#how many times can you realistically plead insanity

[notfeelingthyaster]

like i get bruce won't kill joker or whatever (boooooooooo 🙄) but doesn't new jersey or gotham have death penalty? if not, there's no way for joker to be tried by federal justice after how many war crimes this man committed? and then promptly executed, bc i don't think the insanity plea holds to multiple accounts of mass murder, serial killing and premeditated kills

[jxsterr]

i just might not be in the right circles but i don’t think we realise just how fucked up puppet zelda was for link to have to encounter. like the one thing that stuck out to me SPECIFICALLY was the crisis at hyrule castle questline that has link hopelessly run around after something that looks like zelda and sounds enough like her but you know there’s something deeply wrong. it was enough to disturb me when i played through it, just how close her voice was to being correct but being too solemn, being just a little too wispy, too repetitive. there’s so many things about the way she speaks that’s only a little bit off, something that a man like link, blinded and delusional by grief, would miss. he’d know deep down in his gut something is wrong, it sounds so much like her but nothing like her at the same time. every time she beckons for him his chest tightens and he feels sick and he doesn’t know why, but he does deep down. he knows this isn’t her, can’t be her, or that if it is something is deeply wrong and both outcomes are less than desirable. it’s so fucked up because realistically he isn’t going to know if he’s ever going to see her again. for all he knows she could remain wandering the putrid soils of the depths for the rest of time, but here her corpse is, being paraded around as if she truly was zelda when she’s nothing but an imposter in the skin of his lover.

so he runs and runs and fights tooth and nail for her and continuously gets close enough to just about touch her but then she disappears and almost taunts him, tells him she’s waiting and he’s growing frustrated because goddess why won’t you just stay put and let me come to you?? i’m coming, i’m trying but you keep running from me. please stop running from me. his mind is begging, pleading for her, screaming i need you i need you like a lost child because he is without her. he’s lost and a shell of the man he used to be, she is his other half and without her he’s downright nonfunctional. and despite the heartbreak of her constantly disappearing he still keeps trying, keeps following her and grows more and more desperate because he’s so close and now they’re in the sanctum and she’s stopped and maybe this is his chance so he takes a step forward and she’s doing it again. she’s taunting him, dancing around him while all he can do is turn around aimlessly in an attempt to follow her. but even then he doesn’t stop for a moment to think if this is zelda, what she’s doing is cruel because he’s far too hung up on the possibility of her being with him again he doesn’t even stop to get upset at her, doesn’t question why she’s torturing him and keeps his focus on getting to her. it’s things like this that show you why zelda has so much trust that he will be able to defeat ganondorf because he’s never stopped chasing after her and saving the world for her and he never will. she could fall and he would catch her, she could die and he would save her, she could be a husk of who she once was and he would still love her. it’s undying loyalty, unwavering love and determination to make sure she’s okay because to him, zelda is everything.

but then she stops and gets so close he could walk over there and hold her again but it’s a lie. it all was. it’s nothing short of desvastating because even though he knew something was awry it still hurts to be proven right. to have scars so painfully ripped open again knowing that he’s back to square one. the emotional turmoil that that must have put him through had to have been insane, if not soul crushing. he’d be inconsolable, sobbing and cursing the very ground ganondorf stood upon to the point where the sages would have to escort him out of the sanctum only for him to fight them because they’re the only people he can take anything out on right now. but it’s not fair because it’s not their fault, and the way that riju hushes him and does her best to speak soothingly while sidon rubs his back makes him feel all the more guilty. so they all stay there, tulin and yunobo on high alert while link is sat on the ground, knees to his chest and weeping because he was so close. he cries and cries until his throat gives out and he’s dehydrated, until sidon has to scoop him up and take him back to lookout landing and he can’t even bear to tell purah what happened but she already knows. nothing breaks through that tough exterior but the dangled hope of zelda’s return being ripped from him. none of the sages want to leave him in this state, so they camp out in lookout landing. tulin does his best to chatter on about all the cool things he’s been doing to stop link from falling completely numb and shutting everything off and it does kind of work, link cracks the slightest of smiles when tulin tells him how he took out an entire monster hideout by himself. he’s lost his world but maybe he can figure out how to keep fighting for her with friends by his side. he’ll just have to see.

[jaskierisbi]

okay y’all, this chaotic idea will NOT leave my mind so imma make it your problem too

okay, so jaskier and geralt have been traveling together for a full year since they met, the two of them not having split up once. jaskier didn’t want to risk geralt leaving him forever because he’s a grumpy and skittish motherfucker so jask stayed by his side since that spring day in posada

until geralt announced he was heading north to kaer morhen, of course

jaskier is sad, because he was really enjoying his (insanely attractive) new very best friend in the whole wide world, but realistically, he admittedly needed a break. jaskier falls hard and fast and spending so many months with geralt wasn’t helping. if they stayed together any longer, he might do something he’d regret like profess his undying love or kiss him or something

I mean, how could he not? jaskier had seen on more than one occasion geralt refuse pay for even dangerous contracts if he saw the family was starving. if a child was inquisitive of him instead of fearful, he would be in a good mood for the rest of the day. he took meticulous care of roach, talking to her softly and fondly

he always let jaskier eat first. was patient with him when jaskier expressed he wanted to help forage and gather potion supplies but didn’t have any useful knowledge about plants. he showed jaskier how to set traps and let him season their food (“it’s better like this, geralt, admit it”)

after jaskier got into a fistfight with three other tavern-goers when they dared insult geralt in his vicinity, the witcher quietly wrapped his hands and looked at him with something soft in his eyes. not long after that, if jaskier was running low on lute strings or ink for his pen, they would ‘mysteriously’ end up in his bags

geralt went from being annoyed with his presence, to tolerant, to begrudgingly fond. jaskier saw how he relaxed when he sung softly and strummed his lute across the campfire. once, geralt had even let him braid his hair when he was in a good mood after a contract

with all of this considered, jaskier’s romantic heart had more than enough ammunition to fixate on his newfound companion

yes, distance should do him good

except that it didn’t

he just spent his entire winter teaching at oxenfurt and dreaming about meeting up with geralt in the spring. he didn’t even bed anyone the entire cold season, which was so abnormal that even his friends commented on it

so when jaskier’s eyes fell upon geralt’s figure on the road outside the tavern they agreed to meet up at, all logic left his mind

he distantly can recall shouting out a friendly greeting to the witcher but before he knew what he was doing, he had kissed geralt straight on the mouth

jaskier immediately leapt back with barely concealed horror. the two men stood in silence, staring at one another. geralt’s face gave away nothing and jaskier was thinking a mile a minute for a way to excuse his impulsive act

a lie formulated in his mind. not the best one, but it was the only one he could come up with in less than a minute

“what? that’s how you greet friends in lettenhove, did you not know?”

geralt’s brows furrowed and he tilted his head. “…no.”

this is just a long winded way of me saying that jaskier has to stick with his lie and kiss all and any of his friends- new and old- hello (with geralt being slightly confused and jealous in the background)

AND THEN THEY START RUNNING INTO ALL. OF. HIS. FRIENDS. essi. pricilla. shani. and every time, jaskier made pleading eyes at each of his friends before kissing them basically out of nowhere, very aware of geralt’s watchful gaze

they narrow their eyes at him but the sheer panic in his eyes swayed them to wait and listen to jaskier when he pulled them off to somewhere private

they think it’s fucking hilarious

~also, jaskier isn’t human in this because I want him and geralt to live happily ever after together after they eventually get their shit together~

[redswanned]

There Was Only One Bed part 2

AOT boys x Reader (I added more people because wow the first part was so fun to write)

Plot: You and him came back from a mission that left you both insanely tired. It’s too late to go home so you two decide to check into a hotel. There’s only one room left, with only one bed 😳

Levi

lets be real

Levi needs some damn sleep

and he was looking forward to resting after such as long day

but when he heard there was only one bed he kind of just

sighed

of course something has to happen when he just wants to relax

after seeing the cards he was dealt with he felt the most gentlemanly thing to do was offer you the bed

“Here, go to sleep in the bed. I’ll take the floor.”

“But Levi, you’re exhausted!” you pleaded

“I barely even sleep at night the floor is fine.”

not gonna lie it is hard to argue with someone like Levi

but you would not let him sleep on the floor

“You can take half of the bed, I don’t mind,” you told him hoping he’d take the offer

it was late and he knew he’d probably not sleep much at all like usual

he accepted your offer

but only settled at the very edge of the bed

it didn’t look comfortable lol but is Levi ever comfortable

you just shrugged it off before telling him goodnight

that is until you had a nightmare

you dreamt that you were the sole survivor when you and the scouts went to attack Marley

sometimes fellow humans are scarier than titans

you awoke to Levi shaking you concerned

“Hey, you were having a nightmare, are you okay?” he asked genuinely worried

that nightmare was too realistic as you felt tears roll down your cheek

Levi tenderly wiped your tears and felt his heart break at how warm they were and how many there were

“You’re safe here, I’ll make sure of it,” he said as he gingerly caressed your cheek

you slept peacefully later that night safe with Levi by your side 

Bertolt

when Bert saw that there was one bed he immediately felt flustered despite how tired he was

he kinda became a stammering mess

“Y/N, it’s okay you can have it!” 

“I can have what?” you questioned since he just blurted that sentence out

“The... bed” he muttered as he looked at the ground

he didn’t have to make the situation this much more awkward yet here we are

Bertolt being himself lol

but after hearing that he wanted you to have the bed you immediately offered it to him

“No you should have the bed! You’ve done so much today you need to rest,” you said

“No you should have the bed! I sleep really weird so I don’t want to bother you,” he admitted

how weird could he sleep?

maybe he snored? that’s not that weird

you insisted you two could share the bed and place a pillow in between you two

which he reluctantly agreed

it was late after all

you said your goodnights and you drifted off to sleep

until

A LEG LANDS ON YOUR FACE

“AHH!” you jolt awake shoving the leg off your face

and lo and behold

Bertolt is sleeping sideways with his limbs spread all over

“Hey! wake up!!”

“Huh, OH IM SORRY!” Bertolt immediately retracted

“See I told you I sleep weirdly,” he muttered

yeah even the pillow didn’t save you from his legs

“Bertolt it’s totally fine you can’t control it”

this time you both drifted off to sleep

until you felt an arm around you

you opened an eye and yup Bertolt was sleeping weirdly again

but at least his arms are finally around you 

Porco

Porco does come off as an angry guy

he just gets annoyed easily by incompetence 

so when he saw there was only one bed he felt pretty annoyed by the situation

how could they fuck up this badly?

you could sense Porco’s annoyance and exhaustion 

so you decided to offer him the bed

“It’s okay, I’ll be fine on the floor,” you said

“No, I’m not going to let you sleep on the ground because of the hotel’s dumb mistake.”

“I insist! I’ll be-”

“Just take the other half of the bed.”

he did sound pissed but you could tell he cared that you got a good rest after the long day you two had

you climbed into your half of the bed

“Hey, sorry for snapping. I just couldn’t let you sleep on the ground like that,” he said sheepishly as he climbed into his half

you assured him that everything was fine 

“I just can’t believe they managed to get it this wrong! Some hotel they are, I ought to write them a bad review. This is not how I wanted to get in bed with you,” he rambled on

that last part though

W H A T

“Um, Porco?” you asked feeling flustered

“Hmm, what, OH! Um, you didn’t hear that right?” 

you could tell he was flustered as well judging by his flushed cheeks and wide eyes

he didn’t mean to let that out

but thanks to his exhaustion he was being a bit too honest tonight

“You know I hoped we’d be in bed together someday too,” you admitted

he relaxed a little at this but there was an awkward pause

“Wait, you... like me?” he asked

“I have for a while,” you said not making eye contact yet here you were in his bed

“I didn’t think we’d be in bed together when you finally confessed,” he laughed which helped relax you

you spent that night cuddling and giggling as you two learned about how much you two liked each other

and laughing at how the “awful hotel” ended up helping you two finally confess

Colt

ok out of these guys I think Colt is the most gentlemanly 

when he saw that there was one bed he immediately claimed the ground as his sleeping spot

“Colt! That won’t be comfortable at all!”

“It’s okay Y/N, you deserve the bed!”

“Colt, I can see you shivering. Just get into the bed,” you insisted

he was too tired to argue with you so he did as he was told

“Ok but feel free to kick me out any time I won’t be offended I promise!”

you rolled your eyes 

yeah it wasn’t ideal but you both deserved a bed to sleep on after such a long day of taking Marleyan officers’ orders

it was insane how fast Colt fell asleep

seconds after he gave you permission to kick him out he was out cold

you chuckled and turned off the lights to go to bed

you were sleeping peacefully

until

you heard a voice?? at this hour??

your eyes shot open and realized the voice belonged to Colt

who was sleep talking

it sounded like he was telling someone something

“Y/N... and I slept together....No not like that...”

you couldn’t help but to feel a little flustered and amused 

this was entertaining so you kept watching

“Can me and Y/N....be..a reality?”

“Yes,” you muttered in agreement

at this point it looked like Colt had fallen in his dream and shot up awake

“Oh! Hey Y/N, sorry if I woke you up, I just-”

“So you were telling people we slept together?” you teased

Colt paused for a second

“How do you know about that...?”

“Has anyone told you that you sleep talk?”

Colt was a blushing mess now and kept asking how much of it you heard

you shut him up by asking if you and him could be a reality

that instantly answered all his questions

he played it cool though

“Yes, let’s become a reality, you’ll make my dreams come true,” he said

and that’s how you became his dream girl

Zeke

we all know how Zeke feels about mistakes

or as he puts, “miscalculations”

either way he is annoyed that a singular bed has become yet another one of his problems

he’s too tired to deal with this shit

but he also didn’t want to sleep on the ground but he didn’t want you to either

“Want the other half of the bed?” he just asked as he walked towards one side

“Yeah, I guess so. Thanks,” you said as you took the other side

you felt a little more awkward about it than Zeke did but you didn’t want to reject his offer

Just as you were about to go to sleep Zeke spoke up

“Do you think if people just disappeared problems would go away too?”

this was a pretty heavy question

definitely a late night thought

“Not necessarily,” you replied

“Elaborate.”

“Well, I think that people, no matter who they are, will have lasting impacts on the world,” you replied

you both continued having this philosophical discussion

you were impressed with his beliefs on the topic

Zeke was always a mysterious person and it was rare he opened up this way

he alluded that he didn’t have the greatest childhood which you sympathized with

maybe this is why he believed the way he did

you assured him that he was wanted 

“Thank you, it helps hearing someone say that. Even though I have one year left, I agree that my time on this Earth would have an impact. There’s no greater beast than me,” 

you could imagine how his mind was knowing he had a year left

maybe this is why he thought like this 

you lost track of time when you felt his arm envelop you

his warmth lulled you to sleep

thought provoking conversations are tiring but at least you’ve got him next to you

[hotdamnhunnam]

Filthy Fucking Pet

A/N: Here’s the next requested fic from my Dirty Little Secret – Super Kinky List! In which Jax Teller owns and abuses you like an actual animal… this shit is mad intense lol and Jax is an absolute alpha male asshole. **Please note the warnings: This fic is all about the kinks, please do not read if this is not your thing!!**

Pairing: Jax Teller x F!Reader Warnings: smut, swearing, dom!Jax, extreme degradation/dehumanization (master/pet kink, sweat kink, foot worship, ass worship, Jax humiliates you to the max, realistically this is not at all a healthy relationship) Request: This Dirty Little Secret request (anon)

Word Count: ~2.6k

**Please note warnings above**

Triggering content after ‘Keep reading’ cut…

Seriously, this shit is super savage and sick and twisted. You’re basically Jax Teller’s personal house pet. In addition to kinky stuff like rimming and the general vibe of extreme submission, this is also the first fic I’ve posted on tumblr that features foot worshiping (I swear I have no interest in feet irl really – as with pretty much all of the kinks in my kinkiest fics honestly, it’s just a theoretical fantasy that I have only for Charlie, and only in theory… since theoretically I have no limits with my sex god king…)

Anywhore, enough ado about nothing! 🙃 All of the kinks in this fic are mentioned in the above warnings, so please just be mindful of them before you jump in…

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

You used to be human. But now... it feels as if you've never been.

From the day you and Jackson first met, way back when, you had fallen in love with the crown prince. Fallen to your knees to serve him as his bitch and that's all you have been ever since. Pleasing him is your business. You're his little whore, and his personal pet: nothing more, nothing less. 

Anything but human honestly. You're whatever Jax Teller wants you to be. His kinky sex kitten, his filthy fuckpig, or his damn dirty dog on a leash. It's the best. You don't speak, you don't eat—not human food, at least—you just serve at his feet. This is your whole existence. And God, you feel so fucking blessed.

You spend all your days in his house, day in and day out. The castle of the king of Charming. It's such a gift just to live under the same roof as him. Whenever he's not home, you miss him so badly it hurts. But you keep yourself busy by doing the housework. Constantly crawling on all fours, you use your grubby paws to scrub the floor, and sweep the dust off of his furniture. 

Then once you're done with all your chores, you kneel down by the front door, and wait desperately for your master. Just counting the seconds until he returns.

Every time that it happens, the moment you hear the smooth roar of the engine as his bike gets in... then his powerful footsteps approaching the entrance... your heart starts to beat harder, faster. On fire in the presence of Jax. There is always a butt plug stuck deep in your ass, with a big fluffy fake tail attached. You're otherwise naked except for your collar and tags. 

And today, as your master comes home after quite a long time far away, you are happier than you can take—your whole body quivers and quakes, and your tail starts to wag.

When Jax finally walks in, you gaze up at him with wide, worshipful eyes. He's so damn beautiful you could cry. You yelp and whimper a few times in greeting, to express how excited you are to be seeing your king. By now your human brain has certainly stopped working. Your hungry tongue hangs from your open mouth, breathing needy and loud, as subhuman growls and thick gobs of drool keep spilling out.

He smiles down at you as he enters, worn out from a long day of being Jax Teller, the baddest motherfucker ever. He must be exhausted, no doubt. 

But still his gorgeous grin is big and genuine, bright as the sun, his slicked hair such a brilliant blonde, eyes as deep and as blue as the ocean. Clearly pleased at the sight of your tail-wagging motion, a signal of your pure devotion. 

"Happy to see me?" he teases playfully, as if he has to ask. Typical Jax.

You nod gleefully in response to that. Your perfect master reaches down to pat your head, stroking your hair now as you purr for him, showing how much you adore him, as his faithful little pet. 

"That's a good slut," he coos. "Go on, you know what to do."

Lowering your face to the ground, as ever eager to go down, upon those words he speaks, you hurry to remove his shoes. Those famously white sneaks. Then tug his socks off with your teeth—damp with a long day's worth of sweat, getting you drunk on his intoxicating scent, the pure essence of Jackson—then press sloppy kisses all over his beautiful feet. Servicing him like this is everything you need.

Ugh, you've missed him so much... full of love and submission, arousal dripping from your crotch, you stuff his socks into your mouth both at once, then lift your face off of the floor and sit back on your heels in your usual kneeling position. Your paws are propped under your chin as you blink up at him. He knows just what you want.

"Look at you, cunt. You wanna play fetch?" he says, chuckling as you bob your dumb head eagerly up and down. It's so much fun when he rolls his sweaty socks into a ball and throws it all over the house, for you to chase around. Playing that game is such a privilege. "Hmm, I would... but I'm not in the mood. Master's too fucking tired. Too bad for you, bitch."

Aw. Too bad indeed. Wallowing in self-pity, you pout and hang your head in a deep bow, but you know better than to plead. He turns to walk away now, and you follow at his feet. Crawling as you are it's always hard to keep up with his speed.

He's yawning by the time you reach the master bedroom. Some nights he has more energy when he gets home. Sometimes he'd slam you up against the wall and fuck you hard in every hole, wild and savage as an animal, filling you with his thick creamy cum, so deliciously full... 

Apparently not tonight, though. You can't blame him, you know. You can't blame Jackson Teller for any damn thing, to be honest. Of course not. Because he is your fucking king. Whatever he does, he's your master, your god; everything about his whole existence is flawless.

You watch in rapture as he strips naked, carelessly flinging his kutte and the rest of his clothes to the floor, and flops facedown in bed to lay his weary head to rest. Fit for the king he is, his bed is big and plush and luxurious. At this late hour, he's too tired to even bother with a shower, you notice. Fuck yes—that's how you like it best. 

Hopefully he'll let you use your tongue to clean up all his glorious sweat. Then whenever he leaves next to take care of business, you'll still get to savor his scent in his absence, inhaling it off of the sheets and the mattress. Your thirsty mouth is watering just at the thought of it, as you scurry all over the bedroom to clean up his mess. 

Gathering up all the clothes that he scattered, you can't help but take a deep breath. Inhaling the essence of this sinfully sexy bastard. 

You indulge in a whiff, as you slobber and sniff—focusing on the pits of his shirt so damp and sweaty it's obscene, and the rich-smelling crotch of his jeans, soaking up all the musk of his cock and his balls and his ass which smells so good it hurts—and especially his underwear... before dutifully dropping them into the hamper, along with the socks that you brought from downstairs. Though you hate washing Jax's sweet scent off of anything, one of your chores, of course, is to take care of all the laundry for your master.

"Get over here, bitch. You should clean up after me faster," he scolds, dominant voice husky and low, somewhat muffled as his head is partially sunken into one of his deluxe pillows. "Did you just get distracted by sniffing my sweat? You're such a greedy, filthy fucking pet."

You instantly start whimpering in apology, overflowing with self-hatred as you hasten toward the foot of his bed. You would say sorry, in so many words, if you could, as you should. 

But you can't, given that you're not human. And your master knows that of course. All you want is to worship his body, and show him you're sorry, but you need permission before you can move from your place on the floor...

"Crawl up onto the bed," he commands, well assured you will follow his orders as fast as you can. "Go ahead, you pathetic whore. Make yourself useful and worship my back. Can't you see I'm exhausted and need to relax?"

Oh, how you love when he lets out his inner beast and treats you to the absolute most savage side of Jax.

Though you also love when he is soft, when he treats you with sweet talk and cuddles you up... this is the side of him you adore even more. His abuse is just what you live for.

"I want a full body massage," he orders, as you set to work on his muscular shoulders. "Yeah, use those paws. And that dirty mouth of yours... so dirty... mmm, that's it, lick all the sweat off my body. Desperate fucking dog."

You don't need him to tell you—that is exactly what you're dying to do—but it's so much better when he does. So damn hot. It's insane just how much you get off on his dirty talk.

And he keeps going on as you worship his perfect physique. While your hands rub and knead every inch, your mouth traces a line down the smooth divine curve of his spine, running down the black ink of the reaper design, wet lips puckering into passionate kisses all over his dewy skin, slurping up each new bead of fresh sweat as it dribbles and leaks. Every so often, his degrading words and his delicious groans of pleasure cut to cruel sadistic laughter, whenever he wants to humiliate you for being such a freak. 

That just makes you love him even more. You're his subhuman whore, reduced into a literal pig as the maddening scent and flavor of your master makes you fucking squirm, wriggling like a worm, every sound out of your throat a squeal or a squeak. His savage strength makes you so weak...

"Unghh God, you're such a fucking animal," he snarls as you salivate all over his sculpted muscles. "Get that worthless face lower down where you belong. Yeah, you know what you want. Suffocate in my asshole."

And that very instant, you do just as told. You wedge your whole damn head into the sacred space between his sweaty cheeks, diving in deep, digging for gold. It's salty and sweet and so so fucking hot. You don't even care whether you'll ever come up for air or not. He's everything you need and all you want to breathe. Your king Jax Teller is a motherfucking god...

When he growls and reaches back with both of his strong hands to push his palms against your skull and smash your face even deeper inside his crack, the pure aggression of the act gives you a goddamn heart attack. 

Before you can even recover from that, he suddenly shifts—you gasp for a split second as his magnificent body lifts.

But the next thing you know, he is squatting low over your mouth, then sitting the fuck down till your tongue is lodged deep in his tight sweaty hole and his big heavy balls are completely smothering your snout. 

Jax throws his head back with a guttural groan as he starts to grind, taking your mouth for a ride. You could die just from that fucking sound, from the taste, from the feel of his full body weight as he shudders and sighs, dominating your face. Degrading you just right. You could do this all night. Then he looks back down, bright blue gaze locking with your eyes, open wide, sex-crazed and lost in a mad loving daze.

Is this fucking real? Even as it happens, you honestly can't fathom how good it feels...

And there's no way that you wouldn't notice, in this position of pure bliss, your master's fucking enormous cock. While you drown in his ass, savoring your sweet feast, that massive piece of meat is throbbing right above you like a beast, hard as a rock. 

"Fuuuck, that's it—eat my ass, you good-for-nothing pig..." Jax explosively grunts as his hot sphincter squeezes and strangles your tongue. "Look what you're doing to my dick. You're gonna make me fucking cum. That what you want?"

Ohhh Godddd...

He goes on before you can respond. "Well, that's just what you're gonna get. Ughh—such a good little pet..." he praises as he begins pumping himself, the pink tip of his dick giving off the rich scent of his juices, each sweet drop that glistens, all glossy and wet. Some of his precum drips to your forehead.

But that's not where his full load is going to land. No, that's all gonna go down your dirty whore throat. Jax then clutches the top of your head with one hand, fingers rooting hard into your scalp, making you gulp and gasp, as you suck on his ass, while his other fist jacks off his perfect dick, faster and harder with each fucking stroke. He's so hot it's a joke.

"Shit—gonna cum—take it, bitch... take it all till you choke..." he moans, pulling his ass swiftly off of your slobbering lips and then pressing the tip of his cock onto your twitching tongue. Blessing you with a huge load of sweet white hot cum. By this point you're struck dumb.

You can feel your eyes roll to the back of your skull, as you savor his flavor and swallow him whole. You are so goddamn grateful. Jackson Teller is feeding your body, your heart and your soul. 

You're reminded right now of what you've always known: that you are his to own. He is more than human, so much more, all that you live for... and you are so much less and always have been. Falling in these roles just feels so fucking natural. He is a fucking god—everything you are not—and you're a fucking animal.

Once he is done using you as his subhuman cum dump, your master is gracious enough to let you clean him up. You wrap your lips around his flawless cock to lick and suck off every drop. Pressing French kisses all across his freshly drained balls and his perfect pink asshole. Hoping that your beloved master knows he's your entire world.

"Good girl," Jax sighs, as your face nestles in the space between his strong powerful thighs. "Bet you wish you could sleep with me here in this bed. But that would be wrong. Don't you know where you belong, you filthy little pet?"

Ah, yes—you could never forget. With a whimper of submissive bliss, you give your master one last kiss, right on the tip of his delicious dick. Admiring how even right after he came it’s still so stiff and throbbing and thick.

And then you climb off of his mattress and crawl into your tiny pet bed, set right by his nightstand. The spot where you're so blessed to sleep beside this divine god of a man. You curl yourself up nice and small, into a little ball, so you can fit. And all the while you're still squealing like a pig. You just can't help it.

The king of Charming huffs out one of his majestic snickers at the sound of you grunting and groveling, so low-down and pathetic. "Goodnight, pig."

Your heart flutters—so grateful and glad that he calls you that, just what you are to him, always will be... so fucking filthy... you know that he is pleased, and his pleasure is all that matters.

You already can't wait till the morning when he'll let you drink from his dick, hopefully. But till then you'll just sleep, knowing that all your dreams will be sweet, for you dream of one thing only: pleasing your master.

And you're living that dream, as unreal as it seems. Your real life is as good as it gets.

You'll go on forever loving every minute of living with Jax Teller—living for Jax Teller, now and forever—as his filthy fucking pet.

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

… Sooo I know that was SUPER kinky shit, but I hope there are some filthy bitches who enjoyed it, and would love to hear if you did!! 😅❤️

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[msawesomehalffinishedfics]

The teenager – Dean Winchester imagine

A/N: Sup, so I wrote this because I have begun rewatching supernatural. I will get to the request, I jus haven't had mental power due to writing an exam paper. But I had this idea I wanted to write and then it just turned out really long. Tell me if you like it or if you want more of it. :) Also this is like midseason 8, when they just got the bunker, but before Sam had done any trials. 

Word count: 7,3k.

Hitchhiking as a 16 year old girl was never a good idea. It was a dangerous world out there, Nora’s mother had at least taught her that. But a teenage runaway does not really get to be that picky. She always looked over the people she hitched rides with and kept a switchblade ready just in case. Feeling it with her hand in her pocket always. Finally she was dropped off a little off the road. She thanked the woman who had picked her up and she smiled and told her to be safe. Nora waved after her as she drove off. The lady had been real nice, she had told her that she had run away from home when she was young too, and said she wished someone had helped her get home. Nora took herself in biting the inside of her lip nervously when she had said that, Nora was going home. Or at least she hoped she was. She knew it was a stretch as she walked down the road occasionally consulting the map where the man had drawn on it where she was headed. It should only be a few hours. The forrest nearby made the trip not seem too bad, not that many cars on this road. She knew it was desperate, she knew it was likely she would have to call the cops when she got there and get dragged a few states back to get kicked out of her old house. She knew all of this. She had heard her social worker tell her that her father was dead. But she had done research, she knew he vanished like this for a few years some times. And maybe it was a little naive, but she had this feeling in her chest that he was alive. She tried not to get her hopes up and tried to walk with confidence as she neared ever so slowly. Of course the dream scenario was he was alive and welcomed her with open arms, finally giving her everything she wished for. But she was realistic and knew that that was most likely not the case. She sighed as she neared the weird looking house. The man who had told her where to find them did say he was living in a bunker. She wandered around a little bit trying to find the entrance. When she finally did, she paused for a moment. What was she going to say? She took a deep breath and told herself whatever came to her in the moment had to be good enough. It would never be perfect anyway. She exhaled hoping it would calm her nerves, and heard her mothers voice in her head telling her to straighten her back. She did so and then figured she should fix her hair. She reminded herself internally that it was not going to be perfect and that she should quit stalling and just do it already. She had waited her whole life to meet the man. 

She balled her hand into a fist and knocked on the door.

She stood there trying to appear confident, papers in hand, ready to shove them in his face so he could not refuse her. God she hoped he did not refuse her. She prayed a little internally, not really religious, but she needed this to go well. Finally the door opened, two men looking like they were in their thirties opened the door. One with much longer hair and a bit taller than the other man, he looked more like the photo she had from the social worker. She looked at him taking a breath before speaking to try and calm herself. This was a little insane. They both looked her over, seeming utterly confused, which she kind of understood, she had just come by very unannounced. 

“Dean Winchester?” She got out looking them over but clearly focusing on who she figured it was. She tried her best to cover up how nervous she was. The guy crossed his arms and looked at her like he was trying to figure out what she was playing at. The second guy looked a bit more warmly at her but still furrowing his eyebrows.

“Who’s asking?” The kinder one said and she sighed.

“I just need to know if Dean Winchester is alive, and if he lives here? Please?” she said pleading a little, the tall one seemed to soften his look even more. He looked to the other guy who still looked at me sternly but after they clearly that had a short silent conversation they both looked back to her. 

“I’m Dean Winchester.” The shorter one said a little reluctantly. Nora looked him over with a small smile she could not help but spread on her face. This was really it. He was really there, and alive. She let out a little sigh of relief and happiness that she had found him. She then smirked a little trying to regain her confidence, she wanted to seem cool after all. She stepped forward and pushed the file she was carrying with her into his chest before walking inside the bunker. She wanted to get inside, even if they were gonna kick her out in a minute. Plus she needed the bathroom.

“Congratulations. I’m moving in.” She said smirking she walked in and gawked a little. This place might be an underground bunker, seemingly from ancient times, but this was awesome. She looked around impressed. The two men followed her. 

“What the hell? You can’t just barge in? Who are you?” Dean said from behind her in a stern voice looking at her with furrowed eyebrows. He was very confused and did not like people intruding on their space.

“And what do you mean you’re moving in? And congratulations?” The tall one said following after her as well and grabbed her arm. She looked at him thinking she may not have thought all of this through. But there was no turning back now, and maybe if she kept acting confidently she would not be pushed back on the street in five minutes.

“It’s all in the file, and I can explain. I just. I have been on the road for like 5 hours. Where is your bathroom?” She said, meaning it, she had to pee the last ten minutes, she was scared it was just nervous pee, but it seemed like it was staying. And if she was going back on the road the least they could do was loan her their bathroom. Dean looked at her still confused but sighed and pointed towards a door. She smiled and nodded walking towards.

“Back in like 2 minutes, then I’ll explain everything. I know this is weird.” She said walking into the bathroom leaving the two men looking after her confused.

She exited the bathroom a few minutes later, much more relaxed, still nervous about the situation she was in and she was really nervous about the conversation she was about to have. What if they took her to a doctor and her mom had lied? She was suddenly very nervous. As she walked out she was pulled from her thoughts as she was hit in the head with water. She spat a little then looking up at them in disarray. 

“What the he-“ She was cut off being hit with a handfull of salt that the tall one threw at her. She looked up at him now confused and a little angry. She had been nervous now she just wanted to know what was wrong with them? This was not at all what she had imagined. 

“What the hell?” She said Dean just pulled out a knife and pointed it at her, her eyes widened getting scared for her life now.

“Relax, cut yourself with this knife.” He said and she looked at him confused, what the hell was wrong with him.

“What the hell? No?” She said he rolled his eyes before grabbing her arm she struggled against him but he remained calm. Giving her a small cut on her arm. When he was seemingly satisfied he let her go with a smile, and reached into his back pocket for a handkerchief. He handed it to her with a small smile.

“Sorry about that. Just a safety precaution.” The tall one said she looked at him then back to Dean.

“Okay. Psychos.” She said annoyed and still very weirded out by this. She looked to Dean who was now looking at the file she had handed him. Not wanting to open it before he knew she was safe. 

“Now, who are you?” The tall one said. 

“Nora, Winchester, Reed?” Dean said, looking up at her utterly confused, she sighed a little with a small smile, calming down a little. 

“Wait? Winchester?” The tall one said and she smiled a little awkwardly before nodding, she felt like she was apologising for it somehow. 

“Are we related? I’m Sam. Why were you looking for my brother Dean?” Sam asked she looked over at Dean who seemed frozen in place, reading the file. Finally he took it down from his face and looked at her. Wiping his face, then looking at her again as if he was checking if she was real. He then laughed a little and shook his head.

“No. This. You can’t be.” He got out and Nora just shrugged a little awkwardly. 

“Well, I couldn’t really test it. But yeah, it’s what my mom said too.” She said feeling a little bad. She had no idea what she had expected, for him to open the door, take one look at her and know, before hugging her and telling her how he had looked for her too. She knew that was a fantasy, but getting sprayed with water, salt and then cut before he finally looked her over not believing his eyes. 

“We need to verify this. Come on.” Dean said grabbing her arm and grabbing a jacket on the way out of the bunker. Sam his she was guessing younger brother locked after them before nudging her towards an old black car.

“Cool car.” She said he looked at her pausing for a moment, before opening the door and in that real disappointed adult way nodded his head telling her silently to get in. She sighed and got in the backseat, truly feeling like a kid again. He got in the front seat along, his brother got in on the other side.

“Dean. What is going on?” Sam said as he pulled onto the road and he looked like he was driving way over the limit.

“Paper said she is my kid.” He said sternly, he did not sound pleased about this Nora noted but tried not to. Sam looked from her to him utterly confused but he did after a few times shrug a little.

“So we’re going to get a paternity test? Where did you come from? How old are you? Who is your mom? Where is your mom?” Sam started asking and Nora sighed knowing this was going to be a mouthful to explain. 

“Well, um, kind of a long story.” She started but Sam just looked at her still confused and she decided to wait till they had more time, and maybe the men before her had calmed down a little. 

Luckily there was a town not too far away, and they pulled into a parking spot. Dean opened the door for her and grabbed her arm again, even though she would follow anyway. She had always dreamed of meeting her dad. Her mom had told her a little about him, so she had this picture of him in her head. She wondered if he was going to like her. If he liked the same ice cream as her? If she looked like him? Sam thankfully walked ahead of us and talked to the doctor Dean looking over at her still seeming like he could not believe it. But he did not look angry per say which Nora told herself was not bad. That meant he did not hate her completely at least. A nurse came over and swapped the inside of their cheeks before walking off to do the test. They sat in the waiting room as they did the test.

“So. Yeah, to answer all of your questions, I’m 15, from New Orleans, so’s my mom. Well, she was.” Nora started looking down. She really did miss her mom.

“Oh, I have a picture, if you need to jog your memory. She did say you were a bit of a playboy, but one time is all you need.” Nora said, realising that she was rambling because she was nervous, also she looked at Dean and furrowed her face a little, she did not like the imagine she had given herself. The two men could not help but smile a little as she shivered at the thought of that. She then reached into her backpack and pulled out a leather-bound book, she opened it and found one of the photos of her mom she had kept. It was from when she was younger, she looked at it for a moment with a smile, she had ice cream all over her face, but they were both so happy here. She pulled herself out from the happy memory, by shaking her head and handing Dean the photo. He looked at her concerned for a moment. He looked at the photo and seemed to vaguely recall this. 

“Excuse us for a minute.” He said getting up with an awkward smile dragging his brother with him. Nora smiled a little trying to remain calm. He hated her? Didn’t he? The only thing that calmed her was the fact that he seemed to throw everyone not just her around.

Dean looked at Sammy then the photo and the girl again.

“This is insane Sammy. I mean this has to be some sort of trick. Right?” He said and Sammy just smiled a little but sighed and nodded.

“I have considered it. But you saw her, no reaction to salt, holy water and she bled like a normal human. If there is no anomalies in her DNA. Then I don’t see how this could be a trick.” He said knowing his brother was gonna have a hard time with this. He could not help but feel for the girl and wanted to help her, even if she was not Deans kid. 

“Come on Sammy. I get back from purgatory and suddenly this girl shows up claiming she is my kid. It’s too big of a coincidence. We don’t exactly have the best family history.” Dean said looking at his brother seriously. 

“Why don’t I call Garth and have him look her up while we wait for the results, and until then let’s keep around?” Sam said looking at his brother. Dean looked at him considering what to do.

“Alright, but one false move and she’s out. Plus if she isn’t mine according to this DNA test, we are sending her back. This is too dangerous if she isn’t a monster.” He said Sam nodded knowing what he meant before turning to call Garth. Dean stood there for a moment not wanting to sit down next to the girl. After Ben he had sometimes toyed with the idea of maybe some day settling down with the right girl and getting a kid. But everyone he cared about died or got hurt. Hell this was dangerous as is, he did not need this extra responsibility. Besides he had not imagined getting an almost grown up kid dumped on him. He vaguely remembered meeting the girl in the photo. But he must have been no more than 20 back then. This was crazy. The doctor saw him standing there as she walked out. Sam had bribed her to get ahead of the line in the small town doctors office. She smiled standing before him.

“Well, I ran the test twice. Congratulations mr. Winchester, you’re that girls father.” She said putting her hand on his shoulder with a smile before handing him the file. Dean was shocked but quickly composed himself.

“Anything weird at all in her DNA?” He asked not really knowing what he was looking for. Apparently he was that girls father. He could not believe it. The doctor narrowed her eyebrows but shrugged before opening the file again, looking it over.

“No. Everything looks normal. Why do you ask?” She asked and Dean just sighed with a nod.

“No reason. Thank you.” He said before getting the file and sitting down next to Nora. She looked up at him nervously.

“Sooo… Is everything my mother told me a big fat lie and I have been looking for the wrong guy for over a year now?” She asked trying to play it cool on the inside she was trembling. On the outside a little bit too, her hand shaking a little, Dean noticed but did not want to comment on it. This was too much to wrap his head around already.

“No. You’re good.” He said very awkwardly. She let out a breath visibly relaxing.

“Why didn’t your mom? Or you? I mean?” He started not being able to complete his sentences she turned to him and shrugged.

“Mom lost your number and we didn’t need you. Social services tried to call when mom died but we were told you were dead. But I looked at your file to try and figure out where you were buried and you had been dead a few times before so I figured there was no harm in looking for you. You are not an easy man to find Dean Winchester.” She said, he smiled a little taking it as a compliment. She looked down seemingly more awkwardly as there was an awkward tension between the two, neither really knowing how to process the other being there.

“So… Uhm. I know it’s a lot and everything. But would you mind if I moved in with you at the bunker. First of all it is insanely cool. And I just. Now that I know you’re alive, and you know I exist, maybe I could get to know you? I mean its fine if you dont want me there, and you have a life without me. And think this is all just too insane. I just figured you and Sam are the only family I have left so it would be a shame to waste it you know?” She said rambling on, she had a tendency to ramble when she was nervous. She looked at him and he looked like he was considering it. 

“What about school? Your foster family and friends?” He asked trying to be responsible for once in his life, trying to think about what Sam or Bobby would say in this situation. She looked down again as he looked at her. She looked very sad and it kind of broke his heart.

“You want me to leave? Because I understand if you do. I transferred to home schooling last month, otherwise you could just enrol me in whatever school, I get pretty good grades. I left my foster family a note. Besides if I go back I’ll get in trouble for running away, so I’ll probably get thrown in another group home or something.” She said looking at her hands trying to cover up how disappointed she was. She should have known this would happen and she felt stupid for even trying. Not that she was losing anything, the Wests were nice enough but they clearly only took her in for the check that came with her. Dean on the other hand was sitting there thinking how a little part of him wanted her to stay, but he could not help but have this feeling like he was being tricked, and that he would screw this up. Everything in his life was a mess and the bunker was not exactly kid friendly. He thought about his dad, his mom, his grandad, how he had watched them all die. He looked at the girl beside him. He did not want to burn and bury her as well. Sam walked over and smiled.

“Garth is on it. So?” He asked his brother putting a hand on his shoulder.

“Yeah.” He said still a little in disbelief about all of this. Sam smiled a little.

“Congratulations. Let’s get some food to the bunker and we can celebrate. You can stay with us a least for a little bit Nora.” Sam said smiling at the girl she lit up and smiled picking up her backpack before giving him a hug. He did not expect it but thought it was nice change and with a small smile put his arm around her for a moment before she pulled back.

“Thank you. Uncle? I guess. Oh my god, you’re not gonna recruite me are you?” She said laughing a little as she realised it, seeming a lot more at ease now. Something about Sam being there cut the tension that was between her and Dean. Besides Sam seemed nice and like he truly did want her there. Dean she was still uncertain about. She turned and grabbed her backpack off the floor putting her notebook back into it.

“Can we get pie?” She asked as they got up to leave the doctors office, Sam grinned and nudged Dean who was just watching this quietly from a distance, but even he cracked a small smile.

“What? Did I say something wrong?” She asked looking at her dad and uncle confused hoping she had not committed some weird blastfamy or something by asking for pie. 

“No. It’s just. You’re definitely his kid.” Sam said laughing a little. 

Dean offered to buy the food while Sam and Nora waited by the car. Dean had offered because he needed to get away from all of this for a little while. This was a lot, and Sam liking the girl and inviting her to stay was one thing, but he was gonna have to be her dad. How would he even go about this? He did not even know her. How was he going to know what to do when she was sad or angry? It was not like his dad had set the best example. He prayed a little hoping Cas could hear him. Not because he thought the angel would make this situation any better, but because he would like someone to tell him this was going to be okay. That he was not going to screw up this girl like he did everything else. He payed for the food and walked to the car to see his brother and Nora chatting away by the car. She seemed to be a lot more at ease now that Sam had told her that she could stay. 

“Let’s go.” He said getting them into the car and driving back to the bunker. He had no idea how to approach this.

They ate food, and she told them more about her life. Sam and himself told her a little bit about themselves, he gave Sam a look when he mentioned hunting and kicked his shin a little. He did not want the girl getting exposed to this just yet. This was probably a lot for her too. 

They assigned her the bedroom between him and Sam and she smiled thanking them. It was getting late and she got ready for bed. I looked over noticing she only had her backpack with her. That was not a lot of stuff if it was everything she had. When she was seemingly off in her room Dean turned to Sam concerned again.

“How you feeling Dean?” Sam asked concerned for his brother, he had not said too much all night and he could feel that this was a lot.

“Look Sammy. I just. It’s a lot okay. I never thought I would have any other family than you. And now I suddenly have a teenager? I don’t know how to do this? Where to even start.” Dean said honestly, Sam sighed and put his hand on his shoulder.

“I know. It’s a lot to process, but Dean. We have more family now. You have a kid. This is amazing, you could try and look even the slighest bit happy that she’s here.” He said and Dean sighed.

“Well, I can’t Sammy, because I’m not happy she’s here. I mean you know what we do. She should not be apart of this world. It’s not just a lot to process. It’s a lot. You really want her in our lives?” He said frustrated, but meaning the words he said.

“I understand Dean, but come on. We can’t just turn her away.” Sam said but Dean gave him a stern look.

“Easy enough for you to say. You’re her uncle. She is my responsibility. I don’t need this on me as well. I don’t want her to be here, be apart of this. Our lives are–“ Dean was cut off by some rumbling behind them. They turned around to see Nora looking up at them tears in her eyes as she looked at them, clearly listening in, she stood there for a moment and Dean realised what she had heard, but how she could not understand how he was doing this for her safety. She nodded once before bowing down to put on her other shoe. Grabbing her jacket and backpack from the floor and walking past them to leave.

“Nora–“ Dean started trying to start explaining everything to her, even though he knew this was probably for the best.

“No. It’s fine Dean. It’s fine. I’m used to not being wanted, and I don’t wanna be somewhere where I’m not welcome.” She said clearly trying to suppress her emotions, all of her hopes of what this could be crushed, she turned around and left the bunker. Sam turned to Dean and looked at him disappointed.

“How was I supposed to know she was listening?” He asked his brother exasperated, Sam just crossed his arms looking at him sternly.

“Dean. We have to go after her.” He said and Dean sighed thinking it over once again before looking up at Sammy with a sad look. He would do whatever it took to protect his family.

“No. Sammy. This is for the best. Everyone we love dies. We are always in the middle of some crazy cosmic battle. You honestly want this girl in the middle of all of that? I would rather have her hate me than have her deal with the insane things in our life.” Dean said truthfully. It was what he had been thinking ever since he found out. He wanted her to go back to New Orleans, get a normal foster family, forget everything about him, go to college, get a job, get married, get kids of her own. Have a normal life. She could never have that if she was with him and Sam. Sam looked at his brother like he understood for a moment.

“Dean. I get it. I get that you’re scared something will happen to her. But it is the middle of nowhere, it’s dark out. If you really wanna send her away. At least wait until the morning.” He said truly scared that something would hurt his niece. He did like the girl, and he understood what his brother was saying, no one not even them lived very safe or normal lives. Dean’s face seemed to change when Sam mentioned this. He grabbed his jacket and headed to the car grabbing a gun and a flashlight from the trunk, handing Sam both before grabbing ones for himself.

“Let’s find her.” He said, sternly, seemingly going into hunter protection mode. 

_______________

“Nora.” They took turns yelling as they walked around the dark woods looking for her. Even though they would be the first to notice paranormal activity in this area, they also knew a lot of demon angles and other creatures had it out for the brothers. So alone at night near them was recipe for disaster and both Winchester brothers knew it. 

Nora was walking through the wood for a while, ended up getting lost and was currently sitting on top of the bunkers stairs not really knowing where to go from there. She meant what she said, about not wanting to be somewhere she was not wanted. It was one of the reasons she had run away in the first place. She knew it was stupid to try and run away from a bunker in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night, but she had no idea what else to do. The brothers wandered around as far as the could and started heading back. Sam could feel his brother getting agitated.

“Dean, we’ll find her. Relax.” Sam said and Dean turned to him frustrated.

“I can’t Sammy. Right now, this girl could be dead in a ditch and the last thing she heard was me saying I didn’t want her. I’m gonna send her away because our lives are dangerous, and I want her to have a normal life. Doesn’t mean I want her last memory to be that. So no. I can’t relax.” He said walking onwards leaving his brother a little stunned. Sam even smiled a little as he followed his brother. He could see and feel the same worry he had seen on their dad and Dean when they were younger. He understood that his brother was against the idea of him being a parent, but he sure looked like one right now. 

“Let’s head back, see if we can contact her, and then go back and look some more. Okay? We’ll find her Dean. We’ll find her.” Sam said putting a hand on his brothers shoulder trying to remain optimistic. He thought how he done that a lot today. But he did not mind being able to help his brother a little bit today, still feeling a little guilty for leaving him in purgatory. They neared the bunker when Dean bolted from Sammy.

“Nora? Are you okay?” He said concerned running over to her. Sammy now first noticing the teenager sitting on the steps in the rain.

“Yeah. I got lost, and I don’t wanna be here as much as you don’t want me here. But could I just sleep on a couch until it gets light outside or something?” She asked clearly trying to remain strong. Dean checked her over to see if she was hurt and sighed a little as he could see that she was only just a little wet from the rain.

“Of course. Come on.” He said pulling her inside, she looked at him weirdly but followed along. As they got inside, Sam got them some towels and they started drying off. 

“Why don’t I make us some tea? Then you two can talk.” Sam said giving Dean a look telling him silently to tell her what was happening. She just smiled awkwardly but walked into the living room and sat down at the table not wanting to disturb Dean. She felt like she knew that he didn’t want her, and he was just waiting to figure out how to tell her. He sat down beside her and sighed not knowing where to begin. 

“Nora–“ He started but Nora just cut him off.

“It’s fine Dean.” She said and he looked at her stunned. She sighed and gave him a small smile.

“I’m not a kid. I understand that I was not exactly planned for you. And that you have a life here without me. I didn’t expect you to drop everything to live in a picket fence house with me. It’s okay. I just wanted to see you. Maybe know you a little. But I understand why you wouldn’t want me.” She said trying her best to be mature and handle this with grace. He could see her struggling and he felt his heart break a little looking at her. Having her think he did not want her. I mean she’s right, he thought, this had not been his plan at all. Hell, if you had told him yesterday that he had a kid he would have laughed at them. He looked at the girl beside him, she looked sad and like she could use a break. He wanted to be there for her, but he had no idea where to start. He also knew he never wanted to feel that terrified again as he did when she had run away.

“It’s not that I don’t want you. You were a surprise, big time, yes. Look Nora, what me and Sammy do, our lives. They’re messy. We’re always getting tangled up in dangerous situations and we are on the road a lot with our jobs. Hell we live in a batcave! Our lives aren’t exactly kid friendly. I want you to have a picket fence and all of that. But I can’t give you that. That is what I was talking to Sam about earlier.” Dean said, the words seemed to pour out easily once he started. He sighed a little and looked over at her to see how she felt, she looked at him seemingly in thought probably processing his words. Maybe this was the better way to part with her. She would know that he did want her but he could not give her the life she needed. She smirked and then shrugged leaning back into her chair.

“Cool. I’m staying then.” She said looking at him defiantly. Deans eyes widened in shock and then he got a little frustrated.

“No. Young lady. You are not. I am trying to protect you. And to do that you can’t be with us. Don’t you want a normal life with a house and picket fence and prom and stuff?” He asked and she just smiled a little and turned to face him.

“I already had all of that with my mom, the normal life, the house. Look, you can’t convince me I’m safer out there that in a bunker with you two to protect me. You and Sam. You’re the only family I have left. Even if it is just for a little while, I wanna know you. I haven’t known my dad all my life. I am not going to give up a chance to just because he is scared I’ll get hurt. You really think that sending me away to a foster home is better?” She said looking at Dean he thought over her words. She could just stay there for a little while and the second something went south they could get her out of there. He would be lying if he said he did not want to know his own kid. Now that she was here.

“You’re my daughter Nora.” He started, also admitting it to himself for the first time. She was not just a kid, she was his kid. He looked at her hoping to god he was not messing this up. He really wanted to do one thing right. Maybe she would get bored of the bunker after a couple of months and leave on her own. Besides if she left, how would he know she was okay? This way he could make sure he never had to be scared like he had been tonight again. He smiled a little. 

“You can stay.” Dean finally said and Nora’s face lit up a little.

“But the second something goes south you are going somewhere safe. Capice?” He said smiling a little seeing her happy. She rolled her eyes but then smiled a little and gave a small nod.

“Awesome.” He said and she laughed a little. They turned to Sam who was watching them from a distance a grin on his face. Dean rolled his eyes at his brother. 

“Shut up.” Dean said making Sam laugh as he walked in to the room putting down cups and the kettle. Dean leaned back and smiled, he was still unsure how he was going to be her dad. Hell, he had no idea how to feel about being a dad at all. Plus he did not know her, how was he going to handle all of this, on top of all of the supernatural crap they were always in the middle of. But he looked at her laughing with Sammy holding her tea in her hands and he knew as long as he could see her being happy and safe he would be okay. 

After drinking a cup of tea, he followed her to her room giving her her backpack in the doorway.

“Is this really all your stuff?” He asked and she just put down the bag and shrugged.

“Yeah. Just the most important things at least. It’s fine. Really.” She said and he just smiled a little and shook his head.

“Relax, we’ll go buy you some more stuff in a few days. Just please don’t take forever to shop.” He pleaded making her laugh, he did hate shopping. 

“But then how will I find the perfect prom dress?” She joked and he laughed, she smiled. They both seemed to stand there as he stopped laughing, a little awkwardly, neither knowing what to say, she decided to be a little bold, figured what the hell she had done reckless things all day, what was one more thing? So she stepped forward and with a small smile wrapped her arms around him giving him a hug. He seemed a little stunned at first, but wrapped his arms around her after his brain seemed to start working again. He smiled a little at the thought. This was the first time he was holding his daughter, maybe he was 15 years too late, but better late that never. He looked down at her and she sighed relaxing a little and he could not help but smile. His kid. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest. He had only felt like this with Sammy a few times. This was a person he, even if he had not been a part of it up until now, helped create. And he was going to make sure she turned out as perfect as she had started. He kissed the top of her head and she pulled back with a small smile.

“Thank you. For everything, Dean.” She said quietly.

“No worries. Now off to bed young lady.” He said smiling feeling good to be able to say that, she laughed a little as he did so but nodded seeming to accept his little order.

“Goodnight Dean.” She said turning, he smiled as she closed the door to her room, but leaving it open so slightly, which he appreciated. 

He went back and joined Sammy in the living room and drank a beer with his brother in relative silence trying to process every thing. He had gotten his first hug from his daughter today. He had gotten a daughter. He was going to take her shopping tomorrow. He made a mental note about not spoiling her. He thought a little sadly about how much of her life he had missed. But looking at her when she hugged him, he thought he could feel that magic feeling parents talk about. No one was ever going to hurt her. He thought about how even though he had missed much of her childhood he had so much left with her. He would still get to make her food. Teach her to drive, maybe even shoot. He would be there if she got sick. If she wanted to go normal school he would see her off her first day of school. He would be there. He thought about how they were going to handle her when they went on a hunt.

“Hey, Sammy. What are we gonna do when we have a case? We can’t exactly have Garth or Kevin babysit.” Dean said making Sam laugh at the thought of Garth or Kevin trying to babysit. 

“I think she would take offense to getting a babysitter any way.” Sam said and Dean smiled a little and nodded once agreeing with him. She definitely seemed like it. 

“Are you considering taking her with us? She could stay in the motel while we work.” Sam suggested, but Dean thought it over and made a grimace.

“She’s staying here, and calling us every two hours.” Dean said to Sams small amusement.

“You’re not considering what I said?” He said and Dean just looked at him like he was stupid for a second.

“Nope. I’m her dad, I have final authority here. And even if I didn’t I’m still the eldest.” He said point at his little brother who shook his head at him. Dean sighed getting serious.

“But seriously, it’s not like it was fun for us sitting in a motelroom all day while dad was hunting. Maybe this will be better, and if not we’ll bring her with.” Dean said and Sam nodded agreeing with him, he looked at his brother admiring him a little. He had seemed so nervous about this, but he was a natural, Nora was in good hands. Dean was thinking about the kid, he was still nervous about everything, he knew this could end badly but he was praying a little that everything was going to work out for her, even if it didn’t work out for him. When he got in contact with Cas again, he was going to ask him to watch over her too. 

Later that night Sam caught Dean standing outside Nora’s bedroom watching her sleep silently with a small smile on his face. Sam walked over to him and Dean turned to look at his brother before turning back to Nora.

“She’s not going to disappear in the night Dean.” Sam whispered with a small amused smile. He could definitely see his brother getting that new parent crazy already. 

“I know. I know. It’s just. I have a daughter Sammy.” Dean said quietly tearing up a little with a smile on his face. Sam smiled at his brothers happiness and put his arm around his shoulder. Dean sighed and looked at Nora again before closing the door and turning to leave, knowing he could not watch her sleep all night. He was truly happy, he had just checked on his daughter in her room, that was crazy, he smiled. Then a thought hit him and he turned to Sam looking at his brother seriously.

“If she ever brings a boy home, we’re getting out the big shotguns.” Dean said sternly, meaning it. No stupid boy like he was when he was young was going to mess with his daughter. Sam just laughed at his brother but nodded.

“Oh yeah.” Sam said, knowing fully well that he would be equally protective of whoever his niece would bring home. 

He left his brother to go to bed as well, trying to comprehend what had happened today. Dean was a father. He had a teenage daughter non the less. He was going to have his hands full. I have a niece, Sam thought with a small smile on his face. 

Both brothers went to bed, neither of them know how completely sold they clearly both were with the newest edition to the Winchester family.

[twocubes]

I just got around to reading the (new) end of ra and was wandering what you thought about it?

In the original ending, there’s this discussion, right, that Rachel has with Laura about her mistakes.

“Ra lied to you,” Rachel says. “Wearing Nick’s face, a face which you loved and trusted, Ra took you into a lecture theatre and showed you on a blackboard that you were the most important person in the universe. Ra told you that world order was faulty, which is always true, and that the whole thing could be made perfect in a moment if you only did what he told you, which never is. And you bought it, wholesale. You let them turn you into a… a chess piece, because they promised you’d be one of the powerful ones.

“I understand everything else about you. The lust for space; the need to acquire enough power to clear the bar I set up for you and the need for me to be alive and watching while you did it; the semi-legitimate, semi-legitimising need to fix the world and put Wheel Group hypertechnology in the hands of ‘the people’. None of it excuses you, Laura, I want you to understand this, you’re guilty as hell and one day you’re going to be made to answer for it. But: the hero story. How could you fall for it? The mythology, I mean. That one obvious, colossal lie.”

This is… somewhat hypocritical coming from Ashburne. She was a soldier in a desperate war, rebelling against something they could not realistically oppose. She was in fact the leader of the armies of Actual Humanity, in some sense the most important person “in the world” as a result. She joined a group, seeing that the world order was faulty, and she required everyone else just to do what she told them. Hell, the whole “treat everything as real” thing is in some sense following your own orders unquestioningly. It was a fight about exactly the same thing: putting ra’s technology into the hands of The People. 

The thing she is telling Laura not to do here is exactly the same thing she did, which is fine, but she is characterizing the choice she herself made as obviously wrong.

The new ending removes this hypocrisy. Rachel is not there to save Actual Humanity’s ass at the end, and the best Nat manages is complete capitulation to the virtual perspective. Laura’s failure, her being captured by what we are supposed to understand is an “obvious, colossal lie” resulting in the end of the world (in a sense), is now told through the outcome of the story.

This goes with some other ways that the new ending is more coherent with the story’s themes. Its arc is clearer, its themes stronger.

I get all that.

So why. Why do I find myself liking the original ending better?

I think it’s… on some level I wanted that hypocrisy there.

We live in a world with many problems, where many solutions to those problems have been evident for decades. But if you pay attention to any particular issue over a timeframe of, say, more than 5 years, the “responsible” and “powerful” parts of the world never seem to do anything about them.

To those of us pleading for more, we are told, all the time, repeatedly, that the only two realistic choices we have are “make the world worse” and “make the world even worse”. Every attempt at organizing to make the world better is demonized in roughly the way above, as suspicious, a way for someone to take control of you for some nefarious purpose or just for their own power. we are paranoid and insane about having our sincere desires to make the world a better place manipulated by unscrupulous actors, often styled as foreign but more realistically domestic, to the point that the only organizations that both continue to do any good and seem to last are those that remain small enough for everyone to be able to have a very clear idea of the personal history of everyone else.

I am tired. I have wanted to die every moment of every day of the last twelve years, and I deal with this by blind faith that if I were truly worthless the world would surely kill me. I wish, briefly, to be able to imagine that a struggle could lead to the world being better.

I do not need to be told that believing that the world could be better and being part of an organization that I do not fully understand with the goal of making it be so are obviously wrong and bad, when implicitly people believe that being part of an organization that I do not fully understand with the goal of making money is normal and fine.

In reality, and in the original ending, I can content myself with that hypocrisy. With looking back and noticing these contradictions and keeping within me a hope that things might be better. With remembering that our enemies are never truly gods, and that they can always be defied.

The new ending is better but it offers no such escape.

[katiekitty261]

Crush//Michael Langdon x Fem!Reader

Here it is, the story inspired by “Crush”, By cigarettes after sex. This isn’t a songfic, but I got the idea for it while listening to the song. Fluff, and a taste of sweet sensual sex at the end. 

Word Count- 3,000+

Warnings- Smut, fluff, the usual. 

“Michael, What’s wrong?” I grabbed his arm to steady him. He had been pacing across the floor of my apartment for a while now, a strained expression wouldn’t leave his face.

“(Y/N), Please listen to me.” He grabbed me by my shoulders and held me in place. “In a few days, some people will come to your door. Go with them, no matter what. OK?” I knitted my brows together.

“What? Who?”

Michael sighed and kneeled in front of me like he was begging, grabbing my hands and holding them. “Something is going to happen, Something bad. They are going to come to take you to safety. Please, I will meet you after. I promise.”

“Take me where? What are you talking about Michael?” I searched his eyes, a strained and worried expression was painted on his face.

He squeezed my hands and rested his forehead on my stomach. I kneeled down so I was level with him and wrapped my arms around him.

“I can’t tell you, But please, Please go with them…” He stared at me, tears beginning to spill down his cheek.

I brushed his tears away with my thumb and pulled him into a gentle kiss. Feeling the softness of his lips pressed against my own relaxed me, I hope it did for him too. I brushed a curl out of his eyes and smiled.

“I promise. I don’t know what’s going on, But I promise.” I pressed a kiss to his forehead, whispering, “I love you.”

He leaned his forehead against mine and smiled, “I love you too.”

________

BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO LOS ANGELES

SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.

I felt my blood run cold as I stared at my phone. Frozen, I didn’t know what to do. Not a drill. I thought, my hands were shaking so bad I could barely read the screen.

No less than a minute later, a loud pounding came at my front door.

“(Y/N) Open up” An unfamiliar voice yelled, I quickly straighten myself and opened the door. Two men in black suits stood in the doorway. One was holding a white badge that said: “The Cooperative” in bold lettering.

“What’s going on?” I asked, “Did Michael send you?”

“Michael Langdon has instructed us to take you to safety. Please come with us, Ms. (Y/N), we do not have much time.” They ordered, grabbing me by the arm and pulling me out of my apartment.

“Wait… can I grab something first?” I asked, ripping my arm away..

“We don’t-”

I didn’t listen as I ran back into my apartment, I frantically searched until I found it. My small leather purse. “Is your purse really that important?” One asked I nodded as I threw it on. I took one last look at my apartment and left with the men.

They were strangers sure, but I trusted Michael with my life. I wasn’t sure how he knew any of this was going to happen, but I knew I was going to follow his directions. The look on his face as he begged me to go with them was enough to convince me that all of this was very real.

____

The agents from this “Cooperative” were silent. They shoved me into an army colored truck and took me to some random facility.

Now deep underground, they lead me into a room that was like a cage. All metal.

“W-What's happening? Where is Michael?” I asked, but they were silent as the locked the door.

I swallowed thickly as I looked around in the suspended cage, I felt scared, but numb at the same time. I couldn’t process what was happening.

“Hey” I heard a feminine voice call, I squinted around the room, but it was too dark. “Down here,” She called again, and I realized she was below me.

I kneeled on the metal floor and peered through the holes to see a young girl, not much younger than myself sitting in a cage like room below me.

“Who are you?”

“My name is Emily. Do you know why you’re here?”

“I’m (Y/N), and no… My boyfriend told me I have to go with these people, but he didn’t say anything else…”

“Where is he?” She asked, and I felt my chest tighten.

“I don’t know… He said he’d meet me, I don’t know when.” I bit my lip. Was Michael Okay? Was he here with me?

I could feel a panic attack coming as I tried to calm myself down. I leaned against the wall and took deep breaths.

I heard the door open and looked down, I could barely see but I heard another voice. It was male, but it wasn’t Michaels.

He’s gonna be ok, he’ll be just fine…

I chanted to myself, holding my knees to my chest. I heard Emily and the other boy talking something about blood tests, but I wasn’t paying attention.

A boom louder than anything I had ever heard wracked the building, Alarms started blaring as the room shook. The rooms lit up in a bright red light and I heard crying, but I couldn’t cry.

Is this it? Is this the end?

____________

No matter how many people I asked, no matter how many times I asked no one would tell me where Michael was. Or even if he was Ok. I was going insane.

“We're taking you to an outpost equipped for long-term habitation.” The man spoke as we sat in a heavily armored vehicle. For the first time in two weeks, we were being moved from those awful caged rooms.

"It's one of ten around the world, each constructed in minimal fallout zones.”

“Are there other people there?” “Others like you, and those who can afford to purchase a ticket.”

“Is Michael there?” I asked, a ray of hope filling me up. Two weeks without any whisper of him, I needed to know if he’s ok. I needed to know.

The agents were silent. Emily put her hand on my shoulder reassuringly. “I’m sure he is. He promised to meet you.” She whispered. I nodded feeling tears begin to well up in my eyes.

After a long drive, the agents gave us all rad suits and instructed us to put them on. We hadn’t seen the outside since the bombs dropped, the truck had windows but you couldn’t see much of anything through the thick fog. Once we were all dressed, they pushed all three of us out and drove away.

A large, metal gate opened up on its own, and I stayed close to Emily as we stood together. A figure dressed in all black appeared in the fog and urged us forward.

As we followed, we heard voices. A man and a woman dressed in all grey knelt on the ground, execution style. I grabbed Emily’s gloved hand as they pleaded, two more black suits stood behind them.

I couldn’t catch what they were saying, but It didn’t matter. Seconds later the black suits shot them both in the head. and they collapsed onto the dirt. I gasped, “What the fuck is going on here?” I yelled to no one in particular.

No one was listening anyway. The black suit leads us to the large spiral and swiped a key card to an elevator, leading us inside. They put us in a separate room, a shot of steam or something equivalent sprayed us all and we were allowed to take our rad suits off.

A woman dressed in a long black gown, walking with a long cane approached us from down a long hallway. Her face was stern and showed no hint of friendliness.

“My name is Wilhelmina Venable, Welcome to Outpost 3.”

After a long introduction to the rules and the way of life here, I was lead to my room last.

“If you’re the “Right arm” of The Cooperative, do you know Michael? Is he here?” I asked as Ms. Venable.

“I don’t know any Michael’s.” Her somber voice answered.

“What do you mean? He’s supposed to be here. He told me he’d meet me!”

“You will not raise your voice at me! You may be a purple, but there are rules here.” I gulped at her words.

“I don’t know any Michael’s. I don’t care what he told you, he’s not here.” Her voice echoed in the room. I bit my lip and clenched my fists. “Do not ask again.”

She tapped her cane on the ground once and left the room.

“He, He can’t be gone…” I said, falling to my knees. I couldn’t stop the tears from falling.

“Michael please…”

I wiped my face and pulled my wallet from my purse. It was the only piece of personal belong I had left, and I refused to let them take it.

Tucked away in a sleeve, I pulled out a small worn polaroid. Inked on the bottom was “My love” In my own handwriting.

Michael’s soft eyes and bright smile stared back at me from the photograph, I had taken it on one of our first dates with my little camera. I clutched the photo tightly as I stared at it, He looked so beautiful that day. His smile could make any shitty day infinitely better. I felt my heart break into a million pieces as I pressed it against my heart.

“Please find me…”

___________

This place was worse than death, I was certain of it. After listening to “The Morning After” for eighteen straight months, I’m pretty sure most of where begging to end up like Stu.

Everything was gone. Cold, Dead.

I was in agony.

No one knew who Michael was. I didn’t want to even entertain the idea that he was gone, he had promised me that he was going to find me. He knew about the bombs before they happened, so he must’ve been ok right?

He had to have something to do with the cooperative. I didn’t mention this to anyone, because I didn’t want a target on my back. I wasn’t like the others. I didn’t have any special DNA or something like the other purples had. I was only here because of Michael, I was different.

Eighteen months was a long time. Every night without fail he was in my dreams, even if it was just for a second. His face appeared, his smile or his voice in my head. Some dreams where… better than others. Some so realistic I woke up breathless. I could feel his hands on me and his breath in my ear, leaving me flushed at the memory.

I felt sick to my stomach about it sometimes.

Even though it was explicitly banned, I could see the way Emily looked at Timothy. She had told me in confidence that they were in love. The look in her eyes was unmistakable. I was worried about her, but she promised to be careful. It made me happy for them though, the only thing I could imagine would make any of this remotely bearable was to be with a person you loved.

Not much love went around in the Outpost. There were Mr. Gallant and his grandmother, but I didn’t really think they actually loved each other. Andre and his Mother, but he barely tolerated her.

That morning at breakfast an argument broke out over the food, or lack thereof. I barely listened as I picked at my cube until an Alarm blared.

“Perimeter alert. There’s been a breach.”

Venable and Mead rushed out of the room, leaving us alone.

“Do you think it’s cannibals?” Coco asked I dropped my fork. “Don’t assume the worst. Maybe it’s the Cooperative, they did send that pigeon…” Emily spoke up.

“Yeah, when we first got here. No one could survive out there now.” Gallant sighed.

I gripped my napkin at words, suddenly feeling far too crowded in the dining room I got up.

“I’m going to my room.” I said, not bothering with the last piece of my “food” which Coco gladly stole off my plate.

As I was walking, I noticed two Grey’s standing outside of Ms. Venable’s office like they were guarding it.

I was going to ignore it, I didn’t really care who was here. That was until I heard the voices from inside.

“You’re here to take us there,” Ms. Venable spoke, I walked closer to listen. The greys made no move to stop me but gave me a cautious look.

“I've been assigned to evaluate the people here and select the ones most worthy of survival. I could take all of you, or none of you. Those who make it live. Those who don't... end up like my horses.”

I froze. I felt my world stop spinning as the gears in my brain turned, my mind screaming at me. The same voice I had dreamt about for eighteen months.

Michael. That’s Michael’s voice. It was impossible, but it had to be.

I couldn’t breathe, I almost fell to my knees but one of the Grey’s caught me. “Are you ok Ms. (Y/N)?” He asked, I looked at him but I couldn’t see through the tears that were starting to fill my eyes. My heart was beating a mile a minute and my whole body was shaking.

“Michael!” I practically yelled, the door to the office slid open and Ms. Venable stared at me with a confused expression on her face. Behind her, I could see his tall figure in the glow of the firelight.

He stood as still as a statue when he locked eyes with him, his lips parted in shock as we took each other in. His hair was significantly longer than I remembered, His golden curls now rested over his shoulders in a soft wave. Otherwise, he was the same still, the perfect man I remembered.

Michael was here, and he was alive.

I felt myself fall into darkness.

__________

When I opened my eyes, Michael was leaning above me. He stroked my hair with one hand and held my hand with his other.

“Am I dreaming?” I whispered, reaching up and touching his face, trying to feel if he was real.

“No. You’re not…” he whispered, his voice choked up as he looked at me.

I sat up from the bed I was laying in and pulled him into the tightest hug I was physically capable of giving, and immediately started crying.

“Y-you’re really here. You’re alive! You came back!” I cried into his shoulder, He rubbed my back softly and I felt him squeeze me back.

“I promised....”

“It’s been so long... I-I didn’t think you were still alive,” I choked out, I was struggling to even formulate a sentence.

“No one had any information on you. I wasn’t sure if you were alive or dead either… If I had known, I would’ve come sooner... You were here the whole time.” He sounded angry at himself.

I sniffled and pulled away a little, keeping my arms around him. “It’s okay, you’re here now…” I said. He smiled, I noticed a stray tear fall down his cheek.

“Your hair,” I laughed, He smiled and pressed his lips against mine softly, Savouring the feeling I had craved for so long. I wrapped my fingers in his hair, wanting to feel the familiar softness as we kissed. I could taste our tears. Tears of Happiness, relief, and love.

“You have no idea… How much I missed you…” I said in between kisses, I felt his lips turn up in a smile.

“I know exactly how much.” he pulled away, slipping his hand into his pocket where he pulled out the Polaroid I had sitting on my night table. The one I looked at every night before I fell asleep.

I felt myself blush, but I couldn’t look away from him. I was worried if I looked away he would disappear like he did so many times in my dreams.

“I wouldn’t have made it here alive without you…” I said quietly. I meant it in terms of him getting me here in the first place, and the hope of seeing him again that kept me from offing myself in the eighteen months of hell here.

“I’m so fucking happy you’re alive… No one knew your name, I asked everyone that I saw about you… No one knew….” I muttered, he sighed.

“I’m here, and I’m not leaving,” He pressed a kiss to my forehead with a soft tenderness that brought peace to my soul. “I’m never leaving you again…” ________

Can’t live without your love inside me now

I’ll find a way to slip into your skin somehow

I wanna fuck your love slow

Hold you here my loveliest friend ________ I couldn’t get enough of him. I wanted to feel him, taste him. Do everything I had dreamed of and more, I was intoxicated by his presence I had craved.

I pressed hot kisses all over. His cheek, nose, lips, jawline. Nibbling ever so slightly on his neck eliciting a moan that urged me on, needing so much more.

I trailed my lips down his skin, along his chest and down. Sliding my hands down the soft skin, pressing my fingers into him as I made my way to his hardening member. His hands found their way into my hair as I took his cock in my hand, squeezing it and feeling the hardness. I kissed the sensitive tip as I stroked him, his fingers tightening in my hair as I took his cock into my mouth and gently sucked. Tasting the saltiness of his precum, I stroked him harder, using my tongue to massage his cock as I sucked. I wasn't finished though. I released his cock from my mouth, putting one leg over his waist so I was straddling him, his cock now pressed against my slick wetness, begging to be inside.

I leaned down so I pressed against him, hungrily catching his lips with my own. My sensitive nipples pressed against his chest, his hands sliding down my back and the curve of my ass. I slowly moved my hips, grinding his cock against my backside teasingly.

“I love you…” He whispered, pressing his lips on my neck sucking and kissing it sending a shiver up my spine.

“I love you.” I moaned, pressing the head of his cock finally to my wet entrance, sliding his cock inside me.

I gasped as his cock was fully inside of me, stretching me out and filling me up with his warmth. It felt like heaven, having Michael with me again, Inside me. Every inch of his skin pressed against my own as I slowly rocked my hips, grinding myself against him. His hands made their way to my ass, grabbing it with both hands and gripping tightly. I placed my hands on his chest and moved faster, feeling his cock slide in and out of me, every stroke bringing me closer to and closer.

I bit my lip and stared down at him, his eyes closed in the heat of the moment. I dug my fingers into his chest letting out a moan as I slid against him, throwing my head back and arching myself into him.

His hands moved up so they were gripping my hips tightly, squeezing as he tried to control the pace with me on top of him.

I gave into him, moaning his name as he began to really fuck me. I pressed my body against his again and let my lips travel along his, taking his lip between my teeth and tugging gently. I gasped as he increased his face, his fingers digging hard into my hips.

“I had so… Many dreams about you…” I breathed out, he smiled and wrapped his arms completely around me before rolling us over so he was on top of me, his cock still inside of me.

“I want to hear about all of them.” He dragged his lips along my neck, leaving a trail of bruises across the sensitive skin.

“They were good dreams, but never this good.” I laughed, he thrust into me again, harder making my breath catch in my throat. I tangled my hands in his hair, pulling at the roots as he fucked me. His moans filled the room occasionally smothered by my lips.

With my legs wrapped around his waist, he fucked me slowly. Savouring every stroke like it was his last. I fluttered my lashes as I looked up at him over me, his blue eyes clouded with lust, but staring at me like I was the most precious thing in the world.

Bathed in the firelight, our bodies moved in perfect sync.

Every thrust tightened the hot coil inside me, twisting and aching for release. He noticed my need, increasing his pace and giving me exactly what I wanted. It felt like my whole body was on fire as I came, my insides pulsing with pleasure as he did a few final hard strokes, pressing his lips to mine harshly as he came. I could feel his cock pulse inside of me as we kissed, it was the best feeling in the world.

“Michael…” I shakily breathed, he smiled as he pulled out of me. Falling to my side so he could take me in his arms.

Covered in sweat and surrounded with the scent of sex, wrapped in Michaels warmth I was pretty sure we were in heaven.

I turned so I could face him. Trying to burn the image of his face at this very moment in my head, I never wanted to let go.

“Don’t worry my love…” He brought his hand up to cup my face, “I’ll never let you go.”

_____

I hope you guys liked this lol. I worked an unhealthy amount on it. Inspired by requests for a fic based off of a song from this band, and some for a more ‘submissive’ less dom michael. (Ok I know he isnt ‘sub’ but im really terrible at writing it). If you have any requests send me an ask! If you want to be tagged in future michael fics, send one too. xx 

Tags: @shado-cat @disa @18394920 @awkwardly-sophisticated @precious-bands-love @madhatterweasley @manyimaginativemuses @frenchzodiacgirl @iasipbucky @rainhowling @m-i-a-m-c-d-e-e @sobbingmess 

@mxgicmoonz @morningstarkit @a-court-of-reds-and-silvers @aphroditeandvenus @frozenhuntress67 @lustlangdon @hxdesworld @toebeans-foryay @kelseytbr @drakonwild @kaliforniacoastalteens @quione3

@heelsamizayn @heavenlyladywarlock @acrossthestar @royalworldtraveler @yeahahs @hexqueensupreme @mchaellangdon @lovely-lollipops-blog @justareader @bitchchatter

(If you notice you asked to be tagged and arent, its because it wouldnt let me tag you. Send me a message and ill try and fix it!) 

[z0rdic]

Connor Imagine #6

Imagine; jealous Connor being jealous, baci ally, Connor not accepting you having friends that are of the male gender.

Add;Jealous!Connor

*Connor was very unpleased with a new coworker you had gotten to work on a case right outside Detroit. Your coworker was a tall blond model named Brandon. He was another police Android but only made for cases involving drugs and potential gang crimes. Connor narrowed his eyes at the other Android. He didn't like the way Brandon complimented you once in awhile nor did he like when the blondie took your jacket when you needed it. He was perfect and it was annoying to witness.

Why is (Y/N) paired with another android lieutenant? I am perfectly cabable of accomplishing a gang-violence case as any other crime case for the matter. Further more I probably have more advanced functions and modes than the model she's paired with.

*Hank opened one eye to look at Connor, he was leaning back in his chair, feet at desk and hands behind his head, probably curing his headache from the alcohol trip he took the other day.

Connor, you are on my cases since you are my partner, Brandon is (Y/N)'s partner, therefor he goes with her on missions. But the Fuck do I know about that anyway its outside Detroit regardless so it's not any of your business.

*Connor lightly slammed his hands into the table and gave Hank a small glare.

It's all of my business lieutenant. She's my coworker after all. And I have to make sure her safety is at the maximum it can be under any surcumstances... And I honestly do not fancy Brandon what so ever.. HANK HE'S A PROTOTYPE FOR GODSAKE!

*Hank shot Connor a smug grin and leaned forward in the chair taking a more 'fatherly ' pose.

You like her don't you kid?

*the Android go startled by this comment form Hank and his pumps went wild inside of him, his cooler couldn't keep up with the thirium pumps so a slight blue tint surfaced his artificial skin.

That is absurd Hank, I do not have any emotions like so, I am an Android, a highly technological machine! I can't like someone I barely talk to, let alone like at all. Don't be unintelligent..

*Hank laughed at Connor and pat him on the back

Connor my boy, you are a prototype yourself so that is the mother Fucking dumbest excuse to ever come from you. Go get her son, she likes you back just for a fun fact.

*Connor stopped his LED blinking violently between yellow and red. His pupils widened and eyes a gab. How could Hank know? Did she tell him?

I- I.. I ehm.

*The Android sighed and gave up his wall of 'machine excuses' and sat down leaning back in his chair.. His brown eyes turning to you doing paperwork along.. Brandon..

But Hank.. I have no idea how to get her.. And seeing her with that.. Sad excuse for a cop Android makes me question everything.. I just want her to, have me as a partner, solve cases with me.. Walk with me, talk to me.. Look at me like she used to

*Connor leans forward and looks into his hands fiddling with his trusty silver coin..

I want her to.. Love me..

*Hank placed a soft but firm hand on the androids shoulder, squeezed it lightly.

As I said boy, if you would listen to me, she likes you a lot. And I bet if you pulled those plastic balls from the ground and asked her, she would accept you with open arms. But you have to take that step towards it on your own.

*Connor sighed and looked at Hank. His halfway wet brown irises glimpsed at you and back to Hank.

It's just so.. Difficult and I don't know for the first time in my lifespan as an Android what the hell to do.

*Hank started to grumble a bit for himself and thenhe started to smirk to himself. He lifted his body and walked towards you. Placed a hand on your desk to catch your Attention

(Y/N)? Mind Comming all for a snack doughnut? You must be starving!

*You looked at Hank, with your mouth almost watering from the thought of a snack you told Brandon he could stay and work while you got something to eat. The Android nodded and poked his nose back into the files scattered across your table. You, yourself stood up, grabbed your jacket and walked with Hank to get some food. And per automatic Connor walked with you. The Android seemed tense to you so you grabbed his hand for comfort and held it gently wrapping your fingers in his. It was a small gesture but it made him feel less nervous since it raised his 'chances' by a good amount of procents. You honestly had a thing for Connor, but because he was an Android you were confused about how to tell him, since he probably didn't feel the same.

Connor? Are you okay? You seem so tense today.

*he blinked softly and said

I am perfectly stable (Y/N) I am simply thinking a lot of an issue I have. Some feelings as you can say.

*you blinked but figured the whole Deviantcy was a part of him now after Markus. You squeezed his hand lightly to make sure he knew you cared and pulled him along to catch up to Hank. As Hank bought the doughnuts and a milkshake for you, (Flavor), ofc. Nothing more nothing less it was what you always had there.

Connor, you know..

*you trailed off and look at the Android, his brown eyes being so alive in the afternoon sunlight.

If it's.. You know.. A girl..

*Your heart sank. Connor probably liked someone already, but you had to be there for him at least as a friend.

You can always talk to me about it, I will gladly help you.

*the Android furrowed his brows and shook his head as he looked away from you, almost embarrassed, was he embarrassed of you helping him?

No thank you (Y/N) you can't really help me, Hank Told me I had to tell her on my own so..

*Your heart shattered.. So there was someone. You looked down and tried to hold back your tears.. It hurts so much. But then again, it's Connor ofc course he would have someone.. He's tall, handsome and the perfect machine.. How could you ever think he would like you back.. Broken human you..

Ah.. I see.. I guess that's cool too

*Hank handed you your milkshake, you took it gently and turned around

Well I should probabky get back to Brandon, I mean he's still working hard headed on the case files and it's a shame he had to do it alone

*you let out a sad laughter but was quickly snapped out of it as Connor took your hand in his, twirling your fingers again.

I think he'll be just fine. We haven't seen you since that case started in the private life and we miss your company. So please stay and enjoy the doughnuts Hank bought.

*You flushed but you were so hurt, you needed to get away and let it all out, pity yourself a little. The Connor you fell for is taken. And there is nothing you can do about it.

Connor.. I need to.. I'm sorry I just, I have to go

*Your voice cracked and it set a light down Connor's spine he held your hand tighter.

Please..

*He pleaded for you to stay especially when you were this sad all of a sudden. He wanted to cheer you up. He wanted to be there

Connor, I am sorry but I simply can't let him work by himself, Gavin is there and he'll wreck the poor guy to reusable plast if I don't go th-

*You where cut off by Connor's hand on your cheek, his soft fingers only gracing your skin.

It's you.

*Your eyes blinked in confusion. You muttered a soft "huh" as he kept holding your hand and cheek

You are the reason my emotions are flying around in my head. The reason why I feel so angry when Brandon is there. The reason my pumps go insane. The reason I have been keeping a distance lately.

I-.. I love you. So so.. So much..

*by this time Hank has sat in the car. He had planned the outcome all along. That bratty old twat. He was a genius, or well he thought so himself.

Connor..

*Your eyes softened and you laughed at your stupid guilt. Your stupid brain and your stupid reactions. You put your hands to the cheeks you've wanted to touch for so long. The texture of his face was so realistic.

I.. I.. I don't know how to even react

*Your tears ran now like waterfalls. Such a releaf, such passion running in your body. You loved that Fucking metal prick and he was all you ever wanted

I love you so.. So much too Connor I do.. And I was so afraid you would.. You wouldn't love me back or even like me that way.. I was so scared you had someone else. You are so perfect in so many ways.. And.. And I am so broken i-I just i-

*You were cut off my a pair of thick and silky lips. The realization didn't hit you at first but when it did you eagerly kissed him back, wrapping your arms around his neck, rocking you and him side to side as you stood there just enjoying everything about it. Connor wrapped his arms around you, lifting you off the ground in victory. As you pulled away you giggled softly as the tears kept running. The Android silly as it is blushed and chuckled for the first time. A genuine laugh of joy.

You have no idea how long I've wanted to do that (Y/N).

*Connor gazed at Hank who was simply sitting in the car, taking a sip of his coffee and giving a big thumbs up toward his sonny boy. With that Connors eyes met yours in their (Eye color) glimmer and beauty. He brushed your hair out of your face and pulled you into a warm hug... Connor was honestly still jealous about Brandon. But who wouldn't be jealous of another man being close to your loved one.

[synnematic]

DAY 2: In Bloom

for @saboace-week

ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14037066 fff.net: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12876532/1/In-Bloom

Day: Love at First Sight Word Count: 4096 Warnings: Fluff | So much fluff

Summary:

There was a man perhaps no more than twenty feet from him, half hidden behind the front counter. Sabo didn't know how he had missed him, so distracted by the plants themselves that he must have merely skimmed over him, drawn to other things. Now, however, with his full attention riveted on the man, it seemed foolish. He was easily the most stunning thing here. 

There was coffee in his veins. It surged under his skin and beat behind his eyelids—or maybe that was the migraine. It was hard to tell, admittedly. At some point he had lost track of time, of even the date, hours marked in coffee stains and empty mugs balanced atop each other like an abstract depiction of art around his desk. His laptop was dusty, screen smeared where his hands had brushed against the glass, fingerprints standing out in the glare of the overhead lights. He hardly noticed, used to it by now.

Koala would call him a slob, but at least he got his work done. Even if it meant multiple all nighters and a possessive claim on the coffee machine closest to his desk. It had gotten so bad that Hack had even printed out a new sign to hang above the counter. It read: Beware Rabid Chief, and Sabo couldn’t even deny that it was fitting, maybe even a little accurate.

For a group of journalists, they took their job seriously. Sabo even more so. He was the Editor in Chief, second only to Dragon within their publishing firm. Realistically, he could have sat back and enjoyed the lessened burden the position offered him, but instead he pushed himself even harder . They were making a difference, slowly but surely, working to peel away the veil the government cast over civilian eyes, and they were damn good at their job, but Sabo still wanted to do more. He was already in charge of their budget, their personal image on the internet in the harsh world around them, as well as being their primary hiring manager, even if he left most of the actual scouting to Ivankov. More than that though, he made it his personal mission to read over every single report before they landed on Dragon’s desk, as well as taking the time, occasionally, to write his own additions as well.

And he was exhausted.

A political scandal was in the works and Legislation was working overtime to bury it and kick it under the rug. Which, of course, meant that their entire publishing department was working overtime as well. But at least most of the staff still slept .

Koala wasn’t the only one that noticed Sabo’s late hours turned into early mornings, and the way many would come in to find him in the same outfit as he had been the day before. She was, however, the only one that harassed him about it. Among other things.

“You look like a raccoon that crawled into a tailors, robbed them blind, and then got run over. Twice.” Standing in precisely the wrong spot, in between Sabo and his closest source of light, Koala’s shadow stretched over him ( and his keyboard), her arms folded and eyebrows drawn. “Really, Sabo, it’s no wonder that you’re still single. Have you even   eaten since I last saw you ten hours ago?”

Thoughts slow to process and left to blink at the sudden difference in light now that his face was cast into shadows, he was sluggish when his hand rose so that his gaze could fall on the beaten watch at his wrist. The timepiece blurred in his vision, numbers dancing in tangent with each other. He couldn’t really pick out the exact time down to the minute, but it was enough to realize that it wasn’t the same day anymore.

“Oh,” he paused, voice rough with disuse. “It’s morning.”

Koala gave an exasperated sigh, hands unfolding to reveal a small pastry bag which was promptly dropped onto his desk. It smelled of blueberries and his mouth watered. He was already reaching for it when a hand smacked gently at the back of his head, nearly dislodging his glasses from where they sat at the bridge of his nose.

“This is the third day in a row , Sabo. You’re no help to us like this.”

There was an arm in his vision, but he paid no mind to it until his computer screen went black. The whine, when it left his lips, was muffled by muffin crumbs but still just as pitiful.

“No, don’t even start with me right now,” Koala chided. “You’ve hardly moved in days, barely eaten, and I don’t think I’ve seen you sleep any more than that two hour period on Tuesday when your head hit the desk so hard it nearly gave Bunny Joe a heart attack.” She pulled at his chair and the wheels rolled back without complaint, Sabo’s outstretched hand, however, gave a futile struggle, his outstretched hands far too delayed. He sat back in the chair, arms crossed and pouting as she wheeled it away from his desk, out of his office and down the hallway, only stopping when they reached the front desk.

“Koala,” he whined, her name dragged out, eyes pleading . “Just let me at least finish the report I was working on. It’s almost done and I—”

“Nope! Don’t care. You’re going to run some errands for me instead. When you’re done, and only when you’re done, you can come back.”

She moved around to the front of the chair, pulling him to his feet with that damn monster strength of hers. His knees wobbled, just a little bit, but he remained standing on his own.

His lips parted to speak, but again, she beat him to it, her eyes sharp when they bore into his own. “Don’t even think about pulling rank on me, Mr. High and Mighty. I already got Dragon’s approval, so you don’t have a choice anymore. Besides, you’ll thank me for this later.”

Mouth snapping shut again, he scowled but it was halfhearted at most, the expression of a petulant child put into time-out. Koala pat him on the shoulder once and it felt onlymildly condescending before there was a folded piece of paper stuffed into his loose grip and he was abandoned with only the elevator as company.

He glared at it indignantly and took the stairs instead.

The list, when he opened it later, was annoyingly simple, but tedious all the same.

Go home.

Take a shower.

Get at least a four hour nap.

Eat a full meal. No, microwavable food doesn’t count.

Go on a walk. Outside.

Go back to sleep. Yes, before midnight. Yes, I will know if you don’t.

Sleep in, even if it just means staying in bed but not actually getting up.

It went on, of course. He did say that it was tedious after all, even if it was basically just telling him to do normal things like sleep and eat and not hide away inside his house for hours on end. Mainly, he was just annoyed that it was going to prevent him from working at all for the rest of the day. Koala hadn’t even let him take his laptop with him, so he wouldn’t be able to continue unless he went out and bought another one and by some miracle found a way to transfer over all of the files.

Fine, whatever, he could take a day off. It wasn’t that big of a deal, right?

Honestly, the only item on the list that really confused him was the last one. There was just an address there along with a shop name: Hibiscus Dreams. From Koala’s insistence that he find a plant that he couldn’t kill with neglect or accidental coffee consumption, it was safe to assume that it was a florist of some kind. She had also demanded that he bring back ‘ apology flowers ‘ for the office, so he would certainly hope that that was the case.

He was in no rush though, so he didn’t go that first day. Instead he sulked and followed the rest of the instructions begrudgingly and tried to ignore the way he did feel better after some proper rest, new clothes, and fresh food. Take-out—obviously. No point in burning down his kitchen and adding more things to the list.

When the following morning came and he was refreshed for the first time in ages, he was up and out of bed before seven. Koala may have demanded that he sleep in, but the multitude of hours in one place was already starting to drive him insane and he had gotten the rest she wanted him to. Besides, one quick google search had been enough to tell him that the store opened early, and the earlier he could get there, get the plants and leave, the sooner he could get back to work.

There was a website attached but he hardly glanced at it, just enough to confirm that it was the right address and nothing more. There was apparently a tiny cafe next door and it would be a decent enough breakfast to start the day, and his caffeine consumption.

Half an hour later, with a nearly empty mug of coffee in hand, Sabo stopped in front of a small, colorful shop partially hidden under the shadow of a nearby building.

Or at least, he assumed it was colorful. It was hard to actually pick up on beneath the plant life. Greenery had devoured the shop whole, vines crisscrossed along the brickwork, nestled into every crack of plaster and stone. There was a small awning over the doorway and archway just underneath, laden with flowers, blossoms of every color that spread out and multiplied, stretching dainty stems towards the sky. There were two trees nearby, close enough for the vines to have spread to them as well, climbing up the trunks, the branches strewn in white lights that caught the morning light like drops of dew. Most notable were the large flowering bushes planted just outside the shop itself, surrounding the edge of the building with wide green leaves and multicolored flowers larger than his fist dotted among them in the way blotches of paint met canvas.

Hibiscus, if the painted visage of the flower on the sign was any indication. Well, at least the shop was aptly named.

On the door itself was a small chalkboard, weather worn and chipped at the edges, the scratchy, bold lettering of OPEN smudged, but handwritten. A soft scoff left him at the messy handwriting, providing a brief distraction before his hand fell onto the handle to push inside.

There was a chime, bright and musical when the door swung inward, a far cry from the mechanical ding he was more accustomed to and it drew a brief flash of a smile to his features,  the wind chime out of the corner of his eye made of tarnished copper and half hidden by leaves. And speaking of leaves —the entire shop was filled with them. Plants of all sizes and shapes overlapped amongst each other, layered into a rain forest of scents, a mountains face saturated with color and life.

His first thought was cluttered , but it was impressive all the same.

Even from where he stood, cerulean hues scanning over the room as a whole, it was easy to see how much care had gone into it all, a careful planning that situated certain plants in clusters together. And they were truly everywhere, hanging from the ceiling, stacked upon shelves, small pots nestled in between larger ferns and shrubs. Flowers were situated in a cluster of pots to his right, the arrangements beautiful and eye catching. There were even trees , some seemingly planted directly into the earth itself which was bewildering given that meant the owner had pried away flooring and concrete just to—what? Complete the look? Baffling. Why would anyone go that far? What kind of morondecided that was a good idea?

“Hey,” a voice spoke up, making Sabo startle. “Welcome in! Can I help you with anything?”

Sabo was already waving his free hand in denial, embarrassed that he had been caught in the doorway as his gaze shifted towards the origin of the greeting. “No, it’s fine. I’m just—” Whatever else he had been about to say died on his tongue, the last few syllables drawn out and fading to nothing on his lips.

There was a man perhaps no more than twenty feet from him, half hidden behind the front counter. Sabo didn’t know how he had missed him, so distracted by the plants themselves that he must have merely skimmed over him, drawn to other things. Now, however, with his full attention riveted on the man, it seemed foolish. He was easily the most stunning thing here.

Light streamed in from above, but it was only now, left to admire the way sunlight framed the stranger’s face like a lover’s caress that he even processed the existence of a skylight. Dark hair fell in a halo around his face, warm skin speckled in stars, creating constellations along the line of a strong jaw and neckline. And his smile— fuck —the way those silver eyes crinkled at the edges, a sign of how freely given the expression was, it was dazzling. Sabo was helpless in response, desperately taking in each feature, every small detail. There was a pocket of air lodged in his chest that refused to budge, thrumming with something terrifyingly warm that spread from there outward like melted honey or liquid gold.

He felt heavy with the sensation, weak to it.

Flowers seemed brighter besides the other, as if soaking in his presence, thriving. There were other things too, of course, wind chimes and trinkets that he caught at the edge of his focus, but Sabo couldn’t will himself to look away and take in anything other than the male himself, the way he shone as if illuminated from within. Dazzling. This guy was dangerous .

“You okay over there man?”

Sabo’s eyes focused all at once, the return of that voice enough to slap him from the dream like state he had lost himself into. Pulled back so forcefully, he snapped back to attention in the way a rubber band did, just shy of breaking.

“I didn’t mean to startle you, sorry.”

The man’s eyes were on him again, but the smile had faded, expression still soft but those hypnotizing eyes of his muted with concern and confusion.

Shaking his head frantically, Sabo snapped shut his lips that had parted in awe, eyes wide and color slowly creeping up his neck as that embarrassment from earlier came crashing down once more, submerging himself in it. He almost hoped that he could drown in it and put himself out of this misery.

“No! No, I—” He had just been standing by the door like an idiot, a gawking, moronic idiot, and now he couldn’t even talk without fumbling words and flailing hands. The coffee cup slipped from his hand and clattered against the floor, the meager remainder trickling out even as Sabo dropped to retrieve it. The movement caused him to step away from the door and it shut behind with with a creak of hinges, trapping him inside. “ Fuck, sorry I-I’m not normally like this, I swear.” Salvaging the cup, he was relieved to find that only a little had escaped to splash across the laminated floor. “Do you have a napkin or something? Ah—a paper towel maybe?” Standing up again, his back rod-straight, he was startled to find that the other had moved closer to him by now, away from the counter where flowers rest abandoned, mournful of lost company.

There was a small towel in his hand and Sabo’s attention only flickered to it when he leaned down to wipe at the mess on the floor, the stranger’s laughter soft like bells. “It’s fine, it’s fine. No harm done,” the man said. “This shop’s been through worse, so don’t worry about it.”

Frozen in place, he could only watch, mortified.

When he rose to his feet again and turned that same blinding smile back towards him again, Sabo swore that his heart skipped a beat.

“I’m Ace, by the way,” the stranger— Ace spoke, a hand held out in his general direction.

Up this close, Sabo could pick out each individual freckle, admiring the way his eyes glimmered with remnants of mirth and genuine benevolence. Suddenly self-conscious, he worried about his own appearance. Even after a day of decent rest, there was sure to be evidence of bruising under his eyes, beaten into him through extended neglect. He was too pale, the tan of his childhood faded with shadows and fluorescent lighting. Did he brush his hair this morning? He couldn’t remember in his rush to leave . God he hoped so; his bed head was atrocious. At least he was dressed nicely, right? Yes, of course he was. It was the one thing he was proud of.

And then there were the scars, the rough skin he didn’t bother hiding with makeup on days spent in the office. He winced at the thought, the reminder of his past, his upbringing. Fire. His hair wouldn’t be enough to hide the evidence of trauma on his face. It was harsh compared to pale skin. Ugly.

Realizing that he was staring once again, his arm jerked forward to grip at Ace’s before the offer could fall away, his grip maybe a little tighter than he intended. “Sabo—I’m Sabo. Sorry, again, about the, uh, coffee. I…” he cleared his throat, distracted by the warmth of the male’s hand in his, the way he could feel how calloused they were. Hard-working hands. He dropped the contact in another quick movement, wiping the lingering sensation off on his pants. “Uhm…”

Ace’s smile was gentle, understanding when his own hand fell away, the dirty rag hanging limply from the other. “Sabo, I already told you, it’s no problem. Seriously. The plants do worse everyday. A little coffee is nothin’ at all.” He stepped back a step and Sabo followed as if drawn in through magnetized force.

“Just here to take a look today or is there something in particular you were looking for?”

Right . He was here for a reason—not that it really mattered to him anymore. Koala’s list, even work was nearly forgotten.

“Flowers. Apology flowers?” Sabo wet his lips, his words hesitant as he followed Ace further into the shop. He cradled the remains of his coffee cup tightly at his chest, absently pressing his fingers into his earlier blunder. “Sorry, I’m not really...used to this?”

Ace only hummed in response, eyes cast about the room, glancing in the direction of the clusters of flowers Sabo had noticed before. “Don’t worry about it. Multiple I assume, or are you just lookin’ for one?”

That was at least an easy question to answer. “Multiple. Definitely multiple.”

“Bouquet?”

“Uhh...yes?”

Silver eyes were on him again and Sabo lost himself in argent pools, drowning. Again. There was laughter there, even in his gaze, but it was soft and lacked the edge of mocking he half expected, absent of judgement. He hadn’t known that metal could appear so warm and inviting.

“You don’t know a single thing about plants, do you?”

Sabo flinched, taken aback by the blunt statement. Surprisingly, he wasn’t offended. In the same way Ace’s eyes conveyed warmth, his words came off as gentle, consoling. Grip tightening a little further around his cup, he shook his head in silent admittance.

Ace nodded, expression almost fond before he turned away from him, heading towards a doorway at the back of the shop Sabo hadn’t noticed before. “Well, that’s fine. You’re actually here at a good time of year, now that I think about it.” There was a rustling from the other room, Ace’s voice a little muffled. “A few more weeks and I wouldn’t have hyacinth’s anymore.”

Despite himself and the knowledge that he probably shouldn’t , Sabo found himself moving again towards the far doorway, his steps hesitant but too curious to resist. As it turned out, the shop was longer than he first assumed, a separate room set up past the wall that opened up into a greenroom, complete with glass walls and everything. And, despite the seeming impossibility, there were even more plants crammed into this one space than the entirety of the first room. Trees and shrubs and vines clustered within every available space but they were nothing compared to the sheer number of flowers. He could likely name on one hand the species he actually recognized and the rest were beyond him.

And there was Ace, in the middle of it all.

Framed by plants on every side, with dirt smudging his hands and shoulder length hair pulled back into an unexpected ponytail at the nape of his neck, he appeared as a wood nymph must, or some other type of mythical creature. Sacred and wild.

“Probably safe to assume you don’t know the language of flowers right,” Ace spoke, eyes still on the flowers though his voice was obviously directed at Sabo. “Hyacinth, especially purple hyacinth like these, are the absolute best if you’re trying to apologize to someone. They literally mean ‘please forgive me.’ Seriously, how awesome is that? Flowers are great.”

His hands were unexpectedly dainty as Sabo watched his fingers skim over damaged petals, working through the collection of tight knit purple buds and snipping those that passed whatever inspection he was conducting, collecting the chosen few in one hand. It should have been boring to watch, but just seeing Ace’s soft expression was enough to keep Sabo entranced.

“White tulips are a must too,” he continued as he moved about the space, unhindered by Sabo’s gaze on him. “Another one that means forgiveness. A little bit of lavender, some violets and lily of the valley aaaand final touch—there!”

The flowers were held out to him in a flourish, dark purple, violet and pale whites twining together artfully with a small write ribbon wrapped around their middle. Sabo had been so focused on watching Ace that he had hardly noticed the actual design that had gone into their placement. They were beautiful.

“I—thank you. How much…?”

Ace was already wiping his hands off onto his pants, the evidence of a repetitive action painted in smudges of dirt against dark jeans. It was endearing.

“Oh, don’t worry about it. First time here, right? I definitely would have remembered you if you’d been in here before.” He moved past him and into the larger room again. “First bouquet is on the house! Besides, it’s supposed to be an apology right? I figure you’ve been put through enough already then, huh?”

Sabo gaped after him, nearly tripping over his own feet in the rush to follow after him, the flowers held with a gentle grip normally reserved for brittle glass. As if they might shatter in his hold.

“I can’t possibly just take them. You said it yourself. You won’t have some of these flowers anymore soon, right? That means they’re valuable,” he sputtered, eyes tracking Ace as he moved behind the counter again. “At least let me tip you or something— please .”

Ace leaned over the counter, arms folded and smile slight but sharper this time, sly . “If you want to pay me back, you’re just going to have to come again then, huh?”

Sabo flushed, heat returning to his cheeks in a rush that left his lips parted on soundless words. It probably wasn’t meant to come off as such an invitation but he was selfish enough to think it that way, to hope that Ace was asking him to come back as more than just a returning customer. And perhaps it was just a little cowardly to nod and flee, but there was laughter at his back when he did and the other’s smile emblazoned in his mind.

Later, when there were flowers sitting in a vase at his ( miraculously clean ) desk, Koala chided him for forgetting one, very important thing with a knowing smile and mischievous eyes.

He never did get that desk plant.

[coolseanobuseng]

New Post has been published on https://legitlover.com/the-very-best-advice-to-get-an-ex-back-in-2021/

The Very Best Advice To Get An Ex Back In 2021

This is the year you get your ex back only if you read this very best advice to get an ex back in 2021..lol

I’m sure I do not need to tell you that getting your ex back has never been more important.

Feel in one’s bones that it won’t be simple, but absolutely nothing worth doing ever is, right?

I’ll be including a couple of brand new techniques that I’ve never ever publicly shared previously. So check out to the end if you wish to hear all of my juiciest ex back methods and suggestions.

# 1– Don’t rush the process or “force it”.

The Very Best Advice To Get An Ex Back In 2021 Folks, it doesn’t get anymore standard than this, but it also doesn’t get a lot more CRITICAL than this, either.

Here’s the thing: the majority of people in your situation– when you’re dealing with the possibility of the person you love slipping out of your life permanently– are feeling desperate. And I totally understand that; it’s a natural response after you’ve been dumped or gone through a tough break up. You frantically wish to do SOMETHING … ANYTHING … to get your ex to alter their mind and take you back. But, the issue is … ACTING on that desperation or those post-breakup feelings is almost ALWAYS a bad idea. You CAN NOT rush the procedure of changing your ex’s mind about separating. You can NOT show ANY sort of desperation at all, either. And not simply during the early phases, however throughout the entire process.

Desperation is an attraction killer. Trust me on this, I’ve seen many of my clients make this error. Despite my best shots to talk them out of it … If you appear too desperate, if you try to push your ex by contacting them too frequently or begging and pleading with them … it’s just going to make your scenario WORSE.

Take a step back for a minute and think about things from your ex’s point of view. Would you be brought in to an ex who won’t stop bothering you? Would you be brought in to somebody who seems to have absolutely nothing else going on their life? Other than chasing after you?

Would you be basically most likely to want to take someone back? If they pled and pleaded and attempted to talk you into providing another opportunity?

Undoubtedly, the response is no to all of those questions. By attempting to rush the process … by attempting to reach out to your ex often, by trying to talk them into offering your relationship another try … you’re only pressing them further away. Just keep reading The Very Best Advice To Get An Ex Back In 2021.

This is something you need to keep in mind throughout the entire process of winning back your ex. Which is why I’ve made it the extremely first suggestion in this video. Never ever, ever get too excited or too excited around your ex. Never ever force things or attempt to hurry it.

# 2– Be realistic about your opportunities of getting them back.

Look, I’ve stated this sometimes prior to in my previous videos. Unfortunately, not every relationship can or need to be restored. In some cases, things might be so broken that it’s simply not possible to ever realistically have a chance at getting back together. I know that sucks to hear, but it’s the truth. Numerous relationships can and ought to be revived. However in some cases it’s just not realistic or wise to even attempt.

# 3– Don’t underestimate the power of No Contact.

The Very Best Advice To Get An Ex Back In 2021 Ah yes, No Contact … I know you’ve already heard about this technique often times previously. And do you know why this technique is something that I suggest so frequently? Because it WORKS. It works EXTREMELY well in the huge bulk of separation situations.

If you do not want to take my word for it,  here’s a couple of examples:

Why No Contact Is So Powerful

Initially, it’s due to the fact that this method basically “shocks” your ex into discovering what life resembles without you. Instead of slowly fading out of your ex’s life, you’re forcing them to experience it cold turkey.

They won’t have the ability to just call you and chat whenever they miss you. And they won’t have that sensation of “comfort” knowing that you’re still around at any time they want to talk or hang out. It’s critical that you give your ex that kind of a “shock” treatment instead of letting them slowly get used to life without you.

No Contact is the reverse of what your ex is expecting you to do. The majority of people, since it’s the natural response after a break up, tend to cling to their ex for as long as possible after separating. They reach out regularly, they attempt to “remain good friends”. And they just generally wind up functioning as an emotional discarding ground for their ex.

By doing the opposite of what your ex is expecting you to do, you’re taking control of the situation and shifting the “balance of power” in your favour. Now, when you take part in a period of No Contact, you have the power to choose when your ex gets to talk with you or socialize with you.

They’re all of a sudden dealing with a circumstance they didn’t expect when they planned to separate.

Third, it offers your ex time to let go of negative memories and emotions. As I’ve mentioned in other videos formerly, all humans have a natural tendency to forget bad memories and release unfavorable thoughts and feelings after a particular time period.

A natural coping system that’s progressed over thousands of years of human evolution. We can’t dwell on negatives for long, or else we’ll spend our lives in a state of anxiety.

So, utilize that to your advantage by providing your ex time to start forgetting about the negative aspects of your relationship. This will, given time, take place by itself, without you needing to do anything other than participate in a duration of No Contact.

Research studies have actually shown this will “peak” around one month after the break up. So by utilizing a 30-day No Contact duration, you’re allowing adequate time for those negative emotions and memories to fade. Into the back of your ex’s mind. I like to say that this is essentially like re-setting your ex’s brain to an “psychological neutral” state.

Furthermore, another benefit to No Contact is that it offers you time to “relax” and re-set your own feelings.

You definitely do not wish to be acting upon emotion when you talk with your ex. And you typically can’t believe directly during the early stages after a break up … so, by neglecting your ex for a few weeks, you put yourself back into a much better mindset.

By the end of the No Contact duration, you’ll be far less most likely to act desperate or state something to your ex that may hurt your possibilities or push them away unintentionally.

No Contact permits you some time to focus on yourself. During No Contact– which I’ve recently begun to call “Dynamic No Contact” to highlight the important self-improvement aspect– you need to be keeping busy, meeting new buddies, and living an intriguing, amazing life.

This will make you a more intriguing, more enticing person to your ex when you do start talking with them once again. And it will put you in a better position to re-attract them once the No Contact duration is over.

# 4– Spend as much time as possible with loved ones.

OK, I know what you’re thinking … how the hell is socializing with my friends and household going to assist me get my ex back? Well, hear me out … due to the fact that this is in fact something that I’ve begun to suggest increasingly more to my clients, since I’ve come to see how important this really is.

Of all, cooling with friends and family is usually enjoyable. It’s a great way to keep your mind off your ex and off the separation, and live in the minute. This is specifically true if you prevent speaking about your ex when you’re with friends. And instead just have a good time hanging out.

Second of all, you’ll quickly discover that socializing with family and friends can be a powerful tool for re-building your own self-confidence and self-esteem. Your friends and family like you– at least, I hope they do– and socializing with individuals that enjoy your company is a fantastic ego boost.

It will make you feel more confident in yourself. And assist you realize that you’re a remarkable catch for anybody of the opposite sex … Including your ex, who would be insane to let someone as favored as you go out of their life.

This is also a fun time to re-connect with old buddies that you perhaps have not talked with much recently.

If there’s someone you used to socialize with regularly that you’ve recently fallen out of touch with, connect and stimulate up a conversation.

How’s it going, bro? Very long time no see.

Restore that old relationship, or attempt to make brand-new good friends. Once again, this is a confidence-booster, but it’s also a method to come up with new things to talk with your ex about when you see them or begin talking to them again … you can tell them about how you just recently saw an old buddy, speak about the strategies you’ve made with this old pal, and so on.

Please take my word on this one … being around other individuals in social settings– whether that’s re-connecting with old buddies or just hanging out with family regularly– is going to assist your own mindset, and enhance your possibilities of returning together with your ex.

# 5– When talking with your ex, focus on making the discussion ENJOYABLE for them.

The Very Best Advice To Get An Ex Back In 2021 This is an error that I see my customers and followers make CONSTANTLY. You’ve utilized a duration of No Contact, and start to open the lines of interaction with your ex again. You’re exchanging text or phone calls, and then eventually hanging out with your ex in person.

You want them to take you back … So you try to discuss the relationship. You re-hash old drama or differences from when you were still together.

Perhaps you’re just doing this to attempt and explain to your ex how you’ve changed given that the breakup. Or how things will be different if you get back together. But, this kind of technique is 100% ensured to destroy your possibilities.

Trust me, men … if you want your ex back, you require to make EVERY conversation and hang-out session with them ENJOYABLE. You want your ex to end a discussion thinking to themselves, “well, that was enjoyable” … you desire your texts to make your ex smile or laugh when they read them.

What you DO NOT desire … under any scenarios … is to advise your ex of the issues that plagued your old relationship. You DO NOT desire them to end a conversation thinking to themselves, “ugh, more drama again”. You desire your ex to enjoy when they see you or speak with you, not be advised of old issues or disputes from the past. Don’t ever, ever try to bring up “serious relationship subjects” with your ex until you’re fully back together … keep it light, enjoyable, and satisfying for your ex.

# 6– NEVER show any jealousy around your ex.

This ties in to my previous suggestion, and it’s just as crucial. You do not ever, EVER wish to outwardly display any kind of jealousy around your ex.

I know it’s agonizing and aggravating to hear rumours that your ex may have gone on a date with somebody brand-new. And I understand you desperately wish to ask them about it … however DON’T. Imitate you don’t give a flying f*&@ about your ex’s love life since the breakup.

Don’t give ANY sense that you’re jealous about anything. Even if you’re feeling the total reverse on the within … rather, pretend you don’t care at all about who your ex is seeing or what they’re doing with their spare time.

As I discussed in the past, prevent drama and keep things enjoyable for your ex. Jealousy isn’t enjoyable, and it definitely isn’t appealing. So do your absolute finest to never reveal any kind of jealousy around your ex.

# 7– Be ready to play some safe mind games on your ex.

The Very Best Advice To Get An Ex Back In 2021 Now I’m not talking about anything actually outright here people. When I state “mind video games”, I do not mean lying to your ex or manipulating them in some way. I just indicate that it can be extremely helpful to utilize basic human psychology to your benefit in order to win your ex back. I’ll offer you 2 examples:

Example one … texting. When you get a text from your ex out of the blue, wait an hour or more prior to you reply.

Keep in mind: you’re playing the role of a busy, positive person who is ready to proceed. So, if you’re prepared to wait a while before replying to your ex’s texts, it will make them question what you were doing and unconsciously presume that you’re out doing interesting things and living life without them.

Also related to texting: be the one to end conversations. Let your ex send the last message in a back-and-forth texting exchange.

Once again, this isn’t actually sly or unethical stuff. You’re simply making a small effort to silently be the one to end most conversations with your ex. It’s a power play of sorts, where you’re asserting your own worth as a person and your confidence with life in general. This is appealing behaviour for your ex. And will subtly and subconsciously shift the way they think of you in a positive way.

The second example … my Covert Jealousy strategy. I yap about this method in the full tutorial video on my site.

Covert Jealousy permits you to subtly hint to your ex that you might be dating once again. Even if you’re not actually doing so yet … in a safe and effective way.

It puts your ex under some pressure to decide if they’re sure about the breakup. And can frequently be enough by itself to make your ex choose to request for a second chance.

# 8– Focus only on things within your control.

This one is pretty self-explanatory. However you ought to try your outright best to avoid worrying about things that are out of your control.

Did you hear a rumour your ex has been dating somebody brand-new? Well, there’s nothing you can do to change that, so it’s out of your control. And therefore it’s unworthy worrying about, or even considering.

Worried that your ex isn’t posting sad lyrics and quotes on social networks after your break up? Anxious that might suggest they’re not missing you and have currently carried on?

Well, that’s just not a beneficial train of thought. It’s out of your control. You can’t alter how they’re feeling or precisely read into what it suggests that they’re not posting break up quotes on social networks. That implies it’s not worth worrying about. So push it out of your mind and concentrate on things you CAN control.

The Very Best Advice To Get An Ex Back In 2021

# 09– Have faith in proven strategies and persevere.

OK, my final idea today is a very crucial one. Given that you’re reading this today, I’m assuming you’re doing your research. You’re learning how to get a 2nd chance with your ex by looking into online.

That’s fantastic, and I praise you for acting to ensure you do things correctly to optimize your opportunities. And you’ll get a great deal of very savvy, extremely effective guidance and pointers from breakup coaches like myself. Not all of the stuff you’ll read online is proper or credible. However much of it is excellent guidance that will really assist you out.

And you can definitely rely on the techniques and strategies that I teach in my Ex Factor program,

… while finding out and researching’s fantastic, you NEED to actually APPLY these methods in order for them to actually work. You can’t just learn all about how effective the No Contact strategy is, and then only apply it for 5 days before you quit and begin spamming your ex.

No Contact doesn’t work if you just do it for 5 days. And the very same holds true for the majority of what I teach. You require to actually use what you find out in short articles like this one. Precisely the method I describe, in order for it to be genuinely effective.

If you do not have the self-discipline to stick with it and believe the tested strategies you find out about, they simply will not work.

So, if you take one thing away from this article, let it be this: have faith. Use what I’ve taught you here and in my complete video tutorial and stay with it until it works. Hope you enjoyed The Very Best Advice To Get An Ex Back In 2021.

Related article: Dating Red Flags

[lifeisdabubbles-undersalmondean]

La Pomme ~ Chapter Nine

Pairing: Sam x OC (eventual Dean x OC and Dean x Castiel. And I mean eventual.)

Series summary: George is a casual French-Mistake-universe Supernatural fan living in no-COVID 2020, who's life is upended when she's suddenly launched between realities, two years into the boys' past (S13E22). What begins as an insane, immersive fan experience turns into more when Jack goes missing and George offers up her AU information to help track him down. Soon it's discovered that she and Sam may actually have history. But that's impossible, right?

Word Count: 4,800

Warnings: {smut, fluff, angst, show level violence, swearing, mentions of suicide} ***Detailed warnings will be tagged for specific chapters.

A/N: Following the events of my prequel Paradise and second story From My Eyes Off. Reading those first gives context but isn’t necessary to start this one.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"What… the fuck?" Dean was walking toward the Impala when he saw an unfamiliar silhouette in the backseat. That isnt…is it? Dean had had it up to here with this woman. "What do you think you're doing?!" He asked angrily as he stepped up to the door.

While the boys had spent 10 minutes gathering their essentials and directing a team of two to Montana, George had casually made her way to the garage and slipped into the backseat of the Impala. She made sure to strap herself in tight. If she could have, she probably would have glued herself down. She knew Dean wasn't going to be easily convinced of this, but she was going to Oregon with them, whether he liked it or not.

One could argue that joining the Winchesters on a hunt like this seemed to be in direct conflict with her strict Do Not Get Involved Policy. Though she was well aware of her hypocritical actions, she felt very strongly that she needed to be there… or that they needed her there; she wasn't sure and she couldn't explain it. She was worried about the kid, her new friend-sort of-and there was something about this upcoming rescue that tied her stomach in knots.

In an effort to remain calm, she'd tried to walk through it logically: obviously Jared and Jensen were still on the show, so Sam and Dean had to be safe, but they've "killed off" Cas before and who knew how long the Jack guy's contract was for. She thought he was still on the show in 2020 but she hadn't been paying close enough attention to be sure. She just couldn't risk it when her instincts were telling her she belonged with them; that she was supposed to help in some way.

Admittedly, she realistically couldn't see how she was going to help; she couldn't fight or shoot a gun, nor did she have any special abilities. But, none of that mattered to her right now. A feeling of death was squirming through her veins and the only thing that eased the squirm was imaging herself going to Oregon, consequences be damned. Besides, no way was she staying behind alone in the very obviously haunted bunker of death.

She'd already fought the internal battle, now she had to prepare for the battle with Dean.

"Get out of the car. Now." Dean ordered, yanking the door open.

Pulling herself into a ball and clutching the seatbelt, she said, "I'm going with you."

"No, you're not," Dean was furious. "Get out now!"

"No!" She stood her ground and Dean snapped. He threw himself into the car, reaching to undo her belt and pull her out. She fought him, slapping his hands away and pushing on him with her knees. "No! DEAN! STOP IT! NO! I'M COMING WITH YOU! Wow, you are freakishly strong! HEY WATCH IT!"

"Dean, stop it! Let go!" Sam wrapped his arms around his brother's waist and yanked him out of the car. One of George's hiking boots slid off in Dean's hands after he'd flailed around trying to get a grip on anything solid. "Dude, just chill-CHILL!" Sam wrestled him up against the car and held him still with a firm hand on his chest. "Relax. We don't have time to argue, OK? We've wasted enough time already, we have to get going. She'll stay out of the way, I promise."

Dean shrugged off Sam's hand and shoved the boot into his stomach a little too hard. "If she gets killed, it's on you." He then huffed angrily as he headed to the trunk to toss their bags in.

Sam handed George's shoe back to her with a gentle, though concerned smile. Quickly brushing her tousled hair out of her face, she took it from him and nodded a thank you, her cheeks flushed with embarrassment. The outcome had been inevitable, but it didn't alleviate the guilt. She just knew she had to go with them.

Dean slid angrily into the front seat and slammed his door. "Let's go!" He ordered.

Once everyone piled in, he floored it in the direction of False Klamath, Oregon. Sam was in the passenger's seat and Castiel was behind him, next to George in the back. She was quiet as Dean's words echoed in her head...if she gets killed...gets killed...she gets killed... It hadn't occurred to her that the death she was sensing might be her own. As they drove away, she thought maybe the haunted murder bunker wasn't looking so bad after all.

They drove in silence for nearly two agonizing hours in the inky black of a moonless sky, before George couldn't take it anymore and finally pierced the silence with a somewhat jarring, "I spy with my bionic eye, something that begins with R." Sam raised an eyebrow at Dean, who, without moving a muscle, gave him a "fuck no!" look and remained silent. Sam turned to George, who had sat forward in her seat with a cheery, optimistic look on her pretty freckled face. He hated to disappoint her but he knew Dean needed some more time to seethe.

He gave her an apologetic smile and a small shrug, "Kinda hard to play in the dark, anyway?"

She let out a defeated sigh and threw herself back. She didn't particularly enjoy silence, especially not when she found herself in the unique situation of being in a car with three famous people and nothing to distract her. She had so many questions and her adrenaline was pumping! But she knew she'd pushed Dean pretty far with her tag-along tammy routine, so she begrudgingly fell silent again.

Another two hours and well past midnight, Sam was thoroughly impressed with George's determination. For the last hour she'd been unable to sit still-legs crossing and uncrossing, toes tapping, hips wiggling, audible, slow breaths escaping her lips, face contorting between agony and determined resolve-caught in what Sam had presumed was a self-imposed battle of wills that George was currently engaged in between Dean and her bladder.

The undeniable signs of her predicament began shortly after she'd failed in her attempts to start up I-Spy. As Sam watched rest stop after rest stop pass by them without so much as a foot off the gas level of deceleration from Dean, he knew she was in for a rough ride. Finally, after another 30 minutes of quiet, painful whimpering from the backseat, Sam was about to tell him to pull over when Dean spoke first.

"Making a quick pit stop to fill'er up." He grunted, as they passed a road sign for a gas station three quarters of a mile away. "No dilly dallying. 5 minutes tops." George's whole body sat up at the announcement, literally bouncing on the edge of her seat, and she watched out the window, desperately searching for the gas station.

Sam was grateful for Dean's mercy, especially since he'd turned back to ask Castiel something a few minutes earlier and noticed her eyeing an empty soda bottle at her feet. He could practically see the wheels in her head turning as she tried to figure out if she could make it work.

When they finally saw the lights of the gas station just off the highway, she lunged forward. Pointing frantically, she narrowly missed Sam's face with her hand, "THERE! THERE IT IS!" She shouted excitedly.

They pulled slowly into the nearly deserted parking lot. Because he just couldn't help himself, Dean purposefully parked at the pump as far from the door as possible. George let out a frustrated groan and flung herself out of the car before it had even fully stopped, racing for the building, and disappearing inside the convenience store.

"Don't dawdle!" Dean shouted after her with a chuckle as he got out the driver's side and began filling up the tank.

"What's your fuckin' damage, Dean?" Sam, who'd followed his brother out of the car, was furious.

Dean looked at him innocently, "What? Her small bladder is my problem now?"

"You let that go on for two and a half hours. Stop punishing her already."

"Listen, Loverboy, don't try to lecture me. Her being here is a huge mistake and you know it. It puts everyone at risk! This isn't personal, it's just common sense, man."

"The only danger she's in at the moment is peeing her pants from your sadistic torture games, which feels pretty damn personal. I don't even know what you're so upset about anyway. If she really did come from that alternate universe, then she could have useful information, and it could help us."

"We could have just as easily gotten that useful information over the phone from the bunker where she would be safe," Dean countered pointedly.

Sam avoided that logic, "It's not like I'm saying let's have her join us in the fight! We can leave her at a hotel where she'll be safe. Sh-"

"You can't really be that naive can you? After all we've been through?" Dean was disappointed in his brother's rashness and his pisspoor attempt at an excuse. "What is it about this girl that's got you acting so reckless?"

Logically, Sam knew Dean was right about George; she couldn't protect herself and her being there put them all in more danger. But he didn't want to admit it and he didn't have a come back, so he changed tactics and instead gave his brother a gentle, pleading look.

"Just consider easing up on her, man. She's here now, regardless, so perhaps we could try to not give her bladder cancer at least?" Sam opened his car door but before slipping in he offered, "Maybe you could even give being nice a try."

Once inside the car, Sam felt dizzy, trapped in his own swarming thoughts. Dean was right, damnit; he was absolutely right and Sam knew better. Leaving her back at the bunker was the safest possible option, for everyone, but for some reason he couldn't bring himself to actually force her to stay behind. He was still trying to wrap his head around everything. He didn't know what the hell to think. Was she really from that reality where his life was a TV show? To her, all of this was make believe? When she was from Apocalypse World things seemed easier because they had shared experience, her supernatural free life changed things dramatically. The connection he felt hadn't changed at all, though.

The problem was, he was basing a lot of that connection on the dream he'd had and the woman in it. He felt so drawn to George, like she was an old friend he hadn't seen in a while and the more he thought about it, the more her mannerisms and personality matched the dream woman; not to mention how similar they looked. But he had spent the last ten years of his life convincing himself that the dream had been nothing but Gabriel messing with him, that that dream was no more real than all the times he'd watched Dean die that day. So, then the dream woman couldn't be real either and George obviously was. So, maybe he was seeing things that weren't there? Maybe he was simply attracted to George and getting his wires crossed; conflating how he felt about her with his feelings about the woman from the dream?

That idea made him even more nervous. His feelings for the fake dream woman were unlike anything he'd ever felt before or since. They were intense and… long term. George was from another dimension. How exactly was that supposed to work?

Then again, she had been spending the past ten years of her life watching any number of combinations of horrible and stupid things he'd done. There was probably nothing to make 'work' at all. He had assumed she'd been receptive to his flirting originally, but looking back she was probably just starstruck and polite. Yet another reason he was concerned about being so drawn to her.

He felt very confused and probably should be separating himself from her, so he could figure things out with a clear head. Yet, something about the idea of being apart from her made him… unexplainably uneasy. So, he'd selfishly chosen to allow her to come. Now Dean's words were echoing in his head, making him feel incredibly guilty that he'd put her in so much danger. He knew it was his responsibility to keep her safe until they could return her to her world.

Sam frowned deeply at the thought.

"...about George?" Castiel's deep voice mumbled something, breaking the silence. Sam nearly jumped out of his skin; Cas had been so quiet while he was lost in his thoughts, that Sam had forgotten he was there.

"Sorry, what?" Sam asked, shaking the fog of deep thoughts from his head.

"I know you told me that George comes from an alternate reality and that you think that's the reason for my unease around her but... I'm not convinced. I don't think she's entirely human. I've been trying to read her these past few hours. It's definitely not what I typically pick up from a human."

Sam paused, giving him a strange look before blinking rapidly, "OK, first of all-that just sounds creepy man, so keep it to yourself. Second, she's not a typical human-she's-she's-" He paused, his brain distracting him by offering up a number of choice adjectives he could use to finish that sentence: gorgeous, funny, charming, bold, smart, kind, wonderful, delightful, magnificent-none of which were helpful to him at the moment. He cleared his throat and finished, "from another reality. She probably 'reads' differently because you've never encountered a human like her before." Yeah, that worked.

Castiel sighed in frustration, "You don't understand; she doesn't feel different from other humans, but she's... fuzzier."

"Dude," Sam furrowed his brow in disgust.

"More mysterious," Cas defended. "It's not that what I'm sensing is strange, it's that I can't sense anything. Which is, in and of itself, strange."

Sam sighed, "OK, isn't it possible that because she's from an alternate reality and because you've never sensed someone from that reality, that it could make it more difficult to do?"

"None of the humans from apocalypse world were difficult to read."

"Yea, but angels and monsters existed in that world-an alternate you existed in that world. In George's world none of this is real, it's all a TV show. Maybe there's some sort of… non-magical universe exception?"

Castiel thought about it for a moment, frustrated that he genuinely wasn't sure. He sighed defeatedly and said, "Maybe, but I-"

"Exactly. When you try sensing her does she seem evil or like she's trying to hurt us?" Sam asked patiently.

Cas huffed and said, "No. In fact she seems… undeniably likeable."

A smile broke out on Sam's face before he could stop it because he couldn't disagree. Turning his head quickly, he reached a hand up to run over his beard, stretching his mouth out like he was just adjusting his lips nonchalantly.

Spotting George coming out of the store, he cleared his throat and said, "Exactly, so just… relax for now. She's not going anywhere, right? We'll keep an eye on her. For now, just try to act normal, OK?"

Castiel was about to respond when her door opened and George slid back into the car. He tensed up, trying to figure out how to act 'normal' appropriately. Watching her buckle up and then sit back with a contented sigh, he asked, "Things went well?"

George raised an eyebrow and half smiled strangely, "Uh… Yeah. I've done it before, so," She made a joke, trying to make him laugh but he seemed pretty serious about it.

"Good," He said enthusiastically. After a small pause he complimented, "You held that for a very long time. Your pelvic floor muscles must be impressively strong."

Her jaw dropped and she slapped a hand over her mouth quickly to keep from bursting into-slightly embarrassed-laughter; Castiel was so sincere. Blushing bright red, she glanced at Sam, who was pinching the bridge of his nose in mortification.

After a moment, George finally composed herself enough to nod politely and say with uncertainty, "Thanks for noticing?" She did try to keep up with her daily Kegels.

Sam snorted and the two of them began struggling to hold back childish giggles.

They sat in humorous awkwardness until Dean climbed back in. Sam shifted back to facing forward, Dean fired up Baby, and the group headed toward the highway again. As they pulled away from the gas station, Castiel noticed a strange noise coming from George's direction. When he turned to look at her, her eyes had a mischievous sparkle in them and there was a sneaky smile on her face.

"Why are you crinkling?" He asked loudly, attracting the attention of the two men in the front seat. George looked back toward the gas station conspiratorially before slipping two Hostess Cherry Fruit Pies out from the collar of her shirt, much to the surprise of all three of them. She reached over and set them both gently down next to Dean before sitting back in her seat and resting motionlessly.

It was a silent pie-ce offering, which was Dean's favorite kind.

"Where did those come from?" Sam asked curiously.

"My bra," She answered cooly, shooting him a wink. He hoped it was dark enough that she couldn't see him blush.

"I think what Sam means is, how did you pay for them?" Cas helped.

"Didn't." She shrugged. "Isn't stealing kinda the Winchester Way?" George didn't normally steal, other than a few packs of pokemon cards as a kid, but she figured she was in an alternate reality where a television show was real, so why not live a little? Besides, she'd wanted to do something to make amends with Dean and didn't have any money; what choice did she have?

Dean gave an almost imperceptible nod of respect at both her methods and her choice of olive branch. Maybe Sam's right, she could be useful after all. He waited for what he felt was an appropriately stubborn amount of time before oh-so-casually reaching over to grab one. He ripped it open and took a bite, silently mimicking a look of pure ecstasy while he scarfed down his first one.

"Road," Dean mumbled almost unintelligibly with a mouth full of pie after taking the first bite of his second treat. Everyone else in the car shared confused looks, waiting expectantly for Dean to continue or offer an explanation. "Road. Starts with R," he grumbled, annoyed that he'd had to repeat himself, as though each time he participated he risked catching nerd germs.

"Er-yea! Road is right. That's what I-Spied that starts with 'R'." George had a triumphant smile on her face. "Now it's your turn?" She asked, tentatively.

"P," He refused to say the entire thing. Everyone in the car looked around for a "P" word. George stifled a giggle because her mind instantly thought "penis," but she thought better than to say it. Besides he couldn't see one of those at the moment… I'm pretty sure, she thought, giving a peek toward the front seat to confirm.

They were all stumped in silence having searched for a good five minutes before they began grasping at straws.

"Pine tree?"

Head shake.

"Pine cone?"

Head shake.

"Pants? Doesn't it have to be outside the car?"

"No it doesn't but it's not pants. Lame." None of them could find anything.

"P?!" Sam finally shouted. "What the hell could you possibly see that starts with a 'P'? A porcupine? A planet? Fucking purple mountains majesty?! What!" Sam just knew Dean was cheating somehow which frustrated him to no end. His brother had always been a cheater. Dean took an exaggerated bite of his gifted contraband and shrugged, nonchalantly.

"Pie?" Castiel guessed finally, watching Dean closely.

"Ding, ding, ding." Dean ate the last bite happily and Sam rolled his eyes.

Fuckin' dumbass.

"Your turn Cas! You just have to pick a thing that everyone can see-"

"Like my pie," Dean said smugly toward Sam, who bristled.

George shook her head in amusement, "Right, like pie, and then you say 'I spy with my little eye something that begins with 'P'-because pie begins with 'P'-and then based on that letter, the rest of us have to try to guess what it is that you 'spy'. Whoever guesses it correctly, goes next."

George was in heaven. She was having a blast watching the two brothers, and Cas, being even more competitive than she was and all having fun together. For her, those scenes in the show were too few and far between. Unfortunately, her exhaustion got the better of her and she nodded off only about 45 minutes into their rousing game of I-Spy, where each one was trying to one up the other in difficulty level ("You can't fucking SPY AIR, Dean!" "Oh, but you can spy whatever the hell a berm is?!").

A little while later, Dean watched Sam sit back down in his seat after having reached back to cover George with his jacket with an amused smirk.

"So," He began, trying not to disturb the snoring woman in the backseat, "she woke up in your bed, huh?" Sam bristled and adjusted in his seat with a throat clear, ignoring him. "Something you want to tell me-"

"Mind your business?"

"Ooooh, you're turning pink; this must be good. Spill," Dean demanded.

"There's nothing to spill. Shut up," Sam huffed and ran a tired hand over his face, scratching at his beard compulsively. He could tell this was about to turn into a whole conversation, one he didn't want to have with Dean because he knew he wasn't going to understand. He'd never told Dean about the dream, and wasn't about to. Sometime during the drive he'd successfully convinced himself she simply couldn't be the same woman from the dream-because that was obviously nuts-but there was no denying he liked her. Problem was, dream or no, it was all so complicated and he knew Dean would try to convince him to stop over analyzing the situation and just 'have fun.'

Narrowing his eyes at Sam, he said seriously, "Wait a minute…" Out of the corner of his eye, Sam noticed Dean was glancing at him with an intense stare.

He turned to look at the shorter man finally, with an annoyed, yet curious expression, "What?"

"George is the one who likes this new o-Sam-a bin laden look, isn't she?" Dean had an accusatory look on his face as he reached out a finger to poke at Sam's beard.

Sam slapped his hand away and rolled his eyes hard, whispering sternly, "You know you're an idiot, right?"

Shaking his head, Dean chuckled, "Oh man. You've got it bad."

"You don't know what you're talking about. I don't have anything. George is great-"

Dean instantly raised his brows and made a perfect circle with his mouth, "Ope! I knew it."

Sam let out a quiet growl of annoyance and began again slowly, "You know what I mean; She seems like a nice person and she's…" Again his brain provided him with a number of perfectly applicable adjectives for the end of that sentence but all of them would have garnered an unwanted reaction from Dean. "She's friendly," he cringed noticeably the second the words left his mouth, he could practically feel Dean's reaction, but he pushed forward, "She seems like she'd be a great person to get to know as a friend."

Dean didn't even bother attempting to poke at him with innuendo; Sam's tone was definitive. He 'ughed' and waved his stubborn brother off, "Cool, so we're punishing ourselves."

"What do you mean?" Sam asked exasperatedly.

"OK, let's see if I can make this easy enough for you to comprehend: you clearly want to hit that and she's obviously good to go. So-"

"Ugh, why are you always so crass? That is so-"

"Accurate? Exact? Precise? Spot on?"

"None of those things. For starters she's from an alternate reality where this is all fake, remember? One that we're supposed to be trying to send her back to after we find Jack. I doubt she's interested in having a fling with a fictional character before we toss her back through time and space."

"Yea, you could be right. But then again, she might be?"

Sam rolled his eyes, "Yea? So, what's the morning after like, Dean? Am I supposed to ask her how she likes her eggs before dropping her off at the TARDIS for the trip home? 'Thanks for a wonderful evening, call me next time you Poltergeist into your TV'?"

Dean chuckled a little, nodding defeatedly, "Well, you'll never know if you don't ask. Unless… you're afraid of the answer?"

Sam stayed quiet for a moment before responding with, "She's not interested in something with me." His tone was definitive, very done with this conversation.

"You must think I was born yesterday," Dean huffed. "If you think you're easy to read? Sammy, she's a picture book," Dean said with confidence, making Sam glare at him. "Total Samgirl."

Sam furrowed his brow, muttering, "I think it's rude to assume anything. She… could be uh-a-a Dean girl," He separated the words pointedly. There was a sudden bad taste in his mouth.

"Denial is not just a river in Egypt, Samuel," Dean stated, far more seriously than he had been taking the rest of this conversation. "Why are you pretending you don't like her?"

"I'm not. I'm just being practical," He stated matter-of-factly.

"Fuck practicality. Have some fun," Dean encouraged.

Sam's nostrils flared at the mere thought but kept his composure and said pointedly, "Look man, to her this is all some surreal fan adventure. The Winchesters and 'Misha,' fun car games and stealing pie, free from consequence. But the longer she stays here the more likely she'll face very real, very serious consequences. Hell, you're back and she can barely blink before she's handcuffed to a chair, interrogated, and sexually assaulted by a demon!" Sam growled angrily, pausing to make sure he kept his volume in check and glancing back at the sleeping woman. Taking a deep breath he sighed, "Eventually she's going to realize that this isn't a TV show you can turn off when things get bad; she's going to see how shitty it all is."

"Please don't tell me you really mean how shitty you are?" Dean said knowingly, in a disgusted tone. Sam turned to look out the window, refusing to respond. Dean knew it was pointless to try and talk him out of his self-pity so he didn't push it. After a moment of consideration, Dean muttered defiantly, "Technically she was sexually assaulted by a demon before we tied her to a chair..." Sam turned and glared at him with a sharp sigh, to which Dean shrugged, "I'm just saying, if you're going to list things you could list them in the correct order."

"What's a Samgirl?" Came Castiel's gruff whisper from the back. Both Sam and Dean turned to look at him and then shared an 'oh great' look. Dean spent the next few hours explaining more about the reality that George had come from, at least the best of his abilities, and providing context to explain the silly, fandom created handles. Sam tried to refuse to participate but couldn't help chiming in to tell Dean when he thought he was wrong.

[takaraphoenix]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Fuck. This is going to be really very long. And I am saying that knowing how long my previous rants were. Those were short compared to what’s about to come.

I absolutely, completely and unconditionally love Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It is the singular most perfect TV show in existence. Nothing I have ever seen has lived up to it and I doubt anything I will ever see will live up to this show in its whole. This is my second favorite show on my top five list and it’s held that spot for the past fifteen years (which mind sound strange that I put the “most perfect TV show in existence” on spot two, but… I’m fully aware of all the flaws in my most favorite show and that I love that one with my nostalgia goggles on, but it will still always be my number one and not even Buffy’s perfection can kick it off the throne).

Now, just because I love something doesn’t mean I perceive it as flawless. I am fully aware of its flaws. But nothing is a hundred percent perfect.

I don’t even know where to start, but I think the beginning is the best.

What I hate about most supernatural shows is how “They are now thrown into this strange, new world with monsters… and immediately forget all about their non-supernatural friends” that literally every other show with supernatural elements does.

Not Buffy. When she first meets Willow and Xander, the two kind of only had each other and their buffy who gets killed off right at the start. And even then, Willow and Xander were the non-supernatural normal friends. And they became so important.

The fact that Buffy has this group of ordinary people behind her and really just human characters and that they back her up, that alone is awesome.

The Scooby Gang in general is awesome.

That is my favorite thing about the show. The relationships between the characters and how important they are. That the friendship never takes second place to the romance, like how many other shows like to write it. Because regardless of who was added to the plot and who left again, in the very end, it always came down to Buffy, Willow, Xander and Giles and I will always cry at the show’s finale when it is just the four of them, parting ways to go into their very last battle, I mean fuck I’m crying right now just writing this because it was just so heavy with the emotions and the importance of their friendship.

They are the heart and backbone of this show and the show never forgot it.

Many shows forget themselves, they forget the values and beauty they once represented, the longer the show goes on. And Buffy never did. Sure, it lost itself in the middle - but we’ll get to that when we get to that - but it caught itself and never declined fully.

Buffy Summers is an amazing character. She’s a girly-girl who loves lollipops and talking about boys and whining. She’s the most badass female character ever written in TV who saves the world repeatedly and comes back from the dead just to do it again, who has been beaten down by life in the cruelest ways possible and still kept on surviving but never without the scars. Her struggles were never just shrugged off. They became themes that were being dealt with realistically. For fuck’s sake, we had a plotline about her working at a burger shop because yes, this is a show taking place in reality and bills are something that needs to be paid even if you save the world. She is not a perfect character, she made a lot of bad decisions along the way, but that is what makes her human. She is not some character created for an agenda to show that “girls can do anything boys can” and is thus forbidden from doing anything overly girls, as many writers mistakenly do when trying to write strong female characters, because a female is not powerful and strong just because she belittles women who like wearing pink and dressing prettily and who see “girl” as an insult. That is not how strong women work.

Women are complex characters, just like every character should be. They don’t have to solemnly be one way so they aren’t the other way. And Buffy is a beautiful example of the complexity of it all.

Willow Rosenberg is an amazing character. She’s one of the characters in TV that had the biggest character development. This shy, demure girl that became the most badass bitch around who could kick your ass into a parallel dimension with the blink of an eye. The fact that she was literally the first lesbian I ever saw only made her more amazing for me. You see, I started watching Buffy with season 4, which first premiered in Germany in 2001, because, well, I was 10 when I started watching that show since earlier was kind of a little too young in my mom’s eyes, but she’s been watching it for years at that point and I kept lingering in the doorway with pleading eyes because vampires and witches and werewolves, mom, please, until I got to watch it. Right in the season where Willow and Tara fell in love. And I was legitimately in awe, because the concept of two women falling in love was new to me. I never met a real life lesbian before and on TV, the highest of their feelings were Will & Grace with the gays, but lesbians? Never seen that before. It was amazing for me.

And I will forever be grateful that Willow and Tara were my first representation of lesbians that I met.

Xander Harris is an amazing characer. I mean, seriously, I could do this for nearly every character but I’ll only be doing it for the Big Three for the sake of time, okay? He was this fearful, dorky, kinda useless normal dude in the beginning, but he had such a strong backbone, he always knew he’d be there for his friends. And he always was. What made him so special was that he wasn’t special. He was just A Guy. Where Buffy was the Slayer and Willow became the most powerful witch in existence, he was just a normal guy. The original Matt Donovan and Stiles Stilinski and Simon Lewis (despite him turning into a vampire later on, I will still count him for this category). The quippy human best friend to the supernatural. But he adapted. He found his own place among the supernatural and his own way of prodicing for them, helping them.

It amuses me that actually, I kind of started watching this show with its weakest season. Season 4. But let’s start with the other seasons first (I mean, I warned you guys that this is gonna be long).

Buffy was my first high school TV show. All shows I had watched up to that point were family comedies like Married with Children and Full House. But this was the first real look into how American high schools work and I loved it. The first three seasons in itself are the best of Buffy. I’m not even able to pick one season as the best because I like the whole stretch of it.

The dynamics, the characters, the villains, the plots.

Cordelia Chase is - argh, I didn’t want to do this for every character, so I’ll keep it short - another amazing example at character development. From the shallow, air-headed Barbie to a strong ally and friend who fought with her head held high and I will never forget Angel for ruining her.

And okay, if I take a sentence for Cordelia, I can really, truly not skip Giles. Giles, who will forever be The Mentor. When I hear “mentor figure” or “father figure”, I will always first and foremost think of Giles. He was the father and guide to them all, but he was not the one strong pillar, he too had his struggles. It’s one of the things that made me love the second Percy Jackson movie because Anthony Stewart Head is who I pictured as Chiron when reading the books and it is the most perfect casting they could have made.

The first three seasons arched beautifully together, tying the struggles of the high school students turned demon hunters, the funny elements and self-awareness, the serious undertones.

The scene at graduation when the class gave Buffy an award for being Class Protector is one of my favorite TV moments, because this… this acknowledgment of “Yeah, we weren’t always there for you and we didn’t bother getting to know you, but we know you’re there and we know what you did for us” and honestly, I’m crying again, this is ridiculous.

They graduate from high school and then… life continues. Like. Life continues in a realistic way. They go to college, or not in Xander’s case. They struggle with what to do with their lives, they try to find their own paths in what I consider the most realistic portrait in TV. In others, it’s not just “Yup, they college. We’ll mention college every now and again, but it never interferes with the demon hunting” like with most others. Buffy struggles with college work and demon killing, Willow soaks it all up because it’s exactly her world, Xander doesn’t know what to do with it, Giles struggles with what to do with his life in general.

Still, I consider season 4 the weakest season because the Initiative was… It wasn’t used well enough. It appeared and then it kind of disappeared again and in this show where the lore and world-building are so rich and on-point, the Initiative was the one hit and miss they did. Not to mention, I don’t like zombies and Adam creeped me out and was the weirdest major Big Bad that they ever had in that show.

But it brought back Spike and made him a more complex character than just “Bad guy with bad attitude and insane girlfriend”.

Which is a good cue-in for the ships and love-stories, actually.

Buffy is and perhaps will always be the only franchise where the love-triangle clicks for me. Angel/Buffy? Yes. Oh god, what a beautiful, tragic love-story, please give me more of them, OTP all the way. Spike/Buffy? Oh, the pain but they are so good for them and when he’s good, he’s the best, please give me more of them, OTP all the way.

I literally can not decide on who to ship her with. With most love-triangles, I either do not care about both options, or I want to cross the badly written female out of the equation and want to dive right into the slash fiction, or there’s only one good pairing in the options anyway.

The tragicly ironic thing is that for Willow, I have and always will ship her most with Oz though. Willow and Oz were that perfect soft warm ship for me, when I got to finally watch the first three seasons as the reruns hit Germany.

Willow and Tara, while beautiful at times, were also very tragic. The way Willow lied to Tara and manipulated her was just so unhealthy. I do love them together, I just think that I love Oz and Willow a bit more.

Xander is a mess. Like. Seriously. Him and Cordelia. Him and Anya. I can not decide which one I like more in the end, but think that, at this point, it really does become clear that I can cut this show into two parts. The first three seasons of high school where Angel/Buffy, Xander/Cordelia and Oz/Willow are just all the yes, as well as the post graduation seasons where Spike/Buffy, Xander/Anya and Willow/Tara are just all the yes. Which really, truly fascinates me.

Because it’s really rare for a show to get me on board with its canon couples in general. This show does an amazing job on that too.

So, season 4 was kind of flawed in the way the Initiative wasn’t grounded enough in this world and how weak its endgame villain came off.

Season 5 brought the legit only thing about this show that I hate. Dawn Summers.

Urgh. It makes me shudder to just think about her. She’s such an awful and useless and stupid person. And yes, I’m saying person here, because “character” would blame it on the writing and make it sound like she’s a badly written character, which she is not. She was intended to be the annoying, dumb, useless little sister. Not every character can or has to be flawless or lovable. She’s just that… one that isn’t.

And she just becomes worse in season 6, honestly. She is such a self-centered brat that has no concept of the struggles of others. Like. Yes, I understand that she has problems and that she suffers too, but so does everyone and if someone doesn’t have time for her, she acts out. They just… They do have a lot on their plates, trying to save the world and keep you from being homeless, you know? Which, okay, was a solid portrayal of an angsty, bratty teen, I suppose, because teenagers, as I recall from my own time as one, are fascinatingly blind for the struggles of adults. Doesn’t make her less annoying though.

I take back what I said earlier, about not being able to pick a favorite season. Season 6 is my favorite season, which in itself is baffling. Normally, I pick one of the very early seasons of a show because they keep declining afterward until they crash and burn.

Season 6 did the exact opposite of what other shows do. Where other shows feel the need to top it all off, go wilder and broader and more brutal and bigger enemies until it becomes an unrealistic mess, this one just…

Three human boys.

That’s the enemy of the season. Just three stupid idiots who play pranks on the good guys, for the most part. And it was the perfect choice, because instead of having to deal with those major Big Bads, we get the chance to deal with the characters. The one thing I keep complaining about in other shows, how they’re too overcrowded with plot to even give the characters any time to deal with stuff or interact.

Buffy did it.

They stepped back from the Big Bad in favor of dealing with the bigger issues. Dawn being not a real human and not dealing well with that. Buffy having died and being brought back. Willow becoming addicted to magic. Xander… completely fucking up the best thing in his life.

We have character plots in this season.

Character plots that still end in a big battle of epic proportions when Willow literally becomes a Dark Witch powerful enough to destroy the world. But instead of it being some epic battle, it’s one of the… quietest fights ever and it’s brought home in such a beautiful way because it’s about grief and loss and pain and love.

And those. Those are the moments that make Buffy the most perfect TV show to me. It never loses its humanity. Maybe the most emotional scene in all of this show happened in season 5, when Joyce Summers died and Anya talked about her death, about the concept of death. That will never cease to make me cry.

And season 7 was the perfect ending. The way it rounded things up, it brought every single thing full circle, all the way to that above mentioned scene of Giles, Buffy, Willow and Xander parting ways before the very final battle, among all the loudness of everyone, it is brought to the forefront one last time that it is them.

The way they solved the whole Slayer thing, the Big Bad they chose for their final season, the development. Nathan Fillion as one of the creepiest bad guys ever. The fact that, even after all those seasons already, Buffy still had a struggle, had to prove herself.

I have one or two major bones to pick with it, because I hated when the group decided “Lol, nope, we don’t need you, Buffy”… that broke my heart. It breaks my heart every single time I watch it because even her friends tell her they need a break from her. I mean, I love how she found safety and support in Spike’s arms after that scene, but that it happened at all and that after things of course go wrong without Buffy, they all come crawling back… it makes me angry. It was important to bring them all as a team together, but to me it will always feel OoC coming from those she had fought alongside with for seven years, those who should always have her back who always did have her back.

And, when talking about bones to pick, aside from weak season 4 and Dawn Summers, there’s just one more major thing that I have a problem with.

Hank Summers. For those who forgot because he’s literally only been in two episodes, that’s Buffy’s dad. Because Buffy has a father. The “(half-)orphan”-trope is very overused, but I genuinely think this show would have benefitted from it.

Hank Summers does nothing. Not even when his ex-wife dies and his teenage daughter and barely-above-twenty daughter are left all on their own. He doesn’t pitch in with money, he doesn’t visit, he doesn’t even think about taking Dawn in and taking care of her himself.

I mean. Same as with Dawn, it can just be said that he is a Bad Person and a Seriously Bad Dad, but… Give me a break, Buffy deserved better than that. Having him be dead would really have been better, especially when Joyce dies and he just… “Nope, no interest in those kids”.

And on that note, let me add Faith (who I accidentally forgot about before). She’s... probably the most complex character, because it’s easy to hate her, but it’s also kind of easy to love her. She’s definitely the most flawed character and that’s what makes her good. Because she’s bad. She gets the same powers as Buffy, but unlike other Slayers, she gets morally corrupted. But she also finds her way again. She’s a badass bitch and she definitely brought something new to the table. I loved how flawed she was, because she was not a good person, but when needed, she was one of the good guys. They never pretended to turn her around into a good person though, she always stayed true to herself.

The reason I’m adding her here is because I feel like she messes up the mythology a little. Part of me really loved how they brought in Kendra after Buffy died, because “When the Slayer dies, another Slayer awakens” and that they remembered to keep with that when Kendra died. But after that, this kind of really fell apart and is one of the biggest plot-holes to the show, in my eyes.

Buffy died three times. But only her first death awakened a new Slayer. Now, you can argue that with that, the mantle was passed on, but... When Buffy came back from the dead, she still had her Slayer abilities. She was still the Slayer, she wasn’t suddenly back to being the normal girl she was before she turned sixteen and became the Slayer. So technically, considering she was still the Slayer, her other deaths should have also passed on the mantle and thus awoken two more Slayers.

Not to mention... in the history of Slayers, Buffy was the first one to be brought back to life? I always found that hard to believe. No one ever used CPR or magic on a Slayer before? I doubt it.

So in this very rich and grounded lore and mythology, I have a problem with “We got Kendra and then we got Faith and... we don’t bother explaining why we never got any additional Slayers”.

Now, as we conclude this, let me wrap up what exactly makes Buffy the Vampire Slayer the most perfect TV show to me.

1.) The superb writing.

Not just the plot as I laid it out above, the way they knew when to step back and when to give character plotlines instead of big and loud action plots. Simply the dialogues alone. This show holds up. It’s a time-capsule of the 90s, sure, but its writing and dialogues are still funny, emotional, heavy, with exactly the right words chosen. The writing on this show is in every aspect overwhelmingly brilliant.

2.) The characters.

They’re individual, they’re well-developed, they have their own plots and relationships and they are all important, not just the titular character. It inverted tropes with its characters, it managed to put strong female characters out there without having “being a strong female character” be their only and defining character trades.

3.) The story.

Okay, this is technically part of the writing too, but I think it deserves its special shout-out. Because this show has a consistent lore where not all of a sudden all the time something new is shoehorned in and retconned in and where it comes apart by the seams the more seasons it has because you notice the writers didn’t think ahead so far. No, this world is fleshed out, its lore is established and as it is. It’s consistent.

Yes, it’s not flawless, but damn it’s the closest to flawless that I’ve ever seen.

[hsj-scenarios]

The Ryosukekeke Saga  Continues...

Mod J had not checked her inbox, phone, and messages in a while, mostly avoiding messages from the OG who continued to vacillate between out of control anger with threats and swear words, and completely broken sobbing, pleading. That said, she finally felt brave enough to take a look--we peek into her world as she skims through the hundreds of messages...

Eighteen days ago:

Ryosuke:

I see what you all have done! （；¬＿¬) Who is this...this.... @keito-okamoto person? A new Mod? Is that what it is? AND MOD L!!!!!!! OMG WOULD YOU LOOK AT THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (☞◣д◢)☞

Ryosuke:

Mod L (╬ಠ益ಠ)  backing up this person, this @keito-okamoto person, plus I never settled on the ‘OG’ title. Still! What, did you guys bring on a new mod for the express purpose of disparaging my character? Honestly, I’d like to talk about this. 

And the fact that you’ve changed your password Mod J. 

⁀⊙﹏☉⁀ WTF

I thought we had an agreement. I’m so put out with you I am going to avoid any song with your name in it from now on. Seriously, I’m making someone else sing my lines--and when I say “I love you, Juliet” I am talking to every other Juliet in the world, but NOT YOU!!!!!!!!! 

（￣へ￣）

Mod J: ( responding two and a half weeks later)

ILY. That’s not the new mod, that’s Mod C, your paranoia is on high alert,  you need to simmer down now. Look no one is even talking about this anymore! I won’t even be at the concerts, so I don’t care what you do at them......you’re such a toddler.

17 Days Ago:

Ryosuke: 

WTF is this!?! (; ･`д･´) I thought ( •̀ω•́ )σ you were going to talk to Mod L to get her back on my side! Instead of putting this entire debacle to rest, she is fanning the flames. That quote is taken entirely out of context. It’s absurd and it might even be defamation, or libel, or something, hell, I’m no lawyer. But I DO keep one on retainer--your blog may be hearing from him. 

（　｀ー´）OG OUT! 

Mod J:  (2 minutes after two and a half weeks later)

Ah, see I never said that, ever--you said it...a thousand times, but I never said it or agreed to it. I told you that you needed to take it up with them, because I am NOT your messenger. I’m sure this quote IS out of context, the same way you screaming “Mommy” while on the roller coaster was. I didn’t know Kekeke was such a gifted ventriloquist! *sarcasm off*

15 Days Ago:

Ryosuke: 

Tell Mod L she at least got this s*** right. (*´ー`)

OMG-- @(。・-・)@ your blog is a three ring circus lacking a f***ing ringmaster on it’s best day--on its worst it’s like one of those zoos on Zoo Tycoon where they build this huge zoo, with hundreds of thousands of patrons, and then start feeding the pedestrians to the dinosaurs--or just let all of the carnivorous animals loose. 

へ‿(ツ)‿ㄏ Either way. 

Still, factually speaking, if I were to be a courtesan this is absolutely and unequivocally true. I would be the best, I would win it all, and I would f***ing crush everyone else out of the competition with my prowess.

╭( ･ㅂ･)و ̑̑ ＂

I want more about me, and this, who am I making the check out to?

(also, I’m gonna beat the hell out of Chinen for putting a d*** filter on my computer now!) （○｀Ｏ´○）

(also, wtf Mod J, ༶ඬ༝ඬ༶ why you gotta bring that up? Am I no longer your number one?)

Mod J:  (5 minutes after two and a half weeks later)

I just...no comment. (yes, you are still my no 1! mmmwah)

11 Days Ago:

Ryosuke: 

I see you’ve closed the requests. <(_ _)> Thank GOD! I know there are at least fifty requests that I sent in about me, which have not been filled to date. Now maybe you can put some quality material out about ME! Please, Mod J, it’s been so long, so long....I’m so sad all the time. I can’t even handle and we’re on tour and I need happy happy happy--give me the happy please!? 

.·´¯`(>▂<)´¯`·.PLEASE I AM BEGGING YOU.

BTW, why aren’t you responding to me? 

｡･ﾟヾ(✦థ ｪ థ)ﾉ｡ﾟ･｡

I’ve left messages on your cell phone, your house phone, your email (both), Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, Linked In, Live Journal, and of course, here. I even got a hold of your neighbor and asked them to tell you to contact me, and if they didn’t I need to know, I gave them a lot of money to do that.

((*｀ﾟдﾟ)ゞ PLEASE SHOW MERCY ON ME!

(and I didn’t even catch the kiss, didn’t even watch it come near me, I swatted it away with great force!)

8 Days Ago:

Ryosuke:

This fill was strangely accurate. Terrifyingly so. Pls stop. (⁎˃ᆺ˂)

(；´･Д･)(where are you Juliet?)

6 Days Ago:

Ryosuke:

Mod J, I am going to need you to help me out here. ヽ(ﾟДﾟ)ﾉ  I’m not even kidding, okay? I need you to be f***ing serious right now, cause I am in dire need of your help! 

( ⚆ _ ⚆ )

How much do you know about this “Mod L” person? ( ⁰д⁰) Cause...well...I mean, I had a detective come into my house looking for hidden cameras and taps. Paranoid? Nope, realistic, because this is too much like a genuine conversation I actually had with Yutti. I’m freaking out right now. ヽ〔ﾟДﾟ〕丿 Could Mod L be a spy? Could Mod L be someone close to Jump? Could Mod L be someone IN JUMP!?!?! <|๑⊙Д⊙|/

OMG!  ε=ε=(怒ﾟДﾟ)ﾉ

Please help! Σ(ﾟДﾟ;≡｀ﾟдﾟ)

Mod J  (7 minutes after two and a half weeks later)

You do need help, but not the kind I can offer. Yama-chan, this is all just fiction, not your actual real life. I mean, if you need us to, we’ll put a disclaimer like those movies where it says anything resembling a real life event or person is strictly coincidental. But still...Mod L isn’t in Jump. 

You’re just really not as complex as you think you are to be honest. I mean, how do you think we all write you so accurately? 

Ryosuke: (2 seconds after the response from Mod J)

Is that an insult? (｡•́︿•̀｡) I’m dizzy again, I mean the world is tilting sideways, why have you forsaken me Mod J?! 

.·´¯`(>▂<)´¯`·.

Why!? 

6 Days Ago:

Ryosuke and Daiki’s friendship in one gif:

Ryosuke:

Yes.

Not gonna lie, I was drinking a soda when I scrolled past this and it literally came out of my nose. It  hurt.  

Still...｜ｏ゜）Accurate. Terrifyingly accurate. ヘ（。□°）ヘ TOO accurate. I am still leaning toward my hypothesis. Until you offer me proof, anything is possible. Still, I’m for sure the guy in yellow. 

⁀⊙﹏☉⁀ Right? Right??

5 Days Ago:

Ryosuke: 

YES. (it wasn’t me I swear!)

4 Days Ago:

Management: Okay guys, I know Dear was a great outlet to show your sexy sides but we kind of want I/O to be a little more PG.

Ryosuke:

The actual conversation was “Guys, this is going to be a tour with a lot of children attending so we are going to need to keep the atmosphere ‘family friendly’ this time.”

Just to be clear, they were sure as hell staring straight at me while they said it, and you know, that just makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up like someone’s challenging me right up here in my dojo. 

So I plainly responded, “F*** you, how’s that for family friendly?”

Actually, that didn’t really happen, okay, so it did in my head though and that should count for something. That said, an intelligent conversation took place and they decided it would be wisdom to allow us to perform what we wanted.

ヽ( ･∀･)ﾉ┌┛Σ(ノ `Д´)ノ 

(If Dai-chan or Chii-chan contact you and tell any lies about me pitching a fit and crying and threatening to quit because the world NEEDS my “ah ah ahhhs”, please hear them as the blatant and bold-faced lies they are!)

4 Days Ago:

Ryosuke:

This is true, except it really wasn’t Keito. (>^_^)><(^o^<) He’s been going through a lot lately--and you know...no matter how selfish you guys seem to think I am, I have a heart for the guy! (ps I meant love, not give-- (; ･`д･´)  I can’t write the word f*** on my phone but it can apparently feel the f*** free to change my non-swear words at will!)

3 Days Ago:

Ryosuke: 

This isn’t a good thing--it’s still being talked about. 

(ノ｀Д´)ノ~┻━┻

STILL BEING TALKED ABOUT! 

This is a bad thing. Stop them--don’t you have any power or control Mod J? What are you DOING about all of this!?! First it was the bane of my existence the BPA, I can’t f***ing drive anywhere now, because everyone apparently knows what car I drive! I mean, let’s be honest, I stand out anyway, so I mean the car--I mean, f***, I’m getting off track--listen, this same person is...just, now they’re saying they did the Kekeke thing too? 

┻━┻ ︵ヽ(`Д´)ﾉ︵ ┻━┻

DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MANY TIMES THAT MAN HAS LEFT MESSAGES ON MY CELL PHONE CACKLING MADLY!? All hours of the day and night I tell you! 

Щ(º̩̩́Дº̩̩̀щ) Can’t you ban them? For me? Please?! I’ll say “I love you Juliet” and mean you, only you in all the world of all of the girls named Juliet! 

(/□＼*)・゜PLEASE.

3 Days Ago:

Ryosuke:

Please? 。ﾟ(ﾟﾉД｀ﾟ)ﾟ｡

3 Days Ago:

Ryosuke:

(ɔˆ ³(ˆ⌣ˆc) I LOVE YOU JULIET! PLEASE 

・゜・(ノД`) PLEASE PLEASE!??!?!!? (｡♥‿♥｡)

2 Days Ago:

Ryosuke:

(⊙_☉) What the actual F*** IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!? F***ing hell! This is insane. You’re all crazy. (⊙.☉)7

ꉂ (๑¯ਊ¯)σ л̵ʱªʱªʱª (ps I sent this to Takaki--and now he’s mad at me because I wouldn’t tell him where it came from! lolololololol)

2 Days Ago:

Ryosuke:

Less food network, more writing about me. (´｀;) ？What has happened to your blog?

YOU STILL AREN’T ANSWERING ME!?!? WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY??

2 Days Ago:

Ryosuke:

Did I do something? (′︿‵｡) Did I? (´•ω•̥`) I can’t fix it if you won’t talk to me.

2 Days Ago:

Ryosuke:

This is both alarming at how accurate it is (again!) and that you guys paint me to be some kind of control freak who can’t handle a relationship without knowing every intimate detail of someone’s life. 

...

...

Well, it’s still alarming how accurate it is anyway. 

I’m hiring a bodyguard.

I quit you. ~(>_<。)＼

1 Day Ago:

HS7 @ the 113th 1130000000000000th time that Chinen mentioned Ohno: 

Ryosuke:

I fixed this for you.

(I can’t quit you, please, you guys gotta still love me, okay!? I didn’t mean it!)

1 Day Ago:

Keito after he watched Ryosuke’s kissing scene 4 84 times, twelve times while Ryosuke was in the room with him begging him not to.

Ryosuke:

I fixed this for you.

1 Day Ago:

Yuto: Date someone who will drag you outside at 3am to look at the stars :)

Ryosuke: If anyone, and I mean /anyone/, wakes me up at 3am to go look at the damn sky without sexual gratification in some way, shape, or form they will be removed indefinitely from my life.

Ryosuke:

I fixed this for you. Just saying, I love to sleep but c’mon. Just...c’mon!

Mod J:  (12 minutes after two and a half weeks later)

Bless your heart. Just...bless it.

Ryosuke:  (20 seconds later)

Are you patronizing me? ｢(ﾟﾍﾟ)

Mod J:

No, I really want your heart to be very blessed, you’ve worked yourself up into a frenzy, haven’t you? Deep breath, everything is fine, people are all about Yuya and the salad ship now, you know? Kekeke will get tired of paying us to torture you, and everything will go back to normal, with our blog filled with lots of stories that make you look like the amazing guy you really are! Just take a deep breath, it’s all going to be okay! I’ll take good care of you from here!

Ryosuke:

ヾ(;ﾟ;Д;ﾟ;)ﾉﾞYou promise?

Mod J:

I promise.

Ryosuke:

(‘∀’●)♡ ILY Juliet.

Juliet:

ILY2 (´∀｀)♡

Today:

Ryosuke: 

Mod J, I take back everything! I just saw that the person who started all of this Ryosukekeke craziness is the one who was in Paris! 

(‘∀’●)♡ Listen, I was terrified, being in a foreign country, facing so many fans, and not sure what the reception would be. I’m used to facing those kinds of challenges with the other Jump members, not by myself--there’s always been a level of security in having everyone there, you know? But this time, I was all alone...

So here I was feeling so alone and worried and afraid and then there was this lovely fan, smiling, and happy, and overjoyed--holding this uchiwa that said “Ryosukekeke” and I swear, I laughed so hard! I really did!

It was this bright shining moment, and the fan was so lovely--a happy smile in the midst of so much trepidation--and there was such peace to be found in the idea that there was at least one fan there who wasn’t going to approach me from the perspective that I was Japanese ( ´△｀) and not whatever nationality they wanted Ed to be (despite it being fictional), who wasn’t going to come at me from the thought that I couldn’t possibly be good enough, ฅ(๑’Δ’๑) that our team couldn’t pull it off, that I was going to fail the collective FMA fandom.

That one fan was going to be there to see me, ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ Yamada Ryosuke, and not just as the Idol from Jump either! But as the ~ヾ(＾∇＾) PERSON I really am--as there’s no show that proves more about who I am genuinely than our own show does! That fan watched the show enough to know about my love/hate relationship with Kekeke--and you know what? 

d=(´▽｀)=b I’ll go through anything to give back to that fan, even suffer through months of ridicule from my members, and incessant phone call messages from Kekeke, and even having a lot of posts on your blog that make fun of me! Because, there’s no way I can say, not for one second, that my feelings are more important than that single fan’s happiness. 

（⌒▽⌒ゞ Not for one second.

To my Dear @sekairiinu, (ɔˆ ³(ˆ⌣ˆc) my “Ryosukekeke” fan--thank you for being a bright light in a sea of uncertainty. 

（*’∀’人）♥ I pay my respects with my embarrassment gladly! 

--OG

PS I am still not so sure about your Mod L. Can you give me definitive proof that she ISN’T someone in Jump?!

[bluephoenixdruidicprincess]

Shadowhunters Season 2 Review and Thoughts for Season 3

Alright, it’s that time again. It’s time for me to give you all the low-down on Shadowhunters Season 2 as a whole. My thoughts, my feelings, and improvements I would like to see made in Season 3. Season 2 was definitely an improvement over Season 1 but trust me, it still has its issues.

This is going to be an honest review of my thoughts and feelings regarding this show. If you’re the kind of Shadowhunters fan where you only want to hear positive things about the show, this is not the place for you. If you decide to stick around and get offended by what is said, then that’s on you. I warned you. Just know that if you send me any rude comments or messages, I will 100% ignore you. I find that’s the best way to deal with bullies. I work 14 hour days. Do you really think I want to waste my incredibly valuable free time dealing with derogatory comments? Hell no. This review will consist of my honest opinions. Opinions are never right or wrong. I’m not telling you how to think and feel. I’m telling you what I think and feel. So please, let’s discuss with dignity and respect. If I’m critical about the show, it’s only because I want it to get better. There is, in fact, a difference between hating a show and being critical of it. I do not hate Shadowhunters; I am being critical and analyzing the flaws as I would with any other show. There are positives but there are also negatives. It’s great if you want to promote positivity with this show (and I encourage you to do so) but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t acknowledge the things that are legitimately wrong with it. Also, keep in mind that despite the fact that I do love the books, me being critical of this show has nothing to do with my love of the books. I don’t really care if the show deviates from the source material as long as it’s good and it makes sense. My problems with this show are problems that I would have with any show or book for that matter. I think it’s perfectly reasonable to take issue with a show that has plot holes, shoddy world-building and inconsistent characters. There will be spoilers for the books and movies.

I want to preface this with I am neither PRO nor ANTI Shadowhunters. I see it as neither a good or horrible show. It’s serviceable. That’s really what this show is. Ultimately, as far as tv shows goes on their own, it’s nothing all that special. It could be -- it certainly tries -- but at the end of the day, it falls flat. It’s a show where it’s interesting to watch and see what’s going to happen, but I also don’t find myself all that excited to watch the newest episode. This show has never gotten me to the point where I was counting down the days until the next episode airs. Usually, I’ll watch an episode and then I’ll be like, “Ok. That was alright. I’m ready to go watch something else now.” There’s no, “OMG! That episode was insane. When is the next one coming out?” That has never happened to me with this show. This is going to be spread into two different sections. The show’s storytelling and the characters and their relationships. So let’s get on with this.

The Storytelling

If there is one good thing I have to say about Shadowhunters in its sophomore season, is that compared to Season 1, vast improvements were made to the writing. Granted, the bar wasn’t set all that high considering how nonsensical and ridiculous Season 1 was but hey, it was an improvement. It was an improvement in the sense that at least now, the episodes are arcing properly. I may not have been a big fan of how a lot of the actual story was being told, but at least it was arcing. But, I do have to say that overall, Season 2 had a very clunky feel to it. There were a lot of different plot points going around and most of them were dropped without having any real resolution. Izzy’s drug addiction was completely dropped, her insecurities toward Alec were dropped, Aldertree served absolutely no purpose in the overarching plot in season 2, Jocelyn’s death did absolutely nothing for the story. It didn’t drive Clary in any way which was actually the idea behind it. While under a spell, Alec attempts to commit suicide because of the guilt he has for the part he played in Jocelyn’s death and then that’s completely dropped. The demon-shadowhunter baby plot point never shows up again. Trust me, I could go on and on. I haven’t even hit 2B yet. But I don’t want this post to end up being 15 pages long so I’m going to stop here. Let’s not get me started on the dumbness and pointlessness that is Azazel. I’m sure you guys get the point. I do feel like Season 3 is probably going to be written a little better than Season 2. For Season 2, we had new showrunners and I think ultimately, they were using Season 2 to filter out a lot of the weird plot writing that Season 1 had going on. With a lot of those weird plot points closed out now, Season 3 is probably going to arc much better. Or at least one can hope. I am definitely going to use Season 3 as a factor in deciding whether or not I’m even going to stick with the show.

I’ve talked about the show’s issues with arcing, dropped storylines, now let’s talk about elements of writing that drive a show. Let’s begin with pacing. Pacing was a HUGE problem with Season 1. Now, Season 2 episodes were a little bit better paced but there were still points when characters jumped to conclusions about something and you’re just like, “Wait, how did we get from Point A to Point B?” If I have one critique to make regarding this show’s pacing, they need to stop having 3 or 4 plot points going on in a single episode. This show has so much potential to be really awesome if they could focus on the characters and their interactions with each other. The characters, their actions, their motivations is what should be moving the plot forward but it’s the other way around in this show. And that also adds to the clunkiness of the storytelling. An episode should have an A plot and a B plot and that’s it. But sometimes we’re getting C, D, and even E plots at times in a single episode. All of these are characters are super interesting. Let’s spend less time with the plot and more with the characters.

Another issue this show has is payoffs. This kind of goes along with pacing. The show isn’t always evenly paced in its plot which is why we sometimes have moments within the story that kind of come out of left field. If you have an idea of where you want your character to be at a certain point in the season, you need to pace that character development out. So when that character has that really epic moment, it completely “wows” your audience. This is what’s known as a pay-off. If you don’t pace it well, the pay-off is very bland and uninteresting. A good example of this is in the Season 2 finale. That moment when Clary was about to be executed and Jace manages to break free and save her. The pay-off could’ve been amazing but I found myself asking, “Why didn’t he just do this in the tent?” All throughout 2B, Jace has never been depicted of having problems using his angelic superpower and yet now, he’s only willing to use it to break free of the chains when Clary’s about to be killed? This would’ve worked fine if throughout 2B, we’d seen Jace having issues using this power and then in this moment, when he sees Clary about to be killed, that’s when he’s able to turn it on. That is what’s known as a pay-off. And it could’ve added something to the Clace dynamic. Then, of course, the other big thing I’ve talked about is Clary’s fighting skills. This is something I wish they had paced out a little more evenly so when she killed Valentine in the finale, it would’ve been far more impactful. Everyone likes to talk about how Clary was so bad-ass in that moment but for me, it was a “whatever” moment. I’ve lost count of how many Circle members Clary actually killed without pause through the duration of Season 2. And I’m supposed to be impressed that she killed Valentine? What would’ve been far more impressive is if throughout the series, we see her learning how to fight, stumbling through at times (because that is far more realistic), her mother’s death driving her to be better and then finally in this moment after watching Valentine kill Jace, knowing Valentine’s actions led to her mother’s death and the destruction of her brother’s soul, she’s able to call forth everything she’s learned to exact her revenge. To finally destroy the man who took everything from her. Once again, that’s a payoff. But instead, it just falls flat. Yes, it’s great to see a girl be a bad-ass but at the same time, it’s nothing I haven’t seen her do before. Why should I care? Because it’s Valentine this time? In Season 3, I would definitely like to see a greater emphasis placed on character motivations and payoffs.

This show has a huge subtlety issue as well. Now this pops up in various forms throughout the writing. Sometimes, it’s through character actions or sometimes it’s over-explaining things through dialogue. Either way, it leaves the audience with the impression that the writers think their audience is stupid. Now, my most hated scene in the Season 2 finale is that moment when Alec was given the specific job to take care of the demons while Magnus closes the rift. And Alec takes one shot and misses and then decides he needs to abandon the mission and go to Magnus pleading for help. Alec would never do this. His job was to keep the demon off of Magnus and instead he leads it directly to Magnus? It makes no sense particularly since earlier in the episode, Alec took multiple shots to slay the demon that was flying around Manhattan and it never phased him when he missed. He was chillin like a melon. And it goes completely against what we know about Alec to begin with. He is not afraid to sacrifice himself to save the people he loves. He would not have retreated back to Magnus. He would’ve continued fighting until he killed the demon or the demon killed him. Because in Alec’s eyes, the life of Magnus and his sister is far more important. I get what this scene was going for. They wanted to showcase that Magnus still cared about Alec but there are hundreds of ways they could’ve done this. But I guess the writers were afraid that it wouldn’t have been clear that Magnus still cared about Alec if it wasn’t this big huge moment of Alec pleading Magnus to save him? If you don’t have subtlety in your story telling, you also lose a lot of the impact. The dialogue also needs some work in this as well. The show has the tendency to spoon-feed information that can be inferred by the audience. I feel like this show is trying to gain the early to mid-20s audience. If this is the case, how about treating us like we’re intelligent 20-year-old adults? Exactly how bad do they think the public school system is that we can’t infer what something called “a Kill Tree” does or that Edomi are demons that come from Edom? The dialogue at times gets a little clunky because of this need to over-state everything.

I also have a problem with how this show deals with conflicts. And this stems from the arcing as well as the pacing problem. This show resolves conflicts within the story alarmingly fast. There are conflicts that can’t be resolved easily and every time the show does, you lose the impact of these characters feeling like real people. It also hinders the plot because it makes the plot feel very disjointed. 

Now let’s talk about the adaptation part of the story-telling. My problem with this show has never been them not following the books. My problem is them following the books, then not following the books, and then going back to following the books again without keeping with the changes they made. Let me better explain this, as I know it’s a little confusing. This show will make changes to a particular plot or character point that doesn’t exist in the books. And that’s fine. I don’t have a problem with that. My problem is that they’ll make those changes and then take another scene 100 pages down the line out of the book and use it nearly verbatim. When you made that original change, the context has changed as well which means that scene isn’t going to work the same way. You have to change that scene to fit the new context. An example of this is the infamous Seelie Court kiss scene. Previously in Season 2, the writers had made the change that Clary was really enjoying this new-found romantic relationship with Simon. Or at least, there weren’t any hints that she was secretly coveting Jace in episodes prior. She had even told Simon that despite knowing Jace isn’t her brother, she had no plans to break it off with Simon. She wanted to be with him. And this change would’ve been alright but the show still tried to keep the Seelie Court kiss scene more or less verbatim as it is in the books. In the books, this scene and how it plays out makes sense because the reader could always tell that even though Clary didn’t overtly hate her romantic relationship with Simon, it didn’t make her feel the same way she felt when she was with Jace. None of that is applied in the show. The show goes on stating that Jace is the kiss that will set them free as it is the kiss Clary most desires but there was no set up to this revelation so the pay-off of the kiss scene doesn’t work. Because you were never really led to believe that while Clary was dating Simon she wanted to be with Jace. As I said, they made a change and as a result the context has changed so the future writing also needed to change…which they didn’t do. When authors write certain things at certain points in their books, it’s for a very calculated reason. Everything more or less has a purpose. When you adapt a book to any kind of film, it’s a given that changes are going to have to be made and that has never been my issue with the show. It’s always been them making a change and then not having the rest of the story change along with it to support that change. Ultimately, at the end of the day, I wish Shadowhunters had taken The Vampire Diaries or the The 100 approach to their writing. I wish they had taken the bones of the source material and then told their own story and created the characters and their personalities in their own way. When Shadowhunters was first announced, initially, that’s what I thought they were going to do. I can’t help but feel like maybe this show might’ve been better written and executed if it weren’t for them being so bogged down by the source material. As much as I love the books (and trust me, I do), this show could have really benefited from a Kevin Williamson level of adaptation. For those of you who don’t know, he was the one who developed The Vampire Diaries for tv adaptation and I was always really impressed with how it was adapted. And I will never apologize for liking Vampire Diaries. Yes, it got a little convoluted in later seasons but seasons 1-3 are fantastic. I am more or less excited for Shadowhunters Season 3 because we are starting to delve into the second half of The Mortal Instruments series and I feel like the second half is going to work much better for adapting. Shadowhunters made the decision to create the show with an ensemble cast in mind however, the first half of The Mortal Instruments isn’t very conducive for an ensemble cast. You pretty much follow Clary and Jace and that’s about it. But the second half starts focusing much more heavily on the other characters. And I feel like it’s definitely going to be easier to adapt. Season 1 and 2 were bogged down by the fact that in the source material, there isn’t a whole lot that characters like Alec, Magnus, Izzy, and Luke are actually doing. Clary and Jace are the ones that are driving the story. And it’s very clear with the storytelling in the show, that the writers didn’t really know what to do with them. This is definitely something I think is going to be improved in Season 3.

Season 3 also needs to work on their world-building. More specifically, their use of magic systems. I continues to grate my nerves that there are no rules to their magic system. As I’ve said before, rules are so important in a fantasy and most importantly in the magic system within that fantasy. If your magic system has no rules then you can do anything with magic. If you can do anything with magic, what makes it compelling? All it does is become a convenient plot device. And I love magic systems. I don’t want to see a magic system be used as a cheap plot device. I want magic to be its own character in a way.

So there are certain themes I’d like to see explored in Season 3. Well, really only one theme. And that is, “consequences”. This show has a huge problem with it’s characters never facing any true consequences for their actions. In the finale, it was laughable to me that when Jace mentions to Clary that she can’t just bring someone back from the dead without a consequence and she’s all, “not this time. This time there won’t be any consequences.” This line is funny to me because it actually implies that Clary has faced consequences for her actions before, which she has not. I really hope the show goes into this theme in Season 3. That they really bring to the fore front that Clary’s selfish nature is the root cause for these horrible things that are going to happen. I really hope the show has the guts to go this direction. They probably won’t considering how much they love to paint Clary as this Mary Sue who is beyond special and could never do anything wrong because she’s so selfless and wonderful (ugh, I just vomited a little in my mouth writing that). But as Season 3 hasn’t aired yet, I’m going to hope for the best. It’s not just Clary that has this issue either. It’s the show’s story-telling as a whole. Their inability to have any truly impactful consequences. The best example is how Max played out in Season 2B. Now, I’m not saying that Max should have died, as he does in the books. I’m saying something resonatingly impactful should’ve happened to him. My own dark theory was that Jonathon hurt him so bad that it put him in a coma that he would never wake up from and that was the driving force for Izzy to go after Jonathon. And it kind of sort of happened. Max does go into a coma but then he gets a miracle treatment from the Silent Brothers and he’s perfectly fine now. It has no lasting impact. Essentially there was no consequence for anyone letting Jonathon into their lives besides a couple of nameless dead shadowhunters. Max recovers and then they go after Jonathon. Yes, they’re mad about what Jonathon did to Max but ultimately, it’s not going to leave a lasting impression on their psyche. It definitely felt like the writers chickened out. There are a lot of different directions the theme of consequences could take Season 3 and I hope the writers are brave enough to take it because at this point, they really need it.

Characters and Their Relationships

Let’s talk about these characters and their relationships now. How these characters are depicted gets very uneven at times. And this show has an issue with slow-burn. They do not know how to do a slow-burn. It stems from their pacing and subtlety issues. They want people to like this show so badly that they’re forgetting why people cling to fandoms in the first place. It’s not that two people are in a wonderful relationship that leaves you in a pile of goo everytime you see them together on screen, it’s how they got there, how their relationship developed, how they as characters develop. That’s what leaves you in a pile of goo. And I haven’t had that experience with this show yet. Yes, I love Malec but there are so many problems with the writing that prevents me from having that gooey feeling. This show is by no means bad but i wouldn’t call it good either. The times it leans closer to the good spectrum are when the characters are driving the story. Let’s start talking about these characters.

First up is Clary. Oh boy. I’ve made no secret about my distaste for Clary. And it’s really difficult to pinpoint exactly what it is about her that grates on my nerves. There’s a lot of little things that bother me. Ultimately, it’s the Mary Sue-ness of her character. As I said earlier, it’s her doing really selfish things but everyone else ignoring it because they think she’s so selfless and wonderful. Now, I don’t have a problem with Clary being a selfish person. At her core, that’s what she is. She follows her heart and that leads her to doing selfish things. It’s perfectly human. Humans are selfish beings. Even when we go out of our way to help others, there’s still a selfish undertone – for a lot of us, it makes us feel good knowing we helped someone, it benefited us in some way. But the fact that no one calls Clary out on her crap any more is what I dislike. Clary does these selfish acts because it’s a way to push the plot forward but it’s never used to push her character forward and that’s the issue I have with her. If the show didn’t tote her around as this perfect being and just own up to the fact that she is selfish, I would have no issues with Clary. Dare I say it, I may even like her. Which is why I mentioned earlier when I talked about the consequences theme for Season 3, I would like to see her selfish nature be called to the fore front. For Clary to really be held accountable for her selfish decisions. For her to really look at herself and be like, “oh, no. I’m causing this. Everything bad that’s happening is all because of me.” Really, I just want the show to do something that will make this audience think, “Yeah. She’s not perfect. She makes mistakes.”

On to Jace. I fluctuate a lot on my feelings for Jace. Dom Sherwood does a fantastic job of portraying him. That’s never been my issue. He is fantastic at bringing this very angsty feel to Jace. Which is important because Jace is quite angsty. And I do love it when male characters show their vulnerable side. However, sometimes the writers take Jace’s angst to an absurd level. Just how easily this guy gets moved to tears, I find a little ridiculous. This guy is more emotional than I have been in my entire life. And I say that with the time period I went through puberty in mind where getting a B on a homework assignment was enough to drive me to tears. It’s really hard for me to believe that a 20-year-old, whether they be male, female, unspecified gender, whatever, would be crying over some of the things he cries over. My feelings might be hurt a little but I don’t think I’d cry over some of these things. But I’m also a really sarcastic person and sarcastic people usually don’t let too many things bother them. We believe in hiding our insecurities through jokes. It’s probably why I like Book Jace so much. A lot of the fandom thinks Book Jace is mean. I don’t know where they get that. I think he’s really funny and whenever the fandom says that he’s mean, I really have to question how they, as a person, functions in the real world. Trust me, there are some genuinely mean people in the real world. Some of them are located right here in this fandom. If you think Book Jace is mean, how do you deal with those people? But don’t take this to mean I hate Jace. I haven’t genuinely hated Jace since Season 1 Episode 6 when I changed his name (temporarily) to The Douche. I like him much more in Season 2. His motivations and his character development as a whole is super interesting. And I love it when he gets snarky. Doesn’t happen nearly as much as it should, though. I live for the moments when Jace gets sassy. I really like what Christine from polandbanannasbooks said about the kind of person Book Jace is. He’s a more sexy and angsty version of Chandler Bing. I’d like to see that guy pop up more in the show.

With Clary and Jace talked about now, let’s take a brief interlude and talk about Clace now. Clace is definitely an example of a couple they rushed when they didn’t need to. It’s not that Kat and Dom have bad chemistry, They have this fun, breezy chemistry about them that works super well when they’re just hanging out. However, when it gets to the point where they’re being forced into having a romantic, epic moment, it’s just that. It feels forced. The show also doesn’t do them any favors by making them so generically YA at the same time. They fall for each other simply because “they were meant for each other.” No work has actually been put forth into developing their relationship, what it is about each other that they like so much. It’s just bland, cheesy, YA tropes. And not the good kind of YA tropes. My hopes for Season 3 is that we’ll get moments where they’re start actively learning about each other on an intellectual level.

For Simon as a character, I’m not really super interested in him. He’s super funny. The show clearly gave all the Jace snark to him. But at the end of the day, even though it felt like he had a lot to do this season, it also feels like he didn’t really accomplish that much. For me, as a character leaving an impact on the season, he didn’t really factor all that much. I am very interested to see how his character is going to progress in Season 3 as it looks like they’re going completely off-book with him. Like I said, I almost prefer that the show would go off-book.

I guess we’ve got to talk about Izzy, now. Izzy has always been a character that routinely falls on the wayside for me. A lot of the fandom seems to really like her but I find her kind of dull at times. And she is a bad-ass but she never contributes a whole lot. The show never really knows what to do with her. They like to tell us she’s a bad-ass but she has very few character moments that actually lend to that. She seems to only serve as a support function for Alec and Clary. I was super excited when they started introducing this drug addiction for her character. A lot of people say this ruined her character. In my eyes, it’s hard to ruin a character who was on as shaky foundation as she was to begin with. She has no real consistent character foundations. I liked the drug addiction plot because something interesting was finally being done with her character. And no one comment saying, “Oh but Izzy is so great because she’s the best pathologist in NYC. That’s a contribution.” I hate the whole “Izzy is the best pathologist” angle. First of all, it is such a Mary Sue angle to make her the best. Second of all, what exactly makes her better than all of the other pathologists? Third of all, I find it insulting that this 19-year-old is the best pathologist in NYC when you have people who spend 10+ years receiving their medical training. At what age did she begin her training? When she was 6? Not to mention, there are so many plot holes with the pathologist angle that I don’t even want to get into right now. Basically, for Izzy, I hope that she gets written better in Season 3. They were going an interesting angle with the drug addiction but then she got a miracle cure and it’s never mentioned. There was absolutely no point to that plot at all.

I’m very much on the rocks about whether or not I want the show to go the Sizzy route. The Sizzy that I love is from the books. And Izzy’s personality has changed so much that we’re not going to get Sizzy from the books. Now what the show is currently doing with Simon and Izzy could lead to some really interesting foundations in their romantic relationship IF they keep it a slow-burn. But this show also sucks at slow burns so I don’t know how optimistic I should be.

Next up is Alec. My favorite character in both the books and show. He was already pretty good in the books but the show did a really great job with figuring him out as a character in the show. I just really enjoy him. He is a little inconsistent with his logic. And like with Izzy, I wish that he would do more in the fore front of the story. He fares much better than Izzy does in the story telling but his plot points always feel like they’re just kind of added on and then subsequently dropped. He has all of these great B plot ideas that never really seem to affect any of the main story and as a result, they’re usually dropped. And then of course, a lot of the fandom doesn’t perceive Alec as his own character. They see him as one half of Malec. And if he’s not doing something that’s going to forward the Malec plot than it’s automatically trash.  I definitely wouldn’t mind seeing Alec spend a bit more time away from the Malec plots and really give us a chance to see more of him as a person.

As I made in my previous point, we can’t talk about Alec without talking about Magnus. I am very off and on about Magnus as a character. Honestly, this guy’s motivations and his changes in motivations were starting to give me whiplash. I care about Magnus in the sense that he’s a really interesting character and when he’s allowed to be snarky, he’s great. But the way that he reacts to situations, it doesn’t feel real. And I’m not talking about the acting. I’m talking about the writing. He reacts to things in a very childish and vindictive way.

Which means I have to stop beating around the bush. I have to talk about Malec this season. Oh boy. This is going to be long. Malec in this season was great…when they have absolutely no conflict. When they’re hanging out and having fun, supporting each other, you love them as a couple. However, when they’re in a fight, Malec grates on my nerves. I had gotten to the point in 2B where I straight up didn’t care about what was going on in their relationship. I became apathetic to Malec. The world must truly be ending. Now, this is not me saying I don’t want Malec to ever fight. This is a dig at how poorly written the Malec fights are. Here’s the thing, the ideas behind the Malec fights are actually really good but the flaw is in their execution. There’s a very childish tint to it. I hate what happens in these Malec fights and I hate how they’re resolved. Here is the specific formula on Malec fights:

1) Alec does something that angers Magnus

2) Magnus tells Alec to get out (because that’s a totally healthy way of dealing with your problems)

3) Alec apologizes and Magnus forgives him but Magnus (in his eyes at least) has nothing to apologize for

Rinse and repeat. It happens this way every couple of episodes. And I hate how unequal this relationship is. And this is not me being mad that my favorite character is the one at fault in his relationship, this is me being mad that it’s being written like everything is always Alec’s fault and Magnus never does anything wrong. Even though it’s not true. He also adds to these fights but it’s never called to attention in the writing. This is not a very healthy way to approach a relationship. And with it always highlighting that Alec is at fault, this could very easily be interpreted as an abusive relationship. You have one party believing he’s at fault for a conflict, he apologizes, and the other party gets to continue thinking he’s the perfect one in the relationship and can proceed to blame his lover for anything that goes wrong. Because that’s the way it’s always been. Now I know that’s a little extreme. Granted, Malec isn’t quite there yet, but if this formula keeps up, it won’t be that big of a stretch to call this an abusive relationship. A relationship is all about equality. You cannot have a successful relationship if one person holds all of the power. I really hope Season 3 is going to address this. I really hope there’s a reason for why Malec conflicts were written this way and not just because the writers really like Magnus. I’m hoping Season 3 is going to explore Alec noticing these tell tale problems in his relationship with Magnus and starts questioning it. Maybe this will lead to them breaking up for a much longer space of time because he doesn’t truly believe that Magnus respects him or his position in this relationship. I really did not like how Malec got back together in the finale. I believe the exact words I said in response to Alec saying “I can’t live without you” was “oh, please. Come on.” Seriously, they had been broken up for barely 1 episode. At most, it was a couple of days. You need to be broken up a little longer than that before I’ll accept that sort of declaration.

Not only do I have a problem with Alec always being the bad guy in the relationship, I also have a problem with how Magnus deals with conflicts. Essentially, when a relationship conflict crops up, he responds with, “You’re making me mad. Get out. I don’t want to deal with you.” That is not a healthy way to deal with relationship woes. Why does a character who has 500 years worth of relationship experience behave like a 16-year-old yet his partner, a 20-year-old is far more willing to stick it out and compromise right off the bat. And I have to ask, is this how he’s always going to deal with these relationship conflicts? Is this how he’s always dealt with them? If that’s the case, no wonder he’s had 7,000 relationships. He’s probably never made it past the first fight. He probably tells each of his lovers when they have a fight to get out and leave him alone and they’re probably all, “You know what Magnus? You’re a cool guy and all but I need someone who who’s going to behave like an actual mature adult so I’m going to peace the fuck out.”

When this guy gets his feelings hurt, he becomes ultra vindictive and childish. I mean, just in the last 2 episodes of season 2, he was absolutely horrible. He was actually willing to let NYC be destroyed because he didn’t want to help Alec. As much as I do like Magnus – and I really do, don’t misunderstand me – but Alec deserves better. Like I said, I hope the writers are going for Magnus’ behavior to be called out in Season 3 but I also know better. Hope for the best but prepare for the worst.

Well, I think I’ve ranted on Malec for long enough, let’s talk about Luke. Luke has the potential to be a really great character but he also suffers from much the same things that Izzy and Alec suffer from. The story not really knowing what to do with him as a character. I mean, there are long stretches of time where Luke just kind of disappears. Hopefully, this will change in Season 3 and he’ll become a much more active agent in the story. I also hope he quits his day job as a detective because he is the worst detective ever. I don’t even know how he still has a job. He never seems to be working.

And a little side note. I’m also low-key shipping Luke and Maryse. I think they could be really interesting as a couple. 

Now we’ve got Maia. I actually really like Maia but for whatever reason, the show just cannot write her in a decent, consistent way during a finale episode. In the 2A finale, they had her automatically jump to killing Clary with no real development into her making a decision like that and in 2B she’s all damsel in distress in the Seelie realm. Never mind the fact that she’s been depicted as a bad-ass werewolf in earlier episodes, but in the finale she was just really quiet and meek. It was very strange. Definitely for Season 3, they need to make Maia more consistent with her character development and not just change her personality whenever it suits the plot.

Will Tudor was also amazing as Sebastian/Jonathon. I’m not a fan of the burnt blob he turns into. I find Jonathon a much more threatening villain when he’s Will Tudor being creepy as fuck as opposed to the burnt blob the show decided to add. I’m really hoping he returns as Will Tudor and not the burnt corpse.

Not a whole lot to say about Valentine. Ultimately, I’m very disappointed with where he went as a villain. I always found Valentine to be moderately interesting in the books and the show just took away everything that was interesting about him and left us with a Disney villain. Alan Van Sprang did the best he could trying to humanize Valentine but the script wasn’t doing him any favors. Hopefully the next super-villain this show has will write their villain in a less cheesy and cliché way.

In my Season 2 Finale review, I had also had this theory where I was hoping Maxim Roy will come back to play Lillith in the form of Jocelyn. I think that would be really interesting. And no, I don’t keep up on the Season 3 spoilers/behind-the-scene stuff. I want to be surprised when it airs. So no one tell me that Maxim Roy isn’t returning. I’d prefer to be disappointed on my own.

One more thing I want to mention is the Jalec parabatai bond. The show has taken a lot of steps to improve the parabatai bond and I love that they have. However, they seem to only highlight the angsty parts of it or to use it as a plot device. The parabatai bond is super interesting in both the positive and negative effects it leaves on those who have it. The show loves to talk about the negative effects of it. I would like to see the show start to show the benefits it has. They also need to make this bond more consistent and equal. A lot of times, it feels like Alec experiences the effects more than Jace. It was beyond weird to me in Season 2 Episode 3, that Jace finally makes it off the ship but yet can’t tell that there’s something wrong with Alec. And then Jace cuts his hand, and Alec has no problem feeling that? If there’s one thing I’d like from the parabatai bond in Season 3, it’s the consistency.

At the end of the day, this show tries really hard to be epic. It really wants to be on Vampire Diaries caliber but the writing just isn’t there. The acting is. That isn’t the issue. I love the actors, I love the way they portray their characters. Even the ideas the writers have are actually really good ideas. It’s just the execution that they have a problem with. Once the writing catches up to the actors’ talent, I think we’ll have a truly amazing show on our hands.

Well, that’s about all I have about Season 2. Again, I am neither PRO nor ANTI shadowhunters. In my eyes, it’s neither a good or bad show. It’s just bland. What I’m doing here is just looking at this show and telling you what it makes me think and feel. Do you have to agree with me? No. But you should still respect it. So, with that said, I would love to hear your thoughts and feelings about Season 2. Are there changes you think could be made that I didn’t mention? I’d love to hear how other people interpret this show. This is why fandoms are so much fun but they’re horrible places when can’t people can’t respect each other’s opinions. So please, respect make the dream work.

And with this blog post out of the way, I am now going to go see American Assassin and proceed to fall in love with Dylan O’Brien’s talent to create strong but vulnerable characters.

[daleisgreat]

30 Years of GamBoy: How I persevered through the 90s with Nintendo's green-and-black portable as my best friend!

Over the past couple weeks social media has been buzzing with tributes and testimonials for the legacy of the GameBoy on its 30th anniversary of its Japan launch and fast approaching North American launch in 1989. There was also that pic a couple weeks ago of Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson playing linked two player Tetris that went viral that sent waves of nostalgia down my spine! Like countless other 90s kids I had a devout affection for the GameBoy’s (and its 1998 Color update) enduring legacy into 2001 when its true successor, the GameBoy Advance launched. So it is time to lay out my history with the little gray brick that could, but before I do I would be remiss if I were not to point you towards someone who has been doing phenomenal work chronicling the GameBoy’s history first. Retronauts host, Jeremy Parish has been painstakingly crafting videos detailing every GameBoy release for America and Japan in chronological order and currently is nearing the end of covering games released through 1990. So if you want to catch up and find out about the early hits and likely a plethora of titles you have never heard of before, then click here to dive in.

Unlike a lot of the excellent retrospectives I have been reading these past couple of weeks, minus a couple exceptions, I did not play that many of the AAA GameBoy titles from Nintendo. I was a sucker for licenses from my favorite sports leagues and watered down ports of the latest console games as you will later read about. It was not until I much later got the Official GameBoy Player’s Guide with my first Nintendo Power subscription a few years after I got a GameBoy that I realized what were the key titles for the system. However even after re-reading that bible of GameBoy knowledge multiple times I was adamant on avoiding the powerhouse first party titles like Super Mario Land, Metroid II, Link’s Awakening and Donkey Kong in favor for eye-blinking double take titles you will discover in a bit. My childhood preference of games went against the grain to say the least. With that out of the way, let us flashback to 1993…. I remember begging my parents for a GameBoy for Christmas in 1993 when I was 10. I cannot specifically remember why, but after ruminating about it I pinpointed it down to the fact in 1993 I still had a NES and my parents understandably did not want to budge on dropping $200 for the 16-bit upgrade. The GameBoy was at its height of its popularity at this time and advertisements for the green and black handheld dominated my Saturday morning cartoon lineup. The GameBoy launched at $90 in 1989 so by 1993 I think it was going for around $70 which seemed like a much more realistic sell to my folks at being my one-and-only ‘Santa’ gift for Christmas.

Also around this time I was going through serious pro-wrestling withdrawal. From about 1988 until early 1993 I was an avid WWF kiddo. Big Bossman and The Rockers were my favorites, and I have fond memories of braving the classrooms of Catholic school with my Big Bossman tennis shoes. However, growing up with three other siblings who detested the squared circle made it a battle for control of the household’s sole television. Eventually, the numbers game caught up and I got so use to being bullied out of getting my weekly then-WWF fix that I went nearly three years from early ’93 until late ’95 not watching my favorites on the airwaves. The only other way at that time for me to get my dose of wrestling at home was in the mostly mediocre-to-horrible wrestling games on NES. I played far too many hours of duds like Wrestlemania and Steel Cage Challenge than any kid should have, and double that for the decent at best grapplers on the system like Pro Wrestling and Tecmo World Wrestling. Enter 1993 and Royal Rumble for the Super Nintendo and Genesis. I lost track at the number of times I would play that game setup on free play at store kiosks. I was dazzled by Royal Rumble’s superior 16-bit graphics and standout feature, the Royal Rumble match that saw up to six wrestlers in the ring at once trying to throw everyone out and subsequently replaced with a fresh combatant until the game went through its entire 12-man roster. It seemed as close as it was going to get at the time to the insanely awesome Rumble match in one of my all-time favorite arcade games, WWF WrestleFest. Being able to participate in the chaos of the Royal Rumble match with a controller after endless hours of only one-on-one and tag team matches on various NES games was mind-blowing to 10-year old Dale. All the gaming magazines at the time were echoed my sentiments and gushed with glowing reviews which only served to exacerbate my demand.

Again I pleaded for a SNES and a copy of Royal Rumble for Christmas and again I was denied courtesy of its tall asking price. It was then I went with the aforementioned plan b for the GameBoy. Also hitting NES and GameBoy in 1993 was WWF King of the Ring. King of the Ring sported inferior 8-bit graphics and had a smaller roster of wrestlers and no awesome Royal Rumble match to play, but it did have the not-so-great King of the Ring tournament to play which was only a series of one-on-one matches, but most importantly it would be portable and I could play it anywhere and not have to worry about battling for control of the TV with my siblings to play it. Looking back now those were the catalysts to relentlessly ask my parents for the GameBoy. Growing up with divorced parents meant celebrating most holidays and birthdays twice. I got to celebrate Christmas first with my dad a few days before the actual date of Christmas and was elated to unwrap and discover my very own GameBoy with a copy of its killer-app, Tetris! Over the next couple of days I played an un-healthy amount of Tetris. ‘Gee, if this block-puzzle game I barely heard of before is this awesome, imagine how good the wrestling game would be’ naïve me daydreamed of at the time. However, before I could get to that moment, something unexpected and terrible transpired! On Christmas Eve I was with my family that night going to church for its annual Christmas Eve dinner gathering. To get through the night of being with my family I brought my new electronic best friend with me and snuck in as much Tetris as I could between bites. After we wrapped up and my family got back into the car to go back home my GameBoy was not as snugly tucked into my pocket as I thought and as I shut the car door my GameBoy slid out of my pocket and collided with the blunt force of me shutting the door onto it. As you can see in the screenshot here, the incident caused about 95% of the screen to get cracked and impossible to see and I balled my eyes out that entire night. Kids, do not bring your GameBoy to church or God will strike down upon you when least expected!

To make matters worse on Christmas morning the next day I opened up a copy of WWF King of the Ring for GameBoy from Santa. I plugged it into my cracked GameBoy and was stunned to see it still worked and played the music and it would display the miniscule amount of graphics that were possible in the tiny corners of the GameBoy screen that were not damaged. I must have begged my parents for days to see if they could get the GameBoy replaced or returned or something. I feel horrible now for how irritating I must have been at that time. To my surprise, my mom came through a week or two later and got me a new GameBoy. Once again I was thrilled and beyond belief of how those past couple weeks played out, but from then on I was extra careful with my GameBoy and to this day I still own both my busted and replacement brick GameBoys. For a few months all I had was Tetris and King of the Ring. I loved Tetris and even found a classmate to link up and play two player with a few times and it remains in my GameBoy library to this day! However, even with my childhood adoration for wrestling I could tell King of the Ring would be nothing more than a middling wrestling game and nothing compared to its 16-bit brethren (though it did have some rocking wrestler chiptune entrance themes). At this point a few months into 1994 our local videogame shop was a place called Tiger Play, which was essentially a modern day GameStop that bought, sold and traded new and used games. It was the same store where I persistently requested to put Royal Rumble for play in its kiosk to the chagrin of the employees. I have no idea how they tolerated me back then. I decided it was time to part ways with King of the Ring and trade it in for something else.

In early 1994 Mortal Kombat fever was running wild with the sequel dominating arcades and the home release being super popular with all my classmates. Mortal Kombat did not come out for NES, but it did for GameBoy and the now much wiser 11-year old Dale thought the GameBoy version would be just as good as the SNES, but only not in color and was thrilled to hear Tiger Play would happily do a straight-up trade of King of the Ring for Mortal Kombat. Right away I could tell something was not right to discover it was missing Johnny Cage from its roster and it ran a significantly slower framerate. I still remember having to ever--so—slowly--like--this input the button sequences for the special moves in order to get them to work. Even worse, facing Shang Tsung on there was super cheap because he would automatically cast a projectile when one input away from pulling off a special move so I had to learn to beat him without special moves which took forever, but I eventually pulled it off. The GameBoy version of MK did have one thing going for it over the rest and that would be it was the only version of MK that let you play as Goro! Goro was unstoppable, but even with that trump card, the handheld MK was pretty lousy, but I forced myself to get some enjoyment out of it before marching back to Tiger Play a few months later and trading MK in for Bo Jackson: Baseball and Football. Turns out ‘Bo Knows…’ how to endorse subpar sports game, but the sports nut in me played that to death for a couple years because Tiger Play closed its doors around this time and it would be a few years until our town got another videogame store. After that brief flirtation with trading games in I would only receive two games a year for GameBoy from 1994 through 1998 shortly before I got my first job and could afford my own games then. At that period in my life those two games a year meant everything to me. As hinted above, I was still drawn towards games based on my favorite licenses at that point and Bart vs. the Juggernauts was one of my early games I received as a present. The mini-game collection featured a lot of hair-pulling cheap controls, but I forced myself to stick with it and lit up when it became one of the first games I ever finished. A much better game I got as a present that I also finished was Donkey Kong Land. I have no idea how Rare was able to get graphics that seemed somewhat comparable to the SNES Donkey Kong Country, but I remember loving playing it, but being bummed at its lackluster ending of only ‘congratulations’ with no accompanying DK crew victory graphic. At least Bart vs. the Juggernauts had a wicked ending with Bart getting rewarded with his very own ‘Truck-a-Saurus.’

I learned my lesson from Bo Jackson and MK to do my research for better games on the GameBoy….actually no because I kept asking for more fighting and sports games for Christmas and birthdays, but at least getting varying degrees of better ones this time. The original NFL Quarterback Club on GameBoy I had a ton of fun with. It only featured the ‘Quarterback Club’ mini-games, but no actual game of football that was playable in its console versions. That was not a problem though as me and my siblings had a surprising amount of fun alternating back-and-forth with the various QB drill mini-games available and I could not help but crack up that my sister only played as Jim Kelley because of how close it sounded to ‘Jim Carrey’ who was wildly popular in the mid-90s. NFL Quarterback Club ‘96 was only actual football and no mini-games, but that was fine because it featured a far better handheld rendition of football compared to Bo Jackson and even a season mode with password save option! Yes, I still have my passwords saved inside the instruction manual. Ken Griffey Jr. Presents: MLB is an awesome port of the SNES original and blew away the baseball from Bo Jackson. It had a battery-save season mode along with the ability to trade players with no restrictions so I created my team of all-stars and rocked through an entire season throughout many family car rides. Mortal Kombat II is a huge upgrade from the first portable version, and while it also had a scaled back roster it did feature more precise gameplay, more friendly controls to pull off special moves and fatalities and a stable framerate resulting in me not trading this one away and playing it way too much.

That wraps up all the games I got as gifts and by the time I got my first job the GameBoy Color hit the market so I eagerly picked that up. There were a couple classmates over the years I met where we borrowed games to each other. I did not discover many new gems that way as most kids were also picking up the dreck of LJN licensed games and I could one can only tolerate so much out of WWF RAW, Fist of the North Star and Home Alone on GameBoy before getting out of the game borrowing market. I managed not to get swept up in PokeFever as I was just a couple years older than that targeted demographic. I did pick up Pokemon Blue shortly after its release after reading about the hype for it and got a little ways into it before my younger brother noticed me playing it and asked to borrow it around the time it was blowing up with younger kids so I did not mind letting him hold onto it until it for his GameBoy until he remembered to give it back to me about ten years later. Since the GameBoy Color was only on the market for a few years I will not meander on as long about it. With that said, the GameBoy Color far surpassed the meek GameBoy in every way with the exception of not having a backlit screen. Other than that, it was smaller, fit more comfortably in my pocket, took two less batteries and well….the addition of color! Yes, I picked up a few too many sports and wrestling games on it again that were mediocre at best, but I did have a lot of fun with some enhanced NES re-releases on there with Super Mario Bros. Deluxe, the first three Dragon Warrior games and Micro Machines 1 & 2: Twin Turbo. For original titles my favorites were Mario Golf and Mario Tennis. For people familiar with the recent Golf Story on Switch Mario Golf is a lot like that where it is a sports-RPG hybrid where it has a fairly in-depth narrative at attending a golf/tennis academy to become the best player and being able to take lessons and play mini-games to level-up and prepare for the tournaments. Super Mario Bros. Deluxe had a lot of fun extras and even a two player competitive mode to see who can finish a stage first that I absolutely ate up.

A couple years ago some unearthly thing got me craving the basic, watered down platformers that dominated GameBoy and I hunted down the five Turok games released for GameBoy platforms and I played through the entirety of the first one on the original GameBoy and had a somewhat decent time with it. I did not play it on the actual GameBoy, mind you but instead on my TV courtesy of the Retron 5. I should mention I am a proud owner of the Super GameBoy, GameBoy Player and Retron 5 which made it convenient to bust out these portable games at a much friendlier resolution and not have to worry about the GameBoy’s non-backlit screen. In honor of the 30th anniversary last week I popped in the GameBoy Color version of Turok 2 and played a couple levels into it. For as weak and watered down most handheld versions of console games were, there was something about it that kept me coming back to them. The GameBoy helped me through my childhood, too many family trip car rides to count and several summers on a farm. I probably had an unorthodox library of games for my GameBoy compared to the average owner who probably owned a majority of vastly superior games released by Nintendo, Capcom and Konami. What can I say, I was too young to realize what to ask my folks for. No matter how strong or weak each game wound up, I made sure to get the absolute most out of each game. Thank you Nintendo for releasing and supporting the GameBoy well after you should have throughout the 90s and enabling me to enjoy games anywhere! Thank you to everyone who got through this indulging my childhood memories of portable gaming with me! I hope you all have just as many great childhood handheld system gaming memories as I did whether it was on GameBoy, GameGear or later generations like GBA, PSP, DS, mobile, etc.