#featuring mayday because why not

[nobody-expects-the-inquisitorius]

TBB Incorrect Quotes, Part 19

Wrecker: *lifting weights* Omega: Wow… He's so intense!  Omega: I wonder what drives him.  Wrecker, internally: Oh I am going to be SO good at giving hugs.

Crosshair: What have I done wrong?!  Echo: Everything. For your entire life.

Omega: Guys! I found a 100 dollar bill! Omega: *looks around* ….Should I keep it? Echo: Omega, just do the right thing. Crosshair: And put in your bag. Echo: No—

Crosshair: I prevented a murder today. Omega: Really? That’s amazing! How did you do that? Crosshair: Self-control.

Mayday: When I first met you, I thought you were weird and annoying. Crosshair: And? Mayday: And you are.

Hunter: When I die I want Crosshair to lower me into my grave so he can let me down one last time.

Wrecker: I was just diagnosed with deez. Echo: Good, I hope it’s lethal.

Echo: Compliment me. Crosshair: You have eyes. Echo: Yeah, that works.

Echo: Don’t say a word.  Wrecker: Fergalicious.  Echo: Wrecker, I said no words.  Wrecker: Oh, I see how it works. Two weeks ago, we’re playing Scrabble, it’s not a word, now suddenly it is a word because it’s convenient for you.

Hunter: What do we say when life disappoints us?  Crosshair: Called it!  Hunter: No.

Crosshair: What is wrong with you? Hunter: Many, many things...  Hunter: And most of them are your fucking fault.

Tech: Hunter? I mixed redbull with coffee and now I can see sounds, should I worry?  Hunter: Tech, I swear to god—

Omega: I don’t want to talk about it.  Crosshair: Good, I don’t wanna hear about it.

Tech: I have a plan. Hunter: Good! As long as we aren’t breaking the law again, I’m open to hearing it. Tech: … Hunter: … Tech: I no longer have a plan.

Omega: What’s your biggest fear? Mayday: I am incredibly arachnophobic. Omega, under her breath: You don’t want spiders to get married?

Mayday: Is… Is that meant to be on fire?  Tech: No… not really.  Mayday: Are you going to do something about it?  Tech: Hm… nah.

Echo: What kinds of sounds annoy you?  Hunter: Are we talking real sounds or imaginary ones?  Echo, now interested: Lets say imaginary.  Hunter: Spiders wearing flip flops.

Mayday, looking at the squad: Okay, so I need to become a therapist faster.

Tech: Might I make a suggestion you possibly won’t like? Hunter: Do you make any other kind?

Crosshair: In alcohol’s defense, I’ve done some pretty dumb shit while completely sober too.

Jesse: I hate you! Crosshair: Wow! So much in common already!

Crosshair: Am I a good person? No. But do I try to be better every single day? Also no.

Tech, talking to Tarkin: With all due respect, which is none…

Tech: I have an idea. Echo: I have the hospital and Rex on speed dial.

Tech: Tech, I think we have a problem. Wrecker: What, the fire? Tech: No, the- wait, what fire? Wrecker: Oh forget about it, this sounds more interesting.

Crosshair: I was arrested for being too cool. Mayday: The charges were dropped due to a lack of supporting evidence.

Wrecker: Do you even, cuddle, bro? Do you even lift, bro… each other up with kindness? Do you tell your loved ones that you care about them regardless of who is listening? DO YOU EVER RESOLVE CONFLICTS, EMOTIONAL ISSUES THROUGH COMPROMISE AND COMPASSION RATHER THAN ANGER AND DENIAL?!

Tech: Did you just refer to a knife as a “people-opener”? Crosshair: Crosshair: …Should I not have?

Tech: I don’t even have time to tell you how wrong you are. Hunter: Okay? Tech: … Tech: … Tech: Actually it’s gonna bug me if I don’t, so—

Mayday: You know what your problem is? Crosshair: I only have one?

Wrecker: If this plan goes down the drain, where should we regroup? Tech: The afterlife, I guess.

Wrecker: You look really stressed. Hunter: Haha, it’s the stress.

Crosshair: “Ladies and gentlemen” is unnecessarily gendered, overly formal, lengthy, and honestly, I’m falling asleep already. “Cowards” on the other hand, is inclusive to all genders, to the point, and dramatic.

Wrecker: I spy with my little eye something that begins with the letter “s”. Crosshair: *looks over at Tech and Phee* Crosshair: Is it “sexual tension”?

Hunter: I have a question. Wrecker: Shoot. Hunter: Is the S or C in scent silent? Echo: Fuck you, I’m going to be thinking about this all day. Wrecker: Okay well, cent is pronounced the same way as scent so I’m gonna say the S is silent. Hunter: Okay, but sent is also spelled the same way. Echo: The holonet says that the C was added in the late seventeenth century, so I guess the S is silent. Crosshair: Plot twist, both the S and the C are silent and the E actually makes the sss sound. Echo: Crosshair is not allowed to talk anymore.

Hunter: Let’s not Crosshair this into a worse situation than it already is. Crosshair: Did you just use my name as a verb?

Omega: Hey, do you know anyone who can teach me to play the trumpet? Tech: Why? Omega: I want to wander around playing it to annoy Crosshair. Tech: Technically, you don’t actually need to know how to play the trumpet well for that. Omega: Tech you have opened my eyes.

Hunter: Ok so, apparently the "bad vibes" I've been feeling are actually severe psychological distress.

Crosshair: I’m never donating blood ever again. Crosshair: The second you walk through the door, it’s just one invasive question after another! Crosshair: ‘Where did you get it?’ 'Why is it in a bucket?’ I mean, do you want it or not?

Wrecker: Are you alright? Crosshair: Short answer or long answer? Wrecker: Short? Crosshair: No. Wrecker: Long? Crosshair: Nooooooo.

[chococoveredsmores]

miguel as pseudo big brother to a reader kinda similar to miles? i was thinking abt that one scene in the first movie when sp//dr broke down and noir carried peni n started feening for platonic miguel 🥹🥹

MIGUEL O'HARA as a big brother figure

yes sorry kinda evil gif choice. anyway listen it is literally my second day on the job so i'm so sorry if miguel is ooc in Any way

despite being such a stoic on the outside, miguel would lowkey have a soft spot for you. he is a big man with a big wall but damn are you so good at climbing over that damn wall

think those tiktoks of how miguel would have a soft spot for mayday and like burst into tears at her sight but he hides it for you bcus he needs to act Cool™ around the team.

he wouldn't outwardly show affection through physical touch or anything, but the GESTURES !! OH THE GESTURES !!

his love languages are definitely gift giving and acts of service!!

also he struggles in communicating his appreciation for you directly but you can definitely see it through the small acts he does for you everyday, like taking the time to check on your mental state every other day (he's trying his best okay).

if he's passing by the cafeteria to get an empanada or something as a snack, he's also buying a whole meal for you whether you like it or not. if you already had lunch he does Not care and you will take it.

he definitely does push you harder, but only because he knows you're capable of so much.

As you run your errands in spider-society, somehow balancing your bio homework that was due the next hour along with the numerous tasks assigned against the multiversal anomalies popping up everywhere. Overwhelmed was an understatement for how you were feeling—that's when a notif popped up on your watch, summoning you to Miguel's spidercave (whatever they call it). "What is it this time?" You say begrudgingly, a little pissed off that your own damn boss summoned you while you were so busy. "Have you forgotten about your own task report? The one issued around a week ago?" Miguel doesn't even face you properly, face obstructed by his countless computer screens. Well, looks like this isn't even worth his damn time.

Sighing, you shuffle through your backpack, past the textbooks and random pens and trinkets before finding a crumpled sheet of paper that you pass to him. "...And can you tell me exactly what this means?" Miguel attempts to smoothen out the report to not much avail, and your unintelligible writing is... something for sure. "Well, so ya see—" What would've been your explanation was cut off by a loud rumble, originating from your stomach. GLRLGLRGLRLGLRGLRLGLR. "..."

"......."

After what could've been the most awkward silence in your life, Miguel finally breaks the ice with a question you didn't really have an answer to.

"When was the last time you've eaten?" "Um..." —Your stomach threatened to roar again— "Like, yesterday night..." "And do you know what time it is?" "....4 in the afternoon? "Ay, coño..." Miguel mutters to himself, as he presses two fingers to his forehead in disappointment.

"No, listen, it's just that I couldn't really eat because I had this biology thing that I had to finish today and I'm not really done with it yet and I hate bio and our teacher sucks and the anomalies too and—" "Okay, okay! I get it!" Your frantic attempts to defend yourself are then abruptly interrupted by the toss of a still-warm empanada container, along with a bottle of water stuck to it via spiderweb. Your eyes immediately brighten up at the sight of food, and your muscles tug into a smile at the man you were so fiercely defending yourself against two seconds ago. "Thank you, thank you!" When the hell did he get that and why save it for me? "Yeah, yeah. Just leave." Miguel spat out, a twinge of embarrassment showing through his features. As you waltz out the room, merienda* in hand, he watches you, not noticing the slight smile forming in his lips.

*merienda is like a snack you eat midway through the afternoon! since its 4pm i thought that was much more fitting than like dinner or something

shoutout to vyn (@prinzevyn) for the help w miguel's character!! unfortunately not awake to beta read aaaAaahhh......

[gartenofbanny]

Barbie Wire..oh boy what a mess she is. Barbie Wire isn't that much of a mess because of how she's written, she's a mess because of how little she has. Out of all the antagonists in Helluva Boss, Barbie Wire has the most missed opportunities, which is sad to even think about. This is a character that has been recognized by the fandom ever since the pilot was released yet in her debut she has lesser screentime than Verosika Mayday. Who knew that Blitzo's ex would get more screentime than Blitzo's actual relative, but screentime isn't the only problem I have with this character. Viv and her crew had a couple opportunities to mention or show Barbie Wire in previous episodes or even outside the show, but they didn't for some reason. Despite Viv stating that Helluva Boss mainly centers around Blitzo and his history, they never expanded on Barbie Wire, who is Blitzo's sister.

The Circus

The Circus was the first episode in Season 2 showing Blitzo and Stolas as children. While most of the episode centered around Stolas and Blitzo, we got to see Blitzo's childhood for the first time. What his occupation was, how his father treated him, his relationship with Fizzarolli, and how he first met Stolas...wait..that's it. Those were the only things we actually saw in The Circus.

Despite literally being Blitzo's twin, Barbie Wire wasn't shown or mentioned once throughout this entire episode. They instead gave that sibling-like role to Fizzarolli who isn't even related to Blitzo at all. Barbie Wire wasn't even mentioned by Cash Buckzo when he tried to convince Blitzo to steal from Stolas' home.

There were people assuming that this character right here is Barbie Wire, but different horn patterns. So an episode showing Blitzo's childhood for the first time doesn't even show Barbie Wire once, what a great start.

Lack of Hype

Barbie Wire had very little hype for her character as time was going on. Viv and the other creators did very little to showcase her or even try to make an attempt to hype her up, the fandom has acknowledged and appreciated Barbie Wire's existence more than the creators themselves have. Let that sink in.

For this section, I'm gonna bring up a character that actually had hype and that's Andrealphus. Now personally, I don't believe Andrealphus was planned until Season 2 was being developed because you'd think a character like him would be mentioned way more especially by Stella in Season 1. Anyway, Andrealphus had some hype surrounding him with his design and role released in February 2022

And in one of the teasers of Western Energy, we actually get a gif of his Frozen-themed birthday cake-shaped manor hyping up his character even more. While he was underwhelming as hell in his debut, people were looking forward to the episode just to see him for the first time.

Are there any gifs featuring Barbie Wire for Unhappy Campers? No, there aren't. The only gifs that advertise Unhappy Campers are three gifs of Moxxie and Millie in their mediocre human disguises.

People only knew that Barbie Wire was going to be in this episode due to a teaser trailer for Helluva Boss that was released last year. I'm pretty sure some folks didn't even know that Barbie Wire was even gonna be in this episode getting into it.

I almost forgot to mention, the latest merch sale for Helluva Boss completely forgot to mention the new Barbie Wire pin that was released. Not sure how the hell they missed that, but I'm pretty sure it was intentional.

Very little screentime

Barbie Wire does not have much screentime and the screentime she does have doesn't really explain much of her character. Half of her screentime consists of her fighting Moxxie and Blitzo and the other half of her screentime consists of her shit talking Blitzo and we don't have a clue as to why she hates his brother.

Barbie Wire has more screen time being mentioned by Blitzo and other demons than she actually appearing in the episode itself. Hell Barbie Wire legit has more screen time just being featured in posters or being mentioned by other characters in previous episodes than she does in her actual appearance in Unhappy Campers overall.

Remember when the robotic version of Fizzarolli was introduced in the beginning of Loo Loo Land and was the antagonist throughout the entire episode. What the hell happened to that? Oh I know, Helluva Boss as of recently loves to maintain two or three plots which makes the pacing out of order which as a result makes the character screen time shorter.

Lady Blitzo

Personality-wise, Barbie Wire is just Blitzo but female. She uses her body to manipulate people to get what she wants, works for an illegal business, hates damn near everybody, is violent as hell, and blames others for her failures. There are very few differences between Barbie Wire and Blitzo, I know that there probably are differences but I don't know what exactly those differences are because we don't know a lot about Barbie Wire. More on that later.

Her Human Disguise

I never had a problem with Barbie Wire's true form because I don't care about her looking exactly like Blitzo. She's literally his twin, why wouldn't they look the same? It is one thing for Crimson and Moxxie to look alike since they're father and son, but it's understandable that Barbie Wire looks like Blitzo.

wait did Barbie Wire get a redesign?

But what isn't understandable or even makes sense is Barbie Wire's human form looks very similar to Velvette as a Sinner.

Why does Barbie Wire, a Hellborn demon from Helluva Boss look somewhat like an older version of Velvette a sinner from Hazbin Hotel? This is the second new character in a row who looks like an already-designed character. And like the 5th character overall who has a design similar to a previously made character.

And why the hell are her forearms so huge but everything else is thin? I know Blitzo has big forearms but isn't he also muscular? It makes some sense with his build but Barbie Wire isn't muscular at all. She's literally a fallen-off pop star junkie.

Vivziepop has been drawing and designing for almost a decade as a hobby and as an occupation yet she can't make a design that doesn't have remnants of an already-made design. Too many characters look similar to each other in both Hazbin and Helluva that sometimes you forget who is who.

They can literally do so much with Barbie Wire's human disguise, but they just made her look like Velvette but skinnier.

Lack of character story

There's..not much to Barbie Wire that actually answers questions that people had. The most popular one being, "Why does Barbie Wire hate Blitzo?" In Unhappy Campers we don't get a reason as to why Barbie Wire hates Blitzo, we just know that she hates him for some reason.

I still can't with Blitzo's puppy dog eyes

At least when Verosika made her debut in Spring Broken we're given a few lines as to why Verosika just despises Blitzo. Blitzo ran away with her car all the way to Wrath and maxed out her credit card on horse riding lessons and possibly never came into contact with her again up until Spring Broken. And in Ozzie's we're given even further clues as to why Verosika hates Blitzo as she literally insults him in the last few lines of her portion of "House of Asmodeus". But with Barbie Wire, Blitzo's blood related twin sister, we get nothing. We just know that she hates Blitzo and never wants to speak with him again.

We don't even know anything about her personally either. What was her relationship with Fizzarolli like? What was her relationship with Verosika like? Why did Verosika insult her? How did she obtain an Asmodean Crystal? All of these questions, no canonical answers. Just fan theories and speculation which..is a huge ass problem with Helluva Boss and to an extent Hazbin Hotel too.

Conclusion

Barbie Wire is unfortunately a wasted potential and a huge missed opportunity writing wise and at this point I'm not even looking forward to the new characters at this point especially the female ones because I know the writers won't do the characters any good. Thank you all for reading and I hope you all have a nice day!

[supremechancellorrex]

I've been thinking about what the Bad Batch means to me these past few weeks and things just don't quite sit right. When I started watching the Clone Wars, it felt like a lot of love and care had been poured into the project. The clones had unique personalities built from the ground up, with even minor characters getting quirks. Hevy only appeared in two episodes, yet is so loved. Hardcase is missed despite only really appearing in one arc because of expert character crafting and real, actual effort with the writing.

The point of the Clone War was that the clones were individuals, they had agency and they could have an impact on their lives and others. Referred to as 'property', with no representation or rights, they are slave soldiers in function, who are biologically identical although at times with slight variation, but their personalities and motivations matter and have weight. This is why Fives nearly ruins Palpatine's plans. This is why Rex is able to resist the inhibitor chip in Order 66 and help save Ahsoka.

This is why I'm not sure I can forgive the Bad Batch.

Spitting on Grandpa

When the Bad Batch started, I was initially quite excited because it was advertised as a sequel to the Clone Wars. The first episode opens up with the title 'The Clone Wars' fading into the Bad Batch, but the show is anything but because the 'regs', as normal clones have been dubbed, don't matter now. Instead, the only characters with agency are a special group of clones who mostly don't look like the clones based on Jango Fett (Temuera Morrison) or even scientifically fit the basic definition of what a 'clone' is.

How is this not meant to be insulting for TCW and the Clone Fandom? I watch normal clones like Commander Wilco get shot in the face. I watch Mayday choke and die for Crosshair's development. I watch Rex play second fiddle to the Bad Batch on screen, the man and leader who used to always say "I'm always first, kid" and take the reins. I watch Cody appear for an episode only to not appear again this season and have no impact on the narrative other than Crosshair's development. Can 'regs' no longer change the world? Do the 'boring', 'regular' slave soldiers have no impact anymore?

Echo: "The fate of all the clones is now sealed because of us."

When it comes to normal clones impacting the narrative, the closest we get is Rex's resistance network, which features actual clones actually doing something. Yet apparently an episode about the Bad Batch discovering an island paradise world and battling a tsunami deserves more screen time than seeing how the 'regs' set that one up. Even this plot point is less about finally saving Howzer and normal clones like him, and more about Echo not being with the Bad Batch and further setting up the plot regarding Tech and Crosshair. The normal clones remain non-entities outside of the Bad Batch's development, they have no agency beyond this.

This is why we see stock reg clone characters bully the Bad Batch in the Season 1 opening, because despite them all being slaves under the thumb of fascism and the fact normal clones treated Ninety-Nine (the beloved hunchback clone from TCW Season 3) fine, it's the Bad Batch's plight that only matters now, their persecuted perspective on being special and better than the regs, regs that are now treated as old news, an afterthought. The world feels small, and inexcusably less richer than it was.

Essentially, we're no longer allowed to see what the reg clones motivations are, why there are reg clones that actually, canonically, dislike the Bad Batch as opposed to Ninety-Nine. People like to speculate, but on screen we are not shown or told in TBB. We're also not shown why all the named clones from Howzer, Mayday, Fireball, Gregor and Nemec to Cut, Cody and Rex never had issues with the differences other than they're the good regs I guess. Hell, even Cody and Mayday's remaining squad say nothing of Crosshair's mutations, not even one catty comment.

Conclusion

So, what does this mean? The Bad Batch steals the clones' agency and makes it their own. They wear the clone identity, but refuse to help normal 'reg slave' clones that look like actual clones in favour of focusing on themselves and their 'more important' personal problems. The Bad Batch are special not because of who they are or that they've worked hard, but because they look different from other clones, because they're just more capable and have special abilities. It's not who you are that counts, it's what you are.

And, now, I even see fans doing what TCW told us not to, disregarding normal clones, 'explaining' why the Bad Batch are fine to leave the reg clones to die because they called them "The Sad Batch" one time. Somehow the Bad Batch undoes all of TCW's work, stripping the clones of their agency and making them into just victims sleepwalking into extinction as we wait for the Bad Batch to consider trying to actively save them.

Echo: "The fate of all the clones is now sealed because of us."

And, then the rest of TBB go cave exploring and holidaying on Pabu. This series might as well be about natborns.

[punkeropercyjackson]

Unpopular Hobie takes/opinions

Him and Gwen actually have pretty good romantic chemistry and if it were up to me they would've been canon instead of Ghostflower with Miles having moved on from Gwen romantically and Gwen thinking of him purely platonically from the get-go

But also,they work just as well as found siblings and NOT parent-child because even with the interpretation of adult Hobie,he has Dad Friend vibes,not Actual Dad ones.The one thing i would change about romantic Ghostpunk also is making Gwen a half white afrolatina since Hobie would be poc4poc for obvious reasons

The trope of him being a popular target of thirst on Earth 138 thanks to being in a band is honestly kind of stupid because yes he's objetively handsome as fuck(/platonic)but also he's also a black person living in 1970s England.Speaking from the experience of a biracial homecountry raised afrolatino who grew up with the white side of his family only and went to predominantly white/nonblack poc schools,he definitely gets a lot of comments on his apperance but not positive ones and the best he'll get from most is a backhanded compliment

He dosen't listen to indie music but he loves indie games since part of anti-capitalism is supporting small bussiness and creators

Him and Noir wouldn't be all that close-Obviously they'd like eachother because Noir's based but i can't see him ever being into him romantically,even disregarding that he looks exactly like Peter B which would make dating him So Fucking Weird

He hates being theythemed-No shade to people who headcanon him with any pronouns or do actual respectful nonbinary rep with him but i find the idea that Hobs being nonbinary means he'd use only they/them to be just reinventing the gender binary as a genderqueer person who largely perfers he/him even if he's got they/them in his pronouns set too

He's jamaican(Honestly not entierly sure if this is in unpopular but i looked for content and found only a small amount of posts)

Related to the above,i fucking HATE the weed jokes because oh yeah,of course the jamaican guy is a stoner hahaha NOT you guys aren't funny

His favorite color is pink and that's why he turns pink when he's happiest(Around Miles because babyboy is CRUSHING and around Mayday because again,Dad Friend so obviously he loves babies)

He's not really a sexual person including his humor and tbh i find very creepy how often he's assumed to be based off his flirtations because y'all,Gwen's a MINOR and SO IS MILES and the crop top is to be gnc,stop making it weird,this is a kids movie!Plus that's not even getting into black male stereotypes

I don't like the idea of him and Miles G or Pavitr together because no hate Chaipunk shippers because i truly do think it's a good ship but all the feminization of Pavitr has ruined it for me and it's not helped by me not seeing anything between them in the movie and just casually shipping them and i think it's better if our Miles gets a Hobie and Miles G gets a Ganke seeing as our Miles was robbed of his thanks to the Mcu so it's equal.Also Prowlerpunk shippers are always so fucking goofy,STOP drawing Hobie without his beautiful black features other than his melanin

Him and Jessica have a mother-son relathionship that parallels Miles and Peter B's,including that Hobie has an actual mom but diffinerating in that he actually views her as a parental figure(while Miles sees Peter B as his older brother)-Purely headcanon based but that little interaction between them at the end screamed that they're close so she knows his attitude

Margo is one of his best friend's because obviously she is,i don't even need to explain why and Margobie/Siblings!Punk Byte both have way more of a basis than Noirpunk

His counterpart in Batman crossovers should be Stephanie Brown or Duke Thomas,not Jason Todd because they share some similarities but Stephanie and Duke are almost exactly like him(Including names regarding him and Stephanie and i've even nicknamed her Stephie so there's that)

And also,he's a Percy Jackson and Katara kinnie

Rio and Jefferson would actually fucking love him because guess what,it's stupid and transparently antiblack to automatically assume a black couple would see a black boy who's unbelivably sweet-looking but brand him as a thug who's out to abuse their child just because he's alt and isn't a fence sitter about oppression-In fact,they'd tease Miles about someone as dorky as them pulling someone as cool as Hobie and there should be gags about them loving Gwen as a person but being SO relieved he's not actually dating a white girl

@nogender-onlystars

[ellie-the-oracle]

The Bad Batch s2e12 Review and Discussion - The Breaking Point of Crosshair

Massive Spoilers Ahead!

That was by far one of the greatest episodes I think i've ever watched. I don't even know where to begin and I do not say this lightly - I have been thoroughly broken by this show. I am genuinely heartbroken at this point.

First and foremost, the music was on point. It hit every single emotion it wanted to convey and it complimented the themes of this episode perfectly. Kevin Kiner remains to be one of the best composers, in my opinion.

Secondly, the symbolism that was the lone ice vulture flying above Crosshair's head throughout the episode was just poetic. It really got the message across to the viewers that Crosshair is utterly and brutally alone. He is nothing more than something that is “expendable” in the eyes of the Empire. This episode made that evermore clearer to Cross.

Thirdly, the new clone introduced in this episode, Commander Mayday, was a perfect way to SHOW (and not just tell) Crosshair the tragedies, the mistreatment and the injustices that the clones are facing. Throughout the entire episode, both Cross and the viewers were reminded of just how poorly the clones are being treated. Mayday's inevitable death was the final moment for Crosshair; It genuinely broke him (and me, frankly). The lieutenant (I forgot his name because idfc) really rubbed it into Crosshair’s face about what the clones mean to the Empire.

The emotions that we get to see Crosshair experience throughout this episode really show just how broken his spirit is; he has reached his breaking point. He was left both physically and emotionally devastated by the end of his mission; losing yet another companion, another brother. Someone whom he was just beginning to confide in, especially to feel less alone. I also found it quite fascinating to see him express distress when the ship blew up and caused him a sort-of sensory overload. A bit of an ode to the Batches enhanced features.

 I appreciated the little details of him shivering in the cold as he and Mayday made their way back to the outpost; huddling together to survive. on top of that, his facial expressions really showed just how lost, distraught, devastated and broken he has become. Truly, what a masterful episode. Crosshair shooting the lieutenant by the end of the episode was his moment of “going awol,” albeit, in the most devastating and heart wrenching way. 

The ending of this episode was rather concerning. I literally have no idea what that lady poked his neck with nor do I have the faintest idea as to why he's on Tantiss but I'm very nervous about it. I hope he isn't being brainwashed again or [arguably] even worse, becoming the prototype of a dark trooper. Istfg If this happens, You’ll be hearing from my therapist and my lawyer, Filoni. For the love of all things decent in this world, please let him go home to his family. 

This episode, once again, cements exactly why I love Crosshair's character so much. Truly a terribly tragic character and I ate that shit up. I'm shellshocked.

 20/10. Feelings have been hurt.

[borathae]

↳ Index [Chapter 07 - Cinnamon & Orange Peel]

Warnings: yearning, they just belong together, they are also shy messes :(

Wordcount: 7.5k

a/n: please you guys, this story is so gngn i want to live in it :(

People would most definitely call you a stupid little idiot. And you feel like one as well. A stupid little idiot, who does something incredibly stupid right this moment. The effects of last night are still having a grip on you. You feel a little dizzy and your head is pounding when you move too quickly. You also almost threw up this morning, but stopped it by drinking a big can of peppermint tea. You then proceeded to feed Levi and watch him eat his food while your eyes barely stayed open. Levi has been slumbering in the sunroom ever since, using what little light early winter has to offer to warm his small body. You have spent the last two hours cooking up the best hangover remedy soup there is and then eating it while watching one of your favourite movies. You have watched this movie around twenty times already and yet each time you turn it on for yet another round, you love it just as much as you did the first time.

The movie however has ended by now, your belly is warmed up and filled with yummy vegetable stew and your headache has stopped almost completely as well.

Now, one may ask themselves where the moment comes in when you turn into a stupid, little idiot.

This is the moment. This right here.

When you find yourself in front of the door of the neighbour you swore to never talk to again.

You ring his doorbell and wait.

The sun is a trickster, so you realised. It made you believe that today was a relatively warm day, when in reality it was freezing outside. You pull the jacket even tighter around your torso and shudder.

You don’t know whether to wish that he was here so you can escape this cold or to wish that he was not here so you don’t look like a stupid, little idiot.

Lights turn on.

Okay, crap. He is here.

Mayday.

He is here.

The lock turns.

You don’t feel cold anymore. Just heated in nervousness.

Then the doorknob moves.

Click.

The door opens just far enough that you can see his eyes peaking out. They widen in synch with a tiny “huh?” coming from inside.

“___?” he asks, opening the door completely. He seems to be in his pjs still. Black with white detailing on the collar and with his feet bare. He is rubbing them together to fight off the cold, which is most definitely creeping around his toes.

“Hey Yoongi.”

“Hey?” he studies your features, sneaking a glance at your lips. You know what he is thinking. You are thinking the same thing. You kissed him. Last night your lips touched his and your bodies were oh so close together.

“Uuuuh…” you forget everything you wanted to say. What were you even going to say in the first place? Did you even want to say anything? Why are you even here? Why is he is so…handsome?

Yoongi shimmies from one foot to the other, clearing his throat into the awkward silence.

“What are you doing here?” he asks you, trying and failing not to sneak another glance at your lips.

“I…have no idea. I just….”

You lift the little container you have been clutching for life, averting your eyes from his lips.

“I made soup.”

He eyes the pink container then your face.

“Okay…” he says, looking confused.

“I thought that uhm….I don’t know. Uhm…” you clear your throat, “sorry I have no idea why I’m even here in the first place. I just thought that maybe you are hungover and I made soup for myself and I realised that I made way too much. So I thought I’d bring you something because I thought that maybe you are hungover. So yeah, I made soup and it was too much so I thought I’d come over to give you some in, in case you are hungover. Yeah uhm, I made soup”, you babble, cringing most ardently once you finish the jumble of your sentence.

“Thank you”, he says, hesitating for a moment before he stretches out his hand so you could put the container in it. You do so quickly, pulling your hand away as fast as possible once you are sure he wouldn’t drop it.

“You’re welcome”, you say, nodding your head, “either way, uhm. I hope you like it. You don’t have to eat it, hah, just throw it away if you want to. Or eat it, I don’t know uhm”, you cough loudly, “you can keep the container, or not actually, I need it. But it’s okay if you want to keep it, it’s all on you to decide. Yeah, uhm. I’ll leave now.”

“Uhm..okay?” he murmurs, looking still as confused as ever.

“Bye, uhm see you around”, you say and then turn around to speed walk away from this most awkward scene as quickly as possible.

Yoongi keeps staring at you, holding the pink little container of soup while his brain is going a million miles an hour.

So you are coming here on this cold day to bring him soup because you didn’t want him to be hungover. Bear in mind, he is. He is terribly hungover. His tummy hurts, his head is pounding and his limbs feel heavy. And now you brought him soup. Nice, most definitely delicious soup. He is so confused. Do you still want him to stay away from you or is this your attempt of rekindling your relationship? And yesterday. He wanted to blame your clinginess on the booze. That last night was just you being way too drunk and having no control over what you said or did. But now. Now that he has your soup in his hands and he watches you hurry down the earthen path back to your cottage, he can’t tell if last night was just a drunken mistake or you speaking your truth. 

“Urgh”, he groans, closing the door just so he can rest his head against it, “I don’t know what to do”, he whines, stomping his right foot in frustration, “she’s confusing me so much.”

“Levi!” you call out, stumbling into the sunroom.

The black cat opens his right eye, looking at you with annoyance now that you woke him so rudely.

“I am the dumbest idiot to ever exist”, you blurt out and drop into the rocking chair with a dramatic groan. It flings your feet into the air and forces your hand to land over your face, “literally, I’m an idiot.”

Levi closes his eyes again and tries to go back to sleep. Not that he can. You keep babbling on and on.

“Why did I give him soup? No actually, why did I talk as if I never talked before? Oh my god, I’m going insane, he probably thinks that I’m a massive dummy.”

You drop your hand and slide down the rocking chair so you would be resting on the edge of it with your lower back. Your neck is all bended weirdly, giving you multiple chins from just how squished you are.

“I’m so duuuumb”, you whine loudly.

Levi opens his eyes and stares at you. He wonders what mother is all about. You seemed normal this morning. Tired and more groggy than on normal days, but otherwise normal. And now you are acting like a crazy woman.

“Like, what do I even want?” you say, staring at your cat with widened eyes, “I tell him that I never want to talk to him again and then I bring him soup?”

You roll off your rocking chair and crawl to Levi on all fours.

“Levi I’m going insane, why did I do that?”

You plop down on your stomach and cup your cat’s face.

Levi meows in complaint but has to accept his fate. He glares at you. Your hands are sweaty. He hates nothing more than having your sweaty hands on his fur. It makes him smell weird and the cleaning up process takes way too long.

“I think I just gave him major mixed signals”, you say, widening your eyes comically big, “Levi, I have no idea what kind of signals I want to send him and now I brought him soup. Soup Levi, soup. That’s the literal equivalent of making out with him in the middle of a field or something.”

You groan and drop your face into his body. You bury your nose in his fur, caging him in with your arms.

“Why am I so nervous? What the hell? I shouldn’t be so nervous. He betrayed me, I should be all confident and in control. I should be the one whose heart is calm and who has nothing to lose. Urgh, but I’m nooot.”

You groan, wiggling desperately.

“Levi help meeee.”

Meow.

“I have no idea mother and quite frankly I just want to sleep, but now I smell of your dirty hands. Why are you doing this to me, mother? Oh, why?” he says with that meow.

“I know Levi, I’m so confused as well”, you understand it as, “urgh Levi”, you groan, rolling onto your back. You rest your head next to him, bending your elbow so you can run your fingers through his fur.

Very well. Levi will accept such pets. They are quite decent actually.

Levi closes his eyes again and rests his head on his front paws.

“I’m so confused Levi. I should be really, really mad at him and I think I was for the longest time, but I kind of don’t want to be mad anymore these days”, you say, watching the sunlight break in the stained glass, “I really miss him, Levi.”

You sigh loudly.

“Oh I’m so weird. Why do I miss him? I shouldn’t miss him? Or can I?” you turn your head to look at Levi, “do you think that it would be weird if I started talking to him again? Does it make me weak, Levi? Or a weird human?”

Meow.

“I don’t know mother. I’m a cat”, he says.

“You think so? Okay that is good to hear that you don’t think I’m weird for it. Thank you Levi, you are truly my greatest friend.”

Meow.

“You are weird mother, why is your greatest friend a cat? Please leave the house more often, mother”, he says.

“Oh Levi, I love you too”, you say and then roll over to give his tiny, little head a big smooch.

“Hey boss, so sorry for disturbing you”, Hoseok says quietly.

You turn your head.

“You aren’t. What’s the matter?”

His cheeks are slightly reddish. He carries nervousness in his eyes. So something was the matter. Maybe rude customers. Oh, how ready you are to show them your broom fighting skills. 

“I think Yoongi is coming here”, he says and points outside.

You follow his line of sight, locking your eyes on Yoongi instantly. He is wrapped in a white coat and orange beanie today. He also seems to carry a big bag over his shoulder and Holly is by his side on his leash. Yoongi’s eyes, although blurry from distance, seem focused on your tea shop. Your heart begins racing instantly.

So no rude customers. Just Yoongi, the man who you have given the most confusing mixed signals to. And the man who has been running through your mind ever since then. You would rather take some rude customers then meet him. You are way too nervous, you would probably stumble over your words and mess up big times.

“You have to hide before it’s too late”, Hoseok says, pushing at your shoulders so you would squat down again.

“No, god that was so embarrassing last time. I’m not doing that again”, you whine.

“Okay, okay then hide in the back. Quick”, he says panicky, pushing you.

“Hoseok”, you have to laugh, “it’s okay. I’ll just stay here.”

“Okay, okay that is a good decision too. Yes, I respect that”, he says.

“You look more nervous than I do”, you say, eyeing him.

“I am”, he says, “oh my god, I can’t handle love drama. It makes me anxious”, he says, cupping his own cheeks to cool them down.

You chuckle.

“How about you start cleaning through the cooling room?”

“Very good idea”, he says, giving you a thumbs up, “thank you so much! I will not disappoint, ma'am!” he says loudly and waddles to the back quickly.

You watch him until he disappears, laughing fondly. He is such a mess. It’s cute, helping you with feeling at least a little less nervous.

You have to turn back to the counter then because someone just entered the shop.

“Good day young Miss!” the mayor says loudly, strutting to the counter in his purple glitter boots.

“Good day Mister Mayor. Wow, look at you, I am loving the suit Mister Mayor”, you greet him.

The mayor looks down his own body, smoothing his hands over the emerald green sequins suit.

“Oh thank you very much, young Miss”, he does a little giggle, “I wanted to battle the grey weather by wearing some colour.”

“You were definitely successful, my tea shop is so much brighter already because of you.”

“Oh you”, he dismisses you with a laugh, “you flatter me, young Miss.”

You give him a sweet smile.

“The usual?” you ask him.

“Yes please, however I want two sugar cookies as well.”

“Are you out to sin a little today, Mister Mayor?”

“Yes, yes indeed”, he chuckles boyishly, “I need to fight this winter blues. Jimin’s sugar cookies are the perfect remedy for it.”

“I couldn’t agree more”, you say, looking over the mayor’s shoulder for just a second as the door opened.

You feel your heart speed up a million times. He is here. Yoongi. Currently staring at you with big eyes while his cheeks gradually become redder and redder. Maybe it is the sudden change of temperature or maybe it is his nerves being mean. Doesn’t matter, fact was that he was looking at you with rosy cheeks and you feel like fainting in nervousness.

You try to hide it as best as possible, breaking eye contact to pay attention to the mayor’s order again.

“Now tell me young Miss, wouldn’t you agree that this year’s cold came especially soon?” the mayor says, watching you work not because he wants to make sure you do a good job but because he thinks it a relaxing thing to do to pass the waiting time.

“Yes, definitely. I couldn’t agree more. And it was so sudden too. It felt as if it was summer one day and then the next we went straight into winter.”

“Yes!” the mayor agrees loudly, nodding his head vigorously, “that is what I told my wife just last night. We had no chance at getting used to the new weather.”

“Definitely”, you agree, closing the lid to his tea, “here you go. Now I just have to get the cookies.”

“Take your time, I’m in no hurry.”

“But Mister Mayor, you are running late again”, you say, having to laugh.

The mayor laughs as well, holding his stomach as he does.

“I know, oh I know. I will never learn.”

“Oh Mister Mayor”, you say, pushing the paper bag of his cookies over the counter.

Still laughing, the mayor places the required money on the counter and then picks up his order.

“Very well then, I hope you still have a beautiful rest of your day young Miss”, he says and turns around to leave.

“You too, Mister Mayor.”

The mayor struts to the exit, looking at Yoongi.

“Oh young Mister”, he says and smiles brightly. He looks over his shoulder to send you a knowing look, “here to visit your girlfriend, are you?”

“Uhm…” Yoongi’s cheeks are beet red instantly.

“Oh, young must one be”, the mayor says and shakes his head, “truly, young must one be. Good day the two of you.”

“Good day!” you call after him.

“Good…day”, Yoongi murmurs.

The door closes. The mayor struts down the road with all the calm in the world, most definitely whistling to himself.

Silence.

Yoongi locks eyes with you. You lock eyes with Yoongi.

The air feels so difficult to breathe in.

“Hey”, you say, realising that your voice didn’t work and you only mouthed the word like an idiot.

“Hey”, he says and other than you, his voice actually produced sound.

“What brings you here?” you cringe, “actually, I guess you are here for tea, haha. Obviously I have a tea shop after all. And this is the shop…where you are at…as of now…I…” you cringe even harder, “please, I’m so sorry. I don’t know why I can’t talk lately.”

“No, it’s fine”, he assures you. He breaks away from his spot and waddles closer to the counter, “I uhm…” he stops talking in order to rummage around in his bag.

You stay silent as he does, staring at him like a creep.

He finally finds what he has been looking for and pulls it out.

Your pink food container. Now freshly washed.

He places it on the counter, keeping his eyes lowered in nervousness.

“Thank you for the soup. It saved me”, he says quietly.

You take the container, feeling your heart flutter.

“I’m so glad it did. Did you like it?”

He nods his head, “I liked it a lot.”

“Maybe one day I can cook it for you again”, you say, regretting it while you are talking.

Yoongi lifts his head, seeming surprised.

“Yeah I just said that”, you murmur, burning  up, “sorry.”

“No it’s fine, I just”, he falters, gnawing on his lower lip.

He shimmies from one foot to the other then touches the side of his neck.

“I’m leaving town”, he says.

“What?” you squeak out, “what do you mean? What? Why?”

“I, I mean just for the holidays. I think I should have said that first”, he stutters.

“Ah I see”, you try to calm down again. Holy hell, for a second it felt as if your entire world just shattered.

“Yeah, my parents want to spend it with me. So I decided to stay with them for the holidays.”

“I see, well that sounds great.”

“Mh-hm yeah”, he nods his head, “that’s why I’m here because I wanted to return your container before I forget.”

“Well, thank you for returning it.”

“Of course”, he nods his head, “either way. I’m gonna go now, I have to take the bus to the bigger town and I don’t want to miss it.”

“Of course, I wouldn’t want you missing your bus. Have a safe travel.”

“You too”, he cringes, “sorry, I thought you said have a great day that’s why I said you too. I know you’re not travelling I just-“, he stops talking, staring at you with big eyes.

“It’s okay, don’t worry about it.”

He nods his head.

“Okay, bye now. I’ll see you again soon.”

“Yes, see you soon Yoongi.”

He turns and then leaves the shop in big steps.

The door falls closed. You can watch how he basically speed walks down the road.

You let out a loud sigh, dropping your head on the counter.

Well that was the clumsiest, most awkward conversation you ever had. You wanted to tell him so much more. Talk to him more. And now he is gone for a week and you are left with even more confusing emotions.

The little bell rings.

Great. Customers. Oh how you just want them to disappear into thin air right now.

You lift your head.

“Good d-“, you stop talking.

Yoongi is standing in the middle of the tea shop with big eyes and his arms stretched just slightly to the side.

“I’m here again.”

“You’re here again.”

“I was just down the street when I turned around and now I’m here.”

“I can see that.”

“I didn’t just come here to return your container, that was just an excuse because I actually wanted to talk to you before I leave.”

“Really?”

He nods his head, clutching the strap of his bag oh so tightly.

“I know you told me to leave you alone and, and not to talk to you, but I just have to. I’m sorry, I know I’m being a douche right now for not uhm, respecting your wishes but, uhm.”

He takes a deep breath, touching his own neck in nervousness.

“___ I don’t know what to make of us. I’m a mess. It’s been driving me insane because I can’t figure out whether you want me to stay away from you or if you brought over that soup because you want to try again.”

He takes a step closer.

"And then you, you kissed me like, like that and I know it was probably because you were drunk, but I just", he doesn’t even realise when his fingers run over his own lips, "I'm an idiot and I can’t help but think that it, it meant more to you too. Wait, ignore the too. I, I mean not that it meant more to me. I’m not saying that. Actually it did mean more to me, but I just”, he gawks, cheeks gaining in colour, “forget that, haha I just…I'm sorry, I know I’m being a douche, but I just-" 

He studies your features. His cheeks are as red as two tomatoes by now, his eyes are widened.

“I’m sorry, I rehearsed what to say, but I forgot everything”, he confesses, “I’m making no sense. I'm sorry, I'm so nervous that I'm rambling.”

“It’s fine, you’re doing great”, you assure him, trying your hardest not to smile. He is so cute right now.

Yoongi takes a deep breath to calm himself down. He takes another tiny step closer.

“I guess my point is, that I wanted to ask you how I should understand your actions. And I thought that I’d ask now because we won’t see each other for a week and if you completely reject me, at least I can wallow in self-pity far away from here.”

He stops again, swallowing nervously.

“So I guess I wanted to ask you what exactly you want me to make of us. Yeah, uhm. That’s all.

“God Yoongi, you are asking me things”, you say, feeling dizzy in nervousness.

“I know, sorry I know it’s sudden. I’m just losing my mind and I think I would legitimately go crazy at my parents if I hadn’t asked you.”

“Yoongi I-“

The bell rings.

Yoongi turns.

“Good day”, a group of tourists enter the tea shop.

With disappointment in his eyes, Yoongi steps aside.

“Good day, what can I bring you?” you say, falling into your work voice even if you are secretly cursing at the customers. They truly picked out the worst timing to come here.

Their order ends up being very long and with far too many elements to it. It takes you a good twenty minutes to get everything they wanted. You sneak glances at Yoongi every now and then just to see if he was still here.

He is sitting by his table by now, hugging his bag to his chest whilst petting Holly's head. His left leg is bouncing up and down nervously. 

“You too and have a great hike!” you call after the finally leaving customers. Once the door closes, you let out a loud groan, “freaking buttheads, make your order even longer next time”, you mumble, sneaking a glance at the table just to realise that it was empty.

You widen your eyes. He is gone. Yoongi is gone. No. He is gone. He must have left in order not to miss his bus. Your opportunity to talk is gone.

“Noooo, why”, you groan, throwing your head back in frustration.

“What’s wrong?”

“Huh?” you let your head bounce back, “huh? How did you get here? I thought you left”, you ask Yoongi, who is standing by the counter.

“No, I’m still here.”

“I can see that now”, you say, laughing nervously.

He is fumbling with his own thumbs, looking at you with expecting eyes.

“So did you think about it?” he asks.

“No? Yes? I don’t know?” you laugh nervously, shimmying from one foot to the other, “I have no idea what I want us to be. I thought I’d stay mad at you for forever, but I don’t know if I want to do that anymore.”

“Okay, so does that mean there’s a chance that we could work again?”

“Maybe? I don’t know. I was trying to procrastinate on finding the answer if I can be honest with you.”

“I see, sorry I know I’m being really pushy right now.”

“No, you’re not. I don’t like the uncertainty either. I guess I just have to actually sit down with myself and get the answer.”

“Okay, well then it’s great that I’m leaving for a week, isn’t it?”

“Yeah totally”, you laugh nervously.

Yoongi does too.

You look at each other awkwardly once you stop laughing. Yoongi begins scratching the side of his neck.

“So I’ll leave with the knowledge that not all is lost. Can I?” he asks, holding his breath afterwards.

“Yes, leave just like that”, you say and in this moment you feel so weirdly hopeful.

“Okay”, he smiles in relief, “phew”, he exhales, “I’m so glad I turned back again. I think I would have hit myself if I hadn’t.”

You chuckle, “now you don’t have to anymore.”

“Yeah”, he chuckles.

“Should I make you some tea before you leave? To keep you warm.”

“Of course, I still have to try the new tea you have. Cinnamon and orange peel.”

You almost smile. So he is pretending that he hasn’t tried it yet just for your sake. Well, in theory he hasn’t yet because he left without his tea back then. But it is still really adorable that he pretends that this is the first time he is ordering it.

“Of course. Oh, you’ll like it. It’s really yummy and perfect for such weather.”

“I can imagine. I like everything citrus-y. Tangerines, oranges, warm lemon tea”, he counts the things on his fingers, “they warm me up so well.”

“I feel you. I like the taste too.”

You pour the boiling water into his paper cup and close the lid.

“Wait seven minutes and you should have your tea”, you tell him, pushing the cup over the counter.

“Oh that was fast. Now you can’t even see my reaction to it.”

“True”, you realise and pout.

“I’ll just send you a text”, he says and gives you a cute smile.

There your heart goes. Fluttering.

With sparkly eyes, you nod your head.

“I’m counting on it.”

He nods his head then picks up the cup.

“Okay, now I actually have to go. I already missed my bus twice.”

“Yeah sorry, those tourists just had to come here with the longest list ever.”

He laughs, already having turned his back to you. He looks over his shoulder.

“It’s alright, I didn’t mind”, he says and smiles brightly, “see you in a week, ___.”

“Yes, see you.”

Then the door falls closed and Yoongi hurries down the street with his little orange beanie and the orange tea in his hand while Holly is waddling next to him with tiny, happy steps.

You receive a text fifteen minutes from now.

-          Don’t call: I just tried it, it’s amazing.

You cringe upon reading the name you saved him as. You change it quickly before typing your answer. Yoongi texted you one more time while you were changing his name. You open it.

-          Yoongi: now I feel all warmed up thanks to you~

You smile goofily, typing your answer quickly.

-          You: I’m glad you do, it’s important to stay warm these days

Yoongi answers you instantly.

-          Yoongi: I will yohoho ^ㅅ^

He sends a picture after a few seconds. Holly. He is sitting on Yoongi’s lap and looking out the window. It makes you smile.

-          Yoongi: I think he likes the view~

-          Yoongi: but I think he’s cuter ^*^

Your smile grows. Gosh, how you have missed his random Holly pictures. You and him had this silly pet parents’ ritual of always sending each other videos or pictures of Holly and Levi. The ritual stopped after that one night. It feels so great to receive a picture of Holly again.

-          You: He’s so cute!! Give him lots of pets from me :D

-          Yoongi: I will ^ㅅ^

Customers enter your teashop then and for the rest of the day you can’t look at your phone again. You are in a good mood however. Hoseok looks at you weirdly at first before he disappears in the back to report the good news to Jimin.

You don’t hear anything from Yoongi during the holidays. Quite frankly the more days pass the more you forget about your promise to him to figure out what you want. You spent one day at Hoseok’s place with his parents, eating delicious food and doing karaoke until late into the night. You didn’t think of your task that day. Then you took a walk up to Jimin’s house to help him with getting all his plants ready for winter. You ended up spending your entire day with him and didn’t think of your task the entirety of it. You also took your bike to the Kim brothers’ farm because you ran out of milk and eggs. It was the coldest bike ride you have ever been on and so you ended up spending multiple hours at their place as Namjoon’s wife made tea for you. She asked you about your new boyfriend, which then made your mind race with Yoongi the entire bike ride home. You thought about your task that day, giving up in the end because you just couldn’t find an answer.

You spent the next day with Levi at home. You deep cleaned the house, reorganised every single cupboard and drawer, sorted through your belongings to decide on what to keep and what to collect for the yearly Christmas flea market your little village always holds. Then you decided to make two cakes just to calm down your nerves and spent your day eating them on the sofa whilst watching a movie. You wanted to, but didn’t think of your task that day and went to bed with the biggest tummy ache ever. Stupid, delicious cakes.

The next day you also spent with Levi. That was also the day where you spent your hours with trying to achieve your goal of coming up with an answer. Levi had to watch in horror as you pulled out your little whiteboard to make a pro and contra list. He watched you prance in front of it, mumbling to yourself and every now and then blurting out something. Truly, he wondered that day if you had now actually lost your mind. You don’t find your answer that day and for the rest of your holidays you don’t think about it again.

The holidays are over again. Jimin is busy in the kitchen, baking his little cakes and cookies. Hoseok is busy outside together with you. The weather is now officially too cold for your plants to still stay outside and so the two of you are working hard to get them inside.

Hoseok opens the leaned-closed door with the help of his stuck out booty.

“Okay got it, okay now push”, he says, waddling into the shop.

“Were they always that heavy?” you grunt, pushing the pot over the threshold.

“I feel like they get heavier each year”, Hoseok answers you, wiggling out of the way so you could push the pot into its destined little corner.

You cleaned up on corner of the shop from its desks and chairs to make space for your plants. It is a pretty little corner and many people compliment it when they visit your shop during the colder months.

“We did it”, you say, straightening your back, “urgh my back”, you whine, stretching it out, “oh, I’m getting old. My back’s killing me.”

“Right?” Hoseok agrees, sticking his booty out to wiggle his back into place, “I understand the old people now. Very soon and you can pay me senior money.”

You laugh.

“Senior money?”

“Obviously, I’m not going to stop working here even when I become a senior. That’s why it’s senior money to pay for all my back injuries.”

“You’re such a dork, oh my god Hobi”, you have to laugh, patting his shoulder lovingly.

Hoseok grins.

“Now let’s go, one more plant and then we’re done.”

You and Hoseok manage to get the little orange tree inside with lots of struggle. You high-five each other in celebration, then share some tea as a reward.

Seokjin enters the shop as you and Hoseok share your tea. He greets you with a bright smile.

“Oh Seokjin hello!” you greet him, “I almost forgot about you guys.”

“Really? Now I feel offended, ___”, he jokes.

Just this moment his younger brothers enter the shop as well. Taehyung is wrapped in a huge scarf while Namjoon’s ears are covered in fluffy earmuffs.

“Tae, Joon hello. How are you today?” you greet them.

“Good, good. And you?” Namjoon asks, “did you get home safely last week?”

“I did, but it was so cold. I really thought I would freeze my fingers off.”

“It is really cold”, Taehyung agrees, “you should have said somethin', I'd have borrowed you one of my gloves.”

“You are sweet, but that wasn’t necessary. I warmed them up with a hot mug of tea once home.”

“I didn’t expect anythin' else from you”, Seokjin says, sending you a fond look.

“You know me, my veins are basically filled with tea by now.”

The three brothers laugh, surrounding you as you leave the tea shop with you.

Their turquoise truck is – like always – parked in front of your shop. The metal is cracking and crinkling in the cold air, giving off a faint cloud of steam now that it is cooling down. Seokjin and Namjoon go straight for the back to unload your delivery while Taehyung stays with you to chat.

“How you doin', noona?” he asks, “I heard you and Yoongi hyung are pretty much established now”, he grins, “that must be really nice. I’m happy for you.”

“Okay, who told you that?”

“Misses Kang when we delivered her the milk. She said she watched you walk home together after the Jeons’ festival and that you looked to be very in love.”

You roll your eyes.

“Oh truly, there are no secrets in this village are there?”

Taehyung chuckles.

“I guess not”, he grins, “I’m happy for you. You two are a cute couple.”

“Thank you, Tae”, you tell him for the sake of avoiding yet another rumour. You could correct him, you probably should, but you know the village. Words travel fast and if – if – you and Yoongi truly end up working it out again then you don’t want everybody to believe that you have already broken up. This is just too much work to correct again.

“Tae you rascal, come here and help us!” Namjoon calls from the back of the truck then, sending a flinch through Taehyung’s body.

“Comin'!” he calls out and then skips to the back of the truck happily.

You follow him.

Namjoon is currently handing Seokjin a box of milk.

“Do you need help?” you offer.

“No, I’m good”, Seokjin grunts slightly, “they’re going in the back like always?”

“Yes, like always.”

Seokjin hurries away then, getting help from Hoseok once by the door. The two men disappear in the back to store away the milk bottles.

“So how’s the weather for you guys? Did it surprise you?”

“Totally”, Taehyung says, “we had to improvise on gettin’ the stables warm ‘cause the cows were freezin'.”

“Oh no, that sounds terrible.”

“Yeah, but we done it now”, Namjoon says, “they’re safe and sound.”

“Well that’s good to hear.”

Namjoon hands you a box filled with egg cartons, then gives Taehyung the box full of tangerines. They keep a good amount for winter and you are always first on their list. The younger brother hurries off, Namjoon stays by your side.

“But how you doin'? I bet people come to your shop more now that it’s colder.”

“I’m doing good, people really love tea when it’s getting colder.”

Namjoon nods his head, “it’s best to stay warm and healthy.”

“Definitely. You guys should stay for a bit. I’ll make you a cup.”

“We'd love to, but we still have a few deliveries to make.”

“You’re always busy, aren’t you?”

Namjoon laughs and nods his head.

“You know us, we’re busy bees.”

The Kim brothers soon say their goodbyes. Seokjin drives like always. Next to him Taehyung sits and then Namjoon. Seokjin sounds his horn and then off they go in their little turquoise truck. They drive down the road slowly, driving by a shilloutte oh so familiar to you. Yoongi is walking up the road.

The sound of the truck’s horn cuts through the air. Yoongi lifts his head, looks around then lifts his arm to wave at the Kim brothers.

They stop next to him and then you can watch Namjoon lean out of the window to talk to him.

It is your cue to hurry back inside and try not to die of heart palpitations.

You completely forgot that Yoongi would return today.

“You okay, boss?” Hoseok asks.

“I just watched Yoongi chat with Namjoon”, you say and prance nervously, “Hobi I can’t take it. How do I look? Does my face look good? Oh god, does my hair look messy?”

Hoseok grins.

“You look pretty, don’t worry he’ll like you so much.”

“Urgh”, you groan, hurrying behind the counter to shake Hoseok by his shoulders, “I’m going insane. Hobi, I forgot it.”

“Forgot what?”

“To decide if I want him back or not.”

Hoseok shakes you off, “what?” he exclaims, widening his eyes, “of course you want him back. Helloo? You guys are made for each other?”

“Yes but I don’t knooow.”

“No, ___ no. Come on, don’t falter now”, Hoseok whines.

“Falter with what?” Jimin asks, having come out for a moment.

“She is seriously doubting if she should take Yoongi back.”

“___ yes”, Jimin says, “you guys are made for each other.”

“You guys think so?”

“Yes”, they say in unison.

“Besides, you’re not getting any younger and the village is tiny. You won’t find such a good catch again”, Jimin says.

“Thanks?” you say, feeling just slightly offended by him calling you old.

The bell rings then.

The three of you turn.

Just as you had thought. Yoongi is here, standing in the middle of the shop with his orange beanie and white coat.

“Hello”, he greets you.

“Hey”, you greet him.

“Hyung hey!” Hoseok calls out and smiles, “long time no see, right?”

“Yeah very long time no see. How are you these days?” Jimin says.

“Good, yeah”, Yoongi answers them.

They snicker, embarrassing you oh so very much. You turn to send them a warning glare. They understand and so Jimin hurries to the back with a grin on his lips while Hoseok makes himself busy by serving a customer, who came inside after Yoongi.

Yoongi waddles to the counter.

“I’m back from my parents”, he says, studying your features with shy eyes.

“I know, I hope you had a nice time.”

“It was good. They kind of made me renovate half their house, but I didn’t mind because I could help them”, he says and nods his head contently, “oh yeah”, he says and seems to remember something, “I have something for you.”

You watch him open his bag and then take out a glass of what seems like homemade lemon tea.

“Yuja tea my mum made”, he says and places the glass on the counter, “you really loved to drink it when we were married.”

“I did?” you feel your cheeks heat up, “you remembered that?”

He nods his head, “sorry if that was creepy. I just thought maybe you’d like to try it again, because it’s really yummy and it’ll keep you warm.”

“Thank you”, you smile, “I’ll treasure it. I’ll put it right here, so I won’t forget to take it with me today.”

He nods his head and smiles softly.

“Hello.”

A random customer makes him have to step aside and for you to busy yourself with work for a few moments. He tries not to watch you in order not to be creepy, but you could still feel his occasional sneaky glances on you.

The customer, a woman in her forties with blonde hair, orders your winter special with a cinnamon cookie.

She leaves after paying, wishing you a nice day which you retort. Yoongi wants to step closer, but gets stopped by two tourists wanting their tea and snacks. There are other customers after them as well. So Yoongi gives up with a loud sigh and pretends to be busy by waddling to your plants and looking at them.

He turns once he hears the bell ring.

“Oh”, he says and then hurries back to you, “your plants are nice.”

“Thank you”, you say, “sorry, you just picked out the busiest time.”

“It’s alright, I’m not really busy today. Should I come back later?”

“No, I think we are good now. Can I bring you something though?”

He shakes his head, “it’s okay, I just….I came here to ask you if you thought about it.”

“About what?” you ask like an idiot.

Yoongi seems taken a back for a moment, clearing his throat and scratching the side of his neck.

“Oh”, you realise and cringe, “sorry I know what you meant, I’m just nervous.”

“It’s fine.”

You exchange a shy look.

“So what do you think?” he asks quietly.

“Can I be honest with you?”

“Oh no, this doesn’t sound good.”

“No, it’s not that bad I just”, you lower your head, “I’m such a mess and I still have no idea what I want”, you confess and lift your head, meeting eyes with Hoseok who is currently giving you the biggest what the hell are you doing? look.

“Okay, uhm”, Yoongi laughs to cover up his emotions, “that’s not what I expected to hear, but it’s fine I guess.”

“Really?”

He nods his head, but doesn’t say anything.

“Oh.”

He looks to the side then takes a step back.

“Either way, I’m gonna leave you to your work now. It’s getting so cold and I don’t want Holly to feel cold”, he says and then turns, “see you around.”

“Yes uhm, see you.”

“See you Hobi”, Yoongi says on his way out.

“Don’t you want to stay for tea? I’ll make you some”, Hoseok offers desperately.

But Yoongi shakes his head, “it’s fine. I’ve got to go.”

The door closes and gone he is. Hoseok watches until Yoongi is far enough away then whips around.

“Why?!”

“I, I panicked. Oh my god Hobi, I’m such a mess.”

“You are such a mess, holy moly. He probably thinks you just very weirdly told him to scurry off.”

“You think so?” you gasp.

“Yes, it literally sounded like that to me at least.”

“Urgh”, you groan and drop your head on the counter, “why am I such a mess?”

You had been prancing for the past ten minutes. You weren’t prancing before that, as a matter of fact you were in bed trying to fall asleep. But now you are prancing because as hard as you tried to sleep and not think about today’s terribly messy conversation, you couldn’t. 

Yoongi was home when you came back from work. You could see him work in the bathroom upstairs. It made you fumble with the doorknob of his gate and then for only a second you considered ringing his doorbell. You ended up running away instead.

You regretted not ringing his doorbell once you were home, staring at the wilted tulip on your coffee table with your thumb between your teeth as you were almost biting it bloody.

You then spent your entire evening, prancing in your sunroom and staring at the Old House with your thumb between your teeth and your knees wobbly in nervousness.

And to make long stories short, now you were prancing in front of his door instead, considering whether to ring it or not.

You initially planned on not doing so, to just go to sleep and see about it tomorrow. But again, you couldn’t fall asleep as hard as you tried because all your mind was occupied with was coming up with conversation scenarios between you and Yoongi. So you rolled out of bed, threw a sweater over your pyjama shirt and put on your slippers, locking the door behind you as you left for Yoongi’s place.

“Okay, okay come on just press it”, you encourage yourself, reaching out only to pull away again, “urgh no, let’s not ring his doorbell, let’s just go home.”

Nothing good would come out of this conversation either way. You know that it wouldn’t because you imagined enough scenarios in your head to come to the conclusion that tonight would only end badly.

You turn to leave.

“Urgh no”, you turn around again, running to his door, “but what if it will go well?”

Yoongi clearly expected to talk it out with you in the tea shop today. He also brought you tea so you can keep warm. He must have hoped that he could get his answer today.

He must also hope that maybe one day you and him could more than just talk again. 

You touch the doorbell.

“No, nope, no”, you pull away again.

But he lied about knowing you. He used you the whole time. He doesn’t deserve your words.

“Alright let’s leave.”

Two steps down the path then you stop again.

“But urgh”, you turn and look at the door again.

He was so sweet to you and gave you so much comfort. And he made you smile and laugh and helped you. And he didn’t even try to touch you or kiss you or go even further. He always kept his distance and made sure that you were comfortable in his presence.

You stomp back to the door.

You are going to ring it.

Stop.

Or maybe not?

“No. No! I’m going to ring it. What’s the worst that could happen? He tells me to leave”, you hype yourself up, “come on, okay. One, two, three.”

It rings behind the door, startling you although you were the one who pressed it in the first place.

“Jesus christ”, you wheeze and support yourself on the door, “that was bloody scary.”

You listen for a while. Nothing seems to move behind the door. No lights turn on, no steps on the floor, no barks of Holly.

You ring it again just for good measure and wait for a few seconds.

When you counted ten seconds you groan.

“What did you think would happen ___? It’s way too late. He probably thinks that you’re a murderer or something”, you murmur to yourself, shimmying from one foot to the other because it was terribly cold out here.

For a second you raised your finger to ring his doorbell again.

“No stop”, you stop yourself, lowering your hand, “just leave. He’s probably fast asleep already. Despite. What would you even tell him? Hey there, sorry I acted like an idiot today, I actually can't without you? Urgh you’re an idiot for coming here.”

And with that monologue finished you turn around and hurry down the stairs to make your way back home.

“Idiot. Hopefully nobody saw you. They’ll think you’re a completely crazy person, coming here in your pjs and slippers”, your monologue continues, “urgh this is so embarrassing. Ugh stupid cold I’m literally going to freeze to death here. Should have brought a jacket…or just stayed at home.”

“___?”

You stop, straightening your back.​​

[ironchef13]

Characters that I think should star in a Spiderverse Fanfiction

Ok so in previous chapters I wrote about characters that Miles Morales would meet, team up with, or fight as Spider-man. Mostly Bailey Briggs aka Spider-Boy and the Gwen clones from the Spider-Gwen: Shadow Clone saga. And in some Spiderverse stories he is seen fighting the Tinkerer (Phin Mason) from the Spider-man: Miles Morales video game. However, there are many more characters in the Marvel comics that may not be as well-known, but I think should be featured in a Spiderverse fanfiction. Maybe Miles can team up with them, maybe he can fight them, the possibilities are up to you the fanfic writers. So here is a list of Marvel characters that I think should star in a Spiderverse fanfiction and why. Hope you enjoy.

1.) Ellie Ellison aka Necroko from the "Extreme Venomverse" Comics Ellie Ellison is a shy high school student who had bonded with a Venom symbiote and became a Sailor Moon-themed superhero known as Necroko. When I first discovered her, I never thought someone could look both scary and Adorable at the same time. For more information about Necroko you may check out the link below.

2.) Itsy Bitsy from the "Spider-man/Deadpool" comics Itsy Bitsy is an unnamed woman that willingly let herself become mutated with the combined abilities of Spider-man and Deadpool. Now in the original comics Itsy Bitsy almost gaslighted Spider-man into killing her which caused Deadpool to intervene and stop him. But in a Spiderverse fanfic I was thinking maybe instead Itsy Bitsy would be kidnapped, forcibly mutated, and have her mind erased. Which would then lead Miles to discover her and team up with her while trying to help discover who she used to be. As for her personality I was thinking she would be like DC Harley Quinn, Crazy but funny. For more details about Itsy Bitsy you may check out the link below

3.) Billie Morales from the Miles Morales: Spider-man comics Billie Morales is basically Miles Morales baby sister that was born when Miles is in High school. It would be interesting and fun to see how Miles tries to handle school, Spider-man and being a big brother. Plus, I'm sure the rest of the Spider-Gang would absolutely adore her, and Mayday would love to have a new playmate. See the link at the bottom for more details.

4.) New Agent Venom Variant In the Marvel Universe many people have taken up the mantle (and symbiote) of "Agent Venom" People like Flash Thompson, Eddie Brock, Anne Weying, Eugene Thompson, Even Peter Parker. But I have an idea for a new OC Agent venom and that person is Addy Brock. Now Addy Brock was a character in the "Edge of Spider-Geddon" comics. She was a student with Peni Parker and the pilot of the VEN#m suit. Unfortunately, she was killed when the VEN#M suit went rouge and consumed her along with Peni's Aunt May. I guess this was considered one of Peni's "Canon Events". It would be interesting to see how Peni would react to meeting a new Variant of her deceased friend with a perfect bond with her symbiote, since I'm going to assume Peni would have some form of PTSD with any kinds of symbiotes.

5.) Gwenpool from the Gwenpool comics because why not?

6.) The Guardians of the Galaxy

This one is mostly because hey, Space Adventure so why not you know?

that's all I have for now. Hope you find these ideas inspiring. In the Immortal words of Stan Lee

EXCELSIOR!!!

[thewistlingbadger]

The more I think about it, the more I come to this conclusion:

Mayday is NOT Peter's child. Let me explain.

1. The timeline

A pregnancy lasts 9 months. Across the spiderverse takes place a year and 4 months after Into the spiderverese. That means that the MAXIMUIM age that Mayday could be is 7 months old. This straight up just doesn't track. Mayday is far too advanced mentally and physically. Her hair is too long, she has too many teeth, and she's incredibly mobile. She looks and acts more like a child that's a year and a half.

This isn't the only flaw in the timeline, the relationship between Peter and MJ also doesn't fit the timeline. They have been divorced for years and haven't seen each other since the divorce. To tell me that the SECOND they see each other, they fuck? That's not only bullshit, but if it is true, then that is hella concerning imo!

Also, I don't really understand why MJ, as a mother, would let Peter take her 7 month year old to another universe, where MJ would have no idea what's going on. Mayday has clearly been to spider society several times, the daypass was seemingly made for her and hobie and Miguel are comfortable around her.

2. Genetics

Mayday is a white little girl with long red hair, blue eyes, freckles, and a button nose. She looks exactly like MJ, and nothing like Peter. Literally, she shares no physical features with Peter. Is that impossible? No, it's just incredibly odd, not to mention a literal statistical wonder. (Brown hair and brown eyes are dominant genes, and only 0.17% of the world's population has BOTH blue eyes and red hair.

Counterpoints:

1. Her name

Her name being Mayday suggests that she is named after Peter's aunt May. However, May was there for MJ and treated her like her own, so who's to say that MJ wouldn't name her child after here? It also could be possible that she isn't named after May anyway. Her last name could be Parker because it is still MJ's last name even after the divorce, or it could be Parker because Peter is her adoptive father.

2. Her powers

Mayday has a webshooter that Peter made and can crawl on walls. We don't know if Spider powers are genetic, or if they would present themselves at such a young age. It also could be that her crawling on the wall is a biproduct of being in a different universe or being near all the other spiderpeople. Also, we know that there are multiple Spidermen, so even if she does have powers, that doesn't necessarily mean Peter is the father.

Conclusion:

For me personally, what makes the most sense is that MJ had a child while she was divorced from Peter. Peter and MJ rekindled there love, and Peter became the adoptive father of her child. It doesn't matter that it's not biologically his child, he's still raising her. But this is just a theory/hc, I just wanted to post this to open a discussion <3

[x-infernhoes-x]

Its Spidersona Season again bois

Right ended up watching Across the Spiderverse like a few weeks ago and I made this spidersona of mine. I had to force my art block out (i’m fr here, college drained me JDFHBSHJGBN) Anyways here’s Spiderlily! Basically she’s from Earth-1212 which happens to be a mirror of our Earth, which happens to be Earth-1218 but the difference is that its more in line with the MCU’s technological advancements which would explain why her suit looks more MCU-esque. I also added jojo stuff in bc why not hbhjsabfhjsb

Anyways minor lore: Her name is Eleanor 'Elle/El' Florentino, goes by she/her pronouns, a college student who has ADHD hailing from the Philippines and was eventually bit by a radioactive mirror spider that was hiding in a bouquet of spider lilies, which would explain her name. One of her many canon events is her finding out that her grandmother is Madam Okto (It gets worse because Elle just recently turned into Spiderlily at the age of 24 and she's a new spider-person when this happens), the Doc Oc of her universe and both are unaware that they're each other's arch-nemisis. The moment Elle finds out is when her mask falls away and Madame Okto's about to do the final blow, only to find out that 'oh shit this is my granddaughter wtf' and it's just a wake up call to them both. Her grandfather died when she was 14 before she even became Spiderlily due to an illness and is a retired cop. Her other canon events include: -three out of her former friends are the equivalents of the following: Green Goblin, La Vuitre ( a play on the Filipino word for Vulture which happens to be Buitre) and Mysterio and she finds this out when she becomes Spiderlily. -she has no Gwen Stacy BUT she does have her own version of MJ but they're not like together, it was an unrequited romance thing when she was 16 (based on someone I know HFBFJSJD) -getting sent into Miguel's timeline, which sealed her fate as a Spider-person in the first place. She’s also good friends with Hobie and Pav and considers the two of them as her younger brothers, adores the living shit out of Mayday, and is the only one who questions Miguel’s theory about the Multi-Verse and all of the canon events that he has about the fate of Spider-people becoming the person they are now. Her powers include the standard spiderperson powers but she has the ability to produce and construct shields in the shape of octagons, unravelling herself into webs/web-strands, and being able to shrink and resize herself but for only limited amounts of time. (both are jojo references actually, mainly Jolyne and Formaggio :”D) She also can produce natural webs as well! Also her gloves/brass knuckle combo happens to be an old invention of mine that I made back in 2015/2016 when I was in my Assassin’s Creed phase, which happens to be this thing:

Also spidersona shenanigans featuring some of my friends on discord’s spidersonas!

[toyafreethoughts]

⌨️ᶻᶻᶻ...[Jaxrel] is typing... <3 ↻ᴹᵉˢˢᵃᵍᵉ ˡᵒᵃᵈᵉᵈ ꒰Enjoy Your Matchups, @love-bird-000 / @boygun !!꒱ 🦋~*

A/N: Hello! Thank you so much for being patient with me （＾∇＾）I hope you enjoy your matchup! and again, Thank you for doing a matchup exchange with me (:

For your Hazbin Hotel Matchup… You have been paired with…!

Adam!

I feel like this pair would go amazing together, and since you also said you liked him I see that there’s potential for you to be with him! Especially since he fitted your ideal type here I go!

I feel like you two would get along so, SO we’ll especially with y’all making fun of people together as well LOL you guys are always seen together no matter what, I can see you guys watching a lot of movies together or just going out in general, I feel like he also fell in love with you for your personality not even your looks at all which is surprising because your personality collides so well with his, This May be off but I also feel like he’ll always heal you after a fight if you ever got in one, he absolutely loves that you don’t take shit from other people AND you know how to stand your ground, I think your definitely adams type in people (I’m just assuming his type but I feel like he would get along so good with people like you!)

If you ever need another voice in your band he’s always happy to lend you his singing voice, he also enjoys listening to your songs, he’s always praising you and basically worshipping the ground you walk on 😭 anyways I’m definitely rating this relationship a ♾️/10, I would definitely chose him as your match over the other round-ups down here.

Round-Ups: Husker

For your Helluva Boss Matchup, You have been paired up with…

Verosika Mayday!

I’m not sure if this comes off as surprising to you or not but I feel like this is another match that I think is best for you here’s why.

You guys are the friends to lovers thing for sure, you and her get along so well especially with your personality, you guys are always at party’s and just having fun! She’s definitely gonna compliment you about your looks not in a bad or joking way! She loves that you can stand up for yourself and not take shit from anyone at all it’s super brave of you, when you become partners with her, she’s a pretty good partner to have other then her acting bad (yk…) she also likes that your respectful and responsible she’s probably gonna look up to you to possibly try to become better, you guys are always supportive of each other no matter what so I’m happy to announce that this relationship will be pretty healthy! I feel like your dates with her would be going out to party’s or even dinners, but if you wanna stay home she wouldn’t argue either way she’ll totally have a at-home date with you and just watching movies on the couch.

Overall this relationship is something I can see that’ll continue very good for a long time even!

For your Gravity Falls Matchup, You have been paired up with…

Wendy Corduroy!

Now, this is probably a surprising one (maybe… I’m not sure…) but even though your personalitys are somewhat not similar it still collides very well, here I go!

You guys are super chill with each other I can see y’all just hanging out and talking about anything that interests either of you or anything that had to deal with your day, she isn’t someone who’ll say anything cruel for fun at a person but maybe if she’s cranky or moody (which rarely happens..) she’ll probably not have it and with you you’ll be supporting her so much! she appreciates your support so much, She also loves your hair so much usually the shape of your hair I feel like you guys would style each others hair! She’s also in love with your angelic features if you noticed… so you may catch her staring at you sometimes, your dates are usually inside like movie nights but I feel like she’s fine with going out too, she’s always on your side whenever your kicking someone’s ass when they mess with you.

I must say, I don’t know what came across my mind while writing this but oddly I feel like she was a pretty good match for you!

[erigold13261]

You know, I was also thinking about the progression of musical instruments in NSR. Because obviously there's some music tech going on that allows for drums to be played with just drumsticks.

I've had this idea and wip around for months, hopefully I can finish now that school is done, but it was going to show the progression of musical instruments through the generations of rock.

So yeah, gonna use this as an excuse to talk about instrument lore in NSR because I find it really interesting to think about.

The Goolings had entirely "normal" instruments, from a full drum set to guitars that had cool shapes but did nothing more than play music like they were supposed to. Basically the same musical instruments that we have in our world, or at least what we had like about 40 years ago. By the time the Goolings disbanded I don't think a lot of musical tech advancements actually happened.

Ex-Jay was when musical tech started to advance. Guitars and other instruments were probably still the same, at least when they started, but the drums are where most of the progression too place and they were more like those drum hero games. Not a full set, but still physically real and probably needed some kind of power or something. It was easier to move and probably soon advanced to not even needing physical drums to be hit. Just need the drumsticks and the base that would hold a holographic drum.

Then would be Bunk Bed Junction. At their start is when a lot of instruments would start getting upgrades/better features. Guitars could now be customized to the max, allowing for all kinds of features and powers to go through them. Drums no longer even needed bases to work, just the sticks themselves (and probably some calibration like a Wii remote lol). Other instruments also got upgrades like pianos, strings, woodwinds, tech instruments. All of them got some kind of upgrade to make them easier for the user to transport or to better harness their magical capabilities. Also being more versatile for people with disabilities or are left handed.

Like this is when the strings on guitars are either STARTING to be holographic or there are no physical stings, just like an input on the neck of the guitar. You can turn off the holo strings and just turn the head of the guitar to make it left handed. Or if you have an uneven guitar body, then guitars are double sided and you just have a case over one side that seamlessly hides one side. If you want to change what hand is dominant then you just take the case off and put it on the other side (the tech makes the casing work, I can see how it works in my head but I doubt I'd be able to explain it fully). But this was all coming out around the time of the revolution, maybe a year or two beforehand. Which is why Mayday has a more traditional guitar for the time. The truly customizable, holographic guitars were way too expensive for her.

And finally, the generation of Yiruk's band, or like a year or two after the revolution. This is basically the age of holographic instruments. Guitars only need the stem/neck and can then create the head and body holographically. Piano/keyboards just need a set of bracelets to be worn and you have a keyboard that can appear at any point in front of you. Drums I don't think got any kind of upgrade as just having the drumsticks were already revolutionary to the musical industry. The only thing I can see is if they cut the drumstick in half and make it half holo. When not holo, the two sticks can be put together to make just one stick for easy carry (and probably a lot easier to lose too).

But yeah, a lot of instruments become easy to carry around, easy to customize, and easy to make accessible. The only thing not easy is the fact this tech is pretty new and so would be pretty expensive for the first few years. Thankfully, the B2J generation of instruments is also really versatile and have gotten really cheap by this point. Ex-Jay instruments are still kicking around but they are seen a lot more like hassles now.

The Gooling's generation of instruments are definitely still around, and probably making a retro comeback, especially with Yinu having an instrument from that time period and Mayday bringing back Kul Fyra's guitar. Though they are also really expensive to get since they are no longer made, or really expensive to having someone make because someone has to basically hand make instruments without all the tech as no mainstream instrument makers are making those kinds of instruments anymore. So yeah, they are instruments that are collected more than played.

I'm sure a lot of people don't like the holographic instruments and probably say they should have stopped making upgrades at B2J's generation (heck, some probably say the instruments from Ex-Jays gen should have been the end of the upgrades), but that's not how business runs. Some of the main critiques is running out of power and not being able to use an instrument at all, having to keep up with updates and software patches, and just losing the overall feel of what an instrument should be. Some musicians feel like they can't even connect with their instruments because it feels more like touching a screen half the time than playing an instrument. Not to mention people feel the sound is not the same coming out of an electric instrument than an acoustic one, but that's a fight that's been going on for decades.

There have been advances in holo-tech that do allow for more tactile sensations with holo-instruments, but that is still being worked on for most instruments other than guitars and drums which have the most advancements out of all instruments. Well, I think piano is also up there with some pretty good advancements.

There are some experimental instruments being tested that would allow for little to seemingly no outside instrument base for holo-instruments. Meaning, instead of having a stick for drums, a neck for a guitar, or a base for a keyboard to be projected in front of you, a musician might only need a few rings on their fingers or like a bracelet.

Already pianos have been making this advancement where a player only needs a bracelet on each wrist to properly allow their hand to play a holo-piano, however, as of now they also need a necklace to make the height requirements and body direction consistent. Otherwise if you tried to play on one side of the piano without the necklace then you might just turn the piano entirely. This doesn't happen with a base on the floor because if you turn your body then the keyboard doesn't follow you.

There's also people trying out belts for keyboards to project from, but as of now it is too finicky as clothes can get in the way or depending on how a person stands, sits, or moves, the holo-keyboard can get messed up or be in a very awkward position.

It's really trying to find a way to calibrate height and direction of an instrument like the drumsticks can do. So far it is more difficult with instruments that aren't hit with the holo-projector (the drumsticks for drums). So percussion instruments are really easy to holo-fy, but guitars, pianos, string instruments are very difficult to without some kind of glove. Even the bracelets mess up sometimes because it is hard to tell what keys/strings the hand is trying to hit.

There just has to be a lot more advancements in holo-tech before holo instruments become a reliable experience for anyone. Like 1010 and other robots/people with cybernetic hands can easily use holo-instruments because they can just get some software to connect with their robotic limbs. The instrument will know exactly what key/string is being played and almost no problems occur other than the occasional glitch in the system. But humans/people without cybernetics have a tougher time getting consistent feedback out of holo-instruments.

I don't even know how far along woodwind and brass instruments are in musical tech. Those are probably still in the transitioning stage of where Ex-Jay and B2J generations were at. There are little to no holo-instruments that you have to blow in to. So far it was just too much work for companies to really be bothered with at the moment. But I do think some advancements are being made. Like there are definitely electric brass and woodwind instruments, but definitely no holo ones. If there are holo ones, then they belong to the elites like 1010 or other very famous musicians.

[gamebunny-advance]

Grab Bag Doodles

Stuff pre and post the May depression. Notes under the cut.

1) This was gonna be the new base for Kun3h0′s new model before I decided that the side facing Kun3h0 worked better for the overlay. It was made before I decided to tweak the design yet again. I tried using gradients this time, and I think I like it. If and when I update the model again, I’m def gonna be keeping the gradients.

2-4) Various Kun3h0 doodles. Number 5 has some in-game lore stuff for a guide I wanna make some day, but I dunno if I like all of it. Underneath Kun3h0′s face plate is a full LED screen which projects things like her eyes and mouth emoticons. The left side is a little damaged, so that’s why it’s covered by her hair. The bottom part explains the real-world lore that Kun3h0 is not actually sentient, but it’s the game she’s in that is.

5) 1010 doodles. Trying some new brushes

6-7) Kun3h0 x 1010. Just for fun, I wanted to do an outfit swap for them in the off chance that I decide to stream NSR again. I thought it was an interesting concept for some new thumbnail art. I did 2 versions of the 1010 variation, 1 where it directly mimics Kun3h0′s outfit and the second where they keep more of the sailor themes. I went back and forth between using “real” skin tones and the “candy” skin tones, so you get to see both for White.

8-9) Mayday/DJSS Fumos. On April Fool’s day, the NSR twitter posted something asking about how we’d feel about some NSR plushies. I never actually responded, but I thought it’d be funny to reply with something like “Kliff fumo real” in reference to the thumbnail art I did for the original NSR stream. I sketched every major character as a fumo, but I’m too lazy to post every single one, but I’m posting Mayday because main character, and DJSS because he has a special feature (long floppy arms). No, DJSS’s fumo wasn’t meant to have the eyes.

10) A Mike Hatsune doodle. Long time no see from old man Miku. Still trying new brushes.

[clarktooncrossing]

Hey there people of today and robots of tomorrow! It's me, Clark, back at least with another #throwbackthursday, just in time for the highly-anticipated Across the Spider-Verse! With Miles set to swing across the big screen again, I figured how would be a good time to show off this piece I made in 2020 featuring my characters from 3K. 3K is set in the year 3000 (hence the super subtle name) where robots are as common as people. So much so that a group of them band together in order to defend the planet from internal and external threats. One of its founding members is AH, a robot who went blind after seeing years of war now fighting for peace. Yet in another dimension she is one of a handful of robots who is infused with the powers of a spider, AH herself dawning the mantle of SpidAH-Girl. She fights crime in New York City alongside her friend ERN-E (Classic Spidey) and EMIL-E (Spider-Gwen).

In case this pic doesn't make it super obvious, I am a huge fan of Mayday Parker's Spider-Girl, her series acting as a gateway for my eventual love of comic books. Having fallen in love with the Raimi trilogy around the same time I discovered Google, I stumbled across the cover for The Amazing Spider Girl #1 and my life was never the same after. May zigged in everyway her father zagged. While she wasn't as physically strong as Peter was, I'd argue she was mentally and morally stronger than her old man ever was. Where Pete thinks that someone dies every time he fails, May sees it as somebody lives every time she succeeds. Along with that she has faster reflexes, a keener spider sense, can magnetize surfaces with her adhesion abilities, and even inherited her mother Mary Jane's sense of style. This is most evident by the fact that she looks way better in Ben Reily's spider suit than Ben himself ever did. On top of that she's a big brother, which is also cool.

I have draw AH as Spider-Girl before, as seen with this sketch from 2019-

However, this pic didn't keep me up until 1 or 2 AM. What can I say, when I get an idea in my head, nothing stops me until I see it completed. Especially when the end result turned out so great. I liked how AH looks in both her super suit and casual clothes, not to mention her lil' logo was a nice personal touch. If I were to change anything now it'd be to swap out EMIL-E's Spider-Gwen outfit for MJ's Spinneret from Renew Your Vows. EMIL-E and ERN-E are supposed to be a couple and by now I've jumped aboard the Miles x Gwen ship. It's the one time I will ever ship a Spider-Man with Gwen outside of Spectacular Spider-Man. Otherwise the reason I drew EMIL-E like this was because of a Halloween pinup my friends SIM-N and I did for Halloween back in 2016.

Looking back now, I wish we had named these pin ups something other than Playbot. Chock it up to be being a dumb teenager. Speaking of dumb, hey tumblr, screw you and your limit on image size! This is an art sharing website, I should be able to upload files regardless of size! Especially when I wanna share these old Halloween pin-ups later this year!

For now though, there's other retro Spidey art to show! Such as this DUDEL I made for SIM-N back in 2016.

For those of you wondering, the robot in the Jessica Drew suit is Monova, a bad@$$ character he designed that he now criminally underutilizes. I'd ask him why that is, but he never gives me straight answers! However, he did leave this comment when he saw this pic:

Monova: Okay you two definitively need to get married soon

So, y'know, that was funny. XD

With all that said, I hope you all enjoy this nostalgic trip through my past Spider-3K work and enjoy Across the Spider-Verse when it comes out tomorrow! I know I will! Until then, MAY THE GLASSES BE WITH YOU!

[thejostenator]

Golden Boy Orange: Chapter Four

....so it's been slightly longer than anticipated. whoops. BUT I'M BACK WITH THE NEXT CHAPTER, so there's that!

For those of you who don’t know, this is my project to tell AFTG from Matt’s perspective, and this chapter ALSO features a fully original scene! If you haven’t read the first three chapters (or if you need a refresh since it's been aeons since my last update) you can read them on Tumblr, or on Ao3.

Tagging those I know are interested (@youhaveahomeinmyheart, @pipebomb-malewife, @accal1a, @sickbunsbro, @tntwme, @shayebutterrrr & @stay-because-now-you-have-a-home) but if you want to be added to the tag list, just let me know!

TW: Seth-typical dialogue, homophobic slurs, etc.

Silence fell in an instant, swallowing the entire room. Matt’s stomach bottomed out. He let out a shaky breath, and Dan gripped his hand.

The Ravens. They would be playing up against the Ravens. The ERC would be pitting the worst team in the district against the best, already knowing exactly how it would go. It was complete and utter humiliation, simple as that. And Neil had known.

“No way,” Dan said sharply. “That isn’t funny, Coach.”

Seth clearly thought otherwise, beginning to laugh in the hysterical sort of way that always fucked with Matt’s sense of everything. He clasped his hands on his ears and rocketed to a stand.

That action must have broken the floodgates, because suddenly everyone had something to say. Allison let out a shrill noise of disbelief, and even Renee let out a small gasp, keeping her level gaze firmly on Andrew—cold, drug-made smile gone as if struck from his face as he stared furiously at Kevin—let out a small gasp.

“Why the hell would they do that?” Matt asked through all the chaos.

“And why the hell would the ERC approve it?”

“Hey, hey, hey? Coach?” Nicky gaped. “Tell me you’re joking. Coach, tell me you’re joking.”

Aaron’s eyes locked in on him. “They can’t do that, you can’t let them do that. Surely you can do something to stop them.”

Coach furrowed his brow. “Look,” he said, “they’ve made up their mind. They’re trying to follow through on the increased interest Kevin’s brought to NCAA Exy as a whole by pitting him against Riko, and nothing we say will convince them to change.”

“We can’t play against Riko,” Matt said, fully aware that he was the only one who would be directly playing against him. “They’re setting us up for failure.”

“Only if you give up,” Coach growled. “And you wouldn’t be here if you’d given up.”

“He’s right,” Dan said. “If we want to prove the Moriyamas wrong, they’ve just given us the chance.”

Matt swallowed air. No one said it, but everyone here knew what they were. The Yakuza.

Wymack pinched the bridge of his nose and opened his mouth to say something, but he faltered at the sight of Andrew’s face. His smile had returned, and it was all teeth, manic in every way.

“Hey Kevin,” he said. “Hear that? Someone really misses you.”

“The ERC shouldn’t have approved it,” Kevin whispered, echoing everything Matt had already said.

Andrew’s grin only grew wider, which Matt hadn’t even thought was possible. “You said he would come for you.”

“I didn’t know it would be like this.”

“Liar,” Andrew said, and Kevin flinched. “You did know about this. How long? One day, two days, three, four, five?”

“Coach told me when it was approved in May.”

Matt winced.

“May. May, Day. Mayday. A little curious, Kevin Day. When were you going to tell me?”

“I told him not to,” Coach said through gritted teeth.

“You picked Coach over me?” Andrew asked, laughing in a way that sent shivers running up Matt’s spine. “Ohhhh my. Favoritism, deception, betrayal, how familiar. After all I’ve done for you.”

“Andrew, knock it off,” Abby warned him.

“Help me,” Kevin said, almost a whisper.

Andrew’s face twisted. “Help you? Help a man who lies to my face for a month? How?”

“I want to stay,” Kevin said. “I’ll ask you again: don’t let him take me away.”

“You’re the one who would tell him yes,” Andrew said. “Maybe you forgot.”

“Please.”

“You know how much I hate that word.”

Matt looked away.

——

“The ERC will make their official announcement later this month. They agreed to wait until you were all here where it’s easier for us to protect you,” Coach said.

Abby stood behind him, watching Andrew rubbing his finger and thumb over the jagged scar that skittered over Kevin’s hand, courtesy of Riko.

“That doesn’t mean you can be careless. Chuck—that’s our university president, Charles Whittier, Neil—has reissued orders that reporters stay off our campus with a police escort this summer. You’ll see twice as many campus police around, and I need all of you to save their number to your phones just in case. Understand?”

Matt echoed the others with his reply. “Yes Coach.”

Neil stood. “Anything else, Coach, or are we finished?”

“This is a big deal,” Dan said. “It changes everything. You don’t understand.”

Wymack shook his head, and Matt leaned forwards, waiting for confirmation of what he already suspected. “Neil found out when Kevin did. I already had the talk with him, so he understands just fine. And no, there’s nothing else. Abby, they’re all yours. Do with them what you will.”

Neil started for the door without so much as a backward glance.

“Physical?” Dan called after him, but it fell on deaf ears.

Abby shook her head, suddenly ill-looking. “He’s done his physical,” she said conspiratorially, or maybe regretfully—Matt couldn’t quite tell. “Believe me, he’s done it.”

Andrew snapped his fingers. “Renee.”

Renee rose. “I’m going to go talk to him, explain he won’t be getting a ride back with Andrew.”

Andrew nodded. “Good idea, Renee. How considerate. I wish I’d thought of it myself.”

“Very funny, Andrew,” She replied simply, then followed Neil from the room.

A beat of silence hung over them all. Wymack watched them. “So,” Dan asked, clapping her hands together, “what did you all think of Neil?”

——

Neil stood silently by the door as Matt and Seth trooped back into their dorm.

Seth was mid-rant—the worst time to interact with him—and needed to leave his hands free for all his obscene gestures, so as soon as he got in the door he chucked his suitcases to the floor, where they landed with a clatter.

Neil flinched away, and Matt sent him a pitying look as he pushed the door shut, holding out Seth’s third bag for him. Seth stared him dead in the eyes, lunged forwards and jerked it from his hands.

“Fucking useless!” He spat, throwing it across the room. “Andrew’s lot are all fucking freaks, and they’re the ones bringing the shit to us—it’s Kevin’s fault you know, you heard King Mania over there.”

Neil snorted, and Seth rounded on him. “Did I ask for this?” He spat. “No the fuck I didn’t. But here it is anyway, unwelcome and unwanted.”

“Buddy,” Matt said slowly, placatingly, “There’s nothing we can do about it. We’ve just got to keep on going.”

“Do we? Do we? Are you going to talk bullshit in my face about how we’re all in this together?” Seth snapped. “Well, we’re not! Abby’s a bitch—”

“Seth,” Matt warned.

“Allison’s a whore—”

“Seth.”

“The Monsters are faggots and freaks—”

“Seth!”

“And to make it all worse, I get stuck with a fucking amateur as a sub!”

“Kevin approved him,” Matt said, moving to stand between the two of them.

“Like that makes me feel any better,” Seth snapped, glaring around Matt at Neil.

Neil stepped forward, around Matt, to stand in front of him. Apathetic.

“We were a bad joke; now we’re a practical one. When the others find out about this, we’re going to win our games only because they’ll be too busy laughing to take us seriously. We were supposed to make it this year. I trusted him to pick our sub because he said he could get us past the championship deathmatch. But this—” gesture to Neil “—is repulsive.”

“At least give Neil a chance.”

“Day’s fucking with us,” Seth said. “It isn’t right.”

“This attitude isn’t right,” Matt jabbed a finger at him. “Kevin would never recruit someone just to make us look bad——we do that well enough on our own. If you want us to win this year, act like it. We need a cohesive offensive line. Since you and Kevin are a lost cause, you’re going to have to make it work with Neil.”

Seth let out a short, sharp laugh that was more like a bark. “He’s short, he can’t play, and he looks like he has an attitude problem.”

“Coach says he’s got potential.” Matt turned to Neil. “Andrew says you’re fast.”

Neil frowned. “When did he say that?”

“When do you think, wiseass?” Seth asked. “We talked all kinds of shit about you after you booked it.”

“Dan asked what they thought of you,” Matt clarified. “Nicky thinks you need more time with us. Aaron says you have to be more aggressive. Kevin didn’t say anything, which would normally be weird since Kevin’s not known for mincing words, but I guess he’s distracted.”

Seth snorted.

“But Andrew bets you can outrun everyone on this team. Coach said you clocked a four-minute mile back in Arizona. That true?” Matt couldn’t help but look him up and down. “You’re a little short to run so fast.”

“I like running,” Neil provided.

“Fuck running,” Seth said. “Learn to score. Word is you still can’t score on Andrew.”

“No,” Neil admitted. “Not yet.”

“When you do, you can talk to me,” Seth said, grabbing his suitcases and storming away, into the bedroom. “Until then, stay out of my way and try not to drag down my line too much.”

Matt let out a sigh. “Welcome to the Foxhole Court,” he said drily.

[drydak]

anyone want to read my stream of consciousness about the bad batch....no....ok

ok so the thing about tbb is that it is almost something i could really like except there's like a million things holding it back. the introduction in tcw where they established that they hate 'regs' because they were looked down on and then never did anything with that, which is crazy because clones in the sw universe are very explicitly not in any position of privilege. they show them getting idk. bullied? on kamino? but the most we get about solidarity between the bad batch and the other clones is the mayday episode. frustrating!!!! the way that the clones features in general in animation are whitewashed is frustrating enough but then they bring in a group of 'elite' clones who are also ostracized and then make two of them just look like white guys and another (because he died and was re-animated) just completely pale. and are we dealing with the fact that echo used to be a 'reg' but due to his death doesn't feel like he fits in anymore are we talking about that. no ok. also we are in the final season and omega and echo are like the only ones that want to rescue the clones that are being experimented on.

also the way the plot has been going is driving me bonkerssss okay so first of all did anybody actually get some sort of clarity about how the chips worked from what they did because i sure didn't!! can we get some consistency!!! crosshair's stint being an imperial also doesn't feel like it's really been explained. ok you gave your loyalty to the wrong people why did you do that in the first place when every other bb member did not. i guess there had to be some interpersonal conflict before they could just face up to the bigger one (and there's only so much they can do there due to established canon) but way too many of crosshair's actions in the early seasons feels inexcusable!! and at the same time i loved the episode with mayday but at what costttt like we've already seen him get orders to kill civilians and go okay we're doing this and when the people he's in charge of don't want to he does it anyways. maybe it has been too long since i watched it but there's too many pieces that don't feel like they mesh into a full 'character redemption'. and i like crosshair like half the time which is why it's so frustrating.

speaking of plot threads. there are two episodes left. where is cody? i know i'm a bit biased because he is one of my favorite characters but there was sooo much in the solitary clone episode that felt like it was hinting at 'cody is testing the waters to see if crosshair will defect with him' and then he doesn't get the response he was hoping for so he leaves by himself. 'it appears he's gone awol' ok cool will we ever see him again? is there a larger role he's fit into? it feels like the episode with rex and his clones would have been a good opportunity to see him again (maybe slightly messy so just like a mention? at least? considering i'm convinced crosshair is the only one like in the universe who knows he's defected?). one episode and that's it no mention again what are we doing here. especially with rampart back (who i have a side beef with - yeah they all hate him and are using him but part of me feels like they're trying to do a bit of a kallus with him which i do not want because it is not earned storytelling wise. if he dies whatever if he betrays them i'll be annoyed) who was also there telling crosshair that cody left like......hi.

maybe this is just my frustration with how much recent star wars is doing to shore up the 'somehow palpatine has returned' plotline but there are other stories i wish the bad batch was telling and i am just not getting that. and maybe i'll be happier if it turns out that they announce another clone project but as it stands it feels like they're sort of wrapping up anything they would do with them? which is making me crazy because there's sooo much untapped potential that not even the clone wars touched because half the time it was going 'this is the anakin and ahsoka show and the clones die a lot'. (which is a very uncharitable take of a show i enjoy a lot i just have had enough of anakin forever and ahsoka is a character i love but would love more if every time we got a chance to dive into a specific culture it ended up just being her story....which is my way to say that i wish totj was about The Jedi and not Dooku and Ahsoka. SORRY)

what was i saying. um. anyways i really want to like them and a lot of the time i do and maybe i am just being more of a hater because i have felt largely unfulfilled by this show in general but. oh i just remembered i can't believe everyone is so sad about tech dying because i don't know if they really earned that sadness for me. and i am a big fan of both characters remaining dead and characters coming back from the grave but i think people are going to be disappointed when it turns out that tech did actually die and CX-2 is a clone with all of the bad batch traits mixed together (just my theory which is also probably wrong). anyways i think the most emotionally impacted i was was during the solitary clone AND at the end of the episode with mayday.

also the underutilization of characters is like a consistent problem echo will disappear with a throwaway line for multiple episodes at a time and will show back up to deliver a ship and be with them again and then separate. they have barely devoted any time to him. he has not gotten to change and grow. he has gotten to go on side missions with rex that we don't see to rescue his brothers which is something that i think would be important to show because echo's introduction to the bad batch is being saved from the enemy by his brothers!!! but he is there so that they can use his skills and then he leaves. i really hope they've been taking him off screen because they plan on doing something else with him otherwise it just feels. lazy.

none of this is cohesive. sorry. i am maybe also representing some of these things more extremely than i actually feel about them. i am not the only opinion in the universe. i am just deeply unsatisfied by this final season and it is getting dire