#episodes and I have been chasing that high ever since

[prolibytherium]

Dee & Mac's dynamic is still probably my favorite. I love how they straight up just dislike each other in a (relatively) uncomplicated way and have the weakest bond BY FAR and barely give a shit about each other, but still have this intense level of casual intimacy purely by virtue of decades stuck in the same group codependency pentagon. They're like in-laws.

[rumpeltyltskyn]

Oh btw that Markiplier is from the most recent couple of Distractible episodes (starting with the ‘20 Questions’ episode). I cannot remember what happened that caused him to be sadly sitting in an undersized bathtub looking like his life is falling apart, but it was delightful

Bitch do you think I miss a single episode of Distractible the day it releases on Spotify when I said I thought we were being I troll I thought we the WATCHERS were being trolled

[bakugoushotwife]

a/n: omg heyyy i make my grand return with my humble offering to @ohkento 's reddit theme collab!! i also have a piece for shouto coming up next, but here is the first one!! i took a while off after kinktober so if this is bad....lie to me!

warnings: dark content. nsfw. no minors. yandere theme gojo, no physical harm to reader, baby trapping, threats (not to reader), female reader, breeding, pentration, oral (fem!receiving), reader is kinda dumb lol.

summary: STORYTIME: I (28M) CAN'T STOP BREEDING MY GIRL BEST FRIEND (28F)!! it's a serious problem...i'm really reaching my breaking point here. i've been in love with this chick since high school and she keeps chasing other guys...but fucking me when the dates go wrong, help!

it’s been his dirty little secret since his years at tokyo tech. you’ve always been a looker, never were you short on attention from lesser men that aren’t worth your time—and yes, that includes when geto crushed on you all through the second year of school. but they never were quite what you were looking for, and every night of passion or attempt at a meaningful connection always ended the same—dialing up your closest confidant satoru to come console you and stuff your cunt full and wipe your tears–to make it better, like best friends do. 

satoru was all too aware of your little predicament, because he had struggled with the same issues–except he realized his fate years ago and was determined to have it. you are his and his alone, no matter how many scrubs that try to take you from him. if only you would open your eyes. you were obviously hopelessly in love with him, of course—that’s why no one could compare! and that’s why you always turned your teary eyes and pretty pussy to him after yet another date gone wrong. he knew he was the only cure, and he’s given up on hoping you’d see the truth for yourself. 

he tried to play the patience card, licking your tears off your face as he pounds his love into you, telling you that you’re worth so much more than those guys you keep letting break your heart. he tried being the nice guy that holds you after yet another promising prospect never texts you back–buying you dinner and bouncing you on his cock until you were crying from pleasure instead of heartbreak. each time, he buried his load in your womb until it was spilling out around him—hoping to give you no other choice but to pack your bags and move onto his estate to further the gojo clan with the very man at the head of it, but it seems your ovaries were just as stubborn as you are. he didn’t know how much more of this he could stomach—just waiting to be your knight in shining armor while laying in bed at night, staring at the pictures of you, both lewd and cute alike while wondering just how long it would take to have you laying beside him in his bed instead of the pixels on his phone screen. 

he’s had enough. it’s clear his plan isn’t working as designed. you must be on birth control—which is both irritating yet complimentary to him. of course you wouldn’t let these bums knock you up. is it insulting that this applies to his seed too? of course, but then again the whole dynamic was rather insulting wasn’t it? fucking other men and crying to him about it when they aren’t the perfect man for you. no shit—no man will ever know you like he does. none of them could ever compete with the life he could give you if you would just face the music. he doesn’t get it either. why bother? why look elsewhere? obviously you’re attracted to each other—so why won’t you make the next natural jump and stop it with the drama-packed weekly bachelorette episodes?

that’s okay. it’s really fine. satoru is such a good friend that he’ll help you, like he always does. he would simply help you to the conclusion that he wants and then everything can proceed according to plan! it shouldn’t be too difficult anyway, you’ll be calling any moment now! you had a date with yet another sure disappointment that gojo knows will desert you as soon as the date is finished. he’ll be dry and boring after the promising conversations you had in the days leading up to the date—you’ll be confused yet again—and the guy won’t pay either, set for split-bill city. gojo knows all of this because he’s ensured that’s what happens, of course! and this is the thirty-sixth man he’s had to pay off to show up to the date and forget about you. a price he’s more than willing to pay no matter how high, though it’s definitely added up over the years. and you know what—now that he thinks of it, none of them deserve you because their weak nature and corrupt morals. he’s been proven right every time, each one of these bottom feeders would take the money no questions asked—maybe that was due to his threats of horrific death if they so much as answered a text message from you again, but who could be sure? 

this one was especially easy to pay off, too. he didn’t even think twice about taking the money. it almost makes gojo mad. he clearly wasn’t heartbroken to walk away from you, and god you deserved so much better. you deserve a man that is willing to pay off any and every suitor that comes into your life just to make you his. you deserve a man so crazy about you he can hardly recognize himself. you deserve…well, him. he’s devoted himself to you for over a decade and it’s time for that to pay off.

your unique ringtone gets him out of his own head to answer, and of course, you’re crying and asking him to come over. pretty girls like you never learn, huh? that’s all forgiven though, as he is a teacher and it’s his passion to help you understand. 

“of course sugar. i’ll be right over. mhm–don’t mention it. that’s what friends are for.” he hums to you over his end of the phone, picking up his car keys to make it to you in record time. you’re your same beautiful self as you answer the door and welcome him inside, though he can see the tear tracks staining your face. it makes him pout a little at the sight no matter how used to it he is. he hates that you let these cretins upset you like this. 

“hey baby.” he pouts sympathetically with you, ducking under your arm to gaze around your familiar living room for any signs of a man he hadn’t yet heard about. he exhales a deep sigh when he finds none. he’s got his hands in his pockets, lips tightened in a knowing grimace. “so what was it this time? no—let me guess: split the bill and then he let you walk home in this weather?” 

you close the door after he’s entered with a heavy sigh. your bleary eyes fix on your hand still clasped around the doorknob, “yeah.” you tug your lip between your teeth and turn to face him. you didn’t have to answer him, for he already knew. it was borderline routine at this point and you were already embarrassed enough. you draw your arms around yourself to feel your own warmth, shaking your head. what was wrong with you? you used to be pined after, wanted—and now you couldn’t even get non-sorcerers to call you back. you haven’t had a second date in years, nor had an orgasm that wasn’t satoru’s handiwork. but even he didn’t want you permanently. you were a good friend and an even better fuck, that’s all. you knew it was pointless to yearn for him, sure he felt nothing other than his ever-present sense of duty and loyalty every-time he took your pain away–no matter the lies that poured out of his saccharine lips to do so. your sad eyes fix on his face, letting your plump bottom lip bounce out from your teeth’s trap. he smirks softly, cock rising because it knows exactly what that look means. 

but unfortunately for you, he won’t just hold you in his arms and promise that you’re worth so much more than you let yourself believe. tonight, he’s going to take what’s rightfully his—and his plan is already working beautifully. you never look away as you walk from the door to him, bracing your tiny and ineffectual hands on his chest. “what’s wrong with me, sato?” you pout, batting your long lashes up at him. his heart could stop just from that look alone. the comfort of his large hands covering yours soothes you already, making the tension drop from your shoulders. 

“you’re naive.” he answers, eyes as bright as ever as they glow like fireflies in your living room. if you were going just by the expression on his face, you’d think he said something kind or even funny, the way he grins softly and blinks his white lashes down at you in wait of your reply. you’re sure you misheard—every other time you asked this question he always said, “maybe you’re just too pretty, huh? ever thought of that, sugarplum?” 

“huh?” you tilt your head to one side, watching his expression shift to amusement. “naive? wh-what do you mean by that?” 

“well, if you weren’t so naive, you’d know, now wouldn’t you?” he pokes his tongue between his teeth, tucking his hands behind his back while you still lean helplessly against him. he likes feeling the weight of your body on his, and he’ll like it even more when he knows it’s a permanent thing. “you’re on birth control.” he states, and your confusion sets in even deeper. your brows furrow, but you nod. 

“yeah? what about that makes me naive?” you posit, used to his antics for the most part. you’ve been around him far too long to mistake his bluntness as an attack to you, even if it stings just a touch. though you did ask, and you have used him as your sexual relief and shoulder to cry on for years now. maybe he’s fed up with lying to save your feelings. 

he looks around for a second, humming. “where is it?” 

you also know better than to question him. if he’s asking you these questions it has to be for a reason—and you don’t have to understand him in the moment. just do what you’ve always done and trust him, support him on and off the battlefield–and never hesitate. it could be the difference between life and death. you learned that on missions together years ago. 

“in my nightstand?” you tilt your head to the other side. he has to admit your astonishment is adorable. he smiles down at you, cupping your cheek lightly. his fingers are so long that his thumb rests on the corner of your lips, fingertips brushing back your hair. 

“go get it for me.” he says as if he asked you to pass him the remote. you narrow your eyes to really study him—and then you see it. the teeming rage, the simmering crazy behind his eyes as they look at you. he is the most powerful man in the world, even if you were scared, there was nothing you could do but obey. but you trust him. and you nod. you turn to pad off to your bedroom and the clicks of his expensive boots follow. you’re used to the butterflies tickling your stomach as you lead him to bed, but you know something’s different this time. you feel like you’ll puke butterflies. but nonetheless, you pull the drawer of your nightstand open and fetch the little foil pack out of it, only a few pills missing from this month’s prescription. you turn to face him with it, mind racing on what he could possibly be doing. knowing him, he’s toying with you–trying to make you as nervous as possible and all this worrying is for no good reason. 

he sits at the edge of your bed, seemingly watching you with interest. he’s happy that you’re humoring him, that’s for sure. not even the faintest hint of protest. maybe you’re not as naive as he thought. in fact, your effortless obedience has his the crotch of his loose hakama’s tightening quickly. your heart jumps in your throat at the sight of him as it usually does—satoru gojo is far too beautiful to be in your house, supposedly telling you why you couldn’t keep a man. the black compression shirt was nearly criminal when it was wrapped around his perfect body. 

“good girl. now flush ‘em down the toilet for me.” he beams, blinding white teeth baring to smile at you. it was a simple request, really. he needed you to stop taking that poison and to stop entertaining the idea of other men. 

“why?” you swallow harshly, voicing your underlying suspicion. 

“don’t you trust me, baby?” he replies with a quickness, tilting his head to mirror yours. he’s doing well to keep himself together–you don’t understand his love for you yet, but he’ll take care of that. he’s a teacher, remember? “that stuff’s not good for you.” 

you hum. the side effects have been brutal, but you’re hardly in the spot for a baby. you can’t even get a boyfriend, much less a baby daddy. “yeah…i know. sucks taking it. guess i could get an iud or something instead.” you think aloud, voice becoming distant as you turn your back to him and dump your pills in the bathroom attached to your small room. you really undersell yourself. you could have been his bride eight years or so ago and been living large. but he’s going to fix it now. his jaw clenches at that declaration, and you feel him watching you the entire time—the doorway a straight shot from the spot he sat in on your bed. 

“no.” he says simply, the lightheartedness gone abruptly. it sends a shiver down your spine, makes your brain alert to the changes within him as he stands and cages you into the bathroom, broad arms stretching to block off the doorway. 

no? he doesn’t want you to protect yourself in any way? that seems a little ridiculous, but maybe he had a good reason. “satoru…i can’t get pregnant right now.” 

“why not?” he asks, looking over your little body nearly trembling from the darkness of his cursed energy growing more oppressive, nearly sucking the air out of the room. your heart pounds, more confused than you were at the start. 

“because i’m…single?” you try carefully, not sure exactly what you were dealing with here. satoru has always been so happy-go-lucky, even when he shouldn’t be. you remember begging him to talk out his stress so that he didn’t explode right after suguru left. so this anger you see set in his features shocks you, his bright and clear sky-colored eyes are clouded and murky, more cerulean than you’ve seen before. his brow is set and you can see the muscles twitching in his jaw. but he’s still smiling, and that for whatever reason is still real. 

“there’s that naivety again, princess.” he licks his teeth, shifting his weight from foot to foot. you look like a deer in the headlights, and he’s giddy at the rush that gives him. you’re finally in his grasp. “you’ve never been single. not since hmmm let’s see, march fifteenth, 2006.” he grins at you–”which makes all this dating real offensive, sweetheart.” 

you want to laugh, but decide against it considering his unpredictability. you shake your head instead, backing yourself to the wall. “what on earth are you talking about? we’re friends–”

“friends that fuck!” he laughs a strained snicker, straightening his posture. “and make sweet hot love, of course. friends that cuddle on the couch and have sleepovers. come on. we’re both adults, don’t insult me. you love me! which is great, because i love you too. i love you so much i’ve made sure that no one could steal you from me.” 

your brows must reach your hairline at that. “stop, satoru. don’t say that! you can’t mean it–fuck, you’re supposed to be married to a kamo or zen’in girl so you can keep making powerful gojo’s right? isn’t that what you always said in school?” 

“you’d give me powerful gojo’s.” he smirks, breaking the barrier of the bathroom’s threshold by stepping closer to you, leaning down to be on face level. “i was only trying to make you jealous sugar! just like this whole stunt you’ve been pullin’, dating around to try to find someone that makes you feel like i do? tch, hahahaha—it’s impossible!! just stop it, be mine and be happy like you should be.” he grasps your chin with a surprising gentleness given his unhinged and maniacal laughter, smiling down at you with something you recognize as his power-trip going off the rails—but. 

but you’d be lying if you said you were scared. he’s declaring his love for you in the most profound way possible, however crazy it–and he–may be. and you’d be lying if you said he didn’t absolutely see right through you. he has the six eyes after all, you should have known he knew what you were trying to do. you were trying to numb the pain of never being his…but you were actually manufacturing that whole scenario. you’re the only girl he’s ever seen, and it’s clear from the desperation mixed in with the insanity—he needs you. 

you reach back and flush the toilet, letting the little white pills circle the bowl and disappear entirely. satoru gojo has always been insane. you’ve seen it firsthand on many missions and battles against curses and sorcerers alike. it just surprised you to see him turn that look upon you–but now you know it was just to get your attention. 

though you don’t doubt what he’s capable of, you have no intention of pushing him to find out.

his eyes go from crazy to ravenous in seconds. you’ve accepted his proposal with hardly any effort and he intends to show you the difference between his sweet hookups and his passionate need to claim the woman of his dreams. 

“so you…scared off all those guys?” you ask, raising a brow as your face still rests in his clutches. he swipes his thumb over your bottom lip, nodding vigorously. 

“sure did, princess. i was trying to let you figure it out on your own…” he sighs, brushing your hair back behind your ears as his eyes scan over your body again. he needs to feel you. “but you’re not a quick learner, hence why i’m on plan b.” he winks, scooping you over his shoulder moments later. he puts you on your bed, the short walk made shorter by his teleportation. he’s just too impatient, brain swelling with the flashing images of you in traditional wedding attire and round with his heir. it all feels within reach now, and he has to try it out now. “gonna show you how bad i love you–you’ll never go anywhere else.” he mutters, lanky frame swallowing up your body, hips pinning yours to the bed beneath you. “you’re gonna give me a gojo and you’re gonna look so fucking good doing it.” he mutters, lips attaching to your neck reminiscent of the way they have a million times. though this time, there’s intention behind it—or well. this time you’re aware of the intention behind it. 

in all your times together, his dirty talk has been contained to praising your body and how good you feel to him. his incantations to knock you up has your heart beating funny and wetness pooling between your legs. you make a soft gasp sound for him, elongating your neck to let him leave real marks of possession where you’ve previously resisted. your body writhes and twists under his as his teeth knick and nip bruises into your skin. he’d spell his own name with them if he could, even a ring and a baby wasn’t enough in his eyes. he needs the world to know you’re his, that you’ll always be by his side, that you were born to be his. 

“that pesky birth control’s gonna have to wear off though–so we have time to get married before you get pregnant–if that matters to you.” he moans at the idea, hands sliding under your top to push it over your head. his mouth moves to suck the swells of your tits once they’re exposed to him, humming out his satisfaction at the warm skin. your head digs back into the mattress—mind absolutely drunk on his affection and devotion. it’s all you’ve ever wanted and now it’s right here, and from the man you’ve always wished you could have—how could you ever deny him again? 

your hands pull at the fabric on his back, hips bucking up for a source of friction. he breaks away from marking up your chest to bare his to you, throwing his t-shirt into some corner of your room to be forgotten about until tomorrow. this wouldn’t be your room much longer anyway–you’ll be moved into the estate within the next two days, he wouldn’t be able to live without you now. then he’s pushing you up towards the headboard, ripping off your lounge shorts to reveal those cute panties he knows you wear when you’re trying to impress him. color him fucking thrilled at your puffy pussy lips indenting the fabric around them, making him groan at the sight. he thumbs at your clit through the cotton, sparkling eyes flickering between the growing wet spot in your panties and the adorable scrunches of your nose and the pinch of your brow from the pleasure he’s dishing out before he’s even really touching you. you’re so cute he can’t pace himself, needing to consecrate your importance to him in the best way he knows how. 

you help him get you out of your underwear, shamelessly spreading for him after hundreds of rendezvous—you’ve lost your shyness and he loves it, loves seeing your neediness for him in the glaze of your pretty doe eyes and the way you swing your hips around to beg for his attention. “tell me you love me.” he hums, nosing apart your pussy lips. his cock throbs at the scent, and you feel goosebumps break out across your skin at his command. 

“you’re the one for me, sato. i love you.” you whisper so intimately he can feels his cursed energy pulsing like the rest of him. he groans, submerging his face in your cunt with a genuine pleasure you’ve only seen from him. he loves eating you out, loves the taste of you on his tongue—loves how your noises only rile him into fucking the bed, whining and grunting with his own neediness that he could only unleash once he’s properly readied you for it. 

“you taste so fucking good baby…so sweet down my throat. get loud, i don’t care it’s an apartment. you’ll be moving out soon anyway.” he smirks, latching onto your clit to make your legs jolt like they always do. it makes him giggle every time, and the vibrations feel even better against your sensitive bundle. he rolls it around his tongue, letting his index finger explore the wetness he’s helping you create. he pokes into your entrance, knowing how violently you craved something inside. his thoughts are confirmed by the way you clench around the digit, whining and bucking into it for more. he’s more than happy to oblige, finger fucking you with two long and thick fingers while his tongue works overtime on your clit. he loves watching you at this part, enamored by your face as your hips involuntarily jump from the bed, smacking your clit into his nose instead of his skilled tongue. 

your entire body is warm, jerking like you’re receiving electrical shocks from the pleasure satoru reigns down, gasping and sputtering on the edge of orgasm just a few minutes after he started. it’s always like this with him–though this time was special because you knew your life was changing before your very eyes—that satoru’s energy was growing so rapidly because he’s letting go of all kinds of stress and pent up frustration and anger. “please—wanna cum please sato–”

“daddy. i’m daddy now. ask daddy nicely.” he chuckles as he leans his head against his free hand, curling his fingers into the spot he knows so well just to watch your mouth drop and eyes widen in absolute blissful shock. you nod–brain fuzzy from his constant teasing and his new nickname. 

“daddy!! yes—daddy! please, oh my god—daddy let me cum!” you sound so good when you say it–it’s all he ever wants to hear for the rest of his life. he can’t wait for you to make him a real daddy. 

“oh missus gojo can do anything she wants.” he coos as if he didn’t make you expressly beg for permission, lowering his face to your cunt again with precise licks, shoving your hood back to absolutely abuse your sensitivity. your legs develop a mind of their own and you’re spiraling over the edge before you can understand what he’s doing. floating balls of color cover your vision and you scream his name just as loud as he wanted. he grins in satisfaction, hands resting on your knees so he can push himself forward for a sloppy kiss; slick covered lips sliding against yours so you could taste your own essence via his tongue shoving its way in your mouth with a hearty moan. you match his eagerness, making out with satoru with more passion than ever before–because you both have the security of knowing it’s real this time. he maneuvers his hips until his leaky tip catches on your hole, his breath shaky as before he shoves in like he always does. you squeeze him so tight it’s not hard to believe why he lost his fucking mind over this pussy. he truly would do anything to make you his, thank god you didn’t put up a fight. 

“fuuuuck–” he whines a little, finding it nearly impossible to even move in the first place. you feel the burn of his fat and lengthy shaft parting your walls like they routinely do, mouth dropped wide open in pleasure. satoru hovers inches away from your face, so close that the ends of his hair tickle your forehead as he picks your legs up—holding you by the back of the ankles before he sets a brutal pace. his nuts clap into your ass from the way he moves, length curving just right to fill you to the brim. he doesn’t even have to try all that hard to bottom out against your cervix, finding the way you moan and twitch so adorable. “this is why you have to be my wife—i need you for life, sweetheart.” 

your eyes widen at that declaration–though you already realized that satoru would never let you out of his clutches again. you knew he would marry you as quickly as possible based off of his desire to also knock you up as quickly as possible—but hearing him call you that, first missus gojo and now his wife, it all felt so real. his cock slamming into you only drilled it in further, his eyes glowing brighter than you’ve ever seen. the air also grows its own electric field, suffocating and thrilling all at the same time. your eyes are glued to him, entranced by the feral look on his face. you try to hold onto him, but he’s moving so punishingly you can’t even get your hands to work, mind and body on cloud nine. “you’re so beautiful. i’ve been in love…with—you–for years now.” he says in between deep breaths, trying to contain all his focus into drilling you unconscious. 

you shudder, feeling that was completely in the realm of possibility. his balls ache, the need to breed you just as heavy as all the other times you’ve come to him to clean up every mess of yours ever since he’s known you, the need to make you his in a way no one else would be allowed to—it’s carnal. he can’t stop until you’re full of his seed and it takes. he needs to see your breasts heavy with milk to feed his baby from. he needs to see you struggle with the weight of your belly so he can urge you to rest and let him serve you like you should be. he needs to see what the combination of your love looks like; what these last ten years of hard work would become. he’s painting your insides white and still pumping just as fast as before, watching your face tick and jerk with the pleasure you’re experiencing as you tip off of your own peak. he grins, shoving that cum as deep as it will go. he stops when he knows your body can’t take anymore, cuddling you to his chest until you fall asleep safe and sound. he has the whole world in his hands, and that’s never been enough. now he can sleep with a genuine smile on his face. he knows your body will regulate in a few months off the birth control—but that doesn’t mean he can’t get plenty of practice until then. after all, he has a problem! he has to breed his pretty little girl best friend turned future wife. 

[deconstructthesoup]

I think the reason that Dimension 20 really scratches all those itches in my brain is that it really shows what you can do with D&D---and TTRPGs as a whole.

Fantasy High, by itself, is an incredibly compelling concept. What would D&D look like in a semi-modern setting? What would a high school that's all about teaching teens how to be adventurers look like? And the way it's done is beyond inventive, especially if you look at all the encounters in the first season---we've got a literal food fight, a high-speed road chase with tiefling greasers, a nightclub brawl with zombies, vampires, and werewolves, a skating match with a bunch of dwarven middle schoolers and a concrete golem, a high-stakes game of football (ish) with undead jocks that give off major teen slasher vibes, a fight done in an arcade where characters can get trapped in the consoles, and the final battle is done at prom. PROM! How cool is that?

And then we get to the Unsleeping City, which takes the urban fantasy elements that Fantasy High already had and elevates it. The way the D&D lore and magic is interpreted in a modern New York setting is excellent, as is the whole take on the "American Dream," magic literally coming from dreams, ideas, and the imagination. I know that I need to actually finish the UC saga, but from what I've seen and experienced, it is truly fantastic.

And the same energy carries through to the other seasons---my personal favorite outside of Fantasy High being A Court of Fey and Flowers, just because I'm a sucker for any Fey Realm content and I've been raised on Jane Austen---where the genre mashups shine through in the best way possible. I'll admit, I haven't seen A Crown of Candy, purely because I know how heartbreaking and devastating it is and I don't think I can physically handle it, but the concept of Candyland Game of Thrones is so beautifully bizarre that I totally get why people love it so much. Escape from the Bloodkeep hitting that workplace comedy vibe that we love to see in villains. Misfits & Magic being a love letter to the "magical boarding school" genre while also calling out all the weird contradictions inherent in it. A Starstruck Odyssey literally being an homage to Brennan's mom and exactly the kind of madcap and unhinged energy I need from my sci-fi. Neverafter perfectly encapsulating the true horror of fairy tales. Mentopolis hitting my noir-loving heart and personifying hyperfixation in the best way possible.

I'm not even kidding when I say that, if it weren't for Dimension 20... I probably wouldn't have even started my own campaign. I'd had snippets and ideas ever since officially getting into D&D and joining a game with some old friends (and getting back in touch with them in the process), but after I saw the Mentopolis trailer, I realized just how much variety TTRGPs had to offer. I could do a time-blending, history-meets-future campaign. I could go out-of-the-box. I could have endless amounts of options available to my friends and still tell the story that I wanted to tell. And when I sat down and watched Fantasy High---and when I got that Dropout subscription so I could consume whatever I wanted---it felt like the show was actually giving me advice. It's fantastic.

Also it helps that the episodes are usually only roughly a couple hours instead of being, like, an entire afternoon long. And that each season is 20 episodes, tops. No offense to Critical Role, but the sheer amount of content literally makes it impossible for me to get into it.

[earthstellar]

what are some other nice moments from Rescue bots?

This show is loaded with them!!! :)

Here we go, some nice moments in Rescue Bots!!

I'm going to write this with the assumption that some people reading this may not have ever seen Rescue Bots or might only be somewhat familiar, as I realise the target audience skews much younger than most Transformers media does, so I'm not 100% sure how popular it was outside of that demographic in total.

Off the top of my head:

-There is an in-universe VR game called Element Quest that has a couple really good episodes, the design is cute and there are tons of meme references. Blades, at one point, goes "I used to like video games. Then I took an arrow to the knee." LOL

-I think it's cool how they actually do tie in their continuity with TFP's continuity. For example, "What Rises Above" (RB) canonically comes before "Nemesis Prime" (TFP), and this is directly referenced in the dialogue in TFP when Optimus says that he is late arriving to the base as he was exploring an underground energon deposit-- This is the deposit he explores with the Rescue Bots.

-THERE IS A MUSICAL EPISODE. IT IS EXTREMELY GOOD

-Woodrow Burns, the Chief's brother, is kind of an idiot asshole, although he's not actively malicious. But he is great with the kids and for whatever reason the only thing I can ever remember about this character is when he goes up to Cody after it's been a long time since he saw him last and says "You've grown a whole foot since the last time I saw you-- Now you'll need three socks!" IDK I just think that's a real cute dad joke thing to say to a little kid lol :')

-There is an episode where they explore the local folklore of Griffin Rock, and TL;DR the local lore is that their island is where literal griffins used to nest seasonally. So throughout the episode, there's this kind of vibe of "OK are these electrical magnetic pulses or whatever like a science problem or a magic problem" and it's actually a very cute and fun vibe, especially since Cody is talking about the lore in the first place as part of his work towards a Scouts badge and Blades is very cute in this episode, the bots are all like "okay magic isn't real but uhhh what if magic's real?" for a minute and it's great :')

-Doc Greene/Green creates a ton of fun science devices throughout the show, but the names of some are just so doofy and fun. I love the "Torna-Don't", which is a thing designed to dispel tornados. Of course. lmao

-All the weird small town local events are also very silly and cute, and weirdly realistic for those of us who are familiar with this kind of local event thing, lmao. One of my favourite concepts is one of what seems to be several crawdad-related festivals, in which there is apparently a televised crawdad race. It's a bunch of shrimps put on a tiny racetrack, like Olympic runners. LOL

-At one point, Blurr shows up, and when the Rescue Bots are trying to acclimate him to working with humans, Chase is like "Humans seem to have two genders, which are defined by how many cooties they have." This implies that as far as the Rescue Bots are aware, 1) cooties are real and 2) human gender is defined solely by how many cooties a person has, and not by anything else, thus leaving their understanding of human gender fairly open (and it is also clear they have solely learned about gender from young kids in a small town which is likely why they state there are two genders but then make it clear that gender is a cooties thing and not an inherently physical thing, which makes sense in context and is kind of great because it gives more leeway for gender diversity than I expected) and I love this a lot. What is human gender? Cooties. That's all. So someone with a particularly high number of cooties could be another gender altogether, because why not?

-There is a body swap episode, which treats us to Blades in Dani's body trying on dresses in her room. He picks an orange and white one, which matches his paint job. I also love this a lot.

-Heatwave is gruff as hell especially at the start of the series and constantly starts shit or perpetuates shit with Kade, which is super funny. Just this centuries old Cybertronian fucking with this doofus boy who keeps leaving donuts in his cab. God dammit Kade, lmao.

-There is an episode where Cody is aged up via Science Device, and we get to see an older Cody, who more closely resembles his father than his older brother does. It's cute that he'll look like his dad when he's older. :')

During this episode, he assists in a rescue, and the girl his brother has a crush on tries to hit on him, but he clearly doesn't get what's happening and thinks it's icky because of course he does, he's a kid. I just think this scene is handled well and it's cute that his reaction to being hit on is still "ewww girls" but his brother is still absolutely pissed off about it anyway LMAO like jesus Kade, relax

-Kade's mostly an asshole but he's shown to be a really good rescuer who genuinely cares about people, and he has moments where he really comes through for his family and realises on his own that he should shut up and back down on his bullshit, thus making him a better developed and more realistic asshole brother character than 99% of asshole brother characters in most shows. I think this is pretty solid because it does lead to effective character development here and there, and it makes his positive moments with his family and the bots that much nicer. :)

-Cody is such a good kid. He is often willing to give people or ideas a chance when nobody else will, and even though he's too young to actively participate in most missions, he stays involved by helping at their dispatch centre. He's a smart little dude, who has a lot of heart and a ton of potential. One of the few child characters in anything that I actually like, because I think they write him extremely well: He is young, but he is not stupid. He is not treated like an accessory or like the property of his family, he's his own person with a distinct personality within his family, with a reasonable amount of autonomy. And he's a person who is still learning and has valuable contributions while also needing guidance or support at times. 10/10

-Dani gradually gets better at helping Blades deal with his flight anxiety (and sticks up for him when the others might mock him a little for it), and this is not only inherently very nice and cute, but it also makes a lot of sense as she is a first responder/medic and we see her offer the same reassurances towards the people she helps to rescue.

-The writing for the Burns Family in general is some of the best family group character writing in anything tbh, they handle the family dynamic so well in this show, and it's extra cute as the Rescue Bots all learn a lot from observing how the family takes care of one another and the townspeople they rescue. :')

-Blades has anxiety. I also have anxiety, so I am biased and clearly love this dude, lmao. He's so fucking relatable and even though sometimes the others rip on him, it is clear that they're also very proud of him for trying his best to deal with a situation which for him is particularly difficult (he was forced to take a flight capable alt-mode when this is something he is explicitly not comfortable with) and his team mates do support him, even though Heatwave is a douche sometimes (although it is clear this is usually due to stress or something else and that the actual problem isn't Blades). Over the course of the series, Blades does develop a little more confidence, and it's very cute and nice to see him puffing himself up a little more. :)

-The overall attitudes the bots have towards humans in this show is sweet. It's clear they don't really understand humanity or humans as a whole, but it also doesn't really matter because they are so specifically oriented to their local population on the island and their focus is a relatively small community of humans. They take their duties seriously and will protect this population, even if they don't really understand the people outright. They gradually start to respect the locals (and the Burns Family) more and more as they work with them, and get acclimated to Earth. They love their dumbass weird little humans :')

This leads to a lot of fun shenanigans with the bots not understanding things, or only understanding things as they have been explained by the children, which is hilarious.

-There is an episode where local thieves steal Chase, and inspired by Cody's school drama project, he decides to go undercover after watching a bunch of old detective movies. This includes him narrating things to himself, which he is called on when Dani enters the garage and asks him "Why are the lights off? Are you talking to yourself?" lmao

-Although it isn't explicitly canonical, it's easy to interpret both Chase and Blades as being neurodivergent. Both of them display various behaviours and traits which can potentially be understood in this way, and I'm just glad that there's a show for kids where two of the main characters, who are rescue workers, are shown to be competent and skilled at their jobs and accepted by the community for who they are while also being neurodivergent. <3 It's such a good vibe when the other characters support or defend these two in particular, especially when Chase or Blades might be confused or upset about something. Chief Burns is especially great working with Chase.

-Any episode where Optimus shows up in Rescue Bots usually has some gems of cuteness/silliness. The Elvis line still takes me out, LMAO. "You're bigger than Elvis!" "I have not met this Elvis, and I am unaware of his size." 10/10 writing, I fucking love Rescue Bots

-The bots constantly call out a bunch of details that are entirely appropriate for robots from space to notice and recognise as somewhat weird, whereas a lot of the human characters are so used to 1) being human and 2) living on this incredibly weird little technologically advanced island that nothing really phases them anymore. So we can actually identify more with the bots at time, despite the fact that they are also providing an outsider point of view, which is really clever! :)

-The theme song is a fucking banger. It's so good. I love this song so much. I wish we got a full version of it, but this is the best extended version of it that I've been able to find. Enjoy!!!

-There's a lot of fairly adult stuff in the show, more than I think people realise! The tone can never get too dark outright as it is intended for young kids as the primary demographic, but there's a lot of situations, conversations, etc. that are genuinely engaging and interesting from an adult perspective, which is a large part of what makes it a great watch for all ages.

Some situational examples include scenarios where children are imperilled in natural disasters, accidents, even kidnapping at one point.

Non-kid related situations include risks and threat to civilians from AI development and the dangers that uncontrolled or poorly thought out technology can cause or exacerbate, which is significant in context and also interesting to think about given our current relationship IRL with rapid tech development and concerns around how that technology is being made and applied, either in reality or in theory.

Some dialogue examples include scenes where the bots mention their grief over being unable to save Cybertron, a sense of guilt that they were in stasis for so long even though this was beyond their control, awareness that they may be the last Rescue Bots team in operation on Earth or anywhere else in the universe (a sense of loneliness and a responsibility as the last upholders of their specific creed), struggles with their sense of duty and concerns around their ability to fulfil their expectations for themselves and meet the expectations of others while rising to the demands of their unique situation, and so on.

--

this is already pretty long lmao, there's a ton of stuff I really like about Rescue Bots, but I hope this might encourage others to check out the show if you haven't before, it's well worth a watch! :)

[starboybutler]

Chasing Cars

ao3 link

summary: bucky can't find a reason to get out of bed anymore. gale comes to him one night, and he's reminded of why he's fighting.

word count: 6451

warnings: bucky's crumbling mental health, gale's crumbling mental health, curt's death, slight eating disorders, depressive episodes, smut towards the end

notes: wow this was supposed to be pure smut but i accidentally plotted on my porn because i felt like being sad. oh well have this kinda character study thing i wrote purely on a whim

bucky hadn't left the bed.

he couldn't find a reason to. the rest of the men were outside, gathering wood. training, doing god knows what else to prepare for a plan that would never play out. after some brits had made their escape attempt, the amount of german pricks on duty almost doubled. that, and morale had pretty much gone down after they had said the captured escapees were executed. no one even wanted to make an attempt anymore.

they could talk about escape all they wanted to– it would never happen. they would try, fail, get shot, and get buried somewhere on enemy territory. hell, odds were good that if they waited it out the same thing would happen. so why bother?

he had been staring at the wooden slats of the bunk above him for about an hour, now. this felt familiar, at least. as he lay here, he could pretend he was back in base between missions, talking to curt about whatever was going on in their muddled brains.

“it was a close one today. don't want anymore missions like that for a while.”

“that's just how it is, bucky. they’ll only get tougher, y’know. but i think we got it.”

“yeah?”

“yeah. i’ll be tellin’ my grandkids about this one day, y’know. don't seem like it now, but i promise it’ll be a distant memory soon.”

always so optimistic. that was one of the last late-night conversations he had ever had with curt before he went down. he never even got to say goodbye to him. he’ll never forget the pure dread he felt when he asked buck about him, and he didn't have an answer.

sure, bucky could have believed he was alive with every fiber of his being, but that didn't change the fact that curt was dead, crashed somewhere over unknown territory, most likely to never be found.

so much pain, so much death. and for what, he would wonder. what was he really fighting for anymore?

“hey,”

a soft, low voice, like honey. all too familiar.

he looked up, faced with gale, who was just about the only friend he had left at this point. even then, he felt as if buck was slipping from his grasp at times. tensions were high, and he had yelled at him more than he would like to admit.

just yesterday, they got into it outside. john was at fault, he absolutely deserved the punch to the face gale gave him, but neither of them had spoken to one another afterwards. john was never good witth apologies.

“hey,” he said back, the bruise on his cheek left by the blonde throbbing dully as he made eye contact with him for the first time since their scuffle.

“you just gonna lay here all day?” gale asked, his tone not angry or accusatory– just soft and genuinely curious, laced with just a tinge of worry.

“that's the plan,” he replied, shrugging. “nothin’ else to do. unless you wanna punch me again.”

gale stiffened a bit, his lips twitching as if he were trying to find the right thing to say, before he just sighed heavily.

“i’m worried about you.”

bucky shut his eyes, a sigh of his own escaping his chest.

“i know.”

it fell quiet between them. john had closed his eyes so that he couldn't see gale’s sad baby blue’s boring into him, urging him to roll over and show him his most vulnerable parts like a dog begging for attention. for pity.

he knew gale was worried. he knew it before their fight, and he knew it now. gale wasn't an idiot. far from it, actually. he was intelligent and observant, which was why he was such a damn good pilot. he saw john’s pain before john felt it. he saw it in how john would lash out at anyone that looked at him wrong, and how he would toss and turn in his sleep at night.

“you haven't eaten in a few days.”

“i know,” bucky said again. he couldn't bear to imagine gale’s expression. “i’m tired of the same shit. if i see another potato i’ll puke.”

“bucky.” gale hissed, voice urgent. “i’m being serious.”

“so am i.”

he hadn't eaten in about three days. ever since his last serving of the same bland bullshit, he decided he would rather starve than touch it again. so what, if he lost a little weight? that seemed to be the least of his problems right now.

he didn't care anymore. he just didn't care if he withered away inside this stalag surrounded by his men. that seemed to be the most honorable thing to do at this point- because at least then he'd be around people that knew him, and celebrated him. he'd rather die here and now, miserable, than drag it out and die alone in enemy territory with no one around.

“okay, bucky.” gale mumbled, clearly on edge already and not in the mood to argue. “just…i’ll be outside with everyone else. you should eat some dinner tonight.”

the blonde stalked off, expression and gaze steely and distant as bucky rolled back onto his side, facing the wall and sighing tiredly.

night rolled around and he didn't drag himself out of bed for dinner. he couldn't. the urge to eat, to get up and walk and be active wasn't there. his will to survive had vanished.

gale wasn't the only one worried about him. he heard everyone muttering to one another behind his back as they ate the slop that was served to them half-heartedly.

‘he doesn't look good at all.’

‘i know. when’s the last time he left his bunk?’

‘hush and eat. he can probably hear you.’

bucky didn't care what they were saying. whatever it was, it was probably true. maybe word around the stalag was that major john egan was a spineless, worthless, gutless piece of shit that gave up on everyone around him when they needed him most. harsh, yes, but not necessarily wrong. john was acutely aware of how him laying in this bed, rotting for days on end was selfish to his men. he knew that they were looking to him for guidance, and all he was giving them was a depressing display of self pity.

his mind drifted back to curt. he would always tell bucky that he was one of the strongest and most resilient people he had ever met, and how he would give anything to be as half as stubborn as him.

bucky always shot back that stubborn didn't necessarily mean good, but curt refused to see him in a bad light under any circumstances.

“i got you a bowl.”

gale’s voice. he glanced over his shoulder, gazing at the metal dish that gale was holding in his direction. same meal they'd been served for the last few months. the rumbling in his stomach wasn't even a bother to him anymore.

“thanks buck,” he hummed, turning to face the wall once more. “but i’m not hungry.”

silence fell over the room, tense at bucky’s blatant refusal of the food gale offered. he heard a short sigh from his friend, as well as a scuffing of his shoe against the floor as he turned on his heel and walked away.

he felt his stomach sink with guilt, but he really wasn't hungry. what was the point of eating, prolonging his survival when he would most likely die in the very bunk he was laying in? the thought made his appetite disappear.

he pulled the thin, scratchy blankets they were given over himself, clutching it in his hands tightly as if it were the only thing keeping him tethered to this reality.

honestly, it might have been.

𓆩✧𓆪

days and days passed him by. he wasn't able to shake the dread that had begun eating at him days ago. in fact, it seemed to have consumed him whole by this point. he only left the bed when he was instructed to by those goddamn guards, or when he had to use the bathroom. he didn't get up for food, water, to exercise, to speak to friends, nothing. he was not interested but a shell of the outgoing, confident man he used to be.

gale had kept trying to get him to leave his bunk, or to at least put some food in his system. he would bring a plate of food for him every night, and bucky would refuse it all the same. he would tell him that the others were asking for him, but bucky just brushed it off. if they were really worried, they knew where to find him.

only a few other men besides gale came to check on him during the day, hambone being one of them. he started talking about how different things were without him around. it was quiet, and no one really liked it all that much. they missed his snarky comments about the german guards and how he would shit talk them all day. that got a little smile lut of him, he had to admit that. what got him feeling serious again was when hambone started talking about how gale was taking his absence.

“he’s been quiet. way quieter than normal.” he said, voice dropping low. “only says one or two words to everyone before…he just shuts down. goes into autopilot. it's not really like him.”

and he was right. after he had said that he kept think about gale, how he was probably out there with god knows how much on his mind, and for bucky to only be adding to that…

what was he doing?

was he really causing buck that much distress? the thought made his stomach sink with guilt. gale already had so much on his mind, and for bucky to act like a petulant child and add onto all of that stress and anxiety and pain he’s been bearing for the entirety of the men trapped here was so unbelievably shitty.

what kind of friend– what kind of man did something like this to his other half– his rock, his one source of sanity in this camp, in this war?

he curled in on himself further, self loathing and dread curling their ugly black tendrils around him, engulfing him in a pitch black abyss.

he felt so, so sick all of a sudden.

𓆩✧𓆪

“word is there's gonna be another march in a few days,” hambone dutifully informed him, leaning against the creaky wooden wall and staring out the window, into the yard.

bucky was actually sitting up in his bunk today, idly fidgeting with the little radio gale had crafted a few days earlier in his hands. he hadn't actually spoken to buck, finding himself unable to think of anything of value to utter to him.

“again?”

“mhm,” he mumbled, fiddling with the dirty sleeve of his sheepskin. “apparently allies are real close. gale caught word of that last night on that radio. not sure when the germans caught wind. might happen tonight.”

bucky grimaced, setting the tiny radio on the cluttered table, sighing and squeezing his eyes shut at the prospect of walking for days on end just to get to another shitty camp, and rot there for god knows how long. he hasn't eaten in a good week, and he knows his odds of surviving the march on an empty stomach are little to none.

“thanks for tellin’ me,” buck said softly, standing from his bunk and making his way towards the door, keeping his eyes glued to the floor as he stepped outside for the first time in weeks. immediately, he felt eyes on him from all angles.

‘major egan?’

‘he’s okay!’

‘christ, i thought he died…’

he smiled humorlessly, making his way over to the water pump and grabbing one of the metal jugs, placing it under the tap and filling it up with slightly murky water and sighing to himself. he hadn't seen gale yet. a small part of him was hoping that buck would be the first person waiting for him, but he also wasn't in a good headspace to talk to him right now. he didn't know what to say to him, after knowing all the torment he had put him through with his little episode.

he turned the tap off, exhaling deeply and picking up the jug– flushing when he struggled a bit due to the weakness that came with staying in bed and not eating in about a week. he lifted it on the second attempt, huffing and hauling the jug back to his bunk.

out of the corner of his eye, he saw gale, encouraging some men to push a little harder to break the ground using that damned contraption- whatever it was called. he tensed at the sight of him, speeding up his steps until he was safe back in his bunk.

he set the jug down heavily, not even thirsty anymore. that night march could kill him, for all he cared. maybe then gale’s problem’s would be solved.

he laid in his bunk miserably, jug discarded as he thought of gale. he deserved the world, he deserved to be happy, to live a life without having to worry about him being a sad sack of shit, wallowing in his self pity. he did his best to try and keep his spirits up, but he couldn't help it. he didn't have anything to look forward to anymore. life just seemed like a whirlwind of misery and he didn't know how much more he could take. so many friends lost, so many people dead.

maybe when he died, gale would finally move on, lose that stress that came with knowing him. he could only hope.

𓆩✧𓆪

john had lost track of time long ago. he only knew day and night, and occasionally he was told what month it was.

he knew it was late, evidenced by the snores of all the men around him, and how the room was pitch black. the moonlight didn't reach his bunk, leaving him alone in the darkness to stare up at the wooden slats of the bunk above him.

he heard shuffling from somewhere in the room, then the creaking of floorboards as someone moved towards his bed.

“bucky?”

gale’s voice rang in his ears, making him go completely still as if he were a scared cat. maybe he was dreaming, and the gale beside him was nothing more than a figment of his imagination, spurred on by hunger. but when gale didn't leave, he turned to look at the blonde with tired eyes.

“yeah?”

“can’t sleep,” he said softly, and the bags under his eyes seemed to prove it. “mind if i bunk with you tonight?”

bucky wanted to say so many things. ‘of course you can.’ ‘no, i don't want you to get too attached to me if i’m bound to die soon.’ ‘i love you.’ but all that came from him was a little “uh huh,” as he scoot over to make room for the blonde.

he felt his mattress dip, and a familiar warmth crowding at his side. he almost jumped up at the almost desperateness of it all, half expecting gale to just lay by him and turn the other way. the blonde wrapped his arms around his waist, a surprising amount of muscle on them from the training they had been doing in preparation for an escape, and buried his face into the nape of his neck.

it was dangerous to be doing this here, with everyone in the room. anyone could wake up and they'd probably kill them on the spot before the nazis could. no one would accept it– two respected majors, cuddled up together like shy newlyweds in the middle of a shitty stalag, when they should be leading their men, training them, helping out in some way. but, as gale tightened his arms around john, holding onto him as if he'd disappear if he let go, he found that he could care less about what everyone would think of them.

“buck,” he started, voice soft, as soft as it's been in a long while. “what–”

“i’m scared, john,” he whispered, trembling ever so slightly as he pressed closer, like he was trying to become one with the other man. “i’m trying so hard to keep up appearances, to lead and be strong, but i’m scared.” he admitted, fingers digging into john’s side.

john was shocked into silence for a minute. gale was always so well put together. he never cracked under pressure, he just didn't. up in the air, when his engines were out and his crew was panicking, he would land that b-17 like it was nothing. ‘no engine cleven’, they called him, and he just smiled in that shy little way of his, heading to the barracks to sleep off the shock and do it all over again.

he'd seen gale shaken up a few times. when they landed in africa, he was quiet. quieter than usual, anyway. he was staring off into the distance, eyebrows drawn together slightly as he worried that damned toothpick in his mouth until it snapped in two.

but for gale to admit that he was scared was…unheard of. he wasn't the type to show or admit his emotions too openly, none of them were. but being here and eating the same bland shit, not knowing if you're ever gonna get to go home, and watching the last of your friends die during nighttime marches to a new camp did something to you. it broke whatever spirit you thought you had left.

“gale, hey-” he whispered, turning on his side and gently cupping the blonde’s face, watching as tears welled up in his eyes and spilled down his flushed cheeks. “hey, look at me. none of that,”

he used his thumb to wipe away his tears, tilting his chin up so that the blonde’s glassy eyes met his. he hated seeing gale cry. he hated knowing that all this time, he's been in pain, the weight of all of these men in camp on his shoulders, counting on him, and all john has been doing is making it worse.

“i’m sorry,” gale sniffs, hiccuping softly, breath picking up as john pulls him close, allowing the blonde to hide in his chest and inhale his scent. “fuck, i’m sorry. i just don't know how much longer i– if i can do this anymore.”

those words put fear into john’s heart. if gale, the brains, the brawn, the heart and soul of the very operation to get them out of here was losing hope– what did that mean for them? were they truly doomed to die in enemy hands, holding onto the hope that allies would somehow manage to sneak close enough to the shitty camps they were held hostage in and launch an attack on the germans?

he knew most of their thinking was extremely wishful, but it was something. a little glimmer of hope in a dark, gray times. for buck, gale was that glimmer of hope– that thing he held onto when all else seemed to fail him. even when he felt he’d die here, at least it would be with buck.

he couldn't let gale give up like this. not for his sake– hell, not for everyone’s sake. if gale gave up, he gave up. and if he gave up, everyone else would give up. a hell of a burden to carry on top of everything.

“gale,” he said softly, taking both of his slender hands into his large ones, caressing the backs of his knuckles with his calloused thumb. “gale, you've gotta keep going. without you, this whole thing would fall apart.” he said, nuzzling closer to him.

“i can't save everyone, bucky.” he hiccuped, trembling in little fits and starts, shattering john’s heart as he watched. “i can't even save the person that matters most to me. if i can't do that then–”

“you don't need to save me.” john said harshly, much more harshly than he intended to. he saw gale wince, and he immediately regretted being so harsh. “i mean– you don’t– i’m just like this. nothing you can do about it, buck. it’s not your job to fix me, okay?”

“i want to. i want you to be okay, bucky. i want–”

he sniffled, nuzzling his hot, tear-stained cheeks into bucky’s large hands. “i want you to be okay. i want you to be there with me, no matter what. i just– we've lost so many men, john. so many. but i still have you. i can save you, i can help you. i just….i need to make you feel better than this. i need you to know how much you mean to me.”

bucky was stunned into silence. he spent all this time thinking gale loathed him for his behavior, wishing he was dead and gone so that he had one less thing to worry about– but gale just spilled his guts to him about how john was the most precious thing in his life right now. not marge– him. him. it made his heart swell with something ugly.

“i’ll always be with you, buck.” john said softly, stroking his blonde locks, once soft but now slightly gritty with dirt and grime from their time in the stalag. even with limited supplies to take care of his hygiene, gale managed to outshine every single one of them in terms of beauty. “what’d i say? if i’m gonna bet on anything, i’m gonna bet on us. y’hear me?”

a shaky little exhale left gale’s mouth, pressing his face into john’s chest like a boy seeking comfort from his mom after a scary dream. john didn't say anything else, just held gale close as he sniffled and sobbed into his chest until he cried himself to sleep, soft snores leaving his pretty pink lips in soft little puffs.

he felt a surge of overprotectiveness wash over him as he watched the blonde sleep, curled into his body and clutching one of john’s hands close to his chest. he didn't need to feel sorry for himself anymore. he needed to be there for gale, so that he stopped carrying these burdens on his shoulders. they were a team, always have been. always will be. nothing in this godforsaken place could change that.

𓆩✧𓆪

john got up the next morning, careful not to disturb gale, who was still sound asleep next to him. he was on his side, almost completely curled up on himself with his thumb pressed against his lips, biting at it idly.

john smiled softly, eyes filled with a fondness for the blonde as he shuffled into his shoes, heading out into the daylight to grab some rations for the both of them.

last night was extremely sobering for him. he had spent so much time wallowing in his self hatred that he hadn't realized that his neglectful actions towards himself had been affecting gale in a negative way. when his friend came to him, crying and sobbing, worried for his wellbeing, insisting that he was the only thing that was worth fighting for anymore, he knew he had to get it together.

he went to the service counter and asked for two servings of food, saying that his friend was still asleep and that he would wake him up when he got back. who would lie for extra slop anyways?

he was given two plates, and he hurried back to his bunk, where a few of the other men began to stir awake, including gale.

“mornin, boys,” he said, setting down his two plates on the lightly cluttered table. “food’s gettin’ served up. go grab some.”

they all let out a noncommittal groan as he sat down at his bunk, digging into his mean of bland potatoes. it didn't taste any better than the last time he ate it, but he’ll be damned if he wasn't hungry.

gale sat up beside him, blinking the sleep from his eyes, which were slightly puffy from crying. his baby blue’s landed on john and widened as he saw him scarfing down the bland mush.

john smiled at him. “mornin’,”

“you're eating.” he said, voice quivering slightly.

he shrugged slightly, stirring the mush around absentmindedly. “got hungry. craved potatoes. you’ll never guess what the canteen was servin’.”

gale was on him in a matter of seconds, hugging him tightly and pressing his face into his shoulder. he was trembling, a shaky exhale leaving him as john set his plate down, returning the hug and smiling against his shoulder.

“thank you.” he whispered, voice so heart-wrenchingly vulnerable.

“don't count on it.”

𓆩✧𓆪

gale bunked with him for the next few nights, out of pure need for comfort and reassurance. he was obviously happy that bucky was eating again, but he was still stressed with all of the ongoings in the camp.

bucky had stepped in and gave a hand in training, instructing the men in what to do and how to do it, but there were just so many of them. on top of that, those german bastards were always waving their guns around, yelling at them whenever they felt like it. john had almost gotten into it with a few of them, but gale har talked him down.

what would he do without him?

“you need to be more careful when you talk to the guards.” gale said, idly smoothing down the fabric of john’s thin sleep shirt, which made john’s chest fill with warmth.

“to hell with those guards.” he muttered angrily, looking into gale’s eyes with a steely determination. “i just got my spirit back. i ain’t gonna let these nazi bastards destroy it again.”

“they'll shoot you, bucky.” gale said softly, looking up at him with a hard gaze. “zero hesitation. they've done it to other men before, and they’ll do it to you.”

“and then they’ll have a hell of a riot on their hands.” he laughs softly, which made gale sigh and press his forehead to his chest.

“why can't you just be good?”

the words caught john off guard, making his cheeks flush and his heartbeat kick up a notch. he felt his heartbeat pick up whenever gale was close to him like this, but it was a pace he had gotten used to, honestly. but hearing gale tell him to be good in a soft voice– as if he were speaking to a dog made his heartbeat kick up in another way entirely.

“uhm,” he started, face flushed a soft pink, hands finding gale’s waist and fidgeting with the hem of the blonde’s shirt. “i can– i can be good, i jus’...”

he was stumbling over his words painfully obviously. he was hoping that gale couldn't see the flush on his face in the darkness of the room, but knowing his luck he probably could.

“what's wrong?” gale asked softly, eyes lidded as his hands halted on john’s broad chest, thumb idly brushing across the fabric of his shirt in soothing little circles. “your heart is beating really hard.”

“nothin’.” he said, way too quickly for it to be true. “just. hot. i ‘unno.”

silence fell, save for the sounds of breathing from the men around them, and their own soft breathing. john really took in gale in this moment, how soft and vulnerable he looked.

his sleep shirt was loose on him, thanks to him losing weight in the camp over the months they’ve been here. his eyes were soft with sleep, lips pink and plump and parted with each little breath he took. god, he was gorgeous. he wanted nothing more than to take him on the bed right now, make him cry out his name so that everyone in the room knew who he belonged to.

he’d had these thoughts of gale since they met in basic training, but they had only gotten worse the longer they stayed in camp. back on base, he was able to keep his mind off of gale, or at least quell his desire by picking up some desperate broad in a bar and sleeping with her. but now, he looked at gale and could hardly keep his mind out of the gutter. he hated it.

“hot, huh?” gale chuckled softly, hands running up john’s chest and resting on his shoulders. “you're a bad liar when it comes to me, y’know that?”

john flushed darker, hands tightening on gale’s waist and pulling him closer, careful to keep their lower halves apart so that the blonde didn’t feel his erection through his shorts. “i’m not lying.”

“mhm?” the blonde chuckles, leaning closer to him, invading his space so that their noses touched, breath mingling together as they stared at one another tenderly, something more carnal and desirous underneath. “why're you hard then?”

bucky choked on a gasp, his face completely red to the point where he was sure gale could see it, even in the dark. their lower halves weren't touching, and yet, gale had known. read him like a book.

“how’d you–?”

“you have a thing you do,” he says, thumb rubbing at his collarbone gently. “you stumble over your words. start touchin’ things with your hands. fidgeting. sometimes it's more noticeable. its a lot less noticeable when you hit on girls at a bar, but i picked up on it.”

john huffed, worrying his bottom lip with his teeth and averting his eyes. he wasn't expecting gale to call him out so straightforwardly. it made him embarrassed. he also didn't expect gale to trail a hand down to the hem of his shorts, dipping his cool fingers inside and making john gasp sharply.

“want me to take care of it?”

“gale,” john hissed, eyes wide as the blonde’s nimble fingers trailed lower and lower, scratching at the wiry hair just above his hard cock. “our men are all around us. they might hear us.”

“then you'll have to be quiet, won’t you?”

a strangled noise left john’s throat as gale wrapped his thin fingers around his hot, hard length, giving a tentative squeeze. a shuddery breath left deep from bucky’s chest, his hands squeezing gale’s waist so hard he was bound to leave bruises.

“that good?” gale whispered, shuffling his boxers down and letting john’s cock free completely, swiping his thumb across the head and gathering the precum there so the friction of his hand was less harsh. bucky didn't have it in him to answer coherently, so he just nodded and bucked his hips upwards into gale’s touch.

it was intoxicating, the way his fingers occasionally caught under the sensitive head of his cock and made his cock jerk and leak even more, all over gale’s pretty hand.

“see? look at you.” the blonde cooed, eyes lidded and practically glowing as he gave a twist of his wrist on the upstroke, relishing in the little groans and gasps bucky let out. “you can be good for me, why can't you be good out there? i know you're a good boy, bucky. such a good dog.”

“jesus christ,” bucky swore, stomach tensing up and cock leaking into gale’s palm thickly, precum making the glide of his palm slicker. “i’m gunna cum- oh, god, buck–”

“shh,”

the blonde scolded him lightly, free hand moving to cover his mouth firmly as he jerked him off faster, the wet, slick noises coming from between them downright obscene. he felt like a girl getting laid in her bedroom, her parents right next door as her boyfriend fingered her so good she couldn't help but whine and whimper.

he didn't have time to warn gale as he shot off, thick ropes of his spend painting buck’s chest and stomach a pretty pearlescent white. when he pulled his shirt up, he didn't know.

he came down from his high, and found gale’s lips on his. he kissed back, gentle and hungry at the same time, like he wanted to devour gale whole. he pulled him close, choking out a gasp into the kiss as he felt gale’s erection press into his hip.

“buck,” he panted, letting the blonde thrust against him minutely, the little pleased noises he let out going straight to john’s spent cock, bringing it back to life. “lemme– lemme make you feel good.”

gale exhaled sharply, rolling his hips against him more desperately, now. “please.”

john flipped them over so fast that it gave them both whiplash for a moment. it was short lived, though as he was faced with the sight of gale’s hard cock straining at his boxers. john’s large hands spread the blonde’s thighs apart, tugging his boxers down his hips and letting his pretty pink cock spring free from its confines.

john was on him in an instant, licking at the clear bead of precum that gathered at the pretty pink head. gale gasped softly, his breath shaky and deep as john laved his dick in attention, running his hot tongue along the vein that adorned the underside, sucking at the tip, doing anything but taking it in his mouth yet– to enamored by the sweet little noises gale was making.

“john, please.” buck whimpered, voice soft and needy as he thrust upwards, cockhead sliding against bucky’s wet lips. “please,”

he begged so prettily. who was he to resist?

he finally took gale into his mouth in one go, nose nestled into a small thatch of blonde pubic hair just above his dick. gale bit back a moan, hands flying into john’s pretty curls, gripping them so hard that he was sure he ripped a few strands out. the sting made bucky moan around gale’s length, bobbing his head slowly.

he loved every little noise that left gale– the little gasps and quiet keens as he drooled around his cock, eyelashes fluttering as the tip of his cock nudged at the back of his throat. he wishes that he could hear gale at full volume, whining and begging for more– but they couldn't. not here.

“such a good mouth,” gale moaned, voice breathy and deep and so smooth to his ears, melting his brain as he pulled off his cock completely, licking at his dripping slit and collecting his precum with his tongue. “fuck, wish i could keep your mouth on me all day. keep you quiet. fuck–”

hearing gale cleven, straight edge, no gambling, hates sports gale cleven talking dirty to him like this sent shockwaves directly to his cock. he took him all the way back into his mouth, groaning deep in his throat as he ground against the rough sheets of the mattress, brows furrowed in concentration and pleasure as he took hold of gale’s slender hips. he felt so filthy, so needy and desperate for anything gale would give him, like a stray dog begging for food.

he wanted anything gale would give him. affection, hatred, love, loathing– he was hungry for all of it, for him. his cock was amazing on his tongue, hot and heavy and velvety, leaking in copious amounts down his throat as he swallowed every last drop of him. he could feel gale spasm in his throat, close to orgasm, and he found himself feeling greedier by the second.

“jesus christ,” buck gasped, hips lifting from the mattress, hand tightening in john’s curls, pulling him down onto his length frantically as his stomach began to spasm and tense up. “i’m– i’m gonna– john–”

his throat was flooded with gale’s spend, and he worked his throat around his sensitive cock dutifully as he swallowed it all. it was the sweetest thing he’d ever tasted, it made him hot, it made his brain melt, it made him needy for more–

he felt his cock spill against the sheets, a small whimper caught in his throat as he rode out his orgasm.

when he came to, he was aware of gale whimpering from overstimulation as he absentmindedly suckled at his cock.

“john, please,” he whined, trying to pull free. “enough.”

bucky pulled off, cheek resting on his thigh stickily. they were both panting, faces flushed and eyes glossy with aroused tears. they locked eyes, and john couldn't help the surge of emotion that overcame him as he shot up, capturing gale’s lips in a soft kiss. at this moment, everything felt like it would be okay.

“we should clean up,” gale mumbled against his lips, panting softly. “made a mess.”

“yeah,” john agreed, kissing him again, quicker this time. “think we can score new sheets?”

“we can jus’ move to my bunk for now. toss these sheets aside for morning laundry.” gale hummed, yawning softly and rubbing at his eyes like a sleepy little kid. how he could be so goddamn cute after doing something so filthy was beyond him.

“alright,” john hummed, watching as gale tucked himself into his boxers. “lemme wipe ya down first.”

john untucked a corner of the bedsheets, using them to wipe at gale’s cum stained torso gently, gale squirmed under the attention slightly, blushing at the way john was looking at him, full of love and reverence, like he hung the sun and the stars himself.

once he'd finished, he let gale stand and move back to his bunk, allowing john to rid his bed of the stained sheets and toss them aside for laundry. he'd find an excuse later.

he made his way to gale’s bunk, reversing the roles and cuddling up to gale, nuzzling into his neck and sighing deeply. gale smiled softly, hand carding through his hair gently.

“next time, we’ll try to make less of a mess,” he mumbled, voice deep with sleep as he pulled john closer.

“next time, huh? you fantasizing about it already?”

buck rolled his eyes, and bucky didn't miss the faint flush on his cheeks.

“i’m just saying. it’ll be nicer. maybe it’ll be in a proper bed, without all these people around. just the two of us, in our own bed,” he mumbled, eyes drifting shut. “just us, bucky.”

“buck–”

he didn't get to ask what he meant. he had already fallen asleep, snoring softly into the darkness of the room. buck went silent, pressing his ear to buck’s chest and listening to his steady heartbeat as he mulled over his words. his heart felt like it was going to jump out of his chest.

maybe they would get out of here. if it meant he and buck would have a promising life together, he would be damned if he died in one of these godforsaken camps.

he would make it. for them.

taglist: @mooodyblue @lauvmyself @kaiistheguy @slowsweetlove

[mxmmyprentiss]

meet me in the afterglow

Summary: Emily wants to tell her that even though she feels most at home here at the BAU than anywhere she had been, the agony of not fitting into her world is a greater torture than anything she had gone through. // Set after the team saved JJ and Mateo Cruz in S9E14 "200". Genre: Fluff / mild angst (?) Pairing: Emily Prentiss x Jennifer Jareau Warnings: mention of JJ's torture/abduction Word count: 1K

A/N: Inspired by S9E14 because we deserved a JJ and Emily scene at the end of it but got none so fuck CM writers! (JK, but not really) It's not much but this has been sitting in my WIPs since I first watched the episode a few weeks ago. I hope you like it. All likes, comments and reblogs are welcome. Thank you for reading!

AO3

Everyone is exchanging stories and laughing and catching Emily up on everything that’s happened since she had gone to London. Though it’s only been almost two years, it feels forever since Emily last saw the team and being with them still feels like home to her. A home that London never gave her.

Derek is telling everyone about Penelope’s goth look during her hacking days and Reid tells Penelope she’s just as bad as goth Emily in high school. Everyone laughs as he shows the pictures side by side for comparison and Emily snaps a quick photo before Penelope chases him around.

When the two of them get everyone’s attention, JJ slips away from Will’s arms and walks over to a laughing Emily. JJ pokes her arm and asks if she could borrow her for a second. Emily gently places a hand on the small of her back and moves away from the rest of the group and into a quieter corner.

“Thank you for coming to save me, Emily.” JJ says sincerely. She thinks she’s all cried out today but her eyes start to blur again. “I don’t think I would have made it without you.”

“Oh come on, it’s you. How can I not come?”

“I’m sure you were busy, Chief of London Interpol.” JJ smirks proudly at her.

“My friends come first before anything else.” You come first gets caught up in Emily’s throat, eyes darting to Will whose glance keeps following her and JJ.

“I appreciate it, Em. You saved me more than a few times today.”

“You did the same for me.”

“Always,” JJ says softly.

“Always.” Emily smiles the smile she only reserves for JJ. Their hands meet for a handshake. JJ’s thumb strokes the back of Emily’s hand and Emily grips her hand a little harder, not wanting to let go but there’s Will looking over at them again. She slowly pulls her hand away.

“How do you feel though? Torture isn’t something anyone can quickly get over.”

“I’m fine. Cruz got the worst of it,” JJ sighs, trying to block the flashback images in her head of what happened to them. “My body is starting to recover physically but I’m scared that if I fall asleep, the nightmares will follow.”

Emily brushes her hand against JJ’s arm. “If you ever need someone, you know I’m only a phone call away.”

“I know.” JJ glances at their friends, still busy talking with one another, then turns to Emily. “Don’t you miss it?”

Emily chuckles. “I do. I miss you … and everyone. But I’m still trying to figure out where I’d fit.”

“You fit in here perfectly.”

Emily wants to tell her that even though she feels most at home here at the BAU than anywhere she had been, the agony of not fitting into her world is a greater torture than anything she had gone through; not when she and Reid were held hostage by a cult leader; not even when Ian Doyle came back to hunt her down. Because in all those times, Emily knew it would eventually end - may it be being rescued or in death. 

But this pining and waiting for JJ, Emily feels that her perpetual torture restarts every morning. Emily feels an excruciating tug in her chest every time JJ walks in the room and she has to remind herself that although JJ has become her entire world, she will never fit into hers.

“I’ll think about it,” is all Emily manages to say.

“Please do,” JJ pleads. “It wasn’t the same here without you.”

All Emily does is give her a weak smile and walk them back to the group.

Penelope catches Emily in a tight hug, telling her how much she misses her and that video calls every other weekend aren’t enough. She even asks if Emily has an English accent now and she just shakes her head chuckling.

The time has come for Emily to leave and go back to London. Everyone sends Emily off to the Interpol jet. Penelope comments how it’s much fancier and bigger than the one the FBI has and Hotch only raises an eyebrow at her.

“I wish it was in much better circumstances but it’s nice seeing you all again,” Emily tells them. She turns to Alex and says, “And it’s a pleasure to meet you, Agent Blake.”

“Pleasure’s all mine.” She smiles.

Everyone hugs her one by one, even Reid who isn’t a hugger. He murmurs to Emily how much he misses her and in turn, she promises to play more online chess and poker with him and call him at least once a week.

“Can you guys give us a sec?” JJ asks and everyone, including Will, immediately complies, getting off the jet as they bid their goodbyes to Emily.

“What is it, JJ?”

Emily’s breath is caught in her throat when JJ hugs her. Her arms wrap around her neck, pulling her down a bit. Neither of them says anything for a minute.

“I love you, Emily.” JJ whispers against her ear, voice cutting through the silence between them. “You’re the only person I imagined would save me when they had me in there. Your face was the face I saw when I was close to breaking. You saved me more than you’ll ever know, Em.”

Emily stops fighting herself and wraps her arms around JJ’s tiny waist, almost lifting her up. “I’d send out an army if I have to, you know that.”

“You’d fit right in here.” JJ says, voice low. She pulls away from the hug and takes Emily’s hand, holding it near her chest. “You already fit right in here, Em.” Emily could feel the blonde woman’s erratic heartbeat. “So come back, okay?” 

“I will,” Emily promises her without hesitation, wiping the tears that rolled down JJ’s cheeks. “I love you, JJ.”

And as Emily’s plane leaves, JJ feels at ease knowing that Emily will be back.

JJ still has a lot to figure out and so does Emily but one thing is for sure: everything will change. It’s scary but JJ is tired of pretending that every molecule in her body isn’t screaming and longing for Emily; that ever since she left, her heart has a hole in the shape of Emily that Will can’t ever fill.

And after JJ gets Henry to sleep in his bed that night, she and Will are left sitting quietly on the opposite ends of the couch. JJ stares at the wedding ring in her hand and Will knows it’s not the same anymore.

[oh-three]

Bad Batch S3E9:

Beautiful opening shots and music

Guysss, Cross as updated his armor a bit….I miss the antenna pauldron 😭

Not Batcher chasing the moon-yos reminding me of Jurassic Park II's opening scene

Who the fuck landed in that cave.

VENTRESS!!

Okay, I should've realized it when the description said "mysterious stranger".

Damn, she knows exactly who they are.

AYYY. SHE WAS FENNEC'S CONTACT.

The way they phrased the dialogue to say "more capable of wielding the Force". Dave Filoni watching out to make sure that another Sabine situation makes sense.

"I need to know what I am." 😭

Ventress putting Omega through basic Jedi tests >>>>

THE MUSIC.

Damn, they figured out who she was fast.

….Is riding Batcher cheating?

Ventress fist fighting the Bad Batch isn't something I thought I needed, but this is actually kind of entertaining.

BAD BATCH THEME. Like, not the full theme, but maybe as close as we'll ever get to it, with the pitching changes to the score over the seasons.

Shitttt, the "I wasn't planning on killing you, but you're making it very tempting" quote was directed at the team.

"We were pawns in the same war. And we all lost. "The Empire is more dangerous than you could possibly fathom. I'm many things, but I am not your enemy." Honestly, I don't think she came here to do harm. They just pushed a little too hard- can't entirely blame them, though, with her record, but still.

"Okay, but if she's as bad as you say, then why didn't she kill you when she had the chance?" Glad to see she's thinking about this rationally.

Omega making decisions for TBB (and them going along with it) >>>>>

Wait. Using Batcher wasn't cheating? Must've been an improvisation test, then.

Okay, but seeing Ventress casually sitting on that boat, more curious about Omega than anything, is very satisfying for her journey after seeing how violent she had been at the start of TCW and how far she's come since Dooku.

Not Ventress turning to glare directly into the binocs 🤣

THIS SCENE IS BEAUTIFUL 😭

Ventress, you accidentally summoned something that wants to eat you, good job.

Oh, it has kraken tentacles!

The animation of Ventress's hair when it's wet is so fucking good.

Wait, I saw a Tumblr post about the Marauder getting blown up in the Teth episodes- I don't think that actually happened, because that's definitely it.

I half thought they were gonna leave Ventress there, I'm surprised Crosshair was the one to let her aboard.

Test 1: Patience/Mediation/Balance. Test 2: Improvisation. Test 3: Connecting with animals through the Force.

So, Omega does have a high M-count 👀

"You're not as safe as you think you are." Well, that's ominous as fuck.

That ship has an extra-long wing like the Twilight, neat.

Are we all in agreement that next week is the invasion of Pabu?

[lewishamil10n]

went through your chores choreman tag, and it opened my eyes to the possibilities. in the past, I mostly focused on hilson and huddy and whatever wilson and cuddy are called but never the fellows. you have correct opinions on valewis and middle-aged men being not normal about each other, so you are definitely right about choreman. tell me more about choreman, please, bc your taste? impeccable.

hi! so first of all

you have correct opinions on valewis and middle-aged men being not normal about each other

is the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me, thank you :')

ok coming round to your ask — i feel you because one my first watch i didn't care abt choreman much, all my focus was on hilson and huddy as well. hell, i didn't even like chase till midway through s3 lol even though foreman was my favorite since episode 1.

second watch though, is usually when i notice the smaller details, and the funny thing about choreman is that i am damn sure all of it is entirely unintended. which is fine! the writers paid more attention to hilson/huddy, chameron got some attention (though not a lot), and then foreteen became a thing too. but if you're paying attention only to chase and foreman, it's a RIDE. which i am putting under a readmore to be considerate lol

so season 1 starts off with foreman being the newest member of the team. it's clear they get on fine in the beginning — we see them having lunches together, chase answers foreman's questions about house's insanity, etc. but by the time the vogler arc starts, it becomes clear that foreman, in all his judgy glory, doesn't actually hold a very high opinion of chase; he obviously thinks chase is a spoiled selfish nepo baby who doesn't care about his job. when vogler wants them to fire someone, foreman's vote is for chase. and then he's sort of proven right when chase goes behind their backs to help vogler. from that point onwards the lunches together and jokes become snark and derision, and it's obvious they're not friends.

season 2 is more of the same, pretty much — until euphoria. i can't emphasize enough how meaningful that moment is, with chase and foreman's dad in the chapel. it's really such a small moment, especially at first glance. foreman's dad doesn't know how to talk to him; he's religious, he's got a spiritual perspective on everything (including his wife's alzheimer's) and foreman doesn't. on top of that foreman clearly doesn't visit his family much. he's not very religious, and this seems to be a bone of contention between them. it's clear rodney cares about his son a lot; he just doesn't quite know how to express it. he finds chase in the chapel (as we know from s1, chase is religious too, to put it simply). chase, who has recently lost his own father, who has been watching rodney do his best with his son while his own dad never bothered, has very simple advice. "tell him you love him." barebones, straightforward, and that's exactly what rodney does. when foreman is at his worst, his father holds his hand and says "i don't want to miss you" and that is what gets through to foreman. and it's such a little moment! but it means a lot for foreman and his dad, and it goes a long way to show that chase does understand foreman better than anyone thinks he does.

season 3. things begin to change. it turns out chase is working in the NICU as well, because apparently his shithead of a dad cut him out of his will for reasons we never find out. the tritter arc happens. tritter plays chase, and everyone easily accuses him of betraying them. unsurprising due to the events of s1 but sad because it's obvious chase has changed. chase's frustration and exhaustion at being singled out is clearly visible. none of them are friends, but chase especially tends to be singled out; he's the butt of most of house's jokes, cameron finds her daddy issues jabs hilarious, and foreman mostly ignores him. chase and cameron start an fwb arrangement. foreman loses a patient and begins considering leaving ppth. house sabotages him. chase, who understands people better than anyone thinks he does, figures it out. tries to talk about it with foreman, except foreman — who is ashamed — cuts him off and tells him "i don't like you. i never have, and i never will" which obviously takes chase aback. he refuses to write foreman a recommendation letter. house bullies foreman more than usual. chase stands up for him and gets himself fired for the trouble. foreman leaves. cameron quits.

season 4. foreman has no choice but to return to ppth. surprise, chase and cameron never left either. initially foreman seems annoyed to see chase, especially since chase is betting against him, but chase doesn't give a fuck and continues hanging around foreman. foreman sort of lets it happen because sometimes in life you just have to pick your battles and he's already dealing with house and the fellowship hunger games. the infamous exchange between house and wilson happens ("foreman seems protected. maybe he's gay." "does he become an idiot around chase?") which honestly sums up their entire relationship development pretty well. but we'll get to that. s4 is quite short due to the writer's strike that was going on at the time, and ends with a whopper of a double episode that still makes me cry like a little bitch. at the very end, when everyone is dealing with the aftermath of amber's death, we see foreman sitting alone in a diner booth — until someone places a hand on his shoulder to comfort him. he looks up, smiles, and moves aside to make place. it's chase. he and cameron join foreman for dinner. just like old times, eh?

but something's changed.

season 5. house and wilson are temporarily broken up, which house deals with very normally. as in he hires a PI to stalk wilson and also be his substitute bff. the PI digs up dirt on everyone — except foreman, who is squeaky clean. this should be a good thing. to foreman, it is not. everyone calls him boring so he goes off to find chase like AM I BORING???? and chase is like. um. yeah? though you're not so much boring as intensely repressed. then again you do have a tattoo so what do i know. foreman's rationale for asking chase is that chase doesn't care about him enough to lie to him. still, Means Something that when he wants an honest opinion, he goes to the one guy he claims not to like at all. foreman gets offered a clinical trial. thirteen is in it. she's on the placebo. foreman, who's begun dating her, is in a Dilemma. who does he go to for advice first? you guessed it; the guy he claims he'll never like. they have lunch together, and chase tells him not to be an idiot. foreman, establishing a precedent he will continue to act upon for the rest of the show, is an idiot. more stuff happens which i will not elaborate upon. suffice to say they're clearly friends now, despite whatever foreman says because, as established, he's an idiot. also, many scenes of chase and foreman having lunch together. as people that hate each other do.

chase gets engaged with great difficulty and a very Healthy ignorance of the dynamics of his own relationship. foreman "kidnaps" him and gets drunk at his bachelor party, chase gets drunk too, and foreman wraps his arms around him from behind and convinces him to have one more shot. chase is holding a stuffed kangaroo and leaning into foreman. it's all very ... you know. colleagues. yes. then chase licks a stripper and goes into anaphylactic shock, because that's just how his life is. when chase is being wheeled into the hospital, he begins to tell cameron about the party, and foreman, who claims not to give a shit about him, quickly puts his oxygen mask up to shut him up and save him from cameron's wrath. fun times. s5 failmarriage bachelor party you will always be famous.

and then. whoo boy. season 6. s6 my absolute beloved. chase kills a genocidal dictator. or, if we're being pedantic, commits actions that directly lead to his painful death. foreman finds out, confronts him. he's the head of department because house doesn't want to be. this is a high profile case. it's his ass on the line. chase tells him why he did what he did, and asks that if foreman wants to call the cops, at least let him know so he can tell cameron first. foreman considers this, goes "naw" and, acting upon the previously established precedent, covers up the murder. in s5 he was at risk of losing his license; here he's straight up at risk of jail. it's all gucci though. friendly reminder of his insistence he doesn't give a fuck about chase. anyway. chase suffers from obvious ptsd and confides in foreman as they examine some dude's long decomposed remains. foreman covers for him when cameron begins getting suspicious. chase tells cameron and she, while previously a-ok with murdering the dictator, is now all GASP. HOW DARE. HOUSE HAS CORRUPTED YOU. DIVORCE! DIVORCE FOR YOU FOR ONE THOUSAND YEARS! chase is understandably upset. foreman is like "i get you dude i just had a breakup too ://" and chase is like be SO for real right now. s6 goes on; chase fits in well with 13 and taub, and it's clear this team is actually friends. including foreman and chase.

also. the karaoke scene. wilson pays house's team to take him out with them so he can stop thirdwheeling him and sam. everyone does so individually; chase and foreman do it as a pair. foreman even negotiates a higher fee; presumably to split with chase. they do karaoke together. looks very much like house is thirdwheeling yet another couple. they have fun, though.

season 7 is the season of the famed chastity belt episode. episode 1 itself starts off with shenanigans, as these two along with taub and 13 try to acquire a neurosurgeon. cuddy wants them to hire a female doc to replace 13. chase hires a hot woman whose resume he fundamentally misunderstands. foreman bullies her because he's mad house didn't ask him. chase is like "can you like, not?" and foreman is like. "shit. you right. ok, i will not" and sticks up for her. doesn't matter, she gets fired anyway. the takeaway is that when foreman is power tripping and chase calls him out, he actually listens. as in, pays attention and values chase's opinion and then corrects himself based on it. they've come a long way. they have a lot of fun moments, like playing rock-paper-scissors to see who has to babysit masters; chase being the world's worst wingman to foreman at a wedding; chase whining to foreman that he didn't get put on a billboard and foreman calling him a pretty boy and a swimsuit model. as one does.

stuff happens. huddy break up. 13 comes back. she's real sad because her honestly? her life kinda sucks i can't lie. masters leaves. they get a patient who won a lottery. chase and foreman get into a discussion where chase is like "well you're worried what it means for the hospital that cuddy's mom is suing house and cuddy, so obviously this means you're repressed as fuck." foreman is like "you're HORNY" and chase is like "am not! i am Going To Wait For True Love now." it's a bet. chase has to try to get a rise out of foreman. no one knows what's at stake here, since they don't discuss money, favors, or anything else changing hands. foreman does say, out loud, in front of God and house and country, that if he wins he gets to put chase in a chastity belt. no one is fazed by this. no one is weirded out by this. no one finds it strange. probably it's a given to them all that foreman constantly wants to dom chase. he does it enough in the workplace anyway. nothing new there.

(they both lose the bet, by the way.)

more stuff happens. huddy break up some more. house gives her living room a nonconsensual renovation. house becomes a temporary part of the US prison industrial complex.

season 8 starts off with many changes — foreman is now dean of medicine, and there's no diagnostic department. taub has fucked off to new york, and chase is off surfing somewhere. 13 has found herself a girlfriend. good for her! but then chase and taub come back. two new fellows join the team. foreman tries to boss house around. it goes as well as you'd expect. chase tells him off for being too restrictive and bureaucratic now. foreman is like "shit, you right" and lets them do whatever they want to the patient. chase gets the right diagnosis. the day is saved. this is their first case back.

more little moments. chase and foreman hang out at taub's house while foreman ruminates on the ethics of his relationship. chase plays peekaboo with babies while taub stews in his own jealousy. it's cute, honestly.

then chase gets stabbed, and foreman, for lack of a better word, panics a little. in that he literally can't figure out whose fault this is, so the obvious solution is to get someone else to make that call. he calls in his old mentor. he knows that if it's his fault, he will be fired. he blames himself a bit, wondering if he should've reined house in more. it's ruled to be nobody's fault. chase, reacting in a Normal and healthy manner, starts sleeping around again, then falls in intense Like with a nun. foreman disapproves. the nun ditches him after a religious experience on the surgical table. chase is sad until house yells some common sense into him, and he returns to the team. they get a case with a little girl. chase finds out the little girl's mum is experimenting on her. next scene is literally foreman interrogating the mum while chase stands behind him like they're some medical crime fighting duo. that'd be a fun spin off actually.

treiber, a pathologist who's got beef with chase, gets sick. house and wilson have fucked off to have a grand adventure. everyone panics. foreman tells chase to stop fucking up the case, but also doesn't take him off it. chase puts his entire pussy into solving the case, and decides to leave the team. foreman tells him "about time", indicating he's thought for quite a while that chase has outgrown the department, and is capable of running his own. they hug while a soft romantic song plays in the background. their scenes are cut with those of house and wilson. not sure who the romantic song applies to; probably both pairings if the lyrics are any indication. listen to it here.

more stuff happens. house fakes his death to drive off into the sunset with wilson. foreman is like, i know JUST the guy to replace him!! and hires chase back, the natural conclusion to chase's arc as a doctor. this is a job that foreman has failed at before, and he is trusting it to chase. they've come SUCH a long way. by the end of the show, not only do they respect each other immensely as colleagues, they are close friends who give each other's opinions a lot of weight, and also they are literally parallels to house/cuddy by the end.

also foreman wants to put chase in a chastity belt. there's that, too. may he one day realize his dream. amen.

[tmntxthings]

how would they behave if turtles and the reader had a kid?

well, let’s see…

immediately when I think of Raphael, I’m reminded of all the episodes where he’s telling his brothers not to do something because it’s dangerous or just him being super overbearing with Mikey cause he’s the youngest, now that’s just his brothers! Imagine this turtle with kids?! Raph is the kind of Dad who’s constantly checking in, all throughout your pregnancy he’s making sure you feel no pain, and he’s carrying you if he sees the slightest swelling from your ankles!

Once the baby is born, oh my goodness, he hasn’t left their side! Swaddled in blankets and cradled in the crook of his arm. He is most definitely falling asleep in that position too. As the kid gets older he’s constantly in their room, checking in! All of his favorite stuffed animals are no longer his own. They belong to baby! When that child finally learns how to walk, then to run!Raph is not ready!!! He’s worried, constantly there catching them when they fall. Raising his voice with concern, “Slow down!!” “No running!” “Watch out for the corner—!!!!” And if somehow, someway Raph isn’t there to protect them from the inevitable. If he’s in another room or whatever the case and hears his little ball of happiness crying, he’s there in the next second. Comforting and cooing, wiping away tears and kissing booboos all better! “Don’t worry I’m here, Dada’s here!” He’s the most attentive parent, but also the equivalent of a helicopter parent. Just the constant hovering, it’ll be cute until those teenage years when they start to rebel and do some questionable stuff!! Raph will have plenty of heart attacks but he will learn just like he did with Mikey that sometimes you gotta let the babies spread their wings!

…Just not too far away! ❤️❤️❤️

Leonardo is the epitome of cool dad. It comes naturally to him. Of course! When your pregnant he’s soooo excited, wants the gender to be a surprise! Loves them wholeheartedly no matter what they are! While Raph is super duper careful, Leo is way more laidback. Leo is actually the one chasing after his tot once they learn how to walk/run. He turns back into a child because of them, playing silly games, running around the house and jumping on furniture! Definitely knocking things over and getting plenty of bruises. Both him and tiny tot! “Uh oh did that hurt? Oh no no, it’s okayyyy! Look look Daddy got a bruise too. Ouchie! But it’s okay, we’re okay!” Now I have no clue what a safe age to start portal-ing but yeah, many a-portal-pranks! The type of dad to do jump scares for fun! This little kid will grow up a rascal through and through! Daddy Leo taught them well. But make no mistake, just because he’s more laidback than Raph does not mean that Leo won’t go berserk if he finds out someone is messing with his little tot!

Protective when needed! 💙💙💙

Donatello with kids. Where do I begin? I’ll keep going with this ‘how overbearing would they be’ scenario since that’s the theme I’ve stuck with for the first two. Donnie is a planner. He’s a problem solver. So I imagine he’s been preparing ever since the two of you starting trying for kids…maybe even before that… but most definitely mapping things out once he knows your pregnant. And when those nine months come to a close he’s got everything. Everything. I’m not a parent so I don’t know the essentials but like Donnie would have a whole room (color coded to light purple obviously), meal preps, and carefully crafted toys for whenever they reach certain ages! All very stimulating and made for educational purposes because this baby shall be the smartest baby ever! I’m sure they will be a little genius by the time they can talk in Donnie’s careful hands. Because that baby will have seen some high caliber tech when being held by their dear Papa. And where Donnie once would talk to himself about his own creations he now had a little listener…who couldn’t talk back yet, but was surely listening with big, round eyes! So cute!!!! (Also I didn’t mention this previously but each baby is definitely getting a shade of their father’s color. Like they had no chance in that department!!) So yeah Donnie is more on the unhinged side of protective parenting like Raph. Very adamant about knowing exactly where his little bundle of joy is at all times!

Tracker? Most definitely 💜💜💜

Michelangelo is a cool dad like Leo, but more understanding. It should come as no surprise since he’s a very empathetic turtle! But in this sense he knows how it feels to be young and to always be watched/babied/doubted! Now make no mistake that baby will be by Mikey’s side 24/7 until they can vocalize the need for space! Boundaries shall then be set and Mikey most likely will never cross them unless for a serious/good reason! I also think that there is a good chance Mikey’s kid will become an iPad kid. Not because he won’t be around or isn’t entertaining! But because I think Mikey is a iPad kid as well, so they will both be watching YouTube or playing Minecraft together! And there is a good chance all of the turtle’s kids will turn out this way. I think the only one who may not would be Raph and that’s a questionable maybe! I think we all know how Mikey felt when his favorite place (pizza place) in the world was destroyed for no reason at all! If his child was to ever get hurt, or made to cry by malicious intent, then you can assume he will have a similar, aggressive reaction to the person who hurt his little tot so badly! But of course he is civil, who will ask questions and try to get apologies before it gets out of hand. So Karen/?Chad’s? beware! Coloring and cooking are the go to bonding activities at the appropriate age! “Alright chef, what’s on the menu tonight?! Cookies?? Well, okay okay that can be dessert, but what about the main course? …Brownies… hmmm..”

“How about pizza?!” 🧡🧡🧡

[nerdyvocals]

A continuation of this post, more quotes from me and @look-at-those-niceass-rocks watching Pink Ladies together, this time episodes 4-7 (again shared with permission, and since the cast is in the house, @saveourpinks, please enjoy our unhinged dumbassery):

Principal Nicholson is a fuckin' weenie

(during Sorry to Distract) I am looking respectfully. I am looking SO respectfully. Their husband, distantly: I doubt that Me: *WHEEZE*

(During Carelessly) The true bisexual experience is not knowing which one of them you would rather be making out in the park with. (I am pan but I concur)

(@ Buddy) OH POOR FUCKING BABY, find purpose outside of your socially assigned tasks

Fucking of course his name is Leonard

Them: I would've gone fucking feral for this show in high school. Both of us, in sync: I'm going fucking feral for it now

Me: Anyway, rest in peace Cynthia Zdunowski, you would've loved they/them pronouns Them: *CHOKE*

Wally: I'm kinda hungry Them: Looks like she's kinda thirsty

(About Richie and Jane "needing to talk") That has spiked MY anxiety and I'm not even Jane. I would have been CHASING that little shit down.

(When Vaughn told Lydia to help Cynthia) I want a very sexually charged line reading session between the two of them and if I don't get it I Will Cry-- Levi, I don't like the way you're laughing right now

(Note I couldn't breathe for a Hot Minute, I forgot they somehow hadn't seen any spoilers for this show)

Richie: Jane's my girl, not my boss Them: YOu are wrong, she is both. I've seen the way you look at her I'm not a fuckin' idiot.

Me: Anytime I see Lydia or Cynthia I just embody that one quote- Did you ever watch Boy Meets World? Them: What, no? Me: Hang on, there's a quote from Shawn, I'll find it (Note it took me five minutes to find this clip, 2:00-2:09 if you're curious, but the quote is: Aw to heck with it, marry me! I live in a trailer park and I have no education but my hair does this!)

The entirety of Merely Players consisted of a stream of: fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck

(@ Mr. Pedo Man) You deserve beige you piece of shit

KEEP EVERY PART OF YOUR BODY AWAY FROM THIS LITERAL CHILD

(After Jane and Richie's fight) Think about the last time a boy gave her his jacket you fucking dipshit, you goddamn weenie.

(Honorable mention: Both of us replying to everything Richie said in that argument with "Yeah, it is about her, it's her life, what's wrong with her wanting an education???")

Me: I love how the most scathing insult you can think of is to call someone a weenie, are you eight? Them: It's fifties appropriate!

Vaughn: You are a revelation! Them: Yeah, she's a revelation to my fucking sexuality

Them: [Husband], they're lesbians! Husband, nowhere near the computer: I know

(Jane got more votes) HEHEHE GET FUCKED

Me: I love how quickly your opinion of this man changed from the first episode, you were ready to simp and now you hate him Them: YEAH BECAUSE i THOUGHT HE WAS NICE I WAS BAMBOOZLED AND I'M MAD ABOUT IT.

Jane and Buddy: *kiss at the end of episode 4* Them: I am going to bite his nose off

Lydia: You swallow your consonants Them: Well you were swallowing her tongue a minute ago, that probably didn't fucking help Me: *choking on drink*

(during Girl's Can't Drive): Mama I'm a Big Girl Now walked so this song could fucking RUN

Them: So when does Hazel get a jacket? Me: I have no idea what you're talking about, shut up

(After me reading them the discrepancies between the amount of Thesbians fics on AO3 to literally anything else) I am addressing this to every single person who writes in this fandom, puh-LEASE seek therapy

Me: *short rant on how I Cannot Resist a Butch in a White Tshirt* Them: I'm just obsessed with [Lydia's] robe, I wanna take it...off. [Husband]: *unintelligible* Them: THE ACTOR IS AN ADULT I CAN FIND THEM ATTRACTIVE

(after I pointed out that Lydia keeps staring out the window at the Frosty Palace like she's waiting for someone) I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE

Me: I have a fic for you Them: if it's more Potato, I'm down

Olivia: *slaps Richie* Them: She could wake me up like that, I wouldn't complain

I would be a 1950s housewife for Potato

Them: I am no longer simping for Richie Me: He's having a hard time right now Them: I know this, and I will resume simping later when he's done being stupid

T-Birds: *having a heart-to-heart* Them: *sniff* They're all coming over to my house and I'm making them soup and bread

Richie: I think I'm in love (one tear catches light) Both of us, Supernatural veterans: ~a single man-tear~ *FIVE MINUTES OF WHEEZING LAUGHTER*

You can find part three here!

[bronx-bomber87]

Good evening everyone and happy Tuesday :)

This ep is a fav of mine. I know there isn’t a ton of Chenford content. But the amount of goodies we get for both Tim and Lucy is so good. Its what I love about them they’re amazing together and separate. Obviously prefer them together but this is a fantastic separated ep. Not a ton of gifs so it'll be partially gifs mostly caps. Also this is a longer one since they BOTH have good SL's in this one.

2x07 Safety.

The cold open is adorable. Tim would hate that phrasing but it’s true. I love sports so I get that excitement and happiness when your team does well. Look how happy he is. When the Rams won the Super Bowl a little while back I thought I bet Tim is thrilled LOL He is happy till a high speed pursuit interrupts his game. He sees the car chase is by his house. So in natural Tim fashion he heads outside to deal with it.

He is sexy af in this scene. That badge around his neck as he calls dispatch and logs in some OT. Then climbs into his truck backs up to block the guy and dispatches of the chase quickly. Gets the guy out of the car and on the ground very fast. Once he’s done drives back into his driveway so he can finish watching the game. Classic. Love this man. So cute jumping up and down cause they won. Damn he cute.

Roll call is upon them and Grey’s initiative today is community policing. Angela is out because she’s taking care of a recovering Wesley. (She ends up taking a side gig protecting a turd and his diamonds) Nolan gets a gig at the hospital leaving Harper open. Grey pairs Jackson with Tim and Lucy with Harper.

Lucy looks nervous af as she looks back at Nyla. I get why she has only seen bits and pieces of Harper. Those pieces they’ve been intense. Reminds me of when Nolan was paired with Tim. Just a little bit of terror in her eyes. It’s such a good ep for them both though. Their scenes are why it’s one of my fav eps.

Grey says Tim/Jackson get the football community gig with the Rams and Lucy/Harper get the community council. Harper makes a crack about it being the 1950’s. The boys get football practice and the girls get the PTA meeting. Grey says fair enough. Only one way to settle this. Challenge Coins. They both have coins from impressive things they’ve done. Tim says he got his from the Chief personally. He’s so cute and proud. Harper being Harper tops him. Says that’s nice. Hers is from the Governor. Tim rolls his eyes haha

Whoever slides theirs across the table closest to the edge wins. Lucy is adorable and in wifey mode already with her phone. Ready to capture the moment for him. I love how he looks over at her first before propelling his. Also his little butt wiggle I can not. Her matching his body posture is fantastic. An exact mirror really so she doesn’t miss a thing. They cute. I love them. Tim loses but Harper doesn’t want football anyways. I swear she did it just to make a point with Grey and mess with Tim.

Poor Lucy bombs right off the bat with Harper. Asking her if she needs anything. Harper looks at her and says 'Officer...?' Lucy happily says Chen. Nyla is her charming self and tells her she’s not going to use her name. That today she’s Not Nolan. Lucy asks John if he has any tips to get on her good side. Nolan makes a crack that he’s not sure she has one LOL You’ll get there. I dare say Lucy and Harper end up closer than her and John ever were, but that is much farther down the road.

First off let’s enjoy how ecstatic Tim looks to be at football practice. He is in one of his happy places right now. The man is radiating joy. It’s so cute. They’re watching practice and see a kid named AJ. How he is easily the best kid on the field. The director says that’s not what matters. His grades were trash before this program. Now he’s on the honor roll. They wave him over. Tim “grills” AJ on his work ethic, drills. and such its adorable. Clearly in his element talking to this kid. (Their scenes in this episode are primo)

AJ’s mom shows up and pulls him over. Director tells them she was just released from prison. Been hard transition for them both. She was in for armed robbery with a serious heist crew. Cute little scene with Tim and Eric Weddle. Eric giving Tim crap for giving up football for the service. Jackson is geeking out next to him its pretty cute. Tim tells him not to make it weird when he bro hugs Eric Weddle LMFAO

Love them having another shot at a pair up. It goes much better this time. They see AJ and his mom fight and walk over. Ask if everything is ok... I mean clearly it’s not. She doesn't answer them. Instead she drags AJ away from practice. They can tell something is wrong they’re just not sure what yet.

Back at the station Lucy and Harper are prepping for their meeting. Nyla tells her to keep this short and simple. Don’t promise anybody anything. Just to tell them ‘We’re aware of the problem and have a task force on it.’ Lucy questions that a bit but Harper says they’ll love that buzzword. She has Lucy lead the meeting. Poor Lucy she is not in the least prepared to do this. At first it works Nyla’s line. Lucy tells first guy verbatim what she’s supposed to. He takes her at her word and sits down. Harper looks proud from the other side of the room.

Then things quickly go sideways for her rapidly. A woman tells her that her neighbor keeps feeding the squirrels. Lucy tries the line again and fails. She questions Lucy and says 'A squirrel task force?' I can't blame her haha The lady tells her she’s worried about her dogs cause squirrels attract coyotes. Lucy’s empathy kicks in and gets her in trouble with Nyla. Tells's her to give her the address of her neighbor. Then she is bombarded with tasks.

Tim and Jackson meet Aj and his mom at their home. Just to make sure everything is copacetic. They can quickly see that it is not. Tim asks AJ if everything is ok. Seeing if he can get to him. It’s obvious that she’s trying to leave town with him. Before they can delve into why she’s leaving the car gets fire bombed. Clearly a targeted attack. Tim and Jackson get them to safety before calling it in.

Jackson takes AJ's mom to the side for questioning and Tim checks in on AJ. I love this scene. Getting to see that soft side Lucy has brought out so much. She would be so happy to watch him with AJ. How well he bonds with him and tries to get him to open up. (wonder how he honed that skill in..) Tim starts off with tossing his football with him. He starts to build his rapport by telling him he’s talented. AJ replies says how his football is always with him. How much he loves to practice. Tim is soft in his reply says it sounds like him with how much he loves the sport. The dedication to get better.

We’re about to get some background on Tim and I love it. Tim tells him in some ways the game saved him. AJ's interest is piqued. He asks Tim how so? Tim tells AJ growing up in his house was a bit chaotic. (Oh how understated that is my love) If you don’t know his backstory already at this point you get a sense his childhood was turbulent.

He empathizes with this kid. Relates to him and it’s written all over their scenes. It’s such a good episode for him. AJ says he knows a little something about that. Tim continues on to build rapport with him. Lets AJ know how his father was testy. Tim never knew what was going to set him off. That football was the only place he felt like he had control. I just love getting this insight into him as a character. Piece by piece we get to see why Tim is the way he is.

This shows us why he needs control like he does. (I.e. always driving the shop and Lucy not doing so) The Tim tests are a product of this as well. His way of controlling his environment and training since he didn't have that growing up. He does everything for a reason. We’re all products of the environment we grew up in. It leaves marks on us whether we like it or not. I could go on and on about him. Very passionate about his character and what makes him tick. His growth. Eric portrays him so well I could go on and on about that too but I won’t haha

AJ agrees again with saying he too relates to that. Football is where he has most control as well. Tim continues on to let him know he gets it. Football taught him teamwork, discipline and it wasn’t just a game for him. (It makes sense why he enlisted. He got everything from the service he loved about football) AJ then asks what game they’re playing now? We connect then I rat on my mom? Tim instantly says 'I would never ask you to do that.' You can see the change in AJ. He knows Tim is being genuine. He just hands him his card. Tells him to call him if he needs anything.

We return to Lucy and Harper responding to one of the many complaints they got. ‘Vagrants in the sewers.’ Harper is none to pleased about it. Says they're going fishing in the arm pit of L.A. Lucy tries to do her optimism thing. Saying isn’t this what community policing should be? Helping like this? Nyla shuts it down and says no it’s what she tells her it should be. That Lucy doesn’t want to be good at those meetings. Lucy asks why? Harper crushes her a bit more by saying if the higher ups see that it'll be all they’ll ever let her do…

They make it deep into the sewer when they find couple meth tweakers. This scene is hard to watch for how beat down Lucy is in this scene. Not just physically but that self esteem Tim has been trying to build up crumbling a bit due to it. They get attacked and Lucy has Harper's back while she cuffs one of them. Lucy is attacked by the second tweaker and overtaken. Harper jumps in to save her. Lucy thanks her but Nyla is livid she had to do so. Tells her those community meetings are all she’s good for. (Too mean Nyla too mean)

It’s not the reaction I expected from Harper first time I watched it. Then rewatching like I have it’s what she needed. Little harsher than I would’ve liked, but needed for the message she ends up delivering. Lucy is upset while the guys get hauled away. Harper picks up on it and ask her if she has something on her mind? At first Lucy says no. Harper snarks back 'That's what I thought.' Lucy snaps and tells Nyla she is wrong about her. Harper isn’t convinced in the least.

Lucy fights back says she’s more than those meetings. Harper continues the harshness and replies she must be really good at paperwork.... Then she tacks on that she can’t fight. Lucy tells her she can she’s won a lot of fights. Harper says not this one. Lucy bites back he was huge. That it wasn't fair he was much bigger than her. Harper shoots her down again. Says she took him down and his buddy.

Harper is getting under Lucy’s skin and she knows it. Says Lucy wants to hit her. That she can see it in her eyes. Tells Lucy to hit her. Lucy bawks and can't believe she's asking her to do this. Nyla shoves her to rile her up. Tells her come at her like that tweaker came after her. Lucy is pissed enough and does and quickly fails. Lucy is on her ass in seconds. Now Nyla is brutal but her message at its core is sound. Tells Lucy to stay down and get used to that position. Being a woman in uniform is anything but fair. That contrary to belief she is not a 6’2 180 lb man.

Unfortunately this isn’t gif’ed it's too bad it's such a good scene. Harper goes on to tell her ‘Tim might be a good T.O. but he can’t teach her to fight like a girl.’ She's not wrong. Nyla continues on that they get a higher show of force especially from men. That when she’s alone against a desperate suspect and she’s between them and their freedom she can’t be thinking 'Oh my he’s bigger than me.'

Harper helps her up. Tells her if she’s going to survive the streets as a 5’6 woman and one of color no less, she better be willing to learn what these boys don’t know how to teach (one of the best lines of the scene) Harpers impact on Lucy is immense. It’s not kind at first because Nyla isn’t in that place yet. She is a wrecking ball emotionally. Not her softest approach but her message like I said is sound in its logic. Lucy needs to know things she had no idea she needed until today. Why her pairing up with Nyla benefits her so much. Doesn't feel like it right now but it really does.

Lucy tries to mend fences when they get back to station. It’s who she is. I would be same way. Tries to make a joke about the meeting. How she should've listened to Harper's way of it. She gets no reply then tries to ask about her challenge coin. Harper calls her on the chit chat. Lucy is then upfront and tells her she wants to learn the job the way Harper does it.

Lucy is smart and can see the logic of what Harper was telling her. Tim is great for her but he can’t teach her what Harper knows. Nyla sadly doesn’t take her olive branch. Tells her not to be like her. Lucy commends her career and all she’s done. Harper tells her wasn't worth what she lost. That she doesn’t even want to be her. Oh Nyla you broken soul.

AJ shows up to station using Tim’s card like he was hoping he would. Tells Tim and Jackson his mom left for an errand and never came back. He’s worried something has happened to her. Tim asks him to be straight with them. That he’s stressed he gets it but can’t help her if he doesn’t. He tells them she had been hounded lately by her ex-BF to help be a getaway driver. Said he would kill AJ if she didn’t. They start to get a search grid going for her. Tim is so sweet puts his hand on his shoulder tells him it’ll be ok. I love this.

Harper is jealous Tim and Jackson are squaring off against a heist crew. She asks Lucy what they’re doing at this house. Her reply is too funny. ‘Talk to neighbor about feeding squirrels…’ Harper tells her to stay in the shop. She goes to the door solo and talks to him. She notices his hand is messed up and is instantly suspicious. Harper returns and tells Lucy to run background check.

They look him up and Harper thinks it’s the UCLA bomber. Lucy tells her they’ll need DNA. Tries to call in a warrant and Harper says no. Just needs his trash. They don't need a warrant to do a lawful search of that. Lucy starts her redemption and says Harper will need a distraction then.

Lucy knocks on the door pretending to be someone informing people about drought resistant plants. (her first mini UC) Guy isn't interested but she is persistent. Asks if she can have some water to buy Harper more time. Harper accidentally tears the bag of garbage as she is leaving. He spots Nyla outside the window and arms the floor. We hear the pressure plates click in to place.

Leaving Lucy stuck inside with his armed floor. We hear Nyla call for her (uses her last name BTW. )Lucy warns Harper to get the bomb squad. Tells her the house is armed and he’s rigging a bomb. Then is a total bad ass. Uses those worn spots she notices on his hardwood floor as her map. She slowly navigates the floor to the back room where he’s rigging a big bomb.

After she stops him from arming the bomb she throws him out the window. Harper sees them exit. You know she just proved to Nyla how good she is under pressure. Also how smart she is. She got into the house no problem with her ruse, navigated her way out, and nabbed him before he set bomb off. Nyla asks if she’s gonna puke and she says no. Then does poor girl. All that adrenaline I can’t imagine.

Lucy catches Harper before she leaves. Tells her it was nice working with her today. Nyla is kind and says me too. We see that growth kicking in. Tells Lucy she was wrong to discourage her today. Tells her to goes as far as she wants in this job. That she can be a cop like her but to be better. Tells her she’s has what it takes ‘Not Nolan’ ha

Lucy doing what she does best calling people out. Tells Harper she heard her call her Chen back at the house. Says she knows Harper knows her name haha Harper respects it and she gets a smile out of Nyla. Even John hasn’t gotten that LOL Lucy asks her if she can ask her advice from time to time. She gets a much better response this time and says 'Sure just not all the time' haha She has a rep to protect hehe. So begins a beautiful friendship.

Tim can teach her a lot of what she needs to know truly he can. But he can not teach the wisdom Nyla ends up teaching her. How to handle herself as a female cop. Talia missed the mark so badly with Lucy on that. Nyla truly capitalizes on this moving forward. Harper is exactly what Lucy needed. A strong bad ass female role model she could lean on from time to time. She is apart of the development of the Confident BAMF Lucy that we have today. One of the reasons I adore her character so much. Why I love this ep a lot as well. So good.

Tim and Jackson save AJ’s mom from the heist that takes place. Angela luckily happened to be guarding the target as an off duty side gig. It was wrapped up nicely. They were able to keep AJ's mom from being charged since she was coerced. The ending is super sweet. Get to see Tim/Jackson playing with AJ. His mom watching on. Tim looks so happy and once again in his element. Bragging about how he was one of the top QBs in the state. Eric Weddle shows back up gives Tim crap. Says his interceptions were always perfect spirals ha

Ep ends super sweet Tim/AJ squaring off against Eric and Jackson. Lots of trash talking snd cuteness haha Perfect way to end the SL. Love this so for them individually so very much. Tim for showing his compassion and sharing his past with AJ. Lucy for growing and learning about herself as a cop. Harper becoming an ally for her is huge.

Fantastic episode. Thanks to all who continue to like/comment (love me some comments), and reblog. You are amazing and I appreciate you all.

~~~~~

Side notes-Non chenford

Not really much two main SLs were Tim and Lucy separately. So I will say I did like Nolan and the doctor. They had a good background and chemistry. Too bad they didn't work out.

Shall see you all in 2x08 :)

[grasshopperdoingdogpaddle]

Depending on how the episode is written, I think Omi is usually depicted as Raimundo's best friend. It's been a while since I've seen the show, but I think Omi and Raimundo have the closest relationship out of the four dragons?

You could make the argument!

It's more that, among the four monks, the interpersonal relationship between Omi and Raimundo is the one that ultimately received the most narrative focus, exploration, and depth, by far. For better or for worst.

It has the highest highs. And the lowest lows.

In the season 1 finale, Omi's the only one who believes, in his heart of hearts, that Raimundo cares about them too much and is too kind to ever purposely want to turn against them and hurt him like it seems he has. Omi convinces himself that every in front of his eyes it must be a lie, because back in season 1, Raimundo was the first of the new dragons that Omi trusted and thought of as his friend. Omi wanted to believe in him beyond every shadow of every doubt there was. But Omi was proven wrong pretty spectacularly, and it hurt. And from there, it never bounces back to that same feeling.

Omi's ability to trust Raimundo and to think of Raimundo as someone who cares about any of them is very deeply fractured after the season 1 betrayal, and because Omi is really never given the space to think it through on his own terms, it never fully recovers, much to Raimundo's annoyance.

So we have things like

Raimundo being so worried when Omi wandered off in New York that he pulls him into a hug the second he sees him, even if it conflicts with the tough guy persona he'd been trying to put on.

Omi giggling when Raimundo playfully pretends to be a zombie and gnaws on his head.

Omi at one point thinking they were each other's favorite monks and Raimundo being sympathetic when Omi gets sad about that not being the case.

Raimundo being the most adamant in saving Omi from Chase Young, jumping up to try to singlehandedly challenge Chase to a fight to stop him from taking Omi back, and crying when the group realizes they have to leave Omi behind.

Omi being one who still believes that Raimundo will be fighting by their sides, even when he's possessed by the Shen Gong Wu, and Omi being the only to actually get through to him "by relying on a friend we can't see, but who I am sure is still there!" and reaffirming his belief in the strength of Raimundo's inner power.

But then there's also things like their frequent arguments or difficulties seeing eye-or-eye, or just things like...

...everything about The Return of Master Monk Guan.

Their relationship is tumultuous enough that I don't know what I'd call it, honestly, and I don't think they would know what to call it either. There's a sizeable line between playful vitriol and genuinely deep-seeded trepidation, and they really straddle it.

[fruitycatnoir]

here’s part 1 of “chandler thinks way too much about lab rats”

these are questions i have, some of which i will be asking them when i shift there

- don’t they bleed when the chips go in their neck?

- does chase get a headache when he uses his bionic eye?

- so they can never go on vacation because of their capsules?

- so they can shower, but can they go in a hot tub?

- or really any body of water besides a shower

- does chase know about shifting? i think he does as he was reading about quantum physics in ‘the attack episode,’ which has to do with shifting

- how were the lab rats created? were they born like do they have a mom? were they literally invented? was it like a terry ives thing with jane/011 and papa? if it’s the last thing, that’s f*cked up, but i doubt it

- if they have never been upstairs, let alone OUTSIDE until the first episode, wouldn’t they all have gotten some sort of cold since they’re being exposed to… everything?

- chase should be able to speak every single language and play every instrument… but he doesn’t know wtf a shapeshifter is

- did they ever like graduate high school?

[itsclydebitches]

RWBY Recaps: "Rude, Red, and Royal"

Hello, everyone! Thank you all for your patience in waiting for this <3.

Time’s ‘a wastin’, so let’s dive right in. We open on the girls being escorted by the royal guards up to the palace which, as I said in my last recap, is in no way dependent on Ruby giving up Penny’s sword. They could have simply been ‘captured’ for the crime of denying His Highness a new birthday present and then, as Ruby does in a few minutes, weasel out a game by asking to cheer him up in recompense. The sword is superfluous to the plot, it doesn’t track that it exists in the Ever After, is only shakily compelling in its emotional impact on Ruby and, very soon, will literally be discarded. Though we had some genuinely good emotion last episode, what this could have been - should have been - is still far out of reach.

So they’re marching along and we get a shot of the palace as well as the... pieces? Monuments? Decorations? Embedded in the earth around them. I like the subtle nod towards a potential battle having taken place and the red stains against the white look - whether intentionally or not - like blood. It begs the question of what exactly occurred when Alyx visited. 

Yang: “Are we sure we should do this?”

Ruby: “Well, the Red King helped Alyx”

Weiss: “We’re not Alyx”

Real talk: I'm sick of team conversations consisting of the girls vaguely disagreeing with Ruby and then immediately bowing to her whim. This is, structurally, the same exchange we got in Volume 7 when Ruby decided to lie to Ironwood. Yang and Oscar go, ‘I'm not really happy with this :/’ Ruby reiterates her position, and then that’s it, everyone drops the subject. Why? Because Ruby is their leader? That doesn’t hold water anymore since Volume 8 gave us a Yang who’s upset with Ruby’s decisions and actively challenges her role as leader... at least until she’s suddenly, randomly worried about Blake instead. Now, we’re back to where we were in Volume 7 with Yang (and the others) only making token disagreements for Ruby to ignore. Why is everyone moving backwards in this show?

Never-mind that I actually agree with Ruby here. The girls have been shown plenty of evidence that they’re broadly repeating Alyx’s story, the fairy tale next depicts a King helping human girls lost in this world, and Weiss already tried - and failed - to just bypass all that and walk her way to the tree. Plus, it’s not like any of these guards pose a threat to the girls. You’re telling me they can beat the Ace Ops immediately after a major grimm battle, but we’re simultaneously supposed to believe that a bunch of foolish goons made of wood could take them out? So I legitimately don’t understand what Weiss and Yang’s hesitation is when all signs point to needing to do this, those signs imply a good outcome, they’ve failed to do anything else, and they are not - for them - in any real danger.

It honestly feels like RT is continually tossing in ‘disagreements’ so that they can claim the team still has diverse and rich relationships, but that only works if you ignore the realities of the situation and the fact that nothing ever comes of this division.

As they make their way the camera shows a bright blue butterfly following them. Given that this isn’t the last time we’ll see them, I can’t help but assume that the butterfly is another character (Alyx? Lewis?), or else is foreshadowing for someone with an association with butterflies. You know, like how we saw a crow a bunch of times when Qrow first showed up to fight Winter. Originally, I thought the butterfly was our Cat, but then the Cat just chases butterflies and tends to disappear rather than transform... so idk. We’ll see.

They arrive at the entrance to the palace and the guards start a big ta-do for His Majesty’s arrival. I'm not sure why the girls are freaking out? They’re supposedly oh so knowledgeable about fairy tales, this one in particular, they're going to see the King, but they don't realize that this is how the King is introduced? I can only assume this is an excuse to give us more absurd Weiss animations.

His Majesty arrives and, to the girls’ shock, he’s definitely not a King. He’s the Red Prince and the best thing I can say about him is that I really like the sound design. As a puppet, he clinks with every step and that consistency helps sell that this isn’t a human child. Other than that though? 

Oh my god he’s annoying. Like, he’s obviously supposed to be, but he’s annoying to the point where he’s not enjoyable to watch. I saw someone else compare him to Cordovin - an antagonist whose position and beliefs are immediately undermined because the narrative doesn't treat them seriously - but at least Cordovin was capable of holding a conversation without shrieking. Also, note that once again the girls’ conflict boils down to a joke. Why present them with a legitimately intimidating Prince they have to outwit when you can just give them a temper-tantruming child for the audience to laugh at, complete with snot bubbles?

The Prince doesn’t take kindly to them thinking he’s the King. “Well, I never! Coming to someone’s castle without even know who they are - and on my birthday!”

Eh, he’s kinda got a point lol.

As the Prince goes through his repertoire of screaming and jumping around, one of the guards angrily points out that “if it hadn’t been for your kind the King would still be here!” and everyone quickly shushes him.

Okay wait, so the girls are clearly recognizable as human then, right? I ask because that’s going to come as a huge shock to the Prince later in the episode, but here it’s treated as an obvious fact. How dare you be questioning the King’s disappearance when “your kind” are the ones who did away with him in the first place. So what are we supposed to take away from this? That this one guard is the only one to realize what the girls are and none of his buddies pick up on what he’s implied because they’re too busy keeping talk of the King quiet? That all these very obedient, desperate-to-please guards realize the girls are human and didn’t bother mentioning that to their Prince? 

That RT forgot this was supposed to be a Big Secret until the end of the episode and gave us a minor plot hole?

Regardless, Ruby curtseys to introduce herself and it’s cute enough to distract me. That's a nice shot.

The Prince continues to be annoying, to the point where I want to fast-forward through this scene, and Weiss whispers to Blake: “Ew. Did I use to be this unbearably pompous?” Weiss, I wish you were still unbearably pompous instead of unbearably ridiculous. Give me the Ice Queen over this goofy idiot any day. Still, I’m glad that she’s at least acknowledging her bad attitude from years ago, especially to Blake. It’s something... but not much. Again, this is primarily functioning as a moment of humor for the audience. We’re supposed to laugh at the Prince’s antics and Weiss’ unfounded worry - she was never that bad! Plus, the story doesn’t provide the time for an actual conversation. Like, say, Blake responding that no, you weren’t this annoying... you were just horrifically racist, which is worse.

I want everyone to remember that Weiss lost her inheritance and then deliberately escaped her abusive father. She returned to her Kingdom and was active in its destruction, leaving her without a home, without a title, and (to my ever-lasting frustration), no idea what happened to her own former ‘King,’ Jacques. She’s a princess without a throne, without a Kingdom, having spent years struggling with whether she’ll try to lead from that position of power and if so, how. What does it mean to rehabilitate the Schnee name? How does being a huntress and rejecting the 'crown' offered by her father (AKA being head of the company) accomplish that? Now she comes face-to-face with another entitled, bratty ruler who, on some level reminds her of her younger self...

... and we get a single, joke-y line about it.

If this Volume is meant to develop the characters, then actually let them develop. Next episode the girls will go through a literal seconds-long 'journey' that makes me go, "What was the point?" Each of these areas should have something that clearly ties into one of the girls' lifelong goals, acting as a sub-plot to Ruby's Volume-long depression. Visiting a palace with an annoying, abusive Prince is the PERFECT opportunity to let Weiss reflect on her own choices. Yet RWBY, as expected, has squandered it for more humor.

The guards take credit for finding Penny’s sword, despite Weiss’ protest, and present it to the eager, greedy Prince. However, he immediately kicks it away into the hedges because it’s green, not red. 

Okay, two things. One, as mentioned at the start of the recap I think this is a terrible way to (presumably) end Ruby’s journey with the sword - with the reminder that her 'journey' happened at the tail end of last episode and into the first five minutes of this one. To reiterate: what was the point of any of that? To show us that Ruby is sad about Penny? Yeah, we know that already. It’s bad enough that the story is trying to give her a grieving arc that should have happened at the end of Volume 3, but the best the story can do is tossing in a sword that shouldn't exist anymore, have Ruby immediately give it up to her enemies, and then leave it behind in the hedges somewhere, forever lost? I’m not saying the sword won’t show back up - I obviously have no idea what will occur throughout the rest of this Volume - but for now that’s a real bummer of an ending. Ruby runs to try and grab the sword and the guards block her way, so all she does is whisper, “How could you?” I don’t know, Ruby, maybe he did that because he’s a bratty, literal toy who has no idea why that hunk of aura is emotionally significant to you? The audience knows though, so how about you use that semblance of yours to fly around the guards and grab the sword? Or stay behind to snag it? Or endanger everyone by refusing to leave the palace grounds until you’ve found it because fuck everything that's a part of your friend!! Give us something to show that this last piece of Penny means something to you and that you’re willing to fight for it.

I mean, if I had lost a dear friend - twice! - and their weapon was the last reminder I had of them, and the only tether I currently had to my home, and the only means by which I had to defend myself with my scythe missing, I’d try a little harder to hold onto it. RIP to Ruby but I’m built different.

I actually really like that the Prince kicked the sword away because yeah, why would he want something green? And as established, he's a brat. But Ruby failed to do anything with that action and that remains oh so disappointing.

Also, second, why isn’t Ruby’s presence helping their cause? After all, Ruby is Little RED Riding Hood. The Prince might be mad that the sword is green, but shouldn’t he be pleased that one of the girls delivering it is dressed all in red? Take a look at this shot and how perfectly Ruby fits into the aesthetic of his Kingdom:

I kept expecting Ruby’s polite attitude and her overall look to be their key into securing a game. Or, more interestingly, for the Prince to decide that she will be his present instead: the sweet, young, ruby red girl who can play games with him forever and ever (maybe even with a Ruby who'd be tempted to stay because yes, that would be so much simpler...). Yet her coloring - a staple of RWBY's advertising, an in-world symbol of peace - has no influence whatsoever. It’s moments like that really undermine the arguments that such-and-such had to happen because this is the character’s inspiration. It clearly doesn’t have an impact the other 99% of the time, so why is that suddenly relevant? These girls are in a fairy tale, yet their own fairy tales have no bearing on how they navigate it.

For the crime of trying to present him with a green present, the two guards are taken out into the hedges and beheaded by their fellow soldiers. Now, at this point in the story it's unclear whether they've been killed (because they're clearly sentient beings), or if they're just, uh... disabled? (Because they're wooden toys that can probably lose their heads without actually dying.) Though now that I've written it like that, Option #2 doesn't sound much better, especially in a story that's supposedly exploring disability through one of our main characters. Regardless, the point is that even though the second half of our episode will clarify the guards' fate a bit - more on that later - for now the girls have a reaction like they've been killed. Or at least, they recognize that something truly awful has occurred.

So my question is this: why aren't they doing anything about it? Look, I realize that's a loaded question in the fandom given how often people want to run to the girls' defense - they're too tired, it's too dangerous, you can't possibly expect them to fix the whole world, etc. - but the fact remains that we are watching a story about heroes. So how can they just stand by and watch that happen? Or at least, given that they may not have been able to stop it, why aren't they trying to do something after the fact? Try to make a change? Ruby is grappling with the death of a friend and her own feelings of inadequacy. Weiss is, supposedly, worried about her own position as the heir to an abusive hierarchy. Yet neither of them is interested in doing something about the Prince, only playing nice so that he will help get them home. Is that the standard now? Our heroes will ignore the injustices they come across provided that this ignorance benefits them? That sounds a whole lot like Ironwood overlooking Mantle for his own greater good, something the girls went, 'We condemn wholeheartedly!' about. Toss in the fact that both Weiss and Yang just admitted that they didn't want to ask the Prince for help and you've got a recipe for them working to leave the Ever After in a better place than they arrived, rather than just playing by the harmful rules of Alyx's story in order to get what they want/need. 

Yes, you can make that 'greater good' claim given that they're trying to get back to fight Salem (and I'd be a hypocrite if I didn't weigh that given my own understanding of Ironwood's actions), but then at the very least give us a conversation where the girls debate the merits of risking a later/nonexistent return to help this world vs. ignoring injustice to help theirs. As it stands, I'm continually underwhelmed - if not outright appalled - by how the girls are depicted. What have they done since Volume 5 to actually help people? The most we've gotten is them trying to clean up messes they'd already made. Toss in the fact that there's no sense of urgency for them to get home - they're just meandering along, taking it slow, dodging the question of what they'll do about Salem when they get there, having cute romance moments on the side - and I simply can't buy that they're ignoring helping others out of a greater good necessity.

'Huntresses are heroes who help people who can't help themselves!' Blake will declare next episode and I'm like, okay, agreed... but when was the last time you helped someone? Was it when you ignored the Prince's horrible domain? Sat drinking tea while Atlas was besieged by grimm? Started a fight until you drew a Leviathan to an unsuspecting city? You've gotta put your actions behind those words, Blake.

And yeah, I get it. This is a small moment. It, like the vast majority of this Volume so far, is not meant to 100% be taken seriously. There's implied humor in the way the guards dig their nails into the path and beg for the Prince to reconsider. But at the end of the day, the story has given us a group of girls who, for the most part, already hate this Prince, watch him 'kill' two subjects due to a subpar birthday present, have a teammate who wants to be better than the caricature in front of her, and then... they do nothing with this. 

Hey, if Yang is going to be angry all the time, how about she be angry about this? Where's the fire they had back during the Mountain Glenn arc to fix the broken pieces of the world and help those who were most vulnerable? Where's the realization that this is a job and what they want - or even need - will always have to come second to the people they exist to protect?

Given some of the nice beats last episode, I was really hoping that I'd have more to praise in this one.

So Ruby watches this guy kick Penny's precious sword away and 'kill' two subjects. How does she react to that? By politely asking if they can cheer him up, of course. As said, I think Ruby is right that following in Alyx's footsteps is the best chance they've got of getting out of here (according to the information they currently have), but the writing really should have bypassed Yang and Weiss disagreeing if they wanted readers to ignore the moral implications of this. I mean, the Prince outright responds that "Beheading people does cheer me up" and Ruby's got this expression going as she suggests they play a game: 

We once again see the blue butterfly as it travels down through a tall tower of horns, straight into the chamber where the Prince's game is held. Oh, and we saw it before when the guard is distracted by it flying by and forgets to wish the Prince a happy birthday.

The Prince asks what Ruby will demand of him if she manages to win his game. "There's always a catch," he says. Actually, that's not true. Later the Prince will say, "If you win I will help you with what you ask," but initially his question is, "What exactly do you desire from me in exchange for playing my game?" As someone who loves fairy tales and constantly hopes RWBY is going to be more smartly written than it actually is, I jumped on that with an, "Ah ha! Rookie move, Prince! It doesn't matter now if you cheat to win the game, your original offer was to gift the girls something simply for playing, regardless of who comes out on top." Of course, RT didn't realize they'd written that loophole, this isn't even a cool world where loopholes matter, so absolutely nothing comes of this.

Still playing at the polite little subject, Ruby curtsey's again and tries a compliment: "Your Majesty, you are as wise as you are..." and then she stumbles, unsure of how to praise someone who's such an asshole. Little comes to the rescue - sort of - by whispering in Ruby's ear. She blurts "small" before she can think better of it.

To everyone's shock it goes over well with the Prince. I'm unsure if this is meant to imply that Little actually knew what the Prince would like to hear, or if they just chose a descriptor they were familiar with and ran with it. The latter seems a lot more likely to me, given the ongoing joke that Little is far less useful than they continually claim they are and the fact that, by their own admission, they’re an incredibly young mouse who has never traveled past their own acre. How in the world would they know about royal customs? 

Now in a better mood, the Prince agrees to take the girls to the tree if they win the game (not merely play with him). Ruby settles in and asks how they play, which sets off over-the-top laughter from the Prince and guards alike. I suppose this is just supposed to be off-putting or something? There’s no comment along the lines of, “You don’t know how to play [insert fantasy game here]? Everyone knows it! I play it with every subject who passes my way!” The Prince just starts explaining the rules, easy as you please. I can only chalk this moment up to the writers trying to get a, “They’re so weird and vaguely scary” reaction from the audience.

The actual rules are, frankly, unimportant. To the story, I mean. They have absolutely no bearing on who wins. Not just because the Prince is cheating from the get-go, but because the function of the game is to send all your pieces forward during the same turn and whichever piece wins their battle against the opposing side get to stay there. You could finish the game in two turns, tops--which is precisely what happens. Fool that I was, I had hoped that RT would put more thought into the game-battle that takes up the majority of the episode. You know, maybe hampering the girls’ combat abilities through a set of difficult rules they’re forced to follow, necessitating that Ruby step up as the team’s strategist for the first time in years and find a way to win through means other than brute force, even if the end result is still a technical loss due to cheating. I thought this might amount to something other than throwing 3/4ths of the team onto a battlefield with weak goons and letting them go to town, the trappings of rules and a game board and a puppet(tier) existing as more than just a distracting backdrop. Functionally, this is no different from the Prince angrily sending all his guards against Team RWBY, hoping to behead them for the crime of bringing him a green birthday present. We could have gotten this exact battle outside of the game, which makes the game itself superfluous. Which, you know, sucks when the girls are traversing a Wonderland-esque world where their ignorance should be their biggest weakness. But it turns out they’ve always been familiar with this fairy tale, Blake’s worry that they’re repeating Alxy’s mistakes is dismissed, and the girls don’t actually have to play the games they’re forced into. They can just punch things! 

Am I glad that we actually got some combat in the combat show this week? Absolutely. However, this has been one of the problems with Ever After from the start: designing a world governed by fairy tale logic, knowledge of stories, nonsense rules, contradictions... and then dropping a group of protagonists there who, as Yang herself says, would prefer to just solve everything with a punch. Suddenly, a core expectation of the series - that the girls will fight stuff - undermines the expectations of this specific Volume, made worse by the post-Volume 3 message that the war they fight isn’t winnable by brute force, yet, six years in, that’s all the girls have tried. As I believe I mentioned elsewhere, I think there’s a simple solution here in divvying up those expectations: force the girls to solve Ever After problems with Ever After tools, let them fight the Jabberwalker and Neo, and let them finally start the conversation about what they can do with Salem other than fight her head on... but unfortunately, none of this has occurred. Blake will later shut down Ruby’s Salem thoughts before they can begin, there’s no adherence to what Ever After is asking of them, and the girls won’t encounter the Jabberwalker again for another two episodes.

So we’re left with... this. Yang, Blake, and Weiss getting shrunk down when, narratively, that’s entirely unnecessary and the journey to get them unshrunk will take a fifth of the Volume’s entire runtime. I know we’ve already acknowledged that this Volume is filler, but given how much important stuff actually resides within that filler - discussing what happened in Volume 8, figuring out Salem, helping Ruby recover, mourning Penny, finding Crescent Rose, finding Jaune, dealing with Neo, etc. - it seems like a waste to be taking these detours when they’re so thematically unsatisfactory. Obviously in a story it’s about the journey, not the destination... but if the journey is badly written, how about we at least stop wandering from the main path so often?

Alright, enough of all that. I will say that I’m was quite pleased when the Prince revealed his ability to shrink the girls, displaying some pretty formidable magic. My first thought during the beheading scene was why the guards were obeying the Prince when, to all appearances at the time, he was just a bratty child with no way of enforcing his authority. I was afraid that this was just a case of, “They’re loyal because they’re guards and that’s just the way things are!” or that RT really hadn’t given this any thought; why hundreds of men-like beings with weapons were obeying a vulnerable child when, clearly, that wasn’t working out so well for them. Here though we see that the Prince is not vulnerable, he’s quite powerful, and that really helps to sell the fear we see permeating his Kingdom. 

Ruby is obviously concerned when her teammates are shrunk down to Little’s size, but honestly I can’t take her, “No one’s going to get hurt... right?” very seriously. Ruby is WAY past this kind of naive innocence. Girl, your friends are positioned alongside a bunch of beat-up warriors, facing a Prince who just beheaded two of his subjects. What do you think is going to happen here? More importantly, why are you worried? I’ve seen a couple of fans praise this moment because it highlights Ruby’s perspective post-Penny’s death: none of her friends are safe, anyone could die at any moment, etc. But Penny was facing off against a freaking Maiden, not a bunch of itty-bitty chess pieces with toothpick swords. (Here I point out their relative size because even if they’re now equal to WBY, Ruby is still large and could just flatten them all with one good stomp.) The point is that I’m continually unconvinced by this “So horror, much danger” characterization of the Ever After when we’ve spent the last three Volumes emphasizing how powerful, brilliant, strategic, and all-around perfect the girls supposedly are. We’re really supposed to believe that these literal pawns are worrisome to Ruby after they’ve faced down the likes of the Hound, the Ace Ops, Ironwood, Neo, Cinder, and their like? Imagine if Ruby saw a couple of Beowulfs 2/3rds of her team was about to fight, which to her were the size of mice, and she was all, “You won’t get hurt, right?” Ruby, those are literal MONSTERS out to EAT them, but that doesn’t matter because you’ve been taking out this kind of monster fodder since you were TWELVE. The show continually has it backwards, making the characters smug against legitimately powerful enemies and biting their nails over stuff they could squash in their sleep.

Which, you know, is precisely what happens. The girls have absolutely no difficulty taking out the chess pieces, further undermining Ruby’s worry.

Before that though she asks - very politely - for one of the pawns to move ahead a space, facing down the bigger, badder, meaner looking piece across from him. At first it looks like they’re pretty well-matched, but with a pointed look from the Prince, Ruby’s piece pretends to succumb to his wounds, collapsing until a magical stretcher appears to carry him away. He kicks back with a yawn, happy to be off the battlefield and, presumably, off His Majesty’s shit list.

Three other pieces meet the same end until Ruby gets to Weiss.

Ruby: “Weiss, do you think you could take that space?”

Weiss: “Have some faith!”

Again, I feel like the Volume is going for a total decimation of Ruby’s confidence, to the point where she’s entirely disengaged from reality (AKA, obviously Weiss can take out these talent-less pieces). Ruby can no longer summon up enough hope to fill a jar, she’s oh so worried that her elite team will fall to these grunts... but she’s also constantly telling people that yeah, they can handle this, and of course they’ll get back, and look now she’s acting like she always does with smiles and jokes - a part of the endless gags. There’s also no relief when Weiss does win her fight. I think Ruby’s smile is super cute there

but it doesn’t piggyback off of that worry at all. There’s no sigh and maybe a comment whispered to bring herself back to reality, “Come on, Ruby, of course Weiss was gonna win” - something to alert the viewer that Ruby is actually struggling with this kind of irrational anxiety and attempting to fight against it. As it stands, we keep seeing Ruby’s depression introduced and then it slips away again, unacknowledged until it randomly pops back up. “Have some faith!” Weiss says, which is clearly a callback to Ruby’s lack of it last episode, but nothing that happens either confirms or denies Ruby’s struggle. That shot of her smiling, while adorable, could have been taken from any moment where Weiss is being a badass. It’s entirely disconnected from the extreme of, “Omg can a full-fledged Huntress take out a toy in a fight what if another one of my teammates DIE?” Ruby has two completely separate personalities going this Volume and they don’t mesh at all.

The pawns are also super impressed with Weiss’ victory, same with Yang’s, and that feels... wrong to me? I mean, I’ve got nothing against a team that’s been beaten for who knows how long re-discovering faith (like Ruby) and rising to the occasion. (C'mon. I’m a Ted Lasso fan. I eat that shit up.) However, that’s not the conflict here. The conflict the white pieces are facing is not that they think they can’t win, it’s that they’re being told they can’t win. By the Prince. That was the entire point of the Look™ the white piece bowed to: Either you pretend to fall and deliberately lose this game, or I’ll ensure you suffer something so much worse.

Why then would the pieces suddenly rise to the occasion and try to help Team RWBY win? What have the girls done that convinces them to go against the Prince, risking who knows what - beheading, probably - in the process? Now, if I were writing Volume 9 I’d have had the girls trying and failing to save the guards, or at least arguing forcefully about whether they can risk losing a route to the tree in order to help others. Then, during the game, let Ruby realize not only that her pieces are deliberately losing, but that they’re doing so out of fear. Weiss and Yang’s success can be used as a rallying cry and a promise of safety. You help us win this game, securing our necessary prize, and we’ll use our incredible power to protect you from the Prince. The game dissolves into an actual battle, Team RWBY wins, the Cat arrives with an escape route, Ruby gathers up all the pieces using her semblance, and she sets them free once they escape the castle. Maybe they return at the end of the Volume to help in some final battle.

The point of this is not to do an actual re-write in 30 seconds, but rather to acknowledge that there’s no development here. We know the pieces’ initial motivation, but not what makes them change their minds. Really, this micro plot is representative of the entire show, with characters just suddenly doing things that make the audience go, “Wait, what? Where did that come from?” 

“Hey, hey, what about us?” The white chess pieces cry, suddenly eager to try and beat the Prince. “What do you want us to do?” This question shouldn’t even be on the table because you all are clearly terrified of what will happen if you fight for real and Team RWBY has done nothing to persuade you to their side. Indeed, once it’s revealed that the girls are human the red and white pieces start attacking them, the entire board eager to defend their Prince. This feels like a round robin Volume where every episode - every scene - has different characterizations.

As said though, Weiss, Blake, and Yang all take out their pieces easy-peasy and that produces some super cute interactions between the girls. My fluff-obsessed ass if kicking my feet and twirling my hair at those screenshots. At the time of this writing, I’m a couple episodes behind in Recaps (RIP I tried), which means that I’ve already experienced the less than stellar support Ruby receives in "The Parfait Predicament.” So I was pleased to return here and see strong moments of companionship - and romance. Yang works the crowd while Blake politely claps for her. In return, Yang cheers exuberantly while Blake blushes beet red. Putting aside that this is our bumblebee moment for the episode, I legitimately love that they’re supporting each other in this way, even during - perhaps especially during - such a comparatively easy fight. Combined with Weiss’ bow, it feels like they’re actually friends in this moment, playfully showing off for one another and providing unconditional support. This feels like old school RWBY, back when Ruby would cheer for Weiss during class, or Yang would bask in the Vacuo crowd. It was nice to see this dynamic again.

The Prince gets more and more frustrated as his pieces fall while simultaneously becoming suspicious of Ruby. Wanting to get to the tree is weird enough - especially to creatures who, as far as we’ve seen, never leave the safety of their own acres. Little who does not yet possess a purpose is the exception - so when Ruby reveals that they know someone who also used the tree to leave this world, the Prince really starts to lose it. He leaves the game table and... well...

Opinions about his character aside, are non-RWDE folks starting to see why we labeled Volume 8 Ironwood a “cartoon villain”? No, he doesn’t strike such an overblown pose like the Prince, but that kind of spotlight is (usually) used to showcase a drama worthy of ridicule - as we’re seeing here. RT obviously recognizes this, so the fact that Ironwood is given a similar spotlight to reveal his totally rational plan of bombing civilians heavily implies that the writers wanted him to look ridiculous; exaggerated to the point of dismissive humor. By the end of Volume 8 Ironwood was not a complex, fallen hero whose journey showcases RT’s writing chops, he was very close to another Prince: nonsensical, over-the-top, unworthy of respect not because of his actions, but because the environment is going out of its way to say, “Look how ridiculous this guy is.”

So in the grand scheme of RWBY the spotlight is a #choice. Within just this scene it’s fine, simply another way to show us how spoiled the Prince is and, potentially, that this world doesn’t follow the rules of Remnant (though it is harder to argue that the spotlight is real-real in a Volume making use of markers like sweatdrops, angry speech bubbles, etc.) The Prince finally asks the right question: “What type of creatures did you say you are again?”

Now, I get why some fans are upset with Ruby differentiating among humans, mice, and faunus. The line leaves a sour taste in my mouth too, if only because it severely undermines the allegory Blake represents in a Volume where she will (so far) compare herself to a literal cat three times. The point of giving the faunus animal traits and having others discriminate against them on the basis of that is to mirror the Civil Rights movement and, to a lesser extent, other minorities with visible differences. They’re all “human” in the sense of being bipedal primates with intelligence - emotional and logical - equal to others around them... they just happen to have an extra set of ears, or a tail, or the ability to change colors. It’s obvious why RT meant to equate that with the real life social issue of, “They’re human, they just happen to have dark skin,” or were born without a leg (disability), or can curl their tongue (a biological “talent” that not everyone shares). The point is that the faunus have been going, “We are your equals! We’re not a different, lesser species just because we have minor, biological and cultural differences!” the same way social justice movements have said the same about skin color. There’s such a variety within the definition of “humanity” as to make separate categories not just horrifically dangerous, but ultimately meaningless too.

However... RT doesn’t know how to write a racial allegory, which means that the faunus have been treated as a separate species from the get-go, in direct opposition to what their story is meant to represent. They’ve always been separated verbally like Ruby is doing now - “Humans and faunus” - and if you’ve engaged with RWBY’s supplemental content at all you’ll know that the faunus have a separate origin story, though one that does include humanity as a common ancestor.

It’s a mess of contradictions, but that means that Ruby canonically does have the wiggle room to make such statements. According to the rules of her world - generously helped along by being sci-fi fantasy - she is not in the wrong to describe Blake as a separate “creature” from the rest of her team... but that doesn’t erase the discomfort for the viewer as we go, ‘Wait? What happened to Blake being treated as an equal, not a literal animal and all that represents within her allegory?’

Of course, all this culminates in Ruby ignorantly admitting that the rest of them are human. I LOVE the first shot of the Cat’s eyes. They’re just like, ‘Oh, girl... you didn’t smh.’

Legit, there are so many fantastic shots this episode. The animators are working so hard, god bless.

As I mentioned earlier though, it’s weird to me that this moment is treated as a huge revelation for the Prince, especially since his entire guard seems to realize that they’re human from the get-go. Given what we learn later about Ascension, it makes sense that the Prince wouldn’t remember what humans look like, but none of his super loyal subjects were going to bring him up to date? Especially after what happened when Alyx visited?

So much of RWBY just feels unnecessarily contrived. Characters don’t react to the information they have, or work under their motivations, or remain consistent in their personalities. Things just #happen to move the plot along, regardless of how that sits within the story as a whole. At least it's all pretty this season.

But that’s hardly news to anyone reading this. Regardless, the revelation shocks the Prince and in his fury his face literally cracks down the middle. Frankly, I would have liked if this moment heralded a turn in the Prince’s attitude, moving from bratty and mostly harmless to terrifyingly cold... but that’s just me. I like characters that appear embarrassingly incompetent on the surface, only to reveal how dangerous they truly are when push comes to shove.

Weiss remembers that she can use her glyphs to steady herself - yay! - and a jazz-y soundtrack starts up that I really dig. All in all, I think this fight is solid. Nothing to write home about, but not a failure by any means, either. Though I fully expect the combat to get backloaded to the end of the Volume, it is notable that this is our only true battle so far. There’s a brief skirmish against the Jabberwalker in “The Parfait Predicament,” but to my mind it’s so short and easily won as to not really “count” - not in a combat-focused show, anyway. So this is the highlight battle of the first half of this Volume and though, as said, it’s by no means bad... it’s not exactly carrying the weight of those expectations either.

First, I stand by what I said earlier that it’s downright weird how Team RWBY treats these toys as a legitimate threat, especially after they just demonstrated how easily they are to beat. And again, Ruby could say screw the rules and help out by flattening them with her comparatively giant size. Blake gets thrown into the side of the game board and Ruby acts like she’s been stabbed--“You’re going to hurt them!” Ruby... honey... they have aura. You literally slammed your friends against a wall for FUNSIES during a food fight. The show (and the fandom) has always been weirdly unclear about which attacks are emotionally significant and which are not. These little nobodies shoving Blake is cause for great concern, but everyone should shrug off Qrow punching Oscar because duh, any huntsmen can take a hit. (Never mind that he wasn’t a huntsmen.) Yang losing her arm is a multi-Volume tragedy, but Weiss nearly dying from a stab wound isn’t worth a second mention. I feel like every scene I’m trying to find my bearings again - is this supposed to be a moment when the girls are legitimately scared? Confidently smug in their skills? Why is there not an obvious difference between when we get one over the other?

I’m not buying into the stakes here, is my point, which means that Ruby’s moment of doubt really fails to land. Yeah, I get that she lacks hope right now and is likely working under a very warped perception of their strength post-Fall of Atlas, but why not have her briefly crumble against something that truly tests her, either in skills or via trauma: the Prince’s magic, the Jabberwalker, Neo? A mere three episodes into the Volume, against a collection of low level grunts, does not feel like the time to put Ruby in this state:

Plus, it doesn’t last. Volume 9 continually proves to be very good at introducing Ruby’s hopelessness, but not doing anything with it. What’s the point if, literal seconds after she’s given up, she rediscovers her faith - WITHOUT EXTERNAL HELP! - and yells that they’re going to “Kick their wooden butts!!” Ruby doesn’t lack the hope to fill a jar, her hope supply is just fluctuating radically, depending on when the show is sick of her being a downer. This doesn’t feel like Ruby on an arc, it feels like Ruby continually edging into one and them immediately getting yanked backwards.

That aside, there are definitely some high points to the fight. It has a good flow to it, especially in the second half. It makes complete sense that the whole board would turn against the girls once they learn that they’re human, red teaming up with white, and I suppose that helps sell the danger a little more. I enjoyed how happy Yang was at the start, using Blake’s ribbon to plough through the crowd like one of the old-school team fights, even if she’s unexpectedly angry just a second later.

I’ve come across a lot of criticism of Weiss’ wing shot and... yeah, I can see where that’s coming from. It’s in pretty bad taste to keep giving the racist billionaire’s daughter angel imagery, especially during a Volume when she’s supposedly grappling with the guilt of destroying a Kingdom. RWBY has never been any good at picking up on the implications of its “cool” style. That being said, it is an awesome shot and I love the Yang was able to make use of the Knight’s sword. I mean, it would have been even cooler if we had scenes devoted to the girls’ training/character development and they’d discovered that this was even possible before enacting it with full confidence during a fight... but again, still cool. It’s another nice not provided you don’t think about it too much.

Also, I had to laugh at that epic image transitioning to Ruby, showing us just how tiny Yang actually is...

Yeah, that undermines the awesomeness a bit lol.

We’re given the shot from our trailer as the Prince looses his temper and does what I wanted Ruby to do the moment she was supposedly frantic over the safety of her team: upset the game board. Blake, Weiss, and Yang are thrown across the room and Ruby activates her semblance, catching them right before they go over the ledge.

...

.......

OH, SO YOU CAN INSTANTLY KICK-START THAT ABILITY AND SNAG SOMEONE MOMENTS BEFORE THEY PLUNGE TO THEIR DEATH. FUNNY, THAT.

Okay, obviously there are differences between Yang’s fall and this one, including that a) Little helps Ruby out and b) on the bridge Ruby would have been trying to snag a fully grown woman. But I’m not here to debate the details. I’m not here to quibble over whether Ruby would have been able to save Yang. I only care that she (and the others) didn’t try. The fandom has bent over backwards to explain that moment, how all these fighters with various forms of flight and well-honed instincts just stood there, leaving only Blake to make the attempt. Fans are so desperate to praise RWBY that they’re consistently overlooking the simple explanation of bad writing: RT made the characters stupid so that Yang could “die” and there could be a bees moment as a result. That’s it. Now that there’s nothing attached to the outcome, Ruby is free to remember that she has super-speed and grabs her friends like she always should have.

Man, what a detail to include just a few episodes later...

The Curious Cat finally reveals themselves, distracting the Prince with some ambiguously authentic sympathy. It’s just so sad that he’s failing to do “the one thing you were put on this acre to do.” AKA, win games. They warn the Prince that beheading Team RWBY would be a far more permanent consequence than taking the heads of his soldiers - implying that the guards are “fine” but, again, Team RWBY couldn’t have known that when they were being “killed” - and they slip a little bit of themselves into the Prince’s chest, helping him to calm down.

The Prince dissolves into crying instead of screaming and... weeps jeweled tears? I don’t understand how that fits his aesthetic - what does that have to do with being a wooden toy? - but far more importantly, Yukina did it better:

Ruby takes the Cat’s advice and high-tails it out of there, getting chased by the guards all the while. The castle is a bit labyrinth-like, so she has no choice but to trust the Cat’s directions - which turn out to be sound. That’s potentially an important thing to keep in mind as the Volume continues and we learn more about the Cat’s personality and motivations.

“I don’t know how that went so wrong,” Ruby says when they finally have a moment to breathe. Really? You met a temper-tanruming toy that beheaded his guards and threw Penny’s sword away without a second thought, but you’re surprised that he wasn’t eager to help you after you beat him at this own game? I get that they’re going for a ‘Ruby is vulnerable and tentative in her depression’ vibe, but these moments read so strangely after her hubris of Volumes 6-8, to say nothing of her experience in the wider, morally gray world. Ruby doesn’t trust established allies, but is surprised when an asshole who owes her nothing doesn’t come through? Consistency, consistency, my kingdom for some consistency.

I do like that Ruby thanks the Cat for their assistance though. This episode is the most polite we’ve seen Ruby in years, even if part of it is a manipulation tactic to get on the Prince’s good side, and honestly I’m digging it. This feels like a kindhearted huntress who understands the importance of unifying to succeed. Not, you know, the Ruby we saw with Cordovin, Qrow, Ozpin, Ironwood, and the Ace Ops.

As a minor point, I’d like to note that throughout this whole escape Little has been completely quiet about the Cat’s appearance. They were awake to help catch the girls and the Cat showed up just seconds later. They then flee through the castle and have a conversation in the hallways, yet not once does Little react to a Cat getting up in their face.

This is notable only because at the very end of the episode we’re going to get another, “Cat? What cat??” joke, because heaven forbid we let Ruby sit with their failure for a moment without interrupting it with a bit of humor that doesn’t even track.

Finally outside, the girls realize that getting a Prince instead of a King and his lack of help means that they’re not really following Alyx’s story. Weiss complains that they’re in the “stupid sequel” instead. Despite this revelation, the next thing Blake notes is that Alyx met the Curious Cat... so they should get their help!

So which is it? Are you following the story or not? I’ve got nothing against the girls still heading for the tree because that’s the only lead they’ve got, but we just established that an assumed ally is actually quite dangerous, so why would the Cat be any different? Again, not saying they shouldn't ask for their help given that the only other option is wandering aimlessly towards the tree (and that's if the world let's them go any farther), but maybe at least acknowledge the problem here?

I'd chalk it up to a "Wonderland-esque worlds are inherently contradictory" vibe if I actually thought RT was deliberately going for that.

We end this episode with the return of the Jabberwalker. It runs across an ~evil~ looking acre--kinda similar to Salem's continent, actually. Will we establish a historical tether between Remnant and Ever After?--and it leaves a trail of blood on a group of razor-sharp leaves, which is a cool detail. It comes across Neo, presumably having just arrived, cycling through various illusions in her fury. As the Jabberwalker closes in Neo's semblance...

*Sigh*

It evolves.

Look, outside of RWBY's larger context having Neo power up post-Fall of Atlas is a good choice. She's certainly at her lowest here, not just lost in a new world, but having just been betrayed by Cinder (again). Plus, it raises the stakes for when our heroes next meet her. No, my issue is that RWBY's semblance upgrades as a whole are fairly random and we've long lost the ability to distinguish a true evolution from incremental change due to growth. Harriet simply announced in Volume 7 that Ruby's semblance has hidden depths, but is splitting into three red blurs the upgrade? Is Nora handling that level of charge meant to be indicative of a change, or did she simply push herself to an already known limit? On the surface it seems obvious that an evolution is when the actual function of the semblance changes - Ren can now mask emotions and track them - but we've still got wrinkles like Weiss' semblance where, apparently, learning to summon instead of just producing glyphs isn't a distinct, evolved ability, it's just the standard end-goal. (And don't get me started on how she remains the only one with an inherited semblance, but no one seems interested in that.) Are we supposed to understand that Qrow's semblance changed on the airship when the bomb didn't drop? How do we measure Blake's abilities when she's stopped using them? I can't help but continually compare RWBY to other shows with power ups, ones where the characters have to work hard to unlock them, train anew to control them, deal with significant downsides that come with this power, or go through horrific emotional arcs in order to unlock them. RWBY- with the small exception of Neo for the last one- has none of this. Evolution simply happens, unprompted, the character can immediately use this new skill perfectly, and unfortunately it's rarely a strong reflection of their growth.

Ren can magically track his friend smack dab in the arc where he's supposedly being the worst friend ever? Right.

So Neo's semblance evolves, make of that what you will. Rather than simply changing herself or something she's touched with illusions, she can now create a large number of copies with (as we'll see later) their own morphing abilities. Wow, wow, wow, that's super op!!! I can't wait to see Neo fall to some generic Team RWBY attack.

I'm kidding. Actually I'm not, but I do hope I'm wrong 🤦‍♀️

For now though there's only the Jabberwalker in her way. Neo's clones close in as the Jabberwalker screams "No!" in true fear. Kudos to the voice acting there. This creature remains one of the few things I'm legitimately interested in this Volume.

And thus ends episode three! In lieu of flowers, please send prayers that I can eventually catch up on this project :3

[xhanisai]

Tell me, is there anything you wish had gone differently on Miraculous?

There are quite a lot of things in all honesty. In general, I enjoy the show the way it is now. However, since I'm just another individual with her own tastes lmao...

Here are a few things I could do with and without in canon from what I can remember.

What I didn't like:

-- The whole love rivals bullshit. My immense dislike for Luka and Kagami aside, I've always hated love triangles and stuff like that. What got me and many others into the show is that Marinette and Adrien were their own rivals of their alter egos for each other and were chasing each other in circles. It was refreshing and cute and silly! I don't care if "oh, dating other people before you come across your true love is the norm" is more 'realistic'. THIS IS A MAHOU SHOUJO! FUCK OUTTA HERE WITH THE STUPID LOVE RIVALS.

-- Episode Qilin. Rewatched it the other day when it came on TV and both Officer Roger and that nasty ass bus ticket checker should have gotten their ass beat.

-- All those heroes in the NY special. It just made Ladynoir lose their uniqueness as well as downplay their powers as well as Le Papillon's. I would have rather that Marinette/Ladybug inspired Aeon and Jess to become heroes just like she did with Fei in the Shanghai special.

-- There are way too many people with a miraculous. The only 'big' team I want is Ladybug, Chat Noir, Rena Rouge and Carapace. Everyone else can get lost HAHAHAHA!

-- Chloe should NOT have gotten the miraculous more than once.

What I would have liked:

-- I really wanted a Guardians vs Ladynoir arc. It would have been so cool to see and emphasise the "Me and you against the world!" line! I wanted to see their morals and beliefs clash and for Ladynoir to overcome them and show what amazing heroes they are. And then they could have teamed up to take on Le Papillion and his akumatised army or something amazing like that.

-- I wanted Felix to have a one-sided crush on Marinette. It would have been cute. Adrien has evil, mean girls after him so Marinette should as well!

-- I also wanted Felix to continue doing his own thing before officially becoming part of the miraculous team. He looks so out of place.

-- I wanted at least a whole season of Ladybug thirsting over Chat Noir and Adrien thirsting over Marinette before they got together. I also wanted them to get headaches over 'loving two people at once' and drive the kwamis insane.

-- Chat Blanc should have been one whole season long!!!!! I also need more mentions or references to him!!!

-- I wish they kept the animation consistently high quality throughout the show. All that budget went into film! Chloe's hair.

-- I really would like more Cheng lore. I'm so curious about Sabine's sister and their parents and if they ever met Marinette. I hope we get that in season six.

That's all I can think of for now. Thank you for the ask loooool.