#god SORRY that I wrote so much

[thelaurenshippen]

hello! i just wanted to say that you are very cool and i deeply admire the things you create. I've been a huge fan of The Bright Sessions and all its continuations/spin off pods/books for ages, and I think a solid half of my audio drama consumption is all Atypical Artists pods haha. Hope you have a wonderful day!

- Sam

(P.S. are you able to read fanfiction of TBS now that you're not working on the show/books?)

hello! this is so so nice, thank you!!! I am legit HONORED that you spend so much time with Atypical's podcasts, I could never fully express how much that means to me!!!

I am able to read fanfiction of TBS now! for those of you who are new to this tumblr/me, I - like most other writers - have a policy that I cannot read any fanfiction while I'm currently working on something. this is for a bunch of reasons, mostly boring legal ones, but I ended TBS some time ago! there's also the hope of TV, but that would be an adaptation, so feels a little different.

that said....I actually haven't started reading any fanfiction yet, even now, years later. it isn't because I don't want to - during the making of the show, I waited for this day because it was sO cool to me that people were writing it at all! but there's two factors that have kept me from it so far:

a) after spending so much time with these characters over the last eight years, I'm a bit like....I need a break lol. these characters have been talking in my head every day for nearly a decade and while I certainly have fandoms for which that's true, the feeling is different for me when I've created the characters.

b) I have yet to get good at the "reading fic about characters played by people I know" thing. it's funny, I saw a chart on here the other day of audio drama fanfic numbers and Wolf 359 is still so high up (as it should be) and I remembered that that's one of the few ADs I read fic for when I got into the show (*cough* hera/eiffel *cough*) and then, you know, I became very good friends with Zach Valenti (I love Michaela too, we've just never actually met in person!) and suddenly couldn't read those fics anymore. this also happened more recently with a horror show I write starring a certain tumblr favorite. I don't know why I have this block - when I'm reading fic, I am never thinking of the actor, sometimes the versions of the characters in my head even look or sound a little different, but I guess when that actor is a real person in my life, it's even harder. I'm sure eventually that feeling will go away!

[tubbytarchia]

The bloodied moon cried for you, but you only heard the stars The weeping moon then bled for you, but you only saw her scars

[mylarena]

thinkin abt soap being able to touch ghost, unlike literally anyone else on base. like, even gaz and price get minimal leeway on it. the medics act like hes a feral cat when treating him. theres rumors that he once broke a guys wrist for patting his arm.

but then soap shows up, and hes like, Ah Nah Man, Itll Be Fine!

and punches him in the shoulder and says 'save ya a seat, sir!' and sees the momentary flash of shock from his absolute fucking audacity before he turns and ignores the absolutely killer glare he gets as he walks away

then ghost pats his arm before he leaves the camera room, leaving soap too shocked to do anything but give him a weak thumbs up as he walks away

then soap pats his shoulder before climbing onto the helo out of las almas

and thats just the start.

people around base see soap bump shoulders with ghost while walking down a hallway and everyone can only look on in horror as ghost-- does nothing. huffs and rolls his eyes, but does nothing.

and anyone who witnessed it are simply not believed when they tell people about it.

but they know.

then it happens again, and more people see it, and then its flying around the base in whispers and gossip.

"soap gave lieutenant ghost a shove and he didnt even react!"

"he sat next to him during the brief, and he was pressed right up to him!"

"they were sitting across from each other in the mess, and, you wont even believe this, but they were playing footsies! soap was stealing things right off of his plate! and ghost just let him!"

and ghost starts being more open to other peoples touch, too. nothing even fractionally as close to what he lets soap get away with, but price gets to ruffle his hair in the 141 common room in the rare occasion that ghost is without his mask. gaz can throw an arm around his shoulder without being growled at like a fuckin dog.

the next time a rookie accidentally bumps into him, theyre terrified for a moment that theyre either going to be booted off the base for disrespecting their CO or gutted like a fish, but ghost just nods stiffly to their frantic apology and steps to the side to walk right past them.

and, even wilder than everything else, ghost is seen initiating contact with soap. patting him on the back (making soap beam like the sun), ruffling his hair (causing soap to borderline giggle), grabbing him by the chin to tilt his head to get a better look at a wound over his eyebrow (making soap look up at him with a gentle expression, settle a hand over his wrist, and softly reassure him that he's okay.)

and it says a lot that eventually when someone says that they walked into the gym late one night and caught ghost and soap pressed chest-to-chest with soaps arms hooked up and around ghosts neck and ghosts hands on soaps hips, people dont immediately dismiss it as something entirely unbelievable.

[syn4k]

area man somehow stumbles into the mianite fandom, does a triple front flip, accidentally introduces 2,000 people to the series, sticks the landing, and is basically singlehandedly responsible for a miniature fandom revival in the year of our lord 2024, illustrated

[shannonsketches]

he's so important to me

[lucky-clover-gazette]

looking back at the novel i wrote when i was 14. i accidentally wrote a really interesting pairing with two of these ocs, and i didn't even notice. like i always kinda felt like Something was missing or out of place but could never put my finger on it, but i'm pretty sure it's the fact there's so much built up for a payoff between these two and then it never really amounts to anything special

[storywestistrash]

i am actually so tired of the way westerners treat eastern europeans

[pardonmydelays]

ok, so i just listened to "loom" by imagine dragons, and i'm sorry but i only like three and a half song

[pianapplez]

Hello there 👋👀,

So I just found your blog and had a lot of fun scrolling through all the pjo show crit😂 I couldn't help but notice that one tag you left on a post where you said you had some beef with Annabeth's portrayal in the books 👀 Would you mind elaborating on that if you're comfortable with it🙈? Because I absolutely share that sentiment, but it's sooo veeeery rare that I see other people express anything like it... I've found that trying to be a part of the fandom can be pretty alienating most of the time, if you're not exactly the biggest most devoted Percabeth shipper...😅 And often any criticism leveled at Annabeth just gets you a smack with the "internalized-misogyny" hammer... it's even worse in the tv show now due to... obvious reasons...

Again just if you're comfortable with answering of course🙈 There is a reason I stayed on anon after all...😅😂

Really glad you asked because i finally get to ramble about this heheheh (going forward, know that i skimmed over The Last Olympian to have a clearer sense of what I meant because that's the book where Rick fumbles her character more than the others)

i'm gonna try to make as much sense as possible but short answer would be, she's underdeveloped. Long answer:

She really got on my nerves in the last two books, with the whole Rachel debacle and then the Battle of New York. I can't really remember a single moment in those books where she and Percy aren't bickering or having heated discussions, which really made me question their friendship status. Of course, it's not like friends can't fight and it obviously builds up the (romantic) tension between them, but it got unbearable at one point.

I understand she's a teenager in an incredibly stressful situation that didn't even get to have a normal upbringing- she grew up way too fast (run away at 7, head counselor at 12) while also not really maturing, which is not a problem for a character, if it is handled properly. Given the fact that I am writing this, Riordan did not.

On the surface, my biggest beef is that Annabeth is not exactly held accountable for her actions (ie. treating Rachel a bit like shit and going off on Percy for a bunch of stuff.) I know Percy is to blame a bit here: as far as we know, in TLO he basically cuts the greek world out of his life as much as he can as a coping mechanism. And while yes, he never apologizes either, he doesn't give her nearly half the hard time she gives him: always either giving him the cold shoulder (there must be at least one example of this in the entire series but i cant be bothered to look it up sorry) or starting an argument only to then storm off (see the "you're a coward, Percy Jackson!" scene, which is not the fairest example since she was confronting Percy about ignoring camp but also was a bit too harsh about it) (especially after finally reading the prophecy and being under the impression that he was absolutely going to die when he turned 16 lmao) or just straight up storming off (see, Annabeth reacting when Rachel shows up for the first time during the battle of new york). While most of these feel, at least to some degree, fairly justified given how the entire situation does an absolute number on her emotions, she comes off a bit brattish and like she's trying to rile Percy up, especially when it comes to Rachel, which in the context of a battle that could mean the destruction of the world.... Well, it reads as a bit childish to me, and i wouldn't exactly have that much of a problem with it if it was dealt with in some way (a two-way apology would be nice).

After that first impression, i realized that Annabeth is barely ever anything else other than a plot device (when relating to Luke) or a love interest (when relating to Percy). This might be because the books are on Percy's POV. Hell, on the third book he's even conflicted when Annabeth is considering joining the Hunters of Artemis, aka, when making a choice for herself would mean he loses her (which is fine and dandy but it feels like Percy is more upset about her choosing her own path rather than being sad about not seeing her as often); we really only get a few glimpses of her, as in, actually her when she's on her own.

Obviously it's impossible to talk about Annabeth without touching on percabeth, which also is, in my opinion, what hinders Annabeth's character the most. On paper they sound great. The guy whose fatal flaw is loyalty falls in love with a girl whose been let down by people over and over, and she decides to never give up on the boy whose always had people give up on him (can't find one of the million posts that talks about this right now but it always goes something like that) And yeah, the bickering is really well written! But that's literally as far as it ever goes: they don't ever seem to have fun together, because 8 times out of 10 the bickering ends up being passive aggressive, and mostly done by Annabeth. My biggest gripe about percabeth is that their friendship seems to be based off... shared trauma. Literally. Other than going on quests together we are given no examples of them hanging out, nor a reason why they would want to spend time together in the first place, not even a shared hobby. Yes, in the fourth book they had a movie "date" planned but of course they didn't even get to it, and surprise surprise, they had a minor discussion, and surprise surprise, Annabeth was passive aggressive again. It's hard to picture them having fun together when even the author doesn't write in any scenes in which they get along smoothly (and before you say anything, a scene in which they get along where neither of them is about to die, and they're not talking about previous adventures. Gets a bit hard then, doesn't it?) It's even harder to picture them as a couple when the moment she gets upset about something, she starts coming off as emotionally manipulative (see, again, literally any conversation with Rachel or about Rachel)

To be fair, the books are relatively short and don't allow many "filler" chapters, if you will; there's always something happening to keep the main plot or a minor plot point moving forward, but it's not like there is no room to develop the characters' relationships, especially when we're talking about the main char and what is essentially his endgame. As an example we have Percy and Clarisse, or Percy and Beckendorf. Their interactions are brief but still hold so much weight.

Worst of all, Annabeth could be one hell of a character; what's most interesting of all is how being a daughter of Athena she is still incredibly emotionally driven, which is displayed very clearly with her fatal flaw being pride: her telling the Sphynx that her questions were too easy was not smart nor strategic: it was completely impulsive. I seriously think she wasn't far from being the best character in the series had she been given more time.

I guess i have as much beef with Annabeth as i have with Rick for doing her dirty. I really could sum this up with: while her emotions are justified, she acts upon them quite poorly. And this is what i mean when i say she's underdeveloped, because it would've been nice to see her come to her senses a bit.

Would love to read anyone's opinions on her character though, feel free to comment, even (or especially) if you don't agree with me!

[sunnifer]

Owen with 5, 12 and 22 for the character asks?

thank you for the ask!!!

5. there are a LOT but the first one i thought of was i'm your man by mitski. special mention to gallery piece by of montreal and tongues & teeth by the crane wives though

12. i headcanon him as autistic! he's remarkably bad at socialising with people he doesn't know well which means curt is usually the one who does the talking on missions. he also either can't look you in the eye or stares a hole through your face no in between and he can talk At Length about weapons and technology. i think his monologue in a2p5 was part theatrics part making curt feel as terrible as possible and part just enjoying infodumping about the cool new tech he's been working on

22. i really enjoy reading fics (particularly pre-relationship ones because i think curt was the first person he got anywhere close to being entirely honest with) where he's written as emotionally closed off to an almost comical extent. because i genuinely think it takes him five business years to express his feelings instead of putting them in a mental filing cabinet and i enjoy reading him slowly becoming more vulnerable as he gets closer to someone. i also like fics where he's allowed to be a bit of a loser and a bit of a freak because honestly i think he needs to be humbled. off of that i don't really enjoy when he's written as much "cooler"/more charismatic than curt as i really enjoy the dynamic of curt being the archetypal charming glorified jock all-american spy while owen is smarter and more sensible but way less showy and suave. u guys have to remember he's a huge nerd

[spaceyflowersart]

CHAINSAW MAN AU FOR LOOKISM; JOHAN AS AKI !!! PLEASE CHECK OUT THE OG IDEA/POST BY HYUSOLK HERE <3 !!!!

[whereismyhat5678]

HEEEEY, PSSST!

(do you have more headcanons???)

Oh yeah *cracks knuckles*

Get ready for some PEPPINO

(OKAY IN ADVANCE- I wrote A SHIT TON below the cut, and I think because of this I have more headcannons for Peppino than Gustavo- SO PREPARE YOURSELVES- Oh! And I also added Pep and Gus mixed headcannons at the bottom so if you just wanna see those you’ll see this emoji: 💕 Alright thanks! And enjoy :00)

- I said this in a reblog-, at this point I think I hc him a lefty, I KEEP DRAWING HIM AS ONE SO FUCK IT-

- Oh sports are his life support, it’s his saving grace HE LOVES SPORTS- mainly football and soccer (he used to play soccer in middle-high school) THIS MAN SCREAMS AT THE TV “GOOOAAAAAAAAAL” WHEN SOCCER’S ON (he’s just like my dad for real- :0)

- He definitely listens to old fashioned Italian music, his mother raised him in it HE WILL DIE WITH IT IN HIS BLOOD. But he also likes other types of music (he mains Depeche Mode-)

- He has the most dankest most messed up shat up car you can ever imagine that’s STILL GOING, he treats his car like his child though, he cleans it and is EXTREMELY careful with his baby (He listens to his songs in there and bobs his head when he has a song he likes, but he looks really serious, like he’s gonna kill someone- but he’s still enjoying himself)

- I should also mention that he SUCKS at driving, man has a drivers license yet he’s dog at it?! This is also why his car is so jacked up because he kept crashing it when he was younger- I think he’s cooled down now but he still can’t park right- This is also why he rather would take his pizza delivery motorcycle or Stick just drives him (since he’s funnily enough the only good driver-)

- His house is pretty small, and a bit tight but it’s okay once you get used to it, he tries to stay organized but at times he does tend to leave clothes on the floor. Of course his garage is the cleanest thing known to man, a bunch of flags (a big ass Italian flag-) and signs that say “Man’s garage” or “Man cave”. He also has another fridge full of beers and sodas.

- Have I mentioned he likes beer?🍻

(- And when Peppino’s drunk he’s either two things, a silly drunk: he’s doing stupid shit-

….Or a flirty drunk 👀🔥)

- He still has his war gear in a closet, he keeps it for memories (the GOOD ones) and just cuz he thinks it might be important still.

- He keeps a shotgun underneath his bed (for protection of course-)

- He also has a punching bag in his basement, a big ol’ red one, and he has it there to take his anger out 🥊🔔

- I think he has a bit of anger issues, not too severe! Just that he can get mad easily if stuff just isn’t going right, which is also why he HATES The Noise and Pizza Head, they’re too chaotic for him-

- When Brick was gonna stay with them Peppino initially just wanted Brick away from him but he ended up like one of those Dads that have their pet on the couch watching TV. He also play fights with him too like: he’ll pretend to punch him or he wrestles with him for fun-

- He’s an asshole when he wants to be, one time he was eating with his friends at a McDonalds and they were getting breakfast, motherfucker ate half his friend’s hash-brown and put the half he didn’t eat outside the wrapper to make it look normal. (He did this when he was a teen but he can still be an ass like this-)

- He uses a lot of Italian hand gestures, he uses his hands A LOT he practically talks with them-

- He speaks very aggressively in Italian, the amount of times people thought he was angry and yelling at them even though he was just telling them to hand him a napkin. It’s hilarious, Gustavo is the only one to understand he’s not angry, he’s just talking- 😂

- This even applies to when he’s talking in English, HE STILL YELLS- Like his voice is a big BOOM, yeah he can calm it down but it’s still relatively loud, he’s only ever quiet when he NEEDS to be quiet-

Okay now for some Peppino and Gustavo together x] 💕💕💕

- Gustavo’s species has their own language but they can pick up on other languages pretty quickly, so when Peppino wanted to teach him Italian he started slowly and BAM 💥 not even a month passed and he’s speaking fluently! Peppino’s jaw dropped literally-

- Gus can speak his species language at times but only ever to himself.. He usually talks in English and Italian around Peppino (Gus when he’s angry talks really fast in his language, it’s best to just leave him be until he calms down…)

- They speak Italian to each other sometimes, they switch between English and Italian regularly, but they speak English mainly. They WILL however yell at each other in Italian, mostly so no one can understand their conversation if there is people around

- AND FINALLY- like I said with the Italian hand gestures, Peppino uses them A LOT, and he mainly uses them with the other Italians and Gustavo, BUT MAINLY Gustavo. He taught him every gesture in the book so Gus knows what he’s feeling just by hand gestures.

Even some…. Special ones 👀…..

OKAY THAT’S IT-

[boxwinebaddie]

hi uncle nina! it's my birthday today and u don't have but will u pretty plz consider reposting that part of ch6 of rm where raven in on the phone with kenny b4 his hate with jers? i thought it was super cute and i really wanted to read it :3

awwww, happy birthday, darling! i hope it's as lovely as you are!

and i--sigh.

okay.

i hate complicated feelings surrounding chapter six ( aka the introduction to the iconique ravesey hate that i deleted from stress ) because i actually did love it...i just rushed the hell out of it, didn't plan it out very well and it was a mess. it could have been a lot better.

part of why i deleted it was actually because of that ravenstan/kenny phonecall because i felt worried that i revealed too much about how not cool and actually boy-failure-y stan was too early and could have kept the suspense going longer but aaaaaa i just wanted y'all to see how CUTE he was, like??? and how nervous! AAAA!!!

buuut considering the cat has been out of the bag, or rather, the raven has flown the nest for some time now...and it's the beauteous day you were born...i will humbly present you with this b-day present in the form of my incompetent idiot girl ramblings/writings, though, i fear it is not at all as grand the gift of your life is.

so, without further ado darlings, here is the endearing, embarrassing phone call ( it was over discord actually ) that ravenstan had with kenny prior to showing up to blondie's for his little hate-date with jerseykyle. it's a mess and unedited, but regardless, please know that from whatever hurts or harms you, i hope you heal, please rem(ember) to smile, pendejos,

and to now, as always, angels:

please enjoy the very, very...

worst part of your day. ;)

-uncle nina <333

[acaciapines]

Please tell us abt the parallels :o

YEAH OKAY SO!!!!

in this au (and as i write ralsei in my canon always lol) the biggest thing that puts pressure on ralsei's life is the prophecy--it says a human, a monster, and a prince from the dark, and because it is a prophecy, and it is fate, is HAS to be true, and ralsei, as a darkner, a group of people who literally exist below the lightners, is charged with bringing this prophecy into fruition. she has spent her entire life ALONE, with nothing but this prophecy for comfort, saying that one day, ONE DAY, she'll get through this and she'll have friends. but yknow, that weighs on a person! its heavy and terrible and she has contorted herself to fit what fate tells her she must be.

and then for noelle, the big thing putting pressure on her? her dead siblings (dess and kris. kris isnt technically her sibling but yknow for ease of language thats what i use. also we know they arent dead but noelle and the rest dont). with their deaths means noelle is now the baby of the family, a family that is shaped by this great gaping grief noelle cannot comprehend, because when dess and kris died she was young enough she barely remembers them beyond like, maybe half-formed memories but she isnt sure if those are real or just what people have told her. shes expected to be grieving her dead siblings but really she just sort of. hates them a little bit. for going off and dying and now her mom and toriel are super overprotective of her, and she knows its her fault asriel never left to go to college and hasnt even left hometown, and its just. its rough.

so both noelle and ralsei have these Huge things that have defined their lives that neither of them want, but. too bad! WHICH LEADS TO EVEN MORE PARALLELS. slash foils lol.

because when it comes to the prophecy? noelle isnt supposed to be in it!!! while this au is sort of a roleswap in that noelle takes kris's place its not a roleswap in Any Other Way, which means, yeah, the prophecy is still supposed to be a human. and noelle, uh, isnt that! but she goes around and helps close dark worlds and is part of the delta warriors anyways, which is, for ralsei, this like, really scary point.

cause ralsei? adores noelle!! thats her best friend!!! ralsei doesnt know if she has a crush on noelle or wants to be noelle! noelle just does what she WANTS. she bucks against the pressures her family puts on her. she dives into the dark despite the fact that this world was never made for her. shes TRANS. shes a GIRL, and she can just DO THAT, and ralsei looks at her, and just. wants. in every sense of the word.

because noelle has all these things put on her like ralsei does--but noelle gets to slip out of them. noelle gets to be a person.

and ralsei, non-person, darkner: she doesnt.

she never will.

[polyamorouspunk]

Honestly I could use a pep talk. This week the positive/negative whiplash has been horrible

Grace my love you have been such a comforting presence in my and a lot of other people’s lives. I’m so, so sorry that things haven’t been going spectacular for you but as I’ve said to you, having someone who is going through a lot of the same things that I am makes me feel so much less alone. I really, really hope that we can find some consistency in it all. Today when I was driving home I was thinking of that cliche “if you could have any superpower what would it be” and I thought “I wish I could control my emotions”. And I thought… that’s not a superpower. That’s something “normal” people can do. But I feel like I can’t. But maybe more things are in my control than I realize. Sometimes I do think that I make excuses for myself. And that’s not to say that we as human beings can control everything in our lives. In fact, it’s what we CAN’T control that brings us stress. Like other people changing their minds about plans and shit 😅 but that’s what makes us dynamic. That’s what makes us human. So I guess, you know, I would be bored or whatever if everything was easy and my life is perfect. I mean, we all need a little drama, right? Like the harmless kind. Like when you go through the drive-through and they give you the wrong order. It’s humbling. It gives us something to complain about. Like, I didn’t fuck up badly to warrant an entire Netflix show about it. At least it’s not THAT bad yet. And I mean. We have all, everyone here, made it through the worse times of our lives already. And sure, there’s every chance the worst thing that’s ever going to happen to us hasn’t happened yet (especially those of us who haven’t reached 25 yet) but honestly as I look back I feel like everything that really sticks out as bad to me isn’t more or less worse than the thing before or after it. It’s just the most present, so it’s the one that hurts them most. I’m GLAD I’m not 16, 18, 20 anymore, even if I had things then I wish I had now and have pain now I didn’t have then. Sometimes the things I have to look forward to don’t feel like enough but what is the alternative? I just have to keep going. I can’t give up. We can’t give up. We have to keep fighting. I refuse to be the one that knocks me down.

[kritischetheologie]

Consider this an open invitation to talk more about Lewis as a survivor contestant 👀

p l e a s e, I need you to know that I watched something like 30 of the best seasons over the course of the year that was 2020 and that I at one point seriously considered auditioning for survivor because I was that hyperfixated. also the first rpf I ever read was this absolutely astounding fic set during winners at war. so that's what you're unleashing when you offer the open invitation. based on this image.

lewis, bless him, is not a superfan. he's seen some of the show, he watched more after they cast him, but somehow he seems to have missed the memo that at some point it stopped being about surviving and started being about scheming. that's not going to play to his strengths at all.

(jenson, his agent, had suggested the show as a way to get more 'exposure', since it had been a while since he booked an acting spot, and angela, his trainer, had been surprisingly ok with the idea of him leaving to spend a month on a remote island. 'it'll get you away from--' she'd said, and lewis had cut her off before she could get his name out.)

he's on one of those dumb themed seasons, where they divide the tribes up by characteristics: brains, beauty, and brawn. he's half expecting them to put him on brawn, but he's not surprised to be assigned to beauty, red buff hung around his neck. his team has a couple models, some influencers, a personal trainer. all nice people, more or less. charles, a model who aspires to be a fashion designer, offers a day one alliance, and they shake on it.

lewis realizes after a day or two that the show is a lot more serious than it looked on tv, right about when he catches a few of his tribe members sneaking off to look for immunity idols while he's actually working to get their shelter built. he brings the team from behind in the first immunity challenge, sending the brains to tribal council by beating their weedy, curly-haired puzzle solver in a stunning comeback, he realizes for the first time that he actually wants to win this thing.

(puzzle guy makes it through the night, lewis finds out at the reward challenge the next day. the brains send one of the girls home instead. lewis files that data point away somewhere in his head.)

the team spends the whole of day five huddled together for warmth as rain pours down over them. it's miserable. he loves it. he's starving-- they give them rice, and there's plenty of coconuts, but everyone else is picking crabs off of the beach-- and it's grueling in an entirely different way than a workout, unrelenting in a way that makes him feel alive. lewis isn't sure what he's fucking doing out here, but there's nowhere else he'd rather be. the first crack of sunlight, through the clouds, brings them all to tears.

and then they can't get some knots untied in the next challenge-- charles can't get the knots untied, they whisper, afterwards-- and they end up at tribal council for the first time.

lewis has seen the ritual on tv, but it's different in real life. more terrifying. michael masi welcomes them in, tells them to dip their torch in the firepit. they've been scrambling all afternoon, scheming, everyone turning to look at him the way nico always used to when he was lying about something. lewis has asked kelly, who's supposed to be with him and charles, and she's told him they're all voting carlos, and he doesn't believe her.

he plays the immunity idol he found that afternoon, to save charles, even though it's stupidly early in the season. he should just let him go and vote with his tribe, save the moves for when the jury is watching. he doesn't care. the four votes the others had put on charles get nullifed, and charles and lewis send kelly home.

the rest of their tribe-- carlos, charlotte, and vivian, a real estate agent, fashion designer, and influencer, respectively-- kind of hates them for it. they're lucky enough not to have to go to tribal again before the merge.

thirteen of them make it, total. the merge is a mess, everyone scrambling, looking for an easy target. they send home checo, one of the brawns, because he looks like a strong threat to do well in the individual challenges. the beauties have enough sense not to screw up their numbers advantage by voting off one of their own.

except afterwards, lewis and charles take a hard look at themselves, decide there's no chance of making it to the end with three people who hate them, and decide to team up with valtteri from the brawns and puzzle guy-- seb, is his name, and he's an environmental engineer-- and susie from the brains (a ceo). they'd all been on the bottom of their respective tribes. lewis and charles convince the majority alliance-- the beauties, plus fernando and tiffany from the brawns and carmen and lando from the brains-- to split the votes, five (four) on seb and four (three) on susie. charlotte, the beauty running the show, goes home.

and then it's war, six on five. lewis wins immunity, holding a lever to keep a bucket containing 25% of his pregame weight in water from dropping. they need to find someone else to flip, though, or they're totally screwed-- or so lewis thinks, until seb reveals a hidden immunity idol of his own. he plays it. it's a waste. they were targeting valtteri instead.

six on four. susie tells them she'll talk to carmen and tiffany about an all-girls final three, if they flip to help eliminate fernando. they shake on it.

lewis and seb, who became his closest ally somewhere along the line, have spent their sleepless nights sitting on the beach debating who they can trust in a tight final three, susie or charles. seb thinks charles's backstory-- his godfather had been the one to fall in love with the show, he'd signed up to fulfill his dream after he died-- makes him way too dangerous if they make it to the jury. lewis thinks everyone loves a girl power narrative and they're crazy to take susie.

lando goes home, and then carlos, and then it's supposed to be vivian-- but then suddenly, the men are outnumbered, and the girls' alliance that susie swore wasn't real is starting to look like it might have been her strategy all along. they need to vote a woman out, they decide.

vivian wins immunity, so the original core four decide to target carmen, instead.

or so seb, lewis, and charles tell susie and tiffany.

they tell carmen, who knows a chance to make a big move when she sees one, that this is her chance to prove that she did more than just ride susie's coattails to second place. lewis has spent enough time convincing seb that it's for the best not to feel guilty as michael snuffs susie's torch. he knows she'll be angrier at seb than at him, when it comes time to vote, anyway.

they vote out tiffany and vivian in quick succession, easy sailing to the final four.

the final immunity challenge is a test of concentration and dexterity: they have to drop balls into a complicated series of slides and follow their motion until they emerge at the bottom, from a different side each time. they start with one ball, then two. charles doesn't make the transition to adding a third, and carmen drops at four. the duel feels endless, lewis watching out of the corner of his eye as seb's body moves in perfect alignment with the rhythm of the challenge, his tongue poking between his teeth in concentration, sweat dripping down his forehead. he's beautiful, lewis thinks, and forgets to switch his hand to the left side.

michael hangs the immunity necklace around seb's neck for the last time and leaves them to their scheming.

seb has the right, as the winner of the final immunity challenge, to take one person automatically with him to the final tribal council -- a goat, they call them, to be dragged along and sacrificed at the end-- where the three of them will get to pitch their case to the jury of their eliminated peers. the other two will face off in a firemaking challenge.

seb wants to bring lewis to the end. lewis wants to go to fire. 'you've worked too hard to get where you are to go out like that,' he says. 'or maybe you're just trying to make it look to the jury like you were the one in charge, bolster your resume a bit,' lewis argues. 'it's never been about the resumés with me,' seb counters. 'well, maybe it is with me,' lewis spits, and walks away to go practice with his flint. he didn't travel all the way across the world just to let another guy with eyes the color of the ocean clip his wings.

seb takes charles to the end. lewis beats carmen at fire, like they'd both known he could all along. it's a compromise between the best choice for seb's game, and lewis's pride.

they eat breakfast together on the last morning-- baskets overflowing with eggs, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, fruits he's forgotten existed. they drink mimosas, the champagne going straight to their heads, and then they dive into the ocean to sober up. lewis is going to miss both of them when this is over, and they all go back to real life.

they pitch their cases to the jury, defend themselves against susie's accusations of sexism and carlos's claims that it was all luck and fernando's entire selfhood, and then they go home.

lewis isn't allowed to talk to anyone from the show, because they don't want them finding out in advance who's voted for whom and he's only been home a day before he realizes that's going to drive him insane, because he needs to figure out who won, he can't wait six months until the live finale.

lewis has been home a week when he realizes that actually, the only person he wants to talk about it with is also waiting to find out if he won.