#guys like him irl are obviously annoying but I think also the fact that its brennan deliberately satirising those guys made him charming | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

fific7 · 3 years

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Ticket to Ride - Part 2

Billy Russo x Reader

A/N: Inspired by The Beatles song of the same name. This takes place in my S1 Punisher AU with Arrogant!Billy in attendance, in which he gets a taste of his own medicine.

Warnings: 18+ NSFW due to sexual content, including oral, between consenting adults* in some chapters. Drinking and swearing.

*Irl, please don’t go wild in the country without protection.

(My photo edit)

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𝕊𝕙𝕖 𝕤𝕒𝕚𝕕 𝕥𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕝𝕚𝕧𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕨𝕚𝕥𝕙 𝕞𝕖 𝕚𝕤 𝕓𝕣𝕚𝕟𝕘𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕙𝕖𝕣 𝕕𝕠𝕨𝕟, 𝕪𝕖𝕒𝕙

𝕊𝕙𝕖 𝕨𝕠𝕦𝕝𝕕 𝕟𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕣 𝕓𝕖 𝕗𝕣𝕖𝕖 𝕨𝕙𝕖𝕟 𝕀 𝕨𝕒𝕤 𝕒𝕣𝕠𝕦𝕟𝕕

𝕊𝕙𝕖'𝕤 𝕘𝕠𝕥 𝕒 𝕥𝕚𝕔𝕜𝕖𝕥 𝕥𝕠 𝕣𝕚𝕕𝕖

𝕊𝕙𝕖'𝕤 𝕘𝕠𝕥 𝕒 𝕥𝕚𝕔𝕜𝕖𝕥 𝕥𝕠 𝕣𝕚𝕕𝕖 𝕓𝕦𝕥 𝕤𝕙𝕖 𝕕𝕠𝕟'𝕥 𝕔𝕒𝕣𝕖

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The aircraft door opened and you stepped out gratefully onto the air jetty. You weren’t scared of flying, you just didn’t like being cooped up in a flying tube for several hours on end. Up an escalator and along a short corridor and then you were able to see outside through the floor-to-ceiling windows. The sky was beginning to shade into the colours it would take on for dusk. It looked like it had been a nice day and you hoped the good weather would continue for your stay.

Karen had texted you while you were sitting on the plane at JFK, waiting for it to push back. Frank had told her that Micro had tracked your phone to the airport so boy, were you glad you’d turned off your old phone and switched to the new one when you did. She’d also told you that Billy had asked him to find out where you were headed, and your heart sank. You knew it wouldn’t take long for Micro’s vast and nerdy computer skills to find you but then again, London was a huge city and they’d have no idea whereabouts in it you’d gone to ground, thanks to your new ‘burner phone’.

You were feeling super-excited. This was beginning to feel like an action movie, with you on the run from the bad guys.

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“London??!!” Billy shouted, making Frank quickly move his phone away from his ear on the other end. “Yeah, London,” he replied.

Billy was back at his usual post by the window. “I mean... obviously I knew she was gonna fly somewhere but I thought it would the West coast, Miami, Seattle, Alaska... somewhere like that. But to go to a whole other continent....!!!!” Frank sighed, “Yeah, Bill, sounds like she’s really not keen to bump into you anytime soon.” “Yeah, thanks for remindin’ me.” “Bill, you brought this on yourself, buddy.” “I know!” yelled Billy, “An’ all I wanna do is get her back and make it up to her for the rest of my life, and all I know is she’s in London! Do you know how big that place is?” “Yeah, I do. And t’be honest... I dunno how you’re gonna even try to find her over there.”

There was a silence on the other end of the phone. “I mean...” Frank continued, “I’m guessin’ you are gonna go over there and try to find her, Bill?”

Billy’s shoulder twitched upwards briefly, and he stared intently out the window at the New York skyline.

“Yeah, Frankie... yeah, I damn well am.”

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You’d left two of your big suitcases and the backpacks in a luggage storage facility at JFK, travelling with just the one suitcase and a large shoulder bag. You took the overground Heathrow Express to Paddington before negotiating a change onto the Tube to reach Tower Hill DLR station, boarding one of the driverless trains out to Canary Wharf. Settling back into your seat, feeling pretty proud of yourself for managing not to get hopelessly lost.

Your AirBnB apartment was in a part of the city called Docklands, beside the Thames on the Isle of Dogs. It was an area of shiny skyscraper offices and fancy apartment blocks built round the old docks, and your accommodation for the next two weeks was in one of those. You were suitably impressed when you got inside it... open plan, all trendy furniture and gleaming fittings. Big, big windows with views of the river and the tall buildings.

Your phone chimed and you saw a text from Karen on your notifications. Taking your suitcase and bag into the bedroom, you went back out to the main area and sat on the sofa to read it. Oh. Billy now knew you were in London, and had apparently booked a flight over - he’d be arriving tomorrow. Your heart rate sped up; Billy was a sniper, used to finding, stalking, watching his prey. But, you told yourself, he had no idea whereabouts in the city you were and no way of finding you.

Relax.

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Billy stepped off the Heathrow Express, looking around for signs indicating where the taxi rank was. He’d been looking at the Tube map during the train journey. Nah, fuck that.

He was too wired to even think about getting to London Bridge on the Underground, or ‘Tube’ as he found out Londoners called it. His brain had been working overtime trying to figure out how the hell he was going to find her in a city the size of London. She’d stay central, surely - she wouldn’t head to the suburbs, he felt confident of that.

Getting into the first taxi in the queue, he drawled out, “The Shard, please.” The taxi driver nodded and pulled away from the station without saying anything. Thank fuck, thought Billy, I can’t be dealing with a talker right now. But just as the thought had left his head, the driver’s London accent said, “First time in London, guv?” Billy sighed, “No. No, it isn’t.” In fact it was, but he wasn’t about to tell the driver that. He’d only end up getting taken on the ‘scenic route’, double the time, double the price.

The driver grunted and turned up the radio... really annoying music could now be heard but Billy would take that over inane small talk any day. He looked out of the windows at the city streets and his mind went back to his mission. Mission impossible. Finally he saw the river and the taxi crossed a wide bridge before pulling up outside the lofty skyscraper that was The Shard. According to the blurb he’d read on some travel website it was the tallest in Western Europe, and while there were taller buildings in New York, the shape of this one made it look quite dramatic.

He paid and got out of the taxi with his expensive wheeled duffel bag, heading to the Shangri La entrance of The Shard and going inside. (It’s one of the priciest hotels in London - of course). Checked in at reception on the 35th floor, he was then whisked up to his room on the 52nd by another express lift. The windows were huge and the views spectacular.

Once again, he was gazing out of a window at a cityscape.

Where is she?

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Your first full day, you occupied yourself with getting to know the surrounding area, doing some grocery shopping and sitting on your large balcony, enjoying the view and relaxing with a glass of wine.

Every time a plane went overhead you wondered if Billy was on it - he was due here today. You shook yourself a little, you’d just have to stop thinking about it. He wouldn’t find you.

Your mind wandered unbidden to his recent behaviour. Knowing Billy was a player from day one, you’d still got involved with him. More fool you. Another old cliché.... you thought you’d be the one to change him. And you thought you had. You’d dated him for a few months, he seemed to have ditched his old hound-dog ways and when he’d asked you to move in with him, you’d agreed without thinking it over too deeply.

Now, looking back, it seems like you’d made a big mistake.

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Micro had spent quite some time constructing a query table that he could run against accommodation reservations in London for her arrival day. She had no reason to book under another name and he’d just have to run with that assumption.

When Billy had come directly to him instead of going via Frank to ask that he try and track down her reservation, Micro had been too scared to refuse. Billy still really unsettled him - he always reminded him of a circling predator.

This query would take a while to run. He hit the go button and wandered off to work on another project while it tunnelled its way through layer upon layer of data.

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Billy was pacing his swanky hotel room like a caged panther. He’d given up on the idea of roaming the streets of London trying to spot his target, that was just one dumbass idea. He’d never find her that way, much better to just wait on that geeky twat to come up with the answer with his internet wizardry.

He’d spoken to Frank earlier, who had nothing new to report. Billy wouldn’t allow himself to feel guilty at cutting him out of the loop on his recent ask to Micro. He wasn’t stupid enough to believe that Frank wouldn’t mention it to Karen. Much as he loved him like a brother, Frank was a big sap when it came to Karen and he knew he’d give in and tell her, probably sooner rather than later.

However Frank had told him that Madani had called earlier that day, wanting to know where Billy was and why she couldn’t get in touch with him. Billy had figured out that his girl had got herself a new phone, and he’d followed suit. Which is why Dinah hadn’t been able to reach him. “Whaddya tell her?”he’d asked. “That you were on an overseas operation and were incommunicado.” “Good,” nodded Billy, “....that takes care of that little problem for a while at least,” feeling a sense of relief.

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Frank cut the call, a grim smile on his face. He hadn’t been completely straight with Billy, but it was for his own good. What he’d told Madani, however, had been the unadulterated gospel truth.

He’d said to her that Billy had hared off to Europe in pursuit of his live-in girlfriend, who’d suspected him of cheating on her and left him. He was absolutely determined to get her back.

He’d taken great satisfaction in the dead silence on the other end of the line, eventually punctuated by an angry snort and the call being abruptly ended.

That ‘little problem’ was hopefully taken care of for good.

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Micro looked at his phone as it beeped at him, the notification saying that his query was complete. That had taken much longer than he thought it would. Now he could only hope it hadn’t returned too many matches as he’d thought it prudent to run it on surname only.

He pulled up the results table and was pleased to see that there were only a thousand or so, he’d feared there would be many more. He scrolled through the list and quickly pinpointed the one he’d been looking for.

With a deep sigh he picked up his phone, typed “Wood Wharf, Water St, London E14”, a building and apartment number into a new message, then hit send. It would be the early hours of the following morning in London, so he very much doubted that Billy would leap out of bed and head right over there.

He finished eating his supper, drank a beer and settled down to watch TV when his conscience started bothering him. Should he? He shivered when he thought about what Russo might do to him if he found out.

Popping another bottle of beer open, he sat and contemplated what he should do for quite a while. He suddenly picked up his phone, sending a quick text to Frank telling him about the whole situation and including the fact that Russo now had her London address.

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While you were lounging on your balcony, sipping your wine and watching the world go by, it suddenly occurred to you that this would be a great base to work out of for a while. You messaged the estate agent and extended your stay to one month, with an option to extend if required.

Then, on a whim, you booked a flight to Barcelona early the next morning from City Airport - it was really close to your apartment even if the flights were a bit more expensive. You’d been doing a little research into other destinations to explore, and having a base in London to travel to and from made you feel much more comfortable. The W Barcelona had caught your eye while you’d been browsing for accommodation and as you were only going for a few nights, you’d booked in there.

Feeling extremely pleased with yourself, you got up and went into your bedroom, looking for a folded-up smaller travel bag you knew you’d packed in your luggage. Finding it, you began to choose some outfits for your short trip, thinking what a joy it was that you could now leave your large suitcase here.

But damn, you were going to have to be up early tomorrow. Best to get an early night, you thought, immediately yawning.

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Billy shot up in bed as his phone chimed with Micro’s text. When he read the information in the text, contrary to Micro’s belief he did leap out of bed and started pulling on his clothes (Micro had forgotten that this was an ex-Marine he was dealing with here).

He sat back down on the bed and googled the location. Oh okay, East London.... Docklands. Too far to walk and he didn’t think the Tube ran at this hour. Then he pulled up the Uber app and booked an immediate pick-up.

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Walking into the terminal building at City Airport, you were in the middle of a total yawning fit when a text came in. It was from Karen and you stopped, putting down your bag so you could read it.

Karen: Sorry to tell you this hon, but Billy went direct to Micro 🙄 and intimidated him into finding your London accom. Frank’s told him not to do that again no matter how much he’s shitting himself! Please take care of yourself 💋

You: Bastard 👿 thanks for the heads-up, I will do 😘

Picking your bags up again, you hurried over to one of the automated check-in machines to get your luggage tag.

Whoever had said ‘timing is everything’ had definitely got that right.

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“Oi!!!” yelled an irate male voice. Billy turned his head to see a groggy-looking tousle-haired guy, obviously just having been woken up. “Keep the noise down!”

Billy said nothing, just gave the guy his death stare. His head quickly disappeared back inside his apartment.

After pressing the buttons of a few apartment numbers at the main entrance, someone had buzzed him in and he’d been pounding on her apartment door for the last five minutes. But there was no response, and he knew she wasn’t that heavy a sleeper.

He slid tiredly down onto the floor outside her door. Had she somehow known he was on his way over here? No.... how would she know that?

His head dropped down in momentary defeat and he ran his fingers through his hair, groaning.

She hadn’t moved on already, had she?

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The plane lifted off the tarmac, and immediately you felt a huge sense of relief. You just weren’t ready to see Billy right now - you’d probably kill him if you did, ex-Marine or not.

Now you were off on your next adventure.

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London

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@blackbirddaredevil23 @galaxyjane @omgrachwrites @behindmyeyes-insidemyhead @ourloveisforthelovely @swthxrry @odetostep @supernaturalcat7 @obscurilicious @strawb3rrydr3ss

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#billy russo #billy russo x reader #billy russo fanfiction #billy russo imagine #billy russo fanfic #ben barnes #the punisher 💀

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armysantiny · 3 years

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NCT Dream: Their s/o is passionate about working out

Pairing: ot7 x gender neutral reader // NCT (Dream)

Genre: fluff, humour, headcanon

Includes: going to the gym, teasing, watching a drama, workout schedules, bribing with coffee, exhaustion,

Word count: 1.59k

Warning: I swear like, once or twice lol, Chenle’s one talks about dieting for a moment

Rating: PG

Networks: @kwritersworld, @kdiarynet, @kpopscape, @ultkpopnetwork, @kpopcontentcreatorsclub, @k-dinernet, @lovesick-net, @whipped-kpop-creators, @kafenetwork, @ficscafe, @dreamwritersnet, @neoswitchnet, @nct-writers

Tagging: @teeztheflag, @the-rooftop-fight, @cherry-hyejin || Taglist Form

An: I had fun writing this lol. I would pay good money to watch this happen irl- members under the cut! Oh yeah - @alicanta77 more Jeno!

마크 (Mark)

Something about Mark tells me that he’d be kinda chill about it? You know?

As long as you’re enjoying it, he’s happy

And you’re getting healthier for yourself, so nice!

Flirty (or attempts at flirting lol) comments whenever you come out of the shower

And then you suggest going to the gym together

Not that he doesn’t want to

But he’s seen your workout routine

Safe to say this boy is intimidated

“Wait, wait, wait - go with you?”

Mark doesn’t mind working out

In fact, it’s quite relaxing

But he knows you’re very strict with your sets

He will be sore in the morning if he tried to keep up with you

Tries to bribe you with coffee-

Doesn’t work and you (lightly) drag his arse to the gym

Safe to say he is tired when you two get back

You get out of the shower and you can see this guy knocked the fuck out on the sofa

Let the teasing begin~

Poking at his chest and giggling when he pulls you into his chest

“Markie~ you’re not tired already, are you?”

Doesn’t reply, but sleepily smiles and ruffles your hair

Soft :(

런쥔 (Renjun)

Oh God, this is going to be fun

Renjun doesn’t really go to the gym unless he has to, or really wants to

So he doesn’t mind that you enjoy going to the gym

Bettering yourself, good for you, you know?

But dear God when you mention that you want him to join you

Yeah...good luck with that one

Will come up with every excuse under the sun

This mf really tries pulling the ‘I’m a foreigner, I don’t know Korean that well’ card on you

Like he doesn’t know how to speak Korean- (probably better than you too lol smh)

You kinda just deadpan him and he drags himself to get ready

Whining! Every! Single! Second

From start to finish I swear, Renjun complains constantly omg

When you two get home, the sigh of relief he lets out is loud

“Come on Junnie~ it wasn’t that bad!”

“Babe, I am going to die - how will you make this up to me?”

You come out of the shower after he’s already done and find him pretending to be asleep

“Well, if you’re asleep, I guess I’ll watch the new episode on my own”

Gets up immediately

No way you’re watching it without him

“Oh? I thought you were dying? Looks like you’re fine now~”

Rolls his eyes but he’s smiling

Hugs you and you two catch up on your drama

Cute :(

제노 (Jeno

Considering Jeno seems like the kinda guy to really enjoy working out, I think he’d really like that about you

Like, you’re his gym partner and his romantic partner, what’s there not to love?

That’s probably how you two met each other-

Loves comparing your workout schedules

This time though, Nono wanted to give your workout routine a go

“Are you sure baby?”

Not that you didn’t think he could do it, you just didn’t want him to be too sore to practice the next day

But he’s stubborn lol, and you just oblige

It’s honestly so cute

You’re not even halfway done and he’s already starting to have second thoughts

Thing is, you made it seem easier than it actually was

Obviously you’re feeling a burn from working out, but Jeno is struggling

Takes multiple breaks before you’ve had your first break

You get home and Jeno is already feeling the effects

Laughs when you tease him about it

“How...how do you make it look so easy?”

“Practice~”

Denies that he’ll be sore in the morning and you just shake your head

You wake up in the morning and dear God he can’t move

“Don’t say it...”

“Say what? That I told you so? Okay, I won’t~”

동혁 (Donghyuck)

Oh Imma enjoy this one

As much as Hyuck loves that you enjoy working to better yourself

Do not get that man anywhere within 10ft of a gym

Literally only goes to work out when he has a schedule

Otherwise, you’ll never see him suggest going

So to who or whatever possessed him to jokingly suggest that he should join you in the gym

This guy has some choice words - possibly some swearing involved, who knows?

His dramatic ass will literally put on some over-the-top denial when he sees the smile on your face

Hyuck knows that smile

“Come on hyuck, it won’t be that bad!”

“Oh but it will. Y/n, do you want to kill your boyfriend?”

“Oh stop whining you~, you only have to do it just this once~”

You have to bribe him with his favourite food before he even considers going

And even then, it takes him forever to get ready and go

You’re already on your way and he still tries to weasel his way out of it

Because holy shit your workout is intense

Is dying

Remember when fullsun here had to carry Jeno and he screamed because Jeno was taking the piss out of him?

Yeah - he does that

This mf really tries asking you to carry him when you get home

You do it anyway-

When you carry him bridal-style, he wraps his arms around your neck and ‘swoons’

“My knight in shining armour~”

Cue rolling your eyes at him, but smiling because you love this man too much to be annoyed

Gosh he’s a brat child sometimes but you love him

재민 (Jaemin)

Heyy, 1/2 of my Dream biases, let’s go!

We’ve all seen Jaemin reveal his abs right?

This man is fit-

So obviously, he does work out a fair bit

If not with you, then definitely with Nono

But let’s be real-

Jaemin is literally the least competitive person ever - if not just for NCT

Cannot and will not compete for anything even if his life depended on it

So when you ask him if he wants to join you on a workout session while you’re about to sleep and he agrees-

You’re surprised

Then again, he’s just so tired (poor bby) that he’s barely registering what you’re saying

Until you remind him the following day

Sighs as he drinks his first of many coffees he’ll have

He wants to try and weasel out of it

But you’re giving him puppy eyes and oh gosh you’re adorable oh noo

He can’t say no :(

When ou two start, oh good lord his respect for your dedication increases tenfold

You do this five times a week?

His body hurts in ways he didn’t know he could hurt

Hits you with his ‘sexy~’ when you get out of the shower

Pretends to take pictures of you

“There we go! My star model show me those angles!”

Laughing fits

Even if you’re both sore (Jaemin more so), y’all are so cute

Gimme this please

천러 (Chenle)

Okay Daegal’s dad you’re up next!

I feel like Chenle really encourages you to keep up with your workout schedule

Probably helps with the dietary requirements that come along with it

Supportive boyfriend over here

We live to see it

Enough getting sidetracked, let’s continue

You’d be sitting together for breakfast and its workout day

This man’s curiosity gets the better of him and he asks if he could join you

He’s always been interested in exactly what exercises you do to stay is such great shape

When you go into detail, Lele kinda sits there wide-eyed for a moment

Granted, he works out too to stay healthy but damn your workout is intense

No wonder your body is as muscular/toned as it is

Be he would be lying to himself and you if he said that it didn’t intimidate him

You could probably throw him with little effort-

When you two do get to the gym, oh dear God is Chenle already exhausted

How do you manage to keep up with it?

Scratch that - exhausted doesn’t even begin to describe how he feels

You get home and Chenle is just...dead

Takes a shower and refuses to move once he gets in bed

Prepare to drag his ass out of bed the next day - he aint going anywhere

지성 (Jisung)

This is going to be interesting! Also 2nd Dream bias!

Of course, since Jisung hasn’t revealed his abs, we don’t know exactly how defined he is

But I think it’s safe to assume that Jisung is pretty well built

And he finds it really cool that you’re so dedicated you are to your workout routine

But dear God this kid doesn’t want to work out if he can help it

As much as he loves you, he would be a dirty liar if he said that you don’t intimidate him from time to time

You could probably bench press Jisung without thinking about it

Okay - I’m exaggerating, but you get the point

Kinda like Hyuck, whatever possessed this kid to ask you if he could join you must of had it in for him that day

You smirk, he realises what he just said and starts backing up

“Wait, wait, wait - let’s talk about this!”

“Uh uh, you suggested it JiJi. Come on, it won’t be that bad”

He kinda just goes -_-

Not bad? Not bad for you, you mean-

Does anything - and I mean literally anything - to get out of it

When you aren’t buying it, he deflates and joins you

Is going through it by the time the two of you are halfway

Send help lol

You get home and he’s like “Yeah - never doing that again.”

Help this child lol

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letsbeoutoftouch · 3 years

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Three days ago, I decided to start watching one of the Chinese dramas that had been sitting on my Netflix to-watch list for as long as I use it: 'A Love So Beautiful'.

I was (am) really excited over the Korean version because the FL is So Joo Yeon, whom I love since I watched 'Romantic Doctor Teacher Kim 2' last year―she's adorable!

However, I knew that the Korean version was a remake, so I figured I should start with the Chinese one first. Besides, a few years ago one of my ex-friends told me I should watch it, and she has a pretty good taste in dramas... So, well―I succumbed. And, oh my! I'm so glad I did!

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'A Love So Beautiful' is a coming of age drama, which depicts the lives of five friends as from the moment they meet in high school up to adulthood, and how they learn about love, friendship and life in general. It especially revolves around Chen Xiaoxi (Shen Yue, from 'Meteor Garden') and Jiang Chen (Hu Yi Tian, from 'Unrequited Love').

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♡ PLOT & EPISODES:

It is a really light-hearted drama, and its plot is uncomplicated. It is ideal for when you are in the mood for something that doesn't have twists and turns, and/or whose plot doesn't require a great effort to follow. If you feel like watching a drama like that, then I really recommend you to start this one.

Although it's made up of 23 episodes (and one special episode), they are approximately 40-minutes long each. Therefore, I didn't feel that they were tiresome to watch. Also, as a person who gets distracted quite easily ―I have the attention span of a goldfish―, I must emphasise that I didnt pause it at all―except, maybe, to go and grab some snacks... And to post that screenshot with a reference to Argentina, lol.

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♡ CHARACTERS:

Xiaoxi (FL): This character is a well-known one in dramaland―the typical female lead who is really (and when I say really, I mean extremely, blindly) in love with the male lead, no matter his actions or the words that leave his mouth.

I normally find this type of character annoying (yes, I'm looking at you, Nao). I find it painful to watch that she keeps resiliently following the male lead, even when he is continuously humilliating her. Of course, if you keep in mind that she is a teenager, then you may be able to understand the way she behaves―we were all a little bit like that during our younger years... Or, at least, I know I was. However, that's hard to remember when the story depicts her to be neither a teenager nor an adult, although she is supposed to be the former. By this I don't mean that teenagers can't go through situations that may force them to 'grow up' quickly, but stuff like 'living alone with my classmate' is not a normal situation for a teen (especially, with their parents consent ¿¿¿¿¿)―that's more adult-ish.

Anyways, back to Xiaoxi.

When I think about my younger self, I think she might ―in some points― relate to Xiaoxi. Why? That's simple―because she truly acts like a teenager. For her, the problems she faces are like the end of the world, and deals with them as (most) young people would.

Amongst those problems, love is obviously included. She's devoted to the love she feels, and doesn't waver. She's always true to her feelings and to her heart―sometimes, a little too much for my liking. However, her genuiness and stubborness are two of the traits I liked the most about her.

But Xiaoxi is not entirely naïve―not all the time, at least. She stood her ground in some parts of the story, as a teenager and, mostly, as an adult. I must admit that one kick was amazing―I was lying in bed and I literally had to sit up and scream 'APLICADÍSIMA' (an Argentinian slang that, in this context, could be translated as 'nicely done').

▫ ▫ ▫

Jiang Chen (ML): Yet another typical character in dramas. He's one of those guys who barely speaks, looks serious 24/7 and, the most important thing, has feelings but is unable to show them most of the time.

I'm not going to deny that people like that do exist in real life (now that I think about it, I may be like that irl, lol), but the real problem is how they are portrayed in dramas. I mean, the fact that a person gathers all those characteristics within them does not equal to being an a*shole (again, I'm so looking at you, Uehara).

Jian Chen sometimes acts like an a*shole, I'm not going to deny that. He mostly acts like that out of jealousy, which doesn't make it right. However, he's continuously growing out of that behaviour (maybe not so much out of jealousy 🙃), and that's what I liked about this character. Even if his character doesn't entirely lose his true essence (being serious is not a bad trait per se, just to name something), it was refreshing to see that, when he's with her, he wouldn't act like he doesn't care about her at all.

▫ ▫ ▫

Wu Bosong (SML): Oh, dear. He's the sweetest. For real.

I'm not the kind of person who usually falls for the second male lead (for example, in Heirs I was always team Kim Tan, although everyone loved Young Do and shipped Eun Sang with him). However, this time, I found myself falling for Bosong really, really hard.

His character is yet another cliché―the sweet boy who's always helping the FL and has to be content with watching her from the sidelines. However, his kind and tender nature slowly captured my heart.

*spoiler alert* It broke my soul that the story was unfair to him―he deserved way better. Not only romantically speaking―all the scenes where his grandma doesn't recognise him were so, so heartbreaking. I know life isn't fair, but it is a drama! Don't make the poor boy suffer that much 😭.

However, even though I loved this character a lot, I ―by no means― shipped him and Xiaoxi. He deserved someone who would give him their entire heart―and, let's face it, Xiaoxi would never grow out of her love for Jian Chen. *end of spoiler alert*

· · ·

♡ FRIENDSHIP:

As far as I'm concerned, most people are only interested in the romantic side of dramas ―which is fine, of course―, but I'm adding this item because it was seriously one of the things I enjoyed the most about this drama.

The chemistry between the five of them is awesome. Sometimes, it's not just about how nicely the leads are to each other―I think that portraying a great friendship is equally important. After all, life is not just about romantic love―it's about all the other kinds of love, as well.

It was sweet that they not only grew up together, but also that they stayed friends even if they had other things going on in their lives. They were unconditional to each other, but that didn't just stayed in high school―it followed them to their adult lives. They still tried to find the time to meet, even if they were busy (*spoiler alert* Xiaoxi's fansigning! *end of spoiler alert*), and supported and had each other's back no matter what.

I liked how friendship was one of the main topics in the drama.

· · ·

♡ SUMMARY:

If you're looking for a cute and light coming-of-age drama (and you don't mind a school drama―i.e., dealing with the fact that they are teenagers during most of it), then A Love So Beautiful is the one for you.

Also, if you haven't ever seen a Chinese drama (and you're up to a drama with the characteristics abovementioned), then I recommend you start with this one. It's not boring, chapters are relatively short (40-minutes-long episodes are considerably shorter than Korean drama's one-hour ones).

The acting was great (again, bear in mind that the characters are teenagers!), the chemistry between the leads was good, and, if you're like me, you'll enjoy the chemistry between the entire group (*spoiler alert* although Bosong and Jian Cheng are ready to throw hands at each other like 99% of the time *end of spoiler alert*).

If you have some time, I highly recommend you to watch it!

I'm leaving the trailer here, if you want to check it out:

youtube

A Love So Beautiful is available on NETFLIX, VIKI and YOUTUBE!

· · ·

I hope you liked this 'review'. I wanted to write one since I finished the drama, but I have been busy studying for my finals.

Sending lots of love during these weird times ♡

#a love so beautiful #chinese drama #cdrama #c drama #review #Hu Yi Tian #Shen Yue #Gao Zhi Ting #Wang Zi Wei

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astro-break · 4 years

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Thoughts on the 8th ep of Hypmic Rhyme Anima. Spoilers beware

Ep.1 | Ep.2 | Ep.3 | Ep.4 & 5 | Ep. 6 | Ep. 7

Love that every time its a MTC centric episode im so busy that i can’t watch it the day it airs

I like how the beginning of the episode kinda mirrors the events in MTC’s story in ARB

hey hypmic you wanna try making it Less obvious who the culprit is? like damn you’re just giving away secrets like its candy. First Ramuda, the Ruikawa and now these two assholes. Might wanna keep your cards close before you spoil the ending of the anime oh wait they already did that nvm :p

Samatoki please have some sense of self preservation and ask what its about before accepting something. but I guess it also speaks to how trusting he is of those he lets close to him which also explains a bit more as to why he hates Ichirou’s guts

Love that Jyuto is actually choking the information out of someone and Samatoki is actually gathering intelligence and creating boards out of it. Most people expect the opposite from their characters and it such a great dynamic

I find it hilarious that Rio uses older computers but that brings up the question of “How far into the future really is hypmic?” bc those computers look to be from early 2000′s which would be A N C I E N T and completely unusable for hacking come a time when WWIII happens

Iris on a bike has no rights looking as hot as she does. The vehicle CGI is really nice too and so is her character model on top of the bike. Loving how Iris completely owns the two cops

The MTC love here is jsut. through the roof i can die happy now that i’ve seen Samatoki aggressively caring for his teammates animated and voiced. like, please. just. help. I can.t/ MTC care so much for each other I would hug them all and tell them good work, you can finally go rest now uughghghgh MTC guys. MTC

But mannn Iris is so cool, approaching MTC without any fear

I find it hilarious that Saburo would pose as a game dev from dubai which yknow doesn’t make any sense if you think about it. but whatever it just makes me laugh at how easy it is to fake a lot about yourself because yeah! it is easy!

The whole conversation about cops and good cops seems a bit off considering ACAB but considering Japan who has largely swept both BLM and ACAB under the rug it isn’t surprising. That isn’t to say that Japan doesn’t care, its just that these movements aren’t on the spotlight so topics like these don’t carry as much weight

lol yeah he should have expected to be stabbed from the front lol

SRKHFSKJD Rio please stop living in the water, i can’t believe he did that lol

Love the SamaJyuto subtext in the translation lol

Jyuto’s sequence is kinda cute in a way ahaha

The kurosawa-esque b&w screens are a nice touch to the song as well as the MC Name drops and hypnosis speaker drops. Idk about Rio’s 2DIE4 reference though since it doesn’t really rhyme nor does it add much to the rap itself

The song itself is pretty nice but it isn’t a bop like Fallin’ was. It has a different more gritty feel to it that i don’t hate but isn’t my style

Of course Iruma pulls this situation into his favor, its so typical of him.

Rio didn’t speak much here and took a general backseat to everything. I wonder if it was because during the time of recording this episode, Rio’s VA, Kamio Shinichiro, went down with The Virus (you know the one) so he couldn’t record much. Who knows but best boy. just let me hear best boy’s voice please

Ramuda’s phone vibrate actively annoys me oh my god it makes my skin crawl

If Ramuda’s sleeping on the couch then that really does confirm that Ramuda lives in his studio. Not surprising considering everything we know about Ramuda but at the same time, please get like a futon or smth sleeping on a couch will only hurt your back

Ramuda just busting in is fun

but im not sure how to feel about two divisions shoved into one. like this is basically telling us who is the important divisions, Ikebukuro and Shinjuku. Obviously BB are the protagonists of the series what with the staff coming out to even say that Ichirou is the hero, and if you know what happens then you know why Shinjuku is also highlighted which. also gives away the ending of the anime. again. I’m just glad that the team decided to stick with the irl results bc if they didn’t, they’d have a lot of angry fans

Back to my main point tho, this just. pisses me off. I love FP and MTC and to see them sidelined like this doesn’t feel fair. they deserve full eps to themselves bc if I’m being honest, these two teams have some of the best inter team dynamics out of the current cast. I understand that budget issues and episode constraints exist but this is just kinda frustrating that my main division has been tossed aside and the team that gets the most overall development gets thrown away too

Im not surprised that they cheated because gambling anime is about who can outcheat the other and the mind games played. thats the thrill of gambling series is the psychological factors in it

Ramuda emulating Gentaro’s speech is cute

The mindgames are not present at all and I expected that lol

thats.... midly gay gentaro lol do you always go around pressing shit into people’s mouths while leaning in close? thats pretty gay lol i love the homoerotic subtext present in this episode. First SamaJyuto and now GenDice

no speaker summon sequence? thats slightly disappointing but whatever. the anime is really doing FP dirty by cutting a lot of corners with their episodes

I never noticed that Ramuda and Gentaro hold their mics in their left hand while Dice holds it with his right. neat detail

I love how even in a battle FP still keeps their preppy attitude

Gentaro looks so awkward to the little sway and kick thing in the song lolol

This is probably one of the songs that I like the least. Jackpost is a very Dice song and not really fitting for either Ramuda and Genaro. I think i’d like it more if it was a dice solo or dice centric but the emphasis was pretty cleanly spread so that makes it pretty hard to enjoy

Oh hell yeah FP meshing as a team is just, so cute. Though that foreshadowing with Ramuda and his candy is just. wow

Yup they kept the og brackets so I think the anime’s going to stick with the IRL results. Which means that any tension they try and build won’t work for ppl who are already familiar with the series but I hope they don’t take that fact as an excuse to slack off

#hypmic #hypnosis mic #hypmic spoilers #hypnosis mic rhyme anima

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erinhime83 · 4 years

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Since it’s been a day and my muse has shifted back into being interested in this story again (seriously, yesterday it did not want anything to do with WfS, which was annoying, because all I could think about Friday was potential details about the third, fourth, and fifth books. Nothing concrete – I have a plot for the third, and possibly for the fourth, but the fifth is just minor stuff right now), I figure it’s about time I do some sort of reflection on this damn thing. It’s not going to be very long (I think), because I’ve forgotten most of what I wanted to say about this because of course I have.

I had realized that I needed to do with story back when I was redoing ISoF, since this is the only story I’ve ever not won a NaNo with. Even though I didn’t finish the first version of ISoF, I still managed to get my 50,000 words in. Here, I got something like 17,000 or 26,000, not sure. I had attempted to work on it right after I found out I was pregnant, and I got all depressed because I thought I couldn’t be creative anymore. But in all honesty, this was actually a good thing, because the story I had was all shades of not going to work very well. Which is sort of why I struggled with it to begin with.

I’m not sure why I didn’t think to try it sooner, other than my muse was on different stories before this. So when it somehow shifted to WfS to the point where I decided to tweek the first book a little, I instantly knew I had to attempt July camp with it. And seriously, attempt. Like, I got it in my head earlier that I should try to go back to how I used to be with writing, popping out book after book, and I wanted to see if I could do it in a NaNo month, since the schedule I had used for November with the girls was still in place. And it worked! It really worked!

RIiighht up until Covid decided to shut everything down and I absolutely panicked to the point where I couldn’t write anymore. It didn’t help that I was plantsing the book, using the basic outline I had but also making it up as I went along. I, like, lost steam right at the end there, so yeah. I might have been able to continue with it if I had an idea of what I was doing.

And the same could be said about my April Camp attempt. Sure, I had my tooth issue that made it impossible to write and then, since I had lost a couple of days, I just couldn’t continue. Because I had no idea where I wanted to go with it (I have since figured it out potentially, and considering I do really want to get into the new Cosmic Dreamers, I may finish that one soonish). So even though I could have finished it later, I haven’t yet.

I did go into this one nervous as hell that something would happen and I wouldn’t be able to finish again. Except this time, I did have a full outline, I wasn’t plantsing it, so I might have been able to finish it regardless. But no. This time it went to @callistochan87. So…I guess we gotta keep an eye on @anijeltaventry in November. Or if I want to write again. (I feel bad being grateful that it was her and not me this time, and I feel like I might be able to since it was a crazy easy fix, she wasn’t in immense pain, and it sounds like her vision might not be completely damaged? I hope).

In any case, its sort of funny how tweeking just a couple of thing from my original idea completely changed what I had planned, but also changed my view on this one. Like I said, the original idea I had was garbage, and I never fully finished the outline because I couldn’t make it work very well. I was bound and determined to bring the other Volturnians from the crossover story into this one, and once I determined it was simply not possible, everything fell into place. I mean, just like the whole thing with Techna. I want Techna to be a thing, but she doesn’t do much. She’s really not useful in the story. So when I did away from her, again, everything just fell into place. More so than taking out the Volturnians.

And taking out the Volturnians was made possibly simply by creating Alan. See, one of the reasons why my muse was on WfS in the first place was because I wanted to watch a couple DC films. Death of Superman and Reign of the Supermen are my favorite, since they focus on the Lois/Superman relationship, and obviously I am all about that. And one of my favorite aspects of the new animate universes is that they always have Hal Jordan and Barry Allen be, like, BFFs IRL before the Justice League is formed. So I was like, I should do that. I should create a speedster character, and then have him be BFFs with Specter.

Except originally, Specter was an alien. That’s actually why he looks so opposite of Greg, with the pale skin, pale hair, and pale eyes. His species was supposed to be the anti-Volturnians. Also, the idea behind Spectrum was that they were all blind, and were able to ‘see’ thanks to the bracelets, but they could only ‘see’ basic colors. So if something was kinda red, they’d see it as straight red, that’s sort of thing. Oh, and Specter was supposed to be the villain.

Yep, what was supposed to happen was that he himself was going to arrest Greg for being a Volturnian on Earth. And then Lane would convince Roselyn to take her to Volturnas to get him back. And Miles was supposed to end up with Roselyn’s half-brother. Yep.

But giving Jordan a human BFF made me decide to make him human as well, and I think it works out so much better! I mean, I didn’t know anything about Spectrum until I was literally writing about it, but now I had this world-building thing that I can expand on for the next book, so yay! I was actually going to make it so he was blinded by the accident, but I sort of liked the idea of him being born blind, so the suddenly seeing thing would be more of a shock. Plus, if he had been blinded, then really, he could just always use his powers and never tell anyone he was blind. So...yeah.

(Also, I still love their names. Like, literally, I named Jordan what I did because Green Lantern’s last name could be a first name. Which is why it’s Jordan Halstrom. So I had to do the same with Alan. Alan Barnett instead of Barry Allen. Also, the name Speedy comes from Green Arrow’s sidekick, which I always thought was a better name for Kid Flash then, you know, Kid Flash.)

Looking at what I had originally planned and how much I ended up like Livianus, I realize that I could have had Miles end up with him instead of Jordan. I mean, I’m sort of mad at myself for deciding to make the rainbow superhero gay, but I randomly picked him instead of Alan. Which I think makes more sense. Alan is fricking nineteen. Miles might be only twenty-three, but I think the press would have an absolute field day with that. At least with Jordan, there’s only a three year age gap there. >.<

Let’s see, I’m not sure if there’s really anything else to mention. I mean, I sort of had fun at the beginning of the book, because it really looks like it’s going in a completely different direction than it took. But the thing is, when I was first planning WfS, I had two storylines I could have one with. The first one is the one I wrote, where Greg is a superhero and blah blah blah. The second storyline involved Greg being taken back to Volturnas when he was a teenager, and returning when they invade, and reuniting with Lane then. And then he and Lane attempting to stop the invasion and stuff.

And I guess after doing WfS, I realized I could still use some of the ideas of the second storyline. Like where Greg is taken back to Volturnas and Lane sneaks on the ship to go back with him, and her becoming one of his concubines. Sort of. So that’s where the whole plot of WCBH came into play. But as a result of the first act, I know what I want to do with the third yet-to-be-named book.

And also a Specter and Speedy prequel, and I’m like, damn, am I going to have time for all these books? Yeesh. Like, the prequel will be weird because Lane and Greg wouldn’t be in it, Miles will be mentioned, and, oh yeah, it’ll be told from a guy perspective. >.< But I still want to do it someday! *cries*

I did like how there was only one day where I had to play catch up, which is actually unusual for me. I always look at my days off when I’m not feeling writing a chapter and go ‘well, it’s easy to write a twofer or a chapter and a half those days!’, like I give myself an easy out. BUT thanks to convincing @callistochan87 to review the chapter after she read it, it motivated me to not only put a chapter out, but having it done before she got on so she could have a chance to read it. Which I severely miss. I was seriously sad on Friday night knowing that was the last time she was going to do it. Unless she, like, decides not to write in November. Then I could look forward to that then. But I doubt it. ;_;

I think the worst thing that came out of all this was, despite not thinking about it ALL DAY YESTERDAY, my muse decided last night to give me breakthrough with my idea of rewriting WfS where Greg didn’t ghost everyone when he decided to become Ultro. Like, I love the idea, and I was struggling to make certain parts make sense, but now I really want to do it. And the even worst bit is the back that my breakthrough makes it really stupidly easy just to go back, rewrite the first couple of chapters, and then just edit the rest of it. So, like, now I really, really want to do it! And I might! Because it means I don’t have to rewrite the series and be really annoyed that I can’t have Miles and Jordan together already. :D

So yeah, that’s where I’m at at the moment. Fun times with the muse. Bleh.

Still, I know I’ll look back on this book and be happy with it (except for the fact that I’d have to go back and tweek some things thanks to the rewrite of WfS). There were some things I struggled with, some ideas that I thought were stupid but had to use to move the plot forward. But that’s the best thing about first drafts! I can rework it all later to make more sense. I’m so happy that I’ve gotten this one under wraps! It only took over three years to do. XD

Thank you so much, @callistochan87, not for taking one for the team, but rather motivating me to write this and keep going with it. I know you think you didn’t do much, but just the fact that you were reading it helped so, so much, and that’s pretty true for all my stories! So I’ll always thank you for that. :D

I probably missed some things I wanted to say. I always do, it seems. ^^;

#wfs #book talk post

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fuck-customers · 6 years

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my boss could be an irl mr. krabs

lately getting more and more pissed with my boss and how he’s rly ruining our store 🙃

he’s relatively new (to our particular store and to being a general manager) and our former boss transferred at the end of august this year. and just. man is our current boss a Real Piece Of Work. for starters he’s incredibly stingy and overdramatic about labor and our overtime and how it takes from his bonus check. like just a couple weeks ago i worked night as i usually do but i came in early to cover someone in the morning so i was working a double shift. and my boss was almost immediately complaining about labor to me when he came in and how i should’ve said something about it to him. thing is, we have always just told the opening or closing managers about schedule changes which he. is not. he got so mad at me and said i didn’t need to come in for who i was covering due to labor and shit but like dude why schedule her then lol??? god the fact he was so trying to get rid of me until i come back for my night shift was so annoying? especially given my recently cut hours (more about that shit is upcoming 🙃) so. like. no i’m staying thanks!! ugggh he’s cheap so much so that it’s become a store-wide meme amongst just about everyone lmao. for example say something obviously unusable and so insignificant falls on the floor like One (1) french fry, and we exclaim dramatically “OH MY GOD we gotta pick that up RIGHT NOW, just think about [boss’ name]’s money!!!” it’s so goddamn funny he’s literally too easy to make fun of. which is all fun and dandy until you consider how his dumbass has been causing us to go downhill since he arrived.

the first big significant thing he did (that also really involved me so like. makes me even more pissed) was starting to promote our opener and give him a raise before me despite the fact i had asked first and as the main closer i do so much more shit than this other guy could even fathom doing. i was beyond frustrated and ANGRY. i work too hard and too much for the little pay i was getting. not to mention i live 30-40 mins away! gas ain’t too cheap! the fact this other guy still remains getting promoted is infuriating because he. doesn’t. fucking. deserve. it. and i’m not the only one who thinks so, just about all my coworkers think he’s careless, bothersome, and incompetent with no real maturity to handle becoming a manager. i keep fucking praying he ends up not becoming one. the thought of closing with him makes me want to SCREAM

but luckily i did eventually get my raise (after literally having to directly contact my boss’ boss over the issue) but heres what’s just. great… i’m now like still making a similar amount to what i was pre-raise because our boss pushed and pushed to start closing early. like we ARE brutally slow most of the time at night and the fact there’s this shitty construction blocking a big road entrance to our store isnt helping. but ya’ll we went from closing at midnight every day to closing at 10 except fri and sat we close at 11. its a drastic change though and it killed my hours. the worst part is i know my former boss wouldn’t have done this, maybe closing at 11 every day if anything but not 10, good lord. but because my current boss is so damn persistent in getting what he wants he was able to push enough for the change in our store hours. it’s funny because if you have some kind of issue you HAVE TO be super persistent to him about it otherwise it gets forgotten on the backburner immediately and it’s so frustrating. yet he’s always annoyingly and brutally persistent with his bosses over everything so 🙄

hes also like cutting my hours completely and giving me far less days to work, i used to be working 5 days a week all the time but now its like 4 days and recently this week (dec 3) its turned into only 3 days. but to sorta put that into perspective, i havent worked 3 days or less since MID JULY. id be working 35-40 hours a week (and 50 before i started school) and now this most recent week im barely working 19.

not to mention this hours change has managed to be reason for 1 of our night cooks to quit. and like ya’ll, we have only 4 night cooks, and the one leaving literally closes most of the week. she closed a minimum of three days each. and now our other main closing cook who closes fri-sun every weeky is beginning to consider leaving also. it’s such a shitty development from all this and i don’t even want to know the shit that’s to come next.

so not only all that shit but then there’s how he makes our schedules and always manages to fuck something up each week or weirdly schedule people in a way that makes no sense. like if someone requests off a day they normally always work each week, he often doesn’t fill that shift with someone else? like hello?? our schedules are so static too, my former boss always went out of his way to put different people together on different days each week but my current boss? nah let’s just copy and paste the last week’s schedule, change like 2.5 things and call it good. and i know it’s like, don’t change something that doesn’t necessarily need to be changed but. ugh i guess i just didn’t realize how much i enjoyed that original schedule diversity until it was suddenly gone… doesn’t help that i’m constantly being scheduled to work with the few coworkers i don’t particularly like 😊

so yeah tl;dr my new boss is an incompetent stingy asshole who gave a raise first to someone evidently less deserving than me, obnoxiously pushed to close much earlier thus killing the night crew’s hours, has given me far less hours than i used to altogether, at least partially caused 1 out of our 4 night cooks to quit, and he additionally just makes rather shitty unideal schedules

#submissions #fuck coworkers #fuck managers #submission

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travllingbunny · 5 years

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The 100 rewatch: 3x01/3x02 – Wanheda Part One and Two

My rewatch will have to be sped up so I could finish it before the season 6 premiere. I’ve seen up to 3x08, but from now on I have to watch more than one episode a day. I hope to be able to finish season 3 by the end of this week. Which means I’ll have to try to make my next posts shorter than this one, which I’m pretty sure is my longest rewatch review so far. Maybe I could try covering several episodes in one post to try not to repeat myself in the following reviews?

Season 3 is definitely my least favorite season of The 100, and so far, having rewatched half a season, I haven’t changed my mind on its quality. But, except for one instance of really lazy writing (which will, sadly, turn out to be something the writers like to do, since they did the same but in an even worse way in season 5), this two-parter was a solid opening to the season, which, unfortunately, started going downhill right after it.

Also, I only realized this on rewatch…. Clarke is Rapunzel?! Or anti-Rapunzel.

*These rewatch posts have spoilers for everything up to the end of season 5, and I may also mention stuff from the season 6 trailer. No spoilers for 6x01, and please don’t mention any if you reply or reblog with comments, I’m trying to avoid them (good luck to me on that).

3x01 Wanheda, Part One

Timeline: This is one of few episode reviews where it makes sense to start with this, because it’s the show’s first time-jump – it starts almost 3 months after the season 2 finale, or specifically 86 days,. In most other shows, this wouldn’t be considered a time jump, but most of The 100 episodes take place just a day or a few hours later (which was the case with the time that passed between the season 1 finale and the season 2 premiere), sometimes just a few minutes later (season 3 finale/season 4 premiere). It’s even notable and relatively rare when there is a week, or just two days between episodes. Although this is obviously nothing compared to the time jump in the season 4 finale (and, to an extent, season 5 finale – which was technically much bigger,, but only really counted for three characters), this time jump is still twice as long as the entirety of seasons 1 and 2, which lasted less than a month and a half.

The starting sequence is great, with Murphy with long shaggy hair and a beard, in a state of desperation after being locked up in the bunker for 86 days, to the point that he almost decides to shoot himself in the head. Similar to how Clarke almost shot herself in the head in the flashbacks in 5x01. Even the greatest of survivors come to the point when it’s just too much for a human being to bear. Clarke reached that point after a month of being not just all alone on a desert, radiation soaked planet, but likely to be all alone for at least 5 years, and even more likely to die of hunger, thirst or exposure. Murphy took 3 months, but was in situation where he didn’t lack food or drink or comfort – but isolation, without any human contact or entertainment, other than videos of a guy committing suicide because he felt responsible of the end of the world, has to be unbearable.

Introduction of Becca In one of the videos is good as we get more crucial info practically at the beginning of the season (and at the same time, not so good, because I can’t stand Becca and I’m really not fond of the entire storyline about the chip/Flame/Commanders).

Scenes in the mansion with Jaha and ALIE are really creepy, as we see just how much Jaha has become removed from reality and immersed in the City of Light. When Jaha explains the concept of COL, the prospect of getting rid of pain, hate and envy, Murphy has maybe his best ever line, and pretty much his defining quote: “Pain, hate, envy… those are the ABCs of me. Take that and there’s nothing left.”

Getting thrown right into Camp Jaha, now called Arkadia, after 3 months, to see how much everyone’s lives have changed, works well for the most part (with one exception – see below). Jasper’s new look and attitude are shocking, but make sense. I don’t know if this is an unpopular opinion, but I think Jasper’s storyline was one of the best things in season 3 and even season 4, and I think it’s great that the show, for once, didn’t shy away from showing the consequences of emotional trauma (these people are teenagers who have been through terrible things in an extremely short time, it’s hard to believe everyone would soldier on and no one would break), and that they didn’t try to make a depressed person be more “likable” by being nice, even if it resulted in so many fans calling Jasper “annoying” and now showing any understanding for his mental health issues just because he wasn’t depressed in a nicer, more palatable way.

Raven’s story in seasons 3-4, which is also pretty good, also gets set up with a conversation with Abby about her pain, where Raven refuses an operation and they end up saying bad things to each other, as those two sometimes do. Raven calls out Abby on trying to hide from her own pain, too (over losing Clarke), which is a major theme this season. She also tells her she’s bad as both doctor and Chancellor, and much as I used to love Abby in S1 (and still like her) I’m afraid that this is least half-true since she’s sucked at politics most of season 2and 3. As a doctor, she’s good at healing people, but her bedside manner leaves a lot to be desired.

The show gets rid of the Raven/Wick romance plot (which had to be jettisoned due to Steve Talley being a terrible person IRL and tweeting racist “jokes”) in the best way it could, by referring to it in one line (according to Abby, Raven pushed Wick away) and never having him appear again.

They used “Add It Up” by Violent Femmes! And even Shawn Mendes’ cover worked well – his was a sad and plaintive ballad, as a contrast to the original, which is an energetic rock song. (I had no idea who Mendes was when I first watched this, but his cameo didn’t feel weird or out of place).

A huge plus because Emori makes a return. Also, Otan is introduced, who actually is her brother (it’s not just a classic thief/swindler thing where partners in crime are like “I’m an innocent damsel in distress and this dude is totally my brother…” thing).

There are several character introductions of characters that are varying degrees of interesting or not so interesting. Roan’s is especially intriguing right from the start, and there’s also Niylah, Becca and Gideon, and Gina. Speaking of…

My biggest problem with this episode is how weird and jarring it always felt that we just get introduced to Bellamy’s new girlfriend, a random character we’ve never met before and who doesn’t get developed at all. We know she’s nice and really into him, and he likes her fine enough, but there’s very little about their relationship that goes beyond very basic relationship-establishing stuff. This was all the more jarring because Bellamy had never previously been shown to have an actual girlfriend (rather than friends with benefits/fu*k buddies, which he had quite a few in season 1), and by what we know of his backstory and what we was like in season 1, I had always assumed he had never had a serious relationship or even a serious friendship, because he could never allow himself to trust people on the Ark, and he was too focused on protecting Octavia and keeping that huge secret. So for him to be a real relationship was a new development that I would have loved to actually see. And in general, how weird is it that the show seems to treat the love life of a major character – second protagonist as an afterthought, to the point that his relationships get developed completely off-screen and just get a few perfunctory scenes to establish “there was a time jump, it happened, this is a thing now, that’s all you need to know” (which was all the more jarring when Gina then got fridged just 3 episodes into the season). Hey, and just how weird would it be if the show did this TWICE? I have an idea why this happens – because neither of his relationships with Gina nor with Echo was ever treated by the show, as genuinely important or something we need to be invested in, but If I ever believed that Clarke and Bellamy were really totally platonic BFFs (because one major platonic relationship is not enough for Bellamy, who is one of the very few characters on the show who actually has a sibling, and his relationship with Octavia is also a major one the show focuses a lot..) and that the show wasn’t doing something else, I’d be really puzzled by such weird narrative choices.

·Raven teases Bellamy that Gina is “too good” for him. That may be because she is aware that he was “never as devoted to Gina” (compared to Clarke), as she taunts him as ALIE!Raven in 3x11.

Gina gives Bellamy Iliad as a gift, because his mother used to read it to him… an epic whose main theme is a warrior hero’s rage and all the mess it causes?

The Ice Nation aka Azgeda, after being referenced before, finally gets introduced (though Echo will get retconed revealed to be one of them), and I have very mixed feelings about this, because the oversimplified way the show tried to suddenly establish “Trikru=good Grounders, Azgeda=bad Grounders” in season 3 was kind of grating.

·Everyone is still bad at dealing with people with PTSD and mental health issues in general – as seen in the fact that they made the mistake to bring Jasper with them on a mission. This time, Bellamy had an inkling it was not a good idea, but Monty thought it would do Jasper good… and again, it didn’t end well.

Indra has changed her views a lot and is now the liaison between Trikru and the Arkers and o very friendly terms with Kane.

The relationship between Trikru and Arkadia is at this point kind of a mixed bag – they have a truce and cooperate, but there’s a problem of limited trade routes and ability for Arkers to get food, the Grounders are not happy with the prospect of them using Mount Weather, and Lexa has issued a kill order on Lincoln (which is why he has had to stay in Arkadia even if he didn’t want to – though it seems he does want to) just because he went back to help Arkers against Mount Weather (any disobedience of Commander’s orders, no matter how justified, is apparently punishable by death).

Something that’s annoying, but expected and in character: Octavia complaining about Lincoln wearing an Arkadia uniform and trying to integrate into the Arkadia society. It’s like she was so happy to be rebellious and have a cool Grouder boyfriend, and now she’s disappointed. She tells him he will never be one of them (oh, the irony of this coming from Octavia, who says “I’m a Grounder” every second episode – which I don’t get, does she think being a Grounder is a lifestyle you can choose?) and even lectures him about the culture he grew up in: “At least you still speak our language” (meaning Grounder speech). LMAO

Octavia suggests they go off on their own and find Luna and her people – one of the many, many references to Luna going all the way back to season 1. No character has been set up so much long before they appeared.

It takes quite a long time for Clarke to actually appear in the episode, right after the revelation that she’s the titular Wanheda everyone is looking for.

About the nickname itself: Clarke herself hates it, of course (though she will kind of ‘reclaim’ it in 5x12) – because she feels deeply guilty and hates herself, but I’m sure that, for Grounders, “Commander of Death” an expression of awe and fear, not any kind of judgment, which wouldn’t make sense – we’ve seen multiple times that Grounders take the “kill them all If we can’t kill their leader” approach to their enemies, so I can’t see them being bothered by her killing all the Mountain Men. It’s the fact that she was able to destroy their old, powerful enemy that gives her a mythical aura. If you can kill the Mountain Men, you must be able to command death itself. They would also assign it all to Clarke, because, for starters, they weren’t there to know about Bellamy’s or Monty’s role, and secondly, Grounders tend to give all credit or blame to the leader, and they perceived Clarke as the sole leader of Skaikru during season 2.

This mythical status, however, merely makes Clarke a symbol and prize, due to the belief that killing someone means taking their power. (Which should also mean that she took the enormous power of Mount Weather in the eyes of the Grounders?) Does Queen Nia actually believe that she would literally take Clarke’s power if she killed her? I don’t know, but she probably just knows that people would perceive her as more powerful if she managed to do it.

Indra also explains that another reason the Ice Nation feels bold enough to make another move against Lexa/Trikru is that Clarke made Lexa look weak – which makes perfect sense, of course that’s what people would think after Lexa walked away from the battle and Clarke went in and killed the Mountain Men.

Seeing Clarke’s new look and persona was weird as hell the first time, but I don’t know how to feel about it as a plot point. I like it when characters’ traumas are not ignored, and it makes sense that, in her state, she wants to be anonymous and leave all she was behind. But Clarke as a great hunter after 3 months, making a living out of killing large animals? That’s a bit hard to believe. It’s not the first time the show is giving her unrealistic or, rapidly learned skills (overpowering an experienced warrior like Anya in a fight, apparently learning to ride a horse off-screen in a day, being such a good shooter to kill the MW sniper through Lincoln’s shoulder – after the short training she got from Bellamy in S1..) I complain about that with Octavia, so I should about Clarke, too (though it bothers me a lot more with Octavia since her being a great warrior – with her few months of training - is such a big part of her arc, while these skills are never supposed to be Clarke’s main strengths and don’t get much focus. But I like that she tells the panther “Your fight is over” while killing it.

Niylah, looking at Clarke’s back: “No kill marks”. Clarke: “My back is not big enough.”

Clarke sees Niylah has a wristband from one of the Delinquents, which is going to be a plot point in 3x11.

It’s nice to see someone expressing gratitude to Clarke for defeating the Mountain Men – Niylah says she appreciates it because her mother was a victim taken by Mount Weather. It would make sense if many more Grounders actually felt like that, but we don’t ever see many ordinary Grounders say anything about it. Usually it’s just Grounder leaders trying to make Clarke feel guilty over Mount Weather to manipulate her or excuse their own actions.

Clarke’s one night stand with Niylah is the first f/f sex scene in the show. It’s also, as far as we know, only the second time Clarke has had sex with anyone (the first one was way back in 1x04). At this point, Clarke can only bear to have physical intimacy, or any kind of human contact, if it’s not with anyone she has any stronger feelings for (and asks Niylah to stop talking before initiating sex, because she doesn’t want to risk any real intimacy). But at least Niylah is really nice and helpful, doesn’t cause drama and treats her better than any of her romantic partners have.

The first time I watched this, I found it funny that Clarke’s f*ck buddy got more screentime and development than Bellamy’s supposedly serious girlfriend. But I didn’t know that the latter would die in two episodes, while the former will remain on the show into season 6 and get to have a role beyond that of Clarke’s occasional friend with benefit.

This turned out to be much longer than I wanted it to, but that’s because this episode juggles so many storylines and characters (and a bit of nice blatant fanservice, too – like the scene of Bellamy and Lincoln sparring shirtless, or a celebrity cameo).

But how about the one plot point that was completely ignored in this episode and the rest of season 3 (and 4, and 5, and we can assume will be ignored forever)? WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO THE REAPERS?? Did they get cured, as the plan was originally? Abby was supposed to cure them when the alliance was still on. Did they get killed – and how, and by whom? Were they still roaming around in season 3 and 4? Why is there not a single word about any of that after season 2? Indra even recognized one of the Reapers in 2x15, it was obviously someone close to her, maybe a family member, maybe her husband/Gaia’s father? The show dropped that plot like a hot potato as soon as season 2 finished.

Body count:

3 Ice Nation scouts killed during the confrontation (2 shot by Raven and Miller, one shot by Bellamy in the arm and then killed by Octavia)

Rating: 7/10

3x02 Wanheda, Part Two

This episode benefits from focusing on just a few storylines and characters and not featuring any of the poorer storylines.

Most of it is an exciting and intense action-adventure episode that revolves around Roan kidnapping Clarke ad trying to bring her to Lexa, as it turns out in the twist ending (after both Clarke and first time audience thought he was taking her to the Ice Nation Queen Nia), while a group from Arkadia including Bellamy, Kane and Monty are trying to rescue her.

More new characters are introduced, including one with a huge role this season: our group (including Bellamy, Monty, Kane and Indra) has a surprise encounter with a group of survivors from the Farm Station, including Charles Pike and Monty’s mother Hannah. It was a weird meeting as it started as an ambush, before they recognized each other. Who did Pike’s group think they were ambushing and capturing? Some Grounders who stole clothes and weapons from dead Arkers? It doesn’t seem they were aware that there were any other survivors from the Ark, or else, they’d have tried to reunite with them. But it also can be seen as a sign that their terrible experiences on the ground and almost 4 months spent in the woods as guerrilla fighters have made them inclined to see enemies everywhere and mistake friends or allies for enemies.

We get the immediate “trouble ahead” warning moments when Pike calls his people “Grounder killers, all!” and they cheer, and our group looks uncomfortable because Indra is there, and then when Pike looks at Indra with animosity as soon as he hears she’s a Grounder and expresses distrust when hearing that they’re allies. But really, there’s nothing surprising about his attitude, at all, and I’ll never understand fans who are like “but why is Pike such a dick”? The show told you why, right from the start. Most of our protagonists had a similar attitude to Grounders in season 1 and early season 2, when their experiences with people on the ground consisted mostly of those people attacking them and trying to kill them. And Indra (just like many other Grounders) had the exact same attitude towards Sky people in early-to-mid season 2, as Pike has to Grounders now – when we first met her, she was constantly asking for all Sky people to be killed and trying to dissuade Lexa from an alliance, especially after Finn killed 18 unarmed people, mostly civilians, in a Grounder village. But these characters all got to have different kinds of interactions with each other and have character development since. Well, Pike and the rest of the Farm Station people have had only terrible experiences – being attacked by the people on the ground right after they landed, seeing over a hundred of their people killed in front of them, including 15 children, and they’ve spent all the time since fighting in the woods, with zero positive interactions with any Grounders. It’s really not surprising that they’re the ones with most extreme views.

Kane, however, tries to convince them that it’s all Ice Nation, they’re the bad ones, Trikru are their allies. When Pike asks for details about how that alliance happened, Bellamy gave him the shortest and nicest-sounding possible version: “We had a common enemy” – “What happened?” “We won”. Bellamy obviously doesn’t want to talk about any of it, since he’s tormented over Mount Weather even though he may not be showing it the way Clarke does. But we see that Monty later told Pike about everything that has happened, though we only see the end of that story, how they got out of Mount Weather. We can assume, however, that he did tell him all including Lexa’s betrayal, because Pike later references both that and Finn’s death in 3x08. Somehow I don’t think that hearing “well, Trikru tried to kill the kids in our camp, so we burned 300 of their warriors, then we made an alliance with them to fight the people from Mount Weather who were trying to kill us all, but they betrayed us and left us to die and we had to save ourselves on our own” helped change Pike’s opinion on the Grounders in general.

Having Zach McGowan on the show is always a good thing, and his screen presence helps make Roan an intriguing character. At this point he’s a mysterious kidnapper with a backstory about his banishment from Ice Nation which I really wanted to learn BUT THAT WE NEVER LEARNED (what the hell was up with that?) and (twist!) we learn in the last scene that he’s the Prince of Azgeda. Clarke and Roan had quite an interesting dynamic throughout the show – thank god for once that the show didn’t try to do an “Enemies to lovers” storyline (though I bet that’s just because the show already had two popular Clarke ships to juggle) but rather “Enemies to allies who are not exactly friends, definitely not romantic at all, who kind of bond and respect each other but are constantly trying to politically manipulate each other”.

Bellamy wanting to immediately run to save Clarke, the moment he saw that she had been kidnapped, and then dressing himself as an Azgeda warrior and going into enemy territory to rescue her, is a far cry from his behavior in 1x12 when he was able to be calm and rational about Clarke (and Finn and Monty) being kidnapped and presumed dead. It shows how much his feelings for her had become stronger since. In season 1, only the concern for his sister’s safety could make him have such a reaction. But he typically doesn’t make his best decision when he lets his emotions completely rule him and acts that impulsively, and in this case, his unsuccessful rescue attempt only made things worse, as it alerted Roan he was being followed, and made Clarke stop fighting and let Roan take her to his destination.

But it’s not just Bellamy who would “do anything for her, to protect her”, Clarke is equally determined to protect him at any cost, and we’ve seen evidence of that many times, including this time – when she begs Roan to spare Bellamy’s life and promises to do anything and stop fighting if he does. At the time, she believed Roan was taking her to Queen Nia to be executed, so she was basically ready to offer her life for his.

When I first saw that scene, I thought “Oh wow, show, you are really doing this? This must be the most romantically-coded scene in anything ever.” Before even starting to binge the show, I was always spoiled on the fact that Clarke and Bellamy are not a romantic couple to date and that people debate whether they’re just friends or not, and I always knew people shipped them, but that didn’t mean much since fans will ship anything (Broadchurch fans even ship the leads from that show, and they are genuinely nothing but platonic partners). So one of the bigger surprises of my initial binge was that the show is so blatant about this romantic subtext (which is more like text, a lot of the time), and has been since season 1, but they were relatively subtle with it at first and then more and more obvious as seasons went by. Maybe it jumps at you more when you’re binging it. In any case, this scene – the soft music, Bellamy touching Clarke’s hair, the way they look at each other after meeting for the first time after 3 months, Clarke begging for his life – it all looked like it was straight from some epic medieval-themed romance. I later heard people compare it to Tangled, but I’ve never seen that movie (it’s been a very long time since I’ve seen any Disney cartoons). But I’ve recently happened upon gifsets that compare that scene to a scene from Tangled:

` Woah, they really did this. They modelled that scene after the scene where Rapunzel’s love interest tries to rescue her. And it’s not the last time they keep doing that and have used every goddamn romantic trope for the Bellamy/Clarke relationship. Is Jason Rothenberg for real? How do you do stuff like this, over and over, and then go in interviews: “Weeell, it’s Rorschah test, you can see this or you can see that, I mean maybe, but maybe they are just best buddies, ya know?” LMAO

Knowing about the Tangled reference suddenly makes me realize, they’re kind of doing this whole story as Rapunzel in reverse. We have our golden haired heroine who’s a target for her supposed special powers, and. Clarke finds herself as a literal Princess in the Tower at the end of this episode, and remains that for half of season 3. But while Rapunzel was trapped in the tower to begin with and wanted to escape and be free to see the world, Clarke was running away from the world, then got kidnapped and brought to the tower, and then decided to stay there.

And what a freaking huge tower it is – I didn’t know the full significance of it (that it’s the former Polaris space station) when that reveal was the last moment of the episode. This thing must have been a great strategic asset, you’d have seen any army approaching from miles away.

I love the last scene, which is the first meeting Clarke and Lexa after season 2, because Clarke’s rage – spitting into Lexa’s face and yelling that she’s going to kill her, while she’s dragged away – is such a fitting and relatable reaction to the betrayal at Mount Weather, and, maybe even more, to the way Lexa starts talking to her without apologizing or even mentioning their history, being all business instead and talking about the current political situation and how Clarke can help her in that department. I didn’t even notice this before, but while Clarke just glares at Lexa at first and stays silent, it was when Lexa said “I need you” that Clarke spat in her face and went ballistic. It’s interesting to compare that to 3x05, when Bellamy had a bad reaction to Clarke telling him “I need you” in a similar context. It’s not the same thing, of course, because Clarke had not betrayed Bellamy (even if he may have kind of felt otherwise), but it’s a similar “I’ll just ignore our history – there’s nothing personal and painful to talk about here, la la la – let’s instead just talk about how you can help me stop the war” approach.

I now love that scene even more because it’s the last time Clarke shows anger for the next two seasons. Or rather, she shows the same anger early on in the next episode in her conversation with Lexa and then when she was planning to kill her before changing her mind, but from that point on, there’s a shift in Clarke’s characterization that I’ve never liked. She was always smart, pragmatic, caring, vulnerable and good at using her words to convince people, but she also used to be vibrant, edgy, held grudges before finding a way to forgive people, and could be very impulsive. But in season 3, after the first couple of episodes, she kind of became a lot mellower and blander, and remained that way throughout season 3 and in season 4 (even though there’s otherwise a lot I like about her arc in season 4), where she would do ruthless things and feel sad about it and say “Sorry” a lot while other people told her she sucks, she would cry and look sad, but never ever show any anger herself. I really found myself wishing for her to finally show some anger at some point, at anyone, for any reasons, or go off and stop repressing her feelings and scream about her pain, break things, do something. I finally did get some of that – in 5x01 when she screamed at fate for taking everything away from her, and then, boy, did I get what I was wishing for in 5x09 – her slapping Bellamy and her silent but deadly rage/heartbreak at what she perceived as his betrayal, was the first time she had that kind of reaction to a person since her rage at Lexa in 3x02/3x03. (Unpopular opinion: I prefer season 5 Clarke to season 3 Clarke. Sure, season 5 Clarke was a total mess and reached rock bottom in many ways, but she was a more interesting and edgier mess. )

The B storylines were good, too. This is the first time we actually get to see what “the City of Light” looks like and learn about how it works. After Gideon, the big dude with a facial disfigurement, is killed by Emori in self-defense, we see him again in the “City of Light”, where he’s removed his disfigurement and can be a “normal” person rather than a “freak”. In later episodes, we see that Otan has done the same, but only Emori will not change herself physically, because she doesn’t have a problem with her body, just with the way others react to it, making her an outcast over it.

Nice to see Nyko again, one of my favorite minor characters. Unlike so many other people in this show, he’s always both nice and rational. When Abby, Jackson, Lincoln and Octavia took him to Mount Weather to find resources to cure him, and Lincoln was concerned because Grounders could have a problem with Arkers moving into Mount Weather because of their history with the place, Nyko pointed out “Places are not evil, people are.” The whole idea of the Arkers not being allowed to move into Mount Weather is stupid, knowing that the place had all those resources.

The show tried to give us bad vibes about Arkers moving into Mount Weather (which they absolutely had right to – they conquered it, so by the very rules of a warrior culture like the Grounder one, they could lay claim to it) with the talk from Octavia and Lincoln about how Grounders would have a problem with it because of bad memories. But that was just a red herring. Moving into Mount Weather turned out to be bad for a very different reason. We now know that at least the leaders of Ice Nation didn’t give a damn about their bad history with the Mountain Men, since they were working with Emerson.

What the heck was Abby thinking when she took Jasper to Mount Weather? She’s not a psychiatrist (did they even have psychiatrists on the Ark?) but I don’t think taking him back to the place of his greatest trauma is a good way to help his mental health. At least we get a nice scene for the Octavia/Jasper friendship, where she is comforting him while he remembers Maya, looking at her favorite painting, Second Circle of Hell by Dante. (The second circle of hell is for those guilty of lust... Is that why Jasper said it was ironic? Because he and Maya just kissed once and never got the chance to have sex?

Timeline: It seems that Parts One and Two lasted a little less than two days – Part One started during the day, Clarke spent a night with Niylah and immediately left in the morning, and Part Two took place during the following day.

Body count:

Three Ice Nation warriors killed by Roan

A bounty hunter killed by Bellamy to save Niylah

Gideon, killed by Emori– but still “alive” in the City of Light

I don’t know if this counts for this episode, since it actually happened after the Farm Station landed on the ground, so somewhere around the season 1 finale and early season 2, but we only learn it now: about 120-130 people from the Farm station were killed since they landed (there are 63 Farm Station survivors, but Kane said the station initially had three times that number). A lot of them, including 15 children, were killed by the Ice Nation right after they landed, and Monty’s father, who saved four children, was killed when trying to save another one. I assume that some of the Farm Station people died fighting the Ice Nation in the woods, and that they also killed an unknown number of Azgeda people during that time. (Technically, this all happened during the timeline of season 2 and between the seasons.)

Rating: 8.5/10

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hamliet · 5 years

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Endgame Review

My non spoiler review is that it emphasized everything the MCU does well... and also everything it does not so well. It was, in many ways, a beautiful, satisfying conclusion of a film that paid homage to the full saga over the past decade. Yes, I enjoyed it; after I really didn’t like Infinity War, I was expecting not to like it. However, I was so very wrong, and I did enjoy the film as a whole while I do have some (very serious) critiques.

SPOILERS (though not very detailed) do follow. I’m tagging this and posting under a cut; please don’t read further if you want no spoilers at all.

All the major characters with their own films--Thor, Steve, Tony--got what seemed like fitting ends to their arcs, whether they lived or died. I cried a lot for all of them. Tony’s arc and Steve’s arc were especially beautiful, and the theme of grieving and moving on and what that looks like were explored best in their arcs (somewhat neglected in Nat’s and Clint’s, imo). Tony’s final moments were among my favorite in the MCU.

Thor’s moments in the halls of Asgard, with his mother, were beautiful as well. Frigga, you deserved the best. And his moment with Valkyrie in the end, wherein he returned to the conclusion he had appropriately reached in TTDW that he did not want to be a king, meant a lot to me.

Thor’s closure with his mother paralleled Tony’s closure with his father. A major theme throughout the entire thing was the valuing of children (including Peter Parker) vs. the abuse and utilitarian view of them that Thanos adopted.

Steve’s ending was so, so beautiful. I don’t think there’s much else that can be said about that, but it was lovely.

I also really loved the final battle. It was well directed, powerful, exciting, and of course contained so many Easter eggs. Having so many characters there was incredible. The entire film was well paced, also.

What it did not so well, because unfortunately these are things that really irk me and it comes at a time when I’m especially irritable because of IRL shit and that the recent debacle with that misogynist Vader comic in Star Wars:

The weight jokes. Look, the first few jokes about Thor were amusing, and then it became annoying and reinforced the stereotypes about overweight people. You can encourage health in other ways, guys.

An “ugh” scene re: a panic attack. While it did great with Nebula and Rhodey’s disabilities, I was not a fan of the scene where Thor has a panic attack and Rocket slapped him out of it. Thor’s panic attack had a real feel to it that, say, Drax’s complaining in GOTG 1 where Rocket says something similar (we’ve all lost people) did not, and so slapping him and telling him off when he’s having a panic attack and playing it for laughs was... frustrating because otherwise the film did a really good job with trauma and loss.

Uncomfortable racial elements. Clint seemed to have turned into a vigilante, killing a Mexican drug cartel and Japanese yakuza members. Did you really have to make them all the dangerous foreigners who didn’t even appear in one case, but just like, were mentioned, or in the other had a scene of begging for their lives and dying anyways?

Sexism. This is by far my biggest complaint. It treated its female characters really badly. Captain Marvel wasn’t actually a very big role. Natasha and Nebula were the only ones with arcs and Natasha’s arc was downright offensive. I’m sorry, but her sacrificing herself for Clint was really insensitive and just bad taste, because while it was beautiful, it was also very very icky. See, Natasha’s arc in Ultron was entirely about how she sees herself as a monster because of her inability to have kids. That received a lot of criticism, but that did happen and is compounded by the fact that the reason she sacrifices herself for Clint was because he has a family to go back to, while she doesn’t. It can read as self-hate and as playing into the large view in society that women who can’t have kids might as well just off themselves. Plus, Clint’s focus was basically entirely about hyping up the manpain over his family and that was... no. I’ve seen this happen too many times with women in fiction and I’m getting less and less tolerance for it.

There was also one ridiculous scenario where all the female characters team up that was so obviously pandering (”look how feminist we are now!”) that I wasn’t remotely amused. And there was a grief counseling scene where a man mentioned having a male partner. Like, it’s progress, but it doesn’t win you brownie points Marvel.

Yet, to be honest, all films are problematic, and like I said, the conclusions to Tony’s and Steve’s arcs in particular were so beautiful and the final battle sent chills down my spine. It’s a good movie. I’m just critiquing this especially because Marvel hasn’t exactly built themselves the benefit of the doubt in regards to this, taking until 2018 to release a film with a POC lead and until 2019 to release a film with a female lead. How Marvel treated minorities and women was an issue I had with IW as well, so I was paying extra attention to that whereas I might not have otherwise. As I texted my friend, it is a good film, and I’ll probably see it again, but it was also pretty clearly written and directed by white men for white men.

#spoilers #mcu spoilers #avengers endgame spoilers #don't read if you don't want spoilers #hamliet reviews #spoiler warning

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tobespecial-a · 6 years

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HIYA FOLKS WELCOME TO MY BLOG HERE. GONNA KEEP THESE AS SIMPLE AS POSSIBLE SO LETS GET TO IT. --- this blog is dash only for now but may change in the near future.

first things first. i am a student in school monday - friday from 1-5pm so expect some slowness on my end. i am studying to be a mental health and addictions worker & am really passionate about the field i am in so i will be obviously prioritizing school & also irl commitments over rp. please respect this & we shall be dandy

now that thats outta the way. HI THERE I AM ES !!!! ( well technically its ESTELLE, but you can call me either or i do not mind !!! ) YOUR LOCAL NON-BINARY GAY ( they / them pls ) who is in fact straight af for a certain gay icon zachary quinto --- i hail from the pst timezone in vancouver canada. fun facts about me. ANYWHO ON WITH THE RULES.

REPLIES

this is not my only blog folks, it will be one of my more active ones, but it is not the only one i run. please be patient in terms of replies. i usually try to stay on top of my game but sometimes i miss shiz. pls poke me after 2 weeks if you are wondering, i may have missed it !! however it is likely in my drafts. PRO TIP THOUGH, i like each reply or starter posted to me, if i didn’t like it there is a 95% chance i did not see it. so please feel free to remind me after the 2 weeks.

also personals do not reblog my threads, ooc posts or anything thats not a reblogged photoset , its annoying, just don’t do it. -- i also have minor case of dyslexia so please be patient with spelling errors. i catch most of them, but sometimes i don’t get them all. if something becomes an issue please tell me.

FOLLOWING AND UNFOLLOWING

i am mutuals only. please keep this in mind. i will only take ooc asks from non mutuals. if i am not at least following you ( cos i know some people who i write with / have written with don’t follow everyone cos they want a clean dash, but they still wanna write ) then please don’t attempt ic interactions. this is your first & final warning. i will ignore attempts & block if it persists.

do not follow & refollow me repeatedly its also annoying & will likely get you blocked. i take a while to follow back sometimes, please be patient. i rarely unfollow so if you see it happen, please poke me. however i have the right to ignore it, or not answer. you have the invitation, i just don’t have to invite you in if i chose to revoke it.

disclaimer i probably will not follow blogs that romantically ship peter/claire. incest normally doesn’t bother me enough to mention it, but this one just really is a big nope for me. sorry in advance.

CHARACTERIZATION

gabriel is based off nbc heroes & my own personal headcanons. at the point of writing this i have seen the first & second season, i am making my way through the rest of the show at present. don’t worry about spoilers though as i pretty much know most of the major plot points for gabriel during the series, just not all the specifics. --- threads will generally take place in aus & content i have seen however, until i have caught up. though idk how big the fandom is so i sense a lot of aus my way any ways lol

*** REGARDING HEROES REBORN

i have no plans to watch it. sylar isn’t even in the show so its really just not required of me to view it. any plot lines transpired in that canon will never be seen in any way on my blog. sylar reforms himself post series & just goes on from there. when i officially make it through the whole show i will write proper headcanons on that.

ACTIVITY

because of school & other blogs i won’t always be around. however i can always be reached by mobile if you need anything, just hmu. thank you for your patience in this regard. also fair warning i do have ADD a low grade form of ADHD so i get a lot of the fun extras that come with it. please respect there are times i may need to step back or times when i become disassociated , its been happening a lot lately so i wanted to inform people so they don’t think i am ignoring them. i promise its not you, its me, i just need space. FOR THE MOST PART, i am usually always around to answer ims & messages so do not be afraid to message me or anything.

SHIPPING

ah yes everyones fave category. if anyone has questions you can always im me or hu my ask box for more deets. GABRIEL IS PANSEXUAL BORDERLINE GRAY ROMANTIC ( hes between demi & gray )

imma start off by saying that i ship syelle as well as petlar. a note about the later, from what i have read & seen i will only really ship them ( petlar ) during / post the wall, which at the time of writing this i still need to view. i would be open to pre show aus to start at this point.

anything else is fair game at this point, just be aware sylar isn’t looking for anything serious really during heroes canon. plus hes not exactly a nice guy so like be warned there. ---- honest to god if your interested in shipping with sylar or gabriel ( yes there is a difference ) pls come @ me. the worst i can do is say no.

i will also state i don’t ship sylaire because well…. shes underage ???? & before you leap down my throat about heroes reborn, most of the content i have seen is her being underage. but i’m not gonna accuse anyone of aging anyone up for a ship, cos there is canon where she is older. i am just not interested. don’t see the appeal, i’ve read way too much meta & just don’t see it.

it is also worth noting that post 3x01 the second coming, sylar can no longer die. he is immortal. save for one weak spot which he aint about to tell anyone where it is.

finally ummmm i’m 22 guys so no lying about your age to smut with me. i will block your ass if you do. don’t make me be the bad guy.

GODMODDING

pls do not god mod my muse. you wanna write him ?? make a blog of your own, or go write some fic. i play three strikes. first time is a reminder, second time is a thread drop third time is a partner all together drop. THESE CAN BE EXERCISED AT MY DISCRETION HOWEVER

also i think its worth mentioning cos some might see this as potential godmodding. sylar is not a nice guy, hes a type of serial killer. he will kill you if it benefits him, or if you piss him off enough. hes not above doing it just to prove a point. he will hurt you if you make angry, might not kill you but he can hurt you if you anger him. so if your muse riles him up enough ?? just be prepared for potential violence, that might follow. --- i will not exercise my muses strength cos you think its funny to have yours poke the hive. -- if you don’t like this, please don’t attempt to write with me. my muse is a villian for most of the show & i won’t be watering him down for you.

OOC VS. IC KNOWLEDGE

at the point i am in the show, the only people who know what sylar looks like are the people that have seen him, furthermore only those who have heard the name know he is even a thing. so its safe to say a lot of normal savillians don’t know him. HELL a lot of the heroes don’t know him either. --- keep this in mind when interacting. if your character has special abilities to know who he is, thats different, but don’t just assume you know who he is or what he does.

FURTHERMORE TO GO OFF A TANGENT i am not gonna be too keen to see a bunch of starters of people begging for their lives. gabriel is a hell of a lot more then just a random serial killer. he is a complex character who has feelings & issues of his own. hes not going to kill just anyone for the sake of it. please bare this in mind. i will likely not reply to those kind of random interactions. --- by all means if you wanna plot something like that i am game for it, but please give me the heads up. i will not reduce my muse to a stereotype killer, cause hes not & thats the tea. he only kills when it benefits him, its not a sport for the hell of it.

TRIGGERING CONTENT

given the nature of my muse there will be some triggering themes on this blog. such as murder, gore, suicide, manipulation. if anyone is bothered by this, please blacklist accordingly. i tag “ insert trigger “ tw. i will not be posting heavy gore on this blog in visuals at least & i ask you tag it if you post it. i’m fine with a bit of blood, but too much makes me a little ill. writing is fine, anything like a photoset with heavy gore needs to be tagged for me, & i myself will not be posting such content.

MAINS & EXCLUSIVES

i will only be doing exclusives for ships & crossover fandoms at this time. if you are interested in being mains lemme know. i do however require previous interaction ic or occ, preferably both. if you wanna be exclusive i ask you return the favour otherwise i drop the exclusivity.

AND I THINK THATS ABOUT IT !! I PROMISE I AM LESS SCARY THEN THESE RULES MAKE ME SEEM, I AM GIANT NERD WHO IS HELLA FRIENDLY & LIKES TO GUSH ABOUT HER FAVES ALWAYS !! MUTUALS MAY ASK FOR DISCORD IF THEY WISH TO TALK THERE

NOW HURRY UP & ATTACK MY INBOX OR IMS OR LIKE A STARTER CALL LETS WRITE !!

#rules !

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jjungkooksthighs · 4 years

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HIII ITS ME HEART FLUTTERING ANON 😁 SO! FAV CHAPTERS EEEE first of all chap 1 had me hooked obviously from the start, and for chap 2 i lovedddd how it set the scene for how they first met and then when they ran into each other again ... literal tingles up and down the way he TALKED to her??? “pretty omega ... i won’t bite” AHHHHHHHHHHHH

and then all of chapter 3 was so good the way he was talking to her again was sooo good so possessive and it was incredible like i don’t know if you understand literally LITERALLY it makes my body tingle and then chap 4 when he carried her through the forest and hes all like “you wouldn’t want me to lose control would you” AAAAHHHHHHHHHHH

and then chapter 5 i love that you wrote her a sweet best friend and also that scene where she imagined him .... GOD ur incredible. and then the ENDING. when taehyung popped out .... i’m actually double biased with taehyung and jungkook and so when that happened i was like JHDJSAIWIQKSJJS more tingles it was so well written please

... then chap 6. do i even need to say anything? thigh riding i CANT i almost passed out and he made her admit that she had her own fantasies and nobody could do it like him .... also the end when he was like “it won’t be just your legs that ache in my wake” AHHHHHHHHHHHH LIKE I SWEAR MY WHOLE BODY JUS. IDK HOW TO DESCRIBE IT OTHER THAN AHHHHHHHHHHH

chap 7 ... the whole dancing scene was so hot and then he told her to come to him OOOOO ANTICIPATION

finally chap 8 GODDDD first of all i love grinding like literally you don’t even understand and so when you wrote that in i was like EEEEEEE and then she went down on him and at the same time she got off on his leg that was so so sexy but then they have to go apart again :( until the next chapter !

so. in case you haven’t noticed it’s very hard for me to pick a fav chapter. lol. BUT i would def say chap 6 and chap 8 for obvious reasons, chapter 3 and 4 were also really sexy but i think my fav will be chapter 9 actually i’m anticipating it a lot and i’m sure it’ll be nothing but amazing ... that’s not pressure it’s me having faith in you cause you’re an amazing writer and i’m so excited to see what you come up with next hehe

i hope tbis wasn’t too long and annoying to read but yeah ily

Chapter 1 of COC was written during a lust filled craze following the Idol performance at Gyeongbokgung Palace that they boys did for that BTS week on Jimmy Kimmel’s show. Kook really was in a rare form following his 23rd birthday and that performance truly had me salivating over him from start to finish. I saw Jungkook and my eyes did not stray from him once and not a day later, I was working on a fic that I had no idea would become the 40k plus piece that is now COC.

Chapter 1 was brought you to my overwhelming horniness after that performance and it’s interesting that you were lured to my fic in the same way Jungkook allured me to him even from the moment I first saw him back in 2013.

You caught that little bit with him biting her in chapter 2, huh?? XD I am impressed. Perhaps he was joking, perhaps he knew from that second he saw her that she was destined to be his mate and therefore was hinting at a future mating mark???

Moving on, Jungkook is indeed a very possessive individual (from what we know of him irl in that he’s said “what is yours is mine and what is mine is mine”) and I wanted to depict that side of him in addition to making that trait even more abundant in his character in the story since wolves themselves are very territorial and possessive creatures. If Jungkook irl likes to stake his claim on things, then you can only image how much more enhanced that side of him would be if here were, say, a werewolf.

I am glad you Jungkook’s characterization in the way that he converses with those around him (especially reader) and when I was writing, I wanted reader to feel shy and even more, I wanted you guys as the readers to “feel” the tingle that she does when he speaks to her. The fact that you do means i succeeded in that and I am very, very pleased to hear it!

As for his comment about “losing control,” let us just say that every single time that reader is around him, it takes him an enormous amount of self-restraint not to let his urges take hold of him that she brings out whenever he inhales her pheromones that make his baser being howl with need for in addition to her own personality that he finds very refreshing and adorable. On top of all that, she’s the most beautiful creature he’s ever seen, so he’s quite taken with her and she with him. I wanted to instill that desire between them as well within their conversations and hopefully that is conveyed in the chapters, too!

Chapter five....that one was one written after quite the dream I had. I will say that one was genius if I do say so myself. It was so long and i had so much I wanted to do with it and the final product I was actually really satisfied with. I’m happy to know you were, too, hun! It’s funny you say you are double biased with Tae as someone I know very well irl is biased so hard for him that not even Kook can sway her attention (and lbr how can one NOT look at Jungkook when he’s sin incarnate when he wants to be and cute lil baby boy when he feels like being sweet?)

LISTEN CHAPTER SIX I WROTE IN ANOTHER LUST FILLED HAZE OKAY I MAKE NO APOLOGIES FOR THIGH RIDING I MEAN HAVE YOU SEEN HIS LEGS??? HAVE YOU??? LITERAL ORGASM MATERIAL ISTG I WOULD RIDE THEM WHENEVER, WHEREVER AND HOWEVER HE WANTED IF HE LET ME. MY URL LITERALLY IS JJUNGKOOKSTHIGHS OKAY I MUST PAY HOMAGE TO THE CREATIONS OF THE FINEST MAKING TO MAN (honestly though everything about Jungkook is a gift from the gods). i cannot tell you how many times I have thought about fucking myself over his thighs okay it’s just not healthy and let us leave it at that. Ahem, anyways.... chapter six really was something, huh? That whole chapter got deleted off my computer after I closed the file and forgot to save it and so had to rewrite the whole thing from scratch. It was a sad day when that happened, but I got right back to work and finished the reworked version about two days later. I had worried for some time that that chapter wasn’t as hot because of the diction in it, so hopefully you were able to immerse yourself in that and get those tingles there, too XD

Chapter seven was especially long and that one was actually deleted originally after some comments about the diction and so I had to rewrite it and repost it so that people would be able to understand it better. That whole dance scene is very close to my heart as it was taken directly from that little dance break Jungkook does in his My Time performance during their online MOTS: One concert. The song he sings is also My Time, which is my favorite solo song (in combination with Euphoria because they are both my children and you can’t pick favorites with children lbr), so that whole little show he puts on for reader is very special to me since I love the song (and dance) so much.

Chapter eight was hot af, I admit it. He really did a number on reader in chapter seven and so she wanted to show him how he made her feel and boy, did she deliver. He fell even harder for her when he realized she wanted to please him despite her inexperience and it was a godly experience for him to be able to teach her how to use her mouth on the only cock that she will ever have in her mouth or her cunt. :) They are animals after all, for only animals do what they did in that chapter in terms of her literally rutting against his leg and getting off while she drank his seed after blowing him. Anyways, it was hot and I confess, my mind really was somewhere south while writing that.

Oh, and to clarify, they don’t separate in that chapter (and I have begun to write chapter nine and they are not apart in that one either. Well, in the beginning at least ).

So, chapters 6 and 8 were your favorites, huh? Looks like your favorite ones are the ones with smut , eh??? Interesting... I will say that chapter nine will not have any smut in it, but I think you will be pleased with it when you read it. You will have quite a lot of emotions hit you during it and I hope to do you justice when I post it, hon.

Thank you so much for giving me such a long and detailed response. You may think I found it annoying, but I assure you that I did not. Rather, I thought the opposite in that it was endearing and I want you to know how grateful I am that you took the time to write all this out and send it to me. I wanted to give you a response that was just as detailed and thoughtful as I appreciate you for doing what you did. So, I guess what I am trying to say is thank you for this. I enjoyed reading your thoughts and i hope you will be appeased by my reply in turn, sweetling.

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