#i haven’t done years and timelines of things and maybe i will not <3

[thedeadthree]

yk what for funsies i want to make the w*itcher clowns with the b*g3 character creator

[doll-elvis]

PRISCILLA (2023)

~ my thoughts as an elvis fan

(credit to @urpinkstargirl for the photo)

WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD:

so I saw it last night and I’ve been stewing on it ever since as I wanted to be 100% sure in myself before saying this publicly

**brace yourselves**

After just one viewing… I feel confident in saying that I preferred this film over “Elvis” 2022 🤧. It was just so immersive and so deeply intimate that I walked away from the theater feeling like I had just lived a life with Elvis, and experienced all the ugly and wonderful things that came with it

I am seeing it again tonight and possibly tomorrow just to recapture that feeling (which made me cry… three times…)

And although I’m not the biggest fan of Sofia Coppola, there is simply no denying that she has perfected showing “girlhood” in film, and making the most unique experiences, like being Marie Antoinette and being Priscilla Presley, somehow universal to everybody. I haven’t felt being “14” since I was 14, which was a whole 5 years ago, but WHEW… I most definitely felt 14 again when watching Priscilla navigate life in Germany

Also- we all saw how Austin Butler was completely cheated out of an Oscar and so I’m begging that we do not do that again. Give the Oscar to Cailee Spaeny (who played Priscilla) right now 😤 There are no words besides “immaculate” to describe her performance. Her future is so bright as an actress, I just cannot wait to follow her career + she just seems like the sweetest person ever??

And I know it might seem insane to say that I preferred “Priscilla” over “Elvis” and some of y’all might crucify me for that take but my preference solely comes down to the fact that I appreciate Priscilla’s perspective much more so than the Colonel’s, who to me, has always been the least interesting aspect of Elvis’ story

My biggest gripe with having the Colonel narrative/tell Elvis’ life in the 2022 film is the fact that it made the film feel rather impersonal to Elvis as I don’t think the script or the storytelling ever fully allowed for Austin Butler to explore what he was like beyond the stage

And personally speaking, I have a much deeper love for Elvis the person as opposed to Elvis the performer, and I think that “Priscilla” showed the human side of him far more than “Elvis” ever did (like y’all we actually get to hear and see him reading his philosophy books in this!!!)

But before I get into what was actually depicted in film, and all my praises, I thought I would briefly state what I thought could have been done better. Don’t get me wrong, this movie was beyond amazing, however, it was definitely not without its’ faults:

1. If you have seen a lot of reviewers talk negatively about the pacing in this film- just know that they are unfortunately, completely right in that assessment. The whole timeline of Germany felt literally five minutes long, and the 70s also, felt maybe 10 minutes long which just made both the beginning and end feel rather rushed. Also there were at least 5 scenes that just faded to black before going onto the next one, and some very abrupt cuts in scenes which felt a bit awkward

2. Because this is a biopic, and because it’s based on a real life, there is no climax like you would be accustomed to normally in a film and so I think that the average viewer, like someone who may not really care about Priscilla or Elvis, will probably walk away from the film feeling unsatisfied- possibly bored. I saw it with my mom and my sister, and my mom was asleep in like 45 minutes 😭. The movie definitely got repetitive at some points but I acknowledge the fact that life is repetitive, especially for Priscilla in the 60s while Elvis was off making movies

3. While Priscilla (played by Cailee Spaeny) aged realistically and seamlessly, Elvis (played by Jacob Elordi) was essentially the same person (physically) for 95% percent of the film. For some reason, his hair was already dyed black in the Germany scenes, although we know it was brown at that time, and so there was no real transformation for him until Lisa Marie is born. The height of the actor was definitely jarring at first but eventually I got used to it…however…I damn near busted out laughing when they showed him in the Comeback special outfit 💀 His performance was nothing but incredible (ESPECIALLY THE VOICE) and so I learned to get over the physical disparities rather quickly

4. The ending of this film, particularly the song, was overwhelmingly sad and impactful but I was really disappointed that we didn’t get to see Priscilla’s and Elvis’ relationship after the divorce. This film ends with Priscilla leaving Graceland, starting her “new life”, which didn’t make much sense to me considering this movie was adapted from her book, which very much explores that part of her life, especially with Elvis

I would have really love to seen moments like this from Priscilla’s perspective ⬇️

excerpt from “Priscilla, Elvis and me” (avoid this book)

5. NO CIRCLE G RANCH!!! It is borderline criminal to make a film about Priscilla and Elvis and to not include their time spent at Circle G ranch ** which Priscilla has always said were their happiest times together **. I assume that this was likely an issue because of the budget and the fact that they only had 30 days to film but god… I would have really appreciated some of the domestic bliss that Priscilla and Elvis shared while living in the trailer on the ranch. There were many happy moments/sequences (y’all are going to die when you see the rollerblading/go cart scenes) in this movie, but I think their gradual separation/withdrawal from one another (post marriage) would have hit harder if we saw how happy they were together during their ranch phase

6. For those who have read “Elvis and Me”, we all know about the famed LSD scene that takes place and unfortunately, Coppola heavily missed the mark on it. We don’t see Lamar Fike making out with a tree, we don’t see Jerry Schilling in a closet- instead we see Priscilla and Elvis just kind of rolling around, laughing amongst themselves while the room around them turns different colors

There were definitely many key moments/stories like that missing from the film, and I honestly wish that the movie was an hour longer so that we could have seen the book more fully fleshed out

Lastly, here’s just a general synopsis of the scenes in Germany… I was going to do the whole movie but I don’t have the stamina to type it all out 😭. If y’all want to know something specific please feel free to comment below and I will let you know <3!!

After the beginning credits are shown, the film starts with Currie Grant (who was renamed as Terry West) approaching Priscilla in a diner, inviting her to a party at Elvis’ house. After talking with her parents and assuring them that Priscilla will be looked after by him and his wife, it cuts to her in the back of a car, on her way to meet Elvis. The scene is exactly like how it is in the book, Elvis asks her how old she is, he remarks that she is “just a baby” and so on- Elvis then plays “a Whole lotta shakin” at the piano and that is one of three musical performances we see from him

Priscilla is then re-invited by Currie aka Terry via Elvis to comeback to the house again. Elvis invites Priscilla up to his room, she looks around and sees letters from Anita Wood, and a poster of Bridgette Bardot just like in the book. After Elvis talks about Gladys and how he is still reeling over her death, and how lonely he has felt since then, they share their first kiss to the song “Crimson and Clovers”

There are some scenes of Priscilla at school and some scenes of her sort of convincing her parents to let her continue to see Elvis. And they do agree, but just like in the book, they want to meet him first. Elvis is questioned by Priscilla’s father on why he wants to be with her to which Elvis replies that she is very mature for her age and that he likes talking to her since she is from home aka the United States. He then assures Priscilla’s father that she will be taken care of. After that we see them going to the movies where Elvis expresses how much he wants to be a serious actor, and then they share another kiss on the car ride home. It then cuts to Christmas time where we see Elvis giving Priscilla a watch and then BOOM- Elvis and her are on the way to the airport where they say their final goodbyes as he leaves for the United States

The film really does follow closely to the book (at least from 59’ when they meet to 69’- again the 70s were really rushed) and so I really recommended to read that prior to watching the movie

As for the more sensitive scenes-

There is no explicit sex, no graphic nudity, and no scene where Elvis forces himself upon Priscilla. He does say “this is how a real man makes love to his woman” but all he does is kiss her before she pushes him off. There is a rather long “polaroid-taking” sequence where it shows all the outfits that Elvis would Priscilla dress up in but other than that, we only see Elvis and Priscilla make out

And it did show when Elvis accidentally hit Priscilla in the eye during the pillow fight scene in her book, along with the scene of him throwing a chair in her general direction after she expressed she didn’t like a demo of one his songs, and the scene where he grabs all her clothes from the closet and tells her that she should go visit her parents. I don’t think that the scenes made Elvis look abusive: Coppola was surprisingly nuanced in showing that he had reasons for his sometimes bad temperament i.e the pills he took along with the fact that he was frustrated with his film career

It also shows Elvis’ infidelities but really only through movie magazines that Priscilla sees. So it’s never explicitly shown, I would say it’s more hinted at than anything

And there are two scenes of Priscilla with Mike Stone but again, nothing that is explicitly shown, it’s just hinted at

Finally, to finish this up, this is what I wrote on my Instagram account which I very much stand by ⬇️

Just please give this movie a chance y’all, it was so beautiful and so sensitively done… I cannot wait to watch it again <3

[mariatesstruther]

I honestly don't get why Maria was so anti-Joel oh he's a horrible person he's done horrible things he can't be around us, but accepted Tommy fully to the point he's the father of her child when both did the same things, ran with the same people and all of that.

I mean I love the character, but that confuses the hell out of me. Why's Tommy accepted but Joel damned?

okay, so… this response took me like half hour to write. my wrists hurt, my jaw is clenched, my brain is hot. i love u anon thank u very much for this chance to vent about just why my girl maria has been so misunderstood. let’s go

i personally think this is where many people fundamentally misunderstand maria’s perception of joel. she’s not cautious of him primarily because of tommy or anything tommy has said, in my personal opinion—she’s cautious of him for and because of ellie

ive said this on my blog a few times and i think so have @steeb-stn and @clickergossip (and maybe @liveandletcry23 and @bumblepony i have a shit memory so tagging just in case) so im gonna tag them to credit their words and ideas about maria as well, but the FIRST time maria sees joel, he’s with this rando twelve year old girl who he is seemingly so protective over that she cant even be sniffed by dogs who are just trying to detect infection, which would be good for ANYBODY. that’s his first strike for untrustworthyness, because why the fuck wouldn’t he let this girl be tested???—we know why, of course, but maria doesnt. shes working on the very limited info about joel/ellie’s relationship that she has from just her own observations, and i think we need to remember that as we go through analyzing why she moves how she moves

shes knows from tommy at this point is that joel had a daughter, but it is definitely not this little girl. so why the fuck are they so close. what have they gone through. are they okay. is ellie okay. is their relationship safe for her??? THAT’s what she’s thinking about, in my opinion, while shes staring joel down at that dinner table. she’s reasonbly suspicious, and i can’t blame her for it.

i had to cut this it’s literally maybe my longest post ever so. heres the cut

ALSO, it’s not like she’s a straight up bitch to joel like some of y’all seem to make it out to be??? she never says or implies that “they can’t be around” or anything like that. she offers them clothes and food and supplies. she sets them up in a house. before dinner, she gives them a personal tour (which, to be fair, she did because she was probably trying to keep an eye on them and figure out more about whether or not ellie is safe, but who wouldnt???? i know tess would! and yall would love her for it!). tommy literally says to joel before they leave that there will always be a place for him and ellie in jackson—you cannot tell me you believe he said so without already have maria’s green light for joel and ellie to stay

ALSO, i wanna consider some other things that i haven’t seen many ppl talk about. on that walk she takes with tommy and joel and ellie, she makes it sound like tommy has been with them for at least years AND she maintains the confidence to say that residents in jackson stay off the radio—i could totally be wrong, but it seems to me from the look tommy and joel share right after that it’s obvious tommy has been talking to joel BEHIND MARIA’S BACK???? did no one else catch that??? am i misinterpreting big time??? id assume because theyre married and from the way tommy talks about jackson that he’s been in jackson for at least 3 years maybe, and we know that he only stopped radioing joel a couple months before the show’s main plotline starts, so timeline wise there had to be some overlap of tommy still radioing joel from/around jackson. idk if anyone of my mutuals has thoughts on this but i personally think it’s important to point out, because it establishes that maria likely doesn’t know or think tommy and joel kept in contact, at least not as recently as up to some months ago. she knows that tommy and joel are close, but at the same time, she doesn’t think tommy really knows or talks to joel anymore, either. so how is she supposed to extend him any trust as tommy’s brother????? how and why would she give this man any benefit of the doubt???? it wouldn’t make any sense. she’s more practical and discerning than she is naive and kind, and y’all can think what y’al want about that but i love her for it. it’s very necessary for a woman like her to be the way she is

okay, so back to your question. back to why joel is “damned” and tommy is “accepted.” let’s talk about joel for a sec

y’all like to babygirl and idolize the absolute fuck out of this man

we know that not only was he a smuggler, but he killed and tricked and took advantage of people, shamelessly and brutally. we know that tommy did so too. maria knows that tommy has done the same things. maria also knows that tommy left that life because he couldnt do it anymore, and joel continued because he could

point blank period!!!!! yall can argue with me all u want but tommy left that murder life and joel did not. im not saying this makes either brother good or bad or better than the other, i love joel sm and i think both of them have an undisputed capability to do unspeakable things in order to survive. but tommy got to a point where he hit a limit, whereas joel doesn’t seem to have one. this is at least my personal interpretation of their conversations in the game and the show

tommy DID join the fireflies, which we all know now is not any fucking better than whatever the fuck joel was doing—the difference is the reasoning, though, and considering tlou is all about reasoning and the why, we need to consider the reasoning behind tommy’s decision: he wanted to do something better, something good, something he thought had a purpose. we all know now that the fireflies are bullshit, their purpose is bullshit, and they’re willingness to kill a child for the sake of the “cure” is it’s own entire paradox of bullshit. but they were a rebel organization fighting fedra, who fucking suck, and probably had somewhat of a better reputation back when tommy was interested in joining—or maybe they didn’t, to be fair, i don’t know! the point is, tommy went to them seeking some sort of better purpose, some type of redeption; in joel’s own fucking words, “tommy’s what we used to call a joiner. had dreams of becoming a hero... wants to save the world.”

tommy is idealistic. he’s romantic. he’s optimistic, almost to the point of being fucking naive. thats why he enlisted in the army, thats why he enlisted in the fireflies—he wanted to feel good about himself and the world he was living in. he needed it to have some light at the end of the tunnel for all the bullshit to make sense. and yeah, he was wrong both times in joining up. we know that, joel knew that while it was happening, and tommy knows that in retrospect, too. i think jackson is the first place he really found true, real purpose—not the kind that is propagandized to you and goes up in smoke, but the kind that is well and truly earned. that’s why he is so loyal to jackson and to maria—they finally gave him was he desperately spent his life searching for

and im just saying, from maria’s perspective, she’s someone who lives for purpose. she lives for jackson and for it’s people and for it’s future, and she has to maintain some sense of idealism in the face of all that fucking ugliness to be able to mentally live im and run a place like jackson, to believe that it’ll work. i think that idealism she has, she sees reflected in tommy’s desperation to be a better person who’s fighting for a better life. she sees that need for redemption and goodness in him, that need for things to be fucking worth it, and hears she hears it in his story. she gets to relate to him with this in a way she doesnt GET TO RELATE with joel YET (we STILL HAVE TIME PEOPLE. WE HOLDIN OUT STRONG FOR THE JOEL AND MARIA BEST FRIEND AGENDA)

but to continue, THEN maria spends YEARS with tommy, getting to know him, getting to know his guilt. just like tess with joel, she’s sees the worst and the best of him and gets to fall in love with all of it. so of course there’s gonna be a bit of a bias and a blindspot, towards him—just like any of are other characters have weak spots for the people THEY fucking love

so that’s i guess why i think tommy is “accepted” by her, i guess, and there’s honestly way more them and their romance that i could make a whole separate post about but i’ll leave it there for now. back to joel and why he’s “damned,” which i don’t think he is

again, from what maria knows, he made an active CHOICE to stay in the lifestyle of smuggling and murdering and QZ bullshit, even after tommy chose to leave—and idk what y’all imagine joel and tess to be doing in those many years on their own, but it’s not fuckin picking flowers, for me. they’re dangerous, dangerous people—more dangerous that fedra, and more dangerous than the fireflies, if we’re being fucking real about it. and we LOVE tess and joel for this, or at least i do

but jackson is not a place where people get by with smuggling or backstreet deals or threats. it’s not supposed to be that place. we all LOVE jackson in fics and hcs and aus because it’s literally a place where joel and ellie finally get to breathe and not worry about their safety/survival first. and you know who keeps jackson that way????? MARIA. AND HE BEING FUCKING PICKING ABOUT WHO JACKSON LETS THE FUCK INSIDE

so yall just expect her to by YIPPY SKIPPY when joel, THE JOEL THE SUPER SMUGGLER MURDER COWBOY, strolls into town????? WITHOUT TESS, WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO BE THE MORE PERSONABLE AND REASONABLE ONE???? what????? she’d be crazy not to at least try to be a little intimidating, to make it clear to joel that he will not get away with any of that qz bullshit here. she’d be naive not to, and maria is anything but naive

and i know most people don’t like her for that “a bad reputation doesn’t mean you’re bad” “not always, at least” line, but i actually think it really fits so well in establishing that she’s not afraid of joel, not afraid of challenging him or making him own up to things he’s done. it’s just so so cool to me, i just can’t hate her for that????? she’s establishing with him that she knows what tommy knows about his time in the QZ, and she’s letting him know if that joel shows up here in jackson, there will be fucking problems for him. which i think is a completely fair warning????

so let’s continue. let’s talk about The Scene, the one with her and ellie, the one with the “tommy was following joel” line. ONE thing i’d like to point out about this scene—MARIA IS THE ONE TO TELL ELLIE ABOUT SARAH, NOT JOEL. AND THAT IS A BIG BIG BIG REASON FOR WHY SHE WARNS ELLIE NOT TO TRUST JOEL COMPLETELY

we know what joel and ellie have gone through, at this point, but maria has barely any idea. she sees that ellie has this fierce protectiveness and lots of secrets when it comes to her and joel, which like—can we all be fucking objective here for a second. this can SO easily and SO reasonably be interpreted as something sketchy going on between joel and ellie that maria should be concerned about.

(slight tw about older men-younger woman relationships bc im gonna be personal for a sec, its quick) we don’t know maria’s past or what she has seen or been through, but personally as someone who has been in a situation where an older man has taken advantage of my naivety in the past, i am now extremely hyper vigilant when it comes to young girls around older men in my personal life today. ellie and joel’s situation and how it looks would raise MJAOR red flags for me personally, if i was in maria’s position. that’s just a personal perspective have that really affects the way i view this scene (end tw)

and so maria finds out that joel has kept the fact that HE HAD A WHOLE ASS DAUGHTER from ellie?????? WOULD THAT NOT BE SUS AT ALL TO YALL???? i mean we know why joel doesn’t tell ellie, as gameplayers and watchers of the show, but again. maria is operating on the info she has right in front of her, which is that joel has been omitting maybe the biggest fact of his life from this young girl who is willing to defend and trust him with her entire life, even after she finds out she’s being lied to. this is alarming

so at this point, she’s questioning joel’s intentions with ellie, and in my opinion, it’s not at all unreasonable for her to do so. she then continues to press, because the red flags are flying and she wants ellie to be crystal clear on the kind of man she’s traveling with (“there are CLEARLY things you don’t know about joel” — “so then you understand my concerns”)

AND THEN ELLIE. BLESSED SMART AMAZING ELLIE COMES IN WITH THE DEFENSE—“and tommy did it too, are you worried about him?”—which like, i love this line. i love this moment. i think because i go so hard for maria a lot of y’all think i’m blind to when ellie is making points, but i 100% cheered her on when i first watched this scene, like i’m sure y’all did—because it’s true! it’s fair! if maria is going to judge joel for those things, she needs to extend the same judgement to tommy

the thing is, it’s still fucking true that, as i said earlier, tommy left that life. both the smuggling, and the fireflies—he chose to stop, while joel didn’t—he was smuggling literally up until the day him and tess found ellie, so. there’s that. she continues to judge joel and not tommy because she knows for sure that tommy has changed. she doesn’t know joel enough yet to see that he has changed, too

so then, the dreaded line: “tommy was following joel.” let’s talk about it.

i don’t love this line either, tbh! i think it’s a weak defense on maria’s part, and a weak line on the tlou hbo writers part—probably my least favorite line of maria’s overall. but i do get why she says it, and i kind of think i get the purpose??? i think????

it reminds me a lot of joel’s line, earlier, about tommy being a “joiner,” and i think it’s funny that, as opposite as joel and maria like to think they both are to each other, the way they describe tommy is pretty much the same. tommy is a “joiner” to joel and a “follower” to maria, and in all respects they both love and hate him for it. idk where i’m going with that exactly, just something interesting to think about in terms of the joel and maria best friend agenda

but i also think this line get’s taken out of context a lot, because the full line is “tommy was following joel, the way you are now.” maria says this line to lead into her main point, the really fucking important line in this scene: “be careful who you put your faith in. the only ones who can betray us, are the one’s we trust.”

WHICH IS TRUE. IT IS THE POINT. AND WHEN JOEL LIES TO ELLIE, HIDES SOMETHING FROM HER YET AGAIN at the end of the season/game, IT BECOMES A THEMATIC CLIMAX POINT THAT CONNECTS BOTH OF THE GAMES

maria is not saying this to “damn” joel—and i personally don’t think she is “damning” joel in the way you imply here, as there’s definitely potential for them to develop a relationship in s2 once she has more information about the truth of how he thinks of ellie. i think she’s warning ellie not to trust joel, because she doesn’t trust joel, at the end of the fucking day—and that’s about it. she trusts tommy in a way that she can’t quite trust joel yet, and why would she, at this point? it would make no sense for her to

so y’all can blame her and hate her for her distrust all you guys want (btw not necessarily talking to you, anon, ive just gotten some very nasty asks about maria from others so im talking to them rn!!!!!!!), but i’m sorry—you can’t tell me that it doesn’t at least make sense. she’s MARIA. she’s MADE OF SENSE

[mangoshorthand]

Arrow of Time- [Five Hargreeves x F Reader]. Chapter 2 (Hard Feelings Part 5)

SUMMARY: When the mother of all teenage tantrums causes time itself to fracture, Five has to travel back to 1831 to repair the damage. But will he be able to cope with what he finds there? On to Chapter 3 >> << Back to Chapter 1

Aoife cheats on her math test...with disastrous results.

Blue balls for Five ahead.

Chapter 2: The Bike Shorts

When you enter the bedroom, Five’s lying on top of the sheets, still in his cycling gear (minus the helmet).He looks almost entirely calm now, chest rising and falling only slightly harder than usual. He flashes you his most charming smile, however, patting the bed beside him. 

“Aoife ok?” he asks.

“Fine. Back to rolling her eyes.”

“Good,” he grins up at you, “well that was a shitshow.”

You flop down next to him and melt into his embrace.

“What brought it on?”

“It was stupid. I rode past the Argyle Public Library.” he runs his fingers through his hair, “it’s been demolished.”

“Oh.”

You understand immediately. It had been his and Dolores’ home base, enough of the internal structure left standing to provide them with shelter to sleep. It had been the closest thing he’d had to a home for him for forty years: the longest he’d ever lived anywhere.

“Wanna know something funny? They must be halfway through: the way they pulled it down, it looked exactly the same. The same parts were left standing.” a bitter smile pulled at one corner of his mouth, “the more things change, the more they stay the same.”

You know his mind now almost as intimately as your own: he’s not just talking about the way the two timelines rhyme.

“It’s been ten years since I had a freakout like that,” he says, resentfully. “I been to therapy every two weeks minimum , I take the damn pills religiously and still I lose my ever-loving shit over a building.”

You ease his hand out of the fist he’s screwed it into. You take a breath to respond to him but he plows over you.

“And I know what you’re going to say: the state I was in when we got together, it’s amazing that I haven’t had a major freakout for ten years. Maybe if I weren’t taking the pills, I’d be losing my mind every damn day, and I know therapy isn’t a cure-all, it just helps you work with what you got but…”

He pauses for a second, frustration on hold as his conscious mind catches up with what he’s said. Then he gives a rough laugh.

“And you’d be right,” he rolls to face you, smiling genuinely now.

“You said it all for me,” you shrug, smiling back at him.

The realization seems to have bolstered him:

“So, all in all, I give myself five stars for that panic attack. Threw it off like a champ.”

“You did,” you smile, leaning over and kissing his lips gently.

He’s always thought you have the sweetest lips. Maddening, in fact.

Even after all these years, the lines of your body are still the delight of his eye, particularly the ones that have developed since you’ve been with him. Everything you’d tell yourself is imperfection is, for him, just another object of devotion. After all, the stretch marks, wrinkles and reduced elasticity are all products of the fifteen years you’ve given to him: sixteen Christmases; fifteen fourth of Julys; fifteen whole trips around the sun that you chose to spend with him when you should have run a mile right at the start. 

He wants to celebrate that, wants to love you physically and worship your body with his.

The kiss you give him is only just beyond a peck, but he leans into your perfect mouth and works his way between your lips. You pull away before he’s half done. 

Honestly…it’s been a while. He’s kept his frustration quiet: work has been troubling you. It’s fine: it’s just a matter of feeling stressed on top of getting a little older. He knows it’s not because you love him any less…academically, at least. He can take care of himself ok and even if you never had sex ever again that’s perfectly fine: he’s in this for the long haul, no matter what. 

He’d cope…he’d adapt. He’d find a way to not ogle you, mouth dry, every time you get undressed. He’d spent most of his life having, (with all respect to his first long-term partner), sub-optimal sex. Now he’s had fifteen years of amazing sex, it’s almost unbearable to imagine having to just  ‘make do’ again. But he will if he needs to. 

He hates feeling needy. It’s a form of vulnerability he’s not yet able to reconcile in himself. It doesn’t feel so long ago but he remembers how you used to look up at him with needy eyes… Maybe tonight can break the dry spell.

“Say…how about you and I…”

You look at him with amusement, “Really, Five?”

“Come on….” he adjusts his body so he’s leant against the headboard and you can see his hand skimming down his body towards his crotch, “you know you like the bike shorts.”

“You’re seriously going straight from a major panic attack to horny?”

In answer, ghosts his fingers over his package. The shorts certainly are tight… Were you in the mood, something about them would make you want to reach in there and root around to see what you can find. They cling attractively in all the right places, stopping an inch or so above the knee. As if his bulge wasn’t enough, the way they sculpt themselves around his muscled thighs and perfectly peachy ass is…noticeable, to say the least.

“I’m a little tired.” you say, not wanting to burst his bubble but hoping he’ll take the hint. 

“I can be quick,” he says, trying to keep the slight plea out of his voice, “you could call me daddy again, if you want. Aoife hasn’t called me that in years now.”

“Nice try, Five,” you smirk, “maybe next time.”

“Oh, I’m not trying,” he says, rising to a kneel, turning and straddling your thighs, “I’m succeeding.”

He’s half-joking but nevertheless trying his luck, deliberately raising a rock-hard tent beneath his hand. Then, he rises on the bed into a high kneel.

Even in your totally unaroused state, the look he fixes you with almost makes you feel like a hooked fish being reeled in. He looms over you, head tilted and arrogant smirk firmly in place. He looks down his long nose as he paws at his boner, circling his hips. The shorts really are obscene. They would only have to be one iota tighter for them to cling to every single vein on his fit-to-burst shaft. As it stands, the lycra outlines the bell-shaped tip of his cock in minute anatomical detail.

It's a beguiling sight, but not beguiling enough.

“You’re still one hot grandpa but I’m sorry, I’m really not feeling it.”

He gives a small smile of acceptance and kisses your forehead before he swings his leg over and gets off you, heading for the ensuite bathroom.

“I’ll take care of myself,” he says as he peels off his cycling gear.. Then, in a final bid, he adds, “guess I’ll have to take a shower, lather up real good, lean up against the tiles and whack myself off with the suds…”

“Yeah, guess you will.” you say, picking up your reading glasses and the book off your nightstand. 

Five stifles a sigh and enters the bathroom; boner leading the way like a perky seeing-eye-dog. As he shuts and locks the door behind him, he leans against it.  It looks like it’s another night of jacking himself off into the shower tray. He tries not to feel hurt, tries to keep in mind all the reasonable thoughts from before. The humiliation of trying so hard only to be rejected? Rejected kindly, lovingly, but still rejected. He’s not going to degrade himself so far as to beg for sex. He’ll never be that pathetic. 

Thank god for his left hand: it’s been there for him for nearly 80 years now and it’s always in the mood whenever he is.

The Trevor Dalton school covers PreK through to 12th grade. You’d initially felt conflicted about sending Aoife to private school but, for Five, only the best education money could buy would do for his daughter, regardless of your ‘commie bullshit’. You couldn’t help but agree emotionally; she deserved the best.

Overall, you’d been pleased with her progress: she had a firm group of friends and she enjoyed her extracurriculars- particularly band. Despite this, her math scores worried you both. Though Five had taken to tutoring her himself, she was showing little improvement in school. You’d both been pleased, therefore, to see how much time Aoife had spent holed up in her room studying for an upcoming math test.

Aoife certainly has been studying for her math test…just not in the way you and Five might think. She’s been practicing religiously every night before sleep. Every time, her temporal jumps are getting longer and without the need for all that stupid math. Last night, she managed to reverse an entire hour without even turning a hair. She can do it quickly too- she doesn’t have to force herself through the seconds like her dad seems to: she can just do it. He won’t know what’s hit him when she shows him what she knows. 

Were she to sit down and analyze her feelings, she’d be unsure precisely why she wants this so much, whether she wants to make him proud or piss him off. Most of all, she wants to prove that she’s not a baby. All she can do is imagine the look in his eyes when she jumps through time with him along for the ride.

The math test will be her first time using her skills in the real world. She never blinked at school, (she’d learned early on that letting too many people in on the fact you have superpowers doesn’t end well) but jumping through time was different: when you went backwards, you’d erase anyone’s memory that you’d done anything unusual.

The test was in-class, and Aoife had taken care to discover the format before the big day. Mr Douglas would put the questions up on the board, the class would have thirty minutes to answer the questions and then, at the end, they would pass their answers to another student to mark and he would reveal the answers.

Sitting at her desk now, she’s full to bursting with nervous excitement. She can barely concentrate during the test, (not that she needs to), but she fills in stuff anyway. When Mr Douglas calls time and reveals the answers, she’s trembling so much that she’s surprised nobody’s noticed.

She passes her piece of paper to Izzie seated behind her and takes Jack’s from up ahead. Ignoring his paper, she grabs a fresh sheet of her own and begins to write down the right answers. This is what she’ll hand in…now she just has to make sure that this piece of paper is the one she passes to Izzie.

Holding her correct answers in one hand to exempt it from the reversal of time, she reaches easily into the abyss. It’s second nature now; couldn’t be any easier. It’s cool to watch. Alone in her bedroom, it was hard to see the effects; it's different in a crowded classroom. Jack’s pen reverses, going from right to left; eventually, he turns and takes his test back from her desk while Izzie hands Aoife’s over her shoulder. This, Aoife screws into a ball and drops into her backpack. The answers on the smartboard disappear as Mr Douglas moonwalks into his chair and the booger Kevin Simmons flicked across the room returns to his finger and he places it back up his nose.

Aoife lets go. Only somebody watching her closely would notice her jolt.

“And that’s time,” said Mr Douglas, “pass your test to the lady or gentlemen behind you. Ladies and Gentlemen at the back, bring your tests to the front of your row.”

Grinning all over her face, Aoife passes her new answers to Izzie.

Five spent most of the day with Luther who, for once in his life, has had a brain wave.

They’d been in Five’s bedroom, using the huge dry-erase and a plethora of colored post-its to plot out his idea: a non profit focused on helping male survivors of sexual violence. 

Five helped mainly out of solitarily with Luther: arranging support groups and having to break the ice with the story of his own rape wasn’t exactly appealing, but Luther’s bright blue eyes were so alight at the the possible scope of the idea (that he dubbed ‘The Umbrella Foundation’), that Five was willing to put his misgivings aside for now. He'd suck it up if he had to. 

When Aoife gets home from school she barrels into the room when he and Luther still stand, contemplating the timelines and tenuous organizational structure they’ve drafted. 

After a quick hug for Luther, she passes Five her test and smiles coyly at him. 

“What’s this?” he says, smiling back.

“Unfold it and see!”

He does so and his eyes light up, even as he affects to look casual. He stands with one hand in his pants pocket and his hips loose

“An A+? Jeez, where was this the other day? And not a single wrong answer?”

“You’re surprised, right?” she smiles up at him

“Surprised? Proud is what I am.”

He grins and pulls her into a full hug which she, for once, reciprocates.

“Ben fatto, tesoro. Hai lavorato sodo.”

“ Grazie papa.”

She has worked hard for this. Maybe he wouldn’t think of it that way, but she has.

“Well done sweetheart.” smiles Luther, putting a hand on her shoulder.

“You see what you can do when you set your mind to it?” says Five, kissing her forehead and holdung her at arm’s length, “How about I take you out this weekend? Maybe we take Izzie too? What do thirteen-year-old girls do these days? The...mall or whatever?”

Aoife snorts laughter at this, “yeah sure Dad, we’ll go to the mall.”

“Well I don’t know what you guys like to do. You’re the first teen girl I’ve spoken to for fifty-five years!”

Five’s never sure why, but he never feels as old around anyone as he does his daughter. Despite speaking seven languages, Teen Girl is one he can’t get his head around.

When Aoife bounds out of the room again, Luther turns to Five with a significant look on his face.

“She just runs into your bedroom...without knocking?”

Five knows exactly what he’s referring to. 

“Yes,” he says, testily before looking sidelong at Luther and lowering his voice, “not exactly much for her to walk in on these days.”

Luther gives him a sympathetic look and turns back to the dry erase.

When you arrive home, long after Luther’s drifted downstairs, you’re instantly more skeptical than Five. To go from a D+ average to an A+ with no steps between? You smell bullshit. Perhaps it’s a fluke…but something about the way Aoife shows you the test sets off warning bells in your head. You don’t want to accuse her if this really is the product of hard work, but you’re worried you’ll have to. While she practices the drums after dinner and you sit with Five on the couch, already feeling guilty about raining on his parade.

“This math test…pretty surprising, right?”

From the tone of your voice, he immediately realizes your implication. Fifteen years of a relationship has given you so many little shorthands and layers of implication that would be lost on others. The line between his eyebrows deepens as he considers.

“You think she cheated?”

“I don’t know, but it seems a bit too good to be true. When her homework’s been so poor and she could barely do simple algebra last week?”

His lips pull inwards. He’s by nature a rather cynical man, tending to believe the worst in people until they prove him wrong, but he has a blind spot the size of Jupiter when it comes to his daughter.

“She knows how important it is that she learns. She wouldn’t mislead me.”

Really Five? You raise your eyebrows at him incredulously.

“She’s a teen. Pushing boundaries and lying to their parents is what they do.”

His scowl deepens, “I still don’t think she’d lie about this.”

You sigh.

“Well, I’m going to go talk to her. You’re telling me she didn’t seem weird to you? Like she’s got a huge secret?” 

He nods slowly, considering. 

“Do you remember when she was six and stockpiling candy under her bed? She was pulling the exact same face.”

Reluctantly, Five follows you as you knock at her bedroom door. It’s amazing she hears you over her drumming, but she does. When you both walk into the room together, she stiffens and puts down her drumsticks

“Hey honey,” you say, Five at your shoulder but skulking slightly behind, “we just wanted to have a talk.”

“What about?” she says, too quickly. She’s immediately on the defense and even Five notices.

“Well, we were just talking, and we’re concerned.” you cross to the bed and sit down on it, trying to appear less threatening. Five remains standing, hands (as ever) in his pockets and head tilted. You catch his eye and prompt him.

“Did you cheat on that test?”

Great job Five. Subtle as a flying brick.

Immediately she looks panicked.

“No!”

“Just tell us the truth and we won’t be mad," you say, trying to keep your voice calm.

“I said I didn’t!” she snaps, firing up immediately.

You move to placate her: it suddenly strikes you how unjust this would be if she actually did earn her score.

“I know you’ve been studying this week and if you’ve got this score because you’ve worked your butt off then we couldn’t be more proud of you, it’s just…my Mom senses are tingling. I know when you’re hiding something.”

“I’m not!”

“Okay,” says Five, stepping forward and grabbing a notebook and pen from within his jacket pocket. He scribbles rapidly and then slaps both down on her dressing table.

“How about you prove it? Expand this.”

He looks more pissed than she’s ever seen him directed at her. Feeling a mixture of shame, anger and injustice Aoife stands and approaches looking down at the scrawled problem:

5(12c + 7) - (1 - 55c)

There it is. The familiar panic that sets in when she encounters numbers in almost any context. She picks up the pen. She knows where to start but when she tries to perform the expansion, it’s like her brain crashes. She tries to concentrate and can’t…especially with both of them staring down at her.

“That’s way too hard!” she whines, “I can’t do that one. The test was easier. You just make them way too complex because your brain is all weird about math.”

“Oh, well that's interesting.” Five’s voice is dangerous- almost a whisper. “Now I know you’re bullshitting me. Wanna take a quick guess how?”

She doesn’t answer, even when he jerks his head towards her.

“No answer, eh?” he turns from her to you, “Do you want to know how I know she’s bullshitting us, Mom?”

You frown in slight disapproval of this theater, but it’s about time Five stepped up to be the bad guy so you keep your mouth shut. He turns back to Aoife, teeth slightly bared,

“That was a question ON the test, genius.”

Her face heats up and eyes prickle. Five just gives a disdainful scoff, shakes his head and looks away from her.

“Tell us the truth, Aoife,” you say, sternly, trying to keep your own temper under control, “you cheated, didn’t you?”

She turns to you and stamps her foot in a way you haven’t seen since she was six, “Just shut up Mom!”

As Five gives a sharp reprimand for her speaking to you that way, you speak over him,

“First you cheat and then you keep denying it? You’re still lying. I’m so disappointed that you’d be this dishonest.You’ve not just cheated us, you’ve cheated your classmates and you’ve cheated yourself too!”

Suddenly, Five turns back to her, shoulders rolled and hunched in the awful posture he adopts when stressed or angry.

“You know, I couldn’t give a rat's ass that you cheated. I’m just still trying to get my head around the fact you lied to me about this !” he begins to pace distractedly, “you know how important it is that you UNDERSTAND basic mathematical principles. It’s a matter of life and death! ”

You turn to Five, angry with him now.

“So you don’t care that she lied at school, only to you?”

Five tosses his head and returns his gaze to his daughter standing between the pair of you. Hormonal rage courses through her. Right now, she’s as erratic as Five ever was in his prime.

“I don’t even need math to be able to use my powers! It’s not my fault your head’s so far up your own ass that you can’t jump a few minutes without filling a whole wall with equations!”

“Aoife!” you rebuke, shocked by this attitude towards her father, but she ignores you.

“I did cheat, okay? And you wanna know how I did it? I just wound back time-”

Five blinks at her, dumbstruck. He looks as if he’s been clubbed over the head.

“-and you know what, Dad? I’m still here. I didn’t end up years in the future and get stuck there like a dumbass! ”

You spring up from the bed, grab her shoulders and turn her to face you. Her eyes are wild with anger, face red and teeth bared even more than Five’s had been only a minute or so before.

“How can you speak to your Dad like that? How dare you? After-”

But the rage that’s been building in her bubbles over. All she wants is for you both to get out of her room. You think just because you’re her parents that you know better? You don’t: you especially don’t get it. Always so far up your own ass, judging her for every time she falls under your ridiculously high moral standards. Nothing short of sainthood is good enough for you.

She can feel full-body tingles growing as anger descends over her. It makes her grab your forearms. If she’d been less angry, she might have noticed the crackle of electricity or the feeling of polarity accessed in her mind…the feeling of the last jigsaw piece slipping into place…

“JUST GET AWAY FROM ME, MOM!”

…but the whole puzzle explodes as she pushes you abruptly. She only means to shove you in the direction of the door, but the portal that erupts swallows you whole, collapsing in on itself before you can even stumble.

Tag list: (please comment to be added or removed.) @dilfjohhny , @sunsunhe, @w4stedtr4sh, @nevbrooke-555, @theredvelvetbitch, @td-miley01, @five-hxrgreeves, @rorygi1more, @jamiebower88

On to Chapter 3 >> Masterpost

Alternatively, join me on A03.  Here is a link to the whole series

[mykelneedssleep]

***Editing cause I can’t believe I forgot to mention my other Jacobi fic I have running where he keeps waking up in alternate universes but somehow they always revolve around Warren Kepler and I lowkey love it

I wish I was kidding when I say these three have been in my drive for over a year and I just haven’t been able to bring myself to do anything with them yet

Little more about your options:

1. Actually a personal fave because you know I love sad and this one is actually sad af. Jacobi attempts to build a life after the Hephaestus and everything he does keeps coming back to his lost team (particularly Kepler, he’s got a very fucked up messy relationship with Warren Kepler that he still doesn’t understand even after Kepler is dead)

2. The premise of this one was mostly Soap works for Shepherd before Price and is ordered to kill Graves and take his place as Shadow Company’s leader and take out the 141 so that there’s no loose ends. Don’t worry he doesn’t like doing it and I would say this one actually isn’t too bad on my angst scale

3. What can I say, I think about them way too much. I’ve literally created full lore for these funky little guys we saw in the books like twice and essentially it follows them from just before the timeline of The Raven Boys to after The Dream Thieves (I can’t say how far because it’s not done but I have little snippets of things they’re up to up until the fall after the Fourth of July). Anyway I love them and I think my little made up lore is cool

4. Idk bro, make a suggestion I guess, you all know what I do at this point I think or if you don’t you could probably make an educated guess based off the other three - I’ve been thinking of starting something either AFTG (again..) or maybe doing a marauders fic

[thatgirl4815]

Scheduling

I keep thinking and seeing speculation that Dangerous Romance will air on the 12th and Only Friends on the 18th, and while that is guaranteed to obliterate what little sanity I have, airing the pilot episode of two BLs right alongside each other seems like a questionable move. 

I’ve been looking into GMMTV’s timeline for other BLs that have aired in the past few years. And while 2-3 BLs have often aired in conjunction--like Be My Favorite and Hidden Agenda right now--I haven’t seen an instance where two BLs have actually started within one week of each other (...of course, maybe it has happened and I’ve just overlooked it, idk). 

I think there is no doubting that Dangerous Romance will air in August. With only 2 Qs left, filming should be all wrapped up within the next few weeks. Based on what we know of the plot and genre, I’d also say its safe to assume that it could fit in Be My Favorite’s spot. 

For Only Friends, I’m sure GMMTV is well-aware of the hype surrounding it. Both trailers for Only Friends and Dangerous Romance have the highest viewership on YouTube out of their 2023 lineup.

While I think it is perfectly plausible for Only Friends to air in August given where they are at in production (other shows have aired with far less filming done), in terms of viewership and popularity, it doesn’t make sense to me to put these shows together.

I’d guess then that Only Friends will air in early September. The only thing giving me pause with this speculation is what members of the cast have said about mid-August. But a trailer in mid-late August would technically count as content, so I could see this happening instead. I’m just not sure what show it would replace, since it seems like BLs traditionally take the spot of other BLs. Hidden Agenda’s spot will open in mid-September as opposed to early September so that seems less likely. 

So this ended up being just one big ramble. Just wanted to throw some more speculation into the mix. 

[alittlefrenchtree]

I’M GOING TO SPOIL STUFF.

I’m also going to tag as best as I can but we never know if Tumblr is going to fuck things up and better safe than sorry so. In this post there are going to be:

Screenshots from the first dune part 2 trailer

Informations you get from the book, either in the first part or the second part.

Maybe informations from the Messiah book? Not sure.

If you’re not sure, better not read and quickly scroll. But if you don’t care and would like to see my endless rambling about the trailer, and if you haven’t read the book and would like a bit more detailed context about the Dune universe, sit down with me for a minute 💜 

I'll never never never be tired of watching the desert shot by Denis. This is so smooth, so calming, so satisfying. My soul is happy 😌

This is the first shot of the trailer that made me go ohmygod. I'm not sure what's going on exactly in this scene but I find these few seconds SO POWERFUL for some reason. I'd wish Herbert would have done more with Lady Jessica in the whole story (even if her not being really present gives more room to other very interesting characters) but I can't wait to see Lady Jessica in this part 2. The glimpses we see in this trailer are exciting (to say the least).

When the talk was all about Florence vs Anya, I thought Anya was closer to what I had physically in mind for a character like Irulan. Seeing the trailer now, I think Florence's smartness, attitude and personality might be a very good thing for Irulan. Good move, Denis, good move.

I love this shot and I love it even more because it could look like something form The Messiah. Or even the Children. Incredible. I love that Timmy's account used it for promotion.

AH. That's where all the problem start. And the spoilers. I'm not sure what will be said in the movie so, maybe I'm not spoiling much but, still. Anyway.

If you don't know, this is Feyd-Reutha. He's the Harkonnen Baron's nephew and his heir. While Paul is the Baron's grand son. In the Bene Gesserit's plans, Paul was supposed to be a girl and marry Feyd. Their kid was supposed to be the Bene Gesserit's Kwisatz Haderach. As you must now from the first movie, all of this was fucked up because Lady Jessica gave Duke Leto the boy he wanted. In the book, Feyd is supposed to look a lot like Paul, to be a charismatic figure like him and everything. I'm not sure choosing to make Austin look like what they decided all the Harkonnens should look really serve this idea? I get that it's a good idea for cinema and a movie targeting the largest audience possible that Harkonnens all look similar so everybody can quickly understand the different sides, families and who's good and who's bad. (Truth is, everybody is bad in Dune. Except the mouse. The mouse can stay.) But, I also think that nothing looks more powerful and dangerous than a bad guy looking like a good guy (in narration standards). If I remember correctly, Feyd can be read as a bit of a mirror for Paul's character and I would have like to see a bit of this physically? I don't know. I want to be convinced because I am not really right now.

I love sci-fi and fantasy universes exactly for these aesthetics. Mysterious items. It fascinates me probably because I would have no idea about how to write these kind of things myself.

I clearly remember the moment I've read how Paul's skin was supposed to look like after 3 years living in the Arrakis' desert. And I remember thinking how the hell they're going to make this happened how Timmy's skin of all people. Like the guy would probably managed to burn in Glasgow so, I was doubtful. I still am since he still looks silky smooth for most of the trailer but i like the way his skin looks here. That being said, they seem to have made some kind of arrangement with the timeline of the story. I'll have more thoughts about it after seeing the movie.

It might be just me but this piece of scene didn't sound very clear to me, even with memories of the book. Like, we don't know what looks like a normal worm ride so, are we supposed to understand what's going on and what's fancy? Plus what Paul's doing doesn't look fancy at all, it looks more like he's struggling sooo? It's not smooth, but not fancy either, so idk. Unless they're is a meaning of fancy that I don't know of, i'm a bit confused by this part. But this,

this is genius. Perfect midway between admiration and fear. Exactly what is needed to look at Muad'Dib.

I wonder why some parts are in black and white. Seems a bit easy for a vision and wasn't used in the first movie so it would be odd but i have no other theory.

I'm a bit upset because if it's the scene I think it is, it was very different in my head. Maybe I don't remember correctly, but for me, in this scene Paul is talking to a couple of hundreds people top and is very close to them and for me it suits the Muad'Dib effect better? It's kind of hard to explain, especially in English, but for me, Muad'Dib doesn't really scream directly to thousands of people who can't barely see him to send them to war. I see him as a figure who will talk to the couple of hundreds people he's with and be so close to them you can see his reflection in their eyes. He's a legend in the sense of a belief. It's the idea of him, his words spreading from person to people and from people to person that make Muad'Dib who he is. I guess it would have been less impressive for a film like Dune but I was impatient to see this scene, a sort of prophetic version of his speech in the King, and now I'm not sure. I hope they did good but and that he's delivering his speech in a other scenery and then going there rather than having to shoot such a powerful moment in front of nothing and with no other possibility than to yell everything.

After thought was to wonder if Timmy learned to radiate such confidence (especially in the scene of the second screenshot) for Paul or if Paul taught him to feel confident. Life as an actor must be so so weird.

Long story short, I know the movie is going to be fantastic but I have just a few interrogations about how certain things look. And last but not least, the work that the music does for this movie is PHENOMENAL, even if it's nothing that we haven't read before. Hans is a genius, I'd offer him my first child without a second thought. (i don't have kids. I don't want kids, so it's a way of saying, chill out.)

[you-are-so-much-better-than-that]

Alternative Timeline

So as of yesterday I have been on Tumblr for a YEAR! A WHOLE YEAR being a part of this beautiful wonderful incredible community that we have all built. And it has changed my entire life. I’ve made friends who I hope will be in my life long after we’ve forgotten about these characters and this universe (will we ever though…?). I have crafted and written and collaborated. I have participated in a zine and cobbled together a couple of drabbles. I’ve had so much fun being your unofficial Keeper of the Shameless Timeline, trying to make some kind of sense of season 1 and, more recently, working alongside some of my favourite artists and people to build a whole ass calendar! It’s been the most wonderful year and I’m looking forward to the next! I’m not done doin this thing yet! 

Also, I know I haven’t been active these last couple of months, but I’ve noticed that there are a bunch of new people around these parts. I just wanted to say HI! HELLO! WELCOME!! I’m so glad you’re here! I see you all liking the things people are making and I know everyone appreciates the like, but I’m just gonna ask you to also hit that rb button! People are out here making things! For you! To enjoy! For free! Art and gif sets and fic! They take so much time, and it's so easy to show your appreciation! Just a couple of buttons! You don’t even have to go nuts in the tags (although we love that kind of unhinged behaviour around here). And if you wanna say hi to us, make some friends, I highly encourage it. It was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

Ok I’ll shut up now. Let’s talk timeline!

I have tried my best to follow the logic, though sometimes there is none, and follow the clues, no matter how few! And I have tried to do it with as little bias as possible.

HOWEVER!

You guys, I have a confession to make.

There is a possible other timeline that season one could follow.

I do not like it! But, I am here to give you, my precious timeline enthusiasts, the truth! Even if it hurts me. Even if it makes no sense (because it often doesn’t. JW doesn’t believe in time). Even if it takes away the possibility of a Christmas bang and a New Year’s bang, which, truly, would be a tragedy and is the main reason I refuse to follow this other timeline.

Under the cut you will find the second possible timeline. You decide which you prefer, and tell me why! I need well-formed arguments for or against please!

Thank you all for being here with me this year. It hasn’t been an easy one, but you all have made it just a little bit better. I love you all!

Alternative Timeline

Episode 1: Remains the same at November 15, 2010. There is a calendar. Fiona points at it. No disputes here!

Episode 2: This is where it all could change. Bear with me. There is a possibility that this episode might have taken place on January 28, 2011, over two months after the first episode. Here’s why: Frank gets his cheque the last Friday of the month. In both November and December, the last Friday is a holiday, so this acts with the assumption that this is now January and it’s been 2 months since the first episode. I don’t love this idea because nowhere else in this season do they make such a massive time jump.  A few weeks, maybe, but not two months. This also then changes the entire timeline. No Christmas/New Year’s bang, either. What do you guys think?

Episode 3: As this episode starts the Thursday following the previous episode when Tony Takes Fiona to his award ceremony, it leaves Tony’s deflowering to have taken place on February 4.

Episode 4: If I follow the logic of my original calendar which has episode 4 on the same weekend as episode 3, then this means this episode alternatively takes place on February 6th. This actually works quite well with an upcoming event in episode 6. 

Episode 5: I worked a little backwards here. I had to place episode 6 on February 16th, so the only date episode 5 could take place was February 12th-13th, meaning Kev and Vee got married on February 13th in this alternate timeline.

Episode 6: At the beginning of this episode, Carl hands Fiona a note from last Friday and it is now Wednesday. I initially made the assumption that it is Wednesday Dec 15th, however, in this alternative timeline, I’m placing this episode on February 16th. And there is evidence of this date. If you zoom in quite a bit, it’s got a date on it, February 11, 2011, the Friday before February 16th.  But I hate this timeline because it just doesn’t make sense! There is a calendar change in episode 8, two episodes from now! It goes from December to January in that episode. I can get that the calendar is unreliable, but if they’re gonna change it, why change it to the wrong month?? No. I refuse. But anyway. There is evidence.

This now leaves us three weeks to squeeze in the Bangiversary, Slim Jims, and two episodes of Monica before we get to the last two episodes, which we know for a fact take place on March 18-20th, same as the original timeline. Here is the only way this would work:

Episode 7:  Episode 7 would be on February 18th-19th, making Ian and Mickey’s Bangiversary February 19th, getting rid of the possibility of a Christmas and New Year’s bang. Also, speeding up their entire first bit of their young relationship. We just went from a possible two months of secret fucking before Mickey was arrested to a mere two weeks? No! I don’t like it!!

Episode 8: This puts SlimJims and Milkovich-Ian Sandwich on February 25th-27th.

Episode 9: Frank would call Monica on March 5th and, she’d would show up around March 6th. That same night, Mickey is arrested. 

Episode 10: On March 7th, Ian finds out he’s not Frank’s son and Monica abandons her children again.

Episodes 11 & 12: Remain the same. We know they take place on the Friday-Sunday after St. Patrick’s day.

I will admit, there is an elegance to the end here with the Karen storyline. In the original timeline, if she goes to the ball with her dad on February 21st, and then goes emo child on March 18th, about three weeks later. That doesn’t really fit, either. However, I could be convinced to move the entire Monica saga down so that it all happens in March instead of February. This could work actually. (Yes you are reading me figuring this out in real time, folks!)

WAIT!!! WHAT IF we have an alternative-alternative timeline?? And it looks like this:

We ignore the weird Carl teacher’s note thing from episode 6, and we keep episodes 1-8 the same as is in the original timeline, giving us the very, very important Christmas and New Year’s bang as well as more than two weeks of secret fucking, while episodes 9-12 look more like this second timeline, making the Karen storyline make more sense. Oh I think I like this!

Here are some visuals:

OG Timeline:

Timeline 2.0

Timeline 3.0

WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK?? Does anyone have opinions? Do we still care?? Did we ever…?

There you have it folks! Season One all tied up in…a really messy Gordian knot. I hope you enjoyed this journey as much as I have! On to season two! (I promise I won’t take a whole year this time!)

[ikatako38]

Time for a big announcement

(For real this time, please read all the way through)

Hey everyone! Time for a somewhat big announcement. It’s not exactly a fun announcement, but it’s probably something you’ve seen coming (and something I should’ve done a while ago).

With everything going on in my life recently, TPWCH is abandoning a regular upload schedule altogether.

To be clear, TPWCH is not canceled, or going anywhere. What this does mean is that chapters will come out whenever I get around to finishing them, and there won’t be a set schedule. You can probably expect chapters somewhere between one and three months apart. This also means that TPWCH will not be finishing anywhere near the projected timeline; in fact, we probably still have about a year more to go at this point.

A lot of things have affected this decision, but the biggest reason is probably not exactly what you’d expect.

Basically… I have friends now.

Last school year was in many ways a really fun time in my life, but it’s also the most lonely I’ve ever been. I didn’t have any friends irl, and as much as I didn’t want to live with my family, I still felt their absence too. My Discord server members, Tumblr followers, and AO3 commenters were all I really had at the time, and you’re all so important to me. You all helped me through a really lonely time in my life, more than any of you could know. So thank you for that, and thank you so much for sticking around even when I haven’t been uploading, because like I said you all matter a lot to me.

But this year, I feel like I suddenly found my place. I have two great irl friends and I’m dating someone who’s my whole world right now.* I really feel like I’ve found my Eight. (Or maybe Three, he’s a bit of both.) Just like Three and Eight, it’s not always perfect, but I still want to spend every second with him I can… especially since there’s a very real possibility that my time with him may have an expiration date.

TPWCH will always be here for me when I’m ready, but I don’t want to miss out on the fleeting moments of life. You can think of it as me going out into the field to gather experience so I can come back a better, fluffier writer. :3

Still, my promise remains that, no matter what, even if I’m in an elderly home and have to dictate it to my caretakers, I will finish TPWCH! (I’m sure it won’t take that long though, lol)

I really hope I can get back to providing regularly scheduled content soon, but until then I appreciate everyone’s continued support so much!!!

I'm happy to answer any questions you may have, just drop them in the replies here or in an ask!

~

*He's basically my boyfriend, but he doesn't want to make it official yet and I'm trying to be good about respecting that. So as annoying as it is, we're just referring to him as "person who Tako is dating"

[chvoswxtch]

hi again, court!

it's once again the anon that sent the massive ass paragraphs rambling about the punisher after i finished watching it. i feel like i should either just un-anonymise myself or give myself a name or something to make it easier to identify myself?? but idk?? i'm still new to tumblr so i dunno how these things work

anyways, just wanted to say, i also am just so happy that they are taking the reboot seriously!! i only really got into like the daredevil/punisher in like the past year or so. so i feel like i don't really have the same grounds to stand on as some longer term fans but i just remember being so disappointed with karen/foggy originally not being part of born again so i'm so so glad that that changed and we have the true trio back. and frank being in it just makes me SO happy because i have become incredibly incredibly attached to frank (it might be a little unhealthy but big strong men who are morally questionable is my type haha)

i totally agree with season 2 feeling rushed, it definitely felt like some of the plots were supposed to be fleshed out more or like storylines would have carried on into a season 3 and billy not being fucked up enough is SO FUCKING REAL. like frank literally BRUTALISED him but he comes out looking okay?? like idk?? it just doesn't look convincing i feel like ben barnes' acting is good and he plays the subtle psycho (though you're right, him being more outwardly bloodthirsty and vengeful would have been AMAZING) but the visuals don't hit right. but this is such a wider issue with pretty actors in hollywood?? especially cause they also did it when he played the darkling in shadow and bone. i dunno if you ever watched shadow and bone but like his character should have been way more scarred but they just didn't make it as brutal as it probably would have been in reality and it makes me so mad because i just don't understand why??

AND THE WILL THING, LITERALLY, WHEN HE FIRST CAME ON SCREEN, I LOOKED AT HIM AND WAS LIKE 'is that?? is that WILLIAM LAMONTAGUE??' and then everytime he came on and was being psycho, i was like 'someone get jj to sort her husband out' and also this is so DUMB but i love to think that this is what will was doing during criminal minds and that's why we never see him, he was just off being pilgrim and terrorising frank, obviously it doesn't really work timeline wise BUT the thought of it just makes me laugh so it is now my headcanon.

I HAVE FOUND ANOTHER MADANI LOVER. that makes me so BEYOND ECSTATIC. I CANNOT TELL YOU HOW HAPPY THAT MAKES ME. karen is literally a stronger woman than i could ever be. both with madani and tbh with frank, i dunno how she doesn't crumble in front of either of them. like i wish i had karen's strength. but like yeah if madani even LOOKED at me, i would be spilling all of my goddamn secrets. i'm so glad i'm not the only one who sees the lack of love (i may end up trying to fix that with some fics hehe)! i am such a whore for her, it's actually insane. like the past few days since i finished watching it, she has been on my mind 24/7, what i would let her do to me is EMBARASSING. i love that woman so much and i'm so glad i'm not alone.

i'm done ranting for now but i cannot promise i won't ramble in your inbox again. i truly have punisher brainrot (and criminal minds brainrot too but that's not important right now)

thank you for reading my ramblings again <3

welcome back nonnie!

totally up to you love! if you’re not comfy coming off anon & wanna give yourself a lil nickname, that’s totally fine with me :)

don’t even worry about how long you’ve been in the fandom, that doesn’t matter. you’re here & your opinions & feelings are just as valid as everyone else’s. to your point about big strong men with questionable morals: yes

I haven’t watched shadow & bone but I have seen ben’s character in that role and maybe he’s the problem like maybe they try to make him look bad & it’s just impossible bc it’s ben barnes 🤷🏻‍♀️

LMAO pls that would be so funny. hey will what have you been up to lately? oh nothing just terrorizing the punisher in new york no biggie

karen is a strong woman bc the second frank or madani looked at me like that i’d fold & be like yeah literally anything you want I will give you. if you do end up writing any madani fics pls send them my way! i’ll get around to writing for her eventually. it’s been hard for me to focus on writing anything other than bodyguard frankie bc that’s my baby

I don’t ever not have punisher or criminal minds brainrot so pls feel free to rant with me anytime <3

[blorbologist]

Just barfing out my personal de Rolo quarter elf headcanons somewhere so I can keep em together and share them! Given I know mine are often a bit weird compared to everyone else’s.

90% of my thoughts have been about Vesper and Leona, due to writing fics heavily involving them, so they take up the bulk of this ahaha oops

EVERY one of these kids is queer, I don’t make the rules, it’s the law of the land.

My personal take on their ages is that Vesper’s the (accidental, oops) firstborn, the twins followed 4-5 years later, Dan a year or two after them (probably a bit of a honeymoon phase after the twins finally started sleeping through the fuckin night), and Gwen 4-6 years later. Vesper is the only one to really get a fair amount of adventuring done, so I could see her being Level 6-12 by the time she’s done while the rest of the brood end up around levels 3-5 depending on their niche and interests.

Vesper:

I am of the opinion Vesper is an Aasimar, because if my timeline knowledge is correct Vex was pregnant with her when she became Pelor's Champion (and if not, I think that's still enough to bless your bloodline enough for an Aasimar, cmon), and I highly doubt she experienced the sort of stress that made her dad go white by twenty in that Tal'dorei Reborn portrait. Plus, having an Aasimar eldest and Tiefling youngest is nice poetic symmetry <3

I decided to make her a Paladin of Erathis for a number of reasons. One, I loath seeing firstborn kids being perfect mixes of their parents' skills and specialties, and I feel the firstborn of two heros and leaders of a city would absolutely want to avoid being compared to her parents whenever possible. So instead of a DEX build like her parents, aunt and uncle, she's a front line STR heavy hitter. I settled on Paladin specifically to nod to Vax and to give her another way to separate herself from her lineage - because sure, her mom is Pelor's champion, and Pelor definitely blessed her, but that doesn't mean she has to be his paladin, too, so she turns towards Erathis instead. I also think she'd be Oath of Redemption, just because that subclass + the Lawbearer's whole thing both would help shape someone into a good leader, once she takes Cass' place at the head of the Chamber. 

Vesper’s very much an ‘everyone can be redeemed‘ person, as a logical extreme of hearing her dad’s story, and is fairly prone to black and white thinking with shades of grey frustrating her. She's also terrible with money, because please she's a noble kid of course she is, and it's incredibly funny to me that she and Vex would butt heads over this. However, they both fly together for short bursts (usually with a couple of the smaller kids with them, once Vesper’s big and confident enough to carry one with her), Vex on her broom and Vesper with her wings. She was initially very afraid of heights until Vex helped her out with that. 

She spends a few years in her early twenties adventuring, to learn how to handle herself and grow as a person. She comes out of this with a more nuanced understanding of life, and maybe she’s had to make a few hard choices of her own while out on the road she talks to her parents about. Vesper is also very close to Cass, though her efforts to distinguish herself from her parents, plus them both recovering from the trauma they’d recently endured when she was young, mean they’re not as close to her as the other kids. Vesper’s actually fairly close to Grog and Pike - Grog is a great sparring partner and helps her break down complex problems, while Pike’s ALSO fun to spar with while also being a religious mentor of sorts, alongside Yennen while he’s still alive.

A note on the twins, first: 

Leona, ‘Lonny’:

I HC that these are genuine identical twins, not fraternal twins as Vex and Vax or Whitney and Oliver likely were IF they’re cis (I’m very fond of trans Vax HCs but I digress). As a result, either Leona or Wolfe is trans. I haven’t decided which, but one is. Given they are identical and were almost indistinguishable as babies, in the chaos of the birth (kindergartener Vesper's wings poofed out the first time at this point because it was so Exciting) Vex is pretty sure they got mixed up once or twice and no one’s sure which one is the actual firstborn. Not that it matters, it’s just something she occasionally remembers that sends her into a fit of giggles.

No one is sure which of the twins is technically older, however Leona maintains that she’s the older twin so we’ll go with that. Leona’s being a little imp in the one art we have of her, and given the personality I have in mind for her I see her as being a Bard. It drives Percy completely fucking batty at times, but she spends a fair amount of time with Scanlan and Kaylie one Vox Machina dinner and that’s that. She is mostly an orator and singer, but can often be found playing a small harp (Laura Bailey, *harp music*) and looking deceptively innocent and charming before she pranks her siblings or some poor visiting noble. However, her real passion is stories and secret lore - she spends much of her time in the library looking for juicy details from history she can spin into song. I haven’t narrowed down College of Whispers or College of Eloquence for her, either could work imo! She would love Hamilton and Six the Musical, make of that what you will lmao

Leona is a complete and utter little shit. Her reaction to having important parents is to use that as an excuse to get away with all sorts of hooligan shit, because really what could they do? Her teenage years are directly responsible for Vex’s grey hairs, and she’s only interested in her dad’s tinkering so far as it can make fun toys to play with. Leona is at her least irritating when reading and looking for knowledge, though, so she and dad will spend long hour in the library chipping away at some question or another or bickering about which historical account is more accurate. Vex loves listening to her sing and absolutely eggs on half the trouble she gets into, and privately congratulates her on a well made prank once any offended parties aren’t looking and once her heartrate slows down. She’s a very weird balance of cute nerd and little shit, and smart enough to lean heavily into the former to cloak her intentions. Think how Vex would use her flirting and winks to get what she wanted, but less discrimination trauma and more Bard and Being a Lil Bastard Sometimes.

 She eventually has a bit of a crisis, realizing that because of her family she can get away with most anything and not let her grow for her own merits, on top of always being seen as part of a set with her twin. As a result, when Percy takes her on a diplomatic/Ugh Fine We shall visit Scanlan trip to Westrunn, she kinda. maybe. Runs off to join the Cobalt Soul. I’m writing that fic rn hands off :vv But long and short of it is she finds her calling with the Soul, caring for and finding knowledge and then sharing it in ways that actually stick in peoples’ heads. Maybe a bit of spying and information gathering of her own if she’s a Whispers Bard instead of Eloquence so she can put her nosy nature to good use. She takes a particular delight in either exaggerating or correcting tales of Vox Machina and no one can ever tell which she’ll go with in a given moment.

Wolfe:

Wolfe does not insist he is the older of the twins - however, he is the more mature, level-headed and not humble at all of the pair, so he absolutely implies Leona is lying about it. I haven’t actually decided on Wolfe’s class or subclass yet. I like the idea of him not having a lick of magic to him, unlike his Bard twin. However, I am dead set on Galdric (you know -  Purvan Suul’s ever-living wolf companion who now guards Whitestone and per the Tal’Dorei update can be a Warlock patron) having taken an interest in him. SO! I could see him as an Undying Warlock (because oh, man, the ties to Vax would have Vex so emotional), or a Gloomstalker Ranger hunting side by side with his mother and this huge fuckall magic wolf in turns, or a Cavalier fighter riding either a horse or Galdric into battle. 

Wolfe is very similar to a young, pre-trauma Percy, but with something similar to Vax’s bleeding heart worn on his sleeve. He’s a bit arrogant and uppity, but it all comes from a good place of trying to make his parents proud and being proud of his family in turn. His way of forming an identity of his own is really to live up to the peoples’ expectations of what he should be, and as the son of heroes, so he puts himself under a lot of pressure to be perfect (unlike his twin who deliberately fucks around). Vex and Percy reassure him as best they can that he doesn’t have to be anything, but they do appreciate that at least one kid isn’t causing havoc of somesort at a given time. He’s very much a ‘break a few eggs to make an omelet’ kind of guy, but he will cry about it after. Hunting in the forest with mom - using a rifle, not a bow - helps him get a better handle on his emotions. He likes shedding the expectations of court out in the woods, where it’s just him, nature, maybe one of his parents too. And Galdric, whose expectations are unknown to him. He’s very much in awe of most of Vox Machina and not close to them as a result, because he’s fairly intimidated. He IS the darling of Whitestone’s populace, though, and great at getting along with the everyman once he gets over his ego and lets his heart shine through.

Wolfe and Leona are not nearly as close as Vex and Vax, because that was 90% codependency as a result of the hell they went through and these two both have other siblings to rely on and don’t need an ‘us vs the world’ mentality to survive. They’re close by virtue of being the same age, but Dan is not much younger than them and both are closer to him than eachother. Which is kinda necessary - Dan keeps their contrasting personalities from blowing up into full blown arguments. Vex has next to No idea how to handle this, however Percy remembers Whitney and Oliver and is better equipped to help the twins sort out their differences. Tho one time a guy courting Wolfe ends up only being in it for the prestige and Leona makes his life a living hell, and Wolfe helps cover for Leona when she’s skipping lessons to read in some secret corner.  

He might very well keep Galdric’s patronage or protection or Whatever It Is a secret from his parents as long as he can, because he knows how it’d worry and upset them, so there might be some drama about that idk. Cass might help him keep the secret while he figures out how to tell his parents and what to do, to give the poor kid some breathing room. Galdric doesn’t see what the problem is. He might have a few brief interactions with Vax as a result of his ties to the Raven Queen through Galdric, but given he’s not directly working with RQ herself there is a measure of distance that’s enough to keep Vex and Percy from completely freaking out.

Vax’ildan, ‘Dan’:

He also goes by Freddie given he got that middle name from his dad. Dan’s the absolute softest of the family - Vex has taken each kid out hunting regularly enough as mother-child bonding time, except the first time she and Dan went out he broke down crying at the thought of killing anything so they just take walks together. He’s a Druid - not a high level one by any means. Circle of the Shepherd or Land maybe?

I like the idea of him feeling very much like the odd one out of his family - both named for his uncle (Vesper’s namesake wasn’t a world-saving hero, she was a *teenager*) and not outwardly seeming to have the traits his parents are well known for. He can’t shoot a bow, can’t handle a gun, can’t tinker, can’t do Pelor things, he’s just the kid that really loves plants. (Am I projecting a hell of a lot of autism on this kid? Yes. I Am. You can’t stop me.) However, Percy and Vex and the rest of his siblings are eager to learn with him - Percy takes up gardening more, mostly on the technical side of the science behind it, to spend time with his son, while Vex takes him on walks in the woods and they go foraging for mushrooms and fun treasures together. She makes little stick dollies and forest toys with him, like her mother used to do for her and Vax. It might be on one of these outings they find Charlie, maybe?

He spends a lot of time with Keyleth in Zephrah, or in the Patchwood or castle garden when at home, and once he’s older he might move to Zephrah completely. Dan picks up a lot of Kiki’s verbal ticks from being around her so much. He might have even been there for Kiki’s assasination attempt, if the angst is worth it >;3c 

IDK I don’t have as many ideas for Dan as the others :c beyond him being close to Kiki but not at all like Vax ;; He’s also close to Trinket’s cub Charlie, though given how bear reproduction and aging works that portrait would have needed to be completed in the early summer and Charlie would be absolutely huge come the next year. I gotta think on this kid more.

Gwendolyne:

(oh no im getting tired now gktjrngn fuck.)

Is the sweetest de Rolo and has inherited Velora’s Owlbear stuffie, given to her one time when the family Had to go to Syngorn for some contrived reason, and some elves raised a stink about this little toddler. Which was not wise; Vex blew her gasket in a big way, Percy took the liberty of voiding some important trade agreements (Cass handled the paperwork when they got home), Syldor tried to salvage the whole thing while defending his grandchild, and while they did that Velora cradled her newest niece in a back room and calmed her down with the old beloved teddy. 

I see Gwennie as 100% being a daddy’s girl. Poor Percy - none of his kids really Got tinkering until the last one. Sure they could help in the workshop and loved to watch him make things, or try to make things of their own, but none really got the itch for it until he found Gwen trying to sneak down to make something for her stuffie at 10pm. I see her as an Artificer (Artillerist or Battle Smith)! Unlike her father’s love of clockwork and pretty creations, now, Gwen is 100% all about shit that goes boom, which is super funny given how sweet she is. Vex gets so many more exploding arrows once Gwen starts helping her dad. However, there is a minor point of conflict in that she likes the guns, the bombs, the explosions,and thinks they’re cool, and cannot for the life of her grasp why her father is so upset about having invented such cool things. She really likes Tary too.

Though I don’t think she would be an adventurer, I like the idea of Gwennie leaving home to sell some of her inventions and creations. Say, stopping by one of Gilmores’ storefronts and spending a few days doing some demonstrations and sales there, just seeing the cities the world has to offer but without any monster fighting - she’d rather sell the monster killing shit than engage herself. Inevitably something of hers does get used for nefarious purposes, though, and she understands her dad a bit better after this.

I also really, really want to incorporate Tiefling virtue names into Gwennie’s life, and while away from home I can see her going by Darling. Because it’s something she associates with her mother, with love, and she’s so much of a daddy’s girl that it’s nice for her to have something of her mom’s. IDK if anyone in Whitestone castle knows that this mildly famous merchant of insane tinkering feats that goes by Darling is their Gwennie, and IDK if she’s actually deliberately hiding this or hasn’t bothered to explain. She gets her incredible salesman skills from mom ofc.

All her family learn Infernal, because sometimes when she’s stressed she’ll lapse into it, and it becomes the official language of gossip for the de Rolo family whenever they’re at some important event and have some tea to spill in polite company. 

holy fuck that was more than I expected lmao. Enjoy? or not? weee

[floraracoon]

My personal thoughts on the horrors of the miraculous timeline (multiple events in Season 1 that due to their placement make it seem like Season 1 was four years long when in chronological order) and how I would address some things.

Please keep scrolling past if you don’t want to hear about this.

1) Birthdays/Major events.

I ended up reorganizing these plot points awhile ago for a fic so I have this pre-prepared for the most part.

The most problematic ones are the birthday episodes and the ones that have mention of specific holidays or the like. Stormy Weather is the one that most bring up but Dark Cupid also has us jumping from like early September to February.

As the kids have confirmed zodiac signs to my knowledge, the birthdays will be placed accordingly. So like Timebreaker would be around April which would be late in season 1. Evillustrator would be around May, and as such would also be around there. Befana would be happening around July, so it would be more towards Stormy Weather. This continues on for awhile, and generally there are some points that needed to be grabbed from later seasons such as Befana.

2) Marinette’s stalking behavior

⚠️Spoilers for Season 5⚠️

As many have pointed out, the placement of Marinette’s whole “backstory as to why she knows a creepy and high key illegal amount about Adrien” is… very retcon like. Especially considering that she only showed this behavior with Adrien. While this can be explained as just his being friends with Chloe, I feel there is a way they could have done this better.

By pushing back when she starts doing it.

Hear me out: If we have an episode back when Kim was Chloe’s lacky where Marinette explains why she’s been freaking out around Adrien, and maybe even avoiding him by telling this story to the girl squad it fixes some things.

Does it excuse her behavior? No. But there is a way that they could turn this into a lesson for the children that are the target audience. Middle schoolers are often in love with love. They want to be in relationships without the issues that come with it. They don’t know a lot because they haven’t been around a lot. The kids are SUPPOSED to be around middle school age being about 13-14 years old. But if they have it so this scene not only shows us these girls becoming friends, but also give the girls motivation to try and make a ship happen (something that also often can happen) then there could be a slow corruption arch of sorts where Marinette is pushed by her friends to get over her fear of loving Adrien by getting to know everything.

And since they are in fact children and mob mentality exists, suddenly you have 2-3 over eager girls pushing Marinette to do this.

This could eventually culminate in her pushing back around Season 4, as due to her having dated Luca without needing everything the girls had planned to get her with Adrien (also giving explanation as to why it is that they keep trying to set her up with Adrien while she is dating Luca) she realizes that what was happening was incredibly unhealthy. Maybe she explodes due to stress and heartbreak, and they think that she is just hiding something and that she isn’t genuinely hurt by what they’ve done.

Those who were enthusiastic about it (Mylene, Rose, and Alta likely due to how Alix behaves and Juleka wanting Marinette to stay with Luka) would be akumatized into the Gang of Secrets or something similar. Maybe Alix and Juleka also get akumatized due to either proximity (lending a whole new light as we know individuals can break out of group akumatization later on) or due to realizing how much their lack of pushback on the other’s enthusiasm hurt Marinette.

We get through Gang of Secrets and Marinette asks for space from the others. They all walk out. Maybe she asks Alix to stay back as she knows Alix will one day have the bunny miraculous and will know her identity eventually. Maybe she asks Alya in a later episode to stay back and tells her.

But either way we get a way to show children that if they feel their friends are causing them harm, it is ok to ask for space and maybe even sever ties with them for awhile.

Later on Marinette will have a girl squad again. Maybe it will be the same group but in a healthier way, maybe there’s some new members.

But either way, it makes it so trauma isn’t seen as an excuse for bad behavior and gives the children a message to carry with them as they go through some of the most emotional parts of their lives.

[saltyseagoat83]

Twenty Questions for Fic Writers

Tagged by @1lostsoul0fishbowl <3

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

9 with many more planned

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

211803 at this time, between all fics

3. What fandoms do you write for?

All my works at this time are for Stranger Things, but I have some starters in progress in google docs for The Witcher and Shadow and Bone 

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

I Was Born to Love You - Modern Steddie AU with hints of other ships - One-shot

Extroverts and Introverts - Eddie/OC - Series

How It Should Have Been - Eddissy/Hellcheer centric overall ST AU fix-it - Series

Life Is Ours, We Live It Our Way - Edancy (Eddie/Nancy) AU season 3 timeline - Series

Tied for 5th:

The Unnamed Feeling - Billy/OC - Series

Running Away, Running Toward - Eddissy (aka Hellcheer) ‘Chrissy lives’ AU - Series

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I do as often as I can, but while I read them all I don’t always have time or energy for replies

6. What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I haven’t written any such endings, tbh.  I’m too much of a sucker for happy endings (and I don’t mean that sexually).  Plus, aside from one-shots, I haven’t finished any of my fics yet.  They’re all works in progress.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Both of my one-shots, mainly because no other fics have endings yet xD

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not yet, and I hope I never do.  I already have self-esteem issues related to a combo of abuse lasting from 6-7ish through 15/16 and bullying from as far back as preschool up through those same years.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I do on occasion, when the mood strikes.  The fluffy kind that involves 18+ only.  All lovey and shit.  Little bit of kink to it but nothing hardcore.  No slapping, degradation, humiliation, etc.  No underage of any kind, no scato/uro/necro/emeto type paraphilias, no cheating.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I haven’t done so yet, but I’m not ruling out the possibility.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

To my knowledge, no

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not that I’m aware of

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Not exactly, but I do forum-based RP so… kind of adjacent maybe?

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

Oh my goddess.  Don’t ask me this.  Especially without narrowing it down to a single fandom.  I have -far- too many ships I love, both canon and otherwise lmao.

15. What’s a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

Hell if I know.  It may take me forever and a day, but I do intend to finish all my fics one way or another.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Uhm…. not sure on this one. I'm too harsh a critic of myself to be able to accurately answer this.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I refuse to write fics that involve cheating or love triangles, especially those involving any main characters of said fic. A little jealousy here and there is the most I'll do, and not with any regularity.  I have ONE fic that involves active abuse and only included the bare minimum necessary for that.  (It’s the Billy/OC fic I mentioned above.)  I can’t and won’t do more than the minimum, b/c it’s a triggery subject for me so I have to be very careful with reading or writing such subject matter. I also feel like people may not enjoy my smutty scenes as much as they do other writers', because I don't do the heavy BDSM (spit, slapping, spanking, degradation, humiliation, etc) that so many others do.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I’m only fluent in English, so I’d need the help of Google Translate for that.  I’ve used it for RP stuff, but not in fic writing yet.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

I can’t remember exactly.  First fandom RP was… I -think- Star Wars.  First published fanfic was Stranger Things (Running Away, Running Toward).  First fandom writing at all… ummm… maybe some Disney thing or other when I was a kid?  I’m not entirely sure.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

This is like asking me to pick which of my 4 cats is my favorite hahahahaha.  But also, I regularly question my skills as a writer, b/c self-esteem issues.  >.>

Random tags: @thatbagginsbitch @hellfire--cult @andvys @munson-blurbs

[avatarskywalker78]

It’s Fic Back Friday!!! I haven’t done one of these for months, so you’re going to get more today, which is why the first recommendation is a whole series - The Family Turnabout by Spiderlass, a 10-story AU of Ace Attorney, starting with a rewrite of the first game where Phoenix ends up adopting Trucy early and this changes everything. The series is an absolutely fantastic read, because all the characters are on point -especially Nick’s inner dialogue - and all the AU elements work so well!!! I don’t want to spoil too much, but Apollo and Klavier show up early and Apollo and Trucy find out they’re siblings pretty early one. The main pairing is Wrightworth, but there is also Franmaya and Klavipollo, and the series is full of a lot of heartwarming family moments...but also a lot of heartbreaking ones as well, so I really recommend going through the series when you have some time - the main stories are all very long multi-chaps, but it is absolutely worth it!!!!

The second is Fortitude by Ingie, a Zelink story set fifteen years after Ocarina of Time (Child Timeline), where Zelda and Link are married, but due to Link’s status as a commoner - because, as wielding the Master Sword again would break the seal keeping Ganondorf locked away, no one knows he’s the Hero of Time - it is extrmely controversal. Things only get worse when the new King of another Kingdom - and Zelda’s former fiance before she discovered his true nature - starts making threats. Again it is a very well written fic, mostly from Zelda’s POV, and plenty of drama, romance, and plot twists.

The third is To Baby Drake by @ignorantarmiesclashbynight, a (mostly) angsty post UC4 fic about Sam dealing with the fact that he’s about to become an uncle, and all the complicated feelings that brings up for him. The author always writes the Uncharted crew so well, and they especially really get Sam and his issues and insecurities he has surrounding his family, so go check out their other works as well!!!!!!

The fourth is Misery Loves Company by @kaletra7, another post UC4 fic in Sam’s POV (because I love to read them even though I actually haven’t played Uncharted 4 at all) where he stays to look after a 3-months-pregnant Elena for two weeks while Nate and Sully go on a trip as part of Nate’s birthday present. It’s a heartwarming fic as the two of them bond and get to know each other, though Sam definitely has a lot of guilt for how things went down. It is also one of the funniest fics I’ve ever read.

And the fifth is A Change of Heart by ebtwisty9, a Bowser/Peach story that is 52 chapters and an absolutely fantastic read. The main plot kicks off when the Koopalings decide to kidnap Peach as a birthday present for their father taking advantage of the fact that Peach decides to try and get away from her stifling life at the palace for a week - she’s understandably not happy about this (neither’s Bowser because he didn’t actually ask for this) but ends up staying there and tries to make the best of it, with Bowser promising to return her at the end of the week, and she gets to know Bowser and the kids and realises that maybe they aren’t so bad. This was one I followed back in the day and I really loved it because it writes all the characters well - the story has multiple POVs, including the Mario Brothers and Daisy, and it was a really fun ride, because the stay at Bowser’s castle is just the start of things.

[orderbourne]

TEN Q’S:

1. When are you usually online?

I work nights and with a schedule that flips once a week, so I’m usually available from about 6pm to 6am CST every other week?

2. What verses are you involved in outside of this page?

Well I have an OC that I’m trying to get off the ground, but...I’m not exactly sure how haha!

3. What is your biggest RP pet peeve?

People not cutting their posts. This is a problem that I thought ended all the way back in like...2015, but I’ve recently seen quite a number of blogs that just...don’t cut their posts at all. Their posts just go on and on with no end...

4. Are you drawn to specific types of muses?

A bit hard to say since Jin has been my only muse for the past few years, but when it comes to characters, I’m usually drawn to the “team jerk”. Even if that role gets played up a bit too much, I’m a fan of that edgy type of character who slowly grows into a group of people and learns to cherish them. Or maybe they just stay mean forever, who knows!

5. Are there recurring themes in your writing that people might not notice?

I don’t know how much I would call it a “theme” or anything like that, but like with what the previous question covered, a lot of Jin’s interactions do tend to lean into him slowly growing to care for or appreciate people more. It’s fun.

6. What are your favorite RP trends?

I really like ask banners. They’re aesthetically pleasing for one and for two, I really feel like they make continuing asks into threads way easier than having to make a whole new post! And even if a banner isn’t used, just answering in a normal text post is a good enough step in the right direction.

7. What is your process for starting a new story with someone?  

I’ve come to realize that I’m not the most interesting person to plot with. So that being said, I like throwing around a couple of ideas to get the groundwork done and then mostly seeing where things go from there. Plus, that leaves a few things as a surprise and I definitely prefer to not know where every little thing in an interaction is going to go!

8. How do you feel about duplicates?

BB is a pretty small rpc (just me right now, as far as I’m aware haha), so it’s pretty unlikely to even encounter a character who isn’t a duplicate. That being said, I certainly don’t mind. I would like to see how other people interpret the character!

9. How long have you been involved in roleplaying?

I’d like to say for a little less/more than ten years or so? I’ve never taken it really seriously until the past three or four or so though, so take that as you will!

10. Is there a muse or verse you wish you could write in, but haven’t?

Yes! The two big ones are F.ire E.mblem and A.rknights, beyond what little interactions I’ve had with them. With the former, my favorite games are very obscure, very old or both, so I’m not sure how much people want to interact in those game’s timelines compared to the newer ones like the 3DS-Switch era haha. As for the latter, I think the verse itself is very interesting and leaves so many interesting subjects to be written out. But at the risk of stepping on toes, the rpc seems a little too focused on shipping and...not much else for the most part. There’s also a character or two I’d like two write, but I’m not exactly confident that I could write a female muse well haha!

~~~~

TAGGED BY: @more-than-a-princess and @inxtricabilis

TAGGING: I think most people have answered this, so if you haven’t, do so and tag me!!!

[lesfeldickbiblestudy]

  Through the Bible with Les Feldick LESSON 1 * PART 1 * BOOK 74 CONNECTING THE DOTS OF SCRIPTURE – Part 1 Genesis through Revelation Okay, it’s good to see everybody in again this afternoon. For those of you out in television, believe it or not it’s raining cats and dogs in Oklahoma on Labor Day weekend.  That’s kind of hard to believe, isn’t it?  But anyway, we are glad you all braved the weather.  You’re here, and we can fellowship together and study together. For those of you joining us on television, we always like to invite you to just sit down and study with us.  Compare Scripture with Scripture with us.  We don’t stick to any denominational line.  We’re just going to see what the Book says.  It’s between you and the Lord to determine what the message is for you personally. We’re going to do something totally different for these next few programs.  I don’t know where we’ll go or how far we’ll get, but it just suddenly dawned on me the other day that it’s been a long time since we’ve done some of these things on the timeline.  And these last two years we have picked up a huge share of our audience, and they’ve probably never studied this stuff with us. So for those of you who’ve been with me for twenty years, yeah, it’s old stuff. But if you haven’t been with us very long, hopefully it’ll be an eye opener.  I’ll never forget, and I don’t know whether you were there at the time, Gary, but we had just finished our first thirty minute program over there in the old studio.  After those four programs, the camera guys all came up, and we were trying to decide how we could arrange things so that when I’m at the blackboard the audience wouldn’t be looking at my backside.  And one of the fellows who had been in my class for about fifteen years down at McAlester, he’s gone to be with the Lord now, was walking by, and he heard what we were talking about.  He stopped and he said, “Look, fellows, I’ve been looking at that guy’s back for twenty years and all I ever did was learn, learn, learn.”  So we never changed a thing.  We’ve never tried to overcome the fact that when I’m at the board you’re just going to have to wait until I turn around again.  So, we’ll be doing that today sometime. So anyway, we’re going to start clear back in Genesis chapter 3 with what I call the very first prophetic statement of Scripture.  Adam and Eve have just eaten of the tree.  They’ve fallen, and the curse will immediately follow.  They will be out of the Garden of Eden and starting a whole new concept of life.  It’s going to be under the curse.  It’s going to be a whole new relationship with God—not in complete innocence, but through the process of sins forgiven. We’re going to look at that all the way from Genesis chapter 3 up until the last verse of Revelation.  We don’t know how long it will take.  Maybe we’ll do it in four programs or maybe in two or maybe in eight or twelve!  I don’t know.  We’re just going to go as the Spirit leads. So join with me now in your Bibles and turn to Genesis chapter 3.  I think I’m going to go all the way up to verse 6, because it may have been a long time since most of you have had this reviewed.  Here Satan has just approached them in the Garden. You remember the instruction from God was, “Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shall not eat.”  The tree of life was also in the midst of the Garden, but they partook of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  All right, we’ll pick that up in Genesis chapter 3 verse 6. Genesis 3:6 “And when the woman saw (Now this is another point I like to make.  She’s not called Eve until sometime later.) that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.”  So, now they’ve both eaten.  Now verse 7, because of that act of disobedience—now always remember, it isn’t just the fruit that was the problem; it was their act of disobedience.  That was the sin.  That’s what caused the fall.

Genesis 3:7 “And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.”  Now, if you remember when we taught this, God didn’t tell them to go and sew fig leaves together.  They did that of their own volition.  So the point I always like to make is from Proverbs 14:12 that says, if I remember right, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” Well, that’s a perfect example here of Adam and Eve with their fig leaves.  They thought it would be sufficient.  That it would cover their nakedness and God would never know the difference.  But it wasn’t.  It was the way of a spiritual death.  Always remember that.  They rationalized just like Cain did in chapter 4.  Now verse 8: Genesis 3:8 “And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.”  Now think about that a minute.  What did they do?  They ran from God and hid. Now, let’s just compare Scripture with Scripture.  Keep your hand here and go all the way up to John’s gospel chapter 3 verse 18.  This is the Lord speaking in His earthly ministry. John 3:18-19 “He that believeth on him (That is on God the Son up in verse 17.) is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, (Why?) because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.  19. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”  Now watch verse 20, this is Adam and Eve all over again. John 3:20-21 “For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.  21. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.” In other words, Adam and Eve started the whole ball rolling that men in their sinful condition do not run to God as God would have them, but what do they do?  They go the other direction, and they hide and they deny. They live a life of denial. All right, come back with me to Genesis, then.  So, this is where it all started.  That’s why the book is called Genesis.  Genesis means beginning.  This book in the opening part of your Bible is the book of beginnings—verse 8 again. Genesis 3:8-9 “And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.  9. And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?” Now that’s another interesting thing.  Do you think the omnipotent God didn’t know where those two people were?  Well, of course He did.  But have you ever realized that all through His earthly ministry, whenever He was confronted by someone; whether it was the Pharisees, the Sadducees, or whatever; how did He invariably answer?  With a question.  He always does.  Over and over He would open a conversation with a question.  Well, same way here.  He wasn’t asking the question because He didn’t know where they were.  He was asking a question to put them on a soapbox, as I put it.  They had to respond, because He’d now asked the question, “Where are you?”  And what do you suppose they said? Genesis 3:10-11 “And he (Adam) said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.  11. And the LORD said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? (Now here comes another question.  God knew.  But the point is to bring Adam up to the place where he had to respond.) Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?”  Now look at Adam’s answer.  The human race is already showing all of its frailties right here.  Just as soon as we’re confronted with guilt, what’s the number one thing we all do?  Find a scapegoat. She did it! I didn’t.

It’s her fault. And she’ll be the first to tell you if I miss an intersection—it happened again the other day up in Minnesota. We missed an intersection.  I should have turned left, and I went straight.  Whose fault was it?  Hers!  Because when she should have been watching directions, she was showing me something that she was fiddling with.  And I was looking at what she was doing and went right on through.  So, eight miles down the road I said, “Honey, we’re on the wrong road.”  And she said, “I’ll bet it was back at that intersection when I was showing you my stuff.” And that’s exactly where it was.  But that’s human nature.   We might as well face it, and it started with Adam. Genesis 3:12-13 “And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. 13.  And the LORD God said unto the woman, (to Eve) What is this that thou hast done?  And the woman said, (Sorry, it’s all my fault!  No! What does she say?) The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.”  See, there always has to be a scapegoat. All right, now here we come to where I want to take off from Genesis to Revelation over the next several programs. Genesis 3:14 “And the LORD God said unto the serpent, because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:” Now here’s the verse, verse 15, the first prophecy in Scripture where God is foretelling something that’s going to take place hundreds, yes, a couple thousand years out into the future.  And what is it?  The promise of a coming Redeemer. Genesis 3:15a “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed (in other words, all the demonic forces of Satan) and her seed;…”  Now stop right there.  Whose seed?  Eve’s.  You see that?  Most people miss it.  We’re already talking about the Messiah.  He’s going to come as a result of the promises made here to Adam and Eve. Now you say, “Wait a minute.  Wait a minute.  I don’t get this.”  Okay, let’s jump all the way to the New Testament.  Go up to Galatians.  That’s the only way we can understand these things.  Go up to Galatians chapter 3 verse 16.  I have to purposely force myself to wait until you’ve all found it; because that’s the one complaint I get from the TV audience.  Slow down.  I can’t find them fast enough.  So I try to remember that.  Galatians chapter 3 and we’re going to drop in at verse 16. Galatians 3:16 “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. (We’ll be looking at that. I don’t know whether today or next taping.) He saith not, and to seeds, (with an “s” on it, plural) as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is (Whom?) Christ.” All right, but I said back there it was the seed of the woman. Jump across the page in my Bible; go to Galatians chapter 4 verse 4.  And those of you who have heard me teach a pre-Christmas class, this will remind you.  I’m always using this verse for Christmas instead of Luke chapter 2, because nobody else uses it.  But here it is.  This is the only time that the Apostle Paul refers to Bethlehem—never a reference to His birth.  That’s what Christendom puts all their emphasis on, you know, Christmas and the celebration of all that.  But Paul doesn’t.  All right, now I think here’s one of the reasons. Galatians 4:4a “But when the fullness of the time was come,…” Now, what does that mean?   That at the exact day and hour and minute that God had prescribed from eternity past Christ was born!  Not a day late.  Not a day early.  Right on schedule.  That’s what the fullness of time is. Galatians 4:4 “But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a (What?) woman, (Now we just got finished with a series of programs on the incarnate Christ.  Remember?  And what did we say the incarnate meant?  God in human form.  The God-Man in the flesh, and that’s exactly what it was when God sent forth the Son, Christ Jesus, by means of the woman, so that He would be now the God-Man.

) God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,” It went all the way back to Genesis 3:15. All right, go back there with me now, once again.  Genesis chapter 3 verse 15, now this is prophecy.  This is God telling us things that are going to take place over the next 6,000 years.  And it’s accurate to the last little detail.  Read verse 15 again. Genesis 3:15a “And I will put enmity (a running battle) between thee (Satan) and the woman….”  And I told the class here not too long ago. I think the woman here was already looking forward to the Nation of Israel, which is always referred to in the female gender. And it is through Israel that Satan is always trying to defeat God, because Satan knows if he can destroy the Nation of Israel, he’s the winner.  Because in all of God’s prophecy, not just in His first advent, but all the way up to the second advent, Israel is the key player.  Never forget that.  If Satan can destroy Israel—that’s why Satan is using that guy over there in Iran—oh, Satan would love nothing better than to have that guy succeed in wiping Israel off the map.  If Israel is gone, God’s program falls apart, and Satan’s the winner.  So we know it’s not going to happen.  It’s merely a threat.  It will never happen, because God will not let it happen.  But all right, it’s going to be a running battle.  All right, then read on. Genesis 3:15b “…and between thy seed (Like I said, that is the demonic and the wicked hosts of Satan.) and her seed; (That is the seed of the woman, which is Christ.) it shall bruise thy head,  (In other words, that’s the only place you can defeat a serpent, on the head.  He did that at the cross.  That’s where Satan became a defeated foe.) and thou (Satan) shalt bruise his heel. (the seed of the woman)”  Which, of course, was the suffering and all that was accompanying at the cross. All right, so now we have the beginning of the human experience.  Adam and Eve will now be cast out of the Garden.  They’re going to have to live under and with the curse.  They’re going to have to battle the sweat of the face.  They’re going to have to battle the insects and the drought and death and everything else that’s associated with the curse and that is still with us until this day. But we who know our Bible know the day is coming when it’s going to end.  It’s not going to last much longer, because one of these days Christ is going to show that He is still superior to Satan.  He’s going to come and yet complete His prophetic program.  All right, so here we have the first, that I call, true prophecy here in Genesis chapter 3. Now, for the next eleven chapters it is nothing but a sad commentary on the race of Adam.  Do you know that?  There’s just not much good stuff in the first eleven chapters, except a record of the down, down, down, down direction of the human race leading up to the next great event.  What was that?  The flood. Okay, now I think we’ve probably got it up on our timeline.  No, we didn’t start with that, yet.  We started with Abraham.  But the flood, 1,600 years in round figures after the creation of Adam.  Now I’m getting used to saying it over and over so bear with me.  Think!  Stop and think.  Sixteen hundred years is a long time.  That’s a long time.  All right, so from Adam until the flood, sixteen hundred years, and they’re mostly living to be 800-900 years old.  So, only God knows how many children every couple had. So, you had a tremendous population explosion.  By the time of Noah’s flood I’ve always been comfortable with the number of four billion people on the then-known world, maybe more.  But out of that four billion people—let’s just look quickly at their behavior in Genesis chapter 6, so that we get a full understanding of why God was so severe in His judgment on that generation. Genesis 6:5a “And God saw…” Now remember, when we were studying the theophanies several months ago God is invisible until Christ appears at Bethlehem.  It’s the invisible Triune God who would appear from time to time in a temporary human form.

  But God for the most part all through the Old Testament was in the invisible realm of the Triune Holy Spirit, God the Son, and God the Father.  All right, so whenever you see the word God, back here in Genesis especially, it’s the Triune invisible God. Genesis 6:5 And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his (man’s) heart was only evil continually.”  In other words, what does that mean?  Those people could not think a decent thought even once in twenty-four hours.  It was just nothing but a mindset of continual wickedness.  Well, we’re getting there, aren’t we?  The world is getting there.  We’re not there, yet, but we’re getting there.  All right, now verse 6. Genesis 6:6-7 “And it repented the LORD (or God was sorry) that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. (So He’s got to do something.  He just can’t let it go until everybody kills everybody else.) 7. And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me (or it makes me sorry) that I have made them.”   But then we know-- Genesis 6:8a “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.”  But I want to keep on this picture of wickedness.  Come down to verse 11. Genesis 6:11a “The earth (Now we know the earth then wasn’t as we know it now, because the flood completely changed the makeup of the planet’s surface.  But however much land mass there was before the flood it doesn’t make any difference.  I think it was pretty much totally occupied by human beings.) The (whole) earth also was corrupt...” Now, don’t read that word casually.  You know what the epitome of corruption is to me?  I did this with a bunch of Sunday school kids years ago.  I hope you’ve got a good stomach.  How many of you have ever raised potatoes in your garden?  Come on, raise your hands.  Oh, most of you have.  All right, now when you’re digging potatoes, when the new ones are ripe and ready, and you’re scratching through the dirt, what will you invariably run into?  That old seed potato.  To me that’s the epitome of corruption. Because when I was kid, and I’d hit that thing, I just couldn’t stand it!  Well, that’s the way God felt about planet earth.  The whole thing was just like that old seed potato that was rotten to the core.  What else could He do?  Destroy it.  He had to get rid of it. Genesis 6:11 “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.”  We think Baghdad has been bad.  And it has.  But you know what?  That was just a sampling of the whole planet just before the flood.  They were killing each other over and over, and that’s what violence meant.  It was a society of nothing but murder and mayhem. Genesis 6:12-13 “And God looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh (not just some of it, all of it) had corrupted his way upon the earth. 13. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.”  And, of course, that brought in the phenomenon of Noah’s flood. Now I think I’ve got time. Go all the way back to II Peter.  I tell especially high school and college kids, always be aware that you will never see the secular world, in science or anything else, they will never admit to a Noahic Flood.  II Peter chapter 3 and always remember this is the mentality of the secular world to this very day.  And in it they totally reject the scriptural account of a Noahic Flood. II Peter 3:4-6 “And (they’re) saying, Where is the promise of his coming? (We hear that all the time lately, don’t we?) for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. 5. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: 6. Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:”

And what does Peter say?  “They are willingly ignorant.”  They do not want to believe the account of Noah’s flood.