatever.

In regards of theme.

Chat and Ladybug have good and bad luck symbols as their animal counterparts. Then there’s Rena, the Fox; Carapace, the turtle; Hawkmoth, the moth; Queen Bee the bee…?? I’m not following that decision at all. If someone does, please do enlighten me.

And then there’s the newest superheroes, introduced in Season 4, and still being currently introduced…

The theme is the Chinese zodiac, but that’s only (checks notes) Excuse me, Paris? Uhm, yeah, Paris. So in Paris they have the Chinese zodiac, but in the USA and Beijin they have completely different powers not tied to the miraculous. And, I get it, you want new merch. Fine, all magical girls are thinly veiled ads for kid’s toys (I will buy the sailor moon blush one day, or so help me god) But, should you at least – try to make it make sense-

New superheroes or new powers should all connect to your theme.

Sailor Moon has planets, so introducing new Sailor Scouts it’s as easy as getting new moons, or suns in the galaxy. Something I find really cute is that Sailor Chibimoon has subordinates CereCere, VesVes, PallaPalla and JunJun. These were the asteroids once thought to be new planets in the Solar System before we knew of the AsteroidBelt and realized they were little rocks.

Mermaid Melody introduced new mermaids through the seven seas. There were only a finite amount of them. But even so, the only way to introduce Seira was through the death of Sara.

And Tokyo Mew Mew’s endangered animals allowed us to have Mew Ringo and (we don’t talk about brunononono, we don’t talk about brunooooo) Mew Berry.

Even Kamichama Karin WHICH I HATE so it goes to show how badly MLB messed it up – has a theme (sort of). It fumbles it extremely badly. Insulting to a degree how bad it does it…BUT IT DOES IT.

It’s greek gods. That’s it. You may have a new power, a new transformation or a new characters but you bet your ass it’ll be a Greek god. It may have no connection to the character’s personality or relationship to each other, but hey. At least it stays consistent on its terrible use of Greek Gods as nothing more than aesthetic.

So, your characters have no narrative weight behind it to justify why they’re here. You have no actual theme to tie all 19 of your superheroes (HOLY FUCK THAT’S A LOT OF THEM) aside from…animals? I guess.

(I swear to god PreCure puts more thought into their themes than this)

But at least, you would guess, your new heroes show interesting dynamics with each other that allow you to understand better either Chat, Ladybug, or each other?

No.

The team is bad.

They ditched the “Magical Girl” formula and decided to go for a bit of a “Super Seitan” feeling. I mean, Power Rangers type of show. More gender neutral, more focused on the villain of the week, and an emphasis on a big team.

Just. A bit of a problem.

But they did this, so into the show that we ALREADY had a sense of their character as a side character, so bringing them to the spotlight was uncomfortable.

Like suddenly making Molly a sailor scout or giving Tomoyo clow cards in the middle of the second season.

That’s not their purpose in the story.

And they’re introduced so haphazardly that there’s hardly any time for them to hang out with each other.

Rena first appears in episode 37, Carapace in episode 44, and Queen Bee in episode 49.

AND NONE OF THESE CHARACTERS INTERACT WITH EACH OTHER.

Not until Mayura. Which is episode 52, which just akumatizes them or gets them out of the way one way or another. Meaning, they do absolutely nothing for the plot, bring nothing to the table, and makes you wonder why even waste air time bringing on-screen characters that do not matter.  

In any other show, yes. The characters slowly leaving the protagonist alone because they get trapped, killed or maimed is a good way to up the stakes of the finale.

Here’s the thing, though. I care about them. And they care for each other. They know they’re not losing just a teammate, they’re losing a friend.

I cried like a baby when Makoto died and Usagi only recognized her rose earring – because I love Makoto to death. I cried when Rei sacrificed herself to save Usagi, because I knew how much they bickered. I was upset when Mint and Zakuro fought, because I knew how much Mint idolized Zakuro.

Their failure meant something to the each other. Aside simply, “we lost manpower”. Because these people were, before superheroes, before their later egos – they were friends.

HOWEVER. This does not happen in MLB. Since they don’t GET to keep the kwamis, they don’t get to participate in every episode. We never get episodes focused on how they interact with one another. Which means there’s no sense of a “team”. Which makes you wonder why they’re even considered a “team”.

This is such a horrible decision it genuinely makes me wonder if these people KNOW how to create ANY story !!!

I feel like I keep comparing MLB to many decent and genuinely good magical girls animes. Which feels unfair, EVEN THO IT ISNT, because these are iconic anime’s that have left a print in media

So fine, let’s get this show to a level you all can understand how bad it is

DC superhero girls. And it’s GOOD, check it out if you can. It’s something to turn on and enjoy, with little overarching plot.

But get this, the entire focus is to watch the team girls Interact. A lot of the comedy comes from watching these girls having fun and watching them come to terms with their own superpowers. Watching them get in trouble as they hide their identity, and how they bounce from one another. Who helps who, who are besties, who kinda hate each other, who brings them together and who keeps them strong.

I especially love Barbara and Harley's dynamic, as well as Kitana and Wonderwoman's friendship. The episodes that focus on either of them make me really happy. And even if there's little overarching plot, because I know their situation, I wanna see them happy and have fun.

But because they all have to hide in MLB, you don’t see something like this. Which, btw, THIS is the foundation of both Magical girl GROUPS and Seitan. And I would argue you would get more leeway abt secret identities to one another in MagicalGirls that in Seitan. Seitan’s bread and butter IS team dynamics. The fact that we don’t know how two superheroes that ladybug and chat aren’t would behave around each other is an INSULT to the genre.

And to be fair, they could still keep their identities secret. Just. Have them interact every single episodes, without the need of Ladybug or Chat doing a 10 minute break to give them their Kwamis. It would have been fun to see Queen Bee chat with Ladybug, maybe hate Chat and fight with him to get Ladybug’s attention. Maybe, have Viper and Carapace make music references and vibing in the background. Have Ryuko and Queen Bee bicker. Have Rena and Chat make jokes at Queen Bee’s expense.

You could have amazing drama out of the team trying to find each other’s identities, but having Ladybug threaten them to take away their miraculous (MAYBE she’s paranoid about it since the events of Chat Blanc let her traumatized and will take away miraculous from them). Hell, maybe she took away Chloe’s miraculous not because “she’s unfit” but because she spilled the beans. And Chloe’s resentment is not just from losing her great title, but losing the first true friends she had.

And it would make the fact that Marinette is allowed to CHOOSE her teammate…a bit more bearable. Because honestly, THAT’S  a terrible concept.

Most teams DONT get to chose who their partners are, and that’s what makes it amazing.

Because it’s a bunch of people who are forced to be together, slowly learning to open up and depend on one another. Which creates amazing and profound bonds that one originally wasn’t expecting.

Take for example Usagi. She didn’t CHOOSE her team. Instead, she found it. They found her. While Ami and Makoto are kind to her, she’s always butting heads with Rei, and playfully competing with Minako. They don’t all coddle her, or think she’s amazing. They see her as a friend. A crybaby, clumsy but kind-hearted friend who will help them out.

Tokyo Mew Mew has the same. Ichigo isn’t in perfect terms with Mint and they butt heads. Zakuro is a loner that isn’t integrated fully even in later episodes. But they’re a team. They work together.

The fact that Marinette gets to pick, creates issues like…Queen Bee.

Which.

Leads me.

To Chloe.

A God, Chloe.

PREV << MASTERLIST >> NEXT

[utilitycaster]

Re: Em Friedman, I personally always got the impression that they're just a big fan is Aabria cuz I think Aabria was one of their first guests(?) in their TTRPG class

And that's why to me all the coverage about Acofaf, WBN and now Burrows End reads with kind of a biased perspective

Like, I love WBN but as you said, it's not really doing anything innovative per se, and the whole coverage and hype about the Bear episode in Burrows End really made it anti-climactic when the episode aired

Idk, maybe I'm wrong, but a lot of the Actual Play coverage from Polygon (not just Em) seems kind of like D20 and WBN circlejerk while they're more than happy to throw CR under the bus

Oh interesting. Like, I do get that Actual Play is not a particularly massive community and I could see how someone who interviews players regularly might end up becoming close to them and generally that maintaining distance and journalistic integrity is uniquely difficult, but also like. Here's the thing. I know Critical Role is The 800 lb Gorilla in the actual play space; no one else is selling out Wembley Arena. I don't mind if they're not getting the same boosts from publications, because they don't really need it and people love an underdog and all that. It's still not great, that this bias exists, but Critical Role is much harder to keep up with because it is at this point 8 years of content to fully know what's going on in Campaign 3, whereas you could have someone binge watch ACOFAF in a long weekend.

What gets me is that it's not just fawning and biased. It's ignorant of the actual play genre and claiming things that are flat out untrue. "Critical Role isn't as good as Dimension 20" is an opinion. I don't agree with it but it's a valid position for someone to have, and even journalists are entitled to preferences. But like, again: TAZ Balance started at level 1, with the party obtaining a legendary and dangerous artifact at a low level, and it started in late 2014. NADDPod campaign 1 also started at level 1 and ran up to level 20, and it began in early 2018.

Longform D&D/Pathfinder are also not new. Both of the examples above ran over 60 episodes; NADDPod's first campaign was an even 100. Rusty Quill Gaming ran an impressive 218 over 8 years, though they tended to stick to about an hour long per episodes so it's closer to NADDPod in actual hours of gameplay. Obviously Critical Role, while unedited and not a podcast primarily, has had 100+ episode campaigns. All of these were also set in homebrew worlds, though TAZ was extremely loosely based on Forgotten Realms to start, and RQG was essentially a divergent history of our world. So what, precisely, other than the Children's Adventure, makes WBN different? Like...I know fandoms struggle to understand this but it does not do anyone a single fucking favor to act like well-executed but traditional formats (or solid but par for the course work) is radical and innovative genius! It doesn't make me say "wow, WBN is clearly groundbreaking." It makes me go "wow, Polygon's coverage is written by a fucking idiot who's unfamiliar with the landscape of actual play."

What gets me about the bear episode is that it was also, in my opinion, very well-executed and an interesting battle, but it was not like, any different from another battle map except that the production team did a really good job making it slightly gorier than the norm. That's it. And as for the twist...look, again, I'm reserving final judgment, but I keep thinking about this (regrettably it is from Orson Scott Card, who is both a homophobic asshole, and also wrote "How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy" which was my introduction to Octavia Butler and genuinely informs my understanding of the genre to this day):

"If you are using a known foreign language, by the way, take the time and effort to get it right. Among your readers there will always be someone who speaks that language like a native. If you get it wrong, those readers lose faith in you - and rightly so. Wherever you can be truthful, you should be truthful; if your readers can see that you're acting by that credo, they'll trust you, and you'll deserve their trust. But if they catch you faking it, and doing it so carelessly that you can easily be caught, they'll figure that if the story wasn't worth much effort to you, it shouldn't be worth much to them, either. They may still like the story, but you have blunted the edge of their passion."

This is both what I'm worried might end up being true re: Burrow's End (except instead of a foreign language I speak like a native, it's How Radiation Works) but it's also true in that like...all of those longform campaigns? I've watched or listened to them in full. Acting like it's innovation to...do a thing that's been done by so many other prominent actual plays is not even reading to me as bias. It's reading to me as a combination of wildly misplaced priorities (genuinely I think between this and the ask meme I'm like "hmmm have we considered that we're asking a huge amount from a niche medium and acting like it is the responsibility of a bunch of actors with dice to constantly reinvent the artform in which they work and dismantle the kyriarchy and prevent us from getting into arguments with our friends, instead of, as WBN's own page says, play games to make stories out of sound?") and also just. Ignorance. This is a person who is talking about something they genuinely don't know about. Why should I listen? I mean the bias doesn't help, but really it's the ignorance that kills it.