#i doubt this is a supporting war thing even cuz once again | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

cheshiresense · 5 years

Note

Could you do KoyoIchi (Swinging Pendulum), please? C: I have fallen in love with this ship ever since you posted those short one-shots (or whatever they are called) a while ago.

Hmm you didn’t include an AU and I’ve already done a KoyoIchi SP AU in the last batch, there’s not much else I can write for that I think. So how about KoyoIchi post-canon AU instead, where Ichigo’s human body gives out after the Quincy War, so he ends up splitting his time between SS and the Human world afterwards.

Edit: omg wtf did i do i went off i’m sorry this ended up semi-background pre-relationship KoyoIchi + like a dozen unrelated headcanons thrown in it’s a mess fml

1. It’s not usually done, he’s technically dead now (but not a Shinigami, not a Quincy, not a Hollow, and not even a Human anymore), but he has a lot of support from a lot of people - Kisuke has no qualms crafting him a gigai that would allow him to draw his blade even without stepping out of it, and Kyouraku basically gives him free run of Soul Society after they hammer out what Ichigo is supposed to do there considering he’s now stronger than the entire Gotei combined but also he’s technically only eighteen years old.

(It would be scarier, Kyouraku thinks, if Ichigo’s moral fibre hadn’t already proven itself superior.)

In the end, they settle it like this - Ichigo attends the Academy part-time for all the lessons Kisuke and Yoruichi and Shinji never bothered hammering into him because it was never important to the war, attends university in the human world, and the rest of his time is his do with as he pleases, whether that’s taking missions directly from Kyouraku, visiting with his friends in various squads and being roped into doing paperwork, or digging up yet another rebel faction or secret invasion out of the woodwork (”Please don’t dig up yet another rebel faction or secret invasion out of the woodwork for at least a month, Ichigo-kun. One month, you hear? We still haven’t finished cleanup from the last one.”).

Because it’s Ichigo, it works. it’s not like he wasn’t already coming and going from Soul Society when he was still human. The Shinigami have let him get away with far too much already to put restrictions on him now, especially considering he’s saved all their asses twice over now, and that’s not even counting all the trouble in-between. If there are some who complain, well, there are even more who are capable of making sure nothing ever comes of it.

So okay, no rebel faction, no secret invasion, but Ichigo’s not Ichigo without something to work towards, and he’s always wondered why the Shinigami side of his family was slumming it out in Rukongai when they’re supposed to be nobility like Byakuya and Yoruichi. The answer is simple enough - Aizen had mind-whammied everyone after Isshin ran off and fabricated a coup that resulted in assassinations courtesy of the Second Division before the remaining Shibas were ousted from Seireitei overnight.

(It was only too easy for Aizen to make them believe it.Nobody ever questioned whether or not the Shibas could. They had the power. They just never had the ambition, which nobody could understand.)

No way is Ichigo going to take that lying down. So he goes and yells at Kyouraku, who says it’s complicated and would take time, but Ichigo reminds him of the Visored and Kisuke and Yoruichi and Tessai, all let back in in the wake of the Winter War. If they could be pardoned, and rightfully so, why can’t the Shibas too?

“I’m not saying they can’t forever, Ichigo-kun,” Kyouraku says placatingly. “But Central 46 will want… assurances-”

“You mean they’re scared to let my family back in cuz they might still be a little bit pissed from having three-quarters of their members murdered in their beds,” Ichigo summarizes flatly.

Kyouraku sighs and gives up all pretenses of a neutral party. “If you have a better idea…” He waves a hand at the general situation, eyes dark and intent on Ichigo’s face.

Ichigo snorts and straightens up. “Yeah. It’s called ‘being too strong to fuck with’. The old bastards are in session right now, aren’t they? I’ll be right back.”

One day, Kyouraku muses as he watches Ichigo go, this will probably not work, and it’ll come back to bite them all in the ass. Then again, Central 46 has run Soul Society their way or no one’s way for far too long; Yama-jii had always given them too much power. They’d learned nothing from Aizen, so maybe Ichigo is exactly what they deserve, straightforward and running on emotion, but fair, always, and decent in a way that Kyouraku thinks most of their government has forgotten how to be, if they ever knew to begin with.

One day, even Ichigo’s threats won’t make Central 46 back down. But a god doesn’t bow just because someone demands it, no matter how important they think their bloodline or rank or status is. And Ichigo is probably the closest thing they have to a god these days. A god, with plenty of friends to back him up if he needs it.

So Kyouraku leaves him to it - better Ichigo than him, less headaches in the long run - and he isn’t at all surprised when Ichigo sweeps back into his office five hours later, expression grim but triumphant, reiatsu still writhing like a living shadow around him as he informs Kyouraku that his clan will be needing their old estate back.

Kyouraku pushes over the paperwork he’d completed an hour ago, authorizing the full restoration and compensation of the Shiba Clan. Ichigo smiles at him almost fondly, features only slightly tinted with a banked sort of inhuman rage that he carries around almost constantly these days - it’s three steps left of his cousin’s memory, with Hollow glinting in his eyes and the shade of his ancestor draped across his shoulders. He’s gone again in the next moment, off to tell his family the excellent news, and Kyouraku thinks it was probably a good thing Yama-jii died when he did. However reasonable Ichigo still is, he is no longer that boy with the too-forgiving heart who took the insults they served him with all the doormatted self-sacrifice of a storybook hero.

(He came back from the Soul King Palace equal parts pensive and victorious, with old eyes and reiatsu levels they could no longer sense and a terrifying sort of detachment when he looked at them all. But his friends had fallen on him without care, only relief, and the icy distance in Ichigo’s mien had melted. Kyouraku had understood though, in that moment, that Soul Society would stand only so long as Ichigo allows it.

He likes Ichigo, he genuinely does. Jyuushirou had too. That hadn’t stopped his old friend from attempting to leash him, which had almost backfired in the end and literally only hadn’t out of the goodness of Ichigo’s heart, and it doesn’t stop Kyouraku now from catering to Ichigo’s whims. Only time would tell if this approach will work better or worse than Jyuushirou’s law-abiding one, and in the meanwhile, it doesn’t hurt that Ichigo doesn’t actually want anything Kyouraku doesn’t want to fix anyway. Soul Society has been his home for over nine centuries now. He does not want to see it burn. If that means dragging it kicking and screaming into a new era with a boy their world created to fight their wars for them looking over his shoulder, then Kyouraku will do it gladly.)

It takes almost three months for the Shibas to gather again and move back in. They’d scattered, after their exile, all across Rukongai, but Kuukaku is their head, and Ichigo has single-handedly wrested back their birthright for them, and when both of them call, the rest of the clan answers, trickling in in twos and threes and fours, suspicious and wary and not inclined to trust anyone but their own, but they come, and the first thing they do is raise wards around their home strong enough to withstand a siege from the Royal Guard.

“That’s everyone?” Ichigo asks, looking from the civilians to the once-Shinigami to the children. All in all, they barely make thirty total, and over half of them are from their retainer families.

Kuukaku shrugs tiredly at his side. She’s never looked older than she does now. “You know Isshin’s staying in the Human world for your sisters, but other than that, pretty much. Everyone else is dead.” She pauses. “Well, except one, but I doubt he’ll come. Kaien’s wife’s brother,” She adds for Ichigo’s benefit. “Koyonagi Senzou. He was the Kidou Corps Commander before Tessai, demoted to Academy teacher after some mission the higher-ups covered up. He was the only one the Gotei kept on after we were kicked out. Never found out whether he actually wanted to stay or if Central 46 insisted he stay. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the latter. He’s wasted at the Academy, too useful to kill but too dangerous to let out of sight. As far as I know though, he’s still there.”

Ichigo frowns as he digests all this. “And he won’t come by to see you guys?”

Kuukaku shakes her head. “I doubt it. He was never really one of us.”

“Why not?”

Kuukaku shrugs again. “He never wanted to be. I didn’t know him very well, Ichigo, but he loved exactly one person, and she was more or less killed under Kaien’s watch. It wasn’t Nii-san’s fault of course, but she was sent out on a mission given to her by the Thirteenth Division lieutenant, and she never came back. He attended her funeral. That was the last time any of us saw him, although our Shinigami members reported glimpses of him in and around the Academy over the years.”

Ichigo hums. Kuukaku gives him an arch look and then snorts. “Shall I prepare a room for him anyway when I start renovations?”

Ichigo grins at her. “That’d be perfect, Kuukaku, thanks.”

2. Of course Senzou has heard of Kurosaki Ichigo. You’d have to be living under a rock in a cave in a different dimension to not have heard of Soul Society’s God-Slaying Saviour.

And of course he’s a Shiba. That lot always was more trouble than they were worth, too powerful for their own good, and too reckless or too confident or too stupid - Senzou has never really figured out which - to hide it from the world or at least play it down to keep the world from turning on them because of it. No subtlety at all. And look where it got them in the end.

In the aftermath of the Quincy War, he hears of the Shibas’ return to the city, and he can feel the power in the wards they almost immediately erect around their home. For protection, no doubt, because old dogs can learn new tricks after all, but to Senzou, it just looks like a very pretty cage. Why they - or the Visored for that matter - came back to serve the very people who betrayed them in some of the worst ways possible is beyond him.

Not that it makes much of a difference to Senzou. He’d ignored them for decades before their exile; no doubt, he’ll happily ignore them for decades more. They’re related only through an unfortunate marriage, and considering both parties are long dead now, what little obligation he had to them likewise expired years ago.

But, he thinks, as he watches an increasingly familiar head of orange hair slide into his classroom, someone forgot to give that memo to the Shibas’ newest pride and joy. Even Senzou - with expectations that literally no student has ever met - can admit that Kurosaki Ichigo attending Kidou lessons is a complete waste of time. Senzou spends his days teaching idiots the incantations for each of the ninety-nine standard spells, trying not to scratch his own eyes out when he has to grade their papers, and making sure they don’t blow themselves up when they practice producing them. Even the most advanced of the sixth-years can only manage spells in the fifties range, with a fifty-fifty chance of average-at-best success.

Ichigo memorized all the incantations in the first two weeks he was here. His first essay on the use of forbidden Kidou - instead of a regurgitation of laws citing the illegality of them that everyone else turned in - became a dissertation on their pros and cons, arguing that every case in which they’re used should be thoroughly investigated not only by Central 46 but also by a panel of Shinigami, and why the laws against them should be amended to allow for unexpected circumstances. The brat even had the gall to throw in quotes of interviews he’d conducted, and if it had been anyone else claiming to have received firsthand and eye-witness accounts of forbidden Kidou usage from names like Tsukabishi Tessai and Hirako Shinji, Senzou would’ve set them on fire for being such a bad liar. He couldn’t even fail the boy for incomplete research because the books he referenced might not be found in the Academy library but they all had Urahara Kisuke stamped on them.

And his practicals? A high level of reiatsu usually means the caster would have a harder time performing Kidou, especially when they’re first starting out, too much power shoved into the lower-level ones, too little control to hold together the higher-level ones.

Not Kurosaki Ichigo. That boy spent the first week putting holes into everything except his targets, went away for a weekend, and then came back with singed eyebrows and bags under his eyes but a resolute set to his jaw and picture-perfect Kidou at his fingertips. He didn’t even need the incantations anymore. And to make him even more of an anomaly, he could perform spells right up into the nineties. In fact, the higher the difficulty and reiatsu output, the better he was with them.

There is nothing the standard Kidou curriculum from any year can teach him. His learning curve is insane, and his essays read like he’s gearing up to go toe to toe with Central 46, never mind an Academy class.

He doesn’t need to be here. Senzou knows it. The other students know it. And Ichigo most certainly knows it too. And with the special allowances granted by the Soutaichou himself, he doesn’t even need permission to skip. The boy’s been given unprecedented free reign to come and go as he pleases, and yet he comes back, week after week after week. He doesn’t even have the decency to sleep through Senzou’s lectures. He’s a flickering candle in the corner of Senzou’s eye, all flame-bright hair and brown-gold-brown eyes and shadows that won’t stop moving, and that unwavering attention he pins on Senzou every time makes it damn clear exactly what he’s waiting for.

Shibas. No subtlety whatsoever.

The bell rings. Bags are packed. There’s a scramble for the door.

“Kurosaki-chan,” Senzou calls in bored tones without looking away from sadistically adding an extra assignment to the board. If no one notices, that’s their problem. “Stay behind.”

There are some interested whispers and prying eyes, but one glance from Senzou sends them scurrying away. And then Ichigo is there, sauntering up with his perpetual scowl - not at all like Kaien this one. The two are as charismatic as each other, from what Senzou’s observed. But Kaien had people wrapped around his finger because he had a knack for putting them at ease and making them feel special and making himself both approachable and worth looking up to. Ichigo on the other hand scared a lot of people when he first showed up at the Academy with an armful of books and a gruff disposition that didn’t lend itself to making allies, let alone friends. He wasn’t arrogant, just introverted, but it made him the kind of genius that people resented.

And then Senzou caught him in the hallway one day, looming over a mousy-looking fifth-year student huddled on the ground, and at first, he’d thought Kurosaki was bullying her. Everyone’s golden boy, picking on a shrinking violet of a girl. But then Ichigo had stooped down and gathered up all the books spilled across the floor before offering them back to the girl. The girl had still cowered, but she’d accepted them, and when Ichigo reached out and hauled her to her feet, she’d flinched but hadn’t moved away once she was on her feet again and Ichigo had let her go.

Then Ichigo had told her, quite clearly, “Next time someone can’t keep their hands to themselves, break their fucking wrists. Or kick them in the balls. Or tell them to fuck off. Start a scene so they have to stop. Do something. Don’t just fucking stand there.”

And then he’d stormed off, and the girl - Fujiwara, from the Kyouraku family - had stared after him, all baby-duckling wide eyes. And the next time Senzou had happened across her, it was just in time to see her chuck one of her textbooks at the head of one of her bullies. Said bully had staggered back, and then purpled with anger, already moving forward with fists clenched. Half a second later, he was on the ground and wailing from a broken nose, and Ichigo was standing over him, murder glowing gold in his eyes and black reiatsu streaking his hair and pooling at his feet.

Nobody had touched Fujiwara after that, especially since the girl had taken to following Ichigo around. Ichigo had still scowled like no one’s business, he’d also been seen kicking Fujiwara’s ass in one of the training rooms, they studied together in the library, and they ate together in the courtyard when Ichigo happened to stay for that.

And gradually, other students joined in, tentatively, some nervous, some with hero worship in their eyes, all hopeful. Ichigo never turned any of them away, but one day, he started a debate in the library about laws that would take species outside of Shinigami into consideration that ended with raised voices and enthusiastic opinions that got the whole giggling bunch thrown out, and another day, he suggested a free-for-all game of tag where only Kidou could be used to catch each other which ended with everyone sweaty and gasping and wanting another round, and in calmer in-betweens, he answered when the others finally asked him about what Hueco Mundo was like, what the Material world was like, what Arrancar were like, what Humans were like, and he never lost his temper with them even when he had to explain something more than once.

He was still blunt and borderline rude and not at all like Kaien, like a Shiba, not outgoing or friendly or instantly personable. But the charisma was the same, people couldn’t help but be drawn to him, and it took weeks for Senzou to realize he was just as susceptible to it as Ichigo’s growing circle of friends within the Academy. So susceptible he was literally stalking him everywhere just to see what other chaos he was sowing.

That’s probably why he wants the boy gone so badly. He’d sworn he’d never forgive the Shiba Clan for taking his sister away from him, the only leeway they got was that he wouldn’t actively go after them either because Miyako wouldn’t want him to, and it wasn’t as if it was difficult to keep such a vow. He’d never liked the Shibas anyway. When they’d been slaughtered and cast out, and no assassins had shown up at his door in the aftermath, all he’d thought was good riddance.

But Kurosaki Ichigo…

Under any other circumstances, Senzou would be thrilled. Here is a student who challenged the world around him and brought a storm to the Academy.

But this isn’t any other circumstances, and as Ichigo stops in front of his desk, a beast glinting behind his eyes and a dead king’s inheritance pulsing in the shadow splashed at his feet, Senzou meets his gaze and slices a mocking smile in his direction.

“Kurosaki-chan,” He starts, smirk widening when Ichigo’s eyebrows twitch. “The Academy’s star part-time pupil. What exactly are you still doing in my class?”

Ichigo shrugs. “I signed up for it, your lectures aren’t boring, and I’m trying to figure you out.”

Senzou feels his smile grow fixed. “And how is that going for you?”

Ichigo scruffs a hand through his hair, pauses briefly to frown tug at the shoulder-length strands like he wants a haircut, and then shrugs again. “You’re the one following me around all the time, what do you think?”

They stare at each other for a moment.

“Let me make one thing very clear, Kurosaki-chan,” Senzou finally says. For once, he doesn’t feel like weaving his usual mind games. “I don’t know what your clan has told you, but I have no desire to play happy families with them. I know you Shibas tend to be all about bringing family together, but I am not one of you.” His lip curls. “Do not push this issue any further than you have. Am I understood?”

Ichigo cocks his head, something animal in the way he watches Senzou now. “Kuukaku agreed to reserve a room for you at the compound if you ever want it, but you don’t have to if you don’t want to. I’m not here for that.”

Senzou’s eyes narrow. “Then what are you here for?” He gives the boy a sardonic look and cuts him off preemptively. “Besides class.”

Ichigo grins, quicksilver bright, and something in Senzou recoils with surprise.

“I don’t really have a plan,” The boy tells him. “But I’m getting my family settled back in, and making sure nobody can fuck with them ever again.” He aims another considering look at Senzou. “If you don’t wanna be all buddy-buddy with them, that’s fine. It’s not any of my business if you wanna hammer your shit out with them or not. But you were connected to them even if you didn’t like it, and that doesn’t change just because that connection’s gone. So I guess what I wanted to figure out was whether or not someone’s fucking with you too.”

Senzou opens his mouth, then closes it when nothing comes out. How embarrassing. He settles for a derisive smile that feels a touch too brittle on his face. “I don’t need your protection, God-Slayer.”

Ichigo immediately makes a face. “Don’t call me that. And I didn’t say you did. But when I start something, I like to see it through, so I thought I’d check just to be sure.”

Senzou scoffs with disbelief. “Then why didn’t you just ask?”

Ichigo rolls his eyes like he thinks Senzou’s being dumb on purpose, which is a new experience for Senzou. Usually he’s the one rolling his eyes.

“Well you didn’t want me to, did you?” Ichigo says, looking exasperated now. “You were curious about me, and all the stalking was recon or whatever.” He levels a thoughtful look on Senzou before snorting with something like amusement. “You are the type. But yeah, anyway, now you know. If you need help, the offer’s open indefinitely. But I’ll stop coming to class if you don’t want me here.”

He trails off, arching an eyebrow in question. When Senzou doesn’t reply, the boy shrugs once more, adjusts the strap of his bag, and turns to leave.

Senzou… Well, he’s pretty much been on the back foot this entire conversation, hasn’t he? There’s something about Ichigo that just… throws him off. It’s frustrating. Unnerving.

And yet… Ichigo didn’t push. Kaien would’ve pushed. The rest of his family would’ve pushed. It’s what Shibas do when they want something - push and push until they get what they want, a single-minded persistence hidden under their signature cheerful geniality that makes the rest of the world believe them to be the nicest clan in all of Soul Society.

Miyako had said no, the first time Kaien had asked to court her. But he’d asked again and again, until she’d said yes, and she’d been happy to, Senzou had made certain of that, she’d been perfectly willing, had found a good man in Kaien and been glad she’d finally given him a chance.

But she’d said no first, and Kaien had pushed, and it just… rubbed Senzou the wrong way. Because once upon a time, Shinigami had plucked them out from Rukongai, dusted them off and provided the training and shuffled them into the military, all expenses paid, but no had never been an option, and that had become all the more true after Miyako became such a public, vulnerable figure, not only Third Seat of the Thirteenth but also wife of a clan head.

When Central 46 had come knocking, interested in Senzou’s prodigal skills with Kidou, they hadn’t even needed to drop Miyako’s name for Senzou to know that saying no then wasn’t an option either. He’d been pushed into their service, and it had taken Miyako’s death for Central 46 to finally leave him alone, solely because he had no one else for them to hold over his head.

It’s not the Shibas’ fault, not really. It’s been long enough that Senzou can admit that, if only to himself. Miyako’s choices were her own, and even if she hadn’t married him, Central 46 probably would’ve found another way to get to him through her. But Senzou has always been petty and vindictive at heart, and he’ll blame the Shibas for the rest of his life, because at the end of the day, they’re just like all the other nobles in this place. What they want, they’ll push until they get, because privilege is in their blood.

So Senzou flounders when Ichigo doesn’t push his advantage. The boy is already halfway to the door, and somehow, Senzou is certain, if he doesn’t say anything now, Ichigo won’t come back. It’s so wildly different from what he’d expected, so unexpectedly not-like-a-Shiba, that he has to fumble for something to say for an unforgivably long moment. Him, fumble. This whole conversation has been one unexpected surprise after another, and later, Senzou will blame the shock for his next decision.

“Wait.”

Ichigo stops and turns back. He doesn’t look surprised, but neither does he look triumphant or even just smug.

Senzou suppresses a grimace. “The school has nothing left to teach you about Kidou.”

Ichigo nods in unabashed agreement.

Senzou snorts softly. “But I do. And I guarantee it won’t bore you.”

Ichigo blinks, and a crooked smile slowly curls at his lips. It doesn’t erase his frown, but it softens his brow and makes his features look less harsh. “You sure you wanna teach me?”

Senzou scoffs and pulls out his chair. “I wouldn’t have offered otherwise.” He gives himself a mental shake and drags a grin back onto his face, sharp enough to cut. “Sit your ass down so we can figure out a schedule, Ichi-chan.”

Ichigo instantly loses the smile and glowers like a thundercloud. Senzou all but basks in the familiarity of it, inwardly relieved at being back on steadier ground.

“Don’t call me that, asshole!”

He probably shouldn’t have offered, should’ve just let him go and good riddance. But Senzou hasn’t been taken so off-guard so quickly in a long time, and it had been frustrating and unnerving but underneath both…

There is a storm waiting on the wings of Seireitei, and Kurosaki Ichigo is the one holding its reins.

And Senzou. Senzou is just curious enough to want to see what that storm will bring.

3. “Did your hair grow three inches over the weekend?” Senzou asks the moment Ichigo walks into one of their weekly lessons.

Ichigo dumps his bag in a chair and scowls at him. His hair has been swept up into a bun, which is certainly a feat considering the last time Senzou saw him three days ago, it had only brushed his shoulders.

“This body is seriously shit at regulating itself,” Ichigo grumbles. “I didn’t have time to go to the barber’s, and Kuukaku threatened to shave me bald if I tried to chop it off with my Zanpakutou again.”

Senzou squints at him. “You realize that’s not normal.”

Ichigo rolls his eyes. “I didn’t have a knife on me, and it was getting in the way, okay? Don’t judge.”

This time, it’s Senzou’s turn to roll his eyes. “That wasn’t what I meant, Ichi-chan. Shinigami bodies don’t suddenly grow several inches of hair overnight.”

“You’d be surprised,” Ichigo mutters before shaking his head, and Senzou watches as black reiatsu crackles lazily across his shoulders. “I’m just kinda weird. Excess reiatsu plus funky biology apparently means random hair growth and dye jobs.” He shrugs. “Kisuke’s still figuring it out.”

Senzou hums noncommittally. “Urahara Kisuke. Your… mentor?”

Ichigo pulls out the books Senzou had given him last week, along with a notebook and the latest essay Senzou had assigned him. All are tagged with multiple sticky notes.

“Kind of?” Ichigo sounds like he isn’t all too sure himself and even less concerned about it. “He’s… Kisuke.”

Senzou eyes him curiously. “You don’t care that he basically engineered half your life then?”

Ichigo stills. Then he glances up with Hollow-gold eyes, and Senzou smiles and meets them without flinching.

“Why would you say that?” Ichigo asks in even tones, but the office suddenly seems darker.

Senzou shrugs carelessly. “Urahara has a bit of a reputation for… working outside the box. It’s not just me who thinks it, Ichi-chan. There aren’t many who knew him who wouldn’t take one look at you and guess that he had something to do with your existence.” He pauses. “Although admittedly, I suppose the worst of these rumours come from the ones who want him back most. Central 46 doesn’t benefit half as much without his skills in assassination and technological development. It must’ve been a blow to their egos when Urahara refused their invitation to come back after the Winter War. They might be hoping enough unease over any other projects he’s bound to be working on would be enough to make him come back under their protection-”

“That’s not called protection,” Ichigo growls, and Senzou stops, words withering on his tongue.

There is something about the black abyss of Ichigo’s unblinking stare that makes some base instinct in even Senzou want to back away, run, throw himself at this eldritch entity’s feet and beg for mercy. He squashes the urge and smiles like monsters don’t exist.

Ichigo blinks. The darkness in his eyes recede, and the room clears again, bright with the sunshine pouring in through the open window. A shadow passes over his face, and when he opens his mouth to speak, Senzou catches a glimpse of fangs.

“Well that sucks,” The boy remarks succinctly like the silhouette on the far wall behind him doesn’t outline a grinning mouth with too many teeth. “It’s none of their business anyway. Kisuke prefers his shop. He’s his own boss there, and he likes it that way. Central 46 will just have to deal with Kurotsuchi.”

He flips open his notebook and shoves his essay over. “Now come on, we only have an hour today, and you said you’d go over this bit with me.”

Senzou nods and drops the subject. But three weeks later, he laughs when whispers tell of five Central 46 members retiring from their seats, replaced by one Shiba elder, one Shihouin, one Kuchiki, and two seated officers from the Gotei, one of which has served long enough that she doesn’t mind semi-retiring, and the other who prefers more time at a desk job over constant fieldwork. Both have roots that trace back to the slums of Rukongai. Twelve days after that, the Soutaichou announces a new official position filled by Urahara Kisuke - Human World Liaison - and a team of his choice, effective immediately.

“You don’t waste any time,” is Senzou’s greeting the next time he sees Ichigo after that debacle.

Ichigo, seated on the edge of the Academy roof and surveying the rest of Seireitei (like a ruler looking over his kingdom), waves a dismissive hand that trails solid shadows through the air. “People who’ve never been Shinigami shouldn’t be allowed to judge them. Kyouraku-san agreed.”

“I’m sure he did,” Senzou agrees, fighting near-hysterical glee down to a chuckle as he drops down to sit beside Ichigo.

He wonders if this is what it looks like, for a man to crown himself without even trying while most of the world cheers him on.

He glances to the side, arching an eyebrow when he finds Ichigo watching him. “Yes, Ichi-chan?”

There’s a disappointing lack of irritable twitching this time, but the thoughtful look Ichigo has levelled on him instead is more interesting.

“I have finals starting next week,” Ichigo says abruptly. “So I won’t be coming by the Academy until I’m done.”

Well, less interesting than he’d expected. “I’ll pick up your assignments for you,” Senzou offers, feeling generous. It’s not every day Central 46 takes a beating. He doesn’t care about Aizen, but if there was one thing he did right, it was butchering the judiciary authority on the way out. One group of them anyway.

Ichigo snorts. Rude. “Thanks, but I was thinking, you could join me down there for once instead of me coming up to meet you here. I want to concentrate on my university exams, but I have to eat and stretch my legs sometime. If you want, I could show you around campus. Kisuke can lend you a gigai so you won’t even have to request one from the Twelfth and wait for the acquisition forms to be approved.”

The first thing Senzou wants to say is I can’t. Because he can’t. Central 46 can’t make him do shit anymore, but short of slaughtering his way to the Senkaimon or disappearing into the Rukongai and living out the rest of his life as a fugitive, he can’t leave Seireitei. He doesn’t hate it here so much that he’d prefer either of those options, but the truth of the matter is, this is as much his home as it is his prison.

(A very pretty cage indeed.)

So he can’t, but Ichigo isn’t stupid, he should’ve already figured it out, or guessed, if not from the start after whatever his family told him about Senzou, then in the five months since. Stuck at the Academy because he’s too much of a wild card to go on missions.

Ichigo isn’t stupid, but neither is he cruel, not to those he has no quarrel with - that much Senzou can accept as truth. That he’s bringing this up anyway…

So, “How?” He asks instead, raising his eyebrows when Ichigo actually barks out a laugh. And then his eyes widen when Ichigo twists fingers through the air, and a Garganta springs into existence beside them.

“This can take us there,” Ichigo grins. “And no one will ever even know if you don’t want them to.”

Senzou stares from him to the murky void and back again. “…Why?”

Why are you doing this? Why would you offer?

They’ve known each other for five months, six if you count the one Senzou spent studying him. Most of that time has been spent in private tutoring sessions, and it’s benefitted Senzou as much as it has Ichigo. He technically shouldn’t be teaching Ichigo even half the Kidou Corps secrets he’s already imparted, but Ichigo makes it worth his while - quick on the uptake, a challenge in the sparring ring, and a breath of fresh air from the tedious drudgery of teaching his other students. Occasionally, they even go out for meals, tucked away in a quiet corner of a restaurant or a food stand. And sometimes, Ichigo brings souvenirs back with him from his trips to the Human world - fiction, toys, tech, trinkets the living modern age has that Soul Society does not - and he gifts them not only to his friends amongst the students but also to Senzou these days.

It’s a friendlier relationship than Senzou thought he’d ever have with anyone outside his sister, doubly so for a Shiba. Then again, Ichigo’s barely that, thank the Soul King, even if he was raised by one of the worst examples of that clan.

“Why not?” Ichigo counters, like it isn’t downright unnatural for anyone to do anything for Senzou, mostly because he’d rather stab himself in the face than fall into anybody’s debt. People avoid him when they can because he is cruel, and that’s the way Senzou likes it. He has high standards and little tolerance for things that bore him. Nothing bores him as easily as people do.

Until Ichigo.

“You don’t wanna be stuck here all the time,” Ichigo continues. “And I have an easy way out. So yeah, why not?”

Senzou turns his gaze to the horizion, past the sprawling streets and buildings of Seireitei to the sun setting beyond the wall.

He looks at the Garganta again. When Ichigo doesn’t move to stop him, he reaches over and lets his fingers drift past the mouth of the portal. The void is cool to the touch but not freezing the way he’d half-imagined.

He retrieves his hand. “A campus tour then?” He muses lightly, and Ichigo’s features brighten in response.

Senzou almost sighs. He thinks he might understand now. Ichigo is a little more like a Shiba after all. It’s just that he’s also a little more manipulative than one would expect of him. Senzou had all but told him not to interfere, to play hero for someone else, so Ichigo had backed off. But he’d figured out what Senzou wanted anyway, and his solution was to offer another way out instead.

Persistent, without disrespecting boundaries, and cunning enough to find another answer. In that regard, he’s nothing like his Shinigami relatives, who are always so loud about their intentions.

Charismatic, but… discreetly, almost insidiously so.

Senzou blinks. And then glances sharply at Ichigo again. His eyes look bronze in the light of the sunset, with the heat of his Hollow just beneath it. He has his head propped up against one loose fist, elbow balanced on one knee.

He smiles, almost guileless if not for the possessive resolve in the curve of that expression, and Senzou thinks, unbidden, ah. That’s how he won their devotion.

He gave his friends and family and allies everything they wanted, everything they needed, threw his heart and soul and body into every fight in their defense, shattered himself and rebuilt himself to protect the ones he’d taken under his wing, and so when the time came, how could any of them have done anything less for him?

It had probably not even been something Ichigo had done consciously from the beginning, it was just how he was built, through a quirk of the genetic fun park Urahara had ensured, or perhaps from the numerous near-death experiences life had forced him into. Ichigo probably hadn’t been aware, at first.

But he definitely is now.

Senzou thinks Ichigo is only just starting with him. Senzou’s already been claimed, because - for whatever reason - Ichigo wants him.

It probably says a lot that even this early on, even having already figured it out, Senzou… can’t say he cares enough to protest.

A Shiba in his bones, but leagues more dangerous by far.

4. The Human world is bigger than he remembers. Size-wise, it’s the same. But there’s a lot more in it than he thought, and he isn’t sure if that’s due to the passage of time or because he’d never spent more time than strictly necessary here when he took missions on the material plane back in the day.

Either way, he’s free to explore it now, even if just a small part of it for the time being. The campus of Ichigo’s school is large and sprawling, and with Urahara’s gigai and fake IDs and some Human money (he trades them for a box of seal traps even Tsukabishi Tessai wouldn’t know of because they’re Senzou’s own creation, and Urahara smiles like he understands and doesn’t object), it’s easy enough to come and go once Ichigo drops him off.

“You bought an apartment?” Senzou asks the first time Ichigo shows him the place and lets him poke around inside. It’s recognizably a living space, but it’s foreign to him all the same, with a generous open floor plan and wide windows, marble countertops in the kitchen and dark wooden cabinets and a bathroom constructed of polished chrome and gleaming tile.

“Kisuke bought me an apartment,” Ichigo corrects, flopping down on the couch where he has papers and books spread all over the coffee table and floor. His hair’s shorter today, barely past his shoulders, tipped black and hanging loose. Senzou is vaguely curious about what the boy’s classmates think of it.

“I wanted my own place,” Ichigo explains. “But Kisuke took one look at the rent I could afford and practically frog-marched me here instead. Then he had Yoruichi-san steal all my stuff and move it here, and then he said I might as well just take it because staying would be less work than moving all my stuff back.” He snorts, but it’s a fond sound. “The asshole. It’s not like I’d want to turn this place down. But it’s a bit much, so I try to help him with his research projects whenever I can in exchange.”

Senzou digests this with briefly raised eyebrows but says nothing. Urahara probably considers this another desperate form of making amends, and Ichigo probably knows it too. He probably wouldn’t have accepted otherwise.

“There’s a guest bedroom,” Ichigo calls after him as Senzou wanders down the hall to investigate exactly that. “Rukia’s stayed overnight, Renji too, and a few of my human friends have as well, but I always clean the place after they leave, so if you wanna stay tonight, feel free.”

That’s all the conversation between them for the rest of the day. Ichigo already showed him the campus the day before, and after tossing him a key to the apartment, Senzou is free to wander off and explore on his own.

Two weeks of regular visits to the Human world, and he still feels a little awkward in one of the shirts and jeans and sweater that that Quincy friend of Ichigo’s had shoved on him before whirlwinding back out again, apparently neck-deep in the middle of his own finals project.

“It’s Ishida, he makes clothes for everyone,” was Ichigo’s unhelpful clarification. “You help by walking around and looking good in them.”

So Senzou does, and part of him feels like he should stand out more, but nobody gives him more than a passing glance at most. Well, some do, but he recognizes shallow attraction well enough to ignore it.

In the end, he finds himself spending the most time in the libraries and lecture halls, slipping into the back of a classroom and listening to lessons he actually has to pay attention to to even understand some of what the professor is talking about. The science lectures mostly go over his head, and he’s never been interested in that field anyway so he doesn’t bother putting much effort into following them. It’s the literature courses he likes the most. There aren’t any at the Academy, not like this, and there are so many more books in so many more languages and genres than Senzou ever thought there existed in the world.

Soul Society suddenly seems so small in comparison.

It’s always an exercise in patience every time he has to return to Seireitei to teach now. After the first two weeks of almost daily trips to the Human world, he orders - on a whim - the students from his upper-year classes to split into groups before assigning each of them a project due at the end of the term on the theoretical creation of three new Kidou spells.

Group projects are not a thing at the Academy. Senzou wonders why.

He tells them that at least two of the research sources have to be from outside the Academy, and he smirks when he follows Fujiwara Asuka to the First Division compound to speak with her cousin, and then the Eighth to speak with her cousin’s former lieutenant, and then even braving the Fourth, straight-backed and stiff with anxiety but marching in anyway with her nervous group members in tow until she manages to wrangle fifteen minutes of time from a few of the healers willing to answer her questions about Kaidou.

Even here, Ichigo’s influence flourishes.

Outside the classroom, Senzou begins collecting copies of Human books. He half-bribes, half-blackmails the librarian into setting aside a section for him, and then he begins his own project of filling it.

“You’ve been busy,” Ichigo remarks when he staggers in from his last exam and collapses into a chair just as Senzou finishes setting the table for dinner.

Senzou arches an eyebrow, smirking when Ichigo just rolls his eyes.

“People tell me things,” Ichigo informs him, barely waiting for Senzou to sit down before falling onto the meal like he hasn’t eaten in a week.

“You would make a poor king if people didn’t,” Senzou murmurs, smiling serenely when Ichigo’s eyes flick up to meet his. It’s not as intimidating when his cheeks are bulging like a chipmunk’s.

Actually, Ichigo in the Human world just seems less… overwhelming in general. It isn’t as if he’s any less powerful. This particular gigai doesn’t restrict him in any way. But there’s a relaxed quality in him here that Senzou’s observed in the past three weeks that’s always absent when he’s the rawest form of himself up in Seireitei.

“Soul Society needs to change,” Ichigo says at last, instead of denying anything. “If that means kicking it in the ass until it stops fucking up the lives it’s supposed to be looking after, then that’s exactly what I’ll do.”

Yes, and Senzou has no doubt he’ll succeed. The majority of those in power have no desire to stop Ichigo. Those who do aren’t strong enough. And Ichigo wants it. He wants it with a conviction Senzou has never seen in anyone, almost obsessive in its unfaltering desire… like the abyssal hunger of a Hollow and the eternal grudge of a Quincy and the timeless pride of a Shinigami all rolled into one.

Ichigo wants it, and he’ll get what he wants.

The Soul King knows the universe owes him that much, and even if it didn’t, Senzou doubts it would make a single bit of difference to their God-Slayer.

He lifts his mug in a toast. “Then I look forward to your endeavours. You’ll need to watch out for Central 46′s spies though. I’m sure they won’t take this lying down.”

Ichigo cocks an eyebrow. “Is that an offer to keep your ear to the ground for me?”

Senzou attempts an innocent face, which works about as well as he expects when Ichigo snorts. “A mere Academy teacher like me probably can’t help much, but…” He thinks of the seals he’d planted throughout the entire Central 46 compound every time he’d had to report in, slowly but surely sneaking invisible ears into the heart of Soul Society’s government. “I might hear things now and then. I’ll pass it on if it happens to be interesting.”

Ichigo grins and tips his own mug at Senzou like they aren’t talking treason.

5. “So.”

Senzou almost rolls his eyes. The Shibas’ commitment to their theatrics clearly hasn’t changed.

“Kuukaku-chan,” He says instead as he strides into his office and smothers the urge to draw his blade on the woman sitting on his desk like she’s posing for Most Dramatic. He smiles instead, hiding the teeth of it behind his lips. “What a pleasure.”

Kuukaku grins back without any of the same courtesy. Of course. “None at all, I’m sure, so I’ll get straight to the point. What are you doing with Ichigo?”

Senzou does roll his eyes this time. “You’ll have to be more specific. As of yesterday, he’s teaching me how to drive a car.” His lip curls. “It’s a mode of transportation Humans have developed.”

“I know what a car is,” Kuukaku snaps, finally hopping down from the desk to prowl across the room. “Why is he teaching you? What do you want with him?”

Senzou pauses halfway through setting down a stack of essays to be marked. “…If I said vengeance on the Shiba Clan once I’ve convinced him to side with me, would that be about what you were expecting?”

Kuukaku glares and crosses her arms. “Ichigo would never.”

Senzou smirks. “Then you have nothing to worry about, do you? You’ve wasted a trip.”

He brushes past her to flip through the paperwork on his desk. End-of-term reports are coming up, and that’s always a waste of his time, so the sooner he gets them done the better.

“I know you resent us for what happened to Miyako,” Kuukaku says from behind him, and Senzou wonders if he can just walk out. Probably, but there’s no way this woman won’t cause a scene. “But Ichigo wasn’t part of any of that.”

Senzou heaves a sigh and turns back around. “Kuukaku-chan, I thought we just established that we both know that using Ichigo against your family won’t work.”

“No,” Kuukaku nods. “But you could hurt him to get back at us.”

They eye each other for a long moment, not quite hostile but far from amicable.

“…My vengeance for Miyako was not lifting a finger when your clan was all but massacred,” Senzou finally says, ignoring the way Kuukaku’s expression pinches. “And so long as contact with you and yours is kept at an absolute minimum in the future, I don’t care anymore. Besides, there is no point in targeting Ichigo to get to you.” He sneers. “He’s a Shiba, but it would be an insult to consider him one of you.”

Kuukaku bristles but doesn’t explode in anger the way some of her even more hot-tempered relatives would. She stares at him instead, and when she doesn’t speak right away, Senzou goes back to organizing the contents of his desk.

“Say I believe that,” Kuukaku finally says, ignoring Senzou’s scoff. “Maybe you are hanging out with Ichigo with no ulterior motives. The gods know he makes that easy. But if that’s what you’re doing, there’s no way you won’t be seeing more of the rest of us eventually. He wasn’t raised the way a Shiba should’ve been, with none of our traditions and only a fraction of the family he should’ve had. That’s on us. But he’s still family, and so long as he doesn’t say no, we’re going to be a part of his life. You’re going to have to accept that if you plan on marrying in.”

The shelf closes with a resounding thud under his hand, and judging by the give, he’s probably cracked the back of it too. He barely notices as his gaze snaps back up to stare incredulously at his uninvited visitor. “I beg your pardon?”

Kuukaku smiles thinly, and this time she looks more amused than anything else. “Something to consider. But you’re more like Miyako than most people would think.” Her arms drop to her sides as she turns abruptly towards the window. “That’s all I had to say. You’re a smart man, Senzou. I don’t need to tell you what will happen if you fuck up.”

And before Senzou can demand an explanation or - more likely - set her on fire for cracking such an abysmal joke, she’s gone, disappearing through the window in a rush of Shunpo.

Senzou stares after her, then at the books he’d carried in earlier, then at the paperwork he’s putting off for the weekend because he has dinner with Ichigo tonight… just as he does almost every night nowadays.

He runs a hand over his face.

Shibas.

6. He says nothing. He’s self-aware enough to know (now, damn Kuukaku) that there’s something there, a spark, a connection, a pull Senzou has never felt towards anyone. He isn’t going to call it love or whatever Kuukaku thinks is happening because it isn’t. He finds Ichigo fascinating and endlessly entertaining, and anyone willing to face down Central 46 is worthy of some admiration in Senzou’s opinion. That Ichigo plans on turning the whole system upside-down and actually has the power to achieve it only raises Senzou’s esteem for him.

But he says nothing because Ichigo knows all this already. The day Senzou’s first instinct, when an assassin sent by Central 46 attempts to take Ichigo’s head, is to slit the hapless woman’s throat - even though he knows full well that she wouldn’t have come anywhere near to succeeding - is the moment Ichigo gets irrefutable proof that Koyonagi Senzou is willing to kill for him.

Ichigo doesn’t gloat of course, he isn’t the type. Senzou half-expects it anyway, breath caught in his lungs for a moment with something disgracefully close to fear twisting in his gut as he turns to check Ichigo’s reaction.

But Ichigo only wrinkles his nose and toes the fresh corpse at his feet, and then he glances at the blood splatter dotting Senzou’s shirt and offers to get him a new one.

He also reaches out to touch the hilt of Senzou’s Zanpakutou before nodding once, deliberately, solemnly, the weight of it as much a thanks as it is an acknowledgement.

And that was that. Senzou relaxes, doesn’t bat an eye when shadows surge up and swallow the body whole, and goes to change into another shirt. The incident passes, and it will be longer still before Ichigo’s enemies realize they probably should’ve tried harder to get rid of Senzou years ago. They’d thought themselves safe enough though: they would never earn Senzou’s allegiance, but at the same time, nobody - including Senzou - ever thought anybody else would earn it either.

But the point is, Ichigo knows. Senzou has no need to speak of it, and both of them are content with that. If something more comes of it down the road, Senzou doesn’t think he’d fight it. He lost this battle a good while ago, and he never even cared.

In the meantime though, he spies on Central 46 and enjoys what time he can spare in the Human world and continues reconstructing Seireitei’s education system brick by stubborn brick. There’s a kingdom to conquer and a god Senzou has pledged himself to, and for now, that is enough.

#headcanon meme: answered #bleach #koyoichi #koyonagi senzou #kurosaki ichigo #kyouraku shunsui #shiba kuukaku #post canon au #headcanon #hi brain #wtaf happened

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Hobbit Soulmate Pt 34

“Gimli!” Andy said making you smile and accept his hug on the way into the building for the table read, “Almost didn’t recognize you. Can’t wait to see you blonde.” He murmured with a wink your way sharing that he knew that you were going to be the lead for a while now having been working so close with Peter on this project already in just the research phase. “Peter should be along shortly to meet us early birds. Looks like we’re here first.”

“Oh that’s good, then we can pick our seats, shuffle others around and just cause mayhem.” Making him chuckle to himself and lead the way into the room he’d been in before for the earlier table read. Once inside the room closest to a banquet hall in your mind you eyed the cloth coated tables in the shape of a square set up with binders on them at each padded wooden seat appearing to be small wingback style dining chairs and name places for each actor around where Peter would be seated. Around the table you strolled reading off the names from the numbered gunners, pilots, crew members and various other speaking extras feeding into the actors from various sections of the film.

The executives from the start of the film interacting with Jack were grouped along with the police who would come to fetch them at the docks feeding to Adrien and Colin Hanks who would be beside Kyle Chandler playing the lead actor in the fake film inside this one. The few supporting actors acting as camera crew took up the final spots by them as you sat across from them in the middle of your side just past the actors from the theater Ann works in. On your right Andy sat with Jamie Bell leading off the other ship based crew members including Thomas Kretschmann, Evan Parke and Lobo Chan. The final spots on the cast for speaking extras on the film would be folded in on the set to keep them from waiting around all day for only a few lines, a spot you knew well from some of your roles.

Andy with a grin eased out your chair for you making you giggle and ease between the front of it to fit into the gap to sit as he scooted it in for you as all the chairs were close together and hard to squeeze between. “Thank you,” Into the back of your seat you settled your jacket you shrugged out of adjusting your black t shirt under the baggy grey cardigan Richard had left you that with a ruffle of your hair that had your curls settling at their own whims around your face and shoulders they barely reached.

Into his own chair he eased grinning to the woman entering with glasses in a tray she was settling at each seat while another entered with water bottles. The opening of your bag on your lap drew a glance your way from them and Andy in settling his chair into place watching you bring out a bottle of v8 you settled on the table then shifted your bag at your side. Flashing him a quick sheepish grin you said, “Lee bought two cases before he went to Canada and forgot he couldn’t take them with him and this is the last one. Have to drink them or they’ll go bad on me.”

“No judgments here,” out of his bag he pulled a bottle of pineapple juice making you giggle, “Lady Love has me on a juice cleanse, whatever that is. Read it somewhere and I don’t think we’re doing it right cuz we had a full English each morning since and bacon wrapped pork fillets and buttery salty boiled veggies for two days now and all we drink is pineapple juice.”

That had you giggle again, “I don’t think that’s how you do it either. I think it’s meant you only consume fruit juice and no food as a sort of fasting regimen.”

“Bugger that, don’t you tell her that,” making you pretend to lock your lips, “Think she just got swept up with the coupons.”

That had you pointing at the bottle in your hand, “Came home to split eight cases of this stuff because they were on sale for ten cents, not even a huge sale.” Making him chuckle, “Still can’t believe you ran off and got married on me.”

“No one knew, something about relatives and a scuffle with the mead would have had our clans clashing not to mention my mum would have wanted the big Catholic shindig and we were not for that so pop to the courthouse and back. Saves so much time and then I took her to Aruba, burned about most of my backside off in the sun but she loved the bits around my snake peeling self coming out of the shower in the mornings.”

“True love,” you teased making him chuckle and join you in taking sips of your drinks.

“How’s your fella?”

“Cold, got him up in Northern Canada for part of his role, so he’s cold and grumpy and can’t wait for me to be back. Only have a few weeks when I get there till he’s off to Europe for the rest of his role. But then we go to England for more cold to Spring scenes for North and South.”

“Ooh, do they like your hair color now?”

“Yes, they did mention they love the shade so this one will work and I have a friend who knows a good salon I can get my roots touched up when I need it, brows too. I do like it when I am in bits of sunlight when we can get it cuz it glows a bit golden.”

“If only we had more sun,” making you giggle again. “A shame to dull your glow.”

“Just wait till I go platinum the girls say I will be other worldy.”

“No doubt on that.” He said glancing over eyeing Thomas walking in with Evan Parke, both who paused seeing the new face at the table beside Andy. Turning his head Andy grinned saying, “Hey guys, you haven’t met Jaqi yet.”

“Hi,” you said with a wave in their walk around the room to their seats near your, stopping to shake your hand then move to take their seats.

Evan said, “I’ve seen you before.”

Andy said, “Beast of Bards.”

Thomas shrugged out of his jacket, “Yes, you changed your hair.”

“Ya, had to lighten it for my next projects. Should be easier to go blonde after them.” You looked to Thomas saying, “My friend said the Pianist was pretty good.” And to Evan you said, “You were on Alias too, right?”

Evan grinned nodding, “Yes, my brother and I have seen your film twice, must have taken some time to learn those dances.”

You smirked saying, “Not really. They gave me a couple weeks to memorize and tweak them to the Director’s fancy.”

Thomas said, “You said your friend has seen the film, you don’t like war films?”

“I do, haven’t gotten to seeing yet. By the time I was still long enough to watch it they’d dropped it to disc, and I don’t have a dvd player yet.” That made Andy chuckle and you rolled your eyes reaching for your bottle for another sip, “Lee is looking into one for his place in Canada, so I might be able to mooch off his while I’m there. His brother’s got a copy of it we could borrow.”

They both settled into their seats as you took a sip flashing a wave to Jed Brophy and Rick Baker coming in next who grinned waving back in recognizing you right away, Jed who you had worked with in the trilogy in your time as an orc and other extra roles. “Figured Peter had something up his sleeve,” Jed said easing off his jacket to take his seat.

The executives were next while Rick continued the conversation with Jed from the path in after his greeting you. Jim and Ric, both who found their seats engulfed in their own talks until Peter came in with a smile seeing you by Andy, pausing to give you a hug from the side on his way to his seat to ready his things still on the phone with Fran helping on a solution to a wardrobe issue with their little girl and boy. The Vaudeville theater actors came in next curiously glancing your way until they could shake hands and take their seats on your free side to Jamie Bell’s own entrance with a creeping smile noticing just who was in the formerly emptied spot. Leaving his coat on his seat he said, “Oh my gosh, I haven’t seen you in so long!” Softly you giggled at his gentle hug around your shoulders, “I am so glad you’re here! I can’t wait to see what sort of stage routine they give you.”

“Well I can’t wait to see what sort of fun you’ll get up to in this film while I’m off in my slip and silk robe being chased by dinos.”

Andy chuckled, “Dinos and me.”

“Yes, not to mention getting kidnapped, loads of fun.” Making Jamie chuckle and shift for his seat seeing Peter glancing your way in hanging up his call.

The in film ‘film crew’ came in next with the police actors as well with Colin, Jack and Adrien next. The first two who greeted the guys around the table and paused at your quick wave and anxious grin their way. Jack however broke the silence pointing at you post mutter, “Purple,” in a gasp he excitedly added, “Beast of Bards! You were kick ass!”

“Thank you,” you giggled out glancing to Adrien in his apparent locked stare of confusion.

He glanced to Peter as Colin said, “Well you’ll no doubt be able to out last us after a role like that. Dancers have amazing endurance.” Settling into his chair as you grinned a bit wider at Andy’s hushed chuckle.

Adrien asked Peter, “You picked a teenager? She’s got to be what, sixteen?”

Jamie said, “Jaqi’s older than me.”

Drawing the elder actor’s eye a moment only for them to shift back to Peter, “Rest my case.”

“I’m not a teenager, two more years I can legally rent a car,” the second half you said to Andy who chuckled again.

Thomas asked, “There is an age limit on car rentals here? I never knew that.”

Peter said with a grin, “Well you’re two years past being able to rent one in New Zealand. If we didn’t already drive you everywhere you could at least.”

Adrien looked to you, “The Bard film that’s a dance film, there’s next to no dancing in this film. You sure you’re up to it?”

“There’s no call for piano playing for you I could ask the same thing,” parting his lips to your comeback and grin adding, “Congrats on the Oscar nom by the way. Youngest guy to get one if you do win, haven’t seen it yet but I hear it was good.”

Peter jumped in, “Jaqi here was already signed on to be Naomi’s stunt and possibly scream double and is more than qualified for anything we toss her way.”

“Ooh, I’ve got juggling mostly on its knees, but my friend said she’d help with any other trick shots and whatnot as I hit them in rehearsing.”

Peter grinned, “I knew you could master it in no time.”

Jamie said, “I always wanted to learn to juggle, you can teach me later.”

Adrien huffed and took his seat and the binders were opened revealing a legal pad and pocket of pens and pencils that you pulled out to rest on your lap to be ready for notes on any and everything. Right up front once the introductions of the segment to the Depression era New York City you and the theater group testing out the sort of accent that Peter had helped you to find on your last lunch together at your place when he’d signed you to this new role. The naïve impression you gave was played to and through those sections you caught Colin and Jack smirking especially at how you were blending right into the script and even paused to note a few subtle changes you suggested on the lines to Peter who agreed to each as they flowed better.

Jack’s intro came next with his fingers raised to Andy’s standing in for the fruit stand owner you stole an apple from with hold of your wrist growling his lines to your pretend stunned self merely trying to squirm free. He offered a coin to the stand keep and you were free to join him for the meal at the diner where your open mouthed pause to his nipped lip grin your way post request of your dress size he stammered out that he was one of the men she could trust in the business, a Producer. Through focusing on you the still staring Adrien nearly missed his cue for his opening lines in Jack’s character trying to trap him into traveling with them. From his frustrations at being trapped Kyle flowed in between conversations of the crew including Jamie’s faked pocketing of his pen post scribble of his pen leading to Kyle producing his comb to fake some posed faces teetering you on the edge of giggling.

Peter said, “Now, alone in her cabin Ann Darrow has a rehearsal of her introduction to Jack Driscoll.” He winked your way, “Make it awkward. Make me squirm.”

That had you giggle and take a moment to ready your grin and flow into the failed tries to greet said playwright she was a huge fan of, Andy chuckled however as you smiled to Colin’s comment post intro of your flub in assuming Preston is Jack Driscoll. “Oh this is going to be so awful day of. I’m already antsy.”

Jack raised his fist with a nod, “Go hard, for all of us awkward butterflies.”

Giggling to yourself you brushed your curls back only to have them fall again around your face as you readied and smiled wider in a nervous blush to Colin who kept his face as still as possible holding back his laughter until your embarrassed retreat from the room for the guys to banter. On the ship you got some great notes for your scenes with Kyle, who you’d seemed to bond over the adoration of the history of film from the era to blend into your acting styles to be over the top. Noting each between glances to Adrien in your few scenes with him where he seemed to still be troubled in pulling out of is doubts on your being the right one for the job.

Post island arrival Peter said, “Now, to keep from spoiling your voices I say we skip the screams, plus I’d hate to startle the neighbors if you gave it a go Jaqi.”

“Party pooper,” you muttered making him smirk at your lifting your bottle to finish it off. The guys through their scenes to gather up a posse to search for Ann you popped out to the attached bath and back again in more than enough time for a scene with grunting Andy. The shouts for Ann were more half hearted giggle inducing readings of the name making you cover your mouth with both hands the longer their disastrous explorations went on until you gave Andy a hug at his death scene as Lumpy.

The scenes after the return to the city were mainly descriptive of what was occurring between the less verbal end of the film.

“How is your apartment shopping going up in Canada, ticking all the boxes?” Andy asked in the small break as the man to take the orders for lunch arrived. And the grin and wave you returned for his was not missed by the still staring Adrien across from you honed in on all you apparently did even in the break.

“We found some cute things for it. Nice couch, armchair and a bed, it’s on the floor but it’s a bed, no sign of a table yet.” Making you and Andy chuckle, “And we found this cute cabinet, well I say cute, I love it but it must have been in a fire or something the doors and drawers are all stuck. So Rich is determined to try and pry it open for me and clean it up a bit.”

“That’s good, give him something to distract him.”

“Honestly, aren’t there more pressing things to be focused on than conversations on furniture shopping?” Adrien muttered to himself but loud enough for the both of you to hear, though it didn’t pause your conversation.

Peter however said after getting off his phone, “Lunch is underway then our surprise for you is all lined up.”

Smirking at the excited Director you asked, “Is this a take a picture sort of surprise or more of a dangle you off a ledge sort of surprise?”

Peter chuckled with the few here who worked with you on the trilogy and replied playfully, “We are not in New Zealand yet, leave the ledge dangling to home turf.”

Curtly Adrien gave his order handing over the menu in his hands without a care watching you as those between you ordered in kinder tones while your turn to order from the young man had the actor huffing again as you said, “Hank, Shoppet still hanging in there?”

“Oh ya,” he chuckled out, “Figured out it was the wind chimes setting the feathered fiend off each night. Likes ‘em in the day time still so we just knot them in a sock.”

“Well that’s good news,” Adrien sighed and you smiled taking the hint he thought you were smiling too much and taking too long with the delivery guy granting Andy some more time to decide himself along with a few others behind him. “Oh don’t mind him,” you said after Hank’s glance and momentary gauge on the irritated man staring you down, “He’s not always a pretentious ass,” the words dropping jaws across the table, Jack and Colin’s especially who bit that back or covered their mouths with their hands like a few others to your right, “He’s just being method.” The words relaxing Hank who’d seen you picked on enough in school and was readying to say something.

Hank looked at him saying, “Nailed it,” only doubling the state from the now fuming actor.

Smiling still you handed over the menu saying, “He’s supposed to find me vapid and too naive to be taken seriously.”

Throatily he chuckled and added your menu to the others, “Good luck with that,” he aimed at Adrien then stepped behind you saying, “get you your usual.”

The rest of the table ordered as Peter tried not to smile as you had continued to talk to Andy again and then when Hank had left Adrien leaned forward on the table before him saying, “I’m still waiting.”

That turned your head and you smiled clenching his brows tighter, “Food shouldn’t take long, they have an excellent service record.”

“For an apology,” he grit out, “You told him I was a pretentious ass.” The other actors glanced between the pair of you like amused schoolyard children watching the beginnings of a fight.

“No,”

“Everyone heard you,” he fired back.

“You told him you were being a pretentious ass, I told him you were being method.”

“The difference?” he retorted through smirks and restrained snickers.

“Everyone has ears,” you replied and his brows dropped in the vague answer. “This is a business of reputation, don’t limit your pool of possible job offers.”

“My agent is doing just fine getting me job offers no matter the troubles you have with yours.”

“I don’t have one.”

“How do you not have an agent?” He scoffed back.

“Old fashioned way, making friends and pounding pavement.”

“Well we certainly won’t be friends.”

“Famous last words,” Andy chuckled out lifting his bottle for a sip making him scoff again.

Adrien repeated, “We are not going to be friends. Naomi made a mistake dropping out.”

“I agree.” You said stunning him, “But she found a better project in her eyes. I suppose you’ll just have to make do with little me from New York.”

“I’m from New York, you are not from New York, clearly by the voice alone.” He said waving his hand your way, “I don’t care if you’ve lived here a few weeks to research, that doesn’t count. I was born here, raised here, my parents teach in college here. And just which corner below the Bible Belt did you saunter up from?”

That had your smile spreading and saying, “Oh bless your heart, is this your try to scare me off? Cuz it’s not going to work I’ve met sheep less cooperative than you. Name’s Jaqi by the way, I was born in Texas but I moved to New York when I was seventeen after a year in England for University.”

“So two days ago?”

“Whatever you say cupcake you big flatterer you though I’m not nearly old enough to vain about my age by a score at least.”

“I am not your cupcake,” he fired back to your chuckle inducing nickname causing others to continue watching this battle progress. “No flattery, no nicknames, you can call me Mr Brody.”

“This is going to be so much fun,” you said propping your chin on your fist leaning closer to Andy who was close to losing it. “I’ll break you down, ‘I defeat my enemies by making them my friends’.”

“Who fed you that line?” He retorted in a mumble lifting his water to drink from.

“Abraham Lincoln,” his brow inched up and you said, “Former President-,”

“I know who Lincoln is.”

“Don’t know, been so long since you got out of school, Mr Brody,” that made Colin sputter a bit in sipping his own drink at your playful pauses at each syllable of his name, “Might be getting a bit fuzzy around the edges.” That made Adrien scoff again and you said, “In fact let’s make a bet. When I break you down to being friends with me I get to take a picture of you in a platypus costume.”

“Epic,” Jack muttered behind his fist feigning confusion when Adrien looked his way.

The latter who looked to you asking, “One, why? And two, where the hell are you going to find a platypus costume of all things?”

“Just think in a few months when I wear you down I get to have a picture of possible Oscar award winning actor Adrien Brody in a platypus costume just for little me.” The smile on your face made others chuckle while you added, “Leave the logistics to me on the costume I got connections, cupcake.”

“Such as?”

“Never met a Drag Queen Pageant contestant have you?”

“You know Drag Queens,” he looked to Peter saying, “Who does she associate with?”

“Some fun people, you’ve obviously been missing out cupcake on some of the most extravagant affairs you couldn’t dream of.”

“Doubtful,” he replied and you turned your head at Jamie’s hand patting the table.

“Young and the Restless!” He exclaimed, “I knew I recognized that delivery guy from somewhere. Am I right?”

You nodded, “Yup, we traded tips, I overhead of an audition on the subway and he slipped me a note after a movie night out on one for a commercial a while back. Always wanted to be a floozy pool boy slash hopeful novelist working for some heiress.”

Colin asked, “You get the audition?”

“No, they wanted someone taller and less busty something about sliding a roll of tape off the woman’s chest.”

Adrien, “How do you even hear about a part on the subway?”

“Cell phone conversations. Someone screwed someone’s uncle and then knocked up another person’s ex and they got kicked off set and they needed to fill in a slot for the show. Everyone has ears. One of my best tips came from a hot dog vender back when I was in school. Helped his son study for midterms and he keeps an ear out when the big producers head out for lunch.”

Adrien, “Get an agent.”

“I borrow my Mate’s from time to time across the pond. He’s pretty awesome.”

Adrien sighed and Jack cut him off asking, “Did you do that dance scene on a wire? When you dropped back in the splits off those guys shoulders playing your violin?”

“No, I had two spotters crouched down, the wires would have impeded with the dance and the other dancers. Plus cranes weren’t really in the budget.”

Jack, “Must have taken months to get that right-,”

Adrien said, “Wait, you were playing the violin and were flipping off someone’s shoulders?”

Andy, “You should watch the film.”

Jamie nodded, “It’s so good!”

Peter asked, “When is that Daredevil film out again?”

“Couple weeks,” you answered, “And I have no clue how that’s going to be. They just quilted the whole thing.”

Thomas, “Daredevil, like the comics?”

“Yes,” you answered, “They’re doing that and an Electra film from Marvel.”

Colin, “And you’re in the first?”

“Stewardess and a few other slots in a coffee shop. Filmed it when I was doing the Beast film and they jostled my role around a bit to fit the changes they made.”

Andy cut off any possible comment to say, “Plus there’s that other film with the evil tooth fairy you’re in our soon.”

Kyle said, “How do I always miss out on good monster movies?”

“Darkness Falls.”

Craig, “That’s what that film was about, I just caught the back of the promo at the last film I watched.”

John said, “You seem to really be on a thriller kick.”

Lunch arrived and in the clearing of the table Peter smiled stepping into the hall at the conclusion of another phone call. Though in his return your lips parted eyeing Fay Wray walking through the door who smiled looking over all of you. For nearly an hour once she shared all about her own experience in the original 1933 King Kong film before each of you got a chance to talk with her about your own roles in the film. Hanging back listening carefully through the others her grin doubled as you wriggled free from your seat to take your turn with Adrien watching you both like a hawk and others watching him and his amusing expressions in doing so.

“Jaqi, I have been just aching to talk to you. Pearl spent years sharing all the tiny details on you with me, you come here now,” That had you giggling at her hands waving you over to claim a warm hug making Adrien’s brow twitch wondering how you knew one another. Once apart she said, “I want you to know how proud she was of you especially after those leeches of hers moved her away. And that performance at the Tony awards, flawless, we didn’t stop talking about that for months after. She’d have been so happy to have seen you on the big screen, after you took such good care of her. I bet she shared all about our adventures while we worked together on my sitcom.”

“She did,” you said with a smile, “Shared so much about all her adventures too, let me in on all the juicy gossip and tons of tips for my performances with orchestras too.”

“Well she would know all about that,” she said delving into the best tips she had for you and your role until when her daughter said it was time to head home again to beat traffic. From her bag however she pulled out a duo of picture frames she passed to you making you smile. The first Mrs Henderson when she was younger meeting the late King George beside the invitation she was given to perform for the Royal Family. The second her invitation to the Oscars at her nomination for the award she was up for composer for the score to a film. In catching her eyes again she pat your lower arms with a loving smile to your misty eyed fight not to cry, “She wanted you to have these. The rest of her memories have been tucked away somewhere safe from being sold off, keep those close, and one day you can trade up when you do better than the both of us did.”

“I highly doubt I could ever play for King George though,” you teased making her chuckle. “Can’t best her in that.”

“No you can’t,” she said adding a slip of paper to the frames, “You need me you know where to call, sweet girl.” You nodded and she claimed another hug and made her way out with her daughter who stole a hug of her own glad to have met the person behind the stories she’d heard for years since you’d taken charge of care for her best friend.

Colin, “You know her?”

Peter while stunned himself remained silent letting you answer the burning question held by all, “My old neighbor up until a few years back she had Alzheimer’s and I did her shopping and cleaned up around the place trading for stories of the films, shows and orchestras she’d worked on.” Looking at Peter and said, “The winter we met while I was gone her kids moved her to a retirement village and my landlord gave me her old place that was bigger than mine. They had a story she died few months back.” Glancing at Colin again you said, “So not knowing her exactly in person, more the era.”

Adrien, “They pay you to take care of her, the kids?”

You looked him over and said, “We have no lift in my building and the shops are blocks away, some of us were raised to keep an eye out. She was family, never met the kids.”

Peter clapped his hands, “So, I think we meet up tomorrow separately, the Vaudeville crew and those working in the mock stage play to get that work started. And for those of you still anxious to get to New Zealand as a tradition on the campground we have been filming the Tolkien Trilogy we are having a cookout to start off filming on the right foot.”

Pt 35

Hobbit – Soulmate - @evyiione, @deepestfirefun, @rhaenaatargaryen, @anastasialovers

X all Rich. A - @abiwim, @deepestfirefun, @thestorybookmistress

X Lee P - @tigereyesf

All –

@himoverflowers, @theincaprincess, @aspiringtranslator, @thegreyberet, @patanghill17, @jesgisborne, @curvestrology, @alishlieb, @jogregor, @armitageadoration, @fizzyxcustard, @lilith15000, @marvels-ghost, @catthefearless, @imjusthereforthereads, @c-s-stars, @otakumultimuse-hiddlewhore, @mariannetora, @shes-a-killer-kween, @ggbbhehe4455

#King Kong Table Read #Adrien Brody #Andy Serkis #Jack Black #Jamie Bell #Colin Firth #Richard Armitage x Reader OC #Peter Jackson #Fay Wray

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smallestclowninthecircus · 3 years

Text

Tma season 2 notes baybeee

I made myself take several breaks so I could give my frie d who is listening to it at the same time as me a chance to catch up. Honestly just posting them so I have them saved somewhere but whatever.

ep 41: real graham wrote keep watching before he was replaced. Jon feels like he's being watched. But they werent replaced by things related to the eye. It's the web that's on the box that replaces them. Endless hallways and doors to nowhere. I bet nicholas will have ideas what entity this relates to. If it even does. They're like the tunnels in the one with the builder guy. Tunnels closing in etc. Also like the cave diving one. He's assuming it's just one

ep 42: so 100 gecs? (IM SORRY I LIKE 100 GECS BUT LMAO) so there's some entity related to music right? There's the piper episode and the 27 w/ the calliope. Ah yes, this season is gonna be the season of Paranoid!Jon

ep 43: section 31? fucking books. god no. smashed lights? cult lady did that. covered the lights too. she mentioned a spooky clown doll. thats not random.

ep 44: is this that same circus that got mentioned before? it is! the pipe organ! pop off organ! pipe off! mouth on the stomach! yes! mouths in unusual places my beloved!

ep 45: antiques! like that one ep!

ep 46: every time books get mentioned i sigh. hhh sus smells. it got brighter. I get the vibes occasionally that the dark and the eye are sorta at odds with eachother. GRRR BARK BARK LEITNER. ayyy ex altiora. entity go brr. which entity do we thing it is? my guess is The Dark. The book buyer's name is Mike. He has scars? Electricity? The childhood friend of the guy who got it later on perhaps? The Vast? its formatted like an entity idk. This happened before the other one. He got trapped in the wood carving. a win for the web lol spiders go brr

ep 47: did i hear spiral? ITS THE NOT THING FROM THE EPISODE WITH NOT GRAHAM "it didnt move, it shifted" is like the exact same sentence as before. ay john's starting to remember. the laughing woah thats weird. is "michael" one of the entities? "you make it seem like theres a war" supports my theory that theres a struggle between a couple of the entities. I said i thought it was the eye and the dark i believe but im not sure. its whatever entity michael is vs the worms? what did nicholas say the worms were again? The Corruption? still dont know which one michael is tho.

Had to take a break after that episode. smth about the quality of michael's voice makes me feel like im gonna slip into one of those states where it feels like nothing is real, so i got a nice cold glass of water.

ep 48: jesus ok this one's kidna corny. you're telling me love made the crowd go away come on now. Ur losing it big J. also shouldnt it be more sus that "sasha" is so unaffected by the worm incident/ finding of gertrude's body

ep 49: haven't we heard hector's name before? oh is he the crime guy? fucking jared... so it's a throat? chompa chompa. (it's just a little bit hot) the good part about these episodes is that we know whoever's telling the story isn't gonna die. even if it's a close call, they're not dead. hotworth? ok not jared keay. it bothers me how theres so many repeated names, can they not come up with other names? "sasha"'s computer is breaking... sus. Elias our favorite weed man! jon ur so paranoid lmao

ep 50: robert smirk, at it again. this is like that one episode with the old dude who locked his door. who said idle beforehand? was it smirk? fingertips. thats so weird lmao. bahahah tim

ep 51: simon fairchild. im sure jon will mention the name at the end i cant remember where we've heard it. this is just like the cavediving episode. a hand? there was a hand in the last one right? the scalpel! and an eye thing. she's trying to throw them off.

ep 52: thats the guy from before! with the hearts! god i hate this guy writing the statement hh. lights blowing, and brackish water. we know how this ends but its still tense. rainer? reigner? rain man. we've seen him before

ep 53: pls not a leitner. oh boy mans scratched out his eyes. rip skelly. why would gertrude have had this statement off the books? jon stabbed himself?? bruh im? big man are you okay

ep 54: cockney boys! ayy its our favorite delivery men. she cut out their eyes. she knew that the eye was a thing?

ep 55: oily residue like the retirement home!

ep 56: worms? no. spiders?? bruhh. aaah yelling :(( aww martin anyways yeah i called it about paranoid!jon he needs to take a nap and drink some hot chocolate and calm down for once please

ep 57: just remembered, i think theres an entity called The Lonely?? This feels pretty lonely idk. fairchild, lukas/ lucas, some spooky place in norway idk. "sasha" knew he was recordinig hmm suspicious cmon jon figure it out. Sasha and tom. hm sus. for records sake i feel liek i should note here that I did have it spoiled to me simply that that's not sasha, but thats really all. i assumed it was like the thing that happened to graham in S1

ep 58: i feel like i recognize the name eustice (?) wick. someone please tell me im not just watching jon's descent into madness over the course of this podcast. im hoping it isnt so but, (and pardon the dsmp reference) im getting real wilbur vibes from this one.

ep 59: oh dear ok account from the fielding house. swirling designs? Spiral time? oh boyy. oh wait! 6 inch hole in the middle! is it not a spiderweb type design on the table? thats what i had assumed but that description sounds more like a spiral thing. cobwebs is a Web thing. ayy nicholas was right! the box goes in the table! the place that she kissed him was burning. Raymond is an avatar of The Web and agnes is the burning one. Lightless Flame! Why did she save him? i guess she was against this guy eating ppl or wtvr but why was she at the halfway house then? I think she's like michael.

ep 60: the eye go brr

ep 61: breacon and hope once again. tom. sasha's boyfriend. vampires sleep in coffins. the guy just walking in seems similar to the mind control of the vampires

ep 62: bones! its that one leitner. is this mother keay? the mom of gerard? this is what happened to her right? her skin was found on hooks? oh yeah thats what i thought the pages are made of skin. yeesh. The End!! sounds like an entity. phrased like one, and i think i remember it. are the people trapped in the pages? or... kept?

ep 63: eaten by the darkness! cavediving episode! (just like eaten by the sky) did my brain make up one called The Vast? it feels like it should be one, and all these episodes have some similar description about their feelings when they do whatever chosen hobby they have. ok now this one kinda feels like the dark. lights going out and all that. ok so not really a The Vast thing, its more of a Dark thing. feckin smirk gah.

ep 64: dice! the death guy! the death game thing! the person tricked somebody else into becoming death and then they were immortal? but if the egyptians wanted to kill him or punish him or whatever couldnt they just kill him? it worked in the end when he had the person giving the statement stab him, that did the job and actually killed him

ep 65: finally jon is actually acknowledging something is wrong.

So we know Mary Keay was revived most likely with the book by gerard.

Gertrude was way more aware of the entities than Jon. mary keay referenced The End openly and she cut the eyes out of her magazines and all that which makes me think she was aware of The Eye

ep 66: please not buried alive pleeaase not buried alive. lukas of the tundra? didnt we hear the name lukas before? she wanted it to be difficult to find important files because that way bad people couldnt find them?

ep 67: agnes... the girl in the hilltop house? agnes poppin off!! he's really not gonna question how she knew where he lived?? oh no D: the tree. were they the ones working on the house? aww they kissi- OH DEAR. why did she kiss him? it seemed like she cared about him? also she could kiss that other dude on the cheek and he was fine, but maybe it was cuz she was younger? lightless flame go brrrrr.

ep 68: oh god books. yup its bitchboy leitner. mans said "this seems supernatural, its a werd book!" bruuh.

ep 69: heh nice. aw cmon jon listen to martin. gahhh spiders. is that the class we heard about in the other doctor one with the teeth apple? some kind of psych class? oh dear. fucking spiders. aaaah. web do be goin brr. it's like the girl in the homeless shelter! who made the guy leave and she took his bed.

ep 70: is this gonna be the book that mary keay had? Most likely a leitner no matter what. Oh boy latin. Why did it start in latin then become old English? I'm guessing people put them in the book? He cant burn it. Phrophecies go brr. He says eh it's a decade in the future it's fine. Its gonna have changed. Ayy called it. Just accept it, it's a magic book. His death is getting closer. Leitner didnt make them but just collected them? Gertrude burned the book! She burned them down there so no one would know.

ep 71: oh boy tunnels. Our favorite thing /s. is The Buried a thing? Idk this seems pretty buried. Oh dear he's trapped here isnt he. "Not enough space to move, never enough to breathe" is that from the computer episode? With the guy who uploaded his consciousness? Somebody living down there. Hmmmm. Guesses: tom, sasha's boyfriend. Gertrude herself? (Though I doubt it)

ep 72: sweeney todd moment. Meat. The slaughter? Idk we'll see what the supernatural part is. Meat is meat. Similar to the slaughterhouse episode. Is it fucking Jared I swear to God it better not be. Hooligan teenagers, you know how it is. Meat is me lmao. Is the kid gonna be in the freezer. Ok that's good. OWW. Oddly textured candles. Made from people? Human fat or smth? Tom from the meat processing plant!

ep 73: outer bay shipping. Bet it's a subset of breacon and hope delivery. The Dark go brrr. Uh oh mans is gonna die. Leo or whatever. Cult ppl go brr. The people's church of the divine host. Who is the divine host? Is it reigner or whatever his name is? I dont think Jon can quit tbh. Probably an anonymous tip but from who?? One of the entities?

ep 74: fucking teeth hhh. I dont know which entity is related to teeth. Spiral. Isnt the spiral an entity. It feels like it could be related to many things idk. Yeah this sounds like the spiral. Heart attack at 29? Jesus... michael! That's kinda what I was thinking. Sasha goin in the tunnels. Hmm sus. They move the floor. Wack. Bet its tom.

ep 75: Man with a lightning scar. Has one of the leitner books. The childhood friend of the one who first introduced us to leitner. Oh my god that sounds terrifying. Michael crew.

ep 76: scalpel? Hmm spooky. NotSasha... think jon think.

ep 77: another double! NotThem, The Stranger. Not related to the table?

ep 78: what was that at the beginning? Question mark?? Oh boy more NotThem. Decker... what is the deal with the table. Does it contain the creature? Fucking Michael. Bitchboi himself.

ep 79: yes pop off martin. Ugh fucking Michael just leave man. I hate that dude. New person. Hmm. No idea who it is.

ep 80: shitener himself! Ok sir tell us the entities. Ayy The Spiral. Ok we know what that one is. The Eye is the beholding! Oooh. The Stranger. Did elias just kill leitner? Popping off honestly.

#Neptune tma notes

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lady-byleth · 5 years

Text

Okay so I've made it back to the War Phase of Verdant Wind and I've been thinking about how absolutely flawlessly Claude and Byleth slip back into their roles, how they seem to click even better than ever actually

And like, we all know Claude never once gave up on her and he was probably incredibly annoying about it to those around him (read: people were real worried) - by which I for once mean Nader

Because Nader is his retainer and his trainer, he's taught Claude everything he knows about fighting and with a war going on I can imagine he drops by more than ever to make sure Claude is on top of his game

And skilled warriors like Nader can tell a lot about how a person feels from how they handle their weapons, something that several characters are adapt at in their supports

So I imagine they're sparring and Nader is trying to gauge the kid's overall mental state and comes away surprised cuz...he's doing surprisingly well. He's worried sure, and he's lonely, but it's not crippling or affecting his fighting the way he's seen grief do to others

But that makes no sense, he's heard Claude talk about that Professor of his, and he's heard the news about her disappearance, so by rights Claude should be devastated

Nader of course worries Claude might be suppressing those feelings and decides to dig. Gently.

"So...how you holding up, kiddo?"

Claude, in the middle of wiping sweat off his brow, pauses to give him a look. "I'm fine?" he says, sounding suspicious. "Why are you asking?"

"Well, with all that's been going on, I wouldn't hold it against you to be a little shaken still."

Claude shrugs "Yeah, doesn't happen every day a classmates starts a war and invades your current home. But stranger things have happened and it's not like I died so."

Nader frowns and decides to prod a little bit more. "Maybe not but...I heard about the Professor."

At this a shadow flickers across Claude's face, something that might be sadness or pain, but it's gone before it can take hold.

"Yeah, let's not do this now."

"You have to talk about it eventually," Nader insists.

Claude groans and sheathes sword. "Talk about what exactly? How everyone just assumes she's dead and tries to get me to mourn?" He rolls his eyes. "There's nothing to mourn, she's not dead."

Nader is really worried now because if the kid is this deep in denial... "Listen," Nader begins slowly, "I've lost people too, I know it's hard--"

Claude cuts him off with an impatient wave of the hand. He's the real Claude for once, not the one who puts on smiles and pretends to be unaffected by everything and Nader sees this side of him so rarely he holds his breath.

"I know you're trying to help," Claude says, an edge to his voice, "but she's not dead. Hell, this is the woman who fused with a deity and cut a hole into time and space because she was a little bit pissed off, you think a puny invasion will stop her? Please." He ends on a scoff and Nader suddenly knows he's not just saying things. He truly believes it too.

But for all Nader knows, Claude might be convincing himself of something that won't happen so Nader crosses his arms.

"How certain are you?" he asks. "Why are you so sure that this woman is as unstoppable as you say?"

"Because I know her. And I trust her."

Now Nader is shocked. Claude and trusting someone? Especially someone he hasn't known for long? It's so close to a miracle that Nader, in his old age, doesn't know what to say.

And then Claude drives the point home.

"You know what," he says and draws the dagger at his hip, "let me make this clear once and for all." And with a quick movement so fast and sure Nader barely has time to see it Claude cuts off his braid.

"Woah kid, what the hell are you doing?!"

The braid is a near sacred tradition in their culture, something incredibly personal and meaningful. It represented life and growth. To cut it off...it only happened during the most important moments in a person's life, during sacred vows and lifelong promises.

And now Claude holds his in his fist, his eyes as sure and determined as ever. "I swear on this, on my life, that she's coming back. So stop trying to get me to talk about my feelings, it won't happen. I won't mourn someone who isn't dead."

He shoves the braid into Nader's hand, turns on his heel and marches out, leaving Nader behind in stunned silence.

Not long after this Duke Riegan dies after a short but violent illness, leaving Claude to take up the mantle of Leader.

Claude does mourn now, but for his lost grandfather, and looks sadly to his side where Nader can feel the presence of someone not there. But that is all he mourns.

Nader watches as Claude matures, his shoulders broaden, his hair grows longer, a beard frames his face in a way that somehow made him seem even more rougish than ever.

And still he doesn't mourn. But he grows lonlier by the day. Until not quite five years after the invasion, where he looks at the calender and becomes restless. And then one day he simply packs his things and leaves Derdriu and the territory in Nader's hands without a word.

When he comes back...he isn't alone. And Nader knows before either of them speaks that Claude had been right the entire time.

She is alive and had been waiting for the right moment to return to Claude who has been keeping the space at his side open for her since the day she disappeared.

He asks anyway, who might this beautiful princess be, and of course he gets the answer he expects, delivered without an ounce of pride or gloating. Claude is merely stating a fact, something he has always known would happen eventually.

And as Nader watches them talk, alternating between conversations about war and lighthearted teasing, it feels like she's never truly been gone at all.

"I'll be damned, kiddo," he mumbles to himself and fingers the frayed braid he's kept in his pocket this entire time. "Your princess - your Goddess - really came back to you."

When he says it, he knows he's hit gold.

Goddess.

That's what the look in his eyes means.

Claude might not worship any higher being, but his trust in her is near religious.

She's his friend, his confidant, his one and only Goddess.

Nader never doubts this woman - Byleth - again.

#fire emblem three houses #three houses spoilers #Claude von Riegan #Nader fire emblem #byleth eisner #Byleth #Claudeth

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sebthesnipe · 4 years

Text

The Dreamer by Whatwashernameagain An Analysis? Chapter 3 Part 1

All portions:

Chapter 1: Part 1 // Part 2 // Part 3 // Part 4

Chapter 2: Part 1 // Part 2 // Part 3 // Part 4

Chapter 3: Part 1 // Part 2 // Part 3 // Part 4

The Dreamer

by @whatwashernameagain

Reminder: Spoilers under cut!

Hello friends!!!

It has been some time since I wrote a literary analysis for The Dreamer, but Chapter 3 was released and I’m back in business!!!

If you have not read the analysis for Chapters 1 and 2 I suggest you do so. (Links above)

As Always if you have not done so please read @whatwashernameagain ‘s The Dreamer Chapter 3 before you continue. This analysis is pretty much a giant spoiler if you haven’t.

Lastly I am going to place all of the same warning as Whatwashernameagain did on the chapter because there is some pretty intense subjects throughout the work that we all need to be aware of. I have also broken my Chapter analysis into four parts as usual to keep it from getting too bulky.

Also, you can find additional links to The Dreamer analysis on AO3 (and other works by me) here on my masterpost.

LETS GET STARTED!!!

Warnings: homophobia, internalized homophobia, republican brainwashing, manipulation, mentioned pedophilia, violence, threatened sexual abuse, injuries, being pressured into sex, nakedness.

Eva opens with Roman making a mistake. He has failed to listen to his handler, Virgil. He had raided an abandoned warehouse, hoping to capture the leader of a human trafficking ring (Whatwashernameagain). This is a subtle reminder of the difference between Logan and Roman. Once again, we see Roman concerning himself with ‘the smaller’ issues. By this I mean, caring for the individual person rather than the world as a whole. Roman is good hearted enough to consider a small human trafficking ring as a very large issue that needs to be address. This also brings attention to just how sensitive Roman can be. Though it may not be apparent here, if we look closely, we can see the same endearing and caring individual that I have been analyzing throughout the first two chapters. Roman’s attention to the crimes that The Utilitarian sees as lessor implies that Roman is far more sensitive as a person than he lets on. An aspect that is even more apparent the further we get into the chapter.

We are informed that the target had gotten away as an explosion occurs, burying Roman in debris and crushing the only contact he has with the outside world. He loses contact with his friend, leaving him along. He passes out and wakes strapped to a chair. That’s when we see another development occur:

“He hadn’t realized how much he relied on the snarky, moody voice in his ear until helplessness flooded him in the silent dark room” (Whatwashernameagain).

First off, Virgil and Roman’s relationship has obviously evolved through the last chapter which we knew, but this also brings a whole new experience to Roman. He has grown accustomed to his friend being there, always guiding him, a voice he could rely and trust on. Now that voice is gone. It’s almost as if the crutch Roman had given himself to help support everything he was doing is now gone. In this instance we can see Virgil as an aspirin. Roman has grown so use to the pain of loneliness being gone because Virgil was always there as a buffer that when he is gone the pain feels as if it is ten times worse. Roman is alone. A feeling he has never really had to face, at least not since he became The Dreamer.

“The young man had grown used to bearing pain in silence, but as his blood dripped to the ground between his knees, coughed up from injured lungs, he barely managed to hold back the whimper of agony and fear” (Whatwashernameagain).

Okay, Eva… I smell what you’re cooking. Was this supposed to hurt? Huh?! Cuz it did!! But not as much as the rest of the chapter. -.- This line sets the new scene quite effectively. First off, Roman is referred to as ‘The young man’. I’ve had the privilege of chit chatting with Eva regularly and she has pointed out that I underestimate her often lol and she’s right. So, I’m fairly convinced that she refers to Roman in this way on purpose.

The Dreamer is a symbol of hope and justice that politicians paint for their own gain. He is strong and mature, a role model to those in need. Here we see the man behind the suit. The young man specifically. With all of his heroic feats it is difficult to remember that Roman is not very old. The reminder of his age is very strategic here when faced with the ‘agony and fear’ of this scene. Eva does a stunning job reminding us of just how fragile these monumental people can be. Behind the cape Roman is just a scared and pained young man trying to do his best, just as we all are. This simple sentence causes the reader to relate even more to the young man as we watch him try and keep himself together.

“By his estimation, he had spent two days in semi-darkness being beaten, dehydrated and humiliated. The worst thing wasn’t the broken ribs and fingers though, it was the things his torturer promised he’d do to him once he’d beaten him into submission and received the information he wanted” (Whatwashernameagain).

I have mentioned before that the best writers coax their readers into asking questions. Here we are, or at least I am, curious about a number of things. Roman has been tortured and beaten for two days. Is the fact that his team hasn’t found him due to their inadequacy without him or their indifference? My money is on the later. Roman is worth a lot of money as a hero, but if someone is sent to save him, he loses face which is bad for business. Perhaps they hope he’ll get himself out of the situation he is in.

The real interesting line from this section however is the line ‘The worst thing wasn’t the broken ribs and fingers though, it was the things his torturer promised he’d do to him once he’d beaten him into submission and received the information he wanted’ (Whatwashernameagain). I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read literature with torture scenes that are nothing but physical. This is fairly sad because a person’s psychological torment can be just as painful as physical. For example, Metin Basoglu of King’s College London, UK and colleagues surveyed 279 survivors of torture from the former Yugoslavia, including both soldiers and civilians from the previously war-torn region (Khamsi, Roxanne). In this study, they discovered that Falaga, the burning of parts of the body, and forced extraction of teeth all scored a 3.6 out of 4 for a pain rating (Khamsi, Roxanne). The same rating was given for Witnessing torture of close ones and threats of rape (Khamsi, Roxanne). This would suggest that Roman’s fear of what is to come can indeed cause more pain than what he is physically experiencing. Not to mention we already know that the hero has an unusually strong tolerance for physical pain if his body alterations is anything to go by. Regardless, Eva obviously can acknowledge that the unknown can be as painful as any injury.

Next, we see Roman falling farther and farther into hopelessness. He knows no one is coming for him. His loneliness is settling in once more. The feeling is no doubt torture in and of itself judging by Roman’s need for approval and the public’s affection. Being alone is not something the man copes with well.

As a reader we can pretty much predict what is about to happen, however. This is not the first time an unexpected hero has emerged. Roman describes a tall slender shape drawing near and the relief from the man is palpable. Once again, Logan is his hope. His enemy becomes his savior. Eva has a tendency to remind her readers that though it is human nature to define things by placing them in a box of our own design, these boxes are often wrong. There is nothing separating one person from another. We are all people. The only divisions anything in this world has is the ones we give. An animal is an animal, not because they are not a person, but because we decided they are. A pen is a pen and not a pencil because we decided it is. If you remove these lines, everything is exactly what it is and there is nothing wrong with that. Without these lines I am still me and you can not define that and yet… I still am. Humanity has this drive that it needs to define every aspect of a being in order to accept it. Once someone accepts that not everything can fit in a box thing get easier… better… peaceful. The Utilitarianist is a villain in the public eye because they have decided that he is, just as they have decided what is good or bad. Roman, however, Roman just sees his savior. In this instance Logan is not good, Logan is not bad… Logan is hope.

“With another blow, he crashed to the ground with a sickening sound. With the usual disregard for the wellbeing of his victims, the Utilitarianist stepped over the unconscious man” (Whatwashernameagain).

Here Eva describes Logan’s attack with ‘a sickening sound’. Then immediately describes the victim as ‘unconscious’. To me, this is a bit contradicting. Firstly, we are still in Roman’s POV. Roman knows that Logan is more than capable of killing individuals, but Logan is the hero at the moment. It is possible that the man is in fact dead (I’m with Lo if this is truly the case. The bastard had it coming for hurting my poor RoRo), however, Roman’s denial and current mental state may have him believing otherwise. There is no real evidence, however, to support that Logan would leave the man alive. In fact, it would be more logical to kill him…. Then again, it’s not very logical for Logan to be saving Roman’s well sculpted ass in the first place.

“He was so relieved to see his nemesis he had to fight back a sob. He had the feeling if he started, he wouldn’t be able to stop crying. The villain felt entirely unthreatening to him as he towered over Roman’s hunched body. He was familiar, like an old friend” (Whatwashernameagain).

Here we see more of Roman’s reaction to Logan’s appearance. But it is a bit more than that. Roman is still stricken with relief and his words are full of contradictions just as they had been before. These contradictions are similar to the ones we saw in Logan during the first chapter. Though some of you might know exactly what I’m referring to I’m going to quote it, just in case. Feel free to skip ahead.

“Logan goes on to talk about the ‘puffing up’ and how ‘unpractical’ The Dreamer’s costume is and his ‘irritating presence’, he talks about grand speeches and attempting to appeal to Logan’s ‘humanity’. The tone of the paragraphs is that of annoyed humor as if it were amusing to think Logan had any humanity at all. That being said… another literary study comes to mind when reading this portion of the work. I will do my best to keep from going too much in depth but basically back in the early EARLY 1900s Sigmund Freud invented psychoanalysis with his publication of The interpretation of Dreams (Rivkin, Julie). Why was it such a big deal? Well, before the publication psychology assumed that what goes on in the mind was limited to the conscious (Rivkin, Julie). What does that have to do with Logan? Well, the revolution was a huge part of history and the strides that were made in psychology didn’t only affect the medical world but the literary one as well. Psychoanalysis wasn’t only limited to a person but the work they created as well; it began to be used as a way of studying literature, analyzing the author through their work. But… I’m veering a bit too far to the left. The reason this is important is because some of Frued’s research was based on the ‘defenses’ that the ego mobilizes against unacceptable libidianal or unconscious material (Rivkin, Julie). I.e. The mind can invert a feeling into its opposite, so that a yearning for contact can become a desire to do violence (Rivkin, Julie). That, of course, is an extreme but we see the same psychological mechanism here for Logan. The Dreamer is a man who represents the very thing Logan is determined to pull down; it would be extremely illogical to have any sort of attraction to the man. There for, to put it simply, he’s in denial” (Sebthesnipe).

‘Denial’ isn’t quite the word I would use for Roman in this particular instance, though the Freudian information is still applicable. Roman refers to Logan as ‘his nemesis’ and yet feels relieved. He calls him villain but sees him as unthreatening. In fact, he ‘feels like an old friend’. Eva is obviously implying that this is a huge turning point for Roman in their relationship. While Roman is still actively rejecting Logan, calling him nemesis and villain, his emotions are betraying him. This is very similar to the issue with Logan that I quoted above. Roman is going through quite a bit of character development in this instance and the subtly that Eva writes it in is beautiful as always.

“As he silently helped him up and wrapped Roman’s shaking arm around his shoulders, the hero felt safe. They needed no words as their eyes met. The older villains were very dark, cat-like, behind the mask, and startlingly warm. The villain had never been this close. He smelled good. Clean, unlike the damp bunker filled with the scent of Roman’s blood. Somehow, the young hero was surprised to actually find himself a bit taller than the other. He’d always seemed sort of inhuman to him. Larger than life” (Whatwashernameagain).

This is a very very important paragraph. Mostly for what is to come but also because I’m Logince trash and I have no shame. Still Roman is beginning to humanize The Utilitarian. We are watching more of Roman’s character development. Roman is starting to see Logan as a person, an individual he can touch or talk to. Roman still calls him ‘villain’ to try and distance himself but his walls are falling. He mentions that Logan had never been so close. I doubt Eva mention to add this for just physical proximity. No, Logan had never been this close to the hero emotionally either. Roman is growing attached to the person behind the mask. We see Roman see through all of his previous perceptions.

He mentions seeing Logan as ‘Larger than Life’ and perhaps this is true. Prior to now Logan had always been the opposition. He had been the accumulation of everything that Roman fought again. He was a set of ideals, not an actual person. Now, thought, now, Logan is a tangible person that is currently helping Roman stagger to safety. He is solid in his arms. He is less of an idea and more of a person with feelings and ambitions, just as Roman is; because if Roman can do anything it is see a person for what they are. He’s proven that every time he has gone after the smaller criminals, the sex traffickers, the muggers, the rapists. Because to Roman, every individual is as important as every group of people.

As always, Eva shows her flawless ability to transition between dark undertones and light humor within the next few lines:

“I would like to say I was surprised you got yourself caught.”

And it was gone as soon as it had appeared.

“Excuse you, I didn’t get myself caught! And I didn’t know you were capable of doing something nice. Does it hurt to go against your nature?”

“You are being irrational.”

“And you are being a villainous menace!” (Whatwashernameagain)

Oh, how I love my bois’ banter. Ugh! So adorable!

Roman and Logan both are bickering, as usual, though perhaps this is just more of that denial I’ve mentioned? My guess is that it is, both men are trying to protect themselves from what they both know they can’t have: each other.

To be continued…

Khamsi, Roxanne. “Psychological Torture 'as Bad as Physical Torture'.” New Scientist, 5 Mar. 2007, www.newscientist.com/article/dn11313-psychological-torture-as-bad-as-physical-torture/.

Rivkin, Julie. Literary Theory: a Practical Introduction. Wiley-Blackwell, 2017.

Sebthesnipe. “The Dreamer by Whatwashernameagin an Analysis? Part 2.” RAMBLINGS OF A MARRIED FANGIRL, 4 Dec. 2019, sebthesnipe.tumblr.com/post/189470642532/the-dreamer-by-whatwashernameagin-an-analysis.

Whatwashernameagain. “The Dreamer - Chapter 1.” Hello Guys Gals And Non Binary Friends, 8 Sept. 2019, https://whatwashernameagain.tumblr.com/post/187581477262/the-dreamer-chapter-1.

#THE DREamer #literary analysis #spoot is a nerd #so tired...

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chasingshhadows · 5 years

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on alex & maria

I have a lot of feelings about Maria and Alex’s friendship that I wanted to roll around in for a bit. Because I think Roswell pulled off something really beautiful with these two that is special simply because neither Maria nor Alex are part of the core four (Pod Squad + Liz). Neither are side characters, but neither (along with Kyle & Jenna) appear in all of the episodes either. Most of the other profound relationships on the show include at least one of the core four; this one doesn’t, but was still given significant foundation that I want to explore.

[disclaimer: this post is going to focus on the development of Alex & Maria’s friendship through and until their conversation in 1.10 (which I will be talking about here). this post is meant as a celebration of their friendship, and not a condemnation of Maria or what she supposedly “threw away” in the finale - these are just happy, good feels that I want to play with - please just let me.]

Because Maria makes it clear from their first on-screen interaction that unlike Liz, Alex has stayed in touch. She greets Liz with cool sarcasm and “strictly a locals’ bar,” whereas Alex, who also left Roswell a decade prior, gets “this isn’t your usual scene” with a cute, fun smile. This gives the impression that Alex has been back in Roswell at least a couple times since he first left and since he’s been of legal drinking age, and that the Wild Pony bar isn’t somewhere he goes, possibly at all.

I’ll note – we did see Maria and Rosa at the bar as teens, but as Maria is the owner’s daughter and Rosa is one of her best friends, that’s normal for a small town establishment. We also see Isobel walk in, but remember, she’s a psychic and could have easily used her powers to get through the door.

While the best-friend clause would also have applied to Alex as a teen and as such, her comment about it not being his scene could have just meant that he never came there as a teen, I think the tone of that line suggests otherwise.

Her warm greeting (a direct contrast to her cold greeting with Liz) and her surprise at his being in her bar - not in Roswell, but specifically at her bar - tells us that Alex and Maria have stayed in touch and seen each other in the last decade, just never at the Wild Pony.

(and why would Alex avoid the Wild Pony, an establishment run by one of his closest friends? Who do we know that spends an awful lot of time at the Pony? So much he’s practically known for it? Who does Alex look right at when Maria mentions him never going there?)

Also, given the casual greeting and the fact that Maria makes no acknowledgment of Alex’s crutch or injury, Alex and Maria have already seen each since he came back from his latest deployment, perhaps at the reunion, perhaps at the parade apparently thrown in his honor, perhaps elsewhere.

This is also super evident in the way he greets Liz when she comes in. He specifically looks back at Maria with a mischievous smirk before making the joke about attention. As @ober-affen-geil pointed out to me, it’s a very “oh? *looks at Maria* watch this” expression. They have this conspiratory camaraderie and play off each other very naturally. Maria for her part, doesn’t share in Liz’s shock at Alex’s comment - this is exactly what she’d expect and she finds it hilarious.

So they’ve stayed close, over the years. The two outsider casualties to Rosa Ortecho’s demise – close enough to the blast to be knocked down in the shockwave, to have known Rosa and Liz for who they were, but distant enough that their mourning seemed small in comparison to Liz & Arturo’s, and maybe for Alex, small in comparison to how much he missed Liz & Maria after he and Liz left.

They immediately connect again, reminiscing with a soft, gentle ease only found between old friends. I don’t doubt they spent much of the last decade out of contact, but they’ve maintained their place in each other’s comfort zones. This is especially evident with Alex – Maria is a bartender, it’s her job to be friendly and open, but Alex is a soldier, and a clearly hardened one at that.

But with Maria, he doesn’t have to be. With Maria we see a soft, gentle side of Alex that is different than the blown-open vulnerability that we see when he’s with Michael, and is almost unrecognizable compared to the fire & steel when he’s with his father or Kyle.

Alex doesn’t have traumatic, painful memories associated with Maria. He doesn’t have the weight of his mistakes clouding their every interaction. He doesn’t have to see in her eyes the abuse he experienced at the hands of his father reflected back at him. Maria - as far as we can tell - doesn’t know the extent of what Jesse put him through, may not know anything beyond what she guessed.

She’s the fun friend, it’s what she prides herself on. And she gets to be that for Alex.

And for Maria, Alex is a warm reminder of her childhood that also doesn’t hurt. He’s not Rosa, nor Rosa’s sister. He’s just Alex, and he’s always been around, always ready to share that bright smile and and sassy commentary that so perfectly compliments her own.

It’s easy for them to slip back into that; one of the first things Maria says to him is about finding Guerin attractive, and you can just see it, the two of them as teens, laying across each other in the bleachers and gossiping about the boys at school. It’s easy, it’s habit, and they slip right back into it like a warm bath.

And Alex, who has been to war and worries that he’s turning into the person he never wanted to be, knows how important it is to stay grounded. To be a human being sometimes. To remember what he’s fighting for.

So he fights for Maria. Now that he’s back in Roswell - likely for the first time with any type of permanence - he makes an effort. He starts hanging out at the Pony, starts to make himself a fixture in her life, starts asking how she’s doing, really, enough so that she opens up.

She’s hurting and she needs support from the people whose backs she’s always had. And in that way he fights for Liz, too, bringing her back from the brink and reminding her what’s important.

The familiar way he interacts with Mimi, the encouraging smiles, the easy redirects when she starts to lose herself, the way Maria is completely comfortable in leaving Mimi alone with him, several times that day - it’s clear Alex has been around her a lot these last few weeks, he knows how to manage her memory loss, and knows how to take care of her.

He’s rebuilding his own life, brick by brick. He didn’t expect to come home from war and that his old life would just fall back into place - it’s going to take quality time and reliability and listening, and Alex is doing all of that.

This continues even weeks after Mimi goes to the care facility. Alex is still there, still present, still making sure to ask Maria how things are going with her mother. We know that he’s got an immense load to carry with his own parental issues that he quite literally can’t share with Maria, but he doesn’t shy away from still trying to be there for her.

And on Maria’s side, we see her trying to get him to open up. Trying to get him to share - she’s patient and gentle because Alex may not share a lot, but she’s observant. Psychic, even. She knows he’s got a lot going on and she never pries - she lets him come to her.

And when he finally seems like he’s ready to talk about himself for once, she makes sure to keep the mood light and fun - she’s learned Alex well enough to know that he shuts down when things get heavy.

And now this leads us into the conversation they have in 1.10 about Michael - which I’m saving for this post cuz I don’t wanna get into here.

Here, I just wanna roll around in how well this beautiful friendship has been built, how important it is to them both, and how it works to ground them and give them each the outlet they need.

#alex manes #maria deluca #alex & maria #roswell new mexico #roswell nm #rnm #rnm meta #i just have a lot of feelings #i really love these two #so just so y'all understand my thought process on why this meta is the one im publishing haha #i was working on my finale meta and realized so much tied to 1.09/1.10 stuff that i hadn't written down yet #and so much of /that/ meta tied to my headcanon about malex post high school #and so much of /that/ piggy backs off of the alex & maria dynamic #so here we are haha #on alex & maria s01 #alex manes meta #maria deluca meta

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dachi-chan25 · 5 years

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GoT S8, Episode 1: The Pointy End Recap Part 2.

-Once they are alone Tyrion muses about her title and she about his while throwing some shade at d, Tyrion says the last time they saw each other was at Joffrey's wedding, Sansa gives a half ass sorry for leaving like that and Tyrion is still salty about it (like fuck off) Sansa is like we both survived so... Tyrion makes a remark about how everyone that underestimated Sansa is now dead and she looks proud (damn right that is my girl) which in this case sounds ominious af for D. Then Tyrion proceeds to show how far he is into the lizard cult, by trying to sell Sansa Stark of all people that bs of Cersei sending the armies, and Sansa in not so many words calls him and idiot (my girl is not holding back her punches and I am here for it) and Bran is just staring at them probably enjoying the drama as much as I.

-Jon is on the godswood in front of the heart tree (you know what? ?? If aegony was real at all she would be there with him, he would like to show her the place where he grew up. he would be like i am really sorry about my people not wanting you here but you'll see they'll warm up to you once they see what a good queen you are or something along those lines, maybe even a kiss in front of a heart tree, a sacred place where you can't lie) but no Jon looks worried and fucking miserable

-Arya sneaks up on him, they banter playfully and can you believe??? He straight up casually mentions he died (👀👀) they hug and it's very heartfelt and brotherly (honestly no stark reunion has been filmed like the Jonsa one, ofc one can argue they were the very first reunion, but duuude the music, the snow falling softly around them, how they get a close up on both Jon and Sansa's face, the nuzzle, and how bloody long is that hug, as well as the fact that neither of them has had a follow up like just drinking having a good time together) they talk about Needle and Longclaw (like if you don't get how different are the Jon - Arya interactions played against the jonsa ones then idk what to tell you) Jon says something that really bothered me at first but then I really thought about it and I came up with why:

1) He is an asshole so far up D's ass he forgets Sansa is the one who really gave him a reason to fight for the living again, and that she literally saved him in the BotB, and that she made him a fur and called him a Stark, or that she has been doing an excellent job preparing for the war against the AotD , but this can't be, I would believe it if this was a season 4 or 5 or even a season 1 and I knew nothing about who Jon is and what he wants, and after seven seasons I know Jon enough to say he would never think this.

2) He is hurt about Sansa still not trusting him to protect her and their home,and is salty cause she really thinks he didn't listen to her when he did. I mean doesn't it remind you of that argument they had about Sansa undermining him, he was desperate to know that Sansa trusted his desicions (super unfair to sansa still cause she doesn't know anything about Jon's plans) he says sansa believes she is smarter than everyone, when he knows she is not seeing he listened to her and is appeasing D so they have a chance against the NK. And i believe this one because it doesn't destroy Jon's character.

Now he says this to Arya and not in the Great Hall (that would have been super shitty of him and would go along with number 1 case) because he and Arya used to poke fun at Sansa's expense when they were kids and he thinks Arya would agree with him and trust him, but she is totally on Sansa's side and defends her (yasss this is what we deserved after last season's shit show) that Jon wasn't expecting it (dude he was joking he doesn't say it with hate or anything like that) much less was he expecting Arya to say Sansa is just trying to protect the family (as if he wasn't) and we see number 2 is real when in a very vulnerable voice he says 'i am her family too' , like he really wanted Sansa's support and trust in the Great Hall and he thinks she is so angry and trusts him so little that she doesn't even consider him family anymore (i'll be crying in the corner excuse me) even more so when Arya makes that remark of not forgetting about that (like seriously we have seen this boy for 7 seasons like how could he ever forget about his family???) And duuude I can't even begin to imagine how sad and alone Jon felt. They hug again and Jon closes his eyes (important detail)

-We cut the scene to Cersei looking like the evil queen she is, smiling while Euron's fleet arrives with the Golden Company when Qyburn informs her that the Wall is no more, and she looks so pleased (dude also in the Recap at the beginning of the episode the really drove home that d was fire and the nk was ice, and i mean GoT starts with Robert's Frost poem about how ice and fire are destructive forces of nature) .

-We get a glimpse of the Golden Company, and then we get a scene with Euron and Yara, Euron is being an annoying piece of shit.

-now we are in the throne room, Cersei welcomes the captain of the Golden Company (his name is Harry but I can't remember how to write his last name) but she is disappointed about not having elephants. Euron is disgusting again, Cersei is savage with him but he starts complaining and is so insistent that Cersei finally gives in and fucks him.

-Bronn is having sex with some prostitutes, the only intresting thing about this scene is the girls talking about the Loot Attack and the horrible deaths of the guys who fought there (apparently Ed Sheeran's character face got burnt off and if that is not an attempt to show D as a villian then idk what that is) Qyburn arrives and says Cersei is summoning him, she is willing to pay and give him a castle if he goes north and kills both Jaime and Tyrion (also I feel Sansa's kidnap plot is gonna happen).

-We get a post-sex scene of Cersei and Euron, and Euron is fishing for compliments but instead annoys Cersei.

-While Euron is trying to measure his dickin' abilities to Bobby B's and Jamie's my boy Theon rescues Yara, who decks him in the face for not fighting for her, but still they escape (I have so many doubts about this, like Theon went to Braavos and back or he just waited, and how did he know he was coming back to KL after he supposedly betrayed Cersei,and if he knew it was a ploy why didn't he warned D or Jon through a raven) Yara wants to take the Iron Islands (I don't believe she gives a fuck about D she just wanted to take back her home) but she knows Theon wants to fight for the Starks so she tells him to go, and it's a good scene.

-More refugees arrive at WF, and we get a sense of the camp and how big is this army, we get a glimpse of Alys Karstark (she is wearing something similar in cut and color to Sansa, and i do believe people are gonna think Sansa is dead at some point) then we get Davos,Varys and Tyrion talking while they watch Jon and D at a distance. Davos tells them the northerns are not gonna like D, Tyrion is worried, but then Dadvos proposes a marriage between Jon and D (duuude I said he was going for this since last season but he only says it until now, this ship is doomed) and this would be a pretty good idea if the people didn't hated her and feared her already but Davos is not a good politician cuz he wasn't raised for it, he is loyal and all you want but he doesn't know the north. Varys is like nothing lasts and I don't blame him cuz he has been unimpresed by D since Mereen, and now he gets to see Sansa's savvy politics and A+ administration while he probably thinks Jon is just another dumb asshole thinking with his dick.

-D and Jon are walking around, and who is brought up in this conversation?? SANSA fucking STARK! !! Even when no northern lord liked her D is just whining about Sansa not liking her (they really trying to sell this triangle when I know, I see I hear with everything Jon does that Jon has no romantic feelings for d at all) and Jon's deadass answer is "well she didn't liked me either when we were kids" (i call bs cuz whe sansa tried to apologize for this he said there was nothing to forgive so this is not serious) he was trying to joke to light the mood, direct the conversation to how alike he and d are instead of a "I'll talk to her don't worry bae" duuude D is really dumb, but she is annoying again implying that if Sansa doesn't respect her she'll do something about it, we don't get to know what but you can see when d is not looking at him that Jon is not happy about what she just said (but also I don't think jon gets that it was a threat cuz he hasn't seen d's uglier sides and I believe he think he has, and he thinks he can manipulate her not to do anything rash).

Some dothraki riders inform D that the Dragon's are barely eating :0:0:0 oh noes!!! If only someone hadn't burned food during the Loot Attack (idgaf about the lizards at all )

Jon and D go to check on the dragons, and D prompts Jon to ride Rhaegal (Jon while not as afraid as before is still weary of dragons) Jon doesn't seem to want to and says what will happen of Rhaegal doesn't want him to and d basically jokes about Jon dying which is not cute or flirty cuz Jon looks scared af. We get further proof D is flying by the seat of her pants and doesn't know shit about how to control her dragons yet she probably thinks Rhaegal likes Jon because they are meant for each other or some other self important bs.

And Jon is not thrilled dude he almost falls off (you ruined horses for me is bs) and we get Varys, Davos and Tyrion see him on the Dragon. Tyrion looks worried.

Jon somehow takes the lead and takes D to some waterfalls, and she is like we could stay here forevaaaaa and he is like we would be too old (the romantic interactions are still at 0 the chemistry is again flat, Jon's responses are awkward and not romantic) he practically tells her she doesn't belong in the north and she asks him to warm her, they kiss (bland passionless) Jon opens his eyes to stare at the dragons, d is like don't be silly darling, he kisses her again and then fucking turns her around so he can stare at her dragons while kissing her. Peak romance amirite ?? Lmaoooo Pol!Jon is real sorry not sorry he had to stare at the dragons while kissing her making the dragons and not the kiss the focus of the scene. I do believe this was just to appease her and keep her happy and commited to the cause after everyone treated her like she deserved.

Gendry is working at the forge, and Arya enters, the Hound is being a cunt, and tells Arya she is a cold bitch for letting him to die and Arya couldn't give less of a fuck. She and Gendry flirt hard like pls make this canon, and pls don't let d burn my boy.

K Imma need a part 3 cuz the Jonsa scene!!!!

#got 8 recaps #season 8 #episode 1 #part 2 #dachi rants #dachi rambles #jonsa #anti-daenerys #anti aegony

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yume-x-hanabi · 6 years

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Yeah, I pretty much marathoned the rest of the game, except Elympios.

The party met with the king of Auj Oule, who then promptly started arguing with Milla because of course those two would butt heads. I'm not going to go into detail about that meeting here because I already talked about it in the past. Love Rowen and Elise's little strategy, though I feel sorry for the poor guard who so earnestly vowed to take care of Teepo during the audience. He didn't deserve getting punched :( Oh and also Alvin is a traitor and Jude is maaaaaad about it. Defining Leia moment while they try to flee, where she doubts herself (Elise's words really hurt her, huh). I love how Milla just plainly states she's not useless. I live for Milla plainly stating positive things. They fight Wingul and Presa on the way, where Wingul acts like a disenchanted Rowen fanboy (aaand the booster Long Dau stuff too I guess). No but seriously he spent the fight targeting Rowen, it was hilarious (not for me though cuz I needed the geezer alive to help me cast spells). Back in Xian Du, Alvin strolls in like nothing happened (but Jude is maaaaad and Elise starts sassing him it's the best thing ever) and Yurgen proves to be the most sensible man in the world when he decides he doesn't need to know what happened. Good guy. A pretty animated cutscene later we crash in Kalakh Shal and Driselle is the most precious NPC in the world. I love how she gets the vet to treat the wyverns by telling him they're basically like horses XD Well at least he managed to treat them, so... There's a few Milla Side-exclusive conversations with the party - I especially liked Rowen's and Leia's. Wish Elise's had a bit more consistence though. Then she talks with Jude, who says he wants to protect spirits too, which makes her really happy. She's spent all this time trying to protect both spirits and humans, so it must feel great to have a human want to reciprocate. Those two are really a good pair. I also love how they basically promise to stay together at the end (though we all know how that turns out ;_; ) The time for the confrontation with Nachtigal comes near, but first there's some shenanigans with the Lance of Kresnik and Agria. I'm not too sure whether she actually tried to destroy it (on orders from Gaius?) or just made stuff explode for fun. She's kind of hard to read sometimes. Well, she's completely crazy tbh. It's really sad to see her in that murderous state. I wish she'd been given a chance to heal from her trauma and regain some stability. She's better when she's just with the Chimeriad (and hilariously proper when talking to Gaius), but we barely see any of that in game. What a shame. Talking to Nachtigal goes as well as one would expect, and we beat his ass. Rowen seems to talk some sense into him at the end, but it's far too late, and anyway some mysterious ice attack does him in. Bye Nachty, you were kind of forgettable, wish you'd had a bigger role. But no time to rest, because Gaius is invading from where no one expected him (and this is where my inner Gunshi Kanbee fangirl takes over and gushes about Wingul's clever strategies). But Gilland has a plan and it involves the Lance of Kresnik, which is bad news. To war we go! I spent the whole battlefield map sequence reading the Rieze Maxian writings on the map and laughing my ass off (no but seriously, it contains little gems like "we can fish fish here" and I need to find a video somewhere to take screenshots and translate them all, this needs to be shared). Alvin's acting suspicious again, and again the party just lets him be lol. Anyway, after a very long fight against both Auj Oule and Rashugal forces, we meet three of the Chimeriad blasting off enemies like badasses before deciding to fight us. Honestly I think their deaths were foreshadowed here, with this bit of dialog: Rowen: But it is an unnecessary step, one that could cost your lives. Who would be left to support the king? Presa: His Highness can look after himself. YES HE CAN BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN HE SHOULD YOU DUMBASSES *ahem* Anyway we win, Wingul faints like a Pokémon after revealing his booster is in his brain, Jiao doesn't answer Elise's questions and Jude convinces Alvin to not off Presa (yes Alvin, don't do that, it's rude). So who's left to face now? Why, King Badass of course. He and Milla resume their debate (may I note how much I love how they're actually listening to each other? At first glance it appears they're just butting heads stubbornly, but every time they meet they show they've given some thought to what the other said before, even if they still disagree. Great dynamics. Also the contrast with Nachtigal is interesting. The pre-battle talk was more about how Nachty was not worthy to be king and how they were going to stop him, while with Gaius Milla actually asks him to let her do her thing. She recognizes he's not a bad guy and tries to leave the door open for a conflict-free resolution. He'll do the same later, too. Aah I love them so much). iirc you don't have to win this fight, but I managed to do it (took me 16 minutes and I ran out of Life Bottles orz). The fight gets interrupted by Ivar, who stupidly activates the Lance (Milla's facepalm lmao). Aaaand that's when everything goes downhill. Elympios invades, it's chaos everywhere, Gaius and the Chimeriad are the most badass characters ever, and then Jiao sacrifices himself and I cry. No srsly whyyyyyy T_T let me just pretend he managed to escape somehow and is just taking time off to recover Milla has a weird dream and wakes up all confused and makes a bunch of mistakes, which is really unlike her. She's noticed the contradiction between her mission and her actions and she's really anxious about it. Still, it doesn't prevent her from reassuring Leia when she's the one sharing her own self-doubts. I love their relationship. When they meet up with the rest of the party, there's a new addition: Milla's "sister" Musee. I think it's good she appeared on Jude Side - it leaves the player completely confused about her on Milla Side, which is basically how Milla is feeling about this whole thing hahaha. After listening to Gilland's announcement that he's taken control of KB (and spouting a bunch of bullshit about it too), Wingul invites us in, and Milla then reveals the truth about the world, and Alvin adds some more information and speculation. Of course Gaius is displeased about a lot of things (I would be too if I just learned I was gonna be used for fuel), so while he's no longer antagonistic, he's not being very cooperative lol. Such a shame. With him and the Chimeriad, the party would have been unstoppable. Well, at any rate, we're fighting on the same side now, even if separately. The retaking of the capital shows once again how badass the king and his aides are (they keep stealing the show lately), and we take the castle back and steal an airship rather easily (no thanks to Ivar lol). While resting, Milla witnesses Agria bullying Leia about Jude (and gets the dokidoki when Agria says Jude has the hots for her), and then Alvin trying to hit on Presa (stomp on him Presa). Wish there'd been a scene with Wingul (AND JIAO), but oh well. Anyway, she's starting to realize why she's so anxious and the reason for the contradiction. That's something I totally missed on first playthrough, I thought it was all about her developing feelings for Jude (due to the Agria and Presa scenes), but it's actually about her identity as Maxwell. Though I guess you can't really know that on first playthrough, since the truth only comes up later. But it's interesting to see Milla knew then, way before it's laid out clearly for the players. Also Musee's creepy. Nothing new here. Oh, but I forgot to mention, Alvin's stopped being shady (or has he?). His momma's dead and he hates Gilland, so he's now 100% on our side. Gaius and the party depart for the Zirnitra, where Gilland and the Lance is. On the way, everyone's mana gets sucked up and sent to Elympios, showing Alvin was right about the fuel thing, and Milla almost confesses to Jude, but they get interrupted by Agria. On the Zirnitra, Ivar decides to join the Chimeriad (the actual Chimeriad's glare when he says that is wonderful), and we go our own way. Alvin explains a bit more about Elympios and how Elympions don't have a mana lobe so that's why they need spyrixes. When we confront Gilland he explains about Celsius and spyrites - spyrixes that don't kill spirits. But to them they're just tools (you're the tool Gilland!) and he's an jerk anyway so we kick his ass. He then dies because of the spyrite. Serves you right. Gaius and the others arrive then and this time they're letting Milla destroy the Lance. Hah, looks like we're cooperating more and more... except we get interrupted by Musee's Gravity spell and Milla gets the grand idea to sacrifice herself to save everyone. Milla bby don't do that :'( But the (now freed) Four interfere and save her soul from cleansing, attempting to revive her as herself. Which doesn't really work at first as she's lost her memories (she progressively gets some of them back though). I gotta say I absolutely love the spirit world part. It seems bland if you just go straight for the story part, but it's actually a lot of fun to explore, talk to NPC, listen to the Four's comments, do the little sidequests... I do wish there'd been more to it, especially when you consider how much stuff happened on Jude Side during that time, but what we do have is really fascinating. Also, Spirits interactions. Good good. Even without her memories, Milla is still Milla and doesn't want the Four to die, and they decide to stick with her, even if it angers Musee and the actual Maxwell. I had to change the difficulty back to normal for the Musee fight because I suck at 1-on-1 battles (esp without healer). After that Milla gets her memory data from Maxwell's replica and goes up the Hallowmont while Musee gets mad about Maxwell's lack of answer and flies to the human world to do who knows what. At the summit, the Four get summoned by Maxwell, and Milla follows them. There, she sees Jude and the others fighting against Maxwell, and she finally remembers who she is, making her come back in style. We absolutely destroy Maxwell's ass (yay Gravity Well spam), and then convince him to stop being a grumpy old man and believe in humanity for once. He agrees, but then enter Gaius, who looks pissed for some reason (it's funny to play this from Milla's Side, because last time we saw him he was almost becoming friendly). He then starts spouting nonsense about becoming Maxwell himself since the old one is useless, traps him with the Lance of Kresnik (he got it in the end...), and then there's that gross scene where he pulls a sword out of Musee I'd rather forget. Srsly developers, couldn't you find another way >_> He tries to send the party back to Rieze Maxia (instead of killing them, he's still nice even when he's mad), but Maxwell sends us to Elympios instead, where we conveniently end in the care of Emperor Peony Alvin's cousin Balan. to be continued...

#yume plays xillia #it's long #and probably incoherent

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noonmutter · 6 years

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Consummation

Terry was conscripted. Dwyn did not, by some miracle, destroy anyone, burn down Duskwood, or follow him.

That did not, of course, mean she did nothing.

The morning after the Siege of Lordaeron, Darlain gets a note and a glass globe from a frazzled courier.

If you'd like to take a break from the gloom and doom to do one of your favorite things, finish what you're doing, brace yourself, and crush the globe underfoot. ~Shedwyn M. Lias PS: Please come ASAP, there's a line and I really want you to be here PPS: PLEASE WEAR PROPER SHOES FOR GLASS BREAKING, NO SLIPPERS

Darlain was exhausted, so it takes her more time than usual to connect the dots on just what was happening. As soon as she freshens herself up, she hurriedly throws on her boots, which sadly didn't match her robes, but... she wasn't going to miss this! She crushed the globe beneath her feet.

A flash of arcane, a little vertigo, and she appears before a tiny arcanist who is fidgeting so much from anxiety that she might as well be vibrating. Shedwyn immediately reaches out to grab Darlain's shoulder, knowing that the globe is not her most stable of teleportation enchantments, but it's fast and user friendly. "You made it!"

She's looking a little frazzled, and she forgot that there were still a few bloodstains on her robes from the healing, but Darlain fumbles about, stabilizing before falling into Shedwyn. "Whew, may need ya tae send me back when it's done, but no way I was gonna miss this! Ye are gettin married, yes?"

"They haven't told me he's dead, so I assume so!"

Dwyn is new to the place, but Darlain has probably seen enough of these setups to recognize a quickly-assembled military altar, using one of the barrack buildings just off the Stormwind harbor. A line of men and women, all looking either nervous, happy, morose, or a blend of the three stand on one side of the room where bunks used to be, and an Alliance chaplain in half-plate and lovely blue-and-gold-trimmed robes smiles brightly as he approaches Dwyn and Dar.

"You'd be the one I'm making an exception for, I suppose? Bit of flash for anything else."

Dar looks to Shedwyn, a little confused. "Exception?"

Shedwyn shrugs sheepishly. "I figured you'd want to be the one to marry us." She holds out a fairly simple handfasting cord--a single large cord made by braiding together three smaller purple, green, and sky-blue cords.

The chaplain nods, then pushes a bit of overlong blonde hair out of his face. "I'm happy to stand aside if you're willing to do the honors for her. She was... quite adamant." That's a slightly exasperated, but mostly jovial grin on him as he eyes Dwyn.

Darlain smiles. "Sorry, we're old friends, and I am a priestess. I'll try to keep things quick, looks like... you have your hands full, chaplain."

The smile takes on a bit more of a somber tinge at the corners and he nods down at the dwarf. "Times of war keep us very busy, as I'm sure you know. I'd much rather this procession be the busy one than the one from yesterday, though." He adjusts his sleeves and glances back at the line a moment, then returns his attention to the pair. "I did receive word a few minutes ago that your young man is lined up, so all you need to do now is wait a bit longer. Please excuse me, I've got other couples to tend to!"

And off he bustles to perform what is probably the hundredth short marriage of the day, in full sincerity and with all the genuine happiness he can offer them. ... And the 101st... and the 102nd...

That little bit of news, that Terry is alive and right outside, is enough to change Shedwyn's fidgeting from anxious to excited. "I am sorry about the short notice, I... didn't really expect them to accept without a fight. They didn't exactly take him away under the most voluntary of terms."

"I 'eard about that... I... dinnae thnk I can do anything other than lean on some folks, but... we did a lot o' that to get 'im out o' prison..." She frowns, but shakes her head and gives Dwyn a smile as she changes the subject. "Ehh, kinnae do anything about that... so... any ideas, got rings, any traditions you want me tae practice?"

"Well... He's got his ring, and I've got this," she holds up a twisted metal band. Not gold, possibly not even silver. "But it's all so rushed, and I want to do this right even if I can't do it right right now, so... Do you know what a Year And A Day handfasting is?"

The current pair at the altar throw their arms around one another and laugh aloud once, then again much more quietly, embarrassed by the first, before quickly seeing themselves out.

"I... isnae that an engagement custom?" She's wracking her brain to old weddings she had to officiate to remember the details.

"Nnn- sort of? It's like a trial-run of a marriage. Or a subscription marriage, if you do it repeatedly. You're married, but it only lasts a year, and then you can choose to bail or not."

"Hehe...more folks could do with tha, I think." She looks at the weaving, "Is this the end o' the weave, or the beginnin’, then?"

"It's... The beginning?" Shedwyn rubs at her forehead. "Ah, I'm sorry, I just started looking this nonsense up and I don't know it yet. But really, whatever we do, as long as it's framed right, that's all that matters, right?"

What fantastic timing for hers truly to step through the door. Maybe it's just a trick of the light, but it seems almost like the two of them could see Terry’s eyes bug out from their end of the hall. Apparently, nobody told him what was going on.

Still in full mail and wearing his Stormwind tabard, sans all weapons save his boot knife, Terry cuts a pretty decent figure, actually. The squared-off goatee works much better when he's trying to look like a professional from head to toe.

The chaplain gestures for him to come up to the altar, and turns the same hand to invite Dwyn and Darlain.

"Alright, I think I can wing it." Dar looks at them both and smiles, "Shall we?"

Shedwyn is grinning like a damned looney as she scurries to the front.

All Terry can think to say right at first is a strangled "Dwyn?" as he comes to a stop beside her, and the chaplain chuckles to himself and steps down to take a much-needed tea break.

Shed hands off the cord to Darlain and holds a hand out for Terry to take. The tiny mage manages to rein in her grin long enough to ask Terry, "Are you alright? Is this alright? I didn't get the chance to ask first, they couldn't even tell me if you were alive..."

Darlain allows them to talk it over for a moment by taking her time preparing, adjusting little things and mostly acting busy, as well as pretending to jot things down in her notebook.

He takes her hand almost entirely on reflex, brushing his thumb across her fingers and watching her face while she talks. Once the initial shock is done he's able to actually process what he's hearing, and laughs weakly. "Babygirl, th'only reason I 'aven't already kissed you is cuz I'm pretty sure she 'as t'tell me to first." He nods toward Dar.

Shedwyn surprises herself by only huffing out a little laugh instead of the hysterical giggling that feels like it's sitting in her chest. "Heh. Good. We're rushing things too much as it is without jumping the gun during the actual ceremony."

Dar takes a deep breath, and stands before the two. She reaches out for the half woven band, smiling at Shedwyn as she politely requests to take it.

Shedwyn lets go of Terry's hand only so long as it takes to quickly remove her ring, and encourage him to remove his and hand it to Dar.

Takes him a second to follow, but his eyes go a little wild again before he complies, handing Dar the understated gold signet ring with the 'A' on it.

Shedwyn's is a simple wire rose, something she probably twisted together in five minutes right after she decided to do this.

Darlain takes the rings, and the purple, green, and sky-blue woven cords, then smiles at the two. "Folks, we're gathered today tae witness the marriage o' these two lovely souls. Who, like many o' you all, are facing a 'ard time, and deciding tae face it as one."

Terry's not sure whether to look at Darlain or Dwyn, but settles on Dwyn after a bit of indecision. He's still listening, of course, but it's very easy for him to stare at Dwyn.

Dwyn glances back and forth between Dar and Terry for a minute, before she realises he's staring. She looks at their shoes a moment, flustered, before she can look at him.

"Now, marriage is a tricky thing, and it’s something that'll test ya. As someone who's been at it fer awhile, my advice, is that there's three keys tae a successful marriage."

Darlain holds up the loose, unwoven end of the cord, "Love." She holds up the purple strand. "More than just an attraction, it's a shared desire. A want to 'ave that person in yer life, an investment in their future, and in a shared future."

She holds up the green strand. "Kindness. We all make mistakes in life, we aren't always our best, but to look upon your partner with kindness, to empathize and support them, and to know they'll do the same? That's a lovely foundation, and, frankly, the very first spark of these two began with kindness."

She holds up the sky-blue strand. "Finally, there's trust. It’s the easiest to break, true, but it's something you need tae 'ave in yer partner. Trust that when the going gets tough, they'll see it through, that when you 'ave doubts, they'll 'elp tae break them. Counting on each other, that's trust, and sometimes it can be 'ard tae trust yerself, let alone another.

“You kin 'ave a relationship with any of these three things, but…” She slips her fingers through the strands. "It can be easy to drift apart without all three."

Dar looks at the two of them. "Do y'all 'ave any vows tae share with each other?" she asks, offering them their rings with outstretched palms.

Dwyn reaches for the gold band first. "Yes."

Terry doesn't have time to do anything but blink, hand half-raised and immediately dropping back to his side when Dwyn beats him to it.

Shedwyn holds up the ring, but doesn't slide it on his finger, waiting for him to do it himself. He should know why.

"Terry... Vowing to keep you 'til death do us part' is pointless. It has tried and failed. Repeatedly. However, there's a tradition in the Gilnean Highlands, an old one, one of a year and a day. Bride and groom are married for a year and a day, and at the end they can choose to leave, do it again, or make it permanent. So I vow to keep you not 'til death do us part, but for another year and a day. And when that day comes, we'll do this again. And we'll do it right.

"And everyone we love will be there."

There's a bit of a pause where he's not sure whether he should or shouldn't, but after a moment, he takes the ring from her hand and delicately slips it back on his finger (which has already got a bit of a tan line where it sits). He's hesitant, easy enough to guess why, but she can see it: he's trying desperately not to cry.

When he opens his mouth, his voice is almost inaudibly quiet, but it gains as he goes. "You steal ev'rythin' from me. I was gonna--" Frowning slightly, Terry clears his throat and starts over. "I was going to give you as grand a speech as I could manage, but you've already stolen my idea, clean out from under my home soil."

He glances almost nervously at Darlain for a second before he continues. "I would willingly give you anything if you asked, but it delights you so to take it, and surprise me with what you might do with such disused things as my heart, my soul. I will gladly let you take everything from me again, and again, and again."

With that, he picks up her ring, and offers it to her.

Shedwyn has the decency to look sheepish at the accusation of 'stealing,' but as he goes on she's right back to being about to cry. She slips the ring on one-handed and wipes at her eyes, then looks to Darlain.

Darlain smiles at the two, and then grabs both of their hands, gently entwining them together. She then takes the woven part of the cord, and loops it around their hands in an infinity loop. "Love, Kindness, Trust. You keep building those this year and a day, and you're gonna 'ave a strong bond, one that isnae easy to break." She pauses for a moment, letting the moment settle. "I declare ya both man and wife.” Her grin widens. “Now you two can get to the fun part."

From the gallery, amongst the witnesses and people waiting their turn, an enthusiastic clapping can be heard. It is coming from a man in purple and silver-lined wizard armor, with long gray hair and a smile on his face. At his side, his pack bulges as something inside seems to want out. "Beautiful, just beautiful! It's everything I was told!"

Terry ... just... turns... and stares.

Shedwyn bounces, pulls Terry down by his collar, and... pauses as the clapping starts. She turns to look at the too-familiar voice, belonging to a man with too-familiar eyes. Her expression blanks upon recognizing them, and then she glares.

Darlain is very confused.

Terry looks back at Darlain and mouths 'What?' in utter confusion.

"Ah, I'm so glad I got to see this. Shedwyn, congratulations. And Darlain, a lovely ceremony as always." The man's bag bursts open, releasing a skull coated in arcane energy.

"UGH! Finally, it's so stuffy in there. Hey Sugartits, lookin' good in that wedding gown!" Bob declares in his typical fashion.

"Janosis?! What the fel happened to you?"

The chaplain looks up at all the commotion and furrows his brow just a little. "Language, sir. This is a house of the Light."

Terry is switching very rapidly from puzzled to irritated. "What th' flyin' f--"

"Bob, behave or I'll let her at you with a hammer," the old man scolds, before turning back to the group at the altar. "Nothing terrible, but also a hell of a lot. Greetings from the world of tomorrow, old friends. Sorry for interrupting, I just found myself overwhelmed."

"Right! Let’s step aside, thank you, chaplain!"

It's suddenly clear that if Dar hadn't said that, the chaplain was preparing to have his burly buddies by the door carry them out. He looks almost apologetically at Terry. "You're granted one hour, private. I recommend not wasting it."

Dwyn, still silent, grabs Terry's hand and with a very determined look, again tries to pull him him for a kiss.

Terry makes a slightly undignified 'urmph' noise as he's pulled down, but doesn't resist and after a second moves to dip his new wife properly.

"Oh! But I wouldn't show up to a wedding without a gift," Janosis declares while the couple kiss, pulling a wrapped box out of his satchel and waiting patiently.

Shedwyn is unnecessarily dusting herself off as soon as she's back on her feet. "Alright, let's take this show outside." She points at Bob and 'Janosis.' "You two as well, but you'd better be quick - your explanation can wait until I'm not on my honeymoon."

"Of course."

"Light, nothin’ is ever easy, ever." She looks over Janosis. "Least you turned out okay... from the looks of it."

Terry is ...not precisely happy to get moving, but he does lead Shedwyn out of the temporary church so the chaplain can take his spot back and get the line moving again. “Outside, b'fore I get bloody well pinned with somethin' fer this."

"Before your hour's up, you should open the gift. It is for the both of you, after all.”

Dwyn marches stolidly in step with Terry (though his pace is nearly a run for her). She tries to snag the gift on their way past, but does wait until they're outside to open it if she successfully grabs it.

Terry's interest in a wedding gift is pretty negligible just now, so he's willing to let Dwyn take care of it. He is, for some wacky reason, a little agitated.

Darlain keeps up with the group, is terribly concerned by what is going on. Magic is strange and things often don’t go well™ with its shenanigans.

Shedwyn carefully opens the wrapped box. Not careful to the point of saving the wrapping paper, but careful to the point one might expect it to contain live snakes.

WIthin the wrapping, a simple wooden box. Within the box, lying on the felt lining, a glittering violet shard, brimming softly with arcane power.

"My gift to you on your wedding day is the most precious thing I could think of. Hold each other’s hands and crush the crystal, and the spell within will grant you a day for just the two of you. Everything else will stop, and when it ends you'll be back where you started, memories intact."

Janosis looks around conspiratorially. "Also don't tell any Bronze dragons you saw this, it's a little bit illegal,” he says with a wink.

It's very hard for Terry to reconcile being angry at his surprise wedding/honeymoon being interrupted with being legitimately touched by a gift from a guy he used to view as a threat to his relationship.

Shedwyn draws in a soft gasp. "This is really dangerous to make, and... incredibly thoughtful, right now." She carefully hands the box to Terry, and unless the other mage dodges, she thuds into him for a tight hug.

Terry's hair actually stands up just a little bit when he takes the box, but he doesn't complain.

Darlain actually goes, "Awwww."

Janosis holds Shedwyn fondly, with a smile on his face. "I have learned that few things are as valuable as time. Enjoy it, and when you're back, I'll explain what I can."

"Thank you. I don't know what's going on with you, but thank you."

Terry stifles a sigh before saying, "Thank you."

Janosis pulls away, hands lingering on Shedwyn's arms as he regards her. "It's me, so it's terrifying and wonderful. Now go enjoy yourself," he says, releasing her.

Stifling a little laugh at that, she nods and steps back towards Terry. "Can you take Darlain home? Or... Back to work?"

"Hm, you know, I'm not sure. Portals have always been tricky for me." He grins.

"Mate, th' present's real thoughtful an' all, but if you don't leave right now I'm gonna punt you off th' nearest pier."

"You would certainly try,” he says. “Darlain, may I?" He turns to the priestess and extends his hand.

Shedwyn facepalms, but makes a small ‘go on’ gesture with her free hand.

"...I guess you may." She takes his hand. "And congrats, you two! So ‘appy fer ya, 'ave a fun day!"

"Quite. Thank you, Darlain."

"Yer a gem, Darlain."

"Next stop, Ironforge!" Janosis declares, gesturing with his hand to form an arcane sigil beneath their feet. A portal opens showing the temple in Ironforge before the portal moves past/through the pair, placing them in Ironforge safely before closing.

Terry looks down at Dwyn once they're gone. "...I was gonna pick you up an' carry you off t'th' park, but tha' sorta put a damper on that idea. Thoughts?"

Shedwyn takes the box from Terry's hands. "Nope, you're still carrying me. D'you still have that room from working for the Dragoons?"

"I think so." He bends down and scoops her up, well aware that sack-o-potatoes carries are bad when the potato sack is pregnant, and kisses her again. "If not, somebody's gonna be real upset when we push 'em out."

"Mmhmm."

( @shedwyn @darbiebot @janosis )

#and so arrives terry #shedwyn #terwyn #modified chatlogs #collab #and that's how terry got married by surprise #the light in lordaeron

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padawanlost · 6 years

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Near the end of the Clone Wars, as seen in the Clovis arc in season 6 of TCW, the Chancellor's office had already nationalized the banks so the new chancellor would just have to do the same with Trade Federation, Techno Union etc. and imprison their corrupt leaders (if Vader killing them at Mustafar didn't happen cuz Sheev was removed earlier) for the immediate period of chaos after the war and use their assets for reconstruction. Using the wealth of the megacorps who profited from the war 1/2

2/2 would surely be met with approval from both Republic and Separatist planets. If then surviving Jedi like i.e. Yoda can be convinced to confess before the Senate that the whole war was a conspiracy of the Sith of which Sheev was a member to subjugate the galaxy, they might be able to forego another Civil War. The megacorps can then be released (specifically with completely new leadership) after the reconstruction period is finished on all planets. Their Senate seats go to Outer Rim worlds.

You heartis the right place but it’s not that simple. In the event of Palpatine beingunmasked as the corrupt Sith Lord, the right course of action would be to putall his actions as Chancellor and Senator under serious scrutiny. That meansthe extremely shady and illegal actions he took to take control over theBanking Clan should be put under investigation and eventually undone. His illegalactions should not become precedent for more illegal action otherwise theywouldn’t really be changing anything.

The problemwith taking control over the megarcorps is that they were private companies. You can’t just seized their assets. You canarrest the ones who broke the law and seize unlawfully obtained funds but you can’t just take everything. For you to imprison the leaders (and their funds) you would needproof they are guilty or else it’s unlawful incarceration, and gathering enoughevidence to take them all down at once takes time, resources and a government thathas not been corrupted to it is core. All things we can’t say about the Republicat the end of ROTS.

Seizing assetslike that – without due process – is the kind of thing that lead to moretrouble down the road. It harbors the kind of unhappiness the lead to new wars.So what sounds like a good economy decision right now will probably lead toeven further catastrophic in the near future. Besides, the megacorps were onlypart of the problem. Seizing their asset would be pointless to built a newRepublic if the Senate didn’t made peace with the CIS and it’s hard tonegotiate peace when you take all their money and make them pay for a war youtoo were involved.

The CISplanets were the poorest in the galaxy, the ones that have always been neglected by thepowerful members of Senate who profit from their misery. Now the Republic wonthe war and controls their funds. Why would they share it? Remember, theRepublic didn’t exist to help everyone. It was there to facilitate trading andlegislation between companies and worlds (economically viable worlds). And the corporationsthat you say should be punished were the same corporations backing theRepublic. The banking clan was backing the CIS and the Republic still made dealwith them because they needed them.

Also, youwould need mega corps to rebuild the galaxy. So all you would accomplish by seizingtheir accepts would be transferring the credits from one pocket to another. Andprobably make all the corporations wary of this new movement that is suddenly threatening their profit and business which in turn would make the Republic’seconomy unstable. Changing the leadership of these corporations by force would definitely be met with unhappiness too since that was not part of the Senate’spower. They could arrest a corrupt business owner but they couldn’t select thenew manager of private company.

Another problemwith this redistribution of wealth is that it only works when it’s result oflawful changes to the system. Before any of this was even possible, the way theRepublic operates would have to change and for that happen people running theRepublic would have to change first. And at that time, no one in power wantedit to change (at least not THAT much). Remember, that the only reason peoplestood up against Palpatine during ROTS was because he was threatening theirpower. Redistribution of wealth means redistribution of power and no one in thesenate was interested in that.

Peopleknowing about Palpatine wouldn’t change that either. The CIS’s grievances had nothingto do with Palpatine. Their movement was the result a thousands of years ofneglect. I doubt they forget about it because the guys leading them were SithLords. Without Palpatine there to play both sides against the middle the megacorpswould probably back down but the heart of the moment would remain. People wereunhappy and their happiness wouldn’t go away by the Republic rebuilding what theGAR destroyed. That’s why change is the key here. you can take their money and imprisontheir leaders but unless you rebuild the system from the ground up, fixing allissues that led to the wars no change will last.

Rebuild aworld takes more than credits. You can rebuild a building but if you don’t fixthe institutionalized issues that allowed that building to be destroyed in thefirst place, sooner or later, that building is coming down again.

Don’t getme wrong, the corporations that supported Palpatine’s plans for profit shouldbe punished. But you can’t take them out of the equation without also hurting theinterests of the Republic. The GFFA’s Republic doesn’t work the way our ownnational governments do. The senators are not there to serve every singlecitizen in the galaxy, they were there to protect their planets interests andin many cases their planets interests was the megacorps interests.

#ask #anon #gffa politics #AU #what if #txt #meta: palpatine

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filmfreak1994 · 6 years

Text

Change the Channel

A lot of people have been talking about their experiences with Channel Awesome in the wake of the 60+ page document released by Allison Pregler and several other former content creators for Channel Awesome. I figured I might throw my own experience with the site and its people (mostly Doug) too while the topic is relevant, even considered dusting off the old camera I got for Christmas to film a video but allergy season is upon us and I’m coughing up my lungs so the written word it is.

I was a frequent user of YouTube in the early days of its inception, mostly to look up viral videos and just go on a stream of pointlessness for hours on end with each recommended vid in the sidebar (mostly consisting of parodies to Star Wars, LotR, and entire Simpsons episodes uploaded before the great purge of early 2008). In all that time between 2006 and 2007, reviewers like the Angry Video Game Nerd and The Nostalgia Critic eluded me. I saw plenty of the 5 Second Movie clips and thought they were hysterical but didn’t even make the connection that they were made by a “Nostalgia Critic” until around the end of 2009, when a friend of mine at school told me to look up NC’s review of Sonic the Hedgehog (the weird TV show and the futuristic evil Jim Cummings one). I finally gave in which led me to watching some of his other, recent reviews like the “Star Wars Holiday Special” which was freaking hysterical (and still brings a warm smile to my face just thinking about it). By the time the new year rolled around and I had discovered That Guy With The Glasses I was hooked.

For a while I stuck to watching reviews on YouTube when fans would rip them from the main site, but decided to eventually support the site itself where I mostly stuck to NC videos but also watched content from the other producers when it interested me; Spoony and his Final Fantasy reviews, Linkara and any comic with a subject material I was familiar with, Marzgurl and her Don Bluth retrospective, so on and so forth. Like many other people, I wasn’t keeping up with every producer’s videos weekly like I was with NC, but when I decided to watch something else their content was worth it, being funny and informative all at once, even creating new branches of my interest and giving me new perspectives on media criticism.

I watched Nostalgia Critic religiously every week and, sorry to say, started to take his opinion as gospel, and the opinions of other reviewers as well, treating certain movies and shows as bad just because they said so and didn’t have an opinion for myself for the longest time. It was when I started to pay attention to Doug Walker himself and his philosophy that you should like what you like and every movie is a miracle that I started to chill out and even disagree with his opinions at times (I remember his “Little Nemo” review made me seek out that movie and I actually quite enjoyed it).

TGWTG was a formative site for me in my high school years, developing much of my sense of humor and how I look at movies. I watched all the anniversary specials, started to watch a greater portion of producers that included Lindsay and Kyle’s more analytical reviews and Brad Jones’s and Matthew Buck’s mix of cynicism and snark with genuine analytical praise and criticism. I even started to look at music critics like Paw or Todd even though I can’t judge music for shit (if it has a catchy beat I’ll more or less dig it, I’m not picky). I always imagined when I moved out for college (yeah, how’d that work out for ya, younger me) that I would start my own review series in the vein of these online personalities and even be picked up for the site where I too could join in on the anniversary movies and have a swell time and make friends with the people I looked up to and have a good time filming huge crossover events with them (in hindsight I can only imagine what role Doug would have me play in them, if I was even deemed important to be in them at all). Whenever people criticized the anniversary movies I just shrugged it off and said, “Yeah, they’re dumb, but I like em anyway,” and when rumors starting going around about some upside down crucifixion going on I shrugged them off as just rumors (and to be fair it wasn’t upside down but the real thing isn’t much better).

Anyway, around the time when To Boldly Flee came I enjoyed the movie a lot (I only saw it the once and I was eighteen, eighteen-year-old me and present me don’t get on anymore) and thought it was a bittersweet conclusion to The Nostalgia Critic but was excited to see what new projects Doug and the company would do after its conclusion. Plus the other contributors still had their content to keep TGWTG going strong into the foreseeable future. At least I thought.

I didn’t hate Demo Reel, but I didn’t like it all that much either. I only caught around a few episodes before losing interest, saying I’d get back into it eventually but never going out of my way to see them. By accounts they got better as they went along and I was interested in the episode that paid tribute to Elizabeth Hartman (which I think is the same episode that had Mara Wilson and Arin Hanson? I might be wrong (I didn’t even know who Arin was at the time but hindsight is 20/20)), but I just put off watching them until, oh look, NC’s back. At the time I thought this was interesting, there was plenty he could still do with the character given his new ground rules and the emphasis on skits gave the show a different tune that I felt, at the time, kept it fresh from what it was before. I missed the simplicity of the earlier reviews but I happily stuck with the NC again, as well as the same creators I’d happily watched before and plenty more I started to watch like Phelous (around the time he did that weird Aladdin meets Pagemaster movie, I used to rent that from Hollywood Video all the freaking time).

It was around this tumultuous time that Doug actually kinda started to annoy me. Never to the point where I stopped watching NC, but he sort of seemed to forget his whole “Like what you like,” message and outright attacked fans who disagreed with him. Certain jokes in his reviews rubbed me the wrong way (if Irate Gamer can’t get away with blowing up Ubisoft cuz they wouldn’t let him into a conference, you can’t get away with pretending to blow up Happy Madison just because they make shit movies) and he had a general vindictiveness to those who liked movies like “Man of Steel” or “The Lorax” that just seemed mean spirited and not a funny little video meant to entertain (though I guess the signs were always there like when he added in a dig at “Avatar” in his “Conan” review for no reason). But by and by he seemed to mellow out (no doubt dealing with problems letting go of Demo Reel and how big a success he thought it would be) and I still watched his stuff, including the vlogs he did with Rob regarding “Avatar” (the good one, hey I did it too!), “Korra,” “Adventure Time,” and any recent movie that came out. I started to agree with them less and less but they were still entertaining guys and I liked what they were doing.

Some of the shadier stuff going on at the site more or less flew over my head. The game show they did was pretty much “Demo Reel” part two for me in how much interest I had in it and that faded from public consciousness pretty quickly, and it was around the time the site switched from TGWTG to just Channel Awesome that a real shift began to become more noticeable. People were leaving. People I may not have watched all the time, but they were leaving, often times unannounced and seemingly unprovoked (because quite a few of them were). I read about what happened to Allison, aka Obscurus Lupa, who I had watched on and off again and thought that was pretty shitty, and got a general grasp that the management of CA itself wasn’t very good from what she and Lindsay alluded to (or just straight up said, they really should’ve had some NDAs if they cared so much about how they look) in some posts on Tumblr or Twitter but I still carried on watching NC and the other creators on the site mostly because I just figured what every fan figured at the time, Doug was mostly innocent and it was Michaud and Rob who were the real strings behind big decisions like who stays and goes (I liked Rob fine, but even back then I knew he could be kind of an ass).

More and more people from the classic era of TGWTG were leaving or not producing as much for the site as they did and that was a shame. CA was never what TGWTG felt like to me, even if the purpose was to put more focus on the other producers (supposedly (hell, TGWTG did a way better job of featuring producers in my opinion even if it wasn’t perfect)). But whatever, I carried on every Tuesday watching NC, watching other creators when their stuff interested me, but it still wasn’t quite the same as before, and I had become more aware of the general bad experience most people had filming the anniversary movies even if the full extent of that didn’t come until a few days ago.

It was really when Lewis announced that he had left and I found the Change the Channel hashtag that I started to take notice of these stories, finding plenty of them on my own from the links to Twitter conversations many of the former contributors were having before reading them on the Google doc. I was torn, wondering if I should boycott NC with all that I had read and decided to make it a temporary one until the doc came out and to see if he or CA would provide a statement. Well, the doc came out and the apology not long after. And yeah, I moved it to a permanent ban after that bullshit.

I’ve given up watching people I loved before, JonTron and his racist bullshit was the last straw in supporting anything he did, and even with the Me Too movement I’ve given up any kind of support for people like Kevin Spacey who I used to love as an actor (now it’s pretty easy to see how he was able to play such scumbag villains over and over again). I know Doug isn’t a Nazi or Nazi sympathizer, and to my knowledge he hasn’t used his position to sexually take advantage of anyone (though he has turned a blind eye to others doing the same and the same can’t be said for taking advantage of people in other ways), but I just couldn’t watch stuff directly made by him and for Channel Awesome with all this information. It wouldn’t be right, even with an adblocker.

I don’t mean to threaten the livelihood of people on his team like Malcolm or Tamara, I like them a great deal and they’re very talented, heck I even enjoyed the skits on NC a lot more than most because of them (and Rachel, she was great too). But I said to myself until an actual apology is listed and some form of action is taken to truly better the site, I wouldn’t watch them. Others have suggested and I have thought the same, that the best thing to do would be to fire Michaud, though I realize this would create a slew of problems given that he owns the IP for NC and is the founder of CA. Still, some form of acknowledgement from the Walkers would go a long way to bettering the public response to all this. More and more contributors have left in the wake of this document, either out of fear for their own image or to show solidarity with the many complaints levied toward the site (and their reasons are completely valid no matter what, they’re trying to make a living), looking at the site today it’s practically a ghost town. I don’t blame those that have stayed for anything, but the reputation of CA is tarnished and at this point, especially with that piss-poor “apology,” it’s going to take several huge leaps to get it back.

I realize the purpose of Change the Channel was never to create a boycott of NC or any of the Walker’s content, at least by the majority of those who contributed to the docs, and those who choose to boycott do so of their own volition. Well, that’s my volition. No matter how much NC shaped my sense of humor in my younger years and inspired me to look at movies critically myself, I can’t deny the damage that Doug and Rob have been complicit in nor turn a blind eye to the shady practices they, Michaud, and past executives on the site have done.

I really do wish that what was seemingly apparent in front of the camera, that this was a site filled of talented people who were also good friends having a good time, was true behind the scenes as well. People have been hurt, assaulted, taken advantage of, and tossed aside when they were no longer useful to the site. It’s not right, and I’m literally changing the channel until actual change is made.

#Channel Awesome #The Nostalgia Critic #Doug Walker #Rob Walker #Mike Michaud #ChangetheChannel #an explanation of my thoughts on NC as a whole #and why I'm boycotting him until further notice

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