#filler chapters still remain Hard to write lmao

[echoes-of-realities]

be my fire in the cold (and I'll be waiting by the mistletoe) - 16/25

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[From the Start] // [Fanfiction] // [ao3]

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Chapter Summary: Santana and Brittany make an ornament together; Brittany asks Santana out on their first date, or at least, their first official one.

Chapter 16: that the cold would be freezing, the world would be white

///

Winter has settled deeply into New York and Brittany spends the morning freezing in her apartment despite the fact that, with Mercedes spending last night at Sam’s, she can crank the heat up as high as she wants without Mercedes complaining about their heating bill. Though it’s so cold that she thinks even Mercedes wouldn’t argue with her. The light snow that had dusted the city the past two days had turned into pouring rain overnight, and the streets are filled with brown slush and grumbling pedestrians as they fight against the weight of the gross dampness that clings to the city. Sam had picked Mercedes up from the theatre last night, and Mercedes had left her keys in Brittany’s care with a playful warning to not crash her car—as if she would, she’s a more careful driver than even Mercedes is and they both know it—or, much more likely, spill coffee something in it.

She’s grateful for Mercedes’ car on days like these and, never far from her thoughts, she wonders how Santana’s planning on getting to the theatre; she doesn’t have a car, Brittany knows, and Tina and Mike live pretty far away from her neighbourhood. She only debates it for half a second before she’s texting Santana and asking if she wants to meet for breakfast, partly because it’s another two-show day and she doesn’t want Santana to go without eating again, but mostly because she just wants to spend as much time as possible with Santana.

Santana answers instantly, accepting the offer for breakfast and asking where she wants to meet.

It’s a surprise, Brittany says with a smiley emoji, Pick you up in 15?

Is Mercedes coming? Santana asks, and even through the text she can sense Santana’s slight disappointment. Her and Mercedes get along better than Brittany could ever hope for, but she can’t blame Santana for wanting to have time to themselves.

Her car is, Brittany answers cryptically, I’m leaving now. See you soon!

She quickly collects everything that she needs for the day, knowing that she won’t have time to swing back around and pick it up after breakfast, before heading out of her apartment, thankful that the complex has an underground parkade. It doesn’t take long for her to get to Santana’s and, surprisingly, there’s a parking spot almost right in front of the entrance, so she quickly pulls in to it. She grabs her stuff off the passenger seat and takes a deep breath to prepare herself for the rain before slipping out into the cold and darting across the sidewalk.

She spots Santana in the lobby again, only wearing a thin jacket that doesn’t look very waterproof, and taps on the glass. Santana glances up from her phone and her face blooms in that dimpled smile that makes the butterflies in Brittany’s stomach swoop and flutter all the way down to her toes. Santana quickly crosses the lobby and opens the door, her smile only widening when she sees what’s in Brittany’s hands.

“You know me too well,” she greets.

Brittany grins and shrugs a little. “You’re too stubborn,” she says easily, tossing the scarf over her shoulder so she has both hands available. “You never dress for the weather,” she teases, tenderly reaching up to brush Santana’s hair back behind her ears before tugging the extra hat from the back of her closet over Santana’s head, making sure those adorable tiny ears of hers are fully covered. Santana sighs softly and nuzzles into Brittany’s touch like a cat looking for more scratches, and something deep in Brittany’s chest spasms and trembles. She carefully winds the scarf around Santana’s neck, her hands curling tighter into the ends as she realizes how easily it would be to tug on the scarf and have Santana’s lips upon hers. A strong gust of wind snaps her out of her thoughts as Santana shivers and cold rain sprinkles against Brittany’s back.

“Where are we going?” Santana asks innocently, completely oblivious to where Brittany’s thoughts just were but curiously studying the blush that Brittany can feel in her cheeks. This woman seriously makes Brittany blush far too easily; Brittany usually delights in making everyone else blush, but Santana seems to have the innate ability to make heat crawl in Brittany’s cheeks just by glancing at her.

“It’s a surprise,” Brittany singsongs.

“Britt,” Santana whines.

Brittany just grins and finally releases the ends of the scarf to wind Santana’s left arm through hers. “Santana,” she teases.

Santana huffs out a breath. “Ugh, fine, don’t tell me,” she says petulantly.

Brittany beams at her and tugs a little on her captured arm, drawing Santana closer to her. “I won’t!” she chirps, and then, “Let’s go!”

Santana shrieks a laugh as Brittany rushes them out into the pelting rain, hurrying to Mercedes’ car and again chivalrously opening Santana’s door like the gentlewoman she is, making sure all limbs are safely tucking inside before shutting the door and hurrying around to her own side. As soon as she’s in, she quickly starts the car and blasts the heat, feeling a little damp but not soaked.

“You’re really not going to tell me where we’re going?” Santana asks suspiciously.

Brittany grins as she shoulder checks and pulls out of her parking spot. “Nope,” she answers brightly, popping the p.

Santana playfully groans and falls back against the seat. “You’re the worst,” she complains.

Brittany just grins wider.

///

The small café Brittany takes Santana to looks like Christmas threw up all over it, blindingly red and green and gold with mismatched decorations scattered around, messily hung homemade ornaments at knee level and delicately draped garland at eye level.

“Wow,” Santana says as they step through the door, “It looks like a Christmas elf did a hit and run on this place.”

Brittany grins and nods at the decorations. “The costumers decorate it,” she explains, “You can either bring your own ornaments and decorate or they have stuff to make your own and hang them here.”

Santana considers the café, a smile tugging on her lips. “That’s cool,” she says with such a transparent tough façade that Brittany giggles.

“C’mon,” she says, tugging on Santana’s jacket near her elbow, “we can’t waste time or we’ll be late.”

There’s a short line before they place their order and Brittany gently elbows Santana out of the way before she can offer to pay. “My treat,” she says with a wink, and Santana flusters, her hands fumbling clumsily together for a moment before she relents. As easily as Santana can make her blush, it’s just as easy for Brittany to fluster Santana in return.

Brittany takes Santana to one of the taller tables, tucked near the back of the café where it’s a little quieter. There’s a pile of craft materials on the table and some instruction sheets that they completely ignore as they paw through the papers and pipe cleaners and googly eyes and popsicle sticks as they wait for their food and drinks.

“How’d you ever find this place?” Santana marvels as her gaze darts around, absently fiddling with a pipe cleaner, curling it into abstract shapes and completely distracting Brittany with the movement of her fingers.

Brittany starts when a waitress appears with their order and quickly blinks out of her daze, hoping Santana hasn’t noticed her distraction, but the smirk Santana wears is far too knowing for her own good. She clears her throat a little and thanks the waitress before turning back to Santana and ignoring the burning in her cheeks.

“My parents and sister flew out here for Christmas my first year of college as like a half family vacation and half family Christmas,” she explains. “My sister was, like, ten at the time and I found this place and I thought she’d like it.”

“That’s cute,” Santana says, a smile tugging softly on her lips.

Brittany laughs a little as she remembers the look on her sister’s face when they first walked into the café all those years ago, awed and lit up with the childish excitement for Christmas, the excitement that most adults seem to lose far too soon, a lose Brittany knows all too well. “We spent hours here, and as soon as we left she wanted to know when we were coming back.”

Santana grins. “Aww that’s so nice.”

Brittany bobs her head in agreement as the conversation turns to some of the more impressive—and some of the more amateur—ornaments. Brittany finishes first because Santana’s kind of a slow eater when she’s distracted, and she starts picking out materials for an ornament. Santana watches her with a small smile as she quickly finishes up her food and stacks her plate on Brittany’s before scooting her chair even closer to Brittany’s, the ugly scraping sound it makes against the floor causing both of them to wince and laugh.

“So what are you making?” Santana asks as she reaches for a pipe cleaner, playfully poking Brittany in the cheek with it.

Brittany giggles and swats at the offending material before shyly glancing at Santana. “I thought we could make one together,” she suggests, and the only way to describe Santana’s reaction is that she absolutely melts into Brittany’s side, their shoulders pressed together as she ducks her head forward to meet Brittany’s eyes.

“I’d love to,” she whispers.

Brittany smiles, her nose scrunching a little as they get lost in each other for a moment, only looking away when their waitress appears out of seemingly nowhere to take their plates. They laugh sheepishly and glance back down to the craft materials as they start to work together on their ornament.

It ends up being both expertly constructed and amateur, Brittany’s crafting expertise from having a sister much younger unable to completely cancel out Santana’s inexperience, but it just makes Brittany love it even more because they made it together. The face of the ornament has a crude drawing of a nutcracker soldier and a carefully scripted 2018 in the brim of his hat, and a Merry Christmas above that.

Santana bursts out laughing as soon as Brittany holds it up for her inspection. “It looks like a two year old drew it,” she manages around her giggles.

Brittany bites down on her own laughter as she studies it. “I love it,” she declares, only succeeding in making Santana laugh harder, “your poor artistic skills and all.”

Santana rolls her eyes, her head bobbing back and forth a little as she grins, dimples deep and glowing. “Come on, you should hang it up high so that atrocity is out of everyone’s sight.”

Brittany grins, having no intention to hide it from anyone’s view as they find an empty spot on a strand of garland. It ends up closer to Santana’s eye level than to Brittany’s and Santana groans playfully as she realizes that Brittany isn’t going to hide her awful artistic skills from the general public. Brittany takes a step back right into Santana’s space, forcing Santana to curl around Brittany’s shoulder a little to admire the ornament. For basically the first time since she brought her sister here all those years ago, Brittany feels liquid warmth curl through her at the thought that Christmas is less than ten days, and she marvels at the feeling for a moment, having a sneaking suspicion that, despite Santana’s own indifference to the holiday season, she has Santana to thank for that.

“It’s perfect,” Brittany says quietly, “because it’s ours.” Santana’s so close that Brittany can feel the heat of her blush, hot and bright, against her cheek and she tips her face slightly to the side so she’s almost brushing Santana’s skin with her lips as she speaks, “Your poor nutcracker and all.”

Santana sighs a little, her breath sweet and minty from the gum she produced from her pocket after they finished their coffees. “You know,” she says, her voice quiet and warm with soft marvel, “this is my favourite show I’ve ever worked on.”

“I’ve been in this production of The Nutcracker for three years, and I’ve done a bunch of smaller productions for it too,” Brittany whispers, meeting Santana’s gaze, deep and dark and liquid, “But this year is my absolute favourite too.” Santana’s smile could probably power the entire electricity grid of New York City, and again Brittany has to beat down the urge to tug Santana closer and kiss the hell out of her. Instead she sighs and shakes her head a little. “Speaking of the show,” she says, “We’re going to be late if we don’t leave now.”

Santana sighs too and they slowly move back to their table to shrug on their jackets, Santana smiling down at her feet as she tugs her borrowed hat on and winds the scarf around her neck.

Brittany doesn’t even get a chance to offer Santana her arm as they head towards the front of the café, because Santana’s cool hand has already slipped into hers, tangling their fingers tightly together and guiding them to the door.

///

They barely have a break on Sundays because of how close together the two shows are, so Brittany only really has time to shove the sandwich Mercedes brings her into her mouth as she leaves the costume department and heads back to her dressing room, hopefully so she can sit for the last thirty minutes of her only break.

She trudges through the theatre, thankful that her mouthfuls of sandwich mean she can just wave her greetings at people instead of being forced to stop and chat for a couple minutes, saving her so much time. All she really wants out of life at this moment is a catnap and a good stretch before she has to do it all over again.

She finishes off her last bite of sandwich just as she reaches her dressing room, tiredly pushing open the door and pausing in the doorway, the light from the hallway and her dressing room bathroom illuminating the sight the greets her.

Santana is curled up on the couch, her hair cascading in a dark wave over the arm where her head is awkwardly resting on, her back steadily rising and falling as she sleeps. Brittany melts as she watches her, the way her nose twitches little, the slight clenching of her fingers where they’re curled on the edge of the couch cushion, her tiny little snuffling breaths as she sighs in her sleep. She’s pretty sure Santana’s sleeping form is far more captivating than it has any right to be, and Brittany could probably spend all day just hovering in the doorway and watching her, but a yawn prompts her further into the room. She kicks off her sneakers by Santana’s and shuts the door behind her, digging her phone out of her hoodie pocket and setting an alarm for twenty minutes from now before dropping it on the coffee table.

She contemplates her options for a moment before shrugging and carefully crawling over Santana, draping herself partially over Santana like a blanket. Santana shifts and sniffles a little as Brittany gently manhandles her until her neck isn’t so strained against the arm of the couch, offering up her own arm as Santana’s pillow and not caring the least bit about how numb it will probably be when she wakes up.

Santana sighs and curls back into Brittany, her breathing evening back out as she sinks further into sleep. Brittany nuzzles into her sweet smelling hair and curls her other arm over low over Santana’s waist, falling asleep almost instantly with the scent of citrus and vanilla surrounding her and the sound of Santana’s soft and steady breathing soothing her.

///

It’s Santana’s shifting in her arms, not the blaring alarm, that brings Brittany back into consciousness. She mumbles at the movement, soothing as soon as the alarm has stopped screaming and Santana has shifted back and turned into her embrace.

“Britt-Britt,” Santana says softly, her breath and stray strands of her hair tickling at Brittany’s face and causing her nose to wrinkle up. Santana giggles softly and then there’s a warm hand cupping her jaw and a thumb stroking softly across her cheek, causing Brittany’s eyes to flutter open. Santana’s eyes are still sleepy and languid from their nap, and the only thing that Brittany can think of is melting chocolate, warm and gooey and sweet. “Your warmups are starting in ten minutes,” Santana murmurs, “And you should probably stretch again.”

Brittany hums in acknowledgement, content to stay right where she is for the next ten minutes but knowing she probably can’t. “Did you sleep well?” she mumbles.

Santana’s cheeks crease up in a smile that’s all in her eyes and only a little on her lips. “Better than ever,” she answers.

“Me too,” Brittany yawns. Santana shifts a little in her arms, bringing them closer together and Brittany hums until a sudden tingling pain is shooting up her arm and she hisses out a curse. Santana’s eyes grow wide and worried, her hand curving a light tighter around her jaw in question, and Brittany grits her teeth and shakes her head a little before Santana can give voice to her concern. “I’m fine,” she gasps out, “Just pins and needles.”

Santana’s eyes clear but worry still furrows her brow. “Do you want me to move?”

Brittany can’t really think of anything, let alone whether or not that would help, but thankfully Santana seems to realize this and slowly moves her head off Brittany’s arm, propping herself up on her elbow before helping Brittany stretch her arm out until the pins and needles are less painful prickling and more soft tingling.

Once Brittany can move her fingers again without wanting to scream, Santana manoeuvres herself into a sitting position before helping Brittany up too.

“Sorry,” Brittany mumbles, cursing herself for ruining her plan to convince Santana to cuddle with her for their remaining ten minutes.

Santana shakes her head with a small smile. “I mean, it was kinda my fault, repurposing your arm as a pillow and all.”

Brittany pouts at Santana. “You big meanie,” she whines, causing Santana to just giggle until Brittany’s lips tug up into a lopsided grin.

Santana boops her playfully on the nose with a wide grin before sighing and standing. “I really gotta get back. Who knows what’s fallen apart during about my only break all day. And thanks for not kicking me out,” she adds, ducking her head down as she flusters a little, “I needed a place for a nap and Tina and Mike were both having supper with their understudies so, you know, thanks for letting me sleep here unannounced, and for being my pillow and blanket and all.”

“Any time,” Brittany promises, because there’s pretty much nothing Brittany wants more than to continue to be Santana’s pillow and blanket sometime in the near future.

Santana smiles down at her toes, more to herself than anything. “Anyways,” she says, and her voice is breathless and dreamy and basically Brittany’s favourite sound in the entire world, “I’m doing notes tonight so I’ll see you then?”

Brittany nods and smiles as Santana backs towards the door. “See you.”

“Cool,” Santana pauses at the door and slips her sneakers on, pulling her hair back into a ponytail with the band on her wrist before giving Brittany another smile. “Good luck tonight, not that you need it,” she says as she opens the door, casting the room a little brighter with the hallway light adding to the thin rectangle of gold falling across the carpet from the dressing room bathroom.

“Hey,” Brittany calls suddenly and Santana pauses in the doorway. Curious brown eyes meet hers and Brittany takes a steadying breath as she gathers every last ounce of courage hidden away in her body. “Are you doing anything tomorrow?”

Santana’s lips twitch in a small smile as she slowly shakes her head.

Brittany takes another deep breath and smiles at Santana, unable to control the fluttering of nerves coursing through her body even though she thinks she already knows the answer to her coming question. “Would you like to go out on a date with me then?” she blurts all in a rush, her words squishing together and reflecting the jittery feeling fluttering in her stomach.

Santana’s smile grows until Brittany thinks it might never fade ever again. “A date date?” she clarifies.

Brittany swallows and manages a nod.

Santana’s smile never wavers, and her eyes almost sparkle in the dim light. “Just you and me?”

Brittany manages another nod and a small smile.

“Well, in that case,” she drawls, giving an overdramatic pause before her smile and her eyes and her expression and her everything completely softens. “I would love to, Britt,” she murmurs, her voice easily carrying across the dressing room despite its volume.

Brittany sucks in a large breath of relief and beams at Santana, belatedly wondering why she was even nervous in the first place. “Awesome,” she says breathlessly, “I’ll pick you up around four?”

Santana nods eagerly, her cheeks dimpled and plump and Brittany kind of wants to race across the dressing room and kiss them. “It’s a date,” she says, and she sounds almost as giddy as Brittany feels.

They just keep staring at each other until Santana manages to snap herself out of their daze and gesture vaguely over her shoulder. “I’ve— Uh, gotta, you know— Work and stuff,” she manages. Brittany nods and waves a little as Santana shoots her one more heart-melting smile before tugging the door closed behind her.

Brittany flops back on the couch and grins unabashedly up at the ceiling, barely able to contain her excitement. “Score,” she whispers to herself.

[shanastoryteller]

Questions about outlines: How detailed are they? Are they the same level of detail or do they vary? How do you make your outlines? Chronologically scene by scene? Or do you come up with the scenes that call you and then come up with smaller filler scenes to fill in the gaps? Do you have outlines for each chapter? Or just for the larger general plot points? Do you try to complete the outlying before starting the fic? Or do you add to the outline as you go? Sorry if this is to many at once

lmao okay i got several asks about outlines but i’m just going to answer this one because it’s ~comprehensive~

every writing teacher i’ve ever had has hated my outlines. my friends find them incomprehensible.

if people are going to look at my answers as ways to do their own outlines, i have to say: that’s probably not a good idea

i don’t write outlines a majority of the time

i don’t write outlines to plan a story i’ve already decided to write

i write outlines primarily as a way to exorcise story ideas that i want to write but don’t want to actually commit to writing (answer prompts are another way i do this lol)

now, some things do get outlines as a way to plan and organize. survival is a talent has an outline because it’s 400k and spans six years. child king had an outline. needy’s body had an outline. 

b u t

i’m currently writing rotten work without an outline

lynchpin didn’t have an outline

hope is the thing with feathers didn’t have an outline

never grow a wishbone only had an outline for the first couple of chapters 

an invincible summer didn’t get an outline until like. chapter 4 of 6. 

i just. uh. think about what i want to happen and then hope i remember to write it down. even when i do an outline, i’ll deviate from it wildly, and not update it to reflect that, because i know what i’m doing (ha!)

so! with that in mind, let’s go! 

How detailed are they? Are they the same level of detail or do they vary?

they vary! but honestly - not very. sometimes i’ll write out a paragraph or bits of dialogue that are important to me, but most of the time it’s just broad strokes of what i want to happen, or a mechanism of how something complicated happens. like i have several paragraphs in my siat outline dealing with necromancy books, but like. two sentences on how they actually occur in the story because that’s just something i’m trusting myself to figure out when i sit down to write it.  

 How do you make your outlines? Chronologically scene by scene? Or do you come up with the scenes that call you and then come up with smaller filler scenes to fill in the gaps? 

I try to put them chronologically, although sometimes that’s a little hard (in siat i have several scenes that i know will happen, i just don’t know when). that is something i will go back and edit on my outlines, is if i’ve changed the order the something happens i’ll go back and copy and paste until my outlines is in the right order. but only if the outlines is something i’m actually using to write and the story is longer than a couple of chapters. 

because my outlines are so very not detailed, i just write down what it is that i want to write, like the reason i’m going to write this or want to write this, and figure out the rest later. i’ll fill it in later - or i won’t! because most of the time i don’t use my outline to actually write the story, and i use it more as an idea list, so if i don’t know what happens between scenes or i find it boring i just won’t write it down

like, for example, here is my “outline” for won’t even plant a garden in it’s entirety 

weep as a woman

“you weep as a woman weeps.” “and how is that?” “as if the future rests on your hips, and you must walk it forward.”

crowley and eve were friends. cain killed abel with the flaming sword, and crowley begged them to say it was with a rock instead

crowley was raphael the painter and fucked michelangelo

crowley was there the night yeshua was born, was friends with mary, helped raise yeshua?

ghosts

crowley and anathema and joan of arc

i ended up dropping most of this and crowley ended up sleeping with both eve and yeshua as the major plot points. i don’t explain stuff, really. i know what i mean so i just don’t bother to get very detailed most of the time. 

Do you have outlines for each chapter? Or just for the larger general plot points?

siat i divide up by year, and i think i did it by chapter for the last two chapters of build your wings on the way down, but otherwise it’s just one long list. i do my chapters based on words counts rather than content, so outlining by chapter doesn’t really make sense for me (siat is always around 15k a chapter, and everything else  i do these days thats multi chapter is around 8k because that’s the best, but ngawb was 5k a chapter and i think for child king it was around 11k a chapter)

Do you try to complete the outlying before starting the fic? Or do you add to the outline as you go?

I’m constantly adding as a i go! my outlines are never really “complete” they’re just abandoned. i write down what i think will help me and tend to ignore the rest. sometimes i just. talking to myself in my outlines when i’m trying to think something through. 

my outline for child king is under the cut because that’s one that’s a good mix of stuff i kept and stuff i threw out. DON’T JUDGE ME!! bad ideas don’t get written because they’re bad!! it’s part of the ~process~ 

child king

Summary: “A child king is still a king,” Deaton says softly. “A child king is still a child,” he snaps, but he knows this is an argument he’s already lost.  – Stiles is a born alpha, and after the Hale fire, things get real complicated, real fast.

Stiles’s mom is the last remaining human from a pack that was destroyed by hunters. John is the one that helps her after, so he knows everything. When they move to beacon hills she doesn’t feel the need to say anything to the hale pack, because as far as they’re concerned she’s just a human, and she doesn’t want to get involved in pack business. But then stiles is born with red eyes. The doctor is quiet and scared john and Claudia freak out, but it’s because he’s a werewolf, which is a relief to parents because they thought something was wrong with their kid. Maybe they don’t know he’s an alpha, only that he’s a wolf? Or they know and they keep it a secret on purpose

Claudia is the one to approach mrs. Hale. She tells her that her son is a born werewolf, but that she’s not interested in joining their pack. Her husband is a new deputy and they just bought a house but they’ll move if they have to. “he’ll need a pack one day. It’s safer,” she says. “if he wants to join you one day, I won’t stop him. But that’s not a choice I’m willing to make for him.” Mrs hale agrees that they can say separate as in exchange for the sheriff smoothing over some ruffled feathers no and again. They agree. Claudia to sheriff “we’re going to have to move one day. Our son is an alpha, and he’ll need to make his own pack.”

Stiles is seven the first time he snarls at his mom, eyes flashing red, and she freezes. She’s got the pack instinct, it doesn’t matter that hes her kid, hes still her alpha, so its hella awkward. John can see how this will quickly spiral out of control if they can discipline their own kid. But stiles is the one to back down first, apologizing and doing as he’s told. There are careful power structures here, and this is the beginning of differentiating between stiles the human and stiles the wolf.

When his mom gets sick, stiles offers to turn her. Hale offers to turn her. She refused for Reasons that I have to figure out. Maybe the politics of it? Wanting to protect stiles and not wanting to become part of the hale pack

The fire happens. John ships stiles the hell out of dodge, because there are hunters about. He snoops around enough to figure out it was kate argent, but theres not really anything he can do about it

Scott knows about everything, and tries to tell his mom in a really akward way that they should trust stiles if they’re ever in danger, but she just laughs it off. Except when someone breaks in and threatens her with a gun, and she manages to make a phone call, it’s not 911, not john, but stiles, and she doesn’t even know why, regrets it as soon as it happens. But then stiles shows up and breaks both of the guys, eyes glowing red, and then calls his dad and scott to take care of it, because they’re humans, so they get human punishments. Melissa is told everything.

Scott has a bad asthma attack and, and Melissa asks about the bite. Scott is itching for it. He wants it so badly. Stiles has already promised to turn them when they turn 18, and Melissa knows that. She asks if theres a reason to wait, and the answer is nah, not really. So he gets the bite. Stiles being like uh psa punishments cant include scott staying away

After hale fire and stiles gets back, he’s shocked that hey just left, and that they left peter behind. He starts visiting peter several times a week. He tells his dad that they should pay for his medical care. They have a fuckton of money because his mom inherited all the pack wealth, and john doesn’t touch it because that’s stiles’s money, that’s werewolf money. But this is a werewolf thing, so he agrees. “his pack left him dad.”

Stiles bites Erica when they’re 14. Some point in middle school stiles wises up to the Isaac thing and tells his dad he needs to arrest his dad, or stiles is going to kill him, and he’s not even a little bit joking. Stiles hears Isaac crying while going by the house? In johns squad car. Makes them pull over, then bursts into the house. John goes with it because his son’s eyes are red.

Some point after the hales leave, things start trying to move into hale territory. Some wolves? Stiles smells them, and ends up at 10 years old telling them to fuck off. This how scott finds out? He’s with scott and his dad. Deaton is facing off against something? Panics when stiles intervenes, but stiles goes wolfy and red eyes and is like. This is mine now fuck off. Looks at the hale house, and finally says, we have to take care of this. We have to. But they don’t own the house or the land or any of it. They do … something

Stiles ends up having to deal with a lot of crap real young

Stiles has scott and Isaac when peter wakes up. Stiles is there, and peter isn’t crazy because he wasn’t abandoned to die alone. Stiles says he can stay, or he can go, not trying to pressure anything. Peter chooses to become part of stiles’s pack, because his family is either dead or abandoned him. Peter ends up moving in with them as he finishes healing and to get used to being in a pack and with stiles. It’s very strange for john, but it’s a werewolf thing and he’s trying to be supportive. After a couple months, stiles tells his dad that having peter is a relief, that there’s finally someone who knows things, someone older who can support him as a werewolf. Peter acts as his second, and he finally has some degree of authority that age has lost him. Stiles has peter take care of the hale house. Peter and stiles have the conversation, where peter is like the hale land is your land now. You’re the alpha of beacon hills. He does what stiles directs him to.

Isaac is living with scott under stiles’s direction ish. But lots of Melissa. Isaac like I don’t wantto be afraid anymore, I don’t want to hurt anymore, and stiles is like. Okay. We’ll fix this. But he doesn’t bite Isaac until he goes to a shitton of therapy and has mostly sorted himself out. For isaac’s fifteenth birthday, he bites him.

Erica is spur of the moment, it’s something that all instinct and very little thought. OR they’re dating and it happesn? Erica’s parents suck. Stiles doesn’t want the balancing act of being boyfriend and alpha.

Jackson is so fucking desperate to belong to something. He nags and nags and nags and finally stiles bites him at least half to shut him up.

“dad can I talk to you about something weird and uncomfortable and a little creepy” talks about crush on Lydia, and how he’s not sure if its because he has a crush on her or if it’s bc he thinks she’ll be good for the pack. Lydia joins before Jackson, and she’s the one that pushes stiles into it. Lydia and stiles are not dating, but she’s clearly high in the hiarchey.

Boyd? Just like. Shows up. Idk.

So by the time laura and derek show up, stiles’s pack is: john, Melissa, peter, Lydia, Jackson, danny, Isaac, boyd, Erica, deaton (who’s acting as emissary but is training danny). Maybe bring in some later characters, like malia and kira and cora. Ooooh maybe the twins show up before they became alphas, still run aways and looking for something else? Stiles takes them on. Stiles finds malia early on after the fire

Peter is willing to forgive derek but he has a lot of shit with laura. Stiles agrees to let laura and derek stay and not be part of his pack, although laura insists she doesn’t need his permission. She snaps at peter to come home with them, and he looks at her like she’s insane. He says there’s no hale pack, and if there was, he’s not interested. He’s a stillinkski wolf now. Cora too maybe? Double blow. Peter owns the hale land, and he makes it clear the day stiles turns 18 he’ll be signing it over to him. Stiles is known by the surrounding packs.

Stiles has to somehow defend the surrounding area, has to make it clear he’s his and that he’s not willing to give it up. It’s valuable land. People are going to come looking for it once people figure out it’s abandoned. When deaton finds out stiles is an alpha, he goes around as an emissary to the surrounding packs. Saying that its under stiles now. He’s known to them so it goes mostly uncontested. This is when he and the sheriff have the child king conversation.

Stiles tries really, really hard to be a good alpha. That means controlling the territory, and working with other packs when members go rouge or something goes wrong. He’s thirteen the first time he goes to lend a hand in a fight, and it’s young, it’s too young, but he’s an alpha. He has to do this, to maintain the peace. And the thing is – stiles is good at this, good at not pushing, at not using his status as a crutch or an excuse, instead as a tool.

Maybe this is why no one cares for laura’s excuses. As much as laura wasn’t ready to take on the responsibility, she was an adult, if only barely. Stiles is a literal child, and in her absence shouldered it all. So even if she does technically have a claim, none of them are willing to honor it. “if you kill alpha stiles, you won’t have allies, you’ll have enemies.”

Allison and argents. Stiles brings his pack to kill kate. Gives peter the chance to do it himself, and is so very proud when he says no. but instead of letting her go free, stiles crushes her throat. “revenge would have been trapping you all in here and setting the whole thing on fire. Justice would have been making you watch as she burned alive. This was mercy, and don’t you forget it.” Scott is hella in love with Allison, but he knows this comes first. Her mom is full of hatred, but stiles more than makes it clear that he has no problem with killing her too.

Stiles sees derek soon after. They’ve already gone back and forth a lot. But he and laura weren’t there. Stiles tells him what he did. They have a ~moment~

Derek wants so very much to join stiles’s pack, but he doesn’t want to lose laura.

Something finally convinces laura to take the plunge and the stillinksi pack is one happy family

[jippy-kandi]

Digimon Adventure: 2020 – Episode 52: Dance Of The Heavens, Phoenixmon (Review)

Thoughts on the fifty-second episode of the Digimon Adventure reboot series.

So . . . this episode was a major disappointment. XD;

Sora and Taichi fell from the sky and were saved by Junkmon and co. . . . but, realistically, shouldn’t Piyomon just evolve and save them all? orz

The “safety first!” gag got real old, real fast. And they look silly doing that head shake thing. XD; Also, is this series trying to convince kids to work??? It was being pushed so much it really came off like propaganda. XD;

Anyway, Junkmon and his people live on an island with an active volcano, so they have to work to build walls to protect themselves from lava . . . filler plot is filler plot. And maybe would’ve worked better towards the beginning of the series . . . but not at the end. And not for a Mega evolution episode. Sigh.

Piyomon gets hurt while saving Sora from debris . . . and the ensuing drama just felt so forced.

I like how the episode’s motto is “safety first!” - and yet it shows Sora running while carrying steel bars . . . yeah, she’s putting safety first alright! :P

Piyomon wants to help Sora out with work. Sora insists she can do it all by herself, because Piyomon is injured. This is obviously inspired by Sora’s OG drama . . . but an empty version of it. The plot was 100% fabricated and made me get tri. Chapter 4 vibes - where the drama between Sora and Piyomon was also forced. I don’t know why Toei can’t organically build up drama for these two . . .

Piyomon: “I hate you Sora!” Same, Piyomon, same. XD; OK, I don’t - but I also don’t really care about reboot Sora that much. And it pains me, because she was my second favourite character from the OG. But if reboot Sora didn’t have Sora’s name . . . I really would just write her character off completely. T_T

When the large volcano eruption begins, Sora still wants to build up the walls, and Junkmon has to explain to her that it’s just to buy time for everyone to run . . . I facepalmed so hard. Just how daft is reboot Sora? lmao. XD; (OK, OK, she’s eleven . . . but still!? Maybe I’m just getting old and the generation gap is too wide for me to understand the intelligence level of kids. XD;)

It has to be said: Sora is strong AF, lmao. I’m still amazed at the sheer strength of this girl. She should get into wrestling or some form of professional contact sports. XD;

Piyomon and Sora abruptly forgive each other for their forced drama and trust each other, blah blah . . . and it’s still so fabricated, but at least both Sora and Piyomon get to show actual emotion in the series for once, I suppose? This is just about the only positive in the entire episode. XD;

Oh, and of course, Phoenixmon happening!!! I like her design so I’m glad the reboot gave us her Mega evolution. But the reason for it . . . is because Sora and Piyomon “trust” and love each other (did they not before???) and needed to protect other Digimon from . . . an active volcano . . . instead of an evil Digimon. Hmmm. Hmmmmm.

Well, Phoenixmon’s Mega evolution sequence has nothing on Taichi and Yamato’s . . . which is to be expected of preferential treatment Toei. But still - let’s riot! XD;

At first I thought it was lame that Phoenixmon happened just because of an active volcano . . . but, I guess, it’s fine? XD; It was something different and refreshing from usual . . . so points for creativity? And Phoenixmon did look majestic . . . for a bird. :D I like her a lot!

Junkmon conveniently wants to visit the hot springs - and Taichi decides to tag along. LMAO. This series, I swear. There was NO POINT for Taichi to be in this episode - other than to convince kids to watch it because he’s the main protag. I feel sorry for the new generation of Digimon viewers who have actually been suckered into liking such a bland protag. ;_;

Overall, I was really disappointed in this episode. Maybe it’s because Sora is one of my absolute favourites in the OG, and to see Toei give her nothing but fabricated drama (a la tri.) makes me roll my eyes so hard. This was at least just as bad as Yamato’s Mega evolution episode to me . . . orz (How will the others stack up?)

Sora’s episode 40 is going to remain her best episode in the reboot. And that’s sad. :c Why is Toei closing out the series with filler Mega episodes? (COVID.) I’m genuinely appalled at where this series went. It started with such potential! :c

Next week: NO JOU MEGA EVOLUTION? :o

I guess even Toei has to pad out the filler Mega episodes with regular filler episodes . . . lol. orz