#everything is the same. rick and or brick people come get this stuff.. maybe. I know it’s not the best

[olgunny]

blahblahbla

[bestfrownsforever]

Frown of Doom: Chapter 2

(Cover art by me)

After hours of drug-induced sleep, Unikitty found herself drowsily waking up in the Doom Lord fortress’ dimly lit conference room.  Her eyes fluttered open and she sat up, her head aching.  The princess kept one front paw on her head and the other on the ground below her, which was made of steel.  It didn’t take long for her to find out that she was locked in a cage, and her eyes searched the room for a potential way out.  But the coffins, open closets of weapons, and maps pinned to the walls with red marker sloppily written and drawn all over them made her scream.

“Ok,” Unikitty said as she trembled, “just stay positive.  It’s really dark and scary in here, but Master Frown and Brock have to be here too.  So when they show up we can talk about all this and it’ll be fine…everything will go right back to normal…with nothing to worry about…”

She heard something from behind her and turned to face the door.  The approaching red light and the sound of someone’s familiar chuckling was getting closer and closer until Master Frown opened the doors.  The same light in his eyes surrounded Master Plague’s beak, which floated inches away from his hand as he spun it around with his mind.  He slowly walked closer to Unikitty’s cage and circled it, his wide grin and eager eyes showing how much he relished every moment she was in front of him so helplessly.

“Oh, Princess Unikitty.  I’ve waited so long for this day!  I’ve asked myself if it’d ever happen, and here you are, finally in my control!  But now that you’re here…what should I do with you?  Should I set up a fancy execution outside?  Should I go back and kidnap your friends so I can kill you all together?  Should I stuff and mount your head on the wall?  Should I mind control you too and make you my kitty servant?  Should I just stab you right now and be done with you forever?  Ah, so many choices…so little time.”

(Art by @friffinx​)

“But why!?”  Unikitty asked, “Why would you do this!?  You’ve never done anything this bad before!”  “Oh yes I have!” Master Frown bragged, “It’s just been so long since you’ve seen me, so you have no idea what I can do in a split second!  And there’s nothing you or any of your loser friends can do to stop me!”  As Master Frown laughed, Unikitty began to cross her internal border between sad and angry.

“No!  You’re dead wrong, mister!” she shouted, “If anything now that you’ve taken me away, my friends are gonna go out of their way to find me and won’t stop until they do!  We mean everything to each other so you’re the one who’d better watch out or you’re gonna get badly hurt!”  “Come on, that’s…”  Before he could finish, Master Frown stopped to think about what he was saying and the red in his eyes faded away, “…actually true.  Brock!”

“Yeah?” Brock asked as he peeked into the room.  “Stay down here and watch Unikitty,” Master Frown commanded, his eyes glowing again, “There’s a few things, or should I say, people I have to take care of.”

Brock stepped closer to the cage.  He wanted to feel more excited and relieved to finally see Unikitty again, but he knew that judging from what happened before his consciousness came back, it would be hard to reconnect with her after what she went through.  He could tell by looking into her eyes that she was more confused than anything else, and he couldn’t blame her.

“So…you just want me to talk to her?” Brock asked.  “Well duh,” Master Frown groaned, rolling his eyes, “Do anything with her for all I care, just don’t let her out of the cage!”  He took the beak out with his mind again and grinned.  “I’ll be back before you know it.”

Unikitty made sure that the Doom Lord left before grabbing the cage bars, trying to trust what looked like the Brock she always knew.

“Brock?  What happened to you and Master Frown!?  How did all this…you know…?”  “Well,” Brock nervously sighed, “Let’s just say that Master Frown’s the world’s one and only Doom Lord now…the rest are gone.”  “Oh…” Unikitty thought aloud, “When will they get back?”  “He killed them Unikitty,” Brock grimly said.

“REALLY!?” Unikitty gasped at the thought of something so unheard of to her.

“Yeah,” Brock continued, “and since then he’s been spreading sadness and misery all over Frowntown in their place but it’s like, way worse.  He’ll even mind control me sometimes if I don’t give him what he wants in enough time.”

“WHAT!?” Unikitty gasped again, almost in tears before stopping her potential breakdown, “Oooh so that’s why your eyes are red.”

“Yep,” Brock replied before continuing again, “I don’t remember anything that goes on when he mind controls me, though.  It’s like I just…go blank, and someone else takes over.  But if I wanted to know what happens when I’m not totally in there, I’d go in there.”

Brock pointed to the biggest closet in the room.  It had the signature shape of Master Doom’s head like all the other doors but also plenty of scratch marks.  The words “DO NOT OPEN EVER (THAT MEANS YOU BROCK!)” were written on it in red.

“Wow,” Unikitty wondered, “what else could he have done!?  But Poor Master Frown must’ve been pushed around so much until he finally lost it.”  “That’s what I’ve been thinking,” Brock added, “And if anything this is my fault for not helping as much as I should’ve or trying to stop him-“

“No it’s not!” Unikitty insisted, putting her hand over Brock’s mouth through the bars, “Don’t you dare think that way!  You’ve been doing your best for Master Frown, more than anyone would dare to!  So consider that enough.  But you can help me figure this out and maybe even get back to how he was before!”

(Art by @pastel-gothicorn​)

“Well I guess he kinda is as long as his eyes aren’t red,” Brock said.  Unikitty gasped, stars and lightbulbs popping from her head and glowing in her eyes.  “That’s it!  We gotta find out what makes his eyes red!  We'll just get back to the Unikingdom, find our friends, and get him right where we want him, so then we can hopefully save Master Frown from uh, himself!  And it starts with you getting me out of this cage.”

“Genius plan, Unikitty!” Brock winked and got up, “I like your way of thinking, just lemme just find the key.”  “Ok!” Unikitty called back, watching Brock walk out of the conference room with strong determination in her eyes.

                                                         : ~~~ :

Unikitty’s friends didn’t have any time to regret letting Master Frown get away; only to prepare for another fight and way to save the princess.  As Hawkodile, Richard, and Puppycorn grouped together and talked about what the best course of action would be in the lab, Dr. Fox kept checking the kingdom’s security cameras, quickly switching from one to another at a time.  But then one screen particularly caught her eye; it showed Master Frown peeking up from behind a bush and looking around carefully before running offscreen.

“GUYS,” Dr. Fox warned, “MASTER FROWN’S COMING BACK!!!  Everyone get ready!!!”

“On it!” Hawkodile said as he sprang up and away.

“Yeah, let’s get him!” Puppycorn shouted, about to sprint until Richard floated in front of and stopped him.

"No, Puppycorn," Richard said, "you're staying in the castle with me."

"What!?" Puppycorn complained, "But Rick, I can fight too! Check it!" Puppycorn made jumps and imitated action moves, accompanied by fitting grunts and shouts, to show off what he thought were impressive fighting moves. But from start to finishing pose, Richard wasn't impressed.

"No," the brick said in his ever-monotone voice, "Now come with me."

"Aww man!" Puppycorn reluctantly dashed away with him.

Hawkodile and Dr. Fox went back to the dojo, picking and putting the perfect weapons together. Both were incredibly uneasy at the thought of such a do or die moment happening again, but Hawkodile also worried that he'd have no time to tell Dr. Fox that he loved her. His heart raced as he finished packing for the battle and turned her way.

"Uh...Dr. Fox?" he found the courage to say.

"Yes Hawkodile?" she asked back.

"Well," Hawkodile stammered, "since this could...you know, be our last moment together, with uh...Master Frown getting dangerous and all, there's uh....something I've wanted to say to you. For a really long time.

"Really? " Dr. Fox asked, "What is it?"

All Hawkodile could say was "Uuuhhhhh..."

He grew redder, sweating, stuttering, playing with his hands, and looking down at the ground. Even when he feared for his life, he couldn't admit how he felt about Dr. Fox, who still looked up at him, confused.

"YOU'RE REALLY REALLY SMART AND I RESPECT THAT!" Hawkodile blurted out before dashing off.

"Umm...thank you?" Dr. Fox replied, puzzled.

Richard looked down at the kingdom from the castle balcony, the fear of an old foe being truly dangerous worrying him as much as it did his friends. All was strangely calm until Puppycorn ran up to him, not staying still for a single second.

"Hey Rick! Rick! Richard!" Puppycorn yelled, circling around the brick. "Yes, Puppycorn?" Richard gave in. "Why can't I fight Master Frown too?" Puppycorn asked, "You didn't tell me yet!"

"Hmm," Richard hesitantly wondered how to put it to innocent, young Puppycorn, "Well, Master Frown is coming back for us as a form of revenge after disappearing to take care of...Doom Lord business, and we have to stay safe or he'll horribly hurt us physically and/or emotionally. Do you understand?"

"I guess so," Puppycorn grumbled, "but can I at least help Hawkodile and Dr. Fox? Please please please?"

"No." Richard still wasn't moved.

"Awww come on!" Puppycorn angrily groaned. Not even begging worked, but he still tried if it meant getting in on some form of action. "Then I just watch, pleeeaase? I wanna see everything!"

(Art by @samthecookielord​)

“Fine,” Richard signed, “Just go back inside so Master Frown doesn’t see you.”

“Yay!” Puppycorn cheered, “I’m a spectator!”  He ran inside and and looking through the nearest window.

Hawkodile and Dr. Fox walked carefully through the streets, looking in every direction and hardly making a sound.

“WE KNOW YOU’RE OUT HERE, FROWN!” Hawkodile yelled as he pointed ahead, “COME OUT AND FIGHT!”  “YEAH!” Dr. Fox shouted, “This is what you’ll get for taking Unikitty away from us!”

There was a thud as Master Frown jumped down into the street before them, dirt kicking up into the air and slightly concealing his body before it scattered, except for the light of his eyes.

“Awww,” he chuckled, “you honestly still think you can beat me after everything I’ve done, let alone to you and your stupid princess?  How adorable.  But if you insist…”  He drew his “sword.”  “I came prepared.”

“Well so did we!” Dr. Fox tried intimidating him, taking out the Razor Revolver.  Hawkodile posed next to her, ready to charge forward and punch the villainous Doom Lord.  “Just the way I like it,” Master Frown grinned.

Dr. Fox was ready to dash in and begin the fight side by side with Hawkodile, but Hawkodile held her back and started the fight alone in an attempt to protect her.  Master Frown charged back, and the two almost crashed into each other upon impact.

(Art by @friffinx​, again)

Both fighters moved lightning fast, taking Hawkodile by surprise with how much better at fighting Master Frown became.  He would’ve wondered when or how Frown learned to fight like this, but he couldn’t even think fast enough.  All he could do was pay attention to his enemy’s movements and avoid getting stabbed, just missing the tip of the soft green beak every time.  Neither fighter was winning or losing; it was a seemingly endless game of dodging each other’s attacks.  But Master Frown took it as something working well in his favor and laughed.

“Your punches can’t stop me anymore, bird-brain!”  Master Frown bragged, immediately followed by Hawkodile punching him dozens of yards back.  “Heh,” Hawkodile smugly regained some confidence, “you sure about that?”

When Master Frown landed and started getting up, he found himself right at Dr. Fox’s feet, and the Razor Revolver was pointed right at him.  She pressed the trigger, but he moved aside before the blade could reach him.

The dodging game began again, with Master Frown working his way around every shot and swing, as Dr. Fox did the same, frightfully working her way around the green beak.  Even if it annoyed him how good she was too, Master Frown still saw his equally impressive fighting as a silver lining.

“Not sorry to break it to you,” Master Frown taunted, his beak sword clashing with one of the Razor Revolver’s, “your so-called ‘brilliant inventions’ are pretty much useless.  I mean who even puts a sword and a gun together, pick one or the other!” He cackled in her face (trying to hide his regret for not coming up with that idea first), further enraging Dr. Fox.

“Oh no,” she started, “you want to know what’s useless!?  Doing your best to work on scientific breakthroughs and having everything go wrong almost every time!  But do you see me trying kill my friends or enemies!?  NO!  I keep trying, because I know what I’m capable of, that I can improve and still use my skills to help my friends!”

Her stare grew far more menacing.  “But I’ll gladly show you how I can use my skills to destroy people like you.”

(Art by @x-master-brock-x​)

Her anger and force all came out as she pressed the Razor Revolver’s trigger and swung the unleashed sword.  But said anger turned to immense regret when she realized that the blade didn’t strike Master Frown.  The Doom Lord dodged her just in time for the sword to stab Hawkodile (who she didn’t see suddenly fly down to try and help) in the arm.  The bodyguard fell to his knees in pain.

“HAWKODILE!!!” Dr. Fox yelled, choking up fast and kneeling down at his side to help him up, “Hawkodile, I-I’m so sorry, I-“

Master Frown saw this as a perfect opportunity to strike, and went for the kill.  But even at her most vulnerable, Dr. Fox could still pull out a flamethrower and aim it right at him fast enough.  She fired it at him, and as he screamed and put out the flames that were burning him, she fled, wrapping her arms tighter around a dizzy, almost unconscious Hawkodile.  She tried her hardest not to look at him out of intense guilt, but she knew she had to if she wanted to guide him home safely.

“Hawkodile,” Dr. Fox instructed, “listen to me, we have to leave now!!”

“…I still have one good arm,” Hawkodile weakly said, lifting his uninjured arm like he was about to punch with it, “If we can-“

“NO WE CAN’T,” Dr. Fox yelled, “WE’RE NOT IN THE RIGHT CONDITION TO FIGHT ANYMORE, LET’S GO!!!”

“Ohohoh,” Master Frown shouted, “I didn’t say you get out alive!”  He finished putting out the flames (except for a very tiny one on his right horn) that distracted him from his targets.  He ran after them again, this time so fast that Dr. Fox feared he’d catch up to them.  Hawkodile wasn’t conscious enough to have much of an idea of what was happening but even he tried quickly limping along with the doctor, who came up with what she felt was her only truly bright idea the whole time.

“If I use it on myself it might not work,” Dr. Fox explained, “you’re a little too heavy for me to carry.”  “Huh?” Hawkodile faintly asked.  To him it sounded like maybe she said something that’d offend him, but he wasn’t sure.

“Just hold still,” Dr. Fox said softly.  She frantically pulled out her jetpack, strapped it onto Hawkodile, and turned it on, sending them flying back to the castle.

“Oh no you don’t!” Master Frown yelled, still close behind and trying desperately to slay his two opponents.  But he still couldn’t land a hit, and his would-be victims made their way back to the castle.  Master Frown knew he should’ve gone after them, but he was too ashamed of himself.  It was supposed to be such a simple task but he failed miserably and he couldn’t even stand himself anymore.  All he felt that he could do was storm off in a fit of rage.

Puppycorn didn’t understand why Richard didn’t want him to watch the fight after a while, and sitting in the foyer room with his caretaker for what he thought was no good reason felt like the most boring and unfair moment of his life.  He begged, barked, and even tried to distract Richard, but nothing worked.  Then the front doors opened, and both were stunned at the sight of Hawkodile with an open wound in his arm and holding onto a desperate Dr. Fox.

“PLEASE HELP US!” Dr. Fox pleaded.  Richard and Puppycorn ran to her and Hawkodile as fast as they could.

"Goodness, Hawkodile," Richard nearly shrieked, "what happened to your arm?" "Eh..it's a long story," Hawkodile weakly said as Dr. Fox let go of him to let Richard tend to his wound, "But maybe not."

Dr. Fox turned away from the scene, thinking it would save her at least a little from her guilty conscience until Puppycorn ran up to her.

"WHAT HAPPENED!?" the prince asked, "Is this why Rick told me to look away???" Dr. Fox tried to come up with a good answer that a puppy like him would understand, but then she was sweating and stammering; her normally quick-thinking mind at a loss for words until she couldn't stand listening to Hawkodile's painful moaning from behind her.

"CAN'T TALK, GOTTA GET TO THE LAB, BYE!" Dr. Fox yelled, running away. Puppycorn titled his head in confusion before turning back to Richard and Hawkodile.

"Owowowowow," Hawkodile winced as Richard bandaged his arm, "ok, I uh, no, I'll be fine...I'll be fine, I'm fine." He gave a nervous smile, trying to show confidence.

"Umm," Richard doubted, "no, you're not fine. Your arm is almost falling off for goodness sake!" "Yeah," Hawkodile said, "but Dr. Fox and I can-" He turned his head up, realizing that Dr. Fox was gone.

"Uh...Dr. Fox?"

"She just went down to the lab," Puppycorn said, "Maybe she's already working on something to help us!"

"I don't know," Richard said, "She looked like she was about to have a breakdown. I doubt she can come up with something in that mood that fast."

"But then who's gonna fix Hawkodile so he can fight Master Frown again?" Puppycorn asked.

"I can try," Richard sighed, "Hawkodile, hold still, and Puppycorn, get the first aid kit for me." "Ok!" Puppycorn obeyed, running upstairs.

"Ah, the poor little squirt." Hawkodile softly giggled. "Indeed," Richard agreed, "once he comes back we can't let him stay and watch."

"I don't know," Hawkodile wondered, "maybe he can help. Yeah he's just a kid, but-"

"No," Richard bluntly said, "we've already lost Unikitty and we can't risk losing anyone else!" "Yeah," Hawkodile understood, "but we're running out of options here. Master Frown and Brock are actually formidable opponents who know our every move now, what else can we do?"

"Just try our best, I suppose," Richard said, "At least for now. Which includes you getting the proper rest and time to heal that you need."

"Please," Hawkodile tried persuading Richard by weakly standing up and posing, "it'll take a lot more than this to stop these bad boys! And once Dr. Fox and I are good to go, Master Frown's going-OWW!!!" Punching his fists together went horribly wrong and he sat back down in pain.

"See?" Richard raised an eyebrow as his point was proven. "Yeah," Hawkodile quietly accepted defeat and sat still to heal.

Dr. Fox raced around her lab, grabbing whatever paper-filled folders and serums she could.  She was panting from all the hard, fast-paced work but took no time to rest.  The only time she stood still was when she typed on her computer’s keyboard.

(Art by @drfoxs-lab​, whose main blog I would’ve tagged if I could find it...)

“Ok ok,” she told herself, “keep it together, Dr. Fox.  It’s all gonna be great!….You’re the hero, you’re gonna save everyone, you’ve got this, you can do this, you can DO this!!…Just think, a captured friend is one thing, a broken arm is another, but both…is completely and totally IMPOSSIBLE!!!  WHAT AM I SAYING!?  THIS IS ALL MY FAULT!  I…I-I CAN’T DO THIS, I…”

Her confidence and sanity shattered as she broke down on the floor, regretting everything and losing all hope.

WOO-HOO, I finished another chapter!  :D

Thanks again SO SO much to my co-artists, whose blogs you can all find above.

Again, if you’re not a co-artist but like the art you saw and would like to be a co-artist, too, then just ask or DM me here or on Amino!  I’d be happy to let you join!

Until next time...

(Which should be soon, chapter 3 is the shortest one :P)

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Analysis of the S9 SDCC Trailer

Okay, I have a lot to say about the S9 trailer. I’m going to talk about a bunch of different aspects of the trailer including actual plot points, dialogue, symbolism, and locations. So, everybody grab a beverage and get comfortable. (Don’t worry. There will be LOTS of pictures. 😉)

First of all, let me say what I said with every other trailer: these trailers tend to be very very misleading. Back in S4, the trailer made it seem like there was a serial killer at the prison. David and Karen will both killed, but I was by Carol and for very specific reason. It's not like she was killing people left and right and all over the place. We also saw some creepy things done by Lizzie, but she didn't even actually kill a person at the prison (just animals) and we didn't really find out what was up with her until 4B. Most of the dialogue they used to make it seem like there was someone murdering people at the prison actually refers to the virus. So, very misleading.

In the S5 trailer, it got even worse. Spliced together dialogue made it seem like Gareth planned to help TF get Eugene to Washington for the cure. Garreth didn't say anything even remotely like that in the show. I won’t go over all the trailers, but if you go back and watch them after having watched the corresponding season, you can see how they’re deceptive. My point is that we need take everything in the trailer and what it suggests with a grain of salt. It really may be exactly the opposite of what it's trying to make us think.

Locations:

I will start by talking about locations because right off the bat, the very first scene we see, is something of a deception. We first see a trap door open and stairs leading down. 

We’re meant to think that Rick goes down the ladder to visit Negan. Because of that, I first saw the trailer I thought it was weird that they weren’t keeping Negan in Morgan’s cell. We thought they would do that, especially because they do it in the comic books. But there's a regular ole’ door next to the cell Morgan built. Rick wouldn't have to come down through the trapdoor and ceiling.

But… if you look at these pics,

you can see from the brick behind both Negan and Rick, the meeting is in fact in Morgan's cell. So, that first shot of the stairs leading down is not part of the scene were Rick goes to speak with Negan. If you look closely at the materials, the bricks in the scene are much smaller and red. See what I mean by deception? I don’t know what’s up with this trap door, but it’s something else entirely that’s been spliced together for the trailer.

We see several interesting locations in the trailer. We do see shots of places we already know, like Alexandria, the Hilltop, the Kingdom, and the Sanctuary. But there's a few others that are jumping out at me as interesting.

Tent City:

A lot of the action in the trailer seems to be taking place in his Tent City. (I’ll just call it that for now because I don't know what they're going to call in the show.) There seem to be a lot of tents set up together, and this is where we see the sign that points to different places.

Notice neither Hilltop nor the Kingdom is on the sign. People have been wondering why there's a Toledo. We're thinking it might be a comic book not to Toledo, Ohio, though we’re not really sure. It seems to me they may have set up extra places or communities to accommodate more people. One of them has simply been named Toledo. We also see HQ at the top. HQ usually stands for HeadQuarters, so I wonder what this means.

But what really jumped out at me after watching the trailer about 50 times is that a lot of the action takes place there. It's in his tent city that the fight seems to ensue.  It’s where Daryl beats the crap out of some dude,

where they seem to have a lot of different operations set up, and where a lot of our characters are hanging out. 

In this part where Rick and Daryl talk and Daryl asks if they’re on the same side, you can see in the shot of Daryl, that they’re standing inside one of the tents. So not sure what this place is, but it's obviously going to play big role.

Red Brick Buildings:

This next location, we see a lot less in the trailer, but I'm very, very curious about it. There’s the opening shot, which includes red brick. Then there are two more shots later on. This one:

And this one:

Oh, and later in the trailer, this one too:

Pretty sure these are all the same place. Seems like something’s going to happen at this local at night. The building in the top picture says Hollowbray(?) Outreach Recovery. So this is a place where people recover from things. Hmm. It looks a lot to like the school that Richonne visited in 7x12, as well as the school from S5. I'm not saying I think it's either one, though it could be. Or it could be a new location. Either way, I'm sure there will be symbolism galore!

It also looks a lot like the retirement home the Gov visited in 4x06, which I’ll talk more about later in the week. There were a won of Beth foreshadows there. I feel like this might be something coming to a head, especially with that “Final Warning” pic.

Oh, but there’s more. This walker heading for the recovery center steps on signs with arrows on them. The first shows two arrows, pointed in opposite directions. 

We’ve seen lots of arrow symbolism in the show, such as in 6x04 and 6x06.. Then there’s a “No U-Turn” sign. That really jumped out at me. 

This is literally a pictorial representation of “You can’t go back.”

The Broken Bridge:

The bridge! I'm so excited for this bridge. It's broken in the middle. Man, I could read volumes of symbolism into that. (Just off the top of my head: Daryl is broken and has been since S5. Maybe this season is where he’ll finally get fixed? Is Daryl the bridge. He has been involved with the majority of the ones we’ve seen on the show...But I digress.)

I probably won't do a post about symbolism of this broken bridge until we see how it's employed in the show, but I’m pumped! In terms of the plot, it seems to me like this is going to be the project at the beginning of the season. Just like we had Operation Lead the Walkers Away at beginning of S6, I feel like this bridge is the project they’ll be working on as the season begins. Why?

Not only do we see them find it, but stuff goes down on this bridge. There's the scene here:

Rick seems to be sitting in the center of it, and everyone is running toward him. I don't know what's happening the scene, but it looks super-intense. Daryl and everyone else is looking out past Rick at something they’re running toward.

Later in the trailer, we see that a fight breaks out here. If you look at this picture, you can see they’re rebuilding the bridge; placing a new, wooden bridge over the break. 

They must need the bridge as a route for supplies or something. If they didn't need it, they wouldn't bother. But Daryl fights here, you can see Aaron fighting next to him, and even Henry takes this guy down on one side of the bridge. So, some important stuff taking place.

Dialogue:

I wanted to write down the dialogue because sometimes it's hard to focus on. Another disclaimer: just as with previous trailers, this dialogue may be spliced together. Even though it sounds like it's all happening in the same conversation, it might not be. Keep that in mind.

Most of this dialogue is heard as voiceovers while they show other scenes. You only see small clips of the characters actually saying these words. At the beginning, we have a conversation between Rick and Negan. It keeps going for a good part of the trailer:

Rick: it's been a while since we had one of these talks. It wasn’t long ago, we were fighting just to stay alive. But it's not like that anymore. We’re building. We’re growing. We're still ready to deal with this world on its own terms. No matter what happens, it's human nature to come together.

Negan: That's a pretty picture you're painting there, Rick. When do I get to see it?

Rick: Don’t you ever get tired of acting like you're still in charge?

Negan: Do you?

(We then hear Rick talking to Maggie. I’ll cover that in just a minute. Right after that, we hear one more line from Negan. Then the last part isn’t until almost the end of the trailer.)

Negan: You think you got this on lock. (It's after that that we start seeing a lot of the trouble in the group.)

(Near end of trailer.)

Negan: When it finally goes to shit, and it will, make sure you come back and tell me all about that date.

So a couple of interesting things about this. We don't actually seen Negan outside the cell in the trailer. That doesn't mean that we won't see him outside it during S9, as the trailer generally comprises only the first few episodes. But I think it may be safe to say that Negan won't get out of his cell before Rick's departure.

I'm also interested to see whether or not Rick comes back and talks to Negan again after this conversation, but before Rick "dies." I'm really looking too far ahead with this, but this strikes me as dialogue foreshadowing. So, if things fall apart, and then Rick comes back and tells Negan about them before he “dies,” then it's no big deal. A dialogue foreshadow that’s fulfilled a few episodes later.

But, if Rick doesn't come back and tell Negan about it, we’ll have a foreshadow that at some point, they're going to have another conversation. All I'm saying is that it's a foreshadow that may show that Rick isn’t really dead. At some point, he'll have to speak with Negan again.

Next conversation: Maggie and Rick.

Maggie: You said before, when we fought the Saviors, you were going to follow me. But you didn't, because I wasn't someone to follow. That changes now.

Right after that we see Maggie and Daryl walking along the road. This is kind of interesting. I think one of two things is going on here. I had to sit back and ask myself, why does Maggie think she wasn't someone to follow after AOW? The only reason I can think of is because she was being very vindictive about Negan. In a way, this suggests that she's let go of her hate for Negan and transcended it to become a better person and leader.

Do I think that's what's going on? I'm not sure. It's a possibility, but probably not. The way they set up her and Daryl in opposition to Rick last season would be wasted if she just changed her mind. So, it could be that this deception on Maggie’s part. Maybe she's trying to convince Rick that she's over hating Negan, but she's really not. It will be interesting to see where this goes.

This next stuff I’m giving you just so you can read it on your own. I don't have stuff to say about all of it.

Michonne: We need to think about starting to make some rules. An agreement between all the communities. Like, "this is how we treat each other, and this is what happens when we don't."

Daryl: That small group we had back in the beginning? We could do anything. That was right. This don't feel right, man.

 Kind of interesting that he's referencing the group back at the beginning. I don't know what it is that doesn't feel right to him, but I highly doubt it's just a matter of expanding communities. I think Daryl would be all about that, as long as none of them are a threat. So, we don't know what he's talking about here, and I'm excited to find out, but I think there's probably more to what he saying and what we’re seeing the trailer.

Rick: It's on us to figure out how to make it work.

Michonne: We don't know if they're ever going to forgive each other. Rick. If they can even move on.

Here, I think we may have some deception going on. As Michonne is saying this, we see a lot of the infighting between the groups. I'm not saying that there won't be fighting between the groups (I’ll discuss that more in a minute), but she very well could be talking about Maggie and Negan here. This is one of those times where I think they the trailer may be a little deceptive as to what she's actually referring to.

Carol: I just wanted to pull that trigger. And it before it began.

This seems to be about the infighting in the group. The fact that Carol didn't pull the trigger shows how much she's grown. Back in S6, she was extremely trigger-happy.

Rick: It's about all of us, together. Keep doing that and they'll see that were on the same side.

Again, more about the infighting.

Daryl: Are we on the same side, Rick?

Rick: Well, you tell me.

Okay, so let's talk about this infighting. I'm only seeing actual fights at two places. There's one in the tent city, in which Daryl hits that dude. And then we see Rosita leading one of two sides, and they come together and all start fighting. That seems to take place in the tent city as well. 

No way to tell exactly what's going on, but again, I'm just wondering if this is a little deceptive. This could be one event, one time, and not something that's ongoing. But it could be something ongoing as well. We just don't know. The other fight, I already mentioned on the bridge.

Now, as I said, I do think that there is some fighting going on. But it just may not be as big as the trailer wants us to believe. This picture is kind of interesting. They going to the Sanctuary and see this sign. It's interesting that it says, “We’re still Negan." (Emphasis mine).

It seems to me there's going to be a faction of saviors who is causing trouble. They don't want to follow Rick and Daryl, or else just don't want to cooperate with the other communities. So that could be where the fighting is coming from.

However, near the end of the trailer, we get these new characters. I'm wondering how they're going to fit in and if they cause the trouble.

By the way, this group screams Beth!

There’s this guy:

Notice how he's a music teacher. Then there's this gal. 

She's blonde (she may be the mysterious blonde that spoilers have been reporting), but her tattoo is really interesting. I don't think it’s actually a bird, but it looks like a wingspan. Then there's this woman who is deaf.

The person translating for her says, “she says she was a journalist, but she's just being modest." I'm wondering how you could be modest bu saying your journalist.

It also reminds me of Al in Fear. One of the main characters in Fear this season is a journalist. I wonder if there's a connection there.

Then there’s the translator herself. 

Check this out, guys. Her earring is a cross. It’s nearly identical to the one Beth wore around her wrist in Coda. 

I know I’ll get people wondering how on earth I noticed that. Go watch the trailer again. The light shimmers off the earring, highlighting it for an instant. That usually doesn’t happen by accident on camera. It CAN, but I think they went out of their way to make sure the viewer saw the earring in this scene.

And then the necklace. I can’t get a clearer picture because it gets blurry when you zoom in super-close, but that looks like a bird to me. Maybe a phoenix. Maybe an eagle. But I’m definitely see wings. See what I mean about this group screaming Beth?

Symbolism and Other Plot Points

There's tons of symbolism in the trailer, and I probably even missed a lot of it.

After going into the capitol, I believe this is Michonne walking on the glass floor. It's hard to tell from a still picture, but you can see walkers moving below it. 

Just kind of interesting given the Breaking Glass Theory. We don't actually see any broken glass in the trailer, but I'm wondering what will happen in the show. I mean, come on! This is TWD. Someone is bound to fall through that glass.

We also see the windmill that they wanted to build, and it says Commonwealth on it. Obviously that's a foreshadow for the Commonwealth. It also shows that they use the books Georgie gave them to help build these things. 

They put us like a scarecrow-walker on an X. I'm sure @wdway going crazy about that X. Here's the X theory. Remember that that's very significant. I'm not sure why, but they’re tying a walker to an X in a little cornfield, as though his functioning as a scarecrow.

There’s another cabin that Maggie is at. It looks a whole lot like the other cabins we’ve seen (moonshine shack, Ty’s cabin in 5x09, the Gov’s in 4b, Carol’s in S7, etc). So I’m interested to see what will happen there. It’s definitely teeming with walkers, 

and I think this picture of Cindi is from the same scene:

We see more of Jadis/Ann and the helicopter, which tptb already said we’d learn more about this season. We still have the three circles on the side. We saw them in some of the food Jadis/Ann had last season, and they often represent the Holy Trinity in Christian symbolism. 

Also notice the A on the side. So the A theme is alive and well in this helicopter. That gives us tons of hope that the chopper might relate to Beth in some way.

Then there’s this pic near Father Gabriel. I’m not sure who it is. My first thought is that it looks a LOT like Heath. So maybe whoever drew it has seen Heath around? Remember, they told us we wouldn’t learn his fate in S8 (true) but said we would after that. I’m not sure if they ever specifically confirmed that we’d learn about him in S9, but it would be cool if we did. Besides, the return of another missing character with so many parallels to Beth would be awesome. ;D

It also kinda looks like the blond woman in FG’s photo with the glasses in S5. You know, the one he saw as a walker in the food bank. So it’s always possible this is more of a FG-centric arc. But even if that’s the case, it’s specifically referencing something from S5. Just saying.

Another thing that really struck me about the setup for the beginning of S9 is how much it is like S4. The communities are growing, there's more people, they’re growing food, 

they’re expanding and building new things. 

This is very, very similar to what we saw at the beginning of season four. Even the fact that they’re riding horses is interesting. 

Remember in the beginning of S4, Michonne rode in on a horse. And that, too, made it into the trailer. Now we see both her and Rick riding horses in this trailer. Hmm.

Carzekiel lives! In the shot, we see them cuddling by the fire.

I know a certain ship is making a lot of Carol putting her head on Daryl’s shoulder, but once again, that's not romantic. It's obvious that she and Ezekiel are together. Because Daryl and Carol are so close, good friends, even bordering on a mother/son relationship, they will continue to do things like that. And it will never be romantic.

Jerry’s getting a love interest! Yea! That makes me so happy! ;D

Not sure what’s up with these birds, but I’m fairly sure it’s Rick, Michonne, and Judith staring up at them. Michonne is holding Judith on her hip.

Not sure what happens at the capitol but we have one pic of them working together to bring the wagon down the stairs. 

Then suddenly Daryl shoots a walker that’s in front of them. 

I’m thinking it may fall from the ceiling/roof, or something. (4x01/Big Spot, anyone?)

And then there’s Rick and Daryl on the motorcycle. Some have suggested this (Daryl being in front) foreshadows Daryl taking over as leader. I also noticed in this aerial shot, that another vehicle moves into the top of the shot at the last second. It honestly looks too small to be another car, so probably another motorcycle. They must be going to meet someone.

And then there’s this:

People are saying it looks like Rick’s boots and he’s staggering along and bleeding. I think I concur (who else could it be?), which means it’s probably involved in Rick’s “death” in some way.

But there are two reasons this is suspicious to me. 

1) Despite Andy confirming his departure, why would they put such a big moment in the trailer? 

2) If this is all we see of Rick’s departure, that’s really not going to satisfy me. Seeing him bleed (while scary) is not the same thing as seeing him die. So I’m still side-eyeing this.

There are also a lot of walker hordes featured in the trailer. I’m sure they have to do with Rick’s “death.”

Then there's Eugene and Rosita and the whispers. Definitely a creepy scene, we see at the end of them hiding from whispers. If you listen closely, you can hear someone whisper, "where are they?"

I was originally going to include my thoughts about the coda (that last scene with Rosita and Eugene), but this post is already hella long and I have a lot of thoughts about the coda and how it relates to Beth. So I’m going to make that a separate post. It’ll be posted either tomorrow or Wednesday.

Thanks so much for reading! Anything see anything I missed or interpret anything differently? Who’s excited for S9?!?!

[pattysfics]

A Hard Lesson to Learn pt. 5

(Sort of how I imagine Kali’s view.)

Warnings: nondescriptive vomiting. Dizziness. There is some language. Fluff towards the end?

A/N: This a filler chapter. I think things are going to be picking up here soon, just have to see where the story leads!! Thanks for reading! Comments, likes, reblogs are all appreciated!

Masterlist

Throbbing and pain that’s all she felt. She felt like her head was splitting in two. She groaned when she shifted slightly, and the pain kicked up a couple notches. She lay there on that mattress for a couple more moments trying to get her bearings in order. She flickered her eyes open and scrunched her eyes as the sunlight infiltrated her vision. “Damn,” she muttered.

She relaxed onto the mattress and sank into the comfort of the bed. A soft pillow was tucked under her head. She opened her eyes once more scanning the cell quickly. She was alone. What had happened?

Slowly, Kali sat up on the mattress. She had to steady herself stopping herself from falling over. The room was spinning. She propped herself up with her arms, her long legs stretching to the end of the mattress. She glanced back, and the left side of the pillow had blood smeared on it. Reaching up and grazing her head, she jerked pain shooting through her head. “Fucking hell,” she whispered.

Looking down a bottle of water sat beside the mattress along with a couple little blue pills in a little plastic cup.  She popped the cap off the water and tossed the pills into her mouth, swallowing them with a swig of water. Gulping down a couple more drinks of water, she sighed twisting the cap back on the bottle.

She sat back against the wall careful not to make her head hit against the wall. Looking out the window, she saw the blue clear skies and the top of white fluffy clouds as they glided across the sky. She watched for a little while, watching nature as it worked before glancing around the cell again.

Jerking her head back towards the cell door, her eyes went wide at the sight of the cell door open. She had to shut her eyes to stave off the nausea that came on suddenly. After taking a minute to gather herself, she once again looked towards the cell door. Was this a joke?

Kali pushed herself off her bed and shakily stood to her feet. Dizziness took over and Kali rushed to the bucket in the room and emptied the contents of her stomach in the gray pail. Heaving into the pail a couple more times, Kali emptied her stomach completely. Spitting into the bucket one last time, Kali brought her hand to her mouth and wiped away remnants of her episode.

Standing to her feet, she took a few shaky steps toward the cell door. Slowly she pushed it the rest of the way open. The door creaked open causing Kali to wince pulling away from the door. Everything made her hurt. Taking a couple shaky steps out of the cell, Kali had one hand hold the cell door and the other shielding her eyes. Maybe she should run up those steps and probably get caught by Rick or someone or maybe she should wait it out and see what they had planned. She didn’t remember what had happened down here a day ago, a couple days ago? She didn’t know.

Taking in the stairs that led to the house, the bottom stair caught her attention. There was a chip missing from the bottom stair and blood was dried on it. So, there was the missing piece of the puzzle. Her head, that stair, and now here. She rolled her eyes. Those damn Alexandrians don’t know how to leave shit alone. What had she done besides get into that one scuffle with Mitch and Tommy?

She took one last look at that stairs. The want to run up the stairs and try to get away was overbearing but given her current state, Kali decided against it. If this was just a test, then maybe she’d pass with flying colors earning a little sliver of freedom and trust from Rick.

She sighed as she walked slowly back into the cell. Her one chance at freedom vaporized into thin air because she decided the risk was not worth the reward. Slowly she made her way across the cell to the back wall. Sliding down she felt the concrete bricks nip at her back through her clothes. She’d just wait.

She waited and waited against the wall for Rick to come for her. Finally, when she was just starting to doze off when the door at the top of the stairs opened and softly shut. She heard the stairs creak under the weight of the person and a small smirk graced her face. “Hey there Rick,” she slurred once the curly-headed man was standing in the open cell door. “I bet you didn’t expect to see me here.”

The man continued to stare at her. His eyes locked on hers. “You just sit here all day with the door open,” he asked after a few moments.

“Nah, Rick. Ya see I tried my best to convince myself to walk my merry ass up that stairs but I didn’t want to fall and hurt myself. Especially since I have absolutely zero fucking idea what when down here that left me with a splittin’ headache. Would you be so kind and to tell me,” she asked him sarcastically. “Cause from what I saw there’s a nice little chunk of that bottom stair missing and a nice gash right here on my head that gives it away plain as day. You need to control your people prick.”

Rick put his hands on his hips looking down at the floor for a quick second before looking back at her. “You feel alright?”

“Got a massive splittin’ headache. Sorta double vision since there are two of you,” she laughed. “Kind of dizzy when I stand up or try to walk so no Rick I am not feeling alright. Thanks for asking though,” she jested.

Rolling his eyes Rick walked deeper into the cell until he was standing in front of her. Her heart rate increased as he walked closer. “Are you here to finish me off? There won’t be much of a fight so just do it.” To her surprise, when Rick bent down to grab her, he grabbed under her arm and slowly raised her to her feet. He put her arm around his shoulder. “Where are we going, Rick?”

“Can you please shut up for two minutes,” he pleaded. Slowly and gently Rick helped her out the cell and up the stairs. He pushed the door open with his free arm and the scent of home-made food wafted through Kali’s nostrils like a bullet fired from a gun. He helped her over to the table and sat her down in the wooden chair before going towards the stove grabbing a bowl and filling it with food.

When Rick placed the bowl in front of her, Kali just looked at it. Watching the steam rise off the food, her mouth watering in anticipation. “It’s not going to hurt ya,” Rick said cutting through her thoughts. She raised her eyes to look at the man as he leaned against the counter his arms crossed watching her.

Shakily, Kali lifted the spoon that sat beside the bowl and it clinked against it. Swallowing down the first spoon fun, Kali let out a moan. “Mmmmm. Good stuff right here Rick. You didn’t poison it did you?”

Rick rolled his eyes. “Do you want me to take it away,” he asked.

Kali shook her head no as she continued to shovel the food down. “Did you make this or was it in a can? Please tell me you cooked it. Ricky pricky making me food. How cute,” she teased.

“Yep.  You’re done,” Rick said walking over to her to grab the bowl. To his astonishment the bowl was empty.

She grinned at him as he put the bowl in the sink. “Damn that was good. After a month or so of eating peanut butter sandwiches, I needed that.” Softly chuckling, Rick walked around the kitchen making his way over to her once more.

He gently grabbed her raising her from the chair. He felt her stiffen once he put her arm back around his shoulder. “Guess it’s time to go back to jail,” she said dejectedly once Rick had her on her feet. To her surprise, Rick didn’t guide her down the stairs toward her cell instead he took her around the house towards another set of stairs. The same ones that Rick had taken her up when she took her shower. “I don’t really feel like a shower right now Rick. Thanks for the offer though. Maybe tomorrow.”

Rick ignored her as he walked them slowly up the stairs being mindful of Kali’s dizziness. Once they made it to the top, he pushed the door open at the end of the hall. He sat her down on the bed shucking her arm off his shoulder. “This is your room. Do whatever ya want. Sleep, shower, use the bathroom, I don’t care. I’ll see you tomorrow,” he told her before heading to the door.

Just when he was about to shut it, he heard Kali call to him. “Hey Rick…thanks,” she said quietly. Rick nodded his head before shutting the door. She heard the ‘click’ of the lock being turned causing her to smile a little bit. She decided against a shower. Instead, she eased out of her clothes letting them pile in a pool beside the bed.

She slid under the cover relishing in the warmth from a comforter instead of a thin paper-like sheet. Her throbbing laid on a soft pillow causing her to sigh. She could shower tomorrow. Tonight, all she wanted was a good night rest. Closing her eyes, she faded into sleep.

---------

I’M SORRY IF THE KEEP READING TAB ISN’T WORKING...IT WORKS ON THE COMPUTER JUST NOT MOBILE. 

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[cookiedoughmeagain]

Haven DVD Commentaries: 5.09 - Morbidity

5.09 - commentary with Speed Weed (writer of this episode) and Adam Higgs (writer of the next episode)

[This isn’t necessarily word-for-word but hopefully captures the spirit of their discussions.]

SW: We’ve been out of the writers room now for four months and I really miss the show. AH: It feels like a world ago.

AH: There’s Charlotte Cross who went through numerous name changes SW: Oh my god, she was Olivia and all sorts of other names. AH: Carly for a while

AH: This flash-back sequence [Dave’s dream] was a very late add if I recall SW: It was. During prep, we added this in. AH: This was shot second unit with Shawn Pillar. And one thing I’d say about Croatoan is we had two writers who went to UNC and so are very close to the Croatoan legend SW: That’s Brian Millikin and Nick Parker AH: So we checked in with them a lot. This is a longer flashback than I remembered.

AH: If I recall, this is the back room of the Haven Herald? [Where Dave wakes up in the camp bed surrounded by bicycles and typewriters] SW: That’s right. Good old John Dunsworth. He’s a Halifax native, multi-generation. AH: And this was interesting because we had been playing with the idea of Dave, and ‘what is Dave?’ for quite a long time. So we were seeding things for 26 episodes really. SW: Yeah it gets pretty big towards the end

SW: And this scene [Audrey, Nathan and Dwight outside the Gull], my hat goes off to Emily and Lucas because they really wanted this scene. This scene had a lot of business in it at first, and they said; We have this chance to just see Audrey and Nathan just be normal with each other. And it was such a great idea and it was so much fun to write, so I really thank them for giving that suggestion. AH: It’s amazing how beautiful things look. We’re recording this commentary now in March and looking at the news at the moment there are blizzards there. And it’s so summery and gorgeous on screen.

AH: And here’s Laura Mennell [as Charlotte Cross] who I got to work with on another show, Republic of Doyle, so this was fun. SW: We’ve thought in many seasons of Haven, about how the town of Haven protects its secrets, the Troubles, from the outside world. And we’d played with things getting covered up by the Teagues and the Haven Herald and the way they white wash everything in the local press. But we really got enamoured this season with really blowing it out and having someone much powerful come in looking into it, and here we are with someone from the CDC. If of course, that’s who she really is. AH: It’s interesting because this kicks off a story line that runs until the end of the season; this idea of exposure and what does that mean.

SW: Oh yes, all the Mara stuff in these two episodes. I’d forgotten. AH: Oh yes! You did a great job with that. SW: Well, god bless Emily for playing those two roles. I think she had a lot more fun with Mara than she did with Audrey at this point. AH: I think it was nice for her to have a completely different character to live within for a couple episodes instead of just those one offs. And Adam Copeland; it was so fun to introduce a love interest for him.

AH: One of the interesting things we talked about with these episodes is how it’s much easier to hide something a hundred years ago when you didn’t have the internet, news the next, voice recorders, video recorders. SW: YouTube AH: Exactly, so now - how do you keep this stuff hidden?

SW: Ah and here we get to the bears. We had lots of discussions about the bears. The issue was that we needed our people to stop Charlotte from figuring out what was going on in Haven. But that interest of theirs couldn’t trump people dying. So we had to have a Trouble that was clearly a Trouble, clearly supernatural, but where we weren’t dropping a body every act. So that we wouldn’t part ways with our main characters as their primary target is to keep Charlotte from working out what’s going on. So we came up with the bears. There was a lot of discussion as to whether they would be creepy enough, in a Stephen King way. I hope we pulled it off. AH: I think so, in spades. I personally find them super creepy and unsettling.

SW: So that’s in Lunenberg [the outside of the police station], and that’s in Chester [inside the station]. Outside and inside about 40 miles apart. [As Dave is introducing the idea of Chris Brody] AH: I thought you did a great job here, coming up with a plausible, logical answer for what’s going on with Dave. And that’s one of the things I always like; when the backstopping actually makes sense. SW: And we like bringing back old stars from the show. Jason Priestley, it was great to have him back. AH: And this was a good bit of work you did here because, Chris is on Skype but his Trouble is still active here. SW: Right, as long as you can see him. Although we ended up shooting him in an office that also had a brick wall. I hope it doesn’t look like he’s in the next room; he’s not. He’s supposed to be miles away, and he’s actually shot thousands of miles away. Am I allowed to say where? AH: I’m giving a headshake here. But what is interesting here is, Charlotte Cross (if you watch until the end of the first half of this season) is immune to the Troubles. SW: That’s right. So she’s faking. AH: She’s playing another, deeper layer here. SW: That’s true. She is playing susceptibility to the Troubles. Pretty clever of her. AH: Pretty smart. SW: Jason Priestley was such a friendly guy. I really enjoyed meeting him and working with him. Very smart too. AH: And when you filmed his section, you guys got that done in like, 10 minutes it felt like. SW: We did

AH: One of my favourite things that you did in this episode Speed is that Dwight has to cover up the Troubles, but at the same time he sees this woman as someone who, if he didn’t have to be covering stuff up, he would want to go to for help. He respects her. SW: He does, yeah AH: I thought that was such an interesting interplay SW: Adam played it really well.

SW: Really got to shout out to our director Rick for these two episodes who did a great job with these shots with the bears. There were a lot of challenges to shooting this bear and he did a great job. None of this was scripted; Audrey looking into the costume or Nathan gets behind the gash in the head. AH: I remember when we were casting the guy in the bear suit, part of the audition was the jig itself, the little dance. So we had a whole bunch of different jigs to choose from. SW: Yeah and a whole bunch of different bear costumes to choose from. Which was actually a bit of a challenge because, like clowns, bear costumes are often copyrighted. So we had to find ones that didn’t have an existing IP AH: Now what happened to that bear costume? SW: Oh I don’t know. That’s a good question. There was a whole auction of Haven stuff in December. AH: I’ve heard that someone we might know is maybe in possession of this bear costume, but I’m not going to say who. [As Nathan is moving one of the bears around] SW: We don’t get a chance much on Haven to do keystone cops routines but this was fun. AH: I thought you did a great job of mixing humour in with the creepy moments.

SW: The boat that was the Cape Rouge sank in January, a little over a year ago, before we started shooting any of season five. Which is why you may notice there are no deck shots of the Rouge in this season, sadly. Just the interior of the hold here, which is a set AH: Was this Emily’s real hair here? [where she’s having a shower] SW: I can’t remember, there was a whole discussion about it, was it going to be the wig that got wet, but I can’t remember. AH: There are these things that you write into the script without realising and then it becomes really hard to shoot. And then sometimes the stuff you expect to be hard to shoot is easy. Like, getting her hair wet, really? [Because Emily wears a wig as Mara]. And this was a bit of a mirror of an earlier scene in the series, right? In the pilot. SW: Oh, where Audrey was knocked out? Yeah. AH: And Duke changed her clothes.

SW: Oh and here’s the Gull. The Gull was everyone’s least favourite place to shoot, for the crew, because it’s a very small piece of property and there are no real toilets just portajohns, but I love shooting there. It’s just gorgeous, such a beautiful view of the water. Of course, a writer on set has not a lot to do when the cameras aren’t rolling. So you spend a good portion of your day just looking out across the water, which is fine by me.

AH: I like this little romance you’ve got going on here between Charlotte and Dwight. SW: And that you develop in the next episode AH: It’s nice to have these small little moments amid the tension of what’s going on.

[As we see someone in the Gull getting ill with the mystery sickness] SW: Adam and I stayed late one night and watched Contagion. AH: Very informative.

SW: I love Jayne [Eastwood who plays Gloria]. She was a lot of fun to work with AH: The relationship that develops, in this episode and on into the future, between Gloria and Charlotte has also been one of the fun things to deal with SW: That’s true. Looking at this it feels like so long ago we were working on this.

AH: This is a great shift between Emily playing Audrey in the last scene and playing Mara here. It’s like night and day; it looks like a different actress. SW: Yeah. She really looks like she’s having fun in these scenes. This was a long time coming; we really, really wanted to get Duke and Mara on the same page, and these are the two episodes that really do it. The hitching post between the two episodes is the moment where it happens. This episode is about her getting him on her side, and episode 10 is about what happens then AH: Yeah and it really kicks off for the half season finale of where this is all going. And those Duke and Mara scenes I found a lot of fun to write. There’s something nice and bad about them. SW: Yep. He’s our bad boy. They are birds of a feather. I owe a lot of credit to Adam [Higgs] here, Mara’s predictions about what’s going to happen next were his idea. I think they came out of a West Wing episode? AH: Yeah I owe a lot to Aaron Sorkin for that. SW: It really worked.

[As Duke comes out to talk to Dwight and Charlotte outside the Gull] AH: This is a fun scene, and again just the moments of humour inbetween the jeopardy and the stakes that are ratcheting up. *laughs at Duke’s ‘No’* SW: There’s a New York plate on Charlotte’s prius - do you remember how long we talked about where her car was from? AH: Yeah, and then in a later episode we had to really concentrate on the GPS and the location of where she started from

SW: Ah the bubble Trouble [James Banks] AH: Did we end up bringing this Trouble back, in later episodes SW: We talked about it, because of course all hell breaks loose, but no - his Trouble doesn’t go into Duke, so. AH: Oh you’re right, it doesn’t. That was always an interesting thing; which Troubles go into Duke, which ones didn’t.

AH: I remember we changed the act structure of these two episodes a lot, even to the extent of changing when episode 10 would start SW: Yeah, it shifted back and forth, more than usual with these two episodes AH: I think a lot of that was due to the fact there’s so much tension and so many high points where you could go off on

[Audrey talking to the Troubled woman about her bears] SW: These scenes feel so season one or two of Haven. We got so serialised, we didn’t have a lot of time for long curse-whispery scenes, so this was a really nice little throwback. AH: It’s such a tragic curse, the mechanism of it is so sad. We don’t actually see Hank’s Trouble though [her husband] SW: Yeah can anyone guess what his Trouble is? We wrestled with that for a long time, but ended up cutting the scene in which it was revealed.

AH: The symptoms of the sickness changed as well SW: Oh that’s right; it was more of a conjunctivitis thing for a long time. But it turned out that was really hard for them to produce in a way that was cool looking, and lips turned out to be easier for production AH: And it looks great; creepy, but not too supernatural

AH: Was it the table read for this episode where Emily went back and forth between Audrey and Mara? SW: Yeah, it’s the phone call coming up AH: It was fantastic SW: She didn’t have to do it on the day because the scenes were shot on two different days, but for the table read - well we’ll get there in a minute

AH: There’s a nice breaking up of the group in this episode where we see them in different pairs [e.g. Dwight and Nathan working together]. And also the way at the start of the episod they’re having nice drinks on the patio, everything’s copasetic, and by the end of the episode … SW: They’re pretty shattered. It’s true. AH: These episodes really ratcheted things up towards the season finale.

SW: When did we move sets? AH: Oh, when was that? I think it was soon after this. Was it episode 11 that was the last episode we were able to use the police station for quite a while. SW: So, for all of these seasons we’ve shot in a hockey rink in Chester, Nova Scotia. And because we only shot 13 episodes we could start in May and wrap by September. And I only have this by hearsay so forgive me if I’m wrong, but as I understand it the good people of Chester wanted their hockey rink back when it became hockey season. Well, you can speak to that because you’re Canadian AH: We love hockey. SW: So come September we had to … or was it earlier than that? AH: I think it was August, we had to take the sets down, SW: Yeah and re-build them in a new space in Halifax, Nova Scotia. So the sets were taken down in Chester, moved 40 miles to Halifax and put back up; light it and you’ll never know the difference. So the police station here in this episode and the police station later in, say 5.23 - same set, but in a completely different building [and town!] AH: And that was kind of interesting. Because there’s not a lot of sound stages up in Halifax. There’s one, and it’s always in use. So having to find old properties to repurpose - like a hockey rink - and what we ended up using after that was an old hardware store that was closed down for some reason, that ended up becoming our new studio. It’s kind of fun. SW: And the hockey rink was fun. I’d never seen anything like that. Like, the props guys they didn’t have a props warehouse, they just put the props on the bleachers of the hockey rink, all round; 360 degrees around the stages. [Adam talks a bit about the popularity of hockey in Canada and how much in demand time on the ice would be; AH: They’ll open at like three, just to cram people in, and then close at like midnight or something. SW: Three in the morning?!? AH: Yeah. It’s our religion] SW: I think the crew were happy to go back to Halifax, most of them were Halifax based. And the crew, I think especially when it got cold, were happy to be in a big city. Chester is a lovely small town, but when it starts to get cold, it closes down for the winter and there’s not much to do.

SW: So here’s the scene where Emily talks to Emily [Mara talks to Audrey] and what you’re watching here, one side of this is shot on one day and the other three or four days later. So Emily can be entirely Audrey on one day and entirely Mara on another. But at the table read, she was playing both parts and she was just terrific. I wish I had a recording of it. AH: It was fantastic, the back and forth. SW: And it was so fast, and so distinct. It’s fun, and I like the way that Rick [the director] lined up the eyeline; they’re both looking in the same direction, so it kind of reinforces the fact it’s the same person. AH: Yeah all these nice little touches. Oh yeah and here we get the “Audrey Husk” for the first time. Which carried through well, it’s such a good analogy SW: I like how makeup did their eyebrows different; it really works

AH: This was an interesting thing too of ; What if Audrey can’t fix a Trouble? She can’t talk the person down. It’s the first time we’ve seen this where there may actually not be an answer. And there used to be a sequence where we saw Audrey drive out of town to try to get the bears out of town. SW: Yeah, we had in our mind that Hank had the cake eating Trouble, that he was related to the woman from … whatever episode that was. One of our favourite Troubles.

SW: And there the conflict starts [Duke and Dwight arguing in the morgue]. We really wanted to blow up the relationships between our three men. And there’s intern, Vickie, played by Molly Dunsworth who is also our stand in. She lights each scene. She first appeared in Sketchy and she’s just so good we keep using her. Even after bad things happen to her. AH: I just did a commentary with Lucas the other day, where we got to see that scene of her in the future, and it was great, she’s a great actress. It’s nice to see the different shades of Vickie through out the series.

AH: I just love that Charlotte Cross always comes in at the worst possible time SW: Keystone cops. Matt pointed it out, that you’ve actually got the structure of a farce except it’s not a farce.

[As Charlotte is making her way from the morgue to the Herald, on the phone trying to call for backup] SW: We tried to get Stephen King-y here, where she’s stuck in a small town and everybody starts, on a dime, to turn ominous. AH: We originally had a souvenir shop which I thought was super creepy SW: With sea shells and wind chimes and stuff like that AH: Wind chimes, in my opinion one of the spookiest things

[After a gap in the commentary, as Duke, Dwight and Nathan are arguing in the street] SW: I’m sorry we should be talking, I’m listening. I’d forgotten this fight, it’s a lot of fun AH: It’s such a good fight, and they do a great job here. SW: It’s funny, there are a lot of leading men in the world who are short. Lucas is not short; he just happens to be paired with two guys who are pretty big, Adam in particular.

SW: Alright, thanks for listening. We’re going to get some pizza then we’ll be back for 5.10.

[diyunho]

The Joker x Reader - “Devil”

When The Joker is imprisoned in a nameless hell, what will happen when he meets one of its demons?

Part 1: http://diyunho.tumblr.com/post/151416246506/the-joker-x-reader-9-part-1

Part 2: http://diyunho.tumblr.com/post/151783396461/the-joker-x-reader-9-part-2

You walk fast on the almost deserted street. The snow storm seems to get worse by the second but you don’t feel the cold or the snowflakes melting on your face. You hear the tires screeching right before you turn the corner on the lonely alley and don’t even bother to look back; probably another accident in this accursed weather, why should you care?

After a few more steps you hear his voice behind you:

“Hey!!”

You immediately stop and slowly turn around, feeling your heart sink.

“Hey, do I know you?” The Joker approaches, getting closer and closer. You don’t move, you wait for him to get in front of you and don’t say anything.

“You’re not scared,” he growls, tilting his head and carefully analyzing you. “Do you know who I am?”

How is this possible?! you think to yourself, astonished, missing him so much you totally ignore Her when She starts to get agitated; She sure doesn’t like him.

“Who are you, hmm?” J asks again and you rush in his arms and hug him tight, taking him by surprise. He is amazed he didn’t push you away yet; The Joker definitely doesn’t like to be touched by strangers. But you feel so familiar that he unconsciously hugs you back, confused, not knowing why he’s behaving so strange:

“Who are you?” he snarls, inhaling your scent.

You caress his green hair for a few seconds, watching the snow melting on your fingertips, wanting to cry and struggling to control Her from hurting him.

“I’m the Devil,” you whisper in his ear, sensing his grip around your waist getting tighter. It’s so hard to let him go. You kiss his cheek and back out just enough to stare in his blue eyes:

“Forget about us,” you utter and J blinks fast a few times, looking left and right, not understanding what the hell he’s doing out of the car in the crazy weather on a street he doesn’t recognize. The snow keeps on falling and he touches his cheek, puzzled, feeling he forgot something very important.

**********************

First time he kissed you it was in the elevator, going up to the penthouse. You didn’t fight it at all and She yanked your hand away from his neck, startled.

“Stop it!” you muttered, frowning. “Not you,” you smiled when The Joker gave you an inquiring look. “Her.” He grinned and kissed you again and She started screaming with that outwardly high pitch that made the lights flicker and the whole building shake. J had to distance himself from you and cover his ears. She scratched his face, crazed by jealousy, and he winced in pain, annoyed.

“I told you not to touch him!” you scolded Her, tracing the cuts on his pale skin with your finger, making them disappear.

“Jesus, kiddo, She sure hates me,” he smirked, pulling you back in his arms, pleased to make Her lose control.

“You know She is very possessive, She can’t really help it,” you wanted to remind him even if you didn’t have to.

“Oh, I can understand that,” he pretended to sympathize when in fact he had no clue about the meaning of the word and you knew it.

Once you got up to the penthouse he dragged you in the living room, despite Her breaking as many objects as She could in her rampage, in the same time not daring to do too much because She also hates it when you are upset.

“I have to get ready for tonight, would you help me get my stuff together?” he asked, impatient, getting the explosives from behind the couch.

“Ahhh, you don’t need all those, you know you can do whatever you want. If you get caught again, I’ll find you in a heartbeat, like I always do,” you smiled, pleased there is nothing anyone can do to stop you.

“Because I glow in your darkness?” he suddenly turned towards you, biting his lip, stopping his project with a little thought in his mind.

“U-hum,” you agreed, watching him step aside and approach with that spark in his eyes:

“Show me, kiddo! Can you do that? I wanna see. You keep on telling that’s why you save me from that hell 6 months ago. Coooome on, can you show me?”

You debated for a few moments, frowning at his demand but you decided to humor him:

“If you insist, Mister J,” you signaled him to close his eyes and warned before you started:

“It’s going to hurt!” “A-ha, like I’m not accustomed to pain,” he scoffed, bringing his face close to yours and waited. You cupped his cheeks, your eyes turned white, shinning so strongly he had to close his.

“I told you to close them,” you sighed. Finally he did as told and after a few seconds he gasped, amazed:

“Oh my God, kiddo, is that me?!”

“It is,” you smiled, kind of relieved J got to witness what you see in the Void.

“You weren’t joking when you said I’m the only one that lights up that blackness. Wow,” he grinned and let himself go in that warm embrace he felt. “You look even more gigantic and scarier on the other side. That IS YOU, isn’t it? Right in front of me, maybe 20 feet tall?”

“Of course it’s me, who else?” you chuckled, kind of intrigued he still wasn’t scared by how She appears in Her world: just like a demon from hell, towering over everything with that menacing demeanor.

“You are so much darker than any of those gray, formless shapes, you’re easy to spot,” The Joker purred and you took your hands away, breaking the connection.

“That would be enough,” you mumbled, wiping his bloody nose and he reopened his blue eyes with an aching expression on his face.

“I feel like the train hit me, kiddo,” he deeply inhaled, cracking his shoulders.

“I told you it would hurt,” you wiped more blood, shaking your head in disapproval because he sure is stubborn. He snorted, almost choking in his own blood and you decided to heal him. You touched his forehead and the pain went away instantly; the bleeding stopped too. “There, better?”

“Definitely,” J growled and leaned over to kiss you again, completely addicted to that euphoria you made him feel so intensely. “You told me you weren’t born like this. How did you get your powers? Are you ever going to tell me, Mrs. Flag?” he pulled apparat from your lips, grinding his silver teeth.

You slapped him, irritated at his transgression:

“Don’t ever call me that again!”

He started laughing like crazy and hugged you tight while you squirmed to escape and She pulled on his hair, antagonized, thinking you’re in danger. What She really wanted to do was snap his neck but you probably wouldn’t have approved such thing. The Joker ignored the threat.

“I should kill you for what you did, kiddo,” he whispered and your reply confirmed what he already guessed:

“Go ahead and try, I can’t die!” you hissed at him, pouting, resting your head on his chest. “Do you think I didn’t try myself when I first got Her?”

The Joker stroked your long hair and didn’t expect you to get so pissed that you showed him what happened without any forewarning; it hit him like a brick wall.

**You revealed to him the lab and all those important military officials waiting on the other side of the thick glass wall, the countdown going backwards faster and faster. You were wearing your white lab coat and kept on thinking: one year of hard work, the experiment better succeed! You were sure it would but were still nervous. Rick being there made it better. He winked at you without anybody noticing and you pretended not to see. “…5,4,3,2,1,0.  Opening interdimensional portal,” the computer’s voice coldly announced and they all got up from their seats, watching fascinated as the colorful vortex got wider and wider. You were so happy tears rolled down your face and gulped when you noticed the smoke and ashes coming through the portal. You backed out towards the door, having a bad feeling about it. Before you could make another move the ground started trembling with such intensity you had to fight to stay on your feet. When She first materialized in that out-worldly, terrifying and sinister form, your heart stopped.

All the people headed towards the exit, panicking and you slowly turned your back on Her, paralyzed in fear, shaking like a leaf and waiting for your husband to open up the door so you can run. You barely got the strength to faintly knock on the glass with your wedding band:

“R-Rick…o-open up, p-please. I want t-to get out… Rick!” you yelled, seeing him walking backwards.

“I can’t, Y/N, that thing… will get out,” he muttered, distressed, thinking that some walls were able to stop Her.

Your eyes widened with shock and he watched in horror as the black smoke filled the room until he couldn’t see you anymore. When you cried out for help he couldn’t take it any longer and opened the seal, rushing inside and frantically searching the room for you. Too late, you were gone. **

Once what you showed him stopped, The Joker collapsed on his knees, struggling to breathe, unable to think straight. He started coughing out blood, dizzy and confused after the strong impact of your powers on his mortal body. He took out his gun from his holster and shot you a few times. You just rolled your eyes and helped him up, Her silver blood dripping from your wounds, already starting to heal.

“Nice try, I told you I can’t die; are you mad at me?” you snickered and J looked at you with so much hate, slapping your hand away when you tried to touch him again.

“I…I don’t need your help,” he slurred his words, not being in control making him so angry his temples twitched.

“You wanted to see so I showed you, why are you mad?” you started giggling at his entitled behavior. “If you don’t let me fix you, you’ll be dead in 20 minutes. You wanna die?” He just grumbled something not very nice while he felt Her terrorizing presence all around him once more.

“Here, stop acting childish,” you forced your arms around his neck, attempting to reason with him. The Joker gave in, still angrily glaring at you but you weren’t impressed. He felt so hot and then so cold he shivered in your embrace. “There, you’re good now. You’re welcome from saving you from certain death. Still don’t want to talk to me?” you lifted his chin up, entertained by his certainly not boring personality and temper.

“No!”

“Good, because you always talk too much anyway,” you made fun of him and he grouchily kicked your ankle. “I know exactly what would make you like me again,” you muttered in his ear, being in the mood for some playful things. “Have you ever been with a metahuman before?”

“No!” he bitterly answered, pretending not to give a damn but you knew he was bluffing.

“Interested?” you seductively traced his jaw line and brushed your lips on his, almost bursting out laughing at his antiques:

“NO!!!!”

“Why are you squeezing me so hard then?”

“I don’t know!” J complained, lifting you up in his arms and you wrapped your legs around his waist, admonishing Her for wanting to murder him on the spot:

“I want him so stop it!” She was so jealous She cracked the windows and screeched, alarmed, not liking the fact that he’s taking you out on the balcony without you protesting. She could never understand such things, even if She had that human part of you.

** “Fuck, kiddo, that was awesome,” he panted, resting his forehead on yours, trying to catch his breath. “It feels like I will have a stroke soon,” he trapped your naked body against the wall when you attempted to get away.

“Are you OK?” you chuckled, moving your hands up and down his back, making sure to leave a few scratches you didn’t want to heal.

“Aww, I am more than OK, kiddo,” he started to kiss your neck, his hot lips on your slightly sweaty skin giving you goosebumps.

“What good is to have powers if you don’t use them, right? Aren’t you glad I intensified your… experience?” you moaned in ecstasy and stopped Her just in time when She tried to break his neck, resentful you enjoyed him so much. The Joker didn’t even notice and had no idea how close he was to death that time.

“I want this again,” he lustfully purred, anticipating that amazing sensation you could make him enjoy once more.

“Even if you’ll have a stroke?” you sarcastically inquired.

“Like you would let that happen to me,” J grinned, full of himself, aware he got under your skin.

“You just never know when you’ll rub me the wrong way and…” “Am I rubbing you the wrong way now?” he impatiently interrupted, lifting you up more so he can feel you better.

“You’re so bad,” you giggled, ticklish, getting lost in his blue eyes.

***********************

No matter where they locked him away, he would always disappear in the first night of incarceration, despite the tough security or how well hidden the place was. Nobody knew how it happened because there were no witnesses left behind. EVER. Only dead bodies- most of them mutilated- and destroyed surveillance cameras, impossible to retrieve information from even in digital content. So strange.

Rumors started spreading and the search for The Joker escalated, especially since it was said there was a metahuman protecting him. Very classified information, of course, only available to those with a high military clearance level. And The Prince Of Crime became even more ruthless, merciless and reckless, inflicting his will and terror upon Gotham and other cities, because he knew there will never be any consequences for his actions. He had YOU and for the first time in his life, that’s all he needed.

J was even more pursued, hunted and chased but he fully enjoyed every second; it was a life style it suited him so perfectly. And you were aware he now was truly one of the most wanted criminals because of his connection to you also. How badly the government and other parties would have loved to have you on their side! But you didn’t want to be on anyone’s side; you just wanted HIM, the only one that was lighting up Her darkness, crazy enough to keep up with you because he knew he was untouchable,truly above ALL, especially in your eyes and it made him feel…something he couldn’t name.

And the night came that made you take that painful decision.

The whole tower collapsed while he was inside the penthouse, waiting for you to come back because She wanted to kill and you couldn’t refuse Her fun. You felt it and came back in an instant, pulling him out from under the rubble, upset that he was on the verge of dying, every single bone of his body broken to pieces. You started to heal him and he clenched his fists, whimpering, a few tears streaming down his pale cheeks while you could hear the snaps of his body being mended back together.

“Ssssttttt, rest,” you caressed his face with the back of your hand, barking at Her:

“Keep him asleep! If he wakes up he could die from the shock and pain! I know you want that but it’s not going to happen, do you hear me?!”

The Joker’s body relaxed, falling back into his dreamless trance when you heard Rick’s voice and you lifted your gaze to watch him walk towards you with his hands up in surrender.

“Hi, Y/N…”  

“Did you do this?!” you got up, enraged and Rick watched you transformed again as you stepped over The Joker’s body, disappearing under her frightening shape. He looked up to Her, those ethereal glowing orbs and formless mouth screaming, making his skin crawl. You were even scarier and taller than last time he saw you. The earth started to move and he heard your voice amidst the chaos you started:

“You’re not taking him!!! I’ll burn the world if I have to!!!! You’re not taking him!!!” And She approached your former husband, desiring to smash him with Her strength.

“It didn’t give the order but I couldn’t stop it either. I’m here for old time’s sake,” he gulped, taking out his dog tag from under his heavy gear, showing you your wedding ring and his on the same chain.

“LIAR!” She stomped and he grasped that all his military training won’t do any good in this situation.

Rick let go of the chain and lifted his hands up again:

“The government really wants you, and him. He is in the spotlight because of you. You made him even more wanted than he was. We have metahumans on our side; can you fight an army and more like you? How strong do you think She is, hmm? Friendly advice: if you want him to be safer, stay away. I know you can heal him, but he is just human, how much do you think his body can take? How long before he gets killed, even with your protection? Stay away!” he tried to be the brave soldier that he is, feeling the strength of Her scorching heat burning everything around, ashes and smoke raining down all over.

“YOU DARE????!!!!!” She shouted so loud the ground cracked: “Are you testing US?” then you spoke again:

“I can see all of them waiting for your signal to attack, honey,” you emphasized the word, irked he dares pretending to care, like you wouldn’t sniff his treachery from a mile away. “So many of them, you are right about that…Do you remember what I told you last time I saw you? If we ever meet again, I’ll let her kill you! DO IT, HE’S YOURS!” He backed out, trying to make a run for it but he couldn’t escape Her hate: he burned like a torch, screaming in agony before he was able to give them the signal. You snatched the Joker away and disappeared before they were aware of what happened.

You took him to one of his safe hideouts and kept him asleep for the rest of the night. But you knew Rick was right: J was more of a target because of you. They would have probably loved to cut him up to pieces and study each one under the microscope to see the changes you inflicted on him, especially with how many times he was healed.

You snuggled with him under the covers, being so heartbroken it almost felt you had a human soul again. 

“I’ll turn their attention towards me more, don’t worry, I’ll always protect you. I’ll keep them away,” you kept on whispering, caressing his face and he sighed in his sleep. “I’ll burn the world for you if I have to,” you leaned over and kissed him over and over again, not wanting to leave. “Forget about us,” was the last thing you said to him before you vanished in thin air. After a few seconds he opened his eyes and moved to the side of the bed, restless, unconsciously touching his lips, having the dreadful feeling he forgot something very important.

*************************

He walks towards the end of the alley, confused, dragging his feet in the deep snow. The wind amplifies, making his green hair blow over his face and he fights to keep it in place, thinking of what he might have forgot about: A meeting? A plan to kill someone? A heist? Why can’t he remember?!

You watch The Joker from the top of the building when it washes all over you like a cold breeze: Her warning about the imminent danger makes you cringe. There are so many SWAT teams slowly surrounding him and you discern the presence of more enhanced beings such as yourself still keeping their distance but ready to jump in when needed. They sure want him badly. And he’s not even aware about what’s about to happen. Of course you will protect him and kill everything in your way, but there are so many and he’s just...human in the end. You don’t even know how powerful those metahumans are. You’ll be fine, you can’t die, but what about him?!

You take a deep breath and make your decision: you materialize behind him and grab his hand, dragging him inside the deserted building while he whines because you made him remember you.

“Jeez, kiddo, I didn’t see you all day!” (it’s really been three months) “Where were you? What’s going on, why are we here?” he glares around at the old factory, intrigued.

“You’re in danger, they are getting closer,” you carefully study your surroundings while She rattles everything around, uneasy to feel your distress.

“So?” J scoffs, not understanding. “Protect me like you always do,” he grins, holding both of your hands in his. He just senses he woke up from a deep sleep even if he knows he didn’t. Why does he feel so…different?

“I will, but this is something else, trust me…” You bite your wrist and Her silver blood emerges, dripping down on the soiled carpet, sizzling through the fabric.

“What’s going on, kiddo?” The Joker blinks faster as he sees you bring your hand to his mouth.

“You just need one drop, I don’t want to do this to you but I have to,” you sniffle, hoping he won’t refuse. “Do you consider me yours? Do you trust me?” you tug on is purple coat and his answer makes you smile:

“You’re the only one I trust, don’t you know that by now?”

“Then take it, just one drop, yes? You’re in grave danger, I will protect you but there are more things going on than you know and I don’t have time to explain. We don’t have time! Please, just one drop,” you beg and J touches the silver  liquid with his finger, bringing it to his mouth and tasting its acidy flavor.

“I thought you’ll never offer,” he admits, winking.

“Can you feel Her?” you inquire, watching his eyes starting to glow in the clearest blue you ever saw.

“Jesus, kiddo, what is this?!” he forcefully inhales and exhales, pressing your palms against his chest.

“It’s me and Her, don’t be scared,” you rest your head on his shoulder, relieved.“Nobody can’t hurt you again, I don’t have to worry about it,” you hug him tight and he silently laughs, stroking your hair:

“You glow so much in that blackness, I can see you now the way you see me. You light up that darkness, kiddo, I’m not the only one that shines anymore,” J mutters, kissing your forehead. “Let them come!”

*****************************

When the first wave of the SWAT team rushed in, they were able to witness the horrifying sight of the scary metahumans in front of their eyes for a few seconds before they were shred to pieces: two insanely tall dark shadows, burning and collapsing everything around with their power, unstoppable in their hatred for the world and united in their loyalty for each other.

Also read: -MASTERLIST

http://diyunho.tumblr.com/post/153664676321/joker-x-reader-masterlist

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Thoughts on Terminus and the MSF

Okay, so if you haven't read my Morgan/Beth/Terminus post yet, go read it HERE. I just think that keeping Morgan and Zeke entanglements in mind might help give what I say here more depth. 

***Also, I will be revealing some spoilers here. They're not script spoilers but rather location spoilers. So not super-specific. Still, if you don't like spoilers, stop reading now.***

I know others have posted metas about the MSF, specifically about how it's going to be 88 minutes long. Let me start by seconding what they've all said and reiterating that there's no way that's an accident. As someone who has done a lot of both writer's editing and video editing, you can make something any length you want. You can cut it down or beef it up and somehow get it to the time you're shooting for. When TWD has longer-than-normal episodes, it's because the content trumps the time limit, and the show gets special permission from AMC to have a longer episode. We've seen them do this MANY times in the past few seasons. So what it boils down to is that Gimple can make an episode pretty much any length he wants and AMC will back him.

So could this be a coincidence? Sure, but no. Nothing will convince me that episode 8x08 being 88 minutes long is accidental. Why not an even 90? And how many 8s have we found re-watching the past few seasons? Um...about a billion? Yeah.  

I suppose I ought to officially throw out there that I kinda doubt we’ll Beth before the MSF now. You all know I was super-hoping for 8x04 to be the one. Now that it wasn’t, I’m kinda not thinking we’ll see her until 8x08. Arguments could be made for 8x06 (to line up with 6x06) and 8x07 (because that’s when Glenn was revealed alive in S6) but overall, I’m kinda thinking MSF now. Obviously I would be happy to be wrong, but I won’t be holding my breath for these next two episodes.

So some time ago, the spoiler site posted this pic:

It's quite obviously Terminus. Although it's blocked, the brick front is the same. Even the foliage looks identical. Here are some pics for comparison:

And could they be using this location to film, but it will be some other place in the show? It's possible and we have to acknowledge that, but I REALLY doubt it. Think of it this way. Every so often, the show will tell us (usually on TTD) that a location was used that has been used before. I remember in 8x02, they talked about a location in the woods being close to where Dale hid the guns from Shane in S2. That's an awesome little factoid, but everything in those scenes looked so much the same (and also so different) that we'd have never known that if they hadn't told us.

Terminus is VERY visually recognizable. I don't see the show using the exact same brick building and trying to call it something else. The fans would all take one look and go, "yeah, nice try. That's Terminus." And from this picture, they don't seem to have changed much about it. So I'm thinking this is actually supposed to be Terminus.

Also, the same week this was posted, Daniel Newman, who plays a Kingdom solider, posted on his IG instastory about filming at Terminus. His words. (Sorry, while people in my group saw the story, no one thought to save it, and those things disappear after 24 hours, so I don't have it for proof.)

Then there's the fact that it's...Terminus. All the buildup around it had most people (yours truly included) believing that Terminus would be a big deal in S5. That maybe they'd even spend a lot of the season there. Obviously that wasn't the case. It was there and gone in two episodes. Kind of weird given all the buildup to it. Many of us have predicted that Terminus would eventually be relevant again and that Beth will probably pass through there at some point (X). Even though those are just theories, them filming at Terminus again definitely catches our eyes.  

Then there's all the stuff I talked about on Wednesday, with the weirdness of Morgan around Terminus, and the fact that we saw train tracks near Ezekiel in 8x04. Let's talk about that for a second.

In S4, they established very heavily through the maps and signs that all train tracks led to Terminus. It was the termination point, or convergence of all the paths/train tracks, right? We're starting to think that was a much more important symbolism than anyone, even TD, realized.  

We're thinking that a lot more happened at Terminus than we saw, and all paths will eventually lead back there. I'll come back to that, but here we are seeing train tracks in S8. That alone I might point to as a foreshadow of the story heading back to Terminus soon.  

But remember what I said on Wednesday: that a juxtaposition is being set up between Morgan as the weak character, and Ezekiel as the meek or emotionally strong one. Well, here, we see very obviously that Zeke, Carol, and Jerry do NOT follow the tracks. They cross them. And who's the only other character who crossed over the tracks rather than following them to Terminus?  

Beth.

So Ezekiel is being paralleled with Beth here. (Clarification: Daryl did cross the tracks with Beth at first, but he later followed them with Rick and Michonne to Terminus, so she remains the only one in S4 who NEVER followed the tracks into Terminus.)

Also remember that there were a lot of A’s around Terminus. First the train car, then Gareth painted one on FG's church. If A= Atlanta, well, Terminus isn't far from Atlanta. All the A’s could point back to stuff that happened in Atlanta that we've haven't seen yet. And as we said in these two posts (X, X), Beth would have to pass through the Terminus area to get to the coast, and we still think she'll probably come up the coast and through Oceanside.  

@thegloriouscollectorlady had some interesting thoughts about this. She pointed out that while Beth wasn't at Terminus, when RIck and Daryl arrived, the others were. Glenn and Maggie's group came into Terminus very peacefully. Obviously it didn't stay that way, as they ended up in the A car too, but they didn't show us what happened with them. Just told us later. So maybe Rick and Daryl's stories are the ones most connected to Terminus. 

And that's interesting given what happened in last week's episode. We're just seeing more and more stuff come full circle from 4x16. In 4x16, entitled A, Rick and Daryl became brothers. 

Now we're seeing the first real rift between them since then. 

In 4x16, they entered Terminus. Now, for S8, they seem to have filmed stuff at the Terminus location again. In 4x16, the sheriff's hat fell off Carl and was put on Beth, proclaiming her the new sheriff in town. In 8x08, who knows? But do you see how the narrative is coming full circle?

I've also always thought the weirdness of Sasha probably started at Terminus. (Sasha/Tyreese Theory) That's mostly because of her weirdo convo with Father Gabriel in 5x16. He mentions the Termites and that Bob was consumed because of Sasha's sins, which makes no sense whatsoever based on what we saw in S5. So I've always thought there was more that happened at Terminus, specifically concerning Sasha, that we didn't see. I have no idea what it was, but it was something that contributed to her guilt and that FG seemed to want to use to blame Bob's death on her. Still no explanation for that convo in 5x16.

And why do I think Terminus might show up in 8x08 specifically? Well, I don't think we know for sure that this filming at the Terminus location was specifically for the MSF. And it wouldn't really matter anyway, because they've already told us they filmed things out of sequence for S8, and were often working on multiple episodes at once. So there's no way to pin down which episode it was for.

However, let's return to Crazy Tattoo Guy. Remember him? Two things that make me think we might be returning to Terminus in the MSF.  

First, there was a dialogue parallel to him between Rick and Morales in 8x03. I posted this edit: Exact same wording, but opposite words. Once again, we've come 180 degrees from where we were. Mirror theory.

Check out this guy's face: He has an 88 tattooed there. And yes, I know 88 can mean lots of things. It can mean nazi, which is fitting given what he was doing to the Termites. But what if it also means that in 8x08 (which is 88 minutes long) we'll finally understand what the hell was going on with Terminus?

Remember that Gimple said Crazy Tattoo Guy was connected to bigger group of baddies, who I believe to be the saviors. (Source) So there is definitely some back story/connections there that have yet to be revealed in the show.

In that same interview (linked above) Gimple also said there was “a lot to that character.” Really? Because we saw him torturing the Termites, then be let out of the C train car by Glenn, then die. How is that “a lot to that character?” It’s obvious to me that they’re planning to return to him and explain more. 

It’s yet another loose end from S5 that Gimple promised would be explained, but still hasn’t been. And per what we’ve been shown in the show, this one has little directly to do with Beth. (Only TD believes otherwise.)

Even if you look up the dictionary definition of the word Terminus, things are kind of interesting:

Notice how it mentions time. What if Gimple always meant to go back to Terminus. What if it’s the termination point for this crazy time arc that started in S4/S5? I don’t mean that in a negative, she’s-gonna-die-there way. But all tracks lead to Terminus, right?

We also learned this past episode that before Negan took over leadership of the Saviors, they were a band of wild animals, more or less. And we know because of Morales that they roved down into the Georgia area. So it’s very possible that Crazy Tattoo guy and those with him were a part of the Saviors, but that was before Negan took over.

And because there were defunct cop cars at Terminus, many of us believe there are connections between Grady and Terminus. And then there's the fact that the red car seen at Terminus was also spotted in front of the white cabin Emily filmed at in S5, which scenes we have yet to see. 

See how it all works together?

So there's no way to tell if we're interpreting the details correctly. It may not play out exactly as I've laid out here. (Probably won't, in fact.) But we have a lot of loose ends that need to be tied (and per Morales', we know Gimple always ties up his loose ends) plus some evidence that we might be revisiting Terminus sometime soon.  

Now we just gotta sit back and watch how it all plays out. 

Oh, one more great point by @thegloriouscollectorlady: they're doing this Red Machete story now, right? (X, X). The red machete had it's significance in TWD because of Gareth and Terminus. Now they're calling their mini episodes that. Coincidence? Just saying. ;D