#comically proceeds to spiral anyway

[spoopdeedoop]

hi i have some disorganized thoughts/hcs abt the found family human doctor au

(one of the thoughts being i should really give it a better name. another being YES this is only the nuwho doctors atm bc that's the only series i've watched so far apologies. if i ever get around to watching classic who i will add them trust)

BEHOLD my random, not at all in-depth headcanons

nine is the only one with a car out of all of them. they all keep bugging him to drive/pick them up from places -- he has mixed feelings about being the assigned taxi driver

both twelve and eleven are teachers -- college professor and preschool teacher respectively. twelve's students love them because he will say the most stupid, hilarious shit with a straight face without even knowing and eleven's students love him because he is the only teacher at the school that will dance with them during musical chairs (he doesn't even play the game. he just dances)

i want to make one of them an actual doctor but i don't think any of them could handle it unfortunately

they all share an an apartment flat on the same level -- nine, twelve and fifteen live in one room, ten, eleven and thirteen live in the one across from them. of course there are other people in the building too but they're all used to the strange loud hyperactivity of that particular flat. i think i'm using the right terminology here. yall know what im talking about

(i'm so tempted to make some companions be their neighbors)

nine and ten are the most insomniac of all of them, so they're used to bumping each other in the dead of night on their way to raid each other's respective fridges or something. very rarely thirteen will join them and they're like "WELL FANCY SEEING YOU HERE"

twelve does sleep, but like. he's nocturnal

eleven and ten hate each other in a sibling kind of way (see: day of the doctor). they are constantly sending each other death threats or tripping each other over. everyone is sick of it

sometimes when they're out shopping you'll hear ten yell "GET OUT OF THE FROZEN FOOD YOU NUMPTY WE ARE NOT BUYING FISH FINGERS" over the aisles and you'll hear eleven whine "WHY DO YOU HATE ME SO MUCH" back

(if you're lucky you'll be able to catch fifteen mumble "why did we put them in the same apartment. are we asking for an eviction notice")

eventually eleven will pick a random stray cat off the side of the road, take her home, and name her bowtie, which is a stupid name, so everyone just defaults to calling her kitty

kitty's favourite person is twelve, to eleven's absolute despair

(my original idea for this was to initially have ten hate the idea of living with a cat, since he's stated full on in the show that he doesn't like cats, but apparently there is some very obscure doctor who comic run in which he falls into a depressive spiral and adopts a cat whom he names rose-the-cat, so he might actually like cats idk?)

anyway ten hates her until he doesn't lmao. he vents to her when there's no one else home and she will Stare at him back and it is a very nice friendship

kitty and nine watch shitty romcom together

they have a joint groupchat together -- half of it is just thirteen and fifteen assigning everyone outfits they find on pinterest and the other half is eleven asking where everyone went (he keeps getting lost when they go out)

nine doesn't know how to download pictures off the internet and so resorts to manually editing memes together to send to the groupchat and everyone's like "girl that's so much more effort........."

(yes he doesn't know how to press save image to camera roll but he knows how to use a photo editor flawlessly. such is the logic of the idiocy of the doctors)

eleven and thirteen get along very well i think. they're the only two of the group to play video games and so they bond over that. they also have ridiculously similar clothing taste

sometimes they'll succeed in getting fifteen to play pokemon with them and then they'll proceed to not see him until the next day when he comes out of his room and goes "you didn't tell me plusle couldn't evolve i've been levelling it up all fucking night"

friday is assigned movie night (it's always big hero 6)

eleven is the only one to actively seek out physical affection, usually really abruptly like clinging to thirteen's back as she passes him in the hall or bapping ten with the palm of his hand until he sighs and gives him a hug. he does expect a platonic kiss on the forehead from anyone before he goes to bed and will complain if he doesn't get one

anyway thats it i'm sick in the head and really sad. if this keeps up i may be forced to actually write a fic

[yes-asil]

(sorry if this ask goes through multiple times my internet is WACK)

i have!! a ghost boys question!! (absolutely adore these past few pages btw, as a comicfury reader pages 470-473 have been SO cute and im literally crying with joy that theyre reunited ive missed them sm its unbelievable i care them so much ANYWAY)

so i read your fic on ao3 a while back and for no reason in particular, definitely not writing a fic, can i ask for details abt matt and sickness? not like the chronic passing out/near death biz he deals with when hes suffering from ghosts, i know thatll get explained later in the story, but like if he were to get a normal illness. like. say. theres this thing of stress fevers popping up for people who work themselves too hard and you mentioned matt having fever in your ao3 fic which i was rereading earlier because its SO good and i love it but like that fic was focused on the coughing and his lungs giving out lol and i am just wondering if perhaps you would be willing to share how hed deal with being like... aware of being out of commission. being able to feel the fever and physically not being able to be unconscious bc of like the insomnia aspect because i feel like he can be so nonchalant because hes never conscious when hes miserable so just curious on how hed handle having no choice but to acknowledge it. how hed deal with having normal person illness that isnt him about to die. in my head hes ofc going to keep working anyway and make things worse bc thats how he is but i would love to hear your thoughts if you dont mind giving them!!

for no reason in particular. there is definitely not already 1k words of this which will not spiral into something more ahaha wink thank you for all you do this comic makes me so feral(/positive) my friends have learned of the boys through osmosis of me not shutting up every time a new page posts

I'll start this with an: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

So happy you like the comic so much!!! And that you rope other people into it is so fun, I'm glad you like my boys!

As for the question; Matt ignores feeling bad no matter for what reason. In his head he just goes "what doesn't kill me, makes me stronger" before he proceeds to knock himself out. When he wakes up, he continues the cycle until his body is back to normal by sheer force of will. It doesn't matter if it is a week long sniffly nose, a dry cough spell that lasts a month or his funny little ghost powers pulling him under. He WILL work and he WILL make himself useful.

The only times he accepts defeat and goes to bed to rest while actually awake are when Lukas' worries so hard it makes both of them want to cry and when Cathrine starts using her soft "I'm really worried right now I can't even act harsh" voice.

He acts pretty much the same then, just a bit huffy and restless

[mojaves]

SEB TIME YEAAAA 🚗🎻🎶🍛🤓🤩

🚗 CAR — does your oc have a driver's license? can they drive/operate any automobiles/machinery besides cars?

of COURSE he has a drivers license he is essentially the resident car fucker of the group [not literally but. with the amount of things he does with people on the backseat he may as well be] and he is a damn good driver at that. slightly less experienced with motorbikes, more likely to fall on his ass, but generally manages a trip relatively unscathed. i wouldnt trust him with any sort of boat or aircraft though

🎻 VIOLIN — does your oc play any instruments? what is their skill level (beginner/intermediate/advanced/virtuoso/etc)?

very advanced at both guitar and piano [: he had a lot of time to practice growing up, and that was one of the few things that kept him sane during his downtime at arasaka, which is where a lot of his skill developed very quickly over a short period of time. he can also sing a little too!! he's a little embarrassed about it sometimes, considering the impact the jaw/neck incident had on his voice, but he's being very brave [and it sounds very sexy trust me]

🎶 MUSICAL NOTES — what type of music does your oc like? do they listen to music very often?

theres not really any specific genre he likes listening to more than others, it's more like, he prefers faster, more upbeat stuff i guess?? bc music generally has a Very big impact on his mood, so listening to something much slower would send him spiralling if he's not careful. that never used to be the case, but ever since arasaka installed the chip in his brain, he's been much more sensetive to sound, sometimes even to the point where it physically hurts. that doesnt happen all too often luckily, and he has hundreds upon hundreds of vinyls at his workplace AND at home that he plays constantly. he likes the medium, and also it's generally just. Softer on his ears rather than like, blasting something from a computer for example.

🍛 CURRY AND RICE — what does your oc's typical dinner look like? do they usually eat dinner?

answered here!

🤓 SMILING FACE WITH GLASSES — is your oc chatty or quiet? are they at ease in social situations, or are they more shy?

entirely depends on the day and the situation, but he's generally very chatty and can even come across as Over Confident at times, but that's just mostly a 'side effect' of having to deal with clients who are annoying as hell, day in day out. he's used to dealing with all kinds of people, so he's very at ease in most social situations. but, if you catch him on a bad day, or the vibes are just Entirely too off with the environment, or the people he's talking to, you will NOT!! get a single word out of that man. he can be very stubborn when he wants to be. or he's just zoned out entirely and you're not getting him back anytime soon.

🤩 FACE WITH STARRY EYES — is your oc a planner, or are they more spontaneous in their actions?

with jobs, he's a planner. well. he plans a Little bit. he thinks it's a solid plan, and then literally anyone else at the base has to essentially hand his ass to him and fill in the [entirely too many] gaps left in the plan, so he doesn't end up dying or something. and then he proceeds to barely follow the plan anyway, partially bc he forgot, partially bc he's stupid. that doesn't happen ALL the time, but it's almost comical how often it happens. he comes out of the job fine, but also looks like he just stepped on a landmine. his ability to think Reasonably and NOT impulsively got launched out the window after arasaka fried his brain. he's doing. okay??? but sometimes he needs to be put on one of those child harnesses so he doesn't just straight up walk into oncoming traffic [which HAS happened before. by the way]

[blisterinballista]

👂

I am of a listening

heavy pacing echoes behind the locked door. looks like boss is on a call. again. you can't derive who's on the other end of the line, but baltimore seems more talkative than he is with regular clients.

a friend, perhaps.

> " ... no, no, he ain- hes not- not yet... i... idunno. i mean- "

> " • • • "

> " -yea, yeah, i do, i... really do. wouldn put up with em if i didn like him, heh... "

> " ... uh. "

> " • • • "

> " i-its, jus... i, feel, like... its neva really, around, yknow? ... like- okay, the, parties, an, yknow, every now an then we... yea. but, its like none o that even matters as soon as somethin, serious comes up. ya feel? "

> " • • • "

> " i mean like- i tell em, all the time, to call me if they need somethin- anythin. an he neva does. then theres me with- "

... a sigh. thumb and index claws come up to smooth out his brow.

> " i.. jus wanna talk to them. no strings attached. "

> " • • ? "

> " ... you an i both kno why ion do tha.. an is not like i can jus, bring tha up outa the blue... ugh. hes so pushy sometimes i swear. you cant not eva tell me shit an then expect me to explain why im havin a meltdown-- IN the middle OF havin a meltdown--! "

> " • • • "

> " ... im alright. is cool, everythin fine. "

> " ... maybe im the problem. "

> " • • • "

> " i mean... my issues ain, exactly... his fault... "

> " • • ?- "

> " --NO, NO I CANT. ... not yet. or ever. i don know anymore... ill jus, fake it till i make it, i guess. "

> " • • • "

> " -yeah, ill let cha kno if he hurts me.. an no, ya don get ta snap his neck. cuz he don got one. "

> " • • • "

> " oh, the otha thing? yea i showed em. befo you ask, yea, i trust em with it... as scary as that might be... maybe, itll like, iunno. make it feel safe trustin me too. "

> " • • • "

> " i ain... too, worried.. after all, he saw wha i do to traitorous dogs. dante may be dumb, but it ain stupid. bsides, i can tell hes good at his core. he wouldn sell me out to that windbag... im sure ovit. "

> " ... alrigh alrigh, i should shut up now befo i spiral again. whaddabout you an, your, uh...- "

> " • • • "

> " ... my god. yous actually insane. tell me everythi- "

just as blitz begins laughing, his voice is getting away from the door, deeper into the room. sounds like that other person has some good hot tea of their own, eh.

[bloominghope]

FOR TONIGHT ( x )

Inside a Mercedes GLC Coupé, late night — or, potentially, early hours of the morning —, late September: the slow exhalations falling through parted lips. Lips that had been permanently curled upwards all Sunday long; soft smiles when eyes met and the recollections of hazy days, filled with elation, with the utmost joy, were silently shared. Crinkly-eyed grins, displaying tenderness for what once was. Slight, fleeting smirks, accompanied by the silent nudge to a leg underneath the table, so casually that it almost felt normal. 

Lips that now taste the salt, the wetness that he would have mistaken by a droplet of rain, hadn’t he been cozied up under the glimmering stars of the SUV’s roof. Refusing to acknowledge the single, oval-shaped tear making its path down his cheek, leaving a trail ( of the remnants of the past, of a heartache, of what could have been ) as it descends, won’t do anything for him. It won’t ease the heavy feeling on his head or erase how his heart plummeted down to his stomach as soon as he signaled to the right and brought the car to a halt on a, frankly appalling manner, parking spot. 

His brown eyes are shut tight, hands disappearing into the sleeves of his favorite jumper like a child’s would and he’s unspeaking. Is he aware, in the intensity of the moment, that life scurries by in all its ordinariness and vulgarity, imposing itself all around him — in the dark corner of the street where a couple is far too enthralled by the kisses they share or the late workers, speeding by the empty, well-lit streets, caring little about traffic rules and regulations. Is he aware or is he unscathed, unaffected while he glances at something deeper… His own version of life in all its glorious ugliness or maybe… glancing at something concealed, hidden underneath the layers he spent years developing, creating with his own imagination and bringing to life with a lot of hard work. 

Soft strands of brown hair stand in an unruly fashion - one going left and the other right, one swiveling up and a few others resting idly on his forehead - as a consequence of all the tugging and combing, the numerous times he ran his long fingers through it in the previous hours. Simultaneously, his backs moves, ever so unhurriedly, to gently rest against the comfort of seat and a gentle sigh bubbles out, cutting through the silence established in the car. A second, two, three… a long minute, he remains motionless. Stagnant like his life seems to be, he thinks. And then… then he’s reaching for the phone, unlocking it, staring to a background that should have been changed a year and a half away when the future became the past and the plans became memories. 3.27, he whispers, but in an act of courage ( or desperation ), he dials a number. The number that remained engraved into his memory like it was ink to the skin. No answer. He did not expect one. The green icon of the messaging app calls for his attention and without any thought he clicks it, beginning a new chat but words fail. There’s a mess of thoughts, racing and clashing, spiraling in and out his brain, and he laughs. No use for this literature degree sometimes, rushes to the forefront of his mind. He touches and holds the recording button, instead.

“Rylee—“ his voice comes out huskier than he expected, carrying out the exhaustion he hadn’t felt until now, honeyed and low like anything would break if he would raise it an octave, like he would wake her up. It throws him off. He releases the button with a frown, groaning once he equates he also sent the audio message. No point turning back now, he reasons. You might be gone in the morning anyway, the remembrance sends a shiver down his spine and the frown grows deeper. Shaking off the thoughts, he begins again, thankful she hadn’t seen - or heard - the nonsensical first message. 

“I think we’ve been done long before everything begun between us — harsh, maybe. I just mean that… in hindsight, it’s as though it was always the destiny playing a twisted joke on us. Your father has always been your father— bless him— what I mean is, you were always predestinated to be in the spotlight, the public eye, one way or another and by the time we met, I already knew I couldn’t handle it. I couldn’t handle the fame. I know you have always been honest with me— you never hid the fame was unwanted but that it would be there, regardless. Yet…” He laughs, humorlessly, the sound melodious but brimming with all the hurt, the emotion. When he proceeds, his voice grows softer. “Honesty is just a game, isn’t it? Life is just a game. I knew we were done before it all begun, yet I lead us on, I continue to let it happen, because I still can’t give it up. Yesterday I couldn’t sleep until some ungodly hour, and I had to fight myself not to go and lie with you… because I knew you’d leave in the morning - or later that day - and even though I know it’s what we both wanted, I know it’s wrong to lie with you. Even if it’s all I wanna do. Even if we’re safe behind close doors and the world can’t see us or touch us. Sometimes I want to shut down the rational part of my brain and throw away every single point that proves we shouldn’t be together, that it wouldn’t stay secret or private for long. But I know it’s a Russian roulette. Did we become insensitive to what is wrong, after we saw each other at that supermarket? My mind went empty, you know? All I wanted to do was hold you and kiss you and mend everything. All I wanted to do was keep you in my arms for as long as I could. All I wanted, all I really wanted to do, was travel back in time and be so close to you that I could tell what scent you were wearing that day and it would forever be engraved in my memory, alongside every little detail of yours. Like how you relax whenever I draw my fingers up and down your arm or how you smile, no matter how pissed off you are, whenever you see me smile at you. Then, you spoke and I broke through the haze because if seeing you was enough to bring it all back, I didn’t want the rest. No longer wanted to hold you because I know the feelings would eat me up alive. Then there was this weekend and… shit…” A sniff ends the audio, the screen of the iphone lighting his face and collecting tears he hadn’t processed were falling. For now, he ignores them and holds the recording button one last time, “I love you. More than I ever realized, and to a point where the whole loving someone until it hurts quote is starting to make sense. I love you in the purest, most ridiculous of the ways, in a manner that doesn’t compare to anything else, to any other feeling. I love you to the point where just seeing you has my heart racing and hearing your name brings a smile to my lips. I love you to the point where I would happily lie with you and hold you in my arms, for the rest of my life. And I don’t think anyone or anything will ever compare. I don’t think I will ever get over you or us, I don’t think I will ever be able to take someone else to the places we used to go. Did I tell you a few months ago, I was entirely convinced I had gotten over our breakup and then, I was driving and our song— can I still call it that?— started playing and it was all it took to erase my beliefs. It’s all it takes to remind me you aren’t out of mind and to make me smile in the most stupid of the ways. I have no idea why I’m telling you this. I’ve been parked in the same spot for a while now and… just… nights are hard. Heartbreak is harder at night. And… And I’m evidently avoiding the fact there are two suitcases in the car’s boot and I have a flight to France in a few hours — and the imminent, looming issue that if I don’t take it, I’m about to be fired. Funny huh? Got a nice job overseas and I’m wallowing in self-pity over how much I love you. Is life ever this laughable? Is it always this comical… Anyway… I’ll go now, I hope I didn’t wake you up. And I’m sorry I didn’t tell you the job thing, I didn’t want to see your reaction because then I might just actually throw every fucking reservation away and stay with you. I know you… I know you told me you would never move on — and its rich of me to ask when I just said myself that I wouldn’t move on either — but I want you to try and be happy without me, okay? I’ll always be yours. The past eleven years of my life will always be yours. You’ll always be everything I want but I think I should really leave… I— yeah, I should leave now. I’m gonna miss my flight. I love you. Always, always, always.”

[twdmusicboxmystery]

TWD 10x04: Silence the Whisperers - Analysis

How did everyone like the episode? As always, I thought it was really good. The first thing I’ll say is that there isn’t nearly as much symbolism in it as there has been in the past few episodes. Not that there isn’t any, but you know how the past few have just been ridiculously overflowing with it? This one just has less. It’s one of those episodes that’s more action-oriented and setting up for what comes next.

***As always, spoilers abound below for episode 10x04. Don’t read until you’ve watched!!!***

Opening Sequence:

So the song playing in this sequence whispers “1, 2, 3” over and over again, which I think it significant. I already talked in an Ask about the wheel decoration behind Daryl, and how I think it represents the death fake out arc, and may show that Beth’s arc is about to come back around. Beyond that, Ezekiel is sad, Magna is having some issues, and a tree comes through Hilltop’s wall.

Hilltop:

We learn that 9 people got trapped in a building when the tree hit the roof and it caved in. They got all the people out, but this could be part of the Hole in the Roof theory. As the episode proceeds, the noise from the tree brings walkers and they’re afraid the whole wall will collapse. It’s already been weakened by the tree and now all the walkers are pushing in on it.

This hearkens back to two things for me. The first is the fallen trees in Them, which I always saw as significant. The second is, of course, when the church fell in S6, bringing down Alexandria’s walls and letting walkers in in 6x08/09.

Why would that be significant? Well, I think it’s obvious why Them would be significant, yeah? I mean, it’s after the storm and the fallen trees that the music box woke up. So if you want to draw a direct parallel, you might argue Beth will arrive after the tree falls. Honestly, I don’t see this as a big enough event to herald that, but it might be one of many small events that lead to her. More on that in a minute.

And how about paralleling it to S6? The biggest thing for me there is that that was smack in the middle of Glenn’s death fake out. After the church fell and let the walkers in, Glenn showed up, miraculously alive, and reunited with Maggie. Just saying.

In terms of the plot, I’m wondering (and this is pure conjecture) if Hilltop will eventually fall too. The Kingdom has already gone down, and I wonder if HT will too, forcing the entire group together at Alexandria. I’m not at all positive that’s where they’re going, but it crossed my mind.

Because the wall actually does collapse, but Michonne’s group shows up to help fight the walkers, and they do talk about fixing it. So we’ll see.

Ezekiel:

Given all the messages and Asks I’ve gotten about this, I doubt I need to explain it in great detail. Zeke has always had heavy parallels with Beth. Just as Daryl and Carol are very similar, so Beth and Ezekiel are too. Here, we have him contemplating suicide, much as Beth did in S2. Much like her, he realized he wants to live. 

As I mentioned in an Ask, this happened on one side of the now-broken bridge Rick was blown off of. So that connects him to Rick. And he wore a green shirt (Beth). So I think that connects him to the death fake outs and this functions as a foreshadow of Zeke’s own coming death fake out.

He also rode a black horse. It ran by Michonne after he let it go. That made me realize something. It’s not anything groundbreaking, but just a detail I hadn’t really thought of before. We’ve always seen as white horse = Beth and black horse = Daryl. The white horse also = life or being alive. But I realized the black horse also = death, despair, lack of hope. That’s how Zeke felt here, and how Daryl felt around the time Buttons died. Again, nothing we didn’t already know, but I just hadn’t thought of it that way before.

When Michonne and Ezekiel talk, she says, “it never would have worked between us anyway. We’re both too stubborn.” He says, “maybe in another universe.” I laughed at that. As in, the comic book universe? It’s obviously the writers’ way of acknowledging that this is a nod to their comic book romance, but it’s not going to happen in the show. (Add that to the list of things TD has been correct about.)

Daryl/Lydia/Alexandria:

This was obviously the biggest story thread in the episode. And I gotta say, I loved it! Gauge and his friends are mean to Lydia and bully her. She talks to Negan about it more and more, which Daryl isn’t happy about.

I was laughing hysterically when Lydia butchered the squirrel in front of them. How much like Daryl is that? Like father, like daughter, I guess. She’s rebellious just like he is. Which isn’t surprising since they come from similar, abusive backgrounds.

Daryl is older and wiser now and advises her not to provoke them, but he himself would have done much the same only a few years ago.

The three bullies attack Lydia and Negan saves her. I gotta say, while I was one who thought it would have been more just for them to execute Negan at the end of AOW, it’s really hard to hate him when he’s being sweet to Lydia. While rescuing her, he accidentally kills the woman who used to be with the highwaymen.

So, remember in episode 1 when I talked about how Negan told FG he didn’t want people’s fear of the Whisperers to blow up in his face so that they blamed him and wanted to string him up? I said that was setting something up and this would happen eventually. So this episode is the fulfillment of that. It truly was an accident and he didn’t mean to kill her, but no way people are going to let it go, now. So Negan takes off.

In truth, I’ve been waiting for him to take off. I’m actually really excited about this story line. Remember last season when Negan escaped and left Alexandria for a while? Judith tried to stop him, and he took her compass? Well, he was only gone a short time, but during that time we saw tons of callbacks to Still, saw him run from dogs, and saw tons of other Beth-ish symbolism. We weren’t exactly sure what it meant at the time, but now I think we do.

That small excursion from Alexandria was a foreshadow of this one. He’ll probably be gone much longer this time and the arc will be much bigger. It’s important to note that we saw not only Beth symbolism, but also saw Negan drink bad water and throw it up. That hints at the radiation/helicopter group stuff.

So I’m not saying Negan will meet Beth in the woods next episode—obviously I’d be great with that, but I’m sure it will be much more complicated and protracted—but just that something about him leaving will lead to Beth. I’m excited to see how it all plays out.

When Daryl talks to Carol, she says all the drama in the communities—both the stuff with Negan and Lydia, as well as the tree situation at Hilltop—are distractions from the true enemy: Alpha. I know there are lots of theories floating around about Carol being the one to have let Negan out. 

While I don’t think we have much evidence of that either way, I certainly wouldn’t dismiss it. It would mirror her killing Karen and David at the prison in 4a. Not that the action is the same, but this wouldn’t be the first time Carol took it on herself to solve a problem in a less than ethical way, because she thinks it’s for the greater good. But no one knows for sure what happened yet. They didn’t tell us in this episode. So we’ll just have to wait and see.

Meanwhile, when Michonne and Daryl talk on the radio, she tells him to protect Lydia. She’s afraid that if anything happens to Lydia, or if she leaves Alexandria, Alpha will attack them. Yeah, once again, that’s a setup. Something along these lines will happen eventually and bring Alpha’s wrath.

Near the end, Michonne, Judith and Luke head back to Oceanside because Rachel radioed to say they thought they saw some Whisperers near where the mask washed up in 10x01. So Michonne is going to investigate. She takes Judith and Luke with her. Where Luke is concerned, I kinda feel like he might die. I hope not, but they sure focused a lot on him saying heartfelt goodbyes to his group (Magna, Connie, Kelly, and Yumiko). That struck me as suspicious. Like that group might not all be together again.

Details:

I won’t do a full details post because there were only a handful I saw worth mentioning.

When Lydia said Gauge and his pals deserved what she did (with the squirrel), Daryl said, “I get it.” Obvious Beth line.

When Siddiq had another freak out, he put his face in ice water. Not a huge deal, but another example of water helping to (temporarily at least) heal him.

When Lydia was in medical, talking to Daryl, we see a bunch of IV bags behind her. Just reminded me of Grady.

Oh, and Lydia played around with a worm when she was talking to Negan. (Worm Theory.)

When Michonne talked to Daryl on the radio, she told him to be her proxy for the vote. This really isn’t anything official, but that word caught my ear. It had nothing to do with Beth in the plot, but how often does TD, in our theories, talk about Beth proxies? And I don’t think I’ve ever heard them use that actual word on the show before. So it just got my attention. ;D

When Negan disappeared, FG said the guards reported that the keys were missing. Key Theory. And reminds me a lot of all the keys we saw at Grady.

When Daryl and Carol talked on the steps, Carol had an interesting line. She said, “it’s like time never moves.” I wondered if that might be a reference to the clocks without hands. She also mentions New Mexico yet again.

We see Michonne and Judith fighting walkers side by side. Just look at this. I think it might be a callback to when Rick and Carl fought walkers together (with guns in that case) at the prison in 4a.

Finally, this isn’t really a TD detail, but they’re definitely setting something up with Magna and Yumiko. Their relationship is in a rocky place, but I feel like it’s mostly because Magna is kind of spiraling. She seems angry and like she just wants to kill everything. I don’t know what they’re setting up there, but something.

When Lydia butchered the squirrel, which I already said was very Daryl-like, it specifically showed that Father Gabriel (embodiment of the Sirius symbolism/Beth) was watching her. I’m not entirely sure what to make of that, but I found it interesting.

I loved seeing Daddy Daryl taking care of Lydia. It’s really sweet and compelling. I’m enjoying his interactions with Lydia. I always feel like he’s on the verge of telling her about Beth. But alas, he doesn’t. At least, not in this episode.

Lydia said she let Negan out, though when Daryl confronted her, she admitted she didn’t. But she ultimately wanted to stay in Negan’s cell because she felt safer in there. It just occurred to me that she currently has a Morgan mindset (from 6x06) where she actually feels more comfortable in a cage. Just kind of interesting.

Ending:

At the end, they repeat the “1, 2, 3” song again. We see Luke saying goodbye to everyone, which I already talked about. Then we see Carol on the roof, looking at a map. (Maybe evidence that she’s systematically looking for Alpha?) Then we see Daryl scrubbing the graffiti off his front door.

Guess what? The vest is back! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

That’s super important, guys. We really haven’t seen his vest in a LONG time. It’s return now, with the missing wing on obvious display, feels really important. Like Beth’s return (the return of his missing wing, perhaps?) is just around the corner.

The camera pans around, showing all the graffiti (there was more than just the stuff on Daryl’s door). It stops on one particular instance of it. And, this might be hard to hear, but if you put on the subtitles, the song ends, followed by the sounds of walkers. Then the subtitles say that a Whisperer is saying, “Shhhhh.”

Yeah, that feels like a very significant setup. I feel like these first three episodes were really intros or setups for the season. Now we’re going to get into the meat and potatoes of things. You know, either really get into the Whisper War, or else something else huge is going to happen. And whatever it is, I think it will lead to Beth. I saw the last sequence of this episode as evidence that the arc where Beth returns is about to ensue. That makes me happy.

Okay. Gonna stop there for today. As I said, I won’t do a details post for this episode. Either tomorrow or Wednesday, I’ll do a post talking about where I’m thinking the events of this episode (such as Negan leaving, Michonne going to Oceanside, seeing Daryl smoke last episode, etc) might be heading. So it will mostly be a predictions post. Sort of. Stay tuned. ;D